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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Recall that Maharaj said, “You are not in the world. The world is in you.” Meaning? Meaning that the world is imagined by you so it is “in you” . . . that is, "in your mind"; therefore, any misery or suffering being experienced in what is taken to be “this world” is a mental (belief) construct to one degree or another.
The effects misery and suffering are rooted in a warped psyche and its belief systems. When those manifest and further warp the psyche, then belief in “this world” advances to the level of a mental illness.
Moreover, that is why the Ultimate Medicine is a medicine which is based in the understanding of psychology which Maharaj mastered and which addresses the main problem of humanity which centers not is some innocuous “spirit” or “soul” but in the mind. That is why the Ultimate Sickness is a mental illness, not an illness which results from a spirituality-deficiency or from a dogma-deficiency.
Also recall that the British poet Richard Lovelace offered this pointer: “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” What did he identify as that which does make a prison? The mind. The mind has become the prison in which the masses are trapped, and all ideas, concepts, thoughts, inspirations, brainstorms, opinions, views, inklings, impressions, notions, and perspectives (a.k.a., “beliefs”) that are stored within a mind will each become one of the iron bars of their cage.
Understanding all of that is why, in the end, Maharaj made clear that he was not “A Spiritual Master.” (He had already much earlier made clear that he was not “A Religious Master.”) It is also why he advised seekers to stop reading the transcripts from satsang sessions that had been collected in the book “I AM THAT” and to read his later talks instead, those talks being the ones offered after he came to understand the actual, mental / emotional nature of the Ultimate Sickness and after he came to understand that neither spirituality nor religion can address mental illnesses (and after having seen that, more often than not, they actually generate and exacerbate mental problems).
What Maharaj ultimately mastered was an understanding of psychology and an understanding of the workings – especially of the distorted workings – of the human mind after persons are programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated and brainwashed. That understanding of psychology allowed him ultimately to understand exactly what the Ultimate Medicine was not and what the Ultimate Medicine had to include if it were to successfully address the actual causes of the Ultimate Sickness.
He came to understand what the two greatest suppliers of dualistic beliefs are as well as what the two greatest suppliers of dual-mindedness are; furthermore, he came to understand what the two greatest sources of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination and brainwashing really are, and he was wise enough to understand that the cause of an illness cannot be the cure for that illness.
It was those understandings – combined with an amazing level of wisdom – that led him to advise persons to abandon their religious and spiritual activities and to just abide naturally and normally after taking the steps necessary to be free of their “knowledge” (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”); free from being driven by the hidden, subconscious agendas of multiple personalities; and free of the effects of the insanity which not only their parents’ teachings and beliefs had implanted but also which their culture had fostered.
[Multiple personalities? Yes. Personalities are like blackbirds, starlings, grackles, crows and vultures: they flock together, they show up in droves, and they contaminate everything around them with a nasty coat of . . . well, you get it.
Yes, there are nine basic types, and yes, there is a primary type; but after working with thousands of people and after seeing thousands of sets of scores on the enneagram personality test, there has never been even one instance where anyone scored a “0” in one of the types. All show some evidence of all of the types, but most show excessively high scores in three to five types. Moreover, all persons are assigned or will assume another eighty or more false identities throughout the relative existence.
As noted here on occasion, therefore, all persons among the non-realized masses suffer from the Multiple Personality Disorder, along with many other mental and emotional disorders as well.]
Maharaj also understood that there is no heaven and that there is no hell. He understood that personas upgrade themselves and downgrade others, and he understood that the same happens with persons who erroneously believe in “this world” and who erroneously believe in “another world” that they will supposedly go to post-manifestation. He understood that the concept of “heaven” is simply their ungraded version of “this world” (what with “pearly gates” and “streets paved with gold”) and that the concept of “hell” is simply their downgraded version of “this world.”
Additionally, he also understood that the programmed and conditioned mind will believe the dualistic concepts regarding “eternal life” and the existence of “another ‘good’ world” and the existence of “another ‘bad’ world.” He also understood that a programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed mind can even make “heaven and hell on earth” seem real to a person right now.
It is because of their warped mind that persons speak of having been in “hell on earth” or in “a heavenly relationship” (which might, later on, be deemed to have been “hell” rather than “heavenly”); thus, also to review, the English poet John Milton noted accurately that “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” Instability, instability, instability. Duality, duality, duality. All totally fraudulent, all seated in the mind.
That is why Maharaj noted that what gives you pleasure can eventually give you pain and what can give you the greatest pleasure can eventually give you the greatest pain. It’s all in the mind, and all which is stored in the mind is fiction and nonsense; thus, those who are dual-minded “will be unstable in all ways.” There can be no consistency and stability and freedom from chaos when a duality-driven mind is at play.
Consider the constant fluctuating that the mind will guarantee: at a certain point, the mind can convince one that he or she is eagle high; at another moment, the mind can convince the same person that she or he is whale caca low (said caca being found at the lowest point on the planet).
Such is how dizzying the relative existence can be when abiding under the auspices of the mind, reaching staggering heights one moment and immeasurable lows the next.
Like your mind? Like its content? Think it defines you? Assign great value to its content? Love your beliefs? Willing to fight for them? Willing to die for some of them? Then prepare for your next role, which will be "The Steel Ball" in a pinball machine, being tossed about, slammed about, thrown about, and knocked about throughout the unstable, erratic, ever-changing, alternating, sporadic, relative existence.
And all of that is guaranteed for all role-players, for all who are trapped in their beliefs about false, personality identifications. Persona-assumption can be deadly, as it is for the 59% of all women murdered in the U.S. annually because the assumed personas of the men whom those women were trying to leave felt as if they - the men - were the ones under attack.
In the topsy-turvy realm of personality, a man killing his wife is operating under the belief that he (rather than his false identity) is being assaulted. In the topsy-turvy realm of personality, a man killing his wife believes, on a subconscious level, that his actions are defensive - not offensive - in their nature. His persona is merely trying to defend itself from attack, supposedly, and that is how insane personality assumption and beliefs can be.
Abiding under the subconsciously-driven auspices of beliefs about personality is tantamount to being led into a toxic-gas-filled coal mine, and the only canary available to indicate the imminent danger is the one that has realized and is willing to guide persons away from the mine entrance. That one is the only one willing and capable of providing an advance warning before beliefs about personality drives one to destructive or self-destructive actions (relatively speaking).
To be continued.
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