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
(Continued)
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MISERY and BEING UNAWARE OF THE SECOND LAW
A line from a Goo Goo Dolls song: “Everything’s made to be broken.” In a capitalistic culture, that quote might be used to explain how businesses use built-in obsolescence to guarantee recurring sales and / or repair income.
The line might also refer to the Second Law of Thermodynamics which asserts that all which comes together will eventually come apart. Much misery and suffering comes to humans who are not aware of that law.
“Floyd, my wife left me! I’m suicidal.”
F.: “Go to the nearest emergency room.”
Significant stats were ignored going into the married. Here, there is a 50% divorce rate. During stressful periods on planet earth, the rate has risen to 60%.
The Second Law was a warning. The surprise is not that the marriage ended before “death did part.” The surprise is when that does not happen.
“Insanity: The Invisible Condition”
Consider this similarity: high blood pressure has been called “The Silent Killer” because it is impossible for anyone to detect its presence unless it has been tested for specifically. Only after one of its full-blown effects actually manifests - such as a stroke - is it known to have been present all along.
Similarly, insanity can sometimes be called “The Invisible Condition” because it is often impossible for anyone to detect its presence until its full-blown effects manifest; only on those occasions is it then realized that the condition had been present all along.
As a result, most take the manifestations of the effects of personality disorders and / or mental illness to be the exception rather than the rule: “My spouse (or parent or lover or friend) is not crazy - there are just some times every now and then when things build up and something snaps on occasion. And the same applies to me.”
You
might be with someone for months or years before the evidence of insanity
manifests. In marriage, the point at which such awareness occurs is pointed to
with the expression, “The honeymoon is over.”
That expression points to first moment when the phony images which
(1) were being displayed when dating and which
(2) were maintained during the days (or months, or years) following the wedding
are seen to have been nothing more than phony images.
The-honeymoon-is-over-moment happens when the formerly-hidden personality
defects and the dark mental liabilities finally surface from behind the facade
that had been maintained.
As noted, just as it is with high blood pressure, personality disorders and
insanity can manifest in stages, and in the early stages, the evidences might
be dismissed or minimized or denied by non-objective or “love-struck”
observers.
In
some cases, persons with personality disorders - no matter the severity - can
become experts at compartmentalizing. The traits that are exhibited in the home
might be covered up at work; the characteristics that show up in chaotic
traffic or in a slow checkout line at a store might never be displayed at the
church or temple.
In milder cases or in the early stages, the effects of personality disorders
can be slight enough to escape detection, especially in sicker cultures where
those same defects have become “the norm” or where even more serious defects in
others can overshadow milder problems when they are exhibited. Those “minor
problems” will increase in severity and frequency if not addressed.
Over time, the conditions can move from the status of being “mild” to “moderate”
to “full-blown,” and often the mild and moderate degrees of personality
disorders and / or insanity are disguised because cultures will normalize the
abnormal to such a degree that abnormal thoughts and words and deeds can appear
to be well within a culture’s range of “what is considered normal nowadays” or
in the range of the “abnormal norm” that is no longer seen by most to be
abnormal at all.
The result: just as you or a partner might have high blood pressure that is escaping detection, so might you or a partner have mild or moderate degrees of “foolishness or irrationality” that can develop later into more severe cases of personality disorders or severe mental and / or emotional problems or even madness.
Circumventing the Invisibility and Spotting Insanity
To the regret of many, the signs of “an invisible condition” are seldom obvious at first and can only show up much later;
unfortunately, those with personality
defects and disorders and more serious mental disorders are not identified by
labels which are required to be worn prominently at all times, much to the
chagrin of those who entered into a committed relationship with one who should
probably be committed.
Thus, the subtle degrees of those mental and emotional illnesses will assure
that they will often go undetected until all of the image-making and
image-sustaining games can no longer be played.
An
additional obstacle to spotting insanity involves the fact that there are
degrees of insanity, though the evidence in most cases shows that it is
progressive and only becomes more serious unless addressed and eliminated. Even
in the severest cases, however, the effects might “come and go.” Meaning?
Meaning the insane might appear to be sane for periods of time and might only
reveal their insanity occasionally, so most of the insane can fool you and
themselves much of the time. Most of the insane are said to be “functioning” -
working or socializing, dating and marrying, breeding, rearing children,
and supposedly living in ways which their cultures deem “normal.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
THE NEWEST OFFER
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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.