TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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The Pure, Universal Consciousness,
Pure Awareness,
and a
"Proper Perspective"
"Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare.”
---Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
During a fifteen-year period, I worked with thousands of persons who had admitted at one point that they "had been totally insane" but then they were given a new belief:
“I was insane, but God restored me to sanity.”
Really? Yet I watched most of those with that new belief as they continued to behave, relatively speaking, in self-destructive and self-defeating and self-abusive and self-absorbed fashions which revealed a unconscious death wish or subconscious suicidal tendencies, all the while thinking that they had “really gotten their act together.”
To them, I recommended they determine what they were about to do, pause, set a 180-degree opposite course, and then follow that path rather than their original plan:
Those still-insane ones expressed such thoughts as this: “I’m going to walk into my boss’s office on Monday and tell him he can take my job and shove it where the sun don’t shine and quit.”
F.: “That’s certainly one plan; should you want to consider a 180-degree opposite plan, you might go to work on Monday, do your job well each day, and spend your free time sending out your résumé to other companies and interviewing. Once you have another job, that might be the sensible time to quit the one you have.”
Yesterday, in that vein, some perspectives were offered, followed by more accurate, diametrically-opposite, perspectives.
To continue with that discussion:
Those dualistic perspectives (those “us vs. them” examples) from yesterday dealt with national and international subjects. Next, what of dualistic perspectives which deal with subjects "closer to home,” such as,
(1) “I am in constant fear of dying”
and
(2) “I am in constant fear of what is going to happen after I die?”
Andy Gugar, Jr., in his “Note from the Editor” introduction to several non-dual anthologies, tells a story which addressed #1 above in as clear a way as can be provided:
Before I found the Advaita teachings, both my seeking and my life were totally disorganized.
It became clear that - in my case - I required a teacher that could be available to answer my many questions along the way.
I began googling "Advaita" and found a blog site where Floyd Henderson was offering daily postings of non-dual pointers.
I began investigating this guy, wondering who he thought he was to be posting pointers about Advaita. He was not even from the Far East. Worse, my investigations uncovered the fact that this guy lived in Texas.
Being yet embroiled in ego, I asked, "Who does this guy living outside of Houston, Texas think he is . . . acting like he 'knows it all' about these teachings?" I concluded, "Heck, I live in Texas. I guarantee I already know as much about non-duality as any other person living in Texas. Who from Texas could offer anything about this eastern philosophy?"
Then I clicked the link for the retreats he offered and saw that, of even greater offense, he wanted to charge a fee for retreats where he teaches non-duality
A year would pass, and more and more searching continued, but at least once a week, the name "Floyd Henderson" came into the forefront of consciousness.
As much as I tried to ignore the name, it would not leave me, so after a year of continued seeking even after having first found his name and websites, I finally went back to his Advaita blog site, looked at the cost of a retreat with him, and concluded, differently this time, "Well, actually it really is only a nominal fee he is charging, and he does have to pay his bills."
So it came to me, "What if this guy just might have what you've been looking for all of your life?" I determined that I might as well spend a few dollars - a small amount really in comparison to the fortune I had already spent during decades of seeking and searching . . . all with no permanent results at all.
Right now, it is giving me cold chills just reflecting on that decision and what happened afterwards. I had reached a point where I felt as if I were going to pop right out of my skin from all of the suffering and misery and anxiety and stress that had characterized my existence.
For me, it had to get so bad that I became willing and ready - ready to give up all of the ideas and beliefs that had served me not at all and to seek the Truth that was obviously beyond all of the concepts I had ever taken to be the truth.
Eventually, I went to a retreat at Floyd's home and left three days later having found that I was not only willing to give up all of those concepts but had become willing to give up this fear-based "Andy" that had been at the root of my problems.
Now, I look back and laugh. Before the time spent in Floyd's home, I hated to wake up in the morning. Now, I can't wait to get up and enjoy every day.
I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to "go ahead and die now."
Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must "die."
I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
As I entered, I shouted, "Knock knock . . . anybody home?" He yelled back, "No." I got it . . . I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body . . . nobody.
So, the perspective of most is, “I am in constant fear of dying.”
A different perspective might be: “Then go ahead and die now. Die the death of body-identification and the die the death of ego and egotism and then be free.”
As for “B” above, the perspective of most is, “I am in constant fear of what is going to happen after I die.”
A different perspective might be: "If Andy Gugar, Jr. was trapped in his fears and was shown how to be free of those, then maybe I’ll try what he did. Maybe I’ll seek out the understanding he received and then realize that ‘I am no body . . . nobody.’ Then I’ll not stop seeking until I understand what he came to understand, including understanding the fact that both he and I are ‘no body . . . nobody';
"and understanding how he came to understand that he was not born and cannot die; and understanding what actually happens when the assumed ‘I’ supposedly ‘dies’ by understanding that I – and all humans - are mere composite unities made up of plant food elements, air and temporarily-manifested conscious energy;
and understanding the universal pools of elements, air, and energy to which those temporarily-combined parts shall return; and thereby come to understand that there is no 'one' or 'soul' or anything else which exists post-manifestation and why there is, therefore, no justification for any concern at all about what happens after the parts of a composite unity are no longer combined.
"Furthermore, if I take the steps necessary to understand all of that, then I will understand that there is no 'later' to desire or dread. That understanding, in turn, will allow me to truly and fully appreciate NOW and to understand that happiness or peace or bliss or anything else can only be known and experienced now, even in the absence of a belief in any 'Experiencer'.”
Whether on a national level, an international level, or a level which is “far closer to home,” the typical perspectives of humans are totally warped.
What is required, if freedom and peace and happiness and stability would be found, is a totally different perspective from that which is held by the masses. And that is why beginners who would enter onto "the path" and who come this way have been advised the following for decades:
"Take your first thought or belief or perspective about anything. Turn that around 180-degrees. Once you find that totally opposite perspective, go with that perspective until you realize fully."
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
Coming soon: CONSCIOUSNESS vs. AWARENESS
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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."
