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.
5. Would you like to have us send to someone as a gift from you a copy of any ebook in our inventory? See the offer in purple text at the end of this post.
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.
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.
THE NEWEST OFFER
If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
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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.