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.
Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period.
F.: [Continued from yesterday]
FALSE IMAGES
What a curious planet it has become when almost all of its 6.7 billion human inhabitants find it “news” when a phony image is revealed to be (a) phony and (b) an image.
Persons are programmed and conditioned to be artificial, to hide a “private image,” and to cultivate a “public image,” and now they do that in their sleep. Unable to realize that the image they are showing in public is false, they are shocked when the public images shown by others are revealed to be false.
Certainly it is one matter for persons to go to the cinema and watch a movie and become so embroiled in the action that they begin to believe that the images of the characters being projected onto the screen are real…that the role-players on the screen are actually in the same dark room as the members of the audience.
Yet at the end of the movie, when the lights come on, those persons are “brought back to reality,” know instantly that what for a brief time they took to be real was all a play, and then they see that it was just so much drama, just so much fiction.
Is it not an entirely different matter, though, when "the lights do not come on"; when persons watch characters cultivate an image but never realize that it is just an image; when persons cannot see that all of their perceptions were false though they were all taken to be real; and when persons do not see that everything they thought to be true was mere fiction?
Is it not also an entirely different matter when one phony image is seen to be a phony image but when persons cannot see that such is not an isolated, newsworthy event but is the near-universally-held delusion that presently constitutes what amounts to “The Dream of the Planet” that is being played out in “The Theater of the Lie” that persons call “this world”?
Consider the implications of the use on this site of the phrase “The Theater of the Lie” to refer to what persons take to be “this world”; then, relate that to the following exchange and other quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Maharaj: "I see only consciousness, and know everything to be but consciousness, as you know the picture on the cinema screen to be but light."
Questioner: "Still, the movements of light have a cause."
Maharaj: "The light does not move at all. You know very well that the movement is illusory, a sequence of interceptions and colourings in the film. What moves is the film, which is the mind."
Maharaj: “I am like a cinema screen—clear and empty. The pictures pass over it and disappear, leaving it as clear and empty as before. In no way is the screen affected by the pictures, nor are the pictures affected by the screen. The screen intercepts and reflects the pictures…it does not shape them. It has nothing to do with the rolls of films.”
Maharaj: “…There is a sense of identity, but it is the identity of a memory track, like the identity of a sequence of pictures on the ever-present screen. Without the light and the screen there can be no picture. To know the picture as the play of light on the screen gives freedom from the idea that the picture is real.”
Maharaj: “You are like the man in the cinema house, laughing and crying with the picture, though knowing fully well that he is all the time in his seat and the picture is but the play of light. It is enough to shift attention from the screen to oneSelf to break the spell. When the body dies, the kind of life you live now, [which is nothing more than] a succession of physical and mental events, comes to an end. It can end even now—without waiting for the death of the body; it is enough to shift attention to the Self and keep it there. All happens as if there is a mysterious power that creates and moves everything. Realise that You are not the mover, only the observer, and You will be at peace."
Not only will You be at peace, but also You will no longer be fooled. How foolish is it to buy into a false image being projected on the screen of a television? How foolish is it when members of some cultures buy a “special shirt” because it is being worn by a person being paid $20,000,000 per year to wear it?
And how foolish is it to pay a persons millions because that person has fabricated a false persona and because that person displays that false image consistently in public while wearing that "special shirt"? Indeed, it is as the Realized poet noted: "What fools these mortals be!"
The answer to "how foolish"? As foolish as being phony without knowing one is phony; as foolish as not knowing that the false images being displayed by persons are false; as foolish as it is to believe that anything observable in the relative is exactly what it appears to be; as foolish as it is to take much ado about nothing as really being something; as foolish as it is to have not even the slightest clue about the true answer to the question, “Who am I?”
And as foolish as is it to ignore a pointer offered by Krishna and sages for centuries, namely, that the Realized know that what is real is that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness; all others are fools.
In that regard, how foolish is it to ignore that pointer regarding “non-beingness” and to assume that there will be “Some Being” or “Some Supreme Being” post-manifestation? Witness purely now and see that nothing in the relative is as it appears, and then You might come to know what You have always known (but have forgotten) about what shall happen after this relative manifestation.
To remember what will happen "then" is to be free to enjoy all that happens NOW as a result of seeing all which is happening now as it truly is, not as it falsely appears to be. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
FALSE IMAGES
What a curious planet it has become when almost all of its 6.7 billion human inhabitants find it “news” when a phony image is revealed to be (a) phony and (b) an image.
Persons are programmed and conditioned to be artificial, to hide a “private image,” and to cultivate a “public image,” and now they do that in their sleep. Unable to realize that the image they are showing in public is false, they are shocked when the public images shown by others are revealed to be false.
Certainly it is one matter for persons to go to the cinema and watch a movie and become so embroiled in the action that they begin to believe that the images of the characters being projected onto the screen are real…that the role-players on the screen are actually in the same dark room as the members of the audience.
Yet at the end of the movie, when the lights come on, those persons are “brought back to reality,” know instantly that what for a brief time they took to be real was all a play, and then they see that it was just so much drama, just so much fiction.
Is it not an entirely different matter, though, when "the lights do not come on"; when persons watch characters cultivate an image but never realize that it is just an image; when persons cannot see that all of their perceptions were false though they were all taken to be real; and when persons do not see that everything they thought to be true was mere fiction?
Is it not also an entirely different matter when one phony image is seen to be a phony image but when persons cannot see that such is not an isolated, newsworthy event but is the near-universally-held delusion that presently constitutes what amounts to “The Dream of the Planet” that is being played out in “The Theater of the Lie” that persons call “this world”?
Consider the implications of the use on this site of the phrase “The Theater of the Lie” to refer to what persons take to be “this world”; then, relate that to the following exchange and other quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Maharaj: "I see only consciousness, and know everything to be but consciousness, as you know the picture on the cinema screen to be but light."
Questioner: "Still, the movements of light have a cause."
Maharaj: "The light does not move at all. You know very well that the movement is illusory, a sequence of interceptions and colourings in the film. What moves is the film, which is the mind."
Maharaj: “I am like a cinema screen—clear and empty. The pictures pass over it and disappear, leaving it as clear and empty as before. In no way is the screen affected by the pictures, nor are the pictures affected by the screen. The screen intercepts and reflects the pictures…it does not shape them. It has nothing to do with the rolls of films.”
Maharaj: “…There is a sense of identity, but it is the identity of a memory track, like the identity of a sequence of pictures on the ever-present screen. Without the light and the screen there can be no picture. To know the picture as the play of light on the screen gives freedom from the idea that the picture is real.”
Maharaj: “You are like the man in the cinema house, laughing and crying with the picture, though knowing fully well that he is all the time in his seat and the picture is but the play of light. It is enough to shift attention from the screen to oneSelf to break the spell. When the body dies, the kind of life you live now, [which is nothing more than] a succession of physical and mental events, comes to an end. It can end even now—without waiting for the death of the body; it is enough to shift attention to the Self and keep it there. All happens as if there is a mysterious power that creates and moves everything. Realise that You are not the mover, only the observer, and You will be at peace."
Not only will You be at peace, but also You will no longer be fooled. How foolish is it to buy into a false image being projected on the screen of a television? How foolish is it when members of some cultures buy a “special shirt” because it is being worn by a person being paid $20,000,000 per year to wear it?
And how foolish is it to pay a persons millions because that person has fabricated a false persona and because that person displays that false image consistently in public while wearing that "special shirt"? Indeed, it is as the Realized poet noted: "What fools these mortals be!"
The answer to "how foolish"? As foolish as being phony without knowing one is phony; as foolish as not knowing that the false images being displayed by persons are false; as foolish as it is to believe that anything observable in the relative is exactly what it appears to be; as foolish as it is to take much ado about nothing as really being something; as foolish as it is to have not even the slightest clue about the true answer to the question, “Who am I?”
And as foolish as is it to ignore a pointer offered by Krishna and sages for centuries, namely, that the Realized know that what is real is that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness; all others are fools.
In that regard, how foolish is it to ignore that pointer regarding “non-beingness” and to assume that there will be “Some Being” or “Some Supreme Being” post-manifestation? Witness purely now and see that nothing in the relative is as it appears, and then You might come to know what You have always known (but have forgotten) about what shall happen after this relative manifestation.
To remember what will happen "then" is to be free to enjoy all that happens NOW as a result of seeing all which is happening now as it truly is, not as it falsely appears to be. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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
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.)
For more information or to order, click:
DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
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.
