DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Three

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From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Some defending their propensity for acquiring (and even gloating) over their accumulated knowledge have argued one of two arguments: (1) “I convert my knowledge into money. I use it to make a living.” The response: “If you were to measure all of your ‘knowledge’ and then detemine how much of all of that is actually used or required for you to ‘live,’ it would be so microscopic—so fractional—as to be undetectable. Your egotism regarding how smart you are has once again resulted in “you” fooling your self."

(2) “Well, you learned to read, Floyd. Now, you use that worldly knowledge when you travel to satsangs to find your way.” The response: The ability to witness highway markers and to follow the path they mark in order to arrive at an intended destination happens, but once at the destination, the markers are neither prized nor revisited nor fixed in thought nor discussed (unless a seeker wants to follow the same path to reach the same destination). More to the point, there is no "one" to believe that "he" has knowledge of all those markers. Signs can be witnessed, but why store away any knowledge of signs, why remember the signs forever, or why cherish them as another part of some cumlative knowledge base that becomes a source of false pride? If not being used on the path, not another second is spent in paying attention to the signs. There is no "I" that "knows" the signs. The signs are merely witnessed...and without attachment.

The confusion comes (a) because a seeker at one level is not told the same thing as a seeker at another level and (b) because the very nature of the Advaita Teachings involves paradoxes. Thus, it seems one must accumulate Advaitin "knowledge." (Even the most basic expression of the non-dual Teachings appears to be a paradox: "I AM THAT; I AM and that is not two." The further paradox is that the consciousness can only know that it is while in that I AM-ness and cannot know anything in the THAT-ness. Thus, if You abide as THAT, how could any "knowing" happen?)

Because of both “a” and “b” above, it is suggested to site visitors or to those who attend retreats here that they tap into the “inner guru,” yet some time with a “guru” is often required for most to receive the full and final understanding. Why? If one is asleep and wants to wake up but is surrounded only by other sleepers, who can be depended on to awaken that one? Only one that is not among that circle of sleepers. So is "knowledge" of the Advaita Teachings needed or not for Realization? What is needed are the pointers that are offered to seekers by the Realized "teacher," pointers intended to remove erroneous beliefs in all of the distortions and illusions and learned ignorance that block access to the pure consciousness. "Teacher" is in quote marks because "teaching" involves the transmission of knowledge; that is not the same as removing false knowledge (learned ignorance).

To the contrary of the Advaita approach which focuses not on acquiring knowledge but on being free of learned ignorance, all other “paths,” religions, spiritual movements, and philosophies require (a) accumulating “their” ideas, dogma, beliefs, knowledge, and concepts as well as (b) practicing their practices…“for life” or, in the case of those who do not understand what cycles and what does not, “for multiple lives.” Before Advaita, no other had ever said (during those decades of intensive seeking by “floyd”), “Not only can You be free...You already are free, and if you grasp that Understanding, you’re done. You’ll not have to attend meetings or sessions; you’ll not be required to give us a percentage of your money. You will not have to genuflect nor sing nor intone nor pledge nor recite creeds or oaths or prayers in unison with others who are genuflecting and singing and intoning and pledging and reciting creeds and oaths and prayers in unison.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

No one else, other than an Advaitin teacher, had ever said: “You will not have to know our chants. You will not have to learn special drumbeats or to know when to ring a bell or how to burn sticks, and you will not have to pay us to burn our candles. You will not have to buy our special holy book and read it forever in order to gain knowledge and truth.” No one else said, “You will not have to read every day forever to gain more wisdom and knowledge. You will not have to work to gain or to maintain anything. You will not be called upon to learn the inner workings of our organization so that you will know how to serve on a committee or board. Whatever happens with you will just happen from the moment of Realization on, and it will happen spontaneously. Peace will not have to be sought any more, knowledge will not have to sought anymore, and you will not have to work to ‘get it’ and ‘keep it.’ It will just happen.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

No one else, other than an Advaitin teacher, had ever said: “You will not have to know how to heat rocks so you can sweat in a lodge, and you will not have to learn ancient chants or foreign languages or to know how to hum our special hums because this Understanding is assessible to all. And you will not have to give your money to build special buildings or to buy special furnishings or special accoutrements and then know the special significance of them all. You will not need to know which days are 'separate' and ‘different’ and ‘holy’ and ‘more important’ than other days or years. You will neither have to wear your hair in a special way nor shave your head completely, and you will not have to wear any special clothing.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

Everyone playing a religious or spiritual role wants others to have knowledge of their doctrines, to have knowledge of their theories, to have knowledge of their learnings, to have knowledge of their beliefs, to have knowledge of the intricacies of their dogma, to have knowledge of the content of their letters, to have knowledge of the content of their special book, and to have knowledge of when to do exactly what everyone else does in hypnotic, robotic synchronization (which keeps persons asleep rather than awakening them). For them, “spirituality” is about “spiritual growth” or “growing in knowledge.” For the Advaitin, anything pointed to with the term “spiritual work” would involve removing knowledge (learned ignorance), not about attaining knowledge. Is preparation required, even for receiving the Advaita Teachings? Yes. Does that involve reading certain books? Usually. Does it involve developing the ability to sit in the quiet and contemplate a pointer? Yes. Does it involve sitting for a few days or weeks with one that is Realized to understand the final clarifications? Usually. Is a lifetime of work, reading, meditating, and considering necessary? No.

Ultimately, it is seen via Realization that (a) anything a person calls a “spiritual experience” is nothing more than a perceived happening in “their world” and that (b) their "world" is a fraud. It is also seen, therefore, that any so-called “experience” which supposedly happens to “a fictional person” in “a fictional world” must be…fictional. There is no experiencer, so there are no experiences. All "experiences" are assumed to be real by false identities only. Anything labeled as such is just an imagining, an emotion-based belief or reaction triggered after the assumption of an ego-state. To advance along the seven-step "path" and to transition beyond the third step, therefore, it must be seen that “The Spiritual Man” claiming "spiritual knowledge" and "spiritual experiences" is just another ego-state, not one iota different from “The Mass Murdering Man.” And those two personas are no different from the hundreds of thousands of other roles that persons accept as identities, all of which are supported not by factual knowledge but by learned ignorance instead. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Two

From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Now, Larry, before continuing with the response to your query (a response that will be nothing more than a bit of entertainment) understand these pointers first:

1. All accumulated knowledge, all of the revered knowing, goes when “the knower” goes. (Ultimately, therefore, knowledge cannot be discarded either, since there is no “discarder.” Belief in all nonsense just fades away.)

2. All knowledge, including what persons call their “spiritual knowledge,” is only worldly knowledge. Why? It is all being generated by the warped consciousness that is currently functioning in the phenomenal world, so it all really deals only with the concepts of this false “world” and with upgrading phenomenal, dualistic illusions: “There is this world, and if you’re ‘good,’ you get to go to a better world.” Sounds “spiritual,” huh? Yet an illusion (a better world)that is an upgrade of an illusion (this world) is still an illusion, and illusions are always the stuff of “this world.”

3. Because so-called "knowledge" is being generated by persons in a world that is not real—that is nothing more than a series of false perceptions—then it is all false knowledge; therefore, it cannot be knowledge at all. It is only learned ignorance. To believe that there is “this world” and “that world” is duality, and not only is "this world" false—all "worlds" believed in by persons are false…figments of overactive and warped imaginations.

4. Who could possible “have” knowledge, “possess” knowledge or “attain” knowledge? Consciousness can be aware of itSelf, but even that is time-bound, only for the period of its manifestation. And even that is not a “knowing” since the prerequisite for "knowing" or for something being "known" is the presence of "a knower." To claim that “I know mySelf” is equally false since it suggests duality, that there is some subject with “I-ness” that knows some object. So in the purest terms of any discussion of “knowledge,” you cannot truthfully even claim to know yourSelf, and that is precisely why Advaita teaches that the truth cannot be stated. Ultimately, any knowledge that a person claims to have and then states cannot be the truth, so the effective Advaitin teacher guides seekers to an awareness that even they will not put into words if Fully Realized. The Advaitin teacher can do no more than point toward Reality, and once Reality is seen, even the pointers dissolve. So much for knowledge.

For now, though, back to the entertainment. As for that “vast knowledge” you refer to and think you might be seeing, it amounts to nothing more thorns being used to remove thorns from seekers. Some students of Advaita often miss a key point: you do not need to know everything that your teacher knows in order to realize. To the contrary, you need only to be willing to give up what you think you know if the teacher suggests that you give up certain concepts or beliefs. Eventually, all concepts and beliefs will fade away. Forget accumulating knowledge and focus on the de-accumulation process.

Here, knowledge is valued so little that, just as with a thorn that is tossed after being used to extract another thorn, so too is it all ignored when not being used to remove thorns. Just as there should be no pride in ignorance, there is no pride in knowing. More to the point, there is no one to be proud of anything. The consciousness speaks. One said during a recent gathering for sansang, “But it was the knowledge you shared regarding the pagan, barbaric roots of ‘holy communion’ that allowed me to detach from that ignorant practice.”

The reply was something close to this: "Fine. You are reporting that a piece of factual information was able to rid you of belief in a non-fact, in a bit of fiction-based dogma. But now, be free of all of that information. After you realize that the practice was--and is--all nonsense, then the knowledge of ancient barbaric practices should be as meaningless to you as their modern barbaric excrescence. On the other hand, know that some all along, with no additional knowledge about the history of communion, rejected the barbaric practice when first invited to participate. Many reply, 'Come with you on Sunday to drink blood and eat body (or to drink pretend blood and to eat pretend body)? Are you nuts?! No thanks.' Some naturally see more clearly than others because they were not subjected to the same insane programming. They were not given that 'knowledge'--that learned ignorance. Some see more clearly only after much effort, depending on the degree of programming and conditioning...that is, depending on the degree to which absurd concepts overlay the consciousness."

Next, were you to follow this space called “floyd” throughout a typical day, you would see no use of knowledge per se. You would see living happening in a natural, spontaneous, agenda-less manner. Just as you walk without thinking about walking, this entire “life of floyd” happens just like that. Can the deer (which offers a perfect example of how to live without "a thought-life") function for an entire day, an entire month, or an entire lifetime in that spontaneous, natural fashion? Not only can it—it does. And it happens across the globe among the comparatively few that are Realized. That is, in fact, why “the search” can end “successfully” with Advaita and Advaita only, and that is why the desire to accumulate knowledge and concepts and dogma and ideas can end with Advaita…and with Advaita only.

(NOTE: Until firmly fixed in Full Realization, what are you to do if a troublesome thought should arise? Find the ego-state that is thinking the thought. When you realize that the so-called thinker of the thought is fictional, her/his fictional thought is spontaneously discredited and discounted. Then, using that same process as often as is called for, the assumption of the false identity can recede until it eventually dissolves. You are never the thinker of a thought. Thoughts arise (1) after an ego-state is assumed as an identity and (2) after the ego-state falsely perceives a desire or need or fear-provoking threat. Talk about “needing a mirage" or "running scared from a mirage!”) Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part One

From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Hello Larry. First, the fact that you are “totally westernized” might preempt any chance of your “getting the point,” especially since the content of your e-mail reveals that you have bought into the very essence of the core belief that most westerners hold about work: you only do it to get something, to gain something, to accumulate, or to get a payoff. (All of the “No, I love my job” stuff ends when your pay ends. As for volunteer workers or “the Personality Type Two Helper,” search the site to see what their true motives are.)

You will see, if you read on and consider objectively, that the western knowledge/beliefs about work have evolved from, and then been merged with, ancient mideastern knowledge/beliefs about religion and spirituality. That blending of knowledge/beliefs about work and knowledge/beliefs about god/gods has resulted in the learned ignorance that now dominates the persons of the planet. In fact, it could be argued that such knowledge is far more dangerous (relatively speaking) than all other types of ignorance combined. It is that category of knowledge (which is not knowledge at all but is actually learned ignorance) that the Advaita teachings invite persons to discard in order that they might be able to see reality (and thereby be in touch with reality, that is, be sane). As it is now, that merging has resulted in a near-planetwide belief in a god or gods who will reward you if you do religious or spiritual work and who will punish you if you do not do that special work.

The invitation for now is to see this: western and/or Judaeo-Christian and/or Anglo-Saxon values are rooted in the ancient “knowledge” passed down from pagans. The Jews accepted that knowledge as their own and taught that those among them who were wealthy and who had healthy children were “good” (and being rewarded by a god) and that those who were poor or had unhealthy or stillborn children were “bad” (and thus beinging punished). Later, the puritannical elements among Christians would accept such “knowledge” as fact, and most today are trapped in the knowledge that they think they have regarding the interrelation of “good vs. bad,” “reward vs. punishment,” and their religious/spiritual knowledge and work as well. It is that type of “knowledge” (learned ignorance) that Advaita invites persons to discard.

That the Judaeo-Anglo work ethic became enmeshed with the so-called religious and spiritual knowledge/beliefs among persons is no surprise. The notion that there is always a payoff for any work you do (be it physical, spiritual, religious, or communal) is the “come-on” that has been used by medicine men and priests and religious men and spiritual men for as long as they have been playing their self-appointed roles: “Do this work that we tell you to do—and do it with knowledge of the 'right' way that we teach you to do it—and there will be a reward, a payoff, both now and later.”

How convincing were the ancient “holy” men? They were so convincing that early priests convinced parents to sacrifice their virginal daughters to please an angry god. As “God’s representative on earth,” the priests had sex with the daughters (in a symbolic act of oneness, they claimed) and then cut out their hearts and passed them through the crowd in order that all might commune with god. The people had been given this knowledge and accepted it as fact: that gathering to participate regularly in "communion" to drink the blood and to eat the body would please an angry god (such as the rain god) and that a payoff would follow. And if the blessing of rain did not come and “save” the crops? More "sacrifice" was obviously wanted by the god. Kill a few more virgins.

How convincing are the modern “holy” men as they continue to transmit the ancient knowledge and myths and superstitions and beliefs and practices? So convincing that nowadays two billion people pass on this same knowledge to their children who now believe that they will be closer to god and will be making him happy and will thereby be rewarded and blessed both now and forevermore if they will perform that same cannabilism-vampirism routine regularly. So convincing that two billion more will use spikes and maces to beat themselves regularly and bring forth the blood in order to please their god.

Are you seeing the points about “knowledge” and “learned ignorance”?

1. Far less of such knowledge, rather than far more knowledge, is called for.

2. To learn a skill that will pay your bills is one thing. Even to be “proud” of that knowledge is just another bit of arrogance based in the adoption of a persona (i.e., “The Super Teacher,” “The Super Protégé,” “The Super Student,” “The Religious Expert,” "The Super Ascetic," etc.)

3. Infatuation with your "vast store of knowledge" will delay being free of all learned ignorance.

4. Infatuation with accumulating more will retard your de-accumulating and being free of what you already have too much of.

5. To learn ignorance is another thing still, and it is that which persons are invited to cast aside.

But with a “westernized mindset” (becoming popular in the Far East as well nowadays) little about Advaita will sound appealing to you since you will be told, “Do this ‘work’ and you will gain nothing but will lose everything instead!” That very notion will likely be anathema to your “western mind”; however, since you claim that you are “at least willing to listen and see if you can get the point,” a pause will happen in order to provide an occasion for consideration. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued tomorrow]

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.
TO READ REVIEWS BY READERS OF FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) visit: http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/
TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) visit: http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm