SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS, SHIFTS IN DEEDS, Part Nine

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 discussion today continues by looking at the three case studies along with a mom enabling a son that is suffering from an addiction that has not been successfully treated. [See the post on 27 October 2007] All four, trapped in their dreams that blind them to reality, are enslaved as a result of having been lulled asleep by processes that produced a major warping of consciousness. They have not understood these Advaitin pointers previously offered:

1. That which gives you pleasure will eventually give you pain.
2. That which gives you the most pleasure will eventually give you the most pain.
3. All misery and suffering and entrapment flow from the assumption of ego-states that are driven by either fears or desires or both.
4. Persons have been programmed and conditioned just like Pavlovian dogs.
5. Programming and conditioning will leave them helpless, with no ability to choose anything.
6. That programming and conditioning will determine their every thought…which will determine their every word… which will drive their every action.
7. Being controlled by programming and conditioning can only result in unhappiness because it will drive persons to try to accumulate, will leave them in a state of constant longing for more, and will deprive them of any sense of feeling fulfilled. (In the U.S. alone, more than 10 million women are taking anti-depressants on any given day. Seventy-seven percent of the 300 million people in the nation report that they suffer so much stress that it is affecting them physically.)
8. Those persons who have been programmed and conditioned to want more have already laid the foundation of what will prove to be their own prison.

Of course, persons are merely following their programming to want more, and unless they transcend the accumulation stage and engage in Self-Inquiry, they will never reach the de-accumulation stage that is so freeing. All of the persons referenced in this series are imprisoned, and one force that has driven them into their prisons is a desire for more.

Yet these four are not rare exceptions on planet earth. Add to these the case study from the book CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS which discusses a woman whose father told her, “You don’t need to go to college. You’re good looking. Just find a man to take care of you.” Her mother added, “If you manipulate a man with love, you’ll get everything you ever want.”

The non-Realized persons who walk the face of the globe are equally asleep, equally miserable, and equally enthralled with having more. Most of those six billion+ will remain in that condition for the remainder of the manifestation. Robert Crais wrote of those types in one of his novels. A character exits a building at sunrise and observes:

“Moths swarmed around the parking lot lamps, banging into the glass with a steady tap, tap, tap, and I wondered if they welcomed the dawn. At dawn, they could stop slamming their heads into the thing that forever kept them from the light. People don’t have a dawn. We just keep slamming away until it kills us.”

The “Repetition Compulsion” will prevent most from ever breaking the cycles of insanity (or of insane-like deeds or actions which are generated by personality disorders that mark the existence of those identified with body-mind-personality). Consider:

With Case “A,” husband #1 “took care of her,” but they eventually divorced after years of beatings. Husband #2 “took care of her,” but they eventually divorced after years of beatings. Husband #3 is “taking care of her,” but she wishes for him to die after years of beatings.

Yet, her lifestyle is “comfortable,” she claims, because she “doesn’t have to work…is able to shop all day…is able to do whatever she wants.” And that is truly her belief, though he is slamming her head and though she has been kept from the light. Such is the case among billions who are walking about asleep, dreaming they are awake and that they know truth. They will never even begin to see how distorted their thinking is…how warped their perspectives are…how nonsensical their beliefs are…or how every idea they have is 180-degrees in reverse of reality.

Just as with all persons (who are typically in denial and dissociated) Case “A” denies that she is suffering and miserable and depressed. She goes to men who will pay her bills; she runs from men who beat her; she goes back to the same type man because he’s willing to pay her bills; she runs away from that man who beats her. All of this nonsense about hanging around certain people or running away from certain people is typical of the chaos that marks the existence of the non-Realized. Such behavior shows that persons believe all problems are external and that all solutions are external.

As referenced in Art’s question, there are specific people Case "A" wanted to be around but now doesn’t want to be around; instead of moving toward independence and meeting her own relative existence needs, however, she continues to run to the same type of rescuing, caveman-type males who have always believed that whatever they find and bring home is theirs to own and do with as they please: “You’re bought and paid for, fair and square, so you’re mine.”

As a result, she is like Cases “B” and “C,” dreaming that they are free but imprisoned by their dependent, take-care-of-me, give-me-a-better-lifestyle mentalities.

Yet even as they claim they are “doing fine and are happy and joyous,” all three are in therapy, all three are (perfunctorily) involved in 12-step programs, and, as mentioned, all three have recently talked of suicide.

