Tagged: paradise
Outdated teachings
Because you can only give who you ARE, unless you ARE love, there is no love to give.
We are taught to believe that we can give love without BEING it, as when we can give money to someone when we “get it.”
We cannot “get” love to give, unless we ARE.
Any “effort” on BEING loving is self-deception.
We are taught to be desire-less to be happy. However, what is the anxious need to go to “Paradise,” to reach illumination, to please God, to become “soul” conscious”? Those things are desires just like any other “mundane” desire.
We are taught to “help others in a self-less” way; Nevertheless, we cannot BE self-less by separating “I” from the “others.” As a matter of fact, to “help others” is just a catchy phrase. By helping others, we only help ourselves. Do we get this riddle? We are not separated.
We are taught to take Life seriously, whether in the mundane business world or in the Godly world: Time is money- Become someone, save yourself from hell; hurry up! This is your only chance, if you miss this chance you will be doomed forever…
We cannot enjoy life when there is pressure to attain something, when our process is not being respected. Then we are willing to “sacrifice” our lives now for the promise to “enjoy” something in the future. That is a wonderful “method” but nothing else.
That promise of a “better” future is empty, as the “I” as it is now, cannot be the “I” in the future.
Our desire for a “better future” will only make us reject the “now.”
Once we realize the depth of all of those beliefs in our minds; then we are ready to put aside all of those teachings, to unlearn all of those things which keep the “rat-race” going in our minds as well as the division, of the mundane and the divine.
We could be aware of our own fear to continue in Life without those “training wheels,” those half-truths which we believed to be the “holy truth.” Ego needs the security of being part of a “selected” group, the mainstream, the Godly family, the familiar faces…
The above realization is the first step of our catharsis as seekers.
Before that, being a seeker is just another fashion, another way for the ego to believe in himself as “virtuous,” another way to socialize and to show how many spiritual books we can read and how many authors we could quote. That is a source for fattening our needy ego, for we could obtain the label of “knowledgeable” among our peers.
A catharsis then, is a process of unlearning and with that, a process of unleashing our repressed behaviors.
We could understand that some beliefs are just equal to the belief in Santa Claus, a technique meant to teach a self-centered person, the “joy” of giving a gift to another… but the belief in Santa Claus will be deep down in our unconscious no matter how much we could reason and understand in the surface of the conscious mind. Its depth in the unconscious is proportional to the amount of time we have spent drilling down such beliefs in our conscious mind.
For that reason, we shall deal with emotions, the “programming” of our unconscious.
Many individuals who have not experienced the process of a catharsis are caught up in blaming a society, a religion, a practice… unable to see that every experience is invaluable in our development.
What is important is to know when those “tools” need to be discarded, so we could embrace something new.
For instance, ego is a “tool.” It is not a “bad” thing, a vice. It is a mechanism of “self-defense,” something that will allow a person to survive in this society. However, it comes to a point, when that grown up ego, is an obstacle to flourish by connecting with others… then ego must go away through a process of catharsis.
The “programming” is erased. Some religions pretend to have “the method” to erase the emotions stored deep in our unconscious. However, everyone is not the same. A “method” may work for some but no others. Life will bring the right conditions at the right time. Different Life experiences are tailored to our particular needs. We are not alone.
Through that catharsis, you are empty and open for newness. It is in that emptiness how Love IS.
Before that catharsis, love may be pretty talk, romantic “get aways,” and fairy tales.
Duality: Self and No-self
We interpret life. We typically do not observe.
It is a wonderful sight to observe how daylight appears from nighttime. The label we use is “dawn.”
That perception of pristine light may be called “paradise,” and darkness “hell” or we can change labels in duality and call them “good” and “bad,” “right” or “wrong,” etc.
Nevertheless, when there is a preference for an experience, a rejection is born out of that preference. The night is not cherished as much as daylight.
“Hell” is despised despite its continuous occurrence and need to be there, for “paradise” to happen.
The above is the belief system and moral standard of many at this time. It is called duality.
Our culture has taught us to “choose” one side considered “good” and reject the other.
Embrace the day and reject the night.
That vision is the cause of inner and outer conflicts.
That vision takes a person into mental and psychological issues.
There is absolutely nothing that “we” have to “do” for nighttime to become daylight again. It will happen by itself, without “our” help.
Do we see that?
What it needs to change is our vision, our attitude in life.
Nighttime offers an experience and so daylight.
When we embrace both without judgment as life experiences, then we don’t reject; but we integrate.
We have been taught that “angels” reject the darkness of the light. They fight for light and conquer evil.
A being of light or an “angel” does not reject any part of duality. A being of light does not reject “hell” and chooses heaven. A being of light integrates both perceptions and experiences so his life remains in joy, in appreciation and in balance according to the movement of time.
Embracing the Totality is what we call harmony. A being of light is harmonious in life.
Life is harmony… if “I am” the Totality, why I am not harmonious?
That is the question. The answer may be the sense of self. There is no flowing in life when we are not life itself.
The symbol of “yin and yang” expresses that beautifully, although that symbol is open to interpretation according to the consciousness of the viewer.
Some will say: “ It is the concept of duality forming a whole.”
That concept is worthless, intellectual stuff.
The symbol of “ying yang” represents life itself, the Totality. That symbol is meant to be in movement just like life.
“Tai-chi “ is that slow movement which represents life. To consciously balance the different energies in the self.
When we truly understand harmony then we can start seeing something different. There is no fight needed. Nothing to conquer.
A life without harmony does not experience joy. That joy “NOW” is the most important item in life from my view.
As long as there is a rejection of a part of life, we will have an internal issue, an emotion that will need to be healed.
Typically we say that “acceptance” of life is needed, but there is no such a thing as “acceptance” when there is “no-self” to be life itself.
Thus, to bring that harmony, there are many elements that life offers in our experience. To use those according to time and circumstances is the art.
Whatever we choose to do or to be matters, as long as there is harmonious joy, balance in living.
That is the bottom line.
The above observation was expressed in a different way by another culture with the word “yoga.”
It is union. It is not the “union” of the “self” with something else, such as “life,” “God,” the “divine,”etc.
It is the union that happens when there is “no-self.”
Is self “bad”?
That question is called “misinterpretation.”
No.
It is just a different experience.
We are so in-tune with “self.” We understand the world in “self.” We follow religious beliefs in “self.”
Through these writings, the invitation is to explore “no-self” and to embrace both,self and no-self; to integrate both experiences, to be harmonious just like the yin-yang symbol.
Want a teacher, a guru for that?
Observe Nature, the plants and the animal kingdom. Learn from their “ignorance” and open your heart to appreciate with thankfulness the marvelous opportunity to feel life by being aware, conscious of it.
Words used to take us away from a new consciousness
A little depth today…. 🙂
In life, the Universe, the Cosmos, etc (pick the label) everything is movement. Our cells move. The Earth moves. The Sun moves, thus “our” consciousness moves as well.
The paradoxical aspect of that movement is that to “move” implies to go away from what something “is” however, that movement is meant only to go back to the same position. In other words, “something” moves away from itself just to meet itself again.
Isn’t that paradoxical?
Does it make any sense? 🙂
Karma is like that. An action moves from the “doer” just to come back to him.
Any movement from “being” into becoming will necessarily go back to that “being” again.
This is the premise behind “eternal return.”
When we deeply realize this by just observing Nature, we could allow our insight to take us away from the mundane.
That is why there is no beginning of time. That is just an intellectual logical premise which does not work with the paradoxical nature of the Universe, life, the Cosmos, etc.
It is a circle. Life is a circle with no beginning or end.
Nevertheless our minds are caught up in conceptual thinking.
We want a “beginning,” therefore we ask:
“Who created the Universe?”
It always existed. It just changes, moves to be like it was “before.” 🙂
The word “creator” may need to be redefined if we would like for the “Big Guy” to keep his job.
🙂
The Moon has phases from our perspective but paradoxically, those phases do not exist.
The phases of the Moon are:
New, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, new Moon again.
Do we see the cycle?
It moves away from itself to become itself again.
The above phrase, has more importance than what it looks like.
The moon does not have to do anything for this movement to occur. It just happens. If the Moon had human consciousness, then the Moon could make “effort” to become a full moon again… The Moon could believe that a “full moon” is better than a third quarter.
If we deeply understand that, we could see the futility of believing in a “place” called Paradise which will last forever, when everything is change and… when there is no “creator.”
Paradise is a state of consciousness not a place. It is a state of fullness which then will move away from itself to become itself again, later on.
Every human being is like a Moon. Every human has a state of fullness, which occurs at different “time,” that is why there is variety of consciousness in life.
Our experiences are different and that makes our consciousness. Every one of us has different experiences, which are automatically meant to change us, to change our consciousness.
Paradoxically the “choice” to change at a certain time, is in us. That is when our awareness awakens.
To enjoy a different consciousness is a matter of openness to life. It is a matter of having the honesty to search within.
That change of consciousness does not happen through rituals, beliefs or physical practices.
There is not “doing” that could change consciousness.
The beauty is that our consciousness will change whether we want it or not, because everything moves, everything changes; everything evolves… just to become itself again. Just like the Moon.
Nevertheless, a not welcomed change in the horizon of life, will bring suffering.
It is almost as if the Moon wants to stay in “full moon” all the time.
Thanks God… 🙂 the Moon does not have ego; that is why it does not suffer… but human beings have ego, therefore…there is suffering in that “natural” movement away from itself.
“Things exist for a purpose” is an empty phrase in Nature.
Perhaps in the human world of business, but not in Nature, the Universe, the Cosmos, life.
Ego thrives in purpose.
Ananda was sitting by a tree in a hot morning in the Summer.
Is it the purpose of that tree to give shade to Ananda?
If the tree had ego, the tree could say:” Ananda. Thank me for giving you shade in this hot summer.” 🙂
If the tree had a business mentality, the tree could say: “ Ananda, I charge a dollar a minute for my “cooling” services… but today everything is 20% off. What a bargain!” 🙂
The purpose of a tree is not to give shade. Shade just happens because the tree is there.
Day and night just happens because there is a Sun and there is the Earth rotating in its axis.
The “purpose” of the Earth rotating is not to give day and night to humans. It just happens to be like that.
The Universe is consciousness (paraphrasing a reader) and consciousness allows us to have a certain experience. That is why reality is according to our consciousness.
Some will see the Universe and consciousness as being separated, that is when the “I” is present. This is the actual “collective consciousness” of the present time.
Oneness. We are all interrelated. There is no purpose out of anything. It is the way it is.
The minute we could see this, that is the minute that we will stop asking “why?”
If our minds are trapped in finding a creator, a purpose, a better place such as Paradise; we will miss the beautiful experience of just being…. Our intellectual minds will not allow us to enjoy.
Everything will move, will change… but we will be stuck in our beliefs, our ideas, our ego… until we become aware of them. That is the time when the “waning crescent” appears in the sky to give birth to a “new Moon,” a new consciousness.
Are the Golden age AND/OR Paradise “better” than now?
To change our consciousness means to change our perception, our vision through a different set of values that is through appreciation and enjoyment of the moment, that is where happiness resides.
Many times we are caught up with the mental world of comparisons. Someone who “is” an engineer or a computer person ( His job is that) is in tune with logical variables such as “AND, OR, NOR” which this person has been trained to use through our educational system as comparisons: Higher than, lower than, better than, worse than, etc.
These are judgment values.
When there is judgment there cannot be “pure” appreciation.
In a different consciousness those values are limiting because life is not conceived only through the mind.
Life is an experience: invaluable, unique and instantaneous. There is no chance to compare unnecessarily. Life is not a “job” to use our comparison skills. 🙂
When a religious concept such as the “Golden age” or “Paradise” is explained through a comparative mind, then obviously the idea that “The Golden age or Paradise is better” and thus desirable than any other age will come up.
This “location” of consciousness is limited to an understanding based on learned educational values and that limitation will be expressed in the way that we choose to live our lives.
Something like : “Now is not the moment to enjoy life, but the Golden age will be the moment…” “This place is hellish… but when the Golden age comes things will be better…”
Let us hear the talk between Mathias and Ananda…
Ananda: Friend, I have another question. Does the Golden age or Paradise exist as something, which is “all good” as most may think about it, or it is a neutral state where duality does not exist?
Mathias: Should Mathias respond to the friend from before or to the friend from right now?
Ananda: Please respond to the friend of right now, not from before.
Mathias: Then, Mathias should say something or keep in silence?
Ananda: Well… please share with your style of giving clues… I am not looking for something like “The Golden age is this” but I am looking for clues to help in my discovery.
Mathias: That which you call the Golden age, or that you have a conceptual view of it; is a fascinating moment, my friend. To discover that which in essence is complete… that is fascinating! To discover that which in essence is incomplete, it is also fascinating when you have material to complete that, which is incomplete!
When you do not have the material to complete that, then what is fascinating is to know where to search … That process is called life, to live.
Some will resign themselves with their conditions and some will search for things, which do not fit into the jigsaw puzzle. The golden age is then, only an instant where you could understand the jigsaw puzzle in a complete state when all the pieces fit together but that is not more fascinating than to disperse all the pieces around…
Ananda: It is the same jigsaw puzzle after all!
Mathias: Different moments, but when a piece is missing and you forget that this piece is you, then what you find there is anguish.
Ananda: And that feeling of anguish could last many years, even centuries…
Mathias: It is part of the game… Game or not a game, it is only a game… 🙂
The truth and beliefs: Questions by BK followers
Below some questions by Brahma Kumaris followers.
Avyakt7 currently, does not wish to be engaged in any belief system, although avyakt7 respects someone else’s beliefs.
Avyakt7 will not emit judgment whereas your belief about a belief system is wrong or right, or the explanation that you received is “right” or “wrong.” Avyakt7 has no opinion on those issues.
Dear BK readers,
Let us go into the main lessons of your belief system:
The first lesson is that “I am soul.” The second lesson is “God is a soul.”
My question is: Can you know God unless you know yourself?
God and “you” have the same eternal nature. Unless the experience of that which you believe in, is experienced in yourself, there is no possibility of knowing what you believe God is.
Do you know Avyakt7? Because you read these writings here, do you think that you know avyakt7? Because you have spoken with Avyakt7, do you think that you know him? Because you have seen his picture or a video, do you think that you know him? How can you know avyakt7?
By being him, of course. Who is him?
Isn’t “he” a soul? 🙂
Isn’t God a soul?
Aren’t you a soul?
In spirituality, knowing is being it. In the “normal” world, to know means to have the head full of information about something. We cannot know what swimming is by just reading about it. We cannot talk about Spirituality without observing and knowing ourselves, because in that we could know everyone else.
We share the same nature.
When we understand deeply the above, we can abandon the idea of being a “devotee” of God and turn our journey into the honest quest of knowing yourself.
That is called with many names by many spiritual teachers: Soul consciousness, dying alive, detached observer, self transformation, self realization, emptiness, nothingness, detached participant, self- awareness, consciousness, Buddha and of course, illumination…
Now let us go back in to the “soul.”
The word “Soul” is just information, a label to denote something which can only be experienced. When that something is experienced, then we can put different labels to that something: Some may call that spirit, others, emptiness, others light, self, bindi, atma, purusha, etc, etc.
The third lesson in your belief system is about the cycle of time.
Let me ask you, is the “soul” bound to time? No, because it is eternal. Then, how is it possible to experience time?
It is a contradiction… That is why, we cannot explore these things with intellectual understanding, with “0” or “1” answers.
We are both, we experience time and we are time-less. It just depends in our consciousness.
That “contradiction” that we found is the “door” to further realizations.
We cannot talk about the timeless with words bound in time. We cannot understand the timeless, when our consciousness is bound in time.
Last question: In which moment of the cycle of time do we truly know God? 🙂
If you say “now,” Please read this response again from the beginning. Note that in the Golden age, God is not there and that is the moment of highest consciousness, when those beings know themselves. When they are “equal to the Father.” 🙂
Throughout Avyakt7’s life, the search for the truth was the main point and driving force in my life. First, it was understood as a label, as something intellectual to understand, to write down and tell everyone. To know God was part of that intellectual understanding; but that wasn’t enough.
Then, Avyakt7 went through different changes and found the truth in knowing myself, going through the journey of observing the only thing that Avyakt7 can change in the whole world.
The queen who lost her necklace was looking for it everywhere until she realized/ became aware/ conscious that she was wearing that necklace all along.
We could believe in anything, doubt in anything… but finding the necklace is where fulfillment is no longer an idea to believe in.
Best wishes from the heart!
—————————–
1. “In a class I heard that there are souls who reside in the soul world when they do not have a role to play in the drama. So, this means those souls are with Baba for a longer time than the souls who start the drama from Golden age. Isn’t that what we all want in the end- to spend more time with Baba? Why would we want to start from Golden age?”
2. “Dear Avayakt7, Bapdada’s role specifically in terms of service: three types of service Bodily, Wealth and through the mind. Is the topic of maximum number of souls served the basis of your position in the beginning of the cycle? If that is correct then Brahma Baba being number one is a little flawed inspite of his avayakt role. There is a feeling that Dadi Prakashmani had more to do with expansion. I understand that this is specific to the BK Belief system but wanted your view on the whole aspect of service connected to the position you would get.. or is this is a story of the carrot being waved? Would love your response.”
3. “Does God ever become “imperfect”? In BK gyan, they say that God has come in the body of Brahma and give knowledge to human being in order for them to make effort and become deity. We all know that the “perfect” stage is only in the soul world which means “zero”. When souls come down on earth to play their parts, the mind then be created and their stages gradually decline into 1 ,2 ,3… till 15 and body consciousness grasps in. So when God Himself comes into the field of action, does He become 1 rather than still in “zero” stage? Because you know when souls start to use physical organs, information start to flow in, create fluctuation which is the mind.”
I do but I am not responsible
In the video shared about Mooji, he mentioned about the realization that “I don’t do anything as we get to explore the self with greater extent.” Notice that this is a realization through observation: I wake up, without an alarm I have “no control” of the time that I will wake up. Still with an alarm, many things could go “wrong,” the battery of the alarm, the fact that I went to sleep hungry and couldn’t sleep well and overslept, etc. If we look at every activity that we do, we will see the chain of “cause and effect” behind it… and in this life, how that “chain reaction” started without my “choosing.” Do we see that? 🙂
In the first video, we will explore a “brainy” point on predestination and the fact that “if I am not responsible for my own actions, because I really have no free will, then I cannot be accountable for my actions. I am not guilty of them.”
The above reasoning of course is used as a good argument to see the need for “free will;” otherwise, why put serial killers in jail, if they are not truly responsible for their actions?
In the second video with Mr. Eckhart Tolle; he discusses our “responsibility,” and that is in the well-being of our own consciousness. He even expresses about this illusory entity called the “me” (which agrees with Mooji)and then, he “enlightens” us with “Who you “are” is the primary consciousness. What you “do” follows that.”
Please pay special attention to those words and observe them in yourself as they have great significance.
Notice the video below, “The Quran speaks” a good program due to the questions the interviewer is asking. The questions are answered by Dr. Shabir Ally.
In this video we can see that all is about “justification” of God. How “free will” is necessary to get God out of the hook for “creating” evil(because He created good, he created evil as well because one side cannot exist without the other.) “Final outcomes are not predetermined,” even though often scriptures talk about God knowing beforehand what will happen. Not only that, the belief of reincarnation, goes beyond the realm of “free will” and “choosing,” because there is “cause and effect” in it. However, a “Heaven” and “Hell” puts the “choice” back into the individual.
This is the Muslim belief as well as the Christian belief and other God centered religions. There is Godly judgment, so you are responsible for your actions.
Note that there is no point in the conversation where the word “consciousness” is used. All is about faith and beliefs. “Some beliefs do not seem to be rather logical…” Dr. Ally points out; but there are some beliefs which more logical than others, I may point out; however that does not mean that those beliefs are “truth.”
In this video everything is about responsibility of actions. I am responsible for them and God will judge me and either give me eternal hell or paradise in return.
Finally, in this video by Adyshanti, the word “oneness” comes into the picture. If everything is one, who am I? Part of that oneness. This “idea” will flow nicely with Mooji’s, Tolle’s and Zen about non doing our own actions but rather actions flow through us as we identify with them. That is how the “me” appears. Therefore, by concentrating in our actions, we will not solve anything “wrong” unless we take care first of our consciousness, because our actions follows consciousness as Mr. Tolle pointed out.
Consciousness is primarily, awareness and our extent of awareness will dictate how responsible we could be.
How do I make sense out of all the above information?
Easy. Experience it for yourself. This is not a matter of belief.
There is obviously a consciousness of “doing things” for some. Others will find that they do not do anything. Either way, as long as our consciousness hasn’t changed, then our activities whether we “do them” or not, those activities cannot be “elevated” unless my consciousness precedes them.
Consciousness precedes commandments and rituals.
Responsibility of action then is a matter of consciousness not a matter of beliefs.
Question on souls missing the Golden age aka “Paradise.”
om shanti, baba says sara madar yaad/purshatpar. is this can be true sara madar drama par as all the actions/sequential thought are already recorded which are repeating at every 5000years .Therefore a soul who missed out the sat and kaliyug one cycle never ever able to experience the goldenyug. please giv ur views for those souls. I am still confusing. Correct me.
Dear soul,
Thank you for your clarifying question!
Let me put it in different words so anyone who looks at it, could get the “flavor of it.”
Basically, Baba says that because the Drama of life is pre-ordained; then all actions will be the same in every eternally repeating cycle which lasts 5000 years before it repeats again.. right?
Your question is, if a soul does not experience the “golden age” then that soul is doomed not to experience that “magical” Golden age for eternity, thus, that “poor soul” will miss that “magic” and “whimsical” moment… for eternity, right?
Moreover, if we want to add more sorrow to those “poor souls” we can say something like: However, you will experience hell, but not heaven… ONLY US, will experience the Golden age, paradise, the best time of the cycle.. so you better join us… right?
Dear soul,
The knowledge is there and it can be interpreted anyway we feel like according to our “motive.”
In Brahma Baba’s time, he thought that destruction was near. He had reasons to believe in that. Therefore, his urgency to motivate those listening to him; to “make effort” and change themselves; that is to self transform so they can make the “cut” for the Golden age.
The problem is that those same lines do not hold the same strength anymore according to time, but yet they do paradoxically, for being aware of this time, the confluence age; is important for we do not know how long we will live. Thus, it is both things at the same time. Not just one.
Please remember these things:
1) In the Drama, no one misses anything.
2) The “Golden age” is a state of consciousness not a place to be.
3) Labeling the first 1250 years of the cycle of time as the Golden age is OK. I like to call that “Spring” time out of the 4 seasons. To call that time of the cycle as “paradise,” is not accurate at all, but acceptable is you want to convince little children to “make effort” now, before is too late.
4) In the Drama, no on does anything. It is merely a role to be performed which is interpreted by a particular soul. Those roles will change. Today you are the hero, tomorrow the villain.
5) Predestination is hard to digest intellectually by souls without the experience of ego-less-ness. As we experience being ego-less, then the soul becomes the observer of the role. The participant and the movie spectator. Both at the same time.
Here is the simple example.
Let us say that Ananda wakes up at 3:30 AM every day.
Carlos on the other hand is sleeping at that time. Carlos likes to wake up at 7:30 AM.
Ananda likes to say that Carlos is “missing” the greatest time of the day, when things are quiet and peaceful.
Carlos responds that he likes to sleep and he will not wake up at 3:30 AM for nothing in the world. As a matter of fact, for Carlos; Ananda is just a crazy guy.
Now, put that example in the cycle of time. Ananda will be in the Golden age, but Carlos will be enjoying his “sleep” in Parandham … now, to make things “sweeter” let me add that Carlos will be very close to our Father, ShivBaba; and will be receiving his mighty and exquisite rays of bliss and peace for longer time; Carlos will be recharging to experience his “golden age” in his first birth; while Ananda will be out and about already… 🙂
Who is missing what?
No one is missing anything.
Best wishes!
Exploring the Depth of Living 