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.
DE-AWESOME-FYING NON-DUAL TERMINOLOGY
“Living is life’s only purpose.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
More on the rationale for this series:
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.
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.
This series is offering a different perspective about those concepts / beliefs / pointers / whatever.
So far, 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;
WHO-NESS and / or who-ness;
“SELF-Actualization”;
“SELF-Realization”;
“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.”
Today, the discussion moves to this “popular teaching”:
FINDING YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE
As noted above, Maharaj key pointer on this subject was that “living is life’s only purpose.”
Of the billions of life forms which have abided on planet earth, not a single one of those forms or species or organisms sought to define some personal “purpose,” except for one: modern day humans.
Maharaj asked: “What progress are you expecting? It is not for miracles, publicity, money, sex? What progress? So unless you know yourself in the real sense, your so-called progress so far will not count. Here (real) progress means that Truth is established totally within you, with the result that there are no expectations. No happiness, no unhappiness, no experience, no experiencer. No witness, no witnesser.
Who wants progress?
Among the realized, "the who" is always a false identity, a personality, a persona, a figment of humans’ imaginations.
So how can there be any sense of purpose when what exists is a set of elements with the witnessing consciousness that is circulating air? WHO would be doing the doings? The earth elements? The air? The witnessing consciousness that can do nothing except see accurately or inaccurately?
More than eleven years ago, the following was shared on this site:
A visitor wrote: “One thing you say on occasion is still nagging me. I was raised in a church home and was told to find the reason God put me on earth and that I could never be happy unless I found "His plan for me" and then spent my life doing whatever that was. I bought into that "raison d'etre" theory, tried to let that be the driving force in my life for years, came across your website, and started getting free of all of that.
“I thought I was, but whenever you talk about what some of the ‘big names' write about - you know, meaning and purpose and all - I flash back and then the nagging starts again and I hear someone say
‘A LIFE WITHOUT MEANING IS WORTHLESS!’
“Will I ever be able to let go of that? How can anyone be free of the ideas of meaning and purpose and still feel fulfilled?”
Experience has shown me that when my thoughts and actions and deeds were being driven by that same mindset you describe, I was an arrogant, miserable ass. Who with any taste for peace and calm and relaxation would want to be sucked into the whirling dervish of chaos which those playing the roles of “Super Purpose Seekers” and “Super Purpose Do-ers” generate (unless, of course, they are similarly arrogant and miserable?)
The common attitude among those role players is this: “Ah, I have such an important purpose. My life has so much meaning, and if you’re smart, you’ll hand around me and follow my lead and find your purpose and give your life meaning.”
I shared the following with the fellow who wrote about the way his early programming and conditioning was taking complete control over every aspect of his entire relative existence:
Were
one to study the history of humans on this planet objectively, it would become
clear just how selfish and self-motivated and self-sustaining the notions of
purpose and meaning really are.
The evidence would hardly show that those with a clearly-defined purpose or
meaning were the ones "living a life that had worth," at least in the
estimate of the masses whose relative existence has been affected by such types
or whose relative existence came to an end as a result of the actions of those
driven by "their lives' meaning and purpose."
The leaders of the Spanish Inquisition (like their Puritan counterparts who
organized witchcraft trials in the U.S.) had a purpose: to eliminate from their
ranks those who had less faith than they should have had.
Europeans who believed in the concept of "Manifest Destiny" had a
purpose: to rid the areas now known as "North, Central, and South
America" of the 150,000,000 inhabitants that were standing in the way of Christians
whose purpose was to "go to the fours corner of the earth and baptize
everyone in the name of Jesus Christ" (and kill the ones in "the new
world" who refused). Yet if you had asked them about their purpose, it
would have been described as "noble" and "godly" and
"good for the entire planet, ultimately."
Adolf Hitler and his henchmen had a purpose in life: to eliminate from the face
of the earth every Jew, every homosexual, and every physically or
mentally-handicapped person. Their lives were given meaning by working to erase
everyone and everything that stood in the way of making a "master
race" of the German people.
Kamikaze pilots in WWII had a purpose: my father watched from the deck of the
ship that was transporting him from San Francisco to Okinawa as one plane after
another tried to crash into the ships in their convoy and kill as many members
of the Allied Forces as possible. Those pilots had a purpose, and their deaths
were believed to have given meaning to their lives.
Today, Islamic extremists have a purpose. As with Christians who are instructed
in their text to make everyone a Christian, the extremists want to make
everyone a Muslim. (Gets rather confusing, though, when you try to pin down
which brand of Christianity or which brand of Islam is believed to be the
"right one.")
And the lives of the captains of Wall Street in the U.S. most assuredly had a
clear-cut purpose and well-defined meaning, the result of which was a wrecking
of the economies of most "developed" nations on the planet.
Ideologues in conflicting religions or political parties will tell you that
their lives have a definite purpose and have significant meaning as they are
driven by their religious and political personas which determine every
ignorant thought they have, which control every bizarre word that comes from
their mouths, and which drive all of their self-serving behaviors that follow.
Behind the claims of any and all persons who say they have found their life's
purpose which is giving their life meaning, there is a hidden agenda that has
nothing to do with the stated purpose or meaning.
Then there is not only the conflict but also the duality that accompany
purpose-driven persons because the purpose of one will always run counter to
the purpose of other persons involved, inserting duality into every aspect of
(A) the lives of the purpose-driven vs. (B) the lives of those persons being
affected by the "purposeful" agendas of those in Group "A."
There was the duality of the purposeful leaders of the Spanish Inquisition on
one hand vs. the persons being tortured and slain on the other hand.
There was the duality of those Europeans whose lives were given meaning by
helping to annihilate the 150,000,000 people who stood in the way of their goal
of expansionism - driven by a belief in the natural superiority of the
Anglo-Saxon race and justified with the claim that they needed to build a
"Christian nation" to serve as a shining beacon to the rest of the
world (a belief that is still used by politicians to help define "America's
mission" in the world) vs. the interests of the native inhabitants of the
invaded land who merely wanted to continue to live as they had lived for
thousands of years on the other hand.
There was the duality of the purposeful, meaningful lives of the Nazis on one
hand vs. the interests of the 12,000,000 killed in German death camps - and the
43,000,000 killed in a war to try to stop the Nazis' plans - on the other hand.
There's the duality of Kamikaze pilots and the duality of modern-day suicidal,
Islamic extremists (with their lives' clearly-defined purpose and meaning that
involved a sacrificing of their lives to kill other persons) vs. the interests
of all those killed because of their differing beliefs on the other hand.
There was the duality of the purposeful leaders of Wall Street on one hand vs.
the basic economic interests of billions of persons around the globe on the
other hand.
There is the duality of those whose life purpose it is to impose their
ideological beliefs on everyone else vs. those who prefer lives where decisions
are based in logic and reason on the other hand.
There is the duality of 2.1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion Muslims whose
purpose in life is to convert everyone to believe in their beliefs and to
worship their version of the God of Abraham on one hand vs. the persons who
would rather not join them in converting and worshipping on the other hand.
And there is the duality of those who believe that their purpose is to
"save people" or to change people vs. those who have no interest at
all in being saved or changed.
If you had a choice of whether to spend an entire relative existence with
(1) persons on a quest who claim to have a clearly-defined purpose that gives
their lives meaning
or with
(2) one that is enjoying the lightness of being, abiding as the contented deer
that are not conscious of any supposed meaning or purpose at all
and if, before making your choice between #1 or # 2 above, you were to study
objectively the impact of persons who have claimed to have found the
meaning-giving purpose of their lives
could it be any clearer at all about what the sane and sound choice would be?
Again, consider the message from Maharaj to those who think their lives have
been given meaning as a result of their having found their purpose in life:
Questioner: "Is
there no salvation for the world?"
Maharaj: "Which world do
you want to save? The world of your own projection? Save it yourself. My world?
Show me my world and I shall deal with it. I am not aware of any world separate
from myself . . . . "
And, even more to the point,
Maharaj: "What business
have you with saving the world, when all the world needs is to be saved from
you?"
Or from inquisitionists; or from thieves and murderers who kill millions and
take their land in the name of God; or from those willing to die for their
causes and those willing to kill millions in the process, be they killing and
dying for an emperor or for the God of Abraham or for Allah; or from greedy
capitalists; or from political and religious ideologues, ad infinitum.
Finally, the notion that there is some "one" who can find a purpose to give her / his life meaning ignores the fact that no "one" exists at all. There is a coming together of elements which form a body-cum-consciousness through which air circulates. Elements. Conscious-energy. Air. That's it, and even that form is a temporary space.
This was shared in 2010:
There is no do-er who can find a purpose and then do
whatever that purpose supposedly involves. Only when the pure consciousness is
blocked can "one" think something more exists during this relative
existence than a temporary space with consciousness and air; only when the pure
consciousness is blocked can "one" mistake itself as a person with
purpose: the helper, the savior, the rescuer, the teacher, the leader, the reformer
or one or more of an infinite variety of false roles that are assumed to be
doing something "good" and "meaningful."
Maharaj: The realized "do not identify with success or failure - the very idea of
becoming ‘this’ or ‘that’ is unthinkable"
and
"The ‘world’ is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose"
and
"There is no sense of purpose in my doing
anything. Things happens as they happen not because I make them happen; it is because I am that they happen"
and
"Obsessed with the idea of means
and end, of work and purpose, you see me apparently functioning. In reality I
only look. Whatever is done, is done on the stage. Joy and sorrow, life and
death, they all are real to the man in bondage; to me they are all in the show,
as unreal as the show itself"
and
"Through the film of your mind you project a world and also a God to give it cause and purpose. It is all imagination - step out of it."
The suggestion offered to the visitor who wrote about his feeling of guilt when he was not living according to his early programming and conditioning in a church?
“Forget all the nonsensical talk about ‘suffering being meaningful,’ about ‘birth and death and about purpose and meaning in between,’ about ‘never being happy unless you find God's plan for you and then spend your life doing whatever that was pre-determined to be."
[Of that, Maharaj said, "You mean to say everybody's life is totally determined at his birth? What a strange idea! Were it so, 'the power that determines' would see to it that nobody should suffer."]
I continued:
“Live without any delusions, including the delusion that you are changing the world or that you have some noble purpose or that you are giving meaning to your life or that of others. That's all delusional. What happens can still happen, yet it need never again be cloaked in delusion and egotism or in anything assumed to be personal or purposeful or meaningful.”
So, quite to the contrary of the popular notions which the masses hold toward purpose and meaning, the closest that anyone can accurately come to identifying a human’s “life purpose” would be to say:
“Living is life’s only purpose.”
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.
