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.
Also, see details below for starting your own “Advaita In-Home Study Group”
Also, see details below for starting your own “Advaita In-Home Study Group”
F.: This series has provided an opportunity to see that there is as much misinformation and misunderstanding about "what Realization is" vs. "What Realization is not" as there is about beginninglessness and creation-lessness and creator-lessness; about beingness and non-beingness and what is beyond; and about the falsity of other concepts such as memories, time, birth, and death.
It has also been shown that there is as much misunderstanding about the difference in “True Realization” and “Falsely-Assumed Realization” as there is about the difference in consciousness vs. awareness; as about how to overlay Reality on the Amness;
as about non-doership even as the Is-ness Is; as about the difference in pain vs. suffering; and as there is about the difference in persons, personas and personality vs. an unblocked speck of consciousness.
Many impediments to Full Realization have been witnessed over the years, including what could be called “The Big Catch-22 of Advaita” which is this: the very step on the seven-step “journey” that much be reached (specifically, the assumption for a time of religious and spiritual personas) is ironically a step that is made not of stone but of quicksand.
Rather than being able to stand on a step with solid footing and then move on after a time, the religious-spiritual step becomes a trap for most seekers. The trap appears to offer such secure standing that its intended purpose as a temporary respite on the “journey” is mistaken for the final destination.
Yet the third step has no foundation in truth so it will pull seekers of Truth (seekers of an actual understanding of the functioning of the totality) from the “path” to Truth and into its depths of darkness.
Seekers then become entwined in the bog, in the ancient roots that evolved from myths and superstitions and lies, and all the while, the murky bog is mistaken by persons entrapped therein to be the ultimate source of light. The dullness of dawn appears to be the brightness of high noon.
It was noted earlier that the seven-step path from identification with the false “I” to understanding and abiding as the Absolute is a seven-step “journey” and that the assumption of religious and/or spiritual personas must almost always happen.
The question is, therefore, “How can those playing such roles come to understand that they are mistaking the dawn for the noon and then move on?” Few ever will. Most have gurus or religious or spiritual guides that assure them the religious/spiritual level is the ultimate.
As pointed out earlier, however, if the seeker reaches the Absolute, that seeker is “in a place” where there is no “one,” much less anyone who can play religious or spiritual roles.
Via this “journey,” the seeker of Full Realization is going back to the Absolute in reverse order (that is, in a way that is the exact opposite of the way she/he moved from the Absolute to the manifestation and eventually to identification with the false “I”). Steps 1 to 7 were taken "coming in," generating seven degrees of separation from Reality.
To return to being fully in touch with Reality, therefore, the steps must be taken from 7 to 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. There can be no skipping of any step because each step “on the way in” set up specific obstacles that blocked the consciousness from being able to see Truth.
Each step must be dealt with in order to reverse out of the mess by removing the obstacles in the order in which they were set into place by way of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication.
Imagine you left the light and entered a dark cave. Then imagine that a rockslide blocked the way to the light outside. Can you begin clearing away the rockslide that is blocking freedom and peace by reaching through and moving out of the way the rocks that are at the most-distant place from the cave entrance?
Of course not. You must begin with the rocks that are next to your present position and move those out of the way in the exact way they are blocking you from the light. Those that fell closest to you must be removed, and you must work your way back from where you are if you would eventually also remove the blockages that are at the most distant point from where you presently are...blocked at the mouth of the dark cave in which you have been trapped.
As the Absolute originally, there was that which was beyond the beingness and the non-beingness. “There,” prior to the manifestation, there was no state-of-being-religious and there was no state-of-being-spiritual.
To complete this "journey" and return “there” is to be in a no-role, no-persona state, and no religious role or spiritual role was played “there” back “then” (prior to the manifestation of consciousness); thus, there is no validity whatsoever to such roles when they are being played during the manifestation.
All role-assumptions came after the manifestation, so when persons reach the religious or spiritual step on the "path" and assume that they have completed the entire "journey," they are deceived. They are still being fooled.
The Absolute is beyond any role assumption, but the seeker who is still not free of identifying with "good" ego-states (and the accompanying egotism) love their religious/spiritual persona;
therefore, it can be seen why the nisarga yoga is likely the “least popular” of all yogas, because the understanding is that to abide as the Absolute is to abide without any notions about beingness or about being anything, including “being spiritual.” To follow the “I AM” with any noun or adjective is a statement of fiction.
“I am spiritual” is as bogus a statement as “I am my body” and “I am my mind” and “I am my personality/personas.” Nisarga living is not "spiritual living" (which usually involves doing "spiritual things" and "spiritual exercises" and "hanging out with other spiritual persons" and "looking spiritual" and "behaving spiritually," whatever any of that might be assumed to involve).
As Ashley pointed out earlier in her e-mail, persons can try to mimic whatever religious or spiritual living is supposed to look like, but does that mean that Full Realization has occurred or does it reveal that play-acting is still going on and thereby reveal that Realization has not happened at all?
So nisarga living is natural living, and what "religious giant" or "spiritual giant" is about to forfeit his/her supernatural status-producing activity? Most will not, loving their false-sense-of-security-producing and false-sense-of-being-in-the-know-producing activities and roles.
Via the process of playing like one is religious or spiritual (and talking the talk and exhibiting behaviors that the role-players think will exhibit evidence of their being Fully Realized) such actors are automatically revealing that they are not what they claim and are not what they think they are. They are still believing that some assumed role(s) can be a True Self or a Real Identity.
In fact, since That Which I Am is beyond beingness and non-beingness, then there is no self or Self at all. What can be labeled for the sake of discussion as the “True Self” is merely the Pure Witness (more accurately, just second level witnessing) that happens when the consciousness becomes capable of seeing clearly as a result of all blockages (all concepts and beliefs and ideas) having been discarded.
So that “Witness” is not really a "Self" either since it has no form that can be pointed to as having “selfness” or “Selfness.” To believe in a "self" or a "Self" (when You have been told that You are beyond beingness and even non-beingness) is the result of ego-state adoption and attachment to the same egotism that sustained all other false identities. Such egotism is still at work if one is trying to sustain any religious or spiritual identity/role/persona.
See why so many come here, get a glimpse of what Nisarga-style functioning is like, and move on? They are so attached to their rituals and exercises and activities (which they believe are sustaining their new, "good" ego-states of “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual One” or both) that they reject any consideration which suggests they have not yet reached even the halfway point on the seven-step “path” to Full Realization and abidance as THAT.
So they most assuredly hate and reject the following type of pointer that is offered on an Advaita Vedanta Quotes Site:
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 noon. Realize that praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning (and every other external thing you try to use to be more spiritual or to try to demonstrate how spiritual you are) will actually block you from finding the truth which can only be found within after certain pointers are taken into quiet and solitary consideration.
It has also been shown that there is as much misunderstanding about the difference in “True Realization” and “Falsely-Assumed Realization” as there is about the difference in consciousness vs. awareness; as about how to overlay Reality on the Amness;
as about non-doership even as the Is-ness Is; as about the difference in pain vs. suffering; and as there is about the difference in persons, personas and personality vs. an unblocked speck of consciousness.
Many impediments to Full Realization have been witnessed over the years, including what could be called “The Big Catch-22 of Advaita” which is this: the very step on the seven-step “journey” that much be reached (specifically, the assumption for a time of religious and spiritual personas) is ironically a step that is made not of stone but of quicksand.
Rather than being able to stand on a step with solid footing and then move on after a time, the religious-spiritual step becomes a trap for most seekers. The trap appears to offer such secure standing that its intended purpose as a temporary respite on the “journey” is mistaken for the final destination.
Yet the third step has no foundation in truth so it will pull seekers of Truth (seekers of an actual understanding of the functioning of the totality) from the “path” to Truth and into its depths of darkness.
Seekers then become entwined in the bog, in the ancient roots that evolved from myths and superstitions and lies, and all the while, the murky bog is mistaken by persons entrapped therein to be the ultimate source of light. The dullness of dawn appears to be the brightness of high noon.
It was noted earlier that the seven-step path from identification with the false “I” to understanding and abiding as the Absolute is a seven-step “journey” and that the assumption of religious and/or spiritual personas must almost always happen.
