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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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
JUDGING BLOCKS LIGHTNESS
To the recent pointers on harmony, disharmony, and the “not-two harmony,” there has been added an element of judgmentalism by some.
Let it be said that, here, there will be no talk about any specific teacher who is teaching this or that and there will be no talk of one method being superior to another method.
Four
legitimate methods used to offer the Advaita Vedanta understanding exist
alongside hundreds of other perverted versions; seekers can investigate and
determine on their own which might be relevant to their search.
As with Maharaj, there are cautions against false prophets and big name
teachers in general, but those seeking to debate the pro’s and con’s of “individuals”
or desiring to discuss “things personal” about anyone or anything will have to
continue their search.
Also let
it be said that there is much misunderstanding among those who think they have realized
and who now want to judge teachers and draw conclusions about what amounts to
nothing more than the variety of ways that the relative existence can unfold
post-full-realization. Consider:
Questioner: “Must I not examine the teacher before I put myself entirely into
his hands?”
Maharaj: “By all means examine! But what can you find out? Only as he appears
to you on your own level.”
Q: “I shall watch whether he is consistent, whether there is harmony between
his life and his teaching.”
Maharaj: “You may find plenty of disharmony - so what? It proves nothing. Only
motives matter. How will you know his motives?”
Q: “I should at least expect him to be a man of self-control who lives a
righteous life.”
So one who believes he had the ability to judge a non-dual guide speaks of
controlling a “self” and speaks of the duality of “righteous” (vs.
unrighteous). Interesting.
Of course one must be awake to the words being shared for there are far more
false prophets than realized teachers. Maharaj’s warning about aligning with “the
big name teachers” differs here only in that he said that if you do that, “you’ll
get what you deserve.” Here, the message is that “you will not get what you
deserve.”
Judging and critiquing and ascertaining and assessing and testing and all other
such nonsense of the type that led to two people being tossed from this
electronic loft recently are futile exercises. Those recent exchanges here
differed somewhat from the Q” and “M” exchange above. Again, here’s the crux of
the exchange with M.:
Questioner: “Must I not examine the teacher?”
Maharaj: “By all means examine!”
The recent exchange here went like this:
Questioner: “Must I not examine the teacher? I have examined you and find that
you fall short.”
F.: “Better that you examine yourself.”
So many who think they have walked into the light are not there at all but want
to point out all the ways that the realized are “not living the way that a realized
one would live.”
Such belief will block any seeker from understanding the
pointers being offered here regarding light and lightness, harmony and
disharmony, and everything else as well.
First, there is no pattern or mold or standard by which those standing in the
full light of the noonday sun must live out the relative existence.
Some guide; some do not. Some indulge ego and egotism while some will toss an egomaniac out of a loft tout de suite. Some withdraw fully; some mingle. Some continue with past relations; some end them.
But
the more relevant point is this: you need not enter into an ego-driven act of
judgment to determine authenticity or lack thereof. Whatever you think you are
seeing outside of you is never what you think it is. “Better you examine
yourself.”
If that happens, then one of several things will follow:
1. There will be a resonance triggered within. You may not know Truth, but you
will know that you are hearing pointers to Truth;
2. There might be no immediate resonating within, but if you stay long enough
to be guided through a process of self-examination rather than guide-examination,
that resonance may manifest eventually;
3. You fail to hear what your ego-states want to hear, so you continue to seek
and search, often seeking the bigger name teacher who surely has the bigger,
better method.
What then of the “not-two harmony” being discussed here? Cannot a test for
harmony be part of the teacher-test that some want to engage in? How valid is
the “harmony vs. no harmony” test? How could one possibly know what is within
the teacher if it is not within the examiner?
Maharaj: “Jnani understands a situation fully and knows at once what needs be
done. That is all. The rest happens by itself, and to a large extent
unconsciously.
“He is supremely confident that once a situation has been cognised, events will move in adequate response. The ordinary man is personally concerned, he counts his risks and chances, while the jnani remains aloof, sure that all will happen as it must;
“and
it does not matter much what happens, for ultimately the return to balance and
harmony is inevitable. The heart of things is at peace.”
In order to guarantee an environment in which those ready to hear were able to
hear, there were times that Maharaj removed from the loft those who would move
the spotlight from the message to themselves . . . to their false selves.
It certainly appears to many that those removals were “evidence of Maharaj’s
disharmony” and, therefore, “his lack of full realization.” Not so
Recently during a walk around the lake, a mother was ignoring the fact that her child was hitting ducks with rocks. He and his mother both would report to you that “this floyd fellow certainly has no harmony,” but putting an end to his hitting of those ducks happened spontaneously;
then, the walk continued as before. Shortly, there was a shooing away from the face a swarm of gnats. Would that also be deemed evidence of disharmony? When a deer moves away from noise, is that evidence of the deer’s disharmony?
Hardly.
But it must be asked, why the focus on the harmony or disharmony of “others”
when the only thing that is any of your business is your own harmony or
disharmony?
Maharaj: “You create disharmony and then complain! When you desire and fear,
and identify yourself with your feelings, you create sorrow and bondage. When
you create with Love and wisdom, and remain unattached to your creations, the
result is harmony and peace.
“But whatever be the condition of your mind, in what way does it reflect on you? It is only your self-identification with your mind that makes you happy or unhappy. Rebel against your slavery to your mind, see your bonds as self-created, and break the chains of attachment and revulsion.
“Keep in mind your goal of freedom until it dawns on you that you are already free, that freedom is not something in the distant future to be earned with painful efforts but perennially one’s own, to be used!
“Liberation is not an acquisition but a matter of courage, the courage to believe that you are free already and to act on it.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation (a.k.a., the true, original, and only real version of meditation).
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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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“Liberation (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)”
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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.
