lion: Namaste! I saw the topic and just couldn't resist!! LOL!!!
lion: Issue #8 of The Search for Center Newsletter was "published" on 5/28. You can see it at http://www.redshift.com/~beyond/NEWS/news8.htm ENJOY!
lion: Alternatively, click on colored "lion" preceeding post and then follow the link from there to The Search for Center.
lion: I still carry a fortune I got from a fortune cookie two years ago: SOON YOU WILL BE SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD. I guess I am there now! LOL!!!!
gilbert: Hello, my name is Gilbert.
lion: Actually, I've been flying high for over four years now. You might say that I've followed my own form of Yoga in pursuit of what spirit would have me express for her.
sol: Hi lion...Hi gilbert...
lion: Namaste gilbert!
lion: Namaste sol!
lion: What brings you two here this fine evening? Then again, it may or may not be evening for you. :)
sol: Never seen you guys before, I think...
sol: You´re right, lion...It´s 4.30 in the morning where I am...
gilbert: Hello, sol.
lion: Gee sol, 6:30 PM here. That must put you on the other side of the world somewhere.
gilbert: I am in Korea. It is now about 10:30 AM Tuesday, June 3.
sol: I´m in sweden...what about you, lion?
lion: Recently, I've found myself being moved to read works of various Indian masters ... Aurobindo, Vivekananda, Meher Baba, Yogananda and the like. Also, just finished rereading the Bhagavad Gita ... WONDERFUL.
lion: Los Angeles, CA
lion: Are either of you into Yoga? ... if so, what kind? ... and for how long?
sol: Tell us more about the Indian masters, lion...
sol: I´m not into yoga, yet...gilbert?
lion: I'm finding that indeed, the Masters of India, have made a science of spirituality for a very long time. We in the West are just beginning to appreciate what they have known firsthand for countless ages.
gilbert: Lion: What are the most impressive teachings, in your opinion, that you have gleaned from the Indian works you have read?
lion: The key realization is that we are all ONE SPIRIT, there is but ONE MIND, creating and experiencing all.
sol: I agree totally, lion...Do you know that many indians are getting tired of people from the west are coming to India to find out "what´s it all about"?
gilbert: Sol: I am not into yoga, although I admire and respect those who are into it.
lion: That we are separated individuals is the illusion that we experience. It is not even close to the true reality. I realized over four years ago that I experience thoughts but do not CREATE THOUGHTS. My thoughts come from the ONE MIND as do everyones. I am free to choose how I interpret these thoughts, which ones I dismiss, which ones I pay attention too, and which ones I ACT on ... but I do not create the thoughts. They come from a source of which I am not consciously aware.
gilbert: Lion: That is very interesting what you have said about ONE SPIRIT and ONE MIND.
lion: My sense is that most people of India are not aware either. But, the Spiritual Masters of India, they have touched God ... they have been awakened to the spirit that they are. From what I've seen, true spiritual realization is a very rare thing. I don't know that I could name more than a dozen people that have demonstrated this realization ... at least that I am yet aware of.
gilbert: Lion: I also find your further explanations very enlightening and informative.
sol: What made you understand, lion...? I mean four years ago, What happend?
lion: Further, awareness is not something that can be taught. It cannot be attained via the mind at all ... one must find a way to go beyond mind to become awake. One must catch a glimpse of the REAL "I" and realize whom that one truly is. Such is what SELF-Realization is all about.
sol: I am just beginning to read the Bhagavad Gita...bought it from a munk...
lion: I can speak of realization from experience. Lately, I have found that I truly understand the writings of the Indian Masters because I have an inner basis to match to what I see expressed in their words. In them, I have finally found others that I can relate to firsthand. Unfortunately, all of those I am presently reading have already departed from this existence.
lion: Four years ago, I had a spiritual awakening. My life has been completely transformed since then. I live in a spiritual world now that few seem to see. Actually, to date, I have not met another in that world.
lion: My experiences are all captured at my Beyond Imagination site. Clicking on "lion" gets you there. I have written over 2000 pages to date.
sol: Seems to me you´ve been reaching what I´m searching, lion...I´m so happy for you!
gilbert: Lion: All of what you are saying indicates that you are an interesting and spiritually-minded person. I am going to click on your name because I am curious to see your web entry.
sol: Your "nick" lion, has it got something to do with astrology?
lion: My sense is that my time of awakening was planned for the Summer of my 35th year. At the time Uranus and Neptune were exactly conjunct and the two were exactly square to my natal Sun. It was incredible. I was FLYING HIGH for months ... the experience got me diagnosed as bipolar and put me in a mental hospital for 10 days. None of what I had learned in 20 years of intensive metaphysical study even came close to explaining what I experienced.
Cheryl: hi?
lion: No, though I am a Leo rising. My wife created some stationary for me that had a lion on a throne. I was looking at that the first time I had to pick a nickname. Also, my spiritual name is Aslan, so the nick is appropriate.
lion: Namaste Cheryl! Welcome!
lion: You can see the picture I'm referring to if you follow the lion and LION links at the Beyond Imagination site.
sol: lion, I´m having saturn returning to my natal position, and it feels like I´m going to turn my life upside down...I´m a bit scared but at the same time it feels wonderful!
sol: Hi Cheryl...
lion: My latest outlet for expression has been the monthly newsletter for The Search for Center. Issue #8 came out last week. It has over a dozen sections.
lion: That would make you either 28 or 56?
sol: gilbert, cheryl...still here?
sol: lion, I´m 29 and 2 months...
lion: Saturn returns can indeed be interesting times. I went from Hermit to married about that time in my life ... I hadn't even dated. I married my wife 100 days after I met her. She is 18 years older than I am.
lion: Yes, Saturn varies a bit in cycle length. :) My rule of thumb is 28 years per cycle.
sol: lion, do you think it´s wise to break up my job and my apartenment and go live in the countrieside for a while?
lion: Sol: what changes are you experiencing? Having ones world turned upside down can be very exciting.
sol: I have been working at the same place for ten years, and there isn´t to many jobs to get nowadays in sweden...
lion: That, you will have to turn within to find out what is right for you. "Wise" has nothing to do with it. The key to spiritual growth is to find the source of intuition within YOU and trust it enough to take action and follow it wherever it would lead you. It knows you ... or better yet, it is YOU, the Self that you are searching for. It is HERE and NOW, wherever you are.
lion: You can lead a "normal" work life to pay the bills, and still have all the time in the world to know thy Self. However, you must choose to make the effort, and then follow through and ACT on that choice.
sol: Peculiar that all of my friends are settling down with families when their saturn returns...I guess that makes me a bit scared...but I have to do this...
lion: I was unemployed for over three months last year ... I don't know that I would want to experience that again. It can get tough when the bills keep coming but there is no paycheck to pay them with.
sol: I´m at work right now, nightshift, so I will have to quit soon...
lion: My sense is that my "family" will be a spiritual one. Though I am married, my wife is beyond childbearing age.
lion: I have known for over 20 years that my kids, my creations would spring forth from my mind and not my loins.
sol: I´ve got my money situation under control, at least for one year...That´s important for me right now, otherwise I wouldn´t dare doing this jump...
lion: Bookmark http://www.redshift.com/~beyond and check it out sometime. :)
lion: Namaste Rishi!
sol: lion, I´ll have to leave you for two minitues...BRB...
Rishi: Namaste ji.
lion: Don't fret about it or worry too much. My sense is that the choice is already made by you at the Self level, not consciously. It will lead you to the experience that is right for you at this time. I believe conscious free will is limited to how we interpret what we experience ... my sense is that we don't consciously choose what will happen.
Rishi: lion, do you believe in karma?
lion: Yes and No. I believe that I am fully responsible for all that I do. There is a part of my greater Self that takes care of ensuring that karmic balance is maintained. However, my understanding is that this is a lower level law that applies only so long as one acts from a center of self. When one starts to live for spirit, as spirit, a different level of spiritual law comes into play.
sol: lion, you´re right, I´ve made the descision, even though many people among me thinks it´s stupid...
lion: When one truly lives by the principal, not my will but THY WILL be done, then one has escaped the chains of karma ...
sol: Hi Rishi, welcome...
Rishi: true, but how and what is this different level achieved?
lion: I wouldn't think twice about what others think ... even "many others". YOU know what is right for you in your Heart. It is that guidance to which you must be true.
Rishi: Hi sol
Rishi: Are we guided by ourseleves our is there someone or something else to guide us?
lion: One must find a way to go Beyond Mind, to go Beyond Imagination ... to experience it. And then, it is obvious, there is simply no other way to live. Once you have a glimpse of our true nature as the ONE, there is no longer any choice but to do THY WILL, for my will becomes identical to the WILL of the ONE for the piece of the ONE that I AM.
sol: Destiny is a part of ourselves and we are a part of everything, I believe...
lion: I have always been guided by a feminine source within that speaks through my intuition. It is not someone or something else ... yet, neither is it me. It just is.
lion: Namaste Starbuck!
Rishi: that I think is the ultimate stage of living, on the way we come across many obstacles. Can we reach our goal by oursleves or do we need a guide to unite us with the ONE?
lion: Yes, and experiencing one's destiny is one of the grandest adventures that there is.
lion: I have not yet had a guide, other than Spirit herself. So, my experience is that NO, no such guide is needed. But then, I came as a Aries ... my nature is that of wayshower. I do not know that I personally would either recognize or choose to follow a guide.
sol: Starbuck, welcome...
Starbuck: Namaste
sol: Watcher, hi...
lion: When you say "reach our goal", what goal do you have? There is nothing that I care to reach ... other than expressing spirit as fully as possible for me in this existence. What that is, I have no clue. I observe what unfolds before me and I do what spirit moves me to do to the best of my ability.
sol: lion, why did they put you in a mental hospital? Were you a danger for yourself or what?
Rishi: I believe that the ultimate goal of human life is to be united with the One. Thus freeing ourselves from the cycle of birth and death.
lion: I have never been one to set goals or make detailed plans. I leave it to spirit or to Self to decide such things, then do what I am moved to do, observe the feedback provided by spirit, and determine what it means about Whom that I AM, the nature of reality, and the nature of reality creation.
sol: Rishi, are you talking about nirvana?
lion: Or, should I say illusion and illusion creation. :) Why should we care to be free of cycles of birth and death ... what matters how often we choose to take forms? We shall do so for as long as it serves our Self to help know our Self and SELF.
lion: When I live HERE AND NOW ... I am already free from the cycle. NOW + HERE = NOWHERE!
sol: Maybe we would get very bored if we never again should take any form?
Rishi: Nirvana is one concept. But this union I'm talking about can be attained while living.
sol: Tell us more about this union, Rishi...
Rishi: if we believe in the law of karma, then we cannot be free from transmigration.
lion: I was highly manic in the summer of 93 and was interpreting reality in a way that shall we say was UNIQUE. They thought I was crazy. My final act before being taken away was a complete renunciation of my will. I got to the point of literally not even breathing until spirit forced me to do so. I still remember everything clearly. It is described in the Beyond Mind book at my site.
lion: Rishi: is this union still concept, or have you experience it?
lion: I remember getting up one morning in 1993, jumping up, throwing the covers off the bed and announcing loudly to my wife "I am God". She said "yes hon, we are all gods". I said, "NO, GOD with a BIG G". I still remember how absolutely certain I was that morning.
Rishi: It is a reality. I am following the path myself but I know of a few who have attained this stage.
sol: lion, I don´t know how to find your site, I´m very new at this stuff...
lion: Now, I know that I am but a part of the ONE ... or am only aware of being part. However, if you asked any cell of my present body "who are YOU", you would not be surprised if it's answer was Wayne, my present name.
sol: Sounds lovely. lion...did you say you are an aries?
Rishi: When we say 'I' or 'I AM' we are creating a wall between our true selves.
lion: That's great Rishi. It seems we are in a similar boat. I've been alone all my life, basically a Hermit, experiencing my own world, my own reality. In 1993, I awakened to a spiritual reality that I had not experienced before. I have only met one person that clearly understood what I was experiencing, and he stopped speaking 30 years ago ... I had a 20 minute session with him. I knew that he KNEW. It was obvious. I've also seen that Krishnamurti was in this state, on a videotape. Aurobindo and Yogananda were obviously there ... it shows in their writings.
lion: sol: Just click on lion preceeding these posts. The URL is http://www.redshift.com/~beyond
lion: Unless your understanding is that "I AM" is THE ONE, is SPIRIT, is CONSCIOUSNESS herself.
Rishi: lion, it seems you have a wonderful story to tell. What you must do is to benefit from your experience and further your quest to find yourself. Don't give up.
lion: Yes, Aries is my Sun sign ... Moon in Sag ... Leo rising. Triple FIRE. No wonder metaphysics comes so naturally to me.
lion: I would not ever think of "giving up". Part of my task is to assist in building the foundations for a new world in which spirit can more fully express in flesh, to a greater degree than has even occurred before. YES, it is a BIG TASK, but it is what I am moved to do with all my Heart and Soul!
Rishi: The ONE is within us all but only a few realize this in one lifetime. That is why we or subject to karma.
sol: well, my new friends...the time has come for me to go home and get to bed...It´s been really great meeting you...
Rishi: Goodnight sol. May you live in peace.
lion: Yes, such is my experience as well. Though, the moment of realization must eventually come within a present lifetime. Personally, I have no awareness of whether it took one or one million lifetimes to get to my present state of awareness ... nor does it matter, it takes only as long as is necessary, and this differs for everyone.
lion: Namaste sol! Sleep well! Peace, Love and Light!
lion: Rishi: when did your awakening occur?
Rishi: Why we don't realize it is because we are not there yet. Those who attain the union know everything.
lion: How did you experience it? Under what circumstances? After what kind of study?
lion: How do you know that? To me, such is only a concept ... it is not a realization yet. Nor for that matter do I sense that it will be in the near future.
Rishi: I have been walking this path for almost 20 yrs.
lion: My home is the UNKNOWN ... such is where I find purpose, meaning, and YES happiness. I am an explorer of the UNKNOWN. To me, this journey of awareness is unending. There will always be more to create and to explore.
Rishi: Along the way I have been lost, very lost but I have always been able to find the path again.
lion: For me, my sense is that I have always walked the path that spirit moved me to walk. I found the Seth material in 1974 ... my LOVE AFFAIR with spirit and with metaphysics began then. 1993 however marked the year of my awakening. My metaphysical writings began on 5 Mar 93.
lion: The first 20 years were mainly a head trip, I lived in my mind. Then, in 1993, I went Beyond Mind and became truly awake and aware for the first time in this existence.
Rishi: There is a lot of illusion to over come. Only then can the true path be found.
lion: Since then, life has been a wonderful adventure. Most people consider me a bit strange ... some downright CRAZY. At least I am an original expression of spirit!
lion: Overall, since my world was so separate from that of everyone else, it has been easier for me. I never really bought into the conventional reality. I created my own and knew firsthand that it was a different reality than others experienced. But, it didn't matter. I TRUSTED my own experience from the beginning.
lion: Well, I've thoroughly enjoyed the chat, but I need to be heading home. Namaste!
Rishi: Namaste.