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.
BEING
MADE CRAZY, CRAZY, STAYING CRAZY or AWARE OF CRAZINESS AND SEEKING SANITY
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“This is the function of the Guru -- to make us see the madness of our daily living.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality [and Reality] to rush in.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
ORIGINALLY SANE
“The Blank Tablet”
What was the human existence like prior to the widespread use of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, indoctrination, and brainwashing? That is, what was the existence like for the average child before teaching began and before teaching began to fill a mind with taught and learned ignorance?
Moreover, what has happened afterwards?
What are the planet-wide consequences today?
And why would Maharaj and other realized non-dual guides have recommended going back to the Child Ignorance Stage / the Child No-Knowing Stage?
What must happen in order to provide at least a chance for a few seekers to find freedom and then happiness?
At the root of all of those issues is the preponderance of insanity around the globe and what can happen if one is restored to sanity.
If “one” is restored to sanity? Yes. Recall Maharaj’s pointer: “The world has been in existence for millions of years. There have been thousands of avatars and great men, and important personalities.
Has a single one of them been able to do anything to change the natural course of events in the world?” Forget universal sanity, he said. Forget this business of “improving the world” and making everyone sane. Heal thyself.”
Has
there ever been a time when universal sanity reigned among humanity?” some ask.
Yes, to a degree. One need not look back over the millions of years of “human
history” to find what it was like when one was free of the effects of
programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing, and indoctrination; more directly, one can discover what it was like merely by
looking at one’s own “personal history.”
Consider the condition of the consciousness prior to programming, conditioning,
domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination.
Have
you seen that, ironically, a body-cum-consciousness . . .
1. manifests with what is basically a “blank tablet”;
2. and manifests with a sense of the oneness which might last for almost two years;
3. and manifests with a propensity for contentment that - once stripped away -
will never return unless full realization happens?
THE BLANK TABLET OR BLANK SLATE OR TABULA RASA PHASE
The following explanation has been offered for decades to seekers who visit
here:
Are you seeking happiness? If so, then see how simple it can be for that to
manifest: just return to “where and when” you were last happy and then move on
from there.
“Where and when” were you last truly happy, unconditionally? You
were in that state and at that stage prior to knowing . . . prior to having
been taught any ideas, concepts, beliefs, dogma . . . prior, in fact, to
knowing anything.
It was the state prior to begin subjected to the corrupting influences of
programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and
indoctrination. You were in what John Locke called “the blank tablet” or “blank
slate” phase.
The
Tabula rasa theory suggests that individuals are born without built-in mental
content (that is, in non-duality terms, you were born with no mind and,
therefore, with no ideas, concepts, or beliefs stored in a mind).
The theory further suggests that “knowledge” (a.k.a., “learned ignorance”)
comes from distorting experiences and distorted teachings that result in faulty
perception, favoring the “nurture” side of “the nature vs. nurture debate” when
it comes to aspects of one’s personality, one’s personality defects, and one’s
mental and emotional behavior. The consideration, therefore, is this:
If the Tabula rasa state was the existing condition the last time that you were
truly happy, and if you want to be happy again, then is it not necessary to
return to that same state? That is why what is offered here is really all so
simple, but you must be as a child to be free and happy and joyous.
“The Child No-Knowing Stage”
So what is that pre-programming, pre-conditioning, pre-domestication, pre-acculturation, pre-brainwashing and pre-indoctrination condition like? It is a state wherein impartial, objective, opinion-less witnessing allows all to be observed without judgment, a false sense of separation, irritation, restlessness, disharmony, fluctuations, discontentment or chaos.
It was once
described this way when explaining why the no-knowing state is preferable to
the accumulated knowledge state, the learned ignorance state, and the
programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated state:
A prerequisite for being at peace during the relative existence is to be able
to witness with detachment. The prerequisite for being able to witness with
detachment is to detach from body identification and to detach from the
influence of “their” concepts that - having been unquestioningly accepted by
you as the truth - now form what is called “your mind.”
The
next prerequisite for being able to witness objectively is to be free of the
duality inspired by religious or spiritual concepts. After that, the next
prerequisite is to be free of all other concepts and “return” to the bliss of
the child ignorance stage.
Only a child - abiding in a pre-programming, pre-conditioning, pre-acculturation,
pre-domestication, pre-indoctrination, pre-brainwashing condition - can witness
without judgment, without thoughts, and without beliefs based in duality.
For
adults to be able to witness without judgment, without thoughts, and without
beliefs based in duality requires a shift “back” to the state of child
ignorance or the no-knowing state by casting aside all of the nonsense which
has been generated by conditioning and programming and acculturation and
domestication.
Nothing is more at peace than a child when its physical needs have been met. As
long as health and food and shelter and dry clothing requirements have been
met, perfect peace happens. Contentment happens in that pre-mind state of
existence. Note that the pre-mind state IS the pre-programming,
pre-conditioning, pre-acculturation, pre-domestication, pre-indoctrination and
pre-brainwashing state.
That pre-mind state is as close as any non-realized
person will ever be to the original nature unless one realizes fully and is
thereafter free of the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, and
domestication, indoctrination, and brainwashing.
Realized, contentment happens as a result of returning to the no-mind state.
Why should you, as an adult, settle for less contentment than that experienced
by a child? A contented child “in ignorance” - that is, prior to being “taught”
- does not yet know the euphoria (and accompanying emotional intoxication) of“love
offered”; nor does it know the misery (and accompanying emotional intoxication)
of “love withheld.”
A contented child in ignorance does not know what it feels like to enjoy being
labeled “good” but shortly thereafter to be in the misery of being labeled “bad.”
A child in ignorance does not know the suffering that comes with trying to meet
the ever-changing “standards” of critical, hypocritical, holy, or spiritual
persons.
A contented child in ignorance (that is, belief / concept free) does not yet know the frustration of the duality of striving constantly to gain reward or to avoid punishment.
A contented child in ignorance can lie comfortably on its back and have no opinions or concerns about whatever it witnesses. It can witness people without thought or criticism or judgment or any sense of separation.
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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SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
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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,
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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.
