TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Regarding the non-dual understanding which Maharaj offered, what might explain why he initially estimated that "only 1 out of 100,000 will ever get this" but later said that "only 1 out of 1,000,000 will ever get this" and eventually - after decades of working with seekers - modified that guesstimate to "1 out of 10,000,000"?
Consider the enormity of the obstacles which one who works for 20 or 40 or 80 years with seekers of the non-dual understanding will witness:
Obstacle #1:"TEACHERS"
The first obstacle involves all of those who for thousands of years have taught duality instead of non-duality. They include the writers of so-called "holy books" and "holy texts" and "holy treatises" which are the earliest repositories of the near-infinite number of dualistic concepts which persons have dreamed up over the years:
good vs. evil
right vs. wrong
them vs. us
us vs. those others
different from vs. the same as
better than vs. worse than
gods and mortals
good gods and mortals vs. a bad devil or a bad god of evil
this world vs. another world
this life and the afterlife
rewards now vs. punishments now
eternal rewards later and forever vs. eternal punishments later and forever
the brain vs. the heart
science and facts vs. magical thinking and fiction
blah blah blah blah blah blah
Often those writers were also the talkers in their cultures, so they were also the ones who programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated the non-reading masses to believe the concepts which the writers had dreamed up and written down. Knowing that the masses were illiterate, the game plan all along was for the content of so-called "holy books" and "holy texts" and "holy treatises" to be proclaimed and explained orally by a religious leader or a spiritual leader and / or a political leader.
[By the time that 300+ years had passed since the crucifixion of Yeshu'a ("Jesus"), the political and religious leaders were discouraging the populace from reading the Bible on their own; eventually, they would even pass a law which made the owning and reading of a Bible a capital offense, punishable by death. Efforts to restrict the reading of their texts continued through the Middle Ages and it became illegal to translate the Bible into native languages.
Nowadays, the trend continues. One survey said that only 9% of self-proclaimed "Christians" have read the entire Bible. Another poll showed only 6% have done so. (Both seem to be higher-than-actual percentages from my observations, but whatever.) That just-tell-me-what-I-need-to-believe-unquestioningly-and-I'll-believe-it mentality has continued for thousands of years, right up to this very day.]
The levels of mind control which come with programming and conditioning and domesticating and acculturating and indoctrinating and brainwashing are formidable and pervasive. Teach children that they will "go to hell" or "suffer forever" or "suffer through many lifetimes" if they question what they are told to believe on blind faith alone and they will behave like dutiful children and believe the myths and superstitions and nonsense they were taught right into - and throughout - their adult-age years.
Ninety-seven percent of the persons on planet earth claim an affiliation with one religion or another, and almost 100% of the time, the religion which they claim as their own is actually just the one that their parents forced upon them.
Obstacle #2: "SEEKERS"
First, most will never seek, having been programmed and conditioned to accept the notion that they need not find anything else because the beliefs which have been passed down to them from generation to generation are all that they will ever need to know.
For those who become miserable enough, some often end up in a "program" to find "something more" or "something else" to bring relief. There, if they stay around long enough, they will be re-programmed.
Should their seeking lead them to the non-dual message, which of the five basic teaching methods will they be exposed to (one of which is "Pseudo Advaita" and not even close to the non-dual message at all)? Or which of the thousands of subsets might they hear or read about? And are not the odds even greater that they'll hear about and be attracted to the ones Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from, namely, the "Big Name Teachers" who are offering a populist message in order to attract crowds and become millionaires via their sells?
One of the founders of a popular alcohol treatment program bemoaned the fact that their membership's "success rate" had plunged and their death rate had risen after a few years and that only 2% to 5% were staying sober for a mere 5 years. He did offer a point that is salient for all seekers:
He said that the high failure rate was not the cause of the newcomers and seekers who came to the program but was the cause of the poor sponsorship and leadership skills among those whom seekers found when they joined the program.
The same applies to almost all seekers in all venues.
Obstacle #3: "RE-PROGRAMMING"
The next obstacle is that, no matter which venues seekers might seek in, almost all venues use a "re-program them" approach. That would be like doctors who work with cancer patients deciding that the best way to treat cancer would be to . . . inject more cancer cells into all of the organs of their patients.
When persons have a Sickness rooted in programming, they do not need re-programming. They need de-programming. Here, it is suggested that seekers do not need to learn more but need to un-learn all. They do not need to be taught more but merely need to be un-taught all.
Obstacle #4: "A LACK OF READINESS"
Most sick people will not follow a proper protocol earnestly and wholeheartedly, even if they happen to luck upon one. Who wants to "have less" or "give up everything" after having been programmed and conditioned for decades to believe that "life is all about getting more"? That success is about accumulating more? That the one who dies with the most toys or the most stuff . . . wins?
Who wants to give up the debilitating but highly-valued beliefs which are at the root of their Sickness when they have been programmed and conditioned to fight for their beliefs and, in many cases, even to die for their beliefs?
Most will never be ready for that. How many might? 1 out of 100,000? 1 out of 1,000,000? 1 out of 10,000,000? Or nowadays, even fewer?
To be continued.
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