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.
HOW RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL AND NON-DUAL MESSAGES HAVE BEEN WARPED BEYOND RECOGNITION
You have no choice, only the illusion of it.
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“This is the function of the Guru is to make us see the madness of our daily living. Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware” [of having been fooled’].”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“There is nothing to seek and find . . . .”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Give up all and you gain all.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“You have accumulated knowledge and experience; this cannot be denied. But of what use is it all to you?”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
THE REQUIREMENT FOR CLEANING
Maharaj pointed out that “Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one’s self as unreal is ignorance, and ignorance is the cause of sorrow. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is will also show you your own face.”
Instead of a mirror, Louise used a window to make the same point.
Louise Sterling is a professional writer living in Cape Town,
South Africa and was at one time the co-host of this site before I encouraged
her to begin her own site and share what she feels most moved to share.
During the writing of one of her series posted here, she was also in the
process of moving into a different cottage in the community where she resides.
I alluded to a point that she shared in that series:
“Recall that when Louise moved into her present cottage, the former occupant
had left the window overlooking the garden in a dirty, contaminated condition,
blocking any chance for seeing clearly. When she cleaned the contaminates away,
she did not turn impure glass into pure glass. The glass was glass before the
purging and the glass is glass now after ‘the obstacles to seeing clearly’ have
been removed. The same applies to consciousness.”
Here is the way she explained it specifically:
“The Advaitin understanding invites you
to de-accumulate, eliminate, remove, discard, simplify, de-clutter. The natural
state is already present; but it is cluttered over with layers and layers of
false conditioning.
You do not need to search for and find what is true. All that is needed is to stop holding onto the false ideas you have about yourself and the world.
Here, the beautiful scene of the garden, the pear tree, the swimming pool is already present; it can be viewed through the study window. If the window is dirty, caked with layers of dust and dirt, the garden will not be visible. It may even be possible not to know the garden is there.
Will praying to the garden to reveal itself help? Will visualizing the garden in all its beauty have an effect? No, all that is required is for the filth covering the window to be systematically removed, layer by layer, and the garden will appear.
[That is the un-teaching and un-learning which I have been discussing for more than three decades. The “cleaning” referenced above specifically refers to cleaning the brain of all of the content of the mind parts and reaching a state of a no-mind, no beliefs, zero concepts. Maharaj said, “There is nothing to seek and find . . . .” Indeed, but there is much to “un-find,” that is, to discard.]
The garden was always present; just the perceiving mechanism was
clouded. The ‘journey’ to realization is like this.”
So, yes, there is talk here and in some other non-dual circles about “impure or
contaminated consciousness,” but that is merely a means for pointing toward,
and for discussing, the consciousness which is soon no longer in the same, pure
condition as when it first manifests.
Yet more accurate would be to speak of the consciousness as having been “blocked”
or “obstructed” or - as Louise said - made “dirty, caked, or covered by layer
upon layer of filth.”
That blocking and obstructing happens via the dirty, caking, filthy processes
of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and
indoctrination.
In fact, though, there is only one form of consciousness - namely, the pure universal consciousness
- which can be blocked, or not.
That is why it has been noted here in the past that “Christ-consciousness” and “God-consciousness”
and “higher-consciousness” or “Higher Consciousness” are all BS concepts
generated by false but highly-proud ego-states.
If realized, it becomes understood that in Reality there are no dualities at
all, including such dualities as a “higher vs. lower consciousness” or as “God-consciousness
vs. non-God-consciousness” or as “Christ-consciousness vs. no consciousness of
Christ” or “pure consciousness vs. impure consciousness.”
In March of 2010, Louise explained it in this manner:
“The conditioned consciousness which
appears to ‘run the show’ you call ‘yourself’ is not what it appears to be.
Your sense of individuality is the pure consciousness - the ‘I AM’ without
attributes - to which has been added thousands of chemicals and flavorings.
“Just as water is pure and untainted, you can add a particular cocktail of
chemicals and flavorings to produce an unlimited number of so-called ‘unique’
beverages, for example: Coca Cola, Fanta, tea, coffee and so on. Every beverage
appears ‘distinct’ and ‘unique’, but its base is the same – pure water. The
sense ‘I AM’, the pure consciousness before additives, is like this.
“You know yourself; you are familiar with this sense of being. Maharaj calls
this your ‘working capital’. The nondual understanding begins from this very
simple and practical starting point.
“However, for the seeker who is not yet ripe, even discerning the sense ‘I AM’ can be a very difficult task. The wild mind and emotions pull the seeker into identification with fears and desires at every turn.
“Nonetheless, through unwavering attention and dedication, it is possible to pull the senses back from this constant identification and rest purely in the sense ‘I AM’. You may notice the additives and flavorings, but you no longer identify with them. You are able to ‘set up camp’ as the pure consciousness prior to conditioning.
[Note: this is a beginner’s step, yet it is one of the temporary locations misidentified as the final destination. This is why the guide is essential - to identify the location and provide the pointers to move you to the next step of the ‘journey’.]”
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
THE NEWEST OFFER
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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.
