TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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THE RATIONALE FOR REACHING A "NO-BELIEF," "ZERO CONCEPTS," "NO MIND" STATE AS RECOMMENDED BY MAHARAJ AND THEN ABIDING UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ELEMENTAL BRAIN RATHER THAN THE DISTORTED, FICTION-FILLED MIND, PART TWO
ONE "-ISM" WHICH HAS BEEN AT THE ROOT OF CONTROL, CHAOS, SEPARATION, DIVORCE, "INTERPERSONAL FIGHTING," "POLITICAL FIGHTING," "STATES FIGHTING, AND NATIONS FIGHTING / WAR:
Exceptionalism
[Continued from yesterday]
It was noted that much can be revealed by understanding the history of the way that the Advaita teachings became necessary and the way that the Enneagram has been used by some teachers of non-duality to expose the personality trance in which the masses live as well as the overall effects of personality assumption.
That which is real has been forever; all that is not real but is taken to be so has not been forever but has come about at various times as a result of distortion and ignorance. Such is the case with personality / personalities, assumed roles, ego-states, personas, stage characters, false identities . . . call them what you will.
The earliest humans or human-like beings, as with modern persons, faced plenty of challenges during the relative existence, but one challenge they did not have to deal with was the nonsense of personality.
Did they desire? Yes, but were the desires natural rather than unnatural or supposedly "supernatural"? Also, yes.
Were they afraid at times? Yes, but were the fears natural rather than unnatural or supposedly "supernatural"? Yes, and that did not change until humans began dreaming up supernatural concepts based in magical, nonsensical thinking, in distortion, in ignorance, in myths, in superstitions, and in non-facts. That paved the way for ignorance-based explanations (and ignorance-based belief in ignorance-based explanations):
"Why oh why did the hurricane devastate that city, O Holy One?"
"Because of the negative karma of the people there, my child."
As humans began forming communities, some of the more observant began to notice "individual differences" in the ways that people behaved and reacted alongside patterns of behavior that were common among the members of certain sub-groups in the community.
It was seen that some parents interacted in one way with their offspring, some in other ways that were quite different.
It was also seen that children used different coping mechanisms to try to adapt to a variety of family situations, and it was seen that during stressful events, a group of, say, five people all reacted the same way but that another group of five all reacted the same way but in a way that differed from the people in the first group.
The observant began to see that all of the members of the tribe or community consistently revealed certain traits without exception: the prideful were always prideful, no matter what; the avoiders were always avoiding, no matter what; the admiration-seeking, narcissistic performers were always performing, no matter what;
the love-seeking helpers and enablers were always helping and enabling in order to get love, no matter what; the controllers were always trying to control, no matter what; the escapists were always trying to escape, no matter what; the reformers were always judging and trying to reform, no matter what.
The most observant began to see that
(a) those with a similar family situation behaved the same way and that
(b) when stressful situations arose, those who shared in common a dominate trait all showed the same opposite trait as well when strained.
For example, those who lost a father early on were seen to be the seemingly-kind helper types.
Though they seemed to be the friendly ones in the community, when they became stressed or were challenged, they showed the same traits as those in the village who were usually the angry, controlling, domineering, power-hungry, lustful types.
[Today, if one understands the Enneagram, she / he will know that what happened in the scenario described above is that a Personality Type Two Helper became stressed and was driven by arrogance to disintegrate to the Personality Type Eight Controller / Boss / "Parent" and to become for awhile an angry, controlling, domineering, power-hungry, lustful type person.]
An understanding among the observant of the fact that stress leads to psychic deterioration (and to totally-predictable behaviors among the mentally and emotionally unhealthy) came into being.
It was also seen by the most observant that people in the community were all being driven by one of nine dominate traits or "passions," that is, by whatever it was that they were seen to be "most passionate about," whether that was about reforming everyone; or about creating or maintaining a phony image; or about trying to dominate everyone else; or about allowing others to dominate them in order to gain something they wanted, etc.
Moreover, it was seen that their behaviors were "textbook" in the way that those behaviors manifested so consistently and unwaveringly and in how unsurprisingly foreseeable and predictable their thoughts and words and deeds were going to be in any given situation, some being passionate about gaining power and leadership roles; some being passionately angry most of the time; some being passionate about performing in ways that generated admiration from the entire community, etc.;
thus, "distinctions" and "dualities" were born with personality.
"Differences" and "personal characteristics" were noted, and the attention to one's relativistic, personal passion soon began to displace any former concern for the community as a whole.
That gave rise to "self"-ishness which, in turn, blocked the original sense of Oneness and displaced the earlier all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude with a passion for fulfilling one's own desires and avoiding one's own fears.
Conflict driven by self-absorption became the "norm."
It was Evagrius who discussed the early Greeks' version of the nine passions (or the nine obsessions or nine dominant personality traits). That list included anger, pride, vainglory, envy, greed, incontinence, gluttony, lust and acedia (i.e., boredom; listlessness; apathy; a lack of care or interest; indifference; and laziness).
Because he showed how those passions (i.e., dominant personality traits) distorted human perception and limited the human search for the essence and reality and authenticity to the trivial and clichéd and ordinary - especially after religion limited the search to the confines of their buildings and texts only - then Evagrius came under attack from the churches of Rome and Constantinople.
People were dissuaded by their religious leaders from seeking answers scientifically or objectively and told to accept unquestioningly the answers that were provided via dogma and "holy texts" only. New, "good" selves or personas or identities were generated, further eliminating any opportunity among the mostly-religious masses to know the essence and to be able to differentiate between the non-real and that which is real and that which is authentic.
With the few remaining seekers who used the non-duality teachings to uncover the root of all disharmony and emotional instability and chaos, early teachers discussed the way that everyone developed a primary "point of view" from the list of nine possibilities.
It was seen by some that it is those "views" or "passions" or "primary personality traits" that mark and mar the human condition. The patterns of thoughts and words and behaviors associated with the passions now align with the nine personality types of the Enneagram.
What might be called - for the sake of discussion only - "human character" (as exhibited among the realized) will spring forth from conscious-awareness of the essence and that which is authentic and real, including Real Love; therefore, the realized will behave in what most might call "the way of love" without having even a single belief about "love vs. hate." Actually, the realized are functioning in the non-dualistic, no-concept, no-belief, no-identity manner of True Love which manifests alongside the understanding of the unicity.
In contrast to what can manifest during the AM-ness if there exists a conscious-awareness of the essence and that which is authentic and real, including Real Love, those separated from reality and Reality and authenticity who are blindly driven by their dominate and secondary personality types will be ruled by habitual and unconscious, "automatic" responses controlled by the hidden agendas of their personality / personalities.
To be continued.
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