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.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS:
The Science (con’t.)
So an attribute of conscious-energy is an ability to be conscious of, and that can happen whether manifested via a space called a “plant,” a “bird,” a “human,” an “animal” or even if not manifested at all. Too often this is not understood: consciousness is, whether it is conscious of itself or not, yet it must be conscious of something to be consciousness.
You might say, as was stated by a seeker, “I understand that conscious-energy can be conscious of itself if manifested in a space with a nervous system, but how - if unmanifested - can consciousness be ‘conscious of’ something without being conscious of itself?” To understand, consider the functioning of the subatomic particles of an atom:
One attribute of the subatomic particles at the core of atoms—the electrons, protons and neutrons—is that they are conscious of each other and function spontaneously in certain ways in relationship to each other . . . as do atoms as well. Electrons are conscious of a nucleus and swirl around it as if the two are dancing some subatomic dance together that is resulting from their “magnetic attraction” to each other.
(The notion of manifested consciousness that the natural way for humans to behave when the consciousness is manifested via a “human space” - namely, to relate, to interact, to bond, and to break bonds, etc. - is subatomic in its nature.)
It’s all automatic, it’s all happening spontaneously, and it’s all natural. No one teaches the electron to revolve around the nucleus . . . it’s natural. No one need teach humans to be “attracted to” each other; no one needs to teach a human to masturbate; no one needs to teach two humans or two birds or two mammals to fornicate. It’s all natural.
[NOTE: Only the bastardized “mind” (filled with all of its dualistic nonsense and the arrogant belief among persons that they have the right to manage the conduct of other humans and to control the bodies of others) will teach persons that it is unnatural to do what is natural: “Our dogma teaches that you can be supernatural (that is, super spiritual) if you do not do what is natural, because we believe that some natural things are actually unnatural!”
Such a teaching provides an excellent example of how persons can be stripped of logic, how the consciousness can be programmed and corrupted, and how persons will end up behaving as fools if they unquestioningly listen to persons who have assumed position of “authority.” Are you seeing how asleep persons are when programmed by their “leaders”?
They can actually be taught that something which is completely natural is unnatural, they will then believe that something which is natural is unnatural, and then they will try their best thereafter to avoid behaving naturally. And in that process, they will be convinced that they are pleasing some supernatural entity by unnaturally avoiding the natural.
That kind of learned ignorance, which bastardizes the consciousness and which thrives on blind faith, can produce either a nation of repressed, uptight and hypocritical persons or “an army of god” whose members are masochistic, sadistic, and suicidal. Such is the relative existence toll of corrupted consciousness and duality . . . and the subsequent unawareness of awareness.]
Now, note the other ways that electrons reveal that they are conscious of: they can play a role in establishing chemical bonds, “A” being conscious of “B” and bonding with it. An ion from one atom can be transferred to another atom as all involved are conscious of each other.
Electrons can also be shared between two or more atoms, so an electron in one atom can be conscious of other atoms, can interact with them, and can bond with them. (Yet the “not two” remains valid since this is all about energy / matter.)
Is any “one” directing an electron’s behavior or orchestrating the way it conducts itself in relation to other particles about it? Of course not. Is consciousness present? Obviously. An electron can be conscious of an object (such as, in this example, the nucleus around which it is spinning).
Is any “one” present within the atomic substructure to be conscious of a subatomic particle’s consciousness of other particles? No. Even though no “one” is present to be conscious of consciousness, is consciousness present and functioning nevertheless? Obviously, yes.
At this very moment, there is a field of energy that can be called “the Absolute” in which acts of consciousness are happening even without any self-consciousness or any self to be conscious of. Take that to be a “pool” of energy or an “ocean” of energy or a “field” of energy or a “system” of energy. It doesn’t matter what term is used to point to that field, but know that it is limitless and infinite and boundless and omnipresent. Understand that transferences of energy can and do happen between a “system” of energy and adjacent regions and understand that energy can also undergo transformations.
Thus, energy moves in wave or particle form “into” the field, moves throughout the field, and (sometimes) moves “out of” the field and manifests. (“Out of” is in quote marks since the “field” is all-pervasive.) In the meantime, the consciousness is still consciousness and is still conscious of, even though it is not conscious of itself when not manifested in some space with a nervous system.
Compare that to the manner in which consciousness functions as it operates a heart and lungs even during an “unconscious” state of sleep. You are not conscious of yourself (or any “self” or “Self”) but the consciousness is conscious of. That is a natural function, not taught and not learned. AS IF living happens exactly like that. Peace and / or contentment every day can only come like that, too.
Also, see the examples on planet earth of such energy transferences and energy transformations: sunlight can strike a human in a non-usable form, but if it strikes a plant, then the process of photosynthesis will transform that energy into a form that is usable by humans.
That “transference” and “transformation” process facilitates the manifestation of consciousness.
The ability of energy to undergo transformation and transference sets the stage for (a) a plant to transform energy which (b) can be consumed and can thus (c) be transferred and transformed within a human space. The claim “we are what we eat,” however, is only true to the degree that it makes clear that the body is a plant food body, though the body in not What We Truly Are.
Also, understand that within that energy field referenced in the previous chapter, various atoms are moving, interacting, and being conscious of each other. Energy is moving in wave and particle form, so unmanifested consciousness is not “at-rest” in the sense that it is not in motion. It is. The term “at rest” (certainly misleading on one level) merely points to the non-manifested status of the Consciousness at that point.
Moreover, do not think that there is some definable quantity of conscious-energy that is immobilized while in some larger system or field or pool of energy, “waiting” and positioned in a way that will allow it to be siphoned into some process that leads to manifestation or re-manifestation.
Portions may manifest or re-manifest . . . or not. (Furthermore, as an example of the energy manifesting or not, note the difference in what happens when sunlight hits the surface of the moon vs. what happens when it hits the surface of a plant on earth.)
Furthermore, the fact that some particles of previously-manifested consciousness might manifest again, and some might not, nullifies such concepts as “karma” and “reincarnation.” I have not been born even once, so how could I possibly be “born again” or be born “multiple times”? Those two concepts are the result of body-mind-personality identification which always results in a desire for continuity.
So, at this very moment, there is a field or system of energy that can be called “the Absolute” - meaning the pure, absolute, conscious-energy. Within that field, there is movement and interaction…at this very moment; however, when conscious-energy is not manifested in a temporary grouping of elements with a nervous system, the consciousness cannot be conscious of itself.
Additionally, do not take the Absolute to be some special “place.” It is merely a “system” of energy - infinite, limitless, and omnipresent - from which quantities of energy might move to adjacent regions. If that energy becomes “caught up” in a movement of energy that happens to strike a plant, then it can manifest temporarily, yet there is no governing body or entity that determines whether such a chance happening might occur or not.
To understand the cycling of consciousness “out of” or “into” a field or system, see what happens the moment that a bug is struck by the windshield of an automobile: much of the elemental structure remains on the glass (ash-to-ash, dust-to-dust); the air that was circulating as breath is instantaneously released and united with the universal pool of air; and the conscious-energy is instantaneously released into an omnipresent field . . . into that infinite pool of energy that can neither be created nor destroyed. The energy does not “go there” to some special place.
Next, understand that too much has been made of what is called “The Absolute.” It is nothing more than an all-pervasive body or system or field or pool of energy, energy that is not currently manifested via a group of elements with a nervous system. Yet IT IS.
In the process of trying to assign “supernatural” or “extraordinary” or “heavenly” or “special” attributes to a field of energy, (a) most persons now take the Absolute to be a mystical, supernatural location and (b) persons who believe that it is “up there” or “out there” do not understood that it is all-pervasive.
As a result of religious and spiritual leaders having glorified an energy field, the Absolute is imagined by many to be a place - even a geographic place to some - that is not “here” but which is “there” instead.
All such distortions attempt to place limitations on the limitless; yet even John Paul II, as programmed as he was, was aware enough to say that “we must correct the geography of Gehanna: there is no literal heaven or hell . . . they are mental states, and you are in one or the other right now.” (“Gehanna” is also known as “Gehenna,” “gehenom,” or “gehinom.”)
[NOTE: An editorial in La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit magazine with close ties to the Vatican, also said at that time, “Hell is not a ‘place’ but a ‘state,’ a person’s ‘state of being’.” The pope and the magazine merely adumbrated what Christ the Advaitin had said: “No one will ever see the kingdom of heaven … it is within.” Yet those who are programmed with religious dogma and who are enamored with their belief in the dualities of “good vs. bad” and “punishment vs. reward” as well as their desire for eternal continuity of body and mind and personality will ignore the later non-dual understanding of Yeshu’a regarding the fact that there is no heaven. They do that in order to cling to the desires of body and mind.]
With the widespread distorted thinking among persons, however, the Absolute has been misconceived as “heaven,” as “the home of the gods or a god,” as “a place where persons will go for eternal bliss if they are good,” ad infinitum. The smashed bug is neither “at rest” nor enjoying “its place of final rest.” Neither are any humans who have ever walked the planet.
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:
