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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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.
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I AM THAT vs. “This Is Who I Think I Am”
(Continued from yesterday)
Here, you are encouraged to try a totally different “way of thinking” in order to allow you to move beyond even that way and to stop thinking at all until you abide under the auspices of the natural brain rather than the unnatural, supernatural, BS-filled mind.
--Floyd Henderson
To live a relative existence without the independence that is central to the discussions on this site can lead to death or to death-in-life.
It can also inspire some to choose something similar to the realized jnani's mahasamadhi - as some in Iran have done in the past and are doing in the present rather than continue an existence without such freedom . . . without independence.
So, this series is offering suggestions for being free - for abiding in a fashion marked by total freedom. I am totally independent of what most take to be “this world,” and nothing has ever been forfeited so willingly. If one were but to look objectively at his / her current existence, the only sane conclusion would be “Good riddance.”
Some bid good riddance by means of physical suicide, ironically hating “a world of insanity and violence.” There is a sane and non-violent means by which “this world” can be cast aside.
For those that long for freedom from the insanity of what they take to be “this world,” you can begin by using the recommendations offered so far in this series:
1. Witness
2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer
3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state
How to reach such a state? Understand what happened with “floyd” and “maharaj” what can happen with “you”; however, understand also that realization cannot come in the fashion touted by the neo-Advaitin notion that “You need no teacher, no readings, nothing. Just know and go.”
Pointers are required. Persons have been pointed away from truth for scores of years. Being pointed in another direction is essential if realization is to happen. Grasping the following must happen:
modes of (a) existence and (b) abidance that seem to merge seamlessly can be understood to have not merged at all but to have always been One. I AM THAT and I AM are not separate pointers to “two-ness.” The summative phrase I AM THAT; I AM is a single pointer to the “not-two-ness.”
A caterpillar and a butterfly appear to have nothing in common. In fact, they are one, merely at different stages of development. The same can happen when a piece of wood is shaped into a piano or coffee table or chair.
The same happens when elemental plant food is consumed and takes on a different form in a womb, when pant cells transform as human cells. All one, all the same, merely in different forms and taking on different vibrational patterns.
Thus, “alert” and “asleep” (the latter referring to a mode of abidance that is as peaceful as the deep sleep state, that is “sleep-like” in that it is beyond both beingness and non-beingness) can manifest now. It can happen now. It is the state that Is now, if you but realize that fact.
Moreover, the accuracy of the pointer above: “ . . . People think this understanding is a choice that can be made rather than seeing this is already the reality, simply hidden from view by the filters of the distorted mind.”
That silent, peaceful state is now. That silent, peaceful state Is here. Understand it is now. Understand it is here. Realize and then enjoy the silence and the peace, right here . . . right now. Abide as the unmanifested now, even while manifested, and the joy of silence, the lightness of de-accumulation, and the pleasures of peace will manifest as well.
Then, you will be able to dance lightly.
To
review the points offered so far:
There is a sane and non-violent means by which “this world” can be cast aside.
For those that long for freedom from the insanity of what they take to be “this
world,” you can begin by using the recommendations offered so far in this
series:
1. Witness
2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer
3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state
The next suggestion is to
4. Be unflinchingly true to Truth.
Of course that cannot happen until post-realization when the truth that cannot be stated is known. Further, that “truth which cannot be stated but that can be known” will never be known until all that is deemed to be true - but is not - is cast aside.
Why is it that the smallest fraction on the planet seeks the truth? Why is it that the smallest fraction of that fraction will come to understand the simple pointers that make up these Direct Path, nisarga yoga teachings?
Because of the fictional “mind.” The “mind” loves its tools of denial and dissociation. It also loves to generate desires and fears.
And in that process, the non-Realized become totally separated from even the most basic facts about the state of their relative existence. They haven’t a clue that they are bored to death (that is, to a state of “death-in-life”);
their cognitive maps allow them to drive in their sleep, to walk into their workplace in their sleep, to trudge through a day while asleep, and to return home while still asleep.
They speak of how happy they are in their “relationships” or marriages (if they are among the 40-45% who have not yet divorced and if they are currently operating from one of the early - but temporary - points on Maharaj’s “relationship continuum” of stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to fiancé/fiancée to spouse to eventual enemy to eventual mortal enemy).
Because of their ability to escape the malaise (which they are often not even aware of) via drugs or alcohol or whatever other tools of diversions and escape they employ in their search for some temporary (but never permanent) relief, they “experience” periods of happiness that are soon followed by periods of boredom or restlessness or depression.
In their ignorance, they “normalize” the instability and misery of their relative existence by claiming, “That’s just the way it is.” And indeed that is just the way it is . . . for the non-realized. They reach a point where they no longer recognize the web of relative entanglements in which they are snared.
[Maharaj used the metaphor of the “net” to clarify the pointer being offered in this post:
“Look at the net and its many contradictions. You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war. You want longevity and overeat, you want friendship and exploit. See your net as made of such contradictions and remove them - your very seeing them will make them go.”]
When denial and dissociation become the standard in a person’s relative existence and prevent any chance of the type of awareness that Maharaj spoke of, then assertions can be heard as the non-realized talk in their sleep about how their relationships are totally different from all of the others that they see which are plagued with exchanges between . . .
. . . egotism-driven personas with partners suffering the misery of fluctuating between dualistic periods of harmony and disharmony; closeness and distance; and “love” and hate. Often a visitor will proudly assert, “My life is great.” The question must then be asked, “So why are you here? Why are you seeking?”
When one visitor smugly announced to Maharaj that “My life is good enough as it is,” Maharaj responded:
“You say so because you have not seen how painful is the life you live. You are like a child sleeping with a lollypop in its mouth.
“You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centred, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering.
“Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable because it does not depend on circumstances.”
Happiness cannot co-exist alongside dependence. Freedom never follows bliss . . . it always precedes bliss. If the truth of one’s relative existence is seen to be dependent on anything or on anyone, then real happiness cannot manifest.
And real freedom can only happen when reality is overlaid on the relative, eliminating all belief in concepts and ideas and allowing all happenings to be witnessed - without attachment or deception - from the platform of truth.
Here, you are encouraged to try a totally different “way of thinking” in order to allow you to move beyond even that way and to stop thinking at all. Abide under the auspices of the natural brain rather than the unnatural, supernatural, BS-filled mind.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");
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“Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness”
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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.