Spiritual vision. Esoteric Model of the Universe
Tuesday, Jan 13 2015One who always looks at living beings as spiritual sparks, qualitatively equal to the Lord, understands the true nature of things. What can mislead or disturb such a person?
Ultimately, our anxiety is caused by what we see is not creature but only his body. If you look at me, you will see my body. Our eyes are made up of water, earth, air… These eyes are able to perceive material energy, so I can see whether your body is male or female, young or old, and so on. But to actually see you, a different kind of vision is needed.
AT Sri Isopanishad, it is said that a wise person sees that the living entities are parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord and equal in quality to Him, and that such a person has no cause for concern. In the material world, everyone is in trouble due to lack of spiritual vision. When we talk about vision, we understand that it happens material and spiritual .
Material vision is of two types.
First type is a vision through gross feelings: vision, hearing etc.
But there is also another material sense, second type material vision - speculative discussion. It is based on gross sensory perception. Through gross feelings, information enters the mind, and then on its basis a person argues about what is true and what is not. But the results of mental constructions cannot be spiritual, because they are based on the perception of material senses. This process of acquiring knowledge is called "ascending". Following this process, a person who wants to understand something (for example, a scientist) examines this phenomenon very carefully with his eyes, perhaps armed with some kind of extension in the form of a microscope or telescope, and then begins to think about what it all means.
Thus, our speculative constructions are based on material sensory perception, and the conclusions we come to depend in the end on the capabilities of our senses. But because our material senses are limited, our conclusions will always be imperfect. In other words, our senses are imperfect, so all our knowledge gained through sense perception will also be imperfect. However, relying on the strength of our gross senses and subtle senses - speculative reasoning - we are trying to ascend to the Absolute Truth, to enter the spiritual dimension. This is what people usually try to do. They get some information through the senses, and based on it they make some conclusions, trying to climb to the Absolute Truth, and the conclusions they come to are called "truth."
spiritual vision— another. It is not obtained as a result of research with the help of material senses and subsequent speculative reasoning. Spiritual vision described in this mantra Sri Isopanishad, gets the one who wants to see the Truth. Since there is a desire in his heart to see the Truth, The Absolute Truth reveals itself to this person.
This is the essence of the fundamental difference between the ascending and descending paths of obtaining knowledge.
He who wants to be the master himself does not want to accept the existence of a conscious, active, decision-making, compassionate and loving Supreme Being. If they accept "the Most High," they do not agree that He is a person. They do not accept that the Almighty can choose to reveal something to me and actually reveal it to me. They think it is the result of their own efforts.
In other words, people generally think that God, or the Absolute Truth, is impersonal or inactive, that the Absolute Truth cannot make the decision to reveal Itself to me—that it is up to me to climb up to It. If God exists, he is like the sky. God is an ocean of light, that's all. He has no consciousness, He cannot decide. When you say "make a decision" you are talking about a person.
In this way, most people are not ready to accept the existence of the Supreme Person. To recognize the Supreme Person means for them to put themselves in a subordinate position, and we all want to be masters. Once I accept the existence of the Supreme Personality, I will put myself in a position where I am no longer the master, and this will jeopardize my current position. All my life I have been trying to be a master, and now I have to accept this nonsense about what is the Supreme Master? I can accept God and all that, but only if God is inactive and impersonal. As soon as I accept that the Absolute Truth is a person, as soon as I accept the Personality of Godhead, I will have problems with my dominance, because if there is a Supreme Personality, the Supreme Lord, then I am no longer the supreme person, so I should start thinking about whether my actions and my whole way of life are pleasing to someone else - the Supreme Personality, since my task is to coordinate my will with His will. In other words, once I accept the Supreme Personality, I cannot be happy unless I conform my will to His will. And if I don’t want to give up my domination, if I don’t want to coordinate my will with the will of God, if I still want to be God myself, to be in the center of everything, the person around whom everyone and everything revolves, the most important person in my life, and everyone else and the whole world should serve my pleasure, then there is no question that I can accept the existence of the Supreme Personality, because I do not want to.
People once said about Jesus Christ: “How does he know the Scriptures without studying?”
And he answered: “My teaching is not mine, but the one who sent me; Whoever wants to do His will, he will know about this teaching, whether it is from God, or I speak from myself.
And then he said: “Did not Moses give you the law? and none of you walks according to the law."(From John, 7.15-17, 19).
Obviously, they did not want to "do the will of God" and therefore did not recognize Jesus as His representative.
Thus, one who recognizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead recognizes, “The Supreme Personality can show me whatever He wants—whatever He thinks I need to know—and do it much faster than I myself could find out. something about God. The Absolute Truth can reveal itself to me in its entirety in less than a second." That is the thinking of one who understands the Personality of Godhead. He stops trying to climb into the realm of God, researching and reasoning based on the results of his research, and tunes in to receive the information that comes down to him.
Generally one tries to find the truth, or one tries to realize the Absolute Truth. He is busy searching -- searching, searching... But the Absolute Truth is not a piece of gold hidden somewhere, just lying there waiting to be found. The Absolute Truth is active and personal. If She doesn't want you to find Her, She will become invisible and you won't find Her. In other words, you can never find Her in this way. Once you accept the existence of the Supreme Person, you accept that there is another being with a will of its own. I may think I want to find Him, but He may not want to show Himself to me. I may lack the qualities necessary to see Him.
In other words, this is where the will of the other person comes into play, and this always makes things a little more difficult. If I alone decide everything, it is easy - I am dealing with myself - but as soon as another person appears in your life, everything becomes very complicated. It's like if a woman has a child or somebody gets married or gets married, life becomes much more difficult. You allow another person to enter your life. For example, your child says, "I want this, I want that." You didn’t have anything like this before - you didn’t have a child and you didn’t have such problems. But he is a different person. As soon as another person appears, you have to deal with her will, her desires.
In the case of a child, you can gradually make him conform to your will because you are bigger. You can say "shut up" or shut him up in his room and be on your own again. But the Supreme Person is in control of everything, and you cannot even open your mouth to Him. You are small. It is you who will need to coordinate your will with His.
That is why most people do not want to accept the Supreme Person - they themselves want to be the supreme person. They want to be main enjoyer. They want, to be served, want to be mister. In fact, many people believe that one who has attained spiritual realization becomes the master - realizes that he is something like God, and everyone else does his will.
But in reality this is not so. "Spiritual master" means "heavy". Guru, the literal translation of the word "guru" is "heavy". Why is he heavy? This comparison - he is like a tree with a huge amount of fruit. But its fruits are the fruits of love for God. When a person actually achieves spiritual realization, he has many fruits of loving God, he becomes one who loves God with pure love, when he no longer has a will of his own and he simply performs the will of the Supreme Personality when his will is fully aligned with the will of the Supreme Personality. Such a person is called a "guru" or " spiritual teacher and he is honored as the representative of God.
One who thinks, "A guru is one who has attained the position of the supreme person," is mistaken. Sometimes people begin to lead the so-called spiritual life, but do not give up the desire to be the supreme person. They still want to be. They bring this desire with them, so when they hear about the Supreme Person, they immediately become uncomfortable. Why? Because "Supreme Person" means you are not supreme, and immediately you become jealous, see God as your competitor. You are not against the idea of God, but only if He is not a conscious being who is able to make decisions, love you and whom you can love, who has his will, perhaps different from yours. They don't like this idea of God.
There is a popular idea now that I am God, the Supreme Person, and I just need to realize this through meditation. If I meditate long enough and hard enough, I will break through this illusion and realize that I supreme god. But this is the last trap of Maya (illusion).
Maya has two traps.
The first is to think that I am the material body or the material mind. And often people understand that they are not the body and not the mind, but the spirit - life force, not matter.
But, unfortunately, they fall into the last trap of Maya - n they begin to think that they are the Supreme Lord. They begin to meditate: “All living beings come from me, I am everywhere, I am everything, I am the Cosmos, I control the Cosmos, I send the mist and I dispel it. Of course, I didn’t know that I would send fog now, in fact, I thought I would send something else, but I must have wanted it to be the way it is now, because it is so ”- and to that similar.
So it says very specifically:
One who always looks at living beings as spiritual sparks, qualitatively equal to the Lord, understands the true nature of things.
Qualitatively equal. An example is a drop of water from the ocean. A drop of ocean water has the same quality as the whole ocean—the same percentage of salt. But a drop of water cannot be compared to the ocean. A tiny living entity cannot be compared to the Supreme Living Entity.
Although we have the same quality, we are much smaller quantitatively and we have much less power.
And how does this manifest itself? The fact that we, a living being, hit under the influence of ignorance, and therefore we seek knowledge. Living beings are imprisoned in a material body. The Supreme Being never gets trapped in the material body. The Supreme Person is the controller, and we living entities, parts and parcels of the Supreme, are those who are governed by. We are all in control. None of us can claim to be the one who governs.
To think that you are the Supreme Lord is the last trap of illusion. Our essence is spiritual, but we are not the Supreme Spirit. We are not omnipotent. Twenty minutes ago I was meditating, "I am God, I am God," and now I'm standing at a crossroads because the red light is on and cars are rushing by at breakneck speed. What kind of God am I? It is ridiculous to meditate "I am God" and then stand at a crossroads because the red light is on.
These people don't ask themselves, "If I'm God, why am I not omnipotent?" But if you ask them, they will say, "It is because you are in an illusion."
“But if I am God, how can I be in an illusion?”
Because you forgot that you are God.
“If I am God, how could I forget? Doesn't "God" mean "almighty"? If I am God, how could I forget that I am God?
You wanted to forget.
If I wanted to forget, now I want to remember. Why am I still delusional?
“Well, you probably don’t really want to remember.
— And who are you?
I am also God.
Are we equally gods?
- Yes. Equally.
But then there is no God. Equally… is there a Supreme God?
- Not. We are all gods equally. But in fact it is all one God. We are not really individuals. We just pretend that we are individuals. It's all one, and we just pretend that we are separate from each other.
“Oh, we pretend that we are separate from each other. Why are you a teacher? Why are you a guru?
“Because I realized that I am God and you are not.
A man in India was asked, "What is the difference between a guru and a disciple?" He replied, “The Guru has realized that he is God, but the disciple has not yet realized it. I realized that I am God, and you are not yet.” “Yes, but I think you just said that I am you and you are me, there is no difference, there is no individuality. So if you have realized that you are God, why didn't I realize it at the same time?" They don't have an answer to this question.
This is a wrong idea - "I am God." We are all little gods. We are all spirit souls, not a material body. I am not a body - not white, not black, not a woman, not a man, not a man, not an animal... All living beings are part and parcel of God.
Here, in Sri Isopanishad, a devotee of God remembers this mantra, and thus becomes purified, realizing that all living beings are part and parcel of God, children of the Supreme Being. And nothing can disturb such a person. He doesn't envy anyone. An impersonalist, for example, thinks, "I am God," and is constantly in anxiety because he is constantly losing control of "his creation." All he can do is explain to himself: "It happened because I must have wanted it." But this does not help to get rid of anxiety.
And one who identifies himself with the body is all the more restless. He is constantly afraid of death, attached to the material world and afraid of losing something or not getting something. Such is the life of a materialist.
Thus, in Sri Isopanishad contains information descending from the spiritual dimension. "Mantra" means "information in the form of sound descending from the spiritual dimension", descending knowledge. In this way we receive information about the Absolute Truth from the Absolute Truth, which descends and reveals itself to us. This means that she is not "it", but He: God is a person who makes a conscious effort to reveal Himself. This clearly indicates that He is a person. And "He" also means that He is the sovereign, that there is really only one man, in the sense of "ruler." All others are subject. All living beings are, in fact, subject to whether we are temporarily in female or male bodies we are, in fact, in a subordinate position. In this sense nobody is a man except the Supreme Person. We are all meant to be subservient servants, not masters. Our natural position is to serve. The notion that our natural position is to exploit, that we should try to be masters of material nature or other living beings, is wrong. God owns everything and everyone - all living beings - as stated in the First Mantra Sri Isopanishad:
Everything living and non-living in the universe is under the control of the Lord and belongs to Him.
Living and non-living. I'm alive. I am an active living being, and now I am in the sphere of temporary inanimate energy - matter. All material things belong to God. All this matter was here before I came here, and all of it will remain here after I leave. And all living beings are animate energy, living beings are children, or integral parts, of God. They belong to Him. So if I think that some living being belongs to me, whether it be my wife, husband, children, dog or whatever, if I think "he is mine" or "she is mine" - this is actually an illusion. Because that person belongs to God. I do not belong to you and you do not belong to me, but we all belong to God. And all inanimate energy belongs to God.
