Thursday, October 03, 2024

"SEEK NOT TO FIND WHO YOU ARE. INSTEAD, SEEK TO FIND ALL YOU ARE NOT."

Table of Contents

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

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, “Unlearning with Floyd Henderson.”

Please note: For those who have a problem hearing what is being shared, the video offers a fairly accurate set of closed captions which some listeners might want to activate.

The interview is available for viewing by clicking on video “NUMBER THIRTEEN” in the column to the right. Also, by clicking on NUMBER FOURTEEN,” visitors can also see the introductory discussion on non-duality on Walter’s non-duality site and then a Q and A session which followed.]

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 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 newer 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 available in two anthologies through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and over 40,000+ booksellers around the globe including in the Americas, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. 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?

 6. You may purchase a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here for someone and offer recommendations for the books in Floyd’s store which might be of assistance to them.

7. You may click here to visit Floyd’s bookstore which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, and financial budgeting.

"SEEK NOT TO FIND WHO YOU ARE. INSTEAD, SEEK TO FIND ALL YOU ARE NOT."

"Seek not to find who you are. It is enough to know who / what you are not."

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 I received a phone call from a man who ten years ago went through a non-dual retreat I offered. He wanted to thank me for what he came to understand as a result. The last ten years after that retreat, he said, have been far calmer and more peaceful and enjoyable then the ten years before.

 He said that a woman had spoken to him the week before and shared this: "I never worry about the past or the present. When I worry, it's always about the future. I read The Power of Now once a year and it centers me.

I replied: Ah, so she's gone the big name teacher route which Maharaj specifically warned seekers to stay away from."

I suggested that the next time he sees her, just to have some mischievous fun with her and to maybe plant a seed which might help her understand her fixation on future harms and dangers and disasters, etc., ask if she might be willing to try this:

The next time she reads that book, suggest that she find out WHO - which ego-state or ego-states are wanting power - and find as many messages as she can which endorse avoidance and dissociation and escapism and dodging.

Next, were she here, she and I would investigate her background and see if she is aware of where she was taught that nothing in the relative is significant and that all focus should be on eternity and on everlasting rewards or everlasting punishment.

To problem? That message drives persons to ignore the past and thus deny the trauma which all humans experience at one time or another. 

There are institutions which endorse "putting one's head in the sand" about mental, emotional, sexual, and physical abuse (much of which happened inside the walls of those very institutions which minimize the effects of such trauma-generating actions by those in charge). 

In most Christian and Jewish and Muslim-controlled cultures, the key message is about "focusing on the afterlife" and ignoring past events which happened to focus on the future and eternity. 

(Job 8:7 says to Jews and Christians, "Your future will be brighter by fat than your past" as do other pointers offer to them:

Jeremiah 29:11 has "the Lord" say, "For I know the plan I have for you, plant to prosper you ans not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

[Uh, how about I get an advance on some that now?! Why are you holding back?]

Psalms 31:14-15 says, "But I am trusting you, O LORD, saying, 'You are my God! My future is in your hands'."

[So until then, I can avoid and dissociate and escape and dodge. Super cool!]

The "future carrot" dangled in front of Muslim men is the "heavenly brothel" where their reward will include 72 fair-skinned virgins who never urinate, defecate, or menstruate as well as countless wives and experienced prostitutes.  

[You can see why Christian missionaries who have gone to Muslim lands to convert the people to Christianity have had a tough sale when all they can offer regarding heaven is 24-7 singing and praising and glorifying their god.]

Long-surviving politicians are also masters at passing on the "This sucks now. Elect me and I guarantee I'll make your future better. In fact, I'm the only one in this nation who can do that!" And the sheep all raised their voice in unison and shouted, "Glory to God. He has sent this man to save us."

Maharaj: "Seek not to find who you are. It is enough to know who / what you are not."

If that is completed, then the source of much of one's delusions, illusions, and false beliefs can begin to fall away, including belief in the identities of "Spouse," "Boss," "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "God's Chosen One," 

"God's Gift to Women," "God's Gift to Men," "God's Chosen People," "The One Whose Parents Had to Be Perfect (seeing how great he or she turned out,") and on and on and on.

When false beliefs about body and mind and personal identities are in place, then those false roles will control all thoughts and words and actions. The result: persons become certain that they have made every choice and every decision in their lives. 

The truth? They made no choices because they have been driven by subconscious beliefs and personas which have generated serious personality disorders, all of which have determined persons' thoughts and words and deeds. 

The non-dual understanding is about eliminating all nonsensical and irrational beliefs. It is about seeing that one needs to be un-taught all of the learned ignorance which is driving and controlling the masses all around the globe. It is about un-learning all of the nonsense and BS which has been taught.

Only then can clarity and freedom and independence manifest.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

To watch the most recent talk and Q&A with Walter and his guests, click: 

Walter Driscoll and Floyd Henderson

To watch the interview when Walter and Floyd discussed the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental / mind sickness and why learning more is not the answer and why unlearning is the answer, click:

UNLEARNING

EBOOK VERSIONS OF ALL 56 OF HENDERSON'S BOOKS 

ARE AVAILABLE AT

Henderson's Books.

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

"SEEK NOT TO FIND WHO YOU ARE. INSTEAD, SEEK TO FIND ALL YOU ARE NOT."

Table of Contents

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

 

  ANNOUNCEMENTS

[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, “Unlearning with Floyd Henderson.”

Please note: For those who have a problem hearing what is being shared, the video offers a fairly accurate set of closed captions which some listeners might want to activate.

The interview is available for viewing by clicking on video “NUMBER THIRTEEN” in the column to the right. Also, by clicking on NUMBER FOURTEEN,” visitors can also see the introductory discussion on non-duality on Walter’s non-duality site and then a Q and A session which followed.]

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 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 newer 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 available in two anthologies through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and over 40,000+ booksellers around the globe including in the Americas, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. 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?

 6. You may purchase a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here for someone and offer recommendations for the books in Floyd’s store which might be of assistance to them.

7. You may click here to visit Floyd’s bookstore which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, and financial budgeting.

"SEEK NOT TO FIND WHO YOU ARE. INSTEAD, SEEK TO FIND ALL YOU ARE NOT."

THE FOURTH DEGREE: MOVEMENT TOWARD REALITY

(Excerpted from a 2004 Satsang session)

Q.: “Okay, I understand there’s no 'inner' or 'outer,' that all images are within the mind - or make up the ‘mind’ - but the notion of witnessing something and then believing that ‘I’m not seeing what I’m seeing’ seems impossible.”

F.: “Why?”

Q.: [Pause] “Because I can be skeptical about what I hear, but people take what they see to be what they see.”

F.: "After realization, the supposed seeing ends and what is known will be known and what was once supposedly 'seen' will be 'seen' no more. But why should the current pointer seem 'impossible'? You once took the concepts of your parents and priests and teachers and friends and culture at face value, but now you're finally rejecting those. 

I trust that you questioned those most basic ideas and beliefs and discarded them. Why can't you accept that what you think you see - and the way you perceive - can be in error?”

Q.: “I just said . . .  because even the most skeptical typically accept what they can see.”

F.: “So you cling to the notion that the coiled rope is truly a snake? [Pause] Return to the steel girder. If you look at that beam from ten feet away, you’re going to have one perception of what that beam is; however, if you look at that beam through an electron microscope, then you’re going to see a reality that is completely different from your original perception, aren’t you?”

Q.: “Right.”

F.: “What’s the difference?”

Q. : [Pause] “The closer view.”

F.: “Okay, the closer view or . . .  the view gained by seeing more clearly with an aid. The satsanga is your aid, your microscope, your new pair of glasses. Eventually, You will see clearly on Your own and can discard the glasses. For now, you need assistance. Your perception has been fogged by decades of distorted acculturation. [F. points to his own body.] What do you see here?”

Q.: “I see Floyd.”

F.: “Oh my gosh . . . I’m sending you back to the Level One sessions! [Laughter from group. Points to a woman next to the man.] What do you see?”

Q. 2: “I see chemicals, elements, energy, consciousness, and mainly … just space.” [F. smiles broadly, then looks with a mock sneer at Q. as the group laughs.]

Q.: [To Q. 2] “Teacher’s pet.”

F.: “If you must label her, call her 'an electron microscope.’ Credit her with having ‘a third eye.’ She sees far more clearly.” [Laughter] If the witness sees clearly, then a large world becomes available for this manifested space. 

You no longer believe in the limited, confined, restricted, restrictive, small world of a body-mind-personality. What she knows [pointing at Q. 2] is that ‘A’ is not looking at ‘B,’ ‘B’ being a mirage; what she knows is that ‘A’ is witnessing that there is no ‘B’ - no 'Floyd' - to see. 

Thus, she's able to understand what actually is. Fixed in the childlike state and just witnessing, the eagle can look at the entire field below - can 'see' all that is in its field of consciousness - but it will experience no emotion and will form no opinions and will draw no conclusions about what it witnesses in the field. 

It will understand that the shadow of the mouse is a shadow and will ignore it [snaps fingers] that fast. It now witnesses with 'filtered consciousness,' made purer by having discarded all of the false; it 'sees' with the clarity of an electron microscope. 

Since all is illusion that the eagle-witness witnesses, nothing is really witnessed; therefore, no opinions, attitudes, offenses, or reactions are registered and attached to. Later, even this will change as you will 'see' accurately and will understand all that is witnessed."

Q.: "I don't see any application for the relative existence."

F.: [Pause] "You and your application. Who is always seeking to gain more when I invite you to know the bliss of less? [Pause] When a person screamed that I was a 'New Age Agent of Satan' for believing in ‘that non-duality stuff,’ only a faint buzz was detected for an instant . . . as if coming from a ghost, from something transparent . . .  artificial . . .  illusory.

No longer are voices coming into my head. No longer are voices that once originated from my mind taken to be the real. No mind exists that can either register or generate such nonsense, so to be called some name has no more effect than someone throwing a rock at the moon. The voices are all gone since the mind that once registered them is gone. Apply that.

[Pause. Q. still confused.]

F.: When driving along those long stretches of road in the deserts of the Southwest, I don’t swerve my car to avoid mirages in the road. By the time I'm closer to where the mirages had supposedly 'appeared,' that closer view shows that the mirage had just been a momentary flickering across the screen of consciousness.

In pure consciousness, images cannot register as being something ‘real.’ [Pause] Take the closer view. Always take the closest view possible until you see the Absolute, then you will have the grandest, broadest view of all / All. You will understand the functioning of the Totality. Stay on the path until you see every illusion and all of the Truth.”

Stop wasting time focused on trying to find what is nothing more than a dreamed up, post-mahasamadhi ‘SELF-IDENTITY’ and focus on finding what you are not, right now.

Presently, what has always been taken to be ‘you’ is a composite unity of elements forming a space through which elements and oxygen and conscious-energy have been circulating.

Let’s review: Post-manifestation, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements (dust-to-dust, ash-to-ash, blah, blah, blah); the oxygen shall return to the universal pool of oxygen; and the conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of energy.

Do you really believe that some way, somehow, those three parts can ever be reassembled, exactly, and then take a new form of an Infinite Self, a Special Self, an Eternal Self, a Supreme Self, etc.?

Or does the religious or spiritual programming and conditioning or the myth-based lies you were taught have such power over you that . . .

even if you see the scientific evidence above which proves that the parts of a composite unity can never be reassembled and cannot be upgraded to an angel or downgraded to a hell-bound sinner . . .

can still happen because there is a ‘soul’ within which survives the destruction of  the composite unity?

You were given as a child the answer to that question regarding the final truth set forth via the Humpty Dumpty Rule. Remember? He could not be put back together again.

Do you think that you could take the following

and put it back together again perfectly? Sure, there are those who tell me that 'god can do anything.' If that were true, why doesn't he get off his a . . . uh, his throne and put an end to wars, murders, plagues, school shootings, and right-wing control freaks?

The neti-neti Rule applies: post-mahasamadhi, there will be neither a reformation of some composite unity ‘you’ parts nor will there be angels and sinners being judged and separated like the Nazis did as cattle cars full of Jews were judged and separated from each other outside death camps at the moment they left the trains.

Give me a break. Ha.

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

To watch the most recent talk and Q&A with Walter and his guests, click: 

Walter Driscoll and Floyd Henderson

To watch the interview when Walter and Floyd discussed the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental / mind sickness and why learning more is not the answer and why unlearning is the answer, click:

UNLEARNING

EBOOK VERSIONS OF ALL 56 OF HENDERSON'S BOOKS 

ARE AVAILABLE AT

Henderson's Books.

Recent Posts and Archives