The purpose of relationship
is not to have another who might complete you,
but to have another with whom
you might share your completeness.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
A power struggle collapses
when you withdraw your energy from it.
Power struggles become uninteresting to you
when you change your intention from winning
to learning about yourself.
~ Gary Zukav & Linda Francis
Inner silence promotes clarity of mind;
It make us value the inner world;
It trains us to go inside
To the source of peace and inspiration
When we are faced with problems and challenges.
~ Deepak Chopra ~
The people we are in relationship with
are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs,
and simultaneously we are mirrors,
reflecting their beliefs.
So... relationship is one of the most powerful tools
for growth...
If we look honestly at our relationships,
we can see so much
about how we have created them.
~ Shakti Gawain ~
Spontaneity...
Spontaneity is being present in the present.
Spontaneity by-passes the processes of the conceptual (aspect of) mind.
Re-integration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity.
Wei Wu Wei, from Why Lazurus Laughed, posted to Distillation
Spontaneity by-passes the processes of the conceptual (aspect of) mind.
Re-integration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity.
Wei Wu Wei, from Why Lazurus Laughed, posted to Distillation
The Long Path...
The end of all his efforts on the Long Path will be the discovery that although the ego can be refined, thinned, and disciplined, it will still remain highly rarefied and extremely subtle. The disciplining of the self can go on and on and on. There will be no end to it. For the ego will always be able to find ways to keep the aspirant busy in self-improvement, thus blinding him to the fact that the self is still there behind all his improvements. For why should the ego kill itself? Yet the enlightenment which is the goal he strives to reach can never be obtained unless the ego ceases to bar the way to it. At this discovery he will have no alternative to, and will be quite ready for, the Short Path................Paul Brunton
Words from "The Enlightenment Chapel"...
So, let's get to the point.
1. God created perfection
2. You and I are part of that perfection
3. We inherited the DNA of God, and we said, "Hey, you know what, we
want to also create perfection."
4. God put up a curtain, and created imperfection so that we could
create perfection again.
That's it.
Our imperfect world was created so we could create perfection,
instead of having it given to us. It's like a picture puzzle. God
created this elaborate painting and we said, "Wow, what a painting!
We want to create one like that." So God made it into a picture
puzzle, separating the pieces so we could put it back together.
The chaos in our lives, the distance we feel with others — and within
ourselves — is all an illusion. It's because of the space that was
created when all the pieces were pulled apart.
The effort we came here to do is to remove the space. Every time we
snap the pieces together - BOOM - another piece of perfection appears
in our lives.
Imagine if you were a five year old kid and I said, "Here's a puzzle,
it's already assembled." Would you enjoy it? No. The first thing
you'd do is shake it up in the box, creating space between the
pieces. The more you'd shake it up, the more chaotic it would become.
Then you'd dump it out on the floor and start building the puzzle.
That's when the fun would begin.
That's what effort's all about. Happiness given to us doesn't feel
like happiness. Happiness that we create - now that feels like
happiness!
Create your happiness this week. Create your certainty. Create your
love. If there is pain and struggle in your life, then remind
yourself of the picture puzzle. Remember the Light is there, perfect,
and that you asked for the sweat on your brow simply so that you
could feel the satisfaction of being a Creator.
And know that whatever you are struggling with will have a positive
result.
1. God created perfection
2. You and I are part of that perfection
3. We inherited the DNA of God, and we said, "Hey, you know what, we
want to also create perfection."
4. God put up a curtain, and created imperfection so that we could
create perfection again.
That's it.
Our imperfect world was created so we could create perfection,
instead of having it given to us. It's like a picture puzzle. God
created this elaborate painting and we said, "Wow, what a painting!
We want to create one like that." So God made it into a picture
puzzle, separating the pieces so we could put it back together.
The chaos in our lives, the distance we feel with others — and within
ourselves — is all an illusion. It's because of the space that was
created when all the pieces were pulled apart.
The effort we came here to do is to remove the space. Every time we
snap the pieces together - BOOM - another piece of perfection appears
in our lives.
Imagine if you were a five year old kid and I said, "Here's a puzzle,
it's already assembled." Would you enjoy it? No. The first thing
you'd do is shake it up in the box, creating space between the
pieces. The more you'd shake it up, the more chaotic it would become.
Then you'd dump it out on the floor and start building the puzzle.
That's when the fun would begin.
That's what effort's all about. Happiness given to us doesn't feel
like happiness. Happiness that we create - now that feels like
happiness!
Create your happiness this week. Create your certainty. Create your
love. If there is pain and struggle in your life, then remind
yourself of the picture puzzle. Remember the Light is there, perfect,
and that you asked for the sweat on your brow simply so that you
could feel the satisfaction of being a Creator.
And know that whatever you are struggling with will have a positive
result.
You are both Teacher and Student...
"Do you understand that you're both your own teacher and your
own student? You can start tomorrow if you want and you'll make
great progress to bring things up from the unconscious to where
you can see yourself as you are instead of as you imagine you are.
Other people don't see you as you see yourself, you understand? This
is why your enemies can be of great help to you in you understanding
what is actually going on inside of you.".......Vernon Howard
own student? You can start tomorrow if you want and you'll make
great progress to bring things up from the unconscious to where
you can see yourself as you are instead of as you imagine you are.
Other people don't see you as you see yourself, you understand? This
is why your enemies can be of great help to you in you understanding
what is actually going on inside of you.".......Vernon Howard
The Highest Good -- Tao Te Ching
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
~ Tao Te Ching ~
(Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
~ Tao Te Ching ~
(Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
A Quote from Paul Brunton...
Neither mysticism nor metaphysics is sufficient by itself. We need not
only the union of what is best in both, but also the disinterested
driving force of moral activity. Only when our metaphysical
understanding and meditational exercises begin to interpret themselves
in active life do we begin to justify both. The Word must become
flesh. It is not enough to accumulate knowledge. We must also apply
it. We must act as well as meditate. We cannot afford like the
ascetical hermit to exclude the world. Philosophy, which quite
definitely has an activist outlook, demands that intuition and
intelligence be harmoniously conjoined, and that this united couple be
compassionately inserted into social life. Like the heat and light in
a flame, so thought and action are united in philosophy. It does not
lead to a dreamy quietism, but to a virile activity. Philosophic
thought fulfils itself in philosophic action. This is so and this must
be so because mentalism affirms that the two are really one. Thus the
quest begins by a mystical turning inwards, but it ends by a
philosophic returning outwards.
only the union of what is best in both, but also the disinterested
driving force of moral activity. Only when our metaphysical
understanding and meditational exercises begin to interpret themselves
in active life do we begin to justify both. The Word must become
flesh. It is not enough to accumulate knowledge. We must also apply
it. We must act as well as meditate. We cannot afford like the
ascetical hermit to exclude the world. Philosophy, which quite
definitely has an activist outlook, demands that intuition and
intelligence be harmoniously conjoined, and that this united couple be
compassionately inserted into social life. Like the heat and light in
a flame, so thought and action are united in philosophy. It does not
lead to a dreamy quietism, but to a virile activity. Philosophic
thought fulfils itself in philosophic action. This is so and this must
be so because mentalism affirms that the two are really one. Thus the
quest begins by a mystical turning inwards, but it ends by a
philosophic returning outwards.
Adam and Eve...
They ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Go beyond good and bad by refraining from mentally labeling anything as good or bad. When you go beyond the habitual naming, the power of the universe moves through you. When you are in a nonreactive relationship to experiences, what you would have called "bad" before often turns around quickly, if not immediately, through the power of life itself.
Watch what happens when you don't name an experience as "bad" and instead bring an inner acceptance, an inner "yes" to it, and so let it be as it is.
This is the miracle: behind every condition, person, or situation that appears "bad" or "evil" lies concealed a deeper good. That deeper good reveals itself to you~ both within and without~ through inner acceptance of what is.
"Resist not evil" is one of the highest truths of humanity.
~ Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
Go beyond good and bad by refraining from mentally labeling anything as good or bad. When you go beyond the habitual naming, the power of the universe moves through you. When you are in a nonreactive relationship to experiences, what you would have called "bad" before often turns around quickly, if not immediately, through the power of life itself.
Watch what happens when you don't name an experience as "bad" and instead bring an inner acceptance, an inner "yes" to it, and so let it be as it is.
This is the miracle: behind every condition, person, or situation that appears "bad" or "evil" lies concealed a deeper good. That deeper good reveals itself to you~ both within and without~ through inner acceptance of what is.
"Resist not evil" is one of the highest truths of humanity.
~ Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
What is the Secret Knowledge of Jesus' Teachings?...
Ancient writings were discovered in 1945 which revealed more information about the concept of reincarnation from the sect of Christians called "Gnostics". This sect was ultimately destroyed by the Roman orthodox church, their followers burned at the stake and their writings wiped out. The writings included some long lost gospels, some of which were written earlier than the known gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gnostic Christians claimed to possess the correct definition of "resurrection" - based on Jesus' secret teachings, handed down to them by the apostles. The existence of a secret tradition can be found in the New Testament:
"He [Jesus] told them, ' The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" (Mark 4:11-12)
"No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." (1 Corinthians 2:7)
"So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God." (1 Corinthians 4:1)
A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the Gnostic texts discovered, describes Jesus performing secret initiation rites. Before the discovery of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by Church Father Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 211 AD), which quotes this secret gospel and refers to it as "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected." He said, "It even yet is most carefully guarded [by the church at Alexandria], being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries." Clement insists elsewhere that Jesus revealed a secret teaching to those who were "capable of receiving it and being molded by it." Clement indicates that he possessed the secret tradition, which was handed down through the apostles. Such Gnostics were spiritual critics of the orthodox Church of what they saw as not so much a popularization as a vulgarization of Christianity. The orthodox church stressed faith, while the Gnostic church stressed knowledge (gnosis). This secret knowledge emphasized spiritual resurrection rather than physical resurrection. Indeed, the Gnostic Christians believed reincarnation to be the true interpretation of "resurrection" for those who have not attained a spiritual resurrection through this secret knowledge.
The New Testament talks about this gnosis (knowledge):
"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues." (1 Corinthians 12:7-10)
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." (Colossians 1:9)
The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that the Pharisees, the founders of rabbinic Judaism for whom Paul once belonged, believed in reincarnation. He writes that the Pharisees believed that the souls of bad men are punished after death but that the souls of good men are "removed into other bodies" and they will "have power to revive and live again." The Sadducees, the other prominent Jewish sect in Palestine, did not emphasize life after death and according to the Bible "say there is no resurrection" (Matthew 22:23). From what we have just discussed, it is clear that what Matthew really states is that the Sadducees "say there is no reincarnation".
The following are some the secret teachings of Jesus from the Gnostic gospels that affirm reincarnation, revealing the secret knowledge:
"Watch and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that you may leave the bitter bondage of this life." (Book of Thomas the Contender)
"When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas)
In the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells the disciple Thomas that after death those who were once believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory beauty" will be consumed "in their concern about life" and will be "brought back to the visible realm".
In the Secret Book of John, reincarnation is placed at the heart of its discussion of the salvation of souls. The book was written by 185 AD at the latest. Here is the Secret Book of John's perspective on reincarnation:
All people have drunk the water of forgetfulness and exist in a state of ignorance. Some are able to overcome ignorance through the Spirit of life that descends upon them. These souls "will be saved and will become perfect," that is, escape the round of rebirth. John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain salvation. They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and thrown into "prison", the Gnostic code word for new body. The only way for these souls to escape, says Jesus, is to emerge from forgetfulness and acquire knowledge. A soul in this situation can do so by finding a teacher or savior who has the strength to lead her home. "This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John)
Another Gnostic text, Pistis Sophia, outlines an elaborate system of reward and punishment that includes reincarnation. The text explains differences in fate as the effects of past-life actions. A "man who curses" is given a body that will be continually "troubled in heart". A "man who slanders" receives a body that will be "oppressed". A thief receives a "lame, crooked and blind body". A "proud" and "scornful" man receives "a lame and ugly body" that "everyone continually despises." Thus earth, as well as hell, becomes the place of punishment.
According to Pistis Sophia, some souls do experience hell as a shadowy place of torture where they go after death. But after passing through this hell, the souls return for further experiences on earth. Only a few extremely wicked souls are not allowed to reincarnate. These are cast into "outer darkness" until the time when they are destined to be "destroyed and dissolved".
Several Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and union with God. The Apocalypse of Paul, a second-century text, describes the Merkabah-style ascent of the apostle Paul as well as the reincarnation of a soul who was not ready for such an ascent. It shows how both reincarnation and ascents fit into Gnostic theology. Click here for Apocalypse of Paul to read more.
As Paul passes through the fourth heaven, he sees a soul being punished for murder. This soul is being whipped by angels who have brought him "out of the land of the dead" (earth). The soul calls three witnesses, who charge him with murder. The soul then looks down "in sorrow" and is "cast down" into a body that has been prepared for it. The text goes on to describe Paul's further journey through the heavens, a practice run for divine union.
Pistis Sophia combines the ideas of reincarnation and divine union in a passage that begins with the question: What happens to "a man who has committed no sin, but done good persistently, but has not found the mysteries?" The Pistis Sophia tells us that the soul of the good man who has not found the mysteries will receive "a cup filled with thoughts and wisdom." This will allow the soul to remember its divine origin and so to pursue the "mysteries of the Light" until it finds them and is able to "inherit the Light forever." To "inherit the Light forever" is a Gnostic code for union with God.
For the Gnostic Christians, resurrection was also a spiritual event - simply the awakening of the soul. They believed that people who experience the resurrection can experience eternal life, or union with God, while on earth and then after death, escape rebirth. People who don't experience the resurrection and union with God on earth will reincarnate. Jesus states the following the Gnostic Gospels:
"People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken. If they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip)
Paul writes in several places that resurrection involves a spirit body. Such a definition corresponds with spiritual resurrection and reincarnation:
"It [the dead body] is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:44)
"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Corinthians 15:50)
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ." (Colossians 2:13)
The Gnostics claimed their terminology was sprinkled through the Epistles. For example, the author of Ephesians uses the words "awake", "sleep" and "dead" in a Gnostic sense:
"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:13-14)
Some of the Greek words in the New Testament translated as "resurrection" also mean to "rise" or "awake". Therefore, argued the Gnostics, when Paul says people can be part of the resurrection, he is really saying that their souls can be awakened to the Spirit of God.
We know that in some passages Paul writes about the resurrection as a present rather than a future event:
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:3-11)
Colossians also seems to describe the resurrection as a present-day event:
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)
"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Colossians 3:9-10)
In the above passage, taking off the old self and putting on the new is a code for the resurrection, which, again, is described as a present-life event.
The Gnostic manuscripts present a clear, simple and strong vision of the resurrection. First, the Gospel of Thomas disabuses people of the notion that the resurrection is a future event:
"His followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?' He said to them, 'What you look for has come, but you do not know it.'" (Gospel of Thomas)
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is saying that the resurrection and the kingdom are already here. We simply do not realize it - or, in the Gnostic sense, we simply have not integrated with them.
Jesus explained the concept of resurrection before raising Lazarus from the dead:
"Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:23-26)
In these verses, Jesus tells Martha her brother Lazarus will "rise again". Martha mistakenly thinks Jesus means Lazarus will come out of his grave at Judgment Day. Jesus corrects her by stating that those who believe in Him will live, even before they die. Jesus is referring here to spiritual regeneration. Jesus also states that those who die believing in Him, will never die. This clearly implies reincarnation. The flip-side to this is that those who die not believing in Him, will have to die again (i.e. reincarnate). It is interesting to note that by raising Lazarus from death, Jesus is forcing Lazarus to live out the rest of his life only to die physically again. By raising Lazarus from death, Jesus seems to be demonstrating that one does not wait until Judgment Day to rise.
Jesus flatly tells Nicodemus:
"I tell you a truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)
Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus means by "born again":
"How can a person be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (John 3:4)
In response, Jesus states:
"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:5-6)
In context of these verses, Jesus is talking about the process of resurrection, that is, being born of water and being born of the Spirit. Jesus describes physical resurrection (to be born of water) and spiritual resurrection (to be born of the Spirit). They are two similar yet different processes. From these verses, the case can be made that Jesus taught the concept of resurrection as being physical rebirth as well as spiritual rebirth.
In the Apocryphal book Wisdom of Solomon, recognized by the Catholic Church, is the following verse:
"... I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)
This verse raises the following question: How is it possible to get a body after you have already been good if reincarnation is a fact?
Flavius Josephus records that the Essenes of the Dead Sea Scrolls lived "the same kind of life" as the followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who taught reincarnation. According to Josephus, the Essenes believed that the soul is both immortal and preexistent which is necessary for belief in reincarnation.
One scroll entitled "The Last Jubilee" mentions reincarnation. This scroll is about the "last days" during which time it says, a "Melchizedek redivivus" (reincarnate) will appear and destroy Belial (Satan) and lead the children of God to eternal forgiveness. Parts of this scroll has been unreadable and will be denoted by this '. . .' symbol. Here is it's message:
"Men will turn away in rebellion, and there will be a re-establishment of the reign of righteousness, perversity being confounded by the judgements of God. This is what scripture implies in the words, "Who says to Zion, your God has not claimed his Kingdom!" The term Zion there denoting the total congregation of the "sons of righteousness" that is, those who maintain the covenant and turn away from the popular trend, and your God signifying the King of Righteousness, alias Melchizedek Redivivus, who will destroy Belial. Our text speaks also of sounding a loud trumpet blast throughout the land on the tenth day of the seventh month. As applied to the last days, this refers to the fanfare which will then be sounded before the Messianic King." (The Last Jubilee)
Melchizedek was the High Priest described in the Bible. It is interesting to note that some early Christians believed Melchizedek to be an early incarnation of Jesus. If this is true and the above passage of the Dead Sea Scrolls can be believed, then the passage is very likely referring to Jesus Himself and His second coming.
The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that the Jewish mystical tradition of union with God went back to the first, if not the third, century before Christ. Jewish mysticism has its roots in Greek mysticism which espouced reincarnation. Some of the hymns found with the Dead Sea Scrolls are similar to the Hekhalot hymns sung by the Jewish mystics. One text gives us unmistakable evidence of Jewish mysticism. It is called "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice". Also, fragments of 1 Enoch, which is considered the oldest evidence of Jewish mysticism, were also found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since Jewish mysticism existed in the third century before Christ, as Enoch indicates, then it would certainly have been present in first-century Judaism. As stated earlier, this twin idea of divine union and reincarnation can be found in early Christianity and one can easily conclude that it was the key to the heart of Jesus' message.
Reincarnation has been a tenet for thousands of years for certain Jews and Christians. The Zohar is a work of great weight and authority among the Jews. In II, 199 b, it says that "all souls are subject to revolutions." This is metempsychosis or a'leen b'gilgoola; but it declares that "men do not know the way they have been judged in all time." That is, in their "revolutions" they lose a complete memory of the acts that have led to judgment. The Kether Malkuth says, "If she, the soul, be pure, then she shall obtain favor.. . but if she hath been defiled, then she shall wander for a time in pain and despair. . . until the days of her purification." If the soul be pure and if she comes at once from God at birth, how could she be defiled? And where is she to wander if not on this or some other world until the days of her purification? The Rabbis always explained it as meaning she wandered down from Paradise through many revolutions or births until purity was regained.
Under the name of "Din Gilgol Neshomes" the doctrine of reincarnation is constantly spoken of in the Talmud. The term means "the judgment of the revolutions of the souls." And Rabbi Manassa, son of Israel, one of the most revered, says in his book Nishmath Hayem: "The belief or the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is a firm and infallible dogma accepted by the whole assemblage of our church with one accord, so that there is none to be found who would dare to deny it. . . . Indeed, there is a great number of sages in Israel who hold firm to this doctrine so that they made it a dogma, a fundamental point of our religion. We are therefore in duty bound to obey and to accept this dogma with acclamation . . . as the truth of it has been incontestably demonstrated by the Zohar, and all books of the Kabalists."............from The Reluctant Messenger
"He [Jesus] told them, ' The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" (Mark 4:11-12)
"No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." (1 Corinthians 2:7)
"So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God." (1 Corinthians 4:1)
A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the Gnostic texts discovered, describes Jesus performing secret initiation rites. Before the discovery of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by Church Father Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 211 AD), which quotes this secret gospel and refers to it as "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected." He said, "It even yet is most carefully guarded [by the church at Alexandria], being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries." Clement insists elsewhere that Jesus revealed a secret teaching to those who were "capable of receiving it and being molded by it." Clement indicates that he possessed the secret tradition, which was handed down through the apostles. Such Gnostics were spiritual critics of the orthodox Church of what they saw as not so much a popularization as a vulgarization of Christianity. The orthodox church stressed faith, while the Gnostic church stressed knowledge (gnosis). This secret knowledge emphasized spiritual resurrection rather than physical resurrection. Indeed, the Gnostic Christians believed reincarnation to be the true interpretation of "resurrection" for those who have not attained a spiritual resurrection through this secret knowledge.
The New Testament talks about this gnosis (knowledge):
"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues." (1 Corinthians 12:7-10)
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." (Colossians 1:9)
The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that the Pharisees, the founders of rabbinic Judaism for whom Paul once belonged, believed in reincarnation. He writes that the Pharisees believed that the souls of bad men are punished after death but that the souls of good men are "removed into other bodies" and they will "have power to revive and live again." The Sadducees, the other prominent Jewish sect in Palestine, did not emphasize life after death and according to the Bible "say there is no resurrection" (Matthew 22:23). From what we have just discussed, it is clear that what Matthew really states is that the Sadducees "say there is no reincarnation".
The following are some the secret teachings of Jesus from the Gnostic gospels that affirm reincarnation, revealing the secret knowledge:
"Watch and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that you may leave the bitter bondage of this life." (Book of Thomas the Contender)
"When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas)
In the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells the disciple Thomas that after death those who were once believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory beauty" will be consumed "in their concern about life" and will be "brought back to the visible realm".
In the Secret Book of John, reincarnation is placed at the heart of its discussion of the salvation of souls. The book was written by 185 AD at the latest. Here is the Secret Book of John's perspective on reincarnation:
All people have drunk the water of forgetfulness and exist in a state of ignorance. Some are able to overcome ignorance through the Spirit of life that descends upon them. These souls "will be saved and will become perfect," that is, escape the round of rebirth. John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain salvation. They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and thrown into "prison", the Gnostic code word for new body. The only way for these souls to escape, says Jesus, is to emerge from forgetfulness and acquire knowledge. A soul in this situation can do so by finding a teacher or savior who has the strength to lead her home. "This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John)
Another Gnostic text, Pistis Sophia, outlines an elaborate system of reward and punishment that includes reincarnation. The text explains differences in fate as the effects of past-life actions. A "man who curses" is given a body that will be continually "troubled in heart". A "man who slanders" receives a body that will be "oppressed". A thief receives a "lame, crooked and blind body". A "proud" and "scornful" man receives "a lame and ugly body" that "everyone continually despises." Thus earth, as well as hell, becomes the place of punishment.
According to Pistis Sophia, some souls do experience hell as a shadowy place of torture where they go after death. But after passing through this hell, the souls return for further experiences on earth. Only a few extremely wicked souls are not allowed to reincarnate. These are cast into "outer darkness" until the time when they are destined to be "destroyed and dissolved".
Several Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and union with God. The Apocalypse of Paul, a second-century text, describes the Merkabah-style ascent of the apostle Paul as well as the reincarnation of a soul who was not ready for such an ascent. It shows how both reincarnation and ascents fit into Gnostic theology. Click here for Apocalypse of Paul to read more.
As Paul passes through the fourth heaven, he sees a soul being punished for murder. This soul is being whipped by angels who have brought him "out of the land of the dead" (earth). The soul calls three witnesses, who charge him with murder. The soul then looks down "in sorrow" and is "cast down" into a body that has been prepared for it. The text goes on to describe Paul's further journey through the heavens, a practice run for divine union.
Pistis Sophia combines the ideas of reincarnation and divine union in a passage that begins with the question: What happens to "a man who has committed no sin, but done good persistently, but has not found the mysteries?" The Pistis Sophia tells us that the soul of the good man who has not found the mysteries will receive "a cup filled with thoughts and wisdom." This will allow the soul to remember its divine origin and so to pursue the "mysteries of the Light" until it finds them and is able to "inherit the Light forever." To "inherit the Light forever" is a Gnostic code for union with God.
For the Gnostic Christians, resurrection was also a spiritual event - simply the awakening of the soul. They believed that people who experience the resurrection can experience eternal life, or union with God, while on earth and then after death, escape rebirth. People who don't experience the resurrection and union with God on earth will reincarnate. Jesus states the following the Gnostic Gospels:
"People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken. If they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip)
Paul writes in several places that resurrection involves a spirit body. Such a definition corresponds with spiritual resurrection and reincarnation:
"It [the dead body] is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:44)
"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Corinthians 15:50)
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ." (Colossians 2:13)
The Gnostics claimed their terminology was sprinkled through the Epistles. For example, the author of Ephesians uses the words "awake", "sleep" and "dead" in a Gnostic sense:
"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:13-14)
Some of the Greek words in the New Testament translated as "resurrection" also mean to "rise" or "awake". Therefore, argued the Gnostics, when Paul says people can be part of the resurrection, he is really saying that their souls can be awakened to the Spirit of God.
We know that in some passages Paul writes about the resurrection as a present rather than a future event:
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:3-11)
Colossians also seems to describe the resurrection as a present-day event:
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)
"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Colossians 3:9-10)
In the above passage, taking off the old self and putting on the new is a code for the resurrection, which, again, is described as a present-life event.
The Gnostic manuscripts present a clear, simple and strong vision of the resurrection. First, the Gospel of Thomas disabuses people of the notion that the resurrection is a future event:
"His followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?' He said to them, 'What you look for has come, but you do not know it.'" (Gospel of Thomas)
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is saying that the resurrection and the kingdom are already here. We simply do not realize it - or, in the Gnostic sense, we simply have not integrated with them.
Jesus explained the concept of resurrection before raising Lazarus from the dead:
"Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:23-26)
In these verses, Jesus tells Martha her brother Lazarus will "rise again". Martha mistakenly thinks Jesus means Lazarus will come out of his grave at Judgment Day. Jesus corrects her by stating that those who believe in Him will live, even before they die. Jesus is referring here to spiritual regeneration. Jesus also states that those who die believing in Him, will never die. This clearly implies reincarnation. The flip-side to this is that those who die not believing in Him, will have to die again (i.e. reincarnate). It is interesting to note that by raising Lazarus from death, Jesus is forcing Lazarus to live out the rest of his life only to die physically again. By raising Lazarus from death, Jesus seems to be demonstrating that one does not wait until Judgment Day to rise.
Jesus flatly tells Nicodemus:
"I tell you a truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)
Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus means by "born again":
"How can a person be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (John 3:4)
In response, Jesus states:
"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:5-6)
In context of these verses, Jesus is talking about the process of resurrection, that is, being born of water and being born of the Spirit. Jesus describes physical resurrection (to be born of water) and spiritual resurrection (to be born of the Spirit). They are two similar yet different processes. From these verses, the case can be made that Jesus taught the concept of resurrection as being physical rebirth as well as spiritual rebirth.
In the Apocryphal book Wisdom of Solomon, recognized by the Catholic Church, is the following verse:
"... I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)
This verse raises the following question: How is it possible to get a body after you have already been good if reincarnation is a fact?
Flavius Josephus records that the Essenes of the Dead Sea Scrolls lived "the same kind of life" as the followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who taught reincarnation. According to Josephus, the Essenes believed that the soul is both immortal and preexistent which is necessary for belief in reincarnation.
One scroll entitled "The Last Jubilee" mentions reincarnation. This scroll is about the "last days" during which time it says, a "Melchizedek redivivus" (reincarnate) will appear and destroy Belial (Satan) and lead the children of God to eternal forgiveness. Parts of this scroll has been unreadable and will be denoted by this '. . .' symbol. Here is it's message:
"Men will turn away in rebellion, and there will be a re-establishment of the reign of righteousness, perversity being confounded by the judgements of God. This is what scripture implies in the words, "Who says to Zion, your God has not claimed his Kingdom!" The term Zion there denoting the total congregation of the "sons of righteousness" that is, those who maintain the covenant and turn away from the popular trend, and your God signifying the King of Righteousness, alias Melchizedek Redivivus, who will destroy Belial. Our text speaks also of sounding a loud trumpet blast throughout the land on the tenth day of the seventh month. As applied to the last days, this refers to the fanfare which will then be sounded before the Messianic King." (The Last Jubilee)
Melchizedek was the High Priest described in the Bible. It is interesting to note that some early Christians believed Melchizedek to be an early incarnation of Jesus. If this is true and the above passage of the Dead Sea Scrolls can be believed, then the passage is very likely referring to Jesus Himself and His second coming.
The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that the Jewish mystical tradition of union with God went back to the first, if not the third, century before Christ. Jewish mysticism has its roots in Greek mysticism which espouced reincarnation. Some of the hymns found with the Dead Sea Scrolls are similar to the Hekhalot hymns sung by the Jewish mystics. One text gives us unmistakable evidence of Jewish mysticism. It is called "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice". Also, fragments of 1 Enoch, which is considered the oldest evidence of Jewish mysticism, were also found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since Jewish mysticism existed in the third century before Christ, as Enoch indicates, then it would certainly have been present in first-century Judaism. As stated earlier, this twin idea of divine union and reincarnation can be found in early Christianity and one can easily conclude that it was the key to the heart of Jesus' message.
Reincarnation has been a tenet for thousands of years for certain Jews and Christians. The Zohar is a work of great weight and authority among the Jews. In II, 199 b, it says that "all souls are subject to revolutions." This is metempsychosis or a'leen b'gilgoola; but it declares that "men do not know the way they have been judged in all time." That is, in their "revolutions" they lose a complete memory of the acts that have led to judgment. The Kether Malkuth says, "If she, the soul, be pure, then she shall obtain favor.. . but if she hath been defiled, then she shall wander for a time in pain and despair. . . until the days of her purification." If the soul be pure and if she comes at once from God at birth, how could she be defiled? And where is she to wander if not on this or some other world until the days of her purification? The Rabbis always explained it as meaning she wandered down from Paradise through many revolutions or births until purity was regained.
Under the name of "Din Gilgol Neshomes" the doctrine of reincarnation is constantly spoken of in the Talmud. The term means "the judgment of the revolutions of the souls." And Rabbi Manassa, son of Israel, one of the most revered, says in his book Nishmath Hayem: "The belief or the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is a firm and infallible dogma accepted by the whole assemblage of our church with one accord, so that there is none to be found who would dare to deny it. . . . Indeed, there is a great number of sages in Israel who hold firm to this doctrine so that they made it a dogma, a fundamental point of our religion. We are therefore in duty bound to obey and to accept this dogma with acclamation . . . as the truth of it has been incontestably demonstrated by the Zohar, and all books of the Kabalists."............from The Reluctant Messenger
Why did Jesus speak in Parables?...
when one studies the teachings of Christ, as recorded in the New Testament, he never claimed that he came to die for the sins of mankind or even that he came to save everyone at that time. In actuality, he on purposely cloaked his teaching in parables to prevent the masses from understanding the true meaning of his teachings.
Matthew 13 10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 11 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. NIV ...........from The Reluctant Messenger
Matthew 13 10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 11 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. NIV ...........from The Reluctant Messenger
Freedom of Will....
If freedom of will is utter illusion we have to ask ourselves why the Buddha, greatest of all advocates of the truth of inexorable karma, and whose enlightenment is incontestable, gave as his dying legacy to disciples the words, "Work out your own salvation." If this is not a call to the use of will, of a free will, what is? It is hard for Westerners to accept a doctrine of complete fatalism, and the difficulty is not wholly due to their ignorance of spiritual facts which are elementary to Indians. It is also due to their instinctive refusal to be robbed of their initiative, and to their insistence on moral responsibility for ethical decisions and actions.
— Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 4: Free Will, Responsibility, and The World-Idea > # 64 Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 4: Free Will, Responsibility, and The World-Idea > # 64 Paul Brunton
Original Mind...
The Sutra says, "To behold the Buddha nature you must wait for the right moment and the right conditions. When the time comes, you are awakened as if from a dream. You realize that what you have found is your own and doesn't come from anywhere outside." An ancient patriarch said, "After enlightenment you are still the same as you were before. There is no mind and there is no truth." You are simply free from unreality and delusion. The ordinary person's mind is the same as the sage's, because Original Mind is perfect and complete in itself. When you have arrived at this recognition, please hold on to it.
~ Pai-Chang [720-814]
Truth is perfect and complete in itself. It is not something newly discovered; it has always existed.
Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.
Don't follow the advice of others; rather, learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become one, and you will realize the unity of all things.
Even the slightest movement of your conceptual thought will prevent you from entering the palace of wisdom.
~ Dogen [1200-1253]
~ Pai-Chang [720-814]
Truth is perfect and complete in itself. It is not something newly discovered; it has always existed.
Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.
Don't follow the advice of others; rather, learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become one, and you will realize the unity of all things.
Even the slightest movement of your conceptual thought will prevent you from entering the palace of wisdom.
~ Dogen [1200-1253]
The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj...
"It is the clinging to the false that makes the true so difficult to
see. Once you understand that the false needs time and what needs
time is false, you are nearer the Reality, which is timeless, ever in
the now. Eternity in time is mere repetitiveness, like the movement
of a clock. It flows from the past into the future endlessly, as
empty perpetuity. Reality is what makes the present so vital, so
different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you
need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always
with you; you need not wait to be what you are. Only you must not
allow your mind to go out of yourself in search. When you want
something, ask yourself: do I really need it? and if the answer is
not, then just drop it."
see. Once you understand that the false needs time and what needs
time is false, you are nearer the Reality, which is timeless, ever in
the now. Eternity in time is mere repetitiveness, like the movement
of a clock. It flows from the past into the future endlessly, as
empty perpetuity. Reality is what makes the present so vital, so
different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you
need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always
with you; you need not wait to be what you are. Only you must not
allow your mind to go out of yourself in search. When you want
something, ask yourself: do I really need it? and if the answer is
not, then just drop it."
Relationships True Love and the Transcendence of Duality
"When the ego singles something out and says "I love" this or that, it's an unconscious attempt to cover up or remove the deep-seated feelings that always accompany the ego: the discontent, the unhappiness, the sense of insufficiency that is so familiar. For a little while, the illusion actually works. Then inevitably, at some point, the person you singled out, or made special in your eyes, fails to function as a cover up for your pain, hate, discontent or unhappiness which all have their origin in that sense of insufficiency and incompleteness. Then, out comes the feeling that was covered up, and it gets projected onto the person that had been singled out and made special – who you thought would ultimately "save you." Suddenly love turns to hate. The ego doesn't realize that the hatred is a projection of the universal pain that you feel inside. The ego believes that this person is causing the pain. It doesn't realize that the pain is the universal feeling of not being connected with the deeper level of your being - not being at one with yourself. " Eckhart Tolle
Recognized...
The spiritual self, the Overself, has never been lost. What has happened is that its being has not been recognized, covered over as it is with a multitude of thoughts, desires, and egocentricities.
— Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 1....Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 1....Paul Brunton
Consciousness...
Could God have made consciousness? No, because God would need to be conscious in order to make anything. Therefore, Consciousness exists as the infinite and eternal Substance of God. So I am conscious by virtue of the fact that God-consciousness is infinite. God-consciousness is individualized as my consciousness. God-consciousness is the infinite and eternal I of God, therefore that I is the consciousness that I am. So whatever is true of God is true of the consciousness that I am. "Son, thou are ever with me, and all that I have is yours."
