TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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FREEDOM FROM INSTABILITY AND SHIFTING Satsang (Satsanga) is defined thusly in Sanskrit: "sat = true and "sanga" = company). In India, the reference is to (1) "the company of the highest truth" or (2) "the company of a guru," or to being (3) "in company with an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the truth." Literally, therefore, satsang means "the company of truth" and refers to discourses about "the understanding." To tell someone about the non-dual understanding in a gathering is called "giving Satsang." Now the fact is that truth can be known but not stated, but the point is made. Originally, in pre-electronic-technology days, seekers had to travel in order to be in the presence of a guru / teacher. Now, satsangs happen via Zoom or Skype conferencing, via teleconferencing, and via electronic forums that allow for the free flow of statements or questions with a teacher offering replies. The content of this series contains the record of satsang exchanges that took place via one such forum. In the loft of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, twenty seekers might have been present but some days, only a few entered into direct dialogue with Maharaj. Why allow more into the room than can participate? It is known that pointers must be heard (or read), but they need not be spoken directly to a seeker for their meaning to "take hold." It matters not if the teacher is speaking directly to an "individual" because in reality it is the consciousness that is speaking to the consciousness. One speck of consciousness might be addressing another, but all specks that are present have an opportunity to receive the pointers to truth that are being offered. The Advaitin Louise in South Africa spoke of certain pointers she received from one exchange: "I remember it well. It was such a turning point (clearing point?) All of the relative life, there had been the attempt to stabilize as 'good', 'spiritual', 'wise', 'abundant', 'happy', etc. I saw how fixation on one half of a dualistic pair simply kept me trapped on the roller coaster. What a breakthrough! Thank you." The exchanges in that series of satsang sessions began with her sharing the following: Louise: “There has been a temporary shift in the experience of consciousness expressing: very natural and easy experience - the mind quiet - with a kind of gentle ignoring of thoughts - through no effort on the part of a "louise" - who on investigation appeared quite empty - just experiencing without resistance - watching "louise" and experiencing what is happening without much involvement - and yet feeling vividly present in life happening at the same time. There is an absence of a memory stream from the past and no movement to plan a future - not so easy to explain in words.” What could be desired, were one to reach that understanding and state? Nothing. Then suddenly - not even sure of the trigger - "louise" returns and is now able to reflect on the past. It appears that there was a short period of stepping out of the mind-body-personality construct. This has left a view of a different experience of reality. Floyd: What pointers do you have at this stage?” “I am continuing to gently ignore the mind stream and using the ‘I am’. I am also reading your blog and your books as these texts seem to break the solidity of the mind-body-personality. Are these spiritual practices I should abandon? They seem helpful - in fact they are my only connection with pure reality and help me feel sane. I would be very grateful for any additional insights.” The reply: “As usual, your comments provide an opportunity to offer some pointers that other seekers might find relevant, relatively speaking. The first part of what you shared is an accurate description of what a taste of AS IF living is like.” “As for additional insights, You can now sit down to the full course in order to ‘feel full,’ chewing the understandings thoroughly, swallowing them in their entirety, digesting them during quiet contemplation, and then witnessing whatever follows, naturally and spontaneously, as it happens.” “In your commenting, you actually identify why you’ve only tasted the sweetness, why you have not become fixed firmly in the beingness, and why you are once again supposedly ‘experiencing’ a ‘temporary shift.’ What you (euphemistically) call a ‘different experience of reality’ is actually ‘louise’ shifting from the state of relaxation and beingness and peace to the notion that there is a ‘louise’ and that ‘she’ is ‘experiencing’ no sense of consistent relaxation, no sense of the mere beingness, and no sense of peace.” “What is that which you have identified that shifted you away from the peaceful state? It is some illusion of ‘the past’ which you think you are ‘reflecting’ upon. To say erroneously that there is a ‘louise’ who is ‘experiencing’ something other than the peace is really to say that ‘perceiving is happening from the position of one or more assumed identities rather than via the pure consciousness’.” “This business of ‘reflecting on the past’ is a happening that wider non-dualists have long suggested being free of. In western cultures with their annual Christmas ‘season,’ persons begin to talk about their ‘sadness’ or ‘loneliness’ or ‘suffering.’ To use your word, the suffering is often said to have been ‘triggered’ by a ‘memory’ of events from ‘the past’.” “On this site, it has been noted often that ‘memories’ invoke discontentment or unhappiness on one hand to extremes of misery and suffering on the other. The stage is set for such misery or suffering since billions on the planet dualistically label certain days as ‘The Holiday Season,’ a practice which convinces persons that certain days are always ‘different from’ or ‘better than’ other days.” “It is suspected that certain of your earlier days are being seen as being ‘different’ from your present days. That dualistic act of suggesting that some days are different from other days, and that some are actually ‘holidays’ - that is, “holy days”- sets the stage for the kind of fluctuations you describe. What happened to you a few weeks ago is that a prior illusion was brought forth from ‘the memory bank’ in certain storage and retrieval parts of your brain and was upgraded and was perceived dualistically to be something ‘better’ than it likely ever was and something better than ‘louise’s current state.’ It’s all fiction, but ‘louise’s’ perception seems quite real to her, does it not? “Similarly, the non-realized - especially during ‘the holidays - will upgrade their ‘memory-based’ illusions: ‘I was a spouse’ becomes upgraded to ‘the most wonderful spouse on earth has died and now I’m alone during ______ (fill-in-the blank) Deepawali, Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Advent, Bodhi Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid-al-Adha, New Year’s, Rosh Hashanah, Al-Hijra,’ whatever.” “Also during ‘holiday seasons,’ the tendency is to upgrade the illusion that ‘We were a family’ to ‘we were a really happy family that showed love by sharing all our traditions’ (at least before the divorce that revealed how erroneous the early perceptions were). Now, current perceptions are flawed as “the mind” typically ‘rewrites history’ meaning, ‘idealizes,’ ‘normalizes,’ or upgrades illusions. Let’s pause at this point to make clear what one non-dualist named “Yeshu’a” (not “Jesus”) had to say about that and what is often behind such shifts. Yeshu’a:
“A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” So he made clear that instability
cannot be compartmentalized, (though it can come in varying degrees). Unstable at home? One will be unstable in traffic, at work, at play, in discussing politics and religion, etc. And what is behind more shifting than any other driver? The Borderline Personality Disorder. It is duality-based thoughts, words, and actions which drive those with the Borderline Personality Disorder to exhibit some of the most extreme evidence of having an unstable mind warped by dualistic influences. The very title of Dr. Jerold J. Kreisman's book on borderline types captures the essence of the unstable nature of those with that disorder: “I Hate You-Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality.” While it may take a matter of months or years for certain persons in a relationship who start out believing "I love my partner" to shift to the opposite belief that “I hate my partner,” many borderline types can make such shifts - back and forth and continuously - in a matter of days or hours. [In one marriage which was facing more challenges than seemed to be surmountable, one man described how elated he was when his wife came to him one evening around 10 P.M., stopped right in front of him, held his face in her hands, pulled him to her, kissed him passionately, and told him, “Everything with us is going to be alright.” At 10 A.M. the next morning while on his first break at work, he called her and said how her words from the night before were so appreciated. Her reply: “Well forget them. I'm leaving you today,” and she did. Common around the globe now because of the predominance of dualistic beliefs and the Borderline Personality Disorder is an over-abundance of instability, shifting, volatility, fluctuation, unrest and even far more conflict. Now that husband had long known that "the wife" suffered from a Borderline Personality Disorder, confiding for years that he never knew when he opened the door to their home at the end of each day whether he would be greeted by “Mrs. Hug” or “Mrs. Slug.” The odds on any given day were a fairly-even, 50-50 tossup. In every aspect of their relationship, he had said, “She runs hot one day and cold the next, and often even hot one moment and cold the next moment.”] Talk about duality. As for the pointer from Yeshu'a ("Jesus") that “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways,” such is the case with persons all around the globe, but those who are Borderline exhibit greater levels of instability than most. As a broader example, consider the U.S. which has long been considered a Personality Type Three nation - the type driven by narcissism which can experience psychic disintegration and produce more-than-average numbers of sociopaths and psychopaths. Now on one hand, those types have talked in the past about this being "the Greatest Country on the Planet." Many here still do. But at other times, they expressed their hatred of a nation being headed up by the same federal government which took away their ancestors' slaves and made their cotton plantations far less profitable. Driven by their duality-inspired Borderline Disorder, they look back to “the good ole days when American was great” (meaning, the days when the nation was mostly white and nationalistic and xenophobic and the federal government was something to be despised). Those types can, in their Borderline, dualistic fashion, agree with former politicians who told them that they were living in the Greatest Country on Earth but can then agree with current politicians who tell them it is not the Greatest Country on Earth but that they are going to make it great again, just as it was during “the good ole days.” Of course, the good old days were white-dominated days, so to make the country great again requires eliminating the changes which have diluted their (white) numbers by increased numbers of non-whites (which they take to be “the greatest threat we face!”) Back to other influencers of constantly shifting: To those who talk about their “seasonal sadness,” the suggestion is this: to call one day or season “holy” (or to label a parcel of land as being “holy land”) will result not only in “individual” misery and a surge in suicide rates during the “holiday season” when people recall (in a distorted fashion) certain events or persons. Such differentiation will also get you some widespread misery, bombings, killings, and wars over who is to control all the “holy” things and over who knows the “right beliefs” to have about all things “holy.” In fact, the upgraded “memories,” if thoroughly investigated, would reveal how distorted the current view is of the “past events” and the persons involved. One man thought it was so sweet, the way he and wife and family traveled to a tree farm every year, cut a tree together, rode the hayride back to the entrance, loaded the tree into the truck, took it home to be decorated, and shared all of those “bonding experiences” with his kind and loving spouse. Only later did she reveal to him that her holiday wish every year had been that he would die. Yet he still “misses the holidays and the family events that meant so much.” Even after having been told that his perception of those events was a complete fraud, a total illusion, his “memories” beg to differ . . . and his illusions supersede clarity to the point that he has contemplated suicide during most of the holiday seasons since the divorce. Thus the constant shiftings and fluctuations in moods and conditions among the non-realized: happy as long as the dream is not proved to be a dream, miserable when it is. For clarity, though, this pointer must be offered as well: would a “realized non-dualist” suggest that you should not feel? Of course not. Yet a teacher / guru might suggest that you take the steps that can eliminate emotional intoxication because there is a huge difference in feelings and emotions. Again, there are full-length discussions in various books where the difference in feelings as opposed to emotions are clarified. The short version is this: the former can be witnessed as they rise and fall while the latter, always associated with an ego-state, will generate emotional intoxication. Feeling during the manifestation is not pre-empted by “realization.” What can happen until “The Experiencer” disappears completely is that feelings can be witnessed without attachment. Then, the source of any “negative feeling” can be understood, the WHO that is supposedly feeling can be identified, the illusion of the WHO can be seen, and then that process which allows for peace to happen consistently can manifest. 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.
