F.: Occasionally, a departure from the typical posting format on the site is taken in order to process a higher-than-usual volume of e-mail. Astute visitors are nevertheless able to find pointers that are relevant:
Direct message to Janice: You are looking for a sense of congruity. The inside is not matching the outside. You are working diligently to maintain a false image, while not really making any concentrated effort to be free of the image that you have developed. You might consider the Advaitan path to Realization, or you might not. Peace and Light, f.
Direct message to Awinita: You are certainly welcome to “cling to the words of the medicine man and visit him daily,” but that action prevents total freedom and complete independence. As a "grandson of a Cherokee," that path was one that “floyd” followed to nowhere prior to realizing via the Advaita message. Certainly there was a time when the Cherokees and those among other tribal groups comprehended the Original Understanding fully. Today, after being introduced to alcoholic poisoning after the decimation of most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the average lifespan for a native male is now 45 years. The message that Grandmother understood has been lost to almost all, most medicine men included. (WHO wants you to keep coming back daily, forever?) What Grandmother understood fully was the same understanding that can come via the teachings which are offered on this site. As "a healer" who used herbal treatments while offering truth and wisdom, she did not want the sick who came to her to stay forever. She offered treatment and truth and then sent them on their way. "Keep coming back" is advice offered via some ego-state that has an agenda. "Go and be free" has a more valid ring to it, does it not?
EXCERPTS FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hey Floyd, I have been working on Self Realization. [After Realizing] what is the reason for staying here and doing anything? Do you have a book or do you offer counseling to help through this stage? Thank you for being on the web search when I was looking for an answer. With love and gratitude, Laurice
F.: Hello, Laurice. An interesting "journey" for you so far, n'est-ce pas? Now to complete it so that you can enjoy AS IF LIVING. (You can search the site for an explanation of that AS IF LIVING term.) As for an appropriate book, you are now ready for FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE which you can order at http://www.floydhenderson.com/. As for “Why go on, once realized?” I recommend that you read the postings to Vigneshwar from November 13, 2006 to November 21, 2006. As for counseling, no counseling is offered, but telephone or face-to-face Advaita sessions are being offered in light of continuing requests. You can see what is available at the “Advaita Vedanta Retreat” link on this page.
Relatedly, to Dan who wrote: floyd I found your site several weeks ago. I was so excited that all of my efforts might finally come to an end as a result of finding what I’m finding on your site. I think I am so close to breaking through the final barriers to realization. I am sure you have obligations and it seems you’ve given up conducting satsanga, except for a few times a year, is that right? Anyway, I have a sense that if I could sit with you for a short time, I could clear the final hurdles. Would it be possible to visit with you? I would cover all expenses of the trip and I would be glad to compensate you for whatever work and income you might lose if you were to take off for a few days to answer my questions and guide me to the end of this path. Please let me know if there is any way that is possible. Hopefully, Dan
F.: Dan, you can also visit the link to the right for information on scheduling an Advaita retreat.
FROM TWO SITE VISITORS: [Two e-mails were received recently that basically asked the same question]: “I ordered one of your books, and I know if I really 'got it,' I would not order any others. But I want to read the rest of what you have to say. What’s the answer?”
F.: As I explained to another site visitor recently, "These books are ‘useful’ to the degree that they present concepts that are intended to remove all concepts (the Advaita ‘use thorns to remove thorns and then discard all the thorns’ teaching.) Where most books are written by authors with the intent of presenting information so that you can accumulate more knowledge, these books have no author and suggest de-accumulation instead. The consciousness speaks and then invites all to be free of all. While consumed with the ‘quest,’ 'i' read until it was seen that the readings were not resulting in Realization. Once it was understood why none of the books which had been read could have ever led to Full Realization, the re-purified consciousness allowed the writing to replace the reading so that proteges can now read a clear-cut set of directions that can facilitate the shift from belief in the 'I' to abiding as the Absolute." Peace and Light, f.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: hey Floyd, I AM really liking your book, FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. Intent next month is to buy the essence of the teachings, and some others. My question to you is how long in psychological time did it take you too lose all personas, beliefs and see pure truth and does the body and mind ever get invollved with your Self?
F.: As for "time required," decades were wasted in the search for more, inspired by the erroneous belief generated from a conditioned “mind” that concluded, "There's got to be more than this." When Advaita offered a contrary consideration—that less is more—then the "path" began to be followed. In the book you ordered, "the seven degrees of separation from reality" are explained, as well as the means by which those can be transitioned so that abidance as the Absolute can happen. When those "degrees" came into awareness and were transitioned, then, the final "event" happened instantaneously. As for body-mind, those illusions are given no more credibility than any other concepts. As for “does the body and mind ever get invollved with your Self?” first, there is no “your” Self or “my” Self. There is no possessor, no “one” to have a Self. I AM, I AM THAT, period. One might as well ask, “Does a mirage ever get involved with its desert?” Is the pointer behind that question understand? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
