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 Forty-nine =
No Interest in Being Truly Free and Independent
THE MASSES PREFER DEPENDENCY AND CODEPENDENCY AND ATTACHMENT TO THINGS WHICH ROB PERSONS OF THEIR FREEDOM
Today the discussion of freedom will continue as additional pointers from the book Overcoming the Fear of Being Totally Independent are shared.
". . . You are afraid of freedom!"
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES (cont.)
l. "freedom" is the absence of ceremony and the ability to live naturally.
The questions for consideration today are,
A."Are you interested enough in freedom, in total freedom, to abandon all of the myth-based and ignorance-based ceremonies in your culture that preempt Realization?"
and
B. "Have you ever considered that ceremonies are one of the key tools that cultures use for programming and conditioning persons and for reinforcing their belief in superstitions, myths, and lies, thereby blocking any opportunity to see clearly and to see Truth?"
For millions of years, humans lived naturally, without ceremony. A few thousand years ago, language allowed concepts to arise and to be taught and allowed for ceremonies to begin. Once ceremonies began, persons began living unnaturally and began trying to live supernaturally (that is, religiously or spiritually) in an effort to gain some things and to avoid some things.
Humans for millennia had migrated, following the food (that is, following the migrating herds and hunting animals for food) or visiting places on a seasonal basis (to search for certain edible plants that were ripe and ready to eat at different times of the year in different locations).
Once some humans stopped migrating because they had developed some basic agricultural skills, one of the earliest things they wanted was rain for crops, and they dreamed up a ceremony that they thought would guarantee that their crops would receive the needed water. That ceremony led to the ceremonies that dominate all of the religions of Abraham to this day.
While one advantage of agriculture was that people were no longer forced into constant travel, one disadvantage was that they became slaves to varying weather patterns. Simultaneously with language development came the tool that would be used to spread ignorance and insanity on a global basis as persons became slaves to ceremony.
THE BASIS OF SOME OF THE MOST PREVALENT CEREMONIES THAT DRIVE UNNATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL LIVING
The concept of gods in other worlds who control every aspect of life on this planet was dreamed up to explain what was not understood at the time by ignorant people, so self-appointed priests began programming people to believe, dualistically, that everything "good" or everything "bad" that happened on this planet was determined by whether the other-world gods were pleased or displeased by human conduct.
Ceremonies to keep the gods happy in order to gain reward began to flourish, and peace and contentment or lack thereof became tied directly to persons' ceremonies and their fictional gods. The imaginary gods that were dreamed up included first a creator-god, a sustainer-god, and a god of punishment and destruction.
Other gods were added into subcategories of those three: a god of rain, a god of death, a god of the sun, a god of the moon, a god of war, a god of love, a god of the underworld, a god of growth, a god of agriculture, a god of wealth, a god of fertility, ad infinitum.
NOTE: The groundwork was laid for Abraham eventually to introduce "The Single God Theory," but the ignorant masses merely rolled all of their gods into one and came up with the schizophrenic god that is worshipped today by billions.
Why schizo? Because "He" will create and will sustain, but He will, if provoked to anger, also destroy (though supposedly loving unconditionally . . . but not really):
"I created you. You are my child. I will care for you. I love you unconditionally, but I am also willing to cast you into an eternal flame and make you suffer physical pain and mental-emotional misery forever. But again, I do love you unconditionally."
[As a six-year-old hearing that contradictory nonsense, it was exclaimed: "Say what?!" A few instances of corporal punishment later, questioning ended and "unquestioning faith" began.]
In the non-duality based fictional novel The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, it is shown how the blending of multiple gods into one god has resulted in the Christian prayer that can be heard three times a day at mealtime, such as this breakfast prayer that starts most days among those affiliated with that faith:
“Dear God from whom all power and life and blessings come, we thank You for watching over us during the night. As our troops prepare for battle overseas, please give them strength and victory over the evil forces. We pray to you in your son’s name, God, to protect our boys and women and give them the strength needed. We ask Your blessing on my grandson and his wife, that they might become pregnant if it is in Your will. Now bless this food that You have given to us for the nourishment of our bodies. Amen.”
That morning ceremony has people talking in their sleep to ancient, pagan gods. Count the number they are speaking to: there is a creator-god, the empowering god, the blessing god, the father god of a savior son, the god of war, the god of fertility, and the god of agriculture.
So without having the slightest clue that they are praying to the multiple gods of the ancient pagan religions, two billion people speak the words they are programmed and conditioned to speak, trapped in their dreams and not free at all because of their ceremonies (including the ceremony of talking to multiple, imaginary gods before one can even eat a meal).
Thus, it can be seen how persons become trapped in their delusions because of their ceremonies which, practiced daily, preempt almost all opportunity for Realization to happen because of the constant "reinforcement by ceremony" of the lies that they believe throughout their cultures. Again, "freedom" is the absence of ceremony and the ability to live naturally.
One of the earliest ceremonies was the ceremony to the god of rain, and that was the basis of the first religious ceremony which is described as follows in the ebook, Spiritual Sobriety:
THE WORLD’S FIRST RELIGIOUS CEREMONY / SERVICE
The message from the first Medicine Man-Priest was: “All in the community must meet to learn about god / the gods.” Once gathered, he told them, “There is a god of rain who lives in another world. He told me that I am his chosen representative on earth. He also said he is not allowing it to rain because he is angry.” (Now, what appeases an angry male? Sex.) So the priest continued:
“The rain god wants a sacrifice—a virgin—and he told me that the one who is willing to die for him will be given a reward in his world. As the rain god’s representative on earth, I will have the virgin for him, sacrifice her to him, and then we’ll have an activity that allows us to commune with that god.
"We’ll cut out her beating heart, pass it around, and share in eating the body and blood; that way, we can all commune with god. Then, by sacrificing and communing, we will be blessed and get what we want from god."
Thus, a self-appointed “Medicine Man”—claiming without challenge that he was hearing voices from another world—was about to pass on a message of hope to a naïve, superstitious, fear-based people who were in dread of starving.
From that single message and that single act of sacrificing a virgin, that “priest” set forth the sixteen basic tenets by which all future religions would operate. (The tenets are discussed in detail in that book but will be listed later in this volume.)
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.
