REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”: The Arrogance / Conflict Connection

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj] 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL": 

The Arrogance / Conflict Connection 

Just as a child does not exit a "birth" canal in adult form, so Maharaj did not arrive straight out of the “non-dual chute" in a "Fully Mature-Teacher State" with the skill set required to offer a fully-effective version of the Ultimate Medicine. The version of the Medicine he used in the end had not even the slightest similarity to the versions used earlier. 

The only version of the Medicine which he offered for the Ultimate Sickness which most seekers are familiar with is the version of the Medicine which they have found in the book I AM THAT containing talks offered during “His Middle Period of Teaching.” 

Most know little about the first version of the Medicine, a version which was actually prescribed by his guru who, essentially, told Maharaj that you must trick them: get them into your flat by offering bhajans throughout the day and then insert some non-dual pointers during the Hindu practices they like. 

His guru envisioned the coming of no seekers other than Hindus, and he never envisioned the likelihood of seekers coming from outside the Hindu state of Maharashtra or from anywhere other than the environs of Bombay, the Girgoan region, and the Khetwadi neighborhood. 

So the original “teaching strategy” during "Maharaj's "Early Period of Teaching” was to seek those interested in religion and to try to free them of their present habit of viewing all in a totally-dualistic manner in which they believed in vast multiplicities of gods and goddesses and to developing a non-dual perspective instead. 

Most seekers know little of "that Maharaj" who - during his guru-bhakti-driven days - unquestioningly followed Siddharameshwar’s prescription for treating the Ultimate Sickness. 

Only after he moved beyond his guru’s orders and began formulating a teaching methodology based in his own experience (and in his own observations about what was "working" and what was not) did he begin offering a compound version of the Medicine which was made from a Hindu base with non-dual additives and then blending in a peppering of “spiritually-oriented pointers” for flavor. It is that version which most are familiar with because it is the one most-widely circulated with the publication of I AM THAT.

But the evolution, the maturing, was not complete at that point in this recounting of his teaching "journey." The "Tea of Maharaj's Final Understanding" had only begun to steep. 

Afterwards, the mostly-Hindu audience began to be joined more and more frequently by non-Hindu audience members who were Westerners; then only did Maharaj begin transitioning beyond his guru’s “game plan.” 

In some later books, more shifts in the focus of his talks can be traced, but the major shifts were not advertised. They have been revealed over the years in private interviews; in anecdotal accounts of one-on-one comments he shared; in accounts of off-the-record conversations; and in usually-closely-held, formerly-private writings of those who recalled what he had said during “unofficial” or “confidential” talks or in never-professionally-published transcripts of what he had said in the presence of one seeker or in the presence of only a few. For those familiar with the pointers offered by “the off-the-record Maharaj,” it is obvious that he went through 

(A) his seeking phase, 

(B) his guru phase, 

(C) his “Forest Dweller” phase,

(D) his early teaching / informal sharing phase when visitors began to stop by his bidi shop regularly in order to talk and to listen. 

Then came 

(E) his Hindu / religious / non-dual blend phase 

and 

(F) his less Hindi / more spiritual / more non-dual phase. 

All of that might be compared to a child moving into his teen years and then into his young adult years and then into his adult years and then finally reaching his older / far-more-astute / penetrating / sharp-witted / clear-sighted / wise-old-man / perspicacious / fully awake / fully aware / fully conscious / “elder sage” stage. 

Yet would those who criticize Maharaj for “evolving” (for growing) hope that a child of their own would fixate and would never develop and would remain stunted throughout the entire manifestation? 

Because of experience and observation and a trial-and-error approach, he reached a point where his own experience lead him to look not only outside the surrounding culture but also outside the realm of anything that any Far Eastern teacher had tried up to that point. He came to see that the problems of humanity are all rooted in the mind, not rooted in a too-little-knowledge-of-dogma issue and not rooted in a too-little-spirituality issue and not rooted in a too little knowledge of Self issue. 

[Thus, he said: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”] 

Thus the teaching periods were marked by trying but then discarding many different versions of the Medicine before he realized that the problems of humanity will never be effectively addressed if the focus is on what some take to be "too-little-dogma issues" or by focusing on what others take to be "spiritual malady issues." He came to understand that the root of the problems will only be addressed by focusing on "the mind issues," the mind being the place from which the self-generated problems of humanity emanate. 

That is why he told people in the end to "stop reading I AM THAT" 

and to 

"listen to my later talks." 

How rich billions of persons would be if they were given a dollar for every time they (yes, accurately) observed, "Look at that - that person is nuts!" or "What a fool!" or "He / She has got to be totally insane!" 

Yet how poor they would be if a dollar were taken away each time they failed to see the true facts surrounding their own mental condition. 

Here, these related points are offered for consideration to those who are focusing on the ignorance and insanity which they are observing in "others": 

"If you spot it, you've also got it" 

and 

"If you can see it, you can also be it" (as in "be insane").

You will never find the truth regarding your own mental condition until you give up this firmly-held belief about what makes "you" different from - and therefore better than - all of those "others," namely . . .

"My poop smelleth not; thy caca, on the other hand, doth much offend." 

The effects of that mindset? 

** Judging others and finding them to be "less than" and "not good enough." 

** "Breaking relationships" on personal, state, national, and international levels. 

** Fighting, infighting, and fighting with one's assumed and / or assigned self / selves. 

** Attacking those of a different race. 

**Attacking those of a different religion. 

** Attacking those of a different sexual orientation. 

** Attacking those of a different sect or denomination. 

** Attacking those of a lesser income level. 

** Civil wars. 

** National wars.

** "World" wars. 

Got problems, either "here" or "there" or "everywhere"? Trace the roots back to a mind or minds with belief systems about being "different from" and therefore "better than" and about entitlement and "deserving better" and "deserving more" based solely on one's race, sexual preference, nationality, religious affiliation, po0litical affiliation, spiritual state, ad infinitum. 

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. 

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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. 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. 

THE EXPLANATION 

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence. 

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to." 

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly"). 

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part. 

"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on: 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within" 

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell." 

--Pope Francis, the current pope 

[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record 

teachings which are part of the Papal Magisterium]

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”: Why Maharaj abandoned religion and religious / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine and why he abandoned spirituality and spiritual / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj] 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL": 

Why Maharaj abandoned religion and religious / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine and why he abandoned spirituality and spiritual / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine 

To review why Maharaj abandoned religion and religious / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine; why he abandoned spirituality and spiritual / non-dual versions of the Ultimate Medicine; why he said that self-inquiry – by which one can find who she or he is not – “is enough”; and why he began using a psychological / non-dual / Nisarga Yoga compound version of the Medicine instead: 

and

 WHAT HE SAID: 

 "All illness begins in the mind." 

"Your confusion is . . . in your mind." 

"Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited." 

"Distrust your mind, and go beyond." 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates." 

" . . . The mind obscures and distorts." 

"It is the mind that creates illusion." 

"There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind." 

"Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether." 

"Beyond the mind there is no suffering." 

So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj? 

"Stop making use of your mind and see what happens." 

"Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas." 

"There is no such thing as mind. There are ideas . . . ." 

"Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . ." 

"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom." 

So what was his state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state: 

"There is no such thing as a mind." 

"I have no mind . . . ." 

Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised: 

"Reach a state of zero-concepts." 

"As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens." 

"I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too."

"I find I have lost the mind irretrievably."

WHAT HE DID NOT SAY AT THE END:

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have accumulated too little knowledge of dogma." 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have a spiritual malady and are not spiritual enough." 

"Your confusion is a result of the fact that you have not completed the entire Self-Inquiry process."

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END:

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from having accumulated too little knowledge of dogma.” 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from people not being spiritual enough." 

"There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which comes from not knowing the Supreme Self."

NOR DID HE SAY AT THE END:

"To know that you are a prisoner of your ignorance of religion and of your inadequate knowledge of dogma is the dawn of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your sick spiritual, of your spiritual malady, is the dawn of wisdom." 

"To know that you are a prisoner of your insufficient understanding of the Supreme Self is the dawn of wisdom." 

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. 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. 

THE EXPLANATION 

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence. 

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to." 

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly"). 

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part. 

"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on: 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within" 

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell." --Pope Francis, the current pope 

[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record 

teachings which are part of the Papal Magisterium]

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”: The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj] 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL":

The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns 

"The Bondage of Spiritual Concerns," Part Three

I have had persons tell me about their financial problems because of the money they have borrowed or charged to a credit card in their search for . . . whatever. 

Others who said they had plenty of money shared that they spent small fortunes traveling to the River Jordan because Yeshu'a (Jesus) was reportedly baptized there and, in pre-war days, to Syria to visit a cave where John the Baptist supposedly dwelled and to visit the Sea of Galilee and to visit Jerusalem, all because those places were mentioned in their supposedly holy text and would allow them "to feel closer to Christ." Really?

Some have spent money to visit Mecca and Medina and Quba and Hira and, also, Jerusalem. 

Others have spent money to travel to "incredibly spiritual sites" and "places of great peace and special power" such as India and Angkor Wat and the Wudang Mountains and Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Mount Athos and aboriginal sites all across Australia and "Taoist and Buddhist Mountains in China" and "pilgrimage churches" in France and Spain 

as well as

"sacred" Celtic and Roman sites and the temples and shrines scattered all across the Far East and cathedrals scattered all across Western Europe and "sacred sites of Native Americans" scattered all across the U.S. and spiritual places in Arizona. Why? Because of "the special spiritual energy which can only be found at those sites and which can only be absorbed by visitors standing in those special sites."

Now here, where anyone goes or does not go matters not in the least. The only goal here is to leave a light on in the window for those who have stumbled about long enough and have become tired enough and sick enough that they are ready to seek true freedom and real independence and are ready to be free of all of the darkness of deception, of delusion, of self-deception, of being conned, and then being to abide steadily in the light. 

(Ironically, most believe that is exactly where they are, but Maharaj made clear when he spoke of kindergarten-level spirituality that most are so delusional that they "believe that they are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when, in fact, they are actually standing in the dull light of dawn," at best.

As for traveling, rock and roll. I owned a travel company and led tours which took visitors to lovely squares in the capitals of Europe where people were dining alfresco and enjoying some of the great foods and live music on the planet; to some fabulous cafes and attractions in Amsterdam; to some away-from-the-crowd trattorias or parks in the residential sections of Venice; 

to some out-of-the-way places in Rome which provide locals with quiet sitting areas or inexpensive five-course gourmet meals a mere ten blocks away from the masses crowded into the Ancient Forum and Coliseum area; to out-of-the-way wooded areas in the hills surrounding Florence; and, yes, to the so-called "big sites" all across Europe. 

The point: it matters not where one goes; it matters that they remain awake, aware, and conscious wherever they might be, remaining free of emotional intoxication and free of becoming emotionally-charged as a result of believing that some geographic places are different and have special power and provide special levels of peace which can only come via the special spiritual energy being emitted at those sites. 

If a seeker would be free of delusion and free from abiding in the darkness, all notions and beliefs about there being special places with special energy and special power must go. 

Maharaj: A gnani does not "claim to be something special. All those who proclaim their own greatness and uniqueness are not gnanis. They are mistaking some unusual development for realization." 

That applies as well to any who believe that certain places are special and are just oozing with special energy and special power. 

In warning about "imagination," Maharaj said: "In the light of consciousness, all sorts of things happen; one need not give special importance to any." 

The same advice applies to not assigning special importance to places and sites and lands and cities and mountain ranges and valleys, etc. 

The Holy Land is deemed to be "different" because Yeshu'a walked there and because Abraham laid the foundations for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam there. 

What has been the result of thinking that some land is different from other land ("different" being the actual meaning of the word "holy")? Centuries of fighting for control of that land, centuries of war, centuries of killing, and centuries during which people knew no peace at all. So much for special. 

Instead of buying into the concept of "specialness," Maharaj suggested: " Keep the ‘I am’ in the focus of awareness, remember that you are, watch yourself ceaselessly, and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part." 

As for all of the millennia of chaos and murder and wars which have come about because persons divided the lands into different countries, the non-dualists John Lennon and Yoko Ono invited people to . . .

Imagine there's no countries.

It isn't hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for. 

Imagine all the people 

sharing all the world. 

Of course it would have to be imagined because that bird has flown and is not going to come back. 

Yet for you, the proper perspective which could have manifested if you had not being programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed can manifest now.

Spend thousands of dollars to go to Florence, Italy or spend thousands to go to Mecca or to the "holy land." It matters not, but the invitation is - wherever you go or wherever you stay and wherever you are at any given second, be awake, aware and conscious. 

Be free of having your mind filled with nonsense about special energy and special power. 

The desire to have unlimited power or a special Power or special Powers at your beck and call and special knowledge and special status will generate more needless and doomed seeking than anything else. To seek a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or to seek a special place on earth where you can stand and absorb spiritual energy and power will both lead to a waste of energy and resources. 

The excellent news is that . . . 

no one needs anything of special importance; 

no one needs special garments or special accoutrements; 

no one needs a special, supposedly spiritual diet;

no one needs a special haircut or no haircut at all;

no one needs special power or a Special Power or Special Powers; 

no one needs to visit special places where special spiritual energy is being emitted; 

no one needs to find a special place where special knowledge can be offered and gathered and stored in an already over-packed mind; 

and 

no one needs to spend a fortune to go to supposedly holy lands and supposedly holy spots to have some kind of supposedly holy, supposedly empowering, and supposedly energizing experience which will only result in one being emotionally-intoxicated. 

Why is that "excellent news"? 

Because . . . 

there is nothing of special importance;

there is no one of special importance; 

there are no special garments or special accoutrements; 

there are no special, supposedly spiritual diets;

there are no special haircuts;

there are no special powers or Special Powers; 

there are no special places emitting special spiritual energy; 

there is no special knowledge; 

there are no holy lands; 

and 

there are no "holy spots." 

Thus Maharaj eventually advised: 

“Give up spirituality” 

and 

“Follow your normal (that is, natural, not supposedly supernatural) inclinations" 

and 

"Forget spirituality." 

And in its place, do what? 

"Simply abide naturally" 

and 

"Relax as do the deer in the cool blue shade"

So go where you want or go nowhere at all, but wherever you are, be awake and aware so you cannot be fooled anymore.

Spiritual workaholism and spiritual going and doing and zooming can be debilitating. 

Spiritual workaholism and spiritual going and doing and zooming can be used an as excuse to continue to avoid one's spouse and children. (What's the difference in going to a bar and getting drunk and coming home late at night after having ignored one's family vs. going to a special spiritual place and going on special spiritual retreats and "serving others" but not being at home with one's family? What's the difference? The appearance. Only the image. Getting drunk and ignoring one's responsibilities and family. "Bad." Getting sober and ignoring one's responsibilities and family? "Good. No problem.") 

Spiritual workaholism and spiritual going and doing and zooming can be used to escape from reality even as the claim is being made that it is what puts one in touch reality. 

Spiritual workaholism and spiritual going and doing and zooming are just more of what manifests when one is being driven by fanaticism and by the agenda of the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. 

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. 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. 

THE EXPLANATION 

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence. 

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to." 

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly"). 

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part. 

"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on: 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within" 

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell." 

--Pope Francis, the current pope 

[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record teachings 

which are part of the Papal Magisterium]

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”: The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj] 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL":

The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns 

"The Bondage of Spiritual Concerns," Part Two 

[From yesterday] 

Pretty much working or being on duty 24 / 7 at the high school and at the drilling site left me exhausted. I considered quitting the teaching job, but it was the only job I had ever wanted to do, so I worked a second job - as so many teacher did and do - in order to be able to afford to do what amounted to the charity work performed by most public school teachers.

Yet that was nothing compared to the exhaustion which would come once I became influenced to assume the role of "The Spiritual Giant." The only thing more exhausting than that came when several ego-defense mechanisms triggered and ego-state of "The Spiritual Giant" role was self-upgraded to the super-ego-state of "The Super Spiritual Giant." 

In the part fictional / autobiographical non-duality-based novel mentioned yesterday and entitled THE TWICE-STOLEN NECKLACE MURDERS, the laborious and grueling “journey” of the lead character Kirk / “floyd” was described this way: 

“In his energy-consuming search for salvation, he’d been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he’d been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life’s Meaning, he’d been communion’d, Om’d, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram’d, accepted, rejected, Mu’d, and yoga’d; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he’d been pulverized, martinized, and frappéd; 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 waters, and purportedly purified. Then in the end, each of the religious or spiritual leaders had always charged him 10% of his total income for the whole sorry treatment, plus a building-fund-tax and a foreign-missions-surcharge to boot—all in spite of the complete ineffectiveness of their claims to ‘redeem and save’.” 

See? Exhausting.

During the long and winding and arduous “path” that was followed prior to coming across the non-dual teachings, there had been exposure to preachers; Sunday school teachers; public school teachers; college professors; priests; a Sikh; a Buddhist; a New Age guru; a Taoist; sponsors; a life coach; a Cherokee teacher, etc. 

That near-endless compilation of persons who were met along the way all had several traits in common: 

(1) they all had many beliefs; 

(2) they all had assumed false identities that were associated with one religion or another; one spiritual movement or another; one philosophical movement or another; one ideology or another; one "program" or another, etc; 

(3) their beliefs were all rooted in a “Reality and reality” perspective, meaning that they dualistically believed not only in “this world” (their “reality,” which they viewed as a temporary existence for each person) but also in “another world” (their “Reality,” the other world or worlds which they thought would be “eternal” for every person, one "world" being a "world of rewards," the other being a "world of punishment"); 

(4) so they all believed in “this world” and then additionally other worlds that were either an upgraded version of "this world" (“heaven with pearly gates and streets of gold,” “Nirvana,” “the Pure Land,” “heaven with seventy-two virgins and a host of whores and wives as well,” etc.) or a downgraded version of "this world" (“Hell,” “Hades,” “another life on this planet but as a lower species,” an “underworld,” etc.); and the other trait they all had in common was this:

(5) they all wanted me to believe exactly what they believed. 

Here, to the contrary, this has been posted on occasion on this site: 

"Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, and domesticated to believe so that you can be free, period." 

This has also been shared: 

"There is no one here who wants you to learn more. What is offered here is an invitation to un-learn all. There is no one here who would teach you anything. What is offered here is an invitation to be un-taught." 

And that is a stance which 

(A) was never heard before coming across the non-duality teachings - at least as presented by some non-dual teachers who are not among the Big Name Teachers - and which 

(B) has never been heard since in any other "venue." 

But above all else, after having met with and worked with thousands of seekers, thousands of religious persons, thousands of spiritual persons, and thousands of persons with the Addictive Personality Disorder, it became obvious that another primary trait which they all shared in common with each other is the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCD). 

First, addiction. Every person on the planet is addicted to something. The most prevalent, primary addiction is an addiction to control, and the most prevalent, secondary addiction is to power (or a Power or multiple Powers) in order to be able to control. 

Next to the Addictive Personality Disorder, it may well be that the second most prevalent personality disorder around the globe nowadays is OCD. 

People are fanatical and obsessive and compulsive about their belief systems, about their seeking, about their religion, about developing and maintaining the image of being a spiritual giant, about their politics, about their nation, about their favorite sports teams, 

about their sense of white racial superiority, about who is having sex with whom, about who is wanting to marry whom, about what people choose to do with their own bodies, about their guns, about their children, about their accumulations and money and material possessions, about their jobs and the workaholism driving them, 

about their preferred food plans, about dieting, about their relationships and about "love," about germs and / or extreme cleanliness, about adrenaline-stimulating activities, about sex, about knowledge, about judging and gossiping, about escaping and avoiding and evading, about finding someone who is willing to pay their bills, about bullying others, about weight and body type, about their ancestry, about fame, about success, about achievement, about purpose, etc., ad infinitum. 

Yet little generates more fanaticism and spending and going and doing and zooming than religion or, especially, spirituality.

I've observed persons who have compiled a "holy / spiritual bucket list" of things they want to do and places they want to go - all around the globe - in order to become super holy and super spiritual. 

They believe that their religious and spiritual workaholism are believed to be inspired by their excessive levels of decency and kindness and goodness and integrity and righteousness when, in fact, they are inspired by excessive levels of fanaticism and by the content of their minds which are driven by excessive levels of obsession. 

Today, Yeshu'a (Jesus) supposedly has an audience of 2.2 billion religious persons who claim to be "his followers." There are millions more who claim to be spiritual and who heed the non-dual pointers he shared after he abandoned organized religion. 

While many of them criticize Jews for being fanatical zealots and many more criticize Muslims for being fanatical zealots, they fail to see that they are practicing psychological projection and finding in others the very traits of fanaticism and obsessiveness and compulsiveness which are at the core of their own psyche. 

So many who report that the goal of their religious or spiritual quest is to find peace and an ability to relax, yet it is their very quest which is robbing them of peace and an ability to relax. (Others have forfeited that goal and have decided that they will suffer now in order to attain the reward of eternal peace later on.)

It's as if someone wants to join two boards together, drives a nail through one board and into the other in order to accomplish that, and then spends the next fifty years pounding on that one nail over and over again. 

A wise person could tell the one engaging in such ceaseless hammering and work, "Uhhhh, what you want is already here right now. It is already done. All you need to do now is stop all that damn pounding and sit back and relax." 

Ha. Fat chance. Fanatics do not really want to stop with their ceaseless work and ceaseless exercises and ceaseless going and doing and zooming. The last thing a seeker really wants is to stop seeking for the seeking defines "who he / she is," namely, a "Super Seeker." 

"To find" would to put an end to that seeker identity. That's the "Catch-22," the trap which ensnares persons in a recurring cycle of endless seeking while avoiding (1) finding and then (2) being done with seeking once and for all. And - as always - that entrapment involves false personality identification and the desires and fears which are always generated by false selves, by always-phony ego-states. 

Every living thing on the planet abides naturally except for humans. Nothing other than humans have beliefs, and no living things other than humans have the belief that they need to know more and more and more in order to survive. 

Moreover, no living thing except humans believe that anything other than survival is important at all. [Maharaj: " Living is life’s only purpose."] 

Nothing other than humans seek esteem, purpose, recognition, personal value, personal worth, and an image of being "Super Religious" or "Super Spiritual." 

Nothing other than humans would consider abiding supernaturally and unnaturally rather than abiding naturally. 

Nothing other than humans holds a job and then makes a second job out of mere living (in a "right" and "good" and even "hallowed" and "sanctified" and "consecrated" and "divine" and "saintly" and "virtuous" way). 

Maharaj: "Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end" 

and 

"There is nothing to seek and find, for there is nothing lost. Relax and watch the ‘I am’. Reality is just behind it." 

He clarified the valueless-ness of the work, work, work which seekers and others engage in: 

"You want peace, love, happiness, but work hard to create pain, hatred and war" 

and 

"You yourself are the tools of your work; you have no other tools. Why don’t you take care of the tools before you think of the work?" 

Is that advice easier said than done for those who have been programmed, conditioned, etc.? You bet. 

Maharaj: "To work in the world is hard; to refrain from all unnecessary work is even harder." 

His advice to one who thought that persons have the power to change the world for the better and that they should work constantly to do so: 

Maharaj: "Put first your own house in order and you will see that your work is done." 

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. 

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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. 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. 

THE EXPLANATION 

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence. 

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to." 

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly"). 

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part. 

"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on: 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within" 

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell." --Pope Francis, the current pope 

[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record teachings 

which are part of the Papal Magisterium]

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL”: The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj] 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

REALIZING WITHOUT DOGMA, WITHOUT CONTINUOUS SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, AND WITHOUT A PREOCCUPATION WITH “THE NATURE OF REALITY AND THINGS NOUMENAL" 

The bondage of world concern, self-concern, material concern, religious concerns, and spiritual concerns 

"The Bondage of Spiritual Concerns" 

One of the most exhausting times of my life came when I graduated from college and began a career as a public school teacher in Louisiana, one of the lowest paying states in the U.S. for educators at that time and to this day. 

There were no written standards, no curriculum guides, and nothing more than an outdated grammar text and an outdated literature book to point the way to the content of the courses I was to teach. It was up to me to write my own curriculum, to come up with lesson plans which would address that curriculum, and to provide everything else needed to fulfill my self-determined job requirements.

Each day during the school year, I arrived at work at 7 A.M. to continue preparation for the day's activities which had begun the evening before. Each day, when the students were dismissed for the day at 3 P.M., I began working on lesson plans for the next day, scoring homework papers collected that day, preparing quizzes and tests, and marking the essays which were turned in on a weekly basis. 

At 5 P.M., I left the school, taking the stacks of paperwork home with me, paperwork which would occupy my attention until well after midnight. I would sleep for six hours, arise, shower, dress, eat a bowl of milk and cereal, and leave for school where I would arrive by 7 A.M. and start the whole cycle over again. 

Then came my first payday, the end of the month when a check in an envelope was finally placed in my mailbox by Mrs. Clark, the principal's secretary. I took the envelope and went to a far corner of the teacher's lounge, anxious to see how much I would have left over after paying the $330.00 per month required for the four basics which came off the top of my monthly income first: $130 for a month's rent on my apartment, $40.00 for gas, electricity, and water for the apartment, $125.00 for my car note, and $35.00 for gasoline. 

I opened the envelope slowly, peeking inside at the check before taking it out of the sleeve. As I peered at the right hand side of the check, I saw a post-withholdings total of . . . $321.88. I looked down at the floor and then back at the check, thinking that somehow, some way, magically - when I looked at the total again - I would see that I had misread it and I would see double or triple the amount initially seen. 

I removed the check from the envelope, turned it so it was right side up, and looked at the amount again. It was still $321.88. Doing the math, I took $321.88, subtracted $330.00 from that, and . . . wait a minute. Something was very wrong. That did not compute. There had to be some mistake. After paying the four basic bills each month, I was going to be $8.00 in the hole even before I paid for such luxuries as food, clothing, toiletries, student loans, car repair, dental bills, etc., etc., etc. 

I looked around the lounge at fellow faculty members who were holding their first check of the year in their hands, immobilized, while otherwise looking like cast members from "The Night of the Living Dead" movie. 

I walked up three flights of stairs and moved down the hall as if dazed by a blow to the head from the heavyweight boxing champ at the time, Muhammad Ali. 

I stopped at the door of the classroom of the woman assigned as my mentor, the door open to try to help generate a cross draft of air from the open windows in a building which was not air conditioned (in a city where temperatures hovered around a 93 to 102 degree F. range in August). 

She saw me, told her students to open their texts to read the next three pages, and then approached me. She asked: "What's wrong, Floyd?" I handed her my check and asked, "Can that possibly be right?" She replied: "Looks about right to me." 

I gave her the short version of the math involving that check and my bills and she smiled and patted me on the shoulder and said, "Now you see why my husband and I have usually worked two jobs a year. You'll find something else too, to make up for the shortfall." With that, she turned and went back into her classroom. 

I began looking for a night shift job that could supplement my income and found work as a night watchman at a steel fabrication plant. I worked dark to light, looking at blurry monitors and taking occasional walks and drives around the property. The pay was lousy, as I explained one day to a fellow faculty member named Ralph. 

When he heard about my predicament, which was the same predicament of most teachers then and now, he told me he had the answer for my financial problems. He told me to give the steel company a two-week notice and then to meet him in the faculty parking lot at 7 P.M. on a Monday two weeks down the road and to bring a change of clothes and my toiletries and my school paperwork. 

After grilling him, he only said, "Be here at 7 in the evening on that Monday" and walked away. I gave notice and then on the Monday scheduled to meet Ralph, I went home at 5 P.M. as usual, worked on my paperwork for an hour, gathered up a change of clothing and toiletries, and drove to the school parking lot. 

I pulled up next to his car and he said, "Follow me." We drove for a half hour, leaving the city and entering one of the surrounding forests and then taking a dirt road to a site where an oil rig came into view after I rounded the final curve in the road. He drove up near the door of a free-standing trailer near the rig and parked. I pulled in next to him. 

I asked, "What the hell's going on, Ralph?" He said, "Welcome to the world of teaching. Come on in." We entered the trailer where I saw a man sitting in front of a row of electronic equipment which ran along one entire wall of the trailer. After being introduced, the man picked up a clothes bag and a shave kit and said to my would-be "financial savior" Ralph: "Have a good evening, Ralph, Floyd. See you guys tomorrow," and he left. 

I asked Ralph again, "What the hell's going on?" He said, "What's going on is that I am going to train you to take the place of the man who quit the night shift here. And what is going on is that I'm going to give you a job that is going to pay you nearly three times as much per week as the school district is paying you in a month. Now let me show you around." I was shown a bedroom with a loud alarm attached to the monitors I'd seen earlier. I saw a bath with a shower. I saw a ten-inch, black and white television. I saw a small refrigerator. I saw a Coleman two-burner, table top stove.

Then Ralph said, "Say hello to your new home away from home. You'll be here from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. where you will work on your paperwork from school while you monitor the equipment here, where you'll go out when you're signaled to do so, where you'll collect a mud sample, and where you'll do an analysis of its contents.

Around 6:30 A.M., you'll shower, change clothes, greet your daytime replacement, and drive directly to school. You'll arrive there at 7:30 A.M. Monday through Friday and you'll be free until you return here at 7 P.M., seven days a week. 

Over the next few weeks, Ralph shared what he had learned during his years of being a Drilling Fluids Engineer and trained me in the basics of being a "mud logger." Mud logging is the creation of a detailed record (called "a well log") of a borehole by examining the cuttings of rock brought to the surface by the circulating drilling medium (most commonly called "drilling mud"). Mud logging is usually performed by a third-party mud logging company, and that's where Ralph came into the picture.

While I was not making half of ten thousand dollars a year teaching, and while Ralph was also still being paid less than $10,000 a year - even with all of his years of experience - he was making more than twenty times that running his mud logging company which was operating trailers scattered throughout the woods of NW Louisiana. 

A few months later, more challenges came as I "won" the draft lottery drawing used to recruit young males to fight in Vietnam. I soon received a summons from the U.S. Government ordering me to report for a physical examination, the hearing portion of which I failed. For the next few years, I was recalled regularly to see if my hearing had improved or if my skills at outwitting their low-tech hearing test equipment had diminished. 

(I did not know anyone in Vietnam whom I considered a threat to the security of the United States, I did not know anyone in Vietnam whom I wanted to kill, and I did not know anyone in Vietnam whom I thought deserved to die, so I did what I did for years to avoid being forced to take a job as a professional hit man for the U.S. military.

The sergeant on duty would say, "Strip down to your underwear and socks, place your clothes and shoes and valuables in the wire basket, lock it in the rack provided, go to the table in the testing room and have a seat, place the headset over your ears, and prepare to take the test."

Each time, I would reply to him, "Say what?" and he would look at me with disgust and flip me the finger before I headed to the dressing / undressing area to remove my clothing, none of which ever covered my ears.)

Pretty much working or being on duty 24 / 7 at the high school and at the drilling site left me exhausted. I considered quitting the teaching job, but it was the only job I had ever wanted to do, so I worked a second job - as so many teachers did and do - in order to be able to afford to do what amounted to the charity work performed by most public school teachers. 

Yet that was nothing compared to the exhaustion which would come once I became influenced to assume the role of "The Spiritual Giant." The only thing more exhausting than that came when several ego-defense mechanisms triggered and the ego-state of "The Spiritual Giant" was self-upgraded to the super-ego-state of "The Super Spiritual Giant." 

More on that tomorrow. 

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. 

Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. 

THE EXPLANATION 

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence. 

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to." 

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly"). 

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part. 

"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on: 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within" 

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell." --Pope Francis, the current pope 

[in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari, 

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record teachings 

which are part of the Papal Magisterium]