DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY

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[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."

 

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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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DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY

Whether the other-worldly concepts which persons attach to involve being blessed or involve continuity and eternal life or involve finding life’s purpose or involve the assumption of religious and / or spiritual personas as identities, belief in such concepts requires persons to first believe in the existence of some other-worldly god or goddess or superpower.

Without one of those (invented) other-world entities or one of the many others which have been dreamed up by humans, then none of those concepts would be given any attention or credibility at all.

Consider:

By WHOM is one being blessed? From where and from whom do all those blessings come, and why do some receive such a blessing and many others do not?

WHO is handing out continuity of consciousness and an eternal life?

WHO has determined your purpose in life, and why are you being made to search for it?

WHO has the power to determine what a person’s life purpose is but then hides the purpose from that person?

Talk about confused, unstable, and “magical thinking.”

So it sounds like all-powerful and all-knowing entities are either (1) into jerking people around by setting up some very frustrating games people must play as they try to navigate the insane cultures they live in; or (2) those entities are totally incompetent; or they (3) are a bunch of asses.

Yet they are the ones whom humans are told to “turn it over to” or to “get close to and stay close to” or to “tell your Power on a daily basis what you need.”

[When I challenged one preacher who was spreading that useless caca about, he said, “Floyd, God answers every prayer but it's with one of three responses. When the answer to your prayer is ‘yes,’ you like Him; when the answer is ‘later’ or ‘no,’ then you turn on Him. And if you turn on Him, He will be unhappy with you and you’ll hear even more ‘no’s’.”

F. “Ah, so I can determine if your god is happy or unhappy? So we need to add Codependent Personality Disorder to the list of his liabilities since humans can determine his mood?”]

End of conversation.

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.

Today, the discussion turns to one of the top two attention-grabbers among humans:

THE POWER OF NOW

Maharaj recommended “living in the present moment.” When people in the past called to report they were entangled in a major crisis, I would stop them, invite them to pause, invite them to take a deep breath and exhale and then relax for just a second. I would explain it would be during that second that I had a question for them to answer. The exchange usually unfolded as follows:

THE QUESTION

“All things aside, including all past things and all of the things you are anticipating and dreading about the future, I must ask you to answer honestly. Right now, in this isolated instance, are you okay?”

“Hell no!”

 “So if you are not alright, at least in this lone, single moment, then are you . . . bleeding out? Do I need to call an ambulance for you?”

“No, smartass.”

“So let’s try again, and answer honestly and accurately about this one, single, solitary moment which we are sharing right now. Right now, in this one second, are you okay”?

“I give up. Yes.”

“If you were to seek a way to extent that sense of okay-ness, it would require that you leave the past alone and that you leave the future along because you cannot change the past and you cannot know what the future holds. Your lack of peace is rooted in things imagined by a fiction-filled mind.”

That was Maharaj’s message regarding this subject: that if you live in the present moment and focus on your condition during this one, isolated, single, solitary second of existence, then peace can come.

He made clear that you can become calm enough right NOW in this present second to begin the process of being free of the influence of your emotional intoxication (which marks the moment when you can begin to look at whatever is perceived to be a major crisis and then calmly, unemotionally, begin to set up a way to process whatever needs to be processed without behaving in a totally unstable and unhinged and unsound and volatile manner).

So that’s what Maharaj indicated could come if focused on the present moment.

But what he did not promise is that you would “Get power.”

"I can't get power via the NOW!? Screw you!!" Talk about a way to lose an audience! Why? Because humans since their earliest days have been trapped in the Addictive Personality Disorder, and their top two addictions have always been (1) an addiction to control which triggers (2) the addiction to power in order to be able to control.

The non-realized masses (that is, per Maharaj, those who are still being driven by a huge body of learned ignorance) are people who are also being driven by the Addictive Personality Disorder.

(Yes, the composite unity referred to as "Maharaj" succumbed to the effects of his nicotine addiction, at age . . . 84! 84! Please. That said, granted, addictive thinking and talking and behaving do often take a tremendous toll of humankind, relatively speaking.) 

While some become dependent on alcohol, nicotine, opioids, sex, video games, shopping, chaos, other people, ad infinitum, the non-realized masses as a whole all share in common a primary addiction and a secondary addiction. 

The primary addiction of humankind has always been an addiction to control. Persons would like to be able to control the weather in general and the temperature outside (because "it's too hot" or "it's too cold") and would like to be able to control the path of storms and hurricanes in particular;

and their partners or mates or spouses; and their neighbors; and people in traffic; and people in different political parties; and their employers / employees; and the economy; and other nations; etc., etc., etc. 

The secondary addiction of humankind is an addiction to power / "Powers" / "A Power" in order to be able to control. 

When those are active then persons will prefer . . . 

. . . control above compassion, 

. . . control above consideration, 

. . . control above concern, 

. . . control above caring, 

and 

. . . control above comprehending 

 as well as 

. . . power above peace,

. . . power above propriety, 

. . . power above placidity, 

. . . power above all else, 

and 

. . . doing and serving and giving to some dreamed up Power in order to be able to control all things in the present and in the future.

Again, Maharaj:

“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.”

What else have people invented in order to get control and power? The belief that a lucky rabbit’s foot can provide power. The belief that a four-leaf clover can provide power. The belief that a horseshoe mounted upside down over the entrance to one’s home can provide power.

The belief that crossing your fingers can provide power. The belief that hanging upside down to kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland can provide power. The belief that eating particular peas or beans on New Year’s Day can provide power.

The belief that making a wish on a bird’s “wishbone” can provide power. And the belief that there is a god or goddess or Power or “Force in the Universe” that can pass on power to persons (at least to the "good persons").

One might conduct an experiment to determine what does and does not work:

When the addiction to have power in order to control is triggered, try using the above one at a time. Then record the results. Work your way down from the rabbit’s foot to God and see, after you complete the experiment, which one most often produced the results you desired.

And also see what happens if you abide in the present moment. Determine whether you gain the peace and stability of abiding in the moment or if you instead gain . . . power.

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.] 

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18 MARCH 2018

or

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