TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS and THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
Maharaj explained that "knowledge" is itself "learned ignorance."
He said in the end that realization is simply the condition of being free from functioning under the influence of learned ignorance.
He said: "Realization is but the opposite of ignorance."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Stage
IV: The De-Accumulation / Actual "Journey" Stage: Finding a Guide That Can Pass Along the Tool Most Needed for Full Realization to Happen
Reference was made earlier to finding the guide that can show you the exact way to move out of the darkness and out of the forest and into the light; that is, the guide that can show the exact, reverse steps that must be taken in order to realize.
To be practical, it must first be noted that many - actually, most - do not want to be led all the way out of the darkness or all the way out of the forest. Many are more afraid of the light than they are of the darkness.
Many - actually, most - do not want to complete all seven steps to full realization because the fourth of those steps is a movement beyond the ego-states of "The Religious One," "The Spiritual One," and "The Dedicated Seeker."
Many - actually, most - will forever seek and never find, having no willingness at all to stop seeking.
Many - actually, most - of those are knowledge-seekers and love to accumulate more and more knowledge.
Some - actually, most - are so egotistical that they must try to align themselves with the famous only, not unlike a stark-raving, screaming fool who loves his team when it is winning but is furious with the team when it is losing. The ego only wants to identify with the famous, with winners, with stars, so some seekers will only seek on "The Avenue of the Big Names," a path that Maharaj warned against.
Among the fairly small number of those who do seek earnestly, most will fixate at that third step of seven, proud of their "holiness" or their "spirituality."
Many have lived unnaturally for so long or have tried to live so spiritually of late that they have no desire at all to live in the all-natural fashion that the nisarga yoga offers.
The point is, in the search for a guide, honesty is required at a point when, ironically, most cannot yet be honest. What an obstacle to realization!
And, possibly most significant, is the fact that the number of persons around the globe who have been infected with the Ultimate Sickness has reached a level never seen before in the history of humankind.
With more and more human being controlled by “through-the-roof-levels” of what Maharaj identified as “learned ignorance, stupidity and insanity,” there are fewer and fewer humans who are capable of passing down to the next generation wisdom, cleverness, and sanity.
With the masses having become more and more mutated physically, their offspring are more and more mutated. The results of a recent study made clear that while all humans are mutants, some are more prone to diverge than others.
Many children are now being born with twice as many mutations as their parents.
Nowadays those types of mutations are of a physical, pre-conception, pre-“birth” variety: the DNA of one or both parents has been distorted and will be passed on genetically.
But with the current widespread status of the Ultimate Sickness, some of the mental and emotional defects of parents being driven by “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” are passed along to their children who end up being driven by “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” as well.
Physically, some children are being born with a cleft lip or cleft palate or both; with scoliosis; with a duodenal atresia; brain damage and learning disabilities; and in the last six months I have been told by three people that in one case a child was born with an imperforate anus, in another case a grandchild was born with an imperforate anus, and in the third case, a woman told me that her best friend’s child was born with no anus at all.
Now among those who still believe in the false concept of “being born” I’m told that I will be “74 years old in September,” but I went 73 years without ever hearing of a most serious defect called either an “imperforate anus” or “no anus at all.” Physical defects and more truly mutated physical flaws are increasing in number and in degree of distortion.
Many of the physical defects can be traced to genetic or hereditary abnormalities; some can be traced to infections during pregnancy; some can be traced to alcohol abuse or the abuse of other drugs during pregnancy; and other causes are also possible.
But almost all of those with the Ultimate Sickness are suffering from mental and emotional and personality disorders.
What is one of the causes of the Ultimate Sickness? The typical child nowadays is not given one of the most effective tools required for navigating the relative existence, namely an effective Bullshit Detector.
Without that, they will begin as a child and continue throughout adulthood with the hindrance and disadvantage of being unable to spot when a consummate liar is lying; without being able to know when they are being taken advantage of; without the ability to stop being a fool and stop allowing others to fool them; without an ability to see clearly and with an accurate perspective; and without an abilty to differentiate between truth and falsehoods.
With the pandemic-style spread of the Ultimate Sickness, there are more and more mental and emotional and personality defects and more and more truly-mutated mental and emotional flaws which are increasing in number and in degree of distortion.
Yet the odds of overcoming the effects of physical defects or deficiencies are higher than the odds of overcoming mental and emotion and personality-based defects and distortion.
