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."
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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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CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS:
“Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?
“AFTER THE INFORMATION GIVEN TO YOU BY THE MOTHER, THAT YOU ARE A BOY OR GIRL, ALL YOUR FURTHER ACQUISITIONS ARE BY HEARSAY”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Earlier, an example was provided of how varied and distorted persona-driven perspectives can be. It was noted how very different the reactions in the U.S. have been to
(A) Two “good” Christians who, by withholding a simple dosage of antibiotics, caused the deaths of two of their children
as opposed to
(B) two “evil”
Muslims who killed a child and two adults (and, yes, wounded many
others).
Consider the bizarre processes involved to set the stage for either happening;
consider how many insane links in a chain of causation were required in both
cases; and consider how persona-assumption drove the processes that led to “A”
and “B” happening.
If a parent tells a child, “You are a boy” or “You are a girl,” that will not
be questioned by the child; furthermore, once that is accepted, then also
accepted will be the parents' and the culture's beliefs about how a boy should
act or how a girl should act.
Also accepted is the parents' and culture's beliefs about how a “good” boy will
act or how a “good” girl will act.
Additionally, if a parent tells a child, “You are a Christian,” that will not
be questioned; furthermore, once that is accepted, then also accepted is the
parents' and the culture's beliefs about how a “good” Christian should
act.
If a parent tells a child, “You are a Muslim,” that will not be questioned;
furthermore, once that is accepted, then also accepted is the parents' and the
culture's beliefs about how a “good” Muslim should act.
In other words, once the “further acquisitions” of false identities are
assigned or adopted - even though those identities are all based in “hearsay” -
those personalities (with their hidden agendas and their fears and their
desires) will drive all thoughts, which will drive all words, which will eventually
determine all actions.
After programming, domestication, acculturation, conditioning, brainwashing,
and indoctrination have generated false body-mind-personality
identification(s), then whatever happens with any person after that will be a
result of being on “auto-pilot.” Why? Because any and all ability to choose
will have been relegated to the false identities.
That is why non-dualists use the analogy of persons “sleepwalking” through the
relative existence: everything with sleepwalkers happens mechanically,
involuntarily, and unconsciously, all driven by the agendas of personas that
were assigned during the programming, domestication, acculturation,
conditioning, brainwashing, and indoctrination stages.
Some persons nowadays talk about someone having been “radicalized” by someone
else, but the fact is that everything about the programming, domestication,
acculturation, conditioning, brainwashing, and indoctrination processes is
radical. Is it not “radical” to believe any of the following?:
“Kill people if they belong to a different religion or sect.”
“A virgin had a baby and remained a virgin, and the baby was both the son of
God and the son of the woman (but was also God Himself and was a Holy Spirit as
well.)”
“God loves you unconditionally but He will cast you into fire if you break any
of His rules and will make you suffer the pain of being burned forever.”
“Of the billions of people on the planet, it is the 330,000,000 of us who
make up the greatest nation of all.”
“We will fight to the death to honor the Commandments set forth by another
religion while we ignore the two new Commandments presented by the one we call
'Our Lord,' but in spite of the fact that we praise the Commandments from that
other religion (including 'Thou shalt not kill') every now and then we have to
give lethal injections to some of our citizens and every now and then we have
to bomb and kill the citizens of other nations as well.”
Crazy. Nuts. Or as Maharaj put it, wracked and wrecked by “stupidity, verging
on insanity.”]
So, to look at the way that programming, domestication, acculturation,
conditioning, brainwashing, and indoctrination set the stage for insane acts
(acts which most ideologues and religious persons and which many spiritual
persons blame on “evil”) consider:
Just for the sake of discussion, suppose a parent tells a child, “You are a
bird.” If that is accepted, then it should be no surprise that the
unquestioning child (driven by blind faith in what he has been told) will act
like a bird on occasion.
So in that imaginary scenario, what if the child is out and about with a
younger friend and tells that friend, “You know, I am many things: I am a boy,
but I am also a bird.” The friend has heard the entire culture backing up that
story, so the friend replies: “Yeah, I heard that. That is so cool! I wish I
could fly.”
Then the child might say, “Well, I'm going outside of town to where the cliffs
are and I'm going to jump off and fly over the ocean for a while. Do you want
to ride along on my back?”
And suppose the young friend says, “You bet! That would be the greatest thing
ever.” So the young friend accepts as truth the older boy's beliefs about his
multiple identities and accompanies him to the open field that is next to the
cliffs.
Once
there, he jumps onto the back of the older boy, the boy who had unquestioningly
accepted the word of those who taught him to believe that he is “a bird” and to
believe that “a bird” truly defines who he is.
Then, events unfolded in this manner: the older boy, holding the younger on his
back, began running toward the edge of the cliff. The witnesses nearby did not
see what happened as the two sailed over the edge. They could not see the older
boy when he began flapping his arms, as if trying to fly.
They
could not see the two boys as they plunged out of sight beyond the edge of the
cliff, and they did not see the final splat as the boys landed on the coastal
rocks below.
Some of the witnesses just screamed, a few felt faint, and others were
immobilized by the shock and horror of what had just happened before their very
eyes; but those who ran to the edge of the cliff looked down to see two broken,
bloody bodies sprawled awkwardly across the boulders below.
In their later descriptions of the incident, as they recounted for the
authorities what they had seen, there were some slight but insignificant
variations in their narratives; one thing they all agreed on, however, was that
the older boy was the most evil person they had ever seen in their lives.
One said that he would never be able to erase from his mind the memory of what
he has seen, namely, that the most evil boy in the history of the entire state
had talked his younger friend into hopping on his back but - rather than taking
him for the enjoyable ride about the field that the younger lad has expected -
his evil friend instead began racing toward the edge of the cliff and dove
off.
“It was nothing short of cold-blooded murder,” one said. Another added, “Yes,
he just killed himself and his young friend as well ... in cold blood! I have
never seen anyone in my life who is that wicked and foul and immoral and
sinful.”
Because one witness had been making a video of the scenery around the cliffs
and ocean and had thus caught on film the incident (and the graphic, bloody
aftermath on the rocks below), the media began showing the event to the nation.
Over a
three-day period, they showed the 10-second recording over 10,000 times, so
soon the entire traumatized nation was in agreement: that older boy was the most
evil in the entire world.
You see, if one does not understand what is involved in chains of causation,
they will misunderstand everything that they see.
So, some considerations:
1. Regarding the boy (who accepted with unquestioning faith that he really was
exactly what his parents and culture told him he was), was that boy “evil”
because he took certain actions as a result of believing in a false identity
that his parents and culture had assigned to him? No.
He was
one of the billions every day who accept and believe everything that they are
told without question, though what they are told is not based in fact but is
based in (a) the ignorance of their programmers and in (b) faith and their
faith.
2. Having brought about relative “tragic consequences” while acting like a bird
because he was told that he was a bird, was that child actually driven by “evil,”
or was that child driven by the ignorance and insanity that was disseminated in
his home and throughout his culture?
3. Could it be said that every “further acquisition” - and in fact all false
identities that are assigned to persons or that are assumed by persons - are
all rooted in ignorance? Definitely.
4. Can it be said that all “broken relationships,” fighting, killing, murder,
wars, and all instances of relative chaos are almost always rooted in the
assignment of personas or in the assumption of personas? Yes.
5. Can it be said that there is no single greater source of persona-assignment
and persona-assumption than religion? Yes (right down to pronouncing that two
people “are now husband and wife.” Note that it is the belief in those two
false identities alone that account for over 50% of all murders annually in the
U.S.)
How simple the solution could be:
Maharaj
said, “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.” End of story. End
of chaos. End of what persons mistakenly call “the results of evil.”
Maharaj: “This problem of things, good and evil in themselves, does not exist
in my world”
and
“In your world the pleasant is good and the painful is evil.”
How to be free of the narcissism and entitlement and arrogance and insanity
that result from that mindset? Be free of the influence of the #1 source of all
distortion and ignorance and insane acts. Understand this instead:
Maharaj: “When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality
and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
The chances of persons being relieved of ignorance and being restored to
sanity? Slim. In an eBook below, there is a discussion about what the
non-duality teachings can and cannot do in that regard.
For some, professional treatment is indicated; for others, non-duality might lead the way. The problem? Once an ego-state is assumed, then egotism kicks in to support it, and egotism prevents ignorance from spotting ignorance and prevents insanity from spotting insanity. So it is.
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.
