Depression, Being in the Here and Now, and Spirituality

Samsungtech1 said:

Tranquility

Rakendra,

Your post was awesome.  Thank you.  I look forward to reading "miracles"

 

Thank you,

 

Mike

Thank you.  However, I am aware that this is not for everybody, but that is fine as well.  Remember, the purpose here is to reprogram the mind to think in ways that produce bliss and love, and this will take a lot of work over a period of time.  Learning to BE love is our goal and to train the mind how to stay in that place.  But how is it possible not to judge but to love the drug dealers, the pimps, the murderers, the politicians, and the low lifes?  They are just crap and worthless, right?  Well, either comparing or judging will create suffering for the originator (you) but not for the unworthy.  So, what to do?  Comparing is easy to quit - just stop, but judgmentalism can be a tough one.  Going back to Jesus, one of his strongest points was: Do Not Judge.

    Imagine the room you are now in has ten thousand layers, stretching from the floor to the ceiling.  Each of these layers represents a choice, a conscious decision.  The layers nearest the floor are the most damaging and most unconscious decisions, the ones that harm others. Those decisions at the very top are the highest, but we cannot imagine what they would be because no one can see a higher decision than what exists in their own bracket.  However, we can see the lowest decisions, but our consciousness is evolved enough so that these low decisions  are really not available to us.  These decisions are outside of our available bracket.  These lowest decisions  are where the drug dealers, the pimps, the murderers, the politicians, and the low lifes chose their decisions from.  Everyone is choosing from a specific bracket of decisions that are available to them, both high and low.  The bottom bracket decisions are the ONLY decisions that the bottom feeders can choose because they are the only decisions they can see.  They do not have the choice to see any decisions but the lowest ones, because the bracket they are in does not include high choices.  Murderers in prison think that the decisions they made at the time was the correct one.  Low lifes cannot make high decisions because they are outside of low life bracket.  Of course, some who are in a higher bracket deliberately make lower choices.  You can always go down or up.  Look how cocaine, crack, speed, alcoholism, sex addiction can bring high people down.

   Look at it this way.  A black kid in Harlem with no father and a coke head mother has no chance to see or learn high choices. His family will be the street gang, and that bracket will contain his choices.  On the other hand look at a child of a Kennedy or a Busch, and the choices that they will have and will be able to see.  Now, how can you judge the black kid?  He is just operating in his bracket, the same as you, and the same as Bush and Kennedy.

   Another way to look at it this:  one man eats meat, the other is a vegetarian.  To the vegetarian, eating meat is a low spiritual choice.  He does not choose to support the killing and torture of his fellow animals, and does not choose to cut up their dead bodies and carry the corpse around in his stomach.   Eating animals is a low choice that exists outside of his bracket, and one that is impossible for him to make.  However, in the consciousness of the meat eater, he does not even see or consider this.  It is a higher choice outside of his bracket.  Someday, he may change as his consciousness grows.  So, the point here is this: how can you judge anyone for any behavior when we all are operating  from our particular bracket?  Do you judge the meat eater for his consciousness?

Understand that that everyone is doing what he is here to learn and what he is here to do.  Your judging of the Other is totally out of place and totally YOUR problem that will cause you suffering, and hopefully, teach you that judging sucks.  Love all your brothers, no matter which bracket either they or you are existing in at this moment.

   Another idea.   Understanding “God” for me has been impossible until I had an awakening.  I am love, created by love, by the Father, the Creator.  But the ONLY clue I have about the Father is that it is pure love, but I have no idea in what form that love exists.  So, I see God not as a being, but as a state of being.  In other words, I have totally dropped the idea of a personification of God.  I understand the concept of being love, not choosing it, but being it.  So, the Creator is love, as I see it, but not a being.  When I see God only as a state of being and that state is the same state I am creating for my consciousness, it gives me opportunity in each moment to feel as if I am connecting with the Source directly.

   Now, about the Course.  This will NOT be an easy course, but it is guaranteed to be successful.  My recommendation would be to first skim it, only looking at the points that catch your interest. Then check out the lessons, but do not expect to understand them at this time.  They are outside of your bracket!!!LOL!!

   Where this is taking you is to the idea that there are two worlds.  The world of man and the world of God.  Man’s world, the world Man creates, is duality, floods, airplane crashes, death,wars, hatred, and violence.  The world of God is Oneness and Love and Eternity.   Only the world of God is real and can exist.  The world of Man is NOT real, and, in fact, cannot exist. 

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal can exist.

Herein lies the peace of God.

Love, Swami Rakendra

First, the Living Love website will close down on Oct. 8.  There is much good info there, so if you have interest, download for the future.

    Now, back to understanding the spiritual brackets by looking at three stages.  C is in the bottom 10%, B is at 40%, and A is at 60%.   C cannot see the choices of B, nor can B see those of A.  However, A is not better than B, and B is not better than C just because they are in a higher bracket.  All three are equal, because each one is where they need to be to experience the lessons they need to move up the scale, just as you are where you need to be for your lessons as well.  Suppose that you think this is all just BS and you do not choose to play.  You do not have that option.  The Universe will continue to give you the lessons that you need to grow, regardless of what you choose.  As the Course teaches:  Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.  It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. 

In other words, the lessons are already laid out for you in your life plan, and you have no choice in that.  However, you can choose what lessons you want to learn or ignore in any one moment.  The lessons will come regardless.  It is up to you how you handle them.  However, there are only two outcomes from lessons: either you start to change and start moving up, or you suffer. And, if you do not get the lesson the first time, no problem, it will surely be repeated.

   Sixty years ago, there was not much help to teach you, and Higher Consciousness was hard to understand and come by.  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became the spiritual teacher of the Beatles, and the Beatles literally changed the consciousness of the world thru their music and new found spirituality taught by the Maharishi.  And now there are many books and teachers available to all.  It has never been easier to be Enlightened than it is today.  But, make no mistake – this is a lifetime process, because no matter how far you go, there is always higher.

        Now, lets look at my version of Buddhism.  Yoga means the stilling of the changing states of the mind.  The Lord Buddha taught this thru Meditation and denying the temptations of the world.  The message was that all suffering was created thru the mind.  Of course, that explanation is too simplistic, and there is much more.  So, briefly, lets look at the mind and some of the teachings of Lord Buddha.

There is Wrong Thought, Wrong Speak, and Wrong Action, and each creates its own degree of suffering.  The opposite is Right Thought, Right Speak, and Right Action.  The “Wrong” is all negative and that negativity will come back to you.  “Right” is all positive, coming from Love, and will create Oneness with all.  The degree of suffering is different for each of the three actions.  Wrong Thought causes the least suffering in severity and time span.  Someone bumps you hard in the Mall, and does not apologize.  You think ”Ugly prick!”   Well, you have just earned yourself some suffering.  Probably for the rest of that day, you will feel unease and separate, and your mind will churn back to the incident.  But, it probably will be forgotten in a day or two, and the suffering will stop.  That is Wrong Thought.

  Same scene, but now, after he bumps you, you turn and say, “What is the matter with you? Rude Prick.”  Now you have earned yourself a higher level of suffering in Wrong Speech.  Now your mind will really churn, and you will think of this over and over, for a few weeks maybe, and for sure, your day is ruined. You WILL pay a price. Thus a more severe suffering because a more serious transgression is created. Now, you will tell your friends, and your mind will involve itself in all kinds of mental gymnastics, you will miss the here and now because your mind will stay in that negative moment of the past, and you will miss the beauty of the present moment entirely and end up losing the whole day.  Your life will be dominated by your past negative action.  And this suffering will last much longer because the memory does not fade so easily, and you will make lots of unpleasant judgments as well.

     Wrong Action:  You do all of the above, but also grab his shoulder,” OK, ****, You need to have a lesson!!”  Well, you just joined the Major Leagues. First of all, this can go anywhere now, and might end up with serious consequences.  But as for suffering, you now have created a negative MEMORY, and that can haunt you and make you suffer for the rest of your life.  It is permanent suffering for no matter how long you live, your mind may at times go back to this incident.  This suffering is by far the most severe of the three, and I will guarantee that the above is a fact.  So, maybe you think it may not work that way, so how do I know?

   This lesson is a difficult concept, and will be our next lesson.  I know you will suffer, because your world is illusion.  In fact, the Other is in reality You and your are harming yourself.  The Course teaches,”I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or myself.”  And Lesson 3 : I do not understand anything I see in any place or anywhere.”  You do not understand because your world is not real.  You see the Other who bumped you as separate from yourself, where in fact, you and the other are One, not separate at all.  So you think you have negative action to the Other.  In fact there is no other, and when you harm the other with negative thought or negative action, in reality, you are harming yourself just as if you put your pen thru your hand.  That is how I know you will suffer, not because you do harm to the other(who in Reality does not exist) but because you are harming yourself, because the Other only  exists in your delusional mind.  

I will leave you here for our next lesson.

Love, Swami Rakendra

 Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal can exist.

Herein lies the peace of God.

moonlitnight said:

Use of the word "God"

I would just like to add that, from use of the word "God", one doesn't have to infer the Christian God. God means different entities to different people. I have no religious inclinations, yet the God/love/Universal Spirit is as relevant to me as breath itself. Energy medicine is built on the understanding that there is a huge power out there that can heal. The science of epigenetics is recognizing this. Our thoughts and recognition of the higher power can affect our genetic expression—switching oncogenes on and off, for example. This is very exciting as it is literally bridging the gap between science and religion. Thank you again SR.

Thank you for your input.  We will pause here and consider some of the ideas of Osho on this matter.  Here are excerpts from some of his teachings.

           “I am not a religious person in your sense. I have a totally different definition of being religious. To me the religious person is one who is totally alive, intensely alive, aflame with love, aware of tremendous beauty all around; has the courage to rejoice each moment of life and death together. Only a man who is so capable of rejoicing in life and death – his song continues. It does not matter whether life is happening or death is happening, his song is not disturbed, his dance does not waver?”

Only such an adventurous soul, only such a pilgrim of existence is religious. But in the name of religion man has been given poor substitutes, false, phony, meaningless, just toys to play with. Worshipping statues, chanting man-made mantras, paying tributes to those who have been cowards and escapists and who were not able to live life because they were so afraid of death, and calling them saints, religion has distracted man from true and authentic religiousness.

Judgment is moral, and morality has nothing to do with religion. That misunderstanding has to be dropped. People always confuse morality with religion. Morality has nothing to do with religion; a moral man is not necessarily a religiousman. An atheist can be moral, perfectly moral. You can find the moral man in Soviet Russia – there is no need for the moral man to be religious. A religiousman is a new dimension.

The religious man can drop his morality because now he has his own eyes; he need not have any other guides. His eyes are enough. It is as if you were blind and you used to have a stick with which to walk around, to grope your way, to find your way with the stick…then one day your eyes open. Will you still carry the stick? You will throw it away. Now it is meaningless, now you don’t need to grope. Now the walking stick is no longer a help, it will be a burden.

See the distinction. It is of immense import. The religious man is one who is not concerned with doing good, but whatsoever happens through him is good because he has surrendered himself to God; and all is good through God, through surrender to him. He cannot do wrong. It is not possible. It is impossible to do wrong when you are alert. It is as impossible as to walk through the wall or to try to walk through the wall when your eyes are open. You will find the door! It is as simple as that.

But a blind man sometimes tries to get out through the wall. He cannot; there is no possibility. But a blind man is a blind man; he cannot see where the wall is and where the door is. The religious man is one whose eyes are open and he sees where the door is. Then there is no need to carry any idea that one should always go through the door – one simply goes through the door. When you know, that very knowing becomes your virtue.

Socrates says, “Knowledge is virtue” – a very pregnant statement. To know, is to be right; to know, is to do right. Through knowing, right comes on its own like a shadow. Virtue is a by-product of right knowing. It need not be practiced. If you practice it, it is false. The practiced morality is a false morality, it creates only hypocrites. Morality is that which is not practiced at all, it happens simply because you know – your eyes are open, you can feel, you are sensitive, so the wrong cannot happen anymore. The religious person is neither moral nor immoral, he is simply religious. Religion is a higher standpoint than morality. Morality is an effort to pretend to be religious.

A religious person cannot be Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan. To be religious is to be so vast you cannot confine it in such small prisons – churches, sects, creeds, dogmas.

A religious man has no catechism.

Christians in India asked me again and again, “Why don’t you make a small book containing your religious vision, just as we have the Christian catechism?”

I said, “You can, because you are not religious. I cannot, because I am religious.My experience is so vast that no words are capable of containing it.”

Religion has not ever existed up to now. Only once in a while has there been areligious person. And whenever there has been a religious person, soon the pseudo-religious people, politicians with religious masks, gathered around. It is not Jesus who created Christianity. It is not Buddha who created Buddhism. It is not Mahavira who created Jainism.

The ordinary religious man leaves the world; the really religious man leaves ambition, leaves hoping, leaves imagination. Knowing through experience that every hope comes to a point where it becomes hopelessness, and every dream comes to a point where it becomes a nightmare, and every desire comes to a point where nothing but discontent is left by it in you – knowing this through experience, one becomes seasoned, mature. A growth happens in consciousness. Out of this growth one drops ambition, or the ambition drops by itself out of this growth. Then a person becomes religious.

One lives the moment, and lives it so totally because there is no hope and no desire in the future. One brings his whole being to the moment and then the whole life is transformed. It is fun, it is a feast, it is a celebration. Then you can dance and you can laugh and you can sing, and to me this is how a religious consciousness should be: a dancing consciousness, more like children, less like dead corpses. Your churches, your temples, your mosques are just like graveyards – too serious.

A religious man is one who sees that he is ordinary. A religious man is one who sees that he is exactly the same as others and he does not pretend to be special, because the very idea that “I am special” is foolish, the very idea that “I am the chosen one” is egoistic. And a religious man cannot claim that. A religious man has no claim. He simply accepts and he realizes that he is a part of this cosmos as you are a part of this cosmos. He never puts himself above you. This is his superiority, that he never puts himself above you. This is his “aboveness,” that he never thinks that he is extraordinary or special in some way. He never carries the attitude of “holier than thou.” He knows that you are also gods and goddesses. Maybe you don’t recognize it – that’s the only difference.

You may not see who you are, but I am seeing who you are. The day I recognized who I am, I recognized everybody’s innermost core. A religious person cannot think he is special. And a religious person cannot think that you are condemned, that you are sinners. A religious person starts laughing. He laughs at you because you are a saint and thinking yourself a sinner. He laughs at you because you are God and thinking yourself somebody else. The whole thing seems to be absurd – what a drama. Everybody is having a mask and has completely forgotten his own original face. Your original face is God’s face.

 Love, Swami Rakendra