A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: UPCOMING POST: After the completion of the 11-part series presently being offered, the next series will be entitled: "EXPECTATIONS and DESIRES: The Impediments That Block Any Chance for Sanity, Wisdom, and Full Realization to Manifest."
To continue: it was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: Without any efforts on your part, this physical body functions. The blood pumped by the heart circulates through the body. The lymphatic system removes toxins or stores them in tissues to minimize their negative impact. The senses function -- eyes “see”, the ears “hear”, the mouth “tastes”, etc. Old or damaged cells are broken down and eliminated; new cells form. All happens naturally and efficiently. The same is true for the massive pear tree outside the window of the new cottage.
With no conscious volition, naturally and perfectly, the tree grows, lives, and produces leaves, bark, and pears. In this series, You have been encouraged to shift Your view, to perceive with the gaze of eternity rather than with a limited body-bound perspective. Look at the functioning of the physical body and the pear tree, and see that from the non-dual viewpoint, every body, every living creature, every tree, every plant, EVERYTHING functions naturally, spontaneously, effortlessly. This is the already present reality. Maharaj explains it this way:
"Yes, I appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong."
Do not make the mistake of believing that this functioning is bound up with a choice on the part of the limited individual. Do not imagine that because you feel some sense of “doership” that this makes your self-volitional actions a reality. All IS functioning spontaneously – whether “you” are Realized or not. What difference does it make then, you may ask?
The reality is that the person identified with the conditioned or corrupted consciousness, and with a limited range of perception, suffers. Ego-bound, the “separate” individual is deeply affected by the “slings and arrows of fortune”. The instability of a persona-driven existence creates unbelievable stress. The bondage of separation; the intense pain of feeling separate or cut off from this naturally functioning flow of life – these are part of the package for the Non-Realized.
The Advaitan Teachings are the Ultimate Medicine; the antidote to suffering. The LOVE whisperings are those words that call to You, that remind You to identify with Your True state. This return to the state beyond knowing awakens the intuitive understanding in which the functioning of the Unicity is directly perceived. The intuitive sense of THAT – what is form-less, limit-less, beyond conception, prior to birth and death, beyond description – when overlaid on the relative provides this view of eternity, this non-dual state, and the end of suffering.
Does this mean the end of the ups and downs of the relative existence? Of course not. Life continues, the so-called individual continues to play the part cast.
The spiritual chocolate-box picture of the Realized existence accompanied by saffron robes and angelic harps is a myth. However, in the total absence of individual volition, the role simply plays itself out – without the blood, sweat and tears that characterize the emotion-filled ego-driven, pre–Realized state. Some days the sun shines; other days it rains – with Realization these differences of weather are entirely irrelevant. Again, as Maharaj explains:
"You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, nor regrets. My mind is free of thoughts, for there are no desires to slave for."
For many seekers, to abandon the network of desires and fears seems impossible. Remember – even the desire for freedom, for Realization is a desire. Even the fear of not reaching the Realized state is a fear. The total absence of selfhood, the dissolution of ALL desires and fears, may seem an impossible task. Have courage. Allow the intuitive knowing, the sense of trust in the functioning of the totality, these whispers of LOVE to embrace You. There is nothing to be afraid of. When everything is given, what is left to desire? Hear how Maharaj expresses this:
"If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear."
Let us end today with a series of questions that may point to where you are clinging to some falsehood:
• Are You aware of the natural functioning of the physical body, the physiological process that take place without your intellectual understanding, volition, or self-directed planning?
• Are You able to discern that You are not this physical body -- that it functions spontaneously and the body-mind apparatus is not Who You Are?
• Are You aware of the natural functioning of the natural environment, the functioning of everything in nature that takes place without your intellectual understanding, volition, or self-directed planning?
• Are You aware that the natural environment occurs within You, that You are not a body-mind apparatus located in the world?
• Are You in touch with the intuitive sense of the non-dual functioning of Noumenon and Phenomenon: I AM THAT; I AM?
• With this View of the functioning of the Unicity, are You able to abandon the final conceptual image of Realization, and the remaining desires and fears that You are clinging to?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 November 2013
Bound at the level of the spiritual ego, there will likely be attempts to stabilize the clear water in the pool by keeping the muddy particles at bay. Since personas are always in motion, “blowing their trumpets” in one way or another, these attempts never succeed, although they may give the appearance of succeeding for brief moments. So for periods, the person bound at the third step may experience feeling “at one with”, “spiritual”, “connected with their higher self”, “living my spiritual vision”, etc.
However, these experiences will inevitably be followed by feeling “out of connection with”, “ego-bound”, and “unspiritual." In other words, the spiritually-bound persona is still churning about in the water, even if the churning thoughts and actions are believed to be "spiritual". By contrast, what happens when the so-called "person" in the pool simply stops moving and churning about? Eventually, all the muddy particles sink to the bottom of the pool, and the already present pristine, clear water is revealed.
The LOVE whisperings of Advaita are simple, yet few (less than one in a million) will truly understand, since few will have the wisdom to let go of the churning of mind-based activity; few will be prepared to drop this predilection with constantly stirring up the water in the pool; and even fewer will have the inclination to drop what is personality-driven and rest in the still silence, in the deep blue shade without words and thought.
A fundamental tenet of Advaita is that in the non-volitional state, the essence of pure consciousness is activated, and the intuitive understanding dissolves the filters of misidentification so the truth can be directly known. This “process” occurs in silence, and even during the temporary appearance of the subject-object, Teacher-seeker “relationship”, the seeker will be provided with pointers to take into silent consideration.
[Notice how often persons fool themselves into thinking that they spend substantial amounts of time in silent contemplation when, in reality, this so-called “silence” is characterized by: talking, preaching, listening to music, singing, chanting prayers, singing hymns, thinking; in other words, churning up the water in the pool through self-directed activity.]
The non-dual state is that in which what APPEARS to be differentiated is directly perceived as a Unicity; where the constant movement or flow between Noumenon and Phenomenon is directly perceived as ONE, as described accurately in the statement I AM THAT; I AM. The dark blue shade, the silence of contemplation, is a state without “eyes”, without differentiating borders.
Here, it is possible for that false sense of the flavoring of individuality to dissolve. Language and thought (which arises from language) differentiate and divide this relative world into a multiplicity. While still in the bondage of identification, the seeker will perceive himself as a separate subject in a world of objects. The structures of language and thought reinforce this false view.
The unconditioned and undifferentiated silence of non-volitional action is what dissolves this false sense of separation. The fears, for example, of “becoming a robot” are ungrounded and absurd. The Teachings point to the total, radical elimination of self-identity. In the absence of self-identity, there is no one: no volitional person, no robot, no spiritual being. Instead, post-Realization, there is simply spontaneous functioning. As Maharaj explains:
"The Absolute nounemality manifests itself through millions of forms which are created and destroyed every moment, and in this spontaneous functioning there is no place at all for the notion of any entity. Therefore, any action taken based on the notion that you are an autonomous, independent entity seeking 'liberation' will only lock you further into 'bondage'. "
When you analyze the situation you will discover that it is but consciousness seeking the unmanifested source of manifestation, and not finding it, because this consciousness, ever-moving, ever-active, is actually just seeking itself, in its serene, inactive, potential state. It is the seeker that is being sought. When this is deeply, intuitively perceived, then the seeker will disappear and the Source will remain.
Ask Yourself:
• Are You churning about in the pool, acting out your various desires and fears, and constantly stirring up muddy water … or are You resting in the silence of non-volition where the already pure, clear water of awareness is revealed?
• Do You ACTUALLY enter the deep, blue, unconditioned silence of contemplation … or are you fooling yourself and calling your busy spiritual activities “silence”?
• Do You realize that identifying Yourself with what is differentiated, separate and bound up with language and thought is a barrier to true understanding?
• Have You directly understood that the multiplicity is perceived via false perception; that in reality there is simply the Unicity (ONE appearing as many), and your attachment to yourself as subject (as a separate individual in the work) keeps you in bondage?
The “serene, inactive, potential state” can never be experienced. THAT can never be named, described or labeled. “The absolute principle cannot know itself.” However, the direct intuitive understanding (which comes through consideration of these pointers in silence) dissolves the false barriers, the false sense of self-identity, and reveals Your true nature; Post-Realization what is intuitively known can be overlaid on the relative, and the Amness enjoyed, for the rest of the manifestation.
Let us end this post, with another of Maharaj’s whispers of LOVE:
"You are the timeless, spaceless, imperceptible being, and not what appears as a separate object ... time-bound, finite and perceptible to the senses. 'Bondage' arises because you have forgotten your real being, the noumenon, and you identify yourself with the body, the phenomenon. But 'bondage' is not caused merely by identification with the body, which as an instrument is necessary for consciousness to remain in manifestation. Body and consciousness are naturally bound together and remain inextricably linked until the life-breath leaves the body at death, and the consciousness is released from its phenomenal form. What causes 'bondage' is not the association of the body with consciousness, but the imagined conception of an independent, autonomous entity which assumes doership, and takes responsibility for actions and their consequences."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 November 2013
To continue: it was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: Without any efforts on your part, this physical body functions. The blood pumped by the heart circulates through the body. The lymphatic system removes toxins or stores them in tissues to minimize their negative impact. The senses function -- eyes “see”, the ears “hear”, the mouth “tastes”, etc. Old or damaged cells are broken down and eliminated; new cells form. All happens naturally and efficiently. The same is true for the massive pear tree outside the window of the new cottage.
