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
“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 [guide]makes you aware.”
--Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj
“It is impossible to state the truth. It is possible for a guide to point the way to the truth for seekers and for seekers to become able - and willing - to differentiate between the true and the false.”
--Floyd
To take the discussion to another
level, it might be said that the masses are less afraid of freedom than they
are uninterested in freedom. Why? First, they do not know that they are not
free.
In the U.S., mislabeled a “democracy,” persons love to talk about their
freedoms, to sing about their freedoms, and to think they are separated from “others”
who are not as free. Former president George Bush even made the ignorance-based
claim that people “hate us for our freedoms.”
Not because the U.S. has historically robbed others of their freedom, but
because the U.S. has its own freedom? They are jealous? Hatred is not inspired
because the “defense budget” is larger than the defense budgets of all other
nations combined and is used to fund efforts to control or to nation-build or
to try to mold the world into its own image?
In fact, the U.S. has not defended itself successfully for decades, so that “defense
budget” is really an “offense budget,” used far more to attack than to defend.
Might that have something to do with much of the global animosity?
Yet that same president who
verbalized his theory about “why they hate us - it’s because of our freedoms
and our being a democracy” was elected to his office though his opponent had
543,895 more votes. Democracy? Free?
Here, the electoral college votes - not popular votes . . . not the most votes - determine who is president.
2024 will mark 20 years since Republicans last won the popular vote. It is probable that the voters in four states - not in fifty states - will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Where is freedom and democracy there?
Refuse to pay the taxes imposed by the
federal government and see how free you are. Drive faster than the authorities
tell you that you can drive, drive by a policeman who is hiding in wait along
the highway (just as robbers did in the past), and you’ll pay a fine in the
$250-$400 range. Free? Really? Yet the masses here really believe that they are
free.
Now, while the beliefs they have about being a part of a “democracy” and being
free are nothing more than parts of a culture-wide,
nationalism-and-ego-inspired delusion, the real entrapment comes each day as a
result of the “prison of the mind” and “the prison of personality.”
And that is another level at which the masses have no clue at all that they
have no freedom, that they are not free at all; additionally, most persons do
not want to be independent to even a small degree, much less totally
independent, so realization cannot come.
The masses prefer dependence, having been programmed and conditioned and
acculturated and domesticated and brainwashed and indoctrinated to believe that establishing and maintaining dependencies and
co-dependencies are the prerequisites for happiness:
“It is normal to do so,” they will claim, the consciousness having been so
warped or so blocked that it is dependency and co-dependency - and not total
freedom . . . not total independence - which have been normalized and endorsed
on a culture-wide basis. To move to that next level of the understanding,
however, this irony must be seen:
in terms of the non-duality understanding, all are already free because that “all”
refers to nothing more than mere specks of conscious-energy that cannot even be
touched, much less imprisoned.
At one point on the “path,” the guide might say that “your freedom has been
stripped away by the mirages which you persons take to be real”; however, it is
seen by seekers that move farther along the “path” that a mirage cannot take
away anything and that nothing can be taken away from a person that is not real
in the first place.
A non-real mirage cannot do anything to a not-real person, and a not-real
person cannot do anything to anyone or anything. The point is, that which you
truly are is already totally free, but that pointer cannot be understood by the
persons who do not know what that is which they actually are.
The energy-consciousness that can use the pronoun “I” to speak of itself cannot
be bound or imprisoned, though temporarily manifested in a body it might be.
And that presence in a body-cum-consciousness is far more finite than is
understood by the masses and is also often misunderstood by many claiming the realized state.
So free is the conscious-energy that there is actually no continuity of the
manifested consciousness even in a body-cum-consciousness. If the consciousness
were a finite, individually-identifiable amount of energy that was not
constantly coming and going into and out of any given space or form or body, then no
human or living thing would ever need to eat again.
But the consciousness that was present two months ago in this plant food
body-cum-consciousness that is called “floyd” is not the same quantity of
conscious-energy that is present today. A constant re-supply of three things is
required for what is called “life” to continue:
A. elements must be re-supplied. Why? Because the skin covering this space today is
totally different from the skin that was present 28 days ago; because the skin in the stomach is only a few days old because the acid which breaks down food also breaks down the stomach lining; etc. [When people tell me I am “76 years old,” I don't waste my breath to say “I'm closer to one day old.” They wouldn't “get it.”]
B. the oxygen must be re-supplied (which is the issue now being faced by this
plant food body since oxygen is not being re-supplied at normal levels as a
result of less-than-normal activity by the heart or lungs or both); and
C. the conscious-energy must be re-supplied (which is accomplished by eating
plants).
That is all these manifestations called “you” or “floyd” are about: elements,
air, energy - the “composite unity.”
Only the illusion of “memory” leads persons to believe otherwise. The fact is
that the consciousness is so free that it cannot be bound within any space for
more than a brief period. To use the “I” accurately to refer to the
ever-in-motion consciousness means it can be stated factually that “I AM” and
it can be understood that “I” - a speck of energy - am totally free.
But the programmed and conditioned consciousness has no interest in being free,
that is, free of its delusions, free of its beliefs, free of its illusions, and free of its false
but assumed identities / roles / ego-states / stage characters / actors /
personalities / personas . . . call them
what you will.
While the realized state is accessible to all who would but see it, it is a
state that is “reached” by only a few thousand at any given time because of the
attachment that persons have to their false notions about “individuality,”
about things “personal,” or about some “unique selfhood” to which they cling.
Not unlike the largest, most powerful ship on the planet which is still not
free as long as it remains attached to a dock, so too are persons not free as
long as there is the slightest attachment to the illusions of a personal,
individuated self.
As long as a belief in any personality remains, as long as there is even one
persona that is thought to be real, then freedom will be surrendered to the two
elements which accompany every persona, namely, fears (which are imagined) and
desires (which are never met with any consistency).
As noted, husbanding can happen even if the assumption of the role of “The
Husband” is cast aside; however, if that false identity remains, it will
generate desires and fears. So, too, is the case with “The Wife,” “The Good
Child,” “The Perfect One,” “The Helper / Savior,” “The Boss,” “The Knower,” “The
Patriot,” ad infinitum.
Each belief held and each persona adopted will serve as one of the bars of the
prison of your “mind.” As long as a “mind” is present, total freedom cannot
manifest; furthermore, for most, freedom is not at all what they think freedom
is, especially in light of what is revealed via the nisarga yoga.
One visitor wrote: “The dawning of the natural state is not what you expect.”
How very accurate.
Freedom is not about being free to attain what one wants, for anything wanted
is only wanted by an illusory ego-state. It is wanting during the relative
existence, in fact, that ends any opportunity to understand real freedom during
that existence.
Similarly, it is trying to keep what one has accumulated (including not only
places and things but persons as well) that ends any opportunity to understand
real freedom during that existence.
It is the toll of trying to maintain what one has accumulated (including not only places and things but persons as well) that ends any opportunity to understand and accept real freedom during that existence.
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.
