TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Following eye surgery, clear focusing has not returned and eye strain results from anything other than a brief exposure to a computer screen; moreover, two follow up procedures must be arranged to "fine tune" the effects of the surgery; hence, the postings will be brief for awhile.
2. [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]
3. 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.
4. 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."
Last year a local nursery sold me two potted plants, oleanders. I set them up on my back porch because they would receive plenty of sunshine there. The woman who owned the nursery told me that I would need to fertilize them regularly with a granular fertilizer. Accepting that her reputation in the community, reinforced by her claim that she had thirty years of experience in the business, I did not question her self-proclaimed credentials.
Following her instructions, I spent the first season digging along the sides of the pots and pouring a cup of granular fertilizer around the edges of the root ball of each plant. By the end of the season, there had been few blooms, little new growth, and, in fact, the plants did not look like they would survive. I pruned them back and put them inside for the winter.
This past spring, while questioning the nursery woman's advice and doing my own investigation - which is almost always the method I typically use - I found a nursery owner in Europe who was advising his clients to use a particular, well-known liquid fertilizer on their oleanders.
I bought a box of that fertilizer, began mixing the powder with water, began applying it every 7-10 days to the oleanders and - within two days after the first application - they began to thrive. New young sprouts shoot out of stalks which had been dormant last year. The leaves were far greener and are presently abundant. The blooms are richer in color. The new foliage had nearly tripled the plants' size and they are both thriving.
Also helpful was this: Last year with frequent traveling, I was not able to water the plants as regularly as they would have liked. This spring, I visited a local hardware store and bought a timer which fits on a hose bib along with a roll of 1/4" tubing and misters. I ran the tubing along the edge of the patio and into the pots and attached the emitters to the end. Now, the plants are being watered automatically and regularly. What a difference, huh?
What has that got to do with the non-dual understanding or with persons who are seeking whatever they are seeking in religious and spiritual or philosophical or ideological venues? Quite a bit, actually.
It has been shown via the personality inventory test which I use that the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has been on the rise for years. Any wise observer has also seen that fanaticism is running rampant around the globe. So many claim that they are seeking, among other things, peace . . . yet their peace is blocked by their fanaticism and the going and doing and zooming mode of abidance which fanaticism drives.
Like those plants last spring, the actual "medicine" which people need is seldom the right medicine for what ails them, so they - like those oleanders - cannot possibly thrive; they cannot possibly have a life which feels more abundant; their existence does not feel enriched; there is no new growth; the closest that most will ever be to blooming is when they act like what is called "blooming idiots."
The medicine they need is the Ultimate Medicine which threats the Ultimate Sickness and its accompanying idiocy and ignorance and insanity.
Take certain programs which claim they can address the Addictive Personality Disorder - which drives its victims to behave fanatically - by force-feeding its members high doses of spirituality. They tell alcoholic members, for example, that they have "a physical allergy" to alcohol, combined with a mental problem: "the obsession of the mind."
While they advice their members to avoid triggering the physical allergy by saying, "Just don't drink," they do nothing about the obsession of the mind. In fact, the people I have crossed paths with who are members of those spiritual programs are some of the most obsessive persons I've met or tested.
A sure sign that the plan being used to treat fanaticism is a totally ineffective plan is this: the plan to treat fanaticism actually results in more fanaticism.
For all their lip service, some of the least peaceful people I've met or have tested are people who are religious or spiritual or philosophical or ideological fanatics. The result of their affiliations and their activities and "service" and their constant going and doing and zooming and "helping" is that they are some of the least peaceful persons of all (though they will not likely admit that).
Again, a sure sign that the plan being used to treat fanaticism is a totally ineffective plan is this: the plan to treat fanaticism actually results in more fanaticism.
The great ironies are that (1) the masses are unaware that they are often being driven by their obsessions and compulsions and fanaticism which are creating problems in their lives but are (b) going to places to seek relief from the results of their obsessions and compulsions and fanaticism while those very places are magnifying and increasing their obsessions and compulsions and fanaticism.
Like my plants which were not watered automatically and were receiving too much water sometimes and too little water on other occasions, most persons have not found a means by which they can abide spontaneously and automatically and in a balance manner within the boundaries of fanaticism-free normalcy.
More on that in the next post.
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 become a part of the Papal Magisterium]
Here's
the direct link to the VIDEO VERSION
of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 18 MARCH 2018
If preferred, here's
the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION
of that session.
