TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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"Set yourself free of all backgrounds and all cultures."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Of 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 #13: THE MOST INFLUENTIAL OBSTACLE OF ALL:
Myths, Superstitions, Thoughts, Ideas, Concepts, Notions, Views, Theories, Inklings, Perceptions, A.K.A., "Beliefs," Part C
To review from previous posts:
No relationships on any levels have ever come to a nasty end, and no marriage has ended in divorce, except where beliefs were the driving force.
Nothing has contributed more to humankind's chaos and arguing and fighting and killing and mass killings than . . . beliefs, and the types of beliefs which are most prevalent and therefore most influential are:
YESTERDAY:
#4: Beliefs about relationships and how those whom one is in relationship with should think and talk and behave.
TODAY'S DISCUSSION:
#3: Beliefs of a xenophobic nature about how fellow citizens should think and talk and behave.
TO BE DISCUSSED SOON
#2: Beliefs about politics, political parties, political leaders, and how "all others should believe what I and my political fellows believe and should accept the agenda of our political party."
#1: Beliefs about "God" or "gods and goddesses" and "what is right and what is wrong" and "what is moral vs. immoral" and "which religion is the single right one and why all of the other religions are wrong." With 97% of all persons on the planet claiming a religious affiliation, of course their beliefs are the most predominant.
As noted above, Maharaj said: "Set yourself free of all backgrounds and all cultures."
If one does not follow Maharaj's suggestion to set yourself free of all backgrounds and all cultures, then no sense of the Oneness can possibly manifest.
"Backgrounds," as used by Maharaj in this case, refers most often to the programming and conditioning and domestication that children are subjected to early on in the home, so "setting yourself free of all backgrounds" involves seeing the effects of early programming and conditioning and domestication and casting aside all of those influences.
It is at a very early age that programming and conditioning and domestication introduce xenophobia's fear-based and duality-based differentiations in "them" and "us."
"Setting yourself free of all cultures" involves seeing the effects of early and continuing xenophobia-based acculturation and casting aside all of those influences. What is one indication of xenophobic entrapment, of not having set yourself free of all cultures? Having false pride in the city where you live, the region where you live, or the nation where you live.
There are so many among the non-realized masses who believe that they are better than others because they live in a city that is "different" and "special." They almost speak of the city where they live as if it were their lover, identified as they are with its "beauty" or "uniqueness" that, they believe, sets them apart from people in all lesser cities who are stuck with a less-beautiful lover or even a very ugly lover by comparison.
The same applies with regional and national pride. Seldom in the U.S. - unless one enjoys the wisdom to turn off the television - can one made it through a single, twenty-hour period without hearing someone (usually a pandering politician) making the claim that "this is the greatest country on earth." Really? By whose standard? By the results of what data collected via objective research? What arrogant, xenophobic claptrap.
Next, as you are invited to set yourself free of all cultures, know that some cultures are far more closed than others, and they more often than not are cultures wherein the general population is homogenous in appearance and race and language. As a result, they are far more aware of any among them that are of a "different" appearance or race; far more aware of any who have an appearance that is atypical in that society or nation; and far less open to truly knowing the Oneness.
And their languages support that fact. That is, while the languages in some cultures reveal an understanding of the Oneness, languages in other cultures often reveal a xenophobic, dualistic "mindset." For example, the Japanese language has the word "chigatte," which has dual meanings. In certain instances, the word can mean "different." In other cases, the same word means, "wrong." Telling, yes? "Different" = "wrong"?
Could any such linguistic structure expose a culture's dualistic beliefs more than that? Yet the cultures and nations that are homogenous in appearance and race do not have a monopoly on equating "different" with "wrong":
In the U.S. - where the population is made up of whites / Caucasians / Anglo-Saxons; a very few surviving American Indians and a few Alaskan Natives; Asians; Hispanics / Latinos; Blacks / African Americans; and Native Hawaiians as well as other Pacific Islanders; and many others - it seems that the diversity (rather than the variance from a homogenous majority) also inspires a sense of separation and better-than-ment that is rooted in the "different" = "wrong" belief.
If you study cultures around the globe, it becomes clear that whether their populations are homogenous or diverse, the dualistic, xenophobic belief in separation and better-than-ment and the idea that "different" = "wrong" is the rule far more often than the exception.
All of those dualistic ideas and concepts are based in a xenophobic-inspired belief that there is no unity beyond the multiplicity . . . there is merely the multiplicity . . . the different-from-ment . . . the better-than-ment.
The following pointer was sent to Patricia when she was just beginning the online course in response to two of the study questions she answered about hierarchies and rankings:
The "power" of ego-and-egotism-based xenophobia should now be clear, along with how it also generates chauvinism, racism, racial intolerance, a dislike of "foreigners" and all sorts of duality which support in turn a false sense of separation, of different-from-ment, and of better-than-ment.
The fact is, everything that follows the assumption of an ego-state as a real identity will trigger the use of the ego-defense mechanism called "egotism" . . . along with a host of other such mechanisms as well; thus, this pointer has been offered in the past:
Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The "mind" is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and perverted domestication and xenophobia-based acculturation as well as lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.
Also, this has been offered: “Ego is believing that there’s a vast multiplicity arranged in a hierarchy and that you’re the pinnacle; humility is knowing that you’re nothing, no-thing; Love is knowing that You, with a capital ‘Y,’ Are Everything.”
When egotism is in play, then one will always upgrade all associated with "self" and "city" and "nation" and "relatives" and one's beliefs and will downgrade all that is not associated with those. Because there is so strong a sense of xenophobia among the masses, and because the notion of "us vs. them" is so firmly rooted in persons and groups and cultures and nations, then cultures place their warrior cults on a pedestal. It is the warriors (who do not work for "the Defense Department" but are actually employed by what should be called "the Offense Department") who are dualistically sent by "us" to take action against "them."
It matters not if soldiers behave in the most atrocious manner during war. The unstated belief is, "Do whatever you want, as long as you kill those we want killed."
Recently, a real hornet's nest was stirred up when one U.S. journalist dared to question in the public media a xenophobia-based concept that has never before been addressed publicly. He was threatened with loss of employment if he did not spin and retract his comments in which he actually questioned the idealization of warriors (and, therefore, war) in the war-like, Anglo-Saxon culture that the U.S. has been and still is in large part.
One who repressed the actual level of his rage reacted to the considerations offered by that journalist by re-idealizing those warriors with this response: "On the eve of Memorial Day, [one journalist who] enjoyed our constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech, a right defended and protected by men [sic] who have put their lives on the line so that he could in turn dishonor them on national TV by saying that he’s uncomfortable calling them 'heroes' because it justifies war. And let me tell you, those men [ sic] would spill their blood all over again knowing full well that utopianistic [sic] ideological adolescents like [that journalist] would come along and dishonor their legacy, because they know what America stands for and where the world would be without this great nation."
[The fact is, there are millions and billions over the centuries who would have loved "a world" without a U.S. in it and billions more right now who would love to have "a world" without a U.S. in it.]
In that response to one who is not enamored with (a) the U.S.'s propensity for war, with (b) its tendency to bomb first and asked questions later, with (c) national leaders who sing ditties about bombing Iran, and with (d) a past president who bragged about using bombs to "shock and awe" a supposed enemy, the high level of xenophobia here is clear.
In fact, the level of influence of xenophobic concepts and beliefs is so strong that the man responding to the journalist actually believes that the other nations on the planet would be of no value at all were it not for "this great nation."
XX[See any discussion of "Parent-Child" transactions to appreciate the implications of that belief and to see how it is that many persons in one nation can be so enmeshed in their xenophobia-inspired sense of superiority that they patronize the people of all other nations.]
When egotism is at play, one's "self" and "city" and "nation" and "relatives" and beliefs will always be positioned at the top of the hierarchy, and all else will be scattered about below on the lower ranges of the hierarchy. The result: more dualism which, in turn, generates more false sense of separation, different-from-ment, and better-than-ment.
Also, objective witnessing of relative happenings in even recent history reveals more evidence of the results of xenophobic acculturation which also leads to a belief that dualistic hierarchies are based in truth (rather than in fear and ignorance and arrogance).
In recent decades, the U.S. fought in Lebanon in 1958; in Santo Domingo in 1965; in Vietnam from 1964-1975; in Grenada and Beirut and in Libya in 1986; in anti-Communist-inspired fighting and interference in the affairs of Africa, Asia, and Latin America as well as in Afghanistan during that country's war with Russia in 1979-1989;
in Panama in 1989; in the Persian Gulf in 1990-1991; in Somalia in 1992; in Yugoslavia in the 1990's; in the Falkland Islands alongside the U.K.; in Iraq for nine years; and in the longest war in U.S. history that continues to this day . . . in Afghanistan . . . again.
For those who still cling to the xenophobic belief that such military interventions and wars actually made any significant "improvements" or any lasting "difference for the better" in "the world," the invitation is to go back a few days to the post on this site regarding "much ado about nothing."
In that historical review of the ever-changing beliefs about "us" and "them," it can be seen that many of those whom the U.S. believed to be enemies whom our soldiers needed to kill are now seen to be friends . . . key trading partners, in fact.
All of the fighting and wars, if reviewed objectively, can be seen to have made no lasting changes and certainly provided no dualistic "benefits"; moreover, the same type of objective review will reveal that all of the fighting and wars were based in ignorance, arrogance, unwarranted fears, and thus . . . xenophobia.
All of the above is merely a cataloguing of some of the relative evidence of the insane impact when non-realized persons, cultures, and nations are trapped in the duality-based fears and ignorance and arrogance of their xenophobic beliefs.
To be continued.
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