ABANDONING ALL MAGICAL THINKING AND NONSENSICAL BELIEFS

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[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.

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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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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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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.

THE EXPLANATION

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

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"

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away."

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places

but are states of mind, nothing more than

concepts dreamed up by men."

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell."

--Pope Francis, the current pope

in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record

teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.] 

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