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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How Dualistic Thinking Reinforces Ignorance, Justifies Inaction, and Prevents the Understanding of Causation
[Continued from yesterday]
Magical thinking is dualistic. Unnatural thinking is dualistic. Supernatural thinking is dualisitci. In fact, all thinking is dualsitic.
Since all dualities are false, then all thinking is false, all that is believed to be magical is false, all that is unnatural is false, and all that is deemed to be supernatural is false.
So, to continued with another example of magical thinking.
Magical thinking example 2:
Earlier, an athlete who broke his leg during a basketball game exhibited magical thinking in a press conference when he declared that “prayer helped me.”
Of course, assumptions and claims about religious and spiritual “benefits”
are based in bias and the drawing of nonsensical conclusions. That player's
claim could only be proved if an experiment had been conducted that tested how
long it took the leg to heal with prayer vs. how long it took the leg to heal
without prayer.
For that to be known, the leg would have to be allowed to heal in combination
with prayer. Then, the leg would have to be re-broken - in the exact same
manner and degree as the original break - and then allowed to heal without any
use of prayer.
Then one could prove if “prayer” helped or not, and that proof
would be based in scientific fact rather than in nonsensical,
talking-in-one's-sleep BS.
With the results of that experiment available, then the athlete could present
facts to the public rather than ego-state-inspired talk that has no basis in
fact. As it is, he does not know if prayer helped or not, but he did accomplish
what his ego-states and egotism wanted to accomplish:
he reinforced his public
image as “The One With Faith,” “The Good Christian,” “The Super Religious One”
and / or “The Spiritual Giant.”
To be invited to “forget spirituality” and to “do your normal duties” and to
“just give up spirituality” is really an invitation to wake up; to stop talking
in your sleep; to spot nonsense when you hear it (especially if you're hearing
it from your own mouth);
to transcend the personality trance that all are
lulled into via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing
and indoctrination; to “get Real”; and to also “get real.”
Finally, it can be understood why Maharaj was the least visited of all of the
gurus in India during his pointer-sharing days: in the end, he reinforced no religious or
spiritual ego-states, he gave visitors nothing, and he, instead, took away
everything (that is, everything dreamed up, imagined, believed in, assumed as
an identity, etc.)
Same here.
That approach will get you some low traffic, but high traffic was not being
sought there and is not being sought here. On the other hand, the few, truly
earnest seekers were welcomed into that loft back then and are welcomed into
this electronic loft now.
So, to review: it
can be seen, therefore, that the most common criticism of Maharaj's talks dealt
with
A. what were deemed to be his “inconsistencies”
while other criticisms dealt with
B. first, a shift away from a religious message to a spiritual message
and then
C. later, a shift away from a spiritual message to a non-spiritual,
all-Nisargan message where his teaching method took a “backseat” to his
yoga.
As for “A,” it has been shown that his message early on was not marked by
inconsistencies but by level-appropriate pointers.
As for “B,” it is a fact that early on, he did use bhajans and certain
religion-based pointers to attract the locals in Bombay in order to blend in
certain non-dual pointers as well.
It is also true that as more and more
Westerners came who had no attachment to the Hindu dogma that his talks did take
on more of an “Eastern spirituality-based” focus.
As for “C,” there was an evolution which moved his talks through the stages
mentioned earlier, moving from guru-bhakti in the earliest phase; then to a
period where the focus was on bhakti and jnana; then to what might be
classified as a blending of the jnana yoga and nisarga yoga; and then finally
to a “pure nisargan” message.
At that point, the invitation of the message became quite simple:
a. abandon the magical thinking that manifests as a result of programming and
conditioning (including religious and spiritual based magical thinking) and
just abide naturally;
b. abandon the unNATURAL style of living that results from religious training
and programming and conditioning;
c. abandon the supposedly “superNATURAL” style of living that results from
spiritual training and programming and conditioning;
and then
d. abide in the same nisargan (NATURAL) fashion that every living thing on the
planet abides in . . . with the exception of programmed, conditioned,
acculturated, domesticated, brainwashed, and indoctrinated humans.
He knew full well that the chaos and insanity and ignorance of the planet was
not the result of a god or gods or goddesses that love humans so much that He /
She / They would give humans “free will,” allowing them to do whatever they
might be driven to do - in a totally unchecked fashion - and then tolerating
the resultant insanity and ignorance and fighting and wars and chaos and pain
and misery and suffering.
Maharaj was sane enough and clear-seeing enough to know that there is no
all-knowing god who would have experimented with free will and allowed the mess
that has resulted from messed-up “minds” to happen.
[George Carlin adumbrated Maharaj's take when talking about the the actually results of a so-called God:
“Something is wrong here. War, disease, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades.
“Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If that is the best that God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong in the resume of of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude.”
Maharaj was also sane enough to know that (a) if there were a god who had conducted
such an experiment which subsequently resulted in such a mess that (b) any
all-powerful, caring god would have made use of that power to repair the damage
caused by such warped “minds” and would have then modified the plan for the
future management of the planet and the universe.
Thus, Maharaj advised persons to stop paying so much attention to the earlier,
spirituality-based talks in I AM THAT and to pay attention to what he was
emphasizing in his later talks. Again:
During his last years, he said of the book I AM THAT: “That book and whatever was
expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking
differently today” and am “emphasizing different aspects.”
As a result, his emphasis evolved (or shifted its focus away from spiritual
“aspects”) and resulted in the shift mentioned earlier, a shift away from a
spiritual message to a non-spiritual, all-Nisargan message where his teaching
method took a “backseat” to his yoga.
The fact
that he was “speaking differently” at the end and was “emphasizing different
aspects” led to his non-spiritual pointers, included the following:
“Forget spirituality.”
Follow your “normal (natural) inclinations” rather than the subconscious
agendas of religious and spiritual personas that were assigned early on or that
had been assumed later on.
Just “do your normal duties.”
“Just give up spirituality.”
Maharaj knew - as did the author of the book discussed in the first part of
this series - that the main problem of humanity centers in the mind, along with
all of the subsequent problems of the planet as well.
He also knew that religion and spirituality could not address the problems
generated by the “mind” and that the proper approach is to be rid of the mind
entirely and to reach a no-beliefs, no-concepts, and, therefore, no-mind
state.
A cancer cannot be “healed” - it must be removed. Same with “the mind,” which
is nothing more than a storehouse for false beliefs, illusions, delusions,
misperceptions, and false conceptualizations.
To remove the mind, merely purge
that part of the brain of its content. That is, purge all belief in - and
attachment to - the false and insane content stored therein.
Maharaj knew that if there were an all-powerful god that stood by while “minds”
had been messed up, resulting in messing up the existence of humans all around
the globe, that an all-powerful, all-knowing god would see the mess and repair
the minds of persons.
Then he would come up with an effective plan to stop the
messing up of minds and thereby stop messing up the relative existence of
humans all across the face of the planet.
The fact that the mess continues is proof that either
1. there is no all-powerful, all-knowing god that would allow such a mess to
continue;
or
2. if there is a god, that god is not all-powerful and therefore cannot clean
up the mess (and thus need not be sought out at all);
or
3. if there is a god that is all-powerful but will not clean up the mess, then
that god evidently does not care about the mess and the subsequent misery and
the pain and the suffering (and therefore need not be sought out at all);
or
4. if there is an all-powerful, all-knowing god that could clean up the mess
but does not, then no one should be impressed with that entity at all, much
less worship such an inefficient or non-caring entity.
All of that should be evidence enough to know that there is no god (or gods and
goddesses) and to know that there is no Creator because nothing have ever been
created or destroyed. That understanding allowed Maharaj to share this
pointer:
“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then,
in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a god.
Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good
to happen to you.”
All things except humans abide naturally, not unnaturally (a.k.a.,
“religiously”) and not supernaturally (a.k.a., “spiritually”). They do not need
an invented God.
All things except humans “work” during the day to feed themselves. They do nothing
that is self-destructive. They are peaceful and at peace as long as they are
not interfered with by humans.
They - and every other living thing besides humans - are the naturally-abiding
models for persons who are, short of full realization, abiding most unnaturally
and who are making a job of mere living by trying to abide supernaturally /
spiritually / magically.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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.
