Showing posts with label The Absolute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Absolute. Show all posts

Saturday, November 03, 2007

HINDU BY “BIRTH,” BUT INVESTIGATING ADVAITA, Part Three

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FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Please see yesterday’s post for the e-mail which is being responded to today]

F.: Today, Vignesh, responses will continue to various portions of your e-mail:

V.: My concept of Brahman(God) has so far been like, It is the Ultimate spaceless-timeless Void which has Consciousness.

F.: Of course a concept of Brahman (God) is just an idea. All concepts are tools that can be employed along the "journey," but when Realization happens, no concepts exist. Thorns are used to remove thorns (concepts) and then tossed.

However, a caution is offered: recall from yesterday the direction offered by Maharaj. In order to complete the “journey” and thereby understand all which happened prior to consciousness, you must “follow the same path by which you came” (except in reverse order, of course).

The erroneous conclusions drawn around “Brahman (God)” and around the “spaceless-timeless Void” result from your effort to address an understanding which can only arrive at the "end" of the “journey” and never at the "beginning."

The “journey” requires that you start by focusing on the body-mind-personality construct with which you continue to identify, as revealed via your use of the words “my concept.” By the end of the “journey,” it can be understood that concepts are illusory and that no “my” (or “me”) exists.

In fact, none of the Teachings can be understood from the perspective of a body or a "mind." Before pursuing an understanding of timelessness and Brahman and the Void, you must answer the most basic questions: “Where were you in the days prior to conception?” and “If you were to lose both arms, both legs, and then undergo an organ transplant, would You not still be You? If so, then who is that You answering the question?”

Furthermore, a body-mind identification might claim that it “has” something, but there is no person (persona) that can “have” anything, including consciousness. The consciousness can seem to assume varied “forms” as it manifests via certain spaces, but nothing “has” consciousness. Similarly, a Void cannot “have” anything, even consciousness.

V.: The Void itself being aware nothing exists.

F.: A void cannot be aware of anything. It is void. However, this talk of the Void should cease for the present. Only the advanced seeker can understand that behind the consciousness is awareness and that beyond the awareness is that Void. For you to grasp now is this: Advaita teaches that beyond the manifestation, there is nothing that is aware of anything. There is no "Self" that knows itSelf. The Void preceded awareness but is not aware. Awareness is not even aware of awareness. Only when manifested can the consciousness be aware that it is.

V.: Now, Consciousness is what provides for the experience. Not the experience itself.

F.: Ultimately, there is no experiencer so there is no experience.

V.: SO Consciousness should make you aware that you exist. Same goes for Brhaman. COnsciousness makes It aware it exists.

F.: Again, your statement reveals that you are fixated in body-mind-personality identification, revealing your belief in subject-object duality. Advaita is about “not two,” about the unicity. The subject “Consciousness” does not make the object “you” aware of anything. There is no “you” to be aware. There is the consciousness, period, and—if re-purified—that consciousness will not make "you" aware that "you" exist but will make clear instead that "you" do not exist.

[Note: Regarding "no you": The use of the "I Am" mantra is a tool for those starting the "journey," an invitation to end the habit of following I am with any words, including "I am a man/woman," "I am spiritual," "I am a husband/wife," etc. Eventually, even the use of that tool will cease.]

Too, for the consciousness (subject) to be aware that Brahman (object) exists would also be duality. Is it not of interest—not to mention of seemingly limitless confusion—that Sankaracharya would speak of three characteristics of the Absolute and of five different phases of Brahman when the fact is that the Absolute is about Oneness, beyond both beingness and non-beingness?

[Is that too radical a consideration? The Teachings should simplify all, not complicate all. The Original Understanding was understood in the absence of holy men and holy books and discussions of multiplicities, especially when it is the unity beyond the seeming multiplicities that is to be realized.

Use this pointer from Maharaj to gain clarity around your spiritual beliefs: "Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud." If your spiritual beliefs remain, then your "journey" along the seven-step "path" will never even reach the fourth level.]

For now, focus only on this: You are neither the body nor the “mind.” That “You” which exists and that can be aware of existence is not “made aware of via consciousness” but is the Consciousness itself. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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    Friday, August 03, 2007

    CONSCIOUSNESS IN MOTION: A Journey into the Dark Abyss of the “Mind,” Part Five, The Conclusion

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    F.: Via the recent posts, you have been given brief access into the machinations of three “minds” that are preoccupied with the relative and plagued by dualistic thinking and beliefs. What you have seen by looking into the darkness of those three “minds” (which have been blocked from the light of truth and awareness by enculturation and conditioning) is how the consciousness functions (or malfunctions) when it is warped and becomes attached to the phenomenal.

    That contaminated, conditioned consciousness then becomes impure, adulterated, limited, unstable, shifting, and ambiguous. The Absolute, by contrast, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, pure, unadulterated, unlimited, and unambiguous.

    By witnessing the movement of the corrupted consciousness, you have been given first-hand access to the narrow spaces between the synapses that have been cluttered with distortion and warping and contamination and duality. You have been given concrete examples of how confused and befuddled and perplexed persons are when trapped in duality. You have also seen that persons who are so very “sure” about so many things have no opportunity at all to Realize.

    Quite to the contrary of “being sure,” the true “journey” to Realization begins when a person is finally not so "sure." Then, the "journey" continues with the questioning of all ideas and concepts and beliefs. Realization itself happens when the last thing that any person was “sure of” is abandoned and discarded completely. The result is (a) no “one”—no who—that could be “sure” and (b) no concepts that anyone could be “sure of.”

    Also, note in the examples the way in which the “minds” generated thoughts that were so erratic and self-contradictory that some might conclude—after seeing all of those distortions and vascillations—that all three persons are suffering clinically-diagnosable insanity. (Actually, their distortions are rooted more in personality disorders.) Yet all three appear to other persons to be functioning very well in society, to be at peace, to really have it “together”; thus, they are admired by many for their “religious work” or “deep spirituality” or “fine service to our youth.” So much for appearance.

    Those three cases do not involve persons who are locked away in a mental institution. They are all persons operating in institutions that are highly respected in the U.S. culture (specifically, a profit-making business, a school, and a church) but where is any real basis for that respect when their corrupt “minds” are racing with a madhouse rapidity and generating distorted views?

    For their societies to assume that those three persons “really have it all together” shows how deficient persons are at distinguishing between appearance and reality. You, too, have likely said at some time, “He/She fooled me. I had no idea she/he was like that.” Most persons can maintain their public façade quite adequately, expecially in cultures where play-acting and “fronting” are deemed preferable to reality.

    What you have been allowed to witness, via those three examples, is the racing consciousness in movement. It has also been demonstrated, via those three cases, that the longer dualisitic beliefs dominate persons, the faster the “mind” will race. You have seen the depth of disintegration to which the corrupted consciousness can sink as all three of those persons are plagued by the shiftings between what they deem “good” and what they deem “bad,” between what they “love” and what they later “hate.”

    Now, the suggestion is this: You have just been given a glimpse inside the “minds” of persons who are trapped in personality and duality. Now, the invitation is for YOU to find the ego-states that are talking. Find examples of the instability of their dualistic thinking. Find the way that each gave religion a chance or used their religion and spirituality to justify their behavior. Find all of the unstable nonsense as revealed in their unbalanced psyches and their unsteady prattle.

    Then, see that a “mind” trapped in duality exacts a heavy mental and emotional toll. Understand that dualistic thinking is a progressive illness. See that those same types of results await all who refuse to recognize the degree to which the consciousness has been warped. Then, the invitation is to cast aside ideas, emotional intoxication and beliefs and complete the seven-step “path” back to Reality. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
    (TOMORROW: A GOD OF WRATH WHO BREAKS BRIDGES AND KILLS PEOPLE)
    READINGS RELATED TO THE CONTENT OF TODAY’S POST:

    While non-duality’s “not two” teaching eliminates the possibility of “one relating to another,” every aspect of the relative existence is marred by “relationship problems” until Full Realization happens. The following book identifies the roots of “relationship problems” and provides a holistic treatment plan for healing, for applying non-duality principles, and for ending such relative problems.
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  • Friday, April 13, 2007

    CONSCIOUSNESS IS, Part Three

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    FROM A SITE VISITOR: there’s all these contradictions, the part I don’t get is “there’s only consciousness” but at the same time “in the Absolute state there is no one to be consciousness of anything.” Then Maharaj talked about “even in the sleep state the consciousness still is conscious” but at the same time “even in the Absolute state there is consciousness or awareness but no one to be aware of it.” Then, “neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed” but “this is finite while that is infinite.” Help! Brad

    F.: Also, understand that within that field, various atoms are moving, interacting, and being conscious of each other. Energy is moving in wave and particle form, so unmanifested consciousness is not “at-rest” in the sense that it is not in motion. It is. The term “at rest” (certainly misleading on one level) merely points at the non-manifested status of the consciousness at that point.

    Moreover, do not think that there is some definable quantity of conscious-energy that is immobilized while in some larger system or field or pool of energy, “waiting” and positioned in a way that will allow it to be siphoned into some process that leads to manifestation or re-manifestation. Portions may manifest or re-manifest...or not. (Furthermore, as an example of the energy manifesting or not, note the difference in what happens when sunlight hits the surface of the moon vs. what happens when it hits the surface of a plant on earth.) Furthermore, the fact that some particles of previously-manifested consciousness might manifest again, and might not, nullifies such concepts as “karma” and “reincarnation.” I have not been born even once, so how could I possibly be “born again” or be born “multiple times”? Those two concepts are the result of body-mind-personality identification which always produce a desire for continuity.

    So, at this very moment, there is a field or system of energy that can be called “the absolute”—pure, absolute, conscious-energy. Within that field, there is movement and interaction, at this very moment; however, when conscious-energy is not manifested in a temporary grouping of elements with a nervous system, the consciousness cannot be conscious of itself. Furthermore, do not take the Absolute to be some special “place.” It is merely a “system” of energy—infinite, limitless, and omnipresent—from which quantities of energy might move to adjacent regions. If that energy becomes “caught up” in a movement of energy that happens to strike a plant, then it can manifest temporarily, yet there is no governing body or entity that determines whether such a chance happening might occur or not.

    To understand the cycling of consciousness “out of” or “into” a field or system, see what happens the moment that a bug is struck by the windshield of an automobile: much of the elemental structure remains on the glass (ash-to-ash, dust-to-dust); the air that was circulating as breath is instantaneously released and united with the universal pool of air; and the conscious-energy is instantaneously released into an omnipresent field…into that infinite pool of energy that can neither be created nor destroyed. The energy does not “go there” to some special place.

    Next, understand that too much has been made of what is called “The Absolute.” It is nothing more than an all-pervasive body or system or field or pool of energy, energy that is not currently manifested via a group of elements with a nervous system. Yet IT IS. In the process of trying to assign “supernatural” or “extraordinary” or “heavenly” or “special” attributes to a field of energy, (a) most persons now take the Absolute to be a mystical, supernatural location and (b) persons who believe that it is “up there” or “out there” do not understood that it is all-pervasive.

    As a result of religious and spiritual leaders having glorified an energy field, the Absolute is imagined by many to be a place—even a geographic place in some teachings—that is not “here” but which is “there” instead. All such distortions attempt to place limitations on the limitless; yet even John Paul II, as programmed as he was, was aware enough to say that “we must correct the geography of Gehanna: there is no literal heaven or hell…they are mental states, and you are in one or the other right now.” ("Gehanna" also known as "Gehenna," "gehenom" or "gehinom.")

    [NOTE: An editorial in La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit magazine with close ties to the Vatican, also said at that time, “Hell is not a 'place' but a 'state,' a person's 'state of being’.” The pope and the magazine merely adumbrated what Christ had said: “No one will ever see the kingdom of heaven…it is within.” Yet those who are programmed with religious dogma and who are enamored with their belief in the dualities of “good vs. bad” and “punishment vs. reward” as well as their desire for eternal continuity of body and mind and personality will called themselves “Christians” while completely ignoring the later Advaita teachings of Christ, that there is no heaven, in order to cling to the desires of body and mind: "Yes we are Christians, but we do not consider all of the teachings of Christ. We'd rather cling to the dualistic notions of hell and heaven and hope we can avoid hell and earn the right to live forever in heaven."]

    With the widespread distorted thinking among persons, however, the Absolute has been misconceived as “heaven,” as “the home of the gods or a god,” as “a place where persons will go for eternal bliss if they are good,” ad infinitum. The smashed bug is neither “at rest” nor enjoying “its place of final rest.” Neither are any humans who have ever walked the planet.

    Here is all that happens when a human “dies” or when a bug is struck by the windshield of a car: a temporary “association of” or “involvement among” certain elements and energy and air comes to an end. Though that particular association ends, the elements do not end, the air does not end, and the energy does not end. What did come to “an end” with the smashed bug (or a "dead human") was an ever-changing combination of elements, air, and energy which were in a constant state of flux but perceived by persons to have had continuity. The fact is that no “same bug” will ever be again, and no “same human” shall ever be again, but the same elements and air and energy shall be forever.

    But keep it simple now as you revisit one set of the teachings that were a quandary for you: “It’s all consciousness…there’s only consciousness” but at the same time “in the Absolute state there is no one to be conscious of anything.” Now you should be able to see from the example of the atoms that they are conscious of the presence of each other; that they move in relationship to each other; and that their movements influence the behavior of each other. However, even as atoms were conscious of the presence of other atoms, there was no “one”—no being with a nervous system—that could allow the consciousness to be conscious of the fact that it is; nevertheless, the consciousness still IS, though it is not conscious of the fact that it IS. The same is the case with "brad" prior to manifestation, and the same shall be the case with "brad" post-manifestation.

    It has been shown how consciousness IS even though there is no witness of that consciousness when unmanifest. Therefore, the consciousness was and is definitely “there,” the atoms were and are conscious of the presence of each other, and they all acted and reacted, and now act, in a certain way as a result. Even in a pre-manifestation state, consciousness was functioning, even without any consciousness of consciousness. (So much for the concept of "sacred contracts.") The same happens each night as you sleep.

    Even as you are not conscious while in deep sleep, consciousness continues to function and guides the brain and heart and other organs through their functions, automatically and spontaneously. You need not try to stay awake and be aware of your heart and lungs in order for them to work. Consciousness does that. Yet awake or asleep, you need not be conscious of the consciousness that is guiding the lungs to inhale and exhale and that is guiding the heart to contract and pump. That parallels abidance as the Absolute: as this manifested conscious-energy called “floyd” functions as consciousness that is conscious of, there is no “one”—no person—who is there and witnessing it. It’s all just happening, spontaneously, by itself. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
    NOTE: Some have e-mailed to say they’re trying to select some readings but don’t know where to begin after seeing all the options offered on the site. This is for them:
    REALIZATION RESOURCES:
    WORKING ON LEARNING TO QUESTION IT ALL AND BEING FREE OF THE FALSE (BUT HONORED) CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS OF YOUR CULTURE? Read IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (<--click for synopsis)

    WORKING ON BEING FREE OF RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING AND DOGMA? Read SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY(<--click for synopsis)

    WORKING ON BEING FREE OF BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION? Read WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?(<--click for synopsis)

    WORKING ON BEING FREE OF MIND AND PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION? Read LIBERATION(<--click for synopsis)

    Read THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”(<--click for synopsis)

    WORKING ON “THE FINAL PIECE” AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER? Read THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS(<--click for synopsis)


    Read FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)(<--click for synopsis)

    WORKING ON ISSUES ARISING IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE NON-REALIZED AND ON FINDING SOLUTIONS TO “RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS”? Read CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS(<--click for synopsis)

    INTERESTED IN A NOVEL STARRING A REALIZED ADVENTURER? Read THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS(<--click for synopsis)

    INTERESTED IN A NOVEL WITH A CHARACTER WHO EVOLVES FROM A LIFE OF MISERY TO THE PEACE OF REALIZATION? Read THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS(<--click for synopsis)

    INTERESTED IN RESTORING FINANCIAL SANITY AND USING A ZEN APPROACH TO HANDLING FINANCES BY USE OF A METHOD THAT HAS A PROVEN RECORD? Read LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS(<--click for synopsis)

    Read ENDING FINANCIAL PROBLEMS(<--click for synopsis)

    INTERESTED IN AN ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREAT?(<--click for information)

    Sunday, March 11, 2007

    THE DIRECT (SEVEN-STEP) PATH TO REALIZATION, Part One

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    FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do some people just suddenly realize or does everyone have to go through the seven steps you talk about? If so, why seven and why any exact order.

    F.: Thx for the questions. If you were to, first, understand the seven steps that are explained in the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) and then, next, read the pointers offered by the “sages” over the centuries, you would see references to all seven of the steps (or "stages," to use Maharaj's word) in the pointers offered. The same seven steps referenced on this site can all be found in the talks or in the writings of most of the earliest “Spiritual Masters” as well as in the talks or in the writings of some of the more recent “Masters” such as Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. The only difference is, no one before has presented the steps in their specific order.

    Yet Maharaj did advise those seeking to shift from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute to “follow the same path by which you came” and “…You should go back, reverse, to the source.” To “go back” to the Absolute in the ‘”reverse” order in which the movement from the Absolute to identification with the “I” happened, why must the steps be followed in a particular order (just as Maharaj said), and why are they not always presented in that exact fashion? Both of those will be explained in the next few postings.

    Traditionally, when a seeker arrived at the feet of a “Realized Master” to discuss THAT which is eternal, he/she would be allowed to make brief comments and/or ask a question. (Another format involves the "Master" offering opening remarks and then taking questions that reveal "path location of the questioner" and then providing level-appropriate answers.) There is a sound, logical reason for that approach: a jnani, after hearing a few comments by (or questions from) a seeker can pinpoint immediately “where” the seeker is on the “path.” For example, is the seeker still fixated in body identification? Or is the seeker still trapped in the obsession-of-the-mind stage? Or has the seeker moved beyond that stage, stopped identifying with most of the false identities that had been assigned or adopted in the past, but is now trapped in a religious or spiritual false identity/ego-state?

    A sage’s response is, and always has been, “level-appropriate.” Responses should provide the pointer(s) required for a seeker to shift to the next stage of re-purification or to at least be free of certain specific deceptions that are revealed in the seeker’s words. The result of any such daily sessions was, and is, a shift of one level, not a movement through several steps to Full Realization all at once.

    While the nine satsanga sessions offered in the retreats linked on this site use a direct path approach that reveals all seven steps in order, the more traditional approach described above (whereby seekers at varied stages are responded to in varied ways) is the one used on this site. Why? Questions are answered in whatever order they are received, and questions arrive in no particular order from seekers who are at varied stages on the “journey.” The response to one, therefore, will not be the same response to another. Further, the chances are nil that seven persons at seven levels will submit seven questions in the exact order of the seven steps, and even if they did, the explanations and guidance through the seven steps are book-length, not post-length. So visitors to this site might read a response to a seeker at level 6 on one day and an entirely different response to a seeker at level 1 on the next day.

    For example, the March 7, 2007 response was aimed at the level of one trapped in the identification of a specific persona (husband). The March 9, 2007 response was to one enamored with his accumulated knowledge—trapped in the dilemma of wanting to show off his knowledge to people on one hand but wanting to isolate from people on the other hand. The invitation to him, therefore, was to consider abandoning the ego-state that loves to display accumulated knowledge and seek SELF-knowledge instead. The March 10, 2007 was geared to one still at the rudimentary levels. Note that those three discussions were not presented in the order in which the steps are taken in order for Full Realization to happen. The questions were answered in the order received. In the multi-day retreats, however, where attendees are being guided through all of the steps, the specific order is observed.

    The “Masters” showed that the level of each seeker much be determined and then the specific seeker must be responded to accordingly. If some seeker is at the “wet charcoal” stage rather than at the “dry charcoal” stage, that seeker will be addressed at the “wet charcoal” stage with pointers intended to allow a movement to the “dry charcoal” stage. If one is at the “gunpowder stage” and only requires a few key pointers in order for Realization to explode into consciousness, that seeker will be provided those pointers, not “wet-charcoal-level pointers.”
    Are you beginning to see why level-appropriate responses might cause confusion when you read something one day that is written for a seeker at level 5 but then you read the next day a response that is for a seeker at level 2? That explains why confusion happens so often when seekers read collections of transcripted talks (such as Maharaj's I AM THAT) wherein pointers offered on one page seemingly contradict pointers offered on the very next page. It is the audience that is varied, not the answer, but confusion often results among readers nevertheless. That is why, at some point, you need to know the exact order in which the stages must be transitioned, and that is why most do require a "guide," at least temporarily, that can point the way along the "path." Please enter the silence of contemplation.

    Wednesday, January 31, 2007

    DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part Four

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    [Continued from yesterday]
    V.: Even though its intellectually understood that the one who is fearing his own absence is a non-existent entity, the fear is still there.

    F.: Again, the words reveal that it is not the re-purified consciousness that is speaking but—by your use of the word “intellectually”—you reveal more of your “mind” stuff. That comment comes from the second step level. Though this is a seven-step "journey," you continue to hover around steps one and two...around body and mind identification. You likely visit step three at times (assuming a spiritual and/or religious persona) but you are unable to transition that persona and continue the "journey" to its completion. Why? As with all ego-states and false identities, "The Spiritual One" loves his role, and he especially loves that role since his entire culture dualistically agrees that it is a "good" role...not a "bad" role.
    To see how out of touch with reality that “I” is—the “I” who is speaking—restate your comment with accuracy: Even if a mirage could intellectually understand that it is fearing its own absence when the sun sets, and even if the mirage knows that it’s just a mirage, the fear being felt by the mirage would still be there. If in touch with Reality, it would be understood that a mirage is a mirage and that a mirage can know nothing. It would be seen that it would be totally insane to believe that any fear being generated by a mirage is real.

    It would be seen that it is totally insane for a relative existence to happen in the style of a mime…pretending that he’s trapped in a box that does not even exist. It would be seen that it would be totally insane for the mime to play “The Mime Role” for so long that he eventually begins to believe that he really is trapped and that the box he’s in is real. It would be so simple for the non-insane to see the conditioned mime’s self-delusion and insanity. What is complicated is the maze of lies called the “mind.” It is the attachment that persons have to the fictional "mind" that prevents the insane from seeing that they are insane and prevents them from understanding that their insanity is sustained by their unquestioning faith and their naive belief in what persons have told them. Seeing all of Reality is simple. Seeing all of the lies is more challenging. Understand that Reality is observable from within but that lies all come from without.

    V.: How to overcome and find the courage to be what one truely always is?

    F.: For some, seeing the price of not knowing What One Truly Is can inspire an undertaking of, or completion of, the entire “journey.” Some finally tire of the silly games, of the unmet desires, of the imaginary (but seemingly real) fears, of the instability of their cycles of being happy and unhappy, of the mental and emotional pain and suffering. However, since persons have been conditioned to have a high tolerance for pain (and have been conditioned to walk about in their sleep and generate even more pain), few ever attain freedom from the programming and conditioning and enculturation and corruption of the consciousness. Thus, they will walk about the planet in their dreams, they will play their phony roles in The Drama of the Lie, they will generate chaos by emoting, and they will prefer the sleep-like stupor of boredom in order not to have to feel anything associated within the insane “world” that they imagine is real.

    Therefore, they just stay in their pain or their stupor, even as they deny their pain or their stupor. For most, the “path” can only be followed when clearly marked. Yes, a guide can point the way, but so many who claim “The Guide Role” have never completed the “journey” and believe at dawn that they are standing beneath the noonday sun. The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE marks the way clearly by identifying the seven steps, in their exact order, that are required for Realization to happen. Only via step-by-step instructions can persons avoid the thousands of useless steps now being taken, steps which are nothing more than distractions and which bog persons down with doingness. All that doingness merely reinforces the false sense of a “do-er,” resulting in this closed loop: the imaginary do-er believes in his/her doingness, then his/her doingness reinforces the illusion of a do-er. Being trapped in that cycle inspires persons to run about in a circle and thus prevents completion of the “journey” that requires the following of the direct "path."

    V.: The notorious Ego even tries to make use of this understanding that \"one never exists\".

    F.: The irony of the ego is this: as long as the “I”—the “ego”—is taken to be real, the influence of that illusion (which is generated by the corrupted consciousness) will prevent the re-purification of the consciousness. The ego’s quest is to convince the false self—and all other false selves—that it is that which is real. Thus, any effort to tell a “Husband”—who is dependent on “Wife” for his very existence—that he is not a “Husband” at all is a consideration that will be spurned like a mangy cur. The invitation is to see that a mirage can have no power over the sane nor any influence among the sane; however, if one swerves his car off the road and over a cliff to avoid a mirage in the road ahead, the effect of the mirage in the relative existence will certainly seem real enough and powerful enough and influential enough to a programmed bystander. Conversely, the Realized will see a mirage for the mirage that it is and will sail along peacefully down the road, unaffected at all by the illusions that seem to appear before the eyes and that are taken by the non-Realized to be real.

    V.: (please excuse me, badly feeling the need of question-answer sessions and physical presence of someone who is stabilized in the Absolute)

    F.: No excuse need be requested or extended in reply. This type of happening is what happens on this site and is what shall continue until the consciousness is no longer manifested or no longer speaks. On the other hand, if you still don't "get it" after this set of free pointers, spring for the cost of the guidebook. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
    FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS: Out of town. Please visit the archives.

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