November 13, 2013
The Two Avenues in Life that Deserve Careful Attention
Peaceful mind comes along gradually as a result of our dedicated application to two avenues in life: The Practical and the Spiritual. Usually, there are so many disturbing influences in life that people lose heart and do not pay sufficient attention to the two avenues. However, the interesting thing about it is that once we pay attention to them, matters straighten up and give us the encouragement to be in the driver-seat of our lives. What is needed is loving application to both those avenues.
It is to be noted that while the rational mind is the prime instrument in being intelligent about the practical issues, reliance on intuition is what makes us glide along the spiritual path. There are mainly five streams along which we can apply ourselves to the practical aspects of life. These are: health, household, career, attention to others and fun items. The fun items would include hobbies, games and sports. Attention to others implies understanding the needs of others (near and dear ones, colleagues, even strangers) and alleviating their unhappiness to the extent possible.
The spiritual avenue is usually guided by religious beliefs. This can be helpful but there is the danger of becoming emotionally attached to a religious system. That would be counter productive. In the absence of such identification, one moves over to the philosophic side of religions and embarks on a path of enquiry. Soon he or she understands that the spiritual deepening is not due to any accumulation of satisfying conclusions or verbal knowledge but it is due to non-verbal sensing of what lies beyond the apparent. They also discover what the esoteric path is and move along it striking their own trail. They may be helped by many, including the gurus, but they will never swear allegiance to any individual or system, because they understand that they would then fall into the trap of conditioned thinking. Thus, they will know the beauty of aloneness and the passivity associated with inner development.
If we pay attention to the matters as above, we will also let our children grow as human beings unspoiled by any conditioning. Their minds would be free of fanaticism and ruthlessness and their lives would be filled with humility and dignity.
March 24, 2013
It is good to understand our mind's inclinations impartially. Then we see how we are conditioned and how we let ourselves be unknowingly governed by those inclinations. Two of these are the following:
1. One believes what one wants to believe.
2. Reduce our observation to verbal conclusions to which we become emotionally attached.
These influence our thought process and our outlook on life. People are generally unaware that the mental noise due to the hidden aspects of our thought process is the fundamental cause of our unhappiness and dullness in life. Reflection on these matters can help us extricate ourselves from society's unintelligent ways and pressures. Then, by the way, we can help our children do the same.
December 21, 2012
Some people are saying that the world will end today - Dec 21, 2012 - the latest
doomsday. One would think that the world will continue to be alive and well and laugh at the doomsday. Otherwise, you won't be reading this blurb!
A spiritual pointer: It is good to check whether we are really in contact with the person we are interacting with or we are only dealing with the image we have of that person. When we are alert enough, we see that the second is actually the case. That awareness brings in a strange aliveness into the relationship and makes us treat the other person with compassion and empathy. The whole atmosphere changes. This is especially so with regard to close relationships. That is where the images are strong. If we experiment with this, we would understand how much we have wasted our life by falling a prey to the 'image syndrome'. The aliveness in our consciousness begins to act when we see the damage done by that syndrome. Our life moves on to calmer waters and encourages us to discover deeper truths in a movement towards Divinity.
December 4, 2012
For people interested in Reincarnation, there are quite a few YouTube Videos. The following sites may be visited:
1. Nicola recalls her last birth. Train Accident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCcmr6UeNSY
2. Past life evidence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0B4V_kowo
Such matters as Reincarnation and Near Death Experience need an extended exposure to them before their essence can be understood beyond mere beliefs and disbelief. Profound inner transformation can take place from that understanding. In the absence of that transformation, there can only be quarrels between various beliefs and preferred conclusions.
October 12, 2012
As mentioned in the last posting (August 17), Shirley MacLaine touches on many esoteric issues in her book "Dancing In The Light". One issue is related to how our consciousness is made up of our own perceptions only. Please read the following small excerpt from her book:
"The process of self-realization (or even the theory of reincarnation and karma) does not lend itself to proselytization. It is highly personal, ultimately self-responsible. All one can say, really, is this happened to me. This is how it feels. If it interests someone else, they must do their own learning, their own reading, their own searching.
"So, I can only say that this feeling of higher awareness is so personal that it is a matter purely of one's own consciousness. In my life and in my work, I realized that what I saw in others was that which I did or did not want to see in myself. I realized that the perceptions I had of myself were, in the main, perceptions I had of others in the world around me. I was, in effect, only living inside of my own reality, and so was everyone else. Therefore, to desecrate another was to desecrate myself. To denigrate another was to denigrate myself. To judge another was to judge myself. And that is what it was all about. SELF. If I was happy with myself, I was happy with others. If I loved myself, I could love others. If I could tolerate myself, I could tolerate others. If I was kind to myself, I was kind to others - and on and on. It was a personal evaluation of self that enabled this enlightenment to work for me. Not the evaluation of others. So when I saw people zealously condemning the "sins' of others in the name of God, I found myself wondering what karma they were setting up for themselves."
When we go through the above two paragraphs, we are reminded of J. Krishnamurti's statement, "You are the world. The world is not apart from you."
Reflections along the lines above can be very helpful in our esoteric perceptions and so in our inward journey.
August 17, 2012
Shirley MacLaine, the Hollywood Actress and writer, has published some very interesting books in the field of what may be called the Esoteric Spirituality. Her book 'Dancing in the Light' would be particularly interesting to those who visit this site. She takes us off into a spiraling dimension beyond the rational mind to the region of Esotericism and Mysticism. That travel can have a profound impact on us to the point of understanding our little place in the vast universe. The following paragraph forms part of the back cover presentation of 'Dancing in the Light':
"In Dancing in the Light, Shirley Maclaine bares her inner-most self and explores the lives, both past and present, which touched and affected her own. She sheds new light on her loves, her losses, her childhood, her passions, and her inner dives and ambitions. She asks poignant questions and finds surprising answers. She challenges her beliefs and confronts her conflicts. Ultimately, she takes us with her through a life-altering experience that provides a stunning new vision of herself, her future . . . . and the fate of our world.
July 6, 2012
As we all know, a sense of humor is always welcome. The International Association for Near Death Studies has published an Internet file of NDE jokes. One of the jokes is pictorial but can be verbalized as follows:
A patient had heard from NDE reports that soon after bodily death one is not aware that one has died. So, he asks the doctor who was about to operate on him, "Doctor, they say that if I die, I may not be aware of it." The doctor asks, "Did they also tell you that, if you die, you will hover near the ceiling?" The patient nods his head, whereupon the doctor says, "Don't worry. We will put up a board near the ceiling that says "If you can read this, you are dead"!
May 15, 2012
Veridical OBE Perceptions in a "Standstill" Operation
Neuroscience researcher Dr. Mario Beauregard and colleagues recently reported a 2008 case of veridical (real, verified) perceptions in a patient undergoing a deep hypothermic cardiocirculatory arrest or "standstill" operation similar to Pam Reynolds' operation in 1991.
Visit the following site for an interesting article on OBE.
May 10, 2012
Generally mere DOs and DON'Ts cannot carry us very far in terms of radical transformation. Only what is sensed through awareness and the associated perception bring about lasting change. However, our esoteric journey towards the unknown can be embellished by noting what some great thinkers have said. The following lines are excerpted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings:
"To laugh and laugh much; to win the company of intelligent people, the affection of children and the appreciation of honest critiques; to know the best in others, to withstand the betrayal of false friends; to leave the world a bit better by way of a garden patch, a healthy child or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life breathed easier because you lived - this is to have succeeded in life."
The esoteric question here is: Can one attend to the above without the egoistic desire to make oneself a nice person?
Reflection on the above can help our inward journey.
May 1, 2012
People who see the impropriety behind being caught up in the rat race and look for esoteric messages feel drawn to the talks of J. Krishnamurti. The following paragraph is from his talk given in 1927:
"There lies the greatness of the moment, for there be very few days of summer, days when you can gather in your hay, when you can prepare your house and put all things in order to welcome the Guest. Then you suddenly find that you are yourself the Beloved, yourself ennobled and glorified, yourself made perfect. When once you have found him in your heart and well established him in your mind, then you will enter into the Happiness that is everlasting, into the Liberation that has no limitations."
Reflection on these lines take us into the region beyond the noisy mind. That brings into our lives a natural austerity.
April 9, 2012
Recommendation of a book
Study of reincarnation can be quite fascinating for those who see the inevitability of it. In this connection, a book entitled LIFETIMES and written by Frederick Lenz is indeed a remarkable one. It is a small book of 220 pages. The following lines occur as part of the back cover presentation in that book:
"For many people reincarnation is a reality. In this stunning and unusual book, Frederick Lenz brings together men and women from all walks of life who vividly and with great conviction describe experiences and relationships from previous LIFETIMES."
April 3, 2012
A Puzzle!
Many people are familiar with Jiddu Krishnamurti's talks. As they know, one of his in-depth phrases is 'chioceless awareness'. It is clear that such awareness cannot come through effort, because effort implies choice. So, the puzzle is 'How does choiceless awareness come into being?'. As one tries to unravel this puzzle, a strange inner transformation begins to take place.
March 21, 2012
Messages from the Other Side.
An article appearing in the Scientific American brings out the experience of a lady on taking Psilocybin, as a matter of research in that direction. The idea here is not to advocate ingesting such drugs but to hear the messages from yonder through people who have a chance to travel on the other side. (Caution: The drug need not have the same effect on all people and can often be quite dangerous.)
The experience of the lady brought out by the article seems to reinforce similar outcomes generally attributed to a Near Death Experience. You may visit the site given below for the Scientific American article.
Once you have the deeper call for these things and ponder over the messages, your life moves on to the esoteric path enriching your life and the life of those near and dear to you. Perhaps, you have already felt those things in your life. If not, you may have to be a little patient before you can sense the wonders such a path can take you on to.
The site is: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=psilocybin-book&page=1
Hamlets on mountains and valleys near Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India
