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.
“DO NOT SEARCH FOR THE ANSWER TO ‘WHO AM I?’ IT IS ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND ‘WHO / WHAT YOU ARE NOT’.”
THE SECOND DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY:
Mind Identification
(From a satsang session in 2004)
F.: “During this session, we begin discussion of what I call ‘The Second Degree of Separation from Reality’; however, please recall a comment I offered during the last session: There is no actual journey to make since there is no one to take that journey. There are no real degrees of separation. All aids only point to that knowingness which already is. Seek ‘within,’ not without. That said, let’s continue.
Here’s an overview of what I am calling a ‘journey’ (in a symbolic sense for the sake of discussion only) in order to help some of you visualize the ‘return’ to pure consciousness as you become free of the negative effects of consciousness corrupted or blocked by adopting their beliefs and ideas as your own.
At the beginning is the false “I”; at the end is the absolute. On our “journey,” in between the false “I” and the Real - which are not two and which are not separate at all - are of the stages which must be transitioned in order for the I AMNESS to know all that it is not and then realize the Real (generally, energy / matter).
We saw that the first of the ‘obstacles’ standing in the way of full realization is body identification. The second obstacle is mind identification. The content of your ‘mind’ - which includes all the lies and programming added to your originally pure consciousness - blocks your realization of Reality and thus prevents the bliss of being-without-desire.”
Q.: “Why? It seems the mind should be a tool for helping me find that bliss.”
F.: “The thinking mind will completely prevent your ever ‘finding’ bliss. When the thinking mind goes, the natural intuitions and instincts engage. Humans suffer from the rattlings of the thinking mind; the deer relaxes by living naturally under the guidance of what some call the ‘working mind’ - the natural, internal guidance system.
I hesitate to give the term ‘mind’ any credibility. Humans are self-destructive because of their thinking minds; deer are self-constructive because of their natural mode of living. The words I offer are pointers to guide you away from the unnatural thinking mind and toward the bliss of natural living.”
Q.: (Nods)
F.: “How could bliss possibly manifest alongside the frustrations of a mind’s imaginings of unmet needs and unfulfilled desires? All needs and desires are figments of the corrupted mind. Joy begins where desire ends.
The mind may be referred to as ‘the variable mind,’ ‘the superficial mind,’ ‘the imperfect mind,’ ‘the thinking mind,’ ‘the private mind,’ ‘the programmed mind,’ ‘the personal mind,’ or ‘the conditioned mind.’ Ultimately, though, your mind is - at this stage of the game - a repository of all the falsehoods not yet known to be false.
For the not-yet-realized, all of the ideas or beliefs or emotions or attitudes or pieces of dogma accepted as ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ now form the various bars of the prison called ‘your mind.’
To reach full realization, the thinking mind must dissolve. To reach full realization, the source of mental illusions must be known and transcended at this stage. Once the thinking mind dies, learned ignorance - and its resulting insanity - die / end as well.”
Q.: “But Floyd, the way I feel is not illusion. I am miserable. I am not happy.”
F.: “If the goal is to experience the freedom of non-duality, why begin by calling me ‘floyd’? And why place ‘miserable’ and ‘happy’ after ‘I am’? Mark well your words. A thought-life of endless dualities leaves one mentally unstable. How can one know ‘the great Reality’ if one is out of touch with both reality (the current relative AMness) and Reality (THAT)?”
Q.: “Good question.”
F.: “Thank you. [Laughter] One comes to know reality and Reality by following the pointers which point away from lies and toward the truth. The lies must first be seen to be lies before one can ever hope to know truth. The false selves must be seen to be false before one can ever begin to glimpse the Real. Why reinforce the illusion of duality by speaking to the consciousness as a body with a name? Why promote an illusion of ‘miserable-happy’ duality?
I don’t believe in ‘floyd.’ I only believe in the Real. Come to know what you are in terms of the eternal energy and / or the eternal matter; then, the instability of dual-mindedness ends when the light of Reality strikes. Follow the pointers and your false beliefs will dissolve as truth explodes into awareness.”
Q.: “But I’m sure I’ve seen you happy at times and miserable or angry at times.”
F.: “All of that which you feel sure of at this point is precisely what will prevent realization (which Maharaj defined thusly: “Realization is but the opposite of ignorance.” Your ideas and beliefs prevent your seeing Reality.
On some occasion, anger might have been witnessed as it rose and fell. On another occasion, joy might have been witnessed when it rose and fell. Whatever was thought to have been seen by you was in fact merely happening and merely being witnessed.”
Q.: “No . . . I have seen both the anger and the happiness, specifically.”
F.: “So have I. I was like the eagle, soaring above it all and merely watching.”
[Received by e-mail as the sessions were being conducted]
Q.: “Do thoughts create our reality? I’ve played with this for years and watched how ‘my’ thoughts created my so-called reality. Can you explain? Thanks, Andrea.”
F.: “Wise of you to write ‘my’ thoughts and ‘so-called’ Reality, indicating that you already suspect the fallacy of that notion. ‘I create my own reality’ is a popular statement nowadays, and once again we see that what is popular is often in error.
I would ask those believing in that concept, ‘How can there be a “your reality” and a “my reality”?’ Reality duality? They just ‘created’ a seventh system of yoga! The fact: Reality is Reality, period.
Some might want to bring the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ concept into the discussion with you, but even if something results from that, it does not create Reality. What is Real we do not create.
The Real has always been, always is, and always shall be. Suppose a male and female engage in an act of friction and then earth elements cycle during a nine-month period and consciousness manifests.
At the moment of what is called ‘birth,’ a child ‘appears,’ air is introduced, and breathing cycles begin and the cycling of conscious-energy begins / continues. The question is, ‘Was anything really created?’ The answer is, ‘No.’
Everything that regrouped into that ‘new’ space existed already: the air existed already; the conscious-energy existed already; the earth elements all existed. Nothing was created - things merely cycled. Consider again the ice cube metaphor that we’ve been using.
If I fill an ice tray with clusterings of two-hydrogen-and-one-oxygen-atom groupings and place the tray in the freezer, can I rightly proclaim that I have created ice? Did I create the basic elements? Did I create hydrogen and oxygen? No.
Though the clusterings took the shape or appearance of something ‘new,’ no appearance is ever the real. Since matter / energy cannot be created or destroyed, nothing about the cube was created. The form of the cube cannot be real since it is changeable. The Real (again, generally, energy / matter) is permanent, was not created, and cannot be destroyed. So it is with our imaginings that appear to be ‘our reality.’
Raise a child while telling him that white is black and black is white and then send him off to school after six years of that programming. When his belief system around black and white is challenged in the classroom, he’ll be certain that those who know the truth are fools. How much of what we were told as a child is fiction?
How motivated are most to seek the fictional non-truths and challenge those belief systems? Not very motivated at all, in most cases. People love to take credit for ‘creating’ when, in fact, cycling is merely happening. To understand that no creating has ever occurred, please consider this:
Have you have ever been invited to realize ‘infinity after you die’? Is so, why have those extending that invitation not also invited you to realize ‘infinity before your birth?’ Infinite is infinite, and the Real has been the Real infinitely. Recall: ‘In order to be sane, you must be out of your mind.’
What the thinking mind comes up with is fiction. What the brain understands can be fact. So, you cannot create Reality, but your ability to know Reality is within you already; however, it will never be known with the thinking mind. One can discard the false ‘realities’ once assumed to be true, sanity can be restored, and then one can know Reality.
Again, your reservations about what you have been told about ‘creating reality’ are valid and are an excellent sign of your capacity for realizing the truth and being able to differentiate between the true and the false. Best regards, f.
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:
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:
