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 SEEDS OF DUALITY WHICH PRODUCE DUALITY'S PROGENY:
Offspring Number One -
What Others Have Witnessed about the Popularity of Magical Thinking in the U.S.
Duality-generated magical thinking is global, but what is called "The U.S." (or, more arrogantly, "America" (ignoring other North American, Central American, and South American nations) - has
since the time of the U.S. Holocaust when European invaders killed millions of the indigenous peoples
been one of the largest cesspools of distorted and delusional thinking on the planet.
What have some others witnessed in that regard?
Sean Illing, in an article entitled "Americans Have a Longstanding Love of Magical Thinking," shared some observations offered by Kurt Andersen, the author of Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire.
He noted that "The country got its start with people believing that they could create their own world, their own truth”; thus, the present descent into what he calls "anything-goes relativism" marked by "a willingness to buy into delusion and falsehood" should be no surprise.
His book argues that Americans have always been devoted to the fantastical — from early settlers searching for gold to conspiracy theories about the Freemasons to hustlers like P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill." Add to the self-assigned moniker of the U.S. claiming that it is "The Greatest Nation on Earth" and the stage has long been set for unchecked arrogance and egotism and a preference for appearance over substance. Living a lie and manufacturing a "positive but totally false image" has long been the national pastime.
Illing: "The 1960s, for Andersen, were a particularly pivotal moment because people began to experiment with different ways of understanding the world, which was initially liberating. But 'we became too skeptical, too loose with the truth,' Anderson argues, and 'that came back to bite us in the ass'.”
Also setting the stage for preferring lies over truth was the spread of the Ultimate Sickness which always brings and spreads the symptoms of that sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" along with their psychological cousins, gullibility and an ability to be fooled by even bigger fools.
Maharaj advised: "Give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind."
Illing: "The question is, why? What is it about the American experience, the American character, that cultivated this love of magical thinking? Why are so many of us committed to our own tailored versions of reality?"
Anderson: "Everything in America is like show business. That's the genesis of the idea that I saw happening as early as the 1800s when I started looking at it. In the 1830s, for example, we had newspapers publishing hoaxes as though they were news and religious evangelists going around the country advertising themselves in newspapers and performing as though it was a night at the theater.
"This accelerated in the 19th and especially the 20th century with Hollywood and television. America has collapsed the space between entertainment and news, reality and unreality, serious and unserious. This weird cocktail is part of American life, part of our culture and value system."
He said: "Part of the template I’m trying to provide here is a way for people to see how we might think of movies, the gaming industry, religion, finance, hospitality, real estate, and so many other things as part of the fantasy world we’ve created and live in." The result? "Now, we have a president who is the perfect expression of our disconnectedness from reality."
Early on, magical thinking and lying and selling a bogus "bill of goods" was implanted in the minds of the masses by lying leaders. In the Constitution, the founders - many of whom were slave-owners - nevertheless proclaimed that "all men are created equal."
That notion has been perpetuated in this nation for more than 240 years in spite of the fact that owning other (black) humans was legal from the beginning up until the early 1860's, and in spite of the fact that the law explained that when blacks are counted in the census they are to be counted as "three-fifths of a person"; and in spite of the fact that women were not allowed to vote until 1920.
Yet until recently, the U.S. has continued to give lip service to the founders' talk about equality and liberty for all but has also bombed or otherwise annihilated brown and black people all over the globe; has tolerated the ownership of black-skinned humans; has tolerated the abuse of women; still tolerates the abuse of children by the clergy; and tolerates the shooting of unarmed blacks by the hundreds each year; yet when leaders say that "This is the greatest nation on earth," the heads of the listening citizenry bob up and down in agreement.
Why is it said that lip service been given "until recently?" Because now, the trend is to follow the example set by the nation's current leadership and to make clear that all people are not equal and that non-whites and non-Christians are not welcome here and are not welcome to come here.
The duality-based notions of "racial supremacy," "different from," and "better than" now dominant the airways.
Hypocrisy and blatant lying has never been a deal breaker in the U.S.; instead, they have always been part and parcel of the deal-making among the power brokers, that is, among the nation's political and religious and business leaders.
Indeed, "Americans do have a longstanding love of magical, distorted, delusional thinking; however, the U.S. does not have a monopoly on magical, distorted, and delusional thinking.
Because the Ultimate Sickness is global, the acceptance and normalization of hypocrisy and blatant lying and racial and religious and economic discrimination and widespread foolishness are also the abnormal norm on the entire planet.
Some ask, "How can we change that?" The reply: "You cannot. You can only realize (meaning, free yourself of the belief in all 'learned ignorance') and thereby purge yourself of the influence of 'their mind' which is mistakenly thought to be 'your mind.' Then, abide naturally, under the auspices of the brain rather than the mind, the same way that every living thing on the planet abides except for humans."
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"
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
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
XX"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.
[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.
And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?
Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?
The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)
With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.
The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.]
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.
