An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation / Realization, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, natural abidance, the nothingness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Now available on DVD or downloadable computer file:
seven hours of satsang with floyd guiding seekers through all seven steps (in their exact order) to Realization. See details at the end of this post.
seven hours of satsang with floyd guiding seekers through all seven steps (in their exact order) to Realization. See details at the end of this post.
[Please review the list posted Saturday that identifies the basic personality types]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: So do animals have personality? I think my dog definitely does.
F.: Not unlike the planet's too-proud parents, pet owners often assign qualities to the objects of their affection that are more imagined than real. Pets are, of course, domesticated and conditioned, but they have no belief-generated fears and desires and they assume no false identities. They are mindless, so they cannot develop beliefs or concepts or personas. Pets would live naturally—as do all non-domesticated animals—were it not for the influence of humans.
In the wild, various animals display a variety of predictable behavioral patterns, but those are not driven by a “mind” or beliefs. That said, certain animals can be used to provide a clearer understanding of the way that persons function when living under the auspices of personality:
First, as noted yesterday, some animals function in a survivor mode while some display a warrior mode. Some are active and some are passive, and some display behavioral patterns that correspond to persons who have been programmed and are trapped in the thought-word-deed patterns of certain personality types:
The Perfectionist is sometimes compared to the beaver since they are driven to build but, in the process, “dam things up,” just as the rigid Perfectionists do.
The Helper is compared to the supposedly loyal dog. (Some owners think their dogs' tendency to jump about when owners return home and their dogs' desire to lick / “kiss” them is a show of love. In fact, if you witness dogs in the wild, when the mother returns from the hunt, the young also jump about, anticipating that they are about to feed. They will also try to lick the mother in the mouth, but only to make her regurgitate and thereby provide them food. So much for the “love” angle of your dog greeting you and trying to “kiss” you hello.)
Type Three Performers are often compared to peacocks with their strutting; to chameleons with their "what-I-want-today-I-will-not-want-tomorrow" / ever-changing attitudes; and to snakes for their ability to charm but then strike out (viciously and verbally among Type Threes).
Type Fours are often compared to cats, being the loners among humans and often seeming aloof (or displaying the inconsistent tendency to be close sometimes and distant at other times).
Fives are compared to the owl or the fox, what with the Five’s desire to be seen as wise or shrewd and knowledgeable.
Sixes are compared to turtles (wanting protection) or to meerkats…always hypervigilant and always believing that a threat is forever pending.
Sevens are compared to monkeys or hyenas, racing about wildly through life.
Eights are compared to lions and wolverines and wild boars and bulls (as in “bullies”).
Nines are compared to the sloth.
In the case of persons who exhibit the same type behaviors as those animals, the persons are doing so in a most unnatural, subconscious and unconscious way—all because of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication.
If one is seeking an understanding of what the relative concept of “powerlessness” really involves, then see the way that personality subconsciously controls every thought and every word and every action among the non-Realized who only think that they have free will and who only think that they are making choices.
While the traits exhibited by the animals above come naturally to those species, the blind behaviors of the non-Realized come most unnaturally. To be driven by subconscious motivators—even when they result in what some believe to be “good” desires—will eventually and most assuredly always lead to misery among the non-Realized.
Want to try to change the world? Try away. Want to try to make everyone love everyone? Try away. Want to be in touch with Reality? Then see that the world is in you....in your "mind." Then see that Love already IS, period.
Thereafter, the no-concept, non-duality, no-identity Reality might be understood. Not only is the idea that all “A’s” should love all B’s” a concept—it is also duality. Not only is it a false notion that the world is "real as perceived" but also the notion that a “bad” world can be made into a “good” world is duality.
Maharaj suggested: “Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace.”
In a different exchange, he offered another pointer that is relevant to this discussion:
Q: All I want to know is how to deal with the world's sorrows.
M: You have created them out of your own desires and fears; you deal with them. All is due to your having forgotten your own being. Having given reality to the picture on the screen, you love its people and suffer for them and seek to save them. It is just not so.
If you would be free of your own sorrows and misery, then abandon all desires about changing the world and about inspiring love. Your wanting to bring impossible change can only lead to misery. Desirelessness is the key to happiness. [You may use the search tool above "Links and Resources" to find detailed discussions on desirelessness.] Desiring to change “the world,” and the people in it, is one of the keys to unhappiness.
So, there is a way to Realize and a way never to Realize. One way is to believe there is a world that needs changing and that you can play a role in bringing about change. Another is to believe that Love has something to do with duality, with a partner or with partners or with the entire earth’s population.
The other ways to Realize or not will be discussed tomorrow. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
F.: Not unlike the planet's too-proud parents, pet owners often assign qualities to the objects of their affection that are more imagined than real. Pets are, of course, domesticated and conditioned, but they have no belief-generated fears and desires and they assume no false identities. They are mindless, so they cannot develop beliefs or concepts or personas. Pets would live naturally—as do all non-domesticated animals—were it not for the influence of humans.
In the wild, various animals display a variety of predictable behavioral patterns, but those are not driven by a “mind” or beliefs. That said, certain animals can be used to provide a clearer understanding of the way that persons function when living under the auspices of personality:
First, as noted yesterday, some animals function in a survivor mode while some display a warrior mode. Some are active and some are passive, and some display behavioral patterns that correspond to persons who have been programmed and are trapped in the thought-word-deed patterns of certain personality types:
The Perfectionist is sometimes compared to the beaver since they are driven to build but, in the process, “dam things up,” just as the rigid Perfectionists do.
The Helper is compared to the supposedly loyal dog. (Some owners think their dogs' tendency to jump about when owners return home and their dogs' desire to lick / “kiss” them is a show of love. In fact, if you witness dogs in the wild, when the mother returns from the hunt, the young also jump about, anticipating that they are about to feed. They will also try to lick the mother in the mouth, but only to make her regurgitate and thereby provide them food. So much for the “love” angle of your dog greeting you and trying to “kiss” you hello.)
Type Three Performers are often compared to peacocks with their strutting; to chameleons with their "what-I-want-today-I-will-not-want-tomorrow" / ever-changing attitudes; and to snakes for their ability to charm but then strike out (viciously and verbally among Type Threes).
Type Fours are often compared to cats, being the loners among humans and often seeming aloof (or displaying the inconsistent tendency to be close sometimes and distant at other times).
Fives are compared to the owl or the fox, what with the Five’s desire to be seen as wise or shrewd and knowledgeable.
Sixes are compared to turtles (wanting protection) or to meerkats…always hypervigilant and always believing that a threat is forever pending.
Sevens are compared to monkeys or hyenas, racing about wildly through life.
Eights are compared to lions and wolverines and wild boars and bulls (as in “bullies”).
Nines are compared to the sloth.
In the case of persons who exhibit the same type behaviors as those animals, the persons are doing so in a most unnatural, subconscious and unconscious way—all because of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication.
If one is seeking an understanding of what the relative concept of “powerlessness” really involves, then see the way that personality subconsciously controls every thought and every word and every action among the non-Realized who only think that they have free will and who only think that they are making choices.
While the traits exhibited by the animals above come naturally to those species, the blind behaviors of the non-Realized come most unnaturally. To be driven by subconscious motivators—even when they result in what some believe to be “good” desires—will eventually and most assuredly always lead to misery among the non-Realized.
Want to try to change the world? Try away. Want to try to make everyone love everyone? Try away. Want to be in touch with Reality? Then see that the world is in you....in your "mind." Then see that Love already IS, period.
Thereafter, the no-concept, non-duality, no-identity Reality might be understood. Not only is the idea that all “A’s” should love all B’s” a concept—it is also duality. Not only is it a false notion that the world is "real as perceived" but also the notion that a “bad” world can be made into a “good” world is duality.
Maharaj suggested: “Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace.”
In a different exchange, he offered another pointer that is relevant to this discussion:
Q: All I want to know is how to deal with the world's sorrows.
M: You have created them out of your own desires and fears; you deal with them. All is due to your having forgotten your own being. Having given reality to the picture on the screen, you love its people and suffer for them and seek to save them. It is just not so.
If you would be free of your own sorrows and misery, then abandon all desires about changing the world and about inspiring love. Your wanting to bring impossible change can only lead to misery. Desirelessness is the key to happiness. [You may use the search tool above "Links and Resources" to find detailed discussions on desirelessness.] Desiring to change “the world,” and the people in it, is one of the keys to unhappiness.
So, there is a way to Realize and a way never to Realize. One way is to believe there is a world that needs changing and that you can play a role in bringing about change. Another is to believe that Love has something to do with duality, with a partner or with partners or with the entire earth’s population.
The other ways to Realize or not will be discussed tomorrow. Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
SIX WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
1. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk Video (DVD) Set, or the same retreat available as a downloadable file. Either will provide an entire seven-hour retreat / series of satsang sessions showing three seekers being guided through all seven steps by Floyd and can provide viewers with an “experiential,” step-by-step series of satsang meetings that will move the viewers from identification with the I to abidance as the Absolute and then to abidance as That Which Is beyond
Some seekers are already using the computer file version and the DVD sets for meetings in groups in homes, playing the retreat, pausing for discussion, etc.
To find out more or to purchase the DVD set or the downloadable computer file version of the retreat, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
Option “A” is for the downloadable file version, Option “B” is used to order the DVD set for delivery inside the U.S., Option “C” for international orders.
For the download, Paypal will send me a notice that payment has been received and then I will send by e-mail the downloading instruction, password, etc.
2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
[Those two prepare the seeker to question it all]
THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
[Begins to free the seeker of body identification and the desire for body continuity]
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
Purchase an e-Book now and begin reading it in minutes. Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
“REALIZATION SALE” - DELIVERED AT THE SPEED OF YOUR INTERNET SERVICE:
(You may order the books on the list above one at a time or you may use the following link to acquire the entire 11-e-Book set on sale for $99 if ordered at one time with the “Buy Now” button below. For this option, there will be no download links provided; once the near-instant notice of payment is received from PayPal, your e-Books will be sent to you as e-mail attachments. All are printable for your convenience.)
1. BY WATCHING the 4-Disk Video (DVD) Set, or the same retreat available as a downloadable file. Either will provide an entire seven-hour retreat / series of satsang sessions showing three seekers being guided through all seven steps by Floyd and can provide viewers with an “experiential,” step-by-step series of satsang meetings that will move the viewers from identification with the I to abidance as the Absolute and then to abidance as That Which Is beyond
Some seekers are already using the computer file version and the DVD sets for meetings in groups in homes, playing the retreat, pausing for discussion, etc.
To find out more or to purchase the DVD set or the downloadable computer file version of the retreat, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
Option “A” is for the downloadable file version, Option “B” is used to order the DVD set for delivery inside the U.S., Option “C” for international orders.
For the download, Paypal will send me a notice that payment has been received and then I will send by e-mail the downloading instruction, password, etc.
2. BY READING these books in this exact order:
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)
[Those two prepare the seeker to question it all]
THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
[Begins to free the seeker of body identification and the desire for body continuity]
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (There Is Only Peace if You're Out of Your Mind)
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of the false content of the “mind”]
LIBERATION
[Shows the seeker how to be free of the subconscious motivators of personas]
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS
[Provides the final preparation for the seeker to be directed along the “path”]
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
[Directs the seeker along the “path”]
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)
[Allows the seeker to understand the functioning of the totality, the manifestation, and what is involved with the un-manifestation]
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
[Provides the seeker the wisdom to understand the Noneness as well as the Oneness]
Purchase an e-Book now and begin reading it in minutes. Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
“REALIZATION SALE” - DELIVERED AT THE SPEED OF YOUR INTERNET SERVICE:
(You may order the books on the list above one at a time or you may use the following link to acquire the entire 11-e-Book set on sale for $99 if ordered at one time with the “Buy Now” button below. For this option, there will be no download links provided; once the near-instant notice of payment is received from PayPal, your e-Books will be sent to you as e-mail attachments. All are printable for your convenience.)
You may visit The Official Website of Floyd Henderson for information on each book.
3. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes
For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet
To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
4. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat for satsang with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally:
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session
6. BY ARRANGING for floyd to travel to your location and meet with you or your group. Use the contact link above to discuss details.
SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication
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 1,400+ Advaitin essays archived on the site.
That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.
3. BY ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes
For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet
To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course
4. BY ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat for satsang with floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.
5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally:
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session
6. BY ARRANGING for floyd to travel to your location and meet with you or your group. Use the contact link above to discuss details.
SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication
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 1,400+ Advaitin essays archived on the site.
That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.
