TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Next,
From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:
Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists
excerpted from the book
Consider when the criticism of Maharaj began:
it came from among the locals after he abandoned the use of a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine; and it came from international persons after he abandoned the use of a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine (many of which had been transcribed from audio tapes and published in a book entitled I AM THAT); and it came after he shifted the focus of his talks onto the problem-and-chaos-generating human mind and shifted to a Psychology / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine.
The criticisms increased when he eventually denounced "the business of spirituality" and urged seekers to stop reading the talks in I AM THAT (which were offered when he was still being influenced by his guru's instructions and by religion and spirituality) and to listen instead to his later talks (which were offering psychology-based principles and pointers which were intended to address "the mind issues" which are at the core of the Ultimate Sickness).
His "evolution" - actually, the evolution of his understanding - came about as he saw one religion-or-spirituality-based method after another failing to address the Ultimate Sickness and as he continued to try to find an effective version of the Ultimate Medicine.
The result: he used one yoga after another in combination with the Direct Path Method of Teaching; in the process, he shifted from the use of guru-bhakti and bhakti; to bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma"); to jnana yoga and nisargan yoga; and finally to the nisarga yoga almost exclusively.
At that point, the criticizing began and included such comments as these:
"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers. It is also the lack of quality of translation in the level of "I Am That".
"His direct disciples who later on became notable teachers are of an especially low quality (e.g. Ramesh Balsekar, Wolinsky and others) which makes one to wonder how come"
"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."
"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."
Those critics believed that they were telling others something about "a man called Maharaj"; in fact, they were telling anyone (with the wisdom to see it) all about themselves / their selves.
During the years when Maharaj was using a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine and the years when he was using a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine, those who were most satisfied with those approaches were the seekers who were either picking up new and good and better false identities via his talks or who were having their already-assumed good and better false identities reinforced.
When the evolution of his understanding reached the third stage, he was totally annihilating all of the false identities assumed by seekers (and supposedly knowers) and was devaluing all of their religious and / or spiritual "experiences" and all of their religious and / or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance").
His invitation to seekers was
to abandon all beliefs
and
to abide naturally
and
to abide in the same manner in which every living thing on planet earth abides (except for humans who are driven unconsciously by the bogus content of their minds and by the hidden agendas of their assumed personalities which are forever preoccupied with selfish desires and unfounded fears).
You are invited to read the quotes being offered in this series and to consider the conclusion that Maharaj finally reached, namely, that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with knowing too little dogma; that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a so-called "sick spirit" or "spiritual malady";
and that the Ultimate Sickness has everything to do with the duality-based, divisiveness-inspiring content of the nonsensical beliefs stored in human minds post-programming, post-conditioning, post-acculturating, post domesticating, post-brainwashing and post-indoctrinating (which are processes to which all persons are being exposed, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout adulthood as well).
Then the invitation is to sit in the silence and contemplate the pointers quoted which touch on a host on non-dual topics.
To continue:
George Bernard Shaw
(When asked if he thought there might be life on other planets): His reply was that he was certain that "there had to be life on other planets because people there are obviously using earth as their insane asylum."
Ian McCallum
"We need to stop speaking about the earth being in need of healing. The earth does not need healing. We do. Our task is to rediscover ourselves in Nature. How or where do we begin?"
"We begin exactly where we are right now, when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the authenticity and well-being of others, and that includes the animals, the trees, and the land."
"To understand wildness is to discover the thread that binds us to all living things."
"To distance ourselves from, and worse, to deny our wild ancestry, is to witness its return in all manner of savage outbursts."
and
THE RISING
One day
your soul will call to you
with a holy rage.
"Rise up!" it will say . . .
"Stand up inside your own skin."
Unmask your unlived life . . .
Feast on your animal heart.
Unfasten your fist . . .
let loose the medicine
In your own hand.
Show me the lines . . .
I will show you the spoor
of the ancestors.
Show me the creases . . .
I will show you the way
to the water.
Show me the folds . . .
I will show you the furrows
for your healing.
"Look!" it will say . . .
The line of life has four paths -
one with a mirror,
one with a mask,
one with a fist,
one with a heart.
One day,
your soul will call to you
with a holy rage.
