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)
from the reluctant messenger.........
Reincarnation...
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)
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)
Principles of The Infinite Way..IMPERSONALIZATION
"Impersonalize God; impersonalize evil. Know the nature of I as universal being, universal life. Do not allow the `veil' that personalizes God to be put back on. Make no image of God: do not make a wood carving; do not make an ivory carving or a gold carving; do not make even a mental image of God. Then you will not be personalizing God.
"The minute you have an image of God in your thought, you are personalizing, and you are expecting that concept to be God, and a concept cannot be God. Only I can be God, and you cannot have a mental image of I. That is the one word that defies description. Try as you will, you cannot make a mental image of I.
"Once this truth has been unveiled for you, it will never be veiled for you again. You will never be able to go back to making concepts of God or looking for God to do something to the nothingness and nonpower of this world of effect. Always that smile will come to your lips, and the word I will come, and you will be at peace, you will be at rest. Then, in quietness and confidence, you can be a beholder of God in action. You do not impel It; you do not empower It; you do not send It forth: in quietness and confidence, you become a beholder watching It at work."
From: The Mystical I , Chapter VII,
"The minute you have an image of God in your thought, you are personalizing, and you are expecting that concept to be God, and a concept cannot be God. Only I can be God, and you cannot have a mental image of I. That is the one word that defies description. Try as you will, you cannot make a mental image of I.
"Once this truth has been unveiled for you, it will never be veiled for you again. You will never be able to go back to making concepts of God or looking for God to do something to the nothingness and nonpower of this world of effect. Always that smile will come to your lips, and the word I will come, and you will be at peace, you will be at rest. Then, in quietness and confidence, you can be a beholder of God in action. You do not impel It; you do not empower It; you do not send It forth: in quietness and confidence, you become a beholder watching It at work."
From: The Mystical I , Chapter VII,
outside of the belief in good and evil.
You have never entered into good; you have never entered into bad. This has been Adam’s dream. Anything that you saw that you thought was good was the veil, the dream, the deceptive state of thought hiding the Life that exists before the belief in good and evil.
Anything you thought you saw as evil or anyone that you thought you saw as evil, as bad, is a part of the veil, the belief, the deceptive state of thought hiding your Life that exists now before the belief in good and evil.
In other words, You are the Life outside of the belief in good and evil.
listen to ‘The Thunder of Silence,’ :
No one can free himself from the belief in good and evil and make the return to Eden, that is to his true life, until he is willing to relinquish his human judgments and look out upon the world with an unconditioned mind.
-- Oneness in Christ
www.mysticalprinciples.com
Anything you thought you saw as evil or anyone that you thought you saw as evil, as bad, is a part of the veil, the belief, the deceptive state of thought hiding your Life that exists now before the belief in good and evil.
In other words, You are the Life outside of the belief in good and evil.
listen to ‘The Thunder of Silence,’ :
No one can free himself from the belief in good and evil and make the return to Eden, that is to his true life, until he is willing to relinquish his human judgments and look out upon the world with an unconditioned mind.
-- Oneness in Christ
www.mysticalprinciples.com
Servants of Love........
When you feel Love, you automatically become the servant of others
because it gives you an opportunity to share Love.....such as a
parent and child or lover with beloved.....this is also an act of
humility, which means that you have conquered your ego and feel no
remorse at being a servant to others........this is why Jesus washed
the feet of His Apostles...................namaste,
thomas
because it gives you an opportunity to share Love.....such as a
parent and child or lover with beloved.....this is also an act of
humility, which means that you have conquered your ego and feel no
remorse at being a servant to others........this is why Jesus washed
the feet of His Apostles...................namaste,
thomas
Subtracting....
Subtracting means to eliminate all negative thoughts, because these
negative thoughts are the fuel of the ego....as you train your
subconscious mind to see only positive thoughts, there will come a
time when you do not have to subtract anymore... at this time, you
have purified the subconscious mind (soul) and returned to your
original nature, which is without the illusion of ego... when you
have finally purged all ego while in meditation, you will recieve the
Enlightenment.. which means that you become One with All... and
realize that you are Universal Mind (God)............namaste,
thomas
negative thoughts are the fuel of the ego....as you train your
subconscious mind to see only positive thoughts, there will come a
time when you do not have to subtract anymore... at this time, you
have purified the subconscious mind (soul) and returned to your
original nature, which is without the illusion of ego... when you
have finally purged all ego while in meditation, you will recieve the
Enlightenment.. which means that you become One with All... and
realize that you are Universal Mind (God)............namaste,
thomas
The ego and the Overself...
Student reads PB: "The ego in him which thinks the 'I' must be rooted out. It
will be followed by the Overself, which neither thinks discursively nor
identifies itself with the outer person whom the world considers him to
be."(8.4.451)
AD: If the Overself wasn't identified with the ego then what would it be
identified with, if anything? It's capable of absolute impersonality.
S: You mean what content would it have?
AD: Yes. I don't know if the word "identified" but what would it be associated
with?
S: That would be the metaphysical wanderer, wouldn't it?
(Quote reread.)
AD: It doesn't identify itself with the outer person then what would its point
of view be?
S: It would be universal?
AD: It would be the World Idea. Sure, that's why it's capable of absolute
impersonality. Your Overself is not identified with your ego because that would
be discursiveness, so what is its functioning? That's why the sage is absolutely
impersonal. He's not identified except with the World Idea.
-- Anthony Damiani and students 10/20/82
will be followed by the Overself, which neither thinks discursively nor
identifies itself with the outer person whom the world considers him to
be."(8.4.451)
AD: If the Overself wasn't identified with the ego then what would it be
identified with, if anything? It's capable of absolute impersonality.
S: You mean what content would it have?
AD: Yes. I don't know if the word "identified" but what would it be associated
with?
S: That would be the metaphysical wanderer, wouldn't it?
(Quote reread.)
AD: It doesn't identify itself with the outer person then what would its point
of view be?
S: It would be universal?
AD: It would be the World Idea. Sure, that's why it's capable of absolute
impersonality. Your Overself is not identified with your ego because that would
be discursiveness, so what is its functioning? That's why the sage is absolutely
impersonal. He's not identified except with the World Idea.
-- Anthony Damiani and students 10/20/82
Kneeling was invented by Kings.........
This , along with the throne placed high above other humans was
invented to show others that the King had a larger ego than others and
more power than others... this is why, Jesus used the image of Father
for God, as a Father would never allow someone that He loves, to kneel
before him..a Father would meet His child standing with open arms to
embrace, never placing Himself above His child... Love means to share,
not to show power... this is why it is wrong to call God, the king of
Heaven, as God is Heaven itself and we are part of that Heaven... so
the correct term would be," We and God are
One".................namaste, thomas
invented to show others that the King had a larger ego than others and
more power than others... this is why, Jesus used the image of Father
for God, as a Father would never allow someone that He loves, to kneel
before him..a Father would meet His child standing with open arms to
embrace, never placing Himself above His child... Love means to share,
not to show power... this is why it is wrong to call God, the king of
Heaven, as God is Heaven itself and we are part of that Heaven... so
the correct term would be," We and God are
One".................namaste, thomas
The Sermon on the Mount, continued. Jesus unfolds to the twelve the spiritual aspects of the ninth Commandment.
THE law has said: Thou shalt not lie; but in the eyes of law a man to lie must tell inwords what is not true. 2 Now, in the light of spirit law, deceit in any form is nothing but a lie. 3 A man may lie by look or act; yea, even by his silence may deceive, and thus be guilty in the eyes of Holy Breath. 4 It has been said in olden times: Thou shalt not swear by thine own life. 5 But, lo, I say, Swear not at all; not by the head, the heart, the eye, nor hand; not by the sun, the moon, nor stars; 6 Not by the name of God, nor by the name of any spirit, good or bad. 7 You shall not swear by anything; for in an oath there is no gain. 8 A man whose word must be propped up by oath of any kind is not trustworthy in the sight of God or man. 9 By oath you cannot make a leaf to fall, nor turn the colour of a hair. 10 The man of worth just speaks and men know that he speaks the truth. 11 The man who pours out many words to make think he speaks the truth, is simply making smoke to hide a lie. 12 And there are many men with seeming double hearts; men who would serve two masters at a time--two masters quite adverse. 13 Men feign to worship God upon the Sabbath day and then pay court to Beelzebul on every other day. 14 No man can serve two masters at a time no more than he can ride two asses at a time that go in different ways. 15 The man who feigns to worship God and Beelzebul is foe of God, a pious devil and a curse of men. 16 And men cannot lay treasures up in heaven and earth at once. 17 Then, lo, I say, Lift up your eyes and see the safety vaults of heaven, and there deposit every gem. 18 Where moth and rust cannot corrupt; where thieves cannot break in and steal. 19 There are no safety vaults on earth; no place secure from moth, and rust and thieves. 20 The treasures of the earth are but illusive things that pass away. 21 Be not deceived; your treasures are the anchor of the soul, and where your treasures are your heart will be. 22 Fix not your heart upon the things of earth; be anxious not about the things to eat, or drink or wear. 23 God cares for those who trust in him and serve the race. 24 Behold the birds! They praise God in their songs; the earth is made more glorious by their ministry of joy; God keeps them in the hollow of his hand, 25 And not a sparrow falls to earth without his care; and every one that falls shall rise again. 26 Behold the flowers of earth! they trust in God and grow; they make the earth resplendent with their beauty and perfume. 27 Look at the lilies of the field, the messengers of holy love. No son of man, not even Solomon in all his excellence, was ever clothed like one of these. 28 And yet they simply trust in God; they feed from out his hand; they lay their heads to rest upon his breast. 29 If God so clothes and feeds the flowers and birds that do his will, will he not feed and clothe his children when they trust in him? 30 Seek first the kingdom of the soul, the righteousness of God, the good of men, and feed, and clothe............from the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ
Preparation for Enlightenment...
It is the making the man ready, the preparation of his mind and heart which take so much time, so many years even in many cases; but the enlightenment itself is a single short happening: the effect remains permanently. -- The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Cat. XXV, Chapter 2, Enlightenment Which Stays
What is the True Purpose of Life ?
It is to realize that you are indeed
Universal Mind (God), this is not an egotistic exclamation, as it
cannot be realized until you have become free of all ego and achieved
complete humility.. as long as we believe that we are not God (Love)
(Christ) then we cannot achieve freedom.... we give great status to
the word God because we do not truly understand that God is Love...
so perhaps it would be better for us to say that we are Love and to
Love we will return, when we conquer the ego and realize that we are
indeed the energy of Love..............namaste, thomas
Universal Mind (God), this is not an egotistic exclamation, as it
cannot be realized until you have become free of all ego and achieved
complete humility.. as long as we believe that we are not God (Love)
(Christ) then we cannot achieve freedom.... we give great status to
the word God because we do not truly understand that God is Love...
so perhaps it would be better for us to say that we are Love and to
Love we will return, when we conquer the ego and realize that we are
indeed the energy of Love..............namaste, thomas
The Supreme "Be-ing"......
The Supreme "Be-ing" is a state of being in a constant flow of the
energy of Love.... this state of continuous Love is what humans call
God........ this is the state of Christhood that Jesus and fellow
Saints have achieved.... this christhood, this state of unselfish
Love, is what is called "Self-Realization".......you have realized
your true Self...and your true Self is Love and is called
God....................namaste,
thomas
energy of Love.... this state of continuous Love is what humans call
God........ this is the state of Christhood that Jesus and fellow
Saints have achieved.... this christhood, this state of unselfish
Love, is what is called "Self-Realization".......you have realized
your true Self...and your true Self is Love and is called
God....................namaste,
thomas
Human Being and Supreme Being...
The Key word is Being...It is the action and time of the present... you
can believe that you are human or you can believe that you are
Supreme...To be Supreme is to become the energy of Love.. this is
achieving the Spiritual level of Christhood...... To be a human being
is still to be trapped within the false belief that you are the ego..
To be the Supreme being means that you have conquered the ego and
become that which you really Are..and become finally
Free.......................namaste, thomas
can believe that you are human or you can believe that you are
Supreme...To be Supreme is to become the energy of Love.. this is
achieving the Spiritual level of Christhood...... To be a human being
is still to be trapped within the false belief that you are the ego..
To be the Supreme being means that you have conquered the ego and
become that which you really Are..and become finally
Free.......................namaste, thomas
The Ocean.....
The wave is one with the ocean, indivisible and inseparable from the
whole ocean. All that the ocean is the wave is, and all the power,
all the energy, all the strength, all the life, all the substance of
the ocean is expressed in every wave. The wave has access to all that
lies beneath it for the wave really is the ocean as the ocean is the
wave, inseparable, indivisible, one. And note here this very
important point, that there is no place where one wave comes to an
end and the next wave begins, so that the oneness of the wave with
the ocean includes the oneness of every wave with every other wave.
As a wave is one with the ocean, so you are one with God. Your
oneness with the universal Life constitutes your oneness with every
individual expression of that Life; your oneness with divine Mind
constitutes your oneness with every idea of Mind. As the infinity of
God surges through you to bless all with whom you come in contact,
remember that the infinity of God is also surging through every other
individual on earth to you. No one is sharing anything with you that
is of themselves, but all that they have is of the Father, so
everything that you have is of the Father and you are sharing it with
all the world. You are one with the Father, with the universal
Consciousness, and you are one with every spiritual idea of which
this Consciousness is conscious.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Infinite Way.
whole ocean. All that the ocean is the wave is, and all the power,
all the energy, all the strength, all the life, all the substance of
the ocean is expressed in every wave. The wave has access to all that
lies beneath it for the wave really is the ocean as the ocean is the
wave, inseparable, indivisible, one. And note here this very
important point, that there is no place where one wave comes to an
end and the next wave begins, so that the oneness of the wave with
the ocean includes the oneness of every wave with every other wave.
As a wave is one with the ocean, so you are one with God. Your
oneness with the universal Life constitutes your oneness with every
individual expression of that Life; your oneness with divine Mind
constitutes your oneness with every idea of Mind. As the infinity of
God surges through you to bless all with whom you come in contact,
remember that the infinity of God is also surging through every other
individual on earth to you. No one is sharing anything with you that
is of themselves, but all that they have is of the Father, so
everything that you have is of the Father and you are sharing it with
all the world. You are one with the Father, with the universal
Consciousness, and you are one with every spiritual idea of which
this Consciousness is conscious.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Infinite Way.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead........
The Bardo Thodol also spelled Bardo Thotrol, translated as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, for centuries it was passed down orally. This ancient text was first put into written form by the legendary Padma Sambhava in the 8th century A.D. Translated, Bardo Thodol means "liberation by hearing on the after death plane". The book acts as a guide for the dead during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth.
This scripture (The Bardo Thotrol) from Tibetan Buddhism was traditionally read aloud to the dying to help them attain liberation. It guides a person to use the moment of death to recognize the nature of mind and attain liberation.
It teaches that awareness once freed from the body, creates its own reality like that of a dream. This dream projection unfolds in predictable ways in ways both frightening and beautiful. Peaceful and wrathful visions appear, and these visions can be overwhelming. Since the awareness is still in shock of no longer being attached to and shielded by a body, it needs guidance and forewarning so that key decisions that lead to enlightenment are made. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches how one can attain heavenly realms by recognizing the enlightened realms as opposed to being drawn into the realms of seduction that pull incorporeal awareness into cyclic suffering.
An interesting sidenote: Some of the concepts in the Tibetan Book of the Dead can be found in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene................from the Reluctant Messenger
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This scripture (The Bardo Thotrol) from Tibetan Buddhism was traditionally read aloud to the dying to help them attain liberation. It guides a person to use the moment of death to recognize the nature of mind and attain liberation.
It teaches that awareness once freed from the body, creates its own reality like that of a dream. This dream projection unfolds in predictable ways in ways both frightening and beautiful. Peaceful and wrathful visions appear, and these visions can be overwhelming. Since the awareness is still in shock of no longer being attached to and shielded by a body, it needs guidance and forewarning so that key decisions that lead to enlightenment are made. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches how one can attain heavenly realms by recognizing the enlightened realms as opposed to being drawn into the realms of seduction that pull incorporeal awareness into cyclic suffering.
An interesting sidenote: Some of the concepts in the Tibetan Book of the Dead can be found in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene................from the Reluctant Messenger
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk is tiring..........from the "Tao"..
Heaven and Earth don't play favourites
They treat everything with equal detachment.
Sages don't play favourites
They treat good people and bad with equal detachment.
Heaven and earth are like a set of bellows.
Although empty, they are endlessly productive.
The more you work them, the more they produce.
The mouth, on the other hand, becomes exhausted if you talk too much.
Better to keep your thoughts inside you.
They treat everything with equal detachment.
Sages don't play favourites
They treat good people and bad with equal detachment.
Heaven and earth are like a set of bellows.
Although empty, they are endlessly productive.
The more you work them, the more they produce.
The mouth, on the other hand, becomes exhausted if you talk too much.
Better to keep your thoughts inside you.
Chasing after Desires......
Be Satisfied, Do not Chase after Desires Do not encourage the
multiplication of desires. Be satisfied with whatever you have been
given. In the chapter on devotion, Krishna enumerated the 26 noble
qualities which endear a devotee to the Lord. Of these, contentment
stands out as one of the most important characteristics of a devotee. It
means not running after worldly enjoyments. You have enjoyed so many
luxuries and so many sensual things in your life but you have not gained
peace and fulfillment from them. Give up chasing after them and you will
gain contentment. The heart of a person who does not have contentment is
like a bamboo basket riddled with holes. If you try to draw water out of
a well using such a basket, by the time it comes up, all the water will
have leaked out. There will not even be a drop of water left to quench
your thirst. Similarly, when you are suffering from pangs of desire and
greed, all your contentment leaks away before you even have a chance to
fulfill your desires. When contentment leaves your heart, discontent
remains behind to take its place. Desire breeds more desire. A person
who does not have anything at all may feel very happy and contented when
he gets 100 rupees. But once he gets the 100 rupees, he thinks how nice
it would be if he could get 1000 rupees. If by chance he gets the 1000
rupees, he desires to have a million rupees. Then he would aspire to
become a major property owner. From a property owner he would want to
become a legislator and then a minister and then the prime minister.
Finally, he would want to use all his status and wealth to attain the
God-state. But you can never reach divinity with the help of power and
wealth. As the person's desires cross all limits, he becomes
discontented and his wealth gains him no inner peace at all. You must
learn how to gain contentment from whatever you have, being satisfied
with whatever wealth you have been given. Your responsibility is to take
care of the possessions you have received through the grace of God, and
be happy.
mukundan saibaba gita
multiplication of desires. Be satisfied with whatever you have been
given. In the chapter on devotion, Krishna enumerated the 26 noble
qualities which endear a devotee to the Lord. Of these, contentment
stands out as one of the most important characteristics of a devotee. It
means not running after worldly enjoyments. You have enjoyed so many
luxuries and so many sensual things in your life but you have not gained
peace and fulfillment from them. Give up chasing after them and you will
gain contentment. The heart of a person who does not have contentment is
like a bamboo basket riddled with holes. If you try to draw water out of
a well using such a basket, by the time it comes up, all the water will
have leaked out. There will not even be a drop of water left to quench
your thirst. Similarly, when you are suffering from pangs of desire and
greed, all your contentment leaks away before you even have a chance to
fulfill your desires. When contentment leaves your heart, discontent
remains behind to take its place. Desire breeds more desire. A person
who does not have anything at all may feel very happy and contented when
he gets 100 rupees. But once he gets the 100 rupees, he thinks how nice
it would be if he could get 1000 rupees. If by chance he gets the 1000
rupees, he desires to have a million rupees. Then he would aspire to
become a major property owner. From a property owner he would want to
become a legislator and then a minister and then the prime minister.
Finally, he would want to use all his status and wealth to attain the
God-state. But you can never reach divinity with the help of power and
wealth. As the person's desires cross all limits, he becomes
discontented and his wealth gains him no inner peace at all. You must
learn how to gain contentment from whatever you have, being satisfied
with whatever wealth you have been given. Your responsibility is to take
care of the possessions you have received through the grace of God, and
be happy.
mukundan saibaba gita
Existence...
This invariable truth, that man does not exist in matter but in mind, blesses those who receive it. For it helps to console them in affliction, to guide them in meditation, and to illumine them in reflection. -- The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Cat. XXI, Chapter 5, The Key to the Spiritual World
Enlightenment....
From Here To Here, Turning Toward Enlightenment." by Gary Crowley
http://www.garycrowley.com
Chpater 1
Understanding What Is
Enlightenment is devastatingly simple. Although questions
regarding enlightenment often become complicated, the answer
always remains simple: enlightenment is the direct result
of freedom from the illusion of a separate self. A profound
understanding of this ultimate simplicity provides all that is
required for an awakening to enlightenment.
Enlightenment is what we are. There is nothing to
gain, only its recognition. Enlightenment's simplicity has been
expressed in many ways:
I am, but there is no 'me.' Wei Wu Wei
You are the perceiving, not the perceiver. Ch'an
You are looking for what is looking. St. Francis of Assisi
That which is seeking, is the sought. Buddhic Scripture
The above quotations all express enlightenment's
simplicity. The possible examples are endless; I just happen to
like those that do it in seven words. As you will soon discover,
understanding the essence of these statements is all that is
required for the spiritual seeker because you are always already
enlightened.
Your illusionary self is never the same once it is seen
through. After decades of spiritual seeking, I read one footnote by
Wei Wu Wei that changed everything:
Free, we are not the number One, the first of all our objects,
but Zero – their universal and Absolute Subject.
This footnote caused a shift in orientation that cannot be shifted
back. It was devastatingly simple and understanding was the only
requirement.
Understanding is recognition, clear seeing. It is not the
same as knowledge. In daily life, the words "understanding" and
"knowledge" are often used interchangeably, but throughout this
book "understanding" refers to a direct recognition of what is.
We all can think of times when we had knowledge of something
in our head, but it was not integrated, and therefore, was only a
theoretical notion. As a child you may have been given knowledge
that fire was hot, but until you ran your hand over a flame, no
true understanding could exist. Now, whenever you see a fire, an
understanding occurs, a direct recognition that fire is hot, without
any need for abstract concepts about what is.
Without understanding, enlightenment's simplicity is
missed. With understanding, enlightenment's simplicity cannot
be ignored. The poet Rumi expressed this sentiment as:
I lived on the lip,
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!
Awakening to enlightenment is a journey from here to
here, not from here to there. There is nowhere to go and nothing
to be attained. Enlightenment is simply an awakening to what has
always been the case. There is only the seeing through of our own
ignorance. The journey becomes a circle because it finishes where
it started, but at the finish, one experiences the same world from an
entirely different perspective. As a result, your case of mistaken
identity effortlessly dissolves.
The release of an illusionary separate self occurs
effortlessly through understanding what was never really there.
The false self, though not ultimately real, is thereby devastated. In
its wake remains only what we are, which is enlightenment.
What if awakening to enlightenment requires only
understanding? What if this understanding causes the release of
an illusionary self, something you never even were? Would you
be willing to let go of something you never were if it allowed an
awakening to enlightenment?
The masterpiece of enlightenment is already here. There is
only the awakening to it. Innumerable masters have affirmed it is
so. Upon awakening, one sage purportedly exclaimed, "Is that all
it is?" He then laughed and went about his daily business.
Seeking enlightenment is like searching for a pair of
glasses that are perched on top of your head. All efforts to find the
glasses are seen as ridiculous once one understands the situation.
How humorous it is to discover what was there all along!
What if the only complicated thing about enlightenment
was noticing what had been there all along? How could one not be
amused after all the searching? Perhaps, laughter will result when
you realize that enlightenment has been "perched upon your head"
all this time, patiently waiting to be discovered.
Look at the graphic of the black cube below. Can you see
the black cube securely tucked into the corner?
Now look at this same graphic, but see it as a large white
cube with the front corner cut out. What was once a small black
cube tucked into a corner is now a large white cube with the front
corner missing. Notice too, that at any point in time you can see
the image only one way. The image offers an either-or proposition
in any given moment and cannot be both at the same time.
Awakening to enlightenment is like realizing you are not
the little black cube tucked in the corner, but are instead the large
white cube. Everything is completely different, yet everything
is exactly as it was before. The difference is orientation.
Understanding allows a different way of seeing what already is.
The required understanding is ultimately very simple, but
unraveling your case of mistaken identity still requires precision.
Human beings have an uncanny knack for self-deception when
it comes to discovering their own essence. Ironically, spiritual
seekers seem naturally conditioned to look in the direction
opposite from where their awakening lies.
Like a child chasing the end of a rainbow, most spiritual
seekers are forever almost there because they chase an illusion that
will always remain just out of reach. With understanding, chasing
the illusion ends as you realize that what you have been looking
for is already right here, right now. This is why only a clear and
unambiguous understanding of your illusion will steer you through
self-deception and into an awakening to enlightenment.
Enlightenment may well be in an entirely different
orientation from where you've been searching. All your efforts
until now may have been like pulling on a door that needs only to
be pushed for it to open. Once again, such situations are usually
met with a chuckle when understanding finally occurs. Please
remember this as you read the chapters that follow.
Enlightenment is readily available for those with the ability
to face what is. This book attempts to clearly and concisely assist
in this endeavor by wholly uprooting the cause of your suffering.
Be forewarned: once the roots of suffering have been exposed,
they are forever changed.
Suffering results from maintaining the most prized of all
possessions, an illusionary self. The illusionary self is the ransom
that must be paid by the spiritual seeker. When the arrow of
understanding hits its mark, your illusionary self is its casualty. If
this does not sound like an appealing proposition, then this book is
not for you. However, if this description sounds intriguing, then
let us begin the journey from "here to here."
http://www.garycrowley.com
Chpater 1
Understanding What Is
Enlightenment is devastatingly simple. Although questions
regarding enlightenment often become complicated, the answer
always remains simple: enlightenment is the direct result
of freedom from the illusion of a separate self. A profound
understanding of this ultimate simplicity provides all that is
required for an awakening to enlightenment.
Enlightenment is what we are. There is nothing to
gain, only its recognition. Enlightenment's simplicity has been
expressed in many ways:
I am, but there is no 'me.' Wei Wu Wei
You are the perceiving, not the perceiver. Ch'an
You are looking for what is looking. St. Francis of Assisi
That which is seeking, is the sought. Buddhic Scripture
The above quotations all express enlightenment's
simplicity. The possible examples are endless; I just happen to
like those that do it in seven words. As you will soon discover,
understanding the essence of these statements is all that is
required for the spiritual seeker because you are always already
enlightened.
Your illusionary self is never the same once it is seen
through. After decades of spiritual seeking, I read one footnote by
Wei Wu Wei that changed everything:
Free, we are not the number One, the first of all our objects,
but Zero – their universal and Absolute Subject.
This footnote caused a shift in orientation that cannot be shifted
back. It was devastatingly simple and understanding was the only
requirement.
Understanding is recognition, clear seeing. It is not the
same as knowledge. In daily life, the words "understanding" and
"knowledge" are often used interchangeably, but throughout this
book "understanding" refers to a direct recognition of what is.
We all can think of times when we had knowledge of something
in our head, but it was not integrated, and therefore, was only a
theoretical notion. As a child you may have been given knowledge
that fire was hot, but until you ran your hand over a flame, no
true understanding could exist. Now, whenever you see a fire, an
understanding occurs, a direct recognition that fire is hot, without
any need for abstract concepts about what is.
Without understanding, enlightenment's simplicity is
missed. With understanding, enlightenment's simplicity cannot
be ignored. The poet Rumi expressed this sentiment as:
I lived on the lip,
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside!
Awakening to enlightenment is a journey from here to
here, not from here to there. There is nowhere to go and nothing
to be attained. Enlightenment is simply an awakening to what has
always been the case. There is only the seeing through of our own
ignorance. The journey becomes a circle because it finishes where
it started, but at the finish, one experiences the same world from an
entirely different perspective. As a result, your case of mistaken
identity effortlessly dissolves.
The release of an illusionary separate self occurs
effortlessly through understanding what was never really there.
The false self, though not ultimately real, is thereby devastated. In
its wake remains only what we are, which is enlightenment.
What if awakening to enlightenment requires only
understanding? What if this understanding causes the release of
an illusionary self, something you never even were? Would you
be willing to let go of something you never were if it allowed an
awakening to enlightenment?
The masterpiece of enlightenment is already here. There is
only the awakening to it. Innumerable masters have affirmed it is
so. Upon awakening, one sage purportedly exclaimed, "Is that all
it is?" He then laughed and went about his daily business.
Seeking enlightenment is like searching for a pair of
glasses that are perched on top of your head. All efforts to find the
glasses are seen as ridiculous once one understands the situation.
How humorous it is to discover what was there all along!
What if the only complicated thing about enlightenment
was noticing what had been there all along? How could one not be
amused after all the searching? Perhaps, laughter will result when
you realize that enlightenment has been "perched upon your head"
all this time, patiently waiting to be discovered.
Look at the graphic of the black cube below. Can you see
the black cube securely tucked into the corner?
Now look at this same graphic, but see it as a large white
cube with the front corner cut out. What was once a small black
cube tucked into a corner is now a large white cube with the front
corner missing. Notice too, that at any point in time you can see
the image only one way. The image offers an either-or proposition
in any given moment and cannot be both at the same time.
Awakening to enlightenment is like realizing you are not
the little black cube tucked in the corner, but are instead the large
white cube. Everything is completely different, yet everything
is exactly as it was before. The difference is orientation.
Understanding allows a different way of seeing what already is.
The required understanding is ultimately very simple, but
unraveling your case of mistaken identity still requires precision.
Human beings have an uncanny knack for self-deception when
it comes to discovering their own essence. Ironically, spiritual
seekers seem naturally conditioned to look in the direction
opposite from where their awakening lies.
Like a child chasing the end of a rainbow, most spiritual
seekers are forever almost there because they chase an illusion that
will always remain just out of reach. With understanding, chasing
the illusion ends as you realize that what you have been looking
for is already right here, right now. This is why only a clear and
unambiguous understanding of your illusion will steer you through
self-deception and into an awakening to enlightenment.
Enlightenment may well be in an entirely different
orientation from where you've been searching. All your efforts
until now may have been like pulling on a door that needs only to
be pushed for it to open. Once again, such situations are usually
met with a chuckle when understanding finally occurs. Please
remember this as you read the chapters that follow.
Enlightenment is readily available for those with the ability
to face what is. This book attempts to clearly and concisely assist
in this endeavor by wholly uprooting the cause of your suffering.
Be forewarned: once the roots of suffering have been exposed,
they are forever changed.
Suffering results from maintaining the most prized of all
possessions, an illusionary self. The illusionary self is the ransom
that must be paid by the spiritual seeker. When the arrow of
understanding hits its mark, your illusionary self is its casualty. If
this does not sound like an appealing proposition, then this book is
not for you. However, if this description sounds intriguing, then
let us begin the journey from "here to here."
Irfan - (Islamic Mysticism)
The spiritual traveler watching his own lower self and the Divine Names and Attributes of Allah, gradually advances till ultimately he reaches the stage of total fanã (self-annihilation) that is passing away from his own perishable will and then the station of baqã (abiding in the everlasting Will of Allah). It is at this stage that the secret of eternal life is revealed to him.
We can infer this doctrine from the Holy Qur'an also if we ponder over certain verses of it.
Think not of those who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provisions. (Surah Ãli Imran, 3: 169).
Everything will perish save His Countenance.1 (28:88)
That which you have is wasted away, and that which is with Allah remains. (Surah an Nahl, 6:96)
These verses put together show that the countenance of Allah are those "who are living and who have provisions with their Lord." According to the text of Qur'an they never perish.
From the above it is also clear what the Holy Imams meant when they said: "We are the Names of Allah." Obviously to be the head of a government or to be the highest religious and legal authority is not a position which could be described by these words. What actually these words denote is the state of passing away in Allah, abiding permanently with His countenance and being a manifestation of His glorious and beautiful Names and Attributes.
In connection with the spiritual journey another important and essential thing is meditation or contemplation (muraqabah). It is necessary for the spiritual traveler not to ignore meditation at any stage from the beginning to the end. It must be understood that meditation has many grades and is of many types. In the initial stages the spiritual traveler has to do one type of meditation and at later stages another type. As the spiritual traveler goes forward, his meditation becomes so strong that if ever it was undertaken by a beginner, he would either give it up for good or would be mad. But after successfully completing the preliminary stages, the gnostic becomes able to undertake the higher stages of meditation.
As a result of careful and diligent meditation a flame of love begins to kindle in the heart of the spiritual traveler, for it is an inborn instinct of man to love the Absolute Beauty and Perfection. But the love of material things overshadows this inherent love and does not allow it to grow and become visible.
Meditation weakens this veil till ultimately it is totally lifted. Then that innate love appears in its full splendor and leads man’s conscience towards Allah. The mystic poets often figuratively call this divine love "wine".
When the spiritual traveler has passed this stage and his meditation grows stronger, he sees as if the heaven and the earth were all illuminated from the East to the West. This light is called the light of self and is seen after the gnostic has passed the world of barzakh (material desires). When after coming out of the world of barzakh primary manifestations of self begin to occur, the spiritual traveler often feels that he is standing beside himself. This stage is the beginning of the stage of self stripping.
Sometimes it happens that the gnostic feels as if he did not exist at all. He tries to find himself but he does not succeed. These the observations of the early stages of self-stripping, but they are not free from the limitations of time and space. In the next stage, with Allah's help the spiritual traveler can rise above these limitations also and can view complete reality of his Self.
It may be mentioned here that to see the things existing in the world of barzakh is comparatively of small account. It is of greater significance to view one's own lower self (nafs) in an absolutely stripped state, for in this case self appears as a pure reality free from the limitations of time and space The viewing of the earlier stages was comparatively preliminary and partial and this viewing is so to say the perception of the whole.
Agha Sayyid Ahmad Karbalã’i, another well-known and prominent pupil of the late Akhund says: "One day I was sleeping somewhere when all of a sudden somebody awakened me and said to me: ‘Get up at once if you want to see the ‘eternal light.’ I opened my eyes and saw an immensely bright light shining everywhere and in all directions."
This is a stage of the enlightenment of Self. It appears in the shape of an Infinite Light...............................from mysticalprinciples.com
We can infer this doctrine from the Holy Qur'an also if we ponder over certain verses of it.
Think not of those who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provisions. (Surah Ãli Imran, 3: 169).
Everything will perish save His Countenance.1 (28:88)
That which you have is wasted away, and that which is with Allah remains. (Surah an Nahl, 6:96)
These verses put together show that the countenance of Allah are those "who are living and who have provisions with their Lord." According to the text of Qur'an they never perish.
From the above it is also clear what the Holy Imams meant when they said: "We are the Names of Allah." Obviously to be the head of a government or to be the highest religious and legal authority is not a position which could be described by these words. What actually these words denote is the state of passing away in Allah, abiding permanently with His countenance and being a manifestation of His glorious and beautiful Names and Attributes.
In connection with the spiritual journey another important and essential thing is meditation or contemplation (muraqabah). It is necessary for the spiritual traveler not to ignore meditation at any stage from the beginning to the end. It must be understood that meditation has many grades and is of many types. In the initial stages the spiritual traveler has to do one type of meditation and at later stages another type. As the spiritual traveler goes forward, his meditation becomes so strong that if ever it was undertaken by a beginner, he would either give it up for good or would be mad. But after successfully completing the preliminary stages, the gnostic becomes able to undertake the higher stages of meditation.
As a result of careful and diligent meditation a flame of love begins to kindle in the heart of the spiritual traveler, for it is an inborn instinct of man to love the Absolute Beauty and Perfection. But the love of material things overshadows this inherent love and does not allow it to grow and become visible.
Meditation weakens this veil till ultimately it is totally lifted. Then that innate love appears in its full splendor and leads man’s conscience towards Allah. The mystic poets often figuratively call this divine love "wine".
When the spiritual traveler has passed this stage and his meditation grows stronger, he sees as if the heaven and the earth were all illuminated from the East to the West. This light is called the light of self and is seen after the gnostic has passed the world of barzakh (material desires). When after coming out of the world of barzakh primary manifestations of self begin to occur, the spiritual traveler often feels that he is standing beside himself. This stage is the beginning of the stage of self stripping.
Sometimes it happens that the gnostic feels as if he did not exist at all. He tries to find himself but he does not succeed. These the observations of the early stages of self-stripping, but they are not free from the limitations of time and space. In the next stage, with Allah's help the spiritual traveler can rise above these limitations also and can view complete reality of his Self.
It may be mentioned here that to see the things existing in the world of barzakh is comparatively of small account. It is of greater significance to view one's own lower self (nafs) in an absolutely stripped state, for in this case self appears as a pure reality free from the limitations of time and space The viewing of the earlier stages was comparatively preliminary and partial and this viewing is so to say the perception of the whole.
Agha Sayyid Ahmad Karbalã’i, another well-known and prominent pupil of the late Akhund says: "One day I was sleeping somewhere when all of a sudden somebody awakened me and said to me: ‘Get up at once if you want to see the ‘eternal light.’ I opened my eyes and saw an immensely bright light shining everywhere and in all directions."
This is a stage of the enlightenment of Self. It appears in the shape of an Infinite Light...............................from mysticalprinciples.com
You can experience God through Love alone...
If you want God, you will have to develop this sacred quality of love.
Only through love will you be able to experience him, who is love
itself.
If you want to see the moon there is no need to use a candle or a torch
light. The light of the moon is enough to see the moon. If you want to
see God you need only to immerse yourself in love. Fill yourself with
love and you will surely succeed in acquiring God. But as long as this
love has not yet become clearly established, there is a need for
spiritual practices such as devotional singing, repetition of
the name of God, and other forms of worship. Once pure love has
developed these spiritual practices are no longer necessary.
Yet, even when the moon shines brightly, you will not be able to see
it if your eyes are closed. In the same way, if your eyes are still
closed to the loving presence of God within you, then good
actions, including the various spiritual exercises, will help
open your eyes and clarify your vision, so that you can see and
enjoy the Lord. That is the import of Krishna's teaching in the
Gita.
Only when you listen to such great words, and only when you understand
them clearly, and only when you practice them, will you be able to reach
your divine goal. Set aside at least one hour per day to study these
teachings and incorporate them in all your daily activities. In
so doing you will be using your time wisely and you will be
sanctifying your life.
mukundan
saibaba gita
Only through love will you be able to experience him, who is love
itself.
If you want to see the moon there is no need to use a candle or a torch
light. The light of the moon is enough to see the moon. If you want to
see God you need only to immerse yourself in love. Fill yourself with
love and you will surely succeed in acquiring God. But as long as this
love has not yet become clearly established, there is a need for
spiritual practices such as devotional singing, repetition of
the name of God, and other forms of worship. Once pure love has
developed these spiritual practices are no longer necessary.
Yet, even when the moon shines brightly, you will not be able to see
it if your eyes are closed. In the same way, if your eyes are still
closed to the loving presence of God within you, then good
actions, including the various spiritual exercises, will help
open your eyes and clarify your vision, so that you can see and
enjoy the Lord. That is the import of Krishna's teaching in the
Gita.
Only when you listen to such great words, and only when you understand
them clearly, and only when you practice them, will you be able to reach
your divine goal. Set aside at least one hour per day to study these
teachings and incorporate them in all your daily activities. In
so doing you will be using your time wisely and you will be
sanctifying your life.
mukundan
saibaba gita
Bhagavad Gita...
The blessed Lord said,
'Fearlessness, purity of heart,
perseverance in knowledge of union,
charity and restraint and sacrifice,
spiritual study, austerity, straightforwardness,
nonviolence, truth, no anger, renunciation, peace,
no slander, compassion for creatures, no greed,
kindness, modesty, no fickleness,
vigor, patience, courage, purity,
no hatred, and no excessive pride
are the endowment of the one born to the divine, Bharata.
"'Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit,
anger and harshness, and ignorance
are the endowment of the one born to the demonic, Partha.
"'The divine endowment is for liberation,
for bondage the demonic, it is thought.
Do not grieve.
To the divine endowment you are born, son of Pandu.
Two created beings are in this world,
the divine and the demonic.
"'The divine has been described in detail;
hear from me about the demonic, Partha.
Progress and cessation demonic people do not understand;
neither purity nor good conduct nor truth is found in them.
Untruthful, they are unstable.
The universe, they say, is godless,
not by a succession created.
What else but desire caused it?
Holding this view lost souls of little intelligence
and evil actions come forth as enemies
for the destruction of the world.
"'Attached to insatiable desire,
accompanied by hypocrisy, arrogance, and lust,
out of confusion accepting false notions,
they proceed with impure purposes,
and clinging to immeasurable anxiety ending in death,
with gratification of desire their highest aim,
convinced that this is all,
bound by a hundred expectations,
devoted to desire and anger,
they wish for the gratification of desires
by the unjust means of hoards of wealth.
'Fearlessness, purity of heart,
perseverance in knowledge of union,
charity and restraint and sacrifice,
spiritual study, austerity, straightforwardness,
nonviolence, truth, no anger, renunciation, peace,
no slander, compassion for creatures, no greed,
kindness, modesty, no fickleness,
vigor, patience, courage, purity,
no hatred, and no excessive pride
are the endowment of the one born to the divine, Bharata.
"'Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit,
anger and harshness, and ignorance
are the endowment of the one born to the demonic, Partha.
"'The divine endowment is for liberation,
for bondage the demonic, it is thought.
Do not grieve.
To the divine endowment you are born, son of Pandu.
Two created beings are in this world,
the divine and the demonic.
"'The divine has been described in detail;
hear from me about the demonic, Partha.
Progress and cessation demonic people do not understand;
neither purity nor good conduct nor truth is found in them.
Untruthful, they are unstable.
The universe, they say, is godless,
not by a succession created.
What else but desire caused it?
Holding this view lost souls of little intelligence
and evil actions come forth as enemies
for the destruction of the world.
"'Attached to insatiable desire,
accompanied by hypocrisy, arrogance, and lust,
out of confusion accepting false notions,
they proceed with impure purposes,
and clinging to immeasurable anxiety ending in death,
with gratification of desire their highest aim,
convinced that this is all,
bound by a hundred expectations,
devoted to desire and anger,
they wish for the gratification of desires
by the unjust means of hoards of wealth.
Concerning the Atoms of the Soul ...
Someone explained once how the pieces of what we are
fall downwards at the same rate
as the Universe.
The atoms of us, falling towards the centre
of whatever everything is. And we don't see it.
We only sense their slight drag in the lifting hand.
That's what weight is, that communal process of falling.
Furthermore, these atoms carry hooks, like burrs,
hooks catching like hooks, like clinging to like,
that's what keeps us from becoming something else,
and why in early love, we sometimes
feel the tug of the heart snagging on another's heart.
Only the atoms of the soul are perfect spheres
with no means of holding on to the world
or perhaps no need for holding on,
and so they fall through our lives catching
against nothing, like perfect rain,
and in the end, he wrote, mix in that common well of light
at the centre of whatever the suspected
centre is, or might have been.
~ John Glenday ~
fall downwards at the same rate
as the Universe.
The atoms of us, falling towards the centre
of whatever everything is. And we don't see it.
We only sense their slight drag in the lifting hand.
That's what weight is, that communal process of falling.
Furthermore, these atoms carry hooks, like burrs,
hooks catching like hooks, like clinging to like,
that's what keeps us from becoming something else,
and why in early love, we sometimes
feel the tug of the heart snagging on another's heart.
Only the atoms of the soul are perfect spheres
with no means of holding on to the world
or perhaps no need for holding on,
and so they fall through our lives catching
against nothing, like perfect rain,
and in the end, he wrote, mix in that common well of light
at the centre of whatever the suspected
centre is, or might have been.
~ John Glenday ~
"The Reverential Life"
Within his heart, he may call or keep nothing as his own, not even his spirituality. If he really does not want to cling to the ego, he must cling to nothing else. He is to have no sense of inner greatness, no distinct feeling of having attained some high degree of holiness. -- The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Cat. XVIII, Chapter 4, Surrender
Christ Consciousness....
We are already the Consciousness of Christ, but the Ego that we believe
we are covers the Christ Consciousness almost completely, the rope that
pulls us back to proper consciousness is the miracle energy of Love...
this is the God force within us that gently pulls us to the waking up
to Truth... this is why even the evil souls among us still feel the
pull to the energy of Love, even if it is for only their family members
or friends.....Love is the most powerful force in the Universe and is
our Home and is Us.......the ego must be disolved to find this Truth to
be real, and it is the meaning of our existence to complete this
journey to ego anihilation..............namaste, thomas
we are covers the Christ Consciousness almost completely, the rope that
pulls us back to proper consciousness is the miracle energy of Love...
this is the God force within us that gently pulls us to the waking up
to Truth... this is why even the evil souls among us still feel the
pull to the energy of Love, even if it is for only their family members
or friends.....Love is the most powerful force in the Universe and is
our Home and is Us.......the ego must be disolved to find this Truth to
be real, and it is the meaning of our existence to complete this
journey to ego anihilation..............namaste, thomas
The Ego and the Spirit ...
The ego looks for peace — the spirit rests in it
The ego looks for love — the spirit gives it freely
The ego is in constant search for happiness — the spirit is absorbed in joy
The ego looks for control — the spirit is totally free
The ego looks for longevity — the spirit is immortal
The ego accumulates information — the spirit is Supreme Wisdom
The ego is limited by space and time — the spirit is boundless
The ego is only a player in a show — the spirit is life itself
The ego is false — the spirit is real
The ego wants more and more — the spirit has it all!
Shortcut to Spirituality: Mastering the Art of Inner Peace
Bob Gottfried
Pages 118-119
The ego looks for love — the spirit gives it freely
The ego is in constant search for happiness — the spirit is absorbed in joy
The ego looks for control — the spirit is totally free
The ego looks for longevity — the spirit is immortal
The ego accumulates information — the spirit is Supreme Wisdom
The ego is limited by space and time — the spirit is boundless
The ego is only a player in a show — the spirit is life itself
The ego is false — the spirit is real
The ego wants more and more — the spirit has it all!
Shortcut to Spirituality: Mastering the Art of Inner Peace
Bob Gottfried
Pages 118-119
Archangel Michael’s Rosary
This rosary is perfect for invoking spiritual protection for yourself or others. It is also very powerful for cutting people free from dark forces and for changing world conditions. For personal protection, you can use this rosary instead of the decrees/affirmations to
Archangel Michael presented in this section.
It takes about 35 minutes to give the full rosary. If you do not have time for the full rosary, you can give Sections 1, 2 and 5 as your daily protection. Or you can give the "I Choose Life!" affirmation followed by 9 "Hail Michael" (or as many as you have time to give).
NOTE: This rosary was introduced by a dictation from Archangel Michael.
Section 1.
In the name of the unconditional love of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Miracle Mother, Amen.
Beloved Archangel Michael, I dedicate this rosary to the manifestation of God’s will and God’s kingdom in . . .
(Describe the situations and conditions that you want Archangel Michael and his angels to resolve.)
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father-Mother God who is within all life, we honor your Presence, the I AM, within us. We accept your kingdom manifest on Earth through us. We accept our responsibility to manifest your will on Earth, as it is manifest in Heaven.
We accept that you are giving us our daily opportunity to be all that you are. We acknowledge that you forgive us our imperfections, as we forgive each other and surrender our will to the higher will within us. We therefore accept the truth that the universe returns to us what we send out.
We take responsibility for our lives and our planet. We vow to rise above the temptations of the lower self, so that you can deliver us from all imperfect energies. We affirm that your kingdom, power and glory is manifest on Earth, now and forever. Amen.
Archangel Michael, take command over all dark spirits
1. By the authority of the Christ Flame within me, I call to Archangel Michael to manifest your Flaming Presence with me and form an impenetrable shield around my energy field. Protect me from all imperfect energies, dark spirits, discarnate souls and all forces of anti-christ, and enlighten me so that I can identify dark vibrations. I hereby choose to stop all darkness from entering my being. Archangel Michael, protect all people from all imperfect energies and dark spirits.
Hail Michael
Hail Archangel Michael, Lord of Angels,
Your Presence is always with us.
Protect us from all forces of darkness,
and bind the enemy within us.
We take dominion over our lives,
and manifest God’s kingdom on Earth.
Holy Michael, Defender of Faith.
we invoke your Blue-flame Sword.
Cut us free from the lies of anti-christ,
so we can pierce the veil of separation.
We affirm our oneness with God,
and form the Body of God on Earth.
2. Archangel Michael, manifest your Flaming Presence within my energy field. Bind and consume all vortexes of imperfect energies that threaten to overpower my mind and emotions. Cut me free from all connection to the planetary vortexes of negative energies. Enlighten me so that I can identify all imperfect energies in my being. Help me see that they are not part of my being and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all dark energies go. Archangel Michael, consume all toxic vibrations in the energy fields of all people.
Hail Michael
3. Archangel Michael, bind and consume all dark spirits, all discarnate souls and all forces of anti-christ that have gained entry into my being and are seeking to control me from within. Enlighten me so that I can identify these enemies within me. Help me see that they are not part of my true identity and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all dark spirits go. Archangel Michael, cut all people free from dark spirits.
Hail Michael
4. Archangel Michael, bind and consume all spiritual poisons in my being. Cut me free from the poisons of ignorance, anger, pride, greed, envy and non-will/non-being. Enlighten me so that I can identify all spiritual poisons in my being. Help me see that they are not part of my being and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all spiritual poisons go. Archangel Michael, cut all people free from spiritual poisons.
Hail Michael
5. Archangel Michael, bind and consume my carnal mind and my human ego, forming an anti-self that seeks to prevent me from accepting my true identity. Enlighten me so that I can identify the lies that my anti-self is using to control my actions, feelings, thoughts and sense of identity. Help me see that the anti-self is not part of my true identity and that I do not need it. I now choose to let my anti-self go. Archangel Michael, strip me of my anti-self and bind the anti-selves of all people who are willing to be free.
Hail Michael
6. Archangel Michael, cut me free from the gravitational force of the mass consciousness that pulls me into following convention, to never rise above the lowest common denominator and to deny my potential to put on the mind of Christ. Strip me of all spiritual blindness so I can see that there is a better way to live than the way that seems right unto a man. Give me the courage to come apart and belong to the separate and chosen people. I now elect to follow the Way of Life, the way to Christ consciousness. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the mass consciousness.
Hail Michael
7. Archangel Michael, cut me free from the consciousness of materialism that causes me to feel attachments to the things of this world. Help me see that my Christ potential is the true key to the abundant life. I now choose to seek first the kingdom of God, and I know that when I attain the Christ consciousness, all things will be added unto me. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the consciousness of materialism, the consciousness of death.
Hail Michael
8. Archangel Michael, cut me free from all attachments to my current beliefs and all fear that if I give up my limited beliefs, I might lose my sense of identity. Enlighten me so I can see through all of the dualistic beliefs that have been programmed into my mind by church and state. Help me see that by giving up these dualistic beliefs, these man-made idols, I will win my true identity in Christ. I choose to stop dancing around the golden calf of these carnal beliefs. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the consciousness of duality, the consciousness of death.
Hail Michael
9. Archangel Michael, cut me free from all attachments to my mortal sense of identity, and all fear that if I give up this carnal mind, I will have no identity left. Enlighten me so I can see through the unreality of my anti-self and see that behind it is my true identity as an immortal spiritual being. I now choose life, and I accept my true identity in Christ. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above all false sense of identity.
channeled through askrealjesus.com
Archangel Michael presented in this section.
It takes about 35 minutes to give the full rosary. If you do not have time for the full rosary, you can give Sections 1, 2 and 5 as your daily protection. Or you can give the "I Choose Life!" affirmation followed by 9 "Hail Michael" (or as many as you have time to give).
NOTE: This rosary was introduced by a dictation from Archangel Michael.
Section 1.
In the name of the unconditional love of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Miracle Mother, Amen.
Beloved Archangel Michael, I dedicate this rosary to the manifestation of God’s will and God’s kingdom in . . .
(Describe the situations and conditions that you want Archangel Michael and his angels to resolve.)
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father-Mother God who is within all life, we honor your Presence, the I AM, within us. We accept your kingdom manifest on Earth through us. We accept our responsibility to manifest your will on Earth, as it is manifest in Heaven.
We accept that you are giving us our daily opportunity to be all that you are. We acknowledge that you forgive us our imperfections, as we forgive each other and surrender our will to the higher will within us. We therefore accept the truth that the universe returns to us what we send out.
We take responsibility for our lives and our planet. We vow to rise above the temptations of the lower self, so that you can deliver us from all imperfect energies. We affirm that your kingdom, power and glory is manifest on Earth, now and forever. Amen.
Archangel Michael, take command over all dark spirits
1. By the authority of the Christ Flame within me, I call to Archangel Michael to manifest your Flaming Presence with me and form an impenetrable shield around my energy field. Protect me from all imperfect energies, dark spirits, discarnate souls and all forces of anti-christ, and enlighten me so that I can identify dark vibrations. I hereby choose to stop all darkness from entering my being. Archangel Michael, protect all people from all imperfect energies and dark spirits.
Hail Michael
Hail Archangel Michael, Lord of Angels,
Your Presence is always with us.
Protect us from all forces of darkness,
and bind the enemy within us.
We take dominion over our lives,
and manifest God’s kingdom on Earth.
Holy Michael, Defender of Faith.
we invoke your Blue-flame Sword.
Cut us free from the lies of anti-christ,
so we can pierce the veil of separation.
We affirm our oneness with God,
and form the Body of God on Earth.
2. Archangel Michael, manifest your Flaming Presence within my energy field. Bind and consume all vortexes of imperfect energies that threaten to overpower my mind and emotions. Cut me free from all connection to the planetary vortexes of negative energies. Enlighten me so that I can identify all imperfect energies in my being. Help me see that they are not part of my being and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all dark energies go. Archangel Michael, consume all toxic vibrations in the energy fields of all people.
Hail Michael
3. Archangel Michael, bind and consume all dark spirits, all discarnate souls and all forces of anti-christ that have gained entry into my being and are seeking to control me from within. Enlighten me so that I can identify these enemies within me. Help me see that they are not part of my true identity and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all dark spirits go. Archangel Michael, cut all people free from dark spirits.
Hail Michael
4. Archangel Michael, bind and consume all spiritual poisons in my being. Cut me free from the poisons of ignorance, anger, pride, greed, envy and non-will/non-being. Enlighten me so that I can identify all spiritual poisons in my being. Help me see that they are not part of my being and that I do not need them. I now choose to let all spiritual poisons go. Archangel Michael, cut all people free from spiritual poisons.
Hail Michael
5. Archangel Michael, bind and consume my carnal mind and my human ego, forming an anti-self that seeks to prevent me from accepting my true identity. Enlighten me so that I can identify the lies that my anti-self is using to control my actions, feelings, thoughts and sense of identity. Help me see that the anti-self is not part of my true identity and that I do not need it. I now choose to let my anti-self go. Archangel Michael, strip me of my anti-self and bind the anti-selves of all people who are willing to be free.
Hail Michael
6. Archangel Michael, cut me free from the gravitational force of the mass consciousness that pulls me into following convention, to never rise above the lowest common denominator and to deny my potential to put on the mind of Christ. Strip me of all spiritual blindness so I can see that there is a better way to live than the way that seems right unto a man. Give me the courage to come apart and belong to the separate and chosen people. I now elect to follow the Way of Life, the way to Christ consciousness. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the mass consciousness.
Hail Michael
7. Archangel Michael, cut me free from the consciousness of materialism that causes me to feel attachments to the things of this world. Help me see that my Christ potential is the true key to the abundant life. I now choose to seek first the kingdom of God, and I know that when I attain the Christ consciousness, all things will be added unto me. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the consciousness of materialism, the consciousness of death.
Hail Michael
8. Archangel Michael, cut me free from all attachments to my current beliefs and all fear that if I give up my limited beliefs, I might lose my sense of identity. Enlighten me so I can see through all of the dualistic beliefs that have been programmed into my mind by church and state. Help me see that by giving up these dualistic beliefs, these man-made idols, I will win my true identity in Christ. I choose to stop dancing around the golden calf of these carnal beliefs. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above the consciousness of duality, the consciousness of death.
Hail Michael
9. Archangel Michael, cut me free from all attachments to my mortal sense of identity, and all fear that if I give up this carnal mind, I will have no identity left. Enlighten me so I can see through the unreality of my anti-self and see that behind it is my true identity as an immortal spiritual being. I now choose life, and I accept my true identity in Christ. Archangel Michael, cut free all people who are willing to rise above all false sense of identity.
channeled through askrealjesus.com
Training the Soul.......
Thoughts from the conscious mind are relayed to the sub-conscious
mind to come into manifestation... the sub-conscious mind is also
your soul, it forgets nothing and never sleeps...It keeps your heart
beating and your lungs breathing , this is why we do not die during
sleep... when the conscious mind trains the sub-conscious to think in
a particular manner, such as only admitting positive thoughts and
only thoughts of Love, then we are eliminating the false ego... as we
purify the sub-conscious mind then we realize Truth, which we call
Wisdom... although the sub-conscious mind is controlled by the
conscious mind, the divinity within the sub-conscious mind is always
proding us to attain a higher spiritual level... this is why all
humans seek Love.. even if they are evil in their everyday actions,
they still seek the egolessness of the feeling of Love, though their
families,friends, lovers, children, and parents... so the
acknowledgement of Truth is when the conscious mind agrees with the
purified sub-conscious mind..................namaste, thomas
mind to come into manifestation... the sub-conscious mind is also
your soul, it forgets nothing and never sleeps...It keeps your heart
beating and your lungs breathing , this is why we do not die during
sleep... when the conscious mind trains the sub-conscious to think in
a particular manner, such as only admitting positive thoughts and
only thoughts of Love, then we are eliminating the false ego... as we
purify the sub-conscious mind then we realize Truth, which we call
Wisdom... although the sub-conscious mind is controlled by the
conscious mind, the divinity within the sub-conscious mind is always
proding us to attain a higher spiritual level... this is why all
humans seek Love.. even if they are evil in their everyday actions,
they still seek the egolessness of the feeling of Love, though their
families,friends, lovers, children, and parents... so the
acknowledgement of Truth is when the conscious mind agrees with the
purified sub-conscious mind..................namaste, thomas
God has no Ego.........
Can you imagine that the greatest power in all creation has no
ego....to experience complete unselfish love can only be accomplished
when we are egoless.... to attain to the center of God, which is often
called the Godhead, we must first completely conquer the belief in the
false ego... this is the main teaching of Vernon Howard.... he often uses non-
spiritual instruction to reach a spiritual point..... non-ego is
unselfishness which is also known as Love.....this is why this Force
created us to share in this great joy of the feeling of Love, because
the unselfish wish to share...... but self-ish-ness on our part put a
wall between us and the Power of Unselfishness.. this is called
duality.......the teaching of Vernon is to end this duality and return
to the Truth that we are actually God.......................namaste,
thomas
ego....to experience complete unselfish love can only be accomplished
when we are egoless.... to attain to the center of God, which is often
called the Godhead, we must first completely conquer the belief in the
false ego... this is the main teaching of Vernon Howard.... he often uses non-
spiritual instruction to reach a spiritual point..... non-ego is
unselfishness which is also known as Love.....this is why this Force
created us to share in this great joy of the feeling of Love, because
the unselfish wish to share...... but self-ish-ness on our part put a
wall between us and the Power of Unselfishness.. this is called
duality.......the teaching of Vernon is to end this duality and return
to the Truth that we are actually God.......................namaste,
thomas
What is God ?..........
We have been taught from birth to believe that God is an old man on a
throne, waiting to judge our souls, according to how we have followed
his rules.........But our mentality is much more advanced now, and we
can delve deeper into the understanding of what the word God
means......God means Love...and Love is unselfishness and lack of the
false ego..this is very important.. stop thinking in terms of a human
god and think in terms of energy and vibration... at the smallest
level, our bodies are vibration , and we know that we have been created
in the likeness of God.. therefore, God is energy and vibration...
vibration cannot be seen , we can use electronic instruments to see the
duplication of the vibration but it is beyond the frequencies of light
that our eyes can see... this is spirit... spirit are frequencies that
cannot be seen with human eyes.......So , by saying that we are God, is
not egoistic... it is the opposite of egoistic... because we are saying
that we are LOVE ,and unselfish Love cannot be selfish or egoistic, it
is impossible for these energies to merge....therefore, even though
it might shock your mental system to say that you are God, it is
actually achieving egolessness to state this and know that it is
true.......As Jesus said;" The last shall be
first"................namaste, thomas
throne, waiting to judge our souls, according to how we have followed
his rules.........But our mentality is much more advanced now, and we
can delve deeper into the understanding of what the word God
means......God means Love...and Love is unselfishness and lack of the
false ego..this is very important.. stop thinking in terms of a human
god and think in terms of energy and vibration... at the smallest
level, our bodies are vibration , and we know that we have been created
in the likeness of God.. therefore, God is energy and vibration...
vibration cannot be seen , we can use electronic instruments to see the
duplication of the vibration but it is beyond the frequencies of light
that our eyes can see... this is spirit... spirit are frequencies that
cannot be seen with human eyes.......So , by saying that we are God, is
not egoistic... it is the opposite of egoistic... because we are saying
that we are LOVE ,and unselfish Love cannot be selfish or egoistic, it
is impossible for these energies to merge....therefore, even though
it might shock your mental system to say that you are God, it is
actually achieving egolessness to state this and know that it is
true.......As Jesus said;" The last shall be
first"................namaste, thomas
The seeker is he who is in search of himself.
Give up all questions except one: 'Who am I?' After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is certain. The 'I am this' is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.
To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not.
Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not.
Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Self knowledge & Self mastery...the Tao
Intelligent people know others.
Enlightened people know themselves.
You can conquer others with power,
But it takes true strength to conquer yourself.
Ambitious people force their will on others,
But content people are already wealthy.
Prudent people will abide.
People unconquered by the idea of death will live long.
People who live according to their means last long.
Enlightened people know themselves.
You can conquer others with power,
But it takes true strength to conquer yourself.
Ambitious people force their will on others,
But content people are already wealthy.
Prudent people will abide.
People unconquered by the idea of death will live long.
People who live according to their means last long.
Quotes from Lu Xiangshan (Lu Hsiang Shan) (1139-1193
The Four Beginnings (of humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom) are all originally present in the self. Nothing need be added from the outside.
Principle exists in the universe without any obstruction. It is only that you sink from it, hide yourself in darkness as in the trap, and lose all sense of what is high and far beyond. It is imperative that this trap be decisively broken and the confining net be penetrated and destroyed.
The universe has never separated itself from man. Man separates himself from the universe.
Students of today (circa 12th Century) only pay attention to details and do not search for what is concrete.
When is it necessary to depend on words?"
When scholars read today, they only try to understand words and do not go further to find out what is vital.
Complete Work of Lu Hsiang-shan (Hsiang-shan ch’uan-chi), 35:10a-b, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 33
Principle exists in the universe without any obstruction. It is only that you sink from it, hide yourself in darkness as in the trap, and lose all sense of what is high and far beyond. It is imperative that this trap be decisively broken and the confining net be penetrated and destroyed.
The universe has never separated itself from man. Man separates himself from the universe.
Students of today (circa 12th Century) only pay attention to details and do not search for what is concrete.
When is it necessary to depend on words?"
When scholars read today, they only try to understand words and do not go further to find out what is vital.
Complete Work of Lu Hsiang-shan (Hsiang-shan ch’uan-chi), 35:10a-b, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 33
From The Experience of No-Self by Bernadette Roberts
Perhaps the only philosophy or theology that can help
us cross the stream is one that admits: when you have
learned it all and lived it thoroughly, then you had
better get ready to have it all collapse when you
discover the highest wisdom is that you know nothing.
It is said that St. Thomas Aquinas, after writing his
masterful tomes on Christian theology, suddenly had an
experience of God that so silenced his mind that ever
after, he never wrote a single word. In other words,
St. Thomas literally fell outside his own frame of
reference when he came upon "that" which no mind can
comprehend nor pen describe. ...
It seems that ultimately we must go beyond all frames
of reference when the Cloud of Unknowing descends, and
all the thrashing around looking for a life preserver
won't do a bit of good.
Nevertheless, I now see a possible line of travel that
may be of use before crossing the stream. It would be
to start with the Christian experience of self's union
with God, whereby we loose the fear of ever becoming
lost -- since we can only get lost in God. ...
But when the self disappears forever into this Great
Silence, we come upon the Buddhist discovery of
no-self, and learn how to live without anything we
could possibly call a self, and without a frame of
reference, as we come upon the essential oneness of
all that is.
Then, finally, we come upon the peak of Hindu
discovery, namely: "that" which remains when there is
no self identical with "that" which Is, the one
Existent that is all that Is. ...
us cross the stream is one that admits: when you have
learned it all and lived it thoroughly, then you had
better get ready to have it all collapse when you
discover the highest wisdom is that you know nothing.
It is said that St. Thomas Aquinas, after writing his
masterful tomes on Christian theology, suddenly had an
experience of God that so silenced his mind that ever
after, he never wrote a single word. In other words,
St. Thomas literally fell outside his own frame of
reference when he came upon "that" which no mind can
comprehend nor pen describe. ...
It seems that ultimately we must go beyond all frames
of reference when the Cloud of Unknowing descends, and
all the thrashing around looking for a life preserver
won't do a bit of good.
Nevertheless, I now see a possible line of travel that
may be of use before crossing the stream. It would be
to start with the Christian experience of self's union
with God, whereby we loose the fear of ever becoming
lost -- since we can only get lost in God. ...
But when the self disappears forever into this Great
Silence, we come upon the Buddhist discovery of
no-self, and learn how to live without anything we
could possibly call a self, and without a frame of
reference, as we come upon the essential oneness of
all that is.
Then, finally, we come upon the peak of Hindu
discovery, namely: "that" which remains when there is
no self identical with "that" which Is, the one
Existent that is all that Is. ...
The Gospel of Buddha chapter seventeen by Paul Carus
The Sangha
Having pointed out to the five bhikkhus the truth,
the Buddha said: [1]
"A man that stands alone, having decided to obey the truth,
may be weak and slip back into his old ways.
Therefore, stand ye together, assist one another,
and strengthen one another's efforts. [2]
"Be like unto brothers;
one in love, one in holiness,
and one in your zeal for the truth. [3]
"Spread the truth and preach the doctrine in all quarters of the world,
so that in the end all living creatures will be citizens
of the kingdom of righteousness. [4]
"This is the holy brotherhood; this is the church,
the congregation of the saints of the Buddha;
this is the Sangha that establishes a communion
among all those who have taken their refuge in the Buddha." [5]
And Kondannya was the first disciple of the Buddha
who had thoroughly grasped the doctrine of the Holy One,
and the Tathagata looking into his heart said:
"Truly, Kondannya has understood the truth."
Hence venerable Kondannya received the name "Annyata-Kondannya,"
that is, "Kondannya who has understood the doctrine." [6]
Then the venerable Kondannya spoke to the Buddha and said:
"Lord, let us receive the ordination from the Blessed One." [7]
And the Buddha said:
"Come, O bhikkhus!
Well taught is the doctrine.
Lead a holy life for the extinction of suffering." [8]
Then Kondannya and the other bhikkhus uttered three times these solemn vows: [9]
"To the Buddha will I look in faith:
He, the Perfect One, is holy and supreme.
The Buddha conveys to us instruction, wisdom, and salvation;
he is the Blessed One, who knows the law of being;
he is the Lord of the world, who yoketh men like oxen,
the Teacher of gods and men, the Exalted Buddha.
Therefore, to the Buddha will I look in faith. [9]
"To the doctrine will I look in faith;
well-preached is the doctrine by the Exalted One.
The doctrine has been revealed so as to become visible;
the doctrine is above time and space.
The doctrine is not based upon hearsay,
it means 'Come and see';
the doctrine leads to welfare;
the doctrine is recognized by the wise in their own hearts.
Therefore to the doctrine will I look in faith. [11]
"To the community will I look in faith;
the community of the Buddha's disciples instructs us how to lead a life of righteousness;
the community of the Buddha's disciples teaches us how to exercise honesty and justice;
the community of the Buddha's disciples shows us how to practise the truth.
They form a brotherhood in kindness and charity, and their saints are worthy of reverence.
The community of the Buddha's disciples is founded as a holy brotherhood
in which men bind themselves together to teach the behests of rectitude and to do good.
Therefore, to the community will I look in faith." [12]
And the gospel of the Blessed One increased from day to day,
and many people came to hear him
and to accept the ordination to lead thenceforth a holy life
for the sake of the extinction of suffering. [13]
And the Blessed One seeing that it was impossible to attend to all
who wanted to hear the truth and receive the ordination,
sent out from the number of his disciples
such as were to preach the Dharma
and said unto them: [14]
"The Dharma and the Vinaya proclaimed by the Tathagata
shine forth when they are displayed, and not when they are concealed.
But let not this doctrine, so full of truth and so excellent,
fall into the hands of those unworthy of it,
where it would be despised and condemned,
treated shamefully, rediculed and censured. [15]
"I now grant you, O bhikkhus, this permission.
Confer henceforth in the different countries the ordination upon those who are eager to receive it,
when you find them worthy. [16]
"Go ye now, O bhikkhus, for the benefit of the many,
for the welfare of mankind, out of compassion for the world.
Preach the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning,
glorious in the middle, and glorious in the end,
in the spirit as well as in the letter.
There are beings whose eyes are scarcely covered with dust,
but if the doctrine is not preached to them they cannot attain salvation.
Proclaim to them a life of holiness.
They will understand the doctrine and accept it." [17]
And it became an established custom that the bhikkhus went out preaching while the weather was good,
but in the rainy season they came together again and joined their master,
to listen to the exhortations of the Tathagata. [18]
Having pointed out to the five bhikkhus the truth,
the Buddha said: [1]
"A man that stands alone, having decided to obey the truth,
may be weak and slip back into his old ways.
Therefore, stand ye together, assist one another,
and strengthen one another's efforts. [2]
"Be like unto brothers;
one in love, one in holiness,
and one in your zeal for the truth. [3]
"Spread the truth and preach the doctrine in all quarters of the world,
so that in the end all living creatures will be citizens
of the kingdom of righteousness. [4]
"This is the holy brotherhood; this is the church,
the congregation of the saints of the Buddha;
this is the Sangha that establishes a communion
among all those who have taken their refuge in the Buddha." [5]
And Kondannya was the first disciple of the Buddha
who had thoroughly grasped the doctrine of the Holy One,
and the Tathagata looking into his heart said:
"Truly, Kondannya has understood the truth."
Hence venerable Kondannya received the name "Annyata-Kondannya,"
that is, "Kondannya who has understood the doctrine." [6]
Then the venerable Kondannya spoke to the Buddha and said:
"Lord, let us receive the ordination from the Blessed One." [7]
And the Buddha said:
"Come, O bhikkhus!
Well taught is the doctrine.
Lead a holy life for the extinction of suffering." [8]
Then Kondannya and the other bhikkhus uttered three times these solemn vows: [9]
"To the Buddha will I look in faith:
He, the Perfect One, is holy and supreme.
The Buddha conveys to us instruction, wisdom, and salvation;
he is the Blessed One, who knows the law of being;
he is the Lord of the world, who yoketh men like oxen,
the Teacher of gods and men, the Exalted Buddha.
Therefore, to the Buddha will I look in faith. [9]
"To the doctrine will I look in faith;
well-preached is the doctrine by the Exalted One.
The doctrine has been revealed so as to become visible;
the doctrine is above time and space.
The doctrine is not based upon hearsay,
it means 'Come and see';
the doctrine leads to welfare;
the doctrine is recognized by the wise in their own hearts.
Therefore to the doctrine will I look in faith. [11]
"To the community will I look in faith;
the community of the Buddha's disciples instructs us how to lead a life of righteousness;
the community of the Buddha's disciples teaches us how to exercise honesty and justice;
the community of the Buddha's disciples shows us how to practise the truth.
They form a brotherhood in kindness and charity, and their saints are worthy of reverence.
The community of the Buddha's disciples is founded as a holy brotherhood
in which men bind themselves together to teach the behests of rectitude and to do good.
Therefore, to the community will I look in faith." [12]
And the gospel of the Blessed One increased from day to day,
and many people came to hear him
and to accept the ordination to lead thenceforth a holy life
for the sake of the extinction of suffering. [13]
And the Blessed One seeing that it was impossible to attend to all
who wanted to hear the truth and receive the ordination,
sent out from the number of his disciples
such as were to preach the Dharma
and said unto them: [14]
"The Dharma and the Vinaya proclaimed by the Tathagata
shine forth when they are displayed, and not when they are concealed.
But let not this doctrine, so full of truth and so excellent,
fall into the hands of those unworthy of it,
where it would be despised and condemned,
treated shamefully, rediculed and censured. [15]
"I now grant you, O bhikkhus, this permission.
Confer henceforth in the different countries the ordination upon those who are eager to receive it,
when you find them worthy. [16]
"Go ye now, O bhikkhus, for the benefit of the many,
for the welfare of mankind, out of compassion for the world.
Preach the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning,
glorious in the middle, and glorious in the end,
in the spirit as well as in the letter.
There are beings whose eyes are scarcely covered with dust,
but if the doctrine is not preached to them they cannot attain salvation.
Proclaim to them a life of holiness.
They will understand the doctrine and accept it." [17]
And it became an established custom that the bhikkhus went out preaching while the weather was good,
but in the rainy season they came together again and joined their master,
to listen to the exhortations of the Tathagata. [18]
Humility...
Man knows so many things, but he does not know himself. A man has so
many sheaths in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man
learns and unlearns all through life. It is wiser to remain a
student than to be a teacher; a student of the Mystery of Life.
A parable goes to say that a seeker of God, in the quest of Heaven,
wandering here and there, found himself perchance at the Gate of
Heaven. The gatekeeper asked him, "Who are you?" The seeker
answered, "A teacher." The gatekeeper asked him to wait, and went in
to report. After a while he returned and said that he could not let
him in, as there was no place for teachers in the heaven-world. He
was told to go back and wash the dust of dead words clinging to him
in the waters of Silence.
So many teachers are vain; they parade their learning. How can there
be a place in there for him who lives in a world of vanity?
Every day he sat in the silence and listened to the words of Saints,
and his self-consciousness began to develop, and he became humble,
and prayed to be the servant of all men, lonely and lowly ones, and
animals—a servant of God's creation. Then the portals of Heaven were
opened and he entered in and beheld the Master's face: pure and fair
beyond compare.
All the Masters of the past and the present say that, "The Kingdom
of God is for the humble of heart." So many of us, alas, are proud,
vain in ego lost; and blind to the wisdom, we do but wander from
darkness to darkness.
The God that rules millions is the ego; enthrone on your heart the
God of Love, and cease to wander—and what should be done to do so?
Become humble as ashes and dust.
The world is full of the proud of purse or power or learning.
Whereas, we should be humble and simple and empty ourselves of
all "self" that the Lord might do with us what He would.
The life worth living is life in the Spirit. Its basis is humility.
We should be reduced to a cipher and God becomes ax. "Let us be
perfect as our Father is in Heaven."
The truly humble are the truly happy. For want of humility, men and
women are leading an unbearable, miserable life. All this misery is
from within it is not a change in our circumstances, but deliverance
from the thralldom of the self, the petty "ego" that sits d tyrant,
robbing us of the bliss that is our heritage as children of God. We
are, as it were, in a cage of self-centeredness, and until this
prison is opened by the key of humility, the swan bird of the Soul
is not free and cannot swim to the regions of radiance and joy
The way to true blessedness is the way of humility and love. He who
is humble has no problems. He has God as his Guide. Significant are
the words of the shepherd boy singing in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress:
He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it, or much;
And Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou sayest such.
Rightly has it been said that if there were no humility in is world,
everyone would long ago have committed suicide.
When the light of humility dawns on the soul, the darkness of
selfishness disappears and the soul no longer lives for itself, but
for God. The soul loses itself in God, lives in God, and is
transformed into Him. This is the alchemy of humility. It transforms
the lowest into the Highest. The great Chinese sage, Lao Tse,
expressed the thought in beautiful words:
How does the sea become the king of all rivers and streams?
Because it lies lower than them.
St. Augustine said the way to God is, "First humility, second
humility and third humility." He who is proud of possessions or of
learning or of authority will not go to any Saint unless he is
humble. Even if he goes to the Saint, but considers himself superior
to Him, he will not listen to Him. A glass which is kept above a
tumbler of water will remain empty—until it is put below the
tumbler. You know what you know; just listen to what the other says.
Perhaps we can learn something from him.
Yes, the branches of a fruit-laden tree bend of their own accord.
Even so, the man who, losing himself, finds God—finds Him everywhere
and in everyone—bends before all, offers homage of his heart to all.
This is true humility. It is not a forced sense of lowliness. Such a
one lives in unity with all. He is in others and others are in him.
It is the fake ego-self that gives rise to the sense of discord and
separation. When the illusion of ego is broken, one feels, "I am not
apart from others, but others are parts of the One—God—The Master—
and all of us are engaged in the same service of God."
Each one of us is unique in his own way. There is a divine purpose
behind the life of everyone who comes into the world; no one has
been created for nothing. We have something to learn from everyone.
This is the mystery of humility.
The truly humble person does not compare himself with others. He
knows that none of us, however evolved, is perfect; none of us is
complete in himself. The humble person does not regard one as better
than the other; he believes in the divinity of each. If one says and
asserts that he is better than others, then he is not perfect as
yet.
It is only when one realizes his nothingness that God comes and
fills him with Himself. Where man is, God is not; where man is not,
God is! God cannot enter the heart of the self-seeking person. He
who is full of himself considers himself as above others and so puts
a limit on himself. God is without limit. How can the limitless
enter the limited?
O ye who seek God: See that you do not set yourself above others.
Give up all that you are and all that you have, empty yourself of
all "self," cast the ego out, and you stand face to face with God.
Wondrous are the words of the Sufi Saint, Abur Hassan:
Brothers! This is the Law:
He who cometh nigh to God
Loseth what he hath,
Aye, he loseth himself,
But gains instead the Gift Supreme,
The gift of humility.
A man may strive to be humble, but for all his efforts, may become
all the more proud. There is such a thing as the pride of humility;
it is a very dangerous thing, for it is too subtle to be discerned
by the inexperienced. There are some who will take great pains to be
humble; they make humility impossible. How can a man be humble who
is all the time thinking of how best he can be humble?
Such a man is all the time occupied with himself, but true humility
is freedom from all consciousness of self, which includes freedom
from the consciousness of humility. The truly humble man never knows
that he is humble.
The truly humble man accepts everything as coming from the hands of
God. He knows that in him there is nothing praiseworthy. All the
good that is in him is from God, and the praise that men give him
belongs to God. When the young man called Jesus "Good Teacher,"
Jesus quietly said, "Why call me good? There is none good but God."
"Humility," says Lacordaire, "does not consist in hiding our talents
and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinary than we
are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all that is lacking in
us, and not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that
God has freely given it us, and with all His gifts, we are still
infinitely of little importance." So the truly humble man may accept
sometimes the praise which men give him, and quietly passes it on to
God, keeping nothing for himself.
The man who is not truly humble behaves in a very unnatural manner
when he is not praised by men. He becomes upset, loses his patience
and even becomes angry. He repulses them with his irritation and
creates for them an awkward situation. Sometimes he suppresses his
feelings and remains silent; but he cannot forget the things that
are said about him; they haunt him again and again and do not give
him peace of mind.
The humble man makes no fuss. He is at harmony with himself and
others. He is gifted with a wondrous feeling of peace. He feels safe
and secure, like a ship in harbor, unaffected by howling storms and
lashing waves. He has found refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord and
the storms of changing circumstances have no power over him. He
feels light as air. The burdens which we carry all our life —the
burden of the self and its desires—he has laid aside, and he is ever
calm and serene. Having given up everything, he has nothing to lose,
and yet everything belongs to him, for he is of God, and God is in
him. Having broken the bondage of desire, he is as happy with a
piece of dry bread as with a sumptuous meal. In every situation and
circumstance of life, he blesses the Name of God.
He who would be humble regards himself as a student. He learns many
new things, but what is more difficult, he unlearns many things he
has learned. A scholar came to a Saint and said, "O Seer of the
Secret, tell me what I may do to live the life divine." And the
Saint said to him, "Go, unlearn what thou hast learnt and then
return and sit before me."
He who would walk the way of humility must renounce his earlier ways
of living. He must give up the opinions he has formed, the standards
to which he is accustomed. He must have a new outlook on life. The
things the world would worship are to him of no value. His values
are so different from those of other men. Rich food, fine houses,
costly dresses, positions of power and authority, the applause of
men, honors and titles, no longer attract him. He feels drawn to a
life of simplicity. He is happy in living a hidden life in the
Hidden Lord.
He is dead to the world; he is alive in God. At times he actually
behaves like one dead.
Yes, the truly humble man is, in that sense, the "dead" man. He
has "died." God alone lives in him. His self has been annihilated.
His self has vanished into God, and only God remains. God works in
him and through him, and God emits in his eyes. God speaks in his
words. On his feet, God walks the earth; and through his hands gives
His benedictions to all.
Such men are the real strength of the world—its illumination and
inspiration. To see them is to commune with God, for God dwells in
them. They are the living, moving Temples of the Lord. They are the
ones who keep the world intact, though they do not know it
themselves. The whole earth depends on them without anyone being
aware of it. Their hearts and minds are in tune with the Great Heart
and Mind of humanity. They are in complete accord with all that
lives. They give their love to all living beings, as though they
were the sons of the one sweet Mother. They have broken all fetters
and entered into the freedom of the children of God. God does their
will, because they have merged their wills in His. God fulfills
their least desire, for it is He Who desires all their desires. They
are the little saviors of humanity.
I wish each one of you to follow the lesson of humility, born of
love and simplicity.
Kirpal Singh
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SFS
alt.meditation.shabda
many sheaths in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man
learns and unlearns all through life. It is wiser to remain a
student than to be a teacher; a student of the Mystery of Life.
A parable goes to say that a seeker of God, in the quest of Heaven,
wandering here and there, found himself perchance at the Gate of
Heaven. The gatekeeper asked him, "Who are you?" The seeker
answered, "A teacher." The gatekeeper asked him to wait, and went in
to report. After a while he returned and said that he could not let
him in, as there was no place for teachers in the heaven-world. He
was told to go back and wash the dust of dead words clinging to him
in the waters of Silence.
So many teachers are vain; they parade their learning. How can there
be a place in there for him who lives in a world of vanity?
Every day he sat in the silence and listened to the words of Saints,
and his self-consciousness began to develop, and he became humble,
and prayed to be the servant of all men, lonely and lowly ones, and
animals—a servant of God's creation. Then the portals of Heaven were
opened and he entered in and beheld the Master's face: pure and fair
beyond compare.
All the Masters of the past and the present say that, "The Kingdom
of God is for the humble of heart." So many of us, alas, are proud,
vain in ego lost; and blind to the wisdom, we do but wander from
darkness to darkness.
The God that rules millions is the ego; enthrone on your heart the
God of Love, and cease to wander—and what should be done to do so?
Become humble as ashes and dust.
The world is full of the proud of purse or power or learning.
Whereas, we should be humble and simple and empty ourselves of
all "self" that the Lord might do with us what He would.
The life worth living is life in the Spirit. Its basis is humility.
We should be reduced to a cipher and God becomes ax. "Let us be
perfect as our Father is in Heaven."
The truly humble are the truly happy. For want of humility, men and
women are leading an unbearable, miserable life. All this misery is
from within it is not a change in our circumstances, but deliverance
from the thralldom of the self, the petty "ego" that sits d tyrant,
robbing us of the bliss that is our heritage as children of God. We
are, as it were, in a cage of self-centeredness, and until this
prison is opened by the key of humility, the swan bird of the Soul
is not free and cannot swim to the regions of radiance and joy
The way to true blessedness is the way of humility and love. He who
is humble has no problems. He has God as his Guide. Significant are
the words of the shepherd boy singing in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress:
He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it, or much;
And Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou sayest such.
Rightly has it been said that if there were no humility in is world,
everyone would long ago have committed suicide.
When the light of humility dawns on the soul, the darkness of
selfishness disappears and the soul no longer lives for itself, but
for God. The soul loses itself in God, lives in God, and is
transformed into Him. This is the alchemy of humility. It transforms
the lowest into the Highest. The great Chinese sage, Lao Tse,
expressed the thought in beautiful words:
How does the sea become the king of all rivers and streams?
Because it lies lower than them.
St. Augustine said the way to God is, "First humility, second
humility and third humility." He who is proud of possessions or of
learning or of authority will not go to any Saint unless he is
humble. Even if he goes to the Saint, but considers himself superior
to Him, he will not listen to Him. A glass which is kept above a
tumbler of water will remain empty—until it is put below the
tumbler. You know what you know; just listen to what the other says.
Perhaps we can learn something from him.
Yes, the branches of a fruit-laden tree bend of their own accord.
Even so, the man who, losing himself, finds God—finds Him everywhere
and in everyone—bends before all, offers homage of his heart to all.
This is true humility. It is not a forced sense of lowliness. Such a
one lives in unity with all. He is in others and others are in him.
It is the fake ego-self that gives rise to the sense of discord and
separation. When the illusion of ego is broken, one feels, "I am not
apart from others, but others are parts of the One—God—The Master—
and all of us are engaged in the same service of God."
Each one of us is unique in his own way. There is a divine purpose
behind the life of everyone who comes into the world; no one has
been created for nothing. We have something to learn from everyone.
This is the mystery of humility.
The truly humble person does not compare himself with others. He
knows that none of us, however evolved, is perfect; none of us is
complete in himself. The humble person does not regard one as better
than the other; he believes in the divinity of each. If one says and
asserts that he is better than others, then he is not perfect as
yet.
It is only when one realizes his nothingness that God comes and
fills him with Himself. Where man is, God is not; where man is not,
God is! God cannot enter the heart of the self-seeking person. He
who is full of himself considers himself as above others and so puts
a limit on himself. God is without limit. How can the limitless
enter the limited?
O ye who seek God: See that you do not set yourself above others.
Give up all that you are and all that you have, empty yourself of
all "self," cast the ego out, and you stand face to face with God.
Wondrous are the words of the Sufi Saint, Abur Hassan:
Brothers! This is the Law:
He who cometh nigh to God
Loseth what he hath,
Aye, he loseth himself,
But gains instead the Gift Supreme,
The gift of humility.
A man may strive to be humble, but for all his efforts, may become
all the more proud. There is such a thing as the pride of humility;
it is a very dangerous thing, for it is too subtle to be discerned
by the inexperienced. There are some who will take great pains to be
humble; they make humility impossible. How can a man be humble who
is all the time thinking of how best he can be humble?
Such a man is all the time occupied with himself, but true humility
is freedom from all consciousness of self, which includes freedom
from the consciousness of humility. The truly humble man never knows
that he is humble.
The truly humble man accepts everything as coming from the hands of
God. He knows that in him there is nothing praiseworthy. All the
good that is in him is from God, and the praise that men give him
belongs to God. When the young man called Jesus "Good Teacher,"
Jesus quietly said, "Why call me good? There is none good but God."
"Humility," says Lacordaire, "does not consist in hiding our talents
and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinary than we
are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all that is lacking in
us, and not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that
God has freely given it us, and with all His gifts, we are still
infinitely of little importance." So the truly humble man may accept
sometimes the praise which men give him, and quietly passes it on to
God, keeping nothing for himself.
The man who is not truly humble behaves in a very unnatural manner
when he is not praised by men. He becomes upset, loses his patience
and even becomes angry. He repulses them with his irritation and
creates for them an awkward situation. Sometimes he suppresses his
feelings and remains silent; but he cannot forget the things that
are said about him; they haunt him again and again and do not give
him peace of mind.
The humble man makes no fuss. He is at harmony with himself and
others. He is gifted with a wondrous feeling of peace. He feels safe
and secure, like a ship in harbor, unaffected by howling storms and
lashing waves. He has found refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord and
the storms of changing circumstances have no power over him. He
feels light as air. The burdens which we carry all our life —the
burden of the self and its desires—he has laid aside, and he is ever
calm and serene. Having given up everything, he has nothing to lose,
and yet everything belongs to him, for he is of God, and God is in
him. Having broken the bondage of desire, he is as happy with a
piece of dry bread as with a sumptuous meal. In every situation and
circumstance of life, he blesses the Name of God.
He who would be humble regards himself as a student. He learns many
new things, but what is more difficult, he unlearns many things he
has learned. A scholar came to a Saint and said, "O Seer of the
Secret, tell me what I may do to live the life divine." And the
Saint said to him, "Go, unlearn what thou hast learnt and then
return and sit before me."
He who would walk the way of humility must renounce his earlier ways
of living. He must give up the opinions he has formed, the standards
to which he is accustomed. He must have a new outlook on life. The
things the world would worship are to him of no value. His values
are so different from those of other men. Rich food, fine houses,
costly dresses, positions of power and authority, the applause of
men, honors and titles, no longer attract him. He feels drawn to a
life of simplicity. He is happy in living a hidden life in the
Hidden Lord.
He is dead to the world; he is alive in God. At times he actually
behaves like one dead.
Yes, the truly humble man is, in that sense, the "dead" man. He
has "died." God alone lives in him. His self has been annihilated.
His self has vanished into God, and only God remains. God works in
him and through him, and God emits in his eyes. God speaks in his
words. On his feet, God walks the earth; and through his hands gives
His benedictions to all.
Such men are the real strength of the world—its illumination and
inspiration. To see them is to commune with God, for God dwells in
them. They are the living, moving Temples of the Lord. They are the
ones who keep the world intact, though they do not know it
themselves. The whole earth depends on them without anyone being
aware of it. Their hearts and minds are in tune with the Great Heart
and Mind of humanity. They are in complete accord with all that
lives. They give their love to all living beings, as though they
were the sons of the one sweet Mother. They have broken all fetters
and entered into the freedom of the children of God. God does their
will, because they have merged their wills in His. God fulfills
their least desire, for it is He Who desires all their desires. They
are the little saviors of humanity.
I wish each one of you to follow the lesson of humility, born of
love and simplicity.
Kirpal Singh
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SFS
alt.meditation.shabda
" You must be Born Again "...
I truly understood what Jesus said, when He said that "You must
be born again" after I achieved what the Buddhists
call "enlightenment"........many years ago, I decided to achieve
Mystical Union with Universal Mind (God) through deep meditation...I
was determined to find out what Guatama found in his enlightenment
experience...so I went into the woods and began to meditate, nothing
happened for a while, and then I became completely serious and
offered up my own life to know enlightenment. (and I was completely
serious). Immediately, after I made this sacrifice of my ego and
life, I was knocked over by the force of the energy of Love.. I found
myself as light blended with light and knowledge flowing through my
consciousness..all the time being in an ocean of energy that we call
Love.....this was the most incredible experience of my life and
assured me that God is real, and His real name is Love........after
this event , I returned to the body and felt as though, I had just
been born....this is the true meaning of "Being Born
Again"...............namaste, thomas
be born again" after I achieved what the Buddhists
call "enlightenment"........many years ago, I decided to achieve
Mystical Union with Universal Mind (God) through deep meditation...I
was determined to find out what Guatama found in his enlightenment
experience...so I went into the woods and began to meditate, nothing
happened for a while, and then I became completely serious and
offered up my own life to know enlightenment. (and I was completely
serious). Immediately, after I made this sacrifice of my ego and
life, I was knocked over by the force of the energy of Love.. I found
myself as light blended with light and knowledge flowing through my
consciousness..all the time being in an ocean of energy that we call
Love.....this was the most incredible experience of my life and
assured me that God is real, and His real name is Love........after
this event , I returned to the body and felt as though, I had just
been born....this is the true meaning of "Being Born
Again"...............namaste, thomas
Wayne Dyer Gets Down with the Tao....
The best-selling author talks to Beliefnet about inner flexibility, letting go, and the real secret behind 'The Secret.'
Interview by Valerie Reiss
You've probably caught Wayne Dyer on public television, pacing the stage, offering self-help wisdom in between the channel's fund-driving pitches. Or maybe you're one of the many millions who bought his books like "Manifest Your Destiny," "10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace," and "The Power of Intention."
The ubiquitous teacher and author has been doling out non-religious inspiration for several decades in the form of world-wide workshops and 30 books; he and Deepak Chopra, that other profitable prophet, pretty much fill the "Personal Growth" section of any bookstore. Dyer was also one of the first to popularize the "law of attraction"—the notion that your thoughts create your life—which "The Secret" book and DVD cashed in on so successfully.
Dyer recently talked to Beliefnet from his home in Maui about his latest book, "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao" and what he's like now that he's embraced the Tao, an ancient Chinese philosophy. He also tells us what’s missing in ”The Secret," and how we can get in on the truest secret of all.
What's the Tao to you?
The Tao is actually three words, the "Tao Te Ching." And the Tao in ancient Chinese means "great way," "te" means living the great way, and "ching" means book. So, it's the book of living the Great Way, or how to live the Great Way.
Some people have called it the wisest book ever written, sort of a blueprint for living a moral life based upon the principles of the highest levels of consciousness that we know today. It was written somewhere between 2,500 and 2,700 years ago, by a man named Lao Tzu who was a contemporary of Confucius but was very much opposed to governments and laws and rules, and fighting and killing, and really believed the way to guide your life is by staying in harmony with nature. That all the answers come from nature.
They all sound very paradoxical. Water is referred to a lot in the "Tao Te Ching" as an example of how softness overcomes hardness, that flexibility overcomes rigidness. The opening line of the "Tao Te Ching" says, "A Tao that can be named is not the Tao." So the Tao is almost like a synonym for God without the religious aspect. It's trying to describe something that's indescribable. But, if you had to describe it, it would be that which animates all of life, which is doing nothing but leaves nothing undone, which is constantly in motion, which doesn't have any requirements for anybody on how to live their lives.
And it is that divine, organizing, invisible intelligence from which all things emanate and to which all things return. It's what allows the other clouds to form, and the mosquitoes to be here, your heart to beat, and your hair to grow.
How does that notion of Tao compare to God?
Well, it's always interesting about God because, it's like all of the religions in the world say that they pray to the same God, and yet they ask that same one God to divide itself up and agree with this one and fight against that one.
Where it's different is that the Tao doesn't break it down into any pieces. It's a complete and total oneness that encompasses all and doesn't look for any kind of religious structure or organizational principles. It finds all of its strength in nature itself—a spider web is a perfect example of the Tao at work. It just takes what comes to it, and what doesn't come to it, it doesn't get itself obsessed with.
[The Tao] wants to reach out and to be creative, and to be in harmony with its own source. And yet, at almost every turn we're taught to not to trust in our nature, and to listen to other people, and to seek outside for guidance and help and sustenance.
And I think that's probably the most profound thing that you can learn from it—is that you, too, have a nature, and that those inner murmurings that you hear about what you want to do or why you should do it, those kind of things are from an inner nature.
And how has reading the Tao changed your life in a practical way?
The way that I wrote this book is that I worked on [each of the 81 verses of the Tao for] between four and five days, and really tried to live what was being taught in each one.
And then, the last day I would just sit down and write, and look at a drawing of Lao Tzu in front of me… and I would just ask. I would get very quiet and very peaceful and experience what I call automatic writing. It would just flow to me. It made me almost radically humble. I really began to see myself as just as natural as the palm trees that are out in front of my place. I began to see myself in everyone. It's made me much, much less stressful. Much less judgmental, non-interfering, almost totally. I have eight children and many of them are here with me, in fact, they're here right now. The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be. So, when my grandchildren were here, I found myself just biting my tongue rather than telling them how to behave or whatever, just letting them figure things out.
I think I've become much more non-interfering, much more patient, much more tolerant, much more peaceful. I'm in almost a total state of gratitude all the time. I've become much healthier. I've been doing yoga instead of running because it teaches us to be more flexible. One of the most famous lines of the Tao is in the 76th verse: "A man is born gentle and weak. At his death, he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and the trees are soft and pliable in life, dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death. Flexibility is a companion of life."
Flexibility and softness and pliability are associated with life. A tree that is young is flexible. The wind comes along and blows, and it'll blow, and then it'll come back. A tree that's old and hard--as the wind comes along, it'll snap it in half. So I've learned that this is true not just in our bodies, but in the way that we think as well.
What's the most common spiritual affliction that you see?
Carl Jung said that the number one purpose of organized religion is to prevent everyone from having a direct experience of God. With spirituality the implication very often is that some people have it and some people don't. And those that have it dispense it to others. And I think it's more than an affliction. It's a huge, huge, huge error to make--each and every being on this planet is a piece of God. We all came from the same source.
It sounds like you're talking about separation.
Separation from our source, yeah. In the first nine months of your life, when you were inside your mother's womb, you were doing nothing, you know? You were just being done. And you surrendered to that completely. And you didn't worry about it, and you didn't pray that your nose would show up on time, and that your fingernails would come and they would be in the right place, and all that. You just surrendered to it. And then, when you're born, we are surrounded by people who suddenly say, well, that was good work, God, but now I'll take over from here.
When We Develop the Ego
And then, we develop this ego, which is an acronym for Edging God Out. As we edge God out, we take over ourselves, and we start believing that we're not these divine creations. We start believing that we are what we have and what we do and what we accumulate, and what our reputations are, and we start really believing strongly in all of that stuff. And in the process, we lose our connection to what we really are.
How can changing your thoughts change your life?
You Can Change How the World Looks at You
They say when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Einstein once said that the most important decision you'll ever have to make in your life is whether you live in a friendly universe or a hostile universe. And if you're a person who believes that you live in a hostile universe, you're going to be looking for that. You're going to be experiencing that. You'll be seeing it everywhere. You'll become a person who's always looking for occasions to be upset or to be offended or to be hurt, or depressed, or sad, or right, or whatever.
If you live in a world that you believe supports you, and is friendly and is there for you, and is bringing you all that you need at any given moment, and all the experiences that you have are perfect, if you just really believe that, then, the things that you don't like you'll just be able to ignore, and the world looks very, very different.
Since so much of your work has been about the law of attraction, I wanted to ask what you think about "The Secret."
Why I Turned Down Filming
'The Secret'
I'm thrilled that the book sales have been so great on this thing. It's really brought people to a new awareness of the power of the mind to create what you want. The reason I wasn't in that movie--I was asked to be--is that I think too much of the emphasis is on manifesting stuff. Manifesting more things. Nothing wrong with stuff and things and so on. But to me the great secret is that when you're giving, when you put your attention on what you really want and then shift to [asking] "How can I offer this to others rather than seeking it for myself?" That's the ultimate secret—the more you give, the more you receive.
I wrote a book about the secret long before "The Secret." It's called "Manifest Your Destiny," and it's really much, much more about putting your focus on serving. Like, if you say to the universe, "How may I serve," the universe responds back with, "How may I serve you?" If you say to the universe, "Give this to me," you're coming from a position of shortage or lack. If you say to the universe, "Gimme, gimme, gimme," the universe says back to you what you ask for, which is, "Gimme, gimme, gimme." And you're constantly feeling as if you're never given enough, you know?
So, is there an ideal way to ask for what we want?
Focus on Serving the Universe
I think the best way to ask for what you want is to say, "How many I serve?" I have a rule with myself. Which is that I start out every day by doing something for somebody else that they're usually not expecting, whether it's one of my family members or, oftentimes, it's people from around the world--somebody wants me to call them in the hospital, or I send a book or a gift. And the opening words out of my mouth are, "Thank you" when I awaken. I have found that the more I'm able to offer and give as much as I possibly can, that I can't even control how much flows into my life. It just comes in bigger and bigger.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/223/story_22301_2.html
Interview by Valerie Reiss
You've probably caught Wayne Dyer on public television, pacing the stage, offering self-help wisdom in between the channel's fund-driving pitches. Or maybe you're one of the many millions who bought his books like "Manifest Your Destiny," "10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace," and "The Power of Intention."
The ubiquitous teacher and author has been doling out non-religious inspiration for several decades in the form of world-wide workshops and 30 books; he and Deepak Chopra, that other profitable prophet, pretty much fill the "Personal Growth" section of any bookstore. Dyer was also one of the first to popularize the "law of attraction"—the notion that your thoughts create your life—which "The Secret" book and DVD cashed in on so successfully.
Dyer recently talked to Beliefnet from his home in Maui about his latest book, "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao" and what he's like now that he's embraced the Tao, an ancient Chinese philosophy. He also tells us what’s missing in ”The Secret," and how we can get in on the truest secret of all.
What's the Tao to you?
The Tao is actually three words, the "Tao Te Ching." And the Tao in ancient Chinese means "great way," "te" means living the great way, and "ching" means book. So, it's the book of living the Great Way, or how to live the Great Way.
Some people have called it the wisest book ever written, sort of a blueprint for living a moral life based upon the principles of the highest levels of consciousness that we know today. It was written somewhere between 2,500 and 2,700 years ago, by a man named Lao Tzu who was a contemporary of Confucius but was very much opposed to governments and laws and rules, and fighting and killing, and really believed the way to guide your life is by staying in harmony with nature. That all the answers come from nature.
They all sound very paradoxical. Water is referred to a lot in the "Tao Te Ching" as an example of how softness overcomes hardness, that flexibility overcomes rigidness. The opening line of the "Tao Te Ching" says, "A Tao that can be named is not the Tao." So the Tao is almost like a synonym for God without the religious aspect. It's trying to describe something that's indescribable. But, if you had to describe it, it would be that which animates all of life, which is doing nothing but leaves nothing undone, which is constantly in motion, which doesn't have any requirements for anybody on how to live their lives.
And it is that divine, organizing, invisible intelligence from which all things emanate and to which all things return. It's what allows the other clouds to form, and the mosquitoes to be here, your heart to beat, and your hair to grow.
How does that notion of Tao compare to God?
Well, it's always interesting about God because, it's like all of the religions in the world say that they pray to the same God, and yet they ask that same one God to divide itself up and agree with this one and fight against that one.
Where it's different is that the Tao doesn't break it down into any pieces. It's a complete and total oneness that encompasses all and doesn't look for any kind of religious structure or organizational principles. It finds all of its strength in nature itself—a spider web is a perfect example of the Tao at work. It just takes what comes to it, and what doesn't come to it, it doesn't get itself obsessed with.
[The Tao] wants to reach out and to be creative, and to be in harmony with its own source. And yet, at almost every turn we're taught to not to trust in our nature, and to listen to other people, and to seek outside for guidance and help and sustenance.
And I think that's probably the most profound thing that you can learn from it—is that you, too, have a nature, and that those inner murmurings that you hear about what you want to do or why you should do it, those kind of things are from an inner nature.
And how has reading the Tao changed your life in a practical way?
The way that I wrote this book is that I worked on [each of the 81 verses of the Tao for] between four and five days, and really tried to live what was being taught in each one.
And then, the last day I would just sit down and write, and look at a drawing of Lao Tzu in front of me… and I would just ask. I would get very quiet and very peaceful and experience what I call automatic writing. It would just flow to me. It made me almost radically humble. I really began to see myself as just as natural as the palm trees that are out in front of my place. I began to see myself in everyone. It's made me much, much less stressful. Much less judgmental, non-interfering, almost totally. I have eight children and many of them are here with me, in fact, they're here right now. The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be. So, when my grandchildren were here, I found myself just biting my tongue rather than telling them how to behave or whatever, just letting them figure things out.
I think I've become much more non-interfering, much more patient, much more tolerant, much more peaceful. I'm in almost a total state of gratitude all the time. I've become much healthier. I've been doing yoga instead of running because it teaches us to be more flexible. One of the most famous lines of the Tao is in the 76th verse: "A man is born gentle and weak. At his death, he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and the trees are soft and pliable in life, dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death. Flexibility is a companion of life."
Flexibility and softness and pliability are associated with life. A tree that is young is flexible. The wind comes along and blows, and it'll blow, and then it'll come back. A tree that's old and hard--as the wind comes along, it'll snap it in half. So I've learned that this is true not just in our bodies, but in the way that we think as well.
What's the most common spiritual affliction that you see?
Carl Jung said that the number one purpose of organized religion is to prevent everyone from having a direct experience of God. With spirituality the implication very often is that some people have it and some people don't. And those that have it dispense it to others. And I think it's more than an affliction. It's a huge, huge, huge error to make--each and every being on this planet is a piece of God. We all came from the same source.
It sounds like you're talking about separation.
Separation from our source, yeah. In the first nine months of your life, when you were inside your mother's womb, you were doing nothing, you know? You were just being done. And you surrendered to that completely. And you didn't worry about it, and you didn't pray that your nose would show up on time, and that your fingernails would come and they would be in the right place, and all that. You just surrendered to it. And then, when you're born, we are surrounded by people who suddenly say, well, that was good work, God, but now I'll take over from here.
When We Develop the Ego
And then, we develop this ego, which is an acronym for Edging God Out. As we edge God out, we take over ourselves, and we start believing that we're not these divine creations. We start believing that we are what we have and what we do and what we accumulate, and what our reputations are, and we start really believing strongly in all of that stuff. And in the process, we lose our connection to what we really are.
How can changing your thoughts change your life?
You Can Change How the World Looks at You
They say when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Einstein once said that the most important decision you'll ever have to make in your life is whether you live in a friendly universe or a hostile universe. And if you're a person who believes that you live in a hostile universe, you're going to be looking for that. You're going to be experiencing that. You'll be seeing it everywhere. You'll become a person who's always looking for occasions to be upset or to be offended or to be hurt, or depressed, or sad, or right, or whatever.
If you live in a world that you believe supports you, and is friendly and is there for you, and is bringing you all that you need at any given moment, and all the experiences that you have are perfect, if you just really believe that, then, the things that you don't like you'll just be able to ignore, and the world looks very, very different.
Since so much of your work has been about the law of attraction, I wanted to ask what you think about "The Secret."
Why I Turned Down Filming
'The Secret'
I'm thrilled that the book sales have been so great on this thing. It's really brought people to a new awareness of the power of the mind to create what you want. The reason I wasn't in that movie--I was asked to be--is that I think too much of the emphasis is on manifesting stuff. Manifesting more things. Nothing wrong with stuff and things and so on. But to me the great secret is that when you're giving, when you put your attention on what you really want and then shift to [asking] "How can I offer this to others rather than seeking it for myself?" That's the ultimate secret—the more you give, the more you receive.
I wrote a book about the secret long before "The Secret." It's called "Manifest Your Destiny," and it's really much, much more about putting your focus on serving. Like, if you say to the universe, "How may I serve," the universe responds back with, "How may I serve you?" If you say to the universe, "Give this to me," you're coming from a position of shortage or lack. If you say to the universe, "Gimme, gimme, gimme," the universe says back to you what you ask for, which is, "Gimme, gimme, gimme." And you're constantly feeling as if you're never given enough, you know?
So, is there an ideal way to ask for what we want?
Focus on Serving the Universe
I think the best way to ask for what you want is to say, "How many I serve?" I have a rule with myself. Which is that I start out every day by doing something for somebody else that they're usually not expecting, whether it's one of my family members or, oftentimes, it's people from around the world--somebody wants me to call them in the hospital, or I send a book or a gift. And the opening words out of my mouth are, "Thank you" when I awaken. I have found that the more I'm able to offer and give as much as I possibly can, that I can't even control how much flows into my life. It just comes in bigger and bigger.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/223/story_22301_2.html
"The Alone"...
It is absolutely certain and quite unquestionable that consciousness is primary, the beginning of all things, the only God there could be and the only one there has ever been. If anyone doubts it, it is because he is blinded, so does not see; he is befogged, so does not understand. From what or from whom else did he derive his own consciousness, his knowing power and his thinking capacity? -- Paul Brunton RVLS I, p.388-2 unpublished
Kipling's L'envoie
When Earth's last picture is painted
And the tubes are twisted and dried
When the oldest colors have faded
And the youngest critic has died
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it
Lie down for an aeon or two
'Till the Master of all good workmen
Shall put us to work anew
And those that were good shall be happy
They'll sit in a golden chair
They'll splash at a ten league canvas
With brushes of comet's hair
They'll find real saints to draw from
Magdalene, Peter, and Paul
They'll work for an age at a sitting
And never be tired at all.
And only the Master shall praise us.
And only the Master shall blame.
And no one will work for the money.
No one will work for the fame.
But each for the joy of the working,
And each, in his separate star,
Will draw the thing as he sees it.
For the God of things as they are!
And the tubes are twisted and dried
When the oldest colors have faded
And the youngest critic has died
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it
Lie down for an aeon or two
'Till the Master of all good workmen
Shall put us to work anew
And those that were good shall be happy
They'll sit in a golden chair
They'll splash at a ten league canvas
With brushes of comet's hair
They'll find real saints to draw from
Magdalene, Peter, and Paul
They'll work for an age at a sitting
And never be tired at all.
And only the Master shall praise us.
And only the Master shall blame.
And no one will work for the money.
No one will work for the fame.
But each for the joy of the working,
And each, in his separate star,
Will draw the thing as he sees it.
For the God of things as they are!
"From Birth to Rebirth"
If he accepts the decree of destiny quietly and obediently, if he is willing to pass, without rebellion and without fighting, out of this world when the ordained hour arrives, he achieves that peace of mind which the prophet Muhammed called "Islam"--a resignation to, and harmony with, God. It is as far as detachment from the ego can go without losing the ego itself. . -- The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Cat. IX, Ch. "Death, Dying, and Immortality"
Speed.......
The subject of speed has been put on the table, so we have to
understand why so many humans are so inflamed with this battle with
time.....many are pressured by work to produce more...many work
overtime to make more money and then are pressured more by time because
they have less of it to spend on their families and friends.....but if
you follow the teachings of Vernon Howard, then you know that time does not
exist,,there is only NOW....if you keep your mind in the present
moment, then as Alan Watts says;" It is impossible to be unhappy in the
present moment"...this must be practiced to be understood and
realized.....................namaste, thomas
understand why so many humans are so inflamed with this battle with
time.....many are pressured by work to produce more...many work
overtime to make more money and then are pressured more by time because
they have less of it to spend on their families and friends.....but if
you follow the teachings of Vernon Howard, then you know that time does not
exist,,there is only NOW....if you keep your mind in the present
moment, then as Alan Watts says;" It is impossible to be unhappy in the
present moment"...this must be practiced to be understood and
realized.....................namaste, thomas
Divine Consciousness...
"We are only an infinite, divine consciousness manifesting itself in individual forms - the individual forms that appear as humans, animal, bird, plant life, vegetable, mineral, but consciousness as form. The moment you begin to perceive this can you see eternality because when does consciousness stop appearing as form? No matter how fast the forms disappear, consciousness bursts out in new forms.
"We call this impersonalizing, and yet impersonalizing does not take away the love nature. It increases it because we can look beyond the human, animal, vegetable that today seems to be so good and tomorrow so bad, or today so alive and tomorrow so dead. And we can love because we're loving beyond the appearance. We're living the consciousness that appears as infinite form, and we are knowing that nothing can appear as form except in the nature of the consciousness that is appearing."
From: Tape 448, Side 2, 1962 Hawaiian Student Group, Tape 1,
"We call this impersonalizing, and yet impersonalizing does not take away the love nature. It increases it because we can look beyond the human, animal, vegetable that today seems to be so good and tomorrow so bad, or today so alive and tomorrow so dead. And we can love because we're loving beyond the appearance. We're living the consciousness that appears as infinite form, and we are knowing that nothing can appear as form except in the nature of the consciousness that is appearing."
From: Tape 448, Side 2, 1962 Hawaiian Student Group, Tape 1,
I AM that I AM........
I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly God was speaking. "My name is'I am.'" I waited. God continued.
"When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not 'I was.'
"When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not 'I will be.'
"When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is 'I Am.''
-Helen Mellicost
"When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not 'I was.'
"When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not 'I will be.'
"When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is 'I Am.''
-Helen Mellicost
The Cognitive Scientists are approaching a Buddhist perspective.
"First, it is important to understand the central ontological claim put
forward by the Self Model Theory: No such things as selves exist in the
world. For all scientific and philosophical purposes, the notion of a
self as a theoretical entity can be safely eliminated. What we have
been calling "the" self in the past is not a substance, an unchangeable
essence or a thing (i.e., an "individual" in the sense of philosophical
metaphysics), but a very special kind of representational content: The
content of a self-model that cannot be recognized as a model by the
system using it. The dynamic content of the phenomenal self-model
is the content of the conscious
self: Your current bodily sensations, your present emotional situation
plus all the contents of your phenomenally experienced cognitive
processing. They are constituents of your PSM. All those properties of
your experiential self, to which you can now direct your attention,
form the content of your current PSM. This PSM is not a thing, but an
integrated process."
Quote from Précis: Being No One by Thomas Metzinger Johannes
Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
forward by the Self Model Theory: No such things as selves exist in the
world. For all scientific and philosophical purposes, the notion of a
self as a theoretical entity can be safely eliminated. What we have
been calling "the" self in the past is not a substance, an unchangeable
essence or a thing (i.e., an "individual" in the sense of philosophical
metaphysics), but a very special kind of representational content: The
content of a self-model that cannot be recognized as a model by the
system using it. The dynamic content of the phenomenal self-model
is the content of the conscious
self: Your current bodily sensations, your present emotional situation
plus all the contents of your phenomenally experienced cognitive
processing. They are constituents of your PSM. All those properties of
your experiential self, to which you can now direct your attention,
form the content of your current PSM. This PSM is not a thing, but an
integrated process."
Quote from Précis: Being No One by Thomas Metzinger Johannes
Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
The "Word", God........
Know that the word "God" is a tainted one, that it has been used by hypocrites and scoundrels, by brainless idiots and selfish vested interests, and had perhaps better be bypassed. Yet it comes into my consciousness at this point in time, in this particular place, when my own preference is, as often, to use the words "The World-Mind." -- Paul Brunton RVLS I, p.385-1 & & The Notebooks of PB, Cat. XXVII, Ch.1 "What is God?"
Liberation is Happiness...
If you have the courage to touch life for the first time, you will never know what hit you. Everything man has thought, felt and experienced is gone, and nothing is put in its place."
"Whether you are interested in Moksha, Liberation, Freedom, Transformation, you name it, you are interested in happiness without one moment of unhappiness, pleasure without pain, it is the same thing."
"We don't want to be free from fear. All that we want to do is to play games with it and talk about freeing ourselves from fear."
"Your constant utilization of thought to give continuity to your separate self is 'you'. There is nothing there inside you other than that."
"When the movement in the direction of becoming something other than what you are isn't there any more, you are not in conflict with yourself."
--U.G.Krishnamurti
"Whether you are interested in Moksha, Liberation, Freedom, Transformation, you name it, you are interested in happiness without one moment of unhappiness, pleasure without pain, it is the same thing."
"We don't want to be free from fear. All that we want to do is to play games with it and talk about freeing ourselves from fear."
"Your constant utilization of thought to give continuity to your separate self is 'you'. There is nothing there inside you other than that."
"When the movement in the direction of becoming something other than what you are isn't there any more, you are not in conflict with yourself."
--U.G.Krishnamurti
The twelve apostles are at Jesus' home and are consecrated to their work. Jesus instructs them. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath and teaches.
NOW, on the day before the Sabbath day, the twelve disciples who had received the call were met with one accord in Jesus' home. 2 And Jesus said to them, This is the day to consecrate yourselves unto the work of God; so let us pray. 3 Turn from the outer to the inner self; close all the doors of carnal self and wait. 4 The Holy Breath will fill this place, and you will be baptised in Holy Breath. 5 And then they prayed; alight more brilliant than the noonday sun filled all the room, and tongues of flame from every head rose high in air. 6 The atmosphere of Galilee was set astir; a sound like distant thunder rolled above Capernaum, and men heard songs, as though ten thousand angels joined in full accord. 7 And then the twelve disciples heard a voice, a still, small voice, and just one word was said, aword they dared not speak; it was the Sacred name of God. 8 And Jesus said to them, By this omnific Word you may control the elements, and all the powers of air. 9 And when within your souls you speak this Word, you have the keys of life and death; of things that are; of things that were; of things that are to be. 10 Behold you are the twelve great branches of the Christine vine; the twelve foundation stones; the twelve apostles of the Christ. 11 As lambs I sent you forth among wild beasts; but the omnific Word will be your buckler and your shield. 12 And then again the air was filled with song, and every living creature seemed to say, Praise God! Amen! 13 The next day was the Sabbath day; and Jesus went with his disciples to the synagogue, and there he taught. 14 The people said, He teaches not as do the scribes and Pharisees; but as a man who knows, and has authority to speak. 15 As Jesus spoke, a man obsessed came in; the evil spirits that obsessed the man were of the baser sort; they often threw their victim to the ground, or in the fire. 16 And when the spirits saw the Christine master in the synagogue they knew him, and they said, 17 You son of God, why are you here? would you destroy us by the Word before our time? we would have naught to do with you; let us alone. 18 But Jesus said to them, By the omnific Word I speak; Come out; torment this man no more; go to your place. 19 And then the unclean spirits threw the man upon the floor, and, with a fiendish cry, they went away. 20 And Jesus lifted up the man and said to him, If you will keep your mind fully occupied with good, the evil spirits cannot find a place to stay; 21 They only come to empty heads and hearts. Go on your way and sin no more. 22 The people were astonished at the words that Jesus spoke, the work he did. They asked among themselves, 23 Who is this man? From whence comes all this power that even unclean spirits fear, and flee away? 24 The Christine master left the synagogue; with Peter, Andrew, James and John, he went to Peter's house where one, a near of kin, was sick. 25 And Peter's wife came in; it was her mother who was sick. 26 And Jesus touched the woman as she lay upon her couch; he spoke the Word; the fever ceased and she arose and ministered to them. 27 The neighbours heard what had occured, and then brought their sick, and those obsessed, and Jesus laid his hands on them, and they were healed. ............from the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi..
A Mystical Experience...
Once, while I was in a deep meditative state, I found myself in a place of intense white light and I was filled and surrounded by the Energy of Love.... I noticed that I could look directly into this bright light and not have my eyes hurt... I then realized that my eyes did not hurt because I had no body, just consciousness..I was thinking that I never wanted to leave this place, when a Voice asked me if I wanted to stay or return to the body...I thought of the relatives that would feel sorrow at the death of my body, so I answered that I want to return to the body, at which time, I immediately found myself in the body, fully aware....I learned from this experience that God is real and that the energy that constitutes the essence of God, which is Love, is actually the highest degree of unselfishness....this unselfishness, created us to share this joy of Love , for pure unselfish reasons...this is why we feel joy when we share with others, as we are feeling the Love of God and God's essence, which is Love..................namaste, thomas
Bhagavad Gita...grieving for the dead
The blessed Lord said,
'You grieve for those who should not be grieved for;
yet you speak wise words.
Neither for the dead nor those not dead do the wise grieve.
Never was there a time when I did not exist
nor you nor these lords of men.
Neither will there be a time when we shall not exist;
we all exist from now on.
As the soul experiences in this body
childhood, youth, and old age,
so also it acquires another body;
the sage in this is not deluded.
"'Material sensations, Kaunteya,
causing cold, heat, pleasure, pain,
coming and going are impermanent;
you must endure them, Bharata.
The person whom these do not trouble, powerful person,
pain and pleasure being equal to the sage,
he is ready for immortality.
"'The existence of the unreal is not found;
the non-existence of the real is not found.
The certainty of both of these has been seen
by the seers of essence.
Know that indestructible essence
by which all this is pervaded.
No one is able to cause the destruction of the imperishable.
These bodies have an end;
it is said of the indestructible, infinite soul
that it is eternal.
Therefore, fight, Bharata!
"'Whoever believes this the killer
and whoever thinks this the killed,
they both do not understand;
this does not kill and is not killed.
Neither is it born nor does it die at any time,
nor having been, will this again not be.
Unborn, eternal, perpetual this ancient being
is not killed with the killing of the body.
"'Whoever knows this, the indestructible,
the eternal, the unborn, the imperishable,
how does this person, Partha, cause the killing of anyone?
Whom does one kill?
As a person abandoning worn-out clothes takes new ones,
so abandoning worn-out bodies the soul enters new ones.
Weapons do not cut this nor does fire burn this,
and waters cannot wet this nor can wind dry it.
Not pierced this, not burned this, not wetted nor dried,
eternal, all-pervading, stable,
immovable is this everlasting.
Unmanifest this, it is said.
"'Therefore knowing this you should not mourn.
And if you think this is eternally born or eternally dying,
even then, you mighty armed, you should not mourn this.
Death is certain for the born,
and birth is certain for the dead.
Therefore you should not mourn over the inevitable.
"'Beings have unmanifest beginnings,
manifest middles, Bharata, unmanifest ends again.
What complaint is there?
Marvelously someone sees this,
and marvelously another thus tells,
and marvelously another hears this,
but even having heard no one knows this.
This embodied soul is eternally inviolable
in the body of all, Bharata.
Therefore you should not mourn for any being.
'You grieve for those who should not be grieved for;
yet you speak wise words.
Neither for the dead nor those not dead do the wise grieve.
Never was there a time when I did not exist
nor you nor these lords of men.
Neither will there be a time when we shall not exist;
we all exist from now on.
As the soul experiences in this body
childhood, youth, and old age,
so also it acquires another body;
the sage in this is not deluded.
"'Material sensations, Kaunteya,
causing cold, heat, pleasure, pain,
coming and going are impermanent;
you must endure them, Bharata.
The person whom these do not trouble, powerful person,
pain and pleasure being equal to the sage,
he is ready for immortality.
"'The existence of the unreal is not found;
the non-existence of the real is not found.
The certainty of both of these has been seen
by the seers of essence.
Know that indestructible essence
by which all this is pervaded.
No one is able to cause the destruction of the imperishable.
These bodies have an end;
it is said of the indestructible, infinite soul
that it is eternal.
Therefore, fight, Bharata!
"'Whoever believes this the killer
and whoever thinks this the killed,
they both do not understand;
this does not kill and is not killed.
Neither is it born nor does it die at any time,
nor having been, will this again not be.
Unborn, eternal, perpetual this ancient being
is not killed with the killing of the body.
"'Whoever knows this, the indestructible,
the eternal, the unborn, the imperishable,
how does this person, Partha, cause the killing of anyone?
Whom does one kill?
As a person abandoning worn-out clothes takes new ones,
so abandoning worn-out bodies the soul enters new ones.
Weapons do not cut this nor does fire burn this,
and waters cannot wet this nor can wind dry it.
Not pierced this, not burned this, not wetted nor dried,
eternal, all-pervading, stable,
immovable is this everlasting.
Unmanifest this, it is said.
"'Therefore knowing this you should not mourn.
And if you think this is eternally born or eternally dying,
even then, you mighty armed, you should not mourn this.
Death is certain for the born,
and birth is certain for the dead.
Therefore you should not mourn over the inevitable.
"'Beings have unmanifest beginnings,
manifest middles, Bharata, unmanifest ends again.
What complaint is there?
Marvelously someone sees this,
and marvelously another thus tells,
and marvelously another hears this,
but even having heard no one knows this.
This embodied soul is eternally inviolable
in the body of all, Bharata.
Therefore you should not mourn for any being.
Who We Really Are...
The Master listened intently to Chester's description of the event in the contemplation glade. Chester was obviously overwhelmed and seemed embarrassed. After Chester was finished he got around to finally eating lunch. As he ate the fruits and nuts the Master paced. He seemed reluctant to start. Instead Master sat down and started eating more of the carrots and celery chilled for him. "You experienced for a brief moment your Godness, your God Consciousness, your real self. You saw yourself as who you think you are and who you really are at the same time. You were blessed to see past the illusion and experience Eternity. Remember you told me science has discovered that everything is connected? God connects everything because everything is part of God. Our separateness from God is an illusion and part of our purpose is to see past the illusion and experience our connectedness to God."
Chester shook his head. "How? Why, and can I be that way again?"
"When you sat down and screamed you hated God. You, for the second time believed in him enough to hate him. If God did not exist, why do you hate him so much?"
Chester seemed puzzled, "Well, I guess, well because, your right. Why do I hate something that doesn't exist. My hatred betrayed me. I hated God because I know he exists yet I wish he didn't!"
Master held out a gold coin. Tell me why you had the experience in my contemplation glade and I will give you this gold coin." Chester's face drained of color. The Master reminded him, "You told me for a brief instant you knew everything. Certainly everything includes why you had the experience."
Chester sat up, "Not fair, I can't remember anything but feeling overwhelmed and full of intense joy." The Master seemed unconcerned and played with the gold coin. Making sure it sparkled in the sunlight. Chester gave up and said, "I give up." Chester looked up as if he was remembering something, "Wait, I remember. I was shown for a brief moment who I am so I would strive to become it again, I want it again!"
The Master stretched out the coin, "Tell me who you are and I will give you this."
Chester started with, "I'm Chessss...... No, I'm God."
The Master pulled the coin back a bit. "How can you be God?"
Chester licked his lips and closed his eyes. Straining he whispered, "I can't believe I know this. I'm the part of God that is experiencing this universe through me as me. I've been trying to remember this since I was first aware I was me."
The Master laughed and handed the gold coin to Chester. "You have spoken a truth." You have danced the Dance of Shiva.
from the book, The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion by Stephen Boston..
Chester shook his head. "How? Why, and can I be that way again?"
"When you sat down and screamed you hated God. You, for the second time believed in him enough to hate him. If God did not exist, why do you hate him so much?"
Chester seemed puzzled, "Well, I guess, well because, your right. Why do I hate something that doesn't exist. My hatred betrayed me. I hated God because I know he exists yet I wish he didn't!"
Master held out a gold coin. Tell me why you had the experience in my contemplation glade and I will give you this gold coin." Chester's face drained of color. The Master reminded him, "You told me for a brief instant you knew everything. Certainly everything includes why you had the experience."
Chester sat up, "Not fair, I can't remember anything but feeling overwhelmed and full of intense joy." The Master seemed unconcerned and played with the gold coin. Making sure it sparkled in the sunlight. Chester gave up and said, "I give up." Chester looked up as if he was remembering something, "Wait, I remember. I was shown for a brief moment who I am so I would strive to become it again, I want it again!"
The Master stretched out the coin, "Tell me who you are and I will give you this."
Chester started with, "I'm Chessss...... No, I'm God."
The Master pulled the coin back a bit. "How can you be God?"
Chester licked his lips and closed his eyes. Straining he whispered, "I can't believe I know this. I'm the part of God that is experiencing this universe through me as me. I've been trying to remember this since I was first aware I was me."
The Master laughed and handed the gold coin to Chester. "You have spoken a truth." You have danced the Dance of Shiva.
from the book, The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion by Stephen Boston..
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