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."
4. My assistant found two paperback copies of the book co-authored with Mark Houston, A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation, a potentially-effective gift for someone struggling with an addiction to alcohol (or to 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 and cannot be tracked.
WHY REACHING THE FOURTH STEP WOULD BE ENOUGH
Maharaj said . . .
" . . . You should go back, reverse, to the source” [and if not the source which is understood after the seventh step of a seven-step “journey,” then at least to the fourth step where you return to the freedom and joy and lightness of “The Child No-Knowing State"].
and
“Follow the same path by which you came” [and keep following it until you reach that pre-conditioned state where the possibility to enjoy unconditional happiness occurred].
and
"Go to zero concepts” [and thereby be truly free].
If you must "go back" and "reverse to the source," then you had earlier "come in" from “the source.” In past discussions here, that “coming in” has been referred to as “the first leg” of a multi-leg “journey.” That “coming in leg” involves a movement of energy from an unmanifested state in which awareness was not even aware of itself, was not aware of anything period, then moving toward a state where, once that energy manifested within the space of some type of form, then it could manifest as conscious-energy and be conscious-of.
For “a” to be conscious of “b,” then a state of duality must exist; therefore, the manifested consciousness will always involve duality. Once again, Maharaj said of consciousness, “It is a burden. Body means burden. Sensations, desires, thoughts - these are all burdens. All consciousness is of conflict.”
For conflict to exist, there must be two parties involved, or one party that is so driven by insanity that it can be at odds with itself. Either way, that is what duality looks like when at play, and duality at play always involves conflict and chaos. The one called “Christ” by some offered a pointer regarding conflict and chaos. After he was introduced to the non-dual teachings, and after he abandoned organized religion, and after he began offering non-dual pointers, he said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Being unstable is guaranteed to generate conflict and chaos.
So, any touting of the consciousness misses the mark. It is the pre-manifested-consciousness condition called "awareness" which is key. If awareness becomes aware of itself, it can serve as the tool to be used to differentiate between the true and the false, a differentiation which the consciousness cannot possibly make.
Thus, during the coming in process, consciousness manifests in a human space in this fashion:
first there is a movement away from the source (the source being understood at the seventh step on the “going back, reversing path” which Maharaj recommended). That movement away from the source happens at rocket speed as the conscious-energy zooms past the 6th step and the 5th step. But then, there is a pause of many months at the 4th step, that is, at the stage which humans call “the baby or the infant or the early childhood state.”
During the early part of that state, the child knows nothing. It is merely witnessing, and at one level, the witnessing is a version of pure witnessing as the child sees the physical face which goes with the voice it heard for months while in the womb and feels at one with that face / body / person. At that point, the witnessing is pure to the degree that the child experiences a sense of the oneness to some degree.
After the child discovers its own hands and feet and other body parts, it begins to develop a sense of separateness from the mother (entering a period of self-interest and self-absorption referred to as "the Terrible Two's"). The potential for the development of narcissism is in place as the child ignores others and focuses on self.
At that point, subject-object witnessing replaces pure witnessing and conflict is assured as duality takes hold. Soon, the penchant and predilection and partiality which the consciousness has for duality will begin manifesting swiftly – not at the original rocket speed at which the consciousness moves but at the speed which programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination can be introduced to the child.
Via those, false roles and personal identifications will also be introduced, as well as ideas and concepts and notions and bogus perceptions and warped perspectives and thoughts and words and dreams and views and faith and convictions and values and principles and theories and intentions and knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance”) all of which are stored in the developing mind and all of which will combine to form the child's belief systems. How long does that take? Usually about four years. Here's the timetable:
The typical child has only a short respite of less than two years before it is totally absorbed by duality-based thinking and talking and behaving . . . a short respite when what Maharaj called a period of “zero concepts” will come to an end, replaced by exposure to the intensive degrees of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination which begin.
So from the age of two to the age of six, each child nowadays will be inundated with a flood of ignorant and insane information. Soon, ninety-seven percent - statistically - will be introduced to the religious dogma which was passed down to its parents from their parents’ parents and from generations and generations of ancestors before them.
Shortly, the child will also be taught, in a school or by community elders, the cultural beliefs which were passed down as truth, though those beliefs were all based in myths and superstitions. By what is called in many places the “elementary school years,” the typical child will be so flooded with nonsense that it will already be enslaved by the content of a mind which is building up a multi-faceted belief system which is marked by what Maharaj called three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Parents who are not already warped beyond all limits will instinctively have the “Momma Bear” instinct to naturally and spontaneously and vigorously protect and defend their offspring. Yet the facts are these:
if anyone else tried to take control of their children and harm them as much, relatively speaking, as the parents are harming their children via ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination, the parents would likely kill that person who is so effectively harming their offspring.
While most parents believe that they are packing their children's baggage with what is required for their entire journey through life, they are actually handing their children a suitcase loaded with a variety of time bombs. By the time those children reach adulthood, they will have experienced many destructive experiences even as the big bomb is still waiting to explode.
Those time bombs are personality identifications which lead to personality disorders which lead to neuroses and psychoses which lead to self-defeating behaviors; destructive behaviors; self-destructive behaviors; depression, so-called “nervous breakdown”; suicide attempts;
slow suicide attempts (using tobacco or drugs or over-eating or following food laws which do not provide a person's particular metabolic body type with the nutrition it needs to function properly); from becoming vindictive and resentful and revenge-seeking to being escapist and avoidant; to being deranged; explosively-enraged; hysterical; panic-stricken; impulsive; obsessive; compulsive; barbaric; sociopathic; psychopathic; and catatonic, ad infinitum.
So is it becoming clearer why Maharaj eventually concluded that it would be enough for you to find who you are not rather than becoming trapped in the spiritual workaholism of trying to find “Who You Are” and thereafter taking “YourSelf” to be some “Supreme Self” or “Infinite Self” or the “Godhead” or whatever other supposedly “Special Noumenal Identity” one might supposedly find after completing all of their “spiritual work?”
What would change if persons found who and what they are not, and why did Maharaj conclude that that would be enough?
If all reached the Fourth Step and found who they are not, then the fate of the 59% of women killed the U.S. annually would be quite different. They would not be killed if the persons they are “in relationship with” (a totally-dualistic concept in itself) were to reach the Fourth Step and cast aside their phony identities (such as, The Spouse, The Mate, The Owner of their spouse / mate as well as The Judge / The Jury and The Executioner).
Moreover, consider:
1. At the root of all divisions, religious wars, political wars, civil wars, relationship wars, fighting, beatings, torturing, killings are the personas which thrive on beliefs systems and arguing and fighting and killing because of those beliefs.
2. Because all thought and words and deeds and fears and desires are driven by personality, if belief in one’s personas / false roles / etc. were to end by reaching the Fourth Step, then so would most of the ignorance-and-insanity-based thoughts and arguments and actions and dears and desires which support misery and generate most of the arguing and fighting and killing on the planet. (See Maharaj's point above: that all deals with "sensations, desires, thoughts - these are all burdens.")
3. To reach the Fourth Step, then, would address most of the chaos which is rooted first in the mind and secondly in words spoken which lead to the injurious deeds which are commonplace among the non-realized (that is, among the still ignorance-and-insane-driven masses).
4. To reach the Fourth Step would allow that which Maharaj recommended, mainly abiding in a no-concept, no-mind, no-beliefs, noise-free, and control-and-destructive-tendencies-free existence.
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.
