TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
6. Or, you may purchase a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here for someone and offer recommendations for the books in Floyd's store which might be of assistance to them.
THE ULTIMATE SICKNESS and THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE
Maharaj explained that "knowledge" is itself "learned ignorance."
He said in the end that realization is simply the condition of being free from functioning under the influence of learned ignorance.
He said: "Realization is but the opposite of ignorance."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“A Discussion of the Stages of Maharaj's ‘Journey’”
So Maharaj did follow the householder stage with the "inner journey," forest dweller stage. He left home and family with no intention of returning, and that abandonment happened well before the family would have agreed that "all of the householder's responsibilities had ended."
However, while wandering through the forests and areas of wilderness, he crossed paths with another seeker who had worked with Maharaj’s guru. That happened just prior to Maharaj leaving for the Himalayas.
The man told Maharaj that their guru had told him that it was not necessary to abandon householding completely and not necessary to become a hermit and not necessary to play the role of a renunciant. At that point he told Maharaj to give up his plans to move to the Himalayan mountain range and advised Maharaj to return home
As mentioned, though, his seeking had not ended when he returned home though his time with his teacher had come and gone. He re-entered "The Householder" stage again, possibly with a different perspective, yet seeking continued.
Over the years, he would advise many seekers to do the same: to go home, to accept responsibilities. Yet that advice was likely offered with the same understanding as when it is offered here:
Recall that one man was told to go home and watch "husbanding" happen, or not, but to allow either to take place without assuming the role of "The Husband" or “The Super Husband” or "The Ex-Husband." In other words, accept no labels or roles as identifiers and abide in a no-identity manner while merely witnessing all.
Or compare that pointer offered here with one that Maharaj offered to a visitor:
Questioner: "I am 24 years now. For the last two and a half years I am travelling, restless, seeking. I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?"
Maharaj: "Go home, take charge of your father's business, look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you, be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue, live silently.
“The five senses and the three qualities (gunas) are your eight steps in Yoga. And 'I am' is the Great Reminder (mahamantra). You can learn from them all you need to know. Be attentive, enquire ceaselessly. That is all."
Hummm.
Not, "Reject householding completely"? No.
Not "Being a hermit"? No.
Not "Being a renunciant"? No.
Not "Living in a cave"? No.
Not, "Becoming a wandering monk"? No.
Instead, just, "Go home."
"Take charge."
"Look after . . . whoever / whatever."
"Marry."
"Be loyal."
"Be simple."
"Be humble"
and
"Shut up" (uhh, that is, "Live silently").
So the traditional stages were not adhered to by Maharaj and the Four Stages discussed here differ from what Maharaj experienced along the way but are close to what eventually helped lead to his realization. They are also the way that realization happened here, so they are the stages which are used for those that come here to seek:
THE FOUR STAGES AS SHARED HERE:
Stage I: Programming to accumulate
Stage II: Accumulating
a. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring even more accumulation or
b. Discomfort / Emptiness inspiring seeking outside the popular venues
Stage III: Forest Dweller – sometimes the prerequisite and facilitator of the "inner journey" Stage (and sometimes not).
IV: De-Accumulation (a condition arrived at via moving beyond the Four Stages and completing the steps on the “path” to realization; followed by abidance in the solitude of a relative existence wherein “Reality” has been overlaid on the relative; wherein “Reality” (THAT) and “reality” (The post-realization I AM-ness) have been overlaid with the Absolute, thus, I AM THAT I AM).
wherein one then abides as the no-name, no-concepts, no beliefs, no-identity and no “Identity” Nothingness and simply abiding without clinging to any of the learned ignorance which had been taught and accepted with blind faith and without any questioning and then accumulated and stored with all of the other ignorance accepted as truth and stored in “the mind” (and thereafter abiding in a natural manner until the end of the manifestation).
The other option: keep accumulating more and more dogma-based beliefs to support your guise of “The Super Religious One” role or of accumulating more and more “spiritually”-based exercises and beliefs to support the false image of “A Spiritual Giant Who Believes She or He is Becoming an Ever-Increasingly-Greater Spiritual Being” day by day.
In that manner, you will provide proof of a pointer offered here occasionally, namely, that the joy of living with a super religious person or with a spiritual giant - more often than not - will eventually prove to be a highly over-rated relative lifestyle (a.k.a., “boring ass life,” a.k.a., “plight”).
In the end, Maharaj recommended a nisargan, all-natural lifestyle, not a supernatural / spiritual lifestyle and not an unnatural lifestyle. Same here.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
THE NEWEST OFFER:
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:
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.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(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."
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
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
(1) You may purchase
a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here
for someone and offer recommendations for the books in Floyd's store which might be of assistance to them.
Or,
(2) 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:
THE EXPLANATION
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"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.