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.
NEEDLESS WORK, COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE ACCEPTANCE and THE CURSE OF HABITS
Yesterday’s post ended with this:
So that is the take on the Direct Path from several of the non-duality guides credited above. Others aspects of the method will be offered tomorrow.
To continue:
This method does not try to “give” seekers anything since Direct Path guides know that, ultimately, there is no seeker and that there is no “one” to “gain” and that there is nothing to be gained;
conversely, the Direct Path guides know that too much has been given to seekers already (namely, all of the false dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs which now block seekers from seeing reality and from realizing truth.)
Several distinct differences in the Direct Path Method of teaching non-duality as opposed to the other three methods have been shown.
During “floyd's” years of seeking, truth was sought during various periods by use of the other three methods (along with a host of religions and philosophies and ideologies and yogas and cult-like spiritual programs) but realization did not happen.
Religious and / or spiritual
persons reported that “one must retreat into the soul” when the vicissitudes of
the relative existence leave one feeling torn apart, but what is a person to do
when even the so-called “soul” seems to have been torn asunder as well?
Over the years, visitors issues have been raised regarding: a pending divorce; sex
problems and in-law problems showing up now as marriage problems; problems at
work; problems in “self-help” groups; a spouse who just died; problems with a
child; what seems to be an inevitable bankruptcy;
a disabled parent; challenges
regarding single parenting; problems stemming from addiction; abuse of various
kinds; and suicidal thoughts, to name a few. So what is a person to do when
even the imaginary “soul” seems to have been torn asunder as well?
Sometimes, reporting to an emergency room or a professional therapist is the
immediate, recommended step. Beyond that, for those seeking the cheap answers
in groups or the magical answers in church, they may be required to continue
the search and to transition beyond the traditional religions and spiritual
programs and ideologies with all their contradictions.
And a few who continue as dedicated seekers might find a guide who can lead them along the “path” to full realization. Realization in the case of this speck of consciousness came (a) after a vision,
(b) after receiving Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj’s pointers as offered via the Direct Path Method and as
offered in the fashion that he used at the end of his “sharing days,” and (c)
after understanding the Nisarga Yoga approach.
[Note: Here, realization did not come even after multiple readings of the book I
AM THAT. During the early days of Maharaj’s sharing when those dialogues were
recorded, he was moving toward use of the Direct Path Method but it can be seen
that he was also blending in some use of the Traditional Method and other
non-Nisarga yogas.
Later, he began using the Direct Path Method more exclusively, occasionally tossing out pointers that had a straight-forwardness that some might now liken, incorrectly, to the “Neo-Advaita” Method;
therefore, it was his later sharings - along with a clarifying vision that came to this author one afternoon - that helped remove the final obstacles to realization.
Of the early sharings and the content of the book I AM THAT, Maharaj would say in his later days:
“That book and whatever was
expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking
differently today,” adding that in his later days he was “emphasizing different
aspects.”
Some of the other differences in the Direct Path Method and the other three
methods include these:
Contrary to the Traditional Method, the Direct Path Method advises seekers to
receive pointers from a guru / guide, to take those into consideration, and
then to find truth via the inner guru (as opposed to studying any texts
considered “holy”).
Contrary to the Neo-Vedanta Method (which offers flowery pointers that have the
effect of encouraging followers to adopt more concepts and pseudo-identities)
the Direct Path invites seekers to forfeit concepts and identities. One method
blows smoke; the other blows away the smoke.
Contrary to the Neo-Advaita Method that says, “Why don’t you just get it?
Understand it’s all illusion. Now you can go,” the Direct Path Method guide
offers other pointers and guides seekers through the steps that most require in
order for realization to happen.
Why? Direct Path guides agree with the Neo-Advaitins that (a) yes, it’s all
illusion and that (b) once realized, there is no do-er and thus nothing more to
do;
however, the Direct Path guide understands the high levels of programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and indoctrination and brainwashing to which most persons have been subjected and which cannot be wished away or eliminated with the snap of a finger.
The Direct Path guides understand how such high levels of distortion remove the ability of persons to see clearly and that merely inviting persons to see clearly does not result in their seeing clearly.
Such a suggestion would be
tantamount to your ophthalmologist saying, “You won't need this prescription
and new glasses if you'll just starting seeing clearly rather than seeing
things all out-of-focus.”
Direct Path guides are occasionally trespassers - though invited trespassers - into
their protégés’ pain. In such cases, some other guides using one method might
quote scriptures; those using another method might offer lofty or inspirational
platitudes; guides of a third method might suggest minimizing or ignoring the
whole business;
but the effective Direct Path guide will understand the psychological structures that result from trauma and warped programming which can cause pain. That guide can uncover the true source of that pain so that the source can dissolve. Then, the dissolution of the pain can follow.
[Professionals, if properly-trained in the use of EMDR, can sometimes be effective in addressing the scourge of trauma as well as mental and emotional wounds.]
The adept Direct Path guide - being both consistent and persistent when
persistence is indicated - is able to guide protégés through the deconstruction
process that eliminates the “mind” which houses belief in lies and illusions
and concepts and personas and that is the seat of mental and emotional pain.
Eventually, it is possible
that the effects of the psychological structures that result in personality
disorders (and which also generate turmoil and pain) can be eliminated via the
Direct Path method to full realization. For some, of course, professional
treatment is required.
Yet unlike the Neo-Advaita guide’s “just-believe-this-only” approach, the
Direct Path guides know from experience that the obstacles that block the pure
consciousness from seeing the levels to which the consciousness has been
corrupted must be removed before the pure consciousness can be witnessed tapped
into and before truth can be understood and differentiated from all which is
false.
Finally, the form of Direct Path method which was used by Maharaj later on as
well as the form of Direct Path method that is used here for years can both be
considered “less Advaita Vedanta” and “more Advaita.”
Maharaj would eventually advise visitors to forget the concepts they value and quote because they were written in a so-called “holy book” and to find, instead, what they already know within but that is “hidden” from consciousness by the miasma of ideas and beliefs and concepts and other lies which are blocking their realization of truth.
The movement away from a Hindu-influenced message and from a spiritual message ended the use of the Direct Path method for the most part.
In the end, Maharaj did sometimes use a four-step path rather than a seven-step path as he focused on things phenomenal more than things Noumenal; focused on the psychology of the warped mind rather than dogma or spirituality; and focused on un-learning and un-teaching rather than on teaching.
He advised some visitors: “Do not come here expecting to receive anything; here, I take away everything.”
Same here.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
The NEWEST OFFER
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.
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To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
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.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(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."
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
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 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:
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.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(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."
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
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 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:
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.
