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."
An assistant found two paperback copies of the book co-authored with Mark Houston, A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation, an excellent gift for someone struggling with an addiction to alcohol (or anything else, really). The book lists for $19.95 + Priority Mail shipping. To purchase, you may use the donate button at the top right of this page and include a note that the $27.60 is for the Twelve-Step book. Regrets to international visitors but this is only available within the U.S. because international shipping rates are prohibitive and time-consuming to mail and cannot be tracked.
To review: "the reverse journey” and "going back out" in "the exact reverse order" of the steps which “brought one in":
The first step involves coming to an understanding of the distortions and delusions and consequences and ramifications and limitations associated with body identification.
The second step involves coming to an understanding of the fact that there is no such thing as “your mind” and, therefore, no reason to value or cling to its nonsensical, fictional content.
The third step involves coming to a realization that personal identifications are nothing more than a host of dreamed up stage characters which persons play as they act out their relative existence while sleepwalking and sleep talking as they wander about on the stage of “The Theater of the Lie.”
Next, the fourth step - once body and mind and personality identifications have been cast aside - involves abiding in the same no-concept state, no-beliefs state, no-judgmental state, no-arrogance or narcissism state, no know-it-all state, no-entitlement state, no-wanting-control and no being-perpetually-angry state, and no-avoidance and denial and escapism state.
If the current perspective here aligns with Maharaj’s final conclusion (that the four-step path is enough,) then why are some materials being offered here which deal with the seven-step approach? Because some seekers do not want to settle for the four-step plan.
What is usually the determining factor in that regard? Their primary personality type.
Which seekers usually want to pursue an understanding of all seven steps? Any of the nine basic types can want more, but three types are especially attracted to the seven-step approach:
Personality Type Ones (Perfectionists)
Personality Type Fives (Knowledge Gatherers)
Personality Type Sevens (with their propensity to believe that there’s never enough of anything, setting them up for addictive thinking and the belief that they need more of everything, including more knowledge, more understanding, etc. if seeking).
Also, those who have been seeking and have only come across a couple of the many types of yoga which can be used in conjunction with non-dual teaching methods. Consider some of those:
Jnana Yoga
Jnana Yoga is the way of knowledge or the path of knowledge, wisdom, introspection and contemplation. It involves deep exploration of the nature our being by systematically exploring and setting aside false identities. Also, "Gnana," referring to knowledge, especially the higher knowledge supposedly derived from meditation; also, "jnana" (to know); the realization of the unity of all things in Brahman.
Brahman: The Absolute, the Ultimate Reality with the three characteristics of
1. absolute existence
2. absolute consciousness
3. absolute bliss
as well as five different phases, including:
A. the Cosmic Self
B. the personal god in the form of an Avatar
C. the individual soul
D. the perishable Nature
E. the creative power.
None of that is taught by Neo-Advaitins or by Pure Nisargans.
Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion, admiration; the devotional way, the practice of loving God, and the offering of service to God and others. All actions are done in the context of remembering the Divine; in practice, it signifies an active involvement by the devotee in divine worship.
bhajans: devotional songs
bhakta: a person practicing bhakti yoga, the worshipper
Gnani / Jnani: a person practicing jnana / gnana yoga who seeks to be the knower or who takes himself to be the knower
By way of contrast:
Nisarga Yoga
Nisarga" means "natural." The term "natural," as used in regards to Advaita, refers for some only to
(1) abiding as one's original nature, as the Awareness prior to manifestation of consciousness, even as the manifestation of the consciousness continues. For some, it refers also to
(2) abiding as all on the planet abides - with the exception of non-Realized persons.
That is, the teaching can be expanded to invite seekers to abide naturally rather than unnaturally and rather than trying to abide supernaturally / magically / religiously / spiritually.
Those who fixate at the third step - where religious and / or spiritual roles are played – don’t even make it to the fourth step. They’ll never be identity-free because they love their religious and / or spiritual roles and the “positive strokes” which they often receive for showing off those roles in public.
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.
