YOUR EARLIEST DUALITIES: “Good-Bad,” “Best-Worst,” “Punishment-Reward,” and “Heaven-Hell,” Part Three

The site visitor wrote: "I live my life with my head in the clouds but with my feet planted firmly on the ground, so there is no magical thinking or fantasy involved with my spiritual way of living. (I also find you to be very rude).” To continue:

F.: The author you’re quoting, Bill W., realized that many attracted to his first book and to the program he co-founded were becoming physically sober but at the expense of becoming spiritually intoxicated. They believed his notion that one can live in the dualistic fashion of having one’s head in the clouds while having one’s feet planted firmly on the ground. Yet he saw so much spiritual intoxication resulting from his words that he would later warn that spiritual sobriety was to be sought as earnestly as physical sobriety.

Religious and/or spiritual roles are still roles, and no roles can define Who You Truly Are. Bill W. agreed with Shakespeare’s advice: “To thine own self be true.” Who is that Self, that True Self? It certainly is not any role that can be played, including religious roles and spiritual roles. They are phases to be transcended on the path to finding the Great Reality he spoke of. Further, compartmentalization cannot occur. One cannot have his head in the clouds but have his feet planted firmly (that is, fixed in reality). Dual-minded people are unstable in all ways, it was said.

Yet Bill W. did offer at a core level an Advaita message by writing...
1. that The Great Reality can only be found within
2. that most of the founders came to realize that the "higher power" is an inner resource, not an outer resource of male gender
3. that what is to be sought ultimately is a reconnection with the intuitive sixth sense
4. along with residing in the fourth dimension (which is merely in the pure consciousness that is beyond three-dimensional body identification, limited to the three dimensions of height, width, and depth).

Activating the sixth sense results in natural living. Deactivating the thinking mind frees persons of the illusions of magical thinking that is the basis of spiritual intoxication and supernatural living. Freedom from assuming false identities leads to freedom from unnatural living. Seven steps are required on the journey from (a) believing that the body and the false mental selves define who you are to (b) realizing Who/What You Truly Are. The religious and/or spiritual roles are a step, yes, but they are only the third step. Those who do not transcend those roles will never be fully Realized…will never be fully in touch with Reality. Finally, being in touch with reality leaves one out of touch with the false identities/ego-states. Out of touch with ego, no persona will exist that can take offense at perceived "rudeness." Until the final ego-state is abandoned, no peace can exist since ego fights for its existence, fights for the respect it thinks it is due, and fights for its (artificial, imagined) existence. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

TOMORROW: Spontaneous Living

YOUR EARLIEST DUALITIES: “Good-Bad,” “Best-Worst,” “Punishment-Reward,” and “Heaven-Hell," Part Two

F.: Yesterday’s post generated considerable reaction:

1. “Why would you call natural living spontaneous? Please elaborate.”

2. “Spiritual living eliminates ego…it is not one of its ‘roots’.”

3. “Your visitor is correct. What you call supernatural living, which I call religious living—is best. You would do well to know that everything is God’s will.”

4. The original site visitor also reacted: “Actually, you got me all wrong. I live my life with my head in the clouds but with my feet planted firmly on the ground, so there is no magical thinking or fantasy involved with my spiritual way of living. (I also find you to be very rude).”

5. “You are very patient, constantly repeating the same lessons that constantly fall on deaf ears. It’s why I quit teaching first grade. Thanks for your posts.”

F.: Regarding #1: I’ll treat your question about living spontaneously in a separate post.

Regarding #2: What persons do speaks louder than what they say. When religious or spiritual persons separate, ego is at work. When religious or spiritual persons label, ego is at work. When religious or spiritual persons judge and divide, believing that those they accept as “good” go to a “good” geographical locale after “death” while those they deem “bad” go to a “bad” locale, ego is at work. When religious or spiritual persons speak of their dualities of “better” and “best,” ego is at work. And when religious or spiritual persons believe that everything that happens in their lives is being micro-managed by a god that is paying colossal and unlimited attention to them and the petty events in their relative existence—arranging encounters that allow persons to meet “the love of their life” or arranging accidents that kill five-year olds because “god needed another little angel”—then massive ego is at work.

Regarding #5: After offering the teaching for a couple of decades, my teacher estimated that one in a million will read or hear the Advaita message, understand it, and Realize fully. So it is.

Regarding #4: I, too, am familiar with the author you quote. He wrote of many dualities, the idea of living with a head in the clouds and feet on the ground being only one. He later saw the harm being done by much of his early writings, so he amended some of his concepts when he saw that many who were taking his earlier perceptions to heart were becoming spiritually intoxicated. He therefore recommended that, after gaining physical and mental sobriety, people attain spiritual sobriety so that they might eventually attain the highest level of sobriety he discussed: emotional sobriety. More importantly, I suggest to you as I suggest to all: ignore what all persons say if they want you to adopt their beliefs and their ideas. You know who they are, but Who Are You? Ignore what they claim to know and find what You already know—within—but have forgotten. Since the Advaita teachings offer a similar invitation to that author’s suggestion that you awaken and get free of living in a state of mental, emotional and spiritual intoxication—more on that topic will be offered in tomorrow’s post. Now, to #3.

Regarding #3: If "everything is god’s will," then the words posted on this site yesterday are god’s will. Why are you challenging them? Ha. If everything is God’s will, I suggest you watch one newscast tonight and then tell me you’re impressed by the way the god of your conception is managing this realm. I take it that you believe in a “Divine Plan.” If “divine” means “lovely” and “blissful,” do you really believe that everything that is happening is lovely and blissful and according to plan in this relative existence?

Next, if everything is God’s will, then there is no self-will? Evidence of the will of false selves abounds as persons act out in ways that result in the boundless misery that persons experience in their relative existence. But more to the point, most who use such magical thinking do receive a reward in the relative existence (so they will continue such thinking). If “everything is God’s will,” then you and all persons who believe the same are freed from any responsibility for the (relative) harm you generate via your (false) self will. You have nothing to learn for you’ve never made any mistakes…all that happens having been the fault (or part of the plan) of your god. You are free to disavow any failures in this relative existence and can spin everything as a "success" since you had nothing to do with the events and they are all god-approved, right? The perceived freedom (in the relative existence) from liability, guilt, and responsibility is a great selling tool for those who set forth that magical belief.

Finally, sharing that belief allows you to display to all what a spiritual being you are, does it not? It allows you to show how every trivial act in your relative existence is made important by pointing out that a divine power is involved in the micro-management of every detail of your existence. Believing that everything is god's will, you can join those who do not have to learn basic science principles but can blame recent hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes on a god that is sending some very harsh messages to the people of the world. Actually, that belief fixates you at the third level of a seven-step journey to reality. Fixated at that stage, you will remain out of touch with reality. Yet all those pointers deal only with the nonsense of the relative existence. Where is the Advaita lesson?

The Advaita lesson is that everything is…consciousness. Manifested, that consciousness is pure. Soon, as a result of faulty programming and warped conditioning and the teaching of untrue concepts, the consciousness is bastardized and rendered impure. And it is the impure consciousness, steeped in its learned, magical thinking, that enables persons to come up with such a fanciful concept. Find out what "Everything really Is" and you'll be free of the false concepts and thereby truly free. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: More on the "heads in the clouds/feet on the ground" duality.

YOUR EARLIEST DUALITIES: “Good-Bad,” “Best-Worst,” “Punishment-Reward,” and “Heaven-Hell”

Received from a site visitor: “I just found your site recently and have been reading some of the earlier writings. You talked of three ‘modes’ of living: naturally, supernaturally, and unnaturally. I lived unnaturally for years, but now I live supernaturally/spiritually. Contrary to some things you’ve suggested in your writings, it has made me a much better person. Why would that not be the best course for everyone to follow?”

