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.
MISTAKES OFTEN MADE BY SEEKERS
“To expound and propagate
concepts is simple.
But to drop all concepts is difficult and rare.”
---Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
MISTAKING THE DAWN FOR THE NOON, Part Three
To complete the discussion of the recent “Mistaking the Dawn for the Noon” posts:
Travelers can grasp easily when their journey has allowed them to reach their destination: “City name” signs are posted on every road leading into towns and cities.
Maharaj made clear that reaching the end of the non-dual “journey and the end of seeking is not clearly marked for those on the journey.
What is required is a realized guide that has heard a series of “tells” which allow the guide to determine if the seeker has reached a state of realization or not.
The mistaken are usually the most confident and vocal and assertive and assured that they have reached a state of enlightenment, of awareness, of full realization.
(Note that the term “full realization” meant to Maharaj that one has been 100% freed of all beliefs. Since the truth can be known but cannot stated, then those stating what they take to be the truth are revealing that they are not realized at all.)
Those who read the previous series are aware of the cases of three women - all of whom have in the past proudly proclaimed their false identity of “devout Catholics.”
Two of them have awakened enough to look objectively at the behaviors of those among the leadership which are beginning to disgust them.
One has looked the other way her entire life but said she was willing to look at the practices which she has ignored previously.
After our discussions had obviously come to an end, the first two women admitted that even the slightest hint of their “new perspectives,” their families and spouses reacted with disapproval, anger, reproach, condemnation and denunciation. They admitted they succumbed to the attacks and have remained silent about what is troubling them.
Both said there would be a time - after their children left home - that they were going to go, too. Will they? Maybe yes; maybe no. Other factors, such as economic fear, can impact their final decision. Otherwise, were they being honest with themselves for the most part? That’s quite possible.
Now to the third. She is still as blind and as in denial as before while believing that she is now operating with a totally new perspective about her church.
Is she among those Maharaj referred to as believing that they are standing in the bright light of the noonday sun when actually they are only standing in the dull light of the dawn?
No. She is believing that she is standing in the bright light of the noonday sun when actually she is standing in the total darkness of midnight. When her final words showed that she is as much in the darkness as ever, her self-assured words showed that she really believes that she has “got it” but has not.
Then, when she explained her new “plan” of hanging out with pedophiles while rising above the past influence they’ve had over her, I did not explain that her warped thinking was no different from that of the people living in India along the Ganges, a river which is severely polluted with human waste and industrial contaminants and on some lists is the most polluted river on the planet.
Yet when some of them were interviewed two weeks ago after they climbed out of the water after bathing in it, worshipping in it, and drinking it, they proclaimed that they had no fear of the effects of the pollutants because “their gods are stronger than any pollutants on earth and will protect them.”
Would the third Catholic live in a leper colony? Would she live in an isolation ward with those suffering from tuberculosis? Would she French kiss a person who just tested positive for Covid? Would she have unprotected sex with a person who just tested positive for AIDS? Who knows. With her magical thinking, anything might be possible.
For others, the suggestion is that one’s place on “the path” to full realization is never marked with signs that a seeker can read. Best to visit with a realized guide and get a second opinion.
MISTAKING THE ABSTRACT FOR THE CONCRETE
To continue with a reminder of the content of a post shared years ago from a site visitor:
Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true.
For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live.
I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “First of all you identify something as being good or
bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad,
you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that
God for something good to happen to you.”
As Maharaj points out, John, no god created man in that god's image; instead, man created a god in man's image. Many persons in the U.S. celebrate annually “A Day of Independence” without realizing that they have none.
Two-thirds report - just like you, John - that they pray daily for guidance from God regarding what to do about “this” or what to do about “that.”
In other words, 66% of all on the planet on earth admit that they can’t figure out what to do on their own and that they depend on an entity that does not live on earth to decide for them.
For the more than 6 billion persons who claim membership in
one of the three religions of Abraham, they admit that they have to be told
what to do by someone else. Thus, they have no independence.
Moreover, a study of the evolution of religions shows that their god is nothing
more than an abstract morphing by Abraham of all of the pagan gods of creation,
sustenance, and destruction into one god that has been assigned a concrete form
(specifically, a male form among Jews, Christians and Muslims).
95% of those
polled in the U.S. report that they believe in that morphed, male god (as you
do, John) and 64% say they have never once doubted his existence even once.
Nearly two-thirds of all persons happily admit that they have never once
questioned what other persons have told them.
Until recently, 83% also report that they believe, as you do, that body
continuity is literally possible, taking the abstract concept of “I am my body”
and assigning it the trait of concreteness, now and forevermore.
With all of that programming, duality gains a firm foothold, so 88% report that they believe in a literal, concrete geographic “heaven” and “hell.” (Actually, 88% report that they believe in “heaven” but only 71% report that they believe in “hell,” possibly hoping that to deny its existence might exempt them from eternal assignment to that location?)
But notice, John, how you and those surveyed are merely
taking an illusion and then either upgrading it or downgrading it:
You take yourself to be a three-dimensional being and you believe in a fourth
dimension that is divided dualistically into a geographic place for housing the
“good” and a different geographic place for housing the “bad.”
You are taking illusions to be real and then either upgrading or downgrading them as your abstract thinking creates supposedly physical extensions of your illusions. “Heaven” is merely an upgrade in your “mind” of the illusion of “this world.” “Hell” is merely a downgrade in your “mind” of the illusion of “this world.”
The “celestial
power” that you think is at your disposal is merely an upgrade in your “mind”
of the illusion of “worldly power” that you think you have as a result of
another abstraction you would call “unquestioning faith.”
But whether your beliefs concern upgraded illusions or downgraded illusions,
they are still all illusion. You have been deluded, yet you do not know that
you are deluded.
He who has been fooled only rarely understands that he has been fooled, so you will believe in “power” and “body continuity” and “eternal reward” or “eternal punishment” and “guidance” as well as all of your other abstractions that are based in delusion.
And the chief way that persons are fooled is by programming them to believe that abstract terms (terms that refer to nothing more than ideas and concepts that are dreamed up by persons) are terms that have physical referents.
Thus, humans can dream up an abstract
concept such as “an all-powerful being in another world” and then believe that
entity is concrete.
Then, they can claim that their abstract concept has the physical form of a
male; next, they can modify the Anglo-Saxon abstract term for “good” (“gud”)
into the term “Good” and eventually “God”; and finally, they can claim that “God”
is the name of an actual, concrete, physical entity.
After generations of programming, the masses can take a contrived concept (that there is an omnipotent being that will share his power if people only believe in him); they can distort words to invent a label for their contrived concept (“gud” to “good” to “Good” to “God”);
and they can then convince billions of persons that the
abstract concept “God” and the abstract term “God” actually have a real,
concrete, physical referent.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj offered this teaching:
“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then,
in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God.
Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good
to happen to you.”
In an earlier posting, this pointer was offered:
Either there is One, or there is duality and / or multiplicity. Either there is a
prime cause and creation (and therefore a prime causer and creator) or there is
neither creation nor destruction.
Science has proved that there is neither creation nor destruction. All is energy/matter, and energy/matter can be neither created nor destroyed. Wherefore a causer or a creator in that reality?
Where is there any possibility of a creator (or a creator-sustainer-destroyer
god) when that which is has always been, when That cannot have been created,
when That cannot be destroyed, and when all merely cycles . . . or not?
Persons who are programmed to believe that their bodies-minds-personalities
shall last “for infinity after death” do not pause to consider that, if
infinity is a possibility in --> that “direction” on their timelines, then
it must also be a possibility in <-- that “direction” on their timelines.
Infinite is infinite. Whatever has the ability to exist “forever after” also
had to have the ability to exist “forever before.”
If persons are not free of being fooled, if they are dependent on someone else
to tell them what to do in every situation, and if they are trapped in the
delusion that results when they believe erroneously that abstract concepts have
a physical referent, then they are walking about as if in a dream.
They are walking about in their sleep, dreaming that they are free and empowered while actually being trapped and being so powerless that they cannot even decide what to do on their own.
They are imprisoned in the “minds” that have resulted from their consciousness having been warped by ignorant leaders (or by truly savvy leaders who have elevated manipulation to an art form).
Yet, like you, they are convinced that they have power and that they are free. Such is the delusion of dualistic thinking and assigning concrete forms to abstract concepts.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
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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 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:
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.
