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
“A Discussion of the Stages of Maharaj's ‘Journey’”
(continued)
Regarding the points offered earlier, Advaitin Louise: said, "Those pointers spoke very clearly. Some will think they want realization, but in fact are seeking to fulfill personality drivers, like being part of a community; being special; being chosen. You and I know that suffering comes from choosing a path that does not point beyond those drivers.
For those invested in the spiritual role, stress comes from saying they want realization when they actually want a spiritual family, comforting rituals, and a God to believe in. Maybe they even want to be a spiritual teacher and help others.
So the actual goal is not realization – even though this is the stated goal; hence, the stress when they come upon the teaching that refutes the need for a family, ritual, belief in God, etc. In essence, if they want to stop at Step 3, just be honest about the goals. Don’t pitch for realization.
The reply: Yes, and it is becoming fixated in the roles assumed at the third step of the seven steps that just as much distortion comes as existed in the days even prior to beginning a "journey."
As an example, the woman referenced here before who works in a local church speaks over and over, as do so many, of "being blessed." Actually, she is following the game plan taught by her parents:
Her father: "You're good looking. Use your looks to find a man to take care of you."
Her mother: "And manipulate him with love. If you do that, you'll get everything you want or need."
Most cultures have derogatory names for men or women who enter into a profession where they use an attractive appearance and a body and manipulation and false love to get money, and none of those names include "The Super Religious Church Worker Who Is Blessed Because She Is So Good."
So she has always been able to find a wealthy man who is willing to buy what she is willing to sell and then she puts a spin on what is actually happening by claiming that "God is rewarding her" and that that "she is being blessed."
The
spin allows her to ignore the fact that she is fixated at the body level and is
attached to the relative only. The spin allows her to believe that she is
living in a non-relative, supernatural, religious manner, and the fact that sometimes the male she was trying to hook with sex for herself happened to already have a wife and children was irrelevant because he was married but she claimed that she wasn't so she was not committing adultery.
All arrogance, all distortions, all self-deception, all, as you say, about "being special," in the eyes of God, fellow churchgoers, the community, and self. Such is what happens when a new persona is assumed at the third step and when the search ends there.
Which leads to the subject matter to be discussed now, namely, the levels of distortion and mis-identification that are eliminated when the seven steps from belief in the false "I" to the Absolute are completed in their exact order.
The author's online course begins with a challenging of the culture's mores and basic beliefs that are programmed into persons from early on. The "journey" does not begin with the step one questioning of body identification but begins by laying a foundation of willingness to question, questioning that must go to the very root of societal norms and customs and the very root of what one's society claims is virtuous and valuable.
The series of propositionalities that are addressed in the first two eBooks in the course are not intended to replace former beliefs with new beliefs. They are intended to shift the seeker into a state of willingness where even the most entrenched beliefs are questioned . . . beliefs about such concepts as patriotism and nationalism;
about every item included in a society's list of that culture's "sacred cows"; and about all of the items included in a nation's list of "bests":
"We are the best country on the planet and we have the best medical care system on the planet and we have the right form of government and we have the right economic system, ad infinitum," all of which leads to the egotistical belief that everyone else should be just like them.
The course also invites persons to be willing to question all of their religious and so-called "spiritual" beliefs, the culture's teachings about "relationships," and the culture's teachings about accumulation.
Only if the willingness to question it all is present is the readiness also present to begin the seven-step "journey" by questioning the most basic beliefs about one's identity. Then only can body and personality identifications be challenged; then only can the content of the "mind" be challenged.
Only after rejecting all of that can one move along the "path" and complete the rest of the steps that remove the final vestiges of identification and beliefs and allows for the shift to the "zero concept" step. After that, the remainder of the "journey" can be completed.
Then, an understanding of the functioning of the totality manifests; the Truth that cannot be spoken but that can be known is known; then, even the knower and the knowing fall away (along with all that is unnatural and all that was mistakenly thought to involve something supernatural), after which abidance happens naturally.
At the end of the nisarga "path," there is neither a seeker nor a self nor a belief in a "Supreme Self." Neti-neti is not just an understanding - it is the foundation on which the remainder of the manifestation happens.
Spontaneity replaces the plans that came about as a result of personal agendas (that is, agendas of false personas), and the abidance happens in a non-dual, no-concept, no-identity mode.
This is not for all; in fact, it is for few. That is why Maharaj was not among the "biggest names" when he was teaching. His gatherings were not ashram-sized, not super-sized; they barely filled a tiny loft on many days, especially prior to publication and circulation of the I AM THAT transcriptions.
In his later talks, his popularity would fall because his message moved farther away from the Traditional Teaching approach and dealt almost exclusively with the nisarga yoga that ignores the popular "religious and spirituality-based" message, that gives nothing, and that eventually strips away all.
If any vestige of a "WHO" remains, that nisarga offering will have no appeal, but for the few who have tired after having sought everything else, who have sought everywhere else, who have tried by every means to gain, who have accumulated all that can be accumulated (including spiritual knowledge and a plethora of "good personas" to replace the "bad personas"), then the readiness for this message might manifest.
There is the tale of a young lad running about a field of flowers one day with a net, chasing butterflies all day long without success. At the end of the day, tired and exhausted and frustrated and plagued with a sense of emptiness and failure, he dropped to his knees and his head fell forward on the ground.
He was done, wiped out, finished, suffering from a "to-hell-with-it-all" mindset. He raised himself to his knees and looked at the setting sun and felt there was a message there for him: the day is ending and peace is settling across the field and maybe that is the way to go - just end it all.
But at that moment, he sensed something approaching from his left and as he looked in that direction, a butterfly - spontaneously and softly - lit upon his shoulder. He looked about and saw that the peace that was settling across the now-quiet field had come because he had stopped running and doing and zooming.
He had been the source of all of the commotion all along, and only when he stopped contributing to the commotion did peace come. Only then did that which he had sought come to him. He had to go nowhere, had to run nowhere, had nothing more to chase, had nothing more to drive him to seek and do and zoom.
The same awaits all if they choose to complete the Nisarga path to natural living. Realize fully via this yoga and you can then do as Maharaj said the deer do, namely, rest in the cool blue shade, Your existence will not be tantamount to a field full of commotion, and all that in necessary and natural and quiet and peaceful will come to you, automatically and spontaneously.
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.
