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 continue the discussion of the “Forest Dweller Stage”]
First, the “back story: Easterners who discuss "Three Stages" list the student stage, the householder stage, and the forest dweller stage. In the first stage, the “tools” required for meeting the basic necessities of the relative existence are accumulated.
In the second stage, accumulating happens
at an accelerated pace (including a job, a spouse, a home, furnishings,
children, necessities, luxuries, etc.). Most persons fixate at that stage and
never reach the third stage, the “forest dweller” stage.
That third stage has been entered literally by many who abandon all material possessions and retreat to the woods for contemplation and considerations that can lead to enlightenment.
Such was the case with the aforementioned Henry
David Thoreau, one of the few U.S. citizens in his day to enter that third
stage which has its roots in Eastern philosophy.
To come to the essential understandings via the “forest dweller stage,” however, does not require that one literally go to the woods (though time in “re-treat” for “re-creation” can be most effective).
Furthermore, most non-dual guides would never encourage anyone who might want to skip from stage one to stage three. Maharaj did not offer the message to his children because they had to move into the householder stage and “earn a living.” Exposure to the understanding at too early an age can prove detrimental to movement through each of the stages, he pointed out.
Now, to go one with “my experience” in that stage:
“In
the forests, I watched the deer as they modeled a natural style of living. I
watched a spider build a web and then it showed me that, after doing all that
it could do, it then did nothing. It waited patiently for what might happen . .
. or might not.
“I avoided bears in Arizona and found that it is best to know that I really
have no power and that it is insane to enter into battles that cannot be won
and that should not be entered into at all. I learned that confrontations can
be seen to be truly hopeless only if the arrogance of assumed power is cast
aside.
“I walked trails in East and South Texas where I came across copperhead snakes
lying in the sun across the path, refusing to move an inch, ignoring all of the
surrounding commotion and noise and hoopla that I created in an effort to try
to scare them off or make them go away.
“I watched how those deadly creatures allowed me to use the bear claw on the
end of a walking stick to move them away, a stick that has been loaned to me by
a Cherokee medicine man (who could legally own such a stick with such a claw,
though I could not).
“I watched how those copperhead snakes did not react when the claw was slipped
beneath the belly at the midpoint of their length, how they did not panic when
they were being moved to the side of the trail, and how they went back to
resting wherever they were placed after events beyond their control had temporarily
determined what was happening to them.
“I watched in other cases as I tried to move away from cottonmouth water
moccasins, only to have them go ballistic and attack even though they were not
being threatened or attacked, even though they were not even being approached,
even though all efforts were being made to leave them alone.
It was seen that the consciousness within them was predisposed to being more proactive and aggressive and hostile in an effort to ensure that the consciousness maintain its present continuity.
It was as if snakes have their own places on the enneagram pictograph with copperheads being Type Nine Preferrers of Peace (“relax and avoid conflict and take it easy”) while moccasins are Type Eight Bosses / Controllers / Ragers / Sociopaths / Psychopaths.
[An
example of one of the latter types among humans is a politician currently on trial
in the U.S. A former employee reported he said that if someone is loyal to him
and always takes his side then they’ll have no problem but if anyone does not
support him, he’ll spend the rest of his life making them miserable.]
And by way of witnessing the behavior of those snakes I meet during my Forest
Dweller Stage, I saw how often I had been forced to deal with a plethora of human-moccasins. I saw that after leaving
the forest, I could choose whether I was going to deal with copperhead-types
only rather than with water moccasin-types.
“And I saw that, if I made that choice, how much calmer and easier and simpler
the existence can be when dealing with copperhead-types rather than with water
moccasin-types.
“I saw how some nations - such as the one where I lived - were more warlike
than others, were more prone to hate peace and to relish war; and I saw how
there were other nations that preferred being ‘lovers’ and not ‘fighters’.
“After learning the lessons of the woods and returning to ‘society,’ it was
seen that what the not-insane creatures in the forest had taught me during the
twenty-five months there translated and transitioned very smoothly to the
relative existence that has unfolded ever since leaving the forest.
“It became clear during those twenty-five months that (1) nothing in the forest
is crazy and that (2) little that is not in the forest is sane; that is, it was
seen that (3) that which is natural is sane and that (4) that which is
unnatural and / or supposedly supernatural is insane.
The visitor: “Good for you, but I can’t leave my practice for two years and go
sit and sleep and walk in the forest.”
The reply: “And you need not. In 1937, Maharaj abandoned his family and his
business with twelve prosperous shops and began visiting temples and places of
religious interest; yet his mind was restless. What he was seeking, he
discovered, could not be found in temples or places of organized religion.
“So he traveled north, determined to live in the Himalayas and never to return
home; however, while walking through the remote forests and mountainous
regions, he chanced to meet a fellow-disciple of his guru who told him that his
wanderings would avail him nothing and that they were not necessary at all.
He
suggested that Maharaj should go home and live an active life as a householder
and as a selfless servant to the poor.
I continued: “The invitation to you is the same: abide in the natural way, even
when not in a natural setting. You need not go the forest. You need only to be
able differentiate between that which is natural (and therefore sane) and that
which is unnatural and / or supposedly supernatural (and therefore insane).
“You’ve had craziness passed along to you by family, partners, institutions,
businesses, and your culture in general. The invitation is for you to take the
steps now which are required for you to ‘go sane’” . . . to be truly restored to
sanity rather than merely believing the lie that you already have been.
So how does one enter into the “Forest Dweller Stage” even if actually going to the forest is out of the question?
More on that tomorrow.
To be continued.
Please enter in to 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.
