Sunday, November 07, 2010

WHEN "SUPPOSED REALIZATION" IS JUST ANOTHER DISTORTION, Part Four

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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.

Furthermore, for those who have developed a preference for any non-nisargan yoga or who prefer Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: here you will only find the use of the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.

(Please note: The Annual Fall / Winter Season Book Sale is now under way. Most Non-Duality eBooks at floydhenderson.com are on sale at 30-50% off regular price.)

[PLEASE NOTE: Today's post will focus on the essence of the "final understanding" as offered on this site. The content is not level-appropriate for those moving along the early steps on the "path"; nor will it be level-appropriate for those who are not as far along the "path" as they think they are; nor will it be accepted by those attached to the traditional texts or the "traditional knowledge."

Maharaj said of the same type critics who found fault with his teachings as has happened on this site:

" ... there will be so many pundits who are so knowledgeable, they will eat me alive. And yet where the basic knowledge is concerned, which I deal with, why do these people remain speechless? Because it is something totally different from anything that can be understood." So it is.]

"NOT TRUE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING" (Continued from yesterday: conclusion of this segment)
F.: If, in the end, "I am" is not to be followed by any adjective or noun, then how can anyone claim to be anything, including: "I am spiritual," "I am a spiritual person," "I am Realized," "I am a Christian / Muslim / Jew / Hindu," "I am a spiritual person who is able to commune with angels in other realms," "I am a healer," "I am religious," "I am a religious person," "I am the Supreme Self," whatever?

Maharaj: "I am essentially nothing (identifiable) in this consciousness, being only its witness."

"Well what of 'I AM THAT'?" some have asked. What of it? At some point, all sorts of "I am's" might be used in a level-appropriate fashion, just as thorns are used to remove thorns. In the end, the thorns are all tossed aside. In the end, not even "I am the Nothingness" or "I am the Void" or "I am nothing" applies. In the end, it is understood that there is no "you" or "You," no "me" or "Me."

"The Traditionalists," "The Spiritual Giants," and "The Super Knowers" hate that point. They are "so knowledgeable that they will eat me alive" (rather than consuming instead these pointers that work like dissolving agents on the content of "minds" which might have abandoned "old thoughts and beliefs" but merely replaced them with "new and improved spiritual thoughts and new and improved spiritual beliefs").

The truth can be known but cannot be spoken, so any "I am" statement that would define something definite cannot be true, including "I am truly awakened spiritually."

What is really happening is this: "The All-Knowing Critic" is showing up at the elementary school where he is enrolled and is telling other elementary students there that he has a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree and a Doctor's Degree (in Advaita).

But Maharaj said: "Whatever is, is an expression of consciousness only. If consciousness is not there, the expression of consciousness is not there. Therefore, nothing is." Any expression by that which is temporary (and which, therefore, is not real) must necessarily be an expression of falsehood.

So, to "The Critic / Knower," your fellow elementary schoolmates might buy into your self-delusion and your attempts to delude them, but the pure witnessing consciousness will see that your falsehoods are false.

If the truth is pointed to here and it registers with a visitor, then there will be triggered some sort of what might be called "an internal resonance." If such registration does not happen, then such visitors will leave and not return. So it is, and so it should be.

"HEALING" AND "ANGELS"
First, "healing": Yes, "maharaj" dabbled in healing for a period of time. And yes, "floyd" dabbled in healing for a time, having witnessed his Cherokee grandmother provide healing to the many who sought her out in the 1950's and then having tried his hand at it as well in early adulthood.

But recall the pointer offered here on many occasions: "Pain is of the body ... misery and suffering are of the 'mind'." Here, the Ultimate Medicine is not used to try to heal the body. "Healing" and "angels" both involve the elements, so "healing" applies only to the elemental plant food body. Both that body, and angels that are the supposed residue of a formerly manifested elemental plant food body, deal with the physical only.

Therefore, healing and angels are the "stuff" of the elements, rooted in materiality, and here, the material is of no consequence; thus, physical healing is not "the treatment" that is the focus here.

Moreover, while some persons speak of "mental and emotional healing," there is no such thing. Healing is only available to the body. The "mind" cannot be healed any more than a mirage can be healed.

As for emotions, they cannot be healed either because they are (supposedly) experienced by ego-states, which are only mirages. (Among the Realized, feelings are witnessed as they rise and fall, but emoting can only be inspired by a personality that thinks it is being hurt or threatened or attacked.) Therefore, healing can only be about materiality, and here, materiality is no longer of any concern.

Next, "angels": In other periods of darkness and ignorance, there were debates among those who took themselves to be religious or spiritual scholars regarding how many angels could fit on a pinhead.

The question here is, "How many angels can fit into a pinhead?" In the U.S., some studies report that the number is 87% of the entire population. The number of those who believe that both angels and demons are at work in "the world" is 80%.

If you believe in angels, then you likely believe in demons, and if you believe in demons, you likely believe in ghosts, and if you believe in ghosts, you might believe in zombies and vampires and werewolves and unicorns and Sasquatch. And if you believe in any of those mythological creatures - or in any entity maintaining any kind of form at all post-manifestation - then you are deluded.

[Some are deluded because of the subtle body that can remain for a brief period after the Unmanifestation, but that is fleeting and not worth discussion among those seeking Reality.]

If there are angels, then there are demons. Welcome to the false world of duality, a world that "The Critic" and "The Knower" has entered by being driven there via his beliefs, including the belief that he is able to commune with angels in other realms because he has become so special and, for the most part, so unique.

Maharaj told one visitor: "[You] believe in so many things on hearsay. We believe in distant lands and people, in heavens and hells, in gods and goddesses, because we were told. Similarly, we were told about ourselves, our parents, name, position, duties and so on. We never cared to verify. The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs."

It has been discussed on this site frequently that, rather than there being a body-mind-personality triad, the most that can be said at this point is that you are an element-breath-conscious-energy "triad" (which is actually a composite unity).

At the time of mahasamadhi, a process begins whereby things that came together begin to come apart. (See the Second Law of Thermodynamics.) The body merges once again into the universal pool of elements; the breath merges into the universal pool of air; and the consciousness merges into the universal pool of energy.

To that end, having explained that "triad" / composite unity on numerous occasions, Maharaj asked: "Where is the question of an individual? Basically, there is none"

and

" ... for this reason there is no need to identify oneself with anything."

Again, Maharaj: "I am essentially nothing (identifiable) in this consciousness, being only its witness. And, what I am in the absolute sense, it is not possible to convey in any words. In that ultimate Awareness, nobody has any consciousness of being present. The presence itself is not there in the Absolute."

On another occasion, this exchange unfolded:

Questioner: "Did not karma compel me to become what I am?"

Maharaj: "Nothing compels. You are as you believe yourself to be. Stop believing"

and, on another occasion,

Maharaj: "Instead of searching for the proof of truth, which you do not know, go through the proofs you have of what you believe to know. You will find you know nothing for sure - you trust on hearsay"

and

"You believe you know the world and yourself -- but it is only your ignorance that makes you say 'I know'. Begin with the admission that you do not know and start from there."

What happens with "The Critics" and "The Spiritual Giants" and "The Super Religious Ones" and "The Knowers" is that a cloak (made of beliefs and ideas and concepts) is placed over the consciousness and blocks it from seeing basic facts.

In this regard, the basic fact is: the composite unity returns to the three areas from which it came: the universal pool of elements, the universal pool of air, and the universal pool of energy.

This temporary "Is-ness" is somatic, but that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness has neither physicality nor materiality, so how could any "angel" possibly exist?

In fact, this aspect of the teaching / un-teaching that is rooted in understanding the composite unity and what happens to it post-Unmanifestation can be expanded to put to rest the delusions among persons which were referenced by Maharaj, namely, "heavens and hells, gods and goddesses."

The charge in the "God / no God" debate by "The Faithful Ones" is that "You cannot prove a negative such as 'there is no God'."

Again, beliefs and ideas and concepts lead to deception and delusion. Those that know the facts can most assuredly understand why there cannot be a God or gods or goddesses:

first, there is no Creator because nothing can be created (just as nothing can be destroyed). There is energy and matter (or energy / matter) and neither energy nor matter can be created nor destroyed.

