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.)
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.
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.
LIBERATION FROM BELIEVING IN FALSE IDENTITIES
“After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions [false identities] are by hearsay.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Being Trapped in Personality vs. Being Realized and Free
Yesterday’s post ended with a reference to “liberation.” I’ve has been asked many times during the last thirty-four years to explain the difference between liberation and realization.
Here, the term “liberation” refers specifically to being liberated from the belief in personality identifications and all false identities. Those beliefs are certainly a part of the body of learned ignorance. “Realization” refers to being free of all learned ignorance.
Personality is (1) that which generates personas and (2) that which allows things to be taken personally.
A persona is an assumed social role or a character played by an actor, the term having been derived from the Latin word for “mask” or “character.” Personas are all of the false identities that persons think define “who they are.” In fact, they define everything that one is not.
“Taking anything personally” can only happen when a persona assumes a false identity and then assumes offense at the words or actions of another. When do personas take offense?
When an assumed identity assumes that it is being hurt, interfered with, or threatened. What conclusion can be drawn from knowing that? All instances of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable or in pain originate from assuming false identities and then wanting to defend or protect false identities;
therefore, to be free of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable, in pain or defensive requires being free of personas . . . being free of the entrapment in personality.
Thousands of personas are assumed by billions of persons: husband, lover, homeowner, employee, employer, wife, son, ad infinitum; however, as a result of genetics and environment and other factors, all persons develop one dominate persona while assuming scores of others. Often, that dominant persona is overlaid onto (or combined with) all other assumed roles.
Though persons can pick from hundreds and hundreds of false personality identifications, there are only nine primary personality types, and since persons subconsciously become most driven by types, then the “journey” to liberation can begin with an effort to be rid of the influence of the dominate personality type. Then the secondary types and personas might be abandoned more easily.
Why Understand Personality Types?
One psychotherapist explains it this way: “You may as well learn all that you can about your primary personality type as well as the related types that influence you. For most people, it will determine everything they do and everything they feel during their entire lives. Only a small percentage will ever be liberated from the dominance of personality.”
Dictating Behavior
Of course each individual is “unique,” but unless people understand the way that personality type dictates behavior, then they will never fully understand why they do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel.
Nor can they understand why others do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel - which can be quite different from person to person - depending on personality type. Nor can they ever break free of unconscious influences.
Personality Formation
Early in life, we learned to feel safe (and to cope with unhealthy family situations and circumstances) by developing a strategy based on natural talents, genetics, and abilities.
Personality’s Power over Behavior and Feelings
People of the same type have the same basic motivations, the same basic liabilities and assets, and the same basic view of the world in some fundamentally similar ways. It’s almost “textbook” the way people demonstrate the exact traits of their type.
It is amazing to see how infrequently people choose to do the things they do and how often they are predisposed to certain behavioral patterns. (When you add programming, conditioning, enculturation, and the effects of trauma to the mix, “free will” and “choice” become reduced to the level of theory.)
The Benefits of Understanding Your Type
This understanding can provide release, if not comfort, in knowing that millions of people who share your personality type have the same coping strategy as you and have done exactly what you did when faced with the same circumstances.
But by understanding personality, millions have also been able to say, “Oh my gosh! So that’s why I do what I do!” and then they have become free of the overwhelming influence of personality which has unconsciously driven them.
At some level, “That’s totally insane” can give way to “That’s perfectly understandable, all things considered.” When that understanding comes, then blame and guilt and anger directed at self can end and a shift toward sanity can begin.
What is the Enneagram and What Are the Nine Personality Types?
In geometry, the enneagram is a star polygon with nine sides. In psychology or philosophy or sociology, it is a means for studying the nine basic personality types that have been recognized for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Some believe that the Sufis first used the tool in the Middle East hundreds of years ago. Others believe that the roots can be traced to the Far East and were transmitted orally even thousands of years ago.
It is known that the modern use of the enneagram can be traced to the Russian teacher Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff in the 1920’s. The tool has been used in the U.S. since the 1960’s.
More significantly as far as the pointers in this book are concerned, it is just that . . . simply a tool. The tool can be used to understand the forces that drive persons to do the things they do and to feel the way they feel.
It can also be used to promote understanding of others and their behavior and also to catalogue the disintegration of persons who move downward from the stages where they can function in society through the declining stages and into the dysfunctional stages.
It can also provide a series of actions that can be taken to “undo” that process and return to a stage where one can be functional or even totally liberated via realization.
The nine types (and their interactions with each other) are typically illustrated by use of a star polygon. For the purposes of this study, little explanation will be offered to explain the ways that the types adjacent to your own influence behavior or the way that other types connected by lines to your own affect your conduct. Much information is available on the web if you are interested in those other aspects.
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.