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
DANCING LIGHTLY
“And
heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance.”
(Edward Thomas)
“The
desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews.
Not to be born is the best for man.
The second best is a formal order.
The dance's pattern; dance while you can.
Dance, dance, for the figure is easy.
The tune is catching and will not stop.
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters.
Dance, dance, dance till you drop.”
W.H. Auden
CHAOS AND INSTABILITY PREVENT LIGHTNESS
and
BOTH INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF HEAVINESS
Consider the analysis offered earlier by Maharaj of what can happen when freedom from emotional intoxication is interrupted by emotions that lead to motion (actions) that lead to misery as shared in a conversation earlier:
What you have seen is why the Advaitin uses the word “selfish” (that is “self-ish”)
to describe the ego-states that toss a huge stone into the previously-still
pond and care not about the effects of the waves on those sharing your pond.
Maharaj: “When it comes to thoughts and feelings [and] desires and fears, you
become acutely self-conscious.”
Focused on the self’s relative needs or desires or fears, the self takes over
and causes the tossing-without-caring to happen. Yet therein lies the reason
that realized non-dualists do not judge: it is the self that did that, not Real
Love.
Such creation of chaos in the formerly peaceful pond begins with a divorce, and
the divorce involves the agendas of false selves. To divorce the false self /
selves is to divorce all, and the divorce will have an effect on all in your
pond.
Does that call for shame and guilt over tossing the pebble and causing
waves to strike others who care? No, it calls for reconciliation which is
actually not an “A” reconciling with a “b” but is merely once more becoming
awake enough to see what has pushed one’s self into the foreground of motion.
In reconciling with authenticity, then there will be a reconciliation with All.
In touch with authenticity which abides in the background of motion, all of the
destructive or harmful motion (i.e., relative actions, relative behaviors) will
stop. The “Blowing of the Still” has been heard and acknowledged. Stillness
returns.
What drives one away from the stillness and into motion? That will always prove
to be some emotion, and that emotion will have been rooted in the fears and desires
of one or more personalities.
Consciousness will drive motion; abidance as THAT
- even as the AM-ness continues to happen - will allow the shift to the
background of motion where witnessing only is happening.
That is the way it is in the true state which Maharaj spoke of: “My true state,
which is whole, undifferentiated, is beyond birth and death. I am never bound
by my body and mind. I am limitless.”
If not bound by body and mind and personality, we will be “bound” to that
still, undifferentiated whole. Then we will be free of personality and
personality-driven motions (actions, behaviors) that cause “divorce” . . . that
cause a sense of separation.
If caught up in the turmoil of emotions, we arrive in that state discussed
earlier when Maharaj explained the situation that can rob one of the stability
that had come previously with the understanding. To understand what leads to
such an unhappy circumstance, consider:
1. At some point, the seeker grasps - if even only for a fleeting moment - the
awareness of the Oneness that cannot be segmented, that will not succumb to “divorce.”
2. The stability comes after touching the stillness of the awareness that is
not aware of. At that point, you enter the background of motion; you witness -
as opposed to being driven into motion / action / reaction - by
personality-based emotions.
3. Then, if pulled back into the foreground of motion which is generated by
consciousness, body, mind, personalities, and personalities’ emotions, one will
divorce one Self.
4. That which is “lost” is not the understanding. It was always there; it
remains there but has become temporarily blocked . . . not in reach for the time
being. No, what seems to have been “lost” at that point is the sense of
wholeness that comes with being stabilized in the unicity and the peace of your
original nature and merely being Love.
That sense of wholeness is only visible and knowable from the platform of the
stillness. If being driven by the Class VI rapids of a river, everything that
appears to be racing by along the sides is a blur.
Nothing is clear. If sitting in a quiet eddy to the side, the chaos of the water can be witnessed, but all remains clear when witnessed from the area of stillness. Having been crashed on the rocks and the rapids, there will eventually be a sense of splintering, of splitting off from, of fragmentation.
The divorce and all of its ramifications
have come. What triggers the motion, the movement away from the understanding
and being pulled back?
Maharaj: “You are so used to the support of concepts that when your concepts
leave you, although it is your true state, you get frightened and try to cling
to them again.”
The concepts, of course, are the food that feeds the ego, the false self; the
false self or selves are the food that feeds the emotions; and the emotions
drive the motions, the always-destructive actions that personality will
generate.
Next, understand this: The “journey” to THAT is not the end. As discussed with
one seeker, you take your car to the shop for an oil change, to have fresh oil
added into the engine block so that the contaminants of small metal shavings
that can destroy the engine are removed and fresh oil is added to make
everything function smoothly.
Once you have that oil, do you spend the rest of your life at the auto shop? Of
course not. You went there only to receive the oil; after that, you went on
your way, never having to concern yourself with the shop, never thinking about
the oil, never believing that the only peace in life that can found is at the
shop. No, you move on.
You focus on what is happening now. You do not focus on
the shop or abide in the shop. You’re out and about, enjoying what you enjoy or
processing what is to be processed in the relative existence. This is “Applied
Advaita.”
Those who want to claim that they are so spiritual or so special that they are
THAT only and have no association whatsoever with the AM-ness are fooling
themselves or trying to fool others. The summative statement of these teachings
is “I AM THAT; I AM,” not “I AM THAT.”
To complete the “journey” to THAT is to
acquire the oil which can be used to lubricate the relative machinery . . . to
acquire the oil which can be used to allow the remainder of the manifestation
to pass in a smooth and easily-flowing fashion.
Maharaj: “My world is just like yours. I see, I hear, I feel, I think, I speak
and act in a world I perceive, just like you. But with you it is all; with me
it is nothing”
and
“With the realised man the experience: ‘I am the world, the world is mine’ is supremely
valid - he thinks, feels and acts integrally and in unity with all that lives.
He may not even know the theory and practice of self-realisation, and be born
and bred free of religious and metaphysical notions. But there will not be the
least flaw in his understanding and compassion.”
Nothing in either of those pointers suggests that Maharaj was not a part of a
world that allowed seeing and hearing and feeling etc. to happen. He completed
the “journey” to THAT, acquired the oil required, overlaid the oil on the
relative machinery, and then went along his way, enjoying the place where the
machinery took him, enjoying the company of those along for the ride, but
totally in touch with the trip now going on “here” in a smooth fashion as
result of having acquired the stabilizing oil from “there.”
Yet some are driven by emotions to ride the roughest rivers with the most
violent motion. Only a few will ever realize and be content in the calm,
motionless waters. Some will have to fall over the waterfall more times than
others;
but if they survive the falls, they might see that joy can only happen
when they do not ride the rough waves of the river all to the way to the falls
but move instead over to the still eddy and stay in the background of motion.
Maharaj: “What is wrong with seeking the pleasant and shirking the unpleasant?
Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when
the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks, that it
becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean acceptance - letting come what
comes and go what goes.
“Desire not, fear not, observe the actual, as and when
it happens, for you are not what happens, you are to whom it happens.
Ultimately even the observer you are not. You are the ultimate potentiality of
which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.”
So what class of water are in?
There was a time when the boredom of an unfulfilling relative existence drove “floyd”
to seek the excitement and adrenaline-releasing chaos of the rapids. Consider
how the classifications describe so accurately the various ways that persons
traverse the relative existence:
Class A: Lake water; still; no perceptible movement.
Class I. Easy, smooth water; light ripples; clear passages; gentle curves.
Class II. Moderate; medium-quick water; rapids with regular waves; clear and
open passages between rocks and ledges; maneuvering required.
Class III. Moderately difficult; numerous high and irregular waves; many rocks.
Class IV. Difficult; long and powerful rapids and standing waves; advanced
preparations for possible rescue work important.
Class V. Extremely difficult; long and violent rapids that follow each other
almost without interruption; river filled with obstructions; big drops and
violent currents; rescue preparations mandatory.
Class VI. Extraordinarily difficult; constant threat of death because of
extreme danger; every safety precaution must be taken.
Someone who has survived the Class V and VI rapids and is once again flowing
smoothly with the river of life expressed beautifully what it is like when the
return to the understanding pushes one out of the motion of the rapids and to
the stillness of no motion . . . of no action-taking instead:
“I woke this morning with what feels like an elixir of calm, stable love
flowing through the veins. How is it possible to live without this stability? I
am enjoying this spaciousness.”
It is the foreground of emotion / motion that drives people to jump into the
Class VI rapids that block the calmness and stability and, yes, even Love; it
is the background of motion that allows one to relax in the stability of a
Class I river where the existence is easy and smooth and light and clear and
gentle.
PLEASE NOTE: I’LL BE OUT OF TOWN FOR A FEW DAYS SO NEW POSTS WILL BEGIN AGAIN ON TUESDAY FEBRUARY 14
To be continued then.
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.
(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.