And, more recently, this was in the news:
Jim Carrey
Recently, Jim Carrey - a Canadian-American actor, comedian, impressionist, screenwriter, and producer - was asked to clarify some non-dual (and yes, only quasi-non-dual pointers) which he had shared in an interview, points which led many to comment on his "weird talk" and led others to suggest that "his state-of-mind is obviously quite unstable nowadays" (which is a typical reaction when the masses hear non-dual pointers).
When asked, “Are you a Buddhist?” Carrey offered a quasi-non-dual reply:
“I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Christian, I’m a Muslim, I’m whatever you want me to be. It all comes down to the same thing. You’re in a loving place or you’re in an unloving place. If you’re with me right now you cannot be unhappy, it’s not possible.”
“There’s no meaning to any of this. I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join, and here I am. I mean, you’ve got to admit, it’s completely meaningless.”
“There is no me. There is just things happening. Here’s the thing: It’s not our world. That’s the key. We don’t matter. We don’t matter. There’s the good news.”
“There’s just a relative manifestation of consciousness appearing, and someone gave 'him' a name, a religion, a nationality, and he clustered those together into something that’s supposed to be a personality, and it doesn’t actually exist. None of that stuff, if you drill down, is real.”
“I believe I got famous so I could let go of fame, and it’s still happening, but not with me,” he continued. “I’m not a part of it anymore. Dressing happens, doing hair happens, interviewing happens, but it happens without me, without the idea of a ‘me.’ You know what I’m saying? It’s a weird little semantic jump, and it’s not that far, but it’s a universe apart from where most people are.”
"We’re a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There’s a body and there’s a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it’s no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it’s all one thing. Because we are sentient, there’s a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it. So we say, ‘This is my name and this is my heritage and this is my nationality and here’s my hockey team and these are all of the things that I am.’ That’s the mistake."
"The only way to it is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don’t allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you’ve suffered. And I’ve done it; I’m through it. I’m sure there will be things that happen again, but I realized that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it’s not to be feared. Death is not to be feared."
[The interviewer added: "We see themes of thinking about who we truly are, and looking at the difference between our egoic identity and the recognition of self as consciousness. Jim also touches on the interconnectedness of us all and that we in essence don’t exist as our individual egoic ideas of “I"
and
"The very fact that so many mainstream outlets are covering this from the standpoint of how ‘weird’ his latest statements are shows us how little thought we put into asking big questions in life in the mainstream. Instead we are asked to play into the many distractions and trivial bits of content that don’t challenge us to think deeper, understand who we are, or move beyond suffering — all of which Jim’s latest interviews explore."]
WHAT ABOUT THE OPPOSITE MESSAGES WHICH PERSONS SHOULD BE LISTENING FOR AND AWAKE TO?
As for those on the opposite end of the non-duality / duality spectrum who are trapped in duality and who are fomenting hatred and separation and contributing to the ever-expanding body of lies being broadcast into the ether, consider:
All of the wise non-dual teachers and all of the wise non-dual writers and all of the wise conductors of non-duality-based satsanga during the last 1000 years will have a minimal influence when it comes to inspiring persons to look for a means by which they can be freed from the tendency among the masses to accept lies as truth; to accept fiction as fact; and to allow lies and fiction to be accepted as "real" and thereafter drive them to behave in ways which exhibit the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
The masses have actually normalized all of that.
No, the most effective "argument" for realizing (that is, per Maharaj, being freed of ignorance) is never the one heard as the universal consciousness speaks via some wise sage (whom most among the masses will never encounter) but is the message delivered by the mad rantings and ravings of the narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths who are presently acting out on their international stages.
Among the angry, non-realized masses, those leaders adumbrating their anger and manipulating them by playing to their fury can seem to those masses to be as desirable and delightful as the sweetest dessert ever consumed; but as the case is with all immature and childish persons, having too much of the sweetest dessert can bring on pain instead of pleasure.
When the persons in any given nation OD on anger and rage and the always-accompanying "ignorance and stupidity and insanity", then "The Pendulum of Things Desired by a Newly-Formed Majority" will eventually swing in the opposite direction as more and more disappointed followers drag themselves through another day, frustrated and depressed and suffering from a rant-and-rave hangover which leads a different majority to seek a break.
Why does that pendulum forever swing? Because throughout human history, every promised change ever guaranteed by religious and spiritual and business and political leaders has proved to be a disappointing lie, producing false hope but no real change. That which is being sought for by some, or longed for by many, must come from within, not from without.
To be continued.
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