The Advaita Teachings can introduce persons to the dawn—to the beginning of the awakening process—and can reveal that such deeds as “slamming their heads into something” and being “forever kept from the light” can end. A shift happens automatically if one sees the light and spontaneously becomes free of self-destructive, self-absorbed living, as far as the relative existence goes.

Now, what of you? If you look at anyone and think you know him/her well, you do not. If you look at anyone and see anything other than (1) a space formed by a combining of elements and (2) a form in which the consciousness is temporarily manifested, then in no way do you know Who/What That Is which you think you are seeing (speaking in absolute terms) and in no way do you know who or what they are at all (speaking in relative terms).

Krishna spoke of “fools.” All foolishness happens because “they” fooled us first, but now most have taken up the task and continue to fool themselves by refusing to question the ideas and concepts and dogma and beliefs which have been programmed into their "minds." If that applies, know that you are in a position to effect change. The change happens when seven specific steps are taken in a very specific order.

That process can “change” the consciousness from its warped condition to a re-purified condition. More accurately, all that really happens is that the obstacles that are blocking the consciousness from seeing clearly will be removed. Then, freedom from thoughts can happen; fewer words will happen; and a shift in deeds will necessarily follow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)
RELATED TO TODAY’S TOPIC:

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

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

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PARENT-CHILD EGO-STATES, Part Three

F.: Desires are alway obstacles to peace and can cause persons to fixate in “The Parent” or “The Child” roles, or both. “Parent”-types desire power and control, and “The Child”-types are frustrated because they have no power or control but desire both.

Thus, it can be seen again that the master addiction among humans is the desire to control. The secondary addiction is the desire to have power (worldly and supernatural) in order to control.

In their efforts to control, “Parent”-types will exert all necessary force in order to try to control. Examples include the domineering spouse or mate; the abusive, controlling boss; and the politician who orders the dropping of bombs on those who do not behave as he prefers.

The desire to have power and the desire to control trap adult-aged persons in “The Parent” ego-state. Dependencies trap adult-aged persons in “The Child” ego-state.

Many adult-aged persons accept being treated like children by those playing “The Parent.” What cultural institutions encourage tolerance for such treatment? Organized religion (with its “He’s the Father and you’re the child” teachings) will certainly foster dependence and childish thinking, speaking, and behaving.

Many groups use an arm-chair version of psychology that encourages new members to substitute what they were dependent on with a new dependency on what the current members are now dependent on. Afterwards, the older members “Parent” the newer ones, dictating exactly what those in "The Child" role can and cannot do. In fact, almost all institutions and groups and businesses and relationships operate within a hierarchical structure that encourages parent and child role-playing.

Why does the assumption of these two roles guarantee conflict? “The Parent” and “The Child” both want power and control; however, since all non-Realized persons are being driven by “Parent” and “Child” influences, conflict is the unavoidable outcome. Persons trapped in these two ego-states will be in a constant battle as they all work to gain power and then try to use it to control people and events.

At the recent retreat, one adult-aged male who had been abused by Christians for a thirteen-year period during his childhood is now trapped in a desire to change all Christians. All of the adult-aged years of his relative existence have been marked by conflict that is driven by his desire to reform “them.”

He was shown that “The Parent” wants to be able to control them and change their thoughts and words and actions. Simultaneously, “The Child” role he is playing wants to argue and fight to that end.

Nothing shook his resolve until he was asked if he was familiar with Pavlov’s experiment involving the conditioning of dogs. He was. Asked if he would try to draw a few parallels, he agreed to try. The exchange went as follows:

F.: Were Pavlov’s dogs conditioned to believe that meat was forthcoming?
Participant: Yes.
F.: Were the Christians who abused you conditioned to believe what they believe?
P.: Yes.
F.: Do you think their behavior was insane?
P.: Damn straight.
F.: Would you like to change them?
P.: You bet.
F.: Do you think you can?
P.: Maybe. Maybe at least a few of them.
F.: So you’re likely to continue to confront them and try to “shake some sense into them”?
P.: Probably.
F.: So you are basically saying that it is your belief that you could approach Pavlov’s dogs after they had been subjected to conditioning; that you could grab them by their ears and look them in their eyes and start shaking them; and that you could then change their “minds” by fighting with them as you yell, “Stop with all the damn salivating! That’s the sound of a bell that’s driving you, not the smell of meat! How stupid can you dogs be?! How insane can you be?!” Now, in that scenario, which one—you or the dogs—would be behaving more insanely?
[Silence...then…]
P.: Whoa.

The task of de-programming or de-conditioning is a formidable one. That is why Maharaj said that only 1 in 100,000 will ever Realize; that is why he later revised his estimate to 1 in 1,000,000; and that is why he ultimately predicted that only 1 in 10,000,000 will be freed from the effects of their programming and conditioning and thereafter awaken to the truth.

Most persons on the planet will be driven for the entirety of their relative existence as blindly and ignorantly as a Pavlovian dog. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the median age in the U.S. is 35.3 years. Physically? Maybe so. Developmentally? 6-12 years old would be more realistic, considering the frequency with which “The Child” controls thoughts, words, and deeds.

Once one sees the degree to which programming and conditioning can dominant the thoughts, words, and actions of the non-Realized, it should be clear why no widespread, wholesale change among persons can happen; therefore, billions on the planet will continue to operate from “The Parent” ego-state and “The Child” ego-state. So it is.

But what about you? Are you awakening to the fact that much of what you have thought and said in your life was a mere replaying of parental tapes? Are you aware that most of what you have felt in your life was a mere replaying of childish/childhood tapes? Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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PEACE EVERY DAY…OR NOT, Part Three

[See the post on 30 August 2007 for the original e-mail being addressed]

F.: If ideas and concepts and beliefs are not forfeited (and if one is not freed of the influence of old wounds and old “memories” and old programming) then changing jobs, houses, cities, circumstances, people, or anything else will have no lasting impact on changing one’s emotional state. If the seemingly endless chain of desires and expectations is not forfeited, one can get everything she/he might wish for or hope for or long for, but consistent happiness and consistent peace will not manifest. Full Realization, on the other hand, will provide a lasting impact, relatively speaking.

But Full Realization cannot happen as long as persons think that the beliefs of their parents, their teachers, their preachers, their priests, their imams, their rabbis, or their politicians are Truth. Any of “their” beliefs which have become “your” beliefs will block you from finding Truth...and peace.

Some seekers have seen the lies that are driving them by writing a thorough list of their beliefs, seeing where those beliefs really came from, and then questioning their validity. (In fact, no one’s beliefs have really come from parents or pastors or priests, etc. The most widely-held and most respected beliefs today are thousands of years old, were dreamed up by controlling men during ancient times, were passed down to the ignorant masses, and have been repeated and accepted as truth for thousands of years by billions and billions of non-Realized persons among the also-ignorant masses.)

The writing exercise can reveal to honest seekers the fact that they have no beliefs that are their own but that they have only adopted the beliefs of others. That prevents them from realizing what they have always known, within, but have forgotten. The exercise can show that there is no basis in fact for the concepts and ideas and beliefs that have been adopted from others.

The process can expose the fact that those beliefs are driving you into an unstable existence that is marked by fluctuations between being OK if alone vs. not being OK at work; between enjoying the pleasure of pleasant situations vs. suffering the misery of unpleasant situations; and between feeling spiritual at times vs. not feeling spiritual at other times.

Consider: some homes have thermostats that has been programmed to cool houses in the summer and to heat them in the winter. A thermostat is programmed to maintain temperatures within a certain, limited range. If it has not been programmed, it will not function. Its program determines what it does or what it does not do.

Similarly, persons do nothing that they have not been programmed or conditioned or enculturated to do. Unfortunately for persons, they do not choose their programming any more than a thermostat chooses its programming. As in the case of the thermostat that limits temperature ranges, the programming of persons limits the way that they function as well.

It may appear that the thermostat is making a decision when it activates or deactivates "automatically," but obviously it is not. It has no power of choice because it is programmed. That same type of programming leaves persons totally helpless even though they believe that their ideas and beliefs and concepts are a source of power and are a benefit. They think they are freely making choices.

How deceived they are. You were programmed in the way that certain key role-players in your early life choose to program you. The people who lived next door to where you grew up as a child would have likely given you a totally different program. Those of one religion will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another religion are given.

Those of one denomination will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another denomination are given. People of one political party will program people in a way that is completely diferent from the programming that people of another party are given.