With no conscious volition, naturally and perfectly, the tree grows, lives, and produces leaves, bark, and pears. In this series, You have been encouraged to shift Your view, to perceive with the gaze of eternity rather than with a limited body-bound perspective. Look at the functioning of the physical body and the pear tree, and see that from the non-dual viewpoint, every body, every living creature, every tree, every plant, EVERYTHING functions naturally, spontaneously, effortlessly. This is the already present reality. Maharaj explains it this way:
"Yes, I appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong."
Do not make the mistake of believing that this functioning is bound up with a choice on the part of the limited individual. Do not imagine that because you feel some sense of “doership” that this makes your self-volitional actions a reality. All IS functioning spontaneously – whether “you” are Realized or not. What difference does it make then, you may ask?
The reality is that the person identified with the conditioned or corrupted consciousness, and with a limited range of perception, suffers. Ego-bound, the “separate” individual is deeply affected by the “slings and arrows of fortune”. The instability of a persona-driven existence creates unbelievable stress. The bondage of separation; the intense pain of feeling separate or cut off from this naturally functioning flow of life – these are part of the package for the Non-Realized.
The Advaitan Teachings are the Ultimate Medicine; the antidote to suffering. The LOVE whisperings are those words that call to You, that remind You to identify with Your True state. This return to the state beyond knowing awakens the intuitive understanding in which the functioning of the Unicity is directly perceived. The intuitive sense of THAT – what is form-less, limit-less, beyond conception, prior to birth and death, beyond description – when overlaid on the relative provides this view of eternity, this non-dual state, and the end of suffering.
Does this mean the end of the ups and downs of the relative existence? Of course not. Life continues, the so-called individual continues to play the part cast.
The spiritual chocolate-box picture of the Realized existence accompanied by saffron robes and angelic harps is a myth. However, in the total absence of individual volition, the role simply plays itself out – without the blood, sweat and tears that characterize the emotion-filled ego-driven, pre–Realized state. Some days the sun shines; other days it rains – with Realization these differences of weather are entirely irrelevant. Again, as Maharaj explains:
"You are all drenched for it is raining hard. In my world it is always fine weather. There is no night or day, no heat or cold. No worries beset me there, nor regrets. My mind is free of thoughts, for there are no desires to slave for."
For many seekers, to abandon the network of desires and fears seems impossible. Remember – even the desire for freedom, for Realization is a desire. Even the fear of not reaching the Realized state is a fear. The total absence of selfhood, the dissolution of ALL desires and fears, may seem an impossible task. Have courage. Allow the intuitive knowing, the sense of trust in the functioning of the totality, these whispers of LOVE to embrace You. There is nothing to be afraid of. When everything is given, what is left to desire? Hear how Maharaj expresses this:
"If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear."
Let us end today with a series of questions that may point to where you are clinging to some falsehood:
• Are You aware of the natural functioning of the physical body, the physiological process that take place without your intellectual understanding, volition, or self-directed planning?
• Are You able to discern that You are not this physical body -- that it functions spontaneously and the body-mind apparatus is not Who You Are?
• Are You aware of the natural functioning of the natural environment, the functioning of everything in nature that takes place without your intellectual understanding, volition, or self-directed planning?
• Are You aware that the natural environment occurs within You, that You are not a body-mind apparatus located in the world?
• Are You in touch with the intuitive sense of the non-dual functioning of Noumenon and Phenomenon: I AM THAT; I AM?
• With this View of the functioning of the Unicity, are You able to abandon the final conceptual image of Realization, and the remaining desires and fears that You are clinging to?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 November 2013
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: The conditioned consciousness that appears to “run the show” you call “yourself” is not what it appears to be. Your sense of individuality is the pure consciousness – the “I AM” without attributes – to which has been added thousands of chemicals and flavorings. Just as water is pure and untainted, you can add a particular cocktail of chemicals and flavorings to produce an unlimited number of so-called “unique” beverages, for example: Coca Cola, Fanta, tea, coffee and so on. Every beverage appears “distinct” and “unique”, but its base is the same – pure water. The sense “I AM”, the pure consciousness before additives is like this.
You know yourself; you are familiar with this sense of being. Maharaj calls this your “working capital”. The Advaitan Teachings begin from this very simple and practical starting point. However, for the seeker who is not yet ripe, even discerning the sense “I AM” can be a very difficult task. The wild mind and emotions pull the seeker into identification with fears and desires at every turn. Nonetheless, through unwavering attention and dedication, it is possible to pull the senses back from this constant identification and rest purely in the sense “I AM”.
You may notice the additives and flavorings, but you no longer identify with them. You are able to “set up camp” as the pure consciousness prior to conditioning. [Note: this is a beginner’s step, yet it is one of the temporary locations misidentified as the final destination. This is why the Teacher is essential – to identify the location and provide the pointers to move you to the next step of the “journey”.]
The particular flavorings and additives of the conditioned or corrupted consciousness appear unique, but, contrary to what ego-identified persons believe, in reality they are not particularly special and different. Essentially, the flavorings are what you were told through language (via learned enculturation) from the moment that language was learned and acquired. (Prior to language, the human being rests in pure, unconditioned consciousness.)
So, the flavorings consist of the false concepts you are taught about yourself: that you are born and will die and that the consciousness is individual and bound up with the body and the brain, gender, race, culture, economic and social class, etc. (body identification). The flavorings also consist of what you are taught about the apparent “world out there”: science, physics, astronomy, religion, politics, etc. (mind identification). Into the mix are also added the flavorings or traits of personality – fixed by the age of six and developed in response to the particular environmental mix (e.g. personality styles and modelling of primary caregivers).
For example, the “can do”, pushy, austere, career-driven “spiritual worker” with an inflated sense of rightness and entitlement exhibits these range of traits because they were learned in early childhood from meticulous, goal-orientated, self-involved, reformist, Germanic parents. This particular "personality" believes her attention to detail and action-orientated approach are unique and laudable personality traits, enabling her to “serve God with authority and accuracy”.
Actually, she is just acting out her conditioning like Pavlov’s dog. So it is for each person, pre-Realization. Each trait is programmed early on, and the rest of the relative lifetime is spent robotically reacting from this entrenched personality programming.
[On this site, the offer is made to use the Enneagram Personality Analysis as a means to “see” your particular personality flavorings with a detached eye. When the seeker is ready to “see”, this analysis will provide an insight into the programming which has “run” you from the age of six or earlier.]
The invitation is not to fix or repair the personality (unless serious dysfunction requires professional assistance), but instead to understand the flavorings so that rather than reacting to the habitual desires and fears of the personality, there can be witnessing and abidance in the state of unconditioned consciousness – the “I AM”.
See how Maharaj describes the so-called differences amongst people. Even your desire to reach for Realization is a function of the flavoring of personality:
"I have separated myself from the food-body. Flowers come in different colors, but they are made up of the same five elements. Why should I worry about differences? From the same five elements arise all the forms with different time limits, and no one has control over those time limits. Different forms, as per their thinking have different activities. About you all, you have a liking for truth; it has arisen from your individuality, so you are after it."
Most people will live out this manifestation caught up in programmed reactive functioning, pushed and pulled along the roller coaster of desires and fears. They will identify with the conditioned / corrupted consciousness, and this will be the “felt experience” of the relative life. An infinitesimal number of seekers (less than one in a million) will find these Teachings and follow the directions laid out. Remember though – location as the unconditioned consciousness is a temporary location. It is not Who You Are.
As Maharaj explains:
"Understand that the consciousness has arisen spontaneously in you, the Absolute. Once you are conscious of yourself you know you exist and you love this beingness; you do not want this beingness to depart from you, and it is this that makes you strive all day until sleep overcomes you, in order to keep the beingness satisfied. Then the guru tells you the true state of affairs, that this consciousness which you love so much is only an illusion. It is the basic cause of all unhappiness and your true state is before this consciousness arose.
"Understand this thoroughly, intuitively, beyond all words and concepts, but also know that if this understanding is just something happening in the intellect it will be of no use to you, because it will be at the level of phenomenal consciousness ... concepts ... and that consciousness is nothing but illusion.
"Whatever you know is imperfect, fraudulent. Go where you do not know. Recede into the source, into no form, no beingness; there you are perfect. Whatever you witness will not remain with you; it is imperfect. The one who recognizes the imperfect as imperfect is perfect; that one is complete ....
Have firm faith in the words of the guru. Nothing, nobody existed prior to you. When your beingness appeared then everything appeared. Understand that first moment when you understood that you are, the point at which everything arose. The source and the end are the same point."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 November 2013
In the absence of resistance, the ocean simply is. While at the surface there is constant movement, waves ebbing and flowing, no waves form in the depth of the ocean – the deep and silent and dark still point. With the subject-object perceiving view, the appearance of duality is the false. The Truth that speaks, the LOVE that whispers, will ALWAYS wash up against what is untrue – eroding, dissolving, dismantling ... removing the impurities until only the clear, purified water of unconditioned awareness remains.
Now perhaps you see the outer form of the physical body, and the myriad of objects in this ocean of life, and to you they seem rigid and solid, like the sandstone rock. You forget, of course, that the “eyes of perception” are inextricably linked to the perceiving veils. How you perceive the world is a direct indicator of where you are located on the “seven-step journey” offered on this site. Your words – which point to your perceiving view – are the equivalent of a neon sign describing your "location" flashing at the top of your head.
