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, postings may happen sporadically 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."
The last post left off reporting that this question came after investigating the three birds and their symbolism and relevance:
"So with these three birds representing different 'bodies' / 'stages,' might they also provide some simpler understanding of the very confusing and convoluted discussions about 'the gross, subtle, and causal bodies? Hummm."
"No . . . wait. It's clear that the representation of the physical body or gross - the elemental plant food body - is presented prior to the birds: it's that body that's left outside the arch. That's the body-cum-consciousness which needs gross food, drink and air.
"But what about the subtle body? That's the vehicle of consciousness and the vehicle of desires and the vehicle that also houses the mind and intellect, so in the vision that would be the body walking through trees and across water. I know Maharaj said that body is 'created with the emergence of the ‘I am’ idea' and 'is momentary. Real when present, unreal when over.'
"In the vision, that's also before the birds appear, so the birds aren't representing either of those 'bodies.' That leaves the causal body that many in the East consider to be a higher subtle body, beyond even the mental body that was seen moving through the arch. Seems I read that when belief in personality ends, the 'essence' of You is absorbed into the causal body . . . or shifts to the causal body form?
"In the vision, that happens when the raven - when belief in the religious-spiritual self - comes to an end and is transformed into the gull. So that's where the birds come in. But I also read that there will eventually come an awareness of all 'others' and that there will no longer be anything 'seen' as another - as an 'other' - and that what will then seen is the unicity, Love, wisdom, bliss, everythingness, nothingness.
"So that begins with the manifestation of the gull and comes into its fullness in the cave":
To your left and to your right drift millions of forms, and on closer inspection, You see that they are . . . You! Each looks to be a clone maybe a transparent clone but a clone nevertheless of You!
Then, it was recalled that Maharaj taught: " . . . there is something that may be called the memory body, or causal body, a record of all that was thought, wanted and done. It is like a cloud of images held together."
At that point, what flashed into consciousness was "Jung" and "archetypes" and the genetic codes serving as a storehouse of images of the entire human experience."
Then I went back to the readings and found this:
Maharaj: " . . . what prevents the insight into one’s True Nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only."
It became clear that the gross body is required for the manifestation of consciousness but that there's so much more to grasp beyond that. It also became clear that the focus and preoccupation with the gross body had to be transcended in order for any understanding of that which is beyond the physical only to manifest. Yet it was also clear that it was not the Am-ness that had to be forsaken but merely the tendency to focus on the gross alone. I searched for another passage that flashed into consciousness at that moment and found this:
Maharaj: "Abandon all self-concern; worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual; abandon every desire, gross or subtle; stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing."
"Yes! There it is. Confirmation of what I was concluding about the raven coming to end - bringing to an end the playing of the false religious and false spiritual roles. 'Worry not about . . . [the] material or [the] spiritual.' Abandon it all! Yes!"
Then another passage flashed into consciousness and the readings were searched through again until this was found:
Maharaj: "Your true being is entirely unself-conscious, completely free from all self-identification with whatever it may be . . . gross, subtle or transcendental"
as well as this exchange:
M: "Again, you take yourself to be the body."
Questioner: "Even if I dismiss this body of bones, flesh and blood as not-me; still I remain with the subtle body made up of thoughts and feelings, memories and imaginations. If I dismiss these also as not-me, I still remain with consciousness, which also is a kind of body."
M: "You are quite right, but you need not stop there. Go beyond."
"Beyond the three bodies? Is that an invitation to go to the borderline, and then move even beyond that . . . to the void? To the nothingness?"
Wow. This vision is packed chock full! So many of the final pieces of the puzzle which had been missing are now falling into place! Now to find where the borderline is . . . and what the borderline is."
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.
