Dogma in Awakening

Podcast Transcript 26.6.2016
Speaker: Rohan
www.Rohan.life

So, dogma.

Do we have it in our life?

What is it?

From my perspective, dogma is something that exists in the consciousness of the mind that is not true. Another way of describing dogma might be a false belief. If we want to simplify further, we could say a belief. So really, we could say a dogma is a belief.

Because, anything we do not know for sure, has to be a belief. And, a belief is an agreement we have in our minds that we deem to be true. That does not mean it is true. We deem it to be true. If we have a very firm belief, with no experiential evidence, of this, we’re putting ourselves in a position where other beliefs can be supported by this belief. We end up with, over time, a matrix of beliefs within our consciousness, that actually blur the world incredibly. They dull the world, blur the world, and actually create suffering within the world. Suffering that doesn’t exist without the belief systems, or the dogma.

So, how do we know what’s true, and what’s not true?

Generally, it has to be our experience. There are some things that you could probably allow through that aren’t going to cause any harm, as in, okay, the earth’s round. I’ve seen enough photos from spacecraft and the like to give me the evidence to say that it’s round and not flat, which is my experience when I’m looking right now. Okay, the earth’s round. It’s not going to hurt us to believe in that.

But when we start having beliefs that, well, there are millions of them – but let’s just throw some examples around here; Somebody doesn’t like me, they need to like me; my parents need to be nicer to me; my boss needs to be nicer; there’s a god in the sky… All sorts. The list goes on and on... If I walk numerous times around a certain object, I will discover my true nature (god) in my consciousness; If I wash my clothes a certain way, this will happen. Unless these have actually happened for you, they can only be deemed as beliefs. There’s a belief that many, many have, that the earth’s ascending into a higher realm, and everybody’s suddenly going to awaken to their true nature, and there’s nothing for us to do but wait for it to happen as we head into a photon belt. Things like this. I mean, there’s a very small possibility this is accurate, but my goodness, it’s very small and I’m not holding my breath. Let’s assume something like this, is accurate– it might not happen for lifetimes, or millions of years if it’s going to happen at all. So, it’s definitely of no service for us to have these belief systems.

Such belief systems actually stop us from doing the work we need to do, to go back to what we truly are, and always have been. The removal of all the false things, that are overlaying this truth, within.

So, what is covering up within? Our deepest knowing of self, and our deepest being, where we are one?

Well, dogma.

Believed dogma.

Beliefs.

From my perspective, even if a belief is true, it is still dangerous. When it’s not a belief any more. It’s truth; once we’ve proven it.

But I put all beliefs aside on my journey – every single belief had to go.

Every single belief I had, had to go.

And this can be tricky because some beliefs we’ve had for so long within our nervous systems, that, there is no doubt in our mind, that it’s real, true.

It’s not even considered. It is just how it is. It’s just how the world is.

If you are born in a certain culture, say Japan, there’s this certain prerequisite toward honour and the way you conduct yourself in society. For many people, that is just how it is. But, you go across to the other side of the planet to North America, and it’s not this way. The Japanese will think and say the Americans are wrong, and the Americans will look at the Japanese, and think they’re crazy. The Japanese will think some of the American beliefs are crazy, and on it goes, and so on, and so forth. And there’s our wars; there’s our mass killings. Destruction and trauma.

So, for somebody that wants to wake up, all cultural, family, personal beliefs, even religious beliefs, have to go. The only belief worth having that’s not our experience, is the possibility of returning to a very deep level of our experience, that merges with Beingness, or God. That is; Beingness, God, Emptiness, Brahma or whatever label we prefer. The only belief worth having is that we can return to that (Emptiness).

Every other belief is in the way.

So, in an earlier text, I discussed that “there’s nothing to do”, and the problem with that philosophy for 99.99999% of the population- who haven’t quite done the work to be there yet. So, that probably includes yourself – don’t be fooled. Usually when I tell people this, they think it’s the person next to them, or behind them, that this information is for. But, it’s for just about everybody that hasn’t done the work. Which is just about everybody.

So, doing the work is removing our belief systems, and some of them may be more obvious than others. But, a lot of them are deep in our subconscious– deep, deep, deep in our subconscious. So deep, they’re unattainable in the short term. They arise over time. They arise as you remove the ones that are existing in your consciousness, these ones will then start to surface.

It’s very much like an iceberg, which is 80% under the water. A giant mound of ice in the ocean, and you can only see the top of it. The top of it is our consciousness. What’s under the ocean is our subconsciousness. So, we’re only going to be able to see the beliefs above the water. With the light of truth that we’re turning upon the top of the iceberg above the water. We can liken that to the sun melting it. So, as the sun melts the top of the iceberg, the subconscious or the iceberg under the water will start to rise up, and that will be exposed to the light of inquiry. Searching for our belief system can be called inquiring. Or self-inquiry. We’re inquiring now. We’re looking.

Everything I say is a label, or a group of labels. So, let’s call it looking, observing. Some call it hunting, you have to hunt the belief systems. Hunt the belief systems within.

These belief systems, are basically what’s keeping us in prison. Every belief system is a metal bar, caging us.

In the Toltec system, they have a name for systems of humans are not free, and they have a name for humans that are free. Free humans are called Naguals. In Buddhism, it would be a Buddha; in Hinduism, it’d be a Brahma, or a Brahman, or a Sadhu, Swami – there are numerous names. Toltecs have a name for people that are not awake to their true nature and imprisoned by these invisible belief system bars.

They call it a human-ero. A human-ero, translated, is what they call chickens in a coop, that provide eggs and food. They use chicken-ero for humans, they call them human-ero’s, or humans in a chicken coop, or humans in a coop, or in a cage.

So, it’s a caged human. The cage is made up of our belief systems. It’s a matrix that we’ve created in our mind, that is blocking our true nature – it’s a net, a cage, blocking the light that we are.

So then, the next question becomes, how?

If we’re interested at all…

It’s a lot easier to do nothing and just forget about this– what I’m saying; to go back to normal life, and keep distracted. Keep busy. Very safe, very easy.

But, the problem with this is suffering, unhappiness. Until anyone has experienced what true happiness is, that comes from an awakening experience, what they believe happiness or peace is, is generally far, far lower than what it truly is.

So, the word suffering, or unhappiness would probably be used by somebody that’s awakened to their true nature, for somebody that hasn’t.

It’s a low-level vibration (suffering), continuously, which may appear to that person to appear to be okay.

“I’m feeling okay.”

“We’re not great; we’re not bad,”

“We’re kind of happy”.

But to somebody that’s awakened, it’s not happy at all... It’s a different scale altogether. So, the easiest thing to do is to disappear back into the world– keep busy with business, family life… etc.

Some things have to be done. They’re important. It’s important to have an income and look after the family, the children, and take care of everybody. That is not separate.

But, we can do it mindfully, examining why we are doing everything.

Do we need that extra income, really, that’s consuming us, and making us stressed or unhappy? Do we need to be drinking that drink that’s making us intoxicated? Why are we doing it? Why?

The question “why” arises. “Why?” has to be asked for almost everything that’s not essential to our existence.

Why am I doing this?

Why is it so?

Why am I reacting to this?

Why do I feel this way?

What happened?

What changed?

I was okay before, now I am not. Why?

Did I do something that changed how I feel?

Did I think of something that changed how I feel?

Did somebody say something to me that changed how I feel?

We look!

Now, the problem is, we can do this and do this and achieve quite a good result, and make some really strong progress if we are diligent, if we are truly dedicated. Trying hard, working hard. Trying hard effortlessly, working hard effortlessly. We never strain, ever. Never be a closed fist, that’s another cage. And we might want to ask why we’re tense there as well– why we’re pushing so hard. We can get so far this way, but as I’ve said before, the challenge is, and this is what I’ve discovered - its very easy to get lost on side tracks – very easy. I learned a tremendous amount about many amazing traditions – I spent years of my life heading off in the wrong direction, thinking I was in the right direction. Absolutely certain I was in the right direction until, at some point, I would be feeling unhappy again, and things were going wrong again. I couldn’t understand it.

What really helped me, and straightened my path, to almost a taut rope, was being under an awakened master, who could see every false path, and every false turn I was trying to do, because my mind wanted to survive. It doesn’t believe that it shouldn’t be operating all the time – it believes that it should be operating continuously– that’s its belief. Which is also false. I currently exist with minimal thought, in deep happiness and contentment almost all of my waking moments, or moment, and with hardly any thought.

I’m more efficient than I used to be, and make less mistakes. I still work fixing things: I’m a mechanic by trade. I love working with hand tools and power tools. I fix my home. I do a lot of this work – my skills in this area have increased dramatically since I slowed my mind down. I was able to function from a deeper space. I never would have believed that possible. I heard about this, and my teacher was telling me this. It took me a long time to experience it, and I wouldn’t believe it. I learned not to believe anything, even when my teacher was telling me. I trusted him, until is was my truth. But it was still in a maybe column. Everything was in a maybe until I understood it myself. And this is the best way to take everything I say to you. Unless you already know what I’m saying to be true, it’s a maybe, and that’s perfect.

Don’t just believe me.

Don’t believe anyone.

Do the work.

See if it's true.

Feel within.

Hunt the false.

As per a previous discussion, if you want to progress faster and you’re truly dedicated to awakening, find an awake master that can pull your path straight.

There’s no faster way. I see so many people just reading the words of masters that have passed on from their bodies– and that’s a trap too. Because they can believe they’re making progress. And they may be making slight progress because the mind can interpret past words in so many ways. But it can get lost as I did in so many ways. It’s almost impossible to wake up without a guide because they know the language that you are trying to learn. It’s a hidden language, and you need to be taught that language.

What does it look like? What does it feel like? What is this? What is that?

There are many false languages also. There’s a language of silence and beingness, and it’s very different from the language of the world– very different.

To think we can read the text of masters, and form a little group, and awaken, is just not in touch with reality. It’s a very dangerous belief system for people that really want to awaken. Belief systems are everywhere. Almost every thought we have, has a belief system behind it. It’s why we need to honestly look in this direction. I can only speak from my experience, and you may not agree with this, and that’s okay too. I can only tell you the truth as I see it. It is my intention for people that are listening to me to make progress. I really would like people to hear what I’m saying and discover the beauty that they are. There is nothing more important for us to be doing. Nothing. It’s whether we know that or not. It’s the only decision for interpretation– Do we know what’s important, and what’s not?

As my teacher used to say, “Truth first, always.” I discovered from that teacher that everything else in my life is taken care of from that teaching. Because the truth is compassionate. It does care. It is heart; it is love. Everything else is taken care of. So truth first means hunting false belief systems, or dogma. And once that’s completed, truth first will mean a different thing, because it never stops.

This is stage one of the program of awakening. If there is to be a program, getting rid of the false is the first step. And the first step starts with the first step, and that can only ever be in the now. So, the first step of the whole process is removing dogma, false belief systems. Trust me when I say that you’ll have many things you are so sure are certain, so certain that it’s just how the world is to you, that are within that are actually belief systems. It’s remarkable once you start playing this game, – and it is a game, and if you treat it as a game, you can stay light-hearted. Have a laugh sometimes at the ridiculousness of it all, at the craziness of it all, and make it a game, and enjoy the game. It’s a game of hunting where nothing’s getting killed except the false, and the false didn’t exist to begin with, actually. It’s actually a lot of fun once you get the hang of this. And once you start getting some really solid “ah-ha” moments. Like “oh, wow” – that’s encouraging. It just becomes a way of life. And, it’s a nice way of life.

It’s best not to go on and tell everybody what you’ve discovered, and that’s my experience too because people will not understand if their belief systems are what yours used to be. And they’re not seekers. They’re not hunting the truth. They’re not hunting Buddhahood, awakening, or emptiness. They’ll actually probably try to stop you, or control your beliefs, and actually argue and get in the way. As we discover it fully, our consciousness will actually start to go beyond those that we usually associate with, and we’ll have to be okay with this too. And, hopefully, find other people who are on the same path, or are ahead of us a little bit, or, the ultimate, a master. Because the journey will be hard alone. You’ve probably been hanging out with people of the current consciousness you’re at now. As it rises, it will be more and more difficult, to stay with these consciousness’s. They can still be your friends, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s wise to find people on the same path. Of that, I have no doubt.

So, if you want to awaken, it’s about doing work.

You cannot pray yourself awake. You can not “do nothing” yourself awake. It’s a removal process of what’s imprisoning us;

They’re beliefs;

They are dogma;

They are within.

Happy hunting.

Happy looking.

May this help somebody.

​May all beings be happy.