Thus, a wise person sees everything in unity in the sense that all energy belongs to God, therefore he sees God everywhere because God's energy is everywhere. Everything belongs to Him.
And he uses all energies to serve Him. This is called "devotional service" or bhakti yoga, or karma yoga. When a person understands that the Supreme Being owns everything, he begins to realize that everything he has belongs to God, and therefore he uses it all to glorify God or in the service of God. It is called karma yoga.
Karma means action, yoga means union with God. Therefore, actions in connection with God, based on a connection with God in love, the purpose of which is to please God, to fulfill His will, are called karma yoga.
Karma yoga based on the following information or knowledge:
I am a spirit soul, not a material body.
All living beings are part and parcel of the Supreme Living Being. We all belong to Him. As well as,
All inanimate energy, material energy, belongs to the Supreme.
Understanding this, I engage in devotional service. In other words, I have gyana, knowledge. And then I act on it.
Thus, I should have the following knowledge:
I exist. I am spirit soul, I am eternal, I am not matter.
I am part and parcel of the Supreme Soul.
All living beings are in the same position as me - they are also part and parcel of the Supreme. They do not belong to me, but to him. And all material energy also belongs to Him.
I am like a person who found a wallet with money. If I am in ignorance, I think, "Now this is my wallet, I will enjoy." Even if there is a card with the name and phone number of the owner, I still think: "This is mine." This is the effect of ignorance. But the one who is intelligent understands: "This belongs to someone else" - and returns the wallet to the owner.
There is a comparison that characterizes three types of people. Let's say three people are walking down the street and each of them finds a hundred dollar bill.
The first one immediately thinks: “Oh, I will enjoy!” - and immediately begins to think about what he will buy with this money for his pleasure. Such a person can be compared with an ordinary materialist.
The second is compared to yoga, which the does not want to disturb his peace. Walking past a hundred dollar bill, he thinks, "I don't even want to look, I don't want to get involved, this is karma" - something like that.
And the third person picks up the money, finds the owner and returns it to him. It can be compared with bhakta, or devotees of God. He is not interested in his own peace, his own salvation, deliverance from pain or possible troubles; he understands: "This belongs to God, let me return them to Him - use them in His service." He does not look at money as a source of pleasure, and he also does not try to stay away from it, thus manifesting false renunciation. Instead, he uses whatever he can - be it a million dollars, or some of his abilities, or intelligence, or professional skills (writing articles, working on a computer - whatever), - about he understands that all this belongs to God, and uses, redirects it to the service of God.
Most people use material energy, including their strengths, abilities, talents, etc., for your own material pleasure; the main thing in their life is themselves, their pleasure.
Then there is another type of people - there are far fewer of them - who, having failed in trying to enjoy the material world and tired of such a life, trying to get away from him. They don't want to participate in anything. And they are making great efforts in this direction. They try to give up everything, but everything keeps clinging to them. They try to give it up and it comes back and they try again to give it up, but slowly they get pulled back into all this activity and they don't like it and they try to give it up again. For example, they fast, and then they break out and they eat, eat, eat for a whole week, and then they feel guilty: “I have to renounce the world. I was sucked again, ”and they start all over again. They bounce on their buttocks trying to awaken kundalini. Do pranayama very diligently - they really make great efforts to renounce everything and rise above it, and they begin to feel peace and some kind of bliss again, but before they have time to look back, life sucks them in again and they have to start all over again. And most people fall into one of these two categories.
But a devotee, one who really works on a spiritual level, understands: “Firstly, I do not own anything, so I cannot use it for my own enjoyment. I just take what is necessary to keep this body in good condition so that I can serve, and everything else that I have, I use in the service of God. And he also understands: “Because I own nothing, I cannot renounce anything.” Someone may say: “I gave up this, this. I had a yacht big house and I abandoned them and now I live simply. I've given up everything" - and he may really like that he "has given up everything", and he may want to give up something else, believing that he still has some kind of property. But really, how can you give up something that doesn't belong to you? A bank teller is constantly dealing with money, money, money, but it is out of the question for him to give it up - because it is not his. It is an illusion to think that you once owned something. How can you refuse it?
Saints of all times advise us not to make false attempts to be "renounced" and "spiritual" and not to try to be the lord of the material dimension, to enjoy the material world, but to unite our will with the will of the Supreme Personality, which means to use all our abilities, possibilities, all our property, large or small, in His service. Whether we have much or little, God does not care, because we offer it all to Him. What matters is that we offer it. What is important is not the quantity, but the quality - the consciousness with which this is done.
Actually, the natural original position of the living entity is lovingly serve the Supreme Lord. When one returns to this state of devotional service, or bhakti yoga, he regains the previously lost qualities necessary to enter the kingdom of God; in other words, no more receiving material bodies. This is no longer necessary, because reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul, is caused by the desire of the individual to be the master of the material world. In nature, it is arranged in such a way that a living being who desires material enjoyment, leaving the gross physical body, gets another one and has the opportunity to continue his attempts to enjoy. But they are full of suffering - birth, sickness, old age and death cause great suffering. It is unnatural for an eternal living being to be in the temporary material world. This is not where we should be. Our natural dimension is the non-material, non-material world.
Thus, when we are freed from the desire to be the master, when we are no longer envious of the Supreme Personality, and we no longer have material desires, and our only desire is to serve the Supreme Personality, we reclaiming our right to be in the kingdom of God again. Then we no longer need to take a material body. And this is actually the natural state of a living being, and it is called religion. Religion is not something you join or change. Religion is the natural original state of the living entity. In this state, the living being lovingly serves the Supreme Living Being.
The Seventh Mantra of Sri Isopanishad says:
One who always looks at living beings as spiritual sparks, qualitatively equal to the Lord, understands the true nature of things. What can mislead or disturb such a person?
Ultimately, our anxiety is caused by the fact that we do not see a living being, but only his body. If you look at me, you will see my body. Our eyes are made up of water, earth, air… These eyes are able to perceive material energy, so I can see whether your body is male or female, young or old, and so on. But to really see you, a different kind of vision is needed.
