The Straight and Narrow (Part Two)

[Please note, to enjoy Part Two, you should read Part One first].

To be able to get anywhere with our search for the ‘narrow gate’, we must define the cycle, or at least the direction, in which we are travelling. We start in ‘heaven’ and go in the direction of earth’. Both conditions, i.e. “heaven and earth”, describe states of consciousness. From the state of pure consciousness we ‘descend’ into corporal forms necessary for our becoming, i.e. into a condition in which we witness the broad consequences of our thoughts.

Regrettably, on the way ‘down’ along the narrow road, we don’t seem to become aware of the narrow gate. And once in the physical body, with many other brainwaves at our disposal and the attractions all the sensory inputs so strong, finding the narrow gate through which we have come is difficult.

As for alpha rhythms, they occur in our brain when we are in “no-man’s land”, between sleep and waken state. It is indeed a very narrow range of brainwaves. We can unwittingly slip in and out of it into either sleep or waken state in an instant. It takes practice to retain awareness of it. And even after we find it, it takes more practice to retain access to it, and then to learn how to control it.

To achieve this elusive state of mind, of consciousness, we need a special type of relaxation. We must lose awareness of physical reality, even of physical body. It has been said that excessive preoccupation with material goods makes it extremely difficult to achieve the state of consciousness necessary to find the ‘gate’.

On the other hand, the gate is unguarded, there is no one to bribe, and in fact we don’t need a single penny to go through it. It is free access for all—for all who seek. It also bears mentioning that each one of us creates our own heaven. We have to be careful that we create a heaven we wish to abide in. Some might find it distinctly unpleasant if, for instance, the majority of their memories are attached not to love but to hatred. Heaven is a direct consequence of our physical life. Ultimately, we are the creators of all our realities. Hence, reincarnation—to learn and repair our shortcomings.

Yet, the rewards are great.

The Straight and Narrow (Part One)

I seem to be among the few who think that the Bible is about spiritual life and not about history. It could almost be said that everything interpreted by “traditional religions” is, well… of little or no consequence. Historical events are sometimes used to illustrate spiritual truth, but that’s all. They are only the hooks on which we can hang our spiritual hats. History is not what the Bible is about. The Bible does not tell us how to enrich our physical lives, but how behave in order to enrich our heaven.

It also tells us how to ascend from the ‘earthy’ consciousness to the ‘heavenly’ one. Or from the transient mode of becoming to the permanent mode of being.

In Matthew 7:13-14 we are told the following:

 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

And only a few find it.

Why only a few? What is it that stops people from seeking the true reality? Why are such profound biblical statements completely ignored by all Christian churches of all denominations for more then 2000 years? And by some 2 billion of their followers?

We can be fairly sure that Matthew, who wrote these words, could hardly have suspected that alpha waves were at the root of the answer. And, while Peter suspected the truth, Paul found it difficult to accept. (See my forthcoming historical novel Peter & Paul).

We must begin by the assumption that our intended residence is a state of consciousness which the Bible describes as heaven. We can now call it a state, or a condition, wherein we retain our full awareness while entering our subconscious, which defines the sum-total of our experience of becoming. Yes, the awareness of billions, perhaps trillions of years, which we can only find stored in our subconscious. Now, that’s a lot of memory storage. It is hardly surprising that the ‘ancients’, like Matthew, who may have gained access to it, accidentally or by perseverance, called it heaven. What else could they say?

And what of the narrow gate?

We have four different frequencies of brainwaves or rhythms: beta, alpha, theta and delta. The occipital alpha waves occur during periods when our eyes are closed and we are perfectly relaxed. They carry the strongest EEG (electroencephalogram) signals, and they do not occur until we reach three years of age. It would take a lot more space than a blog to explain it all; enough said that, with practice, we can find the narrow gate by learning to generate alpha waves. Alpha rhythm is NOT the gate, but the gate is within the range of alpha wave. It is a slightly different rhythm for every one of us. It has to be; why else would there be so many of us? Every ‘heaven’ is different—there are as many ‘heavenly’ states of consciousness as there are beings aware of its existence.

Matthew might not have known that. He had an excuse for not knowing about it. We don’t. In my next blog I shall attempt to explain the matter further.

