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.
Announcing the closing of the Non-Duality Bookstore as the focus in the future will be on providing books electronically. See at the end of this post an offer to receive at lower-than-eBook prices the last of the paper books remaining in stock at 50% off with free shipping in the U.S. and half-price shipping internationally.
F.: [The following is a collection of e-mails that have been received over the last several weeks and months, grouped here for a single response because their content had a similar theme]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: How can you claim that maharaj was realized - and at peace - when he got mad and ran people out of his house?
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: How much time do you spend with people? I mean do you blend into society are do you retreat…isolate…whatever?
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: do you ever feel resentful about people who write you and ask stupid questions or argue with you about their religion or their beliefs? seems like denial if you claim no.
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: Do you think there were some people that maharaj hated even though he said he lived with wisdom and love? For instant, how could you not hate hitler? do you ever get sick of people who aren’t realized.Is there anything you hate?
F.: First, an Advaitin that comes to the understanding via the nisarga yoga approach will always appear to be “far less realized than others” to those speculating about a condition that cannot possibly be seen by the naked eye.
The nisarga yoga is the being yoga—the “Being as Awareness” yoga—and when Realized via this yoga, the beingness happens in an all-natural fashion. For all the lip service given to a preference for beingness over doingness, few seekers ever replace all of their doing with being only.
And along the way, prior to Realization via this yoga, that same doingness likely dominated the existence of the pre-Realization Advaitin that might well have sought via many other venues. But it is the absence of all so-called "spiritual doingness" that can make it appear that the nisargan is not Realized at all. They may have looked more Realized (more "spiritual"?) in the past than now, to those who do not understand totally what natural living really looks like.
Seekers that finally Realized via the nisarga approach may have adhered to the trappings of many other yogas or “spiritual disciples” or dogmatic practices or any of the various teachings that involve doingness more than beingess. The seeker may have “tried it all” before finally realizing that it had all been for naught.
Along the way, the pre-Realization seeker may have engaged in all sorts of rituals and practices while mistaking the dawn for the noon, including praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning.
This seeker might formerly have engaged in imploring, studying, pleading, meeting, supplicating, tithing, serving, soliciting, wishing, hoping, proselytizing, begging, forming human circles and holding hands, joining groups, beseeching, giving, reciting words in unison, all of which would have made him/her appear to be "more spiritual back then" than now to those who do not truly understand.
This type seeker might have tried every external thing that a seeker can try in order to supposedly “be more spiritual” (or at least to try to demonstrate how spiritual he/she is,) yet all of that actually blocked the seeker from Realizing Truth. (NOTE: All of the above might be a part of “a journey,” though it certainly need not be).
The fact is that seekers much reach the third step of replacing “old personas” with “new religious and/or spiritual personas” on the way to completing the other four steps that remain beyond the religious-spiritual stage, so nothing disparaging about all that need be said; however, the Realized teacher will invite seekers to move beyond that point that is not even halfway along the entire "path."
But once Full Realization happens via the natural (nisarga) approach, do not look for “appearances” that you think might be signs of Realization…or not. Look not for special garbs, for special haircuts, for special postures when sitting or walking. Look not for special accoutrements.
Look not for a dream catcher hanging from the mirror inside a car. Look not for a special rug to sit on, a special stick to burn, or a special pillow to set a special bowl upon before striking it with a special stick. For those who want to do all of that, rock and roll, but none of that has anything to do with nisarga, natural living.
What do such "spiritual" persons who love their "spiritual instruments" and their "spiritual practices" think happened thousands and millions of years ago—prior to programming, conditioning, and acculturation when humans sensed, via the inner resource, that they are something beyond whatever the “this-ness” appeared to be?
Having no bells to ring or chants to chant or prayers to pray, was their intuitive sense deactivated? Did they have no access to the sixth sense...to an awareness beyond "this"? Of course they did.
No trappings were required because they lived naturally while intuitively sensing "something else" without the use of any "spiritual tools" or "religious rituals" (at least until language allowed a self-proclaimed medicine man or priest to begin talking nonsense about "Super Persons living in other worlds and controlling events in this world").
Because the seekers that Realize via the nisarga approach do not engage in anything that in not natural, they can certainly appear—at least to those who think they are Realized and can judge—not to be Realized at all.
Such “judgers” will conclude, “He/She doesn’t even know all the things that are supposed to be done by the Realized.” They will see, if they follow a nisargan about, that nisargans do not carry themselves in a way that signals to all that they are different or that they know something that most do not know.
Seekers have come here from hundreds and thousands of miles away, but the people living fifty yards away haven't a clue about Advaita or Advaitins or what is being "lived" and "taught" inside this house. Similarly, on the street behind Maharaj's loft where people were freed of body identification, prostitutes being paid for the use of their bodies worked for decades and never walked around the corner to hear the teachings offered by that speck.
With Maharaj, until his health faltered, he offered an AM session and a PM session. The remainder of the day, he did not move about as some think a “spiritual man” should move about. He moved about in a normal, natural way. Here, a half-hour per day is spent with a posting. Later, some e-mailed inquires might be answered.
Sometimes, a book might be packaged for shipment. Occasionally, as will happen today through Thursday, seminars or satsanga will happen. But in total during any given month, a fraction of time is spent with anything that is Advaita-related; instead, natural happenings merely happen.
Thus, nisarga yoga is probably the least favorite of all yogas. Why? Again, it is the being yoga, not the doing yoga, not the behaving yoga, not the meditating yoga, not the thinking yoga, not the spiritual activity yoga. Want to know what AS IF living in this manner is really like?
Use the model often mentioned on this site: follow a deer about for a day and a night. See if there is anything about the deer’s behavior or lifestyle that suggests it is special or knows something no one else can know. See that it does not walk about in a special way and that it does not have to do special things to remain at peace.
You will not see any external evidence that it thinks it is "special" or "different", either from the deer or from the Realized nisargan. Why is the natural approach not more “popular”? Because it is far too simple for those with a complex mind. It is far too simple for those attached to religious and/or spiritual doingness.
For more than four thousand years, religions have taught that you have to do something to gain approval…to gain benefit. On a planet of accumulators, who wants to be involved with that which offers nothing and even suggests forfeiting belief in all? Few.
When seekers arrive after long-term exposure to religion and dogma, it has been noted that they might be willing to seek something beyond their seminal religion, but they are usually reluctant to seek something that is “too far removed” from that which is familiar.
They often reveal the belief that if they are to forfeit the trappings of their former religion or spiritual movement, then they think that whatever they substitute for that should be religion-like or spiritual-like or should involve some ideology or philosophy with a set of its own trappings.
If they have been conditioned to feel “comfortable” with ritual and activity and ceremony or meetings, they might investigate something that is "different," but most will only follow a different set of teachings if rituals and ceremonies and/or meetings are included with the alternative message.
And on a planet where arrogance generates pride in anything and everything, even accumulated knowledge is a source of pride. How many want to be told that their valued knowledge amounts to nothing more than learned ignorance? Few.
Now, while out of town through Thursday, recent site visitors are invited to read the current postings; those that have been visiting the site for a period are invited to visit the archives. The questions above from site visitors will be addressed starting Friday. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FROM A SITE VISITOR: How can you claim that maharaj was realized - and at peace - when he got mad and ran people out of his house?
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: How much time do you spend with people? I mean do you blend into society are do you retreat…isolate…whatever?
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: do you ever feel resentful about people who write you and ask stupid questions or argue with you about their religion or their beliefs? seems like denial if you claim no.
FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: Do you think there were some people that maharaj hated even though he said he lived with wisdom and love? For instant, how could you not hate hitler? do you ever get sick of people who aren’t realized.Is there anything you hate?
F.: First, an Advaitin that comes to the understanding via the nisarga yoga approach will always appear to be “far less realized than others” to those speculating about a condition that cannot possibly be seen by the naked eye.
