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]
One who heard these pointers said: “You talk about hate but it seems to me like you hate this world.”
The reply: First, who is that “me” who is saying something “seems” a certain way? Who is it that has not read enough postings to understand why realized advaitins place quote marks around the term “this world”? Who is so attached to what he/she takes “this world” to be that she/he would actually defend it?
Can it also be inferred that you “love” what you call “this world”? What is that “love of,” really? The body? A “mind”? Personas? Xenophobia? Wished-for continuity? And if you are willing to defend “this world,” then the wonder is how much more you are likely defending during any given day (which is all also just illusion).
Recall that Maharaj said, “You are not in ‘the world.’ ‘The world’ is in you.” How could I hate a world that I’ve never been in?
What did Maharaj mean? It is delusional to speak of “being in this world.” “The world is in you” means . . . “in your mind.” It’s just a concept, and like all concepts, it’s based in learned ignorance and misperceptions.
Why else?
Because no two humans have the same view of “this world.” If there are just over eight billion views of “what ‘this world’ is like” and “what ‘it’s not like” - with no two “versions” being exactly the same - then how can any truth be stated regarding that illusion of “this world”? It cannot.
Conversely, fully realized advaitins have nothing to defend: no concepts, no beliefs, no ideas, no countries, no religion, no personality, no dogma, no ideology, no anything, which brings the response to this pointer.
As a matter of fact, realized advaitins have no more of a problem with “this world” than they do with unicorns, sasquatches, or Martians. Why?
(1) Because the realized first found all that is not real and all that is “the not-them” (which cleared the way for an understanding of that which is real . . . of THAT which they truly are;
and
(2) because the realized, having found what is real and thereafter abiding as the natural state, have nothing to do with a false “relative state” (a.k.a., “this world”).
How insane are people who wander about the planet in what they take to be “this world” without even knowing who they are and, more to the point, who / what they are not? Humans who do not know who they are might be suffering from . . .
amnesia, Alzheimer, dementia, delirium, delusion, dementedness, hallucinations, brain damage, mental deterioration, mental and personality disorders, senility, psychosis, insanity, or full-blown madness;
otherwise, if some organic brain deficiency or injury or disease is not contributing to their “loss of true ‘identity’,” then it might be concluded that they are crazy (which is more often a condition of “the mind” than of the brain).
In that regard, the lyrics of a song entitled “Mad World” addresses the widespread state of madness on the planet. The lyrics partly include the following:
All around me are familiar faces,
bright and early for their daily races.
Going nowhere, going nowhere,
no expression, no expression.
And I find it kind of funny…
I find it kind of sad
when people run in circles -
it's a very, very mad world.
Children waiting for the day they
feel good
“Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday.”
Made to feel the way that every
child should:
sit and listen, sit and listen.
Went to school and I was very
nervous -
no one knew me, no one knew me.
“Hello teacher tell me what's my
lesson.”
Look right through me, look right
through me,
and I find it kind of funny . . .
I find it kind of sad
when people run in circles –
it's a very, very mad world.
The realized, in fact, are the few that are free of having to deal with the “relative problems” - with the madness; with the running but going nowhere; with celebrating a few “different, special days” while otherwise tolerating the many mundane ones; with going to school and being taught lies that are given the status of truth by being labeled “history”;
with some thinking they “know me” when in fact very few know me at all; with walking about in their sleep in what amounts to little more than a death-in-life experience . . . to little more than a night-of-the-living-dead existence that typifies the “this-world-existence.” Do you disagree with that description of what “this world” is like for the non-realized?
Then take not that which is spoken via this speck of consciousness as a valid assessment of what “this world” is really like for the billions of non-realized person walking about in their madness. Let those eight billion+ persons who are sure they have found the answer via their dogma speak for themselves:
Hear the millions of Jews who over the millennia have verbalized the misery and suffering of “this world.” In a movie released recently, a rabbi prays: “Lord, choose another people - as a final blessing, take away our holiness.” Indeed.
Hear the billions of Christians who claim that they are able to tolerate the pain and suffering of “this world” because they believe that they will later have a pain-free, suffering-free existence forever in “that (upgraded) world.”
See how many Muslims are willing to die now in order to escape “this world” and hasten their entry into “that (upgraded) world.”
So now among the non-realized there can be almost eight billion+ “personal” testimonies about “this world” and what the relative existence is like for those who are not realized.
A non-dualist that finds the body-cum-consciousness located presently on the African continent reported that she felt as is if she were in “no-place.”
She was told that if she was that close to where this speck abides, stop by and visit. To be done with “this world” and to abide as that original, natural no-where state is the only sane and peaceful and free place (no-place) there is.
All else is mirage, and the irony of the “this world” concept is that even a mirage can generate suffering at levels that do seem to be very real to the billions who are experiencing misery because of their attachment to the body and mind and personality - all of which are fabrications but which are nevertheless assured to bring about “this-world-madness-and-misery.”
To be continued.
By the way, one of the more popular versions of “Mad World” was presented by Adam Lambert on American Idol more than a decade ago. (Nearly two million views of the song came via YouTube alone.)
For those who might be interested, I’ve linked that cover of the song “Mad World” here.
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");
"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."
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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”
and
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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.
