ADVAITA: A PHILOSOPHY THAT ANNIHILATES ALL, INCLUDING ITSELF? Part Two

F.: The determination of which pointers are offered or not offered to any particular seeker is governed by how far along the seven-step “path” the seeker has progressed. The Realized teacher can determine that “placement” in short order after the seeker shares a few views or asks a few questions. (For example, in an e-mail received this morning, only a few statements were required to reveal a fixation at “The Spiritual Giant” stage. The seeker has abandoned the “journey” at the third level, believing that he had arrived at some ultimate place on the “path” when, in fact, the halfway point has not even been reached. He is being influenced by a group that promotes "spirituality" as "the ultimate state" rather than recognizing it as one step on a longer "journey.")

For those who have taken only the initial steps, their pointers might include a suggestion that “the ego must be annihilated” or that “false identities must disappear.” If the “journey” is completed, though, it will be seen that "the ego" and “the philosopher” and the “user of philosophy” had no basis in fact at all.

Yesterday, one example was offered of the type of “seasonal distortion” that will soon be occurring again. Another example came during a session conducted last December with a group of men who were incarcerated. All were bemoaning the fact that they were being “prevented from spending the holidays with family.” After questioning each of the men for details, it was revealed that nearly 60% could not even recall specifically where they had been during the prior Christmas season.

Advaita invites seekers to see that there can be no accuracy at all to their “present understandings” because those “understandings” are based in “past” misunderstandings. Moreover, those “past” misunderstandings were based in misunderstandings that were formed even prior to those. The “human experience” is thus marked by (1) attachment to a series of misunderstandings, by (2) the notion that truth is anathema and by (3) exhibiting no real desire to be truly free and independent.

(If you want to challenge that assertion, review the historical evidence: the record shows that, not only do few seek truth but that [a] the masses hate those who have invited them to see that their beliefs are lies and that [b] the masses hate those who have invited them to seek the truth. As a few examples, consider the fates of Socrates, Christ, Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., et. al.)

Thus, everything which is now perceived by persons is, by default, completely erroneous, rooted in faulty memories from “the past”; furthermore, those current misperceptions will be the foundations that support “future” distortions.

Some Advaitins see that all of the “memories” that drive current misperceptions are nothing more than the residue of residue, just reflections of reflections, merely distortions of distortions, only the twistings of the twisted, mere deformities of that which has been previously-deformed, and nothing more than perversions of already-perverted perversions.

If the use of a philosophy of reason exposes a misperception as nothing more a mirage, then it will eventually make clear that the “user” of that philosophy is also a mirage…that even the seeker is not at all what it appears to be and not at all who it takes itself to be.

Thus, if the misconceptions of appearance and beingness and tale-telling are removed via use of a philosophy of reason and clarification, then the illusion of a “user” must eventually be removed as well. In that process, the philosophy provides a means by which reason-based understandings manifest in place of illogical beliefs and concepts; provides a means by which argument and reason can cleanse a speck of consciousness of its contaminants; offers a means by which the truth which cannot be stated can nevertheless be understood; and a means by which all that is involved with the functioning of the totality can be realized.

At that point when all belief in “The User” is cast aside, even philosophy is no longer of use. Since nothing has been killed off, because nothing thought to be actually existed as perceived, then what remains is the nothingness of no philosophy, no philosopher, no user of philosophy…nothing in fact except the original and eternal quantities of energy/matter that have not been added to nor subtracted from.

Only a few of the seekers who fear being “killed off” by the Advaita teachings will eventually stop the dualistic questioning of the rightness or the wrongness of the pointers offered and will start questioning the falsity of themselves. A few will understand that all the talk about THAT state is really talk about no state. A few will understand that thorns are used to remove thorns and that eventually, when all the thorns are removed, all of the thorns will be cast aside as well.

For a philosophy to direct seekers to Truth, it can proclaim neti-neti along the way, but in the end, it will claim no claim, including a claim that truth can be stated.

Therefore, “Advaita” is merely a label applied to a process whereby processes are processed for a time but whereby, eventually, processes are no longer processed because all of the illusory "processors"(which never really existed anyway) will no longer be thought to exist or thought to have ever existed.

