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 newer 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.)
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THE CURSE OF HUMANKINDS’ RELATIVE EXISTENCE: IDENTIFICATIONS
“All illness begins in the mind.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Yesterday’s post ended with this:
So what was Maharaj’s state in the end, the state which ultimately freed him and led to the birth of his wisdom? It was a no-mind state. Thus he advised:
“There is no such thing as a mind.”
“I have no mind . . . .”
Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised:
“Reach a state of zero-concepts.”
“As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which
everything happens.”
“I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too.”
“I find I have lost the mind irretrievably.”
It is the mind which is a storehouse for body and mind and personality identifications.
It is the mind which is a storehouse for dualistic and, therefore, bogus ideas and concepts and notions and misperceptions (a.k.a., “beliefs”) which generate instability and chaos and misery and suffering.
It is the mind which is a storehouse of the ignorant and insane beliefs which were planted therein by ignorant and insane programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination.
It is the mind which is a storehouse of all which imprisons persons.
[John Milton said, “The mind . . . in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven” and Richard Lovelace said, “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” So what did he identify as that which does make a prison? The mind, packed chock full of false identifications and false beliefs.]
It is the mind which is a storehouse to all which results in a false sense of different-from-ment which - in turn - always leads to a subsequent sense of better-than-ment.
It is the mind, being the storehouse of beliefs about different-from-ment and better-than-ment, which leads to a false sense of separation which then sets the stage for arguments, nonsensical disagreements, fighting, conflict, killing, wars, chaos, pain, misery, and suffering.
It is the mind which is a storehouse of learned ignorance, personality disorders, and the neuroses and psychoses which can follow as personality disorders disintegrate into a state of severe psychic unhealthiness.
At every step, the long and arduous “path” which was followed here for decades involved dealing with persons who were all determined to use their dogma or exercises or beliefs or methods to add more to the mind, touting the need for more dogma, more spiritual exercises, more philosophy, more ideology, more (but different) beliefs, ad infinitum.
The long and arduous search ended when it became clear that (1) all of the stuff in the mind was the actual source of every problem, the mind being the origin of every problem; and that (2) the solution did indeed call for de-accumulation . . . that is, called for entering into a process of being un-taught all of it; called for entering into a process of un-learning it all;
and called for casting aside all of the nonsense which had been added to and stored in a part of the brain which would be called “the mind” and which would lead to decades of ignorant and nonsensical and insane actions which led to massive levels of misery and suffering that did not end until the mind came to an end.
How to end the mind, the entire content of which can all be summarized with the term, “one’s beliefs”?
Abandon all beliefs. No beliefs? No mind. No mind? No stone walls. No stone walls? Freedom.
As has been noted here, each belief, each assumed persona, and each scrap of learned ignorance which is all stored in the mind . . . each of those becomes one of the many bars which are used to form the prison of the mind.
Want to be freed from prison? Cut away the bars of beliefs; the bars of identifications (or some “Special Identification”); and the bars of taught and learned ignorance.
Only then can you be free of dualistic thinking, and only free of dualistic thinking can you be truly free, and only if truly free can you be happy or at least content. (As Maharaj said, “It really is simple,” yes?)
It is the ever-churning mind which sets the stage for DID to manifest and to begin controlling every thought, every word, and every deed.
To continue with what WebMD shares in regard to DID:
Dissociation may also happen when there has been persistent neglect or emotional abuse, even when there has been no overt physical or sexual abuse. Findings show that in families where parents are frightening and unpredictable, the children may become dissociative.
Yet how far off is that site and doctors and therapists all around the globe, some of whom downplay the widespread nature of the sickness by claiming only 1% of the people on the plant suffer from DID. The wise non-dualist understands that fewer than 1% don’t suffer from DID.
Who that is programmed, conditioned, etc. to believe they are this and that and this and that can be said to be free of so widespread a mental disorder?
Maharaj said, “After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay.”
And what are those “further acquisitions”? They are the false personal identifications which are assigned from early on and which are accumulated by most for their entire existence.
Moreover, he said: “When you are thoroughly knowledgeable, you will come to the conclusion that this beingness is also an illusion.”
Meaning? He explained: “From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”
So what did he not say about the mind and the brain and what did he say about the mind?
WHAT MAHARAJ DID NOT SAY:
He did not say: “All illness begins in the brain.”
He did not say: “Your confusion is . . . in your brain.”
He did not say: “Whatever is conceived by the brain must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited.”
He did not say: “Distrust your brain, and go beyond.”
FURTHERMORE, HE DID NOT SAY:
He did not say: “There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your brain creates.”
He did not say: “ . . . The brain obscures and distorts.”
He did not say: “It is the brain that creates illusion.”
He did not say: “There is no such thing as peace of brain. Brain means disturbance. Restlessness itself is brain.”
He did not say: “Don't rely on your brain for liberation. It is the brain that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether.”
NOR DID HE SAY:
He did not say: “Beyond the brain there is no suffering.”
He did not say: “Stop making use of your brain and see what happens.”
He did not say: “Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the brain nor its ideas.”
He did not say: “There is no such thing as brain. There are ideas . . . .”
He did not say: “Abandon the wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . .”
He did not say: “The death of the brain is the birth of wisdom.”
ADDITIONALLY, HE DID NOT SAY:
He did not say: “To know that you are a prisoner of your brain - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom.”
He did not say: “I have no brain . . . .”
He did not say: “Reach a state of zero-concepts.”
He did not say: “As to my brain, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens.”
He did not say: “I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my brain, too.”
He did not say: “I find I have lost the brain irretrievably.”
So what did Maharaj have to say about the mind specifically?
WHAT HE DID SAY:
“All illness begins in the mind.”
“Your confusion is . . . in your mind.”
“Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited.”
“Distrust your mind, and go beyond.”
“There is no chaos in the world except the chaos which your mind creates.”
“ . . . The mind obscures and distorts.”
“It is the mind that creates illusion.”
“There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance. Restlessness itself is mind.”
“Don't rely on your mind for liberation. It is the mind that brought you into bondage. Go beyond it altogether.”
“Beyond the mind there is no suffering.”
So if the problem centers in the mind, and since a sick mind - obviously - cannot heal a sick mind, then what is the solution, per Maharaj?
“Stop making use of your mind and see what happens.”
[Most significantly, understand that, in fact, there is no such thing as “your mind.” There is only “their mind” which they passed down to you, the content of which you have unquestioningly accepted as true, based in blind - and totally unjustified - faith alone.]
What else did he said about the mind?
“Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror. Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas.”
“There is no such thing as mind. There are [bogus] ideas . . . .”
“Abandon wrong ideas, for they are false and obstruct your vision . . . .”
“The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.”
“To know that you are a prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation - is the dawn of wisdom.”
“I have no mind . . . .”
Want to be free of the mind? Maharaj advised, then . . .
“Reach a state of zero-concepts.”
“As to my mind, I have no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens.”
“I am double dead: not only am I dead to my body, but to my mind, too.”
“I find I have lost the mind irretrievably.”
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.
