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

[Please note: Departing today for a vacation trip to the Hill Country. If my companion can pick up a WiFi signal on her notebook, postings will continue; otherwise, this series will continue Friday morning.]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Please see the 02 November 2007 post for the e-mail which is being responded to today]

F.: (The exchange continues):

V.: I understand that this would be the case even if i believed God to be a Spirit. I mean, there is not much difference. the Void should know nothing exists.

F.: First, there is no difference at all in “God” and “Spirit.” Both are illusory concepts. Secondly, a Void can know nothing. Are you seeing why more questions and reading are required before any additional effort is made to verbalize your understanding? Putting your thoughts into words at this point can only reinforce your misconceptions and, if shared with other beginners, can only add to their confusion.

Further, it is not only a Void that knows nothing post-manifestation. That "state" is beyond beingness and non-beingness, so there is no “one” to know anything: no self, no Self, no Infinite Self-ness, no Ultimate Self-ness. As reported, awareness in that state is not even aware of awareness, is not even aware of “itself,” so to speak. The phenomena of self-awareness and Self-Awareness are limited to the manifestation.

Here’s some background that might facilitate the understanding of consciousness. In the original case of consciousness manifesting in the void that would become what is called “this universe,” a subatomic particle of the very first atom was “conscious of” the movement of another subatomic particle.

(The proton and the electron particles “stayed together” because the electrical charge of each “attracted” the other in this original instance of the simplest form of conscious-of-ness, “a” being conscious of “b” and vice versa.) The movement of one affected the movement of the other, but neither particle was conscious of “itself.”

V.: The spirit should know nothing else exists. But how does this knowledge comes in the first place?

F.: The knowledge (of self) comes spontaneously, a now common happening that first began after all of the elements evolved over billions of years in such a manner that the consciousness was able to manifest spontaneously. (Consider the bird or the deer that moves deeper into the forest to avoid a human walking through the woods: both have knowledge of self, both are aware of the beingness, and both move away from the perceived threat of the unknown in order to sustain continuity.)

Among humans, the knowledge of beingness also manifests spontaneously; additionally, the knowledge of Self manifests spontaneously, but the supposed knowledge of (false) self or selves follows programming. That the knowledge of Self is known intuitively is shown by the one who answers “Yes” to the question, “Would You still be You even if your body lost its arms and legs?” Awareness of the fact that Self is beyond self is intuitive and spontaneous, but the awareness is lost via the corrupting of the consciousness. All other so-called "knowledge" comes via programming and conditioning and enculturation and domestication, and—when religious and spiritual concepts are introduced—the ideas accepted as “truth” do not constitute knowledge but form a collection of “learned ignorance.”

In a followup e-mail:

V.: Does the concept of Brahman start with manifestation only?

F.: Indeed, all concepts start post-manifestation only. God did not create men. Men created God (or multiple gods) via the consciousness that is warped as a result of fears and desires. Men have created all concepts. In regards to that subject, Maharaj shared the following to show how belief in duality precedes belief in god(s):

“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.”

V.: I think I am beginning to understand. I'd like to ponder more over what you said before i can ask anything further.

F.: As a Realized Cherokee grandmother advised, “Take at least three moons to dwell on any consideration prior to response,” so your inclination to consider and ponder is well-founded. In fact, seventy-two hours might be an overly-optimistic timeframe. Some persons require years of consideration of pointers before all lies are seen to be lies, allowing an understanding of Truth to finally explode into awareness via the re-purified consciousness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued]
RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

NEW ADVAITA PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT REDUCED RATES:

The Entire Advaita Collection (all twelve items in all three of the packages below): $187.00 + S&H

“The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H

“The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H

“The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness/Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H

To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm .

YES, WE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. New rates by the USPS went into effect in May 2007. You may visit http://ircalc.usps.gov/ to calculate rates and view options. (Select your country, then in the “weight” box, estimate 1 pound per each book ordered.) Add $5 to cover package preparation, the assistant's trip to and from the PO, and the time for completion of international shipping forms.

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

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)
RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

NEW ADVAITA PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT REDUCED RATES:

The Entire Advaita Collection (all twelve items in all three of the packages below): $187.00 + S&H

“The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H

“The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H

“The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness/Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H

To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm .

IDENTIFICATION: Something, or No thing? Part Three

[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.

F.: Most who read pointers dealing with zero concepts (as offered by some Direct Path Advaita Teachers and by some “Neo-Advaitins”), will feel as if they are dying or being robbed of their “true identity.” Some will feel that their “true identity” is being minimized and not recognized for the glorious post-manifestation "SOMETHING" that it is...all “heavenly” and “celestial” and “splendid”…maybe even “saintly” or “godly” or “cherubic” or “spiritual” or “divine” or “holy” or "something" which they believe will be "even above and beyond" all of that.

