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.
[Continued from yesterday]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: f, As If living is the norm now, but occasionally something will be seen that will bring about feelings of outrage. Must be the last stubborn "justice" or "fairness" persona? Mind still exists?
F.: Today, some pointers on witnessing that have been shared previously are worth re-consideration for those seeking the full understanding of the topic:
Among persons, only a child—existing in a pre-programmed pre-conditioned state—will witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality. For adults to be able to witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality requires a shift “back” to the state of child ignorance by casting aside all of the nonsense which has been learned as well as all of the emotionally-intoxicating thoughts and words and deeds which are generated by conditioning and programming and acculturation.
No non-Realized person can be as peaceful as a healthy child if its physical needs have been met and if it is free of contaminants. As long as health and food and shelter requirements have been met, perfect peace happens. Contentment for adults can only happen in that pre-mind state of existence which is "childlike," (i.e., void of differentiation and opinions and culturally-induced complications).
[NOTE: The "numbness" referred to does not suggest that nothing will be felt by the Realized. It points to the fact that no emotional intoxication will be the driving force of an individual, all individuality having disappeared when everything thought to be "personal" disappeared.]
Realized, contentment happens as a result of "returning to" that no-mind state. [So, to the visitor's question: "Mind still exist?" The answer: Yes.] Contentment happens as a result of removing the layers of concepts that obscure consciousness so that it is as available as it was during the brief period of childhood that happened prior to the obscuring of the consciousness.
Why should one who currently takes himself to be "an adult" settle for less contentment than that experienced by a child? Usually because persona-driven witnessing, rather than pure witnessing, is happening.
Subject-object witnessing, or objective witnessing, still involves duality (at least as far as the not-totally-unobstructed consciousness "sees" it). I, the consciousness which was once obstructed but no longer is, can be aware of the fact that I am not that which you think you are seeing when you look at me and that I am not that which the culture would label me;
yet from your S-O manner of viewing, that still involves one "seeing" something else, false or not, such as: "I see the mirage and I know it is not real" or "I cannot live with myself/this self anymore." Those observations still involve perceived dualities. Not until the next step of Pure Witnessing does the judgmental form of subject-object witnessing end and the witnessing of the unicity finally happen.
At that point, when the consciousness is totally unobstructed, all that was thought to be either "subject" or "object" is witnessed to be One, to have always been One, and to forever be One. In other words, to shift from this stage to the next, it must be seen that (as the understanding of non-duality becomes clearer) the talk of "subject" and "object" at this level will have to give way to "subject only," that is, to knowing "that everlasting, timeless, imperishable Subject."
There are seven steps on the “journey” to Realization. The witnessing stages are two of the final “degrees of separation from Reality” that must be transitioned, and both the witness and the Pure Witness must be “experienced”;
however, it is a necessity to transition each of “the seven degrees of separation” for Full Realization to happen. Most on any "path" stop at the third stage (the "religious persona stage" or the "spiritual persona stage") and never complete the journey to the full understanding.
If all of the seven steps are completed, then the True Self can come to know the "everything"...the Oneness of it all...the Truth. The actual unicity beyond the imagined multiplicity is understood. (Only later can the Nothingness also be understood.)
So it is the Pure Witness—the True Self—that can know the Oneness, an understanding that comes with the awareness that a tiny "building-block" of energy-consciousness is all there is and with the awareness that all supposed differences are merely appearances that result from various specks of energy that are vibrating at varied frequencies.
Furthermore, it is from the platform of Pure Witnessing that the beingness and the non-beingness can be understood and that the "state" of Absolute rest and peace can be seen. Then, the remainder of the relative existence can be passed in the "I Am-ness," in the "Is-ness," in the Pure Witness "mode," in the AS IF style, abiding as the Absolute first and then the Nothingness.
Yes, S-O witnessing can continue throughout the relative, but no "outrage" will be felt because no ego-state-driven emotional intoxication can happen. Either form of witnessing will happen without the slightest deception that anything in the relative is as it physically appears to be.
Everything, post-Realization, will be known to be the same. (At least that will be the case at the "highest" level of understanding; the type of witnessing which continues throughout the remainder of the relative existence will not block an awareness of the fact that there is a difference in Real Love and false love; in wisdom and ignorance; in fact and nonsense. It is just that no emotional reactions to any of that will occur.)
Additionally, everything will be simplified. Identification is with the nothingness until even that identity slides away. Then, there is the freedom of want-less-ness as well as the type of hope-less-ness which preempts any regrets or disappointments and which gives way—for the remainder of the manifestation—to simply being.
For more quotes by Floyd, Maharaj, and Dennis Waite regarding the Advaita teachings, you are invited to visit The Advaita Vedanta Quote Site.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
Among persons, only a child—existing in a pre-programmed pre-conditioned state—will witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality. For adults to be able to witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality requires a shift “back” to the state of child ignorance by casting aside all of the nonsense which has been learned as well as all of the emotionally-intoxicating thoughts and words and deeds which are generated by conditioning and programming and acculturation.
No non-Realized person can be as peaceful as a healthy child if its physical needs have been met and if it is free of contaminants. As long as health and food and shelter requirements have been met, perfect peace happens. Contentment for adults can only happen in that pre-mind state of existence which is "childlike," (i.e., void of differentiation and opinions and culturally-induced complications).
Stephen Hunter:
“That was the secret: to make everything the same. Simplify. Simplify. To make of oneself nothingness; to slide into the great numbness beyond want and hope; to simply be.”
[NOTE: The "numbness" referred to does not suggest that nothing will be felt by the Realized. It points to the fact that no emotional intoxication will be the driving force of an individual, all individuality having disappeared when everything thought to be "personal" disappeared.]
Realized, contentment happens as a result of "returning to" that no-mind state. [So, to the visitor's question: "Mind still exist?" The answer: Yes.] Contentment happens as a result of removing the layers of concepts that obscure consciousness so that it is as available as it was during the brief period of childhood that happened prior to the obscuring of the consciousness.
Why should one who currently takes himself to be "an adult" settle for less contentment than that experienced by a child? Usually because persona-driven witnessing, rather than pure witnessing, is happening.
Subject-object witnessing, or objective witnessing, still involves duality (at least as far as the not-totally-unobstructed consciousness "sees" it). I, the consciousness which was once obstructed but no longer is, can be aware of the fact that I am not that which you think you are seeing when you look at me and that I am not that which the culture would label me;
yet from your S-O manner of viewing, that still involves one "seeing" something else, false or not, such as: "I see the mirage and I know it is not real" or "I cannot live with myself/this self anymore." Those observations still involve perceived dualities. Not until the next step of Pure Witnessing does the judgmental form of subject-object witnessing end and the witnessing of the unicity finally happen.
At that point, when the consciousness is totally unobstructed, all that was thought to be either "subject" or "object" is witnessed to be One, to have always been One, and to forever be One. In other words, to shift from this stage to the next, it must be seen that (as the understanding of non-duality becomes clearer) the talk of "subject" and "object" at this level will have to give way to "subject only," that is, to knowing "that everlasting, timeless, imperishable Subject."
There are seven steps on the “journey” to Realization. The witnessing stages are two of the final “degrees of separation from Reality” that must be transitioned, and both the witness and the Pure Witness must be “experienced”;
however, it is a necessity to transition each of “the seven degrees of separation” for Full Realization to happen. Most on any "path" stop at the third stage (the "religious persona stage" or the "spiritual persona stage") and never complete the journey to the full understanding.
If all of the seven steps are completed, then the True Self can come to know the "everything"...the Oneness of it all...the Truth. The actual unicity beyond the imagined multiplicity is understood. (Only later can the Nothingness also be understood.)
So it is the Pure Witness—the True Self—that can know the Oneness, an understanding that comes with the awareness that a tiny "building-block" of energy-consciousness is all there is and with the awareness that all supposed differences are merely appearances that result from various specks of energy that are vibrating at varied frequencies.
Furthermore, it is from the platform of Pure Witnessing that the beingness and the non-beingness can be understood and that the "state" of Absolute rest and peace can be seen. Then, the remainder of the relative existence can be passed in the "I Am-ness," in the "Is-ness," in the Pure Witness "mode," in the AS IF style, abiding as the Absolute first and then the Nothingness.
Yes, S-O witnessing can continue throughout the relative, but no "outrage" will be felt because no ego-state-driven emotional intoxication can happen. Either form of witnessing will happen without the slightest deception that anything in the relative is as it physically appears to be.
Everything, post-Realization, will be known to be the same. (At least that will be the case at the "highest" level of understanding; the type of witnessing which continues throughout the remainder of the relative existence will not block an awareness of the fact that there is a difference in Real Love and false love; in wisdom and ignorance; in fact and nonsense. It is just that no emotional reactions to any of that will occur.)
Additionally, everything will be simplified. Identification is with the nothingness until even that identity slides away. Then, there is the freedom of want-less-ness as well as the type of hope-less-ness which preempts any regrets or disappointments and which gives way—for the remainder of the manifestation—to simply being.
“That was the secret: to make everything the same. Simplify. Simplify. To make of oneself nothingness; to slide into the great numbness beyond want and hope; to simply be.”
For more quotes by Floyd, Maharaj, and Dennis Waite regarding the Advaita teachings, you are invited to visit The Advaita Vedanta Quote Site.
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.
