Sunday, December 31, 2023

IN TERMS OF “REALIZATION” AS A NON-DUAL PROCESS, THE MATH AIN’T MATHING

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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."

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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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IN TERMS OF “REALIZATION” AS A NON-DUAL PROCESS, THE MATH AIN’T MATHING

“The math ain’t mathing.”

Taraji P. Henson

“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.”

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

. . . “Go home, take charge of your father’s business, look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you; be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue, live silently.”

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“ . . . Question wisely. You will find you know nothing for sure - you trust on hearsay.”

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

A pointer which Maharaj used over and over during nearly 50 years of sharing one form or another of the non-dual message was, “It’s simple” or “Keep it simple.”

If one understands the evolution of his messaging and his shift away from dogma and then away from spirituality and then to psychology and the mind, the trail he blazed was a study in simplification.

His talks became shorter. His talks dealt less and less with complicated noumenal “stuff” and more and more with the easier-to-understand relative, problematic issues of the mind.

Though he never enumerated the steps in either of the “paths” he used for seekers to find the Ultimate Medicine, it is clear that the first two “paths” he used had seven steps whereas the third “path” he recommended to address humankind’s mind problems had only four steps.

His approaches over the years were simpler and simpler and simpler as his understanding of the real problem sharpened. He was never adding more; he was forever subtracting.

Early on, upon the advice of his guru, he blended Hinduism and the non-dual message to attract locals. Hinduism - depending on the source one uses - had 33 types of gods and / or up to 330 million gods. Far from simple, n'est-ce pas?

Later, he spoke of “a god,” but when he did so, he was advising seekers of the fact that a god is a conceptualized invention of humans and that the concept of a god should be abandoned:

“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.”

Simpler and simpler and simpler.

He saw that many visitors to the loft were complicating their relative existence by adding on the pursuit of spirituality as a second job. He advised them thusly:

“Give up spirituality”

and

“Follow your normal inclinations"

and

“Forget spirituality.”

He advised one man seeking the status of the role of “The Supreme Spiritual Giant, the All-Time Champion of Virtue” who seemingly wanted to work with Maharaj forever to forget all this spiritual work and . . .

. . . “Go home, take charge of your father’s business, look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you; be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue, live silently.”

However, even as he changed the versions of the Ultimate Medicine which he was recommending, one consistency in his messaging throughout was the inclusion of the Nisarga Yoga. Why? What was his rationale?

The Basic Rationale for Offering the Nisarga Yoga Understanding

After one chooses which mode of travel is to be used (that is, which method of traveling on the “journey” is to be used), then one must decide what is to happen AFTER having completed the journey.

(By the way: pointers about Nisarga Yoga and what the relative existence will be like while abiding in a nisarga / natural manner will appear to be very strange to those who are trying to follow a knowledge path, a worship path, an action path, or a service path. So it is. Those paths are available for discussion elsewhere.)

The longing here that led to decades of seeking and searching manifested very early on, and the road that was traveled before “the non-dual path” was crossed, by chance, was a long and grueling and onerous road. The “journey” had been quite arduous.

Happening upon certain words and names such as “advaita” and “non-duality” and “Maharaj” - and then entering into a cursory investigation of those - aroused some hope;

however, after so many years of searching in vain, the hope was of a most cautious and guarded nature. Why? Because so many instances of hope had been dashed along the way before, time and again.

The restraint was warranted. Along with the words of Maharaj in “I AM THAT,” the words and writings of more than fifty non-duality teachers were read, and while each of them may have been able to guide other seekers somewhere,

a. not a one of them presented the teachings in a way that led to the “Aha! Moment” here;

b. not a one provided the final, search-ending flash of the peripetia;

c. not a one ignited the gunpowder that finally blew away all of the blockages that had been built up via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination;

d. not a one offered the Ultimate Medicine in a manner that finally brought to an end the misery of the Ultimate Sickness which had generated suffering for decades; and

e. not a one made clear the means by which

(1) full realization of THAT could happen

along with

(2) the manifesting of the ability to abide naturally and normally and steadily and Lovingly and simply and sanely and enjoyably throughout the remainder of the AM-ness.

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.] 

Here's

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of the "Awakening Together" satsang session with Regina and Jacqueline referenced earlier, 
18 MARCH 2018

or

You can click on the picture link which has now been added for video "Number Ten" in the upper right-hand column on this page.

If preferred, here's the direct link to the AUDIO VERSION. 

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