TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY
More on the rationale for this series:
1. Among the 7+ billion non-realized persons on planet earth, 97% reported in a survey that they limit their “search area” to the space beneath the roof a church or basilica or cathedral or temple or the meeting room of a “spiritual group” or a wat or mosque or synagogue or gurdwara. Actually, they seldom seek because they are convinced that they have found. They are taught to “question nothing” and to “accept with blind faith” whatever they are taught.
2. The same applies to the millions supposedly seeking in particular rooms or a loft or a home or a borrowed gathering space or via a particular ideology, cult, philosophy, or theory.
3. Of those seeking via a system of pointers which included the invitation to “question everything,” few question it all.
4. Here, “non-dualists” are encouraged to “question it all” and then an expanded caveat is added: “even question every non-dual pointer you’ve ever heard or read.”
5. Long before Maharaj shared pointers on the bogus beliefs regarding body and mind and personality identification; and long before he advised seekers to abandon their religious and spiritual role-playing; and long before he advised them to give up their spiritual workaholism and merely abide naturally, he laid the groundwork for all the pointers to come by saying, “Question everything.”
He meant with those words that every belief accumulated by listening to others and by reading the words of others and by going to gatherings (where those he derided as “Big Name Teachers” were collecting millions of dollars a year from seekers) must be questioned.
6. There have been millions of religious and spiritual and philosophical and ideological and Eastern and, yes, even non-dual concepts / beliefs which billions of humans have taken to be “awesome.”
In addition to “awesome,” so many simple and basic parts of the non-dual understanding have been “elevated in status” in a most supercilious, pompous fashion, reporting that various elements of the message are “noble,” “other-worldly,” “extraordinary,” “exceptional,” “distinctive,” and “exclusive.” None of them were, and none of them are.
7. This series is offering a different perspective about those concepts / beliefs / pointers / whatever.
So far in this series, it has been shown that - far from being “awesome concepts or teachings” - there is actually no validity or logic at all to such concepts or teachings as . . .
continuity
and
WHO-ness and / or who-ness
and
“SELF-Actualization”
and
“SELF-Realization”
and
“self-realization” (unless referring to the fact that one has realized that all assigned or assumed selves are illusions as are all assumed Selves as well)
and
liberation
and
enlightenment, awakening, and spiritual awakening,
and
“the Spiritual Malady”
and
higher consciousness
and
noble truths
and
how to know God
and
finding your life’s purpose
and
how to find peace of mind
and, relatedly,
mindfulness
and
becoming who you are
and
having an ageless body and timeless mind
and
karma
and
“Infinite Self” and “Supreme Self” and “Eternal Self”
and
birth-death-rebirth cycles
and
“The Universe”
and
“the work” / “spiritual work” / “spiritual workaholism.”
Today, the discussion moves to . . .
CONTRARY TYPES vs. CONTRARIANS
Long
ago (a) among the Far Eastern Indians and Asians (some of whom would migrate
and settle on the land now called “the Americas”) and (b) among those who would
come to be called “the indigenous peoples” of South, Central and North
America,” there were some who were called “contrarians.”
Nowadays, in the field of finance, contrarians are those who go against the
conventional “wisdom” of the masses and buy when others sell or sell while
others are buying. Among Native Americans and others mentioned above, however,
the term “contrarian” refers to one who spoke in ironies or contradictions,
who functioned as a jester or satirist or clown, none of whom follow the path
that the masses followed.
In the cultures of pre-counselors-offering-therapy days, contrarians served a similar role. They held up mirrors to persons or demonstrated how backwards-thinking the masses were. Those sharing the essence of the non-dual message do the same, trying to assist persons in seeing how warped their thinking is and what the consequences of warped thinking are, and why they might want to consider the abandonment of such warped thinking.
Maharaj,
especially in his later days, did just that and was labeled “a rebel” and “a
maverick” and “an egomaniac,” going his own way instead of teaching the traditional
messages accumulated in “by-the-book” Hinduism and Eastern cultures.
"Contrarians" were thought to be “backwards or upside-down or
contrary in nature”; they did often do things in a backwards or unconventional
manner, literally walking backwards or saying the opposite of what they really
mean or believe.
During a heat wave, they might wear winter clothing and complain about the
heat; if hungry, they might complain about being too full; if cold, they might
wander about naked and protest that they are hot. In some of those cases, they
might be modeling how ignorant it is to complain about relative conditions that
are beyond human influence—a pointer with which some Advaitins would agree. Let it be said, though, that “contrarians” should not be confused with persons
who are simply “contrary.”
In those ancient days, contrarians (a.k.a., heyókȟas) functioned both as a mirror, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, and forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses.
They provoked laughter in distressing situations of despair, and provoked fear and chaos when people felt complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.
The contrarians’ methods were quite unsophisticated compared to those of the modern-day therapists (if they have been effectively trained), but the contrarians very existence revealed that the wisest in those cultures recognized the consequences of the warped thinking generated by “conventional wisdom” and a call to address the problem.
[By the way, "conventional wisdom" is no wisdom at all. The phrase is just another example of the oxymorons discussed a few weeks ago, including such contradictory combinations as “jumbo shrimp” and “military intelligence” and “sensitivity-trained law enforcement officers.” One might as well try to change the behavior of the most radical incels and MGTOW’s or might as well have tried to change the behaviors of such persons as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, dedicated Nazis, and white supremacists by offering them “sensitivity-training.” Such training will never address the real issues of sociopaths and / or psychopaths.]
When the wise consider Thoreau’s suggestion to “march to the beat of a different drummer” or Frost’s musing on “the road not taken,” they understand the call is not to try to destroy a partner, a city, a state, a nation, etc., and then try to rebuild from scratch something to replace it. The deal might involve working to enhance the “relative positives” and discard the “relative negatives,” as was Maharaj’s approach. He suggested throwing out the mind, not the body that houses the brain with certain parts which make up the human mind.
His moving away from Hinduism and spirituality ignited a firestorm with Maharaj, yet sometimes it is the “the road not usually taken” that is the sane path to follow. To follow the masses is to be sheep like and to follow the lead of the craziest and to jump off a cliff onto the rocks below.
For some, to look back over the list of concepts discussed so far in this series (and that is all they are - just dreamed up, complicating, unnatural or supposedly supernatural / spiritual concepts) and to read that someone is recommending the abandonment all of those in order to abide naturally is anathema.
If one’s path is generating states of emotional intoxication, inspiring one to abandon logic and reason, and leading one to be trapped in magical thinking, then might there not be a call to witness objectively and to reevaluate reasonably one’s path?
The catch 22? It is almost impossible for persons to witness objectively and to reevaluate reasonably their path if they are hindered by emotional intoxication, by a lack of logic and reason, and by being trapped in magical thinking.
And that is why Maharaj’s final estimate of how many will ever “get this understand and abide naturally” was 1 out of ten million.
Yet to be hindered by emotional intoxication, by a lack of logic and reason, and by being trapped in magical thinking are influencers which will all but guarantee that the masses will abide unnaturally and will try to abide supernaturally / spiritually rather than to abide naturally.
Persons can consider the message offered by contrarians - none of whom followed the path which the masses follow – and allow themselves to be provoked to laughter in distressing situations of despair and to keep from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.
Ah, there’s the rub. There’s the conundrum faced by those who prefer a path which invokes emotional intoxication and drama and production and commotion and spectacle and even crisis.
Persons - especially bored persons - can indeed be addicted to chaos. As Yeshu’a supposedly said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” And for the masses, that’s just fine, thank you very much.
So it is, but so it need not be.
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.
