Non-Duality Can Be the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness, But It Cannot Be the Ultimate Answer for EVERY Sickness, Part “C”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS

From Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita teachings Can (and Cannot Address) 

NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING, 

Part Two

Even a partially-versed Advaitin seeker could not look at the examples and traits of unstable persons that were provided earlier and fail to see how those beliefs and traits are steeped in duality; however, such instability can be rooted in psychological problems that are so serious that Advaita's Ultimate Medicine cannot even begin to address the issues that are driving some persons. 

Moreover, instability / insanity is usually multi-dimensional in its causes, rooted in numerous sources, so a holistic method of treatment (rather than any one single approach) is most often indicated. That inspires this disclaimer: there are some highly arrogant and highly dangerous persons (relatively speaking) who believe that whatever they are attached to can address anything and everything that can arise during the relative existence. 

Some will claim that their religion has all the answers; some will claim that their "program" has all the answers; some will claim that their philosophy or ideology has all the answers; some will claim that their analyst or psychologist or psychiatrist or doctor or pharmacist / chemist or some other drug dealer has all the answers; however, it is rare that any one single approach can address all of the facets at play when instability / insanity reaches a full-blown stage. 

 [The instability which comes to the dual-minded - that is, to those with dualistic beliefs - is holistic in nature. Often what looks like a mental illness is (as Maharaj noted) actually rooted in a physical illness. It results from a chemical imbalance in the elemental plant food body which, in turn, does adversely impact the mental functioning of the sufferer. Because the causes of mental and emotional instability are numerous, so too must the treatment be holistic in its nature for all of the aspects of the condition to be addressed.] 

People familiar with the approach here over the years know that persons who write to report that they are contemplating suicide are referred to the emergency room of the nearest hospital and know that it has been pointed out that the three body types all require totally different food plans if - as Maharaj noted - the body is to function optimally, allowing the functioning to happen in an optimal manner as well. So a variety of sources of instability / insanity will be discussed. 

Never, though, is the Ultimate Medicine offered when it is clear that far more is required to address certain grave mental and emotional issues and disorders. In some cases, yes, the Ultimate Medicine may go a long way in addressing the problem. In some cases, professional treatment by psychologists or psychiatrists will be indicated. In some other cases, physical and dietary needs should be addressed. In still other cases, major personality disorders are driving the instability. 

Some cases are rooted in the perversity of acculturation and domestication which are typical nowadays all around the globe. And as mentioned earlier, many cases nowadays are rooted in "psychological splitting." If instability and insanity are rooted in duality-based splitting, then these teachings can assist in addressing the issues; if actual psychological splitting is the cause of such instability, then the teachings will have little chance of treating that mental and emotional sickness. 

 INSTABILITY / INSANITY INDUCED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING 

Psychological splitting occurs especially among those persons referenced earlier who - for a variety of reasons - have no ability to process and integrate whatever they are feeling. They can emote on occasion, but they seldom feel. Eventually, they can dissociate and will feel nothing and will care nothing about the way their words and actions affect the feelings of others. 

Because of childhood experiences in their cold and uncaring families and cultures where such displays of affection as hugging and saying "I love you" are taboo, the children who are raised by adults who are rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof become adults who are cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof. When they encounter someone who grew up in a family or culture that was just the opposite, such cold and detached adults will erect barriers, feeling threatened by those who come too close. 

A friend in Amsterdam who was known worldwide as one of the most giving and caring and loving people stiffened and balked on one occasion when I put an arm around her shoulder, and that was after years of being "friends." For her, loving and caring could be handled at a distance, but never up close, and she eventually explained that "people in our culture do not hug like that. We all keep our distance. We are more formal than people in your country." 

The same happened with the family of a former wife, all of whom were German. While engaged to be married, I once greeted the mother with a hug around the shoulders. She recoiled as if I had inappropriately grabbed some private part of her anatomy. I was taken into another room and told, "Our family does not hug. We do not say 'I love you.' You need to respect our boundaries." 

[Because I was still suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness at the time, I did not reply, "Wow! Close call! Thanks for the heads up. I'm outta here." Nor was the response, ""Du bist wohl verrucktl" ("You must be crazy!") Instead, the answer amounted to, "Ja, Herr Hauptmann. Das ist gut!" "Yes, Captain. This is good"? Good to whom? The truthful answer: "To an ego-state in the making." I was not even yet "The Husband," but the agenda of "The Would-Be Husband" was strong enough to control my thoughts and words and actions and drive me to ignore all of the red flags being waved as warnings. It is not only the personality identifications which have already been assigned or assumed which generate instability and chaos and suffering; it is also the personality-identifications-in-waiting which can generate all three.]

Persons from one culture to the next have spheres about them that are of varying radiuses, and to move inside one's sphere is unacceptable among those raised in such cold and often "northern" cultures. In addition to childhood experiences, certain traumatic events throughout one's adult years can inspire the wearing of a shield by those who may have once had an ability to integrate difficult feelings but who later mobilized certain defenses to avoid what those individuals now perceive as intolerable or unbearable situations. The dualistic instability / insanity is that they long for closeness while hating closeness. 

They are doomed to misery, trapped as they are in such insane duality. Consider the level of insanity when one has been robbed of those things that mark the nisarga (natural) mode of functioning which animals display when in their natural habitat. The deer here touch, nestle against each other, display affection and closeness, and yes, even care. 

Among persons who are trapped in psychological splitting, hugging becomes anathema; hugging or saying "I love you" is never even considered; an inability to trust on even the slightest level is absent; and paranoia sets in when persons feel sure that everyone wants only to use or abuse them. 

If persons suffer from what is called here a "broken picker" (which inspires them to pick, over and over, the very worst mates imaginable) or from a sense of entitlement or from a desire to use others, then they will attract - time and time again - the types who do want to use them and / or abuse them; in their backwards world of splitting, they are often attracted to abusive, possessive, jealous, controlling (a.k.a., supposedly "strong" and "protective") types; 

thus, after they have been driven blindly to enter into one such senseless entanglement after another, the conclusion that they must keep their distance and must wear armor to protect themselves can become entrenched. 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access over 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you.

Non-Duality Can Be the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness, But It Cannot Be the Ultimate Answer for EVERY Sickness, Part “B”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS

From Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address)

NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING, Part One 

Most of the problems of this planet are centered in the mind, including . . .

. . . the belief that man has been given dominion over plants, animals and the resources of the planet and has the right to use all of that as he chooses - thus negatively impacting the environment - is a mental problem; 

. . . the arrogance and sense of separation which lead to conflict on all levels is a mental problem; 

. . . the anxiety and stress and preoccupation with efforts to live according to the dreamed up rules and regulations and laws and commandments of someone else's dogma in order to spend eternity in an upgraded version of "this world" as opposed to a downgraded version of "this world" is a mental problem; 

. . . the fact that Real Love is mistaken for what the masses call "love" is a mental problem (a mental illness accompanied always by a lack of Wisdom, a failure to understand Oneness, and an excess of ignorance), as is the chaos that follows when their version of "love" is seen to have been false; 

. . . the instability of persons' thoughts and words and actions is a mental problem (the Advaitin called "Jesus Christ" purportedly having said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways"); 

and 

. . . being unstable is one surefire sign of the presence of a mental problem. Each example and others shall be discussed, beginning first with instability being evidence of a mental problem. 

Persons normalize the abnormal, so the depressed will often deny or just fail to see that they are depressed; the narcissistic can spot that trait in others but seldom see it in themselves; and those who exhibit harshness with their words, coldness with their unavailability, meanness in their interactions, cruelty with their judging, and / or near-sociopathic levels of mercilessness while ignoring the impact of their words and deeds on the feelings of those around them are sometimes quite capable of tuning into their own feelings (or emotions), though they can eventually dissociate and feel nothing; however, they are often totally out of touch with the way others feel as a result of dealing with them (giving lip service only to their ability to empathize).

Such volatile persons, having normalized their instability, either are not aware that flux and unsteadiness and their ever-in-motion fluctuations are abnormal . . . or, they simply do not care. Many of those are actually addicted to chaos, so bored and /or depressed that they subconsciously require the adrenaline rush that comes with chaos in order to "feel alive." 

Their problems are rooted in the instability generated by their dual-mindedness, so they accept, seek, or ignore their unstable condition and the fact that it is a mental problem, a form of insanity itself. The Advaitin Shakespeare referred to such types in relationships as those with "inconstant affections" and called them "inconstant lovers." 

Consider some of the definitions of "unstable": 

1. inconstant and variable; that is, likely to change frequently without apparent or cogent reason; 

2. unsteady, forever subject to change, highly or violently reactive; 

3. unable to afford a sense of ease or reassurance to those who are around them, preferring consciously or subconsciously to manipulate others with covert methods of controlling in order to make them "walk on eggshells" or to keep them at a distance; 

4. overly-sensitive to self while being insensitive with others; 

5. of unsound mind; suffering from severe mental illness; insane; deranged; 

6. disposed to psychological variability; irresolute; moody; 

7. and exhibiting such personality traits as: - changeable -unpredictable -unsteady -inconstant -unsettled -irrational -erratic -inconsistent -unreliable -untrustworthy and -vacillating All of the above describes those who are trapped in the Ultimate Sickness of a dualistic mind (and, thus, mental illness) and who are swept back and forth by the tides of emotional intoxication. 

Consider waves crashing into rock formations along the shores of the planet's oceans: the rocks are there, steady, unmoved by the actions of the ever-changing waves that are crashing into them. Take the rocks (as in "she / he is steady as a rock") to be the relative existence when insanity is absent and when Reality is overlaid upon it; take the waves to be the ever-in-motion consciousness, the unstable mind, and the existence that many encounter everyday because they are unstable in all ways. 

The mind is the seat of duality, and duality is that which drives persons into constantly-fluctuating states of happiness and unhappiness; of shifting from loving to hate; of moving from idealizing and romanticizing to degrading and debasing; of upgrading and downgrading; of moving from "you light up my life" to "you drive me crazy"; of looking at a potential partner and writing a "pro / con" list of that potential partner's traits but having no "con's" on the list; and of arrogantly doing the same with one's own "pro / con" list of traits. 

Sometimes, the Ultimate Medicine can shed its healing light on unstable thoughts and words and actions and ignorance and allow persons to escape the drama and chaos of their instability; more often, the masses will remain unstable throughout the manifestation. 

As the deer in this neighborhood spontaneously move away from the chaos and noise generated by some in the community, so the sane will often finally tire of the insanity generated by the unstable persons in their lives and move on; others, driven by their own selfish agendas, will stay to receive "Perk A" while tolerating "Examples of Total Insanity A through Z" (all of which are often rooted in the duality and the insanity of "Psychological Splitting"). 

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access over 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you.

Non-Duality Can Be the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness, But It Cannot Be the Ultimate Answer for EVERY Sickness, Part “A”

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

It was late 1965 and I had only just begun my freshman year at what is now known as ULM (or the University of Louisiana at Monroe) when an event occurred which is described in the chapter entitled “The Manifestation Ends” from the book WHAT A CHEROKEE GRANDMOTHER PASSED ON TO A GRANDSON:

I had been in college for a matter of weeks when one of the dorm proctors knocked on my door and told me I had a phone call downstairs in the office. I walked downstairs and into the office and over to the switchboard and lifted the receiver with a sense of doom and heard my dad crying. After my “Hello,” he said, “Floyd, she’s gone.” Her liver had finally stopped being able to do what livers do. I cried, too. 

I walked up three flights of stairs and returned to my room. I reflected on the fact that her manifestation and mine had only overlapped for what now seemed like a short eighteen years. Then I recalled that I had likely spent more one-on-one time with her than anyone else, and I felt gratitude. It was she who began sharing the non-dual understanding with me in the early 1950’s, and while little of it “registered” at the time, the seed was planted to understand the role that personality identifications play in the humanity-driven chaos of the planet. 

It was late 1965, and India and Pakistan were engaged in heavy fighting (surprised?); the USSR launched Luna 7; The Supremes released “I Hear A Symphony,” but a Brit group called “The Beatles" had been fascinating everyone since the year before when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” swept the globe, followed by “Yesterday” which would top the charts in October of ‘65; 

yes, it was late 1965, and a soap opera called “Days of Our Lives” premiered on television the month after “Yesterday” began playing on the radio; it was when the U.S. government sent 90,000 soldiers to a place called “Vietnam” which none of us had heard of until we buried the first four among our graduating Class of ’65 who had died there; it was when, at the end of that year, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered and would become an on-going holiday standard; 

and it was when – by the end of the year – that Dr. John J. LaGaipa (marking time, hoping for a positive response to his application for employment with the CIA) had convinced me to seek to earn a minor in psychology and to become certified to teach psych courses at the freshman and college level in every university in the U.S. 

It was in the fall of ’65 when I sat in the class of the only instructor I would ever meet who truly embodied all of the traits of “The Nutty Professor type” where Dr. Lagaipa would introduce me to the basics of psychology and would discuss the potential of personality identification to generate an abnormal existence, inspiring me to flash back to some of the pointers discussed with me some thirteen years earlier by a Cherokee medicine woman grandmother that grasped the non-dual understanding. 

