Sunday, October 31, 2021

DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY

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Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
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TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, "Unlearning with Floyd Henderson."
 
Please note: For those who have a problem hearing what is being shared, the video offers a fairly accurate set of closed captions which some listeners might want to activate. 
 
The interview is available for viewing by clicking on video "NUMBER THIRTEEN" in the column to the right.]

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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DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY

To continue with more on the rationale for this series:

1. Among the 7+ billion non-realized persons on planet earth, 97% reported in a survey that they limit their “search area” to the space beneath the roof a church or basilica or cathedral or temple or the meeting room of a “spiritual group” or a wat or mosque or synagogue or gurdwara. Actually, they seldom seek because they are convinced that they have found. They are taught to “question nothing” and to “accept with blind faith” whatever they are taught.

2. The same applies to the millions supposedly seeking in particular rooms or a loft or a home or a borrowed gathering space or via a particular ideology, cult, philosophy, or theory.

3. Of those seeking via a system of pointers which included the invitation to “question everything,” few question it all.

4. Here, “non-dualists” are encouraged to “question it all” and then an expanded caveat is added: “even question every non-dual pointer you’ve ever heard or read.”

5. Long before Maharaj shared pointers on the bogus beliefs regarding body and mind and personality identification; and long before he advised seekers to abandon their religious and spiritual role-playing; and long before he advised them to give up their spiritual workaholism and merely abide naturally, he laid the groundwork for all the pointers to come by saying, “Question everything.”

He meant with those words that every belief accumulated by listening to others and by reading the words of others and by going to gatherings (where those he derided as “Big Name Teachers” were collecting millions of dollars a year from seekers) must be questioned.

6. There have been millions of religious and spiritual and philosophical and ideological and Eastern and, yes, even non-dual concepts / beliefs which billions of humans have taken to be “awesome.” 

In addition to “awesome,” so many simple and basic parts of the non-dual understanding have been “elevated in status” in a most supercilious, pompous fashion, reporting that various elements of the message are “noble,” “other-worldly,” “extraordinary,” “exceptional,” “distinctive,” and “exclusive.” None of them were, and none of them are. 

7. This series is offering a different perspective about those concepts / beliefs / pointers / whatever.

So far in this series, it has been shown that - far from being “awesome concepts or teachings” - there is actually no validity or logic at all to such concepts or teachings as . . .

continuity

and

WHO-ness and / or who-ness

and

SELF-Actualization”

and

“SELF-Realization”

and

“self-realization” (unless referring to the fact that one has realized that all assigned or assumed selves are illusions as are all assumed Selves as well) 

and 

liberation

and

enlightenment, awakening, and spiritual awakening,

and

“the Spiritual Malady”

and

higher consciousness

and

noble truths

and

how to know God

and

finding your life’s purpose

and

how to find peace of mind

and, relatedly,

mindfulness

and

becoming who you are

and

having an ageless body and timeless mind

and

karma

and

“Infinite Self” and “Supreme Self” and “Eternal Self”

and

birth-death-rebirth cycles

and

“The Universe”

and

“the work” / “spiritual work” / “spiritual workaholism”

and

contrary types vs. contrarians 

and  

being blessed and having blesséd days

and

the power of now

and

the pure, universal consciousness

and

“I am consciousness”

and

“Consciousness is all there is”

and

“Nothing is real”

and

bliss

and

advancing your spirit

and

seekers’ propensities: To talk rather than listen

and

seekers’ propensities: to go and do and zoom rather than relax in the silence

Today, the discussion turns to . . .

SEEKERS’ PROPENSITIES: To learn rather than un-learn

It has long amazed me that those seeking via a process which endorses de-accumulation at its core fall prey to so much accumulation.

Most religions and ideologies and spiritual movements and programs and philosophies come right out and proclaim that their goal is for their members to learn more and more dogma; to read more and more “holy scriptures” or famous treatises;

to accumulate more and more “spiritual exercises” to complete on a daily basis; to accumulate more and more books and to build personal libraries on subject matter related to their religion or movement or ideology, etc.;

to accumulate more and more knowledge (that is per Maharaj, “learned ignorance”); to accumulate more and more trips to “holy places” or “spiritual centers on earth”; ad infinitum.

Most “non-dual seekers” who have supposedly heard mention of the fact that wise sages for ages have recommended de-accumulation nevertheless seldom put into practice that part of the non-dual message (including yours truly for a time).

Moreover, as they add to their store of “non-dual ‘stuff’,” they also cling to what they have already accumulated. And what do humans accumulate more than anything?

Concepts, ideas, notions, thoughts, designs, plans, schemes, impressions, images, opinions, views, theories, intentions, points, and knowledge / learned ignorance, etc., etc., etc.

And what one word summarizes all of that?

“Beliefs.” 

Lions have long been called "the King of the Jungle," but in my 74 years, it is been witnessed that the most dangerous creatures on planet earth are fanatical humans with strongly-held beliefs (which always drive them to abide in a state of emotional intoxication).

Once humans have been programmed, conditioned, acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed, and indoctrination, then the accumulation of beliefs runs rampart throughout the remainder of their relative existence with few exceptions.

Humans debate their beliefs; humans fight over their beliefs; humans can die for their beliefs; humans can kill for their beliefs; humans can hate anyone with “different beliefs” (whether those beliefs involve religion, spirituality, an afterlife, politics, who is good and who is bad, or who is right and who is wrong; etc.)

Then there is the influence of the hidden agendas of personality. The enneagram identifies nine basic personality types, and the non-dual understanding invites seekers to become free of the influence of all of them.

Regarding personality influences and this topic, Type Ones love to accumulate knowledge and use it to benefit themselves and others; Type Fives love to accumulate knowledge just for the sake of later being able to show off how much they know. Types Eights love to accumulate knowledge about others which can be used to intimidate or blackmail or control others at some future time.

So what do seekers share in common with non-seekers? Often, an unwillingness to give up any of the learned ignorance which is stored away in the parts of the brain which make up what is called “the mind.” Why?

Because of egotism; false pride; self-serving interests; desires, including the desire to control others through the use of accumulated knowledge / learned ignorance; to “show off”; to reinforce their persona of “The Expert”;

and because they have accepted the influence of their ignorance-based conditioning which can drive them consciously and unconsciously and subconsciously; because of their personality-driven “know-it-all” tendencies;

because of a willingness to cling to and fight for and sometimes die for their beliefs; and because they use their mind concepts to support and sustain their false identities.

The invitation is to un-learn rather than to learn more and to accumulate more and more “mind-stuff.”

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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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

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of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 
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or

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V.
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“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

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