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.
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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.)
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DANCING LIGHTLY
“And
heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance.”
(Edward Thomas)
SEEING THE HEAVINESS
Reference
was made earlier to the fact that some who think they have realized fully may
stray from the path of light and into the darkness. Yet even the “fully
realized,” while exempt from the insanity of emotions, are not exempt from feelings.
Why?
Because the realized do not dissociate; they do not become non-attached by way
of sociopathy; they are not so isolated from “life” that they never rub up
against the darkness of the relative existence; and they do not become
unaffected by the happenings in “the world” by escaping into the detachment of
the psychotic that has mentally moved into “a different world.”
Of course the realized see the heaviness of the darkness, but they know that it
is the light only that can bring the incredible sense of lightness. How could
the bringer of light not know the darkness?
Just
as the peacemaker does not go where there is peace, the light giver does not go
where there is always light. And the seeker of the light is either (a) in the
darkness or (b) in the light but unaware of the light.
Some become so sure that they have “gotten it” that - when they seem to have
lost touch with the stability-producing understanding that they saw via the
light - they can take a detour that then drives them to become judging and / or
self-judging and critical or self-critical; some will then enter the gloomy
darkness of guilt or the miserable shadows of shame.
Understand that guilt comes if you think you have done something that was “bad”;
shame comes if you conclude that you are bad. Neither conclusion can be drawn
if non-duality is understood. But if those “detours” come, what then? What
advice did Maharaj offer that can be relevant when such detours occur?
Maharaj: “Let things happen as they happen - they will sort themselves out
nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future - the future will
come to you on its own. For some time longer you will remain sleep-walking, as
you do now, bereft of meaning and assurance;
“but this period will end and you will find your work both fruitful and easy. There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means the soul had cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places.
“This
is detachment - when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are
afraid, the state may be distressing, but there is really nothing to be afraid
of. Remember the instruction: whatever you come across - go beyond.”
What it is that persons come across that must be gone beyond? The darkness,
which triggers the self-destructive drive of emotions that lead to obsessing
which leads to the insanity of behaving compulsively and then to the most
insane behaviors imaginable. What is beyond such chaos-generating emotionalism?
Hardness? Coldness? Feeling nothing? Being robotic? No. What is beyond is
feeling without becoming emotionally-intoxicated and then being driven to
behave blindly, without logic or reason, entering into risky behavior to try to
manipulate external sources to do what a person thinks is needed to alleviate
whatever is being feared at the moment or whatever is generating depression or
anger at the moment.
The fully realized will not emote, but they will feel. Feeling is normal and
natural; emoting is abnormal and unnatural. When feelings arise, the realized
watch them rise and fall. When emotions arise among the non-realized (or among
those on “a detour”) senseless actions will be taken.
So, is the answer to “feel only but do not emote?” No. Feeling without emoting
is but a way-station on the path to sanity and freedom and peace because
feelings that do not rise and fall but linger instead can - in the end -
interrupt sanity and freedom and peace almost as much as unchecked behaviors
that are being driven by emotionalism.
First, witness the insanity of persons who are running head-long into
entanglements or relationships with no basis at all, behaving as if love has
developed over a period of months and years when the fact is the two people
involved met in a bar only the night before.
Lust
at first sight is hardly love at first sight, much less Love. Then witness the
way that the fears and anger and depression that personality can generate will
remove any self-preserving sanity and can drive one into a “full speed ahead”
approach to life (and death) that is typical among the masses.
To see the difference in feeling vs. emoting, recall the buck and the doe that
certainly seemed to be feeling sadness when dealing with the event of a
still-birth outside the window of this office. When it was seen that the fawn
would not be rising and walking away with them, something strong was being
felt.
But
they did not become emotionally intoxicated. They did not lower their heads and
run as fast and as hard as possible into one of the trees in this yard, hurting
or killing themselves as a result of being insane because they entered a state
of emotional intoxication.
No. They remained still, and then eventually they moved on with the life that
did remain. So emotions are unnatural, always generated by the illusion of
personality; feelings, on the other hand, are natural. Does that mean that as
long as you do not emote, it is recommend to FEEL constantly?
Absolutely not. Here, joy is felt at times, but to believe that joy-only can be
felt 24 / 7 would be as insane as the behaviors that follow the manifestation
of emotionalism. Here, sadness is felt at times, but to believe it is fine to
feel sadness 24 / 7 would be as insane as the behaviors that follow the
manifestation of emotionalism.
Feelings
rise and fall. Some feel “good” and some feel “horrible,” and that very duality
should show that feeling any single feeling for an extended period is dualistic
and therefore unnatural.
Emoting guarantees misery; extended feeling can eventually bring misery as
well.
Psychologists
suggest that those with psychic health can process an unhealthy emotion or an
unhealthy feeling in a fairly short time. The tool used by non-dualists for
such processing is the “WHO cares?” question. Which persona is driving what?
Anger, depression, and fear can all be emotions when driven by personalities;
they will seldom be processed.
Anger, depression, and fear can also be feelings, the difference being that,
among the realized, they are processed. WHO is in fear? “The Unemployed One”
who thinks that he is dying because “The Employer” has just declared that he /
she must leave the workplace with a final check in hand?
WHO is depressed? “The Lonely One” who believes that happiness is an outside
job and can only come if “The Right Person” comes along, the right person being
the one showing up and bringing along loads of money or sex appeal or the
status of a higher lifestyle?
WHO is angry? “The Abandoned Wife” whose husband left when she was pregnant
with their third child, disappearing with another woman?
If those people emote, then someone could return to the workplace and begin
shooting up the place with an automatic weapon; someone could either commit
suicide or remain depressed forever; someone could track down the abandoning
spouse and use a knife to take revenge.
If
those persons feel, then they have the opportunity to process the feelings, to
find out WHO thinks he / she is dying when nothing more is ending than a false
identity.
So emotions are unnatural, and natural feelings can become unnatural when they
are not processed. How are such extended feelings viewed by the non-dualist
that finds little in the relative existence that is more destructive than
thinking? Maharaj puts feelings and thoughts on the same objectionable level:
Maharaj: “Thoughts and feelings are flimsy, transient and meaningless, mere
mental dust that blinds and chokes, yet they are there, obscuring and destroying.”
The same lightness-blocking fears and depression and anger that can drive
persons to act out in unnaturally destructive and unnaturally self-destructive
ways can also manifest as feelings that are natural but that do not lead to
destructive or self-destructive behaviors if they are processed.
Emotions are never processed though they might occasionally be seen in retrospect
to have been insane; the realized can see the potential effects and
consequences of extended periods of feeling and can process feelings away
before they devolve into emotions and inspire irrational conduct and relative
costs.
Emoting results in motion; processing feelings does the opposite. Emotions refuse to hear when the captain “blows the still”; it is the sanity of realization and the presence of light that blow the still, that stop all motion, and that preempt insane and risky and damaging behaviors (all relatively speaking, of course).
[“Blowing the Still” is a whistle command delivered in the past on British ships. In a time of threat or potential crisis, the tendency of the crew might be to race about and panic.
“Blowing
the Still” signals that all are to pause and to wait to hear a message from the
captain that can help avoid destructive, panic-driven behavior and that can
bring about an orderly response to whatever must be faced, relatively
speaking.]
When the detour comes, the sane find the way back to the path; when emotional
intoxication drives the bus off the road, there is sometimes no coming back.
Some do survive the crash, though they can be left in a helpless or wounded
condition.
That
sometimes requires one who cares enough to offer assistance to come along and
toss a rope that can be used to pull the one that survived such a wreck back
onto the actual path.
The invitation is to shift into the background of motion which, otherwise, can
transport one from feeling . . . to emotion . . . to self-destructive motion.
Maharaj: “ . . . in reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making
everything shine. Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling.
Unthinkable, it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being. It is the
immovable background of motion. Once you are there you are at home everywhere.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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.
