An Advaita forum focusing on Realisation, enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, abiding naturally, the Oneness, the Nothingness, 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.: When intelligence agencies or law enforcements officers who are willing to operate outside the box try to “break down” resistant prisoners, they often expose them to (that is, torture them with) loud noises and sounds; yet how many persons realize that noise and sound are the bars that keep them imprisoned?
In the prison of personality, the illusion of personas cannot exist without the use of words and noise to generate a role and to try to maintain a role and to try to convince others to believe that a role is real. (Of course roles never manifest singularly—they always come by the dozen or in scores.)
If you are not free of your love for talking, then you are a prisoner; if you cannot tolerate the silence because of the racket between your ears, you are a prisoner; and if you have not been freed of your culture’s penchant for words, words, and more words, then you are a prisoner.
The results from various research studies found that the average person among those in so-called “developed nations” speaks between 16,000 and 30,000 words per day.
[Obviously, some persons speak more than others, the difference usually being determined by personality type. For example, Personality Type Two’s and Three’s are especially driven to talk, the former to try to inspire people to love them and the latter to inspire people to admire and applaud them. Eights must speak frequently since their every waking moment is dedicated to trying to control people and places and things.]
The words spoken in a day eventually add up to between 5,840,000 and 10,950,000 words spoken per year or between 467,200,000 and 876,000,000 words spoken during the average lifespan of persons living in so-called “developed countries.”
By contrast, consider Monday’s post which contained only 595 words. The remainder of the day here on Monday passed in silence. That said, can you see any circumstance which would require that over fifty times more words than that would really be necessitated in a day?
Could you read 50 posts a day on this site? Maybe, but would you? No. Could you read 50 posts a day out loud to 50 other people, one at a time? Maybe, but would you? No. So WHO (what persona) is driven to talk on a daily basis so much that their talk would be equal to reading Monday’s post out loud 50 times to 50 people, one at a time?
Even if business / busy-ness had been engaged in throughout the day, a fraction of the 16,000 to 30,000 words used daily by most persons could have sufficed. Even during business / busy-ness, could you talk less while also modifying your communication style to inspire less talk from others?
WHO would not enjoy less talk? WHO would not enjoying hearing less talk? The answer: only some ego-state with a desire to be heard and only some ego-state that is willing to listen to talk in order to have the right to talk more.
Years ago, a young woman said that she and her new boyfriend talk at school and then, once at home, they talk on the telephone in the afternoon and often talk, off and on, until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. Why? Because they are working on creating and developing and sharing an image;
because they are assuming and fostering new roles; because they are driven to provide a clear understanding of “who they are” (though they haven’t the slightest clue); because they want to explain what “their dreams” are;
because they feel compelled to share what they believe and expect and desire and, if speaking after a recent “breakup,” what they fear in the future, what they want to avoid, and what they “will not tolerate anymore, by damn.”
If they marry, research shows that within a year (or in some cases within a matter of months), they will converse one-on-one for an average of fifteen minutes, maximum, per day. The agendas of those earlier, talkative ego-states that they were “creating” and “maintaining” will disappear.
As new ego-states appear, then resentments can manifest around “the failure to communicate”; it is only when ego-states completely disappear that the silence becomes not only “okay” but also absolutely delightful.
Is it understood why talking “the good talk” all night or arguing and debating via the use of “bad talk” or just filling the “dead space” with vacuous talk is a characteristic of the ego?
Realization does not inspire the Realized to seek consciously for the quiet; Realization at first stuns the Realized into silence, and after that, the quiet comes naturally without being sought, just as naturally as the case with the deer that move about the neighborhood in silence here at night. They have nothing to prove, they are just being, so disturbing the peace is not even an option.
That is, however, the typical case with persons. They disturb the peace with an excessive use of spoken words and in the process generate or reinforce deception. And be not deceived: talk and noise are the tools of deception. (Again, a "Realized teacher" does not talk. The consciousness speaks.)
As for word-induced deception, how successful have the non-Realized been throughout history at identifying instantly all nonsense as nonsense, all lies as lies, certain history as fiction, and certain beliefs as myths and superstition?
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” prisoners who are chained in the darkness of a cave (and whose heads have been immobilized so that they cannot see anything other than what is in front of them) are looking at the shadows of puppets and other objects that are being cast onto the wall by use of the light of a fire that is burning in the cave.
The prisoners can hear certain puppeteers moving around behind them, but with nothing more than that slim evidence, they must try to differentiate between the puppets and the puppeteers…between shadows and the real…between perception and reality…between form and substance…between reflections and subjects. They fail miserably at differentiating the false from the real, as do the masses who are walking about the planet today.
Only when a prisoner is released and taken outside the cave in full sunlight can the puppets and objects be seen for what they are. Then, the ignorance of not being able to distinguish the false from the real is removed in the light, but what if the one who has entered the light, and who came to see the real, were to return to the cave and were to try to share what she / he now understands?
Such a one will be mocked by all of the others in the cave who are still convinced that shadows are real…that perception is reality…that form and substance are one…that reflections and subjects are one.
In the cave, there were echoes and shadows, shadows and echoes. What persons take to be “their world” is just like the dark cave—and what they think they are perceiving is merely shadow and what they are hearing (via words and mind-speak) are merely echoes.
An echo is the repetition of a reflected sound, or it is a reply that repeats or imitates what has just been said (as in the case of “followers echoing their leaders”); so an echo is merely an imitation—not real—and that is the status of all words: mere reflections and expressions and repetitions and imitated thoughts and duplicated ideas and emulated concepts of others.
Here, the question is, “What do YOU know?” Hang your big name teachers, your internationally-known authors, your spiritual advisor, your religious leader, your favorite guru, Maharaj, Floyd, …hang them all.
(To that list, Maharaj added, "Hang Krishna, hang Christ, etc." His question was, and the question here is: “What do You know? What can You report that You understand because of taking pointers into the silence and then tapping into the inner resource?”)
Site visitor Sim has noted the relevance to the Advaita teachings of a line from a song that says, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Are you still not completely independent and free because you are holding onto something (or many things) that would best be “lost”? Is there an aversion to the silence that could be “lost”? Is there an attachment to noise and words that could be “lost”?
If you have not lost your love to talk and to share concepts and to promote ideas, you are not free; if you have not lost your desire to imitate “the not real,” you are not free; if you have not lost the tendency to take the shadows for the real, then That Which You Are is still free, but the false “you” will not know independence and You will not know the bliss of total freedom.
All that has not yet been lost makes you as much a prisoner as those persons in Plato’s cave; as imprisoned as those being tortured by interrogators using high-volume noise and excessive sound levels; and as much a prisoner as those who walk into their regular meetings or into their worship services in their arms-stretched-out-before-them, night-of-the-living-dead manner.
Here, the invitation is to be free...totally free: free of a love of noise, free of belief in shadows, free of misperceptions, free of the excessive use of words, free of taking reflections as real, free of imitation, free of echoing, free of belief in word-supported delusions, and free of abiding in the darkness as if in a cave.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
In the prison of personality, the illusion of personas cannot exist without the use of words and noise to generate a role and to try to maintain a role and to try to convince others to believe that a role is real. (Of course roles never manifest singularly—they always come by the dozen or in scores.)
If you are not free of your love for talking, then you are a prisoner; if you cannot tolerate the silence because of the racket between your ears, you are a prisoner; and if you have not been freed of your culture’s penchant for words, words, and more words, then you are a prisoner.
The results from various research studies found that the average person among those in so-called “developed nations” speaks between 16,000 and 30,000 words per day.
[Obviously, some persons speak more than others, the difference usually being determined by personality type. For example, Personality Type Two’s and Three’s are especially driven to talk, the former to try to inspire people to love them and the latter to inspire people to admire and applaud them. Eights must speak frequently since their every waking moment is dedicated to trying to control people and places and things.]
The words spoken in a day eventually add up to between 5,840,000 and 10,950,000 words spoken per year or between 467,200,000 and 876,000,000 words spoken during the average lifespan of persons living in so-called “developed countries.”
By contrast, consider Monday’s post which contained only 595 words. The remainder of the day here on Monday passed in silence. That said, can you see any circumstance which would require that over fifty times more words than that would really be necessitated in a day?
Could you read 50 posts a day on this site? Maybe, but would you? No. Could you read 50 posts a day out loud to 50 other people, one at a time? Maybe, but would you? No. So WHO (what persona) is driven to talk on a daily basis so much that their talk would be equal to reading Monday’s post out loud 50 times to 50 people, one at a time?
Even if business / busy-ness had been engaged in throughout the day, a fraction of the 16,000 to 30,000 words used daily by most persons could have sufficed. Even during business / busy-ness, could you talk less while also modifying your communication style to inspire less talk from others?
WHO would not enjoy less talk? WHO would not enjoying hearing less talk? The answer: only some ego-state with a desire to be heard and only some ego-state that is willing to listen to talk in order to have the right to talk more.
Years ago, a young woman said that she and her new boyfriend talk at school and then, once at home, they talk on the telephone in the afternoon and often talk, off and on, until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. Why? Because they are working on creating and developing and sharing an image;
because they are assuming and fostering new roles; because they are driven to provide a clear understanding of “who they are” (though they haven’t the slightest clue); because they want to explain what “their dreams” are;
because they feel compelled to share what they believe and expect and desire and, if speaking after a recent “breakup,” what they fear in the future, what they want to avoid, and what they “will not tolerate anymore, by damn.”
If they marry, research shows that within a year (or in some cases within a matter of months), they will converse one-on-one for an average of fifteen minutes, maximum, per day. The agendas of those earlier, talkative ego-states that they were “creating” and “maintaining” will disappear.
As new ego-states appear, then resentments can manifest around “the failure to communicate”; it is only when ego-states completely disappear that the silence becomes not only “okay” but also absolutely delightful.
Is it understood why talking “the good talk” all night or arguing and debating via the use of “bad talk” or just filling the “dead space” with vacuous talk is a characteristic of the ego?
Realization does not inspire the Realized to seek consciously for the quiet; Realization at first stuns the Realized into silence, and after that, the quiet comes naturally without being sought, just as naturally as the case with the deer that move about the neighborhood in silence here at night. They have nothing to prove, they are just being, so disturbing the peace is not even an option.
That is, however, the typical case with persons. They disturb the peace with an excessive use of spoken words and in the process generate or reinforce deception. And be not deceived: talk and noise are the tools of deception. (Again, a "Realized teacher" does not talk. The consciousness speaks.)
As for word-induced deception, how successful have the non-Realized been throughout history at identifying instantly all nonsense as nonsense, all lies as lies, certain history as fiction, and certain beliefs as myths and superstition?
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” prisoners who are chained in the darkness of a cave (and whose heads have been immobilized so that they cannot see anything other than what is in front of them) are looking at the shadows of puppets and other objects that are being cast onto the wall by use of the light of a fire that is burning in the cave.
The prisoners can hear certain puppeteers moving around behind them, but with nothing more than that slim evidence, they must try to differentiate between the puppets and the puppeteers…between shadows and the real…between perception and reality…between form and substance…between reflections and subjects. They fail miserably at differentiating the false from the real, as do the masses who are walking about the planet today.
Only when a prisoner is released and taken outside the cave in full sunlight can the puppets and objects be seen for what they are. Then, the ignorance of not being able to distinguish the false from the real is removed in the light, but what if the one who has entered the light, and who came to see the real, were to return to the cave and were to try to share what she / he now understands?
Such a one will be mocked by all of the others in the cave who are still convinced that shadows are real…that perception is reality…that form and substance are one…that reflections and subjects are one.
In the cave, there were echoes and shadows, shadows and echoes. What persons take to be “their world” is just like the dark cave—and what they think they are perceiving is merely shadow and what they are hearing (via words and mind-speak) are merely echoes.
An echo is the repetition of a reflected sound, or it is a reply that repeats or imitates what has just been said (as in the case of “followers echoing their leaders”); so an echo is merely an imitation—not real—and that is the status of all words: mere reflections and expressions and repetitions and imitated thoughts and duplicated ideas and emulated concepts of others.
Here, the question is, “What do YOU know?” Hang your big name teachers, your internationally-known authors, your spiritual advisor, your religious leader, your favorite guru, Maharaj, Floyd, …hang them all.
(To that list, Maharaj added, "Hang Krishna, hang Christ, etc." His question was, and the question here is: “What do You know? What can You report that You understand because of taking pointers into the silence and then tapping into the inner resource?”)
Site visitor Sim has noted the relevance to the Advaita teachings of a line from a song that says, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Are you still not completely independent and free because you are holding onto something (or many things) that would best be “lost”? Is there an aversion to the silence that could be “lost”? Is there an attachment to noise and words that could be “lost”?
If you have not lost your love to talk and to share concepts and to promote ideas, you are not free; if you have not lost your desire to imitate “the not real,” you are not free; if you have not lost the tendency to take the shadows for the real, then That Which You Are is still free, but the false “you” will not know independence and You will not know the bliss of total freedom.
All that has not yet been lost makes you as much a prisoner as those persons in Plato’s cave; as imprisoned as those being tortured by interrogators using high-volume noise and excessive sound levels; and as much a prisoner as those who walk into their regular meetings or into their worship services in their arms-stretched-out-before-them, night-of-the-living-dead manner.
Here, the invitation is to be free...totally free: free of a love of noise, free of belief in shadows, free of misperceptions, free of the excessive use of words, free of taking reflections as real, free of imitation, free of echoing, free of belief in word-supported delusions, and free of abiding in the darkness as if in a cave.
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.
