TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY
To continue with 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”
and
contrary types vs. contrarians
and
being blessed and having blesséd days
and
the power of now
and
the pure, universal consciousness
and
“I am consciousness”
and
“Consciousness is all there is”
and
“Nothing is real”
and
bliss
and
advancing your spirit
and
seekers’ propensities: To talk rather than listen
and
seekers’ propensities: to go and do and zoom rather than relax in the silence
Today, the discussion turns to . . .
SEEKERS’ PROPENSITIES: To learn rather than un-learn
It has long amazed me that those seeking via a process which endorses de-accumulation at its core fall prey to so much accumulation.
Most religions and ideologies and spiritual movements and programs and philosophies come right out and proclaim that their goal is for their members to learn more and more dogma; to read more and more “holy scriptures” or famous treatises;
to accumulate more and more “spiritual exercises” to complete on a daily basis; to accumulate more and more books and to build personal libraries on subject matter related to their religion or movement or ideology, etc.;
to accumulate more and more knowledge (that is per Maharaj, “learned ignorance”); to accumulate more and more trips to “holy places” or “spiritual centers on earth”; ad infinitum.
Most “non-dual seekers” who have supposedly heard mention of the fact that wise sages for ages have recommended de-accumulation nevertheless seldom put into practice that part of the non-dual message (including yours truly for a time).
Moreover, as they add to their store of “non-dual ‘stuff’,” they also cling to what they have already accumulated. And what do humans accumulate more than anything?
Concepts, ideas, notions, thoughts, designs, plans, schemes, impressions, images, opinions, views, theories, intentions, points, and knowledge / learned ignorance, etc., etc., etc.
And what one word summarizes all of that?
“Beliefs.”
Lions have long been called "the King of the Jungle," but in my 74 years, it is been witnessed that the most dangerous creatures on planet earth are fanatical humans with strongly-held beliefs (which always drive them to abide in a state of emotional intoxication).
Once humans have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed, and indoctrination, then the accumulation of beliefs runs rampart throughout the remainder of their relative existence with few exceptions.
Humans debate their beliefs; humans fight over their beliefs; humans can die for their beliefs; humans can kill for their beliefs; humans can hate anyone with “different beliefs” (whether those beliefs involve religion, spirituality, an afterlife, politics, who is good and who is bad, or who is right and who is wrong; etc.)
Then there is the influence of the hidden agendas of personality. The enneagram identifies nine basic personality types, and the non-dual understanding invites seekers to become free of the influence of all of them.
Regarding personality influences and this topic, Type Ones love to accumulate knowledge and use it to benefit themselves and others; Type Fives love to accumulate knowledge just for the sake of later being able to show off how much they know. Types Eights love to accumulate knowledge about others which can be used to intimidate or blackmail or control others at some future time.
So what do seekers share in common with
non-seekers? Often, an unwillingness to give up any of the learned ignorance which is
stored away in the parts of the brain which make up what is called “the mind.” Why?
Because of egotism; false pride; self-serving interests; desires, including the desire to control others through the use of accumulated knowledge / learned ignorance; to “show off”; to reinforce their persona of “The Expert”;
and because they have accepted the influence of their ignorance-based conditioning which can drive them consciously and unconsciously and subconsciously; because of their personality-driven “know-it-all” tendencies;
because of a willingness to cling to and fight for and sometimes die for their beliefs; and because they use their mind concepts to support and sustain their false identities.
The invitation is to un-learn rather than to learn more and to accumulate more and more “mind-stuff.”
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.
