RETREATS OR SATSANG w/ floyd ONE-ON-ONE, by TELEPHONE, by INTERNET CHAT ROOM, and via THE ADVAITA COURSE BY INTERNET (see link to right)
For details click ADVAITA VEDANTA RETREATS & SATSANG
or contact floyd by clicking CONTACT floyd
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Any tips for somebody who is pretty new to Advaita Vedanta? Trying to wrap my mind around the idea of dissolving that some of you are talking about is boggling Thank you
[NOTE: See the information at the end of this post for money-saving Ebook options]
F.: (Continued from yesterday) If you are a newcomer to these teachings, as is
As far as this manifestation is concerned, foliage is your antecedent state. You were in that state, and out of the essence the body evolved. Wherefore arrogance? Wherefore defensiveness?
Are you seeing that everything “they” put into what you take to be “your mind” (which is really just “their mind”) is a collection of droppings that is not unlike the rotting muck used by gardeners and farmers around the globe?
Consider the condition of your programmers and conditioners and mentors: only a fraction of the persons walking about on the planet at any given time are free of distorted, magical, delusional thinking, all of which is centered in the “mind.” Since all present “minds” are merely the product of distortions and delusions which have been passed on for millennia, then the only logical conclusions are these:
(1) all current “minds” are also filled with distortions and delusions and (2) the masses are functioning under the auspices of their distorted “minds.” Consider a few recent examples:
A contract last week involved conducting sessions with employees of an organization engaged in what might be called a “helping profession.” Several who were disgruntled because they were getting neither the respect desired/expected nor the “attaboys” they felt they needed nor the proper degree of admiration and strokes from management that they were seeking all shared one self-deceptive belief in common, usually expressed thusly:
“I’m not doing this job for the money—I love helping people and serving them and making the world a better place.” Noble, yes? Egotistical? Yes. However, unless those people have told their employer to terminate all future direct deposits of funds into the employee accounts, then those workers are trapped in the ego-based delusions of a distortion-filled “mind.”
The result? Irritability, resentment, and discontentment. Those who knew that they were performing their tasks to earn a salary and who considered any additional intangibles to be “a bonus” were content. They knew to the penny what to expect in terms of pay, and they were not disappointed when that exact amount was received each week.
Those in delusion, claiming that they are really working for intangibles, will never receive enough "pay" because their purpose is to sustain a host of ego-states including “The Helper,” “The Rescuer,” “The Savior,” “The Liberator,” “The Guide,” “The Mentor,” ad infinitum.
Since the pay they claim to be working for cannot be measured in tangible and measurable terms, then there is never a sense that they are receiving what their egotism-driven ego-states believe they are worth.
Talk about distortion: agreements are never really agreements but are merely starting points when delusional persons agree to work for one amount but then become angry and resentful when they do not receive the lagniappe that their delusion-filled, ego-driven “minds” tell them they deserve. How can they ever be content when operating with the belief system that they deserve far more than whatever was supposedly agreed upon originally?
When driven by the "mind," problems will occur, peace will not, and disharmony will reign.
As a second example, look no farther than the 6.5 billion magical thinkers who proudly proclaim their sky-cult-membership as they publicly profess their belief in their cults’ ideas and concept and beliefs and dogma that are all based in the magical thinking that is generated by their fiction-filled “minds.”
Yet look at the fear that manifests and at all of the effort exerted among those working to avoid eternal punishment, to gain "eternal salvation," to guarantee body-mind-personality continuity, to try to find peace now, and to assure that they will earn their "reward" later as well.
Now, did the garden-compost analogy used earlier either anger or offend you? If you were to realize—truly realize—that every relative problem you have ever had was centered in “the mind,” then would you not also give the “mind” as little value as is being shown for it here?
“But how can I function and get done what must be done without a mind?” some ask. You would function as all mammals other than humans function: naturally, under the auspices of the “self-constructive” brain rather than the “self-destructive” “mind.” The brain can function without a “mind” (and does among all other species), but the mind cannot function without the brain. At what persons call “birth,” there is a brain but there is no “mind.”
Forfeiture of the “mind” happens as the ideas and concepts and beliefs and attitudes stored therein are seen to have been false and are seen to be the source of all misery and all problems.
However, even among the most dedicated seekers, that forfeiture will often not happen because so many become bogged down in their own approach which requires years of investigating and testing and discarding disproved concepts or ideas on a one-at-a-time basis.
And when functioning under the auspices of the "mind," that is only the beginning of the relative problems that are yet to come. Once the “mind” is filled with nonsense, it will begin to accept multiple roles and false identities as real. When those distortions of personality settle in, relative troubles manifest at warp speed. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
INFORMATION ON THE NEW EBOOK OPTION:
A PRIVATE
SAVE ON THE COSTS OF BOOKS AND ELIMINATE SHIPPING CHARGES, HANDLING CHARGES, AND DELAYS IN RECEIVING YOUR BOOKS: Thirteen Titles Are Now Available As Ebooks
During the last several months, more and more inquiries have been received, asking if titles are available in Ebook format as well. The most recent inquiry was from Louise in
“Why have you not gone the Ebook route on this site? I assume this is intentional?” Since Louise is a professional writer and book seller, her suggestion was considered and the result is that some titles will be made available in an Ebook version.
With international shipping rates now costing as much as—and often more than—the price of a book, thirteen of the eighteen titles will be offered in Ebook format to reduce your costs, to eliminate shipping and handling fees, and to avoid long waiting periods for your readings to arrive.
[Note: If you do not have Abode or some other PDF reader on your computer, you will need to download a FREE version such as Adobe’s.]
Here are two examples of the savings available by ordering an Ebook version rather than a hard copy version:
EXAMPLE ONE:
TITLE: FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE
REG. PRICE (INC. SHIPPING & HANDLING) IN THE
TYPICAL PRICE FOR BOOK + INTERNATIONAL S&H: $50.64
Ebook VERSION IN CONTINENTAL US.: $12.00
Ebook VERSION OUTSIDE THE US $13.75
(The slight difference in
EXAMPLE TWO:
TITLE: FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
REG. PRICE (INC. SHIPPING & HANDLING) IN THE
TYPICAL PRICE FOR BOOK + INTERNATIONAL S&H: $46.64
Ebook VERSION IN CONTINENTAL US.: $10.00
Ebook VERSION OUTSIDE THE US $11.75
The books that are available in an Ebook version and the price of each are listed below. (International clients add US$1.75 per Ebook). These prices are available AS AN INTRODUCTORY OFFER to the visitors to this site since the orders will be processed manually through this office.
Negotiations are under way to contract with a third-party service for delivery and billing of Ebooks. At the time that service takes over the operation, the prices of all Ebooks will have to increase an additional $4.00-$5.00 each. Too, printing and binding rates have been increasing for a year while the prices of books have not been adjusted accordingly; soon, hard copy costs will increase as well.
The Ebook versions now available, along with their prices, include the following titles:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness ($10.00)
Consciousness/Awareness ($10.00)
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) ($12.00)
The Essence of the Teachings ($9.00)
What Happens When I Die? ($9.00)
Liberation ($9.00)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind'' ($9.00)
Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost) ($10.00)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free) ($10.00)
Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I ($9.00)
Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II ($9.00)
Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships ($11.00)
HOW TO ORDER AN Ebook VERSION OF THE TITLES ABOVE or HOW TO SEND A GIFT Ebook TO SOMEONE:
**click http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm
**complete all blanks on the order form, providing personal information, credit card information, etc.
**In the “Special Message” Box, indicate that you are ordering the Ebook version. As always, all sales are final.
IF A GIFT:
Indicate in the “Special Message” Box that you are buying an Ebook as a gift. Include the name and e-mail address of the person(s) you’re sending the Ebook to, along with the message you want included with the gift. All gift sales are also final.
Peace and Light