People with one type of boss will become conditioned in a way that is completely diferent from the conditioning that people with a different type of boss will be given. And all of your conditioning and programming—not you—will determine how you emote in any given circumstance.

The invitation to you is to take all seven steps to Realization and then you will not co-dependently allow strangers or people at work or anywhere else to determine how you feel. You’ll begin to cross the path of fewer and fewer “numbskulls” at work or outside work. Eventually, there will be no “jaime" and no “you” that has any agenda that can be interfered with. You’ll be free of any identity that can imagine it has been hurt or threatened, and then you’ll function as the True Self.

Persons are separated from the awareness of That Which They Truly Are, and only awareness of That can result in peace and happiness during the manifestation. As for you, jaime, your case in not unique, so there’s no need to take any words as criticism; nor is there any need to criticize your “self” (or selves).

Your search has taken you far enough along a “path” that you have discovered the philosophy of Advaita, the understanding of which might eliminate at the root all of the frustration and anger that you think you’re experiencing at certain times. To be free, though, you'll be required to abandon all identification with “Jaime the Experiencer of Frustration and Anger” or “The Jaime Who Is Driven by Unmet Expectations and Unfulfilled Desires.” More on that tomorrow. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (Tomorrow: The Conclusion)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
SEEKING “PEACE OF MIND”?

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

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY?

Click LIBERATION

WORKING ON HAVING THE COURAGE TO QUESTION ALL OF THE "SACRED COWS" IN YOUR CULTURE?

Click IT'S ALL BULLSHIT

READY TO TAKE THE SEVEN-STEP “JOURNEY” TO REALITY?

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

HOW SAMSKARAS GENERATE INSANE THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND DEEDS

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [This visitor has written frequently regarding his entrapment at the body identification level and his fear of cancer.] Not long ago you talked about the impact statements can have on people. Recurring statements or even just a one time statement. As you know, I've had an extreme worry of cancer. Irrational. I very well remember my grandmother being a bit of a hypochondriac and, in particular, always talking about getting cancer. My wife told me that my mother told her that when I was very young that my grandmother would talk to me often and I would listen intently about cancer. I had totally forgotten that as I was very young. The thing about statements is that in an instant they can impact your forever but you can't stop them in an instant.

F.: Yes. While vasanas (residual impressions) can provide a glimpse of the Original Understanding that lingers within, some teachers have long advised students to recognize and be free of the relative effects of samskaras—those mental impressions that are rooted in lies and that drive thoughts, words, and deeds. It is your memory of the fear-inducing content of those early conversations, along with your desire for body continuity and your fear of a lack of continuity, that have been the source of much of your mental suffering and emotional intoxication.

Samakaras (sans = together + kara = action) drive deeds when those false memories (or memories of the excessive talk from your grandmother) come together in a space/body that had the ability to take actions or perform deeds. Driven by a “mind” that was warped by such excessive fear-mongering, you (the consciousness) were warped by someone who was so absorbed in self that she assumed that her truth would be everyone's truth.

It would be like telling a relative, “You're going to get colon cancer and diabetes—guaranteed—just wait and see. No exceptions. I got 'em so you’re going to get 'em.” It is one thing to make offspring aware of any familial history with specific hereditary health issues; it is another to speak of it so often that children become traumatized. Yet such is the power of conditioning. Why not try telling the consciousness that it is the consciousness that is in fear, and not You? Why not return to step one and begin again the process of discarding body identification?

Another example of the long-lasting effects of statements from a grandmother (statements which programmed and conditioned a child) was provided by a woman who was advised by an associate to come for satsang. She arrived and soon shared her first lie: that she was “looking for change and peace.”

She had spent her first seventeen years on a south Louisiana rice farm. Her parents had followed the orders of their priest and pope and had bred as instructed: without restraint. As a result, the woman had eleven siblings living in a home with her, her mother, her father, and her grandmother, bringing to fifteen the total number of people living in a three-bedroom home.

She explained that the front porch and the back porch were eventually enclosed and that her eleven brothers and sisters slept in bunk beds either in one bedroom or in the two makeshift, porch rooms. With such crowded conditions, she felt "fortunate" that she was “her grandmother’s favorite” and was thus allowed to share a bed and a bedroom with that woman for fifteen years.

When the woman first came for satsang, she was 45 years old and miserable behind what she called “more than twenty-five years of horrible relationships with men.” More than anything, she wanted to know “what was wrong with men nowadays…why they were not raised to behave properly.”

As she shared the history of her relationships, it became obvious she had adopted the persona of her grandmother who had, in turn, assumed the identity of "An 80-Year-Old Occidental Prude." Men were quite confused over the years by her “runway model looks” but her octogenarian thinking and conduct. When asked to describe the events that precipitated the end of her most recent failed relationship, she explained:

Okay, well with that one, he greeted me properly at the door and gave me a flower. All seemed like it was going to go well. Then, as we approached the car, he unlocked the doors with his remote, got in on his side of the car, and opened my door from inside. I turned and started back to my condo. When he got out of the car and asked if I had forgotten something, I told him that he had forgotten something, namely, that a gentlemen walks a lady to her side of the car and opens her door from the outside before getting into the car.

She went on to describe other relationships that had ended as quickly when she slapped some men for making moves that did not reinforce her “Above all, I am a lady” self-image. Further investigation of what she called “wonderful lessons learned during the years that grandmother shared her room and her wisdom” uncovered the primary messages that contributed to a child’s programming and an adult’s misery:

“Always make sure that men treat you like a lady.” “You must demand that men treat you properly—they will not do it by choice.” “If a man asks you to do anything that is not lady-like, slap him and walk away.” When asked to appraise objectively how her grandmother’s advice was working for her in her relative existence, she defended the woman’s “wisdom” to the end.

After the consideration was offered that the problems in her relative relations were not being caused as much by men as they were being caused by her having adopted the phony self-image of "Super Lady" and by the grandmother that she had internalized, she left the way she arrived: angry. It seemed likely that the only reason she paused for a few seconds on her way to the door was to decide if she should come back long enough to slap the offending mouth.

Have you paused long enough to look at self and to determine if there are some basic but inane beliefs that are driving you through your relative existence? The powerful influence of a few nonsensical comments or pieces of advice or insane words stored as memories can remove from persons any ability at all to make choices.

Instead, their thoughts, words and deeds are being controlled by inane statements that have become components of a “mind”—that repository of nonsense and lies and dogma and concepts that often renders persons helpless and hopeless and miserable.

Advaita invites you to cast aside all of the ideas and emotions and attitudes that were pumped into you as a child. Question it all. See that it was all just so much nonsense. Then, the invitation is to discard it all and follow the seven-step “path” to freedom. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:

Click CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS

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

MISTAKING POWERLESSNESS FOR POWER AND DEPENDENCE FOR FREEDOM, Part Ten in This Series, The Conclusion

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: Before Ivan Pavlov conditioned the dogs in his experiment, they behaved naturally. They salivated at the smell of meat. After he conditioned them, they behaved unnaturally, salivating at the sound of a bell. Conditioning robbed them of the chance to live naturally and trapped them into living in a most unnatural manner. The same applies to conditioned humans: they will live unnaturally and supernaturtally but never naturally unless they are de-programmed and de-conditioned and then Realize Fully.

For thousands of years and continuing to the present, humans have been conditioned as if they were dogs in a Pavlovian experiment, and the most widespread conditioning (with the most far-reaching effects on the relative existence) involves religion and spirituality. Today, they both use the tried and proven methods of conditioning that are rooted in ancient cults and that are now used by modern cults that are considered to be legitimate organizations and religions and programs and movements.

While religion and/or spirituality are one step on the “path” to Realization, neither can move a person even to the midpoint of the complete “journey” to Full Realization. Moreover, like Pavlov’s dogs, humans subjected to religious and/or spiritual conditioning are prevented from living naturally and are trapped into living in a most unnatural manner.

It has been shown that the Advaita Teachings provide a means by which you can be free of all of the unconscious factors that currently control you and that actually disempower you (relatively speaking) by robbing you of free-will and choice, even as you think that your beliefs and practices are giving you “power.” It truly is possible to wake up and to stop living on autopilot when the autopilot setting does not allow you to have any input into where you’ll go, what you’ll do, and how the trip shall take place along the way.

So, John, you have written to this site to promote with pride some teachings that are thousands of years old, but the Realized Advaitins here speak of That Which Is eternal. You think that you have been born again while the consciousness that speaks here was never born but was present for the formation of this universe and all universes. You believe that something so limited as your religious persona could impress That Which Is without limit.

