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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I AM THAT vs. “This Is Who I Think I Am”
[Continued]
Yesterday’s post ended with this:
For the realized, there is consistently and permanently the peace and silence of pure being (and that which is beyond pure being). For the non-realized, the only chance for a few moments of peace and silence is by way of the temporary respite of sleep. Yet even that is elusive.
The non-realized, living as six-year-olds in adult bodies, do not know how to eat, how to purge and cleanse, how to sleep. As children they did all of that naturally, but as programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated adults, they have not the wherewithal to carry out even the simplest of infant-level functions.
Their bodies are reflections of their “minds”: stopped up, clogged up, filled with poisons and toxins . . . now exhausted . . . totally useless . . . both detriments only.
Sleep seldom reaches the delta level for the non-realized, so even that intended respite is usually marked by fluctuations as well.
At the delta level, there is no notion that “This is who I think I am” . . . no notion that “I am this role or that persona.” Yet the non-realized, knowing no peace during the day, know little peace at night, either.
At the theta level, they are still dreaming - just as when they were walking about earlier during the day. And in those dreams - or nightmares - they are “this” or “that” again and facing all sorts of relative challenges that seem real - again, just as when they were walking about in their sleep during the day.
And even identification with the consciousness provides no rest, for even when asleep, I - the consciousness - know that sleep is happening. It is I that must stay on task, directing the lungs to expand and contract, directing the heart to expand and contract.
No rest even then. The stable peace and silence comes to stay not with abidance as “a being” or as “the consciousness” but with abidance as that original, natural state.
If delta level sleep does happen among the non-realized, even then there is only a temporary release from self, but upon returning to the awake state, the belief in the self/selves also returns, bringing with it all of the nonsense of the relative.
Now some have reported, “For me, there is only the Self, whether in that deepest level of sleep, or while going into and out of the samadhi state, or in the turiya state.”
Yet where is the stability there when going to sleep and awakening, when going into and out of samadhi, or when in the turiya state? But wait. What of turiyatita?
[The following is for those seekers at the “highest” level only: have you considered not only that which is prior to consciousness but also that which is beyond realisation? Do you understand the distinction between the consciousness and awareness? If so, do you understand that which is beyond even that? Have you understood the pointers offered in the book from The Absolute to the Nothingness? There is the subject matter for your consideration.]
For those not realized or not fully realized, have you considered the irony that the realized - now fully awake and witnessing the relative existence unfold from an AS IF mode - are enjoying the peace and silence that are typical of the uninterrupted, deep sleep state?
Are you seeing that the non-attachment of that deep-sleep-like existence provides the same respite as what some who believe in “death” refer to as “The Big Sleep”? Your consideration for the day, should you be willing to consider, is this:
Is it not the case that “the person” can be taken to be real during both the waking state and the dream state? Is it possible that the Self is also “the stuff” of the turiya state and the deep sleep state?
Is it possible, however, that - beyond those states that are all associated with the manifest consciousness - that there is a “bigger sleep,” a “bigger silence,” a “bigger peace,” a “bigger Nothing” which (like that “Big Sleep” concept) is “bigger” than all relative somethings combined?
If you would be free of the fluctuations of the relative, then there is that state in which true fixation can happen. There, peace and silence are in a fixed state rather than an ever-fluctuating state. Here, there is no “one” going into samadhi or out of samadhi. What could possibly be appealing about a temporary respite, especially now that a permanent respite is happening?
The invitation is to take the pointers offered by a realized guide, read the words of a realized guide, consider them not from a state of “deep meditation” but from a state of alertness, and come to know that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness and the self and anything else that has seemingly been “realized.”
3. THE UNIVERSAL RESPITE FROM ALL RELATIVE PROBLEMS: DEEP SLEEP
Many describe the problem they have with trying to grasp the irony of (a) being fully awake even as the manifestation continues while (b) enjoying the bliss of the state that is not unlike deep, delta-level sleep with its peace and silence.
Some outright declared the pointer to be “wrong.” The invitation, therefore, is
to consider again the example offered: even when this body-cum-consciousness
called “floyd” is asleep, I - the consciousness - am totally aware that sleep
is happening.
That is the way it is when fully realized and fully awake while simultaneously
reaping the peace and bliss that the non-realized can only experience during
deep sleep.
That is the irony or the paradox referred to previously that applies to the realized:
it is AS IF one is totally asleep (to the degree that abidance as the original,
natural state assures freedom from all that is relative and personal) while
also being totally awake and aware. Maybe this exchange will clarify:
A visitor spoke to Maharaj of being “ . . . quiet, inwardly and outwardly.”
Maharaj asked, “What kind of quiet was it? Something akin to deep sleep, yet
conscious all the same? A sort of wakeful sleep?” The visitor replied, “Yes,
alertly asleep.”
That understanding can be a challenge for any seeker that does not understand
that there are no contradictions in the Advaita teachings even though there are
many paradoxes.
The
paradox is pointed to with the term jagrat-sushupti, loosely meaning, “awakened
sleep” or “alert sleep” (“jagrat,” from “jagri,” meaning “awake, attentive,
watchful and witnessing” and with “sushupti,” meaning, “sleep”).
“To be a person is to be asleep,” Maharaj said. It matters not if the person
claims to be in the waking state or claims that he was in the sleeping state or
was in the dream state.
Such
claims still deal only with that which is personal (and therefore not Real).
Those three are all mental states, all states dealing with “the mind,” and “the
mind” is the seat of illusion.
That is why the non-realized are out of touch with Reality (not understanding
the THAT-ness) not only when dreaming or when in deep sleep; they are also out
of touch with Reality (not understanding the THAT-ness) when in the waking
state because they are not really awake at all.
By contrast, the state in which my being is happening is “unified,” so to speak.
It does not have three parts - it is but one. The mental states have all been
transcended.
The assigned or assumed personas have all been cast aside, along with body identification and along with the “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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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.
