Saturday, March 31, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Ten

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Three factors cause persons to attach to their false identities, to be driven to fight to defend their false personality / personalities, to descend into the depths of what some professionals term “an unhealthy psyche,” and then to suffer the effects of personality disorders. Those three factors are (1) stress, (2) extreme piety or spirituality, and (3) the linking of money / income with a persona.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: your mind/memory series is interesting, but I don’t get the exact connection with the direct path you claim to offer.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: To clarify for the sake of the one who sent the above e-mail, consider: there’s a regular visitor to this site who had prostate cancer. If the passing of blood had not happened, he would have never known the problem so he would never have sought the solution. This series is identifying the root of the widespread problems of the planet in order that site visitors might (a) better understand the cause of their problems and also know that (b) the Advaita Teachings offer a solution.

While many would dismiss other persons as “insane” if they disagree with them, most behavior that appears to be insane is actually rooted in personality. So that is the problem. Then, knowing the problem, one might be willing to seek the solution, namely, Realization. For some, the direct path offered on this site or in the retreats being offered again will "work" for some persons; the traditional path might work for some seekers; and other, newer approaches might work for other seekers. The solution is found when the suitable "path" is followed to its end.

So, the problems of the planet are, for the most part, rooted in “personality conflict.” That is a term that is typically used to minimize the reasons that a "relationship" "failed," but the term can be used accurately in light of the statistics posted yesterday: while up to 5% of the planet’s population was shown by research to have mental illnesses, 99% have personality disorders. As evidence, one estimate is that 99% suffer from ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, click

Friday, March 30, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Nine

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Psychiatrists and psychotherapists attempt to treat mental illnesses. Realization offers the treatment for personality disorders.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: So to differentiate between behavior that is driven by mental illness as opposed to that which is driven by programming and conditioning and enculturation, it must be understood that taking personas to be actual identities results in personality disorders which only look like insanity to the objective witness; nevertheless, personality disorders do block the cognitive functioning of the brain. Further, personality disorders block the natural and normal functioning of the brain and body far more often than do mental illnesses. The results of a study of global mental illness by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School, as reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association, reveal that from 1 to 5 percent of the populations of most of the countries surveyed had serious mental illness.

By contrast, estimates are that 99% of the earth’s population suffer from one or more personality disorders; thus, as Advaitin sages have taught for centuries, the relative existence problems of the planet are rooted in personality. Realization offers the opportunity to eliminate most of the problems of the planet since they are rooted in personality, not in mental illness. When diagnosable mental health problems reach a level of seriousness that is labeled “clinical,” then a mental illness exists and professional intervention and treatment are indicated. Advaita cannot treat such conditions; however, those mental illnesses are very different from personality disorders, and personality disorders can be addressed and eliminated via the understanding that is attainable by way of the Advaita teachings. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists attempt to treat mental illnesses. Realization offers the treatment for personality disorders.

Since personality disorders are far more common on planet earth than are mental illnesses, then a logical approach would involve this: when insane-type behavior is being observed, look first to determine if ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, click

Thursday, March 29, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Eight

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Psychiatrists and psychotherapists attempt to treat mental illnesses. Realization offers the treatment for personality disorders.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: “Mind” and “personality” cannot be separated since the former generates belief in the latter. The latter, in turn, generates all emotional intoxication. [Search the site for “feelings” vs. “emotions.” The short version is, while the Realized can witness feelings rise and fall, only ego-states—only assumed personas—emote. When personas believe that they are experiencing some slight, hurt, threat or interference, a series of actions and reactions are inspired that trigger emotional intoxication as well as destructive and/or self-destructive behavior.] When persons are trapped in the agendas of their false roles, then emotions will always overwhelm cognitive functioning, so now a new pointer is available:

It has been seen that the “mind” can override the constructive functioning of the brain; now it is seen that persona-generated emotionalism can also subdue the manner in which nature had originally intended that the brain should function. Now the degree of wisdom behind the Advaitin pointer that one must relinquish identification with the “mind” and the personality as well as with the body becomes clear. Review the evolution of the brain in regards to this latest understanding:

Humanity functioned with a mind-less brain for thousands of years. The brain evolved, developing an area for storing memories and an organ that could retrieve memories. Those two areas of the brain were intended to help humanity survive and to behave constructively. No personas were taken to be identities.

As language developed, information being stored in the brain was less and less of the character of things observed and became filled more and more with the remembering of things told. To observe a friend who touched a burning log, to see his pain, to file away that memory, and to recall that memory when next in the presence of a burning log produced behavior that would be considered “sane.” To the contrary, to observe crops dying as a result of the lack of rain, and then to be told that the rain is being withheld by an angry god who wants a priest to fornicate with a virgin and who wants the priest to cut out her beating heart with a sharp-edged rock and pass it through the crowd during a commune-with-god service produced behavior that would be considered “insane.”

The result of thousands of years of being conditioned to believe in whatever one is told rather than witnessing objectively and believing in that which is observable and provable has resulted in a planet that is populated with masses of ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, click

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Seven

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Contrary to popular belief, personality—which is generated by a defective “mind”—does not have both “liabilities and assets.” All “personality traits” are personality defects (a.k.a., “character defects” since personas are just roles that are being played as if by a character on a stage).

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: Now to the visitor who asked, “How can consciousness be ‘warped’ or ‘corrupted’ if it’s just energy?”

There are two views on the issue: (A) consciousness cannot be warped or made impure. The pure consciousness is merely obscured by layers of lies and concepts that form a “mind” and that obstruct the consciousness from seeing reality and truth when obscured. Adherents of this notion say, “Energy is energy.”

(B) Others, however, point out that electricity is energy and that it can be distorted (e.g., an electrical disturbance is merely a type of distorted electricity). Thus, some suggest that the consciousness itself can be warped or contaminated. Svami Prabhupada spoke of contaminated consciousness in the introduction to his translation of the Bhagavad-Gita when he wrote:

“One cannot say anything about the transcendental world without being free from materially contaminated consciousness. Our consciousness, at the present moment...is materially contaminated. The Bhagavad-gita teaches that we have to purify this materially contaminated consciousness. The activities of the devotee or of the Lord are not contaminated by impure consciousness or matter. We should know, however, that at this point our consciousness is contaminated.”

Without debating the merits of “A” or “B” above, seekers can move along the path by understanding the more relevant pointer: whether the consciousness is warped or whether the consciousness is blocked, the content of the “mind” must be removed if Full Realization is to happen. That includes removing beliefs, ideas, dogma, theories, attitudes, “spiritual knowledge,” “religious knowledge,” and concepts. Only then will the discarded content of the “mind” no longer be able to generate false identifications, and only if the “mind” stops generating personality will there be an end to the emotional reactions and the personality defects that are generated by the assignment of, or the adoption of, personas.

Thus, discussion of the problem of the “mind” must include discussion of the problem of “personality” because they are inextricably linked and because the intricate confusion generated by that linkage cannot end until the false “mind” and its false beliefs in personality end. Only then can the "journey" to Full Realization continue. The terms “Total Freedom,” “Liberation,” “Awakening,” “Realization,” “Enlightenment,” “Abiding as the Absolute,” and “Actualization,” all refer to the “condition” of being freed from body-mind-personality identification, knowing the Pure Consciousness, and then attaining the Full Understanding.

Thus, freedom from personality cannot happen without freedom from “mind.” It can be seen, therefore, why some Advaitins encourage the casting aside of “mind” which triggers the adoption of personas: the “mind” is defective; the “mind” generates personality; therefore, personality is always defective as well.

That means that, contrary to popular belief, personality—which is generated by a defective “mind”—does not have both “liabilities and assets.” All “personality traits” are personality defects (a.k.a., “character defects” since a persona is just a role that is being played as if by a character on a stage). How could a false identity, an imaginary role, possibly have "assets"? That concept is just more of the nonsense generated by ego. “Liabilities as opposed to assets” is just more duality. And the longer that persons remain identified with personality.
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)

For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, click

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Six

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
The relative problems of the planet and the problem of being out of touch with reality have nothing to do with either the brain or with the pure consciousness. The problems have everything to do with the false, fictitious “mind.”

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.:
Thus, memories form the “mind” as they are stored in the file inside the brain. The memories / “mind” generate body identification, “mind” identification, and personality identification, all of which are illusions but which nevertheless generate catastrophic results (relatively speaking). The memories / “mind” have become the source of “the problem” because the “mind” interrupts the ability of the brain and the pure consciousness to function naturally; furthermore, that “mind,” and its belief in illusions and lies, blocks awareness of that which is true and real (the Absolute) and which is prior to body, “mind” and memory.

It should be seen, therefore, that neither “the relative problems of the planet” nor “the problem of being out of touch with reality” has anything to do with either the brain or with the pure consciousness. The problems have everything to do with ...

This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, click

Monday, March 26, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Five

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
The brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain and preserve” capacity) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction).

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: To review, the brain (which was intended by nature to function in a “sustain and preserve” capacity) has now been overridden by the “mind” (which is bent toward chaos, destruction, and self-destruction). The parts of the brain that store and retrieve memories are overshadowing and overpowering all of the rest of the brain in determining how persons emote and behave. Historically, humankind in general attempted to take all necessary action to survive. That has changed.

Today ...

To continue, here are a couple of current examples of the “mind” overruling the brain, and the subsequent consequences:

1. The brain ...

It should be seen that all conduct that is considered harmful or destructive in the relative existence is a result of programmed and conditioned “minds” overriding the natural aspects of persons' brains. Therefore, all harmful or destructive conduct (relatively speaking) is based in that which is supernatural or in that which is unnatural ...

The “mind,” intended by nature to function in coordination with the brain in order to inspire sane, constructive, and self-constructive behavior (relatively speaking) now short-circuits the natural process and ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued] For additional information, visit: http://www.floydhenderson.com/

Sunday, March 25, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Four

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]
Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: The “deficient and distorted” part of the brain that Maharaj referred to is, of course, that part which stores and accesses memories, so all memories are deficient distortions. Nothing is as it appears to you, and nothing that has ever appeared to you was really the way it was perceived. You have been fooled because that which "they" gave you to use for perceiving is an accumulation of foolishness. Since the “mind” is the sum total of memories, and because all memories are distortions, then the “mind” is the sum total of your distortions. Want to be free of distortions and to Realize truth? Be rid of the “mind.” Yet you cannot go beyond the “mind” when you are constantly looking at the “mind” (that is, paying attention to "thought"). In order to go beyond the mind, Maharaj said, you must look away from the “mind” and its fictional contents. That means, therefore, that “minds” are nowadays so deficient and distorted that they should be ignored.

If you have not Realized, you do not see things now the way that they truly are, so it would have been totally impossible to have seen them the way they truly were in the past; therefore, the invitation is to Realize, to see that none of the memories that you are clinging to are accurate (including memories about “happenings,” memories involving “persons,” and all of the things you were taught to believe that are still stored “in your memory”).

Next, understand the reason that there is some talk in the teachings about “Now.” (By the way, there is no “power of now” since there is no power. Power is just a concept to which persons become addicted). “Time” too is a concept, so why even speak of now? Because anything supposedly recalled from the “past” is a memory, and it has been established that memories are distortions, so there is no past and there are no accurate memories. In fact, your entire world is in you...in your "mind," so how could that which is merely in your "mind" and which you think is "the world" possibly be real?
The most that the I-Amness can ever claim, therefore, is now, but if Realization has not happened, even perceptions regarding "now" are distortions. (Eventually, even that speck of now-time measurement will become meaningless, if you Realize.) If Realized—and thereby free of (false) memories—no action now would be triggered by a memory of something past. That in itself would be another level of freedom. For example:

MEMORY-DRIVEN DISTORTION LEADING TO EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION: “I am upset because we are no longer together and I don’t have the love now that I had back then.”

CLEAR PERCEPTION NOW AS A RESULT OF NOT BELIEVING IN A DISTORTED, ILLUSORY MEMORY: “What I thought I had back then was not even close to ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)

For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Saturday, March 24, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Three

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: It is emphasized again that (1) it’s all energy at the core, that (2) nowadays natural living can only happen under the auspices of the brain and never while under the influence of the corrupted "mind," and that (3) all learned ignorance—stored as a “mind”—must be tossed if peace is to happen. Note how each step in the following analysis moves from something wrongly-perceived (such as "a human body") down to the most basic “ingredient” of the universe that is common to all in the universe. (Call it "strings," call it "that," call it "sparticles," or point toward it with any term you choose, but there is that single, most basic "whatever" that all is. Differences in appearance are caused by nothing more than a variance of the vibrational rate at which "that" moves when manifested.) Here’s how it works, as explained in earlier postings:

1. A human’s body mass is mostly water. Carbon, the basic unit of organic molecules, is the second most common element.

2. A “molecule” is a group of atoms in a definite arrangement held together by chemical bonds.

3. In August of 2005, this pointer was offered:

At the core of the sun, four hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form one helium nucleus, and that happens over and over. The part of the energy that process releases as light travels in particle and wave form. Plant photosynthesis sets the stage for another cycling of manifested energy-consciousness.

4. Likewise, the energy drawn into a cycle from the Absolute pool manifests in plants after it “travels” in a particle or wave form; humans consume the plants (or the animals that ate the plants), triggering a “transfer” of energy; multi-part atoms of energy are at the core of organic molecules, and organic molecules are at the core of the human body. Everything that is considered “body” can be traced back to its most basic ingredient and that ingredient can be seen to be a temporary manifestation of energy from that field of energy called the Absolute.

What does that have to do with clarifying for students the role of the brain, the “mind,” and the consciousness in the Teachings? Recall the earlier pointer: “Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.”

THE CONSCIOUSNESS: The conscious-energy, temporarily manifested, is “real” to the degree that it is a form of energy with specific levels of functioning that can be measured. (Why “real” in quotes? Because even this manifested consciousness is time-bound, a temporary expression of that which is truly and eternally real.) Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,” the manifest consciousness is required. The energy cannot be destroyed. It is and will be.

THE BRAIN: The science above shows that the brain, at its most basic level, is elemental and that conscious-energy is temporarily manifested via those elements; therefore, it is “real” to the degree that all is energy. (This differs not at all from what is revealed about a steel beam if it is studied under an electron microscope: what is not real is the beam as it appears; what is real is that swirling mass of energy that is not visible to the naked eye. Such is the case with the body and with parts such as the brain.) Among the triad of elements-breath-consciousness that sustains “life,” the elemental brain is required, the modern use of resuscitating equipment to sustain a body notwithstanding. The elements cannot be destroyed. They will be.

THE “MIND”: The “mind” is neither elemental nor energy, so it is not ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Friday, March 23, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Two

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: So, it can be seen that the term “the mind” is just a name given to a set of files. Originally those files were stored in the brain (as what would come to be called “memories”) so that the file information could be retrieved if needed in order to help humans survive dangerous situations (i.e., “Remember when the fellow in the next cave thought he was picking up a stick and it was a snake. Check more carefully.”) It can be seen that now the “mind” has been so distorted that the persons of the planet believe that a rope is a snake.

Those files/memories are so contaminated with distortions, misperceptions, dogma and all other kinds of lies that the “mind” can no longer serve its original purpose. Where it was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to avoid destruction, in its present condition, the typical “mind” is generating more destruction and chaos than survival and peace. It is one thing to remember that a snake which looks like a stick can kill you; it is something else to remember dualistic messages that include: “We’re better than all others on the planet because we live in the greatest country on earth,” or “It’s OK to attack or kill those who have been taught the tenets of a religion that is different from your religion,” or “People with that skin color are all ignorant and criminal.”

It can be seen, therefore, that the current, distorted state of the modern “mind” came about after languages and personal agendas developed which enabled persons to begin teaching dualistic concepts. After that occurred, persons used languages to pass on as fact an entire body of lies, lies that were not based in actual happenings or fact at all (things such as beliefs, ideas, myths, superstitions, dogma, theories, attitudes, “spiritual knowledge,” religious “knowledge,” concepts, false identities, etc.) It can be seen that the distortions being stored nowadays as remembered lessons/memories are not memories that can be used for survival but are corruptions that are driving conduct that is destructive, self-destructive, and detrimental to both peace and survival.

As a result of the distorted concepts and beliefs that are currently being stored in what is called the “mind,” nature’s intent has been invalidated. That original storehouse of files in the brain which was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to guide the body to behave in a natural fashion, is now resulting in the body being guided by a warped “mind” that generates unnatural "thinking" and conduct and supernatural “thinking” and conduct.

Nowadays, memories are not being retrieved from the mind to avoid dangerous animals or the precarious edges of cliffs but are generating dualistic “thoughts” such as, “They are ignorant…we are smart”; “I am good, but they are bad”; “I deserve reward but they deserve punishment”; “I heard a God in another world tell me to drop bombs on people in this world”; “I am going to destroy you (or "reject you" or "leave you" or "punish you") because you have said things and done things that are different from what I wanted you to say and do”; or, "You can't be good...you're different from me."

Now, a natural mind no longer works with a natural brain to generate natural living. Instead, the content of the typical “mind” today generates a style of living that is ...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Thursday, March 22, 2007

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part One

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server is not yet repaired. In the meantime, if you want to place an order, you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

Because of programming and conditioning and enculturation, that which had been an asset (memory) has became a liability.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Loved your expression “brain-flush”?! Now that resonates. I’ve been visiting your site off-and-on since the early days - you did a piece one time on the brain and mind and consciousness but I can’t find it in the search. Can you tell me how to find that and then tie it in with “brain-flush”? LOL Thanks.

F.: Again, apologies for the search problems. It seems that the site is not searching all of the 2005 postings for some reason. This might be the comment that you’re referencing: “Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.” For more on that, visit www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com.

Your question is similar to many that came in after the post on discarding knowledge (including this one as well: “How can consciousness be ‘warped’ or ‘corrupted’ if it’s just energy?”) All of those questions will be addressed in this new series of postings, along with your query. At the root of the relative problem involving persons is this: that which was one of nature’s assets (the formation of a mind after the brain evolved and developed the ability to store memories) has been warped into an unnatural or supernatural liability. While no Advaitins would suggest that seekers must learn science in order to Realize, Maharaj did say that someday science would advance enough to catch up with the Advaita understanding and validate scientifically the philosophical Teachings. He was correct, so please bear with this approach that might resonate with some.

The smaller human brain, in its earlier and simpler stages of development, allowed humans then to live as deer live today: hunt/forage/find food for survival; interact; take actions that are self-defensive and self-constructive; and procreate in order that the species will survive. As more and more humans walked the planet, the simplicity of existence would be lost as the simplicity of the brain was lost.

Complications resulted because of an increase in human interactions (and an increase in both individual as well as tribal interests and agendas). The brain began to evolve in order to compensate, and eventually areas that could store memories came into being. At that point, the mind and the brain worked in tandem and in harmony to contribute to the survival of individuals and the species. The mind came about as “memories” began to be stored. As a part of the defense mechanisms for survival of the species, the mind had its role and played it “properly” (naturally) for thousands of years.

For example, if a caveman remembered that his companion fell from a cliff and died as a result, the caveman might avoid falling from cliffs. The original process was as follows: over a period of evolution, the brain expanded to include a cerebral cortex and a hippocampus. Afterwards, when an event happened (such as a human falling off a cliff) or when someone learned something (such as, “falling off a cliff can kill you”), the brain placed the memory of that event and the related knowledge acquisition in its “memory files." That is all the mind was: a collection of memories filed away in those "newer" parts of the brain.
The memory of both old and new happenings would be processed and stored away in different areas of the cerebral cortex, or the "gray matter" of the brain. The hippocampus would process the memories. (As a side note in that regard, a disease receiving considerable attention nowadays—Alzheimer’s—comes about when the hippocampus is damaged, resulting in...what else...memory loss. Is it not interesting that one who might have been a fighter for years and who loved chaos suddenly becomes peaceful when the ability to tap into dualistic memories is lost? Witness the way that the ability to remember dualistic concepts and dogma are now the curse of the planet, relatively speaking.)

Over a period of time, language developed which allowed controlling men with hidden, personal agendas to dream up concepts and teach those ideas to others who could—by that point—remember them. The overabundance of dualistic concepts and beliefs and dogma (which were destructive and separatist in nature) began to outnumber the earlier class of memories that were survival-related.

It was one thing for the caveman to “feel bad” if the fish that was going to feed him and his family that day happened to get away. Such feelings are natural. It is quite another thing when modern persons—as a result of living under the auspices of a warped, dualistic “mind”—truly believe that they should feel “bad” when they do things that are also natural, such as...
This is an excerpt from the book
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND”
(There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)


For information on the book, visit http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/

To order the book, visit
http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
(You can use the Special Message box)
Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

PREPARATION TO RECEIVE THE MESSAGE AND THEN RECEIVING THE MESSAGE

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[NOTE: To those trying to place an order, the server crashed last night and we were told that repairs should be complete in 24 hours. In the meantime, if you want to place an order but cannot access http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm , you can send a message to the book sales division at http://floydhenderson.com/contact.htm and arrangements will be made. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Thx. ]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: [Received 15 March 2007] I’ve spent some time reading all the book descriptions on your site and I want to buy some of the non-duality books but there’s a wide variety and no directions about the order to read them in. Should they be read in the order on the home page? Tell me what I need and the order I need to read them in. Also, I don’t see a package on the order page that includes all of the Advaita books. Any discounts if I order them all? Philip

F.: Hello, Philip. First, the books are not to be read in the order shown on the home page. Your e-mail does not reveal where you might be on the “path” (or if you are not even on that “path” but preparing to begin the “journey”). Since this has not been fully addressed on the site during the last two years, the order for reading—from “the most basic” to “the most advanced”—will be provided for you (and for the other site visitors who have asked the same question). You can read the information below on each and determine what might be relevant for you. The first four books on the list are used to prepare you for receiving the final teachings, preparation that cannot be skipped or avoided. (As for quantity discounts, another site visitor just ordered all six books and his price was reduced from $87 + S&H to $75 + S&H. You and other site visitors are welcomed to the same discount if ordering all six). Finally, the Daily Meditation Guides and the CD are for those who want tools to use throughout the year. They can be researched separately on the site.

IT ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
This book contains a series of “propositionalities” that would be worthless except to the extent that they prepare all seekers to become willing to question the sacred cows of your culture. Ultimately, this all deals more with the relative than the Absolute, but one cannot abide sanely as the Absolute without first seeing the insanity of the relative. If one can question his/her core beliefs that are generally held sacred by the masses, then discarding all of the other nonsense of the culture might become easier. That alone can begin the "journey" toward total freedom and total peace. Few will ever be able to discard the minor cows, much less these six sacred cows, but this book is an invitation to begin questioning what is usually taken for granted after years of programming and enculturation.

SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
This book is for the 6 billion+ persons who have been programmed with the dogma of the planets’ religions, especially the three outgrowths of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is also for those who are playing a spiritual role or who have become spiritually intoxicated (which prevents moving beyond all role-playing and Realizing Fully). It's intent is to allow persons on the "path" to transition beyond the religious and spiritual identities that are assumed at the third step of the "journey." The focus is on those three since their dogma has programmed—and corrupted the consciousness of—most persons on the planet, but the overall message reflects the truth about all religions and all “spiritual” programs or movements as well. The content reveals the 16 tenets common to those religions which evolved from the killing of virgins; exposes the contradictions of those teachings; discusses the glorification of suffering; catalogues and exposes the false promises that are made in order to attract and control the masses; explains the way that their leaders' addiction to power drives them to manipulate their followers; exposes the lies upon which those institutions are based; identifies the results of religious and spiritual intoxication; and uncovers the mental disorders that result from strict adherence to the dogma and ideology. If you have been exposed to any religious or spiritual indoctrination, or if you live in a culture where the leaders have been indoctrinated by religion, this one should be read.

LIBERATION
This book helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
This book offers the opportunity to shift to the next level of understanding, the level at which you come to realize that you cannot die since you were not born. Fears generally begin to fall away after reading this work. The Foreword offers this: “If you find the answer to ‘What happens when I die—what happens after the body ends?’ the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.”

THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
This book is used by many as a primer and companion piece to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. "PART ONE" includes answers to frequently-asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teachings. "PART TWO" provides information for those who are “close” but haven’t yet “gotten it.” "PART TWO" moves the seeker to a depth of understanding that sets the stage for the final message in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE.

FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Most of the so-called “Spiritual Masters” addressed all of the steps that must be taken, in a very exact order, to shift from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute. All of the steps (or “stages” to use Maharaj’s term) have been discussed for centuries, but this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from “the lie of the I” to Full Realization. Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers. This one should be read last.
See the links above to order.

Know that even after the readings, some require a brief period of tutelage, one-on-one, with a Realized teacher for the full and final and ultimate transition to happen. The Advaita site provides one opportunity for such exchanges and face-to-face satsang is also available. [ www.advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com ]

So, Philip, there you have the order in which the books are to be read. Best regards as you either begin (or finally complete) the “journey.” If you want to order all six books and get that discount, write a note to that effect in the message box at the links provided above.
NOTE: Postings will continue Thursday. Traveling to Austin, Texas to present the Teachings to a group there. On Thursday, a new series begins entitled, "MIND" and "MEMORIES": When Nature's "Assets" Are Warped into "Liabilities"

Monday, March 19, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Six, The Conclusion

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Among religions and philosophies, there is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which invites the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.”
From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: It should be seen, therefore, that (via the Advaita Teachings) you are being invited to discard all of the warped and perverted and insane teachings set forth by “holy” men and by all others. Some have asked, “But how am I to know if an Advaitan Teacher in not warped or perverted or insane?” and that question should be asked. First, you will not be asked to give away a percentage of your money for life or to make extravagant donations to “the latest cause,” to satiate the teachers’ sexual proclivities, to attend meetings or services for life, or to accept unquestioningly any pointers that the teacher offers.

If the teachings are twisted to encourage any of those four, leave. Find another teacher. Reliance upon the teachers’ words should only happen after evidence has demonstrated that the teacher is offering un-self-ish, sane and rational pointers instead of magical thinking and self-serving concepts. Then only should the teachings be accepted. Another test is this: the message will always be about getting rid of, never about accumulation. Stage Four of the Five Stages to Full Realization (discussed in THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS) is the de-accumulation stage that must happen if AS IF living is to follow. A sure evidence that Realization has not happened is a continuing desire, and the desire to accumulate is a doubly-strong warning.

A final point on this subject of guru-selection: the Realization process is not psychotherapy, though many nowadays try to use it as such. Yes, there might be some psychological concepts/thorns that can facilitate the removal of thorns before all of the concepts are tossed. But another problem is being seen lately among many seekers that should be noted: though AS IF living in the relative existence happens post-Realization, dissociative disorders and attachment disorders should not be mistaken for the non-attachment that accompanies Realization. Yet that is happening. Realization is not about "escapism" or "surrender" or "denial." "Giving up" belief in illusions or "giving up" attachment to worldly "stuff" is not about "giving up" on the relative existence.
That "death of ego" that is talked about does not require physical death of the body-mind as well, only a willingness to stop accepting those limited identifications as Self. Many have been seen in recent years who have suffered from problems with mental-emotional roots beyond those addressed by Advaita Teachings. (Those trying to understand their suffering do become seekers more often than those not in touch with their own pain, yes?) Many of those seekers "find" Advaita and use it to try to whitewash or understand their trauma or to rewrite their nightmarish experiences as something spiritual in nature. Many is the U.S. are even programmed by the dominant dogma to accept suffering as being "beneficial" in some "long run."
That whitewashing or rewriting or supposed "understanding" is another self-delusion that will perpetuate entrapment in personality and in personality's accompanying personality disorders. Dissociative disorders, death wishes, attachment disorders, and depression's acquiesence that is often mislabeled as "acceptance"--while all the stuff of the relative existence--are not treated by the seven-steps to Realization. In this age in which "minds" are being formed that are reaching all-time highs in their level of distortion (and in which a bastardized food supply is negatively impacting organs that affect mental-emotional conditions as well) be wary of any individual that claims that he/she has found the secret that can address and heal everything that needs addressing and healing. Sometimes, professionals are required to treat the part that Advaita was not intended to treat. The preponderance of self-help and twelve-step groups nowadays has given "armchair psychology" a respectability that can prove fatal.
To transcend identification with the body and mind does not mean that body and mind are to be neglected for the remainder of the manifestation. Indeed, when Realization frees persons of body-mind identification and restores sanity, subsequent body requirements or mental health needs are typically addressed, not ignored by use of another psychological tool called "denial." As long as a "mind" remains, it can require varied levels of treatment.
Finally, seekers who come here for a retreat or who arrange for satsanga and expect to “receive” are misguided. Those who come to this site hoping to “gain something” are mistaken. If the pointers hit their mark and shift the consciousness through each of the seven levels of the re-purification process, then you will not know more. Instead, the relative ignorance will be gone; the relative and the worldly and the other-worldly knowledge will be discarded; and that which remains will be the no-concept, non-dual Reality that You Are.

And guess what, Larry: that/That is all there ever was to begin with! This is the point to grasp. Suppose you approach a grocer and say, “I’d like to have some broccoli,” whereupon he hands you some broccoli. How insane would it be for you to look at it and then say to the grocer, “No, this is not broccoli—this is stalks and florets and stems and heads. I want some broccoli.” If he were to suggest that you are perceiving wrongly and are mistakenly believing that the various parts that you are labeling are something different from the whole “broccoli,” then you would likely think him insane.

That is the way it is with this understanding: a few have Realized and know “it’s all broccoli and nothing but broccoli” so to speak, but most persons will imagine all kinds of separate parts and will never come to understand that “it’s all just broccoli, period.” So it is. The invitation for you is to forget about trying to accumulate a body of knowledge and try to understand instead. What you think you see, you are seeing in error. Any knowledge that you cling to, you cling to in error. If you study broccoli until you know more about broccoli than any other person on the planet, it will not change the taste of the broccoli or the chemistry of the broccoli. Therefore, Larry, why not just eat your broccoli and then relax? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Five

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Why do so few Realize? (1) Pride in worldly knowledge and attachment to religious and/or spiritual knowledge. (2) Use of a "backwards" approach, namely, knowledge accumulation vs. ignorance de-accumulation. And that is why worldwide ignorance has not been stamped out and will not be stamped out, because persons believe that the planet-wide epidemic of ignorance could be solved if only people would acquire more knowledge. The Advaitin understands that the knowledge is the ignorance and that the ignorance is the knowledge. The ignorance is that which the masses have been taught and have learned, and their ignorance will only be compounded if more of the same type knowledge is injected into the equation. Ignorance could be stamped out if persons were to forfeit their revered beliefs and ideas and concepts and dogma. Since that happens so rarely but is a prerequisite for Realization, only a few will ever Realize (that is, be in touch with reality...be restored to sanity). Among religions and philosophies, there is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which invites the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.”

From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: In yesterday’s example of a curtain blocking the witnessing of the lilies, take the lilies to represent Reality and the curtain to be the learned ignorance that blocks seeing Reality. To remove the curtain of ignorance does not require more knowledge as much as it requires seeing ignorance as ignorance and seeing most "knowledge" as ignorance as well. Take the curtain’s removal and the witnessing of the lilies to represent that “Oh my gosh!” moment of Realization when (after preparation happens, after envisioning and reading happen, after discussion with a Realized Teacher happens, and after the readiness thereby comes about) all of the knowledge/learned ignorance fades away, body-mind identity ends, the influences of personality end, and Full Realization happens. Yet nothing prevents Realization more than assuming personas (be they “The Perfectionist,” “The Controller,” “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant.” And nothing supports those last two ego-states more, and nothing perpetuates entrapment in the ignorance of concepts more, than the all-time leading source of concepts: religion (or even philosophies such as Advaita when they are distorted into religions).

The Advaita process will reveal to you the ignorance of believing in concepts, dogma, and ideas that (1) were dreamed up ages ago by shrewd men with an agenda to control the ignorant masses (especially females), that (2) have been passed down as “religious or spiritual knowledge” for millennia, and that (3) must be removed if truth is be seen. Advaita is based in reason and logic, so no Realized Advaitin would insult seekers (especially “females”) by suggesting they learn the chauvinistic tales in the “holy” writings of the three dominant religions. Why accept teachings that pass on an irrational, subliminal message about how much “worse” women are than men, such as Eve who tempted a formerly “good” man; such as Lot’s wife who (unlike her “good” husband who did not look back) was turned into a pillar of salt because she did; or such as Mary Magdalene who was revamped as “a whore” when the Christian Bible was totally re-written, and its message further distorted, in the 4th century.

Advaita would never reinforce such vilification of females, portraying them (in religious texts that are described as “the inspired word of God”) as the “bad” influence on pitiable men who were previously “good” before dealing with “evil” women…women such as Jezebel, Rahab, Potiphar’s wife, and Delilah. Females would never be encouraged by an Advaitin to accept teachings in “holy” texts that denigrate women (or men). Curiously, three billion women on the planet do go right along with all of that sexist nonsense, evidence of the degree to which programming and conditioning can result in causing some otherwise intelligent people to be totally blind and totally fooled. And the fact that so many women continue to honor those beliefs and align themselves with the billions of men who adhere to such prejudicial, dualistic dogma is a wonderment as well. So it is on the “Planet of the Programmed.”

To the contrary, Advaita erases, rather than reinforces, such dualistic belief in “bad women vs. good men,” in "good men vs. bad men," in "God vs. bad people," in “differences,” in “better than,” and in “evil vs. moral.” You will never be asked by a Realized Advaitin to stretch the imagination, to start thinking magically, and thereafter believe that a human egg was once miraculously fertilized sans sperm. You would never be asked to accept that the (supposed) mass-murder-by-drowning of every inhabitant on the planet except for eight people (resulting in an act of genocide that made Hitler’s efforts look like child’s play) was a “perfectly understandable and acceptable” act that should not be questioned.

These are but a few examples of the type of fictional knowledge that currently trap over six billion persons in the imprisonment of their so-called “minds.” They do not need more to believe in--they need far less. Thus, the Advaita approach deals with “the removal of knowledge which is merely learned ignorance,” not with “acquiring and accumulating more knowledge.” There is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which invites the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.” And that is why Christ, after understanding the Advaita message, left organized religion and used the Advaita method not to add more beliefs but to try to remove beliefs: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways"; "no one will ever see the kingdom of heaven...it's within"; "heaven and earth shall fade away"; "when you speak of me, speak of me as I AM"; and "Before Abraham was, I AM." Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion]

Saturday, March 17, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Four

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: So to review, the Advaita philosophy is not about passing on knowledge but about eliminating learned ignorance. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
"All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman."
At http://www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com/, the following pointer is offered:

"Ultimately, Advaita Vedanta is the Teaching that has the 'goal' of becoming the non-teaching by way of un-teaching."

More unequivocally, Dennis Waite wrote,

“The knowledge, once it has served its purpose of pointing toward the truth, is discarded too."

Ultimately, the only "real" knowledge pointed to by the Advaita Teachings per se is Self-Knowledge. Once that awareness happens, it is never forgotten. Once that awareness happens, all else is forgotten.

Thus, no one else, other than an Advaitin, ever said, “You do not need to know more or gain more or grow. You already Are That Which You Are. The consciousness that You Are has been corrupted (or seeing truth has been hampered) as a result of lies and myths that are disguised as knowledge. Treat that condition alone. See the falsity of belief in learned ignorance and watch the (relative) effects of learned ignorance end.” No one else offered a method for addressing the corrupted consciousness that offered “the full and final treatment.” No one else said, “Realize, and then you don’t need to keep coming back.” No one else said, “Realize and You are finished with all the ‘spiritual work.’ Then, You may go and be free and enjoy natural living.”

Next, you have also drawn an erroneous conclusion from your reading of any bio information. I did not attend college, I did not acquire knowledge, I did not teach, and I did not pay bills. College attendance happened; the accumulation of information happened; teaching happened (or not, some days); and bill-paying happened (or not, some days). Furthermore, the accumulated information underwent the de-accumulation process almost immediately, post-examination. Little of it was relevant to a career in teaching, and that irrelevance was noted both as it was being presented by professors and later as it was being discarded.

Further, no “knocking” of knowledge has been happening. What has been offered is an invitation to avoid developing false pride in knowledge because that will support ego-states and egotism and thereby only stand in the way of continuing the Self-Inquiry process to completion. Too, "spiritual knowledge" and "religious knowledge" will block advancement along the remainder of the “path” to Full Realization since those “Knowers,” thinking they now know it all, will thereby miss it all. Persons assuming those two "new" identities will fixate at the third of seven steps to Full Realization.

So try this: from the third floor master bedroom window, it is possible to look down on a terrace that slopes gently to the edge of a lake. The green lawns of the terrace are landscaped with scrubbery and trees and beds of flowers. Within the next three weeks, in a bed just below that window, some wild lilies will begin to bloom. To the eye, they can have a certain appeal. To gaze at them in the silence and to appreciate their relative “beauty” is calming. Even though the curtain over the window was closed this morning, and even though the lilies have not be seen for eleven months, and even though they are not yet in bloom this season, their presence is realized.

In a few weeks, what more would you think needs to be known about those flowers to be able to appreciate their beauty, fleeting though it shall be? Nothing. Yet there is that which can prevent the flowers from ever being seen, namely, the curtain. If the curtain is opened, then the flowers will be seen and appreciated fully, at least during the brief period when the blooms manifest. Nothing new will be known about the flowers that will enhance their appearance. (A pedant residing nearby once said I should know that they are not “lilies” at all but are actually "examples of the lilium philadelphicum classification." His sharing that piece of knowledge illustrates exactly how pride in knowledge prevents the natural enjoyment of anything natural.)
New knowledge or more knowledge about the flowers will not be sought or acquired. All that will happen when the curtain is drawn back is this: whatever was blocking the seeing of the flowers will be removed and the flowers shall be seen. Witnessing the flowers shall just happen, and later the witnessing of the flowers shall end, at least until another cycle happens spontaneously. Now, how does that relate to the discussion of excessive knowledge acquisition, seeing Reality, and that which blocks persons from seeing truth? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Friday, March 16, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Three

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
[HOW TO SEARCH THIS SITE: Before today’s post, several inquires have arrived about searching the site for specific terms. Google changed/complicated the process when they shifted from the BETA version recently. Here’s the new search method:
1. In the white area at the top, type in the search word.
2. Click SEARCH BLOG.
3. Click EDIT at the top of the page.
4. Click FIND (ON THIS PAGE) on the drop-down menu.
5. Re-type the same search word.
6. Click FIND NEXT. Each time you click it, you'll be taken down the page to the next instance where the word appeared in prior postings. The term will be highlighted. Sorry for the inconvenience.]


From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Some defending their propensity for acquiring (and even gloating) over their accumulated knowledge have argued one of two arguments: (1) “I convert my knowledge into money. I use it to make a living.” The response: “If you were to measure all of your ‘knowledge’ and then detemine how much of all of that is actually used or required for you to ‘live,’ it would be so microscopic—so fractional—as to be undetectable. Your egotism regarding how smart you are has once again resulted in “you” fooling your self."

(2) “Well, you learned to read, Floyd. Now, you use that worldly knowledge when you travel to satsangs to find your way.” The response: The ability to witness highway markers and to follow the path they mark in order to arrive at an intended destination happens, but once at the destination, the markers are neither prized nor revisited nor fixed in thought nor discussed (unless a seeker wants to follow the same path to reach the same destination). More to the point, there is no "one" to believe that "he" has knowledge of all those markers. Signs can be witnessed, but why store away any knowledge of signs, why remember the signs forever, or why cherish them as another part of some cumlative knowledge base that becomes a source of false pride? If not being used on the path, not another second is spent in paying attention to the signs. There is no "I" that "knows" the signs. The signs are merely witnessed...and without attachment.

The confusion comes (a) because a seeker at one level is not told the same thing as a seeker at another level and (b) because the very nature of the Advaita Teachings involves paradoxes. Thus, it seems one must accumulate Advaitin "knowledge." (Even the most basic expression of the non-dual Teachings appears to be a paradox: "I AM THAT; I AM and that is not two." The further paradox is that the consciousness can only know that it is while in that I AM-ness and cannot know anything in the THAT-ness. Thus, if You abide as THAT, how could any "knowing" happen?)
Because of both “a” and “b” above, it is suggested to site visitors or to those who attend retreats here that they tap into the “inner guru,” yet some time with a “guru” is often required for most to receive the full and final understanding. Why? If one is asleep and wants to wake up but is surrounded only by other sleepers, who can be depended on to awaken that one? Only one that is not among that circle of sleepers. So is "knowledge" of the Advaita Teachings needed or not for Realization? What is needed are the pointers that are offered to seekers by the Realized "teacher," pointers intended to remove erroneous beliefs in all of the distortions and illusions and learned ignorance that block access to the pure consciousness. "Teacher" is in quote marks because "teaching" involves the transmission of knowledge; that is not the same as removing false knowledge (learned ignorance).

To the contrary of the Advaita approach which focuses not on acquiring knowledge but on being free of learned ignorance, all other “paths,” religions, spiritual movements, and philosophies require (a) accumulating “their” ideas, dogma, beliefs, knowledge, and concepts as well as (b) practicing their practices…“for life” or, in the case of those who do not understand what cycles and what does not, “for multiple lives.” Before Advaita, no other had ever said (during those decades of intensive seeking by “floyd”), “Not only can You be free...You already are free, and if you grasp that Understanding, you’re done. You’ll not have to attend meetings or sessions; you’ll not be required to give us a percentage of your money. You will not have to genuflect nor sing nor intone nor pledge nor recite creeds or oaths or prayers in unison with others who are genuflecting and singing and intoning and pledging and reciting creeds and oaths and prayers in unison.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

No one else, other than an Advaitin teacher, had ever said: “You will not have to know our chants. You will not have to learn special drumbeats or to know when to ring a bell or how to burn sticks, and you will not have to pay us to burn our candles. You will not have to buy our special holy book and read it forever in order to gain knowledge and truth.” No one else said, “You will not have to read every day forever to gain more wisdom and knowledge. You will not have to work to gain or to maintain anything. You will not be called upon to learn the inner workings of our organization so that you will know how to serve on a committee or board. Whatever happens with you will just happen from the moment of Realization on, and it will happen spontaneously. Peace will not have to be sought any more, knowledge will not have to sought anymore, and you will not have to work to ‘get it’ and ‘keep it.’ It will just happen.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

No one else, other than an Advaitin teacher, had ever said: “You will not have to know how to heat rocks so you can sweat in a lodge, and you will not have to learn ancient chants or foreign languages or to know how to hum our special hums because this Understanding is assessible to all. And you will not have to give your money to build special buildings or to buy special furnishings or special accoutrements and then know the special significance of them all. You will not need to know which days are 'separate' and ‘different’ and ‘holy’ and ‘more important’ than other days or years. You will neither have to wear your hair in a special way nor shave your head completely, and you will not have to wear any special clothing.” No one else had ever said that, other than an Advaitin teacher.

Everyone playing a religious or spiritual role wants others to have knowledge of their doctrines, to have knowledge of their theories, to have knowledge of their learnings, to have knowledge of their beliefs, to have knowledge of the intricacies of their dogma, to have knowledge of the content of their letters, to have knowledge of the content of their special book, and to have knowledge of when to do exactly what everyone else does in hypnotic, robotic synchronization (which keeps persons asleep rather than awakening them). For them, “spirituality” is about “spiritual growth” or “growing in knowledge.” For the Advaitin, anything pointed to with the term “spiritual work” would involve removing knowledge (learned ignorance), not about attaining knowledge. Is preparation required, even for receiving the Advaita Teachings? Yes. Does that involve reading certain books? Usually. Does it involve developing the ability to sit in the quiet and contemplate a pointer? Yes. Does it involve sitting for a few days or weeks with one that is Realized to understand the final clarifications? Usually. Is a lifetime of work, reading, meditating, and considering necessary? No.

Ultimately, it is seen via Realization that (a) anything a person calls a “spiritual experience” is nothing more than a perceived happening in “their world” and that (b) their "world" is a fraud. It is also seen, therefore, that any so-called “experience” which supposedly happens to “a fictional person” in “a fictional world” must be…fictional. There is no experiencer, so there are no experiences. All "experiences" are assumed to be real by false identities only. Anything labeled as such is just an imagining, an emotion-based belief or reaction triggered after the assumption of an ego-state. To advance along the seven-step "path" and to transition beyond the third step, therefore, it must be seen that “The Spiritual Man” claiming "spiritual knowledge" and "spiritual experiences" is just another ego-state, not one iota different from “The Mass Murdering Man.” And those two personas are no different from the hundreds of thousands of other roles that persons accept as identities, all of which are supported not by factual knowledge but by learned ignorance instead. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Thursday, March 15, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part Two

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Now, Larry, before continuing with the response to your query (a response that will be nothing more than a bit of entertainment) understand these pointers first:

1. All accumulated knowledge, all of the revered knowing, goes when “the knower” goes. (Ultimately, therefore, knowledge cannot be discarded either, since there is no “discarder.” Belief in all nonsense just fades away.)

2. All knowledge, including what persons call their “spiritual knowledge,” is only worldly knowledge. Why? It is all being generated by the warped consciousness that is currently functioning in the phenomenal world, so it all really deals only with the concepts of this false “world” and with upgrading phenomenal, dualistic illusions: “There is this world, and if you’re ‘good,’ you get to go to a better world.” Sounds “spiritual,” huh? Yet an illusion (a better world)that is an upgrade of an illusion (this world) is still an illusion, and illusions are always the stuff of “this world.”

3. Because so-called "knowledge" is being generated by persons in a world that is not real—that is nothing more than a series of false perceptions—then it is all false knowledge; therefore, it cannot be knowledge at all. It is only learned ignorance. To believe that there is “this world” and “that world” is duality, and not only is "this world" false—all "worlds" believed in by persons are false…figments of overactive and warped imaginations.

4. Who could possible “have” knowledge, “possess” knowledge or “attain” knowledge? Consciousness can be aware of itSelf, but even that is time-bound, only for the period of its manifestation. And even that is not a “knowing” since the prerequisite for "knowing" or for something being "known" is the presence of "a knower." To claim that “I know mySelf” is equally false since it suggests duality, that there is some subject with “I-ness” that knows some object. So in the purest terms of any discussion of “knowledge,” you cannot truthfully even claim to know yourSelf, and that is precisely why Advaita teaches that the truth cannot be stated. Ultimately, any knowledge that a person claims to have and then states cannot be the truth, so the effective Advaitin teacher guides seekers to an awareness that even they will not put into words if Fully Realized. The Advaitin teacher can do no more than point toward Reality, and once Reality is seen, even the pointers dissolve. So much for knowledge.

For now, though, back to the entertainment. As for that “vast knowledge” you refer to and think you might be seeing, it amounts to nothing more thorns being used to remove thorns from seekers. Some students of Advaita often miss a key point: you do not need to know everything that your teacher knows in order to realize. To the contrary, you need only to be willing to give up what you think you know if the teacher suggests that you give up certain concepts or beliefs. Eventually, all concepts and beliefs will fade away. Forget accumulating knowledge and focus on the de-accumulation process.
Here, knowledge is valued so little that, just as with a thorn that is tossed after being used to extract another thorn, so too is it all ignored when not being used to remove thorns. Just as there should be no pride in ignorance, there is no pride in knowing. More to the point, there is no one to be proud of anything. The consciousness speaks. One said during a recent gathering for sansang, “But it was the knowledge you shared regarding the pagan, barbaric roots of ‘holy communion’ that allowed me to detach from that ignorant practice.”

The reply was something close to this: "Fine. You are reporting that a piece of factual information was able to rid you of belief in a non-fact, in a bit of fiction-based dogma. But now, be free of all of that information. After you realize that the practice was--and is--all nonsense, then the knowledge of ancient barbaric practices should be as meaningless to you as their modern barbaric excrescence. On the other hand, know that some all along, with no additional knowledge about the history of communion, rejected the barbaric practice when first invited to participate. Many reply, 'Come with you on Sunday to drink blood and eat body (or to drink pretend blood and to eat pretend body)? Are you nuts?! No thanks.' Some naturally see more clearly than others because they were not subjected to the same insane programming. They were not given that 'knowledge'--that learned ignorance. Some see more clearly only after much effort, depending on the degree of programming and conditioning...that is, depending on the degree to which absurd concepts overlay the consciousness."

Next, were you to follow this space called “floyd” throughout a typical day, you would see no use of knowledge per se. You would see living happening in a natural, spontaneous, agenda-less manner. Just as you walk without thinking about walking, this entire “life of floyd” happens just like that. Can the deer (which offers a perfect example of how to live without "a thought-life") function for an entire day, an entire month, or an entire lifetime in that spontaneous, natural fashion? Not only can it—it does. And it happens across the globe among the comparatively few that are Realized. That is, in fact, why “the search” can end “successfully” with Advaita and Advaita only, and that is why the desire to accumulate knowledge and concepts and dogma and ideas can end with Advaita…and with Advaita only.

(NOTE: Until firmly fixed in Full Realization, what are you to do if a troublesome thought should arise? Find the ego-state that is thinking the thought. When you realize that the so-called thinker of the thought is fictional, her/his fictional thought is spontaneously discredited and discounted. Then, using that same process as often as is called for, the assumption of the false identity can recede until it eventually dissolves. You are never the thinker of a thought. Thoughts arise (1) after an ego-state is assumed as an identity and (2) after the ego-state falsely perceives a desire or need or fear-provoking threat. Talk about “needing a mirage" or "running scared from a mirage!”) Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

DISCARDING “KNOWLEDGE” WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY LEARNED IGNORANCE, Part One

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry

F.: Hello Larry. First, the fact that you are “totally westernized” might preempt any chance of your “getting the point,” especially since the content of your e-mail reveals that you have bought into the very essence of the core belief that most westerners hold about work: you only do it to get something, to gain something, to accumulate, or to get a payoff. (All of the “No, I love my job” stuff ends when your pay ends. As for volunteer workers or “the Personality Type Two Helper,” search the site to see what their true motives are.)

You will see, if you read on and consider objectively, that the western knowledge/beliefs about work have evolved from, and then been merged with, ancient mideastern knowledge/beliefs about religion and spirituality. That blending of knowledge/beliefs about work and knowledge/beliefs about god/gods has resulted in the learned ignorance that now dominates the persons of the planet. In fact, it could be argued that such knowledge is far more dangerous (relatively speaking) than all other types of ignorance combined. It is that category of knowledge (which is not knowledge at all but is actually learned ignorance) that the Advaita teachings invite persons to discard in order that they might be able to see reality (and thereby be in touch with reality, that is, be sane). As it is now, that merging has resulted in a near-planetwide belief in a god or gods who will reward you if you do religious or spiritual work and who will punish you if you do not do that special work.

The invitation for now is to see this: western and/or Judaeo-Christian and/or Anglo-Saxon values are rooted in the ancient “knowledge” passed down from pagans. The Jews accepted that knowledge as their own and taught that those among them who were wealthy and who had healthy children were “good” (and being rewarded by a god) and that those who were poor or had unhealthy or stillborn children were “bad” (and thus beinging punished). Later, the puritannical elements among Christians would accept such “knowledge” as fact, and most today are trapped in the knowledge that they think they have regarding the interrelation of “good vs. bad,” “reward vs. punishment,” and their religious/spiritual knowledge and work as well. It is that type of “knowledge” (learned ignorance) that Advaita invites persons to discard.

That the Judaeo-Anglo work ethic became enmeshed with the so-called religious and spiritual knowledge/beliefs among persons is no surprise. The notion that there is always a payoff for any work you do (be it physical, spiritual, religious, or communal) is the “come-on” that has been used by medicine men and priests and religious men and spiritual men for as long as they have been playing their self-appointed roles: “Do this work that we tell you to do—and do it with knowledge of the 'right' way that we teach you to do it—and there will be a reward, a payoff, both now and later.”

How convincing were the ancient “holy” men? They were so convincing that early priests convinced parents to sacrifice their virginal daughters to please an angry god. As “God’s representative on earth,” the priests had sex with the daughters (in a symbolic act of oneness, they claimed) and then cut out their hearts and passed them through the crowd in order that all might commune with god. The people had been given this knowledge and accepted it as fact: that gathering to participate regularly in "communion" to drink the blood and to eat the body would please an angry god (such as the rain god) and that a payoff would follow. And if the blessing of rain did not come and “save” the crops? More "sacrifice" was obviously wanted by the god. Kill a few more virgins.

How convincing are the modern “holy” men as they continue to transmit the ancient knowledge and myths and superstitions and beliefs and practices? So convincing that nowadays two billion people pass on this same knowledge to their children who now believe that they will be closer to god and will be making him happy and will thereby be rewarded and blessed both now and forevermore if they will perform that same cannabilism-vampirism routine regularly. So convincing that two billion more will use spikes and maces to beat themselves regularly and bring forth the blood in order to please their god.
Are you seeing the points about “knowledge” and “learned ignorance”?
1. Far less of such knowledge, rather than far more knowledge, is called for.
2. To learn a skill that will pay your bills is one thing. Even to be “proud” of that knowledge is just another bit of arrogance based in the adoption of a persona (i.e., “The Super Teacher,” “The Super Protégé,” “The Super Student,” “The Religious Expert,” "The Super Ascetic," etc.)
3. Infatuation with your "vast store of knowledge" will delay being free of all learned ignorance.
4. Infatuation with accumulating more will retard your de-accumulating and being free of what you already have too much of.
5. To learn ignorance is another thing still, and it is that which persons are invited to cast aside.

But with a “westernized mindset” (becoming popular in the Far East as well nowadays) little about Advaita will sound appealing to you since you will be told, “Do this ‘work’ and you will gain nothing but will lose everything instead!” That very notion will likely be anathema to your “western mind”; however, since you claim that you are “at least willing to listen and see if you can get the point,” a pause will happen in order to provide an occasion for consideration. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued tomorrow]

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

THE DIRECT (SEVEN-STEP) PATH TO REALIZATION, Part Three—The Conclusion

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
Unnatural living and supernatural living are both tiresome and exhausting, but natural living is easy.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do some people just suddenly realize or does everyone have to go through the seven steps you talk about? If so, why seven and why any exact order.

F.: Now, if you review yesterday’s example, you should find that the order in which the water was contaminated parallels the manner in which the consciousness is contaminated: one person uses the element of dirt to contaminate the water—just as parents program the manifested consciousness to believe that it is the dirt (i.e., the elements, the body) with such comments as “You are a boy” or “You are a girl” or “You are a human” or “You are a person.” Then the level of corruption increases as the body illusion is ungraded: "You are a special person," "You are a gift from God," or “Your body will last forever so it cannot be cremated—it must be saved and buried.” Then, as with the water, the next person adds a coloring element to make it look pretty…to upgrade the illusion: “You have a beautiful body,” “You are so lovely,” “You are good boy,” or “You are a good girl.” The illusion of arrogance develops and, as with the contaminated water, a noxious element is added.

In the world of duality, however, any upgrading of an illusion sets the stage for a downgrading of the illusion on other occasions: “You are a bad boy” or "You are a bad girl” or “You’re so ugly that no one will ever want you” or "As your spiritual guide, I must tell you that such conduct will cause you to be cast into hell forever" or "You're living in the greatest country on earth," or "They are all out to get us." The consciousness becomes more and more corrupted as a fictitious “mind” is formed during childhood and stores away all of the nonsense of separation and all of the lies of differentiation which become “beliefs and values that are worth fighting for…or even dying for” during adult years.

As the corruption of the consciousness continues, dualistic beliefs convince some that they are "clean" while they consider others to be "dirty"; then, a “holy” person might be sought out to add “detergent” as in the earlier example with the water. Some religious dogma or some spiritual exercises will be added with instructions to "adhere to the dogma" or to "continue the spiritual exercises for life" in order to purify the person who is being "bad," to make the person "good," and then to provide the cleansing and re-cleansing efforts that "they" claim will be needed for as long as a person lives.

But the cleansing effects can never keep pace because more and more contaminants are added as the earlier contaminants are held in esteem as "my" beliefs. In their efforts to upgrade the illusion of self, persons start adding more contaminants (new ideas, new beliefs, new information, new knowledge, new dogma, new exercises, and new concepts) to "find the answer" or “to be a better person” or "to be at peace." All of those "self-improvement" efforts are nothing more than a source of further contamination because they deal with (1) trying to make an illusion "better" and because (2) anything in a world of duality that can “help” can also “hurt.” The understanding of the homogeny seldom comes as belief in the multiplicity becomes fixed in a fictional “mind.”

How (after so many years of programming, conditioning, contaminating, and enculturating) can persons ever be rid of the tens of thousands of contaminants that make up a "mind"? With the glass of water, see that the step that removes shards of glass will not remove the poison, and see that the step that removes the salt will not remove the coloring. In like fashion, a variety of steps must be taken and transitioned, in a specific order, for the re-purification of the consciousness to happen. Those steps form a "path."
The "journey" is simply the movement from the contaminated state of consciousness to the re-purified state of consciousness, but none of the steps on the "path" can be skipped. (For example, the steps that eliminate that adoption or assumption of religious or spiritual personas, cannot be taken prior to the steps that remove body and mind identification. Similarly, Maharaj noted accurately that “there are two witnessing stages,” and the second cannot be entered until the first is entered and surpassed. Each “stage,” to use Maharaj’s word, must be entered into and then transitioned in a specific order for Full Realization to happen).

Two seekers wrote recently, a male who has read the words of his guru for five years and a woman who read the same swami's words for seven years, and the content of the e-mails from both seekers revealed that they are almost as far from Full Realization as when they began the search. Seekers are often advised to "be patient." In fact, some seekers become too patient, dedicating five years or seven years to doing the same thing over and over and expecting some different result (even though what they have been doing is not producing the results they are seeking at all). What these two require is what most seekers require: they simply need a clear-cut set of directions that map the way to move along the "path" (often combined with some one-on-one clarification with a "teacher") and then they can end once and for all the ineffective toil and strife and effort and work. This should not be an arduous task. Come to the Understanding and then relax and enjoy the AS IF living that follows. Work is work, but "life" should not be work. In fact, unnatural living and supernatural living are both tiresome and exhausting, but natural living is easy.
The “Spiritual Masters” all addressed the various stages that must be transitioned in order to alleviate the illusions that result in the seven degrees of separation from Reality and then to transition all seven in order to Realize fully. The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE does not offer “new Teachings.” It merely provides the Teachings in the exact order in which the steps must be taken, along with detailed explications that guide the seeker through each step. Remember, Maharaj said, “Follow the same path by which you came” and “…You should go back, reverse, to the source.” To go back to the source, to Realize the Absolute, and to abide as the Absolute, the exact reverse order must be followed that led from the Absolute to the delusion of the “I.” Best regards as you continue your “journey” via the Teachings of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TO READ REVIEWS BY READERS OF FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) visit: http://advaitavedantabooks.blogspot.com/
TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) visit: http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

Recent Posts and Archives

Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

Five Free eBooks

Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

II.
"THE VISION"

Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

“‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

III.
"Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

IV.
Seeking

In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

V.
"THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page