[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The pointers in this book are only for the most advanced seekers. The reading of this book should follow a reading and an understanding of the pointers in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.
F.: Maharaj also said, “This knowledge is for those who have no desires.” It is obvious that your desire for an identity inspires your talk of “something.” Since you desire an identity, the content of this book will not likely appeal to you. Are you also desiring life eternal? Then the ultimate understanding is not for you. Because you want to be “something” (and something forever) then the ultimate teaching will likely have no appeal for you.
If you still desire to know who you are (and that is appropriate at the earlier levels), these highest level teachings will not be for you. It can be asked legitimately, “Then what is any of this about? Why are the teachings happening? Why does the consciousness continue to speak?”
Maharaj was asked that very question and he answered, “What is the worth of all these activities of human beings? It is all entertainment, just to pass the time. You get pleasure only when you forget yourself.” So for ultimate pleasure, forget your self, and forget Your Self.
He said, “Liberation means what? It is no more there. [Flicking his cigarette lighter off and on.] This cigarette lighter is the body; the consciousness is the flame. Now it isn’t there anymore; it is liberated. Where is the need to label it…?”
“First I thought I was the body, then I experienced that I was not the body but I was the consciousness, then I got the experience that this consciousness is not really me, and there is no form, no individuality, no nothing.”
It has been asked even by more advanced seekers during satsanga sessions and Advaita Seminars and Advaita Retreats, “Isn’t there something that you believe in?”
The reply: “Not only do I not believe in something, I don’t even believe in nothing…no person, no concept, no form, no nothing. ‘Something’ is temporary and ‘nothing’ is also temporary—all fleeting aspects of an ever-changing universe that wasn’t at first and that later suddenly was.” (More on that in a later chapter.)
Wherefore your desire for permanence? Wherefore your desire for an “identity” when even before the “SOMETHING” you reference, there was nothing? Ultimately, either your view of Reality involves no concepts and no duality, or your false sense of reality involves concepts (which, in turn, support duality and falsehoods).
Far more pervasive among persons who will never find a “true identity” are their distortions regarding all of the false, assumed identities which they are not but which they think they are. (And those are the “identities” that have a far more influential impact, relatively speaking).
If persons would be free of the suffering that is rooted in the ignorance of their ego-states—and the egotism that always accompanies their false identities—then (continued in the book).
FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.
F.: Maharaj also said, “This knowledge is for those who have no desires.” It is obvious that your desire for an identity inspires your talk of “something.” Since you desire an identity, the content of this book will not likely appeal to you. Are you also desiring life eternal? Then the ultimate understanding is not for you. Because you want to be “something” (and something forever) then the ultimate teaching will likely have no appeal for you.
If you still desire to know who you are (and that is appropriate at the earlier levels), these highest level teachings will not be for you. It can be asked legitimately, “Then what is any of this about? Why are the teachings happening? Why does the consciousness continue to speak?”
Maharaj was asked that very question and he answered, “What is the worth of all these activities of human beings? It is all entertainment, just to pass the time. You get pleasure only when you forget yourself.” So for ultimate pleasure, forget your self, and forget Your Self.
He said, “Liberation means what? It is no more there. [Flicking his cigarette lighter off and on.] This cigarette lighter is the body; the consciousness is the flame. Now it isn’t there anymore; it is liberated. Where is the need to label it…?”
“First I thought I was the body, then I experienced that I was not the body but I was the consciousness, then I got the experience that this consciousness is not really me, and there is no form, no individuality, no nothing.”
It has been asked even by more advanced seekers during satsanga sessions and Advaita Seminars and Advaita Retreats, “Isn’t there something that you believe in?”
The reply: “Not only do I not believe in something, I don’t even believe in nothing…no person, no concept, no form, no nothing. ‘Something’ is temporary and ‘nothing’ is also temporary—all fleeting aspects of an ever-changing universe that wasn’t at first and that later suddenly was.” (More on that in a later chapter.)
Wherefore your desire for permanence? Wherefore your desire for an “identity” when even before the “SOMETHING” you reference, there was nothing? Ultimately, either your view of Reality involves no concepts and no duality, or your false sense of reality involves concepts (which, in turn, support duality and falsehoods).
Far more pervasive among persons who will never find a “true identity” are their distortions regarding all of the false, assumed identities which they are not but which they think they are. (And those are the “identities” that have a far more influential impact, relatively speaking).
If persons would be free of the suffering that is rooted in the ignorance of their ego-states—and the egotism that always accompanies their false identities—then (continued in the book).
To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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