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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HOW TO (AND WHAT TO) REALIZE
What is to be realized next is . . .
Q. Since the very beginning of language development, humans have shown a proclivity to assign names to things, but the arbitrary naming of things does not make anything actually what it is named. It really is all arbitrary.
There are more than 1.5 million species of plants, animals, fungi, lichen, and bacteria documented on earth, and more species are being discovered and named every day. In terms of mass, there are currently about 75 billion tons of living things (biomass) on the planet.
Moreover, those 1.5 million species that are here now are only a fraction of the total 150,000,000 species which did exist on earth but are now extinct, many of which perished in one of the five specific cataclysmic events in earth's history.
And humans have made up names for all 150,000,000 of those species and the 1.5 million currently on the planet. By dang, humans have long been high-octane naming machines. They are some naming son of a guns. (See how I just made up two names for them right there?!)
Of the seven-and-a-half-billion humans on the planet, all of those have multiple names; all of those will have some kind of job name or job description or some kind of name based on an activity they’ll engage in; all of them will have identities assigned that denote the roles they play in relationships;
97% will have a name identifying them by the religion they are affiliated with;
all will have a name identifying them by their geographic location and their race; all will have a name identifying them by their political or philosophical or ideological or club or sports or charitable associations or affiliations; most all will have a name identifying them by their sexual orientations or identities, and many of those identities will change during their lifetimes.
In addition to the list of those “phenomenal realm” titles and roles, add in the millions of persons who are seeking some special label or tag which deals with some “noumenal realm.”
Names, names, names.
Naming begin as a result of domestication as humans are assigned names in their childhood; naming continues as a result of acculturation as cultures divide and separate persons by the use of all sorts of applied labels; and naming and identity-assignments and assumptions will expand via brainwashing and indoctrination (as in, “I now pronounce you man and wife”).
[In the U.S. alone, nearly 201,000,000 of the people age 18 or older are married, and not a one of them questioned the statement “I now pronounce you man and wife” either the first time they were told that, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, etc., etc., etc.]
By the time they reach the age of thirty, most will have believed in at least eighty identities or more which they have unquestioningly accepted as proper and accurate definitions of who they are.
Yet their acceptance does not make it so.
In March of 2009, an example of the variable nature of personas was offered that is also relevant now as their fleeting, non-continuous nature is examined:
See how cultures lie to people about who they are and see how programmed and conditioned persons seldom even question such pronouncements from “persons of authority” in their societies. Here's the scenario:
A document (such as a marriage license) can inspire a false belief that a dependent role can define who you are. How grand is the lie?
Take the fictional Thomas Smith as an example.
He married Jane Jones and a man in a robe told her that she was now Mrs. Thomas Smith. She assumed that new identity and all the fears and expectations and desires that came with it.
But her fears were realized when Thomas left her for Mary Martin. In a court, a man in a robe told Jane Jones / Mrs. Thomas Smith that she was no longer Mrs. Thomas Smith but could once again be Miss Jane Jones; shortly after that event, another man in a robe told Mary Martin that she was Mrs. Thomas Smith.
She assumed that new identity and all the fears and expectations and desires that came with it. But her fears were realized when Thomas left her for Patty Prentiss. In a court, a man in a robe told Mary Martin / Mrs. Thomas Smith that she was no longer Mrs. Thomas Smith but could once again be Miss Mary Martin; shortly after that event, another man in a robe told Patty Prentiss that she was Mrs. Thomas Smith.
Do you see the insanity of assuming identities? "Mrs. Thomas Smith" was a role assumed by three different persons, and all three really believed that they were who and what their culture told them that they were. But the culture told three different persons that they were the same person.
In the remote past, Jane was Mrs. Thomas Smith; in the past Mary was Mrs. Thomas Smith; in the present, Patty is Mrs. Thomas Smith. One can guess that in the future, Patty will not be Mrs. Thomas Smith.
From this example, isn’t it clear that any assumption of any persona as a real identity is an insane case of mistaken, false identity?
Next to realize is this, per Maharaj:
R. “You need not know ‘Who You Are.’ It is enough to know who and what you are not.”
Per the realization process (that is, via the process by which Maharaj said that persons can discard all of their “learned ignorance,” including all of the false identifications which they have been assigned or which they have assumed), the knowing of “who and what you are not” can come.
Lao Tzu wisely observed, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
So what else is to be realized?
S. Humans could potentially wake up to the truth and accurately name a thousand things they are not, but they cannot accurately name one single thing that they actually are.
T. None are their bodies. None are their minds. None are their personal / phenomenal identities. None are their assumed “Noumenal Identities.”
“Personhood” is a bogus concept.
“I” is a bogus concept.
“You” is a bogus concept.
Names. Names. Names. Bogus. Bogus. Bogus.
Want to be free? Abandon every identification that has been assigned or assumed.
Want to be wise? Abandon every identification that has been assigned or assumed.
Want to be even wiser? Abandon every belief that you were taught and that you learned and that you accepted as truth.
Want to be among the wisest? Find the correct answer to this question which is often asked of those who visit here:
"Is it possible that everything you have ever been taught and everything you have ever been told, by your parents and by relatives and by teachers and by religious leaders and by politicians and by businesses and advertisers and by everyone else, was completely false?"
"When you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question everything, your very life."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
So, is it possible that there is no heaven or hell or post-manifestation reward or punishment or post-manifestation beingness or Supreme Beingness?
Is it possible - if you’ve been labeled “an American” - that you do not live in the greatest nation on earth?
Is it possible that you are not different from or better than anyone else . . . and that's okay?
Is it possible that the persons whom you especially should never believe are those who repeatedly tell you, "Believe me"?
Is it possible that all among the "non-realized" masses are contaminated by the Ultimate Sickness and therefore are driven by the symptoms of that Sickness (identified by Maharaj as "ignorance, stupidity and insanity") and that those who are most despised by the masses for "marching to the beat of a different drummer" are the few who are realizing or have realized (meaning, been freed or are in the process of being freed of their belief in "learned ignorance")?
Maharaj explained: "When you shall begin to question your dream [which in not actually '"your dream" at all but is actually "their dream" which has been passed down for thousands of years] awakening will be not far away."
He advised: "Be alert. Question, observe, investigate. Learn all you can about confusion: how it operates . . . what it does to you and others. By being clear about confusion you become clear of confusion."
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.
