Advaita Vedanta

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Twenty-Two

2009-07-10T08:49:00.007-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta forum focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Please see the information following this post regarding
The Advanced Seekers’ Three-Book Set

[Data received yesterday from Google shows that there is an international conversation—an international satsang session, if you will—that is happening here via what one protégé called “his electronic loft.” Google reported that 1,172 visitors from 55 countries and over 900 cities have visited the site during this current series and read these postings.

Today, greetings are extended to those among the fourth largest group of visitors to the site during this series, namely, visitors from the following cities in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales:

London, Bristol, Leicester, Brighton, Dorking, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Walton-le-Dale, Belfast, Derby, Whitehaven, Slough, Bradford, Edgbaston / Birmingham, Westhoughton, Yateley, Fareham, Wembley, Bournemouth, Grantham, Swansea, Irlam, and Sheffield. Welcome, Regards, Peace, Love and Light.]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: So speaking of war or violence or a lack of justice, if you were a citizen of Iran, would you be in the streets protesting the repressive government or not?

F.: The cause of all is all, so it cannot be said what might happen or not with this speck in regards to any particular circumstance unless confronted with that circumstance. What can be said unequivocally is that whatever happened would happen spontaneously.

FROM ANOTHER SITE VISITOR: Dearest f, Where the **** did you come from?! Wait....I know the answer to That! This speck is too blunt at times, but folk are in need of the crystal clear explanations that you offer. Right on that the fight is within. Annihilation of self is the answer, offering freedom from fear. It is not a "taking away" but rather a sense of completion that You offer—and then finally the "no sense." For this offer to pierce the fog of the facile mind, it must come through in Love. You are able to exhibit [that Love] in the writings and thus the gift continues. I know that you don't need to read this, but I still wanted to let you know the effect. Love g.

F.: Regards and, yes, Love. Love and Nothingness as the outer borders of the envelope, with all else flowing spontaneously in between.

[Now, more suggestions for moving to a state of total freedom—the continuation of an on-going list]

10. Associate with “company” that does not reinforce beliefs about “separation” and duality (otherwise known as what Maharaj called “good company” and “noble friendship” and “holy company”). If that is not available, then keep only your own company instead.

Sound elitist or separatist? Actually, the pointer is to prevent both elitism and a false sense of separation from marring your relative existence. This suggestion will be difficult for many seekers because it will eliminate association with 95-99% of the persons on the planet.

[NOTE: Those not Realized will still be welcomed by the teacher if they are seeking sincerely. Furthermore, the Realized teacher will welcome anyone at any level that is honestly seeking and comes with questions (and, yes, with concepts);

however, it is a need only among the non-Realized to seek out, to engage, to confront, to pander to, to try to impress, to try to fit in, to harm, to debate for the sake of being heard, to express opinion, and/or to sabotage.]

All of that "stuff" that marks so many of the "relative relations" nowadays does not happen among the Fully Realized. Among the truly Realized, peace is preferred over socializing or mingling or meeting if such activities are inspired by a hidden agenda to seek support for, or advancement of, an ego-state.

Here, twenty years of silence would be favored over even one more day of listening to blatant ignorance and dualistic opinions delivered as if they were the ultimate truth, expressed with an expectation that such statements should be accepted as unquestionable facts. Here, instead, it is made clear that the Truth cannot be stated but that it can be known.

"Being at peace with no company” would be the unshakable rule for the entirety of the remainder of the manifestation if the only other option would be to listen to mind-speak showing up as just so much vacuous talk and senseless noise.

Have the courage to try the silence and the sanity for awhile. You, too, might acquire a taste for the quiet…for sanity…for safeguarding an ignorance-free zone...for either being in sane company or being with Your Self.

Where I live (abiding as that original, natural state) is just such a zone, and if relative chores or work require that the speck enter an environment where nonsensical talk is happening, then—not unlike the deer that moves spontaneously to the quiet—such movement toward the quietness will happen. It can happen for You as well, when the last identity and the last desire and the last fear dissolve. Why not enjoy the dissolution now?

The first question always asked when the suggestion to "keep good company" is offered has been, “Aren’t the terms Maharaj used, like ‘good’ and ‘noble’ and ‘holy,’ aren’t those all dualistic?” The answer is “Yes,” so take them to be thorns used to remove thorns and then toss them. Consider the use of those thorns in these exchanges with Maharaj:

Questioner: A friend of mine used to have horrible dreams night after night. Going to sleep would terrorise him. Nothing could help him.
Maharaj: Company of the truly good would help him.

and

Questioner: Life itself is a nightmare.
Maharaj: Noble friendship is the supreme remedy for all ills, physical and mental.
Questioner: Generally one cannot find such friendship.
Maharaj: Seek within. Your own Self is your best friend.

and

Maharaj: My words are true and they will do their work. This is the beauty of noble company (satsang).

and

Maharaj: Abiding in your own being is also holy company.

The suggestion to stay away from those fomenting discontent and separation and duality is nearly impossible for those trapped in personality. Of the nine basic types, only those among the Type Fours (as was Maharaj) will have a natural independent streak and a natural bent toward authenticity and solitude. The other types will have a major challenge with Realizing fully and with the pointer to be in your own company because:

Perfectionists who want to reform will need to seek out those thought to need reform; the Helper / Rescuer Types will be driven to seek out the needy (or even users) in order to rescue in their effort to try to gain “love”; Performers will be driven to seek an audience in order to impress; the Type Five Knowers will need others to be there to listen as they try to impress people with all of their acquired knowledge;

Loyalists will need to associate with those willing to “fight and die for their country” or for “the business” or “for god”; the Adventurers more often than not feel that their activities are most enjoyable when shared with others; Controllers need people to control and rule and dominate; and Type Nines are driven to try to “connect with others” because their real motive is often to find others who will support them so they can avoid having to work.

Trapped in personality and therefore at war with themselves, the non-Realized will erroneously think that there is comfort in clinging to their basic personality types and to the many personas and roles they play on the stage of The Theater of the Lie.

They like their relative drama. They claim the Realized lead a boring life, but in fact it is they who are bored, trying anything to get the adrenaline flowing, including judging, promoting separation, fighting some, having sex with some, fighting and having sex with the same person, etc.

With 98.5% of the persons on the planet not being Type Fours, the odds are slight for the remainder of the persons on the planet to be comfortable with their own company, unless Realization happens. For those of any type that are seeking peace and sanity, the invitation is to understand this:

every statement of duality or nonsense or ignorance has the potential to reinforce faulty conditioning and programming and to strengthen the roadblocks that prevent the pure consciousness from seeing accurately and knowing the Truth that cannot be stated.

The invitation is to tear down the roadblocks of ideas and concepts and beliefs, to be done with the fiction-filled "mind," and then to guard the consciousness against being blocked again. Let the company you keep be sane and rational and logical company that no longer invites ignorance and madness and chaos into its surroundings; otherwise, be in the company of Your Self.

11. Never compromise Your integrity and Your dedication to the teachings. To falter in impeccability—that is, to compromise in regards to zero tolerance of anything short of zero concepts—will leave you in as much chaos as those who have never heard these teachings and are trapped in duality 24-7.

If Advaita Vedantins want to talk of “the end of all knowledge,” should there not really be an end to all knowledge? The end of all knowledge is marked by a belief in zero concepts.

Would you automatically take the steps necessary to protect the plant food body if it were being physically attacked? Then why not also take as much care to guard Your Self—to guard that re-purified, post-Realization consciousness from being blocked again?

To abide as that original, natural state is to remove Your Self from exposure to the all of the nonsense and ignorance of the relative existence. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

Why there is no such thing as “peace of mind”

Real Love

Liberation from Personality

the nothingness

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

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd
by telephone and the call (either international or in the U.S.) will be free.
[Details below]

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you need only search “Skype” and, download the free program and take a few minutes to set up your account; then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Three-Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT APPROXIMATELY 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Holistic Healing
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Use the contact link above to arrange a session in your city either in the U.S. or internationally.

5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

6. DONATIONS

FROM SIM IN KENTUCKY, U.S.A.: How about a donate button? I give monthly to a blog about locations and reviews of a particular type of restaurant we like. I’d sure donate to this blog.

FROM “ANONYMOUS”: Almost every visitor brought Maharaj food or flowers. I’d like to treat you to a meal if you tell me how to do so with my credit card!

FROM LOUISE, SOUTH AFRICA: [Consider the case of an acquaintance who] added a donate button to his site. Regular blog readers were happy to support the site in this way.

F.: Okay—so it’s done, but note that the postings and responses are offered without charge, as is access to the library of 1,330+ Advaitin essays archived on the site.

That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Twenty-One

2009-07-09T09:20:00.007-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta forum focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Please see the information following this post regarding
The Advanced Seekers’ Three-Book Set

[Today, greeting are extended to those among the second largest group of visitors to the site during this series, namely, visitors from the following cities in India: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Delhi, Cochin, Ludhiana, Pune, Dehra Dun, Kottayam, Trivandrum, Gurgaon, Mahape, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Coimbatore. Welcome and Regards and Peace and Love and Light.]

F.: (Continued from yesterday) The non-dual path to peace has been laid out, a path that has been illuminated by Realized teachers not only for the centuries since the codification of these teachings in writing but also for thousands of years before in an oral fashion.

Now, with technological advances expanding the availability of the teachings, the options are clear: grope in the darkness or follow the lighted path. So why is this path nevertheless forsaken by most?

Because the path here, which is illuminated by the Direct Path Method combined with the Nisarga (Natural) Yoga, is a path to nowhere, to nothing, to no one, to no One, to no Infinite Self-ness, to no beliefs about Soham or Brahmasmi, to no beingness, to no non-beingness, and to something even beyond the “non-ness.” Persons yet attached to some lingering WHO-ness will balk at even the mention of the No-WHO-ness.

Misery and suffering are generated by either desires or fears or both, and only the egotism that accompanies the assumption of an ego-state desires to be "something" and fears the prospect of identifying with nothing. For the willing, though, the cataloguing of certain “strategies” will continue:

9. If you yet take yourself or YourSelf to be something or someone, consider that you are ignoring one of the earliest invitations by the Advaitin teacher, namely, to be free of all concepts and ideas and beliefs.

Even the contemplation of the chance that maybe “you are not something” and that “you are not someone” can feel crushing, momentarily. Yet beyond that imaginary sense that "your entire 'world' is collapsing in upon you" awaits the blissful peace of The Ultimate De-Accumulation...of total de-accumulation. No "journey" could possibly be lighter than one completed without any baggage at all.

You will find that what you took to be "your entire world" was just so much fiction, but fiction that has been able, nevertheless, to make your relative existence seem miserable at times. See that what you take to be "your entire world" is totally artificial. How could a so-called “world” that is inhabited by over six billion artificial persons not be artificial as well?

Artificiality can only generate misery because there is within a longing for sincerity and authenticity and wholeness and Oneness. Being phony, false, bogus, and artificial leaves a sense within of incompletion, and it is only the sense of completion, fulfillment, stability and Love that can displace misery and then fill what would otherwise seem to be a huge hole inside.

Misery, however, is that condition which follows another state, namely, a state of confusion. The very belief that there is “your entire world” (or any world at all that can be real when it is all a figment of the imaginings of corrupt “minds”) is the source of your confusion and of any subsequent relative misfortunes that follow.

Yet consider: if it is you—the many not-yous—that have set up a series of roadblocks that prevent movement along the "path," then it is you that can participate with the illuminator of the path to remove the roadblocks, proceed along the path, and thereby put to an end both confusion and misery.

There is no debate that it was not you who erroneously programmed and conditioned yourself, but if you have not realized all that is being pointed to in this series, and if you are not willing to question all of your beliefs, then it is you that continues to cling to misery-generating non-truths and/or half-truths.

Persons want to focus on “others” as they complain about the sources of war and about being hurt by politicians and co-workers and mates and traffic and "all of the fools in the world." Yet how many have you hurt during your relative existence? How much discomfort have you—the personal you’s—generated which have also impacted “others,” relatively speaking?

If you would have people stop all the harm, it must be asked: “Have you stopped all the harm to 'others' and to yourself?” If you want peace in the world, it must be asked: “Is it possible that you are not willing to let go of everything required to have peace within?”

All war is simply an outward token of the inner hatred that exists in persons…in the non-Realized. Consider the pointers offered by Maharaj in this exchange:

Questioner: Why do you say that existence and conflict are inseparable? Can there be no existence without strife? I need not fight others to be myself.
Maharaj: You fight others all the time for your survival as a separate body-mind, a particular name and form. To live you must destroy. From the moment you were conceived you started a war with your environment - a merciless war of mutual extermination, until death sets you free.

If you would end war on the planet, then begin where you can best begin: inside…with your self, with your false selves. It is they who are "fighting others." It is they who are "fighting for their survival as a separate body-mind." It is they who would "destroy" any who challenge the existence of what is nothing more than a set of false personas. Vanquish those inner foes before attempting to turn the focus onto “others.”

The cause of misery and suffering lies not with “others,” and while the cause of all is all—and while the chain of causes is infinite—you are the most immediate cause that you can address. Finally, understand that if you want peace of mind, you have set an unattainable goal. There is no such thing as peace of mind. There is only peace if you are out of your mind. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd
by telephone and the call
(either international or in the U.S.)
will be free.
[Details below]

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you need only search “Skype” and, download the free program and take a few minutes to set up your account; then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Three-Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT APPROXIMATELY 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Holistic Healing
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Use the contact link above to arrange a session in your city either in the U.S. or internationally.

5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

6. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Twenty

2009-07-08T10:28:00.006-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Please see the information following this post regarding
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set

[Greetings to all of the site visitors from South Africa, including those in Roodepoort, Bramley, Durban, Johannesburg, Ferndale, Wynberg, Claremont, Cape Town, Overport, Secunda, Auckland Park, and Pretoria and any others in the vicinity of the author of yesterday’s e-mail]

FROM SITE VISITOR LOUISE IN SOUTH AFRICA: Today’s blog (7 July 2009) was experienced here like the cutting words of the haiku – so clear and direct. Shocking even.

F.: Exactly - I am temporarily employed as one of the foresters of this universe, cutting it all away. Chop, chop, chop. What's left when I'm done and you're done? Nothing, yes, but also…everything; ergo, Real Love can be laid over love; the Wisdom of nothingness can be understood; and then the remainder of the existence will move, as teacher said, "between the two."

ALSO FROM A VISITOR: Hmmm - for the first time some fear is showing up – perhaps just realizing what dissolution means, mr woodcutter.

F.: Dissolution will come - might as well welcome it now while still here (still manifested) and able to enjoy it, yes? Today’s chopping will be the coup de grace—the blow that fells not trees but might fell instead the real source of humanity’s self-made misery and suffering.

This series began in response to complaints about “war,” about “the insanity of the population of the planet,” about “the brutality,” about “needless misery and suffering and pain.” Relatively speaking, all of that is happening. Five suggestions have been offered so far for dealing with it:

1. Witness

2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer

3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state

4. Be unflinchingly true to Truth. You were told, “Either you will be true to Your Self or you will try to be true to your false self/selves, and trying to be true to the false is an act of total insanity or overwhelming ignorance or extreme misunderstanding.”

But even being true to Self is a happening that is finite because even that Pure Witness will not always be. That energy which allows the Pure Witnessing to happening cannot end, but its manifestation in a given space will most assuredly end.

5. Abide as the original, natural, pre-universe state, identified only with the nothingness until even that identity falls away.

And now, the final suggestions:

6. Seek the Void, the Ultimate De-Accumulation, The Nothingness. Witness Real Love now, but abide as nothing. Understand Maharaj’s pointer: “Love says: 'I am everything'. Wisdom says: 'I am nothing.' Between the two my life flows.”

7. Abandon all egotistical beliefs about supremacy. That which takes itself to be supreme will expect supreme treatment, any and all claims to the contrary and any and all claims about “humility” notwithstanding. Remember, Maharaj said,

“I am not addicted to self [or Self] descriptions. Soham and brahmasmi ( 'I am He', 'I am the Supreme' ) are of no use to me. I have the courage to be as nothing and to see the world as it is: nothing. It sounds simple, just try it!”

8. Be concerned with the war that most impacts your relative existence. If you want to concern yourself with a war in Iraq, or a war in Afghanistan, or a war in any of the other places on the planet where fighting is now under way, so be it.

Yes, this speck did march in the 1960’s to protest the war in Southeast Asia. That "floyd" shouted for world peace, yet it would be years later before it was realized that the war that had most affected the relative existence of the speck called “floyd” was with my self…my selves…my false roles and false personas.

Even as that speck spent years shouting for this or about that, about what was happening on the planet here or there, the speck was totally oblivious to the internal war that was preventing the manifestation of peace everywhere that the speck went.

Anthropologists have provided evidence which proves that, for millions of years, humankind had a fairly simple life, but humankind has now replaced simplicity with something very complex—made complex by the development of “a mind” and “by the assumption of personality” that now perpetuate the lies that are being generated by learned ignorance and programming and conditioning.

Now, all across the planet, there is far more war within than there is without. Now, when seekers come for satsang or when persons attend a seminar or when protégés arrive for a retreat, they are told to talk to me no more of war until they stop declaring it themselves. Stop claiming to hate war while at the same time instigating wars yourself.

To one who recently sent an e-mail to complain about "all of the incompetence" and "all of the stooges" at his workplace, the reply was:

“You fight at work. Are you a soldier? Are you being paid to do one particular job and also being paid to fight as well? No. So is the war you bring into the workplace merely lagniappe? Is all of your fighting just a little something extra that you toss in for free in your efforts to make people and the workplace and the world a better place?

“WHO, what ego-state(s), wants such power and control? WHO is willing to fight for what you dualistically take to be 'right' as opposed to those that you think are so 'wrong'? The 'world' and people and the workplace are all in your mind, and if there is fighting going on, it originates in your mind.

“If there is a notion that people should change and you are the one to change them through conflict, then the conflict is already in your mind before it ever manifests with ‘them’.”

If you think that you are abiding on this planet, then you will forever be subjected to the duality of sunrises and sunsets, of glimpsing the light but then returning to the darkness, of being happy and then being miserable.

From the platform on which I abide, all is seen, all is witnessed, and all is forever in the light. All of the nonsense in which you engage and that you allow to jerk you about is the not-Real, attached to by that which is the not-You.

Abandon all of the imaginary not-yous that are generating war and that are blocking peace. Find the Real You and then find that which is beyond. Abide as that which is beyond beingness and non-beingness and identification with an ocean of energy. Complete the de-accumlation process totally. Know the Ultimate Void. Dissolve now. Chop chop. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

Real Love

Liberation from Personality

the nothingness

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

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floydby telephone and the call - either international or in the U.S.- will be free. [Details below]

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat from August 10-13 is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you need only search “Skype” and, download the free program and take a few minutes to set up your account; then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET ON SALE
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
Holistic Healing
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
A recent example:
16 participants covered all of the expenses of a retreat in a nearby city for $59.00 and certain bargains are also available for international flights

5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Nineteen

2009-07-07T11:25:00.021-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Please see the information following this post regarding
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set

F.: The e-mails being received over the last few days could be grouped into three categories: (1) those from seekers that are willing to consider these pointers on the nothingness but are confused; (2) those who doubt the pointers but are willing to hear more and then consider; and (3) those who are sure they have found a "real identity" and consider anything suggested here to the contrary to be “rubbish.”

So it is. For those in the last group, the consideration is this: the only thing standing in the way of abandoning your concepts and beliefs and identity (or identities?) is ego. It is ego that will inspire you to desire to be “something” and that will block you from understanding that nothing is as it appears to be.

It is ego that will suggest you have abandoned all beliefs save one, and that will inspire you to assume a “new and noble and final” belief about some identity. Yet everything and anything you can claim to be, you claim with words and terms that are man-made and that are being used to state a truth when Truth cannot be stated.

It is ego that will inspire you to “go to the mat” and to be willing to fight for the notion that “This is what I think I am” or “This is what I know I am.” Yet just as you found along the way that you are nothing that you have ever thought you were in the “pre-journey” days or in the early stages along “the path,” so the fact remains now that you still are not what you think you are.

As for those in the first two groups, another approach will be attempted that might bring clarity. Here, Lake Conroe is said to be a body of water with quiet coves; the lake is said to be fed by streams and creeks and brooks and rivers and other tributaries. Nearby, there are said to be pools and ponds and a waterfall at the entrance to the neighborhood.

Some days it is said that clouds sail overhead, and some days it is reported that vapors are rising from the lake and elevating the humidity. A short drive away, it is said that there is a bay that affords boaters the chance to access the gulf which can also be reached by car or by boats via a canal. The gulf, it is said, can be crossed in order to access the oceans.

In the winter, it is said that there might be a few days of snow every third year or so, along with occasional icing, but fog and rain and mist are said to be more common. At least, all of that is the way it is perceived and reported.

However, just as persons are not in the world but the world is in them, so too is all of the above a figment of the “minds” that resulted from programming and conditioning. In fact, there is neither a lake nor coves; there are no streams, creeks, brooks, rivers, or tributaries.

There are no pools or ponds or waterfalls or clouds or vapors or humidity. There are neither bays nor gulfs nor canals nor oceans; furthermore, there is no snow, no ice, no fog, no rain, and no mist.

Moreover there is no you or You. In the case of those "forms of water," there is really only H20. Everything else is an illusion, a perceived form that humans have decided to label, creating a false sense of differentiation when none exists and completely ignoring the substance involved.

In the case of you and You, the same has happened. You have been told that you are many things, only to learn—if you have traveled along the “path” for any distance at all—that all of those who told you a myriad of things that you were, or are, have been in error.

Consider this as well: this area has experienced a drought that has continued for at least two months. Irrigation systems are running daily because temperatures of 106-degrees are bringing about a high rate of evaporation that is leaving non-irrigated lawns scorched, plants dying, and both water and electrical bills soaring.

You will understand, therefore, why several people left their beds last night when the sounds of thunder came closer and closer and "water / rain" began to fall from above. It could be seen in the streetlights, but its source was beyond the lights and shrouded in darkness.

With the accompanying drop in temperature, the usual routine here—two cups of breve either before or while blogging—were consumed on the deck in back of the house while enjoying the brief period of coolness. This morning, the newscast referred to “thunderstorms,” “much-needed rain,” “area flooding,” etc. But you know it was only H20, and you know that even that is a man-made label.

In addition, the accompanying duality manifested as well with persons registering their self-ish concerns about uncontrollable events. Those installing irrigation systems would prefer that the drought continue unabated. Julio called and reported with disappointment that his crew would not be mowing the lawn here today (and would not be able to collect the pay he desired). So some are thinking today that the rain was a “good” thing while some are sure that the rain was a “bad” thing.

Such is the deception of the relative existence, thinking H20 can be many different things merely because form rather than substance is being perceived / misperceived. Such is the vacillation of the relative existence, persons looking at the same happening or thing and some welcoming the happening and others dreading the happening.

But what does that have to do with the nothingness? First, nothing is what it is said to be. Nothing that H20 is said to be (other than H20) is really the truth. As with the H20 that fell last night, it was not what it appeared to be, or what people thought it was. Whatever form was assumed will not last.

Even now, the sun is rising and so are “vapors.” The H20 will not remain on the lawn since the prediction is that record high temperatures will return.

Do you see that nothing is as it appears to persons to be? Are you seeing that nothing said by humans to be "something" is actually that at all? Do you see that what came from the darkness last night will likewise return and will not maintain the form that it took temporarily?

Many who oppose the teachings regarding the nothingness will claim, “I understand that the substance of water has nothing to do with the various human-named forms. As with my full understanding of water, so too is my full understanding of Self. I am not the form. That which I truly am is the substance beyond the form.”

Fine, but what of the billions of years on the planet before water appeared? If it is true that there was a pre-water "time" when neither form was perceived nor when there was even the substance, why cannot you understand the pre-manifestation Reality and the pre-"Manifestation" Reality as well?

Trace and chase identity as far back as you like, but there will be no manifestation of total freedom and total peace unless all identity is abandoned. Debate "The Identity" right alongside the debate of the number of angels that can appear on the tip of a needle, but the unshakable peace comes only when identity goes.

Yes, the potentiality was there for water to begin appearing on the planet some 4.6 million years ago, but what of the 10 million years before that when water was a potentiality but was not manifested at all?

Do you see the futility of trying to track and label everything, including yourself / Yourself? The track last night would have reported that, “It’s a cloud, no its rain, no it’s a flood” even as it continues now with, “No, it’s a vapor, no its clouds again,” ad infinitum.

Even as all of the misnomers are tossed about in regards to the form taken, understand that that was a “time” when, not only were there no forms of H20 but there was also a "time" when no substance existed, when there was no H20 at all. Before there was any substance-before-form to be perceived, there was no substance with form, nothing perceived, and—more to the point—no misperceiving.

To understand that there was a void prior to "something" is to be able to touch the void and to know (1) first, all that you are not; to know (2) next, what the True Self is (but only while manifested); and to know thereafter once again (3) what you are not and to consider only the no-concept, no-identity, non-personal, non-dual Reality.

Then, You will understand the falsity of form, the substance of substance, and after that the pre-substance condition which existed prior to the formation of this universe. Gather up all sorts of understandings about what was prior to that, but understand that no identity will generate peace. Even the Infinite Self, the Spiritual Giant or the Supreme One will generate a sense of separation from others, claims about identifying with the oneness notwithstanding.

For now Real Love can be known if the present Oneness is understood, but wisdom is understanding not only the Oneness but also the none-ness as well. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

Liberation from Personality

the nothingness

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

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

Please see the information following this post if you are interesting in submitting your Advaita Vedanta poems for publication

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd by telephone and the call
- either international or in the U.S.-
will be free. [Details below]

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
Use the contact link above for details

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson>

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Use the contact link above to make arrangements

5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

6. DONATIONS
FROM SIM IN KENTUCKY, U.S.A.: How about a donate button? I give monthly to a blog about locations and reviews of a particular type of restaurant we like. I’d sure donate to this blog.

FROM “ANONYMOUS”: Almost every visitor brought Maharaj food or flowers. I’d like to treat you to a meal if you tell me how to do so with my credit card!

FROM LOUISE, SOUTH AFRICA: [Consider the case of an acquaintance who] added a donate button to his site. Regular blog readers were happy to support the site in this way.

F.: Okay—so it’s done, but note that the postings and responses are offered without charge, as is access to the library of 1,300 Advaitin essays archived on the site.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Eighteen

2009-07-06T09:33:00.009-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Please see the information following this post regarding
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
which explains the teachings in this series in detail

F.: Please consider:

1. Every problem among humans is “personal” at its root, be it a problem involving two people, be it a problem involving groups of people, be it a problem involving cities or states, be it a problem involving nations, or be it a problem involving one person (“self”).

2. Every “personal” problem involves the assumption of personas or roles as identities, leading the non-Realized to be driven by personality and by the accompanying arrogance that always shows up with personas that demand respect, special treatment, and even reverence.

3. In all of those cases where ego-states are assumed and arrogance follows, it is not uncommon to hear someone remark about a person who is displaying such self-importance that “He really thinks he’s something” or “She really thinks she’s something.” Indeed, those statements identify the problem exactly: people think that they are something rather than nothing.

4. Among the non-Realized, few will look in the mirror and see anything other than a “10” on a scale of ten. It is what typically happens when persons think they are “something.” And what does a “10” deserve? Everything (at least in the “mind” of the one seeing a “10”).

So the teachings regarding “The Nothingness” appear to the non-Realized - and to many that are Realized - to be absurd at least and totally insane at most. Yes, even among the Realized, resistance to teachings in regards to "The Nothingness" happens, and their objection is the most interesting. Why? Because it is they who think they finally know it all who have had so much practice in the past at moving to another level of understanding after thinking they knew it all…only to find out that they did not.

One might guess that they, of all people, might be the most willing to consider additional teachings in regards to “The Nothingness.” Yet many of them think that they have identified a “something” that they are and now they want to cling to that identity. What kind of practice have they had at moving beyond the “I have all the answers” to “Maybe there is yet more to understand”? Consider:

Typically, almost all on the planet have been exposed to religious dogma at some time. Six-and-a-half billion persons at any given time claim affiliation with some religion and are convinced that their religious dogma or spiritual beliefs provide the final, ultimate answer to all questions and problems.

To have reached any degree of understanding via some version of the Advaita Vedanta teachings, most seekers had to move beyond the “I have all the answers” to “Maybe there is yet more to understand.”

THE FIRST TIME THAT THOSE WHO THOUGHT THEY KNEW IT ALL FOUND THAT THEY DID NOT AND THEN MOVED FARTHER ALONG “THE PATH”
Millions who originally felt that their religion’s teachings about “other-world powers” or a personal god or personal gods at some point had to have abandoned that belief and sought more. They had been taught originally that their religion would provide everything required to understand fully the functioning of the totality.

However, they had to have transcended the former attachment to their religious teachings in order to decide that it was “spirituality” that could provide the total understanding and all of the solutions necessary to deal with all of their relative problems.

THE SECOND TIME THAT THOSE WHO THOUGHT THEY KNEW IT ALL FOUND THAT THEY DID NOT AND THEN MOVED FARTHER ALONG “THE PATH”
A few of those came to see that the religious or spiritual stage in only the midpoint on the “path” to Realization of Self, and with that awareness of Self, they came to believe that they understood all and had found the answer to all questions as well as the solutions for all problems.

NOW HERE IS AN INVITATION TO CONSIDER THAT A THIRD SHIFT MIGHT BE A NECESSARY PART OF “THE JOURNEY,” A SHIFT THAT CAN MOVE THE WILLING TO A NEW LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING
Is it not curious that, (A) after having seen on earlier occasions that a belief that “all is understood” was not valid, followed by (B) becoming willing to set aside what they thought they knew as the final truth, is it not peculiar that now the same invitation is often rejected without any further consideration?

When some hear a pointer which suggests that the self and the selves and the Self are concepts and that there is something even beyond concepts that is to be understood, many balk. Many others even act shocked that there is a suggestion that there is something beyond the level where they think they have found it all, even though they have been through this same scenario at least twice before.

At least twice before, they thought they “had it all – understood it all,” only to find they did not. In some cases, though, even among those who have reached the stage of being aware of Self, some few seekers were willing to at least consider that there might be more to be understood.

More accurately, some – even among those who thought that they had Realized Fully - have found that there were still some remaining beliefs and ideas and concepts that needed to be cast aside in order to actually become fixed in their original, natural, no-concept, non-dual state of Reality.

Because most have “been there before,” it should be nothing new when the one that claims to know the Self is informed that there is something in the teachings that is even beyond that awareness which remains to be understood.

Even identification with “The Self” or with “The Supreme Self” can inspire a return to that “I really believe that I am something” mentality, blocking the manifestation of the total freedom that comes when “The Nothingness” is understood.

What did Maharaj share in this regard? He taught:

“I am not addicted to self [or Self] descriptions. Soham and brahmasmi ( 'I am He', 'I am the Supreme' ) are of no use to me. I have the courage to be as nothing and to see the world as it is: nothing. It sounds simple, just try it!”

Ah, there’s the rub. It’s simple. And who among those that have worked for years to expand their “minds” and to add more and more knowledge to a repertoire that they can use to share and to impress will be willing to cast aside all of their learned knowledge?

At the risk of offending those who still have elements of identification that can be offended, dare Maharaj’s term “learned ignorance” be applied? For those who still value their knowledge, Maharaj made this concession to some who are at an early point along “the path”:

Questioner: Can there be true knowledge of things?
Maharaj: Relatively - yes. Absolutely - there are no things. To know that nothing is is true knowledge.

For the willing, the considerations for the next twenty-four hours are these:

Maharaj: The world just sprouts into being out of nothing and returns to nothing.

and

Maharaj: In reality nothing happens, there is no past nor future; all appears and nothing is.

and

Questioner: What does it mean, nothing is? It is all so confusing.
Maharaj: It is all due to your complete misunderstanding of reality. Your mind is steeped in the habits of evaluation and acquisition and will not admit that the incomparable and unobtainable are waiting timelessly within your own heart for recognition. All you have to do is to abandon all memories and expectations. Just keep yourself ready in utter nakedness and nothingness.

and

Maharaj: Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing. This is the only life worth living, the only happiness worth having.

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

Liberation from Personality

The Nothingness

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

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

Please see the information following this post if you are interesting in submitting your Advaita Vedanta poems for publication

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd by telephone and the call
- either international or in the U.S.-
will be free. [Details below]

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE INFORMATION BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you will only need to take a few minutes to DOWNLOAD THE FREE SKYPE PROGRAM and setup your account, then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.)
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

5. SUMBITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

DONATIONS

That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Seventeen

2009-07-05T10:02:00.012-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

F.: While only a fraction of the persons on the planet will seek the Truth that can be found via these teachings, and while only a fraction of that fraction will reach an understanding of the True Self - the Real Self – only a fraction of that fraction will consider abandoning one of the last concepts to go…namely, identification with a “Supreme Self” or with any other versions of conceptualized "Self-ness" as well.

If the Realized and the non-Realized were to recognize the toll that has has been paid throughout the relative existence by identifying with "something" or even now by identifying with anything else, then the understanding of the nothingness would be snatched up posthaste.

But more often, talk of “The Nothingness” becomes an offense even to those who claim that they are free of ego and egotism, revealing that ego-state assumption and the use of egotism as a mechanism for defending an ego-state are still present.

The belief that “Floyd, I have to be something” continues to be set forth by many who are claiming erroneously that they have fully abandoned all beliefs and concepts and are now functioning as the no-concept, non-dual Reality.

Were one to truly be fixed in the Full Understanding, how could there be a belief about WHO They Truly Are or a belief in any concept about something “Supreme” as opposed to something "not-Supreme"? Even that concept must go if the Full Understanding is to happen.

Yet even the pointers offered by Maharaj about the nothingness are often dismissed or negated by quoting words he said to those not as far along the "path" as those that were offered this message. You are invited to consider his pointers, including one shared by Douwe Tiemersma when speaking of Maharaj: “He suggests that you return again and again to ‘I am’ until it is your only abode, outside of which nothing exists.”

So beyond this temporary manifestation, this finite Is-ness, nothing exists.

Maharaj sometimes eased some into a consideration of the nothingness when he said, “Discover all that you are not - body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that - nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.”

At other times, he was more direct: “Is it not important to you to know whether you are a mere body, or something else? Or, maybe nothing at all?”

Consider also the pointers in this exchange, if you will:

M: Abstract the name and shape from the jewellery and the gold becomes obvious. Be free of name and form and of the desires and fears they create, then what remains?

Q: Nothingness.

M: Yes, the void remains.

Now some will cite other pointers offered by Maharaj when he spoke of “somethingness” rather than “nothingness,” failing to study the words of the questioner and failing to see that the questioner was at “The Dry Charcoal Stage” but not at “The Gunpowder Stage” or the “Realized Stage.”

It was only to seekers at “The Gunpowder Stage” or the “Realized Stage” that pointers about the nothingness were offered in M.’s flat, and it is only to seekers at those levels that pointers about the nothingness will be offered here via what one seeker called "his Electronic Loft." Yet how unwilling all of the masses are – and how unwilling many seekers are as well – to “naught themselves.”

Maharaj said, "For the path of return, naughting oneself is necessary. My stand I take where nothing is.” Why do even those well along the “path” find pointers about “nothingness” to be such a challenge?

The question must be, "WHO feels challenged?" Only those who think they must be "something." It is as if “Floyd is out to destroy me,” as one seeker put it. And indeed, at the final stage, that cannot be debated. Along the way, you will be shown all you are not. Then You will be shown What You Are.

In the end, though, You will be invited to see again all that even that "You" is not; however, who that is yet clinging to an identity wants to consider that "not-ness" - that "naughting"? Maharaj explained the aversion thusly:

"I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear, or can be in danger. I have no shape nor name. It is attachment to a name and shape that breeds fear. I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is afraid of no thing. On the contrary, everything is afraid of the Nothing, for when a thing touches Nothing, it becomes nothing. It is like a bottomless well, whatever falls into it, disappears."

See? I want you to disappear. Yes, along the way an awareness of the True Self that is the Pure Witness can spring into awareness. But what follows the unmanifestation of consciousness and the end of witnessing? THAT. Yet what preceded THAT, as far as “this universe” is concerned?

And while there is no such thing as “time,” the teachings required certain words be used until cast aside (as is the case with a no-longer-useful thorn) so what was before the THAT and the Void?

Cause is infinite, so to try to identify what you were along an infinite continuum of points and what you thought you were during part of the manifestation and what You think You Are now, well, all of that requires a belief in time and a belief in conceptualized self-ness and Self-ness that is rooted in the “split mind.”

So for those who thought they had cast aside all concepts and beliefs and ideas but are yet clinging to some notion about “something,” the invitation is to consider the nothingness until even the idea of nothingness disappears.

For those who want to assert that they are “all,” the notion that You Are nothing can be paradoxical without being contradictory. The invitation for the next twenty-four hours is to take into the quiet these pointers by Maharaj and find the paradox while discarding the thought that anything contradictory is being offered:

Being nothing, I am all.

My world is just like yours. I see, I hear, I feel, I think, I speak and act in a world I perceive, just like you. But with you it is all, with me it is nothing.

Q: When somebody dies, what exactly happens?
M: Nothing happens. Something becomes nothing. Nothing was, nothing remains.

To be nothing, to have nothing, to keep nothing for oneself is the greatest gift, the highest generosity.

Then, consider this: any misery or suffering that you have ever experienced was preceded by the assumption that you are something. It is the false “somethings” that desire respect, that feel offense, and that are blocking persons (humans driven subconsciously by imaginary personas / by the personalities that are unconsciously driving their thoughts and words and deeds) from ever being free, from being at peace, and from enjoying the bliss which can only be enjoyed NOW. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For furhter clarification, you may read more about these topics:

Liberation from Personality

The Nothingness

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

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you will only need to take a few minutes to
DOWNLOAD THE FREE SKYPE PROGRAM
and setup your account, then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.)
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET 1/2 PRICE SALE
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

5. SUMBITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
Visit
Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Sixteen

2009-07-04T10:50:00.004-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

F.: Today, the discussion moves to another level that will not be appropriate for all seekers. The discussion will be apropos only for those at the third of the three stages of either non-readiness or readiness (meaning “ready or not to receive the Full Truth” or meaning, "well along the 'path' on the seven-step 'journey' to Reality”).

Persons at the first level (called “The Wet Charcoal Stage”) are usually so asleep to truth, as a result of their unquestioned programming and their unchallenged conditioning, that there is little chance of ever starting the fire that could burn away their attachment to all of their erroneous concepts and ideas and beliefs.

Seekers at the second level (called “The Dry Charcoal Stage”) are beginning to awake and are beginning to move along the seven-step “path” to Realization. If the proper pointers are offered and considered and then understood, they can transition to the third stage and eventually Realize Fully.

Seekers at the third stage (called “The Gunpowder Stage”) have advanced to a point where they understand the True Self but require a few additional pointers and a deeper understanding that will explode into awareness and end once and for all any remaining beliefs and ideas and concepts that they might have about Realization, about the beingness, about the non-beingness, and about that which is beyond all of that. Consider this exchange from yesterday:

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Quite a few questions came up while you were away. One of them persists. The notion of Reality overlaid on the relative I am not getting. Just to explain – as Non-Realized I assume my view is distorted and Your view is clear – so perhaps this will reveal some knot of illogic. To me, it appears that everything in the relative is overlaid on what is like the empty space or screen of Reality. The nothingness that permeates everything is the I AM THAT; the “physical form” of everything as it appears in the relative is “I AM”.

The reply: First, you are not 'non-Realized'. Next, here's the "trick" with this issue: to suggest that everything in the relative could be overlaid on Reality would be tantamount to saying that if we are driving through a desert and pass by the section of road where a mirage had seemed to appear and if we then drive through its former "location," the mirage will become overlaid on the automobile.

Actually, the car is "overlaid" on the mirage as far as a witness could tell. A mirage cannot be overlaid on anything. Only the real can be overlaid on something. Does the pointer make sense when looked at that way?

As for the Nothingness, it is prior to consciousness and even prior to THAT. Prior to this energy field that is scattered throughout "this universe," there was a void. [Yes, there is no such thing as "time," but for the sake of discussion, some words must be used - as with a thorn to be tossed later on.] As for the appearance of a physical form, you are right on.

Thus, the Self is taken by some to be that which is THAT, but what of that which is beyond beingness and non-beingness and even beyond the Absolute and the self-ness and the Self-ness and the THAT-ness? "Absolute" simply means "pure"- it is just a term used to point to the unadulterated awareness that is free of the conditioning that the manifested consciousness is subjected to.

Ah, but beyond that which is merely taken to be the pure form of non-manifested energy? There is what is prior to the this-ness and to the THAT-ness...and that is what I point to with the words "the Nothingness." It is the Nothingness that I Am, and since there is no identity, even that is a feeble attempt to invite protégés to shift beyond any identification.

How would Maharaj respond to the notion of “not being Realized”? A visitor to the loft said, “I have not yet understood why, if nothing stands in the way of liberation, it does not happen here and now.”

Maharaj replied, “Nothing stands in the way of your liberation and it can happen here and now, but for your being more interested in other things. And you cannot fight with your interests. You must go with them, see through them and watch them reveal themselves as mere errors of judgement and appreciation.”

If a seeker is at “The Gunpowder Stage,” then that seeker has moved beyond “the fight with interests,” has “seen them through,” and has seen them to be nothing more than “errors in judgment.”

Furthermore, how would Maharaj have addressed the notion of nothingness sent in the reply above? In the book I AM THAT, the term “nothing” is raised 492 times. Hold onto that fact for a moment while revisiting pointer number four in this series and a comment offered about it:

Be unflinchingly true to Truth. Either you will be true to Your Self or you will try to be true to your false self/selves, and trying to be true to the false is an act of total insanity or overwhelming ignorance or extreme misunderstanding.

That pointer was level-appropriate for those seekers at “The Dry Charcoal Stage,” but for those at “The Gunpowder Stage,” there is more to be understood. If you believe that you have abandoned identification with the false self (or with all of the false selves) and that You are now identified with something called “The True Self” or “The Real Self,” then know that You have not reached the end of “the path”…that You have not completed the full “journey” to complete Realization of the Truth that you are invited to be unflinchingly true to.

If You are identifying with that which You take to be the Real You, then You have not yet understood the teachings about the nothingness. Here is a pointer that my teacher offered on the subject (which is often misstated):

“Love says: 'I am everything'. Wisdom says: 'I am nothing.' Between the two my life flows.” For all the times each day that the quote is repeated or re-read, how many seekers really focus on the “I am nothing” part of that pointer?

Maharaj said, “The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness….” You are also invited to consider the pointers in this exchange which also took place in the loft:

M: Your natural state, in which nothing exists, cannot be a cause of becoming; the causes are hidden in the great and mysterious power of memory. But your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content.

Q: Emptiness and nothingness -- how dreadful!

M: You face it most cheerfully, when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature.

So there again is a pointer about the “wakeful sleep” discussed in this series as well as a pointer toward the nothingness. This part of the teaching is found to be nonsense by some; anathema to some who want to cling to their newly-found and newly-adopted and "elevated" identity of a “True Self”; but for a few, the understanding of the pointer is an opportunity to “be unflinchingly true to Truth.”

As complicated as this seems to some, it shall be explained in smaller doses. The explanation will continue tomorrow. For now, you are invited to take a few moments to watch this short clip that addresses “zero concepts” and “identification with the nothingness” (which is really about being free of any identity at all).

Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

The Nothingness

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

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. SUBMITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATIONS
6. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you will only need to take a few minutes to
DOWNLOAD THE FREE SKYPE PROGRAM
and setup your account, then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.)
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET ON SALE
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.

Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
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4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
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Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

5. SUMBITTING ADVAITA VEDANTA POETRY FOR PUBLICATION
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Submitting Advaita Vedanta Poetry for Publication

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I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Fifteen

2009-07-03T09:09:00.008-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd
by telephone and the call - either international or in the U.S.- will be free.
[Details below]

F.: (Continued from yesterday’s discussion of the body-ego-egotism link) Some seekers become frustrated when they hear the Direct Path teacher report that “this is all so simple” (and that does not refer to what many take to be the neo-Advaitins over-simplification of the teachings).

Yet so many seekers—and many teachers—want to complicate the teachings. Why the complications which block Realization? Why do so few reach the understanding?

Some desire to be seen as being “deep thinkers.” They will suffer an aversion to simplicity. Some are proud of the content of their “minds.” Others are addicted to the seeking, and the ego-state of “The Seeker” ends the instant that “finding” happens.

Then, add in the masses who will never seek the Authentic Self, tied as they are (as a result of their culture’s programming) to an attachment to the false…to concern with fabricating and maintaining an image…to a belief as a result of memories that there has been some continuity of body and mind and personality.

The failure to understand that their so-called “memories” are nothing more than a film—a distorted film—leaves the non-Realized convinced that non-reality is reality. They fail to grasp that when the light of consciousness passes through distorted film, the only images that can be cast upon the screen called “the brain” will also be distorted…especially when the brain uses that part called “the mind” to interpret those images.

Thus, some tools are being offered to the non-Realized or to those on “the path” that can free persons from their belief in the delusions of the relative existence that are rooted in distorted memories;

from the belief that subject-object witnessing—rather than Pure Witnessing—reveals truth; from the belief that some experiencer is experiencing various experiences; from the belief that they are awake when they are really asleep; and from the belief that they can accurately differentiate the true from the false when they cannot.

And, as noted yesterday, so much of the distortion is rooted in a belief in the birth concept and the subsequent body identification. [If you did not view the two-minute segment yesterday by sliding the counter button forward to the 5:37 point in that video, you are invited to pause here and do so.]

The key deception among the non-Realized is that “I am all of the things that I think I am.” In fact, they are not at all what they take themselves to be. Furthermore, certain questions being asked via e-mail require that the pointer to merely “witness” must be clarified.

If it is not understood that you are not the subject and that you are not what you take yourself to be, then the condition of non-Realization and entrapment in subject-object witnessing will lead to a belief that one was born and that it is a person who is doing the witnessing and who is now living a relative life and who believes that death and eternal life await.

Witnessing from that S-O standpoint, duality must prevail as one takes the self to be a real identity—to be the subject—and then takes all objects that are witnessed to be real. Such subject-object witnessing will obviously lead to the frustrating, misery-generating belief that love was witnessed but that it is gone and that hate has come.

It will lead to the times when persons dearly love their lives and other times when they truly hate their lives. It will lead to offering help or empathy to someone at one point and then brutally tearing them apart verbally the next. It will lead to the pride of procreation that too often gives way to parental neglect of the product of that procreation.

Here, there is no deception. Even as I am witnessing Real Love, the delusional expressions of “false love” by the non-Realized are observed. Here, the beating of what my teacher called “the cosmic heart” is heard, is felt, is known to be real.

Here, it is to the beat of that very different type of drummer—the beat of the drum of this universe and all universes—that the march through the manifestation happens spontaneously.

Here, the witnessing happens on a pure level, so there is no duality. Here, the same tools being offered in this series were once used to move into the eye of the relative hurricane and to be at peace, even as all of the relative chaos still swirls about. You, too, can Realize and then function as THAT rather than as “this” or “that.”

Only then can you witness the chaos rather than being the source and "experiencer" of chaos. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

”Seven Steps”

the silent, peaceful state

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you will only need to take a few minutes to download the free Skype program (see the link in the July 2nd post)and to setup your account, then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.)
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP

Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

5. DONATIONS

That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Fourteen

2009-07-02T08:51:00.018-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Schedule a one-hour satsang session with floyd by telephone and the call - either international or in the U.S.- will be free. [Details below]

F.: The movement through the relative existence can happen while (A) abiding as THAT and seeing clearly via the unblocked, pure consciousness or while (B) identifying with the conditioned, blocked consciousness and believing that what is seen with two eyes is real.

Regarding “A”: THAT is silent; THAT is body-less, mind-less, and persona-less; therefore, THAT cannot be in fear, cannot be driven by desires, and cannot be offended. To overlay the unconditioned, no-attribute Reality on the relative is to be in perfect peace for the remainder of the manifestation.

Regarding “B”: By contrast, the consciousness is ever in motion among the non-Realized and is ever stirring up fears and desires. Identified with personality and driven by “the mind” (which is just consciousness that is both blocked and ever in motion), persons are either…

…constantly seeking respect and receiving it from others who are asleep or
…constantly being offended as personas seek respect but do not receive it.

Once the Self is blocked by that “conditioned” aspect of ItSelf by the “mind”/consciousness-in-motion, personas will be assumed and their imagined attributes will be taken to be real.

From that point, no consistent peace can manifest; thus, pointers are being offered which can allow the manifestation to unfold spontaneously—and therefore peacefully—by eliminating belief in the body, the mind, the personality, attributes, and the fears and desires that accompany those and that generate misery and suffering.

So, to review the pointers offered which can provide a sane and non-violent means by which "this world" can be cast aside by those that (1) long for freedom from the insanity and brutality and nonsense and those that (2) would experience the bliss, now:

1. Witness only

2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer

3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state

4. Be unflinchingly true to Truth

Either you will be true to Your Self or you will try to be true to your false self/selves, and trying to be true to the false is an act of total insanity or overwhelming ignorance or extreme misunderstanding.

To try to be true to a mirage is further evidence of insanity or ignorance or misunderstanding (or all three); yet efforts to validate a mirage can be witnessed daily as relative roles are assumed and played out by the non-Realized in their “Theater of the Lie,” including such roles as:

“the cheating spouse” formerly thought to be “the dedicated husband”; “the self-absorbed woman” upgraded to “the charming wife”; or “the megalomaniac” believed to be “the caring leader.” None of the persons embroiled in the game-playing that accompanies the assumption or assignment of those roles (or any others) have the slightest chance of knowing the bliss.

Other persons try to negotiate with Reality, abiding occasionally as That but trying at other times to live a separate, relative existence. Here, there is no negotiation. Reality is unwaveringly overlaid on the relative, so the relative is consistently marked by total freedom and independence, so Reality then enjoys dominion over all (including over that which is false but is assumed by the masses to be true).

If there is no freedom, there can be no bliss. Maharaj said, “If you desire to be free, neglect not the nearest step to freedom. It is like climbing a mountain: not a step can be missed. One step less and the summit is not reached.”

With Realization came an understanding of the seven steps to freedom that must be taken in a specific order, and the first step—the “nearest step”—is to be free of body identification. [See “the Seven Steps” below]

While many try to eliminate egotism by studying the “mind”/personality connection that leads to the assumption of ego-states (which, in turn, triggers egotism), fewer consider the fact that the elimination of body identification can also prevent the manifesting of egotism that fosters such beliefs as “I deserve respect” and “I am offended because I did not get respect.”

If one were to understand the true nature of the body—and how it is erroneously assumed to be part of an overall “identity”—then one could move a step closer to freedom from the desire for respect as well as from the relative problems that accompany that desire.

[PLEASE NOTE: Few grasp how an understanding of what the body is and what the body is not can (a) eliminate egotism and can (b) free persons of a desire for “respect” and can (c) free persons from feeling “offended” when such respect is not given. Such elimination and freedom require an understanding of the reality of any given set of elements, breath, and manifested consciousness.

A two-minute explanation is offered in the following video which can be viewed for a more thorough discussion of this issue. For those interested, the section of the interview that clarifies how egotism can be eliminated if the misunderstandings about the body, the breath, and the consciousness are eliminated begins at the 5:37 mark in the video and lasts about two minutes to the 7:44 mark. Click the "Play" arrow and then use your cursor to drag over the "play line." The time marker will appear so you can drag forward and avoid waiting for the video to reach the 5:37 mark. For those not interested, today's posting continues under the picture below.]

When Maharaj was asked if there was any way to be free of the “horrors” of the relative existence (especially destructiveness and desires and fears and anger and hatred and war), he offered this consideration:

"When more people come to know their real nature, their influence, however subtle, will prevail and the world's emotional atmosphere will sweeten up. People follow their leaders and when among the leaders appear some [that are] great in heart and mind and absolutely free from self-seeking, their impact will be enough to make the crudities and crimes of the present age impossible. A new golden age may come and last for a time and succumb to its own perfection. ...Ebb begins when the tide is at its highest."

So much for trying to overlay permanency on the ever-changing relative existence. Such distortion easily leads to delusions like, “This body-mind-personality triad will have ever-lasting continuity”;

“You can be at peace now if you follow our rules for what to do with your body and our rules about what thoughts should be in your mind and our dictates about which ‘good’ personas you should adopt to replace your old ‘bad’ ones”; or “You will enjoy an eternal reward or suffer ever-lasting pain and misery.”

It is, as Maharaj noted, an awareness of one’s “real nature” that can provide relief during the manifestation from the effects of believing distortions and from the perceived impact of what was labeled above as relative “horrors.”

Presently among the masses, the relative existence is a most unnatural state—made even more unnatural when persons try to live in a supernatural manner in what is merely a natural “realm.” The only chance for relief comes via abiding as that original, natural state rather than abiding as if the relative were the Real.

To believe that (1) a coming-together of a set of elements can help define What You Really Are; and to believe that (2) the dualistic “mind” can know truth; and to believe that (3) roles that are being played have anything to do with That Which You Truly Are…

…will all guarantee that every high tide that comes along during the relative manifestation will soon be lowered by an ebb tide of equal impact. Fluctuation and chaos will be the rule, not the exception.

To stand on a beach and watch the tide coming and going can be a pleasant enough activity for some, but to feel as if you are the tide that is constantly reaching a high that does not last but that is soon pulled by external forces to an all-time low (and to “experience” that in as unending a manner as happens with oceanic waves) is quite a different matter. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

the Seven Steps

the silent, peaceful state

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE
2. REALIZATION AIDS
3. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
5. DONATIONS

1. SATSANG BY TELEPHONE:
A. FREE CALLS INSIDE THE U.S.
Floyd will call you once arrangements have been made for your session
B. FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLS ALSO (via Skype)
If you do not already have a Skype account, you will only need to take a few minutes to
DOWNLOAD THE FREE SKYPE PROGRAM
and set up your account, then Floyd will call you and you will pay no telephone charges for your session.
Use the Contact link for details or for information on making arrangements for a session

2. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET SALE
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

4. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

5. DONATIONS

That said, any donation will be appreciated. Thank you.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Thirteen

2009-07-01T10:22:00.005-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

F.: The series continues now. To review the points offered so far:

There is a sane and non-violent means by which "this world" can be cast aside. For those that long for freedom from the insanity of what they take to be "this world," you can begin by using the recommendations offered so far in this series:

1. Witness

2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer

3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state

The next suggestion is to

4. Be unflinchingly true to Truth.

Of course that cannot happen until post-Realization when the truth that cannot be stated is known. Further, that “truth which cannot be stated but that can be known” will never be known until all that is deemed to be true—but is not—is cast aside.

Why is it that the smallest fraction on the planet seeks the truth? Why is it that the smallest fraction of that fraction will come to understand the simple pointers that make up these Direct Path, nisarga yoga teachings? Because of the fictional “mind.” The “mind” loves its tools of denial and dissociation. It also loves to generate desires and fears.

And in that process, the non-Realized become totally separated from even the most basic facts about the state of their relative existence. They haven’t a clue that they are bored to death (that is, to a state of “death-in-life”); their cognitive maps allow them to drive in their sleep, to walk into their workplace in their sleep, to trudge through a day while asleep, and to return home while still asleep.

They speak of how happy they are in their “relationships” or marriages (if they are among the 40-45% who have not yet divorced and if they are currently operating from one of the early—but temporary—points on Maharaj’s “relationship continuum” of stranger to acquaintance to friend to lover to fiancé/fiancée to spouse to eventual enemy to eventual mortal enemy).

Because of their ability to escape the malaise (which they are often not even aware of) via drugs or alcohol or whatever other tools of diversions and escape they employ in their search for some temporary (but never permanent) relief, they “experience” periods of happiness that are soon followed by periods of boredom or restlessness or depression.

In their ignorance, they “normalize” the instability and misery of their relative existence by claiming, “That’s just the way it is.” And indeed that is just the way it is…for the non-Realized. They reach a point where they no longer recognize the web of relative entanglements in which they are snared.

[Maharaj used the metaphor of the “net” to clarify the pointer being offered in this post: “Look at the net and its many contradictions. You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war. You want longevity and overeat, you want friendship and exploit. See your net as made of such contradictions and remove them - your very seeing them will make them go.”]

When denial and dissociation become the standard in a person’s relative existence and prevent any chance of the type of awareness that Maharaj spoke of, then assertions can be heard as the non-Realized talk in their sleep about how their relationships are totally different from all of the others that they see which are plagued with exchanges between…

…egotism-driven personas with partners suffering the misery of fluctuating between dualistic periods of harmony and disharmony; closeness and distance; and “love” and hate. Often a visitor will proudly assert, “My life is great.” The question must then be asked, “So why are you here? Why are you seeking?”

When one visitor smugly announced to Maharaj that “My life is good enough as it is,” Maharaj responded:

You say so because you have not seen how painful is the life you live. You are like a child sleeping with a lollypop in its mouth. You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centred, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering. Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable because it does not depend on circumstances.

Happiness cannot co-exist alongside dependence. Freedom never follows bliss...it always precedes bliss. If the truth of one’s relative existence is seen to be dependent on anything or on anyone, then real happiness cannot manifest.

And real freedom can only happen when Reality is overlaid on the relative, eliminating all belief in concepts and ideas and allowing all happenings to be witnessed - without attachment or deception - from the platform of Truth. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

For more information, you may read about:

the silent, peaceful state

freedom from the ever-disturbing “mind” and

overcoming the relative challenges in “relationships” and finding peace by overlaying Reality on your “relationships”

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT ABOUT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all 7 books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

REALIZATION via VISUALIZATION and CONSIDERATION

2009-06-22T07:42:00.003-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

For the remainder of the month, there are twenty-seven excerpts from a book written by Floyd Henderson; those are followed by twenty-seven considerations, three per day. Please scroll down each day to find the readings and considerations for any given day through June. [All of the entries are extracted from the ADVAITA MEDITATION GUIDES ]

THE READINGS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR 22 JUNE 2009

Reading 1#: These readings and considerations are level-appropriate for beginners as well as "advanced seekers" that still enjoy the Advaita dance. After studying the pointers offered by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a vision revealed the Me the Seven Degrees of Separation that hinder knowing one’s True Self. To know one’s True Self is to be freed of all illusions, all ego, and therefore all pain, fear and worry. The two thieves of joy called “The Past” and “The Future” dissolve and one enjoys the perfect peace of “Living Within the Moment,” of “Living in the Eternal Now.” So vital is the understanding for seekers that would stabilize in the peace that you are invited to spend the next few days considering the content of the vision and the understanding that one can gain via the seven levels. You have arrived at the place of opportunity to know Your True Self.

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Twelve

2009-06-21T09:21:00.012-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Following the post, details on the 50% off sale of the remaining Non-Duality paperback books in the store

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

FROM A SITE REGULAR VISITING BETTY’S BAY, SOUTH AFRICA: Fascinated to read today’s blog – as this was the topic of last night’s conversation [dealing with a friend’s] “dilemma” that somehow this understanding means “not caring” and not working for change in the world. [Also] odd that people think this understanding is a CHOICE that can be made – rather than seeing this is already the reality – simply hidden from view by the filters of the distorted mind.

F.: Exactly. The Advaita message is a message of freedom – a message about being totally free. Why would a Realized Advaitin not care about the blood being shed at this very moment in Iran by people who would enjoy the most basic freedoms that must be in place before the levels of freedom addressed on this site can even be considered?

When 150+ people have been killed this past week by a religious regime that is intent on preserving its power in “this world” while claiming its authority has been bestowed by "a Power in another world," then of course caring happens among the Realized.

And when magical, supernatural thinking is practiced by those assuming authority, of course tyranny and suppression and brutality and murder shall mark and mar the relative existence of those living under the influence and rule of such megalomaniacs with their distorted, myth-based, and division-inspiring religious beliefs.

And of course everything natural about the relative existence of any nation so ruled will be banned and only the most unnatural and supernatural mode of living will be tolerated by "The Rulers."

Once more, as has been the case for thousands of years, those who talk of love from their pulpits or high places will demonstrate—if challenged—that their talk is empty rhetoric. Those "leaders" live in darkness even while claiming to have been bathed in the light. They live in darkness even at high noon.

So the same types of aggressive behaviors that were catalogued in the early postings in this series are being witnessed again as Iranians that would walk the streets in peace and freedom instead walk the streets in their own blood and that of their fellows.

On one trip to the Normandy beaches in France, the following inscription was read on a memorial in a garden in a town nearby: “From the heart of our land flows the blood of our youth, given to you in the name of freedom.” 2009? No. The 1940’s. So again, the words of Maharaj ring out:

“No doubt, striving for the improvement of the world is a most praiseworthy occupation [if] done selflessly.... But soon man will realise that he pursues a mirage.” That statement will not stop some from striving; thus it is…thus is shall be. Strive away, pursue away, if so driven.

[But how often is such striving really of the altruistic variety? Most who assume the role of "The Helper" are really seeking something in return. Furthermore, how many persons that "The Helpers" claim to have "helped" were really "helped" at all?]

But now, once again, there is land that flows with blood, not on Omaha Beach but on the streets of Tehran—the blood-letting ordered by the highest religious official in that theocratic nation. Yet somewhere, every day on this planet, the masses in their darkness are engaged in blood-letting. Is it their understanding that "I AM THAT...not this"?

Hardly. Instead, there is a belief rather than the understanding, the belief being, “I am supreme.” Trouble enough any time that the “I Am” is followed by any noun or adjective. Far more when the “I AM” is followed by “supreme.”

Yet who among the non-Realized do not hold that belief? Once an ego-state is assumed, then egotism will upgrade a false identity to the highest possible level and “This is who I think I am” becomes the false but self-assured belief that will drive all thoughts and words and deeds.

When such a belief prevails, then barbaric nonsense will continue across the globe. It will happen for as long as persons walk in the darkness of their ideologies and dogma and concepts and ideas and beliefs and in the darkness of their “mind” / personality foolishness. With 6.5 billion+ non-Realized persons on the planet being fully attached to their dogma and ideologies, what chance for peace?

Thus, chaos and fighting will happen among those who consider themselves to be in “personal relationships”; among those within nations divided by sects or denominations or political parties or ideologies or separatist wings…left or right;

among nations divided by different economic systems or different forms of government; among all with a false notion that "This is who I think I am, and my exalted who-ness leaves me 'apart from,' 'different from,' and 'better than,' so stop talking your gibberish about Oneness." Be not surprised when those assuming supreme power abuse it supremely.

In their quest to accumulate more and more, to gain and to hold relative power, and to be able to control the masses, the greedy and the ignorant (embroiled as they are in their self-seeking and power-seeking rather than Self-seeking) will guarantee that they shall remain in darkness and shall never know Truth; therefore, they are likely destined to be abusive fools forever and to behave accordingly.

Why is there such chaos that flows from those who claim that they have been shown the truth by a higher power, that they know more than all others, and that all should therefore listen to them and follow their dictates with unquestioning faith? Dennis Waite explains it this way:

“Truth is not about acquiring more and more knowledge until some sort of critical mass is attained and the Self is realised - quite the opposite. It is about discarding more and more of the material and immaterial aspects to which the ego has become attached until nothing more is left.”

Such is the conduct of those who claim to know so much but who actually understand nothing. Furthermore, the misunderstanding by the friend referenced in the e-mail above is one of the most common confusions among those who might believe that they are familiar with all of the implications of these teaching but are not. One visitor to Maharaj’s loft revealed the type of erroneous conclusions that can be drawn in regards to these pointers when he said:

The person immersed in the world has a life of many flavours. He weeps, he laughs, loves and hates, desires and fears, suffers and rejoices. The desireless and fearless jnani, what life has he? Is he not left high and dry in his aloofness?

Maharaj replied: "His state is not so desolate. It tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it. You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery."

To live a relative existence without the independence that is central to the discussions on this site can lead to death or to death-in-life. It can also inspire some to choose something similar to the Realized jnani's mahasamadhi—as some in Iran are doing—rather than continue an existence without such freedom…without independence.

So, this series is offering suggestions for being free—for abiding in a fashion marked by total freedom. I am totally independent of what most take to be “this world,” and nothing has ever been forfeited so willingly. If one were but to look objectively at his/her current existence, the only sane conclusion would be "Good riddance."

Some bid good riddance by means of physical suicide, ironically hating "a world of insanity and violence." There is a sane and non-violent means by which "this world" can be cast aside. For those that long for freedom from the insanity of what they take to be "this world," you can begin by using the recommendations offered so far in this series:

1. Witness

2. Be done with the notions of experiences and an experiencer

3. Abide as the “awakened / alert sleep” state

How to reach such a state? Understand that what happened with “floyd” / Floyd can happen with "you" / You; however, understand also that Realization cannot come in the fashion touted by the neo-Advaitin notion that “You need no teacher, no readings, nothing. Just know and go.”

Pointers are required. Persons have been pointed away from truth for scores of years. Being pointed in another direction is essential if Realization is to happen. The pointers that are offered in an exact sequence in “The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set” below can guide You to an understanding of this:

modes of (a) existence and (b) abidance that seem to merge seamlessly can be understood to have not merged at all but to have always been One. I AM THAT and I AM are not separate pointers to “two-ness.” The summative phrase I AM THAT; I AM is a single pointer to the “not-two-ness.”

Thus, “alert” and “asleep” (the latter referring to a mode of abidance that is as peaceful as the deep sleep state, that is "sleep-like" in that it is beyond both beingness and non-beingness) can manifest now. It can happen now. It is the state that Is now, if You but Realize that fact.

Thus also the accuracy of the pointer above: “…People think this understanding is a CHOICE that can be made – rather than seeing this is already the reality – simply hidden from view by the filters of the distorted mind.”

That silent, peaceful state Is now. That silent, peaceful state Is here. Understand it Is now. Understand it Is here. Realize and then enjoy the silence and the peace, right here…right now. Abide as the unmanifested now, even while manifested, and the joy of silence, the lightness of de-accumulation, and the pleasures of peace will manifest as well.

Tomorrow, a break from this series to offer "REALIZATION via VISUALIZATION and CONSIDERATION." When this series continues after that set of considerations are set forth, then the fourth recommendation in this series will be discussed: “Be unflinchingly true to Truth.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Eleven

2009-06-20T08:54:00.007-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: all the recommendations so far seem like your [sic] telling people to just run away. I choose to try to help people and make the world a better place. You cannot deny that some people help and other people hurt.

F.: First, there is no suggestion at all to run away. The only thing that persons (the non-Realized) could run away from would be the mirages that they take to be real—illusions that generate fiction-based misery and suffering; yet even that would never be suggested, any more than it would be suggested that persons should run away from ropes that look like snakes.

Furthermore, to be free of belief in the false selves—and their desires and fears which perpetuate instability at the least and misery and suffering more often than not—does not require running anywhere.

If you consider yourself a seeker, understand that You are where you would go and You are that which you seek. Understand also that what is sought can only be found and known and understood “now” and “here,” not by running away to somewhere you seem to take to be “there.”

Maharaj was once similarly charged with recommending “escape.” His reply was different from the response above, but it provides another means for understanding the difference in escapism and Realization and also addresses your idea about helping “people” and “the world”:

"The only way to renewal lies through destruction. You must melt down the old jewellery into formless gold before you can mould a new one. Only the people who have gone beyond the world can change the world. It never happened otherwise. The few whose impact was long lasting were all knowers of reality. Reach their level and then only talk of helping the world."

Of course, when it comes to "ego-states" or mirages or any illusions, there is no real "destruction" since that which does not exist cannot be destroyed. Belief in it can come to an end, though, simply by seeing clearly.

As for “some helping and some hurting,” of course that can be applicable as far as the relative existence goes. But all dualities (including helping vs. hurting) are “the stuff of which dreams are made,” and the relative is nothing more than a dream. If you want to try to help, try to help, but the invitation is to do so with a clear understanding of what can and cannot be done in the absence of any "do-er."

Otherwise, you will miss the truth that you cannot provide any permanent help to “persons” or to what you take to be “the world” any more than you can help a mirage. Advaitins make clear that you are not in the world…that the world is in you.

You might make some temporary “difference” in terms of the relative’s ebb and flow between light and darkness, between peace and war, between preserving lives vs. ending lives. But no permanent change will come, so to engage in any such actions from a standpoint of non-Realization will only generate frustration along with fluctuations between an egotistical sense of success and a debilitating sense of failure.

When Maharaj was asked in the ‘70’s about war and suffering that were occurring at the time, his answer further clarifies the pointer offered in the previous paragraph. The way he explained it was as follows:

"I am reading newspapers, I know what is going on! But my reaction is not like yours. You are looking for a cure, while I am concerned with prevention. As long as there are causes, there must also be results. As long as people are bent on dividing and separating, as long as they are selfish and aggressive, such things will happen.

“If you want peace and harmony in the world, you must have peace and harmony.... Such change cannot be imposed; it must come from within. Those who abhor war must get war out of their system. Without peaceful people, how can you have peace in the world?

“As long as people are as they are, the world must be as it is. I am doing my part in trying to help people to know themselves as the only cause of their own misery. In that sense I am a useful man. But what I am in MySelf, what is my normal state, cannot be expressed in terms of social consciousness and usefulness.

“No doubt, striving for the improvement of the world is a most praiseworthy occupation [if] done selflessly.... But soon man will realise that he pursues a mirage. [Bold and italics added]

“Local and temporary improvement is always possible and was achieved again and again under the influence of a great king or teacher; but it would soon come to an end, leaving humanity in a new cycle of misery. It is in the nature of all manifestation that the good and the bad follow each other and in equal measure. The true refuge is only in the unmanifested.”

That last sentence should make clear that the three pointers offered so far in this series are not about “running away” but are very much about being in touch with Reality, here and now. Review the three pointers so far in that context:

If in touch with Reality, (1) Pure Witnessing can happen; it can be understood that (2) there is no experience or experiencer; and it can be understood that (3) the universal respite for all relative problems is “deep sleep” (i.e., “wakeful sleep” or “alert sleep”).

Or see it the way Maharaj put it, that “the true refuge” is abiding as “the unmanifested” rather than the manifested. Only the Realized will grasp the actual difference in “taking refuge via abidance as the original, natural, unmanifested state” and “running away or trying to escape.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Ten

2009-06-19T09:06:00.008-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

3. THE UNIVERSAL RESPITE FROM ALL RELATIVE PROBLEMS: DEEP SLEEP (Con’t.)

F.: [Continued from yesterday] Many visitors wrote after the posting yesterday to describe the problem they were having with trying to grasp the irony of (a) being Fully Awake even as the manifestation continues while (b) enjoying the bliss of the state that is not unlike deep, delta-level sleep with its peace and silence.

Some outright declared the pointer to be “wrong.” The invitation, therefore, is to consider again the example offered yesterday: even when this body-cum-consciousness called "floyd" is asleep, I—the consciousness—am totally aware that sleep is happening.

That is the way it is when Fully Realized and Fully Awake while simultaneously reaping the peace and bliss that the non-Realized can only experience during deep sleep.

That is the irony or the paradox referred to yesterday that applies to the Realized: it is AS IF one is totally asleep (to the degree that abidance as the original, natural state assures freedom from all that is relative and personal) while also being totally awake and aware. Maybe this exchange will clarify:

A visitor spoke to Maharaj of being “…quiet, inwardly and outwardly.” Maharaj asked, “What kind of quiet was it? Something akin to deep sleep, yet conscious all the same? A sort of wakeful sleep?” The visitor replied, “Yes, alertly asleep.”

That teaching can be a challenge for any seeker that does not understand that there are no contradictions in the Advaita teachings even though there are many paradoxes. The paradox is pointed to with the term jagrat-sushupti, loosely meaning, "awakened sleep" or "alert sleep" (“jagrat,” from “jagri,” meaning "awake, attentive, watchful and witnessing" and with “sushupti,” meaning, "sleep").

“To be a person is to be asleep,” Maharaj said. It matters not if the person claims to be in the waking state or claims that he was in the sleeping state or was in the dream state. Such claims still deal only with that which is personal (and therefore not Real). Those three are all mental states, all states dealing with “the mind,” and “the mind” is the seat of illusion.

That is why the non-Realized are out of touch with Reality not only when dreaming or when in deep sleep; they are also out of touch with Reality when in the waking state (because they are not really awake at all).

By contrast, the state in which My being is happening is “unified,” so to speak. It does not have three parts—it is but one. The mental states have all been transcended. The personas have all been cast aside, along with body identification and along with the "mind."

Having transcended those three mental, personal states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, there is no drama, no stage, no acting, no role-playing, and no preoccupation with any personal identity. The body is yet “living,” but that is happening from the platform of that “deep sleep” state—that is, from the platform of being awake, aware, and attentive while also functioning AS IF soundly and deeply “asleep.”

[For the 300+ "hits" by visitors to the site this week from India, and for any other seekers that might be interested, this side note is offered: Some speak of the nirivikalpa samadhi state when they talk of this transcendence. All belief in experience has ended, as has all first-level witnessing, as has “the mind,” as has belief in duality.]

Therefore, this is what happened with the speck called "floyd": first, abidance happened as Awareness (and note that post-manifestation, Awareness is, but it is not “aware of”). Now, abidance happens as that which is even beyond Awareness…prior to Consciousness and prior to Awareness both.

Here is the way site visitor ginny views it:
G.: You write of the state that is after the stop and before the go. After the wave joined the sea and before it formed again.
F.: Yes. In fact, long before the go...allowing the going itself to stop.

Of course the writing about that state could only follow the abidance as that state, allowing for the abandonment of all going (and doing and zooming) as well as the abandonment of all belief in go-ers and do-ers as well.

As a result, all attachment has ended. For the non-Realized, the curse of attachment is the anchor that prevents taking flight and being free and feeling light and unburdened. Here is the way Maharaj described the dilemma that the non-Realized face:

“…all your preoccupations with yourself are only in your waking hours and partly in your dreams; in sleep all is put aside and forgotten. It shows how little important is your waking life, even to yourself, that merely lying down and closing the eyes can end it. Each time you go to sleep you do so without the least certainty of waking up and yet you accept the risk.

“In deep sleep you are not a self-conscious person, yet you are alive. When you are alive and conscious, but no longer self-conscious, you are not a person anymore. During the waking hours you are…on the stage, playing a role, but what are you when the play is over?

“You are what You Are; what You Were before the play began, You remain when it is over. Look at yourself as performing on the stage of life. The performance may be splendid or clumsy, but You are not in it. You merely watch it—with interest and sympathy, of course—but keeping in mind all the time that You are only watching while the play (“life”) is going on.”

To abide in such fashion as being "alertly asleep" or being in a state of "wakeful sleep" is to enjoy the peace and silence that happen post-Realization but prior to mahasamadhi.

Here, it is almost AS IF mahasamadhi has happened as well, being free of anything to do with the relative or with its dualistic fluctuations between being content and discontent; being joyous and miserable; being free and restricted; being light and heavy; being relaxed and constricted; or, as in many cases, being mired in suffering without any variation or fluctuating at all. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Nine

2009-06-18T09:24:00.011-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: [Continued from yesterday]

3. THE UNIVERSAL RESPITE FROM ALL RELATIVE PROBLEMS: DEEP SLEEP
The non-Realized settle for the temporary respite from all of the nonsense of the relative which deep sleep provides. The invitation on this site is this: Why settle for temporary? Why not fixate in the only state that provides continuous respite, even as the consciousness remains manifest?

Much has been written on the site regarding AS IF living, living AS IF any of this is real or important but knowing it is not. From that position, husbanding or wifing can happen…or not; employment can happen, bill-paying can happen, dancing the Advaita dance can happen;

yet it is understood that there is no husband, no wife, no employee or employer, no bill-payer, no dancer, no…"one"…only One. What is the only means for the non-Realized to be devoid of the drama of relative happenings, to be free of the tension, to be unencumbered by the desires and fears and fluctuations between joy and misery? The only means for them is sleep.

There is no stability in the non-sleep state for the non-Realized. There is only the instability of constant movement, wanting something today, getting it, and then not wanting it tomorrow. Living like immature children, laughing out loud one moment, screaming out loud the next.

Engaging in battles at home and abroad, in the neighborhood or at work, in traffic or in stores, carefree one moment, worried the next. Happy one moment, miserable the next. Feeling light one moment, feeling heavy and burdened the next. Feeling secure one moment, feeling threatened the next. Being pulled about with no liberation at all from the illusory personas that control thoughts and words and actions. Maharaj described it thusly:

Our life is full of contradictions. Yet we cling to it. This clinging is at the root of everything. Still, it is entirely superficial. We hold on to something or somebody with all our might, and next moment we forget it - like a child that shapes its mud-pies and abandons them light-heartedly. Touch them - it will scream with anger; divert the child and he forgets them. We love variety...the play of pain and pleasure. We are fascinated by contrasts. For this we need the opposites and their apparent separation. We enjoy them for a time and then get tired and crave for the peace and silence of pure being.

For the Realized, there is consistently and permanently the peace and silence of pure being (and that which is beyond pure being). For the non-Realized, the only chance for a few moments of peace and silence is by way of the temporary respite of sleep. Yet even that is elusive.

The non-Realized, living as six-year-olds in adult bodies, do not know how to eat, how to purge and cleanse, how to sleep. As children they did all of that naturally, but as programmed and conditioned and acculturated and domesticated adults, they have not the wherewithal to carry out even the simplest of infant-level functions.

Their bodies are reflections of their "minds": stopped up, clogged up, filled with poisons and toxins...now exhausted...totally useless...both detriments only.

Sleep seldom reaches the delta level for the non-Realized, so even that intended respite is usually marked by fluctuations as well. At the delta level, there is no notion that “This is who I think I am”…no notion that “I am this role or that persona.” Yet the non-Realized, knowing no peace during the day, know little peace at night, either.

At the theta level, they are still dreaming—just as when they were walking about earlier during the day. And in those dreams—or nightmares—they are "this" or "that" again and facing all sorts of relative challenges that seem real—again, just as when they were walking about in their sleep during the day.

And even identification with the consciousness provides no rest, for even when asleep, I—the consciousness—know that sleep is happening. It is I that must stay on task, directing the lungs to expand and contract, directing the heart to expand and contract. No rest even then. The stable peace and silence comes to stay not with abidance as "a being" or as “the consciousness” but with abidance as that original, natural state.

If delta level sleep does happen among the non-Realized, even then there is only a temporary release from self, but upon returning to the awake state, the belief in the self/selves also returns, bringing with it all of the nonsense of the relative.

Now some have reported, “For Me, there is only the Self, whether in that deepest level of sleep, or while going into and out of the samadhi state, or in the turiya state.”

Yet where is the stability there when going to sleep and awakening, when going into and out of samadhi, or when in the turiya state? But wait. What of turiyatita?

[The following is for those seekers at the “highest” level only: have you considered not only that which is prior to consciousness but also that which is beyond Self-Realisation? Do you understand the distinction between the consciousness and awareness? If so, do you understand that which is beyond even that?

Have you understood the pointers offered in the book From Absolute to the Nothingness? There is the subject matter for your consideration today.]

For those not Realized or not Fully Realized, have you considered the irony that the Realized—now Fully Awake and witnessing the relative existence unfold from an AS IF mode—are enjoying the peace and silence that are typical of the uninterrupted, deep sleep state?

Are you seeing that the non-attachment of that deep-sleep-like existence provides the same respite as what some who believe in “death” refer to as “The Big Sleep”? Your consideration for the day, should you be willing to consider, is this:

Is it not the case that “the person” can be taken to be real during both the waking state and the dream state? Is it possible that the Self is also "the stuff" of the turiya state and the deep sleep state?

Is it possible, however, that—beyond those states that are all associated with the manifest consciousness—that there is a “bigger sleep,” a “bigger silence,” a "bigger peace," a “bigger Nothing" which (like that "Big Sleep" concept) is “bigger” than all relative somethings combined?

If you would be free of the fluctuations of the relative, then there is that state in which true fixation can happen. There, peace and silence are in a fixed state rather than an ever-fluctuating state. Here, there is no "one" going into samadhi or out of samadhi. What could possibly be appealing about a temporary respite, especially now that a permanent respite is happening?

The invitation is to take the pointers offered by a Realized teacher, read the words of a Realized teacher, consider them not from a state of “deep meditation” but from a state of alertness, and come to know that which is beyond the beingness and the non-beingness and the self and the Self. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Eight

2009-06-17T09:49:00.005-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: [Continued from yesterday] What a mess the relative existence is, not just polluted with dualities and duplicity but with phoniness showing up in multiplicities...in triplicate:

There are the public personas displayed for others to see; there are the private personas displayed behind closed doors with friends or family; and then there is the secret life that no one is intended to view.

What a trying existence; what an anxiety-inducing way of living; what a stress-filled affair; furthermore, when one does not understand THAT but instead takes the comment “this is who I think I am” to be a statement of truth, then the relative unfolds thusly:

“The Experiencer” goes about supposedly experiencing public and private and secret happenings, but in fact all of that which is supposedly real, but is not, is only happening in the “mind” of the one who is believing that she/he is “someone” who is experiencing something (as opposed to being a particular form of energy that is only capable of witnessing something but is not capable of doing anything).

Truth involves being aware of Self—being conscious of the presence of consciousness…aware that it is in awareness itself that all happens. How could the consciousness possibly experience anything? It cannot.

It can but witness, if manifested. You may as well believe that a motherless child can fetch tea or that a legless dog can fetch a tossed ball. Consciousness cannot do anything—it is but a mere speck of energy. Consciousness cannot experience anything—it can but witness what appears to be an experience.

In Reality, there is just MySelf, and being MySelf is all that is happening. Nothing more is going on, contrary to appearance…contrary to the machinations of the polluted “mind”. And it is that “mind” which Maharaj invited his visitors to be free of. Understand that and then the following pointer from Maharaj can be understood as well:

Everything that exists, exists as MySelf. There is nothing which is different from Me. There is no duality and, therefore, no pain. There are no problems. It is the sphere of love, in which everything is perfect. What happens, happens spontaneously, without intentions - like digestion or the growth of the hair.

How much attention do you pay to the growing of hair? That is the same amount of attention that should be paid to anything in the relative. How much control do you have over the growing of hair or over the not growing of hair? That is the same amount of control that you have in the relative existence.

Only a fool pays attention to the nonsense of the relative and thinks it has meaning or significance. Only a fool becomes attached to the relative, thinks he/she has meaning or significance, and thus tries to control events. Specks manifest; specks unmanifest. All in-between is perception / misperception among the non-Realized. So to continue:

2. COME TO THE UNDERSTANDING THAT NOTHING IS EXPERIENCED (Con’t.)
Understand that in the absence of a belief in the role of “The Experiencer,” it becomes clear that no experiencing is really happening and that nothing thought to be an experience can be real.

Knowing that, consider the freedom that must follow. To move beyond the subject-object witnessing level and to reach the level of the True Self—the Pure Witness—it can later become possible to transcend even the belief that “I am the Pure Witness.”

The notion that “I am what I believe I am” is transcended and so is identification with the witness, or with anything else. With disbelief in “The Experiencer,” belief in experience and experiencing will end. The Awareness knows not that it is Awareness. Understand that and then one might understand what Maharaj meant when he said that, post-belief in “The Experiencer” and the experience, then “unidentified being remains.”

That is, the impersonal Am-ness remains manifested but abides as its original state, not as a beingness state with an identity. The beingness remains for a period, but it is “unidentified” instead of identified…with anything.

The manifested speck comes to understand That Which Is Beyond both beingness and non-beingness. And to abide there as, how can any of the nonsense of the relative existence have any effect on You—on that impersonal, non-dual, no-concept identity-less You Which You Truly Are?

The only thing that can believe that “it has been affected by something or someone” is an imagined ego-state, and nothing imagined is real, including ego-states or any other assumed identity. Yet a “mind” packed with nonsense will accept neither identity-less-ness nor rest. The emptiness of a mirage stands a better chance of finding peace than the fullness of a “mind.”

Continue to accumulate concepts and ideas and beliefs and store them in that “mind” and no peace shall happen. De-accumulate by casting aside all ideas and emotions and beliefs and then peace shall manifest; however, peace will only be sought by those who have overcome their addiction to chaos. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Seven

2009-06-16T10:05:00.005-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: [Continued from yesterday] It has been shown that the relative existence has been, and will continue to be, marked by a sense of separation and fighting and breakups and wars among the non-Realized masses. The question was asked yesterday,

So what is the Advaita response to seeing the hatred and darkness that has been catalogued in this series and throughout “human history”? How can Love be known during a relative existence that is driven by self-ish “love” rather than Real Love?

The first Advaitin strategy set forth yesterday was “Witnessing.” The first type of witnessing happens along the seven-step “path” to Realization but prior to Full Realization, so that tool is available even to those seekers who have not yet Realized what “the Self” is.

The second level of witnessing actually happens via the True Self, so that becomes a second tool that is available to those who would abide in the turbulence-free fashion described by Maharaj when he said,

“The waters of life are thundering over the rocks of objects—desirable or hateful. Remove the rocks by insight and detachment and the same waters will flow deep and silent and swift….”

The next recommendation for guaranteeing freedom from the tumultuous relative existence with its desires and hatred and fighting is this:

2. COME TO THE UNDERSTANDING THAT NOTHING IS EXPERIENCED
The early stages of the seven-step “journey” to Realization must provide freedom from identification with any part of the body-mind-personality triad. When that happens, the end of belief in all concepts can follow and “only witnessing” can happen consistently.

When freedom from personality is reached, then belief in the persona of “The Experiencer” falls away. If that role falls away, along with belief in all other ego-states, then the egotism that accompanies the assumption of ego-states as identities must also fall away.

When egotism falls away, and when belief in ego-states that always need defending comes to an end, then the most basic requirements for a sense of separation and for fighting and for harming and for killing will necessarily fall away as well.

To fight with a person or a co-worker or anyone is to bay at the moon; is to argue with a mirage in the desert; is to joust with a windmill; is to try to fight off a charging unicorn; is to hide in the bushes because you’re sure that you heard the sounds of a sasquatch stomping through the woods on his way to attack you; is to arm yourself in preparation for a Martian invasion; is to stand frozen in a dimly-lit room, petrified by the snake/rope in the corner that you are certain is about to strike.

The non-Realized take the experiences of their ego-states to be real experiences, failing to understand that there cannot be an experiencing of anything in the absence of an experiencer.

Watch not only “others”; watch also the self which imagines that it is experiencing something. Watch for the ego-states that arise and that find offense of the same nonsensical variety as the person who is offended that someone had the audacity to step on his/her shadow.

To end the attachment to personas that are taken to be real is to end participation in the conflict and fighting and arrogance and supposed separation that marks and mars and pollutes the relative existence.

If relative happenings are merely witnessed alongside an absence of belief in the experiencer, then an ego-state's hatred or fear or desires cannot then be mistaken for real experiences. In the realm of the Absolute, knowing THAT and having abandoned the notion that "This is who I think I am," then nothing will be known. Nothing can be known if abiding as THAT.

[Later, the discussion will be expanded so that seekers might understand that, ironically, Nothing—the Nothingness—can be known when abiding as THAT while still manifested. When that happens, the ultimate peace happens.

Abidance as the Nothingness provides another dose of “the ultimate medicine.” As the Nothingness, there is nothing that can be accepted or rejected, loved or hated, lost or kept, so all notions about duality truly come to and end.] Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Six

2009-06-15T09:30:00.007-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: Precipitating events, including traumatic events, also generate a sense of separation. They can, in fact, effect a “mindset” that seems to prefer distance and disconnection, a response via conditioning which is “normal” in its abnormal result—that is, which is understandable.

Untreated, that abnormality can result in separation from Real Love and compassion that leaves persons unreachable and unable to feel and unable to understand the unicity. Those untreated types among the non-Realized can eventually be stripped of even a single drop of the milk of kindness that accompanies an awareness of Self.

Among those, there may never be an awareness of the inseparable, indivisible commonality of THAT. Cold and hard and dense is the darkness within, and sometimes that darkness is wrapped in a shroud of ignorance that blocks even a tiny ray of light from seeping inside to challenge the darkness.

It has been said that "the Realized only see love." What does that mean? It actually means that the Realized Advaitin will see either (false) “love” or Real Love in all cases. It will be seen that, among the non-Realized, the “love” (that is, the false love, the not-Love) is behind every thought and word and deed.

To look at an act of hatred as merely an act of hatred is to fail to understand the motivation of those generally labeled as hate mongers, killers, warmongers, tyrants, dictators, oppressors, maniacs, ad infinitum.

Their prime motive is also “love,” specifically, their love of self, their love of their race, their love of their country, their love of their nation, their love of control, their love of separating from those they think are “lesser,” in short, their love of the false…of their illusions…of their delusions.

Such sense of separation is guaranteed if false love is thought to be real; understand that false love is just another form of arrogance and another form of ignorance. Yet there are cases where that milk of human kindness fills to overflowing with the enlightened that know Real Love. It is observable in spite of all odds, in spite of all traumas, in spite of being surrounded with hatred and suffering and murder.

Such was the case that was witnessed the first time I was invited in the 1980’s to spend an afternoon with Jan and Miep Gies in their flat in Amsterdam. Over the subsequent years as we met on many occasions, a true sense of humility was witnessed each time as the two rejected any labels such as “heroes” or any proclamations by some that Miep and Jan were “different from others.”

Later, after only Miep remained, she and I continued to visit in Amsterdam; at the New York premiere of the movie based on the efforts to protect Anne Frank and others; or in Dallas, Texas when she spoke in an auditorium filled with middle school students.

On every occasion, it was noted that her ultimate message was consistently a message of Oneness and of Love and how those are the only antidotes for the hatred and war and misery and suffering that she witnessed and that will continue to be witnessed (both now and for as long as most specks of consciousness continue to function in darkness).

[Often inquiries are still received regarding Miep. Though friends and family gathered to mark the 100th year of that manifestation last February, Miep is still actively carrying the message of Love and Oneness which she asserts can be known even while continuing to function in a relative existence that is marked by what most call “unimaginable events of darkness” and what Maharaj referred to as polluting arrogance.]

So what is the Advaita response to seeing the hatred and darkness that has been catalogued in this series and throughout “human history”? How can Love be known during a relative existence that is driven by self-ish “love” rather than Real Love?

1. WITNESSING
For the Realized, abidance happens “there,” so that which is thought to be “here” can only be witnessed (and even then for the brief period of the manifestation). Contrary to the charges set forth in some mail received recently, that/That is neither a psychotic state nor a state of dissociation. Those would both involve a lack of awareness, whereas abidance as That is abidance as the epitome of awareness…as Awareness ItSelf.

From that platform where an overlaying of Reality upon the relative allows for both levels of witnessing to happen, it can be reported that, at most, there is but a casual amusement at what some would call “what life throws Floyd’s way.”

Such rather bemused or non-attached viewing of the battle between the sexes, or the battles between couples maneuvering for control, or the ever-continuing battles between nations, or the conflicts that mark what is called “life” in general does not indicate a lack of caring and compassion.

The spontaneous functioning during the remainder of the post-Realization manifestation simply allows for no more reaction to any of those happenings than would occur during a drive through the desert when it appears that a mirage has manifested and appears to be real. Do tears flow at times as a result of the compassion felt for those yet in misery? Of course. Tears can still flow even after Reality is overlaid on the relative.

Do some among the Realized spontaneously function in ways that try to “change things” or “improve things?” Yes, of course, that too can happen; however, it will happen spontaneously and with full awareness that it only involves the “stuff” of the relative.

To see that the perceived snake was only a rope, to see that the mirage is just an illusion, and to see that the relative is nothing more than a play in light (and yes, in shadow) is to allow the opportunity to ignore the not-Real and to also see both the Real and Real Love (if Fully Realized).

Whereas most are embroiled in their “love” vs. “not love” debates and fights and wars, never realizing that what they perceive as “love” and “the absence of love” are both illusions, the Realized understand that both are just appearances...just misperceptions.

It is that clear seeing—that accurate witnessing—that allows an understanding of those who are driven by their (false) love of self vs. the Realized that understand what Truth Is and what Real Love Is. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Five

2009-06-14T09:26:00.003-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

NOTE: Scheduled outage at 12:00 PDT On Monday, 15 June 2009.

Following the post, details on the 50% off sale of the remaining Non-Duality paperback books in the store

NOTE: A seeker who plans to attend an Advaita retreat this August is seeking someone to share the costs. If you are interested, you may use the Contact link and arrangements can be made. With this opportunity, you will be able to attend at about 50% of the regular price. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: With the assumption of multiple false identities (and therefore the loss of awareness of the True Identity), then Real Love cannot be known; therefore, hatred will naturally fill the gap.

The number of active hate groups in the United States rose from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008—an increase of 54 percent—according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and hate groups are flourishing across the planet as well.

One man who has been a leader of the Ku Klux Klan for many years is now reporting that visits to his (hate-filled, anti-black) website have reached a total of 100,000 hits per day since the recent U.S. presidential election. (Yes, that is a few more than visit this site each day to learn about Real Love and the Oneness.)

That speck who has assumed the identity of "The Klan Leader" offers a prejudice-and-arrogance-based explanation for the increased traffic, but the Advaita teachings offer another: all sense of separation and all sense of arrogance are rooted in ignorance, in not understanding I AM THAT, in not understanding Maharaj’s admonition that “you are not who you think you are,” and in not understanding the Oneness.

To live in such ignorance will, of course, leave one ignorant of the unicity and will generate arrogance; and as Maharaj noted, "arrogance pollutes." Not knowing the I AM THAT pollutes. Being ignorant pollutes. All sense of differentiation and "better-than-ness" and "apart-from-ness" pollutes.

To the defenders of “this world” who find the suggestion to abide as THAT to be nothing more than "intellectual nonsense," the pointer is that “your world” is polluted because it is a product of your polluted “mind.”

Those who believe that “they are truly something,” and who mock the suggestion to abide as the Nothingness, will not understand that "something" can always be polluted but that which is Nothing cannot. And what are the polluting catalysts? Programming, conditioning, acculturation, and domestication.

All of those inspire efforts to try to live supernaturally and/or unnaturally. When a manifested speck of consciousness is exposed to those catalysts during early child rearing and all through “the school years” and throughout the adult years by leaders in business, in the military, in politics, and in the planet’s religions, here is what results:

step-by-step, every behavior that would have come naturally and that would have happened naturally is eliminated. The only option available for persons post-programming, post-conditioning, post-acculturation, and post-domestication is to live out a relative existence in the most unnatural manner possible or to take the seven steps to Full Realization.

Living in the unnatural mode will inspire the seeking out of an environment that is focused on separation rather than unity; on hatred rather than Love; and on a preoccupation with ending the manifestation rather than preserving it.

When polluted and identified with self/selves, then all that can follow are polluted thoughts and polluted words and polluted deeds, including such polluting elements as self-absorption, self-destruction, and self-defeating behaviors.

Separation from an awareness of Self and absorption in false self identities and the resulting sense of separation from All can only generate a continuing sense of separation from All.

That sense of separation from All can generate nothing other than separation in "relationships"; separatist societies; separatist hate groups; separatist religions; separatist nations…separation, separation, separation.

And all sense of separation is delusional, and delusion is the result of not knowing That, of not knowing Self, and of not understanding the atonement (the "at-one-ment"). Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS

I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Four

2009-06-13T10:14:00.006-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

A LINE FROM A LENGTHY E-MAIL RECEIVED YESTERDAY: “You talk about hate but it seems to me like you hate this world”

F.: First, who is that “me” who is saying something "seems" a certain way? Who is it that has not read enough postings to understand why Realized Advaitins place quote marks around the term “this world”? Who is so attached to what he/she takes “this world” to be that she/he would actually defend it?

Can it also be inferred that you “love” what you call "this world"? What is that “love” of, really? The body? A “mind”? Personas? Wished-for continuity? And if you are willing to defend “this world,” then the wonder is how much more you are likely defending during any given day (which is all also just illusion).

Conversely, Fully Realized Advaitins have nothing to defend: no concepts, no beliefs, no ideas, no countries, no religion, no personality, no dogma, no ideology, no anything, which brings the response to this pointer:

as a matter of fact, Realized Advaitins have no more of a problem with “this world” than they do with unicorns, sasquatches, or Martians. Why? (1) Because the Realized first found all that is not real—and all that was the “not-them”—which cleared the way for an understanding of That Which Is Real…of That Which They Truly Are; and, (2) because the Realized, having found what is Real and thereafter abiding as the natural state, have nothing to do with your relative state.

How insane are people who wander about the planet in what they take to be “this world” without even knowing who they are? If persons do not know who they are, they might be suffering from amnesia;

otherwise, if some organic brain deficiency or injury or disease is not contributing to their “loss of True Identity,” then it might be concluded that they are mad (which is more often a condition of “the mind” than of the brain).

In that regard, a worldwide audience was recently re-introduced to the lyrics of a song entitled “Mad World” which partly includes the following:

“All around me are familiar faces,
bright and early for their daily races.
Going nowhere, going nowhere -
no expression, no expression.
And I find it kind of funny…
I find it kind of sad
when people run in circles -
it's a very, very mad world.
Children waiting for the day they feel good
“Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday.”
Made to feel the way that every child should:
sit and listen, sit and listen.
Went to school and I was very nervous -
no one knew me, no one knew me.
“Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson.”
Look right through me, look right through me,
and I find it kind of funny…
I find it kind of sad
when people run in circles –
it's a very, very mad world.”

The Realized, in fact, are the few that are free of having to deal with the “relative problems”—with the madness; with the running but going nowhere; with celebrating a few “different, special days” while otherwise tolerating the many mundane ones; with going to school and being taught lies that are given the status of truth by being labeled “history”;

with thinking they "know Me" when in fact very few "knew Me" or know Me; with walking about in their sleep in what amounts to little more than a death-in-life experience…to little more than a night-of-the-living-dead existence that typifies the "this-world-existence." Do you disagree with that description of what “this world” is like for the non-Realized?

Then take not that which is spoken via this speck of consciousness as a valid assessment of what “this world” is really like for the billions of non-Realized person walking about in their madness. Let those six billion+ persons who are sure they have found the answer via their dogma speak for themselves:

Hear the millions of Jews who over the millennia have verbalized the misery and suffering of “this world.” In a movie released recently, a rabbi prays: “Lord, choose another people - as a final blessing, take away our holiness.” Indeed.

Hear the billions of Christians who claim that they are able to tolerate the pain and suffering of “this world” because they believe that they will later have a pain-free, suffering-free existence forever in “that (upgraded) world."

See how many Muslims are willing to die now in order to escape “this world” and hasten their entry into “that (upgraded) world.”

Now you have six billion+ “personal” testimonies about “this world” and what the relative existence is like for those who are not Realized. An Advaitin that finds the body-cum-consciousness located presently on the African continent reported yesterday that she felt is if she were in “no-place.”

She was told that if she was that close to where this speck abides, stop by and visit. To be done with “this world” and to abide as that original, natural no-where state is the only sane and peaceful and free place (no-place) there is.

All else is mirage, and the irony of the “this world” concept is that even a mirage can generate suffering at levels that do seem to be very real to the billions who are experiencing misery because of their attachment to the body and mind and personality - all of which are fabrications but which are nevertheless assured to bring about “this-world-madness-and-misery.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
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1. REALIZATION AIDS
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From the I to the Absolute
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From the Absolute to the Nothingness
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2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
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I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Three

2009-06-12T09:36:00.005-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: [Continued from yesterday] The concepts of “hate” and “hatred” are being witnessed on an increasing basis across the globe as fewer and fewer are Realized (that is, as fewer and fewer understand Real Love). Such is the case when persons do not understand that they are not who they think they are.

Any talk of (false) “love” is actually just talk about that which is “not-Love.” It is the talk that is talked by the non-Realized, and their talk is talked with no other intent than to support the false personas that they have assumed as identities.

It is those assumed personas—not the pure consciousness—which is speaking, and their talk of “love” is talk that is rooted in the “polluting arrogance” that Maharaj spoke of. It is also rooted in duality since all talk of “love” is based in a subject-object, “A” loves “B” mental construct. It is only the non-dual Oneness that can involve Real Love.

The talk of the non-Realized about the “love” they have for their religion is talk intended to support their ego-states and their sense of superiority, and their talk of “love” for their race is talk intended to support their ego-states and their sense of superiority that is based not in accomplishment but in pigmentation alone.

In every case, therefore, that which is “false love” always refers to the non-Realized speaker’s love of a false self. For a non-Realized man, for example, to tell a wife or a woman “I love you” really means that he loves his identity of “The Husband,” “The Lover,” “The Boyfriend,” etc. Being non-Realized, he has no clue at all about what Real Love is;

furthermore, the (false) love of who you are not will block the knowing of That Which You Truly Are. Blocked thusly, the pointer that You Are Love Manifest will be considered meaningless…will be considered “intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous!”

Here is how that looks in a current example running in Western newscasts: recently, one man publicly echoed Captain Renault’s proclamation about Rick from the movie Casablanca, that Rick is a “citizen of the world.” As used recently, the comment by a man that he is a citizen of the world was merely pointing to the Oneness of all bodies-cum-consciousness that are moving about the planet.

What would the typical, expected response be from anyone among the non-Realized? The response by one such person trapped in the darkness was: “I am not a citizen of the world.” Bragging about being “a citizen of America,” he went on to say, “I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous!”

One writer characterized such talk as evidence of “regressive American exceptionalism.” Exceptionalism. Exactly. That is an example of the “polluted arrogance” that Maharaj discussed. It leads the non-Realized to rank everything—groups, states, sects, religions, nations—on an imaginary, vertical hierarchy and to condescendingly believe that they are at the top of each hierarchy that they mentally construct.

The arrogant—trapped in their ego-states as they are—will believe that they are highly exceptional, that their religion is highly exceptional, and that their nation is highly exception (except for the people in that nation who have differing beliefs).

Separated. Better than. Exceptional. It is such examples of egotistical nonsense that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and other Realized Advaitin teachers point to as examples of illusions that are taken to be truth when persons fail to understand that they are not who they think they are.

The fact is that there is only One, and because All is One, there can be no exceptions to that fact, so anyone thinking he/she is exceptional or special or different is delusional.

Another more enlightened writer noted the bravado, the sociopathy, and the arrogance—the "polluted arrogance"—of the one bragging that he is not a citizen of the world but that he is a proud American instead.

Such “polluting arrogance” will block the knowing of the unicity, and the failure to understand the unicity will become the foundation on which all hatred (all that is not Love) is built. Here is the way it is explained in an excerpt from the book From the Absolute to the Nothingness:

The drop dissolves into the ocean when the Oneness is understood, and it drops into the ocean at the point of unmanifestation. The ocean rushes into the drop when, among other things, the emptiness is replaced by an understanding of Love and a sense of the Fullness (which can only be known during the manifestation). At that point, it is truly realized that One is All and All is One.

In that instant, Love fills the void left after all dualistic beliefs about “love” and "hate" end. (False) “love” is totally relative, not to be confused with what can be pointed to with the terms True Love or Real Love.

Since “love” is relative and therefore fleeting, it can—and does—quite readily give way to “hate.” Conversely, there is no counterpart to Love; however, even Love can only be understood during the manifestation (and only by those who understand I Am THAT). Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
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1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
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From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
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3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
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I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part Two

2009-06-11T10:13:00.014-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Following the post, details on the 50% off sale of the remaining Non-Duality paperback books in the store

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

F.: [Continued from yesterday] The question “Do you know who you’re talking to?” literally oozes with the arrogance that is inspired by the egotism that always accompanies the assumption of an ego-state.

Mararaj made the point that “arrogance pollutes.” The history of conflict—whether it involves persons, cities, states, or countries—is always rooted in “(false) self-identification” and "(false) self-conflict" first.

The assumption of an ego-state as an identity not only separates persons from an awareness of Who/What They Truly Are, but such separation from Self also prevents an understanding of the unicity. Failure to understand the unicity then blocks any chance to know Real Love, and being blocked from knowing Real Love, the door is opened to knowing “hate.”

“Hate,” therefore, is rooted in identification with self, in separation from an awareness of Self, in a sense of separation from “others,” and in the arrogance and egotism of assuming that hierarchies are real and that one's assumed place "at the top" is real. On The Advaita Vedanta Quote Site, the following pointer was offered for consideration in March of 2007:

Ego is believing that there’s a vast multiplicity arranged in a hierarchy and that you’re the pinnacle; humility is knowing that you’re nothing, no-thing; Love is knowing that You, with a capital ‘Y,’ Are everything.

