THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, TREATMENT, Part One Hundred

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION

[Continued from yesterday]

One person who likely wrote more about alcoholism than any other saw it as a two-fold illness:

The first aspect he identified involved a body allergy (which is actually a sugar allergy). Nowadays, a sugar allergy is more commonplace than ever before. Among children with the allergy, the eating of food containing sugar will trigger a desire for more sugar which doubles the desire for sugar and then leads to excessive eating of sugar and carbs. The same happens with alcoholics who also have that allergy.

[Now that George Carlin has taken mahasamadhi, I turn to Louis C.K. for some current expressions of wisdom with a touch of humor. Regarding overeating, he said that people don't stop eating when they're full. The meal is not over when they're full. It's over when they hate themselves. The same applies to children with a sugar allergy who have parents who enable their weight gain by continuing to provide that which they are allergic to. The same applies to alcoholics with a sugar allergy who have enablers in their lives.]

The second aspect of alcoholism which the author identified is an obsession of the mind. (Much has been shared on this site about the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder which leads to fanaticism around excessive drinking or fanaticism around recovery from excessive drinking or to religious fanaticism or spiritual fanaticism or political fanaticism or fanaticism around accumulating wealth or fanaticism around shopping or fanaticism around sex, ad infinitum).

The man writing about alcoholism wanted his first book to make him millions of dollars (which it would do and continued to do, on an annual basis, throughout his existence), but it was originally a far too short of a volume in his view. When he saw that he could only come up with around 164 pages, he requested persons to write their "personal success stories about their recovery" which he would include in the back of his book in order to beef up its length.

They agreed except they wanted him to modify his "two-fold" explanation and report that - while those two factors were involved - alcoholism is actually rooted in a "spiritual malady" and that only God could provide any hope at all to those with that physical / mental illness. They pledged to withhold their stories if he did not acquiesce to their demand and change his claim that alcoholism is a body-mind issue and report that it is a not-spiritual-enough issue. He fought their demand for a while, but because he wanted his book to be a big book, he eventually acquiesced.

That man was interested in Eastern teachings, so his first volume was laced with certain gems from Eastern philosophies and religions as well as some non-dual pointers. He used one of the Eastern pointers he had heard, indirectly touched on in yesterday's post, dealing with the way that the realized function throughout the remainder of a post-realization existence. Specifically, he suggested - as some versions of non-duality suggest - that one can function from "a position of neutrality."

Thus, the point offered yesterday that "Love" is a noun, not a verb; that no part of realization (which is simply the process of "being freed from learned ignorance," per Maharaj) calls on the realized to "love" (verb) everyone and everything; and that the understanding means that . . . 

(A) . . . one need not love the neighbor who lets his hunting dogs run free and attack and sometimes maim or kill other smaller dogs and cats in the neighborhood 

and that

(B) . . . one need not hate that neighbor, either.

However, a position of neutrality - involving neither loving nor hating - nevertheless allows residents to work with law enforcement and community leaders to require that neighbor to restrain his pets and adhere to the existing leash laws.

Among the realized, there is a position of neutrality which (1) does not require any love / hate duality but which (2) still allows for sane and sound and logical steps to be taken to address the actions of those around them who are trapped in assholism.

To continue now with other different perspectives which came via the vision:

Maharaj pointed out that you were not even born once, so how could you possibly be born again? 

The vision made clear Maharaj's pointer that "all will be annihilated" (with the exception of the energy-matter). 

The clarity came: it is whatever is involved in the cycling of things that come together and that will always eventually come apart is what will be "annihilated." 

That includes human bodies, it includes the human "mind," and it includes the roles played by bodies with minds which assume that false identities are real. 

The vision showed all of that will come to end, for nothing in the mind is true and nothing about assumed roles is real, and certainly the body is forever cycling air and consciousness and cells until - at some point - that too shall stop for one reason or another. 

Yet who is ready to accept that fact willingly? What has been witnessed her leads to the answer: "Only those that have completed the second leg of the 'journey' to Reality, allowing them to 'go ahead and die now'." 

For the masses, that nagging fear of "death" shall remain, for they have not completed "a practice run at 'dying'." 

So whenever earth elements and air and specks of conscious-energy come together to form a composite unity - be that composite labeled a bird, a fish, a deer, a human, etc. - that manifestation knows that it is, knows the beingness, and desires that the beingness never end. 

That is why non-realized (still ignorant) persons want to live as long as they can. 

[Again, Louis C.K. said, "It's not 'your life.' It's life. Life isn't something that you possess. It's something that you take part in and you witness."]

That personal desire for the consciousness to be continuous forever is why some report that (a) right now, heaven is available; that (b) it is the most wonderful thing imaginable, yet (c) they do not want to go there now. Go figure. 

Maharaj pointed out that there is something to be said for facing relative obstacles and enduring, but he did not stop there. He said: " . . . disease and suffering are not natural. There is noble virtue in unshakable endurance of whatever comes, but there is also dignity in the refusal of meaningless torture and humiliation." 

I had been asked, "But what is wrong with wanting to live? It seems wanting to live would be natural and that wanting to die or to commit suicide would be unnatural." 

The vision would eventually provide the answer: "Do not try to apply absolute rules to relative situations. Yes it is natural to want to live, but the point is that it is insane - and therefore unnatural - to find torture and humiliation and the indignity of various forms of endless suffering to be acceptable" and 

"Also, there are even other consequences as well: If you want to live forever, then you will believe the words of false prophets who tell you that you will live forever and that you will either be punished forever or rewarded forever. They will inspire you to try to live supernaturally, that is, unnaturally" and 

"They will ask you to give them large portions of your money for as long as you live. They will tell you that you must meet with them regularly so that they can tell you over and over and over again exactly how you should live and think and talk and behave" and 

"They will tell you that ancient myths and superstitions are fact, trapping you in ignorance and thereafter controlling you (a) by generating fear and (b) by dangling the carrot of the conscious-energy's desire for continuity and thereby controlling you via your desires" and 

"They will tell you that if you are 'good' - per their definition of 'good' - that 'you will then be blessed, now and forevermore'." 

The ego loves to believe it is 'good'; then, egotism promotes each ego-state to the rank of "better than," so it will be programmed to brag constantly that it is being blessed in order to demonstrate to all just how very good the bragger is (and how much better than others the bragger is, as evidenced by all of the blessings that he / she is receiving which they are not). 

Yet the vision made this clear: There is no one who has ever been blessed because there is no "one" to be blessed and because there is no "Blesser" to bless. Why is that so? 

