MAHARAJ: “I Talk to You from the Perspective of the Universal Consciousness,” Part Twenty-Nine

Today's Considerations

Maharaj said, “I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness.” So the question now is, “From what perspective do you talk?” Maharaj said that no one meeting him outside the loft would ever assume that he is different or that he is aware of something that most are not. If not with a seeker, he spoke in a not-uncommon manner and conducted himself in a totally not-uncommon manner fashion. He abided naturally, in an all-normal manner.

What about you? Are you talking in a way that sets you apart from others? Are you wearing garb and accouterments that are intended to distinguish you from the masses? Are you praying in public to show what a highly religious or ultra-spiritual being you are?

Most do not want to hear your philosophy or mine. Most could care less about any esoteric and noumenal topics that you or I could discuss. In fact, all that is a total turn-off for most persons. Do you feel you have to share some "message" constantly, or can you merely witness objectively what is happening and abide naturally?

True, if he was dealing with one who was totally asleep, then Maharaj could well talk to them in a manner that was intended to jar them out of their sleep; otherwise, he assumed a position of neutrality with all persons he dealt with outside the loft. 

 

Maharaj: “I am detached and see the passing show as a passing show, while you stick to things and move along with them.”

What about you?

Do you feel the need to use your talk to shock or jar or shake people to try to awaken them? Many sages have noted that the last thing that people in a state of deep sleep want is to be shaken and awakened by you or me or anyone.

Some might recall a poem shared in the past. Please consider its message:

"If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again" 

by Diane Loomans

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self esteem first and the house later.
I'd fingerpaint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd model less about the love of power,
And more about the power of love.

What about you? Can you relate to someone who has been able to see clearly that a totally different approach from the one being used in the past is available? That would indeed require a different perspective in most cases, would it not? You are invited to review the pointers in the poem and then consider:

Can persons dealing with you expect finger pointing . . . or kindness?

Maharaj: “To sit in judgment and allot marks is ridiculous.”

Can persons around you expect to be corrected . . . or understood?

Maharaj: “Understanding is freedom”

and

“Be neither master, nor slave'”

Might persons around you suffer a look marked by angry, narrowed, squinting eyes . . . or might they enjoy the benefit of compassionate witnessing of how they feel?

Maharaj: “Just be understanding and compassionate, free of all self seeking.”

Are persons around you likely to find one who takes everything far too seriously . . . or someone who can relax and take it easy?

Maharaj: “You take it [life / “this world”] too seriously. What is wrong with play?”

Are persons around you likely to see someone forever standing ready at his or her battle station . . . or might they find someone who could not care less about having power and fighting for it?

Maharaj: “We are complex beings, at war within and without.” Have you rid yourself of that kind of complexity by having found simplicity?

So what’s it really like being in a "relationship" with you? If you are sharing a common roof with someone, what’s that like for a mate or spouse? Is that place you come home to – or that others come home to and join you there – a place that is considered a retreat by all . . . or is it a battleground where a war for control is always under way?

Maharaj: “Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control and all responsibility.”

When someone arrives at home at the end of a day’s work and reaches for the doorknob to open the door and enter, are they wondering who will be on the other side of the door? Are they asking themselves, “Will it be Ms. Hug or Ms. Slug who greets me?” / “Will it be Mr. Hug or Mr. Slug who greets me?”

Have you built, and are you now maintaining, a safe house or a strafe house?

In college, I crossed paths with a kindred spirit - an independent type who had also dealt with far too many abusive, authority figures in her home and church and community. Having escaped those environments, she was for the first time ever beginning to grasp what it is like to be truly free. As a result, I told her that I was going to nickname her “Bird.” As the band Lynyrd Skynyrd sang: “I'm as free as a bird now / And this bird you'll never change / And this bird you cannot change.”

Other than the awareness, nothing is as free as the universal consciousness. It can manifest anywhere or it can manifest nowhere. Are you that free? Are you free enough that you can accept others being that free as well?

Maharaj: “What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in the mind only. Of course, as long as you imagine yourself to be in control, you should also imagine yourself to be responsible. One implies the other.”

And what a pain that is for anyone and for all those around that one.

To be able to see that and understand that does require a new and different perspective.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. 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.]

MAHARAJ: “I Talk to You from the Perspective of the Universal Consciousness,” Part Twenty-Eight

Today's Considerations

Nowadays, there are persons who travel to Mumbai and pay an entrance fee to visit the loft and “commune with Maharaj.” They have far too many beliefs which trap them in their warped perspectives to understand that their actions are totally contrary to what was taught by the one they have paid a fee to “commune with.”

Many believe that the loft is “another of the many places on earth that are holy” or that “the loft is now, as it was back then, a spiritual center” or that “the loft is one of those holy places to which all non-dual seekers should make a pilgrimage to at least once during their lives.”

Maharaj: “All desires, ‘holy’ and ‘unholy,’ come from the self.”

It is only a false self who would make statements about “holy places” and who would do what some other "Maharaj fans" do nowadays, namely, visit the room where a handful of his ashes – collected after his funeral pyre cooled down – are enshrined. There, those also trapped in a false self identity (1) visit a handful of earth elements and (2) bow to those ashes and chant and clap in the presence of those ashes.

As for Maharaj’s take on guru-bhakti, yes, he did begin with that, but he later abandoned it. While he adhered to the direct orders given by his guru early on, he stopped following most of those instructions later on. In a single pointer, he dispelled as well as the notion that THAT should be worshipped or focused on either:

Maharaj: “The sadguru, the eternal guru, is . . . the road itself. Once you realise that the road is the goal (and that you are always on the road not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom), life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”

[Yes, "life ceases to be a task," and that is why the invitation here includes a different perspective: "Stop with all the religious work and spiritual exercises and seeking. Stop making a second job out what should be mere living."]

[See? Maharaj's eventual message tried to re-focus seekers on what can change NOW during the relative and tried to re-focus their attention away from anything post-manifestation since there will be no WHO to be aware of anything after taking mahasamadhi.]

He said: “Running after saints is merely another game to play.” To one attracted to visiting "holy men," Maharaj asked: “How will you know who is great and holy? By hearsay?”

It’s all nonsense, persons crying and emoting in a loft or in a room with ashes, and Maharaj would have been the first to say so if he were to have the opportunity nowadays. Yet nonsense remains and continues to generate emotional intoxication (which again was the opposite of what Maharaj’s was offering):

Maharaj: “Emotional reactions, born of ignorance or inadvertence, are never justified.” Rather than seeking out the four walls where Maharaj sat or where some of his ashes are on display, consider a relevant recommendation he offered at one point: “Break down the wall of ignorance first.”

Later on, he modeled shifting away from a guru’s orders and basing what one shares in one’s own “experience,” so the message (or "approach" or "focus") changed as Maharaj eventually

(a) "evolved" beyond what seemed to be an absorption in guru-bhakti, god-bhakti, and jnana yoga;

(b)  shared fewer pointers which were merely "Siddharameshwar, Part Deux" and which became more of a "Pure Maharaj" message;

(c) behaved in ways that were based more in "the experiences" of Maharaj than in the guidelines and "commands" issued by Siddharameshwar; and

(d) "evolved" into "Maharaj the Giver of a Psychological / Nisargan Message."

Those are more of the perspectives here that differ from the perspectives held by the masses. So, in the book below entitled “A Different Perspective,” some of the different perspectives offered in the loft there and in the electronic loft here are shared, including those in the following passages from that book:

There is no such thing as peace of mind; there is only peace if you are out of your mind. Why? Because the "mind" is a storehouse of fiction, myths, superstitions, false concepts, bogus beliefs, erroneous ideas, etc. How could such content not cause problems when it subconsciously controls people and their thoughts and their words and their actions?

Charlatans and religious leaders and spiritualists and pseudo-Advaitins and those "on the circuit" whom Maharaj referred to as "the Big Name Teachers" are all accumulating fortunes as they promote and peddle the various plans which they claim will provide "peace of mind." They may as well be claiming that have "Perpetual Motion Machines" for sale because "Perpetual Motion Machines" and "peace of mind" are both illusions. There is only peace if mind-less.

The typical "mindset" of many seekers (as well as the "mindset" of many of those claiming to be "knowers" or “jnanis”) can be illustrated via the words and actions of one man who has assumed the role of "The Super Seeker" . . . along with many other roles. He came here for a retreat, flying into the city after spending a week in Central America where he paid a man $1,000.00 a day for five days to "teach him to breathe." It was asked,

F.: "You just paid a man $5,000.00 to teach you to breathe?"

Visitor: "Yes."

F.: [Laughing, joking, but in a way that proved to be totally unacceptable to the visitor]: "Who are the others you have paid, the others who took your money to teach you to eat, to swallow, to digest? Did you pay someone as a child to teach you to suckle, or did you simply suckle?"

V.: "Don't get smart. Of course I knew how to breathe before I went, but I did not know the right way to breathe in order to shift into a peaceful state."

F.: "There was no attempt to 'get smart.' There was a question that arose spontaneously - rooted in the Nisargan understanding - intended to assist you in seeing that nothing which is natural need be taught or learned. Only that which is unnatural or supposedly supernatural is taught or learned. What is required for abiding naturally you already have."

V.: "Regardless of your opinion, his method worked. I have never been so at peace in my sixty-plus years." [That was said in a way which showed that it was anger - not peace - that was beginning to boil to the surface.]

F.: "Then it must be asked, 'Why are you here?'"

V.: [Raising into the air, reverently, his copy of I AM THAT - which he said he now carries with him everywhere he goes - he said]: "I was very impressed with the spiritual message in this book, but I have been living according to the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for decades and am trying to reconcile the two . . . maybe find what both have in common and expand my consciousness to an even higher level."

[At that point, he was asked if he would be willing to hear some different perspectives and if he would be willing to consider those objectively. When he said "Certainly," the following was offered . . . with no conviction at all that he was actually and "certainly" ready to consider objectively any pointers that ran contrary to his firmly-fixed, supernatural / spiritual beliefs]:

F.: "First, to that book you're carrying about as if it were your bible or some other type of holy test: how would you feel if you learned that Maharaj eventually discounted the value of that book and its contents and even stated on occasion that his preference would have been that it was his later talks - not the earliest ones in that book - which were being circulated widely?"

V.: "I would not believe that."

F.: "Maharaj said, 'That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period.' He also said, 'I am speaking differently today' and he said, 'I am emphasizing different aspects'."

V.: [The only reaction was a blank stare, not unlike a deer caught at night in the middle of a road in the headlights of an oncoming car.]

F.: "As for 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' you evidently hold in high regard his wisdom and his talent for passing along his wisdom to you and to others?"

V.: "Yes."

F.: "Yet he does not even have the wisdom to understand why hurricanes form where they form and go where they go. He claimed that Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans because of 'the negative karma of the people there.' Do you really believe that it is evidence of wisdom if someone erroneously assigns a supernatural cause to what is merely a natural event? Or would the actual wisdom be shown by those who explain, scientifically and factually, exactly why Hurricane Katrina formed where it formed, why it followed the path it followed, and why landfall occurred where it occurred? At the end of his teaching career, Maharaj would teach that 'holy' and 'unholy' are just false and dualistic concepts, so he would give no credibility to such a title as 'His Holiness'."

V.: "I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I'm not going to sit here and listen you to defame His Holiness."

[With that, he picked up his copy of I AM THAT and stormed out in anger. No, there was no suggestion that he come back, sit down, and make use of newly-purchased breathing techniques to restore his peace.]

The exchange is offered to illustrate the presence of all of the perspectives and beliefs that the Nisargan understanding will eradicate. The man was exhibiting the typical behaviors that come with the assumption of "new and improved roles" to replace one's former "bad" roles.

Now, he is "The Consummate Seeker," "The Super Spiritual One," but also "The Very Restless One" who is engaged in the search for the sake of the search. To the contrary, the result of Realization, combined with the Nisargan (natural) understanding, is this:

At some point, all of the searching can end, all of the playing of "this super role" or "that super role" can end, and natural abidance can happen simply and spontaneously. [Again, Maharaj said: “The sadguru, the eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realise that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”]

The visitor showed the miserable, costly, peace-interrupting alternative: rather than resting in a state of concept-less-ness, the visitor was so attached to his concepts that he became ready to fight when invited to consider being free of his concepts and the distortions that they were supporting;

and rather than enjoying a state of duality-less-ness, he is sure that some persons are holy, that some persons are more holy, and that some persons are unholy;

and rather than abiding in a peaceful state of belief-less-ness, he was being driven to roam the globe in search of externals and persons who would pile more beliefs onto his pile of already-accumulated beliefs rather than allowing a guide to direct him to that which is already within;

and rather than abiding in a state of mind-less-ness, he was constantly filling his mind with more and more of the concepts and ideas (beliefs) that had already proved to be useless, though his clogged "mind" and blocked consciousness would not allow him to see their uselessness;

and rather than functioning in a Nisargan (natural) manner and abiding in the peace of a state of identity-less-ness, he was spending a fortune in a globe-trotting effort to reinforce his currently-assumed ego-states and to acquire even more.

His case is not rare; in fact, his case is often witnessed. Most reach the third step (of the seven-step "journey" which is shared here) and then fixate at that third step which is the step where religious and / or spiritual roles are played. In the end, Maharaj offered a rarer perspective: “Give up all your spiritual work and just be.”

That requires either seeing “what you are not” or requires completing the four steps beyond the first three. That requires being free of the partial understanding that paralyzes the masses who are trapped by their beliefs and dogma at the third of seven steps where they practice what Maharaj called "their kindergarten level spirituality" and where they “stand in the dim light of the dawn while thinking that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun.”

Eventually, the following perspective - which differs from that held by some other non-duality seekers or teachers - can result: If the non-dual understanding comes in tandem with the Nisargan understanding, then no notions about "more-ness" will come at all; instead, all that does come will involve "less-ness," including:

concept-less-ness,

duality-less-ness,

belief-less-ness,

mind-less-ness, and

identity-less-ness.

 

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. 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.]

MAHARAJ: “I Talk to You from the Perspective of the Universal Consciousness,” Part Twenty-Seven

Today's Considerations

[Continued from the two previous posts]

On 24 March 2015, moments after it reached its multi-mile high cruising altitude, Germanwings Flight 9525 began a descent which within minutes would result in it crashing into the side of a mountain and killing all 144 passengers and 6 crew members on board. Why? Because co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (who had previously been treated for depression and suicidal tendencies and who was suffering from major personality disorders and neuroses and psychoses and who had been declared "unfit to work" by a doctor) was nevertheless at the controls of the plane.

Lubitz programmed the auto-pilot feature of the aircraft to descend, turned control of the plane over to that auto-pilot, and then sat back and let the auto-pilot feature determine everything that happened with that plane from that moment forward. What does that have to do with the topic presently being discussed? A great deal, because what happened with that plane is what happens to every person on the planet:

All persons on this planet begin their “journey” with someone else in charge, be it a parent, parents, or persons assuming the parent role; be it other family members or friends or neighbors; be it someone associated with a religious institution (that being the case with 97% of all persons on the planet); be it a teacher or politician or community leader or business leader; be it a lover or spouse, ad infinitum.  

Those persons were in charge and at the controls; they are the ones who set the programming features in place for every child; and it is that programming – along with conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination – which will determine everything that the vehicle (the composite unity) does throughout the relative existence.

Co-pilot Lubitz’s programming etc. was so insane that it resulted in a lifetime of insane thoughts and words and actions, so his actions with the programming of the plane’s flight controls were equally insane and guaranteed that an insane fate would be shared with all those around him. 

He - like billions of person on this planet - was set up early on for a descent, a descent that took him into the darkest levels of the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which Maharaj said marks and mars the lives of those trapped in the Ultimate Sickness; which led to misery and suffering and depression and suicidal tendencies; and which is a metaphor for the way that the lives of the “non-Realized” masses unfold.

No one nowadays escapes the programming, and no one escapes the results of being programmed, except for the few who realize, that is, for the few who realize, “Wait one damn minute! I’m been on this planet for just over 42 years” (the average age when any person who is going to snap to the truth usually does so) “and I look back at the decisions I've made and see that 95% of them were totally insane, totally self-defeating, and totally self-destructive. I must either change or die because I cannot stand to live that way for another minute! I could not have been any dumber if I’d cut my head off!”

[Actually, cutting off the head is one way to end dumbness. Another is

a. to realize; that is,

b. to see the dumbness (and the externally-imposed ignorance and the externally-imposed insanity);

and then

c. to take the steps required to be free of the effects of programming etc. which combine to set persons on a descent into the depths of the Ultimate Sickness where they will suffer the symptoms of that Sickness, including, ignorance, insanity, delusions, distortions, warped perspectives, unclear seeing, illusions, misunderstandings, misapprehension, misconception, confusion, bewilderment, emotional intoxication, the programmed and conditioned tendency to adhere to unquestioning and unquestioned faith; and the desire to accumulate.]

           

And what do those symptoms lead to? All of the misery generated by chaos and turmoil and upheaval and instability and commotion and mayhem and disorder and by mistaking mirages and images and fallacies and fantasies and myths and superstitions and false impressions as reality.

Regarding the way that programming, conditioning, etc. set persons up for the crash, Maharaj said that “realisation is primarily the knowledge of one's conditioning and the awareness that the infinite variety of conditions depends on our infinite ability to be conditioned.”

As for acculturation, he said: “If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking.”

The irony: Most will never even know that they are sick. The Ultimate Sickness is like hypertension (high blood pressure) in that both can be called “silent killers.” Most persons who have low blood pressure know it because the body signals that state via such symptoms as dizziness or lightheadedness or unsteadiness or blurred vision or confusion (which are also some of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness).

On the other hand, most with hypertension and most with the Ultimate Sickness will likely never know that they have either one, so most with the Ultimate Sickness are not ever likely to seek treatment. Maharaj said that most “are not awareness of ignorance.” He said, “You do not realise that your present waking state is one of ignorance” and he warned that “you are cheating yourself in your ignorance of your true motives.”

For the most part, the ignorant do not know they are ignorant. Maharaj made that point directly when he said: “An ignorant man is ignorant of his ignorance” (though there are many like those alluded to by President Obama who, tired of the absurdities being spouted by his critics, said: “It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”) Similarly, the insane do not know that they are insane.

Yet Maharaj was spot on about persons lacking an awareness of their true motives. Why? Because true motives are almost always hidden from persons because their thoughts and words and actions are being determined by the hidden, subconscious agendas of their false identities.

During childhood, every person on this planet - just as was the case with Flight 9525 - is subjected to the most ignorance and insane programming, programming which removes all ability to make conscious choices. They are all set on auto-pilot, causing persons (1) to be driven unconsciously by the insane beliefs placed in their minds via insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination and causing persons (2) to be driven by the subconscious agendas of the false identifications which they have been assigned or which they assume.

The result: they are set up for a constant descent until they crash and burn, and many are so adept at putting a spin on their reality that they deny that they are headed to a crash (or have already crashed). The descent will take them through layers of clouds that obstruct their vision and give them a false perspective of themselves and “others” and “the world”; through layers of misery and suffering; through layers of failing to find Real Love and settling for Love’s illegitimate cousins named "infatuation" or "obsession" or "a craze" or “passion” or "fascination" or "false love" or "selfish love" or "dependent, self-serving love."

As an “antidote” to the Sickness, Maharaj recommended a sort of abidance which unfolds under the auspices of an “auto-pilot mode,” but the auto-pilot he spoke of is not one set on a course that will guarantee a descent into chaos and instability and misery; instead, the one he spoke of is the auto-pilot mode of the inner guru or the inner resource which can receive talk originating from the universal consciousness which speaks sanely, not insanely. The manifested consciousness can be blocked and programmed and conditioned, etc. – as can a human mind – but the universal consciousness functions autonomously and sanely.

Maharaj: “What harm is there in making automatic what is habitual and repetitive? It is automatic anyhow. But when it is also chaotic, it causes pain and suffering and calls for attention. The entire purpose of a clean and well-ordered life is to liberate man from the thralldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow.”

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts follow. 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.]

MAHARAJ: “I Talk to You from the Perspective of the Universal Consciousness,” Part Twenty-Six

Today's Considerations

[Continued]

Yesterday, a discussion began regarding exactly what traps humanity and what, therefore, gives humanity a longing to be free (whether there is an awareness of that entrapment or not). Of course at the core of entrapment is a planet-wide attachment to duality and dualistic beliefs and the subsequent insanity which comes when one’s entire relative existence is marred by inconsistency and incongruity and ambiguity and conflict which are guaranteed to come when the madness of self (and therefore self contradictions) prevail. And to deal with those who are mad (insane) can be maddening as well to those who have no skills to use when dealing with madness (often including their own).

 To that end, Maharaj said: “What is supremely important is to be free from contradictions.”

To review the specifics of the trap:

The trap in which humanity is snared can be pointed to with the term “The Ultimate Sickness” or it can be pointed to by referencing the symptoms of that Sickness: ignorance, insanity, delusions, distortions, warped perspectives, unclear seeing, illusions, misunderstandings, misapprehension, misconception, confusion, bewilderment, emotional intoxication, the programmed and conditioned tendency to adhere to unquestioning and unquestioned faith; and the desire to accumulate.

And what do they lead to?  All of the chaos and turmoil and upheaval and instability and commotion and mayhem and disorder those generates. Add to that the tendency among the masses to mistake mirages and images and fallacies and fantasies and myths and superstitions and false impressions as reality.

Next, consider that ignorance, insanity, delusions, distortions, warped perspectives, unclear seeing, illusions, misunderstandings, misapprehension, misconception, confusion, bewilderment are all involved with personality identification and the belief that one’s roles define who one is. For persons to believe that they are something or someone that they are not is the epitome of insanity . . . of being out of touch with reality.

For those who find the “search for Self” to be far too esoteric and abstruse and “highbrow,” Maharaj provided the relief of a “Plan ‘B’,” saying that “it is enough to know who you are not.” So he said: “By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly” [if free of all false identifications].

Persons' longings to be free can never be fulfilled unless they understand what is trapping them, and the assumption of false identities is one of their major traps. Of course personality identifications go hand-in-hand with mind identification. All concepts, ideas, notions, etc. (a.k.a., “beliefs”) are stored in the mind, and each of those serves as one of the bars which makes the prison in which persons are trapped.

Thus Maharaj’s invitation to “Study the prison you have built around yourself by inadvertence” (inadvertence referring to humankind’s tendency toward being inattentive and heedlessness and witnessing with misapprehension, that is, having a tendency to walk in one’s sleep while thinking one is awake).

He said: “Within the prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension.”

He advised: “Grasp that you have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination - based on memories, on desires and on fears - and that you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.” He said: “Everyone creates a world for himself and lives in it, imprisoned by one's ignorance.”

Actually, here, the point is that it was your programmers and conditioners and acculturators who created a bogus concept of a world and passed that - and their supposed “knowledge” (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”) - along to you. That was done without any choice on your part, and if it continues, it continues because you still have no choice, any more than you can choose to have “nightmares” rather than “sweet dreams” during your sleep.

Only if fully awake can you have the ability to choose, and only if free of their ignorance and their beliefs can you choose wisdom and sanity and allow those to replace the nonsense that was passed down to you.

And, yes, that takes some action, and it also takes some actions guided by one that has been successful at becoming freed from all of the nonsense that was stored in the mind without any option to say, “No thanks” (though Personality Types Fours do have a propensity to go that "thanks but no thanks" route. All others with a capacity to understand have the potential to develop that propensity and, if exercised, freedom can come).

[But "guided actions"? Yes. Maharaj said, “To escape from prison one must unquestioningly obey instructions sent by those who work for one's release.”]

Maharaj’s recommendation regarding what is required for freedom to manifest: “You [and, originally, "they"] have put so much energy into building a prison for yourself. Now spend as much on demolishing it.”

How to shift from (a) "mind-based-ignorance-and-insanity" to (b) wisdom? He said: “To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation, is the dawn of wisdom.”

The dawn does not allow for the full brightness of enlightenment which arrives with “the noonday sun” that Maharaj spoke of, but that dawn is the beginning.  

So many suggested to Maharaj and now suggest to me that there is no way to be free of the mind. Really? And that is said to two that were both free of the mind? It could be so simple:

Everything in the mind can be grouped into one category: “beliefs.” To be free of the content of the mind, simply reject all beliefs. They are not yours anyway. They are “theirs” – the beliefs of those who programmed and conditioned you. But actually those were not their beliefs, either. They were passed down to them and can traced back originally to people who were trapped in the darkest ignorance during the darkest ages.

The question therefore is not, “How can I get rid of ‘my’ beliefs?” but should be, “Why in the hell would I for even another single second consider hanging on to 'my' beliefs? Each of those beliefs has always been one of the bars of my prison. How insane would I be to say while imprisoned, ‘Oh guard! Hello? I must alert you to the fact that I have been shown the source of my imprisonment and misery and suffering and how to escape; but instead of escaping this very instant, for some crazy reason I think I should point out to you that the bars of my prison are about ready to crumble, so you better reinforce them - right now - or I’m outta here’!”  

And that is why so many - when they come here and hear their beliefs being challenged - run back to their programmers and share what they have heard or read which contradicts the nonsense that they were taught so that the programmer can reinforce their beliefs and reassure them of the value of their beliefs and to stay away from anyone who invites them to question their beliefs which they blindly accepted originally without any questioning at all.

They will assure you that "what we told you is true and anything to the contrary is false." Of that, Maharaj said: “The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind.”

He said, “The true teacher, however, will not imprison his disciples in a prescribed set of ideas, feelings [that is, emotions] and actions; on the contrary, he will show them patiently the need to be free from all ideas and set patterns of behavior.”

This has often been offered: “Here, there is no one who believes anything, so it is impossible that there could be anyone here who wants you to believe anything.”

That is the difference in the pointers offered by Maharaj (and now offered here) as opposed to what is offered by every religion and sky cult and dogma-teaching institution; by every spiritual movement and supposedly-spiritual group; by every philosophy; by every ideology; by every cult; by every creed; etc.

And that is the difference in being free vs. being dependent, co-dependent, trapped, and imprisoned.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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