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."
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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.
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A KEY FEAR AMONG THE NON-REALIZED MASSES: THE FEAR OF TOTAL FREEDOM
If not fully realized, then there will be a belief in scores of personal identifications. Each personal identifications / identity / ego-state / role / persona / guise / façade / front / etc. will generate a primary fear and a primary desire.
Seldom will that which is feared materialize; seldom will that which is desired materialize; nevertheless, the influence of both the misguided fears and the unmet desires will remain and contribute to a sense of dis-ease.
Of the thousands of pointers offered by Maharaj which proved to be germane to seekers, one ranks among the most pertinent and unequivocal and illuminating that he ever shared:
“ . . . You are afraid of freedom!”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
In the early stage of beginning some “work” with a guide, he asked a qualifying question:
M.: “How free do you want to be?”
The reply: “Why, totally.”
His response: “We shall see.”
And soon, he did indeed see. What was seen by both that guide and this seeker was that there was no more of a desire to be totally free than there is a desire among to non-realized for the manifestation of the consciousness to end instantly.
It would be years before full realization happened, and it would not be until full realization happened that total freedom not only manifested but was gladly welcomed.
Why do non-realized persons really not find total freedom appealing at all, if the truth were known? What is it about most cultures that nurture and even reward dependence?
What is it about loving personality and personas - that automatically required dependence and co-dependency rather than independence - that is so appealing to humankind?
The billions polled worldwide who say that they are affiliated with an organized religion are taught early on to be dependent on one god or another. The millions in step groups are taught to be dependent on an external, otherworldly power.
Too, every ego-state adopted as an identity must have a co-dependent counterpart and will be dependent on another person to play that co-dependent counterpart in order to sustain the false identity assumed.
(For example, a spouse must have a spouse to supposedly “exist”; an employee must have an employer to supposedly “exist”; a teacher must have students to supposedly “exist”; etc.)
Add to that the fact that fifty-percent of the people on the planet are Personality Types Sixes who are embroiled in fear and are thus dependent types; add to that a large percentage who are Personality Type Twos and Threes and Nines who have a strong sense of entitlement and are therefore dependent types.
In fact, most cultures on the planet inspire dependence rather than independence, so it is little wonder that so few will realize fully and actually become totally free. Yet freedom is the prerequisite for peace, so it is also little wonder that so few will realize fully and be at peace.
So the questions for every seeker and reader are,
“How free do you really want to be?”
“Is it possible that Maharaj's pointer - 'You are afraid of freedom' - might be based at least to some degree in fact?”
and
“If so, might you be interested in certain considerations that might assist in overcoming that fear of total freedom?”
DEFINING FREEDOM - MAHARAJ
First, how did Maharaj define freedom? “Freedom means letting go. People just
do not care to let go everything.”
And that lack of willingness to let go is not confined to those among the
masses who are trapped in the ignorance of their prized, myth-based dogma. Some
of the most dogmatic of all persons are self-declared “Advaitins” or “Traditional
Advanta Vedantins” or “Pseudo-Advaitins” or “Neo-Vedantins” or “Neo-Advaitins”
or “Direct Path Advaitins” or “The Real Advaita Vedantins.”
Freedom is freedom from all duality, from all concepts, from all identification,
from all beliefs, from all learned ignorance. Yet many who claim such freedom
are in self-delusion. For example, some come here and remain for the entire
dance; others, however, come for a brief visit or two and stay . . .
(a) not long enough for their ego-states to be eradicated but only
(b) long enough for their ego-states to feel hurt or threatened or interfered
with or offended.
They leave quickly, staying long enough to report that non-duality is not
understood at all here or staying only long enough to leave a profane rant
because “Floyd does not pronounce Eastern words properly.” And such persons can
take themselves to be fully realized and totally free? Yes they can.
It might be asked, “Of which version of Advaita Vedanta do they speak?
Traditional, neo-Advaita, neo-Vedanta, Pseudo-Advaita, Direct Path?” and “Of
which yoga do they speak? Hatha, bhakti, raja, gnana, nisarga, or some other?”
