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
[From the last post which ended with this:]
The typical "mindset" of
many seekers (as well as the "mindset" of many of those claiming to
be "knowers" or “jnanis”) can be illustrated via the words and
actions of one man who has assumed the role of "The Super Seeker" . .
. along with many other roles. He came here for a retreat, flying into the city
after spending a week in Central America where he paid a man $1,000.00 a day
for five days to "teach him to breathe." It was asked,
Floyd: "You just paid a man $5,000.00 to teach you to breathe?"
Visitor: "Yes."
F.: [Laughing, joking, but in a way that proved to be totally unacceptable
to the visitor]: "Who are the others you have paid, the others who
took your money to teach you to eat, to swallow, to digest? Did you pay someone
as a child to teach you to suckle, or did you simply suckle?"
V.: "Don't get smart. Of course I knew how to breathe before I went, but I
did not know the right way to breathe in order to shift into a peaceful
state."
F.: "There was no attempt to 'get smart.' There was a question that arose
spontaneously - rooted in the Nisargan understanding - intended to assist you
in seeing that nothing which is natural need be taught or learned. Only that
which is unnatural or supposedly supernatural is taught or learned. What is
required for abiding naturally you already have."
V.: "Regardless of your opinion, his method worked. I have never been so
at peace in my sixty-plus years." [That was said in a way which showed
that it was anger - not peace - that was beginning to boil to the surface.]
F.: "Then it must be asked, 'Why are you here?'"
So to continue with that previous post:
V.: [Raising into the air, reverently, his copy of I AM THAT - which
he said he now carries with him everywhere he goes - he said]: "I was
very impressed with the spiritual message in this book, but I have been living
according to the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for decades and am trying
to reconcile the two . . . maybe find what both have in common and expand my
consciousness to an even higher level."
[At that point, he was asked if he would be willing to hear some different
perspectives and if he would be willing to consider those objectively. When he
said "Certainly," the following was offered . . . with no conviction
at all that he was actually and "certainly" ready to consider
objectively any pointers that ran contrary to his firmly-fixed, supernatural /
spiritual beliefs]:
F.: "First, to that book you're carrying about as if it were your bible or
some other type of holy test: how would you feel if you learned that Maharaj
eventually discounted the value of that book and its contents and even stated
on occasion that his preference would have been that it was his later talks -
not the earliest ones in that book - which were being circulated widely?"
V.: "I would not believe that."
F.: "Maharaj said, 'That book and whatever was expounded at that time was
only relevant for that period.' He also said, 'I am speaking differently today'
and he said, 'I am emphasizing different aspects'."
V.: [The only reaction was a blank stare, not unlike a deer caught at night
in the middle of a road in the headlights of an oncoming car.]
F.: "As for 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' you evidently hold in high
regard his wisdom and his talent for passing along his wisdom to you and to
others?"
V.: "Yes."
F.: "Yet he does not even have the wisdom to understand why hurricanes
form where they form and go where they go. He claimed that Hurricane Katrina
devastated the city of New Orleans because of 'the negative karma of the people
there.' Do you really believe that it is evidence of wisdom if someone
erroneously assigns a supernatural cause to what is merely a natural event? Or
would the actual wisdom be shown by those who explain, scientifically and
factually, exactly why Hurricane Katrina formed where it formed, why it
followed the path it followed, and why landfall occurred where it occurred? At
the end of his teaching career, Maharaj would teach that 'holy' and 'unholy'
are just false and dualistic concepts, so he would give no credibility to such
a title as 'His Holiness'."
V.: "I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I'm not going to sit
here and listen you to defame His Holiness."
[With that, he picked up his copy of I AM THAT and stormed out in anger. No,
there was no suggestion that he come back, sit down, and make use of
newly-purchased breathing techniques to restore his peace.
He walked out the door and I walked into the office and typed the above summary of our exchange, assured that at some point the description of the briefest retreat in the history of seeking would prove to be relevant in some future discussion of how insane person can become when driven to assign the highest value to seeking and seeking and seeking giving any value to listening or hearing or seeing.
Indeed, what should have been the visitor's priority was not being taught how to breathe but being un-taught all so he could un-learn all of the BS stored in his mind and thereby remove all of the distorted beliefs he had accumulated in order to be able to listen clearly and hear clearly and see clearly and witness all with an accurate perspective.]
The exchange is offered to illustrate the presence of all of the perspectives
and beliefs that the Nisargan understanding will eradicate. The man was
exhibiting the typical behaviors that come with the assumption of "new and
improved roles" to replace one's former "bad" roles, his dominant and dominating one being that of "The Super Seeker."
Now, he believes himself to be "The Consummate Seeker" as well as "The Super Seeker" and "The Super Spiritual
One" but not see that he is functioning as "The Very Restless One" who is engaged in the
search for the sake of the search. To the contrary, the result of realization,
combined with the Nisargan (natural) understanding, is this:
At some point, all of the searching can end, all of the playing of "this
super role" or "that super role" can end, and natural abidance
can happen simply and spontaneously.
[Again, Maharaj said: “The sadguru, the
eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realise 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.”]
The visitor showed the miserable, costly, peace-interrupting alternative:
rather than resting in a state of concept-less-ness, the visitor was so
attached to his concepts that he became ready to fight when invited to consider
being free of his concepts and the distortions that they were supporting;
and rather than enjoying a state of duality-less-ness, he is sure that some
persons are holy, that some persons are more holy, and that some persons - including "floyd" - are
unholy;
and rather than abiding in a peaceful state of belief-less-ness, he was being
driven to roam the globe in search of externals and persons who would pile more
beliefs onto his pile of already-accumulated beliefs rather than allowing a
guide to direct him to that which is already within;
and rather than abiding in a state of mind-less-ness, he was constantly filling
his mind with more and more of the concepts and ideas (beliefs) that had
already proved to be useless, though his clogged "mind" and blocked
consciousness would not allow him to see their uselessness;
and rather than functioning in a Nisargan (natural) manner and abiding in the
peace of a state of identity-less-ness, he was spending a fortune in a
globe-trotting effort to reinforce his currently-assumed ego-states and to
acquire even more.
His case is not rare; in fact, his case is often witnessed. Most reach the
third step and
then fixate at that third step which is the step where religious and / or
spiritual roles are played. In the end, Maharaj offered a rarer perspective:
“Give up all your spiritual work and just be.”
That requires seeing “all that you are not” and requires reaching / returning to the fourth step, the no-identities, no concepts, no beliefs "Child Ignorance" or "Child No-Knowing State."
And that requires being free of the partial understanding that paralyzes the masses who are trapped by their beliefs and dogma at the third step where they practice what Maharaj called "their kindergarten-level spirituality" and where they “stand in the dim light of the dawn while thinking that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun.”
Eventually, the following perspective - which differs from that held by some other non-duality seekers or teachers - can result: If the non-dual understanding comes in tandem with the Nisargan understanding, then no notions about "more-ness" will come at all; instead, all that does come will involve "less-ness," including
concept-less-ness,
duality-less-ness,
belief-less-ness,
mind-less-ness, and
identity-less-ness.
Then, identities can be replace with "neti-neti" and "less-ness" can eventually be replaced with "none-ness."
If that happens, then mere beingness can manifest and "now-ness" can be the focus right up until the taking of mahasamadhi when un-manifesting happens.
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."