-Robert Pilato
-Robert Pilato
Bhagavad Gita...chapter five
Arjuna asked: O Krishna, You praise the path of transcendental knowledge, and also the path of performance of selfless service (Karma-yoga). Tell me, definitely, which one is the better of the two paths. (See also 5.05) (5.01)
Lord Krishna said: The path of Self-knowledge and the path of selfless service both lead to the supreme goal. But, of the two, the path of selfless service is superior to path of Self-knowledge, because it is easier to practice. (5.02)
A person should be considered a true renunciant who has neither attachment nor aversion for anything. One is easily liberated from Karmic bondage by becoming free from attachment and aversion. (5.03)
BOTH PATHS LEAD TO SUPREME
The ignorant — not the wise — consider the path of Self-knowledge and the path of selfless service (Karma-yoga) as different from each other. The person, who has truly mastered one, gets the benefits of both. (5.04)
Whatever goal a renunciant reaches, a Karma-yogi also reaches the same goal. Therefore, the one who sees the path of renunciation and the path of unselfish work as the same really sees. (See also 6.01 and 6.02) (5.05)
But, true renunciation, O Arjuna, is difficult to attain without Karma-yoga. A sage equipped with Karma-yoga quickly attains Nirvana. (See also 4.31, and 4.38) (5.06)
A Karma-yogi, whose mind is pure, whose mind and senses are under control, and who sees one and the same Spirit in all beings, is not bound by Karma though engaged in work. (5.07)
A TRANSCENDENTALIST DOES NOT CONSIDER ONESELF AS THE DOER
The wise who knows the truth thinks: "I do nothing at all." In seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing; and speaking, giving, taking, as well as opening and closing the eyes, the wise believes that only the senses are operating upon their objects. (See also 3.27, 13.29, and 14.19) (5.08-09)
A KARMA-YOGI WORKS FOR GOD
One who does all work as an offering to God — abandoning selfish attachment to results — remains untouched by Karmic reaction or sin as a lotus leaf never gets wet by water. (5.10)
The Karma-yogis perform action ¾ without selfish attachment ¾ with their body, mind, intellect, and senses only for the purification of their mind and intellect. (5.11)
A Karma-yogi attains Supreme Bliss by abandoning attachment to the fruits of work; while others, who are attached to the fruits of work, become bound by selfish work. (5.12)
THE PATH OF KNOWLEDGE
A person, who has completely renounced the fruits of all works, dwells happily in the City of Nine Gates, neither performing nor directing action. (5.13)
The Lord neither creates the urge for action, nor the feeling of doership, nor the attachment to the results of action in people. The powers of material Nature do all these. (5.14)
The Lord does not take the responsibility for the good or evil deeds of anybody. The veil of ignorance covers the Self-knowledge; thereby people become deluded and do evil deeds. (5.15)
Transcendental knowledge destroys the ignorance of the Spirit and reveals the Supreme Being just as the sun reveals the beauty of objects of the world. (5.16)
Persons, whose mind and intellect are totally merged in the Supreme Being, who are firmly devoted to the Supreme, who have God as their supreme goal and sole refuge, and whose impurities are destroyed by the knowledge of the self, do not take birth again. (5.17)
ADDITIONAL MARKS OF AN ENLIGHTENED PERSON
An enlightened person — by perceiving God in all — looks at a learned person, an outcast, even a cow, an elephant, or a dog with an equal eye. (See also 6.29) (5.18)
Everything has been accomplished in this very life by the one whose mind is set in equality. Such a person has realized the Supreme Being, because the Supreme Being is flawless and impartial. (See also 18.55) (5.19)
One who neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant, nor grieves on obtaining the unpleasant, who has a steady mind, who is undeluded, and who is a knower of the Supreme Being, such a person eternally abides with the Supreme Being. (5.20)
Such a person who is in union with the Supreme Being becomes unattached to external sensual pleasures by discovering the joy of the Self through contemplation, and enjoys transcendental bliss. (5.21)
Sensual pleasures are verily the source of misery, and have a beginning and an end. Therefore the wise, O Arjuna, does not rejoice in sensual pleasures. (See also 18.38) (5.22)
One who is able to withstand the impulse of lust and anger before death is a yogi, and a happy person. (5.23)
One who finds happiness with the Supreme Being, who rejoices Supreme Being within, and who is illuminated by Self-knowledge; such a yogi attains Nirvana, and goes to the Supreme Being. (5.24)
Seers, whose sins (or imperfections) are destroyed, whose doubts have been dispelled by Self-knowledge, whose minds are disciplined, and who are engaged in the welfare of all beings, attain the Supreme Being. (5.25)
Those who are free from lust and anger, who have subdued the mind and senses, and who have known the Self, easily attain Nirvana. (5.26)
THE THIRD PATH ¾ THE PATH OF DEVOTIONAL MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION
A sage is verily liberated by renouncing all sense enjoyments, fixing the eyes and the mind at an imaginary black dot between the eye brows, equalizing the breath moving through the nostrils by using yogic techniques, keeping the senses, mind, and intellect under control, having salvation as the prime goal, and by becoming free from lust, anger, and fear. (5.27-28)
My devotee attains peace by knowing the Supreme Being as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, as the great Lord of the entire universe, and as the friend of all beings. (5.29)
Lord Krishna said: The path of Self-knowledge and the path of selfless service both lead to the supreme goal. But, of the two, the path of selfless service is superior to path of Self-knowledge, because it is easier to practice. (5.02)
A person should be considered a true renunciant who has neither attachment nor aversion for anything. One is easily liberated from Karmic bondage by becoming free from attachment and aversion. (5.03)
BOTH PATHS LEAD TO SUPREME
The ignorant — not the wise — consider the path of Self-knowledge and the path of selfless service (Karma-yoga) as different from each other. The person, who has truly mastered one, gets the benefits of both. (5.04)
Whatever goal a renunciant reaches, a Karma-yogi also reaches the same goal. Therefore, the one who sees the path of renunciation and the path of unselfish work as the same really sees. (See also 6.01 and 6.02) (5.05)
But, true renunciation, O Arjuna, is difficult to attain without Karma-yoga. A sage equipped with Karma-yoga quickly attains Nirvana. (See also 4.31, and 4.38) (5.06)
A Karma-yogi, whose mind is pure, whose mind and senses are under control, and who sees one and the same Spirit in all beings, is not bound by Karma though engaged in work. (5.07)
A TRANSCENDENTALIST DOES NOT CONSIDER ONESELF AS THE DOER
The wise who knows the truth thinks: "I do nothing at all." In seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing; and speaking, giving, taking, as well as opening and closing the eyes, the wise believes that only the senses are operating upon their objects. (See also 3.27, 13.29, and 14.19) (5.08-09)
A KARMA-YOGI WORKS FOR GOD
One who does all work as an offering to God — abandoning selfish attachment to results — remains untouched by Karmic reaction or sin as a lotus leaf never gets wet by water. (5.10)
The Karma-yogis perform action ¾ without selfish attachment ¾ with their body, mind, intellect, and senses only for the purification of their mind and intellect. (5.11)
A Karma-yogi attains Supreme Bliss by abandoning attachment to the fruits of work; while others, who are attached to the fruits of work, become bound by selfish work. (5.12)
THE PATH OF KNOWLEDGE
A person, who has completely renounced the fruits of all works, dwells happily in the City of Nine Gates, neither performing nor directing action. (5.13)
The Lord neither creates the urge for action, nor the feeling of doership, nor the attachment to the results of action in people. The powers of material Nature do all these. (5.14)
The Lord does not take the responsibility for the good or evil deeds of anybody. The veil of ignorance covers the Self-knowledge; thereby people become deluded and do evil deeds. (5.15)
Transcendental knowledge destroys the ignorance of the Spirit and reveals the Supreme Being just as the sun reveals the beauty of objects of the world. (5.16)
Persons, whose mind and intellect are totally merged in the Supreme Being, who are firmly devoted to the Supreme, who have God as their supreme goal and sole refuge, and whose impurities are destroyed by the knowledge of the self, do not take birth again. (5.17)
ADDITIONAL MARKS OF AN ENLIGHTENED PERSON
An enlightened person — by perceiving God in all — looks at a learned person, an outcast, even a cow, an elephant, or a dog with an equal eye. (See also 6.29) (5.18)
Everything has been accomplished in this very life by the one whose mind is set in equality. Such a person has realized the Supreme Being, because the Supreme Being is flawless and impartial. (See also 18.55) (5.19)
One who neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant, nor grieves on obtaining the unpleasant, who has a steady mind, who is undeluded, and who is a knower of the Supreme Being, such a person eternally abides with the Supreme Being. (5.20)
Such a person who is in union with the Supreme Being becomes unattached to external sensual pleasures by discovering the joy of the Self through contemplation, and enjoys transcendental bliss. (5.21)
Sensual pleasures are verily the source of misery, and have a beginning and an end. Therefore the wise, O Arjuna, does not rejoice in sensual pleasures. (See also 18.38) (5.22)
One who is able to withstand the impulse of lust and anger before death is a yogi, and a happy person. (5.23)
One who finds happiness with the Supreme Being, who rejoices Supreme Being within, and who is illuminated by Self-knowledge; such a yogi attains Nirvana, and goes to the Supreme Being. (5.24)
Seers, whose sins (or imperfections) are destroyed, whose doubts have been dispelled by Self-knowledge, whose minds are disciplined, and who are engaged in the welfare of all beings, attain the Supreme Being. (5.25)
Those who are free from lust and anger, who have subdued the mind and senses, and who have known the Self, easily attain Nirvana. (5.26)
THE THIRD PATH ¾ THE PATH OF DEVOTIONAL MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION
A sage is verily liberated by renouncing all sense enjoyments, fixing the eyes and the mind at an imaginary black dot between the eye brows, equalizing the breath moving through the nostrils by using yogic techniques, keeping the senses, mind, and intellect under control, having salvation as the prime goal, and by becoming free from lust, anger, and fear. (5.27-28)
My devotee attains peace by knowing the Supreme Being as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, as the great Lord of the entire universe, and as the friend of all beings. (5.29)
The Christines at Tiberius. Jesus speaks on the inner life. Relates the parable of the prodigal son. The resentment of the elder brother.
WHEN they had journeyed through the towns and cities of the land of Galilee, the Lord with his disciples came to Tiberius, and here they met a few who loved the name of Christ. 2 And Jesus told them many things about the inner life; but when the multitudes came up, he spoke a parable; he said, 3 A ceratin man with great possessions had two sons. The youngest son grew tired of life at home and said, 4 My father, pray divide your wealth and give the portion that is mine to me, and I will seek my fortune in another land. 5 The father did as he desired, and with his wealth the young man went into a foreign land. 6 He was a profligate and soon had squandered all his wealth in ways of sin. 7 When nothing else remained for him to do he found employment in the fields to care for swine. 8 And he was hungry, and no one gave him aught to eat, and so he ate the carob pods that he was feeding to the swine. 9 And after many days he found himself and said unto himself, My father is a man of wealth; he has a score of servants who are bountifully fed while I, his son, am starving in the fields among the swine. 10 I do not hope to be received again as son, but I will rise and go straight to my father's house, and I will make confession of my waywardness; 11 And I will say, My father, I am come again; I am profligate, and I have lost my wealth in ways of sin; I am not worthy to be called your son. 12 I do not ask to be received again as son, but let me have a place among your servants, where I may have a shelter from the storms and have enough to eat. 13 And he arose and sought his father's house, and as he came his mother saw him while yet a great way off. 14 (A mother's heart can feel the first faint yearning of a wandering child.) 15 The father came, and hand in hand they walked a-down the way to meet the boy, and there was joy, great joy. 16 The boy tried hard to plead for mercy and a servant's place; but love was all too great to listen to the plea. 17 The door was opened wide; he found a welcome in the mother's heart, and in the father's heart. 18 The father called the servants in, and bade them bring the finest robe for him; the choicest sandals for his feet; a ring of purest gold for him to wear. 19 And then the father said, My servants, go and kill the fatted calf; prepare a feast, for we are glad; 20 Our son we thought was dead is here alive; a treasure that we thought was lost is found. 21 The feast was soon prepared and all were merry, when the eldest son who had been serving in a distant field and knew not that his brother had returned, came home. 22 And when he learned the cause of all the merriment he was offended, and would not go into the house. 23 His father and his mother both besought him tearfully to disregard the waywardness and folly of their son; but he would not; he said, 24 Lo, all these years I have remained at home, have served you every day, have never yet transgressed your most severe commands; 25 And yet you never killed for me a kid, nor made for me a simple feast that I might make merry with my friends; 26 But when your son, this profligate, who has gone forth and squandered half your wealth in ways of sin, comes home, because he could do nothing else, you kill for him the fatted calf and make a wondrous feast. 27 His father said, My son, all that I have is yours and you are ever with us in our joys; 28 And it is well to show our gladness when your brother, who is near and dear to us, and who we thought was dead, returns to us alive. 29 He may have been a profligate; may have consorted with gay courtesans and thieves, yet he is still your brother and our son. 30 Then JEsus said so all might hear; He who has ears to hear, and hearts to understand will comprehend the meaning of this parable. 31 Then Jesus and the twelve came to Capernaum..... from the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi
THE FOURTEEN PRECEPTS OF ENGAGED BUDDHISM - By Venerable Thich Nhat
1
Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.
2
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
3
Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.
4
Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
5
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
6
Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
7
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
8
Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
9
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
10
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
11
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
12
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
13
Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
14
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.
From the book 'Interbeing': Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, revised edition: Oct. l993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California
Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and the author of Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness, and many other books. He lives in a monastic community in south-western France called Plum Village, where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees world-wide. He conducts retreats throughout the world on the art of mindful living, and has conducted special retreats for American Vietnam War veterans, psychotherapists, artists, environmental activists and children.
Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.
2
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
3
Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.
4
Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
5
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
6
Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
7
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
8
Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
9
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
10
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
11
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
12
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
13
Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
14
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.
From the book 'Interbeing': Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, revised edition: Oct. l993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California
Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and the author of Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness, and many other books. He lives in a monastic community in south-western France called Plum Village, where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees world-wide. He conducts retreats throughout the world on the art of mindful living, and has conducted special retreats for American Vietnam War veterans, psychotherapists, artists, environmental activists and children.
Memory...
Memory comes up in the form of thoughts and images in the present moment like any other thought activity. So memory is a form of thought. Memories are present thoughts that arise and pass in the present-moment awareness. Practically speaking, memory seems to be a function that ties together, coordinate and recalls former thoughts. It appears to store concepts and images and bring them forth. Conditioned beliefs, such as being a separate self and all the related identifications, survive in memory. Without memory they have no substance, no continuity, no real existence. So, in a sense, you can say that all our problems are due to the capacity of memory. All our beliefs, points of view and assumptions appear to be stored there. Further the reference point of a fixed "I", thinker or self only resides in memory.
John Wheeler
Memory pp 22-23
You Were Never Born
John Wheeler
Memory pp 22-23
You Were Never Born
Rest...
Jesus' saying "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" means: "Cast aside your burden of attachments, desires, thoughts; then the real I-nature will alone be left, and you will have true peace, rest from the ego's heaviness."
— Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 3: Practise Detachmen...Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 3: Practise Detachmen...Paul Brunton
Advancement of the Mystic...
The excessive joy and throbbing ecstasy of which the annals of
mysticism so often speak belong mostly to the novice and intermediate.
The truly advanced man experiences quite the contrary, which is a deep
sadness, although it never shakes his unalterable serenity. This is
because the first two are primarily preoccupied with their personal
feelings whereas the third has also brought compassion for all mankind
within the orbit of his outlook.
— Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 2: Phases of
Mystical Development > # 59...Paul Brunton
mysticism so often speak belong mostly to the novice and intermediate.
The truly advanced man experiences quite the contrary, which is a deep
sadness, although it never shakes his unalterable serenity. This is
because the first two are primarily preoccupied with their personal
feelings whereas the third has also brought compassion for all mankind
within the orbit of his outlook.
— Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 2: Phases of
Mystical Development > # 59...Paul Brunton
To Let Go...
To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means
the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live today. ..........Author Unknown
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means
the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live today. ..........Author Unknown
Claiming yourself...
Consciously claim yourself to be that which you seek; appropriate the consciousness of that which you see; and you too will know the status of the true mystic...
~ Neville Goddard, Your Faith is Your Fortune
Take your business as it is, child, and praise Divine Love that there is a strong, wise way out of your dilemma.
~ Emma Curtis Hopkins, Bible Interpretations
~ Neville Goddard, Your Faith is Your Fortune
Take your business as it is, child, and praise Divine Love that there is a strong, wise way out of your dilemma.
~ Emma Curtis Hopkins, Bible Interpretations
I Am that I Am...
Only Presence can free you of the ego, and you can only be present Now, not yesterday or tomorrow.
Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think, or feel is ultimately not who I am, that I cannot find myself in all those things that continuously pass away. The Buddha was probably the first human being to see this clearly, and so "anata" [no self] became one of the central points of his teaching. And when Jesus said, "Deny thyself," what he meant was: Negate [and thus undo] the illusion of self.
Can I sense my essential Beingness, the I Am, in the background of my life at all times? To be more accurate, can I sense the I Am that I Am at this moment? Can I sense my essential identity as consciousness itself? Or am I losing myself in what happens, losing myself in the mind, in the world?
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spiritual truth will rise up until there is nothing else in our consciousness except the presence of Spirit and Its inspiration.
~ Linda McNamar
Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think, or feel is ultimately not who I am, that I cannot find myself in all those things that continuously pass away. The Buddha was probably the first human being to see this clearly, and so "anata" [no self] became one of the central points of his teaching. And when Jesus said, "Deny thyself," what he meant was: Negate [and thus undo] the illusion of self.
Can I sense my essential Beingness, the I Am, in the background of my life at all times? To be more accurate, can I sense the I Am that I Am at this moment? Can I sense my essential identity as consciousness itself? Or am I losing myself in what happens, losing myself in the mind, in the world?
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spiritual truth will rise up until there is nothing else in our consciousness except the presence of Spirit and Its inspiration.
~ Linda McNamar
The "World Idea"...
Student: But the thing is, I have my experience of my world and you have your
experience, but somehow they are similar. So there must be some higher faculty
that coordinates that.
Anthony: Yes... the World Idea superimposes itself simultaneously on all minds
and that is why we have a
similarity of experience. But make no mistake about it: when I have pain you
don't experience it. It is mine. And I can't give it to you, no matter what I
do.
As soon as you say, well when I die then the world
goes on for others. Well, sure, their mind is presenting the world to them, to
each and every one. Each and every one has his own mind and that mind is
presenting the world to him. The world is being presented to each individual
mind.
So I would be perfectly justified in saying the only
thing I know is what my mind presents to me. So when I look at you, you are (so
to speak) a thought in my mind. And likewise, when you look at me I am a
thought in your mind.
This doesn't cancel out what we're saying, when we say that each person's
experience is of his mind -- as a matter of fact it reinforces it.
The point is, that they think that there is going to be a world. If you took
away all minds, would there still be a world? It is nonsense, because the only
way you can speak about a world is if there is a mind there that is observing
it. If you take away the observer, then what are you talking about?
...Einstein... said the observer enters into every observation, which means that
the observation and the observer are united. You can't have one without the
other.
-- Anthony Damiani and student August 1983
experience, but somehow they are similar. So there must be some higher faculty
that coordinates that.
Anthony: Yes... the World Idea superimposes itself simultaneously on all minds
and that is why we have a
similarity of experience. But make no mistake about it: when I have pain you
don't experience it. It is mine. And I can't give it to you, no matter what I
do.
As soon as you say, well when I die then the world
goes on for others. Well, sure, their mind is presenting the world to them, to
each and every one. Each and every one has his own mind and that mind is
presenting the world to him. The world is being presented to each individual
mind.
So I would be perfectly justified in saying the only
thing I know is what my mind presents to me. So when I look at you, you are (so
to speak) a thought in my mind. And likewise, when you look at me I am a
thought in your mind.
This doesn't cancel out what we're saying, when we say that each person's
experience is of his mind -- as a matter of fact it reinforces it.
The point is, that they think that there is going to be a world. If you took
away all minds, would there still be a world? It is nonsense, because the only
way you can speak about a world is if there is a mind there that is observing
it. If you take away the observer, then what are you talking about?
...Einstein... said the observer enters into every observation, which means that
the observation and the observer are united. You can't have one without the
other.
-- Anthony Damiani and student August 1983
Thought is Violence...
Thought is violence because it is trying to protect itself. There is a basic contradiction in what the body demands and the movement of the thought which is interested in self-perpetuation. There is no such thing as you and me. The totality has created you and me. You have no isolated existence. The demand of being an individual is the real cause of suffering. The "how" is absent for me. The "hows" dished out in the market-place are not for me. The one who is living doesn't ask how to live.
U.G. Krishnamurti
U.G. Krishnamurti
Mortal Progression...
..The entire ascendant plan of mortal progression is characterized by the practice of giving out to other beings new truth and experience just as soon as acquired.... P.339
Truth, Beauty & Goodness
from The Urantia Book
Truth, Beauty & Goodness
from The Urantia Book
The Holy Spirit....
..The dead theory of even the highest religious doctrines is powerless to transform human character or to control mortal behavior. What the world of today needs is the truth which your teacher of old declared: "Not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit...." P.380 - §7
Truth, Beauty & Goodness
from The Urantia Book
Truth, Beauty & Goodness
from The Urantia Book
You Are What You Think You Are...
Your future will be consistent with your self image. You can change your future by changing your self image.
Most of us have a self-image and we live life consistent with that image. All our actions and decisions are influenced by what we think we can or cannot do or achieve. Our self image is our judgments and beliefs regarding our capabilities. Whenever we are faced by any action, decision or planning we evaluate each possibility with our self image and move forward accordingly; "I think I can do this...", "I can't do this...", "I can never become a ...", "I am sure, that one day I will...".
Our self image is shaped primarily by our past experiences - successes and failures, feedback and comments received from others, our upbringing and childhood events. If you carefully analyze your self-image you will be surprised to find that many of its aspects are shaped by a single event, or comment. You will find that many significant aspects have been shaped by experiences that now seem very insignificant and almost forgotten, yet they have had a permanent effect on your self image...Full Article: http://www.letstalkinsights.com/2008/02/you-are-what-you-think-you-are.html
Regards
Aseem
Most of us have a self-image and we live life consistent with that image. All our actions and decisions are influenced by what we think we can or cannot do or achieve. Our self image is our judgments and beliefs regarding our capabilities. Whenever we are faced by any action, decision or planning we evaluate each possibility with our self image and move forward accordingly; "I think I can do this...", "I can't do this...", "I can never become a ...", "I am sure, that one day I will...".
Our self image is shaped primarily by our past experiences - successes and failures, feedback and comments received from others, our upbringing and childhood events. If you carefully analyze your self-image you will be surprised to find that many of its aspects are shaped by a single event, or comment. You will find that many significant aspects have been shaped by experiences that now seem very insignificant and almost forgotten, yet they have had a permanent effect on your self image...Full Article: http://www.letstalkinsights.com/2008/02/you-are-what-you-think-you-are.html
Regards
Aseem
Inner body Awareness...
If you are not familiar with "inner body" awareness, close your eyes for a moment and find out if there is life inside you hands. Don't ask your mind. It will say, "I can't feel anything." Probably it will also say, "Give me something more interesting to think about." So instead of asking your mind, go to the hands directly. By this I mean become aware of the subtle feeling of aliveness inside them. It is there. You just have to go there with your attention to notice it. You may get a slight tingling sensation at first, then a feeling of energy or aliveness. If you hold your attention in your hands for a while, the sense of aliveness will intensify. Some people won't have to close their eyes. They will be able to feel their "inner hands" at the same time as they read this. Then go to your feet, keep your attention there for a minute or so, and begin to feel your hands and feet at the same time. Then incorporate other parts of the body~ legs, arms, abdomen, chest, and so on~ into that feeling until you are aware of the inner body as a global sense of aliveness..