The Psychology of Prayer

Some two thousand years ago, Peter & Paul had no such concepts as the subconscious, or id, or ego. In terms of awareness, there were only man and god. The problem is that their concept of god was very different from what the religions made out of it over the years. Today, some 2 billion people of the Judeo-Christian persuasion read about those men of the past, mostly prophets and priests, going up a ‘mountain’, or at least a ‘hill’, or a ‘raised ground’, to communicate with god. Since the days of Moses, we know that to them, ‘god’ meant I AM, or, as I like to call it—Self.

Of the 2 billion ‘faithful’ few seem to know that in biblical symbolism, a ‘mountain’, or a ‘raised ground’, always symbolizes a state of raised consciousness. A condition where the great divide between ego and Self is temporarily erased. Or as Yeshûa put it, when "I and my father are one".

Even today, for the vast masses of people prayer represents a means by which an inferior being is attempting to procure something by the benevolence of a superior being. That’s it. It was, and for most people still is, a means of getting something for nothing. It means begging. On your knees. Humbly.

This has nothing to do with prayer as practiced by the ancients.

In fact, prayer, if performed in a way that it might do us some good, if we were to gain anything from it, simply means realigning our individualized consciousness with the omnipresent consciousness. It means reaffirming the oneness of the Universe. Both material and potential.

Basically this is what Peter & Paul, well, Peter anyway, meant when he repeated his Master’s words “Let thy will be done”. After all, it would be done anyway, sooner or later. And, by praying, we might accelerate the process by which we erase that elusive barrier which keeps us apart from the universal order and harmony. That is rather important because, as Buddha would say, until we do that, we shall continue to suffer.

That’s what enlightenment is all about. All we need do is stop fighting our true nature; our Self.

I’d already written a blog in which I attempted to explain why we are endowed with the ability to say no—an ability to oppose the universal order. By definition, Self is an integral, indivisible part of the universal order and thus it cannot make mistakes. The ‘masses’, people unaware of Self, or as Buddha would say the “not yet awakened”, will continue to make sufficient numbers of mistakes to assure the continuity of physical evolution. Needless to say, also as Buddha had said, such action results in suffering. By ignoring the universal laws, billions of us will cause sufficient number of unintentional mutations, or booboos (religionists call some of them ‘sins’), to assure ‘progress’, i.e. to assure physical evolution. Some of us (“the chosen few?”) can therefore relax, and attempt to align, or realign, our consciousness with the Omnipresent Oneness. After all, as Self, we are immortal. What do we have to lose? The ‘masses’ will continue to supply us with ever-new means through which to experience reality, which, after all, is infinite.

Yes, infinity is one of the attributes of reality. Likewise is omnipresence, infinite potential, timelessness, and, luckily for us, inexplicable benevolence. What makes reality different from other universal traits is that reality is flowing. It is like water; it always finds its prescribed level. A condition of perfect balance. A condition of order and harmony, which ultimately results in ineffable beauty.

Inexplicable beauty. After all, ancient Greeks called the universe cosmos. Cosmos means order as opposed to chaos. It also means “an ornament”.

Prayer should never attempt to change the future. Physically, we are the consequence of our thoughts. We are mirrors of our mind. We always deserve exactly what we get. We are never ‘punished’ for our errors, but we can observe the consequences of various chains of thoughts that we allow to perambulate through our minds. ‘Sin’ is an erroneous translation of an ancient Greek word meaning “missing the mark”. That’s all. It simply means that we are to try again.

However, there is something we can do. We can be instrumental in changing our perception of reality. Reality, let us not forget, is always directly related to our perception of it. Subjectively, it is what we decide it is. Imagined misfortunes by some are regarded as blessings by others. We might, for instance, gain exact understanding why we are in the situation that we’ve created. We might become happy that we are discharging our negative Karma and thus will be in a position to perceive a better reality.

That we might become enlightened—sooner. 

As for alignment of our consciousness with the universal consciousness, well, that’s quite elementary. After all, if the Universal consciousness managed to create the universe, then our galaxy, then our solar system, then flora and fauna, then… us, then surely it can also create ideal conditions for us. This is not an attempt at a begging ‘prayer’. This is only common sense. You might say, it’s obvious.

That is why the correct prayer is always ‘answered’. But only if we know who we really are. If we know what is our true nature. Why? Because our ego can’t do that. Our Self, the individualization of the whole, can. To paraphrase Yeshûa, we might say: Let the will of our Self be done.