If a philosophy really makes no claims, offers no truths that can be stated, exposes contradictions and dualities as lies, and offers no substitute concepts in the place of lies, then it can be seen as nothing more than a part of the play…one short song played during the purposeless and meaningless dance about nothing.

Then, freed of the mental and emotional bondage of body-mind-personality identification and freed of the ego's struggle to appear purposeful and meaningful, the dance can be enjoyed without attachment to perceived needs and distorted desires and without the misery that is generated by mental intoxication and emotional intoxication.

It will, if valid, allow seekers to be free of the bondage of the illusory anything and the illusory everything and to realize the freedom of the no-thingness. And that freedom extends to any need to keep using a philosophy…an impossibility since no user will exist.

So WHO is writing this posting? No one. Who is reading it? No one. The consciousness is at play, and if the consciousness has been re-purified, play time can be what some call “fun.” If the consciousness has not been re-purified, then play time will not manifest and what remains will appear to be quite burdensome.

Ultimately, though, Advaita annihilates nothing because all that persons take to be real is not the Real...and never has been. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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 PIECE” 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)

ADVAITA: A PHILOSOPHY THAT ANNIHILATES ALL, INCLUDING ITSELF? Part One

F.: One pointer in particular from the August 29, 2007 post has resulted in three e-mails asking for clarification, so clarification shall be offered to the following:

The consciousness which shares pointers from the Advaita philosophy via this site would actually bring to an end all philosophy and all study and all ideas and all concepts.

First, understand that the pointer describes a scenario that happens post-Realization. Until Realization happens, the philosophy can be used. After Realization, the Consciousness might speak or the Consciousness might become completely silent, but in either case, no "user" remains to use anything, including a philosophy.

One definition of “philosophy” is “the use of reason and argument in seeking truth, in seeking an understanding of reality, and in seeking to understand the principles that govern existence.”

Yet it is not only philosophy that has been brought to an end in many cases. Some might supposed that if there were a Concept-Killers' Court of the Universe, it would be easy enough to file charges against the Consciousness that speaks via this site and/or via satsangas. Some could charge that the “fingerprint” of Consciousness could be lifted from the various scenes where so many “selves” have been annihiliated and where (as one book reviewer wrote) "so many sacred cows have been slaughtered in the process" as well.

Actually, the seeker who has advanced far enough along the "path" can now understand that nothing has been annililiated and that nothing has been slaughtered. To point out that a mirage is a mirage does not “kill” the mirage. It merely allows the witnessing consciousness to perceive accurately. The same happens if persons see that their false personas (their false selves) are mirages, if they see those identities are illusions, or if they see that their sacred cows are illusions as well.

Advaita allows the use of reason and argument in seeking truth, in seeking an understanding of reality, and in seeking to understand the principles that govern existence. Once that use of reason allows delusions to be seen as delusions, belief in the delusions ends. Once the arguments used in the seeker-teacher exchanges expose false selves as being false selves, the belief in those selves can end.

Once the difference in false and Real is discerned, belief in the false disappears. Once the principles that govern existence (that is, once the functioning of the totality is comprehended) all other notions about “cause” and “effect” disappear. But nothing was destroyed. Unreasonable beliefs, based in misunderstandings and in lies, don’t really even "disappear." To enter a dark room and to flip a switch that turns on a light does not mean that darkness literally disappeared. The darkness had not appeared to begin with. It is more accurately stated that enlightenment happened.

The case is simply that all which was always present but that had not been seen can suddenly be seen, and what the unaware observer thought he was seeing is realized to have never been that at all. Must a guide explain what lies beyond surface appearances? Usually. To use an electron microscope to view the supposed "steel beam" that seems to be supporting the ceiling of a room would reveal that it is not a steel beam at all but is a swirling mass of energy.

Note, too, that many Advaitins will not tell you that “the beam” is "not real." (Want to get really argumentative and philosophical about that point? Then lower your head and run full speed into a stationary steel beam; later, we can discuss the accuracy of the pointer after you regain consciousness.) Many Advaitins instead will settle for your understanding that (a) what the non-Realized think a steel beam is, is not what the beam is at all; that (b) what the non-Realized think is real is not real; and that (c) the way that anything appears to the non-Realized is not what it really IS at all.

