TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. [See the offer in gold text 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 green text after today's 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." (See the details in the blue text after this post.)
The point in this series is that the non-dual message has long been widespread but has seldom been understood either then or now.
At the request of some visitors, further discussion or explanation of some of the Maharaj pointers shared recently is being provided.
A DEEPER LOOK AT SOME OF THE POINTERS OFFERED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
(continued from earlier)
21. "First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."
Throughout the history of humans' relative existence, the non-realized masses have habitually wanted the most insidious people and places and things, no matter how clear it should be that many of those people, places and things are peace-disturbing or menacing or dangerous (again, relatively speaking).
22. Maharaj: “You have some experiences and you try to benefit from them, but remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you.”
Or, he could have said, “You have some experiences or people or places or things or an invented God” and “you want to acquire people or places or things or Gods, all of which you first think are good, and you want to get rid of people or places or things or anything else you think is bad.”
Moreover, as Yeshu’a (“Jesus”) pointed out after he began sharing non-dual pointers, “Dual-minded persons are unstable in all ways,” so the eventual result with the non-realized is that – being unstable and often suffering from the Borderline Personality Disorder – what they originally thought was good will eventually be believed to be bad.
The result? Chaos, instability, unsteadiness, volatility, and being in a constant state of flux or constantly shifting between extreme “highs” followed by extreme “low’s.”
And among the things that the masses are often convinced at one point is “good” but at other times are convinced is “bad” is . . . “their God.”
Many Christian ministers regularly give sermons about people being angry with God for a host of reasons:
“He let a loved one die.”
“He did not kill a hated one.”
“He does not stop murder and wars.”
“He does not bring peace to ‘the world’.”
“He allows babies to be born with deformities and then to suffer throughout their existence.”
“He does not protect us from disasters.”
Many such religious leaders say, "It's okay to be angry with god. He can handle it!"
Yesterday, while in Austin, I had the chance once more to visit with Dr; Jim Rigby (see Video “Number Eleven” at the right). In over sixty years, he is the only “Christian minister” whom I’ve recommended that people listen to when they can because he points to the truth rather than regurgitating and reinforcing nonsensical dogma and beliefs as almost all others do.
He and I spoke about non-duality and the clarity which he said it can offer in so many areas. His sermon, in fact, dealt with the relative problems which come with a belief in the duality of “good” vs. “bad” and how many Christians who are so sure they can judge others and determine that they are “bad” will end up demonizing those people and hating them and then trying to punish or destroy them.
What is missing from their judgmental, arrogance-driven lives? He explained, "Mainly, Love." Secondly, an inability to understand True Love and an inability to stop judging. If Love reigns, then persons do not have to try to practice whatever their perception / misperception of “forgiving” is or work constantly to punish or to get revenge.
I heard one person complaining that she was angry with God because of the fact that her property had recently experienced major damage during a storm. She asked, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?”
For months that has perplexed her, confounded her, disrupted her peace, baffled her, and thrown her into conflict with the God she wants to be happy with and in a good relationship with.
The questions I've heard religious people ask for decades has been, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” or “Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?”
The unstable emoting which comes with such dualistic thinking is based – as is always the case – in beliefs.
The first belief is that one can actually know what is good and what is bad, long-term.
The next belief is that one is “a really good person” and is therefore mystified that someone so damn good is not being rewarded.
The next query is driven by jealousy: “I’m a better person than they are, so why are they getting more breaks and better luck and good rewards than I am?”
To that end, here’s a story I share on occasion to illustrate the point:
In the Wild West in the nineteenth-century U.S., a man was concerned that he had not recently heard from a neighbor who was also a cattle rancher. He saddled up his horse and set out on a half-hour ride to check on his friend.
As he approached the main house, he saw that the gate on the horse corral was open and that the horses were gone. Then he saw that the fencing had a huge gap in it and that the cows were also missing. He spurred his horse to hurry toward the front door of the ranch house, and the door there was also open.
He walked inside unnoticed and saw his friend seated in a chair in the living area, obviously preoccupied. He shouted, “Ernest, what the heck is going on!?”
Ernest looked up and said, "Oh, hi, Josh." After a pause, he shook his head and replied, "You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Josh said, “Try me!”
Ernest began his tale: “Well, several months ago my son was checking the fencing on the back range and came across a rattlesnake and his horse reared up and threw him off and broke his leg.”
The neighbor said, “Oh my gosh, that’s really bad.”
The rancher replied: “No, that was good because of what happened after that. One evening a couple of months ago, my son and I were having dinner in the house and the ranch hands were all having their meals in the bunkhouse.
"Suddenly, we heard yelling and screaming and shots fired, and just as we stood up, some bandits kicked in the back door and the front door simultaneously and leveled their guns at us and told us to sit down and then they tied me to my chair.
"Next thing I know, there’s dozens of them outside and they’re stealing our cattle and our horses and taking all of our ranch hands with them as work slaves."
“But your son’s broken leg was still a bad thing.”
“No, that turned out to be a good thing because they were going to take him too, but when they saw his leg in a cast, they knew he couldn’t work for them so they left him.”
“Well then, that a good thing alright.”
“No, that was a bad thing because of this: his leg healed and he formed a posse and they tracked the marauders across the border and found our cattle and horses.”
“Well that’s good.”
“No, that’s bad, because they walked into a trap and were put to work by the thieves who had taken over a prospector’s gold mine.”
“Dad gum. That is bad.’
“No, that actually ended up being good because some guards drank too much one night and passed out and my son and the posse and the ranch hands were all able to escape and took a lot of the gold with them.”
“Well, that is good.”
“As it turned out, no, not really, because the ranch hands took off in one direction and my son headed to the nearest large town. But he's always had a gambling problem, so when he went into the saloon and got into a card game, he lost every bit of the gold he had.”
“Oh man! Now that’s bad.”
“No, it’s good because he happened to meet another rancher living nearby who felt sorry for him because of his loss, so he took my son in and while there my boy met the rancher’s gorgeous daughter and they ended up getting married almost immediately. After that, my son came back here and he and his new bride moved in and we started making plans to rebuild out herd.”
“Well now that’s good.”
“No, that turned out to be bad, because that woman was a gold-digger and she met a rich man traveling through town and ran away with him. My son took off after them and caught up with 'em a few towns over and he shot the guy and his bride. Now, my son’s in jail awaiting trial.”
“Okay, I'm not going to try to guess. This time, let me ask. I’m sorta thinking that's bad, but I’m gonna stop guessing and let you tell me if I’m right.”
Ernest looked up slowly and turned his eyes to meet those of Josh and said, “Have you been listening to a damn thing I’m being saying? How the hell could I possibly know if anything is actually good or bad!?”
Josh walked out in silence, mounted his horse, and rode off toward home, a bit wiser when it comes to thinking anyone could possibly know what is good or what is bad in the long run.
He got a little humility that day, realizing as he looked back over the happenings in his own existence that, actually, he’d never had a clue about what’s good or what’s bad. He saw that most of what he had spent days or months or years anticipating and dreading ended up never happening, and he realized that all the things which had ended up being full-blown catastrophes - as far as his entire relative existence was concerned - he never saw any of those coming at all but instead had actually been totally blindsided in every case.
So first, persons are never “as good and as deserving of rewards” as they think they are.
Secondly, the act of comparing is driven by egotism, by a sense of superiority alongside a sense of not being treated fairly by a god.
Third, when comparing, "others" will always be seen to be worst than The Comparer, (thus reinforcing The Comparer's arrogance) or will be seen to be better (thus reinforcing low esteem or negative thoughts about oneself, relatively speaking).
Therefore, it is the belief in a god who is controlling everything and everyone which is the setup for all of the angst, chaos, instability, unsteadiness, volatility, and flux which can be avoided the moment that a person comes to understand that natural things can be explained with logic and science while supernatural / spiritual / magical things cannot be.
When persons complain that their god allowed them to be “wiped out by a hurricane” and “just cannot understand why he let that happen,” such a belief and the subsequent confusion or anger or hurt which follows could not happen if persons realize that there is no god who determines the track that hurricanes follow;
if they realize that hurricanes are naturally-occurring events rather than supernaturally-generated events; and if they realize that there is no god who is making hurricanes follow the tracks which they follow; and if they realize that the paths of hurricane are determined by natural factors which science - not dogma - can explain quite exactly.
To believe that “Noumenal” factors have any effect at all on phenomenal events is to trapped in nonsensical beliefs which were taught and which are begging to be un-learned.
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) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); 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
or
You can click on video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.
If preferred, here's
the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION
of that session.