And here, in Sri Isopanishad, it is said that a wise person sees that the living beings are parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, qualitatively equal to Him, and that such a person has no cause for concern. In the material world, everyone is in trouble due to lack of spiritual vision. When we talk about vision, we understand that it can be material and spiritual.
Material vision is of two types. The first type is seeing through the gross senses: seeing, hearing, etc. But there is also another material sense, the second type of material vision - speculative reasoning. It is based on gross sensory perception. Through gross feelings, information enters the mind, and then on its basis a person argues about what is true and what is not. But the results of mental constructions cannot be spiritual, because they are based on the perception of material senses. This process of acquiring knowledge is called "ascending". Following this process, a person who wants to understand something (for example, a scientist) examines this phenomenon very carefully with his eyes, perhaps armed with some kind of extension in the form of a microscope or telescope, and then begins to think about what it all means.
Thus, our speculative constructions are based on material sensory perception, and the conclusions we come to depend in the end on the capabilities of our senses. But because our material senses are limited, our conclusions will always be imperfect. In other words, our senses are imperfect, so all our knowledge gained through sense perception will also be imperfect. However, relying on the strength of our gross feelings and subtle feelings - speculative reasoning - we are trying to ascend to the Absolute Truth, to enter the spiritual dimension. This is what people usually try to do. They get some information through the senses, and based on it they make some conclusions, trying to climb to the Absolute Truth, and the conclusions they come to are called "truth."
Spiritual vision is different. It is not obtained as a result of research with the help of material senses and subsequent speculative reasoning. The spiritual vision described in this mantra "Sri Isopanishad" is received by one who wants to see the Truth. Because there is a desire in his heart to see the Truth, the Absolute Truth reveals itself to that person. This is the essence of the fundamental difference between the ascending and descending paths of obtaining knowledge. He who wants to be the master himself does not want to accept the existence of a conscious, active, decision-making, compassionate and loving Supreme Being. If they acknowledge the "Most High", they do not agree that He is a person. They do not accept that the Almighty can choose to reveal something to me and actually reveal it to me. They think it is the result of their own efforts. In other words, people generally think that God, or the Absolute Truth, is impersonal or inactive, that the Absolute Truth cannot make the decision to reveal Itself to me—that it is up to me to climb up to It. If God exists, he is like the sky. God is an ocean of light, that's all. He has no consciousness, He cannot decide. When you say "make a decision" you are talking about a person.
Thus most people are not ready to accept the existence of the Supreme Person. To recognize the Supreme Person means for them to put themselves in a subordinate position, and we all want to be masters. Once I accept the existence of the Supreme Personality, I will put myself in a position where I am no longer the master, and this will jeopardize my current position. All my life I have been trying to be a master, and now I have to accept this nonsense about what is the Supreme Master? I can accept God and all that, but only if God is inactive and impersonal. As soon as I accept that the Absolute Truth is a person, as soon as I accept the Personality of Godhead, I will have problems with my dominion, because if there is a Supreme Personality, the Supreme Lord, then I am no longer the supreme person, so I should start thinking about whether my actions and my whole way of life are pleasing to someone else - the Supreme Personality, since my task is to coordinate my will with His will. In other words, once I accept the Supreme Personality, I cannot be happy unless I conform my will to His will. And if I don’t want to give up my domination, if I don’t want to coordinate my will with the will of God, if I still want to be God myself, to be in the center of everything, the person around whom everyone and everything revolves, the most important person in my life, and everyone else and the whole world should serve my pleasure, then there is no question that I can accept the existence of the Supreme Personality, because I do not want to.
One day people said about Jesus Christ, “How does he know the Scriptures without learning?” And he answered: “My teaching is not mine, but the one who sent me; Whoever wants to do His will, he will know about this teaching, whether it is from God, or I speak from myself. And then he said, “Didn't Moses give you a law? and none of you walks according to the law." (From John, 7.15-17, 19). Obviously, they did not want to "do the will of God" and therefore did not recognize Jesus as His representative.
Thus, one who recognizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead recognizes: "The Supreme Personality can show me whatever He wants - everything that He wants me to know - and do it much faster than I myself could find out. something about God. The Absolute Truth can reveal itself to me in its entirety in less than a second." That is the thinking of one who understands the Personality of Godhead. He stops trying to climb into the realm of God, researching and reasoning based on the results of his research, and tunes in to receive the information that comes down to him.
Generally one tries to find the truth, or one tries to realize the Absolute Truth. He is busy searching -- searching, searching... But the Absolute Truth is not a piece of gold hidden somewhere, just lying there waiting to be found. The Absolute Truth is active and personal. If She doesn't want you to find Her, She will become invisible and you won't find Her. In other words, you can never find Her in this way. Once you accept the existence of the Supreme Person, you accept that there is another being with a will of its own. I may think I want to find Him, but He may not want to show Himself to me. I may lack the qualities necessary to see Him.
In other words, the will of another person comes into play here, and this always makes things a little more difficult. If I alone decide everything, it is easy - I am dealing with myself - but as soon as another person appears in your life, everything becomes very complicated. It's like if a woman has a child or somebody gets married or gets married, life becomes much more difficult. You allow another person to enter your life. For example, your child says, "I want this, I want that." You didn’t have anything like this before - you didn’t have a child and you didn’t have such problems. But he is a different person. As soon as another person appears, you have to deal with his will, his desires.
In the case of a child, you can gradually make him conform to your will because you are bigger. You can say "shut up" or shut him up in his room and be on your own again. But the Supreme Person is in control of everything, and you cannot even open your mouth to Him. You are small. It is you who will need to coordinate your will with His.
That is why most people do not want to accept the Supreme Person - they themselves want to be the supreme person. They want to be the main enjoyer. They want to be served, they want to be master. In fact, many people believe that one who has attained spiritual realization becomes the master - realizes that he is something like God, and everyone else does his will.
But in reality this is not so. "Spiritual master" means "heavy". Guru, the literal translation of the word "guru" is "heavy". Why is he heavy? This comparison - he is like a tree with a huge number of fruits. But its fruits are the fruits of love for God. When a person actually achieves spiritual realization, he has many fruits of love of Godhead, he becomes one who loves God with pure love, when he no longer has his own will and simply does the will of the Supreme Personality, when his will is fully aligned with the will of the Supreme Personality . Such a person is called a "guru" or "spiritual master" and is honored as a representative of God.
One who thinks, "A guru is one who has attained the position of the supreme person," is mistaken. Sometimes people begin to lead the so-called spiritual life, but do not give up the desire to be the supreme person. They still want to be. They bring this desire with them, so when they hear about the Supreme Person, they immediately become uncomfortable. Why? Because "Supreme Person" means you are not supreme, and immediately you become jealous, see God as your competitor. You are not against the idea of God, but only if He is not a conscious being who is able to make decisions, love you and whom you can love, who has his will, perhaps different from yours. They don't like this idea of God.
There is a popular idea now that I am God, the Supreme Person, and I just need to realize this through meditation. If I meditate long enough and hard enough, I will break through this illusion and realize that I am the Supreme God. But this is the last trap of Maya (illusion). Maya has two traps. The first is to think that I am a material body or a material mind. And often people understand that they are not a body and not a mind, but a spirit - a life force, not matter. But, unfortunately, they fall into the last trap of Maya - they begin to think that they are the Supreme Lord. They begin to meditate: “All living beings come from me, I am everywhere, I am everything, I am the Cosmos, I control the Cosmos, I send the mist and I dispel it. Of course, I didn’t know that I would send fog now, in fact, I thought I would send something else, but I must have wanted it to be the way it is now, because it is so ”- and to that similar.
So it says very specifically:
One who always looks at living beings as spiritual sparks, qualitatively equal to the Lord, understands the true nature of things.
Qualitatively equal. An example is a drop of water from the ocean. A drop of ocean water has the same quality as the whole ocean - the same percentage of salt. But a drop of water cannot be compared to the ocean. A tiny living entity cannot be compared to the Supreme Living Entity. Although we have the same quality, we are much smaller quantitatively and we have much less power. And how does this manifest itself? That we, the living being, have fallen under the influence of ignorance, and therefore we are looking for knowledge. Living beings are imprisoned in a material body. The Supreme Being never gets trapped in the material body. The Supreme Person is the controller, and we living entities, part and parcel of the Supreme, are the controllers. We are all in control. None of us can claim to be the one who governs.
To think of yourself that you are the Supreme Lord is the last trap of illusion. Our essence is spiritual, but we are not the Supreme Spirit. We are not omnipotent. Twenty minutes ago I was meditating, "I am God, I am God," and now I'm standing at a crossroads because the red light is on and cars are rushing by at breakneck speed. What kind of God am I? It is ridiculous to meditate "I am God" and then stand at a crossroads because the red light is on.
These people don't ask themselves, "If I'm God, why am I not omnipotent?" But if you ask them, they will say, "It is because you are in an illusion."
But if I am God, how can I be in an illusion?
Because you forgot that you are God.
If I am God, how could I forget? Doesn't "God" mean "almighty"? If I am God, how could I forget that I am God?
You wanted to forget.
If I wanted to forget, now I want to remember. Why am I still delusional?
Well, you probably don't really want to remember.
And who are you?
I am also God.
Are we equally gods?
Yes. Equally.
But then there is no God. Equally… is there a Supreme God?
No. We are all gods equally. But in fact it is all one God. We are not really individuals. We just pretend that we are individuals. It's all one, and we just pretend that we are separate from each other.
Oh, pretend we're separate. Why are you a teacher? Why are you a guru?
Because I realized that I am God and you are not.
A man in India was asked, "What is the difference between a guru and a disciple?" He replied, “The Guru has realized that he is God, but the disciple has not yet realized it. I realized that I am God, and you are not yet.” - “Yes, but I think you just said that I am you, and you are me, there is no difference, there is no individuality. So if you have realized that you are God, why didn't I realize it at the same time?" They don't have an answer to this question.
This is a wrong idea - "I am God." We are all little gods. We are all spirit souls, not a material body. I am not a body - not white, not black, not a woman, not a man, not a man, not an animal... All living beings are part and parcel of God.
Here in Sri Isopanishad, a devotee of God remembers this mantra and thus becomes purified, realizing that all living beings are part and parcel of God, children of the Supreme Being. And nothing can disturb such a person. He doesn't envy anyone. An impersonalist, for example, thinks, "I am God," and is constantly in anxiety because he is constantly losing control of "his creation." All he can do is explain to himself: "It happened because I must have wanted it." But this does not help to get rid of anxiety.
And one who identifies himself with the body is all the more restless. He is constantly afraid of death, attached to the material world and afraid of losing something or not getting something. Such is the life of a materialist.
Thus, Sri Isopanishad contains information descending from the spiritual dimension. "Mantra" means "information in the form of sound descending from the spiritual dimension", descending knowledge. In this way we receive information about the Absolute Truth from the Absolute Truth, which descends and reveals itself to us. This means that she is not "it", but He: God is a person who makes a conscious effort to reveal Himself. This unequivocally indicates that He is a person. And "He" also means that He is the sovereign, that there is really only one man, in the sense of "ruler." All others are subject. All living beings are in fact subservient, whether we are temporarily in female or male bodies, we are actually in a subordinate position. In this sense nobody is a man except the Supreme Person. We are all meant to be subservient servants, not masters. Our natural position is to serve. The notion that our natural position is to exploit, that we should try to be masters of material nature or other living beings, is wrong. God owns everything and everyone - all living beings - as it is said in the First Mantra of Sri Isopanishad:
Everything living and non-living in the universe is under the control of the Lord and belongs to Him.
Living and non-living. I'm alive. I am an active living being, and now I am in the sphere of temporary inanimate energy - matter. All material things belong to God. All this matter was here before I came here, and all of it will remain here after I leave. And all living beings are animate energy, living beings are children, or integral particles, of God. They belong to Him. So if I think that some living being belongs to me, whether it be my wife, husband, children, dog or whatever, if I think "he is mine" or "she is mine" - this is actually an illusion. Because that person belongs to God. I do not belong to you and you do not belong to me, but we all belong to God. And all inanimate energy belongs to God.
Thus, a wise person sees everything in unity in the sense that all energy belongs to God, so he sees God everywhere, because God's energy is everywhere. Everything belongs to Him. And He uses all energies to serve Him. This is called "devotional service" or bhakti yoga, or karma yoga. When a person understands that the Supreme Being owns everything, he begins to realize that everything he has belongs to God, and therefore he uses it all to glorify God or in the service of God. This is called karma yoga.
“Karma” means “action”, “yoga” means union with God. Therefore, actions in connection with God, based on a connection with God in love, the purpose of which is to please God, to fulfill His will, are called karma yoga. Karma yoga is based on the following information or knowledge:
I am a spirit soul, not a material body.
All living beings are part and parcel of the Supreme Living Being. We all belong to Him. As well as,
All inanimate energy, material energy, belongs to the Supreme.
Understanding this, I engage in devotional service. In other words, I have jnana, knowledge. And then I act on it.
Thus, I should have the following knowledge:
I exist. I am spirit soul, I am eternal, I am not matter.
I am part and parcel of the Supreme Soul.
All living beings are in the same position as me - they are also part and parcel of the Supreme. They do not belong to me, but to him. And all material energy also belongs to Him.
I am like a person who found a wallet with money. If I am in ignorance, I think, "Now this is my wallet, I will enjoy." Even if there is a card with the name and phone number of the owner, I still think: "This is mine." This is the effect of ignorance. But the one who is intelligent understands: "This belongs to someone else" - and returns the wallet to the owner.
There is a comparison that characterizes three types of people. Let's say three people are walking down the street and each of them finds a hundred dollar bill. The first one immediately thinks: “Oh, I will enjoy!” - and immediately begins to think about what he will buy with this money for his pleasure. Such a person can be compared to an ordinary materialist. The second is compared with a yogi who does not want to disturb his peace. Walking past a hundred dollar bill, he thinks, "I don't even want to look, I don't want to get involved, this is karma" - something like that. And the third person picks up the money, finds the owner and returns it to him. He can be compared to a bhakta, or devotee of God. He is not interested in his own peace, his own salvation, deliverance from pain or possible troubles; he understands: "This belongs to God, let me return them to Him - use them in His service." He does not look at money as a source of pleasure, and he also does not try to stay away from it, thus manifesting false renunciation. Instead, he uses everything he can - be it a million dollars, or some of his abilities, or intelligence, or professional skills (writing articles, working on a computer - whatever), he understands that it all belongs to God, and uses, redirects it to the service of God.
Most people use the material energy, including their powers, abilities, talents, etc., for their own material enjoyment; the main thing in their life is themselves, their pleasure. Then there is another type of people - there are far fewer of them - who, having failed in trying to enjoy the material world and tired of such a life, try to get away from it. They don't want to participate in anything. And they are making great efforts in this direction. They try to give up everything, but everything keeps clinging to them. They try to give it up and it comes back and they try again to give it up, but slowly they get pulled back into all this activity and they don't like it and they try to give it up again. For example, they fast, and then they break out and they eat, eat, eat for a whole week, and then they feel guilty: “I have to renounce the world. I was sucked again, ”- and they start all over again. They bounce on their buttocks, trying to awaken the kundalini. They do pranayama very diligently - they really make great efforts to renounce everything and rise above it, and they begin to feel peace and some kind of bliss again, but before they have time to look back, life sucks them in again and they have to start all over again. And most people fall into one of these two categories.
But a devotee, one who is actually acting on the spiritual platform, understands, “Firstly, I do not own anything, so I cannot use it for my own enjoyment. I just take what is necessary to keep this body in good condition so that I can serve, and everything else that I have, I use in the service of God. And he also understands: “Because I own nothing, I cannot renounce anything.” Someone may say: “I gave up this, this. I had a yacht and a big house, and I gave them up and now I live simply. I have given up everything” - and he may really like that he “has given up everything”, and he may want to give up something else, believing that he still has some kind of property. But really, how can you give up something that doesn't belong to you? A bank teller is constantly dealing with money, money, money, but it is out of the question for him to refuse it - because it is not his. It is an illusion to think that you once owned something. How can you refuse it?
Saints of all times advise us not to make false attempts to be "renounced" and "spiritual" and not to try to be the lord of the material dimension, to enjoy the material world, but to unite our will with the will of the Supreme Personality, which means to use all our abilities, possibilities, all our property, large or small, in His service. Whether we have a lot or a little, God doesn't care, because we offer it all to Him. What matters is that we offer it. What is important is not the quantity, but the quality - the consciousness with which this is done. Actually, the natural position of the living being is to lovingly serve the Supreme Lord. When one returns to this state of devotional service, or bhakti yoga, he regains the previously lost qualities necessary to enter the kingdom of God; in other words, no more receiving material bodies. This is no longer necessary, because reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul, is caused by the desire of the individual to be the master of the material world. In nature, it is arranged in such a way that a living being who desires material enjoyment, leaving the gross physical body, gets another one and has the opportunity to continue his attempts to enjoy. But they are full of suffering - birth, sickness, old age and death cause great suffering. It is not natural for an eternal living being to be in the temporary material world. This is not where we should be. Our natural dimension is the non-material, non-material world.
Thus, when we are freed from the desire to be the master, when we are no longer envious of the Supreme Personality and we no longer have material desires, and our only desire is to serve the Supreme Personality, we regain the right to be in the kingdom of God again. Then we no longer need to take a material body. And this is actually the natural state of a living being, and it is called religion. Religion is not something you join or change. Religion is the natural original state of the living entity. In this state, the living being lovingly serves the Supreme Living Being.
We advise you to read (listen, watch) in connection with this article:
Who you are? Revealing your true self,
What is meditation
Explanation of Karma
The basics of the daily practice of meditation and purification of consciousness according to the bhakti yoga system are given in the article Meditation Lesson
Based on the lecture of the Spiritual Master
Modern humanity at this point in time has quite a lot of different types of confirmation of the existence of worlds that are different from the visible world of forms - the material plane of the planet Earth. The existence of other worlds gradually becomes a stable picture of the world. Interest in "other" worlds, as well as in issues of interaction with such worlds, as a rule, comes down to thinking about what qualities or paranormal abilities a person must have in order to "see", feel, interact with such a different world, as well as with its representatives, there are also plenty of opinions and points of view on this subject on how to develop the ability to “see, hear, feel”. There has been a strong public opinion of "knowing" people that in order to possess the paranormal, psychic abilities at the first stage, it is necessary to develop, develop, etc. Sensitivity to the perception of the subtle world.
Many practitioners of energy, spiritual, yogic, etc. practice it succeeds, but many do not. But even those who manage to develop some extraordinary abilities in themselves, that is, those that far from all living people have, sooner or later hit the ceiling, they suddenly realize that there is a limit to the development of these abilities, and beyond a certain level of development human, practices with an emphasis on ability are doomed to failure. A reasonable question arises: what to do next and what about those who really want to “open their third eye”, but they don’t want to open it for anything?
Let's start with the fact that many people still have a persistent delusion about the purpose of a person, his essential definition, his abilities and capabilities, and, accordingly, about the need for their development, disclosure, etc.
One of the basic statements of the Esoteric teaching says:
“Man is, first of all, a Soul that exists “forever”, and also follows the path of evolution and can periodically reincarnate in new physical bodies, which it organizes for itself according to a certain order and template, from the cells of genetic parents, taking into account all previous accumulated experience and previous existence.
The esoteric model defines the interaction of the planet Earth and man:
1. Planet Earth has its own consciousness and is a single living organism.
2. Everything that exists inside the consciousness of the Earth - exists on the planet.
3. Any object on Earth has its own consciousness and, including a person, is a multidimensional energy-information object.
Let's consider such a multidimensional interaction on the example of the Simplified model of interaction between the Human Mental Bodies and Consciousnesses.
Simplified Model of Consciousness and Mental Bodies:
The External Signal goes to the "Antenna" and further to the Mental Body of the Sahasrara. Under the condition that a person has an Active Consciousness "Super-I" (Higher Self) - this Signal is processed by this Consciousness.
The unprocessed part of the "Signal" that passed through the Mental Body of Sahasrara enters the Worldview "filter" - the Subconsciousness, located on the Mental Body of Ajna.
If a person has an active Consciousness "not-I", then this "Signal" is processed by him and launches the 3rd Eye - the second System of World Perception. raw, not accepted part The "Signal" from the Mental Body of Ajna enters the Mental Body of Vishudha, which includes the Consciousness - the Signal translator, which turns the incoming Signal into our 3-dimensional world, and the Mind - which analyzes the received images.
If a person has an Active Consciousness "I" - then it processes the part of the "Signal" that has arrived at him with the help of the 1st Perception System and builds a Conscious Behavior.
If the Consciousness "I" is not active, then part of the Signal enters the Mental Body of Anahata - "Animal Consciousness" and builds Emotional Behavior.
It can be seen from this diagram that each Active "upper" - higher-frequency Consciousness "intercepts" the Signal and takes control.
Therefore, by developing our higher-frequency states of Consciousness, we fundamentally change ourselves, our perception of ourselves and the world, our behavior, our capabilities, etc.
The esoteric model of the Universe tells us about the principle of nested consciousnesses - the principle of Matryoshka. Such a matryoshka shows that the human consciousness is embedded (absorbed) into another similar consciousness, which subsequently enters the next more expanded similar consciousness, and so on ad infinitum.
Man is, first of all, consciousness, and he is inside the consciousness of the planet Earth. The planet is also, first of all, consciousness, and it is inside consciousness solar system, which is inside the consciousness of the Galaxy and so on.
A person is a multidimensional energy-information structure of a living consciousness, in every person God “laid” 7 basic abilities:
1. clairsentience (tactile sensations)
2. spiritual clairvoyance
3. clairvoyance
4. Clairaudience
5. clear sense of smell
6. clear vision physical
7. clear recognition of taste sensations
At modern man basically 5 main abilities are clearly manifested through the senses and therefore another misconception lies in the definition of his abilities. Many people confuse the concepts of “Sensibility” and “Sensitivity”.
Spiritual vision and sensitivity
Sensuality is the ability human psyche respond to external influences and experience the impact of external objects that are realized with the help of the senses, the ability to experience emotional states, tendency to carnal pleasures.
Ability human spirit(sensuality) to perceive the surrounding reality with the help of the senses is a condition for obtaining cognitive experience and a practical relationship of a person to the world.
The presence of sensory abilities in a person determines for him, as for any other living organism, a landmark and successful actions in the world around him.
Sensitivity is a property of humans and animals to feel stimulus signals from the external environment and from one's own tissues and organs: tactile (touch), pain, temperature, musculoskeletal, etc.
We hope the difference is clear! This is where all the answers to questions related to paranormal, extrasensory and other "other" abilities in humans lie.
Man is a “system” and his self-development, transformation of consciousness, transmutation physical body should take place in a complex, in a system of multidimensional spiritual development and harmonious entry of the Spirit, Soul and transformation of the Personality into individuality. We invite you to start not only receiving, studying, memorizing knowledge, but also applying it, practically developing your abilities of Sense-Knowledge in the World of New Energies ***
Conscious control of attention gives a person the opportunity to more effectively identify, compare and, if necessary, eliminate external and internal factors that lead out of balance, which is important for a qualitative increase in the level of development of a person’s personality. You can learn about the mechanisms of attention and the ability to consciously control it in practice “Development of the Soul: Attention of a person. The role of attention in life.
Much less embarrassing for a person is the limitedness of his sensual vision, the blindness in relation to primitive vision, produced by a fall, than the blindness of the spirit produced by the same fall (St. Tikhon of Voronezh speaks a lot about the blindness of the spirit in his cell letters, volumes 14 and 15). What kind of blindness is this? what kind of blindness of the spirit? especially the sages of the world will ask, and, without waiting for an answer, they will immediately call the announcement of the blindness of the human spirit, of its mortality, idle talk and absurdity. Such is this blindness! it can unmistakably be called death. Food and we are blind esma? (John 9:41) - the blind and arrogant Pharisees spoke to the Lord. Not feeling blindness is not a sign of sight. Fallen people, who did not want to acknowledge their blindness, remained blind, but those born blind, who recognized their blindness, received their sight of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 9; 39:41). Let us try in the light of the Holy Spirit to discern the blindness of our spirit.
Blindness has struck our mind and heart. Because of this blindness, the mind cannot distinguish true thoughts from false ones, and the heart cannot distinguish spiritual sensations from spiritual and sinful sensations, especially when the latter are not very rude. Because of the blindness of the spirit, all our activity becomes false, just as the Lord called the scribes (scholars) and Pharisees buim and blind (Matt. 23), blind leaders who do not enter the kingdom of heaven and do not allow people to enter it.
With true spiritual achievement, the grace of God, planted in us by holy Baptism, begins to heal us little by little from the blindness of the spirit through compunction. In contrast to the state of blindness, we begin to enter the state of seeing. Just as in the state of vision the spectator is the mind, so the Holy Fathers also called vision intellectual vision, that is, mental. As the state of vision is delivered by the Holy Spirit, so the vision is also called spiritual, being the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In this it differs from contemplation. Contemplation is characteristic of all people; each person contemplates whenever he wants. Vision is characteristic of those who purify themselves through repentance; it does not appear to the arbitrariness of man, but from the touch of the Spirit of God on our spirit, therefore, according to the all-holy will of the All-Holy Spirit. The doctrine of spiritual or mental visions is expounded with particular clarity and detail by Hieromartyr Peter, Metropolitan of Damascus. (Philokalia, part 3).
Tenderness is the first spiritual sensation delivered to the heart by the Divine Grace that has overshadowed it. It consists of tasting God-pleasing sadness, dissolved by grace-filled consolation, and opens before the mind a spectacle never seen before. From spiritual sensation is spiritual vision, how Holy Bible says: Taste and see (Psalm 33:9). Seeing exacerbates sensation. “From doing with compulsion, immeasurable warmth is born, kindling in the heart from warm thoughts that newly come to the mind. Such doing and keeping refine the mind with its warmth and give it the ability to see. Warm thoughts are born from this, as we said, in the depths of the soul, which is called Vision. These visions give birth to (that gave birth to) warmth. From this warmth, growing from the grace of the Vision, an abundant flow of tears is born "(St. Isaac of Syria, beginning of the 59th word). As long as sensation operates, vision also operates. With the cessation of sensation, vision ceases. Unknowingly it comes, unknownly departs, not depending on our arbitrariness, depending on dispensation. The gate to spiritual vision is humility (saying of St. John Kolov, Alphabetical Paterik). The constant presence of tenderness is accompanied by a constant vision. Vision is the reading and acceptance by the spirit of the New Testament. With the cessation of compunction, communion with the New Testament ceases, communion with the Old Testament begins; instead of the predominance in the soul of humility, not resisting evil (Matt. 5:39), there is justice, intensifying to pull out an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Matt. 5:38). For this reason, the Monk Sisoy the Great said with groaning: "I am reading New Testament but I return to the Old One" (Alphabetic Patericon). Those who wish to constantly abide in tenderness and spiritual vision should take care of constantly remaining in humility, banishing self-justification and condemnation of others from themselves, introducing humility by self-reproach and consciousness of their sinfulness before God and people.
The first spiritual vision is the vision of one's sins, hitherto hidden behind oblivion and ignorance. Seeing them through tenderness, the ascetic immediately gains experiential knowledge of the previous blindness of his spirit, in which what existed and existed seemed completely non-existent and non-existent. This existing, when compunction retreats, again disappears into non-existence, and again appears non-existent. When tenderness appears, it appears again. The ascetic passes experimentally from the consciousness of his sins to the knowledge of his sinfulness, which infects his nature, to the knowledge of the passions or various ailments of the nature. From the vision of his fall, he passes on to the vision of the fall, which encompasses all human nature. Then the world of fallen spirits gradually opens up to him; he studies them in his passions, in the struggle with them, in the thoughts, dreams and sensations brought by the spirits. A seductive and deceptive view of earthly life, hitherto presented to him as infinite: he begins to see the facet of it - death; he begins to admire, that is, to be transported in spirit, feeling to the very hour of death, to the hour of God's impartial judgment. From his fall, he sees the need for a Redeemer, and applying the commandments of the Lord to his ailments and seeing the healing and life-giving effect of these commandments on ailments and on a suffering soul, he acquires a living faith in the Gospel, as if in a mirror, he sees his fallen nature even more clearly, and the fall of mankind, and evil spirits. Limiting ourselves to the calculation of these visions, as essential and soon made available to the diligent monk; Let us conclude the calculus with the words of St. Maximus the Confessor: “It is impossible for the mind (i.e., the spirit) to achieve passionlessness from one deed (i.e., from some bodily exploits), if many and various visions do not accept it” (monks Callistus and Ignatius about silence and prayer, chapter 68, Philokalia, part 2). The word "accept" shows that these visions are not, like contemplation, arbitrary states or compositions of the mind; the word "accept" can be translated by the word "visit".
It is quite natural for our spirit to acquire dispassion, when sensations of a fallen nature are replaced by spiritual sensations, subsequent and accompanying tenderness, and the reason of the fallen nature is replaced by spiritual reason, formed from concepts delivered by spiritual visions. To distract from living according to the Gospel commandments, from Christ-imitative humility, from compunction, from spiritual vision, from liberation from the bondage of passions or from passionlessness, from the Resurrection of the soul, in order to keep in blindness, in death, in captivity at oneself, fallen spirits conduct fierce abuse with the ascetics. In this battle, they exhaust all their inherent malice, all their inherent cunning. Deceit and malice are called here characteristic of fallen spirits, not because they were given to them at creation - no! fallen spirits were created good, alien to evil, as we already know from the teachings of Anthony the Great - because by their arbitrary fall they acquired evil for themselves, became alien to good. We repeat what was said above: the fall of men consists in the confusion of good with evil; the fall of demons is in the complete rejection of good, in the complete assimilation of evil (Ladder, word 4, chapter 35; all the Holy Fathers are of the same opinion). I have turned to all your commandments, I have hated every path of unrighteousness (Psalm 119, 128), the Holy Spirit speaks about His guidance of a person to salvation: thus, in contrast to this, the spirit of malice opposes every commandment of the New Testament, hates every image of God-pleasing living. But in this opposition to the gospel commandments, in assisting all sinful inclinations, fallen spirits are studied by the ascetic of piety, are seen by him, are known through the knowledge of spirits acquired by this means; sensual vision of spirits, if it is allowed, only completes the knowledge. Knowledge of man is acquired in exactly this way: essential knowledge of man is acquired by studying his way of thinking and feeling, his way of acting; the more detailed such a study is, the more definite the knowledge becomes. Acquaintance face to face completes this knowledge; one personal acquaintance has almost no significance in relation to the essential knowledge of a person.
