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 THIRD DEGREE OF SEPARATION FROM REALITY:
Religious and / or Spiritual Identifications
(Excerpts from a satsang session conducted in 2004)
F.: “If freed of the bondage of the illusions of a mind exposed to years of acculturation, you’ll be sane - no longer believing lies to be true. That restoration to sanity activates natural behavior - rather than the subconscious mind or the thinking mind - to conduct one through the relative existence.
We just saw a demonstration of why these two roles form their own category of major obstacles on the path. Nothing impedes the shift to the sanity of touching reality like emotional intoxication and the resulting madness that is generated by these two states-of-being … of being ‘religious’ or being ‘spiritual.’ [Pause]
Now, my original intent for this session was to start with a pointer from Maharaj. Actually, his words will probably be even more relevant now than before. Maharaj said, ‘There are so many who take the dawn for noon, [who take] a momentary experience for full realization and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride.’ Why pride?
Who, claiming to be a religious person or a spiritual person, will not also claim that he or she is ‘better’ as a result? Typical is the claim, ‘I'm a better person for being religious,’ or ‘I live a better life since becoming a spiritual person.’
The truth is, both are assumed personas, mistaken for the real but nonetheless limiting and reinforcing egotism with the belief that ‘I am better than . . . others’.”
Questioner 3: “But don’t you think the world does need to be better?”
F.: “My world is perfect. ‘Perfect’ comes from the Greek 'teleios,' meaning ‘complete.’ Christ was not perfect as a result of being without sin. The text said he was teleios . . . complete.
He understood his 'completeness' after receiving the non-dual understanding and then demanding, 'When you speak of me, speak of me as I AM.' For me, I need nothing. That's perfect . . . complete . . . whole. I'm not fractured into dozens of false identities. I'm not even two. As we discussed earlier, if you assume a role, you are incomplete. Why?”
Q.3: “You said every role requires another person to play the counterpart. This gentleman [pointing] thinking he had to have a woman willing to play 'wife' for him to exist as 'husband,’ felt incomplete without her.”
F.: “Excellent! I am no role that requires a co-dependent partner to complete a false identity. No roles . . . no dependencies. No dependencies . . . no incompletion. I'm whole. I'm 'perfect.' What's with this imagined need to be better if you're already 'perfect'?”
Q.3: “Finally! “ [Pause, then laughter from others] “Well . . . I got it!”
F.: “[Pauses, allowing for full absorption of the awareness. Then . . . ] For most of you, your questions and comments show that your case is different. Instead of being in the world, the world is actually in you, meaning . . . in your mind.
The world you see is you, projected by you, so it's not whole. It's incomplete and imperfect and fractured. That leaves you with a sense of being unfulfilled - you have unfulfilled desires and imagined fears about the state of 'the world.' You haven't yet lost your mind.”
Q. 3.: “I've spent my entire life up to now thinking the ultimate goal was to be spiritual and to work forever at being better. “ [Exhales, slowly. Looks down, then to side. Looks up. Shakes head, seeming to reveal a new understanding.]
F.: [Continues to wait, then . . . ] “The religious and spiritual levels are only the beginner’s stage. If you complete this journey, you’re going to see exactly, step-by-step, how you got from the Absolute state to the false belief that you’re a body.
And you’re going to see how to shift from believing that you're a body to realization of the Absolute. And seeing that complete cycle, then you’re going to understand all the cycles, how the happenings happen over and over and over again.”
Questioner 4: “I'm processing what you said about completion, but I’m still thinking about what he said earlier, [pointing at Q. 3] about making the world better. Don’t you think, over all the years, that religion has helped millions?”
F.: “You love your religious and spiritual identities, don't you? [Pause] Aren't you seeing the relief that's coming to him as he's dropping this burden of working all his life to be better? And imagine the relief that'll come to others around him who won't be dealing with him trying to force them to be better by mirroring his thoughts and words and actions. [Laughter. Q. 3 smiles. Then to Q. 4]
You may have reached the end of your road. I suspect you're going to be stuck right here. For me, I deal in facts. I know that millions and millions have died from fighting over religious beliefs, but that’s not the pointer.
The point is that, when I was assuming religious and spiritual roles - which I played with almost as much enthusiasm and anger as that person who walked out of here - I was seeking eternal existence for a body-mind-personality triad.
Required was the transitioning beyond the dogma and doctrine and beliefs as well as the continuation of the questioning that ultimately revealed the lies which in turn allowed the truth to be seen in order to be free of fears and desires.
Until then, I remained trapped in anticipation and regret, focusing on the ‘everlasting fate’ of a personal body. I was seeking the ‘good’ label to earn my reward and working to avoid the ‘bad’ label in order to dodge eternal damnation and punishment.
Don’t you see that the religious seeker is still being driven to have her or his desires fulfilled and to have his fears abated?”
Q 4.: “Aren’t there at least some who are motivated simply by a desire to help?”
F.: “Again with this ‘helping.’ Again with ‘desire.’ An entirely new ego-state is given birth to if one goes out to reform the world and make it a better place. The closest you are to 'complete' right now is being completely trapped in your ego.
Your words tell me that you really do want to change the world, and that's the height of ego if you think you can. But you're not willing to let dissolve that which is within you that you're projecting as 'the world'.”
Q. 4: [Frowns]
F.: “The irony is that anyone seeing a horrible world is simply projecting himself onto what he calls ‘the world.’ And how would the world be a better place via a reformer's religious or spiritual service, according to his beliefs?
All would eventually think and feel and behave as dictated by his doctrine. They would live in the image of the reformer. They would think, feel and behave as he does. The egotistical belief is that the world would be better if all would just become clones of the reformer.
Foster that belief system, and those with contradictory religious views - all trying to compel others to model them - will meet as they travel to the ‘four corners of the earth’ and they will clash at every turn. As those persons go forth, the rest of the people of the world will have their every thought, feeling, and behavior labeled as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ and the misery and destruction of dual-mindedness spreads.
If you think that the power of a parent's definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ can drive one all his life, imagine the power of believing in a god of duality as he defines what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ and describes in vivid terms exactly what eternal reward or never-ending punishment will look like.
The no-single-cause understanding will be missed and another concept of a divine plan will be assumed to be the cause. The cause of all is all that has ever happened before, but if you seek a prime cause - or a singular ‘causer’ - then a person playing a religious or spiritual role will be glad to fabricate some concept of causation for you or will encourage you to dream up your own.”
Q. 4.: “So you don’t believe there’s a Prime Cause - or ‘causer’ as you say?”
F.: “You still want to bring up concepts that were dreamed up in some mind and then repeated by programmed people for millennia. Forget trying to find out about ancient concepts and find out about what you ‘think’ you are as opposed to THAT which you actually are. As for ‘cause,’ Maharaj noted wisely that the cause of all is . . . all’.”
Q. 4.: “So, I guess there’s no chance of you believing in the Trinity? “
F.: “The Trinity? The Trinity?! [Light laughter] I speak of non-duality while you want to dualities to the estreme. I Am the unicity. Why would you mention a duality, a trinity, a quadrility, or anything other than the unicity? We’re discussing the non-dual understanding.
If you want to examine trinities, study the ancient words of the gurus. Know the three gunas; study the inner, the outer, and the supreme; find the sat, the chit, and the ananda if you like; focus on the material, the spiritual and the essence; talk of the ‘I Am,’ the ‘I,’ and even the ‘I-I.’
But actually, understanding any of those threesomes will not serve in achieving full realization. Yet you continue to want to bring up concepts after we’ve discussed in Level Two all of the misery associated with such mind clutter. I’ve addressed all of that.
I spoke earlier of groups dreaming up concepts like ‘time’ and ‘eternity’ and ‘far-off places’ for dust-to-dust bodies to re-form and gather with other re-formed dust-to-dust bodies for some eternal reward or never-ending punishment. That’s all about the desire for continuity of a body-mind-personality triad.
To even ask that question, you show that you’re still ignoring the cyclings. Energy can’t be created or destroyed, so how can there have been a ‘creation’? And if there’s no creation, what need for your ‘creator concept’ or Prime Cause? Those living as the dreamed up false personas of “The Super Religious One” and / or “The Spiritual Giant” love too assign supernatural cause to things which are caused by natural forces:
hurricanes, fires, pregnancies, floods, earthquakes, lightning, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hailstorms, mudslides, plagues, avalanches, etc., etc., etc.
You’ve modeled our dearly-departed guest and are dreaming up your own conception and then wanting to talk to me about the content of dreamed up illusions and delusions. Understand the facts and then answer the question for yourself. [Pause] For now, just listen.”
Q. 5: “So how did you get past this point in your journey?”
F.: “After all of my study and searching and ‘spiritual work,’ I spent an evening applying my guide’s words to the vision I’d had. Realization came on an April 21st, a little after 9:30 one evening when I was doing nothing . . . nothing but resting in the silent contemplation after reading the words of my guide and focusing on all the lies I’d ever been told . . . open-mindedly and objectively questioning it all.
When I finally saw it was all a lie - including every belief and idea that had contributed to all my assumed personas - the illusion of a ‘personal I’ dissolved and the understanding of the functioning of the Totality was realized.”
Q. 5: “You make it sound so easy.”
F.: “It wasn’t for me, but it can be for you. It took me half a century. It need take you but a few steps. Take advantage of the offering.”
Q. 5: “Here’s the part I don’t get. Remember how you said a shift in consciousness came and you didn’t have to quit your job to be at peace . . . you just let work happen . . . without attachment?”
F.: “Go ahead.”
Q. 5: “Why can’t religious or spiritual practices ‘just happen’ too?”
F.: “They can, but not for any of you at the present. [Pause] Consider this: I once loaded a car in Lucerne, Switzerland one morning and began a trip to Venice, Italy. Seven and a half hours later, I pulled into Piazza Roma and parked.
I unloaded the baggage. I arranged for a gondola, and forty-five minutes later he delivered us to a canal-side entrance to the Hotel Ala. We checked in. We negotiated narrow steps with our luggage and finally arrived in the room. After more than nine hours, I fell backwards onto the bed and relaxed.
The journey was long and tiresome that day, but for the next several days, we spent hour upon hour in the main square, the Piazza San Marco, just enjoying the coffee from the Caffè Florian and the music of the orchestra in front and observing children feeding corn to the birds in the square and whatever else was happening. Later, we would spend the remainder of the day in the residential, off-the-main-track areas of the city where the locals abide, and eat, and relax.
We did nothing. We were simply being. All just happened and we just witnessed it. Now, suppose you’re in Lucerne, Switzerland wanting to relax in the Venetian square, without having completed any of the journey in between . . . without unloading any baggage . . . without giving up every false identity.
You can feign detachment and tell me you’re just amusing yourself, but I know you’re as attached as ever to the personalities and the body-mind that sustains them. You must give up these two roles and all others, take this entire journey, see all that you must see, and know the functioning of the Totality.
Only then can you practice AS IF living and truly be free. Your ego is telling you that you’ve arrived and can pull that off. You cannot. Playing the roles at this point will attach you to the role identifications. In truth, your questions show that you haven’t abandoned the two roles we’re discussing at all. The only thing ‘happening’ for you is an on-going struggle to preserve your favorite delusions.”
Q. 5: “The trouble is, I was raised the same way he was, [pointing at Q. 3] being taught that reaching the spiritual state is the end of the road.”
F.: “None of you were likely raised in a more unyielding, religious environment than I. I’m proof that such cannot prevent seeking truth and seeing truth and abandoning the rigidity which these two personas generate. But are you ready for your road to end?
I’d much prefer to reach the true end of the journey and then live a life in the relative existence with the peace afforded by understanding the functioning of the Totality. But for those who choose to stop here, so be it.
Many certainly do, but they miss out on the filtering stage of child ignorance and miss out on the bliss of the beingness, and the full understanding of the non-beingness and the Absolute. If you don't understand all of that, and if you don't understand THAT, then you will never understand the ‘peace-just-happens-or-not' existence.
If none of that seems worth the continuation of the journey, camp out in your ‘Super Religious’ and / or ‘Spiritual Giant’ stage and the rest of us will wave to you on our way ‘back’ to a lifetime of wonderful AS IF living! Ha.” [Laughter]
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:
