Monday, December 25, 2023

FREEDOM FROM ALL BELIEFS: CLEARING AWAY THE FINAL VESTIGES

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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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FREEDOM FROM ALL BELIEFS: CLEARING AWAY THE FINAL VESTIGES

“’Negative liberty’ is the freedom from external obstacles or constraints. ‘Positive freedom’ is freedom from internal constraints.”

--Isaiah Berlin

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery

None but ourselves can free our minds.”

--Bob Marley from “Redemption Song”

 Tara Westover shared the two quotes above which offer non-dual style pointers which are relevant to this series.

Now non-dualists would not speak of “negative” vs. “positive” liberty, but the distinction between external obstacles or constraints and internal obstacles and constraints is valid. Those that would realize fully must understand the two.

Abandoning the addictions to control and to attaining the power to be able to control is all about external obstacles and constraints.

The 12.5 million Africans who were rounded up and shipped to what is now called “the U.S.” and who were placed into the then-legal institution of human chattel slavery were dealing with external obstacles or constraints.

[Be not misled by the right-wing asses such as Gov. Ron DeSantis and his similarly-warped, like-minded cohorts who endorse a “Slavery As Being A Good Thing” Curriculum in schools, claiming that “enslaved blacks were taught job skills that served them very well after their emancipation.” As one taking a different perspective said, “Anybody that is implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane” - or more likely, is a liar to the greatest degree.]

Along with slaves who were dealing with external obstacles or constraints were those dealing with religious fanatics of a Puritanical bent who were tortured, tried in court by those fanatics, and burned at the stake. They were dealing with external obstacles or constraints.

So were the women in the U.S. who were not allowed to vote until 1920 and who are still, to this day, seeking pay parity and seeking freedom from being “grabbed by their . . .” well, you know and seeking freedom from being raped by powerful, usually white men who are still being protected by their powerful usually white male friends who control the good-ole-boy networks.

People being bombed this morning and killed by the thousands are dealing with external obstacles or constraints.

Children being sexually molested by their religious leaders or relatives or educators are dealing with external obstacles or constraints.

Those who would be free of the effects of present or would-be political leaders who are dictators or fascists are dealing with external obstacles or constraints.

And the list could go on and on, identifying the trillions who have had to deal with external obstacles or constraints and came out on the “losing end.”

Thus, the focus of the guide Maharaj and of the guide posting here has long been to focus on the internal obstacles and constraints, especially those stored in the fiction-and-caca-filled minds of humans.  

Reportedly, at the age of twelve, Yeshu’a was lecturing Jewish adults in the temple, regurgitating what he had been taught. What happened in the eighteen or so “Lost Years” after he abandoned organized religion and showed up at the age of 30, sharing non-dual pointers?

There’s some evidence of the pointers he was exposed to during their years, but little is known for a fact. But it is reported that he said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”

Dual-mindedness is an internal obstacle and constraint, and no matter how limited one might be as a result of the power and influences of external obstacles and constraints, the addressing of internal obstacles and constraints can happen.

As Marley sang, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery / None but ourselves can free our minds.”

The realized guide would say, “Another might show you why you need to be rid of the content of your mind, but a guide cannot free persons from being driven by the ignorant and stupid and insane beliefs stored in their minds. Only those afflicted by the Ultimate Sickness can do that.”

Because all in the relative existence truly is relative - that is, all observed and judged via differing and varying misperceptions only - then the very notions or beliefs about what is “good vs. bad” and “right vs. wrong” and “better vs. worse” and “spiritual vs not spiritual” and “religious vs. not religious” or “spiritual enough vs. not spiritual enough” and “changed for the better vs. changed for the worse” will vary from one person to the next. Who, then, could possibly claim to know which of the above elements in those dualistic pairs are the “right” ones?

Who believes that he or she can define in absolute terms any or all concepts and beliefs when all beliefs and concepts are totally relative and not absolute at all? Only the programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated and indoctrinated and brainwashed;

only specks of blocked consciousness that have assumed the most arrogant of assumed personas; only those who take themselves to be right and perfect and capable of judging dualistic pairs and determining - without any doubt or question - which of the opposite elements in each pair is at play in any given situation.

Yet all the time, they might as well be debating “sasquatches vs. unicorns”; “satanic reps vs. guardian angels”; “tooth fairies vs. Easter bunnies.”

No element of a dualistic pair has any more or any less credibility than the opposite element in the dualistic pair. All duality is false. It is all a part of the dream; all a part of the scheme; all a part of the scene. It all amounts to nothing more than a flash across the screen of blocked consciousness.

Persons viewing movies in 3-D have been seen to jump back in fear when it appears that something has left the screen. Their perception / misperception is that they really are about to be struck by whatever they think is flying directly at them.

And that is the way that the non-realized masses traverse the relative existence, seeing images and believing that they are all real; believing that some of the images they see are “good”; believing that some of the other images they see are “bad”;

believing that some of the formerly “bad” images have changed or improved and are now “good”; and believing that some of the formerly “good” images have suddenly been exposed and revealed to have been “bad” all along.

Clearing Away the Final Vestiges of Beliefs

In an earlier post, mention was made of ducks, squirrels, deer, bears, birds, fish, and persons (“persons” being a term that points to all of the “human spaces or forms” with ideas and concepts and beliefs that drive them to accept multiple false identities as being real).

Of the millions and millions in those groups that move about planet earth, and of the trillions and trillions that have ever lived on the planet, only the members of one group have developed (that is, regressed) in ways that drive them to assume that they are “different,” that they are “better than all other spaces and forms,” and that they have control and “dominion” over all of the other spaces and forms in other groups.

Some members of that group of “persons” or “human spaces or forms” also assume that they should have control and dominion over all of the “other persons” or “other human spaces or forms” in their group.

Of the millions and millions in those groups that move about planet earth, and of the trillions and trillions that have ever lived on the planet, all have an elemental brain but only the members of one group have developed (that is, regressed) in ways that have also resulted in a “mind” filled with ideas and concepts and beliefs.

 And of the millions and millions in those groups that move about planet earth, and of the trillions and trillions that have ever lived on the planet, only the members of the group with “minds” have mental problems that drive them to fight others who believe different ideas and concepts and beliefs;

who have mental problems that drive them to inflict pain on themselves or others; who have mental problems that drive them to continue to engage in behaviors that have been proved to be harmful to their elemental bodies;

who have mental problems that drive them to cut or shoot themselves or others; and who have mental problems and such arrogance that they feel entitled to engage in controlling and invasion and colonialism and enslavement and genocide.

Only the members of the group with “minds” have mental problems of such severity that they actually believe that they are the roles they play; that they really believe they can be something that they are not;

and that they truly believe it when other persons tell them that they are either “good” or “bad” (although the criteria for such labeling varies from culture to culture);

have such mental problems that they really believe that they are “different from” others; that they actually think that they are “better than” or “worse than” others;

and that they should abandon the roles that their cultures tell them are “bad roles” and that they should assume and play the roles that their cultures tell them are “good roles” to assume.

Only the members of the group with “minds” have such severe mental and emotional and “personal” (personality) problems that they think they must spend years - or even a lifetime - of searching and seeking and working to “improve” or “enhance” themselves.

As evidence of how many are trying to “improve” or “enhance” themselves, consider some of the titles of the bestseller books that are being marketed by those types whom Maharaj pointed to with the term “big name teachers” when he warned his followers to be wary of the concepts and beliefs that the teachers with mass appeal offer and which are the most popular among the non-Realized masses:

Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life; Your Ultimate Calling; Incredible You!; 10 Secrets for Success; Advancing Your Spirit; Ageless Body, Timeless Mind; The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire; The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams; How to Know God.

Maharaj’s take on all that? He noted that at the core of all human misery and suffering is personality, ego-state adoption, and egotism. Those are internal obstacles and constraints. So much for an “Incredible You,” especially when his pointers were intended to end arrogance, an exaggerated sense of self, a reduced sense of self, and - eventually - all sense of self.

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.] 

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