TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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.)
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ENTERING INTO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
[Included are excerpts from the book entitled The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"]
To review:
As Maharaj explained . . .
the “path” to realization for humans involves traveling the exact same path (except in the reverse order, of course) by which the consciousness moved from the universal pool of conscious-energy; by which that energy manifested within an elemental plant food body;
and by which the consciousness was blocked from perceiving clearly because falsehoods and nonsense were added into a mind via programming, conditioning, etc.
Via that reverse “path,” seekers can move away from body identification, from mind identification, and from personality identification and can return to the "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" which they were in earlier during the few months after manifestation but before being programmed, conditioned, etc.
Originally, in Maharaj’s loft (and here as well) a seven-step path was used. Later, a much more simple four-step path was offered (and still is, here).
This illustration was offered earlier and is repeated now for review:
Both methods offer a means by which freedom from learned ignorance can happen, by which one can be restored to sanity, and by which wisdom can replace the ignorance which persons are taught.
Now, more on "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State":
There comes with each form or space a seed of consciousness. One property of that seed is conscious-of-ness, that is, the ability to conscious of consciousness. The property of that seed allows the form to be conscious of itself, that is, of its beingness . . . its present existence . . . its Is-ness . . . its AM-ness.
Another property of the seed of consciousness is to be aware of the unicity, the Oneness; thus, over a period of approximately twenty-four months, a child senses that it is its mother and that its mother is it.
As the child enters into that age bracket of 2-3 (an age span that will become known in some cultures as "the Terrible Two's") a shift occurs. The shift is discussed in detail in the book on "Programming, Conditioning" etc., but the short version is this:
during the early no-mind phase referred to herein as "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State," the child is merely witnessing, and the child witnesses by using both types of witnessing:
1. As its vision improves, it witnesses on a Subject-Object basis;
2. yet the child is also - for a while - witnessing in something like a Pure Witnessing manner as well.
In other words, even though the child engages in S-O witnessing, it still senses the Oneness, as is the case with the realized that come to know the Oneness and come to see the unicity while still moving through the relative and witnessing objects but knowing that they are not as they appear to be.
(Take that as an example of the way the relative existence can happen when one uses the sight to avoid running into objects but also knows the unity beyond the supposed multiplicity: the I AM goes on, but the I AM THAT is understood; thus, "Reality" is overlaid upon the "relative reality").
So, it is during the first months that the child is as close to "Pure Witnessing" as will ever happen for the entirety of the manifestation (except for the few that realize later on). Why? Because the child until about the age of two identifies with the mother, which is as close to an actual sense of Oneness as will happen with most persons.
The child takes that familiar voice that was heard while the child was in the womb - and then takes the source of that voice that the child finally sees during the post-womb days - to be the child itself, its self.
(The womb is anything but a quiet place, and by the end of the second trimester, a child can hear. In additional to the sounds generated by the internal organs of the mother, the child also hears the mother speaking, and research shows that a child - even in the womb - prefers the mother's voice to that of anyone else.)
That preference for the mother's voice, and that identification with the mother, continues for the first months or so. Then, the child begins to take notice of its own body and begins to notice that its body is separate from the mother's body.
As a result, the child begins automatically to develop a sense of self without ever having chosen to do so. Only Subject-Object Witnessing remains because the earlier form of "Pure Witnessing" which sensed the Oneness comes to an end.
A sense of duality begins - spontaneously - at that point, and everything that the child will be taught from that point on will reinforce a sense of duality and separation and distance while pushing the individual - the developing persona / personas - farther and farther away from that original sense of the Oneness.
Soon, the desires of that individuated self take preference over the wishes of the mother, and what was labeled as "mommie's little angel" turns into what will be labeled as a "Terrible Two" or a "little devil."
Then an onslaught of programming and conditioning - alongside a heavy dose of domestication - begins as efforts are made to teach the child what is right and wrong, what is okay and not okay, what the child must stop doing and what the child should always do instead.
All of the available parental energy and effort and attention is geared toward trying to turn the "Terrible Two" or "little devil" back into "mommie's little angel." With some "weaker-willed" humans, that game can be played out from childhood and then all the way into the child's adult years with parents exerting control and influence and the child / adult seeking approval and "love" and positive feedback and affirmation (all actually the "stuff" of ego).
Yet how many ever reach that "Full Understanding"? Few. A visitor asked, "If Maharaj was right and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?"
The reply: "In terms of that beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'." What was the man referring to? As noted, Maharaj said at one point that only 1 out of 100,000 will ever fully understand what he was offering.
After years of dealing with seekers and being presented with more and more evidence of the fact that those who seemed to "get it" did not really "get it" at all, he modified his estimate and said that only one in a million would "get it." Near the end of the manifestation of that speck of conscious-energy, after even more years of witnessing how few truly understood what he was teachings, he revised his estimate and said that only one in ten million might ever realize fully (that is, be totally free of belief in any and all learned ignorance).
Of course his numbers had no factual, research-based support; he was sharing an estimate based in the intuitive sense that came after decades of working with seekers and seeing that even the most ardent and intelligent could not genuinely grasp even the simplest non-dual understanding.
And his estimates included those who came to the loft after having visited and studied with many of Maharaj's contemporaries, so the final estimate that only one in ten million would ever realize included not only the seekers who sat with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj;
instead, the estimates also included seekers who had studied with Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, who had been taught by Sri Ranjit Maharaj, who sat with Sri Kadsiddheshwar Maharaj, who heard the teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi as well as seekers who had visited with hundreds of other sages, only to have their words spoken in Maharaj's loft reveal that they did not even understood the foundational elements of non-duality.
Maharaj saw that even the wisdom of those sages that was shared with seekers first-hand by him and by his contemporaries was falling on deaf ears.
[Occasionally, seekers will make contact here and indicate that they want to enroll in the online non-duality course, but they add that they will only enroll if a "guarantee" will be given, "assuring" them that they will "get" this understanding via that course. They do not understand the laughter that follows such statements.]
Here, evidence supporting Maharaj's estimate manifests daily, especially when contact is made by those who are sure they "have it," who want to show how much they know, but who then make comments or ask questions which reveal that there is no understanding at all. In so many cases that Maharaj spoke of, and in so many cases now happening here, it is as if someone reports,
"I am a master of the content of the courses I have taken, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, differential equations, calculus, and statistics, and I am sure that my accumulated knowledge is beyond a master's degree level and is at the doctorate level for certain," only to have them ask the next day if 3 minus 2 really equals 1 or to report that they are certain that twenty minus ten equals twelve and that I am so wrong when seekers are told that it equals ten.
Maharaj saw what is being seen here more and more often, namely that
a. those assuming the role of "The Knower" are convinced that they really know
but that the actual facts are these:
b. persons cannot possibly know what they do not yet know, and
c. most persons know / understand far less than they assume that they know / understand.
More and more, the evidence suggests that most seekers who believe "they have found" are as unaware as those among the non-Realized masses who have never even sought. Most do not even know which of the five teachings methods - if any - their favorite teacher or favorite writer is using; and most have no clue at all about or what yoga - if any - their favorite writer or teacher is offering. Yet they are sure that anything that differs from what they have heard or read and accepted must be false or "wrong."
And when the most basic pointers are not grasped, then what chance is there that the realizations which come at the end of seeking can possibly be understood, including an understanding of:
** the beginning-less-ness
** the myth of "creation"
** manifesting
** consciousness
** unmanifesting
** awareness
** the myth of "supernatural living"
** de-accumulating
** the illusion of the "mind"
** the reality of abiding naturally
** desirelessness
** the fact that "bliss" can only be known now, not "later"
** the non-beingness
** identity-less-ness
and
** the nothingness / the void.
So if Maharaj's estimates were spot on, then you too might ask:
"If Maharaj was right and almost none who seek to understand ever will, why even try?"
To those who raise that question, the reply is the same to all: "In terms of that beyond the manifestation, there is no reason at all. In terms of the way that the present manifestation can happen - or not - there is a key reason why you are invited to 'try'."
Next, there will be a discussion of why the invitation to begin the "journey" along the seven-step "path" to full realization is extended . . .
1. even if the chances of completing that "journey" are slim, and
2. why completion of even four of the seven steps can make the effort worthwhile.
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.
