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: One of the best selling books in history is Normal [sic] Vincent Peales [sic] “Power of Positive Thinking.” There must be something to positive thinking.
F.: Indeed, its author is most definitely one of the “big names,” but Maharaj warned seekers to avoid "the big teachers." The book you cite is a perfect example of why:
1. If you want to appeal to the masses, appeal to their primary addiction (to control) and to their secondary addiction (to gain power in order to control). Next, appeal to their beliefs (which are rooted in duality); therefore, talk of “positive thinking” as opposed to “negative thinking” and that will tap into the attraction that the masses have for duality and dualistic thinking.
To market most effectively, combine both, as Peale did. Promise the masses that you can help them attain power, and wrap that promise in the cloak of dualistic thinking, and yes…millions will most assuredly find attractive any book that is promoted thusly.
Search the internet to find how many books have the word "power" in the title, but understand that such titles are no different from any other advertisements that are trying to sell an addictive substance that can be used to try to escape. Power and control: highly addictive and totally illusory.
2. You are also reminded that a surefire way to test a teaching or a book or a seminar in order to determine if the content is perpetuating and / or reinforcing nonsense is to see if it is attracting the masses. Since the masses are trapped in the darkness of their learned ignorance, then mass endorsement is an assurance that the teaching or book or seminar is not casting light and sharing wisdom but is propagating darkness and is circulating ignorance.
Now, to continue: Maharaj never once gave an assignment to any seeker to “use positive affirmations” or to “utilize positive mantras.” The suggestion to “stay in the I AM” carries neither a positive nor a negative connotation. It is a suggestion to shift into, and remain in, a position of neutrality.
It is “a mind that has shifted into neutral gear” that persons seek. The non-Realized are miserable because of “the mind”...because they cannot still for a second—without the use of drugs or alcohol or some other means of escape—the constantly roiling and constantly agitating and constantly thought-generating part of the brain.
Maharaj did not teach that the roiling and agitation and churning of the “mind” could be escaped via the use of “positive thinking.” Thinking, of whatever class, is the fuel that drives the roiling and agitation and churning.
Nor did he say that samadhi was the solution, pointing out instead that, post-Realization, he never again went into or out of samadhi but was fixated in the no-mind state. There, in that state of no-concept and non-dual neutrality, there is no “going forward vs. going backwards”…no "peace at times vs. chaos at times"…no “positives vs. negatives.”
Neutral. Not positive. Not negative. Neutral. Dispassionate. Non-Attached. Disinterested. To that end, Maharaj said that it is disinterestedness that leads to liberation.
Not “positive thinking”? No. Positive thinking does not lead to liberation. [“Liberation,” in fact, points to the no-identity, no personality condition.] Consider: deer have neither positive nor negative thoughts and, in fact, have no thoughts at all. Same with fish and worms and birds and every form on the planet except humans.
Interestingly, it is only humans (specifically “persons”…the non-Realized) that have cornered the market on thinking and, therefore, on misery and suffering and chaos. A bird with a brain the size of a pea is happier than most humans. Consider that: "birdbrains" are more content than most humans, but most persons will never find these simple teachings that could "elevate" their relative existence to the level of a birdbrain.
The attachment that persons have to their ever-churning “minds” and to their lie-based supernatural thinking and to their most unnatural thinking results because persons fail to understand that all that happens—be it espousing or working or playing, etc.—can happen naturally from a platform of spontaneity.
It can all take place from the position of neutrality where only witnessing happens rather than “constantly thinking about” or ceaselessly generating thoughts about all of the fears and all of the desires that are churned out by the “mind” and its belief that personalities are real and that the “needs and desires” of personalities are real.
"But when I drive, I have to think about what I'm doing or I'll have an accident," one seeker said at a retreat. "To the contrary," it was pointed out, "all of that thinking that is going on has nothing at all to do with driving. It is all of the thinking (which is always about things that have nothing to do with the driving) that contributes to accidents. Accidents are avoided when witnessing happens from a state of being awake, aware, and conscious, and it is your thinking that will always preempt awakeness, awareness, and alert consciousness."
The Realized are beyond "the mind." Understand that such a condition cannot manifest if there is a “mind” that is constantly trying to process negative thoughts into positive thoughts or is constantly trying to produce only positive thoughts.
Consider the implications in this exchange:
Questioner: How does one go beyond the mind?
Maharaj: There are many starting points -- they all lead to the same goal. You may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action; you may then give up thinking and end in giving up all desires.
Later, he would add: It is enough to stop thinking.
Did he say, “Stop thinking negative thoughts”? No. He said to stop thinking, period.
He warned, “All thinking is in duality” so “Destroy all habits of thinking.” If you seek reality, he said, “you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking….”
