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]
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THE DIRECT (SEVEN-STEP) PATH TO REALIZATION, Part Three—The Conclusion

Unnatural living and supernatural living are both tiresome and exhausting, but natural living is easy.

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.: Now, if you review yesterday’s example, you should find that the order in which the water was contaminated parallels the manner in which the consciousness is contaminated: one person uses the element of dirt to contaminate the water—just as parents program the manifested consciousness to believe that it is the dirt (i.e., the elements, the body) with such comments as “You are a boy” or “You are a girl” or “You are a human” or “You are a person.” Then the level of corruption increases as the body illusion is ungraded: "You are a special person," "You are a gift from God," or “Your body will last forever so it cannot be cremated—it must be saved and buried.” Then, as with the water, the next person adds a coloring element to make it look pretty…to upgrade the illusion: “You have a beautiful body,” “You are so lovely,” “You are good boy,” or “You are a good girl.” The illusion of arrogance develops and, as with the contaminated water, a noxious element is added.

In the world of duality, however, any upgrading of an illusion sets the stage for a downgrading of the illusion on other occasions: “You are a bad boy” or "You are a bad girl” or “You’re so ugly that no one will ever want you” or "As your spiritual guide, I must tell you that such conduct will cause you to be cast into hell forever" or "You're living in the greatest country on earth," or "They are all out to get us." The consciousness becomes more and more corrupted as a fictitious “mind” is formed during childhood and stores away all of the nonsense of separation and all of the lies of differentiation which become “beliefs and values that are worth fighting for…or even dying for” during adult years.

As the corruption of the consciousness continues, dualistic beliefs convince some that they are "clean" while they consider others to be "dirty"; then, a “holy” person might be sought out to add “detergent” as in the earlier example with the water. Some religious dogma or some spiritual exercises will be added with instructions to "adhere to the dogma" or to "continue the spiritual exercises for life" in order to purify the person who is being "bad," to make the person "good," and then to provide the cleansing and re-cleansing efforts that "they" claim will be needed for as long as a person lives.

But the cleansing effects can never keep pace because more and more contaminants are added as the earlier contaminants are held in esteem as "my" beliefs. In their efforts to upgrade the illusion of self, persons start adding more contaminants (new ideas, new beliefs, new information, new knowledge, new dogma, new exercises, and new concepts) to "find the answer" or “to be a better person” or "to be at peace." All of those "self-improvement" efforts are nothing more than a source of further contamination because they deal with (1) trying to make an illusion "better" and because (2) anything in a world of duality that can “help” can also “hurt.” The understanding of the homogeny seldom comes as belief in the multiplicity becomes fixed in a fictional “mind.”

How (after so many years of programming, conditioning, contaminating, and enculturating) can persons ever be rid of the tens of thousands of contaminants that make up a "mind"? With the glass of water, see that the step that removes shards of glass will not remove the poison, and see that the step that removes the salt will not remove the coloring. In like fashion, a variety of steps must be taken and transitioned, in a specific order, for the re-purification of the consciousness to happen. Those steps form a "path."

The "journey" is simply the movement from the contaminated state of consciousness to the re-purified state of consciousness, but none of the steps on the "path" can be skipped. (For example, the steps that eliminate that adoption or assumption of religious or spiritual personas, cannot be taken prior to the steps that remove body and mind identification. Similarly, Maharaj noted accurately that “there are two witnessing stages,” and the second cannot be entered until the first is entered and surpassed. Each “stage,” to use Maharaj’s word, must be entered into and then transitioned in a specific order for Full Realization to happen).

Two seekers wrote recently, a male who has read the words of his guru for five years and a woman who read the same swami's words for seven years, and the content of the e-mails from both seekers revealed that they are almost as far from Full Realization as when they began the search. Seekers are often advised to "be patient." In fact, some seekers become too patient, dedicating five years or seven years to doing the same thing over and over and expecting some different result (even though what they have been doing is not producing the results they are seeking at all). What these two require is what most seekers require: they simply need a clear-cut set of directions that map the way to move along the "path" (often combined with some one-on-one clarification with a "teacher") and then they can end once and for all the ineffective toil and strife and effort and work. This should not be an arduous task. Come to the Understanding and then relax and enjoy the AS IF living that follows. Work is work, but "life" should not be work. In fact, unnatural living and supernatural living are both tiresome and exhausting, but natural living is easy.

