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.
HOW THEY BEHAVE [Continued from yesterday]
F.: Some protest, "Extreme cruelty, needless violence, and baseless savagery? You're being too hard on people, you're being very negative."
Could one be too hard on mirages when speaking of them? Is one being negative to point out that mirages are mirages? Would one be cruel to suggest that you need not drive your car off a mountainside because you want to avoid hitting a mirage in the road ahead? Would one be cruel to suggest that you need not try to destroy a mirage that you find irritating at the moment?
Maharaj was often criticized, and is still criticized, for his fiery nature, but what better to use than fire—albeit verbal fire, albeit it a logic-and-reason-fueled fire—to burn away the illusory ego and its accompanying egotism, to allow at least a few seekers to escape the ravages of extreme cruelty, needless violence, and baseless savagery?
How better to guide seekers beyond the duality of "doublethink" and "Group Think" and the "collective, public mind" and to a "well-ordered life" that liberates persons "from the thralldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow"?
Beyond unchecked arrogance and narcissism and self-absorption and fears of such proportion and of such darkness that they often reach phobic proportions?
Beyond that which triggers the fight or flight syndrome and results in fights that have become, relatively speaking, of an often-fatal character? Maharaj said in this regard, "The destruction of the false is not violence." So many come here or order a telephone conference or Skype conference and then become offended when believing that they are being personally criticized.
Suppose the dialogue is with "Jim." This blocked speck called "Jim," who takes itself to be the many personas assigned by a culture or adopted by "Jim" along the way, can be offended when pointers point to the truth rather than massage the assumed roles.
If "Jim" takes himself to be "someone who is highly religious or highly spiritual," then offense will likely manifest at warp speed, especially when it is pointed out that his spiritual persona has left him imprisoned in the illusion and delusion that comes at the third of seven steps along the "path" to Full Realization.
Only if that speck sees that the pointers being offered are not about "Jim" at all but are about "the not-Jims" can he ever possibly be free of the violence (toward "self" and "others") that always eventually manifests when personas are assumed and when they always eventually think that they are being hurt or attacked and must be defended, and defended violently if deemed "necessary."
Maharaj said of that violence: "Your being as a person depends on violence to others. Your very body is a battlefield, full of the dead and dying. Existence implies violence." Some say that the Advaitin teachers "should speak of love"...should "be positive."
Maharaj said that "Positive terms are mere hints and misleading." "Positive" itself is one half of a dualistic pair, but if it is "the positive" that is sought, what could be more "positive" (relatively speaking) than hearing the consciousness speak and point out the "path" to freedom from "violence to others" that "your being a person depends on"?
Do you deny that capability? Have your words never evidenced an ability to be violent to others? Only if Full Realization has happened. Maharaj's pre-Realization capacity for violence he did not deny. It was only post-Realization that he could say, "...I never advocate any form of violence. My path is totally non-violent. I mean exactly what I say: non-violent. Find out for yourself what it is. I merely say: it is non-violent."
Prior to Realization, the capability for violence lies in wait, not unlike a volcano: dormant at times but becoming active at times. The cycling from stranger to acquaintance to friend to close friend to lover to fiancé / fiancée to spouse to happy spouse to not-so-happy spouse to unhappy spouse to enemy to mortal enemy that must be destroyed reveals that the dormant tendency for violence can become active when one or more personas believe they are being hurt or being threatened or being shown anything less than "the due respect" which personas always desire and demand.
Consider the pointers in this exchange:
Questioner: Nature kills by the millions, but this does not frighten me. There may be tragedy or mystery in it, but no cruelty. What horrifies me is man-made suffering, destruction and desolation...there is meanness and madness in the acts of man.
Maharaj: Right. So, it is not suffering and death that are your problem, but the meanness and madness at their root. Is not meanness also a form of madness?
There is cruelty among persons? Maharaj's take: "Right." He said, "If you look into living process closely, you will find cruelty everywhere." Meanness. Madness. Insanity. Cruelty. All of those call for an understanding of the Oneness, of Real Love; however, no physician prescribes a medicine without first diagnosing your sickness and without first discussing with you the illness that she / he has diagnosed and which requires treatment.
That is why Maharaj pointed out that, "Insanity is universal. This is the function of the Guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living." That which is not acknowledged cannot be treated. The Ultimate Medicine will have no appeal at all to sick persons who think they are well.
Focusing on the desires and fears of personas—thinking of them and their sense of loss and / or desire for gain—leads to violence on many levels, including "individual relationships," "ideological and religious conflicts," and "international conflicts."
TOMORROW: Cruelty and violence in "personal" "relationships" among "individuals" and the Ultimate Medicine that can remove those disorders.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
F.: Some protest, "Extreme cruelty, needless violence, and baseless savagery? You're being too hard on people, you're being very negative."
Could one be too hard on mirages when speaking of them? Is one being negative to point out that mirages are mirages? Would one be cruel to suggest that you need not drive your car off a mountainside because you want to avoid hitting a mirage in the road ahead? Would one be cruel to suggest that you need not try to destroy a mirage that you find irritating at the moment?
Maharaj was often criticized, and is still criticized, for his fiery nature, but what better to use than fire—albeit verbal fire, albeit it a logic-and-reason-fueled fire—to burn away the illusory ego and its accompanying egotism, to allow at least a few seekers to escape the ravages of extreme cruelty, needless violence, and baseless savagery?
How better to guide seekers beyond the duality of "doublethink" and "Group Think" and the "collective, public mind" and to a "well-ordered life" that liberates persons "from the thralldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow"?
Beyond unchecked arrogance and narcissism and self-absorption and fears of such proportion and of such darkness that they often reach phobic proportions?
Beyond that which triggers the fight or flight syndrome and results in fights that have become, relatively speaking, of an often-fatal character? Maharaj said in this regard, "The destruction of the false is not violence." So many come here or order a telephone conference or Skype conference and then become offended when believing that they are being personally criticized.
Suppose the dialogue is with "Jim." This blocked speck called "Jim," who takes itself to be the many personas assigned by a culture or adopted by "Jim" along the way, can be offended when pointers point to the truth rather than massage the assumed roles.
If "Jim" takes himself to be "someone who is highly religious or highly spiritual," then offense will likely manifest at warp speed, especially when it is pointed out that his spiritual persona has left him imprisoned in the illusion and delusion that comes at the third of seven steps along the "path" to Full Realization.
Only if that speck sees that the pointers being offered are not about "Jim" at all but are about "the not-Jims" can he ever possibly be free of the violence (toward "self" and "others") that always eventually manifests when personas are assumed and when they always eventually think that they are being hurt or attacked and must be defended, and defended violently if deemed "necessary."
Maharaj said of that violence: "Your being as a person depends on violence to others. Your very body is a battlefield, full of the dead and dying. Existence implies violence." Some say that the Advaitin teachers "should speak of love"...should "be positive."
Maharaj said that "Positive terms are mere hints and misleading." "Positive" itself is one half of a dualistic pair, but if it is "the positive" that is sought, what could be more "positive" (relatively speaking) than hearing the consciousness speak and point out the "path" to freedom from "violence to others" that "your being a person depends on"?
Do you deny that capability? Have your words never evidenced an ability to be violent to others? Only if Full Realization has happened. Maharaj's pre-Realization capacity for violence he did not deny. It was only post-Realization that he could say, "...I never advocate any form of violence. My path is totally non-violent. I mean exactly what I say: non-violent. Find out for yourself what it is. I merely say: it is non-violent."
Prior to Realization, the capability for violence lies in wait, not unlike a volcano: dormant at times but becoming active at times. The cycling from stranger to acquaintance to friend to close friend to lover to fiancé / fiancée to spouse to happy spouse to not-so-happy spouse to unhappy spouse to enemy to mortal enemy that must be destroyed reveals that the dormant tendency for violence can become active when one or more personas believe they are being hurt or being threatened or being shown anything less than "the due respect" which personas always desire and demand.
Consider the pointers in this exchange:
Questioner: Nature kills by the millions, but this does not frighten me. There may be tragedy or mystery in it, but no cruelty. What horrifies me is man-made suffering, destruction and desolation...there is meanness and madness in the acts of man.
Maharaj: Right. So, it is not suffering and death that are your problem, but the meanness and madness at their root. Is not meanness also a form of madness?
There is cruelty among persons? Maharaj's take: "Right." He said, "If you look into living process closely, you will find cruelty everywhere." Meanness. Madness. Insanity. Cruelty. All of those call for an understanding of the Oneness, of Real Love; however, no physician prescribes a medicine without first diagnosing your sickness and without first discussing with you the illness that she / he has diagnosed and which requires treatment.
That is why Maharaj pointed out that, "Insanity is universal. This is the function of the Guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living." That which is not acknowledged cannot be treated. The Ultimate Medicine will have no appeal at all to sick persons who think they are well.
Focusing on the desires and fears of personas—thinking of them and their sense of loss and / or desire for gain—leads to violence on many levels, including "individual relationships," "ideological and religious conflicts," and "international conflicts."
TOMORROW: Cruelty and violence in "personal" "relationships" among "individuals" and the Ultimate Medicine that can remove those disorders.
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
[THE YOUTUBE ADVAITA VEDANTA VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE IN LARGER FORMATS BELOW WHICH MIGHT PROVIDE MORE COMFORTABLE VIEWING FOR SOME SITE VISITORS]
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.
TRANSLATED ADVAITA EBOOKS AVAILABLE
Beginning today, the 11 Advaita eBooks listed at the end of this post are available in twenty-two non-English languages. If you are interested in purchasing an eBook in another language, click Contact Floyd to see if the language you prefer is available. Again, the quality of the translation cannot be guaranteed but it might make some pointers available to seekers that might not otherwise receive them. If you want to send a translated eBook to someone as a gift, that can also be arranged via the contact link above.
(Charges will include the regular price of the eBook + a US$10.00 translating fee.)
TO PAY FOR A TRANSLATION - US$10.00 - CLICK THE BUY BUTTON BELOW
(Contact Floyd before paying to be certain the language you prefer is available)
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.
TRANSLATED ADVAITA EBOOKS AVAILABLE
Beginning today, the 11 Advaita eBooks listed at the end of this post are available in twenty-two non-English languages. If you are interested in purchasing an eBook in another language, click Contact Floyd to see if the language you prefer is available. Again, the quality of the translation cannot be guaranteed but it might make some pointers available to seekers that might not otherwise receive them. If you want to send a translated eBook to someone as a gift, that can also be arranged via the contact link above.
(Charges will include the regular price of the eBook + a US$10.00 translating fee.)
TO PAY FOR A TRANSLATION - US$10.00 - CLICK THE BUY BUTTON BELOW
(Contact Floyd before paying to be certain the language you prefer is available)
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.
YOUTUBE ADVAITA VEDANTA YOGA VIDEOS
Click on the arrow below to start Video One:
Click on the arrow below to start Video Two:
Click on the arrow below to start Video Three:
Click on the arrow below to start Video Four:
Click on the arrow below to start Video Five:
Please enter the silence of contemplation. ()
