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.
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OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF TOTAL FREEDOM
“ . . .You are afraid of freedom!”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Realization
is but the opposite of ignorance.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. If you want peace, deserve it.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“You want peace and harmony in the world, but refuse to have them in yourself.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES (cont.)
The reason many do not want to be free is because they
are suffering from the mental illness called “The Goldilocks Syndrome”: they
are willing to readily give up what they think is “too this” or “too that” but
unwilling to give up what they think is “just right” - just perfect at any
particular moment.
The insanity of that is this: the only constant in the relative existence is
change, so whatever the distorted seeing takes to be perfect now will change
shortly. The Laws of Thermodynamics are not suspended either by ignoring them
or denying them. What has come together will come apart, be it “you with the
perfect mate,” “the perfect relationship,” the “perfect locale,” “the perfect
body” . . . whatever.
The soup that Goldilocks found to be too hot, if left alone patiently for a few
minutes, could have been “just right.” But that condition of “just right-ness”
would soon have given way to soup that was perceived to be too cold.
Try to function as a person and it will be revealed that any and all satisfaction is fleeting, that all is in flux, that change will be the only constant, and that - among the dual-minded - instability is assured;
moreover, the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness (which Maharaj identified as “ignorance and stupidity and insanity”) will always be the drivers of human thoughts and words and deeds and will dominate all aspects of one’s relative existence.
Yeshu’a: “A dual-minded person is unstable in all
ways.”
To be totally free is to be free of trying to manipulate the environment or the
body - or other bodies - to one’s own self-will; then one will merely witness
impartially and from a position of neutrality whatever happens spontaneously.
The deer which finds the levels of noise that come from a nearby house on
occasion to be contrary to its nature does not approach the house and knock on
the door and ask the woman if she and her family have ever considered measuring
the family’s “noise footprint on the environment.” The deer merely moves away
from that house when the noise is erupting the peace and quiet.
Freedom is not the freedom to control others. Consider again one of the former
dictionary definitions of freedom that was discussed and one new one as well:
“Freedom” is the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement;
or, having the ability to move without restraint.
For the deer to be free and therefore at peace, it need not have the “power” to
make others “do this” or “stop that.” It requires only freedom from confinement
and the ability to move away.
“But Floyd,” some have said, “I feel imprisoned in a relationship at home” or “I
feel imprisoned in my relationship at work, and circumstances have robbed me of
the freedom to move.”
The reply: “First, there are more ways than one to move; secondly, there are
changes which can happen which do allow for movement when it is considered
impossible; and, thirdly, nothing is robbing you except your personal,
mind-driven fears and desires.”
Once de-accumulation happened here, then far less work and income was required.
Speaking with a seeker in Australia one night during the standing “Saturday-night-here-Sunday-morning-there-Skype-conference,”
it was seen that the illusory need for more and more money can end when
de-accumulation begins.
The expense of accumulation only begins with the initial cost of whatever (or
whomever) you are determined to buy. The maintenance costs of accumulations
eventually exceed by far the initial expense, whether that involve maintaining
a house, a mate, or a false image being presented to the public.
Far less money is required when freedom from accumulation and maintenance
happens, and then freedom of movement from employment that is enslaving can
happen.
Yet the move need not always be literal. During one weekend conference, that
Australian spoke of a nearby but remote island on which he wants to buy a cabin
to use for his retirement someday.
It was asked, “How many years until retirement?” The
reply: “Twenty.” The response: “You need not wait twenty years to ‘move’ to the
place of perfect peace. It is within a few steps of where you think you are
right now. I speak of ‘non-dual steps’.”
Yet few will ever understand the steps on the “journey” from identification
with the false “I” to abidance as the Absolute. Few will come to understand
that freedom and peace are right here, right now or that the only movement
required is the movement / non-movement along a path / non-path.
It was explained that some might know the physical address where they can go
for satsang / retreats with whatever “floyd” is assumed to be but that very few
know where Floyd - the Real Floyd - “lives.” That place is typically cave-like
(remote and quiet) but even there is not where the abidance of this speck of
conscious-energy is happening.
The freedom that precedes peace can happen “now” and “here,” not “later” and “there.”
It comes when “The Goldilocks Syndrome” has been transitioned, where there is a
position of neutrality and no dualistic judgments are being drawn about things
being “too hard vs. too soft” or “too hot vs. too cold.” It comes when the
equally-as-delusional-notion that “something is just right and will always
remain that way” is transcended.
Only the Absolute is a non-moving target. All else will be in constant flux,
and the “joy” of things perceived to be “just right” will give way to the
misery of those same things soon perceived to be “all wrong.” Here’s the way former
co-host of this site Louise once put it recently after returning to “the cave”
after a holiday:
She shared: “Today, walking in the garden to find fresh herbs, there is simply
gratitude for this preference-free view. You expressed this so clearly recently
when you said, ‘Do you not see that hope eventually generates hopelessness and
that the relative existence would unfold more pleasantly is you allowed what
happens to happen spontaneously without complicating things with your wishes
and desires and hopes and, yes, fears as well?”
“A recent visit to Bazley was full of contrasts: the idyllic, silent beauty of the natural setting, but sharing a house with three children, two adults and DSTV. Within the home, there was a higher level of background noise, personal ego demands, and busyness than I am used to in ‘my cave.’ Would it be possible to grasp the understanding within the busyness and noise? Unlikely.”
“With the withdrawal from all that is extraneous, the movement away from the phantasmagoria of the relative, there is simply resting in silence. In this silence, the winds of preference or non-preference are subtle, and more easily discerned and observed. This is the forest dweller stage I guess.
“Here this stage involved working, parenting and caring for the body’s needs, yet almost all other activities dropped away. In this environment of simplicity and silence, preference for or against could drop away, and the vast spaciousness of neutrality enjoyed.
“Once neutrality is tasted, it is not easily forgotten. This view becomes permanent. Then it is possible to be in the ego-led noise of society without being pulled into preference or non-preference. Although, the movement will always be away from the noise to the gentle, silent, peacefulness modelled by the petite buck that come to graze and drink at the bottom of the Bazley garden each morning and evening.”
The reply: “And that is what the relative existence looks like when the Absolute is laid over it; and that is what the unassailable peace looks like when the movement to freedom happens; and that is what it looks like to be neither pro-life nor pro-death but ‘preference-free’.”
The resulting condition is not unlike the naturally-abiding, spontaneously-living deer which has no desire to control (except for bucks during the Fall season rut when bucks are driven to mate).
Once a buck becomes driven, it’s peace is forfeited. Mature bucks become increasingly active, attempting to establish dominance over all deer in a territory. They abandon their typical, relaxing daytime activities and begin moving about in search of a doe to fulfill their desires. During the month-long rut, they abandon their eleven months of peace and move about and fight other bucks as they try to attain sole control.
Similarly, humans can become increasing active, as is the case right now in the U.S. with the pro-life / pro-choice age-old fight. Peace (if it existed at all) is abandoned as some try to control others and control what others do with their bodies.
One right-wing political candidate from Arizona last week said, “I do
not believe in abortion.” What ignorance, yes? Of course she believes in abortion.
She knows it’s real and that’s why she fighting to gain control over
others by outlawing it in any and every circumstance.
What she meant was, “I do not believe that anyone has the right to choose to have an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest or danger to the life of the one who is pregnant.” Her levels of anger and fury and even rage are evident. So it is when humans move about and confront and try to control all others . . . but cannot.
Deer behave that way one month a year. Many humans behave
that way 365 days a year, all day long. Whoa.
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.
