TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. [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]
2. 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.
3. A new video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group."
THE SEEDS OF DUALITY WHICH PRODUCE DUALITY'S PROGENY:
Offspring Number Fifty-nine =
No Interest in Being Truly Free and Independent
THE MASSES PREFER DEPENDENCY AND CODEPENDENCY AND ATTACHMENT TO THE THINGS WHICH ROB PERSONS OF THEIR FREEDOM
Yesterday, mention was made of “Bill” who was our resident “Super Buddhist” during the days of his early visits to this site before the non-dual understanding washed away his attachment to that role.
Some of his writings have been shared in the past and a note received from him this morning will be shared as well since it evidences the shift which can happen from (a) entrapment in roles and beliefs to (b) freedom from being entrapped by those and all other concepts, so the continuation of the discussion of the ego-defense mechanism of “denial” will continue Wednesday.
Again, this reminder before reading:
"The truth will set you free, but it’s really going to piss you off first.”
Hey Floyd,
I was reading your post from yesterday and thinking about all of the deception and falseness in organized religion. Buddhist’s start with venerating a summation of Buddhism in the Dhammapada that is totally wrong headed to awakening “To do good, to shun evil and to purify the mind. that is the teaching of the Buddhas.”
I did a search of my journal for that quote and came up with the following entry:
I am sitting by the river again and the sound of the bells and chimes come from the Lear Theater across the water. The bells come from an art sculpture created for the Burning Man festival hosted by the city of Reno and the Arts Council.
People cannot help but ring it as they go by. It makes me think of the bell ringing and the chanting tests that were part of my ordination tests in Japan, along with writing a Master’s thesis to obtain the stature of ‘teacher’ in a Buddhist sect.
It was truly a waste, and as Buddha has said, "Truly I have gained nothing from enlightenment." I can say truly in the relative sense I gained nothing from years of chanting and bell ringing.
These were distractions keeping me busy being a spiritual giant, a spiritual workaholic in my process of pursuing the false ‘hero’s journey’. But so what? The spiritual seeker is genuinely a trap, and a big one at that, and yet in Maya's house are many mansions.
It was as good as any other role on the stage. In Maya's house are many rooms with doors that are not really locked but you can almost never leave.
There I did it again. I quoted the Buddha, and who the hell has any idea what he actually said, as nothing was written down for 500 years. The documents are easily as unreliable to scholars as the New Testament documents.
And yet there is a kernel of truth and wisdom in some of Buddha’s statements. "I have broken down the ridgepole and the rafters fall. The structure is no more." This I certainly get. He is saying to tear down the house of false identities to be with non-dual awareness.
But the oft quoted summation of his teaching in the Dhammapada "To do good, to shun evil and to purify the mind, this is the teaching of the Buddhas” is completely wrong. Good and evil, as Shakespeare noted are in the mind of the beholder. And the mind in general is a false collection of programming and conditioning.
The idea of purifying instead of purging a false mind is ludicrous. How is it possible to purify and cleanse something that isn’t real to begin with? And the idea of thousands of monks obeying the Vinaya, the ‘rules’, is a hopeless subterfuge.
The rules are too voluminous and too ridiculous to list here but range from never voluntarily ejaculating your sperm, to never building a shelter over two yards by three yards in size, to never keeping an extra robe over 10 days, not to keep an extra bowl for over 10 days, not to accept a floor carpet only made of black sheep’s wool, and of course to never touch a woman (heaven forbid).
This just touches the surface of the huge and hidden iceberg of complete madness that religion generates in the name of holiness.
The obstacles to Realizing are body, mind and personality identifications. Can you see that the holy personas of religion including the many rules just listed only add more and more identifications to those already bound? It adds seemingly good personas and identities (chains) like the ‘holy one’ or the ‘spiritual warrior’ but chains dipped in gold glitter are just as confining and heavy as rusty ones.
Self-identifications are patently false and the cause of bondage.
Well put, Bill, and that’s why self-identifications and beliefs and religious rules are on the list which is currently under examination as we see all that contributes to the cause of bondage and to the loss of freedom.
To be continued.
TOMORROW: The continuing discussion of the ego-defense mechanism of “denial.”
THE NEWEST 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"
--Yeshu'a (Jesus)
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 become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.
And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?
Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?
The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)
With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.
The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.]
Here's
the direct link to the VIDEO VERSION
of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 18 MARCH 2018
If preferred, here's
the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION
of that session.
