TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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The discussion at this point in the series is now focusing on "The Most Influential Obstacle Of All" in terms of blocking the seeing of truth and blocking realization and blocking the understanding of the "No-you-ness" and "No You-ness.
That "understanding" refers to the fact that no identities ever assigned or assumed have any validity at all, be they among the identities played during the relative, phenomenal existence or be they among the so-called "noumenal" identities which supposedly exist (whether believed to have been prior to the manifestation or which are believed to supposedly exist post-manifestation).
"The Most Influential Obstacles Of All" have come throughout human history via (1) dreamed up myths and superstitions and - for the last 5000 years or so - via (2) "religious" and / or "spiritual" sources, including religious and / or spiritual thoughts, ideas, concepts, notions, views, theories, inklings, perceptions, a.k.a., "beliefs."
You are invited to consider the amazing level of ignorance required for humans to conclude:
"When I look at
1. the body of scientific evidence regarding energy and matter and the fact that scientists can now prove that there has never been anything "created," evidence which is current . . . today . . . right now
vs.
2. concepts and beliefs which people came up with and wrote down in so-called "holy texts" based on the limited understandings of humans living 1400 years ago and 2000 years ago and 4000 years ago and 5000 years ago and even earlier,
I'm going to believe the stuff that people came up with 1400 to 5000 years ago rather than anything which has been proven scientifically . . . now. Why?
Because I have been told that science is not holy but that texts written by humans 1400 to 5000 years ago are holy. See, what is being said by scientists nowadays is being said by mere men, but those texts do not contain words being said by men thousands of years ago but contain The Word of God."
From yesterday:
With a Cherokee grandmother who had planted seeds of consciousness about religions not being a necessity and being a detriment to truth instead, and with her having endorsed natural (nisarga) abidance rather than trying to abide spirituality / supernaturally, how did I end ujp later in life playing the "The Super Religious One" and "A Spiritual Giant"?
Maharaj, explaining why persons seem to grasp the understanding and then seemingly “lose” it. He said:
(A) “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.”
Or,
(B) hidden agendas and fears can inspire one to abandon authenticity and play roles which another might want her or him to play. Is a spouse going to leave unless you assume the spouse's belief about religion or spirituality? Some concede or compromise they authenticity and conclude, "Better play the game to keep the peace," as if there is any peace when someone else is allowed to control, your thoughts and words and actions.
Or,
(C) Third, there's the unbelievably influential of continuing programming, conditioning, etc.
Why did Maharaj (already pre-wired to rebel by way of the agenda of his original, primary Personality Type Four) later "go along with the crowd" in many regards? Why did the same happen here? Recently, Andy Gugar, Jr. shared that he underwent the same experience. Why?
As much as some children can detect early on that the BS they are hearing really is just that –just so much BS - there are pressures which can be exerted and which can result in the development of the desires or the agendas of other personality types which can later come into play and which can interrupt the full and final discarding of all BS.
The answer to those questions above illustrates the weight of the pressure which can be exerted by such mighty influencers as parental pressures, friend and family pressures, and community pressures, especially when those pressures are combined with the influence of programming, or conditioning, or domestication and, yes, acculturation – often in spite of the fact that all of the agendas of those influencers are in opposition to each other. Talk about the confusion and chaos and insanity of being pulled in so many directions at once.
Maharaj may have been pre-wired to rebel, yet many of his thoughts and words and actions would come to be influenced by parental pressures early on and by community pressures later on as well as by the effects of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
When his guru asked him what he thought might happen to him if he were to "go against the Hindu grain" and eat lamb, Maharaj's response was something to the effect of “I’m sure I would punk.”
Siddharameshwar's reply: "Tomorrow, be here at lunchtime and be prepared to possibly punk because I am going to prepare some grilled lamb for you to eat."
While Maharaj's family members who lived on a farm in rural India had occasionally eaten meat, the case with Maharaj was this: because the beliefs ingrained in him via acculturation had taken such a hold, he did not sleep the night before the meal.
Siddharameshwar's luncheon, anticipating not only (1) the pending sickness that his guru’s food was going to induce but also (2) the relative guilt and shame which were sure to follow the consumption of anything other than plant food as well as (3) the imagined effects of his culture-imposed belief regarding the greater, negative, Noumenal effects which were also certain to haunt him well into the future. Ha.
Yet he did go, and he did eat the forbidden fruit (or, in that case, forbidden meat which had been banned for consumption by the religious persons in his culture).
[Note the way that billions of persons today (a) allow their cultures and (b) allow their supposed gods or goddesses or “One True God” to control their every thought and word and deed and even what they eat and do not eat; and note the way they (c) allow the nonsense rooted in ancient creation myths and in thousands of other pagan myths - which have subsequently been accepted as truth by the billions who now follow unquestioningly the teachings of the three Abrahamic religions - to control their thoughts and words and deeds.
As in the creation myth alluded to above - it is a God, a God which Maharaj said had been created by man, not the other way around – that has long been given the right to dictate what people eat or do not eat. Once, when pork could not be properly cooked or refrigerated, setting the stage for humans to be poisoned by the parasitic worms which cause Trichinosis, the ban on eating pork made some sense in terms of not eating it for one’s physical well-being but never made sense in terms of not eating it in order to maintain one's supposed religious or spiritual well-being. Yet to this day, pork – which can be consumed safely - remains a taboo among the billions of members of certain religions.
What was dreamed up thousands of years ago in reference to dietary laws differs not at all from other religious beliefs which were dreamed up back then and which have been handed down from generation to generation and which are now adhered to blindly without any experience or questioning involved at all. The point that Siddharameshwar intended for Maharaj to understand via the use of a bit of lamb is as relevant today as ever, a point inviting all to question everything, to rely on one’s own experience rather than the word of others about their so-called experiences, and to accept nothing by way of blind faith.]
Back to Siddharameshwar’s luncheon: Maharaj ate the lamb, but he did not punk. He actually enjoyed the titillating effects on his taste buds, effects generated by the flavor of the grilled, non-plant food which he finally experienced for the first time ever.
After the lesson, Siddharameshwar did not encourage Maharaj to permanently alter whatever items he would include on his household’s menu; instead, the lesson was offered and understood: allow your own experience, never your culture, to determine your actions. Do not make assumptions about anything. Do not draw conclusions about any issue without first understanding all of the relevant facts in regards to any issue. And don't form "set in concrete" opinions about experiences which you have never had.
Throughout his years of receiving visitors to his loft, Maharaj usually ate whatever plant food his visitors brought him, but he would be criticized because his children sometimes ate meat and (oh my gosh!) really enjoyed it. The criticism regarding even the slightest disregard for religious food laws mattered not to Maharaj, and if one is totally liberated, totally free, and totally independent, criticisms of any kind will not matter when the consciousness is being allowed to speak. Yet the criticism continued:
Questioner: “You eat meat?”
Maharaj: “I was born among meat-eating people and my children are eating meat. I eat very little -- and make no fuss.”
Q: “Meat-eating implies killing.”
M: “Obviously. I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute consistency is possible; prove it by example. Don't preach what you do not practise.”
Here, as was the case with Maharaj there, there is no “for” or “against” kind of evaluating going on in regards to seekers’ reactions, in regards to religious fanatics’ reactions, in regards to spiritual giants’ reactions, or in regards to reactions from those who are supposedly in touch with a "Supreme Self."
Here, as with Maharaj there, there is no attachment to outcome and no effort to dissuade anyone who is still firmly attached to things religious or things spiritual or things Noumenal. As noted, the playing of their religious and / or spiritual and / or noumenal roles is included as a part of the seven-step “path” offered here.
Consider: there were years when living by a nearby forest allowed the taking of an hour-long walk through those woods either before going to work or between leaving work and returning home. Sometimes, on the latter walks, my young daughter wanted to accompany me. There were times on those walks when I pointed out examples of flora and fauna which she might enjoy.
Once, a squirrel was seen lying flat on a high limb of a massive oak tree. I tried to point that out to my daughter, but her young eyes, which would soon need glasses to help correct her vision, were not able to see what I saw. She was frustrated, but was I? Of course not.
It would be insane to be frustrated just because persons cannot see what I see or because they could not see what Maharaj saw.
In his case, there was no “one” accepting visitors at the top of the stairs in Khetwadi, 10th Lane, who could become frustrated if seekers could not see what he saw. Here, there is no “one” who can become frustrated if seekers or non-seekers cannot see what I see. Here, there is no one with any beliefs at all, so there is most assuredly no one here that wants anyone to believe anything. There is only an invitation to un-believe all, to be un-taught all, to un-learn all.
Bottom line: here, none of the agendas of persons matter at all (though those unconscious agendas which are driving them could well matter in regards to the way that the remainder of the relative existence of seekers unfolds. Yet that also is not to be - cannot be - determined here). The consciousness speaks, and anything associated with what it says ends with it being said. And what did the consciousness speaks via Maharaj?
One, stop with all the religious-based thinking and talking and behaving that is being driven blindly by what has been taught and is now believed simply because it has been passed down for millennia from the time that ignorance-controlled persons dreamed up their nonsense which is being passed on now to persons who have an opportunity to investigate and to give up their beliefs which are based in ignorant teachings.
Two, stop with all the spirituality-based thinking and talking and behaving which are all being driven blindly by what has been taught and accepted unquestioningly just because it has been passed down for millennia.
Three, stop internalizing the thoughts of others; stop parroting their words; stop mimicking their insanity-driven behaviors.
Four, have your own experience, take the steps to be restored to sanity, and then test any remaining beliefs against reality until those, too, are all discarded.
Five, question it all.
Six, eventually, reach a state of zero concepts, of no beliefs, of mindlessness; then, abide naturally, in the same manner as every other living thing on planet earth (with the only exception presently being mind-full humans).
Seven, stop with all of the religious / spiritual / SELF-centered workaholism; relax; rest in the cool blue shade and take it easy for a change.
In most cultures nowadays, the desire to accumulate – or the need to merely have enough to pay for the basics - are leading to this: far too much of humankind's waking hours are being devoted to work. Stop adding to the already-excessive workload by making a second job out of living by engaging in all sorts of religious, spiritual, or Inquiry work.
Eight, stop allowing the nonsense dreamed up by persons more than 5000 years ago – persons whose thinking was driven by massive levels of ignorance – to ignorantly influence your thoughts and words and actions now.
Ask: “Is it really possible that humanity overall has actually come nowhere since then? Is it really possible that humanity for the most part today has developed no further than those persons who were driven in ancient times by unmitigated ignorance? Is it possible – in spite of whatever ‘progress’ in terms of understanding which certain small pockets of humanity might have made along the way – that the masses have progressed not at all in terms of using true facts to replace false opinions? Is it possible that the masses overall have actually regressed and are now being influenced by the same levels of ignorance and irrationality as those ignorance-driven persons who lived thousands of years ago? Is it possible that those who held no concepts and who were not charmed or captivated by any beliefs - and who were, therefore, abiding naturally in the same fashion as all other living things on the planet at the time – were actually exhibiting far more sense than humans do today, humans who nowadays, for the most part, are thinking nonsensically, talking nonsensically, and behaving nonsensically?”
Then ask, “How sane is it to work ceaselessly to mimic and parrot those from the past who came up with concepts which were rooted in abject ignorance (or to mimic and parrot those in the present who are being driven by abject ignorance and wretched insanity)?
To be continued.
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