A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
BLINDNESS ROOTED IN CULTS / SKY CULTS
Duality is the father of polarization and polarization sets the stage for disagreement and conflict between those fixated at the opposite, extreme poles of all sorts of continuums, including “the far left” vs. “the far right”; “the religious ones” vs. “other religious ones”; “the religious ones” vs. “those in the wrong religion or sect or denomination”; “the religious” vs. “the non-religious”; “the spiritual ones” vs. “those-who-are-merely-religious ones”; "the spiritual" vs. "the not spiritual"; and “those functioning from a fact-based approach” vs. “those functioning from an emotionally-based approach.”
What does that look like when at play? It looks like the following, as witnessed by a friend residing in Sydney, Australia in a flat that is only about four blocks from the location where Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, until this morning, had been holding a number of people hostage for more than sixteen hours inside the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney:
it looks like all of the faith-based, ideology-based insane acts which happen all around the globe on a daily basis. Monis held his hostage at gunpoint and required them to hold up black and white flags, the flags which are popular among Sunni Islamist militant groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Monis had already been facing charges, including one for sexual assault and one for accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. His former lawyer said of Monis: “His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness."
In "the world" of blind-faith-based ideologues, rape and murder are obviously not incompatible with faith-based beliefs; thus, Monis is only one of billions of ideologues on the planet, and all of whom have the “clouded vision” that comes when rendered blind by the never-unquestioned beliefs and faith that was programmed into them.
Indeed, blind faith really does separate persons from “common sense and objectiveness,” attaching them to the ideological, illogical, belief systems which are passed on by all cults – including political cults, racial cults, religions, spiritual groups, etc.
Their attachment to such belief systems results in persons being driven by the hidden agendas of their assigned and / or assumed personalities. It is those subconscious agendas which are “so strong and so powerful” that they “cloud the vision,” resulting in faith-based blindness. And faith-based blindness will block any opportunity to see anything “sensibly or objectively."
Blind faith also assures the continuation of the polarization which differentiates between those operating from a position of wisdom (who are willing to question and to seek facts) versus those who are trapped in ignorance and insanity (who seek no facts whatsoever to support – or refute - their beliefs).
Additionally, blind faith and mind-full-ness always go hand-in-hand. They are co-dependent, existing alongside each other, simultaneously generating ignorant and insane thoughts and words and actions which are based in exceedingly-full minds (which have been filled with the most ignorant and insane beliefs imaginable).
A state of mindlessness, a state of zero concepts, a state of no-minded-ness cannot exist as long as persons adhere to their blind-faith-based beliefs because blind faith requires a passionate attachment to all sorts of concepts and ideas and values and principles and morals and standards and ethics and ideals and notions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) which are all deemed to be “worthy and important and consequential
“and significant and meaningful and meritorious and holy and sacred and right and righteous and praiseworthy and laudable and commendable and most excellent and helpful and empowering and useful and profitable and holy and sacred and consecrated and hallowed and sanctified and blessed and divine and supernatural and religious or spiritual and pious and devout and saintly and pure and virtuous and sublime
“and inspiring and inspirational and uplifting and awe-inspiring and glorious and transcendent and magnificent,” ad infinitum (none of which involve being restored to sanity or developing a clear perspective but are about being emotionally-intoxicated and blind to both reality and Reality).
BLINDNESS ROOTED IN PSEUDO NON-DUALITY
Blind faith and mind-full-ness are not a product of only organized religions, spiritual groups, and other similar types of cults. Some report that “my guru told me to do this” and “my teacher taught me to do that on a daily basis.” Many use a variety of “non-dual tools” which – so they claim - frees them from the mind:
One woman said that she had spent over $100,000.00 to purchase special crystals, some up to three feet tall. On the days when “such-and-such aligns with such-and-such in the heavens,” she arranges her crystals in some sort of “special configuration” and then assumes the lotus position in the center of the arrangement and claims that she then becomes “empowered and energized and cleansed and purified.” How do you know that’s hogwash? Because she has not been cleansed at all: she is still totally “full of it.”
One man said that he always gets up, showers, has a cup of coffee, gets dressed for work, but then “puts on some music from the Far East or recorded by a Native American,” sits down, assumes the lotus position, and then meditates for fifteen of twenty minutes, reporting that the process frees him of his mind completely.”
The reply: “If you believe that, then you can also believe that a pregnant woman can take a break from her pregnancy each morning, that she can be ‘not pregnant’ for fifteen of twenty minutes, and can then be pregnant again after that break.” Pregnant is pregnant and mindful is mindful, and the pregnant woman will be pregnant until what is inside her womb is eliminated;
likewise, the mind will be full until what is inside it is eliminated completely. There is no such thing as being “free of the mind.” There is either a mind or there is the complete elimination the mind via eliminating all concepts, ideas, notions, (that is, “beliefs”) which are stored there.
Maharaj (explaining that he had cast aside the use of all “non-dual tools” after the mind was emptied into a “zero concepts” state and after the mind had thereby come to a complete end) said: “I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”
The original purpose of quiet time was not to become unconscious but to become hyper-conscious and hyper-focused as one concentrated fully, in the silence, while taking pointers into consideration in order to understand their full meaning. When the pointers are all understood and Realization happens, then meditation ends and natural abidance begins.
Of course the actual facts surrounding the man’s “fifteen to twenty minutes” of morning meditation were known: by the time he spends five minutes in traffic, he is back to raging at the “inconsiderate and reckless drivers on the road.” By the time he reaches the workplace, co-workers scurry off to corners or to other rooms, knowing the state of fury he is always in by the time he arrives each workday.
His claims about the benefits of his morning ritual are as bogus as the claims made by the woman with a $100,000.00 collection of crystals.
Many so-called “non-dualists” have also touted the spiritual benefits of their yoga exercises, mere exercise and mere stretching not being good enough. This has been shared:
Here, each morning while the coffee is brewing, a routine of stretching happens, the nearly-sixty-seven-year-old parts of the composite unity more prone to stiffness after a night’s sleep than in days gone by.
However, what happens here is mere stretching and is no perceived to be some series of physical, yoga-style movements which (supposedly) also have some “spiritual” or “beyond-the-physical” aspects or some associated “special meaning.”
See? It’s natural, not supernatural. There is no magical, other-worldly aspect to it. It’s just stretching. It’s just natural. Dogs stretch, cats stretch, and foxes stretch; moreover, they all do so without knowing yoga from a toga. They’re just stretching.
When a true awakening happens, it can be recognized by many signs, all of which have to do with de-accumulating and nothing to do with accumulating, including the de-accumulation of all “non-dual tools” or “spiritual exercises”:
Libraries often go; accoutrements often go; and other accumulations that had been collected prior to completion of the “journey” often go. All-natural abidance begins as the discarding and de-accumulating is finally completed.
It has been pointed out that some treat their bodies like human Christmas trees, adorning them with all sorts of decorations. Note what they do with what is nothing more than a composite unity which began with the coming together of plant food elements and which then resulted in an elemental plant food body:
though each composite unity is nothing more than one of the trillions of elemental bodies on the planet and one of the billions of human-style elemental plant food bodies on the planet, they mistake each such conglomeration of elements for something that is unique, special, and personal;
then, the effects of "The Human Christmas Tree Syndrome" begin. As a child, their parents wrap the accumulated earth elements in special clothing. Some parents hang ribbons from the elemental body’s hair. Later, some children are trained to apply expensive products to the skin to enhance its appearance.
Some begin to add adornments to all parts of the body, even piercing it or cutting away or mutilating various elemental parts and replacing those parts with metal or plastics; all that is done in an effort to attract attention to the body with which they identify.
They wrap it in fine, pretty things; they hang shiny things from it; some add rings over the years to stretch the length of their necks by ten or twelve inches. Some bind their feet to keep them small. Some sever lips and add plates to stretch their lower lips.
In business, many of them are told “this is the company uniform” or “this is the company standards of dress.” Image. Image. Image.
Then for those that have been told that they are members of this religion or that religion or who think they have chosen to follow this spiritual leader or that philosophical teacher, they have followed the demands to do other things to the elemental body which they identify with and use to project manufactured images in public:
Some of those will shave their heads or wear special robes. Others will adorn the elemental body with a special wooden or gold (or, yes, even gold-and-diamond-shaped) crosses. [Wonder if that would make Christ proud or make Christ weep?] Image. Image. Image.
Some supposedly advance to such levels that, when they appear in public, they dress up the elemental plant food body in shiny, bright red, Patton leather shoes and in ornamental robes made from material which could more appropriately be used to dress up the windows in the most magnificent European castles. They place mitres on top of the elemental body and wrap the rest of the body in cassocks or soutanes;
they even establish rubrics (regulations) for the type of vestments to be hung on an elemental plant food body during special ceremonies, those vestments including stoles (mink or ermine), albs, surplices, copes, rochets, zucchettos, maniples, veils, birettas, tunicles, chasubles, dalmatics, amices, cinctures, palliums, gloves, sandals, fanons, papal tiaras, subcinctoriums, faldas, chimeres, gaiters, caps, tippets, and gowns.
In some other quarters, males cultivate huge quantities of facial hair to make the elemental plant food body look different; some wrap their heads in a special cloth; and some demand that their women wear clothes that cover the entire elemental plant food body from head to toe. If the women flash an ankle, they can be stuck by any males in the community who happen to witness such transgressions.
All sorts of supposedly “special stuff” is placed at various times on the top of or over or under an elemental plant food body - when in public, of course – to show off rank and degrees of holiness and degrees of different-from-ment and degrees of better-than-ment and the uniqueness of the one wearing such adornments. In short, they dress up an elemental plant food body to show off publicly everything that is the opposite of non-duality and Oneness and no-different-from-ment and no-better-than-ment.
Image. Image. Image. Phoniness. Phoniness. Phoniness. All having to do with body identification wrapped in the cloak of religious or spiritual identities. It's all First Step body-body-body stuff, all presented – and misrepresented – as being religious or spiritual stuff.
What definitely comes to an end with Full Realization is the use of externals to try to address issues which are actually internal (that is, which are rooted in the content of the mind).
For persons who talk so much about “things Noumenal” and “A Supreme Self” and “The Supreme Self” and “God” or “Gods and Goddesses” and all other sorts of “other-worldly things,” there is certainly a great deal of focus on the body and what it’s wrapped in and what is being used to decorate it and how its adornments are used to project an image and a message, whether anyone else cares about that image or those messages or not.
Some allow the body to inhale and smell special smoke. Some have the body listen to holy words read or said and to special music or bells or chants or the sounds made when a special bowl sitting on a special pillow is struck with a special stick. Some have the body make unique, humming sounds. Some make the body produce rough, coarse guttural sounds.
Some have the body move to a special room or special temple or special church or special mosque and have the body look at the special things enshrined therein.
Maharaj gave short shrift to such image-manufacturers and image-sustainers. The best way to purchase a one-way ticket back to the noisy and dirty street at 10th Lane, Khetwadi in Bombay was to walk into the loft in an ochre robe and begin sharing one’s beliefs and displaying one’s vast wealth of accumulated knowledge and showing off the supposedly-high spiritual level that one has supposedly ascended to.
See, the run-of-the-mill religious and spiritual and political and racial cults have not cornered the market on faith-based nonsense, as evidenced by those having blind faith in their supposedly non-dual gurus and in their gurus’ supposedly non-dual pointers (which actually have nothing whatsoever to do with non-dual Truth at all).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Section Two offers other recent posts. (All of the nearly 2,400 posts as well as any specific topics which you’re interested in can be accessed by using the search feature at the top of the right column.)
14 December 2014
Duality is the father of polarization and polarization sets the stage for disagreement and conflict between those fixated at the opposite, extreme poles of all sorts of continuums, including “the far left” vs. “the far right”; “the religious ones” vs. “other religious ones”; “the religious ones” vs. “those in the wrong religion or sect or denomination”; “the religious” vs. “the non-religious”; “the spiritual ones” vs. “those-who-are-merely-religious ones”; "the spiritual" vs. "the not spiritual"; and “those functioning from a fact-based approach” vs. “those functioning from an emotionally-based approach.”
What does that look like when at play? It looks like the following, as witnessed by a friend residing in Sydney, Australia in a flat that is only about four blocks from the location where Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, until this morning, had been holding a number of people hostage for more than sixteen hours inside the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney:
it looks like all of the faith-based, ideology-based insane acts which happen all around the globe on a daily basis. Monis held his hostage at gunpoint and required them to hold up black and white flags, the flags which are popular among Sunni Islamist militant groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Monis had already been facing charges, including one for sexual assault and one for accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. His former lawyer said of Monis: “His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness."
In "the world" of blind-faith-based ideologues, rape and murder are obviously not incompatible with faith-based beliefs; thus, Monis is only one of billions of ideologues on the planet, and all of whom have the “clouded vision” that comes when rendered blind by the never-unquestioned beliefs and faith that was programmed into them.
Indeed, blind faith really does separate persons from “common sense and objectiveness,” attaching them to the ideological, illogical, belief systems which are passed on by all cults – including political cults, racial cults, religions, spiritual groups, etc.
Their attachment to such belief systems results in persons being driven by the hidden agendas of their assigned and / or assumed personalities. It is those subconscious agendas which are “so strong and so powerful” that they “cloud the vision,” resulting in faith-based blindness. And faith-based blindness will block any opportunity to see anything “sensibly or objectively."
Blind faith also assures the continuation of the polarization which differentiates between those operating from a position of wisdom (who are willing to question and to seek facts) versus those who are trapped in ignorance and insanity (who seek no facts whatsoever to support – or refute - their beliefs).
Additionally, blind faith and mind-full-ness always go hand-in-hand. They are co-dependent, existing alongside each other, simultaneously generating ignorant and insane thoughts and words and actions which are based in exceedingly-full minds (which have been filled with the most ignorant and insane beliefs imaginable).
A state of mindlessness, a state of zero concepts, a state of no-minded-ness cannot exist as long as persons adhere to their blind-faith-based beliefs because blind faith requires a passionate attachment to all sorts of concepts and ideas and values and principles and morals and standards and ethics and ideals and notions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) which are all deemed to be “worthy and important and consequential
“and significant and meaningful and meritorious and holy and sacred and right and righteous and praiseworthy and laudable and commendable and most excellent and helpful and empowering and useful and profitable and holy and sacred and consecrated and hallowed and sanctified and blessed and divine and supernatural and religious or spiritual and pious and devout and saintly and pure and virtuous and sublime
“and inspiring and inspirational and uplifting and awe-inspiring and glorious and transcendent and magnificent,” ad infinitum (none of which involve being restored to sanity or developing a clear perspective but are about being emotionally-intoxicated and blind to both reality and Reality).
BLINDNESS ROOTED IN PSEUDO NON-DUALITY
Blind faith and mind-full-ness are not a product of only organized religions, spiritual groups, and other similar types of cults. Some report that “my guru told me to do this” and “my teacher taught me to do that on a daily basis.” Many use a variety of “non-dual tools” which – so they claim - frees them from the mind:
One woman said that she had spent over $100,000.00 to purchase special crystals, some up to three feet tall. On the days when “such-and-such aligns with such-and-such in the heavens,” she arranges her crystals in some sort of “special configuration” and then assumes the lotus position in the center of the arrangement and claims that she then becomes “empowered and energized and cleansed and purified.” How do you know that’s hogwash? Because she has not been cleansed at all: she is still totally “full of it.”
One man said that he always gets up, showers, has a cup of coffee, gets dressed for work, but then “puts on some music from the Far East or recorded by a Native American,” sits down, assumes the lotus position, and then meditates for fifteen of twenty minutes, reporting that the process frees him of his mind completely.”
The reply: “If you believe that, then you can also believe that a pregnant woman can take a break from her pregnancy each morning, that she can be ‘not pregnant’ for fifteen of twenty minutes, and can then be pregnant again after that break.” Pregnant is pregnant and mindful is mindful, and the pregnant woman will be pregnant until what is inside her womb is eliminated;
likewise, the mind will be full until what is inside it is eliminated completely. There is no such thing as being “free of the mind.” There is either a mind or there is the complete elimination the mind via eliminating all concepts, ideas, notions, (that is, “beliefs”) which are stored there.
Maharaj (explaining that he had cast aside the use of all “non-dual tools” after the mind was emptied into a “zero concepts” state and after the mind had thereby come to a complete end) said: “I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”
The original purpose of quiet time was not to become unconscious but to become hyper-conscious and hyper-focused as one concentrated fully, in the silence, while taking pointers into consideration in order to understand their full meaning. When the pointers are all understood and Realization happens, then meditation ends and natural abidance begins.
Of course the actual facts surrounding the man’s “fifteen to twenty minutes” of morning meditation were known: by the time he spends five minutes in traffic, he is back to raging at the “inconsiderate and reckless drivers on the road.” By the time he reaches the workplace, co-workers scurry off to corners or to other rooms, knowing the state of fury he is always in by the time he arrives each workday.
His claims about the benefits of his morning ritual are as bogus as the claims made by the woman with a $100,000.00 collection of crystals.
Many so-called “non-dualists” have also touted the spiritual benefits of their yoga exercises, mere exercise and mere stretching not being good enough. This has been shared:
Here, each morning while the coffee is brewing, a routine of stretching happens, the nearly-sixty-seven-year-old parts of the composite unity more prone to stiffness after a night’s sleep than in days gone by.
However, what happens here is mere stretching and is no perceived to be some series of physical, yoga-style movements which (supposedly) also have some “spiritual” or “beyond-the-physical” aspects or some associated “special meaning.”
See? It’s natural, not supernatural. There is no magical, other-worldly aspect to it. It’s just stretching. It’s just natural. Dogs stretch, cats stretch, and foxes stretch; moreover, they all do so without knowing yoga from a toga. They’re just stretching.
When a true awakening happens, it can be recognized by many signs, all of which have to do with de-accumulating and nothing to do with accumulating, including the de-accumulation of all “non-dual tools” or “spiritual exercises”:
Libraries often go; accoutrements often go; and other accumulations that had been collected prior to completion of the “journey” often go. All-natural abidance begins as the discarding and de-accumulating is finally completed.
It has been pointed out that some treat their bodies like human Christmas trees, adorning them with all sorts of decorations. Note what they do with what is nothing more than a composite unity which began with the coming together of plant food elements and which then resulted in an elemental plant food body:
though each composite unity is nothing more than one of the trillions of elemental bodies on the planet and one of the billions of human-style elemental plant food bodies on the planet, they mistake each such conglomeration of elements for something that is unique, special, and personal;
then, the effects of "The Human Christmas Tree Syndrome" begin. As a child, their parents wrap the accumulated earth elements in special clothing. Some parents hang ribbons from the elemental body’s hair. Later, some children are trained to apply expensive products to the skin to enhance its appearance.
Some begin to add adornments to all parts of the body, even piercing it or cutting away or mutilating various elemental parts and replacing those parts with metal or plastics; all that is done in an effort to attract attention to the body with which they identify.
They wrap it in fine, pretty things; they hang shiny things from it; some add rings over the years to stretch the length of their necks by ten or twelve inches. Some bind their feet to keep them small. Some sever lips and add plates to stretch their lower lips.
In business, many of them are told “this is the company uniform” or “this is the company standards of dress.” Image. Image. Image.
Then for those that have been told that they are members of this religion or that religion or who think they have chosen to follow this spiritual leader or that philosophical teacher, they have followed the demands to do other things to the elemental body which they identify with and use to project manufactured images in public:
Some of those will shave their heads or wear special robes. Others will adorn the elemental body with a special wooden or gold (or, yes, even gold-and-diamond-shaped) crosses. [Wonder if that would make Christ proud or make Christ weep?] Image. Image. Image.
Some supposedly advance to such levels that, when they appear in public, they dress up the elemental plant food body in shiny, bright red, Patton leather shoes and in ornamental robes made from material which could more appropriately be used to dress up the windows in the most magnificent European castles. They place mitres on top of the elemental body and wrap the rest of the body in cassocks or soutanes;
they even establish rubrics (regulations) for the type of vestments to be hung on an elemental plant food body during special ceremonies, those vestments including stoles (mink or ermine), albs, surplices, copes, rochets, zucchettos, maniples, veils, birettas, tunicles, chasubles, dalmatics, amices, cinctures, palliums, gloves, sandals, fanons, papal tiaras, subcinctoriums, faldas, chimeres, gaiters, caps, tippets, and gowns.
In some other quarters, males cultivate huge quantities of facial hair to make the elemental plant food body look different; some wrap their heads in a special cloth; and some demand that their women wear clothes that cover the entire elemental plant food body from head to toe. If the women flash an ankle, they can be stuck by any males in the community who happen to witness such transgressions.
All sorts of supposedly “special stuff” is placed at various times on the top of or over or under an elemental plant food body - when in public, of course – to show off rank and degrees of holiness and degrees of different-from-ment and degrees of better-than-ment and the uniqueness of the one wearing such adornments. In short, they dress up an elemental plant food body to show off publicly everything that is the opposite of non-duality and Oneness and no-different-from-ment and no-better-than-ment.
Image. Image. Image. Phoniness. Phoniness. Phoniness. All having to do with body identification wrapped in the cloak of religious or spiritual identities. It's all First Step body-body-body stuff, all presented – and misrepresented – as being religious or spiritual stuff.
What definitely comes to an end with Full Realization is the use of externals to try to address issues which are actually internal (that is, which are rooted in the content of the mind).
For persons who talk so much about “things Noumenal” and “A Supreme Self” and “The Supreme Self” and “God” or “Gods and Goddesses” and all other sorts of “other-worldly things,” there is certainly a great deal of focus on the body and what it’s wrapped in and what is being used to decorate it and how its adornments are used to project an image and a message, whether anyone else cares about that image or those messages or not.
Some allow the body to inhale and smell special smoke. Some have the body listen to holy words read or said and to special music or bells or chants or the sounds made when a special bowl sitting on a special pillow is struck with a special stick. Some have the body make unique, humming sounds. Some make the body produce rough, coarse guttural sounds.
Some have the body move to a special room or special temple or special church or special mosque and have the body look at the special things enshrined therein.
Maharaj gave short shrift to such image-manufacturers and image-sustainers. The best way to purchase a one-way ticket back to the noisy and dirty street at 10th Lane, Khetwadi in Bombay was to walk into the loft in an ochre robe and begin sharing one’s beliefs and displaying one’s vast wealth of accumulated knowledge and showing off the supposedly-high spiritual level that one has supposedly ascended to.
See, the run-of-the-mill religious and spiritual and political and racial cults have not cornered the market on faith-based nonsense, as evidenced by those having blind faith in their supposedly non-dual gurus and in their gurus’ supposedly non-dual pointers (which actually have nothing whatsoever to do with non-dual Truth at all).
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
NOTE: Sections Two through Six follow:
Section Two offers other recent posts. (All of the nearly 2,400 posts as well as any specific topics which you’re interested in can be accessed by using the search feature at the top of the right column.)
Section Three offers ways that seekers have Realized, tools which some have used, and information on floyd's books.
Section Four offers four free eBooks, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.
Section Five discusses parallels in Maharaj's and Floyd's "journey" and provides a chance for you to see if you've had any such parallels as well.
Section Six offers information on paperbacks that are available through Amazon.com for those who prefer a book in hand.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
Section Four offers four free eBooks, compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.
Section Five discusses parallels in Maharaj's and Floyd's "journey" and provides a chance for you to see if you've had any such parallels as well.
Section Six offers information on paperbacks that are available through Amazon.com for those who prefer a book in hand.
* * * * * *
SECTION TWO:
Other Recent Posts
14 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: Programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination generate blind faith, and blind faith – in turn - locks persons into assuming and playing the roles of “The Perfectionist,” “The Judge,” “The Reformer,” and “The Know-It-All”; thereafter, programming, conditioning, etc. become the tools of their trade.
With the dermatologist mentioned earlier, and with all who are like him, there is always at play an effort to provide “makeovers” which are intended to make all persons like them. In his case, he has used the tools to program, condition, domesticate, acculturate, brainwash, and indoctrinate his entire staff to mimic him, to speak the words he speaks, and to think and believe only what he thinks and believes.
All persons like him do the same. Just as parents use those tools to try to make their children into a mirror image of themselves, so those who are programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated from early on can spend an entire relative existence absorbed in the process of trying to program, condition, domesticate, acculturate, brainwash, and indoctrinate all those whose paths they cross.
And all of that nonsense is a result of having never questioned any of their blind-faith-based beliefs which they were programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated to believe.
That is one of the key points to understand if one would understand the wide range of effects which are cultivated by blind faith: not only does it put persons to sleep but it also generates judgmentalism, rigidity, inflexibility, severity, strictness, stiffness, and an overall anal view of - and anal approach to - life. There is no “relaxing and taking it easy” among obsessive, perfectionistic, forever-uptight, controlling persons who are driven by their beliefs which are being sustained by blind faith.
Assuming the role of “The Perfectionist,” “The Judge,” “The Reformer, and “The Know-It-All,” their focus of attention will be on “What’s wrong?” and “How I can I change that and improve the world and make it right?” and “How can I make people think and talk and behave exactly as I think and talk and behave?” and “How can I make everyone believe exactly what I believe?”
Maharaj’s take on that mindset? “The idea of responsibility is in your mind. You think there must be something or somebody solely responsible for all that happens.”
Thus, there’s another result of abiding in the grip of blind faith: a desire to control people, places, and things; to control everyone’s thoughts and words and actions. Talk about “malignant narcissism.” Talk about levels of arrogance that are usually only reached by sociopaths and psychopaths.
Yet if the doc – and those like him – were asked, “Is there anything at all about the way you think and talk and believe that is like the way that members of ISIS think and talk and believe?” well, you can imagine the reaction.
The by-product of the programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination which generate blind faith and a belief that one is perfect will be just like the results with the dermatologist: a personality-driven individual who does not focus on a patient’s skin issues but focuses on the doc's personality’s hidden agenda. And the same happens with any blind-faith perfectionist, employed or not; Christian or not; Muslim or not; supposedly intelligent or not; or obsessed with “helping” or not.
The point has been offered often here: “There is no ‘one’ here who believes in anything, so there is certainly no one here who wants you to believe anything, either.” This deal is about un-learning, about un-teaching, and about emptying minds (in those cases where one is interested in being truly and totally free). Why cling to a mind-full-ness state when all minds are filled with nonsense and contradictions and when the beliefs stored therein only inspire disagreements (not only with “others” but also with “self’)?
Those blind-faith, perfectionistic types are unable to see their own character / personality defects but are self-appointed experts at finding the defects of others, and persons of that ilk who have come here only saw their own personality liabilities if they came to understand psychological projection and came to understand that all which they are seeing that is wrong with the world (and all which they are seeing that is wrong with others) are really their own traits . . . that is, the traits of their own false, phony, assumed selves (which they are now projecting onto “the world” and “others”).
Maharaj explained the process of projecting this way: “There is only one mistake you are making: you take the inner for the outer, and the outer for the inner. What is in you, you take to be outside you, and what is outside you take to be in you. The mind and feelings are external, but you take them to be intimate. You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection of your psyche. That is the basic confusion”
and
“Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination!”
What was his explanation to those who are functioning in the blind faith, rigid, judgmental fashion which results in warped perceptions about “the world” and in the arrogance-based belief among those types that they “can make a huge difference” and that they “really can change the awful, horrible, hideous world” for the better?
Maharaj: “You are the maker of the world in which you live.”
Maharaj also said, the world which you think you see "exists only as a dream in [your] consciousness”
and
“You are not in the world; the world is in you” (that is, in your mind); so, an awful, horrible, hideous world can only be generated by a mind filled with thoughts and beliefs that are also “awful, horrible, and hideous.”
Furthermore, he said, “As [one] only know the contents of [the] consciousness, and an outside world is unprovable, all perceivables are only in [the] mind”
and
“Is there a world outside your knowledge? Can you go beyond what you ‘know’? You may postulate a world beyond the mind, but it will remain a concept, unproved and unprovable. Your experience is your proof, and it is valid for you only. Who else can have your experience, when the other person is only as real as he appears in your experience?”
In that regard, Maharaj advised seekers: "'The world' appears to you so overwhelmingly real because you think of it all the time; cease thinking of it and it will dissolve into thin mist.” See? Obsessed.
Beginning shortly after “birth” and then continuing throughout the formative years, the low esteem levels that come with being raised by - typically - hypercritical parents (or the too-high esteem if raised by indulgent parents) set the stage from the very beginning for the development of beliefs which, in turn, lead to ultra-high levels of blind faith, arrogance, narcissism, judgmentalism, and a desire to show all people that one has all the answers - which leads to one presenting himself or herself as “The All-Knowing One.”
Of that, Maharaj observed: “The world comes into being only when you are born in a body. No body - no world”
and
“To be born means to create a world round yourself as the centre” (as in "self-centered").
The end result of that? Such persons often feel overly-confident and overly-competent, developing an idealistic approach with a deep sense of responsibility. They are attracted only to the super-orderly and see themselves as being highly-principled. They only see the potential for improvement, noticing what they deem (dualistically) to be “right or wrong” and become highly motivated to improve everyone and everything. Yet they often become frustrated, especially by people whom they see as “breaking the rules” or “doing it wrong.”
[By the way, to “save face,” they spin their ugly truth, whitewashing and distorting their actual motive - to control everyone else - by claiming that “helping people is the right thing to do.”]
The even darker side of that mindset especially manifests if they become even more stressed than they usually are or if being driven even more by egotism or other ego-defense mechanisms than they usually are.
One author explained the results this way: One’s attention to “things being wrong” can lead to a compulsive need to criticize, judge, and “correct” both yourself and others. Sometimes that sounds like a “running commentary” to those around you. It can become a major challenge to ever see anything that is "good enough" or anyone who is "good enough." With a tendency to engage in black and white (dualistic) thinking, then relationships, tasks, and even life in general are judged either “good or bad,” “right or wrong,” “fair or unfair.”
Such types often take on too much responsibility and then may feel resentful that others aren't doing their share or coming through on their commitments. Forsaking pleasure in favor of what “should” be done adds fuel to the fire of resentment that burns inside. Fear of making mistakes or appearing foolish can lead to procrastination in decision-making; additionally, shame and guilt can become high on the list of their motivators.
When stressed, they shout out sometimes but suppress at other times (as was the case with the doc’s “silent treatment” and his walking out of the room). Suppressing their anger about things and people being wrong - but not being able to change those things or people - can push those among this type to feel overly-emotional, melancholy, depressed, and less-connected to one's intuition / inner guru. These types can also feel driven to withdraw from others when trapped in their moodiness (exactly as happened with doc).
The overall result, therefore? Whether you are being driven by blind faith and having to deal with yourself (your “self”); or whether one is with a mate being driven by blind faith; or whether one is like that and dealing with neighbors, co-workers, employers or employees, or persons in traffic; persons shopping; persons involved in city or state or county or national issues; or whether one is dealing with others involved in international issues, then you (in your own case) or they (in their cases) are going to be dealing with someone who is subsumed in perfectionism and judgmentalism;
with someone with a tendency to “know-it-all” and to be rigid and inflexible; with someone who is obsessive-compulsive; with someone who is overly-serious and finding the faults in others while being blind to their own shortcomings; with one being inflexible and having a tendency to be disapproving and having a tendency to micro-manage at home and / or work; with someone who avoids anything that might not turn out perfectly; and with someone focused on living up to the silly expectations of parents, teachers, preachers, priests, rabbis, ayatollahs, etc.
Such persons are forever going about the business of building walls, thus fostering more and more duality.
Maharaj: “There is no wall between us, except the one built by you.”
Moreover, “Whatever happens, happens to you, by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive.”
So much for the doc’s message of Christian love, and so much for that message with all who are like the doc: talking “love” but behaving in totally hateful ways.
Regarding that, Maharaj said: “However great and complete is ‘your world’, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory.”
And things illusory can only be imagined to be real by those who are blind, and especially among those who are blinded by faith in what they are told rather than in what can be revealed via an inner guru or the inner resource (but never by outer gurus or outer resources).
Of such blindness which leads doc and those like him to believe that they alone see clearly the way that things are (and the way they should be), Maharaj said: “There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 December 2014
With the dermatologist mentioned earlier, and with all who are like him, there is always at play an effort to provide “makeovers” which are intended to make all persons like them. In his case, he has used the tools to program, condition, domesticate, acculturate, brainwash, and indoctrinate his entire staff to mimic him, to speak the words he speaks, and to think and believe only what he thinks and believes.
All persons like him do the same. Just as parents use those tools to try to make their children into a mirror image of themselves, so those who are programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated from early on can spend an entire relative existence absorbed in the process of trying to program, condition, domesticate, acculturate, brainwash, and indoctrinate all those whose paths they cross.
And all of that nonsense is a result of having never questioned any of their blind-faith-based beliefs which they were programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated to believe.
That is one of the key points to understand if one would understand the wide range of effects which are cultivated by blind faith: not only does it put persons to sleep but it also generates judgmentalism, rigidity, inflexibility, severity, strictness, stiffness, and an overall anal view of - and anal approach to - life. There is no “relaxing and taking it easy” among obsessive, perfectionistic, forever-uptight, controlling persons who are driven by their beliefs which are being sustained by blind faith.
Assuming the role of “The Perfectionist,” “The Judge,” “The Reformer, and “The Know-It-All,” their focus of attention will be on “What’s wrong?” and “How I can I change that and improve the world and make it right?” and “How can I make people think and talk and behave exactly as I think and talk and behave?” and “How can I make everyone believe exactly what I believe?”
Maharaj’s take on that mindset? “The idea of responsibility is in your mind. You think there must be something or somebody solely responsible for all that happens.”
Thus, there’s another result of abiding in the grip of blind faith: a desire to control people, places, and things; to control everyone’s thoughts and words and actions. Talk about “malignant narcissism.” Talk about levels of arrogance that are usually only reached by sociopaths and psychopaths.
Yet if the doc – and those like him – were asked, “Is there anything at all about the way you think and talk and believe that is like the way that members of ISIS think and talk and believe?” well, you can imagine the reaction.
The by-product of the programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination which generate blind faith and a belief that one is perfect will be just like the results with the dermatologist: a personality-driven individual who does not focus on a patient’s skin issues but focuses on the doc's personality’s hidden agenda. And the same happens with any blind-faith perfectionist, employed or not; Christian or not; Muslim or not; supposedly intelligent or not; or obsessed with “helping” or not.
The point has been offered often here: “There is no ‘one’ here who believes in anything, so there is certainly no one here who wants you to believe anything, either.” This deal is about un-learning, about un-teaching, and about emptying minds (in those cases where one is interested in being truly and totally free). Why cling to a mind-full-ness state when all minds are filled with nonsense and contradictions and when the beliefs stored therein only inspire disagreements (not only with “others” but also with “self’)?
Those blind-faith, perfectionistic types are unable to see their own character / personality defects but are self-appointed experts at finding the defects of others, and persons of that ilk who have come here only saw their own personality liabilities if they came to understand psychological projection and came to understand that all which they are seeing that is wrong with the world (and all which they are seeing that is wrong with others) are really their own traits . . . that is, the traits of their own false, phony, assumed selves (which they are now projecting onto “the world” and “others”).
Maharaj explained the process of projecting this way: “There is only one mistake you are making: you take the inner for the outer, and the outer for the inner. What is in you, you take to be outside you, and what is outside you take to be in you. The mind and feelings are external, but you take them to be intimate. You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection of your psyche. That is the basic confusion”
and
“Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination!”
What was his explanation to those who are functioning in the blind faith, rigid, judgmental fashion which results in warped perceptions about “the world” and in the arrogance-based belief among those types that they “can make a huge difference” and that they “really can change the awful, horrible, hideous world” for the better?
Maharaj: “You are the maker of the world in which you live.”
Maharaj also said, the world which you think you see "exists only as a dream in [your] consciousness”
and
“You are not in the world; the world is in you” (that is, in your mind); so, an awful, horrible, hideous world can only be generated by a mind filled with thoughts and beliefs that are also “awful, horrible, and hideous.”
Furthermore, he said, “As [one] only know the contents of [the] consciousness, and an outside world is unprovable, all perceivables are only in [the] mind”
and
“Is there a world outside your knowledge? Can you go beyond what you ‘know’? You may postulate a world beyond the mind, but it will remain a concept, unproved and unprovable. Your experience is your proof, and it is valid for you only. Who else can have your experience, when the other person is only as real as he appears in your experience?”
In that regard, Maharaj advised seekers: "'The world' appears to you so overwhelmingly real because you think of it all the time; cease thinking of it and it will dissolve into thin mist.” See? Obsessed.
Beginning shortly after “birth” and then continuing throughout the formative years, the low esteem levels that come with being raised by - typically - hypercritical parents (or the too-high esteem if raised by indulgent parents) set the stage from the very beginning for the development of beliefs which, in turn, lead to ultra-high levels of blind faith, arrogance, narcissism, judgmentalism, and a desire to show all people that one has all the answers - which leads to one presenting himself or herself as “The All-Knowing One.”
Of that, Maharaj observed: “The world comes into being only when you are born in a body. No body - no world”
and
“To be born means to create a world round yourself as the centre” (as in "self-centered").
The end result of that? Such persons often feel overly-confident and overly-competent, developing an idealistic approach with a deep sense of responsibility. They are attracted only to the super-orderly and see themselves as being highly-principled. They only see the potential for improvement, noticing what they deem (dualistically) to be “right or wrong” and become highly motivated to improve everyone and everything. Yet they often become frustrated, especially by people whom they see as “breaking the rules” or “doing it wrong.”
[By the way, to “save face,” they spin their ugly truth, whitewashing and distorting their actual motive - to control everyone else - by claiming that “helping people is the right thing to do.”]
The even darker side of that mindset especially manifests if they become even more stressed than they usually are or if being driven even more by egotism or other ego-defense mechanisms than they usually are.
One author explained the results this way: One’s attention to “things being wrong” can lead to a compulsive need to criticize, judge, and “correct” both yourself and others. Sometimes that sounds like a “running commentary” to those around you. It can become a major challenge to ever see anything that is "good enough" or anyone who is "good enough." With a tendency to engage in black and white (dualistic) thinking, then relationships, tasks, and even life in general are judged either “good or bad,” “right or wrong,” “fair or unfair.”
Such types often take on too much responsibility and then may feel resentful that others aren't doing their share or coming through on their commitments. Forsaking pleasure in favor of what “should” be done adds fuel to the fire of resentment that burns inside. Fear of making mistakes or appearing foolish can lead to procrastination in decision-making; additionally, shame and guilt can become high on the list of their motivators.
When stressed, they shout out sometimes but suppress at other times (as was the case with the doc’s “silent treatment” and his walking out of the room). Suppressing their anger about things and people being wrong - but not being able to change those things or people - can push those among this type to feel overly-emotional, melancholy, depressed, and less-connected to one's intuition / inner guru. These types can also feel driven to withdraw from others when trapped in their moodiness (exactly as happened with doc).
The overall result, therefore? Whether you are being driven by blind faith and having to deal with yourself (your “self”); or whether one is with a mate being driven by blind faith; or whether one is like that and dealing with neighbors, co-workers, employers or employees, or persons in traffic; persons shopping; persons involved in city or state or county or national issues; or whether one is dealing with others involved in international issues, then you (in your own case) or they (in their cases) are going to be dealing with someone who is subsumed in perfectionism and judgmentalism;
with someone with a tendency to “know-it-all” and to be rigid and inflexible; with someone who is obsessive-compulsive; with someone who is overly-serious and finding the faults in others while being blind to their own shortcomings; with one being inflexible and having a tendency to be disapproving and having a tendency to micro-manage at home and / or work; with someone who avoids anything that might not turn out perfectly; and with someone focused on living up to the silly expectations of parents, teachers, preachers, priests, rabbis, ayatollahs, etc.
Such persons are forever going about the business of building walls, thus fostering more and more duality.
Maharaj: “There is no wall between us, except the one built by you.”
Moreover, “Whatever happens, happens to you, by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive.”
So much for the doc’s message of Christian love, and so much for that message with all who are like the doc: talking “love” but behaving in totally hateful ways.
Regarding that, Maharaj said: “However great and complete is ‘your world’, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory.”
And things illusory can only be imagined to be real by those who are blind, and especially among those who are blinded by faith in what they are told rather than in what can be revealed via an inner guru or the inner resource (but never by outer gurus or outer resources).
Of such blindness which leads doc and those like him to believe that they alone see clearly the way that things are (and the way they should be), Maharaj said: “There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
13 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[See, it’s a continuous loop, inescapable in almost every case: the programming, etc. generated the blind faith and then blind faith reinforces one’s attachment to everything which was passed down via programming, conditioning, etc. in the first place.]
All programming, conditioning, etc. is passed down by persons who are asleep, so the messaging that is passed down via the use of programming, conditioning, etc. also puts the one being programmed and conditioned, etc. to sleep. Then the blind faith and the programming and conditioning etc. assure that the one put to sleep will most likely remain that way for the entire relative existence.
Moreover, among those who report with such pride that they live by faith alone, the key operative word in the phrase “blind faith” is “blind.” To speak of “blind faith” is actually a redundancy. To live by faith rather than by fact is automatically to be blind . . . blind to truth, blind to reality, and certainly blind to Reality.
Some have said, “But Floyd, you live by faith all day long. When you drive down the street, you have faith that the drivers in cars approaching from the opposite direction with honor the line down the center of the road and stay on their side of the line rather than swerving over and hitting you head on.”
The reply: “That’s nonsense. Why would I have any faith in drivers whom I have never met? I have no faith in them at all. Several of them over the years have veered into my lane and nearly struck my car head on. It is because I have no faith in them that I am fully awake, aware, conscious, and focused when driving so that the next time someone driving in his or her sleep might allow their car to begin moving into my lane, I have at least some chance of taking an evasive action.
Not a single week goes by when I do not have to take some kind of preventive step to avoid another driver who changes lanes in front of my car and then suddenly stops to turn; when some driver rolls through a stop sign and I have to hit my brakes to avoid him or her; when someone turns in front of my car rather than being willing to wait a few more seconds for me to pass before they turn.
The roads in the U.S. - but also elsewhere - are some of the most dangerous in the world because most among the masses are totally asleep; totally distracted; talking on a cell phone; texting on a cell phone; adjusting the selector on their radios or CD players; looking at a friend beside them or in the back seat rather than looking at the road; or – as happened last week on nearby Highway 105 – trying to change her baby’s diaper while her car was speeding along the road at 65 m.p.h. (or nearly 105 k.p.h.)
And what is the existence like for those walking in their sleep? Here come some of them now:
Sleepwalking is akin to abiding in the "personality trance," the condition in which the masses are trapped. Both terms apply equally to the non-Realized masses. Here come some more of them now.
It is as if (post-programming, post-conditioning, etc.) persons become just like zombies. The masses live out their existence in a "walking dead" fashion, just like those characters above who were featured in a 1968 movie.
How dangerous is it, really, to walk in one’s sleep, to talk in one’s sleep, to drive in one’s sleep? Quite dangerous, relatively speaking, yet that is the case with most among the masses.
A 24-year old British woman, Amy Wigfull, age 24, was placed on life support this past summer after she fell fifty feet from a hotel window. Toxicology tests proved she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol; instead, she had been sleepwalking when she fell from the window of a Malaga, Spain hotel. She suffered a broken back, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and bleeding of the brain.
Some visitor’s know that on West 69th Street – on the opposite side of the street from the house in which “floyd” was raised – lived a fellow named John K. It was, from around the age of six or so, that John began sleepwalking. In the beginning, he might go to the refrigerator and eat something during the night, but he would have no memory of that at all the next morning. Later, his parents might rise in the morning and find John asleep in the bathtub.
The potential danger increased when he began leaving the house at night while sleepwalking: he was found asleep on the front porch on one occasion; in the back seat of the family car on another; and later on he was found several blocks from home, walking in the middle of the street.
These facts were shared earlier in a summer of 2014 post:
Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or that they had fallen asleep at the wheel.
NOTE: Never have I chased down those driving in their sleep and offered to wake them. If one would be awake, that one must come here and make a request. Otherwise, all of the sleepwalkers are merely witnessed as they walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, shop in their sleep, run a cash register at the checkout counter in a store while asleep, say what they say to their mates in their sleep, say what they say to their employer or employees in their sleep, or take a customer’s food order in their sleep.
[Last week while visiting my daughter in Austin, I left her house and went out for breakfast the first morning after she had left for work. I stopped by a nearby restaurant which serves breakfast and placed my order. Within a few minutes, the waitress was back asking, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” Because my daughter had already served coffee earlier, I ordered my second-favorite breakfast beverage, orange juice, so when she asked, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” the response was, “Actually, neither. I asked for a glass of orange juice.” She said, “Oh, that’s right! Sorry!” and left. Of course my being “right” was not the concern, her affirmation of my being correct about my original order notwithstanding. The concern was, would she be anywhere close to "right" with the order. So far, there was little confidence that such would be the case. Sure enough, I saw her returning, empty-handed, and knew another lapse had occurred. She said, “I am SO sorry.” [Then whispering so that the manager would not hear her] “I had a rough night last night. My bad! So you did say you wanted your eggs scrambled, right?” Again, “Actually, I asked that they be cooked ‘over easy’.” She: “Oh damn! I mean, heck! That’s right. Where did I get scrambled? Duh,” and she left for the third time. I did not answer her question, "Where did I get scrambled" for her, though I understood exactly. I did not explain that she – or more accurately, her thoughts and her mind and her brain overall - had been scrambled starting in childhood; nor did I explain that, after leaving home, she has taken over the scrambling-of-her-brain job where her parents left off. See? “Taking a customer’s food order in their sleep.” And that is the way that the relative existence unfolds for the 99%+ who are among the non-Realized masses who have been lulled to sleep without having even the slightest clue at all that such is their circumstance. Additionally, little does she know but - here in Texas, where many wear guns on their hips (readily available to use to shot whomever they want to shoot) - someone may well draw a pistol and shoot her after such insane nonsense has happened with their order. And little does she know that the right-wing, God-fearing, Lone-Star-flag-loving judges in this state, after hearing the shooter’s explanation, will likely dismiss the case as being “justifiable homicide.”]
Research also shows that at least 30% of all people have engaged in sleepwalking at some time in their lives. Non-dualists know better. Non-dualists know that the percentage is actually more than 99%.
and
“To be aware is to be awake. ‘Unaware’ means ‘asleep’.”
That typical - though certainly not "normal" - condition of humanity in general would be funny except for the fact that it is, you know, not funny at all. Instead, it is often dangerous, relatively speaking; in fact, it is the most dangerous condition of all.
And it is rooted in the most dangerous belief of all, namely, the belief that one can traverse the relative existence “much better” if one is blind (that is, totally asleep, totally willing to have faith in everything they have been told) rather than (1) being able to see reality and able to see Reality and rather than (2) being - as the case is now - totally unable to differentiate between what is false and what is true.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: So one person wrote to say that he “admits that blind faith might have some serious, relative drawbacks” but then added, “But the most dangerous belief?”
How else is blind faith the most dangerous belief of all, in addition to the fact that it results from programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination and then supports the programming, conditioning, etc. which guaranteed the belief in – and high regard for – one’s blind faith to begin with.
How else is blind faith the most dangerous belief of all, in addition to the fact that it results from programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination and then supports the programming, conditioning, etc. which guaranteed the belief in – and high regard for – one’s blind faith to begin with.
[See, it’s a continuous loop, inescapable in almost every case: the programming, etc. generated the blind faith and then blind faith reinforces one’s attachment to everything which was passed down via programming, conditioning, etc. in the first place.]
All programming, conditioning, etc. is passed down by persons who are asleep, so the messaging that is passed down via the use of programming, conditioning, etc. also puts the one being programmed and conditioned, etc. to sleep. Then the blind faith and the programming and conditioning etc. assure that the one put to sleep will most likely remain that way for the entire relative existence.
Moreover, among those who report with such pride that they live by faith alone, the key operative word in the phrase “blind faith” is “blind.” To speak of “blind faith” is actually a redundancy. To live by faith rather than by fact is automatically to be blind . . . blind to truth, blind to reality, and certainly blind to Reality.
Some have said, “But Floyd, you live by faith all day long. When you drive down the street, you have faith that the drivers in cars approaching from the opposite direction with honor the line down the center of the road and stay on their side of the line rather than swerving over and hitting you head on.”
The reply: “That’s nonsense. Why would I have any faith in drivers whom I have never met? I have no faith in them at all. Several of them over the years have veered into my lane and nearly struck my car head on. It is because I have no faith in them that I am fully awake, aware, conscious, and focused when driving so that the next time someone driving in his or her sleep might allow their car to begin moving into my lane, I have at least some chance of taking an evasive action.
Not a single week goes by when I do not have to take some kind of preventive step to avoid another driver who changes lanes in front of my car and then suddenly stops to turn; when some driver rolls through a stop sign and I have to hit my brakes to avoid him or her; when someone turns in front of my car rather than being willing to wait a few more seconds for me to pass before they turn.
The roads in the U.S. - but also elsewhere - are some of the most dangerous in the world because most among the masses are totally asleep; totally distracted; talking on a cell phone; texting on a cell phone; adjusting the selector on their radios or CD players; looking at a friend beside them or in the back seat rather than looking at the road; or – as happened last week on nearby Highway 105 – trying to change her baby’s diaper while her car was speeding along the road at 65 m.p.h. (or nearly 105 k.p.h.)
And what is the existence like for those walking in their sleep? Here come some of them now:
Sleepwalking is akin to abiding in the "personality trance," the condition in which the masses are trapped. Both terms apply equally to the non-Realized masses. Here come some more of them now.
It is as if (post-programming, post-conditioning, etc.) persons become just like zombies. The masses live out their existence in a "walking dead" fashion, just like those characters above who were featured in a 1968 movie.
How dangerous is it, really, to walk in one’s sleep, to talk in one’s sleep, to drive in one’s sleep? Quite dangerous, relatively speaking, yet that is the case with most among the masses.
A 24-year old British woman, Amy Wigfull, age 24, was placed on life support this past summer after she fell fifty feet from a hotel window. Toxicology tests proved she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol; instead, she had been sleepwalking when she fell from the window of a Malaga, Spain hotel. She suffered a broken back, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs and bleeding of the brain.
Some visitor’s know that on West 69th Street – on the opposite side of the street from the house in which “floyd” was raised – lived a fellow named John K. It was, from around the age of six or so, that John began sleepwalking. In the beginning, he might go to the refrigerator and eat something during the night, but he would have no memory of that at all the next morning. Later, his parents might rise in the morning and find John asleep in the bathtub.
The potential danger increased when he began leaving the house at night while sleepwalking: he was found asleep on the front porch on one occasion; in the back seat of the family car on another; and later on he was found several blocks from home, walking in the middle of the street.
These facts were shared earlier in a summer of 2014 post:
Last year, a survey in the U.S. showed that 168 million people admitted that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy or that they had fallen asleep at the wheel.
(That is out of 196,000,000 drivers, which amounts to approximately 86% of all drivers. More than 100,000 wrecks occur annually as a result of driving while sleeping. Those are the ones in which drivers admit that they fell asleep at the wheel. Far more likely occur without the actual cause being revealed.)
Data from Australia, England, Finland, and other European nations indicates that drowsy driving or driving while asleep cause between 10% and up to 30% percent of all crashes annually.
NOTE: Never have I chased down those driving in their sleep and offered to wake them. If one would be awake, that one must come here and make a request. Otherwise, all of the sleepwalkers are merely witnessed as they walk in their sleep, talk in their sleep, drive in their sleep, shop in their sleep, run a cash register at the checkout counter in a store while asleep, say what they say to their mates in their sleep, say what they say to their employer or employees in their sleep, or take a customer’s food order in their sleep.
[Last week while visiting my daughter in Austin, I left her house and went out for breakfast the first morning after she had left for work. I stopped by a nearby restaurant which serves breakfast and placed my order. Within a few minutes, the waitress was back asking, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” Because my daughter had already served coffee earlier, I ordered my second-favorite breakfast beverage, orange juice, so when she asked, “Did you say you wanted coffee or milk?” the response was, “Actually, neither. I asked for a glass of orange juice.” She said, “Oh, that’s right! Sorry!” and left. Of course my being “right” was not the concern, her affirmation of my being correct about my original order notwithstanding. The concern was, would she be anywhere close to "right" with the order. So far, there was little confidence that such would be the case. Sure enough, I saw her returning, empty-handed, and knew another lapse had occurred. She said, “I am SO sorry.” [Then whispering so that the manager would not hear her] “I had a rough night last night. My bad! So you did say you wanted your eggs scrambled, right?” Again, “Actually, I asked that they be cooked ‘over easy’.” She: “Oh damn! I mean, heck! That’s right. Where did I get scrambled? Duh,” and she left for the third time. I did not answer her question, "Where did I get scrambled" for her, though I understood exactly. I did not explain that she – or more accurately, her thoughts and her mind and her brain overall - had been scrambled starting in childhood; nor did I explain that, after leaving home, she has taken over the scrambling-of-her-brain job where her parents left off. See? “Taking a customer’s food order in their sleep.” And that is the way that the relative existence unfolds for the 99%+ who are among the non-Realized masses who have been lulled to sleep without having even the slightest clue at all that such is their circumstance. Additionally, little does she know but - here in Texas, where many wear guns on their hips (readily available to use to shot whomever they want to shoot) - someone may well draw a pistol and shoot her after such insane nonsense has happened with their order. And little does she know that the right-wing, God-fearing, Lone-Star-flag-loving judges in this state, after hearing the shooter’s explanation, will likely dismiss the case as being “justifiable homicide.”]
Research also shows that at least 30% of all people have engaged in sleepwalking at some time in their lives. Non-dualists know better. Non-dualists know that the percentage is actually more than 99%.
Thus Maharaj said: “As I look at you, you all seem asleep, dreaming up words of your own”
and
“To be aware is to be awake. ‘Unaware’ means ‘asleep’.”
That typical - though certainly not "normal" - condition of humanity in general would be funny except for the fact that it is, you know, not funny at all. Instead, it is often dangerous, relatively speaking; in fact, it is the most dangerous condition of all.
And it is rooted in the most dangerous belief of all, namely, the belief that one can traverse the relative existence “much better” if one is blind (that is, totally asleep, totally willing to have faith in everything they have been told) rather than (1) being able to see reality and able to see Reality and rather than (2) being - as the case is now - totally unable to differentiate between what is false and what is true.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
12 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
Programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination
lead to
no questioning of anything that one is told
leading to
all thoughts and words and actions being driven by blind faith
which leads in turn to
involvement in or membership in all sorts of cults, including religions, spiritual programs, cults promoting political agendas, cults promoting racial / anti-racial agendas (and many others, to be discussed below)
leading to
intolerance and a belief in the concepts of “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “being higher on the hierarchy than you”
which eventually leads to
arguing, fighting, ending relationships, wars, and murder, (including killing literally, killing economically, killing in terms of character assassination, ad infinitum).
So is blind faith a dangerous belief, relative speaking, or not? Might it even be the most dangerous of all, considering the widespread, far-from-constructive effects?
Review the short list of a few examples and see that the relative results have been that religion-based or religion-associated movements and events have led to the murder of billions upon billions in the last several millennia alone. Recall: virgins being killed to appease an angry god; all of the ancient religious wars; the Crusades; the European religious wars; the American Holocaust; witchcraft trials; the European Holocaust; the 9-11 attack and the wars that followed; the current religious wars in the Middle East; ad infinitum.
Then add in the anger and separation that happens when the religious and non-religious in any nation or state turn on each other, as happened in ancient Florence when that city-state was divided 50-50 along religious vs. secular lines; as is happening in the Middle East today with Muslims turning again Christians and Jews and both of those turning against Muslims; Sunnis turned against Shias and Shias turned against Sunnis; and as is happening in the U.S. with approximately half identifying themselves with right-wing religions and a right-wing conservative philosophy and approximately half indentifying with the opposite.
The problem with being led into blind faith as a result of having been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated? Joining cults (whether that involves one religion or another, one spiritual movement or program or another, etc.)
The problem with having joined a cult / religion / spiritual movement? Recall the traits that all cult members share in common: excessively zealous; unquestioning committed to a false identity and leadership; willing to be exploited and manipulated, and willing to exploit and manipulate; willing to harm or be harmed;
intolerance of more rational, open, and benevolent systems; being totalistic and elitist; being inflexible, convinced that they know how all people should think, act, and feel; claiming a special, exalted status; claiming perfectionism; becoming judgmental and narcissistic and egotistical and arrogant; and believing, dualistically, that “our way is right and any other way is wrong.”
While blind faith and cults inspire perfectionism and narcissism and egotism and zealotry and intolerance and arrogance, Full Realization can bring an end to all of that.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are currently 939 known hate groups operating in the U.S., including "neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others."
Among “others” the Center includes Patriot groups, armed militias, the White Aryan Resistance, the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations, the White Patriot Party militia, and some of the more radical or zealous types claiming membership in the so-called “Tea Party” and their associates:
Through the court-action arm of SPLC, they have crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members.
So if the leaders in the SPLC exhibit many of the same understandings as a “Realized non-dualist,” why are they taking action rather than merely witnessing what is going on? And why would any “Realized non-dualist” care?
Indeed, Maharaj did advise one visitor to "care about self rather than changing the world," but as with all of the advice he offered, one must consider the place on “the path” where a seeker is or what the beliefs of the seeker are which are blocking her or him from moving along “the path,” thus inspiring Maharaj to offer such advice.
When he told one visitor, “Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself,” he was answering one who was focusing on “others” and criticizing them for their shortcomings. All must be taken in context.
Some point to the following exchange to argue that Maharaj taught that, once Realized, you don’t care about anything going on in the relative (which is a totally bogus conclusion):
Questioner: “Surely, you care when your child is ill, don't you?”
Maharaj: “I don't get flustered. I just do the needful. I do not worry about the future. A right response to every situation is in my nature. I do not stop to think what to do. I act and move on. Results do not affect me. I do not even care, whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”
[He did not say that he did not care about the suffering of others; in fact, he said that is the work of the teacher of non-duality: to eliminate misery and suffering.]
He continued, explaining that on the many occasions when he “does the needful,” there is still “no sense of purpose in my doing anything.”
So he was forever pointing toward balance:
Too involved with caring and saving and rescuing? Then back off. Too absorbed in self, and too sociopathic to care about anyone else? Shift.
Because of the seeming contradictions in some pointers he offered to various seekers - all of which were level-appropriate for each specific seeker – then some common misperceptions about “the way the Realized are” have come about, including charges that the Realized are “cool to the point of being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or totally “stoic” or “don’t care.” But recall that Maharaj, when asked if he cared about those who came his way to find the means to end their physical pain and their mental misery and suffering, he replied: “More than you will ever know.”
The traits of “being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” and totally “stoic” are personality traits . . .
(which the Realized are almost totally free of – or almost totally free of - some evidence of the Type Four’s concern with authenticity remaining) . . .
and are actually the traits of psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights who can disintegrate into full-blown sociopaths, or of certain other disintegrated types as well, though sometimes to a lesser degree.
The True Self – which is merely Pure Witnessing – is not rendered “cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or “extremely stoic” as a result of Realizing and Witnessing. Pure Witnessing can involve the witnessing of what happens after the Loving, Caring, Pure Witnessing has called for awareness – or even for action - to shift the self and the selves and masses away from hateful, prejudicial, separatist thoughts or words or actions.
To eliminate an act of hatred requires another action, even if that action merely involves the act of sharing a message of Love.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing; Love is knowing I am everything.”
It was not Maharaj but the pure consciousness with an awareness of Love and Oneness that advised seekers: “You have only one thing to do: care for others as much as you care for yourself.”
When one said, “Let others take care of themselves,” Maharaj fired back the following: “You are not separate! The happiness you cannot share is spurious [false, bogus]; only the shareable is truly desirable.”
He said, “He who knows himself has no doubts about it. Nor does he care whether others recognise his state or not. Rare is the Realised man who discloses his Realisation, and fortunate are those who have met him, for he does it for their abiding welfare.”
See, what means nothing to Me – to the Real Floyd – is a certificate that was sent from the SPLC “in recognition of your important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America.” It has never been mentioned in years and will never be mentioned again, but it is an example of Maharaj’s pointer at work.
Nor does it mean anything to Me – to the Real Floyd – that the name assigned to a composite unity by “floyd’s parents” has been added to the Center’s “Wall of Tolerance” along with the names of all others “who have chosen to stand against hatred,” as is noted on the Wall.
[By the way, that is the case with all people that support, in any number of ways, the SPLC’s efforts to address hatred and separation and their effort to “teach tolerance” while expressing appreciation for all that join them in addressing the negative (relative) consequences of the widespread belief in duality and separation and “better-than-ment.”]
Again, the Realized “do not care whether others recognise their state or not,” yet the sense of Oneness here requires of this particular speck of consciousness that the breath be partly employed to share the non-duality message of Love and Unicity – and, therefore, of peace – which can come if one Realizes.
Relative problems only arise if – behind an action taken - there is an assumed WHO that cares. If the unblocked consciousness speaks, it speaks, spontaneously, of Love and Oneness without any agenda or attachment to results.
Thus, a key problem with blind faith is that it inspires cult membership and then drives members to normalize the cult’s excessive zealotry; its willingness to exploit and manipulate; its rigid intolerance of rational understandings that are the opposite of the cult’s beliefs; its sense of elitism; its inflexibly; its desire to control how all people think, act, and feel; its belief in a false, exalted status; its sense of perfectionism; and its unchecked judgmentalism, narcissism, egotism and arrogance.
Have you see the evidence? Has it registered fully? Whether the consequences are global or individualized or between two persons, the effects are never constructive.
[Recently, a relationship was established with a different dermatologist. The doctor that had been used for years has now associated himself with a cult – his being one of the “mainstream religions” – and he has become a zealot. Now, his focus is not on addressing the dermatological issues of his patients but has been redirected to subject the captive audience in his waiting room to dozens of signs which contain messages involving his ultra-conservative religious beliefs and the right-wing Republican views that he has now adopted and wants all others to adopt as well.
After being called forth from the propaganda-filled waiting room and being led to a treatment room where additional waiting would continue, more propagandist signs were observed, all intended to shift his patients’ views to align with his.
When he finally arrived and began addressing the issues dealing with the skin, he also began trying to treat what he assumed was a mind that (if it contained any beliefs that differed from his) would also need to be "doctored."
At the point when his main concern no longer involved my skin but began to focus on my "mind" and "soul," and when he shifted into his zealous proselytizing mode, he was advised
The pace of the treatment accelerated so that he could leave the room, posthaste, without so much as a “may you suffer from liberal causes for the rest of this life and may you afterwards burn in hell forever.”
The assistant was still standing next to the table as I put my shirt back on and walked out, smiling at her as she also had been stunned into silence after hearing her boss’s Type One Perfectionist efforts to convert and reform as they were rejected. After paying the bookkeeper, she wished me “a blessed day,” not yet aware that “a cursed day and a cursed life” were her employer’s actual wish.]
Another key problem rooted in blind faith is that it supports the nonsense-filled mind and thus generates all of the subsequent nonsense on the planet – and all of the results of the subsequently widespread Ultimate Sickness - all generated by the nonsense-filled minds of the non-Realized masses.
Maharaj: “Words . . . come from the mind and hold you there. To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence; silence and peace – this is the way beyond.”
Standing between (a) entrapment via mental nonsense and (b) going beyond? Blind faith, which leads persons into membership in one or more of the variety of available cults and then locks persons into the resultant conflict-generating zealotry and manipulation and rigidity and irrationality and perfectionism and judgmentalism and narcissism and egotism and arrogance and the desire to control the thoughts and words and actions of all people whose paths are crossed.
How might Maharaj have advised the doc:
and
“However great and complete is your world, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory”
and
“There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
Blind faith? Good riddance.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: So one person wrote to say that he “admits that blind faith might have some serious, relative drawbacks” but then added, “But the most dangerous belief of all?”
The response: you might consider this continuum and its effects:
The response: you might consider this continuum and its effects:
Programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination
lead to
no questioning of anything that one is told
leading to
all thoughts and words and actions being driven by blind faith
which leads in turn to
involvement in or membership in all sorts of cults, including religions, spiritual programs, cults promoting political agendas, cults promoting racial / anti-racial agendas (and many others, to be discussed below)
leading to
intolerance and a belief in the concepts of “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “being higher on the hierarchy than you”
which eventually leads to
arguing, fighting, ending relationships, wars, and murder, (including killing literally, killing economically, killing in terms of character assassination, ad infinitum).
So is blind faith a dangerous belief, relative speaking, or not? Might it even be the most dangerous of all, considering the widespread, far-from-constructive effects?
Review the short list of a few examples and see that the relative results have been that religion-based or religion-associated movements and events have led to the murder of billions upon billions in the last several millennia alone. Recall: virgins being killed to appease an angry god; all of the ancient religious wars; the Crusades; the European religious wars; the American Holocaust; witchcraft trials; the European Holocaust; the 9-11 attack and the wars that followed; the current religious wars in the Middle East; ad infinitum.
Then add in the anger and separation that happens when the religious and non-religious in any nation or state turn on each other, as happened in ancient Florence when that city-state was divided 50-50 along religious vs. secular lines; as is happening in the Middle East today with Muslims turning again Christians and Jews and both of those turning against Muslims; Sunnis turned against Shias and Shias turned against Sunnis; and as is happening in the U.S. with approximately half identifying themselves with right-wing religions and a right-wing conservative philosophy and approximately half indentifying with the opposite.
The problem with being led into blind faith as a result of having been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated? Joining cults (whether that involves one religion or another, one spiritual movement or program or another, etc.)
The problem with having joined a cult / religion / spiritual movement? Recall the traits that all cult members share in common: excessively zealous; unquestioning committed to a false identity and leadership; willing to be exploited and manipulated, and willing to exploit and manipulate; willing to harm or be harmed;
intolerance of more rational, open, and benevolent systems; being totalistic and elitist; being inflexible, convinced that they know how all people should think, act, and feel; claiming a special, exalted status; claiming perfectionism; becoming judgmental and narcissistic and egotistical and arrogant; and believing, dualistically, that “our way is right and any other way is wrong.”
While blind faith and cults inspire perfectionism and narcissism and egotism and zealotry and intolerance and arrogance, Full Realization can bring an end to all of that.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are currently 939 known hate groups operating in the U.S., including "neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others."
Among “others” the Center includes Patriot groups, armed militias, the White Aryan Resistance, the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations, the White Patriot Party militia, and some of the more radical or zealous types claiming membership in the so-called “Tea Party” and their associates:
Among their associates are those who are members of the Christian Reconstruction Movement or those adhering to their agenda without knowing who is pushing those agendas. That movement - with many members or adherents in the U.S. Congress - wants to destroy the U.S. Government, set up a Christian
theocracy, use the Old Testament as its constitution, and use ancient
Jewish laws and punishments as "the new law of the land," including "death by stoning in the case of non-believers, adulterers, and homosexuals."
Through the court-action arm of SPLC, they have crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members.
So if the leaders in the SPLC exhibit many of the same understandings as a “Realized non-dualist,” why are they taking action rather than merely witnessing what is going on? And why would any “Realized non-dualist” care?
Indeed, Maharaj did advise one visitor to "care about self rather than changing the world," but as with all of the advice he offered, one must consider the place on “the path” where a seeker is or what the beliefs of the seeker are which are blocking her or him from moving along “the path,” thus inspiring Maharaj to offer such advice.
When he told one visitor, “Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself,” he was answering one who was focusing on “others” and criticizing them for their shortcomings. All must be taken in context.
Some point to the following exchange to argue that Maharaj taught that, once Realized, you don’t care about anything going on in the relative (which is a totally bogus conclusion):
Questioner: “Surely, you care when your child is ill, don't you?”
Maharaj: “I don't get flustered. I just do the needful. I do not worry about the future. A right response to every situation is in my nature. I do not stop to think what to do. I act and move on. Results do not affect me. I do not even care, whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”
[He did not say that he did not care about the suffering of others; in fact, he said that is the work of the teacher of non-duality: to eliminate misery and suffering.]
He continued, explaining that on the many occasions when he “does the needful,” there is still “no sense of purpose in my doing anything.”
So he was forever pointing toward balance:
Too involved with caring and saving and rescuing? Then back off. Too absorbed in self, and too sociopathic to care about anyone else? Shift.
Because of the seeming contradictions in some pointers he offered to various seekers - all of which were level-appropriate for each specific seeker – then some common misperceptions about “the way the Realized are” have come about, including charges that the Realized are “cool to the point of being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or totally “stoic” or “don’t care.” But recall that Maharaj, when asked if he cared about those who came his way to find the means to end their physical pain and their mental misery and suffering, he replied: “More than you will ever know.”
The traits of “being cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” and totally “stoic” are personality traits . . .
(which the Realized are almost totally free of – or almost totally free of - some evidence of the Type Four’s concern with authenticity remaining) . . .
and are actually the traits of psychically unhealthy Personality Type Eights who can disintegrate into full-blown sociopaths, or of certain other disintegrated types as well, though sometimes to a lesser degree.
The True Self – which is merely Pure Witnessing – is not rendered “cold” and “robotic” and “uncaring” or “extremely stoic” as a result of Realizing and Witnessing. Pure Witnessing can involve the witnessing of what happens after the Loving, Caring, Pure Witnessing has called for awareness – or even for action - to shift the self and the selves and masses away from hateful, prejudicial, separatist thoughts or words or actions.
To eliminate an act of hatred requires another action, even if that action merely involves the act of sharing a message of Love.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing; Love is knowing I am everything.”
It was not Maharaj but the pure consciousness with an awareness of Love and Oneness that advised seekers: “You have only one thing to do: care for others as much as you care for yourself.”
When one said, “Let others take care of themselves,” Maharaj fired back the following: “You are not separate! The happiness you cannot share is spurious [false, bogus]; only the shareable is truly desirable.”
He said, “He who knows himself has no doubts about it. Nor does he care whether others recognise his state or not. Rare is the Realised man who discloses his Realisation, and fortunate are those who have met him, for he does it for their abiding welfare.”
See, what means nothing to Me – to the Real Floyd – is a certificate that was sent from the SPLC “in recognition of your important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America.” It has never been mentioned in years and will never be mentioned again, but it is an example of Maharaj’s pointer at work.
Nor does it mean anything to Me – to the Real Floyd – that the name assigned to a composite unity by “floyd’s parents” has been added to the Center’s “Wall of Tolerance” along with the names of all others “who have chosen to stand against hatred,” as is noted on the Wall.
[By the way, that is the case with all people that support, in any number of ways, the SPLC’s efforts to address hatred and separation and their effort to “teach tolerance” while expressing appreciation for all that join them in addressing the negative (relative) consequences of the widespread belief in duality and separation and “better-than-ment.”]
So if one day the message is "Here's a certificate, and your name has been placed on the Wall," the take is, "Whatever." If the next day the message is, "Your certificate has been revoked and your named has been removed from the Wall," the take is, "Whatever."
Again, the Realized “do not care whether others recognise their state or not,” yet the sense of Oneness here requires of this particular speck of consciousness that the breath be partly employed to share the non-duality message of Love and Unicity – and, therefore, of peace – which can come if one Realizes.
("If one Realizes" means, if one rejects all of the beliefs regarding “separate from” and “different from” and “better than” and “higher on the hierarchy than you” which persons have been programmed and conditioning and acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated to believe).
And the prerequisite for continuing to be driven by those influencers? The blind faith which they instilled in the first place.
Relative problems only arise if – behind an action taken - there is an assumed WHO that cares. If the unblocked consciousness speaks, it speaks, spontaneously, of Love and Oneness without any agenda or attachment to results.
There is no notion that "the entire world can be set free." There is the understanding that a seeker who has reached a state of full readiness might be set free, but that can only happen on a one-at-a-time basis and will never happen on a global basis.
Yet if one is set free and goes forth, many that were having to deal with that person who was not free – and therefore not at peace and is instead anxious and angry - then those "many" might suddenly experience a new level of freedom themselves when they are freed from being affected by the one who was not previously free.
Thus, a key problem with blind faith is that it inspires cult membership and then drives members to normalize the cult’s excessive zealotry; its willingness to exploit and manipulate; its rigid intolerance of rational understandings that are the opposite of the cult’s beliefs; its sense of elitism; its inflexibly; its desire to control how all people think, act, and feel; its belief in a false, exalted status; its sense of perfectionism; and its unchecked judgmentalism, narcissism, egotism and arrogance.
Have you see the evidence? Has it registered fully? Whether the consequences are global or individualized or between two persons, the effects are never constructive.
[Recently, a relationship was established with a different dermatologist. The doctor that had been used for years has now associated himself with a cult – his being one of the “mainstream religions” – and he has become a zealot. Now, his focus is not on addressing the dermatological issues of his patients but has been redirected to subject the captive audience in his waiting room to dozens of signs which contain messages involving his ultra-conservative religious beliefs and the right-wing Republican views that he has now adopted and wants all others to adopt as well.
After being called forth from the propaganda-filled waiting room and being led to a treatment room where additional waiting would continue, more propagandist signs were observed, all intended to shift his patients’ views to align with his.
When he finally arrived and began addressing the issues dealing with the skin, he also began trying to treat what he assumed was a mind that (if it contained any beliefs that differed from his) would also need to be "doctored."
At the point when his main concern no longer involved my skin but began to focus on my "mind" and "soul," and when he shifted into his zealous proselytizing mode, he was advised
that I had neither a mind nor a soul that needed his attention,
that I did have a skin issue that required his full attention,
that he could save his breath,
that if he really thought he could change anything about the 67-year old body seated on his table other than the condition of its skin then he was sadly mistaken,
and
and
that I could care less about either his religious or political views or his preoccupation with inspiring his patients to mirror his beliefs.
The pace of the treatment accelerated so that he could leave the room, posthaste, without so much as a “may you suffer from liberal causes for the rest of this life and may you afterwards burn in hell forever.”
Nope, the departure was taken with such anger and haste that it happened in silence without so much as a “goodbye and go die.”
The assistant was still standing next to the table as I put my shirt back on and walked out, smiling at her as she also had been stunned into silence after hearing her boss’s Type One Perfectionist efforts to convert and reform as they were rejected. After paying the bookkeeper, she wished me “a blessed day,” not yet aware that “a cursed day and a cursed life” were her employer’s actual wish.]
Another key problem rooted in blind faith is that it supports the nonsense-filled mind and thus generates all of the subsequent nonsense on the planet – and all of the results of the subsequently widespread Ultimate Sickness - all generated by the nonsense-filled minds of the non-Realized masses.
Maharaj: “Words . . . come from the mind and hold you there. To go beyond the mind, you must be silent and quiet. Peace and silence; silence and peace – this is the way beyond.”
Standing between (a) entrapment via mental nonsense and (b) going beyond? Blind faith, which leads persons into membership in one or more of the variety of available cults and then locks persons into the resultant conflict-generating zealotry and manipulation and rigidity and irrationality and perfectionism and judgmentalism and narcissism and egotism and arrogance and the desire to control the thoughts and words and actions of all people whose paths are crossed.
How might Maharaj have advised the doc:
“The idea of responsibility is in your mind. You think there must be something or somebody solely responsible for all that happens”
and
“However great and complete is your world, it is self-contradictory and transitory and altogether illusory”
and
“There is only imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered.”
Blind faith? Good riddance.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
Previous post
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
[Speaking of which, these posts are being serialized as excerpts from this soon-to-release free eBook:]
Parroting an earlier statement by Jones - that hostile forces were going to be dropped in by parachute and were going to convert their captured children to fascism - one of the more ironic statements ever heard from a cult member was this: “The ones that they take, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies.”
The only alternative they could come up with? “Kill the children first and then kill ourselves” so the children don’t grow up to be “dummies.” Yes. We certainly don't want a bunch of dummies running lose, do we?
According to an audio tape of the event, the children were given the drink first and then families were told to lie down together.
Thus Alder’s pointer: “Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.”
Yet religious-belief-based murders and suicides have, historically, been the rule rather than the exception, all a result of blind faith.
Millions have died or been killed in ancient wars; in the Crusades and in other Muslim vs. Jews or Christian wars that have continued for centuries; in the Inquisitions; in the various European religious wars during the Middle Ages; in the American Holocaust during which 98% of the population of the indigenous peoples were slaughtered by European invaders; during witchcraft trials; during the European Holocaust; during the 9-11 attack; and during the current wars in the Mideast. All of that happened - and continues to happen - as a result of persons accepting with blind faith what they were told or what they are presently being told.
Five thousand years ago, during the first-ever communion service, virgins were being killed in order to try to appease an angry Rain God. Such sacrifices and killings continue to this day because of one factor: blind faith.
(And every week over two billion Christians participate in “Holy Communion services – also called “the Lord’s Supper” by some denominations. That service is the modern version of the first bloody Communion services, participated in nowadays by billions who are driven by blind faith, never making the connection at all that they are acting out an event from many millennia ago during which "the body" that was being eaten by the crowd was actually the heart of a virgin and during which "the blood" that they were drinking together was her blood.)
Now persons say, “Floyd. I have faith but I would never be so stupid as the kill myself because a religious leader said so.”
The reply: “Okay, but you will kill yourself slowly by using a product with a warning label which says 'Smoking kills' and 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you' and 'Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attack and cerebral hemorrhaging' and 'smoking during pregnancy harms your baby'?"
He: “Go to hell.”
The reply: “Okay, so let’s try it this way then: how about if you are invited to see not what you would or would not do but to see clearly exactly what you are doing as a result of blind faith and because of the agenda of religious or spiritual or xenophobic or political or left-wing or right-wing personas that you were assigned without any conscious choice on your part at all? What has your mind been pumped full of? What toll has mind-full-ness taken on you over the years?
"And what behaviors have you engaged in that were the result of being blind (to your hidden agendas and subconscious motives) rather than seeing clearly (without being driven by your assigned and assumed personas and false identities)?"
Recall Blount’s pointer: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”
Indeed.
So your parents likely did not conclude that they should “Kill you so you don’t grow up to be a “dummy,” but did they conclude . . .
“Let’s tell the children that there is a God who loves them unconditionally but will burn them eternally if they do not please Him”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that the authorities are never wrong”?
“Let’s tell the children that our race is superior to that other race”?
“Let’s tell the children that only those members of our religion can go to heaven”?
“Let’s tell the children that this is the greatest country on earth”?
“Let’s tell the children that some land is ‘holy’ and some is not”?
“Let’s tell the children that every word in our ‘holy book’ must be accepted without question”?
“Let’s tell the children that they are bad if they _____ (insert one of thousands of words in that blank)”?
“Let’s tell the children – by word or example - that it is normal . . .
“to spend all of your life trying to help other or rescue them in order to get them to love you”;
“to stop showing your feelings and toughen up”;
“to realize that big boys / girls don’t cry”;
“to stop crying or I’ll give you something to really cry about”;
“to seek praise and admiration by creating a false, attractive image when in public”;
“to become the most knowledgeable person ever”;
“to be constantly afraid or anxious”;
“to use substances or to behave in certain ways in order to try to escape reality”;
“to be the boss, the one in charge, the one in control, the one with the power,” or to “hit first before you’re hit”;
“to avoid if you want to remain at peace”;
“to ignore red flags and enter into relationship with persons whom you know on some level should be avoided.”
What about . . .
“Let’s tell our Sunni children that they should kill Shias and Jews and Christians”?
“Let’s tell our Shia children that they should kill Sunnis and Jews and Christians”?
or
“to never question anything we tell you, to never ‘talk back,’ and to have blind faith in everything that we teach you”?
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 December 2014
F.: A question came from one of the younger site visitors in India who did not understand the reference in Shannon Alder’s quote on blind faith.
To review four of the quotations shared earlier:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.” – Angela Blount
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
Alder's reference was to one of the more dramatic mass murder-suicide events in the history of modern religious cults and the extremism they foster.
James Warren "Jim" Jones was an American sect leader and community organizer, the founder and leader of what he called “The People’s Temple” (best known for the murders and suicides that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana in November of 1978).
The prerequisite for those persons being willing to kill their children and then commit suicide themselves? Their blind faith in what they were told by their leader. Their beliefs:
Following the murder of five individuals who had flown to Guyana to investigate the cult – including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan – over 900 of the cult members died by drinking cyanide-laced poison in Kool-Aid. That number included nearly 300 children who were given the poisoned drinks by their parents before the parents drank the potion as well. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head, likely self-inflicted.
To review four of the quotations shared earlier:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.” – Angela Blount
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
Alder's reference was to one of the more dramatic mass murder-suicide events in the history of modern religious cults and the extremism they foster.
James Warren "Jim" Jones was an American sect leader and community organizer, the founder and leader of what he called “The People’s Temple” (best known for the murders and suicides that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana in November of 1978).
The prerequisite for those persons being willing to kill their children and then commit suicide themselves? Their blind faith in what they were told by their leader. Their beliefs:
Following the murder of five individuals who had flown to Guyana to investigate the cult – including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan – over 900 of the cult members died by drinking cyanide-laced poison in Kool-Aid. That number included nearly 300 children who were given the poisoned drinks by their parents before the parents drank the potion as well. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head, likely self-inflicted.
[Speaking of which, these posts are being serialized as excerpts from this soon-to-release free eBook:]
Parroting an earlier statement by Jones - that hostile forces were going to be dropped in by parachute and were going to convert their captured children to fascism - one of the more ironic statements ever heard from a cult member was this: “The ones that they take, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies.”
The only alternative they could come up with? “Kill the children first and then kill ourselves” so the children don’t grow up to be “dummies.” Yes. We certainly don't want a bunch of dummies running lose, do we?
According to an audio tape of the event, the children were given the drink first and then families were told to lie down together.
Thus Alder’s pointer: “Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.”
Yet religious-belief-based murders and suicides have, historically, been the rule rather than the exception, all a result of blind faith.
Millions have died or been killed in ancient wars; in the Crusades and in other Muslim vs. Jews or Christian wars that have continued for centuries; in the Inquisitions; in the various European religious wars during the Middle Ages; in the American Holocaust during which 98% of the population of the indigenous peoples were slaughtered by European invaders; during witchcraft trials; during the European Holocaust; during the 9-11 attack; and during the current wars in the Mideast. All of that happened - and continues to happen - as a result of persons accepting with blind faith what they were told or what they are presently being told.
Five thousand years ago, during the first-ever communion service, virgins were being killed in order to try to appease an angry Rain God. Such sacrifices and killings continue to this day because of one factor: blind faith.
(And every week over two billion Christians participate in “Holy Communion services – also called “the Lord’s Supper” by some denominations. That service is the modern version of the first bloody Communion services, participated in nowadays by billions who are driven by blind faith, never making the connection at all that they are acting out an event from many millennia ago during which "the body" that was being eaten by the crowd was actually the heart of a virgin and during which "the blood" that they were drinking together was her blood.)
Now persons say, “Floyd. I have faith but I would never be so stupid as the kill myself because a religious leader said so.”
The reply: “Okay, but you will kill yourself slowly by using a product with a warning label which says 'Smoking kills' and 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you' and 'Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attack and cerebral hemorrhaging' and 'smoking during pregnancy harms your baby'?"
He: “Go to hell.”
The reply: “Okay, so let’s try it this way then: how about if you are invited to see not what you would or would not do but to see clearly exactly what you are doing as a result of blind faith and because of the agenda of religious or spiritual or xenophobic or political or left-wing or right-wing personas that you were assigned without any conscious choice on your part at all? What has your mind been pumped full of? What toll has mind-full-ness taken on you over the years?
"And what behaviors have you engaged in that were the result of being blind (to your hidden agendas and subconscious motives) rather than seeing clearly (without being driven by your assigned and assumed personas and false identities)?"
Recall Blount’s pointer: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”
Indeed.
So your parents likely did not conclude that they should “Kill you so you don’t grow up to be a “dummy,” but did they conclude . . .
“Let’s tell the children that there is a God who loves them unconditionally but will burn them eternally if they do not please Him”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that the authorities are never wrong”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that our race is superior to that other race”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that only those members of our religion can go to heaven”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that this is the greatest country on earth”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that some land is ‘holy’ and some is not”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that every word in our ‘holy book’ must be accepted without question”?
or
“Let’s tell the children that they are bad if they _____ (insert one of thousands of words in that blank)”?
or
“Let’s tell the children – by word or example - that it is normal . . .
“to try to reform the world”;
“to spend all of your life trying to help other or rescue them in order to get them to love you”;
“to stop showing your feelings and toughen up”;
“to realize that big boys / girls don’t cry”;
“to stop crying or I’ll give you something to really cry about”;
“to seek praise and admiration by creating a false, attractive image when in public”;
“to become the most knowledgeable person ever”;
“to be constantly afraid or anxious”;
“to use substances or to behave in certain ways in order to try to escape reality”;
“to be the boss, the one in charge, the one in control, the one with the power,” or to “hit first before you’re hit”;
“to avoid if you want to remain at peace”;
or
“to ignore red flags and enter into relationship with persons whom you know on some level should be avoided.”
What about . . .
“Let’s tell our Sunni children that they should kill Shias and Jews and Christians”?
or
“Let’s tell our Shia children that they should kill Sunnis and Jews and Christians”?
or
“to never question anything we tell you, to never ‘talk back,’ and to have blind faith in everything that we teach you”?
Are there any actions that you are taking which are not a result of being totally awake, totally aware, and totally conscious but are a result of blind faith and a failure to question what you have been told?
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
9 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: [Continued from previous post]
So why abandon blind faith? Why abandon all beliefs that were implanted and that have been deemed, erroneously, to be “noble” and “worthy” and “right”?
Without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing in regards to the effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Benjamin Franklin (“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason”) and Maharaj (“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . .”) would have agreed.
So what is the prerequisite for abandoning blind faith? The ability to be able to choose. Contrary to what persons believe about having an ability to make choices – and which they would argue about to no end if there were any willingness here to enter into such debates – the fact is this:
after programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing (alongside the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities), no non-Realized person has any ability to make any conscious choices.
Instead, all thoughts and words and actions are determined subconsciously, driven by the hidden, fear-and-desire-based agendas of each personality / persona which have been either assigned or assumed.
And the following pointer regarding choice-less-ness (and the resulting blindness it causes) has been shared about persons when they are driven: All beliefs have been accepted via blind faith, never via conscious choice.
[Recall the pointer from Angela Blount: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”]
Blind faith assures that one will be driven blindly throughout the entire relative existence. Moreover, if one is being driven (in a car, for example) the three places where that person can be are in the passenger seat, in the back seat, or locked away in the trunk / the boot. The one place where a person who is being driven cannot be is . . . behind the steering wheel.
If you're being driven (that is, not driving - not making choices choices - but being driven by the influence of personality), then you cannot be in the driver’s seat. You cannot be the one deciding where you go, when you go, or how you go. You cannot keep the car on the road rather than it being run into the ditch if whatever is driving you decides that’s where the car needs to go.
(And if you look at any life that's been a total wreck, you can now understand why that was the case: that person wasn't driving but was being driven.)
Assume all the power and all the ability to make decisions that you want, but if a personality is driving you, then you have no choice and you have no ability to decide anything consciously. Unconscious desires and fears and motives will be driving your every thought and word and action. And for one to think she or he is in the driver’s seat when he or she is actually being driven is a result of either ignorance or insanity.
If the non-duality understanding leads to Realization, then that will put You in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be driven by the subconscious motives and aims and agendas and fears and desires of false identifications.
So, bottom line, to be driven by blind faith is to be blind. Relatedly, many will likely recall a story which illustrates the consequences of being blind and thus believing that false concepts and ideas and perceptions are true and accurate:
In the tale entitled “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” a group of blind men use their hands to touch an elephant in an effort to determine what it is like. Each one feels a different part (but only one part) such as the side or a tusk or a leg or the tail.
They then compare their opinions and perceptions (that is, their erroneous but heartily-believed-in misperceptions) and learn that they are in complete disagreement. In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once and begins to share the truth which he can reveal to them as a result of his not being blind, only then do they (a) learn that they have been blind all along to the way that things really are and (b) begin to "see" (that is, understand) things the way that they really are.
The point: while one's subjective experience might seem true, it will not provide the totality of truth if one does not know all of the facts involved but instead draws uninformed but steadfast and stubborn conclusions which are not based in fact and which are not based in truth and which are not based in clear, objective seeing at all.
Only if one can make choices can one choose something other than continuing to believe in all of the falsehoods and nonsense that are passed down via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing and the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities.
Only then can one choose to allow sight-aided, truth-revealing doubt to replace blind faith; only then can one choose to allow insightful questioning (which leads to actual understanding) to replace blind convictions; only then can one choose to allow illuminating skepticism to replace blind acceptance;
only then can one choose to allow clear, accurate, witnessing-based independence to replace freedom-stealing blind allegiance; only then can one choose to allow intuitive-based awareness to replace the effects of blind programming, conditioning, etc.; and only then can one, finally, choose to allow discerning wisdom to replace blind ignorance.
And only them can one choose to be free of the misery and suffering which comes with mind-full-ness and to be free of the ill effects (relatively speaking) of a mind pumped chock full of blind-faith-based nonsense and ignorance and insanity.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
So why abandon blind faith? Why abandon all beliefs that were implanted and that have been deemed, erroneously, to be “noble” and “worthy” and “right”?
Without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing in regards to the effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Benjamin Franklin (“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason”) and Maharaj (“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . .”) would have agreed.
So what is the prerequisite for abandoning blind faith? The ability to be able to choose. Contrary to what persons believe about having an ability to make choices – and which they would argue about to no end if there were any willingness here to enter into such debates – the fact is this:
after programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing (alongside the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities), no non-Realized person has any ability to make any conscious choices.
Instead, all thoughts and words and actions are determined subconsciously, driven by the hidden, fear-and-desire-based agendas of each personality / persona which have been either assigned or assumed.
And the following pointer regarding choice-less-ness (and the resulting blindness it causes) has been shared about persons when they are driven: All beliefs have been accepted via blind faith, never via conscious choice.
[Recall the pointer from Angela Blount: “Most people just believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it.”]
Blind faith assures that one will be driven blindly throughout the entire relative existence. Moreover, if one is being driven (in a car, for example) the three places where that person can be are in the passenger seat, in the back seat, or locked away in the trunk / the boot. The one place where a person who is being driven cannot be is . . . behind the steering wheel.
If you're being driven (that is, not driving - not making choices choices - but being driven by the influence of personality), then you cannot be in the driver’s seat. You cannot be the one deciding where you go, when you go, or how you go. You cannot keep the car on the road rather than it being run into the ditch if whatever is driving you decides that’s where the car needs to go.
(And if you look at any life that's been a total wreck, you can now understand why that was the case: that person wasn't driving but was being driven.)
Assume all the power and all the ability to make decisions that you want, but if a personality is driving you, then you have no choice and you have no ability to decide anything consciously. Unconscious desires and fears and motives will be driving your every thought and word and action. And for one to think she or he is in the driver’s seat when he or she is actually being driven is a result of either ignorance or insanity.
If the non-duality understanding leads to Realization, then that will put You in the driver’s seat. You will no longer be driven by the subconscious motives and aims and agendas and fears and desires of false identifications.
So, bottom line, to be driven by blind faith is to be blind. Relatedly, many will likely recall a story which illustrates the consequences of being blind and thus believing that false concepts and ideas and perceptions are true and accurate:
In the tale entitled “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” a group of blind men use their hands to touch an elephant in an effort to determine what it is like. Each one feels a different part (but only one part) such as the side or a tusk or a leg or the tail.
They then compare their opinions and perceptions (that is, their erroneous but heartily-believed-in misperceptions) and learn that they are in complete disagreement. In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once and begins to share the truth which he can reveal to them as a result of his not being blind, only then do they (a) learn that they have been blind all along to the way that things really are and (b) begin to "see" (that is, understand) things the way that they really are.
The point: while one's subjective experience might seem true, it will not provide the totality of truth if one does not know all of the facts involved but instead draws uninformed but steadfast and stubborn conclusions which are not based in fact and which are not based in truth and which are not based in clear, objective seeing at all.
Only if one can make choices can one choose something other than continuing to believe in all of the falsehoods and nonsense that are passed down via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing and the assignment and assumption of multiple personalities / personas / false identities.
Only then can one choose to allow sight-aided, truth-revealing doubt to replace blind faith; only then can one choose to allow insightful questioning (which leads to actual understanding) to replace blind convictions; only then can one choose to allow illuminating skepticism to replace blind acceptance;
only then can one choose to allow clear, accurate, witnessing-based independence to replace freedom-stealing blind allegiance; only then can one choose to allow intuitive-based awareness to replace the effects of blind programming, conditioning, etc.; and only then can one, finally, choose to allow discerning wisdom to replace blind ignorance.
And only them can one choose to be free of the misery and suffering which comes with mind-full-ness and to be free of the ill effects (relatively speaking) of a mind pumped chock full of blind-faith-based nonsense and ignorance and insanity.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
8 December 2014
A DAILY CONSIDERATION FOR YOU
F.: In spite of all of the
(a) duality-based notions of “We’re right and you’re wrong” and “I’m okay but you’re not okay” and all of the
(b) duality-based beliefs that lead to a sense of separation and hierarchy-maintenance as well as to
(c) duality-based beliefs that result in disagreements and arguing and fighting and conflicts and wars and bombings and suicide-vest bombings and racially-based murders and divorce-associated murders and money-driven murders, ad infinitum,
there is one belief which 99.9% of all humans share in common.
It is one belief which never leaves the non-Realized masses in disagreement (though, ironically, the collateral damage from that belief has led to more killings and deaths than any other belief held dear by humans).
Ninety-seven percent of all humans claim an affiliation with one religion or another and assert that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all; millions more claim membership in step programs and they also believe that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
And with all of the other cults operating around the globe in addition to those two, millions more persons can be added to the total of non-Realized humans who agree that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
That one belief is the belief in . . . blind faith. It includes a confidence in the nobility of blind faith; complete and total trust in all who have taught them the necessity of blind faith; a certainty regarding what they believe in (which they believe in without any evidence or factual proof at all, other than the so-called "supernatural evidence" which they cite but which is actually evidence of natural occurrences); and an unquestioning acceptance of what any person in authority has told them.
What do the members of those three cults all have in common? Consider the basic traits of cults and see how all three of the groups above are exactly alike:
All cults have members who are excessively zealous;
who are unquestioning committed to the identity and leadership of the group (as opposed to Maharaj’s pointer that “from my angle, you are nothing . . . you have no identity”);
who submit to being exploited and manipulated;
who tolerate – or even welcome - harm or the danger of harm to themselves, their families and / or society;
who have no tolerance for more rational, open, and benevolent systems;
who harden their shells by becoming totalistic, elitist, and isolated;
who allow others to dictate, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel;
who claim a special, exalted status (for example, “occult or spiritual powers” or “a mission to save humanity” or "a mission to reform all people and make the world a better place")
and who eventually intensify their opposition to - and alienation from - society at large.
Contrast all of that with the non-dual teachings when combined with the Nisargan understanding:
That method does not ask anyone to be a member of anything; does not invite anyone to be excessive or zealous; does not ask anyone to be involved with any identity or any “leader” with an assumed identity;
does not seek 10% of seekers’ total income; does not encourage tolerance of relative harms or dangers; does not allow anyone to dictate how anyone should think (since an end to thinking is the final “goal”); does not dictate how anyone should act and feel;
does not claim any special, exalted status; and encourages an end to – rather than intensification of - opposition and a false sense of “separation” and a false sense of “different-from-ment” and a false sense of “better-than-ment.”
Nowadays, on a global basis, the belief in the value of blind faith among 99+ percent of all humans (who are totally and completely non-Realized and therefore totally and completely unawake, unaware, and unconscious) has become foundational, pervasive, inescapable, and near-universally-accepted without question. No matter how insidious and deceptive and dangerous the results of blind faith are (relatively speaking) – more than any other beliefs – that one remains almost totally unchallenged.
Next, consider Maharaj's disputing of the fact that truth and blind faith (in the existence of gods or goddesses or a god) can co-exist: "First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."
Recall the woman in St. Louis who offered her response to a similar pointer offered here: "No god created man; it was man who created – that is, who just dreamed up - the concept of ‘god’."
Her reply: “Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong.”
[Consider: Is it possible that the epitome of ignorance is to believe that widespread ignorance is actually proof of widespread wisdom?]
The reply: “You’re right. Millions of people have not been wrong. Billions and trillions have been wrong.”
What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of the existence of gods and goddesses and / or the concept of “The One, True God” or the concept of blind faith? What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of gods and goddesses and / or a “One, True God” who will never show themselves / Himself but prefer instead that persons believe in them / Him based in blind faith alone?
1. Without billions and trillions of persons having been misled, deceived and deluded in regards to the value and efficacy and usefulness of blind faith, there would be no religions because no religion has ever functioned, or ever been sustained for any time at all, without blind faith.
2. No other types of cults could have ever existed without blind faith.
3. Kings and queens (who reigned as a result of convincing the masses that the rulers were ruling as a result of the concept of “the divine right to rule,” that God has chosen them to rule, and that God is empowering them to continue to rule) could not have existed.
4. Crooked politicians could never have existed and functioned - and could not continue to exist and function - without blind faith.
5. No con man could ever have sold any type of "snake oil," be the type liquid, financial, political, medical, nationalistic, mental, emotional, religious, spiritual, etc.
6. The masses could not be occasionally calmed without blind faith.
7. Wall Street could not make billions each day without blind faith.
8. No global economic collapse could have happened without blind faith in what was being told by Wall Street brokers and investment bankers.
9. The belief by billions of persons on the planet that the concept of “doubt” is a sin could not continue without blind faith.
10. The rejection of scientifically-proven facts could not continue without blind faith.
11. No one in history would ever have been fooled without blind faith.
12. People in the U.S. could never have believed that Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Central America, South America, etc., etc., etc. were an actual threat to the U.S. without blind faith.
13. Maybe most significantly, without blind faith, there would be no more fools (or foolishness) on the planet.
14. Thus, without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness and usefulness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing of the actual effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you”
and
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
A few voices have tried to speak into the darkness which has blocked humanity from ‘seeing the light,” including some few sages in the Far East; one in a loft in Bombay, at least during his later talks; a few in the Mideast; and a few scattered elsewhere around the globe, and they all shared messages like these:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
"Most people around here just say they believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it." – Angela Blount
And Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“It is always the false that makes you suffer . . . .”
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"Go to zero concepts."
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 December 2014
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. BY USING EBOOKS available at
Floyd Henderson's Website
Anthology of four books
Anthology of six books
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
The following three eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:
I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
II.
"THE VISION"
III.
24. both made the decision that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the way that has been seen to be the most effective method: not suggesting that there are not enough religious persons; not suggesting that the Ultimate Sickness is caused by being "spiritually-unfit"; but by seeing that the problem centers in the mind (which must come to an end, which it will the moment all beliefs are abandoned)
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.
SECTION SIX:
(a) duality-based notions of “We’re right and you’re wrong” and “I’m okay but you’re not okay” and all of the
(b) duality-based beliefs that lead to a sense of separation and hierarchy-maintenance as well as to
(c) duality-based beliefs that result in disagreements and arguing and fighting and conflicts and wars and bombings and suicide-vest bombings and racially-based murders and divorce-associated murders and money-driven murders, ad infinitum,
there is one belief which 99.9% of all humans share in common.
It is one belief which never leaves the non-Realized masses in disagreement (though, ironically, the collateral damage from that belief has led to more killings and deaths than any other belief held dear by humans).
Ninety-seven percent of all humans claim an affiliation with one religion or another and assert that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all; millions more claim membership in step programs and they also believe that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
And with all of the other cults operating around the globe in addition to those two, millions more persons can be added to the total of non-Realized humans who agree that one belief in particular is the most important belief of all.
That one belief is the belief in . . . blind faith. It includes a confidence in the nobility of blind faith; complete and total trust in all who have taught them the necessity of blind faith; a certainty regarding what they believe in (which they believe in without any evidence or factual proof at all, other than the so-called "supernatural evidence" which they cite but which is actually evidence of natural occurrences); and an unquestioning acceptance of what any person in authority has told them.
What do the members of those three cults all have in common? Consider the basic traits of cults and see how all three of the groups above are exactly alike:
All cults have members who are excessively zealous;
who are unquestioning committed to the identity and leadership of the group (as opposed to Maharaj’s pointer that “from my angle, you are nothing . . . you have no identity”);
who submit to being exploited and manipulated;
who tolerate – or even welcome - harm or the danger of harm to themselves, their families and / or society;
who have no tolerance for more rational, open, and benevolent systems;
who harden their shells by becoming totalistic, elitist, and isolated;
who allow others to dictate, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel;
who claim a special, exalted status (for example, “occult or spiritual powers” or “a mission to save humanity” or "a mission to reform all people and make the world a better place")
and who eventually intensify their opposition to - and alienation from - society at large.
Contrast all of that with the non-dual teachings when combined with the Nisargan understanding:
That method does not ask anyone to be a member of anything; does not invite anyone to be excessive or zealous; does not ask anyone to be involved with any identity or any “leader” with an assumed identity;
does not seek 10% of seekers’ total income; does not encourage tolerance of relative harms or dangers; does not allow anyone to dictate how anyone should think (since an end to thinking is the final “goal”); does not dictate how anyone should act and feel;
does not claim any special, exalted status; and encourages an end to – rather than intensification of - opposition and a false sense of “separation” and a false sense of “different-from-ment” and a false sense of “better-than-ment.”
Nowadays, on a global basis, the belief in the value of blind faith among 99+ percent of all humans (who are totally and completely non-Realized and therefore totally and completely unawake, unaware, and unconscious) has become foundational, pervasive, inescapable, and near-universally-accepted without question. No matter how insidious and deceptive and dangerous the results of blind faith are (relatively speaking) – more than any other beliefs – that one remains almost totally unchallenged.
Next, consider Maharaj's disputing of the fact that truth and blind faith (in the existence of gods or goddesses or a god) can co-exist: "First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."
Recall the woman in St. Louis who offered her response to a similar pointer offered here: "No god created man; it was man who created – that is, who just dreamed up - the concept of ‘god’."
Her reply: “Floyd, millions of people cannot be wrong.”
[Consider: Is it possible that the epitome of ignorance is to believe that widespread ignorance is actually proof of widespread wisdom?]
The reply: “You’re right. Millions of people have not been wrong. Billions and trillions have been wrong.”
What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of the existence of gods and goddesses and / or the concept of “The One, True God” or the concept of blind faith? What, in terms of the total human experience, would have been different if no one had ever dreamed up the concept of gods and goddesses and / or a “One, True God” who will never show themselves / Himself but prefer instead that persons believe in them / Him based in blind faith alone?
1. Without billions and trillions of persons having been misled, deceived and deluded in regards to the value and efficacy and usefulness of blind faith, there would be no religions because no religion has ever functioned, or ever been sustained for any time at all, without blind faith.
2. No other types of cults could have ever existed without blind faith.
3. Kings and queens (who reigned as a result of convincing the masses that the rulers were ruling as a result of the concept of “the divine right to rule,” that God has chosen them to rule, and that God is empowering them to continue to rule) could not have existed.
4. Crooked politicians could never have existed and functioned - and could not continue to exist and function - without blind faith.
5. No con man could ever have sold any type of "snake oil," be the type liquid, financial, political, medical, nationalistic, mental, emotional, religious, spiritual, etc.
6. The masses could not be occasionally calmed without blind faith.
7. Wall Street could not make billions each day without blind faith.
8. No global economic collapse could have happened without blind faith in what was being told by Wall Street brokers and investment bankers.
9. The belief by billions of persons on the planet that the concept of “doubt” is a sin could not continue without blind faith.
10. The rejection of scientifically-proven facts could not continue without blind faith.
11. No one in history would ever have been fooled without blind faith.
12. People in the U.S. could never have believed that Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Central America, South America, etc., etc., etc. were an actual threat to the U.S. without blind faith.
13. Maybe most significantly, without blind faith, there would be no more fools (or foolishness) on the planet.
14. Thus, without blind faith, the pervasiveness of the Ultimate Sickness (and the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which it spreads) could not exist.
For all the touting of the worthiness and nobleness and usefulness of blind faith, any honest and impartial and objective witnessing of the actual effects of blind faith would reveal instantly the undesirable consequences on the relative existence of trillions upon trillions of persons.
Maharaj: “ . . . Remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you”
and
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
A few voices have tried to speak into the darkness which has blocked humanity from ‘seeing the light,” including some few sages in the Far East; one in a loft in Bombay, at least during his later talks; a few in the Mideast; and a few scattered elsewhere around the globe, and they all shared messages like these:
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Be careful of living your life based only on faith and signs or you might find yourself standing in a South American jungle holding a glass of Kool-Aid. Common sense is the foundation of any good testimony.” – Shannon Alder
"Most people around here just say they believe whatever their family believes. They don't bother thinking for themselves. And the less they know, the louder they believe it." – Angela Blount
And Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“It is always the false that makes you suffer . . . .”
"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."
"Go to zero concepts."
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
6 December 2014
SECTION THREE:
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. BY USING EBOOKS 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 Kindle reader.
FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality
CONSCIOUSNESS / AWARENESS
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
THE FINAL UNDERSTANDING
THE ADVANCED SEEKERS' SERIES
Anthology of four books
THE BLISSFUL ABIDANCE SERIES
Anthology of six books
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AND HIS EVOLUTION
THE FINAL FIFTEEN TOPICS DISCUSSED BY SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
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 TWELVE STEPS AND ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY: A 21-DAY PLAN FOR A PSYCHIC CHANGE
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME ONE)
SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE (VOLUME TWO)
WHY NISARGA YOGA IN ADDITION TO THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS?
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE via the Non-Duality Teachings and the Nisarga Yoga
YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE
GOING CRAZY / GOING SANE
INSTABILITY / INSANITY: WHAT THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS CAN (AND CANNOT) ADDRESS
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "PEACE OF MIND" (THERE IS ONLY PEACE IF YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND)
FREEDOM FROM SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS / THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, DOMESTICATION, AND ACCULTURATION (THE SOURCES OF THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS; THE NON-DUALITY TREATMENT)
"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?"
THE MYTH OF "DEATH"
THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS: THE SIMPLICITY OF REALIZATION
FINDING REAL LOVE IN AN UNREAL WORLD
CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT
THE NON-DUALITY POINTERS OFFERED BY YESHU'A ("JESUS THE CHRIST")
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE ADVAITIN
WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (THE "FINAL" TALKS OF FLOYD HENDERSON)
I AM THAT (vs. "This Is Who I Think I Am")
QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS DEALING WITH NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA, AND MORE
DANCING LIGHTLY
THE PATH TO FREEDOM VS. THE PATH TO MISERY
THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS PERSONAL (INCLUDING YOU AND INCLUDING GOD)
LIBERATION (ATTAINING FREEDOM FROM PERSONALITY VIA REALIZATION)
WHY YOU MUST BE EMPTY IF YOU WOULD BE FULL
FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers")
WHEN REALITY IS OVERLAID ON THE RELATIVE
THE RELATIVE RESULTS OF RETURNING TO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
WHAT BLISS IS AND WHAT BLISS IS NOT
THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS
LESSONS IN NON-DUALITY FROM TRAVELS IN SOUTH AFRICA
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIRST STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SECOND STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE THIRD STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FOURTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE FIFTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SIXTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
A SERIES OF ESSAYS DISCUSSING THE SEVENTH STEP ON THE SEVEN-STEP PATH TO REALIZATION
SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)
IT'S ALL BULLSHIT (AND WHY KNOWING IT SETS YOU FREE)
SECTION FOUR:
THREE FREE eBOOKS
(Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.)
THREE FREE eBOOKS
(Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.)
The following three eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:
I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"
The
content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous
beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight
about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel
going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.
Maharaj said of each that visited his Bombay loft, “Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end.”
He also said that the problems of humankind are problems associated
with the Ultimate Sickness and that three of the key traits of the
Ultimate Sickness are "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
To
that end, either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the
planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough
or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the
"ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity
and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does
not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.
II.
"THE VISION"
Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster
“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross
“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby
“ ‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.
III.
While in South Africa in 2011, I was introduced to A Primate’s Memoir (2002)
by Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky. Sapolsky is an American
neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and
neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a
Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.
A Primate’s Memoir (which documents Sapolsky’s years in Africa while studying baboons), was recommended because there is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe. The book also portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy. (And the reduction or elimination of stress among humans is one of the aims of the non-dual understanding.)
Now Sapolsky’s recent findings are offered in a documentary film entitled “Stress: Portrait of a Killer.” [The 56-minute film is available on YouTube in many countries.]
This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.
In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:
Often, many do not really know WHY they are seeking. Too, many who are asked WHAT they are seeking often offer no clear-cut answer beyond the standard talk about "Realization" or "Enlightenment." For those who have come this way and have a clear notions about why they are seeking and what they are seeking, many have not yet found anyone that has shown them exactly HOW to go about the process. The content in "Part One" offers some considerations about all three.
In “Part Two” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay (now “Mumbai”) because he undertook in that loft many experiments in his efforts to find an effective form of the Ultimate Medicine that could treat the Ultimate Sickness effectively and successfully. In fact, he would eventually have three laboratories:
He first ran . . .
** a “Religion Laboratory,” then later
** a “Spirituality Laboratory” and eventually
** a “Psychology Laboratory.”
All three will be discussed in detail in "Part Two."
[Sorry - for security reasons, no "clickable" link is provided. You'll need to type the address in to your emailed request manually. Also, the initial response to free eBook offerings is usually significant so it takes some time to process the requests. A new series will begin after those initial responses are taken care of. THX.]
A Primate’s Memoir (which documents Sapolsky’s years in Africa while studying baboons), was recommended because there is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe. The book also portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy. (And the reduction or elimination of stress among humans is one of the aims of the non-dual understanding.)
Now Sapolsky’s recent findings are offered in a documentary film entitled “Stress: Portrait of a Killer.” [The 56-minute film is available on YouTube in many countries.]
This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.
IV.
In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:
Often, many do not really know WHY they are seeking. Too, many who are asked WHAT they are seeking often offer no clear-cut answer beyond the standard talk about "Realization" or "Enlightenment." For those who have come this way and have a clear notions about why they are seeking and what they are seeking, many have not yet found anyone that has shown them exactly HOW to go about the process. The content in "Part One" offers some considerations about all three.
In “Part Two” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.
Maharaj’s loft was actually more of a laboratory in a loft in Bombay (now “Mumbai”) because he undertook in that loft many experiments in his efforts to find an effective form of the Ultimate Medicine that could treat the Ultimate Sickness effectively and successfully. In fact, he would eventually have three laboratories:
He first ran . . .
** a “Religion Laboratory,” then later
** a “Spirituality Laboratory” and eventually
** a “Psychology Laboratory.”
All three will be discussed in detail in "Part Two."
To receive free copies, or to have us send free copies to your friends or
relatives, send the request (or their email addresses) to the following name:
nondualfloyd
@gmail.com
[Sorry - for security reasons, no "clickable" link is provided. You'll need to type the address in to your emailed request manually. Also, the initial response to free eBook offerings is usually significant so it takes some time to process the requests. A new series will begin after those initial responses are taken care of. THX.]
SECTION FIVE:
COMPARE YOUR "JOURNEY" AND SEE IF YOU'VE UNDERGONE ANY EVENTS THAT PARALLEL THOSE OF MAHARAJ AND FLOYD
COMPARE YOUR "JOURNEY" AND SEE IF YOU'VE UNDERGONE ANY EVENTS THAT PARALLEL THOSE OF MAHARAJ AND FLOYD
The "experiences" of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Floyd share many parallel. Many visitors have said that they have also shared some of the same parallels. Can you relate to any of these?
1. Both grew up in very poor families
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 initially tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with religious teachings but realized that did not work, so both tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with spirituality, only to see eventually that "being spiritual" did not cure the Ultimate Sickness either
8. both then realized that the main problems of humanity center in the mind so both turned to the sharing of psychology and scientific-and-fact-based pointers to free persons of the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination
9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion
10. both had grown 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 initially tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with religious teachings but realized that did not work, so both tried to address the Ultimate Sickness with spirituality, only to see eventually that "being spiritual" did not cure the Ultimate Sickness either
8. both then realized that the main problems of humanity center in the mind so both turned to the sharing of psychology and scientific-and-fact-based pointers to free persons of the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination
9. both had highly religious wives who were quite displeased with the shift away from religion
10. both had grown 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 (and no longer having a husband who brought in huge sums of money)
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 offered satsang
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 (and no longer having a husband who brought in huge sums of money)
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 offered satsang
21. both saw that most who hear the teachings are still not going to understand
22. both, therefore, offered pointers without expectation, without attachment to outcome, and without any concern about the way that persons react to hearing Truth
23. both suggested that seekers focus on the exact, step-wise "path
22. both, therefore, offered pointers without expectation, without attachment to outcome, and without any concern about the way that persons react to hearing Truth
23. both suggested that seekers focus on the exact, step-wise "path
24. both made the decision that whatever amount of the relative existence remains shall be spent in sharing the teachings in the way that has been seen to be the most effective method: not suggesting that there are not enough religious persons; not suggesting that the Ultimate Sickness is caused by being "spiritually-unfit"; but by seeing that the problem centers in the mind (which must come to an end, which it will the moment all beliefs are abandoned)
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.
SECTION SIX:
FOR THOSE WHO PREFER A BOOK IN HAND TO READING eBOOKS, 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)
