“I AM THAT; I AM” or just “I AM THAT”? Part Three

An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Noneness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period.

F.: This which is called “floyd” by some—and that which is called “you” by many—is merely a triad of temporarily combined elements with air circulating into and out of a space and conscious-energy temporarily manifested within the space.

Regarding that energy part of the triad, wherefore this notion that the temporarily-manifested energy is “bad” and that the pre-manifested and post-manifested energy is “good”? Energy is energy and there is nothing any more dualistic about it than there is about anything else.

Consider this about energy: scientists have catalogued all of the changes that have to happen in order for the energy in the core of the sun to be converted eventually into electricity on planet earth. So how many persons would suggest that the energy in the core of the sun should be given higher status than the manifest electricity in a home?

If the flow of electrical power to a house is interrupted during a storm, the (distorted) perception is that a state of emergency exists if the interruption continues even for five or six hours. In such cases, the value of energy manifested on the planet—especially in the form of the electricity within any given house—is appreciated significantly, at least when it is unavailable for a time.

When it comes right down to it, the energy manifested throughout a house is valued far more than the energy at the core of the sun that is not manifested on the planet earth. Is it not curious how the opposite perception is so popular among many seekers who devalue the manifested conscious-energy while ennobling the unmanifested energy…or the THAT-ness?

Of course all misery and suffering among persons is linked directly to the programming and conditioning that corrupts or blocks the manifest consciousness. And of course it is the corrupted or blocked consciousness that fuels the illusions of ego as well as egotism’s support of illusory ego-states. But ego and egotism can also inspire the tendency by some seekers to assign special value to “Me as THAT.”

And yes, Maharaj did teach that there can be no liberation if one is attached to the concept of the I AM. Yet fish and deer and birds are "liberated" in that they are not attached to any concepts or personas; nevertheless, fish and deer and birds are very much aware of the Am-ness.

Relishing the post-Realization Am-ness, therefore, has nothing at all to do with the non-Realized’s attachment to the I AM; it has nothing at all to do with projecting a world; and it has nothing at all to do with blocking an ability to differentiate true from false.

The relative effects of the post-Realization Am-ness have nothing at all in common with the relative effects generated via pre-Realization Am-ness. For a seeker to dismantle the belief systems that have supported the false concepts associated with the pre-Realization Am-ness does not mean that the Am-ness itself must end. What ends is the limited and limiting identification with the Am-ness.

The deer does not think, “I AM.” It just IS. That is the invitation here: yes, Maharaj said to put to an end the belief in any and all concepts, but he did not say to put an end to the Am-ness. Nor did he say, in the end, that one should ultimately identify with The Ultimate. In the end, the message was to identify with nothing (which was, in fact, his very definition of wisdom).

[NOTE: Along the "path," there is admittedly a shift in identification with "this" to identification with "that," but if your seeking has ended with an identification with something special (or with any identification at all) then wisdom is absent.]

The discounting of the value of the pre-Realization Am-ness need not be applied to the post-Realization Am-ness; however, that discounting often happens. The invitation is to see that such discounting is an act based in the arrogance of those who have assumed some elevated status and now claim (a) not that they are nothing but that (b) they are “The Ultimate,” “A Supreme Self,” “godly,” or “God.”

There is as much nonsense and self-importance associated with those touting their enlightened state as there was when those same persons were embroiled in the nonsense and self-ish-ness of their pre-Realization state of Is-ness. The non-dualistic state is free of all beliefs, including the belief that one is “this” or one is “that.”

The deer which live in a nisarga (natural) fashion do not believe that they are anything, do not believe that energy “there” is more noble than “energy” here, and do not foster any notions about advancement, improvement, or “better-than-ness.”

Further, if one were to study objectively the history of this planet—or were to look objectively at the present state of relative affairs on the planet—they might conclude the following:

most of the relative problems on the planet have been generated by (1) those who think they have “made it” and by (2) those who believe they have “arrived” and by (3) those who have adopted “new and improved” false identities such as “The Devoutly Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant” and by (4) those who now take themselves—their “self” or “selves” to be—“The Ultimate” or “The Supreme” or “The Godly One” or “God” himself, herself, or itself.

By “The Void”? No. By “The Nothingness”? No. By “The Supreme This or That”? Yes, yes, yes. True, the manifest consciousness is overrated among the non-Realized, but the supposedly post-Realized state is often unjustifiably glorified as well.

Next, why even begin the “journey,” much less complete it, if the Am-ness is not to be enjoyed post-Realization? Misery and suffering are rooted in the conceptualized and conceptualizing Am-ness, true;

however, the non-Realized—attached to the illusions generated by the blocked Am-ness—share nothing in common with the Fully Realized, post-Realization specks that savor the remainder of the manifestation no matter what transpires (even as feelings are witnessed as they rise and fall).

Furthermore, a sanctioning of the post-Realization Am-ness should never be interpreted as an endorsement of the pre-Realization Am-ness. Moreover, to sanction the post-Realization Am-ness is not to contradict Maharaj’s pointer that the knowledge of I AM is nothing.

Maharaj was totally accurate in that regard. Note, though, that the deer has no “knowledge” of its Am-ness, though it is aware of its Am–ness (with no learning of higher or praiseworthy concepts involved).

This in not about “knowledge” of the Am-ness. It is about relishing in the beingness, in enjoying that which is natural, after the Am-ness is seen for what it is and for what it is not. The post-programming beingness is most unnatural; the post-Realization beingness is perfectly natural.

So why not just BE? WHO thinks that it is not good enough for her or him to just be in that state of beingness rather than subsumed in an unnatural (or supernatural) state of constant doingness?

Questioner: What is that state?

Maharaj: It is something like a deer taking rest in the shadow of a tree.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Now you can receive for $40 a downloadable computer file version of the same 7-hour satsang that seekers receive when they visit for the Advaita Retreat with Floyd. You will be guided through the seven steps from identification with the false "I" to the Absolute (and beyond).
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat

SIX WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:

1. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk Video (DVD) Set, or the same retreat available as a downloadable file. Either will provide an entire seven-hour retreat / series of satsang sessions showing three seekers being guided through all seven steps by Floyd and can provide viewers with an “experiential,” step-by-step series of satsang meetings that will move the viewers from identification with the I to abidance as the Absolute and then to abidance as That Which Is beyond

Some seekers are already using the computer file version and the DVD sets for meetings in groups in homes, playing the retreat, pausing for discussion, etc.

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DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat

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For the download, Paypal will send me a notice that payment has been received and then I will send by e-mail the downloading instruction, password, etc.

[It is recommended that you watch the video with pen and paper in hand. Write whatever you need clarified. You'll see that there are constant reviews and you might find an answer later in the seven-hour presentation. Then, after you watch it all, there will be a common ground for discussion. Purchase of the DVD’s or the file will include the right to clarifications and answers to your specific questions via e-mail.]

2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
[Those two prepare the seeker to question it all]
THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
[Begins to free the seeker of body identification and the desire for body continuity]
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
Purchase an e-Book now and begin reading it in minutes (except with e-checks that can take 7-10 days). Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
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3. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes
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4. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat for satsang with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally:
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

6. BY ARRANGING for floyd to travel to your location and meet with you or your group. Use the contact link above to discuss details.

THE MYTH OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. CONCLUSION: – SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

On the planet, all living things function effortlessly and naturally – except humans. Why is this? Bound by false identification with the personal / individual mind-body-personality construct, most humans are ego-intoxicated and driven by a fluctuating array of imaginary personas. In the natural world, the cannas in the garden, the baboons in the Nature Reserve, and the deer (an often used Advaitan benchmark) all function spontaneously and efficiently – all without a highly developed analytical and self-reflective mind.

When the consciousness is uncorrupted, as in the case of the baboon or the deer, there is no drive to improve, accumulate, outlive, or outsmart nature or biology. There is no impulse to graze on foods that are inappropriate for the physiological functioning of that species; and seldom is there an attempt to adopt addictive or destructive habits and behaviours that are not part of the natural, spontaneous choices that respect life, rather than eroding it. In humans, the consciousness is usually so corrupted that there is little or no understanding of what natural functioning may mean. So humans routinely:

• engage in destructive habits ... and develop addictions;

• eat foods that are chemically suspect and unhealthy....and develop chronic illnesses;

• act unconsciously based on the fears and desires of imaginary personas ... and live in the chaos that ego-driven reactivity produces.

