TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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To continue, but first to review:
The discussion at this point in the series is now focusing on "The Most Influential Obstacles Of All" which have come via dreamed up myths and superstitions and via "religious" and / or "spiritual" sources, including religious and / or spiritual thoughts, ideas, concepts, notions, views, theories, inklings, perceptions, a.k.a., "beliefs."
The focus is also on this pointer:
Of the relatively few who do seek, almost all of them will seek in religious and / or spiritual venues, few understanding that realization can come without dogma, without continuous spiritual practices, and without an exclusive preoccupation with "the nature of reality and things noumenal."
Why is that significant? Recall the man who approached me after a talk and said, "I was abused as a child by a priest. I've done years of work to try to get beyond that, but where I am today is, I still cringe when people start talking religion to me. So my question is, have you found a way to guide people to realization and freedom without their having to buy into the dogma you talk about?"
That question made clear that I had not even reached the "kindergarten level of spirituality" which Maharaj condemned, much less the understandings beyond that which awaited. It was that question which would send me along a "different route" and would eventually lead me to the entirely different version of the Ultimate Medicine which is offered now which allows for realizing without being fanatical about dogma and without engaging incessantly in spiritual practices and without a never-ending preoccupation with things noumenal rather than relaxing and taking it easy and then abiding naturally and then dancing lightly throughout the remainder of the manifestation.
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”
My, my, how persons (especially those who have assumed a “really good” or “Supreme” Persona or Identity) can totally ignore or can even become riled up by some of Maharaj words while remaining attached to other of his words if they reinforce their beliefs about their “Selfness.”
Some, for example, became aggravated when he said: “You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not. What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.” How dare he short-circuit their “Self-Inquiry Process" and their “Pride-Engendering 'Self''-Discovery.”
When he suggests that "the Self is consciousness," understand that conscious is but energy. Generally speaking, everything in this universe is energy-matter. Consciousness is actually conscious-energy. Want to know what you can point to accurately with the word “Self”? Energy. Merely energy, and energy does not come in a “Supreme” form. It is just energy. Yet "energy" does so much less for ego and "The Ego" and the egotism supporting it than identities such as "The Self" or "The Supreme Self."
Thus, he said: “Your true being is entirely unselfconscious, completely free from all self-identification with whatever it may be - gross, subtle or transcendental.” And that "trueness" would have to apply equally to un-Self-conscious and to no Self-Identification as well, would it not?
Can you find hundreds of comments by him to hundreds of seekers which suggest otherwise? Sure. It depended on when he was talking and on the level of the seeker to whom he was speaking. But his message changed totally over the decades, as did his focus, as he shifted from one from or another form of the Ultimate Medicine and from the use of one yoga after another:
On some level, the evolution might be outlined in this way, though Maharaj never followed one type of yoga consistently until he finally settled into what might be called an "all-nisarga" approach:
FROM
guru-bhakti and bhakti
TO
bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma")
TO
jnana and nisargan
TO
Nisargan
If you understand those shifts / changes / evolutions, then you might grasp these relevant pointers as well:
“Self-Inquiry” and Jnana Yoga go hand-in-hand, so his Jnana Yoga phase generated talk about “Self-Inquiry.”
By contrast, “self-inquiry” and the nisarga yoga go hand-in-hand.
Thus, the farther he moved away from guru-bhakti and bhakti and jnana yoga – and the closer he moved toward a pure Nisargan yoga message - the more he focused on "self"-inquiry; and the more he focused on “self"-inquiry, the farther he moved away from guru-bhakti and bhakti and jnana yoga and "love of Self" and "Self"-Inquiry.
That is why (once realized) he did not give a tinker’s damn about self or anything to do with false selves, and it is why – after his teachings evolved completely – he didn’t give a rat’s patoo about “Self” or about anything to do with “Self” or about a false Self or about an assumed Self or about an identified Self (or about a “Self with an Identity”). How, then, could he any longer care about “Self-Inquiry” either, once he reached the point where he proclaimed that he had "even lost the love of Self"? He could not.
Once abidance happens as one’s Original Nature - and is thus devoid of both self-ness and Self-ness and devoid of any identity or identities or “An Identity” or “A Special Identity” or “A Supreme Identity” - then only can true identity-less-ness (and “Identity-Less-Ness") be reached.
By way of the invitation here, or by Maharaj’s example as he shifted his focus away from the jnana yoga / “Self-Inquiry” approach and away from offering a spirituality-based version of the Ultimate Medicine to a psychology-based version, one can complete a thorough “self"-inquiry and be free of all identification and concepts and beliefs. [That approach only involves four of the seven steps offered here and which Maharaj referenced through his teaching days.]
Otherwise, one can complete here – as was the case with Maharaj in the early going during his jnana yoga phase - a “Self"-Inquiry [which will involve all seven of the seven steps offered here, all of which Maharaj pointed to in his talks]; be prepared, however, for the same outcome whether using Maharaj’s method or the approach used here because the results will be exactly the same. Be prepared to discover this at the end:
Maharaj: “What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.” The closest thing to an “identity” that will be found at the end of the seven step “path” is . . . "a form of energy" or an understanding of one’s no-identity and No-Identity Original Nature when awareness was but was not aware of and when awareness might offer the opportunity for awareness to manifest as consciousness which - in the early going - was not conscious-of.
Conscious-of-ness came only after (1) programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination and after (2) the manifestation of a belief in dualistic concepts which allow for “A” to believe that it is conscious of a “B” (and a “C” and a “D,” etc., near-infinitum).
While “Self-Inquiry” will require so much more time and energy and preoccupation, and while it will lead to being distracted from the AM-ness and will lead to putting the joys of the relative existence on hold, either “self-inquiry” or “Self-Inquiry” will do just fine for seekers if the non-dual, no-identity, No-Identity, no-concept understanding is reached in the end. Yet why did Maharaj eventually begin recommending the more direct and the shorter "find who you are not journey"?
Because he came to understand that . . .
(a) humankind’s problems do not exist because so few people ever find the answer to “Who Am I, Really?” and because
(b) humankind’s problems do not exist because most people will never hear and understand such terms as “the Supreme Self” or “Brahman” or “the Self Beyond” or “Atman” or “Realization”; and because
(c) humankind’s problems do actually exist because of the failure to understand what they are not, namely, all of the personas which have been assigned or assumed (including the really “good ones” and “special ones,” as in “b” above).
And that is why Maharaj said, “You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not. What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.”
So why did Maharaj even discuss steps 5-7 for years? Why are they offered here at times? Because they do provide a means by which “Your Original Nature” can be understood, allowing for "conscious abidance as THAT Nature" if you would enjoy sanity and peace now.
Yet even if one never understands THAT Nature, if they do understand all that they are not, they will abide in a manner which will be far more similar to THAT Nature once they have been freed of all identifications (because THAT Nature had no identifications, either). See. This really can be far simpler than most make it.
Promised earlier: an explanation of the three legs of the “journey” for those that might be interested in the rest of the story or the rest of the “path” that Maharaj discussed during the early phases of his teaching.
AN OVERVIEW
LEG ONE: The “coming in phase” where the consciousness manifests and is soon blocked off from seeing reality and Reality because of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination. Eventually, the consciousness identifies with the false “I” and becomes limited to body-mind-personality identification. During this leg, seven steps are involved in the blocking of the consciousness and the development of a “mind” that is filled with nonsense and learned ignorance.
LEG TWO: The second phase –“the journey” to realization – involves (as Maharaj explained) "going back, in reverse, to the source from which You came," eliminating (via taking the seven steps in reverse) the blocking of the consciousness and the development of a “mind” which was filled with nonsense and learned ignorance.
LEG THREE: This is the post-realization "coming in" again leg, but this time it happens without the consciousness falling prey to any programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination. In this phase, there is an overlaying of Reality on reality, so to speak, and the remainder of the relative existence then happens spontaneously and naturally without any of the debilitating effects of the Ultimate Sickness, especially the symptoms that Maharaj identified as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.” Instead, wisdom and sanity prevail.
Note: It really IS about "coming in" again rather than about “staying out there” and claiming to be THAT only (ignoring the I AM part of the summative statement of non-duality: “I AM THAT, I AM”) and “staying out there” in Foo Foo Land and wanting to claim a “higher-plane-status" of Pure Reality and THAT-ness while actually being motivated by a “really-supreme-and-wonderful-personality-based” desire to escape from, and dissociate from, “reality “ (a.k.a., the IS-ness).
To be continued.
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