Friday, July 08, 2022

CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: “Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks

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. 

CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: 

“Evil?” or Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity?

There's a saying that goes something like this: “If you accept the praise of the town, be prepared to accept the scorn of the village.” It points quite well at the state of the relative, namely, that all is in a state of flux and inconsistency and that all is marked by duality. 

It also points to the state of the planet today where the Borderline Personality Disorder runs rampant: “I love you today. I will hate you tomorrow. I hate you . . . wait, don't leave me.”

There is another comment which suggests that “you will always eventually have to pay the piper” and another that talks about “what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” 

Another suggests, “You might want a pit bull to protect you and yours, but do not be surprised when your infant is mistaken for dinner.” 

As long as there is manifested consciousness, there will be movements, shifts, impermanency in the relative. All things are coming together and coming apart, and those who believe in an over-simplified version of causation will believe the following: 

1. “I can intervene and cause effects to be different” 

and 

2. “I can control things and bring about different results that are more desirable” 

and 

3. “I can make my own personal world better.” 

What does all that mean in terms of the relative existence and in terms of false beliefs? 

A man came here and made the claim that his first wife had fooled him, that - from the way she had presented herself - he thought she was a “good and moral” woman. “But eventually,” he said, “she had an affair with another man and left me for him.” 

He went on to say that he was determined that, when he married again, it was going to be to “a truly upright and moral woman with high standards.” As a result of that goal, he decided that he would join a large church and only date women who were active in the church and who were nothing like the first wife whom he had “met in a bar.” 

Per his plan, he found a woman that certainly seemed to be a “good” and “moral” and “upright” woman with “high standards,” those words being the ones he used to describe her when he came to announce his plans to marry. 

The result: it took less than a year of marriage for her to check him out thoroughly and to begin using on him that moral yardstick of hers (which he has decided originally was one of the things that made her so wonderful). She began using it more and more frequently to measure his worth, and she used her high standards to evaluate him, and she found that he was falling short in many areas. 

First came some fairly pleasant instances that began with “We need to talk,” during which his shortcomings were discussed calmly, along with suggestions for change and improvement.

Eventually, those sessions were followed with sessions in which her directions became somewhat less pleasant in tone and far more straightforward while cataloguing his shortcomings, in noting the ways he was not meeting her “high moral standards”-based expectations, and listing the changes that better start taking place immediately.

In the end, much like the ironic case of the parents who had bought a pit bull for protection - only to have the pit bull become the only real source of danger - the irony was that the man's seeking and finding someone with higher moral standards than those of his first wife led to his finding exactly that, only to have those moral standards used to judge him and to find him lacking in all ways. 

When a couple of bombers were in the news, investigations showed that several new ego-state had been adopted.
 

Things were moving along swimmingly until one recast himself as “The One Who Is Good and Moral, The One Who in Truly Upright, The One With High Standards in a Nation Full of Evil and Immoral People With No Decency at All and with No Standards at All.” 

In a nation such as the U.S. where so many seek to be valued as a result of their religious principles and their strict adherence to their dogma and beliefs in order to receive “the praise of the town,” they are never ready to allow others to express and act on their “scorn for the village” that is based in their religious principles and their strict adherence to their dogma and beliefs. Why? Because their religion is not the “right” one or the “best one.” 

They do not want to admit that “If they accept the praise of the town, they must also be prepared to accept the scorn of the village.” Their egotism and arrogance that support their religious roles cannot accept that “what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” 

If you accept that the cause of “the ills of the world” is “evil” and that your beliefs alone are the ones that can remove that evil and that the beliefs of others contribute to evil, then the rules of the game have been set forth; therefore, there is no justification for criticizing “others” when they play by the very rules that you set forth. 

In the relative, all non-realized persons accept as truth that they and their beliefs are the ones that are “good” and “upright” and “moral.” In the relative, what is deemed to be “good” and “upright” and “moral” - and what is deemed to be “bad” and “indecent” and immoral” - all depend on perspective, and perspective is rooted in programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination. 

Persons have no right to despair the warped perspectives of “others” that are rooted in their programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination when their own warped perspectives are also rooted in programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication and brainwashing and indoctrination. 

Yet in the realm of ego-states and egotism, the only thing really acceptable to the non-realized is “another version of me”: 

“Enmesh with me.” “Mirror me.” Be like me.” The man who came here proclaimed that he was going to intervene and cause the effects in his second marriage to be different, and he thought he could control things and bring about different results that would be more desirable, and he thought that he was going to make his world a better place by finding someone with high standards. Yet he was shocked by the actual results of his plan. 

The same applies to the majority of the persons in this nation who were shocked that dogma could convey to two brothers a sense that they were really good and moral and upright and that “others” were evil and immoral and indecent. 

Yet what dogma-based conclusions were drawn about the brothers after the bombing?

They were “evil personified.”

“They are evil, but good will prevail.”

“The good people in this nation far outnumber the evil people in the world.” 

The tools of the ego, which ego-states use to defend and protect and sustain and enhance themselves, include denial and putting a spin on the facts. It is not unlike the man who went with his wife for marital counseling. Her complaint? He was “sexually promiscuous and unfaithful” and “has had at least four affairs with other women that I know of.”

His reply: “Those were NOT acts of promiscuity or unfaithfulness and they were not sexual affairs. In all four cases, I only had oral sex with them, never real sex.”

[Where do you go once you hear those words and see how warped that person truly is? If wise, out the door.]

When one nation bombs another and kills over 100,000 of its citizens, and when one-half of the people in the attacking nation still claim that the war was justified even though the premise for the war was proved to be false, how could any logical and sane and reasonable person suggest that an act of retaliation for that act, a retaliation that includes an attack on our “innocent civilians,” is horrible 

but 

claim at the same time that the attack against “the innocent civilians” of the nation bombed and invaded was justifiable, fine, and even - what history will show - a really good move? 

See? Denial. Spin. Ego-state-sustaining arrogance. And the same applied in the case of the man whose second marriage was going to be really good for the simple reason that he was going to marry a really good woman with the highest of religious principles. 

The marriage lasted just over a year before it was determine that he was actually, to use a term that was once aimed in this direction, “A New Age Agent of Satan.” 

Now all of the above deals with the relative, and in the relative, all is in flux; therefore, if one's desire is to be with someone who has shown that he or she is “ethical” and “idealistic,” then expect their close cousins - namely, “being judgmental” and “critical” and “dogmatic” - to be invited along for the ride as well. 

In that example, the “praise of the town” (that is, a woman praised for being so “good”) was accompanied by “the scorn of the village” (which came with judging and a knack for critiquing and a firm and unshakeable conviction that morals and ideals are not relative but are firmly-fixed absolutes.) 

In the end, the ego-state of “The Wife” and “The Good Religious Woman” self-promoted themselves. Those identities were upgraded to “The Super Wife” and “The Super Religious Woman,” and in the process of upgrading, there will always be the accompanying act of downgrading, so “The Husband” became “The Bad Husband” and “The Not-Religious-Enough Husband.” 

He, later: “You know, Floyd, I see now that those people in that church all have the opinion that they are better than everyone else because of their high standards, and when they decide that someone is worst than them, it's almost like they want to attack them and punish them, even destroy them.” 

F.: “You think?” 

“Additionally, isn’t that a result of their being “godly”? Isn’t that exactly the way their god purportedly behaves when humans displease him? Attack them, punish them, even destroy them”? 

In Boston, two brothers had the opinion that they were better than everyone else here because of their high standards, and when they decided that everyone here was worst than them, they wanted to attack them and punish them, even destroy them. 

The brothers had upgraded themselves to “The Ones Who Are Good and Moral and Truly Upright, The Ones With High Standards.” As a result, those “others” who were citizens of a nation where a different religion was dominant and who seemingly accepted their government's bombing of other nations had - in the “minds” of the brothers - formed “A Nation Full of Evil and Immoral People With No Decency at All and with No Standards at All.” 

Insanity is at play when persons hate persons who behave exactly as they do. Psychological projection can be a real bugger, yes? And projection is not a form of evil. It is a psychological phenomenon, defined as such:

“Projection is a psychological process by which someone denies some aspect of their own behavior or attitudes and assumes instead that everyone else is doing or thinking so instead. It is usually seen as the externalisation of a person's negative traits, placing blame on an outside force such as the environment, a government, a society, or other people.” 

The notion that “I am going to be protected from future hurt by getting a woman who is as tenacious as a bulldog when it comes to sticking to her high standards” actually blinded a fellow to the possibility that those standards might be applied to him and that he might end up being chewed up and spit out. 

So when the notion is that one's dogma in the only one that contains the right beliefs and is the only means for eliminating evil - while also being convinced that the beliefs of all of those “other people” are the source of evil in the world - why should it come as a surprise when the “high standards” assumed by “others” might be applied to them and that they might end up being chewed up and spit out? 

It is ignorance and stupidity and insanity - not “evil” - that allows persons to say: 

“The way we behave is okay, but it is not okay for you to behave that way.” 

“Our beliefs are right so, of course, it is okay when we act on them (even if that involves killing others), but it not okay when you act on your beliefs (especially if that involve killing us).” 

“Our religion and what we do in the name of our religion is sacrosanct and above the law, but your religion and what you do in the name of your religion is not sacrosanct and is not above the law.” 

“We are the good people, and you are the evil people.” 

“It is okay for us to be driven by our beliefs because they produce good, but it not okay for you to be driven by your beliefs because they produce evil.” 

The relevant facts: 

If you accept the praise of the town, be prepared to accept the scorn of the village 

and 

What is good for the goose is good for the gander

and

Be prepared to pay the piper if you dance, especially if you dance on “others.”

Meanwhile there is all of this duality-based nonsense: “You.” “Us.” “Versus.” “Good.” “Evil.” “Others.” “Them.” “Moral.” “Upright.” “Decent.” “Immoral.” “Indecent.” “Sinful.” “Virtuous.” 

Welcome to the products of dualistic beliefs. Welcome to the insanity and chaos of duality that always accompany those products. 

As a fellow named Yeshu’a (called “Jesus” nowadays) said after he was exposed to the non-duality teachings and began to share them: “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Not, “A dual-minded person is evil in all ways”? No. Unstable. Mentally and emotionally unstable. 

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

The NEWEST OFFER
 
Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.


If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.

 (If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
 

To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
Buy Now
 
 [NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the postsin this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]

In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.



PAPERBACK VERSIONS OF SOME OF HENDERSON'S NON-DUALITY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE.

If you prefer PAPERBACK copies

of some of Henderson’s non-duality books,

10 of his books are available in PRINT FORM
(collected in two anthologies).  


Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.
 


[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]


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."


Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Advanced Seekers' Series&
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)


from AMAZON by clicking here.

Also for NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES




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.”


Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Blissful Abidance Series 

from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
from Amazon by clicking here.


SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE


(1) 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. 

Or, 


(2) To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:


(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com


(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.


(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)


Send your information to:




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.] 

Here's

the direct link to the VIDEO VERSION 

of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 
18 MARCH 2018

or

You can click on the picture link which has now been added for video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.

If preferred, here's the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION. 

You may click
here 
to visit Floyd's bookstore.

Recent Posts and Archives

Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

Five Free eBooks

Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

I.
"GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

II.
"THE VISION"

Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

“My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

“Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

“Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

“‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

III.
"Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

IV.
Seeking

In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

V.
"THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

“Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page