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.
5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.
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.
7. You may click here to visit Floyd's bookstore which offers both digital books and paperback books which deal with non-duality, non-duality-based fictional adventures, recovery, and financial budgeting.
A KEY FEAR AMONG THE NON-REALIZED MASSES: THE FEAR OF TOTAL FREEDOM
“ . . . You are afraid of freedom!”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The suggestion that persons move about during the relative existence even if they are in a sleep state is not complicated. It happens to approximately eight billion humans every twenty-four hours as they dream that they are saying something or doing something even though they are totally asleep. The more complicated issue is that 50% of the people in the U.S. are opposed to people being awake, awoken, or ‘woke’ as they move about during the relative existence. The U.S. and the nearly 200 other countries on the planet are inhabited by somnambulists, and those who are asleep generally prefer to remain asleep.”
--Floyd Henderson
Yesterday’s post ended with these questions.
What shift must happen in order for
(1) freedom from the disappointment and misery and frustration of finding time
and again that what is desired or “gained” will never be permanently set, will
never be enduring, and will never be unending; and
(2) what do the teachings here offer that allow a fixation in the bliss of THAT
to happen, even as the AM-ness continues?
Today, we’ll see what the understanding is as explained
by Louise in Cape Town, S.A.
Here is the way she described the shift, starting with “where she was” and then
describing “where she is” and what is “different” as a result of having
completed the “journey” here:
“The early contacts with you raised the issue of feeling imprisoned by: the
demands of the teenager; the difficulties of single parenting; the day job; and
the non-realized state (especially glimpsing what was perceived as the blissful
state and then returning to imprisoned reality).
“The pointer you offered was: this is all occurring at the level of experience.
As you described in what you labelled ‘the Goldilocks Syndrome,’ there is no
stability in manifest consciousness which is always changing. To attempt to
find stability there is like building a house on sinking sand and expecting it
to stand firm.
“To free me from this self-created imprisonment, the question you asked me is:
what is that changeless state, that is beyond these vagaries of good and bad,
stable and unstable, clarity and lack of clarity.”
“Maharaj would say: set up camp there. Until that pointer is grasped by the
seeker, the experience of duality and therefore instability will persist. Here,
the relative life details remain unchanged, but the view is entirely different.”
The “relative life details remain unchanged”? Yes, to the degree that the
relative challenges of raising a teenager as a single parent remain and to the
degree that some always-challenging employment must continue in order to
provide for the basic requirements of two people.
Might the relative details in some other instances change? Of course: with some
other seekers, there can be a movement away from chaotic relations, from
noisiness, from undue busy-ness, from generating crises, and / or from
developing an addiction to chaos because of overwhelming boredom.
But the Ultimate Sickness has a far firmer hold on the four men mentioned
earlier who, unlike Louise early on, have never even “glimpsed the blissful
state.”
And “the view is entirely different”? Yes. It is recalled that when Louise moved from one cottage to
another, she found that the view of the lovely, peaceful, and even blissful
garden was obscured because muck and grime had accumulated for years on the
glass of the window and blocked the view of the garden from one of her rooms as
a result of that buildup of contaminants.
If you are willing to seek out guidance from a “realized Nisargan,” then you
will have found “A Window Cleaner,” so to speak. You will have found a speck of
consciousness that understands the muck and grime that obscures your view are
really the concepts and ideas and beliefs that are driving you;
that understands why you cannot possibly view the beauty and peace and bliss;
that understands how the muck and grime were set in place via years of
accumulated programming and conditioning and acculturation and domestication;
that understands exactly why you think what you think, say what you say, and do what you do (even as you believe there is some “you” that is determining all of that);
and that understands that it is all of the “not-you’s” -
all of the personalities that you have assumed or that were cast upon you -
that are driving all of your thoughts and words and deeds.
That Nisargan not only understands the roots of the insanity and ignorance that
is driving the four men mentioned earlier, but also knows exactly how freedom
could come to them if they would but follow the multi-step “path” to total
freedom from the muck and grime;
from the inability to see clearly; from the inability to
shift beyond the flux and chaos of their relative lives; from the ability to
fixate in the only state where such fixation can happen.
The fact is, though, that those four are exactly like all among the non-realized
masses: the only thing that they are more afraid of than freedom is total
freedom. So it is, but so it need not be. At this point, they have no option.
At this point, maybe you do.
All that persons are afraid of, they are afraid of because they take themselves
to be . . . persons. (Do you see the trap, the conundrum, the “Catch-22”
involved there?) That is to say, there can be no fear unless there is first an
assumed persona with an agenda.
The four men have no option at this point other than to pursue a mirage, other
than to try to defend a mirage, and other than to engage in the futile effort
of trying to convert that which is temporary into that which is permanent. They
may as well become alchemists and try to convert lead into gold.
You, though, might be in a position where you understand that the
tried-and-true means by which total freedom can come is right here before you.
You might be standing at the fork in the road.
Shall you continue along the same route and experience the same consequences, or is “the road that has not yet be taken” calling you? Shall you continue to try to find stability at “the level of experience,” or might you be ready to find stability at the level of Reality?
A visitor said: What you said to Louise about everything
was happening at “the level of experience” obviously was a turning point for
her and allowed her to attain the total freedom you talk about. But I can still
relate to what she was saying about the stress of being a single parent and
trying to pay the bills, so please explain “at the level of experience” so i
might reach that turning point, too.
The reply: First, allow a foundation to
be laid for your understanding of what “at the level of experience” means;
then, you will understand that there was no “louise” that “attained” anything.
Consider this exchange:
Questioner: “Is the witness-consciousness permanent or not?”
Maharaj: “It is not permanent. The knower rises and sets
with the known. That in which both the knower and the known arise and set, is
beyond time. The words permanent or eternal do not apply.”
So, too, are the experience and experiencer not permanent. The experiencer
rises and sets with the experience. That in which both the experience and the
experiencer arise and set is beyond time.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(collected in two anthologies).
Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.
[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]
For NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES
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."
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
This anthology (438 pages) contains the six books that make up what has been called The Blissful Abidance Series for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including:
“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
“When REALITY Is Overlaid on the RELATIVE.”
Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Blissful Abidance Series
from Amazon by clicking here.
SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
(1) 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.
Or,
(2) To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:
(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com.
(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.
(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)
Send your information to:
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.
If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(collected in two anthologies).
Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.
[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]
For NON-DUALITY AUDIENCES
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."
from BARNES AND NOBLE by clicking here
or (sometimes less efficiently nowadays in terms of paperback delivery)
This anthology (438 pages) contains the six books that make up what has been called The Blissful Abidance Series for those seeking to live blissfully and happily for the remainder of the manifestation, including:
“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
“When REALITY Is Overlaid on the RELATIVE.”
Order a PAPERBACK copy of The Blissful Abidance Series
from Amazon by clicking here.
SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
(1) 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.
Or,
(2) To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:
(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com.
(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.
(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)
Send your information to:
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.
