OUT OF TOWN TO OFFER THE TEACHINGS UNTIL FRIDAY: The following quotations are offered as considerations and pointers that can be used by site visitors from Monday through Thursday. On Friday, the series on determinism vs. choice will continue.
MONDAY
You Are That Which Is, Was, and Shall Be, devoid of body or mind or personality when unmanifested and capable, via Full Realization, of being free of body identification and a corrupted “mind” and personas while manifested. You are invited to see how all desire and longing and fear can be transcended when you no longer embrace the limited identity of a physical body or the corrupted “mind” or any fictional personality.
If you would Realize, then you must understand how this body came to be and where You were during the days prior to conception. Even more significantly, find what You Are when nothing is because That Which You Truly Are NOW is what You Will Truly Be “then.”
[In response to one who claimed that he "has had the same body" for "his entire life"] "Trillions of cells have 'come and gone,' so with the exception of a few organs, a chain of bodies that you took to be you has 'come and gone.' It must be asked, 'Among all of those different body forms, which one of those 'me's' would any person claim to be 'the real me'? What 'me' would a 'mind' assume to be 'the one, real me'?" What a distortion to talk of a 'me.'
If you cling to the false identity of “husband,” you shall never find the True Self, so peace will never happen consistently. If you find the True Self, then “husbanding” or “not husbanding” can happen…and consistent peace will happen either way.
Understand that persons always take an illusion and either dualistically upgrade the illusion or downgrade the illusion. For example, consider the lie, “This world is real and after death, there is another world that will provide eternal continuity for the body-mind-personality.” Persons upgrade the illusion of “this world” with the promise of another world in heaven for the “good people” and they downgrade the illusion of “this world” with the threat of another world called "hell" that awaits the “bad” people. Similarly, “I am a man” can be an initial illusion. Egotism can generate the belief that “I am a spiritual man,” which is nothing more than an upgrade of the illusion. Guilt can take the initial illusion that "I am a man" and generate the belief that “I am a bad man,” which is nothing more than a downgrading of the illusion.
The gatekeeper of your prison is, surprisingly, Realization. Realization can free you from the roles, and freedom from those roles will free you from the drama. Yet most persons are so addicted to the chaos, so lost in the drama, and so removed from reality that they will never search for a way out of their prison. They will move about within the confines of their prison and believe that they are free. Few will ever have any desire to be totally independent. Fewer still will take the seven-step “journey” to reality and know true freedom and absolute independence. Most will fight to the end in defense of nonsensical, magical beliefs that were dreamed up by uneducated men during ancient times. What about you? How free do you want to be? How soon do you want that freedom?
Frustration results from a sense of limitation. Frustration cannot end, therefore, as long as humans are identified with that which is limited: a physical body, a “mind,” and personality. I Am not personal; I have no individuality, so how could I have individual meaning or an individual purpose? For now, the consciousness is manifested, so whatever happens…happens. Nothing more is involved.
Efforts to quiet the mind or to ignore thoughts cannot succeed with any consistency. Only when Full Realization strikes, only when the "Oh my gosh!" moment happens—only then does the mind dissolve. What to consider meanwhile? It is true that, if you are instructed to "avoid thinking about an elephant," the only thing that you can think of is an elephant. So, what is the answer? The answer is not to try to be rid of a disturbing thought. The answer is to ask when a thought is interrupting the peace, “WHO is thinking that thought?” Only by relinquishing belief in the false identities that inspire thoughts can the thoughts come to an end. Only by abandoning the "this" and "that" in such beliefs as "I am this" (role) or "I am that" (role) will the peace and quiet of only the "I Am" ever happen.
The "mind" is the instrument that supports your personality with thoughts, and those thoughts are the instruments that will forever prevent "peace of mind"; in fact, there is no such thing as "peace of mind." There is only peace if freed of the "mind."
Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The ‘mind’ is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods.
You are in a play, playing a role, and believing that the role and the play are both real. Why would you believe such nonsense? Because "your mind" is the playwright, the author of every scene, but even that “mind” was written by your programmers.