So in fact, nothing has ever been destroyed by use of the Advaita philosophy because nothing thought to have been destroyed ever really existed. A mirage cannot be destroyed, but the fact that it appears to be something that it is not can be explained and understood. Remember: there is matter and there is energy, and neither has ever been created and never can ever be destroyed. What is actually happening is merely (1) a series of cyclings happening spontaneously and (2) a matter of the bastardized consciousness misperceiving what is actually cycling.

Thus, "pointers of caution" are offered occasionally in regards to the “mental impressions” that can generate so much misery. Last December, a man came to visit. He was near suicidal because his wife had filed for divorce and he was facing their “first Christmas apart.” (Such has become a regular occurrence during that “season” as ego-states think they are dying so they may as well hasten the process.)

A few probing questions reveal that the marriage had been in shambles for years and that the Christmas before—which he thought he was longing to experience again—had been marred by irritability and an exhausting pace and multiple arguments. In fact, all that he was really longing for was the continuation of a false identity and the continuation of an arrangement that was based in lies and misperceptions and denial and distortions.

As so often happens when current perceptions are based in past misperceptions, misery follows those distorted views as persons cling to their “memories” of "their past" even though the truth about past happenings was never even close to their impression of what those "past" events were really like. Can you relate to that…to having a belief that you were certain was accurate or to holding onto an idea that was you thought was fact-based or to clinging to a sacredly-held concept that You later realized was pure bunk...just total nonsense? Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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 ADVANCED UNDERSTANDINGS?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

and

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

PEACE EVERY DAY…OR NOT, Part Two

From a site visitor: “…Just been introduced to the ideas of Vedanta:How does one overcome day to day frustrations and feelings of anger etc that may arise during a normal working day? While alone, reading, or with friends (bascially pleasant situations) i find it obviously easier to be in a peaceful state, but when i am at work the general frustration and complaining that is part of my job takes over and everything i may read or meditate on just goes out of the window. I guess im saying, how does one start to make spritiual practice and the journey of Self-realization a part of ones working day? I simply find my feelings of frustation in a chaotic workplace overwhelming! Thanks for your time, Jaime

F.: Ultimately, true peace can only happen when all wanting goes; when all desire to gain goes; when the effects of programming and conditioning and enculturation go; and when even the “you” that sent the inquiry goes. For now, that will sound a bit “far out,” so another consideration will be offered:

Is it possible that nothing in that chaotic workplace is overwhelming “jaime” or making “jaime” frustrated and angry? Is it possible that a “chaotic workplace” is not the source of what jaime is feeling but that happenings in the workplace are merely triggering old wounds or old beliefs or old frustrations which are already present and “lying in wait” just below the surface?

Is it possible that those inner factors are leaving you co-dependent, empowering other people and places and things to control you and how you feel? Is it possible that some assumed roles with hidden agendas and desires and fears are feeling threatened or are thinking that they are being interfered with, or are feeling hurt?

A call yesterday that adumbrated the content of jaime’s e-mail provides evidence of the validity of those considerations offered above: a man was “frustrated,” then “angry,” then “livid” with his employer and a co-worker (and he told them so). They had overruled one of his decisions, first “minimizing his arguments” and then “discounting him” and ultimately “rejecting him completely.” Of course he called the wrong telephone number if he was expecting confirmation that his feelings were a result of two externals…the boss and a peer.

Because he had shared openly some facts about his childhood during satsanga, it was already known that as a child he had been adopted because the woman, supposedly, could not have children. Subsequently, she became pregnant twice and the status of the adopted son would soon be likened to that of “a male Cinderella.” Not long after having their "own" children, the parents’ began to give all of their attention and affection to their "real children." The adopted son would be ignored, his accomplishments minimized. He felt discounted throughout the remaining years in that home. He felt rejected and less than and not enough and not good enough.

Is it now clear why, thirty-five years later, he became frustrated and angry and livid yesterday when the painful scenario that had played out in his childhood was repeated in the workplace? After a short talk, he realized that his fear was that his job could be in jeopardy. He desires a bigger role in the operation in order to attain the raise he wants and the job security he desires. He wants respect. He wants to be noticed. Fears, wants, and desires. All prerequisites for misery.

