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 DISCARDING OF THE HUMAN MIND IS ABOUT AS BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL AS THE REALIZATION PROCESS GETS
On most of the long-established "paths" to realization, the first three steps often deal with addressing this long-standing non-dual pointer:
Discard all body identification, mind identification, and personal (personality / persona) identifications.
So the second step when mind concept is discarded is not some "advanced" notion but is about as basic and fundamental and rudimentary as it gets. It's just step two, not very far along any "path," but is an obstacle which must be addressed early on by those that would complete "the path" and realize.
The steps must be completed in an exact order; thus, the discarding of the mind - which is not some "advanced" or "higher-level" part of the realization process - is foundational and elementary while also being vital and indispensable.
Years ago, when the plant food body experienced a combination of cardiological and vascular problems, it became impossible to work, to write, to walk about the house, to take a shower, to take walks through the neighborhood and the nearby woods, to travel, or to go on a vacation.
Neither meals nor sex nor any of the relative pleasures could be enjoyed, and hospitalizations were frequent. One doctor said that he "was going to keep at it until he could find and treat all of my physical problems and restore me to health"; another said, “This may just be the way it is until the end and you’re just going to have to face that fact and get used to it.”
The reply to the latter was, “Doc, I’m going to give the other members of the team a chance to see if they can provide what would be needed for some decent quality of life to happen, but if that cannot be done, I’m far more prepared to leave this planet than to stay on it in misery.”
He did not appreciate the reply. In fact, he was stunned and speechless foe a time. So it was.
But do you see? Some said, disparagingly, that "You've given up. You're ready to die, dammit!" but that was not the case. I was prepared if so-called "death" should come, but it was not that I was ready to die or wanting to hasten the process unless there was no chance of some quality of life being restored.
As another example, some leaders suggest that being prepared for war can be a deterrent to those who might otherwise start a war; that might make some sense, but what makes no sense is the desire of those who are ready to fight, who are not just prepared for war but who really want a war.
(Yes, there are many in that latter group in the
U.S. and in other places around the globe. Here, that applies to many in the military and many in one of their preferred post-military service occupations, namely, a police force, sheriff's department, etc.)
Likewise, as a result of the perverted and ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and indoctrination and brainwashing to which children are exposed nowadays, they are ready for misery and suffering but are not prepared to handle the events that happen and generate misery and suffering; nor are they prepared to process such events to be free of the effects;
instead, they are mostly set up to be ready for agitation and impatience and petulance and annoyance and irritation and unhappiness more than they are ready for tolerance and patience and cheerfulness and natural pleasures and calmness and happiness (much less for joy or bliss).
And their agitation and impatience and petulance and annoyance and irritation and unhappiness are not spiritually-based issues but are mind-based issues.
Again, Maharaj: "There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates”
and
"There is no such thing as peace of mind”
and
“Mind means disturbance”
and
“Restlessness itself is mind."
One point offered here with some regularity is this: “The readiness is all,” but in the context of today's point, that might more accurately be stated as, "The preparedness is all."
If persons are not truly prepared to reach the end of the long and arduous road which they have traveled while seeking and seeking and seeking, then they will continue to play the role of “The Seeker” and will upgrade that role at some point to “The Super Seeker”;
if persons are not prepared to give up the “good roles” they have assumed (such as “The Super Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant") then they will remain fixated at the third step on the path to full realization and freedom and peace;
if they are not prepared to be fully free and fully independent, then they will join the other types mentioned above and will “stand in the dull light of dawn” while imagining and believing they are “realized,” and they will boast about being “bathed in the full light of the noonday sun.”
It is one thing to be prepared, instinctively and naturally, for the "unavoidables" which come throughout the relative existence. It is quite another to be ready and willing to settle for less and to engage in escaping, dissociating, and avoiding;
yet that is what most have been made ready for during their childhood years, and that is what many have been made ready for via what they are being told by their fellow seekers or their life coaches or their gurus or their religious / spiritual leaders.
As a result of the dissemination of 5,000 years of dogma, much of which has been centered in concepts / beliefs which assign high value to sacrifice, sacrificing is now far more attractive to the masses than joy and bliss and pleasure.
The messages passed down over the millennia have included:
“Sacrifice this or that animal, and give the best cuts from the burnt offering to the priest. You will be rewarded later for your sacrifices”
and
“Give up your virgin daughters to commune sexually with God (via his representatives on earth) and then to be used for all of us to enter into a state of oneness with God by eating her body (heart) and blood as a symbolic act of communion with God and sacrificing for God"
and
“Beat yourself so that you bleed in order to show God what you are willing to suffer and forfeit for him”
and
"Sacrifice other humans who are not as godly as you are in order to show God that you are serving him and his cause"
and
“Accept misery and suffering now because you will receive eternal rewards later for doing so”
and
“Don’t eat enjoyable meals but follow our food laws instead and avoid all of the foods on our ‘foods you are not to eat under any circumstances’ list. You must keep the body pure”
and
"Show up regularly at out special place to worship God and praise God and to ask for help from God and to hang out with godly people and repeat their godly thoughts and words and model their godly behavior"
and
“Abstain from sex in order to keep your mind and spirit pure”
and
“Give to your religious community or your spiritual groups not only your money but also your time and service and gifts and presence in order that you will be rewarded now and later for those sacrifices”
and
“If God was willing to sacrifice his Son to save you from your sins, the least you can do is sacrifice some of your money and time and labor”
and
“Worship the blood of the Lamb of God which was sacrificed for you”
and
"Be washed in the blood of the Lamb."
Blood. Blood. Blood.
Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice.
Religious workaholism.
Spiritual workaholism.
No real joy. Just fake it so you and those around you will believe it's real. Image. Image. Image.
No real bliss. Just fake it so you and those around you will believe it's real. Image. Image. Image.
And no more real pleasure, either. Instead, remember our motto: "If it feels good, stop it!"
With 97% of the persons on the planet claiming an affiliation with one of the organized groups that are spreading such messages, and with their having done so for 5,000 years, then what else could the programmed and conditioned masses be ready for other than sacrifice and misery and suffering now in order to gain some sort of payoff now and forevermore?
Maharaj: “The problem is ignorance and insanity”
and
“the main problem is in the mind.”
So where did you get what is in your mind and what Maharaj urged you to discard?
From experience and observation and trial-and-error? Okay.
From the inner resource / inner guru? Okay.
From the clarify of the intuitive, sixth sense? Okay.
Or . . .
from the compilation of myth-and-superstition-based-nonsense and the extensive body of learned ignorance which has been passed down as “fact” and “truth” for thousands of years?
Oops.
To be continued.
Please enter into 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."