What I call the "inner body" isn't really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. After a while, you won't need to close your eyes anymore to feel it. For example, see if you can feel the inner body whenever you listen to someone. It almost seems like a paradox: When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your mind. This is to say, you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form-identification toward formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself.
~ Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth
What I call the "inner body" isn't really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. After a while, you won't need to close your eyes anymore to feel it. For example, see if you can feel the inner body whenever you listen to someone. It almost seems like a paradox: When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your mind. This is to say, you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form-identification toward formlessness, which we may also call Being. It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself.
~ Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth
The Grandest Publication..
His inner state will not be easily discernible to others, unless
they happen to be the few who are themselves sufficiently advanced and
sufficiently sensitive to appreciate it. Yet it is his duty to
announce the glorious news of its discovery, to publish the titanic
fact of its existence. But he will do so in his own way, according to
his own characteristics and circumstances. He will not need to
announce it in a speech, or print it in a book; he will not publish
the fact in daily newspapers or shout it from the housetops. His whole
life will be the best announcement, the grandest publication.(P)
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter
4: The Sage's Service > # 58 Paul Brunton
they happen to be the few who are themselves sufficiently advanced and
sufficiently sensitive to appreciate it. Yet it is his duty to
announce the glorious news of its discovery, to publish the titanic
fact of its existence. But he will do so in his own way, according to
his own characteristics and circumstances. He will not need to
announce it in a speech, or print it in a book; he will not publish
the fact in daily newspapers or shout it from the housetops. His whole
life will be the best announcement, the grandest publication.(P)
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter
4: The Sage's Service > # 58 Paul Brunton
Fwd: [ANetofJewels] The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"You need both clarity and earnestness for self-knowledge. You need
maturity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in
daily life of whatever little you have understood. There is no such
thing as compromise in Yoga. If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly
and openly. Sins too have their lessons to teach the earnest sinner,
as virtues - the earnest saint. It is the mixing up of the two that
is so disastrous. Nothing can block you so effectively as compromise,
for it shows lack of earnestness, without which nothing can be done."
maturity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in
daily life of whatever little you have understood. There is no such
thing as compromise in Yoga. If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly
and openly. Sins too have their lessons to teach the earnest sinner,
as virtues - the earnest saint. It is the mixing up of the two that
is so disastrous. Nothing can block you so effectively as compromise,
for it shows lack of earnestness, without which nothing can be done."
Stephan Bodian in conversation/intervies with Adyashanti:
Stephen:
What's the relationship, do you suppose, between all those years of sitting zazen and this kensho experience? Did they prime the pump of awakening? Were they steps leading to awakening? You now seem to be dismissing the concept of "stages of the path," yet there appears to be some causal relationship between your Zen meditation practice and your awakening.
Adya:
I'm deeply grateful for my Zen practice. It ultimately led me to fail well. I failed at being a Buddhist, I failed at being a perfect exemplar of the ten precepts, and certainly I failed at meditation, failed at all my efforts to bust down the "gateless gate" to awakening that Zen speaks of. And the fact that I actually got to the point where I failed - and I failed completely - was useful. Zen provided a place for me to fail, and I needed that. In fact, I'd say my process wasn't so much a letting go as an utter failure. Zen did a good job of letting me fall on my face.
Stephan: What would have been a success - awakening?
Adya: Well, failure was the success - awakening happened through failure. In that sense I have a great respect for the lineage. What was transmitted was bigger than all the carriers, it was even bigger than the lineage, much bigger than Zen, much bigger than Buddhism.
Stephen: What was that?
Adya: I'd say a certain spark, an aliveness.
Stephen: How has your own enlightenment changed the way you function in the world: your relationships, your family life, your everyday behavior? Does being enlightened mean that you never get angry or reactive or make big mistakes?
Adya: There's no such thing as never getting angry. Enlightenment can and does use all the available emotions. Otherwise, we would have to discount Jesus for getting pissed off in the temple and kicking over the table. The idea that enlightenment means sitting around with a beatific smile on our faces is just an illusion. At a human level, enlightenment means that you are no longer divided within yourself, and that you no longer experience a division between yourself and others. Without any inner division, you stop experiencing most of the usual forms of reactivity.
Stephen: Could you say a little more what you mean by no "inner division"?
Adya: Most human beings spend their lives battling with opposing inner forces: what they think they should do versus what they are doing; how they feel about themselves versus how they are; whether they think they're right and worthy or wrong and unworthy. The separate self is just the conglomeration of these opposing forces. When the self drops away, inner division drops away with it. Now, I can't say that I never make a mistake, because in this human world being enlightened doesn't mean we become experts at everything. What does happen, though, is that personal motivations disappear. Only when enlightenment occurs do we realize that virtually everything we did, from getting out of bed to going to work to being in a relationship to pursuing our pleasures and interests, was motivated by personal concern. In the absence of a separate self, there's no personal motivation to do anything. Life just moves us. When personal motivation no longer drives us, then what's left is our true nature, which naturally expresses itself on the human dimension as love or compassion. Not a compassion that we cultivate or practice because we're supposed to, but a compassion that arises spontaneously from our undivided state. If we undertake being a good, compassionate person as a personal identity, it just gets in the way of awakening.
Stephen: In traditional Buddhism, at least as I practiced it, there's a taboo against talking openly about enlightenment, as we're doing now. It seems to be based on the fear that the ego will co-opt the experience and become inflated. In your dharma talks you speak in great detail about awakening, including your own, and in your public dialogues you encourage others to do the same. Why is that?
Adya: When I was sitting with my teacher, Arvis, we'd all go into the kitchen after the meditation and dharma talk and have some fruit and tea, and we'd talk openly about our lives. For the most part we didn't focus on our spiritual experiences, but they were a part of the mix. Then these same people would do retreats at the Zen Center of Los Angeles and have big awakenings, and the folks in L.A. began to wonder what was happening in this little old lady's living room up north. Arvis's view was simple: The only thing I'm doing that they're not, she said, is that we sit around casually and talk, and what's happening on the inside for people isn't kept secret or hidden. This way, people get beyond the sense that they're the only ones who are having this or that experience. They come out of their shell, which actually makes them more available to a deeper spiritual process. The tradition of talking about certain experiences only in private with your teacher keeps enlightenment a secret activity reserved for special people. I can understand the drawbacks of being more open, of course. Some people may blab on about how enlightened they are, and become more egotistical. But when everything remains open to inquiry, then even the ego's tendency to claim enlightenment for itself becomes obvious in the penetrating light of public discourse. In the long run, both ways have their strengths and weaknesses, but I've found that having students ask their questions in public breaks down the isolation that many spiritual people feel - the sense that nobody else could possibly understand what they're going through, or that they're so rotten at their practice, or that nobody could be struggling like they are. And when people have breakthroughs and talk about them in public, awakening loses its mystique. Everyone else can see that it's not just special people who have deep awakenings, it's their neighbor or their best friend.
Stephen: Would you claim that you are enlightened?
Adya: Well, no, not with a straight face. I would say enlightenment is enlightened and awakeness is awake. It's not an experience; it's a fact.
- posted to The_Now2
What's the relationship, do you suppose, between all those years of sitting zazen and this kensho experience? Did they prime the pump of awakening? Were they steps leading to awakening? You now seem to be dismissing the concept of "stages of the path," yet there appears to be some causal relationship between your Zen meditation practice and your awakening.
Adya:
I'm deeply grateful for my Zen practice. It ultimately led me to fail well. I failed at being a Buddhist, I failed at being a perfect exemplar of the ten precepts, and certainly I failed at meditation, failed at all my efforts to bust down the "gateless gate" to awakening that Zen speaks of. And the fact that I actually got to the point where I failed - and I failed completely - was useful. Zen provided a place for me to fail, and I needed that. In fact, I'd say my process wasn't so much a letting go as an utter failure. Zen did a good job of letting me fall on my face.
Stephan: What would have been a success - awakening?
Adya: Well, failure was the success - awakening happened through failure. In that sense I have a great respect for the lineage. What was transmitted was bigger than all the carriers, it was even bigger than the lineage, much bigger than Zen, much bigger than Buddhism.
Stephen: What was that?
Adya: I'd say a certain spark, an aliveness.
Stephen: How has your own enlightenment changed the way you function in the world: your relationships, your family life, your everyday behavior? Does being enlightened mean that you never get angry or reactive or make big mistakes?
Adya: There's no such thing as never getting angry. Enlightenment can and does use all the available emotions. Otherwise, we would have to discount Jesus for getting pissed off in the temple and kicking over the table. The idea that enlightenment means sitting around with a beatific smile on our faces is just an illusion. At a human level, enlightenment means that you are no longer divided within yourself, and that you no longer experience a division between yourself and others. Without any inner division, you stop experiencing most of the usual forms of reactivity.
Stephen: Could you say a little more what you mean by no "inner division"?
Adya: Most human beings spend their lives battling with opposing inner forces: what they think they should do versus what they are doing; how they feel about themselves versus how they are; whether they think they're right and worthy or wrong and unworthy. The separate self is just the conglomeration of these opposing forces. When the self drops away, inner division drops away with it. Now, I can't say that I never make a mistake, because in this human world being enlightened doesn't mean we become experts at everything. What does happen, though, is that personal motivations disappear. Only when enlightenment occurs do we realize that virtually everything we did, from getting out of bed to going to work to being in a relationship to pursuing our pleasures and interests, was motivated by personal concern. In the absence of a separate self, there's no personal motivation to do anything. Life just moves us. When personal motivation no longer drives us, then what's left is our true nature, which naturally expresses itself on the human dimension as love or compassion. Not a compassion that we cultivate or practice because we're supposed to, but a compassion that arises spontaneously from our undivided state. If we undertake being a good, compassionate person as a personal identity, it just gets in the way of awakening.
Stephen: In traditional Buddhism, at least as I practiced it, there's a taboo against talking openly about enlightenment, as we're doing now. It seems to be based on the fear that the ego will co-opt the experience and become inflated. In your dharma talks you speak in great detail about awakening, including your own, and in your public dialogues you encourage others to do the same. Why is that?
Adya: When I was sitting with my teacher, Arvis, we'd all go into the kitchen after the meditation and dharma talk and have some fruit and tea, and we'd talk openly about our lives. For the most part we didn't focus on our spiritual experiences, but they were a part of the mix. Then these same people would do retreats at the Zen Center of Los Angeles and have big awakenings, and the folks in L.A. began to wonder what was happening in this little old lady's living room up north. Arvis's view was simple: The only thing I'm doing that they're not, she said, is that we sit around casually and talk, and what's happening on the inside for people isn't kept secret or hidden. This way, people get beyond the sense that they're the only ones who are having this or that experience. They come out of their shell, which actually makes them more available to a deeper spiritual process. The tradition of talking about certain experiences only in private with your teacher keeps enlightenment a secret activity reserved for special people. I can understand the drawbacks of being more open, of course. Some people may blab on about how enlightened they are, and become more egotistical. But when everything remains open to inquiry, then even the ego's tendency to claim enlightenment for itself becomes obvious in the penetrating light of public discourse. In the long run, both ways have their strengths and weaknesses, but I've found that having students ask their questions in public breaks down the isolation that many spiritual people feel - the sense that nobody else could possibly understand what they're going through, or that they're so rotten at their practice, or that nobody could be struggling like they are. And when people have breakthroughs and talk about them in public, awakening loses its mystique. Everyone else can see that it's not just special people who have deep awakenings, it's their neighbor or their best friend.
Stephen: Would you claim that you are enlightened?
Adya: Well, no, not with a straight face. I would say enlightenment is enlightened and awakeness is awake. It's not an experience; it's a fact.
- posted to The_Now2
Jean Klein quote...
"The timeless non-state cannot be achieved because
the mind cannot evolve towards it. The mind can only
bring you to the threshold. Awakening comes
unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you
live in not-knowing. Only then are you available."
~Jean Klein
Allspirit Nondual Quotations
http://www.allspirit.co.uk/nondualquotes4.html
the mind cannot evolve towards it. The mind can only
bring you to the threshold. Awakening comes
unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you
live in not-knowing. Only then are you available."
~Jean Klein
Allspirit Nondual Quotations
http://www.allspirit.co.uk/nondualquotes4.html
Tulku Thubten Rinpoche quote...
That's all you have to do - just abide in that
stillness.
If you know how to be with that stillness without
looking for
anything else then that stillness is no longer just a
stillness and
that stillness is the Buddha Mind, it is the luminous
awareness.
In that stillness you are going to discover your true
nature.
The discovery of your true nature is the true
liberation, is the
bodhi, is the great awakening.
- Tulku Thubten Rinpoche, posted to DailyDharma
from Nonduality Highlights
stillness.
If you know how to be with that stillness without
looking for
anything else then that stillness is no longer just a
stillness and
that stillness is the Buddha Mind, it is the luminous
awareness.
In that stillness you are going to discover your true
nature.
The discovery of your true nature is the true
liberation, is the
bodhi, is the great awakening.
- Tulku Thubten Rinpoche, posted to DailyDharma
from Nonduality Highlights
Jan Kersschot - The Myth of Self-Inquiry...
Q: But I know I am this body. That's what everybody told me. And it feels that way.
J: When you look at what appears in your story, you may notice that your body only comes to the surface during a part of the day. You mind-your memory--says the body is there all the time, I know. But that's just another concept. Sometimes you are aware of your body. Usually because there is pain or joy.
Q: But it's just a part of my body appearing?
J: When you have a pain on your toe, there is an image of your toe. Not of your thyroid gland or your stomach. But when you are hungry, the stomach area appears.
Q: I see . Only parts of my body come to my mind. Only parts of my person appear now and then.
J: "Your" body is not in the picture all the time. They are just snapshots.
Q: But it looks as if it's continuously there.
J: As I said before, that's a trick of our memory.
Q: I am not sure about that.
J: The body and the person appear as snapshots, as images. And then another image comes in which says that the body and mind are there all the time. They come and go in our attention. They appear in awareness.
Pp 2-3
The Myth of Self-Inquiry
Jan Kersschot
Non-Duality Press
J: When you look at what appears in your story, you may notice that your body only comes to the surface during a part of the day. You mind-your memory--says the body is there all the time, I know. But that's just another concept. Sometimes you are aware of your body. Usually because there is pain or joy.
Q: But it's just a part of my body appearing?
J: When you have a pain on your toe, there is an image of your toe. Not of your thyroid gland or your stomach. But when you are hungry, the stomach area appears.
Q: I see . Only parts of my body come to my mind. Only parts of my person appear now and then.
J: "Your" body is not in the picture all the time. They are just snapshots.
Q: But it looks as if it's continuously there.
J: As I said before, that's a trick of our memory.
Q: I am not sure about that.
J: The body and the person appear as snapshots, as images. And then another image comes in which says that the body and mind are there all the time. They come and go in our attention. They appear in awareness.
Pp 2-3
The Myth of Self-Inquiry
Jan Kersschot
Non-Duality Press
A Prism...
It is not the original revelation of the Overself which they communicate or transmit but the impact of the revelation upon their own mentality. A prism does not transmit the pure white light which strikes against it but only the several colours of the spectrum into which it breaks that light. The mystic's mentality is like a prism and breaks the pure being of the Overself into the egoistic colours of ideas and beliefs.
— Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 9: Inspiration and Confusion > # 76
Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 9: Inspiration and Confusion > # 76
Paul Brunton
Ego's tricks...
"One of the great dangers of transformational work is that the ego attempts to sidestep deep psychological work by leaping into the transcendent too soon. This is because the ego always fancies itself much more ‘advanced’ than it actually is."
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson
The Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, warned of the trap of spiritual materialism. He says we must be ever diligent to spot the ego’s use of the spiritual journey to further its own ends.
We may think it’s spiritual to yearn for divine connection. And yet, if the longing is to fill an emptiness inside, just how does this differ from the one who yearns for money or possessions to fill the inner void? Do we look to our spiritual practices as proof of our evolved consciousness or as protection against fears?
Any time we use spiritual disciplines to maintain our identity and security, we are not yet on the path of genuine spiritual development.
"Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment."
-- Chögyam Trungpa
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson
The Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, warned of the trap of spiritual materialism. He says we must be ever diligent to spot the ego’s use of the spiritual journey to further its own ends.
We may think it’s spiritual to yearn for divine connection. And yet, if the longing is to fill an emptiness inside, just how does this differ from the one who yearns for money or possessions to fill the inner void? Do we look to our spiritual practices as proof of our evolved consciousness or as protection against fears?
Any time we use spiritual disciplines to maintain our identity and security, we are not yet on the path of genuine spiritual development.
"Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment."
-- Chögyam Trungpa
Creative Visualization...
Whatever you ardently desire,
Sincerely believe in,
Vividly imagine, and
Enthusiastically act upon,
Must inevitably come to pass.
What is Creative Visualization?
Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to
create what you want in your life. In the past many of us have used
our power of creative visualization in a relatively unconscious way.
Because of our own deep-seated negative concepts about life, we have
automatically and unconsciously expected and imagined lack,
limitation, difficulties, and problems to be our lot in life.
The exercise of the visualizing faculty keeps your mind in order, and
attracts to you the things you need to make life more enjoyable in an
orderly way. If you train yourself in the practice of deliberately
picturing your desire and carefully examining your picture, you will
soon find that your thoughts and desires proceed in a more orderly
procession than ever before. Having reached a state of ordered
mentality, you are no longer in a constant state of mental hurry.
Hurry is Fear, and consequently destructive. In other words, when
your understanding grasps the power to visualize your heart's desire
and hold it with your will, it attracts to you all things requisite
to the fulfillment of that picture by the harmonious vibrations of
the law of attraction. You will realize that since Order is Heaven's
first law, and visualization places things in their natural order,
then it must be a heavenly thing to visualize. Everyone visualizes,
whether he knows it or not. Visualizing is the great secret of
success. The conscious use of this great power attracts to you
multiplied resources, intensifies your wisdom, and enables you to
make use of advantages which you formerly failed to recognize. If
you keep your focus on your visualization all money, prosperity and
joy will be added to it.; Just keep focused.
It should be noted that this technique cannot be used to "control"
the behavior of others or cause them to do something against their
will. Whatever you try to create for another will always boomerang
back to you. That includes both loving, helpful, or healing actions
and negative, destructive ones.
To use creative visualization it is not necessary to believe in any
metaphysical or spiritual ideas. It is not necessary to "have faith"
in any power but yourself.
Creative visualization is magic in the truest and highest meaning of
the word.
Magic: Understanding and aligning yourself with the natural
principles that govern the workings of our universe, and learning to
use these principles in the most conscious and creative way.
How Creative Visualization Works
In order to understand how Creative Visualization works, it's useful
to look at several interrelated principles:
The physical universe is energy
Energy is magnetic (like attracts like)
Form (physical energy) follows idea (mental energy)
Whatever you put out to the universe will be reflected back to you
Four Basic Steps for Effective Creative Visualization
Set your goal
Create a clear idea or picture
Focus on it often
Give it positive energy
Continue to work with this process until you achieve your goal, or no
longer have the desire to do so. Remember that goals often change
before they are realized. If you lose interest it may mean that it's
time for a new look at what you want.
Affirmations
Affirmations are one of the most important elements of creative
visualization. An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that
something is already so. It is a way of "making firm" that which you
are imaging.
The practice of doing affirmations allows us to begin replacing some
of our stale, worn out, or negative mind chatter with more positive
ideas and concepts. It is a powerful technique, one that can in a
short time completely transform our attitudes and expectations about
life, and thereby totally change what we create for ourselves.
An affirmation can be any positive statement:
Everything I need is already within me.
The universe is unfolding perfectly.
All things are now working together for good in my life.
I love and appreciate myself.
Here are some important things to remember:
Always phrase affirmations in the present tense.
Always phrase affirmations in the most positive way you can.
In general, the shorter and simpler the better.
Always use affirmations that feel totally right for you.
Always remember that you are creating something new, not trying to
redo or change what already exists, which would create conflict.
Affirmations are not meant to contradict or try to change your
feelings or emotions, even the so-called "negative" ones.
Temporarily suspend your doubts and hesitations, and put your full
mental and emotional energy into your affirmations.
When you are coming out of the empty, grasping, manipulative
condition, the first and foremost lesson to be learned is to just let
go. You must relax, stop struggling, stop trying so hard, stop
manipulating things and people to try to get what you want and need.
In fact, just stop doing so much and have an experience of just being
for awhile.
When you do this, you suddenly discover that you're really perfectly
okay, just letting yourself be, and letting the world be. You begin
to want to focus your energy toward the highest and most fulfilling
goals that are real for you at any given moment.
Being, Doing, and Having
Often people try to live their lives backwards: They try to have more
things in order to do more of what they want, so that they will be
happier.
The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you
really are, then do what you need to do in order to have what you
want.
Three Necessary Elements
Desire - a clear, strong sense of purpose
Belief - that it can exist, and that it can exist for you
Acceptance - are you willing to have it completely (pro and con)?
Going With the Flow
The only effective way to use creative visualization is "going with
the flow." That means that you don't have to "effort" to get where
you want to go; you simply put it out clearly to the universe where
you would like to go, and then patiently and harmoniously follow the
flow of the river of life until it takes you there.
Going with the flow means holding onto your goals lightly (even
though they may seem very important) and being willing to change them
if something better comes along. Going with the flow is the balance
between keeping your destination clearly in mind, and yet also
enjoying all the beautiful scenes along the way, and even being
willing to change your destination if life starts carrying you in a
better direction. The only successful manifestation is one which
brings about a change or growth in consciousness; that is, it has
manifested God/dess, or revealed it more fully, as well as having
manifested a form...
Accepting Your Good
In order to use creative visualization to create what you want in
life, you must be willing and able to accept the best that life has
to offer you - your "good." Many of us have difficulty accepting the
possibility of having what we want in life. This usually stems from
some basic feelings of unworthiness which we took on at a very early
age. Affirmations and creative visualization are a wonderful way of
creating a more positive and loving self-image. First, it lets you
accept and love yourself as you are. Second, it lets you start
creating yourself as you want to be.
Prosperity Programming
A very important part of the whole creative visualization process is
prosperity programming. This means having the understanding, or
consciously taking the point of view, that the universe is totally
abundant...it is a cornucopia of everything that your heart could
ever desire, both on the material plane and on emotional, mental, and
spiritual planes as well. One of the most common causes of failing to
get what you want is "scarcity programming." The truth about this
earth is that it is an infinitely good, beautiful, nourishing place
to be. The only "evil" comes from lack of understanding of this
truth. Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow - it has no real substance
of its own, it is simple a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow
to disappear by trying to fight it - you must shine a light on it.
Unless you can create a context that the world is a good place to be
that can potentially work for everyone, you will experience
difficulty in creating what you want in your personal life.
Outflowing
Another key principle is that of giving, or "outflowing." Once we
begin to accept the goodness of the universe, we naturally want to
share it as well, realizing that as we give out of our energy, we
make space for more to flow into us. When through insecurity we try
to hold onto what we have, we begin to cut off this wonderful flow of
energy.
Energy takes many forms, such as love, affection, appreciation and
recognition, material possessions, money, friendship, etc., and the
principles apply equally to all these forms.
A Simple Exercise in Creative Visualization
First, think of something you would like. It might be an object you
would like to have, an event you would like to happen, a situation in
which you'd like to find yourself, or some circumstance in your life
you'd like to improve.
Get in a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down, in a
quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Relax your body completely.
Breathe slowly and deeply. Count down slowly from 10 to 1, feeling
yourself getting more deeply relaxed with each count.
When you feel deeply relaxed, start to imagine the thing you want
exactly as you would like it. You may imagine what people are saying,
or any details that make it more real to you. You may take a
relatively short time or quite a few minutes to imagine this -
whatever feels best for you. It should be a thoroughly enjoyable
experience, like a child daydreaming.
Now keeping the idea or image still in your mid, mentally make some
very positive, affirmative statement about it. Always end your
visualization with a firm statement to yourself:
This, or something better, now manifests for me in totally satisfying
and harmonious ways, for the highest good of all concerned.
This leaves room for something different and even better than you
originally envisioned to happen, and serves as a reminder to you that
this process only functions for the mutual benefit of all.
If doubts or contradictory thoughts arise, don't resist them or try
to prevent them. This will tend to give them a power they don't
otherwise have. Just let them flow through your consciousness and
return to your positive statements and images.
It's Important to Relax
It's important to relax deeply when you are first learning to use
creative visualization. When your body and mind are deeply relaxed,
your brain wave pattern actually changes. This deeper, slower level
is commonly called alpha level, which has been found to be a very
healthful state of consciousness. It has also been found to be far
more effective than the more active beta level in creating real
changes in the so-called objective world, through the use of
visualization.
It is especially good to do creative visualization at night just
before sleeping, or in the morning just after awakening, because at
those times the mind and body are often already deeply relaxed and
receptive. In addition, a short period of relaxation and creative
visualization done at mid-day will relax and renew you, and cause
your day to flow more smoothly.
Discovering Our Higher Purpose
A basic need of all human beings is to make a positive contribution
to the world and to our fellow beings, as well as to improve and
enjoy our personal lives. We all have a great deal to offer the world
and to each other, each in our own special and unique way. To a great
degree, our own personal sense of well being is a function of how
much we are expressing this.
We each have a significant contribution to make in this lifetime. I
call this contribution our higher purpose. It always involves being
yourself totally, completely, and naturally, and doing something or
many things that you genuinely love to do, and that come easily to
you. We all know in our hearts what our higher purpose is, but we
often do not consciously acknowledge it, even to ourselves. In fact,
most people seem to go to great lengths to hide it from themselves
and from the world. They fear and seek to avoid the power,
responsibility, and light that comes with acknowledging and
expressing their true purpose in life.
You will find in using creative visualization that your ability to
manifest will work to the degree that you are in alignment with your
higher purpose. If you try to manifest something and it doesn't seem
to work, it may not be appropriate to the underlying pattern and
meaning of your life. Be patient and keep tuning into your inner
guidance. In retrospect you will see that everything is unfolding
perfectly....................from "Enlightenment Chapel, Inc."
Sincerely believe in,
Vividly imagine, and
Enthusiastically act upon,
Must inevitably come to pass.
What is Creative Visualization?
Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to
create what you want in your life. In the past many of us have used
our power of creative visualization in a relatively unconscious way.
Because of our own deep-seated negative concepts about life, we have
automatically and unconsciously expected and imagined lack,
limitation, difficulties, and problems to be our lot in life.
The exercise of the visualizing faculty keeps your mind in order, and
attracts to you the things you need to make life more enjoyable in an
orderly way. If you train yourself in the practice of deliberately
picturing your desire and carefully examining your picture, you will
soon find that your thoughts and desires proceed in a more orderly
procession than ever before. Having reached a state of ordered
mentality, you are no longer in a constant state of mental hurry.
Hurry is Fear, and consequently destructive. In other words, when
your understanding grasps the power to visualize your heart's desire
and hold it with your will, it attracts to you all things requisite
to the fulfillment of that picture by the harmonious vibrations of
the law of attraction. You will realize that since Order is Heaven's
first law, and visualization places things in their natural order,
then it must be a heavenly thing to visualize. Everyone visualizes,
whether he knows it or not. Visualizing is the great secret of
success. The conscious use of this great power attracts to you
multiplied resources, intensifies your wisdom, and enables you to
make use of advantages which you formerly failed to recognize. If
you keep your focus on your visualization all money, prosperity and
joy will be added to it.; Just keep focused.
It should be noted that this technique cannot be used to "control"
the behavior of others or cause them to do something against their
will. Whatever you try to create for another will always boomerang
back to you. That includes both loving, helpful, or healing actions
and negative, destructive ones.
To use creative visualization it is not necessary to believe in any
metaphysical or spiritual ideas. It is not necessary to "have faith"
in any power but yourself.
Creative visualization is magic in the truest and highest meaning of
the word.
Magic: Understanding and aligning yourself with the natural
principles that govern the workings of our universe, and learning to
use these principles in the most conscious and creative way.
How Creative Visualization Works
In order to understand how Creative Visualization works, it's useful
to look at several interrelated principles:
The physical universe is energy
Energy is magnetic (like attracts like)
Form (physical energy) follows idea (mental energy)
Whatever you put out to the universe will be reflected back to you
Four Basic Steps for Effective Creative Visualization
Set your goal
Create a clear idea or picture
Focus on it often
Give it positive energy
Continue to work with this process until you achieve your goal, or no
longer have the desire to do so. Remember that goals often change
before they are realized. If you lose interest it may mean that it's
time for a new look at what you want.
Affirmations
Affirmations are one of the most important elements of creative
visualization. An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that
something is already so. It is a way of "making firm" that which you
are imaging.
The practice of doing affirmations allows us to begin replacing some
of our stale, worn out, or negative mind chatter with more positive
ideas and concepts. It is a powerful technique, one that can in a
short time completely transform our attitudes and expectations about
life, and thereby totally change what we create for ourselves.
An affirmation can be any positive statement:
Everything I need is already within me.
The universe is unfolding perfectly.
All things are now working together for good in my life.
I love and appreciate myself.
Here are some important things to remember:
Always phrase affirmations in the present tense.
Always phrase affirmations in the most positive way you can.
In general, the shorter and simpler the better.
Always use affirmations that feel totally right for you.
Always remember that you are creating something new, not trying to
redo or change what already exists, which would create conflict.
Affirmations are not meant to contradict or try to change your
feelings or emotions, even the so-called "negative" ones.
Temporarily suspend your doubts and hesitations, and put your full
mental and emotional energy into your affirmations.
When you are coming out of the empty, grasping, manipulative
condition, the first and foremost lesson to be learned is to just let
go. You must relax, stop struggling, stop trying so hard, stop
manipulating things and people to try to get what you want and need.
In fact, just stop doing so much and have an experience of just being
for awhile.
When you do this, you suddenly discover that you're really perfectly
okay, just letting yourself be, and letting the world be. You begin
to want to focus your energy toward the highest and most fulfilling
goals that are real for you at any given moment.
Being, Doing, and Having
Often people try to live their lives backwards: They try to have more
things in order to do more of what they want, so that they will be
happier.
The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you
really are, then do what you need to do in order to have what you
want.
Three Necessary Elements
Desire - a clear, strong sense of purpose
Belief - that it can exist, and that it can exist for you
Acceptance - are you willing to have it completely (pro and con)?
Going With the Flow
The only effective way to use creative visualization is "going with
the flow." That means that you don't have to "effort" to get where
you want to go; you simply put it out clearly to the universe where
you would like to go, and then patiently and harmoniously follow the
flow of the river of life until it takes you there.
Going with the flow means holding onto your goals lightly (even
though they may seem very important) and being willing to change them
if something better comes along. Going with the flow is the balance
between keeping your destination clearly in mind, and yet also
enjoying all the beautiful scenes along the way, and even being
willing to change your destination if life starts carrying you in a
better direction. The only successful manifestation is one which
brings about a change or growth in consciousness; that is, it has
manifested God/dess, or revealed it more fully, as well as having
manifested a form...
Accepting Your Good
In order to use creative visualization to create what you want in
life, you must be willing and able to accept the best that life has
to offer you - your "good." Many of us have difficulty accepting the
possibility of having what we want in life. This usually stems from
some basic feelings of unworthiness which we took on at a very early
age. Affirmations and creative visualization are a wonderful way of
creating a more positive and loving self-image. First, it lets you
accept and love yourself as you are. Second, it lets you start
creating yourself as you want to be.
Prosperity Programming
A very important part of the whole creative visualization process is
prosperity programming. This means having the understanding, or
consciously taking the point of view, that the universe is totally
abundant...it is a cornucopia of everything that your heart could
ever desire, both on the material plane and on emotional, mental, and
spiritual planes as well. One of the most common causes of failing to
get what you want is "scarcity programming." The truth about this
earth is that it is an infinitely good, beautiful, nourishing place
to be. The only "evil" comes from lack of understanding of this
truth. Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow - it has no real substance
of its own, it is simple a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow
to disappear by trying to fight it - you must shine a light on it.
Unless you can create a context that the world is a good place to be
that can potentially work for everyone, you will experience
difficulty in creating what you want in your personal life.
Outflowing
Another key principle is that of giving, or "outflowing." Once we
begin to accept the goodness of the universe, we naturally want to
share it as well, realizing that as we give out of our energy, we
make space for more to flow into us. When through insecurity we try
to hold onto what we have, we begin to cut off this wonderful flow of
energy.
Energy takes many forms, such as love, affection, appreciation and
recognition, material possessions, money, friendship, etc., and the
principles apply equally to all these forms.
A Simple Exercise in Creative Visualization
First, think of something you would like. It might be an object you
would like to have, an event you would like to happen, a situation in
which you'd like to find yourself, or some circumstance in your life
you'd like to improve.
Get in a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down, in a
quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Relax your body completely.
Breathe slowly and deeply. Count down slowly from 10 to 1, feeling
yourself getting more deeply relaxed with each count.
When you feel deeply relaxed, start to imagine the thing you want
exactly as you would like it. You may imagine what people are saying,
or any details that make it more real to you. You may take a
relatively short time or quite a few minutes to imagine this -
whatever feels best for you. It should be a thoroughly enjoyable
experience, like a child daydreaming.
Now keeping the idea or image still in your mid, mentally make some
very positive, affirmative statement about it. Always end your
visualization with a firm statement to yourself:
This, or something better, now manifests for me in totally satisfying
and harmonious ways, for the highest good of all concerned.
This leaves room for something different and even better than you
originally envisioned to happen, and serves as a reminder to you that
this process only functions for the mutual benefit of all.
If doubts or contradictory thoughts arise, don't resist them or try
to prevent them. This will tend to give them a power they don't
otherwise have. Just let them flow through your consciousness and
return to your positive statements and images.
It's Important to Relax
It's important to relax deeply when you are first learning to use
creative visualization. When your body and mind are deeply relaxed,
your brain wave pattern actually changes. This deeper, slower level
is commonly called alpha level, which has been found to be a very
healthful state of consciousness. It has also been found to be far
more effective than the more active beta level in creating real
changes in the so-called objective world, through the use of
visualization.
It is especially good to do creative visualization at night just
before sleeping, or in the morning just after awakening, because at
those times the mind and body are often already deeply relaxed and
receptive. In addition, a short period of relaxation and creative
visualization done at mid-day will relax and renew you, and cause
your day to flow more smoothly.
Discovering Our Higher Purpose
A basic need of all human beings is to make a positive contribution
to the world and to our fellow beings, as well as to improve and
enjoy our personal lives. We all have a great deal to offer the world
and to each other, each in our own special and unique way. To a great
degree, our own personal sense of well being is a function of how
much we are expressing this.
We each have a significant contribution to make in this lifetime. I
call this contribution our higher purpose. It always involves being
yourself totally, completely, and naturally, and doing something or
many things that you genuinely love to do, and that come easily to
you. We all know in our hearts what our higher purpose is, but we
often do not consciously acknowledge it, even to ourselves. In fact,
most people seem to go to great lengths to hide it from themselves
and from the world. They fear and seek to avoid the power,
responsibility, and light that comes with acknowledging and
expressing their true purpose in life.
You will find in using creative visualization that your ability to
manifest will work to the degree that you are in alignment with your
higher purpose. If you try to manifest something and it doesn't seem
to work, it may not be appropriate to the underlying pattern and
meaning of your life. Be patient and keep tuning into your inner
guidance. In retrospect you will see that everything is unfolding
perfectly....................from "Enlightenment Chapel, Inc."
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