He saw that “nothing in that chaotic workplace frustrated him or made him angry” but that when two people spoke to him as if they were "The Parent" and as if he were "The Child," then decades-old "memories" surfaced immediately. Their rejection yesterday triggered “old wounds and old frustrations which were already present and ‘lying in wait’ just below the surface.” The boss and the peer did not make him angry. Their words merely triggered a mental-emotional process that allowed already-present anger to surface.

His “inner factors" have left him "co-dependent, empowering other people and places and things to control him and how he feels." His "assumed role" of “The Director,” with its “hidden agendas and desires and fears, felt threatened and interfered with and hurt.” Are you seeing how, to emphasis a pointer from yesterday, one can be "taken hostage by personality, by externals, and by relative existence influences?"

Persons are made miserable when ego combines with co-dependency in a sort of “mental marriage”—a condition that is experienced by billions of persons every day. Co-dependency can even manifest with total strangers whom persons empower to determine how they feel and what they do, as often happens in traffic, for example:

“Who does that person think he/she is, to drag butt in the fast lane and slow me down?! What I need to do next is being interfered with by this numbskull! Damn, people are so inconsiderate and crazy that they drive me crazy!”

In such instances, people you don’t even know will be allowed to control how you feel and how you react, just as people at work are "empowered" in the same fashion as well.

And the fact is that the enculturation process has programmed people to also judge and blame and criticize themselves for the way that they think and feel and behave, ignoring the fact that programming, conditioning and enculturation remove all ability to "choose." Yet the fact is, jaime, that you might well be farther along the path to being restored to peace and sane living than the masses who are in denial around their misery and who are normalizing their fluctuations between dualistic periods of contentment and periods of anger and frustration.

You can either try to rearrange the workplace or rearrange (more accurately “un-do”) the “mind” which becomes the great liability of all persons. The “mind” is an illusion, the product of all of the lies and ideas and concepts with which you have been programmed; however, an illusion can be significant, relatively speaking. If a driver on a road that is hugging the side of a mountain swerves to avoid a mirage in the road and plunges into the valley 1000 feet below, the mirage was certainly an illusion, but its effects are obvious when a person acts as if the false is real.

So happenings in the workplace are not the cause of your anger and frustration. There are some ideas you have about the way jaime’s life should be unfolding (but isn't); some beliefs about what jaime deserves (but isn't getting); some perceptions about the way that things should be happening in “the world” (though they're certainly not happening that way); and some concepts about the “right way” that things in the workplace should be happening (but are not...and likely never will).

It is a combination of those ideas and beliefs and concepts and expectations and old wounds that are driving your emotional reactions and causing you to experience emotional intoxication at times. You are invited to begin to seek, fearlessly and honestly, the real sources that are actually at the core of the fluctuations that you want to be free of. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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

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)

SAMSKARAS, ARCHETYPES, AND THE BIRTH OF DUALITY

F.: Samskaras, involving memories and mental impressions, are by definition “of or pertaining to the mind,” and “the mind” over the ages has devolved into nothing more than a repository of lies and concepts that are to be transitioned if Realization is to happen. (NOTE: Such "impressions" are quite different from one property of the manifested consciousness, namely that which allows for “non-personal communication” as consciousness speaks to consciousness without bounds. An example of that was offered earlier when a woman named Elaine in Louisiana awakened abruptly at 4:30 A.M. CST and became aware of the fact that her daughter LeeAnn, in California at 2:30 A.M. PST, had been involved in an accident.)

Over the last several million years as the brain evolved from an organ the size of 400 mls to one that is over 1400 mls, two "new" sections developed that made possible the storage and retrieval of "memories" and the sensing of "impressions." The intent was for those sections of the brain to facilitate the survival of the species. Thus, if one man saw another walk off the edge of a cliff and shatter on the rocks below, the brain of the witness would record the incident in memory. Later, if that witness happened upon the edge of a cliff, his brain would retrieve the earlier memory from a section of the brain and make the man aware of a threat. Soon, the threat would be given a connotation and a sense of “not good” would be felt every time a similar happening occurred.

On different occasions, after returning home from extended hunting trips that had ended in success, the same man might approach his mate. Each time he did so, he would raise their next meal into the air for her viewing. They both would develop from those instances a sense of “good,” and that would be associated with such tangible concepts as "having a mate" and "sharing a meal" as well as with intangible concepts such as “homecomings” and "cohabitating" and "caring for" and "being cared for." Human would soon begin to form thousands of images with connotations of either “good” or “not good,” all associated with an ever-increasing number of human experiences.

