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
(Continued)
and
ALL HUMANS, HAVING THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER, SHOW THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO REACH THE ZERO CONCEPTS, NO-MIND STATE OF WHICH I SPEAK
Yesterday I described the most recent encounter I’ve had with an eristic when our paths crossed via a Zoom presentation:
I spotted the guy reacting like a drama queen during my sharing. At the time, I was suggesting that the mind is not our friend anymore and neither are our belief systems, 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.
So what was the invitation offered during that Zoom talk and Q and A that triggered the man? What inspired him while listening to my considerations to look as if he were undergoing a colonoscopy without any sedation at all? This:
“The mind is not our friend anymore and neither are our belief systems, either.
His key argument when he began to speak? “I am my beliefs. We are all our beliefs. That is all we are.” Really?
It was admitted that I had spent a consideration portion of my relative existence talking about “my beliefs” before I came to realize that they is no such thing as “my beliefs.” There are only “their beliefs.”
The term “their beliefs” refers to the beliefs of others which had been part of the warped and flawed programming, conditioning, etc. by others which they handed down to me. We do not choose beliefs. They are forced upon us from the earliest ages and even into adulthood.
That’s the penultimate pointer on this subject.
The ultimate pointer is this:
It is not “far out” to suggest that all humans actually want to be rid of their beliefs and the mind they are stored in. It is fact. And what proves that fact? This:
All persons have - or will have - the Addictive Personality Disorder, and that proves that they are trying to escape the effects of their minds and beliefs.
ALL HUMANS, HAVING THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER, SHOW THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO REACH THE ZERO CONCEPTS, NO-MIND STATE OF WHICH I SPEAK
Maharaj said, “There’s no such thing as peace of mind.”
I said, “There’s no such thing as peace of mind. There’s only peace if you are out of your mind” (that is, out from under the influence of the nonsensical beliefs stored in the mind).
Consider: Is it possible that every act of addiction involves “trying to find peace of mind” and “trying to get out of one’s mind”? Here are some examples offered in the past which are relevant to this discussion:
Suppose a man was threatened on a Friday by his boss who told him they would meet Monday to discuss his decision. A sense of terror manifested. On the Saturday night after the complaints by the boss, that employee goes to a party and begins to drink.
Early on, he might discuss the fight and his fears and desires around the termination of his employment. After a few drinks, he might begin to relax a bit and to engage in conversation about other topics. After a few more drinks, he might begin dancing and, for a while, completely forget the fight.
Soon, as a result of being
totally under the influence of the alcohol, “The Employee” is not thinking
about the fight on Friday nor going in to the office on Monday and possibly
being fired.
At that instant, the effect of the booze has allowed the person to forget the
ego-state of “The Employee” and to become fixed in the present moment . . . fixed
in the Amness alone. He feels free and happy for “the time being,” namely, the “time”
being . . . NOW.
Free of the fearful memory of
the illusory “time” called “the past” and the potentially-threatening fight that
occurred then and the fear of being fired, after the drinks he feels free . . .
period. Freed of thoughts about the desires for the illusory “time” called “the
future” (specifically, the desire to remain employed). He feels momentarily free . . . period.
What he is experiencing is the only instant in which one can be free of desires
and fears and feel free, namely, NOW, beyond the mind and beyond its beliefs pool.
Yet on the Sunday morning after the party, the effects of the fears and desires return as the person is again conscious of “The Employee” which feels threatened;
hence, the earlier pointer
that one’s addiction or addictions only provide a temporary escape (or a
temporary “capturing” of the freedom of NOW). As long as ego-states are taken to be actual
identities, then fears and desires will arise, they will generate discomfort or
restlessness or misery, and they will trap persons in the illusions of “past”
and “future.”
Consider another example to understand “the capturing” of the Now's freedom as well “the
escape from the mind's” aspect. Suppose a food addict is in a busy restaurant with friends on a
Saturday night.
The longer the waiter takes,
the more the food addict’s desires will be experienced and will cause
discomfort and irritability and misery. The longer the addict’s unmet desires
linger, the more misery will begin to manifest.
Anger can soon follow. Even after the orders have been placed, tension can
mount as the preparation and serving of the food is delayed due to the volume
of orders.
Talking can continue, but from
the frustrated addict, mostly complaining is heard as the addict’s misery is
expressed. The tension can increase until that moment when the food arrives,
but what a shift for the food addict happens at that moment.
You have likely seen this same scenario play out: the food is placed before the
addict, and the addict suddenly becomes very quiet. Peace manifests, at least
temporarily. The head of the addict is bowed worshipfully over the plate as the
food is shoveled quickly into the mouth.
The guttural sounds which
accompany the consumption are not unlike those that might occur during a sexual
encounter as the addict is brought to a mind-less moment and delights in the taste of
food.
The anger which was being experienced in the past is gone; that desire for food
to be served immediately has passed, once the meal arrives.
The addict is brought “to the
moment” and is fully present while absorbed in the task of eating. All is right
with the world, so it seems. Yet again, the silence is temporary and the
release is temporary for those who “eat for comfort.”
As a third example, consider the sex act that was just referenced above. All
sorts of problems and miseries might have been faced throughout a day, but that
night, at that moment when the act of sex culminates in a physical crescendo,
what is anyone thinking about? Nothing.
What thoughts about things past are occurring? None. What concerns about the future exists? None. Why? Because at that instant, there are no thoughts, no identity, no troubling fears, and no unmet desires. There is only The Void of being fully present to the moment.
The acts above free addicts from their minds and the beliefs stored therein. Temporarily, at least when the addiction’s effects register, persons are freed of the misery generated by their minds and the beliefs stored therein.
See? Everyone on the planet at
some time(s) will want to be “mind-less,” freed of the effects of the beliefs
stored therein. Understand that and the invitation to be free of the mind
filled with false beliefs might be more palatable and far from being “Maharaj's or Floyd's
crazy plan.”
Back to the temporary instant of freedom from “the mind.” The one experiencing
an alcohol or food or sex or nicotine or gambling-induced crescendo (or any
type of mind-numbing crescendo) is fully in the moment because the mind has
been shut off, at least temporarily.
[It became obvious that the eristic’s real interest was not the non-dual understanding after he sharing numerous beliefs which revealed that he was completely devoid of the non-dual understanding. His real interest? Playing the role of “The Super Twelve Stepper,” touting the fact that he had gone many decades without a drink.
I wondered if some around him on a regular basis have wanted to say, “And this is the end result, the best you can come up with? Then go have a drink!”]
So at the moment of zero concepts, zero ideas, zero thoughts, and zero beliefs, there is only the beingness, the Amness. All ego-states which were feeling threatened have been deadened, the death being the death of ego, ego-states, and beliefs based in fear and / or desire.
At that moment, there is
nothing to discuss or ponder or debate or consider. The silence might follow.
Perfect peace and contentment can happen as all identities are “lost” while in
that state of Is-ness only. Perfect non-attachment to anything dealing with the
relative existence might manifest. But again, that is temporary; realization is constant until the end of the manifestation.
The fact is that, what one is seeking through abuse of substances or though the
practicing of any other addictions (including to sex, to shopping, to power, to
nicotine, to religion, to money, to work, to applause, to food, to spiritual
disciplines, to control, to hearing oneself speak or sing, to alcohol, to fame,
to memberships, to cocaine, to being seen by crowds, to love, ad infinitum), is
that which only realization can provide consistently.
As shown, addictive use / abuse can bring one to the moment temporarily, but only realization can allow one to fixate there in full awareness and perfect freedom and peace and understanding.
See? Giving up beliefs and the
content of the mind do not hinder. They facilitate in the search for what many
call “peace of mind” which is really the peace of being free of the mind and being
entrapped by beliefs of others which have never been consciously inventories
and rejected after their false nature or their absurdity are seen.
Note exactly what is most appealing in each of those three examples when full
presence to the moment happens: there is an absence of fears, desires, ideas, concepts,
persona-consciousness, worry, and concerns. There is a lack of consciousness of
all of those things which personas are typically conscious of.
The perfect peace of that moment when the “addictive high” reaches its peak is even beyond consciousness - as is the perfect peace of abidance as the Absolute.
Too, during that full presence in the moment, there is that bliss which comes with the Void - with the Nothingness - as the peace of zero concepts, zero ideas, zero thoughts, zero mind and zero beliefs happens.
The Nothingness can come via addictions or via realization, but the intent is the same: to escape the mind and the beliefs therein which generate misery and fear.
With realization, there is the bliss of non-attachment and the experience of being “at-one.” The
difference in the “addictive high” and actual realization is that the former is
temporary and unstable but that which happens post-realization is permanently
fixed until the taking of mahasamadhi.
(Some have written to this
site claiming that it was during a drug-induced addictive high that they realized.
That is self-deception, the ego once again engaged in making false claims, as
it always does. Realization follows the repurification of the manifested
universal consciousness and cannot manifest during any state of corrupted or
blocked consciousness.)
The pointer is that, via realization, the temporary, short-term “fix” of trying
to recapture an addictive high again and again can be replaced with the
permanent “fix” of abiding as The Absolute in the present moment - in the NOW -
and not being diverted from it by fears and desires that are rooted in “the
past” or “the future.” While not the first step in treating the Addictive
Personality Disorder, full realization may be the last.
Then, post-realization, the remainder of the manifestation can happen in an AS
IF fashion of living rather than being trapped within a “seeking mode” such as
when persons seek escape or seek to capture a feeling or seek an addictive high
or seek relief or seek to be fully present to the moment.
Realized, abidance just happens, and it happens without any attachment to fears, to desires, or to illusions about “the past” or “the future.”
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.
