Today's "DAILY CONSIDERATION" for You
#5: ARCHETYPES
The invitation here is to be aware of the sources of duality (of the Ultimate Sickness) in order to avoid exposure to those sources of contamination; thus, the #1 source on the list is religion and / or spirituality, which can be expanded to religion and / or spirituality and / or ideologies and / or philosophies; #2 is xenophobia; #3 includes both background and culture; #4 is the subconscious agendas of personality / personalities; and #5 is archetypes.
#5: ARCHETYPES
For many reasons, from the instant that the consciousness manifests, it is already trapped in duality:
1. During the first month or two, a child's eyes begin to focus enough that it can see objects. As the child reaches the age of twelve months, it can see almost as well as an adult. By the age of two, the child begins to notice its own body and distinguishes its body from that of the parent or caretaker. At that point, any earlier sense of Oneness with a parent or caretaker gives way to Subject-Object witnessing and the duality of "me as opposed to you" sets in and lasts - in most cases - for the entire relative existence.
2. Secondly, even before duality-producing and sustaining programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination begin, there is another factor that assures persons will be strapped with a sense of duality. That factor: archetypes.
Consider the pointers in this excerpt from the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE:
Floyd: “Do you understand the archetypes he [pointing at Q.2] mentioned earlier?”
Questioner 3: “I know what archetypes are, yes.”
F.: “What are they, basically?”
Q.3: “Well, Jung felt that, passed down as a result of the totality of human experience….”
F.: “Excuse me. Most basically. In one word. What's an archetype?”
Q.3: “You said it earlier ... it’s an image.”
F.: “Right. Now, how are those images passed down to humans?”
Q3.: “Genetically.”
F.: “So those images come from this huge ‘field’ of ‘human experiences’ and are passed down by particles of material that we’ll call genes, right?”
Q3.: [Pausing] “Right.”
First, therefore, is this fact: all humans are "pre-wired" genetically with a set of internal images; the images appear as dualistic pairs, so from the beginning of the manifestation (even before a child develops language skills and is taught dualistic concepts) there are already present hundreds upon hundreds of embedded, dualistic concepts that will influence each person's thoughts and words and deeds throughout the entire relative existence.
In other words, humans from the beginning of the manifestation of consciousness "come" with what is called here "INNATE DUALITY."
Over the span of the total human experience, a means developed by which message-bearing, dualistic images called "archetypes" could be transmitted genetically from one generation to the next. The intent was to assure survival of the species, so this message developed, based in the experiences of earlier generations: "Dark is bad and light is good because animals that can kill and eat you can see at night and attack while you cannot see them coming and defend yourself, and the same applies in the case of other humans that would sneak up on you and harm you."
The dualities: "dark vs. light" and "good vs. bad."
This genetically-transmitted phenomenon of dualistic images, in effect, has assured that every infant - and, therefore, every child that becomes an adult - will be driven by the dualistic content stored in what Jung called the “collective unconscious of the human race" which is the blocked off memory of our human past, even of our pre-human experiences.
The unconscious memory evokes profound emotional responses - and will lead to emotional intoxication - when events trigger a primordial image from the unconscious memory. Understanding that, Maharaj said: "... unconscious memory makes the world in which you live so familiar."
The result: duality was not originally inherent, but now, every human comes with a genetically-encoded belief in duality when archetypal pairs come into play, including such dualistic pairs as:
"light vs. dark"
"white vs. black"
"good vs. bad"
"wet vs. dry" or "dry vs. wet" (depending on whether persons believe that there has been "too much rain" or "too little")
"up vs. down"
"high vs. low"
"together vs. apart or alone"
"strong vs. weak" and
"big vs. small."
More recent images have been added to the mix as well, including:
"pretty or handsome vs. ugly"
"wealthy vs. poor"
"successful vs. a failure"
"smart vs. dumb"
"tall vs. short"
"powerful vs. weak"
"religious vs. hedonistic"
"spiritual vs. not spiritual"
"good weather vs. bad weather"
"good days vs. bad days"
"happy vs. unhappy"
"upper class vs. lower class" and
"good memories vs. bad memories."
These innate, dualistic concepts generate what is called here "The Goldilocks Syndrome" which left the young girl in that tale unhappy 2/3 of the time and content only 1/3 of the time: she believed that one thing was too hot, that something else was too cold, and finally found something that she believed was just right; she believed that one thing was too hard, that something else was too soft, and finally found something that she believed was just right.
That's the way it is when non-Realized, when being driven by dualistic thoughts and concepts and beliefs, including subconscious archetypal images: one is seldom content, always looking for something that is different, better than, different from, etc.
When subconscious forces control thoughts and words and deeds - whether those forces are rooted in innate duality, in learned duality, or in the fears and desires which are at the heart of every personality / persona, then choice no longer exists. The result of that: the masses move through the relative existence while being driven by falsehoods, illogical desires, senseless fears, distorted memories, inherent and learned ignorance, and innate duality.
[To be continued]
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
1. During the first month or two, a child's eyes begin to focus enough that it can see objects. As the child reaches the age of twelve months, it can see almost as well as an adult. By the age of two, the child begins to notice its own body and distinguishes its body from that of the parent or caretaker. At that point, any earlier sense of Oneness with a parent or caretaker gives way to Subject-Object witnessing and the duality of "me as opposed to you" sets in and lasts - in most cases - for the entire relative existence.
2. Secondly, even before duality-producing and sustaining programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination begin, there is another factor that assures persons will be strapped with a sense of duality. That factor: archetypes.
Consider the pointers in this excerpt from the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE:
Floyd: “Do you understand the archetypes he [pointing at Q.2] mentioned earlier?”
Questioner 3: “I know what archetypes are, yes.”
F.: “What are they, basically?”
Q.3: “Well, Jung felt that, passed down as a result of the totality of human experience….”
F.: “Excuse me. Most basically. In one word. What's an archetype?”
Q.3: “You said it earlier ... it’s an image.”
F.: “Right. Now, how are those images passed down to humans?”
Q3.: “Genetically.”
F.: “So those images come from this huge ‘field’ of ‘human experiences’ and are passed down by particles of material that we’ll call genes, right?”
Q3.: [Pausing] “Right.”
First, therefore, is this fact: all humans are "pre-wired" genetically with a set of internal images; the images appear as dualistic pairs, so from the beginning of the manifestation (even before a child develops language skills and is taught dualistic concepts) there are already present hundreds upon hundreds of embedded, dualistic concepts that will influence each person's thoughts and words and deeds throughout the entire relative existence.
In other words, humans from the beginning of the manifestation of consciousness "come" with what is called here "INNATE DUALITY."
Over the span of the total human experience, a means developed by which message-bearing, dualistic images called "archetypes" could be transmitted genetically from one generation to the next. The intent was to assure survival of the species, so this message developed, based in the experiences of earlier generations: "Dark is bad and light is good because animals that can kill and eat you can see at night and attack while you cannot see them coming and defend yourself, and the same applies in the case of other humans that would sneak up on you and harm you."
The dualities: "dark vs. light" and "good vs. bad."
This genetically-transmitted phenomenon of dualistic images, in effect, has assured that every infant - and, therefore, every child that becomes an adult - will be driven by the dualistic content stored in what Jung called the “collective unconscious of the human race" which is the blocked off memory of our human past, even of our pre-human experiences.
The unconscious memory evokes profound emotional responses - and will lead to emotional intoxication - when events trigger a primordial image from the unconscious memory. Understanding that, Maharaj said: "... unconscious memory makes the world in which you live so familiar."
The result: duality was not originally inherent, but now, every human comes with a genetically-encoded belief in duality when archetypal pairs come into play, including such dualistic pairs as:
"light vs. dark"
"white vs. black"
"good vs. bad"
"wet vs. dry" or "dry vs. wet" (depending on whether persons believe that there has been "too much rain" or "too little")
"up vs. down"
"high vs. low"
"together vs. apart or alone"
"strong vs. weak" and
"big vs. small."
More recent images have been added to the mix as well, including:
"pretty or handsome vs. ugly"
"wealthy vs. poor"
"successful vs. a failure"
"smart vs. dumb"
"tall vs. short"
"powerful vs. weak"
"religious vs. hedonistic"
"spiritual vs. not spiritual"
"good weather vs. bad weather"
"good days vs. bad days"
"happy vs. unhappy"
"upper class vs. lower class" and
"good memories vs. bad memories."
These innate, dualistic concepts generate what is called here "The Goldilocks Syndrome" which left the young girl in that tale unhappy 2/3 of the time and content only 1/3 of the time: she believed that one thing was too hot, that something else was too cold, and finally found something that she believed was just right; she believed that one thing was too hard, that something else was too soft, and finally found something that she believed was just right.
That's the way it is when non-Realized, when being driven by dualistic thoughts and concepts and beliefs, including subconscious archetypal images: one is seldom content, always looking for something that is different, better than, different from, etc.
When subconscious forces control thoughts and words and deeds - whether those forces are rooted in innate duality, in learned duality, or in the fears and desires which are at the heart of every personality / persona, then choice no longer exists. The result of that: the masses move through the relative existence while being driven by falsehoods, illogical desires, senseless fears, distorted memories, inherent and learned ignorance, and innate duality.
[To be continued]
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
(Note: Online Internet Course now available at a discount. See details above.)
[Received from Mac, 10/17/12]: "Glad to see the online teaching offered at a discount. Hopefully, more who are ready will be able to take the course. For me, the course was the beginning of the unlearning that led to the trip to the lake for a retreat and the understanding."
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part One
A "movement" or "shift" happened here that added another parallel to the many parallels in terms of the phenomenal "experiences" and the noumenal revelations that "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" share in common. (Many visitors over the years have said that they also shared the same parallels with "Maharaj" and "Floyd" as well.) In the case of "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj" and "Floyd" ...
** both grew up in very poor families
** both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities
** both exhibited business skills that led to their opening and operating many businesses and to their having a large number of employees working for them
** both succeeded financially
** both became attached to accumulating ** both married and had a family
** both were initially religious
** both moved away from organized religion and became interested in "spiritual" matters, finding and following the teachings of a big name teacher (or, in "Floyd's" case, many big name teachers)
** both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality"
** both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge"
** both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making
** both had wives who were unhappy when the de-accumulation stage was entered and both had wives who became unhappy about their husbands' focus on non-duality and who blamed their unhappiness on no longer having a religious husband (The facts be known, in both cases the unhappiness involved the fact that their husbands were no longer interested in - or willing - to work 80+ hours per week and that their husbands were no longer interested in accumulating wealth and possessions and providing the rich lifestyle to which their wives had grown accustomed)
** both eventually came to see that the religious and spiritual states were also ego-states, and both saw that there are far more steps on the "path" to complete after reaching the religious and spiritual steps and after playing those roles which are the third of seven steps on the entire "path"
** both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce)
** both accelerated their seeking
** both entered into the "forest dweller stage"
** both Realized ** both began to de-accumulate even more
** both began sharing the teachings
** for years, both answered questions in whatever order those questions were received, though both said that the movement from identification with the false "I" / "I's" involved an exact, step-wise manner of moving along a "path" that involved "going back" in the same (but reverse order) of the way they "came in" - that is, the way that the manifestation happened and the way that the consciousness was blocked through seven stages that resulted in their becoming identified solely with their false personas, with the content of the "mind," and eventually, with the body. But the most significant awareness that finally came to both after years of offering satsang and after having answered thousands and thousands of questions was this: After years of "Maharaj" offering satsang in his loft, and after years of "Floyd" offering satsang in meeting halls and in his home and via what one site visitor called "Floyd's electronic loft," this fact became obvious to both: "Maharaj" came to see in the 1970's and into 1980 and 1981 that his approach was not working and "Floyd" finally came to see the same.
** Both saw that many who heard the teachings are not going to understand (Maharaj reporting that "only 1 in 100,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding)
** both soon saw that even more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj modifying his "guesstimate" and reporting that "only 1 in 1,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding)
** eventually both saw that even far more than expected of those who heard the teachings were not going to understand (Maharaj eventually concluding that "only 1 in 10,000,000 are going to 'get' this" understanding). And the failings were not the fault of seekers. A "one -in-ten-million" estimate is proof that satsang was not working for most seekers, and the evidence here lately is proof of the same.
Both "Maharaj" and "Floyd" invited seekers to focus on the exact, step-wise "path." Yes, during satsang, "Maharaj" sometimes alluded to the steps while discussing them in no particular order - but he never once laid out the steps in the exact order in which they had to be completed. That was not his teachings style or approach.
Therefore, another movement or shift is happening here spontaneously after reflecting on the more than two decades since the teachings were first offered here and looking at the results of Maharaj sharing pointers in his loft and looking at the results of "Floyd" sharing pointers in this electronic loft: Looking objectively at his results, Maharaj's satsang method of sharing - in the end and by his own admission (only "one out of 10,000,000") - did not produce the intended outcome.
Looking objectively at the results here when using an "electronic loft" satsang method of sharing has not produced the intended outcome nearly as often as any of the three "face-to-face" methods used with seekers by which they have been led through the seven steps in order.
Here, the body is growing older, of course. Mahasamadhi could be taken today, or it could be taken in twenty years. Obviously, that cannot be known. But the decision here has been made that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the ways that have been seen over the last 20+ years to be the most effective methods.
Looking back over the list of those that have truly received the understanding, it is seen that Robert R. read all of the books, then took the online Advaita course and then completed some face-to-face Skype sessions to receive the final clarifications required.
It was seen that Mac read all of the books, completed the online course, and then attended a retreat where he was guided through the seven steps. Mac said that the online course work inspired him to attend the retreat in order to be able to receive the final "pieces."
It was seen that Andy Gugar, Jr. read all of the books, then came here for a retreat and was taken through the seven steps in order, and then returned once more for the final clarifications required. After reviewing the shifts that happened with him after attending two retreats, he reaffirmed this past week his commitment to helping spread the non-duality, nisarga understanding as presented here. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what had not "worked" as well - changes will be made.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM THAT WHICH DOES NOT WORK TO THAT WHICH DOES, Part Two
In "Part One," examples were given of seekers that were led to Realization not by satsang but by following the various protocols outlined farther down this page which provide the understanding in the step-wise, orderly, required fashion which moves seekers along a "path" that is as prescribed by Maharaj ... "going back" in the "reverse order" by which the consciousness manifested and became blocked. However, conversations with some that just read the majority of the books have revealed that they certainly seem to have grasped the understanding and Realized as well. As a result of seeing what has "worked" during the last 20+ years of sharing the non-duality understanding - and seeing what has "not worked" as well - changes are being made. There are seven specific steps that happen when awareness-energy is "pulled" into a cycle of manifestation. When that energy manifests as conscious-energy, that formerly pure and unadulterated energy becomes "corrupted" (or "blocked" from seeing clearly) via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, and brainwashing. Soon, there is a belief in the not-Real as a result of seven degrees of separation from an understanding of the Real. Using the method that was also employed by his contemporaries - a method which focused on offering non-duality pointers via satsang - Maharaj addressed questions in the order in which they were received.
He might receive a question from a seeker at the third step and his reply would include what amounted to an invitation to move to the fourth step. The next question might come from a seeker at the first step, and the reply would include an invitation to move to the second step.
The information offered to the second seeker would seemingly contradict what was offered to the first seeker, so visitors who have come here for decades have asked questions which showed how confused they were by the fact that Maharaj's statements to each visitor in his loft were "level-appropriate" yet were provided in no precise order, resulting in what seemed to be an inconsistent message. So the process overall was confusing in that
** seekers were told to follow the "path back" in the same way that they "came in," except in reverse order, but
** pointers were not given in a specific, step-wise order at all. Maharaj did recognize the seven steps that are taught here, but by offering the teachings in an order that was dictated by the order in which questions were received from seekers who were at different steps on the "path," the result was this: a pointer about moving beyond the fourth step might be followed by a pointer about moving beyond the first step, and that pointer might be followed by a pointer about how to move beyond the sixth step. The same was done on this site for seven years.
The result is a collection of 1,600 or so essays discussing almost every non-duality topic that can be discussed, and the search button on the top right side of this page will now allow seekers with a question about a specific topic to find an explanation. That method, however, will never provide the manner in which the seven steps on the "path" must be transmitted and received in order to Realize Fully.
An objective study of the history here of more than twenty years of offering non-duality pointers reveals this: seekers that were given pointers in the exact order in which they needed to receive them were the ones that Realized. They read the books, then they completed the online course and / or completed seven Skype or telephone sessions or came here for a retreat (or watched the downloadable DVD version of an actual retreat, available below). Some found that which they were seeking by reading the author's book that deal with non-duality subject matter. Via all of those venues, the steps are taught in their proper order. The essays available on this site will remain for those interested in searching for a discussion of a particular non-duality topic without charge, but the focus here until mahasamadhi is taken is going to be on offering the teachings in the step-wise fashion that has been seen to "work."
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Click the picture for more information or to order)
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WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
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Floyd Henderson's Website
I. 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.
II. BY READING the explanations offered in the collection of non-duality books that are available on this site and at www.floydhenderson.com.
III. 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
IV. BY 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.
V. BY 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.
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Excerpts:
A NOTE TO THE READERS
Realization only came when one particular path was followed in one particular order. A vision came during a meditative session when the theta state of consciousness was reached. It laid out an exact, direct path from the false "I" to Realization; however, the vision made no sense to me at the time. Then, I began reading the transcripts of Advaita talks and they made clear the message of my vision. Talks on varied topics in varied orders eventually provided the understanding of each of the stages seen in the vision. The only thing remaining for an "Aha" moment to happen was to take his assortment of sharings and use them to understand the exact order to follow along the path. This book will offer to you the seven-step path to take and the order in which it has to be traveled.
After realization, a shift occurred in the way communication happened. In fact, instances of communication became fewer and farther between, and when the silence came, many noticed a shift. Some inquired as to the source and some came to hear more and some brought friends with them. A variety of questions were raised and the understanding was offered. Finally, it became clear that the Teaching should be presented in a more organized fashion, so a schedule of sessions was set up in which the seven steps would be offered in order. When one participant asked if her friend could tape the first session since she would have to miss that one, it was done. After that, all the exchanges were taped because a sense came that the 2001-2002 session might be the last. (A few of the exchanges that are included took place via e-mails or telephone conferences as well.)
Shortly after the last session, a retreat began that continues to this day. Days now pass mostly in the silence on the lake. Occasionally the Teachings are shared when contacted by e-mail or telephone, and on a website as well, but mainly the silence prevails. After realization, there was no path, no journey, no concepts...only the freedom of the Void and AS IF living afterwards. May you travel the path to freedom as well.
Finally, please note that a "Glossary of Terms" appears in the back of this book. The explanations and definitions are not those that will be found in Advaita lists that include the Far Eastern terms used by many gurus and teachers; instead, the terms are explained in ways that are relevant to this work in particular which tries to use everyday language when possible to provide as simple an explanation as possible while discussing what can be complicated subject matter.
Defining Advaita Vedanta
In its simplest form, "Advaita" is merely a system or an approach that can lead to Realization. Realization is what occurs when one becomes aware of all that he is not and eventually "Realizes" What He Really Is. The goal of the process is to allow people to eliminate all illusions and delusional thinking that result in dependence, in co-dependencies, in beliefs in superstitions, and in the mental and emotional dependence that results when we accept all the lies programmed into us through the culture's conditioning.
Mental and emotional restrictions occur when we adopt the ideas and beliefs of others without ever having truly investigated those attitudes. The Advaita approach allows us to become truly free. Being "truly free" refers to being free of the ideas, free of the emotional intoxication, and free of the beliefs that have been used to control us, to create fears in us, and to drive us to be influenced by illusions and lies. In its broadest use, "Vedanta" is simply that message that is beyond any written texts that are said to be "holy" or that claim to contain "truth." My own experience has shown that the truth is already within each individual and can be Realized when one experiences the Advaitic approach with a "guide" who has undergone that process, seen the false, and then comes to understand That-That Which Is Real.
The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality
Some Westerners will likely think that certain of the entries on this site have a "too philosophical" bent. No apology for that shall be offered since one must either find a working philosophy or be doomed to adopt their ideology instead, and my experience shows that nothing is more destructive than buying into their ideology. For the most part, however, the version of the Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) message that I offer has been characterized by one protege as being "Applied Advaita."
I will present the concepts of Non-Duality, yes, but eventually they are to be applied in everyday situations and used to bring peace and acceptance around the issues of the day. Ultimately, the concepts can be tossed, your everyday situations will be discarded, you will have no mind capable of being disturbed, and you will have no issues-du-jour. My teacher Sri Nisardagatta Maharaj was as direct and straight-forward as he could be while working in an Indian culture that tended to focus on its glossary of phrases and terms and words associated with Eastern philosophy. (That study, too, was a part of my "journey.")
Yet we must remember that the ultimate goal is for you to come to know You. You are invited to study the dilemma expressed in that "I don't even know who I am" complaint (which contains an ironic duality in itself, yes?) and come to Know the answer to the age-old question implied in that statement. Ultimately, your culture has created a seven-fold barrier that is separating you from Knowing THAT Which You Are. We'll discuss all seven eventually. The first of the Seven Degrees of Separation from the Knowledge of THAT Which You Are appears in the form of a manifested body. Offered as a meditation for today, therefore, I invite you to consider how the belief that you are a BODY might prevent your seeing the greater truth of Who or What You Truly Are. Are You your body?
PLEASE NOTE: The terms "wet charcoal" "dry charcoal," and "gunpowder" will be mentioned. You will read pointers that are offered at times in the discussions that will seemingly contradict what you might read in other books or on the Advaita website referenced earlier on the copyright page. Beginners (the wet group) will be given one piece of advice, those farther along the path (the dry group) will be given other pointers, and those who need only a few additional points for the truth to explode into consciousness (the gunpowder group) will be offered something different.
STEP ONE
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY:
Body Identification
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part One
"The Arms-Legs-Organs" Consideration can help people become free of the limiting, false belief that they are the body. Of the various self-concepts that block most humans from Realizing Who We Truly Are, body identification is the most basic and least sophisticated identity. Belief that one is the body preempts engagement in Self-Inquiry and-unless transcended-will prevent one from ever coming to know THAT Which We Absolutely Are. I offer the consideration now to you: If you were to lose your right arm, would You still be You?
You would still be You, right, even without that arm? If you were to lose your left arm, would You still be You? You would still be You, even without that arm...correct? If you were to lose your left leg, would You still be You? You would still be You, right, even without that leg? If you lose your other leg, wouldn't You still be You? You would still be You, right, even without that leg? Would You still be You if you have a heart transplant? You would still be You, yes? If you have a lung transplant, are You still You? You would still be You, right, even without your original lung or your original heart?
And if you looked into your own eyes in a mirror, wouldn't You still know that You are You, even though your physical body is only a shadow of what it once was? Then...Who Are You? Who or What You Truly Are must be something beyond the physical body.
If more than half of what most consider to be "you" were to be lost, Who Is That You that remains? Moreover, Who is that You that is sensing that You would still be You, and would still be complete, even after the loss of four body appendages and the replacement of two original organs? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part Two
With those first beginning a journey of Self-Inquiry, my teacher always addressed the illusion of body identification, so I too begin with that beginning. What's the problem with thinking you are your body? That misconception leads to chaotic behavior, insane conduct, and problems in relationship...especially with yourself. Regarding problems with others, occasional chances for a respite occur, but the problems with yourself are 24/7; worse, they not only create occasional misery and grief but often result in self-destructive behaviors as well.
Body identification can be chaotic and even fatal. Here's how. I once had a dog that, when it saw its reflection in a mirror, would go ballistic. He fought with that false self, biting at the mirror and trying to destroy himself/his own reflection. (In humans identified with their bodies, the deep-seated need to destroy the ego and false roles and to be true to Self is a subconscious, driving force that leads to self-destructive behavior or even suicidal assaults against the physical body. If I am my body and I am having overwhelming problems, then the way to be rid of those is to be rid of the body, so the unconscious, fallacious reasoning goes.
In fact, one need not be free of the body to be content, merely free of body identification and other false identifications as well. The goal of Advaita Vedanta is to use preemptive strikes to eliminate the notion that the illusion is real, for illusions incite all insane, destructive behavior.) Of course when my dog looked at an image and became fear-based and angry, he was never seeing anything but a reflection; however, once he took the reflection to be real and separate and threatening-thinking the reflection to be an "other"-he fought the foolish fight. (Humans do the same. They fight the foolish fight when they see reflections or illusions that they take to be the real.) Despite my greatest efforts to help the dog realize that what he thought he was seeing was not the real, he reacted as do most humans: If I can see something right before my very eyes, you are the one who must be insane to suggest it's not real.
How does believing in an illusion complicate one's life? The dog illustrates the point perfectly. When he took the image to be real, the dog tried to make himself appear even tougher. He adopted a phony persona and behaved more violently. He tried to appear to be even more intimidating than the image that he thought real; thus, he became even more aggressive. The more the illusion seemed to be attacking him, the greater his counterattack. The greater his counterattack, the more real and threatening the illusion appeared to be. He was trapped in a vicious cycle of war, all based in image.
Persons are at war with themselves-with their false selves and false identities. Persons are at war with others, and those wars are based in illusion as well. By trying to appear to be tougher and to be something he was not, the dog reinforced the imaginary self in the mirror and became even more frightened, more confused, and more miserable. And the more frightened and confused and miserable he became, the more chaotic his life became and the more those around him were impacted by his chaos.
(Consider the result if persons in leadership positions were enlightened...not frightened by their faulty perceptions, not thinking that their illusions are real, and not utterly confused but completely logical instead. Imagine the effect if the Don Quixotes of the world Realized that the windmills are just windmills and that they are not threatening opponents. The leaders could then stop their jousting and those around them would no longer be impacted by the war and the chaos that the unenlightened create. That is what "Applied Advaita" would look like.)
But what about you? You now see the irony with my dog, correct? There never was any duality. All his madness was based in misconception and illusion. There was the "real thing" and a perceived image. Such is the case with persons. To believe that one is the body is to believe that "others" are separate and threatening and that the illusions and images reflected before one's eyes are real. As with the dog, just because a person can see a body does not mean that it is real, and just because a person can see the body does not mean that it defines Who or What He or She Really Is.
Is it seen that all duality is false, based as duality is in supposing that one or more real parts can co-exist with one or more other parts that are illusions? No "parts" exist and no illusion can "exist." It really is just illusion. Only the One Is Real, and by removing the Seven Degrees of Separation that prevent most from ever finding what The One Is, you will ultimately find the Real You...your True Self. Your body is not It. Are you seeing the lie of duality and the truth of Non-Duality more clearly?
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part Three
[The discussion of the illusion of body identification will continue via transcriptions of exchanges during workshops conducted during 2001-2002]:
Questioner: The "Arms-Legs-Arms Consideration" has shown me something, but I'm not sure what."
F: "Ha. OK. Hopefully, the consideration first reveals that you are not the body and then, secondly, inspires you to ask, 'Well, if I'm not my body, Who or What am I?' The body is momentary. That which is fleeting cannot be the Real. Consider the similarity with a melted ice cube that seems to have 'gone' or 'disappeared' when placed in a glass of hot water. In fact, that which 'the cube' truly Is did not 'go' or 'disappear': all of the pairs of hydrogen atoms that had grouped with various oxygen atoms still remain. Only the appearance of the form that those atoms had manifested in for a time led to the misconception that the cube was destroyed. As with the cube, when the body 'dies' and 'dissolves' away, the appearance of the form alters but all the elements from which the body was composed still remain. What 'disappeared' was an image wrongly perceived. In the 'Arms-Legs-Organs exercise,' the arms, legs, and some original organs of your manifested form seem to disappear, but just as the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of the cube remain, so remains That Which You Truly Are. You sensed that truth during the exercise. You did sense that You would still be You, right?"
Q.: "Yes."
F.: "Then what is That which you sense is remaining-even after arms, legs, and organs are gone?"
Q.: "I sense that I still exist."
F.: "Yes. You sense that You still Are. Specifically, You sense the 'I Am' or Your 'I Amness,' which we'll discuss later. Another way of understanding the results of the exercise would be to say that 'You experienced Your presence.' You experienced the truth of the fact that 'something' would be present even after most of the physical parts of 'you'-of your body-disappear. During the experiment, you are not sensing your complete body-for much of it is gone-but you are sensing a complete presence. That is what you are aware of when, even without those appendages and organs, you know that You Are still You."
Q.: "OK."
F.: "If you understood that pointer totally, no more would need to be heard, but too much remains to block that full understanding. So, we continue. Next, since we have seen that there is no duality, that there is no subject-object duality, Who (or What) can you now conclude knows that consciousness?"
Q.: (Questioning look)
F.: "Let me put it to you another way. What remains after the body parts are gone that is sensing that presence? What is conscious of that presence?"
Q.: "I don't know."
F.: "That's close! Ha. That which knows the presence or the consciousness of Self, since there is no duality, has to be...CONSCIOUSNESS! It's simple! It is that unprogrammed, unconditioned, prior consciousness that senses Itself in the manifest form which you call your physical body. Wordsworth wrote his 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality' after he had sensed his 'infinite Self.' The arms-legs-organs exercise affords you that same opportunity: to become intimate with Your Immortal or Infinite Self. (Later, we'll even amend that concept.) That Is What I Truly Am, and always have Been, and always will Be-hang the body. In the process of Self-Inquiry, we see the false, we see the mirages, we see the images, we see the "not real," and we thereby come to know what we are not. The exercise in intended to help you see first what you are not and then sense that You Are something beyond the body. You actually sensed Your own presence remaining, even after much of the body was discarded during the exercise. If you got even that much from the exercise, then you have received the basic benefit: you have been prepared to ask the next logical question. And what would that be?"
Q.: "Well, as you said earlier: if I'm not the body, then What Am I?"
F: "Exactly."
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
An excerpt:
CHAPTER ONE
The Audience
This book is for those who have understood completely the teachings offered in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and for those who have completed all seven steps along the path to Realization. If Self-Realization has not yet happened, and if an understanding of the Absolute is not complete, then you might want to read FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE first. If you have Realized, then you are ready to begin a consideration of the pointers in this book.
This book is not for the novice, not for those at the wet charcoal stage, not for those at the dry charcoal stage, and not even for those at the gunpowder stage. It is for those who have already experienced that explosion which reveals all lies to be lies and that blows away the belief in any and all concepts. It is for those who are ready for the Final Understanding.
Before beginning the book, the reader is invited to take into contemplation and consideration the following pointers on Consciousness and on Awareness that were offered by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (with some commentaries added). The contemplation can provide stimuli for considering far more about Consciousness and Awareness than most will ever consider:
ON CONSCIOUSNESS
Understand then, that it is this conscious presence that you are, so long as the body is there. Once your body is gone, along with the vital breath, consciousness also will leave. Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-cum-consciousness, the Absolute, the ever-present, is your true identity. That is what we all really are. That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone reaching for it?
Maharaj made clear that, if the Understanding comes, no person will remain who could try to meddle in the play of consciousness. He also affirmed that there is no omniscient creator that is meddling in the play. All is merely happening spontaneously. How did he define spirituality then? Spirituality is merely understanding that (1) a spontaneous play is happening, (2) recognizing the play is a fraud, and then (3) finding the basis of the play.
Maharaj was asked, Where does consciousness come from? He answered, It never comes or goes; it just appears to have come.
He was also asked, Where is the seat of consciousness. He replied, In every particle of the juice of the body.
ON AWARENESS
I told the consciousness, It is you who is suffering, not I.
Awareness is not aware of its awareness.
Maharaj explained that That Which He Truly Is was prior to consciousness. He made clear that there is no he to experience anything or do anything and that what persons take to be an experience is actually just the consciousness experiencing itself.
He explained that the Realized understand that the world, indeed the entire universe, exists in Consciousness alone. Neither the world nor the universe is real, and both only seem to appear in Consciousness. Knowing that, he was able to take his stand in the Absolute. In the Absolute, no Consciousness of the I-Amness or the Beingness or the Is-ness happens. In the Absolute, there are neither thoughts nor words nor deeds. The Absolute is prior to all of that…is prior to Consciousness.
Among the non-Realized, the consciousness has become identified with the space or form. A few move beyond body identification. Fewer still reach an understanding of what lies beyond the body-mind-personality identities. Even fewer will come to know the source that is beyond all acculturation, programming, and conditioning of the consciousness.
I am really not manifested. Can you live like that, as the non-manifest?
Now transcendence of the consciousness has also occurred. With the appearance of consciousness, the Absolute knows it is, I Am.
Even this primary concept, I-am-ness, is dishonest, just because it is still only a concept. Finally, one has to transcend that also and be in the nirvikalpa state, which means the concept-free state. Then you have no concept at all, not even of "I am." In that state one does not know that one is.
Full Realization, contrary to Self-Realization, is the same as Total Enlightenment, that is, understanding that You Are the Light. Not only does abidance then happen beyond the I am but it also happens beyond the I.
CHAPTER TWO
An Overview of Consciousness / Awareness
All is matter or energy. Neither was created. Neither can be destroyed. Thus, Consciousness was not created by anyone, nor was it created by any Supreme One.
Just as a mirage is a phenomenal manifestation that can be witnessed by the naked eye, that which it appears to be can vary from one witness to the next. The identification of what a mirage is remains open to interpretation, depending upon the imaginings of the observer of the image. In the end, though, it really is just an image. The same happens when consciousness is perceived by the naked eye and is imagined to be something that it is not, such as I am this body.
Does the body/space/form play a role in the manifestation process? Of course, but with no more significance than the space or form known as a plant plays a role in the manifestation process. Thus Maharaj’s point that the seat of consciousness is in every particle of the juice of the body. The body can be perceived, just as a mirage can be seen, but that does not mean that either is what it is perceived to be. Both are frauds, images only.
Thus, while seekers at one level can be told that Consciousness is all there is, at this highest level, another understanding is presented: that which is perceived is not That Which is Real, and even That Which is perceiving is not the Real, either. Maharaj explained that the Realized understand that the world, indeed the entire universe, exists in Consciousness alone; but since that which persons take to be this world or the universe is not the reality that it is taken to be via consciousness, then consciousness is the perpetrator of myths as well. If the world that the I Am takes to be its place of existence is a lie, then the I am is also a lie.
Since neither the world nor the universe is real, both only seem to appear in Consciousness. Knowing that, the Realized take their stand in the Absolute. In the Absolute, no Consciousness of the I-Amness or the Beingness or the Is-ness happens. In the Absolute, there are neither thoughts nor words nor deeds. The Absolute is prior to all of that - is prior to Consciousness.
Recall that Maharaj said, Understand then, that it is this conscious presence that you are, so long as the body is there. Once your body is gone, along with the vital breath, consciousness also will leave. Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-cum-consciousness, the Absolute, the ever-present, is your true identity. That is what we all really are. That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone reaching for it?
He said, Awareness is not aware of its awareness. How dissociated was he from body identification., While that space was in the throes of the physical pain of debilitating cancer, he said, "I told the consciousness, It is you who is suffering, not I."
Once consciousness manifests, the Absolute knows it is, knows I Am, but among the Fully Realized, transcendence of the consciousness has occurred. Only when abidance happens as the Absolute can peace happen every day.
This book will explain how Consciousness and Awareness relate to I Am THAT; I AM and will define the exact Nature of Reality, will offer explanations that will allow Full Realization to happen, will allow for an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality, and will assist all earnest seekers to find the way to fixate in a state of peace from NOW until the Consciousness Unmanifests.
An excerpt:
Consideration
Regarding one character in a Michael Connelly novel: "He was long past believing in God-the horrors he had seen documented had little by little sapped his stores of faith.... And in those seemingly final days, as his own heart withered and tapped out its final cadences, he did not grasp desperately for his lost faith as a shield or a means of easing the fear of the unknown. Instead, he was accepting of the end, of his own nothingness. He was ready. It was easy to do."
CHAPTER ONE
The Audience
This book is for those who have understood completely the teachings offered in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and in CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS.
As with those two works, this book is not for the novice, not for those at the "wet charcoal" stage, not for those at the "dry charcoal" stage, and not even for those at the "gunpowder stage." It is for those who have already experienced that "explosion" which reveals all lies to be lies and that blows away the belief in any and all concepts. It is for those who are ready for Understanding "The Nothingness."
Dennis Waite wrote, "As ever, in the philosophy of Advaita, the teaching is graded to suit the level of understanding of the student - and it is no use trying to 'jump levels' if we have not yet grasped the lower level principles."
Therefore, it will also be of no use for any seeker to try to 'jump levels' and understand the pointers in this book if he has not read and understood the pointers in the two books mentioned above that lay the foundation on which these principles rest.
Dennis continued, "All levels of identification must be transcended and this should be done in a controlled and stepwise manner that has been validated through millennia of teaching. Attractive though it might seem, it is not possible to jump straight to the end."
Rightly put. All levels of identification must be transcended, and this book will discuss the means by which such transcendence can happen.
Waite also explained that "in reality, there is no karma, no saMskAra, no puruShArtha because there is no person who could have them. They are all teaching devices used to bring the student to a realization of the truth by means of carefully gauged, progressive levels of understanding."
This book offers pointers on the final level of such understanding.
Finally, Dennis wrote, "It is the perennial problem of the teacher to be able to judge where the student currently is in his or her understanding and lead them onwards from there. This is why a living 'guru' is really needed, so that questions may be asked and answered face to face."
Two opportunities exist for such tutelage:
http://advaitaclasses.blogspot.com/
and
http://advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com/
Also, at the end of this book is an Overview which provides the suggested order in which the various Advaita-related books can be read.
CHAPTER TWO
Introductory Considerations
According to the earliest Native Teachings, that which is "true" is only the space between exhalation and inhalation. Advaita teachers agree that truth cannot be spoken. Because inhaling and exhaling is a meaningless occurrence involving a temporary combination of earth elements, it is in the silence between those actions that "truth" can be understood in the moment of non-action. Quiet meditation, therefore, was intended not to still the "mind" but to focus on the nothingness during that breathless span of freedom from body and "mind" activity, wherein truth can be realized during that empty moment.]
CHAPTER THREE
IDENTIFICATION:
Something, or No Thing?
The content of this book is for those who have the same belief system as one seeker who reacted to a pointer regarding the fact that no true "identity" really exists:
No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.
He was told, "First, the way in which you use the word 'identity' would need to be clarified, and there are likely some additional subconscious usages that you are not even aware of. Do you mean 'the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity'? Realized Advaitins understand that there is no personality and that no entity persists.
"Or do you mean, 'the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known'? Realized Advaitins know that 'the individual' is a bogus concept, that 'characteristics' are fiction since they deal with personality, and that persons/personas are nothing more than assumptions generated via corrupted consciousness.
"Or do you mean, 'That which describes objects in a manner that distinguishes them from other objects'? Realized Advaitins understand that 'one as opposed to others' is dualistic and thus false.
"You likely are not referring to 'the individual sense of importance in a social context,' but might you be referring to 'self-knowledge about one's characteristics or personality,' that is, to 'a sense of self'? Surely not.
"So consider: if you are referring to 'True Self-knowledge' or to 'a sense of True Self,' then you are still dealing with a false identity. How could that possibly be false? Because the terms 'True Self' or 'Real Self' are frequently misused (even by many Advaitins or would-be Advaitins). Many now use the terms to point to the noumenon or to the Absolute in an effort to support the existence of a Self-cum-continuity, even while agreeing that no self can have continuity.
"Likely, your stance is that, while the phenomenal is that which is physically manifested and observable by one or more of the five senses, some other sense is employed to recognize that an identifiable Self exists beyond physical manifestation. At the elementary level, when a protege is taking the first steps on the 'path' to Realization, that idea is often allowed by teachers.
At the more advanced level, though, it is understood that the True Self is merely the second of two witnessing modes, the pure
or re-purified consciousness that knows ItSelf and knows the Oneness (as opposed to subject-object witnessing). That Pure Witnessing Consciousness sees no 'others' and is incapable of any dualistic misperception, yet it's entire functioning is still dependent upon its manifestation. Thus, even that 'True Self' is limited and is not an 'eternal identity.'
"Further, that 'True Self' is not 'God,' though many who have morphed this philosophy into a religion will defend that Self-God concept as well. Instead, the True Self is merely that pure consciousness which can look to the phenomenon and know that it is not as perceived, which can know that no self is real, and which can understand that no noumenal 'Self with identity' exists either.
"The pure consciousness understands that when the pronoun 'I' is employed as the pure consciousness speaks, it refers to that which is beyond beingness and beyond non-beingness; therefore, it is beyond 'I-ness' and identity as well. Krishna was very direct in stating that any who do not understand that are 'fools.' That which is beyond beingness and non-beingless must also be beyond self, Self, self-ness, Self-ness, no-self-ness, and even no-Self-ness.
"Of course, that pointer about 'fools' is misunderstood by most, understood by few, and hated by many. For those still trapped in the egotism that is generated by accepting and defending an identity (whether that might be an identity 'now' or an identity 'later'), let it be said that they have at least been fooled and continue to function from within that condition. The primary consideration must be, 'How can the state of zero concepts be reached if the concept of 'identity' is still being clung to'?"
1. An opportunity for seekers to be guided through the seven-step "journey" from identification with the false "I" (via the content of the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE) and to move beyond The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality";
2. An opportunity to understand the nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (with the content of the book CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS); and
3. An opportunity to understand that which was prior to the Absolute, namely, The Void, the Nothingness.
To reach all three of those levels of understanding is to allow the seeker to grasp Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's pointer that "wisdom is knowing that I am nothing."
For most seekers, the "journey" ends when they reach the third of seven steps as they move along the first-stage "path," specifically, the point at which they adopt a new persona ("The Spiritual One") and then never move any further.
There, Maharaj said, they engage in what he called "kindergarten-level spirituality" and they "mistake the dawn for the noonday sun." Only a few will truly understand the distinction between the consciousness and the awareness, and fewer still will be willing to abandon the notion that now they are Really Something and to consider the ultimate freedom of The Nothingness.
The book THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING is only for the few that are willing to consider that there is far more to grasp after having reached the third, spiritual step (which will only move them into the dim light of dawn"; for the few that have the slightest awareness that the brighter light of the full noonday sun awaits; and for the few that have some sense that the freedom and peace which come with abandonment of the notion that they are Really Something will allow for the full shift into the no-concept, no-identity, non-dual Reality.
In THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING, the author discusses:
A. The myths of a "Prior Me" and a "Post-Manifestation Me";
B. The myths of "You-ness," "Me-ness," and "Them-ness";
C. Krishna's pointers about that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness;
D. Abandonment of "the personal" and "The Personal" and an understanding of Presence instead;
E. The composite unity (elements, breath, conscious-energy);
F. The sixteen shifts in awareness which must happen in a step-wise fashion for misunderstandings to be abandoned and for the final understanding to manifest;
G. The pointers about religion and spirituality that were offered by Maharaj which allow seekers (who are trapped at the third step while playing their "new and improved persona or personas") to move along the entire "path" and then reach the final understanding;
H. A distinction between supernatural, unnatural, and nisarga (natural) living;
and much more.
This anthology of four books by Floyd Henderson contains the volumes that make up what has been called "The Advanced Seekers' Series" for those seeking Realization via the Advaita teachings:
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.
FROM THE AUTHOR
This anthology contains four books that many seekers have used along their "path" as they moved to Full Realization.
The four-book series offers the following:
1. An opportunity for seekers to be guided through the seven-step "journey" from identification with the false "I" (via the content of the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE) and to move beyond "The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality";
2. An opportunity to understand the nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (with the content of the book CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS);
3. An opportunity to understand that which was prior to the Absolute, namely, The Void, the Nothingness; and then
4. An opportunity to reach the Ultimate and Final Understanding.
To master all four of those levels of understanding is to enable the seeker to grasp Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's pointer that "wisdom is knowing that I am nothing."
For most seekers, the "journey" ends when they reach the third of seven steps as they move along the first-stage "path," specifically, the point at which they adopt a new persona ("The Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant") and then never move any further.
There, Maharaj said, they engage in what he called "kindergarten-level spirituality" and they "mistake the dawn for the noonday sun."
Only a few will truly understand the distinction between the consciousness and the awareness, and fewer still will be willing to abandon the notion that now they are Really Something and to consider the ultimate freedom of The Nothingness.
A synopsis of the four books follows:
BOOK ONE
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Most of the so-called "Spiritual Masters" addressed at one time or another all of the steps that must be taken to shift from identifying with the false "I" to abiding as the Absolute, yet they did not present or explain the steps in the exact order in which they must be taken if Realization is to happen.
While all of the steps (or "stages" to use Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's term) have been discussed for centuries, this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from "the lie of the I" to Full Realization.
Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original, easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers.
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga.
Regards on your "journey" to Full Realization.
BOOK TWO
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization
(Peace Every Day When Abiding as the Absolute)
One of the "final frontiers" of the Advaita Teachings is transitioned when the Nature of Reality is understood and when the Advaita Teachings are "applied" on a daily basis even in the absence of any "Applier."
The Final Understanding happens post-Self-Realization, but the nature of Reality cannot be understood until the nature of Consciousness / Awareness is understood. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness allows for abidance in the I AM, but what of THAT Which Is beyond, and that which is beyond the beyond?
Only abidance as the Absolute (and later, the Nothingness) allows for the remainder of the manifestation of Consciousness to happen in Perfect Peace.
BOOK THREE
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
An understanding of the pointers offered in this book can allow the advanced seeker to shift even beyond SELF-Realization, even beyond an understanding of Consciousness and Awareness, and to an understanding of that which preceded the Absolute.
The content of this book can, in fact, allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the Reality of "no concept," of "no duality," of "no something," and even of "no nothing."
The Advaita Teachings offer an invitation to be free of all concepts, all beliefs, and all ideas in order to be totally free. Yet how many reach that "state," and how many who reach that "state" are able to fixate in that understanding and truly be free and thereby at peace?
This book will offer details of the way that can happen.
Consideration
Regarding one character in a Michael Connelly novel: "He was long past believing in God - the horrors he had seen documented had, little by little, sapped his stores of faith. In those seemingly final days, as his own heart withered and tapped out its final cadences, he did not grasp desperately for his lost faith as a shield or a means of easing the fear of the unknown. Instead, he was accepting of the end, of his own nothingness. He was ready. It was easy to do."
BOOK FOUR
The book THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING is
(a) for the few that are willing to consider that there is far more to grasp after having reached the third, spiritual step (which will only move seekers as far as "the dim light of dawn");
(b) for the few that have even the slightest awareness that the brighter light of the full noonday sun awaits; and
(c) for the few that have some sense that the freedom and peace which come with abandonment of the notion that they are Really Something will allow for the full shift into the no-concept, no-identity, non-dual Reality.
In THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING, the author discusses:
A. The myths of a "Prior Me" and a "Post-Manifestation Me";
B. The myths of "You-ness," "Me-ness," and "Them-ness";
C. Krishna's pointers about that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness;
D. Abandonment of "the personal" and "The Personal" and an understanding of Presence instead;
E. The truth of the composite unity (elements, breath, conscious-energy) as opposed to the falsehood of the triad of body-mind-personality;
F. The sixteen shifts in awareness which must happen in a step-wise fashion for misunderstandings to be abandoned and for the final understanding to manifest;
G. The pointers about religion and spirituality that were offered by Maharaj which allow seekers (who are trapped at the third step while playing their "new and improved persona or personas") to move along the entire "path" and then reach the final understanding;
H. A distinction between supernatural, unnatural, and nisarga (natural) living; and much more.
WHO IS FLOYD HENDERSON? (by Louise Sterling, Cape Town, South Africa)
The literary tradition is to preface a book with a biographical snapshot of the author as a person. What can be said then, about the Advaitin Teacher, who has moved beyond personal biography?
To describe the person or the personal (the date of birth, the nationality, the job, the interests, the home, the child, the books read, the path followed) is to describe the attributes that actually take us further away from uncovering the teacher's identity.
The reality is that this "Who Is ..." question itself brings us to deeper and more authentic questions. What is this understanding in which the teacher resides? The state of Realization is not different from teacher to teacher. That Self-Knowledge is unchanging. In this way, there is no difference between a Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Floyd Henderson, or any other Realized teacher.
