IDENTIFICATION: Something, or No thing? Part Eight

[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The pointers in this book are only for the most advanced seekers. The reading of this book should follow a reading and an understanding of the pointers in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.

F.: Maharaj also said, “This knowledge is for those who have no desires.” It is obvious that your desire for an identity inspires your talk of “something.” Since you desire an identity, the content of this book will not likely appeal to you. Are you also desiring life eternal? Then the ultimate understanding is not for you. Because you want to be “something” (and something forever) then the ultimate teaching will likely have no appeal for you.

If you still desire to know who you are (and that is appropriate at the earlier levels), these highest level teachings will not be for you. It can be asked legitimately, “Then what is any of this about? Why are the teachings happening? Why does the consciousness continue to speak?”

Maharaj was asked that very question and he answered, “What is the worth of all these activities of human beings? It is all entertainment, just to pass the time. You get pleasure only when you forget yourself.” So for ultimate pleasure, forget your self, and forget Your Self.

He said, “Liberation means what? It is no more there. [Flicking his cigarette lighter off and on.] This cigarette lighter is the body; the consciousness is the flame. Now it isn’t there anymore; it is liberated. Where is the need to label it…?”

“First I thought I was the body, then I experienced that I was not the body but I was the consciousness, then I got the experience that this consciousness is not really me, and there is no form, no individuality, no nothing.”

It has been asked even by more advanced seekers during satsanga sessions and Advaita Seminars and Advaita Retreats, “Isn’t there something that you believe in?”

The reply: “Not only do I not believe in something, I don’t even believe in nothing…no person, no concept, no form, no nothing. ‘Something’ is temporary and ‘nothing’ is also temporary—all fleeting aspects of an ever-changing universe that wasn’t at first and that later suddenly was.” (More on that in a later chapter.)

Wherefore your desire for permanence? Wherefore your desire for an “identity” when even before the “SOMETHING” you reference, there was nothing? Ultimately, either your view of Reality involves no concepts and no duality, or your false sense of reality involves concepts (which, in turn, support duality and falsehoods).

Far more pervasive among persons who will never find a “true identity” are their distortions regarding all of the false, assumed identities which they are not but which they think they are. (And those are the “identities” that have a far more influential impact, relatively speaking).

If persons would be free of the suffering that is rooted in the ignorance of their ego-states—and the egotism that always accompanies their false identities—then (continued in the book).

To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
MAKE YOUR OWN PACKAGE (FOR A LIMITED TIME): 10% OFF if two books are ordered at the same time; 15% OFF if three books are ordered at the same time; 20% OFF if four or more books are ordered at the same time. Visit http://www.floydhenderson.com/

IDENTIFICATION: Something, or No thing? Part Seven

[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The pointers in this book are only for the most advanced seekers. The reading of this book should follow a reading and an understanding of the pointers in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.

and received yesterday, regarding a pointer in the September 23rd post:

“Easy for you to say that ‘a sense of loss is illusion,’ but if everything you worked for and earned during your adult life was taken away by an egomaniac, something so flippant might not be stated.”

F.: [Insert: Actually, most of the material things that were worked for and paid for during a twenty-year period were taken away by an egomaniac. The money and those possessions are now being shared with another man by that person, so the pointer that you reference was not offered from within a vacuum. More to the point, though, is the fact that the bitterness that is implied in your message might be dispelled if you were able to understand this pointer from Maharaj:

Suppose somebody abuses you and you find out who it is. Is it the body? It is not the body. Then what could it be? Finally you come to the conclusion that it is spontaneously happening out of whatever that body is. You will not attribute it to any individual. When your individuality is dissolved, you will not see individuals anywhere, it is just a functioning in consciousness. If it clicks in you, it is very easy to understand. If it does not, it is most difficult. It is very profound and very simple, if understood right.

A thorough investigation of the background of whoever you think to be the most abusive person that you’ve ever dealt with will usually reveal that person to also be the most abused person you’ll ever meet. Since there are no individuals, however, what you and “floyd” were really dealing with were highly warped specks of consciousness. An honest and objective look at what inspired you and "floyd" to attach for a time to those warped specks of consciousness would reveal equally warped specks of consciousness that were being driven to try to satisfy a desire or a fear. Also, an honest and objective look at what you think you've lost would reveal that you haven't lost a thing. To the degree that you cast aside your self, to that same degree will both your illusory sense of "loss" and your bitterness be cast aside as well.

Some functionings in consciousness are entertaining. Some functionings in consciousness are not. So it is. If you shift beyond your identification with body, mind, personality and beliefs, you will be able to witness your feelings rise and fall without attachment and therefore without such bitterness. Freedom from emotional intoxication follows freedom from identification with body, mind, ego-states, and ideas. By the way, the excerpts from this book are not for you. The invitation for now is to read, and re-read, only these first four paragraphs that are in brackets.]

Now, to continue with the extracts from the book:

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj explained to a seeker who was preoccupied with finding an identity, “You are asking, ‘Who am I?’ and you are not going to get an answer, because the one who will get the answer is false. You may have an idea, a concept, and you will think you have found yourself, but it is only a concept.”

Understand that “the Self” is as much a concept as “the self.” Both can function only during the relative manifestation, the self being the false identity that can only see the false and the Self being that which can see Reality. Yet all seeing—be it “True” Witnessing or “false” witnessing—can happen only during this manifestation. All labels—whether labels dealing with the phenonenal or labels dealing with the noumenal—are contained in...(continued in the book)

To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
MAKE YOUR OWN PACKAGE (FOR A LIMITED TIME): 10% OFF if two books are ordered at the same time; 15% OFF if three books are ordered at the same time; 20% OFF if four or more books are ordered at the same time. Visit http://www.floydhenderson.com/

IDENTIFICATION: Something, or No thing? Part Five

[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. The pointers in this book are only for the most advanced seekers. The reading of this book should follow a reading and an understanding of the pointers in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.

F.: Egotism drives persons to want to “be something” and to "be somebody." Programming and conditioning and enculturation and domestication convince the non-Realized that they “are something”…that they are, in fact, “many things.” (Hence, "duality.") Desires drive persons to seek states of rapture; fear, combined with a desire for power and control and continuity, drives persons to seek “the divine.”

Ego always wants more; freedom from the bondage of ego results in giving value to less. Ego is about going and doing and zooming in order to collect more; freedom from the love of more allows the non-doingness (the beingness only) to manifest.

Thus, persons search for “the divine” and for an understanding of all that is "supernatural" when in fact there is nothing that is supernatural at all. That which is thought to be supernatural is contained entirely within the warped consciousness. Though the only style of living that makes sense in the relative is natural living, the fact is that persons either live unnaturally or think that they are living supernaturally as a result of their having been fooled.

The result of their having been fooled is an endless stream of desires and fears that create a constant sense of longing. A constant sense of longing generates a sense of emptiness…of not being full…of a lack of fulfillment. The desires and fears generate the adoption of one false self after another, so the non-Realized end up being "full of themselves"—meaning, mentally full of their false selves.

Since those selves are illusions without substance, the sensation of emptiness among persons seems ever-present throughout the manifestation. They think that they are experiencing that sensation when, in fact, there is no one to experience anything. That sensation saddles "emptiness" with a negative connotation among the non-Realized. Few of them will ever understand the joys of de-accumulation. Few of them will ever come to the understanding that it is only the emptiness that can be fulfilling during the manifestation.

Yesterday, after securing the lines on the boat and then leaving the harbor, this exchange was overheard as one man asked another: “What have you got lined up for the weekend?” The second answered, “Nothing. Not a GD thing. Isn’t that great?”

If an empty schedule for two days can be considered “great,” imagine how wonderful such emptiness could be 24-7 for the remainder of the manifestation.

Yet who that has been programmed to accumulate more could possibility prefer de-accumulation and less? The answer is, “Only those who have tasted even the slightest bit of that sweetness of less…of nothingness.”

A pointer that has been shared before will be repeated here since it is relevant to this discussion:

The Realized can taste what the Italians call il dolce di fare niente—“the sweetness of doing nothing.” The Fully Realized will shift to a level even beyond that and will understand something even simpler than “the sweetness of doing nothing,” namely, il dolce di Niente—“the sweetness of Nothing,” period.

It has been asked, “If nothingness is the real deal, then why are words gathered into books or posted on a site? Someone is doing that gathering and posting.” That comment indicates delusion. Consciousness speaks, but consciousness is without personal attributes or individuality or doership. Here, there is no person or being or consciousness choosing anything. All happens spontaneously. Words come automatically, without thought...without thinker.

Consciousness has neither body nor mind nor personality. It assumes no identity if pure or if re-purified. No matter how dedicated you are to finding an identity and "being somebody" and thereby "being fulfilled," the fact is that whatever you might claim your permanent identity to be, it cannot be any part of a non-permanent relative existence. You really aren't anybody.

Thus, whatever you would claim as your real identity must be void of self existence and void of SELF existence. Whatever you might think you are is actually...(continued in the book)

To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
MAKE YOUR OWN PACKAGE (FOR A LIMITED TIME): 10% OFF if two books are ordered at the same time; 15% OFF if three books are ordered at the same time; 20% OFF if four or more books are ordered at the same time. Visit http://www.floydhenderson.com/

IDENTIFICATION: Something, or No thing? Part Three

[EXCERPTS from the soon-to-be-released book FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: No identity at all? Everybody is SOMETHING, and whatever that SOMETHING is, is our identity.

F.: Most who read pointers dealing with zero concepts (as offered by some Direct Path Advaita Teachers and by some “Neo-Advaitins”), will feel as if they are dying or being robbed of their “true identity.” Some will feel that their “true identity” is being minimized and not recognized for the glorious post-manifestation "SOMETHING" that it is...all “heavenly” and “celestial” and “splendid”…maybe even “saintly” or “godly” or “cherubic” or “spiritual” or “divine” or “holy” or "something" which they believe will be "even above and beyond" all of that.

Some resent the implication that their relevance, either during the relative manifestation or after the relative manifestation, is being decreased or diminished or underestimated. They hate the suggestion that to have taken themselves and their beliefs seriously for so many years was all nonsense. They hate hearing that their years of fighting for their causes were uselessly passed in vain and were steeped in egotism and efforts to support their false identities/ego-states.

They hate hearing that their entire existence is all much ado about nothing. They despise being told that they have been fooled. They hate pointers dealing with purposelessness and meaninglessness. They hate pointers which suggest that all of those times when they made mountains out of molehills was pure foolishness. They hate the notion of "nothingness" and thrive on all their concepts that deal with "somethingness." They hate hearing their their beliefs and their concepts are fiction.

They hate when their dualistic belief in their own eternal reward is exposed as a fraud or when their belief in an eternal punishment for their enemies is debunked. They bristle when it is pointed out that their "life-long" attempts to defend their various concepts have amounted to nothing more than a waste of breath.

They hate to hear that the energy spent in trying to make their views understood and accepted was for naught. They can become livid when it is noted that their actions (which earned applause from the masses who considered those actions to be “accomplishments”) were for nil. They despise the pointer that no one has ever "made the world a better place" as a result of any action.

They are offended when it is suggested that the naming of streets after them, that the building of statues in their honor, and that the construction of libraries built to laud their "achievements" amount to just so much rubbish. They reject any suggestion that the desire to extend in perpetuity the memory of them and their “identity” is mere tripe.

Similarly, the following pointer was offered to the seeker who raised the issue of “SOMETHING” in defense of his “identity,” desiring as he does to verify it and to be assured that it will be extended in perpetuity:

Whether your identity is of a phenomenal nature or a noumenal nature in your “mind,” your preoccupation with it is evidence of the fact that you hold in esteem either that which you currently believe you are, or that SOMETHING which you think you shall be forever, or both. In fact, when a "state" of zero concepts is reached, it is understood that there is no "identity" at all. It is also realized from that "state" that there is nothing deserving any esteem at all, contrary to the tendency among the non-Realized to demand that they be shown “the honor they deserve.”

The pointer offered earlier was that “there's no identity to be concerned with at all.” Another pointer is offered for those seekers who would reach the "next level" of understanding and who are capable of reaching the zero concepts "state":

“Absolute,” “THAT,” “Brahman,” “God,” “energy,” “energy-matter,” “Consciousness,” “Awareness,” and “SOMETHING” are still man-made labels generated by persons; however, since Awareness is not even aware of awareness, what justification can be offered for being “concerned” with any of those labels, if Fully Realized?

The concept of “SOMETHING” blocks the understanding of what is most pervasive in this universe (and in all universes). What is most pervasive? Not something but…no-thing. The physical body of a human is neither “primarily energy” nor “primarily matter.” It is primarily space, primarily a void, and can thereby serve as a microcosm of the universe which is primarily space, primarily nothingness, primarily no-thingness.

Similar to every bridge that will eventually be reduced to rubble, a couple of hundred pounds of “floyd” will be reduced to a few pounds of ash. That which is mainly “space” is misperceived by the non-Realized as being “something.”

Typically, "the nothing" is neither seen nor understand as persons show deference to, and preference for, “something.” Only for "the most advanced" is this pointer offered: if the nothingness is understood, then not an iota of attention is wasted with concern about the “SOMETHING” the seeker mentioned.

At "the peak" of understanding, it is realized that “concern” with a post-manifestation identity is just so much silliness. Persons who focus on “SOMETHINGS” become “concerned,” and "concern" about anything will generate unnatural or supernatural thinking and living. All “concerns” prevent peace and natural living from happening. If an excess of energy is available, employ it to realize all that you are not if you would eliminate insane-like thoughts and words and deeds and relative destructiveness from an otherwise ego-dominated existence.

To focus on the concept of “SOMETHING” prevents seeing “The Reality of the Emptiness,” “The Reality of the Void,” “The Reality of the Nothingness.” All “mind”-stuff attached to “somethingness” will preempt any understanding of the no-concept, non-dual, no-thing Reality.

Peace and happiness only happen...(continued in the book)

To order your copy of FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS ($16.99+ S&H) go to http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm, complete all of the information, and in the “Special Message” box, type in FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued on Friday)
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
WORKING ON LEARNING TO QUESTION IT ALL AND BEING FREE OF THE FALSE (BUT HONORED) CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS OF YOUR CULTURE?

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING AND DOGMA?

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION?

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

WORKING ON BEING FREE OF MIND AND PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION?

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

and

Click LIBERATION

WORKING ON “THE FINAL PIECES” AND PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER?

Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

and

Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

and

Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS