IMAGINED EGO-STATES CANNOT BE “SUSTAINED” IN THE SILENCE

An Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Quotation from John Warren: “If I’m the one talking, I’m the one not learning.”

F.: Several e-mails have been received in the last 24 hours from seekers admitting that they were able to see “themselves” as a result of a recent series that was cancelled.

This response was sent to one site visitor:

Of course an Advaitin that invites questioning must be open to questioning in a satsanga setting; it is altogether different when a “seeker” writes every day within minutes of the postings to defend and debate when he has been invited three times to stop responding and to consider in the silence instead. Such evidence of egotism shows clearly that the readiness is not there. The teacher moves on to the next seeker that might be ready. And yes, this can only happen without attachment if no one is “here” to be bothered. Many think they can handle it, but they cannot. They end up with burnout that reveals that they were as attached to outcome as the persons coming their way. So it is.

While Warren’s quote above offers a relevant reminder for seekers in the early stages, the Advaita teachings are more about “un-teaching” or “un-learning.” If persons were awake to a degree that they could witness themselves (their false selves at work), they would see that they (their ego-states) hate the silence.

Yet they are not even awake enough to see that; instead, their “minds” and mouths are on autopilot, grinding out thoughts and then the words that follow.

This weekend, a visitor that has arranged a one-on-one retreat will be here for several days. Pointers will be offered, but most of the visitor’s time here will be spent in meditation and contemplation and silence.

Compare all of this with the process used by Maharaj: He offered one session of satsang in the morning and one later in the day. He generally allowed a seeker to visit the sessions for seven to ten days. In a week, a seeker might be exposed to 12-14 hours of pointers but would have over 100 hours available for silent consideration of those pointers.

As noted, that speck called “my Cherokee grandmother” shared the methodology of the indigenous teachers who required seekers to wait “three moons” before responding or asking further questions.

How many people today can keep quiet for three minutes, much less three moons? How much talking are you engaging in that is not required by employment?

The intent of meditation is not to reach a temporary state of samadhi, though millions think so. A few minutes of still mindedness is still followed by mind-ness for the rest of the day. Once Realized, there is no going into and coming out of samadhi. To the contrary, the natural no-mind state becomes the fixed state.

The purpose of meditation is, in fact, not to reach a state of no awareness but to stay in a state of heightened awareness in which pointers are received and then taken into the silence for contemplation in order that the understanding might manifest.

An ego-state, however, cannot be sustained in the silence. If “The Helper” (who has a hidden agenda to be loved by many) is in the presence of five other people, that persona cannot possibly be quiet. Why would the other five like him or love him or be impressed if he merely sat in their presence without saying a word?

He (that false persona) believes that it must talk to impress, and the drive to do so is not even registered in consciousness. Personality’s drives are subconscious instead. Talk-talk-talk is the province of the ego that manifests alongside every assumed ego-state / false identity / assumed role.

The irony is that the silence cannot manifest unless ego-states are forfeited but that the continuing belief that an ego-state is real prevents the silence from happening. The challenge of the seeker is to see all false roles for what they are. When those are discarded, so too is the supposed “need” to talk and defend and respond in three seconds rather than in three moons.

Liberation involves liberation from personality. If that does not happen, then liberation from the desire to generate noise will never happen. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

FOR MORE ON TODAY’S POST AND TO BE LIBERATED AND FREE OF PERSONALITY AND THE “MIND”:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

and

Click LIBERATION

ABANDON YOUR BELIEF IN ANY “WHO”

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

[Please note: the server is experiencing problems that are resulting in different-sized fonts and spacings and bold print and italics. The font sizes are not being used for emphasis but are resulting from a glitch in the system.]

F.: Many e-mails arrived, asking for clarification of an earlier pointer. Several felt they were on the cusp of understanding something they have missed earlier and asked for further clarification of this:

When the body called “floyd” visits certain places in Western Europe, what, other than the consciousness alone, is enjoying the flavor of food or the ambience of certain locales or the company of those who label themselves “friends” or “acquaintances”?

Were the body to be subjected to a continuous drip of anesthetics, blocking the consciousness from being conscious of those flavors and that ambience and the company, could anything be enjoyed? No.

In the village of Beynac in southern France, Chef Bruno prepared evening meals that were enhanced with sauces that pleased the palate. If the “body called floyd” were subjected to the influence of anesthetics, the body could be carried to Bruno’s dining room and propped up in a chair.

Then, someone could have rubbed Bruno’s sauce-enhanced entrées across the mouth and tongue, but there would be no enjoyment of the sauces or the entrées. The consciousness would still be present, but there would be no conscious-of-ness in that state.

The point is that it is not the body or the “mind” that enjoys whatever is being enjoyed…it is the manifest consciousness alone. There is no WHO that enjoys anything. There is no body that enjoys anything, there is no “mind” that enjoys anything, and there is no personality/person who enjoys anything. Any “registration” of joy happens via the manifested consciousness.

Yet note that this consciousness is a dual-edged sword, post-programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation. It is that same consciousness which allows Bruno’s sauces to be enjoyed that also allows a suffering body to be witnessed; that allows mental misery and suffering to be witnessed; and that also sets the stage for personality-driven suffering and misery to manifest.

Seekers are seeking to be fixated in some state or condition that is marked by stability and peace, yet the dual-edged sword of consciousness (once subjected to programming and conditioning) will never allow that to happen.

It will guarantee instead that fluctuation and instability are “experienced” as persons think they are “the experiencers” and “the do-ers” and “the deciders.” All the while, their every thought and word and deed is being blindly driven by the formerly pure consciousness that has become warped or blocked.

To be led by beliefs in lies and concepts to try to abide in the consciousness and to take the relative as real is to be trapped in the duality of that dual-edged blade.

There is no relative stability. There is no relative peace. There is no “peace of ‘mind’.” Stability and peace and freedom from belief in the lies that are stored in what is called “the mind” is the “stuff” of the Unmanifest.

Stability and peace and freedom can also be the “stuff” of this manifestation if the consciousness is transcended, if You come to Realize Your original nature, and if You dwell as that natural state…NOW. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

LIBERATION VIA CASTING ASIDE ALL IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION, Part Five

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

F.: [Continued from yesterday] The remainder of this series is being cancelled. The invitation, repeatedly, has been to sit in the silence and in contemplation (for days or longer if necessary) in order to see if the pointers offered might apply;

instead, replies are being sent immediately to try to explain how the offered pointers do not apply. That behavior--that inability to sit in the silence and to consider pointers that some ego-state finds offensive or “wrong”--shows that personas are present that are not ready to forfeit the beliefs and concepts that are sustaining the illusions that they are.

When such persona-identification happens, the egotism that tries to defend such delusion reveals that your concepts are too firmly entrenched at this point for the readiness to manifest.

Thus, these final pointers will be offered to conclude the series:

1. Egotism, which is used to support all false roles, is also the force that inspires persons to stand in the dullness of the dawn while being convinced by that egotism that they are being bathed in the brightness of the noon-time sun.

2. The irony among non-Realized persons is that they can be an egomaniac on one hand while suffering from an inferiority complex on the other. That will motivate them to exert power in the workplace or in the community because they have assumed a subordinate role at home. They can be convinced that they know it all when there is really nothing at all to know.

3. To the contrary, there is only a great deal to un-know instead.

4. The “path” is unavailable to those not willing to question, and eventually cast aside, all concepts.

5. I, the re-purified consciousness, believe in no concepts or ideas or persons or personality. The books that are recommended in the “Advanced Seekers’ Package” are for those specks of Fully Realized consciousness that are ready for the Reality that exists even beyond Self-Realization. Before you were, there was a void. After any physical coming together of elements ends, there will be the void that remains. It is in that truest state of nothingness that no-concept abidance happens.

6. Since there is no do-er, there is nothing to do to begin the “journey” except to witness nonsense as nonsense; otherwise, one is no different from a man dying of thirst in the desert, certain that he is seeing something that is going to bring relief and that it is something other than a mirage.

He can run to his illusions and try to drink from an oasis of sand, even as a guide is pointing to the real waterhole nearly. Those lost in the concepts that support their belief in such illusions will ignore the water of enlightenment that is being presented, constantly chasing instead the next mirage or illusion that might offer something that will end the suffering and bring peace and happiness and joy.

7. It does not matter what “steps” persons might be using, whether their steps promise to “get them into contact with power and be of service to others” or to “move away from delusions and touch Reality,” specks of consciousness can be in a state of fluctuation.

The 12-Steppers who are so sure that they are fixated in 11 and 12 can instantly show signs of insanity that reveal they’re back at 2 and needing to be “restored to sanity.” Advaitin seekers can speak in a manner in one e-mail that suggests they are at Step Three, but the words they use later can show that they are still in a pre-step-one “mindset,” trapped in body identification.

8. Fluctuation is guaranteed in the relative, and fluctuation is guaranteed to those who do not know their original and true nature but accept as fact the concepts and beliefs that convince them that they are the body and mind and personality.

9. Concept-free communicating can only happen if the re-purified consciousness is addressing re-purified consciousness (and even that happens only for the sake of entertainment). No concept-free discussions can happen if one is not enlightened.

[NOTE: Does the re-purified consciousness share pointers toward truth with all? Of course not. If that speck called “my daughter” telephones and discusses family and work and relative happenings, do you think I, the re-purified consciousness, tell her to cast aside all concepts and speak to me only from the standpoint of her true nature? Of course not.

If a sleepwalker calls and feels some relative event must be discussed, replies will be offered that are level-appropriate, geared to the level of a sleepwalking child. These teachings are not for public consumption, nor are they forced upon anyone not seeking them.]

10. Could enlightenment have curtailed the nonsensical behaviors that have led to the current wars that are raging in the relative? Of course. Can the Realized understand that? Of course. To the rest who ask, “How about that Iraq?” why respond on an Absolute level to those trapped at the relative level?

11. The Advaitin teacher will respond to seekers’ queries with level-appropriate pointers or not at all, the latter being the case when it becomes clear that the readiness has not manifested. As mentioned earlier, there is no guarantee that any given seeker will understand these teachings. Evidence, in fact, suggests the contrary.

12. Finally, when feeling an overwhelming desire to respond (a desire that is driven by the ego-state’s inability to be quiet and stay in the silence) the invitation is to determine WHO is offended or WHO thinks he must reply…and reply quickly. Should you find all of the false personas being assumed, then the readiness might eventually manifest. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

LIBERATION VIA CASTING ASIDE ALL IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION, Part Four

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

F.: [Continued from yesterday] The “mind”-chatter referenced in yesterday’s post, along with all the accompanying disharmony and chaos and instability, is the result of assuming personality types as identities and then constantly integrating (but more often disintegrating) into associated types.

The result is, even among those persons who are trying to “grow” and who are involved in “self-improvement,” is a notion that “progress” is being made. Thus, a temporary sense of happiness seems to manifest alongside all those concepts, only to have that happiness fade away as the misery of disintegration and entrapment in another personality type comes about as a result of stress or extreme piety or spiritual giantism.

Thus, “The Kind Helper Type Two” disintegrates into “The Mean Controller/Boss Type Eight”; “The Carefree Adventurer Type Seven” disintegrates into “The Rigid, Critical Perfectionist”; and “The Cocksure Performer Type Three” shifts to “The Fear-Based Type Six.”

So what is the problem with concepts? All of the above. Conceptualized identities, based in body-mind-personality identification, will guarantee constant fluctuation between personality-dominated states of emotional intoxication that prevent abidance as the natural state.

That disharmony and chaos and instability that dominates persons when they are attached to the relative (and to their body-mind-personality identification) should be seen now to be in sharp contrast to the harmony and peace and stability that manifest when all concepts are cast aside and abidance as the Absolute happens.

Yet the seeker cannot begin by trying to focus on the Absolute. The falseness of the relative must be seen first. It must be understood that programming and conditioning result in the normalizing of the abnormal, and the result is an effort by conditioned persons to live unnaturally or supernaturally.

Persons must see the abnormalities (relatively speaking) if they would be free of the effects of their programming and conditioning that have left them as warped as Pavlovian dogs that salivated because of a sound rather than a smell.

Only if the falsity of the relative is first observed will it be discarded. Then alone can the True Self witness the Absolute. Until that happens, and until all concepts and dualistic beliefs are cast aside, dwelling in the natural state cannot occur.

[A follow-up]:

W.: How does one not have any concepts regarding money or regarding parenting or relationships or work? I just don’t understand how you live in this relative as if existence without any concepts.

F.: Again, what happened to “I want to cast aside all concepts, I'm ready! What do I do?” Look at that quote and then your subsequent comment. “They” fooled you originally, but now, you are fooling your self; stated in another manner, your self/selves are fooling you.

Here’s the sequence: you are trapped in constant thinking, your thoughts generated by a “mind” filled with concepts (a.k.a., lies). If you can transcend body and mind identification, and if you can cast aside all personas (including “The Good, Even Great, Spiritual Man”) then you might reach the fourth step on the path.

Having abandoned every persona and every assumed identity—functioning happens automatically and spontaneously. Then, the first of two witnessing levels can happen; eventually, the second of two witnessing levels might happen.

After that, awareness (which is primarily the stuff of the Unmanifest), happens during the manifestation. The original nature is known and dwelling as that natural state follows. Efforts to live supernaturally end; being driven to live unnaturally ends. In fact, all efforts end and peace happens.

Your relative troubles began after you were programming and conditioning by ignorant persons who convinced you to believe that you are living an existence that really is dualistic in its nature. You wanted love and a sense of security and stability in an environment where persons were incapable of offering unconditional love and where insecurity and instability were too often the "norm."

You determined to be “good” and not “bad” to get strokes. You were set on a course where you became driven to help others and to sacrifice time and energy and money, not altruistically but with a hidden agenda to get your imagined needs met and to allay your fears that a host of desires would not be met.

You came to take an illusory life as what is real, but is the energy lying in wait at the wall outlet “living”? You still believe that you were born and that you are the body. You are still fixed at step one while thinking you are at step three.

You have told others that you are abiding in a place where you actually are not, and you have told them how to take the journey that you think you have completed, yet you are actually still bent over in the starting blocks of a race that you have not yet begun.

If you would be free, you cannot defend your concepts about “money and parenting and relationships.” Those are topics for persons who have not even arrived at the first step on the seven-step “path.” Instead, all concepts and duality must be cast aside if you would abide as the no-concept, non-dual Reality. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

LIBERATION VIA CASTING ASIDE ALL IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION, Part Three

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I have been reading your books and blog and I see that most of the people resist having there ideas and concepts being smashed to pieces. I feel no resistance, I want to cast aside all concepts, I'm ready! What do I do? I do have another question in the relative it seems that we still have points of view and strong opinions about things as it seems you do regarding such topics as 911, Katrina, religion etc... I get confused in knowing this stuff but feel guilty when I still getting pissed off say at work when someone is being lazy or proper sanitation isn’t being followed, I know in regards to the void it doesn’t matter but in the relative world I feel it’s important for a kitchen to be clean, How do you balance the two? Walter

W.: I get confused in knowing this stuff but feel guilty when I still get pissed off say at work when someone is being lazy…. I know in regards to the void it doesn’t matter but in the relative world I feel Its important…. How do you balance the two?

F.: There is no “two.” There is the consciousness which witnesses it all, but there is also an imagined “Walter the Boss” (the “I” you refer to) who further imagines that his assumed persona or personas are being hurt or interfered with or threatened.

There is the consciousness by which work can happen or not and by which non-workers are fired, but it’s all relative. Wherefore attachment to the relative? As for “important,” hardly. How could much ado about nothing really be “something”?

Were it the consciousness processing the remainder of the pointers offered in this post, no offense could be experienced because there would be no “one” to be offended.

However, the false identity that speaks of the concept of “importance” will likely be offended by some considerations. How is that known? If the corrupted or blocked consciousness called “Walter” assigns importance to the things mentioned above, it will certainly assign important to itself.

Your history leads to this question: is it possible that this “Walter” is still trapped in the helper-boss personality syndrome? On the one hand, he wants to “help” in order to get the love he felt he deserved but did not receive.

Yet “The Helper,” when stressed or pious or caught up in spiritual giantism, will disintegrate into “The Boss or Controller” role that is capable of being “pissed” and angry and controlling:

“You won’t give what I deserve? I tried to be nice, but now I must assume another role, take another tack, and demand what I deserve.” Chaotically jerked from one mood to another as one ego-state after another—all with their own hidden agendas—are assumed and determine what “Walter” thinks and says and does.

“Walter the Helper” can be kind if he thinks that will get what his ego-state thinks it needs; however, he can assume “The Boss/Controller” role and be mean if all the help he gives (help offered but with an agenda) does not result in his getting everything that he thinks he needs or desires.

All the while, egotism will support those two ego-states, and The Helper will be forever irritated because he never gets as much as he gives and because he sets himself up to be taken advantage of because his neediness attracts those who use the needy.

[After several e-mails arrived following only one post in the series]:

F.: Please stop submitting more comments and questions until you have considered what is being offered in regards to your first e-mails. As shared with you long ago, the process is to take considerations into the quiet (that speck called “my Cherokee grandmother” suggested “three moons” of consideration before response), rather than react to them with questions piled on top of questions.

[Note: The Type Two personality cannot be quiet. It must talk, or write, to get respect and love. The motivating belief is, “If I stay silent in the presence of others, how can I possibly attract love and respect? I must talk.” Of course, the Type Eight Boss will soon arrive to argue and debate and control and exert and occasionally even rage.]

In satsanga, prompt exchanges can work. Via the website, it cannot. Each seeker must pause, go into the silence, stop talking and stop typing, and see what comes from pointers offered rather than firing off more questions.

Give the pointers a period to burrow beyond the layers of distortions and to try to penetrate into the levels of pure consciousness that can understand the points. For a few, that happens. For most, it never will.

For most, the “mind” will generate words and thoughts that must be spoken or written and shared, quickly. The chatter of the “mind” among the non-Realized is incessant…among the Realized, nonexistent. Thus, the invitation is offered again: Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR MORE ON TODAY’S POST AND TO BE LIBERATED AND FREE OF PERSONALITY AND THE “MIND”:

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

and

Click LIBERATION

LIBERATION VIA CASTING ASIDE ALL IDEAS, BELIEFS AND PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION, Part Two

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: I have been reading your books and blog and I see that most of the people resist having there ideas and concepts being smashed to pieces. I feel no resistance, I want to cast aside all concepts, I'm ready! What do I do? I do have another question in the relative it seems that we still have points of view and strong opinions about things as it seems you do regarding such topics as 911, Katrina, religion etc... I get confused in knowing this stuff but feel guilty when I still getting pissed off say at work when someone is being lazy or proper sanitation isn’t being followed, I know in regards to the void it doesn’t matter but in the relative world I feel it’s important for a kitchen to be clean, How do you balance the two? Walter

W.: I do have another question: in the relative it seems that we still have points of view and strong opinions about things as it seems you do regarding such topics as 911, katrina, religion etc.

F.: First, WHO is this that you are accusing of having an opinion? You write to the no-WHO as if there really were a WHO, revealing that, subconsciously, you still believe very much in your own Who-ness.

As for “points of view,” all that can be said with accuracy is that the consciousness either witnesses what is happening from the subject-object witnessing mode or witnesses truth via Pure Witnessing.

When the consciousness speaks, it speaks from one of those two modes, depending on the level of the listener (or reader).

When dealing with beginners or intermediate seekers, Maharaj would occasionally respond when relative issues such as “war” or “death of a son” or “suffering” were raised. His responses were level-appropriate, meeting the seekers at the place on the “path” where the seekers words revealed them to be.

Yet that speck was merely noting the relative insanity and misery in order to invite seekers to see the insanity as insanity; then, he would invite all to move beyond the relative nonsense by finding their original nature and then abiding as that/THAT.

But understand in the case of that speck or in the case of this speck, there is no “one” to have a point of view. Until you are free of all points of view, that point will be beyond your understanding. Thorns are merely used to remove thorns.

So “we” do not have “strong opinions.” As often happens, those who have not completed the entire “journey” will automatically try to project their own relative misunderstandings onto the pure consciousness when it speaks: “I have strong opinions, so I can see when ‘you’ do too.”

(By the way, there are no guarantees that you will ever understand that; in fact, the odds are ten million to one, according to Maharaj's estimate, that you will not.)

Examples of relative nonsense are provided on occasion in order for novice seekers to understand the relative insanity that happens when the consciousness is warped or blocked so that a contrast can be drawn with the level of peace that can happen if persons abandon their beliefs about all of those relative instances, can discard all concepts, and can find the Truth.

The thorns used along the way to remove thorns are used at certain levels only. At the "advanced" levels, fewer and fewer thorns need be employed. Until those steps, the AM-ness (and the "stuff" of the Is-ness) is only mentioned to distinguish illusion from the Reality of the I AM THAT.

Next, consider why, on the bottom of the home page at www.floydhenderson.com, there is a recommended order for reading the books available on that site. Relative issues are discussed in the books listed for beginners so that all that is false can be seen prior to the later works that deal with what IS.

Why? Seekers must begin by focusing on what is not before being able to focus on what is, so the consciousness will speak occasionally of that which is not in preparation for inviting seekers to understand all that must be cast aside in order to complete the entire “journey” and witness THAT Which Is.

Finally, even among the Realized, feelings happen and are witnessed as they rise and fall. What does not happen is emotional intoxication, which can only seem to be “experienced” and which can only be taken (in error) as real by an ego-state.

When M.’s voice elevated as he ran out of his loft those who came with an agenda to showcase their knowledge/learned ignorance, there was no strong opinion or emotion involved because there was no “one” to have an opinion and because there was no “experiencer” to experience any emotion. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

OUT-OF-TOWN TO SHARE THE TEACHINGS

Advaita Vedanta realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga site discussing non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, and dwelling in the natural state as revealed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

F.: The series that began on Monday will be continued on Friday. Meanwhile, visitors are invited to read the information below on the various Advaita readings that are available or to visit the archives. Also, links are available to the right for those interested in a retreat with floyd or for those interested in an online course in the Advaita Teachings. Peace and Light.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKS IN THE ADVAITA COLLECTION:

The books are presented in the recommended ordering for reading. They may be ordered individually, or in one of three sets, or in their entirety. [The Entire Advaita Collection: all twelve books + the CD $187.00 + S&H]

THE MEDITATION GUIDES

These books can be read in either order since each stands alone. The entries each day provide an excerpt from a non-duality book, followed by one or more considerations for that day. Some read the books from beginning to finish while others use them on a daily basis. Either way, they offer hundreds of pointers that are intended to allow those in the early stages of seeking to begin consideration of pointers that deal with something other than the body and mind issues that dominate most persons. Reading all of the entries in either or both guides will allow the consciousness to begin processing subject matter that is beyond the phenomenal. That will prepare the consciousness to receive the Advaita pointers at the end of the volumes and that continue in a progressive order throughout the remaining books on the list. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)

This book contains a series of “propositionalities” that would be worthless except to the extent that they prepare all seekers to become willing to question the sacred cows of your culture. Ultimately, this all deals more with the relative than the Absolute, but one cannot abide sanely as the Absolute without first seeing the insanity of the relative. If one can question his/her core beliefs that are generally held sacred by the masses, then discarding all of the other nonsense of the culture might become easier. That alone can begin the "journey" toward total freedom and total peace. Few will ever be able to discard the minor cows, much less these six sacred cows, but this book is an invitation to begin questioning what is usually taken for granted after years of programming and enculturation. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)

This book is for the 6 billion+ persons who have been programmed with the dogma of the planets’ religions, especially the three outgrowths of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is also for those who are playing a spiritual role or who have become spiritually intoxicated (which prevents moving beyond all role-playing and Realizing Fully). It's intent is to allow persons on the "path" to transition beyond the religious and spiritual identities that are assumed at the third step of the "journey." The focus is on those three since their dogma has programmed—and corrupted the consciousness of—most persons on the planet, but the overall message reflects the truth about all religions and all “spiritual” programs or movements as well. The content reveals the 16 tenets common to those religions which evolved from the killing of virgins; exposes the contradictions of those teachings; discusses the glorification of suffering; catalogues and exposes the false promises that are made in order to attract and control the masses; explains the way that their leaders' addiction to power drives them to manipulate their followers; exposes the lies upon which those institutions are based; identifies the results of religious and spiritual intoxication; and uncovers the mental disorders that result from strict adherence to the dogma and ideology. If you have been exposed to any religious or spiritual indoctrination, or if you live in a culture where the leaders have been indoctrinated by religion, this one should be read. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)

This book leads to the next level of freedom, allowing seekers to transition beyond the mind. The content explores the history of the human brain, including the fact that for millions of years, human and human-like beings functioned without any mind. The book uncovers the ways that the brain evolved over the ages and developed an ability to store and retrieve memories. It then shows how the original memories were used constructively but how programming and conditioning changed all that and created a "mind" that most often overrules the brain and generates relative-existence harm and destruction. Similarly, the book shows the way that personality develops during childhood as a means for survival and adaptation but later becomes a liability when those childhood personality traits continue to drive adult thinking and behavior.

Ultimately, the content of the book shows why Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly identified the "problems of the planet" as being rooted in body-mind-personality identification and offers suggestions for being free of all of that nonsense via Realization. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

LIBERATION
This book helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

This book offers the opportunity to shift to the next level of understanding, the level at which you come to realize that you cannot die since you were not born. Fears generally begin to fall away after reading this work. The Foreword offers this: “If you find the answer to ‘What happens when I die—what happens after the body ends?’ the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.” Eventually, it will be understood that You cannot die since You were never born. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

This book is used by many as a primer and companion piece to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. “PART ONE” includes answers to frequently-asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teachings. “PART TWO” provides information for those who are “close” but haven’t yet “gotten it.” "PART TWO" moves the seeker to a depth of understanding that sets the stage for the final message in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

Most of the so-called “Spiritual Masters” addressed all of the steps that must be taken, in a very exact order, to shift from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute. All of the steps (or “stages” to use Maharaj’s term) have been discussed for centuries, but this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from “the lie of the I” to Full Realization. Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

Recommended: Use in conjunction with FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and the CD entitled SPIRIT JOURNEY TO YOUR TRUE SELF in order to have an experiential awareness of the seven steps as you read about each. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)

After following the “path” as outlined in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) in order to Realize, the next step is to understand the difference in consciousness and awareness in order to abide as the Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation and then be totally free. "The Final Frontier" of the Advaita Teachings is transitioned when the Nature of Reality is understood and when the Advaita Teachings are "applied" on a daily basis even in the absence of any “Applier.” The Nature of Reality cannot be understood until the differences in Consciousness and Awareness are understood. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness allows for abidance in the I AM, but what of THAT Which Is beyond, and that which is beyond the beyond? To be at perfect peace on a daily basis, abidance as the re-purified Consciousness must be transitioned and abidance as the Absolute Awareness must happen. Only abidance as the Absolute allows for the remainder of the manifestation of Consciousness to happen in Perfect Peace. This book will distinguish between Consciousness and Awareness, will define the exact Nature of Reality, will offer explanations that will allow fixation in the Full Realization to happen, will allow for an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality, and will assist all earnest seekers to find the way to fixate in a state of peace from NOW until the Consciousness Unmanifests. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

This book, the third in the “Advanced Seeker’s Package,” is only for Realized Advaitin seekers. The recommendation is that both FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS be read (in that order) and that the pointers in both of those books be understood before reading FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. An understanding of the pointers offered in this book can allow the advanced seeker to shift even beyond SELF-Realization, even beyond an understanding of Consciousness and Awareness, and to an understanding of that which preceded the Absolute. The content of this book can, in fact, allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the Reality of “no concept,” of “no duality,” of “no something,” and even of “no nothing.” The Advaita Teachings offer an invitation to be free of all concepts, all beliefs, and all ideas in order to be totally free. Yet how many reach that "state," and how many who reach that "state" are able to fixate in that understanding and truly be free and thereby at peace? This book will offer details of the way that can happen. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

AN OVERVIEW: The order in which the books are to be read and how to get them at a package rate:

Consider the Meditation CD, the Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety to be a “Beginner’s Package,” providing a foundation from which persons can begin to consider realities that are beyond the beliefs which they accept unquestioningly as a result of their enculturation. Used as a group, the works encourage inquiry (which is at the core of the Advaita approach) where questioning has not occurred before. [Visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm.]

Consider Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings to be a “Mid-Level Seekers” Package, each guiding seekers beyond the false identification with body and mind and personality and explaining the basic terminology that must be understood before moving to the advanced teachings. [Visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm.]

Consider From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness/Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness to be an “Advanced Seekers” Package. From the I to the Absolute can serve as a guide for earnest and capable seekers, putting the teachings into an orderly context that reveals the exact steps that must be taken in an exact order to move through all of the degrees of separation from belief in the false “I” to Realization. Consciousness/Awareness offers the next level of understanding, explaining that which is beyond the beingness and how happiness can manifest each day via the understanding. Finally, From the Absolute to the Nothingness will allow earnest and capable seekers to understand the state that is even prior to beingness and non-beingness, even prior to the Absolute. The seeker who understands the content of this book will realize how it is that—from a state of non-existence or nothingness—everything in this universe (and all universes) came to be. [Visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm.]

For more information on the products, visit:

http://floydhenderson.com/nothingness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/consiousnessawareness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/liberation.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/peaceofmind.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/bullshit.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen1.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen2.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twelvestep.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/castinglight.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/boardofdirectors.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen.htm