The Realisation of SELF means the shattering of the shell of separation so that the non-dual nature of Reality is directly known. How can this be different from person to person? Only in the ABSENCE of the person is this nature revealed. In this way, Floyd Henderson invites us to strip away all that is personal, all that is dualistic, all that separates us from this understanding of Oneness – from our True Selves.
The summative statement "I AM THAT; I AM" describes that understanding of SELF in absolute terms as well as its expression in the relative. Floyd Henderson is THAT – just like all human beings; however, Floyd is fixed unshakably in this understanding, so all functioning, relatively speaking, flows directly from this SELF-Knowledge.
In this way, the biographical details (such as, "born" in Louisiana; moved to Texas; worked as a teacher and business owner over several decades before taking early retirement to write; father of a daughter named Ashley; current resident in the community of Walden on Lake Conroe in Texas; years of seeking followed by twenty-five months in the forest dweller stage and experiencing a vision that resulted in the dramatic peripetia or flash of Realization; functioning as a Direct Path, Nisargan teacher; and author of over forty Advaita books) are the attributes or flavourings which coloured the pure consciousness in the particular shape and form at the relative level.
Yet, these attributes are false ingredients. They cannot provide a true answer to the question "Who is Floyd Henderson?" because he recognizes no who-ness at all ... believes in no "who" that is living "here" at all. He once explained it this way when asked if he was ever bothered by people:
"... How could persons possibly bother Me? They do not have even the slightest clue about where I truly live. Only a few on the entire planet called "earth" have a clue. Some might enter what is called 'floyd's house' or 'floyd's home,' but that is not where I live; in fact, 'where' I live has nothing to do with a 'where' at all.
In this regard, there is actually only the 'how.' 'How' I abide is as the awareness, as the Original Nature, as the natural state which has no boundaries, which has no defining traits, and which does not change. 'How' I abide is without conditions or conditioning, without qualifications, and without limitations.
I can seem to be 'here' one second and 'there' the next, but that is about 'how-ness,' not any actual 'here-ness' or 'there-ness.' I am not confined to a space or form; furthermore, I can enter other spaces and forms, and do so regularly (as might happen the instant You read these words).
Abiding beyond consciousness and beyond beingness and beyond non-beingness, I can span the globe ... I can span the universe ... I have spanned all universes. Yet such 'while manifested' spannings seldom happen anymore, requiring far more energy than is worth the effort, and it most assuredly need not happen with You.
As for Me, abidance will continue to happen in a whole and unadulterated and unambiguous manner until the consciousness unmanifests. Until that happens, then abidance will happen as Reality is overlaid on the relative without exception. When the consciousness unmanifests, then the drop shall enter the ocean of energy from which it came and will span the Absolute;
Awareness shall be, but aware of-ness shall not. Later, other universes might be spanned as well, or might not. Yet all of that is stated, so it, too, cannot be the Truth which You know but do not yet know that You know. Tap into the source and know Truth, but even then, do not suppose that You will be able to express Truth in words."
Thus, Floyd describes the AM-ness regarding "floyd" as a "composite unity" of an elemental plant food body that is circulating air and that is temporarily housing the manifested consciousness.
The THAT-ness he sees as a field of energy from which the conscious-energy manifests and to which it will return.
As for identification with any WHO-ness, he discarded that when identification with the Nothingness came, followed eventually by not even identifying with Nothing - or anything else.
BOOK INFORMATION
"The Advanced Seekers' Series" is an anthology of four books that share Advaita-based, non-duality pointers that can guide seekers to abide as their Original Nature.
Literally, "Advaita" means "not two." If one studies the front cover of this anthology, light can be seen in two areas of the picture. One is the actual source of light; the other is merely reflected light. One is real; the other merely appears to be real.
In actuality, there are "not two" light sources. There is only one, but "the world" encourages persons to see two, to see dualities, to see multiplicities. The result is that few will ever understand the Truth of the Oneness that is beyond such misperceptions.
Most might glimpse the Real and also see "the not real," but they will take both to be authentic. The Realized see that one light is real, that the other is merely a reflection, and that any belief in duality is erroneous.
The non-Realized - those separated from authenticity - will misperceive and take both the real and appearances to be as they seem. To clarify the distinction, the author once shared what he saw from his balcony one evening as a storm approached:
Walkways cross the green terrace that leads down to the lake, and all along those paths, round lights mounted on posts illuminate the way. As the storm clouds brought darkness, the bulbs lit up automatically.
As rain puddled in the walkways, the lights began to cast diagonal reflections of themselves. The Realized understand that the reflections are not the real light and they see the actual light source in the background. Yet they also understand that there is something even beyond that which is housing the light, namely, a form of energy.
The author invites all to see that which is beyond the reflections in consciousness and to know What Is Real vs. what only appears to be so, for it is misperceiving and delusions that set the stage for ignorance (rather than wisdom) to drive the thoughts and words and deeds of the non-Realized masses.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR (Andrew Gugar, Jr.)
Before I found the Advaita teachings, both my seeking and my life were totally disorganized. I had read over two hundred books during my search which began around the age of eleven or twelve. All of the content of those books was very confusing. Why?
While some presented teachings that seemed in the beginning to be of value, in the end they proved useless because none of the pointers were organized in a way to offer in a step-by-step manner the route that had to be followed to move away from identification with the false "I" and return to My Original Nature.
It became clear that - in my case - I required a teacher that could offer such an explanation and that could be available to answer my many questions along the way.
Though my reading left me a supposed "expert" is subjects dealing with the brain and the mind and psychology and psychiatry, there was no understanding at all of the functioning of the totality.
So my searching continued for many more years, moving from one book to the next and from one religion to the next and from one spiritual movement to the next and from one philosophy to the next. I studied Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism - you name it - I studied it.
It is suspected that many may have traveled as arduous a road as the one I traveled, but few likely traveled a more arduous route than the one I traveled during my years of seeking.
The searching in one venue after another continued until an acquaintance shared certain profound pointers that seemed to resonance deeply within me.
I asked what he was talking about ... asked if the pointers he was sharing were associated with any particular philosophy or religion that I could further investigate. He answered, "What I'm sharing is what is called 'a non-dual perspective'."
"What is that?" I asked.
"Basically, the simplest teaching is that everything is one."
That made little sense, but it did seem to reverberate at some spot deep inside me. Eventually, intuition was re-awakened and there was some sort of "psychic consciousness" that began to vibrate when non-duality pointers were being considered.
After being given some labels for further investigation - specifically, "non-duality" and "Advaita" - it soon became clear that I needed to find a capable Advaita teacher.
The irony was that, as I began searching for a teacher, all of the online sites promoting and ranking various teachers were actually reinforcing duality ... ranking this one as "best" and that one as "good" and that other one as "not so adept." Instead of focusing on how we could eliminate our beliefs in hierarchies and separation and judgment, they were promoting all of those.
So I left the listings and began googling "Advaita" and found a blog site where Floyd Henderson was offering daily postings of non-dual pointers.
I began investigating this guy, wondering who he thought he was to be posting pointers about Advaita. He was not even from the Far East. Worse, my investigations uncovered the fact that this guy lived in Texas.
Being yet embroiled in ego, I asked, "Who does this guy living outside of Houston, Texas think he is ... acting like he 'knows it all' about these teachings?" I concluded, "Heck, I live in Texas. I guarantee I already know as much about non-duality as any other person living in Texas. Who from Texas could offer anything about this eastern philosophy?"
Then I clicked the link for the retreats he offered and saw that, of even greater offense, he wanted to charge a fee for retreats where he teaches non-duality. (At the time, it did not register that I was not providing free meals to everyone who entered one of the restaurants in the chain I own.)
[NOTE: What Andy is not revealing here is all of the altruistic and philanthropic projects and charities which he has funded for years, offering assistance to the downtrodden and suffering.]
A year would pass, and more and more searching continued, but at least once a week, the name "Floyd Henderson" came into the forefront of consciousness.
As much as I tried to ignore the name, it would not leave me, so after a year of continued seeking even after having first found his name and websites, I finally went back to his Advaita blog site, looked at the cost of a retreat with him, and concluded, differently this time, "Well, actually it really is only a nominal fee he is charging, and he does have to pay his bills."
So it came to me, "What if this guy just might have what you've been looking for all of your life?" I determined that I might as well spend a few dollars - a small amount really in comparison to the fortune I had already spent during decades of seeking and searching ... all with no permanent results at all.
Right now, it is giving me cold chills just reflecting on that decision and what happened afterwards. I had reached a point where I felt as if I were going to pop right out of my skin from all of the suffering and misery and anxiety and stress that had characterized my existence.
For me, it had to get so bad that I became willing and ready - ready to give up all of the ideas and beliefs that had served me not at all and to seek the Truth that was obviously beyond all of the concepts I had ever taken to be the truth.
Eventually, I went to a retreat at Floyd's home and left three days later having found that I was not only willing to give up all of those concepts but had become willing to give up this fear-based "andy" that had been at the root of my problems.
Now, I look back and laugh. Before the time spent in Floyd's home, I hated to wake up in the morning. Now, I can't wait to get up and enjoy every day.
I was raised to believe that Jesus had the answers that people need. At Floyd's retreat, I found out that in many cases, he did, but the answers were not the ones I was taught in church.
I found that "the later Jesus" who returned to Jerusalem was sharing the non-dual, Advaita teachings - teachings I had heard on occasion when I was younger but that no one in the church could or would explain to me when I asked about those statements.
I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to "go ahead and die now."
Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must "die."
I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
As I entered, I shouted, "Knock knock ... anybody home?" He yelled back, "No." I got it ... I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body ... nobody.
I came to understood that everything merely cycles and that timelines are a fraud, and Floyd also taught me the meaning of every part of his vision, and I learned by way of the eagle the difference in Subject-Object Witnessing and Pure Witnessing.
Why am I making this anthology available for all seekers to use now and to be available long after "floyd" and "andy" have taken mahasamadhi are "gone"? First, because the books in this anthology offer the step-by-step process by which Realization can happen and, secondly, because the books helped me in that undertaking.
I want to preserve Floyd's vision and his writings for all who are seeking. I decided to support the printing of this anthology to make his teachings and methods available - to all that might be interested - because of what happened with me after sitting with Floyd and receiving the message that came by way of his step-by-step method which I realized was exactly what I had been seeking all of my life.
I am taking the action to help make these books available to interested seekers because I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if the understanding offered in these books - and Floyd's other books - could come to me, then the understanding can come to almost anyone.
May you allow the pure consciousness to see and receive the content of the works in this anthology and then also receive as a result the blissful freedom that came to me via the content of these and the other writings by Floyd Henderson.
This anthology contains the six books that make up what has been called "The Blissful Abidance Series" for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including these books:
1. What BLISS Is and What BLISS Is Not
2. There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind"
3. Liberation
4. Freedom From Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness
5. Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full
and
6. When REALITY Is Overlaid Upon the RELATIVE
The series offers an opportunity for seekers to understand what bliss is and what bliss is not; to understand why one must reach a zero-concept, no-mind state if any degree of peace is to manifest; to understand how to be liberated from the bliss-negating influence of personality; to understand how to fixate in the bliss rather than fluctuating constantly between states of happiness and unhappiness; to understand why freedom must be built from a position of emptiness and neutrality; and to find how to overlay Reality on the relative so that the relative can be enjoyed more fully.
How many seekers are frustrated by not having attained bliss? How many seekers think that they have failed or that their teacher has failed? The problem lies in all of the misunderstandings about bliss, so the author explains what bliss actually is and what bliss is not. To understand that distinction is to provide the opportunity to finally relax and take it easy.
The author also shows how originally the mind was a constructive tool but has become a tool of destruction and self-destruction. Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly noted that the main problem among the masses centers in the mind; this book addresses the remedy.
Also, this book also studies the nine most basic persona types and offers the way to be free of the influences of personality; furthermore, almost all persons on the planet are seeking, but most are trapped in the fluctuations between happiness and unhappiness. The source of fluctuations and chaos are discussed along with the means by which they can end.
Finally, the content of this book shows what the relative existence looks like if Reality is overlaid upon it as well as what it will be like if that does not happen.
This book has been written for several reasons:
1. To address some of the confusion about pointers offered by Maharaj which seemed to be contradictory but were not;
2. To explain why Maharaj's (a) "early" message and practices differed from (b) some of the teachings offered during the middle years and from (c) some of the messages offered in the last years that he conducted satsang;
3. To show why those who only read the transcripts of some of his talks will only receive a part of the total message he offered;
4. To address why criticisms of some of his protégés are based in the critics' misunderstanding;
and
5. As a means by which those who are considering a visit to this author can be pre-qualified so that they will know in advance which "version" of Maharaj's varied teachings they will be hearing.
First, it should be made clear how
(a) that speck of consciousness called "Maharaj" and
(b) the varied teachings he offered over the years were just like ...
... the elephant in the story of "The Blind Men and an Elephant."
In that story, several blind men are touching an elephant in order to learn what an elephant is like. Because each man touches a different part, and because each man only touches one part rather than all of the parts, then the conclusions that they draw about what an elephant is like are all in error. They learn when they share their finding that they are in complete disagreement, and their disagreements actually generated conflict and even violence.
The misunderstandings about his methods and the evolution of his focus have also generated conflict and criticism of both Maharaj and some of his disciples, even as others hold him in such high esteem that they seem to worship him and his words. (All of that he would call nonsense.)
The book will share some of the criticisms and preferences in regards to "which version of Maharaj's teaching are the right ones or the best ones" and will address all of the claims or charges.
The fact is, though, that some of the critics have touched only the tusk of the "Elephant called 'Maharaj'." Some only touched the trunk. Some touched a leg only while others have felt nothing but the tail.
To touch only one part of Maharaj's message is to draw false conclusions, to fail to see the big picture and the total picture, to fail to understand his pointers completely in some cases, to be driven to levy baseless charges, and, in some cases, to simply misrepresent what he did and did not say and what he meant by what he said.
It is true that the focus of the message changed or evolved, as did the type of yoga that was emphasized. The progression id identified and discussed in the book as well.
Ultimately, though, the message did not become more "complicated" as one person claims but actually became far simpler, far more direct and concise. As far as the charge that Marahaj's teaching "declined" after the talks in I AM THAT, that charge more likely comes from an ego-state.
It might even be rooted in a the false identity such as "The Spiritual Giant" who found that the "more religious and spiritual" words in "I AM THAT" supported his false identity while certain other pointers have guided some seekers away from their religious and / or spiritual pre-occupations and obsessions threatened that spiritual ego-state.
This book is most certainly not for everyone. It is for those that are willing to consider the entirety of Maharaj's teachings - including those talks that point to realities that lie beyond religion and spirituality and Selfness - and not just to those discussions included in what has been called a "modern spiritual classic."
This book can be read as a "Stand-Alone eBook" or as a "Companion Piece" or "Follow-Up" to be read after "When Only Three Hours of Manifestation Remain."
The focus here is on the content of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's final talks before taking mahasamadhi. Included at the end of the book are the thirty-four quotations from Maharaj that are the most ignored (or that are the most irritating to some "seekers").
Maharaj's talks during the last thirteen months of the manifestation were few in number and brief in delivery. Whereas he usually conducted often-lengthy sessions two times per day for decades prior to the illness that came at the end, fewer than eighty talks were documented during the period of the final three-hundred-and-ninety-five days during which he accepted visitors only intermittently and, obviously, infrequently.
His last seventy days were spent primarily in silence. Both of those facts were a result of the excruciating pain being generated by the cancer that was taking its agonizing toll on the plant-food, elemental body.
During those final talks, he discussed the origins of relative problems; the maya; the nature of Consciousness / Awareness; the falsity of things "personal"; what the relative should look like post-Realization; the uselessness of knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance";
how to stabilizing in Reality and understand Truth; the Ultimate Sickness and its treatment; transcending identification; ending bondage; the nothingness; freedom and being unconcerned; and abiding with dignity and taking mahasamadhi with dignity.
What is true for the book "When Only Three Hours of Manifestation Remain" is also true for this book:
Please Note: "THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ" is not necessarily for all readers even if they are interested in non-duality or Nisarga Yoga. Its contents are especially not for those who are seeking a means by which they can reinforce or enhance a religious role or a spiritual role that has been assumed because the final talks offered by Maharaj suggested that both of those roles should be transitioned.
This book is not for those who believe that Truth is found in special or holy or religious or spiritual texts, any more than Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's later talks were for persons interested in religious or spiritual concepts.
During his last years, he said of the book "I AM THAT": "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today." He said, now I am "emphasizing different aspects."
Similarly, the talks in this book can also be considered among Maharaj's "later talks," so they are not for everyone.
Seekers cannot begin with the "end pointers" in this volume any more than they can begin with the pointers in the companion book. Seekers must find information that is "level-appropriate," custom-fit for them at the exact place wherever they might be on "the path."
At the end of the book, the reader will find "the thirty-six quotations from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj which many choose to ignore." Those, too, are only for those seekers that have advanced far along "the path."
The pointers in Maharaj's final talks which are presented in this book are for those that are open to that which is beyond any of the religious or spiritual pointers that he offered early and are only for those seeking the "final understanding" that he offered in the days prior to his taking mahasamadhi.
What Readers Are Saying about "A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation"
Dick B., author of 22 books on A.A. and the recovery process said of A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation in a letter to Mark H. and Floyd H., "Yours is an interesting and challenging new addition to the point that sobriety or being dry is misery and that a change of the heart, of reliance, and of action is the ticket required for the 'abundant life'."
Karen M.: "I love the book. I'm using it with my clients."
Jane L.: "You amaze me, your talent, your gifts and your insight into the Truth and Living in the Present Moment. Love in Sobriety."
Fran E.: "I love the book and how clear, straight forward, and simple it is. As an additional tool, I think the book is great. I have already given two away."
Psychotherapist Marie Lachney, LPC, LMFT, MA, who uses the book with men's and women's groups said: "Since I began asking my clients to purchase a copy of this book and started using its format in my groups, I have witnessed them becoming more involved in their own healing process and gaining considerably more insight at a faster pace. They have been more willing to admit their role in their life circumstances and have expressed appreciation at the opportunity to work with the approach used in this particular book."
Psychotherapist Kathleen Cahill, LCSW, said: "I intend to give this wonderful book of hope and healing to those clients who are wanting to expand their own recovery."
Dr. Roger F. Maley, Professor Emeritus, former Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Houston said, "This book should be used by everyone seeking recovery and by everyone helping others who are seeking recovery."
Racheli C. "I think this book might revolutionize the way we start looking at sobriety as a whole!"
That effect seems to be happening. Parts of this book have been translated into seven foreign languages and people are using it to work the steps and to take other people through the steps not only across the U.S. but in Finland, Israel, Spain, Iceland, Mexico, Sweden, and Canada.
Other readers have expressed in various ways the following observations about the book:
After offering the readers an experience with the effects of working the steps, and after providing a guide for taking others through the steps to their own awakening, the book takes the intuitive reader to new levels of healing. The book can help bring the subconscious forces that drive us up to the surface level of consciousness, thus dis-empowering those negative forces that allow us to say one thing but do the opposite of what we intend. The book helps shift us from living under the influence of the Great Delusions of the world and into a consciousness of The Great Reality. The book addresses with simplicity and with clarity the whole question of identity, and it contrasts the constructive True SELF with the destructive false selves and personas and roles that the culture assigns.
The book allows readers to enter a state where they can see the underlying forces that are driving us as well as the destructive personas that the Tenth and Eleventh Steps would free us from. This work therefore allows us to return to the original relationship by knowing Who We Really Are. It lets us shift from letting false identities serve as definitions of who we are and guides us through a SELF-Transformation where we are re-connected with Who We Really Are: the One True Self, the Unicity, that which is At-One (or in a state of At-one-ment).
SYNOPSIS OF A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation is the true story of two men whose paths crossed and whose lives were changed forever after. Their story is a story of transitioning from a seemingly hopeless state of misery to reaching the state of peace in which they live today. It is a story of two men whose lives degenerated to a point where they were useless to themselves and others; where on the brightest day they could see only darkness; where the thought of no life seemed more appealing than the thought of living another day. From those depths of despair, they rose to the heights of joy and happiness. This is the story of their past that took them to that point, of their struggling against the odds of ever recovering from addiction, of the actions they took that changed their lives and subsequently impacted thousands of others, and of their coming out the other side of a long and dark tunnel to emerge into the bliss of living full, productive, and useful lives.
EXCERPT FROM A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation
Chapter 1
"The Man on the Couch"
The picture Mark presented while seated on the couch in a condominium in Denver, Colorado was in direct contrast to the conditions outside. Just beyond the door, the skies were a calm blue, the summertime sun felt warm to those walking beneath its rays, and both plants and people outside were blooming handsomely. Inside, by contrast, Mark was not calm and light. He was disturbed and dark. Rather than experiencing a sense of blooming and thriving, he felt as if he were shriveling up and dying. He could not see life blooming all about him, but he could see ending his own life.
The searing emotional and physical and mental anguish that had burned away his will to live was beyond belief. He should be happy, joyous, and free, sitting in a lovely condo in a lovely state on a lovely day. At forty-four years of age, he had been sober since age thirty-four. Having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous alcoholism, surely with ten years of sobriety under his belt he could be nothing but happy, joyous and free. At least most so concluded, anyway; yet here he sat, depressed beyond belief, suffering a pain in every cell of his body with no job, no money, no prospects for a future, and totally immobilized. Mark at the adult age of forty-four, following all of his very best efforts for the past ten years, found himself unable to walk outside his condo because of his overwhelming pain and fear. He could not move out into the light; he could not experience the calm; and he certainly could not bloom.
This was not how his life was supposed to turn out. He had an advanced degree and goals and dreams and hopes, but now they were all as far removed from Mark as he was distanced from himself. At the midday point of a bright, summertime day in the mountains of Colorado, Mark was instead in the middle of the dark night of the soul. That shadowy night proffered no hope, no future, no pleasant thoughts of the past, no pleasant forecast for a future, no God, and no self-reliance. That darkness would seemingly provide him nothing, in fact, that could work to make available a life worth living. With the ignored light all about, he could see only the path of darkness, the path of suicide that seemed to him to be the only sensible route to take. He could not walk outside, but he felt he could walk that black passageway to its end... to his end.
Sober for ten years in A.A. at the time he ended up on that couch, an improved life (sometime prior to this point) his risen from a heap of ashes. For six years he had enjoyed the benefits of a good job; of a wife; of a home purchased along with its accompanying mountain property; and of a host of friends; but the past four years of his journey had delivered him into a lethal frame of mind. From the couch this day he had reviewed how all those benefits of sobriety had evaporated like the morning mist rising from the nearby lake. What had happened? he wondered. What was this incredible pain about that had taken over? What is wrong with me? he asked. In spite of all his work to produce hope, in spite of all the work with a therapist, in spite of countless meetings with support groups notwithstanding, he had found no real and lasting solution. His present mindset could find but one resolution to his predicament: Mark, you must end your life.
Then I shall, he answered.
Having made from the depths of the darkness his decision, Mark's next awareness would be of a bright light: I've done it. I'm free. I'm experiencing what they said I would experience. The light. The beautiful brightness of a lovely radiance. Further adjustment of his eyes after squinting reflexively to block out the illumination made Mark aware that he was not soaring to some celestial retreat but was instead in a very-much-man-made room. A chain of events that some Higher Power or Consciousness had set into motion unfolded in a way that, days after having left that Colorado couch, allowed Mark to find himself locked away in a psychiatric hospital in Houston, Texas. After some initial disappointment that the final escape to a heavenly haven had been denied him, he eventually became grateful to be there, for that location marked the beginning point of the next leg of a journey that would eventually result in Mark's crossing the path of a man named Floyd. At the time Mark would meet him, Floyd could have easily been confused with the Mark who had been sitting in the depths of despair on a couch in a condo in the Four Corners area of the U.S.
Only because of the changes that ultimately began to transform Mark's thinking and thus his perceptions about life, about himself, about others, and about that incredible thing called the present moment would Floyd be drawn to him when the latter reached that same state from which Mark had been extracted. How did it happen? What are the important details that can explain such an alteration and might help others in such a mental condition to extract themselves as well?
Mark would ask Floyd one day, "Have you ever felt the way I described, the way I felt as I sat on the couch that day? Have you ever thought to yourself that perhaps your society, parents, teachers, books, television, and all the other influences that have shaped our belief systems were askew, were wrong? Have you so much as even considered the possibility that, in fact, your belief systems are designed to lead you to great suffering?" Then he explained, "Only when I began to question all of it and evaluate all of my experiences through an impartial questioning of every idea and emotion and belief I held did a course of action begin to change and transform me." The entire process he would reveal one day in the future when he co-wrote a book through which the process could be documented and shared with others.
Mark left that hospital and moved to a small town in the hill country of Texas and began a journey from 1991 to the present that is at best difficult to put into words. A journey of SELF-transformation occurred, a journey in which the "false self" died and the True SELF emerged. His would be a passage in which past trauma would finally be healed; when destructive and ineffective belief systems that he had incorporated into his life from a crazy and insane world would be abandoned; when the development of a practical approach that he could use to undergo a radical transformation could begin to be revealed to him, and would later be revealed through him.
You the reader hold in your hand the book the reveals that process, and it will not reveal the method in the usual, expository fashion. Instead, this book will use a unique approach, an experiential approach, so that one will not just read about what happened but will actually experience the process as it unfolds on these pages. Mark's transformation began in earnest when he began to follow in earnest the clear-cut path of instructions which are laid out in what many know as "The Twelve Steps." His transformation culminated when the additional steps that he took beyond those twelve lifted him even higher.
The transformation bloomed as he rigorously and intently pursued an awareness of the false for the next two years; eventually, the transformation matured after he saw the false and began differentiating that from the truth. Eventually, he would incorporate a daily meditation life into his daily life; he would study other disciplines of spiritual thought and practices; and most of all he simply began to do what was revealed to him by his sane, working mind. Suddenly, changes begin to manifest in his life. The man on the couch would become the man on the tape, a tape heard by Floyd when he had reached the deepest state of despair from which he had no hope of escape. In Mark's restored condition, Floyd would find a man capable of helping him differentiate the true from the false. That would be the beginning of Floyd's shift that would eventually move him past his pain. Subsequent actions would transport him though the healing process, would prepare his mind for the awakening, and would eventually fix him in a state of permanent peace wherein he could enjoy a life that manifested in living in the moment. He would finally shift from living the life of a warrior, constantly engaging in one battle after another, to reveling in a life truly lived from a position of neutrality.
In addition to the book with Mark, Floyd Henderson has also authored this book on recovery as well as "THE TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-Day Plan For A Psychic Change."
"A GUIDE FOR WORKING THE TWELVE STEPS (In the Manner Used by the Founders)" is first a guide that modern day alcoholics and sponsors can use for working the steps promptly, as did the earliest sponsors; it can be used by those first beginning to sponsor but who have no experience with taking someone through the steps;
it can offer insights for those dealing with emotional and mental needs and can be used with those a traditional view of God as well as those "having trouble with the God part."
If you have worked the steps according to the traditional methods and found that which you have been seeking, then this guide will not be for you, for this guide will offer a totally new experience with the steps and also heeding Bill W. point that alcoholics are "physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually intoxicated" and that they must find all four levels of sobriety if they are to live happy, healthy, productive lives.
This guide incorporates what was learned by interviewing people who worked the steps with the founders and shared with us the way that some founders guided them through the steps; it is also based on information received from people who worked with Dr. Bob and Clarence S.
That being said, we are not trying to tell anyone how to do anything. We are sharing our experience with something that has helped some who needed more help than they have found so far.
This guide is one of two that the author is aware of that guides protégés through the steps in four sessions, but the other uses the Oxford Group's more religious approach where this guide offers techniques that were used by some of the early founders and sponsors.
The Big Book reports that the founders guided protégés through the steps in "three or four hours." You may first want to use the guide yourself; then, in your twelfth-step work with others, you can use this guide one-on-one as you go through The Work.
The guide is divided into four parts which take an hour or so each, and while we had doubts, Mark and I tried it and it worked! As Mark said, "This process need not be long and arduous."
If you are interested in a different experience with the steps, this guide might be for you. Best regards on your journey to being totally happy and joyous and free.
After having guided over 8,000 people through the Twelve Steps, the focus eventually turned toward working with the few who have been seeking recovery for some time but sense that "there must be something more" or who have said, "I am still not where I want to be." A few - even with double-digit "sobriety" - have said, "I don't want to drink ... I want to die."
In addition to making use of all three of the outside sources referenced in the Big Book (specifically, "doctors and psychologists and practitioners of various kinds") a higher level of peace was reached via the teachings of the Advaita philosophy that deal in detail with some topics that are alluded to in the Big Book, such as:
"The Great Reality" and the "inner resource" and "the sixth sense" and "intuition" and "casting aside ideas and emotions and attitudes."
It became understood that the founders had no discussion meetings, that they worked the steps with newcomers in a matter of hours (according to the Big Book) in order to provide physical sobriety, and then they used professionals to guide their protégés to what Bill W. called the other levels of sobriety: mental sobriety, emotional sobriety, and, yes, even spiritual sobriety (his words).
It is explained this way in the book
"A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION: Attaining Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Sobriety,"
(co-authored with Mark Houston)
in
"A Note to the Readers about Bill W.'s Observations Regarding a Four-Fold Illness"
"In his later talks, Bill W. spoke not about a two-fold illness or a three-fold illness but he discussed alcoholism's four-fold nature. He identified what he saw as the four levels of sobriety: physical sobriety, mental sobriety, spiritual sobriety and the final level of sobriety he discussed: emotional sobriety. In our book, the cover recognizes those four levels. It also illustrates the journey of the two authors from the darkness to the light. And the "greater than" symbol (>) was chosen to illustrate their experience: each time we attain another level of sobriety, we feel "greater than" we did in the prior stage(s). Thus, the cover depicts the goal of this book: to share with others the four-fold solution that the authors found on their four-part journey that moved them degree by degree from the darkness to the light as they pursued all four levels of sobriety. The authors hope that their experience might help any others who choose to seek all four levels of healing that Bill W. identified for us."
Nowadays, the silence still dominates most waking hours. The "speaking torch" has been passed. Postings to an Advaita blog happen in the early mornings, followed by walks around the lake and bike rides through the lakeside community and working with seekers via Skype sessions and retreats. Total independence and total peace has come.
ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOKS
NOTE: For many, the 21-day process offered here is only the beginning of what is required for Full Realization and freedom and peace. For more information, you may check at the end of this book to find information on other Advaita / Non-Duality books that many have found helpful in their search for total truth, total freedom, and total independence.
The rest of the Advaita / Non-Duality books are only for those who have been in recovery for a time, who still see some insane behaviors manifesting, or who feel that there must be more than what they have found so far.
Some, upon finishing the 21-Day process outlined here, move on to the four books in the Advanced Seeker's Set:
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE;
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS;
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS;
and
THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING.
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, I used dozens of meditation guides. Most had one thing in common: their authors wrote in a way to try to inspire me and to "pump me up" for the day. They often produced that result very effectively, but in my case the effect was too-often gone by the time I reached my first traffic jam on the way to work.
Eventually, I met my Advaita Teacher who gave me a new objective in my daily meditation time: rather than trying to become pumped up temporarily, I was challenged to "consider" and to "contemplate" certain key lessons in order to bring about an unwavering and permanent shift in consciousness.
It became understood that meditation is properly used to take an assignment into contemplation, into true, focused consideration. Once the falseness of all conditioning and belief and dogma is revealed, and once the True Self via Full Realisation is known, the have-to-work-at-resting trap can end.
That passage simply describes my personal experience and is not offered necessarily as a goal to strive for. Secondly, I had to do meditative work for years before the clarity came. Why? Because it was years before I found my Teacher. He gave me the daily assignments to consider that finally led to true freedom. Others need not wait that long. If one uses both volumes of the Advaita Meditation Guide, then you will have spent 365 days in contemplation, in true, focused consideration. some, however, read the books straight through from beginning to end, and the effect has been said by many to be dramatic. Eventually, a new level of freedom will manifest alongside a silencing of the chatter that occupies the thought-life of so many. The volumes are independent, so they can be read in any order.
I also wrote, "Eventually, you can remain in the silence, even in a crowd. Even in a crowd, you can be in the quiet, at perfect peace, and you can sense being in the Aloneness, the All-Oneness. Even with thousands around, even with thousands screaming. Then, in that state, what is to meditate? What is to seek? You understand Who You Are. You understand that there is nothing that constitutes a 'way,' there's nothing more to understand, there's nothing to do, there's nothing to concern yourself with, there's nothing to dread about what remains 'after' the manifestation ends."
This guide, therefore, will differ from the "pump you up" guides of the style that I used in the past. If you have a guide of that type and find it useful or enjoyable, you might consider using this guide in combination with that one. This guide, however, will offer to you a series of considerations that have allowed many people to bring to light the knowledge of Who They Really Are; likewise, it can give you the Understanding of Who You Really Are. Daily fluctuations in temperament can be replaced with a permanent shift to a stable attitude. The high of being pumped up, followed by frustration if that high does not last all day, can be replaced with a new vision of Reality that can render powerless the things that often bind us. The up's and down's can be replaced with a steady and constructive evenness if one completes all of the exercises and thereby attains the maximum benefit that will come from a guide that can lead one along a journey through Self-Inquiry and into Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization.
May the positive changes begin for you now.
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, I used dozens of meditation guides. Most had one thing in common: their authors wrote in a way to try to inspire me and to "pump me up" for the day. They often produced that result very effectively, but in my case the effect was too-often gone by the time I reached my first traffic jam on the way to work.
Eventually, I met my Advaita Teacher who gave me a new objective in my daily meditation time: rather than trying to become pumped up temporarily, I was challenged to "consider" and to "contemplate" certain key lessons in order to bring about an unwavering and permanent shift in consciousness.
It became understood that meditation is properly used to take an assignment into contemplation, into true, focused consideration. Once the falseness of all conditioning and belief and dogma is revealed, and once the True Self via Full Realisation is known, the have-to-work-at-resting trap can end.
That passage simply describes my personal experience and is not offered necessarily as a goal to strive for. Secondly, I had to do meditative work for years before the clarity came. Why? Because it was years before I found my Teacher. He gave me the daily assignments to consider that finally led to true freedom. Others need not wait that long. If one uses both volumes of the Advaita Meditation Guide, then you will have spent 365 days in contemplation, in true, focused consideration. some, however, read the books straight through from beginning to end, and the effect has been said by many to be dramatic. Eventually, a new level of freedom will manifest alongside a silencing of the chatter that occupies the thought-life of so many. The volumes are independent, so they can be read in any order.
I also wrote, "Eventually, you can remain in the silence, even in a crowd. Even in a crowd, you can be in the quiet, at perfect peace, and you can sense being in the Aloneness, the All-Oneness. Even with thousands around, even with thousands screaming. Then, in that state, what is to meditate? What is to seek? You suddenly understand Who You Are. You understand that there is nothing that constitutes a 'way,' there's nothing more to understand, there's nothing to do, there's nothing to concern yourself with, there's nothing to dread about what remains 'after' the manifestation ends."
This guide, therefore, will differ from the "pump you up" guides of the style that I used in the past. If you have a guide of that type and find it useful or enjoyable, you might consider using this guide in combination with that one. This guide, however, will offer to you a series of considerations that have allowed many people to bring to light the knowledge of Who They Really Are; likewise, it can give you the Understanding of Who You Really Are. Daily fluctuations in temperament can be replaced with a permanent shift to a stable attitude. The high of being pumped up, followed by frustration if that high does not last all day, can be replaced with a new vision of Reality that can render powerless the things that often bind us. The up's and down's can be replaced with a steady and constructive evenness if one completes all of the exercises and thereby attains the maximum benefit that will come from a guide that can lead one along a journey through Self-Inquiry and into Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization.
May the positive changes begin for you now.
This is a five-part book. In Part One, the methods of teaching non-duality are discussed. Part Two offers an introduction to Nisarga Yoga. Part Three explains why (for seekers of Full Realization) a little un-learning can be a dangerous thing. Part Four explains what can happen when one uses a non-duality teaching method in isolation without the Nisarga Yoga. And Part Five explains why the "journey" to Full Realization is a three- leg "journey," not a one-leg or two-leg "journey" as many suggest.
As was the case with Andy Gugar (editor of "The Advanced Seekers' Series" and "The Blissful Abidance Series") the longing here that led to decades of seeking and searching was triggered very early. As was also the case with Andy, the road that was traveled here was a long and grueling road. The "journey" had been quite arduous.
Happening upon certain words and names such as "advaita" and "non-duality" and "Maharaj" aroused some hope but after years of searching in vain, the hope was of a cautious and guarded nature ... hope having been dashed along the way before, time and again.
The restraint was warranted. Along with the words of Maharaj in I AM THAT, the words and writings of more than fifty non-duality teachers were read, and while each of them may have been able to guide other seekers somewhere, not a one of them presented the teachings in a way that led either Andy or this author to the "Aha! Moment";
in the cases of both Andy and the author, not a one provided the final, search-ending flash of the peripetia; in the cases of both, no one ignited the gunpowder that finally blew away all of the blockages that had been built up via programming, conditioning, acculturation and domestication; and with both, no one offered the Ultimate Medicine required to end the misery that the Ultimate Sickness had generated for decades.
No one made clear how, post-Realization, one can abide naturally and normally and steadily and Lovingly and simply and sanely and enjoyably throughout the remainder of the AM-ness could both happen.
The missing element in all the talk about "the path" and "the journey" was the fact that there is not one passage that is to be completed but that there are actually three in total.
Finally understanding what the entire three-leg "journey" involves showed how the masses only complete one leg; how an entire three-part "journey" must happen if one would Realize Fully; and how the remainder of the relative existence can happen in a not-insane, non-stupid, not-ignorant, non-fluctuating, non-chaotic, not-unstable, but totally steady and logical AS IF manner instead.
That manner is marked by freedom and joy and peace as well as an ability to merely witness whatever events that the relative existence might toss one's way.
Some claim that Advaita (or Vedanta or Advaita Vedanta) is a religion; some claim it is a philosophy; some claim it is a compilation of precepts and principles by which people should live. Here, the most that is said is that
a. Advaita / Non-Duality as offered here is a set of suggestions and considerations that point the way to the Truth that can be known but that cannot be stated; and
b. it is a set of guideposts along a "path" (set up by one that has traveled that "path") which lead - in a step-wise, clear-cut manner - to an understanding that allows the remainder of the relative existence to unfold in a sound and sane and logical and steady manner.
As for the Nisarga Yoga, that also offers a series of suggestions and considerations that allow for the remainder of the manifestation to happen spontaneously in
c. a natural manner, as opposed to
d. an unnatural manner, or as opposed to
e. a supposedly "supernatural" manner (that is, in a manner that requires magical thinking, that encourages the acceptance of myths and superstitions as fact, and that requires that the cause of naturally-occurring events must be misconstrued as being caused by some other-world entity or "Power").
There is no effort in this book to try to satisfy the wide range of views among those who are dedicated to whatever non-dual method or yoga they might be endorsing. Why? Because from the non-dual, Nisargan standpoint, there is no difference between the Realized and the Non-Realized except perspective. That said, the considerations offered in this book are, most assuredly, not for everyone.
For those who prefer the Traditional, the Neo-Vedanta, or the Neo-Advaita Teaching Methods (or even prefer) Pseudo-Advaita, they will not likely care for the content of this book; for those who prefer guru-bhakti, or bhakti, or jnana yoga, they, too, will probably not care for the pointers offered here.
For those dedicated to dogma or to a spiritual identity and to spiritual exercises, they will not likely care for the content of this book. This book is for those that are willing to consider certain perspectives that will differ from any not based in abiding naturally (vs. abiding unnaturally or supernaturally or super-religiously or super-spiritually).
Those types will likely consider certain of these perspectives to be "too radical" or "too far out of the mainstream." Of course, that was also the attitude toward Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj as well, once he shifted beyond the spiritual message in "I AM THAT" and began eschewing spirituality and recommending that seekers abide instead in an effortless, zero-concept, no-exercises, non-dual, no-dogma, non-spiritual, all-natural manner.
No matter, peace, love and light are extended to all, no matter whether they would find the content of this book to be enlightening or offensive. All are wished best regards on their "journey" and for the remainder of the relative existence.
However, for others that might be interested, there are 278 perspectives identified and / or discussed in this book. They are perspectives that are completely different from those held by the non-Realized and different from perspectives held by many claiming to be Realized.
These perspectives have prevented the author from assuming the role of "The Truly Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Non-Duality Expert," "The One at One with Brahman," "A Godly One," or even "God."
These perspectives, to the contrary, have allowed for the abidance to unfold in an all-natural fashion; have allowed for the Reality to be overlaid on the relative; and have allowed for a life to happen as spontaneously and as freely and as independently and as happily and as naturally as that led by a deer or a bird or a fish.
Only those who would live that freely might find an interest in the awarenesses and understandings revealed in these 278 most different perspectives.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that many are seeking some "higher level," but he made clear that "There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
As a result of not understanding, many seek - or claim to have found - some "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" state, but Maharaj affirmed that no state with such lofty attributes exists.
Thus, when Maharaj said "...You should go back, reverse, to the source" and advised seekers to "follow the same path by which you came, " what was he suggesting that they should "go back" to or "reverse to?" If the source, as he understood it, was not a "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" source - what was that source and what was it like, per the understanding he shared?
There are some clues when seekers review the long list of synonyms that he used to point to that "one place" or that "one source" which was not "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" but was quite common and normal and natural instead.
To refer to "Your Original Nature" or "Your Original State," he used the following terms and others for the sake of discussion of that "Nature" or "state": Your Natural State, The Original State, The True State, The Natural Condition, The Normal State, The Formless State, The Ultimate State, The Supreme State, The Noumenon, and others.
If it is known that he was discussing a condition that is merely "normal" and "natural" and not "lofty" or "special" or "superior" - and if the actual nature of that Original Nature is understood - then the search that seekers engage in will take a totally different (and far more modest and unpretentious and simple and normal and natural) direction.
Maharaj's invitation was to "merge into the Original State."
He said, "Our True Nature is perpetually free, peaceful awareness" and that "Once it is known what is temporary and what one's Original State is, no further knowledge is needed."
He taught, "That 'I Am' is a concept is to be understood while the concept is there. Once it merges in the Original State, who is there who wants to know? The illusory entity has disappeared."
The author's offers an explanation of what the Original Nature is like and what the present manifestation can be like if Reality is overlaid on the relative, if the Original nature is overlaid upon the relative existence, now.
The invitation in this book is also to understand that, to abide as that Original State, requires abandonment of all ideas and concepts and beliefs.
Maharaj said, "The Original State is beyond concepts" and "In the Original State there is no sense of consciousness, no awareness of being, but as soon as the 'I Amness' comes, the entire manifestation is seen at once. This is the expression of the consciousness."
If Fully Realized, this is understood:
Maharaj: "I was, I am, I shall be in that Original State before the 'I Amness' came" and "So long as the body is there you are this consciousness, but once the body and the consciousness go You are that Original State upon which all this has come as a temporary state. Your Original State is changeless and permanent."
The author addresses this question: "Why else find that Original State and abide as That?" Early on, when that Original State manifested as its Original Essence, then there was also the manifestation of the "primordial cooperation" - now totally absent among the non-Realized masses.
Abiding as One's Original Nature, all humans were childlike, as Maharaj said, rendering them conscious and happy and quiet. Abiding as such also allows for abiding as in a "Loving community" wherein "primordial cooperation" is natural and is the rule, not the exception.
Is it not that Original State that is subconsciously being longed for? Then know that it can be returned to even as the manifestation continues, but it can come only with Truth, not with false concepts and ideas and beliefs.
The author shares words and terms that offer insight into what abidance as that Original Nature was like and what the relative existence can be like if, post-Realization, the I AM THAT and the I AM truly "merge," and if One's Original Nature is overlaid on the present manifestation, thus allowing the remainder of the relative existence to happen in a natural manner - rather than in an unnatural or in a supposedly "supernatural" manner.
The manner of abidance which awaits is one which exhibits all of the peaceful and quiet and stress-free and fear-free attributes that mark One's Original Nature.
The reader is invited to consider:
George Bernard Shaw was once asked if he thought there might be life on other planets. His reply was that he was certain that there had to be life on other planets because people there are obviously using earth as their insane asylum. Mark Twain observed that "the way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane, we should run out of building materials" and "Really, what we want now is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity. That is where the true evil lies" and "Once, I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said, "This is our stupidity, verging on insanity." This book looks at when "Going Crazy" actually begins and then studies the ways that what Advaitins call "The Ultimate Sickness" continues, in most cases, throughout the entire manifestation of consciousness. In some few cases, treatment for the effects of personality disorders is sought; is some cases, hospitalization provides an opportunity for clinically-diagnosable insanity to be treated; and in some cases, the Advaitic, non-dual teachings provide a new understanding that ends distortion and delusions and belief in illusions and untruths, lead to clear perspectives, and allow the restoration of sanity to happen.
The book in its six parts includes the following: PART ONE: Introduction; PART TWO: Originally Sane; PART THREE: Going Crazy; PART FOUR: Going ... Going ... ; PART FIVE: Gone! & PART SIX: Going Sane.
Call it "insanity." Call it "madness." Call it the end result of a personality disorder where a person has disintegrated from psychic health to a state of only average psychic heath to a state of complete psychic unhealthiness and total mental and emotional degeneration and collapse." Call it "being so removed from Reality that one has lost the ability to know Who or What You Truly Are." Call it "being out of touch with both reality and Reality." Call it a "state of living unnaturally or trying to live supernaturally / religiously / spiritually rather than merely abiding naturally in the peace and quiet."
Call it "being so mental and emotional fragmented that one feels as if she / he is going to shatter into a millions pieces ... not feeling whole or 'at one' but feeling splintered and split and broken and shattered and divided and falling apart." Call it "a state marked by anxiety, resentment, anger, despair, depression, misery, pain, suffering, desolation, gloom, dejection, and anguish.: Call it "The Ultimate Sickness". Call it "Going Crazy." But no matter what you call it, it is a global epidemic and all will contract it at some point or another.
Of that, Maharaj said, "Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru -- to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware." This book traces the roots of insanity and its various degrees and manifestations and then makes clear that, as far as those interested in non-duality are concerned, "Job 1" for the guru or the Realized Advaitin or the Realized Nisargan is to bring the light and an awareness of the way back that must be traveled before the way out can ever be shown.
The author is certified to teach Psychology (Level 100) College Courses and Psychology (Level 200) College Courses all 50 states. He has also done personality testing and typing for individuals as well as worked for corporations, testing and typing and analyzing personality as a means of providing staff development programs that make employees aware of the assets and liabilities that can help assure success in the workplace and proving for businesses a higher level of quality assurance in terms of the potential effective of personnel as well as training and managing current employees.
The Advaitin called "Jesus Christ" purportedly said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." In some cases, instability and low-level personality disorders and even mild cases of insanity have been addressed by the non-duality teachings if the result was Full Realization.
The following are often observable among those who are trapped in the Ultimate Sickness of a dualistic mind (and, thus, mental illness) and who are swept back and forth by the tides of emotional intoxication:
changeable, unpredictable, unsteady, inconstant, unsettled, irrational, erratic, inconsistent, unreliable, untrustworthy and vacillating.
The content of this book distinguishes between (1) the causes of instability and insanity that the Advaita teachings can address and (2) the causes that require far more than the teachings if they are to be effectively addressed.
Included are discussions of:
instability and / or insanity induced by duality-based splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by psychological splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by cultural influences:
instability and / or insanity induced by personality disorders; instability and / or insanity induced by a failure to psychically integrate and instead the tendency to psychically disintegrate
instability and / or insanity induced by adults who model constant mood swings and instability and being temperamental and inconsistent so that they are always unpredictable; instability and / or insanity induced by fixating in "the parent" role or "the child" role rather than interacting from the stance of the mature adult;
instability and / or insanity induced by emotional intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by religious / spiritual intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by inner causes; instability and / or insanity induced by depression and mania
instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; instability and / or insanity induced by chemical imbalances, physiological factors, and biological factors
instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; and instability and / or insanity induced by seeking someone or something to cause you to be happy.
