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
Many have heard of a film entitled “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but it is likely that few interested in “things Eastern” are aware that there is also “Non-Duality Seeking of the Insane Kind.”
Since the summer of 1989, there has occurred here some focused witnessing of those seeking via organized religion, via "Step Groups and Spiritual Programs," via certain philosophies and / or ideologies, and via Eastern methodologies including a variety of "Non-Dual paths" and using a variety of Non-Dual Teaching Methods).
All seeking in those venues and others have often been seen to be just as insane as those "non-seeking" humans who are living under the influence of their distortion-and-fiction-filled-and-ignorance-filled minds."
For example, consider the actions of some "Seekers" and "Super Seekers" both in India and from around the globe who are seeking via Hindu dogma or (supposedly) via Maharaj's non-dual, Nisargan methodology:
1. Nowadays, there are persons who
travel to Mumbai and pay an entrance fee to visit the loft above the flat where Maharaj and his family lived, a visit which those persons believe will allow them to "better commune with
Maharaj.” Really? While in that small loft, they pray and
bow and knell and chant and pay homage to . . . "Maharaj."
2. There are others who pay a fee to enter a room where a handful of ashes which were picked up by a man in September of 1981 are now on display in a container which is inside a protective case. Those ashes were gathered from the remains of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s funeral pyre.
While in that room, they pray and bow and knell and chant and pay homage not to a previously-manifested speck of universal consciousness known as "Maharaj" but to - in actuality - some elemental ashes. For them, that room is like an ashram when it is actually just an "ash room."
Were the composite unity known as "Maharaj" able to visit them and comment on their being driven to kneel in the presence of a handful of ashes, he might tell them that they have turned the location into neither an ashram nor an ash room but into an “ass room” instead.
How else but "insane" could one properly classify the behavior of those trapped as they are in their false-self identities who want to (1) visit a handful of earth elements and (2) bow when in the presence of those ashes and chant and clap in the presence of those ashes?
Many believe that the loft and the ash room are “among the many places on earth which are holy” or that “the loft and the ash room are both spiritual centers" or that “both are holy places which all non-dual seekers should make a pilgrimage to at least once during their lifetimes.”
Those types have far too many beliefs which trap them in their warped perspectives to understand that their actions are totally contrary to what was taught by the one they have paid a fee to “commune with” and to pay homage to.
Maharaj said: “All desires, ‘holy’ and ‘unholy,’ come from the self.”
That is, they come from the false self or the false selves or the false personality identifications which humans are assigned during childhood and which they adopt during adulthood.
It is only a false self who would make statements about “holy places” and who would do what some "Maharaj fans" do nowadays as described above.
As for Maharaj’s take on guru-bhakti, yes, he did begin with that, but he later abandoned it. While he adhered to the direct orders given by his guru early on, he stopped following most of those instructions later on. In a single pointer, he dispelled as well as the notion that THAT should be worshiped or focused on either:
Maharaj: “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.”
[Yes, "life ceases to be a task," and that is why the invitation
here includes a different perspective: "Stop with all the religious workaholism
and all of the spiritual workaholism and (supposedly) spiritual exercises and (supposed) spiritual seeking. Stop making a second job out what should
be mere living."]
[See? Maharaj's eventual message tried to re-focus seekers on what can change NOW during the relative and tried to re-focus their attention away from anything post-manifestation since there will be one, no WHO, to be conscious of or aware of anything after taking mahasamadhi.]
He also said: “Running after saints is merely another game to play.” To one attracted to visiting "holy men," Maharaj asked: “How will you know who is great and holy? By hearsay?”
It’s all nonsense, persons crying and emoting in a loft or in a room with ashes, and Maharaj would have been the first to say so if he were to have the opportunity nowadays. Yet nonsense remains and continues to generate emotional intoxication (which again was the opposite of what Maharaj’s was offering):
Maharaj: “Emotional reactions, born of ignorance or inadvertence, are never justified.”
Rather than seeking out the four walls where Maharaj sat or where some of his ashes are on display, consider a relevant recommendation he offered at one point: “Break down the wall of ignorance first.”
Later on, he modeled shifting away
from a guru’s orders and basing what one shares to one’s own “experience,” so
the message (or "approach" or "focus") changed as Maharaj
eventually. . .
(a) "evolved" beyond what seemed to be an absorption in guru-bhakti, god-bhakti, and jnana yoga;
(b) shared fewer pointers which were merely "Siddharameshwar, Part Deux" and which became more of a "Pure Maharaj" message;
(c) behaved in ways that were based more in "the experiences" of Maharaj than in the guidelines and "commands" issued by Siddharameshwar; and
(d) "evolved" into "Maharaj the Giver of a Psychological / Nisargan Message."
Those are more of the perspectives here which differ from the perspectives held by the masses. So, in the book below entitled “A Different Perspective,” some of the different perspectives offered in the loft there and in the electronic loft here are shared, including those in the following passages from that book:
There is no such thing as peace of mind; there is only peace if you are out of your mind. Why? Because the "mind" is a storehouse of fiction, myths, superstitions, false concepts, bogus beliefs, erroneous ideas, etc. How could such content not cause problems when it subconsciously controls people and their thoughts and their words and their actions?
Charlatans and religious leaders and spiritualists and pseudo-Advaitins and those "on the circuit" whom Maharaj referred to as "the Big Name Teachers who should be avoided" are all accumulating fortunes as they promote and peddle the various plans which they claim will provide "peace of mind" or "Realization."
They may as well be claiming that they have "Perpetual Motion Machines" for sale because "Perpetual Motion Machines" and "peace of mind" are both illusions. There is only peace if mind-less.
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.
That self-identified "Super Seeker" 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,
F.: "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.: "If that is the case, then it must be asked, 'So why are you here?'"
Probably to be continued next week after some heart procedures are conducted beginning tomorrow AM.
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."
