TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. I had to reschedule the two pending post-cataract-surgery corrective procedures until October 26th, so postings may continue to happen somewhat sporadically.
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 Six-
Blindness and Its Cousin, Magical Thinking
To review:
We saw yesterday how a woman's magical thinking shut down any chance for her husband to follow through on some key questions he had asked and to seek to understand why he felt victimized rather than understanding how he is the source, the cause, of what is happening to him; how the agendas of his personas are driving self-destructive, self-defeating behaviors; why he is so miserable; and why his and his wife's lives are marked by chaos and instability.
But she identified the cause of all that was happening to him thusly: "It's God."
So per her magical thinking, there's a God who is causing all of his supposed victimization, all of his self-destructive, self-defeating behaviors, all of their misery, all of their chaos, and all of their instability.
And in her mind, all of that should be discounted, ignored, disregarded, and overlooked for now and all of that should be accepted and tolerated and deemed to be okay for now because it's God who is causing all of that for a reason which will be revealed later on. And her magical, irrational thinking further leads her to believe that it makes sense to stick with a God who operates in that fashion. Really?
Her magical-thinking-based explanation of the cause of his / their problems ended any chance of his finding out what is actually causing all of those problems, much less what steps could be taken to end them. Such is the toll of magical thinking.
Also yesterday:
(1) Duality produces blindness,
and - ironically -
(2) blindness often also results during the seeking of the non-dual understanding as well.
Magical thinking will always block any effort to see one's "selfs" at play and thereby become free of their insane and ignorant influence. Neither she nor her husband are ever likely to wake up to the factors which are driving their misery and guaranteeing their entrapment in the darkness of their ignorant programming, conditioning, etc. They are not likely to ever seek truth.
They will not likely ever engage in a "selfs inventory" and identify the subconscious agendas which are driving their thoughts and words and actions and resulting in all of their relative problems.
Yet those who do seek truth or a non-dual understanding are often just as blind because of their attachment to their "SELF-Inquiry" process.
That tomorrow.
(2) My, how persons (especially those who have assumed a “Really Good” or “Supreme” Persona or Identity) can totally ignore - or can even become riled up by - some of Maharaj words which challenge their supposedly-sacred belief systems while remaining attached to other of his words if they reinforce their beliefs about their “Selfness.”
Some, for example, become aggravated when they learn he said this:
“You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not. What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.”
How dare he short-circuit their “Self-Inquiry Process" and their “Pride-Engendering 'Self''-Discovery.”
When he suggests that "the Self is consciousness," understand that conscious is but energy. Everything in this universe is energy-matter. Consciousness is actually conscious-energy. Want to know what you can point to accurately with the word “Self”? Energy. Merely energy, and energy does not come in a “Supreme” form. It is just . . . energy. Yet "energy" does so much less for ego (and for "The Ego" and the egotism supporting it) than identities such as "The Self" or "The Supreme Self" or "The Infinite Self."
“Self-Inquiry” and Jnana Yoga go hand-in-hand, so Maharaj's Jnana Yoga phase generated talk about “Self-Inquiry.”
By contrast, “self-inquiry” and the nisarga yoga go hand-in-hand, so the farther he moved away from guru-bhakti and bhakti and jnana yoga – and the closer he moved toward a pure Nisargan yoga message - the more he focused on "self"-inquiry.
And the more he focused on “self"-inquiry, the farther he moved away from guru-bhakti and bhakti and jnana yoga and "love of Self" and "Self"-Inquiry.
That is why (once Realized) he did not give a tinker’s damn about Self and it is why – after his teachings evolved completely – he didn’t give a rat’s patoo about “Self” or about anything to do with “Self” or about a false Self or about an assumed Self or about an identified Self or Identifiable Self (or about a “Self with an Identity”). How, then, could he any longer care about “Self-Inquiry” either, once he reached the point where he proclaimed that he had "even lost the love of Self"? He could not.
Once abidance happens as one’s Original Nature - and is thus devoid of both self-ness and Self-ness and devoid of any identity or identities or “An Identity” or “A Special Identity” or “A Supreme Identity” - then only can the perfectly peaceful state of true identity-less-ness (and “Identity-Less-Ness") be reached.
Maharaj: Again, “What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.”
The closest thing to an “identity” that will be found at the end of the seven step “path” is . . . "a form of energy" or an understanding of one’s no-identity and No-Identity Original Nature when
awareness was but was not aware of
and
when awareness might offer the opportunity for awareness to manifest as consciousness which - in the early going - was not conscious-of.
Conscious-of-ness came only after (1) programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination and after (2) the manifestation of a belief in dualistic concepts which allow for “A” to believe that it is conscious of a “B” (and a “C” and a “D,” etc., near-infinitum).
While “Self-Inquiry” will require so much more time and energy and preoccupation, and while it will lead to being distracted from the AM-ness and will lead to putting the joys of the relative existence on hold, either “self-inquiry” or “Self-Inquiry” will do just fine for seekers if the non-dual, no-identity, No-Identity, no-concept understanding is reached in the end.
Yet why else did Maharaj eventually begin recommending the more direct and the shorter "find who you are not journey"? Because he came to understand that . . .
(a) humankind’s problems do not exist because so few people ever find the answer to “Who Am I, Really?” and because
(b) humankind’s problems do not exist because most people will never hear and understand such terms as “the Supreme Self” or “Brahman” or “the Self Beyond” or “Atman” or “Realization”; and because
(c) humankind’s problems do actually exist because of the failure to understand what they are not, namely, all of the personas which have been assigned or assumed (including the really “good ones” and “special ones,” as in “b” above).
And that is why Maharaj said, “You need not know what you are. Enough to know what you are not. What ‘You Are’, you will never know, for every discovery reveals new dimensions to conquer.”
So why did Maharaj even discuss steps 5-7 for years? Why are they offered here at times? Because they do provide a means by which “Your Original Nature” can be understood, allowing for "conscious abidance as THAT Nature" if you would enjoy sanity and peace now.
Yet even if persons never understand THAT Nature, if they do understand all that they are not, they will abide in a manner which will be far more similar to THAT Nature once they have been freed of all identifications (because THAT Nature had no identification / identifications, either).
See? This really can be far simpler than most make it.
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 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.
