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.)
To prepare for a business trip, one must understand that there is something being sought; must understand exactly what it is that is to be accomplished on the journey; must understand exactly what the best route is which will lead to the destination being sought; and must have baggage that is packed full of information and knowledge and all sorts of other things thought to be required, many of which are things believed to be needed but which actually are not.
Similarly, if those who are sick are making a trip to find healing and freedom from whatever pain or misery or suffering is being experienced, then they will likely make similar preparations and might even take along the medications they used in order to show the one offering a treatment plan for them so they can exclude the medications which have been used so far - and which have failed - in order for something new and totally different to be tried.
First, to “things thought to be required, many of which are believed to be needed but actually are not” and to the notion that “medications which have been used so far and failed and therefore need to be replaced with something new and totally different”:
Two versions of the Ultimate Medicine which have been tried by trillions and which are currently being tried by billions are dogma and its chum, spirituality. For those taking "the non-dual journey” in order to be healed of the Ultimate Sickness, those two medicines - which were the first Medicines that Maharaj - tried can be discarded because he found they did not offer permanent healing.
He said of what he tried that failed: "I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality; finally, I lost that love of Self also. I have no more love for the Self."
So he lost the love of (false) selves as well as the love of the (also actually false) Self.
So for those going about the business of “taking a non-dual journey” of healing, they need not pack their dogma or their spirituality. Those have failed humankind for 5000+ years.
As for understanding that “there is something being sought,” one must understand exactly what they must seek and exactly how to reach the proper destination and not get sidetracked or lost along the way. What is not being sought is “more,” and what is required for healing is “less.”
Maharaj said, "You come here because you are ignorant, not because you are knowledgeable. This knowledge I give is only to remove ignorance"
and
"Realization is nothing more than being free of all learned ignorance"
and
"Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty. The seeker must disappear.”
"What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge. You do not want to give up either 'worldly knowledge' or so-called 'spiritual knowledge', and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand."
He said: "I do not follow the spirituality of the masses. In this place spirituality of the common type will not be doled out to you. You can never be lost; whatever you have lost, you have lost only the words. Through this 'I Am' comes the 'world knowledge'"
and
"The factual state of affairs is open, very clear, but nobody wants to look at it. This is the place where the intellect gets annihilated"
and
“You come to get something, but here, I will take everything away.”
Thus, to the point that one “must understand exactly what it is that is to be accomplished” on the “non-dual journey”: what will not be accomplished is the receipt of more “knowledge,” more information. What will be offered is a method for purging all, for un-learning all, not for learning more; and for being un-taught, not for being taught more.
The treatment for the Ultimate Sickness is comparable to the treatment for cancerous cells in that they must all be removed and discarded. To remove only some of them will not lead to total wellness. The same is true of the Ultimate Sickness: to remove only part of what is causing it is not an effective treatment plan. ALL body-mind-personality identifications must go.
As for the pointer that one “must understand exactly what the best route is which will lead to the destination being sought,” Maharaj made clear that the direct route is the most efficient. That means “going back,” returning, following in reverse the exact same path that was taken that led persons to end up in their current state of Sickness.
Finally, to the point that seekers believe that they “must have all of their baggage that is packed full of information and knowledge and all sorts of other things thought to be required, many of which are believed to be needed but actually are not.”
In that regard, how much unjustified value do persons give to their special books which are actually just more unnecessary baggage to carry along on the "journey" to realizing what is already understood within, access to which was lost when the consciousness was blocked with nonsensical beliefs?
To paraphrase an old song, "Them book-toters, ain't they gung ho?! Totin' their books to meet up with others who are just as gung ho."
Over the years, I have seen people going into “places of worship” carrying one book or another which they have been told is “special and unique and holy and the storehouse of all truth.”
I have seen people with the same kind misguided belief going into meetings carrying their “Big Book.”
I have seen people come here for retreats carrying their copy of I AM THAT (in spite of the fact that Maharaj said, “Stop reading I AM THAT and listen to my later talks.” He said that "those talks in I AM THAT were for that time only and are not applicable now.”)
Of the trillions of life-forms on the planet, humans are the only one that believes that they need to read a book (or books, in fact, hundreds of books) to tell them how to live.
Here, the ultimate message in all of the books offered is to reach a point where all interest in selves and Self and more and more knowledge (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) and accumulation all come to an end.
Personal libraries are not a testament to one’s accumulated wisdom but are proof instead that one has missed understanding the value of de-accumulation.
Therefore, if one has moved beyond twenty years of being programmed to accumulate and then beyond twenty years of accumulating and has taken the action necessary to shift one into the state of readiness required to undertake “the non-dual journey,” one may now begin.
So,
HOW TO (AND WHAT TO) REALIZE
The process whereby “you” are presently here began with a "coming in" leg from a field of energy; manifesting; then just being for a short period as a no-knowing child; then being assigned identities; then having a mind that became filled with nonsense; and then ultimately being reduced to body-mind-personality identification alone.
To “go back,” to “reverse,” as Maharaj recommended, then we begin where persons are now, namely, trapped in the misguided belief that when they hear someone say the word “you,” it is referring to their body.
When “non-dual teachers” have long said, “You are not your body. 'What You Are' has always been, is, and always shall always be,” most listeners / seekers have taken that to mean that there is "a Special You" that shall remain after the current manifestation ends. That may have led to the penultimate distortion among humankind.
The “you,” which presently but only temporarily is, is nothing more than an elemental plant food body which is circulating air and conscious-energy. When that comes to an end, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements, the air shall return to the universal pool of air, and the conscious-energy shall return to the universal pool of conscious-energy.
There will be no “you.” There will only be the always-having-existed elements and air and energy.
For “teachers” to have long said for thousands of years, “'That Which You Are' is forever and eternal” has likely led to the ultimate angst-generating distortion among humankind which involves “eternal life,” eternal punishment or reward; an eternal body which can feel eternal punishment and pain, etc.
Yes, the elements and air and energy have always been, and elements and air and energy will always be, but the composite unity which “you” temporarily are will not always be.
Moreover, for “teachers” to have said for thousands of years, “That which is real is permanent and forever but the body is temporary” has also been misunderstood by trillions of humans.
Yes, the body is temporary, but it cannot define "Who or What You Are" because every elemental plant food body is forever in a state of flux. The skin is replaced every twenty-eight days or so, the stomach lining is replace ever few days; etc. Look at your school pictures from Grade One to Grade Twelve and you’ll see that your body has forever been in a state of fluctuation and has experienced no continuity whatsoever.
The only thing that provides a sense of continuity is a series of “memories” which have actually been a series of distortions as well.
So, to being the “journey” to wellness – to freedom from belief in all learned ignorance – the first step involves the abandonment of the belief that “you” are your body.
In the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE from a chapter entitled “The First Degree of Separation From Reality: Body Identification,” there is offered what is called here, “The Arms-Legs-Organs Consideration” which can help some people become free of the limiting, false belief that they are the body.
A group at a retreat was offered this example to illustrate the point:
Of the various self-concepts which block most humans from “realization,” body identification is the most basic and least sophisticated identity.
I offer the consideration now to you:
If you were to lose your right arm, would you still be you? You would still be you, right, even without that arm?
If you were to lose your left arm, would you still be you? You would still be you, even without that arm . . . correct?
If you were to lose your left leg, would you still be you? You would still be you, right, even without that leg?
If you lose your other leg, wouldn't you still be you? You would still be you, right, even without that leg?
Would you still be you if you have a heart transplant? You would still be you, yes?
If you have a lung transplant, are you still you? You would still be you, right, even without your original lung or your original heart?
And if you looked into your own eyes in a mirror, wouldn't you still know that you are you, even though your physical body is only a shadow of what it once was?
Then . . . who (or, more accurately, what) are you, there being no real who-ness or WHO-ness at all?
WHO (or WHAT) answered "yes" to the earlier questions during the exercise?
Who or what you truly are must be something beyond the physical body.
If more than half of what most consider to be “you” were to be lost, who (or what) is that "you" which remains?
Moreover, "who" is that "you" which is sensing that "you" would still be "you" and would still be complete, even after the loss of four body appendages and the replacement of two original organs?
In fact, is it not the temporarily-manifested conscious-energy which is aware of the “who” (or what) which temporarily exists? And if that is the case, if what is supposedly being seen as a “you” is nothing more than an image in a mirror or in the eyes of others, then is not the very notion of a literal, physical “you” a total illusion in consciousness?
Maharaj said: “The usual knowledge is concerned only with the body image. You are not the body. You are the consciousness."
Yet the manifested consciousness is also only temporarily-manifested, so what it sees cannot be the real, either. What is sees is always in a state of flux as well, and what it thinks it sees in never seen accurately, either.
To look at a brick and believe, “That is a brick” is a misperception of the consciousness. To look at the brick under an election microscope would shows that it is not at all what it appears in consciousness to be. It is, instead, a swirling mass of subatomic particles which looks nothing like "the brick" as seen via the naked eye and via the unclear consciousness.
Many often assign some supposed worth to the consciousness. In fact, it is nothing special, either. It is merely one of many forms of energy, and it leads humans to believe that mirages are real.
Maharaj said that if persons realize, they will understand that both “knowledge of this world and consciousness are not even worth your spit.”
So what to realize about today's key point? Any beliefs about a "you" (or even more farfetched, a "You") are as invalid as all beliefs are, and the belief that there is any correlation between the concept of "you" (or "You") and a body (or "soul") are dreamed up nonsense which can be traced back to the Dark Ages and even earlier when ignorance prevailed among humans as much then as it does now.
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 the picture link which has now been added for 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.
