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 review Maharaj's "journey" and the many "shifts" undertaken along the way:
On a noisy street named the “10th Lane” in the Khetwadi neighborhood of the Girgaon region which is now a part of the Bombay / Mumbai metro area in the state of Maharashtra in India, a man converted a small loft above his flat into a room where he would originally attract local worshipers by conducting Hindu bhajans and meditation sessions along with a sprinkling of non-dual pointers which he interspersed. Often during those heady days early on when he undertook to follow his guru’s orders and began inviting Hindu worshipers to his loft, he felt enough enthusiasm to conduct sessions up to five times a day.
Later, after the publication of a book containing transcripts of some of his talks of a "spiritual nature," he began attracting Westerners who were interested in “spirituality” rather than in Hindu dogma. For a time, those “spiritual talks” became “his cup of tea” because he found it more interesting, and far easier, to squeeze non-dual pointers into "spiritual” talks than into “religious” activities.
Yet after a couple of decades of first conducting “religious-oriented” gatherings and then arranging "spiritual-type" gatherings which focused much of the time on introducing Westerners to the Indian “Self-Inquiry” process, his enthusiasm seemingly waned somewhat and he reduced the number of session offered to two per day.
At one point after transitioning to the “spiritual” mode, Maharaj said something that would have likely sent his earliest audiences out the door but which most of the Westerners accepted, whether they grasped its full import or not. He said,
"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
He encouraged seekers to abandon personality identification because, among other things, each assigned or assumed personas brings with it both fear and desire (both of which he said contribute to humankind’s misery and suffering).
Ironically, his statement that "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end” proved on many occasions to be a case of “wishful thinking” by one who spoke of the peace which comes with desirelessness.
More factually, he might have said, "Only that person should visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end because if both of those have not come to an end, then you will likely be booted (okay, “sandaled” or “barefooted”) out the door.”
So what happened with those whose attachment to dualistic beliefs about “what is virtuous” and “what is sinful” had not come to an end but who showed up anyway in their holy garb and with their narcissistic desire to put on display the accumulation of spiritual knowledge which they had amassed? Often, they were soon sent down the stairs and out the door and onto the noisy and dirty 10th Lane in the wadi / subdivision of Girgaon called “Khet.”
Later, Maharaj, modeled the abandonment of organized religion, just as did a fellow named Yeshu'a (“Jesus”) much earlier who shared non-dual pointers during the final years of the manifestation of that speck of consciousness.
Eventually Maharaj would not only abandon any use of religion as a version of the Ultimate Medicine but would also abandon the use of spirituality as a version of the Ultimate Medicine, advising people to stop reading the book I AM THAT, and to “give up spirituality,” and to conduct a “self-inquiry” and "find out what you are not,” and to realize that understanding what you are not is enough, and then to “just abide naturally.”
Why? Because of what he understood early on but did not promote as enthusiastically as he did later on, namely, that there are two concepts which might well generate more dualistic thinking and talking and behaving and conflict and misery and suffering than any other pair of concepts. What are they, specifically? “Sin” and “virtue.”
And what are the roots of those two concepts? Ironically, the roots of those two concepts which contribute to and sustain the Ultimate Sickness can be traced to the very entities which Maharaj endorsed early on but which he rejected later on: (1) religion and its far-closer-relative-than-many-want-to-admit (2) spirituality.
“Sin” became defined by the self-appointed leaders in the early pagan sky cults, and then the early pagan sky cults evolved into the major religions which are still around today. The definition of sin became codified when self-appointed people assumed the role of “spokesperson” for the gods and goddesses or for God and then wrote what was reported to be “holy texts” which the "Powers That Be" supposedly ordered them to write and which contain what is claimed to be “the unquestionable and infallible word of the gods and goddesses” and later reported by some to be “the unquestionable and infallible word of ‘The One, True God'.”
[Because sin involves the act of violating God's will, then people had to be told – and still have to told, it is believed by billions – exactly what God’s will is. Too, God’s will had to be given even far great weight be being written down in “unquestionable and infallible holy texts” which supposedly contain not only God’s word but also God’s laws. And what follows when persons violate laws? Scorn. Shame. And punishment, either mental, emotional, corporal, or capital.]
One Sunday during the fifth season finale of an HBO series entitled Game of Thrones, there was a lengthy scene involving the sexually-promiscuous character named Cersei. (By the way, that shaming scene was based on an actual incident involving “Jane” Shore – actually Elizabeth Shore – who was one of the mistresses of King Edward IV and of several other noblemen as well.)
Shorn and stripped, the fallen queen was made to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing, after confessing to adultery with her cousin Lancel (but keeping quiet about her adultery with her brother.) Along the way, she was followed by a woman who was a member of the King’s Landing’s ruling religious class who repeatedly rang a bell, followed by a chant of “Shame. Shame. Shame." Along the walk, the “Shamee” was pelted with stones and spittle and rotten food and excrement by the “Shamers,” as was Elizabeth Shore in England.
The same happened to men and women in the “American colonies” who were pilloried when the colonies were ruled by a theocratic form of government - which many today would return to - and who were pelted with rocks and filth during their confinement in village squares.
The same happened to persons who lived under the rule of a U.S. theocracy who were made to wear on the front of their clothes large scarlet letters which identified "their primary sin," such as a “T” for “thief,” an “I” for “illegitimate,” or an “A” for adulterer.”
The same happens to women today who are living in many nations being ruled by theocracies and who are stoned to death around the globe for their supposed sins.
The same happened to some people who lived in Florida - especially to certain women - when some citizens followed the recommendation of then-governor Jeb Bush (later a candidate for the office of the President of the United States, an office which his father and brother both held in the past). Jeb Bush wrote in his book “Profiles in Character” about “community, religiosity and integrity” and about the need to revive shame. He wrote:
“Society needs to relearn the art of public and private disapproval and how to make those who engage in undesirable behavior feel some sense of shame.”
[So how arrogant must one be to believe that he or she has the right to judge and shame and condemn persons whom they deem to be "sinful" in their eyes and in their mind?]
Journalist Catherine Rampell wrote: “The book argues that the diminishment of dishonor has contributed to all sorts of depravity. If only we as a populace were a bit more judgmental, the poor would stop being so poor, the promiscuous would learn restraint, deadbeats would pay their bills, criminals would keep to the straight and narrow, school shooters would lay down their arms and bastard children would finally start getting ‘legitimize[d]’ (their term, not mine) through marriage.”
Bush continued while idolizing the “good old days” (as do so many who are trying to impress that segment of the U.S. populous who present themselves as “virtuous fundamentalists"). He wrote:
“There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful. Infamous shotgun weddings and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter are reminders that public condemnation of irresponsible sexual behavior has strong historical roots.”
Why would Maharaj dare rebuke and reject the concept of “sin”? Because he saw the global, multi-thousand-year effects of that concept which was dreamed up by would-be controllers and the self-appointed guardians of the faith who for thousands of years have spread their message about sin and wickedness and the need for “public condemnation“ which Bush endorsed;
and who have continuously pumped life into a concept which generates harsh judgment and perfectionism and divisiveness; and who defined sin and who codified it and who have ever since adopted it as the proper and extreme and fanatical (and yes, even militant) fashion by which "the virtuous" should deal with "the sinful" - a fashion which almost guarantees that any chance of a widespread understanding of the unicity will be forever blocked.
Imagine the changes which could happen all around the globe if only supposedly religious and / or spiritual persons were all to stop focusing on the concept of sin (and thus be free of their subsequent beliefs about being "different from" and therefore "better than" all of those supposedly far-less-worthy "others").
Of course, that could only happen were their duality-based thinking and talking and behaving to be replaced with the non-dual understanding.
Next: Why Maharaj was not impressed by “the virtuous,” either.
To be continued.
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