THE RATIONALE FOR CHOOSING SCIENTIFIC FACTS OVER THE EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION GENERATED BY RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL FANATICISM

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 available in two anthologies through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and over 40,000+ booksellers around the globe including in the Americas, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. 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.

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

CONSIDER: 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, 

nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men." 

-- Pope John Paul II 

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within." 

--Yeshu'a (Jesus) 

Here, "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc.: are viewed as verbs, not nouns. See the end of the post for the full meaning and implications of that. 

THE RATIONALE FOR CHOOSING SCIENTIFIC FACTS OVER THE EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION GENERATED BY RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL FANATICISM: 

While Religion and Science Are Not Always Incompatible, Logic and Reason and Wisdom Make Clear That If a Choice Between The Two Is To Be Made, Only One Choice Is the Sane Option 

Next, let’s re-consider the accuracy of some of the criticisms set forth about Maharaj and some of the labels which were applied to Maharaj over the decades as he shifted from using a religious / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine to using a spiritual / non-dual version of the Ultimate Medicine to using a psychologically-based version of the Ultimate Medicine:

CRITICISMS 

(from among some of those shared in the eBook
 "SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ and HIS EVOLUTION"): 

"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers. 

"His direct disciples who later on became notable teachers are of an especially low quality (e.g. Ramesh Balsekar, Wolinsky and others) which makes one to wonder how come." 

"He taught an extreme form of narcissism in which 'I' am everything." 

"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true." 

"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times." 

“He seemed to understand non-duality early on but later on he lost it. I think he went crazy or became senile or maybe it was Alzheimers.” 

LABELS 

He was a rebel.”

He was a maverick.”

He was a nonconformist.”

He was eccentric.”

He was the odd one out.”

He was a dissenter.”

He was a radical.”

He was a free spirit.”

Such labeling can only manifest in duality, when "someone" is contrasted with "someone else" or when "someone" is contrasted with "the way they are now" as compared to "the way they were before." 

Sometimes the labels used to describe Maharaj were meant as criticisms and sometimes they were meant as compliments, but they always involved first judging and then either acceptance or rejection. He was viewed “positively” as “a rebel and maverick and nonconformist," etc. by those who had received no clarity at all by listening to the typical messages being offered by the typical teachers of the day. He was viewed “negatively” as “a rebel and maverick and nonconformist," etc. by those who were attached to the religious or spiritual identities which had been assigned to them or which they had assumed. 

All who were deemed to be religious but who later abandoned their religion persona, and all who were deemed to be spiritual but who later abandoned the playing of their spiritual persona, should be aware that – among the duality-entrapped masses – the applause of the villagers can readily turn into the scorn of the townspeople if one does not accept each and every component of the belief systems of the villagers and townspeople. 

Thus, many who had applauded Maharaj when he reinforced their assumed roles suddenly began attacking Maharaj after he saw that neither a religious nor a spiritual version of the Ultimate Medicine was treating the Ultimate Sickness successfully.

As the case is with those who only take some antibiotics but do not complete the full dosage, the version of the Medicine prescribed to religious or spiritual persons might have sent the Sickness into a temporarily-less potent state or into a temporarily-dormant state for a period;

yet Maharaj saw that the Sickness always eventually recurred. Therefore, when he turned to focusing on the real root of – and the actual seat of - the Ultimate Sickness (namely, the mind), then the criticisms and labels came forth, especially when he said: 

"Forget spirituality" 

and when he encouraged seekers to 

follow "their normal inclinations," (that is, to follow their natural tendencies, to abandon all of their spiritual work and just abide naturally - not unnaturally and not supernaturally, i.e., neither "religiously" nor "spiritually" nor "philosophically") 

and when he told visitors to 

"Do your normal duties" 

and to

"just give up spirituality." 

Consider:

In Christian-dominated cultures, children are told an astonishing lie for years, a lie about an ancient, white-skinned, white-bearded man who has been around forever and who lives in another place and who is omniscient – even knowing if they are asleep or if they are awake – and who rewards those who are good with gifts.

(Hummm. Sound like "Someone" else you've heard of?) Later, they are told by relatives – or they figure out on their own or they are told by friends who know the truth – that they were lied to, tricked, hoodwinked, duped, fooled, conned, taken in, deceived, and bamboozled. 

Here, when the shift beyond the third-of-seven-steps happened – that third step being the one where religious and spiritual roles were assumed and played – many people make comments along these lines: “Floyd, you have allowed your ego to drive you to break relationship with God, and you will pay dearly for that.” 

The question is, If a child who believed a lie – like, say, believing in Santa Claus – then found out the truth and never again believed the lie and never again allowed the lie to affect her or his thoughts and words and actions, would one conclude that the child who eventually understood the truth had - "negatively" - become a “rebel,” a "maverick,” a “nonconformist,” etc.?

Or would the child simply be one who had finally come to understand the truth and, as a consequence, had quit believing a lie, even a lie which the child had also repeated for years.

Or, if a parent put a child to bed at 8 PM and if the child stayed asleep for a long time but then suddenly woke up at 7 AM when the light began streaming through the bedroom window, would the parent conclude that the child who woke up is obviously and most certainly "rebellious" or "in a state of decline" or "deteriorated" or "narcissistic and egotistical," all because the child had simply awakened? 

With Maharaj there, and in the case here, and in all cases where seekers wake up to the fact that they were taught a big pack of lies (and in all cases where they then return to a state in which differentiating between what is true and what is false is the norm rather than the exception), can any of those that determine to stop believing the lies and re-telling the lies which they had been taught suddenly be deemed – logically - to have “deteriorated” simply because they are rejecting lies or because they are telling the truth? Logically? No. Typically? Yes. 

Why is that? That angry reaction among the masses will always happen when some begins marching to the beat of a different drum which is pounding out a cadence which differs from the beat to which the masses are marching. In such cases, the village will turn against them, the state can turn against them, the nation can turn against them, and those all around the globe who are judging them can turn against them. 

Why? They are pissed off because their belief systems and their very identities are being challenged and because they, therefore, feel that they are literally being threatened or hurt or even . . . destroyed. Their misperceptions lead them to believe that a 130-pound female human who is walking away from them is a bigger threat then an 830-pound female bear that is charging toward them. 

That is the core irony among humans about the truth: the truth can set them free, but it’s most likely going to piss them off first. 

Tomorrow: So why did Maharaj’s treatment plan shift away from the use of religion and away from the use of spirituality and away from endorsing the use of “Self-Inquiry” and toward (1) addressing the issues with the mind and (2) addressing (via “self-inquiry”) the issues with the multiple false personas and personalities which persons have been assigned or which they assume are real identities?

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 VERSIONS OF SOME OF HENDERSON'S NON-DUALITY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE

If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
of some of Henderson’s non-duality books,

10 of his books are available in PRINT FORM
(collected in two anthologies).

Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.

[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]

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 BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)

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 BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here

or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
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.

You may click here to visit
Floyd's bookstore

which offers both digital and paperback books.