TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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There are those familiar with non-duality to one degree or another who focus on the "I AM THAT" part of the summative statement of non-duality far more than they focus on the "I AM" part;
there are those who focus far more on the "What I Am" part than on the "what I am not" part;
and
there are those who focus far more on finding non-dual talkers and far less on watching out for duality-based talker.
To ignore the AM-ness might put seekers in touch with Reality, but it will leave them out of touch with reality, and being in touch with reality is the actual aim of the realization process. Maharaj made that clear when he said that "realization is simply about being freed from 'learned ignorance'."
To focus only on "The Self" and ignore the self - and, in fact, all of the false selves which drive thoughts and words and actions which, in turn, spread the Ultimate Sickness with its symptoms identified by Maharaj as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" - is to remain in darkness.
And to ignore all of the non-dual talk that is now reaching billions while paying attention to non-dual talk only is a setup for allowing duality-based concept to be spread even more and is a setup to allow some to be pulled into the whirlpool / cesspool of duality and separation and anger and hatred and fighting which are receiving far more exposure than non-dual talk of Love and the Oneness and peace.
And be not fooled: none of that duality-based talk should be ignored because of the belief that "so much progress has been made in spreading the non-dual message and in awakening the masses as a whole."
In 2000, one author published a book in which some "Big Name Teachers" were claiming that there was a great awakening in the West that was spreading enlightenment.
(Maharaj warned seekers who entered the loft to beware of all Big Name Teachers, explaining that those types could never lead them to what they seek.)
Those Western teachers interviewed for that book in 2000 agreed that a new earth had come into being in the West where a heightened state of enlightenment was manifesting; nine years later, another Big Name Teacher (who had been one of the Western teachers interviewed in the earlier book), made millions of dollars when he took the ideas set form in that earlier book and presented them under his own title and name, also claiming that a new earth - a "better world" - was forming because enlightenment was spreading.
Millions of readers came to the conclusion that, (a) indeed, there were not only far higher numbers of enlightened persons than ever before on earth but that there was also (b) a larger percentage of the overall population of the planet who were enlightened.
Those truly awake are well aware that the claims made in the 2000 book and the claims repeated in the 2009 book were nothing more than nonsense being set forth by Big Name Teachers in order to make them Bigger Name Teachers.
There is no more of a "new earth" now than there was "A New World" back when Europeans invaded what is now called "The Americas."
As far as "widespread awakening and enlightenment" goes, Maharaj originally said that only "1 in 100,000" will ever awake fully; later, he changed his guesstimate to "1 in 1,000,000"; later, he revised that to "1 in 10,000,000."
Some point to the seeming growth in the number of "separatists" (white supremacists, alt-righters, KKK members, and right-wing extremists, a.k.a., "dualists") as evidence of the accuracy of Maharaj's final estimate. The term "seeming growth" is used because there is not so much a growth in the numbers of those types per se as there is evidence of how many of those types have long been present but are now making their presence known.
They - persons who have believed in "the other" and in the concepts of "racial superiority" and "eugenics" and "superior genes" and "a super race" - have always been around.
As more and more leaders in the West come forth and express and endorse those concepts in public, their followers are merely coming out of the closet and expressing what they have believed all along.
And for the thousands of years during which the masses have feared and judged and attacked "the other," there have been a few lone voices whispering into the darkness a non-dual message of Oneness and Love which has almost always been shouted down by those loving the darkness and hating the light.
Just as Maharaj eventually suggested that "seekers should abandon the quest to find some 'Supreme Self'" and that they should understand instead that "it is enough to know who you are not," so it becomes essential - if wisdom is to prevail - to be more alert to duality-based messages than to non-dual messages.
Some who hear the non-dual message dismiss it as being "too philosophical or dreamy"; some will be incapable of even beginning to grasp the message; some will find it to be a message that is "too timid or too lily-livered during these times when what is required is for us to go all over this nation and all around the globe and kick ass"; and others will conclude, "screw your talk of Love . . . nowadays, anger and hatred and fighting and even killing are being called for . . . big time!"
Disagree with the suggestion that those sharing the non-dual message have historically been ignored or targeted? Consider:
After Yeshu'a (Jesus) was not heard from for some twenty+ years by those recording his words, and then after he showed up once more and was no longer sharing what he had been taught in the organized religion of his youth but began sharing non-dual pointers instead, what did they do to him? They tolerated his non-dual talks for only a relatively-brief time and then they killed him.
Similarly, what do the 2.2 billion persons on the planet who now claim to be "His Followers" do in regards to his final message? Almost all of those 2.2 billion ignore his final message - his Advaitin pointers - completely. They, too, have killed off his non-dual messages and only focus on the dogma of his youth and on what was written about his supposed beliefs by people (the "Gospel writers") who lived 70 to 100 years after his crucifixion and never met him or talked with him even once.
Why listen at least as much to spot "duality talkers" as one seeks out "non-dual talkers" to listen to?
The greatest asset of politicians and fraudsters and con artists and cheats and hacks and deceivers and liars and swindlers has nothing to do with them but has everything to do with their audiences and the inability of the members of their audiences to differentiate between true and false; between authenticity and inanthenticity;
between sincerity and insincerity; between honesty and dishonesty; between genuineness and manipulation; between candor and deceit; and between "straight talk" vs. talk which will result in their being suckered, snowed, jerked around, duped, deceived, hoodwinked, bamboozled, scammed, screwed, shafted, flimflammed, and outwitted.
Are there more non-dual talkers than before? Definitely, though many of their messages are disguised in popular songs and other forms of poetry; in non-duality-based novels and plays and musicals; and in some very popular movies (though their viewers have no clue that the dialogue therein is offering the non-dual understanding).
In this series, postings will include both (1) subtle examples of non-dual messages which are appearing in a variety of formats and public forums as well as (2) the current preponderance of in-your-face duality-based talk as well.
To be continued.
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