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.
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IF ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN: The “Final” Talks of Floyd
This series is not necessarily for all readers even if they are interested in non-duality or Nisarga Yoga. Its contents are especially not for those who are seeking a means by which they can reinforce or enhance a religious or spiritual role that has been assumed.
Also, it is likely not for “Neo-Advaitins,” “Neo-Vedantins,” “Pseudo-Advaitins,” or “Traditional Advaita Vedantins,” either.
It is not for those who believe that truth is found in special or holy or religious or spiritual texts, any more than Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s later talks were for persons interested in religious or spiritual concepts.
He made clear that what he shared later on was quite different from what he taught early on - such as in the book I AM THAT. During his last years, he said of that I AM THAT:
“That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today.” He said, “Now I am emphasizing different aspects.”
Seekers cannot begin with the “end pointers” in this volume any more than they can begin with the pointers in Maharaj’s later talks. Seekers must find information that is “level-appropriate,” custom-fit for them at the exact place wherever they might be on “the path” (and many are not nearly as far along as they might think).
Over the years, Maharaj discussed and explained thousands of topics, all relevant to seekers at one point or another along the path but not aimed at other seekers that were at different points along ‘the path’.
Here, writings have included thousands of discussions of various topics, responses to a variety of questions, etc. Some seekers have asked, “Which are the most important discussions that I should read?” The reply has always been:
“As with Maharaj, that depends entirely on you and where you are on ‘the path.’ If a step three pointer is offered to one stuck at the second step on the way to freedom from religious or spiritual role-playing, then that talk would be the most important if it moves the seekers along the way.
It is also the most important for every seeker that reads the explanation or hears the discussion if those seekers are stuck at the third step. Yet it would mean nothing to one at the first or second step on ‘the path’.”
At the end, Maharaj discussed fifteen key topics in his final talks (though they were not numbered as such). Herein are the fifteen key pointers that would be offered if this speck of consciousness called “floyd” were offering “his ‘final’ talks.”
“What Would You Say If You Knew For A Fact That Only Three Hours Of The Manifestation Remained?”
There
is a “back story” behind this series. The events that inspired these writings
will be discussed in some detail, so briefly for now, the way that this book
came into being will be shared:
In October of 2011, there was a problem with this plant food body that involved
a combination of (1) a 95% blockage in the left anterior descending artery and
(2) internal hemorrhaging that had lowered the hemoglobin rate from its
preferred range of 12-16 for a male to a rate near 7.0.
After
having been sent home following a week in the hospital when doctors completed
two exploratory surgeries, the transfusion of many units of plasma,
angioplasty, and the placement of a stent in the LAD, it only took the use of
blood thinners for four days to aggravate the continued internal hemorrhaging
and to send this plant food body staggering back into the office of the
cardiologist.
A speedy processing of a blood sample revealed that the red blood cell rate had
dropped to 4.7.
(Two nurses explained that it was impossible that I had walked
into their office with a 4.7 red blood cell rate, especially after having
surgeries and after the placement of a stent that could include complications
triggered by the need to stop the use of blood thinners. The reply: “Don’t know
what to tell you, ladies, except that my best recollection is that I did walk
in here on my own.”)
The doctor called for a wheelchair and gave the nurses instructions to bypass
the admissions office of the adjacent hospital and to take me directly to ICU
and to have a nurse begin an IV and administer what would become a total of
seven more units of blood.
In a discussion with the daughter and friends who had come to check on the body’s
condition, the doctor’s prognosis that night was not positive.
It was learned
later that the doctor was seemingly very concerned and was also mystified when
he was told that he could relax in the fact that “if floyd makes it, that will
be okay with him, and if he does not make it, that will be okay with him as
well.”
Yes, the doctor was taken aback, but he asserted that his intentions did not
parallel that sentiment. The next two days were said by those tending to this
plant food body to be “touch-and-go,” especially after the doctors diagnosed an
additional complication as a result of anemia, namely, damage to the left
ventricular valve that has already been generating a murmur since the age of
fifteen.
At the time of this writing, some five weeks after completion of the procedures
on the heart, the state of the stent - and whether blood clots will form or not
in the absence of blood thinners which presently cannot be used - must unfold
in whatever way it unfolds. But what do those hospitalizations have to do with
this book being written?
During that stay, a call came from a man who engaged is certain pleasantries
and some inquiries about the condition of the body and the prognosis for what
he termed “survival . . . I mean, well-being”;
however, it soon became clear that
there was more that he wanted to discuss (though he was being sheepish about
revealing the actual motive behind his call).
Recognizing that there was some embarrassment or awkwardness around what he
wanted, it was suggested that he say what he wanted to say. He continued to
hesitate as he tried to find a way to ask delicately and tactfully what he felt
was going to be clumsy at best and possibly insensitive or unfeeling or rude at
the worst
Finally, with additional encouragement, he said it: “I was wondering if there might be something that you would be willing to say to those who have been following your blog or reading your books or coming to you for satsang or retreats over the years.
I
don’t want you to think I want to profit from the sale of a video or tape
recording or book of transcripts of what you might be willing to share, but it
seems that maybe there might be some . . . . ”
As his pause seemed as if it might not end, he was asked: “You mean, maybe
there might be some ‘last words’ or some remaining elements of the teachings
that have not yet been shared?” That question was followed by boisterous
laughter (with which he did not join).
Then,
“You prompted a recollection of an old cartoon image of vultures circling above
a fellow who was crawling across a desert with only minutes to live.”
His reply was something to this effect: “It’s just that - considering all of
the talks and writings that have provided so many in-depth explanations and
discussions - maybe there might be a call to give ‘the short version’ . . . a ‘one-two
punch’ to all relative falsehoods, and a succinct pointing to the Real.
“In other words,” he continued, “what would you say if you knew for a fact that only three hours of the manifestation remained? I mean, what would you say if you knew you were offering your final talks?
For those of us that you’ve invited to continue sharing the non-duality message but who cannot possibly offer the detailed explanations you do, what can we say that will get to the heart of things in a way that we can provide after you’re gone?”
The reply: “So after all of the conversations we’re shared about non-duality, the best you can come up with right now is the notion that it has been ‘I’ - rather than the consciousness - that has been speaking or writing or sharing?
And you think that you need to be able to tell any seekers who might come to you something that ‘I’ said that they need to hear, rather than You sharing Your own ‘experience’ and understanding?
The
fact is, if only three hours of the manifestation remained, the case here would
be the same as the case was with Maharaj at the end of the manifestation of
that speck: he entered into the silence, not into more talking.”
He: “What I’m asking for is some sort of condensation. You tell ‘this’ to a seeker
at one point on the ‘path,’ but you tell ‘that’ to a different seeker at a
different point on the ‘path.’ All I’m asking for is what you would tell those
who have taken all seven steps on the ‘path’ but who still need to hear
something more in order to get the total message.
The reply: “Maharaj shared at the end many pointers that differed from what he
had told seekers all along the way as he shifted from emphasizing one yoga
after another.” Silence.
Then,
“Arrangements have been made with a company in Houston to cremate this body
after the manifestation ends. If I walk out of this hospital instead of being
transported by an employee of that company, then I’ll take your request under
advisement.”
The result of that exchange is this series. The word “final” is in quote marks
because the discussions herein were obviously not to be the actual final talks
at all.
Since that heart event, I have had what the doctors referred to as “two minors heart attacks” and - about 16 months or so ago -“a major heart attack.”
Just as Maharaj’s talks “evolved,” so too have the talks here. The number of steps has been reduced and the focus of the talks has evolved.
When my ophthalmologist presets her phoropter and then swings it around and aligns it with my face, we begin a process of adjusting and fine tuning.
She offers me pairs of new settings, asking if setting “A” or setting “B” is better. Then I’m asked, “What about “1” (pause) or “2”? We go through ten or fifteen minutes of fine tuning, and each adjustment we settle on improves my sight.
So it was with Maharaj as his perspectives became clearer and clearer. The same has happened here. “More clarity” can come even after “clarity” first came; thus, the final talks today might well differ from the final talks at the time I spoke with a man during the time of that first cardiac event.
Since so many seekers are at varied levels, pointers from the first “final talks” writings would have evolved. I will be updating and revising some points as we go along.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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");
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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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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.
