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.
BEING
MADE CRAZY, CRAZY, STAYING CRAZY or AWARE OF CRAZINESS AND SEEKING SANITY
“Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“This is the function of the Guru - to make us see the madness of our daily living.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality [and Reality] to rush in.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
A. ORIGINALLY SANE
B. GOING CRAZY
C. GOING . . . GOING . . .
D. GONE
“So How Crazy Can Persons Go?”
“The Experience Here”
To finish the discussion of the “Forest Dweller Stage,” yesterday’s post ended with this:
So how does one enter into the “Forest Dweller Stage” even if going to the forest is out of the question? Consider: the title of Thomas Hardy’s novel “Far from the Madding Crowd” is taken from Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”
There is a natural appeal for the natural, the result of which is an archetypal drive among most to find a geographic place with some very specific traits for retreat and re-treat and that is far from the crowd. That innate drive will support the belief that there is a place (or places) that people must travel to in order to find Self and freedom and peace and happiness.
That
natural appeal for the natural is usually lost after programming, conditioning,
etc. inspires an appeal of the unnatural and / or the supernatural (i.e. the
supposedly “spiritual”).
Over a period of thirty-three years, nearly 5,000 persons were polled by the
author during discussions concerning the movement away from the madding crowd.
(Most of those polled did not have the option of arranging a permanent retreat
from society.)
Prior
to the polling, the participants were told that most people have in their
imagination a quiet place, a place that they would consider to have all of the
attributes of “the perfect hideaway” or “the ideal area for escape.”
It was explained that they were not to try to describe a geographical place
that they have actually visited but were to tap in the recesses of their
consciousness and describe that place which can only be visualized and that has
always been within. Next, they were asked to list the words that best described
the place and its surroundings.
In 95% of all responses, six common traits were always mentioned:
1. remote
2. quiet
3. a place of solitude because no other humans are anywhere near (meaning one
can be alone there without feeling lonely)
4. water
5. the natural sound of the movement of water (waterfall, brook, stream) and
sometimes the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the trees
6. wildlife, esp. birds
The author’s Cherokee grandmother used a term employed by the indigenous
peoples to describe that “non-place place”: she called it “The Medicine Place”
or “The Healing Place,” reached by conducting a “Spirit Journey.”
Do most require at least some time with a teacher to address one-on-one the
seeker’s questions? Often that seems to be the case; however, no expensive trip
is required for you to reach that “healing place” where one can attain the
ability to differentiate the true from the false.
Note that enlightenment is about touching that Original Understanding which predated both language and world travel. There is an “inner guru” or “inner resource” that can be tapped into;
however,
programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation have created
such a barricade of blackness that more light is required to penetrate the
barriers than most will ever muster alone.
So, in order for realization to happen (and for peace and happiness to continue
thereafter), must one travel to a geographically-remote area and reside there
in order to be removed far from the madding crowd? Of course not.
Post-realization,
all is seen for what it is, and the madding crowd is recognized to be as grand
an illusion as everything else that is misperceived by the non-realized. A
mirage in the road ahead can only be troublesome for those who are deceived and
who believe that illusions are real.
Instead of having to take endless trips around the planet, yours must be a “non-journey
journey” to the “non-place place” where the no-thingness awaits. The
no-thingness? Yes. To understand that it is the nothingness that is found at
the end of this “path” prevents most from ever even starting a nonduality-based
“journey” that is marked by annihilation . . . not gain;
by
elimination of all of the learned ignorance that has been collected . . . not
acquisition of more knowledge; by de-accumulation . . . not accumulation.
If all that awaits at the “end” of your quest is understood, you will know that
there is no benefit, no one to benefit, no purpose, and no meaning. Understand
that and your quest will lose that frenzied drive that might be characterizing
your current efforts.
That will allow a calmer state to manifest, which is the only kind of state in which realization can happen. Best regards on that “non-journey journey.”
The Most Basic Evidence of Insanity: Belief in the Birth Myth and the Death Myth” and Body Identification
In
the entire multi-billion-year history of this universe or in the
multi-million-year history of this planet there is no truth at all to the
rumors that anyone or anything has ever been born or ever died.
Some seekers have difficulty when trying to understand the “no-birth, no death”
teaching after being subjected to years of having been programmed to believe in
the validity of invalid timelines that supposedly measure their “lifetimes”
along a continuum from “birth” to “childhood” to “the teen years” to “adulthood”
to “death” to “judgment” to “eternal reward” or “eternal punishment.”
The no-birth, no-death understanding is simple if one were to first bend the
ends of the line upward and connect them at a point that would allow what was
formerly a line to assume the shape of a circle.
Then,
the circle could represent the cycles that have recurred throughout the history
of the planet. With the exception of a few asteroids and such that have entered
the earth’s atmosphere, there has been a net-zero gain and a net-zero loss as
far as matter on this planet is concerned.
The only other thing penetrating the atmosphere has been one wave of energy
after another. As noted in “Perspective #184” in the book “A Different
Perspective,” scientist Szent-Gyorgyi said, “What drives life is . . . a little
electric current, set up by the sunshine.” That is “the energy part.”
As
far as matter goes, though, nothing for the most part has been added and
nothing has been lost. Matter has merely cycled.
In the case of the trillions upon trillions of human forms that have “come and
gone,” and in the case of the multi-trillions upon multi-trillions of other
forms that have “come and gone,” those forms or spaces all happened
spontaneously as existing matter - not new matter - merely cycled.
The scientific “Laws of Thermodynamics” make clear that what comes together shall come apart. Elements have come together to form the body called “floyd” by some. Not only will those elements not stay together post-manifestation, they are not even staying together now.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
A talk and Q&A session on Walter Driscoll's non-dual site provided an opportunity to see some totally artificial ego-states fighting for their (imagined) lives.
To watch that talk and Q&A, click:
Walter Driscoll and Floyd Henderson
To watch the interview when Walter and Floyd discussed the fact that the Ultimate Sickness is a mental / mind sickness
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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.
