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 from being "imprisoned in the mind."
--Floyd Henderson
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Excerpts from the book entitled FREEDOM from BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
will continue with the a discussion of the way that personality-invoking "-ism's" are another source which generates a plethora of distortion-riddled beliefs:
"-ISM'S" and PERSONALITY,
("-ism's," Part "C")
To attach to - and to be driven by - the agendas of the "this-ism's" or "that-ism's" catalogued yesterday is to eliminate any chance of "giving peace a chance."
Peace cannot happen unless one is free and - just as a ship attached to a dock is not free and, therefore, cannot fulfill its natural providence - a person cannot function naturally or peacefully if attached to any of the "-ism's" mentioned in that earlier post.
Why? Because, as mentioned, attachment to "-ism's" will always nurture duality; distortion; illusion; delusion; learned ignorance; varying degrees of psychic unhealthiness as a result of personality disorders; a variety of neuroses; an assortment of psychoses and full-blown insanity; and the resulting inability to be in touch with reality or Reality either one.
The same applies when personas are assigned or adopted because persons fall under the blinding spell of the belief that "this" or "that" defines who (or what) they are.
The antidote that some sages have used throughout history to treat belief in the "this-ism's" and "that-ism's" which persons use to identify themselves is the mantra "I AM." The advice is to focus on the “I AM” and to break the habit of allowing any word or label other than “THAT” to ever follow the phrase.
Then, “I am a great husband” and “I am a great wife” and “I am a super employee” and “I am a great lover” all become instead “I AM” . . . only, “I AM” . . . only, “I AM” . . . only, and “I AM" . . . only.
An impression based in reality is an intrinsic impression. Prior to having being taught even a single idea or concept, a child (i.e., a space housing newly-manifested consciousness) is aware of its Is-ness. Even the most recently-manifested speck of consciousness is in touch with the intuitive impression that It Is. It intrinsically “knows” I AM.
Were it to later realize, it could say as another realized teacher said and as is said here: "Do not speak of me as 'floyd'; speak of me as I AM." Were it to later realize, the speck would not mistakenly believe that it was born but would say, "Before my 'parents' and even before 'this world,' I AM."
Any impression other than the intrinsic impression that I AM (and, post-realization, I AM THAT) is merely an idea, a concept. All other impressions are nothing more than learned, acquired, false beliefs.
All man-fabricated religious and spiritual “knowledge,” all ideas, and all concepts are generated from that accumulation of fiction called the “mind” and from fictional identities called personas or personalities or roles or ego-states or stage characters or states-of-being-this or states-of-being-that. How could that which is associated with a mind-mirage and associated with a personality-mirage possibly be real?
Yet such impressions control the thoughts and words and deeds of persons (the non-realized) across the planet. The result is that persons are unstable and are offensive at times as they are driven by their impressions and are defensive at times when driven by other impressions. Their impressions will also drive them to be aggressive at times and cowering at other times. Instability is guaranteed.
The following pointers are often shared with those trying to understand personality and trying to understand why all sages have advised seekers to take the steps required to be free of personality . . . to be free of belief in all of their "this-ism's" and "that-ism's" which they actually think can identify who they are:
Many ask why the enneagram personality inventory tool is offered here along with Advaitin pointers. Consider: at the root of the hundreds of personality disorders which can
a. guarantee a loss of contact with the essence and with authenticity and the authentic
and which can
b. generate ignorant or insane thoughts and words and deeds is - of course - personality.
Personality - the belief that "I am this" or "I am that" - must be understood completely in order to be discarded completely as an identity and to be eliminated as the key hidden motivator of dualistic thoughts and words and actions.
Further, realization cannot happen unless the seeker understands personality; understands how personality drives persons via misery-producing desires and fears; understands the full impact of personality on the relative existence; understands how it generates a sense of dis-ease and separation;
understands how personality produces emotional instability; and understands how it blocks any and all opportunity to know the Oneness (reinforcing instead the false belief in "different-from" and "better-than" and "higher than" and "apart from").
One of the most ancient of all methods used to "treat" the sicknesses that are generated by personality is Advaita, and the Advaita-Enneagram connection is ancient as well, though the enneagram or enneagram-like revelations that were a part of the ancient teachings appeared in a variety of versions.
The science-based version used here is relatively new, now offering the ancient understanding with more clarity and validity than ever before and allowing the transitioning beyond personality-identification to happen more quickly and efficiently for many seekers of full realization (that is, as Maharaj said, fully free of belief in all learned ignorance).
That said, the kind of information that is revealed by the testing and personality typing that is employed here is the information that Advaitin teachers have shared for hundreds and thousands of years, making the understanding of one's personality (actually, "personalities") central to the realization process.
It is one thing to speak of personality in the most general of terms, but when persons are shown on a scale of 1-100 the exact rate of their personality-based anger or pride or lust or laziness, then more awareness seems to come (which allows for many the ability to detach from the personalities that are blocking the "path" to Realization).
To understand the Advaita-Enneagram linkage, consider some of the historical background, with gratitude to the early teachers such as Evagrius and Ichazo and to the more recent instructors that are versed in the use of the Enneagram (called by some "a matrix of personality structures that recognizes nine observable points of view" among persons).
To understand the historical background is to understand how persons become separated from the essence and the authentic; how that separation results in passions that generate the most despicable "personality defects" imaginable, relatively speaking; and why the Advaita "path" has become necessary as a means by which persons can "re-connect" with the essence, the authentic, and Real Love.
Ichazo, who early on made the link between the non-duality teachings and the understandings that can be revealed via the Enneagram, said:
"We have to distinguish between [humans] in essence [vs. how they are] in ego or personality. In essence, every [human] is perfect, fearless, and in a loving unity with the entire cosmos; there is no conflict within the [human] between head, heart, and stomach or between the [human] and others. Then something happens: the ego begins to develop, there is a transition from objectivity to subjectivity, and [humans] fall from essence into personality."
To be continued.
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