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.
Some prefer paperback books even if they have to wait a day or so to
receive it and have to pay more for a printed book and its shipment.
Now, 10 paperback books by Henderson are in print and are available
through Amazon. See the end of this post in red text for details.
5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.
HOW TO (AND WHAT TO) REALIZE
How to be freed from having one’s every thought and word and action
being subconsciously and unconsciously determined and controlled by a
falsehood-filled and nonsense-filled mind.
When invited to be rid of the totally unnatural mind and to function under the auspices of the elemental, natural brain (as does every living thing on the planet except for humans) seekers have said the following:
“What you’re asking us to do at the second step on the path, to be rid of the mind, is . . .
“impossible”;
“a totally stupid idea”;
and / or
“insane in itself.”
In fact, it was quite easy for me to get rid of the mind once I realized how grand a liability it was. It was actually very simple after I realized that there is no such thing as “my mind.” There is only “their mind” which was passed on to me and which became stored in certain parts of my brain.
I. I had to realize that I did not come up with what is in “my mind.” "THEY" did.
Even as a child I was able to witness “my parents” and their “adult friends” and “their relatives” who became “my relatives” and I was able to see astounding levels of the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which Maharaj referred to as symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
They proudly self-identified as “East Texas rednecks.” They lied. They talked crazy s**t. They were religious hypocrites. They were more often than not white supremacists.
They were right-wing, religious fanatics whose blind faith led them to believe, without any questioning at all, every word of their Southern Baptist Evangelical preacher’s literal interpretation of everything in their supposedly holy book. And they were violent if their beliefs were challenged (which I often did).
Even as a five-year old and a six-year-old child, I was calling BS on their “Great Flood” tale, on their “survived three days in the belly of a whale” tale, and on their “all humans come from one man, one woman, and one son who killed his brother” tale (“So who did the remaining son have sex with to keep the baby-making deal going?”)
When I questioned all of that (and more), I became the rebellious target of their anger and violence.
When I “disrupted” Ms. Myrtle’s Sunday School class by challenging the nonsensical stories being passed on as truth, my dad would be called and I would be taken home and forced to drop my jeans and would be whipped with the buckle end of a U.S. Navy belt left over from my dad’s WWII uniform. (Such was the result of his belief in the “Spare the rod and spoil the child” rule in his "holy book.")
When my sister saw the violent practice about to begin once again, she would go to the bathroom and collect the cotton balls and alcohol which she would use to rub down the bleeding wounds on my back and legs after the administering of dad’s punishment for my having the audacity to question “the holy word.”
All of that is what I witnessed and experienced as a child as a result of “their minds” and “their beliefs stored therein.” Seeing all of that, it became easy for me to discard what had been thought to be “my mind” which I came to see was not my mind at all. It was a mind which had been made by pumping it full of the ignorance and stupidity and insanity which filled their minds.
But what about you? Many cannot relate to all of the events I experienced early on, but all were programmed, conditioned, etc.
One should not have to go through such extreme events as described above in order to also be able to see that
(1) much of what everyone is taught is total nonsense, rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity
and to see that
(2) the mind is a cesspool of dimness and darkness and denseness.
J. Next, I had to realize this:
Egotism about how great one’s parents are or were leads to the conclusion, “Hey, screw you Floyd. They obviously did a helluva of a job – look how well I turned out” and it is that arrogance-based belief which leads most to cling to all that was passed down to them.
I communicated recently with a professional baseball player whose story includes being driven from early on, getting the big pro contract, playing on a team that was a contender, bringing in millions, ultimately being unfulfilled, throwing it all away to become a janitor, then finding the non-dual message, and now playing once more but as "a free agent."
That should be the story of everyone. You were programmed, conditioned, etc. to do what “they” wanted. You tried it their way or you’re still trying it their way. Yet one who does what "they" want is not free, and one who is not free cannot be happy. Ask anyone locked away in prison. Or ask anyone locked away in “their mind,” in the mind of others, and being driven by their nonsensical beliefs.
Everyone not already realized needs to find the path to abiding as a "Free Agent," but that can only happen if they cast aside all of the hand-me-down nonsense which has been driving them and imprisoning them within the confines of a warped mind.
Richard Lovelace said: "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." So what did he say makes a prison? The mind. Every belief stored therein forms one of the bars which makes the prison in which most humans abide, and most have a life sentence because they cherish those bars more than they cherish true freedom.
Maharaj said: "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."
John Milton said: "The mind . . . in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
See, when it comes to ending the suffering and the misery and the pain of following the dictates of a mind that is not even your own, this must be realized:
K. You must function as a free agent . . . that is, as one finally free of all of “their” influence. Such freedom would be the goal for all who are sane and wise.
Are you really willing to function as a free agent, or do you want to continue to live under their influence, really being nothing more than “their agent,” an agent of their will, trying to please others and do what others expect, even though their minds are cesspools of nonsense?
Again, “There is no such thing as peace of mind”
and
“There is only peace if you are out of your mind” meaning – actually – out of the control and influence of “their” mind.
So what else did Maharaj have to say about the mind specifically?
"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."
Again, "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."
"I have no mind . . . ."
Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised, then . . .
"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."
[If the mind goes, then peace comes, and if peace comes, then going and doing and zooming and racing about also go.]
"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."
"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 spirit, 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."
Consider the next points one must understand in order to realize:
L. Being mindless is far from a detriment. The content of the mind blocks one from tapping into the pure universal consciousness.
To be mindless is . . .
M. to be able to tap into the pure universal consciousness, is . . .
N. to be able to tap into full awareness, is . . .
O. to be able to tap into the understanding of the functioning of the totality,
and is . . .
P. to be able to tap into the true wisdom accessible via the "inner guru."
To be continued.
“What you’re asking us to do at the second step on the path, to be rid of the mind, is . . .
“impossible”;
“a totally stupid idea”;
and / or
“insane in itself.”
In fact, it was quite easy for me to get rid of the mind once I realized how grand a liability it was. It was actually very simple after I realized that there is no such thing as “my mind.” There is only “their mind” which was passed on to me and which became stored in certain parts of my brain.
I. I had to realize that I did not come up with what is in “my mind.” "THEY" did.
Even as a child I was able to witness “my parents” and their “adult friends” and “their relatives” who became “my relatives” and I was able to see astounding levels of the “ignorance and stupidity and insanity” which Maharaj referred to as symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness.
They proudly self-identified as “East Texas rednecks.” They lied. They talked crazy s**t. They were religious hypocrites. They were more often than not white supremacists.
They were right-wing, religious fanatics whose blind faith led them to believe, without any questioning at all, every word of their Southern Baptist Evangelical preacher’s literal interpretation of everything in their supposedly holy book. And they were violent if their beliefs were challenged (which I often did).
Even as a five-year old and a six-year-old child, I was calling BS on their “Great Flood” tale, on their “survived three days in the belly of a whale” tale, and on their “all humans come from one man, one woman, and one son who killed his brother” tale (“So who did the remaining son have sex with to keep the baby-making deal going?”)
When I questioned all of that (and more), I became the rebellious target of their anger and violence.
When I “disrupted” Ms. Myrtle’s Sunday School class by challenging the nonsensical stories being passed on as truth, my dad would be called and I would be taken home and forced to drop my jeans and would be whipped with the buckle end of a U.S. Navy belt left over from my dad’s WWII uniform. (Such was the result of his belief in the “Spare the rod and spoil the child” rule in his "holy book.")
When my sister saw the violent practice about to begin once again, she would go to the bathroom and collect the cotton balls and alcohol which she would use to rub down the bleeding wounds on my back and legs after the administering of dad’s punishment for my having the audacity to question “the holy word.”
All of that is what I witnessed and experienced as a child as a result of “their minds” and “their beliefs stored therein.” Seeing all of that, it became easy for me to discard what had been thought to be “my mind” which I came to see was not my mind at all. It was a mind which had been made by pumping it full of the ignorance and stupidity and insanity which filled their minds.
But what about you? Many cannot relate to all of the events I experienced early on, but all were programmed, conditioned, etc.
One should not have to go through such extreme events as described above in order to also be able to see that
(1) much of what everyone is taught is total nonsense, rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity
and to see that
(2) the mind is a cesspool of dimness and darkness and denseness.
J. Next, I had to realize this:
Egotism about how great one’s parents are or were leads to the conclusion, “Hey, screw you Floyd. They obviously did a helluva of a job – look how well I turned out” and it is that arrogance-based belief which leads most to cling to all that was passed down to them.
I communicated recently with a professional baseball player whose story includes being driven from early on, getting the big pro contract, playing on a team that was a contender, bringing in millions, ultimately being unfulfilled, throwing it all away to become a janitor, then finding the non-dual message, and now playing once more but as "a free agent."
That should be the story of everyone. You were programmed, conditioned, etc. to do what “they” wanted. You tried it their way or you’re still trying it their way. Yet one who does what "they" want is not free, and one who is not free cannot be happy. Ask anyone locked away in prison. Or ask anyone locked away in “their mind,” in the mind of others, and being driven by their nonsensical beliefs.
Everyone not already realized needs to find the path to abiding as a "Free Agent," but that can only happen if they cast aside all of the hand-me-down nonsense which has been driving them and imprisoning them within the confines of a warped mind.
Richard Lovelace said: "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." So what did he say makes a prison? The mind. Every belief stored therein forms one of the bars which makes the prison in which most humans abide, and most have a life sentence because they cherish those bars more than they cherish true freedom.
Maharaj said: "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."
John Milton said: "The mind . . . in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
See, when it comes to ending the suffering and the misery and the pain of following the dictates of a mind that is not even your own, this must be realized:
K. You must function as a free agent . . . that is, as one finally free of all of “their” influence. Such freedom would be the goal for all who are sane and wise.
Are you really willing to function as a free agent, or do you want to continue to live under their influence, really being nothing more than “their agent,” an agent of their will, trying to please others and do what others expect, even though their minds are cesspools of nonsense?
Again, “There is no such thing as peace of mind”
and
“There is only peace if you are out of your mind” meaning – actually – out of the control and influence of “their” mind.
So what else did Maharaj have to say about the mind specifically?
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."
Again, "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."
"I have no mind . . . ."
Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised, then . . .
"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."
[If the mind goes, then peace comes, and if peace comes, then going and doing and zooming and racing about also go.]
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-Enquiry 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 spirit, 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."
Consider the next points one must understand in order to realize:
L. Being mindless is far from a detriment. The content of the mind blocks one from tapping into the pure universal consciousness.
To be mindless is . . .
M. to be able to tap into the pure universal consciousness, is . . .
N. to be able to tap into full awareness, is . . .
O. to be able to tap into the understanding of the functioning of the totality,
and is . . .
P. to be able to tap into the true wisdom accessible via the "inner guru."
To be continued.
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.
PAPERBACK COPIES OF SOME OF THE BOOKS OFFERED HERE
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
of some of Henderson’s non-duality books,
10 of his books in PRINT FORM are available through AMAZON.
(That is, ten books are collected in two anthologies
for sale on AMAZON.)
For NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES
The Advanced Seekers' Series
(344 pages) is an anthology of four books that share Advaita-based,
non-duality pointers that can guide seekers to abide as their original
nature. Included in the anthology are
"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");
"Consciousness / Awareness: The Nature of Reality Beyond SELF-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding As the Absolute)";
"From the Absolute to the Nothingness";
and
"The Final Understanding."
Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Advanced Seekers' Series from AMAZON by clicking here
Also for NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES
This anthology (438 pages) contains the six books that make up what has been called The Blissful Abidance Series for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including,
“What BLISS is and what BLISS is not”;
“There’s No Such Thing As Peace of Mind (There’s Only Peace If You’re ‘Out of Your Mind’)”;
“Liberation (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)”;
“Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness”;
“Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full”;
and
“When REALITY Is Overlaid on the RELATIVE.”
Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Blissful Abidance Series from Amazon by clicking here
SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:
(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com.
(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.
(c)
Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just
purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want
to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited
for any reason.)
Send your information to:
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 their god / their 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
or
You can click on the picture link which has now been added for video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.
If preferred, here's
the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION
of that session.
