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 used by Maharaj]
This point was offered in the last post:
Distortion and delusion and magical thinking drives persons to accept lies as truth and block the masses from understanding the most basic facts about their bodies and how they come into being and how they cycle elements and energy and "produce" other composite unities and how the nonsense they are taught will reinforce a belief in "me-ness" and "you-ness" and "WHO-ness" and body and mind and personality identifications which are total - but highly influential - fiction. That will be discussed in the next post.
Regarding WHO-ness, in the four-book anthology The Advance Seekers' Series, there is a forepiece entitled "WHO IS FLOYD HENDERSON?"
In that piece, Louise Sterling of Cape Town, South Africa offers certain observations which can provide deeper insights and understandings into the non-dual teaching dealing with the fictional concept of "WHO-ness." She wrote:
The literary tradition is to preface a book with a biographical snapshot of the author as a person. What can be said then, about the Advaitin Teacher who has moved beyond personal biography?
To describe the person or the personal (the date of birth, the nationality, the job, the interests, the home, the child, the books read, the path followed) is to describe the attributes that actually take us further away from uncovering the teacher’s identity.
The reality is that this "Who Is . . . " question itself brings us to deeper and more authentic questions. What is this understanding in which the teacher resides? The state of Realization is not different from teacher to teacher. There is no difference between a Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Floyd Henderson, or any other Realized teacher.
Realisation means the shattering of the shell of separation so that the non-dual nature of Reality is directly known. How can this be different from person to person? Only in the ABSENCE of the person is this nature revealed. In this way, Floyd Henderson invites us to strip away all that is personal, all that is dualistic, all that separates us from this understanding of Oneness – from our True Selves.
The summative statement "I AM THAT; I AM" describes that understanding in absolute terms as well as its expression in the relative. Floyd Henderson is THAT – just like all human beings; however, Floyd is fixed unshakably in this understanding, so all functioning, relatively speaking, flows directly from this understanding.
In this way, the biographical details (such as, “born” in Louisiana; moved to Texas; worked as a teacher and business owner over several decades before taking early retirement to write; father of a daughter named Ashley; current resident in the community of Walden on Lake Conroe in Texas; years of seeking followed by twenty-five months in the forest dweller stage and experiencing a vision that resulted in the dramatic peripetia or flash of Realization; functioning as a Direct Path, Nisargan teacher; and author of over forty Advaita books) are the attributes or flavourings which coloured the pure consciousness in the particular shape and form at the relative level.
Yet, these attributes are false ingredients. They cannot provide a true answer to the question "Who is Floyd Henderson?" because he recognizes no who-ness at all . . . believes in no "who" that is living "here" at all. He once explained it this way when asked if he was ever bothered by people:
“. . . How could persons possibly bother me? They do not have even the slightest clue about where I truly live. Only a few on the entire planet called “earth” have a clue. Some might enter what is called ‘floyd’s house’ or ‘floyd’s home,’ but that is not where I live; in fact, ‘where’ I live has nothing to do with a ‘where’ at all.
"In this regard, there is actually only the ‘how.’ ‘How’ I abide is as the awareness, as the Original Nature, as the natural state which has no boundaries, which has no defining traits, and which does not change. ‘How’ I abide is without conditions or conditioning, without qualifications, and without limitations.
"I can seem to be ‘here’ one second and ‘there’ the next, but that is about ‘how-ness,’ not any actual ‘here-ness’ or ‘there-ness.’ I am not confined to a space or form; furthermore, I can enter other spaces and forms, and do so regularly (as might happen the instant you read these words).
"Abiding beyond consciousness and beyond beingness and beyond non-beingness, I can span the globe . . . I can span the universe . . . I have spanned all universes. Yet such 'while manifested' spannings seldom happen anymore, requiring far more energy than is worth the effort, and it most assuredly need not happen with you.
"As for me, abidance will continue to happen in a whole and unadulterated and unambiguous manner until the consciousness unmanifests. Until that happens, then abidance will happen as Reality is overlaid on the relative without exception. When the consciousness unmanifests, then the drop shall enter the ocean of energy from which it came and will span the Absolute;
"Awareness shall be, but aware of-ness shall not. Later, other universes might be spanned as well, or might not. Yet all of that is stated, so it, too, cannot be the Truth which you know but do not yet know that you know. Tap into the source and know Truth, but even then, do not suppose that you will be able to express Truth in words."
Thus, Floyd describes the AM-ness regarding "floyd" as a "composite unity" of an elemental plant food body that is circulating air and that is temporarily housing the manifested consciousness.
The THAT-ness he sees as a field of energy from which the conscious-energy manifests and to which it will return.
As for identification with any WHO-ness, he discarded that when identification with the Nothingness came, followed eventually by not even identifying with Nothing - or anything else.
See? If you would just be, without erroneously believing that you can "be this" or "be that," then all sense of personhood must end.
The unwavering sense of "Just-Being-ness" can manifest only if all illusions about self-ness and Self-ness and who-ness and WHO-ness end.
To reiterate certain earlier pointers which are relevant to this discussion:
Everything in the relative is much ado about nothing, and everything in the Absolute is also much ado about nothing. There is no "later," no "judgment," and no "eternal reward" or "eternal punishment," so abide naturally, now, and stop being so damn serious. Just be, instead. Relax. Enjoy.
That is the invitation over and over: to just be . . . to rest in the dark and cool blue shade; then, what happens can still happen, but it will be witnessed, without attachment, without reaction, without overreaction, without misery, and without suffering. It can all still happen, but it will happen simply, without complications or angst.
And if something does not happen? That, too, will be witnessed without attachment, without reaction, without overreaction, without misery, without complications, and without angst.
If it is bliss and joy you seek, then forsake not - and detach not from - the post-realization Am-ness, for it provides the only opportunity that you shall ever have to know bliss and to enjoy joy.
But that, too, can only happen if you are just being, if you are not thinking that you are doing, if you understand that you are not a do-er. Why?
Consider the components of the composite unity: Can elements do? No. Can air do? No. Can the conscious-energy do? No. See . . . no do-er.
Finally, to paraphrase an ancient non-duality pointer which was warped by some member of one of the early sky cults:
Be still and know that you are and know that you are that
so that you can . . .
Be still and know that you are
so that you can . . .
Be still and know
so that you can then just . . .
Be still, period.
Then, the sense of "quiet desperation" which Thoreau said marks and mars the lives of the non-realized masses will end as all sense of "desperation" fades away and what remains will be . . . the "quiet" only. So, the invitation:
Be still, be quiet, and know that you really can . . . just be.
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.
