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.
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF TOTAL FREEDOM
“ . . .You are afraid of freedom!”
-Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The Guru knows the Ultimate and relentlessly propels the disciple towards it. The disciple is full of obstacles, which he himself must overcome. The Guru is not very much concerned with the superficialities of the disciple's life.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“It is impossible to state the truth. It is possible to point the way to the truth.”
--Floyd
I pause on occasion to remind site visitors that (to borrow a phrase from the Italian language) we non-dualists also have a “cosa nostra,” meaning “our thing” or “this thing of ours.” To keep an eye on the real target, this should be considered occasionally:
What is this thing, non-duality, all about? and “What should actually be sought?” and “What is the function of a non-dual guide?”
Maharaj: “The Guru knows the Ultimate and relentlessly propels the disciple towards it. The disciple is full of obstacles, which he himself must overcome. The Guru is not very much concerned with the superficialities of the disciple's life”
and
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity. This is the function of the Guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.”
Floyd: “It is impossible to state the truth. It is possible to point a seeker toward the truth.”
If the non-dual guide is truly, fully realized, then the function of the guide is to move seekers away from being driven by the Ultimate Sickness and three of its key symptoms, namely, “learned ignorance, stupidity, and insanity” (Maharaj).
The function of the guru / guide,
therefore, is to lead seekers to realization (which is simply a state in which
no beliefs are any longer held, freeing the seekers from attachment to nonsense
and ignorant views.
The “job” of the guide is also to move the seeker away from dual-mindedness which results in “being unstable in all ways” (Yeshu’a). The function of the guide is to shift seekers away from chaos and to stability.
To continue:
A visitor said: What you said to
Louise about everything was happening at “the level of experience” obviously
was a turning point for her and allowed her to attain the total freedom you
talk about. But I can still relate to what she was saying about the stress of
being a single parent and trying to pay the bills, so please explain “at the
level of experience” so i might reach that turning point, too.
The reply: First, allow a foundation to
be laid for your understanding of what “at the level of experience” means;
then, you will understand that there was no “louise” that “attained” anything.
Consider this exchange:
Questioner: “Is the witness-consciousness permanent or not?”
Maharaj: “It is not permanent.
The knower rises and sets with the known. That in which both the knower and the
known arise and set, is beyond time. The words permanent or eternal do not
apply.”
So, too, are the experience and experiencer not permanent. The experiencer
rises and sets with the experience. That in which both the experience and the
experiencer arise and set is beyond time.
Consider also:
Questioner: “To me consciousness is always focalised, centred, individualised,
a person. You seem to say that there can be perceiving without a perceiver,
knowing without a knower, loving without a lover, acting without an actor. I
feel that the trinity of knowing, knower and known can be seen in every
movement of life. Consciousness implies a conscious being, an object of
consciousness and the fact of being conscious. That which is conscious I call a
person. A person lives in the world, is a part of it, affects it and is
affected by it.”
Maharaj: “Why don’t you enquire
how real are the world and the person?”
As there is the misconception that there is the “trinity” of knowing, the
knower, the known, so there are the misconceptions that there are
(A) a triad of the body-mind-personality and
(B) the trinity of experiencing, the experiencer, and the experience.
Yes, what is to be known
(actually, “understood”) can be discussed along the way, such as, “The Truth
can be known but cannot be stated”; however, farther along the seven-step “path,”
all of that gives way, first, to subject-object witnessing and then to pure
witnessing.
This pointer have been offered previously: “The corrupted consciousness is the
knower of concepts, the thinker of thoughts, the accepter of lies as truth, the
emoter of emotions, the experiencer of pain and suffering, the accepter of
ideas rooted in myths, and the believer of false beliefs.”
And this also: “Next, among all forms-cum-consciousness other than programmed
persons, the intuitive knowing functions without being known. There is a point
on the ‘journey’ when knowing is sensed directly and consciously. post-realization,
the intuitive knowing continues to function without any conscious consideration
and without any sense of ‘A Knower’.” Consider the way that deer live, for
example.
Yet all pointers are level appropriate. What might make sense to one seeker at
one point could be most confusing, and could seem contradictory, to a seeker at
another level.
This was offered as well: “To understand what is happening on either side of
the border is to understand the difference in the manifested consciousness and
the unmanifested potential of the no-knowing awareness.
“That understanding will allow ‘The Knower’ to dissolve even as the
consciousness remains manifest. That understanding will allow for abidance in
the stability of the Absolute (and for some seekers, abidance as that which is
even beyond) as opposed to the constant movement of the manifested
consciousness.”
So, what some refer to as “the trinity of experiencing, the experiencer, and
the experience” shall meet the same fate of dissolution: eventually, belief in
that trinity shall dissolve once it is understood that there is nothing nor any
“one” that is experiencing - that all is merely being witnessed either by the
corrupted, blocked consciousness or by the pure, unblocked consciousness.
Never again use the pronoun “I” unless it is clear that “I” refers to nothing
except the witnessing consciousness. Here, no “i” (a.k.a., “floyd”) speaks; it
is I, the pure, universal consciousness only, that speaks.
Once that understanding comes, then it is understood that there is not - and
never was - an experiencer involved with whatever happenings were happening; it
will be understood that the happenings were merely being witnessed; and it will
be understood that even the “experience” itself was not real? Why?
Because it will be understood that all thought to be “experiences” were based
in the misperceptions of the corrupted consciousness that was witnessing in a
most unclear fashion because of the blockages set in place by programming, conditioning,
acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination.
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.
