TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]
Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that.
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL":
The brief role which religion and / or spirituality can play in the realization process
Though Maharaj never enumerated the seven steps which are explained here when seekers come for a retreat, the steps he used and the steps used here are the same. Included in the seven-step process is the religious and / or spiritual role-playing step which happens to be the third step.
Among the few who are able to escape the entrapment of their religious and spiritual identities (and can then forfeit what are usually the final three identities of “The Super Religious One,” “The Spiritual Giant,” and “The Super Seeker” which are occasionally abandoned) for them there is an opportunity to return to the stage all persons were in during the last time that unconditional happiness happened, namely, “The Child Ignorance Stage” or - as it’s termed here - “The Child No-Knowing State.”
Thus, there is no effort here to suggest that religion should not be tried or that spirituality should not be tried (or that “Self-Inquiry” should not be tried). The invitation is to hang out for a spell at the third step where those identities are played, but to move on . . . ASAP.
Then the next challenge comes as many seekers simply substitute the last of the phenomenal identities but then assume a “Noumenal Identity” which presents a whole new set of obstacles which reinforce the mind and mind-play and which prevent the “almost-fully-realized” from being fully in touch with both “reality” and “Reality.” Recall from earlier Maharaj’s pointer about such obstacles:
Yet it has been seen that one cannot (a) leap frog from Step Two - even if there has occurred an abandonment all of the former “bad” roles - and (b) skip out on the third step where the (still-nonsensical) assumption of good roles are played and then (c) jump directly to the Step Four “Child Ignorance Stage” / “Child No-Knowing State."
So far, there has never been a single case witnessed where a seeker was able to skip the step two mind-entrapment and relative “bad roles” playing and also skip the step three religious and spiritual “good roles” playing.
Maharaj played around with religion. Same here. Maharaj played around with spirituality. Same here. Then, by continuing along the remaining steps on the “path,” he really got into a “Self” Identity and really got into “The Self” role-playing (which, as usual, always leads to Self-upgrading and then believing that one is “A Super Self” or “The Supreme Self” and thereafter engaging in some really mighty role-playing in a “Super and Supreme Self” fashion). Same here.
Yet that belief was not held onto either, for eventually Maharaj realized that the process of transitioning all identification includes not only being free of all personal identifications but also being free of any other Identity as well.
To that end he said: “I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality; finally, I lost that love of Self also. I have no more love for the Self."
For those seekers who want “the whole nine yards” (or all seven steps), that is available. For those who want to transition the third step and be done with all of their former religious or spiritual or even Vedanta-focused workaholism, then a plan for that is also available (allowing one to find all she or he is not and then understanding the wisdom behind Maharaj’s pointer: “that is enough”).
Next, to continue with Andy Gugar’s story when he described what had happened throughout his relative existence and how he arrived at a point where he was moved to come here for a retreat. He, too, had tried religion. He too had been embroiled in a long and arduous “spiritual journey.” He too had worked at Self-Inquiry for years.
Yet he knew something was still missing. He wrote in the front of the anthologies which he made possible:
“Now, I look back and laugh. Before the time spent in Floyd's home, I hated to wake up in the morning. Now, I can't wait to get up and enjoy every day.
“I was raised to believe that Jesus had the answers that people need. At Floyd's retreat, I found out that in many cases, he did, but the answers were not the ones I was taught in church.
“I found that ‘the later Jesus’ who returned to Jerusalem was sharing the non-dual, Advaita teachings - teachings I had heard on occasion when I was younger but that no one in the church could or would explain to me when I asked about those statements.
“I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to ‘go ahead and die now.’
“Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must ‘die.’
“I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
“As I entered, I shouted, ‘Knock knock . . . anybody home?’ He yelled back, ‘No.’ I got it . . . I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body . . . nobody.
“I came to understood that everything merely cycles and that timelines are a fraud, and Floyd also taught me the meaning of every part of his vision, and I learned by way of the eagle the difference in Subject-Object Witnessing and Pure Witnessing.
“Why am I making this anthology available for all seekers to use now and to be available long after ‘floyd’ and ‘andy’ have taken mahasamadhi and are ‘gone’? First, because the books in the anthologies offer the step-by-step process by which realization can happen and, secondly, because the books helped me in that undertaking.
“I want to preserve Floyd's Vision [see ‘FREEBIES’ at the top of this page] and his writings for all who are seeking. I decided to support the printing of this anthology to make his teachings and methods available - to all that might be interested - because of what happened with me after sitting with Floyd and receiving the message that came by way of his step-by-step method which I realized was exactly what I had been seeking all of my life.”
During the early stage of Maharaj’s “journey,” he too had visions. As the case with the vision here, it is said of Maharaj at that time that “Something exploded within him, as it were, giving birth to a cosmic consciousness . . . .”
In that regard, though, Maharaj said: “Trances and visions induced by words, or drugs, or any other sensory or mental means are temporary and inconclusive. The truth of what is said here is immovable and everlasting. And the proof of it is in the listener, in the deep and permanent changes in his entire being.”
He also made clear, though, that often “your vision is obstructed by your false ideas about your self.” Later, he would include about "Your Self" as well.
[Again, “I got involved in spirituality but finally lost that love of Self also. I have no more love for the Self."]
Even early on, Maharaj was not impressed with those attached to a sense of Self-ness. Who was run out of the loft? Domineering “Spiritual Giants” and those trying to put their grandiose sense of Self on display for all in the room to see.
To review:
Edgar Wallace: “The trouble with you is that you have no sense of unimportance.”
Maharaj: “Selfishness is the cause of suffering.”
One who studied with Maharaj: “It is not Self-Realisation that is transmitted, but self-importance” (and “Self-Importance” as well?)
Once an awareness of the unimportance of both “floyd” and “Floyd” came, it was seen that everything ever involved with either of those amounted to – as the advaita poet Shakespeare said – “Much ado about nothing.”
To be continued.
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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.
THE EXPLANATION
If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.
Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."
The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").
Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.
"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you."
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men."
--Pope John Paul II
"There is no hell."
--Pope Francis, the current pope
[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,
a writer used by the Pope to issue off-the-record
teachings which are part of the Papal Magisterium]