If interested, you’ll find many such discussions on the Amazon.com, under my name. If not, remember the words of Socrates: “An unexamined life is a life not worth living.”

Symbolism and Traditions

We are immersed in platitudes. They are the cousins of traditions. We are creatures of habit. We walk in circles. In the east, they call it the Wheel of Awagawan. We no longer question the origin of statements, or of our customs i.e. traditions, but repeat them like well-trained apes. In fact, most zoologists will assure us that that’s what we are—reasonably well-trained apes. No one ever questions that we are the smartest humanoids (apes), but no one has ever taken the trouble to prove it.

While apes and members of other species cannot do thousands of things that we can do, they also can do thousands of thing we can’t.

I’ve already stated in a number of my blogs what I feel we are. We, you and I, may or may not agree. How we describe such opinions is a matter of the adopted symbols.

Where we, Homo sapiens, differ from the rest of the animal kingdom is in our apparent potential. If we forsake traditions, and dismiss the symbols we attached to what we think is represented by the word human, then, and only then, we can start the discussion. From the beginning.

We are either animals—smart or stupid, weak or strong, good, bad, or indifferent, or we are that which inhabits the animal for its purposes. The choice is ours. Or at least partially ours—most of us probably think that we, humans, are endowed with free will.

Really?

As a purported member of Homo sapiens, I can make a list a mile long of things what we cannot do; of our inherent limitations. Is that free will? What of the biblical statement “Ye are gods”. Trite? Outdated nonsense? What of traditions that limit our behaviour? How many of us, Jews, Christians (that’s well over two billion) believe such statements? And if we do, how many of us act as though we were.

And if we don’t or can’t… what of free will?

It seems we have two choices. We can either continue calling ourselves Christians or Jews, and ignore the teaching of the ancients (which we claim we follow), or we can revise our symbols and traditions. Our choice. But of one thing I am certain. When the psalmist proclaimed, “ye are gods”, he did not refer to Homo sapiens with his or hers overt, explicit, blatant limitations. He couldn’t have. 

If we tend to agree, then my Dictionary of Biblical Symbolism will help. It will help us to unravel the mysteries, which completely confused people for over two thousand years.

Prepare yourself for a shock. 

Time and Miracles

Consciousness, being omnipresent, is static. As I mentioned before, it is already everywhere, thus has nowhere to go. It also incorporates everything in its potential form. The one thing that is missing from it is self-awareness. Being omnipresent, it cannot regard itself from the outside of itself. There is no such condition. If such were to exist, it must be created.

Hence ‘Self’.

‘Self’ is the attribute of the universal consciousness enabling it to individualize itself for the purpose of regarding itself from ‘outside’. Try a mirror. Look deeply into it and you’ll see what I mean. The image is not you, but it tells you a great deal about you. What you’ll see is a fraction of what is. The distinction is very important. And please note, the image disappears when you withdraw your presence.

Every single fraction of mater is always in a constant, continuous, process of decay. The scientists know that. They call it the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Increasing Entropy. Whatever the name, this process is one of constant change. Ongoing decay applies to stars millions of light-years away and to the tips of our noses. Thus what scientists study is never what is, but always what was. To put is differently, they always study the effect, never the cause.

Would you like to know why? Read my blogs.

All of them.

The changes in physical reality, such as studied by scientists and practiced by physicians, are subject to passage of time. While scientists study what was, the physicians attempt to restore what ‘was’ (they call it ‘is’) to an even older condition of becoming. By that I mean that doctors are tempting to reverse time, which is impossible, and thus, instead, they try to restore the condition of the patient as close as possible to the one extant before the onset of the ‘disease’. Before imperfection set in.

‘Miracle workers’ are quite different.

They create from the infinite potential that which they desire to manifest. They do not restore, they create. In a way, this book, this blog, is a miracle. Before I wrote it, it didn’t exist. After I saw it outside the bounds of time, I brought it out from its potential form to a manifested form. From the subjective, existing only within me to the manifest, or objective form, which I can share with others. I didn’t change anything that already was, or has been. What I write, now, didn’t exist before I wrote it. Now—that is a miracle.

Scientists and/or physicians can’t do that, although, in a way, Einstein could. There are exceptions to every rule. There is only a probability.

Artists can. Although some ‘artists’ merely try to copy what’s already there… Again, probability.

