Posts
*******
Sickness usually does not have any supernatural origin. It does not come
from God or from a "devil." It occurs because we are all a part of
nature, and nature has drifted away from the perfect Mind, although that
perfect Mind still indwells nature.
In ancient times, this Supermind was called "God," and nature was called
"Goddess." (Early Christians had a goddess they called "Sophia.") God,
the infinite Mind of Love, lives within and through the Goddess. They
are not "two beings," but God is one with Goddess.
Nature has also become the tool of energy. When we deliberately act in
any way, we send forth energy. It can be positive (constructive) or
negative (destructive). Nature acts as a kind of "energy-mirror," and
sends back to us the very same energy that we sent out.
The Soul wants always to learn. Spiritual education in Love is the very
reason that this world exists. The whole world is a school, and it is
here to teach us. One very important way that it teaches us is by
limiting us. One important way that it limits us is by allowing us to
experience illness. This shows our complete dependence upon God (Love)
as the great Healer. For every act of Love is an act of healing. It
might not heal us completely or permanently, but each and every act of
kindness, goodness, or compassion makes us stronger and more healed.
(The word "heal" comes from the same root word as "whole," and "holy.")
So, any disorder, any sickness, can be understood in terms of our Soul's
trying to educate us in Love. For when we suffer, we then feel sorry for
others who must also suffer. For if a person suffers little, she also
loves little. She who suffers more can love more. She becomes, at best,
an instrument or vessel for divine Love. This human vulnerability was
what God meant when he told St. Paul, "My Power will be made perfect in
thy weakness." So, Love is made more perfect when we experience
suffering due to physical limitations, or even illness.
Illness also teaches us to love our bodies. How do we love our bodies?
By getting enough sleep, by eating good and healthy foods, by meditation,
and by loving others. All these activities prove that we are selfloving,
and we cannot effectively love others unless and until we love ourselves.
*******
___________________
Showing posts with label supermind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supermind. Show all posts
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, May 28, 2007
Mild Spiritual Experiences
*******
Professional psychological statistics show that between 33-48% of the populations of the U.S., Britain, and Australia have experienced mild "religious experiences," which some call "re's." In selfdescriptions and interviews, the characteristics associated with these tastes of altered states include:
Some experiences are esthetic, and these can be quite as powerful as those described as "religious." Music or other forms of beauty often trigger these. The "beauty of nature" is a common trigger for religious experiences.
This term can refer to very mild religious feelings. But the way in which it will be used here is to describe intense altered states of mind, clearly differentiated from normal everyday consciousness.
The very zenith of religious experience is the mystical. It is the peak, the best. Perhaps two percent of all re's are mystical.
An re tends to have a lasting effect on your life; its "footprint" is always there, in your heart. Re's are very democratic, and occur regularly to people of all faiths. (They can be extremely rare in denominations or cults that try to "explain" everything intellectually; they occur far more often in the intuitive personality than in the intellectual or pseudo-intellectual.)
Re's are thought to give the normal mind access to interior but transcendent realities. They "carry" you to what shamans call "another world."
A genuine re is not just a feeling; it involves a genuine altered state of perception and reality. Highly visionary forms, as contrasted with the purely mystical (which alter feeling) might contain images of Jesus, the Buddha, Parvati, Krishna, or Mary. At one extreme, the person might feel that she has become a completely different "self." In Western culture, this intensity is often described as the "born again" experience, but, again, members of any faith-- or none at all-- can experience the sensation of rebirth.
Real re's tend to occur in solitude and silence.
In re's, people often report paranormal events, ranging from spontaneous healings to precognitive flashes. Deja vu, esp, and clairvoyance are common. True re's often happen to older people, with some education.
Re's lead to positive life-changes and to life-satisfaction. ("Occult" experiences can lead to the opposite.) Specifically, re's lead to increased tranquility, being "at home" in the universe, and greater happiness. Most rde's (real-death experiences) begin with extremely powerful re's.
Here are some other factors associated with spiritual experience:
God is known, in the deepest experiences, as being "inside" or "within" the person-- deep within the heartmind. The experience brings both interior healing, and healing of relationships. Love is seen as the only essential. Light is felt "within" and "all around" at the same time. Most importantly, the deepest experiences are marked by an inignorable sense of "unity" with an "Absolute," "Ultimate," or simply "everything."
The feeling is that of falling into a vast, immense Mind of pure Love.
It is not unusual for these amazing states to occur during meditation, deep interior (or silent) prayer, or yoga.
A true re always has a component of social transformation: It changes the relationship with community. It makes one more people-loving, and impels one to serve people (and other living creatures). The sense of ultimate, limitless Love flows over into social situations, and one might feel gently melted into warm Love; one becomes Love.
The re creates an increase in openness to the cosmos, to other views of "truth." It amplifies one's tenderness, gentleness, empathy, and forgiveness.
In the very deepest (mystical) experience, there are no images or visions. They all have to do with only feelings.
Here are some more feelings associated with the deep re:
An re can, under certain conditions, cure a depression of long standing. Or, it might be cured by several re's, a series. The sense of a perfect Mind or God inside yourself can do much to heal you.
*******
Professional psychological statistics show that between 33-48% of the populations of the U.S., Britain, and Australia have experienced mild "religious experiences," which some call "re's." In selfdescriptions and interviews, the characteristics associated with these tastes of altered states include:
- awareness of a beautiful, loving Presence, often called the "Presence of God."
- awareness that a prayer is being "heard," or even answered.
- awareness of strong interior guidance, not necessarily from "God."
- awareness of a sacred Presence in the self and in all of nature.
- awareness of some kind of order, pattern, and synchronicity in the cosmos.
- sometimes, awareness of the presence of a dead friend/relative.
- the experience of all things as somehow "one" or unified.
- disappearance of boundaries separating the "self" from the cosmos.
- feeling that you are a part of a vast, immense, immeasurable Supermind.
Some experiences are esthetic, and these can be quite as powerful as those described as "religious." Music or other forms of beauty often trigger these. The "beauty of nature" is a common trigger for religious experiences.
This term can refer to very mild religious feelings. But the way in which it will be used here is to describe intense altered states of mind, clearly differentiated from normal everyday consciousness.
The very zenith of religious experience is the mystical. It is the peak, the best. Perhaps two percent of all re's are mystical.
An re tends to have a lasting effect on your life; its "footprint" is always there, in your heart. Re's are very democratic, and occur regularly to people of all faiths. (They can be extremely rare in denominations or cults that try to "explain" everything intellectually; they occur far more often in the intuitive personality than in the intellectual or pseudo-intellectual.)
Re's are thought to give the normal mind access to interior but transcendent realities. They "carry" you to what shamans call "another world."
A genuine re is not just a feeling; it involves a genuine altered state of perception and reality. Highly visionary forms, as contrasted with the purely mystical (which alter feeling) might contain images of Jesus, the Buddha, Parvati, Krishna, or Mary. At one extreme, the person might feel that she has become a completely different "self." In Western culture, this intensity is often described as the "born again" experience, but, again, members of any faith-- or none at all-- can experience the sensation of rebirth.
Real re's tend to occur in solitude and silence.
In re's, people often report paranormal events, ranging from spontaneous healings to precognitive flashes. Deja vu, esp, and clairvoyance are common. True re's often happen to older people, with some education.
Re's lead to positive life-changes and to life-satisfaction. ("Occult" experiences can lead to the opposite.) Specifically, re's lead to increased tranquility, being "at home" in the universe, and greater happiness. Most rde's (real-death experiences) begin with extremely powerful re's.
Here are some other factors associated with spiritual experience:
- time stops; you enter a "timeless" state or condition.
- tranquility and serenity blossom beautifully and profoundly.
- bright light can be "felt" around the body., which can be felt to be "left behind."
- an otherworldly "being" or "voice" might be encountered.
- joy can spiral to ecstasy.
- the mind "enters" a mystical "realm" or "world."
God is known, in the deepest experiences, as being "inside" or "within" the person-- deep within the heartmind. The experience brings both interior healing, and healing of relationships. Love is seen as the only essential. Light is felt "within" and "all around" at the same time. Most importantly, the deepest experiences are marked by an inignorable sense of "unity" with an "Absolute," "Ultimate," or simply "everything."
The feeling is that of falling into a vast, immense Mind of pure Love.
It is not unusual for these amazing states to occur during meditation, deep interior (or silent) prayer, or yoga.
A true re always has a component of social transformation: It changes the relationship with community. It makes one more people-loving, and impels one to serve people (and other living creatures). The sense of ultimate, limitless Love flows over into social situations, and one might feel gently melted into warm Love; one becomes Love.
The re creates an increase in openness to the cosmos, to other views of "truth." It amplifies one's tenderness, gentleness, empathy, and forgiveness.
In the very deepest (mystical) experience, there are no images or visions. They all have to do with only feelings.
Here are some more feelings associated with the deep re:
- deep, utter, profound Love.
- deep, profound, utter peace.
- certainty that everything will work out okay
- personal need to give, contribute to others
- Love is the Center of everyone and everything
- joy and laughter
- "falling in Love" with self and everything
- great emotional intensity
- great advance in knowledge
- sense of being very ancient
- everything "one"
- chance for "new life"
- certainty of personal survival of death
- miscellaneous indescribable feelings
- all is "alive"
- dealing with "other," more powerful, minds
- immense, vast expansion
- feelings of warmth, fire, or light
- absence of all concern about "worldly" problems
An re can, under certain conditions, cure a depression of long standing. Or, it might be cured by several re's, a series. The sense of a perfect Mind or God inside yourself can do much to heal you.
*******
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Giving Up and Giving In
*******
Jesus was "built" exactly like you and me, except his life had grown into pure, total, absolute wisdom. That is, he was both "true man and true God (Love)," as the Church was later to say. He was part human. So, he was able to surrender completely to the guiding will of Love (God) in his life. Every moment, he actually lived out the prayer that he taught: "Thy will be done."
Like every enlightened person, he had stripped himself of all personal, selfish desire, grasping, clinging, and attachment. He had trained himself to want only what Love (God) wanted. He had set down all the "baggage" of selfish personal desire-- a factor that enslaves most people to the very end of their lives. And, as he himself said, he had recognized his oneness with the much greater Supermind of the Father.
(Jn. 10:30)
But he still had a human body and a human nature. From all appearances, he knew that this body, and the whole body-world, was a mere illusion. But he did allow himself (that human part of himself) to express doubt. He did not fall for this lower-nature trick, and was never misled completely by its many illusions.
But he knew that he would forever after be an example to human beings. So, at his darkest hour, he was thinking of us: He allowed the fear-nature and the doubt-nature to express themselves, indicating and implying that it is okay for an imperfect human being to doubt God. It is natural and normal, and is by no means an "unforgivable" sin. It was to express this lower, but human, nature that he said, from the Cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"
People live in enormous pressure-cooker, screaming-point tensions, and it is "permission" to give in to the stresses. But he also proved that we should not, need not, give in to the doubts, fears, and pressures of our lives. We have permission to fall on the road, to collapse beneath our burdens, but we do not have permission simply to lie there. As Jesus' life and ministry proved, after we collapse and fall, we must get up again, and once again start walking the path.
Jesus never gave up on his "heavenly Father." But he said these words in order to show us that it was okay, just fine, to give up. In fact, faith is not complete until we completely give up and give in. Faith is truly an act of grace, and so, we are not fully responsible for its actions in our hearts. But even when this faith appears to give out, or up, this is not the end. The higher path continues to call us back to Love-- the same Love for even cruel strangers that Jesus expressed in his prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
We have God's (Love's) permission to collapse and fall, but we are also called back by that same Love, to a faith renewed, powerful, and guiding.
*******
Jesus was "built" exactly like you and me, except his life had grown into pure, total, absolute wisdom. That is, he was both "true man and true God (Love)," as the Church was later to say. He was part human. So, he was able to surrender completely to the guiding will of Love (God) in his life. Every moment, he actually lived out the prayer that he taught: "Thy will be done."
Like every enlightened person, he had stripped himself of all personal, selfish desire, grasping, clinging, and attachment. He had trained himself to want only what Love (God) wanted. He had set down all the "baggage" of selfish personal desire-- a factor that enslaves most people to the very end of their lives. And, as he himself said, he had recognized his oneness with the much greater Supermind of the Father.
(Jn. 10:30)
But he still had a human body and a human nature. From all appearances, he knew that this body, and the whole body-world, was a mere illusion. But he did allow himself (that human part of himself) to express doubt. He did not fall for this lower-nature trick, and was never misled completely by its many illusions.
But he knew that he would forever after be an example to human beings. So, at his darkest hour, he was thinking of us: He allowed the fear-nature and the doubt-nature to express themselves, indicating and implying that it is okay for an imperfect human being to doubt God. It is natural and normal, and is by no means an "unforgivable" sin. It was to express this lower, but human, nature that he said, from the Cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"
People live in enormous pressure-cooker, screaming-point tensions, and it is "permission" to give in to the stresses. But he also proved that we should not, need not, give in to the doubts, fears, and pressures of our lives. We have permission to fall on the road, to collapse beneath our burdens, but we do not have permission simply to lie there. As Jesus' life and ministry proved, after we collapse and fall, we must get up again, and once again start walking the path.
Jesus never gave up on his "heavenly Father." But he said these words in order to show us that it was okay, just fine, to give up. In fact, faith is not complete until we completely give up and give in. Faith is truly an act of grace, and so, we are not fully responsible for its actions in our hearts. But even when this faith appears to give out, or up, this is not the end. The higher path continues to call us back to Love-- the same Love for even cruel strangers that Jesus expressed in his prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
We have God's (Love's) permission to collapse and fall, but we are also called back by that same Love, to a faith renewed, powerful, and guiding.
*******
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)