TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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 only 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.
The point in this series is that the non-dual message has long been widespread but has seldom been understood either then or now.
To continue:
THE NON-DUALITY MESSAGE AS OFFERED IN FILM
Today:
“Powder,” “Groundhog Day,” “The Devil's Advocate”
“Powder”
One reviewer said that this film “questions the limits of the human mind and body while also displaying society's capacity for cruelty.”
“While the lead character Jeremy has abilities which mark him as ‘special,’ (having supernatural powers and the highest IQ in history) they also make him an outcast. The movie seems to call on humanity to advance to a state of ‘better understanding’.”
Jeremy shares with a character named Lindsey that "he can see the truth about people: that they are scared and feel disconnected from the rest of the world but in truth are all connected to everything that exists."
Another wrote: “The movie ‘Powder’ is a modern day messianic fable: a perfect person is thrown into an imperfect world and tries to change things for the better.”
“Jeremy is indeed very much at odds with people in the world.”
“The principle philosophical message of the film is Eastern: 'everything is connected and at death we flow into our surroundings'.”
“Jeremy is ostracized by the locals, and he yearns to return to the farmhouse of his early days to live in solitude.”
“A thunderstorm erupts, and, when Jeremy runs into it, he is struck by lightning; he transforms into a pulse of energy that radiates across the farm field, strikes bystanders, and gives them 'enlightenment'.”
“Throughout the entire movie, Jeremy yearned to go home. In one sense, ‘home’ is his secluded grandparents’ farm house. When it became clear that he could no longer return to that home, ‘home’ ultimately became 'absorption into the larger world'.”
“Groundhog Day”
In the film, Phil Connors, a TV weatherman who, during an assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event, is caught in a time loop which no one else is aware of, repeatedly reliving the same day.
One wrote: "He will eventually be released by shedding his selfishness and committing acts of love.”
Another reviewer wrote: The film "Groundhog Day" has become shorthand for the concept of ‘spiritual transcendence.’ As such, the film has become a favorite of some Buddhists who see its themes of selflessness and rebirth as reflections of their own ‘spiritual messages’.”
Of course the narrative of someone trapped in a time loop, where escape is possible only after accumulating knowledge through multiple passes, hints at the Hindu notion of multiple lives and multiple reincarnations (which Maharaj would eventually discard as just another dreamed up concept).
“The Devil's Advocate”
As with the “Matrix,” discussed earlier, Keanu Reeves returns to a role in a movie with a non-dual theme, this time playing a character named Kevin.
One wrote: “Kevin is a defense attorney who has never lost a case. Winning is everything to him. He indulges in vanity, exhibiting excessive pride in his abilities as a lawyer to find loopholes and then win cases.”
Another wrote: “The ending of the film makes it clear that Kevin's 'dream' was in fact an alternate reality where John Milton (aka, "Satan") tried to tempt Kevin with wealth and power and failed to do so. Kevin's 'death' simply sent him back to his own reality at the point where it diverged into the film's primary narrative.”
The film focuses on the “good vs. evil” duality which marks the relative existence and shows how human egotism and vanity (which come with the assumption of ego-states as supposedly-real identities) are traits which often lie at the core of human nature and more often than not are enthusiastically clung to.
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.
