TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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SO WHY REACH A "NO-BELIEF," "ZERO CONCEPTS," "NO MIND" STATE AS RECOMMENDED BY MAHARAJ AND THEREAFTER ABIDE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ELEMENTAL BRAIN RATHER THAN THE DISTORTED, FICTION-FILLED MIND?
Two billion members of a certain religion believe that a virgin can become pregnant and can deliver a baby and can still remain a virgin; that there is a God and that God has a specific gender, namely, male; and that their beliefs are the only right beliefs among all religions.
One-and-a-half billion members of a certain religion believe that there is a God, that God has a specific gender - a male - and that "He" wants the members of that religion to kill people who belong to a different sect of that religion and to kill people who are members of religions which are different from their own.
Approximately one-and-a-quarter billion members of a certain religion believe that there are multiple gods and goddesses; that many of those gods and goddesses have male and / or female genders and that many others have animal attributes; that everyone should strive for dharma; and that individual souls are immortal and can go through multiple incarnations.
None of their beliefs can stand up to scientific scrutiny or to objective, rational investigation, yet billions cling to such beliefs both stubbornly and wholeheartedly.
DouweTiemersma said:
"There are various religions and systems of philosophy which claim to endow human life with meaning. But they suffer from certain inherent limitations. They couch into fine-sounding words their traditional beliefs and ideologies, theological or philosophical.
Believers, however, discover the limited range of meaning and applicability of these words, sooner or later. They get disillusioned and tend to abandon the systems, in the same way as scientific theories are abandoned, when they are called in question by too much contradictory empirical data."
Yet here, few have been seen that actually abandon the systems which in most cases they did not choose but which were imposed on them by their parents and other authority figures from early on.
Jo Nesbo's view on the subject seems to be the more accurate:
"The bigger a group is" (2 billion, 1.5 billion, 1.25 billion, etc.) "the harder it is to break free of from their prevailing ideas and assumptions. They work a bit like a religion because they automatically think that so many other people around them can't be wrong. Well, they can. And they are. All the time."
So (a) the prevailing attitude among the 97% on the planet who claim an affiliation with an organized religion (and who, again, did not choose the religion that they are affiliated with but were assigned that affiliation by their parents) and (b) the prevailing attitude among the millions who brag that they "are not religious but are spiritual instead," is this:
"These are our beliefs and no one will ever change them, so 'contradictory empirical data' be damned!"
Some define ignorance as "a lack of knowledge or education."
Maharaj would disagree, having said: "All knowledge is ignorance."
He said that
"Realization is freedom from learned ignorance"
and that
"Realization is but the opposite of ignorance."
He said: "The so-called 'birth' is the appearance of ignorance which prevails till the so-called 'death'."
Some define it as "a lack of awareness," and that would align more closely with Maharaj's take on the subject.
Is any significant progress being made in terms of treating the Ultimate Sickness and eradicating it's key symptoms which he identified as "ignorance, stupidity and insanity?" No.
Maharaj said: "The circles of ignorance may be ever widening, yet it remains a bondage all the same."
Furthermore, Maharaj noted: "You do not realize that your present waking state is one of ignorance."
Of those who cling to the myth-and-superstition-and-ignorance-based dogma of their ancestors, Maharaj said:
"Not to know, and not to know that one does not know, is the cause of endless suffering."
Does it not seem like that would be reason enough to seek, to understand, to be free? Yet it is not; instead, among many of those types, suffering is ennobled:
"Be like Christ who suffered on the cross. Suffering now paves the way for rewards and happiness later"
or
"Suffer by blowing yourself up with a bomb vest in the process of killing infidels. Then you shall be given sexual pleasures for eternity"
or
"Suffer now and you will elevate to a higher level later."
Maharaj never idealized suffering and misery and never assigned any value to either. Instead, he said it is the task of the "non-dual teacher" to alleviate suffering and misery.
He did admit that "There is noble virtue in unshakable endurance of whatever comes" but he added: "there is also dignity in the refusal of meaningless torture and humiliation."
Who but those trapped in ignorance and / or insanity would accept an invitation to suffer, to normalize misery, and to postpone pleasure until "a later life" or "an afterlife" or "a series of future lives"?
One man who finally broke free of his attachment to the dogma which his parents exposed him to said, "I finally saw that the motto of the Catholic Church is, 'If it feels good, stop it,' but that applied to church members only, not to the priests who abused us. It has taken years of therapy along with the freedom which the non-dual understanding has brought to finally be able to enjoy my existence."
Who but those trapped in the sickness of such personality disorders as the Sociopathic Personality Disorder or the Psychopathic Personality Disorder or the Sadistic Personality Disorder would enjoy seeing others suffer? None.
Yet those types are currently quite popular among certain voters or followers in many places around the globe (revealing a great deal about the disorders which those voters are likely trapped in as well).
True freedom involves freedom from being driven by ignorant and insane thoughts and ignorant and insane words which lead to ignorant and insane actions. Anything less is not freedom at all.
Who needs that freedom which facts and science and understanding can bring?
According to Maharaj: "The
scientific approach is for all. ‘Trust-test-taste’. What more do you
need?" But how many really want the truth? Few. The truth will set you free, yes, but it will always piss you off first.
Many counselor's learn that the surest way to run off clients is to introduce truth to them too early in the process.
Maharaj asked: "Why push the Truth down unwilling throats? It cannot be done, anyhow. Without a receiver what can the giver do?"
The point: the last thing that most persons who are trapped in ignorance, stupidity, and insanity want is any awareness of their true state; is any awareness of the truth; is freedom from stupid beliefs; and is to hear the suggestion that insanity is present and is clearly in need of being addressed.
Hence Maharaj's estimate that only a few thousand people on the planet at any given moment will be realized, that is, will be "free of all learned ignorance" and will have "reached a state which is the opposite of ignorance and will be abiding therein for the remainder of the manifestation."
So it is, but so it need not be.
Again . . .
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THE EXPLANATION
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"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."