TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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At the heart of the treatment plan for the Ultimate Sickness is the willingness to find a different perspective . . . to give up old, distorted views which were taught but which were false and which are firmly believed in even now.
The most vital different perspective deals with those handed down for thousands of years by political and religious and / or spiritual leaders.
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE REGARDING MAHARAJ'S ABANDONMENT OF THE USE OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY AS A PART OF THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
From the book entitled A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga:
Though billions on planet earth have no clue that they have a serious case of the Ultimate Sickness, the discomfort which their undiagnosed Sickness generates does nevertheless inspire many to begin to seek . . . “something.”
The masses will almost never be aware of the specific malady which they have and what they specifically need to treat it, so most will allow their dis-ease to drive them to turn to the familiar institutions and movements which have made the claim for thousands of years that “we - and we alone - have the answer for what ails you.”
The institutions use dogma and doctrines to try to hook persons up with an invisible Power or Powers which reside in another world but who supposedly control everything happening in the lives of all humans. Ninety-seven percent on the planet claim a religious affiliation, so 97% seek by trying to learn more and more teachings and dogma and doctrines.
Millions more
seek within spiritual movements and
groups for assistance (from, by the way, the same invisible Power which Jews and Christians have tried to use for thousands of years).
The masses (97% + millions more) are programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated to seek relief by learning dogma or through “spirituality.” As a result, their perspectives and views will be limited to trying to rely on things supernatural or unnatural for relief, guidance, healing, help, etc.; thus, they will likely never see that things which they perceive to be supernatural are actually natural.
For example:
“God sends hurricanes as messages to people that they damn well better change their ways or even more punishment is on the way.” (That is a totally supernatural belief which is rooted in fictional, magical thinking.)
vs.
“Hurricanes are storm systems which are fueled by warm, moist air." (Warm moist air is totally natural, never unnatural and never supernatural.)
Consider some of the pointers Maharaj offered which were invitations to develop a different perspective:
“Whatever happens, happens to you, by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive.”
“Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.”
Maharaj regularly offered examples of different perspectives. Here are some other perspectives from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj which are quite uncommon among the masses:
“There is no such thing as a person.
There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the
person. You think you know yourself when you know what you are, but you never
know who you are. See that you are
not what you believe yourself to be. Fight with all the strength at your
disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable. You are not.
Refuse to think of yourself in terms of 'this' or 'that'. There is no other way out
of the misery which you have created for yourself through blind acceptance without
investigation. Suffering is a call for enquiry. All pain needs investigation.”
“You have put so much energy into building a prison for yourself. Now spend as much on demolishing it. In fact, demolition is easy, for the false dissolves when it is discovered.”
“Your high opinion of me is your opinion only. Any moment you may change it. Why attach importance to opinions, even your own?”
“As long as you imagine yourself to be something tangible and solid, a thing among things, you seem short-lived and vulnerable, and of course you will feel anxious to survive. But when you know yourself to be beyond space and time, you will be afraid no longer.”
Regarding
mindlessness:
“Watch your thoughts and watch yourself watching the thoughts. The state of freedom from all thoughts will happen suddenly and by the bliss of it you shall recognize it.”
“Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passerby. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself - which you call your person - changes deeply. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not.”
“In reality there are no persons, only threads of memories and habits. At the moment of realization, the person ceases.”
Other perspectives which differ from those held by the masses (and those held by many who report that they have realized by one method or another) can manifest if realization is combined with the yoga that invites living naturally as opposed to living the way that the masses live, namely, unnaturally and / or supernaturally.
What does trying to live supernaturally entail? It entails magical thinking and living "spiritually" and "mythically" and "superstitiously"; it entails seeing supposed "miracles" around every corner rather than understanding true cause(s); and efforts to live supernaturally result in an existence that is characterized by assigning dreamed up, supernatural causes to totally natural happenings; accepting hearsay as truth; valuing blind faith over science; accepting imaginings as reality; and rejecting actuality and evidence.
With the understanding of the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga which came post-realization, the perspective here now aligns with pointers offered at the end of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teaching career rather than with his earlier sharings (such as those in the talks which were transcribed and that form the content of the book I AM THAT).
In the book "Sri Nisargatta Maharaj and His Evolution," it is explained that . . .
