TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a video which includes a discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]
"In the realm of permanence, there is no WHO-ness, no personhood, and nothing personal. There is only WHAT-ness or THAT-ness, and all else remains imagined and dreamed up and illusory beliefs. Moreover, it is science which can not only make that clear but can also prove it is fact."
--Floyd Henderson
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is just opinion."
--Democritus
("Yes, "opinion" or ideas, concepts, imaginings, misperceptions, notions, distortions, delusions, thoughts, theories, and views, a.k.a., 'bogus beliefs'.")
--Floyd Henderson
The series will continue with a discussion of the way that personality-invoking "-ism's" are another source which generates a plethora of distortion-riddled beliefs:
Two Other Major Sources of False Beliefs, Part "A"
Again . . .
From the song, "Give Peace A Chance":
"This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m."
--John Lennon / Yoko Ono
". . . Stop imagining yourself to be 'this' or 'that.' Just be."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Neti-Neti"
(Non-Duality Pointer to Identity-Less-Ness)
"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, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period."
--Floyd Henderson
Once more . . . ,
the discussion of false beliefs - and being free of them - will shift its focus to the two sources that presently result in more distortion and illusion and deception (and self-deception) than any others.
The first source is rooted in one's "personal" beliefs (which are still rooted in "their beliefs" but which reproduce even more deception-and-self-deception-based beliefs). Those "personal" beliefs and their effects will be discussed in a later chapter.
The second source was alluded to earlier with these three pointers:
1. The "journey" aims to put you fully in touch with reality and you fully in touch with You. Again, to be out of touch with reality is to be insane.
2. This "journey" is about getting in touch with reality in order to be free of the bondage of the illusions and falsehoods of a "mind" exposed to years of enculturation, and it is at the fourth of the seven steps on the "path" that all beliefs finally fall away.
3. To fixate at the third step (where religious and / or spiritual roles will be assumed and played for a time) is to be forever trapped in believing false beliefs. And that is insane. The invitation is to complete the entire "journey" and then enjoy the remainder of the manifestation in a manner that is totally free.
Of all of the "-ism's" that generate beliefs, none can compare with the number of beliefs and concepts and dualities spawned during the last 5000 years by these (and other) "-ism's," some of which were catalogued in an earlier chapter:
Judaism; Protestantism / Catholicism / Jesuitism / Anglicism; Islamism; Mormonism; Buddhism; Hinduism; Talmudism; Jainism; Sikhism; Shintoism; Taoism; baptism; clericalism; congregationalism; cultism; Deism; creationism; theism; montheism; polytheism; exorcism; dogmatism; druidism; fundamentalism; paganism; predestinarianism; proselytism; puritanism; revivalism; spiritualism; supernaturalism; evangelism; televangelism; messianism; monasticism; moralism; mullahism; mysticism; moralism; occultism; salvationism; separatism; symbolism; and ritualism.
Is "Advaita" not included because of the author's prejudice? No. It is excluded from the list because its penultimate message is to be free of all beliefs in order to receive the full dose of the Ultimate Medicine that can purge the "mind" of a seeker of all beliefs and ideas and concepts and distortions and deceptions.
It is excluded because . . .
A. it alone invites un-learning all rather than learning more;
B. because it alone offers, if properly shared, un-teachings rather than teachings; and
C. because it alone uses thorns to remove thorns, after which all thorns are tossed.
If the Direct Path Method is used in conjunction with the Nisarga Yoga, then it alone invites seekers to abandon belief in all that has been taught and to thereafter abide naturally rather than unnaturally or "supernaturally."
Among religions and philosophies, there is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which can lead to the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.”
[Were there no duality-based "-ism's" and the duality-based beliefs which they have dreamed up and disseminated via their programming and conditioning, there would be no "sinners" and no "saints." How refreshing that would be, yet alas, it cannot be because religions have been opening Pandora's box for thousands of years and subjecting humanity to their duality-based belief systems.
But "no sinners nor saints?" Precisely. Maharaj said, "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
I formed a close friendship with a university professor at the same time that a vestige of my early programming by evangelicals resurfaced. For a brief while, I lost contact with the awareness of Grandmother's Cherokee teachings and bought into the notion that something was "wrong" about enjoying sexual relations outside of marriage with my girlfriend.
The wise professor asked if the evangelicals had mentioned the fictional tale about Adam and Eve and how, after they had supposedly sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they covered up their nakedness for the first time when God showed up and asked, "Who told you that you are naked?"
He said, "So I'm going to ask, 'Who told you that you are sinful?"
F.: "Actually, my girlfriend's Super Catholic mother who follows the church's motto to a 'T,' namely, 'If it feels good, stop it!' She read our previously-private letters and found out, as she put it, that we were 'doing the nasty" together'."
The professor: "Well I tell you just as strongly that you are not 'doing the nasty' and that you are neither a sinner nor a saint. Return to what you've understood."
Fortunately, the unnatural, dogma-inspired "crisis of conscience" was short-lived and our sexual activities continued - naturally - meaning with extreme pleasure and without guilt or shame. Of the trillions of life forms that have shared sex and procreated (or not), no life form other than humans has ever felt guilty about that all-natural activity.
And how does that happen, that someone can understand but occasionally slip back into being influenced by nonsensical concepts / beliefs? Maharaj, while explaining why persons seem to grasp the understanding and then seemingly “lose” it for a time, said:
“You are so used to the support of concepts that when your concepts leave you, although it is your true state, you get frightened and try to cling to them again.”
Some "shiftings" along the way eventually gave way to the stability of understanding and not losing that understanding, so Maharaj's truth became my truth and it can become your truth as well. He said:
“I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi, or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”]
So again, among religions and philosophies, there is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which can lead to the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.”
That is why, ultimately, non-duality here is the "teaching" intended to become the non-teaching by way of un-teaching. All others methods and "-ism's" require that their teachings or dogma be learned and be believed in unwaveringly . . . with no questioning at all and with resolute and steadfast (and blind) faith alone.
How to be free if that is the basic programming and conditioning to which one has been exposed from early on, as is the case with the 97% of the planet's population who report that they are affiliated with one of the "-ism's" in the list above or with another similar "-ism" not on the list?
Please review the invitation here to find the answer:
the seeker of (a) freedom from belief in lies and (b) the Truth should see by now that there is no such thing as “your mind.” Though plant food bodies do not initially contain a "mind," they do come with a brain.
As with all "life-forms" on the planet, that and the intuitive inner resource is all that is needed for the body / elements to function naturally. To the detriment of all, persons' cultures - which are attached to "more-ness" rather than "less-ness" - decided that was not enough.
"They" decided you most of all needed a set of belief systems, and "their" belief systems were implanted in a section of the brain that can store and retrieve information and that is now called "the mind."
"They" decided you needed their “knowledge,” which is really nothing other than their learned ignorance (including "their" ideas and beliefs that were rooted in superstitious and mythical explanations that were, and remain, totally devoid of any factual or scientific evidence).
In pumping those bogus beliefs into you, they generated what each person calls “my mind”—a repository of ideas and beliefs and non-truths. Those contents were transferred to persons without their ever having an opportunity to question any of it at all (with the exception of about 1/2 of 1% of all cases . . . those cases involving the types whose experiences by the age of six inspire them to question all so-called "authorities" and all that they say and do).
Among all others, their societies' beliefs are passed along and accepted faithfully and dutifully. The stage was set for a most unfortunate play to be played out on a daily basis around the globe in "The Theater of Lie" that the relative existence is.
What each seeker must see to move along the "path" and complete the "journey" to full realization (that is, to freedom from body-mind-personality identification, to freedom from all role-playing, to freedom from deceiving and being deceived, to freedom from being driven unconsciously by the false beliefs of "others,"to freedom from believing in that which is false, and to an ability to see the Truth that can be known but not spoken and to an understanding of the functioning of the totality) what must be seen by each seeker is that nothing in "the mind" came from you - and most certainly did not come from You.
It was "they," not you, who dreamed it all up. (What you have dreamed up will be discussed later). "They" forced you to accept their concepts and beliefs as a child; as a result, you internalized their beliefs into a “mind” and - if you have not Realized Fully - you now allow their fiction to define your beliefs, your "values," your “mind,” and "you."
That, in turn, unconsciously drives every thought and word and deed, rendering you unable to consciously choose anything (the concept of "free will" under such circumstances being another completely counterfeit notion).
In fact, most of the (dualistic) beliefs in the "mind" of the non-realized person are the beliefs of the earliest, self-appointed “religious or tribal or spiritual leaders” who dreamed up those beliefs, adopted them, and then passed them on. And all those values were based in duality, in terms of what those persons decided was “right or wrong” and “good or bad.”
The invitation here: cast aside ideas and concepts and beliefs and attitudes and allow the brain to function in conjunction with the inner resource. Tap into the intuitive sixth-sense. Sense the fourth dimension beyond the three dimensions of a body’s height, width and depth.
Abandon any notion that a "mind" and its contents are real or that you "have a mind" that is "yours." You do not. It is "theirs," has always been "theirs," and shall always be "theirs" if you do not abandon it and then realize;
otherwise, those persons can still reach forward—from millennia ago or from days ago—and control you via the compilation of that mass of learned ignorance and contamination called “your mind.”
Religions want to "cleanse" your mind. Spiritual movements want to "purify" your mind or "heal" your mind. Many professionals want to “straighten out the thinking” of your mind. Many groups want to move you from “wrong thinking" to “right thinking.” Some want to guide you to your “right mind.” Some want to teach you to "halt the constant movement" of your mind.
None of those have a clue that they have missed the point - and the facts - completely: nothing needs to be done or can be done to your "mind" and nothing needs to happen or can happen to benefit your "mind." The mind is illusion. One may as well go to a desert and try to benefit and improve or cleanse or purify or straighten out a mirage.
How can anyone cleanse a mirage, purify a mirage, heal a mirage, straighten out a mirage, make a mirage that is wrong into a mirage that is right, or stop mirages? It is impossible. The mind will dissolve if you see that everything stored in it is baseless ... without accurate foundation and without any semblance of Truth.
Then the brain, the sixth-sense, the inner guru, and the intuition will move you through this relative existence, and you will live the remainder of it in a natural fashion rather than in an unnatural fashion or in a supernatural fashion that is dominated by magical thinking that results from a wrongly-programmed and conditioned "mind."
To be continued.
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