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.
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:
More Results of Fixating at the Third Step Rather Than at Least Reaching the Fourth Step on "The Path"
and
The Results of Thinking One Understands Something When One Actually Has No Clue at All
MAHARAJ'S DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF "THE MEDICINE"
Maharaj started out offering a Hindu / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine; Western influences led to his shifting to a spirituality / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine;
his determination that those version of the Medicine were not working long-term coincided with the manifestation of his strongest-yet level of independence and freedom from influence; thus, he made the final shift regarding the version of the Medicine that he would offer and he stayed with that until the end.
That version was a psychology / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine which addressed the actual root of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated and brainwashed human mind.
MAHARAJ'S DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF YOGA
That final shift also marked the end to his trying to combine other types of yoga with the Direct Path Method. The shifts in types of yoga he tried until he finally settled into what might be called an "all-nisarga" approach went from guru-bhakti and bhakti to bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma") to
jnana and the Nisargan yoga to the Nisargan yoga alone.
MAHARAJ'S DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF "THE PATH"
and
MAHARAJ'S DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF ENQUIRY
Also, he would eventually shift from offering a “path” with seven-steps that were based in “SELF-Enquiry” to offering a four-step “path” focusing on “self-inquiry” (meaning, conducting an inventory to find all of the false selves being assigned and / or assumed).
To that end he said: “You need not find the answer to Who Am I?’; it is enough to find out who you are not.”
A fellow contacted me this week and explained he had an especial affinity for Maharaj and wanted to know who had studied with Maharaj in his loft and could now guide him to “an awakening” in the exact manner used by Maharaj.
That notion is a dream, and is an impossible dream to boot, based in total ignorance of Maharaj’s shifts and evolution.
First of all, Maharaj would eventually tell people who were looking for "that teacher" whose words they had read in I AM THAT that he no longer existed. He said, “Stop reading the book I AM THAT and listen to my later talks.” He said that "those talks in I AM THAT were for that time only and not applicable now."
So what specific “version of Maharaj” does one want to be taught? And which version of the Ultimate Medicine should one with an affinity for Maharaj want to be taught? The religious version? The spiritual version? Or the psychological version?
And which “path” should one with an affinity for Maharaj be taught? The seven-step path he used early on or the four-step path he recommended later on?
And which type of Enquiry / inquiry should one with an affinity for Maharaj conduct? The SELF type from early on or the not-self type from later on?
It’s like someone saying, “I don’t really care much for the current version of Floyd, but I wonder if you could set me up to hang out with the version that was being given non-dual pointers by his Cherokee Medicine Woman Grandmother when he was between the ages of six and fourteen?
It would be like someone saying, “I want to go from London to Scotland on the 8:35 AM train, but that one has left the station. So has the 9:45 AM train which would have also provided a nice ride. Also, the noon train, the 2 PM train, and the 4:45 train have all left, and they would have provided an enjoyable enough ride as well.
"It is now 5 PM, and I do not have an affinity for any of the evening trains which run after 4:45 PM, so what I want you to do - and I want you to do this right now - is point me to someone who can immediately get me a ticket on this morning's 8:35 AM train or the 9:45 AM train or this afternoon's 2 PM train or the 4:45 train, and I want that ticket tout de suite. Let’s go. Do it!”
No one can “have an affinity for Maharaj” because Maharaj was a moving target, forever modifying his message and methods, casting aside everything time and again and starting over from scratch. Which one of the scores versions of Maharaj does one supposedly have an affinity for?
To believe that there was a Maharaj who could be defined exactly and only once and for all is delusional, and one who truly has an affinity for Maharaj would have studied his entire body of work and would be aware of all of the shifts and revolutionary and evolutionary changes referenced above.
It's not unlike the ignorant persons who claim to be "Christ-Followers." First, his name was "Yeshu'a." More importantly, are you following the Christ who early on was regurgitating the Jewish dogma to which he has been exposed during his youth in the temple? Or the Christ who was defined and inaccurately characterized per Paul's version of what was really Pauline Judaeo-Christianity? Or the Christ at the end who was peppering his talks with non-dual pointers? [The honest answer, which you'll never get, would be: "Hummm, no clue."]
So does one want to meet Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon or Reese Witherspoon? Actually, they are the same person but very few of those who grew up with Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon but have not seen her for years would know Reese Witherspoon.
Does one want to meet Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva or Nina Dobrev? Actually, they are the same person but very few of those who grew up with one but has not seen her for years would know the other.
Does one want to meet Eric Marlon Bishop or Jamie Foxx?
Or Katherine Litwack or Kat Dennings?
Or Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor or Lorde?
And does one want to know Maruti Shivrampant Kambli or Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj or the early Maharaj and the Accumulating Maharaj or the Forest Dweller Maharaj or the De-accumulating Maharaj or the Religious Maharaj or The Spiritual Maharaj or the Middle Years Maharaj or the Later Years Maharaj or the Not-Religious Maharaj or the Not-Spiritual Maharaj or the Final Maharaj?
The wise want to know none of that.
Furthermore, the wise would never think that they can be enhanced if they can talk to someone who sat in a loft in the presence of a particular but temporary elemental plant food body that was circulating elements and air and conscious-energy and liquids and food and who pee-peed and caca’d just like every other human, all of whom come and go without ever being anything or anyone “special” at all.
They will seek to settle into an unshakable awareness of the reality of understanding . . .
. . . that which you are is what you are
and
. . . that is all that you have ever been and
that is all that you can or shall ever be.
