An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Noneness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Now you can receive for $40 a downloadable computer file version of the same 7-hour satsang that seekers receive when they visit for the Advaita Retreat with Floyd. You will be guided through the seven steps from identification with the false "I" to the Absolute (and beyond).
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
F.: So why is it that none of the gods that are thought to be real by six billion+ persons are as powerful as personality in shaping persons thoughts and in controlling what they really say and in determining what they actually do?
More anecdotal accounts such as the one offered yesterday could be provided to show the way that each of the primary personality types trumps god. What could be discussed in detail would be:
**the account of a marriage in which a Type Eight deacon, highly respected in his church, is driven by his personality when at home behind closed doors to rage and to terrorize his children and to strike his wife with a closed fist and to behave as any full-blown, disintegrated Personality Type Eight sociopath behaves.
**the account of a Personality Type Three, the holder of a high position in his church as well as a superstar in a twelve-step program, who continues to leave a trail of misery as his sexual misconduct in the workplace has not only caused him to be fired time and again but also results in others losing their jobs, even as his personality allows him to charm others and thereby maintain an exceptional image in the community.
**the account of another Type Three (the “False Image Creator” type) who is an employee of a church and who forfeited her coffee breaks and could be seen by co-workers spending that fifteen minutes at the chancel, kneeling and praying, fostering the image that others still have of her to this day as “the most pious, most benevolent, most religious woman they have ever met” while having no clue that she told her husband, “I’ve given up my coffee breaks and knelt at the chancel and prayed before the altar every day for a year that God would kill you.”
**the account of a religious and spiritual worker shared yesterday who stole tens of thousands of dollars from her employer while being driven by her “Helper / Rescuer” personality to use her employer's money to try to endear others to her.
**the account of a persona-driven president of a country who claimed he checked with god and received the go-ahead to drop bombs on a Middle Eastern nation.
**the account of a group of super-religious people whose persona of "The Members of the only True and Right Religion" who claimed that it was the will of their god to fly airplanes into buildings and kill infidels.
**the account of the Christian writer, whose essay was shared two days ago, who reported that “God cannot” stop people from sinning (that is, cannot prevent persons from acting out when the desires of their personalities always eventually trump their religious and / or spiritual beliefs).
**and the account of “floyd” who, though not having reached the halfway point on the seven-step “path” to Realization, had assumed the requisite religious (and also a spiritual) persona as an identity. Yet during that time passed at the third of seven steps on the "path" to Full Realization, “his” thoughts and words and deeds never matched with consistency the way groups defined religious and spiritual thoughts, religious and spiritual talk, and religious and spiritual behavior.
Yet it was not a problem since all of those groups offered “a way out”:
“You’re a divine creature having a human experience. Just remember that you're only human.”
**Even though we’re godly, we will still fall short at times.”
And then there was the very best of both worlds available via this rationalization:
**You’re going to sin, break commandments, think thoughts you should not think, speak to others in ways you should not talk to anyone, do some of the most horrible things than can be done in this relative existence, but remember that all you have to do is say you’re sorry and your slate will be wiped clean, if not with the people you harmed, at least with god." As the Christian essayist said two days ago, "No condemnation.”
Though personalities assumed as identities are no more real than desert mirages, their relative impact is quite genuine. Why cannot all the efforts undertaken by religious and spiritual personas eliminate destructive thoughts and words and deeds?
First, because “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are also personalities, just newly-assumed false roles that are touted as “positive” replacements for the “bad” roles that had been played before the assumption of these new (false) identities.
They are assumed along the way at a place that is far from the point of Full Realization. Maharaj described their position on the "path" thusly: “There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, [who take] a momentary experience for full realization and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride.”
Secondly, no god can trump personality because personality’s effects are genuine but god is not. Maharaj said of the imaginary god(s) taken to be real, “First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God - then you worship such a God and do bhajan and you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.”
Your thoughts and words and deeds will have as much chance of being consistently "religious" or “spiritual” by praying to the Easter Bunny, to Santa Claus, or to the Tooth Fairy as they do by praying to any god created by man’s “mind” and imagination.
What, then, are the facts regarding the "invented God" of which Maharaj spoke? He clarified: "Brahman, Isvara, God, all these are names given to the consciousness when it is conscious of itself."
As artificial as personalities are, their influence is not as artificial, relatively speaking, as that of an artificial god or gods. Why? Because as far as the relative goes, personality has been shown to have a real and lasting effect whereas god never does. At best, the god of religious or spiritual persons can be seen to exert only an occasional influence that is always eventually overridden by the desires of personality.
Personality is textbook...consistently, reliably, steadfastly predictable. No god has ever been shown to be consistent, reliable, steadfast, or predictable. In fact, the god of the six billion members of the sky cults of Abraham has been shown to be totally inconsistent: you can make him happy, and you can make him sad.
See? They have power over god! They can control the way he feels, but he cannot consistently control the way that they feel...or think...or talk...or behave. He is consumed in his co-dependent relationship with them, which gives them the power to control how he feels.
Understand the primary personality of a person and you will know exactly what you are going to get, and what you are going to get with unwavering consistency. Claim to understand God, and you still will never know consistently what to expect.
At times you'll claim to be able to explain God's will exactly, but at other times you'll be totally bewildered and have to concede in those instances that "He works in mysterious ways." The Advaita solution? The Realized Advaitin knows that there is no personality and knows that there is no personal god, either.
Therefore, while Realized Advaitins are like all self-proclaimed religious and spiritual persons / personas in that they cannot be controlled by an imaginary force or power, they differ in that their thoughts and words and deeds cannot be controlled by imaginary personas either.
Maharaj said, "Having followed the course of spirituality, you have come to the end of personality and there is no more human being. There is only impersonal consciousness. In this realm of consciousness all that is going on is dynamic playfulness, a process of functioning. There is no differentiation in this process as to a person, an entity, a community, a creed, a religion. In the flash of your consciousness, all this play is going on. The play will come to an end."
As long as you remain trapped in personality, go ahead and assume any stance or identity that you want. Go into the temple or church or mosque and pray that god will change your thoughts and words and deeds and bend them to his / her will, or—just as effectively—go into the desert and fall to your knees before a mirage and beg that illusion to do the same.
Use any of those four methods—praying in a mosque, a temple, a church, or a desert—and the results will be the same in the long term: nil. There is no god that can trump personality; there is only a seven-step Advaitin “journey” that is a filtering or purification process which can remove belief in all that is false.
Undergo the filtering and purification process and it will be clear that there is no god that can trump personality because neither are real. Mirages cannot improve mirages, cannot control mirages, cannot help mirages, cannot intervene in behalf of mirages, cannot change mirages for the better, and cannot bless mirages.
Only if freed of the notions of both a personal god and of a personal self can You truly be free. Then, nothing is left to trump or not trump anything. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
More anecdotal accounts such as the one offered yesterday could be provided to show the way that each of the primary personality types trumps god. What could be discussed in detail would be:
**the account of a marriage in which a Type Eight deacon, highly respected in his church, is driven by his personality when at home behind closed doors to rage and to terrorize his children and to strike his wife with a closed fist and to behave as any full-blown, disintegrated Personality Type Eight sociopath behaves.
**the account of a Personality Type Three, the holder of a high position in his church as well as a superstar in a twelve-step program, who continues to leave a trail of misery as his sexual misconduct in the workplace has not only caused him to be fired time and again but also results in others losing their jobs, even as his personality allows him to charm others and thereby maintain an exceptional image in the community.
**the account of another Type Three (the “False Image Creator” type) who is an employee of a church and who forfeited her coffee breaks and could be seen by co-workers spending that fifteen minutes at the chancel, kneeling and praying, fostering the image that others still have of her to this day as “the most pious, most benevolent, most religious woman they have ever met” while having no clue that she told her husband, “I’ve given up my coffee breaks and knelt at the chancel and prayed before the altar every day for a year that God would kill you.”
**the account of a religious and spiritual worker shared yesterday who stole tens of thousands of dollars from her employer while being driven by her “Helper / Rescuer” personality to use her employer's money to try to endear others to her.
**the account of a persona-driven president of a country who claimed he checked with god and received the go-ahead to drop bombs on a Middle Eastern nation.
**the account of a group of super-religious people whose persona of "The Members of the only True and Right Religion" who claimed that it was the will of their god to fly airplanes into buildings and kill infidels.
**the account of the Christian writer, whose essay was shared two days ago, who reported that “God cannot” stop people from sinning (that is, cannot prevent persons from acting out when the desires of their personalities always eventually trump their religious and / or spiritual beliefs).
**and the account of “floyd” who, though not having reached the halfway point on the seven-step “path” to Realization, had assumed the requisite religious (and also a spiritual) persona as an identity. Yet during that time passed at the third of seven steps on the "path" to Full Realization, “his” thoughts and words and deeds never matched with consistency the way groups defined religious and spiritual thoughts, religious and spiritual talk, and religious and spiritual behavior.
Yet it was not a problem since all of those groups offered “a way out”:
“You’re a divine creature having a human experience. Just remember that you're only human.”
**Even though we’re godly, we will still fall short at times.”
And then there was the very best of both worlds available via this rationalization:
**You’re going to sin, break commandments, think thoughts you should not think, speak to others in ways you should not talk to anyone, do some of the most horrible things than can be done in this relative existence, but remember that all you have to do is say you’re sorry and your slate will be wiped clean, if not with the people you harmed, at least with god." As the Christian essayist said two days ago, "No condemnation.”
Though personalities assumed as identities are no more real than desert mirages, their relative impact is quite genuine. Why cannot all the efforts undertaken by religious and spiritual personas eliminate destructive thoughts and words and deeds?
First, because “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” are also personalities, just newly-assumed false roles that are touted as “positive” replacements for the “bad” roles that had been played before the assumption of these new (false) identities.
They are assumed along the way at a place that is far from the point of Full Realization. Maharaj described their position on the "path" thusly: “There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, [who take] a momentary experience for full realization and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride.”
Secondly, no god can trump personality because personality’s effects are genuine but god is not. Maharaj said of the imaginary god(s) taken to be real, “First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God - then you worship such a God and do bhajan and you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.”
Your thoughts and words and deeds will have as much chance of being consistently "religious" or “spiritual” by praying to the Easter Bunny, to Santa Claus, or to the Tooth Fairy as they do by praying to any god created by man’s “mind” and imagination.
What, then, are the facts regarding the "invented God" of which Maharaj spoke? He clarified: "Brahman, Isvara, God, all these are names given to the consciousness when it is conscious of itself."
As artificial as personalities are, their influence is not as artificial, relatively speaking, as that of an artificial god or gods. Why? Because as far as the relative goes, personality has been shown to have a real and lasting effect whereas god never does. At best, the god of religious or spiritual persons can be seen to exert only an occasional influence that is always eventually overridden by the desires of personality.
Personality is textbook...consistently, reliably, steadfastly predictable. No god has ever been shown to be consistent, reliable, steadfast, or predictable. In fact, the god of the six billion members of the sky cults of Abraham has been shown to be totally inconsistent: you can make him happy, and you can make him sad.
See? They have power over god! They can control the way he feels, but he cannot consistently control the way that they feel...or think...or talk...or behave. He is consumed in his co-dependent relationship with them, which gives them the power to control how he feels.
Understand the primary personality of a person and you will know exactly what you are going to get, and what you are going to get with unwavering consistency. Claim to understand God, and you still will never know consistently what to expect.
At times you'll claim to be able to explain God's will exactly, but at other times you'll be totally bewildered and have to concede in those instances that "He works in mysterious ways." The Advaita solution? The Realized Advaitin knows that there is no personality and knows that there is no personal god, either.
Therefore, while Realized Advaitins are like all self-proclaimed religious and spiritual persons / personas in that they cannot be controlled by an imaginary force or power, they differ in that their thoughts and words and deeds cannot be controlled by imaginary personas either.
Maharaj said, "Having followed the course of spirituality, you have come to the end of personality and there is no more human being. There is only impersonal consciousness. In this realm of consciousness all that is going on is dynamic playfulness, a process of functioning. There is no differentiation in this process as to a person, an entity, a community, a creed, a religion. In the flash of your consciousness, all this play is going on. The play will come to an end."
As long as you remain trapped in personality, go ahead and assume any stance or identity that you want. Go into the temple or church or mosque and pray that god will change your thoughts and words and deeds and bend them to his / her will, or—just as effectively—go into the desert and fall to your knees before a mirage and beg that illusion to do the same.
Use any of those four methods—praying in a mosque, a temple, a church, or a desert—and the results will be the same in the long term: nil. There is no god that can trump personality; there is only a seven-step Advaitin “journey” that is a filtering or purification process which can remove belief in all that is false.
Undergo the filtering and purification process and it will be clear that there is no god that can trump personality because neither are real. Mirages cannot improve mirages, cannot control mirages, cannot help mirages, cannot intervene in behalf of mirages, cannot change mirages for the better, and cannot bless mirages.
Only if freed of the notions of both a personal god and of a personal self can You truly be free. Then, nothing is left to trump or not trump anything. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
Tomorrow:
** THE DELUSION REGARDING “POSITIVE THOUGHTS INSTEAD OF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS”
Upcoming Series:
** THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION THAT CAN FREE YOU TO LIVE IN THE NISARGA WAY WITHOUT FLUCTUATION
** THE DELUSION REGARDING “POSITIVE THOUGHTS INSTEAD OF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS”
Upcoming Series:
** THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION THAT CAN FREE YOU TO LIVE IN THE NISARGA WAY WITHOUT FLUCTUATION
SIX WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
1. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk Video (DVD) Set, or the same retreat available as a downloadable file. Either will provide an entire seven-hour retreat / series of satsang sessions showing three seekers being guided through all seven steps by Floyd and can provide viewers with an “experiential,” step-by-step series of satsang meetings that will move the viewers from identification with the I to abidance as the Absolute and then to abidance as That Which Is beyond
Some seekers are already using the computer file version and the DVD sets for meetings in groups in homes, playing the retreat, pausing for discussion, etc.
To find out more or to purchase the DVD set or the downloadable computer file version of the retreat, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
Option “A” is for the downloadable file version, Option “B” is used to order the DVD set for delivery inside the U.S., Option “C” for international orders.
For the download, Paypal will send me a notice that payment has been received and then I will send by e-mail the downloading instruction, password, etc.
[It is recommended that you watch the video with pen and paper in hand. Write whatever you need clarified. You'll see that there are constant reviews and you might find an answer later in the seven-hour presentation. Then, after you watch it all, there will be a common ground for discussion. Purchase of the DVD’s or the file will include the right to clarifications and answers to your specific questions via e-mail.]
2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
[Those two prepare the seeker to question it all]
THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
[Begins to free the seeker of body identification and the desire for body continuity]
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
Purchase an e-Book now and begin reading it in minutes (except with e-checks that can take 7-10 days). Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
SAVE IF YOU BUY ALL ELEVEN AT ONCE:
(You may order the books one at a time or you may use the following link to acquire the entire 11-e-Book set on sale for $99 if ordered at one time with the “Buy Now” button below. For this option, there will be no download links provided; once the near-instant notice of payment is received from PayPal, your e-Books will be sent to you as e-mail attachments. All are printable for your convenience.)
1. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk Video (DVD) Set, or the same retreat available as a downloadable file. Either will provide an entire seven-hour retreat / series of satsang sessions showing three seekers being guided through all seven steps by Floyd and can provide viewers with an “experiential,” step-by-step series of satsang meetings that will move the viewers from identification with the I to abidance as the Absolute and then to abidance as That Which Is beyond
Some seekers are already using the computer file version and the DVD sets for meetings in groups in homes, playing the retreat, pausing for discussion, etc.
To find out more or to purchase the DVD set or the downloadable computer file version of the retreat, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
Option “A” is for the downloadable file version, Option “B” is used to order the DVD set for delivery inside the U.S., Option “C” for international orders.
For the download, Paypal will send me a notice that payment has been received and then I will send by e-mail the downloading instruction, password, etc.
[It is recommended that you watch the video with pen and paper in hand. Write whatever you need clarified. You'll see that there are constant reviews and you might find an answer later in the seven-hour presentation. Then, after you watch it all, there will be a common ground for discussion. Purchase of the DVD’s or the file will include the right to clarifications and answers to your specific questions via e-mail.]
2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
[Those two prepare the seeker to question it all]
THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
[Begins to free the seeker of body identification and the desire for body continuity]
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
Purchase an e-Book now and begin reading it in minutes (except with e-checks that can take 7-10 days). Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
SAVE IF YOU BUY ALL ELEVEN AT ONCE:
(You may order the books one at a time or you may use the following link to acquire the entire 11-e-Book set on sale for $99 if ordered at one time with the “Buy Now” button below. For this option, there will be no download links provided; once the near-instant notice of payment is received from PayPal, your e-Books will be sent to you as e-mail attachments. All are printable for your convenience.)
You may visit The Official Website of Floyd Henderson for information on each book.
3. BY 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
4. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat for satsang with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally:
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session
6. BY ARRANGING for floyd to travel to your location and meet with you or your group. Use the contact link above to discuss details.
3. BY 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
4. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat for satsang with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally:
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session
6. BY ARRANGING for floyd to travel to your location and meet with you or your group. Use the contact link above to discuss details.