The question is, therefore, “How can those playing such roles come to understand that they are mistaking the dawn for the noon and then move on?” Few ever will. Most have gurus or religious or spiritual guides that assure them the religious/spiritual level is the ultimate.
As pointed out earlier, however, if the seeker reaches the Absolute, that seeker is “in a place” where there is no “one,” much less anyone who can play religious or spiritual roles.
Via this “journey,” the seeker of Full Realization is going back to the Absolute in reverse order (that is, in a way that is the exact opposite of the way she/he moved from the Absolute to the manifestation and eventually to identification with the false “I”). Steps 1 to 7 were taken "coming in," generating seven degrees of separation from Reality.
To return to being fully in touch with Reality, therefore, the steps must be taken from 7 to 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. There can be no skipping of any step because each step “on the way in” set up specific obstacles that blocked the consciousness from being able to see Truth.
Each step must be dealt with in order to reverse out of the mess by removing the obstacles in the order in which they were set into place by way of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication.
Imagine you left the light and entered a dark cave. Then imagine that a rockslide blocked the way to the light outside. Can you begin clearing away the rockslide that is blocking freedom and peace by reaching through and moving out of the way the rocks that are at the most-distant place from the cave entrance?
Of course not. You must begin with the rocks that are next to your present position and move those out of the way in the exact way they are blocking you from the light. Those that fell closest to you must be removed, and you must work your way back from where you are if you would eventually also remove the blockages that are at the most distant point from where you presently are...blocked at the mouth of the dark cave in which you have been trapped.
As the Absolute originally, there was that which was beyond the beingness and the non-beingness. “There,” prior to the manifestation, there was no state-of-being-religious and there was no state-of-being-spiritual.
To complete this "journey" and return “there” is to be in a no-role, no-persona state, and no religious role or spiritual role was played “there” back “then” (prior to the manifestation of consciousness); thus, there is no validity whatsoever to such roles when they are being played during the manifestation.
All role-assumptions came after the manifestation, so when persons reach the religious or spiritual step on the "path" and assume that they have completed the entire "journey," they are deceived. They are still being fooled.
The Absolute is beyond any role assumption, but the seeker who is still not free of identifying with "good" ego-states (and the accompanying egotism) love their religious/spiritual persona;
therefore, it can be seen why the nisarga yoga is likely the “least popular” of all yogas, because the understanding is that to abide as the Absolute is to abide without any notions about beingness or about being anything, including “being spiritual.” To follow the “I AM” with any noun or adjective is a statement of fiction.
“I am spiritual” is as bogus a statement as “I am my body” and “I am my mind” and “I am my personality/personas.” Nisarga living is not "spiritual living" (which usually involves doing "spiritual things" and "spiritual exercises" and "hanging out with other spiritual persons" and "looking spiritual" and "behaving spiritually," whatever any of that might be assumed to involve).
As Ashley pointed out earlier in her e-mail, persons can try to mimic whatever religious or spiritual living is supposed to look like, but does that mean that Full Realization has occurred or does it reveal that play-acting is still going on and thereby reveal that Realization has not happened at all?
So nisarga living is natural living, and what "religious giant" or "spiritual giant" is about to forfeit his/her supernatural status-producing activity? Most will not, loving their false-sense-of-security-producing and false-sense-of-being-in-the-know-producing activities and roles.
Via the process of playing like one is religious or spiritual (and talking the talk and exhibiting behaviors that the role-players think will exhibit evidence of their being Fully Realized) such actors are automatically revealing that they are not what they claim and are not what they think they are. They are still believing that some assumed role(s) can be a True Self or a Real Identity.
In fact, since That Which I Am is beyond beingness and non-beingness, then there is no self or Self at all. What can be labeled for the sake of discussion as the “True Self” is merely the Pure Witness (more accurately, just second level witnessing) that happens when the consciousness becomes capable of seeing clearly as a result of all blockages (all concepts and beliefs and ideas) having been discarded.
So that “Witness” is not really a "Self" either since it has no form that can be pointed to as having “selfness” or “Selfness.” To believe in a "self" or a "Self" (when You have been told that You are beyond beingness and even non-beingness) is the result of ego-state adoption and attachment to the same egotism that sustained all other false identities. Such egotism is still at work if one is trying to sustain any religious or spiritual identity/role/persona.
See why so many come here, get a glimpse of what Nisarga-style functioning is like, and move on? They are so attached to their rituals and exercises and activities (which they believe are sustaining their new, "good" ego-states of “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual One” or both) that they reject any consideration which suggests they have not yet reached even the halfway point on the seven-step “path” to Full Realization and abidance as THAT.
So they most assuredly hate and reject the following type of pointer that is offered on an Advaita Vedanta Quotes Site:
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 noon. Realize that praying and knelling and bending over and stooping and lying prostrate and reading and visiting and chanting and humming and ringing and burning (and every other external thing you try to use to be more spiritual or to try to demonstrate how spiritual you are) will actually block you from finding the truth which can only be found within after certain pointers are taken into quiet and solitary consideration.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. MATERIALS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA
4. DONATIONS
1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
The following three books make up
“The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set”
and should be read in the order below.
BOOK ONE
(click the picture for more information)
BOOK TWO
(click the picture for more information)
BOOK THREE
(click the picture for more information)
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
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 paperback books listed below for $88 total with free shipping in the U.S. and ½ price shipping internationally.
NOTE: Only one full set remaining. The offer will become an eight-book set after the next order.
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.
3. MATERIALS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA
THE “ADVAITA IN-HOME STUDY GROUP” PACKAGE
Host an Advaita Study Group in your home with the following materials for you and three other seekers:
4 copies-From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
4 copies-Consciousness / Awareness
4 copies-From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Take turns reading passages and then discussing the pointers.
All 12 books for $120.00 ($30 each for the four participants) + free S&H in the U.S.
(ONLY ONE SET OF THESE TWELVE BOOKS REMAINS IN THE STORE)
(The "Buy Now" button allows you to pay with any credit card or with PayPal)
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson
4. DONATIONS
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. MATERIALS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA
4. DONATIONS
1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
The following three books make up
“The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set”
and should be read in the order below.
BOOK ONE
(click the picture for more information)
BOOK TWO
(click the picture for more information)
BOOK THREE
(click the picture for more information)
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
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 paperback books listed below for $88 total with free shipping in the U.S. and ½ price shipping internationally.
NOTE: Only one full set remaining. The offer will become an eight-book set after the next order.
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.
3. MATERIALS FOR TEACHING ADVAITA
THE “ADVAITA IN-HOME STUDY GROUP” PACKAGE
Host an Advaita Study Group in your home with the following materials for you and three other seekers:
4 copies-From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
4 copies-Consciousness / Awareness
4 copies-From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Take turns reading passages and then discussing the pointers.
All 12 books for $120.00 ($30 each for the four participants) + free S&H in the U.S.
(ONLY ONE SET OF THESE TWELVE BOOKS REMAINS IN THE STORE)
(The "Buy Now" button allows you to pay with any credit card or with PayPal)
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson
4. DONATIONS
FROM SIM IN KENTUCKY, U.S.A.: How about a donate button? I give monthly to a blog about locations and reviews of a particular type of restaurant we like. I’d sure donate to this blog.
FROM “ANONYMOUS”: Almost every visitor brought Maharaj food or flowers. I’d like to treat you to a meal if you tell me how to do so with my credit card!
FROM LOUISE, SOUTH AFRICA: [Consider the case of an acquaintance who] added a donate button to his site. Regular blog readers were happy to support the site in this way.
F.: Okay—so it’s done, but note that the postings and responses are offered without charge, as is access to the library of 1,300 Advaitin essays archived on the site.
That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.FROM “ANONYMOUS”: Almost every visitor brought Maharaj food or flowers. I’d like to treat you to a meal if you tell me how to do so with my credit card!
FROM LOUISE, SOUTH AFRICA: [Consider the case of an acquaintance who] added a donate button to his site. Regular blog readers were happy to support the site in this way.
F.: Okay—so it’s done, but note that the postings and responses are offered without charge, as is access to the library of 1,300 Advaitin essays archived on the site.