Because elements cannot be blessed, air cannot be blessed, and energy cannot be blessed. And because energy / matter cannot be created or destroyed, there is no "creator" or "Creator," and since there is no "Creator," there is no "Blesser."

Consciousness - as a form of energy - will be forever; yet it will not know forever. It will know nothing after it is released into the universal field of energy. That is more of what the vision made clear. 

After days and weeks of reading and re-reading the vision and garnering one additional understanding after another from its content, I took a break. One day, I was lying on the couch listening to music when I was tossed up into a sitting position. I stood and raced to the room where the latest, most expanded, version of the vision sat on a desk and I began reading it again. 

At the end of that re-reading came the moment when the seven steps on the "path" became clear. At one time or another, Maharaj had discussed every element of the "journey" which the vision depicted, but he never once explained exactly how the seekers who came his way were to " . . . go back, reverse, to the source" or how they were to "follow the same path by which you came." 

It was clear that his teaching method was to point the seekers' focus in a certain direction and then he would send them away to sit in the quiet, tap into the inner guru, and realize - to bring into full consciousness - that which they had known originally but which had been blocked off via programming, conditioning, etc. 

Re-reading the vision again with the focus on understanding the exact, step-wise manner for " . . . going back, reversing, to the source" and "following the same path by which you came," it all became perfectly clear. To this day, the means by which seekers can find the steps are laid out here before them; however, in the fashion of my teacher, the final awareness of the steps is left for them to find. The steps are clear. They are laid out here for you. Merely follow the invitation that has ended the thousands of postings offered on this site: just "enter into the silence of contemplation." See. See clearly. See all. 

Then, several revelations that were emanating from the inner resource (that is, via the pure consciousness . . . the inner guru) came: 

Even as a young child whose age was measured in a single digit, you questioned the nonsensical dogma you heard in the religious venues you were forced to visit. As soon as you left home, you swore never to enter the doors of such institutions again. But then, in later years, just as happened with Maharaj during the early days of his marriage, you allowed a woman to pull you back. You compromised. You cratered. You focused on accumulating and you tried to share the message of non-duality along religion's message of duality. You turned from authenticity and, per her demands, you played with her the role of "The Super Religious One." And that phony role-playing continued until you became totally repulsed by the fraud that you had become and until you became completely sickened by the forfeiture of your inner peace, thoroughly disgusted with "self" - with the phony role. 

So that phase ended once and for all, but the remaining restlessness propelled you deeper into the role of "The Seeker." 

During that phase, you did it all. You made a second job of merely living. You assumed the role of "The Spiritual Giant"; you studied with those who had become millionaires off the non-dual teachings, specifically, those Maharaj would later warn you to stay away from, namely, "The Big Name Teachers." 

Like the millions of so-called "spiritual people" on the planet, you thought you had finally "arrived" at the end of "the path," believing that you had completed a "journey" that had, actually, not even reached the midway point. It was as if you had left Los Angeles to journey to New York, had reached Kansas, and has suddenly stopped traveling along the path to New York, delusionally convinced that you had already arrive in New York when you were hardly halfway there. You were mistakingly believing that Kansas was the end of the journey and that you had arrived in New York. How delusional. How deceived. How completely fooled you were as "they" who said you had arrived had fooled you once and then as you fooled yourself time and again afterwards by believing "them." 

You joined those that Maharaj spoke of who were playing their "kindergarten spirituality" games. You delusionally thought that you were enlightened, standing in the brightness of the noonday sun when, in fact, you had not so much as left the dimness of the dull dawn. 

Then, this came:

The vision should have made clear by now that if you believe that there is some version or element of "Floyd's Self" that is going to exist after this manifestation, you have not actually realized anything in fact. You have not been liberated - that is - freed from the subconscious influence of personality that drives your thoughts and words and actions. 

The revelations continued: The vision should have made clear by now that if you believe that there is some "Supreme Self" that is going to exist after this manifestation and that you will find that you are That Supreme Self as well, then you have not actually realized anything. 

Look at the end of the vision. What remains? Energy remains. Nothing that bears even the slightest comparison to what seemed to be "floyd" (or "Floyd" for that matter) remains. 

No god or gods were met. No judgment happened. There was nothing like the process when Nazis unloaded Jewish people from cattle cars at Auschwitz whereupon they were instructed with the pointing of a commander's finger to go left or to go right (meaning, "go to the work camp and live for a time" or "go to the gas chamber and die now"). 

There was no Commander / God / Supreme Being at the end of the vision that was pointing left toward a heaven or a higher reincarnation, and there was no Commander / God / Supreme Being at the end of the vision that was pointing to the right toward a hell or a lower incarnation. There was no Great Conductor orchestrating all of the events and happenings on earth and throughout the universe, and that realization explained why so many sour notes were being hit constantly all around the planet. Then, indeed, if that's the best the Great Conductor can come up with, should anyone be impressed? Should anyone continue believing in "Greatness" when the planet-wide results are consistently falling so very far short of anything "great"? 

Looking back at the vision, it became clear that, rather than all of the things that had been promised (or threatened), there was instead . . . nothing. To paraphrase Krishna, those who know that I - the Absolute (energy) - am beyond both beingness and non-beingness are wise. All others are fools. 

Then, Yes . . . the Nothingness . . . the Void. Next, "Wisdom is knowing that I am nothing." Yes . . . that's it! Nothing. Nothing now. Nothing later. 

Then this came:

"Now, take that back to the relative and overlay that understanding on the remainder of the manifestation. Be nothing. Abide spontaneously. Abide in a nisarga, all-natural fashion. Forget trying to live in a supernatural / spiritual / religious fashion. Forget living in that unnatural fashion where you made a second job of mere living, where you engaged into all kinds of "spiritual exercises" and did your so-called "spiritual work." Stop it! Just live simply and naturally, as does everything else on the planet except role-playing humans who are strutting about on the stage of the Theater of the Lie, totally lost in the dream of the planet and playing their roles for so long that they take them to be real. Stop it! Just BE! Whoa! 

Continued study of the messages available via the vision made clear a distinction between "ego," "ego-states," and egotism. 

The word "ego comes from Latin and means “I.” Specifically, it is the pronoun used by those who believe any false identity to be real. 

The wise see that the concept of ego becomes the source of perceived separation and the source of fighting to preserve image. 

An ego-state is that “state” in which a persona "exists," taking itself and false assigned or assumed roles to be true identities. An ego-state is always identified by placing a word after "I am" (such as, "I am a spouse"; "I am a lover"; "I am an employee," "I am a teacher," "I am spiritual," "I am religious," "I am an alcoholic," etc.) 

Egotism is one of the many ego-defense mechanisms used to defend an assumed ego (or false self). 

When an identity is assumed, that is, when an ego is taken to be a real identity by a person, that person will enter into an ego-state; when functioning from within an ego-state, egotism triggers and defends the false identity. 

Soon, with egotism at play, the ego - the false assigned or assumed identity - self-promotes itself to a "Super "role. 

In that process of egotism upgrading self, it automatically downgrades "others," so while the ego-state of "The Wife" only needs the codependent, counterpart player of "The Husband" for her to supposedly "exist," after being upgraded to "The Super Wife," she must have "A Super Husband" to fulfill the illusion of her upgraded role. The same happens when "The Husband" engages in a self-upgrading that is followed by a downgrading of his spouse. 

Any wonder that the divorce rate is so high when duality and role-assumption and upgrading and downgrading are at play? 

Any wonder that there is such widespread sense of separation and fighting and chaos on the planet when duality and role-assumption and upgrading and downgrading are at play? 

NEW SERIES BEGINS ON MONDAY: 

EVERYONE IS ON A PATH. DO YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY STEPS ARE ON THE PATH YOU'RE ON? 

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, TREATMENT, Part Ninety-Nine

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

THE ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION: 

The "love" vs.. "LOVE" Conundrum 

Earlier it was noted that, in the purest, non-dual sense, "Love" is a noun, not a verb. The vision (along with the understandings which came with the subsequent considerations which the vision inspired) provided a clarification - a new and different perspective - around some of the most-often misunderstood pointers, pointers dealing with . . . 

. . . Love vs. love; loving; loving all; the Oneness; and such beliefs as "You must love thy neighborhood"; and "You must love everything, seeing that 'it's all good'"; and "You must love everyone because we are all the children of the One True Father, God"; and "If you had been around in the 1940's in Europe, you would have needed to love Hitler, too"; etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. 

So many are trapped in the quandary of trying to reconcile all of those often self-contradictory (and impossible) dictates. During a period of quiet, while being totally open to any additional understandings which might come via the vision, a new clarity around the misconceptions and confusions generated by pointers regarding "Love" / "love" / Oneness came. 

The following was recalled as certain past pointers began rolling across the internal screen in a stream of consciousness manner: 

Maharaj made clear that there are two witnessing states: 

1. The first is rooted in duality, in the blocked consciousness, and it is called Subject-Object Witnessing, as in, "I (subject) see you (object)." "A" sees a "B"? That is duality. 

2. The second is called Pure Witnessing (or, as some call that Pure Witnessing, "The True Self"). Of course, the realized understand that there is no selfness or Selfness and that there is no "one" or "witness" or Witness."

What there is, post-realization (post-removal of ignorance) is clear seeing, is proper perspective, is witnessing accurately, and what is doing that Witnessing? A composite unity. Want to point to that relative composite unity which can function in a post-realization fashion with a term such as "self?" Fine, as long as it is understood that there really is no self and there really is no witness to do any witnessing.

There is merely the witnessing itself which is happening. Maharaj did say that "Love is knowing I am everything," but what he never said is, "You must love everything and everyone."

The vision offered a perspective which allowed me to be able to work with some who have been brainwashed and to free them of the nonsensical, insane beliefs which are being touted by some Big Name Teachers (to use Maharaj's term) who are the ones whose spoutings reveal the presence of the three key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."

I worked with a lady who came here for a retreat, trying to undo the brainwashing she had been exposed to by a particular Big Name Teacher who especially attracts addicts and alcoholics who pay thousands of dollars to spend a week or more with her. It was seen that, as always, the addictive behavior of the woman who came here was rooted in years of trauma, especially including the trauma caused by her having been raped.

So what did she tell me that the famous Big Name Teacher had advised?

She was told: "You must love your rapist. Invite him to dinner. Prepare a meal for him and serve him."

This is the same Big Name Teacher who says, "If you were alive during WWII and the Nazis tossed your child into a furnace, you should love that."

Then the woman gave my visitor the mantra she gives to all who will listen: "Love what is." That comes from a woman whose "recovery literature" advised, "Acceptance is the key" and who was taught to "Accept what is" and who then took those pointers to the greatest (and most perverted and most bizarre extreme imaginable); hence, her advice to "Love what is,"  be that the murdering of a child or a rape.

Let's see how Maharaj would have likely reacted had he heard her passing on that teaching which is at the heart of the BS message she is spreading: 

Because his translators and editors played the role of "Self-Appointed Guardians Of Maharaj's Reputation," they edited out of his oral talks in the loft and out of the written transcripts of his talks all of the profanities which he often used for to provide emphasis and to provide clarity and to offer a direct-and-in-your-face-and-let-me-make-this-as-clear-as-possible-fashion certain key pointers. 

Knowing some of the statements Maharaj made in the past, it is possible to guess what his response might have been to that Big Name Teacher if she had had come to his loft and suggested that "You must love everyone and you must love everything that happens to you and to everyone else throughout the relative existence and if you're raped you should prepare a meal for your rapist and invite him to come back into your home and let you serve him and if the Nazis pulled your child from your arms and tossed your baby into the flames of an oven and made you listen to it screaming and made you watch as its body is consumed by the fire, you should love that, too." 

Knowing that there were certain supposedly "obscene" words and phrases which Maharaj used more often than others, his reply to her would likely have contained the terms "totally insane bullshit" and "get" and "the hell out of" and "this flat." 

Seeing that allowed for a clarification to come in regards to those Maharaj tossed out of the loft, the ones who were only there to show off their accumulated knowledge ("learned ignorance," Maharaj called it) and to show off their assumed spiritual giantism. 

I have heard criticisms of Maharaj for those "tossings": 

"Did he not truly feel love all people?" 

"Where was the Love he spoke of?" 

"That showed the absence of a real understanding of the Oneness." 

First, what would show an absence of a real understanding of the Oneness - and an absence of the non-dual understanding - would be such comments by those persons who make Subject-Object" claims such as, "I love everyone." 

To explain further: 

In the non-duality-based adventure / mystery novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, one of the editors who worked for the publisher of that book 

interviewed me and then included that exchange at the end of the book. 

One question she asked relates to the subject matter of today's post. She asked: 

Editor: "I know that modern science is confirming this teaching, as in the new revelations regarding the ‘Field of Consciousness.’ But is this understanding you wrote about in this novel compatible with, say, the newest teachings in physics, such as the ‘strings theory’?" 

Floyd: "Absolutely. My Teacher said decades ago that science would one day catch up with the ancients’ understanding and prove that the teachings are fact. Such is happening. Since strings are the lowest common denominator of EVERYTHING, smaller than atoms, smaller than electrons, smaller than the mass of protons and neutrons at the core of electrons, then the understanding of the science of strings shows us that the only thing which makes you appear to be different from me—or from a piano, or from a tree—is the vibrational pattern of the strings. And since the strings are simply energy in movement, and since the strings know automatically what to do when they are manifested in a human as opposed to in a piano as opposed to in a tree, then the teaching of strings proves this Understanding, scientifically. We are consciousness-energy. We are all THAT, all the same, all one, with only appearances leading us to believe we are separate or different. We are not. Physics now proves that we are THAT, that we are all one. We ARE the strings, so to speak. Use whatever name you choose to refer to that one ‘thing’ from which all is composed when manifest. More recently, the strings theory had been modified by some who now claim that the ‘sparticle’ might be even more basic than the string. No matter. What is real is whatever that most basic, singular, non-dual ‘thing’ is, period. Now call That what you want, the truth is that Easterners have known for about 40,000 years that everything in the universe that is manifested or not is nothing more nor less than a manifestation or not-manifestation of That, of the one True That-ness. Call it ‘strings’ or ‘That’ or ‘sparticle’ or ‘energy with consciousness.’ That is All, and that is all there is." 

Does anything in the teachings suggest that I should "love" THAT? No. 

THAT is nothing more than a field of energy, of conscious-energy. The sun is a source of energy as well. Must I love the sunshine? No. Might it be wise to recognize the role it plays, the requirement that it is, for the perpetuation of life as we know it on this planet? Yes. 

Furthermore, does anything in the teachings suggest that I should "love" every person? No. One might as well suggest that I should love every mirage I see in the desert or while driving along a highway. 

The reason that all are invited to see the Oneness, to see that "we" - that all composite unities - are the same as everything less at its core is to interrupt the spread of ego-state and egotism-driven concepts which foster a sense of "different-from-ment" and which then foster a belief in a sense of "better-than-ment." 

And why interrupt the spread of those no-understanding-of-the-Oneness beliefs? Only to interrupt that which flows from those beliefs, namely, a false sense of separation and the accompanying conflict and chaos and disharmony and discord and lack of peace and war which evolve from those beliefs. 

As for trying to "love everyone and everything," the one with an understanding of the Nisargan yoga looks to nature for an example of what natural abidance looks like:

Here in this neighborhood where many deer roam about, there are certain adolescents who harass them. They chase them; they yell at them; they throw rocks and sticks at them. 

If it's that time of year when a buck is courting a doe for the sake of breeding, then those adolescents who try to mess with him when he's trying to attract a doe in heat may well find themselves racing for the shelter of their homes as the buck tries to impale them on the horns of its rack.

With that particular exception, however, the deer being harassed by the adolescents will typically just move away from them. The deer retreat to one of the many copses of trees where they can rest in the quiet and take it easy. 

So what do the deer usually model? This: 

They move away from irritating humans who disturb the peace so that they can, as Maharaj said, "Relax in the cool blue shade." 

Do the deer feel a need to love the delinquents? No. 

Do they hate the delinquents? No. 

The deer know neither of those concepts. 

But do they get the heck away from those types? Yes. 

Do the realized do the same when around those types? Often, yes. 

Do I feel a need to love those delinquents? No. 

Do I feel a need to hate those delinquents? No. 

Do I prefer to stay the heck away from those delinquents. Yes. 

Do I understand that "that which they really are is what I really am," too? Yes. 

Does that make me love to be around people like that? No. 

Did the realization process make clear that I, too, had been suffering from a major case of assholism for years? Yes.

Does that allow me to spot cases of full-blown assholism now when they are at play? Yes?

Do I now understand how assholism is passed down from one generation to the next? Yes.

Do I now want to hang out with those who are presently suffering from a severe case of assholism? No.  

Do I love them? No.

Do I hate them? No.

Does realization mean that, had I lived in Nazi Germany, the understanding would have led me to love Hitler and his fellow Catholic and Lutheran white supremacists? Hell no. 

Abiding as I do in the U.S., I witness on a daily basis the results of the fact that fanatical Christians and white supremacists and believers in eugenics joined forces to turn control of the country over to a bunch of other white supremacists who are now demonstrating on a daily basis what it is like to be trapped in the depths of the Ultimate Sickness. 

Does being realized ("freed of ignorance") mean that I must love those white supremacists and eugenicists? Hell no. 

(1) To realize, and 

(2) to understand the Oneness, and 

(3) to know that "Love" involves knowing that I am everything and that I share a common denominator with all 

does prevent my being driven by a different-from and better-than ego-and-egotism-and-BS-based set of beliefs; 

yet 

the realization and the understanding do not mean that I must practice a duality-based Subject-Object perspective which demands that I say, "I (subject) love those white supremacists (object)." 

All of the above clarifications came via the different perspective which came while considering the implications of the content of the vision and finally putting to an end once and for all the confusion surrounding the "love" vs. "LOVE" conundrum.

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, TREATMENT, Part Ninety-Nine

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS 

 THE ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION 

It was also made clear that the problems that seekers experience in their efforts to realize are not rooted in the natural, elemental brain. The problem, the vision showed, is rooted in the unnatural mind, which has evolved into something that is now, among the non-realized masses, most unnatural and abnormal. 

It was made completely clear that, while the brain and its capacity to understand are required, the mind is not required at all for nisarga, natural abidance, and is - in fact - a hindrance to natural living. 

The difference in the two became clear when this came: So the brain - and all of the parts of the body - are rooted in the elements; the consciousness is rooted in the Absolute; and the mind is rooted in conditioning, programming, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. 

The vision made these salient points clear: 

a. This present "you" is just a composite unity consisting of an elemental plant food body, air that is circulating in and out of the elemental body, and conscious-energy that is temporarily manifested in the plant food body and also circulating as well. 

b. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so what remains post-manifestation is distributed thusly: . . . the elements return to the universal pool of elements; . . . the air returns to the universal pool of air; and . . . the conscious-energy returns to the universal pool of energy (a.k.a., "the Absolute"). 

c. That energy, when originally in the pure, Absolute field of energy, was called "Awareness." 

d. Manifested, it is called "Consciousness" and soon loses its originally "pure" property as a result of programming, conditioning, etc. 

e. Upon returning to the Absolute, to the vast pool of Absolute energy, it can again be called "Awareness" for the sake of discussion. 

f. Awareness unmanifested is not "aware of" because it is not manifested in a body as consciousness and in a body with a brain that allows for conscious-of-ness. 

g. Once manifested as consciousness (which soon becomes blocked by programming, conditioning, etc.), consciousness becomes conscious of perceived dualities rather than the unicity, the Oneness, and its Original Nature; if Realization happens, then the unblocked consciousness can become conscious of its Original, Pre-Manifestation Nature as awareness, at which point awareness becomes aware of ItSelf for the remainder of the manifestation, eliminating any and all conscious-of-ness-based duality wherein an "a" is conscious of a "b" or wherein a "subject" is aware of some "other object." 

The vision made clear that one who would abide naturally and sanely and in a chaos-and-insanity-free manner must (a) abide under the auspices of the brain and (b) must be free from being driven blindly by the content of "the mind" (which is nothing more than a storehouse of all of the ideas and concepts and falsehoods and myths and superstitions - a.k.a., "beliefs" - that "they" have dreamed up over the millennia and that the masses in any given culture think are true, though they are not, and that "they" passed down to you and that "they" - the ignorant and insane - are repeating all around you every day). 

With additional consideration, contemplating the way that false identities are assigned (by parents, teachers, religion, culture, etc.) and adopted (assumed by persons as additional false identities beyond the ones assigned by others) it became clear why most persons have no desire to be truly independent, believing in their co-dependent concepts of "love" and "need" but knowing nothing of "Love." (Per the true non-dual understanding, "Love" is not a verb; it a noun.)

The vision, therefore, made clear the actual roots of "co-dependencies" which are fostered when roles are assumed (because no role can stand alone). 

It became clear via the vision that an "employee" needs an "employer" to supposedly "exist"; that a "spouse" needs a "spouse" to "exist"; and that all neediness and dependency and co-dependency is rooted in duality. 

The vision made clear via the shift beyond the third of seven steps that all role-assumption is accompanied by co-dependencies because no role can "stand alone" but must have another person assuming a counter-role in order to sustain the delusion that both roles are real. 

There had been so much confusion during the futile parts of what had been assumed to be "the journey." (There had been the realization early on that religion was offering nothing but myth-and-superstition-based nonsense, but it was assumed that surely the "spiritual path" had to be the right path to follow in order to complete the entire "journey." Wow! Did the vision clear up that misperception!) 

The reading of I AM THAT, touted as "a modern spiritual classic," contained what seemed to be some contradictions about "Religion? Yes!" vs. "Religion? No!" and "Spirituality? Yes!" vs. "Spirituality? No!" 

So the question came, "Has the 'proper path' been entered onto, or not?" 

Then after reading all of the talks available by Maharaj, there were other comments about spirituality that seemed to offer even more contradictions regarding this matter: He said, 

“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false” 

and 

“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world — everything — is disproved” 

and 

“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience" 

and 

"Whatever you think of as 'spiritual knowledge' was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery. It is nothing more than spiritual jargon" 

and 

"There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play" 

and 

"Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall a prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others" 

and 

"Forget spirituality" 

and 

"Follow your "normal inclinations" 

and 

"Just give up spirituality" 

and 

"Spiritual knowledge should not be studied." 

Suddenly, all of the confusion ended when his comments were viewed in light of what the vision showed, namely, that all religious and spiritual role-assumption and role-playing must end at the third step in order to complete the four remaining steps on the "journey" to Full Realization. Then, these other pointers from Maharaj regarding the transitioning of all spiritual-and-religious-role-playing at the third step made perfect sense: 

"Whatever you think of as spiritual knowledge was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery. It is nothing more than spiritual jargon. All your spiritual studies are conducted with your identification with the body-mind" 

and 

"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking', or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense" 

and 

"I appeal to you with my folded hands: don't get into this spirituality" 

and 

"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left" 

and 

"Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing - as life brings. What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way" 

and 

To another he pointed out: "In the course of your study of spirituality, you have acquired many concepts and you call that 'knowledge'." 

He advised that visitor to "throw out your concepts." 

It became clear why so many playing religious roles or assuming spiritual roles can becomes OCD still suffer what Maharaj called their "misery" and how they take "just living" and make a second job out of that with all of their "spiritual exercises" and "spiritual work" (which is what happened here prior to receiving the vision's message regarding "the good" third step roles that must be transitioned). 

It was seen why Maharaj eventually called for the abandonment of all spiritual role-playing and encouraged natural-nisarga-only-living instead, what with "spirituality" being another source of dependency which assures that persons cannot be independent and free. (And who that is not totally free can truly be content . . . can truly and consistently avoid the "misery" Maharaj referenced?) 

And the vision made clear that all - even including the intellect - is annihilated eventually. It became clear why Maharaj said, "This is the place where the intellect gets annihilated." That is, by the end of the "path," the intellect (the purpose of which was to provide "the capacity to understand") is also forfeited . . . no longer needed. So much for "jnana yoga" and the role of "The Knower" (who eventually takes himself / herself to be "The Super Knower"). Here, it is the Nisarga Yoga that is used in conjunction with the Direct Path Teaching Method in order to allow seekers to Realize and then abide naturally and simply without making a second job out of just living. 

The vision made clear that nothing known or learned is given any value post-realization; instead, all happens naturally, as is the case with the deer which, like the realized, have no need for learned knowledge or for intellect. They, like the realized Nisargan, abide naturally (which also means, in a mindless, mind-free manner . . . abiding naturally and spontaneously). 

Next, the vision made clear the delusion involved with a belief in continuity. One property of consciousness when it manifests is that it automatically desires continuity. As Andy Gugar, Jr. pointed out yesterday, the old saying is that "everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die"). 

Consider the confusion, then, among the masses who are plagued with a desire to live forever that is coupled with a fear of "death" while at the same time working for an eternal reward that might guarantee the consciousness-based desire to exist forever while simultaneously strapped with the potential of eternal punishment rather than reward. 

"Will it be heaven forever, or hell forever?" or "Will it be reincarnation, but in a lesser, lower form?" or "Which way will I be evolving through a series of births and rebirths - up or down?" 

