TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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. 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
[Continued from yesterday]
Once that sense of unimportance manifested and then fixated, it was possible to share the following review of some of the "supposedly key" events in the relative existence of ‘floyd’s parents” and in the relative existence of “floyd” and to offer the following perspective (which was the 180-degree opposite of the perspective held at the time the events were happening):
[From the series first offered nearly ten years ago entitled “SIXTY YEARS OF MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: See Why Bliss Can Come Only If It Is All Seen to Mean Nothing”]
Ultimately, peace and happiness during the relative existence cannot happen unless it is first understood that all happenings are “Much ado about nothing.” Meaning?
Meaning that if you observe all events with a clear perspective, you'll see how the trivial is elevated to the status of “significant” by persons. Then, seeing how trivial it all really is, you might be able to assume a position of neutrality around all happenings. Then, you might at least attain a sense of contentment before pursuing joy and bliss.
If it is understood that the entire manifestation of consciousness is much ado about nothing, then those obstacles which interrupt peace cannot materialize . . . obstacles such as belief in dualistic concepts, attachment, caring, judging, involvement, emotional intoxication, desiring, fearing, needing, etc.
What does much ado about nothing look like? It looks as if important happenings are occurring, happenings that require a dualistic stance, either for or against. But those happenings are really just the various parts of a fable; however, the elements of a fictional story can only be reviewed objectively if one functions as a non-attached witness.
Then, by reviewing the elements of the fiction from a “distance,” one can see clearly how it all amounted to nothing. Here are the elements in one tale that covered a 60-year span. It will show how much ado can be made about nothing when persons think the events in their relative existence amount to something important. This particular fictional tale included such elements as:
A young girl abandoned after her mother died in childbirth; that girl later kidnapped by a relative; a young man watching his brother fall onto railroad tracks and being cut in half by a train; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; Germany and Japan are declared “the enemy”; war declared; separation as a result of a war; two bombs dropped; returning home; prosperity; pregnancy; birth; another pregnancy; another birth (and thus "floyd's" arrival);
parents were pleased; parents were angry; teachers were pleased; teachers were angry; children were whipped with paddles; palms were beaten with rulers; national crime rates went down; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
Germany and Japan are then declared “our friends” and communists are declared “the enemy”; bomb shelters were built; drills happened in schools, along with crawling under desks and putting books over heads; making friends at school; fighting with friends at school; Cuba was declared “an enemy”; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing;
then, a lack of prosperity; crime went up; a tonsillectomy; an appendectomy; a toe severed by a lawn mower; a rare Southern snow; intense heat; punishment for not being “good”; exposure to religious Occidentals and their nonsensical beliefs; fear when the promise of eternal fire and damnation were introduced; accepting “salvation” in order to please, but knowing it was hogwash (so there is a glimpse of "floyd's" early exposure to fear-generating dogma);
dating; championships won; graduation; college; another graduation; employment; bosses were pleased; bosses were displeased; Vietnam was declared “an enemy”; another war; being drafted; another war ended; graduate school; a Master’s Degree and another graduation; low-paying employment; a meeting; “love”; a marriage; Vietnam was then declared “a friend” and “trading partner”; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
Then, too many lovers but not any Love; a chance meeting; “love”; a marriage; high-paying employment; a Bush declares an Ortega “a friend”; plaques and certificates of achievement and paid vacations awarded at annual banquets; pregnancy; birth; a healthy child; a sick child; swings in the economy; low income; high income; a Rumsfeld meets a Saddam and declares him “our friend”; an apartment in Tuscany; months at a time in Europe (so "floyd" had made it into the early 80's);
dream jobs that became nightmares; fortunes lost; fortunes earned again; huge homes purchased and filled with “stuff”; friendships with neighbors; fights with neighbors; pets bought; pets buried; pipes broke; repairmen scheduled; pipes OK; pipes burst; again more contractors dealt with; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
Next came vast accumulations; wealth; hurricanes came, trees fell, property “destroyed”; property rebuilt; property taxes increased; evaluations protested; fortunes lost; dream relationships became nightmares; hearing the words “colon cancer”; a spouse who got into her car and drove away the day before the scheduled surgery for cancer, never to return; a divorce; and ultimately, it was all much ado about nothing.
Then arranging a funeral for a parent who preferred burial; Republican rule; nations to the south of the U.S. were declared “the enemy”; glasnost; Communists are then declared “a friend” and “a trading partner”; a parent’s stroke; more invasions and war; a declaration that “We must fight them in Central America or we’ll fight them here”; secret U.S. death squads; meeting a U.S. sniper using drugs to try to suppress the guilt of assassinating 46 innocent civilians in Central America (including a teacher and a priest) who were declared “the enemy” by the U.S. for making anti-U.S. speeches;
illegal arms deals; Democratic rule; huge surplus in national treasury; Republican rule; a Bush declares an Ortega is now “an enemy”; two poorly-designed towers fall; a Rumsfeld and others who had declared a Saddam to be “a friend” said he is “an enemy”; another war; national treasury surplus gone, replaced by huge national debt; a declaration that “We must fight them in the Middle East or we’ll fight them here”; nations to the south again declared “the enemy”; now, the health care providers no longer say “cancer,” but last week one said for the first time, “diabetes”; but ultimately, it’s all much ado about nothing.
Then friends came; friends went; seekers came; some stayed; some fired Floyd as their guru or teacher or guide; fifteen months ago, one doctor said "angina ... six to twenty-four months to live"; another said, "major pulmonary problems, combined with the angina, call for immediate surgery"; rejection of their suggestions; days of strength, days of weakness; and as with the events of the other 63 years, it is all being witnessed without any emotional intoxication or angst or fear. The peace here is unwavering via the no-drama stability of abiding as the Awareness and the Nothingness beyond.
To review those happenings from the perspective of the objective witness is to see the insanity of all of the duality that robbed the players in that “Drama of the Lie” of peace and happiness: good and bad, satisfied and dissatisfied, pleased and displeased, reward and punishment, war and peace, enemy and friend, friend and enemy, rich and poor, sick and well, marriage and divorce, good times and bad times, chaos and stability, knowing who “the enemy” was, then not knowing who “the enemy” was.
Everything thought to be bad would eventually be thought to be good and everything thought to be good would eventually be thought to be bad. In fact, it was all dualistic fiction, all dualistic nonsense, all ego-based silliness, all ego-driven BS. How did the shift from all of that duality happen?
Somewhere along the way, searching began; seeking; doing; going; zooming; next, finding; understanding; awareness; and relaxing; and ultimately, it was Realized that it was, indeed, all much ado about nothing . . . all nothing more than a lot of sound and fury. Only when the addiction to chaos - to the sound and the fury - ends can the joy and bliss of the silence begin.
Those who believe in time lines would say those events covered “six decades in the life of one man.”
The unblocked consciousness sees nothing more than the elements of a fable . . . a series of happenings all based in idiocy. Again, the words of the Advaitin William Shakespeare apply: “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Signifying . . . nothing. The invitation is to look at all of the elements in that fictional fable and see that they cover only 60 years of happenings on one planet that is spinning away in a universe that has a 14-billion year history. The invitation is too look at all those happenings and to note how “very important” they were all considered to be when they were happening. The invitation is also to see that the happenings amounted only to so much sound and fury . . . with no importance or truth or reality involved at all.
To understand that whatever persons take to be “something” or “something really important” is actually just much ado about nothing will allow the nothingness to be understood. When the nothingness is understood, then That Which Truly Is Everything can be understood. When the functioning of the totality is understood, all things false are abandoned and peace just happens.
Relatedly, the Advaitin poet Shakespeare also wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts,” and “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage.” And then? "Out, out, brief candle."
Enjoy the play, but know that the play is a play.
Indeed, if there manifests an ability to see that a play really is nothing more than a play and is not real, and if there manifests an ability to see that all characters really are nothing more than characters and are not real, that is a sign that ignorance is being eliminated and that sanity is being restored.
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]
