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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ABANDONING ALL MAGICAL THINKING AND NONSENSICAL BELIEFS
While certain pointers from Maharaj seemed to be contradictory, they were based in the fact that he was offering level-appropriate pointers to visitors . . . pointers that were based in “where” they were on “the path.”
Because visitors did not show up and ask questions in order, then the
pointers offered about the various steps on the “path” were not arranged in a numerical
order.
Thus, on one day a visitor’s comments might have shown Maharaj that that guest
was at Step Two and needed a pointer that lead the visitor to shift to Step
Three.
The next day, a guest might have shown up who was at step One and needed to hear a pointer that led to a
shift to Step Two.
A message for a seeker at Step Four would never be offered to a guest at Step One,
and vice-versa. So Maharaj’s seemingly contradictory pointers in “I AM THAT”
were not contradictory at all but were based in level-appropriateness;
however, his evolution did lead to a variance in messaging regarding spirituality as a tool to use to reach a state of realization.
Realization is about de-accumulating all beliefs (which are false) where as spirituality is about accumulating more and more beliefs (which are also all false). The requirement for realization (and peace) is to “un-learn” all that has been taught, to be “un-taught.”
Pointers endorsing de-accumulation indicate that all must be de-accumulated.
Why did Maharaj finally start offering a non-spiritual message to
visitors?
1. Because he understood that the main problem with humanity centers in the
mind.
2. Because he knew that the mind is the source of all thinking - which produces
the incessant, endless grinding and churning between the ears that - in turn -
generates all human misery and suffering and emotional intoxication and insane behaviors.
3. Because he encouraged seekers to reach the no-mind, zero-concept,
thinking-free state since it is that state which facilitates an end to magical
thinking as well - which is all that supernatural thinking (a.k.a., religious
thinking and / or spiritual thinking) amounts to.
4. And because his own observations with seekers who came his way led him to
predict that only 1 in 100,000 would realize, revised later to 1 in 1,000,000
and revised later to 1 in 10,000,000. His own experience with them and his own
observations made clear that he came to understand that neither a religious nor a spiritual approach was leading
to realization.
Add to that the fact that at the end he was offering a purer version of the
Nisarga Yoga which recommends natural living over unnatural (religious) living
and over supernatural (spiritual) living.
Once natural living manifests, one
lives in the same manner as all things natural: without religious beliefs or
identities and without spiritual beliefs or identities.
Thus, he said to two visitors, “Forget spirituality.”
He encouraged seekers to follow “their normal inclinations,” that is, to follow
their natural tendencies, to abandon all of their spiritual work and just abide
naturally - not unnaturally and not supernaturally (i.e., neither “religiously”
nor “spiritually” nor “philosophically”).
He told visitors, “Do your normal duties” and “just give up spirituality.”
Again, to move beyond the misery and suffering which are the effects of the
Ultimate Sickness (one symptom of which is magical thinking and the nonsense
which that generates) requires that one must move beyond the influence of the
content of the mind.
The problems of humanity are centered in the mind; the mind generates unnatural
and supernatural (magical) thinking; so to be sane and logical and at peace,
then being influenced by the content of the mind (that is, beliefs) must be
transcended.
While the realized non-duality guide would ultimately lead the seeker to to full
realization, that is not the “end goal” if the Nisarga Yoga is also understood.
Maharaj’s advice to “forget spirituality” and to “do your normal duties” and to “just give up spirituality” are also invitations to be free of magical thinking, to get in touch with reality and Reality.
Once a
seeker overlays Reality on the relative, what manifests is this awareness: understanding
that Reality provides in order to not only be in touch with Reality (THAT) but
also to be in touch with “reality” (the temporary AM-ness).
Some have countered, “That is so totally ignorant, Floyd. Do you not understand
the teaching that ‘nothing is real’?”
Those familiar with the pointers offered here know the
response given to one woman who teaches that non-fact:
If you are certain that is the case, then test your claim. Count off fifteen
paces from a brick wall, turn and face the wall, bend until your upper torso is
parallel with the ground and the top of your head is aimed at the wall, begin
running towards the wall as fast as you can;
then ram your head into the wall as
hard as you can. When you come to, you can then report whether the brick wall
is real or not.
