Sunday, December 01, 2019

MAHARAJ AND THE RELIGION VS. SCIENCE DEBATE

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. [See the offer in gold text following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]

2. Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the green text after today's post for the full meaning and implications of that.

3. A new video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group." (See the details in the blue text after this post.)

4. Some prefer paperback books even if they have to wait a day or so to receive it and have to pay more for a printed book and its shipment. Now, 10 paperback books by Henderson are in print and are available through Amazon. See the end of this post in red text for details.

5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.

MAHARAJ AND THE RELIGION VS. SCIENCE DEBATE

"Science will someday advance to the point that it will confirm the validity of the non-dual teachings."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

and

Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed to believe so that you can be free, period.  
--Floyd Henderson 

This has been asked in the past: "Is it possible that everything you have ever been taught or were told or read was false?"

That raised the question, "How can one avoid buying into lies and being fooled by cons and believing nonsense. Will scientifically-based facts always be the answer? When disproving myth-and-superstition-based dogma, maybe. But no single institution or "ism" has a monopoly on lying and distorting truth and passing dreamed up tales as the Truth. Lying and distorting and misperceptions have no boundaries. They are limitless.

“The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind.” 
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

That said, science is forever studying, reevaluating, and finding exceptions to previously-presented explanations; thus, the only real protection is to give up playing the role of "A Believer" or the role of "A Non-Believer" and reach a state of no-beliefs.

Here, the invitation has always been to be un-taught, not to allow me or anyone else to teach you more. The invitation has always been to unlearn, to unlearn all of the learned ignorance which has been passed down.  

So . . .
THE RATIONALE FOR REACHING A "NO-BELIEF," "ZERO CONCEPTS," "NO-MIND" STATE AS RECOMMENDED BY MAHARAJ AND THEN ABIDING UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ELEMENTAL BRAIN RATHER THAN THE DISTORTED, FICTION-FILLED MIND, PART ONE 

WHAT MAHARAJ HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE TOPIC: 

"All illness begins in the mind."
"Your confusion is . . . in your mind."
"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited."

"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."
" . . . The mind obscures and distorts."
"It is the mind that creates illusion."
"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind."

"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether." 

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering." 

So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj? 

"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."
"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas."
"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ."
 
"Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . ."
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom."

So what was his state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state: 

"There is no such thing as a mind," period.
"I have no mind . . . ." 

Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised: 

"Reach a state of zero-concepts."
"As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."
"I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too."
"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably." 

WHAT HE DID NOT SAY AT THE END: 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have a spiritual malady and are not spiritual enough."

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have not completed the entire Self-Inquiry process." 

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END:  

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from having accumulated too little knowledge of dogma.”
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from people not being spiritual enough."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from not knowing the Supreme Self." 

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END: 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your ignorance of religion and of your inadequate knowledge of dogma is the dawn of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your sick spirit and your spiritual malady is the dawn of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your insufficient understanding of the Supreme Self is the dawn of wisdom." 

My dad occasionally used a phrase to explain some human behaviors that we witnessed which seemed quite beyond the pale. Later, I would hear the same phrase while watching the movie Forrest Gump

"Stupid is as stupid does." 

Meaning? "Stupid people do stupid things." The take with Maharaj and the take here both differ from that view. 

It is true that humans operate along this continuum: 

Thoughts lead to words . . . words lead to actions; 

thus, the conclusion some draw is that "if I am seeing stupid actions on the part of someone, then I can trace it back to the stupid thoughts of that person."

But consider: some of the most intelligent persons behave in the most ignorant and / or insane and / or stupid fashion. 

Secondly, because there are no actual persons / personas - all false personalities and identities being products of the imagination and acculturation - then there cannot be any ignorant persons or stupid persons or insane persons. 

Some claim that Maharaj said there are ignorant persons and stupid persons and insane persons, but he did not. What he said in that regard is that "most suffer from the Ultimate Sickness" and that "three of the key symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness are ignorance, stupidity, and insanity." 

The fact: those called "humans" or "persons" are actually just triads - composite unities - made up of these three parts: (1) an elemental plant food body with (2) conscious-energy which is never more than temporarily-manifested in the body and (3) circulating oxygen. 

"Never more than temporarily manifested?" Exactly.

Persons must eat food in order for a constantly-cycling supply of conscious-energy to be replenished and available. Whatever speck of conscious-energy is manifested today within the space formed by an elemental plant food body which most call "floyd" is not the same speck of conscious-energy which was manifested yesterday within the space and will not be the speck of conscious-energy which will be manifested tomorrow within the space, should the body still be functioning tomorrow. 

The delusion that one specific quantity of conscious-energy has been manifested in any given body since the so-called point of "birth" is a result of memory alone which generates the misperception of continuity. Were conscious-energy to operate in that fashion, then a parent would only need to feed a child one time.

So, there is no such thing as an ignorant person or a stupid person or an insane person, but there are billions of of humans who are trapped in the lie of body identification, who are trapped in the lie of mind identification, and who are trapped in the lie of personality identification.

To believe that one is his or her body is the height of ignorance, stupidity and insanity; to believe that the fiction and distortions and lies which are stored in one's mind are true is the height of ignorance, stupidity and insanity;

to believe that one is actually defined and identified by the false personalities / personas / roles which have been assigned or assumed is the height of ignorance, stupidity and insanity; and the highest degree of insanity might well be to be driven - subconsciously and unconsciously - by the agendas and fears and desires of illusory identities.

Moreover, to have one's thoughts and words and actions controlled by the agendas of illusions is also the height of ignorance, stupidity and insanity.

On occasion, persons might see that they have been fooled and that one of their beliefs was a lie, at which point they toss aside that belief and replace it with another. That is tantamount to having one doctor remove cancerous cells from within your body but then allowing another doctor to implant other cancerous cells within your body. 

The sane approach would be to remove all cancerous cells and not replace them at all. 

The same applies to beliefs and to the mind in which they are stored.

To be continued.
THE NEWEST OFFER:

Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)


If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.

(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)

To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:

Buy Now

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.

PAPERBACK COPIES OF SOME OF THE BOOKS OFFERED HERE

If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
of some of Henderson’s non-duality books,
10 of his books in PRINT FORM are available through AMAZON.
(That is, ten books are collected in two anthologies for sale on AMAZON.)

For NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES


The Advanced Seekers' Series (344 pages) is an anthology of four books that share Advaita-based, non-duality pointers that can guide seekers to abide as their original nature. Included in the anthology are

"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");

"Consciousness / Awareness: The Nature of Reality Beyond SELF-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding As the Absolute)";

"From the Absolute to the Nothingness";

and

"The Final Understanding."

Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Advanced Seekers' Series from AMAZON by clicking here

Also for NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES


This anthology (438 pages) contains the six books that make up what has been called The Blissful Abidance Series for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including,

“What BLISS is and what BLISS is not”;

“There’s No Such Thing As Peace of Mind (There’s Only Peace If You’re ‘Out of Your Mind’)”;

“Liberation (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)”;

“Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness”;

“Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full”;

and

“When REALITY Is Overlaid on the RELATIVE.”

Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Blissful Abidance Series from Amazon by clicking here

SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE

To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:;

(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com

(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.

(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)

Send your information to:
 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.

THE EXPLANATION

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you."

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and

"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
but are states of mind, nothing more than
concepts dreamed up by men."&
--Pope John Paul II

"There is no hell."
--Pope Francis, the current pope
in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,
a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.]

Here's

the direct link to the VIDEO VERSION

of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 18 MARCH 2018

or

You can click on the picture link which has now been added for video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.

If preferred, here's

the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION

of that session.

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