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.
This book explores the history of the human brain, including the fact that for millions of years, human and human-like beings functioned without any mind. The book uncovers the ways that the brain evolved over the ages and developed an ability to store and retrieve memories. It then shows how the original memories were used constructively but how programming and conditioning changed all that and created a "mind" that most often overrules the brain and generates relative-existence harm and destruction.
Similarly, the book shows the way that personality develops during childhood as a means for survival and adaptation but later becomes a liability when those childhood personality traits continue to drive adult thinking and behavior.
Ultimately, the book shows why Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly identified the "problems of the planet" as being rooted in body-mind-personality identification and offers suggestions for being free of all of that nonsense via Realization.
Excerpts from PEACE OF MIND
A CONSIDERATION
Most persons will never reach a point where they are awake enough to even ask the questions that indicate they know that they have no "peace of mind." Some will ask one or more of the following: "How can I attain peace of mind?" "Why is my mind constantly in motion?" "Why do I start thinking about one thing and get hung up on that?" "Why does my mind sometimes feel as if there's the chatter of a thousand monkeys going on inside my head?" "How can I purify my mind and get rid of all the troublesome things that fill it all day long?" "Why can't I stop my mind at night and go to sleep and stay asleep until morning?"
The answers will be provided in this book. Best regards on your "journey" as you seek them.
CHAPTER ONE
"MIND" and MEMORIES: When Nature's "Assets" Become Warped into "Liabilities"
"Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The 'mind' is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods. Personas are rooted in programmed minds and are sustained by the ego-based lies and by the learned ignorance that are being taught in most modern cultures."
At the root of all relative existence problems involving persons is this: that which was one of nature's assets (the formation of a mind after the brain evolved and developed the ability to store memories) has been warped into an unnatural or supernatural liability. While no Advaitins would suggest that seekers must learn science in order to Realize, Maharaj did say that someday science would advance enough to catch up with the Advaita understanding and validate scientifically the philosophical Teachings. He was correct, so please bear with this approach that might resonate with some.
The smaller human brain, in its earlier and simpler stages of development, allowed humans then to live as deer live today: hunt/forage/find food for survival; interact; take actions that are self-defensive and self-constructive; and procreate in order that the species will survive. As more and more humans walked the planet, the simplicity of existence would be lost as the simplicity of the brain was lost.
Complications resulted because of an increase in human interactions (and an increase in both individual as well as tribal interests and agendas). The brain began to evolve in order to compensate, and eventually areas that could store memories came into being. At that point, the mind and the brain worked in tandem and in harmony to contribute to the survival of individuals and the species. The mind came about as "memories" began to be stored. As a part of the defense mechanisms for survival of the species, the mind had its role and played it "properly" (naturally) for thousands of years.
For example, if a caveman remembered that his companion fell from a cliff and died as a result, the caveman might avoid falling from cliffs. The original process was as follows: over a period of evolution, the brain expanded to include a cerebral cortex and a hippocampus. Afterwards, when an event happened (such as a human falling off a cliff) or when someone learned something (such as, "falling off a cliff can kill you"), the brain placed the memory of that event and the related knowledge acquisition in its "memory files." That is all the mind was: a collection of memories filed away in those "newer" parts of the brain.
The memory of both old and new happenings would be processed and stored away in different areas of the cerebral cortex, or the "gray matter" of the brain. The hippocampus would process the memories. (As a side note in that regard, a disease receiving considerable attention nowadays-Alzheimer's-comes about when the hippocampus is damaged, resulting in...what else...memory loss. Is it not interesting that one who might have been a fighter for years and who loved chaos suddenly becomes peaceful when the ability to tap into dualistic memories is lost? Witness the way that the ability to remember dualistic concepts and dogma are now the curse of the planet, relatively speaking.)
Over a period of time, language developed which allowed controlling men with hidden, personal agendas to dream up concepts and teach those ideas to others who could-by that point-remember them. The overabundance of dualistic concepts and beliefs and dogma (which were destructive and separatist in nature) began to outnumber the earlier class of memories that were survival-related.
It was one thing for the caveman to "feel bad" if the fish that was going to feed him and his family that day happened to get away. Such feelings are natural. It is quite another thing when modern persons-as a result of living under the auspices of a warped, dualistic "mind"-truly believe that they should feel "bad" when they do things that are also natural, such as masturbation or fornication. It is one thing for the caveman to feel "good" when he killed a deer for supper. It is quite another thing when a modern person, as a result of a warped, dualistic "mind," feels "good" if he kills another human who has different religious beliefs filed away in the storage areas of the brain.
Now, because of the warped dualistic "mind," persons feel "good" if they beat their "bad" children or if they whip a wife who flashed a bit of ankle in public. As the "mind" formed, it allowed a class of beliefs and concepts to be accumulated that no longer contribute to the survival of the species but that have become a driving factor in the perversion of interactions and the destruction of humans by humans. Dualistic thinking was born, and all of the horrors of the relative existence began. Prior to attachment to dualistic beliefs, early tribal fights might deal with water rights. After the "mind" quit working in tandem and in harmony with the brain, it began to overrule the brain. Thereafter, fighting dealt far less with survival issues and far more with conflicts over differing beliefs and concepts.
Those fights / wars would eventually result in the killing of more humans that anything other than natural causes: political wars; religious wars; holocausts; the invasion of continents and the decimation of native populations; and acts of racial, ethnic and religious genocide. Dual-mindedness had begun, and the persons of the planet are still bound in its grip. It is now at the root of everything called "evil," and the accuracy of the words of the Advaitin teacher of 2000 years ago (who said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways") are proving to be as factual today as in 30 A.D.
CHAPTER TWO
"MIND" and MEMORIES: When Nature's "Assets" Become Warped into "Liabilities"
So, it can be seen that the term "the mind" is just a name given to a set of files. Originally those files were stored in the brain (as what would come to be called "memories") so that the file information could be retrieved if needed in order to help humans survive dangerous situations (i.e., "Remember when the fellow in the next cave thought he was picking up a stick and it was a snake. Check more carefully.") It can be seen that now the "mind" has been so distorted that the persons of the planet believe that a rope is a snake.
Those files / memories are so contaminated with distortions, misperceptions, dogma and all other kinds of lies that the "mind" can no longer serve its original purpose. Where it was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to avoid destruction, in its present condition, the typical "mind" is generating more destruction and chaos than survival and peace. It is one thing to remember that a snake which looks like a stick can kill you; it is something else to remember dualistic messages that include: "We're better than all others on the planet because we live in the greatest country on earth," or "It's OK to attack or kill those who have been taught the tenets of a religion that is different from your religion," or "People with that skin color are all ignorant and criminal."
It can be seen, therefore, that the current, distorted state of the modern "mind" came about after languages and personal agendas developed which enabled persons to begin teaching dualistic concepts. After that occurred, persons used languages to pass on as fact an entire body of lies, lies that were not based in actual happenings or fact at all (things such as beliefs, ideas, myths, superstitions, dogma, theories, attitudes, "spiritual knowledge," religious "knowledge," concepts, false identities, etc.) It can be seen that the distortions being stored nowadays as remembered lessons/memories are not memories that can be used for survival but are corruptions that are driving conduct that is destructive, self-destructive, and detrimental to both peace and survival.
As a result of the distorted concepts and beliefs that are currently being stored in what is called the "mind," nature's intent has been invalidated. That original storehouse of files in the brain which was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to guide the body to behave in a natural fashion, is now resulting in the body being guided by a warped "mind" that generates unnatural "thinking" and conduct and supernatural "thinking" and conduct.
Nowadays, memories are not being retrieved from the mind to avoid dangerous animals or the precarious edges of cliffs but are generating dualistic "thoughts" such as, "They are ignorant...we are smart"; "I am good, but they are bad"; "I deserve reward but they deserve punishment"; "I heard a God in another world tell me to drop bombs on people in this world"; "I am going to destroy you (or "reject you" or "leave you" or "punish you") because you have said things and done things that are different from what I wanted you to say and do"; or, "You can't be good...you're different from me."
Now, a natural mind no longer works with a natural brain to generate natural living. Instead, the content of the typical "mind" today generates a style of living that is more often unnatural (meaning characterized by delusional "thinking") and that is very often supernatural (meaning characterized by magical "thinking"). The "thoughts" behind both of those types of "thinking" are rooted in duality, and dualistic "thinking" is at the core of anything considered a dilemma or problem or crisis in the relative existence.
Whereas the brain is "wired" for self-constructive behavior, the modern "mind" is now "wired" for self-destructive behavior because of the vast pool of learned ignorance that is being passed on to (and accepted as truth by) billions of persons, their level of education or intelligence notwithstanding. Because behavior is now being controlled by the bogus, programmed "mind" more than the brain, the personalized, individualized "mind" is able to inspire persons to destruct and self-destruct in opposition to the self-constructive actions that a normal brain would guide an organism to take.
So a shift in what was typical and "normal" human behavior happened as the brain evolved over thousands of years: the development of the brain's capacity to store memories, and to retrieve memories from storage, was followed by the development of language. The development of language was followed by the teaching of dualistic concepts. Those dualistic teachings have resulted in the contemporary "mind" which is nothing more than a repository of lies. Those lies/false beliefs generate a sense of separation and the judgmental labeling of persons as "bad," "immoral," "wrong," ad infinitum. Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they believe in vaginal births but refuse to believe in a virginal birth.
They feel they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they are repelled by descriptions of a god who was a mass murderer. Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they don't care to participate in a rite of worship called "communion" that reenacts ancient rites of cannibalism and vampirism. They can feel they are "bad" (or at the very least, "not as good as") if they have not been dunked or sprinkled with water that some claim is "holy."
Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that killers are "good" if they kill people whose stored files contain information that differs from the killers' stored files. The insanity that currently dominates the planet (as a result of the warped "mind" that takes duality to be real) is pervasive, and the majority of the dualistic beliefs which have had the most vicious results have been dreamed up and passed down by members of one specific institution over the last 5000 years.
"Brain-washing" is an inaccurate term. "Brain-trashing" is what has been happening for many millennia now, inspiring the call for a complete "brain-flush" now. Why? The institution that has been touting dual-mindedness for thousand of years has been joined by programmed parents and conditioned teachers and acculturated politicians and by various other sources in the global pursuit of training persons to accept as fact the seemingly endless supply of dualistic lies. The concepts that need to be eliminated from the "mind" via a brain-flush should be obvious. The purging of belief in all dualities begins with questioning it all and continues with the discarding of all learned ignorance in order to then be free.
Literally, therefore, satsang means "the company of truth" and refers to discourses about "the Knowledge." To tell someone about Knowledge in a gathering is called "giving Satsang."
Now the fact is that Truth can be known but not stated, but the point is made. Originally, in pre-electronic-technology days, seekers had to travel in order to be in the presence of a guru / teacher. Now, satsangs happen via Skype conferencing, via teleconferencing, and via electronic forums that allow for the free flow of statements or questions with a teacher offering replies. The content of this book contains the record of satsang exchanges that took place via one such forum.
In the loft of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, twenty seekers might have been present but some days, only a few entered into direct dialogue with Maharaj. Why allow more into the room than can participate?
It is known that pointers must be heard (or read), but they need not be spoken directly to a seeker for their meaning to "take hold." It matters not if the teacher is speaking directly to an "individual" because in Reality it is the consciousness that is speaking to the consciousness.
One speck of consciousness might be addressing another, but all specks that are present can receive the pointers to Truth that are being offered.
It will be seen in this book which will share the results of a series of satsangs that only a few entered into direct exchange with the teacher / author called "floyd," but many more specks of consciousness were "looking over the shoulder of the seekers" and receiving the message via the exchange; in fact, seekers in over eighty different cities around the globe were participants.
Robert Powell said that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj provided "powerful antidotes to unawarenesses," that is, to the sickness that marks and mars the relative existence.
The Ultimate Sickness, like most sickness, is passed on when persons interact; it is contracted when a previously-well person is exposed to another person or persons who have the sickness, and the exposure always begins at an early age.
The sickness is passed on via the "germ" of programming and the "virus" of conditioning and the "contaminate" of acculturation and the "bacteria" of domestication.
Discussed in this book will be the Four Stages from illness to wellness that have been taught in the Far East as well as the Six Stages that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj moved through on "his journey," and the Four Stages that are taught to seekers by the author.
The Ultimate Sickness is primarily a mental and emotional sickness that is contracted during Stage I when exposed to the ignorance and insanity that has already spread throughout every culture on the planet. Exposure to the carriers also results in personality disorders that can only be addressed by the casting aside of all personality in order to continue to move along the four-stage, seven-step "path" to wellness.
Treatment for the Ultimate Sickness is complicated by the fact that most persons who contract the illness actually normalize the condition and its symptoms and, therefore, (a) seldom have a clue that they are as sick as they truly are and thus (b) seldom seek the Ultimate Medicine that can address the sickness and its symptoms.
How, then, is one to know if he or she has contracted the Ultimate Sickness? One must cross the path of a "healer" who suffered the illness, of one who found someone to administer the treatment in the proper stages and steps, of one that was eventually freed of the sickness and its symptoms, and of one that is now willing to administer the Ultimate Medicine to seekers who are now suffering the same symptoms and effects and who are wanting relief.
Therefore, consider some of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which include an inability to distinguish true from false and, therefore, the propensity to believe lies; to distort perceptions; to believe that images are real; to have no clue who you are; to talk in one's sleep; to work and drive and walk while asleep;
to accept as true, without questioning to even the slightest degree, the concepts and beliefs that are taught by authority figures and to believe the most unbelievable tales that those figures dream up; to accumulate the various forms of the sickness and then to pass them along to family members and friends and associates with pride in having done so; to accept with faith beliefs that have no basis in fact and that cannot possibly be proved; to be so delusional that one is believed to be two;
to believe that learned ignorance is wisdom; to suffer willingly and repeatedly the consequences of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance"; to lose all ability to detect nonsense when it is heard;
to allow subconscious motivators (a.k.a., personality / personalities) to determine every thought and word and action while believing that one is consciously choosing to think what is thought, to say what is said, and to do what is done; to be asleep but to believe that one is awake;
to be self-destructive; to exhibit impaired judgment; to be unreasonable and illogical; to display unstable and inappropriate emotions (that is, being emotionally-intoxicated); to be religiously or spiritually intoxicated; to have hallucinations (such as believing that you can hear a supernatural being from another world and to believe that such a being is actually talking to you);
to believe that the not-special is special; to believe that absolutes can be applied to things relative; to be disorganized and confused while thinking that you are organized and thinking clearly; to develop extreme dependencies on people and groups and leaders and on powers that are supposedly living in unseen worlds; to be unable to cope; to be in a state of unwarranted fear; to constantly desire more and more of what is already making one sick;
to feel guilt and self-blame that have no basis in fact; to behave like a six-year old child for an entire manifestation, even during "the adult years"; to be preoccupied with "self" (with the false selves or false identities that are assumed and thought to be real); to play a role on a stage and believe the character is real;
to believe that a physical, plant food body can disintegrate, re-integrate, and last for eternity and can feel pain or ecstasy for eternity; and to suffer and then still believe that suffering is good; ad infinitum.
Imagine if persons knew of an Ultimate Medicine that could cure all of the above; they would call that a "miracle drug." Know that not only does such a medicine exist, and not only does it address all of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness that are catalogued above, but it is available at a fraction of the cost that any sane and sound person would estimate its true value to be.
Yet few will ever know it even exists because few will ever know that they are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness and because few will ever understand they need to be cured from the sickness contracted during the first of the four stages being discussed in this series, namely, the Accumulation Stage.
Similarly, persons are imprisoned in "the mind," and each bar of that prison is one of the nonsensical ideas or bogus concepts or false beliefs mentioned earlier.
The book offers a discussion of the three factors involved in understanding that which is at the root of all relative existence problems, namely, the formation of a "mind":
1. consciousness, rooted in the Absolute;
2. the brain, rooted in the elements; and
3. the "mind," rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and debilitating domestication and duality-supporting acculturation, all of which fill the resulting mind with a belief in lies and bogus concepts and distorted ideas and superstitions and all sorts of falsehoods.
What did Maharaj and to offer what he shared on this subject and to allow the final pointers to come via that speck of consciousness which eventually came to abide as Pure Awareness:
The "mind" problem according to Maharaj:
"As to my mind, there is no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."
" ... Your confusion is ... in your mind ...."
"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited."
"I am double dead. Not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind too."
"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."
"All illness begins in the mind."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."
"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind."
NOTE: You may see the book, "There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out of Your Mind)" for the complete discussion of that point.
" ... the mind obscures and distorts."
" ... it is the mind that creates illusion."
"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."
And he made the point that the mind is a symptom of ignorance.
Maharaj's solutions regarding the "mind" problem:
"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether."
"Beyond the mind there is no suffering."
"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas."
"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas .... " and "Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision of yourself."
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation, is the dawn of wisdom."
"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably."
The author offers this for the readers' consideration: to be free is to be free of that which imprisons you. What imprisons the masses? The "mind"; thus, to be free is to be free of the content of the "mind," all of which is rooted in programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation.
To be free of the "mind" is to be free of the "madding crowd," for the "mind" is that crowd of people who programmed you, conditioned you, domesticated you, and acculturated you and who continue to speak to you. (The only difference is that now they "speak" from within rather than from without.)
Many of them you may not have seen for years, but they are as close as your brain and as dominating as ever (if you have not followed this "path" that can free you of their influence and free you of the subconscious ideas and concepts and beliefs that will otherwise drive you and control you and take away any ability to make independent choices at all).
Best regards on that "journey," should you undertake it.
If you find the answers to "What happens when I die? What happens after the body ends?" the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.
A NOTE TO THE READERS
A visitor to the website named "Frank" asked, "What happens when the body ends?" This book is the answer.
Of course, the variety of answers to that question that have been offered by self-proclaimed "holy" men and their "holy" texts has led to more confusion and speculation and yes "even anxiety" than any other question. It is one of the three questions that humans have been occupied and preoccupied with for ages:
1. "How did I get here?"
2. "Who Am I, really?"
3. "What happens when the body (or "this life") ends?"
This book will guide you to finding the answer for yourself. Why even take the time to ask that question that Frank asked? It was explained this way in one entry:
Two very distinct answers to your question, "What happens when the body ends?" are before you. One is rooted in logic and fact; the other is rooted in emotional intoxication and fiction. One answer will result in continued darkness and misery, in fear and desire, in valuing or accepting suffering in "this life" in anticipation of a reward in "that life," in rigidity and inflexibility, in arrogance, in a false sense of separation, in "dual-mindedness," in spiritual workaholism, in believing ancient myths and superstitions, and in the remainder of your relative existence being marred by the duality of occasions of happiness while otherwise being heavy and burdensome. The other answer will result in the remainder of your relative existence being marked by an incredible lightness of being."
May you find the answer if an incredible lightness of being has any appeal at all.
In this book, this pointer is shared and discussed: The reason that I am at peace around this issue called "death" and you are not is because abidance as the no-concept, non-dual Reality eliminates any possibility that "death" (or any other concepts) can be taken seriously. I am also at peace while you are not because you have taken an illusion, namely-"your world" or "this world"-and upgraded it with supernatural beliefs. Your magical thinking drives you to accept man-made concepts like "birth" and "life" and "death" and "timelines" on faith rather than questioning all that you have been taught.
While this space roams about on the planet, I-the conscious presence-see your fictional world for what it is, but you do not. You deal with a supposedly "real life" (which is not real at all). More often, though, you are absorbed in your "secret life," seldom available to "others" and never available to Your Self. And that is the scenario that is playing out across the globe. The imaginary "world" and its nonsense combine in your "mind" with the desires and fears generated by the "secret life." The result is fleeting happiness along with chronic dis-ease.
Also in the book, the distortions of the individualized views about "personal death" are exposed as certain relative events are discussed. In the end, the point is that what persons consider to be the "self" is actually just a "composite unity" of earth (plant food) elements, circulating air, and the temporarily manifested conscious-energy.
Eventually, the consciousness will unmanifest and return to the universal pool of energy, the elements will then return to the universal pool of elements, and the air will return to the universal pool of air. To understand that the "you" or "self" which the masses take themselves to be is merely that temporarily-combined triad is to be able to ask:
"What is this talk of 'birth' and 'death'? Nothing was 'born' or 'created' because existing elements are merely cycling. Nothing was 'born' or 'created' because all is energy-matter and neither energy not matter can be created or destroyed.
if nothing was created, and if nothing is going to be destroyed,wherefore 'death'?
As for "death," therefore, can elements die? Can air die? Can energy die? Absolutely not.
Find the understanding and then be free of that which the masses fear the most.
"How do I get peace of mind?"
"How can I get a sense of fulfillment and fill the hole inside?"
"What is Realization?"
"What is Enlightenment?"
"What is the TRUE SELF?"
What is the difference in the "thinking mind" and the "working mind?"
What are the Seven Degrees that separate us from knowing Who We Truly Are?"
A NOTE TO THE READERS: This book is often used by some as a companion to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality). PART ONE can be read in one sitting. The content includes answers to frequently asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teaching. I suggest setting aside a period of quiet time every day and reading PART ONE straight for several days, contemplating the teachings in the five readings and considerations offered at the end of the section.
PART TWO is a sharing of comments and questions dealing with Advaita-related topics and can aid those who are 'close' but have not yet 'gotten it' in its entirety. The pointers shared in the second session provide more depth and deeper insight. Some have benefited from using the accompanying CD available at:
http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm.
If you use the booklet continuously, what you may experience one day is this: at some point during the reading, you will drop the arm that is holding the booklet before your eyes, you'll look off into the distance, and you'll hear words coming from somewhere deep inside you, words that say, "Oh...my...gosh. Yes. Yes! Now I see!" Let us begin. Enjoy.
PART ONE
What is "Realization"?
Realization is the end result of being freed of all beliefs, ideas, and emotions (but not feelings) that have led you to believe you are something or someone that you are not. Realization is the state of awareness which occurs when you finally realize that millions and billions of people can be wrong-wrong about their ideas, wrong about what they have told you, and wrong about their superstitious beliefs that have been passed down for so long that they are taken to be fact.
It is the state of consciousness in which one can exist in peace because one has given up all false identities, roles, and personas. It is a state of peace that springs into being when one realizes that the bars that form the prison of the thinking mind are made up of other peoples' beliefs and ideas that you have adopted. Realization also allows you to perceive that trying to meet the expectations and demands of others' beliefs is blocking you from a peaceful existence. It is a state of being conscious of Who One Really Is, a state that can only be perceived after knowing who one is not and after discarding all their ideas.
If we should give up all ideas, why should we listen to yours?
First, they are not mine. These teachings are more than 40,000 years old, but I'll answer your question by explaining "The Lesson of the Thorns" that my Cherokee grandmother taught me. One summer while staying with Grandmother, I fell onto a thorn bush and buried one of the prongs deeply into my palm. Grandmother used a larger thorn from the bush to remove the fragments from my hand and then she threw away both thorns. BOTH ultimately proved to be useless, though one served the temporary purpose of relieving me of pain and suffering. So it is with the concepts that I will offer-including this discussion of thorns, including every word that follows in this booklet, and including every word ever spoken by anyone. New concepts can be used to get rid of old concepts. Then, all the concepts should be discarded.
The thorn in my palm was causing me great pain. It was of no use to me at all. The second thorn was of temporary use to me since it was only used to rid me of that which pained me. Once its job was done, it was not needed. So it is with the ideas I offer.
What pains anyone not yet Realized are the ideas, emotions, and beliefs given by others, accepted as truth, and empowered to control your thoughts and behaviors and feelings. Any words I offer are like the larger thorn: they can be used to rid you of the other thorns that are causing your pain.
If the ideas I offer reach their goal, they will help you become free of the programming and conditioning that locked into your belief system their ideas and their beliefs that were taught to you and taken by you to be truth and fact. Actually, all ideas that you have been taught were dreamed up by people, usually men.
Historically, those men have been the ones playing the roles of priest or medicine man or government man or businessman. All those had an agenda-and have an agenda to this day-in telling you their ideas. They want something from you and they want to control you. People are controlled by the ideas, emotions, and beliefs adopted from others. Those (along with the influence of physical organs) cause destructive behavior and create restless minds.
All dreamed-up ideas were dreamed up in an effort to control you, so those ideas repress you. Their ideas restrict your mind and your natural behaviors. In so doing, the result is a planet filled with people now behaving most unnaturally. The thinking mind is your prison. The working mind is the vehicle to freedom in this manifestation. (Eventually, the seeker that would be totally free will abandon the mind entirely.)
Other questions addressed in the book include:
What is "manifestation"?
What is the difference in the "Manifest" and the "Unmanifest"?
Is The Absolute the same as "The Field" I've been hearing about?
What do you mean when you say that "the cause of anything is actually... everything"?
What is the "negation of free will" and the "absence of choice" that you speak of?
What is the True Self?
There is no shortage of persons who speak of "love." There is no shortage of people who believe they know what it is until they are asked to define it.
There is no shortage of persons who also believe that they can spot what others think is love but is not (i.e., "Damnation, she's such a fool. That guy doesn't love her-he's just using her").
Furthermore, there is no shortage of persons who mistake sexual activity for "love" or for a "show of love," (i.e., "If you really love me, you'll do it").
There is no shortage of the use of the phrase "I love you," but there is a shortage of those who mean what they say or even have the slightest clue about what the difference is between what is taken to be "love" but is not REAL LOVE at all.
Nor is there a shortage of those who do not know that (a) the "world" as they see it is not real or (b) that the beliefs that they hold to be true are completely unreal.
This book will use Advaitin pointers to differentiate false "love" from REAL LOVE and to discuss the "love-fear" connection; how to avoid the constant cycling in "relationships" between "magnificent feelings" and "horrendous feelings"; and how to find REAL LOVE in an unreal world.
Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.
An Excerpt from FINDING REAL LOVE
FINDING REAL LOVE can means finding it in the relationship that you are already in
CONSIDERATIONS
What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion-that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state-prepare for war.
Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.
PART ONE
An Analysis of "LOVE" vs. "love" using Advaitin Understandings
"Commonly-Held but False Beliefs"
It was once asked, "Can True Love really exist, or is that just a concept, too?" Consider: In the seeking of the "True Self," the teacher never begins with a direct answer of the question. Instead, the process begins with finding the false selves.
Apply that to the question to determine the approach that should be used regarding finding the answers to such questions as "Is there such a thing as 'True Love?" and "If there is True Love, how is it to be defined?"
The Advaita approach never begins by offering a seeker the truth or "The Truth." The approach involves presenting facts or pointers and inviting the seeker to question the commonly-held opinions and concepts on the topic under discussion. That is followed by an invitation to the seeker to go into the silence and to focus on the pointers. The seeker is encouraged to question old ideas and then to allow the realization of truth to come from within. Erroneous beliefs that are "commonly-held" represent one of the greater obstacles to finding truth.
Regarding all "commonly-held" beliefs (and certainly including those around "love), relate the following to this topic:
Several years ago when Advaita sessions were being conducted in a home in south Texas, a woman from St. Louis, Missouri attended a few sessions. In one session, an Advaitan shared the findings of a recent study that traced the roots of the god of Abraham directly to the mythological god Zeus. A few weeks later, there was an e-mailed received from a woman named "Cassandra" in St. Louis whose friend had attended that session.
She wrote to say, "You and that other man who talked about Zeus should realize that millions of people cannot be wrong [her "bold"].
The response: "I agree with you completely. In fact, billions and trillions have been wrong. Millions believed the earth to be flat; millions believed the sun revolved around the earth; millions believed 400 years ago that an entire race of people in the three "Americas" should be annihilated; and sixty-five years ago, millions in one country in Europe also believed that an entire race should be annihilated. I invite you to enter the silence, contemplate those facts, review your belief that 'millions can't be wrong,' and see what comes to you in the quiet."
The pattern is seen: facts were presented, the seeker was invited to question her belief, received a suggestion to go into the silence and to focus on the pointers, and was invited to question old ideas and then see the falsehood of the belief on her own from within.
In this book, such topics as "The Challenges of Trying to Define 'True Love'," "The Search for a Unified Definition of 'True Love' in a Realm of Multiplicities," "Differentiating 'Feelings' and 'Emotions' in Regards to Love," and other related subjects shall be discussed.
The reader is invited to consider current beliefs that are a part of the pool of "commonly-held" beliefs and determine if other views might be more accurate or lead to an understanding of the truth regarding the subject matter of this books. Regards.
A NOTE TO THE READER
This hard-hitting, no-holds-barred look at relationships provides an antidote to the currently appalling statistics surrounding modern relationships. Stats now show that
• Most admit they are NOT marrying for love primarily
• Nearly 50% of both husbands and wives will have an affair during the marriage
• 62% of all marriages will now end in divorce
• 95% of all divorces involving children will be initiated by the wife
• 50% of those killed in urban areas will be killed by a mate during a breakup
• 76% of all second marriages will fail during the first five years
BUT THERE ARE SOLUTIONS FOR THOSE WHO WANT A LONG-TERM, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP! THE BOOK DISCUSSES:
"Millions of Years of Success vs. Five Decades of Failure"
"The New Challenges" & "Why Women Leave" & "Why Men Leave"
"The History of Relationships" & "The History of Marriage"
"The Influences of Nature and Religion on the High Divorce Rate"
"Monogamy and Polygamy"
"The Five Major Obstacles to Building Long-Term, Healthy Relationships"
"Setting the Stage for Divorce Even Before the Marriage (Avoiding Potential Problems)"
"Fifteen Relationship Deceptions" and "Twenty-Five Self-Deceptions"
"Problems & Solutions Once in a Marriage or Relationship"
"Solutions Within (and Outside of) the Traditional Framework"
"Seventeen Factors that Drive Us to Self-Destruct in Relationships"
"Understanding Personality Type and Resulting Compatibility or Conflict"
"Getting Out Alive"
"Going Forth and Creating a Healthier You and Healthier Relations"
Of the thousands of pointers offered by Maharaj that proved to be germane to seekers, one ranks among the most pertinent and unequivocal and illuminating that he ever shared:
In the early stage of beginning some "work" with a guide, he asked a qualifying question: "How free do you want to be?"
The reply: "Why, totally."
His response: "We shall see."
And soon, he did indeed see. What was seen by both that guide and this seeker was that there was no more of a desire to be TOTALLY free than there is a desire among the non-Realized for the manifestation of the consciousness to end instantly.
It would be years before Full Realization happened, and it would not be until Full Realization happened that TOTAL freedom not only manifested but was gladly welcomed.
Why do persons (the non-Realized) really not find total freedom appealing at all, truth be known? What is it about most cultures that nurture and even reward dependence? What is it about personality and personas that automatically require dependence and co-dependency rather than independence?
The 6.7 billion polled worldwide who said that they are affiliated with an organized religion are taught early on to be dependent on one god or another (or even many). The millions in step groups are taught to be dependent on an external, otherworldly power.
Too, every ego-state adopted as an identity must have a co-dependent counterpart and will be dependent on another person to sustain the false identity assumed. (For example, a spouse must have a spouse to supposedly "exist"; an employee must have an employer to supposedly "exist"; a teacher must have students to supposedly "exist"; etc.)
Add to that the fact that fifty-percent of the people on the planet are Personality Types Sixes who are embroiled in fear and are thus dependent types; add to that a large percentage who are Personality Type Twos and Threes and Nines who have a strong sense of entitlement and are therefore dependent types.
In fact, most cultures on the planet inspire dependence rather than independence, so it is little wonder that so few will Realize Fully and actually become totally free. Yet freedom is the prerequisite for peace, so it is also little wonder that so few will Realize Fully and be at peace.
So the questions for every seeker and reader are,
"How free do you really want to be?"
"Is it possible that Maharaj's pointer - 'You are afraid of freedom' - might be based at least to some degree in fact?"
and
"If so, might you be interested in certain considerations that might assist in overcoming that fear of total freedom?"
The contents of this book are not for those who are seeking reinforcement of their religious beliefs about the one called "Jesus." Why? Because the contents of this book focus on the "later" message that he offered ... a message rooted in the ancient teachings of the Far East rather than the Middle Eastern message that is generally focused upon by his followers.
Next, the contents of this book are not for those who believe that the non-duality messages is about "uniting all people." Non-duality addresses the Oneness, the - unicity; therefore, to speak of an "A" being united with a "B" or to conclude that non-duality's message of Oneness is about "bringing people together" is the antithesis of non-duality and is actually a statement of two-ness.
Next, to invite one to look objectively at political, societal, religious or spiritual beliefs is not an attack on any of those institutions. The Realized can no more feel hostile toward persons attached to a political party, a society, a religion or a spiritual movement than they can feel hostile toward a mirage. Why? Neither those institutions nor a mirage have anything to do with the Real, with the Authentic Self.
Too, this work is not a work that aspires to become a part of academia. It is impossible to footnote that which is understood via "the inner resource" or "the inner guru."
This book is for those who have wondered what he was talking about when he said things that many have deemed "Too far out there" or dismissed as "maybe misstatements" or "probably misquotes" or "things that Christians need not concern themselves with trying to understand," such as: "When you speak of Me, speak of Me as I AM"; "Before Abraham was, I AM"; "No one shall ever see the kingdom of heaven - it is within";
"Heaven and earth shall fade away"; "If they say to you, 'from where have you originated?' say to them 'We have come from the light, where the light originated through itself'"; "If they ask you, 'what is the sign of your father in you?' say to them, 'it is a movement and a rest'";
"Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become as I AM and I myself
Will become he, and the hidden things shall be revealed to him"; "When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female not be female, then shall you enter the kingdom";
"I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword." "I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law"; and "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
The book also includes information that clarifies not only the shift in the message presented "Jesus" but also background information on advaita; a discussion of how the original "Bible" was lost forever; and on Pope John Paul II's clarifications regarding the understanding of "the geography of gehanna" and what "heaven" and "hell" really are. Best regards to all, including those with many beliefs and those who have been freed of all beliefs.
As far as there being any documented evidence or historical proof that William Shakespeare studied the Advaita teachings, none exists; however, there is proof in his writings that he was well along the "path" to Realization; moreover, many of his pointers provide excellent opportunities for seekers to consider some of his teachings that paralleled those of the "ancient masters."
Some of the quotations discussed in the book include the following which are all rooted in non-duality:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"
"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"
"O what a goodly outside falsehood hath"
"All that glitters is not gold"
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
"Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
"Much ado about nothing"
"I say there is no darkness but ignorance"
"To thine own Self be true and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man"
"Nature is made better by no means"
"Out, out, brief candle"
"All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity"
"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage"
"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into the air, into thin air"
and
"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre observe degree, priority, and place. Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order."
The quotes provide a starting point for a deeper discussion of the type pointers that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj shared in his ultimate talks at the end of his "teaching career" rather than the type of pointers offered earlier on.
It is not for those who believe that Truth is found in special or holy or religious or spiritual texts, any more than Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's later talks were for persons interested in religious or spiritual concepts. He made clear that what he shared later on was quite different from what he taught early on - such as in the book "I AM THAT."
During his last years, he said of the book "I AM THAT":
"That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today." He said, now I am "emphasizing different aspects."
Similarly, the talks in this book can also be considered among "the later talks," so they are not for everyone. Many of the other books available from the author should be read before this one, in particular the four books that are included in "The Advanced Seekers' Series."
Seekers cannot begin with the "end pointers" in this volume any more than they can begin with the pointers in Maharaj's later talks. Seekers must find information that is "level-appropriate," custom-fit for them at the exact place wherever they might be on "the path" (and many are not nearly as far along as they might think).
Over the years, Maharaj discussed and explained thousands of topics, all relevant to seekers at one point or another along the path but not aimed at other seekers that were at different points along 'the path'."
Here, writings have included over 2000 discussions of various topics, responses to a variety of questions, etc. Some seekers have asked, "Which are the most important discussions that I should read?" The reply has always been:
"As with Maharaj, that depends entirely on you and where you are on 'the path.' If a step-four-of-seven pointer is offered to one stuck at the third religious or spiritual step, then that talk would be the most important if it moves the seekers along the way. It is also the most important for every seeker that reads the explanation or hears the discussion if those seekers are stuck at the third step. Yet it would mean nothing to one at the first or second step on 'the seven-step path'."
At the end, Maharaj discussed fifteen key topics in his final talks (though they were not numbered as such). Herein are the fifteen key pointers that would be offered if that speck of consciousness called "floyd" were offering "his 'final' talks."
WHAT SOME OF THE READERS AMONG THE MOST ADVANCED SEEKERS ARE SAYING:
From Robert R.: "The Final Words" has been packing a power and succinctness, pointing to the nisarga "being / being thereof" as opposed to the tendency to make just another cognitive exercise / understanding of Advaita Vedanta and pointing to the importance of not allowing the Advaitin (Nisarga) message to become just another philosophy but to be lived, resulting in the deconstruction(7 step path) of any and all identification with body, mind, personality, etc.
I just wanted to thank you. "When Only Three Hours Of Manifestation Remain" is without question the most powerful, concise, catalytic piece of Your work that I have absorbed (and I have absorbed all that has been written). Just as Maharaj's teaching was refined in the latter part of his life, Your teaching has powerfully shifted (no small feat given its already existing purity / essence ). Peace, Light and Love (literally and figuratively), Bob
From Jo H.: My heart grows with your existence. Thank you. Love, Jo
From Ginny: Your writings are a source of comfort. Thank You for continuing to chronicle. You have important work in the relative. Know that what You have exposed has changed my life, allowed Real Life. Words are not coming out right, but please feel the Loving intent.
This is one of Your strongest pieces and allows folk to read, again and again if needed, that energy (which is Us) is Love. Real Love. So, the membrane of separation thins, till there is none.
At some point along "the path," those that are receiving the understanding become aware of what "THAT" refers to. The masses, the billions of non-Realized persons on the planet, have no clue what "THAT" refers to. They believe that they are who they think they are and / or they want others to believe that they really are who they think they are or who they want others to believe they are.
Identifying with a false ego-state will trigger the use of ego-defense mechanisms, including egotism; thus, ego-states are always upgraded so people not only believe they really are who they think they are but also think that they are far more than most, far greater than most, and far different from most. Consider an example wherein that scenario played out:
Thirty years ago, "floyd's" bills were paid by selling insurance. The owner-manager of the agency entered the office one morning and tossed a death benefit check on the desk. He asked, "You've never delivered a check before, have you?"
The answer was "No." He continued, "That check is as good as passing on a hot prospect to you. Let me train you in the way this goes. You take that check to the widow-it's for $25,000.00. Tell her how sorry you are for her loss and ask her if the check will help?
"She'll say yes ... that she's grateful her husband planned ahead and left her the funds to cover the costs of his funeral and to help her get by until she can make arrangements.
"Then, ask her if there is someone she'd like to help the same way someday. If she doesn't come up with any names, ask about children, nieces, nephews, helping out grandchildren with college costs. Tell her that she can use all or part of the proceeds to buy a paid-in-full policy and she'll never have to pay a single premium. Some of the guys come back with an app (an application) and the whole check. That would give you a nice commission for the week."
The check was tossed back to him with the comment, "If you want something that sleazy done, do it yourself." (Yes, it had already been determined that selling insurance was not going to be "a life-long occupation" and was not "the dream job" as it had originally been billed.) His response was, "Do you know who you're talking to!?"
The reply was, "What you really mean is, 'Do you know who I think I am?' You think you're something that you most assuredly are not ... "The Great, Ethical Boss," "The Super Achiever," "The Rich, Successful Businessman," "The Wonderful Community Leader" ... but the image people have of you is nowhere close to the way you really are." His diatribe that followed included words and phrases that referred to "insubordination" and to "cleaning out a desk" and to being "fired." (Today, there would have been a quiet walking out of the office without comment, but it didn't happen that way in "the old days.")
But two of the questions above strike at the heart of the Advaita teachings:
1. Because the assumption of ego-states triggers the use of ego-defense mechanisms which include - among others - egotism, the stage was set for that boss to ask egotistically, "Do you know who you're talking to!?"
2. The clarification "Do you know who I think I am?" points to the fact that non-Realized persons do not have a clue about Who / What They Truly Are; as a result, they assume scores and scores of false identities throughout the length of any given relative existence.
Maharaj said, "When I met my Guru, he told me: 'You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what You Are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your Real Self.' I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made...!"
The content of this book discusses the subject in detail and can assist with bringing to an end the assumption of false identities and the failure to truly know who (what) one actually is.
A bound volume of this ebook would contain over 250 pages of quotations, pointers and other information dealing with the message of non-duality and advaita. The book 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, literature, and movies.
The nine parts of this book include the following:
an introduction;
quotations that other seekers / readers have indicated that they found to be significant;
non-duality quotations and pointers arranged by category and subject matter. The rationale for that? 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 dealing with body identity and a seeker dealing with "being free of influence of the mind" can find quotations and pointers that offer information on that topic. Other subjects include personality, the child ignorance or no-knowing stage, the two types of witnessing, the Absolute, the Void or the Nothingness, and many, many more.
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;
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, and others;
certain non-duality pointers that have appeared in the non-fiction writings of Ralph Klein, Barbara McClintock, Erwin Schrodinger, Fritjof Capra, Niels Bohr, David Bohm, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Marvin Kaye, S.H. Sharp, Paul Krassner, Ken Kesey, Russell Brand, G.I. Gurdjieff, a variety of examples of the non-duality message contained in the body of Native America wisdom, and non-duality pointers from "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (a.k.a., "the A.A. Big Book");
examples of the non-duality message 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;
and
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.
Edward Thomas wrote: "And heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance."
Dancing is defined thusly: "To move one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps" or "to leap and skip, as from excitement; to move nimbly or quickly; to dance with joy" or "to move merrily; to express pleasure by motion."
Dancing to "another tune" means "to forfeit one's behavior, attitudes, beliefs." The relevance of all of that is clear to most that have studied Advaita and what Realization has to offer.
As for dancing, the author write: "Dancing can involve a fluid, even, natural motion which, at its core, exudes joy and pleasure and lightness. It can also involve no movement at all when the dance takes place within and provides a sense of fullness and unchecked joy. Either way, there is never a "roller-coaster" type of jerkiness. There is smoothness and gracefulness and agility. Moving through the relative existence post-Realization is like moving smoothly across a dance floor (not in some helter-skelter fashion and not in some roller coaster fashion with excessive up's and down's but in a slow, deliberate, even, level, steady, flexible, and effortless manner.)"
He suggests that "the 'end game' with Advaita is not to be able to eat, drink, breathe, talk, dissect, and analyze Advaita; nor is the 'end game' to spend all of one's waking hours pontificating about Advaita. The 'end game' is to reach an understanding that results in a love of silence and solitude; that allows Reality to be overlaid upon the relative so that a nisarga (natural) manner of abidance happens; that allows all to happen spontaneously while, ironically, also happening deliberately"; and that allows whatever happens - or whatever does not happen - to be enjoyed fully. With the sense of limitlessness that manifests post-Realization, then all can be relished: the working required to assure independence, the walking, the eating, the looking at what nature has to offer, the sitting, the sharing, and, yes, the dancing."
[It is explained this way in the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality):
"Realization is marked by the abandoning of all concepts. On this seven-step 'journey,' we've used many concepts to remove concepts, not unlike the proverbial thorn used to remove a thorn. If you have something within you like a thorn, and you use a thorn to get rid of that which was within, that which was causing your misery, what effort need remain after the removal?
The work is done; the tools required for the task-the thorns needed to remove the thorn-are no longer required. What further exercises could be indicated? Realized, You will not know any concern about any thorns from 'the past.' You will not long for any thorn to return. You will not save spare thorns just in case they might be needed in 'the future.' You will not work to maintain Your 'state of non-thorn-ness.' It's all gone, all dissolved. It just happened automatically when the last concept dis-appeared."]
This book describes what the post-Realization relative existence should be like and why The Light must precede the lightness. May you enjoy not just dancing but actually dancing lightly.
A visitor said: A friend recommended I read an article you wrote on death and the Mumbai attacks. I started reading that and wondered why he told me about it but when I got further into it I understood. I had started feeling suicidal at Thanksgiving and with Christmas coming up - the first since my wife left me. Since my friend introduced me to your work, I've read more of your writings on personas and I am seeing that you are right - the end / "death" of my relationship with my wife seems more painful than the actual deaths of people I've loved. I haven't cared about anybody else since she left except me. It's all been about me. What you write about is pretty foreign to me but somehow I am getting out of myself at least a little bit - but I need more help. Anyway thank you for your writings - it seems like maybe they have helped even if they have not been the total solution yet.
The reply: First, if it is heard that suicidal thoughts are happening, the suggestion is always to "go immediately to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. Follow up by finding a counselor who specializes in grief recovery and trauma treatment."
(In some cases, an EMDR element in a treatment plan can be effective. Call some counselors and inquire about their level of training and expertise.) Then later, this understanding might be relevant, but it is not the first line of defense against self-harm.
For those dealing with the "death" of roles and who are finding that some "special season" seems to be providing some impetus for an aggravation of misery and suffering around a sense of loss (but who have not concluded that suicide might be the only answer), some pointers might provide clarity and release from attachment:
First, the key pointers are these:
(1) the blocked consciousness allows a "mind" to believe in the false concepts of "separation" and "different from" and "better than": "one season is different from and better than other seasons," or "this season is worse than other times of the year because I am not with person 'A' or person 'B' "; and
(2) both pain-which is registered via the body-and misery and suffering-which register via the "mind"-can only register
(a) if Consciousness is manifest and if
(b) physical consciousness is present; however, if
(c) the Consciousness is blocked from seeing Reality and a person is operating under the auspices of a "mind," which is nothing more than a storehouse of fiction, then fluctuations between happiness and suffering are guaranteed.
(Meaning? If the physical consciousness is suspended via the administering of anesthesia, a doctor can remove the heart in a body and replace it with another one and no pain will register during the procedure. If the Consciousness is not manifest, then misery and suffering cannot register.
If the Pure Consciousness is blocked, then truth cannot be seen and misery and suffering will also be registered in that case. In such cases, the Pure Consciousness-the Pure Witness, the True Self-does not know ItSelf; therefore, it will accept all sorts of false roles as identities.
False roles generate co-dependency-which prevents independence / freedom-so misery and suffering will follow. Persons will be miserable and will suffer if they are not independent / free.)
Next, nothing provides as clear an understanding of the reason that Advaitin teachers advise against accepting roles as identities as the events generated by accepting such roles as "spouse," "lover," "partner," etc. as identities.
Actually, misery and suffering are always rooted in duality and in the dualistic ideas that persons (the non-Realized) believe about "personal relationships." The very term is dualistic, suggesting that something "personal" can be real and suggesting that two of anything can "relate."
There is no "A" that can relate to "B." There is only the "not two." The concept of "personal" is a lie and the concept of one thing being able to relate to another is a lie.
No wonder the labels mentioned above-if accepted as identities-will generate misery: anything thought to be a "relationship" is a lie, so all "relationships" are based in a lie from the start and in the additional lies that come about as "relationships" unfold.
That which does not change is Real; that which changes is false, and all "relationships" will change. This has been shared before but is relevant here:
What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the Real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion-that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state-prepare for war."
Whatever is false but believed to be true might lead to occasional pleasure but will eventually lead to belief-and-concept-based ignorance and therefore to the misery and suffering that are always subsequent to ignorance.
Any role is a mirage, dreamed up by persons and accepted by followers in their cultures. Mirages do not begin or end-they are simply appearances without substance. Just as teaching might happen or not even as no role of "The Teacher" is adopted, so too can "husbanding" and "wifing" happen without all of the misery and suffering associated with role acceptance and role-"loss."
As long as roles are accepted as identities, the fluctuations and chaos of duality will manifest. Period of happiness will be replaced with periods of fighting or disagreeing or having to forgive or holding grudges or suffering misery.
And all of that flows from notions about being "in relationships," including ...
... being in relationship with another person, and
... being in an eternal relationship with "self"-believing that the body-mind-personality triad can last forever, and
... being in relationship with a god or gods, etc.
All of those "relationships" will be guaranteed to fluctuate ("I'm close to my spouse," "I'm not close to my spouse," "I'm close to my god," "I don't feel close to my god right now," ad infinitum).
Of the eight traits of the untreated Addictive Personality Disorder, the number one manifestation of that condition is said to be "having problems in personal relationships." With 99% of all persons being addicted to something, is it any wonder that such chaos manifests throughout the relative when trying to deal with "personal relationships," including a "personal relationship with someone," a "personal relationship with God," a "personal relationship with self," etc.?
It will be shown that all of the happenings that occur during the relative can happen even if Realized, but what will not happen is any attachment to that which is not Real. Consider: what if a delusional person saw for the first time ever a mirage in the desert. What if that person became fascinated with the mirage-even enamored by the mirage-and went to the desert every day to be with the mirage.
On days when the conditions were the same as on the day of that first sighting, that person would be happy, spending some time once again with the mirage. On rainy days or cloudy days, however, that person would be miserable, feeling separated from the mirage that he / she has come to "love."
Such instability and such fluctuations in mood are typical of those persons who are playing roles and believing that the mirages appearing during their relative existence are real. Such misperceiving will always lead eventually to the misery described earlier by the miserable man.
All of the pointers above will be doubted by persons being exposed to them for the first time. Doubt these pointers if you will, but why not as readily doubt what you have been told all your life by "others"?
If a person has moved through this relative existence for any period of time, then the unblocked consciousness has the potential to see objectively that the current belief systems that are being held in such awe are not producing the desired effects.
If you can see with the least bit of objectivity, then why not at least reconsider the validity of your beliefs and concepts and ideas? The "path" to freedom is a seven-step journey to Realization. The "path" to misery and suffering is the path of duality.
Now some find the Direct Path no-concept, non-dual Reality teachings to be "harsh," suggesting "Why don't you build up the man whose wife left? He's hurting." Why would anyone stand before a mirage and try to build it up? Further, there is no one standing before a mirage and trying to tear it down. All that is happening is that a mirage is being shown to be a mirage along with the pointer that it is foolish to allow a mirage to have any effect on thought, word, or deed ... especially when thoughts and words might lead to the deed of suicide.
This book begins by discussing certain terms relevant to the subject matter of this book:
"Personal" means "concerning or affecting a particular person or her / his personality."
"Person" is defined as "a human being."
"Personality" refers to "the complex of all of the attributes - behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental - that characterize a unique individual."
In the Advaita teachings, the "journey" to Realization begins with a casting aside of all false identities, including identification with the body-mind-personality triad.
To cast aside belief in personas / personalities is to move farther along the "path" to understanding the composite unity ... an understanding that can facilitate the casting aside of belief in anything being "personal" or in anyone or any One being "personal."
That is to say that the "journey" begins not with finding out who you are (or Who / What You Are) but with finding out all that you are not. The identity triad of body-mind-personality must be discarded during the early steps along the "path," well before any final clarity comes about a non-phenomenal identity (or even no identity).
Thus, in the interim along the way, answering the question about "the identity of the Am-ness" can lead to an early level of freedom if the body-mind-personality triad is replaced with the triad of elements-air-energy (a.k.a., "the composite unity").
This book invites the reader to consider this:
What is a tree but a collection of elements that have formed a space in which the consciousness has manifested temporarily and that circulate oxygen? As always, the pointer here is that there is no difference in any "things" on the planet except for the rate at which the energy vibrates.
Thus, a "human" is also a collection of elements with a temporary manifestation of a quantity of conscious-energy and with oxygen circulating into and out of the space. Is there any difference in what is called "a tree" and "a human" at the most basic level? No. Consider also:
A plant / tree uses carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. Oxygen is left over after that process. The plant or tree will use part of the supply of oxygen itself for respiration, but there is more than enough left over which is unwanted and unneeded by the plant.
The surplus, therefore, is released into the atmosphere and provides oxygen for humans and other forms as well. So the tree, as is the case with humans, is composed of a combination of elements; the tree, as is the case with humans, circulates oxygen; and the tree, as is the case with humans, provides a space in which conscious-energy can temporarily manifest.
Yet how many persons are totally free of the influence of ego-state assumption and its accompanying egotism and therefore able to admit that they are no more "special" or "different" or "unique" than the ugliest, most deformed tree on the planet?
How many persons on the planet can never be offended, as is the case with the one that can ask, "WHO - what part of this temporarily manifested unity - can be offended? The oxygen part? Of course not. The energy part? Of course not. The element part? Of course not. Among those three, there is no WHO. There is no part of those three that can be offended, so there is no part of the triad that can be robbed of total freedom and total peace."
The process of casting aside belief in the body and mind and personality as actual identities is a three-step procedure, followed in the teachings here by the other four steps that make up the entire seven-step "path" from identifying with false "I's" to Full Realization and abidance as the Absolute (or that which is beyond).
[The seven steps are not the subject of this book. The full explanation of all of the steps on the "path" can be found in the book "From the I to the Absolute."]
Few will ever seek Realization. Of those who do, most will consider the path to be a four-step process:
1. Discard identification with the body
2. Discard identifying with the content of the mind
3. Discard identifying with all former personas / identities, most especially those that deal with "the worldly"
4. Then, assume the identity of "A Religious Person," or "A Spiritual Person," or "A Spiritual Creature Having a Human Experience," or "One Now At One With God or Brahman or Whatever" or any of the other roles or identities that supposedly identity the "new person" that one has become as a result of all his / her spiritual or religious work and exercises and supposed enlightenment or realization.
Those who believe that the "journey" to Realization is a four-step process will fixate at the point where they assume a religious and / or spiritual identity (a.k.a, non-worldly or noumenal or supreme or Supreme identity).
Yet in that process, they have assumed another identity instead of being free of any and all false identities.
In adopting those new identities, any supposed "improvements" most assuredly "concern or affect a particular person or his / her personality" and they most assuredly refer to a newly-found "complex" with "new attributes" that characterize "a unique individual" who has "changed for the better" and is "different from the way he / she was in the past."
In the process of assuming the identity of "A Religious Person," or "A Spiritual Person," or "A Spiritual Creature Having a Human Experience," or "One Now At One With God or Brahman or Whatever," one has not - by definition - eliminated all personality, personas, and personal identification(s) but has ...
either
substituted a new identity or identities for one or more former identities
or has
upgraded a former identity:
"I was a bad man, a bad person, but now I am a good man, a good person"
or
"I was a non-spiritual woman, but now I am a spiritual woman"
or
"I was some kind of being occupied with worldly, phenomenal things, but now I have transcended beyond this world and am occupied with noumenal things."
All roles are merely ego-states (that is, false identities, stage characters, personas, personalities, etc.) No matter what role is assumed - be it supposedly phenomenal or be it supposedly noumenal - that role is nothing more than an ego-state, a "personal identity" even as the claim is that the identity is a "non-personal identity."
Furthermore, persons who have assumed a spiritual identity will also assume that there are spiritual powers beyond this realm that also have personal traits. Human being(s) here; Supreme Being(s) there.
Excerpts from LIBERATION
Various teachers use various approaches (or various yogas) for guiding proteges to Realization and Liberation. Why? Because there are three types of learners: auditory, visual, and kinetic. Also, the three body types among humans call for different approaches for different persons. The first body type is contemplative while a second type is more active. The third type includes students or proteges who are driven to be vigorously active. A variety of approaches are justified as attempts are made to provide methods that take into account the variety among proteges and their varied learning methods.
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) is an approach that can work well with contemplative and analytical seekers. For those who are prone to action and who learn best by an action-based approach, the book LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization) offers specific actions that can taken by those seeking to be free.
CHAPTER ONE
Being Trapped in Personality vs. Being Realized and Free
Personality is (1) that which generates personas and (2) that which allows things to be taken personally.
A persona is an assumed social role or a character played by an actor, the term having been derived from the Latin word for "mask" or "character." Personas are all of the false identities that persons think define "who they are." In fact, they define everything that one is not.
"Taking anything personally" can only happen when a persona is assumed as a false identity and then takes offense at the words or actions of another when an assumed identity thinks that it is being hurt, interfered with, or threatened. What conclusion can be drawn from knowing that? All instances of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable or in pain originate from assuming false identities and then wanting to defend or protect false identities. Therefore, to be free of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable, in pain or defensive requires being free of personas...being free of the entrapment in personality.
Thousands of personas are assumed by persons: husband, lover, homeowner, employee, employer, wife, son, ad infinitum; however, as a result of genetics and environment and other factors, all persons develop one dominate persona while assuming scores of others. Often, that dominant persona is overlaid onto (or combined with) all other assumed roles.
Only nine primary personality types exist, and since persons become most driven by their type, most separated from Self by that type, and most absorbed in "self" via that type, then the "journey" to liberation can begin with an effort to be rid of the influence of the dominate personality type. Then the secondary types and personas might be abandoned more easily.
Why Understand Personality Types?
Psychotherapist Marie Lachney explains it this way: "You may as well learn all that you can about your primary personality type as well as the related types that influence you. For most people, it will determine everything they do and everything they feel during their entire lives. Only a small percentage will ever be liberated from the dominance of personality."
Dictating Behavior
Of course each individual is "unique," but unless people understand the way that personality type dictates behavior, then they will never fully understand why they do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel. Nor can they understand why others do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel-which can be quite different from person to person-depending on personality type. Nor can they ever break free of unconscious influences.
Personality Formation
Early in life, we learned to feel safe (and to cope with unhealthy family situations and circumstances) by developing a strategy based on natural talents, genetics, and abilities.
Personality's Power over Behavior and Feelings
People of the same type have the same basic motivations, the same basic liabilities and assets, and the same basic view of the world in some fundamentally similar ways. It's almost "textbook" the way people demonstrate the exact traits of their type. It is amazing to see how infrequently people choose to do the things they do and how often they are predisposed to certain behavioral patterns. (When you add programming, conditioning, acculturation, and the effects of trauma to the mix, "free will" and "choice" become reduced to the level of theory.)
The Benefits of Knowing and Understanding Your Type
This understanding can provide release, if not comfort, in knowing that millions of people who share your personality type have the same coping strategy as you and have done exactly what you did when faced with the same circumstances. But by understanding personality, millions have also been able to say, "Oh my gosh! So that's why I do what I do!" and then they have become free of the overwhelming influence of personality which has unconsciously driven them. At some level, "That's totally insane" can give way to "That's perfectly understandable, all things considered." Blame and guilt and anger directed at self can end and a shift toward sanity can begin.
The more persons sees the insanity of being driven by personality, the more receptive they might become to considering the "path" to Realization in order to attain freedom from personality via that "journey" and thereby allow Full Liberation to happen.
CHAPTER TWO
What is the Enneagram and What Are the Nine Personality Types?
In geometry, the enneagram is a star polygon with nine sides. In psychology or philosophy or sociology, it is a means for studying the nine basic personality types that have been recognized for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The personality types are plotted on an enneagram structure in order to illustrate how they interact and interplay.
Some believe that the Sufis first used the tool in the Middle East hundreds of years ago. Others believe that the roots can be traced to the Far East and were transmitted orally even thousands of years ago. The former is the more popular theory.
It is known that the modern use of the enneagram can be traced to the Russian teacher Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff in the 1920's. The tool has found widespread used in the U.S. since the 1960's.
More significantly as far as the pointers in this book are concerned, it is just that ... simply a tool. The tool can be used to understand the forces that drive persons to do the things they do and to feel the way they feel. It can also be used to promote understanding of others and their behavior and also to catalogue the disintegration of persons who move downward from the stages where they can function in society through the declining
stages and into the dysfunctional stages. It can also provide a series of actions that can be taken to "undo" that process and return to a stage where one can be functional or even totally liberated via Realization.
As noted, the nine types (and their interactions with each other) are typically illustrated by use of a star polygon. [See front cover]
For the purposes of this study, little information will be offered to explain the ways that the types adjacent to your own type influences behavior or the way that other types connected by lines to your own can affect your conduct. Much information is available on the web if you are interested in those other aspects.
CHAPTER THREE deals with:
Traits, "Assets," and "Liabilities" among the Nine Personality Types
For Example:
[TYPES 2, 3 AND 4 ARE CENTERED IN THE HEART, IN FEELINGS, IN IMAGE]
2 THE HELPER
WHEN HEALTHY: Demonstrative, Sensitive, and Generous. WHEN NOT: People-Pleasing, Martyr-like, Manipulative, Hysterical, and Possessive.
3 THE ACHIEVER / THE PERFORMER
WHEN HEALTHY: Adaptive, Energetic, Optimistic, Assured, Excelling, Goal-Oriented, Driven. WHEN NOT: Image-Conscious, Vile-Tongued, Narcissistic, Pretentious, Vain, Superficial, Vindictive and Overly-Competitive.
Etc.
The less we are influenced or driven by personality, personas, ego, or ego-states, then the greater chance we have of becoming truly free and truly happy; additionally, it can also be said that those who are healthy and integrating can exhibit "the best" of all nine types and those who are unhealthy and disintegrating can exhibit "the worst" of all nine types.
LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK:
Consider: Advaitins speak of "the drop dissolving into the ocean." Govinda, however, (influenced by Buddhists, the Gelug-pa sect members, Advaitins, et. al.) spoke of the next step: "the ocean slipping into the drop."
Suppose that you typically have a cup of coffee with sugar and cream each morning. Suppose that the cream you add to the coffee one morning is curdled and instead of blending in with the coffee it actually clumps up and ruins the taste with its sourness.
Would you believe that you could extract all of the curdled cream from the cup of coffee, that you could thereby return the cup of coffee to its original state, and that you could then add some fresh cream to the newly-cleaned coffee and then enjoy its taste? Of course not. Yet that is what seekers attempt to do, usually for the entirety of their search.
Most try to take their corrupted "mind" and just add some new ideas and new thoughts and new beliefs to it, filtering out or abandoning some former concepts, thinking they then have a pure "mind," and then believing that they can just add some new concepts to replace the old. Such efforts will always prove to be futile. The entire contents of the cup must be discarded if you would fill the cup with that which can bring you something with a taste that can be enjoyed. There is no other way than the way of emptiness first, fullness second...no other way than the way of de-accumulation, period. Why?
Because all minds have been filled with curdled concepts. Ingredients have been added that formed a "mind" with contaminates which block the taste of sweetness and which guarantee that the relative experience will be marked by more and more sourness. Using denial ("I love my life") or spinning the truth ("My parents did a great job and never taught me anything that has not proven to be true") or even being blinded by dissociation will not change the facts that are observable to an objective witness. Yet so many want to hang onto their contaminated cup of coffee (and their contaminated "mind" and their contaminated existence) wanting to improve it, change it, make it the way they want it.
If you follow the path of reason, can you possibly keep the original cup of coffee and do anything to it that can make it enjoyable? No. It must tossed completely. Then, something with a taste of sweetness can come. When all learned ignorance is tossed, then everything that also accompanies ignorance will go. At that point, You will know that You Are as a drop dissolving into the ocean. You are At One with all.
You will have returned to your original nature ... Your original state ... merging into that ocean of awareness without aware-of-ness. Call the effect "bliss" if you like, but that is not a state of bliss. A state of bliss is a state in which the bliss is known ... is felt. That can only happen NOW, not "later" ... only "here," not "there." At the point when You begin to abide as that original state, then nothing is needed, nothing is desired, and the nothingness is relished. You will have tasted the sweet taste of the nectar of immortality;
You will have been healed via the ultimate medicine; You will have returned to that state prior to consciousness; You will have found the source of the seeds of consciousness; and You will abide as That Which Is What Can Make Stability Possible rather than as the consciousness which guarantees fluctuations and instability, dualistic up's and down's, and, yes, even chaos.
Maharaj said that you cannot "imagine the taste of pure water; you can only discover it by abandoning all flavorings." What is "flavoring" the relative existence among the non-Realized? Lies, concepts, false beliefs, attitudes, and all of the effects of programming and conditioning and learned ignorance. The flavoring also includes hatred; entrapment in the illusion of things thought to be personal; the false but unsavory sense of separation and emptiness with nothing to provide a manifestation of fullness; fears; unmet desires; anger; judgment; unmet expectations; fighting; war; arrogance; and-relatively speaking-the breaking of relationships. In short, concepts and duality.
The essence is that which is "the root, the foundation, the timeless and spaceless possibility" of what is called during the manifestation "all experience." What seekers would taste is the sweetness of the essence, but they are trying to taste it indirectly by clinging either to body-mind-personality identification or to religious or spiritual personas or to some elevated notions about the value of consciousness.
Maharaj taught that the natural and original state as understood by the Realized "tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss." He pointed out that to know the sweetness, You must taste it. Its sweetness cannot be otherwise understood. Here, the circumstance is not unlike that of a tour guide taking you to a vineyard for a wine tasting. Here, You Are guided to "The Vineyard of the Absolute" where the sweetest tastings take place. Here, if you complete a seven-step "journey," the tour will end with a savoring of the only nectar that is Real. Few can complete the "trip" alone since they are blocked by the obstacles of distortion and delusions and illusions.
To that end, Maharaj spoke of the "distortions and impurities" of the mind. He did not say they need to be replaced with something else. He said they must be "removed." Just as the coffee is ruined by the impurities of the cream, so the relative existence is ruined by the impurities of the mind. In each case, the impurities block the enjoyment of the tasting. The ruined cup of coffee must be discarded in order for the cup to be filled with that which can provide the taste that would be tasted; similarly, the mind must be discarded if any sweet taste to the relative existence is to added ... if the ocean is to enter the drop.
Currently, the taste is being ruined by impurities. The cup that You Are must be emptied first if it is ever to be filled with all that provides the taste of sweetness that is possible during the manifestation. To solve either the problem with the ruined coffee or the problem with the ruined existence, all must be tossed so that the original state of emptiness can return and so that a pleasant fullness can happen. Empty, the coffee cup can be filled with that which brings joy. Empty, the person can be filled with the Realization that brings joy. Empty, the ocean can slip into the drop.
In Advaitin terms, allowing the drop to dissolve into the ocean results when (A) the sense of separation goes, when (B) the awareness of the unicity comes, and when (C) the sense of being "different from" and "more special than" goes. Then the fullness of the essence slips in, along with the perfect and unshakable understanding of the "I AM THAT; I AM." Why?
Because at that point, the essence and the substance will have combined. The eternal and the transitory are ironically (but nevertheless surely) One. Even as the Am-ness continues, it knows it is THAT and it abides as THAT. Suddenly the senseless "world" makes sense in that its senselessness no longer triggers any surprise regarding the fact that it is senseless or regarding the fact that the adult masses really do live as if six years old.
No longer does a witnessing of the evidence prompt any shock at the degree of widespread insanity, so no longer in there entrapment in judgment when the results of ignorance are seen to manifest over and over and over again. There is witnessing and understanding. Suddenly, all of the ignorance and nonsense and immaturity and insanity make sense in light of the ignorant and nonsensical and immature and insane ways that persons are exposed to via cultures and programmers and conditioners and domesticators. Peace, therefore, manifests as beauty is seen beyond the abject darkness and the pervasive ignorance.
CHAPTER ONE
(The Introduction and The Rationale)
Why is it that the peace and harmony and happiness that Maharaj referenced cannot manifest if there is a "mind" (which he reported he no longer had after Realization) Consider the implication of the title of the book, "There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out Of Your Mind)". That is, there can only be peace and harmony and happiness if you are out from under the influence of what is taken to be "your mind" when, in fact, there is no such thing as "your mind."
What there is among the not-Fully-Realized is "their mind" ("their" referring to all persons who have taught you any belief or idea or concept that is presently stored in the section of the brain called "the mind"; thus, it is the content of "their mind" which has been passed down and transferred and is always taken in error to be "your mind." Why is it "their mind"? Because whatever is in it, you did not put there. "They" put it there. Who are "they"? The members of your family of origin, relatives, friends, teachers, religious and / or spiritual influencers, political leaders, and all who were in positions of "authority" during your childhood and who exposed you to their ideas and concepts and beliefs which you have adopted as "your own."
And the adoption of ideas and concepts and beliefs continues even now, into adulthood, for all that are not Realized. The "mind" has been filled with fiction; with beliefs that are based not at all in fact; with beliefs that have never been questioned; and with beliefs that have been accepted with no evidence at all but have been accepted on "blind faith" alone. Among the masses, the contents of the "mind" are now held in such esteem that people are willing to fight for those beliefs or - in some cases - even willing to die in a fight over those beliefs.
How has the "mind" evolved from its original purpose of storing survival-related, retrievable data to its present state of storing distorting, deluding, misleading, fooling, peace-robbing, harmony-destroying, happiness-blocking beliefs which in many cases amount to nothing but nonsense? The "mind" is a part of the brain where information can be stored and retrieved, originally used as a "constructive" tool for survival; now, it is a destructive force that drives nonsensical behaviors that are based in nonsensical thoughts generated by the "mind." What types of information are stored there? Ideas, concepts and beliefs, beliefs that were set in place by programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation.
The "mind" is an illusion because it is an area now used for storing an entire network of belief systems that are generated from the dreamed up "-ism's" that are valued by cultures and societies but that are based in non-facts rather than facts. It is the area of the brain that accepts beliefs such as "I am this" and "I am that," and the false personas that are mistakenly believed to identify who you are will subconsciously drive thoughts and words and deeds, removing all ability to choose and resulting in the non-Realized masses being driven by agendas that are stored in the fictitious "mind."
Moreover, the persons being driven have no clue at all about what the hidden agendas are and how they block any opportunity to be awake, aware, conscious, sane, reasonable, rational, and to be in charge of what they say, what they do, and how they traverse the relative existence. And all the while, they are convinced that their beliefs give their relative existence some worth and value and purpose and meaning and direction and power and control.
To see the actual effects of one's beliefs, to be able to look back objectively and to realize that every destructive and insane act was based in one or more beliefs, is to ease the transition away from belief-based ignorance and belief-based insanity and to pave the way for being free of living under the influence of "their" ideas and concepts and beliefs that have been driving "you" in ways that have not proven to be to your benefit at all - relatively speaking.
The transcendent (re-purified) consciousness gives no credibility to concepts or ideas or attitudes (i.e., beliefs). It understands the unicity; conversely, the conceptual consciousness erroneously accepts beliefs and takes the perceived multiplicity to be real. The transcendent consciousness, being free of delusion and illusion, allows for the abidance as the Absolute. Then, even the concepts offered by Advaitins will have been transcended. Years and years of the accumulated mental and emotional and spiritual garbage of the culture can be tossed ... and tossed without concern, without dread, without any sense of loss. Later, it will be realized that it wasn't even tossed because there is no "tosser."
The garbage actually just faded away after its value was finally questioned and seen to be worthless as a result of its senseless content. Yet note how much the ego-defense mechanism of arrogance (which protects the illusory "I") hates any suggestion that would devalue all of the knowledge-all of the learned ignorance-that has been accumulated throughout a relative existence and stored in what is called a "mind."
The content of all of the books offered by the author provide pointers that - in the end - are nothing more than thorns that can be used to remove thorns, scalpels that can excise the cancerous, Ultimate Sickness within the "mind" wherein the main problem is centered. Value the conceptualized content of "your mind" and you will be attracted to the contents of "their contaminated mind" and you will then attach firmly to all of the bastardized content of "their minds."
A house cannot begin to be refreshed until one takes out ALL of the garbage, and the space which houses the consciousness cannot be refreshed - that is, restored to sanity - unless all of the garbage in the "mind" is removed. And only if all of the garbage is removed can peace and harmony and happiness manifest and fill that newly-re-purified space. Such is the sane course of action regarding garbage. Only the arrogance of ego-states, which are revealed via the talk generated by conceptualized consciousness, would inspire efforts to try to give value and meaning to the garbage of cultures and dogma and movements and "-ism's."
The consideration is that you let fade away all of the garbage-all of the concepts and beliefs and learned ignorance-and be free of the effects of the concepts-and-beliefs-laden consciousness; then You'll merely witness the AS IF living as it happens, without attachment. Yet that AS IF living can happen only after the body and "mind" and the last of any assumed roles all fade away. Therein lies the challenge since the body and "mind" and personality are the very illusions that take the consciousness and "the mind" to be so worthwhile.
So what must a seeker be alert to as he / she listens for the re-purified consciousness to speak? Each must develop a detector that can differentiate between (a) that which emanates from the transcendent consciousness as opposed to (b) what is heard when the concept-and-belief burdened consciousness engages in "mind-speak." The sages have taught for thousands of years that what is real cannot be named, so that which is named cannot be real, and nothing is more steeped in the duality of conceptual consciousness than what one has named "my beliefs."
In the absence of blocked consciousness, there could not be any "Believer" vs. "Non-Believer" duality, and there could be no notion among "Believers" that they are better than and smarter than and holier than "Non-Believers." There could be no impressions and no misperceived memories and no "mind" and attachment to "doing things a certain way because they have always been done"; there could be no learned ignorance and there could be is no mental intoxication or emotional intoxication or spiritual intoxication. There could be nothing unnatural and there could be nothing considered "supernatural."
There could be no assumed personas so there could be neither ego nor egotism. There would be no thinking, so there would most assuredly be no magical thinking of the type that assigns "supernatural cause" to naturally-occurring events. There could be no attachment to chaos or to trying to control.
What could be, instead, is peace and harmony and happiness and stability.
Not according to Nisargans. Here, the point is that post-Realization, Reality will be overlaid upon the relative and the understanding that I AM THAT; I AM will continue for the entire manifestation.
The summative statement most assuredly does not imply that the AM-ness must be forfeited or abandoned. What is abandoned is identifying solely with the AM-ness.
Then, there is a return to the original simplicity that marked the relative existence of humans for millions of years ... a relative existence that was a most simple existence prior to efforts by controlling men and women to overlay supernatural concepts onto the previously all-natural existence.
It has been asked of visitors in satsang and at retreats conducted here, "Are you using your recovery program, your religious activities, your spiritual exercises, your philosophy, or your ideology not to overlay Reality on the relative but in order to try to escape reality?"
Among Nisargans, there is but one "justification" for completion of the complete "journey" to Full Realization: to overlay Reality upon the relative existence; that is, to stop trying to live in an unnatural / supernatural fashion.
The result of Realization is that the Absolute is overlaid onto the Am-ness so that the no-consciousness, no-belief, no-concept, no-duality awareness-without- awareness-of peace of the Absolute can manifest during the manifestation; thus, "I AM THAT; I AM."
Often seekers say, "You speak of overlaying Reality upon the relative. What happens differently during the relative existence after Realization is 'overlaid upon it'?"
To abide as one's true nature ...
1. is to understand that the Am-ness Is and that THAT Is;
2. is to reject the traits of the Am-ness as exist among the non-Realized;
3. is to overlay on the Am-ness the traits of the Absolute; and, as a result of that overlaying,
4. is to abide for the remainder of the manifestation in the peace of those Absolute traits, including ...
... abidance with a sense of wholeness and complete-ness rather than a sense of being broken into many pieces (that is, abiding as the One rather than as the many roles that had been assigned or adopted);
... being contaminated no longer;
... being no longer driven by the effects of conditioning;
... being influenced no more by the effects of programming;
... being unlimited rather than limited;
... being certain and sure (but with legitimate grounds at this point);
... being unadulterated;
... being awake and aware;
... being in a state where, after having been made aware of THAT, no longer being occupied with THAT, or with searching, or with seeking, or with wanting to know;
... being free of all beliefs, including belief in any concept or idea;
... being free of identity;
... being free of thoughts;
... being absorbed into the silence;
... being fully stabilized;
... being unambiguous;
... being free;
... being light;
... being in a state where AS IF living happens, living AS IF anything in the relative matters, understanding that it does not, feeling without emoting, witnessing whatever happens in order to meet the basic needs of an organism without believing that there is some do-er involved in the process;
and then:
just ... being.
Overlay Truth onto the remainder of the relative existence and You will taste the sweetness and the lightness of being that are tasted by the Realized only. The content of this book will explain the ways and the means for those seeking Reality and seeking a relative existence steeped in both "reality" and Reality.
The "goal" of non-duality pointers is always to move persons to a state of independence and stability, freed of all identification, including identification with the body and the mind and the personalities that generate chaos and fears and desire, often including the desire to control others. That freedom can never manifest as long as personality remains and is subconsciously driving all thoughts and words and actions.
How to go about that task of being free of personality? Maharaj said "...You should go back, reverse, to the source." He advised: "Follow the same path by which you came." Yet he also said at one point that only 1 in 100,000 would ever Realize Fully, later amended to one in 1,000,000 and eventually changed to the estimate that only one in 10,000,000 will ever Realize Fully. That was not a scientific, research-based estimate but an estimate based in observing the results after having dealt with thousands upon thousands of seekers.
If those odds are even partially accurate, then most seekers might ask, "Then why even try?" This book offers the answer. The author offers a seven-step "path" to follow in the process of "going back" and "reversing to the source" and "following the same 'path' by which you came," and what has been witnessed over the last 22 years is this:
among the 9000-10,000 or more with whom he has shared the non-duality message, those who only "traveled" as far as the fourth step (thus completing only about 60% of the complete "path" to Full Realization) nevertheless experienced significant shifts in perspective.
If seekers only reach the fourth step on the seven-step "path" that is laid out by this author, they will have reached the point where they might not know completely That Which They Are, but they will have reached the point where they do know what they are not. Of that, Maharaj said: "You need not know 'What You Are'. Enough to know what you are not."
After having seen the results of the personality disorders that follow the development of personality, and after having seen the relative effects of the assignment or assumption of personalities / personas as identities, is it not clear why the invitation has long been to at least "go back" as far as "The Child Ignorance Stage" / "The Child No-Knowing State"? If a seeker were to complete only that much of "the journey" and then abide in the resulting manner that is free of concepts and beliefs, free of a fiction-filled "mind," and free of the personalities that are at the root of all of the ignorance and chaos and mental disorders and insanity that plague the relative existence on this planet, then would it not make sense to "go back" at least that far?
So many say, "I just want to be happy." If they are honest, they will admit that the last time they were UNCONDITIONALLY happy was during that state. For those willing to return to that earlier condition that allowed for the enjoyment of unconditional happiness as long as the most basic needs of food and clothing and shelter were met, then the happiness which they seek can be found.
Those are the thoughts and beliefs of seekers who are at what my teacher called "the kindergarten level of spirituality." How many feel that their goal to become "perfectly spiritual, and thereby perfectly blissful" is being thwarted at every turn?
Maharaj said, "No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the 'I am'. The ambitions of the so-called Yogis are preposterous. A man's desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting for an everlasting personal bliss. The mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal."
Regularly, seekers who speak of "the darkness" and of higher levels of consciousness are told that there is no darkness and that there are no levels of consciousness.
The so-called "darkness" in which the non-Realized live is not really darkness but is merely an absence of light caused by the blockages that have accumulated, and the consciousness is merely consciousness that is either blocked from seeing accurately and from seeing truth or is not.
When so many blockages accumulate, then the light cannot penetrate and all seems dark, but that absence of witnessing the light does not mean that the light is not there. It is simply not observable because of a separation from the source of the light - either because the light has been blocked or because there is nothing available to reflect the light.
The higher level of understanding in regards to this topic is that (1) not only is "no ambition spiritual," nothing is spiritual; and (2) not only is "the mind a cheat" but the "mind" is actually as much an illusion as the darkness.
If the seeker would "find bliss," then the seeker must know what bliss is and what it is not. If one that is in kindergarten is sent to the store to buy the materials needed to build a "what-cha-ma-call-it," the kindergarten-age-child will not have the slightest clue about what he is seeking and neither will anyone else that he asks to help with finding everything required to build a "what-cha-ma-call-it."
The reason most never "find bliss" is that they are as mistaken about what bliss is and what bliss is not as persons are mistaken about what "the world" is and what it is not. This book offers a clarification.
What readers have said about the novel:
"Henderson has created an entirely new genre. This is a 'Personal Growth' and 'Self-Help' book in a mystery-romance format."
From Dr. R.F. Maley, 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."
"I had an epiphany!"
"I've read a lot of spiritual or self-improvement books that are merely expository. This book gives the reader something that is completely experiential."
"This book freed me. I was locked into a state of self-inquiry and playing 'helper' and 'savior' to others, and that was taking a toll on me that I could not see. Freedom now is freedom from those roles and from seeking to know more and from letting others 're-program' me. I'm at peace now, seeing I didn't need more knowledge and more programming but needed freedom from past programming in order to purify my mind."
"The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders is a 'wonderful Slaughterhouse for the Sacred Cows' of this culture. It should have been opened for business years ago. I felt like I was living with the weight of the world on my shoulders, when the real burden was from carrying around all those cows in my mind."
"This book showed me that I can reach Part Four in the novel 'the Peace state' only if I give up all the things I was so proud of and that I was willing to fight about: my city, my state, my country, my leaders, my group, my religion, my beliefs which were really their beliefs, my parents' values, all the 'my stuff' vs. 'their stuff.' What a lesson! I can be at peace if I give up the concepts I fought for!"
"I found out why I felt empty, even when I had it all."
"As with William Shakespeare, that writer of tragedies, comedies and histories whose quotes introduce each chapter, this work uncovers the tragedy of fighting, whether personal, national, or international; the comedy of the lives lived by conditioned or programmed humans; the history of mankind's constant state of emotional intoxication around fears and love; and beyond all of that, the author offers a vision of an idyllic life that once was, and can be attained again, one individual at a time."
"The phrase 'You can't judge a book by its cover' has never had more relevance than when used to describe this novel. While the cover of The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders points to the novel-within-a-novel set in Venice, Italy (and while the lovers shown on the cover do play a central role in the larger story) this work is no simple murder mystery or love story."
"The work is a no-holds-barred challenge to those who would discriminate against others with different beliefs or along racial, gender, economic, and religious (or no-religion) lines. It is a call for tolerance and peace and is a step-by-step guide for attaining such peace on an individual basis."
"At a time when more and more cases of clergy-perpetrated physical abuse are coming to light, this book at once questions the practices of modern religions while endorsing the TRUE advaitic teachings of Christ. It is a book that sympathizes with those who have been harmed at the hands of so-called religious people, not just physically but also emotionally, psychologically, and mentally. Then the book offers something hopeful for those who are yet seeking the peace that they did not, and cannot, find in the venue of the church."
"I loved the 'Novel Within the Novel' love story. For anyone who let that first love get away or who had given up on ever finding True Love, this book provides a spark of hope and is a two-fold how-to manual on love: how to break relationships and how to make relationships."
"You've heard 'It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry', The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders really made me laugh and made me cry."
"If you've ever said, I don't even know who I am, or if you have ever asked, What is this all about? or Where did I really come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of all this in between? then you have a source that can give you the answer. This book is it."
"I only thought I had a social consciousness before reading this book."
"Gratefully, I'll never be the same after having read this book. I now know Who I Am, and that has set me free. Thank you."
"I thought I was buying a murder-mystery; the further I read, I realized I was reading a great love story; later, I realized I was reading as insightful a psychological-novel as I've ever read; as I moved further along, I realized that I had a book of sociology that captured the entire life-span of those of us who are 'baby-boomers'; by the end, I wasn't sure what I had read, but I knew it was something beyond anything I would ever read again."
"If freedom from abuse and relief from trauma come only after seeing abusers for what they are, after standing up to them, and after shouting, 'No!' in order to finally be free, then this work might well be the author's Declaration of Independence."
SYNOPSIS OF THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS (The First in the Kirk Wildman Series)
The devastation from his encounters with a group of Aryans, who stole his family, fortune, and future, finally eases after Kirk Wildman's reunion with his college sweetheart. Their Venetian holiday inspires a novella, The Bridge of Sighs, detailing love rekindled. Then, tragedy strikes again. On Kirk's ensuing journey, some find a murder-mystery, pursuing his son's killers across Europe, Africa and Belgium, exposing diamond thieves and terrorists along the way. Others discover romance, realizing with Kirk the psychology behind obstacles that destroy relationships and overcoming them to find true love. Others join Kirk's quest for peace and wholeness, transcending religion and spirituality (via Native American perspectives and Far Eastern non-duality) into Reality. Finally, some accompany Kirk on a philosophical passage, transcending pain and healing, shifting beyond the tiring games and phony images and finally settling into the perfect peace that comes after awakening to the truth of Who We Really Are.
EXCERPTS FROM THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
KIRK WILDMAN ON . . .
Inconstancy in Relationships
She admitted that she had prayed every morning for a year that he would die. It's not right, Kirk thought, that District Attorneys will only prosecute solicitation for murder if God is NOT the one being solicited. Solicit a man to kill your husband, Go to jail. Solicit God to kill your husband, You skate. What a rip-off, huh, Compelling, also, the way things can shift: from stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to spouse to enemy to . . . corpse, if her God, typically more available to her beck and call, had allowed her to have her way.
Tolerance
. . . His lesson in Applied Tolerance came during time spent with Grandmother and his grandfather. They modeled such tolerance perfectly. The grandfather went to church every Sunday, serving as the choir director; Grandmother went into the woods every Sunday, exercising some kind of communion of her own. They never questioned the other's practice; they never challenged the other's beliefs; they never tried to change the other. They did what they did separately and felt just fine; and they did what they did together and felt just fine. Applied Tolerance. No judging. Total acceptance. Unconditional Love.
His Spiritual Quest
In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he'd been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he'd been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life's Meaning, he'd been communion'd, Om'd, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram'd, accepted, rejected, Mu'd, and yoga'd . . .
"Life"
Some days, the pain in the body or in the mind seems to be so great that one must rest in order to heal. On awakening, one can live in peace as if all is well. So it is with what some call 'life': PAIN, HEALING, AWAKENING, and PEACE.
SYNOPSIS
From the 1950's through the 1990's, baby-boomers saw that many famous deaths worldwide had never received thorough investigation. Early television showed variety shows, but later TV exposed scandals in government, church, and corporations. Politicians, starlets, billionaires, and royals made news involving sex, sin, death, and murder. But what if all those deaths had been orchestrated by one group? And what if an Italian mobster on his deathbed became willing to expose the group? When Kirk Wildman travels with Marie to southern Italy to conduct 'a routine interview' with that Mob killer, they stumble blindly into the crossfire between one ready to expose a group's past, and that group's willingness to kill any who interfere with their plans to trigger World War III.
"Directors of Wars struck me as 'The Da Vinci Code' meets 'The Most Mysterious Deaths of the Last Fifty Years'." -M E. Tran, New Pathways
Excerpt from The Board of Directors of Wars
Chapter One
September, Current Year
Melito di Porto Salvo, Italia
The dying patient's circumstances included the elements of any beauty and beast story, the view of the Mediterranean Sea from his window providing the beauty and the clinic supplying the beast by way of a nurse more dedicated to killing than to healing. The early morning rays of the sun penetrated the overall dimness of the room in a linear, diagonal fashion. The glow entered the ground floor window obliquely since the ancient structure faced south, looking beyond the beige beach and across the azure sea. The open window, recessed several inches into the stone wall of the earth-tone building, also admitted the earliest stirrings of the day's first breeze. The flimsy cloth curtains with their faded embroidery trim, originally pure white, now matched more closely the beige stones on the outer walls of the health center. The patient twisted to his opposite side from the position he'd only assumed moments before, enabling him to see the curtains fluttering more to the horizontal, reaching into the clinic room toward him, toward the man moaning in his physical anguish and his mental misery.
Totally delusional, he saw no fluttering curtains but murdering men instead, all climbing through the open window and intent on killing him. In his salad days, he stole his way into rooms surreptitiously and robbed the life of his many victims. Now, the thieves of life would steal away that most priced possession from him, and he knew they numbered his remaining days with single digits. With the faulty reasoning of his advanced age made more unclear by the effects of slow-working but fatal drugs, curtains could easily become killers in such a declining mind.
The treatments administered by the nurse had rendered him nauseous, paranoid, and suicidal. If not sleepy, he suffered an impaired memory; if not forgetful, he felt dizzy and slurred his speech. In a heightened state of paranoia, he looked back toward the window. As the curtains fell, then rose again in his direction, he screamed forth a blood-curdling shout, certain that they had found him, convinced that they had finally come to finish him.
A black shout of "Help! Help me!" exploded from the sufferer.
At her station only twenty feet away from his door, Nurse Lucia Milotto turned two more pages of her Italian movie star magazine before even lifting her eyes from the pages. She looked toward the room from which the shouts rose again.
"Help me! God, somebody help me!"
Lucia, ignoring all except the magazine on the table before her, read slowly as the bold print headline of an article faded into a smaller font. As her eyes followed the trail of words onto the next page, she folded the magazine in half and leaned back in her chair to continue her reading and to continue ignoring the patient's pleas for help.
A man pulling a wheeled stand with an attached IV asked Ms. Milotto if she intended to respond, in order to "Shut up Vidotta, once and for all." She smiled, but over his words, or over the possibility, Either way, a palpable sense of death hung in the air of the clinic as the dark noise from Vidotta's room filled the space.
The shouts grew louder, finally forcing Lucia to act. She approached a storage room, fumbled through a handful of keys, inserted one slowly into the lock, and once inside reached to a top shelf. Removing a small, unmarked vial, she inserted the needle of a previously-used syringe into the rubber membrane atop the bottle, and withdrew the inner plunger of the hypodermic to siphon a liquid into the body of the syringe and fill it completely. Locking the door behind her, she moved across the sullied tiles on the floor of the corridor and entered the room with its ethereal curtains, fingering their way toward Giorgio Vidotta and reaching in a ghostly fashion for his neck, so he thought.
Hearing the shuffling of Nurse Milotto's feet, Vidotta rolled back to his left; his screams intensified as she advanced. More than his dread of the deadly apparitions at the window, he feared his fate at the hands of the lethal Lucia. His screams for help transitioned into screams of "No! No! No! Stop her!" He strained against the leather straps that coursed from wrist to bed frame, drawing taut their slack that allowed for bodily shifts but restricted any further movement. She ignored the putrid smell that rose from a bed gone far too long without a changing of urine-soaked sheets.
Walking past the window, she looked beyond the fluttering curtains as their movements made visible occasional flashes of the glittering beach in the foreground and the sparkly blues beyond. She paused, enjoying the sight of the Mediterranean Sea with the pale blue sky above and the soft, white puffs of clouds suspended over the azure waters. She treasured the waters and longed to sail across their indigo surface, wishing for the presence of the one she loved and longing to drift silently in his boat, in his arms. Vidotta's screeches cooled the imagined heat of the combination of her lover's passion and the Mediterranean sun. His howling whisked her back into the coldness of a room chilled by the breath of death that lingered in the sunless shadows in the corners.
He shifted his body to impede access to his buttocks but Nurse Lucia grabbed one of the straps and wrenched it up hard, easily forcing the frail, emaciated body to flip to its opposite side and face away from her. The shrieks that followed exceeded in volume all his preceding cries, and the trained eye of any careful observer would note that the needle penetrated neither buttock but fell painfully in between. As she departed, she looked back to see the man writhing in pain in his off-white metal bed, the one with a brown wooden crucifix mounted over its head rail, revealing another also in torment and pain. She smiled and closed the door. Oh yes, she thought. The pain, the suffering. It's all so good!
By the time Giorgio Vidotta's moaning had finally subsided some fifteen minutes later, Nurse Milotto had long resumed her reading. One would now have to stand in his room to hear Giorgio's mumblings, trying to warn Giovanni and regretting their part in operations that involved "Cinyras II" and especially "Galatea."
Excerpt from The Board of Directors of Wars
Chapter Five
March 1, 1960
Mexico City, Mexico
As the seven men entered the private room in the back section of a small hotel in the historical district of Mexico City, two other men rose from their seats as if in homage. The men in the column did not look toward the duo that remained on their feet but marched instead toward the chairs arranged behind a table covered in linens. Actually, to fulfill a request for a dais, management had pushed several smaller tables together and covered them to create the appearance of one long table. As the seven each stood between table and chairs, the three on the left, the three on the right, and the two to his front looked directly at the man standing at table center.
He lowered his head, found a serving of cheap champagne poured into a glass intended for serving highballs instead, and raised it for a toast. Holding that pose, he looked left, then right, then to the front. Satisfied that all had assumed the same stance, he lifted his glass a few inches higher and explained with an accent not of Mexico, "Mars was the God of War. He preceded the army into battle. Like our namesake, we shall precede the armies of the world, for they must contact us, and do business with us before they can go to their wars; therefore, to the success of 'Operation Mars.' From this day forth, the first day of March, that month named for our God of War, we shall designate as the High Holiday of our assemblage." Obviously, he had searched for and found the label that henceforth would refer to their group. While some had spoken of a Komplott, the founders decided that the idea of a group gathering for conspiratorial purposes carried a negative connotation, so the chairman evidently had found a softer term. "Assemblage" they would use. He continued, "We shall meet annually and share wondrous reports of our success in engineering beneficial terminations that will foster hostile climates across the entirety of this globe, manufacturing atmospheres which we pray may perpetually prove conducive to everlasting, international war. Prost!"
"Cheers!" one shouted. "Yeah, salute, dere," another added. And with that, they drew their glasses to their mouths in unison in a toast to the opportunities for profiting from war.
This novel blends the non-dual message with an objective look at the effects that big business, big government, and big religion has had over the last half century.
In what was the spring of 2011 in the U.S., the fall of 2011 in South Africa's southern hemisphere local, the author was invited to visit Cape Town the environs.
Daytime hours spent discussing Advaita and the enneagram also allowed time to visit what was seen to be some of the most beautiful locales on the planet along the southern coast roads; some of the most poignant locales, such as the prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent years breaking up large stones into small stones alongside his fellow prisons;
and locations that could be used as a Medicine Place for those seeking healing in the solitude. Furthermore, there was at every turn something that was witnessed which in itself presented one after another pointers that are relevant for Advaitins.
This book offers some of those pointers that came during travels in South Africa. As an added feature, the book also offers some enlightening but seldom-heard pointers from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and quotations from Floyd Henderson on:
the body; on the false "I"; on role-playing; on personas; on ego-states; on personality; on false identities' on illusions; on "self"-delusion; on "The Drama of the Lie"; on "the mind";
on religious and / or spiritual ego-states; on the child ignorance stage; on Subject-Object Witnessing; on Pure Witnessing / True Self; on the Absolute; on moving back to the Absolute;
on Beingness and / or Non-Beingness; on No Desires and No Fears; on The Unicity; on Love; on Nisarga Yoga; on Natural Living; On creation and creators; on Meditation; and on the Nothingness.
A Note to the Readers
On 9/11/2001, a group of Islamic fundamentalists commandeered two commerical airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, explaining that Allah had told them to attack the Jewish and Christian infidels influencing the world economy from those buildings.
SO THE GOD OF ISLAM WAS FOR ATTACKING THE TOWERS
Fundamentalist Judaeo-Christian minister Jerry Falwell disagreed, explaining that the towers were knocked down as God's punishment for the proliferation of non-Christians, gays, and feminists in the U.S.
SO THE GOD OF JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY WAS FOR ATTACKING THE TOWERS
A Fundamentalist Muslim minister, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attack said that God approved the attack since "if Allah had not wanted the Towers knocked down, they could not have been knocked down."
SO THE GOD OF ISLAM OK'D THE ATTACK ON THE TOWERS THAT KILLED 2800 PEOPLE
A reporter asked the Fundamentalist, Born-Again President George Bush if he had talked with his father (a former president) before attacking Iraq and dropping U.S. bombs on Baghdad. Bush pointed upward and said that he had talked to "The Father." During that talk between Bush and God, God evidently gave the president the go-ahead to drop bombs on a city and kill thousands of women, children, and men in Iraq. In announcing the beginning of the attack on Iraq to the people of the U.S., Bush invoked God's blessing on U.S. soldiers and their war effort.
SO THE JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN GOD OK'D KILLING IRAQIS
There was a time when sanity ruled the earth. Sane living is living that preserves life. Animals, and later humans, did what was required to survive. It was "Job #1." Preserving life ranked supreme. Animals and humans fought but seldom to the death, and neither was ever self-destructive. Killing, when it happened, was about survival, and "self-destructive behavior" would not enter the jargon until religion appeared and a Medicine Man/priest convinced his followers that suicide, sacrifice, and murder were precious acts as far as the gods are concerned. (Details will follow.)
