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 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
“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
“Originally, every human was mindless.”
--floyd
GIVE UP THE SEARCH FOR PEACE OF MIND AND FOCUS ON WHAT IS CAUSING A LACK OF SUCH PEACE
Some have complained that Maharaj’s pointer that “There’s no such thing as peace of mind” can “rob seekers of hope.” That’s like telling people that there’s no pot gold at the end of every rainbow. Does that rob people of hope? Should that truism not be disclosed?
What about “there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny”? Do those truisms rob persons of hope?
The fact is that those believing that they can find peace of mind are subsumed by a false hope; therefore, this is actually a message of tremendous hope:
With
the typical mind generating 70,000 thoughts per day (triggering noise between
the ears which sounds like the chatter of a thousand monkeys with all their
whoops and screeches and broken staccato noises and their grunting and squeaking
and bellowing and whining and howling and barking sounds) how could any mind be
peaceful? It cannot. But here's what can give hope:
understanding that the brain minus its mind parts can be at peace; thus, my pointer that “There’s no such thing as peace of mind but there can be peace if you are out of your mind.”
That’s hopeful. The aim of Maharaj’s pointer above as well as the aim of my pointer on the subject are both invitations to seekers to redirect their efforts to something which is possible if they understand that the human mind - after programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination - is something that is very much like a cesspool or a tumor.
Physicians often recommend removing tumors, using chemotherapy to shrink the tumor prior to surgery and to destroy any lingering abnormal cells after surgery.
They do not recommend going home and using only prayer as a treatment to “pray away the tumor.” I mentioned a very active group in Houston that recommended people should join them in their efforts to “pray away the gay.”
There was no recorded reduction in the number of gays but there was a resolve among gays to steel themselves against that movement. The intent of the religioses had a reverse effect.
Maharaj came to understand by his own experience that dogma had no effect on the Ultimate Sickness. It is as people in general and law enforcement in particular tried to impress upon members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses: you cannot pray away an infection.
As discussed on this site, many children have died from a simple infection which could have been treated simply with a round of antibiotics, but their dogma-obsessed parents refuse medical care and rely on prayer and divine intervention.
Contrary to “research” conducted by religious groups which suggest prayer can address any problem, dogma is not cure as much as it is a carrier of the Sickness.
Maharaj also found the same in regards to spirituality. Neither dogma nor spirituality can still the no-peace mind, and it’s hopeful when persons realize that.
Thus he said: “Insanity is universal. Sanity is rare. Yet there is hope, because the moment we perceive our insanity, we are on the way to sanity.”
But how the pointer that “Sanity is universal” triggers egotism and other ego-defense mechanisms when the validity of false person identifications are challenged!
One who sees a mirage when driving through a desert would be insane to fight over the belief that the mirage is real. Yet such is the case with perceived, dreamed up identities. Personas will fight, often to the death, to try to defend their public personas / image.
So “WHO” - what false ego-state or states - feel hopeless if there is no such thing as peace of mind? What ego-state has felt triggered by that pointer?
There should be great hope when one finds that what they have been trying to obtain does not exist but that something even better does exist.
When I was diagnosed with colon cancer, my spouse said she was going to alert her church staff and they would trigger the prayer chain whereby one will call ten and ten would call ten and soon a thousand members of her church would be praying for Floyd’s butt.
I asked that she not do that. I did not want to be the center of their attention, and I did not want a thousand people focused on the state of my large intestine. “You guys can do what you want, but please leave my bowel out of it.”
Surgery? Yes. Prayer? No. Change of food plan? Yes. Avoidance of shoveling chunks of steak loaded with toxic chemicals into my mouth? Yes. Follow-up colonics? Yes. Any praying at all? No. Healed? Yes. Hope? Also yes.
And now? Still cancer-free with no additional medical treatment for twenty-two years.
The same scenario unfolded with Floyd’s cancerous mind. I spent decades trying to find peace of mind. That two long and too arduous “journey” was described this was in the non-dual adventure / mystery novel, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders:
In his energy-consuming search for salvation and peace, he’d been dipped, dunked, sprayed, spayed, sprinkled, and neutered; in the quest for truth, he’d been blessed, cursed, cussed, lectured, scolded, and praised; in his pursuit of Life’s Meaning, he’d been communion’d, Om’d, grape-juiced, wined, ahsram’d, accepted, rejected, Mu’d, and yoga’d; in his chase for service-work-opportunities, he’d been pulverized, martinized, and frappéd; and in the endeavor to attain Life Eternal, he’d been baptized, Buddha’d, New Aged, powwow’d, Far Eastern Indianized, incense’d, sage’d, Tao’d, Peru’d, Tibet’d, washed in the blood, dunked in the waters, and purportedly purified. Then in the end, each of the religious or spiritual leaders had always charged him 10% of his total income for the whole sorry treatment, plus a building-fund-tax and a foreign-missions-surcharge to boot—all in spite of the complete ineffectiveness of their claims to “redeem and save.”
I ended up with less hope than ever. Then I found the root cause of my lack of peace of mind and was able to redirect my seeking and found what was required.
So can you. Chasing gold at the end of a rainbow will only prevent your finding a real solution and thereafter live within your financial means.
To know that the mind is a tumor and cannot be treated and must be removed is the beginning of hope. Then, per Maharaj, “The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.”
The mind cannot “rest in peace,” but it can die in peace. Let it go and abide as humans did early on: under the auspices of the natural brain rather than under the auspices of the unnatural mind.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
To watch the most recent talk and Q&A with Walter and his guests, 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 and why learning more is not the answer and why unlearning is the answer, click:
