TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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1. [See the offer in gold text
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2.
Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of
god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the
invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the green text after today's post for the full meaning and implications of that.
3.
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THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT BLISS
How many
seekers are frustrated by not having attained bliss? How many seekers think
that they have failed or that their teacher has failed when what they believe
to be bliss does not manifest or when they think that bliss comes on occasion but
does not remain?
Here, many
visitors / passersby abandon the message before hearing it all and contemplating it all. Why?
The power of
their programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and
indoctrination and brainwashing? Yes, partly. Why else?
For
bliss-seekers, an invitation to focus
less on attaining bliss and more on admitting that the symptoms of the Ultimate
Sickness are present, including ignorance and insanity, and agreeing that the
elimination of those influencers should be the primary task at hand is usually a "turn-off."
Relatedly, ego
and egotism can be seen as another obstacle because some are admired for
seeking bliss but fewer are admired for being driven by ignorance and insanity, for admitting that, and for addressing those issues.
Those obstacles and beliefs of seekers identify the ones who are at what Maharaj
called “the kindergarten level of spirituality.”
How many feel
that their goal to become “perfectly spiritual, and thereby perfectly blissful”
is being thwarted at every turn?
Maharaj said, “No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of
the 'I am'. The ambitions of the so-called Yogis are preposterous. A man's
desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting for an
everlasting personal bliss. The mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the
worse the betrayal.”
Regularly, seekers who speak of “the darkness” and of “higher levels of
consciousness” are told that there is no darkness and that there are no levels
of consciousness.
The so-called
"darkness" in which the non-realized live is not really darkness but
is merely an absence of light caused by the blockages that have accumulated,
and the consciousness is merely consciousness that is either blocked from
seeing accurately - and from seeing truth - or is not.
When so many blockages accumulate, then the light cannot penetrate and all seems
dark, but that absence of witnessing the light does not mean that the light is
not there. It is simply not observable because of a separation from the source
of the light - either because the light has been blocked or because there is
nothing available to reflect the light.
The higher level of understanding in regards to this topic is that (1)
not only is “no ambition spiritual,” nothing is spiritual; and (2) not only is
“the mind a cheat” but the content of the "mind" is actually as much
an illusion as the darkness.
If the seeker would “find bliss,” then the seeker must know what bliss is and
what it is not. If one that is in kindergarten is sent to the store to buy the
materials needed to build a “what-cha-ma-call-it,” the kindergarten-age-child
will not have the slightest clue about what he is seeking and neither will
anyone else that he asks to help with finding everything required to build a
“what-cha-ma-call-it.”
The reason most never “find bliss” is that they are as mistaken about what
bliss is and what bliss is not as persons are mistaken about what “the world”
is and what it is not.
In order to appreciate the pointers in this series - and in order to end the
challenges involved with “occasionally experiencing bliss but not being able to
hold on to it” or with “not finding the bliss that others claim they have
found” or with “dealing with the frustrations of wanting bliss but not having
found it” - the reader is invited to take a few moments to complete the
following preparatory exercise:
(A) List all of the ways you would define bliss.
(B) List all of
the ways that bliss could be evidenced during the manifestation.
(C) Write a
description of what you think the relative existence would look like for you if
you were to “attain bliss” once and for all.
Your writings might be used to reveal the prevalent beliefs that exist in
regards to bliss and to distinguish between myth and fact as the discussion
continues.
Over the years,
so many have come to complain about the fact that - after all of their seeking
- “permanent bliss still has not come.” They were told that they may as
well complain, “I have dedicated my life to climbing mountains and searching
in the nests of eagles for that one unique case where a fish is living among
the birds of prey.”
They are searching in the relative for that which will never be found in the
relative; furthermore, they could be asked, “And exactly what form of fish
do you think can fly into the mountains and live without being in the water and
live without consequence among that which would eat the fish?” They are
searching in nests for that which is not in nests.
And it is as if they answer, “Well, my wise teacher has spoken often of such
a fish.” Then the reply would be, “You cannot differentiate wisdom from
ignorance, so rather than search for such a fish out of water, it is suggested
that you search for a different teacher.”
Those who have been asked to define specifically the “bliss” that they seek
either parrot some words they have heard but have not understood or they parrot
the words that were used by “holy men” or “holy books” in order to program
them.
One of the invitations offered earlier was to “list all of the ways you would
define bliss.” When that exercise is conducted during non-duality retreats
here, it is rare that even one of the responses comes close to identifying
bliss as it can happen during the relative existence.
Most efforts to define what “bliss” is revealed no evidence at all of what the
respondents know, what they have come to realize by having tapped into the
inner guru, but were a regurgitation of concepts they have collected from such
sources as Hinduism or Buddhism:
“Bliss is what comes at the end of the cycles of reincarnation when desire
and suffering both end.”
“Bliss is liberation from the effects of karmic rebalancing.”
“Bliss is finally being free from rebirths.”
"Bliss is freedom from pain and suffering."
So it can be seen that even among those reading “Advaitin pointers,” many seek
not the purest messages which non-duality can offer but are seeking a blend of non-duality
(or pseudo-non- duality) and other concepts to which they are yet attached.
The responses to those statements will be invitations to reach a different
understanding . . . an understanding rooted in logic and reason rather than in
concept-filled texts. First, to the statement that “bliss is freedom from pain
and suffering.”
Freedom from that misperception requires an understanding of the difference in
“pain” on the one hand and “suffering” on the other.
Pain is of the body, suffering (and misery) is of the "mind." Pain is
felt because of nerve and brain activity, a process that is usually considered
to be an asset to the degree that it can reveal physical problems that might
otherwise go undetected or to the degree that it can bring an end to activities
that are damaging to the body.
For one person to pick up a hot pan without experiencing pain is to assure that
far greater damage will come to that person than to one who can feel pain and
would immediately drop a hot pan before any further physical damage occurs. To
explain in more detail:
For the body to no longer feel pain, you would have to undergo some degree of
paralysis, nerve damage, or brain damage. You would be deprived of one tool
that is intended to protect the body for the time that the elements remain
together.
For example, if you touch any extremely hot object, pain sends a message to the
brain that one should stop touching that object immediately. Without pain, you
could continue to grasp the object and would undergo severe physical damage to
an appendage.
Do you really desire that your body forfeit all ability to experience pain if
the consequences would include damaging the body regularly and severely as a
result of having no means for sending signals to the brain to stop behaviors
that are damaging the body?
If you must undergo severe nerve damage? If the body must be paralyzed in order
to fulfill your desire to feel no pain? If you would have to undergo brain
damage in order to fulfill your desire to experience a pain-free relative
existence?
One old adage is, “Be careful what you wish for - you might get it.” The non-dual
pointer is, “Stop wishing, period, especially if you have no actual clue at all
about that for which you are wishing.”
To be
continued.
Please enter
into the silence of contemplation.
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Here,
with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god,"
the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation
to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.
THE EXPLANATION
If
looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total
waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are
resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they
are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.
Meaning?
There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept
of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa
Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in
close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and
glorify and give thanks to."
The
reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god
that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're
dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with
narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism
evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").
Next,
in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had
her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part
of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the
"loving and caring" part.
"That
is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not
an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or
anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to
want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the
'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and
caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love
and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you."
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"
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
but are states of mind, nothing more than
concepts dreamed up by men."
--Pope John Paul II
"There is no hell."
--Pope Francis, the current pope
in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,
a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
[That
said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core
concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional
courage required to question the very existence of their institution in
light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children
and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of
billions of their members past and present.
And
that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about
why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to
continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and
conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will
they? Not likely. Why?
Because
what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the
international crime families which hold sway over the masses as
criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major
international crime families and which are the most influential and have
the largest memberships?
The
Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion
followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while
laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank);
Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers)
like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and
sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created
environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies
like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)
With
all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership
ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be
they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business,
politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and
they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the
driving forces at play.
The
masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their
groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem
because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the
people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the
masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved
with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the
continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate
the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types
of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.]
Here's
of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier,
18 MARCH 2018
or
You can click on the picture link which has now been added for video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.
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