TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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The Pure, Universal Consciousness,
Pure Awareness,
and a
"Proper Perspective"
“I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness.”
---Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Today, let the focus be on what Maharaj had to say about distortion:
First, to review: It matters not whether persons are looking at something deemed to be “phenomenal” or at something deemed to be “Noumenal.”
The fact is, though, that most persons will view things deemed to be “phenomenal” and things deemed to be “Noumenal” with a warped perspective.
Maharaj: “Your personal universe does not exist by itself. It is merely a limited and distorted view of the real. It is not the universe that needs improving, but your way of looking.”
He said the same about persons’ “world view” as well: "You are not in the world. The world is in you" (meaning that the world that you have conceptualized is not at all as you perceive it and that it is in you, that is, in your mind.)
After he left organized religion and was exposed to certain non-dual teachings, Yeshu'a (incorrectly called "Jesus") said:
"A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."
Maharaj made clear that a warped perspective cannot be compartmentalized; therefore, a warped perspective can provide nothing more than a warped view of everything.
Thus it is that the blight of humanity includes humankind's inability to recognize that distortions and illusions and warped perspectives really are distortions and illusions and warped perspectives.
Because there is no "self" or "Self" - and, therefore, no "true self" or any "True Self" - then the most that can be said about a supposedly "True Self" is this: it is nothing more than
one of the two modes of witnessing which include these:
1. There is S-O (subject - object) witnessing such as the duality-based subject-object witnessing as expressed in the statement, “I (subject) see you (object).”
2. Then there is Pure Witnessing (which is the "pure, universal consciousness-based" type of witnessing whereby all is seen clearly); whereby distortions are suddenly recognized to be distortions;
whereby mirages are seen to be nothing more than mirages; whereby illusions are seen as the illusions that they are; and whereby an end comes to viewing anything and everything via warped perspectives.
A warped perspective can come because (A) one is looking out through a dirty window, meaning through the distorting filter of a mind clogged with the nonsensical learned ignorance set in place via distorted, and distorting, programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
The nonsensical learned ignorance can include beliefs rooted in a “different-from” and therefore “better-than” mentality and it can include the arrogance which comes with believing in the two concepts duality-based concepts of “different-from” and “better-than.”
A warped perspective can also come because (B) one is looking at anything and everything but seeing nothing clearly and as it truly is because blockages that prevent clear seeing were set into place by warped and distorted and ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination.
Maharaj said that he “talks to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness.” Consider how this exchange clarifies that point:
Maharaj: “We are not speaking the same language. Yours is a make-believe talk. [It] all hangs on suppositions and assumptions. You speak with assurance about things you are not sure of."
Questioner: “Therefore, I am here.”
M.: “You are not yet here. I am here. Come in! But you don't. You want me to live your life, feel your way, use your language. I cannot, and it will not help you. You must come to me. Words are of the mind and the mind obscures and distorts. Hence the absolute need to go beyond words and move over to my side.”
Q.: “Take me over.”
M.: “I am doing it, but you resist. You give reality to concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality. Abandon all conceptualisation and stay silent and attentive. Be earnest about it and all will be well with you.”
Maharaj advised: “Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless (such as some 'True Self'). Realise that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.”
On another occasion, he made clear that humanity’s problem with misperceiving is indeed centered in the mind:
Q.: “People are killing and getting killed and here you talk of pictures.”
M.: “By all means go and get killed yourself, if that is what you think you should do. Or even go and kill, if you take it to be your duty. But that is not the way to end the evil. Evil is the stench of a mind that is diseased. Heal your mind and it will cease to project distorted, ugly pictures.”
He said in that regard: “When the mind takes over, remembers and anticipates, it exaggerates, it distorts, it overlooks. The past is projected into future and the future betrays the expectations. The organs of sensation and action are stimulated beyond capacity and they inevitably break down. The objects of pleasure cannot yield what is expected of them and get worn out, or destroyed, by misuse. It results in excess of pain where pleasure was looked for.”
He also said: “The world seen in consciousness is of the nature of consciousness," but consciousness - because of distorted and distorting programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination - is "obscured and distorted," he said. The result, he then said, is this: "You see the false as real”
and he also said
“A quiet mind, undistorted by desires and fears, free from ideas and opinions, clear on all the levels, is needed to reflect the reality.”
And what is the prerequisite for desires and fears? The assumption of ego-states as identities.
Regarding that, Maharaj said: “A man should always revolt against himself, for the ego - like a crooked mirror - narrows down and distorts. It is the worst of all the tyrants; it dominates you absolutely.”
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."
