TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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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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6. You may click here to visit Floyd's bookstore
which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with
non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, financial sanity, financial planning, and more
CULTURAL OBSTACLES WHICH BLOCK A SCIENCE-BASED
AND NON-DUAL-BASED UNDERSTANDING
of both
REALITY AND reality
AND NON-DUAL-BASED UNDERSTANDING
of both
REALITY AND reality
Consider again Maharaj''s final guesstimate that only "1 out of 10,000,000" will ever "get" the non-dual understanding.
While my Cherokee Grandmother provided herb-based naturopathic healing to some who entered her cabin in the piney woods of East Texas, her ability in many cases to provide "body healing" was often overshadowed by the fact that she provided word-based "mental and emotional healing" to even more who came her way.
As a child, I watched as she endorsed Love and peace and unity and non-judgmentalism and as she modeled calmness and quietness and silence and reason. Those were some of the hallmarks of her culture, received and passed down to those in her presence.
Yet that type culture was a rare culture on a planet where most cultures have propagated hatred and fighting and division and judgmentalism and chaos and noise and incessant talking and where a lack of logic prevailed then and prevails now.
While my Cherokee Grandmother provided herb-based naturopathic healing to some who entered her cabin in the piney woods of East Texas, her ability in many cases to provide "body healing" was often overshadowed by the fact that she provided word-based "mental and emotional healing" to even more who came her way.
As a child, I watched as she endorsed Love and peace and unity and non-judgmentalism and as she modeled calmness and quietness and silence and reason. Those were some of the hallmarks of her culture, received and passed down to those in her presence.
Yet that type culture was a rare culture on a planet where most cultures have propagated hatred and fighting and division and judgmentalism and chaos and noise and incessant talking and where a lack of logic prevailed then and prevails now.
Consider the enormity of the obstacles which one who works for 20 or 40 or 80 years with seekers of the non-dual understanding will witness:
Obstacle #10: Cultures
A "culture" is variously defined as:
"The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group."
"The characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time."
"The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization."
"The set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic."
"Acculturation" is variously defined as:
"The cultural modification of an individual, group, or people via their adapting to or borrowing traits."
"The process by which a human being acquires the culture of a particular society, starting from infancy."
"The process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group."
"The learning of the ideas, values, conventions, social practices, and behaviors which characterize a social group."
Some who move from one culture to the next report significant levels of psychological distress and other mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, which are linked to their problems tied to adaptation and acculturation.
What fewer are in touch with occurs among those who have not moved from one culture to another but who have been raised in one culture since infancy but still have problems linked to acculturation.
Personality Type Fours (such as Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Johnny Depp, Bob Dylan, Vincent Van Gogh, Jim Morrison, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, James Taylor, and J.D. Salinger to name a few) make up only 1/2 of 1% of the planet's population and they often have or had major problems with acculturation.
Type Fours are often the rebels in a culture. Their BS Detectors are armed from early on, so they spot the prevalent nonsense in their cultures and reject it. They are pre-wired to require proof rather than faith, to question authority, and to be less likely to "go along to get along" as so many other types do.
They are often considered to be "too intense" or "too different" or even "contrarians" by the conformists in their cultures and are often not satisfied with being dismissed by others in their culture who say, "That's just the way it is," responding, "Indeed, that is the way it is in this culture, yet it need not be so."
They are often expressive, artistic, authentic, and introspective. If psychically healthy, they will often prefer the solitude; if psychically unhealthy, they tend to isolate.
Being more compassionate than some other types, they are more likely to be sensitive to the feelings of others as well as their own feelings. If realized, they feel but do not emote. They appreciate beauty of all kinds.
Most of all, they do not suffer fools gladly.
As trying as much of that can be, it is no less trying them those who unquestioningly buy into all parts of the acculturation process to which they are exposed and try to conform, impress their fellows, develop the same popular false images of their peers, "go along to get along," become traditionalists, ultra-conservative, anti-progress, and are haters of change and growth; they model others in order to be accepted, will seldom ever seek authenticity, and will prefer form over substance.
They will accept the nonsense in their culture without ever seeing that it is nonsense. If they are raised in a culture where white supremacy and racial and national exceptionalism are believed to be based in fact, they can become supremacists and xenophobes.
One historical example happened in Germany in the 30's and 40's when a man from Austria moved there and began telling those people that they were members of a superior race. He spoke of eugenics, explaining that there was "scientific proof" that their genes were superior to that of the members of darker and non-Christian races. The result of that acculturation: six million Jews were killed in gas chambers and burned in ovens, along with six million others who were murdered because they were homosexual, physically deformed, or mentally disabled.
Or,
those types can be like Dylann Roof (a white supremacist and white nationalist). They might become willing - as he did - to kill blacks simply because their skin is black. Such is the sway of acculturation.
How does acculturation have such a pervasive sway?
Most persons are conformists. Fifty percent of all persons are Type Sixes, the types who believe that authority should never be challenged. Again, only 1/2 of 1% of the people on planet earth are Type Fours who are pre-wired to challenge authority and to question and to reject so much of what cultures hold dear.
Consider: soybeans are of considerable value and trade on the commodities market because of the versatility of their use in making prepared foods. They have this property which accounts for their value: they take on the flavor of whatever they are placed next to:
Want to use them as filler in frankfurters? No problem,. They'll take on the flavor of frankfurters. Want to use them to make breaded foods? No problem. They'll take on the flavor of breading and the foods which they are coating.
The point: Most persons are like soybeans. They take on the flavor of - that is, they assume the ways of - those whom they are around in their culture.
Whereas Type Fours can be fearless, Types Sixes, (again, 50% of the earth's population) are driven by fear and anxiety and are quite willing to let the authorities in their culture do anything they want as long as they can assuage the fears of the masses (fears which those leaders usually stoked in the first place).
Acculturation is one of what is called here, the "Six Scourges of Humankind" (programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination).
Those who look at the overall effects of acculturation objectively will understand why it is considered a "scourge."
When postings resume, the discussion of what a few unique cultures have given to some humans as opposed to what the most typical cultures have robbed almost all other humans of.
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.
When postings resume, the discussion of what a few unique cultures have given to some humans as opposed to what the most typical cultures have robbed almost all other humans of.
To be continued.
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(collected in two anthologies).
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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.
which offers both digital and paperback books.