Secondly, if the three "parts" of the composite unity return to the three pools from which they "came," then how can anything beyond that which is the "stuff" of materiality and physicality have even "the faintest form of an angel" or "the supposedly physical form of a God or gods or goddesses"?

It is impossible for any definite form - much less a "personal" form - to exist prior to the coming together of that which results in the composite unity, and it is equally impossible for any form to exist after the parts of the composite unity return to the universal pools.

Such pre-manifestation and post-manifestation "definite" and / or "personal" formations cannot happen. Maharaj taught that "the principle which was not affected by the dissolution of universes is a non-state." He said, "The Ultimate principle which knows this beingness cannot be named at all. That is the Ultimate state."

So angels cannot exist because angels would have to "know" (especially if they could "guard"). There is nothing post-manifestation to know or that can know. That leaves the last argument that some use in an effort to explain the existence of angels, namely, that "they were created apart from anything dealing with the manifestation and have always been separate." (So much for non-duality.)

The facts in that regard? Nothing can be created, so that option is also disproved by the facts. Thus, no angels have been created without having been manifest, no angels can exist "post-formation or manifestation," no God or gods or goddesses have been created, and no god came into manifestation (in the body of Christ or in the form of the twenty-two other supposed "saviours born of virgins" who were reported to have come before him according to various religions).

And even if such a manifestation had happened, the elements and air and energy would have returned to the universal pools, not to a "heavenly place."

Whatever one thinks I am or thinks that he or she is, even in "the Absolute sense," cannot be expressed. The truth can be known but not stated. In that state of Awareness, there is nobody (no body) and there is no "mind" that "has consciousness" of anything, including presence.

The presence that is registered during the manifestation of consciousness is not registered in the Absolute. So much for belief in the presence of a God, gods, goddesses, angels, or any other things conceived by persons who are asleep while dreaming that they are awake.

Finally, Maharaj said that those pointed to here with the names of their assumed personas - "The Knowers" and "The All-Knowing Critics" and "The Delusional Ones Who Know Not That They Are Delusional" - are merely repeating mechanically a verbal formula, not unlike those who enter spiritual groups on day one and begin parroting the groups' time-worn catch phrases on day two.

Parroting. Parroting. Parroting. And the parrot can say what it hears, as does "The Knower," but like the parrot, neither truly understands a word of what they are saying and neither truly understands a word of what they have heard if what they heard is pointing accurately to the Truth. So it is.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

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Much of what Louise has shared has resonated with many site visitors. to that end, some have inquired recently if Louise offers the online Advaita Internet Course. The answer is, "Yes."
Whether taking the course with Louise or Floyd, the price of the course includes all 11 of the Advaita eBooks, questions sent after completion of the assigned readings, replies to your answers, and follow-up as required.
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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
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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)
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THE MEDITATION GUIDES
[Provide a broad overview of the understanding]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?
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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]
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Received 19 August 2010 from one that just completed the entire course:

I would like to extend deepest appreciation towards you for these teachings that you have offered. It has been most valuable towards what may not have been revealed throughout this manifestation labeled "anthony." Understanding Truth and finding words for gratitude are one as is all. Thank you again for pointing "me" to THAT and the understanding that came as well. Hopeful for future "contact"! Sincerely, Anthony M. W.

For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet
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5. BY ARRANGING satsang by telephone in the U.S. or by Skype internationally.
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The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders offers the non-duality message by way of a mystery-adventure novel, discussing the movement from pain to healing to awakening to peace.
From Dr. R.F. Maley, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Houston: "Floyd Henderson's book, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, is a fun read and an interesting mystery, but perhaps more importantly it serves as a vehicle for blending Eastern Philosophy and Native American Spirituality to make an intellectually challenging novel. The book's insights into both relationships and authoritarian conditioning of people in our society make it a must read, tracing the roots of narcissistic, sociopathic and psychopathic behaviors to the very core of the culture. This truly witty and politically-incorrect study of the aggressive nature of 'the American character' offers not only a diagnosis but also a treatment plan, making the book an excellent supplemental reading in courses such as psychology, anthropology, philosophy, sociology and counseling."

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The Sequel to The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders:
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS


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Please enter the silence of contemplation.

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