Right now, the veils of perception are hidden from your view; the way “you” perceive feels “just right”. You have no concept that the water you are swimming in is clouded with mud. In fact, you are so sure that you are “right” that you may well be motivated to present your particular point of view to the Advaitin Teacher – and to defend its “rightness”.
Don’t be surprised if the Teacher does not play this “game”. There is ONE Reality. In the various descriptions that point to the final understanding, there is no dispute. This Reality, this Realization of Your True Nature can be known directly when manifest, when (and only when) the veils of perception are removed. Can you see now the complete absurdity of offering your clouded perspective to the Advaitin Teacher, and expecting … what? Affirmation? Reinforcement? Praise?
If you are travelling by plane from Cape Town to London, and the plane may stop-over in Amsterdam, Hong Kong or Paris. Imagine you get off in Paris and mistakenly think you are in London. You tell the Teacher: “This is great; now I am in London.” The Teacher knows Paris, because he has travelled through it before. He also knows London, because he lives there. What is the Teacher likely to say to you, when you announce with full confidence that you have arrived in London?
Surely, the Teacher would say: “You have only completed part of your journey. You have travelled for many hours, you are seeing a new city – but this is Paris, not London. You must board the plane again and continue your journey if you really wish to go to London”. Why would he lie to you? Why would he let you remain lost and confused? Why would he let you stop before your journey is complete? And finally, why would he allow you to hold on to a false picture that you have reached the final destination?
The waves that wash up again and again against the false understandings, the misidentifications and the confusions are the LOVE whisperings of Advaita. They are pointers – to what? They are pointers to your original state. They are not false signposts to cul-de-sacs in the relative.
If you are prepared to admit to yourself once and for all that you are lost, that you have landed in a temporary location but are not at the final destination. Then, you will find that the Teacher is willing to teach; that the ears are open to hear; that the intuition is ripe to understand. However, if you are convinced that you have “found”, it will not be possible for you to hear the pointers offered. [For clarification on the conditions necessary for resonance with the Teachings, see the Ebook entitled: "WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL".]
In the light of this posting, perhaps you will see that you are lost. Perhaps you will understand that the LOVE whisperings of the Teacher are direct signposts to navigate you safely to your destination. With this is mind, reflect on the two pointers below. Understand what they are: pointers towards what is false and what must be eliminated; pointers to Who You Really Are. Reflect on them with the emptiness and innocence with which you would receive directions if you were hopelessly lost in a strange city and were desperate to find the way home.
"You are one drop if you consider yourself to be an individual. A drop of ocean is salty and the salty taste is the knowledge ‘I am’. Suppose that drop dries, the ocean does not care – a drop of ocean drying on the rock. Similarly in the five elemental play you are a drop, either survive or die, the elemental ocean is unconcerned. But how to understand this manifest nature? Be the taste, understand the taste. Millions of drops dry up but the ocean is unconcerned. Millions die but how the five elements are concerned? Because you limit yourself to the body, you suffer". – Maharaj
and
"The invitation here is to abide as Your original nature; to abide with the peace and freedom that comes when the Oneness is known via the understanding of non-duality; to know Real Love and to taste throughout the manifestation the sweetness of that nectar; to be free of belief in all myths and superstitions and to be free of belief in all ideas and concepts (which are always based in ignorance); and then, eventually, to understand the Noneness—the Noneness of any personal self, Personal Self, personal being, Personal Being, person-like force, person-like law, person-like 'cosmic something,' personal creator, personal sustainer, or personal destroyer that makes things happen." – Floyd
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 November 2013
Louise: The conditioned consciousness that appears to “run the show” you call “yourself” is not what it appears to be. Your sense of individuality is the pure consciousness – the “I AM” without attributes – to which has been added thousands of chemicals and flavorings. Just as water is pure and untainted, you can add a particular cocktail of chemicals and flavorings to produce an unlimited number of so-called “unique” beverages, for example: Coca Cola, Fanta, tea, coffee and so on. Every beverage appears “distinct” and “unique”, but its base is the same – pure water. The sense “I AM”, the pure consciousness before additives is like this.
You know yourself; you are familiar with this sense of being. Maharaj calls this your “working capital”. The Advaitan Teachings begin from this very simple and practical starting point. However, for the seeker who is not yet ripe, even discerning the sense “I AM” can be a very difficult task. The wild mind and emotions pull the seeker into identification with fears and desires at every turn. Nonetheless, through unwavering attention and dedication, it is possible to pull the senses back from this constant identification and rest purely in the sense “I AM”.
You may notice the additives and flavorings, but you no longer identify with them. You are able to “set up camp” as the pure consciousness prior to conditioning. [Note: this is a beginner’s step, yet it is one of the temporary locations misidentified as the final destination. This is why the Teacher is essential – to identify the location and provide the pointers to move you to the next step of the “journey”.]
The particular flavorings and additives of the conditioned or corrupted consciousness appear unique, but, contrary to what ego-identified persons believe, in reality they are not particularly special and different. Essentially, the flavorings are what you were told through language (via learned enculturation) from the moment that language was learned and acquired. (Prior to language, the human being rests in pure, unconditioned consciousness.)
So, the flavorings consist of the false concepts you are taught about yourself: that you are born and will die and that the consciousness is individual and bound up with the body and the brain, gender, race, culture, economic and social class, etc. (body identification). The flavorings also consist of what you are taught about the apparent “world out there”: science, physics, astronomy, religion, politics, etc. (mind identification). Into the mix are also added the flavorings or traits of personality – fixed by the age of six and developed in response to the particular environmental mix (e.g. personality styles and modelling of primary caregivers).
For example, the “can do”, pushy, austere, career-driven “spiritual worker” with an inflated sense of rightness and entitlement exhibits these range of traits because they were learned in early childhood from meticulous, goal-orientated, self-involved, reformist, Germanic parents. This particular "personality" believes her attention to detail and action-orientated approach are unique and laudable personality traits, enabling her to “serve God with authority and accuracy”.
Actually, she is just acting out her conditioning like Pavlov’s dog. So it is for each person, pre-Realization. Each trait is programmed early on, and the rest of the relative lifetime is spent robotically reacting from this entrenched personality programming.
[On this site, the offer is made to use the Enneagram Personality Analysis as a means to “see” your particular personality flavorings with a detached eye. When the seeker is ready to “see”, this analysis will provide an insight into the programming which has “run” you from the age of six or earlier.]
The invitation is not to fix or repair the personality (unless serious dysfunction requires professional assistance), but instead to understand the flavorings so that rather than reacting to the habitual desires and fears of the personality, there can be witnessing and abidance in the state of unconditioned consciousness – the “I AM”.
See how Maharaj describes the so-called differences amongst people. Even your desire to reach for Realization is a function of the flavoring of personality:
"I have separated myself from the food-body. Flowers come in different colors, but they are made up of the same five elements. Why should I worry about differences? From the same five elements arise all the forms with different time limits, and no one has control over those time limits. Different forms, as per their thinking have different activities. About you all, you have a liking for truth; it has arisen from your individuality, so you are after it."
Most people will live out this manifestation caught up in programmed reactive functioning, pushed and pulled along the roller coaster of desires and fears. They will identify with the conditioned / corrupted consciousness, and this will be the “felt experience” of the relative life. An infinitesimal number of seekers (less than one in a million) will find these Teachings and follow the directions laid out. Remember though – location as the unconditioned consciousness is a temporary location. It is not Who You Are.
As Maharaj explains:
"Understand that the consciousness has arisen spontaneously in you, the Absolute. Once you are conscious of yourself you know you exist and you love this beingness; you do not want this beingness to depart from you, and it is this that makes you strive all day until sleep overcomes you, in order to keep the beingness satisfied. Then the guru tells you the true state of affairs, that this consciousness which you love so much is only an illusion. It is the basic cause of all unhappiness and your true state is before this consciousness arose.
"Understand this thoroughly, intuitively, beyond all words and concepts, but also know that if this understanding is just something happening in the intellect it will be of no use to you, because it will be at the level of phenomenal consciousness ... concepts ... and that consciousness is nothing but illusion.
"Whatever you know is imperfect, fraudulent. Go where you do not know. Recede into the source, into no form, no beingness; there you are perfect. Whatever you witness will not remain with you; it is imperfect. The one who recognizes the imperfect as imperfect is perfect; that one is complete ....
Have firm faith in the words of the guru. Nothing, nobody existed prior to you. When your beingness appeared then everything appeared. Understand that first moment when you understood that you are, the point at which everything arose. The source and the end are the same point."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 November 2013
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise:The Advaitin Teacher is already the ocean – unconditioned awareness. What happens when the ocean encounters the sandstone rock? Naturally waves form and wash against the rock. Whether the waves crash and storm or gently lap, they gradually wear down the “rigid” apparent form of the sandstone rock. When eventually the final grains of sand cemented together come loose, the sandstone rock dissolves into its elements and merges with the ocean.
Louise:The Advaitin Teacher is already the ocean – unconditioned awareness. What happens when the ocean encounters the sandstone rock? Naturally waves form and wash against the rock. Whether the waves crash and storm or gently lap, they gradually wear down the “rigid” apparent form of the sandstone rock. When eventually the final grains of sand cemented together come loose, the sandstone rock dissolves into its elements and merges with the ocean.
In the absence of resistance, the ocean simply is. While at the surface there is constant movement, waves ebbing and flowing, no waves form in the depth of the ocean – the deep and silent and dark still point. With the subject-object perceiving view, the appearance of duality is the false. The Truth that speaks, the LOVE that whispers, will ALWAYS wash up against what is untrue – eroding, dissolving, dismantling ... removing the impurities until only the clear, purified water of unconditioned awareness remains.
Now perhaps you see the outer form of the physical body, and the myriad of objects in this ocean of life, and to you they seem rigid and solid, like the sandstone rock. You forget, of course, that the “eyes of perception” are inextricably linked to the perceiving veils. How you perceive the world is a direct indicator of where you are located on the “seven-step journey” offered on this site. Your words – which point to your perceiving view – are the equivalent of a neon sign describing your "location" flashing at the top of your head.
Right now, the veils of perception are hidden from your view; the way “you” perceive feels “just right”. You have no concept that the water you are swimming in is clouded with mud. In fact, you are so sure that you are “right” that you may well be motivated to present your particular point of view to the Advaitin Teacher – and to defend its “rightness”.
Don’t be surprised if the Teacher does not play this “game”. There is ONE Reality. In the various descriptions that point to the final understanding, there is no dispute. This Reality, this Realization of Your True Nature can be known directly when manifest, when (and only when) the veils of perception are removed. Can you see now the complete absurdity of offering your clouded perspective to the Advaitin Teacher, and expecting … what? Affirmation? Reinforcement? Praise?
If you are travelling by plane from Cape Town to London, and the plane may stop-over in Amsterdam, Hong Kong or Paris. Imagine you get off in Paris and mistakenly think you are in London. You tell the Teacher: “This is great; now I am in London.” The Teacher knows Paris, because he has travelled through it before. He also knows London, because he lives there. What is the Teacher likely to say to you, when you announce with full confidence that you have arrived in London?
Surely, the Teacher would say: “You have only completed part of your journey. You have travelled for many hours, you are seeing a new city – but this is Paris, not London. You must board the plane again and continue your journey if you really wish to go to London”. Why would he lie to you? Why would he let you remain lost and confused? Why would he let you stop before your journey is complete? And finally, why would he allow you to hold on to a false picture that you have reached the final destination?
The waves that wash up again and again against the false understandings, the misidentifications and the confusions are the LOVE whisperings of Advaita. They are pointers – to what? They are pointers to your original state. They are not false signposts to cul-de-sacs in the relative.
If you are prepared to admit to yourself once and for all that you are lost, that you have landed in a temporary location but are not at the final destination. Then, you will find that the Teacher is willing to teach; that the ears are open to hear; that the intuition is ripe to understand. However, if you are convinced that you have “found”, it will not be possible for you to hear the pointers offered. [For clarification on the conditions necessary for resonance with the Teachings, see the Ebook entitled: "WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL".]
In the light of this posting, perhaps you will see that you are lost. Perhaps you will understand that the LOVE whisperings of the Teacher are direct signposts to navigate you safely to your destination. With this is mind, reflect on the two pointers below. Understand what they are: pointers towards what is false and what must be eliminated; pointers to Who You Really Are. Reflect on them with the emptiness and innocence with which you would receive directions if you were hopelessly lost in a strange city and were desperate to find the way home.
"You are one drop if you consider yourself to be an individual. A drop of ocean is salty and the salty taste is the knowledge ‘I am’. Suppose that drop dries, the ocean does not care – a drop of ocean drying on the rock. Similarly in the five elemental play you are a drop, either survive or die, the elemental ocean is unconcerned. But how to understand this manifest nature? Be the taste, understand the taste. Millions of drops dry up but the ocean is unconcerned. Millions die but how the five elements are concerned? Because you limit yourself to the body, you suffer". – Maharaj
and
"The invitation here is to abide as Your original nature; to abide with the peace and freedom that comes when the Oneness is known via the understanding of non-duality; to know Real Love and to taste throughout the manifestation the sweetness of that nectar; to be free of belief in all myths and superstitions and to be free of belief in all ideas and concepts (which are always based in ignorance); and then, eventually, to understand the Noneness—the Noneness of any personal self, Personal Self, personal being, Personal Being, person-like force, person-like law, person-like 'cosmic something,' personal creator, personal sustainer, or personal destroyer that makes things happen." – Floyd
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
7 November 2013
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: Imagine a person in a pool of water and mud, stirred up so there is the appearance of muddy water. Bound at the level of the body and the mind, the person will churn about in the water, constantly making it muddy. The person will perceive the muddy water as “natural” and “normal” and live comfortably within it, despite its muddy appearance. Perhaps the person will experience feelings of “happiness” when he stops churning for a while and the water clears a little, although this will always be a temporary reprieve - followed by more churning and the feelings of “unhappiness” that are associated with the very muddy water.
Louise: Imagine a person in a pool of water and mud, stirred up so there is the appearance of muddy water. Bound at the level of the body and the mind, the person will churn about in the water, constantly making it muddy. The person will perceive the muddy water as “natural” and “normal” and live comfortably within it, despite its muddy appearance. Perhaps the person will experience feelings of “happiness” when he stops churning for a while and the water clears a little, although this will always be a temporary reprieve - followed by more churning and the feelings of “unhappiness” that are associated with the very muddy water.
Bound at the level of the spiritual ego, there will likely be attempts to stabilize the clear water in the pool by keeping the muddy particles at bay. Since personas are always in motion, “blowing their trumpets” in one way or another, these attempts never succeed, although they may give the appearance of succeeding for brief moments. So for periods, the person bound at the third step may experience feeling “at one with”, “spiritual”, “connected with their higher self”, “living my spiritual vision”, etc.
However, these experiences will inevitably be followed by feeling “out of connection with”, “ego-bound”, and “unspiritual." In other words, the spiritually-bound persona is still churning about in the water, even if the churning thoughts and actions are believed to be "spiritual". By contrast, what happens when the so-called "person" in the pool simply stops moving and churning about? Eventually, all the muddy particles sink to the bottom of the pool, and the already present pristine, clear water is revealed.
The LOVE whisperings of Advaita are simple, yet few (less than one in a million) will truly understand, since few will have the wisdom to let go of the churning of mind-based activity; few will be prepared to drop this predilection with constantly stirring up the water in the pool; and even fewer will have the inclination to drop what is personality-driven and rest in the still silence, in the deep blue shade without words and thought.
A fundamental tenet of Advaita is that in the non-volitional state, the essence of pure consciousness is activated, and the intuitive understanding dissolves the filters of misidentification so the truth can be directly known. This “process” occurs in silence, and even during the temporary appearance of the subject-object, Teacher-seeker “relationship”, the seeker will be provided with pointers to take into silent consideration.
[Notice how often persons fool themselves into thinking that they spend substantial amounts of time in silent contemplation when, in reality, this so-called “silence” is characterized by: talking, preaching, listening to music, singing, chanting prayers, singing hymns, thinking; in other words, churning up the water in the pool through self-directed activity.]
The non-dual state is that in which what APPEARS to be differentiated is directly perceived as a Unicity; where the constant movement or flow between Noumenon and Phenomenon is directly perceived as ONE, as described accurately in the statement I AM THAT; I AM. The dark blue shade, the silence of contemplation, is a state without “eyes”, without differentiating borders.
Here, it is possible for that false sense of the flavoring of individuality to dissolve. Language and thought (which arises from language) differentiate and divide this relative world into a multiplicity. While still in the bondage of identification, the seeker will perceive himself as a separate subject in a world of objects. The structures of language and thought reinforce this false view.
The unconditioned and undifferentiated silence of non-volitional action is what dissolves this false sense of separation. The fears, for example, of “becoming a robot” are ungrounded and absurd. The Teachings point to the total, radical elimination of self-identity. In the absence of self-identity, there is no one: no volitional person, no robot, no spiritual being. Instead, post-Realization, there is simply spontaneous functioning. As Maharaj explains:
"The Absolute nounemality manifests itself through millions of forms which are created and destroyed every moment, and in this spontaneous functioning there is no place at all for the notion of any entity. Therefore, any action taken based on the notion that you are an autonomous, independent entity seeking 'liberation' will only lock you further into 'bondage'. "
When you analyze the situation you will discover that it is but consciousness seeking the unmanifested source of manifestation, and not finding it, because this consciousness, ever-moving, ever-active, is actually just seeking itself, in its serene, inactive, potential state. It is the seeker that is being sought. When this is deeply, intuitively perceived, then the seeker will disappear and the Source will remain.
Ask Yourself:
• Are You churning about in the pool, acting out your various desires and fears, and constantly stirring up muddy water … or are You resting in the silence of non-volition where the already pure, clear water of awareness is revealed?
• Do You ACTUALLY enter the deep, blue, unconditioned silence of contemplation … or are you fooling yourself and calling your busy spiritual activities “silence”?
• Do You realize that identifying Yourself with what is differentiated, separate and bound up with language and thought is a barrier to true understanding?
• Have You directly understood that the multiplicity is perceived via false perception; that in reality there is simply the Unicity (ONE appearing as many), and your attachment to yourself as subject (as a separate individual in the work) keeps you in bondage?
The “serene, inactive, potential state” can never be experienced. THAT can never be named, described or labeled. “The absolute principle cannot know itself.” However, the direct intuitive understanding (which comes through consideration of these pointers in silence) dissolves the false barriers, the false sense of self-identity, and reveals Your true nature; Post-Realization what is intuitively known can be overlaid on the relative, and the Amness enjoyed, for the rest of the manifestation.
