FROM A SITE VISITOR: Thanx for the joint series -- right on. Speaking of stupid or insane, I have been hearing talk for years now (I’m in the U.S.) of people being “willing to die for their country.” Qualifies as insane doesn’t it?
F.: Persons can claim that they are willing to die for their god, but actually, that willingness to die for their god is always superseded by a willingness to kill for their god.
And that willingness among the pious and devout to kill and to die in order to spread their dogma's dualistic beliefs accounts for the present pervasiveness of the doctrinaire-inspired killings by members of the various sky cults which for the last several thousand years have caused more "deaths" that all except natural causes.
Further, there is no need to rely on what some would dismiss as "dated evidence" such as the millions killed during the Catholics' inquisition or during the Christian vs. Muslim Crusades or during the American Holocaust when European Christians killed 150,000,000 native inhabitants
or during the WWII Holocaust when mainly German and Austrian Lutherans began a campaign that killed 6,000,000 Jews in a war that eventually "took 55,000,000 lives" (as the non-Realized characterize it). No, more recent evidence is available:
Witness the thousands killed because a Christian president claimed that he talked to God ("The Father") and was told to shock and awe Muslim Iraq with massive bombing raids, an act that led to the killing of thousands of Muslims by Christian soldiers who have Bible verses written on their bombs and rifles. More recently, add to that total the scores who were killed there last week as Muslim Sunnis bombed Muslim Shi'ites.
Add in those who have died by suicide in recent years as a result of the trauma of being abused sexually by Catholic priests while the protests by victims are being dismissed by the Vatican as whining and idle gossip.
As recently as last week, a comedy show entitled "South Park” was targeted by a Muslim group that claimed an episode “outright insulted” the prophet, adding: “We have to warn Matt and Trey (the two writers of the show) that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
(Theo van Gogh was killed in 2004 by a Muslim in Amsterdam who was upset that van Gogh had produced a film that exposed the often-brutal treatment of women by Islam.)
An Iraqi woman recruiting female suicide bombers in Iraq admitted that she arranged to have eighty women raped so that she could convince them that the only way to redeem themselves from the shameful guilt of being raped (which is always considered to be the female's fault) was via martyrdom.
Why address such dogma-based behavior? Because it is stupidity and insanity that the Advaitin would eliminate and because it is the task of the Advaitin teacher to offer pointers that can purge the rubbish-filled "mind" of the refuse that inspires such conduct.
"But Realized Advaitins know what Maharaj pointed to when he said, 'The Real You is timeless and beyond birth and death. The body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long'."
True, and Maharaj also said that "once You know that death happens to the body and not to You, You just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment"; however, what he did not say was "you should just watch others' bodies fall off like a discarded garment and even bring that about if their religious beliefs differ from yours."
To understand the Reality behind the pointer that "the Real does not die" and behind the pointer that "the unreal never lived" is not to suggest that the understanding offers a license to kill.
When the wisdom that You Are everything manifests and when Reality is overlaid on the relative, those happenings remove the Realized's attachment to the corporeal body but they do not remove the option to see the insanity of being willing to die for beliefs or to kill of beliefs.
Instead, the Advaitin message to those willing to die for such illusions as country and beliefs and values and dogma and eternal life and eternal rewards and religion and possessions and things thought to be worth dying for is this:
Imagine there's no Heaven,
It's easy if you try.
No hell below us—
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Living for today.
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do—
Nothing to kill or die for,
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
You may say that I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions...
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger—
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.
You may say that I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
John Lennon's "Imagine"
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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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.
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(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
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