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.
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU MIGHT BE AFRAID OF FREEDOM AND TOTAL INDEPENDENCE?
“ . . . You are
afraid of freedom!”
---Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
CULTURES AND INSTITUTIONS PROGRAM
PERSONS TO ACCEPT A LACK OF TRUE FREEDOM (continued)
It was explained that some might know the physical address where they can go for satsang / retreats with whatever “floyd” is assumed to be but that very few know where Floyd - the Real Floyd - “lives.”
That
place is typically cave-like (remote and quiet) but even there is not where the
abidance of this speck of conscious-energy is happening.
The freedom that precedes peace can happen “now” and “here,” not “later” and “there.”
It comes when “The Goldilocks Syndrome” has been transitioned, where there is a
position of neutrality and no dualistic judgments are being drawn about things
being “too hard vs. too soft” or “too hot vs. too cold.”
It
comes when the equally-as-delusional-notion that “something is just right and
will always remain that way” is transcended.
Only the Absolute is a non-moving target. All else will be in constant flux,
and the “joy” of things perceived to be “just right” will give way to the
misery of those same things soon perceived to be “all wrong.” Here's the way Louise in Cape Town, South Africa put it after returning to “the cave” after a holiday:
Louise shared this:
Today, walking in the garden to find fresh herbs, there is simply gratitude for this preference-free view. You expressed this so clearly recently when you said, 'Do you not see that hope generates hopelessness and that the relative existence would unfold more pleasantly is you allowed what happens to happen spontaneously without complicating things with your wishes and desires and hopes and, yes, fears as well?'
“A recent visit to Bazley was full of contrasts: the idyllic, silent beauty of the natural setting, but sharing a house with three children, two adults and DSTV. Within the home, there was a higher level of background noise, personal ego demands, and busyness than I am used to in the cave. Would it be possible to grasp the understanding within the busyness and noise? Unlikely.
“With the withdrawal from all that is extraneous, the movement away from the phantasmagoria of the relative, there is simply resting in silence. In this silence, the winds of preference or non-preference are subtle, and more easily discerned and observed. This is the forest dweller stage I guess.
“Here this stage involved working, parenting and caring for the body’s needs, yet almost all other activities dropped away. In this environment of simplicity and silence, preference for or against could drop away, and the vast spaciousness of neutrality enjoyed.
“Once neutrality is tasted, it is not easily forgotten. This view becomes permanent. Then it is possible to be in the ego-led noise of society without being pulled into preference or non-preference.
“Although, the movement will always be away from the noise to the gentle, silent, peacefulness modelled by the petite buck that come to graze and drink at the bottom of the Bazley garden each morning and evening.”
The reply: And that is what the relative existence looks like when the Absolute is laid over it; and that is what the unassailable peace looks like when the movement to freedom happens; and that is what it looks like to be neither pro-life nor pro-death but “preference-free,” not unlike the naturally-abiding, spontaneously-living deer.
To
expand on the connection between being “preference-free” and being totally
free, consider the state of four men whose cases have been witnessed over the
last month:
One is near suicidal because the woman he was living with left him when she
discovered that he was grooming another woman in the wings to move in if the
present live-in left. Why take such action?
“Because,”
he said, “he does not want to be alone.” (His persona's preference for “company
in prison” rather than being “alone but free” - free of the misery of
personality entrapment - is driving his suffering.)
A second is miserable because his wife “used him and took his money before
leaving with a man even richer than he.” And even after finding out that she
had been involved in an ongoing relationship with the other man during the
marriage, and even after she admitted that she never cared a whit about him,
the husband is miserable because he wants her to come back, noting that “she is
gorgeous.”
(His
personas have a preference for a particular, outward appearance and how he
thinks he was perceived when she was on his arm.)
The circumstances with the other two men are similar, also being “preference-bound”
rather than “preference-free,” also being driven by the fear-and-desire-based
agendas of the personas which they want to maintain.
Those examples reveal further blockages to total freedom:
A. personality, for it is personality that is the source of all “preferences,” “desires,”
“wishes,” and “hopes.” To be driven by preferences is to be driven by personas,
roles, false identities, personality, ego-states, stage characters . . . call it what you will; and,
B. the prevailing delusion among the non-Realized, namely, if something which
is a part of the relative existence, and which is thought to be “good,” and
which, therefore, has been desired . . .
if whatever that is happens to manifest (be that a relationship, a job, a
house, whatever), then the delusion is that it can be permanently set, can be enduring,
and will be unending.
What shift must happen in order for
(1) freedom from the disappointment and misery and frustration of finding time
and again that what is desired or “gained” will never be permanently set, will
never be enduring, and will never be unending; and
(2) what do the teachings here offer that allow a fixation in the bliss of THAT
to happen, even as the AM-ness continues?
Here is the way Louise described the shift, starting with “where she was” and
then describing “where she is” and what is “different” as a result of having
completed the “journey” here:
“The early contacts with you raised the issue of feeling imprisoned by: the
demands of the teenager; the difficulties of single parenting; the day job; and
the non-realized state (especially glimpsing what was perceived as the blissful
state and then returning to imprisoned reality).
“The pointer you offered was: this is all occurring at the level of experience.
As you described in the Goldilocks Syndrome, there is no stability in manifest
consciousness which is always changing. To attempt to find stability there is
like building a house on sinking sand and expecting it to stand firm.
“To free me from this self-created imprisonment, the question you asked me is:
what is that changeless state, that is beyond these vagaries of good and bad,
stable and unstable, clarity and lack of clarity.”
“Maharaj would say: set up camp there. Until that pointer is grasped by the
seeker, the experience of duality and therefore instability will persist. Here,
the relative life details remain unchanged, but the view is entirely different.”
The “relative life details remain unchanged”? Yes, to the degree that the
relative challenges of raising a teenager as a single parent remain and to the
degree that some always-challenging employment must continue in order to
provide for the basic requirements of two people.
Might the relative details in some other instances change? Of course: with some
other seekers, there can be a movement away from chaotic relations, from
noisiness, from undue busy-ness, from generating crises, and / or from
developing an addiction to chaos because of overwhelming boredom.
But the Ultimate Sickness has a far firmer hold on the four men mentioned
earlier who, unlike Louise early on, have never even “glimpsed the blissful
state.”
And “the view is entirely different”? Yes. It is recalled that when Louise
moved from one cottage to another, she found that the view of the lovely,
peaceful, and even blissful garden was obscured because muck and grime had
accumulated for years on the glass of the window and blocked the view of the
garden from one of her rooms as a result of that buildup of contaminants.
If you are willing to seek out guidance from a Realized Nisargan, then you will
have found “A Window Cleaner,” so to speak.
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:
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Links for ordering are below with
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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
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a Floyd Henderson Shopify Gift Card here
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Or,
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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.
