SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Seven

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do you think that the realized should be able to tolerate any kind of environment or any kind of people? It sounds like you are saying that. I’ve been reading your writings for several months and lately, there are people I spent a lot of time with before but now I’m not spending time with them at all. I’m not realized, but even if I were, I feel certain that there are some people I just wouldn’t want to be around. Art

F.: The Realized are not trapped, as are the non-Realized, in thoughts and words and deeds that are driven by the warped consciousness. Nor are they trying to escape from anything. One researcher reported that 99% of the people on the planet are addicted to something. Addiction is driven by the desire to escape from. The Realized have nothing to escape from and have nothing to seek for.

In that regard, Art, are you seeing that moving away from some people might be based in egotism and agendas? Are the case studies showing you that staying with certain people can be based in desires and fears and egotism and agendas? Are you also seeing that a shift toward peace and quiet and attachment-free living is unique to the ego-less and the agenda-less that abide as the Absolute?

When a marriage counselor asked two weeks ago about upcoming blog topics, these three cases were summarized. She suggested that all three are really playing one basic role that she sees frequently in her practice, namely, that of “The Lifestyle Prostitute.” (Okay, she used a more graphic term than “prostitute” to identify the role being played, but that word was substituted for hers in deference to those site visitors with delicate sensibilities.)

She describes the traits of the syndrome that accompanies that assumed identity:

“These are the people who are not prostitutes per se but who prostitute themselves out (to one person at a time) in order to have a 'better lifestyle'; the role is now being played by both males and females; they not only accept but also expect the monetary benefits of others’ labors or charities, including money from mates, spouses, parents, or society at large; they claim that they have genuine feelings for their ‘provider’ in order to disguise their real motives and in order to continue their manipulation; they live a miserable but often high-end lifestyle (relatively speaking);

“while being master manipulators, they are nevertheless abused at times, either mentally, emotionally, and/or physically; that does not happen in all cases since they are capable of fooling people so well that mates really think they are being loved by these manipulators; thus, if their financial support is coming from a ‘personal’ relationship source, they claim that they are ‘in love’ in order to minimize the fact that they are prostituting themselves (as well as to justify or rationalize the abuse or misery that they are tolerating). Sometimes they even seem to believe their own lies about 'love.'

“The particular ego-state involved in this syndrome is distinguished by motive, agenda, and entitlement, so it is intention that clearly separates these persons from, say, ‘stay-at-home moms or dads’ who are not necessarily driven by egotism, entitlement, or the motives of this ego-state. Yet when I mention that possibility, all of the people playing this role claim that is their circumstance. They never see their hidden agendas and true motives.”

The counselor’s term for that ego-state does accurately point toward the commonality of the basic belief systems of all three persons in these case studies:

All believe in their co-dependent fashion that other people should “take care of them”; all believe that others should “meet their economic and housing needs as well as any other desires”; all speak of “love” in order to hide their real agenda; all are manipulative; all really use “love” as nothing more than a tool for gain; and all are allowing their laziness or entitlement to trap them in dependency as a result of their desire for “more” and for an “elevated lifestyle.”

The therapist also reported that a large number of her clients embroiled in this ego-state are quite open about admitting, as Case “A” did, that there are times when they really want their mates to die. “So much for true, unconditional, unselfish love,” she said. “That inability to love unconditionally,” she continued, “also distinguishes those playing this role from people who have some understanding of what the word ‘love’ really involves.”

She also pointed out that all who come to her office seeking happiness or freedom are trapped in ego-states but that recently a disproportionately large number (both male and female) have assumed this role and are dodging work while seeking money from others.

What is revealed via these three case studies, as well as what the psychotherapist shared, is that false identities and their always-accompanying co-dependency are a continuing source of misery and suffering in the relative existence. What is also revealed is that persons are driven blindly by thoughts and words and deeds that evolve from the warped consciousness. The Realization process is one effective “treatment” for that condition of the consciousness.

It can also be seen that dependent, non-Realized persons run to assumed roles and attachments and co-dependencies in order to sustain their ego-states, their self-interests, and their sense of entitlement. They seek out others to meet their relative desires and to fulfill their personal agendas.

Elimination of self, of desires, of fears, of entitlement, of co-dependencies, of self-interests, and of ego-states will facilitate the shift to independence and then freedom and then happiness.

Two of the three people described in these case studies claim that they are “comfortable” in their current relationships while the third thinks that she wants what they have, namely, “someone taking care of her.”

Yet all three admitted that they have recently contemplated suicide. For some, the Realization process can eliminate that kind of denial and distortion. For some, the Realization process can remove the playing of ego-states, a practice that just happens to be at the root of all relative misery and suffering.

No one who is running away from people, or merely tolerating people, or constantly seeking out people as caretakers is “comfortable.” “Comfortable” only happens from a spontaneous mode of nisarga (natural) AS IF living, from a platform of witnessing feelings as they rise and fall, from being free of the emotional intoxication that is generated by ego-states and their desires and fears, and from being independent. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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THE FOUR METHODS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA VEDANTA, Part Six, The Conclusion

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Please see “Part One” of this series form the visitor's initial comments]

F.: For those who prefer the doingness and activities and disciplines and effort and work to "improve," as prescribed in some teaching methods and in some yogas, so it is; however, that all runs counter to living naturally (which is at the core of nisarga yoga) as opposed to living unnaturally and/or trying to live supernaturally.

Unnatural living is marked by doing things repeatedly that are harmful or destructive. The following pointer posted earlier illustrates what supernatural living looks like:

Pray all the prayers that you think you need to pray; knell, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate as much as you think you need to kneel, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate; read all the “holy” books that you think you need to read; visit all the “sacred” sites or “sacred” men that you think you need to visit; chant or hum every chant or hum you think you need to chant or hum; ring every bell you think you need to ring; and burn every stick of incense that you think you need to burn. But when you are done with all of that, realize that you—and all persons who are fixated in a stage and are playing their religious or spiritual roles—are mistaking the dawn for the noon. Realize that praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning (and every other external thing you try to use to be more spiritual or to try to demonstrate how spiritual you are) will actually block you from finding the truth which can only be found within after certain pointers are taken into quiet and solitary consideration.

Maurice Frydman wrote, “This dwelling on the sense ‘I am’ is the simple, easy and natural Yoga, the Nisarga Yoga. There is no secrecy in it and no dependence; no preparation or initiation is required. Whoever is puzzled by his very existence as a conscious being and earnestly wants to find his own source can grasp the ever-present sense of ‘I am’ and dwell on it assiduously and patiently till the clouds obscuring the mind dissolve and the heart of being is seen in all its glory.”

Combined with the Direct Path Method of teaching and then taken to its ultimate level, the nisarga/natural type of yoga can facilitate the re-purification of the warped consciousness and can free persons of their belief in supernatural nonsense and unnatural living as well. It is the only yoga that encourages persons to cast aside all false ideas and debilitating emotions and bogus beliefs and ritualized practices and formalized movements and to simply live naturally.

Granted, several years ago, “floyd” became involved in certain actions in order for some cancerous growths to be purged, but once those were removed, no one suggested that the hospital should still be visited on a daily or weekly basis forever or that the doctor be called regularly to discuss issues. Similarly, once the contaminated consciousness has been purged, nothing need happen except spontaneous, natural living for the remainder of the manifestation. No regular visitations to religious or spiritual meetings are required; no need exists that would require visiting a teacher or "holy" man on a daily or weekly or annual basis. At that ultimate level of re-purification, the Realized can see in nature the perfect models of AS IF living; by contrast, the non-Realized look to an illusory “world” and emulate the illusory personas who erroneously believe that they reside therein.

It can be seen, if one reviews carefully the six postings on the various teaching methods and the varied yoga approaches, why the Direct Path Method and the nisarga yoga approach are employed on this site: first, during all those tiresome years of searching which never resulted in any finding, all of the major books deemed “holy” were read and studied; without avail. The teachers who used that method could only advise, “Well, keep reading the holy books and keep studying them and keep praying for as long as needed and always have faith in the Lord. Eventually, your life will get better.” It did not happen.

Secondly, all of the lofty and inspirational platitudes were read and savored. While they might have resulted in a short-term sensation or in a fleeting feeling of encouragement or in feeling “good” for a brief period, they brought no permanent shift in consciousness. They did not purify the consciousness; they further contaminated the consciousness. The advice from some using that method of teaching was to “keep studying and reading these positive comments and eventually you will feel positive as a result.” That did not happen; instead, more duality was ingrained with their “positive vs. negative” concepts.

Third, all of the advice to “just be yourself…your Real Self…now go” brought about no lasting shift since the false selves were not first seen and discarded. If any of those methods work for others, so be it, but for this speck of consciousness that had been warped, only the Direct Path Method finally brought an end to all of the unnatural, self-destructive living that had been inspired by personality. Furthermore, only the nisarga yoga approach finally brought an end to all of the work and effort and doing that is involved with a supernatural style of living, specifically, the…

…reading, praying, imploring, kneeling, studying, chanting, humming, pleading, ringing, burning, meeting, supplicating, tithing, serving, soliciting, wishing, hoping, proselytizing, begging, forming circles, joining groups, beseeching, giving, holding hands and reciting words in unison, ad infinitum.

Only The Direct Path Method and the natural approach resulted in total freedom and total independence. Post-Realization, there is no dependence on scriptures, on a god, on multiple gods, on persons, on possessions, on practices, on platitiudes read daily to try to “pick up the spirits” time and time again, on disciplines, on working at “improving,” on working to gain “power,” on avoiding this or on seeking that, on co-dependent role players, on praise, on criticism, on reinforcement by persons, on thoughts, on drives, on a "mind," on personality, on concepts, on more teachings, or on adherence to any rules and regulations and tenets and traditions and dogma or principles.

To the contrary, natural living happens spontaneously and there are no needs, period. Additionally, there are no desires such as those that drove all thinking and behavior during the pre-Realization days. Ironically, though no disciplines or dogma are involved at all, a manner of living that some persons trapped in duality would classify as “moral” just happens automatically among the Realized who no longer behave in an unnatural (or destructive or self-destructive) fashion.

So, those are the methods and the approaches that are employed by Advaitin teachers. To site visitor Greg, it should now be clear why the Advaita Vedanta teachings “all seem like one contradiction after another,” to use your words. With the various methods that may be used and that may or may not be combined with certain of the many yoga approaches, contradictions will occur. Note, too, that seeming contradictions will occur no matter what method is used because pointers offered to beginners will differ from those offered to seekers that are farther along the “path.”

Also presented were the reasons that the Direct Path Method is employed, along with the natural yoga approach, on this site. Finally, the fact that this speck of consciousness remains manifested in the temporary space called “floyd,” combined with the fact that no “mind” any longer exists, prevents any thought at all from arising in regards to persons who choose another method or who choose no method at all, which will be the case among 95% or more of all persons on the planet. That absence of thought or judgment, too, is the result of the Full Realization that happened via the Direct Path Method and via the Nisarga Yoga approach that are offered on this site, in the books available through this site, and in satsanga when arranged at the request of some seekers. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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THE FOUR METHODS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA VEDANTA, Part Five

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Please see “Part One” of this series for the visitor's initial comments]

F.: Next, the nisarga yoga approach shall be discussed. It has been employed by many Direct Path teachers and is observable in the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (especially via the pointers offered at the end of his teaching "career"). Many systems of yoga are used by various teachers or instructors: hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, power yoga, mantra-yoga, raja-yoga, bhakti-yoga, etc. The nisarga yoga is used with the Direct Path Method on this site. Many yogis or yoginis are involved with yogas that encourage going and doing and zooming and adherence to their prescribed practices "for life."

To the contrary, nisarga yoga encourages the use of any system only to the point of Full Realization; thereafter, the pointer is to merely witness natural living as it happens. Nothing in nature (except for programmed, conditioned humans) believes that it must live supernaturally and read, pray, implore, kneel, study, chant, hum, plead, ring, burn, meet, supplicate, tithe, serve, solicit, wish, hope, and proselytize in order to be happy or content or fulfilled or "good" or "better."

As a result of believing all of those activities are required for "right living," scores of systems of yoga have evolved. But if you were to study them after exposure to the Direct Path Method and the nisarga approach, all of their doingness would be promptly rejected; however, the long and arduous road taken by “floyd” led to exposure to most of the other types of yogas before nisarga yoga was found. At that point, all nonsense became recognizable as nonsense, but here are the experiences that happened along the way that led to abandoning the practices of the other yogas.

A. Some jogis/yoginis claimed to be able to connect persons with a god or gods or “Cosmic Mother” in order for persons to have another power source to tap into or in order for persons to become totally devoted to a Lord.
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? There are no persons; there is no individuality, only the unicity; there is no god or “Cosmic Mother” or “Cosmic Father” or “Lord”; there are no multiple gods or goddesses; there is no “one” to gain power; it is duality to think "I worship him/her" or "I follow him/her"; and there is no “one” to gain, period.

A. Some claimed that their followers must practice self-disciplines daily.
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? There is no need to practice anything once Full Realization happens; there is no “one” to practice; natural living happens, without practicing and without doingness, and all unnatural and supernatural living ends automatically; the self is false and cannot be disciplined because self prefers to destroy discipline; the Self, on the other hand, does not need disciplining.

A. Some yogis/yoginis claimed that persons must chant and/or activate their centers.
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? Once a person Realizes fully and abandons personas, there is no do-er to chant or to activate or to do anything else. Instead, AS IF living happens spontaneously and naturally; human types have walked the planet for 14.5 million years and they never chanted and never had to activate their centers until the last few thousand years, so it is not “natural”; finally, that which is limitless and without bounds can have no “center.”

A. Some yogis/yoginis said that persons must unite their body and mind and emotions and spirit so that they can focus on nothing but “the Lord.”
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? There is no “Lord”; body and mind and emotions and spirit are all illusions, so to try to unite them is as senseless as trying to go into the desert and connect four mirages; the entire notion of things being separate and needing to be united is dualistic; and "Advaita" means “not two” and deals with the unicity…not with the two-ness, the three-ness, the four-ness, etc.

A. Some yogis/yoginis claimed that there is a goal for all persons and the goal is to gain knowledge.
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? Concepts are only used with the Direct Path Method to remove religious or spiritual knowledge (also know as, learned ignorance) and then all concepts are discarded and natural/nisarga living happens.

A. Some yogis/yoginis taught two-ness, that there is "a Lord" and "his beings."
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? Again, "Advaita" means “not two” and deals with the unicity…not with the two-ness, the three-ness, the four-ness, etc.

A. Some yogis/yoginis focused on immediate cause and effect and on the related concept of karma.
B. Why would one following the Direct Path/nisarga yoga dismiss that approach? Advaitins know that the cause of all is all...that the cause of anything is everything that has happened before any given moment or happenings under discussion.

As far as being giving or kind in order for your karma to get you a payoff, to “give” in order to get is self-ish giving and reveals that self-absorption continues; to believe that a “Cosmic Record-Keeper” is balancing out all of that giving and receiving (and not knowing that “The Givers” are trying to manipulate the universe and gain) is naïve and driven by self; post-Realization, it is de-accumulation, not accumulation, that happens; and, finally, the Realized know that they were not even born once, so they surely cannot possibly be "born again." Please enter the silence of contemplation. ( To be continued)
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THE MESSAGE OF NON-DUALITY, From India and Asia to the “Americas,” Part Five

[These discussions of the Advaita-Asia-India-“Native American” unicity are in response to an e-mail regarding the May 27th HBO presentation of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” You may visit http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart/ if interested in details. In an interview with actor-American Indian Adam Beach who plays Ohiyesa/Dr. Charles Eastman, Beach noted how the white man’s dualistic judgments affected him during childhood and into adulthood: “Imagine people trying to tell you being Indian is bad, is wrong and that your culture, your tradition is dealing with the devil. It affects my generation. After a hundred years of this manipulation of 'you're not a good person,' it really affects us.”]

CASE STUDY: A First-Hand Account of the Advaita Message as Transmitted by One of the Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. (Continued from yesterday)

THE FIRST TASTE OF THE CYCLES AND A SECOND TASTE OF NIRVANA
F.: (Are you seeing that the consciousness that was called "Grandmother" can still teach us all?)

With Grandmother, witnessing happened more than anything else. During walks in the woods, deer and owls and hawks and rabbits and coyotes and eagles and snakes and foxes and fish in the nearby stream and scores of species of birds would be witnessed. Once, while gathering herbs with her, I asked, “Can we get into trouble for trespassing if the owner catches us?” She said something that, at the time, made no sense at all: “Do not be concerned. No one owns the land.” I thought but did not say, Grandmother, all land is owned by somebody." Each morning, Grandmother would go into the woods alone after sending me to the garden where I picked the vegetables that we would prepare for lunch and dinner and placed them in a bushel basket: Let's see...for lunch we'll have okra and tomatoes, corn, and cream peas with cornbread, and tonight we'll eat blackeyed peas, potatoes, and the chunks of smoked ham that the woman gave Grandmother in gratitude for curing her migraines.

Many times at night, while sitting with her in the rockers on the porch, the plaintive cry of a bobcat could be heard in the distance as fireflies passed before our eyes. Grandmother could lift an upturned hand and the fireflies would land on her palm and walk about. On the few occasions when I could be still, they would do the same with me. (It seemed that I could not unwind during the first days of my visits with her, but the longer I was there, the more slowly I began to move.) The rustle of insects’ wings could be heard. Chirping crickets provided a musical background for a small child sitting next to his Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya Grandmother. But a happening one evening provided another taste of Nirvana. (Those early tastes would eventually drive me throughout a multi-decade-long quest as an adult to try to recapture the calm and soothing sense of at-one-ment that came in those early Nirvana moments to a child on retreat.)

It was late one evening when Grandmother and I were using paring knives to strip away willow bark in preparation for making a healing potion. Another woman would be visiting early the next morning, also for treatment for migraine headaches. After the bark was taken into the kitchen and put to soak with other herbs, we returned to the front porch and sat in rocking chairs. I was unaware of how vigorously my chair was moving on the dark porch, nor how still Grandmother’s chair was in contrast. Unconsciously, when my rapid rocking walked the chair to the edge of the porch, I stood, moved it back, and began the process all over again. Later, the full moon would clear the tops of some of the trees in the piney woods in front of the house, and a gap between the limbs of the taller trees allowed moonbeams to strike Grandmother.

I glanced to my right to see that she was looking straight ahead toward the trees and the moon. She was enlightened as the moon bathed her in a bluish luminosity that was still bright enough to reveal the brown spots that covered the top of her hands, hands which looked to be more bone than skin. I looked at my smooth right hand, then at the rough skin on her left hand, and then at the lines that crossed her face. Nature would not allow those lines to be ironed out into a smooth texture ever again. An obscure awareness of something about “patterns” or “cycles” or “phases” tried to surface from the brain-stem, but I had no tools to use to clear the way for it to come into consciousness: even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

So there sat a child that had not yet cycled one decade with a grandmother that had cycled many. There was smooth skin and rough, there was a day that had cycled into night, there was a moon cycling across the sky, and that full moon would soon complete another cycle as well. There was something there to be understood, but it was beyond my grasp, so the nervous rocking began again. And again to the edge of the porch. And again, a chair pushed back beside Grandmother’s. I looked to the right and saw Grandmother’s blue, expressionless face looking forward into the moonlight, then my rocking began again as I looked at her hand, at mine, and at the moon that had moved diagonally into a higher position in the sky.

With my chair moving front-to-back, front-to-back, front-to-back, I looked again at Grandmother, beautiful now in the subtle color that was fading into a darker blue. Something wanted to be realized, yet I was decades from that happening. Then suddenly, my rocking stopped...and did not start up again. And when it was obvious that something had stilled the chair and would keep it still for the rest of the night, I looked at Grandmother, still looking straight ahead, but I saw a smile form on her lips. Remember the peace that may be found in silence.

Then, I began to feel a calmness. Next, I felt her left hand move from the arm of her rocker and rest itself atop my right. In the stillness, I had finally become…available. The moon had moved so high into the sky that the roof of the porch was beginning to cast us into shadow. I looked down at those two hands and, for some reason, they did not look so different anymore when viewed in the fading light. I looked at her and she looked at me, and she smiled and I smiled, and then we both looked back toward the piney trees and the sky above, and I knew, by nothing more than the touch of a hand, exactly what it was like to love and to be loved, unconditionally. I felt in harmony with all things. Being Indian is an attitude…a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings. It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet. Yet that feeling would last but briefly. After reaching the “adult years,” it would take decades for it to manifest again.

Yet for a few moments that night, I sat back, in Nirvana, experiencing something that was indefinable to a small child, without a clue...but also without a single fear or a single desire. I felt, but did say out loud, “I feel whole; I feel complete; I feel safe; I feel happy; I feel like all is well; OK, Grandmother, I have learned another lesson and I am not concerned.” When I sneaked another glance at her, it seemed that Grandmother was even closer than by my side. I could not understand, but that did not interrupt the peace. The first peace, which is the most important, comes from within when people realize their oneness with the universe. I would barely remember being gently shaken some time later, coaxed to my feet from the rocker, guided to a bed from my rocking chair with her arm wrapped around my back and side as she half-carried, half-walked me out of the shadows and through the night and into the comfort of very, very deep sleep.

How about you? Have you had a taste of Nirvana that you might be recalling once again? Was the taste sweet enough to trigger a search to find it and keep it? If not, is the bitterness of not having that sweet taste enough to inspire you to begin to follow “the path” that will lead you there? Are you ready to walk out of the shadows and through the night and into the comfort of Realization? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)