When Maharaj said, "You are not in the world...the world is in you," what did he mean? He meant, "You are not in the world," that is, there is no "you" that is real or in any world. "The world is in you" means that the world is in your "mind" and is nothing more than a figment of your programming-and-conditioning-induced imaginings.
Everything that is said here is to be used to get rid of another false belief until all ideas and emotional intoxication and beliefs are gone and nothing remains but the unstated understanding. Only then can the constant churning and re-churning of the false beliefs of the corrupted "mind" finally cease.
What is that inner resource, that inner guru? It is the vestige of pure consciousness that remains, deeply buried beneath the waste called “your mind.” “Your mind” obscures the consciousness because that "mind" is so marred with its belief in lies and superstitions and all of its "knowledge," all that learned ignorance, that it leaves you insane…so insane that you don’t know Your Self and so insane that you believe the lies and dreams of the planet.
If your body has disappeared, how can any person remain? And if no person remains, how can a mind remain?
In order to know (the great) Reality, you must be sane. In order to be sane, you must be out of your mind.
For their suffering to end, persons must understand the functioning of the totality; must see that all suffering is rooted in the assumption of ego-states as false identities; must realize that they have no “mind” but instead are being driven by the “minds” of others (which they now think is their own "mind"); must be aware of the fact that a “mind” is nothing more than the storehouse of all the lies and beliefs and ideas and concepts that must be cast aside in order to end human suffering; and must see the limitations of doingness but the timelessness and limitless nature of beingness...and non-beingness as well.
In this relative existence, nothing is going on but a breeziness of play, but persons are caught up in a tornado of work, in a storm of seriousness, and in a tempest of drama. So-called “life” in this sphere of consciousness is just a process of functioning, and while the “mind” of a person will dream up notions about separation or differentiation, none exists. The process just keeps on happening. A belief or a concept, a religion or a philosophy, a state or a nation, a hero or a villian…all are just part of the process of functioning. All those are just dreamed up names, and all such dreamed up labels (dreamed up by that accumulation of corruptions called "the mind") generate a false sense of reality.
The "journey" aims to put you fully in touch with reality. To be out of touch with reality is to be insane. This "journey" is about getting in touch with reality in order to be free of the bondage of the illusions and falsehoods of a mind exposed to years of enculturation.
Among religions and philosophies, there is no other means that can produce the necessary brain-flush save completion of the entire Advaita “journey” which invites the dissolution of all of the contamination that is “the mind.”
Ultimately, Advaita Vedanta is the Teaching that has the "goal" of becoming the non-teaching by way of un-teaching.
All human suffering is rooted in not living naturally, and all suffering persons (i.e., the non-Realized) are living unnaturally or supernaturally. Those living unnaturally can be recognized by their self-destructive behaviors. Those living supernaturally can be recognized by their magical thinking, by their belief in modernized versions of ancient gods, by their acceptance of ancient myths and superstitions as fact, by their disdain for scientific evidence, and by their belief in non-factual explanations for naturally-occurring events.
Unnatural living and supernatural living are both tiresome and exhausting, but natural living is easy.
This Teaching invites you to question everything. Faith in dogma requires that you question nothing. The "journey" only begins when questioning begins. The "journey" only continues if questioning continues.
Pray all the prayers that you think you need to pray; knell, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate as much as you think you need to kneel, bend over, stoop, or lie prostrate; read all the “holy” books that you think you need to read; visit all the “sacred” sites or “sacred” men that you think you need to visit; chant or hum every chant or hum you think you need to chant or hum; ring every bell you think you need to ring; and burn every stick of incense that you think you need to burn. But when you are done with all of that, realize that you—and all persons who are fixated in a stage and are playing their religious or spiritual roles—are mistaking the dawn for the
One must either find a working philosophy or be doomed to adopt "their" ideology instead, and both the historical and current evidence show that nothing is more destructive, relatively speaking, than buying into "their" ideology.
TUESDAY
It eventually had to be asked, “WHO wants to be a ‘Supreme Self’? Who is making the dualistic claims that 'I am free of all concepts' and 'I am freed from assuming identities' but then claiming as well that 'I Am the Supreme'?”
Focusing on the “I Am” is a tool that is only effective after body identification is forfeited. Then, the “I Am” can be used to negate the mind which supports the personality that wants to add words after the “I Am”: “I am spiritual”; “I am a teacher”; “I am good”; “I Am the Supreme.” The only reason for the pointer to “focus only on the ‘I Am’” is to divert the focus from the false identities that have been assumed, from the talk about “I am so-and-so.” Once the last two personas (“The Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant”) have been cast aside, the use of the “I Am” will also end, right along with the former belief in “The User of Spiritual Tools.”
Supernatural living leads to magical thinking which convinces persons that they can have access to power that will allow them to control. The master addiction among persons is a desire to control, and the secondary addiction is the addiction to power, which they think will allow them to control. The result among persons is belief in the illusion of power/powers and an overwhelming desire to control others, to control their surroundings, or to control other nations. When persons become religious or spiritual, they try to use their power (or superpower) to control their racing, variable, tortuous “minds” or to control the behavior and "minds" of others (all of which is impossible since what they are trying to control is a mirage). The more they believe they have power, the more they believe they can affect when it rains, can influence who heals, can impact the paths of hurricanes, can control who wins wars and who loses, can control who receives blessings and who is cursed, ad infinitum. Supernatural beliefs, therefore, are the compost from which spring the illusions of megalomania, egomania, and self-aggrandizement; therefore, while religion and spirituality are not to be avoided, they are to be transitioned. They are but one step along a "path" to the freedom that happens when the understanding of "natural" displaces unnatural and supernatural thinking.
In order to be reincarnated or to have a resurrection and life eternal, you would have to be a body and a mind and you would have to "have" a personality.
Here, the consciousness speaks to you of the no-self, no-Self, no-SELF Reality. All these Teachings are just words and concepts that can guide "you to You" and then to the no-word silence and the no-concept bliss. If your decades of religious effort and spiritual practices had resulted in the ability to understand the truth that cannot be stated, to be comfortable in the silence, and to be content in the awareness of Wholeness and Completion, then you would not be here. Do not disparage, however, those decades of effort; instead, transition your religious and spiritual roles just as you must transition beyond your belief in all the other roles you've played. Otherwise, you will continue to stand in the subdued light of dawn while insanely believing that you are being bathed in the full light of
In response to, "Floyd, millions of people who believe in Him can't be wrong!": Indeed, your notion is accurate; in truth, it is not millions who have been deluded in their beliefs. It is trillions upon trillions.
There are no "different persons" at "different levels" of enlightenment or at different levels of goodness or badness. There are quantities of manifested conscious-energy that are obscured by varying quantities of concepts. Either way, ultimately, all of the manifested conscious-energy (obscured or not) will unmanifest and merge into the vast pool of conscious-energy that is not manifested, and that's that/THAT.
Among persons, only a child—existing in a pre-programming, pre-conditioning state—will witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality. For adults to be able to witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality requires a shift “back” to the state of child ignorance by casting aside all of the nonsense which has been generated by conditioning and programming and enculturation. Nothing is more at peace than a healthy child if its physical needs have been met and if it is free of contaminants. As long as health and food and shelter requirements have been met, perfect peace happens. Contentment can only happen in that pre-mind state of existence. Realized, contentment happens as a result of "returning to" that no-mind state. That is to say, contentment happens as a result of removing the layers of concepts that obscure consciousness so that it is as available as it was during the brief period of childhood that happened prior to the obscuring of the consciousness. Why should one who currently takes himself to be "an adult" settle for less contentment than that experienced by a child?
That which the Childhood stage offers as the consciousness manifests and eventually deteriorates to identification with the "I" is nothing more than an opportunity to know that you exist; therefore, as you take the steps from the "I" to abidance as the Absolute, this stage is again nothing more than an opportunity for you know that you exist (that is, to know "I AM" and "I AM" only).
A fictional mind had not yet resulted from hearing the lies about who or what you are and had not yet assumed any false role or identity or personality. All merely happened via natural instinct and body chemistry rather than programming and conditioning.
Here is why worldwide ignorance has not been stamped out and will not be stamped out: persons believe that the planet-wide epidemic of ignorance could be solved if only people would acquire more knowledge. The Advaitin understands that the knowledge is the ignorance and that the ignorance is the knowledge. The ignorance is that which the masses have been taught and have learned, and their ignorance will only be compounded if more of the same type knowledge is injected into the equation. Ignorance could be stamped out if persons were to forfeit their revered beliefs and ideas and concepts and dogma. Since that happens so rarely but is a prerequisite for Realization, only a few will ever Realize (that is, be restored to sanity). There is no lever to pull or handle to push that can produce a brain-flush…nothing other than the Advaita process. (Were the brain to be flushed of all of the concepts and beliefs that make up the "mind," then the peace of the Child Ignorance Stage could happen. Unlike adult-age ignorance, the Child-age Ignorance Stage, which is really a misnomer, actually refers to the "no-mind," pre-programming, pre-knowledge, pre-ignorance state. Children early on don't really have the ignorance/knowledge that adults must be freed of if they are to return to this former, peaceful stage.)
The level of peace that a child enjoys in that state of "ignorance," prior to programming and conditioning and being assigned false identities, is never realized again in its lifetime, in most cases. The exceptions are those such as you, the ones who take these steps and return to that "state" of peace that exists when we are once again free of learned ignorance and the influence of the illusions of the body-mind-personality triad.
Subject-object witnessing, or objective witnessing, still involves duality (at least as far as the not-totally-unobstructed consciousness "sees" it). I, the consciousness which was once obstructed but no longer is, can be aware of the fact that I am not that which you think you are seeing when you look at me and that I am not that which the culture would label me; yet from your S-O manner of viewing, that still involves one "seeing" something else, false or not, such as: "I see the mirage and I know it is not real" or "I cannot live with myself/this self anymore." Those observations still involve perceived dualities. Not until the next step of Pure Witnessing does subject-object witnessing end and the witnessing of the unicity finally happen. At that point, when the consciousness is totally unobstructed, all that was thought to be either "subject" or "object" is witnessed to be One, to have always been One, and to forever be One. In other words, to shift from this stage to the next, it must be seen that (as the understanding of non-duality becomes clearer) the talk of "subject" and "object" at this level will have to give way to "subject only," that is, to knowing "that everlasting, timeless, imperishable Subject."
There are seven-steps on the “journey” to Realization. The witnessing stages are two of the final “degrees of separation from reality” that must be transitioned, and both the witness and the Pure Witness must be “experienced.” However, it is a necessity to transition each of “the seven degrees of separation” for Full Realization to happen. Most on any "path" stop at the third stage (the "religious persona stage" or the "spiritual persona stage") and never complete the journey to the full understanding.
Shifting beyond object witnessing sets the stage for understanding the nothingness. Then, the True Self can come to know the "everything"...the Oneness of it all...the Truth. The actual unicity beyond the imagined multiplicity is understood.
The Pure Witness—the True Self—can then know the Oneness that comes with the awareness that a tiny "building-block" of energy-consciousness is all there is, and all supposed differences are merely appearances that result from energy vibrationing at varied frequencies. From the platform of the Pure Witness, the beingness and the non-beingness can be understood and the "state" of Absolute rest and peace can be seen. Then, the remainder of the relative existence can be passed in the "I Am," in the "Is-ness," in the Pure Witness "mode," in the AS IF style, and—finally—by abiding as the Absolute.
...Yet the goal here is not to encourage you to rejoice in that beingness. The goal is to know that beingness, yes, but to transcend even that and then to merge into the Absolute, to allow all ego-states and identities to vanish in the process, and then to abide as the Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation.
Persons, even though they take themselves to be the roles they play, are no different from the Realized. All that is happening is that consciousness manifested, became obstructed by concepts, and has not been unobscured (person) or it manifested, became obscured, and has been unobscured (Realized). The exact same providence awaits those who take themselves to be persons as well as those who know What They Really Are: the untimate fate of all manifested consciousness is that it will unmanifest and be re-absorbed into the pool of universal consciousness. The guaranteed cycling of conscious-energy means that those who believe themselves to be persons will eventually be free of all concerns, just as is the case with the Realized. When the consciousness unmanifests and merges into that vast pool of energy called “The Absolute,” it knows nothing. Ultimately, therefore, it is irrelevant if that speck of consciousness when manifested knew Itself or if it mistook itself for the roles that the obstructed consciousness leads persons to think they are. The only difference happens NOW: persons suffer chaos and emotional intoxication while the Realized witness and feel, but after the consciousness is no longer manifested, the result is the same: consciousness will be unmanifested and unknowing. As Szent-Gyorgyi said, “What drives life is … a little electric current, set up by the sunshine.” If that fact is understood, then what room remains for arrogance, for ego, or for ego-states assumed as identities?
WEDNESDAY
BACK TO THE ABSOLUTE: If you complete this "journey," you’re going to see exactly, step-by-step, how you got from the Absolute state to the false belief that you’re a body. And you’re going to see how to get from believing that you are a body to Realization of the Absolute. And seeing that complete cycle, then you’re going to understand all the cycles (including how the "cycling in" happens and how the "cycling out" happens). You will understand each step of the "way in," all the way from the Absolute to body identification; then you will understand why the way to Realizing (and abiding as) the Absolute happens only when each of those steps is taken again, in reverse order.
Only from the conditioned mind of an assumed 'self' can self-importance come. When the last ‘who’ disappears, the understanding of THAT appears. The question is not, 'Who am I?' The question is, 'What am I'?”
If it's entropy and chaos and change you find unacceptable, then know that You Are the Absolute. Know that You Are fixed, immutable, ineradicable, constant, invariable. All that you perceive as being variable is misperception, merely fiction imagined via your "variable mind."
I Am prior to beingness, prior to consciousness, and even prior to non-beingness. I have passed eternity being That, but for now I just happen to be in movement with other waves and particles of energy during this present temporary cycling into manifestation. This "floyd" is nothing more than the result a cosmic accident, an accident that was facilitated along the way by an act of friction. Wherefore "pride"?
For books that offers a detailed guide through the seven steps required to shift from identification with the false "I" to abiding as the Absolute, visit:
http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm &
http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm
Egotism and programming block acceptance of the fact that, if I (the Absolute) am beyond beingness and non-beingness, then the Absolute is beyond beingness and non-beingness; therefore, no being (of any kind) exists pre-manifestation or post-manifestation in/as THAT Absolute state. That includes no True Self, no Supreme Self, no Infinite Self, no Supreme Being, and no other kind of self/Self/being/Being/beingness.
Nothing remains that prefers either an extension of the manifestation nor an end to the manifestation. It's called functioning from a position of neutrality. No desires; no fears.
Enjoyment certainly happens though nothing is desired. Nothing is feared since there is nothing to register fear. The consciousness functions from a position of neutrality, knowing that if persons are trapped in seeking the applause of the village, they must also be prepared to accept the scorn of the town as well.
No “good” label is being sought and no “bad” label is being avoided. All is neutral, and all persons can reach that position of neutrality via Full Realization.
Understanding the unicity reveals that a pile of ashes, a pile of dust, you, a dog, a tree, a piano, and a plant are no different. All of those “seemingly different things” are one thing. Supposed differences perceived by the human eye and misunderstood as a result of warped “minds” are the result of varying vibrational frequencies only. Humanity’s (post-programming) propensity for mis-perceiving everything makes persons believe that differences are real rather than grasping the truth of the unity beyond the wrongly-perceived multiplicity.
Abidance as the consciousness guarantees that duality will never be forfeited completely. Only the Awareness is “One” without any “one.” Consciousness can know the "not two." Awareness is the absolute "not two."
If you stay alert to the reality of "not two-ness," then for the sake of discussion you might take consciousness to be the essence of beingness, the re-purified consciousness to be the essence of non-beingness, and awareness to be the essence of the Reality beyond both beingness and non-beingness.
In the no-concept, non-dual Reality, there is no "one thing as opposed to some other thing." Therefore, the Advaitin understands that "I AM THAT; I AM" can be stated and understood without any sense of duality at all. So can "Consciousness/Awareness."
What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion—that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state—prepare for war.
If there is no "do-er," and if there is no identity that is real, then there is no "lover" either. If there is no lover, then find WHO thinks she/he is experiencing anything.
Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.
Ego is believing that there’s a vast multiplicity arranged in a hierarchy and that you’re the pinnacle; humility is knowing that you’re nothing, no-thing; love is knowing that You, with a capital ‘Y,’ Are everything. (That said, understand that ego, humility, and love are merely concepts, thorns that can be used to remove thorns.)
Can you, from the position of 'As If Living' that follows Full Realization, feel and share Unconditional Love? Not only can You, but You shall. In fact, once again, no choice will be involved. It will just happen...spontaneously and unequivocally.
The Advaita poet William Shakespeare wrote: “The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre observe degree, priority, and place. Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order.” The Nisarga Yoga approach offers a direct route to the understanding that results in a natural way of AS IF living (that is, a natural way of functioning). That means living/functioning spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation, knowing that the "world" is illusory but living as if any of "all this" matters. (Thus, employment can happen even without the assumption of an "employee" persona.) Natural living recognizes that the laws of nature have the right of "insisture": either (a) life is lived naturally according to the “customs” of the universe or (b) persons violating the natural “order” will collapse and self-destruct. The Realized move through the relative existence in a manner that is fixed by nature even though they appear to be moving as they please. Rather than trying to exert any force, they accept that happenings happen. Among the Realized, nature has “priority” over efforts to control or manipulate. The Realized abide within the framework of the natural laws that have “insisture,” understanding that all is to happen per the natural order and understanding that all is to happen in “proportion.” Persons, on the other hand, seek to control and manipulate so they will not have to accept “proportion.” They work to accumulate and to have more and to appear to be greater than what is proportional. They imagine that they have an actual need for more than is proportional or necessary. The Realized move along lines that are “customary” rather than along paths that are unnatural or supernatural. To think supernaturally is to think magically, and magical thinking is delusional.
Either there is One, or there is duality and/or multiplicity. Either there is a prime cause and creation (and therefore a prime causer and creator) or there is neither creation nor destruction. Science has proved that there is neither creation nor destruction. All is energy/matter, and energy/matter can be neither created nor destroyed. Wherefore a causer or a creator in that reality? The cause of all is…all. Where is there any possibility of a creator (or a creator-sustainer-destroyer god) when That Which Is Has Always Been, when That cannot have been created, when That cannot be destroyed, and when all merely cycles...or not? Persons who are programmed to believe that their bodies-minds-personalities shall last "for infinity after death" do not pause to consider that, if infinity is a possibility in --> that "direction" on their timelines, then it must also be a possibility in <-- that "direction" on their timelines. Infinite is infinite. Whatever has the ability to exist "forever after" also had to have the ability to exist "forever before."
For more on the understanding that "no god created man...it was man who created god," read Floyd's book Spiritual Sobriety: Recovering What Religions Lost at:
or
http://www.floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm
The Realized can feel, but without attachment and without a chain of reactions that result from emotional intoxication. Feelings among the Realized are merely witnessed as they rise and fall. Emotions, on the other hand, are "experienced" only by persons—by those believing in their false roles and assumed ego-states. As a result of their persona-generated emotions, they are continually in a state of emotional intoxication and are constantly reacting and over-reacting to what they take to be "personal experiences" that are driven by desires and/or fears. Contrary to some charges, the Advaita understanding does not result in the Realized "living a robotic existence." It does result in the remainder of the manifestation happening in a fashion that is free of mental, emotional, and spiritual intoxication.
The egotism that always accompanies the assumption of false identities never shows up more often than when you believe that you are in a "relationship." First, in a reality which is non-dual in nature, how can "one thing" possibly relate to "another thing"? ("Advaita" does mean, "one without a second" or "not two.") Next, consider the history of the expectations that you have traditionally brought to "your relationships": besides wanting a clone of self, you expect "partners" to conduct themselves in a fashion that you find "right" and "acceptable." And what you think is "right" and "acceptable" is generally based in what your parents taught you is "right" and "acceptable." Is there any greater degree of insanity than your expecting a "partner" to conform to the expectations of the very persons who taught you the majority of the lies and the nonsense that you believe?
For a treatise that exposes the roots of problems in "relationships" and offers solutions, visit:
http://floydhenderson.com/castinglight.htm
THURSDAY
You come here to discuss your "relationship problems" and "being alone" and wanting to know if the solution is to simply pledge that you'll never marry again and be done with it. "Is that necessary?" you ask. Of course not, but the only way to alleviate your current anxiety is to accept that marriage might happen...or might not. And if it does happen, the only way to avoid emotional intoxication and pain and to maintain peace is to witness whatever happens without playing phony roles or adopting false identities.
You believe that you are in a relationship with someone you know and that you really have an "object of your affection." What a deception. (1) If "you" are not, how could "he" be? (2) Once you move beyond the image and find what that person is truly like, then you will know that you don't know him at all, and then you may well shout at him someday in anger, "I don't even know who you are!" Correct you will be. (3) Once you move beyond your own image and find Who/What you Are, only then will You find What "He" Is. As it is right now, you don't have a clue who he is, What He Is, or Who/What you Are. And similarly, he doesn't know you or You at all. Until Realization, you will both be sleeping with strangers while each proclaiming your intimate knowledge of the "other."
Originally, only one purpose of meditation was intended: not to reach a state without thought but to consider a pointer offered until that point was understood. Consideration and understanding, not “motionless consciousness,” was the intent. If it is thoughts that you wish to be free of, then address in meditation or in the quiet the falsity of the particular ego-state that is generating the thoughts, not the thousands of thoughts that the single false ego-state is generating.
Meditation is intended to wake people up, not put them to sleep. Exercises conducted in the quiet along the “journey” are tools, yes, but when a homeowner’s house is built, he puts away his tools and then simply enjoys "the new place he’s in." Once Realized, it is understood that there is no meditator, so WHO is it who believes that (a) he has completed the construction of a new house but simultaneously thinks that (b) he must continue the building process? That would be, among other assumed identities, "The Person Who Needs Maintenance" and who has not Realized that there is nothing to maintain.
On Nothingness (Excerpts from the book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS, with pointers for only "the most advance seekers")
Understand that everything which you take to be “spiritual” and “noumenal” is really nothing more than an accumulation of relative and phenomenal concepts.
According to the earliest teachings shared among the Indigenous Peoples, that which is “true” is only the space between exhalation and inhalation. Close enough.
“True Self” is not “God,” though many who have morphed this philosophy into a religion will adopt and defend that Self-God, false-self concept as well.
Ultimately, to try to support any “identity” alongside “the no-concept, non-dual Reality” is itself contradictory.
At the “highest level” of understanding, any “identity” is seen to be conceptual.
“Bliss” is merely an undisturbed, unconcerned vibration.
The ultimate Advaita understanding is that there need not be any understanding. So relax.
When a “state” of zero concepts is reached, it is understood that there is no “identity” at all.
Nothing from nothing leaves…nothing, not “SOMETHING.”
“Absolute,” “THAT,” “Brahman,” “God,” “energy,” “energy-matter,” “Consciousness,”
“Awareness,” and “SOMETHING” are still man-made labels generated by persons.
Ultimately, to find out “who or what you are” is useless since there is no who to benefit, no user to use; on the other hand, finding out “who you are not” could eliminate unnatural and supernatural living and allow natural, AS IF living to happen throughout the remainder of the manifestation. That would also allow freedom to happen, and only if free can bliss happen.
Only when the addiction to the sound and the fury ends can the joy and bliss of the silence begin.
To look to the universe and to focus on the concept of “SOMETHING” prevents seeing “The Reality of the Emptiness,” “The Reality of the Void,” “The Reality of the Nothingness.”
Ego always wants more; freedom from the bondage of ego results in giving value to less.
Ego is about going and doing and zooming in order to collect more; freedom from the love of more allows the non-doingness (the beingness only) to manifest, at least temporarily.
Persons search for “the divine” and for an understanding of all that is “supernatural” when, in fact, there is nothing that is supernatural at all.
The result of their having been fooled is an endless stream of desires and fears among persons.
Those create a constant sense of longing, and longing generates a constant sense of dis-ease.
The non-Realized never come to the understanding that it is only from a condition of emptiness (empty of concepts, of identities, of a “mind”) that a sense of fulfillment can happen during the manifestation.
The Realized can taste what the Italians call il dolce di fare niente—“the sweetness of doing nothing.” The Fully Realized will shift even beyond that and will understand something even simpler than “the sweetness of doing nothing,” namely, il dolce di Niente—“the sweetness of Nothing,” period. Trace your roots. Go beyond self and Self, beyond Consciousness, beyond Awareness, and even beyond the Absolute to the seminal Nothingness. Abide as such.
All identities are limiting. Limitations restrict freedom. Restrictions of freedom prevent the manifestation of happiness during the relative existence. Preoccupation with finding identities and assigning labels has the same effect.
If you would be free, align with the nothingness. Reach the space.
If you/You would be unconcerned, then all of your knowledge must go into liquidation. Has that happened? Have you reached the space?
“The supreme Absolute…is only a name for communication purposes.” (Maharaj)
“This is all a big hoax, a big fraud, created out of nothingness.” (Maharaj)
Ultimately, even “nothing” as a concept is abandoned.
Advaita (at the purest and most advanced level of the Teachings) endorses zero concepts. All of the mutated versions of Advaita, especially those which have been morphed into a religion by men with hidden agendas, are bastardizations … fabricated via the warped consciousness, accepted as truth by other specks of warped consciousness, and passed along now by such specks to other such specks.
There is a process whereby, from the nothingness, a particle can manifest. This entire universe began with the instantaneous manifestation of an atom within a vacuum.
It is from the nothingness that all manifestation happens spontaneously. After some groupings and ungroupings happen, the Nothingness will again prevail.
Prior to “this universe,” prior to Awareness, prior to Consciousness, and prior to manifestation, there was a “time” when only a vacuum was. Your “ultimate root” is even prior to time.
If you’re interested in oneness, understand that everything in this universe began as one, single atom that manifested within the emptiness of a vacuum.
Purged of all identities, ideas, beliefs, and concepts, the consciousness can function as an empty vacuum. Originally, the empty vacuum was undisturbed, unconcerned…without burden, without activity, without any doings. The relative existence is miserable for those who are “full of it.” If you would be undisturbed, unconcerned, without burden, without activity, without any doingness, be the emptiness. Reach the space and abide as such.
Fear not…nothing is coming. No judgment…no endless punishment. Desire not…nothing is coming. No endless celestial caroling…no heavenly brothels and no extraterrestrial orgies...no endless reward. Nothing, so enjoy, NOW.
For guides that direct seekers through the meditation process as conducted originally, visit:
http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen1.htm &
http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen2.htm
You may schedule a retreat with floyd, either one-on-one, in pairs / couples, or in small groups. For details, visit:
http://advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com/
Also, you are invited to visit
