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.)
4. Some prefer paperback books even if they have to wait a day or so to receive it and have to pay more for a printed book and its shipment. Now, 10 paperback books by Henderson are in print and available in two anthologies through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and over 40,000+ booksellers around the globe including in the Americas, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and South Korea. See the end of this post in red text for details.
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Grasping a Clearer Understanding of Non-Dual Terms
KARMA
Frequent visitors to this site throughout the seventeen years during which postings have been shared here are well-aware that Maharaj moved through three stages during the decades when his understanding of the Ultimate Sickness evolved and his version of the Ultimate Medicine necessarily changed as well.
Of course his take on the key elements of the non-dual message and understanding also changed.
His message evolved through three stages:
Stage 1: He provided a blended message, offering a combination of Hinduism and non-duality as a form of the Ultimate Medicine;
Stage 2: next, he provided a blended message, offering a combination of spirituality and non-duality as a form of the Ultimate Medicine;
Stage 3: finally he provided a blended message, offering a combination of psychology and non-duality as a form of the Ultimate Medicine.
Clearly, his take on karma would change as his perception of the issues which resulted in the key symptoms of the Sickness, those symptoms being "learned ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."
In Stage 1, of course he answered questions raised about karma, his main audience at that time being made up of Hindus;
in Stage 2, he answered fewer questions raised about karma;
after shifting to Stage 3 and his focusing on the fiction-filled mind and how it was at the heart of the Ultimate Sickness, he refuted the concept of karma.
Even before entering the third stage, he said, “Karma is only a store of unspent energies, of unfulfilled desires, and fears not understood. The store is being constantly replenished by new desires and fears. It need not be so forever. Understand the root cause of your fears and desires and your 'karma' will dissolve like a dream.”
Another questioner asked: “We were told about karma and reincarnation, evolution and Yoga, masters and disciples. What are we to do with all this knowledge?
Maharaj answered: "Leave it all behind you. Forget it. Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs.”
David Godman, a Brit, has written over sixteen books on the life, teachings and disciples of Ramana Maharshi. He would eventually spend time in Maharaj’s loft and has shared some insights into Maharaj beyond the usual information available, karma included. He wrote:
“Maharaj to some extent determined the sort of people who were likely to come and stay by setting the agenda on what he was willing to talk about and what he wasn’t. He wasn’t interested in what he called ‘kindergarten lessons.'
“That meant [during Stage 2] that he generally refused to talk about many of the tenets of traditional Hinduism: ritual worship, karma and reincarnation, common practices such as japa, things like that. A large proportion of the foreigners who were there had come because they had read I AM THAT.
“They wanted to talk about liberation, not traditional Hindu practices and traditions, and Maharaj was happy to oblige them. The people who wanted to talk about other things soon left to find somewhere more suitable for their inclinations and interests.
“Some, though, came with traditional ideas and beliefs and fell under the spell of Maharaj and his radical teachings, but I think these people were in the minority.
“I remember Mullarpathan [a translator] telling us one day, ‘I was a traditional Ram bhakta when I first arrived here [in Maharaj’s loft]. I thought that if I could have a vision of Ram, I would be sure to join him in Vaikunta [Ram’s heavenly realm] when I died.
“The first day I came, Maharaj told me that Vaikunta didn’t exist. I was very shocked to hear a Guru speak like this, but I felt attracted to him and I stayed on. Within a short period of time I dropped all my ideas about the gods and their heavens'.”
In dismissing the concepts of both karma and reincarnation, Maharaj told one seeker that you were never born, then asked: “So how could you be reborn?”
Moreover, without any birth and without any reincarnation, how could karma play any role? It cannot. It does not.
Thus also should end any and all beliefs about some “Cosmic Accountant in the Sky,” maintaining a two-column, karmic, dualistic, “positive actions vs. negative actions” balance sheet of credits and deficits on every human who ever lived.
To the contrary, Maharaj said: “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world - everything - is disproved.” And that includes the concept of karma.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");
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“Liberation (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)”
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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.