The nisarga yoga is the being yoga—the “Being as Awareness” yoga—and when Realized via this yoga, the beingness happens in an all-natural fashion. For all the lip service given to a preference for beingness over doingness, few seekers ever replace all of their doing with being only.
And along the way, prior to Realization via this yoga, that same doingness likely dominated the existence of the pre-Realization Advaitin that might well have sought via many other venues. But it is the absence of all so-called "spiritual doingness" that can make it appear that the nisargan is not Realized at all. They may have looked more Realized (more "spiritual"?) in the past than now, to those who do not understand totally what natural living really looks like.
Seekers that finally Realized via the nisarga approach may have adhered to the trappings of many other yogas or “spiritual disciples” or dogmatic practices or any of the various teachings that involve doingness more than beingess. The seeker may have “tried it all” before finally realizing that it had all been for naught.
Along the way, the pre-Realization seeker may have engaged in all sorts of rituals and practices while mistaking the dawn for the noon, including praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning.
This seeker might formerly have engaged in imploring, studying, pleading, meeting, supplicating, tithing, serving, soliciting, wishing, hoping, proselytizing, begging, forming human circles and holding hands, joining groups, beseeching, giving, reciting words in unison, all of which would have made him/her appear to be "more spiritual back then" than now to those who do not truly understand.
This type seeker might have tried every external thing that a seeker can try in order to supposedly “be more spiritual” (or at least to try to demonstrate how spiritual he/she is,) yet all of that actually blocked the seeker from Realizing Truth. (NOTE: All of the above might be a part of “a journey,” though it certainly need not be).
The fact is that seekers much reach the third step of replacing “old personas” with “new religious and/or spiritual personas” on the way to completing the other four steps that remain beyond the religious-spiritual stage, so nothing disparaging about all that need be said; however, the Realized teacher will invite seekers to move beyond that point that is not even halfway along the entire "path."
But once Full Realization happens via the natural (nisarga) approach, do not look for “appearances” that you think might be signs of Realization…or not. Look not for special garbs, for special haircuts, for special postures when sitting or walking. Look not for special accoutrements.
Look not for a dream catcher hanging from the mirror inside a car. Look not for a special rug to sit on, a special stick to burn, or a special pillow to set a special bowl upon before striking it with a special stick. For those who want to do all of that, rock and roll, but none of that has anything to do with nisarga, natural living.
What do such "spiritual" persons who love their "spiritual instruments" and their "spiritual practices" think happened thousands and millions of years ago—prior to programming, conditioning, and acculturation when humans sensed, via the inner resource, that they are something beyond whatever the “this-ness” appeared to be?
Having no bells to ring or chants to chant or prayers to pray, was their intuitive sense deactivated? Did they have no access to the sixth sense...to an awareness beyond "this"? Of course they did.
No trappings were required because they lived naturally while intuitively sensing "something else" without the use of any "spiritual tools" or "religious rituals" (at least until language allowed a self-proclaimed medicine man or priest to begin talking nonsense about "Super Persons living in other worlds and controlling events in this world").
Because the seekers that Realize via the nisarga approach do not engage in anything that in not natural, they can certainly appear—at least to those who think they are Realized and can judge—not to be Realized at all.
Such “judgers” will conclude, “He/She doesn’t even know all the things that are supposed to be done by the Realized.” They will see, if they follow a nisargan about, that nisargans do not carry themselves in a way that signals to all that they are different or that they know something that most do not know.
Seekers have come here from hundreds and thousands of miles away, but the people living fifty yards away haven't a clue about Advaita or Advaitins or what is being "lived" and "taught" inside this house. Similarly, on the street behind Maharaj's loft where people were freed of body identification, prostitutes being paid for the use of their bodies worked for decades and never walked around the corner to hear the teachings offered by that speck.
With Maharaj, until his health faltered, he offered an AM session and a PM session. The remainder of the day, he did not move about as some think a “spiritual man” should move about. He moved about in a normal, natural way. Here, a half-hour per day is spent with a posting. Later, some e-mailed inquires might be answered.
Sometimes, a book might be packaged for shipment. Occasionally, as will happen today through Thursday, seminars or satsanga will happen. But in total during any given month, a fraction of time is spent with anything that is Advaita-related; instead, natural happenings merely happen.
Thus, nisarga yoga is probably the least favorite of all yogas. Why? Again, it is the being yoga, not the doing yoga, not the behaving yoga, not the meditating yoga, not the thinking yoga, not the spiritual activity yoga. Want to know what AS IF living in this manner is really like?
Use the model often mentioned on this site: follow a deer about for a day and a night. See if there is anything about the deer’s behavior or lifestyle that suggests it is special or knows something no one else can know. See that it does not walk about in a special way and that it does not have to do special things to remain at peace.
You will not see any external evidence that it thinks it is "special" or "different", either from the deer or from the Realized nisargan. Why is the natural approach not more “popular”? Because it is far too simple for those with a complex mind. It is far too simple for those attached to religious and/or spiritual doingness.
For more than four thousand years, religions have taught that you have to do something to gain approval…to gain benefit. On a planet of accumulators, who wants to be involved with that which offers nothing and even suggests forfeiting belief in all? Few.
When seekers arrive after long-term exposure to religion and dogma, it has been noted that they might be willing to seek something beyond their seminal religion, but they are usually reluctant to seek something that is “too far removed” from that which is familiar.
They often reveal the belief that if they are to forfeit the trappings of their former religion or spiritual movement, then they think that whatever they substitute for that should be religion-like or spiritual-like or should involve some ideology or philosophy with a set of its own trappings.
If they have been conditioned to feel “comfortable” with ritual and activity and ceremony or meetings, they might investigate something that is "different," but most will only follow a different set of teachings if rituals and ceremonies and/or meetings are included with the alternative message.
And on a planet where arrogance generates pride in anything and everything, even accumulated knowledge is a source of pride. How many want to be told that their valued knowledge amounts to nothing more than learned ignorance? Few.
Now, while out of town through Thursday, recent site visitors are invited to read the current postings; those that have been visiting the site for a period are invited to visit the archives. The questions above from site visitors will be addressed starting Friday. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
THE FOLLOWING NON-DUALITY BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
While quantities last, the following package deal is being offered: Receive all nine (9) of the books listed below for $88 total with free shipping in the U.S. and ½ price shipping internationally.
[Sorry, but the offer does not apply to eBooks; this limited-time offer, however, is even less expensive than eBooks. This applies to the last of the paper books which are now in stock but which will never be available again. As various titles sell out, as happened with one title yesterday, the remaining paper versions will be offered at a pro-rated price of 50% off also.]
NON-DUALITY BOOK SET: From the Absolute to the Nothingness Consciousness/Awareness From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free) Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind'' Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost) The Essence of the Teachings
To order, click
Non-Duality Book Set
then add the package to the shopping cart and follow the checkout procedure to the secure pay site.
You may pay with
any of these major credit cards
or with
Paypal.
Your card information will not be seen by us or anyone other than the card company. The processing company will only provide us your shipping information.
Finally,
most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson
While quantities last, the following package deal is being offered: Receive all nine (9) of the books listed below for $88 total with free shipping in the U.S. and ½ price shipping internationally.
[Sorry, but the offer does not apply to eBooks; this limited-time offer, however, is even less expensive than eBooks. This applies to the last of the paper books which are now in stock but which will never be available again. As various titles sell out, as happened with one title yesterday, the remaining paper versions will be offered at a pro-rated price of 50% off also.]
NON-DUALITY BOOK SET: From the Absolute to the Nothingness Consciousness/Awareness From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free) Self-Transformation Meditation Guide I Self-Transformation Meditation Guide II There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind'' Spiritual Sobriety (Recovering What Religions Lost) The Essence of the Teachings
To order, click
Non-Duality Book Set
then add the package to the shopping cart and follow the checkout procedure to the secure pay site.
You may pay with
any of these major credit cards
or with
Paypal.
Your card information will not be seen by us or anyone other than the card company. The processing company will only provide us your shipping information.
Finally,
most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson
