TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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?"
Thus, this:
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”
In the realm of duality, there are hierarchies. On those hierarchies, there are some who have consciously worked for and assumed the role of “leaders”; there are the masses who have unconsciously assumed the roles of “followers” – “sheepersons,” some call them.
In terms of non-duality, there are no “leaders who are very different from seekers” and there are none who are "different from or better than others." Consider the point of this exchange and the other following quotes by which Maharaj affirmed that point:
Questioner: “What is the basic difference between us?”
Maharaj: “There is no basic difference.”
Also, he said:
“The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state while you are bemused”
and
“I do not claim to know what you do not. In fact, I know much less than you do”
and
"I take my stand where no difference exists, where things are not, nor the minds that create them."
Along the way, another non-dualist was heard to say something about not having a single thing that all seekers don’t also have. The problem, he said, is that seekers (and all persons) believe something that he did not.
Maharaj made clear, once he switched to a psychological approach which addressed the “learned ignorance” and the “insanity” associated with the Ultimate Sickness, that this deal is not about accumulating more knowledge but is about being free of all the knowledge already acquired.
That is why the talk here is about un-learning rather than learning, about un-teaching rather than teaching.
While there are no leaders in non-duality, there are what can be called for the sake of discussion “pointers,” those who point out the way along a certain “path.” There are some that takes the steps necessary to move along that entire path, but most never will.
Many like the supposed “status” of being close to the leader of the pack, so many want to associate with “the leader,” but even then, the supposed leader of non-Realized persons is not a leader in the form of a teacher or a preacher or a priest or a rabbi or an imam or an ayatollah or a Supreme Leader or a parent or a politician, etc.
As cunning as many in those groups might be, the real leader among the non-realized masses is far more cunning because each person among the non-realized has his / her own little personality cult, worshipping the leader which is actually the self (or, more accurately, the selves).
With such types, in the end, the personalities – the many assigned and assumed personas – become that which is really all-important. Ultimately, only the ideas and notions and concepts (i.e., beliefs) of the leader / the self / the selves are given any value because the self really only “loves” the self.
What is this self among the non-realized? It is that which believes the lies of duality and multiplicity while having no clue at all about the oneness . . . the unicity.
The self can be said to be an accumulation of all ego-states which are assumed and employed by persons to identify incorrectly who they think they are. Those ego-states may also be called personas, roles, facades, masks, images, false selves, or any number of other words or terms that point toward the false identities which persons adopt (or unquestioningly accept when they are assigned by their cultures).
In their always dualistic and unstable character, some identities which are assigned carry “negative” connotations among those who are into downgrading (“thief,” “bastard,” “whore,” “homewrecker,” “deserter,” “foreigner,” "immigrant," “insurgent,” "gay," "bi-sexual," "liberal," "progressive," "elites," "an 'aggressive' woman," "an unmarried mother," "a childless woman," "a non-believer," "peace freak," “user,” “heartbreaker,” “sinner,” “infidel”)
while some are assigned “positive” connotations by those who are into upgrading in various cultures (“priest,” “preacher,” “imam,” “rabbi,” “soldier,” “patriot,” "sniper," “law enforcement officer,” “mother,” “religious person,” “spiritual person,” “helper,” “volunteer”).
Early on and for many years, Maharaj endorsed “Self-Inquiry,” advising seekers to find out "Who You Are"; he later changed his tune, so to speak. Why did Maharaj endorse "self-inquiry" and suggest that “it is enough just to know who you are not?” Because his actions prove that he came to understand that most approaches used by seekers only add to the accumulation of false selves – only add to the already-far-too-large body of false identities.
His actions prove that he came to understand that sky cults (religions) and other cults (including those operating as “ashrams”) and spiritual movements and ideologies and philosophies did nothing to eliminate belief in the false self / selves but actually inspired the assumption of additional ego-states as identities.
In some cases, new roles can be added to the body of roles which have already been adopted.
In other cases, new roles can be assumed to replace former roles, and the new ones are always deemed to be better than the old ones . . . until some other newer and even better ones come along.
If he had seen that any of the various approaches he used over the years had worked, he would have stuck with that. Yet he abandoned the use of all of his earliest approaches until he began to address the core of the Ultimate Sickness - the mental aspect.
His actions prove that he came to understand that
(A) instead of eliminating the dualistic belief in hierarchies and allowing persons to come to understand the classless nature of the unicity, he came to see that
(B) all of those approaches actually generated and reinforced and perpetuated a dualistic sense of different-from-ment and better-than-ment.
His actions further prove that he came to understand that the approaches he tried early on, and for decades, were inspiring persons to assume what they took to be “new and improved” ego-states as identities.
His actions also prove that he came to understand that all of those identities were then inspired endlessly to practice either the upgrading of themselves and people and places and things they liked and to practice the downgrading of people and places and things they did not like.
So, to continue with the earlier discussion of the ways that the approaches Maharaj tried early on - as well as all of the teachings in homes and schools and societies and cultures all around the globe - actually inspire upgrading and downgrading (and, therefore, dualistic thinking and dualistic beliefs).
An example of an upgrade is when "I am a man" becomes "I am a good man," "I am a loving husband," "I am the best boss ever," or "I am a spiritual man," so actually "I am a great man."
Another example is when the belief that "There is this world" is upgraded to "There is a better world, a heaven, and if you do what I tell you, you can go to that better world someday”; or, "There is a way to escape an endless series of cyclings over and over through this world and a way to escape to an existence of eternal bliss and joy.”
A downgrade can happen when "There is this world" can be downgraded to "There is a world of pain and punishment called hell which awaits you"; or, “There are multiple cyclings over and over through this world which you will have to go through unless you live as I tell you to live and then finally escape those cycles.”
Some upgrades later become downgrades because ego-states are like chameleons, never knowing stability and always in a state of flux and movement. Thus, "He is a man" can be upgraded to "The man I'm going to marry has a great work ethic," but that can later be downgraded to "The ass I married is a workaholic." And "He is a man" can be upgraded to "The man I'm going to marry is a great lover," but that can later be downgraded to "The ass I married is a sex fiend."
Or, as one man told me, "The woman I married is a bitch."
F.: "Then I must ask, why would you marry a bitch?"
He: "She wasn't a bitch when I married her, dumbass."
F.: "Ah, so what does that tell you? You're like the man who told me that he married a woman who later left him for . . . another woman; then, he went on to berate her unmercifully. I asked, 'Did she tell you that she was bisexual before she met you?' He: 'Just the opposite. She said she had never considered being with another woman until sometime after she married me.' F.: 'Ah, then what does that tell you about what it was like to live with a man like you'?" (The maintenance of some degree of decorum requires that his reply not be shared.)
In every case involving false identities, though, one commonality exists: every persona is driven by a hidden agenda. All are embroiled in (false)-self-service even as they fabricate and display a façade of altruism; all are bound up in (false)-self-absorption and (false)-self-delusion; and all desire that their roles will last and will continue to fulfill perceived needs.
Moreover, all selves form their own mental cult wherein they are in control, in power, and in charge or wherein they believe that they should be in control, in power, and in charge or wherein they desire with an obsessive passion to be in control, in power, and in charge.
Additionally, with all cult leaders, the self that worships itself usually has a superficial charm, is always manipulative, has a grandiose sense of itself, and displays no realistic perspective.
The multi-step process of separating from the self, from being free of the false belief that false selves are real, is the seven-step “journey” to Reality.
Understanding that one is not the false selves which have been assigned and which have been assumed and which subconsciously drive every thought and every word and every action . . . that alone "really would be enough."
To be continued.
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