TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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THE RATIONALE FOR THE NON-DUAL UNDERSTANDING, PART I
To answer, "What is this all about?" or "What is this whole non-dual understanding really about?" one must first see that the understanding is something with relevance for all humankind.
And to understand what the deal is regarding something that is for all humankind, then one must understand what all humankind is about at its very core (and that is something which is not nearly as complex as some make it out to be).
So what seems to have been central in the totality of the complete human experience? For that matter, what seems to be central to the totality of the experiences of all living things?
The three basic, innate natural drives among humans and almost all living things are the thirst drive, the hunger drive, and the sex drive.
THE THIRST DRIVE
Look at the development of non-nomadic communities and see that they all alongside rivers or near other sources of water, be it the Yangtze, the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, the Tiber, the Seine, the Thames or along oceanfronts and gulf coasts and next to lakes and streams. It has historically been the thirst drive which determined where humans first settled.
THE HUNGER DRIVE
Next, the hunger drive has controlled humans' lives. It led some to be nomadic and to migrate and led others to settle near sources of edible vegetation or fish or meat.
There is also a connection stage which manifests prior to the full-blown activation of the sex drive.
PRE-PUBERTY
Bonding connections are formed, beginning with infants and the providers who address the thirst and hunger drives of children.
Typically, even early on, social connections begin to be of interest to children which develop into community connections among adults for the sake of safety and the fulfillment of other human needs.
POST-PUBERTY, THE SEX DRIVE
Post-puberty, once the thirst and hunger drives are satisfied, then it's all about the sex drive after that:
Introducing relatives and friends to persons in whom they might be interested. Courting. Dating. Clubbing. Singles' groups. Forming religious affiliations for the purpose of mate finding. Joining dating services and focusing on "Love Connections." Thirteenth stepping in 12-step groups. Engagements. Marriages. Affairs at work. Affairs in the neighborhood. Divorcing and re-marrying. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Because of the three basic, instinctive drives, humans are forever trying to connect: connecting to sources of water, connecting to sources of food, connecting socially, and being driven to connect to sources of sex. Connections. Connections. Connections.
And the drive for connection is being controlled first by the primitive, reptilian brain which generates fears and obsessions and compulsions and rigidity and secondly by the mammalian brain (the emotionally-intoxicating limbic brain) which generates duality because it determines if persons feel "positive" or "negative" about something or someone, determines when persons feel "superior" vs. "inferior," and determines when persons feel "dominant" vs. "submissive."
[Only after those two parts of the brain have their say first might one's cerebral cortex activate and allow the use of logic and reason to differentiate between what is in one's best and wisest interests (relatively speaking) as opposed to being controlled blindly and subconsciously by the desires being generated by the reptilian and limbic parts of the brain.
Thus, the brain is forever in an unfair fight, the reasoning part facing off against two opponents with agendas that have nothing to do with either logic and reason or with sane and wise decision-making.
By the way, sexual orientations differ among humans because differences can become established within the limbic brain - especially within the hypothalamus.
That is one reason why adults - and now many children as young as the age of five or six - are contesting their gender identification. Another contributing factor lies in the widespread bastardization of the food supply with its additives and manipulations. Consider this from Health.com:
A salmon that grows to market size twice as fast as normal. Dairy cows that produce 15 percent more milk. Beef cows that grow 20 percent faster.
What do these hyper-productive animals have in common? Thanks to injections and implants (in the case of cows) and thanks to genetic engineering (in the case of salmon), all of those contain artificially high levels of sex and / or growth hormones.
So many persons are being abused in the U.S. and in other places around the globe by the most ignorant and most religious among us because young children and adults are being honest about how they truly feel, that being determined by both brain and emotional factors as well as by other highly-influential physiological factors.
Moreover, the different sexual orientations are not limited to humans. Homosexuality is commonplace in nature. There are thirteen homosexual pairs of penguins in the New York City Zoo.
As of 1999, about 500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms have been documented engaging in same-sex behaviors. Though I am what some call "straight," I could care less about who is doing what with whom or what consenting adults are doing in their own bedrooms or whatever animals or birds might be doing in the forests or streams. It is all much ado about nothing.]
At any rate, to understand the three parts of the brain which are driving persons and to understand the three basic drives which are manifest in all living things, the end result is this: neither birds nor fish nor animals not humans are actually consciously deciding what they think and say and do. They are almost all functioning unconsciously, but the non-dual understanding can interrupt that pattern.
As Gardiner Morse points out, "We can be too impulsive or too deliberate for our own good; one moment we hotheadedly let our emotions get the better of us, and the next we’re paralyzed by uncertainty.
"The closer scientists look, the clearer it becomes how much we’re like animals. We have dog brains, basically, with a human cortex stuck on top, a veneer of civilization. This cortex is an evolutionarily-recent invention that plans, deliberates, and decides. But not a second goes by that our ancient dog brains aren’t conferring with our modern cortexes to influence their choices—for better and for worse—and without us even knowing it."
So the rationale for the non-dual understanding is rooted in this:
There is among the masses - and may have always been - an urgency to connect, to feel the feeling that come with a sense of connectedness. So why is that not leading to Real Love and the peace that comes when that is tapped into? Because a desire to connect, and the fear that one might not connect - are rooted in duality. "A" wants to be connected to "B." See? That involves TWO. The non-dual message does not invite "A" to connect with "B" and does not offer an invitation for "A" to connect to "B" and "C" and " D" and "ALL"; instead, it offers an invitation for all humans to see that . . .
there is only "A," period.
there is only "A," period.
Next, after considering the influence of the basic drives and the influence of the reptilian and mammalian brains, factor in . . .
the influence of ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination
combined with . . .
the assignment of false, personal identifications which all have hidden subconscious agendas
and it is should become easy to understand why persons typically have no ability to make conscious choices though they are willing to fight over that fact and claim, "I am too making my own choices and decisions!"
It is the non-dual process which
(1) can guide seekers along a "path" and which
(2) affords them the opportunity to be freed from having their every thought and word and action determined by subconscious and illogical and ignorant and insane influences and which
(3) can free them from being influenced by the agendas of fear-and-desire-generating ego-states / personalities and which
(4) can afford seekers the opportunity to tap into the part of the brain which allows for sane and sound and logical decisions to finally be made because they are, finally, totally awake, totally aware and totally conscious.
To be continued.
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