NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH, Part Two

From a site visitor: On vacation last week and the news was all about a dead politician, a dead singer, or a dead dictator. The dictator seemed pretty cool about the hanging. Got me to wondering. If somebody was truly Realized whenever their time came to die, could they be afraid or would they be relaxed?

F.: Upon the occasion of what persons refer to as “death,” they (the non-Realized) will exhibit one of two emotional reactions:

1. Some in their ignorance might claim to be joyous, believing that their body and mind and personality will last for eternity in a place of “reward” because they were “good” or because they "died for the 'right' cause."

2. Others, in their ignorance, will be most unhappy, stressed over the fact that “their lives” are “coming to an end” or that they might spend eternity is "a place of punishment" because they were “bad” or “good, but not good enough.”

Of course, members of both of those groups are fools, devoid of even the slightest clue of what they’re talking about and incapable of differentiating myth-based fiction from fact. Convinced that they were “born,” they are convinced that they will “die.” Unaware of the Original Understanding of that which cycles and that which does not, they live according to a fictitious timeline of “birth, life, death, judgment, and eternal punishment or reward.” That timeline is a concept that is based in pure ignorance, as are all concepts. Persons look at what they call “their life” and take imaginings, habits, traditions, and memories to be truth. Trapped in their concepts and beliefs, they could not be farther removed from Reality.

To understand what that which persons call "dying" is really about, consider the analogy of the candle: the consciousness that has temporarily manifested in a space can be likened to the flame of a candle, a candle that is slowly burning down and that will be totally extinguished one day. The physical remains of the candle will rejoins the universal pool of elements. The oxygen that allowed the flame to burn for a time will remain, but it will not remain in association with the elements that had temporarily taken the form of a candle. That same space with its candle shape will never be again. The energy associated with the burning will last forever because energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Elements cycling, oxygen cycling, and conscious-energy cycling...that's all that is happening. As for any notion that the candle itself will last forever? Preposterous.

So it shall be with this consciousness: this temporarily manifested consciousness is slowly burning down and will be totally extinguished some day. The remains of the physical body will rejoins the universal pool of elements. The oxygen that facilitated the temporary manifestation will remain but not in association with the elements that had temporarily taken the form of the body. That same body will never be again, and neither will the “mind” nor the personality. The energy-consciousness that was associated with the “space” will last forever because energy can be neither created nor destroyed.

So there is no birth, no life, no death—just energy and matter functioning according to the laws of entropy and atrophy which make clear that (1) all elements and all forms or spaces in the realm of the relative that organize will disorganize, and (2) all forms shall deteriorate and all spaces shall wither away. But even as all that relative activity is happening, it has nothing to do with that which I AM or with that which YOU ARE which does not deteriorate or waste away or break down or wither away. Do you now see the level of ignorance among those who think that they are something special, who think that they know someone special, who believe that they were born, who think they have been “different” all their lives, who think they shall someday die, and who think that their bodies and minds and personalities shall exist in tact for eternity? That is the level of insanity and ignorance that dualistic concepts generate. Please enter the silence of contemplation. TOMORROW: ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE

NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH, Part One

From a site visitor: On vacation last week and the news was all about a dead politician, a dead singer, or a dead dictator. The dictator seemed pretty cool about the hanging. Got me to wondering. If somebody was truly Realized whenever their time came to die, could they be afraid or would they be relaxed?

F.: First, everything associated with those events provides another opportunity to witness the relativistic results of the duality that drives the non-Realized: "life vs. death" and "good vs. bad" beliefs are generating insane behavior, the separating of persons by status, multiple funerals for a pile of physical elements, and barbaric conduct that the masses believe is quite normal conduct. In those three cases, as in all cases, what really happened is this: the consciousness manifested spontaneously and unmanifested spontaneously, but persons believe that so much more is involved. In fact, that manifesting and unmanifesting means nothing, but ego has to try to nullify the reality of net zero gain and net zero loss by making judgments about which persons have “value” and which persons are “worthless.” The fact that any persona can impact millions of people says nothing about that persona but says a great deal about the masses.

You can witness in the events you mention the ways that persons (absorbed as they are in their ego-states) are differentiating between “great people” or “notorious people”—people who are being given attention or honors that “regular people” don’t receive. The subsequent rituals—venerating corpses, chauffeuring cadavers from state-to-state in cars, using airplanes to fly carcasses back and forth across the nation, laying dead bodies out for public viewing (and for touching and for kissing in at least one of those instances)—are all rooted in the relative-existence-barbarity of fools who are trapped in their ignorance.

Note the duality as a “great man” receives a great funeral, as “a big entertainer” received a big funeral, and as a “bad man” is hanged because he was definitely “not good” and thus received a small funeral. Further, none of the three corpses will be cremated because the widespread belief is that the carrion must be glorified, conserved, and interred “in tact” so the remains of all three will be ready for their “resurrection” and for their eternal “reward or punishment.” These happenings illustrate the nonsense of dualistic, relativistic beliefs and the lunacy of adhering to rituals; furthermore, they show how attachment to concepts generates barbaric and insane behavior in a “world” that is nothing more than a series of images that persons believe are real.

Next, the answer to your question about dying is covered in detail in WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE? http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm . A site visitor had asked, “What happens when I die?” and the book answers his question by making clear that you cannot die since you were not born. As for your query about what would happen if one were Fully Realized, no fear would happen in regards to any “events,” including the one you mentioned. Being free of fears and desires, there would be no desire to avoid “death” and there would be desire to induce “death.” Moreover, having no fear of dying, the Realized have no fear of living; conversely, having no fear of living, the Realized have no fear of dying. Among the Realized, what happens happens, and whatever happens is merely witnessed (including the witnessing of feelings that rise and fall, which happens without the emotional intoxication that ego-states experience). Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Five

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: While change is inevitable, attachment to the doingness of traditional rituals makes persons hate change (especially when it ends the continuation of their traditional celebrations). The insanity is that persons attached to traditions hate change in a universe that is perpetually changing. To hate when change happens (in a universe where change is constantly happening) guarantees misery and suffering. It is their attachment to traditions that sets persons up for that hatred of change and the misery that comes when the practicing of their traditions inevitably ends. Such attachment to illusory traditions is insane and inspires more insanity (as in “I’m suicidal—can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”) Yet persons value their traditions because they reassure persons that their belief in the myth of continuity is actually real. While persons have little ability to adjust to change or to accept the inevitability of change, non-attachment among the Realized allows for peaceful adjustments to be made to the ever-changing conditions in the relative existence.

Abidance as the Abolute removes the misery that is generated by all attachments and by the insanity of loving traditions and habits while hating sitiuations that call for adaptation. Change is inevitable, so all habits and all traditional practices shall eventually end. When they end for the Realized, they are witnessed. When they end for persons, overwhelming misery and suffering and depression and even suicide follow. Wherefore any “value” to attaching to traditions?

Non-attachment also removes the illusion that there is a “you” that is doing the same thing in the same way with the same persons year-after-year-after year. Non-attachment removes the distortion that such repetition of traditional doings can, and will, go on in the same way forever. Removal of such illusion and distortion can preclude the suffering and misery that comes to persons when their illusions and distortions are inevitably revealed to have been nothing more than deceptions. It can also preclude the suffering and misery that will inevitably come when persons experience any “sense of loss” (which they always dread but which they cannot avoid unless they Realize).

Freed of delusion and programming and the conditioning that results in blind devotion to things that are done simply because “these are the traditional things that we’ve always done,” the Realized avoid such reinforcement of false identities and ego-states and avoid living under the influence of dualistic concepts. Freed from attachment to traditions and “the past,” the Realized never express the misery-generating, dualistic ideas that persons experience, as revealed in such statements as…

“This was once the best time of the year—now, it’s the worst time of the year,” or

“We loved the holidays—now we hate the holidays,” or

“My country is the greatest country on earth—better than all those others—and we reinforce that belief by honoring our national traditions,” or

“The people who are willing to kill for my country are better than the people in this culture who will not kill others who have been labeled as ‘enemies’ and therefore we honor our armed forces with our traditional celebrations,” or

“Those of us who honor our religious traditions are better than those who don’t, and we are also better than we would be if we did not observe these traditional practices,” or

“Those of us who honor our nation’s traditions are good patriots and those who don’t honor our traditions are traitors or cowards or unpatriotic,” or

“I’m suicidal—can you say anything I haven’t yet heard that might help me make it through this season?”