Some resent the implication that their relevance, either during the relative manifestation or after the relative manifestation, is being decreased or diminished or underestimated. They hate the suggestion that to have taken themselves and their beliefs seriously for so many years was all nonsense. They hate hearing that their years of fighting for their causes were uselessly passed in vain and were steeped in egotism and efforts to support their false identities/ego-states.

They hate hearing that their entire existence is all much ado about nothing. They despise being told that they have been fooled. They hate pointers dealing with purposelessness and meaninglessness. They hate pointers which suggest that all of those times when they made mountains out of molehills was pure foolishness. They hate the notion of "nothingness" and thrive on all their concepts that deal with "somethingness." They hate hearing their their beliefs and their concepts are fiction.

They hate when their dualistic belief in their own eternal reward is exposed as a fraud or when their belief in an eternal punishment for their enemies is debunked. They bristle when it is pointed out that their "life-long" attempts to defend their various concepts have amounted to nothing more than a waste of breath.

They hate to hear that the energy spent in trying to make their views understood and accepted was for naught. They can become livid when it is noted that their actions (which earned applause from the masses who considered those actions to be “accomplishments”) were for nil. They despise the pointer that no one has ever "made the world a better place" as a result of any action.

They are offended when it is suggested that the naming of streets after them, that the building of statues in their honor, and that the construction of libraries built to laud their "achievements" amount to just so much rubbish. They reject any suggestion that the desire to extend in perpetuity the memory of them and their “identity” is mere tripe.

Similarly, the following pointer was offered to the seeker who raised the issue of “SOMETHING” in defense of his “identity,” desiring as he does to verify it and to be assured that it will be extended in perpetuity:

Whether your identity is of a phenomenal nature or a noumenal nature in your “mind,” your preoccupation with it is evidence of the fact that you hold in esteem either that which you currently believe you are, or that SOMETHING which you think you shall be forever, or both. In fact, when a "state" of zero concepts is reached, it is understood that there is no "identity" at all. It is also realized from that "state" that there is nothing deserving any esteem at all, contrary to the tendency among the non-Realized to demand that they be shown “the honor they deserve.”

The pointer offered earlier was that “there's no identity to be concerned with at all.” Another pointer is offered for those seekers who would reach the "next level" of understanding and who are capable of reaching the zero concepts "state":

“Absolute,” “THAT,” “Brahman,” “God,” “energy,” “energy-matter,” “Consciousness,” “Awareness,” and “SOMETHING” are still man-made labels generated by persons; however, since Awareness is not even aware of awareness, what justification can be offered for being “concerned” with any of those labels, if Fully Realized?

The concept of “SOMETHING” blocks the understanding of what is most pervasive in this universe (and in all universes). What is most pervasive? Not something but…no-thing. The physical body of a human is neither “primarily energy” nor “primarily matter.” It is primarily space, primarily a void, and can thereby serve as a microcosm of the universe which is primarily space, primarily nothingness, primarily no-thingness.

Similar to every bridge that will eventually be reduced to rubble, a couple of hundred pounds of “floyd” will be reduced to a few pounds of ash. That which is mainly “space” is misperceived by the non-Realized as being “something.”

Typically, "the nothing" is neither seen nor understand as persons show deference to, and preference for, “something.” Only for "the most advanced" is this pointer offered: if the nothingness is understood, then not an iota of attention is wasted with concern about the “SOMETHING” the seeker mentioned.

At "the peak" of understanding, it is realized that “concern” with a post-manifestation identity is just so much silliness. Persons who focus on “SOMETHINGS” become “concerned,” and "concern" about anything will generate unnatural or supernatural thinking and living. All “concerns” prevent peace and natural living from happening. If an excess of energy is available, employ it to realize all that you are not if you would eliminate insane-like thoughts and words and deeds and relative destructiveness from an otherwise ego-dominated existence.

To focus on the concept of “SOMETHING” prevents seeing “The Reality of the Emptiness,” “The Reality of the Void,” “The Reality of the Nothingness.” All “mind”-stuff attached to “somethingness” will preempt any understanding of the no-concept, non-dual, no-thing Reality.

Peace and happiness only happen...(continued in the book)

To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued on Friday)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
WORKING ON LEARNING TO QUESTION IT ALL AND BEING FREE OF THE FALSE (BUT HONORED) CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS OF YOUR CULTURE?

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING AND DOGMA?

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION?

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF MIND AND PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

and

Click LIBERATION

WORKING ON “THE FINAL PIECES” AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

and

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

and

Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS