TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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THE RATIONALE FOR CONCLUDING THAT "IT'S TIME TO TRY 'A DIFFERENT ROUTE' WHEN SEEKING A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY BECAUSE THE ACTUAL RESULTS OF FOLLOWING THE MOST POPULAR ROUTE FOR 5000+ YEARS HAVE PROVED INEFFECTIVE," Continued
The "different route" used by Maharaj, the one he used after abandoning religion and spirituality as forms of the Ultimate Medicine" - involved using psychology and other sciences to address the primary problem of humankind which he came to see is centered in the mind.
"Science will advance some day to the point that it validates all of the non-dual understandings."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
He also said:
"Science . . . pushes back the frontiers of our ignorance."
Maharaj emphasized that nothing in this realm lasts, be it a composite unity / an elemental plant food body, a relationship, an assigned or assumed role, a bridge, a decent leader / a psychopathic tyrant, a sun, whatever. The applicable scientific law is, "All that comes together will come apart."
When a visitors said, "Science provides the answer to many questions which formerly were in the domain of religion," Maharaj did not dispute that and used the occasion to add,
"It is in the nature of all manifestation that the good and the bad follow each other and in equal measure. "
The related scientific law? Newton's Third Law of Motion which states: "What goes up must come down."
The relative existence (and all else perceived via the blocked consciousness, warped by the blockages of programming, conditioning, etc.) is perceived in a dualistic manner unless perceiving happens via awareness and abidance happens as one's original nature.
With 97% of the planet's population reporting an affiliation with one religion or another, the perceptions regarding "the good and the bad " referenced by Maharaj above will dominate. What will also dominate are duality-based thoughts and beliefs about "high's and low's," peace and war, rises and falls, harmony and disharmony, fortune and misfortune, good economic times and bad economic times, bliss and misery, ad infinitum.
Much has been written on this site about the bogus notions which many seekers hold in regards to "bliss." The search feature will allow the interested to find more on that. The simple version is this:
Nothing about a composite unity that is moving through a relative existence is "wired" for continuous and uninterrupted bliss.
While many seek eternal bliss NOW, believing that the alleviation of their fears and the fulfillment of their desires will produce a state of uninterrupted bliss, Maharaj said to the contrary that . . .
"Desirelessness is the highest bliss."
Not "having all of your desires met?" No. Desirelessness, period.
He said: "The desire for bliss creates pain. Thus bliss becomes the seed of pain. The entire universe of pain is born of desire. Give up the desire for
pleasure and you will not even know what is pain."
When asked what about "the bliss of non-duality," Maharaj replied, "Such bliss is more of the nature of a great peace."
Why? Because when seekers settle into the envelope, in that "middle ground" between the high's and low's which are experienced by the non-realized masses who are trapped in dualistic perceiving and thinking and talking and behaving, the few abiding in that middle ground are content with contentment.
What does that look like here? It looks like the moments spent yesterday accompanying a granddaughter on one of the "roly-poly" (pill bug) hunts she enjoys going on:
That is what awareness of being looks like to an eighteen-month-old, and it is available to all that move beyond the third step on "the path" (the step where all of those old supposedly "bad roles" have been abandoned, only to be replaced - unfortunately - by what are deemed to be some supposedly really "good roles").
Beyond the third step where "good" identities are assumed and played, the shift into "The Child No-Knowing State" can happen, as can an awareness of merely being.
Granted, it may appear that something is happening, like when a roly-poly is found and a child bends down to throw a kiss to a cute little bug, but actually that is just the essence of beingness to the child watching a pill bug that is also modeling mere beingness as well.
Yet so many seek to reach that "eagle-high state" of unassailable bliss and remain there. Again, humankind is not wired that way, is not wired to be able to sustain that state.
Here, there are events which seem to be quite blissful in their nature, but they are as rare as the events which are perceived to be "low." Most of the waking hours are spent in the middle ground of contentment, "satisfied' and "gratified" and "at ease," no longer trapped in a seeking state but enjoying the restfulness and peace of not desiring and therefore no longer constantly seeking.
"The Super Seeker" died some time after "The Religious One" disappeared and very shortly after "The Spiritual Giant" faded away. After those last ego-states were abandoned, then the mere beingness became "enough."
Maharaj: "Awareness of being is bliss."
Consider objectively and wisely whatever "state of ecstasy" one might enjoy during the relative and it should be clear that any peak can come only after a lull, whether the peak involves sexual gratification, the satisfaction of a gourmet meal when hungry, whatever.
Any who reaches a state that seems to be "eagle high" will automatically be set up to soon reach a state that seems to be "whale ca-ca low."
Maharaj's use of the "Direct Method Path" was always combined with one yoga or another. In the end, he settled exclusively on the Nisarga (the Natural) Yoga which was at the heart of the "different route" which he eventually settled on; thus, he said:
Yoga is the science and the art of self-liberation . . . ."
For Maharaj, he shifted through periods of guru-bhakti and bhakti; to bhakti and jnani; to jnani and nisarga; and eventually to the Nisargan Yoga alone.
The consideration he offered at that point is the consideration offered here at this point:
Might it be possible that everything you've ever been told and taught or read is false; that the "route" presently being followed has not yet freed you from all of the beliefs accumulated via those means; and that a "different route" might be indicated to complete the "journey" and return to the identity-less, belief-less, zero-concepts, being-only state where looking for a roly-poly just might be enough . . . that is, might be enough to be able to enjoy contentment without believing one is entitled to being in a constant state of bliss or, by contrast, suffering the chaos of misery which is sure to follow?
Yeshu'a ("Jesus") said after being introduced to the non-dual understanding, "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."
Might freedom be the freedom which comes from not being tossed about by chaos - by a chaotic mind - throughout an entire relative existence as a result of dealing with the dualities of high's and low's and becoming fixed instead in the middle ground of contentment?
And might that freedom only come when one stays out certain venues (the ones where dualistic beliefs are the main course which persons are being fed) and then finds a "different route" to reach a true understanding of the functioning of the totality?
Maharaj: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
To be continued.
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