Over millions of years, those images and connotations would be stored in the brain’s “newer” section for storage, would be retrieved repeatedly by triggering mechanisms, would be discussed and reinforced once languages developed, and would eventually be passed on as part of the genetic coding. And all of that was based in what would develop into a series of images in "the mind" that classify everything as “good” or “bad.” Those images, and that duality, gave rise to what would be called "archetypes."

The terms "good" and "bad" would eventually be used by humans to appraise and evaluate and classify and divide and separate all happenings and persons and things and places.

The concept of duality was born.

After that, the sense of “separate from” would eventually become what seemed “natural.” From that point to this, not only would the Original Understanding of non-duality be lost (along with the innate and natural awareness of the unicity) but also the Teachings of non-duality would be taken by most to be the “unnatural” perspective because it became the least common.

The evolution of the brain that generated samskaras and archetypal images (both of which help perpetuate a belief in duality) also laid the roots from which duality would grow. From the belief that duality is the real, all conceptualized illusions of “separate” and “different from” and “better than” would grow. Ultimately, it would be from the conceptualized illusions of “separate” and “different from” and “better than” that all ego would grow, and from ego has come all relative existence arrogance. And from ego and arrogance and a sense of separation have come the desires and fears that generate the perceived need for power; the desire to control; the assumed right to judge and moralize and be “the one who is right”; the assumption of the right to dictate and punish or reward; the need to argue, fight, separate, and engage in wars; and the willingness (and often, indeed, the propensity) to destroy on personal, state, national and international levels. The trillions, and the trillions of trillions, of persons who have died on this planet from anything other than a "natural cause" were actually sacrifices made on the altar of ego.

The roots of the widespread, insane-like behavior among persons, all embroiled in the relative existence and driven by their concepts, can be traced back to evolutionary events that set the stage for the widespread belief in duality. It can be seen, therefore, that to be free of the effects of all of that programming, conditioning, genetic influence, and enculturation is an awesome and challenging undertaking. Understanding the scope of those obstacles explains why so few will ever Realize, yet for the dedicated seeker who finds a capable and willing teacher, it can happen. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Six

The relative problems of the planet and the problem of being out of touch with reality have nothing to do with either the brain or with the pure consciousness. The problems have everything to do with the false, fictitious “mind.”

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.: Thus, memories form the “mind” as they are stored in the file inside the brain. The memories / “mind” generate body identification, “mind” identification, and personality identification, all of which are illusions but which nevertheless generate catastrophic results (relatively speaking). The memories / “mind” have become the source of “the problem” because the “mind” interrupts the ability of the brain and the pure consciousness to function naturally; furthermore, that “mind,” and its belief in illusions and lies, blocks awareness of that which is true and real (the Absolute) and which is prior to body, “mind” and memory.

It should be seen, therefore, that neither “the relative problems of the planet” nor “the problem of being out of touch with reality” has anything to do with either the brain or with the pure consciousness. The problems have everything to do with ...

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/

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

here

“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/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)

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

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Three

[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.

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.: It is emphasized again that (1) it’s all energy at the core, that (2) nowadays natural living can only happen under the auspices of the brain and never while under the influence of the corrupted "mind," and that (3) all learned ignorance—stored as a “mind”—must be tossed if peace is to happen. Note how each step in the following analysis moves from something wrongly-perceived (such as "a human body") down to the most basic “ingredient” of the universe that is common to all in the universe. (Call it "strings," call it "that," call it "sparticles," or point toward it with any term you choose, but there is that single, most basic "whatever" that all is. Differences in appearance are caused by nothing more than a variance of the vibrational rate at which "that" moves when manifested.) Here’s how it works, as explained in earlier postings:

1. A human’s body mass is mostly water. Carbon, the basic unit of organic molecules, is the second most common element.

2. A “molecule” is a group of atoms in a definite arrangement held together by chemical bonds.

3. In August of 2005, this pointer was offered:

At the core of the sun, four hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form one helium nucleus, and that happens over and over. The part of the energy that process releases as light travels in particle and wave form. Plant photosynthesis sets the stage for another cycling of manifested energy-consciousness.

