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
What to realize next? The way that completion of the four-step "path" can also open the door to natural living.
Z. If you use the four-step “path” as Maharaj did in the end, and if you include with that a study of the yoga which allows seekers to understand how to abide in a "Nisargan" (or "natural" manner), then all . . .
unnatural (i.e., ignorance-based and insanity-laden) living
and . . .
supposedly supernatural (i.e., so-called "spiritual," magical-thinking-based) living which were both being driven by the impure / blocked consciousness
will also come to an end and, only then, can natural living begin.
Natural living happens with every living thing on the planet except for humans (or for living things that have been programmed or conditioning or driven insane by humans).
(SUPER) NATURAL LIVING
Supernatural living preempts natural living. To believe that one is living in a supernatural fashion is to believe that one is accessing a supposedly-controlling Super Power and can thereby gain power and control as well. Supernatural beliefs (such as that one) are supported by magical thinking, and all magical, erroneous thinking is supported by the concepts and falsehoods / beliefs which are stored in what is called "the mind."
The basic, supernatural belief is that the natural existence cannot happen effectively without being in a close relationship with an other-world power who lives not in close proximity but who lives in a place that is very far away in a location that is always "up there" (no matter where on the globe such a believer might be standing while pointing "upward").
(NOTE: Throughout history, many held the belief that there is not just a single, other-world power but that there are multiple gods (or goddesses) assuming hundreds of forms, a belief similar to the belief held by ancient Greeks and Romans who thought that their religious but myth-based stories were true.
Those types for thousands of years believed dualistically in gods of creation, in gods of sustenance, and gods of punishment and destruction until Abraham came along and said there is only one god and that god is male and that god does what you thought it took multiple gods to do, namely:
He created you, He will sustain you - but with some exceptions and caveats and conditions - meaning he is also capable of punishing you and destroying you if He becomes displeased with you.
That one-god belief was accepted and became the basis for the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions, all of whom identify Abraham as "The Father of Our Religion" but who have nevertheless killed millions upon millions of each other.)
However, for most of the 14.5 million years that humans or human-like beings walked the planet, they lived in a natural, non-supernatural manner because there was no language by which they could be taught that myths and superstitions are true.
Written language developed a little more than 5000 years ago, at which time the dreamed-up tales of gods began to be recorded in texts that would someday be considered "holy." So out of the 14.5 million years that humans have walked the planet, all but the last few thousand years were lived quite naturally and quite successfully without any holy texts discussing supernatural beings and teaching supernatural concepts.
Additionally, all 14.5 million years were lived (with the possible exception of the last 100,000 years of that span) without any oral tales being told and circulated about supernatural concepts and supernatural beings. How can that be known? Science proves without a doubt that it was only about 100,000 years ago that, anatomically, humans developed hominid vocal tracts that were of a shape that would permit a range of speech sounds.
Even then, it would have required thousands of years for the development of vocabulary and thousands more to develop supernatural concepts that could be verbalized. So natural living prevailed for millions of years whereas the human effort to try to live supernaturally is a recent phenomenon in terms of the overall human experience;
moreover, the relative existence was a fairly simple existence prior to efforts by controlling men and women to overlay supernatural concepts onto the previously all-natural existence. That complicating factor and the roots of distortion and delusion were discussed in 2008 in this passage:
Note the loss of simplicity when the first medicine man dreamed up not just a rain god but an angry rain god. Before that point, humankind would have witnessed and accepted the fact that when it rains, it rains; when it does not rain, it does not rain; when it is hot, it is hot; and when it is cold, it is cold. However, after that god was dreamed up, note how complicated things became during the relative:
parents had to offer up a daughter . . .
to have sex with a medicine man claiming to be "god's representative on earth";
to be killed;
to have her heart cut out;
and
to participate as all passed the heart about and ate the body and drank the blood in a service that provided the chance to "commune" with the rain god and please him with sex and sacrifice.
Those early “worshipers” who engaged in what was "the first communion services" began to define morality and then inventoried what is “good” behavior and what is “bad” behavior so as not to anger the rain god any further; they codified their beliefs in “holy” books; they began to engage in preemptive strikes, sacrificing in advance rather than after the rain had stopped.
Now, should humans try to behave in the natural ways in which humans engaged in for millions of years, complicating concepts are added to the mix from the storehouse of supernatural beliefs which stymie the effort, including,
guilt, shame, rejection, disgrace,
and
fear, including the fear of not being rewarded now, the fear of not earning an eternal reward but of suffering eternal punishment instead, and the fear that if they don't give money or gifts and hours of “service,” they will not get rewards now, much less forevermore.
So the notion of trying to live supernaturally likely took a foothold 5000 or so years ago and certainly not more than 100,000 years ago. Compared to the natural way that humans lived for the other 14.4 million years, supernatural living is “the new kid on the block” in terms of the way that some humans try to live. It is not natural.
(UN) NATURAL LIVING
Next, unnatural living is an even "newer kid on the block." Unnatural living began when there evolved into existence among humans a section of the brain that is capable of storing and retrieving information. The storage part is commonly referred to as "the mind."
