TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. [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]
2. 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.
3. 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 Thirty-Two =
Not Being Able to Understand That the Presence Of Wisdom Leads to De-accumulating What Maharaj Called - "Knowledge," a.k.a., "Learned Ignorance" - and Also Allows One to Avoid Being Fooled
Any talk about "the good old days" and belief in the myth that one nation or another was "great in the past" is all rooted in ignorance and xenophobic nonsense.
True, my Cherokee Grandmother did not have running water or electricity in her cabin for most of the years of my youth which were spent visiting her.
True, even in her 70's she plowed her one-acre garden with a mule rather than anything mechanical.
True, wood had to brought in and put in her wood-burning stove in order for her to cook.
True, she never drove a car even once.
True, she had an outdoor toilet rather than indoor plumbing.
True, living in the middle of an East Texas, Cherokee County forest with her was "an adventure" to me, but all of the above was viewed by most people to be an inconvenience.
But never did it occur to Grandmother or to me to believe that abiding with what was seen as "deprivations" by many somehow made us better than "city folks."
Did I prefer the quiet of Grandmother's homestead to the chaos of the inner city where my parents lived? You bet. Did I long to have to break the ice on the well on winter mornings to allow water to be drawn every morning?
Would I prefer today to not have a car or to still be plowing a field with a mule?
Would I prefer to have an outhouse where I had to check for spiders before sitting down to take care of business rather than the indoor toilets in the house here?
Were those really the good old days, all things considered?
Should I hate anything deemed to be "progressive" by those attached to certain nostalgic memories about how much better this nation was "back then" when members of the KKK were still hanging blacks for slights that were considered to be high offenses by the white supremacists in our neighborhood in the city and surrounding states? No, and no.
Yet there are those who have been fooled by propaganda, lies, and brainwashing to believe that things were so much better in "the good old days."
If persons were to all become reasonable and rationale in a flash, they would see that the greatest challenge being faced but ignored all around the globe is to stop being fooled and to stop acting the way that those playing the role of "The Complete Fool" act.
The following has been shared on this site periodically as the topic of "avoiding foolishness" has been discussed throughout the 14 years that posts have been offered here:
Reaching the fourth of the seven steps from (a) identification with the false "I" body to (b) understanding the Absolute / Your Original Nature is a step towards de-accumulation, not towards accumulation.
That means not accumulating more knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance"); not accumulating more religious knowledge; not accumulating more spiritual knowledge; not accumulating "good" and "Special" Noumenal Identities;
that means not accumulating more accouterments (such as special pillows on which special bowls can be placed so that they can be struck with special sticks, or such as special sticks covered in special coatings that can be burned, or such as special bells that can rung,
or such as special water that can be sprinkled, or such as special crystals which can arranged in special patterns on especially-spiritual days of the year, ad infinitum).
That means as well not accumulating more things, more stuff, or more externals. That means as well not accumulating special robes or special turbans or special beards or special things to hang around one’s neck.
That means not accumulating special books that are deemed to be “holy” or special books by special authors who have achieved special fame (including those Maharaj referred to as "The Big Name Teachers" whom he warned seekers to avoid at all costs. That means not accumulating special pyramids to sit beneath.
That means not accumulating the items which some persons have reported that they have “used effectively over the years,” including ritual bags, spell kits, spirit offering bags, skeleton key talisman necklaces, prayer beads and rosaries,
conjure bags and medicine bags, divine union kits, love kits, dream pillows, purification kits, tranquility kits, ritual bath kits, astrology mojo bags, and – as the ultimate antithesis to the suggestion to de-accumulate – prosperity and abundance kits.
Consider this observation: "There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase most likely spoken by David Hannum, in criticism of both P.T. Barnum, an American showman of the mid 19th century, and his customers. The phrase is often credited to Barnum himself. It means "People are foolish, and will always be fools."
First, no one is born because all that is actually happening in that regard is that elements are cycling. That aside, though, suckers and fools are not born, either. They are made, and - yes - they are being made every minute, all around the globe.
As mentioned earlier, an elemental plant food body might arrive nine months after conception with one or more of a variety of mutation-generated defects; it might arrive with brain damage; it might arrive with a learning disability;
it might arrive with a very low IQ; it might arrive with missing or deformed body parts; and I met a child who arrived with a cleft lip and palate, looking as if someone had used a surgical tool shaped like an ice cream scoop to dip out the center of his face.
While all of those conditions can mark a newly-formed composite unity, no child has ever already been a full-blown “sucker” or “fool” at the moment of arrival.
Not one has ever arrived as a neurotic or as a psychotic. Not one has ever arrived with fully-developed personalities, so not one has ever arrived with full-blown personality disorders.
(Yes, research is showing that arrivals can be marked by certain tendencies and propensities, some of which are genetic and some of which involve chemical imbalances set up in the womb because pregnant women abused drugs or used alcohol during their pregnancies or consumed unhealthy, chemical-laden foods, etc. But no child begins its relative existence as a complete and total and all-out “sucker” or “fool").
Being a sucker or a fool involves having a mind filled with foolishness, and while almost every child usually arrives with a brain, no child arrives with a mind at all.
(In fact, it was not until the human brain evolved from its original one cup size to its present 3-1/2 cup size that any human ever had a mind, that is, ever had areas of the brain where information could be stored and from which information could be retrieved).
No one can be a sucker or a fool unless one was taught to be a sucker or a fool, and that teaching process is never began with the intent of making a sucker or a fool.
It always begins with the intention of making a child “good”; of making a child “a faithful Christian / Jew / Muslim / Hindu / Buddhist" etc.; and of making a child “virtuous” so as not to be "sinful” (or at least "behaving properly" and being "good" in order to make the life of parents easier).
