Saturday, May 12, 2012

ANSWERING QUESTIONS RECEIVED, Part Two

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
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.

Now available at Amazon in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain:

For more information, click

F.: Answering questions received:

QUESTION: In today's post [received 11 May 2012] you said "some might have a series of awakenings along the way until the Full Awakening happens." I recall the frustration when you were guiding me along the path and I thought at every step that I had finally gotten it (ha!) only to have you tell me that I had not gotten it at all and to keep moving through the rest of the steps. Then I read "some might have a series of awakenings along the way until the Full Awakening happens" and with the present perspective was able to see exactly how my ego (egos?) were trying to convince me to believe I was Fully Awake long before I was. So now, the question is, what if I am still jumping the gun and am not yet Fully Awake but just believing / dreaming that I am?

F.: A similar remark was received from another site regular last week. He came to the conclusion that it does not matter in the least if he or I or anyone else could prove that he is Fully Awake or not. The fact is, as he explained, that he is freer and more at peace and happier than at any point in his entire existence, so now he's just going to dance the dance lightly and continue to enjoy whatever the new condition is without feeling compelled to prove anything or label anything.

QUESTION: "You say to question everything, so im going to question you and Maharaj both. i read words about love and being at one and all, but i simply cant buy into the fact that you really are at one with all or that he was either.

He kicked out of sessions some seekers who had come to visit him, and his anger was evident to me. i read the parts of the book on original nature you posted last week and i find it very difficult to believe that you felt at one with the loud woman who scared away the deer that you and girl were looking at. Your reply?

F.: You are "one for two." First, to M. The people forced to leave the loft had not "come to visit him"; nor were they "seekers." They were personas who had came to show off their knowledge, to try to impress others, or to try to find an audience before whom they could display their supposedly advanced religious roles or their supposedly superior spiritual roles.

M. was not sending away seekers, for such types who were tossed out were not seeking anything, certain instead that they had already found it all and were wanting to show off that fact to an audience that had come to hear M., not those types there to show off and interrupt. When such specks of blocked energy were interfering with the opportunity of the earnest seekers who were present - seekers in whom the readiness had actually manifested - then any interference was brought to an end. So you are in error about M., leaving you "0 for 1" at this point.

But you are correct that I did not "feel at one with the loud woman who scared away the deer that the girl and I were watching," so you're "1 for 2" ... to a degree.

Here is what you are not understanding: the Real is One with the Real, with Reality. The Real is never at one with the not-Real, and cannot possibly be at one with any anything that is unReal.

Standing on a mountainside in the Rocky Mountains and watching a beautiful sunset, it is possible for one to feel at one with nature; to watch the sunset while holding someone in your arms and sharing that beauty, one can also feel a sense of at-one-ment as

... Reality is being reflected in the relative happening or as

... Reality is being overlaid on the relative or as

... Reality is being "merged" with the relative as a physical act is adumbrating the non-physical sense of being At One.

But if one drives out of the mountains the next morning and by midday is driving across a desert and sees a mirage in the road ahead, the Realized cannot feel at one with the mirage.

"The Super Religious Knowers" or "The Spiritual Giants" who showed up in M.'s loft were not the Real; of course, therefore, Maharaj could not have possibly felt at one with either of those mirages. They were merely false roles that were being played.

The rude woman you mentioned who scared away the deer was not Real. A body-cum-blocked-consciousness came into our vicinity, generated loud noises, and disturbed the peace. The deer ran away, but would you conclude that the deer judged her and found her lacking and left because they felt they were better than her?

Would you conclude that a deer (elements / air / conscious-energy) is different from a woman (elements / air / conscious-energy)? The only "difference" was the condition of the manifested consciousness: temporary in both instances, blocked in one case but not in the other.

The silence is natural for the deer, as is the case with all that is abiding naturally. To move away from noise and the noisy is not evidence of judging and hating; it is evidence of the natural propensity of the Realized - and of all things abiding naturally - to be quiet and to move to places that are quiet. Neither "Floyd" nor "The Deer" hated the woman, but neither wanted to be in the presence of the noise emanating from therein.

So the error in your reasoning is that you believe the Realized claim to be at one with both the Real and the UnReal, and that is not the case at all.

As another example, consider the actor George Clooney, admired (if not "loved") by millions around the globe. Many have been heard to say, "I just love him. He seems so modest, he cares so much about people being killed around the globe ... he's just a really wonderful man."

Relatively speaking, maybe so; but is their perception of the Real or of what they are imagining ... of an image? They actually know neither "george" nor "George."

Now consider a couple of cases that reveal a bit less delusion: "I don't know Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet at all, but I really felt I came to know the characters they played in 'Titanic' and I really enjoyed the roles that both played";

or, "I don't know Scarlett Johansson or Robert Downey, Jr. at all, but I really felt I came to know the characters they played in 'The Avengers' and I really enjoyed the roles that both played."

See the difference? See the differentiation in the Real vs. roles being played?

Yet how many enter into a "relationship," only to say later after it ends in an unpleasant fashion, "I guess you never know anyone, really"?

It is one thing to claim to be "at one with 'The Most Handsome / The Most Beautiful' Person I Have Ever Seen"; that statement is about body and image. It is something quite different when the Reality of Real Love allowed Maharaj to say, "Love is knowing that I am Everything."

Again, with the Realized, the awareness of being At One rests in the understanding of That Which is Real and That Which Is Actually One and applies not at all to anything else that is false, including personas. By definition, the
REALized can never be at one with the not-REAL.

Please enter the silence of contemplation.

COMING SOON AT AMAZON

THE CONDITIONS FOR YOUR JOURNEY: "Severe Clear?" Or "Severely Unclear?"

If you would like to support the site or to help insure that those seeking this understanding have someone available, you may click the following button to donate:



THE AUTHOR'S MOST RECENT RELEASES:
Now available at Amazon in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain:




Now available at Amazon.com in
the US, the UK, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY and SPAIN:



(Note: Contrary to what you might read, every quote in this book is identified by its author or speaker)The work contains quotations and pointers not only from scores of non-duality books and talks but also offers non-duality pointers that have appeared in works of non-fiction, fiction, classic literature, and movies.

The book include the following:

The offering of non-duality quotations and pointers by category and subject matter but from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj exclusively.

Quotations and pointers from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj that discuss nisarga yoga and nisarga living.

Quotations that other seekers / readers have indicated that they found to be significant.

A section with an arrangement of non-duality quotations and pointers by category and subject matter. The rationale: when offering non-duality quotations, some collections provide key pointers that are offered in no particular order, but here the approach is to group pointers according to subject matter so that a seeker dealing with "body identification issues" can find quotations addressing body identity while a seeker dealing with "being free of the influence of the mind" can find quotations and pointers that offer information on that topic. Other subjects in this part of the book include personality, the child ignorance or no-knowing stage, the two types of witnessing, the Absolute, the Void or the Nothingness, and many more.

Miscellaneous non-duality quotations and pointers which are relevant to Advaitins and that have been offered by philosophers and sages and seers of truth from various periods, including Plato, St. Francis of Assisi, Desiderius Erasmus, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Richard E. Lingenfelter; Robert Burton, Daniel H. Boorstin, Gary Zukav, E. Bayda, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Brad Thor, Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.; Nelson Mandela, Immanuel Kant, Bruce Lipton, Clive Cussler, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Lewis Thomas, Max Planck, Heinrich Hertz; the bands "Pink Floyd" and "The Beatles"; and others.

Non-duality pointers that have appeared in the non-fiction writings of Ralph Klein and in the works of such scientists as Barbara McClintock, Erwin Schrodinger, Fritjof Capra, Niels Bohr, David Bohm, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Also, there are selections from the works of Marvin Kaye, S.H. Sharp, Paul Krassner, Ken Kesey, Russell Brand, G.I. Gurdjieff; and a variety of examples of the non-duality messages that are contained in the body of Native American wisdom as well as non-duality pointers that can be found in the book "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (a.k.a., "the A.A. Big Book").

An offering of non-duality messages that have appeared in the fictional works of Jack Kerouac, Michael Connelly, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Abraham "Bram" Stoker and others as well as quotations with the non-duality message as offered in film with a list of over thirty movies that are based in non-duality, including The Matrix (Part One), The 13th Floor, Inception, The Truman Show, Dark City, Existenz, Avatar, and many more.


Click to purchase
( QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more)

ALSO AVAILABLE AT AMAZON
in
the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy
this new release:

FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS
(Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")





For those seeking the full explanation of the topics addressed on this site: there are non-duality books offered below as well as retreats and Skype or telephone sessions available at
  • Floyd Henderson's Website

  • The full explanations are also available in the books in the author's collection that explain in detail all of the non-duality, nisarga teachings offered here:
    1. Most non-duality books below are available through Amazon.com.
    2. Read Kindle books on your own device by downloading a free app.

    The available books are arranged on the carousels below. Use the arrows to move each book to the forefront; then, you may click on any book that you might be interested in to find more information or to purchase.

    THE ADVANCED SEEKERS' SERIES
    From the I to the Absolute
    Consciousness / Awareness
    From the Absolute to the Nothingness
    The Final Understanding
    The Advanced Seekers' Series in
    paperback
    The Two Meditation Guides




    The BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES, PART ONE
    What BLISS Is and What BLISS Is Not
    Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full
    When Reality Is Overlaid Upon the Relative
    Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness
    Liberation
    The Blissful Abidance Series (6 books) in
    paperback



    The ADVAITINS Collection
    with THE SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ SERIES, including:
    (1) Why NISARGA YOGA in addition to the ADVAITA TEACHING?
    (2) Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and His Evolution
    (3) A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
    (4) Going Crazy / Going Sane
    (5) The Final Fifteen Topics Discussed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
    and
    (6) The Non-Duality Pointers Offered by YESHU'A ("Jesus the Christ")
    (7) William Shakespeare the Advaitin

    (8) The "Final" Talks of Floyd Henderson
    (9) QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more)


    The BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES, PART TWO
    Overcoming the Fear of Being Totally Independent
    I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
    The Essence of the Teachings
    The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"
    There Is Nothing That Is Personal (Including You and Including God)
    Lessons in Non-Duality from Travels in South Africa
    The Path to Freedom vs. the Path to Misery




    The FREEDOM FROM THE MIND Series
    Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot) Address
    PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION
    Your Original Nature
    The Ultimate Sickness, The Ultimate Medicine
    Going Crazy / Going Sane
    There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind" (There Is Only Peace If You're Out of Your Mind)
    Freedom from Beliefs (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
    Dancing Lightly




    RECOVERY LITERATURE, the RELATIONSHIP books
    A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Realization [Kindle]
    A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Realization [Paperback]
    A Guide for Working the Twelve Steps (In the Manner Used by the Founders)
    The Twelve Steps and Advaita / Non-Duality: A 21-Day Plan for a Psychic Change
    Finding Real Love in An Unreal World
    Casting Light on the Dark Side of Relationships



    The NO DEATH books, NON-DUALITY IN FICTION, FINANCIAL SANITY
    The Myth of Death
    What Happens When I Die?
    The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders (Non-Duality) [Kindle]
    The Board of Directors of Wars (Non-Duality) [Kindle]
    The Board of Directors of Wars (Non-Duality) [Paperback]
    Living Within Your Means
    How Your Personality Type Shapes Your Spending Habits




    NON-DUALITY BOOKS, EACH CONTAINING A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING ONE OF THE SEVEN STEPS ON THE PATH TO REALIZATION



    FOR THOSE WHO PREFER PAPERBACK, THE FOLLOWING PAPERBACK BOOKS ARE ON SALE NOW
    (Click the pictures for information on the paperback versions)



    (FOUR BOOKS IN ONE)





    (SIX BOOKS IN ONE)








    FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION

    An online Advaita Internet Course is offered here. The price of the course includes the four Advaita eBooks used as the texts; questions sent after completion of the assigned readings; replies to your answers; and follow-up as required.

    You will be guided through all seven of the steps, in order, that lead from identification with the false "I" to the Absolute (and beyond). For more specific information and details about the course, you may click on the link to the right. To get started now now, click the pay button below and receive the $365 course for a discounted price of $325.00.

    Purchase at Discount the Advaita Internet Course with Floyd


    by
    Clicking the Buy Now Button below:

    Or, if you prefer, begin by arranging a one-hour Advaita session via Skype with Floyd:

    Next, you can now 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, Seven-Hour Video (DVD) Set of an advaita retreat, or the downloadable file version. To find out more or to purchase the DVD or downloadable computer file version of the retreat, click:
    DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
    International buyers: note the separate option for those outside the continental U.S.

    2. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site.

    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 information or use the link below to pay for your first Advaita session.

    You may click the BUY NOW button below to begin arrangements for your first Advaita session with Floyd via Skype and he will contact you to schedule:


    Recent Posts and Archives

    Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

    WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

    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

    ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

    ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

    Five Free eBooks

    Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
    the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

    I.
    "GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

    The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

    Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

    II.
    "THE VISION"

    Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

    “My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

    “Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

    “Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

    “‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

    III.
    "Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

    Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

    There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

    This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

    IV.
    Seeking

    In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

    In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

    He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

    V.
    "THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

    “Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

    And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

    And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

    This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

    To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page