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 "self-Concern"
False identities, personas, personalities, roles, characters, guises, facades, fronts, faces - call them what you will. The key points about those illusions are these:
Each will have its own basic desire and basic fear.
Each will control one's thoughts and words and actions as those delusions fight for what they want and become driven by what they fear.
Hence, among the non-realized masses who accept those delusions as real, their thoughts will be delusional, their words will express their delusions, and their actions will be driven by the hidden agendas of delusions.
The result? They will become parrots, repeating whatever they hear which aligns with the hidden agendas of their delusional roles and which support the continuation of their delusional identities and supposedly satisfy their concern with self . . . with their false selves.
The method used in Maharaj's loft to eliminate the belief in those false selves was this:
A visitor might make a series of statements and then ask a question, often about some relative happening, so the following relative issues were occasionally discussed:
Yes, persons who are glad one day can be sad the next;
yes, a man who talked all the time speaks very little now, and one day you may find that he has stopped talking completely;
yes, citizens trapped in their nationalistic, xenophobic beliefs are fighting again;
yes, the members of two opposing religious groups are attacking each other and the buildings they worship in;
and
yes, once again, the members of different political leanings are attacking each other.
In addressing the specific, relative examples which reveal a variety of thoughts and words and actions coming from persons abiding in a dualistic manner, Maharaj provided an opportunity for seekers to see duality at work, to see how it distorts persons' perceptions, to understand how delusional persons can actually be, and to try to encourage seekers to recognize when duality is at play and generating arrogance and a sense of separation while laying the groundwork for conflict and fighting and wars and misery and suffering.
Next, Maharaj would determine from a seeker's statements and questions exactly where on the seven step "path" that seeker was at that moment. Then, he would offer pointers which were intended to provide an understanding which could potentially move the seeker's focus to the next step on the "path" if the seeker would leave and find a quiet place to sit, alone, and take those pointers into the silence of contemplation.
A similar method is used here:
As I move about and come into contact with sleepwalkers and sleep talkers, in traffic, in the neighborhood, in the grocery store, in a doctor's waiting room, waiting for workers to repair a problem with an automobile,
being with a friend who has sleepwalking and sleep talking relatives or friends, speaking with persons as Maharaj did and hearing them recount something they heard or witnessed which was totally based in duality or, by rare contrast, in a non-dual understanding, then
that is often shared on this site.
Why? As with Maharaj, to provide "real time," present day examples of what dualistic thinking and talking and behaving look like. What might come of that? Some might say, "Gee, I've never said or done anything which is that ____"(fill-in-the-blank . . . insane, crazy, rude, uncaring, arrogant, etc).
Along with that method, a caveat is offered here occasionally: "Avoid comparisons. Ego-defense mechanisms which are intent upon protecting ego-states, false identities, etc. are amazingly stupid but, simultaneously, amazingly clever as well and often lead to the conclusion that . . .
A. 'Well, I've never been that bad'
or
(among those who have been weighed down by excessive loads of such concepts as 'guilt' and 'shame' and 'embarrassment' and 'humiliation' and 'disgrace'),
B. "Well, I'm even much worse than that."
Hence the suggestion that comparisons be avoided but that awareness be honed so that duality can be recognized instantly when it is witnessed and so that non-duality can be recognized instantly when it is witnessed.
That said, I have a friend who is quite wealthy and who also happens to be realized. His generosity is near-boundless, sharing what he earns with those who are trapped in positions far down the economic hierarchy in a capitalist culture which is so rigid it provides little opportunity for meaningful movement "up the ranks."
Yet I see and hear something far different from many who are among the wealthiest, one of whom during my recent vacation I was in a position to hear as she expressed a common complaint expressed by many among the richest in the U.S.:
Explaining how many millions of dollars the recent U.S. tax cut netted them, she said: "I am sick and tired of the government taking our hard-earned money and doling it out to lazy, no-account people who are living it up in a fashion that is better than the way we live. We eat a medium-priced cut of meat while they go to their elite butchers and use their welfare checks or their food stamps to get the most expensive cuts available!"
The facts: Food insecurity is prevalent in the U.S., and those trapped in that state are not "living like kings and queens and princes and princesses."
There was a time in the early 1970's when my sister's husband left their house and never returned. She worked at a poor-paying job, but infant care took every penny she earned. No one in our family knew that my sister, who at the time had a four-year old son and 2-year-old twins, eventually swallowed her pride for the sake of her children and applied for assistance through the government's food stamp program.
In fact, the children were still malnourished and she was even worse off, all four of them experiencing "food insecurity." They ate, barely, but they were not buying "elite cuts of meat."
"Food insecurity" is defined by the government as "the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members." In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%; thus, 12-21% of people in the U.S. do not have an adequate amount of food and at any given time are hungry and malnourished.
