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.
NEEDLESS WORK and COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE ACCEPTANCE and THE CURSE OF HABITS
Maharaj showed by example that the efficient transmission of the non-dual pointers which can lead to realization (that is, “to the state of being freed of belief in all learned ignorance”) requires two processes used in tandem:
One is a specific method; the other is a specific yoga. In his case, the specific method was the Direct Path Method and the specific yoga was the Nisargan / Natural Yoga. Here, with a willing and ready and capable seeker, the efficient transmission can happen in hours, not in the weeks or months or years which is so often the case with most seekers.
For the curious, here’s a brief “Overview of the Key Methods” from which seekers can choose. (Let it be noted that for seekers who claim that they have found a method that "works" for them, know that there will be no effort here to persuade anyone to abandon whatever course they are following).
This work is for those who do not know that there are many methods of teaching non-duality; that one method might "work" for one seeker but not for another; and that one's "journey" might be enhanced more by one method than another. The same applies to the various types of yoga.
Next, if one would complete a journey, a few pre-journey decisions are required. The first is, what mode of transportation is to be used? With the non-duality journey, there are five modes of travel:
1. A fictional, luxury cruiser that is a very expensive ride but takes you nowhere. You cannot reach any destination via that mode. [Pseudo-Advaita]
2. The next mode of travel to consider is a slow-moving train. Some have reached the destination on this very old mode of travel, but the trip is long and requires much study of works written in an ancient language that is not familiar to most, so travel by this mode requires learning a new language before you can ever begin the trip. [Traditional Method where the teacher requires a knowledge of Sanskrit]
3. The third possibility is to take the journey in a 1970's hippie van. In that van, there will be much flowery talk and the sharing of dreamy concepts and magical teachings, but the van will never really take you anywhere. You'll sit and listen to lofty talks and deeply philosophical discussions, but when you leave the van, you will find that you have completed none of the journey to Full Realization. [Neo-Vedanta]
4. The fourth mode of transportation is a flight simulator that seemingly flies you along at a supersonic rate. Everything in the simulator happens in an instant, and when you step out and find that you have not completed your journey at all, you are told you were already where you wanted to go anyway. [Neo-Advaita]
5. The fifth means of traveling the journey is by foot. That might seem inconvenient, but the "path" on this "journey" is only four steps long and follows the most direct route. The "journey" to full realization that seekers are seeking to complete should not be a long and arduous route, but there are certain steps that must be taken. [The Direct Path Method]
An Introduction
to the Four Major Non-Duality Teaching Methods (and One Non-Method)
Pseudo Advaita will be discussed first in order to set it aside and to be done
with it once and for all.
A NON-METHOD: Pseudo Advaita
Pseudo Advaita is the non-method used by many (especially by those Maharaj warned his seekers to avoid, namely, “the Big Name Teachers”).
Maharaj warned: "If you seek out the big name teachers, you'll get what you deserve” (or more to the point, you will not get what you “deserve” or seek).
Here, the message is, "If you seek via the big name teachers, you are not likely to get what you are seeking. In the end, the “teachings” here is actually about non-teaching, about un-learning, not learning more; they are about de-accumulation rather than getting more or gaining more. At least eight of the richest, most famous teachers nowadays studied the teachings of Maharaj, took a piece here and there, and then adapted his teachings to come up with a version that is popular among the cash-spending masses. Little about the purest version of non-duality will be popular among the masses.
TEACHING METHOD: Traditional Advaita
This is the method regarded as the one defined by Shankara in his discussion of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Suttras around the 8th century AD. This approach is defined by those scriptures which some claim are the source of truth.
TEACHING METHOD: Neo-Vedanta
The term "Neo-Vedanta" refers primarily to the method used by Vivekananda and his followers. Some critics consider this method a “watered down” version of Traditional Advaita, a result of the fact that Vivekananda and his followers have tried to make the teachings more suitable to Western tastes where concepts and ego-states have dominated persons for millennia.
[NOTE: Neo-Vedanta teachers typically employ the types of seemingly sublime or exalted or emotion-inspiring statements that encourage followers to adopt more concepts and identities instead of encouraging seekers to forfeit all concepts and identities. The first part of this series offered an invitation for visitors to this site to turn away from those concepts. All of them are in direct opposition to the understanding offered via the Direct Path, Nisarga yoga approach.]
TEACHING METHOD: Neo-Advaita
The teachers who use this method see no need for study, questioning or inquiring into anything. Claiming that they recognize only reality, and knowing that there is no seeker, they conclude that there is nothing to seek. Often, the result is that even the most diligent seekers who try to attain the understanding with Neo-Advaita teachers can become very confused. Neo-Advaitins suggest that no path is required since there is no “one” to follow the “path.” [NOTE: That same understanding, which is attained by some who follow the “Direct Path Method” to its end, is assumed by Neo-Advaita teachers to be a given from the very beginning.] Some who adhere to this method reject the name “Neo-Advaita” outright.
That leaves the “Direct Path Method” and the Nisarga Yoga approach to be discussed. Based on the descriptions above, the reader might be seeing why so much searching has resulted in what some describe as "one contradiction after another." There are some very clear differences in message and methodology employed by different teachers.
TEACHING METHOD: The Direct Path
These are some of the basic principles of the Direct Path Method which distinguish it from the other methods:
1. Using this method, Maharaj early on provisionally acknowledged "the seeker"
and "the guru" but would eventually make clear that one need not seek
the “Supreme Self” or “The Infinite Self,” but need only understand what and
who one is not.
2. The Direct Path provides a means by which untruth is removed.
3. Those that use this method properly understand that once realization
happens, life carries on with itself, by itself, without our intervention.