If we accept my thesis with the same intensity, with the same conviction as we accept the false reality of the material universe, then we’ll perceive the illusory nature of time and we shall be able to create reality at will. Why?

Because true reality exists only in the present.

If/when we do that, our willpower becomes the most powerful force in the universe. In the instant of ‘now’, we become one with ‘Self’. One with our limitless potential.

In the creative process we do not repair or rearrange the components of dead matter.  We leave that to scientists; to learned doctors of medicine. We create new, brand new, from the perfect potential that is ever latent in the Universe. The potential is always perfect. We, in the process of bringing it out, might not succeed in maintaining that perfection. That is why artists always, always, continue to try.

To do that, to perform miracles, we must accept the truth. We must step outside time. When we do, we shall perform what others call miracles. For us, it will be just reality. As natural as the smile in a newborn baby’s eyes.

The subject is discussed at length in Visualization—Creating Your own Universe. You might like it. 

The Apple, or it was All Eve’s Fault

We live in a Universe of symbols. An apple is not an apple when in Eve's hands. We, humans, convert all things into words, which symbolize different things to different people. The animals can’t do that. They have an advantage in that—an animal cannot sin.

An animal cannot act contrary to the program imbedded in its genes. It can do the best it can within the boundaries established for its species, but it cannot step outside it. Unless nature makes an error, of course. The scientists call this mutation. Contrary to the perfection of the potential, once the idea enters the realm of duality, only probability can assure its survival. Hence—mutations. Each one is an evolutionary error. If it works, nature takes it over as a new prototype and protects its integrity. If not, it dies with its progenitor.

Not so with the human species.

If truth be told, we, the physical entities with which most of us identify, i.e. our ego, also do not suffer from excess of our cherished free will. If we stray from the straight and narrow, we pay our dues. We get sick, or broke, or are in danger of losing our limb if not embodiment, which we call life. But we can say no. We can disobey. We can sin. And we have the ‘apple’ to blame for that.

On the other hand, if it weren’t for the ‘apple’, we would not be able enrich the fabric of heavens. Heaven, to recapitulate one of my previous blogs, is the sum total of our experiences from the beginning of time. Assuming time had a beginning. In a way, time, like space, is imaginary. It is a construct of our mind. In heaven we can relive all of our experiences, only we do not have to pay the piper for our errors. In heaven we are indestructible.

So what of the ‘apple’?

[You might be amused by an essay I wrote called “Apples”, in Beyond Religion III. They seem to have a very rich history. Try it and tell me what you think.]

Apple, and indirectly, Eve, who in the Old Testament symbolizes our subconscious, enabled us to say NO. To stray from the prescribed direction. The subconscious, our base of operations, cannot grow without the input from the conscious mind. Nature (the expression, or manifestation, of the omnipresent universal intelligence) discovered that without mutations to advance its growth it would relegate evolution, to quote James Burke, to “somewhere between dead slow and dead slow”. Hence the Edenic apple. Since mutations are nature’s errors, (I suspect the scientists will deny that), the apple allows us to oppose nature’s laws, in the hope that some errors—if they didn’t kill us—would result in more progress. In evolution.

The jury is still out.

There’s a problem, you see. Self, the real indestructible, eternal Self, cannot make an error. Hence we enter the process of incarnation. We—Homo sapiens: equipped with egotistical eccentricities, with propensity towards saying no, almost on principle; that’s how, indirectly of course, we can enrich heaven. Otherwise it would forever remain static. Like Omnipresence. Like the Unconscious—The Infinite Potential.

Thank you Eve.

What is the Meaning of Life?

Please sit down. Now take a deep breath. Ready?

Life has no meaning.

What is the meaning of a rose?

Life itself is a process of becoming—the ultimate trip—the ultimate exploration of the universe already created and the universe that, by also participating in the process of becoming, it is yet to come.

Pretty much forever.

The problems start when our ship is driven by our ego. Then unfriendly gales fill our sails, and we cry, how could He or She, let it happen? He or She didn’t. He or She has little interest in the consequences of our mistakes. He or She judges no man. Nor woman. We and we alone bear the consequences of our actions. We the minuscule nascent units of awareness emanating from the physical form our Self has created. 

Nevertheless, there is no punishment. There are just consequences.

We must remember that one cannot separate the individualized unite of consciousness, the Self, from the Consciousness that is Ubiquitous. If you were a religious person, you’d say that a part of God cannot be separated from the rest of omnipresent God. It just cannot be done.

When we miss the mark, we try again. In this incarnation or the next one. Or the next. There are a lot of chances in Infinity. Just imagine visiting every piece of real estate throughout the universe. Even the universe we are used to, never mind all the others the scientists now talk about. Multiuniverse? It would take a while, wouldn’t it? And then, by the time we finished, new intergalactic clouds would collapse into new galaxies, new star systems would evolve—become shaped by angular momentum—which would acquire new planets… need I go on? And throughout all this, Life, the Process, would sustain our becoming. Our exploration.

Life has no meaning other then life itself.

Life is the process of becoming. We are the means. The idea is not new, nor is it mine. It’s been around a long time. Read Key to Immortality. You’ll see.

And this book, the “Key”, reminds me that I started this blog in an attempt to penetrate the minds of Peter & Paul, the two protagonists of my historical novel that is soon to be published. In a way, it will be a sequel to my Yeshûa, which met with modest success. It seems evident that even in those days, more than 2000 years ago, people have been preoccupied with the same problems as we are today. I wonder if today we are more advanced in our mental peregrinations then they were. 

The Difference between Science and Religion

Science and religion are both trying to solve the mysteries of the Universe. They are both trying to tell us how to live, stay healthy, happy etc.. They are both telling us that they, and only they… are right. They are both as stubborn in their views, only in science the theories change, and in religions, well, new religions come up.

Everyone seems to be doing his and her best—on both sides of the equation.

From the mental, or better-said, intellectual point of view, science wins hands down. And this, although, science even as religions, falls into the trap of fundamentalism.

Religions, with passion equal to the scientists, proclaim truths derived almost exclusively from the practitioners’ emotional need. Science satisfies the mind, religion—the heart.

They are both wrong.

Reality, I dare say, is greater than both, religion and science. We, humans, on the other hand, are a very primitive species. In a few thousand years (don’t forget scientists tell us the Universe is many billions of years old), some of us (them, if you don’t accept reincarnation) will laugh at ourselves how incredibly stupid we were way back then. The vast majority, however, will continue to proclaim how clever they are. Both, priest and scientists. Just like today.

Sorry.

For now, there are two functions the scientists can engage in. One, to observe—Darwin is a good example of this (he made an enormous contribution to our understanding), and two, to bring out into the open all that has heretofore been hidden. That’s it. What scientists, in my view, should not do is to make up stories (they call them theories), which are completely unprovable, while spending billions of our dollars to do so. We, “ordinary people”, can do that for free!

Today, on CBC program, I heard that the medical profession still has no idea how Alzheimer’s comes about. The only thing that’s vital, they said, is that millions of dollars continue to support the research.

Wouldn’t you rather have religion? At least they build beautiful churches…

If you’d like a deeper discussion on the subject matter, please look up my DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism. You just might like it. (You might also have a good laugh). 

The Chicken and the Egg

The ancient dilemma, though I hope Peter & Paul didn't have to worry about it. 

 Which came first?

Years have passed since I wrote an essay by that title. Anyone interested will find it in Beyond Religion vol. III. Hopefully, I have increases my knowledge since. Scientists, like ostriches, are hiding behind the minutia of atoms and ever smaller sub-nuclear array of particles, which obscure their vision of the big picture. Like the Universe, for instance. Or the essence of man.

They study the chicken having, apparently, no idea where the egg came from. I don’t been physically. They probable peeked. No. I mean they have no idea how can an egg, human or otherwise, possess all the knowledge to create a chicken—or a human being, for that matter.

They think that our brains generate our thoughts. And lots and lots of thoughts make up a mind, I suppose? They think that when we change our minds it is because the neurons have changed their relationship to each other, or the axons began firing along a different protocol. They always take the result as the cause.

They chicken always comes before the egg.

Now, for just a moment, let us forget about the chicken. Let us think of a human body… and the human egg. While still a fetus, a woman has more than 7 million eggs. By the time she’s born the number falls to 1 or 2 million, and by the time she reaches puberty, the number of eggs falls to about 300,000. But not to worry, she might well be able to produce more eggs after she’s born.

That’s not my point.