Meanwhile, roughly fifty percent of all produce in the United States is thrown away—some 60 million tons (or $160 billion) worth of produce annually, an amount constituting “one third of all foodstuffs.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency (an agency being dismantled under the present administration) wasted food is the most prevalent item in American landfills.
Are there abuses in the program? Sure. Are those receiving food assistance living like royalty? Hardly, but the current president has proposed the highest levels of cuts in that program since its inception, a program which allows a maximum food allowance of $16 a day for a family of four.
The women overheard complaining about "our hard-earned money being taken to allow others to eat better than we do" is quite the exaggeration and is evidence of the duality-based nonsense often heard in the U.S. from those with high levels of both income and self-concern but without any concern for anyone who are suffering as a result of their unfortunate circumstances.
Her rant continued: "And I'm sick and tired of our hard-earned money going to people who don't even have a job."
Her actual case: Decades ago, she married a man in the top 1% income bracket and has never had a job since. She drives each day to the gym in a luxury vehicle given to her, wearing a different pair of $200 designer leggings each day along with shoes which cost hundreds of dollars.
She never cooks, so every day she either has restaurants deliver the food for the four-member family living in their multi-million-dollar home or she make arranges for them to eat out at nightly at one of the top restaurants in the city.
Nor does she clean, having maids come in throughout the week to care for the house and take care of the laundry. While some "housewives" work far harder than their spouses, she is not among those.
Dualistically, she believes in "the other," and "the other" is always perceived to be a threat to those attached to their duality-based beliefs. A friend asked her and her husband about a particular, small-scale restaurant with excellent reviews. They both explained that, "You would not be comfortable around their clientele. A lot of poor people and a lot of minorities eat there."
[The entitlement and distortion expressed by the woman quoted above is not necessarily a gender-specific issue. I heard a similar tale recently from a woman regarding her second husband. She has filed for divorce, but the jobless man who is living in her house won't leave the house and the police have told her that in their state, the domicile protection laws do not allow them to toss him out until their litigation moves through the courts (which can take months or even years). He's been living off her income since they married several years ago, has contributed nothing toward their bills, and refuses to leave, so she is still paying for his food and shelter.]
Note how her words reveal how duality will lull persons into a deep-state of sleep from which they will talk and talk and talk without ever seeing the contradictory, dualistic nature of the beliefs they are expressing.
So you can say that you are "sick and tired of our hard-earned money going to people who don't even have a job" while you have never had a job since the day of your marriage?"
If you were sitting in your Lamborghini, would you say, "I hate people who drive Lamborghinis?" No. That would be crazy.
If you were sitting in your Lamborghini, would you say, "I hate people who drive Fords and Chevys?" No. That would be conceited and arrogant and snobbish and would reveal a through-the-roof level of self-importance.
If you were standing in the mansion your husband paid for, would you say, "I hate people who live in homes that are like castles when something much more modest would do as well?" No. That would be crazy.
It would be evidence of the height of dual-mindedness, and Yeshu'a (Jesus), after he heard the non-dual teachings, said, "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."
The woman offering forth her duality-based criticism of "others" is a fanatical Christian, but does she have even the slightest understanding of "her Savior's" comments about those who are unstable and how her words show she is even more unstable than most?
Her life is one absorbed with going and doing and zooming and spending and forever enhancing the shape of her body and then cloaking it in the most expense clothes available.
So what does this have to do with "seekers"?
What does this have to do with those who would see clearly, consistently?
What does it have to do with those who would attain a total understanding of the Oneness and then abide in that understanding consistently.
What does it have to do with those who would cast off their dual-mindedness and abide in a never-ending sense of the unicity?
First, those who talk in their sleep nevertheless hear what they are saying, so when their talk comes from a sleep state dominated by dualistic beliefs, what they hear will reinforce that.
Secondly, most humans are like soybeans: they take on the flavor of whatever they are exposed to, whatever they are around. Abide with those trapped in duality and no matter what you understand, you will nevertheless be impacted.
As the deer in the neighborhood do not hate the youth who generate all kinds of nonsensical sounds and disturb the general peace, the deer do, nevertheless, move away from them so they can avoid disturbing, nonsensical noise.
When Maharaj endorsed abiding in the same fashion in which the deer abide, that was what he was talking about. He was talking about abiding in a natural, peaceful, quiet, Nisargan manner by moving away from all unnatural and supposedly supernatural ways of living; away from chaotic environments and ranting, complaining persons who are talking nonsense in their sleep; away from noise; and abiding in a nisargan fashion.
That can only happens if awareness is honed so that non-duality can be recognized instantly when it is witnessed and so that duality and ignorance and insanity can be recognized instantly when it is witnessed and can be moved away from just as the deer do, and as the fish do, and as the birds do, and as everything alive on this planet does except for most humans who normalize the abnormal thoughts and talking and behaviors which are commonplace in duality-driven cultures.
Tomorrow: "The Bondage of Material 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."
XX--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men."
XX--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]