It would be years later when it was understood that there has long been a name (“non-duality”) for the understanding which would eventually bring light and peace; when the full freedom of the full understanding would release me from the ravages of the Ultimate Sickness and provide the complete understanding of the functionings (and "dysfunctionings") of personality; 

when it became clear that a man called “Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” was spot on when he predicted that “science will one day advance to the point that it will prove the validity of the non-dual teachings”; and when I would find that science had (a) found a way to utilize the ancient enneagram teachings about personality in combination with the non-dual understanding in order to (b) allow persons to see - per the results of an enneagram-based personality inventory test - exactly how the nine basic personality types were determining their thoughts and words and actions; 

and (c) to understand how that tool can be used by seekers to come to a deeper understanding of the way that personality has long been the most influential force on the planet in terms of generating chaos and disharmony and disunity and darkness; and how (d) freedom from personality can be attained by the combined use of non-dual teachings and the results of the enneagram personality inventory test and analysis which are offered through this site. 

The wisdom of the enneagram (that is, the wisdom which can be attained via the use of the results of an enneagram test) are amazing to those that understand how to use those results effectively. 

For example, it was yesterday when a man sent the enneagram test results of his teenage daughter who has been engaging in certain repetitive behaviors which are not in her best interests. He is a wise man who understands the potential benefits of both psychological therapy and the non-dual teachings and who understands the point offered here over the years that “non-duality can be the Ultimate Medicine for the Ultimate Sickness but it cannot be the ultimate answer for every sickness.” 

Aware of that, and aware that some illnesses might be rooted in the mind while others might be rooted in the elemental plant body while others might be rooted in both, he asked me to analyze the results he sent and to determine whether his daughter’s behavior was more psychological in its nature, or more physiological in it nature, or a combination of both. 

Within a few hours, he received a report in his Gmail inbox providing the answer, well aware that some professionals could work with his daughter for the next twenty years and never come to as clear and as specific and as revealing a diagnosis as he would need in order to form an effective treatment plan and allow her to heal and then move forward. 

He and I had both recognized that the particular behavior might have a genetic piece to it but that more often the behavior involves the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. The real question remaining after understanding that fact was this: was the disorder rooted in the mind or in the body or in both, and to what exact degree. 

The test results revealed that (A) she is experiencing some slight presence of anxiety which can be triggering a stress response but that (B) there is only a slightest chance that her behavior is being driven by a totally-mind-based version of OCD, therefore making clear that (C) the primary source of her OCD involves a chemical imbalance in the body (specifically involving a deficiency of certain alkali-metal group elements). 

Rather than needing to be admitted to the psych ward of the nearest mental hospital, his daughter simply needs to add to her food plan certain small, daily doses of one particular all-natural, all-organic (rather than synthetic) supplement. If she does that, a major shift in behavior will likely be seen within a month and – if her case if like others witnessed here – her undesired behavior will likely end completely within ninety days. 

The key related points, as discussed in the book Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita teachings Can (and Cannot Address)  

are these:

(1) There have been cases where certain versions of the non-dual teachings have been observed to provide an effective treatment for addressing and eliminating the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (identified by Maharaj as “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”) 

and 

(2) There have been others cases where those symptoms have taken such a strong hold that a need for professional intervention is indicated (and sometimes even that will not prove to be effective). 

In this series, the differences will be discussed. 

Moreover, so few understand what Spinoza meant in the 1600’s when he said 

“Whatever increases, decreases, limits or extends the body’s power of action, increases, decreases, limits or extends the mind’s power of action. And whatever increases, decreases, limits or extends the mind’s power of action, also increases, decreases, limits or extends the body’s power of action” 

or 

what Maharaj meant thirty-seven years ago tomorrow when he said on 3 September 1979: 

“Suppose I am not able to think, that my mind is not clear. What does it mean? It means my food essence is rather dull today. It is not getting into combustion in proper order; therefore, the thinking is also dull. This mind pertains to the food essences.” 

Those, too, shall be discussed.

To be continued. 

Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access over 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you.

“What Would You Say If You Knew For A Fact That Only Three Hours Of The Manifestation Remained?" Part Twenty-Eight, The Conclusion

TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS 

To review the key pointers that would be offered were the taking of mahasamadhi only hours away, “Two Sets of ‘Final Talks’" are being offered. 

