OUT-OF-TOWN UNTIL LATE THURSDAY TO SHARE THE TEACHINGS

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

F.: The series on “processing” will continue Friday. Meanwhile, visitors are invited to read the information below on the various Advaita readings that are available or to visit the archives. Or, links are available to the right for those interested in a retreat or for those interested in an online course in the Advaita Teachings. Note: the housing now allows for two persons or three seekers at a time to stay here and eliminate hotel expenses and share other expenses.

A limited number of retreat dates are available for the rest of the year. Twelve out-of-town retreats have been scheduled, two per month during July-December. That leaves open twelve retreat dates during the week for the remainder of 2008 and about twelve weekend dates. The content of the retreats as described on the link on this site are the same; some changes will apply since moving to the other side of the lake.

You can use the “Contact” link to begin making arrangements for a private, in-home retreat. A queen size bed and a twin bed are available, so up to three seekers can attend together and save on expenses.

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 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 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:

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http://floydhenderson.com/consiousnessawareness.htm

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“PROCESSING” UNTIL FULL REALIZATION HAPPENS, Part One

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: You witness feelings rise and fall. How long can your feelings last, for example, if you lose a friend? Would the feelings simply rise for a minute, a day, a week, etc.? Where do you draw the line?

F.: Of course, your question deals with relative issues…with “loss,” with “friend,” with “time,” with “memories about the ways things were in ‘the past’ that have an enduring effect now.” The response, then, will have to look first at the manner in which relative issues are processed by relative means.

“Psychological processing” refers to the means by which a person who has become upset or hurt or bothered or enraged is able to (1) consider all aspects of a happening and its “personal effects,” (2) get free of any ensuing anxiety or angry or resentment, and (3) return to a peaceful and stable state.

[NOTE: “Psychological” involves “the mind,” that fiction-filled part of the brain that generates among persons any and all sense of being upset or hurt or bothered or enraged. The natural, original state is peaceful and stable to the degree that no person/persona exists that can experience offense and emotional intoxication. If abiding as the natural state, all of the "relative factors" in this discussion will be moot.]

Obviously, processing is a relative means of dealing with relative issues. Among the Realized (specks of Pure Consciousness) all is merely witnessed—including feelings that rise and fall. If abidance is happening as the natural state, then happenings in the unnatural (relative) state cannot generate periods of agitation, annoyance, or irritability.

[NOTE: Because the cause of all is all, the Realized would not speak of any “appropriate amount of time” for “mourning” any more than a Realized teacher would answer any speculative question such as, “What would you do if this, this or that happened?” What happens, happens, and what happens "in the future" will be caused by all that happens between now and any “future” happening.]

Next, see that agitation, annoyance, or irritability are the providence of persons caught up in a relative existence in which personal attributes are considered real, in which the false perceptions that mark the relative existence are considered actualities, and in which it is only ego-states that can believe they have really been offended.

Until Full Realization happens, processing is required if one would limit to some degree the chaos and vacillations between “being happy” and “being unhappy” that those identified with ego-states will face.

Until Realized, persons must use processing to return to a stable condition after egotism engenders agitation. As far as your question about a time-line—“minutes, days, weeks”—understand this:

Some persons process quickly the perceived threats or offenses that they took to be an actual assault. Other persons take a considerable period of time to process the offenses that ego-states take to be real assaults. And some persons never complete the processing at all.

The latter will experience and re-experience their anger and resentment for the remainder of the manifestation as their “minds” churn over and over again the details of their perceived offenses.

Do you know some persons who have been “wronged” by someone and, years later, still have not gotten over the slights, the offenses, the hurts and then “moved on” (that is, returned to a condition in which they are free of their agitation, annoyance, or irritability)?

The length of time required to process a threat perceived as real by an assumed identity (such as “The Spouse,” for example, an identity which is perceived to be real by that persona), and to see that “What happened is not truly a threat to Me—to the True Self”—and to thereby “let go” is an indicator of either (1) the degree to which one is in touch with reality and the degree to which one is free of egotism or (2) the degree of psychic [mental/”mind”] unhealthiness and the degree to which egotism is in play.

See, therefore, that psychological processing involves (a) taking information received through one of more of the senses and (b) reorganizing it so that a differentiation can be made between what is true and what is false and then (c) being restored to a calm and stable condition.

Next, if the processing continues effectively (again, relatively speaking) then what can follow is at least some temporary level of freedom from the misery and suffering that are generated by the delusion that “It is I—the True Self—that is being interfered with or injured or threatened or assaulted or even destroyed.”

[Only with Full Realization, however, can consistent freedom and stability happen. That occurs when it is seen that “I have not be hurt” and that “It is only ‘the false I’ that is believing it has been hurt.” The seven-step "journey" is moving from identification with that false "I" to abidance as the Absolute.]

If processing happens in a very brief period of time, then there is evidence of a shift toward selflessness…evidence of increasing ego-lessness. Again, the longer it takes a person to process the effects of relative happenings, the greater the evidence of psychic unhealthiness (that is, attachment to “the mind” and its content) and the greater the evidence of egotism.

If the attachment to the offended ego-state continues, then so too shall continue the misery and the restlessness and the hurt and the resentment, all of which can manifest when a false identity takes itself to be real.

Remember the pointer offered before: while the body can register pain, it is “the mind” which registers perceptions (mis-perceptions) of offense and misery and suffering. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

WHILE THE PREFERRED, TRADITIONAL METHOD FOR OFFERING/RECEIVING ADVAITA POINTERS INVOLVES SITTING ONE-ON-ONE WITH A TEACHER, SOME HAVE BEEN ABLE TO COMPLETE THE SEVEN STEPS TO REALIZATION WITH THIS GUIDE:

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

PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT, PART FOUR, THE CONCLUSION: How “self” Perpetuates Perception Mis-Management (or Mis-perception Management)

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

F.: It should be obvious now why most persons are living out their (relative) lives in ways that exhibit total unmanageability:

Persons driven by perception managers to accumulate will not be able to manage their finances. Persons driven by their culture’s definitions and expectations about “love” will have inconsistent and even disappointing “relations.”

Persons living with the frustration of unmet desires or imagined fears, implanted by perception managers, will use external means to try to handle the internal angst that manifests; thus, they will be caught up in “The Primary Addiction on the Planet,” namely, the addiction to control.

Then, they will be caught up in “The Secondary Addiction of the Planet,” the addiction to power…which they want in order to be able to control. Because there is no such thing as control and because there is no such thing as either human or godly power, then out of frustration persons will become addicted to all sorts of other things in the relative existence, including:

alcohol and other drugs; shopping; sex; money; treatment for addictions; food; fad diets; nicotine; chaos; applause; cults; drama; dependency; "'spiritual" programs; co-dependency; medical issues and the accompanying attention garnered by being sick; notoriety; conflict; porn; relationships; care-taking; caretakers and protectors; love; bossing; reforming; religion; spirituality; “spiritual practices”; surgery; accumulation, including accumulating knowledge, accumulating wealth, accumulating clothes, accumulating sex partners, ad infinitum.

It should also be seen that even if persons no longer allow others to manage their perceptions, mis-perceptions can continue to manifest. They manifest even if beliefs are no longer being learned because a continuation of beliefs and concepts learned earlier will linger, and those beliefs and concepts will generate even more thoughts and words and deeds.

The process is much like a brake-less train that tops a hill: once forces conspire to drive the train over the top, then the train thereafter becomes a runaway on its own. Similarly, once persons have been made into fools, then foolishness will feed upon itself and will perpetuate itself. As a result, more nonsense will be generated on its own by the false beliefs and by false selves.

The forces that drive such continuation of perception mis-management (or mis-perception management), even if external perception managers are being ignored, are called “the mind” and “personality.”

Warped perceptions will continue to manifest when ego-states are driven by egotism, creating the perception among persons that they are special, different, deserving of more, not receiving due respect, not being taken care of in the way that they think they should be, and not getting everything they deserve and desire.

As a result, persons will become demanding, judgmental, and critical; then, they will use projection, trying to toss off onto “others” every relative fault that is their own.

Among the Realized, there is no desire to accumulate more. There are no others, no leaders, no beliefs, no distortions, no deceptions, no psychological warfare, no dreams, no masters, and no slaves. There are no dualistic criteria by which anything or anyone can be labeled “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong,” “moral” or “immoral,” “good enough for me” or “not good enough for me.”

It is understood that, as the Realized poet wrote, there is “no heaven above, no hell below, no countries, no religion, no possessions, and no greed”…just specks of consciousness “living for now as one”…as “not two.”

From that stance, wherefore warfare? Wherefore arrogance? Wherefore the belief in any “one” who needs or deserves more? Wherefore any “one” trying to manage “others” or any “one” being managed by “others”? Wherefore any ego-inspired righteous indignation?

Wherefore any hope for eternal continuity of body and mind and personality? (WHO thinks she/he would really even want to personally “last forever”?) Wherefore any fear of eternal damnation? Wherefore any national pride or international attacks? Wherefore accumulation? Wherefore any sense of “separation”?

Once Realized, it is peace—not warfare inspired by perception management—that marks the agenda-less, AS IF existence. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT, PART THREE: Slaves of the Dream, Masters of the Lie

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

F.: In the realm of the duality-based relative existence—and the imaginary “pecking orders” that are defined by every culture—all persons (all of the non-Realized) are functioning as either a slave or a master. Which role each person plays depends upon whether they are manipulating others or, instead, are allowing others to manipulate them.

By definition, all perception managers are liars, and all who allow those managers to influence them are believers of lies. Any perception that you have accepted from someone else is a lie because the Truth cannot be stated. It can be known, via the inner guru/the inner resource, but that is not even a perception. Realized, that is a known truth.

By contrast, all perceptions are illusory. One might think he/she has perceived a mirage, yet that is an illusion…not at all what it is thought to be. A rope can be perceived as a snake, or a snake can be perceived to be a rope. In either case, neither is what it appears to be. Memories are warped by perception…things weren’t really that way at all.

Your “relationships” are not really the way that you perceive them to be. The people you claim to love are not the way you perceive them, the people who claim to love you are not really the way they are perceived to be, and the people you hate are not the way you perceive them, either. If the truth is to be known, then all perceptions and beliefs must be cast aside.

If one would be happy, then one must be free, and if one would be free, one must be free of belief in concepts and ideas. All in the relative existence is misperceived by the non-Realized. The result is that they are not free but are being manipulated—by the use of lies and “deceptions” and “truth projections” and “psychological” games. As a result of that manipulation, they are accepting blindly as true that which is false.

It is blind faith among sheep which inspires them to follow the leader…even over the edge of a cliff. Those persons who are similarly asleep as a result of blind faith will allow their thoughts, words and deeds to be managed by “leaders” or by “persons of influence.”

[NOTE: You are also invited to understand this: while there are plenty of persons who have assumed the role of perception managers—doing all they can to scam people into believing what the managers want them to believe—most of your perception managers are of another variety:

those who managed your perceptions in the past, who are currently managing your perceptions, and who will manage you in the future, are just as often people who really believe what they are telling you. Their perceptions were warped so effectively that they believe that every concept and belief that they are passing along to you is the “gospel truth.”

The latter are far more asleep then the cunning perception managers who at least know they are liars, deceiving anyone and everyone they can. (Interestingly, some of them tell the lie so much they eventually believe that their own lies are truth. These types who are capable of self-deception are so common that you have likely witnessed their use of self-deception and denial).

Unlike those perception managers who know that they are liars, your programmers and conditioners and domesticators don’t have a clue that they are only passing along the learned ignorance they were taught.

In the end, though, it matters not since the results are the same: the planet is now populated by billions of persons who have been programmed with ignorance and nonsense—whether by those who are cleverly deceiving people or by persons who are unconsciously deceiving others.]

Across the planet, those “leaders” and “persons of influence” who are experts at perception management continue to make use of distortions and untruths in order to convince sleepwalking persons to accept the managers’ perceptions as their own and to accept false and distorted perceptions as reality.

And what greater blindness exists than that which drives persons to perceive that they are making choices when they are not; to perceive that they are free when they are actually imprisoned by their fiction-filled “minds”; to perceive that they are that which they are not while having no clue at all of Who/What They Truly Are;

and to perceive that they have beliefs and ideas that are “their own” when those beliefs and concepts are really just dreamed-up attitudes and thoughts that have been handed down from the most ignorant of ancient cultures and are being passed along now by the most ignorant in modern cultures.

Such is the case when persons today (who are slaves of the dream) are having their perceptions managed by “leaders” or “loved ones” (who are masters of the lie).

Having been stripped of logic and reason via perception management, the persons of the planet function in a “monkey-see-monkey-do” mode, believing that (1) they have “their own” beliefs and that (2) they are making their own choices. Both are deceptions.

Only the Realized are exempt from belief in either dreams or lies. Only the Realized will admit that the truth cannot be stated but that it can be found. Only the Realized are exempt from having perceptions and are, therefore, also exempt from having perceptions managed by others. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC:

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT, PART TWO: The Source of All Warfare…Be It “Personal,” National or International

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

F.: Professor of Political Science Emily Goldman says that “perception management” is a polite term for “an aspect of information warfare” involving falsehood and deception with the goal of influencing humans to believe whatever it is that “leaders” (or would-be leaders) want others to believe, no matter what the actual truth may be.

Perception management among advertisers and political strategists and others has become a euphemism for “stretching the truth” which is, in turn, a euphemism for “lying.” Lying has become so commonplace that now it seldom warrants a second glance.

Why would anyone be surprised at how few ever Realize when it is seen how widespread lying is throughout the culture and thus how tolerant of the lie persons have become? On one hand, the masses almost expect the current glut of lies; on the other hand, the age-old lies—regarding nations or patriotism or a god or gods or religion or so-called "spiritual truths"—are considered so sacred that persons will die in their defense.

Some would ask: “Lies, yes, but ‘information warfare’?” You bet. Those who would control the masses have been using information warfare since languages (or other means of “communicating”) began.

No person on the planet has escaped the effects of this warfare, and the victors have always been those “leaders” who have been able to persuade persons to set aside logic and reason and questioning and to accept the leaders’ concepts as truth based on nothing other than “faith” alone. And faith comes in only one style: blind faith.

Traditions and practices today are rooted in concepts that were first dreamed up thousands of years ago by ignorant, self-appointed “leaders” who used perception management to manipulate the masses. Now, millennia later, the superstition-based ignorance that was dreamed up by those persons in bygone days is still being accepted as truth nowadays.

The invitation is to understand the way that persons today are blindly and unknowingly living out their relative existence while being controlled by their blind and unquestioning belief in nonsensical concepts that evolved from the use of perception management many thousands of years ago. Then you will understand how out-of-touch with reality that persons truly are.

All across the planet, persons are lost in the “Dream of the Planet,” watching the action on the stage of “the Theater of the Lie” and thinking it’s all real and true. Why? Because their perceptions are being managed. They are being treated like fools, being played like a fiddle, as they blindly accept the most outrageous lies as truth if the liars are “respected leaders in their community or country.”

Accepting as truth the lies told by such perception managers as politicians and priests and parents and preachers will get you billions of people who believe a special woman gave birth to a special baby while maintaining her virginity; that a god can love you unconditionally but will punish you eternally if you break his rules; that bread and wine can really become blood and body; and that it’s normal to model vampirism and cannibalism to children each week.

It will get you millions of persons who believe that one nation has the right to arbitrarily bomb and invade another country; that emotional intoxication by a male who beats you is evidence of how much he must care; that the members of one race are better than the members of another race; and that levels in your company are an accurate measurement of the variances in the value of the people working there.

It will get you millions of persons who believe that it is only “real men” who are willing to die for their country; who believe that their god wants them to kill people who are members of different religions; who believe that their kindergarten spirituality has made them “enlightened”; who believe that their heaven is a place where the sole purpose of women is to sexually gratify martyrs; or millions of persons who believe that it is they who live in the greatest nation on earth.

So, is “warfare” accurate or not? Definitely. See the wars that are happening because persons today are operating under the influence of bogus information that was offered up thousands of years ago in order to manage the perceptions of the masses or under the influence of bogus information that is being offered up now.

See the warfare that results from the bogus information being circulated about religion and spirituality and nations and dualistic hierarchies and a god or gods, all of which generate a belief in “better than” and “separate from” and “deserving to live” or “deserving to die.”

See how that filters down to individual “relationships” wherein one who was “loved” is now “hated”…where a woman employed by a Christian church can calmly report that she prayed ever day for a year that god would kill her husband while adding that she is still “a good Christian woman at heart.”

From the most “personal” level to the state level to the national level to the international level, perception management (which could more accurately be called “perception mis-management”) is generating war and conflict and misery and suffering.

Because of the perception that Hinduism or Taoism or Buddhism or Judaism is the only source of truth, then fighting or separation or wars will occur as humans argue with humans, or as humans fight other humans, over the “right” teachings.

The perception that “Christians and Jews are infidels who must be destroyed” leads to warfare. The perception that sect “A” is right and sect “B” is wrong leads to warfare. The perception that “all Muslims want to kill us” leads to warfare.

The perception that there is a heaven and a hell—and that the way to each can only be explained by one religion—leads to warfare. The perceptions that “humans can own land” and that “separate nations exist” pave the way for one nation to fight another.

The perception that there is only one way that a person can behave in a “relationship” and still be considered “acceptable” generates individual warfare. The perception that false identities are real is at the root of all “personal” warfare.

Indeed, it is no overstatement that perception management (mis-management) is at the root of all warfare and misery and suffering. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT, PART ONE: The Illusion of Freedom If Being Manipulated by “Leaders”

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

F.: Perception management began the first time a human used words or actions to manipulate other humans to think, talk, and act as he would have them think and talk and act.

Consider one early example of perception management: the first communion service was conducted to appease one of the metaphysical entities that had been dreamed up by controlling, ignorant men...the entity in that case being an angry rain god.

Note the way that perceptions were managed by a self-appointed medicine man/priest who would have said: “The crops are dying because the rain god is angry with us. Like any male, he can be appeased by sex; thus, I will need a virgin, and as that god’s representative on earth, I shall have sex with her for him…by proxy.

“Then, I’ll sacrifice her to that god by cutting out her beating heart and eating the body and drinking the blood. Then, I will pass the heart through the crowd so all can commune with god. He will then be much pleased with you. And if the rain does not come immediately, obviously more sacrifices will be required.”

Now that might be considered an amazing piece of perception management unless you understand the power of programming, the power of fear that responds to such programming, the level of sheep-ness that humans emulate, and how quickly learned ignorance can spread throughout a culture and become a widely-held belief; moreover, all widely-held beliefs today evolved from the same scenario of perception management leading to programming leading to learned ignorance.

Nowadays, “Perception Management” is a term that has evolved from the ranks of the U.S. military, intended to be kept secret from the public. Only recently are some becoming aware of how organized and widespread the use of this clandestine tool really is.

In the befuddled and convoluted manner of communicating that the military has perfected, they define “Perception Management” in their secretive writings as

“actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator’s objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.”

Some may be familiar with this tool used by manipulators since it has become the standard operating procedure of the U.S. government:

A piece of legislation that allows for more pollution is called “The Clean Air Act”; a piece of legislation that strips away the rights of citizens is called a “Patriot Act”; “truth projections” (a.k.a. lies) about WMD’s were “projected” to justify war;

“psychological operations” were organized to trigger fear (which 50% of all populations are already prone to experience as a result of being Personality Type Sixes); once the war was started, the press was prohibited from photographing the flag-draped coffins of those killed in the conflict; and ego-states (labels) were assigned to “enemies” who were identified as “Members of An Axis of Evil” in order to cover hidden agendas and to manage domestic perceptions.

In the book THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS, evidence is offered that shows the way that governments, organized religions, and big business (including the industrial military complex that Eisenhower warned the public about) have been using perception management since the 1950’s to influence “the emotions, motives, and objective reasoning” not only of “foreign audiences” but of domestic audiences as well.

So what does this have to do with the Advaita teachings? Everything. The programming, conditioning, acculturation, and domestication of the persons on the planet all make use of the technique of perception management. It is the effects of perception management (which has been employed on a planet-wide basis by manipulators for thousands of years) that Advaita pointers would un-do.

It has been perception management (PM) that has been employed for millennia to inspire persons to believe in the concepts and ideas and messages of their “leaders” (especially political, business, spiritual and religious leaders).

Their concepts and bogus teachings have resulted (all across the planet) in one of the defined goals of PM: to eliminate “objective reasoning” and thereby produce a population of persons who make no use of logic but are driven instead by the emotional intoxication that is inspired by manipulative leaders.

If persons are not awakened to fact that there is, and has been, an orchestrated and organized effort by “leaders” to manipulate persons with the “deception” that is referenced in U.S. military writings, then they will not be willing to engage in the first requirement for completion of the seven-step “journey” to Realization.

That first requirement is a willingness to question it all. That includes questioning everything you have ever been told, and are currently being told, by politicians, preachers, priests, parents, ad infinitum. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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EGOMANIACS WITH INFERIORITY COMPLEXES

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling in your natural state, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: you might want to discuss the 13th Floor and what Realized lessons one could draw from it. The bartender was "ok" with his life until he found out he was nothing more than a computer program; bits; 1's and 0's. He ran up against a defined, artificial boundary. He couldn't handle that. He couldn't just "be," though he was fine before he knew he was just bits, or energy. And, the irony of it all is that the "real" world he wanted to escape to turned out to be nothing more than another world of 1's and 0's. And, who is to say that that world wasn't programmed? Leads one to say, "Are we just bits, energy; are we just "actors on a stage"? Yes, I know, how many ways can you say it. Still, you might use the movie in one of your series.

F.: The Thirteenth Floor has been mentioned before as a movie that some seekers might enjoy, as they might enjoy any of the parts of this “dance” that is really offered for entertainment. Other movies with an Advaita message that have also been mentioned are The Matrix (Part One), The Truman Show, Dark City, and more.

One pointer that is common to all those movies and to all venues that offer the Advaita teaching is that, while this relative existence is highly sophisticated in terms of available technology, persons attached to the relative are still functioning like backwards, irrational savages…reacting to the emotional intoxication generated by superstition and myth-based beliefs and by their overall confusion regarding the functioning of the totality. Thus, the reason that few will ever understand their original nature or live as their natural state. Instead, most will try to live supernaturally (driven by all the magical thinking that brings) or will live unnaturally (allowing others to dictate the “right way” to think and feel and speak and act). So it is.

Yet consider the way the relative existence could change if persons could grasp even part of the Advaita message: there are seekers who admit that they have never understood the unicity completely, have never understood the beginninglessness completely, and have never understood the endlessness completely

Yet they have been freed of the majority of their misery and suffering as a result of at least abandoning the duality of playing the false roles assigned by their cultures (that is, by abandoning all culturally-"defined artificial barriers" to truth). In the wake of such abandonment, those who must deal with prideful egomaniacs on a daily basis are relieved of at least one part of their misery and suffering too, relatively speaking. Thx for the e-mail.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Good morning. I trust you are drinking coffee and watching the blue heron. After you finish explaining "love", pride might be worth a comment or two. I am not well-read, but finally got around to a book about a year ago on the 7 deadly sins and how pride was the worst. The more I thought about that, being initially shocked, I did realize how pride can't but make you feel better than other people and make your life pretty miserable. I used to always think of and refer to people by level in my company and didn't really realize how stupid that was until I was downgraded. Even among those seeking and thinking they are Realized, you have noted how many pride themselves on their knowledge. Truly, “pride goeth before the fall.”

F.: It is the recurring theme on the site—egotism/pride which cannot manifest until an ego-state manifests. For example, “Top Manager” manifests. Then, egotism/pride manifests as a result of assuming the new position, the new identity. Thus, what follows is a false sense of separation from all those others “below” (thus, arrogance manifests). Soon, however, the joy of a “higher” position fades and a sense of frustration manifests as a result of the fact that there are still all of those “others” who are “above” (hence, a sense of inferiority).

It is that assumption of ego-states which results in the insanity of each person (each of the non-Realized) on the planet being (a) an egomaniac but (b) having an inferiority complex. Talk about duality. Talk about insanity. Talk about the incongruity of backwards persons staggering about in a technologically-advanced environment like savages without the slightest clue at all about the functioning of the totality. Again, so it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.