Thursday, December 15, 2005

A GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR THIS SITE, Part One

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
A site visitor wrote: I guess I’ve been what you could call a seeker but not a finder for several decades, then I found your advaita vedanta blog while doing some Googling and that started a month-long investigation into advaita. I’ve visited dozens of sites and read all your old posts and the recent ones you’ve made since your accident. (Hope you’re recovering well.) I’m captivated by what I’ve found so far but the terms you use are confusing. I Googled “Advaita terms” and have visited several sites, but none have helped me understand many of the expressions you use. Where else can I look?”

F.: Most books that discuss the Advaita teaching in depth will have a glossary in the back that might help you. Several other internet sites you may have not yet visited are possibly available. Also, a book you can read about at http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm provides an in-depth explanation of many of the terms used on this site and can serve as a starting point on the Advaita “journey.” For now, though, explanations of some of the terms used on the site will be offered since the goal is to use language that is as simple as possible, considering the subject matter. These may not necessarily conform to the definitions offered by other Advaitans (especially those who use the original Far Eastern terms) but will help you negotiate the postings on this particular site. Finally, you’ll be invited as usual to pause after the reading and take into consideration any pointers offered, even those conveyed via definitions in a glossary.

Person: Anyone not Realized; a persona; the outer physical self that is limited to self-identification with the body and with the mental roles dreamed up for the body to play; one who believes that the roles he/she plays actually identify who he/she is; one who believes his images are real; one who believes the images of others are real. [While the realized are free of ego and ego-states, persons are fully absorbed in false identities and are driven by the egotism that accompanies all assumed roles].
Realization: The understanding that results after completing the entire Advaita “journey” and being free of all personas (all false identities); the awareness or knowingness that results when one has been freed of the effects of programming and conditioning and no longer believes the lies that his culture claims are the truth; that “state” which results when the contaminated consciousness has been returned to a pure “condition” that is free of concepts, ideas, emotional intoxication and belief in the lies that had been taken as truth as a result of enculturation; the restoration of the consciousness That You Are to its pure "condition"; the "highest" knowledge (derived via meditation from within, never from without) that is the complete awareness of the unity of all things.
Persona: From Latin, meaning “mask”; one trapped in an ego-state, a false identity, a personality.
Ego: from Latin, meaning “I.” Specifically, it is the pronoun used by those who believe any false identity to be real; the source of perceived separation; the source of fighting to preserve image; it follows assumption of a false identity, is used to defend false roles, and always propels a role to “super” status. (For example, as soon as one assumes the role of “a wife,” she immediately becomes “Super Wife,” deserves nothing less than a “Super Husband,” and will expect to be treated in a super fashion. The case is the same with “husband” and the same with all roles. “Super Teacher” must have “Super Students” to survive, and “Super Teacher” will fight with non-super students as if a life-and-death struggle is under way, so thoroughly is the ego-state taken to be the real.)
Ego-state: that “state” in which a persona exists, taking false roles to be true identity. An ego-state is always identified by placing a word after “I am” (such as, “I am a spouse”; “I am a lover”; “I am an employee,” “I am a teacher,” etc.)
I Am, I Amness, Is-ness: The statement of awareness by Pure Consciousness which knows that it has temporarily manifested in a space, that it is the conscious-energy that is currently abiding in the state of Amness, but that also knows It Is That…the singular, most basic That Which All Is; the expression of Pure Consciousness.
True Self: the Pure, post-Realization Consciousness that witnesses purely and accurately as long as it is manifested, aware that no subject-object duality exists and aware of the Oneness.
Atonement: Not a reconciliation between humans and an imagined external power (conceived by man and bearing the image of men) but instead the awareness of the at-one-ment, of the Oneness, of the fact that all is only That and nothing more.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

Please note: Books ordered now can still be delivered before Christmas. The most popular among Advaitans this season is:

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

Available to order at http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm. (Limited quantities in stock until after the first of the year.) If sending as a gift to a friend or relative, please put in the Message Box at the bottom of the order page their name and mailing information and the message you'd like enclosed with the gift.

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