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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BEING FREE OF THE CONSTANTLY-CHURNING, PEACE-DESTROYING MIND
“There's no such thing as peace of mind.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“There's no such thing as peace of mind. There's only peace if you are out of your mind.”
--Floyd
BEING FREE OF THE CONSTANTLY-CHURNING, PEACE-DESTROYING MIND
Whenever I share the particular pointer which I shared earlier, there’s often a backlash from those playing the role of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant.”
It happened again after yesterday’s post. Especially angry are those who think they have been restored to sanity through their “spiritual / godly program.”
Years back, that belief was being expressed by many and then they organized to have their fellow believers inundate the site here with complaints. They only way I was able to stop the flood of disruptive traffic was to stop allowing comments to be posted.
I also wrote a series about their belief system, entitled “There Is No God Who Is in the Business of Messing Up “Minds” or Repairing “Minds.”
In light of the relatively few recent arguments which have been raised, please indulge this opportunity to share some background information on their favorite book which is also one of the best-selling books of all times.
There was a man in New York
who was planning to write a how-to book on treating and recovering from
alcoholism. His plan was to write a 500-600 page work in which he would use the
first 150-175 pages to introduce to the readers a summary of what was, at the
time, the current medical opinions on alcoholism;
a summary of his own riches-to-rags downfall as a result of abusing alcohol; a
recounting of how he eventually recovered; and then a detailed analysis of the
method that he and certain non-professional associates used to guide others to
recovery from alcoholism.
He intended to include elements of certain Far Eastern philosophies that he had
been attracted to over the years and which he felt could broaden the
perspective of persons and inspire some to visualize things on a grander scale
and to see “The Big Picture” (and thereby provide some additional understanding
of the way the universe functions while shifting persons away from focusing
solely on the silliness and pettiness of the relative existence).
After that, he intended to include around 400 pages of “personal stories” and “personal
testimonies” that would give credibility to the efficacy of the method he was
touting.
Then, the bigger plan was to open a network of hospitals around the globe, each
with a professional staff of medical doctors and psychologists who would
address the mental and emotional root causes of addiction - including the
untreated effects of trauma which are common to most of the sufferers whom he
was addressing - and then reverse the insane, self-destructive behavior that
manifested alongside their alcoholism.
He arranged for the funds to publish the first edition of the book and began
writing, not really intending to collaborate with the people in Ohio where he
first sobered up. He was not intending to seek any input from them except for
the 400 pages of stories he needed to flesh out the book and to give
credibility and standing to his message.
He was surprised when they began playing “hardball” by demanding to see
chapter-by-chapter previews of the manuscript before they were sent to the
publisher.
He was further surprised when the first major argument broke out over his
statement that “the main problem centers in the mind.” Being a group of people
who had bought heavily into the religious roots of the plan they had used to
sober up (which was not this author’s plan but was the plan of another group
which he was copying and modeling his method on) they objected to that line.
They believed that “moral shortcomings” were the root cause of alcoholism, so
the original program called for “moral rearmament.”
The author stood fast, saying something to the effect that all of the
professionals in the field agreed that the roots of the illness were mental and
emotional - along with a physical quirk or allergy that was also recognized. At
that point, a form of blackmail began when the Ohio group said,
basically:
“You can only include the line about ‘the problem centering in the mind’ if you
add another line that says if alcoholics become religious (which they agreed to
call “spiritual” to make the process more palatable to rebellious drunks) then
those alcoholics would heal both mentally and physically.”
He tried to stand fast again, saying that “being spiritual” had nothing to do
with addressing the mental and emotional issues that the doctors had identified
as what had to be treated to be free of the effects of alcoholism.
Their reply was something along these lines: “Refuse to make the point that
spirituality is the end cure for alcoholism and we will refuse to submit our
stories, which are going to be about 75% of the book you plan to write. No
spiritual cure, no stories; no stories, no book.”
He caved. The result: millions upon millions of people over the last 84+ years
have studied the most widely-read book ever on the subject of alcoholism’s
cause and treatment, and millions upon millions have been convinced that they
do not need professional treatment for the trauma and mental and emotional issues
which drive their illness but that they instead only need to be super
spiritual.