Is it any wonder that this unnatural situation has resulted in people feeling that they are “not okay” and searching within a personal development movement that promises a solution?

(Note: However, even animals in the wild are exposed to the consequences of the corrupted consciousness in humans – which can have far reaching effects. In the book, A Primate’s Memoir: Love, Death and Baboons in East Africa, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky describes how members of a baboon troop attracted to a rubbish dump outside of a tourist camp begin to eat food that is not part of their natural diet in the wild and suffer the consequences of this unnatural behaviour. Why are the baboons exposed to unnatural food choices? Through the carelessness and greed of human beings driven by a desire to accumulate without a sense of integrity for the natural environment in which they are located.

A similar scenario is the recent shark attacks along the Cape Town coast. Cape Town has one of the highest Great White shark populations in the world – but there were very few shark attacks until recently. Environmentalists argue that the tourist shark cage diving industry uses chumming to attract sharks to give tourists their “wild in Africa” experience – and the chumming has affected the natural functioning of the sharks who normally feed on the abundant seal population. Again, people driven by the desire to accumulate behave in unnatural ways with the resulting chaos in the natural environment.)

When a person seeks to improve, develop, evolve, heal and fix, it is because he or she feels incomplete or not whole. Other words which often describe this feeling are: fragmented, splintered, shattered, not fulfilling one's full potential, unresolved, unfinished, becoming. There are wounds to heal, traumas to resolve, skills to acquire. There are chakras to open, loving kindness to develop, third eyes to open, auras of white light to project. Can You see these descriptions focus on the limitations of the separate individual. Can You intuit the underlying longing for wholeness? All humans intuitively sense the Oneness, the functioning of the totality, yet their faulty programming and conditioning prevents them from being it. As Maharaj says: “The real world is beyond the mind's ken; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes."

So – those seekers using the filter of the fictional mind to perceive the world dualistically will continue to seek to improve, develop, evolve, heal and fix. Usually, when these seekers believe they are successfully improved, developed, evolved, healed and fixed and have become personal development veterans, they will launch into the personal development movement themselves with their various trademarked products and seminars to improve, develop, evolve, heal and fix others.

For the Advaitan seeker then, the personal development movement is a myth – it cannot offer the freedom of true understanding. Rather than providing wholeness, it represents a net that binds – by entrenching the concepts that reinforce dualism and separation (often while pretending to do the opposite). “The net is full of holes”, says Maharaj. He points the way to the “hole-less” beyond with these words:

"Now, the perception of this truth [of no separate individuals/ no doers] must happen suddenly with the deepest conviction and the most urgent immediacy. It is not a matter of developing understanding through reasoning over a period of time, but it is a sudden shock of timeless apprehension, an instantaneous cessation of the mind process in which thinking is suspended and intuitive awareness dawns. Then, after this seed of apprehension has been planted and has taken root, the deliverance from the imagined bondage will proceed on its own course, in its own time. Once you are thoroughly convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the object with which you had identified yourself all this time is really only a phenomenon, having neither independence nor autonomy... that it is merely a dreamed figure, an appearance without substance, seen as a phenomenal object through the dualistic minds of other sentient objects regarding themselves as subjects... and that this shadow can have neither bondage nor liberation... then you as consciousness have become liberated from the mistaken identification you had been making. But if the least vestige of entity-hood hangs on, and you still think of yourself as a being seeking liberation, then you will not find it. As long as you think you are this apparatus and assume the burden of bondage and seek liberation, then liberation will be meaningless. Is it the apparatus that is to be liberated? Find out who it is that is seeking liberation. Discover the true identity of the seeker. It is not liberation but the seeker who is being sought. Find him and liberation will be waiting for you, for it was always there... it has never left you."

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

(For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – that guide You from the temporary fluctuating relative stance to abidance as Your Real Nature, see the links on the right hand side of this blog.)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com

THE MYTH OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. PART 3: – SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

In an October post, floyd said: “Understand that there is no self that needs protecting, but imaginary selves do seem to need many things to exist.” Applied to the personal development movement, floyd may have said: “Understand that there is no self that needs improving, fixing, healing, or developing, but imaginary selves do seem to need many things to exist.” Take that pointer into silent consideration, and if at any time you feel inspired to acquire, fix, evolve, deepen, develop and improve yourself, ask the more relevant question: WHO wants to acquire? WHO wants to fix? WHO wants to evolve? WHO wants to deepen? WHO wants to develop?

Understand – it is not so much the personal development movement and its emphasis on “improving the person” that we are deconstructing here. Rather, the myth of the personal development movement is offered as a pointer. Instead of dabbling in the external and the unreal, when the desire to improve or the fear of not being or having enough arise, the impersonal gaze can simply recognise and witness the pull of an imaginary self.

To re-examine an often-used teaching metaphor, imagine for a moment the cloudless sky. Perfect, white, “chocolate box” summer’s day clouds may float across the sky; or dark, rain-filled storm clouds may float by. Are the white clouds “good” or “positive”? Are the dark clouds “bad” or “negative”? Of course not – they are simply clouds appearing temporarily in the empty sky. The clouds are no different from the thought bundles that make up the imaginary selves.

The Advaitan Teachings tell You directly, You are the cloudless sky. You are not a cloud – neither a white, fluffy cloud nor a dark storm cloud. The clouds – whatever their attributes – appear in You. The clouds are fleeting, temporary, limited, constantly changing in appearance. You are permanent, constant, stable, limitless. Before the clouds appeared, You are the cloudless sky. While the clouds appear and float by, You are the cloudless sky. When the clouds disappear, You are the cloudless sky. Can the clouds harm or tarnish You? Can they improve You? Can they affect You in any way? Of course not. The very idea is absurd.

Now, to apply this metaphor to the personal development movement. Can You see that the teachers in the personal development movement are in the "Cloud Improving Business"? They offer You the allure and promise of permanent stabilization as the airbrushed cloud of your wildest imagination. WHO would be attracted to such a promise? Can You see now how these self-help marketers appeal to the desires of the imaginary personas?

You – the reader of this posting – what is it that You seek? If You are seeking for the freedom of Realization offered via nisarga yoga, use your discernment. Avoid distractions. It is not necessary to evaluate every offering, technique and teacher within the personal development scene. Instead, ask yourself WHO is attracted or interested? Locate and witness the imaginary self that senses lack and incompletion, and seeks to get and gain.

Read through the 1500 postings on this blog, and the transcripts of Maharaj’s dialogues with seekers in his loft. Anywhere, does floyd or maharaj advise you to search in the external relative world for teachers or techniques? Anywhere, does floyd or maharaj advise you to improve or develop yourself as a precursor to Realization? No. Instead, re-reading these texts, the invitation will be found again and again to be silent and to withdraw the gaze from the external and turn within. Again and again the invitation will be found to withdraw all false identifications – including with the identification as a human being, as evidenced by the two quotes below:

Floyd: Once it is understood that consciousness will witness purely if not blocked or contaminated or will witness inaccurately if blocked or contaminated, then no speck of consciousness and no temporarily combined set of elements and no circulating breath can erroneously believe that there is any such thing as having, gaining, losing, thinking, profiting, improving, beginning, ending, being born, dying, being reborn, being offended, or suffering misery.

Maharaj: You are not a kindergarten student of spirituality, so you must cease to think and speak as if you are a phenomenal object. You are the animating consciousness that provides sentience to the sentient being. But you are this consciousness only in manifestation. In truth you are that which is prior to consciousness itself. You are the pure Awareness. You do not need to be liberated. Liberation is a preposterous idea, for were you an object as you still think you are, then as an object you could never be liberated.

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

(For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – that guide You from the temporary fluctuating relative stance to abidance as Your Real Nature, see the links on the right hand side of this blog.)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com

THE MYTH OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. PART 2: – SITE CO-HOST: LOUISE STERLING

Outside the window is a bed of cannas – with their magnificent deep orange flowers and seriated pale and dark green leaves. Often, I observe these flowers noticing the relative “life stages“ – the new buds, the flowers in their perfect prime, followed by the inevitable withering, desiccation and decay of the blooms. Everything about the cycle of life or the life stages in the relative is revealed here. These life stages can be seen not only by observing the cannas in the garden, but also the troop of baboons that gather on the road at the Cape Point Nature Reserve, or the surging mass of human beings at the local supermarket.

From the vantage point of the impersonal gaze, these life stages are simply witnessed. Within the constantly changing field of consciousness, all life follows this predictable pattern: cycling into manifestation; temporary, manifest “identity”; cycling out of manifestation. The “identity” which may appear fixed and solid is actually temporary, fleeting, always fluctuating. There is nothing that can be perceived as permanent in this changing kaleidoscope of the relative life.
As floyd indicated yesterday, the conscious energy that cycles into and out of manifestation witnesses but cannot emote, grow, develop, evolve, feel fear, be empowered. The conscious energy is impersonal – without attributes.

Let’s examine the personal development movement from this impersonal vantage point. The process of personal development really means improving or developing the person – or persona. In other words, it functions at the level of personality. Essentially most personal development techniques label and identify a “negative” or “limited” persona and replace this with a “positive” and “empowered” persona. So, for example, the persona of the “abandoned child” may be replaced with the persona of the “golden child”. In reality, the net of thoughts that construct a limited persona are deconstructed and edited, and a new net of thoughts are adopted that give life to a new, improved persona. This is the technique used in positive affirmation type work, re-imaging, LGATs and even some types of psychotherapy. Can You see that these personal development techniques could be called: "Redecorating the Egoic Self" or "Plastic Surgery for the Personas"? They are concerned with improving or re-imaging a fictional self-identity.

Can personas be changed? Of course – they can be tweaked and re-shaped and re-tooled with various self-empowerment techniques. The Angry and Controlling Boss can become the Flexible and Visionary Leader; the Unassertive and Shy Employee can become the Employee Who is True to Herself and Speaks Up; the Domineering Parent can become a Good Listener and a Caring Communicator. The predominant personality type cannot be shifted – this is set in place usually by the age of six. However, every personality type has an actualized or empowered range – and the skills to navigate within this range can be learned and acquired. Perhaps on the surface, this appears helpful and useful. However, from the viewpoint of the Advaitan Teachings, the stance that binds one to body-mind-personality identification is a prison. Limited or “improved”, personas are still personality constructs – illusory forms driven by desires and fears. They are still ties that bind.

Yet, for many, the various personal development seminars seem to “work”. For some, there is a temporary rush that comes from resting in the gap between abandoning old patterns and ideas and replacing them with new ones. Instead of seeing that in the gap they are resting in their own true nature, the entranced seekers will assume that the techniques have “done the trick”. The world out there may look and feel different – for a time. However, there is still a fictional and limited self in place – a false identity driven by a net of fears and desires – and sooner or later this sense of being limited, separate, and splintered will re-emerge, and usually the seeker will sign up for the Advanced Course or the new Therapy of the Month – to obtain a fresh injection of temporary relief.

As Maharaj says: “The limited only is perfectible. The unlimited is already perfect. You are perfect, only you don't know it. Learn to know yourself and you will discover wonders.” And:

"The desire to find the self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges. Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward."

Is Your gaze turned inwards? Is the final desire to find the True Self what is driving You? Have You abandoned the endless distractions of the personal development and spiritual movements in the outer world?

(Note: For some seekers entranced by personality, the relative effects are such that psychotherapy, counseling and even medication are appropriate and necessary interventions. A degree of stability at the relative level is required for the liberation teachings of Advaita to be understood.)

To be continued.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

(For extending teaching on the Advaitan Understanding – that guide You from the temporary fluctuating relative stance to abidance as Your Real Nature, see the links on the right hand side of this blog.)

Comments / clarifications may be sent to louise.advaita@gmail.com