Now, you are invited to revisit your question: “But isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?” That is an invitation to find the truth, either for your “self” or for Your Self or for both. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Upcoming topics: “NO BIRTH, NO LIFE, NO DEATH” and “ABIDING AS THE I AM VS. ABIDING AS THE ABSOLUTE”]

THE REAL REASON THAT PERSONS VALUE TRADITIONS, Part Four

From a site visitor: I read your postings about Christmas traditions and most of it made sense. I’ve also been going thru your archives and last summer you said the Dark Ages was when ignorant people valued traditions. I agree with your argument that doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way is not smart, but isn’t there some value to observing some traditions?

F.: Being fully awake and fully aware assures that nothing happens in an unconscious, hypnotic, or sheeplike manner. All of the behaviors associated with observing traditions are conducted in a sheeplike fashion by people attached to a fictionalized “past.” The observances were originally dreamed up by controlling men who used them to influence the unquestioning and ignorant masses. As with all “leaders” who want to program and to condition persons to believe and behave in certain ways, repetition is required. Pavlov’s dogs were not conditioned in one session, and persons cannot be conditioned by doing one thing for one time.

Instead, the event or activity must be repeated over and over in order for the masses to buy into the dualistic lies behind the traditions: this group of citizen-fighters are special; this savior is better than that one; this day honoring this person or group is different from the other days on the calendar; this woman never had sexual relations but she still got pregnant; this is the right time to genuflect, to bow, to raise a candle, to smell a scent, to sprinkle some water, to chant a chant in unison, to cut down a tree, to spend huge sums of money, to ring a bell, to sing special songs containing false messages that further enculturate, ad infinitum.

The honoring of traditions keeps persons out of touch with the NOW and links them instead with a counterfeit “past.” Since “the past” is an illusion—along with memories and reminiscences and recollections about the past—the blind performance of traditional rituals keeps persons trapped in the illusions they value as a result of having been enculturated. “Why would you say that my memories are illusions?” it was recently asked. Persons are unaware of what is happening right NOW, so they certainly were not capable of seeing accurately what was happening "then." To behave in ways that honor past illusions is to remain trapped in the illusions.

The Realized are awake and can no longer be influenced by the programming and conditioning that drive persons to believe that traditions have “value.” The Realized have no false notions about “their own value” (WHO would be capable of “having” that value?) so they certainly give no value to arbitrary dates on an arbitrary calendar or to fiction-based events that were dreamed up by men with hidden agendas who wanted their beliefs to be widely accepted and regularly reinforced via the repetition of traditional celebrations.

By being free of ego and programming, which contribute to the assigning of “value” to traditions, the Realized are freed of the duality of “good and bad” and “better and worse” and “the highs that persons suffer when desires are met vs. the lows they experience when other desires are not met.” The Realized are freed of being driven by a false sense of need and dependency and role-playing and are also free of any false sense of continuity. They are freed of being deluded by leaders (including political and religious and business leaders) who are controlling the masses by encouraging participation in traditional celebrations. They are freed from doing what the masses do in their blind, repetitious fashion in a night-of-the-living-dead, zombie-type manner.

That, in turn, frees them of (1) being controlled by ego-states and leaders and frees them of (2) all the doings that persons do in order to insure that their illusory body and illusory mind and illusory personality and illusory ego-states will be allowed to pass eternity in a “good” place rather than in a “bad” place. It also frees them of (3) the chaos and emotional intoxication that result from experiencing extreme highs which are always followed by extreme lows. Freed thusly from such dualistic concepts and conduct, the Realized cannot fear and are not driven to do anything. Anything can happen, but no belief is held that one thing or another has to happen in order for happiness to manifest. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: the conclusion]