My point is that a human oocyte, or egg, in spite of the profusion of its numbers, is about 100 micrometers in diameter. That’s quite large as cells go, but try looking at it this way:

1000 micrometers = 1 millimeter

so 100 micrometers = 0.1 millimeters

Enough said, the egg is about one tenth of a millimeter.

Now take sperm. (Well, don’t take it, just think about it).. A man ejaculates, on average, some 280 million sperm in the hope that one of them will reach and penetrate an egg. It seems like a lot until we realize that while a mouse ejaculates only 50 million sperm at a time, a pig leaves us, humans, well behind with 8,000,000,000 sperm in each ejaculation. So when you hear that some men are pigs that is not true. It takes almost 30 men to match a single pig. Although, I am told, that our obesity has already surpassed that of a pig.

(In parenthesis, I wonder who took the trouble to count 8,000,000,000 pig sperm. Still, I suppose this is what scientists do).

Here, I must apologize. None of the above has anything to do with what I want to say. What I am leading to is that a single sperm the size of some 40 microns in length (a rat’s is 4x longer!), that’s 0.001574” for those imperially inclined, and a single egg of 0.1 of a millimeter in diameter, have all the knowledge necessary to build you and me, and every other human  being on earth. It doesn’t take much, does it.

Got it?

A smidgen of virtually invisible bit of biological stuff knows exactly how to build an Einstein, a Mozart, a Leonardo da Vinci and a 1000 other geniuses who all sprang from this bit of stuff. At least, the scientists would have you believer that.

Allow me to suggest otherwise.

As I already mentioned, the world is set on automatic. All women have eggs, all men have sperm (well, most of us). What those eggs and sperm know how to do is how to created a biological computer, which, thereafter, and under strict though subconscious supervision, the geniuses of our species can use to do their thing.

Otherwise we’d all be geniuses, and not stupid. Well, most of us. 

Are Men really Created Equal?

First, we must define ‘man’. Do we mean generically, i.e. men and women? Are we are referring to our ego—that trait of our personality that sets us apart? Or do we refer to our Self—that which makes us one. If we try to judge men on the first count, then all men (and women, of course) are born with divergent genetic traits, which make them extremely unequal.

If, on the other hand, we think of them as immortal entities individualized as Self, spending a brief stint in a condition of becoming, then, indeed, we are equal. We are endowed with the same, limitless potential, to fulfill the role we decided to perform while in a dualistic reality.

After all, as Self, “Ye are gods” comes to mind. There are no limitations of Self. An extraordinary proposition.

The roles we are to perform, however, are also unequal. They are dependant on Karma we acquired through the mischief or waywardness of our ego. We should never forget that a tad of ego is necessary for survival in a physical reality. All animals have it. But animals, other than human, conform to the dictates of nature, we don’t.

Problem? Not at all.

The difficulty lies in discovering why Self had picked a particular vortex of traits, which we can call ego, or personality, to advance Its becoming. When I first came to Canada, I read about an uneducated couple, settled on a small farm in Ontario. Apparently, they began adopting children some years before. By the time I read the story they reached 26 adoptees. Those children may or may not have been ‘created’ equal, but by the time they were adopted they all shared a single trait. They were all disabled. Everyone of them. In some form of another, ranging from paraplegic to blind, and everything in between. 

The adult couple didn’t ask for help. By the time a new child arrived, the previous adoptees were so imbued with love for one another that they took it upon themselves to help out. And so on.

No one will ever convince me that that couple, living on a small farm, hardly making the ends meet, were less advanced than a multi-billionaire who makes his billions by exploiting the child labour in the far-eastern countries. You might say that the couple is “far more equal then others”. I’m sure they fulfilled their Karma, whatever it was.

Though we may not always understand it, everything in our lives always happens at the right time, in the right sequence. Sometime we might succeed in disturbing that flow for a little while—but once left alone, it will right itself. We must never forget that we have our becoming in a very benevolent Universe. None of the above is an attempt at preaching. It is merely the conclusion I’ve reached after many years of observation.

Similar subjects are discussed in my Beyond Religion series; this particular one in Beyond Religion Volume II.

We are NOT Born to Suffer

How can anyone believe in a god, who/which would allow extended suffering of the innocents? The suffering of animals that feed on each other; humans, who murder other people; people who wage wars?

Well, ‘god’, doesn’t allow it. We do. The world in which this suffering supposedly takes place is not real. It only exists in our minds.

You see, we are not our bodies.

Once the self-awareness (our true Self) is withdrawn from a physical body, human or animal, no pain or suffering can be experienced. And even before, the Self is little more than an observer.

Just to illustrate this truth, we don’t feel pain when we faint; in extreme cases when we’re in coma. Our organism releases endorphins (endogenous opioid peptides produced by the pituitary gland), automatically, to protect us from pain. And we all experienced instances when we cut ourselves, and remained unaware of it until we saw blood flowing…

Consciousness is all. It is our life. Our physical body is only a consequence of the creative process. Like the physical Universe. It’s not real. It is essentially… empty space.

Nothing exists, even in our dreams, until we became conscious of it. The real Self, the I AM, never suffers. It cannot. It is not flesh and bones. And flesh and bones have only a rudimentary awareness necessary to sustain the image we created in our minds. That’s all. And even that is withdrawn soon after the Self separates Itself from its creation. Like a cockerel that soon ceases its dance after its head is separated from its body.

Of course we, humans, think we know better.

When our bodies are ready to be retired (and recycled), and our Consciousness is ready to leave, we resist. We even developed a name for it. We call it instinct for self-preservation. Only we’re wrong. There is no such thing. There is fight-or-flight built into all biological entities—it is necessary to sustain the illusion of physical reality. While the Self is immortal, indestructible, what we want to preserve is our ego. Our ‘personality’.

But don’t tell that to the medical or priestly professions, or to the scientists, who insist on treating us as physical entities. The same people wouldn’t dream of keeping a computer or a car that doesn’t run well any more. But dilapidated bodies?

Of course, that is ‘all’ we are, they say. Are we not our bodies, they ask? Are we not bags of water? Are we not farms for 100 trillion vermin doing their thing at our expense… sorry, at the expense of our bodies?

Give me a break!

Does this mean that we should not try to maintain the bodies we have created in a good working order? Of course we should. And we should always try to assist physical evolution to improve the instrument through which we experience our becoming. As long as our physical envelopes are the expression of our contribution to the Universe, to the Whole of which we are an indivisible part, we ought to look after them.

They are our mirrors, created in our image.

The Irrepressible Law of Hedonism

There is a secret, seemingly hidden from us, about a specific law of the Universe. If we, as in our ego, make ourselves useful to the Universe, in whatever way, the Universe will take care of us. All my life I have been doing almost exclusively that which has given me the greatest pleasure (I kept my Self happy). And now, I am comfortably divorced from the vicissitudes of everyday life, yet again doing what pleases me most. Writing.

You might say that I am in this world but not really of this world. I am a passer-bye.

We can all do that. Our prerogatives may change from time to time, but the essence is that we must do what gives us the greatest pleasure. If what we are doing is wrong, e.g. at the expense of another, the universe will soon cast us away. If not, if what we are doing is right, we’ll abide in peace and pleasure and we’ll taste the ambrosia of the gods, which the Universe will exude at us in her spellbinding generosity.

Of course, some of us might find my particular modus vivendi uninteresting, perhaps outright dull. Isaac Asimov said that he was happiest when holed up in his attic while his wife and children went on holidays to the seaside. Stephen Hawking has written: “Apart from being unlucky enough to get ALS, or motor neuron disease, I have been fortunate in almost every other respect”.

Fortunate in almost every other respect.

Well, so have I. And I don’t even have ALS. Note, however, that Stephen Hawking is, to my knowledge, doing exactly what gives him the greatest pleasure, regardless of apparent circumstances.

It seem that he knows the secret of the Universal Law of Hedonism.

The Universe is set on Automatic.

The universe is set on automatic and, as such, it evolved to protect itself in all its integrity. We can think of the Universe as a giant computer, in which the memory storage are the Universal Laws, and which correspond to our subconscious mind. Add all the subconscious minds—and I don’t mean just human—together, and you have the memory storage of the universe. There is no other. Remember, everything in us is a mini-version of the universe, thus the totality of the universe corresponds to the totality of the subconscious.

Now, why automatic?

The subconscious contains or stores everything that already happened. It is the past stretching back so far that the human conscious mind with its inherent limitations cannot conceive of such a distant history. We can think of it as stretching back to infinity. To a time before time came into being.

[If you can’t imagine such past, read NOW—Being and Becoming]

There have been countless races or even species before us, both incarnate and discarnate, which brought about evolution. While the subconscious is the law, none of which can be broken, it can be developed. It operates on the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Hardly surprising considering how long it took to develop those laws.

But no one is perfect. Hence mutations or, in other words, us. We are the departures from the automatic. We endeavour (almost always unsuccessfully) to depart from the old and tried. But sometimes, just sometimes, some of us succeed. You might call those people the chosen ones. Although, I strongly suspect, they are the ones who interfered least with their destiny. 

The Universe is a continuous process of self-discovery.

When things go wrong as, for instance, with our climate, (or at the personal level: obesity, pandemics, inexplicable stupidity), the “universe doesn’t know” what happened. It notes and records, but it does not possess self-awareness. We, you and I, and countless individualizations of the Omnipresent Consciousness are the self-awareness of the universe. Self-awareness serves to give evidence of the consequences of any departure from the Universal Law. There is none other. We are the tips of icebergs, which are capable of seeing above the waters and, on occasion, saying NO. No, I will not follow the established route. We are and we create anomalies. We are the mutations, which veer off from what is normal. And thus we are also the indispensible entities, which assure evolution of the Universal Consciousness. Quite a job. 

E Pluribus Unum, or… the Biggest Clout

Since 1786, this beautiful and powerful maxim adorns the Seal of the United States, let alone many US coins. Now few, very few, know what the sentiment means. It proclaims in Latin what I  am sure the Romans would have liked to achieve in the days of Peter & Paul.

Pity. 

Also, many parts of larger political entities seem to harbor a desire for political separations from whatever unified entity they belong to at present.

Don’t they realize that the bigger you are the more clout you have? Economically, culturally, politically, militarily? Virtually, in every way.

I refuse to pass judgment on the USA, the European Coalition, the “freedom fighters” of Afghanistan or other countries. Their actions will be judged by generations to come. But, it seems to me, not one of them can justify the commandment: Love thy enemy, let alone: Thou shalt not kill. Not even those who have the Biggest Clout.

We are not really Christians, are we?  

Only these days there is a problem.

It takes only one man’s, or woman’s, little finger to press a button to make a home-made A bomb go off in the biggest cities of the world. At long last, we all have the power, the clout, to convert all our cities, the world over, into Sodom and Gomorrah.

A single man, or woman, created into the image or likeness of their God, or Satan, can convert our way of life into hell. In this Age of Aquarius, a single person has, or can have, more clout then all the governments put together. Those men and women need not account to anyone. They are free to kill, murder, in whatever name, even as those who, heretofore, had the Biggest Clout.

Some 2000 years ago a Man said: love one another. Even more so, love your enemies. We were asked to become good shepherds. Sheep symbolized our thoughts, emotions. We had to learn to control them.

Did we?

Perhaps that Man foresaw that soon, in just two millennia, a single man, hating, could destroy millions. Many millions. We have all been given the gospel of love—have we’ve learned anything? Did we stop killing each other?

Perhaps it is still not too late. 

Is there Death, or Isn’t there?

Death is a very misunderstood concept. Surely we know that everything that ever held a physical form must have also held previously a non-physical form. Anyone who ever designed anything knows that we must have an idea, then a mental concept, before we can make anything. Also, mental and emotional forms enjoy much longer shelf life than the physical. Just think, Buddha, Socrates, the Christ, have all left their physical bodies, but their ideas live on. They also inspire emotions in billions of people.

And it all happens in our consciousness. 

When our consciousness leaves our physical enclosure as e.g. in sleep while dreaming, we translate our essence (consciousness, awareness), our real Self, into a less destructible form, which nevertheless closely resembles the physical body we temporarily vacated. Why? Because the body we’ve just left is the image of the sum total of our spiritual, mental and emotional development to date.

It is the end product, a sort of impression we make on the matrix of the universe.

Some people can take charge of their dreams. Those are variously known as lucid dreams, soul travel, out of body projection, or by some other, more esoteric names. The funny thing is, whatever we believe in, we all do it. Dream, I mean. And we can all learn to have ‘lucid’ dreams. Why is it important? Because in our dreams, regardless what we dream about, we are immortal. Our consciousness outside our body, outside the confines of material shackles, is indestructible.

Isn’t it fun?

Just how rich is our existence outside our bodies you might discover in greater details in one of my novels: NOW—Being and Becoming.