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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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.
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF TOTAL FREEDOM
“ . . .You are afraid of freedom!”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Consider:
“Assume” is defined as “something which many humans suppose is the case, but without proof”; or,
“to accept something to be true without question or evidence.”
When seekers I work with head out to try to dance lightly and to abide naturally and to live in an AS IF fashion and to try to maintain stability, I hear from some of them with questions about their results.
In other cases, I receive a call or an email telling me that they have decided they plan to try to share the non-dual understanding. Some then ask, “Do you have any advice?” I don’t usually offer much at that point.
The one pointer I might suggest is, “Assume nothing.” Some will ask, “What exactly do you mean by that?” I usually reply, “Your task is to find exactly what I mean by that. When you are ready and have spent some time trying to guide, then you might understand.”
If they call back later with specific questions regarding their interactions with someone they are working with, I may well have something for them to consider at that point. We discuss and then they go about the purpose of life which is . . . to live and to live sanely and free of the influence of any and all learned ignorance.
So what is a current example of assuming nothing? The subject of the previous series of posts was to allow visitors to understand what the symptoms of instability and “mood shiftings” are and how to treat those.
Some who intend to try to guide seekers might assume, “You know what - he’s onto something there. I’ll focus at some point on sharing what I came to understand during that series and what I saw regarding the point offered by Yeshu’a that 'A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways'.”
With that, the guides-to-be are off to the races, discussing the toll of the instability brought about by dual-mindedness and how to move away from such instability.
The problem? They are being motivated by an unstudied
assumption. The assumption is that persons have at least some inkling of their instability
and will appreciate being made aware of the costs of their instability and must
surely want to be free of that instability and the accompanying misery and
suffering
WRONG!
Yes, instability can bring misery and suffering, but many prefer instability and misery and suffering over the call to abandon their belief systems and to reach a state of total freedom.
At a family gathering, there was a couple there approaching the 50th anniversary of their wedding. When someone there asked that excessively trite question, “So James, tell us what your secret is to having a marriage that lasted 50 years.” He was ready with his well-used response: “It’s simple: I’ve just followed her every order for 50 years.”
“Ah . . . hahaha!” came from the crowd in unison.
How true was that? Maybe true, maybe partially true, maybe not at all true while making her believe that he was following her orders while hiding the truth from her. But he was seemingly proud of his answer and happy that her smile signaled that his answer was the right one, in her book.
If true, then his answer made clear that he didn’t give a
tinker’s damn about freedom. “Dependence is the way! Full speed ahead! Try it!
It’ll probably work for you, too!!
One British / Irish author, C.S. Lewis, whom most Christians take to have been a genius wrote:
“I’d rather be miserable with her than try to be happy without.”
Really? Well rock and roll, Clive Staples. To confirm that belief, C.S. on another occasion said, “Better to be miserable with her than happy without her. Let our hearts break, provided they break together.”
Clive’s take was, like that of the man headed toward a 50th anniversary, “Hang total freedom!”
(By the way, Lewis opposed all Eastern religions and the non-dual understanding, especially the pointer that all personas / personal identifications are false illusions.)
Of the thousands of pointers offered by Maharaj that proved to be germane to seekers, one might ranks among the most pertinent and unequivocal and illuminating that he ever shared: “ . . .You are afraid of freedom!”
In the early stage of beginning some “work” with a guest,
Maharaj asked a qualifying question: “How free do you want to be?
The reply: “Why, totally.
His response: “We shall see.”
And soon, he did indeed see. What was seen by both that guide and the seeker was that there was no more of a desire to be totally free than there is a desire among to non-realized for the manifestation of the consciousness to end instantly.
It would be years before full realization happened, and
it would not be until full realization happened that total freedom not only
manifested but was gladly welcomed. Same here.
Why do persons (the non-realized) really not find total freedom appealing at all, if the facts were known? What is it about most cultures that nurture and even reward dependence? What is it about personality and personas that automatically required dependence and co-dependency rather than independence?
The billions polled worldwide who said that they are
affiliated with an organized religion are taught early on to be dependent on
one god or another. The millions in step groups are also taught to be dependent
on an external, otherworldly power or on the group.
Too, every ego-state adopted as an identity must have a co-dependent counterpart and will be dependent on another person to sustain the false identity assumed. (For example, a spouse must have a spouse to supposedly “exist”; an employee must have an employer to supposedly “exist”; a teacher must have students to supposedly “exist”; etc.)
Add to that the fact that fifty-percent of the people on
the planet are Personality Types Sixes who are embroiled in fear and are thus
dependent types; add to that a large percentage who are Personality Type Twos
and Threes and Nines who have a strong sense of entitlement and are therefore
dependent types.
In fact, most cultures on the planet inspire dependence rather than independence, so it is little wonder that so few persons will realize fully and actually become totally free. Yet freedom is the prerequisite for peace, so it is also little wonder that so few will realize fully and be at peace.
So the questions for every seeker and reader are,
“How free do you really want to be?”
“Is it possible that Maharaj’s pointer - ‘You are afraid of freedom’ - might be based at least to some degree in fact?”
and
“If so, might you be interested in certain considerations that might assist in overcoming that fear of total freedom?”
DEFINING FREEDOM - MAHARAJ
First, How did Maharaj define freedom? “Freedom means letting go. People just do not care to let go everything.”
Possibly one thing they want to cling to forever are
their beliefs, not understanding that there is no such thing as “their beliefs.”
There are only the beliefs of others which are hand-me-down junk. Who wants
such hand-me-down junk? Most.
And that lack of willingness to let go is not confined to the billions among the
masses who are trapped in the ignorance of their prized, myth-based dogma. Some
of the most dogmatic of all persons are self-declared “Advaitins” or “Traditional
Advanta Vedantins” or “Pseudo-Advaitins” or “Neo-Vedantins” or “Neo-Advaitins”
or “Direct Path Advaitins” or “The Real Advaita Vedantins.”
Freedom is freedom from all beliefs, from duality, from all concepts, from all
identification. Yet many who claim such freedom are in self-delusion. For
example, some come here and remain for the entire dance; others, however, come
for a brief visit or two and stay
(a) not long enough for their ego-states to be eradicated but only
(b) long enough for their ego-states to feel hurt or threatened or interfered
with or offended.
They leave quickly, staying only long enough to report that non-duality is not
understood at all here or long enough to leave a profane rant because “Floyd
does not pronounce Eastern words properly.” Can such persons take
themselves to be fully realized and totally free? Sure they can.
To be continued.
Please enter into 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.
