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 yesterday:
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?
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.
You might review that list and see if you also hold any of those beliefs. Then tomorrow we’ll see what Maharaj came to see in the end about each of those beliefs.
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 offering what is supposedly a non-dual message prefer to emphasize a connection with the dogma of the Far East.
[See Regarding “Religion” above]
Many believe that the focus of the non-dual message should be on “things noumenal” rather than on “things phenomenal.”
[See Regarding “the Composite Unity” above]
If there is no “you” which can survive the relative existence, that is, if there is no “Eternal You” or Infinite Self or Supreme Self, etc., etc., etc., then, there will be no “one” or “One” post-manifestation to experience anything that is deemed to be “noumenal.”
Hence, whatever is, post-manifestation, is irrelevant. In the absence of a "you" or "You," no one and "form" will be present to affect it or to be affected.
The only thing that can “experience anything” is the temporarily-manifested body, and when its manifestation ends, it components are spread about by the winds or by nature’s processes and never the twain shall meet (or actually, never shall those three parts of the composite unity ever come back together and meet up somewhere else).
Maharaj: "Prior to taking this form, you were formless; spontaneously the form came, and when the form came there was a natural longing to return to the formless state.”
See? No "form" which was temporarily-manifested will exist post-manifestation.
Many believe that the “purpose” of the non-dual understanding is to find the “True Self” which currently is and then to also find some Supreme Self or Infinite Self or Ultimate Self or Highest Self or Authentic Self GodSelf.
Thus, many students of non-duality believe there is presently some self (or many “false selves”) but that there will be in some “Real and Eternal Self” later on and forever.
Again, Maharaj: “I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware (or conscious) that I am.”
More to the point is this:
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”?
Therefore, is not the relative existence (rather than a post-manifestation, supposedly "noumenal" state in which there will be no awareness and no consciousness of anything) be the only logical focal point?
And, therefore, isn't the ending all of the "ignorant and stupid and insane" thoughts and words and actions which generate misery and suffering throughout the relative existence be the only rational reason for seeking the non-dual understanding and / or for studying non-dual pointers?
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."
