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
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
and
seekers’ propensities: to learn rather than un-learn
and
seekers’ / gurus propensities: to teach rather than un-teach
Today, the discussion turns to . . .
SEEKERS’ PROPENSITIES: To accumulate more rather than de-accumulate all
Maharaj said: “To be selfish means to covet, to acquire, to accumulate on behalf of the part against the whole.”
What greater example of duality-at-play can there be than the notion of “the part against the whole”?
WEALTH ACCUMULATION
Wealth accumulation stats can be quite revealing of the degree to which duality dominates a culture or nation. In the U.S., the three richest billionaires now own more wealth than all of those in the economic bottom 70% of all of the people in the nation’s population combined.
Those three have more wealth than nearly 70% of the rest of the nation combined? Yes. That it, it would take combining the wealth of nearly 70% of the people in U.S, households to equal what those three have accumulated.
Moreover,
the richest billionaires in the U.S. have each recently had years when they
paid no taxes. Why? They and their businesses use the nation’s roads to deliver goods. Should they not help pay for the construction and maintenance of what they use and benefit from economically? They believe . . . no.
In this community, there is talk about the homeowners needing to prepare for a huge assessment to repair streets which have been torn apart by huge trucks which delivery goods to stores, to restaurants, to home-building sites, etc.
The wealthy owners of those companies pay nothing to use these streets as they accumulate wealth, and they and their attorneys will do everything possible to avoid contributing to the community’s costs.
The richest pay nothing toward the cost of the educational expenses nationwide from which they draw a workforce that has been subsidized in part by the states and the nation.
One example after another shows how the 70% are used to facilitate the accumulation of wealth by the top 1% richest.
How much is “enough” for the accumulators?
Now, are there any exceptions? Yes.
I only have one friend who has been extremely wealthy since I met him. He is one of the few exceptions. I will not name him because he wants no recognition for his contributions to community.
He “gives back,” meaning, he does his part to address income inequality and the resultant financial needs vs. no financial needs condition of the people.
He has been generous in setting up charities not just to have tax write-offs but to address the suffering in his community among the poorest and those in the most need (relatively speaking of course). But the stats tell a different story about most of the rich.
The examples of income inequality and suffering among the poor have been widely documented and reported, so there’s no need to continue this part of the discussion.
The stats show that the most able are also the most unwilling to pull their own weight as they take advantage of the educational systems, the roadways, the airports, and a workforce of people who need assistance with food costs, clothing costs, transportation costs and the paying of rent, mortgages, funeral expenses, student loans, health care, child care and, yes, paying their taxes.
Maharaj: “When there is one, one needs many. One is never satisfied with the bare minimum necessities. One never tries to experience the bliss of being. Instead, one desires more happiness by ever-increasing acquisitions.”
KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATION
Maharaj: “The so-called ‘birth’ is the appearance of ignorance which prevails till the so-called ‘death’.”
“A rare one knows this ignorance and observes all the so-called knowledge as useless. A jnani finds that the existence is not worth the trouble it demands.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“People who depend on the intellect only always will be swinging like a pendulum.”
“Knowledge is learned ignorance”
and
“Realization is the process of being freed from belief in ‘learned ignorance,’” in knowledge
and
“Ultimately, knowledge is ignorance”
and
“Earlier I was sure of so many things; now I am sure of nothing. But I feel that I have lost nothing by not knowing, because all my knowledge was false. My not knowing was in itself knowledge of the fact that all knowledge is ignorance, that ‘I do not know’ is the only true statement the mind can make.”
So much for accumulating knowledge.
SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATION
Those visiting this site regularly are also aware of the cost of spiritual knowledge accumulation.
The desire to create and then feed the ego-states of “The Super Religious One,” “The Spiritual Giant,” and “The Super Seeker” inspires one that has a full-time job to add on a second full-time job involving spiritual going and doing and zooming which leads to being trapped in spiritual workaholism.
[Those with the Addictive Personality Disorder” almost always disintegrate and develop a full-blown case of the “Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder” as well; thus, there is the mind element to both disorders, as is always the case.]
The pattern is for the obsessive mind to constantly recycle one preoccupying thought over and over, to become totally fixated and consumed and in the grip of one nagging idea, be it a resentment, an unfulfilled desires, the fear of a present concern, whatever.
Then, after enough obsessing, one will eventually be driven to compulsive behavior. The pressure of the obsession blows and the person does something compulsive as a result.
[A compulsive behavior is defined by some as “behavior resulting from or relating to an irresistible urge, especially one that is against one's conscious wishes."]
ACCUMULATING AND THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER
The presence of the Addictive Personality Disorder is a major inspiration for accumulating. Why? Because it drives in particular one subconscious or unconscious or sometimes conscious belief:
“I
believe that I do not have enough and that I will never have enough to be okay,
so that leaves me in fear; then my fear drives me to try to accumulate more and
more and more”(including booze, drugs, sex, play, shopping, boredom-inspired chaos, etc.)
“Because I do not have enough, I cannot maintain the public image which I want people to buy into.”
“So I need more and more and more of everything and bigger versions of everything:
“I need a bigger house, fancier cars, more and more lovers to send me a subliminal message that I am not just good enough but that I am also highly appealing, alluring, charming, and fascinating.”
“I am entitled to more, and I need more and more caretakers.”
“I want more and more and more and I need more and more and more and I deserve more and more and more.”
DE-ACCUMULATION
For ages the wisest sages have long endorsed
de-accumulation. Their advice:
Be rid of - de-accumulate - the bogus content which has been stored in the mind via the use of ignorant and insane programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination;
be rid of “the selfishness, the covetousness, the acquiring and the accumulating on behalf of the part against the whole.”
See the toll which duality-based Belief Systems (that is, duality-based BS) takes.
Maharaj: “Through Yoga you have accumulated’ knowledge’ and ‘experience.’ But of what use is it all to you? Yoga means union, joining.” Yet . . .
accumulating, on the other hand, means the end of union, the end of joining, and the beginning of a sense of believing that one is different from - and therefore better than - the “other” (supposedly made up of people who are far-lesser in all ways).
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.
