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.)
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HOW RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL AND NON-DUAL MESSAGES HAVE BEEN WARPED BEYOND RECOGNITION
Yesterday, it was shown that whether one is discussing the transmission of a religious message or a “spiritual” message or non-dual pointers, once the messages or pointers are “codified” and placed into writing, what will be read is a completely warped and mutated and bastardized version of the original.
Why? Because the written versions of the messages were shared orally for years or even for centuries by humans playing the Telephone Game.
A visitor to this site sent the following during the summer of 2007:
I’m lost. I’ve read every book I can get my hands on about Advaita Vedanta. I’ve studied Adi Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekanada, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and now you. And it all seems like one contradiction after another. That was the whole problem with everything I tried before Advaita Vedanta--one contradiction after another. Some teachers say I have to love everyone. The next teacher doesn’t even mention love. Some talk poetically. Others talk in what I would call a realistic way and delivery their points in a hard, smack you between-the-eyes style. So what’s the deal? I got involved with AV because I was looking for sanity but I’m going nuts in the process. Greg.
What was explained in the posts which followed his inquiry was this:
All evolves, be it humankind or viruses or messages. All will become mutated and warped. Because the non-dual message was spread via the use of the Telephone Game, it was warped long before it was codified.
With each telling of the message, more and more warping happens, sometimes by accident, sometimes by misunderstanding, and sometimes by persons modifying what they heard and altered the message consciously in an effort to extend their own hidden agendas.
After years of spreading the message orally and eventually via codification, the message was changed and varieties came about whereby people could shop for one version from among the different “teaching methods” either by accident or by depending on which appeals to them.
That may be one of the least effective means available to the seekers who will never find what they seek. Being driven by “initial appeal” is the least effective means for buying a car, choosing a spouse or partner, or choosing a method of sharing the non-dual message.
Dating apps allow some members to swipe left or right in their search for a date, giving the limbic system part of the brain mere seconds to trigger a behavioral and / or emotional determination.
Other dating apps are completely driven by appearance. “Luxy” explains their methodology in this manner: “Luxy is a dating app that only serves successful or attractive members. We keep to maintaining a high level of restriction approved by our committee of trustees. Every new applicant can use Luxy for free after passing the review.”
Note all of the variations / warpings of religious messaging. Some researchers have concluded that there are 4,200 different religions on planet earth; others now count 10,000 total. Most do agree that five religions account for about 75% of the planet’s population:
Christianity claims that over two billion people are members of that faith; Islam claims that 24% of the planet’s population follow their religion, though that might be high; Hinduism claims they have over one billion followers; Buddhism claims that 7% of the planet’s population are their followers; and Judaism is in fifth place with a far smaller piece of the religious pie because they proselytize less than the other faiths (taking themselves to be more exclusive, being the “chosen people (by God).
Most of the three religions of Abraham Judaism - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - have duality-style subsets among them:
Judaism has subdivided into Orthodox Jews, Reform Jews; Conservative Jews, Hasidic Jews, Haredi Jews, Reconstructionist Jews, and other Jews that are aligned with certain geographic locations or areas with different cultural views.
Islam has subdivided into two groups mostly: Sunnis and Shiites.
Christianity is the all-time champ at splintering, rupturing, and separating from other Christians, now having over 10,000 different “denominations.”
Talk about a religion where messages have been spread via the use of the Telephone Game and resulting in members splitting away from each other and organizing a huge variety of differing versions of the original message.
Regarding
the warping of the non-dual message, those associated with transmission of the message played the
Telephone Game and then the carriers of what was originally a “no division” message
then divided along the lines of following four very different “teaching methods”:
TEACHING METHOD: Traditional Advaita
Paraphrasing Dennis Waite: This is the method regarded as the one
defined by Shankara in his discussion of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and
the Brahma Suttras around the 8th century AD. This approach is defined by those
scriptures which some claim are the source of truth.
TEACHING METHOD: Neo-Vedanta
Paraphrasing Dennis Waite: The term Neo-Vedanta refers primarily
to the method used by Vivekanada and his followers. Some critics consider this
method a “watered down” version of Traditional Advaita, a result of the fact
that Vivekanada and his followers have tried to make the teachings more
suitable to Western tastes where concepts and ego-states have dominated persons
for millenia. [NOTE: Neo-Vedanta teachers typically employ seemingly sublime or
exalted or emotion-inspiring statements that encourage followers to adopt more
concepts and identities instead of encouraging seekers to forfeit all concepts
and identities. Some examples include such advise as: dream on an idea and be
full of it and you’ll succeed; believe in yourself; make yourself strong; find
god and gain power; use thoughts to create a new reality; engage in the noble
goal of seeking knowledge; you are responsible for what you are; acquire power;
and seek love. Such concepts are in direct opposition to the teachings
presented via the Direct Path, nisarga yoga approach. f.h.]
TEACHING METHOD: Neo-Advaita
Paraphrasing Dennis Waite: The teachers who use this method see
no need for study, questioning or inquiring into anything. Recognizing only the
reality, and knowing that there is no seeker, they conclude that there is
nothing to seek and nothing to teach. Often, the result is that even the most
diligent seekers who try to attain the understanding with Neo-Advaita teachers
can become very confused.
Neo-Advaitins suggest that no path is required since there is no “one” to follow the “path.” [NOTE: That same understanding, which is attained by some who follow the “Direct Path Method” to its end, is assumed by Neo-Advaita teachers to be a given from the very beginning. f.h.] Some who adhere to this method reject the name “Neo-Advaita” outright.
TEACHING METHOD: Direct Path
The “Direct Path Method” offers a sequential-steps method which begins with un-teaching the three false identifications which persons are taught, namely personal identifications, mind identifications and personality identifications.
The aim: to free persons from being driven by the hidden agendas of all false identifications by guiding them to being free of belief in the false roles and personas and guises and façades and outward shows and public images and outer shells and characters which are being played on the stage of The Theatre of the Lie.
The un-teaching involves ending the belief in (a) relative personal identifications and / or (b) other-worldly “Supreme” or “Infinite” or “Special” or “Ultimate” or “Highest” Identifications, and / or (c) mind identifications and the dual-mindedness which affects the masses and / or (d) personality identifications.
The result can be the manifestation of freedom from having one’s thoughts and words and deeds being determined by beliefs which are based in learned ignorance and being free of insanity.
That can then result in freedom from being trapped in and driven by the warped content stored in the mind parts of the brain.
After explaining that to Greg, he was then asked:
Based on the descriptions above, are you seeing why all of your searching has resulted in what you describe as one contradiction after another? There are some very clear differences in message and methodology employed by different non-dual guides. The wise seeker will take those variances into account when selecting a guide (and a method to follow) if seeking full realization and full liberation.
Realization
involves realizing the truth; being able to differentiate the true from the
false; being restored to sanity; and discarding all ignorant concepts and
stupid ideas (a.k.a., beliefs).
Not becoming better? Not rising to a higher plane? Not making progress? No.
Maharaj: “There is no progress” and “the only purpose of life is to live.”
Not learning more and more? Not becoming an expert in the content of a text
deemed to be holy? No.
Maharaj: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what
has been told by the Vedas”
and
“Go to zero concepts.”
What about accumulating religious and spiritual experiences to be better? No.
Maharaj said that if you realize the truth, then both experience and the experiencer
will disappear.
Here, the following is often used to discuss an all-too-common pattern that has
been witnessed for nearly three-five years this summer:
“I
GOT IT! I GOT IT! I GOT IT! followed by Oops, I don’t have it or Oops, I lost
it or Oops, I had it but lost it, which can’t be true, so I guess I never had
it to start with.”
Explaining why persons seem to grasp the understanding and then seemingly lose
it, Maharaj said: “You are so used to the support of concepts that when your
concepts leave you, although it is your true state, you get frightened and try
to cling to them again.”
A woman who understands non-duality almost as well as anyone ever has - but who
has not yet overlaid the full understanding on the relative existence and then
abided consistently in a simple
and natural manner only -
recently shared the following:
Right now, I am really just observing the self – the habitual tendencies,
the default mind states, and re-establishing a daily meditation practice. Over
the last few years of course, the mind / body / personality construct returned
with all its old patterns, so I really have to return to the beginner practices
– in meditation observing the flow of thoughts and falling in love again with
silence in those brief moments when it is revealed again.
Maharaj: “That mind-language will talk only about the impressions it has
collected. The knowledge ‘I Am’ is not a thought but observes the thoughts.”
She continued: I am struck by
my arrogance of a few years back. I felt so unshakably sure as ‘the True
Identity.’ Yet that dissolved away not into nothingness but into the old,
former person. I know there was some ‘progress,’ but clearly I was resting into
yet another refined identity and not what was permanent.
(Again, Maharaj: “There is no progress.”)
For the sake of clarity, let us pause to review . . .
(1) what the main focus of non-dual, direct path guidance is and what
(2) the sole purpose of understanding the understandings is:
a. There is an Ultimate Sickness which plagues most humans on the planet, a
disease / dis-ease characterized by three key symptoms according to Maharaj: “ignorance,
stupidity and insanity”;
b. the Ultimate Medicine is intended to remove those symptoms;
c. insanity can involve the brain, but is usually rooted in the parts of the
brain called the mind;
d. stupidity can involve the brain and the parts of the brain called the mind;
e. ignorance can involve the brain and the parts of the brain called the mind,
but since most ignorance is learned ignorance, it more often involves the mind -
those parts of the brain where stupid beliefs (concepts, ideas, etc.) are stored
and where ignorant beliefs (concepts, ideas, etc.) are stored;
f. and the sole purpose is to be able to accept the invitation offered: Relax. Take it easy. Calm down. Have fun.
Unwind. Loosen up. Lose that proverbial stick. Lighten up. Settle down. Take a
break. Chill out. Be sane. Be sound. Be logical. Be awake. Be aware.
Abandon all of your false identities, even the so-called good ones and holy ones. Stop allowing dreamed up religious dogma and dreamed up spiritual principles to drive you to make a second job out of just living. Dance lightly. Enjoy what cannot possibly be enjoyed later but what can only be enjoyed 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.