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
F.: Indeed, its author is most definitely one of the “big names,” but Maharaj warned seekers to avoid "the big teachers." The book you cite is a perfect example of why:
1. If you want to appeal to the masses, appeal to their primary addiction (to control) and to their secondary addiction (to gain power in order to control). Next, appeal to their beliefs (which are rooted in duality); therefore, talk of “positive thinking” as opposed to “negative thinking” and that will tap into the attraction that the masses have for duality and dualistic thinking.
To market most effectively, combine both, as Peale did. Promise the masses that you can help them attain power, and wrap that promise in the cloak of dualistic thinking, and yes…millions will most assuredly find attractive any book that is promoted thusly.
Search the internet to find how many books have the word "power" in the title, but understand that such titles are no different from any other advertisements that are trying to sell an addictive substance that can be used to try to escape. Power and control: highly addictive and totally illusory.
2. You are also reminded that a surefire way to test a teaching or a book or a seminar in order to determine if the content is perpetuating and / or reinforcing nonsense is to see if it is attracting the masses. Since the masses are trapped in the darkness of their learned ignorance, then mass endorsement is an assurance that the teaching or book or seminar is not casting light and sharing wisdom but is propagating darkness and is circulating ignorance.
Now, to continue: Maharaj never once gave an assignment to any seeker to “use positive affirmations” or to “utilize positive mantras.” The suggestion to “stay in the I AM” carries neither a positive nor a negative connotation. It is a suggestion to shift into, and remain in, a position of neutrality.
It is “a mind that has shifted into neutral gear” that persons seek. The non-Realized are miserable because of “the mind”...because they cannot still for a second—without the use of drugs or alcohol or some other means of escape—the constantly roiling and constantly agitating and constantly thought-generating part of the brain.
Maharaj did not teach that the roiling and agitation and churning of the “mind” could be escaped via the use of “positive thinking.” Thinking, of whatever class, is the fuel that drives the roiling and agitation and churning.
Nor did he say that samadhi was the solution, pointing out instead that, post-Realization, he never again went into or out of samadhi but was fixated in the no-mind state. There, in that state of no-concept and non-dual neutrality, there is no “going forward vs. going backwards”…no "peace at times vs. chaos at times"…no “positives vs. negatives.”
Neutral. Not positive. Not negative. Neutral. Dispassionate. Non-Attached. Disinterested. To that end, Maharaj said that it is disinterestedness that leads to liberation.
Not “positive thinking”? No. Positive thinking does not lead to liberation. [“Liberation,” in fact, points to the no-identity, no personality condition.] Consider: deer have neither positive nor negative thoughts and, in fact, have no thoughts at all. Same with fish and worms and birds and every form on the planet except humans.
Interestingly, it is only humans (specifically “persons”…the non-Realized) that have cornered the market on thinking and, therefore, on misery and suffering and chaos. A bird with a brain the size of a pea is happier than most humans. Consider that: "birdbrains" are more content than most humans, but most persons will never find these simple teachings that could "elevate" their relative existence to the level of a birdbrain.
The attachment that persons have to their ever-churning “minds” and to their lie-based supernatural thinking and to their most unnatural thinking results because persons fail to understand that all that happens—be it espousing or working or playing, etc.—can happen naturally from a platform of spontaneity.
It can all take place from the position of neutrality where only witnessing happens rather than “constantly thinking about” or ceaselessly generating thoughts about all of the fears and all of the desires that are churned out by the “mind” and its belief that personalities are real and that the “needs and desires” of personalities are real.
"But when I drive, I have to think about what I'm doing or I'll have an accident," one seeker said at a retreat. "To the contrary," it was pointed out, "all of that thinking that is going on has nothing at all to do with driving. It is all of the thinking (which is always about things that have nothing to do with the driving) that contributes to accidents. Accidents are avoided when witnessing happens from a state of being awake, aware, and conscious, and it is your thinking that will always preempt awakeness, awareness, and alert consciousness."
The Realized are beyond "the mind." Understand that such a condition cannot manifest if there is a “mind” that is constantly trying to process negative thoughts into positive thoughts or is constantly trying to produce only positive thoughts.
Consider the implications in this exchange:
Questioner: How does one go beyond the mind?
Maharaj: There are many starting points -- they all lead to the same goal. You may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action; you may then give up thinking and end in giving up all desires.
Later, he would add: It is enough to stop thinking.
Did he say, “Stop thinking negative thoughts”? No. He said to stop thinking, period.
He warned, “All thinking is in duality” so “Destroy all habits of thinking.” If you seek reality, he said, “you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking….”
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
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.)
** 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
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.)
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.
