THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT BLISS

 

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THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT BLISS  [The Conclusion] So, to clarify: pain is of the body, that is, it is a sensation which can be experienced by a plant food body. To continue with Maharaj’s pointer that scientific facts and true non-dual pointers are not only compatible but that science can facilitate the understanding of non-dual pointers, understand this: At the nerve endings in the skin, the pain process begins as a neuron sends a signal toward the spinal cord where that signal connects with nearby neurons and eventually connects via a synapse to a second-order neuron that rises to the thalamus. The thalamus forwards the pain signal through fibers that reach the cortex, which results in the brain being conscious of pain. As long as the consciousness is manifested in a body-cum-consciousness, then pain can be experienced. Nerves and skin and neurons and cords and the brain and fibers and pain are all natural. Conversely, misery and suffering are the product of the “mind,” which is totally unnatural. Here is the distinction as offered in prior posts:  “Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute;  the brain is rooted in the elements;  the ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning as well as lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods which have been believed "in faith" without any objective, impartial questioning.” To the estimated five million to one-hundred million species on the planet, add in also all of the species that have come and gone, then know this: only one of all of the species that have come and gone, and only one species among the millions that presently exist, has ever developed a “mind.” That fact alone should make clear that the “mind” is most unnatural. What is “natural”? Specifically, that which is natural is defined as “that which exists in, or is in conformity with, nature - which is neither supernatural nor magical.” So pain requires the presence of elemental nerves and an elemental brain and manifest consciousness if it is to be sensed; misery and suffering, conversely, require the presence of a “mind,” which is merely the conglomeration of all of the false ideas and beliefs and concepts and attitudes and identities that are taught via programming and conditioning. Now, to the pleasure-pain conundrum. The understanding is that whatever leads to pleasure can lead to pain and that whatever gives the most pleasure will often produce the most pain. (Consider such pain as that associated with AIDS or other sexually-transmitted diseases which are spread when an elemental body is experiencing short-term physical pleasure but can later experience long-term physical pain). That all deals with the elemental body and brain and consciousness only. (If unconscious, a doctor can cut open your chest, remove your heart, insert another in its place, and you will feel nothing at all as that is going on, if not conscious.) Contrast that with the understanding that whatever leads to pleasure can lead to misery and suffering and that whatever gives the most pleasure will often produce the most misery and suffering. In that case, considering the earlier pointer that “misery and suffering are the product of the ‘mind,’ which is totally unnatural,” it should be seen that the understanding in the second case refers to the miserable, relative results that can manifest when being driven by the desires and fears generated by the warped content of the “mind.” Thus, pain can be quite natural (unless self-inflicted) whereas misery and suffering and anything that is thought to be “supernatural or magical” are all totally unnatural. So, to the several that e-mailed about that part of the discussion: pain can be natural when it occurs in an elemental body; can be unnatural if self-induced; and can be unnatural if potentially-threatening pleasures are engaged in—in ignorance—after having been warned of the relative dangers or in the ignorance of having no awareness of the relative dangers. Suffering and misery, on the other hand, are a product of the content of the “mind.” As long as the consciousness is manifested, it will register pain on occasion. If suffering and misery are to be eliminated, then the attachment to the content of the “mind” must be eliminated. Next, the differences in “pleasure” and “bliss” will be discussed along with what is natural about both. “PLEASURE-PAIN vs. BLISS,” Part Two So, questions and comments have revealed that the Nisargan understandings are misunderstood by some in regards to pleasure, pain, misery, suffering, and bliss as well as in terms of how the natural, post-realization abidance unfolds. While bliss has to do with the realization of the nothingness, pleasure has to do with something . . . with something in the relative existence. The deer that pause in the front yard here can be seen enjoying the pleasure of grazing; they can be seen enjoying the pleasure of shade and rest during the heat of the afternoon; they have been witnessed while in a clearing in the woods nearby this house as they enjoy the pleasures of sex. All of that is natural, and to avoid that which is natural is unnatural - even when done in the name of being “religious” or “spiritual” or “supernatural” - and is a part of the sickness which can sometimes be addressed with the Ultimate Medicine. Abuse yourself with a mace if you like in your efforts to be more religious or spiritual; accept the distorted view that suffering is an asset rather than something unacceptable that is to be addressed and removed and avoided; eat your bitter herbs or tasteless roots; dip your food in salt water and vinegar; avoid sexual relations; but here, now that natural living is happening spontaneously, the pleasures of succulent meals will be enjoyed: tasks that are to happen for sustenance shall happen, but the pleasures of rest will also be enjoyed. Want to deprive yourself of the joys of sex? Rock and roll if you want, but here, all natural things will continue to happen and be enjoyed. Consider how truly sick and distorted and insane any teachings or beliefs are if they drive persons to abide in a painful, miserable, pleasureless manner. Functioning in either (A)      the unnatural extreme of unfettered hedonism and “self”-indulgence   or functioning in (B) a manner at the opposite extreme of the spectrum that involves total deprivation in the name of being “religious” or “spiritual” or “better” or “better than” or “improved” might be (and is) considered supernatural living by many,   but such a manner of living will not be considered natural by the sane and sound and stable and realized. Unnatural and supernatural living will only be mistakenly seen as a natural means of living by those who are functioning under the auspices of a warped mind and who are driven by personality-based fears and desires and by the defects and disorders which personality always generates. Finally, understand that pleasure and pain and misery and suffering and bliss are the “stuff” of NOW only - the “stuff” of the limited period of manifestation during the relative existence - and the relative existence will happen in a natural manner if “Reality” (the THAT-ness) is overlaid upon the “relative” (the AM-ness). To make clear, there will be no post-manifestation pleasure or pain or misery or suffering or bliss. NOW, is the only time that pleasures can be enjoyed in a non-destructive and non-self-destructive fashion among the sane and stable; NOW is the only time that misery and suffering can be eliminated if you take the Ultimate Medicine that dissolves the “mind” but leaves the brain and consciousness and natural instincts in tact so that natural, spontaneous abidance can happen; And NOW is the only time that the bliss can be understood.   In the end, though, it all ends up the same. For all, post-manifestation, there will be an end to joy and bliss and an end to misery and suffering. That being the case, only the AM-ness (and none of the Foo-Foo post-manifestation stuff) deserves any attention.   To that end, here are some pointers offered previously about bliss, which is among the pointers which are misunderstood so often by so many: Bliss is freedom from all thoughts. Bliss is a no-need state, a state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything. (Maharaj) Bliss is being free of desires and fears though natural drives such as thirst and hunger and sex will continue to happen. Bliss is compatibility with nature, observable when freedom from anxiety and tension and discontentment are gone and when there is no drive or desire to harm or kill (be it birds or animals or pets or frogs or crickets or humans or entire species or entire races or all of the members of a religion that is not one’s own). Bliss is freedom from the false sense of being split, divided, separated, incomplete. As Cape Town Advaitin  Louise Sterling wrote: Bliss is what follows having been immersed in this “River of Truth”; bliss is having been exposed to the “bubbles of dissolution” that allow for identification with the nothingness until even that identity falls away; bliss is “the absence of the filter of a suffering individual” Bliss is abiding as that original, natural state without any “trace of an individual” Maharaj taught: “To know what one is not is bliss” and “Bliss is more of the nature of a great peace” Maharaj said, “Don't say that you are ‘an individual’; just stay in the beingness. The whole problem is the sense of being a separate entity. Once that subsides, that is true bliss.” Bliss is not continuous, rapturous joy and has nothing to do with “birth and rebirth” or with cycle-after-cycle or “being better” or “getting better” or “being more and more pure.” For the sake of discussion, bliss is "being Love" while also "being nothing."   Peace, Unity, Love and Light.

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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.] 

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