(The author did get the final word in, but only via an appendix, so few every
reach that point in their reading because it is the 569th page of 575 pages in
the third edition. Therein, he inserted a line that went back to the original
point that he and the professionals intended to make all along regarding the
root problem with the alcoholic.
So he wrote a major point at the end of the book, as if an afterthought and in a small font that the Midwest crowd accepted, and he included another of the Far Eastern-based pointers (regarding the inner guru or the “inner resource” as opposed to an outer resource such as “a God in another realm”).
He wrote:
“With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unexpected inner
resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power
greater than themselves” (that is, greater than their false selves). So “the
Power” is an inner resource, not an outer resource, he said (which is a purely
Eastern concept).
The author then differentiated between their religious and non-religious
members, using the term “awareness” to refer to that which came to the
non-religious members and then saying of the other group-within-the-group: “Our
more religious members call it God-consciousness.”
“God-consciousness” for some; “awareness” for the others.
So much for those who brag that they are in a “spiritual program, not a
religious program” but then mention God and God-consciousness. In that very
act, according to the co-founder of their program, they are by definition “religious”
if they talk about “God” instead of an awareness of that which comes via tapping
into the inner resource.
So what has been the end result for the millions of persons who use that book
and focus on a “spiritual” cure for what is actually a physical and mental
illness? A $20,000,000 worldwide study of the current effectiveness of their
plan reveals a 1.5% - 3.5% average “success rate,” and “success rate” was
defined in the study as maintaining at least five years of sobriety.
The message for non-dualists is the same message that was intended originally
by that author: the main problem on this planet nowadays centers in the mind
and is rooted in what Maharaj called “stupidity verging on insanity.” While
insanity can most assuredly have a physiological component (chemical
imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, etc.) insanity is primarily a mental
issue, so the problem of the “mind” must be addressed.
Thus, Maharaj shared these pointers:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been
told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then,
in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God.
Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good
to happen to you.”
“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove
false.”
“Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this
objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world.
All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the
meaning of this world – everything - is disproved.”
“Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an
end.”
“There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a
question of understanding.”
“There is no progress.”
“Go to zero concepts.”
The points for today:
1. If you are suffering from cancer and go to a doctor who tells you to take
two aspirin for what ails you, his advice is only going to guarantee continued
suffering and pain . . . and possibly a hastened demise.
2. If you are (a) suffering from cancer and go to a doctor who tells you that
you are suffering from an operable cancer but that (b) his or her
recommendation is that (c) instead of undergoing surgery to remove the cancer
within that you (d) try to pray away the tumor as an alternative, then at that
point only one of you is suffering from “stupidity verging on insanity.”
Only if you agree with her or
his recommendation to pray away the tumor, then only are you both suffering
from “stupidity verging on insanity.”
Yet it is quite typical among those suffering to take the word of the one
presenting himself or herself as the expert, is it not? Ah, now there’s the
rub.
Recall from above this quote from Maharaj:
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
What is my own experience with those who deem themselves to be “believers”? Well, my “Ex” became a super active member of “The pray Away the Gay” movement in Houston which was organized in a local church. A second experience involved her telling me as she was on the way out the door that she “had been praying every day for a year that God would kill me.”
I noted that gays became more active in Houston - not less - as they dug in to defend themselves from a community-wide attack.
I noted too that I was still alive.
So, while believers testify to having experienced “the power of God” and to “the power (or sobriety) which they gain when they pray to God,” my own experience with their beliefs about gaining power and getting what they pray for is . . .
. . . “Hummm, maybe not so
much.
My own experience so far:
Floyd and Houston gays - 2
God and His Followers - 0
To become liberated and realized and enlightened, persons need to focus not on learning more dogma and not on learning how to be spiritual but on purging all the garbage presently stored in their minds and unlearning all of the learned ignorance which they have been taught.
There is no God that is in the business of “repairing minds,” but my experience is that there are believers in God who are in the business of shaping minds that are in need of major repair.
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.
