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.
FREEDOM FROM SHIFTING BETWEEN STATES OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
“Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality to rush in.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”
-Yeshu’a
In the book Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and His Evolution, it I shown that what actually “evolved” was Maharaj’s view on almost everything he shared for decades.
For example, he said a great deal about spirituality when Westerners began showing up in his loft. Later, he was say, “Forget spirituality.”
Also, he said a great deal early on about “Self-realization.” Eventually, as he moved on from his dogma period and moved on from his spirituality period and moved into his final period (the mind is the problem period), he not only continued to disavow the existence of false selves but he also disavowed the existence of any post-manifestation SELF as well.
He said: “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.”
Because his perspective evolved so much from early on, he told seekers to stop reading the book I AM THAT which contained transcripts of his earlier talks, saying. He said that book was for that time only and explained that he was sharing something very different and told seekers to pay attention only to what he was presently saying.
He also stripped away the notion that “realization / Realization” is some kind of lofty, superior, towering, grand, exalted, elevated. noble, or distinguished “something” as well.
Understanding what realization and then reaching that state allowed me to disembark from the roller coaster existence I was experiencing and to stabilize.
When disturbed, I came to understand that I but needed to ask, “Who is disturbed?” When the answer was always one false identity or another, it came to be seen that it was not “I” that was disturbed but was instead some false personal identity which had been triggered a disturbance-inducing reaction based in some imaginary being’s fear or unmet desire.
So Maharaj would eventually conclude that “Realization is but the opposite of ignorance.”
He explained that the decisive factors in realization are about finding truth and reaching a state of selflessness.
Therefore, he advised seekers to forget about both self-realization and Self-realization and to forget about seeking some noumenal identity now and some Noumenal Identity later.
He began advising: “Seek not to find ‘who you are.’ It is enough to understand all that you are not.”
In that regard, he said, “After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay.”
Regarding the acceptance of personas / false identities as being real and the consequences of believing those roles are real, he said, “Before you go further you must accept, at least as a working theory, that you are not what you appear to be, that you are under the influence of a drug. Then only will you have the urge and the patience to examine the symptoms and search for their common cause. All that a guru can tell you is: ‘My dear sir, you are quite mistaken about yourself. You are not the person you think yourself to be.’ Trust nobody, not even yourself. Search, find out, remove and reject every assumption till you reach the living waters and the rock of truth. Until you are free of the drug, all your religions and sciences, prayers and yogas are of no use to you, for, based on a mistake, they strengthen it.”
To understand that instruction and to do as instructed is the way to realization.
He told one visitor, “There is no point in fighting desires and fears which may be perfectly natural and justified; it is the person who is swayed by [desires and fears] that is the cause of mistakes, past and future. This person should be carefully examined and its falseness seen; then its power over you will end. After all, it subsides each time you go to sleep.”
He said “The discovery of truth is in the discernment of the false,” so realization is simply about seeing all of the false beliefs that have been taught and accepted as truth.
Thus
he said: “Something prevents you from seeing that there is nothing you need.
Find it out and see its falseness. It is like having swallowed some poison and
suffering from unquenchable craving for water. Instead of drinking beyond all
measure, why not eliminate the poison and be free of this burning thirst? The sense
‘I am a person in time and space’ is the poison. In a way, time itself is the
poison. In time all things come to an end and new are born, to be devoured in
their turn. Do not identify yourself with time, do not ask anxiously ‘what next,
what next?’ Step out of time and see it devour the world. Say: ‘Well, it is in
the nature of time to put an end to everything. Let it be. It does not concern
me. I am not combustible, nor do I need to collect fuel’.”
As long as there is the body and the sense of identity with the body,
frustration is inevitable. Only when you know yourself as entirely alien to and
different from the body, will you find respite from the mixture of fear and
craving inseparable from the “I-am-the-body” idea.
All shiftings are a result of changes in consciousness, turning away from an initial understanding that triggers the “I-am-the-body” idea.
Divested of this idea, the mind becomes steady. There is pure being, free of
experiencing anything in particular.
Consider this exchange:
Questioner: “What is the purpose of meditation?”
Maharaj: “Seeing the false as the false is meditation.”
That is the reason every post end with the invitation to “enter into the silence of contemplation.” Meditation is not about entering some state of total forgetfulness or nothingness or Om-ness.
It is about being so fully awake and aware and conscious that you can consider pointers offered to you and then use them to reach a new level of understanding.
To that end, he said: “Realization is about being free of the dream and being fully awake, aware, and conscious”
and
He said, “Realization is of the fact that you are not a person.” That allows one to abandon the belief in all of the false personal identifications which have been assigned and / or assumed. He made clear that “realization is simply about discarding all belief in the learned ignorance which they have been taught.” See? Simple.
So how to end the misery of having turned their relative existence into a nightmarish roller coaster ride? He explained: “Pain is physical; suffering is mental.” So if one is dealing with episodes of suffering and misery, understand that the way to contentment / happiness / bliss / whatever is to address the mental.
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.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(collected in two anthologies).
Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.
[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]
SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
(1) 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.
Or,
(2) To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:
(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com.
(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.
(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)
Send your information to:
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.