"Maharaj never adhered to one type of yoga consistently until he finally settled into what might be called an 'all-nisarga approach' at the end of his teaching career."
[Yes, in his I AM THAT talks, he offered flashes of what was to come later, but he was still "holding back." Initially, his "audience" was local, religious, and interested in bhajans and ritual and traditional worship. Later, as more Westerners began to visit the loft, he began offering a more "spiritual" message which they were interested in.
Eventually, he would shift to a "psychology / non-duality"
message which would earn him the label of "total maverick" as many turned on him and charged that "his ego made him abandon his religious and spiritual talks."
The initial focus of the discussions he offered were aimed at a primarily Hindu, Bombay (Mumbai) local audience, primarily interested only in worship and bhakti yoga; later, his focus shifted to talks that were aimed more and more toward the encouragement of abiding naturally instead of trying to abide supernaturally / "spiritually." At the end, he focused on psychology only and on the abandonment of all of the learned ignorance stored in the human mind.]
As for the changes in the type of yoga used at any given time:
During his years of teaching, he shifted "from guru-bhakti yoga to bhakti yoga to a combination of bhakti and jnana yoga to jnana almost exclusively for awhile and then finally, at the end, to nisarga yoga.
Here, the "full understanding" and total freedom and peace came with realization as well as with an understanding of Nisarga Yoga.
With that came other perspectives that many consider to be different from the traditional views they hold, including the following:
Here, there is very little attention paid to the content of I AM THAT (except when shared with those who are new to the "path"). Why? Because, here, the Full Understanding did not come via guru-bhakti yoga or bhakti yoga or jnana yoga. For those who claim those worked for them, so it is.
Downplaying the overall message of that book aligns with Maharaj's own final appraisal of its content:
"That book [I AM THAT] and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period"
and
"I am speaking differently today"
and
"I am emphasizing different aspects" now.
During the final years of his teaching "career," no one who understands the import of his last talks would classify them as being "spiritual" at all; in fact, they were clearly not spiritual. So the fact that I AM THAT is described on the back cover as a "modern spiritual classic" provides a gauge for understanding how far away Maharaj eventually moved from his earlier "spiritual" message.
After "The Vision" came
here [see "Freebies" above for a free copy] then Maharaj's
talks were finally understood more accurately, but with one yoga after another
being used in I AM THAT - and with the natural yoga only being advocated
solely in the end - it became clear why the content of that book can only move
most seekers to the third step where they fixate and then play the roles of "The Super Religious One" and / or "The Spiritual Giant" and / or "The Super Seeker."
Only the later version of his talks can point the way to the final four steps and to the actual end of the "path." His awareness of that fact inspired Maharaj to recommend that seekers pay little attention to the content of that book and to focus on the natural yoga message that he offered at the end.
So . . . , I AM THAT - for the most part - will reinforce the beliefs of those attached to Eastern religion and / or to the spiritual aspects of the non-duality teachings; will reinforce the concepts of those who believe in some version of an "other-worldly power" with an occasional reference to "God" therein; and will do almost nothing to shift seekers beyond the third of seven steps on the "path."
If one is to complete the entire
"journey," then all of that "third step religious and / or
spiritual activity and focus" must happen, but it must eventually be
transitioned as religious and spiritual identities / ego-states are cast aside
in order to complete the remaining steps on the "path," and if one is
to abide naturally - rather than unnaturally and / or supernaturally and / or
"spiritually," then a familiarity with Maharaj's later talks must be
the focus, including his very-different-perspective-pointers that . . .
"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."
"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"There is no progress."
"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
“From birth, what has made the body grow? It is no 'power' [or 'Power'] in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the consciousness, call it what you will.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
“If they come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.”
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
"I advise you to give up spirituality and follow your vocation."
"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing."
"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even the word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left."
"In the true state, nothing is. All this spiritual talk is spiritual jargon. Such concepts are for the ignorant people."
"Ultimately, what are these spiritual talks? They are meant for so long as ignorance prevails."
Here, there is no "one" to be religious or non-religious, no "one" to be spiritual or non-spiritual, and no "one" to assume to be anything else that could follow the term, "I am."
That is a far different
perspective from the perspectives which are held by most among the masses.
To be continued.
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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."