To the contrary of the claim by some teachers that “nothing is real,” the
actual fact is that everything is real. It is just that nothing is as it “appears”
to be. Place a brick from the wall under an electron microscope and you’ll
observe a swirling mass of subatomic particles.
To be in touch with Reality is not to be removed from “reality.” (The entire
summative statement of non-duality is “I AM THAT; I AM,” not just “I AM THAT.”)
The manifestation (including the relative, the “real,” the Am-ness) continues post-realization,
but when Reality is overlaid on the relative (on the “reality,” on the “real”
that marks the post-realization) then the relative existence continues in a
manner that is marked by being sane and logical and rational and in touch with
the six senses and the intuitive awareness via the inner resource.
No longer is there any unnatural thinking or supernatural thinking or religious
thinking or spiritual thinking or any thinking at all. A no-mind,
zero-concepts, no-beliefs state is reached.
In the absence of belief in all of the concepts and ideas and notions and dogma
and spiritual principles and thoughts and perceptions and delusions and
illusions and theories and hypotheses and views that had formerly filled the
mind and made it the place where humanity’s problem centers, an end will come
to the distorted thoughts that were based in the mind’s collection of distorted
beliefs.
Then, too, all ego-state-and-egotism-based talking will end. There will be no “one”
left to assume a super religious identity or a super spiritual identity. Until
then, those false identities with inspire magical thinking which inspires
magical talking (that is, to use a term Maharaj used but that was edited from
the transcripts of his talks: “BS”). As current examples:
Magical thinking example #1:
In the news was an account of a claim made by a woman (who happened to be on a
national book tour in the U.S., promoting the sale of the book in which she
writes a detailed account of what she said was a “near-death” experience in
2009).
According to her tale, she ended up in heaven for a few minutes where she “saw
and smelled God.” Magical thinking. First, nothing has been created, so there
is no Creator;
secondly, that which is not born cannot die; third, if there were a perfect and pure God, is it likely that “He” (to use her gender-specific word) would be emitting an odor and that “He” would allow people to smell him?
Similar tales by others also claim to have “died, seen
God, talked to ‘Him,’ and then returned to life,” but this woman takes it a
step further: she “smelled God,” too. How very dog-like.
[Since the nation she is touring deems itself to be “the greatest Christian
nation on earth,” you may have just got a whiff of something else she was using to try to increase book sales.]
Magical thinking example 2:
Earlier, an athlete who broke his leg during a basketball game exhibited
magical thinking in a press conference when he declared that “prayer helped me.” How could he possibly know that for a fact?
Of course, assumptions and claims about religious and spiritual “benefits” are based in bias and the drawing of nonsensical conclusions.
That player’s claim could only be proved if an experiment
had been conducted that tested how long it took the leg to heal with prayer vs.
how long it took the leg to heal without prayer.
For that to be known, the leg would have to be allowed to heal in combination
with prayer. Then, the leg would have to be re-broken - in the exact same
manner and degree as the original break - and then allowed to heal without any
use of prayer.
Then one could prove if “prayer” helped or not, and that proof
would be based in scientific fact rather than in nonsensical, talking-in-one’s-sleep
BS.
With the results of that experiment available, then the athlete could present
facts to the public rather than ego-state-inspired talk that has no basis in
fact.
As it is, he does not know if prayer helped or not, but
he did accomplish what his ego-states and egotism wanted to accomplish: he
reinforced his public image as “The One With Faith,” “The Good Christian,” “The
Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant.”
To be invited to “forget spirituality” and to “do your normal duties” and to “just
give up spirituality” is really an invitation to wake up; to stop talking in
your sleep; to spot nonsense when you hear it (especially if you’re hearing it
from your own mouth);
to transcend the personality trance that all are lulled
into via programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing
and indoctrination; to “get Real”; and to also “get real.”
Finally, it can be understood why Maharaj was the least visited of all of the
gurus in India during his teaching days: he reinforced no religious or
spiritual ego-states, he gave visitors nothing, and he, instead, took away
everything (that is, everything dreamed up, imagined, believed in, assumed as
an identity, etc.)
Same here.
That approach will get you some low traffic, but high traffic was not being
sought there and is not being sought here. On the other hand, the few, truly
earnest seekers were welcomed into that loft back then and are welcomed into
this electronic loft now.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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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.
