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 bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns
The Bondage of "World-Concern"
There are those who would rule the world, those who jump on the bandwagon of those who would rule the world, and those who would make the world over in their image and force the world to accept their nation's economic system (such as "capitalism"); their nation's political system (such as "democracy");
their nation's primary racial makeup (for example, "Caucasian"), their nation's preferred religion (such as "Christianity"); their nation's prevalent language (such as "English"); and their nation's supposedly preferred sexual orientation (such as, "straight," not "LGBT" or otherwise), etc., etc., etc.
The rub? They shall forever be frustrated because their efforts to change "the world" are guaranteed to fail, forever. One may as well set out to try to change every mirage in every desert.
There are 7.6 billion people on planet earth so there are 7.6 billion versions of "the world." If one would change "the world," one would have to change 7.6 billion minds. Could anyone really believe that is even remotely possible? Actually, yes, there are some who are so arrogant, so grandiose, so delusional, and so egotistical, that they believe exactly that.
Maharaj asked a visitor: "You are always after the improvement of 'the world'. Do you
really believe that 'the world' is waiting for you to be saved?"
What limitless egotism that belief would require, yes?
Yet "the world" is merely one more of the imaginings which are believed in by non-realized masses.
Maharaj: "I am not in the world; the world is in me," meaning, in my mind.
Maharaj: ". . . consciousness arises; in consciousness the world appears and
disappears."
In other words, "the world" is just one more bogus concept generated from a fiction-filled mind, and because there are 7.6 billion fiction-filled minds, there are 7.6 million fiction-based beliefs about what "the world" is and what "the world" is like and how "the world" is right and how "the world" is wrong and messed up and how "the world" should change and what "the world" should then be like.
Maharaj: "The world can be said to appear, but not to be." That is, "the world" is merely what "the world" appears to be to 7.6 million persons, but those 7.6 billion perceptions and "appearances" are not real.
Questioner: "That is how God runs the world."
Maharaj: "God is not running the world."
Q: "Then who is doing it?"
M: "Nobody. All happens by itself"
[M.: Persons have desires so they create a God to pray to in an effort to have their desires fulfilled.]
and
"You think God knows you? Even the world he does not know."
and
M: "From the highest point of view the world has no cause."
Q: "But what is your own experience?"
M: "Everything is uncaused. The world has no cause."
He could as well have said, "The cause of 'the world' is the dreamed up nonsense in the distortion-filled minds of the non-realized masses, nonsense which was passed down by ignorance-driven persons."
Therefore, the actuality about "the world" according to Maharaj is this: "Your 'world' is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory"
and
Maharaj: "Your world" is of "imaginings"
and
"Your 'world' is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In 'your world,' you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream,
which you take for life."
and
"You are completely wrapped up in the 'world' of your own making."
His advice: "The 'world' is but a reflection of imagination"
and
"The 'world' you can perceive is a very small 'world' indeed. And it is entirely private."
His advice: "Take it to be a dream and be done with it."
His advice: "Take it to be a dream and be done with it."
Tomorrow: "The Bondage of self-Concern"
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]