TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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 Sixty-Three =
No Interest in Being Truly Free and Independent
THE MASSES PREFER DEPENDENCY AND CODEPENDENCY AND ATTACHMENT TO THE THINGS WHICH ROB PERSONS OF THEIR FREEDOM
Today the discussion of the ways by which persons are robbed of their freedom continues with the sharing of additional pointers from the book Overcoming the Fear of Being Totally Independent will be shared.
To take the discussion to another level, it might be said that the masses are less afraid of freedom than they are uninterested in freedom. Why? First, they do not know that they are not free.
In the U.S., mislabeled a "democracy," persons love to talk about their freedoms, to sing about their freedoms, and to think they are separated from "others" who are not as free. The previous president even made the ignorance-based claim that people "hate us for our freedoms."
Not because the U.S. has historically robbed others of their freedom, but because the U.S. has its own freedom? They are jealous? Hatred is not inspired because the "defense budget" is larger than the defense budgets of all other nations combined and is used to fund efforts to control or to nation-build or to try to mold the world into its own image?
In fact, the U.S. has not defended itself successfully for decades, so that "defense budget" is really an "offense budget," used far more to attack than to defend. Might that have something to do with much of the global animosity?
Yet that same president who verbalized his theory about "why they hate us - it's because of our freedoms and our being a democracy" was elected to his office though his opponent had 543,895 more votes. Democracy? Free?
The electoral college, not popular votes, determine who is president. Where is freedom and democracy there? Refuse to pay the taxes imposed by the federal government and see how free you are.
Drive faster than the authorities tell you that you can drive, drive by a policeman who is hiding in wait along the highway (just as robbers did in the past), and you'll pay a fine in the $250-$300 range. Free? Really? Yet the masses here really believe that they are free.
Now, while the beliefs they have about being a part of a "democracy" and being free are nothing more than parts of a culture-wide, nationalism-and-ego-inspired delusion, the real entrapment comes each day as a result of the "prison of the mind" and "the prison of personality."
And that is another level at which the masses have no clue at all that they have no freedom, that they are not free at all; additionally, most persons do not want to be independent to even a small degree, much less totally independent, so Realization cannot come.
The masses prefer dependence, having been programmed and conditioned and acculturated to believe that establishing and maintaining dependencies and co-dependencies are the prerequisites for happiness:
"It is normal to do so," they will claim, the consciousness having been so warped or so blocked that it is dependency and co-dependency - and not total freedom . . . not total independence - which have been normalized and endorsed on a culture-wide basis. To move to that next level of the understanding, however, this irony must be seen:
in terms of the non-duality understanding, all are already free because that "all" refers to nothing more than mere specks of conscious-energy that cannot even be touched, much less imprisoned.
At one point on the "path," the teacher might say that "your freedom has been stripped away by the mirages which you persons take to be real"; however, it is seen by seekers that move farther along the "path" that a mirage cannot take away anything and that nothing can be taken away from a person that is not real in the first place.
A non-real mirage cannot do anything to a not-real person, and a not-real person cannot do anything to anyone or anything. The point is, That Which You Truly Are is already totally free, but that pointer cannot be understood by the persons who do not know What That Is Which They Actually Are.
The energy-consciousness which can use the pronoun "I" to speak of itself cannot be bound or imprisoned, though temporarily manifested in a body it might be. And that presence in a body-cum-consciousness is far more finite than is understood by the masses and is also often misunderstood by many claiming the Realized state.
So free is the conscious-energy that there is actually no continuity of the manifested consciousness even in a body-cum-consciousness. If the consciousness were a finite, individually-identifiable amount of energy that was not constantly coming and going into and out of any given space or form, then no human or living thing would ever need to eat again.
But the consciousness that was present two months ago in this plant food body-cum-consciousness that is called "floyd" is not the same quantity of conscious-energy that is present today. A constant re-supply of three things is required for what is called "life" to continue:
A. elements must be re-supplied (the skin covering this space today being totally different from the skin that was present 28 days ago, for example);
B. the oxygen must be re-supplied (which is the issue now being faced by this plant food body since oxygen is not being re-supplied at normal levels as a result of less-than-normal activity by the heart or lungs or both);
and
C. the conscious-energy must be re-supplied (which is accomplished by eating plants).
That is all these manifestations called "you" or "floyd" are about: elements, air, energy - the "composite unity."
Only the illusion of "memory" leads persons to believe otherwise. The fact is that the consciousness is so free that it cannot be bound within any space for more than a brief period. To use the "I" accurately to refer to the ever-in-motion consciousness means it can be stated factually that "I AM" and it can be understood that "I" - a speck of energy - am totally free.
But the consciousness blocked by a programmed and conditioned mind has no interest in being free, that is, free of its delusions, free of its illusions, and free of its false but assumed identities / roles / ego-states / stage characters / actors / personalities / personas . . . call them what you will.
While the realized state is accessible to all who would but see it, it is a state that is "reached" by only a few thousand at any given time because of the attachment that persons have to their false notions about "individuality," about things "personal," or about some "unique selfhood" to which they cling.
Not unlike the largest, most powerful ship on the planet which is still not free as long as it remains attached to a dock, so too are persons not free as long as there is the slightest attachment to the illusions of a personal, individuated self.
As long as a belief in any personality remains, as long as there is even one persona that is thought to be real, then freedom will be surrendered to the two elements that accompany every persona, namely, fears (which are imagined) and desires (which are never met with any consistency).
As noted, husbanding can happen even if the assumption of the role of "The Husband" is cast aside; however, if that false identity remains, it will generate desires and fears. So, too, is the case with "The Wife," "The Good Child," "The Perfect One," "The Helper / Savior," "The Boss," "The Knower," "The Patriot," ad infinitum.
Each belief held and each persona adopted will serve as one of the bars of the prison of your "mind." As long as a "mind" is present, total freedom cannot manifest; furthermore, for most, freedom is not at all what they think freedom is, especially in light of what is revealed via the nisarga yoga.
Louise wrote: "The dawning of the natural state is not what you expect." How very accurate.
Freedom is not about being free to attain what one wants, for anything wanted is only wanted by an illusory ego-state. It is wanting during the relative existence, in fact, that ends any opportunity to understand real freedom during that existence.
Similarly, it is trying to keep what one has accumulated (including not only places and things but persons as well) that ends any opportunity to understand real freedom during that existence.
It is the toll of trying to maintain what one has accumulated (including not only places and things but persons as well) that ends any opportunity to understand real freedom during that existence.
Freedom is not about hanging onto this or that; it is about being willing to give it all up, including all accumulations and any and all identification. Some at any given time may be trapped in the most horrific circumstances on the planet, relatively speaking, exposed to famine and abject poverty and war and rape and murder.
The realized feel that pain and suffering; the Realized, as Love, would that it would end; but the realized know that as long as there are persons, there shall be conflict and stupidity and insanity and relative harm and relative imprisonment.
Yet as high as the numbers are of those suffering physically, the most widespread suffering comes to the billions who are trapped in their mirages. If you want to know what that illusory prison looks like, watch a street mime in Paris that is seemingly trapped inside an invisible box, raising his palms and pushing on one side after another in an effort to escape and be free.
You, "the Pure Witness," see that there is no prison, that there is total freedom. You understand full well that the mime could walk away from his perceived entrapment whenever he chooses (except for the fact that adopting a persona ends any opportunity to choose).
You know that the glass box is not real, is mere fantasy, is just a part of the play-acting, is a figment of the imagination. Yet look how real it seems to the one trapped in the illusion. Notice how clueless and perplexed he is (and how clueless and perplexed all persons are) when lost in the dream . . . when trapped in an imaginary prison.
Yet the non-realized live life in the fashion of that mime and believe that the glass box is real, though it is only an invention of the mind. Yet how even inventions can bring mental misery and emotional suffering!
So it is when those separated from Reality seemingly live in the imaginary prison of false beliefs, of false identities, of false-personality-based fears, and of false-personality-based desires.
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.