You are inviting That Which Is totally free to become totally dependent, as you are. You believe that That Which Is—and Which Is permanent and unchangeable—can be altered by your relative urgings. You are looking without for That Which can only be accessed from within. You want the re-purified consciousness that is aware of the non-dual Truth of the Eternal Self to recognize the dualistic fiction of “the way to your God”—a concept that was only invented a few thousand years ago. You would urge a mirage to find the way to another mirage.

You want to talk of relative, fictional “power” on a site where Realized Advaitins know that They Are the pure and real energy that is the Absolute. You want persons to join you as you continue to work at becoming something, but you offer your invitation on a site where becoming has no applicability because the re-purified consciousness knows that It Was, Is, and shall Forever Be. You can become nothing, but you can appear to become the religious/spiritual role that you are playing.

You want to invite That Which Is at perfect peace and Which Is completely free to follow your path to peace and freedom, yet your path has been shown, historically, to destroy the peace and to encourage dependence. Moreover, if you have truly found “the way,” what were you looking for when you found this site? More ways? More answers? More prospects? What?

Once more, the pointer is offered: the Advaita Teachings provide a method by which you can understand how you have been unconsciously driven by misinformation and by deceptions that were dreamed up thousands of years ago. It provides a means by which you can be awakened, by which you can be enlightened, and by which you can be freed from the effects of all things that currently influence you and that unconsciously drive you.

During the Vedic Period, there was a formalization of the Vedānta philosophy (see Uttara Mimamsa for more) that offered an invitation to engage in “the higher inquiry.” That investigation can also include an inquiry into the Original Understanding of advaita, of “not two.” You speak of separates, John. You speak of a “you” that is “here” and a “god” that is “there.” You talk of things that deal with only the third step of the seven steps to De-Programming, De-Personalization, Full Realization, Full Awakening, Total Actualization, Full Enlightenment. Consider the “higher inquiry” until Realization happens, until all inquiry ends, and until AS IF, natural living happens.

What might that “higher inquiry” reveal that is far beyond your current persona? If you seek truth and seek that which is real, then you most certainly must inquire beyond a false persona such as “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual Man.” The truth cannot be found via a lie, and all of the roles that you are playing are nothing more than lies…just false identities.

The factual pointer is this: if you do not free yourself from dogmatic beliefs and from every other concept and belief and idea and ego-state, then you will know no freedom and you never sustain any consistent sense of peace during the remainder of the manifestation. Your religion will continue to be available should you refuse to question what you have been told and should you be driven to continue to remain among the dependent and co-dependent persons who are not Realized.

Realization, however, is also available if you become willing to question and to follow directions from a Realized teacher. The indisputable effectiveness of the methods of conditioning used by religious persons, however, will likely drive you to remain attached to the ancient, pagan lies that you take to be your current religious truths. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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MISTAKING UNCONSCIOUS ACTION FOR CONSCIOUS CHOICE, Part Seven in This Series

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: The result of accepting ancient myths and superstitions as truth is that those legends and lies now control the thoughts and lives and words of people today, thousands of years after those fictional tales were dreamed up. Billions of persons have been programmed to believe lies. Then, they unconsciously allow those lies to determine what they do, what they say, how they feel, how they act, and how they react.

The result of that absence of truly being awake and aware of Who/What They Are is that persons are being driven by subconscious motives and unconscious influences without having the slight clue that such is the case. The result of that scenario is a planet populated with persons who behave as if they are destructive robots that (a) have been built with an ability to destroy things and people and places and relationships and that (b) have been programmed to do just that. John believes that he choose to write the e-mail above. In fact, he wrote from a state of unconsciousness and warped consciousness, driven by what he thinks are "his beliefs" but having no clue at all that he's merely repeating in his sleep some words he heard and that reinforce fictional tales that were dreamed up thousands of years ago.

It took Pavlov little time or effort to condition his dogs to behave unnaturally. People can be conditioned with as little time or effort as well. After attending only a few gatherings of religious groups or spiritual groups and hearing what persons there are saying and watching what persons there are doing, the newly-arrived are soon talking the same talk, soon praying the same prayers in unison, and soon repeating (as if an expert) the same phrases and expressions that they first heard only a few days before. Persons can be conditioned to behave in a zombie-like fashion and to unconsciously mimic other persons about them in very short order.

Some people talk in their sleep and don’t know what they’re saying; some people get drunk or high and say things they don’t even know they’re saying; others are functioning under the influence of their personality so that anything that they say is “personality-speak,” merely an ego-state talking away in an effort to support its false self. In all of those cases, the words and actions of persons are being controlled by factors that they are completely unaware of. And you, John—along with those who believe what you believe—are no different. As you pray “all day, every day,” you’re saying words and doing things that are rooted in myths and false beliefs that were, and are, pure fiction…dreamed up millennia ago and blindly repeated today.

Talk about not being present to the moment. Talk about being asleep but thinking you’re awake. Talk about believing myths and disseminating fabrications. Talk about spreading lies and hoodwinking the masses. Talk about believing that you’re making conscious choices when totally unconscious actions are really taking place. It’s one thing to take a drug and not know fifteen minutes later why you’re doing what you’re doing and why you’re saying what you’re saying. It’s something else entirely when you’re talking and behaving under the influence of something that is not fifteen minutes old but that is thousands of years old instead. GHB, Rohypnol and Ketamine are date-rape drugs; your ideas, concepts, and beliefs are brain-rape drugs.

So the considerations for today are: Are you beginning to see why you’re really saying what you’re saying? Are you beginning to see why you really believe what you believe? Are you beginning to see why you’re really doing what you’re doing? Do you not see that your entire life, “all day, every day” is based in heresay? If you think you have free will and are making choices but the fact is that you don’t even have a clue about why you’re believing what you believe and why you’re saying what you say and why you’re doing what you’re doing, how insane-like is that? Maharaj said:

"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."

How trapped are you in beliefs and ideas and concepts that are pure hearsay…pure nonsense…pure fiction? How out of touch with reality is that? Functioning from within a hypnotic state as a result of being programmed and conditioned, persons are totally asleep but are convinced that they are completely awake. While persons talk proudly about their lofty “minds” that “separate them from the animals,” they are actually living nothing more than a “monkey see—monkey do” existence. Living under the influence of ancient pagan beliefs and the additional concepts that modern cultures have added, the non-Realized have been intoxicated both emotionally and spiritually. They are high on an ancient drug that is a blend of unquestioning faith, superstitions, mythologies, legends, and an ego-based desire for power.

In CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS, seventeen factors that drive people unconsciously (and that end up destroying “relative-existence-relationships”) are catalogued and explained, including conditioning and programming; internalizing mates and/or parents; archetypes and genetics; the subconscious “mind”; ideas and concepts; reactions inspired by ego-state-generated emotions; beliefs; obsessions and compulsions; events from the past that impact the present; personality type; and all of the other factors listed and discussed in detail in the book.

Even as persons think they are making choices and decisions, they are really being driven blindly by factors that they are not even aware of, and many of those factors are rooted in ancient fictional tales that are now considered to be “holy teachings” that are considered “sacred” and thereby “beyond questioning.” How powerless is that? As with the Advaita Teachings, Casting Light not only identifies what drives persons blindly but also offers steps that can be used to be free of those subconscious motives and unconscious influences which control persons, factors which they are totally unaware of.

Until you identify what it is that is making you do what you do and think what you think, you will never stop behaving in an insane-like fashion and you will never be rid of the incessant chatter that is being generated by the fictional “mind” that resulted from the warping of the consciousness. Nor will you be able to live naturally; instead, you will be trapped in the effects of your programming and conditioning and will live in an unnatural, or supposedly supernatural, manner. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Five

The brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain and preserve” capacity) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction).

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: To review, the brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain and preserve” capacity) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction). The parts of the brain that store and retrieve memories are overshadowing and overpowering all of the rest of the brain in determining how persons emote and behave. Historically, humankind in general attempted to take all necessary action to survive. That has changed.

Today ...

To continue, here are a couple of current examples of the “mind” overruling the brain, and the subsequent consequences:

1. The brain ...

It should be seen that all conduct that is considered harmful or destructive in the relative existence is a result of programmed and conditioned “minds” overriding the natural aspects of persons' brains. Therefore, all harmful or destructive conduct (relatively speaking) is based in that which is supernatural or in that which is unnatural ...

The “mind,” intended by nature to function in coordination with the brain in order to inspire sane, constructive, and self-constructive behavior (relatively speaking) now short-circuits the natural process and ...

This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)

For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

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http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
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Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, visit: http://www.floydhenderson.com/