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. Also, by clicking on NUMBER FOURTEEN,” visitors can also see the introductory discussion on non-duality on Walter’s non-duality site and then a Q and A session which followed.]
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?
6. 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.
ARE YOU AT THE WET CHARCOAL STAGE OR THE GUNPOWDER STAGE?
(Most haven’t a clue and must be told)
THE CURSE OF HUMANKINDS’ RELATIVE EXISTENCE: IDENTIFICATIONS
“The personality is but a product of imagination. ‘The self’ is the victim of this imagination. It is the taking of yourself to be what you are not that binds you. The person cannot be said to exist on its own rights; it is ‘the self’ that believes there is a person and is conscious of being it.”
“Beyond the self lies the unmanifested, the causeless cause of everything. Even to talk of ‘re-uniting the person with the self’ is not right, because there is no person, only a mental picture given a false reality by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing to unite.”
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Eliminate the Bondage of False Identification - Be Free
Imagine
a woman sitting in a chair bound with ropes. She is strapped to the chair so
she cannot move freely. In fact, she is a prisoner. Does it matter of what type
of fabric the ropes are made? Does the style and shape of the chair matter?
Does it matter where the chair is located? No - alterations can be made to the
ropes, the chair and the location - but the woman is still in bondage. She is
not free.
In this society, most persons spend years attempting to improve the conditions
of their imprisonment. Are soft pure silk ropes more comfortable than coarse
ropes? Sure. Is a comfortable armchair more comfortable than a wooden stool?
Yes.
Does a chair on a beach in a south Pacific island have a better view than a chair in a township in Cape Town, South Africa? Of course. Yet whatever the relative
context, the woman sitting in the chair is still in bondage. She is not free.
A pointer which might be offered by a non-dual guide to the woman strapped to
the chair is this: You are not who you take yourself to be. You are not a
separate individual. You are THAT, the eternal Absolute Reality, and you are temporarily the AM-ness, and that is what the not two is all about.
So abandon all of the false
identifications accumulated along the way. Do not identify with the small, individual human form. You are
the formless, unlimited, identity-less Absolute. Shift your faulty
identification, and the bonds will not fall away - they will simply cease to
exist.
Understanding that, can you see the radical shift the non-dual guide
offers to you? You are already unbound. You are not the woman (or man) in the
chair. Know who what you are and be free (or, better yet, just find all
that you are not).
In this way, a non-dual guide provides the view, the new perspective, so you
can see the possibility of freedom; however, the guide also understands that
from the limited, personal, temporary point of view, you are a woman in a
chair.
So the guide at the same time provides the pointers or “thorns” to help you break the miasma of faulty identification. You are advised to use the natural intelligence to observe yourself and investigate for yourself. Are you the body? Are you the mind? Are you your thoughts? Are you the personality? Are you the roles and the personas you play?
Since the identification with the body, mind and personality is faulty (or “full of holes” as Maharaj asserts) - it is not too difficult for this line of questioning to break up some of the conditioning which keeps the “woman” trapped in the chair while believing she is free.
The vision begins to clear as
the consciousness is purified or unblocked and returned to its original pure
universal consciousness. With clearer sight and the loosening of
identification, it is possible to observe the “woman” you once took yourself to
be - to witness from a far more vast perspective. From there, the no who-ness
fact of what you are will naturally dawn on you.
Can you see why the non-dual guide does not try to improve your prison and make
you more comfortable there? If this is what you seek, there are many paths and “teachers”
and spiritual movements that will offer to make the experience of bondage more
palatable. They’ll tell you, “No pain,
no gain.” Realize and then you will be able to reply, “How ironic; acting totally wise but being totally moronic.”
Non-duality is the final “path” for most seekers. The effect of the understanding is that all false identifications are removed; there is stable abidance in the Absolute; and the “woman” strapped in the chair is free since “she” was never really bound at all.
What the mind “sees” is always a mirage. Identities which people groom and fight about if challenged and try to defend are seen to have been false. With a new view via awareness, listen to the pointers offered which pinpoint false identifications and provide the opportunity to realize what “no-who-ness and no-WHO-NESS” mean and finally understand what you are.
Relevant pointers from Maharaj:
“Look without imagination, listen without distortion: that is all. Stop
attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless; realize
that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard,
touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not
in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.”
“Know that you are before knowing anything else. Have the firm conviction
that you are pure consciousness (that,
is temporarily-manifesting conscious energy). This should be done
spontaneously; it is the only way.”
[So the composite unity - which humans are -
consists of an element-circulating plant food body, circulating oxygen, and
circulating conscious-energy.)
“We sense the world to be real because we feel our body to be real, and vice
versa.”
“The illusion of shape and form has come over you because you have forgotten
your true nature.”
“The world will never provide an answer to your questions. Find out for
yourself what it is that is changeless.”
“In this vast consciousness, there is no religion, no karma and no time. It
exists prior to everything. Hold on to this understanding.”
“The sense of doership is false. You are a witness, so remain like that.
This is the only practise you should perform.”
“I give you the knowledge of my true nature; listen to it as if it is your
own.”
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:
