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."
A REVIEW AND SUMMATION OF THE ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATIONS AND UNDERSTANDINGS WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION
This was offered yesterday:
213. After the vision came, and after much consideration of its content led to so many revelations and led the understanding to flood into awareness, three things also became clear:
a. The masses prefer magical thinking, dogma-driven thinking, and spiritual-driven thinking (which Maharaj classified as really nothing more than a “kindergarten” level of understanding what “spirituality” is, or more accurately, what “spirituality” is not) so most would not be interested in a study of the content of the vision and then Realized Fully;
So, on to “a” above:
214. The vision eliminated all of the earlier magical thinking that had been happening. Magical thinking was seen to be thinking that is based in non-fact, superstition, myth and false beliefs in other-worldly powers; thinking that generates the belief that there is a micro-managing power (or powers) in another realm that is in charge of all that happens in what the masses take to be “this world.”
215. it is the type of thinking that leads to the belief that there is a single cause for all happenings on the planet, namely, an external locus of control; the type of thinking that is inspired via religious or “spiritual” programming; the type of thinking that is often inspired by abuse and trauma suffered in such a degree that a desire for rescue by some external power is wished or hoped for; the type of thinking inspired by ego that wants control and therefore also wants a power at one’s beck and call that can grant wishes;
216. it is the fanciful thinking that leads persons to believe that they can petition a power in another realm that can then grant them control over people, places, things, weather, and all events; the type thinking that inspires the belief that weather-related happenings are not events in nature but are punishments or signs delivered by an angry, other-worldly power; it is the type of thinking based in ignorance;
217. it is the type of thinking that drives persons who have not even been born once to believe that they will be born multiple times; it is the type of thinking that dismisses scientific facts and endorses blind, unquestioning faith; it is the type thinking that blocks all awareness of Reality and imprisons persons in the confines of the false concepts of “a mind.”
218. It is the kind of thinking which leads the majority of the persons on the planet to think that when persons "die," the dead actually live on, and live on with a physical form that has an appearance that is so similar to the way they looked when alive on earth that they will be recognizable to family and friends, except that they will have a gauzy, see-through look and will have sprouted wings that allow them to float about in the sky and in heaven in a half-human, half-bird manner. (Gauzy or not, though, they think the physical form can experience pain - such as from flames - or can experience pleasures.)
219. It is the kind of thinking that, in the U.S., leads 87% of the population to belief that pregnancies result with input from three-parties instead of two. (They think that it requires a man and a woman engaging in an act of friction that results in a sperm cell fertilizing an egg, but they also think that a god in another world intervenes in the process and plays some role as well.)
220. It is the kind of thinking that generates the ignorance that Maharaj spoke of, that results in 87% of adults being so ignorant that they do not even understand the biological processes that allow elemental plant food bodies to play a role in the cycling of elements that form additional plant food bodies.
221. In the book "SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY: Recovering What Religions Lost," (see below) Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler is quoted as he discusses “psychosis,” a condition in which persons fail to differentiate between the symbolic (or the “abstract”) and the real (or the “concrete”) . . . an ability which the non-dual teachings can provide to some. He said:
“People are labeled ‘psychotic’ when they refer to mental representations as if they were substantive and real. One example [involves taking] the 'voice of conscience' as the literal voice of another being, known as 'hearing voices.' The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality.”
222. Indeed, the vision showed that magical thinking is based in fantasy rather than being in touch with reality and living naturally. Schaler also discusses another illness that can generate belief in illusions.”
223. Such is the abnormal “norm” now, but it need not be for those that come to understand fully the content of the vision.
224. The vision at the second step – the “mind step” - made clear that what is called “the mind” is merely the storehouse of all of the blockages of the pure consciousness which prevent clear seeing, which block pure witnessing, and which inspire belief in the false rather than understanding truth and The Truth. Then this came:
So humans are born with a brain but not with a mind; the mind is that storehouse of all the lies and concepts and knowledge / ignorance that persons accumulate; once filled with the nonsense that persons dream up, it becomes the source of all misery, constantly in movement, constantly imagining desires / fears as a result of programming and conditioning.
Persons each believe that they have what they call "my mind," but there is only "their mind," that is, the mind that is created by programmers who pass along their ideas, their notions, their concepts, their perspectives (all of which eventually are taken to be “one’s own beliefs” and which are given high esteem and worth and value and which are all erroneously deemed to be important, significant, and meaningful, all of which programmed persons then take to be their own ideas and all of which are used by persons to erroneously define “self”).
But so much of the content of the talks in I AM THAT deal with jnana – with knowledge or a “higher” knowledge – even as Maharaj tells some that their knowledge is “learned ignorance.” So what is with the focus on the knower and knowing and the known, only to be told later on that there is no knower, no “one” to know?
225. That led to a review of the stages of Maharaj’s “journey” and to an understanding of the fact that he offered “level appropriate pointers,” the result of which was that he would tell seeker “A” something in one talk and then tell seeker “B” the exact opposite in the next talk.
226. It also led to an understanding that would be discussed years later in a book entitled SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ and HIS EVOLUTION (see below), an understanding of the fact that, over the years, the type yoga that influenced his pointers shifted from guru-bhakti and bhakti; to bhakti and jnana; to jnana and nisargan; and eventually to the nisarga yoga alone.
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
"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 crime families are included? The Mafia . . . La Cosa Nostra, of course; however, what international crime families are the most influential and have the largest memberships?
The Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with more than 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. The masses must demand they step down and shut down, and there's the real problem because the crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who remain involved with them and who give them money and who support them and who aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and who 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.
