TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have already been offered in the eBook WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson)
Today, there will be offered last part of answer #13 to the question "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" which is this:
It is about coming to realize that there are hundreds of sources of pain, but only one source of misery and suffering.
There Are Hundreds and Thousands of Sources of Pain,
But Only One Source of Misery and Suffering,
Part Three
This was offered for your consideration:
If you want to be happy, you must find "where" you were when you were last perfectly and unequivocally happy and then go back "there." You must also find why you were perfectly and unequivocally happy "there."
But note that "there" was not a "place." Note that you will actually be returning to a condition that existed when you were the happiest, which was the condition of the mind-free brain as it existed in its pre-development-of-a-mind-state, that mind-state now being what generates all misery and suffering.
If you are not abiding under the auspices of a brain as it existed in its pre-development-of-a-mind-state, then you will most assuredly feel as if you are in prison, trapped behind iron bars and feeling miserable; however, as Richard Lovelace accurately noted: "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage."
Indeed, if misery and suffering are happening, it is because you are not free but are in a prison - behind iron bars - instead. The prison is your "mind," and the bars are each made of a concept, an idea, or a belief which is not even originally your own concept or idea or belief.
Those bars are "their" concepts and ideas and beliefs which you have adopted as your own without questioning each and every one of them on your own. That begs the question,
"Can you recall when you were last perfectly and unequivocally and independently happy?" The response: the masses cannot. The next question is, "Do you know why you were last perfectly and unequivocally and independently happy?" The response: the masses do not.
So "where" were you when you were last truly happy, unconditionally? When was that your circumstance? It was when you were in that early stage referred to by some non-duality teachers as "The Child Ignorance Stage." You were in that state and at that stage prior to knowing . . . prior to having been taught any ideas, concepts, beliefs, dogma . . . prior, in fact, to knowing anything. Only in that stage can the phrase "Ignorance is bliss" be accurate.
Here, that stage is called "The Child No-Knowing Stage." If it is happiness that is sought, see how simple the search can be: just return to "where" you were last happy and then move ahead from there through the remainder of the manifestation. At that stage, you were in what John Locke called "the blank tablet" or "blank slate" or "Tabula rasa" phase.
The Tabula rasa theory suggests that individuals are born without built-in mental content (that is, in Advaitin terms, you were born with no mind and, therefore, with no ideas, concepts, or beliefs stored in a mind). That does not mean that there are no archetypal messages received via the genes, but that still has nothing to do with a "mind."
The theory further suggests that "knowledge" (a.k.a., "learned ignorance") comes from distorted experiences and faulty perception, favoring the "nurture" side of the nature vs. nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one's personality and mental and emotional behavior.
If the Tabula rasa state was the existing condition the last time that you were truly happy, and if you want to be happy again, then it is necessary to return to that same condition; thus, the earlier statement that it is all so simple, but you must be as a child to be free and happy.
So what is that condition like? It is a state wherein impartial, objective, opinion-less witnessing allows all to be observed without judgment, separation, irritation, restlessness, disharmony, fluctuations, discontentment or chaos.
It has been explained this way during retreats or during satsang sessions when the consideration was offered that the no-knowing state is preferable to the accumulated knowledge / learned ignorance state: a prerequisite for being at peace during the relative existence is to be able to witness with non-attachment.
The prerequisite for being able to witness with non-attachment is to cast aside body identification and to be purged of the influence of "their" concepts that—having been accepted as the truth—now form what is called your falsehood-filled “mind.”
The next prerequisite for being able to witness objectively is to be free of the duality inspired by religious or spiritual concepts. After that, the next prerequisite is to be free of all other concepts and then “return” to the bliss of the child ignorance / the child no-knowing stage.
Only a child—existing in a pre-programmed, pre-conditioned state—can witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality.
For adults to be able to witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality requires a shift “back” to the state of child ignorance or no-knowing state by casting aside all of the nonsense which has been generated by conditioning and programming and domestication and acculturation.
Nothing is more at peace than a child when its physical needs have been met. As long as health and food and shelter requirements have been met, perfect peace happens. Contentment happens only in that pre-mind state of existence.
Realized, contentment happens as a result of returning to the no-mind state. Why should you, as an adult, settle for less contentment than that experienced by a child?
A contented child in ignorance—that is, prior to being programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated—does not yet know the euphoria (and accompanying emotional intoxication) of “love offered”; nor does it know the misery (and accompanying emotional intoxication) of “love withheld.”
A contented child in ignorance does not know what it feels like to enjoy being labeled “good” but shortly thereafter to be in the misery of being labeled “bad.”
A child in ignorance does not know the suffering that comes with trying to meet the ever-changing “standards” of critical, hypocritical, holy, or spiritual persons.
A contented child in ignorance does not yet know the frustration of the duality of striving constantly to gain reward or to avoid punishment. A contented child in ignorance can lie comfortably on its back and have no opinions or concerns about whatever it witnesses. It can witness people without thought or criticism.
It can enjoy a natural scene outside a window and can just be. It needs to do nothing in order to try to feel better. It need not hum, pray, chant, knell, share, worship, seek, rescue, talk, sing, shout, genuflect, nor "contribute," and it does not need to meditate, power nap, burn this, or smell that.
It needs only the simple movement of the breath. The contented child in ignorance need not seek knowledge in order to make a “better” life. It needs nothing more because it can merely witness as a result of having no concepts, no “mind,” no assumed identities, and no perceived needs (which are always based in the ego-states of persons in the child's culture).
Because the child in ignorance has no concepts and no “mind,” it cannot be driven out of its mind by persons. That will not happen until adults decide the child must leave the child ignorance stage and start learning “right from wrong” and “good from bad.”
It will leave behind the contentment of the child ignorance stage when adults decide that punishments and rewards must be used to condition the child to behave as those particular adults want the child to behave.
Expectations will be defined, demands will be made, and then the child living with the restrictions of that newly-gained knowledge will know tremendous frustration.
The ability to witness impartially will be lost, dualistic concepts will be learned, the dual-minded child (and later that adult) will be unstable in all ways, and the peace that comes from existing in a concept-free manner will end.
The “journey” to realization is conducted by following in reverse the route that resulted in the shifting of the consciousness from its pure, Absolute nature to its contaminated state. To shift beyond
(a) the duality of body identification, mind identification, and religious and / or spiritual role identification and
(b) into the witness state
first requires a movement into the child ignorance / the child no-knowing stage. One who is not free of all concepts is not free at all, and one who is not free at all can—obviously—never know the joy of independence.
And if not totally independent and totally free, one can never be happy.
To be continued.
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