Is their issue that they think they know all there is to know about Advaita
Vedanta though they have been exposed to only one method of “teaching” or to
only one yoga?
Did they reach the mountaintop with a pack mule carrying their equipment? Does
that mean that one whose equipment was carried by a sherpa and is standing on
the same mountaintop has not really reached the mountaintop because he / she
did not arrive in the exact, same fashion as the one deciding who has reached
the mountaintop and who has not?
Is it possible that the one who is not free at all and who is making such
judgments is having to look upward, not really having reached a mountaintop at all?
Is it possible that the truly realized see no such levels of “higher vs. lower”
. . . “top vs. not-top”?
Or does it mean that the judgmental types have no freedom at all, that they are
driven by their egotism-supported ego-states to move through the relative
existence while making their uninvited visits to one place after another,
telling all who are different from them how wrong they are?
Is the preoccupation with such differences which drives their “me vs. them”
campaigning actually evidence of how totally embroiled in duality they really
are?
To use Maharaj's words, what is it that they are not willing to 'let go
of'?” The role of “The Knower”? The ego-state of “The Spiritual Giant Who Is
Cursed to Walk Among Spiritual Lilliputians?”
Are there roles which you, similarly, prefer not to “let go of”? Could Maharaj
be correct? Could it be that if you were truly objective, you might have to
admit that, indeed, you are to some degree afraid of freedom (at least freedom
that is the only real type of freedom which there is, namely, total freedom)?
Beyond the majority who are lost in the dream of the superstition-based
teachings of the major sky cults, consider also those who might stumble upon the
non-dual pointers offered here but are lost in the role and in the agenda of “The
Real Advaita Vedantin” mentioned above:
Is there any real freedom exhibited by their behavior that is so obviously
driven by the subconscious agenda of a persona? The questions to be asked
include . . .
. . . “WHO” (what false ego-states) are so attached to personhood that they
have no clue at all that their thoughts and words and actions are determined by
their egotism-driven persona(s)?
. . . WHO (what false ego-states) are so lost in the illusory sense of “having
Realized” that they cannot see that they are not free at all?
DEFINING FREEDOM - LOUISE
Louise is “a non-dualist” living in Cape Town, S.A. What did she have to say
about that type of blind behavior when she defined freedom?
“Freedom is impersonal - how can you expect to find it when you are so attached
to your personhood? Freedom is formless - how can you expect to find it when you are
committed to your form? Freedom is limitless - how can you expect to find it if
you are defined by what is particular and limited? Freedom is without attributes
- how can you expect to find it when you define yourself according to your
characteristics?”
DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES
And what are some of the conventional definitions of freedom that are offered in a variety of dictionaries? Here are a few:
a. the power to act or speak or think without externally-imposed restraints;
b. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.;
c. the power to determine action without restraint;
d. exemption from the presence of anything specified - for example, freedom
from fear;
e. ease or facility of movement or action; and,
f. the ability to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from
within or without; autonomy; self-determination.
Yet consider: when personality determines thought, word and deed - which
personality does:
then none of the above forms of freedom can manifest. If one is driven by
the agenda of a personality, then there is no power to act or speak or think
without the externally-imposed restraints of personality.
The person cannot be exempt from the external control and interference and
regulation of one or more agenda-driven personas.
Living under the auspices of personality, there can be no ability to determine
action without restraint.
Living under the auspices of personality, there is no exemption from the
presence of such personality-specified aspects such as desire and fear.
Living under the auspices of personality (which determines all thoughts and all
words and all actions) there can be no ease or facility of movement or action.
Living under the auspices of personality, there can be no power to exercise
choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without.
As long as all is self-determined (determined by the false self) then there can
be no Self-determination (determined by the natural, spontaneous aspects of the
unblocked, pure consciousness).
Realization is, among other things, about freedom from ignorance and
irrationality and insanity . . . about being restored to sanity.
What could be more ignorant and irrational and insane that believing that one is free when one is bound up in personality, imprisoned by delusions, trapped in the cage of one's “mind,” and living under the auspices of egotism-driven ego-states?
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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“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.
