TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a video which includes a discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]
The discussion at this point in the series is now focusing on "The Most Influential Obstacles of All" in terms of blocking the seeing of truth and blocking realization and blocking the understanding of the "No-you-ness" and "No You-ness."
That "understanding" refers to the fact that no identities ever assigned or assumed have any validity at all, be they among the identities played during the relative, phenomenal existence or be they among the so-called "noumenal" identities which supposedly exist (whether believed to have been prior to the manifestation or which are believed to supposedly exist post-manifestation).
"The Most Influential Obstacles Of All" have come throughout human history via (1) dreamed up myths and superstitions and - for the last 5000 years or so - via (2) "religious" and / or "spiritual" sources, generating a near-infinite number of religious and / or spiritual thoughts, ideas, concepts, notions, views, theories, inklings, perceptions, a.k.a., "beliefs."
When asked, "Who are you to talk about religion or spirituality and their effects of human thought, word, and deed?" there's no longer any wasting of energy to try to explain the "no-who-ness" and the no-WHO-ness."
Instead, a Maharaj quote comes into consciousness:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
The reason that this composite unity called floyd "has no faith in anything" anymore is because of "my own experience."
I, too, became stuck for far too long at the third of seven steps on Maharaj's "path" where religious and / or spiritual roles are obsessively, fanatically played.
I, too, took myself to be "The Super Religious One" and later "A Spiritual Giant."
Finally, I stepped off the stage of The Theater of the Lie and took an audience seat and observed those two actors as they played out their roles and finally saw, via Pure Witnessing, not only how false those roles were but also how their hidden agendas were inspired and reinforced by the playing of those roles.
With a Cherokee grandmother who had planted seeds of consciousness about religions not being a necessity and about their being a detriment to truth instead, and with her having endorsed natural (nisarga) abidance rather than trying to abide spirituality / supernaturally, how did I end up later in life playing the "The Super Religious One" and "A Spiritual Giant"?
Maharaj, explaining why persons seem to grasp the understanding and then seemingly “lose” it. He said:
(A) “You are so used to the support of concepts that when your concepts leave you, although it is your true state, you get frightened and try to cling to them again.”
Or,
(B) hidden agendas and fears can inspire one to abandon authenticity and play roles which another might want her or him to play. Is a spouse going to leave unless you assume the spouse's belief about religion or spirituality? Some concede or compromise their authenticity and conclude, "Better play the game to keep the peace," as if there is any peace when someone else is allowed to control your thoughts and words and actions.
Or,
(C) Third, there's the power of continuing programming, conditioning, etc. Certain seeds planted but not flourishing can be tended to in a garden-like fashion, as one horticulturist explained:
"If you don't have a compost pile, you can spread fresh manure on your garden."
A compost pile is a pile of organic, rotting refuse which decomposes to produce compost, that is, decayed organic material used as a plant fertilizer.
Old, rotten beliefs can be fertilize the dormant elements in the garden of a mind. If those are not used, then new manure, such as new doses of bullshit via new programming, conditioning, etc. - can be spread and that crap (if added to the garden of a mind) can trigger the growth of new nonsense in a mind.
REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH "THE NATURE OF REALITY AND ONLY THINGS NOUMENAL"
Maharaj said in his later teachings that "realization is nothing more than being free of belief in learned ignorance."
Posts over the last few years have triggered among some (1) a variety of emotion-driven, mind-rooted, persona-based reactions as some attempt to defend their religious or spiritual or other-worldly identities; conversely, among some others, there have been (2) earnest inquiries which have obviously been well-considered by those searching for a method of seeking which differs from everything else which they have tried and which has all failed them so far.
The latter inquiries have come from seekers that are beginning to look objectively - for the first time ever, many admit - at a different sort of "realization process" . . .
which might actually be just as simple as Maharaj claimed;
which might actually be as free of any need to learn more dogma or holy concepts, just as he suggested later on;
which might actually be as free of any need to become spiritual and to engage in spiritual practices, just as he suggested later on;
and
which might actually be, as he proposed later on, totally devoid of any requirement to be concerned with or preoccupied with "THAT" or with supposedly mystically-noumenal things or with supposedly mystically-noumenal "supernatural" things.
