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
“Realization
is but the opposite of ignorance.”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Very early on, all persons are robbed and kidnapped.
First, they are robbed by their parents and their cultures of the simple
existence that any body-cum-consciousness
would and should otherwise enjoy, leaving to all persons an inheritance that no
sane person would want (or accept), namely, a very complex, complicated, and
restricted relative existence.
Next, they are kidnapped, and their case is not unlike that which appears in so
many mystery novels: characters are kidnapped, bags are thrown over their heads
so they can no longer see, they are knocked unconscious, and when they awake to
a tiny degree, they find they are locked away in one of a variety of rooms or
cells.
Sometimes in mystery novels or movies, a hero comes along to rescue them, but
in most instances of an actual kidnapping, there is no rescue . . . there is no escape. The realized
non-dual guide is no hero or rescuer but does deal with those who have been robbed
and kidnapped and who have been blinded and cannot see;
with those who have been rendered unconsciousness even though they continue to
walk about and talk; and with those who are locked away in a state of
entrapment. Imprisoned among the ranks of the non-realized, most will never
escape.
Thus, the non-realized masses have been blinded and cannot see, and they are
walking about and talking though unconscious; however, there is one difference
from the kidnapped people in mystery novels: the non-realized are totally
unaware that they have been locked away . . . totally unaware that they are in a state
of entrapment . . . totally unaware that
they are not free.
Might a nagging sense of their condition manifest? On some occasions, but
having no means by which the lies and restrictions of their culture can be seen
and discarded in order for Truth and freedom to come, they shake off the
sensation and continue with their boring and confining existence.
Indeed, the real mystery in all cases among the non-realized becomes: “I don’t
even know who I am anymore!” and “Who Am I?” and “What happens when we die?”
and “I sense I am something more than this body, but what?” or “This
relationship makes me feel like I am in jail” or “My addiction has left me in
bondage, hooked on work or spiritual work or control or power or money or
shopping or drugs or alcohol or food or nicotine or a plethora of false
identities or, yes, even hooked on my addiction to chaos.”
Yet most will never wake up enough to even ask those questions or to make those
statements. Most eventually become so “comfortable” with their discomfort that
they normalize it and minimize it and become afraid of freedom: “Better to be
in prison with company than to be free but alone,” they think unconsciously
(without even knowing what they are actually thinking).
That is the typical condition of the relative existence for most persons, so
the discussion will continue only for the few who might come and who might be
willing to at least consider the possibly . . .
. . . that they were robbed early on,
. . . that they have been kidnapped,
. . . that they were hoodwinked,
. . . that they have been unconscious
for most of their existence, and
. . . that they are not free at all.
There can be no freedom when the answers to the most basic questions remain a
mystery and cannot be answered. When the answers are not known, then the false
ideas in one’s culture will be accepted as truth; then, a limited, confined,
and confining existence becomes the only possibility for the robbed, kidnapped,
hoodwinked, unconscious, imprisoned masses.
Maharaj said: “False ideas about this ‘I am’ lead to bondage; ‘right knowledge’
[that is, an accurate understanding]
leads to freedom and happiness.”
So, the discussion continues:
DEFINING FREEDOM - CONVENTIONAL SOURCES (definitions, continued)
g. “freedom” is immunity or exemption from an obligation
or duty
How many are driven by an obligation or duty that allows for no immunity or
exemption and, thus, no freedom? Consider the ego-states involved in that
scenario:
1. “The Patriot” that soon upgrades itself to “The Super Patriot”: such persons
will be driven by a sense of duty and obligation to die for the silliest causes
that their commanders can dream up, following death-assuring orders without
question in the exact manner that they were programmed and conditioned to do
before being allowed to enter the field of battle.
2. “The Son” or “The Daughter” that struggles to be upgraded to “The Super Son”
or “The Super Daughter”: How many trapped in that ego-state, seeking parental
approval and “love,” will automatically and blindly practice the parents’
religion; will parrot their parents’ beliefs; will acquiesce to the parents’
demands regarding the proper kind of employment that is acceptable in the eyes
of the parents;
will marry someone, as the parents desire, rather than just live together (and
will actually marry over and over again until they “get it right” in order to receive
an “attaboy” or an “attagirl” from mom and dad or in order to avoid being
scolded as happened early on when they were “The Bad Son” or “The Bad Daughter”
)?
How many of those types will never tap into that which they know - but do not
know that they know - and will instead adopt every one of their parents’
beliefs and customs and traditions and mores without question, trapping them
forever in the role of “The Clueless, Controlled Child”?
Persons need not “hate” their earliest and most
influential programmers - their parents and culture - in order to see that
their nonsense really was, and still is, nonsense.
Prison can manifest in many forms other than gray concrete and steel bars. To
feel obligated to accept, with questioning, all of the beliefs and concepts and
values of one’s parents and / or one’s culture preempts any chance for total
freedom to manifest and assures that persons will be imprisoned for the
entirely of their relative existence.
Why? Because those among the non-realized masses will be so afraid of becoming
independent and walking the less-traveled path that they will also be afraid of
total freedom itself.
h. “freedom” is the absence of interference by the use of
coercion or aggression.
If you are attached to “The Lover” or “The Spouse” roles, then you will
consider the words, “I’m leaving you” or “I want a divorce” to be aggressive
words of coercion.
Attached to either role, you can be intimidated or
oppressed by such words, forced to fight for “the life” of that role, often by
acquiescing to never-ending demands or by pleading like a child that is fearing
abandonment. Trapped in the false identification of an ego-state, there will be
coercion and aggression, but there will be no freedom.
i. “freedom” is the state of being free or at liberty rather than in
confinement or under physical restraint; or, the right to enjoy.
Consider the outcomes of following the “path” in the manner laid out by a realized
guide, outcomes that were shared by a seeker from New York who, after years of
trying to realize by using “his way,” has come back and agreed to take this “journey”
as instructed, guided along the “path” in the exact order required for full
realization - and, therefore, for total freedom - to manifest:
He said: “I just ordered the books and am finally reading them in the
prescribed order. I am looking forward to continuing to challenge any crap
still lying in my the mind. I have spent a sufficient amount of time reading
and then considering the pointers. It really does feel like a fresh new
experience with the material that I missed the first time going through in such
a rush and not really considering any of it before.
“This time, there is no one any longer to try to impress. All the things that
seemed to matter at one time really don’t anymore. I was able to just walk
around this morning and enjoy a chocolate doughnut and a cup of coffee and just
be still without any worry or doubt in my head.”
j. “freedom” is personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery; or, the
absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc.
As far as non-duality is concerned, “personal liberty” can only refer to
liberation from the personality, total freedom from any belief in or any
attachment to anything dealing with the relative . . . with the personal. Those ties end with
realization.
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.