The desire for continuity leads to bogus concepts such as "eternal life" and "heaven" and "hell" and "eternal rewards vs. eternal punishments" and "multiple births and rebirths." 

MORE ON THE UPCOMING SERIES: 

Every time I've been involved with the purchase of a house, I've gone to a title company for the signing of all of the necessary documents and the closing of the deal. They have always provided me with an amortization schedule listing every payment amount that I will be required to send to the lender for either 180 months or for 360 months; the date each payment will be due; 

how much of each monthly payment will be applied to reducing the principal owed and how much will be applied to the interest being charged on the loan; and what the ending balance will be on my account after each of those payments is made. 

They are very clear and forthright when identifying the steps I must take for the next 15 or 30 years in order to purchase the home being financed. In short, they tell me all of the steps up front that the process will require before I even begin. 

Likewise, before beginning a trip along a route I've never traveled, I can visit a website and put in my current location and my intended destination and they will provide a printable, step-by-step guide for my journey, identifying and numbering each step on the journey, town by town and mile by mile, which the journey will entail. 

Yet who that is a religious leader or guide will tell you in advance how many steps are going to be required on the journey they are endorsing? Hardly any, but their steps (depending on how long a follower lives) can number in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions. 

The main point: their plan for your journey is never intended to end during your lifetime. You will always be required, per their plans, to do this each day - or even five times per day - and do that several times a week and also do this each week and do this annually and do that throughout all of the days and weeks and months and years of your life. 

Or who that is a spiritual leader or guide or guru or sponsor will tell you in advance exactly how many steps are going to be required on the journey which they are endorsing? Few, but depending on the method being used by any given leader / guide / guru and depending on how long a follower lives, the actual number of steps required will be in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions, but never really just "12". 

Their plan for your journey is never intended to end until the relative existence ends. As is the case with a terminal illness, their various treatment plans for the Ultimate Sickness offer no effective and finale healing (or restoration to sanity and freedom from learned ignorance) but are merely stopgap processes instead. Their plans include no cures at all for what truly ails you, and some even admit that the most they can provide for anyone is "a daily reprieve." 

 Daily reprieves do not address the core causes of anyone's problems, and like addictive opiates, they only mask the symptoms (humans' pain and suffering) rather than eliminating the actual causes of humanity's misery and suffering. 

Some of you know that I told a doctor a few years ago who was passing on a not-especially-pleasant diagnosis that "My perspective is this: quality of life is key, and if that can't be, then I'm prepared to bid farewell to the remainder of an existence which can't offer that." He was shocked and said that "not giving up" and "being willing to fight for my life" and "staying positive" were vital to recovery. I chuckled and then smiled and said, "We'll see what happens, Doc. We'll see." 

That discussion was about physical, elemental plant food body issues, but on the journey when freedom and peace and unconditional happiness were being sought, similar circumstances prevailed in every venue I visited and with all the person I visited who were offering one method or another which they said would take care of what ailed me. They all lied. 

I reached a point where I refused to associate with any who were offering hollow promises and daily reprieves and more concepts and ineffective treatment plans which were being touted as "the best means" or "the only way" available for addressing the kinds of boredom or depression or joylessness or chaos or misery and suffering which are commonplace among the masses. 

I saw that some among the self-identified "non-dual teachers" (or Advaitin or Advaita Vedantin or Neo-Advaitin or Neo-Vedantin or Pseudo-Advaitin teachers) were claiming that their teaching method only required one step. 

I saw that Maharaj originally discussed seven different, sequential steps when using the Direct Path, SELF-Enquiry Method he initially recommended 

but that - later on - 

he made clear that taking only four steps using the Direct Path, (false) self-Enquiry Method would be "enough." 

No matter what way is being presented, you deserve to understand upfront - just as when one buys a house - what the entire process is going to entail; however, most seekers - religious, spiritual, or otherwise - are most likely to find someone offering a process which is, again, never intended to end. Most, instead, will endorse a method which only promises (but does not actually deliver) a 24-hour break from symptoms and which calls for daily work and daily reading and daily this and daily that for what ails persons; yet they never offer a complete cure. 

Many plans are also steeped in amazing levels of irony, so if one is suffering from the effects of a Dependent Personality Disorder, rather than addressing that mental disorder, their treatment for dependency is to recommend that you find . . . a new dependency! "Be dependent on the group or on a particular person or on God." What? 

How about being independent? How about being free, once and for all? How about then just being? "No! That won't work. No way," they say. "The way you are wired, you will always be dependent on something, so find something good to be dependent on instead of something bad." 

Were that plan recommended in the case of a physical sickness - "Just accept that we treat symptoms rather than causes and that you'll never be cured and that we don't have a viable treatment plan and that all you'll ever have is a short respite" - the wise would seek a second opinion, or a third, or a fourth. 

But with the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, most seekers go along with the "as-long-as-you-live-method" being offered by most preachers and priests and rabbis and ayatollahs and imams and sponsors and gurus and a host of other cult and sky-cult and cult-like leaders. 

Having tried most of the religious approaches and a variety of spiritual methodologies and a variety of supposedly "non-dual" methods, I came to a point where the seeking shifted and the search became one for something outside any and all of the established venues and beyond what was generally being offered. A vision also came which redirected the search to the inner resource and another level of clarity came. Here, that had to be the case. All else had failed. 

Having tried their methods of accumulating and learning more and more of what they were teaching, but receiving no relief from the Sickness, I was prepared for a different perspective, a perspective which offered for consideration the notion that - rather than learning more - maybe I needed to know a helluva lot less. 

Then the turning point came with the realization that "In fact, maybe I need to un-learn everything that I have ever been taught" and that "Maybe I need to see that it was all nonsense, all BS, and that - for a real change - I did not need someone who (like all the others) wanted to teach me more when an 'un-teaching process' was what was actually being called for." Eventually, I found that, and all seeking ended. 

Nowadays, I share what I found with the few that are interested in a similar, simpler, finite treatment plan for the Sickness so that the treatment can be received and so that the remainder of the existence can then be spent in mere beingness rather than in being entrapped in religious or spiritual workaholism and in all sorts of dogmatic and / or spiritual going and doing and zooming and toiling. 

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.

THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS: Causes, Symptoms, Aspects, Effects, TREATMENT, Part Ninety-Eight

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

THE ADDITIONAL, VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES WHICH CAME VIA THE VISION 

Elements of the vision continued to flash into consciousness for months after it initially came. The flashes almost always happened when in a theta state, dozing off or coming out of a deep, delta-level sleep. It was early on during some of those episodes that a backwards or reversed version of the vision began to play out. 

It became clear that after "going back the way I came in" from the Absolute on Leg Two of "the journey," I was now "going back" to the relative the way I had "come in" the first time when the consciousness was subjected to all of the insane programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination that now happens to all persons. 

Yet it was clear that going back to the relative on the Third Leg was different because I was no longer being subjected to programming, conditioning, etc. 

The vision made clear that on the third leg, the unblocked consciousness that now knew and understood the Awareness (which was now aware of itself - aware of Its Original Nature which is my Original Nature) would not be anything like the specks of consciousness which had been blocked and which led to a miserable relative existence. 

It was clear that (a) things were going to be different from the way they had been prior to completing the seven steps to reality and that (b) "Reality" (the absence of "learned ignorance") was going to be overlaid on the relative so that whatever happened would happen spontaneously and would happen as naturally and sanely and reasonably and logically as the relative existence of every living thing of the planet except for the non-realized (still-trapped-in-ignorance) human masses. 

Suddenly, a phrase that had only seemed to be understood took on a whole new level of meaning, namely, "as if living." 

It was seen after the vision that "as if living" is a style of living that the Realized exhibit, seemingly living just like most live but without personal attachments, delusions, and emotional intoxication. 

The vision made clear that it is the manner in which the Realized "finish out" the manifestation, meeting “responsibilities” and providing for the space (for the composite unity consisting of an elemental plant food body with air being circulated and with conscious-energy also being circulated) while knowing full well that what is called "this world" is nothing more than an imagining in the distorted perceptions of persons. 

It was seen that "as if living" consist of a lifestyle that is unencumbered with attachments and emotional intoxication and belief in the lies of the culture; a lifestyle free of game playing and image perpetuation; and a lifestyle unmarred by the emotions and emotional intoxication experienced by persons. 

It was seen that as if living makes possible a lifestyle during which those freed of learned ignorance can witness feelings rise and fall without experiencing any emotional intoxication and without reacting, over-reacting, or setting off a chain of reactions (as happens with persons). 

The vision made clear that as if living was going to provide a lifestyle free of the misery that is generated by the desires and fears of personas.

During the part of the vision in the cave when this came To your left and to your right drift millions of forms, and on closer inspection, You see that they are . . . You! Each looks to be a - clone maybe a transparent clone but a clone nevertheless - of You! what was finally understood was the non-religious, non-spiritual meaning of "atonement."

The vision made clear that it could more rightly be spelled, "at-one-ment." 

The vision made clear that atonement had nothing to do with "a reconciliation between humans and an imagined external power" (now seen to have been delusionally conceived by men and bearing the image of men and - in some cases - women and monkeys and elephants, etc.)

What came via the vision instead was a full awareness . . . of the at-one-ment, of the Oneness, of the unicity, and of the true unity beyond the misperceived multiplicity.

The difference in "love" and Love was made clear. 

That moment in the cave made clear that, indeed, Love is knowing that I am everything.

The dissolution of every one of the symbolic birds along the way in conjunction with the final dissolution at the end of the vision made clear that "wisdom is knowing I am nothing."

And it became perfectly clear as the Third Leg of "the journey" unfolded that, indeed, it would be between the two - between Love and Wisdom - that the remainder of my life (that is, the remainder of the relative existence) would move. 

Part of the days and weeks after the vision first came were spent in silent contemplation, and during those periods of silence, more and more became clear. One morning, "beginninglessness" came into consciousness and was understood immediately because the vision had already brought a reminder of the lesson taught in 4th grade science, namely, that "nothing is created and nothing is destroyed - all merely cycles." ]

Then this came: 

Whether the particles involved with the formation of "this universe" had "escaped from" or moved beyond the confines of an existing universe and manifested in an area that would be called "our universe" is not relevant. 

What became clear was the high level of ignorance at the root of centuries of religion-based theories about "creation" and "this world" and dogmatic arguments about who is supposed to "have dominion over it" (still on-going even today) and at the root of their arguments about whether or not everything revolves around the earth which was believed to be at the center of everything (a belief which was also based in xenophobic arrogance).

It became clear that if all cycles - which all does - then so must universes cycle as well. 

Then the words of Maharaj were recalled: "Entire universes are imploding and exploding every moment . . . " and ". . . universes come and go . . . ." 

It was also recalled that he said that which "he" is had always been and had, therefore, been present for the imploding and exploding of all universes. 

It was clear that none of that need be understood in order to realize, but it did make clear that one point must be understood if one is to move beyond the third step where the false identities of religious and spiritual roles are played: 

Since no creation ever occurred, no "Creator" exists; therefore, in this case, "a negative" can be proved, scientifically. 

What cannot be proved is that which is dreamed up by men who present only "their faith" as evidence of their claim that what they have conceptualized into their imaginings-based dogma is true. 

By the age of 5 and 6 and 7, I was questioning the lessons about God and Jesus and Heaven and Hell and creation and Adam and Eve and mass-murder-by-way-of-a-great-flood and all the other tales being set forth by Miss Myrtle (the Baptist Sunday School teacher of children).  

Finally, with the vision, scientific proof came that the doubts of a 5 or 6 or 7-year-old had been based in fact:

if all is energy-matter, and if neither energy nor matter can be created or destroyed, then nothing has ever been created; therefore, there is no Creator.

End of the story, and the end of ever again having to consider the stories . . . the myths . . . the superstition-based nonsense dreamed up and passed on by hundreds of sky cults over the millennia, many of which are still quite active around the globe even today, thriving with 97% of the earth's population believing their dreamed-up fiction. 

The vision made clear that the early doubts of a 6-year-old had been spot on. 

As for "beginninglessness," the vision made clear that because All has always been, infinitely, no beginning happened and no end will happen. 

The only thing that will come to "an end" is the composite unities - things that have come together during the relative existence but that will most assuredly come apart eventually. 

In fact, it is happening even now with this elemental plant food body: elements are coming together, elements are coming apart. "Skin" comes and goes monthly; "stomachs" are being replace throughout the month. Plant cells convert to humans cells, they are cast off, and more cells take their place . . . or not. Cycling. Cycling. Cycling. 

The vision made clear that infinity is infinity and was “as infinite” before the manifestation of the consciousness as it will “be infinite” following the unmanifestation of the consciousness. Thus is explained the "beginninglessness" (and also the "endlessness") of the energy-matter that is at play during the relative existence but that will return to the universal pool from it came and to which it has always eventually returned. See? Cycling. 

