TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. [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]
2. 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.
3. A new video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group."
A Review As This Series Closes
To review:
Maharaj was led to believe by his guru that the way he was going to have to teach non-duality was by inviting Hindus into his loft, by leading them through a variety of religious activities, and only then easing in some non-dual pointers along the way. It was Hindu dogma, however, which dominated the majority of the hours spent on a daily basis during those earliest years with visitors who came to the loft. That was Maharaj’s Teaching Method Number One, driven by guru-bhakti and the use of a religious / non-duality compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine in order to try to address the Ultimate Sickness.
After the book I AM THAT was published and eventually began circulating around the globe, more and more Westerners began joining Hindus in the loft. With that Maharaj began transitioning beyond guru-bhakti and the use primarily of Hindu rituals; he began modifying the formula that his guru commanded by offering satsanga sessions which focused on a spiritual / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine in order to try to address the Ultimate Sickness.
Over the next years, he would use spirituality-related Eastern teachings combined with less pure Hindu dogma. Hindus would still ask questions related to dogma while Westerners would often ask questions related to what they took "spirituality" to be. The use of Hindu teachings would diminish as the years progressed. That was Maharaj’s Teaching Method Number Two.
In neither case was he using the Direct Path Teaching Method / Nisarga Yoga combination exclusively. In both cases, he was still allowing externals to influence his methodology, including his guru and local Hindus at first and then, later, Westerners.
Yet all along, he was inserting into his talks certain considerations which were far removed from the strictly traditional messages that most who were living in India or who were visiting India were accustomed to hearing, such as . . .
his questioning the existence of gods and goddesses or a God ("First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you” and “From birth what has made the body grows? It is no power [Power] in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the Self, the consciousness . . . call it what you will.”)
and
his questioning the value of "faith" and so-called “holy books” ("Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved” and “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience”)
and
his questioning the value of typical meditation practices (“I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi or coming down from samadhi. That is over”)
and
his questioning the value of the religions’ dualistic teachings such as their focus on “righteousness” vs. “wickedness” ("Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.")
and
his questioning the religious / spiritual teaching about ascending, elevating, working with the primary goal of someday reaching a “Supreme” or “Higher” state ("There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding” and "There is no progress" and “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”)
and even
his questioning the efficacy of spirituality itself (“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false” and "Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud” and “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”)
Eventually, he would see that the problems of humanity center in the mind, not in humans attaching too little to religion and dogma and not in humans all suffering a “spiritual malady” or “a sick spirit.”
[When the young man approached me and asked if there was "some way to realize without going into the religious and quasi-religious ('spiritual') environments which trigger his past trauma because he was mentally, emotionally, and sexually abused in those type venues," then a shift to the teaching method Maharaj's used in the end was a simple, no-brainer, facilitated by . . .
(1) understanding that the Ultimate Sickness calls for a purging of the nonsense accumulated in the mind
rather than
(2) adding more fiction-based dogma and spirituality-based beliefs.
At that point, the same changes in methodology which Maharaj made also happened here spontaneously.]
So, his understanding of what is at the root of the Ultimate Sickness evolved, leading him to advise seekers to
“Stop reading (the 'spiritual classic') I AM THAT and listen to my later talks”
and to
“give up spirituality”
and to
“follow your normal inclinations" and to
"forget spirituality."
To review what he shared about the mind:
"All illness begins in the mind."
"Your confusion is . . . in your mind."
"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited."
"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."
" . . . The mind obscures and distorts."
"It is the mind that creates illusion."
"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind."
"Beyond the mind there is no suffering."
"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."
"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas."
"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ."
"Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . ."
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom."
So what was his state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state:
"There is no such thing as a mind."
"I have no mind . . . ."
and . . .
and . . .
So if the answers to humankind’s problems are not to be found via religion, and if the answers to humankind’s problems are not to be found through spirituality, and if Self-Inquiry is not an absolute requirement, and if the root of humankind’s problems rests in the mind, yet if there is no such thing as the “peace of mind” (which so many humans are seeking) then is there no hope at all for humans to ever be free and at peace?
Of course there is, yet only a few – per Maharaj – will ever reach the understanding required to bring those into existence and to allow those to remain.
IN THE UPCOMING SERIES: So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj? That next.
[Note: Two eye surgeries are upcoming over the next month, so there will be some occasions when postings are not possible during the healing process, periods of rest, follow-up doctor appointments, etc.]
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]
Here's
of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 18 MARCH 2018
If preferred, here's
of that session.
