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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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.
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OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF BEING TOTALLY INDEPENDENT
“ . . . You are afraid of freedom!”
---Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Consider:
Questioner: “I find that the various aspects of myself are at war between
themselves and there is no peace in me. Where are freedom and courage, wisdom
and compassion? My actions merely increase the chasm in which I exist.”
Maharaj: “It is all so, because you take yourself to be somebody, or
something.”
Those in the fighting-and-war-prone cultures that have historically been among
the warrior societies (EX.: Germany, the U.K., the U.S.) and those that are
newcomers to the ranks of the fighting cultures have an especial challenge,
having been programmed and conditioned so that they now normalize conflict.
Yet even persons in those societies have available a process that can move them
beyond the effects of such programming so that they can be free and independent
and then be truly at peace. The questions are, “Are you really interested in
total peace?” and “Are you really interested in total freedom?”
DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES (cont.)
l. “Freedom” is the absence of ceremony and the ability to live naturally.
The questions for consideration today are,
A.”Are you interested enough in freedom, in total freedom, to abandon all of
the myth-based and ignorance-based ceremonies in your culture that preempt realization?”
and
B. “Have you ever considered that ceremonies are one of the key tools that
cultures use for programming and conditioning persons and for reinforcing their
belief in superstitions, myths, and lies, thereby blocking any opportunity to
see clearly and to see truth?”
For millions of years, humans lived naturally, without ceremony. A few thousand
years ago, language allowed concepts to arise and to be taught and allowed for
ceremonies to begin.
Once ceremonies began, persons began living unnaturally
and began trying to live supernaturally (that is, religiously or spiritually)
in an effort to gain some things and to avoid some things.
Humans for millennia had migrated, following the food (that is, following the
migrating herds and hunting animals for food) or visiting places on a seasonal
basis (to search for certain edible plants that were ripe and ready to eat at
different times of the year in different locations).
Once some humans stopped migrating because they had developed some basic
agricultural skills, one of the earliest things they wanted was rain for crops,
and they dreamed up a ceremony that they thought would guarantee that their
crops would receive the needed water. That ceremony led to the ceremonies that
dominate all of the religions of Abraham to this day.
While one advantage of agriculture was that people were no longer forced into
constant travel, one disadvantage was that they became slaves to varying
weather patterns. Simultaneously with language development came the tool that
would be used to spread ignorance and insanity on a global basis as persons
became slaves to ceremony.
THE BASIS OF SOME OF THE MOST PREVALENT CEREMONIES THAT DRIVE UNNATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL LIVING
The concept of gods in other worlds who control every aspect of life on this
planet was dreamed up to explain what was not understood at the time by
ignorant people, so self-appointed priests began programming people to believe,
dualistically, that everything “good” or everything “bad” that happened on this
planet was determined by whether the other-world gods were pleased or
displeased by human conduct.
Ceremonies to keep the gods happy in order to gain reward began to flourish,
and peace and contentment or lack thereof became tied directly to persons'
ceremonies and their fictional gods. The imaginary gods that were dreamed up
included first a creator-god, a sustainer-god, and a god of punishment and
destruction.
Other gods were added into subcategories of those three: a god of rain, a god
of death, a god of the sun, a god of the moon, a god of war, a god of love, a
god of the underworld, a god of growth, a god of agriculture, a god of wealth,
a god of fertility, ad infinitum.
[NOTE: The groundwork was laid for Abraham eventually to introduce “The Single
God Theory,” but the ignorant masses merely rolled all of their gods into one
and came up with the schizophrenic god that is worshipped today by billions.
Why schizo? Because “He” will create and will sustain, but He will, if
provoked to anger, also destroy (though supposedly loving unconditionally . . .
but not really):
“I created you. You are my child. I will care for you. I love you
unconditionally, but I am also willing to cast you into an eternal flame and
make you suffer physical pain and mental-emotional misery forever. But again, I
do love you unconditionally.”
[As a six-year-old hearing that contradictory
nonsense, it was exclaimed: “Say what?!” A few instances of corporal punishment
later, questioning ended and “unquestioning faith” began.]
In the non-duality based fictional novel The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, it
is shown how the blending of multiple gods into one god has resulted in the
Christian prayer that can be heard three times a day at mealtime, such as this
breakfast prayer that starts most days among those affiliated with that faith:
“Dear God from whom all power and life and blessings come, we thank You for
watching over us during the night. As our troops prepare for battle overseas,
please give them strength and victory over the evil forces. We pray to you in
your son’s name, God, to protect our boys and women and give them the strength
needed. We ask Your blessing on my grandson and his wife, that they might
become pregnant if it is in Your will. Now bless this food that You have given
to us for the nourishment of our bodies. Amen.”
That morning ceremony has people talking in their sleep to ancient, pagan gods.
Count the number they are speaking to: there is a creator-god, the empowering
god, the blessing god, the father god of a savior son, the god of war, the god
of fertility, and the god of agriculture.
So without having the slightest clue that they are praying to the multiple gods
of the ancient pagan religions, two billion people speak the words they are
programmed and conditioned to speak, trapped in their dreams and not free at
all because of their ceremonies (including the ceremony of talking to multiple,
imaginary gods before one can even eat a meal).
Thus, it can be seen how persons become trapped in their delusions because of
their ceremonies which, practiced daily, preempt almost all opportunity for realization
to happen because of the constant “reinforcement by ceremony” of the lies that
they believe throughout their cultures. Again, “freedom” is the absence of
ceremony and the ability to live naturally.
One of the earliest ceremonies was the ceremony to the god of rain, and
that was the basis of the first religious ceremony which is described as
follows in the ebook, Spiritual Sobriety:
THE WORLD’S FIRST RELIGIOUS CEREMONY / SERVICE
The message from the first Medicine Man-Priest was: “All in the community must
meet to learn about god / the gods.” Once gathered, he told them, “There is a
god of rain who lives in another world. He told me that I am his chosen
representative on earth. He also said he is not allowing it to rain because he
is angry.” (Now, what appeases an angry male? Sex.) So the priest continued:
“The rain god wants a sacrifice - a virgin - and he told me that the one who is
willing to die for him will be given a reward in his world. As the rain god’s
representative on earth, I will have the virgin for him, sacrifice her to him,
and then we’ll have an activity that allows us to commune with that god.
“We’ll cut out her beating heart, pass it around, and share in eating the body
and blood; that way, we can all commune with god. Then, by sacrificing and
communing, we will be blessed and get what we want from god.”
Thus, a self-appointed “Medicine Man” - claiming without challenge that he was
hearing voices from another world - was about to pass on a message of hope to a
naïve, superstitious, fear-based people who were in dread of starving. From
that single message and that single act of sacrificing a virgin, that “priest”
set forth the sixteen basic tenets by which all future religions would operate.
(The tenets are discussed in detail in that book but will be listed later on this site.)
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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."
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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.”
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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.