Let us end this post, with another of Maharaj’s whispers of LOVE:
"You are the timeless, spaceless, imperceptible being, and not what appears as a separate object ... time-bound, finite and perceptible to the senses. 'Bondage' arises because you have forgotten your real being, the noumenon, and you identify yourself with the body, the phenomenon. But 'bondage' is not caused merely by identification with the body, which as an instrument is necessary for consciousness to remain in manifestation. Body and consciousness are naturally bound together and remain inextricably linked until the life-breath leaves the body at death, and the consciousness is released from its phenomenal form. What causes 'bondage' is not the association of the body with consciousness, but the imagined conception of an independent, autonomous entity which assumes doership, and takes responsibility for actions and their consequences."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 November 2013
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: If you could step outside of this edifice you call yourself for a moment, you would see this consciousness in movement: everything in formation relative to ALL the parts; the apparent multiplicity, that is actually a unicity; the seemingly separate that is ONE. This is the non-dual view. This kaleidoscopic movement can be witnessed and enjoyed. It cannot be claimed or owned.
The perspective of the individual does not witness but experiences as a participant. It is like a game of chess. If it is witnessed impersonally, there can be interest in the game, but it is of no consequence whether white or black wins or loses or if the game ends in a draw. From the vantage point of the separate individual, the individual IS a chess piece – with a distinctive color, a role to play, prescribed movements to follow, opponents to defeat, and a side to bring to success. Personal? Attached? Self-involved? Of course.
Realization means the dissolution of the self-attached view of the personal player. In the Realized state, the game as a whole is simply witnessed. The labels: white, black, knight, king, queen, pawn are just that – labels, attributes, flavorings that give the temporary appearance of duality. Freed from the bondage of self-identification, post-Realization, the purified consciousness functions spontaneously, naturally. From the vantage point of Reality, it is impossible for the limited, self-identified perspective to exist. And yet, from the subject-object perspective, the appearance is that the “Realized chess piece” plays the role it has been allocated.
Maharaj explains it this way:
" … both this subject and its objects are just objects ... interdependent, and existing only in the consciousness within which all manifestation takes place... in the same way that the subject and objects of the dream are both images projected and appearing in consciousness. You are neither the limited dream objects nor the limited dream ego. In relativity, you are the totality of the dream, you are the consciousness through which all manifestation appears. But in truth, you are that which remains when this consciousness and all its busy-making disappears. Only when the false is seen as false and is removed, will the truth shine forth. Eliminate the false and what remains is true."
Perhaps this quote together with the stark clarity of the chess game metaphor will shine the light of understanding on this subject-object misidentification. Let’s choose an arbitrary chess piece – the knight. Identified with the limited sense of self, you imagine yourself to BE the knight. You perceive yourself as a limited subject perceiving the separate and different objects that surround you in the relative: the other chess pieces, the chess board, the three-dimensional space through which you move.
You identify with the attributes or labels associated with the knight – your color, your position on the board, your particular movements, your role in relation to the other chess pieces. Here is your simple mistake: You are NOT the knight. The knight is simply another object in this relative scene. Because there is this tint of “I AM”, of consciousness-awareness, you assume it is individual and personal. It is not. You are the ultimate subjectivity. You can NEVER experience Yourself. Can the eye see itself?
Why have You held this mistaken view? How did the confusion arise? Again – this is simple. Imagine that from the time the chess game was set up, You are told that:
• You are the individual chess piece – the knight.
• You have a distinct and unique role to play.
• You perform your role competently or incompetently – in other words you could be a “good knight” or a “bad knight”.
• You are "born" when the knight is placed on the chessboard.
• You "die" when the knight is removed from the chessboard.
• ... and perhaps there is a giant chess board in the sky and you will become an angelic chess piece post-"death".
The sense of “I AM”, the sense of being Yourself, is this impersonal consciousness-awareness without attributes, yet You mistakenly believe that this sense of self is what makes you a knight; or that it is your “knightness”.
Add to these myths, a barrage of lies about the nature and function of the other chess pieces (enemies, comrades-in-arms, etc), the chess board and the space in which the game occurs, and you are hypnotically caught in The Grand Illusion. With the belief that you are the knight, you are trapped in bondage, bound up with the requirements of the particular chess game. Personal and limited, you will experience agonies with every defeat, ecstasies with every victory, endless boredom when you are not moving in the game.
You are caught in the dualistic highs and lows of attached, personal living. Imagine the freedom and relief when You see that You are not the knight, You have never been the knight, and You can simply witness the game with all of its objects (including the knight) arising within You.
Now, you hear this line of reasoning, and perhaps the thinking mind conjures up a million objections: flaws in the metaphor; emotions of frustration because the self-limited individual view appears real; boredom because you’ve heard it all before; doubts about the credibility of this writer, or the Teachings.
Whichever comfortable railroad tracks the personally-attached fictional mind usually travels, it will move down at this moment. The so-called “free-thinking” person is in reality as free as one of Pavlov’s salivating dogs.
"One in a million will listen, understand and abide by the advice of the Guru, that ‘you are everything’; he accepts with conviction and becomes the words of the Guru. In most cases, the beingness assumes that it is a body that has taken shape, so one believes that he is born and will die. When there is no death and no birth, one can never be born and die. The identification with the body is so strong, like the hold of the serpent, that it is not easy to do away with it. But we are the eternal principle and not what we appear to be, the one who knows the seed of this world, realizes that it is an illusion, sits quietly and doesn’t blow a trumpet about it. In this world, if you start investigating everything, it would be mind boggling. Once having understood that it is all Maya, one becomes speechless." -- Maharaj
The LOVE whisperings of Advaita invite You to enter the silence in which what is false dissolves and what is true is revealed. Ask Yourself:
• Are You blowing a trumpet (typical in the Spiritual Ego phase where “you” think “you” know it all?)
• Are You fiddling around in the world of objects, self-identified, yet looking for clarity, meaning and perspective where none can be found?
Or
• Are You speechless – abiding in the silence with the full knowledge of Who You Are?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 November 2013
Louise: If you could step outside of this edifice you call yourself for a moment, you would see this consciousness in movement: everything in formation relative to ALL the parts; the apparent multiplicity, that is actually a unicity; the seemingly separate that is ONE. This is the non-dual view. This kaleidoscopic movement can be witnessed and enjoyed. It cannot be claimed or owned.
The perspective of the individual does not witness but experiences as a participant. It is like a game of chess. If it is witnessed impersonally, there can be interest in the game, but it is of no consequence whether white or black wins or loses or if the game ends in a draw. From the vantage point of the separate individual, the individual IS a chess piece – with a distinctive color, a role to play, prescribed movements to follow, opponents to defeat, and a side to bring to success. Personal? Attached? Self-involved? Of course.
Realization means the dissolution of the self-attached view of the personal player. In the Realized state, the game as a whole is simply witnessed. The labels: white, black, knight, king, queen, pawn are just that – labels, attributes, flavorings that give the temporary appearance of duality. Freed from the bondage of self-identification, post-Realization, the purified consciousness functions spontaneously, naturally. From the vantage point of Reality, it is impossible for the limited, self-identified perspective to exist. And yet, from the subject-object perspective, the appearance is that the “Realized chess piece” plays the role it has been allocated.
Maharaj explains it this way:
" … both this subject and its objects are just objects ... interdependent, and existing only in the consciousness within which all manifestation takes place... in the same way that the subject and objects of the dream are both images projected and appearing in consciousness. You are neither the limited dream objects nor the limited dream ego. In relativity, you are the totality of the dream, you are the consciousness through which all manifestation appears. But in truth, you are that which remains when this consciousness and all its busy-making disappears. Only when the false is seen as false and is removed, will the truth shine forth. Eliminate the false and what remains is true."
Perhaps this quote together with the stark clarity of the chess game metaphor will shine the light of understanding on this subject-object misidentification. Let’s choose an arbitrary chess piece – the knight. Identified with the limited sense of self, you imagine yourself to BE the knight. You perceive yourself as a limited subject perceiving the separate and different objects that surround you in the relative: the other chess pieces, the chess board, the three-dimensional space through which you move.
You identify with the attributes or labels associated with the knight – your color, your position on the board, your particular movements, your role in relation to the other chess pieces. Here is your simple mistake: You are NOT the knight. The knight is simply another object in this relative scene. Because there is this tint of “I AM”, of consciousness-awareness, you assume it is individual and personal. It is not. You are the ultimate subjectivity. You can NEVER experience Yourself. Can the eye see itself?
Why have You held this mistaken view? How did the confusion arise? Again – this is simple. Imagine that from the time the chess game was set up, You are told that:
• You are the individual chess piece – the knight.
• You have a distinct and unique role to play.
• You perform your role competently or incompetently – in other words you could be a “good knight” or a “bad knight”.
• You are "born" when the knight is placed on the chessboard.
• You "die" when the knight is removed from the chessboard.
• ... and perhaps there is a giant chess board in the sky and you will become an angelic chess piece post-"death".
The sense of “I AM”, the sense of being Yourself, is this impersonal consciousness-awareness without attributes, yet You mistakenly believe that this sense of self is what makes you a knight; or that it is your “knightness”.
Add to these myths, a barrage of lies about the nature and function of the other chess pieces (enemies, comrades-in-arms, etc), the chess board and the space in which the game occurs, and you are hypnotically caught in The Grand Illusion. With the belief that you are the knight, you are trapped in bondage, bound up with the requirements of the particular chess game. Personal and limited, you will experience agonies with every defeat, ecstasies with every victory, endless boredom when you are not moving in the game.
You are caught in the dualistic highs and lows of attached, personal living. Imagine the freedom and relief when You see that You are not the knight, You have never been the knight, and You can simply witness the game with all of its objects (including the knight) arising within You.
Now, you hear this line of reasoning, and perhaps the thinking mind conjures up a million objections: flaws in the metaphor; emotions of frustration because the self-limited individual view appears real; boredom because you’ve heard it all before; doubts about the credibility of this writer, or the Teachings.
Whichever comfortable railroad tracks the personally-attached fictional mind usually travels, it will move down at this moment. The so-called “free-thinking” person is in reality as free as one of Pavlov’s salivating dogs.
"One in a million will listen, understand and abide by the advice of the Guru, that ‘you are everything’; he accepts with conviction and becomes the words of the Guru. In most cases, the beingness assumes that it is a body that has taken shape, so one believes that he is born and will die. When there is no death and no birth, one can never be born and die. The identification with the body is so strong, like the hold of the serpent, that it is not easy to do away with it. But we are the eternal principle and not what we appear to be, the one who knows the seed of this world, realizes that it is an illusion, sits quietly and doesn’t blow a trumpet about it. In this world, if you start investigating everything, it would be mind boggling. Once having understood that it is all Maya, one becomes speechless." -- Maharaj
The LOVE whisperings of Advaita invite You to enter the silence in which what is false dissolves and what is true is revealed. Ask Yourself:
• Are You blowing a trumpet (typical in the Spiritual Ego phase where “you” think “you” know it all?)
• Are You fiddling around in the world of objects, self-identified, yet looking for clarity, meaning and perspective where none can be found?
Or
• Are You speechless – abiding in the silence with the full knowledge of Who You Are?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
5 November 2013
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: There is just ONE awareness expressing as I AM – which is the manifest, physically discernible form / movement / intelligence. This is the way all is. What splinters and shatters the Unicity is only the movement of thought:
I AM … separate
I AM … a demarcated, different, and unique individual
I AM … a seeker looking for a return to wholeness
I AM … a woman / man looking for a partner
I AM … a creative person wanting to express this creativity, etc.
You are the ocean but believe you are the small amount of water contained in a cup. Shatter the cup, and instantly You will see that in reality You are the ocean. How can the cup be shattered? It is an impossible task and completely effortless. The cup is just constructed of the thoughts you have about yourself as a separate individual.
Currently, you believe these thoughts. You see yourself as a physical body, with a unique awareness functioning within a world of multiplicity. You have staked your claim, or “set up camp” as Maharaj would say, as a separate individual.
From My point of view, if you are a separate individual searching for God, a separate individual searching for true love, or a separate individual searching for a beer at the local pub, there is no difference.
Caught up in the world of forms, you focus on the object (God, true love, or beer). You cannot find yourself in any of these objects, whatever their appearance. Turn your gaze to the subject. See that in each example, the subject is the same:
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for God
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for true love
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for a beer at the local pub.
Forget your grand vision of what you believe you are trying to accomplish. Accept once and for all that you have set up camp as a separate individual … and this is false. You believe you are the water in the cup desperately wanting to merge with the ocean. CHANGE YOUR STANCE. Forget that madness. You are only a separate cup because you are so committed to this line of thinking that you affirm it for yourself a million times a day.
The door is already open – but you cannot see it because the thoughts are sticking a fictional “you” together. As you drop one or two thoughts, another ten stick to you. You will never escape by this route because whatever you do entrenches this sense of separation. Give it up. Instead, change your stance. Set up camp and stake your claim as the Absolute.
This is why Maharaj advises to stay with the I AM and to reject everything perceivable – Neti, Neti. You retreat from the sticky thoughts. When you do not touch them, they cannot stick to you. When the false thoughts stop sticking –in that empty space, uncluttered and silent – Reality can rush in. In other words, that cup will disintegrate through silent, detached observation.
Perhaps it will slowly fade away; perhaps it will be eradicated instantly. Whether the disintegration is slow or rapid, the final moment will come when no cup remains. This is the peripetia that marks the shift in camp from the view as the separate individual to the view as the Absolute. Can you see that in the stabilized state, the cup is absent –You are the ocean, there is no cup?
(This is where the neo-advaitin teachings are flawed. Can you see that Realization = no cup? Realization does not mean that the cup still exists, but because intellectually it is understood to be constructed merely of thoughts, it can be ignored. No – the Nisarga Yoga offered here is a return to the thought-free, concept-free reality – no thoughts, no cup, no mind, no separation.)
As Maharaj explains:
"The mistake of perception arises because the seeing is partial, because the seeing is only with the outer senses and a divided mind; it is not whole seeing from the source of seeing. That sense of existence, that sense of presence, that 'I amness', the unchanging subjective experience of self, cannot be seen by the senses, and, therefore, does not enter into the conceptions projected by the mind, which unceasingly carries on its objectification of everything.
"But, when the subjective is apprehended intuitively, then the concept of separate objects becomes untenable. Can the consciousness in you and the consciousness in me be different? Are they not separate only as concepts projected by the mind, and are they not in perfect unity when unconceived, when free of mind?
"And is not that knowing of the underlying unity, the very basis of love? And if all is subjective, if there is only unity, can there be any room for the objective? So-called objects are just illusory appearances in consciousness, appearances in the universal 'I amness', which by its name and its very nature is wholly subjective and permits no room for another, other than Self."
The invitation, as always, is to take these pointers into the silence; to rest in the natural intuitive knowing state, beyond the false sense of separation implied by a cup of water and ocean ... part and whole; beyond the dualism of subject and object, noumenon and phenomenon. Again and again, we return to the source, to the root, to the ground from which all dualities emerge – beyond being and unbeing.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 November 2013
Louise: There is just ONE awareness expressing as I AM – which is the manifest, physically discernible form / movement / intelligence. This is the way all is. What splinters and shatters the Unicity is only the movement of thought:
I AM … separate
I AM … a demarcated, different, and unique individual
I AM … a seeker looking for a return to wholeness
I AM … a woman / man looking for a partner
I AM … a creative person wanting to express this creativity, etc.
You are the ocean but believe you are the small amount of water contained in a cup. Shatter the cup, and instantly You will see that in reality You are the ocean. How can the cup be shattered? It is an impossible task and completely effortless. The cup is just constructed of the thoughts you have about yourself as a separate individual.
Currently, you believe these thoughts. You see yourself as a physical body, with a unique awareness functioning within a world of multiplicity. You have staked your claim, or “set up camp” as Maharaj would say, as a separate individual.
From My point of view, if you are a separate individual searching for God, a separate individual searching for true love, or a separate individual searching for a beer at the local pub, there is no difference.
Caught up in the world of forms, you focus on the object (God, true love, or beer). You cannot find yourself in any of these objects, whatever their appearance. Turn your gaze to the subject. See that in each example, the subject is the same:
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for God
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for true love
A SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL … searching for a beer at the local pub.
Forget your grand vision of what you believe you are trying to accomplish. Accept once and for all that you have set up camp as a separate individual … and this is false. You believe you are the water in the cup desperately wanting to merge with the ocean. CHANGE YOUR STANCE. Forget that madness. You are only a separate cup because you are so committed to this line of thinking that you affirm it for yourself a million times a day.
The door is already open – but you cannot see it because the thoughts are sticking a fictional “you” together. As you drop one or two thoughts, another ten stick to you. You will never escape by this route because whatever you do entrenches this sense of separation. Give it up. Instead, change your stance. Set up camp and stake your claim as the Absolute.
This is why Maharaj advises to stay with the I AM and to reject everything perceivable – Neti, Neti. You retreat from the sticky thoughts. When you do not touch them, they cannot stick to you. When the false thoughts stop sticking –in that empty space, uncluttered and silent – Reality can rush in. In other words, that cup will disintegrate through silent, detached observation.
Perhaps it will slowly fade away; perhaps it will be eradicated instantly. Whether the disintegration is slow or rapid, the final moment will come when no cup remains. This is the peripetia that marks the shift in camp from the view as the separate individual to the view as the Absolute. Can you see that in the stabilized state, the cup is absent –You are the ocean, there is no cup?
(This is where the neo-advaitin teachings are flawed. Can you see that Realization = no cup? Realization does not mean that the cup still exists, but because intellectually it is understood to be constructed merely of thoughts, it can be ignored. No – the Nisarga Yoga offered here is a return to the thought-free, concept-free reality – no thoughts, no cup, no mind, no separation.)
As Maharaj explains:
"The mistake of perception arises because the seeing is partial, because the seeing is only with the outer senses and a divided mind; it is not whole seeing from the source of seeing. That sense of existence, that sense of presence, that 'I amness', the unchanging subjective experience of self, cannot be seen by the senses, and, therefore, does not enter into the conceptions projected by the mind, which unceasingly carries on its objectification of everything.
"But, when the subjective is apprehended intuitively, then the concept of separate objects becomes untenable. Can the consciousness in you and the consciousness in me be different? Are they not separate only as concepts projected by the mind, and are they not in perfect unity when unconceived, when free of mind?
"And is not that knowing of the underlying unity, the very basis of love? And if all is subjective, if there is only unity, can there be any room for the objective? So-called objects are just illusory appearances in consciousness, appearances in the universal 'I amness', which by its name and its very nature is wholly subjective and permits no room for another, other than Self."
The invitation, as always, is to take these pointers into the silence; to rest in the natural intuitive knowing state, beyond the false sense of separation implied by a cup of water and ocean ... part and whole; beyond the dualism of subject and object, noumenon and phenomenon. Again and again, we return to the source, to the root, to the ground from which all dualities emerge – beyond being and unbeing.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
4 November 2013
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[F.: It was noted recently that the series which inspired the highest level of response on this site in its longer-than-nine-year history was offered by Louise Sterling, former co-host of the blog. Louise is a professional writer operating out of Cape Town, South Africa, and the pointers which she offers are delivered via the Direct Path Teaching Method in combination with the Nisarga Yoga (as has always been the case here as well). Because so many new visitors have come to this site since she first shared over three-and-a-half-years ago the pointers in her series entitled "Love Whisperings of Advaita," it is being offered again. Note: All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. © 2010 Louise Sterling.]
Louise: Is the surgeon who removes the cancerous tumor brutal, uncompassionate, unkind?
Is the naturopath who prescribes a rigid health plan to restore natural health, harsh and unloving?
We have our own fixed notions of how Realization and Enlightenment should look. We want our Teachings packaged in gentleness, kindness, unconditional acceptance. We forget that the false thoughts (sand grains cemented together) that bind this fictional self-identity (sandstone rock) are unlikely to just disentangle themselves and drop away. If this was the case, Realization would be an often-occurring and easily recognizable phenomenon; the norm, rather than the exception.
Like the surgeon, the Advaitin teacher removes all false identities and false belief structures. Like the naturopath, the Advaitin Teacher provides the View of your natural state and, at a more refined level, purifies the consciousness so that the toxins of false understanding are eliminated. One method is surgical, incisive and direct; the other method is subtle, non-invasive, long-range. Both methods will have their effect. Can You see that this is LOVE?
While what is toxic and false is being removed, the process may appear UNLOVING, as ego states will seldom collaborate willingly with relinquishing their cherished ideas, opinions and sense of self. However, this is at the level of appearance only. In the absence of ego states, in the free-flowing no-thing-ness that characterizes purified AMNESS, the LOVE that has returned You to natural functioning will be seen for what it is.
[In the early days of visiting this blog, “louise” sometimes reacted to postings that appeared sharp, hard, cutting. This was a reaction at the level of entrenched self-identity to the surgeon at work. (Here, “floyd’s” style is similar to “maharaj” – surgical and incisive; the “ego-slayer” at work.) Now, when these same postings are read, there is simply the recognition of LOVE whispering. It is instantly clear which step or false identity is being targeted by the surgeon for removal.]
However – as always in the relative sea of sharks, discernment on the part of the seeker is paramount. It is only ego states that may react with discomfort to the Teachings; the restoring of the already-present natural condition NEVER entails abuse or requires the seeker to act in a way that is demeaning, ritual-based, or personally debasing. In some spiritual circles, the methods on offer for eradicating the false involve bowing to the whims of the ego-bound personality of the non-realized teacher.
Here are just two examples: Requiring seekers to:
1. Stand in an icy lake and do prostrations for many hours to demonstrate commitment to a teacher and his teachings – resulting in the serious physical collapse of one seeker.
2. Sit in a plastic-covered sweat lodge for hours at the teacher’s instruction, purportedly to overcome a false sense of personal limitation – resulting in the deaths of some seekers
Healthy, natural functioning would not have led these seekers to accept and follow teachings that are abusive, dangerous and fundamentally unnatural. Would the deer stand in an icy lake, when the freezing temperatures push the body into danger? No – the deer would leave the icy lake and find a warm bed of straw or shelter. Would the deer remain in a dangerously hot location while desperate for water and struggling to breathe? No – the deer would leave that sweat house, and drink from the cool lake and rest in the shade.
The deer spontaneously follows what is healthy, whole, and natural. The LOVE whisperings of Advaita move the seeker to spontaneous functioning that is healthy, whole, and natural. (For more posts on natural living, see: LIVING IN THE STYLE OF A REALIZED TEACHER, OR A HERON, OR A DEER, Parts One and Two. Sunday, April 29, 2007)
The Advaitin Teacher perceives the seeker with clear sight; can see where the functioning is unnatural; where the belief structures are faulty; the root of the suffering – and precisely how freedom can be found by the removal of these impurities.
However – the impurities are NEVER removed by requiring MORE unnatural acts and MORE unnatural thoughts. Instead, in the deep, blue shade, the teacher uses logic and reasoning to point out the false. The teacher activates the inner guru – that seed of purified consciousness – that, like a GPS, will safely and surely navigate the seeker home.
To this end, ask yourself:
• Can You see how the term “LOVE whisperings” can be applied to the pure consciousness as it speaks?
• Can You discern and witness when an ego persona is in reaction to a direct pointer of a Realized Teacher?
• Do You understand why ego personas “react” and “emote” when presented with certain pointers?
• Can You see that pointers that appear harsh and direct, when heard through the filter of personality, can later be seen as neutral truths expressed via the purified consciousness?
• Can You discern via the inner guru when teachings “pretend” to be pure Advaita, yet are actually false teachings by a non-realized teacher?
The questions are rhetorical. In the silent consideration to which most visitors to this blog take these pointers, the words once expressed have the effect of removing the toxins that corrupt the pure consciousness. Some pointers may result in a “hard hit” or the surgical removal of a mass of false perceptions and beliefs; other pointers will simply eliminate a few more cherished ideas. In this silence, with the removal of the toxic overload of false beliefs, with the stripping away of what has been accumulated via conditioning, You return to Your natural state.
Let us end with the words of the master surgeon, Nisargadatta Maharaj:
" 'Swaroop-siddha' (stabilization in self-identity or the Self), what is that exactly? Many people visit here and they want to be happy, but those who visit here will not require happiness, they will be beyond it. When a sage stabilizes in his centre, he goes into quietude. You talk when food essence is there, but having understood both he transcends knowledge and ignorance. That Absolute principle does not know itself; clear all your doubts about your own self."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Louise: Is the surgeon who removes the cancerous tumor brutal, uncompassionate, unkind?
Is the naturopath who prescribes a rigid health plan to restore natural health, harsh and unloving?
We have our own fixed notions of how Realization and Enlightenment should look. We want our Teachings packaged in gentleness, kindness, unconditional acceptance. We forget that the false thoughts (sand grains cemented together) that bind this fictional self-identity (sandstone rock) are unlikely to just disentangle themselves and drop away. If this was the case, Realization would be an often-occurring and easily recognizable phenomenon; the norm, rather than the exception.
Like the surgeon, the Advaitin teacher removes all false identities and false belief structures. Like the naturopath, the Advaitin Teacher provides the View of your natural state and, at a more refined level, purifies the consciousness so that the toxins of false understanding are eliminated. One method is surgical, incisive and direct; the other method is subtle, non-invasive, long-range. Both methods will have their effect. Can You see that this is LOVE?
While what is toxic and false is being removed, the process may appear UNLOVING, as ego states will seldom collaborate willingly with relinquishing their cherished ideas, opinions and sense of self. However, this is at the level of appearance only. In the absence of ego states, in the free-flowing no-thing-ness that characterizes purified AMNESS, the LOVE that has returned You to natural functioning will be seen for what it is.
[In the early days of visiting this blog, “louise” sometimes reacted to postings that appeared sharp, hard, cutting. This was a reaction at the level of entrenched self-identity to the surgeon at work. (Here, “floyd’s” style is similar to “maharaj” – surgical and incisive; the “ego-slayer” at work.) Now, when these same postings are read, there is simply the recognition of LOVE whispering. It is instantly clear which step or false identity is being targeted by the surgeon for removal.]
However – as always in the relative sea of sharks, discernment on the part of the seeker is paramount. It is only ego states that may react with discomfort to the Teachings; the restoring of the already-present natural condition NEVER entails abuse or requires the seeker to act in a way that is demeaning, ritual-based, or personally debasing. In some spiritual circles, the methods on offer for eradicating the false involve bowing to the whims of the ego-bound personality of the non-realized teacher.
Here are just two examples: Requiring seekers to:
1. Stand in an icy lake and do prostrations for many hours to demonstrate commitment to a teacher and his teachings – resulting in the serious physical collapse of one seeker.
2. Sit in a plastic-covered sweat lodge for hours at the teacher’s instruction, purportedly to overcome a false sense of personal limitation – resulting in the deaths of some seekers
Healthy, natural functioning would not have led these seekers to accept and follow teachings that are abusive, dangerous and fundamentally unnatural. Would the deer stand in an icy lake, when the freezing temperatures push the body into danger? No – the deer would leave the icy lake and find a warm bed of straw or shelter. Would the deer remain in a dangerously hot location while desperate for water and struggling to breathe? No – the deer would leave that sweat house, and drink from the cool lake and rest in the shade.
The deer spontaneously follows what is healthy, whole, and natural. The LOVE whisperings of Advaita move the seeker to spontaneous functioning that is healthy, whole, and natural. (For more posts on natural living, see: LIVING IN THE STYLE OF A REALIZED TEACHER, OR A HERON, OR A DEER, Parts One and Two. Sunday, April 29, 2007)
The Advaitin Teacher perceives the seeker with clear sight; can see where the functioning is unnatural; where the belief structures are faulty; the root of the suffering – and precisely how freedom can be found by the removal of these impurities.
However – the impurities are NEVER removed by requiring MORE unnatural acts and MORE unnatural thoughts. Instead, in the deep, blue shade, the teacher uses logic and reasoning to point out the false. The teacher activates the inner guru – that seed of purified consciousness – that, like a GPS, will safely and surely navigate the seeker home.
To this end, ask yourself:
• Can You see how the term “LOVE whisperings” can be applied to the pure consciousness as it speaks?
• Can You discern and witness when an ego persona is in reaction to a direct pointer of a Realized Teacher?
• Do You understand why ego personas “react” and “emote” when presented with certain pointers?
• Can You see that pointers that appear harsh and direct, when heard through the filter of personality, can later be seen as neutral truths expressed via the purified consciousness?
• Can You discern via the inner guru when teachings “pretend” to be pure Advaita, yet are actually false teachings by a non-realized teacher?
The questions are rhetorical. In the silent consideration to which most visitors to this blog take these pointers, the words once expressed have the effect of removing the toxins that corrupt the pure consciousness. Some pointers may result in a “hard hit” or the surgical removal of a mass of false perceptions and beliefs; other pointers will simply eliminate a few more cherished ideas. In this silence, with the removal of the toxic overload of false beliefs, with the stripping away of what has been accumulated via conditioning, You return to Your natural state.
Let us end with the words of the master surgeon, Nisargadatta Maharaj:
" 'Swaroop-siddha' (stabilization in self-identity or the Self), what is that exactly? Many people visit here and they want to be happy, but those who visit here will not require happiness, they will be beyond it. When a sage stabilizes in his centre, he goes into quietude. You talk when food essence is there, but having understood both he transcends knowledge and ignorance. That Absolute principle does not know itself; clear all your doubts about your own self."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
You can also scroll down through the book section below if interested in receiving a free copy of the eBook
entitled
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
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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.
* * * * * * *
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entitled
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
Questions?
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Just hang on to those please.
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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":
1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. 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 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. 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) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";
1. both grew up in very poor families 2. both moved to populated areas to seek employment opportunities 3. 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 4. both succeeded financially 5. both became attached to accumulating; 6. both married and had a family 7. both were initially religious 8. 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) 9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion and toward "spirituality" 10. both began to feel empty in spite of all of their "spiritual seeking" and in spite of all of their accumulated "spiritual knowledge";
11. both began to de-accumulate after both saw that they could survive quite well on a fraction of the income they had been making
12. 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)
13. 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" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce); 15. both accelerated their seeking; 16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more
19. both began sharing the teachings 20. 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.
13. 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" 14. both "lost" their wives (one via "death," the other through divorce); 15. both accelerated their seeking; 16. both entered into the "forest dweller stage" 17. both Realized 18. both began to de-accumulate even more
19. both began sharing the teachings 20. 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.
21. 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)
22. 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)
23. 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
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 1,800 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.
THESE PAPERBACK BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON.COM
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
(Four by Floyd Henderson and two by Dennis Waite. Click the picture for more information or to order)
* * * * * * *
ALL EBOOK AND PAPERBACK VERSION OF HENDERSON'S NON-DUALITY BOOKS
and
RECOVERY LITERATURE
and
FINANCIAL BOOKS
are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
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.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
Within minutes of purchase you can be reading any of the eBooks below on your mobile devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, Android phone, laptop, home computer or on a Kindle reader.
For Apple and Android, either download the eBook directly onto your device or email the eBook file to your mobile device and open the file from your email. For Kindles or other similar devices, use your USB cable to transfer the eBook to your reader.
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
FOR THOSE SEEKING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF THE NON-DUALITY UNDERSTANDING, AS NOTED ABOVE, SOME SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED BY USING THE METHODS BELOW, OR A COMBINATION OF THE METHODS:
WAYS THAT SEEKERS HAVE REALIZED:
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, DVD or Downloadable computer file versions of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat
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, 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.
VI. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS are available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
and
ALL CAN BE SENT TO FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS AS GIFTS
[details at floydhenderson.com. Once on that site, click on the picture of the book you would like to send as a gift for details]
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
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
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."
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."
NOW ACCEPTING REQUESTS FOR FREE COPIES OF THE FOLLOWING EBOOK:
A free copy of the 278-page eBook entitled
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
is available to be sent to you and anyone else you choose.
The book will be emailed to you as a PFD attachment upon request
Gift copies can also be sent to your friends and relatives. The eBook
can be read on any computer (using Adobe, for example) or can be
transferred to any electronic reader or tablet or phone for reading.
Open the attachment via the email on your iPad or Android tablet or
phone and begin reading.
[Please note: When the Direct Path Teaching Method is offered in conjunction with the Nisarga Yoga, something unique results when compared to what happens via the approach used by religions, spiritual movements, philosophies, ideologies, etc.:
rather than inviting seekers to learn more, the invitation here is to unlearn all; rather than offerings teachings, what is offered are unteachings; rather than offering to provide seekers more of anything, seekers will find that the process will take away everything. And via that process, the bliss of Your Original Nature will manifest and remain until mahasamadhi is taken.
To that end, the content of this book will seem radical to the seekers of more, but for those truly ready to be totally free and totally independent - and for those who are truly ready to abandon efforts to accumulate and to de-accumulate instead - the pointers in this book might be relevant.]
To receive your free copy, or to have us send a free copy to your friends or relatives, send your email address (or their addresses) to the following:
(Sorry, but for security reasons, we no longer have a clickable link. You will have to type in our gmail address above. By the way, your email addresses will never be used to contact you or your friends or relatives and email addresses will never be shared with anyone else.)
Simply state in your email that you want the book sent as a gift to you (or as a gift from you to as many people as you like. Copies are now ready to be sent.)
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to the Absolute
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
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THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
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 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
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AND HIS EVOLUTION
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."
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
A TWELVE-STEP JOURNEY TO SELF-TRANSFORMATION
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" 
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
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."
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME TWO)
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
WHY NISARGA YOGA IN ADDITION TO THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS?
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
GOING CRAZY / GOING SANE
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INSTABILITY / INSANITY: WHAT THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS CAN (AND CANNOT) ADDRESS
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THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (THERE IS ONLY PEACE IF YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND)
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
FREEDOM FROM SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION (THE SOURCES OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS & THE NON-DUALITY TREATMENT)
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?"
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE MYTH OF "DEATH"
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS: THE SIMPLICITY OF REALIZATION
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
FINDING REAL LOVE IN AN UNREAL WORLD
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CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE NON-DUALITY POINTERS OFFERED BY YESHU'A ("JESUS THE CHRIST")
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
NOW ACCEPTING REQUESTS FOR FREE COPIES OF THE FOLLOWING EBOOK:
A free copy of the 278-page eBook entitled
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
is available to be sent to you and anyone else you choose.
The book will be emailed to you as a PFD attachment upon request
[Please note: When the Direct Path Teaching Method is offered in conjunction with the Nisarga Yoga, something unique results when compared to what happens via the approach used by religions, spiritual movements, philosophies, ideologies, etc.:
rather than inviting seekers to learn more, the invitation here is to unlearn all; rather than offerings teachings, what is offered are unteachings; rather than offering to provide seekers more of anything, seekers will find that the process will take away everything. And via that process, the bliss of Your Original Nature will manifest and remain until mahasamadhi is taken.
To that end, the content of this book will seem radical to the seekers of more, but for those truly ready to be totally free and totally independent - and for those who are truly ready to abandon efforts to accumulate and to de-accumulate instead - the pointers in this book might be relevant.]
To receive your free copy, or to have us send a free copy to your friends or relatives, send your email address (or their addresses) to the following:
(Sorry, but for security reasons, we no longer have a clickable link. You will have to type in our gmail address above. By the way, your email addresses will never be used to contact you or your friends or relatives and email addresses will never be shared with anyone else.)
Simply state in your email that you want the book sent as a gift to you (or as a gift from you to as many people as you like. Copies are now ready to be sent.)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE ADVAITIN
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (THE "FINAL" TALKS OF FLOYD HENDERSON)
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS DEALING WITH NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA, AND MORE
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
DANCING LIGHTLY
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THE PATH TO FREEDOM VS. THE PATH TO MISERY
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THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS PERSONAL (INCLUDING YOU AND INCLUDING GOD)
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LIBERATION (ATTAINING FREEDOM FROM PERSONALITY VIA REALIZATION)
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WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
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FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
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WHEN REALITY IS OVERLAID ON THE RELATIVE
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
THE RELATIVE RESULTS OF RETURNING TO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
For more information on this book, or to purchase a copy now, click:
WHAT BLISS IS AND WHAT BLISS IS NOT
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THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
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THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
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LESSONS IN NON-DUALITY FROM TRAVELS IN SOUTH AFRICA
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIRST STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SECOND STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE THIRD STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FOURTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIFTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SIXTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SEVENTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
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SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)
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IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (AND WHY KNOWING IT SETS YOU FREE)
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RELATED TOPICS: alcoholism treatment, enneagram, addiction, Mark Houston, non-duality, non-duality ebooks, liberation, enlightenment, liberation, realization, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, unity, oneness.
