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.
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ENTERING INTO "THE CHILD IGNORANCE STAGE" OR "THE CHILD NO-KNOWING STATE"
[Included are excerpts from the book entitled The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State"]
Today:
THE FUTILITY OF SEEKING IDENTITY and THE RESULTS OF ENDING "THE JOURNEY" AT THE THIRD OF SEVEN STEPS
Sara Gruen, in “Water for Elephants”:
"Sometimes when you get older . . . , things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it, they're a part of your history, and if someone challenges you on them and says they're not true -- why, then you get offended."
Floyd Henderson in "From the ABSOLUTE to the NOTHINGNESS":
The content of this book can allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the reality of "no concept," of "no duality," of "no something," and even of "no nothing."
THE FUTILITY OF SEEKING IDENTITY
In the U.S. where religion is not supposed to be a prerequisite for holding political office, there are nevertheless an endless stream of charges hurled back and forth during campaigns:
1. With John Kennedy: "He's a Catholic so he'll have to take orders from the pope about how to run the country."
2. With Barack Obama: "He says he's a Christian, but he is not" or “When he says he's a Christian, he is lying. He's really a Muslim."
3. From a wife who explaining to her husband why she was ending their marriage: "You are not even a Christian."
However, when a “realized teacher” says, "You are not a religious person and you are not a spiritual person, there is no such judgment involved as was the case with examples 1 through 3.
Instead, he point here is that YOU ARE NOT ANY KIND OF PERSON because YOU ARE NOT A PERSON AT ALL.
That is not a judgment about "the quality of one's religious or spiritual state." It's is a statement of fact. To emphasis the earlier point, you are presently a composite unity of elements, air, and temporarily-manifested energy with the ability to be conscious-of, and not some "one" or "person." Again, the elements cannot be religious or spiritual, the air cannot be religious or spiritual, and the conscious-energy cannot be religious or spiritual.
If that is understood, then it should also be understood that there are no grounds for “offense” when one reads the words of "the maverick Maharaj" when he said,
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false"
or
"When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved"
or
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas."
Should offense be taken, then the only thing that could be registering such offense is an ego-state, a false assumed identity.
Too, if there is offense to hear Maharaj report that "The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left,"
or
"Forget spirituality"
or
"Just give up spirituality"
then again, that has to be a false personality identification experiencing the offense because neither the elements nor air nor conscious-energy can be offended or register offense.
The only "thing" that can ever feel “interfered with or threatened or hurt" is an identity, and all identities (including the ones that cultures call "the good ones" and the ones that cultures call "the bad ones") are still man-made identities.
That is why Maharaj said: "Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."
The Results of Ending "The Journey" at the Third of Seven Steps
When excerpts from the book "FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS" were being shared, inquiries were received regarding a comment about "one's head being in the clouds" and about "transcending spiritual and / or religious roles" and "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge."
A visitor challenged the point that it is an insane belief or a host of beliefs which drive some seekers to "abandon a phenomenal dream state, only to reside in a supposedly 'noumenal' dream state" where “they have their heads in the clouds without having one's feet planted firmly on the ground."
Also challenged was the pointer that "those persons fail to understand that they are actually seeing no more of The Light with their heads in the clouds than the persons planted on the ground who also cannot see the sun because of the clouds."
The challenges were coming from one who believes many false beliefs, including the false belief that he "has become spiritual." He does not know that he cannot "become spiritual," cannot "become better," and, actually, cannot "become" anything.
"To become" is "to change or grow or develop into something specific and different; to enhance or improve; to be upgraded; to be better than before; to change for the better"; or, conversely, "to worsen or to get worse" or "to be downgraded" or "to deteriorate," as in:
1. "She became a much better person after she joined that group."
2. "He became more religious - even spiritual - after he married her and settled down."
3. "He was raised the right way by good parents, but he sure did deteriorate later one - really went downhill."
4. "That one lucked out and found a super spouse" or "that one had a streak of bad luck and ended up with three really rotten spouses in a row."
5. Or, as the defensive visitor who was mentioned above believes, "I have become spiritual and now I see the light; as a result of understanding non-duality, I have become a far better person than I was before"
and
6. "If you do not think Advaita Vedanta is all about becoming spiritual, then you do not know what you are talking about."
Here, it is made clear that along "the path," "religious and / or spiritual roles" (or "religious-like or spiritual-like" roles) will be assumed and played at the third of seven steps.
Typically, heads must enter the clouds in an effort to try to see things noumenal, in order to break - to some degree at least - the attachment only to things phenomenal and to be motivated to seek the light.
Yet the fact remains, one cannot see any more light with his head in the clouds than a person standing on the ground, gazing skyward on a cloudy day, and also having the light blocked from view.
The problem with the assumption of those roles is that seekers typically fixate at that point - at the level that Maharaj called "kindergarten spirituality." In describing their circumstance, Krishna was not especially "kind" when discussing the ego / ego-state that is assumed at that level, suggesting that those who do not understand that the non-relative reality is beyond both beingness and non-beingness are "fools."
Thus, such supposed beingness, including "being spiritual," is a trap if one does not eventually "transcend spiritual and / or religious roles" and if one does not transcend "man-fabricated religious and spiritual knowledge" (which are two pointers from the book "Freedom From Beliefs" which were also challenged by the visitor quoted above.)
Maharaj also made clear that those who do not transition their religious and / or spiritual role-assumption and role-playing are also just fooling themselves with their prideful but false belief about having realized and are allowing "others" to fool them as well. As a result, he said, they will never reach the fullness of the light:
"There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full Realization, and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride."
Indeed, how foolish one is to believe that he or she is being bathed in the full light of the noontime sun though actually standing in the dimness of dawn.
And how foolish one is to believe that she or he can "become something different" from that which they truly are, were, and shall forever be, namely, quantities of energy / matter which were not manifested in a particular space but are now temporarily-manifested within a temporary space formed by plant food elements which are constantly coming together and coming apart before finally coming apart forever.
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 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.
