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.
SEEKING: WHY, WHAT AND HOW?
To review for those that are still inclined seek:
1. Seek to abide as all life-forms on the planet abide except for humans: naturally, not unnaturally and not supernaturally.
2. Seek not to find all that you supposedly are; it is enough to find who / what you are not. (Maharaj)
3. Seek to understand how you were programmed, conditioned, domesticated, acculturated, indoctrinated, and brainwashed resulting in you and all humans at some point ending up with no ability to use logic and reason but instead accepting anything from any authority figure as truth without questioning and based on blind faith alone.
4. Relatedly, seek to comprehend how phony personality identities subconsciously determine and control your every thoughts, words, and deeds, thereby eliminating the ability to make conscious choices.
5. Seek to find the real source of the Ultimate Sickness and then seek the effective version of the Ultimate Medicine which can treat the Sickness.
So what are some of the other ways that the members of three groups of persons differ in their perspectives about the cause of the problems of humanity?
Consider, for example, the varying ways that the members of those three look at addiction and how it should be addressed:
While the masses often see how addictive thinking and addictive behavior can generate trauma, fewer understand that it is trauma which spawns addiction. With the Addictive Personality Disorder often appearing alongside of - and aggravating - the Ultimate Sickness, what are the various “answers” to the problem that are offered?
The TOO FEW RELIGIOUS PEOPLE argument: “Pray for God to heal your addictive (fill-in-the-blank”) child / parent / spouse / boss etc.” or “Pray for God to guide you through recovery” or “All things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord” or “God will take care of you as you take the necessary steps to deal with the addict in your life,” etc.
NOTE: Here’s the historical background regarding the way that the Ultimate (Mental) Sickness spread . . . and continues to do so:
The ancient Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all set forth relatively-amazing advancements in the science of medicine, but in the Middle Ages, there was a major reversal in medical science and a major advancement of myths, superstitions, ignorance, and nonsense about illnesses and their causes and the proper methods of treatment.
The cause of that reversal?
The increased influence of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages (or “The Dark Ages” as the period was called because of the pervasive levels of ignorance that brought to halt all scientific advancement).
It was during that period - from the 500's to the 1500's and especially from the 1100's to 1500's - that the (still on-going) schism and discord between science and religion began as religious persons rather than scientific scholars began dominating and determining the direction that “the medical world” would take.
Any views different from the established Roman Catholic Church view - regarding anything and everything, so including beliefs about sickness and treatment - could lead to charges of heresy and to severe punishment or death which usually followed the charge;
therefore, when the Roman Catholic Church stated that illnesses were “punishments from God” and that “those who are ill have been made sick by God because they are sinners,” few argued.
When the church began teaching that witches were agents of the devil and that witches and warlocks could use their powers to cause seizures or boils upon the skin and all sorts of mental and emotional and physical illnesses, then they became fair game for punishment and killing as well.
Some religious doctors began claiming that God was causing some persons to be ill by giving them excessive amounts of blood. In that case, “prayer” and “becoming righteous” were deemed to be the first line of defense and treatment;
yet, in some cases the religious doctors agreed to assist those who were trying to “be better” and “be religious” and “be godly” by using bloodletting as a method inspired and provided by God to accelerate the treatment of diseases among people who were working to become “pleasing in the sight of God.”
If only a small amount of bleeding was needed, a leech or two or three would be used. When it was believed that a larger quantity of blood needed to be released, then what was thought to be “the appropriate vein in the area of the disease” was cut.
Another phenomenon evolved simultaneously, one which triggered a “religious vs. spiritual” debate which is still under way today as many brag that they are “not religious” but are what they believe is far different and far greater: they claim that they are “spiritual.”
As the church began to discuss illness and death and used their “carrot and stick / heaven and hell / reward and punishment” dualities to try to control the thoughts and words and actions of persons, it opened the door for some of those among the very small group of “the less gullible” to ask this:
“We see right before our very eyes that the body decays after death and that the only thing left is a pile of bones, so how can we enjoy a reward in heaven or feel any of the threatened physical pain and mental and emotional suffering in hell if our bodies do not last?”
The religious leaders had to put their minds into over-drive to come up with an answer. As always, they did:
The Religious Leaders: “Uh, yeah, well, you see, there is an, uh, a part that survives that you can’t see in a grave or coffin or tomb. That’s the part that is 'also you' but that is different from and separate from the part that decays.”
The Questioners: “Really?”
R.L.: “Uh, yeah.”
Q.: “So what is that part and exactly where inside me is it?”
R.L.: “Uh, well it can’t be seen and its location cannot be specified, but it’s there. Just take our word for that.”
Q.: “And what is 'the also me' called?”
R.L. “Its called 'your soul' or 'your spirit'.”
Q.: “Hummm.”
R.L.: “Tell you what. You want to doubt and question what we say? Then maybe you need to visit the tribunal at the Inquisition that is under way down the street. You think you really want to go that route?”
Q.: “No sir. A soul and spirit it is.”
Even after the Dark Ages, as scientifically-based medical understandings and advancements began to come forth once again during “the Age of Enlightenment,” misdiagnoses continued; and when the church’s influence was exerted, nonsense and ignorance continued:
1. “'Evil' people suffer more illness than 'good' people.”
2. “People consorting with Satan cause illnesses and suffer illnesses.”
3. “There is something within every human body which is invisible and gauzy and filmy and which lasts forever and which will be sent to either heaven or hell after death but which cannot be found by way of either surgery or autopsy.”
(Nor will it be seen after medical schools open human bodies and after medical students dissect millions of human bodies and study every single millimeter of the components of a human body under a microscope.)
4. “But it is still there, nevertheless, and that should be accepted as the truth based on blind faith alone. And if that 'thing' becomes ill, then that imperceptible, indiscernible and undetectable 'thing' will spread its contagion throughout the body.”
Voila. “The soul” or “the spirit” was dreamed up, and many began to talk about the need to be “spiritual” in order to cure illness.
Their “claim”:
“Whether an illness is a mental illness or an emotional illness or a physical illness, it all originates with a 'sick spirit' or a 'spiritual malady' or a 'dark soul' and can eventually disintegrate to the point that one can experience 'the dark night of the soul' when the soul’s condition reaches its maximum level of evilness and darkness.”
The belief that there is a special kind of sickness - a malady that can strike “a soul” or “a spirit” and that can subsequently cause mental and emotional and physical illnesses - took hold.
The SPIRITUAL MALADY argument: “Addicts have an untreated spiritual malady. If they will become spiritual, then being spiritual will, in turn, heal their bodies and minds. But the treatment is only good for twenty-four hours; then, more treatment is required.
“Exercising the spirit” - with “spiritual exercises” - will also help, but even being spiritual, or being 'super spiritual,' only works for one day at a time. One must do spiritual exercises daily in order to stay in conscious contact with God and to maintain one’s spiritual fitness in order to continue to be free of addictive thoughts and behaviors.”
The Spiritual Malady argument, while set forth by those who claim to be involved with something on a far higher and wiser plane than “religion,” can be seen via the historical facts above to be nothing more than a direct outcropping of religion.
Its roots are based totally in religion, and all so-called “spiritual teachings” were originally religious teachings that began in pagan religions which were then assimilated into the dogma of organized religions and which are still a part of the dogma of the planet’s largest organized religions to this day.
Tomorrow: The “Mental Illness View”
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";
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"The Final Understanding."
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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.