How did some people shift from that sane mindset to believing in a Supreme Being that sanctions self-destruction along with mass killings? How did some end up with a thought-life that could explain that a Supreme Being directed such an attack because of the sex habits or religious preference of the people being attacked? How did we get from living spiritually (in a sane and simple fashion) to living religiously (hearing a god instructing his people to attack, maim, kill, bomb and destroy)? How did we get to the point that humans believe it is better to die than to live?
The book SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY offers the answers by looking at the benefits of spiritual living vs. living in a state of religious intoxication.
Question: "If it's all bullshit, then doesn't that mean that this book is bullshit, too?"
Floyd: "Of course it is, after it assists you in getting the freedom and peace and sanity that come when you see that it's all bullshit. My grandmother once used a thorn to remove a thorn from my palm. Then, she threw away both thorns. My teacher used the same analogy: use the book to spot the bullshit, then toss all the concepts away."
Before beginning, the reader is invited to consider the two ways that the term "It's All Bullshit" can be delivered:
1. One way is by emphasizing the last word: "It's all BULLSHIT!", usually delivered with anger as an exclamation; or
2. By emphasizing the middle word in the phrase: "It's ALL bullshit." In the second case, the approach used in this book, the point is offered - as a simple statement of realization and without any anger - that all concepts and ideas and beliefs that are set forth by cultures and their institutions are self-serving, propagandizing, manipulative assertions that care not at all about accuracy or truth or fact.
This book offers examples from the most popular sources of bullshit and fabrications to support the pointer that it really is ALL bullshit and that only by finally knowing that can one be free.
Next, is it possible that a person in authority could dream up the most outrageous, absurd, unbelievable story imaginable? Is it also possible that the authority figure could then present that outrageous, absurd, unbelievable story to people conditioned to listen to authority figures? Is it possible that those people trained to listen to authority figures could then believe an outrageous, absurd, and totally unbelievable story?
Consider this outrageous, absurd, and totally unbelievable story: there is a man who lives in a region that humans can't get to. From there, he spends his year overseeing an operation that manufactures gifts for children. But there's a catch. He also oversees all children in the world, and he only gives gifts to the good children. Bad children get nothing or they get bad gifts. "And he's been watching you," they say, "and he knows if you've been good or bad." Creepy, huh? They go on: "A man you can't see can see you 24/7. He knows everything, and he can be everywhere at any time. He is omniscient and omnipresent. More than that, he delivers those gifts once a year in a 24-hour period, worldwide. He rides in a reindeer-drawn sleigh, and the team leader has a red nose that shines like a bulb. Furthermore, he enters homes through chimneys though he is overweight by three times his normal size, a result of eating some two billion cookies in a twenty-four hour period every year."
But there's a snag in the process of trying to sell this story, even to one who is willing to listen to the authority figures. The snag is, when the child gets away from that authority, he/she might takes some time to think about the fact that there's no way that story could be true; then, the child asks other authority figures about the tale. Now the only way the child is going to continue to buy into the story is if most of the people in her/his culture claim that the original storyteller was telling the truth. In other works, we buy into unbelievable bullshit when (a) a respected or feared authority figure tells us something and then (b) the majority in our culture tell us the same thing. The lie becomes truth. We have bought into bullshit.
At that point, we'll fight if anyone questions our beliefs or insults our authority figures. And even as we grow and have more experiences and hear other versions and are exposed to the facts, we hate the notion of giving up such a rewarding bullshit story. If we are promised that we'll get a reward if we just have faith in their story, who wouldn't want to try to do everything possible to hang on to the faith we have in them and their tale? I remember taking three years to finally absorb the "There's No Santa Reality."
Worse, when authority figures admit their unbelievable story was a lie and that we shouldn't any longer believe in that unbelievable story they told us, they immediately tell us their next fanciful story but say, "OK, now I'm telling you the truth. That bullshit story was symbolic of The Real Deal. The Real Deal is that there really is a man who has been watching you. He lives in a region that humans can't get to. He's a male God, actually, and he's been watching you and knows if you've been good or bad. A man you can't see can see you 24/7." Still creepy, huh? They continue: "There's a male that you can't see but he can see you. He knows everything, and he can be everywhere at any time. He is omniscient and omnipresent, and he'll give you an eternal gift if you're been good; however, he'll give you eternal punishment if you've been bad. So that symbolic Santa story was just a pretend-version of The Real Deal. Now you are to believe us because we were lying before but we're not lying this time." And billions and billions have done just that. Amazing, isn't it, if you think about it?
And do you remember how traumatizing and anxiety-ridden we were, wondering if we were going to get the Good label and get a reward? And that struggle to get the Good label and avoid the Bad label plagued us tens of thousand of times in our homes and tens of thousands of times in our schools and tens of thousands of times in our community and institutions. And two decades of that kind of conditioning sets us up to do the same in adulthood, trying to get a spouse to give us the Good label and reward us, trying to get a Boss to give us a Good label and reward us, and trying to please that Male God so we can get a reward from Him one day.
This is not a book of advice. It is not a book that offers answers. Only the egotistical and arrogant offer answers. It is a book about false ideas and wrong beliefs that lead to fighting and restriction and worry and anxiety. It is a book about the way they conditioned us and about the effects their programming has on us to this day. It is a book that will offer considerations and provide an opportunity to step back and objectively think about everything you've ever been told by authority figures. Some of it might be true. Fine. But some of it might be bullshit. I invite you to investigate it all.
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to the Absolute
Excerpts:A NOTE TO THE READERS
Realization only came when one particular path was followed in one particular order. A vision came during a meditative session when the theta state of consciousness was reached. It laid out an exact, direct path from the false "I" to Realization; however, the vision made no sense to me at the time. Then, I began reading the transcripts of Advaita talks and they made clear the message of my vision. Talks on varied topics in varied orders eventually provided the understanding of each of the stages seen in the vision. The only thing remaining for an "Aha" moment to happen was to take his assortment of sharings and use them to understand the exact order to follow along the path. This book will offer to you the seven-step path to take and the order in which it has to be traveled.
After realization, a shift occurred in the way communication happened. In fact, instances of communication became fewer and farther between, and when the silence came, many noticed a shift. Some inquired as to the source and some came to hear more and some brought friends with them. A variety of questions were raised and the understanding was offered. Finally, it became clear that the Teaching should be presented in a more organized fashion, so a schedule of sessions was set up in which the seven steps would be offered in order. When one participant asked if her friend could tape the first session since she would have to miss that one, it was done. After that, all the exchanges were taped because a sense came that the 2001-2002 session might be the last. (A few of the exchanges that are included took place via e-mails or telephone conferences as well.)
Shortly after the last session, a retreat began that continues to this day. Days now pass mostly in the silence on the lake. Occasionally the Teachings are shared when contacted by e-mail or telephone, and on a website as well, but mainly the silence prevails. After realization, there was no path, no journey, no concepts...only the freedom of the Void and AS IF living afterwards. May you travel the path to freedom as well.
Finally, please note that a "Glossary of Terms" appears in the back of this book. The explanations and definitions are not those that will be found in Advaita lists that include the Far Eastern terms used by many gurus and teachers; instead, the terms are explained in ways that are relevant to this work in particular which tries to use everyday language when possible to provide as simple an explanation as possible while discussing what can be complicated subject matter.
Defining Advaita Vedanta
In its simplest form, "Advaita" is merely a system or an approach that can lead to Realization. Realization is what occurs when one becomes aware of all that he is not and eventually "Realizes" What He Really Is. The goal of the process is to allow people to eliminate all illusions and delusional thinking that result in dependence, in co-dependencies, in beliefs in superstitions, and in the mental and emotional dependence that results when we accept all the lies programmed into us through the culture's conditioning.
Mental and emotional restrictions occur when we adopt the ideas and beliefs of others without ever having truly investigated those attitudes. The Advaita approach allows us to become truly free. Being "truly free" refers to being free of the ideas, free of the emotional intoxication, and free of the beliefs that have been used to control us, to create fears in us, and to drive us to be influenced by illusions and lies. In its broadest use, "Vedanta" is simply that message that is beyond any written texts that are said to be "holy" or that claim to contain "truth." My own experience has shown that the truth is already within each individual and can be Realized when one experiences the Advaitic approach with a "guide" who has undergone that process, seen the false, and then comes to understand That-That Which Is Real.
The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality
Some Westerners will likely think that certain of the entries on this site have a "too philosophical" bent. No apology for that shall be offered since one must either find a working philosophy or be doomed to adopt their ideology instead, and my experience shows that nothing is more destructive than buying into their ideology. For the most part, however, the version of the Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) message that I offer has been characterized by one protege as being "Applied Advaita."
I will present the concepts of Non-Duality, yes, but eventually they are to be applied in everyday situations and used to bring peace and acceptance around the issues of the day. Ultimately, the concepts can be tossed, your everyday situations will be discarded, you will have no mind capable of being disturbed, and you will have no issues-du-jour. My teacher Sri Nisardagatta Maharaj was as direct and straight-forward as he could be while working in an Indian culture that tended to focus on its glossary of phrases and terms and words associated with Eastern philosophy. (That study, too, was a part of my "journey.")
Yet we must remember that the ultimate goal is for you to come to know You. You are invited to study the dilemma expressed in that "I don't even know who I am" complaint (which contains an ironic duality in itself, yes?) and come to Know the answer to the age-old question implied in that statement. Ultimately, your culture has created a seven-fold barrier that is separating you from Knowing THAT Which You Are. We'll discuss all seven eventually. The first of the Seven Degrees of Separation from the Knowledge of THAT Which You Are appears in the form of a manifested body. Offered as a meditation for today, therefore, I invite you to consider how the belief that you are a BODY might prevent your seeing the greater truth of Who or What You Truly Are. Are You your body?
PLEASE NOTE: The terms "wet charcoal" "dry charcoal," and "gunpowder" will be mentioned. You will read pointers that are offered at times in the discussions that will seemingly contradict what you might read in other books or on the Advaita website referenced earlier on the copyright page. Beginners (the wet group) will be given one piece of advice, those farther along the path (the dry group) will be given other pointers, and those who need only a few additional points for the truth to explode into consciousness (the gunpowder group) will be offered something different.
STEP ONE
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY:
Body Identification
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part One
"The Arms-Legs-Organs" Consideration can help people become free of the limiting, false belief that they are the body. Of the various self-concepts that block most humans from Realizing Who We Truly Are, body identification is the most basic and least sophisticated identity. Belief that one is the body preempts engagement in Self-Inquiry and-unless transcended-will prevent one from ever coming to know THAT Which We Absolutely Are. I offer the consideration now to you: If you were to lose your right arm, would You still be You?
You would still be You, right, even without that arm? If you were to lose your left arm, would You still be You? You would still be You, even without that arm...correct? If you were to lose your left leg, would You still be You? You would still be You, right, even without that leg? If you lose your other leg, wouldn't You still be You? You would still be You, right, even without that leg? Would You still be You if you have a heart transplant? You would still be You, yes? If you have a lung transplant, are You still You? You would still be You, right, even without your original lung or your original heart?
And if you looked into your own eyes in a mirror, wouldn't You still know that You are You, even though your physical body is only a shadow of what it once was? Then...Who Are You? Who or What You Truly Are must be something beyond the physical body.
If more than half of what most consider to be "you" were to be lost, Who Is That You that remains? Moreover, Who is that You that is sensing that You would still be You, and would still be complete, even after the loss of four body appendages and the replacement of two original organs? Please enter the silence of contemplation.
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part Two
With those first beginning a journey of Self-Inquiry, my teacher always addressed the illusion of body identification, so I too begin with that beginning. What's the problem with thinking you are your body? That misconception leads to chaotic behavior, insane conduct, and problems in relationship...especially with yourself. Regarding problems with others, occasional chances for a respite occur, but the problems with yourself are 24/7; worse, they not only create occasional misery and grief but often result in self-destructive behaviors as well.
Body identification can be chaotic and even fatal. Here's how. I once had a dog that, when it saw its reflection in a mirror, would go ballistic. He fought with that false self, biting at the mirror and trying to destroy himself/his own reflection. (In humans identified with their bodies, the deep-seated need to destroy the ego and false roles and to be true to Self is a subconscious, driving force that leads to self-destructive behavior or even suicidal assaults against the physical body. If I am my body and I am having overwhelming problems, then the way to be rid of those is to be rid of the body, so the unconscious, fallacious reasoning goes.
In fact, one need not be free of the body to be content, merely free of body identification and other false identifications as well. The goal of Advaita Vedanta is to use preemptive strikes to eliminate the notion that the illusion is real, for illusions incite all insane, destructive behavior.) Of course when my dog looked at an image and became fear-based and angry, he was never seeing anything but a reflection; however, once he took the reflection to be real and separate and threatening-thinking the reflection to be an "other"-he fought the foolish fight. (Humans do the same. They fight the foolish fight when they see reflections or illusions that they take to be the real.) Despite my greatest efforts to help the dog realize that what he thought he was seeing was not the real, he reacted as do most humans: If I can see something right before my very eyes, you are the one who must be insane to suggest it's not real.
How does believing in an illusion complicate one's life? The dog illustrates the point perfectly. When he took the image to be real, the dog tried to make himself appear even tougher. He adopted a phony persona and behaved more violently. He tried to appear to be even more intimidating than the image that he thought real; thus, he became even more aggressive. The more the illusion seemed to be attacking him, the greater his counterattack. The greater his counterattack, the more real and threatening the illusion appeared to be. He was trapped in a vicious cycle of war, all based in image.
Persons are at war with themselves-with their false selves and false identities. Persons are at war with others, and those wars are based in illusion as well. By trying to appear to be tougher and to be something he was not, the dog reinforced the imaginary self in the mirror and became even more frightened, more confused, and more miserable. And the more frightened and confused and miserable he became, the more chaotic his life became and the more those around him were impacted by his chaos.
(Consider the result if persons in leadership positions were enlightened...not frightened by their faulty perceptions, not thinking that their illusions are real, and not utterly confused but completely logical instead. Imagine the effect if the Don Quixotes of the world Realized that the windmills are just windmills and that they are not threatening opponents. The leaders could then stop their jousting and those around them would no longer be impacted by the war and the chaos that the unenlightened create. That is what "Applied Advaita" would look like.)
But what about you? You now see the irony with my dog, correct? There never was any duality. All his madness was based in misconception and illusion. There was the "real thing" and a perceived image. Such is the case with persons. To believe that one is the body is to believe that "others" are separate and threatening and that the illusions and images reflected before one's eyes are real. As with the dog, just because a person can see a body does not mean that it is real, and just because a person can see the body does not mean that it defines Who or What He or She Really Is.
Is it seen that all duality is false, based as duality is in supposing that one or more real parts can co-exist with one or more other parts that are illusions? No "parts" exist and no illusion can "exist." It really is just illusion. Only the One Is Real, and by removing the Seven Degrees of Separation that prevent most from ever finding what The One Is, you will ultimately find the Real You...your True Self. Your body is not It. Are you seeing the lie of duality and the truth of Non-Duality more clearly?
THE FIRST DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY: Body Identification, Part Three
[The discussion of the illusion of body identification will continue via transcriptions of exchanges during workshops conducted during 2001-2002]:
Questioner: The "Arms-Legs-Arms Consideration" has shown me something, but I'm not sure what."
F: "Ha. OK. Hopefully, the consideration first reveals that you are not the body and then, secondly, inspires you to ask, 'Well, if I'm not my body, Who or What am I?' The body is momentary. That which is fleeting cannot be the Real. Consider the similarity with a melted ice cube that seems to have 'gone' or 'disappeared' when placed in a glass of hot water. In fact, that which 'the cube' truly Is did not 'go' or 'disappear': all of the pairs of hydrogen atoms that had grouped with various oxygen atoms still remain. Only the appearance of the form that those atoms had manifested in for a time led to the misconception that the cube was destroyed. As with the cube, when the body 'dies' and 'dissolves' away, the appearance of the form alters but all the elements from which the body was composed still remain. What 'disappeared' was an image wrongly perceived. In the 'Arms-Legs-Organs exercise,' the arms, legs, and some original organs of your manifested form seem to disappear, but just as the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of the cube remain, so remains That Which You Truly Are. You sensed that truth during the exercise. You did sense that You would still be You, right?"
Q.: "Yes."
F.: "Then what is That which you sense is remaining-even after arms, legs, and organs are gone?"
Q.: "I sense that I still exist."
F.: "Yes. You sense that You still Are. Specifically, You sense the 'I Am' or Your 'I Amness,' which we'll discuss later. Another way of understanding the results of the exercise would be to say that 'You experienced Your presence.' You experienced the truth of the fact that 'something' would be present even after most of the physical parts of 'you'-of your body-disappear. During the experiment, you are not sensing your complete body-for much of it is gone-but you are sensing a complete presence. That is what you are aware of when, even without those appendages and organs, you know that You Are still You."
Q.: "OK."
F.: "If you understood that pointer totally, no more would need to be heard, but too much remains to block that full understanding. So, we continue. Next, since we have seen that there is no duality, that there is no subject-object duality, Who (or What) can you now conclude knows that consciousness?"
Q.: (Questioning look)
F.: "Let me put it to you another way. What remains after the body parts are gone that is sensing that presence? What is conscious of that presence?"
Q.: "I don't know."
F.: "That's close! Ha. That which knows the presence or the consciousness of Self, since there is no duality, has to be...CONSCIOUSNESS! It's simple! It is that unprogrammed, unconditioned, prior consciousness that senses Itself in the manifest form which you call your physical body. Wordsworth wrote his 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality' after he had sensed his 'infinite Self.' The arms-legs-organs exercise affords you that same opportunity: to become intimate with Your Immortal or Infinite Self. (Later, we'll even amend that concept.) That Is What I Truly Am, and always have Been, and always will Be-hang the body. In the process of Self-Inquiry, we see the false, we see the mirages, we see the images, we see the "not real," and we thereby come to know what we are not. The exercise in intended to help you see first what you are not and then sense that You Are something beyond the body. You actually sensed Your own presence remaining, even after much of the body was discarded during the exercise. If you got even that much from the exercise, then you have received the basic benefit: you have been prepared to ask the next logical question. And what would that be?"
Q.: "Well, as you said earlier: if I'm not the body, then What Am I?"
F: "Exactly."
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CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
An excerpt:CHAPTER ONE
The Audience
This book is for those who have understood completely the teachings offered in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and for those who have completed all seven steps along the path to Realization. If Self-Realization has not yet happened, and if an understanding of the Absolute is not complete, then you might want to read FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE first. If you have Realized, then you are ready to begin a consideration of the pointers in this book.
This book is not for the novice, not for those at the wet charcoal stage, not for those at the dry charcoal stage, and not even for those at the gunpowder stage. It is for those who have already experienced that explosion which reveals all lies to be lies and that blows away the belief in any and all concepts. It is for those who are ready for the Final Understanding.
Before beginning the book, the reader is invited to take into contemplation and consideration the following pointers on Consciousness and on Awareness that were offered by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (with some commentaries added). The contemplation can provide stimuli for considering far more about Consciousness and Awareness than most will ever consider:
ON CONSCIOUSNESS
Understand then, that it is this conscious presence that you are, so long as the body is there. Once your body is gone, along with the vital breath, consciousness also will leave. Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-cum-consciousness, the Absolute, the ever-present, is your true identity. That is what we all really are. That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone reaching for it?
Maharaj made clear that, if the Understanding comes, no person will remain who could try to meddle in the play of consciousness. He also affirmed that there is no omniscient creator that is meddling in the play. All is merely happening spontaneously. How did he define spirituality then? Spirituality is merely understanding that (1) a spontaneous play is happening, (2) recognizing the play is a fraud, and then (3) finding the basis of the play.
Maharaj was asked, Where does consciousness come from? He answered, It never comes or goes; it just appears to have come.
He was also asked, Where is the seat of consciousness. He replied, In every particle of the juice of the body.
ON AWARENESS
I told the consciousness, It is you who is suffering, not I.
Awareness is not aware of its awareness.
Maharaj explained that That Which He Truly Is was prior to consciousness. He made clear that there is no he to experience anything or do anything and that what persons take to be an experience is actually just the consciousness experiencing itself.
He explained that the Realized understand that the world, indeed the entire universe, exists in Consciousness alone. Neither the world nor the universe is real, and both only seem to appear in Consciousness. Knowing that, he was able to take his stand in the Absolute. In the Absolute, no Consciousness of the I-Amness or the Beingness or the Is-ness happens. In the Absolute, there are neither thoughts nor words nor deeds. The Absolute is prior to all of that…is prior to Consciousness.
Among the non-Realized, the consciousness has become identified with the space or form. A few move beyond body identification. Fewer still reach an understanding of what lies beyond the body-mind-personality identities. Even fewer will come to know the source that is beyond all acculturation, programming, and conditioning of the consciousness.
I am really not manifested. Can you live like that, as the non-manifest?
Now transcendence of the consciousness has also occurred. With the appearance of consciousness, the Absolute knows it is, I Am.
Even this primary concept, I-am-ness, is dishonest, just because it is still only a concept. Finally, one has to transcend that also and be in the nirvikalpa state, which means the concept-free state. Then you have no concept at all, not even of "I am." In that state one does not know that one is.
Full Realization, contrary to Self-Realization, is the same as Total Enlightenment, that is, understanding that You Are the Light. Not only does abidance then happen beyond the I am but it also happens beyond the I.
CHAPTER TWO
An Overview of Consciousness / Awareness
All is matter or energy. Neither was created. Neither can be destroyed. Thus, Consciousness was not created by anyone, nor was it created by any Supreme One.
Just as a mirage is a phenomenal manifestation that can be witnessed by the naked eye, that which it appears to be can vary from one witness to the next. The identification of what a mirage is remains open to interpretation, depending upon the imaginings of the observer of the image. In the end, though, it really is just an image. The same happens when consciousness is perceived by the naked eye and is imagined to be something that it is not, such as I am this body.
Does the body/space/form play a role in the manifestation process? Of course, but with no more significance than the space or form known as a plant plays a role in the manifestation process. Thus Maharaj’s point that the seat of consciousness is in every particle of the juice of the body. The body can be perceived, just as a mirage can be seen, but that does not mean that either is what it is perceived to be. Both are frauds, images only.
Thus, while seekers at one level can be told that Consciousness is all there is, at this highest level, another understanding is presented: that which is perceived is not That Which is Real, and even That Which is perceiving is not the Real, either. Maharaj explained that the Realized understand that the world, indeed the entire universe, exists in Consciousness alone; but since that which persons take to be this world or the universe is not the reality that it is taken to be via consciousness, then consciousness is the perpetrator of myths as well. If the world that the I Am takes to be its place of existence is a lie, then the I am is also a lie.
Since neither the world nor the universe is real, both only seem to appear in Consciousness. Knowing that, the Realized take their stand in the Absolute. In the Absolute, no Consciousness of the I-Amness or the Beingness or the Is-ness happens. In the Absolute, there are neither thoughts nor words nor deeds. The Absolute is prior to all of that - is prior to Consciousness.
Recall that Maharaj said, Understand then, that it is this conscious presence that you are, so long as the body is there. Once your body is gone, along with the vital breath, consciousness also will leave. Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-cum-consciousness, the Absolute, the ever-present, is your true identity. That is what we all really are. That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone reaching for it?
He said, Awareness is not aware of its awareness. How dissociated was he from body identification., While that space was in the throes of the physical pain of debilitating cancer, he said, "I told the consciousness, It is you who is suffering, not I."
Once consciousness manifests, the Absolute knows it is, knows I Am, but among the Fully Realized, transcendence of the consciousness has occurred. Only when abidance happens as the Absolute can peace happen every day.
This book will explain how Consciousness and Awareness relate to I Am THAT; I AM and will define the exact Nature of Reality, will offer explanations that will allow Full Realization to happen, will allow for an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality, and will assist all earnest seekers to find the way to fixate in a state of peace from NOW until the Consciousness Unmanifests.
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FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
An excerpt:
Consideration
Regarding one character in a Michael Connelly novel: "He was long past believing in God-the horrors he had seen documented had little by little sapped his stores of faith.... And in those seemingly final days, as his own heart withered and tapped out its final cadences, he did not grasp desperately for his lost faith as a shield or a means of easing the fear of the unknown. Instead, he was accepting of the end, of his own nothingness. He was ready. It was easy to do."
CHAPTER ONE
The Audience
This book is for those who have understood completely the teachings offered in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and in CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS.
As with those two works, this book is not for the novice, not for those at the "wet charcoal" stage, not for those at the "dry charcoal" stage, and not even for those at the "gunpowder stage." It is for those who have already experienced that "explosion" which reveals all lies to be lies and that blows away the belief in any and all concepts. It is for those who are ready for Understanding "The Nothingness."
Dennis Waite wrote, "As ever, in the philosophy of Advaita, the teaching is graded to suit the level of understanding of the student - and it is no use trying to 'jump levels' if we have not yet grasped the lower level principles."
Therefore, it will also be of no use for any seeker to try to 'jump levels' and understand the pointers in this book if he has not read and understood the pointers in the two books mentioned above that lay the foundation on which these principles rest.
Dennis continued, "All levels of identification must be transcended and this should be done in a controlled and stepwise manner that has been validated through millennia of teaching. Attractive though it might seem, it is not possible to jump straight to the end."
Rightly put. All levels of identification must be transcended, and this book will discuss the means by which such transcendence can happen.
Waite also explained that "in reality, there is no karma, no saMskAra, no puruShArtha because there is no person who could have them. They are all teaching devices used to bring the student to a realization of the truth by means of carefully gauged, progressive levels of understanding."
This book offers pointers on the final level of such understanding.
Finally, Dennis wrote, "It is the perennial problem of the teacher to be able to judge where the student currently is in his or her understanding and lead them onwards from there. This is why a living 'guru' is really needed, so that questions may be asked and answered face to face."
Two opportunities exist for such tutelage:
http://advaitaclasses.blogspot.com/
and
http://advaitavedantaretreats.blogspot.com/
Also, at the end of this book is an Overview which provides the suggested order in which the various Advaita-related books can be read.
CHAPTER TWO
Introductory Considerations
According to the earliest Native Teachings, that which is "true" is only the space between exhalation and inhalation. Advaita teachers agree that truth cannot be spoken. Because inhaling and exhaling is a meaningless occurrence involving a temporary combination of earth elements, it is in the silence between those actions that "truth" can be understood in the moment of non-action. Quiet meditation, therefore, was intended not to still the "mind" but to focus on the nothingness during that breathless span of freedom from body and "mind" activity, wherein truth can be realized during that empty moment.]
CHAPTER THREE
IDENTIFICATION:
Something, or No Thing?
The content of this book is for those who have the same belief system as one seeker who reacted to a pointer regarding the fact that no true "identity" really exists:
No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.
He was told, "First, the way in which you use the word 'identity' would need to be clarified, and there are likely some additional subconscious usages that you are not even aware of. Do you mean 'the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity'? Realized Advaitins understand that there is no personality and that no entity persists.
"Or do you mean, 'the individual characteristics by which a thing or person is recognized or known'? Realized Advaitins know that 'the individual' is a bogus concept, that 'characteristics' are fiction since they deal with personality, and that persons/personas are nothing more than assumptions generated via corrupted consciousness.
"Or do you mean, 'That which describes objects in a manner that distinguishes them from other objects'? Realized Advaitins understand that 'one as opposed to others' is dualistic and thus false.
"You likely are not referring to 'the individual sense of importance in a social context,' but might you be referring to 'self-knowledge about one's characteristics or personality,' that is, to 'a sense of self'? Surely not.
"So consider: if you are referring to 'True Self-knowledge' or to 'a sense of True Self,' then you are still dealing with a false identity. How could that possibly be false? Because the terms 'True Self' or 'Real Self' are frequently misused (even by many Advaitins or would-be Advaitins). Many now use the terms to point to the noumenon or to the Absolute in an effort to support the existence of a Self-cum-continuity, even while agreeing that no self can have continuity.
"Likely, your stance is that, while the phenomenal is that which is physically manifested and observable by one or more of the five senses, some other sense is employed to recognize that an identifiable Self exists beyond physical manifestation. At the elementary level, when a protege is taking the first steps on the 'path' to Realization, that idea is often allowed by teachers.
At the more advanced level, though, it is understood that the True Self is merely the second of two witnessing modes, the pure
or re-purified consciousness that knows ItSelf and knows the Oneness (as opposed to subject-object witnessing). That Pure Witnessing Consciousness sees no 'others' and is incapable of any dualistic misperception, yet it's entire functioning is still dependent upon its manifestation. Thus, even that 'True Self' is limited and is not an 'eternal identity.'
"Further, that 'True Self' is not 'God,' though many who have morphed this philosophy into a religion will defend that Self-God concept as well. Instead, the True Self is merely that pure consciousness which can look to the phenomenon and know that it is not as perceived, which can know that no self is real, and which can understand that no noumenal 'Self with identity' exists either.
"The pure consciousness understands that when the pronoun 'I' is employed as the pure consciousness speaks, it refers to that which is beyond beingness and beyond non-beingness; therefore, it is beyond 'I-ness' and identity as well. Krishna was very direct in stating that any who do not understand that are 'fools.' That which is beyond beingness and non-beingless must also be beyond self, Self, self-ness, Self-ness, no-self-ness, and even no-Self-ness.
"Of course, that pointer about 'fools' is misunderstood by most, understood by few, and hated by many. For those still trapped in the egotism that is generated by accepting and defending an identity (whether that might be an identity 'now' or an identity 'later'), let it be said that they have at least been fooled and continue to function from within that condition. The primary consideration must be, 'How can the state of zero concepts be reached if the concept of 'identity' is still being clung to'?"
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THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING
A series of books by the author offer the following:
1. An opportunity for seekers to be guided through the seven-step "journey" from identification with the false "I" (via the content of the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE) and to move beyond The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality";
2. An opportunity to understand the nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (with the content of the book CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS); and
3. An opportunity to understand that which was prior to the Absolute, namely, The Void, the Nothingness.
To reach all three of those levels of understanding is to allow the seeker to grasp Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's pointer that "wisdom is knowing that I am nothing."
For most seekers, the "journey" ends when they reach the third of seven steps as they move along the first-stage "path," specifically, the point at which they adopt a new persona ("The Spiritual One") and then never move any further.
There, Maharaj said, they engage in what he called "kindergarten-level spirituality" and they "mistake the dawn for the noonday sun." Only a few will truly understand the distinction between the consciousness and the awareness, and fewer still will be willing to abandon the notion that now they are Really Something and to consider the ultimate freedom of The Nothingness.
The book THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING is only for the few that are willing to consider that there is far more to grasp after having reached the third, spiritual step (which will only move them into the dim light of dawn"; for the few that have the slightest awareness that the brighter light of the full noonday sun awaits; and for the few that have some sense that the freedom and peace which come with abandonment of the notion that they are Really Something will allow for the full shift into the no-concept, no-identity, non-dual Reality.
In THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING, the author discusses:
A. The myths of a "Prior Me" and a "Post-Manifestation Me";
B. The myths of "You-ness," "Me-ness," and "Them-ness";
C. Krishna's pointers about that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness;
D. Abandonment of "the personal" and "The Personal" and an understanding of Presence instead;
E. The composite unity (elements, breath, conscious-energy);
F. The sixteen shifts in awareness which must happen in a step-wise fashion for misunderstandings to be abandoned and for the final understanding to manifest;
G. The pointers about religion and spirituality that were offered by Maharaj which allow seekers (who are trapped at the third step while playing their "new and improved persona or personas") to move along the entire "path" and then reach the final understanding;
H. A distinction between supernatural, unnatural, and nisarga (natural) living;
and much more.
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THE ADVANCED SEEKERS' SERIES
This anthology of four books by Floyd Henderson contains the volumes that make up what has been called "The Advanced Seekers' Series" for those seeking Realization via the Advaita teachings:
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.
FROM THE AUTHOR
This anthology contains four books that many seekers have used along their "path" as they moved to Full Realization.
The four-book series offers the following:
1. An opportunity for seekers to be guided through the seven-step "journey" from identification with the false "I" (via the content of the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE) and to move beyond "The Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality";
2. An opportunity to understand the nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (with the content of the book CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS);
3. An opportunity to understand that which was prior to the Absolute, namely, The Void, the Nothingness; and then
4. An opportunity to reach the Ultimate and Final Understanding.
To master all four of those levels of understanding is to enable the seeker to grasp Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's pointer that "wisdom is knowing that I am nothing."
For most seekers, the "journey" ends when they reach the third of seven steps as they move along the first-stage "path," specifically, the point at which they adopt a new persona ("The Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant") and then never move any further.
There, Maharaj said, they engage in what he called "kindergarten-level spirituality" and they "mistake the dawn for the noonday sun."
Only a few will truly understand the distinction between the consciousness and the awareness, and fewer still will be willing to abandon the notion that now they are Really Something and to consider the ultimate freedom of The Nothingness.
A synopsis of the four books follows:
BOOK ONE
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Most of the so-called "Spiritual Masters" addressed at one time or another all of the steps that must be taken to shift from identifying with the false "I" to abiding as the Absolute, yet they did not present or explain the steps in the exact order in which they must be taken if Realization is to happen.
While all of the steps (or "stages" to use Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's term) have been discussed for centuries, this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from "the lie of the I" to Full Realization.
Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original, easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers.
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga.
Regards on your "journey" to Full Realization.
BOOK TWO
CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization
(Peace Every Day When Abiding as the Absolute)
One of the "final frontiers" of the Advaita Teachings is transitioned when the Nature of Reality is understood and when the Advaita Teachings are "applied" on a daily basis even in the absence of any "Applier."
The Final Understanding happens post-Self-Realization, but the nature of Reality cannot be understood until the nature of Consciousness / Awareness is understood. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness allows for abidance in the I AM, but what of THAT Which Is beyond, and that which is beyond the beyond?
Only abidance as the Absolute (and later, the Nothingness) allows for the remainder of the manifestation of Consciousness to happen in Perfect Peace.
BOOK THREE
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
An understanding of the pointers offered in this book can allow the advanced seeker to shift even beyond SELF-Realization, even beyond an understanding of Consciousness and Awareness, and to an understanding of that which preceded the Absolute.
The content of this book can, in fact, allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the Reality of "no concept," of "no duality," of "no something," and even of "no nothing."
The Advaita Teachings offer an invitation to be free of all concepts, all beliefs, and all ideas in order to be totally free. Yet how many reach that "state," and how many who reach that "state" are able to fixate in that understanding and truly be free and thereby at peace?
This book will offer details of the way that can happen.
Consideration
Regarding one character in a Michael Connelly novel: "He was long past believing in God - the horrors he had seen documented had, little by little, sapped his stores of faith. In those seemingly final days, as his own heart withered and tapped out its final cadences, he did not grasp desperately for his lost faith as a shield or a means of easing the fear of the unknown. Instead, he was accepting of the end, of his own nothingness. He was ready. It was easy to do."
BOOK FOUR
The book THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING is
(a) for the few that are willing to consider that there is far more to grasp after having reached the third, spiritual step (which will only move seekers as far as "the dim light of dawn");
(b) for the few that have even the slightest awareness that the brighter light of the full noonday sun awaits; and
(c) for the few that have some sense that the freedom and peace which come with abandonment of the notion that they are Really Something will allow for the full shift into the no-concept, no-identity, non-dual Reality.
In THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING, the author discusses:
A. The myths of a "Prior Me" and a "Post-Manifestation Me";
B. The myths of "You-ness," "Me-ness," and "Them-ness";
C. Krishna's pointers about that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness;
D. Abandonment of "the personal" and "The Personal" and an understanding of Presence instead;
E. The truth of the composite unity (elements, breath, conscious-energy) as opposed to the falsehood of the triad of body-mind-personality;
F. The sixteen shifts in awareness which must happen in a step-wise fashion for misunderstandings to be abandoned and for the final understanding to manifest;
G. The pointers about religion and spirituality that were offered by Maharaj which allow seekers (who are trapped at the third step while playing their "new and improved persona or personas") to move along the entire "path" and then reach the final understanding;
H. A distinction between supernatural, unnatural, and nisarga (natural) living; and much more.
WHO IS FLOYD HENDERSON? (by Louise Sterling, Cape Town, South Africa)
The literary tradition is to preface a book with a biographical snapshot of the author as a person. What can be said then, about the Advaitin Teacher, who has moved beyond personal biography?
To describe the person or the personal (the date of birth, the nationality, the job, the interests, the home, the child, the books read, the path followed) is to describe the attributes that actually take us further away from uncovering the teacher's identity.
The reality is that this "Who Is ..." question itself brings us to deeper and more authentic questions. What is this understanding in which the teacher resides? The state of Realization is not different from teacher to teacher. That Self-Knowledge is unchanging. In this way, there is no difference between a Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Floyd Henderson, or any other Realized teacher.
The Realisation of SELF means the shattering of the shell of separation so that the non-dual nature of Reality is directly known. How can this be different from person to person? Only in the ABSENCE of the person is this nature revealed. In this way, Floyd Henderson invites us to strip away all that is personal, all that is dualistic, all that separates us from this understanding of Oneness – from our True Selves.
The summative statement "I AM THAT; I AM" describes that understanding of SELF in absolute terms as well as its expression in the relative. Floyd Henderson is THAT – just like all human beings; however, Floyd is fixed unshakably in this understanding, so all functioning, relatively speaking, flows directly from this SELF-Knowledge.
In this way, the biographical details (such as, "born" in Louisiana; moved to Texas; worked as a teacher and business owner over several decades before taking early retirement to write; father of a daughter named Ashley; current resident in the community of Walden on Lake Conroe in Texas; years of seeking followed by twenty-five months in the forest dweller stage and experiencing a vision that resulted in the dramatic peripetia or flash of Realization; functioning as a Direct Path, Nisargan teacher; and author of over forty Advaita books) are the attributes or flavourings which coloured the pure consciousness in the particular shape and form at the relative level.
Yet, these attributes are false ingredients. They cannot provide a true answer to the question "Who is Floyd Henderson?" because he recognizes no who-ness at all ... believes in no "who" that is living "here" at all. He once explained it this way when asked if he was ever bothered by people:
"... How could persons possibly bother Me? They do not have even the slightest clue about where I truly live. Only a few on the entire planet called "earth" have a clue. Some might enter what is called 'floyd's house' or 'floyd's home,' but that is not where I live; in fact, 'where' I live has nothing to do with a 'where' at all.
In this regard, there is actually only the 'how.' 'How' I abide is as the awareness, as the Original Nature, as the natural state which has no boundaries, which has no defining traits, and which does not change. 'How' I abide is without conditions or conditioning, without qualifications, and without limitations.
I can seem to be 'here' one second and 'there' the next, but that is about 'how-ness,' not any actual 'here-ness' or 'there-ness.' I am not confined to a space or form; furthermore, I can enter other spaces and forms, and do so regularly (as might happen the instant You read these words).
Abiding beyond consciousness and beyond beingness and beyond non-beingness, I can span the globe ... I can span the universe ... I have spanned all universes. Yet such 'while manifested' spannings seldom happen anymore, requiring far more energy than is worth the effort, and it most assuredly need not happen with You.
As for Me, abidance will continue to happen in a whole and unadulterated and unambiguous manner until the consciousness unmanifests. Until that happens, then abidance will happen as Reality is overlaid on the relative without exception. When the consciousness unmanifests, then the drop shall enter the ocean of energy from which it came and will span the Absolute;
Awareness shall be, but aware of-ness shall not. Later, other universes might be spanned as well, or might not. Yet all of that is stated, so it, too, cannot be the Truth which You know but do not yet know that You know. Tap into the source and know Truth, but even then, do not suppose that You will be able to express Truth in words."
Thus, Floyd describes the AM-ness regarding "floyd" as a "composite unity" of an elemental plant food body that is circulating air and that is temporarily housing the manifested consciousness.
The THAT-ness he sees as a field of energy from which the conscious-energy manifests and to which it will return.
As for identification with any WHO-ness, he discarded that when identification with the Nothingness came, followed eventually by not even identifying with Nothing - or anything else.
BOOK INFORMATION
"The Advanced Seekers' Series" is an anthology of four books that share Advaita-based, non-duality pointers that can guide seekers to abide as their Original Nature.
Literally, "Advaita" means "not two." If one studies the front cover of this anthology, light can be seen in two areas of the picture. One is the actual source of light; the other is merely reflected light. One is real; the other merely appears to be real.
In actuality, there are "not two" light sources. There is only one, but "the world" encourages persons to see two, to see dualities, to see multiplicities. The result is that few will ever understand the Truth of the Oneness that is beyond such misperceptions.
Most might glimpse the Real and also see "the not real," but they will take both to be authentic. The Realized see that one light is real, that the other is merely a reflection, and that any belief in duality is erroneous.
The non-Realized - those separated from authenticity - will misperceive and take both the real and appearances to be as they seem. To clarify the distinction, the author once shared what he saw from his balcony one evening as a storm approached:
Walkways cross the green terrace that leads down to the lake, and all along those paths, round lights mounted on posts illuminate the way. As the storm clouds brought darkness, the bulbs lit up automatically.
As rain puddled in the walkways, the lights began to cast diagonal reflections of themselves. The Realized understand that the reflections are not the real light and they see the actual light source in the background. Yet they also understand that there is something even beyond that which is housing the light, namely, a form of energy.
The author invites all to see that which is beyond the reflections in consciousness and to know What Is Real vs. what only appears to be so, for it is misperceiving and delusions that set the stage for ignorance (rather than wisdom) to drive the thoughts and words and deeds of the non-Realized masses.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR (Andrew Gugar, Jr.)
Before I found the Advaita teachings, both my seeking and my life were totally disorganized. I had read over two hundred books during my search which began around the age of eleven or twelve. All of the content of those books was very confusing. Why?
While some presented teachings that seemed in the beginning to be of value, in the end they proved useless because none of the pointers were organized in a way to offer in a step-by-step manner the route that had to be followed to move away from identification with the false "I" and return to My Original Nature.
It became clear that - in my case - I required a teacher that could offer such an explanation and that could be available to answer my many questions along the way.
Though my reading left me a supposed "expert" is subjects dealing with the brain and the mind and psychology and psychiatry, there was no understanding at all of the functioning of the totality.
So my searching continued for many more years, moving from one book to the next and from one religion to the next and from one spiritual movement to the next and from one philosophy to the next. I studied Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism - you name it - I studied it.
It is suspected that many may have traveled as arduous a road as the one I traveled, but few likely traveled a more arduous route than the one I traveled during my years of seeking.
The searching in one venue after another continued until an acquaintance shared certain profound pointers that seemed to resonance deeply within me.
I asked what he was talking about ... asked if the pointers he was sharing were associated with any particular philosophy or religion that I could further investigate. He answered, "What I'm sharing is what is called 'a non-dual perspective'."
"What is that?" I asked.
"Basically, the simplest teaching is that everything is one."
That made little sense, but it did seem to reverberate at some spot deep inside me. Eventually, intuition was re-awakened and there was some sort of "psychic consciousness" that began to vibrate when non-duality pointers were being considered.
After being given some labels for further investigation - specifically, "non-duality" and "Advaita" - it soon became clear that I needed to find a capable Advaita teacher.
The irony was that, as I began searching for a teacher, all of the online sites promoting and ranking various teachers were actually reinforcing duality ... ranking this one as "best" and that one as "good" and that other one as "not so adept." Instead of focusing on how we could eliminate our beliefs in hierarchies and separation and judgment, they were promoting all of those.
So I left the listings and began googling "Advaita" and found a blog site where Floyd Henderson was offering daily postings of non-dual pointers.
I began investigating this guy, wondering who he thought he was to be posting pointers about Advaita. He was not even from the Far East. Worse, my investigations uncovered the fact that this guy lived in Texas.
Being yet embroiled in ego, I asked, "Who does this guy living outside of Houston, Texas think he is ... acting like he 'knows it all' about these teachings?" I concluded, "Heck, I live in Texas. I guarantee I already know as much about non-duality as any other person living in Texas. Who from Texas could offer anything about this eastern philosophy?"
Then I clicked the link for the retreats he offered and saw that, of even greater offense, he wanted to charge a fee for retreats where he teaches non-duality. (At the time, it did not register that I was not providing free meals to everyone who entered one of the restaurants in the chain I own.)
[NOTE: What Andy is not revealing here is all of the altruistic and philanthropic projects and charities which he has funded for years, offering assistance to the downtrodden and suffering.]
A year would pass, and more and more searching continued, but at least once a week, the name "Floyd Henderson" came into the forefront of consciousness.
As much as I tried to ignore the name, it would not leave me, so after a year of continued seeking even after having first found his name and websites, I finally went back to his Advaita blog site, looked at the cost of a retreat with him, and concluded, differently this time, "Well, actually it really is only a nominal fee he is charging, and he does have to pay his bills."
So it came to me, "What if this guy just might have what you've been looking for all of your life?" I determined that I might as well spend a few dollars - a small amount really in comparison to the fortune I had already spent during decades of seeking and searching ... all with no permanent results at all.
Right now, it is giving me cold chills just reflecting on that decision and what happened afterwards. I had reached a point where I felt as if I were going to pop right out of my skin from all of the suffering and misery and anxiety and stress that had characterized my existence.
For me, it had to get so bad that I became willing and ready - ready to give up all of the ideas and beliefs that had served me not at all and to seek the Truth that was obviously beyond all of the concepts I had ever taken to be the truth.
Eventually, I went to a retreat at Floyd's home and left three days later having found that I was not only willing to give up all of those concepts but had become willing to give up this fear-based "andy" that had been at the root of my problems.
Now, I look back and laugh. Before the time spent in Floyd's home, I hated to wake up in the morning. Now, I can't wait to get up and enjoy every day.
I was raised to believe that Jesus had the answers that people need. At Floyd's retreat, I found out that in many cases, he did, but the answers were not the ones I was taught in church.
I found that "the later Jesus" who returned to Jerusalem was sharing the non-dual, Advaita teachings - teachings I had heard on occasion when I was younger but that no one in the church could or would explain to me when I asked about those statements.
I went to Floyd's that first time with a considerable fear of death (rooted, I would learn, in body and mind and personality identification). He suggested that if I was so afraid of death that the best thing I could do would be to "go ahead and die now."
Of course that was an anger-invoking, shocking comment to hear, but before I left, I understood that I could not die because I was not born - that what he was saying is that my ego(s) and my egotism must "die."
I understood after that retreat that I cannot truly live until this ego - this illusion - dies. To that point, I was entering Floyd's house one morning through the door he leaves open while he is preparing breakfast for participants.
As I entered, I shouted, "Knock knock ... anybody home?" He yelled back, "No." I got it ... I knew exactly what he meant, and that understanding has remained and I have since enjoyed the freedom every day of knowing I am no body ... nobody.
I came to understood that everything merely cycles and that timelines are a fraud, and Floyd also taught me the meaning of every part of his vision, and I learned by way of the eagle the difference in Subject-Object Witnessing and Pure Witnessing.
Why am I making this anthology available for all seekers to use now and to be available long after "floyd" and "andy" have taken mahasamadhi are "gone"? First, because the books in this anthology offer the step-by-step process by which Realization can happen and, secondly, because the books helped me in that undertaking.
I want to preserve Floyd's vision and his writings for all who are seeking. I decided to support the printing of this anthology to make his teachings and methods available - to all that might be interested - because of what happened with me after sitting with Floyd and receiving the message that came by way of his step-by-step method which I realized was exactly what I had been seeking all of my life.
I am taking the action to help make these books available to interested seekers because I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if the understanding offered in these books - and Floyd's other books - could come to me, then the understanding can come to almost anyone.
May you allow the pure consciousness to see and receive the content of the works in this anthology and then also receive as a result the blissful freedom that came to me via the content of these and the other writings by Floyd Henderson.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES
This anthology contains the six books that make up what has been called "The Blissful Abidance Series" for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including these books:
1. What BLISS Is and What BLISS Is Not
2. There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind"
3. Liberation
4. Freedom From Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness
5. Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full
and
6. When REALITY Is Overlaid Upon the RELATIVE
The series offers an opportunity for seekers to understand what bliss is and what bliss is not; to understand why one must reach a zero-concept, no-mind state if any degree of peace is to manifest; to understand how to be liberated from the bliss-negating influence of personality; to understand how to fixate in the bliss rather than fluctuating constantly between states of happiness and unhappiness; to understand why freedom must be built from a position of emptiness and neutrality; and to find how to overlay Reality on the relative so that the relative can be enjoyed more fully.
How many seekers are frustrated by not having attained bliss? How many seekers think that they have failed or that their teacher has failed? The problem lies in all of the misunderstandings about bliss, so the author explains what bliss actually is and what bliss is not. To understand that distinction is to provide the opportunity to finally relax and take it easy.
The author also shows how originally the mind was a constructive tool but has become a tool of destruction and self-destruction. Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly noted that the main problem among the masses centers in the mind; this book addresses the remedy.
Also, this book also studies the nine most basic persona types and offers the way to be free of the influences of personality; furthermore, almost all persons on the planet are seeking, but most are trapped in the fluctuations between happiness and unhappiness. The source of fluctuations and chaos are discussed along with the means by which they can end.
Finally, the content of this book shows what the relative existence looks like if Reality is overlaid upon it as well as what it will be like if that does not happen.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AND HIS EVOLUTION
This book has been written for several reasons:
1. To address some of the confusion about pointers offered by Maharaj which seemed to be contradictory but were not;
2. To explain why Maharaj's (a) "early" message and practices differed from (b) some of the teachings offered during the middle years and from (c) some of the messages offered in the last years that he conducted satsang;
3. To show why those who only read the transcripts of some of his talks will only receive a part of the total message he offered;
4. To address why criticisms of some of his protégés are based in the critics' misunderstanding;
and
5. As a means by which those who are considering a visit to this author can be pre-qualified so that they will know in advance which "version" of Maharaj's varied teachings they will be hearing.
First, it should be made clear how
(a) that speck of consciousness called "Maharaj" and
(b) the varied teachings he offered over the years were just like ...
... the elephant in the story of "The Blind Men and an Elephant."
In that story, several blind men are touching an elephant in order to learn what an elephant is like. Because each man touches a different part, and because each man only touches one part rather than all of the parts, then the conclusions that they draw about what an elephant is like are all in error. They learn when they share their finding that they are in complete disagreement, and their disagreements actually generated conflict and even violence.
The misunderstandings about his methods and the evolution of his focus have also generated conflict and criticism of both Maharaj and some of his disciples, even as others hold him in such high esteem that they seem to worship him and his words. (All of that he would call nonsense.)
The book will share some of the criticisms and preferences in regards to "which version of Maharaj's teaching are the right ones or the best ones" and will address all of the claims or charges.
The fact is, though, that some of the critics have touched only the tusk of the "Elephant called 'Maharaj'." Some only touched the trunk. Some touched a leg only while others have felt nothing but the tail.
To touch only one part of Maharaj's message is to draw false conclusions, to fail to see the big picture and the total picture, to fail to understand his pointers completely in some cases, to be driven to levy baseless charges, and, in some cases, to simply misrepresent what he did and did not say and what he meant by what he said.
It is true that the focus of the message changed or evolved, as did the type of yoga that was emphasized. The progression id identified and discussed in the book as well.
Ultimately, though, the message did not become more "complicated" as one person claims but actually became far simpler, far more direct and concise. As far as the charge that Marahaj's teaching "declined" after the talks in I AM THAT, that charge more likely comes from an ego-state.
It might even be rooted in a the false identity such as "The Spiritual Giant" who found that the "more religious and spiritual" words in "I AM THAT" supported his false identity while certain other pointers have guided some seekers away from their religious and / or spiritual pre-occupations and obsessions threatened that spiritual ego-state.
This book is most certainly not for everyone. It is for those that are willing to consider the entirety of Maharaj's teachings - including those talks that point to realities that lie beyond religion and spirituality and Selfness - and not just to those discussions included in what has been called a "modern spiritual classic."
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
This book can be read as a "Stand-Alone eBook" or as a "Companion Piece" or "Follow-Up" to be read after "When Only Three Hours of Manifestation Remain."
The focus here is on the content of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's final talks before taking mahasamadhi. Included at the end of the book are the thirty-four quotations from Maharaj that are the most ignored (or that are the most irritating to some "seekers").
Maharaj's talks during the last thirteen months of the manifestation were few in number and brief in delivery. Whereas he usually conducted often-lengthy sessions two times per day for decades prior to the illness that came at the end, fewer than eighty talks were documented during the period of the final three-hundred-and-ninety-five days during which he accepted visitors only intermittently and, obviously, infrequently.
His last seventy days were spent primarily in silence. Both of those facts were a result of the excruciating pain being generated by the cancer that was taking its agonizing toll on the plant-food, elemental body.
During those final talks, he discussed the origins of relative problems; the maya; the nature of Consciousness / Awareness; the falsity of things "personal"; what the relative should look like post-Realization; the uselessness of knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance";
how to stabilizing in Reality and understand Truth; the Ultimate Sickness and its treatment; transcending identification; ending bondage; the nothingness; freedom and being unconcerned; and abiding with dignity and taking mahasamadhi with dignity.
What is true for the book "When Only Three Hours of Manifestation Remain" is also true for this book:
Please Note: "THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ" is not necessarily for all readers even if they are interested in non-duality or Nisarga Yoga. Its contents are especially not for those who are seeking a means by which they can reinforce or enhance a religious role or a spiritual role that has been assumed because the final talks offered by Maharaj suggested that both of those roles should be transitioned.
This book is not for those who believe that Truth is found in special or holy or religious or spiritual texts, any more than Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's later talks were for persons interested in religious or spiritual concepts.
During his last years, he said of the book "I AM THAT": "That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today." He said, now I am "emphasizing different aspects."
Similarly, the talks in this book can also be considered among Maharaj's "later talks," so they are not for everyone.
Seekers cannot begin with the "end pointers" in this volume any more than they can begin with the pointers in the companion book. Seekers must find information that is "level-appropriate," custom-fit for them at the exact place wherever they might be on "the path."
At the end of the book, the reader will find "the thirty-six quotations from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj which many choose to ignore." Those, too, are only for those seekers that have advanced far along "the path."
The pointers in Maharaj's final talks which are presented in this book are for those that are open to that which is beyond any of the religious or spiritual pointers that he offered early and are only for those seeking the "final understanding" that he offered in the days prior to his taking mahasamadhi.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION
What Readers Are Saying about "A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation"
Dick B., author of 22 books on A.A. and the recovery process said of A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation in a letter to Mark H. and Floyd H., "Yours is an interesting and challenging new addition to the point that sobriety or being dry is misery and that a change of the heart, of reliance, and of action is the ticket required for the 'abundant life'."
Karen M.: "I love the book. I'm using it with my clients."
Jane L.: "You amaze me, your talent, your gifts and your insight into the Truth and Living in the Present Moment. Love in Sobriety."
Fran E.: "I love the book and how clear, straight forward, and simple it is. As an additional tool, I think the book is great. I have already given two away."
Psychotherapist Marie Lachney, LPC, LMFT, MA, who uses the book with men's and women's groups said: "Since I began asking my clients to purchase a copy of this book and started using its format in my groups, I have witnessed them becoming more involved in their own healing process and gaining considerably more insight at a faster pace. They have been more willing to admit their role in their life circumstances and have expressed appreciation at the opportunity to work with the approach used in this particular book."
Psychotherapist Kathleen Cahill, LCSW, said: "I intend to give this wonderful book of hope and healing to those clients who are wanting to expand their own recovery."
Dr. Roger F. Maley, Professor Emeritus, former Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Houston said, "This book should be used by everyone seeking recovery and by everyone helping others who are seeking recovery."
Racheli C. "I think this book might revolutionize the way we start looking at sobriety as a whole!"
That effect seems to be happening. Parts of this book have been translated into seven foreign languages and people are using it to work the steps and to take other people through the steps not only across the U.S. but in Finland, Israel, Spain, Iceland, Mexico, Sweden, and Canada.
Other readers have expressed in various ways the following observations about the book:
After offering the readers an experience with the effects of working the steps, and after providing a guide for taking others through the steps to their own awakening, the book takes the intuitive reader to new levels of healing. The book can help bring the subconscious forces that drive us up to the surface level of consciousness, thus dis-empowering those negative forces that allow us to say one thing but do the opposite of what we intend. The book helps shift us from living under the influence of the Great Delusions of the world and into a consciousness of The Great Reality. The book addresses with simplicity and with clarity the whole question of identity, and it contrasts the constructive True SELF with the destructive false selves and personas and roles that the culture assigns.
The book allows readers to enter a state where they can see the underlying forces that are driving us as well as the destructive personas that the Tenth and Eleventh Steps would free us from. This work therefore allows us to return to the original relationship by knowing Who We Really Are. It lets us shift from letting false identities serve as definitions of who we are and guides us through a SELF-Transformation where we are re-connected with Who We Really Are: the One True Self, the Unicity, that which is At-One (or in a state of At-one-ment).
SYNOPSIS OF A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation is the true story of two men whose paths crossed and whose lives were changed forever after. Their story is a story of transitioning from a seemingly hopeless state of misery to reaching the state of peace in which they live today. It is a story of two men whose lives degenerated to a point where they were useless to themselves and others; where on the brightest day they could see only darkness; where the thought of no life seemed more appealing than the thought of living another day. From those depths of despair, they rose to the heights of joy and happiness. This is the story of their past that took them to that point, of their struggling against the odds of ever recovering from addiction, of the actions they took that changed their lives and subsequently impacted thousands of others, and of their coming out the other side of a long and dark tunnel to emerge into the bliss of living full, productive, and useful lives.
EXCERPT FROM A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation
Chapter 1
"The Man on the Couch"
The picture Mark presented while seated on the couch in a condominium in Denver, Colorado was in direct contrast to the conditions outside. Just beyond the door, the skies were a calm blue, the summertime sun felt warm to those walking beneath its rays, and both plants and people outside were blooming handsomely. Inside, by contrast, Mark was not calm and light. He was disturbed and dark. Rather than experiencing a sense of blooming and thriving, he felt as if he were shriveling up and dying. He could not see life blooming all about him, but he could see ending his own life.
The searing emotional and physical and mental anguish that had burned away his will to live was beyond belief. He should be happy, joyous, and free, sitting in a lovely condo in a lovely state on a lovely day. At forty-four years of age, he had been sober since age thirty-four. Having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous alcoholism, surely with ten years of sobriety under his belt he could be nothing but happy, joyous and free. At least most so concluded, anyway; yet here he sat, depressed beyond belief, suffering a pain in every cell of his body with no job, no money, no prospects for a future, and totally immobilized. Mark at the adult age of forty-four, following all of his very best efforts for the past ten years, found himself unable to walk outside his condo because of his overwhelming pain and fear. He could not move out into the light; he could not experience the calm; and he certainly could not bloom.
This was not how his life was supposed to turn out. He had an advanced degree and goals and dreams and hopes, but now they were all as far removed from Mark as he was distanced from himself. At the midday point of a bright, summertime day in the mountains of Colorado, Mark was instead in the middle of the dark night of the soul. That shadowy night proffered no hope, no future, no pleasant thoughts of the past, no pleasant forecast for a future, no God, and no self-reliance. That darkness would seemingly provide him nothing, in fact, that could work to make available a life worth living. With the ignored light all about, he could see only the path of darkness, the path of suicide that seemed to him to be the only sensible route to take. He could not walk outside, but he felt he could walk that black passageway to its end... to his end.
Sober for ten years in A.A. at the time he ended up on that couch, an improved life (sometime prior to this point) his risen from a heap of ashes. For six years he had enjoyed the benefits of a good job; of a wife; of a home purchased along with its accompanying mountain property; and of a host of friends; but the past four years of his journey had delivered him into a lethal frame of mind. From the couch this day he had reviewed how all those benefits of sobriety had evaporated like the morning mist rising from the nearby lake. What had happened? he wondered. What was this incredible pain about that had taken over? What is wrong with me? he asked. In spite of all his work to produce hope, in spite of all the work with a therapist, in spite of countless meetings with support groups notwithstanding, he had found no real and lasting solution. His present mindset could find but one resolution to his predicament: Mark, you must end your life.
Then I shall, he answered.
Having made from the depths of the darkness his decision, Mark's next awareness would be of a bright light: I've done it. I'm free. I'm experiencing what they said I would experience. The light. The beautiful brightness of a lovely radiance. Further adjustment of his eyes after squinting reflexively to block out the illumination made Mark aware that he was not soaring to some celestial retreat but was instead in a very-much-man-made room. A chain of events that some Higher Power or Consciousness had set into motion unfolded in a way that, days after having left that Colorado couch, allowed Mark to find himself locked away in a psychiatric hospital in Houston, Texas. After some initial disappointment that the final escape to a heavenly haven had been denied him, he eventually became grateful to be there, for that location marked the beginning point of the next leg of a journey that would eventually result in Mark's crossing the path of a man named Floyd. At the time Mark would meet him, Floyd could have easily been confused with the Mark who had been sitting in the depths of despair on a couch in a condo in the Four Corners area of the U.S.
Only because of the changes that ultimately began to transform Mark's thinking and thus his perceptions about life, about himself, about others, and about that incredible thing called the present moment would Floyd be drawn to him when the latter reached that same state from which Mark had been extracted. How did it happen? What are the important details that can explain such an alteration and might help others in such a mental condition to extract themselves as well?
Mark would ask Floyd one day, "Have you ever felt the way I described, the way I felt as I sat on the couch that day? Have you ever thought to yourself that perhaps your society, parents, teachers, books, television, and all the other influences that have shaped our belief systems were askew, were wrong? Have you so much as even considered the possibility that, in fact, your belief systems are designed to lead you to great suffering?" Then he explained, "Only when I began to question all of it and evaluate all of my experiences through an impartial questioning of every idea and emotion and belief I held did a course of action begin to change and transform me." The entire process he would reveal one day in the future when he co-wrote a book through which the process could be documented and shared with others.
Mark left that hospital and moved to a small town in the hill country of Texas and began a journey from 1991 to the present that is at best difficult to put into words. A journey of SELF-transformation occurred, a journey in which the "false self" died and the True SELF emerged. His would be a passage in which past trauma would finally be healed; when destructive and ineffective belief systems that he had incorporated into his life from a crazy and insane world would be abandoned; when the development of a practical approach that he could use to undergo a radical transformation could begin to be revealed to him, and would later be revealed through him.
You the reader hold in your hand the book the reveals that process, and it will not reveal the method in the usual, expository fashion. Instead, this book will use a unique approach, an experiential approach, so that one will not just read about what happened but will actually experience the process as it unfolds on these pages. Mark's transformation began in earnest when he began to follow in earnest the clear-cut path of instructions which are laid out in what many know as "The Twelve Steps." His transformation culminated when the additional steps that he took beyond those twelve lifted him even higher.
The transformation bloomed as he rigorously and intently pursued an awareness of the false for the next two years; eventually, the transformation matured after he saw the false and began differentiating that from the truth. Eventually, he would incorporate a daily meditation life into his daily life; he would study other disciplines of spiritual thought and practices; and most of all he simply began to do what was revealed to him by his sane, working mind. Suddenly, changes begin to manifest in his life. The man on the couch would become the man on the tape, a tape heard by Floyd when he had reached the deepest state of despair from which he had no hope of escape. In Mark's restored condition, Floyd would find a man capable of helping him differentiate the true from the false. That would be the beginning of Floyd's shift that would eventually move him past his pain. Subsequent actions would transport him though the healing process, would prepare his mind for the awakening, and would eventually fix him in a state of permanent peace wherein he could enjoy a life that manifested in living in the moment. He would finally shift from living the life of a warrior, constantly engaging in one battle after another, to reveling in a life truly lived from a position of neutrality.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
A GUIDE FOR WORKING THE STEPS (IN THE MANNER USED BY THE FOUNDERS)
The author of this book is also the co-author of a book with Mark Houston entitled "A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation." [Mark H. born 10-14-46, died February 19, 2010; sober 10-19-82 to 2-19-2010. Together, at the time of Mark's demise, the two had taken over 20,000 people through the Twelve Steps.]
In addition to the book with Mark, Floyd Henderson has also authored this book on recovery as well as "THE TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-Day Plan For A Psychic Change."
"A GUIDE FOR WORKING THE TWELVE STEPS (In the Manner Used by the Founders)" is first a guide that modern day alcoholics and sponsors can use for working the steps promptly, as did the earliest sponsors; it can be used by those first beginning to sponsor but who have no experience with taking someone through the steps;
it can offer insights for those dealing with emotional and mental needs and can be used with those a traditional view of God as well as those "having trouble with the God part."
If you have worked the steps according to the traditional methods and found that which you have been seeking, then this guide will not be for you, for this guide will offer a totally new experience with the steps and also heeding Bill W. point that alcoholics are "physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually intoxicated" and that they must find all four levels of sobriety if they are to live happy, healthy, productive lives.
This guide incorporates what was learned by interviewing people who worked the steps with the founders and shared with us the way that some founders guided them through the steps; it is also based on information received from people who worked with Dr. Bob and Clarence S.
That being said, we are not trying to tell anyone how to do anything. We are sharing our experience with something that has helped some who needed more help than they have found so far.
This guide is one of two that the author is aware of that guides protégés through the steps in four sessions, but the other uses the Oxford Group's more religious approach where this guide offers techniques that were used by some of the early founders and sponsors.
The Big Book reports that the founders guided protégés through the steps in "three or four hours." You may first want to use the guide yourself; then, in your twelfth-step work with others, you can use this guide one-on-one as you go through The Work.
The guide is divided into four parts which take an hour or so each, and while we had doubts, Mark and I tried it and it worked! As Mark said, "This process need not be long and arduous."
If you are interested in a different experience with the steps, this guide might be for you. Best regards on your journey to being totally happy and joyous and free.
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THE TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-DAY PLAN FOR A PSYCHIC CHANGE
After having guided over 8,000 people through the Twelve Steps, the focus eventually turned toward working with the few who have been seeking recovery for some time but sense that "there must be something more" or who have said, "I am still not where I want to be." A few - even with double-digit "sobriety" - have said, "I don't want to drink ... I want to die."
In addition to making use of all three of the outside sources referenced in the Big Book (specifically, "doctors and psychologists and practitioners of various kinds") a higher level of peace was reached via the teachings of the Advaita philosophy that deal in detail with some topics that are alluded to in the Big Book, such as:
"The Great Reality" and the "inner resource" and "the sixth sense" and "intuition" and "casting aside ideas and emotions and attitudes."
It became understood that the founders had no discussion meetings, that they worked the steps with newcomers in a matter of hours (according to the Big Book) in order to provide physical sobriety, and then they used professionals to guide their protégés to what Bill W. called the other levels of sobriety: mental sobriety, emotional sobriety, and, yes, even spiritual sobriety (his words).
It is explained this way in the book
"A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION: Attaining Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Sobriety,"
(co-authored with Mark Houston)
in
"A Note to the Readers about Bill W.'s Observations Regarding a Four-Fold Illness"
"In his later talks, Bill W. spoke not about a two-fold illness or a three-fold illness but he discussed alcoholism's four-fold nature. He identified what he saw as the four levels of sobriety: physical sobriety, mental sobriety, spiritual sobriety and the final level of sobriety he discussed: emotional sobriety. In our book, the cover recognizes those four levels. It also illustrates the journey of the two authors from the darkness to the light. And the "greater than" symbol (>) was chosen to illustrate their experience: each time we attain another level of sobriety, we feel "greater than" we did in the prior stage(s). Thus, the cover depicts the goal of this book: to share with others the four-fold solution that the authors found on their four-part journey that moved them degree by degree from the darkness to the light as they pursued all four levels of sobriety. The authors hope that their experience might help any others who choose to seek all four levels of healing that Bill W. identified for us."
Nowadays, the silence still dominates most waking hours. The "speaking torch" has been passed. Postings to an Advaita blog happen in the early mornings, followed by walks around the lake and bike rides through the lakeside community and working with seekers via Skype sessions and retreats. Total independence and total peace has come.
ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOKS
NOTE: For many, the 21-day process offered here is only the beginning of what is required for Full Realization and freedom and peace. For more information, you may check at the end of this book to find information on other Advaita / Non-Duality books that many have found helpful in their search for total truth, total freedom, and total independence.
The rest of the Advaita / Non-Duality books are only for those who have been in recovery for a time, who still see some insane behaviors manifesting, or who feel that there must be more than what they have found so far.
Some, upon finishing the 21-Day process outlined here, move on to the four books in the Advanced Seeker's Set:
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE;
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS;
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS;
and
THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, I used dozens of meditation guides. Most had one thing in common: their authors wrote in a way to try to inspire me and to "pump me up" for the day. They often produced that result very effectively, but in my case the effect was too-often gone by the time I reached my first traffic jam on the way to work.
Eventually, I met my Advaita Teacher who gave me a new objective in my daily meditation time: rather than trying to become pumped up temporarily, I was challenged to "consider" and to "contemplate" certain key lessons in order to bring about an unwavering and permanent shift in consciousness.
It became understood that meditation is properly used to take an assignment into contemplation, into true, focused consideration. Once the falseness of all conditioning and belief and dogma is revealed, and once the True Self via Full Realisation is known, the have-to-work-at-resting trap can end.
That passage simply describes my personal experience and is not offered necessarily as a goal to strive for. Secondly, I had to do meditative work for years before the clarity came. Why? Because it was years before I found my Teacher. He gave me the daily assignments to consider that finally led to true freedom. Others need not wait that long. If one uses both volumes of the Advaita Meditation Guide, then you will have spent 365 days in contemplation, in true, focused consideration. some, however, read the books straight through from beginning to end, and the effect has been said by many to be dramatic. Eventually, a new level of freedom will manifest alongside a silencing of the chatter that occupies the thought-life of so many. The volumes are independent, so they can be read in any order.
I also wrote, "Eventually, you can remain in the silence, even in a crowd. Even in a crowd, you can be in the quiet, at perfect peace, and you can sense being in the Aloneness, the All-Oneness. Even with thousands around, even with thousands screaming. Then, in that state, what is to meditate? What is to seek? You understand Who You Are. You understand that there is nothing that constitutes a 'way,' there's nothing more to understand, there's nothing to do, there's nothing to concern yourself with, there's nothing to dread about what remains 'after' the manifestation ends."
This guide, therefore, will differ from the "pump you up" guides of the style that I used in the past. If you have a guide of that type and find it useful or enjoyable, you might consider using this guide in combination with that one. This guide, however, will offer to you a series of considerations that have allowed many people to bring to light the knowledge of Who They Really Are; likewise, it can give you the Understanding of Who You Really Are. Daily fluctuations in temperament can be replaced with a permanent shift to a stable attitude. The high of being pumped up, followed by frustration if that high does not last all day, can be replaced with a new vision of Reality that can render powerless the things that often bind us. The up's and down's can be replaced with a steady and constructive evenness if one completes all of the exercises and thereby attains the maximum benefit that will come from a guide that can lead one along a journey through Self-Inquiry and into Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization.
May the positive changes begin for you now.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME TWO)
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, I used dozens of meditation guides. Most had one thing in common: their authors wrote in a way to try to inspire me and to "pump me up" for the day. They often produced that result very effectively, but in my case the effect was too-often gone by the time I reached my first traffic jam on the way to work.
Eventually, I met my Advaita Teacher who gave me a new objective in my daily meditation time: rather than trying to become pumped up temporarily, I was challenged to "consider" and to "contemplate" certain key lessons in order to bring about an unwavering and permanent shift in consciousness.
It became understood that meditation is properly used to take an assignment into contemplation, into true, focused consideration. Once the falseness of all conditioning and belief and dogma is revealed, and once the True Self via Full Realisation is known, the have-to-work-at-resting trap can end.
That passage simply describes my personal experience and is not offered necessarily as a goal to strive for. Secondly, I had to do meditative work for years before the clarity came. Why? Because it was years before I found my Teacher. He gave me the daily assignments to consider that finally led to true freedom. Others need not wait that long. If one uses both volumes of the Advaita Meditation Guide, then you will have spent 365 days in contemplation, in true, focused consideration. some, however, read the books straight through from beginning to end, and the effect has been said by many to be dramatic. Eventually, a new level of freedom will manifest alongside a silencing of the chatter that occupies the thought-life of so many. The volumes are independent, so they can be read in any order.
I also wrote, "Eventually, you can remain in the silence, even in a crowd. Even in a crowd, you can be in the quiet, at perfect peace, and you can sense being in the Aloneness, the All-Oneness. Even with thousands around, even with thousands screaming. Then, in that state, what is to meditate? What is to seek? You suddenly understand Who You Are. You understand that there is nothing that constitutes a 'way,' there's nothing more to understand, there's nothing to do, there's nothing to concern yourself with, there's nothing to dread about what remains 'after' the manifestation ends."
This guide, therefore, will differ from the "pump you up" guides of the style that I used in the past. If you have a guide of that type and find it useful or enjoyable, you might consider using this guide in combination with that one. This guide, however, will offer to you a series of considerations that have allowed many people to bring to light the knowledge of Who They Really Are; likewise, it can give you the Understanding of Who You Really Are. Daily fluctuations in temperament can be replaced with a permanent shift to a stable attitude. The high of being pumped up, followed by frustration if that high does not last all day, can be replaced with a new vision of Reality that can render powerless the things that often bind us. The up's and down's can be replaced with a steady and constructive evenness if one completes all of the exercises and thereby attains the maximum benefit that will come from a guide that can lead one along a journey through Self-Inquiry and into Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization.
May the positive changes begin for you now.
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
WHY NISARGA YOGA IN ADDITION TO THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS?
This is a five-part book. In Part One, the methods of teaching non-duality are discussed. Part Two offers an introduction to Nisarga Yoga. Part Three explains why (for seekers of Full Realization) a little un-learning can be a dangerous thing. Part Four explains what can happen when one uses a non-duality teaching method in isolation without the Nisarga Yoga. And Part Five explains why the "journey" to Full Realization is a three- leg "journey," not a one-leg or two-leg "journey" as many suggest.
As was the case with Andy Gugar (editor of "The Advanced Seekers' Series" and "The Blissful Abidance Series") the longing here that led to decades of seeking and searching was triggered very early. As was also the case with Andy, the road that was traveled here was a long and grueling road. The "journey" had been quite arduous.
Happening upon certain words and names such as "advaita" and "non-duality" and "Maharaj" aroused some hope but after years of searching in vain, the hope was of a cautious and guarded nature ... hope having been dashed along the way before, time and again.
The restraint was warranted. Along with the words of Maharaj in I AM THAT, the words and writings of more than fifty non-duality teachers were read, and while each of them may have been able to guide other seekers somewhere, not a one of them presented the teachings in a way that led either Andy or this author to the "Aha! Moment";
in the cases of both Andy and the author, not a one provided the final, search-ending flash of the peripetia; in the cases of both, no one ignited the gunpowder that finally blew away all of the blockages that had been built up via programming, conditioning, acculturation and domestication; and with both, no one offered the Ultimate Medicine required to end the misery that the Ultimate Sickness had generated for decades.
No one made clear how, post-Realization, one can abide naturally and normally and steadily and Lovingly and simply and sanely and enjoyably throughout the remainder of the AM-ness could both happen.
The missing element in all the talk about "the path" and "the journey" was the fact that there is not one passage that is to be completed but that there are actually three in total.
Finally understanding what the entire three-leg "journey" involves showed how the masses only complete one leg; how an entire three-part "journey" must happen if one would Realize Fully; and how the remainder of the relative existence can happen in a not-insane, non-stupid, not-ignorant, non-fluctuating, non-chaotic, not-unstable, but totally steady and logical AS IF manner instead.
That manner is marked by freedom and joy and peace as well as an ability to merely witness whatever events that the relative existence might toss one's way.
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A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga
Some claim that Advaita (or Vedanta or Advaita Vedanta) is a religion; some claim it is a philosophy; some claim it is a compilation of precepts and principles by which people should live. Here, the most that is said is that
a. Advaita / Non-Duality as offered here is a set of suggestions and considerations that point the way to the Truth that can be known but that cannot be stated; and
b. it is a set of guideposts along a "path" (set up by one that has traveled that "path") which lead - in a step-wise, clear-cut manner - to an understanding that allows the remainder of the relative existence to unfold in a sound and sane and logical and steady manner.
As for the Nisarga Yoga, that also offers a series of suggestions and considerations that allow for the remainder of the manifestation to happen spontaneously in
c. a natural manner, as opposed to
d. an unnatural manner, or as opposed to
e. a supposedly "supernatural" manner (that is, in a manner that requires magical thinking, that encourages the acceptance of myths and superstitions as fact, and that requires that the cause of naturally-occurring events must be misconstrued as being caused by some other-world entity or "Power").
There is no effort in this book to try to satisfy the wide range of views among those who are dedicated to whatever non-dual method or yoga they might be endorsing. Why? Because from the non-dual, Nisargan standpoint, there is no difference between the Realized and the Non-Realized except perspective. That said, the considerations offered in this book are, most assuredly, not for everyone.
For those who prefer the Traditional, the Neo-Vedanta, or the Neo-Advaita Teaching Methods (or even prefer) Pseudo-Advaita, they will not likely care for the content of this book; for those who prefer guru-bhakti, or bhakti, or jnana yoga, they, too, will probably not care for the pointers offered here.
For those dedicated to dogma or to a spiritual identity and to spiritual exercises, they will not likely care for the content of this book. This book is for those that are willing to consider certain perspectives that will differ from any not based in abiding naturally (vs. abiding unnaturally or supernaturally or super-religiously or super-spiritually).
Those types will likely consider certain of these perspectives to be "too radical" or "too far out of the mainstream." Of course, that was also the attitude toward Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj as well, once he shifted beyond the spiritual message in "I AM THAT" and began eschewing spirituality and recommending that seekers abide instead in an effortless, zero-concept, no-exercises, non-dual, no-dogma, non-spiritual, all-natural manner.
No matter, peace, love and light are extended to all, no matter whether they would find the content of this book to be enlightening or offensive. All are wished best regards on their "journey" and for the remainder of the relative existence.
However, for others that might be interested, there are 278 perspectives identified and / or discussed in this book. They are perspectives that are completely different from those held by the non-Realized and different from perspectives held by many claiming to be Realized.
These perspectives have prevented the author from assuming the role of "The Truly Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," "The Non-Duality Expert," "The One at One with Brahman," "A Godly One," or even "God."
These perspectives, to the contrary, have allowed for the abidance to unfold in an all-natural fashion; have allowed for the Reality to be overlaid on the relative; and have allowed for a life to happen as spontaneously and as freely and as independently and as happily and as naturally as that led by a deer or a bird or a fish.
Only those who would live that freely might find an interest in the awarenesses and understandings revealed in these 278 most different perspectives.
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YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that many are seeking some "higher level," but he made clear that "There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."
As a result of not understanding, many seek - or claim to have found - some "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" state, but Maharaj affirmed that no state with such lofty attributes exists.
Thus, when Maharaj said "...You should go back, reverse, to the source" and advised seekers to "follow the same path by which you came, " what was he suggesting that they should "go back" to or "reverse to?" If the source, as he understood it, was not a "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" source - what was that source and what was it like, per the understanding he shared?
There are some clues when seekers review the long list of synonyms that he used to point to that "one place" or that "one source" which was not "lofty" or "superior" or "noble" but was quite common and normal and natural instead.
To refer to "Your Original Nature" or "Your Original State," he used the following terms and others for the sake of discussion of that "Nature" or "state": Your Natural State, The Original State, The True State, The Natural Condition, The Normal State, The Formless State, The Ultimate State, The Supreme State, The Noumenon, and others.
If it is known that he was discussing a condition that is merely "normal" and "natural" and not "lofty" or "special" or "superior" - and if the actual nature of that Original Nature is understood - then the search that seekers engage in will take a totally different (and far more modest and unpretentious and simple and normal and natural) direction.
Maharaj's invitation was to "merge into the Original State."
He said, "Our True Nature is perpetually free, peaceful awareness" and that "Once it is known what is temporary and what one's Original State is, no further knowledge is needed."
He taught, "That 'I Am' is a concept is to be understood while the concept is there. Once it merges in the Original State, who is there who wants to know? The illusory entity has disappeared."
The author's offers an explanation of what the Original Nature is like and what the present manifestation can be like if Reality is overlaid on the relative, if the Original nature is overlaid upon the relative existence, now.
The invitation in this book is also to understand that, to abide as that Original State, requires abandonment of all ideas and concepts and beliefs.
Maharaj said, "The Original State is beyond concepts" and "In the Original State there is no sense of consciousness, no awareness of being, but as soon as the 'I Amness' comes, the entire manifestation is seen at once. This is the expression of the consciousness."
If Fully Realized, this is understood:
Maharaj: "I was, I am, I shall be in that Original State before the 'I Amness' came" and "So long as the body is there you are this consciousness, but once the body and the consciousness go You are that Original State upon which all this has come as a temporary state. Your Original State is changeless and permanent."
The author addresses this question: "Why else find that Original State and abide as That?" Early on, when that Original State manifested as its Original Essence, then there was also the manifestation of the "primordial cooperation" - now totally absent among the non-Realized masses.
Abiding as One's Original Nature, all humans were childlike, as Maharaj said, rendering them conscious and happy and quiet. Abiding as such also allows for abiding as in a "Loving community" wherein "primordial cooperation" is natural and is the rule, not the exception.
Is it not that Original State that is subconsciously being longed for? Then know that it can be returned to even as the manifestation continues, but it can come only with Truth, not with false concepts and ideas and beliefs.
The author shares words and terms that offer insight into what abidance as that Original Nature was like and what the relative existence can be like if, post-Realization, the I AM THAT and the I AM truly "merge," and if One's Original Nature is overlaid on the present manifestation, thus allowing the remainder of the relative existence to happen in a natural manner - rather than in an unnatural or in a supposedly "supernatural" manner.
The manner of abidance which awaits is one which exhibits all of the peaceful and quiet and stress-free and fear-free attributes that mark One's Original Nature.
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GOING CRAZY / GOING SANE
The reader is invited to consider:
George Bernard Shaw was once asked if he thought there might be life on other planets. His reply was that he was certain that there had to be life on other planets because people there are obviously using earth as their insane asylum. Mark Twain observed that "the way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane, we should run out of building materials" and "Really, what we want now is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity. That is where the true evil lies" and "Once, I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said, "This is our stupidity, verging on insanity." This book looks at when "Going Crazy" actually begins and then studies the ways that what Advaitins call "The Ultimate Sickness" continues, in most cases, throughout the entire manifestation of consciousness. In some few cases, treatment for the effects of personality disorders is sought; is some cases, hospitalization provides an opportunity for clinically-diagnosable insanity to be treated; and in some cases, the Advaitic, non-dual teachings provide a new understanding that ends distortion and delusions and belief in illusions and untruths, lead to clear perspectives, and allow the restoration of sanity to happen.
The book in its six parts includes the following: PART ONE: Introduction; PART TWO: Originally Sane; PART THREE: Going Crazy; PART FOUR: Going ... Going ... ; PART FIVE: Gone! & PART SIX: Going Sane.
Call it "insanity." Call it "madness." Call it the end result of a personality disorder where a person has disintegrated from psychic health to a state of only average psychic heath to a state of complete psychic unhealthiness and total mental and emotional degeneration and collapse." Call it "being so removed from Reality that one has lost the ability to know Who or What You Truly Are." Call it "being out of touch with both reality and Reality." Call it a "state of living unnaturally or trying to live supernaturally / religiously / spiritually rather than merely abiding naturally in the peace and quiet."
Call it "being so mental and emotional fragmented that one feels as if she / he is going to shatter into a millions pieces ... not feeling whole or 'at one' but feeling splintered and split and broken and shattered and divided and falling apart." Call it "a state marked by anxiety, resentment, anger, despair, depression, misery, pain, suffering, desolation, gloom, dejection, and anguish.: Call it "The Ultimate Sickness". Call it "Going Crazy." But no matter what you call it, it is a global epidemic and all will contract it at some point or another.
Of that, Maharaj said, "Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru -- to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware." This book traces the roots of insanity and its various degrees and manifestations and then makes clear that, as far as those interested in non-duality are concerned, "Job 1" for the guru or the Realized Advaitin or the Realized Nisargan is to bring the light and an awareness of the way back that must be traveled before the way out can ever be shown.
The author is certified to teach Psychology (Level 100) College Courses and Psychology (Level 200) College Courses all 50 states. He has also done personality testing and typing for individuals as well as worked for corporations, testing and typing and analyzing personality as a means of providing staff development programs that make employees aware of the assets and liabilities that can help assure success in the workplace and proving for businesses a higher level of quality assurance in terms of the potential effective of personnel as well as training and managing current employees.
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INSTABILITY / INSANITY: WHAT THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS CAN (AND CANNOT) ADDRESS
Most of the problems of this planet are centered in the mind. The planet-wide instability and insanity of persons' thoughts and words and actions are evidence of the fact that The Ultimate Sickness of duality and its effects (which is calling out for The Ultimate Medicine) is in many ways a mental problem.
The Advaitin called "Jesus Christ" purportedly said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways." In some cases, instability and low-level personality disorders and even mild cases of insanity have been addressed by the non-duality teachings if the result was Full Realization.
The following are often observable among those who are trapped in the Ultimate Sickness of a dualistic mind (and, thus, mental illness) and who are swept back and forth by the tides of emotional intoxication:
changeable, unpredictable, unsteady, inconstant, unsettled, irrational, erratic, inconsistent, unreliable, untrustworthy and vacillating.
The content of this book distinguishes between (1) the causes of instability and insanity that the Advaita teachings can address and (2) the causes that require far more than the teachings if they are to be effectively addressed.
Included are discussions of:
instability and / or insanity induced by duality-based splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by psychological splitting; instability and / or insanity induced by cultural influences:
instability and / or insanity induced by personality disorders; instability and / or insanity induced by a failure to psychically integrate and instead the tendency to psychically disintegrate
instability and / or insanity induced by adults who model constant mood swings and instability and being temperamental and inconsistent so that they are always unpredictable; instability and / or insanity induced by fixating in "the parent" role or "the child" role rather than interacting from the stance of the mature adult;
instability and / or insanity induced by emotional intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by religious / spiritual intoxication; instability and / or insanity induced by inner causes; instability and / or insanity induced by depression and mania
instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; instability and / or insanity induced by chemical imbalances, physiological factors, and biological factors
instability and / or insanity induced by a need for full realization; and instability and / or insanity induced by seeking someone or something to cause you to be happy.
For those who have studied any of the various types of yoga and who have studied either Traditional Advaita Vedanta, Neo-Advaita, Neo-Vedanta, or Pseudo Advaita: the author of this book is a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj so he uses the Direct Path Method of teaching along with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, all shared in simple, everyday English.
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THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (THERE IS ONLY PEACE IF YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND)
This book explores the history of the human brain, including the fact that for millions of years, human and human-like beings functioned without any mind. The book uncovers the ways that the brain evolved over the ages and developed an ability to store and retrieve memories. It then shows how the original memories were used constructively but how programming and conditioning changed all that and created a "mind" that most often overrules the brain and generates relative-existence harm and destruction.
Similarly, the book shows the way that personality develops during childhood as a means for survival and adaptation but later becomes a liability when those childhood personality traits continue to drive adult thinking and behavior.
Ultimately, the book shows why Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly identified the "problems of the planet" as being rooted in body-mind-personality identification and offers suggestions for being free of all of that nonsense via Realization.
Excerpts from PEACE OF MIND
A CONSIDERATION
Most persons will never reach a point where they are awake enough to even ask the questions that indicate they know that they have no "peace of mind." Some will ask one or more of the following: "How can I attain peace of mind?" "Why is my mind constantly in motion?" "Why do I start thinking about one thing and get hung up on that?" "Why does my mind sometimes feel as if there's the chatter of a thousand monkeys going on inside my head?" "How can I purify my mind and get rid of all the troublesome things that fill it all day long?" "Why can't I stop my mind at night and go to sleep and stay asleep until morning?"
The answers will be provided in this book. Best regards on your "journey" as you seek them.
CHAPTER ONE
"MIND" and MEMORIES: When Nature's "Assets" Become Warped into "Liabilities"
"Consciousness is rooted in the Absolute. The brain is rooted in the elements. The 'mind' is rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and lies and concepts and ideas and superstitions and falsehoods. Personas are rooted in programmed minds and are sustained by the ego-based lies and by the learned ignorance that are being taught in most modern cultures."
At the root of all relative existence problems involving persons is this: that which was one of nature's assets (the formation of a mind after the brain evolved and developed the ability to store memories) has been warped into an unnatural or supernatural liability. While no Advaitins would suggest that seekers must learn science in order to Realize, Maharaj did say that someday science would advance enough to catch up with the Advaita understanding and validate scientifically the philosophical Teachings. He was correct, so please bear with this approach that might resonate with some.
The smaller human brain, in its earlier and simpler stages of development, allowed humans then to live as deer live today: hunt/forage/find food for survival; interact; take actions that are self-defensive and self-constructive; and procreate in order that the species will survive. As more and more humans walked the planet, the simplicity of existence would be lost as the simplicity of the brain was lost.
Complications resulted because of an increase in human interactions (and an increase in both individual as well as tribal interests and agendas). The brain began to evolve in order to compensate, and eventually areas that could store memories came into being. At that point, the mind and the brain worked in tandem and in harmony to contribute to the survival of individuals and the species. The mind came about as "memories" began to be stored. As a part of the defense mechanisms for survival of the species, the mind had its role and played it "properly" (naturally) for thousands of years.
For example, if a caveman remembered that his companion fell from a cliff and died as a result, the caveman might avoid falling from cliffs. The original process was as follows: over a period of evolution, the brain expanded to include a cerebral cortex and a hippocampus. Afterwards, when an event happened (such as a human falling off a cliff) or when someone learned something (such as, "falling off a cliff can kill you"), the brain placed the memory of that event and the related knowledge acquisition in its "memory files." That is all the mind was: a collection of memories filed away in those "newer" parts of the brain.
The memory of both old and new happenings would be processed and stored away in different areas of the cerebral cortex, or the "gray matter" of the brain. The hippocampus would process the memories. (As a side note in that regard, a disease receiving considerable attention nowadays-Alzheimer's-comes about when the hippocampus is damaged, resulting in...what else...memory loss. Is it not interesting that one who might have been a fighter for years and who loved chaos suddenly becomes peaceful when the ability to tap into dualistic memories is lost? Witness the way that the ability to remember dualistic concepts and dogma are now the curse of the planet, relatively speaking.)
Over a period of time, language developed which allowed controlling men with hidden, personal agendas to dream up concepts and teach those ideas to others who could-by that point-remember them. The overabundance of dualistic concepts and beliefs and dogma (which were destructive and separatist in nature) began to outnumber the earlier class of memories that were survival-related.
It was one thing for the caveman to "feel bad" if the fish that was going to feed him and his family that day happened to get away. Such feelings are natural. It is quite another thing when modern persons-as a result of living under the auspices of a warped, dualistic "mind"-truly believe that they should feel "bad" when they do things that are also natural, such as masturbation or fornication. It is one thing for the caveman to feel "good" when he killed a deer for supper. It is quite another thing when a modern person, as a result of a warped, dualistic "mind," feels "good" if he kills another human who has different religious beliefs filed away in the storage areas of the brain.
Now, because of the warped dualistic "mind," persons feel "good" if they beat their "bad" children or if they whip a wife who flashed a bit of ankle in public. As the "mind" formed, it allowed a class of beliefs and concepts to be accumulated that no longer contribute to the survival of the species but that have become a driving factor in the perversion of interactions and the destruction of humans by humans. Dualistic thinking was born, and all of the horrors of the relative existence began. Prior to attachment to dualistic beliefs, early tribal fights might deal with water rights. After the "mind" quit working in tandem and in harmony with the brain, it began to overrule the brain. Thereafter, fighting dealt far less with survival issues and far more with conflicts over differing beliefs and concepts.
Those fights / wars would eventually result in the killing of more humans that anything other than natural causes: political wars; religious wars; holocausts; the invasion of continents and the decimation of native populations; and acts of racial, ethnic and religious genocide. Dual-mindedness had begun, and the persons of the planet are still bound in its grip. It is now at the root of everything called "evil," and the accuracy of the words of the Advaitin teacher of 2000 years ago (who said that "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways") are proving to be as factual today as in 30 A.D.
CHAPTER TWO
"MIND" and MEMORIES: When Nature's "Assets" Become Warped into "Liabilities"
So, it can be seen that the term "the mind" is just a name given to a set of files. Originally those files were stored in the brain (as what would come to be called "memories") so that the file information could be retrieved if needed in order to help humans survive dangerous situations (i.e., "Remember when the fellow in the next cave thought he was picking up a stick and it was a snake. Check more carefully.") It can be seen that now the "mind" has been so distorted that the persons of the planet believe that a rope is a snake.
Those files / memories are so contaminated with distortions, misperceptions, dogma and all other kinds of lies that the "mind" can no longer serve its original purpose. Where it was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to avoid destruction, in its present condition, the typical "mind" is generating more destruction and chaos than survival and peace. It is one thing to remember that a snake which looks like a stick can kill you; it is something else to remember dualistic messages that include: "We're better than all others on the planet because we live in the greatest country on earth," or "It's OK to attack or kill those who have been taught the tenets of a religion that is different from your religion," or "People with that skin color are all ignorant and criminal."
It can be seen, therefore, that the current, distorted state of the modern "mind" came about after languages and personal agendas developed which enabled persons to begin teaching dualistic concepts. After that occurred, persons used languages to pass on as fact an entire body of lies, lies that were not based in actual happenings or fact at all (things such as beliefs, ideas, myths, superstitions, dogma, theories, attitudes, "spiritual knowledge," religious "knowledge," concepts, false identities, etc.) It can be seen that the distortions being stored nowadays as remembered lessons/memories are not memories that can be used for survival but are corruptions that are driving conduct that is destructive, self-destructive, and detrimental to both peace and survival.
As a result of the distorted concepts and beliefs that are currently being stored in what is called the "mind," nature's intent has been invalidated. That original storehouse of files in the brain which was intended by nature to work with the rest of the brain to guide the body to behave in a natural fashion, is now resulting in the body being guided by a warped "mind" that generates unnatural "thinking" and conduct and supernatural "thinking" and conduct.
Nowadays, memories are not being retrieved from the mind to avoid dangerous animals or the precarious edges of cliffs but are generating dualistic "thoughts" such as, "They are ignorant...we are smart"; "I am good, but they are bad"; "I deserve reward but they deserve punishment"; "I heard a God in another world tell me to drop bombs on people in this world"; "I am going to destroy you (or "reject you" or "leave you" or "punish you") because you have said things and done things that are different from what I wanted you to say and do"; or, "You can't be good...you're different from me."
Now, a natural mind no longer works with a natural brain to generate natural living. Instead, the content of the typical "mind" today generates a style of living that is more often unnatural (meaning characterized by delusional "thinking") and that is very often supernatural (meaning characterized by magical "thinking"). The "thoughts" behind both of those types of "thinking" are rooted in duality, and dualistic "thinking" is at the core of anything considered a dilemma or problem or crisis in the relative existence.
Whereas the brain is "wired" for self-constructive behavior, the modern "mind" is now "wired" for self-destructive behavior because of the vast pool of learned ignorance that is being passed on to (and accepted as truth by) billions of persons, their level of education or intelligence notwithstanding. Because behavior is now being controlled by the bogus, programmed "mind" more than the brain, the personalized, individualized "mind" is able to inspire persons to destruct and self-destruct in opposition to the self-constructive actions that a normal brain would guide an organism to take.
So a shift in what was typical and "normal" human behavior happened as the brain evolved over thousands of years: the development of the brain's capacity to store memories, and to retrieve memories from storage, was followed by the development of language. The development of language was followed by the teaching of dualistic concepts. Those dualistic teachings have resulted in the contemporary "mind" which is nothing more than a repository of lies. Those lies/false beliefs generate a sense of separation and the judgmental labeling of persons as "bad," "immoral," "wrong," ad infinitum. Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they believe in vaginal births but refuse to believe in a virginal birth.
They feel they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they are repelled by descriptions of a god who was a mass murderer. Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that they are "bad" (or they are labeled as "bad") if they don't care to participate in a rite of worship called "communion" that reenacts ancient rites of cannibalism and vampirism. They can feel they are "bad" (or at the very least, "not as good as") if they have not been dunked or sprinkled with water that some claim is "holy."
Now, because of the warped, dualistic "mind," persons truly believe that killers are "good" if they kill people whose stored files contain information that differs from the killers' stored files. The insanity that currently dominates the planet (as a result of the warped "mind" that takes duality to be real) is pervasive, and the majority of the dualistic beliefs which have had the most vicious results have been dreamed up and passed down by members of one specific institution over the last 5000 years.
"Brain-washing" is an inaccurate term. "Brain-trashing" is what has been happening for many millennia now, inspiring the call for a complete "brain-flush" now. Why? The institution that has been touting dual-mindedness for thousand of years has been joined by programmed parents and conditioned teachers and acculturated politicians and by various other sources in the global pursuit of training persons to accept as fact the seemingly endless supply of dualistic lies. The concepts that need to be eliminated from the "mind" via a brain-flush should be obvious. The purging of belief in all dualities begins with questioning it all and continues with the discarding of all learned ignorance in order to then be free.
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FREEDOM FROM SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
Satsang (Satsanga) is defined thusly in Sanskrit: "sat = true and "sanga" = company). In Indian philosophy, the reference is to (1) "the company of the highest truth" or (2) "the company of a guru," or to being (3) "in company with an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the truth."
Literally, therefore, satsang means "the company of truth" and refers to discourses about "the Knowledge." To tell someone about Knowledge in a gathering is called "giving Satsang."
Now the fact is that Truth can be known but not stated, but the point is made. Originally, in pre-electronic-technology days, seekers had to travel in order to be in the presence of a guru / teacher. Now, satsangs happen via Skype conferencing, via teleconferencing, and via electronic forums that allow for the free flow of statements or questions with a teacher offering replies. The content of this book contains the record of satsang exchanges that took place via one such forum.
In the loft of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, twenty seekers might have been present but some days, only a few entered into direct dialogue with Maharaj. Why allow more into the room than can participate?
It is known that pointers must be heard (or read), but they need not be spoken directly to a seeker for their meaning to "take hold." It matters not if the teacher is speaking directly to an "individual" because in Reality it is the consciousness that is speaking to the consciousness.
One speck of consciousness might be addressing another, but all specks that are present can receive the pointers to Truth that are being offered.
It will be seen in this book which will share the results of a series of satsangs that only a few entered into direct exchange with the teacher / author called "floyd," but many more specks of consciousness were "looking over the shoulder of the seekers" and receiving the message via the exchange; in fact, seekers in over eighty different cities around the globe were participants.
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THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
Robert Powell said that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj provided "powerful antidotes to unawarenesses," that is, to the sickness that marks and mars the relative existence.
The Ultimate Sickness, like most sickness, is passed on when persons interact; it is contracted when a previously-well person is exposed to another person or persons who have the sickness, and the exposure always begins at an early age.
The sickness is passed on via the "germ" of programming and the "virus" of conditioning and the "contaminate" of acculturation and the "bacteria" of domestication.
Discussed in this book will be the Four Stages from illness to wellness that have been taught in the Far East as well as the Six Stages that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj moved through on "his journey," and the Four Stages that are taught to seekers by the author.
The Ultimate Sickness is primarily a mental and emotional sickness that is contracted during Stage I when exposed to the ignorance and insanity that has already spread throughout every culture on the planet. Exposure to the carriers also results in personality disorders that can only be addressed by the casting aside of all personality in order to continue to move along the four-stage, seven-step "path" to wellness.
Treatment for the Ultimate Sickness is complicated by the fact that most persons who contract the illness actually normalize the condition and its symptoms and, therefore, (a) seldom have a clue that they are as sick as they truly are and thus (b) seldom seek the Ultimate Medicine that can address the sickness and its symptoms.
How, then, is one to know if he or she has contracted the Ultimate Sickness? One must cross the path of a "healer" who suffered the illness, of one who found someone to administer the treatment in the proper stages and steps, of one that was eventually freed of the sickness and its symptoms, and of one that is now willing to administer the Ultimate Medicine to seekers who are now suffering the same symptoms and effects and who are wanting relief.
Therefore, consider some of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which include an inability to distinguish true from false and, therefore, the propensity to believe lies; to distort perceptions; to believe that images are real; to have no clue who you are; to talk in one's sleep; to work and drive and walk while asleep;
to accept as true, without questioning to even the slightest degree, the concepts and beliefs that are taught by authority figures and to believe the most unbelievable tales that those figures dream up; to accumulate the various forms of the sickness and then to pass them along to family members and friends and associates with pride in having done so; to accept with faith beliefs that have no basis in fact and that cannot possibly be proved; to be so delusional that one is believed to be two;
to believe that learned ignorance is wisdom; to suffer willingly and repeatedly the consequences of what Maharaj called "learned ignorance"; to lose all ability to detect nonsense when it is heard;
to allow subconscious motivators (a.k.a., personality / personalities) to determine every thought and word and action while believing that one is consciously choosing to think what is thought, to say what is said, and to do what is done; to be asleep but to believe that one is awake;
to be self-destructive; to exhibit impaired judgment; to be unreasonable and illogical; to display unstable and inappropriate emotions (that is, being emotionally-intoxicated); to be religiously or spiritually intoxicated; to have hallucinations (such as believing that you can hear a supernatural being from another world and to believe that such a being is actually talking to you);
to believe that the not-special is special; to believe that absolutes can be applied to things relative; to be disorganized and confused while thinking that you are organized and thinking clearly; to develop extreme dependencies on people and groups and leaders and on powers that are supposedly living in unseen worlds; to be unable to cope; to be in a state of unwarranted fear; to constantly desire more and more of what is already making one sick;
to feel guilt and self-blame that have no basis in fact; to behave like a six-year old child for an entire manifestation, even during "the adult years"; to be preoccupied with "self" (with the false selves or false identities that are assumed and thought to be real); to play a role on a stage and believe the character is real;
to believe that a physical, plant food body can disintegrate, re-integrate, and last for eternity and can feel pain or ecstasy for eternity; and to suffer and then still believe that suffering is good; ad infinitum.
Imagine if persons knew of an Ultimate Medicine that could cure all of the above; they would call that a "miracle drug." Know that not only does such a medicine exist, and not only does it address all of the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness that are catalogued above, but it is available at a fraction of the cost that any sane and sound person would estimate its true value to be.
Yet few will ever know it even exists because few will ever know that they are suffering from the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness and because few will ever understand they need to be cured from the sickness contracted during the first of the four stages being discussed in this series, namely, the Accumulation Stage.
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PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION (THE SOURCES OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS & THE NON-DUALITY TREATMENT)
The cover of this book illustrates the effect that Full Realization can have: it can break the chains that bind persons. Each link of the chain is a nonsensical idea or bogus concept or false belief that comprises the content of the fiction-filled "mind" of persons, and the chain was set in place by programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation, "The Four Horsemen of the Mental and Emotional Apocalypse."
Similarly, persons are imprisoned in "the mind," and each bar of that prison is one of the nonsensical ideas or bogus concepts or false beliefs mentioned earlier.
The book offers a discussion of the three factors involved in understanding that which is at the root of all relative existence problems, namely, the formation of a "mind":
1. consciousness, rooted in the Absolute;
2. the brain, rooted in the elements; and
3. the "mind," rooted in wrong programming and faulty conditioning and debilitating domestication and duality-supporting acculturation, all of which fill the resulting mind with a belief in lies and bogus concepts and distorted ideas and superstitions and all sorts of falsehoods.
What did Maharaj and to offer what he shared on this subject and to allow the final pointers to come via that speck of consciousness which eventually came to abide as Pure Awareness:
The "mind" problem according to Maharaj:
"As to my mind, there is no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens."
" ... Your confusion is ... in your mind ...."
"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited."
"I am double dead. Not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind too."
"Distrust your mind, and go beyond."
"All illness begins in the mind."
"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates."
"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind."
NOTE: You may see the book, "There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out of Your Mind)" for the complete discussion of that point.
" ... the mind obscures and distorts."
" ... it is the mind that creates illusion."
"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens."
And he made the point that the mind is a symptom of ignorance.
Maharaj's solutions regarding the "mind" problem:
"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether."
"Beyond the mind there is no suffering."
"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas."
"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas .... " and "Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision of yourself."
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."
"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation, is the dawn of wisdom."
"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably."
The author offers this for the readers' consideration: to be free is to be free of that which imprisons you. What imprisons the masses? The "mind"; thus, to be free is to be free of the content of the "mind," all of which is rooted in programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation.
To be free of the "mind" is to be free of the "madding crowd," for the "mind" is that crowd of people who programmed you, conditioned you, domesticated you, and acculturated you and who continue to speak to you. (The only difference is that now they "speak" from within rather than from without.)
Many of them you may not have seen for years, but they are as close as your brain and as dominating as ever (if you have not followed this "path" that can free you of their influence and free you of the subconscious ideas and concepts and beliefs that will otherwise drive you and control you and take away any ability to make independent choices at all).
Best regards on that "journey," should you undertake it.
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"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?"
If you find the answers to "What happens when I die? What happens after the body ends?" the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.
A NOTE TO THE READERS
A visitor to the website named "Frank" asked, "What happens when the body ends?" This book is the answer.
Of course, the variety of answers to that question that have been offered by self-proclaimed "holy" men and their "holy" texts has led to more confusion and speculation and yes "even anxiety" than any other question. It is one of the three questions that humans have been occupied and preoccupied with for ages:
1. "How did I get here?"
2. "Who Am I, really?"
3. "What happens when the body (or "this life") ends?"
This book will guide you to finding the answer for yourself. Why even take the time to ask that question that Frank asked? It was explained this way in one entry:
Two very distinct answers to your question, "What happens when the body ends?" are before you. One is rooted in logic and fact; the other is rooted in emotional intoxication and fiction. One answer will result in continued darkness and misery, in fear and desire, in valuing or accepting suffering in "this life" in anticipation of a reward in "that life," in rigidity and inflexibility, in arrogance, in a false sense of separation, in "dual-mindedness," in spiritual workaholism, in believing ancient myths and superstitions, and in the remainder of your relative existence being marred by the duality of occasions of happiness while otherwise being heavy and burdensome. The other answer will result in the remainder of your relative existence being marked by an incredible lightness of being."
May you find the answer if an incredible lightness of being has any appeal at all.
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THE MYTH OF "DEATH"
In this book, this pointer is shared and discussed: The reason that I am at peace around this issue called "death" and you are not is because abidance as the no-concept, non-dual Reality eliminates any possibility that "death" (or any other concepts) can be taken seriously. I am also at peace while you are not because you have taken an illusion, namely-"your world" or "this world"-and upgraded it with supernatural beliefs. Your magical thinking drives you to accept man-made concepts like "birth" and "life" and "death" and "timelines" on faith rather than questioning all that you have been taught.
While this space roams about on the planet, I-the conscious presence-see your fictional world for what it is, but you do not. You deal with a supposedly "real life" (which is not real at all). More often, though, you are absorbed in your "secret life," seldom available to "others" and never available to Your Self. And that is the scenario that is playing out across the globe. The imaginary "world" and its nonsense combine in your "mind" with the desires and fears generated by the "secret life." The result is fleeting happiness along with chronic dis-ease.
Also in the book, the distortions of the individualized views about "personal death" are exposed as certain relative events are discussed. In the end, the point is that what persons consider to be the "self" is actually just a "composite unity" of earth (plant food) elements, circulating air, and the temporarily manifested conscious-energy.
Eventually, the consciousness will unmanifest and return to the universal pool of energy, the elements will then return to the universal pool of elements, and the air will return to the universal pool of air. To understand that the "you" or "self" which the masses take themselves to be is merely that temporarily-combined triad is to be able to ask:
"What is this talk of 'birth' and 'death'? Nothing was 'born' or 'created' because existing elements are merely cycling. Nothing was 'born' or 'created' because all is energy-matter and neither energy not matter can be created or destroyed.
if nothing was created, and if nothing is going to be destroyed,wherefore 'death'?
As for "death," therefore, can elements die? Can air die? Can energy die? Absolutely not.
Find the understanding and then be free of that which the masses fear the most.
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THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS: THE SIMPLICITY OF REALIZATION
This concise book came about as a result of proteges asking questions about concepts set forth in various books and discussions. The work provides in one direct volume the answers to questions raised about the elements of the teachings including, but not limited, to:
"How do I get peace of mind?"
"How can I get a sense of fulfillment and fill the hole inside?"
"What is Realization?"
"What is Enlightenment?"
"What is the TRUE SELF?"
What is the difference in the "thinking mind" and the "working mind?"
What are the Seven Degrees that separate us from knowing Who We Truly Are?"
A NOTE TO THE READERS: This book is often used by some as a companion to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality). PART ONE can be read in one sitting. The content includes answers to frequently asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teaching. I suggest setting aside a period of quiet time every day and reading PART ONE straight for several days, contemplating the teachings in the five readings and considerations offered at the end of the section.
PART TWO is a sharing of comments and questions dealing with Advaita-related topics and can aid those who are 'close' but have not yet 'gotten it' in its entirety. The pointers shared in the second session provide more depth and deeper insight. Some have benefited from using the accompanying CD available at:
http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm.
If you use the booklet continuously, what you may experience one day is this: at some point during the reading, you will drop the arm that is holding the booklet before your eyes, you'll look off into the distance, and you'll hear words coming from somewhere deep inside you, words that say, "Oh...my...gosh. Yes. Yes! Now I see!" Let us begin. Enjoy.
PART ONE
What is "Realization"?
Realization is the end result of being freed of all beliefs, ideas, and emotions (but not feelings) that have led you to believe you are something or someone that you are not. Realization is the state of awareness which occurs when you finally realize that millions and billions of people can be wrong-wrong about their ideas, wrong about what they have told you, and wrong about their superstitious beliefs that have been passed down for so long that they are taken to be fact.
It is the state of consciousness in which one can exist in peace because one has given up all false identities, roles, and personas. It is a state of peace that springs into being when one realizes that the bars that form the prison of the thinking mind are made up of other peoples' beliefs and ideas that you have adopted. Realization also allows you to perceive that trying to meet the expectations and demands of others' beliefs is blocking you from a peaceful existence. It is a state of being conscious of Who One Really Is, a state that can only be perceived after knowing who one is not and after discarding all their ideas.
If we should give up all ideas, why should we listen to yours?
First, they are not mine. These teachings are more than 40,000 years old, but I'll answer your question by explaining "The Lesson of the Thorns" that my Cherokee grandmother taught me. One summer while staying with Grandmother, I fell onto a thorn bush and buried one of the prongs deeply into my palm. Grandmother used a larger thorn from the bush to remove the fragments from my hand and then she threw away both thorns. BOTH ultimately proved to be useless, though one served the temporary purpose of relieving me of pain and suffering. So it is with the concepts that I will offer-including this discussion of thorns, including every word that follows in this booklet, and including every word ever spoken by anyone. New concepts can be used to get rid of old concepts. Then, all the concepts should be discarded.
The thorn in my palm was causing me great pain. It was of no use to me at all. The second thorn was of temporary use to me since it was only used to rid me of that which pained me. Once its job was done, it was not needed. So it is with the ideas I offer.
What pains anyone not yet Realized are the ideas, emotions, and beliefs given by others, accepted as truth, and empowered to control your thoughts and behaviors and feelings. Any words I offer are like the larger thorn: they can be used to rid you of the other thorns that are causing your pain.
If the ideas I offer reach their goal, they will help you become free of the programming and conditioning that locked into your belief system their ideas and their beliefs that were taught to you and taken by you to be truth and fact. Actually, all ideas that you have been taught were dreamed up by people, usually men.
Historically, those men have been the ones playing the roles of priest or medicine man or government man or businessman. All those had an agenda-and have an agenda to this day-in telling you their ideas. They want something from you and they want to control you. People are controlled by the ideas, emotions, and beliefs adopted from others. Those (along with the influence of physical organs) cause destructive behavior and create restless minds.
All dreamed-up ideas were dreamed up in an effort to control you, so those ideas repress you. Their ideas restrict your mind and your natural behaviors. In so doing, the result is a planet filled with people now behaving most unnaturally. The thinking mind is your prison. The working mind is the vehicle to freedom in this manifestation. (Eventually, the seeker that would be totally free will abandon the mind entirely.)
Other questions addressed in the book include:
What is "manifestation"?
What is the difference in the "Manifest" and the "Unmanifest"?
Is The Absolute the same as "The Field" I've been hearing about?
What do you mean when you say that "the cause of anything is actually... everything"?
What is the "negation of free will" and the "absence of choice" that you speak of?
What is the True Self?
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FINDING REAL LOVE IN AN UNREAL WORLD
There is no shortage of persons who speak of "love." There is no shortage of people who believe they know what it is until they are asked to define it.
There is no shortage of persons who also believe that they can spot what others think is love but is not (i.e., "Damnation, she's such a fool. That guy doesn't love her-he's just using her").
Furthermore, there is no shortage of persons who mistake sexual activity for "love" or for a "show of love," (i.e., "If you really love me, you'll do it").
There is no shortage of the use of the phrase "I love you," but there is a shortage of those who mean what they say or even have the slightest clue about what the difference is between what is taken to be "love" but is not REAL LOVE at all.
Nor is there a shortage of those who do not know that (a) the "world" as they see it is not real or (b) that the beliefs that they hold to be true are completely unreal.
This book will use Advaitin pointers to differentiate false "love" from REAL LOVE and to discuss the "love-fear" connection; how to avoid the constant cycling in "relationships" between "magnificent feelings" and "horrendous feelings"; and how to find REAL LOVE in an unreal world.
Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.
An Excerpt from FINDING REAL LOVE
FINDING REAL LOVE can means finding it in the relationship that you are already in
CONSIDERATIONS
What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion-that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state-prepare for war.
Persons desiring to know what love is might benefit more (relatively speaking, of course) if they were able to understand what love is not.
PART ONE
An Analysis of "LOVE" vs. "love" using Advaitin Understandings
"Commonly-Held but False Beliefs"
It was once asked, "Can True Love really exist, or is that just a concept, too?" Consider: In the seeking of the "True Self," the teacher never begins with a direct answer of the question. Instead, the process begins with finding the false selves.
Apply that to the question to determine the approach that should be used regarding finding the answers to such questions as "Is there such a thing as 'True Love?" and "If there is True Love, how is it to be defined?"
The Advaita approach never begins by offering a seeker the truth or "The Truth." The approach involves presenting facts or pointers and inviting the seeker to question the commonly-held opinions and concepts on the topic under discussion. That is followed by an invitation to the seeker to go into the silence and to focus on the pointers. The seeker is encouraged to question old ideas and then to allow the realization of truth to come from within. Erroneous beliefs that are "commonly-held" represent one of the greater obstacles to finding truth.
Regarding all "commonly-held" beliefs (and certainly including those around "love), relate the following to this topic:
Several years ago when Advaita sessions were being conducted in a home in south Texas, a woman from St. Louis, Missouri attended a few sessions. In one session, an Advaitan shared the findings of a recent study that traced the roots of the god of Abraham directly to the mythological god Zeus. A few weeks later, there was an e-mailed received from a woman named "Cassandra" in St. Louis whose friend had attended that session.
She wrote to say, "You and that other man who talked about Zeus should realize that millions of people cannot be wrong [her "bold"].
The response: "I agree with you completely. In fact, billions and trillions have been wrong. Millions believed the earth to be flat; millions believed the sun revolved around the earth; millions believed 400 years ago that an entire race of people in the three "Americas" should be annihilated; and sixty-five years ago, millions in one country in Europe also believed that an entire race should be annihilated. I invite you to enter the silence, contemplate those facts, review your belief that 'millions can't be wrong,' and see what comes to you in the quiet."
The pattern is seen: facts were presented, the seeker was invited to question her belief, received a suggestion to go into the silence and to focus on the pointers, and was invited to question old ideas and then see the falsehood of the belief on her own from within.
In this book, such topics as "The Challenges of Trying to Define 'True Love'," "The Search for a Unified Definition of 'True Love' in a Realm of Multiplicities," "Differentiating 'Feelings' and 'Emotions' in Regards to Love," and other related subjects shall be discussed.
The reader is invited to consider current beliefs that are a part of the pool of "commonly-held" beliefs and determine if other views might be more accurate or lead to an understanding of the truth regarding the subject matter of this books. Regards.
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CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS
A NOTE TO THE READER
This hard-hitting, no-holds-barred look at relationships provides an antidote to the currently appalling statistics surrounding modern relationships. Stats now show that
• Most admit they are NOT marrying for love primarily
• Nearly 50% of both husbands and wives will have an affair during the marriage
• 62% of all marriages will now end in divorce
• 95% of all divorces involving children will be initiated by the wife
• 50% of those killed in urban areas will be killed by a mate during a breakup
• 76% of all second marriages will fail during the first five years
BUT THERE ARE SOLUTIONS FOR THOSE WHO WANT A LONG-TERM, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP! THE BOOK DISCUSSES:
"Millions of Years of Success vs. Five Decades of Failure"
"The New Challenges" & "Why Women Leave" & "Why Men Leave"
"The History of Relationships" & "The History of Marriage"
"The Influences of Nature and Religion on the High Divorce Rate"
"Monogamy and Polygamy"
"The Five Major Obstacles to Building Long-Term, Healthy Relationships"
"Setting the Stage for Divorce Even Before the Marriage (Avoiding Potential Problems)"
"Fifteen Relationship Deceptions" and "Twenty-Five Self-Deceptions"
"Problems & Solutions Once in a Marriage or Relationship"
"Solutions Within (and Outside of) the Traditional Framework"
"Seventeen Factors that Drive Us to Self-Destruct in Relationships"
"Understanding Personality Type and Resulting Compatibility or Conflict"
"Getting Out Alive"
"Going Forth and Creating a Healthier You and Healthier Relations"
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OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT
Of the thousands of pointers offered by Maharaj that proved to be germane to seekers, one ranks among the most pertinent and unequivocal and illuminating that he ever shared:
"...You are afraid of freedom!"
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
In the early stage of beginning some "work" with a guide, he asked a qualifying question: "How free do you want to be?"
The reply: "Why, totally."
His response: "We shall see."
And soon, he did indeed see. What was seen by both that guide and this seeker was that there was no more of a desire to be TOTALLY free than there is a desire among the non-Realized for the manifestation of the consciousness to end instantly.
It would be years before Full Realization happened, and it would not be until Full Realization happened that TOTAL freedom not only manifested but was gladly welcomed.
Why do persons (the non-Realized) really not find total freedom appealing at all, truth be known? What is it about most cultures that nurture and even reward dependence? What is it about personality and personas that automatically require dependence and co-dependency rather than independence?
The 6.7 billion polled worldwide who said that they are affiliated with an organized religion are taught early on to be dependent on one god or another (or even many). The millions in step groups are taught to be dependent on an external, otherworldly power.
Too, every ego-state adopted as an identity must have a co-dependent counterpart and will be dependent on another person to sustain the false identity assumed. (For example, a spouse must have a spouse to supposedly "exist"; an employee must have an employer to supposedly "exist"; a teacher must have students to supposedly "exist"; etc.)
Add to that the fact that fifty-percent of the people on the planet are Personality Types Sixes who are embroiled in fear and are thus dependent types; add to that a large percentage who are Personality Type Twos and Threes and Nines who have a strong sense of entitlement and are therefore dependent types.
In fact, most cultures on the planet inspire dependence rather than independence, so it is little wonder that so few will Realize Fully and actually become totally free. Yet freedom is the prerequisite for peace, so it is also little wonder that so few will Realize Fully and be at peace.
So the questions for every seeker and reader are,
"How free do you really want to be?"
"Is it possible that Maharaj's pointer - 'You are afraid of freedom' - might be based at least to some degree in fact?"
and
"If so, might you be interested in certain considerations that might assist in overcoming that fear of total freedom?"
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THE NON-DUALITY POINTERS OFFERED BY YESHU'A ("JESUS THE CHRIST")
The contents of this book are not for those who are seeking reinforcement of their religious beliefs about the one called "Jesus." Why? Because the contents of this book focus on the "later" message that he offered ... a message rooted in the ancient teachings of the Far East rather than the Middle Eastern message that is generally focused upon by his followers.
Next, the contents of this book are not for those who believe that the non-duality messages is about "uniting all people." Non-duality addresses the Oneness, the - unicity; therefore, to speak of an "A" being united with a "B" or to conclude that non-duality's message of Oneness is about "bringing people together" is the antithesis of non-duality and is actually a statement of two-ness.
Next, to invite one to look objectively at political, societal, religious or spiritual beliefs is not an attack on any of those institutions. The Realized can no more feel hostile toward persons attached to a political party, a society, a religion or a spiritual movement than they can feel hostile toward a mirage. Why? Neither those institutions nor a mirage have anything to do with the Real, with the Authentic Self.
Too, this work is not a work that aspires to become a part of academia. It is impossible to footnote that which is understood via "the inner resource" or "the inner guru."
This book is for those who have wondered what he was talking about when he said things that many have deemed "Too far out there" or dismissed as "maybe misstatements" or "probably misquotes" or "things that Christians need not concern themselves with trying to understand," such as: "When you speak of Me, speak of Me as I AM"; "Before Abraham was, I AM"; "No one shall ever see the kingdom of heaven - it is within";
"Heaven and earth shall fade away"; "If they say to you, 'from where have you originated?' say to them 'We have come from the light, where the light originated through itself'"; "If they ask you, 'what is the sign of your father in you?' say to them, 'it is a movement and a rest'";
"Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become as I AM and I myself
Will become he, and the hidden things shall be revealed to him"; "When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female not be female, then shall you enter the kingdom";
"I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword." "I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law"; and "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
The book also includes information that clarifies not only the shift in the message presented "Jesus" but also background information on advaita; a discussion of how the original "Bible" was lost forever; and on Pope John Paul II's clarifications regarding the understanding of "the geography of gehanna" and what "heaven" and "hell" really are. Best regards to all, including those with many beliefs and those who have been freed of all beliefs.
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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE ADVAITIN
As far as there being any documented evidence or historical proof that William Shakespeare studied the Advaita teachings, none exists; however, there is proof in his writings that he was well along the "path" to Realization; moreover, many of his pointers provide excellent opportunities for seekers to consider some of his teachings that paralleled those of the "ancient masters."
Some of the quotations discussed in the book include the following which are all rooted in non-duality:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"
"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"
"O what a goodly outside falsehood hath"
"All that glitters is not gold"
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
"Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
"Much ado about nothing"
"I say there is no darkness but ignorance"
"To thine own Self be true and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man"
"Nature is made better by no means"
"Out, out, brief candle"
"All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity"
"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage"
"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into the air, into thin air"
and
"The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre observe degree, priority, and place. Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order."
The quotes provide a starting point for a deeper discussion of the type pointers that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj shared in his ultimate talks at the end of his "teaching career" rather than the type of pointers offered earlier on.
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WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (THE "FINAL" TALKS OF FLOYD HENDERSON)
This book is not necessarily for all readers even if they are in interested in non-duality or Nisarga Yoga. Its contents are especially not for those who are seeking a means by which they can reinforce or enhance a religious or spiritual role that has been assumed. It is likely not for "Neo-Advaitins," "Neo-Vedantins," "Pseudo-Advaitins," or "Traditional Advaita Vedantins," either.
It is not for those who believe that Truth is found in special or holy or religious or spiritual texts, any more than Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's later talks were for persons interested in religious or spiritual concepts. He made clear that what he shared later on was quite different from what he taught early on - such as in the book "I AM THAT."
During his last years, he said of the book "I AM THAT":
"That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today." He said, now I am "emphasizing different aspects."
Similarly, the talks in this book can also be considered among "the later talks," so they are not for everyone. Many of the other books available from the author should be read before this one, in particular the four books that are included in "The Advanced Seekers' Series."
Seekers cannot begin with the "end pointers" in this volume any more than they can begin with the pointers in Maharaj's later talks. Seekers must find information that is "level-appropriate," custom-fit for them at the exact place wherever they might be on "the path" (and many are not nearly as far along as they might think).
Over the years, Maharaj discussed and explained thousands of topics, all relevant to seekers at one point or another along the path but not aimed at other seekers that were at different points along 'the path'."
Here, writings have included over 2000 discussions of various topics, responses to a variety of questions, etc. Some seekers have asked, "Which are the most important discussions that I should read?" The reply has always been:
"As with Maharaj, that depends entirely on you and where you are on 'the path.' If a step-four-of-seven pointer is offered to one stuck at the third religious or spiritual step, then that talk would be the most important if it moves the seekers along the way. It is also the most important for every seeker that reads the explanation or hears the discussion if those seekers are stuck at the third step. Yet it would mean nothing to one at the first or second step on 'the seven-step path'."
At the end, Maharaj discussed fifteen key topics in his final talks (though they were not numbered as such). Herein are the fifteen key pointers that would be offered if that speck of consciousness called "floyd" were offering "his 'final' talks."
WHAT SOME OF THE READERS AMONG THE MOST ADVANCED SEEKERS ARE SAYING:
From Robert R.: "The Final Words" has been packing a power and succinctness, pointing to the nisarga "being / being thereof" as opposed to the tendency to make just another cognitive exercise / understanding of Advaita Vedanta and pointing to the importance of not allowing the Advaitin (Nisarga) message to become just another philosophy but to be lived, resulting in the deconstruction(7 step path) of any and all identification with body, mind, personality, etc.
I just wanted to thank you. "When Only Three Hours Of Manifestation Remain" is without question the most powerful, concise, catalytic piece of Your work that I have absorbed (and I have absorbed all that has been written). Just as Maharaj's teaching was refined in the latter part of his life, Your teaching has powerfully shifted (no small feat given its already existing purity / essence ). Peace, Light and Love (literally and figuratively), Bob
From Jo H.: My heart grows with your existence. Thank you. Love, Jo
From Ginny: Your writings are a source of comfort. Thank You for continuing to chronicle. You have important work in the relative. Know that what You have exposed has changed my life, allowed Real Life. Words are not coming out right, but please feel the Loving intent.
This is one of Your strongest pieces and allows folk to read, again and again if needed, that energy (which is Us) is Love. Real Love. So, the membrane of separation thins, till there is none.
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I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
At some point along "the path," those that are receiving the understanding become aware of what "THAT" refers to. The masses, the billions of non-Realized persons on the planet, have no clue what "THAT" refers to. They believe that they are who they think they are and / or they want others to believe that they really are who they think they are or who they want others to believe they are.
Identifying with a false ego-state will trigger the use of ego-defense mechanisms, including egotism; thus, ego-states are always upgraded so people not only believe they really are who they think they are but also think that they are far more than most, far greater than most, and far different from most. Consider an example wherein that scenario played out:
Thirty years ago, "floyd's" bills were paid by selling insurance. The owner-manager of the agency entered the office one morning and tossed a death benefit check on the desk. He asked, "You've never delivered a check before, have you?"
The answer was "No." He continued, "That check is as good as passing on a hot prospect to you. Let me train you in the way this goes. You take that check to the widow-it's for $25,000.00. Tell her how sorry you are for her loss and ask her if the check will help?
"She'll say yes ... that she's grateful her husband planned ahead and left her the funds to cover the costs of his funeral and to help her get by until she can make arrangements.
"Then, ask her if there is someone she'd like to help the same way someday. If she doesn't come up with any names, ask about children, nieces, nephews, helping out grandchildren with college costs. Tell her that she can use all or part of the proceeds to buy a paid-in-full policy and she'll never have to pay a single premium. Some of the guys come back with an app (an application) and the whole check. That would give you a nice commission for the week."
The check was tossed back to him with the comment, "If you want something that sleazy done, do it yourself." (Yes, it had already been determined that selling insurance was not going to be "a life-long occupation" and was not "the dream job" as it had originally been billed.) His response was, "Do you know who you're talking to!?"
The reply was, "What you really mean is, 'Do you know who I think I am?' You think you're something that you most assuredly are not ... "The Great, Ethical Boss," "The Super Achiever," "The Rich, Successful Businessman," "The Wonderful Community Leader" ... but the image people have of you is nowhere close to the way you really are." His diatribe that followed included words and phrases that referred to "insubordination" and to "cleaning out a desk" and to being "fired." (Today, there would have been a quiet walking out of the office without comment, but it didn't happen that way in "the old days.")
But two of the questions above strike at the heart of the Advaita teachings:
1. Because the assumption of ego-states triggers the use of ego-defense mechanisms which include - among others - egotism, the stage was set for that boss to ask egotistically, "Do you know who you're talking to!?"
2. The clarification "Do you know who I think I am?" points to the fact that non-Realized persons do not have a clue about Who / What They Truly Are; as a result, they assume scores and scores of false identities throughout the length of any given relative existence.
Maharaj said, "When I met my Guru, he told me: 'You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what You Are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your Real Self.' I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made...!"
The content of this book discusses the subject in detail and can assist with bringing to an end the assumption of false identities and the failure to truly know who (what) one actually is.
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QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS DEALING WITH NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA, AND MORE
A bound volume of this ebook would contain over 250 pages of quotations, pointers and other information dealing with the message of non-duality and advaita. The book 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, literature, and movies.
The nine parts of this book include the following:
an introduction;
quotations that other seekers / readers have indicated that they found to be significant;
non-duality quotations and pointers arranged by category and subject matter. The rationale for that? 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 dealing with body identity and a seeker dealing with "being free of influence of the mind" can find quotations and pointers that offer information on that topic. Other subjects include personality, the child ignorance or no-knowing stage, the two types of witnessing, the Absolute, the Void or the Nothingness, and many, many more.
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;
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, and others;
certain non-duality pointers that have appeared in the non-fiction writings of Ralph Klein, Barbara McClintock, Erwin Schrodinger, Fritjof Capra, Niels Bohr, David Bohm, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Marvin Kaye, S.H. Sharp, Paul Krassner, Ken Kesey, Russell Brand, G.I. Gurdjieff, a variety of examples of the non-duality message contained in the body of Native America wisdom, and non-duality pointers from "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (a.k.a., "the A.A. Big Book");
examples of the non-duality message 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;
and
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.
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DANCING LIGHTLY
Edward Thomas wrote: "And heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance."
Dancing is defined thusly: "To move one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps" or "to leap and skip, as from excitement; to move nimbly or quickly; to dance with joy" or "to move merrily; to express pleasure by motion."
Dancing to "another tune" means "to forfeit one's behavior, attitudes, beliefs." The relevance of all of that is clear to most that have studied Advaita and what Realization has to offer.
As for dancing, the author write: "Dancing can involve a fluid, even, natural motion which, at its core, exudes joy and pleasure and lightness. It can also involve no movement at all when the dance takes place within and provides a sense of fullness and unchecked joy. Either way, there is never a "roller-coaster" type of jerkiness. There is smoothness and gracefulness and agility. Moving through the relative existence post-Realization is like moving smoothly across a dance floor (not in some helter-skelter fashion and not in some roller coaster fashion with excessive up's and down's but in a slow, deliberate, even, level, steady, flexible, and effortless manner.)"
He suggests that "the 'end game' with Advaita is not to be able to eat, drink, breathe, talk, dissect, and analyze Advaita; nor is the 'end game' to spend all of one's waking hours pontificating about Advaita. The 'end game' is to reach an understanding that results in a love of silence and solitude; that allows Reality to be overlaid upon the relative so that a nisarga (natural) manner of abidance happens; that allows all to happen spontaneously while, ironically, also happening deliberately"; and that allows whatever happens - or whatever does not happen - to be enjoyed fully. With the sense of limitlessness that manifests post-Realization, then all can be relished: the working required to assure independence, the walking, the eating, the looking at what nature has to offer, the sitting, the sharing, and, yes, the dancing."
[It is explained this way in the book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality):
"Realization is marked by the abandoning of all concepts. On this seven-step 'journey,' we've used many concepts to remove concepts, not unlike the proverbial thorn used to remove a thorn. If you have something within you like a thorn, and you use a thorn to get rid of that which was within, that which was causing your misery, what effort need remain after the removal?
The work is done; the tools required for the task-the thorns needed to remove the thorn-are no longer required. What further exercises could be indicated? Realized, You will not know any concern about any thorns from 'the past.' You will not long for any thorn to return. You will not save spare thorns just in case they might be needed in 'the future.' You will not work to maintain Your 'state of non-thorn-ness.' It's all gone, all dissolved. It just happened automatically when the last concept dis-appeared."]
This book describes what the post-Realization relative existence should be like and why The Light must precede the lightness. May you enjoy not just dancing but actually dancing lightly.
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THE PATH TO FREEDOM VS. THE PATH TO MISERY
A visitor said: A friend recommended I read an article you wrote on death and the Mumbai attacks. I started reading that and wondered why he told me about it but when I got further into it I understood. I had started feeling suicidal at Thanksgiving and with Christmas coming up - the first since my wife left me. Since my friend introduced me to your work, I've read more of your writings on personas and I am seeing that you are right - the end / "death" of my relationship with my wife seems more painful than the actual deaths of people I've loved. I haven't cared about anybody else since she left except me. It's all been about me. What you write about is pretty foreign to me but somehow I am getting out of myself at least a little bit - but I need more help. Anyway thank you for your writings - it seems like maybe they have helped even if they have not been the total solution yet.
The reply: First, if it is heard that suicidal thoughts are happening, the suggestion is always to "go immediately to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. Follow up by finding a counselor who specializes in grief recovery and trauma treatment."
(In some cases, an EMDR element in a treatment plan can be effective. Call some counselors and inquire about their level of training and expertise.) Then later, this understanding might be relevant, but it is not the first line of defense against self-harm.
For those dealing with the "death" of roles and who are finding that some "special season" seems to be providing some impetus for an aggravation of misery and suffering around a sense of loss (but who have not concluded that suicide might be the only answer), some pointers might provide clarity and release from attachment:
First, the key pointers are these:
(1) the blocked consciousness allows a "mind" to believe in the false concepts of "separation" and "different from" and "better than": "one season is different from and better than other seasons," or "this season is worse than other times of the year because I am not with person 'A' or person 'B' "; and
(2) both pain-which is registered via the body-and misery and suffering-which register via the "mind"-can only register
(a) if Consciousness is manifest and if
(b) physical consciousness is present; however, if
(c) the Consciousness is blocked from seeing Reality and a person is operating under the auspices of a "mind," which is nothing more than a storehouse of fiction, then fluctuations between happiness and suffering are guaranteed.
(Meaning? If the physical consciousness is suspended via the administering of anesthesia, a doctor can remove the heart in a body and replace it with another one and no pain will register during the procedure. If the Consciousness is not manifest, then misery and suffering cannot register.
If the Pure Consciousness is blocked, then truth cannot be seen and misery and suffering will also be registered in that case. In such cases, the Pure Consciousness-the Pure Witness, the True Self-does not know ItSelf; therefore, it will accept all sorts of false roles as identities.
False roles generate co-dependency-which prevents independence / freedom-so misery and suffering will follow. Persons will be miserable and will suffer if they are not independent / free.)
Next, nothing provides as clear an understanding of the reason that Advaitin teachers advise against accepting roles as identities as the events generated by accepting such roles as "spouse," "lover," "partner," etc. as identities.
Actually, misery and suffering are always rooted in duality and in the dualistic ideas that persons (the non-Realized) believe about "personal relationships." The very term is dualistic, suggesting that something "personal" can be real and suggesting that two of anything can "relate."
There is no "A" that can relate to "B." There is only the "not two." The concept of "personal" is a lie and the concept of one thing being able to relate to another is a lie.
No wonder the labels mentioned above-if accepted as identities-will generate misery: anything thought to be a "relationship" is a lie, so all "relationships" are based in a lie from the start and in the additional lies that come about as "relationships" unfold.
That which does not change is Real; that which changes is false, and all "relationships" will change. This has been shared before but is relevant here:
What persons call "love" is the most magnificent experience of all; it is also the most horrendous experience of all. With such duality, how can that possibly be taken for the Real? As for feeling or emotion, if love happens as a feeling, take the ride and watch the feelings rise and fall; if love happens as an emotion-that is, if it is being "experienced" by a person in an ego-state-prepare for war."
Whatever is false but believed to be true might lead to occasional pleasure but will eventually lead to belief-and-concept-based ignorance and therefore to the misery and suffering that are always subsequent to ignorance.
Any role is a mirage, dreamed up by persons and accepted by followers in their cultures. Mirages do not begin or end-they are simply appearances without substance. Just as teaching might happen or not even as no role of "The Teacher" is adopted, so too can "husbanding" and "wifing" happen without all of the misery and suffering associated with role acceptance and role-"loss."
As long as roles are accepted as identities, the fluctuations and chaos of duality will manifest. Period of happiness will be replaced with periods of fighting or disagreeing or having to forgive or holding grudges or suffering misery.
And all of that flows from notions about being "in relationships," including ...
... being in relationship with another person, and
... being in an eternal relationship with "self"-believing that the body-mind-personality triad can last forever, and
... being in relationship with a god or gods, etc.
All of those "relationships" will be guaranteed to fluctuate ("I'm close to my spouse," "I'm not close to my spouse," "I'm close to my god," "I don't feel close to my god right now," ad infinitum).
Of the eight traits of the untreated Addictive Personality Disorder, the number one manifestation of that condition is said to be "having problems in personal relationships." With 99% of all persons being addicted to something, is it any wonder that such chaos manifests throughout the relative when trying to deal with "personal relationships," including a "personal relationship with someone," a "personal relationship with God," a "personal relationship with self," etc.?
It will be shown that all of the happenings that occur during the relative can happen even if Realized, but what will not happen is any attachment to that which is not Real. Consider: what if a delusional person saw for the first time ever a mirage in the desert. What if that person became fascinated with the mirage-even enamored by the mirage-and went to the desert every day to be with the mirage.
On days when the conditions were the same as on the day of that first sighting, that person would be happy, spending some time once again with the mirage. On rainy days or cloudy days, however, that person would be miserable, feeling separated from the mirage that he / she has come to "love."
Such instability and such fluctuations in mood are typical of those persons who are playing roles and believing that the mirages appearing during their relative existence are real. Such misperceiving will always lead eventually to the misery described earlier by the miserable man.
All of the pointers above will be doubted by persons being exposed to them for the first time. Doubt these pointers if you will, but why not as readily doubt what you have been told all your life by "others"?
If a person has moved through this relative existence for any period of time, then the unblocked consciousness has the potential to see objectively that the current belief systems that are being held in such awe are not producing the desired effects.
If you can see with the least bit of objectivity, then why not at least reconsider the validity of your beliefs and concepts and ideas? The "path" to freedom is a seven-step journey to Realization. The "path" to misery and suffering is the path of duality.
Now some find the Direct Path no-concept, non-dual Reality teachings to be "harsh," suggesting "Why don't you build up the man whose wife left? He's hurting." Why would anyone stand before a mirage and try to build it up? Further, there is no one standing before a mirage and trying to tear it down. All that is happening is that a mirage is being shown to be a mirage along with the pointer that it is foolish to allow a mirage to have any effect on thought, word, or deed ... especially when thoughts and words might lead to the deed of suicide.
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THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS PERSONAL (INCLUDING YOU AND INCLUDING GOD)
This book begins by discussing certain terms relevant to the subject matter of this book:
"Personal" means "concerning or affecting a particular person or her / his personality."
"Person" is defined as "a human being."
"Personality" refers to "the complex of all of the attributes - behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental - that characterize a unique individual."
In the Advaita teachings, the "journey" to Realization begins with a casting aside of all false identities, including identification with the body-mind-personality triad.
To cast aside belief in personas / personalities is to move farther along the "path" to understanding the composite unity ... an understanding that can facilitate the casting aside of belief in anything being "personal" or in anyone or any One being "personal."
That is to say that the "journey" begins not with finding out who you are (or Who / What You Are) but with finding out all that you are not. The identity triad of body-mind-personality must be discarded during the early steps along the "path," well before any final clarity comes about a non-phenomenal identity (or even no identity).
Thus, in the interim along the way, answering the question about "the identity of the Am-ness" can lead to an early level of freedom if the body-mind-personality triad is replaced with the triad of elements-air-energy (a.k.a., "the composite unity").
This book invites the reader to consider this:
What is a tree but a collection of elements that have formed a space in which the consciousness has manifested temporarily and that circulate oxygen? As always, the pointer here is that there is no difference in any "things" on the planet except for the rate at which the energy vibrates.
Thus, a "human" is also a collection of elements with a temporary manifestation of a quantity of conscious-energy and with oxygen circulating into and out of the space. Is there any difference in what is called "a tree" and "a human" at the most basic level? No. Consider also:
A plant / tree uses carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. Oxygen is left over after that process. The plant or tree will use part of the supply of oxygen itself for respiration, but there is more than enough left over which is unwanted and unneeded by the plant.
The surplus, therefore, is released into the atmosphere and provides oxygen for humans and other forms as well. So the tree, as is the case with humans, is composed of a combination of elements; the tree, as is the case with humans, circulates oxygen; and the tree, as is the case with humans, provides a space in which conscious-energy can temporarily manifest.
Yet how many persons are totally free of the influence of ego-state assumption and its accompanying egotism and therefore able to admit that they are no more "special" or "different" or "unique" than the ugliest, most deformed tree on the planet?
How many persons on the planet can never be offended, as is the case with the one that can ask, "WHO - what part of this temporarily manifested unity - can be offended? The oxygen part? Of course not. The energy part? Of course not. The element part? Of course not. Among those three, there is no WHO. There is no part of those three that can be offended, so there is no part of the triad that can be robbed of total freedom and total peace."
The process of casting aside belief in the body and mind and personality as actual identities is a three-step procedure, followed in the teachings here by the other four steps that make up the entire seven-step "path" from identifying with false "I's" to Full Realization and abidance as the Absolute (or that which is beyond).
[The seven steps are not the subject of this book. The full explanation of all of the steps on the "path" can be found in the book "From the I to the Absolute."]
Few will ever seek Realization. Of those who do, most will consider the path to be a four-step process:
1. Discard identification with the body
2. Discard identifying with the content of the mind
3. Discard identifying with all former personas / identities, most especially those that deal with "the worldly"
4. Then, assume the identity of "A Religious Person," or "A Spiritual Person," or "A Spiritual Creature Having a Human Experience," or "One Now At One With God or Brahman or Whatever" or any of the other roles or identities that supposedly identity the "new person" that one has become as a result of all his / her spiritual or religious work and exercises and supposed enlightenment or realization.
Those who believe that the "journey" to Realization is a four-step process will fixate at the point where they assume a religious and / or spiritual identity (a.k.a, non-worldly or noumenal or supreme or Supreme identity).
Yet in that process, they have assumed another identity instead of being free of any and all false identities.
In adopting those new identities, any supposed "improvements" most assuredly "concern or affect a particular person or his / her personality" and they most assuredly refer to a newly-found "complex" with "new attributes" that characterize "a unique individual" who has "changed for the better" and is "different from the way he / she was in the past."
In the process of assuming the identity of "A Religious Person," or "A Spiritual Person," or "A Spiritual Creature Having a Human Experience," or "One Now At One With God or Brahman or Whatever," one has not - by definition - eliminated all personality, personas, and personal identification(s) but has ...
either
substituted a new identity or identities for one or more former identities
or has
upgraded a former identity:
"I was a bad man, a bad person, but now I am a good man, a good person"
or
"I was a non-spiritual woman, but now I am a spiritual woman"
or
"I was some kind of being occupied with worldly, phenomenal things, but now I have transcended beyond this world and am occupied with noumenal things."
All roles are merely ego-states (that is, false identities, stage characters, personas, personalities, etc.) No matter what role is assumed - be it supposedly phenomenal or be it supposedly noumenal - that role is nothing more than an ego-state, a "personal identity" even as the claim is that the identity is a "non-personal identity."
Furthermore, persons who have assumed a spiritual identity will also assume that there are spiritual powers beyond this realm that also have personal traits. Human being(s) here; Supreme Being(s) there.
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LIBERATION (ATTAINING FREEDOM FROM PERSONALITY VIA REALIZATION)
Excerpts from LIBERATION
Various teachers use various approaches (or various yogas) for guiding proteges to Realization and Liberation. Why? Because there are three types of learners: auditory, visual, and kinetic. Also, the three body types among humans call for different approaches for different persons. The first body type is contemplative while a second type is more active. The third type includes students or proteges who are driven to be vigorously active. A variety of approaches are justified as attempts are made to provide methods that take into account the variety among proteges and their varied learning methods.
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) is an approach that can work well with contemplative and analytical seekers. For those who are prone to action and who learn best by an action-based approach, the book LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization) offers specific actions that can taken by those seeking to be free.
CHAPTER ONE
Being Trapped in Personality vs. Being Realized and Free
Personality is (1) that which generates personas and (2) that which allows things to be taken personally.
A persona is an assumed social role or a character played by an actor, the term having been derived from the Latin word for "mask" or "character." Personas are all of the false identities that persons think define "who they are." In fact, they define everything that one is not.
"Taking anything personally" can only happen when a persona is assumed as a false identity and then takes offense at the words or actions of another when an assumed identity thinks that it is being hurt, interfered with, or threatened. What conclusion can be drawn from knowing that? All instances of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable or in pain originate from assuming false identities and then wanting to defend or protect false identities. Therefore, to be free of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable, in pain or defensive requires being free of personas...being free of the entrapment in personality.
Thousands of personas are assumed by persons: husband, lover, homeowner, employee, employer, wife, son, ad infinitum; however, as a result of genetics and environment and other factors, all persons develop one dominate persona while assuming scores of others. Often, that dominant persona is overlaid onto (or combined with) all other assumed roles.
Only nine primary personality types exist, and since persons become most driven by their type, most separated from Self by that type, and most absorbed in "self" via that type, then the "journey" to liberation can begin with an effort to be rid of the influence of the dominate personality type. Then the secondary types and personas might be abandoned more easily.
Why Understand Personality Types?
Psychotherapist Marie Lachney explains it this way: "You may as well learn all that you can about your primary personality type as well as the related types that influence you. For most people, it will determine everything they do and everything they feel during their entire lives. Only a small percentage will ever be liberated from the dominance of personality."
Dictating Behavior
Of course each individual is "unique," but unless people understand the way that personality type dictates behavior, then they will never fully understand why they do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel. Nor can they understand why others do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel-which can be quite different from person to person-depending on personality type. Nor can they ever break free of unconscious influences.
Personality Formation
Early in life, we learned to feel safe (and to cope with unhealthy family situations and circumstances) by developing a strategy based on natural talents, genetics, and abilities.
Personality's Power over Behavior and Feelings
People of the same type have the same basic motivations, the same basic liabilities and assets, and the same basic view of the world in some fundamentally similar ways. It's almost "textbook" the way people demonstrate the exact traits of their type. It is amazing to see how infrequently people choose to do the things they do and how often they are predisposed to certain behavioral patterns. (When you add programming, conditioning, acculturation, and the effects of trauma to the mix, "free will" and "choice" become reduced to the level of theory.)
The Benefits of Knowing and Understanding Your Type
This understanding can provide release, if not comfort, in knowing that millions of people who share your personality type have the same coping strategy as you and have done exactly what you did when faced with the same circumstances. But by understanding personality, millions have also been able to say, "Oh my gosh! So that's why I do what I do!" and then they have become free of the overwhelming influence of personality which has unconsciously driven them. At some level, "That's totally insane" can give way to "That's perfectly understandable, all things considered." Blame and guilt and anger directed at self can end and a shift toward sanity can begin.
The more persons sees the insanity of being driven by personality, the more receptive they might become to considering the "path" to Realization in order to attain freedom from personality via that "journey" and thereby allow Full Liberation to happen.
CHAPTER TWO
What is the Enneagram and What Are the Nine Personality Types?
In geometry, the enneagram is a star polygon with nine sides. In psychology or philosophy or sociology, it is a means for studying the nine basic personality types that have been recognized for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The personality types are plotted on an enneagram structure in order to illustrate how they interact and interplay.
Some believe that the Sufis first used the tool in the Middle East hundreds of years ago. Others believe that the roots can be traced to the Far East and were transmitted orally even thousands of years ago. The former is the more popular theory.
It is known that the modern use of the enneagram can be traced to the Russian teacher Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff in the 1920's. The tool has found widespread used in the U.S. since the 1960's.
More significantly as far as the pointers in this book are concerned, it is just that ... simply a tool. The tool can be used to understand the forces that drive persons to do the things they do and to feel the way they feel. It can also be used to promote understanding of others and their behavior and also to catalogue the disintegration of persons who move downward from the stages where they can function in society through the declining
stages and into the dysfunctional stages. It can also provide a series of actions that can be taken to "undo" that process and return to a stage where one can be functional or even totally liberated via Realization.
As noted, the nine types (and their interactions with each other) are typically illustrated by use of a star polygon. [See front cover]
For the purposes of this study, little information will be offered to explain the ways that the types adjacent to your own type influences behavior or the way that other types connected by lines to your own can affect your conduct. Much information is available on the web if you are interested in those other aspects.
CHAPTER THREE deals with:
Traits, "Assets," and "Liabilities" among the Nine Personality Types
For Example:
[TYPES 2, 3 AND 4 ARE CENTERED IN THE HEART, IN FEELINGS, IN IMAGE]
2 THE HELPER
WHEN HEALTHY: Demonstrative, Sensitive, and Generous. WHEN NOT: People-Pleasing, Martyr-like, Manipulative, Hysterical, and Possessive.
3 THE ACHIEVER / THE PERFORMER
WHEN HEALTHY: Adaptive, Energetic, Optimistic, Assured, Excelling, Goal-Oriented, Driven. WHEN NOT: Image-Conscious, Vile-Tongued, Narcissistic, Pretentious, Vain, Superficial, Vindictive and Overly-Competitive.
Etc.
The less we are influenced or driven by personality, personas, ego, or ego-states, then the greater chance we have of becoming truly free and truly happy; additionally, it can also be said that those who are healthy and integrating can exhibit "the best" of all nine types and those who are unhealthy and disintegrating can exhibit "the worst" of all nine types.
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WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK:
Consider: Advaitins speak of "the drop dissolving into the ocean." Govinda, however, (influenced by Buddhists, the Gelug-pa sect members, Advaitins, et. al.) spoke of the next step: "the ocean slipping into the drop."
Suppose that you typically have a cup of coffee with sugar and cream each morning. Suppose that the cream you add to the coffee one morning is curdled and instead of blending in with the coffee it actually clumps up and ruins the taste with its sourness.
Would you believe that you could extract all of the curdled cream from the cup of coffee, that you could thereby return the cup of coffee to its original state, and that you could then add some fresh cream to the newly-cleaned coffee and then enjoy its taste? Of course not. Yet that is what seekers attempt to do, usually for the entirety of their search.
Most try to take their corrupted "mind" and just add some new ideas and new thoughts and new beliefs to it, filtering out or abandoning some former concepts, thinking they then have a pure "mind," and then believing that they can just add some new concepts to replace the old. Such efforts will always prove to be futile. The entire contents of the cup must be discarded if you would fill the cup with that which can bring you something with a taste that can be enjoyed. There is no other way than the way of emptiness first, fullness second...no other way than the way of de-accumulation, period. Why?
Because all minds have been filled with curdled concepts. Ingredients have been added that formed a "mind" with contaminates which block the taste of sweetness and which guarantee that the relative experience will be marked by more and more sourness. Using denial ("I love my life") or spinning the truth ("My parents did a great job and never taught me anything that has not proven to be true") or even being blinded by dissociation will not change the facts that are observable to an objective witness. Yet so many want to hang onto their contaminated cup of coffee (and their contaminated "mind" and their contaminated existence) wanting to improve it, change it, make it the way they want it.
If you follow the path of reason, can you possibly keep the original cup of coffee and do anything to it that can make it enjoyable? No. It must tossed completely. Then, something with a taste of sweetness can come. When all learned ignorance is tossed, then everything that also accompanies ignorance will go. At that point, You will know that You Are as a drop dissolving into the ocean. You are At One with all.
You will have returned to your original nature ... Your original state ... merging into that ocean of awareness without aware-of-ness. Call the effect "bliss" if you like, but that is not a state of bliss. A state of bliss is a state in which the bliss is known ... is felt. That can only happen NOW, not "later" ... only "here," not "there." At the point when You begin to abide as that original state, then nothing is needed, nothing is desired, and the nothingness is relished. You will have tasted the sweet taste of the nectar of immortality;
You will have been healed via the ultimate medicine; You will have returned to that state prior to consciousness; You will have found the source of the seeds of consciousness; and You will abide as That Which Is What Can Make Stability Possible rather than as the consciousness which guarantees fluctuations and instability, dualistic up's and down's, and, yes, even chaos.
Maharaj said that you cannot "imagine the taste of pure water; you can only discover it by abandoning all flavorings." What is "flavoring" the relative existence among the non-Realized? Lies, concepts, false beliefs, attitudes, and all of the effects of programming and conditioning and learned ignorance. The flavoring also includes hatred; entrapment in the illusion of things thought to be personal; the false but unsavory sense of separation and emptiness with nothing to provide a manifestation of fullness; fears; unmet desires; anger; judgment; unmet expectations; fighting; war; arrogance; and-relatively speaking-the breaking of relationships. In short, concepts and duality.
The essence is that which is "the root, the foundation, the timeless and spaceless possibility" of what is called during the manifestation "all experience." What seekers would taste is the sweetness of the essence, but they are trying to taste it indirectly by clinging either to body-mind-personality identification or to religious or spiritual personas or to some elevated notions about the value of consciousness.
Maharaj taught that the natural and original state as understood by the Realized "tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss." He pointed out that to know the sweetness, You must taste it. Its sweetness cannot be otherwise understood. Here, the circumstance is not unlike that of a tour guide taking you to a vineyard for a wine tasting. Here, You Are guided to "The Vineyard of the Absolute" where the sweetest tastings take place. Here, if you complete a seven-step "journey," the tour will end with a savoring of the only nectar that is Real. Few can complete the "trip" alone since they are blocked by the obstacles of distortion and delusions and illusions.
To that end, Maharaj spoke of the "distortions and impurities" of the mind. He did not say they need to be replaced with something else. He said they must be "removed." Just as the coffee is ruined by the impurities of the cream, so the relative existence is ruined by the impurities of the mind. In each case, the impurities block the enjoyment of the tasting. The ruined cup of coffee must be discarded in order for the cup to be filled with that which can provide the taste that would be tasted; similarly, the mind must be discarded if any sweet taste to the relative existence is to added ... if the ocean is to enter the drop.
Currently, the taste is being ruined by impurities. The cup that You Are must be emptied first if it is ever to be filled with all that provides the taste of sweetness that is possible during the manifestation. To solve either the problem with the ruined coffee or the problem with the ruined existence, all must be tossed so that the original state of emptiness can return and so that a pleasant fullness can happen. Empty, the coffee cup can be filled with that which brings joy. Empty, the person can be filled with the Realization that brings joy. Empty, the ocean can slip into the drop.
In Advaitin terms, allowing the drop to dissolve into the ocean results when (A) the sense of separation goes, when (B) the awareness of the unicity comes, and when (C) the sense of being "different from" and "more special than" goes. Then the fullness of the essence slips in, along with the perfect and unshakable understanding of the "I AM THAT; I AM." Why?
Because at that point, the essence and the substance will have combined. The eternal and the transitory are ironically (but nevertheless surely) One. Even as the Am-ness continues, it knows it is THAT and it abides as THAT. Suddenly the senseless "world" makes sense in that its senselessness no longer triggers any surprise regarding the fact that it is senseless or regarding the fact that the adult masses really do live as if six years old.
No longer does a witnessing of the evidence prompt any shock at the degree of widespread insanity, so no longer in there entrapment in judgment when the results of ignorance are seen to manifest over and over and over again. There is witnessing and understanding. Suddenly, all of the ignorance and nonsense and immaturity and insanity make sense in light of the ignorant and nonsensical and immature and insane ways that persons are exposed to via cultures and programmers and conditioners and domesticators. Peace, therefore, manifests as beauty is seen beyond the abject darkness and the pervasive ignorance.
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FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK:
CHAPTER ONE
(The Introduction and The Rationale)
Why is it that the peace and harmony and happiness that Maharaj referenced cannot manifest if there is a "mind" (which he reported he no longer had after Realization) Consider the implication of the title of the book, "There's No Such Thing As 'Peace of Mind' (There Is Only Peace If You're Out Of Your Mind)". That is, there can only be peace and harmony and happiness if you are out from under the influence of what is taken to be "your mind" when, in fact, there is no such thing as "your mind."
What there is among the not-Fully-Realized is "their mind" ("their" referring to all persons who have taught you any belief or idea or concept that is presently stored in the section of the brain called "the mind"; thus, it is the content of "their mind" which has been passed down and transferred and is always taken in error to be "your mind." Why is it "their mind"? Because whatever is in it, you did not put there. "They" put it there. Who are "they"? The members of your family of origin, relatives, friends, teachers, religious and / or spiritual influencers, political leaders, and all who were in positions of "authority" during your childhood and who exposed you to their ideas and concepts and beliefs which you have adopted as "your own."
And the adoption of ideas and concepts and beliefs continues even now, into adulthood, for all that are not Realized. The "mind" has been filled with fiction; with beliefs that are based not at all in fact; with beliefs that have never been questioned; and with beliefs that have been accepted with no evidence at all but have been accepted on "blind faith" alone. Among the masses, the contents of the "mind" are now held in such esteem that people are willing to fight for those beliefs or - in some cases - even willing to die in a fight over those beliefs.
How has the "mind" evolved from its original purpose of storing survival-related, retrievable data to its present state of storing distorting, deluding, misleading, fooling, peace-robbing, harmony-destroying, happiness-blocking beliefs which in many cases amount to nothing but nonsense? The "mind" is a part of the brain where information can be stored and retrieved, originally used as a "constructive" tool for survival; now, it is a destructive force that drives nonsensical behaviors that are based in nonsensical thoughts generated by the "mind." What types of information are stored there? Ideas, concepts and beliefs, beliefs that were set in place by programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation.
The "mind" is an illusion because it is an area now used for storing an entire network of belief systems that are generated from the dreamed up "-ism's" that are valued by cultures and societies but that are based in non-facts rather than facts. It is the area of the brain that accepts beliefs such as "I am this" and "I am that," and the false personas that are mistakenly believed to identify who you are will subconsciously drive thoughts and words and deeds, removing all ability to choose and resulting in the non-Realized masses being driven by agendas that are stored in the fictitious "mind."
Moreover, the persons being driven have no clue at all about what the hidden agendas are and how they block any opportunity to be awake, aware, conscious, sane, reasonable, rational, and to be in charge of what they say, what they do, and how they traverse the relative existence. And all the while, they are convinced that their beliefs give their relative existence some worth and value and purpose and meaning and direction and power and control.
To see the actual effects of one's beliefs, to be able to look back objectively and to realize that every destructive and insane act was based in one or more beliefs, is to ease the transition away from belief-based ignorance and belief-based insanity and to pave the way for being free of living under the influence of "their" ideas and concepts and beliefs that have been driving "you" in ways that have not proven to be to your benefit at all - relatively speaking.
The transcendent (re-purified) consciousness gives no credibility to concepts or ideas or attitudes (i.e., beliefs). It understands the unicity; conversely, the conceptual consciousness erroneously accepts beliefs and takes the perceived multiplicity to be real. The transcendent consciousness, being free of delusion and illusion, allows for the abidance as the Absolute. Then, even the concepts offered by Advaitins will have been transcended. Years and years of the accumulated mental and emotional and spiritual garbage of the culture can be tossed ... and tossed without concern, without dread, without any sense of loss. Later, it will be realized that it wasn't even tossed because there is no "tosser."
The garbage actually just faded away after its value was finally questioned and seen to be worthless as a result of its senseless content. Yet note how much the ego-defense mechanism of arrogance (which protects the illusory "I") hates any suggestion that would devalue all of the knowledge-all of the learned ignorance-that has been accumulated throughout a relative existence and stored in what is called a "mind."
The content of all of the books offered by the author provide pointers that - in the end - are nothing more than thorns that can be used to remove thorns, scalpels that can excise the cancerous, Ultimate Sickness within the "mind" wherein the main problem is centered. Value the conceptualized content of "your mind" and you will be attracted to the contents of "their contaminated mind" and you will then attach firmly to all of the bastardized content of "their minds."
A house cannot begin to be refreshed until one takes out ALL of the garbage, and the space which houses the consciousness cannot be refreshed - that is, restored to sanity - unless all of the garbage in the "mind" is removed. And only if all of the garbage is removed can peace and harmony and happiness manifest and fill that newly-re-purified space. Such is the sane course of action regarding garbage. Only the arrogance of ego-states, which are revealed via the talk generated by conceptualized consciousness, would inspire efforts to try to give value and meaning to the garbage of cultures and dogma and movements and "-ism's."
The consideration is that you let fade away all of the garbage-all of the concepts and beliefs and learned ignorance-and be free of the effects of the concepts-and-beliefs-laden consciousness; then You'll merely witness the AS IF living as it happens, without attachment. Yet that AS IF living can happen only after the body and "mind" and the last of any assumed roles all fade away. Therein lies the challenge since the body and "mind" and personality are the very illusions that take the consciousness and "the mind" to be so worthwhile.
So what must a seeker be alert to as he / she listens for the re-purified consciousness to speak? Each must develop a detector that can differentiate between (a) that which emanates from the transcendent consciousness as opposed to (b) what is heard when the concept-and-belief burdened consciousness engages in "mind-speak." The sages have taught for thousands of years that what is real cannot be named, so that which is named cannot be real, and nothing is more steeped in the duality of conceptual consciousness than what one has named "my beliefs."
In the absence of blocked consciousness, there could not be any "Believer" vs. "Non-Believer" duality, and there could be no notion among "Believers" that they are better than and smarter than and holier than "Non-Believers." There could be no impressions and no misperceived memories and no "mind" and attachment to "doing things a certain way because they have always been done"; there could be no learned ignorance and there could be is no mental intoxication or emotional intoxication or spiritual intoxication. There could be nothing unnatural and there could be nothing considered "supernatural."
There could be no assumed personas so there could be neither ego nor egotism. There would be no thinking, so there would most assuredly be no magical thinking of the type that assigns "supernatural cause" to naturally-occurring events. There could be no attachment to chaos or to trying to control.
What could be, instead, is peace and harmony and happiness and stability.
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WHEN REALITY IS OVERLAID ON THE RELATIVE
The summative statement of the Advaita teachings - "I AM THAT; I AM" - generates much confusion. Post-Realization, am I THAT only? Does everything formerly associated with the relative end? Is the relative discounted and does abidance happen in a manner that is totally dissociated from all relative happenings?
Not according to Nisargans. Here, the point is that post-Realization, Reality will be overlaid upon the relative and the understanding that I AM THAT; I AM will continue for the entire manifestation.
The summative statement most assuredly does not imply that the AM-ness must be forfeited or abandoned. What is abandoned is identifying solely with the AM-ness.
Then, there is a return to the original simplicity that marked the relative existence of humans for millions of years ... a relative existence that was a most simple existence prior to efforts by controlling men and women to overlay supernatural concepts onto the previously all-natural existence.
It has been asked of visitors in satsang and at retreats conducted here, "Are you using your recovery program, your religious activities, your spiritual exercises, your philosophy, or your ideology not to overlay Reality on the relative but in order to try to escape reality?"
Among Nisargans, there is but one "justification" for completion of the complete "journey" to Full Realization: to overlay Reality upon the relative existence; that is, to stop trying to live in an unnatural / supernatural fashion.
The result of Realization is that the Absolute is overlaid onto the Am-ness so that the no-consciousness, no-belief, no-concept, no-duality awareness-without- awareness-of peace of the Absolute can manifest during the manifestation; thus, "I AM THAT; I AM."
Often seekers say, "You speak of overlaying Reality upon the relative. What happens differently during the relative existence after Realization is 'overlaid upon it'?"
To abide as one's true nature ...
1. is to understand that the Am-ness Is and that THAT Is;
2. is to reject the traits of the Am-ness as exist among the non-Realized;
3. is to overlay on the Am-ness the traits of the Absolute; and, as a result of that overlaying,
4. is to abide for the remainder of the manifestation in the peace of those Absolute traits, including ...
... abidance with a sense of wholeness and complete-ness rather than a sense of being broken into many pieces (that is, abiding as the One rather than as the many roles that had been assigned or adopted);
... being contaminated no longer;
... being no longer driven by the effects of conditioning;
... being influenced no more by the effects of programming;
... being unlimited rather than limited;
... being certain and sure (but with legitimate grounds at this point);
... being unadulterated;
... being awake and aware;
... being in a state where, after having been made aware of THAT, no longer being occupied with THAT, or with searching, or with seeking, or with wanting to know;
... being free of all beliefs, including belief in any concept or idea;
... being free of identity;
... being free of thoughts;
... being absorbed into the silence;
... being fully stabilized;
... being unambiguous;
... being free;
... being light;
... being in a state where AS IF living happens, living AS IF anything in the relative matters, understanding that it does not, feeling without emoting, witnessing whatever happens in order to meet the basic needs of an organism without believing that there is some do-er involved in the process;
and then:
just ... being.
Overlay Truth onto the remainder of the relative existence and You will taste the sweetness and the lightness of being that are tasted by the Realized only. The content of this book will explain the ways and the means for those seeking Reality and seeking a relative existence steeped in both "reality" and Reality.
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THE RELATIVE RESULTS OF RETURNING TO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
The sages have discussed the negative impact of personality on the relative existence for ages. Is it any wonder why, after having seen the results of ego-defense mechanisms and personality defects that always accompany the assignment or assumption of personality? Thus, sages for ages have recommended to seekers that they take the steps to be free of personality.
The "goal" of non-duality pointers is always to move persons to a state of independence and stability, freed of all identification, including identification with the body and the mind and the personalities that generate chaos and fears and desire, often including the desire to control others. That freedom can never manifest as long as personality remains and is subconsciously driving all thoughts and words and actions.
How to go about that task of being free of personality? Maharaj said "...You should go back, reverse, to the source." He advised: "Follow the same path by which you came." Yet he also said at one point that only 1 in 100,000 would ever Realize Fully, later amended to one in 1,000,000 and eventually changed to the estimate that only one in 10,000,000 will ever Realize Fully. That was not a scientific, research-based estimate but an estimate based in observing the results after having dealt with thousands upon thousands of seekers.
If those odds are even partially accurate, then most seekers might ask, "Then why even try?" This book offers the answer. The author offers a seven-step "path" to follow in the process of "going back" and "reversing to the source" and "following the same 'path' by which you came," and what has been witnessed over the last 22 years is this:
among the 9000-10,000 or more with whom he has shared the non-duality message, those who only "traveled" as far as the fourth step (thus completing only about 60% of the complete "path" to Full Realization) nevertheless experienced significant shifts in perspective.
If seekers only reach the fourth step on the seven-step "path" that is laid out by this author, they will have reached the point where they might not know completely That Which They Are, but they will have reached the point where they do know what they are not. Of that, Maharaj said: "You need not know 'What You Are'. Enough to know what you are not."
After having seen the results of the personality disorders that follow the development of personality, and after having seen the relative effects of the assignment or assumption of personalities / personas as identities, is it not clear why the invitation has long been to at least "go back" as far as "The Child Ignorance Stage" / "The Child No-Knowing State"? If a seeker were to complete only that much of "the journey" and then abide in the resulting manner that is free of concepts and beliefs, free of a fiction-filled "mind," and free of the personalities that are at the root of all of the ignorance and chaos and mental disorders and insanity that plague the relative existence on this planet, then would it not make sense to "go back" at least that far?
So many say, "I just want to be happy." If they are honest, they will admit that the last time they were UNCONDITIONALLY happy was during that state. For those willing to return to that earlier condition that allowed for the enjoyment of unconditional happiness as long as the most basic needs of food and clothing and shelter were met, then the happiness which they seek can be found.
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WHAT BLISS IS AND WHAT BLISS IS NOT
How many seekers are frustrated by not having attained bliss? How many seekers think that they have failed or that their teacher has failed when what they believe to be bliss does not manifest or when they think that bliss comes on occasion but does not remain?
Those are the thoughts and beliefs of seekers who are at what my teacher called "the kindergarten level of spirituality." How many feel that their goal to become "perfectly spiritual, and thereby perfectly blissful" is being thwarted at every turn?
Maharaj said, "No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the 'I am'. The ambitions of the so-called Yogis are preposterous. A man's desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting for an everlasting personal bliss. The mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal."
Regularly, seekers who speak of "the darkness" and of higher levels of consciousness are told that there is no darkness and that there are no levels of consciousness.
The so-called "darkness" in which the non-Realized live is not really darkness but is merely an absence of light caused by the blockages that have accumulated, and the consciousness is merely consciousness that is either blocked from seeing accurately and from seeing truth or is not.
When so many blockages accumulate, then the light cannot penetrate and all seems dark, but that absence of witnessing the light does not mean that the light is not there. It is simply not observable because of a separation from the source of the light - either because the light has been blocked or because there is nothing available to reflect the light.
The higher level of understanding in regards to this topic is that (1) not only is "no ambition spiritual," nothing is spiritual; and (2) not only is "the mind a cheat" but the "mind" is actually as much an illusion as the darkness.
If the seeker would "find bliss," then the seeker must know what bliss is and what it is not. If one that is in kindergarten is sent to the store to buy the materials needed to build a "what-cha-ma-call-it," the kindergarten-age-child will not have the slightest clue about what he is seeking and neither will anyone else that he asks to help with finding everything required to build a "what-cha-ma-call-it."
The reason most never "find bliss" is that they are as mistaken about what bliss is and what bliss is not as persons are mistaken about what "the world" is and what it is not. This book offers a clarification.
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THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
What readers have said about the novel:
"Henderson has created an entirely new genre. This is a 'Personal Growth' and 'Self-Help' book in a mystery-romance format."
From Dr. R.F. Maley, 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."
"I had an epiphany!"
"I've read a lot of spiritual or self-improvement books that are merely expository. This book gives the reader something that is completely experiential."
"This book freed me. I was locked into a state of self-inquiry and playing 'helper' and 'savior' to others, and that was taking a toll on me that I could not see. Freedom now is freedom from those roles and from seeking to know more and from letting others 're-program' me. I'm at peace now, seeing I didn't need more knowledge and more programming but needed freedom from past programming in order to purify my mind."
"The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders is a 'wonderful Slaughterhouse for the Sacred Cows' of this culture. It should have been opened for business years ago. I felt like I was living with the weight of the world on my shoulders, when the real burden was from carrying around all those cows in my mind."
"This book showed me that I can reach Part Four in the novel 'the Peace state' only if I give up all the things I was so proud of and that I was willing to fight about: my city, my state, my country, my leaders, my group, my religion, my beliefs which were really their beliefs, my parents' values, all the 'my stuff' vs. 'their stuff.' What a lesson! I can be at peace if I give up the concepts I fought for!"
"I found out why I felt empty, even when I had it all."
"As with William Shakespeare, that writer of tragedies, comedies and histories whose quotes introduce each chapter, this work uncovers the tragedy of fighting, whether personal, national, or international; the comedy of the lives lived by conditioned or programmed humans; the history of mankind's constant state of emotional intoxication around fears and love; and beyond all of that, the author offers a vision of an idyllic life that once was, and can be attained again, one individual at a time."
"The phrase 'You can't judge a book by its cover' has never had more relevance than when used to describe this novel. While the cover of The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders points to the novel-within-a-novel set in Venice, Italy (and while the lovers shown on the cover do play a central role in the larger story) this work is no simple murder mystery or love story."
"The work is a no-holds-barred challenge to those who would discriminate against others with different beliefs or along racial, gender, economic, and religious (or no-religion) lines. It is a call for tolerance and peace and is a step-by-step guide for attaining such peace on an individual basis."
"At a time when more and more cases of clergy-perpetrated physical abuse are coming to light, this book at once questions the practices of modern religions while endorsing the TRUE advaitic teachings of Christ. It is a book that sympathizes with those who have been harmed at the hands of so-called religious people, not just physically but also emotionally, psychologically, and mentally. Then the book offers something hopeful for those who are yet seeking the peace that they did not, and cannot, find in the venue of the church."
"I loved the 'Novel Within the Novel' love story. For anyone who let that first love get away or who had given up on ever finding True Love, this book provides a spark of hope and is a two-fold how-to manual on love: how to break relationships and how to make relationships."
"You've heard 'It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry', The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders really made me laugh and made me cry."
"If you've ever said, I don't even know who I am, or if you have ever asked, What is this all about? or Where did I really come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of all this in between? then you have a source that can give you the answer. This book is it."
"I only thought I had a social consciousness before reading this book."
"Gratefully, I'll never be the same after having read this book. I now know Who I Am, and that has set me free. Thank you."
"I thought I was buying a murder-mystery; the further I read, I realized I was reading a great love story; later, I realized I was reading as insightful a psychological-novel as I've ever read; as I moved further along, I realized that I had a book of sociology that captured the entire life-span of those of us who are 'baby-boomers'; by the end, I wasn't sure what I had read, but I knew it was something beyond anything I would ever read again."
"If freedom from abuse and relief from trauma come only after seeing abusers for what they are, after standing up to them, and after shouting, 'No!' in order to finally be free, then this work might well be the author's Declaration of Independence."
SYNOPSIS OF THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS (The First in the Kirk Wildman Series)
The devastation from his encounters with a group of Aryans, who stole his family, fortune, and future, finally eases after Kirk Wildman's reunion with his college sweetheart. Their Venetian holiday inspires a novella, The Bridge of Sighs, detailing love rekindled. Then, tragedy strikes again. On Kirk's ensuing journey, some find a murder-mystery, pursuing his son's killers across Europe, Africa and Belgium, exposing diamond thieves and terrorists along the way. Others discover romance, realizing with Kirk the psychology behind obstacles that destroy relationships and overcoming them to find true love. Others join Kirk's quest for peace and wholeness, transcending religion and spirituality (via Native American perspectives and Far Eastern non-duality) into Reality. Finally, some accompany Kirk on a philosophical passage, transcending pain and healing, shifting beyond the tiring games and phony images and finally settling into the perfect peace that comes after awakening to the truth of Who We Really Are.
EXCERPTS FROM THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
KIRK WILDMAN ON . . .
Inconstancy in Relationships
She admitted that she had prayed every morning for a year that he would die. It's not right, Kirk thought, that District Attorneys will only prosecute solicitation for murder if God is NOT the one being solicited. Solicit a man to kill your husband, Go to jail. Solicit God to kill your husband, You skate. What a rip-off, huh, Compelling, also, the way things can shift: from stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to spouse to enemy to . . . corpse, if her God, typically more available to her beck and call, had allowed her to have her way.
Tolerance
. . . His lesson in Applied Tolerance came during time spent with Grandmother and his grandfather. They modeled such tolerance perfectly. The grandfather went to church every Sunday, serving as the choir director; Grandmother went into the woods every Sunday, exercising some kind of communion of her own. They never questioned the other's practice; they never challenged the other's beliefs; they never tried to change the other. They did what they did separately and felt just fine; and they did what they did together and felt just fine. Applied Tolerance. No judging. Total acceptance. Unconditional Love.
His Spiritual Quest
In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he'd been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he'd been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life's Meaning, he'd been communion'd, Om'd, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram'd, accepted, rejected, Mu'd, and yoga'd . . .
"Life"
Some days, the pain in the body or in the mind seems to be so great that one must rest in order to heal. On awakening, one can live in peace as if all is well. So it is with what some call 'life': PAIN, HEALING, AWAKENING, and PEACE.
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THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
SYNOPSIS
From the 1950's through the 1990's, baby-boomers saw that many famous deaths worldwide had never received thorough investigation. Early television showed variety shows, but later TV exposed scandals in government, church, and corporations. Politicians, starlets, billionaires, and royals made news involving sex, sin, death, and murder. But what if all those deaths had been orchestrated by one group? And what if an Italian mobster on his deathbed became willing to expose the group? When Kirk Wildman travels with Marie to southern Italy to conduct 'a routine interview' with that Mob killer, they stumble blindly into the crossfire between one ready to expose a group's past, and that group's willingness to kill any who interfere with their plans to trigger World War III.
"Directors of Wars struck me as 'The Da Vinci Code' meets 'The Most Mysterious Deaths of the Last Fifty Years'." -M E. Tran, New Pathways
Excerpt from The Board of Directors of Wars
Chapter One
September, Current Year
Melito di Porto Salvo, Italia
The dying patient's circumstances included the elements of any beauty and beast story, the view of the Mediterranean Sea from his window providing the beauty and the clinic supplying the beast by way of a nurse more dedicated to killing than to healing. The early morning rays of the sun penetrated the overall dimness of the room in a linear, diagonal fashion. The glow entered the ground floor window obliquely since the ancient structure faced south, looking beyond the beige beach and across the azure sea. The open window, recessed several inches into the stone wall of the earth-tone building, also admitted the earliest stirrings of the day's first breeze. The flimsy cloth curtains with their faded embroidery trim, originally pure white, now matched more closely the beige stones on the outer walls of the health center. The patient twisted to his opposite side from the position he'd only assumed moments before, enabling him to see the curtains fluttering more to the horizontal, reaching into the clinic room toward him, toward the man moaning in his physical anguish and his mental misery.
Totally delusional, he saw no fluttering curtains but murdering men instead, all climbing through the open window and intent on killing him. In his salad days, he stole his way into rooms surreptitiously and robbed the life of his many victims. Now, the thieves of life would steal away that most priced possession from him, and he knew they numbered his remaining days with single digits. With the faulty reasoning of his advanced age made more unclear by the effects of slow-working but fatal drugs, curtains could easily become killers in such a declining mind.
The treatments administered by the nurse had rendered him nauseous, paranoid, and suicidal. If not sleepy, he suffered an impaired memory; if not forgetful, he felt dizzy and slurred his speech. In a heightened state of paranoia, he looked back toward the window. As the curtains fell, then rose again in his direction, he screamed forth a blood-curdling shout, certain that they had found him, convinced that they had finally come to finish him.
A black shout of "Help! Help me!" exploded from the sufferer.
At her station only twenty feet away from his door, Nurse Lucia Milotto turned two more pages of her Italian movie star magazine before even lifting her eyes from the pages. She looked toward the room from which the shouts rose again.
"Help me! God, somebody help me!"
Lucia, ignoring all except the magazine on the table before her, read slowly as the bold print headline of an article faded into a smaller font. As her eyes followed the trail of words onto the next page, she folded the magazine in half and leaned back in her chair to continue her reading and to continue ignoring the patient's pleas for help.
A man pulling a wheeled stand with an attached IV asked Ms. Milotto if she intended to respond, in order to "Shut up Vidotta, once and for all." She smiled, but over his words, or over the possibility, Either way, a palpable sense of death hung in the air of the clinic as the dark noise from Vidotta's room filled the space.
The shouts grew louder, finally forcing Lucia to act. She approached a storage room, fumbled through a handful of keys, inserted one slowly into the lock, and once inside reached to a top shelf. Removing a small, unmarked vial, she inserted the needle of a previously-used syringe into the rubber membrane atop the bottle, and withdrew the inner plunger of the hypodermic to siphon a liquid into the body of the syringe and fill it completely. Locking the door behind her, she moved across the sullied tiles on the floor of the corridor and entered the room with its ethereal curtains, fingering their way toward Giorgio Vidotta and reaching in a ghostly fashion for his neck, so he thought.
Hearing the shuffling of Nurse Milotto's feet, Vidotta rolled back to his left; his screams intensified as she advanced. More than his dread of the deadly apparitions at the window, he feared his fate at the hands of the lethal Lucia. His screams for help transitioned into screams of "No! No! No! Stop her!" He strained against the leather straps that coursed from wrist to bed frame, drawing taut their slack that allowed for bodily shifts but restricted any further movement. She ignored the putrid smell that rose from a bed gone far too long without a changing of urine-soaked sheets.
Walking past the window, she looked beyond the fluttering curtains as their movements made visible occasional flashes of the glittering beach in the foreground and the sparkly blues beyond. She paused, enjoying the sight of the Mediterranean Sea with the pale blue sky above and the soft, white puffs of clouds suspended over the azure waters. She treasured the waters and longed to sail across their indigo surface, wishing for the presence of the one she loved and longing to drift silently in his boat, in his arms. Vidotta's screeches cooled the imagined heat of the combination of her lover's passion and the Mediterranean sun. His howling whisked her back into the coldness of a room chilled by the breath of death that lingered in the sunless shadows in the corners.
He shifted his body to impede access to his buttocks but Nurse Lucia grabbed one of the straps and wrenched it up hard, easily forcing the frail, emaciated body to flip to its opposite side and face away from her. The shrieks that followed exceeded in volume all his preceding cries, and the trained eye of any careful observer would note that the needle penetrated neither buttock but fell painfully in between. As she departed, she looked back to see the man writhing in pain in his off-white metal bed, the one with a brown wooden crucifix mounted over its head rail, revealing another also in torment and pain. She smiled and closed the door. Oh yes, she thought. The pain, the suffering. It's all so good!
By the time Giorgio Vidotta's moaning had finally subsided some fifteen minutes later, Nurse Milotto had long resumed her reading. One would now have to stand in his room to hear Giorgio's mumblings, trying to warn Giovanni and regretting their part in operations that involved "Cinyras II" and especially "Galatea."
Excerpt from The Board of Directors of Wars
Chapter Five
March 1, 1960
Mexico City, Mexico
As the seven men entered the private room in the back section of a small hotel in the historical district of Mexico City, two other men rose from their seats as if in homage. The men in the column did not look toward the duo that remained on their feet but marched instead toward the chairs arranged behind a table covered in linens. Actually, to fulfill a request for a dais, management had pushed several smaller tables together and covered them to create the appearance of one long table. As the seven each stood between table and chairs, the three on the left, the three on the right, and the two to his front looked directly at the man standing at table center.
He lowered his head, found a serving of cheap champagne poured into a glass intended for serving highballs instead, and raised it for a toast. Holding that pose, he looked left, then right, then to the front. Satisfied that all had assumed the same stance, he lifted his glass a few inches higher and explained with an accent not of Mexico, "Mars was the God of War. He preceded the army into battle. Like our namesake, we shall precede the armies of the world, for they must contact us, and do business with us before they can go to their wars; therefore, to the success of 'Operation Mars.' From this day forth, the first day of March, that month named for our God of War, we shall designate as the High Holiday of our assemblage." Obviously, he had searched for and found the label that henceforth would refer to their group. While some had spoken of a Komplott, the founders decided that the idea of a group gathering for conspiratorial purposes carried a negative connotation, so the chairman evidently had found a softer term. "Assemblage" they would use. He continued, "We shall meet annually and share wondrous reports of our success in engineering beneficial terminations that will foster hostile climates across the entirety of this globe, manufacturing atmospheres which we pray may perpetually prove conducive to everlasting, international war. Prost!"
"Cheers!" one shouted. "Yeah, salute, dere," another added. And with that, they drew their glasses to their mouths in unison in a toast to the opportunities for profiting from war.
This novel blends the non-dual message with an objective look at the effects that big business, big government, and big religion has had over the last half century.
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LESSONS IN NON-DUALITY FROM TRAVELS IN SOUTH AFRICA
In what was the spring of 2011 in the U.S., the fall of 2011 in South Africa's southern hemisphere local, the author was invited to visit Cape Town the environs.
Daytime hours spent discussing Advaita and the enneagram also allowed time to visit what was seen to be some of the most beautiful locales on the planet along the southern coast roads; some of the most poignant locales, such as the prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent years breaking up large stones into small stones alongside his fellow prisons;
and locations that could be used as a Medicine Place for those seeking healing in the solitude. Furthermore, there was at every turn something that was witnessed which in itself presented one after another pointers that are relevant for Advaitins.
This book offers some of those pointers that came during travels in South Africa. As an added feature, the book also offers some enlightening but seldom-heard pointers from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and quotations from Floyd Henderson on:
the body; on the false "I"; on role-playing; on personas; on ego-states; on personality; on false identities' on illusions; on "self"-delusion; on "The Drama of the Lie"; on "the mind";
on religious and / or spiritual ego-states; on the child ignorance stage; on Subject-Object Witnessing; on Pure Witnessing / True Self; on the Absolute; on moving back to the Absolute;
on Beingness and / or Non-Beingness; on No Desires and No Fears; on The Unicity; on Love; on Nisarga Yoga; on Natural Living; On creation and creators; on Meditation; and on the Nothingness.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIRST STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the second step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SECOND STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the second step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE THIRD STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the third step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FOURTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the fourth step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIFTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the fifth step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SIXTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the sixth step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SEVENTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
There are seven steps from identification with the false "I" (or "I's") to abidance as the awareness ... as the Absolute. The essays in this book discuss the seventh step on the seven-step path the Realization.
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SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)
A Note to the Readers
On 9/11/2001, a group of Islamic fundamentalists commandeered two commerical airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, explaining that Allah had told them to attack the Jewish and Christian infidels influencing the world economy from those buildings.
SO THE GOD OF ISLAM WAS FOR ATTACKING THE TOWERS
Fundamentalist Judaeo-Christian minister Jerry Falwell disagreed, explaining that the towers were knocked down as God's punishment for the proliferation of non-Christians, gays, and feminists in the U.S.
SO THE GOD OF JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY WAS FOR ATTACKING THE TOWERS
A Fundamentalist Muslim minister, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attack said that God approved the attack since "if Allah had not wanted the Towers knocked down, they could not have been knocked down."
SO THE GOD OF ISLAM OK'D THE ATTACK ON THE TOWERS THAT KILLED 2800 PEOPLE
A reporter asked the Fundamentalist, Born-Again President George Bush if he had talked with his father (a former president) before attacking Iraq and dropping U.S. bombs on Baghdad. Bush pointed upward and said that he had talked to "The Father." During that talk between Bush and God, God evidently gave the president the go-ahead to drop bombs on a city and kill thousands of women, children, and men in Iraq. In announcing the beginning of the attack on Iraq to the people of the U.S., Bush invoked God's blessing on U.S. soldiers and their war effort.
SO THE JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN GOD OK'D KILLING IRAQIS
There was a time when sanity ruled the earth. Sane living is living that preserves life. Animals, and later humans, did what was required to survive. It was "Job #1." Preserving life ranked supreme. Animals and humans fought but seldom to the death, and neither was ever self-destructive. Killing, when it happened, was about survival, and "self-destructive behavior" would not enter the jargon until religion appeared and a Medicine Man/priest convinced his followers that suicide, sacrifice, and murder were precious acts as far as the gods are concerned. (Details will follow.)
How did some people shift from that sane mindset to believing in a Supreme Being that sanctions self-destruction along with mass killings? How did some end up with a thought-life that could explain that a Supreme Being directed such an attack because of the sex habits or religious preference of the people being attacked? How did we get from living spiritually (in a sane and simple fashion) to living religiously (hearing a god instructing his people to attack, maim, kill, bomb and destroy)? How did we get to the point that humans believe it is better to die than to live?
The book SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY offers the answers by looking at the benefits of spiritual living vs. living in a state of religious intoxication.
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IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (AND WHY KNOWING IT SETS YOU FREE)
Question: "If it's all bullshit, then doesn't that mean that this book is bullshit, too?"
Floyd: "Of course it is, after it assists you in getting the freedom and peace and sanity that come when you see that it's all bullshit. My grandmother once used a thorn to remove a thorn from my palm. Then, she threw away both thorns. My teacher used the same analogy: use the book to spot the bullshit, then toss all the concepts away."
Before beginning, the reader is invited to consider the two ways that the term "It's All Bullshit" can be delivered:
1. One way is by emphasizing the last word: "It's all BULLSHIT!", usually delivered with anger as an exclamation; or
2. By emphasizing the middle word in the phrase: "It's ALL bullshit." In the second case, the approach used in this book, the point is offered - as a simple statement of realization and without any anger - that all concepts and ideas and beliefs that are set forth by cultures and their institutions are self-serving, propagandizing, manipulative assertions that care not at all about accuracy or truth or fact.
This book offers examples from the most popular sources of bullshit and fabrications to support the pointer that it really is ALL bullshit and that only by finally knowing that can one be free.
Next, is it possible that a person in authority could dream up the most outrageous, absurd, unbelievable story imaginable? Is it also possible that the authority figure could then present that outrageous, absurd, unbelievable story to people conditioned to listen to authority figures? Is it possible that those people trained to listen to authority figures could then believe an outrageous, absurd, and totally unbelievable story?
Consider this outrageous, absurd, and totally unbelievable story: there is a man who lives in a region that humans can't get to. From there, he spends his year overseeing an operation that manufactures gifts for children. But there's a catch. He also oversees all children in the world, and he only gives gifts to the good children. Bad children get nothing or they get bad gifts. "And he's been watching you," they say, "and he knows if you've been good or bad." Creepy, huh? They go on: "A man you can't see can see you 24/7. He knows everything, and he can be everywhere at any time. He is omniscient and omnipresent. More than that, he delivers those gifts once a year in a 24-hour period, worldwide. He rides in a reindeer-drawn sleigh, and the team leader has a red nose that shines like a bulb. Furthermore, he enters homes through chimneys though he is overweight by three times his normal size, a result of eating some two billion cookies in a twenty-four hour period every year."
But there's a snag in the process of trying to sell this story, even to one who is willing to listen to the authority figures. The snag is, when the child gets away from that authority, he/she might takes some time to think about the fact that there's no way that story could be true; then, the child asks other authority figures about the tale. Now the only way the child is going to continue to buy into the story is if most of the people in her/his culture claim that the original storyteller was telling the truth. In other works, we buy into unbelievable bullshit when (a) a respected or feared authority figure tells us something and then (b) the majority in our culture tell us the same thing. The lie becomes truth. We have bought into bullshit.
At that point, we'll fight if anyone questions our beliefs or insults our authority figures. And even as we grow and have more experiences and hear other versions and are exposed to the facts, we hate the notion of giving up such a rewarding bullshit story. If we are promised that we'll get a reward if we just have faith in their story, who wouldn't want to try to do everything possible to hang on to the faith we have in them and their tale? I remember taking three years to finally absorb the "There's No Santa Reality."
Worse, when authority figures admit their unbelievable story was a lie and that we shouldn't any longer believe in that unbelievable story they told us, they immediately tell us their next fanciful story but say, "OK, now I'm telling you the truth. That bullshit story was symbolic of The Real Deal. The Real Deal is that there really is a man who has been watching you. He lives in a region that humans can't get to. He's a male God, actually, and he's been watching you and knows if you've been good or bad. A man you can't see can see you 24/7." Still creepy, huh? They continue: "There's a male that you can't see but he can see you. He knows everything, and he can be everywhere at any time. He is omniscient and omnipresent, and he'll give you an eternal gift if you're been good; however, he'll give you eternal punishment if you've been bad. So that symbolic Santa story was just a pretend-version of The Real Deal. Now you are to believe us because we were lying before but we're not lying this time." And billions and billions have done just that. Amazing, isn't it, if you think about it?
And do you remember how traumatizing and anxiety-ridden we were, wondering if we were going to get the Good label and get a reward? And that struggle to get the Good label and avoid the Bad label plagued us tens of thousand of times in our homes and tens of thousands of times in our schools and tens of thousands of times in our community and institutions. And two decades of that kind of conditioning sets us up to do the same in adulthood, trying to get a spouse to give us the Good label and reward us, trying to get a Boss to give us a Good label and reward us, and trying to please that Male God so we can get a reward from Him one day.
This is not a book of advice. It is not a book that offers answers. Only the egotistical and arrogant offer answers. It is a book about false ideas and wrong beliefs that lead to fighting and restriction and worry and anxiety. It is a book about the way they conditioned us and about the effects their programming has on us to this day. It is a book that will offer considerations and provide an opportunity to step back and objectively think about everything you've ever been told by authority figures. Some of it might be true. Fine. But some of it might be bullshit. I invite you to investigate it all.
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