4. Beliefs must be deconstructed and discarded for realization to happen.
5. Rather than seeking without (via god,
gods, or “holy” writings) the Direct Path Method emphasizes seeing directly
that truth which can be known from within, via the inner guru or the inner
resource. (NOTE: The gurus / teachers that use this method always eventually
invite the seeker to go within but only after the obstacles which block seeing
with clarity - namely, obstacles such as concepts and beliefs - have been
removed.]
6. After realization comes via an understanding of the pointers offered via the
Direct Path Method, the natural freedom of one’s true nature prevails for the
remainder of the manifestation (hence, the connection with the Nisarga Yoga, or
natural yoga, approach).
7. The Direct Path Method is not goal-oriented or prescriptive (as is
Neo-Vedanta, for example) and attempts to simply point out the way things are
(or the way THINGS ARE NOT but are thought to be).
8. Often using present experiences as data or examples, the Direct Path Method
deconstructs the existing body of presumptions, the belief systems, and the
psychological structures—all of which make persons feel separate, vulnerable,
and cut off from reality.
9. When the illogical, unreasonable, and irrational nature of psychological
structures are held up to the light of awareness for a seeker that is capable
of being logical and reasonable and rational, the psychological structures
peacefully dissolve.
10. An awakening happens that is marked by sweetness, by an immediacy, and by a
gapless clarity which is awareness itself. And quite often, laughter
accompanies the peripetia - that seeing of the truth that others have seen but that
the seeker only now sees.
11. Rather than practicing disciplines and adhering to esoteric paths and
preachings, this method attempts instead to deconstruct persons’ everyday view
of “the world” and “themselves” in order to guide protégés to an understanding
of what they are not.
This method does not try to “give” seekers anything since Direct Path teachers
know that, ultimately, there is no seeker and that there is no “one” to “gain”
and that there is nothing to be gained; conversely, the capable users of the Direct
Path Method know that too much has been given to seekers already (namely, all
of the false dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs which now block seekers
from seeing reality and from realizing truth.)
Several
distinct differences in the Direct Path Method of teaching non-duality as
opposed to the other three methods have been shown. During "floyd's"
years of seeking, truth was sought during various periods by use of the other
three methods (along with a host of religions and philosophies and ideologies
and yogas and cult-like spiritual programs) but realization did not happen.
[Note: Additionally, realization did not come even after multiple readings of
the book "I AM THAT." During the early days of Maharaj’s teaching
when those dialogues were recorded, he was moving toward use of the Direct Path
Method but it can be seen that he was also blending in some use of the Traditional
Method and other non-Nisarga yogas. Later, he began using the Direct Path
Method more exclusively, occasionally tossing out pointers that had a
straight-forwardness that some might now liken, incorrectly, to the
“Neo-Advaita” Method;
therefore,
it was his later sharings—along with a clarifying vision that came to this
author one afternoon—that helped remove the final obstacles to Realization. Of
the early sharings and the content of the book "I AM THAT," Maharaj
would say in his later days: "That book and whatever was expounded at
that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently
today," adding that in his later days he was "emphasizing different
aspects."
Some of the other differences in the Direct Path Method and the other three
methods include these:
Contrary to the Traditional Method, the Direct Path Method advises seekers to
receive pointers from a guru / teacher, to take those into consideration, and
then to find truth via the inner guru (as opposed to studying any texts considered
“holy”).
Contrary to the Neo-Vedanta Method (which offers flowery pointers that have the
effect of encouraging followers to adopt more concepts and pseudo-identities)
the Direct Path invites seekers to forfeit concepts and identities. One method
blows smoke; the other blows away the smoke.
Contrary to the Neo-Advaita Method that says, “Why don’t you just get it?
Understand it’s all illusion. Now you can go,” the Direct Path Method offers other pointers and guides seekers through the steps that most require in
order for realization to happen.
Why? Direct Path agrees with the Neo-Advaitins that (a) yes, it’s all
illusion and that (b) once realized, there is no do-er and thus nothing more to
do; however, the Direct Path understands the high levels of programming
and conditioning and domestication and acculturation to which most persons have
been subjected.
The Direct Path understands how such high levels of
distortion remove the ability of persons to see clearly and that merely
inviting persons to see clearly does not result in their seeing clearly. Such a
suggestion would be tantamount to your ophthalmologist saying, "You won't
need this prescription and new glasses if you'll just starting seeing clearly
rather than seeing things all out-of-focus."
Direct Path users are occasionally trespassers - though invited trespassers
- into their protégés’ pain. In such cases, some using one method might quote
scriptures; those using another method might offer lofty or inspirational
platitudes; teachers of a third method might suggest minimizing or ignoring the
whole business; but the effective Direct Path user will understand the
psychological structures that result from trauma and warped programming which
can cause pain. That teacher can uncover the true source of that pain so that
the source can dissolve. Then, the dissolution of the pain can follow.
The adept, using the Direct Path Method, is able to guide protégés through the
deconstruction process that eliminates the “mind” which houses belief in lies
and illusions and concepts and personas and that is the seat of mental and
emotional pain. Eventually, it is possible that the effects of the
psychological structures that result in personality disorders (and which also
generate turmoil and pain) can be eliminated via the Direct Path Method to full
realization. For some – if not for many - of course, professional treatment is
required.
Finally, Maharaj would eventually advise visitors to forget the concepts they
value and quote only because they were written in a so-called “holy book” and
to find, instead, what they originally tapped to within but that is “hidden”
from consciousness by the miasma of ideas and beliefs and concepts and other
lies that are blocking their realization of truth.
Tomorrow: “The Basic Rationale for Offering the Nisarga Yoga in Addition to the Non-Duality Pointers”
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.
