TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Excerpts from the book entitled FREEDOM from BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers") will continue with a discussion of the distortion-riddled beliefs of the non-realized masses:
Reactions to Maharaj's Pointers and To Some Offered Here, Part Two
You are invited to consider what this exchange with one visitor might reveal to you:
Visitor: "I see that most people resist having their ideas and concepts and beliefs being smashed to pieces."
F.: As have you in the past, yes? That is because WHO they think they are is also an idea . . . a concept . . . a belief, so the smashing of their ideas and concepts and beliefs is taken to be a personal attack. Also, because they have never been without beliefs since the early days of programming, they do not believe that there can be a belief-less teacher or a "No-Belief-er." As is the case with all non-Realized persons, they form an opinion about an experience that they have never had, and then that opinion is also stored away as another belief.
Visitor: I want to cast aside all concepts, I'm ready! What do I do?
F.: That statement is usually just another false belief that might manifest for a time but that never evolves into a permanent condition of freedom from beliefs, but on the chance that there might be some degree of sincerity and some degree of readiness, the suggestion is to begin by seeing the sources of your beliefs and concepts.
Some site regulars will recall one pointer shared on occasion illustrates how a variety of sources ingrain false beliefs in persons who then refuse to question any of those beliefs: a woman who had visited and shared in several exchanges decided that she was going to “fire me” because of certain pointers that challenged the validity of her conceptualized God. She claimed, “Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong.” The response was something along the lines of, “You’re right. It is billions and trillions that have been wrong.”
So, find the source of your beliefs. What about the concepts that you take to be "yours" (though they are really “theirs”)? Where did you get those concepts?
Did you hear them repeated so often and so many times by so many parents, teachers, preachers, rabbis, imams, politicians, your culture's leaders - or by the members of some group - that you unconsciously gave credibility to their beliefs, based in nothing more than the overwhelming number of people you’ve heard perpetuating those concepts?
Maharaj's estimate of the small number of persons among the masses who will ever seek - and the smaller number of seekers who will ever Realize - guarantees that you will
a. find that billions around the globe regularly repeat and affirm the unquestioned beliefs that are held dear by the masses and guarantees that you will
b. hear very few that come to realize that those widely-held beliefs are all false.
The next questions to the visitor included these:
1. "How many of your beliefs have you truly considered, objectively, as to their viability?"
2. "How many have you subjected to the close scrutiny of impartial inquiry?"
Among seekers, there are "the wet charcoal" types. Try as the teacher might, seekers of that type are never going to "catch fire" and burn away all of their distorted concepts and ideas and beliefs.
There is another type of seeker called, for the sake of discussion, "the dry charcoal" type. With considerable effort and study and contemplation, as more and more nonsense is seen to be nonsense, they might transition into the final “gunpowder” stage.
Once there, an awareness of the magnitude of the numbers of lies accepted as truth “by faith alone” can come into consciousness. Suddenly, analyzing each separate concept ends as the broader awareness explodes into consciousness and blows away all beliefs, marked by a quiet period of deeper-than-ever-before understanding.
Some few are more likely than others to be willing to challenge the "authorities" and to challenge the validity of the teachings imposed by authority figures, and - as the sages have long noted - personality is at the root. Among the nine basis personality types, 50% are Type Six Loyalists who will never question authority.
All personality types are all driven by fears and desires, and the desire of "The Loyalists" is to align with authority (and with "the-powers-that-be" on earth and with a Power or Powers from other worlds) in order to be taken care of both now and "forevermore";
thus, one-half of the persons on the planet will never even consider the invitation here to question their beliefs. The Type Four - which is the most likely to challenge authority, even early on - is the type most often interested in finding "the Authentic Self"; however, Type Fours only make up 1/2 of 1% of the planet's 7-billion-person population.
Maharaj was a Type Four, and this author displayed Type Four traits at a very early age. In the case of “floyd,” it was described this way in a piece written in 2007:
There was a nagging suspicion during those early years in “Sunday School” that the tales being told were nonsense. The same assessment applied to words being spoken from the pulpit; thus, the asking of questions - the questioning of "their" teachings - was automatic and included the following:
There was a talking snake?
There is a god that makes women suffer menstrual pain on a monthly basis because of the sin of the first woman?
A man was swallowed by a whale but survived for days inside the whale's stomach until it was disgorged?
People walked for forty years in a desert on a journey that others during that era completed in a little over a month?
They got water from rocks struck by a magic rod?
Food rained from the sky?
A virgin was impregnated miraculously by a spirit after being contacted by angel-emissaries from God and agreeing to the arrangement whereby sperm would be implanted without human contact?
The “Loving Father” killed everyone on the planet except for the members of one family?
He loves me but He will burn me in hell if I’m not good?
Then it was discovered that the tale told by Moses was stolen . . . that it had been around for 500 years as part of the dogma of an ancient pagan religion, complete with the magic rod and freed slaves and water from rocks and food from the sky.
It was seen that words "I AM THAT I AM," supposedly spoken by a burning bush, were plagiarized from a Far Eastern philosophy (and were reported without the clarifying semicolon to boot which appeared in the original form: "I AM THAT; I AM").
It was learned that Christianity was not the first religion founded on the basis of a virgin birth but was the 23rd. Seeking and researching led to the debunking of one magical tale after another. It was seen that the god of Abraham was a product of rolling all of the ancient pagan gods of creation and sustenance and destruction into one, resulting in an all-in-one "Creator-Sustainer-Destroyer" God.
Then, just as the religious tales were debunked, more seeking and finding revealed more and more bogus tales that had no factual foundation but were rooted in ancient myths and superstitions.
More and more began to be questioned, and more and more was found to be unsubstantiated. It was only after finding the Advaitic, non-duality teachings and after reading pointers and after taking them into contemplation (and after a vision came that clarified all of the pointers and revealed that the "path" has seven steps) that a “Eureka” moment happened.
The awakening came one evening - now some twenty-two years ago - when the following flashed into the consciousness that had undergone a long cleansing process: “I’ve been exposing a lie here, a mistaken belief there, a bogus tale here, a piece of fiction there, all of which is taken by the masses to be truth.”
But that evening, the first stirrings of a real awakening flashed into consciousness with the realization: “Oh my gosh! I’ve focused on the lies told by politicians ... the tall tales told by religious people over the last 5000 years . . . the nonsense spouted by those who claim to be 'on an even higher plane' because they are ‘spiritual, not just religious’.”
It was then seen that “The focus has been far too narrow . . . far too limited. Oh my gosh! It’s all nonsense. It’s all BS!” Immediately, this flashed into the consciousness that was undergoing a continuing re-purification process: “OK, so now I see that it was all just so much fiction and fabrication. But if all of that was invention and falsehood, what is the truth?”
As it turned out, all of the false beliefs had to be discarded as a prerequisite for moving farther along the seven-step "path" to full realization, to seeing truth, and to understanding the functioning of the totality.
The visitor mentioned earlier in this chapter was finally advised: if you are truly willing to cast aside all ideas and concepts and beliefs, then you must find where you got them and then see that they are all part and parcel of a planet-wide compilation of nonsense based in myths and superstitions and ignorance.
Next, you must understand that you cannot become free by “picking and choosing” from “their” collection of nonsense or by casting aside “some” or “most” concepts but continuing to cling to a few of “your” favorites.
You must also see that the manifestation will not go on long enough for you to investigate one idea or one concept or one belief at a time and discover that each lacks validity; instead, all ideas and concepts and beliefs must all be cast aside in one fell swoop if you would be free.
To be continued.
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