Usually those that exhibit an actual state of readiness have - as was formerly the case here - already tried dozens and dozens of other methods of teaching and seeking and working and serving and all sorts of "not-dealing-with-this-realm-but-going-and-doing-and-zooming-instead" as well as engaging in unbelievable loads of spiritual workaholism.
Even inquiring can become a full-time job when trapped in those "new and improved and better" ego-states.
Beginning as early as the age of five or six, inquiries here were made into "the actual nature of God" as there was an effort to try to make sense of what was being taught in a right-wing, evangelical church. What was being offered there would later be seen to be nothing more than a totally senseless set of teachings about a "God the Father" who was so co-dependent and emotionally-unstable that he can be made angry by "his children" on earth when they are bad or can be pleased / appeased by them when they are good.
[As if the relative existence is not challenging enough for many, we are also advised that we must enter into a dysfunctional helping relationship with a god and nurse and support and enable that "Higher Power" who is a childish and emotionally unstable but supposedly "Supreme Being" that is struggling with his own sense of identity and who has an attachment and borderline personality disorder which renders him loving and happy at times but leaves him anger and willing to punishment or drown or otherwise kill at other times.]
Later on the "journey" here, inquiries were made into something supposedly "beyond religion," namely, "spirituality," the difference only existing in the minds of those who assign a higher status to persons who are "spiritual" as opposed to those who are "only religious."
At some point, the focus turned to an inquiry into the nature of Reality ("Reality" being anything which - if singularly focused on - will render persons completely out of touch with the relative "reality" when they no longer shift away from their monomaniacal preoccupation with said "Reality").
The overall "journey" was described this way in the non-duality-based novel entitled THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS:
In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he's been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he'd been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life's Meaning, he'd been communion'd, Om'd, grape-juiced, wined, ashram'd, accepted, rejected, Mu'd, and yoga'd; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he'd been pulverized, martinized, and frapped; and in the endeavor to attain Life Eternal, he'd been baptized, Buddha'd, new Aged, powwow'd, Far Eastern Indianized, incense'd, sage'd, Tao'd, Peru'd, Tibet'd, washed in the blood, dunked in the water, and purportedly purified. Then in the end, each of the religious or spiritual leaders had always charged him 10% of his total income for their holy / wholly sorry treatment, plus a building-fund-tax and a foreign-missions-surcharge to boot - all in spite of the complete ineffectiveness of their claims that they were going to "redeem and save."
It was only after all of the spiritual workaholism and the supernaturally-based going and doing and zooming finally led to nothing other than complete mental and emotional exhaustion that the seeking slowed to a pace which finally allowed enough imposed stillness and almost-involuntary quietness to manifest and then allow a vision to come. (You may receive a free copy of the discussion of that vision in the "FREEBIES" section at the top of this page.)
That vision made clear that all learning leads only to learned ignorance; that there was no need to learn more but that there was a call to unlearn all; and that there was no need for more teaching but that there was a clear call for un-teaching instead.
As was the case with the way that Maharaj's version of the Ultimate Medicine evolved, it became clear here exactly what did not work during all those years of seeking and exactly what did work in the end. Only at that point did a simple "plan" come, providing a means by which seekers can move along the "path" to the end of the "journey" which provides, in turn, an end to seeking and inquiring, an end to "path transitioning," an end to "journeying," an end to "religious and spiritual workaholism," and an end to supposedly "supernatural" going and doing and zooming.
Because nature abhors a vacuum, what fills the resulting, newly-emptied "space"? Calm. Peace. Relaxation. A sense of "okay-ness."
The final process allowed a shift to happen beyond being trapped by those former go-do-zoom methods and for reaching a calm and peaceful and relaxing state or condition which is devoid of all going and doing and zooming. It was direct and truly simple.
Also found was a means by which one can stop trying to use methods which any honest and objective observer would admit have provided nothing more than a temporary respite at best from the effects of the Ultimate Sickness.
This process allowed the ready and willing seeker to move along the "path" which has provided, to a few, an effective treatment for what really ails the masses who are acting out their relative existence on the stage of "The Theater of the Lie" in the play called, "The Insanity of Mistaking a Nightmare For a Dream."
To be continued.
NEW OFFER:
Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video; all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)
If interested; click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.