Again, the “thinking part” of the brain did not start processing ideas and concepts and beliefs until language developed. Nor did personality or personalities develop; therefore, the assumption of personas as identities did not happen except at the very end of the total human experience that has gone on for 14.5 million years.
Unnatural living only resulted after languages developed and after cultures developed and after those cultures began teaching their false concepts about multiple "identities." The subsequent unnatural way of living began when persons became so fooled that . . .
(a) they began to think that they are what they are not
and then
(b) they eventually ended up not having even the slightest clue about reality (that is, what the relative existence is and what it is not) or about “Reality ( that is, understanding the functioning of the totality and understanding the truth regarding the blocked consciousness, no-identity, no-Identity, no destruction, no birth, no death, no creation and no Creator or Creators - and thus beginninglessness, not just for "a god" but for everything.)
As a result, if persons today do not at least complete the four-step "journey" to reality, then they will never be in touch with reality (that is, will never be sane). What hampers most seekers is not a lack of willingness to seek but their inability to find a teacher who can say, “You are right here at such-and-such a point on the 'path.' The next step is specifically this and then your final steps after that are these, again, specifically.”
The Advaita poet William Shakespeare wrote: “The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre observe degree, priority, and place. Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order.”
The Nisarga Yoga approach offers a direct route to the understanding that results in a natural way of AS IF living (that is, a natural way of functioning). That means living/functioning spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation, knowing that the "world" is illusory but living as if any of "all this" matters. (Thus, employment can happen even without the assumption of an "employee" persona.)
Natural living recognizes that the laws of nature have the right of "insisture": either (a) life is lived naturally according to the “customs” of the universe or (b) persons violating the natural “order” will collapse and self-destruct. The realized move through the relative existence in a manner that is fixed by nature even though they appear to be moving as they please.
Rather than trying to exert any force, they accept that happenings happen. Among the realized, nature has “priority” over efforts to control or manipulate. The Realized abide within the framework of the natural laws that have “insisture,” understanding that all is to happen per the natural order and understanding that all is to happen in “proportion.”
On the other hand, persons (i.e., the “non-realized) seek to control and manipulate so that they will not have to accept “proportion.” They work to accumulate and to have more and to appear to be greater than what is proportional. They imagine that they have an actual need for more than is proportional and more than the basics that are necessary.
The realized move along lines that are “customary” rather than along paths that are unnatural or supernatural. To think supernaturally is to think magically, and magical thinking is delusional.
To be continued.
Z. If you use the four-step “path” as Maharaj did in the end, and if you include with that a study of the yoga which allows seekers to understand how to abide in a "Nisargan" (or "natural" manner), then all . . .
unnatural (i.e., ignorance-based and insanity-laden) living
and . . .
supposedly supernatural (i.e., so-called "spiritual," magical-thinking-based) living which were both being driven by the impure / blocked consciousness
will also come to an end and, only then, can natural living begin.
Natural living happens with every living thing on the planet except for humans (or for living things that have been programmed or conditioning or driven insane by humans).
(SUPER) NATURAL LIVING
Supernatural living preempts natural living. To believe that one is living in a supernatural fashion is to believe that one is accessing a supposedly-controlling Super Power and can thereby gain power and control as well. Supernatural beliefs (such as that one) are supported by magical thinking, and all magical, erroneous thinking is supported by the concepts and falsehoods / beliefs which are stored in what is called "the mind."
The basic, supernatural belief is that the natural existence cannot happen effectively without being in a close relationship with an other-world power who lives not in close proximity but who lives in a place that is very far away in a location that is always "up there" (no matter where on the globe such a believer might be standing while pointing "upward").
(NOTE: Throughout history, many held the belief that there is not just a single, other-world power but that there are multiple gods (or goddesses) assuming hundreds of forms, a belief similar to the belief held by ancient Greeks and Romans who thought that their religious but myth-based stories were true.
Those types for thousands of years believed dualistically in gods of creation, in gods of sustenance, and gods of punishment and destruction until Abraham came along and said there is only one god and that god is male and that god does what you thought it took multiple gods to do, namely:
He created you, He will sustain you - but with some exceptions and caveats and conditions - meaning he is also capable of punishing you and destroying you if He becomes displeased with you.
That one-god belief was accepted and became the basis for the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions, all of whom identify Abraham as "The Father of Our Religion" but who have nevertheless killed millions upon millions of each other.)
However, for most of the 14.5 million years that humans or human-like beings walked the planet, they lived in a natural, non-supernatural manner because there was no language by which they could be taught that myths and superstitions are true.
Written language developed a little more than 5000 years ago, at which time the dreamed-up tales of gods began to be recorded in texts that would someday be considered "holy." So out of the 14.5 million years that humans have walked the planet, all but the last few thousand years were lived quite naturally and quite successfully without any holy texts discussing supernatural beings and teaching supernatural concepts.
Additionally, all 14.5 million years were lived (with the possible exception of the last 100,000 years of that span) without any oral tales being told and circulated about supernatural concepts and supernatural beings. How can that be known? Science proves without a doubt that it was only about 100,000 years ago that, anatomically, humans developed hominid vocal tracts that were of a shape that would permit a range of speech sounds.
Even then, it would have required thousands of years for the development of vocabulary and thousands more to develop supernatural concepts that could be verbalized. So natural living prevailed for millions of years whereas the human effort to try to live supernaturally is a recent phenomenon in terms of the overall human experience;
moreover, the relative existence was a fairly simple existence prior to efforts by controlling men and women to overlay supernatural concepts onto the previously all-natural existence. That complicating factor and the roots of distortion and delusion were discussed in 2008 in this passage:
Note the loss of simplicity when the first medicine man dreamed up not just a rain god but an angry rain god. Before that point, humankind would have witnessed and accepted the fact that when it rains, it rains; when it does not rain, it does not rain; when it is hot, it is hot; and when it is cold, it is cold. However, after that god was dreamed up, note how complicated things became during the relative:
parents had to offer up a daughter . . .
to have sex with a medicine man claiming to be "god's representative on earth";
to be killed;
to have her heart cut out;
and
to participate as all passed the heart about and ate the body and drank the blood in a service that provided the chance to "commune" with the rain god and please him with sex and sacrifice.
Those early “worshipers” who engaged in what was "the first communion services" began to define morality and then inventoried what is “good” behavior and what is “bad” behavior so as not to anger the rain god any further; they codified their beliefs in “holy” books; they began to engage in preemptive strikes, sacrificing in advance rather than after the rain had stopped.
Now, should humans try to behave in the natural ways in which humans engaged in for millions of years, complicating concepts are added to the mix from the storehouse of supernatural beliefs which stymie the effort, including,
guilt, shame, rejection, disgrace,
and
fear, including the fear of not being rewarded now, the fear of not earning an eternal reward but of suffering eternal punishment instead, and the fear that if they don't give money or gifts and hours of “service,” they will not get rewards now, much less forevermore.
So the notion of trying to live supernaturally likely took a foothold 5000 or so years ago and certainly not more than 100,000 years ago. Compared to the natural way that humans lived for the other 14.4 million years, supernatural living is “the new kid on the block” in terms of the way that some humans try to live. It is not natural.
(UN) NATURAL LIVING
Next, unnatural living is an even "newer kid on the block." Unnatural living began when there evolved into existence among humans a section of the brain that is capable of storing and retrieving information. The storage part is commonly referred to as "the mind."
Again, the “thinking part” of the brain did not start processing ideas and concepts and beliefs until language developed. Nor did personality or personalities develop; therefore, the assumption of personas as identities did not happen except at the very end of the total human experience that has gone on for 14.5 million years.
Unnatural living only resulted after languages developed and after cultures developed and after those cultures began teaching their false concepts about multiple "identities." The subsequent unnatural way of living began when persons became so fooled that . . .
(a) they began to think that they are what they are not
and then
(b) they eventually ended up not having even the slightest clue about reality (that is, what the relative existence is and what it is not) or about “Reality ( that is, understanding the functioning of the totality and understanding the truth regarding the blocked consciousness, no-identity, no-Identity, no destruction, no birth, no death, no creation and no Creator or Creators - and thus beginninglessness, not just for "a god" but for everything.)
As a result, if persons today do not at least complete the four-step "journey" to reality, then they will never be in touch with reality (that is, will never be sane). What hampers most seekers is not a lack of willingness to seek but their inability to find a teacher who can say, “You are right here at such-and-such a point on the 'path.' The next step is specifically this and then your final steps after that are these, again, specifically.”
The Advaita poet William Shakespeare wrote: “The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre observe degree, priority, and place. Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, office, and custom, in all line of order.”
The Nisarga Yoga approach offers a direct route to the understanding that results in a natural way of AS IF living (that is, a natural way of functioning). That means living/functioning spontaneously for the remainder of the manifestation, knowing that the "world" is illusory but living as if any of "all this" matters. (Thus, employment can happen even without the assumption of an "employee" persona.)
Natural living recognizes that the laws of nature have the right of "insisture": either (a) life is lived naturally according to the “customs” of the universe or (b) persons violating the natural “order” will collapse and self-destruct. The realized move through the relative existence in a manner that is fixed by nature even though they appear to be moving as they please.
Rather than trying to exert any force, they accept that happenings happen. Among the realized, nature has “priority” over efforts to control or manipulate. The Realized abide within the framework of the natural laws that have “insisture,” understanding that all is to happen per the natural order and understanding that all is to happen in “proportion.”
On the other hand, persons (i.e., the “non-realized) seek to control and manipulate so that they will not have to accept “proportion.” They work to accumulate and to have more and to appear to be greater than what is proportional. They imagine that they have an actual need for more than is proportional and more than the basics that are necessary.
The realized move along lines that are “customary” rather than along paths that are unnatural or supernatural. To think supernaturally is to think magically, and magical thinking is delusional.
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.
