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 Arrogance / Conflict Connection
Just as a child does not exit a "birth" canal in adult form, so Maharaj did not arrive straight out of the “non-dual chute" in a "Fully Mature-Teacher State" with the skill set required to offer a fully-effective version of the Ultimate Medicine. The version of the Medicine he used in the end had not even the slightest similarity to the versions used earlier.
The only version of the Medicine which he offered for the Ultimate Sickness which most seekers are familiar with is the version of the Medicine which they have found in the book I AM THAT containing talks offered during “His Middle Period of Teaching.”
Most know little about the first version of the Medicine, a version which was actually prescribed by his guru who, essentially, told Maharaj that you must trick them: get them into your flat by offering bhajans throughout the day and then insert some non-dual pointers during the Hindu practices they like.
His guru envisioned the coming of no seekers other than Hindus, and he never envisioned the likelihood of seekers coming from outside the Hindu state of Maharashtra or from anywhere other than the environs of Bombay, the Girgoan region, and the Khetwadi neighborhood.
So the original “teaching strategy” during "Maharaj's "Early Period of Teaching” was to seek those interested in religion and to try to free them of their present habit of viewing all in a totally-dualistic manner in which they believed in vast multiplicities of gods and goddesses and to developing a non-dual perspective instead.
Most seekers know little of "that Maharaj" who - during his guru-bhakti-driven days - unquestioningly followed Siddharameshwar’s prescription for treating the Ultimate Sickness.
Only after he moved beyond his guru’s orders and began formulating a teaching methodology based in his own experience (and in his own observations about what was "working" and what was not) did he begin offering a compound version of the Medicine which was made from a Hindu base with non-dual additives and then blending in a peppering of “spiritually-oriented pointers” for flavor. It is that version which most are familiar with because it is the one most-widely circulated with the publication of I AM THAT.
But the evolution, the maturing, was not complete at that point in this recounting of his teaching "journey." The "Tea of Maharaj's Final Understanding" had only begun to steep.
Afterwards, the mostly-Hindu audience began to be joined more and more frequently by non-Hindu audience members who were Westerners; then only did Maharaj begin transitioning beyond his guru’s “game plan.”
In some later books, more shifts in the focus of his talks can be traced, but the major shifts were not advertised. They have been revealed over the years in private interviews; in anecdotal accounts of one-on-one comments he shared; in accounts of off-the-record conversations; and in usually-closely-held, formerly-private writings of those who recalled what he had said during “unofficial” or “confidential” talks or in never-professionally-published transcripts of what he had said in the presence of one seeker or in the presence of only a few.
For those familiar with the pointers offered by “the off-the-record Maharaj,” it is obvious that he went through
(A) his seeking phase,
(B) his guru phase,
(C) his “Forest Dweller” phase,
(D) his early teaching / informal sharing phase when visitors began to stop by his bidi shop regularly in order to talk and to listen.
Then came
(E) his Hindu / religious / non-dual blend phase
and
(F) his less Hindi / more spiritual / more non-dual phase.
All of that might be compared to a child moving into his teen years and then into his young adult years and then into his adult years and then finally reaching his older / far-more-astute / penetrating / sharp-witted / clear-sighted / wise-old-man / perspicacious / fully awake / fully aware / fully conscious / “elder sage” stage.
Yet would those who criticize Maharaj for “evolving” (for growing) hope that a child of their own would fixate and would never develop and would remain stunted throughout the entire manifestation?
Because of experience and observation and a trial-and-error approach, he reached a point where his own experience lead him to look not only outside the surrounding culture but also outside the realm of anything that any Far Eastern teacher had tried up to that point. He came to see that the problems of humanity are all rooted in the mind, not rooted in a too-little-knowledge-of-dogma issue and not rooted in a too-little-spirituality issue and not rooted in a too little knowledge of Self issue.
[Thus, he said: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”]
Thus the teaching periods were marked by trying but then discarding many different versions of the Medicine before he realized that the problems of humanity will never be effectively addressed if the focus is on what some take to be "too-little-dogma issues" or by focusing on what others take to be "spiritual malady issues." He came to understand that the root of the problems will only be addressed by focusing on "the mind issues," the mind being the place from which the self-generated problems of humanity emanate.
That is why he told people in the end to "stop reading I AM THAT"
and to
"listen to my later talks."
How rich billions of persons would be if they were given a dollar for every time they (yes, accurately) observed, "Look at that - that person is nuts!" or "What a fool!" or "He / She has got to be totally insane!"
Yet how poor they would be if a dollar were taken away each time they failed to see the true facts surrounding their own mental condition.
Here, these related points are offered for consideration to those who are focusing on the ignorance and insanity which they are observing in "others":
"If you spot it, you've also got it"
and
"If you can see it, you can also be it" (as in "be insane").
You will never find the truth regarding your own mental condition until you give up this firmly-held belief about what makes "you" different from - and therefore better than - all of those "others," namely . . .
"My poop smelleth not; thy caca, on the other hand, doth much offend."
The effects of that mindset?
** Judging others and finding them to be "less than" and "not good enough."
** "Breaking relationships" on personal, state, national, and international levels.
** Fighting, infighting, and fighting with one's assumed and / or assigned self / selves.
** Attacking those of a different race.
**Attacking those of a different religion.
** Attacking those of a different sexual orientation.
** Attacking those of a different sect or denomination.
** Attacking those of a lesser income level.
** Civil wars.
** National wars.
** "World" wars.
Got problems, either "here" or "there" or "everywhere"? Trace the roots back to a mind or minds with belief systems about being "different from" and therefore "better than" and about entitlement and "deserving better" and "deserving more" based solely on one's race, sexual preference, nationality, religious affiliation, po0litical affiliation, spiritual state, ad infinitum.
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]