The “Spiritual Masters” all addressed the various stages that must be transitioned in order to alleviate the illusions that result in the seven degrees of separation from Reality and then to transition all seven in order to Realize fully. The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE does not offer “new Teachings.” It merely provides the Teachings in the exact order in which the steps must be taken, along with detailed explications that guide the seeker through each step. Remember, Maharaj said, “Follow the same path by which you came” and “…You should go back, reverse, to the source.” To go back to the source, to Realize the Absolute, and to abide as the Absolute, the exact reverse order must be followed that led from the Absolute to the delusion of the “I.” Best regards as you continue your “journey” via the Teachings of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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PHYSICIANS DO NOT TREAT ILLNESSES BY SAYING, "WELL, JUST STOP BEING SICK"

From a site visitor: in that recent disucssion on transcendence, you spoke of allowing the ego to “die” and qualified the use of die to mean let the ego cease or disappear. Better than nothing, But why suggest that something as false as the ego can either appear or disappear? Why give credibility to something that is just a concept and talk about it didappearing when it has never appeared. It’s like “the bondage of ego.” How can one be bound by that which does not exist? Sounds pretty neo to me. I think you blew it on this one. Yes or no?

F.: First, nothing dealing with anything relative is real, including the “death” of ego, the disappearance of ego, as well as the perceived “bondage” by ego. However, each seeker’s query is addressed at the level where the seeker’s words reveal that seeker to be. Even as that approach is taken, the ultimate intent and consistent focus of these talks and writings is always for the non-dual, no-concept nature of Reality to be revealed to all seekers. In order for that truth to be seen, all lies must be seen first. For details, see www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/relevance_henderson.htm

The Teachings, therefore, must always begin with a discussion of illusion, never with a discussion of Reality. For example, in the recent series on “Transcendence” that you reference, the illusion of “Husband” was discussed. How could a discussion of the fact that “Husband” is illusory be construed as giving “credibility” to the illusion? You might ask, “Can the ‘Real You’ be bound by ego or anything else?” Of course not, but millions of persons each day, bound as they are by belief in illusions, suffer nevertheless from phobias that have no basis in reality. Yet the suffering certainly seems very real to them.

Take, for example “nephophobia,” a fear of clouds. You probably know that clouds are not even clouds. You might know that what is called “a cloud” is just a conglomeration of very fine water droplets or ice particles suspended in the atmosphere at high altitudes. You can offer that scientific truth to one suffering from nephophobia, but that alone is not likely to alleviate the misery of his/her relative existence. Until treated and released from the bondage of their illusion-based fear of “clouds,” the sufferers of nephophobia will still look at a cloud and become breathless, will sweat profusely, and will experience nausea and a dry mouth; will feel sick and will shake; will suffer from heart palpitations; will suffer an inability to speak or think clearly; will sense a fear of dying; and will develop a sensation of detachment from reality or a full blown anxiety attack. Their phobia significantly impacts the quality of their lives (all this relatively speaking) and often keeps sufferers apart from loved ones and business associates, causes loss of employment, and robs them of the ability to complete even the most basic tasks necessary for survival.

To say that such persons cannot possibly suffer from the “bondage of clouds” is to ignore the enormous effect that belief in an illusion has on those persons during their relative existence. If semantics is the issue, then it might be said more accurately that “nephophobiacs are suffering from a delusional belief in clouds, which are nothing more than an illusion which results from faulty perception and which generate fears with no basis.” Fine. The same can be said of every type of suffering that persons experience. That statement paraphrases perfectly one of the most basic of the Advaita Teachings.

Post-manifestation, there is no awareness and there is no “life” or “living.” These Teachings can have no effect other than in the relative existence. So if the Teachings do not free persons of the most palpable effects that illusions have on the relative existence of persons, then why offer the Teachings at all?

All writings here, and all talks during satsangas, focus on guiding seekers to the understanding of their true nature in order for natural “living” to happen for as long as the consciousness is manifested. That does, however, allow for a secondary consequence: namely, that Advaita’s noumenal teachings, if understood, will eliminate “personal,” phenomenal suffering during the manifestation. The “path” on the “journey” through which protégés are guided is direct, containing only seven steps that are required for the re-purification of the consciousness, allowing persons to see that they are not who they take themselves to be, inviting them to set aside body-mind-personality, and allowing abidance as the Absolute. It is all about forfeiting belief in illusions in order to be in touch with reality.

Finally, for clarification, it should be pointed out as well that no “neo-Advaita” approach is used here. How could that which guides seekers to the Original Understanding—an understanding that preceded not only certain respected “holy” writings or “special” writings or “inspired” writings but in fact preceded writing itself—be considered “neo”? If one wants to tell others what someone else said or what someone else wrote, so be it. No effort will come forth from here to dissuade their practice.

On this site, however, the invitation is never to share what someone else said, what someone else wrote, or what someone else knew. The invitation is to find that which You know. What is it that You have always known but have forgotten? No one will ever be invited to become a "devotée" or to consider “floyd” as his/her eternal guru. The invitation here is know that there is no “floyd” and that there is no “devotée.” The invitation here is to tap into that inner guru (that inner resource, that vestige of pure consciousness that has been buried via years of programming and conditioning and enculturation) and to thereby forfeit belief in all lies in order to find the truth that cannot be stated. Please enter the silence of contemplation.