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
“There’s no such thing as peace of mind.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“There’s no such thing as peace of mind. There’s only peace if you are out of your mind.”
--floyd
“The function of the Guru is to make us see the madness of our daily living.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“It is less - not more - that is required in order to treat the Ultimate Sickness.”
--floyd
WHY ERISTICS MUST BE IGNORED IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN PEACE
An eristic (noun) is defined as “a person given to debate or argument; a person who loves to argue.”
Throughout history, cultures have set in place certain “checks” or “safeguards” which have been used to curb and limit interruptions by pesky eristics. Why?
Because they are so immature that they cannot on their own check their obsessive, attention-desiring minds which make them compulsive.
They cannot delay the immediate gratification of their childish, juvenile drive to control and dominate so they will immediately disrupt proceedings and discussions when they hear pointers which challenge their entrenched belief systems and become driven to offer their beliefs as counterpoints to pointers they disagree with.
A TOOL USED OVER THE YEARS BY THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO SILENCE ERISTICS
My Cherokee grandmother introduced me to a tool her people used to maintain order during discussions; to impose silence on those without an ability to silence themselves;
to quiet those who are so self-centered that they are driven to be heard; who are egotistically-driven to deny others an opportunity to speak; and who are so arrogant that they are driven to dominate every conversation.
That tool used by the indigenous peoples is “the talking stick.” This is what a typical Cherokee talking stick looks like:
Of course “him” can be substituted for “her.”
If you don’t hold the stick, you cannot speak, and the group leaders can and will withhold the stick from those who believe that they should be the first and the last heard from.
ANOTHER TOOL USED OVER THE YEARS BY THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO SILENCE ERISTICS
My grandmother also introduced to me a “rule” used by Cherokees and the members of many other tribes, namely, “the Three Moon Rule.”
The requirement is this: if a pointer is offered for consideration, no one can react to it for a period of three moons, that is, cannot react until three moons have “come and gone.” You must wait three days until you will be allowed to express your opinion about the pointers.
A TOOL USED BY THE SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ TO SILENCE ERISTICS
Maharaj imposed something similar. Eventually, he would offer fewer satsang sessions than his guru dictated. Typically, has a 4AM to 10AM routine with certain people and family; then he started the morning satsung session promptly at 10AM and would start an afternoon session promptly at 3PM.
He would allow someone to ask a question and to speak briefly and from that seeker’s question and comments, Maharaj could determine where exactly that person was on “the path.” Then, Maharaj would lead the discussion to guide that seeker to the next step.
During the intervening time from noon to 3PM, (as well as in the coming days) seekers were expected to take the pointers into silent consideration.
As with Grandmother’s Three Moon Rule, Maharaj would not allow the persons focused on in the morning session to speak again. Also, he would not usually allow anyone to spend more than a week in the loft, at the most. Of course, the three interpreters who rotated tasks - and a few favorites such as Jean Dunn - were regulars but those were exceptions.
Once a seeker received his pointers and considerations were offered, silence was the rule.
Narcissists would be sent packing. Those who would
hog attention wren sent packing. Those who argued for the sake of arguing were sent
packing, so eristics were sent packing. For all of those types, the foul street of Vanmali Bhavan, 10th Lane, Khetwadi awaited.
Again, persons who love to argue are eristics; once more, an eristic (noun) is defined as “a person given to debate or argument; a person who loves to argue.”
Persons who are prone to argue are usually set up for that behavior by first being trapped in the persona of “The Know-it-all.” That is the case with eristics. They take nothing into consideration. Why should they? They already know it all.
They are always emotionally-intoxicated or spiritually-intoxicated, so they are not usually sober or mature enough to be able to delay gratification or to postpone trying to ram their belief down the throats of others or into the minds of others.
They are reactionaries or over-reactors.
THE PROBLEM NOWADAYS, ESPECIALLY IN THE U.S.
The U.S. culture long ago abandoned the love of peace and quiet and silence. Too much talk has been heard from xenophobes, calling the U.S. “the greatest country on earth” and “the guardian of freedom here and around the globe.”
Thus, too much has been said about “freedom of speech” and too little has been said about “freedom from speech.”
The national anthem has been heard too many times as it conditions persons to believe that the U.S. is, indeed, the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Now there are even shows called “talk shows” and there are currently 7,809 hosts of those vying for viewers / listeners. There are 3.2 million podcasts. There are 106.2 million twitters accounts. There are nearly 200 million Facebook accounts in the U.S. There are 320 million social media accounts. And the list could go on and on.
Talk. Talk. Talk.
Where's a damn talking stick when you need one?
During the cumulative years spent in my Cherokee grandmother’s cabin, she would greet me in the morning. Then she would silently go into the front room and take her six foot long hair out of its bun and brush it out and then form it into a bun again.
If someone was scheduled to come to her cabin to be treated for some ailment, she would tell me to get the basket and we would walk silently through the woods and I would hold out the basket each time she used her knife to cut off a piece of vegetation which would be made into a tea for treatment.
She would send me to her one-acre garden, telling me to pick whatever I wanted to eat that day. While she made a curative tea, I would gather whatever was in season:
okra during the late summer and early fall back then; tomatoes between April and June in the South; baby cream peas (my favorite) sometimes in the spring but often late fall or early fall.
If favorable weather conditions generated a heavy crop, we would spend days in silence, using the wood burning stove in the kitchen to “put up” or “can” goods to be used throughout the winter.
We would sit outside and shell peas in the silence. After the evening meal, we would sit in silence on the front porch in the wooden rockers her family members, often for an hour or longer.
Then we would bid each other “evening” and move silently to bed.
Peace and quiet were the unspoken rule. Both just came naturally.
The next day we would arise and again spend most of the day in silence. Once more, silence was the rule, not the exception.
When my visit ended, I would pack my cardboard suitcase, walk down the hill from her cabin to the opposite side of the highway, and wait for the Greyhound bus to arrive.
The driver would pull to the side of the road, open the door near his seat, and take the 26 cents it cost for the trip from East Texas to Northeast Louisiana.
Once I reached the bus terminal in Louisiana, I would walk to the corner where the electric trolleys collected passengers and would pay the nickel it cost to ride across town to the noisy slum / ghetto where my parents and sister and I lived. From the bus stop to my house was about a block.
I was not yet nine when I was negotiating that trip. It was so worthwhile and, at the time, I loved the “Do what you want . . . just don't bother me while you're it” attitude.
During the nights, because we had no AC, the windows would be left open and I would hear the noise of screams and angry spouses yelling at each other and drunk men coming home in the middle of the night.
By
morning, all the noises of a city were interrupting the peace. I longed so much
to be in a cabin in the east Texas woods, even though it had no running water
or bathroom and only a wood-burning stove. The duality of those two aspects of my existence were disturbing to say the least.
Early on, I sought peace and quiet. There was a rare copse of trees within a 20-minute walk, and I would spend my days after school there. Silence. Stillness. Calm. All in an effort to try to recapture the harmony of those noiseless days and nights spent with Grandmother.
Now, noise dominates this nation. (When I owned and operated a Western Europe Tour Company, the biggest complaint the people there had was how loud and noisy people from the U.S. were.)
I am invited to speak on occasion. I occasionally accept the offer. Nowadays, the sharing usually occurs on Zoom or some such app. Is it any wonder that I long for tools to silence the eristics?
Sometimes a considerate moderator will stop the eristics shortly after they begin their diatribe, but often they are allowed to dominate the discussion. I recently encountered one of those types, and I had to come up with my own methods to end his monologue.
This discussion might help anyone who is also seeking peace and quiet in a no-peace, noisy environment.
There’s one tool which I use. It's called “the Rumpelstiltskin Method.” It simply involves witnessing and then acknowledging the identifier of the personas being played.
Remember in that tale how the Queen guessed Rumpelstiltskin’s name and thereby got to keep her child, after which Rumpelstiltskin is never heard from again?
When I crossed paths with an eristic recently via a Zoom presentation, I spotted the guy reacting like a drama queen during my sharing. I was suggesting that the mind is not our friend anymore and neither are our belief system, either.
So disturbed was he that he was about to pop out his skin, covering his face with his hands, massaging his head, covering his eyes, making all sorts of painful and aching facial expressions, sighing, etc.
I had little doubt from whom I would hear first, and sure enough, he instantly popped into the full screen mode when my introductory pointers ended.
My approach was like a birdwatcher, spotting a rarely seen bird: “Ah ha! It’s a damn California condor! Awww. He’s gone.” My approach? “Ah ha! It’s a damn eristic. He’s here. Now he’s not here.” See? They can’t disturb me because I do not give them that power.
Soon, out of the frustration of being stumped by one of my questions to him, he said, “Well, I’ve talked enough. I’ll get off and let someone else talk.” My guess? BS.
Sure enough, he was soon back on. He continued exiting and re-entering, but all he got was a smile as I time and again witnessed, “It’s a damn eristic. He’s here. Now he’s not here.”
Do you have any eristics showing up? Like some wild animals, it does not usually work to try to run away from them, but like some bullies, certain eristics have to be confronted at some point. Yet, when possible, ignoring them is often more effective. But watch out. Their narcissistic piece hates that. Ha.
More tomorrow.
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.
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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.
