TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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and
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom"
and
"To know that you are a
prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own
creation - is the dawn of wisdom."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Realization is nothing more than a process which results in a person being freed from believing in all learned ignorance."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Anatomy of Human Memory Storage: The Elemental Brain vs. the Non-Elemental Mind
or
The Natural Brain vs. the Never-Natural Mind
*****
THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT WHAT THE ONLY LOGICAL FOCAL POINT OF THE NON-DUAL UNDERSTANDING CAN BE
To review some pointers from earlier:
Why come to see how illogical and worthless and irrational all of the effort and energy being spent on completely distorted focal points involving the non-dual message really is?
(Maharaj: “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.”)
Because such seeing can present an opportunity to perceive clearly what the number one non-dual misunderstanding is in regards to what the only logical focal point of the non-dual understanding should be and what a total waste it is to focus on all of the rest that persons read or hear about what is “supposedly non-duality” but is not.
Before we review some of the misguided beliefs about what the non-dual message is, there are three key misunderstandings which can bring to an end most of the misguided focus among seekers and students of non-duality.
Those three misunderstanding which Maharaj addressed involve beliefs about religion, beliefs about spirituality, and misunderstandings about what “persons” or “people” are and what they are not:
A. Regarding “Religion”:
"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."
Consider: All is energy / matter. Neither energy nor matter can be created. Neither energy nor matter can be destroyed. Hence, all this is was not created, and thus, there is not and never has been any “creator” or “Creator.”
If you have a child, do you believe that you "created" it? Or do you believe the child resulted from some kind of cosmic ménage-a-trois and was thereby "created" by “a noumenal / phenomenal combo involving a Creator living in another world and a male human and a female human” working together to bring about some mainly-heavenly happening?
That does not happen. What happened was that a physical, relative existence act of friction occurred by which a seed encountered an egg and after that, over a period of many months, elements and conscious-energy and air cycled and resulted eventually in the manifestation of a form, and all of that happened spontaneously and automatically via an all-natural (not supernatural) process.
B. Regarding “Spirituality”:
Maharaj: "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."
Maharaj: “Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
Maharaj: “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
In the end, Maharaj came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is not a too-little-dogma Sickness and is not a spiritual malady Sickness but is a mind Sickness, a mental illness; thus, it became clear to him that if the Ultimate Sickness is not a too-little-dogma Sickness, then more dogma cannot be the Ultimate Medicine being called for;
he also came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is not a spiritual malady / Sickness, so spiritual talks and so-called “spirituality” cannot be the Ultimate Medicine being called for;
and he eventually came to see that the Ultimate Sickness, being a mere mind illness, calls for a psychology-based treatment plan combined with the non-duality understanding which together can treat humankind’s main problem.
C. Regarding “the Composite Unity”:
Maharaj: There is “the food essence body. I am not that; this entire composite I am not."
Maharaj: “There is a body created out of the . . . elements, and in that body dwells the vital breath and the consciousness; it is a composite unity.”
So what happens when mahasamadhi is taken? The elements return to the universal pool of elements; the oxygen / air rejoins the universal pool of air; and the conscious-energy returns to the universal pool of conscious-energy and is no long capable of being conscious of anything.
Maharaj: “I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware that I am.”
If one sees the truth about religion, spirituality, and the composite unity, then the erroneous beliefs about non-duality below – and almost all other erroneous beliefs and misunderstandings - can be eliminated.
So let’s look at the variety of misunderstandings (in italics below) in light of what Maharaj finally came to see and in light of what he actually said:
Many believe that the “benefit” of the non-dual understanding is to abandon all things relative and to focus on and abide as things ethereal and unearthly and otherworldly and supernatural.
Maharaj: “You have some experiences and you try to benefit from them, but remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you.”
Many believe that the non-dual teachings should focus only on things which are paranormal, mystic, mystical, and beyond things natural.
Maharaj: “Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and delaying your . . . realization.”
Again, if, as far as any “you” is concerned, there is only the present and because that “you” will not survive the temporary, relative existence - and because all misery and suffering in the temporary, relative existence is rooted in “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” - then shouldn’t that “you” focus on the present, temporary, relative existence and what can make it less dominated by “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity.”
Maharaj: “Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action - here and now.”
Many students of non-duality believe that it is a means by which persons can elevate themselves to a higher level; thus . . . ,
Many believe that the non-dual message should lead persons to higher and higher levels of spirituality.
Maharaj: "There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding” (or, later, “not misunderstanding”).
[Also see B. Regarding “Spirituality” above]
Many believe that non-duality is a vehicle for paying homage to “The Consciousness.”
Maharaj: "Understand that it is not the individual which has consciousness; it is the consciousness which assumes innumerable forms."
Maharaj: “Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality.” So if consciousness is “a state of duality,” Maharaj would never have “paid homage to it.”
and
Maharaj: “Consciousness is relative” and “partial and changeful,” further illustrating why Maharaj did not consider it anything special.
[Consciousness is actually just a form of energy, specifically, conscious-energy. It is not special, of no more value or worth than any other form of energy. Would one ever suggest paying homage to the electricity that is behind a wall plug in one’s home?]
Many students of non-duality believe that doing spiritual exercises regularly and becoming more and more spiritual is the only way to see beyond the illusions of the relative existence.
Maharaj: "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."
[Also see B. Regarding “Spirituality” above]
Many students of non-duality believe that it is a means by which persons can become better, can improve, and transcend all sin.
Maharaj: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."
Many students of non-duality believe that it is a means by which persons can elevate themselves to a higher level.
Maharaj: "There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
Many students of non-duality believe that it is a means by which persons can progress.
Maharaj: "There is no progress."
Maharaj, again: “Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action - here and now.”
Maharaj: “Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”
Many students of non-duality believe that “every person has a purpose” and that “there is a reason for being here” and some Single Cause for their present relative existence.
Maharaj: “Living is life’s only purpose.”
Maharaj: “From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness ‘I am’ has appeared—there is no reason, no cause."
Many students of non-duality believe that it is a means by which persons can find their “true state.”
Maharaj: “You are already in your true state. Because of the mind, duality comes in and therefore you are afraid.”
Maharaj: “Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.”
Many students of non-duality believe that a “spiritual search” is the means to finding truth.
Maharaj: “Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
[Also see B. Regarding “Spirituality” above]
Many students of non-duality believe that “ancient and special texts” must also be studied.
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
Maharaj: “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”
[Also see C. Regarding “the Composite Unity” above]
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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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."
