TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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."
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?"
Moreover, look at the fact that the popular venues where seekers seek (or the popular venues where people go who are convinced that they have never had to seek because their parents hooked them up with those venues and taught them that their particular venue was the only one where truth was taught) and see that they have a 5000+-year history of failing to set persons free of their distorted and delusional and freedom-blocking and independence-blocking belief systems. Then it should be clear why Maharaj eventually advised seekers to avoid those venues.
Thus, this:
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”
To continue with the discussion of more of the effects of seeking via religions, spiritual movements, Self-Inquiry, or any other mythical or mystical manner, namely, upgrading illusions and downgrading illusions]:
In 2006, the comments and questions in an e-mail from a man in India, Vigneshwar, were addressed and the response is still relevant to the current topic under discussion. Vigneshwar had written the following:
Dear Floyd, I am going through the website. A few things arose this morning and there was this urge to pose them to you. The worshiping of the "I Am" has just started and it’s being worshiped with the name of Lord Rama. Now, upon entering into the witnessing state all of a sudden, it tells me "The worshiper is imaginary, he is not real. Now, who is worshiping who and who wants continuity?" Who wants to get the answer “It’s no use. Goodbye"?
In this state, the mind starts to interpret and talk in this way: ”They” have all been deceiving me since ages. Every temple looks now like a source of deception where something that's imagined prays to something that's imagined to be powerful. Then I feel a bit hurt, because I want to believe that it’s only these prayers that had delivered me to this witnessing state.
After seeing the "me" as imagined entity, even reverence to the Guru who told me all this is questioned. This is really hurting. What do I do with the Guru now? With what thought should I view my Guru from now on? What did Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd Henderson do to me? Why did they erase me and themselves in the process?
Of course, these questions are asked by the "assumed" existence. Mind likes fairy tales and it wants a nice and finishing story that tells the "why" of all this. You may choose to answer me or not. But not showing reverence is not something that's acceptable to a "me" that's still present. Please help me comprehend things in the right perspective. How should the One who told me all this be viewed? Vigneshwar
The reply:
F.: So, Vigneshwar, you are still taking certain mirages to be real. Question: How would you witness a mirage accurately? The answer: with understanding. The awake and aware know that a mirage is merely an appearance in light. Once you see that a mirage is a mirage, you will never again attempt to upgrade an illusion or undertake to downgrade an illusion.
To review, when an assumed identity wants to pay “reverence” to a “guru” or “priest” or “preacher” or “spiritual adviser,” it is trying to upgrade not only the illusion of “guru” or “priest” or “preacher” or "spiritual adviser" but also the illusion of self. When one looks at a picture of “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,” what should really be seen? Nothing other than a grouping of elements with a nervous system that was used by consciousness for a limited period of manifestation.
When one looks at a picture of “Floyd Henderson,” what should really be seen? Nothing other than a grouping of elements with a nervous system which is currently being used by consciousness for a limited period of manifestation. That’s all that happened “with Maharaj” and that’s all that is happening “with Floyd Henderson.”
To say that Maharaj was a “great teacher” or an “enlightened guru” is merely an effort to upgrade that which was nothing more than an instance where conscious-energy manifested for a period by using a space of elements with a functioning nervous system. Wherefore any “reverence” for dust-to-dust, for ash-to-ash, for a space that happened because an orgasm occurred during an act of friction between two people who would be called “his parents”?
[In Mumbai, persons on a daily basis enter a room to view - and to stand in the presence of and to show reverence to - a handful of ashes (mixed with the ashes of wood as well). The ashes were gathered by a man from the remains of Maharaj's funeral pyre and are now displayed in a case in that room. Every day, persons go there to chant and clap and praise and heap adoration of a handful of ashes, some of which are now identified by the visitors with Maharaj. What would you suspect Maharaj would say to them if he could speak to them about their nonsensical actions?]
If you are dealing with anyone who desires praise and awe and respect and reverence, then you are not dealing with one that has realized. There is no difference in you and your guru or in you and me or in your guru and me except for what is understood, and if there are yet desires - for praise and awe and respect and reverence or for anything else - then the understanding has not happened.
Maharaj made clear that their orgasmic pleasure became his relative pain. In the same way, the pleasures of two people became your pain - that “hurt” you mentioned in your e-mail, along with many other pains - and set the stage for "them" to delude you with beliefs that were blindly handed down to them and that they, in turn, blindly passed on to you. The simple thing that really happens is this:
I - a composite unity with specks of temporarily-manifested conscious-energy circulating into and out of - used the nervous system of a plant; I later used the nervous systems of two humans who were called “mother” and “father.” I am presently using the nervous system of a space called “floyd.” Were I to have “reverence” for Maharaj, why would I not also have reverence for a puddle of mud or a pile of ash or for any other temporarily-manifested combination of elements?
Maharaj was nothing more nor less than that which I am and that which, for a temporary period, also used those same types of groupings and nervous systems. The same applies to you. Since reverence is a concept, no reverence is held for anyone or anything as abidance is happening from a "zero concepts" stance.
This perceived "I" is a combination of elements and energy. The perceived "you" is a combination of elements and energy. Do you show reverence to the energy which rests behind an elemental plug in your elemental wall, which moves into your computer, and which allows its programming to work? Of course not. And no other form of energy deserves any reverence, either.
Just as the energy will vacate that computer someday, and just as the elements which make up that computer will return to their original state someday, so it happened with what was called "Maharaj," so it will happen with what is called "Your Guru," and so it will happen with what is called "Floyd."
When this composite unity is no longer manifested, the nervous system that I am temporarily using will no longer have a space in which to function; also, no space will be available for circulating the air or the energy. The elements will merge again with the universal pool of elements, the breath will merge again into the surrounding pool of oxygen, and the energy will merge again into that pool of energy from which it manifested.
Regarding "Of course, these questions are asked by the 'assumed' existence. Mind likes fairy tales and it wants a nice and finishing story that tells the 'why' of all this. You may choose to answer me or not. But not showing reverence is not something that's acceptable to a 'me' that's still present. Please help me comprehend things in the right perspective. How should the One who told me all this be viewed?"
F.: As for a “nice end” to the story, there is no end to the story of cyclings. There is only an “end” to a particular space that was nothing more than a temporarily-organized set of elements. Furthermore, there is no end to the elements, to the breath, or to the energy. That which will not experience such continuity is the body-mind-personality triad. Be free of those three illusions and you can merely be for the remainder of the manifestation.
As it is, with your talk of “reverence” and “a lord” or “a guru” or “a Maharaj” or “a Floyd,” you are still trying to upgrade an illusion. See the efforts to upgrade or to downgrade illusions for what they are:
1. “The guru” is an illusory interpretation that you are applying to a space using a nervous system; you are upgrading that illusion to something worthy of reverence.
2. Buildings are illusions (to the degree that they are not what they appear to be, either literally or in theoretical terms of being perceived as "different" or "holy"). Temples and churches and mosques and synagogues are upgrades of that illusion.
3. Talk is a lie; preaching and praying and bhajans or singing of hymns are upgrades of that illusion.
4. “This world” is an illusion, so the “next world of rewards” is an upgrade of that basic illusion and the “next world of punishment” is a downgrade of that basic illusion.
5. To believe that “I am this body and mind and personality” is an illusion; the belief that one can come back as a higher being is an upgrade of that illusion; the belief that one can come back as a lower being is a downgrade of that illusion.
6. Spouses and lovers and children are illusions; “my wonderful spouse” or “my wonderful lover” and “my brilliant children” are upgrades to the illusion, just as “My former spouse is a bitch (or a bastard)” is a downgrade of a former spousal image.
7. The do-er is an illusion; doing noble or worthy or reverent or helpful things is an effort to upgrade the illusion.
8. The body-mind-personality is an illusion; to believe that the triad can be "a worshiper," "a devotee," "a religious person," "a spiritual person," a "better person than before," ad infinitum, is a result of trying to upgrade the illusion. Some have asked, “But in the absence of religion or spirituality, what is going to hold the potential beasts called ‘humans’ in check and prevent them from doing ‘bad’ or ‘immoral’ things?”
First, when mere beingness is happening, then doing “bad” or “immoral” things cannot happen. Second, does religion or spirituality really hold persons in check worldwide, or do both the historical evidence and the current evidence clearly show that they more often than not generate bestial conduct instead, relatively speaking?
You should now see your pattern, which is the pattern of all persons prior to Full Realization: you are being driven in your efforts to upgrade or to downgrade illusions. However, to try to eliminate - one at a time - each of the thousands of upgrades and each of the thousands of downgrades (all of which have been dreamed up by men) could never be accomplished even in a thousand years; instead, see the primary illusion; then, all of the secondary illusions involving upgrades and downgrades shall fade away.
Then you will know that no one erased you, you being nothing more than a temporarily-manifested composite unity. What was “erased” was only a mirage called “you” that had been seeking to upgrade all his wistful illusions in a quest that was quixotic to the core.
An art restorer can strip away the layers of paint which have been added to a canvas and which prevent persons from seeing what had originally been observable. Similarly, realization (the result of being able to differentiate between the true and the false and, therefore, being restored to sanity and being wise as well) can erase away the layers of concepts and lies and tales and dogma which had been added and which formed the collection of learned ignorance and illusions which have been distorting your perspective.
To be continued.
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