MAHARAJ AND THE RELIGION VS. SCIENCE DEBATE

TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

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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.)

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MAHARAJ AND THE RELIGION VS. SCIENCE DEBATE

"Science will someday advance to the point that it will confirm the validity of the non-dual teachings."

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

and

“The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind.” 

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 

Here, there is nothing that is believed, so there is no one here who wants you to believe anything, either. Here, the invitation is to be free of all that you have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed to believe so that you can be free, period.  

--Floyd Henderson 

[Continued from yesterday]

The "mind" has been filled with fiction; with beliefs that are based not at all in fact; with beliefs that have never been questioned; and with beliefs that have been accepted with no evidence at all but have been accepted on "blind faith" alone; thus, they are all lies. 

Lies, in turn, are all based in concepts, ideas, notions, perceptions / misperceptions, thoughts, designs, impressions, images, opinions, views, theories, and supposed knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance"), all of which can be summarized as "beliefs." 

Now, excerpts from the book entitled FREEDOM from BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers") will continue: 

(The Problem, The Invitation To Seekers, and "The Opportunity" For Readers and Seekers) 

The cycling energy-matter is what "you' are, is all that "you" have ever been (and mostly in a "free-ranging mode"), and is all that "you" can or shall ever be. 

To compare, 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 (which, per Maharaj, is merely the condition of being free of belief in all ignorance").

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 with self or anything else? 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 what they really are (which only science can identify accurately)?

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 the temporarily-manifested composite unity which "you" temporarily are. Stop following "I am" with any word at all.

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.