An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Noneness, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Now you can receive for $40 a downloadable computer file version of the same 7-hour satsang that seekers receive when they visit for the Advaita Retreat with Floyd. You will be guided through the seven steps from identification with the false "I" to the Absolute (and beyond).
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Enjoyed the last series on the illusion of “free will” when living under the influence of personality.
F.: So, some reading the title of this new series might conclude, “Of course negative thoughts should end, but surely he’s not going to suggest that there’s a problem with positive thoughts.”
Any Realized Teacher would report that (1) all thoughts—even the ones classified as “positive”—are products of the fiction-filled “mind” and are therefore bogus and useless; and (2) positive/negative is duality and therefore bogus and useless as well.
Moreover, the astute will see that "the search for positive thinking" can be shown to produce relative effects that are undesirable. First, though, let it be noted that there are Advaitin pointers regarding “thinking” and “the mind”—especially as presented by those who offer the nirarga yoga—that are far more basic but that generate considerable confusion among some who are trying to understand the Advaita teachings.
Consider that most of the persons on the planet would believe it insane to suggest that functioning can happen without the slightest encumbrance of either “thinking” or a “mind” and can still happen in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner among any “life-form.”
For humans, the filtering or purification process referenced yesterday must happen first in order for that mode of functioning to manifest consistently; for all other forms, it is already happening:
Last month, from the back porch here, cardinals were nearing the end of their breeding season but the males were still “taking the females out to dinner,” so to speak, feeding them seeds in the mouth-to-mouth way that those males use when courting...all in one last effort to mate before winter.
All of the birds involved were obviously enjoying themselves, and all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
From that same vantage point, squirrels were seen to be frolicking about, the males seemingly a bit more excited about certain prospects than the females that will not be seriously ready for male attention until next spring. But the same kinds of games that children enjoy—including “Chase” and “Hide-and-Seek”—were being played by all; moreover, all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
Sitting on a bench in a nearby park last Thursday, it was observed that a male buck and an interested doe were enjoying the company of each other and that all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
And that is also the way that the relative existence unfolded among humans for millions of years before the brain evolved from a one-cupful size to its more recent 3.5 cupfuls size—recent in terms of the totality of human existence on this planet.
Prior to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain and the development of parts that can store and retrieve information, the entire history of human and human-like forms happened without any mind at all. All of their actions happened as witnessed recently with the birds and squirrels and deer, namely, in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be a mindless process.
And that manner of spontaneous and pleasant beingness can also happened again, right now, for You, if you complete the “journey” that amounts to nothing more than a filtering and purification process that eliminates all belief in the content of the mind, allowing that storehouse of fiction to dissolve.
Some claim, “I know damn well that you have a mind and that you think.” The response: “Do you really? So that is what you know, is it? And how much credibility should be given to any claim about what one knows when the one making that claim does not even know Who / What he/she truly Is?”
As suggested recently, make no prejudicial charge that I speak Swahili simply because you are unable to understand pointers to Truth that are offered in English.
It is common practice among the non-Realized to form rock-solid, but completely mulish, opinions about experiences which they have never had. To understand better what is required for Full Realization, review what Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has to say about the “mind.”
Speaking to seekers at the “wet charcoal stage,” he provided level-appropriate pointers about the use of "the mind" until "the mind" eventually dissolves, but his end teachings about the “mind” were these:
1. “There is no such thing as a mind”
and
2.“I have no mind….”
The irony among those seekers who remain fixed in the mulish mode is this: they want so much to be free of the mind and its constant churning; they work so hard at trying to pass even a few moments in a samadhi state;
and other anxiety-ridden persons declare it a great accomplishment if they were able to sit still in the quiet for fifteen minutes in the morning without feeling as if they were about to completely come out of their skin.
The irony is that those who claim that they want to reach the no-concept, no-duality, no-belief, no-mind state are often the ones who fight the hardest and protest the loudest about the teachings that declare they really can reach that no-mind state.
The irony is that, because they have not experienced it, then non-Realized persons will assert that it must be false that one can fixate in the samadhi state and be free of all the constant going-into-and-coming-out-of fluctuations that allow for only fleeting moments of what they would enjoy permanently.
The irony is that so many search for “peace of mind” but never go to the next step and realize that there is no such thing as peace of mind—that there is only peace if you are out of your mind.
Out of your mind, there is no question of "working to have positive thoughts in place of negative thoughts." There is no question of any do-er or of doing anything or of any doingness at all. There is but the peace and joy of the no-mind beingness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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.
[It is recommended that you watch the video with pen and paper in hand. Write whatever you need clarified. You'll see that there are constant reviews and you might find an answer later in the seven-hour presentation. Then, after you watch it all, there will be a common ground for discussion. Purchase of the DVD’s or the file will include the right to clarifications and answers to your specific questions via e-mail.]
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 (except with e-checks that can take 7-10 days). Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
SAVE IF YOU BUY ALL ELEVEN AT ONCE:
(You may order the books 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.)
Any Realized Teacher would report that (1) all thoughts—even the ones classified as “positive”—are products of the fiction-filled “mind” and are therefore bogus and useless; and (2) positive/negative is duality and therefore bogus and useless as well.
Moreover, the astute will see that "the search for positive thinking" can be shown to produce relative effects that are undesirable. First, though, let it be noted that there are Advaitin pointers regarding “thinking” and “the mind”—especially as presented by those who offer the nirarga yoga—that are far more basic but that generate considerable confusion among some who are trying to understand the Advaita teachings.
Consider that most of the persons on the planet would believe it insane to suggest that functioning can happen without the slightest encumbrance of either “thinking” or a “mind” and can still happen in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner among any “life-form.”
For humans, the filtering or purification process referenced yesterday must happen first in order for that mode of functioning to manifest consistently; for all other forms, it is already happening:
Last month, from the back porch here, cardinals were nearing the end of their breeding season but the males were still “taking the females out to dinner,” so to speak, feeding them seeds in the mouth-to-mouth way that those males use when courting...all in one last effort to mate before winter.
All of the birds involved were obviously enjoying themselves, and all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
From that same vantage point, squirrels were seen to be frolicking about, the males seemingly a bit more excited about certain prospects than the females that will not be seriously ready for male attention until next spring. But the same kinds of games that children enjoy—including “Chase” and “Hide-and-Seek”—were being played by all; moreover, all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
Sitting on a bench in a nearby park last Thursday, it was observed that a male buck and an interested doe were enjoying the company of each other and that all of their actions were happening in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be unfolding in a totally mindless way.
And that is also the way that the relative existence unfolded among humans for millions of years before the brain evolved from a one-cupful size to its more recent 3.5 cupfuls size—recent in terms of the totality of human existence on this planet.
Prior to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain and the development of parts that can store and retrieve information, the entire history of human and human-like forms happened without any mind at all. All of their actions happened as witnessed recently with the birds and squirrels and deer, namely, in a spontaneous and pleasant enough and efficient enough manner that also happened to be a mindless process.
And that manner of spontaneous and pleasant beingness can also happened again, right now, for You, if you complete the “journey” that amounts to nothing more than a filtering and purification process that eliminates all belief in the content of the mind, allowing that storehouse of fiction to dissolve.
Some claim, “I know damn well that you have a mind and that you think.” The response: “Do you really? So that is what you know, is it? And how much credibility should be given to any claim about what one knows when the one making that claim does not even know Who / What he/she truly Is?”
As suggested recently, make no prejudicial charge that I speak Swahili simply because you are unable to understand pointers to Truth that are offered in English.
It is common practice among the non-Realized to form rock-solid, but completely mulish, opinions about experiences which they have never had. To understand better what is required for Full Realization, review what Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has to say about the “mind.”
Speaking to seekers at the “wet charcoal stage,” he provided level-appropriate pointers about the use of "the mind" until "the mind" eventually dissolves, but his end teachings about the “mind” were these:
1. “There is no such thing as a mind”
and
2.“I have no mind….”
The irony among those seekers who remain fixed in the mulish mode is this: they want so much to be free of the mind and its constant churning; they work so hard at trying to pass even a few moments in a samadhi state;
and other anxiety-ridden persons declare it a great accomplishment if they were able to sit still in the quiet for fifteen minutes in the morning without feeling as if they were about to completely come out of their skin.
The irony is that those who claim that they want to reach the no-concept, no-duality, no-belief, no-mind state are often the ones who fight the hardest and protest the loudest about the teachings that declare they really can reach that no-mind state.
The irony is that, because they have not experienced it, then non-Realized persons will assert that it must be false that one can fixate in the samadhi state and be free of all the constant going-into-and-coming-out-of fluctuations that allow for only fleeting moments of what they would enjoy permanently.
The irony is that so many search for “peace of mind” but never go to the next step and realize that there is no such thing as peace of mind—that there is only peace if you are out of your mind.
Out of your mind, there is no question of "working to have positive thoughts in place of negative thoughts." There is no question of any do-er or of doing anything or of any doingness at all. There is but the peace and joy of the no-mind beingness. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
Upcoming Series:
** SITE CO-HOST LOUISE STERLING WILL BE POSTING FROM NOVEMBER 17-20. FOR THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN TO PRAISE THE RELEVANCE OF WHAT THAT SPECK OF CONSCIOUSNESS SHARES AND TO ASK WHEN SHE’LL POST NEXT, THOSE ARE THE DATES.
** THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION THAT CAN FREE YOU TO LIVE IN THE NISARGA WAY WITHOUT FLUCTUATION
** SITE CO-HOST LOUISE STERLING WILL BE POSTING FROM NOVEMBER 17-20. FOR THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN TO PRAISE THE RELEVANCE OF WHAT THAT SPECK OF CONSCIOUSNESS SHARES AND TO ASK WHEN SHE’LL POST NEXT, THOSE ARE THE DATES.
** THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION THAT CAN FREE YOU TO LIVE IN THE NISARGA WAY WITHOUT FLUCTUATION
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.
[It is recommended that you watch the video with pen and paper in hand. Write whatever you need clarified. You'll see that there are constant reviews and you might find an answer later in the seven-hour presentation. Then, after you watch it all, there will be a common ground for discussion. Purchase of the DVD’s or the file will include the right to clarifications and answers to your specific questions via e-mail.]
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 (except with e-checks that can take 7-10 days). Trusting our clients as we do, all e-Books are provided to you in printable form.
SAVE IF YOU BUY ALL ELEVEN AT ONCE:
(You may order the books 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.
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.