It is the work of a competent, non-dual guide (1) to un-teach seekers what must be un-taught and (2) to guide the seeker to un-learn all rather than trying to lead seekers to learn more
and then
(3) to supply each seekers whose mind has been cleared of all garbage with an effective Bullshit Detector which can prevent the mind from ever again accepting lies as truth and then storing those lies in a mind which allows nonsensical beliefs to then control all of a person’s thoughts and words and actions.
How grand is the task which would-be guides face? Well in the U.S. alone, it was seen last November that nearly 75,000,000 adults have no effective Bullshit Detector, so it is assured that their children - also numbering in the millions - have no BS Detector either.
To continue:
Many seekers in the "Advaita Vedanta" realm already claim realization though they are still accepting false identifications (such as "The Religious One," "The Spiritual One," "The Dedicated Seeker," "The Knower" "The Critic of a Different Approach from His Own," or "The All-Knower").
While the suggestion has been offered here to "watch for the resonance within" when you hear or read the words of a teacher, the challenge with that suggestion is this: some degree of resonance also happens when false beliefs are reinforced.
So let that be amended to suggest that you watch for a resonance of a fashion never before noticed, then try that teacher, follow the teacher's directions, and see what unfolds; otherwise, you will be like the butterflies being observed outside the window here: there are probably five hundred lantana in bloom in three different bedding areas in the front yard ...
. . . but the butterflies flit to one source of nectar for a second and then to another and then to another, ever in motion, ever seeking, never content enough to light and relax and be still in one place.
Every bloom offers the same thing in the end. The butterfly could probably sit on one bloom all day and not draw forth all that it seeks from a hundred different sources. But it is driven to flit from one to the other to the other.
The invitation here, if you are flitting from one religion or denomination or guru or yoga to another, is to consider choosing one Advaitin source for a spell. Stick with that one source and see if you too can receive all of the nectar required to treat what would otherwise ail you.
Maybe then you, too, can bloom. Stop flitting about from one method to another, one philosophy to another, one yoga to another, one guru to another, at least for a spell. Or, on the other hand, don't. Some must flit to the end.
Too, "The Nectar of Immortality" is so misunderstood that, as with the butterflies, some want to continue to flit about here and there to taste the nectar for the entirety of the relative rather than to accept the nectar as the full and final dose of the Ultimate Medicine and then to live naturally for the remainder of the manifestation.
Thus:
1. Be honest enough to determine what it truly is that you seek. If you want to "Know-It-All" (which differs considerably from understanding it all and then receding into the nothingness of natural abidance) and if you want a teacher to teach you more, seek out one with many beliefs and concepts who is willing to share those.
2. Next, if you fall into the go-do-zoom group and do not want to leave that behind, then find a teacher that will forever offer you assignments and exercises and who will encourage you to do spiritual exercises all day every day.
3. Or, by contrast, determine if that which you truly seek might be the nothingness that full realization brings, and be honest enough to determine if that which you truly seek is the natural mode of functioning which the nisarga yoga can bring.
If that is the case, seek a Direct Path, nisargan teacher that will, in the end, be an "un-teacher" that will eventually guide you to total un-learning.
Once you have determined how far along the "path" you would "journey," then make your selection. If you only want to travel as far as the religious or spiritual step, find one who talks of dogma or the spiritual only.
If you want to fixate in the doingnress rather than the beingness, find a teacher that is prone to make assignments for as long as you are willing to go and do and zoom. If you seek total freedom from the root of all misery and suffering, namely, your beliefs, then this might be the place for you to search for awhile.
One seeker wrote: "I was driving down Hohenhort Avenue and enjoying the mesmerizing beauty of the variegated trees and the mountain. There was such a strong feeling / longing that seekers could SEE what you offer via your 'teachings' so they too can enjoy the extraordinariness of this impersonal view."
Yet in that case, finding the teacher / author of this book came after the flitting about had subsided, after the desire to know and the searching to know had taken their toll, and after going and doing and zooming had lost its appeal.
The readiness was finally there. Also, it was noted earlier in this series that, when you are trying to make a final selection about a teacher . . .
do not be so arrogant as the ask the teacher to complete your "Teacher Checklist" of questions. If not realized, you have no clue at all about what to look for, anyway. Just watch for the resonance.
Do not be so arrogant as to demand some sort of "Realization Résumé." Just watch for the resonance. And do not be so demanding as to seek some kind of "money-back guarantee" if you fail to understand."
For seekers that are, instead, in that state of readiness described above, then the steps on "the path," taken at the Stage Four De-Accumulation level, await. More on that next.
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."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