“Hatred”—that is, the sense of separation that results in the absence of understanding the Oneness and in the presence of egotism and arrogance—can manifest as hatred involving different religions; as hatred involving different sects or denominations;

as hatred involving different races; as hatred involving different economic systems; as hatred involving different forms of government; as hatred involving different political parties; as hatred rooted in ideologies, ad infinitum.

Yet what is common to all manifestations of hatred is the concept of “different,” and the concept of “different”—along with all ideas and concepts and beliefs that foster separation and conflict—is a product of the polluted ”mind” which will always generate disharmony.

On 9/11 in the U.S., a radical Islamic group attacked two towers that they associated with Christianity and Judaism and capitalism and international interference in the affairs of others.

In Mumbai in late 2008, attacks killed more than 170 people and wounded over 300 as the concepts of “hate” and “different from” inspired attacks at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the Leopold Cafe, the Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House, and the Metro Cinema as well as in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College, at the Mazagaon docks, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. The attacks were carried out by persons who believed in “differences” and who believed they were at a higher place than “others” on their fictional hierarchy.

In the U.S., a doctor was killed recently by a man who was associated with anti-abortion, anti-government groups, a man who had a subscription to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated "justifiable homicide" as a way of protesting abortion. Thus, their message is to enter into prayer and then take homicidal action, and that is a popular message across the globe nowadays.

The arrogance-based hysteria that emphasizes the differences in the concepts and beliefs among the members of the three sky cults that share a common root in Abraham has been ratcheted up to a never-before-seen frenzy among the 6.5 billion members of those three cults. Having always been enthusiastic about prayer, they are now just as enthusiastic about taking action, especially homicidal action. Arrogance pollutes.

Yesterday, on 10 June 2009, a man self-described as “a white supremacist” who posted anti-Jew and anti-black diatribes on his website entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and killed an African-American guard before being shot by other security personnel. Arrogance pollutes.

These are only the latest instances in a series of events in which millions have been killed as a result of perceived “differences” and the polluting arrogance mentioned by Maharaj: European Christians killed over 150,000,000 indigenous peoples of North, Central and South America who were thought to be “heathens” because of their refusal to accept Christ as their savior;

six million Jews died—included in the total of the 50 million people who were killed during WWII—in a war that was rooted in religious “differences”; add in the Christian Inquisitions, ethnic cleansings carried out across the globe for decades and continuing to this day;

apartheid in South Africa, and all of the other instances that could be catalogued. But see that all of those acts that have been labeled “acts of hatred” are really acts of polluting arrogance that are rooted in a false sense of identity and a false sense of separation.

As far as the relative existence is concerned, arrogance pollutes “individual relationships,” “national relationships,” and “international relationships.” Arrogance pollutes. A lack of understanding of the unicity pollutes. An absence of the understanding of Real Love pollutes. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
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½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

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I AM THAT vs. “This is who I think I am” – Part One

2009-06-10T09:56:00.010-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Following the post, details on the 50% off sale of the remaining Non-Duality paperback books in the store

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU’RE TALKING TO!?”
should be
“Do you know who I think I am!?”

F.: Thirty years ago, “floyd’s” bills were paid by selling insurance. The owner-manager of the agency entered the office one morning and tossed a death benefit check on the desk. He asked, “You’ve never delivered a check before, have you?”

The answer was “No.” He continued, “That check is as good as passing on a hot lead to you. Let me train you in the way this goes. You take that check to the widow—it’s for $25,000.00. Tell her how sorry you are for her loss and ask her if the check will help?

“She’ll say yes…that she’s grateful her husband planned ahead and left her the funds to cover the costs of his funeral and to help her get by until she can make arrangements.

“Then, ask her if there is someone she’d like to help someday. If she doesn’t come up with any names, ask about children, nieces, nephews, helping out grandchildren with college costs. Tell her that she can use all or part of the proceeds to buy a paid-in-full policy and she’ll never have to pay a single premium. Some of the guys come back with an app (an application) and the whole check. That would give you a nice commission for the week.”

The check was tossed back to him with the comment, “If you want something that sleazy done, do it yourself.” (Yes, it had already been determined that selling insurance was not going to be “a life-long occupation”…was not “a dream job” as it had originally been billed.) His response was, “Do you know who you’re talking to!?”

The reply was, “What you really mean is, ‘Do you know who I think I am?’ You think you’re something that you most assuredly are not…"The Great, Ethical Boss," “The Super Achiever,” “The Rich, Successful Businessman,” “The Wonderful Community Leader”…but the image people have of you is nowhere close to the way you really are.” The diatribe that followed included words and phrases that referred to “cleaning out a desk” and to “insubordination” and to being “fired.”

(Today, there would have been a quiet walking out of the office without comment, but it didn't happen that way in "the old days.") But two of the questions above strike at the heart of the Advaita teachings:

1. The assumption of ego-states triggers the use of ego-defense mechanisms which include, among others, egotism. Hence the question, “Do you know who you’re talking to!?”

2. The clarification “Do you know who I think I am?” points to the fact that non-Realized persons haven’t a clue about Who/What They Truly Are; as a result, they assume scores and scores of false identities throughout the length of any given relative existence.

Maharaj said, “When I met my Guru, he told me: ‘You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what You Are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your Real Self.’ I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made…!”

Moreover, the practice among humans is either to upgrade or to downgrade illusions:

“There is this world (illusion) that we live in now, but later we will live eternally in that world ("heaven" being an upgrade of the illusory “this world”) with our savior and god”;

or, “There is this world (illusion) that we live in now, but later the people who are not good will live in a world of pain and misery as punishment ("hell" being a downgrade of the illusory "this world"). Here's another example of the way that illusions are upgraded:

Shortly after a man in a robe announces that a woman and a man (illusions) are “husband” and “wife” (considered an upgrade at the time) the couple will soon upgrade the illusions of “The Husband” and "the Wife" even further, believing that they are “The Super Husband” and “The Super Wife.”

“The Wife” only needs a co-dependent counterpart to play the role of “The Husband” for her illusion of “wife” to survive; however, “The Super Wife” can only continue to “be” if she has “A Super Husband.”

The majority of the time, she will soon find that "he" is not a Super Husband—far from it in fact—and she (the role of “The Super Wife”) will feel that she is being attacked…threatened…interfered with…and cannot survive. It will be time for her to ask for a divorce and then leave in order to continue the search for one that will fit the mold not just of “A Husband” but the mold of what she thinks “A Super Husband” should look like.

Research shows that “The Super Husband” may be less likely to leave but will more often try to justify emotional or literal affairs to compensate for the fact that “The Wife” is not really "The Super Wife of His Dreams." Once those ungraded illusions of “The Super Spouse” manifest, so will the egotism and judgment and criticism that always accompany such illusory upgrades.

Then, there will be no sense of the unicity; instead, there will be a sense of frustration and separation and incompleteness. The thought will arise many times before the marriage comes to an official end, “Do you know who you’re talking to!?” Only disharmony can follow once that thought is triggered.

Again, ego-states breed egotism, and egotism leads to a sense of separation…never to an understanding of the unicity. And that can apply to “personal relations,” to national “relations,” and to international “relations” as well. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
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½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
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Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

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THE NECTAR OF IMMORTALITY

2009-06-09T09:07:00.015-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

FROM A SITE VISITOR: thanx for explaining the ultimate medicine. What about the nectar of immortality now? Edvard

F.: So, Edvard, have you read the books you are referencing or are you just looking over a list of Advaita book titles? Ha. Whatever the case, no problem at all. The concepts regarding a God-given food or a God-given drink that could provide immortality had been included in the myths of most cultures for as long as such tales have been told or written.

Those stories are akin to tales of “a fountain of youth” and magic elixirs. They are related to the ancient rites during which crowds drank blood to be “closer to a rain god.” The drinking of blood to commune with the god they believe in is practiced regularly by two billion Christians to this day.

As with the content of all myths—be they Greek or Roman or Indian or otherwise in origin—their subject matter usually finds its way into religions or spiritual groups and are adopted as “holy truths.”

The nectar Maharaj alluded to in some of his metaphors (which were never to be taken literally) is called amrita. The reference to a nectar that can be taken internally and that can provide immortality is a metaphor offered to those traveling along the early steps of the “path.”

The point is that if seekers “consume” the Advaita teachings (the nectar) and tap into the Truth that can be accessed internally via the inner guru—if guided by a Realized teacher—then they will understand the difference in that which is eternal and that which is not.

In the early going, a seeker that is addressing the “Who Am I?” question will usually be pointed in the direction of the consciousness. The mantra assigned might be “I Am.” The suggestion is to stay with the I AM without putting any adjective or noun after it.

That training exercise can help break the habit—the relative practice—of accepting conditions or labels as identities.

Seekers during the early stages are not ready to understand that which is beyond the consciousness. That understanding comes only at the end of the “journey” to Realization, and beyond.

To discard body identity at the first step on the "path" is to discard belief in the concept of “birth.” Discarding belief in the concept of “birth” immediately cancels out belief in the concept of ”death.”...of "mortality."

By casting aside the belief in the concept of “death” the belief in personal mortality ends, making way for a consideration of that which is eternal or “immortal.” It is only after a seeker reaches the end of the the seven-step journey to Reality that the Awareness beyond Consciousness is understood. Later, a few will also understand that which is beyond Self-Realization…that which involves the Void, the Nothingness.

So the nectar metaphor is relevant primarily for beginners who have never considered anything beyond the aged, the limited, and the finite. To consume the nectar—the teachings offered to those seekers that are just beginning the “journey” to Realization—is to open the way for a consideration of that which is ageless, is limitless, is eternal. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
1. REALIZATION AIDS
2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
Consciousness / Awareness
From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Purchase one or all at The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

2. ADVAITA / NON-DUALITY BOOK SET
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE IN THE STORE IN LIMITED SUPPLY AND WILL BE OFFERED AT 50% OFF WHEN BOUGHT AS A PACKAGE:

From the Absolute to the Nothingness
Consciousness/Awareness
From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)
It's All Bullshit (and Why Knowing it Sets You Free)
Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
The Essence of the Teachings
$79.00 for all eight books + free S&H in the U.S.
Most titles are also available as eBooks
Visit
The Official Website of Floyd Henderson

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NISARGA (“NATURAL”) LIVING, Part Two

2009-06-08T09:27:00.009-04:00

An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realisation, (Realization), enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality, Real Love, peace, freedom, Your original nature, the natural state, and Maharaj.

Greetings to those who visited the site last week from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Malta, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Panama, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. Welcome.

[The embedded links are only for those seeking a thorough explanation of pointers offered]

NATURAL LIVING

F.: (Continued from yesterday) The pointer was offered that there can be no sane existence that can happen in a "partly this style" and "partly that style." That would be “dualistic living,” and after he was taught the Advaitin understanding, Christ reportedly offered the pointer that “a dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.”

Of course that does not mean that persons don’t attempt to live in a “combo” fashion. It just means that their existence will not be natural or sane. For example, it is natural (i.e., it happens in nature) that the female of any species prefers the strongest of all of the males that might be vying for her attention (or more accurately, vying for the right to copulate).

Rams butt heads to establish rank and satisfy the natural urge of a ewe to “breed only with the best”…that is, in a manner that will assure the greatest chance for continuation of the species (and a continuation that involves the healthiest, strongest progeny possible).

What is unnatural is for males to appear on the stage of “The Jerry Springer Show” and fight for the survival of the false identities that they think define who they are: “The Lover,” “The Spouse,” “The Homeowner,” etc.

When the vying moves beyond natural urges and involves the added unnatural assumption of ego-states, then unnatural violence happens among members of the human species that does not mark the natural-functioning style of other species. As noted during other discussions, 59% of all women killed in the U.S. annually (and 41% of all men) are killed during a breakup.

If the ewe leaves with another male, the ranking male does not kill her. There might be another male-on-male fight, but the ewe will not be murdered because a ram has assumed a set of false identities.

What is also unnatural is when a female of the human species was programmed and conditioned during her early years in a way that leaves her with such low esteem levels that she picks the weakest mate for cohabitation and copulation and reproduction.

What is also unnatural in many human relationships is the case where one is being abused but stays and tolerates the abuse as a result of (A) unnatural desires for a better lifestyle and a larger house and a finer automobile—desires that are rooted in ego-states;

or as a result of (B) an effort to live supernaturally and to stay in an abusive relationship because a person “told god” (“took a vow”) that she/he would stay with the mate forever, "for better or worse"…worse often involving regular physical beatings or mental abuse or emotional abuse or verbal abuse, etc.

“Dating” is also natural (i.e., it is modeled in nature). Mentioned before on the site were the cardinals that court in the back yard of this house. During mating season, the male “takes the female out to dinner,” so to speak; that is, he gathers seeds for her and feeds her directly from his mouth to hers.

That is a part of the mating ritual; however, for a human male to believe that a female’s acceptance of an invitation to dinner (and to believe that a $20 meal should be his ticket to her bed) is unnatural.

While a male that is enjoying a visit and the conversation with a woman can accept a “thank you” for the meal, “The Arrogant, Entitled Lover” will never be able to accept that thank you which he would consider to be an offense…a “brush off from an ungrateful woman.” Such is the emotional intoxication that can be generated by the unnatural assumption of false identities.

What is rooted in nature becomes unnatural when personas are assumed which, in turn, drive thoughts and words and actions which would normally happen in a natural fashion were it not for personality’s input.

Also, what is rooted in nature becomes non-natural when supernatural roles are assumed (be they religious or spiritual) that drive thoughts and words and deeds that result when one is programmed to believe in invisible super beings that live in the sky.

Peace and freedom come when the Realized know that what some take to be “the supreme state” is really just the natural state, but that understanding can only come from beyond “the mind.” Maharaj said, “Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way….”

If that were to happen, then Real Love would happen. It would be understood that, if Reality were to be overlaid on the relative, then Love ItSelf would simultaneously be the Lover and the Beloved (and neither of those as used here refers to a role or an identity).

Then pure and natural beingness, free of body and mind states, would happen from the platform of abidance as the original, natural state, and the “sickness” discussed in recent posts would dissolve—the ultimate medicine having done its job.

If a nisarga, natural fashion of living were to happen, then the remainder of the beingness would happen effortlessly. Of course employment could continue, but it would happen effortlessly;

of course “relationships” could continue, but they would happen effortlessly; and of course all that is required to nurture the beingness for the remainder of the manifestation would also happen, but it would happen effortlessly.

And Love, which few will ever understand but which most seek, would also happen quite effortlessly and most blissfully. Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

TABLE OF CONTENTS BELOW:
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2. ADVAITA BOOK SETS-50% off
3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
4. DONATIONS

1. REALIZATION AIDS
The Advanced Seekers’ Book Set
From the I to the Absolute
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Meditation Guide (Advanced Volume)
There's No Such Thing as ''Peace of Mind''
Ending Financial Problems by Understanding Your Personality
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3. ARRANGE FOR FLOYD TO TRAVEL TO YOUR LOCATION AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP
Here’s a recent example:
Travel costs of the drive to Austin and back: $200.00
Friday and Saturday hotel room: $140.00
½ day Friday, Saturday and ½ day Sunday fees: $600.00
16 participants: $59.00 each for the retreat
Certain bargains are currently available for international flights as well

4. DONATIONS