Site visitors now have several options regarding what could be deemed "the central elements that are at the core of” the Direct Path, Nisargan, non-duality teachings: you can consider the topics discussed in Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's final talks; the pointers offered in the "final" talks offered in this book; the pointers included in both sets; or neither. 

Yesterday, this was offered: “Fifteen Key Pointers Offered in Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's Final Talks” 

Today, this is offered: “Fifteen Key Pointers Which Could Be Offered in Floyd’s Final Talks” 

1. Find the simplest version of these teachings. 

2. Abide naturally. 

3. Seek no identity, including "good" ones. 

4. Rest in the awareness of the nothingness. 

5. All things both relative and Absolute are much ado about nothing. 

6. Settle not for instability. 

7. Question. 

8. Be free of the effects of your programming, conditioning, domestication and acculturation. 

9. March to the beat of your inner guru. 

10. Transition all religious and spiritual roles and concepts. 

11. You must return to the mind-less "Child No-Knowing Stage" if you would be free and happy. 

12. If you would abide naturally, find a guide and a model that are both abiding naturally. 

13. Just be, without trying to be anything or anybody. 

14. Be still and know so that you can then be still so that you can eventually . . . just be. 

15. Sense the Oneness to understand Real Love and allow Wisdom to make possible the understanding of the Nothingness. 

UPDATE: During the last six years since that list was compiled, what has been witnessed is (A) an increase in the number and in the severity of personality disorders which have been manifesting globally, and (B) a sharp rise in the levels of fanaticism being evidenced; therefore, the list of key pointers has been modified to include the following: 

16. The source of all relative problems always involves fanaticism. 

17. Fanaticism is always rooted in the agendas of personality identifications. 

[Only ego-states can provide the mental compost heaps required for fanaticism to take root and bloom into the idiocy displayed by zealots and extremists and all other types of believers, whether the zealotry involves being fanatical about a “love” interest; or involves being fanatical about one’s children or pets; or involves being fanatical about a fascist politician; or involves being fanatical about one’s race; or involves being fanatical about one religion or another passed down one’s parents and grandparents; or involves being fanatical about some philosophy or ideology; or involves being fanatical about seeking; or involves being fanatical about the object of one’s addiction; or involves being fanatical about the desire to be seen as a spiritual giant; or involves a xenophobic attachment to one nation or another; etc., etc., etc.] 

18. Fanaticism also works hand-in-hand with the higher-than-ever levels of the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder which are manifesting around the globe (often as a combined result of mental and physiological factors, including the obsessive mind which comes with the Addictive Personality Disorder and  the chemical imbalances in the elemental plant food body which involve the alkali-metal group which some naturopathic doctors address with organic lithium since it does not have the side effects of synthetic lithium).

Has it crossed your mind as you are sharpening your knife each morning before going out to a nearby sand dune to behead the day's collection of infidels that maybe you're an obsessive fanatic playing the role of "The Super Religious One"? Probably not, but that does not negate the observable fact that you are doing that and that you are therefore in serious need of some counseling and in serious need of having your body's imbalanced chemistry realigned.

Has it crossed your mind as you are cleaning your U.S. Military-issued rifle with Bible verses etched into the metal before going out out to kill other obsessive, religious fanatics that you are playing the role of "The Super Religious One" and "The Super Patriot"? Probably not, but that does not negate the observable fact that you are doing that and that you are therefore in serious need of some counseling and in serious need of having your body's imbalanced chemistry realigned.

Has it crossed your mind as you are headed to a gathering of other obsessive, spiritual fanatics that you are playing the role of "The Spiritual Giant" and that, while you might have stopped drinking and drugging, you have not stopped your all-day-and-all-night-long mental obsessing? Probably not, but that does not negate the observable fact that you are doing that and that you are therefore in serious need of some counseling and in serious need of having your body's imbalanced chemistry realigned.

And the same goes for political fanatics and for relationship fanatics and for those addicted to seeking and for all of the other kinds of fanatics referenced above. 

19. Around the globe, feelings have been displaced by emotions . . . by the entrapment of the masses in a state of extreme emotional intoxication. 

In light of the preponderance of personality identifications which are controlling thoughts and words and actions; and in light of the excessive seriousness and excessive fanaticism of most among the masses; and in light of the excessive sense of heaviness which marks and mars the relative existence of most persons, this information which was offered previously bears revisiting at this point: 

Maharaj said: " . . . The source of all that is, is the Infinite Possibility, the Supreme Reality, which is in You and which throws its . . . light and Love on every experience." 

Yet the guru and / or the inner guru can shine the light about for minutes or days or months or years, shining the light on every self-destructive, personality-driven fear or desire and on every insane thought and word and deed that those generate, but those being driven by the hidden agendas of their personas will move along with eyes wide shut . . . refusing to see anything that runs counter to the wishes of whatever ego-state or states have taken control of thoughts and words and deeds and have moved one onto a collision course with the worst imaginable consequences. 

Ego-states (personality identifications) are like certain mushrooms: where most everything requires light if it is to thrive, those mushrooms actually thrive in the darkness. Just as the light can fade out the colors of a painting left outside to the point that eventually nothing is left on the canvas, so it is when the light hits personas. They fade away. But if they show up and take control, they become one of the most powerful forces on the planet. 

The one in touch with authenticity wants no power and has no power, so it has no chance at all in a self vs. Self struggle. Why? Because that is not the actual struggle anyway. The self is a mirage, so what has happened is that one has become divorced from the Real and in that void, self-delusion has moved in and is in charge of all thoughts and words and deeds. 

Consider: How large is the source of light in this solar system? The sun is huge, yet one can use something as small as the palm of a hand, can raise it and put it over the eyes, and the light of something as huge as the sun will be blocked out by something as small as a palm. 

When the relative challenges arise, what arises simultaneously is the duality of perception and misperception. If the Self witnesses, then all will be seen in proper perspective via the light. A sense of lightness will prevail. If self arises, then the light will be blocked, all will be miss-perceived, and the lightness will end. Darkness and heaviness will come. 

Maharaj: "In my light they [things relative] come and go as the specks of dust dancing in the sunbeam. The light illumines the specks, but does not depend on them. Nor can it be said to create them. It cannot be even said to know them." 

A friend recently faced the challenge of being at the center of three converging storms which left "her" with such an overwhelming sense of vulnerability and want and need and desire that the personas that were generating all sorts of fears and desires raised their hands to block out the light. In that rejection of the light, the lightness was also lost. 

She was tossed off center by the storms, something that can seemingly happen to selves but never to the Self which is the center. Persona-inspired emotions led to motion (to fear or desire-driven actions) and those always lead persons to move into the darkness which, in turn, generates a sense of heaviness and misery and suffering or pain or all of the above. 

When she finally stepped back from the brink and allowed the light to be shined on her miss-perceptions, she came to see that all is well; yet not a single circumstance had changed. Not even one of the storms has dissipated, yet she is witnessing it all from the platform above it all, from the platform where the light is shining down on all of the snakes that had seemed to be ropes. 

How easy it is to see in the light that the snake is only a rope, but how far more difficult it is to see a snake when it appears to be a rope that is being tossed out to pull one out of the stormy seas. In the darkness, it is impossible to see clearly, to see Reality, to differentiate true from false. 

Maharaj: "It is like entering a dark room. You see nothing - you may touch, but you do not see - no colours, no outlines. The window opens and the room is flooded with light. Colours and shapes come into being. The window is the giver of light, but not the source of it. The sun is the source. Similarly, matter is like the dark room; consciousness - the window - flooding matter with sensations and perceptions, and the Supreme is the sun, the source both of matter and of light. The window may be closed, or open, the sun shines all the time. It makes all the difference to the room, but none to the sun. Yet all this is secondary to the tiny little thing which is the 'I am'. Without the 'I am' there is nothing. All knowledge is about the 'I am'. False ideas about this 'I am' lead to bondage, right knowledge leads to freedom and happiness." 

And who but the insane do not desire happiness? To desire happiness is not the fault. The fault lies in the miss-perceiving, in mistaking a nightmare for a dream solution which could finally bring the much sought-after happiness and lightness. 

Maharaj: "Desire by itself [is not either] right or wrong. It is nothing but striving for happiness. Having identified yourself with a speck of a body you feel lost and search desperately for the sense of fullness and completeness you call happiness." 

Emotions are unnatural. Feelings can be natural, allowing one to be fully in touch with all that the relative existence can bring, but even those are to be transcended for they do not in the end bring freedom and happiness and lightness. 

You deserve nothing less than an existence that is marked by the incredible lightness of being. You also deserve the means by which emotions and feelings can both be processed when they bring on darkness so that you can again return to the light which, in turn, brings lightness. You deserve the opportunity that then comes to dance lightly. 

Peace. Unity. Light. Love. 

 Please enter into the silence of contemplation. 

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.] 

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access over 2,800 posts for any topics of interest to you.