Thursday, 30 November 2023

'TRUE SELF'




I met a taxi driver called Bob who had once been clinically dead and who had had an out of body experience. 

As he floated above his body he could see the doctor trying to get him back to life. He could hear the doctor's American accent and he could see the doctor's red hair. 

After he had come back to life, the taxi driver discovered that the doctor was indeed American and did indeed have red hair.

It would seem that our 'spirit' can exist without the body.



I met a hotel owner who had once been clinically dead and who had had an out of body experience. 

While 'dead' he met dead relatives who told him that he had a sibling that he did not know about and who had died very young.

After he had come back to life, the hotel owner checked the old records and discovered that he had indeed had a sibling who had died very young.



Professor Robert Lanza believes that Death is an illusion.

He believes that it is our minds that create space and time.




Are we all connected?

Scientists have discovered that pairs of tiny particles can be invisibly connected even when they are some distance apart.

When the scientists carry out an action on one particle, the other particle is instananeously affected, even though it is many miles apart.

A Dutch team has proven that 'spooky action at a distance' is real.

dailymail.



According to Jack Kornfield - 


Persian mystics say we are 'sparks of the divine'.

Christian mystics say we are filled with God.

Some say - We are one with all things.

Some say - The world is all illusion.

Some say -  consciousness creates life to express all possibilities, to be able to love, to know oneself.



Others point out how consciousness gets lost in its patterns, loses its way, incarnates out of ignorance.

Hindu yogas call the world a lila, or a dance of the divine.

Buddhist texts describe how consciousness itself creates the world like a dream or a mirage

Modern accounts of near-death experiences are filled with reports of wonderful ease after leaving the body, of golden light and luminous beings. 


(The Buddhists believe that there is no unchanging “soul” to reincarnate.

(What is reborn is not the person. 

(What is reborn is an “evolving consciousness” or “stream of consciousness”, whose quality has been conditioned by karma.)




The Buddha came to the conclusion that we do not exist as separate beings. 

He saw  the human tendency to identify with a limited sense of existence

'Consciousness creating identity by entering form -

'Attaching to certain forms, feelings, desires, images, and actions to create a sense of self.

'This belief in an individual small self is an illusion. 

'It causes suffering and removes us from the freedom and mystery of life.' 



WHO CREATED THE SELF?

Buddha described us as a collection of  changing processes:

The processes of the physical body, feelings, perceptions, responses, and the flow of consciousness. 

Our sense of self arises whenever we identify with these changing processes. 

We might identify with the role of being a woman or a man, a parent or a child. 

We might take our family history, our genetics, and our heredity to be who we are. 

Sometimes we identify with our desires: sexual, aesthetic, or spiritual. 

We can choose the archetype of hero, lover, mother, ne’er-do-well, adventurer, clown, or thief as our identity and live a year or a whole lifetime based on that. 



To the extent that we grasp these false identities, we fear their loss.

One master would say, “I am none of that. I am not this body, so I was never born and will never die. I am nothing and I am everything. 

"Your identities make all your problems. Discover what is beyond them, the delight of the timeless, the deathless.”



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SELF

Christian texts speak of losing the self in God

Taoists and Hindus speak of merging with a True Self beyond all identity.

Buddhists speak of emptiness and of no self.



Emptiness does not mean that things don’t exist, nor does “no self” mean that we don’t exist. 

Emptiness refers to the underlying nonseparation of life and the energy that gives rise to all forms of life. 

We are in some relationship with our cars, our home, our family, our jobs, but whatever that relationship is, it is “ours” only for a short time. In the end, things, people, or tasks die or change or we lose them. Nothing is exempt.



WE OWN NOTHING

When we bring attention to any moment of experience, we discover that we do not possess it either. 

As we look, we find that we neither invite our thoughts nor own them. 

We might even wish them to stop, but our thoughts seem to think themselves, arising and passing according to their nature.

The same is true of our feelings. 


How many of us believe we control our feelings? 

As we pay attention, we see that they are more like the weather; moods and feelings change according to certain conditions, and are neither possessed nor directed by our consciousness or desires. 

Do we order happiness, sadness, irritation, excitement, or restlessness to come? 

Feelings arise by themselves, as the breath breathes itself, as sounds sound themselves.

Our body, too, follows its own laws. The body which we carry is a bag of bones and fluid that belong to no one. It ages, gets sick, or changes in ways we might not wish it to, all according to its own nature.

The more we look, in fact, the more deeply we see that we possess nothing within or without.



EVERYTHING FROM NOTHING

'Where has the past week or the past month or our childhood gone? They arose, did a little dance, and now they’ve vanished.

'Experience becomes like the particle waves described in modern physics, a pattern not quite solid, ever-changing.


DISCOVER INTERCONNECTEDNESS

'The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes' — Sri Nisargadatta

As we open and empty ourselves, we come to experience an interconnectedness. The teacher depends on the student, the airplane depends on the sky.



NO SELF IS NOT APATHY

'So while purification, kindness, and attention can certainly improve our habits, no amount of self-denial or self-torture can rid us of a self, for it was never there.'

From A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life.



Happiness is about forgetting your own happiness and being part of a happy team?

Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram believes in the holographic nature of reality.

Every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole.

In a holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter reality.

What we see as reality is a canvas where we can draw any picture we want.

The Buddhists believe that what we are thinking now, is what we will become.

Research has suggested that Buddhists are able to get their brains to feel happiness.




What we are now is the result of our past thoughts.

We are the creator of our circumstances.

By right thought and right action we can gradually purify ourselves and eventually reach enlightenment and Nirvana and beyond.


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Thursday, 19 August 2021

SHAMAN - ALBERTO VILLOLDO




'Take a breath. Release the tension in your body. 

'Place attention on your physical heart. 

'Breathe slowly into the area for 60 seconds, focusing on feeling a sense of ease. 

'Click here to learn why we suggest this.'



Alberto Villoldo has studied shamanism.

'Villoldo says if you have a deep-rooted emotional issue, it can manifest itself physically. 

'The same goes if you don't pray or meditate, practice kindness and forgiveness, or regularly connect with nature.

'A shaman will help you figure out what you need more of, like turmeric.

Are Shamans the New Life Coaches?


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'Whether you realize it or not, we are all dreaming the world into being, although most people have lost the ability to guide the dream, and are, as a result, at the mercy of the collective nightmare.

Shamanism and Dreaming a Sacred Dream



'The Shaman lives in a dream, but not the kind of dream that belongs in the domain of sleep. Shamans understand the waking dream, and can change the dream...

'One can actually steer and guide the dream.

'The dreamtime ... does not exist in a place outside of us, but rather within. 

'It infuses all matter and energy, connecting every creature, every rock, every star, and every ray of light or bit of cosmic dust. 

'Dreaming reality is not only an ability but a duty, one we must perform with grace and love so our grandchildren will inherit a world of peace and abundance.

Shamanism and Dreaming a Sacred Dream



'Students of shamanism learn how to awaken the ability to dream with their eyes open and share in the power to co-create reality with the help of the Universe... 

'They can then begin to create... dreams that germinate in the soul... and bear fruit in their life. The nature of the cosmos is such that whatever dream you have about yourself and the world will become reality...

'We’re like a drop of water in a vast, divine ocean, distinct yet immersed in something much larger than ourselves. It’s only when we experience our connection to Infinity that we’re able to dream powerfully...

'You can have joy and peace, or you can have that big black bag full of all the sorrowful incidents and accidents that happened to you in your childhood or in your last relationship.

'You can have your wounds, or you can have your glory. You can live the life of a victim, burdened by the traumas of your past, or you can live the life of a hero. But you can’t do both.

'Do you have the courage to make a conscious decision to dream a sacred dream?'


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Sunday, 1 March 2020

NISARGADATTA - ALL COMES FROM WITHIN



In our lives we are aware of DUALITY - hot and cold, kind and cruel, happy and sad, war and peace, healthy and unhealthy.

Do our minds create this world of Duality?

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Can our minds skip into a parallel world where there are no extremes, and we do not worry about duality or non-duality?



Nisargadatta Maharaj ( 1897 - 1981), was a Hindu guru of nondualism.



His Guru told him: "Go back to that state of pure being, where the ‘I am’ is still in its purity before it got contaminated with ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’

"Your burden is of false self-identifications - abandon them all."



"Trust me, I tell you: you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth.

"Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too.

"All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done."

Nisargadatta Maharaj says he did not condition his mind by thinking, "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond."

He simply focused the mind on pure being, and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became his normal state.

"In it all disappeared - myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me.

"Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence."



According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta's only subject was -

"Our real Identity as the birthless-deathless, infinite-eternal Absolute Awareness ...

"Fundamentally, we are not an individual, we are intrinsically always and only the Absolute.[web 3]

Nisargadatta explains:

"You are the timeless spaceless witness.

"And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind.



According to Conway, awareness of the Absolute could be regained by -

"A disidentification from the dream of 'me and my world'".

Nisargadatta's message:

"You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body."

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Sunday, 10 March 2019

LIFE IS A DREAM?

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Vasubandhu (4th to 5th century C.E.) was a Budhist monk.

Vasubandhu's major ideas are:[7]

"Whatever we are aware of, think about, experience, or conceptualize, occurs to us nowhere else than within consciousness."

"External objects do not exist."


As Chögyal Namkhai Norbu puts it: "In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like a big dream . . . ."[2]

...

Markus Buch -

"If life is a dream, then it must have a purpose...

"Therefore, what is the purpose of life as dream?

"Life is definitely a story full of symbolic events ...character development...

"Therefore, the best bet for me is to behave nicely..."



Author Caroline Myss suggests the real meaning behind 'we create our own reality'.

"It's primary purpose is to make us start focusing on what our lives can be if we live courageously, honestly and full out. 

"She encourages us to ask ourselves, 'How am I creating my reality? From what level?'  

"Am I using it to access the bigger part of me, or the smaller, fearful part that just wants to be safe?"

...

"According to contemporary teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, all appearances perceived during the whole life of an individual, through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations in their totality, are like a big dream. 

"It is claimed that, on careful examination, the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not very different, and that in their essential nature there is no difference between them."


Java.

"Carl Jung believed that aside from each of us having our own conscious and subconscious selves, all humans are all somehow connected in one universal and collective unconscious."

Interstellar: Parallel Universes, Dreams, & The Mind .

"This collective unconscious is what gives us similar imagery in our dreams, and even ideas for myths, beliefs and folktales around the world...

"Cultures across the globe have very distinctive 'hero's journey' stories, along with many other archetypal tales and beliefs, that somehow all seem to share similar points in the plot line.


Cyprus

"One of the main ways in which Jung suggested that humans connect to the collective unconscious is through dreams.

This maybe points to the idea that somehow, through dreams, we can reach out to other people who are very far away or even gone from this world, since dreams exist in a place that knows no dimensional bounds... 

"Love is the only thing that seems to transcend both time and space."

Interstellar: Parallel Universes, Dreams, & The Mind



Morocco.

Jesus said: "Because of your faith, it will happen."

The Buddha said, "What you dwell upon you become." 

Hindu mysticism says, "Whatever a person's mind dwells on intensely and with firm resolve, that is exactly what he becomes." 

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Wednesday, 6 March 2019

AIR MARSHAL GODDARD - TIME SLIPS - PARALLEL UNIVERSES


RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard

In 1935, RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard believed he experienced a 'time slip', or parallel universe.


Drem airfield.

As he was flying over a disused and overgrown air force base in the village of Drem, near Edinburgh in Scotland, he saw the things  on the ground suddenly change.

"When he looked down he saw the airfield was suddenly renovated and in use. 

"There were mechanics in blue overalls walking around and four yellow planes parked on the runway.

"One of these was a model which he failed to recognise."

Image: Birmingham Mail

The RAF did not paint their training aircraft yellow until around 1939 - four years after Goddard claims to have seen them

It was only some years after 1935 that the air force changed their mechanic overalls from tan to blue.

The airfield at Drem was not resurfaced until 1939.

Fascinating story of time-travel in Scotland - Daily Record

The day before Goddard's 'time slip' experience, Goddard had seen that at the Drem airfield "the tarmac and four hangars were in disrepair, barbed wire divided the field into numerous pastures, and cattle grazed everywhere. It was now a farm, and completely useless as an airfield."

Sir Victor Goddard: A Flight through Time



On the day of Goddard's 'time slip', just before he reached Drem airfield, "Goddard lost control of his plane. 

"It began to spiral downward. He struggled with the controls.The sky became darker, the clouds turning a strange yellowish-brown. 

"Goddard emerged from the clouds over the Firth of Forth. 

"Suddenly, he saw directly before him a stone sea wall with a path, a road, and railings on top of it. 

"The road seemed to be slowly rotating from left to right. 

"A young girl with a baby carriage ran through the pouring rain. She ducked her head just in time.

"Goddard succeeded in leveling out his plane after that.


"He identified the road to Edinburgh and soon was able to discern, through the gloom, the black silhouettes of the Drem Airfield hangars ahead of him, the same airfield he had visited the day before. 

"The rain became a deluge, the sky grew even darker, and Goddard’s plane was shaken violently by the turbulent weather as it sped toward the Drem hangars.

"Suddenly, the sky turned bright with golden sunlight. 

"The rain and the farm had vanished. 

"The hangars and the tarmac appeared to have somehow been rebuilt in a brand-new condition. 

"There were four planes lined at the end of the tarmac. Three were standard Avro 504N trainer biplanes; the fourth was a monoplane of an unknown type. 

"All four airplanes were bright yellow. No RAF airplanes were painted yellow in 1935. The airplane mechanics were wearing blue overalls. RAF mechanics never wore anything but brown overalls when working in hangars in 1935."

Sir Victor Goddard: A Flight through Time



"Apparently none of the mechanics saw him or  heard his plane. 

"He managed to return to his home base safely.

"In 1939, Goddard watched as RAF trainers began to be painted yellow and the mechanics switched to blue coveralls. The RAF introduced a new training monoplane exactly like the one he had seen in his flight over Drem. It was called the Magister. He learned that the airfield at Drem had been refurbished.

"It was not until 1966 that he wrote of this experience. 

"Goddard finally concluded that he must have glimpsed the future-or even traveled into it-for a brief moment in time." 

...

"Goddard was posted to India in 1943, to take charge of administration for the air command of South East Asia Command (SEAC). He remained in the role until 1946 when he became the RAF's representative in Washington.

"He claimed to have witnessed the clairvoyant experience of another officer, in China during January 1946.

"According to Goddard, he was at a party in Shanghai and scheduled to fly to Tokyo that same night, when he heard of another officer having a dream in which Goddard was killed in a plane crash. 

"In the dream an aircraft was carrying Goddard, two other men and a woman, when it experienced difficulties with atmospheric icing, and crashed on a pebbled beach near mountains. 

"That night Goddard was persuaded to take two men and a woman on the Douglas Dakota transport flying to Tokyo.

"As in the other's officer's dream, the Dakota plane iced over and was forced to make a crash-landing on the Japanese island of Sado; the crash scene, a pebbled beach near mountains, resembled that described in the dream.

"Unlike the dream, however, no-one was injured.

"The 1955 film The Night My Number Came Up was based on this incident."

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