F.: Thank you for writing. The fact that you label yourself “better” and a “person” and refer to a “best course” and imply that "everyone" should "follow" your course reveal that whatever you’ve read on the site hasn’t provided the clarity required to be free of the “better-worst” duality; nothing had shown that being a “person” is the source of misery; nothing has freed you of the egotism that inspires you to suggest that others should adopt a spiritual ego-state as an identity the way that you have; and nothing has provided the clarity required to free you of the “best-worst” duality. Such is the case with all persons who assume spiritual or religious roles and fixate at the third of seven steps to Realization. You’re welcome to go back to the first entry on the site and read from there to the most recent entry and find why natural and spontaneous living is sane living, why unnatural living is insane, and why supernatural living is rooted in nothing more than magical, wishful thinking; fantasy; ego; fear; role assumption; programming and conditioning; a desire to control; and a desire to have the power that persons believe can provide the ability to control things and affect outcomes. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

“TRUE LOVE” (Part Five: Are You Certain That’s Really ‘Love’?)

F.: The True Self is that manifestation of What I Am, now freed (via Realization) of all ego, all ego-states, and all personas. It is three levels beyond the third-stage religious and/or spiritual ego states, two personas that do a great deal of talking about love even as persons at large also think they know what love is. In fact, no person involved in any ego-state can have any knowledge about "True Love." Little disturbs ego-states and personas more than comments that challenge the delusions that are the very basis of their perceived “existence,” and few topics attract more disparity and delusions than that of “Love.” For persons/personas, love is about body desires and perceived needs stored in the “mind” after cultural programming and conditioning. Thus, because "the mind" is conditioned, love in the relative is always conditional, always self-seeking (in spite of claims to the contrary), and always driven by agendas that are hidden from the one playing the role of “the lover” as well as from the one accepting the label of “the loved.” Both are ego-states, and persons trapped in their egotism can never know truth. Ego, by definition, is the “false I.” That which is false can never know truth. Love, as known by the True Self, is unconditional. What a conditioned person knows about love is as far removed from reality as the True Self is removed from the false roles played out by ego-states. Only the True Self, the Self that is known as a result of the consciousness having been purged of all the effects of programming and conditioning and enculturation and is thus once again “Pure Consciousness,” can know True Love. Here’s the way it was explained during an Advaita session as shared in the book, From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality):

Participant #3: “…It was astounding, almost like I knew for the first time in my life what love truly is. That idea of ‘unicity’ became clear.”
Floyd: “Ego is believing that there’s a vast multiplicity arranged in a hierarchy and that you’re the pinnacle; humility is knowing that you’re nothing, no-thing; love is knowing that You, with a capital ‘Y,’ Are everything.”

Thus, “True Love”/True Self knows no difference, sees no difference, imagines no multiplicity, and imagines no ego (false “I’s”) to be true; therefore, the True Self is fully aware that no separation exists. The True Self knows the unicity. The True Self is free of all ego and is thus free of all desires, perceived needs, concepts, emotional intoxication and ideas. The True Self can know True Love (but even that is only in the relative). Personas, on the other hand, are dominated by ego, desires, perceived needs, concepts, fears, emotional intoxication and false ideas. Personas' beliefs about "love," therefore, are dominated by ego, desires, perceived needs, concepts, fears, emotional intoxication, and false ideas.

Yet even the “True Love” that the True Self can know is finite and limited to the relative existence. Since the Absolute is consciousness-at-rest, then once the conscious-energy is no longer manifested, nothing is known. So much for “being re-united with loved ones some day.” So much for the dilemma of “Will my eternal reunion be lived out with spouse #1, #2 or #3”?

Only in the relative can Love be understood, and that understanding can only happen via the Pure Witnessing as undertaken by the True Self. All beliefs held by personas about what love is are merely more falsehoods taken to be truth by those absorbed in ego-states, in body identification, and in the trap of “the mind” (which is nothing more than the storehouse of all lies and misconceptions and falsehoods passed on via the culture). If you know all of the above to be fact, you are likely realized. If you are willing to consider that the above is fact, then you are moving along the path toward awareness. If you find the pointers above to be anathema, then more remains to be understood about ego and ego-states. Please enter the silence of contemplation.