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.
5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.
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.
7. You may click here to visit Floyd's bookstore which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, financial sanity, financial planning, and more.
How Dualistic Thinking Reinforces Ignorance, Justifies Inaction, and Prevents the Understanding of Causation
[Continued from yesterday]
To review:
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, ultimately, 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 was a surgeon of sorts, removing the cancers of body and mind and
personality; removing the cancers of programming and conditioning and
domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination; removing
the cancer of persona-generated fears and desires;
removing the cancer of ideas, notions, concepts, misperceptions,
conceptualizations, distortions, illusions, delusions (a.k.a., beliefs),
including societal / xenophobic beliefs, religious beliefs, and spiritual
beliefs; and removing all of the cancers that contribute to the Ultimate
Sickness.
Below is a description which was offered earlier after it was received from a
seeker named Michael who had visited the skilled surgeon in his loft.
It is
repeated here because it provides visitors to this site a first-hand
account of the realized physician at work, using his razor-sharp scalpel of
reason and logic as he attempted to excise from Michael the firmly-rooted
spiritual persona that was driving him throughout the relative existence.
Maharaj recognized that Michael’s spiritual giant persona was causing him to go
and do and zoom, preventing him from being able to relax and take it easy.
Maharaj also recognized that spiritual giantism was depriving Michael of the
ability to move beyond the third of seven steps on the path to full realization;
and Maharaj recognized that Michael’s spiritual workaholism was making a job of
merely living.
As you read Michael’s account of his visit to the loft, you may well feel that
you are looking over the master surgeon’s shoulder as he tries to remove all of
the contaminants and obstructions that were blocking a speck of consciousness
called Michael from taking advantage of Maharaj’s invitation to abandon all
that is unnatural (religious) and all that is supernatural (spiritual) and then
abide naturally and simply rest in the cool blue shade.
Here is some of what Michael shared:
The intensity of seeking caused me to take a leave of absence from law school
in 1976, in part to take a training course to become a teacher of meditation.
Plans were made, goodbyes were said to family and friends, tickets were bought,
yet when i arrived in France, i was told that the rules had changed and i
couldn’t participate in the teacher’s course.
Phone calls, pleading, praying, meditating, eating crepes from street vendors,
i finally got the word that i could participate, but because of a change of
schedule, i would have to wait for over a month.
My student budget being what it was, i decided to travel on the cheap through
Europe. By chance, i met a fellow who told me of Nisargadatta Maharaj and he
wanted to go visit him. One week later, we arrived in Bombay / Mumbai.
Having grown up in New York City, i thought i would be prepared me for what i
heard was the crowded nature of Bombay and the hustle bustle. Wrong.
Squalor,
people strewn all over the streets, smell of fires, cooking, and who knows what
else overwhelmed the senses. That week was a blur.
We found a hotel close by that we could afford (it was less than $5 a night in ‘76)
and planned to go see Maharaj. My friend knew someone who had been visiting
Maharaj, and they made sure it was OK. We knew to bring offerings of fruit and
flowers.
When we made our way through this very impoverished neighborhood and stood in
front of Maharaj’s place, then climbed up impossibly small steps to this loft,
i knew very clearly that this could not be a teacher of any value. Wrong
again.
He had pictures of Indian teachers and sages all over; i thought i recognized
one or two, but i was a babe in these spiritual woods at the time. At first, i
did not even know that Maharaj was Maharaj. He looked so, well, ordinary!
But his eyes gave him away! He stared at us and at one point fixed his eyes on
mine. I couldn’t breathe! He began (so i thought) shouting. Actually he was
asking my friend where we had come from, where we were staying, very mundane
questions.
Then he gave a talk, in his native language; i had no, and i mean NO, idea what
he was talking about, even when translated. At one point, he gestured toward us
and started talking very animatedly.
The translator said Maharaj was saying
that he did not want a lot of followers, that those who were attracted by
wealthy teachers deserved what they got.
i thought that was a bit harsh, since my teacher at the time was very big on
positive talk! i was impressed by the fact that, though my friend had not
offered that we were followers of a ‘big’ teacher, somehow Maharaj knew anyway.
He asked us if we had any questions, and i asked what was the quickest way to
stabilize the experience of pure consciousness experienced in meditation.
The paradigm i was taught was that if you meditated enough, the fleeting
experience of pure consciousness would be stabilized and there all the time.
Bliss and all good things would ensue as a result.
He asked me who was having the experience of pure consciousness. i told him,
quite innocently, i was (had no idea of Self-inquiry, direct path, any of
that.)
He told me i had wasted my time coming there, and as long as i thought i would
get something out of what i was doing, i would continue to travel far and wide
from teacher to teacher and never understand.
Again, no idea what he was
talking about AND he was yelling at me. Freaked out beyond words.
He asked me why i wanted to waste my time and his. [Gulp.] Told him i wanted to
be enlightened. Wish i could remember more of the torrent of words that he
responded with. Knew before it was translated that it wasn’t good.
Something
about before consciousness, something about no one who would benefit, something
about never even being born.
Between not ‘supposed’ to be there in the first place, getting singled out
while trying to remain incognito, having my nice little spiritual worldview
challenged, seeing a number of nodding heads and smiles as Maharaj was speaking
(again, i thought), i wanted to disappear.
And that is what happens when a seeker hears the consciousness speak when the
words are coming via a speck that is abiding as its Original Nature of Pure
Awareness: the seeker will just want to disappear.
Indeed, if the non-dual, Nisargan message is understood: you - all of the false
you’s . . . all of the not-You’s - will just want to fade away.
Then, all sense of self-ness and Self-ness can dissolve and fade away, along
with every persona ever adopted, including the ones assumed, dualistically, to
be 'the really good ones' such as The Super Religious One, The Spiritual Giant,
and The Super Seeker.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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)";
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“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”
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“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.
