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
Of the lies which the “non-realized” cling to, Maharaj said:
32. "After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay”
and
33. “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved”
and
34. “Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud”
and
35. “Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false”
and
36. “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
Maharaj said:
“Enlightenment acts like a burning match in a heap of saw dust. A spark of truth can burn up a mountain of lies. The opposite is also true, meaning the sun of truth can remain hidden behind the cloud.”
Consider two recent headlines in the U.S.:
“THE PRESIDENT HAS MADE MORE THAN 10,000 FALSE OR MISLEADING CLAIMS”
vs.
“THE PRESIDENT’S SUPPORTERS SAY, “I LIKE HIM BECAUSE HE TELLS THE TRUTH”
Presidential supporter and advisor Steve Bannon leaked a broader administration strategy for dispensing with facts: “The real opposition is the media, and the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
Their "flood of shit" (that is, their preponderance of lies), along with the ignorance which allows the masses to believe that lies are truth, is not new. The examples offered in the contrasting headlines above are merely current ones and are not totally unique, historically-speaking (the quantity of so many lies coming nowadays from one, single source notwithstanding).
The facts show that lying and ignorance and the inability (or unwillingness) to differentiate between the truth and falsehoods are global, and history shows that their presence is timeless as well.
Above all else, the non-dual understanding confronts learned ignorance and provides a means by which the lies and distortions stored in humans’ minds can be purged in order to allow persons to be able to accurately differentiate between the true and the false.
Maharaj’s quotes above challenge the prevalence of false information, hearsay, the distortions which the masses believe have meaning, falsehoods, and blind faith which prevents the questioning of lies if told by an authority figure.
Maharaj said that “ . . . enlightenment acts like a burning match in a heap of saw dust. A spark of truth can burn up a mountain of lies. The opposite is also true,” meaning “the sun of truth” can “remain hidden behind the cloud.”
Maharaj explained that “humanity’s problem lies in the misuse of the mind only.”
He said, “The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs.”
Yet . . .
who is willing to question beliefs if they have been convinced that to question beliefs can result in their being cast into their religion’s version of hell / eternal punishment forever?
Who is willing to question lies if the liar is working behind to scenes to shift wealth from others to them?
Who is willing to question lies if both the listener and the liar are fanatics who seemingly share common values?
Who is willing to question beliefs which are rooted in the fears and desires of false personality identifications which are forever engaged in trying to sustain their false identities and the false image presented on a daily basis in public?
Actors who lives are nothing more than a series of falsehoods being asserted from the stage of “The Theatre of the Lie” where they abide will feel certain that their very being is threatened if they should abandon the beliefs which support the inveterate (ingrained, entrenched) lies which their ego-states are willing to defend to the death in order to keep their illusions and self-delusions in tact.
Maharaj said that it is imprisonment in the mind - which stores the belief in “false selves, false ideas and desires - which leads to bondage”. Regarding that, he said, “Liberation is of the self from its false ideas.”
He said: “All is a play in consciousness [which happens on the stage of the Theater of the Lie.] All divisions are illusory. You can know the false only. The true you must yourself be.”
He said that, in the beginning, “Deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and the false and renunciation of the false” is required.
Once free of the mind, then nothing "deliberate" is required. All will happen spontaneously, and that includes recognizing falsehoods instantly and rejecting the false as soon as it is heard.
He advised, “See the false as false.” Easier said than done, yes? Especially if one’s false ego-states believe that attaching to lies and liars can “benefit” them, protect them, alleviate their fears, and fulfill their desires.
At the very heart of the willingness of the masses to accept and cling to and defend lies and liars are mirages, images, and false identifications which have all have agendas – often hidden – and which inspire them to set aside even the slightest inclination to prefer truth over lies.
Thus, Maharaj and the sages before and after him focused on lies and the need of humankind to be able and willing to differentiate between the true and the false and to cast aside the false.
Why have sages even needed to say that? Should it not be obvious? Yes. Is it, to the sleepwalking masses? No.
Their desire and willingness to believe lies is rooted in their self-serving agendas, in agendas which serve all of the many false selves which they have been assigned or which they have assumed.
Why else are the masses so willing to believe lies?
According to Dr. David Feldman, there are many reasons, some of which he discussed in an article published in “Psychology Today”:
Availability Heuristic
The reason most of us believe non-truths is because of "the availability heuristic," a mental shortcut that can lead us to overestimate the frequency of an event when that event is more “available” or vivid in our memory.
Emotional Intoxication
Whether we like it or not, all of us can be powerfully swayed by emotions. Sometimes we end up using our reasoning ability (or lack thereof) to justify or defend a conclusion that we’ve already drawn based on our emotions. This phenomenon can lead us astray without our ever knowing.
Confirmation Bias
Once we have a belief, we tend to cling to it, even when it’s untrue. The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information that supports what we already believe. (Thus, many only watch newscasts which are biased and which use their bias to reinforce the false beliefs of viewers.)
Feelings (Actually, again, Emotions) over Facts
“It’s easy to unconsciously buy into beliefs that feel right, even though they’re not.”
Such beliefs are behind the biases involving race and skin color, sexual preferences, religion, spirituality, nationality, and all other duality-based beliefs.
Again, two of Maharaj’s key recommendations:
“Have no faith in what you hear or read. Question everything.”
and
Seek “enlightenment which can act like a burning match in a heap of saw dust and can burn up a mountain of lies.”
Will many ever heed that advice? Not likely. Not likely at all.
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 their god / their 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.
