TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
“The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed to believe so that you can be free, period.
--Floyd Henderson
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From yesterday:
The "mind" has been filled with fiction; with beliefs that are based not at all in fact; with beliefs that have never been questioned; and with beliefs that have been accepted with no evidence at all but have been accepted on "blind faith" alone; thus, they are all lies.
Lies, in turn, are all based in concepts, ideas, notions, perceptions / misperceptions, thoughts, designs, impressions, images, opinions, views, theories, and supposed knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance"), all of which can be summarized as "beliefs."
Now, excerpts from the book entitled FREEDOM from BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers") will continue:
(The Problem, The Invitation To Seekers, And "The Opportunity" For Readers And Seekers)
The cycling energy-matter is what "you' are, is all that "you" have ever been (and mostly in a "free-ranging mode"), and is all that "you" can or shall ever be.
To compare, a duck cannot become a squirrel; a deer cannot become a bear; and a bird cannot become a fish; moreover, no duck has ever mistaken itself for a squirrel; no deer has ever mistaken itself for a bear; and no bird has ever mistaken itself for a fish.
In addition, a duck does not think it is a duck; a squirrel has no belief that it is a squirrel; a deer does not believe that it is a deer; a bear does not believe that it is a bear; a bird does not think it is a bird; and a fish does not think it is a fish. No duck has ever told another duck, "You are a duck," much less "You are a squirrel." Even if that could happen, it would be insane, yes? But consider what belief-driven persons do every day that is just that insane.
Even more to the point, a duck is not really a duck; a squirrel is not actually a squirrel; a deer is not really a deer; a bear is not truly a bear; a bird is not a bird at all; and a fish is not actually a fish.
In each of those cases, it knows IT IS, period, but in none of those cases does it believe that it is what any person has ever said that it is. And that fact is a fact in every case on the planet, except with persons.
Persons do believe that they are what they are not; persons do not stop with the "I AM" and the "I AM" only; no person stops with simply knowing IT IS; to the contrary, persons do believe that they can be something (in fact, many things) that they are not, and they do believe that they can become something that they are not.
And that is the case with almost all persons on the planet, so few are the instances of full realization (which, per Maharaj, is merely the condition of being free of belief in all ignorance").
Instead, most throughout the course of the relative existence assume hundreds of personas as actual identities, and each persona that is assumed has its own basic fear and its own basic desire, along with a plethora of accompanying fears and desires.
One suggestion is that each persona can be driven by at least seven fears and / or desires, so accept as actual identities twenty personas assigned by your family and friends and culture, and assume another twenty that you adopt on your own, and those forty persons (x 7) will have 280 "voices" that are forever talking in order to (a) defend themselves against perceived fears and / or in order to (b) try to manipulate "others" or to negotiate with "others" in order to (c) have their desires met and their fears alleviated.
Is it any wonder, then, that persons soon feel as if they are being pulled in a hundred (or two-hundred, or two-hundred-and-eighty) different directions at once?
Is it any wonder that persons do not feel at one with self or anything else? Is it any wonder that persons feel torn? Is it any wonder that persons are fractious and cannot focus? Is it any wonder that human psyches are fractured and disintegrated? Is it any wonder that persons can reach a point where they feel that, if anyone puts any more pressure on them at all, they will shatter into a million (or at least 280) pieces?
Next, is it not truly strange that persons believe in the "not-self" (and in all of the false selves that are assigned or adopted) but have no clue at all about what they really are (which only science can identify accurately)?
After having adopted so many ego-states as identities - and after egotism manifests time and again as an ego-defense mechanism that is there to "protect and defend" each of the false egos - is it any wonder that the wisdom shared by sages has long pointed to pride and arrogance and ego and egotism and narcissism as the bane of humanity?
Is it possible to see why Maharaj targeted the adoption of religious and spiritual roles - and targeted religious and spiritual arrogance - right alongside all other personas that are adopted by those among the non-realized masses?
Is it any wonder that personality-assumption / persona-adoption has long been the target of pointers which invite persons to stop believing that they are what they are not and to stop believing that they can become something that they cannot become?
In fact, believing that one is what one is not, and believing that one can be or become something that one is not, is all part of the "Dream / Nightmare of the Planet." Consider:
A man can be lying on his back in bed in the middle of the night but dreaming that he is upright and running because he is being chased by another man with a knife. The man who is dreaming will be certain that every part of his dream is real. He can be so convinced that what he is dreaming is real that he can start making throaty sounds that develop into louder moanings and can eventually end up screaming at the top of his voice.
When does peace come? When someone who was also asleep next to him awakens and then begins to try to also awaken the one in the dream / nightmare state. When does peace come to the dreamer? Only when he awakens.
The task of the non-duality teacher, who was also asleep for a time, is to try to awaken the one in the dream / nightmare and to allow the earnest seeker to see that what has been disturbing him or her is all just a dream, or nightmare, and nothing more.
The nightmare for some is "I am bad . . . really evil . . . truly worthless . . . so very rotten to the core that I should die." The nightmare for others is, "I am so different and such an outcast, and I am so hopelessly miserable and without any prospects for happiness, that I might as will kill myself."
The nightmare for others is "I am being bullied because I cannot fit in. I might as well hang myself" or "I am being bullied, so I might as well kill those people who are harassing me and then maybe even kill myself."
Conversely, the dream for some is "I am now so righteous, so religious or spiritual, so wonderful, so much better than I was, and so much better than most others that everyone should be like me. I am now able to rescue or save them or - if they refuse what I offer - able to judge and condemn them."
The invitation of the truly realized sage? Harken. Awake. Stop believing in the dream. Stop living the nightmare that you are experiencing because you are asleep. Stop believing that you are something that you are not. Stop believing that you can become something other than the temporarily-manifested composite unity which "you" temporarily are. Stop following "I am" with any word at all.
To be continued.
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