The second part of the vision made clear the role of the brain in Realizing and the role of "the mind" in preventing Realization. 

The vision made clear that "intellect" (meaning "that which provides a capacity to understand") is a requirement for Realization but that the content of "the mind" will prevent persons from moving beyond even the second step on the seven-step "path." 

The vision made clear that - with obvious exceptions of deformities - the brain at the outset is typically natural and normal; moreover, it is required throughout the manifestation for normal and natural functioning. 

UPCOMING SERIES: 

Every time I've been involved with the purchase of a house, I've gone to a title company for the signing of all of the necessary documents and the closing of the deal. They have always provided me with an amortization schedule listing every payment amount that I will be required to send to the lender for either 180 months or for 360 months; the date each payment will be due; 

how much of each monthly payment will be applied to reducing the principal owed and how much will be applied to the interest being charged on the loan; and what the ending balance will be on my account after each of those payments is made.

They are very clear and forthright when identifying the steps I must take for the next 15 or 30 years in order to purchase the home being financed. In short, they tell me all of the steps up front that the process will require before I even begin. 

Likewise, before beginning a trip along a route I've never traveled, I can visit a website and put in my current location and my intended destination and they will provide a printable, step-by-step guide for my journey, identifying and numbering each step on the journey, town by town and mile by mile, which the journey will entail. 

Yet who that is a religious leader or guide will tell you in advance how many steps are going to be required on the journey they are endorsing? Hardly any, but their steps (depending on how long a follower lives) can number in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions. The main point: their plan for your journey is never intended to end during your lifetime. You will always be required, per their plans, to do this each day - or even five times per day - and do that several times a week and also do this each week and do this annually and do that throughout all of the days and weeks and months and years of your life.

Or who that is a spiritual leader or guide or guru or sponsor will tell you in advance exactly how many steps are going to be required on the journey which they are endorsing? Few, but depending on the method being used by any given leader / guide / guru and depending on how long a follower lives, the actual number of steps required will be in the hundreds of thousands or in the millions, but never really just "12". Their plan for your journey is never intended to end until the relative existence ends.

As is the case with a terminal illness, their various treatment plans for the Ultimate Sickness offer no effective and finale healing (or restoration to sanity and freedom from learned ignorance) but are merely stopgap processes instead. Their plans include no cures at all for what truly ails you, and some even admit that the most they can provide for anyone is "a daily reprieve."

Daily reprieves do not address the core causes of anyone's problems, and like addictive opiates, they only mask the symptoms (humans' pain and suffering) rather than eliminating the actual causes of humanity's misery and suffering.

Some of you know that I told a doctor a few years ago who was passing on a not-especially-pleasant diagnosis that

"My perspective is this: quality of life is key, and if that can't be, then I'm prepared to bid farewell to the remainder of an existence which can't offer that." He was shocked and said that "not giving up" and "being willing to fight for my life" and "staying positive" were vital to recovery. I chuckled and then smiled and said, "We'll see what happens, Doc. We'll see."

That discussion was about physical, plant food body issues, but on the journey when freedom and peace and unconditional happiness were being sought, similar circumstances prevailed in every venue I visited and with all the person I visited who were offering one method or another which they said would take care of what ailed me. They all lied.

I reached a point where I refused to associate with any who were offering hollow promises and daily reprieves and more concepts and ineffective treatment plans which were being touted as "the best means" or "the only way" available for addressing the kinds of boredom or depression or joylessness or chaos or misery and suffering which are commonplace among the masses.

I saw that some among the self-identified "non-dual teachers" (or Advaitin or Advaita Vedantin or Neo-Advaitin or Neo-Vedantin or Pseudo-Advaitin teachers) were claiming that their teaching method only required one step. 

I saw that Maharaj originally discussed seven different, sequential steps when using the Direct Path, SELF-Enquiry Method he initially recommended but that - later on - he made clear that taking only four steps using the Direct Path, (false) self-Enquiry Method would be "enough."

No matter what way is being presented, you deserve to understand upfront - just as when one buys a house - what the entire process is going to entail; however, most seekers - religious, spiritual, or otherwise - are most likely to find someone offering a process which is, again, never intended to end. Most, instead, will endorse a method which only promises (but does not actually deliver) a 24-hour break from symptoms and which calls for daily work and daily reading and daily this and daily that for what ails persons; yet they never offer a complete cure.

Many plans are also steeped in irony, so if one is suffering from the effects of a Dependent Personality Disorder, rather than addressing that mental disorder, their treatment for dependency is to recommend that you find . . . a new dependency! "Be dependent on the group or on a particular person or on God." What?

How about being independent? How about being free, once and for all? How about then just being? "No! That won't work. No way," they say. "The way you are wired, you will always be dependent on something, so find something good to depend on instead of something bad."

Were that plan recommended in the case of a physical sickness - "Just accept that you'll never be cured and that we don't have a viable treatment plan and that all you'll ever have is a short respite" - the wise would seek a second opinion, or a third, or a fourth.

But with the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness, most seekers go along with the "as-long-as-you-live-method" being offered by most preachers and priests and rabbis and ayatollahs and imams and sponsors and gurus and a host of other cult and sky-cult and cult-like leaders.

Having tried most of the religious approaches and a variety of spiritual methodologies and a variety of supposedly "non-dual" methods, I came to a point where the seeking shifted and the search became one for something outside any and all of the established venues and beyond what was generally being offered. A vision also came which redirected the search to the inner resource and another level of clarity came.

Here, that had to be the case. All else had failed. Having tried their methods of accumulating and learning more and more of what they were teaching, but receiving no relief from the Sickness, I was prepared for a different perspective, a perspective which offered for consideration the notion that - rather than learning more - maybe I needed to learn a helluva lot less. Then the turning point came with the realization that "In fact, maybe I need to un-learn everything that I have ever been taught"

and that

"Maybe I need to see that it was all nonsense, all BS, and that - for a real change - I did not need someone who (like all the others) wanted to teach me more when an 'un-teaching process' was what was actually being called for."

Eventually, I found that, and all seeking ended. Nowadays, I share what I found with the few that are interested in a similar, simpler, finite treatment plan for the Sickness so that the treatment can be received and so that the remainder of the existence can then be spent in mere beingness rather than in being entrapped in religious or spiritual workaholism and in all sorts of dogmatic and / or spiritual going and doing and zooming and toiling. 

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 nearly 2,900 posts for any topics of interest to you.