[Recall what Maharaj said in that regard: “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.”
But where did a person’s notions about “virtue” and “sin” begin? While certain archetypal images may come “preloaded genetically,” the specific beliefs about what makes someone virtuous as opposed to being sinful is taught and learned. Being a sucker or a fool never begins when a child is “born.” It begins when ignorant and insane and foolish programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination processes begin.]
Again, Maharaj said "knowledge" comes to each child after its arrival, not before, and that the knowledge which is passed down to a child after its arrival amounts to “learned ignorance.”
Once suckers and fools are made, if they later reach the age of a teen or an adult and procreate, then those suckers and fool are most likely to start making their own suckers and fools.
Regarding his son who had just been arrested for theft and drug use, a man lamented, “I don’t know how that boy turned out the way he did.”
The reply: “Really? You really don’t know? Then I suppose you would not be interested in my explaining exactly how that happened, would you?” (His reply came not with words but with a symbolic gesture made with his middle finger.)
The reason that Maharaj suggested that “ . . . You should go back, reverse, to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came” is because it was during the “coming in leg” when foolishness was added, when each child is relocated early on to the Land of Suckerdom.
The “realization” process, Maharaj said, is about nothing more than taking the steps required to be free of the learned ignorance which was taught.
On the child's “path” coming in from the source, it was
after parents who had been taught ignorance
and
who accepted without questioning a plethora of falsehoods as fact
and
who then passed down the learned ignorance of previous generations to their next generation
that their child was snatched from the peace of the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State” and was taught volumes of ignorance and was assigned all sorts of false identities.
In 97% of all case (since that is how many persons on the planet claim to be affiliated with one religion or another) the earliest false identities / personalities / personas / roles deal with religious identities.
Then the criteria for being “good” or “bad” were taught; next, the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” daycare attendee were taught or the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” student were taught;
then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” citizen were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” employee were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” citizen were taught; then the criteria for being a “good” or “bad” mate or spouse were taught; etc., etc., etc.
And who teaches another what it is that supposedly makes a “good” or “bad” mate or spouse? An expert trained in the development of healthy relationships? Someone who has previously witnessed a healthy relationship being modeled for eighteen years in her or his home?
Or someone with a hidden agenda regarding the benefits to be gained from a particular kind of relationship? Or someone who has a particular set of moral values which a mate or spouse should mirror?
Or someone who is the king or queen of manipulation and knows how to have his or her every expectation met? Or someone who was catered to by indulgent parents and who now wants a mate or spouse to continue that same kind of pampering?
Or someone who has particular sexual preferences that might or might not be similar to the preferences of the one they are molding or shaping into the kind of mate or spouse that is exactly as desired, without exception? Or someone who feels entitled to nothing but the best and who is so vain that he or she assumes to know what is always best and what is falling short of the best?
The lyrics of a song recorded by The Outsiders Band and made famous by The American Breed Band illustrate the mindset that many adopt in an effort to try to “please others” and to “be loved in return”:
“Bend Me, Shape Me”
You are all the woman I need
And baby you know it
(Know it, know it, know it)
You can make this beggar a king
A clown or a poet
(Poet, poet, poet)
I'll give you all that I own
You got me standing in line
Out in the cold
Pay me some mind
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power
to turn on the light
Everybody tells me I'm wrong
To want you so badly
(Badly, badly, badly)
But there's a force driving me on
I follow it gladly
(Gladly, gladly, gladly)
So let them laugh I don't care
'Cause I got nothing to hide
All that I want is you by my side
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power
To turn on the light
Yeah, bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
Long as you love me
It's all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me
You got the power
To turn on the light.
The “force driving persons on” is the force of a mind driven by the subconscious agendas of all of the personalities which have been assigned or assumed; the force of a mind filled with nonsense and foolishness which allows sucker-ness to flourish;
and the force driving persons not unlike the two lyricists who wrote the words in that song,
including the “Dependent Personality Disorder,” “The Co-Dependent Personality Disorder,” The Avoidant Personality Disorder,” and many other such mental aberrations which are part of the hand-me-down baggage which was owned by generations of persons before and which the most recent members of that line of humanity are now passing along one more time.
It is at the fourth step where one shifts beyond the assumption of any roles as identities and moves back to the Child No-Knowing State after following the same "path" by which the "coming in" happened, but in reverse order.
Going back to the same conditions and circumstances that were in place the last time that unconditional happiness was experienced is the only way that it can be experienced again.
Abiding as a child in the No-Knowing, pre-programmed, pre-conditioned, pre-domesticated, pre-acculturated, pre-Ultimately-Sickened state, one can be free of dependence on externals which can only provide conditional and limited intervals of happiness;
thus, to reach even the fourth of seven steps on the "path" is worthwhile, relatively speaking. To be free of all false identities and their hidden agendas - which are rooted in personality disorders and in the other corrupt content of the "mind" - would leave one freer than most on the planet will ever be.
Otherwise, one will abide in a totally dependent and / or co-dependent state, never truly free. Because being free is a prerequisite for being happy, then happiness can never come when one believes that she or he is dependent on external things and people and places in order to be happy.
When one's supposed "happiness" is conditional - as is always the case if operating under the influence of the conditioned "mind" - then one cannot be happy if one's child is not happy;
if one's mate or lover or friends or family members are not happy; if one's employer is not happy; if one's customers are not happy; if one's fellow citizens are not happy; if the people of "the world" are not happy.
Meanwhile, should you follow Maharaj's advice and head back toward the source and follow the path back in the way by which you came - except in reverse order - and thereby reach the non-dual, no-mind, zero concepts, no-beliefs condition that last existed while in "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State,” then freedom and peace and wisdom and sanity await.
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.
