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
Another question raised by a seeker during a discussion of consciousness / awareness was:
I’ll grant that the explanation of consciousness / awareness over the last few days was clearer than any before, but I’m more inclined to seek the scientific view, always. I read an article on one of your websites and it said that Maharaj said that science would someday affirm the content of the teachings he offered. How about a bottom-line explanation from that viewpoint.
In the expanse of space, energy can move via wave an / or particle form. Subatomic particles of specialized energy exist and are moving through that expanse freely. Because the expanse is so vast (limitless in fact), the particles are not forced together into large-quantity clusters or groupings of energy within that space.
Consciousness only happens when large-quantity clusters or groupings of energy occur in compact spaces with nervous systems. Otherwise, the background of awareness is and energy is moving without confinement in that vast space labeled “the Absolute.”
Awareness is, even when there is no "one" to be conscious of … even when awareness of Awareness is not happening. (That is what peace every day looks like: being, without awareness of any concept or anything.)
As the energy particles move, some enter the atmosphere of earth and strike plants and begin to gather there. In that limited space, the particles of specialized energy (energy able to be conscious of if manifested in something with a nervous system) gather into “tighter” groupings as a result of manifesting in a limited, confined space. Non-dualists point to that happening as a step in “the manifesting of consciousness.”
Thus, the term “the manifestation of consciousness” really points to nothing more than a spontaneously-occurring gathering of atomic and subatomic particles of specialized energy into a compact grouping.
Consciousness happens only when larger groupings of particles of this specialized energy come together in a “tighter” cluster and in a more confined space than occurs in the vast space of unmanifested energy-awareness. Here's another analogy which can illustrate the “different while not being different” aspect of the consciousness / awareness discussion:
Consider an ice cube “versus” water vapor. Really, the ice cube/water vapor is “not two,” just as “I AM THAT; I AM” is “not two” and just as “consciousness / awareness” is “not two.” Yet “aspects” exists. When H20 atoms are compacted and close together in a smaller space, water can take on the appearance of “a cube.”
When quantities of H20 are subjected to intense heat, water can take on the appearance of “vapor” and will no longer appear to be compacted into a limited space as was the case with “the cube.” The cube takes on an aspect of being fixed, confined, restricted. The “vapor” appears to be free. The “different” aspects become apparent depending on whether the H20 appear to be limited by compaction or appears to be less limited by expansion. Similarly, the manifested consciousness in limited; the Awareness is limitless.
So the “vapors” are free to move about over a far broader area. The “cube” seems confined in a small space; the “vapors” seem free. Consider the manifested consciousness to be “the cube” (confined and compacted) and the awareness to be “the vapor” (free and not compacted).
That which is not limited is free and therefore at peace. That is also the only way that peace every day can happen: freedom is the prerequisite. The discussion of consciousness / awareness then becomes nothing more than a discussion about location and density. Similarly, take a ball of clay, pinch a portion of it up into a flat shape that rises from the clay but remains attached.
Is the raised portion different from the ball of clay, or is it just a matter of the pinched up portion’s location and density.) The same is true of the discussion of “THAT” and “AM-ness.” Located “here” with an aspect of density? Consciousness. Located “there” with no aspect of density? Awareness.
The essence (awareness) is always in the background, even as consciousness is manifested. That awareness in the background can account for the disconcerting notion generated by the “trapped” and “confined” manifest consciousness that results in persons sensing that “I am not free” and “I need to be free” and “I long for more freedom,” all of which mark the relative existence and that happen as long as consciousness is manifested and as long as abidance is happening as that consciousness rather than as the Absolute.
Are you understanding why the corrupted or blocked consciousness, and even abidance as the bogus concept of some kind of “Special Self,” can never produce a sense of true freedom? The "journey" to true freedom does not end at the point of so-called “Self”-realization, and to transmit that fact is the only reason this discussion is warranted. Peace every day can only happen even beyond “Self”-realization.
So, awareness is beyond both consciousness being manifested and consciousness not being manifested. Thus the manifestation of conscious-energy is what allows conscious-of-ness to happen, but awareness is why the consciousness can happen.
Consciousness, while manifested via a temporary combination of physical elements, has no independent existence apart from its fundamental background of awareness.
(To use an earlier example for emphasis here, does that ultimately mean that “sticky” = “stickiness"? Or, is “stickiness” the essence of something that is “sticky”? “Sticky” can only happen when physical elements temporarily combine. “Stickiness,” though, is permanent and forever. Ultimately, it's all definition, all thorns that can be used to remove thorns, and you know that the thorns are all to be tossed eventually. All else could easily fall into the realm of “entertainment.”)
When the previously pure energy manifests in humans, it is soon subjected to programming, conditioning, and acculturation. “Minds” form and the endless chatter of “thoughts” soon follows, all because specialized energy happened to gather, accidently and spontaneously, into a limited space.
The more that electrons accumulate into a natural coherence within a confined space and the more that conscious-energy takes itself to be “a human,” the more frequently will abstract “thoughts” occur and the more frequently they will continue on a large-scale basis if personas are accepted as true identities.
“The Abstract” is then erroneously taken to be “The Concrete, The Real” once Consciousness manifests and soon becomes corrupted consciousness. That generates false assumptions such as “I am a spouse” (or any other label that one might insert after “I am . . . ”) when the abstract is taken to be the concrete.
By contrast, when single or elementary particles or coherent groups of energy-capable-of-being-conscious-of come together, smaller-scale abstract “thoughts” in consciousness happen. When the energy is totally “free” and is not gathered and confined within relatively small spaces with nervous systems and is not bastardized with programming, then no thoughts occur . . . but awareness remains.
(That is the way that peace every day and AS IF Living happen: you are, but there are no “thoughts,” no “mind,” no separation, no sense of confinement, no fighting with others who are not considered to be as “good” as your ego-states and egotism convince you that you are, and no chatter of a thousand monkeys inside your head.)
The manifested particles of energy can be freed of close confinement and compacting via the unmanifesting of consciousness. Prior to that, it is possible that particles of energy can be freed of the distorting effects of programming and conditioning and acculturation via the full realization process. Then, the energy can function in the pure and free and uncorrupted manner in which it functioned prior to consciousness, prior to manifestation, and prior to being corrupted.
Thus, awareness is, without consciousness of subjects and objects and without consciousness of any “thing” and without consciousness of some “thing.” After “The Nothingness” is understood, you understand that you are as you always were, are, and shall be: just being and just aware.
The effects of compacted, manifested consciousness can be transcended and the manifested energy can function as pure, free, unconfined, unlimited awareness instead. Voilà: peace every day, or at least contentment.
We are essentially THAT pure, universal, unconditioned awareness, NOW. We are not the consciousness that manifests and becomes corrupted into a “mind” that drives ego-states to experience emotional intoxication. As far as “floyd” or “you” are concerned, nothing more has happened than this, if full realization has occurred:
Bliss (which is nothing more than an undisturbed vibration) manifested and was subsequently personalized. That personalization process has been reversed via realization so the de-personalization of bliss occurred; then, full realization and awareness of the non-aware awareness followed.
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:
