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."
So, what now?
It should be seen that there should be many choices or decisions made by seekers before they ever begin seeking. How often does that happen? Never.
It differs little from the way that that the 97% of the persons on planet earth who claim an affiliation with one organized religion or another ended up being affiliated with whichever religion they are involved with now.
How many of that 97% - before making a commitment to the religion which they are affiliated with - ever looked at all of the specific aspects of that particular religion’s history and dogma and teaching methods and (a) their claims about how their religion will lead its followers to live vs. (b) the actual way that its members conduct themselves?
The answer? In the beginning: none. Not one. Not a single person. The choice was made for them without any input from them because it was their parents who took them to a particular church or mosque or synagogue or temple or whatever and enrolled them in that religion’s programs.
That’s how it began. Later on? Well, a few might decide that something is missing so they might look around at other venues.
As a result, they might change denominations or sects, though that is rare; in a few cases, they might choose another institution that is almost a clone of the one their parents introduced them to, remaining attached to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, whatever and just trying a slightly-different iteration within the same “faith.”
I left the Baptist evangelical church I was raised in and became a Methodist for a time (at the highest level of being disingenuous by taking that step only to try to satisfy and hang onto the woman in my life at time. Sick, huh?)
Again, that religion was pretty much a clone of the Baptist church down the street that I had attended.
(As one Methodist minister would point out, “We Methodists are really just Baptists who happened to learn to read!” I found that to be the case. Same religion – Christianity – and just a different, but not too different, denomination therein.)
So if persons do leave the religion they were introduced to by their parents – an almost-nonexistent occurrence – they will remain within the same religion while shopping around for a different denomination or different version of that same religion.
So religious affiliations are determined by someone other than the persons following that particular religion and are the result of those followers blindly doing what they were told to do or shown to do.
Whatever the "final affiliation" is, it's always the result of an accident and involves no conscious search and study and consideration and reconsideration without any logical and fact-based inquiries having occurred.
As for those who end up "seeking spiritually," and seeking beyond what they were initially introduced to? Wherever they “end up” in their search and wherever their “journey” leads them is similarly an accident.
Some might be in a “Recovery Step Program" which they visited, often as an act of desperation. That membership will encourage them to join fixate there.
Or they might end up in an ashram or in a particular philosophical or ideological group.
Whatever the case, they can easily join any such organization or group or gathering and become totally obsessed with that organization or group because they were conditioned early on in a church or temple or synagogue or mosque to normalize all cult-like thinking and talking and behavior.
Sky-cult-nonsense has dominated humankind's thinking and talking and behavior for over 5,000 years and is as just misguided - but just as strong today - as ever.
Some end up focusing on the non-dual teachings and can become as obsessive-compulsive around those teachings and the teachers thereof.
But again, where seekers end up in any case is also a complete accident.
How many studied the five methods of teachings first and determined which made sense to them?
How many studied the various types of yoga first and determined which might best complement the teaching method they choose?
How many ended up working with someone who truly understands the exact steps which can lead to freedom or total realization?
And how many ended up where they ended up, and ended up with the teacher or guru they ended up with, out of a conscious effort based in having found all of the facts involved with methods and yogas and paths, etc. as opposed to how many ended up where they are as a result of their unconscious wandering about in a search on on a quest or on a "journey"?
Again, almost none. It’s usually – as with religion – a damn crapshoot and nothing more.
So this series is being offered to those few who might be willing to find out all of the relevant facts before continuing any further in their search.
So once the methods and yogas are understood, then the next question is, “Which path shall be followed?”
Some say, “Follow no path.” Again, “the teachers who offer that advice see no need for study, for questioning or for inquiring into anything.”
Their approach? “Recognizing only the reality, and knowing that there is no seeker, they conclude that there is nothing to seek and nothing to teach.”
Want to try that? Rock and roll. What I have witnessed, though, is that such an approach is a formula for continued misery and suffering, but . . . whatever.
Moreover, there are teachers who understand the path – such as “the seven-step path” – but who later modify their approach to "a four-step path." It can become quite confusing for even the most earnest seeker.
And such modification was the case with Maharaj and such was the case here.
Tomorrow: The beginning of a more detailed look at the seven-step path vs. the four-step path and an opportunity for seekers to be informed about both become continuing with any further seeking.
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.
