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
OBSTACLES WHICH
BLOCK A SCIENCE-BASED
UNDERSTANDING
of both
REALITY AND reality
and thus
INSPIRE AN ALL-OUT DEFENSE OF FALSE IDENTITIES
Yesterday’s discussion referenced the ego-states which form and which drive persons’ every thought and every word and ever action, usually to the detriment of stability and peace.
And what is as detrimental to stability and peace? The forces which “protect” and perpetuate the belief in those ego-states, that is, ego-defense mechanisms.
Consider the enormity of the obstacles which one who works for 20 or 40 or 80 years with seekers of the non-dual understanding will witness:
“The Use of Always-Reliable Ego-Defense Mechanisms”
As long as persons assume that their ego-states are actual identities, they will use mechanisms to defend those false identities. The ego (Latin, “I,” the false “I”) can be said to be - to use one man’s words - “cunning, baffling, and powerful” to the extent that assumed ego-states can control thoughts and words and actions.
Moreover, they will do that “undercover” because the agendas of ego-states are always functioning at a subconscious / unconscious level.
Misery and suffering are guaranteed to come to a relative existence when it is controlled by ego and ego-defense mechanisms (which surface shortly after personalities or personas, roles, characters, actors, ego-states, false selves, guises, facades, and fronts are assumed).
So how can ego-defense mechanisms be considered “always-reliable” if they bring misery and suffering? Because they never fail to do their primary job, which is to protect and defend the false images which persons have of themselves.
Moreover, the use of ego-defense mechanisms feed the ego and inspire “self-upgrading” along with the downgrading of others. (Cicero said that, “of the ‘Six Mistakes of Mankind,’ number one is believing that persons can elevate themselves by reducing or lowering others.”)
Here’s an example of how that works:
Studies show that approximately 50-60% of all married men will have an extramarital affair at some point. At what point?
At the point when the “mind” - using the ego-defense mechanism of egotism - upgrades one’s role from “The Husband” to “The Super Husband” (who believes that he is not receiving what he desires or deserves or expects from “His Wife”).
At that point, he downgrades her to “A Less Than Super Wife” and another ego-defense mechanism is triggered, namely, justification.
[The male, power-hungry, egomaniacal users with sociopathic tendencies and with the unchecked senses of entitlement and arrogance and with a perceived need to constantly have their egos fed by being accepted by huge numbers of women - never go through that process. They are simply driven to seek and find, constantly.
Still, though, it’s about feeding the ego along with a sense of inadequacy which is hidden behind layers of feigned confidence and arrogance and image-construction and image-maintenance.]
Post “upgrading,” “The Super Husband” will believe that he is justified - because of his high level of self-worth and self-esteem - to seek out what he desires and deserves but is not getting from his “Less Than Super Wife.”
Likewise, the “mind” of “The Wife” - using the ego-defense mechanism of egotism - will upgrade her role from “The Wife” to “The Super Wife” who is not receiving what she desires or deserves or expects from “Her Husband.”
At that point, she downgrades him to “A Less Than Super Husband” and other ego-defense mechanisms are triggered, namely, rationalization and justification, so she assumes the right to judge him, to criticism him, to leave him, and even to try to destroy him.
[Recall that 59% of women killed in the U.S. annually are killed during a breakup, but 41% of the men killed are also now killed during a breakup. Who says women are not making progress!]
Studies also show that approximately 40% of all married women will have an extramarital affair after they upgrade their role from “The Wife” to “The Super Wife.”Note that the agendas of ego-states and ego-defense mechanisms not only operate unconsciously but they also distort, transform, or falsify reality.
Along with egotism, justification and rationalization, other mechanisms are used as well, including “denial,” “repression,” “projection,” “displacement” and others. Consider what all is the ego’s toolkit which egos use for “self” preservation:
RATIONALIZATION
Rationalization involves the twisting of facts, “putting a spin on” the way an event or action is viewed, distorting the truth, or trying to cast into a different light the way an event or action is perceived, especially to try to change others’ perceptions about an event or action as well as one’s own.
Examples offered in the past to illustrate the use of this ego-defense mechanism included the husband who claimed that he did not have affairs with four women at work because “he only had oral sex with them” and included another man who called here crying about the fact that his employment had just been terminated - for the fourth time - because of sexual misconduct with subordinates at work.
He was crying the evening he called but by the next morning he had mentally restructured the truth, had distorted the reality of his conduct, had reframed his opinions about his circumstances and actions, had minimized the consequences of his behaviors on himself and the other employees involved who were also fired, so he said cheerfully, “What the heck . . . it’s all good!”
ANOTHER EGO-DEFENSE MECHANISM USED BY PERSONAS / EGO-STATES: SUBLIMATION
Sublimation is often used by persons with warped psyches who are thus driven by thoughts and emotions and urges that are deemed unacceptable in their culture; to try to avoid the consequences of those thoughts and emotions and urges if acted upon, a person might shift her or his focus - by becoming obsessed with physical exercise or spiritual exercises;
by being obsessed with attending meetings or worship services; or by obsessively engaging in other activities rather than addressing the core issues that are generating those thoughts and emotions and urges in the first place. Rather than being free of fanaticism, the fanaticism in one area is substituted with fanaticism in another area.
[Consider those who ignore their families because their obsessive minds are driving them to drink alcohol obsessively but who eventually enter into “a program” that can - supposedly - address their problem(s).
The result: they continue to ignore their families but now it is because of their new, substitute obsession, namely, their “program” or their “new friends.” That is the result of sublimation as a “bad persona” is replaced by a new “good persona” or - more often - by a “really super, really good person” or even by a “Spiritual Giant.”]
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.