The invitation is
to understand what is permanent and what is temporary
and
to understand the differences and commonalities in what was mentioned yesterday, namely, “reality” and “Reality”
and
to understand not some dreamed up and totally bogus "improved" and "greater" and "more noble" Supreme Self or Infinite Self version of the composite unity they are only temporarily.
To differentiate between the typical non-naturally-abiding human with all of the other typical naturally-abiding species, compare and contrast using the following considerations:
A duck cannot become a squirrel; a deer cannot become a bear; and a bird cannot become a fish; moreover, no duck has ever mistaken itself for a squirrel; no deer has ever mistaken itself for a bear; and no bird has ever mistaken itself for a fish. In addition, a duck does not think it is a duck; a squirrel has no belief that it is a squirrel;
a deer does not believe that it is a deer; a bear does not believe that it is a bear; a bird does not think it is a bird; and a fish does not think it is a fish. No duck has ever told another duck, "You are a duck," much less "You are a squirrel." Even if that could happen, it would be insane, yes? But consider what belief-driven persons do every day that is just that insane.
Even more to the point, a duck is not really a duck; a squirrel is not actually a squirrel; a deer is not really a deer; a bear is not truly a bear; a bird is not a bird at all; and a fish is not actually a fish. In each of those cases, it knows IT IS, period, but in none of those cases does it believe that it is what any person has ever said that it is.
And that fact is a fact in every case on the planet, except with persons. Persons do believe that they are what they are not; persons do not stop with the "I AM" and the "I AM" only; no person stops with simply knowing IT IS; to the contrary, persons do believe that they can be something (in fact, many things) that they are not, and they do believe that they can become something that they are not.
And that is the case with almost all persons on the planet, so few are the instances of full realization in which case one realizes (1) all that she / his is not and then realizes (2) that which one truly is; instead, most throughout the course of the relative existence assume hundreds of personas as actual identities, and each persona that is assumed has its own basic fear and its own basic desire, along with a plethora of accompanying fears and desires.
One suggestion is that each persona can be driven by at least seven fears and / or desires, so accept as actual identities twenty personas assigned by your family and friends and culture, and assume another twenty that you adopt on your own, and those forty persons (x 7) will have 280 "voices" that are forever talking in order to (a) defend themselves against perceived fears and / or in order to (b) try to manipulate "others" or to negotiate with "others" in order to (c) have their desires met and their fears alleviated.
Is it any wonder, then, that persons soon feel as if they are being pulled in a hundred (or two-hundred, or two-hundred-and-eighty) different directions at once? Is it any wonder that persons do not feel "at one" or "whole"?
Is it any wonder that persons feel torn? Is it any wonder that persons are fractious and cannot focus? Is it any wonder that human psyches are fractured and disintegrated? Is it any wonder that persons can reach a point where they feel that, if anyone puts any more pressure on them at all, they will shatter into a million (or at least 280) pieces?
Next, is it not truly strange that persons believe in the "not-Self" (and in all of the false selves that are assigned or adopted) but have no clue at all about who / what they truly are (namely, just energy / matter)?
After having adopted so many ego-states as identities - and after egotism manifests time and again as an ego-defense mechanism that is there to "protect and defend" each of the false egos - is it any wonder that the wisdom shared by sages has long pointed to pride and arrogance and ego and egotism and narcissism as the bane of humanity?
Is it possible to see why Maharaj targeted the adoption of religious and spiritual roles - and targeted religious and spiritual arrogance - right alongside all other personas that are adopted by those among the non-Realized masses?
Is it any wonder that personality-assumption / persona-adoption has long been the target of pointers which invite persons to stop believing that they are what they are not and to stop believing that they can become something that they cannot become? In fact, believing that one is what one is not, and believing that one can be or become something that one is not, is all part of the "Dream / Nightmare of the Planet."
Consider:
A man can be lying on his back in bed in the middle of the night but dreaming that he is upright and running because he is being chased by another man with a knife. The man who is dreaming will be certain that every part of his dream is real. He can be so convinced that what he is dreaming is real that he can start making throaty sounds that develop into louder moanings and can eventually end up screaming at the top of his voice.
When does peace come? When someone who was also asleep next to him awakens and then begins to try to also awaken the one in the dream / nightmare state. When does peace come to the dreamer? Only when he awakens.
The task of the non-duality teacher, who was also asleep for a time, is to try to awaken the one in the dream / nightmare and to allow the earnest seeker to see that what has been disturbing him or her is all just a dream, or nightmare, and nothing more.
The nightmare for some is "I am bad . . . really evil . . . truly worthless . . . so very rotten to the core that I should die." The nightmare for others is, "I am so different and such an outcast, and I am so hopelessly miserable and without any prospects for happiness, that I might as will kill myself." The nightmare for others is "I am being bullied because I cannot fit in. I might as well hang myself" or "I am being bullied, so I might as well kill those people who are harassing me and then maybe even kill myself."
Conversely, the dream for some is "I am now so righteous, so religious or spiritual, so wonderful, so much better than I was, and so much better than most others that everyone should be like me. I am now able to rescue or save them or - if they refuse what I offer - able to judge and condemn them."
The invitation of the truly realized sage? Harken. Awake. Stop believing in the dream. Stop living the nightmare that you are experiencing because you are asleep. Stop believing that you are something that you are not.
Stop believing that you can become something other than that which you are. Stop believing that your "teacher" is different from you or anyone else.
Maharaj said that he was no different from any visitor to the loft, the only difference being that he understands what they do not yet presently understand.
So stop believing that some teachers are "special," and stop believing that you are "special," and for the sake of truth, stop following "I am" with any word - noun or adjective - at all.
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 ARE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
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.
