TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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WHY MAHARAJ ABANDONED RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL VERSIONS OF THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE AND TURNED HIS FOCUS TO PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALING INSTEAD
The Ultimate Sickness: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
(Continued)
Archaeologists have discovered records which are over 8,300 years old in which mental illness and its effects on individuals and societies were being discussed. The concern over insanity gave religions a boost as their leaders suggested that insanity was "caused by the presence of evil" and was “the work of the devil” and that only the gods (later amended to “The One True God”) could restore people to sanity.
In many cultures for over 5000 years it was taught that only (a) prayer - often combined with (b) tortuous treatments - could “save” the insane and society in general.
THE TREATMENT
Earlier, the
causes and the symptoms of The Ultimate Sickness were discussed. What is the
treatment? If, in any given case, the contributing factors of The Sickness -
foolishness, irrationality, mild personality disorders, and / or certain very
mild degrees of insanity - have not progressed beyond the "mild" or
"moderate" level, then the non-duality teachings might be a part of
the treatment.
[But sometimes not. See the book "Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita
Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address."]
Another possible part of the treatment is understanding what drives persons to
unquestioningly accept falsehoods as truth, to disseminate untruths, and to be
fooled or foolish or both. To that end, the discussion continues with the
discussion of . . .
EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISMS THAT INSPIRE PREVARICATION
(Continued)
10. Egocentrism: (defined as "recognizing the self as the center of all
things; self-centered; believing that everything should revolve around you and
your wishes")
and
11. Justification: (defined as "furnishing a reason or excuse for one’s
behavior")
and
12. Rationalization: (defined as "attributing logical or credible motives
for actions actually resulting from other often unrecognized - or hidden -
motives; finding or creating plausible but false motives for one's conduct;
making excuses for unacceptable behaviors")
and
13. Excessiveness: (defined as "overindulging; being immoderate; wanting
more than what is needed; wanting a quantity beyond what is necessary or
desirable; wanting to exceed others").
[A recent example: For evidence of all four of the above when they are "at
play," see the earlier example of the husband who claimed that his wife
should "get over her anger and hurt" after discovering he had been in
four relationships with other women because "none of those constituted
infidelity" since, in all four cases, they "only had oral sex."]
When the wife left the counseling session after he presented his
rationalizations and justifications, he solicited the counselor's support for
his view, making clear that far more than prevarication is involved in his case
as well as in all of the examples so far. What is also involved with all of the
examples are encapsulated in these definitions of insanity:
"insanity": "a condition marked by extreme foolishness or irrationality;
the state of being mentally ill, the state of suffering from a serious mental
illness, or the condition of being totally mad."
Also contributing to the all-too-frequent, planet-wide cases of unstable
persons, of persons suffering from personality disorders, of persons suffering
from various degrees of mental illness, and of the inability of most to be able
to differentiate true from false are:
FAULTY OR INSANE BELIEF SYSTEMS THAT RESULT FROM FALLACIES IN REASONING
The list of such reasoning fallacies that go hand-in-hand with personality
defects, with believing insane beliefs, with disseminating those falsehoods,
and with varying degrees of mental illness includes:
14. Abandoning Discussion: Refusing to complete discussion of issues to
resolution; walking out; throwing a punch.
15. Affirming the Consequent: Justifying your behavior by desire only. (I want
it; therefore, I can take it.)
16. Appeal to Pity: Trying to get one’s way by practicing self-pity; suggesting
to others that your condition is the most pitiful and thereby trying to get
special consideration.
17. Personal Attack: Believing your status can be elevated by reducing the
status of others.
18. Apriorism: Closing one’s mind to the facts or one’s eyes to the evidence;
being prejudiced to the point of being unable to consider an opposing idea or a
different opinion; an inability to learn as a result of believing you know
everything.
19. Demand for Special Consideration: Convinced that you are different, you
then believe that you deserve to be treated in a way that is different from the
way that everyone else is treated.
20. Forestalling Disagreement: Attempting to manipulate others’ beliefs and
their acceptance of your beliefs; trying to block people from disagreeing with
you (e.g., saying “No one would be so insane as to believe . . . .”)
21. Impossible Condition: Giving people several choices while none of the
options are plausible (“Either do it my way or get out.”)
22. Inconsistency: Making incompatible statements; not holding yourself to the
same principles at all times.
23. Lip Service: Saying you are for something while your actions contradict
you.
24. Non-Exhaustive Classification: Contradicting oneself and not recognizing it
(“I don’t mean to tell you how to run your business, but . . . . ”)
25. Non-Exclusive Classification: Using generalizations to justify your
behavior.
26. Pointing to Another Wrong: Attempting to avoid accepting deserved criticism
by deflection (“I’m driving dangerously? You’re the one who nearly killed us last
year on vacation.”)
27. Post Hoc: Reaching erroneous conclusions. (“My father was insensitive. I’m
insensitive. There’s nothing I can do about it.”)
28. Red Herring: Changing the subject in order to deflect attention to another
issue instead of the one that is making you uncomfortable.
29. Trouble with Conditionals and Alternatives: Giving false reasons to explain
events (“If life treated me fairer, I’d have a better job, better attitude,
etc.”)
The end result is a planet on which a majority of humans exhibit the conditions
referenced in these quotes referenced earlier:
George Bernard Shaw was once asked if he thought there might be life on other
planets. His reply was that he was certain that there had to be life on other
planets because they are obviously using earth as their insane asylum.
Mark Twain observed that:
"The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried
to shut up the insane, we should run out of building materials"
and
"Really, what we want now is not laws against crime, but a law against
insanity. That is where the true evil lies"
and
"Once, I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have
talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “This is our stupidity, verging on insanity.”
Again, archaeologists have discovered records which are over 8,300 years old in which mental illness and its effects on individuals and societies were being discussed. The concern over insanity gave religions a boost as their leaders suggested that insanity was "caused by the presence of evil" and was “the work of the devil” and that only the gods (later amended to “The One True God”) could restore people to sanity.
In many cultures for over 5000 years it was taught that only (a) prayer - often combined with (b) tortuous treatments - could “save” the insane and society in general.
For over 5000 years in cultures all around the globe, a common belief has been that only prayer - often combined with tortuous treatments - could “save” the insane (and society in general). How has that worked so far?
Maharaj abandoned the use of religious and spiritual versions of the Ultimate Medicine and eventually used only a psychological / non-dual version of the Medicine. Why? He came to see that treatment had been universally-ineffective for thousands of millennia and that prevention could be a far more effective approach.
In the old Western movies filmed in the U.S. when I was of a pre-teen age, there was usually a scene in which a posse was chasing a group of people who had robbed their local bank. Somewhere along the way, the sheriff leading the posse would halt the posse say, “I see which way they’re headed. Let’s take this shortcut and head ‘em off at the pass.”
Maharaj made a similar adjustment in non-duality’s chase - in non-duality’s search for - for an effective means to use to address the widespread “learned ignorance” and “the stupidity, verging on insanity.”
His final plan was for persons’ to understand the root causes of the Ultimate Sickness and to try to free persons from those causes before their effects took such hold over a person that any and all available treatment would prove to be disappointing (or totally ineffective) for the most part.
Thus his focus was on persons’ accepting the assignment of false identities or the assumption of false identities which set the stage for ego-defense mechanisms to be triggered and to then do what they do, namely, prevent persons from seeing the error of their ignorance-and-insanity-inspired thoughts and words and actions.
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.
