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
Among those in Austin, TX who were standing yesterday under a break in the clouds and thus witnessed the total eclipse, they saw the darkness which happened from 1:35:57 to 1:38:06. That’s two minutes and nine seconds of total darkness.
And reports were that persons along the path from Mexico to Maine who got a similar glimpse were “ecstatic, overjoyed, thrilled, elated, in rapture, and jubilant.”
And consider:
There’s the challenge which every non-dual guide might face among the seekers that come to a truly realized guide, namely, that among the masses there’s a quirkiness, an oddness, an idiosyncrasy, a peculiarity, a weirdness, an abnormality, and an aberration, and (per Maharaj, an “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity”) which allows them to be driven into a state of ecstasy over a few minutes of literal darkness but to feel nothing about the possibility of a lifetime of light and lightness.
So it is when authority figures from early on demand of their offspring that they accept as truth what anyone in a position of authority tells them and that they accept the word of any authority without questioning, on blind faith, and without any doubt at all.
To that degree, when the masses behave like Pavlov’s dogs behaved during their post-programming and post-conditioning phase (salivating over sounds rather smells) I suppose it should be noted that their quirky, odd, peculiar behavior, etc., should be viewed in light of what those dogs and the human masses share in common: post-programming, post-conditioning, etc., neither have any ability to make conscious choices.
But try telling seekers that they have no ability to choose anything, that their thoughts and words and actions are being determined by subconscious or unconscious forces at play within the mind-part of their brains, then prepare for a range of reactions from disbelief to outright anger.
So a rule of thumb among humans:
a few minutes of darkness = 
vs. a rule of thumb among humans:
a dedicated effort to seeking the light =
Now to continue the list begun in a prior post:
Among other things, non-duality is about awakening; by
contrast, nothing in any culture is about waking you up. All is about . . .
1. Putting you to sleep
2. Keeping you asleep and
3. Modeling the ways by which persons can walk in their
sleep, can talk in their sleep, and can think in their sleep (i.e., dream and
believe the dream is real).
Among the tools used by cultures to put persons to sleep and to keep them that
way are their ceremonies. Post-acculturation, there is no freedom so there can
be neither happiness nor peace; post-acculturation, there can be neither
freedom from ego nor freedom from egotism, for ceremonies generate false
identities (egos) and trigger egotism to support those false ego-states.
One dictionary defines freedom as the absence of ceremony and the ability to
live naturally.
Have you considered the way that culture’s use ceremonies to program and
condition the masses? Have you considered the way that ceremonies, repeated on
a daily or weekly or annual basis, are used by cultures to control the thinking
and talking and behavior of entire populations?
Discussed so far are the ritualistic ceremonies of religious and spiritual
groups which occur with such frequency that even the children who are present
can recite in their sleep the ceremonial words and can complete in their sleep
whatever ceremonial movements are required. And they do recite and move in
their sleep during the ceremonies, and so do participating adults.
Among the most frequent ceremonies are their worship services and their
ceremonial funerals. Also included among their ceremonies are communion
ceremonies, wedding ceremonies, confession ceremonies, and baptism /
christening ceremonies.
Some “self-help” groups that claim to be spiritual have “meetings” rather than “religious
services,” but their meetings are models of religious worship services which
both begin with an opening prayer ceremony, which both have a “spiritual
message” segment, which both have a “money collecting” ceremony, and which both
have a “closing prayer” ceremony.
Before looking at the next source that has dreamed up the second largest number
of ceremonies (namely, nationalistic ceremonies), would you consider the answer
to these questions:
a. Can you now observe your own behaviors objectively and see that there have
been dozens of ceremonies that you have participated in that were completely
senseless in basis and that you did not choose to participate in but were
programmed to participate in by your parents or relatives or friends or
culture?
b. Have you see how ceremonies were used to introduce to you certain concepts
and ideas that you eventually accepted as truth without question?
c. Have you seen the way your culture repeats its ceremonies on a daily or
weekly or annual basis in order to keep you trapped and asleep because regular
participation in ceremonies reinforces the programming and conditioning of your
culture ?
As you read about some of the ceremonies that persons in the U.S. are subjected
to, you are invited to consider the nationalistic / xenophobic ceremonies which you have been
subjected to where you live:
In the U.S., where persons are highly critical of other nations that subject
children to propaganda early on, the school day cannot begin without school-age
children having to participate in the ceremony of “The Pledge of Allegiance to
the Flag.”
The pledge, which was written by a Baptist preacher, blends religious and
nationalistic propaganda, especially since the U.S. Congress in 1954 added the
words “under God” after a Catholic organization called The Knights of Columbus
pushed for the inclusion of that phrase.
The pledge ceremony, conducted every day that schools are in session, requires
students from the ages of five to eighteen to participate in the ceremony which
attempts to condition children and teens to be patriotic, to love their
country, and to accept anything and everything that will be done during their
lifetimes under the auspices of that flag.
The typical student, with the right hand placed over the heart, will recite the
words to that pledge nearly 3,500 times before graduation (which is marked with
another insipid ceremony that most students would prefer to miss).
They will cite the words that claim the nation is “indivisible,” inspiring them
to ignore the fact that
the nation is divided into 50 different states, and to
ignore the fact that the nation is divided regionally as a result of the
animosity that many in the southern states still cling to because their states
lost a civil war which ended nearly 160 years ago for some but which has not ended at
all for others in that region.
It is such delusion and ignorance, and the inability after 3,500 opportunities
to see that something being said in a ceremony is totally false, that the non-dual
understanding would address.
Too, a sports event in the U.S. cannot begin without the ceremonial singing of
the national anthem (an anthem with words that glorify fighting in a nation
that already possesses far too much of a warrior mentality to begin with). Only
a part of the anthem is sung by thousands at a time, but the full text of the
song speaks of:
“the perilous fight” and “ramparts” and “rockets” and “bombs bursting” and “foes”;
and about
“the havoc of war” and “the battle confusion” and claiming “the foes’ blood has
wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution”;
and about:
“nothing will save them from the gloom of the grave” while claiming “this is a
heav’n-rescued land” and calling on all citizens to “praise the Pow’r that hath
made and preserv’d us as a nation!” and proclaiming that “this is our motto: ‘In
God is our trust’” and then ending with “then conquer we must.”
How could the warrior mentality of a nation ever be eradicated when the masses
regularly participate in the ceremonial singing in unison about “the perilous
fight” and “ramparts” and “rockets” and “bombs bursting” and “nothing will save them [those designated as our enemies] from the gloom of the grave”?
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
THE NEWEST OFFER
If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.
(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)
To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:
In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,300 posts for any topics of interest to you.
If you prefer PAPERBACK copies
(collected in two anthologies).
Links for ordering are below with
BARNES and NOBLE presently providing better service
than AMAZON
when it come to fulfilling orders for
paperback and hardcover books
as opposed to delivering digital books.
[NOTE: Wherever you live, you can search for the books below by title with booksellers in your country. With 40,000+ retailers distributing my paperback books, you may order from U.S. stores or you may find someone nearer to you.]
SEND A GIFT BOOK TO SOMEONE
(1) 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.
Or,
(2) To make an arrangement for us to send in your name as a gift from you any of our books to someone you choose:
(a) Visit www.floydhenderson.com.
(b) Purchase the ebook you’d like to send.
(c) Contact us using the email below, tell us which ebook you just purchased, and provide the name and email address of the person you want to send the ebook to. (They will never be contacted again or solicited for any reason.)
Send your information to:
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.