4. Likewise, the energy drawn into a cycle from the Absolute pool manifests in plants after it “travels” in a particle or wave form; humans consume the plants (or the animals that ate the plants), triggering a “transfer” of energy; multi-part atoms of energy are at the core of organic molecules, and organic molecules are at the core of the human body. Everything that is considered “body” can be traced back to its most basic ingredient and that ingredient can be seen to be a temporary manifestation of energy from that field of energy called the Absolute.

What does that have to do with clarifying for students the role of the brain, the “mind,” and the consciousness in the Teachings? Recall the earlier pointer: “Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.”

THE CONSCIOUSNESS: The conscious-energy, temporarily manifested, is “real” to the degree that it is a form of energy with specific levels of functioning that can be measured. (Why “real” in quotes? Because even this manifested consciousness is time-bound, a temporary expression of that which is truly and eternally real.) Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,” the manifest consciousness is required. The energy cannot be destroyed. It is and will be.

THE BRAIN: The science above shows that the brain, at its most basic level, is elemental and that conscious-energy is temporarily manifested via those elements; therefore, it is “real” to the degree that all is energy. (This differs not at all from what is revealed about a steel beam if it is studied under an electron microscope: what is not real is the beam as it appears; what is real is that swirling mass of energy that is not visible to the naked eye. Such is the case with the body and with parts such as the brain.) Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,” the elemental brain is required, the modern use of resuscitating equipment to sustain a body notwithstanding. The elements cannot be destroyed. They will be.

THE “MIND”: The “mind” is neither elemental nor energy, so it is not ...

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/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)

Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Two

[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.

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.: So, it can be seen that the term “the mind” is just a name given to a set of files. Originally those files were stored in the brain (as what would come to be called “memories”) so that the file information could be retrieved if needed in order to help humans survive dangerous situations (i.e., “Remember when the fellow in the next cave thought he was picking up a stick and it was a snake. Check more carefully.”) It can be seen that now the “mind” has been so distorted that the persons of the planet believe that a rope is a snake.

Those files/memories are so contaminated with distortions, misperceptions, dogma and all other kinds of lies that the “mind” can no longer serve its original purpose. Where it was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to avoid destruction, in its present condition, the typical “mind” is generating more destruction and chaos than survival and peace. It is one thing to remember that a snake which looks like a stick can kill you; it is something else to remember dualistic messages that include: “We’re better than all others on the planet because we live in the greatest country on earth,” or “It’s OK to attack or kill those who have been taught the tenets of a religion that is different from your religion,” or “People with that skin color are all ignorant and criminal.”

It can be seen, therefore, that the current, distorted state of the modern “mind” came about after languages and personal agendas developed which enabled persons to begin teaching dualistic concepts. After that occurred, persons used languages to pass on as fact an entire body of lies, lies that were not based in actual happenings or fact at all (things such as beliefs, ideas, myths, superstitions, dogma, theories, attitudes, “spiritual knowledge,” religious “knowledge,” concepts, false identities, etc.) It can be seen that the distortions being stored nowadays as remembered lessons/memories are not memories that can be used for survival but are corruptions that are driving conduct that is destructive, self-destructive, and detrimental to both peace and survival.

As a result of the distorted concepts and beliefs that are currently being stored in what is called the “mind,” nature’s intent has been invalidated. That original storehouse of files in the brain which was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to guide the body to behave in a natural fashion, is now resulting in the body being guided by a warped “mind” that generates unnatural "thinking" and conduct and supernatural “thinking” and conduct.

Nowadays, memories are not being retrieved from the mind to avoid dangerous animals or the precarious edges of cliffs but are generating dualistic “thoughts” such as, “They are ignorant…we are smart”; “I am good, but they are bad”; “I deserve reward but they deserve punishment”; “I heard a God in another world tell me to drop bombs on people in this world”; “I am going to destroy you (or "reject you" or "leave you" or "punish you") because you have said things and done things that are different from what I wanted you to say and do”; or, "You can't be good...you're different from me."

Now, a natural mind no longer works with a natural brain to generate natural living. Instead, the content of the typical “mind” today generates a style of living that is ...

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/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)

Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]