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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FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS
From “Give Peace A Chance”:
“This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m”
by
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Beliefs Rooted in Personality and “-ISM’S”
(Continued)
“-Ism’s” and personas; personas and “-isms.” Each supports the other in an endless cycle that encourages the reinforcement of persona-adoption, followed by a person attaching to the “-ism’s” that reinforce the persona, followed by the “-ism’s” reinforcing the belief that the persona is an actual identity, etc., etc., etc.
To
claim that “I am a patriot” is to create an attachment to the beliefs that any
given culture suggests are evidence of one’s patriotism, including such
statements as:
“We are the greatest country on the planet”; “I am willing to die for my
country”; “a real man is willing to sacrifice his life to protect his fellow
citizens”; or “I will beat to a pulp anyone who desecrates our flag.”
Once the persona / personality of “The Patriot” has been adopted, then the conceptualized “-ism” of “patriotism” becomes sacred, hallowed, revered, and sanctified; and once the conceptualized “-ism” of “patriotism” becomes sacred, hallowed, revered, and sanctified, then . . .
the
persona / personality of “The Patriot” is also believed to have the status of
being sacred, hallowed, revered, and sanctified and that belief will blindly
drive all thoughts and words and deeds.
Thus, those trapped in personality are killing and / or dying for their
country; killing and / or dying for their god; killing and / or dying for
whatever the popes’ desires were during the Crusades;
killing and / or dying
for whatever the imam’s desires are nowadays; killing and / or dying for
whatever the commander-in-chief’s desires are; killing and / or dying for
whatever the prime minister’s desires are, ad infinitum.
Such are the results of the perverted beliefs in false personas and in “-ism’s.”
To be free, the recommendation here is to employ the Enneagram as a tool to
begin uncovering the variety of personalities which subconsciously drive
thoughts and words and deeds and which, therefore, remove all opportunity to
make independent choices.
It
was noted earlier that much can be revealed by understanding the history of the
way that the non-dual understanding became necessary and the way that the
Enneagram has been used by some teachers of non-duality to expose the
personality trance in which the masses live as well as the effects of
personality assumption.
That which is real has been forever; all that is not real but is taken to be so
has not been forever but has come about at various times as a result of
distortion and ignorance.
Such is the case with personality / personalities, assumed roles, ego-states, personas, stage characters, false identities . . . call them what you will.
The
earliest humans or human-like beings, as with modern persons, faced plenty of
challenges during the relative existence, but one challenge they did not have
to deal with was the nonsense of personality.
Did they desire? Yes, but were the desires natural rather than unnatural or
supposedly “supernatural”? Also, yes. Were they afraid at times? Yes, but were
the fears natural rather than unnatural or supposedly “supernatural”?
Yes,
and that did not change until humans began dreaming up supernatural concepts
based in magical, nonsensical thinking, in distortion, in ignorance, in myths,
in superstitions, and in non-facts. That paved the way for ignorance-based
explanations (and ignorance-based belief in ignorance-based explanations):
“Why did the hurricane devastate that city, O Holy One?”
“Because of the negative karma of the people there, my child.”
As humans began forming communities, some of the more observant began to notice
“individual differences” in the ways that people behaved and reacted alongside
patterns of behavior that were common among the members of certain sub-groups
in the community.
It
was seen that some parents interacted in one way with their offspring, some in
other ways that were quite different. It was also seen that children used
different coping mechanisms to try to adapt to a variety of family situations,
and it was seen that during stressful events, a group of, say, five people all
reacted the same way but that another group of five all reacted the same way
but in a way that differed from the people in the first group.
The observant began to see that all of the members of the tribe or community
consistently revealed certain traits without exception: the prideful were
always prideful, no matter what; the avoiders were always avoiding, no matter
what;
the admiration-seeking, narcissistic performers were always performing, no matter what; the love-seeking helpers and enablers were always helping and enabling in order to get love, no matter what;
the
controllers were always trying to control, no matter what; the escapists were
always trying to escape, no matter what; the reformers were always judging and
trying to reform, no matter what.
The most observant began to see that (a) those with a similar family situation
behaved the same way and that (b) when stressful situations arose, those who
shared in common a dominate trait all showed the same opposite trait as well
when strained.
For
example, those who lost a father early on were seen to be the seemingly-kind
helper types. Though they seemed to be the friendly ones in the community, when
they became stressed or were challenged, they showed the same traits as those
in the village who were usually the angry, controlling, domineering, power-hungry,
lustful types.
[Today, if one understands the Enneagram, she / he will know that what happened
in the scenario described above is that a Personality Type Two Helper became
stressed and was driven by arrogance to disintegrate to the Personality Type Eight
Controller / Boss / “Parent” and to become for awhile an angry, controlling,
domineering, power-hungry, lustful type person.]
An understanding among the observant of the fact that stress leads to psychic
deterioration (and to totally-predictable behaviors among the mentally and
emotionally unhealthy) came into being.
It was also seen by the most observant that people in the community were all being driven by one of nine dominate traits or “passions,” that is, by whatever it was that they were seen to be “most passionate about,” whether that was about reforming everyone;
or
about creating or maintaining a phony image; or about trying to dominate
everyone else; or about allowing others to dominate them in order to gain
something they wanted, etc.
Moreover, it was seen that their behaviors were “textbook” in the way that
those behaviors manifested so consistently and unwaveringly and in how
unsurprisingly foreseeable and predictable their thoughts and words and deeds
were going to be in any given situation, some being passionate about gaining
power and leadership roles;
some being passionately angry most of the time; some being passionate about performing in ways that generated admiration from the entire community, etc.;
thus,
“distinctions” and “dualities” were born with personality. “Differences” and “personal
characteristics” were noted, and the attention to one’s relativistic, personal
passion soon began to displace any former concern for the community as a whole.
That gave rise to “self”-ishness which, in turn, blocked the sense of the Oneness
and displaced the earlier all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude with a passion
for fulfilling one’s own desires and avoiding one’s own fears.
Conflict driven by self-absorption became the “norm.” It was Evagrius who discussed the early Greeks’ version of the nine passions (or the nine obsessions or nine dominant personality traits).
That list included anger, pride, vainglory, envy,
greed, incontinence, gluttony, lust and acedia (i.e., boredom; listlessness;
apathy; a lack of care or interest; indifference; and laziness).
Because he showed how those passions (i.e., dominant personality traits)
distorted human perception and limited the human search for the essence and the
authentic to the trivial and clichéd and ordinary - especially after religion
limited the search to the confines of their buildings and texts only - then
Evagrius came under attack from the churches of Rome and Constantinople.
People were dissuaded by their religious leaders from seeking answers scientifically or objectively and told to accept unquestioningly the answers that were provided via dogma and “holy texts” only.
New, “good” selves or personas or identities were generated, further eliminating any opportunity among the mostly-religious masses to know the essence and the authentic.
As for religious leaders dissuading their congregants from seeking scientifically or objectively, that is still the case 1,700 years after Constantine - the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity - codified Christian doctrine in a way that left Christianity unrecognizable.
It was he who eliminated the female church leaders who had been in charge for the 300 years after the murder of Yeshu’a and declared that only men who pledged to reject personal relationships with women and pledged never to marry could be priests.
(How did that work out?)
It was also he who removed all verses in the Bible which alluded to Yeshu’a being a human man; who added the notion of there being a Satan; and who declared that the penalty for owning a copy of the Bible and for reading the Bible if not a member of the priesthood was death.
To be continued.
Please enter in to 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.
