TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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1. [See the offer in gold text 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 green text after today's 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." (See the details in the blue text after this post.)
4. I have two remaining paperback copies of the book co-authored with Mark Houston, A Twelve-Step Journey to SELF-Transformation, a potentially-effective gift for someone struggling with an addiction to alcohol (or to anything else, really). The book lists for $19.95 + Priority Mail shipping. To purchase, you may use the donate button at the top right of this page and include a note that the $27.60 is for the Twelve-Step book. Regrets to international visitors but this is only available within the U.S. because international shipping rates are prohibitive and time-consuming and cannot be tracked.
Today there will be a sharing of non-dual pointers offered several thousand years ago and credited to Yeshu’a (a.k.a., “Jesus”) and recorded in the Christian’s “New Testament.”
HOW MIGHT YESHU’A HAVE HEARD ABOUT NON-DUALITY?
His first exposure to some Far Eastern teachings may have happedned while in the Middle East, having traveled there with a relative who operated a trading caravan between the Middle East and the Far East. Later, after he returned from the Far East, he began sharing non-dual pointers.
However, he may have heard of non-duality even before he journeyed to the Far East because, as noted yesterday, the “I AM THAT; I AM” summative statement of non-duality has been circulating in the Middle East for 1500 or more years by the time he roamed that region.
MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT HIS TEACHINGS
As noted before, I’ve been dealing with Christians for over 71 years. I know the creatures well for I was raised by two of them; I was taught by them; I ate their pretend body and wondered as a child why Jesus tasted like crackers; I drank their pretend blood and saw that his grape-juice-flavored blood helped wash down the dryness of his body; I walked among many of them multiple times per week until I left home at 17 and went to college;
I married a semi-fanatical one; I also married a totally-fanatical one (who would label me “A New Age Agent of Satan” when she heard me discussing non-duality with some people); and I was abused by them, physically and mentally and emotionally and financially.
[The “fault” was not theirs, in most cases. The cause rested partly in my falling back asleep after my Cherokee grandmother had awakened me to some degree; thus, I approached them blindly far too often in my sleep. Was there "guilt by association"? For some time, yes. Was there "misery and pain by association"? Always, until I awoke and walked away, never to return.]
CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS: ANOTHER BOGUS CONCEPT
As for "Christ Consciousness," different types of consciousness do not exist. Most who talk of "Christ Consciousness" have no clue about consciousness to begin with, and most have no idea at all that the one they call "Christ" was actually sharing non-dual pointers about the consciousness, and that which is beyond, during the final years of that manifestation.
While running errands this morning, a saw a building-size sign in front of a church, announcing that “Resurrection Week” was approaching. Since Jesus was not in the car with me, I laughed loud enough for both of us. Resurrection? Hardly. Part of that which was called “Jesus” returned to the universal pool of elements after his crucifixion. Too, he expelled his last breath from a cross and released that to return to the universal pool of air. As for the conscious-energy which faded away from that elemental plant food body, that returned to the universal pool of conscious-energy. Resurrection indeed.
OTHER MISCONCEPTIONS
Consider what one Christian, more objective than most, had to say about his own religion (and note how it describes the behaviors of persons affiliated with most other religions as well):
1. We are too confident that God thinks we're "all that."
2. We are too quick to believe that we know what the teachings really mean [when we don't].
3. We are too action-oriented. We Christians could stand to spend less time acting in the name of God. We need more passivity and less activity. More meditation, less machination. More reflection, less correction. More contemplation, less administration. More prayers, less airs. More mysticism, less . . . um . . . cretinism.
4. We are too invasive of others generally.
5. We are too invasive of others personally.
6. We are too quick to abandon logic. [Again, "The enemies of reason have a certain blind look."] When talking to others about our faith, we Christians too often resort to a language and line of reasoning that leaves good old-fashioned logic sitting on the ground behind us, waving a sad good-bye.
7. We are too fixated on homosexuality.
8. We are too insular.
9. We are too uneducated about Christianity. [Again, to illustrate his point, how many Christians know that Jesus taught the Jewish dogma early on but that he offered non-dual teachings at the end of the manifestation? He merely repeated parts of the two sets of teachings that he was taught - namely, Jewish dogma and non-duality; therefore, how many recognize that there was not, and is not, a "Christ message, a Christian message" at all because he did not come up with any of it at all?]
That having been said, and it having been noted that the non-dual quotes being shared here were said to have been shared by Yeshu’a without - as is the case of everything in their "holy scriptures" - any absolute concrete proof, let us begin:
NON-DUALITY QUOTATIONS ATTRIBUTED TO JESUS
(Please note: The full explanation of each of the following quotes is book-length in almost every case. The explanations here are brief. For those that would understand the quote and the teachings in their entirety, certain reading suggestions will be offered. Later, there will be more explanation about how the one called "Jesus" learned the Advaita message. For now, the quotes will be offered and discussed. Please note: Since most of the quotations were recorded 80-100 years after Christ lived, none can be confirmed 100%. Thus, they will be discussed as presented with that caution. Also, some quotes are from books of the original "Bible" but were removed by the Councils of Nicea.)
1.
"When you speak of Me, speak of Me as I AM."
Mentioned earlier was the summative statement of the Advaita teachings: "I AM THAT; I AM." The point of that statement is that
(A) temporarily, there is a body-cum-consciousness that is manifested, but
(B) the body will not be permanent and the consciousness will not remain manifested therein and
(C) THAT Which You Are is permanent and can be pointed to with the word THAT.
Also in that statement is the point that the use of "THAT" and no other labels or names to point to what is permanent is reflected in one of the principles of Taoism, namely, that
(D) the name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
For Jesus to refer to himself as "Me" points to the eternal "Me," not to the temporary "me" that is the body with conscious-energy temporarily manifested therein. For him to advise all to refer to him as "I AM" is his recognition of the Advaita teaching that the temporarily manifested consciousness is often referred to in those teachings as the "I AM" or the "AM-ness" or the "IS-ness."
2.
"Before Abraham was, I AM."
How much confusion has arisen when uninformed Christian ministers have tried to explain - or explain away - that line? How many have tried to dodge the questions about that comment completely, as happened every time that "floyd" asked preachers about those two lines in the churches of his youth?
If "a Christian" is not familiar with the summative statement of Advaita, I AM THAT; I AM, then she / he will have no clue that it was Advaitin pointers that were being taught by the one they call "Jesus" or "The Christ."
[Also, most do not connect those I AM quotes with the phrase that Moses plagiarized and placed in the mouth of a burning bush / god, leaving off the semi-colon in the process. As a result, Jews and Christians alike read "I AM THAT I AM" and conclude, "Ahhh, deep. I don't understand it, but that is very deep."]
Yeshu'a is also credited with offering these non-dual pointers:
3.
"No one shall ever see the kingdom of heaven - it is within."
Non-duality teaches that there is an "inner guru" or "inner resource" that is capable of knowing Truth but that is seldom tapped into because of the blockages that prevent the consciousness from seeing purely and accurately.
Those blockages are the result of programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication. The "kingdom" is not a state "there" but is a state that is here and now ... the state of total freedom and peace.
(To clarify, Pope John Paul II said that heaven and hell are not literally “geographic places” but are “states of mind.” More on that later.)
4.
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
Why will heaven and earth fade away, according to the non-dual teachings? Because at the point of mahasamadhi (called "death" by most) the consciousness begins to fade away, to "un-manifest" and leave the body and re-enter the field of energy from which it manifested.
Because heaven and earth are concepts that have been dreamed up and believed in during the time the consciousness have been manifested (believed in because of programming and acculturation and conditioning, etc.) then when the consciousness fades away, so will that which allowed those ideas to be believed in and stored what is called "the mind."
5.
And if "heaven and earth shall fade away," . . .
. . . then the same would have to apply to hell. In fact, Jesus never talked about hell. He used the term "gehanna" (to be discussed in more detail later). So much for the dualistic pair of "heaven vs. hell." Because Jesus was teaching non-duality during the three years that he returned to Jerusalem, he was also dispelling any beliefs in dualities.
6.
"Cleave a piece of wood and I am there;
lift up the stone and you will find Me there."
The Advaita ("not two") teachings point to the Oneness of all. Jesus was saying that, "I am the wood, I am the stone, I am that which is under the stone . . . I Am all." Scientists understand that everything in what is called "this universe" began with a single atom.
From that one, all came. Scientists also know that the only reason that things take on appearances that seem to be different is because they are vibrating at different frequencies. If one could force a human body to vibrate at the same frequency as a baby grand, then that person would take on the same appearance as a piano. That Jesus knew; that he taught.
7.
"If you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty and you are poverty."
Non-duality teaches that those who do not understand the teachings cannot understanding the functioning of the totality and are, therefore, "poor" in understanding, in awareness.
Non-duality teaches that the Realized - those abiding in Full Awareness - know the Self, that is, the True Self. They also know the unicity, meaning the Oneness of Self. The Advaita teacher Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj taught that "Love is knowing that You are everything" (meaning, at one with all).
Jesus was saying that if persons do not know themselves - that is, “the Original Nature” - then their lives will not be rich in understanding or freedom or peace.
To be continued.
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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) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); 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.
