OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT

 

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.)

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OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT

DEFINING FREEDOM – MAHARAJ

Earlier we saw how Maharaj defined freedom: “Freedom means letting go. People just do not care to let go of everything.”

Others involved in sharing the non-dual message have also defined freedom as they see it:

DEFINING FREEDOM LOUISE STERLING

Louise lives in Cape Town, S.A. and asked some relevant questions regarding the search for freedom:

“Freedom is impersonal – how can you expect to find it when you are so attached to your personhood?”

“Freedom is formless – how can you expect to find it when you are committed to your form?”

“Freedom is limitless – how can you expect to find it if you are defined by what is particular and limited?”

“Freedom is without attributes – how can you expect to find it when you define yourself according to your characteristics?”

DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES

And what are some of the conventional definitions of freedom that are offered in a variety of dictionaries? Here are a few:

a. the power to act or speak or think without externally-imposed restraints;

b. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.;

c. the power to determine action without restraint;

d. exemption from the presence of anything specified - for example, freedom from fear;

e. ease or facility of movement or action; and,

f. in philosophy, the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination.

OBSTACLES TO FINDING FREEDOM: LIVING UNDER THE AUSPICES OF PERSONALITY

Yet consider: when personality determines thoughts, words and deeds - which personality does - then none of the above forms of freedom can manifest. 

If one is driven by the agenda of a personality, then there is no power to act or speak or think without the externally-imposed restraints of personality.

The person cannot be exempt from the external control and interference and regulation of one or more agenda-driven personas.

Living under the auspices of personality, there can be no ability to determine action without restraint.

Living under the auspices of personality, there is no exemption from the presence of such personality-specified aspects such as desire and fear.

Living under the auspices of personality (which determines all thoughts and all words and all actions) there can be no ease or facility of movement or action.

Living under the auspices of personality, there can be no power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without.

As long as all is self-determined (determined by the false self) then there can be no other determining factors (such as, determined by the natural, spontaneous aspects of the unblocked, pure consciousness).

Realization is, among other things, about freedom from ignorance and irrationality and insanity . . . about being restored to sanity. 

What could be more ignorant and irrational and insane that believing that one is free when one is bound up in personality, imprisoned by delusions, trapped in the cage of one's “mind,” and living under the auspices of egotism-driven ego-states?

OBSTACLES TO FINDING FREEDOM: EARLY EXPOSURE TO PROGRAMMING, CONDITIONING, ACCULTURATION, DOMESTICATION, BRAINWASHING AND INDOCTRINATION

Again, Maharaj said, “ . . . You are afraid of freedom!” Being made to be afraid of freedom and to preferring dependency and co-dependency begins early on during childhood.

From very early on, all persons become robbed and kidnapped. 

First, they are robbed by their parents and their cultures of the simple existence that any body-cum-consciousness would and should otherwise enjoy, leaving to all persons an inheritance that no sane person would want (or accept), namely, a very complex, complicated, and restricted relative existence.

Next, they are kidnapped, and their case is not unlike that which appears in so many mystery novels: characters are kidnapped, bags are thrown over their heads so they can no longer see, they are knocked unconscious, and when they awake to a tiny degree, they find they are locked away in one of a variety of rooms or cells.

Sometimes in mystery novels or movies, a hero comes along to rescue them, but in most instances of an actual kidnapping, there is no rescue . . . there is no escape. 

The realized guide is no hero or rescuer but does deal with those who have been robbed and kidnapped and who have been blinded and cannot see;

with those who have been rendered unconsciousness even though they continue to walk about and talk; and with those who are locked away in a state of entrapment. Imprisoned among the ranks of the non-realized, most will never escape.

Thus, the non-realized masses have been blinded and cannot see, and they are walking about and talking though unconscious; however, there is one difference from the kidnapped people in mystery novels: 

the non-realized are totally unaware that they have been locked away . . . totally unaware that they are in a state of entrapment . . . totally unaware that they are not free.

Might a nagging sense of their condition manifest? On some occasions, but having no means by which the lies and restrictions of their culture can be seen and discarded in order for truth and freedom to come, they shake off the sensation and continue with their boring and confining existence.

Indeed, the real mystery in all cases among the non-realized becomes: “I don't even know who I am anymore!” and “Who Am I?” and “What happens when we die?” and “I sense I am something more than this body, but what?” or “This relationship makes me feel like I am in jail”

or

“My addiction has left me in bondage, hooked on work or spiritual work or control or power or money or shopping or drugs or alcohol or food or nicotine or a plethora of false identities or, yes, even hooked on my addiction to chaos.”

Yet most will never wake up enough to even ask those questions or to make those statements.

[George Carlin said, “It’s called ‘the American Dream’ because you have to be asleep to believe it.” 

Note: A two-part HBO documentary on Carlin’s fifty years in comedy entitled George Carlin’s American Dream will begin on May 20th. Its content will reveal among other things how - as happened with Maharaj - his understanding and his message evolved as he moved more and more toward the sharing of non-dual pointers while exposing all of the lies and distortions of hypocritical cultures and their hypocritical religious, political, and big business leaders. Warnings about “language” will be attached.]

Most persons eventually become so “comfortable” with their discomfort that they normalize it and minimize it and become afraid of freedom: “Better to be in prison with company than to be free but alone,” they think unconsciously (without even knowing what they are actually thinking).

That is the typical condition of the relative existence for most persons, so the discussion will continue only for the few who might come and who might be willing to at least consider the possibly . . .

. . . that they were robbed early on,

. . . that they have been kidnapped,

. . . that they were hoodwinked,

. . . that they have been unconscious for most of their existence, and

. . . that they are not free at all.

There can be no freedom when the answers to the most basic questions remain a mystery and cannot be answered. When the answers are not known, then the false ideas in one's culture will be accepted as truth; then, a limited, confined, and confining existence becomes the only possibility for the robbed, kidnapped, hoodwinked, unconscious, imprisoned masses.

Maharaj said that false ideas about the ‘I am’ lead to bondage; freedom from belief in false ideas leads to freedom and happiness.

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

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