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By Stephen Cheney
You can combine meditation in stillness and meditation in movement. There is the making use of journeying in the Astral plane — a favourite of those who love to explore by sending the mind outward to and sail in Astral travelling. It is where the body stays where it is, still and relaxed, and a ghostly image of itself is sent to travel to outside regions. This is a deliberate act, although when the mind dreams it Astral travels automatically. In dreaming you are unconscious; in Astral travelling you keep a conscious part of your brain watchful and semi-awake.
But being so aware has disadvantages, as there is an apprehension in losing control over events and self, and losing one's way, to not be able to remerge back into yourself. Astral Travel, the popular name, is of course a virtual journey and, thus, should have no adverse affects except those also sometimes experienced in dreaming - such as a shock to some horror story. Remote Viewing also takes advantage of projections of the mind.
Astral Travel does have a practical use - such as when being tortured or when in great pain:
EXERCISE:
When being tortured, or in pain, or in a dentist's chair:
- Deliberately relax your body, feel its weight and sink your untensed body downward.
- Shut your eyes to increase your brain's alpha wave dominance.
- Ensure that you are not clenching any muscles as tensing puts pressure on the walls of your nerve lines.
- Deliberately slow down your breathing - like a baby rising and falling your abdomen, not your chest.
- Send your mind out of your body and far away.
- Being then virtually away from the pain source and in another place, you need sensory input from there to override the pain that your body is experiencing. Overload. By new intense inputs you achieve a denial of service to your original mental computer. To prevent your mind wandering uselessly you need to anchor your mind in your new place, so the more appealing and interesting that place is the more firmly you can anchor your focus of attention there.
- The pain is still there just as it was: but the 'you' that is ‘You’ are not.
- How, when wanted, do you get back to yourself? Deliberately disconnect yourself from your far place and substitute a sensory mist of nothingness, and you will automatically return from your virtual trip back into your body, in time to pay your physical dentist's bill.
Why does it work?
Pain is a sensory input. It requires intact nerve lines from the site of damage to the brain. Nerves deliver impulses, not pain. Pain is an interpretation by the mind of the message of impulses. When you pull the plug of an electrical device from its power source it ceases to receive or feel any input.
The brain, of course, also includes in itself the brain stem that runs down the spine. So the brain in the spine can often receive impulses earlier than the brain in the cranium, and can decide a nerve impulse as being pain and elicit a fast reactive response which is normally to automatically retract, through muscles, body parts away from pain originators. When you are unconscious you do not 'feel' pain even though your nerves are firing. For the conscious mind needs its wakefulness, needs its interpretation centre functioning, to decide that a message is pain or is not pain or is anything.
When you receive any communication, any text words or impulses, what the effect of the message is to be, is decided by the brain. When a message is garbled there is no mental recognition. So whenever words are texted to you or spoken inputting through eye or ear, what is received first needs to be interpreted before your mind affects a reaction on brain and body. If you cannot read a text then it means nothing. When words or impulses are given a meaning by the mind then the effecting response can be overwhelming, such as a love text, a horror text, a pain impulse.
If you cut off a limb what is done to that limb from then on cannot be felt (though the frayed nerve-ends in the body feel: as they are still brain connected). The mind does keep a virtual image of that limb as still being in place, though that limb be disconnected and elsewhere, in the mind's virtual view of itself it makes a sort of Astral manifestation. You can, virtually, deliberately disengage your reading mind from your body, thus away from pain inputs, and so increase your pain tolerance ability to some degree. The pain is still there, but your attention is not.
Some patients advise that while they were unconscious undergoing surgery in an operating theatre, their mind made an image of themselves and floated away. Looking down from above on the operation or leaving the room to see what was happening elsewhere. If valid, when looking down upon your face you will notice a slight difference to your image than what you see each morning in the mirror.
If experiencing a horror scene, nightmarish, you can tell that it is virtual, that it is only dreaming, if you can see your whole self/body as you watch. When awake in reality you do not see your whole self as you are looking outward from your eyes and not from an all-seeing mind. You can use that realization to wake up from a nightmare knowing that it was only a nightmare. Realization draws you back to your body. You are more than just what you daily see.
If sending your mind elsewhere, Astral Travelling, or Remote Viewing, is deemed odd, a question must be answered:
Where does the entity, that is you, begin and end?
Normally a superficial view is held that any entity ends at its outer shape. This view is not favoured in Quantum Mechanics where reality is particles that are also waves and extend their effects beyond their surface into relationships. We are those particles/waves. One does not view the Sun as ending itself only at its surface. It is far more. Like many objects we radiate infra-red radiation or heat from our internal processes. Especially living creatures from chemical reactions, but even inanimate objects radiate from a slight radioactivity.
Your body radiates heat so it has some effect beyond its skin border. You are larger than your surface area. Your voice radiates vibrations that can affect outside things and more so other people - it can command millions (as do generals, politicians, actors, fashion icons, pop stars, and news programs). The information projected from yourself can travel far and information, depending on its reading, can cause physical change. Your visual sensing passes space to touch every horizon or barrier. Your hearing can see through walls. Your mind's ideas can affect centuries of time beyond your death. You do not end your being, and your influences, at your skin's surface. So when you wish to or when you need to, 'Astral Travel' don't worry about any acclaimed 'silver cord' being severed - it is only an awareness path back to your mind and body.
It may be useful, to a child or adult or soldier at war, who may be experiencing the horrors of the night, to create, virtually, their own Guardian Angel. As one drifts into sleep, choose to mentally form an image of your own presence outside of your body, to remain through the night by your bedside. Like a friendly ghost (ghosts may be defined as residual emotional energy, an energy that has a blurred structure. At the minute quantum level energy, and space also, may have a Max Plank limited structure).
Such a Guardian Angel image must be formed not with the purpose of being inert, but to be active in its awareness. It must see all of the room, hear all, even outside. If a troubled dream occurs or if an intruder comes, your virtual image might wake you. The mind has many talents, unfortunately much is in the subconscious, but reaching in there, though the mind placed in a twilight state, why not use what you can find.
A corollary to Astral Travel is that it seems to indicate that our soul (defined as our combined personality or self), might indeed live on after the death of our body. As, if the connection between our body/brain and our virtual mind is severed by body-death then what happens to our virtual mind? It is known that the mind needs a brain and the brain needs a body.
But in science, all matter is but a form of energy and mental waves are also energy.
Energy cannot be destroyed, so what happens to our virtual realities? Perhaps they just radiate away into elsewhere. Living on after death has always been a major component of the history of human psychology and thought. Many do not care that their body might be made and remade to live perhaps forever - they want assurances that their personality or soul will live beyond the state of death. To this conundrum much thought has been given.
For the religious, many prophets (disputing with each other or not) agree on a promise of a heaven of eternal existence, and for justice a hell of eternal suffering for non-believers (a great Love, a great Hate). For some there is Reincarnation, a change of body but a death of human personality. Some philosophers advise a spiritual blending or a vast nothingness. Scientists are assumed to belong in the Atheist or Agnostic category, though many are religious in their metaphysical views: seeing a divide between science physics, where all authority may be questioned, and metaphysics where it is dangerous to question authority. Science is about questioning to seek answers; whereas religion commonly pronounces absolute answers that should not be questioned, with any questioners to suffer severe penalties.
In considering the Life after death possibility one is following a timeline from the Present to the Future. In mathematics and physics - with which the Universe runs its programs, its laws work forward, but also work backward. So knowing about the absoluteness of death for complex living creatures, not looking at bacteria or asexual life-forms such as sponges, we not being such (though we are loaded with bacteria), the sequence of scientific questioning needs to continue: That is, ask:
Were you alive before your present life?
You were not alive, you were dead, according to definition. So why is it that you are alive now, having been dead already? One could argue that life comes from life and that you are but a living moment on a long chain of living DNA, that basic life element of being able to self-replicate.
You are alive through the DNA of your ancestors who were alive. Cellular continuity. But science questions continue, and it is known that eons ago there was no DNA, only amino acids floating, not able to be reproductive life. And eons before that we and all else were only star dust in the cosmos. So at some past stage you were definitely dead. But here you are in the present risen from the dead. Having been dead you are now alive looking apprehensively at being dead in the future. Well, you have already been there, and are now beyond the border of that death. Try a bit of extending yourself beyond borders, with a bit of Astral Travelling and enjoy the moment.
See the world with some new perspectives.
[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society. © 2007-2018 Author(s) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]
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Stephen, good post. Meditation offers a plethora of possibilities in any professional field - but I'd say in ours in particular. Your examples explain it all so I don't need to add anything else to the matter.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would like to clarify one thing: Guardian Angels. Your description gives the impression that this sort of Angels do not exist and that we need to individually recreate them in our mind for emotional/spiritual support. I defend that Guardian Angels exist and their names are based on G-d's names; but in order for us to visualise them we need to train our mind - through meditation. How would you challenge this?
Hi Christina. When you are talking about 'Guardian Angels' you are referring to Angels as defined in a religion. I am not discussing such ethereal entities. I am discussing the use and usefulness of mental projections, virtual projections, a displacement of the focus of the conscious. The mind has the ability to project images of whatever it wishes. Note that dreaming and day-dreaming are common behaviours. Heavenly Angels or similar entities are not involved in this process at all. It is within our realm of abilities. As your sacred text explains, that men were made to fill a lower consciousness than angels. So there is, in religion, no connection in their separate abilities. We humans are not made helpless, though no match for the strengths of animals, are mind is our strength. We do need, as we further evolve, to enhance our given abilities in order to not waste ourselves and become dissipated. A Mentally formed Guardian Angel is NOT the same as a Heavenly formed Guardian Angel. There is no clash, no challenge. You are thinking of a Heavenly Guardian Angel whereas I am talking of a projection of the mind, kept in existence by a watchful part of the brain (a necessity), that assumes the role of a guardian angel, a ‘protector’ while the majority of the brain sleeps.
DeleteStephen, so you are referring to a mechanism of self-assurance; that is, humans have the ability to project an image to make them feel protected, supported; but we already have that protection and support granted by the Heavenly Angels, thus shouldn't humans instead work their mind to actually contact those beings who can truly grant them the security they need?
DeleteHi Cristina, I note that there are millions of religious good people who pray and pray for assistance in their plight. But they seem to be unable to contact a Guardian Angel to come down to assist them. The situations of some, for instance in poverty and in war zones, are quite desperate. Suffering is ugly.
DeleteWhen you suggest that people “work their mind” do you mean pray harder, or in a different way to what they are doing, and to what their religious institution recommends?
Or do you mean that there is a way within each person’s mind, without needing outside assistance, for these people in desperate need, that will enable them to definitely contact a Guardian Angel? How would they do it?
Those who have had what might be called ‘Revelationary Experiences’ seem to be visited by what may be called Guardian Angels without their specifically asking for an angel; something that happens regardless of their wants and maybe regardless even of their worth. We seem to have no say at all in whatever Heaven chooses to do.
So far as I know, in life, looking at the world and history, there is no guarantee of security, we must make our own as best we can, and sometimes we will be overwhelmed by adverse events.
Mr Stephen, thank you for another great class! Every time I go to dentist I suffer a lot, but next time I will try to do this exercise. I also believe in Angels and specially guardian angels but why do we need to see them? Wouldn't that be idolatry? To me, personally, I only need to sense them to know that everything is ok, that I'm ok.
ReplyDeleteHi Leila. The English word 'Angel' comes eventually from the Old Persian, being bearers of messages in the ancient Persian Empire. It is used to translate other languages that refer to Heavenly messengers. Angels were also a prominent element in Zoroastrianism, from the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) about the time of the Jews returning from Babylonian captivity. In religious terms an angel is sent to deliver a message from heaven to a human. If the human cannot sense the angel then how can a message be delivered and also be known that it was from heaven unless the angel is allowed to be actually seen? Idolatry, as I understand it, is the actual worship of a THING, an object be it of rock or of gold. Such things may be taken to represent heavenly entities, but are of course not a heavenly entity: so the worship of a thing, even though it is only a symbol of a higher meaning, can be taken as a form of misdirection to an intermediatory and therefore in some religions is banned. It is interesting that perhaps the worship of things came from paying in temples or sacred sites, with a need to face some direction, such as an altar, and on that altar a object symbolizing the Ultimate Ruler; also giving a direction to such, as to an object such as Jerusalem and its temple wall; or Mecca, the Kaaba and the Black Stone which is touched or kissed.
DeleteAddendum: 'paying' above, should be 'praying'.
DeleteWe are practically alive twice: through cellular continuity (our forefathers' DNA) and through our soul (which migrates from body to body). But a question keeps hammering in my mind: if we are eternal through our DNA and through our soul, do we have two people or more in us?
ReplyDeleteWow Ana, you have asked a very deep philosophical question, a complex composed of two entirely different modes of thinking. Science deals with the reality that it can experiment with. It has been highly successful and has resulted in all our great advances in technology; and we are in process of reaching the stars. Science has not been presented with a scientific version of a definition of ‘soul’ and therefore is incapacitated in applying its thinking modes to the concept and so stays out of Theology. Theology specialises in mystical concepts and as each religion and sub-cult of those religions has differing, even bickering beliefs, answers to questions can vary greatly. A Theological answer has a limitation, a border at the edge of the beliefs of its own authorities and followers. It is a cell of its own mystical DNA that reproduces sameness, a life form of its own. When Theology reaches for the stars, it is not the stars in the galactic heavens, but heavens of another sphere.
DeleteAny coherent answer depends on the definitions presented for ‘people’ or ‘personality’, for ‘soul’, for ‘existence’ or ‘continuity’ and you are also talking about the ‘reincarnation’ concept. Science is a tool of thinking about matters that it can examine in reality (and keep refining its examinations) and define in its theories (and keep refining its understandings). It has discovered and examined DNA, the physical building code of cellular life forms, and is still in that eternal process of refining its understanding. Science is a thinking and doing process that does not have a tool to examine what is beyond its ability (though lately it is looking at multiple universes). So depending on theological definitions, there are many answers to the conglomerative question.
I note that your thinking process mimics the symbol of the Jewish faith, the Star of David that you use to image yourself. That geometric construction is of course scientific and the meaning of the symbol is theological. They mirror your questioning process. That star has six points and 6 is Euclid’s perfect number and also in the biblical text, the world was made in 6 days; to the ancients it marries male and female; and composed of triangles, or two trinities, provides the concept of ‘equilibrium’ with a real structure.
In theology matters I defer to those more learned than me; all Theology questions should go to the Theologians, the rabbis, priests, reverends, imams etc. Such scholars love their learning and devotion to the intangible mysteries and, if they don’t have an answer for you at first, they can congregate and evolve one.
As to my Personal view, that is only a personal view and demands nothing of others; nor any agreement; and respects the knowledge, experience and ideas of others that differ from mine. In religious matters we are in the mystical virtual world of ideas and all have a knowing from their own, sometimes amazing experiences. Each of us sees into similar mysteries from different angles (science) or angels (spirituality).
DeleteScience opens doors to knowledge, science is an organised mind and recognised order and patterns. Everything below a miracle, science can provide. Your DNA chain is a formation, in the present, of multiple past lives in the past so you carry the genes of whatever survived past obstacles and horrors. In that you are a multiple person. As to what that means for ‘soul’, that is unclear, as ‘soul’ is unclear. I am aware that a single personality or ‘soul’ if they can be defined as the same (unclear) can jump along the DNA chain to resurface centuries later. Why that does not happen and each child be a personality copy of the parent is unclear; the DNA is of course a bonding of the parent DNA so a personality should not be able to resurface if DNA was all that there was to it. Perhaps it is the energy being of the mind that is a soul independent of any DNA.
Science and religious thought do come together in the concept that they share: Oneness. Atoms stick together, chemicals are formed, under right circumstance single cell life is inevitable; by chance, over eons, an anomaly happens and the formation (as on our planet) happens whereby a multi-cell formation arises and multiple life forms such as fish plants and animals arise. A tree-pattern of evolving life which goes on and does not stop in the present moment. A coming together of cells does not stop there and societies of such formed creatures arise and the bonding increases to, a rarity, but it may be inevitable, the great bonding that gives the resources to support an intelligent being, who can look into the mystic (religion) and look into mysteries (science).
Two atoms apart in the empty depths of space will drift together. Why? Because the Single principle of Gravity flows them together into One. Atoms, particles, have what we call mass and mass generates gravity. Atoms bond and their coming together structures the Universe. People who come together are stronger than those who do not, and that takes intelligence and courage, as found in the history of cultures such as the Chinese and the Jewish, where survival, education, science and thought shine. Intelligence though is not enough, a people need determined COURAGE to deliberately choose stick together, to help each other, to back each other up, through adversity to both survive and to thrive. Courage bonds.
Why do atoms bond into complex onenesses? If Space-Time is the fabric, the canvas of God then the sweeps and formations of energy are what the universe and life is painted with. Energy has form and unifies into matter. Matter comes together because of Gravity. The single principle of Gravity makes the Universe and all matter in it converge so we have atoms, stars and planets and us. Quite an achievement of creation from one principle outlined by Einstein in his famous equation. Both we and the universe we are in are a Oneness and that should tweak the minds of those whose belief is from leaping mystical revelations and not base proof, whose religion is based on the concept of that Oneness of God. So we come back to symbolism and the star, such as the 6-pointed one that symbolises a coming together into a unity. Oneness is All.
I do tend to rave on about subjects that interest me, please forgive. I elaborate as I have a personal tendency to want to be all-encompassing, to cover everything, though it is impossible. This discourse here is only my experience, insights and thoughts. In religion you must yourself choose what you believe to be: to be. We are all one, only mostly we don’t know it.
As to your Reincarnation subject: There are documented cases, though rare, such as: from India, which has a large population so good for obtaining samples of rarities in the human condition. Cases such as of a child, having never left its village, but continually insisting that it was another person elsewhere in a different time; but no family or genetic connection to that people or place. From information given, the child is taken to the village and the house it so well describes, and tells the surprised occupants there exactly where in the floor a past relative buried family items/treasures. So is this evidence of reincarnation or are there other explanations? If the child and the other person live at the same time then Telepathy or thought transference is possible. Such a possibility rapidly becomes doubtful when the other person died before the child was born. Unless it is possible for a telepathic message to be received by the mother or previous ancestor of the child and that message by some unknown process be recorded in the DNA. DNA can hold enormous amounts of data. Instincts (such as each spider species’ unique weave of web; each bird’s unique weave of nest) are examples of experience information being recorded in the DNA.
DeleteBy chance, or whatever, I happen to be well acquainted with a case of seeming reincarnation. The leap was of centuries and the original person known to my family of long ago. But there was a DNA chain in this case. Such phenomena have implications for the understandings of Anthropology, Psychology, Parapsychology, Neuroscience, molecular biology and so on. A psychic link may be a requirement.
As to personalities of more than one in one mind, there are medical cases of persons having multiple personalities known or unknown to the others; caused perhaps by severe mental trauma, or at least exposed by such. Schizophrenia was the general term used for that, but that has been discarded for more precise terms. As the mind can do this, what are the implications for the concept of ‘soul’?
Also, what are the structural capabilities of the brain and thus the mind? Our brains, having evolved beyond the basic ‘reptilian’ brain that all animals have; has developed and piled one brain on top of another: To the reptilian brain that we have must be added the Two hemispheres that can be physically cut apart and operate as different people, not knowing of the other. Each of those hemispheres has a conscious and a subconscious chamber. So considering these, each human has at least 5 brains or minds. The mind’s Focus can be within any of them and even be deliberately sent there. Where the many personalities of a multiple personality are stored is unclear; research on such persons is required by neuroscience. So you already have many “you’s” in “You”. It may not be such a larger jump to include personalities from other times, but a connection of some kind, known or not would be required. In the mental martial arts use is made of transferring the mind’s ‘presence’ into another one of your stored minds, in order to activate the usually inactive talents there. There is much more to us than is normally thought.
Stephen, thank you for your answer. Man, you must be a teacher, you are, aren't you? Anyhow, you don't need to apologise for being thorough. In Judaism, more precisely in Kabbalah, we are taught that our self is composed by many "sparks", like sparks of light. Look at it like a candle that lights many candles, and those many candles are one candle; does it make sense to you? So, I think we are many people in one body; like you said "we have many you's in you". How wonderful is that? It is yet another ode to Hashem!
DeleteYes, well teaching can be addictive. It is a pleasure to hand on what you know or what you understand, knowing also that of course you don’t know everything. A good teacher is also a perpetual student. One never stops learning. We learn from each other. Everyone knows what others do not, as everyone has a lifetime of unique experiences and from them unique realizations. All life has value in that it contains information. Even if not always realizations, but feelings. From feelings arise intuitions; from the subconscious mind, which is Big Data, it resorts and filters indications that tweak the imagination and insights and surfaces them into the conscious mind, its door to the outer world. Feelings, or energized sensations, are what glue our memories into place. One candle is easily blown out by the wind, but many candles, forming a maelstrom, make a wind of their own and a force to be reckoned with.
DeleteNapoleon Bonaparte said: There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.
For the survived of a people beset with enemies, a strong bonding together in spirit is a castle against defeat. Perhaps there is a Collective Unconscious as Carl Jung favoured. Where at some level inside the mind all people meet. “Many people in one body”, does not have to mean All of each person but perhaps can be a part of each person; or a projection, a virtual astral representation. A novelist writes a book, an extension of their person. With many readers being inspired, their candles lit, identifying with the writer or a representation of part of the writer’s mind. Thus an idea (organized energy) can spread throughout the world, inspiring spirits to arise from the clay of drudgery. We are of One creation, and in that, we are One.
Cheney and Raquel, I was wondering how related is schizophrenia and the notion that we have many souls within one. Does any of you have a possible explanation for this mental disorder? Do you think schizophrenia is linked to not being able to unify all the souls in one?
DeleteCheers
Schizophrenia is a general term for a number of mental disorders or states of being. There are four types: simple, hebephrenic, catatonic and paranoid. A broad subject. You generally have high and low emotional states, a withdrawing from reality and social contact, hallucinations and delusions. I have been interested in autism with its extreme and opposite behaviour of either excessive motor activity or catalepsy. I happen to have taught a class of about 30 autistic children/teenagers who I found were either running around continuously like maniacs, or curled up in themselves against the base of the walls. I was able to capture all their minds and line them up and have them follow me for a whole hour’s session of Tai Chi (a version not from China but from ancient Northern India: Dragon Pearl, which teaches mental controls over the body and combat techniques, recreating, pantomiming a story of a conflict from long long ago). The form takes an hour. Their teachers lined up against the walls and watched in amazement. None of them could command the attention of their patients like I could.
DeleteAfterwards, I was disappointed that not one teacher asked me questions: they had given up in trying to change their patients. They were null to the meaning of what happened. The lesson is then that it IS possible to reach into the minds of autistic persons and alter their behaviour; there is also a change in personality: they become very enthusiastic and while engaged do not run erratically nor curl up on the floor. So outward behaviour does not seem to Necessarily reflect one’s inner personality or personalities. There seems to be a projection of whatever personality or state of mind is dominant for whatever reason (trauma, chemical imbalance, fantasy etc), and that can be changed by reaching in and bringing forth another personality that lies beneath. So the brain seems to store multiple personalities, but that does not mean that it is storing multiple souls. The overall person might still only be one soul but having different shapes, aspects or “angel wings” that can fly in entirely different directions, as it were. We are talking vaguely about the shadows within the mind. All depends on how you define “soul”. So Schizophrenia could be, at least outwardly, a disordered state of mind where the mind has lost control of relating to outside reality. The mind recreates the outside reality (the external universe) inside with its internal imagination (internal universe). When they match survival and development are enhanced; when they do not match survival then requires the support of others (minders) and development (matching reality realization with more reality realization) is impeded.
Defining “souls” as “personalities” as a different soul: means a different personality or identity for each person. That soul or personality may happen to be composed of multiple components each perceivable as a soul or personality. A tree-branch also being a tree. So a soul could be a conglomerate of soul-like parts.
DeletePop fans and actor fans and hero fans thirst to be their heroes, to become whom they most admire. They surrender their individuality and seek to emulate who they admire. The truth no longer matters, only the opinions of their leader or their ideology. This becomes dangerous when that ideology is radical and merciless. Falsity reigns and science and truth are redundant, shunned, banished, feared and destroyed. One can get one’s identity from oneself or borrow the identity of another. According to Freud the Id makes no distinction between subjective imagery and objective reality. When it comes down to it, a Schizophrenic person has lost their Situational Awareness, something that I teach. A Schizophrenic person might not always have a physical cause, but maybe could also be reacting to a perceived hostile environment (persons): it is persons they fear, not things; a desperate attempt to shield themselves and their mind from a feared reality, they create a virtual mental cave of safety in which to dwell. As Liang says: mental illness may be caused by a current breakdown in one’s ability to interact and adjust.
As Boris Pasternak said: Only individuals seek the truth.
That is, healthy individuals. So those who surrender their opinions, their thinking, to other dominant persons and ideologies become herd-people without an individuality which has a critical thinking. They become of one mind though composed of many people and their surrendered “souls” merge into the clutches of one leader. So in theology, that would be a “devil” or alternatively an “angel” concept of one who collects souls. In sociology, that would be the function of a politician, one who dominates or persuades a herd of people.
I would say that, for a healthy individual, their mind is aware that it is greater than the many ideas presented to it, or problems that it experiences, its mind encompasses them, analyses them. However, for those who have no expansive understanding of the universe or themselves: their perception of their mind is that of a small creature in a cage of ideas greater than itself, and surrounded by problems that strangle a small mind. A small mind cannot analyse, cannot realize the bigger picture, and drowns in virtual waves of chaos. It perceives itself to be as a small boat in a stormy ocean. But our minds are also an ocean: we are what we perceive ourselves to be.
I find it difficult to abstract myself from myself under any circumstance so I can't meditate.
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown, sounds like you have problems in mind control. Meditation is simply being able to focus the mind, and there are many ways of doing that.
DeleteWhere is your mind’s home? If you are projecting your mind into too many thoughts and places, then deliberately project it to the place it should be, within your own self.
It depends on what you think it means “to meditate”. Meditation is a simplification of life processes, from the complex into the simple. A drop down from confusion. A withdrawing to re-emerge with all else. Meditation can be used for mental explorations, but that is a possibility you Might chose to do After you mediate. Meditation itself is mainly about emptying your mind and with your “empty cup” being very receptive to sensory inputs from the outside world. When you dig a hole in the sand, the ocean water can rush in.
If your mind is cluttered and feels not your own you need to know why. You could be under too much stress, like many people. You need friends to advise you, perhaps a psychoanalyst to assist. Or merely a Stress Management course or mentor.
On the other hand, the world may seem to be too much to handle and for that you need courage to take risks and reach out into dangers and the unknown. The past is secured but all future is uncertainty. Some people revel in the thrill of swimming in the ocean with the lurking creatures, and some do not. I used to like extracting sea snakes and eels from Children’s rock pools by the ocean, we can never be entirely free from danger.
Monks in Zen Buddhism take their pupils into a higher plane of Satori by deliberately posing a question that cannot be answered by logic. Such as: “What is the sound of one hand clapping”. When a keen pupil eventually exhausts their mind in using thought to give many answers — all rejected by the master; the pupil mentally exhausted, giving up thinking, then just Feels in the Moment; and by that transcends thinking and enters reality; to Know, rather than to Strive to know.
SOME WAYS TO DELIBERATELY CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
• Exercise till you are exhausted, too tired to think, and just flop relaxed. Run for miles until tired.
• Or, better still, walk and observe all the scenery.
• If you dance, dance continuously and feel the wonder of freedom and balanced movement.
• If you do martial arts, or Tai Chi as an exercise art, instead of its combat art (Tai Chi Quan), do your Kata or Forms and know yourself through your body.
• If you have a pet animal, or with someone else’s, play with it, observe it: how it revels in the moment. Unlike us humans, gifted and cursed to mind-explore the erratic future of good and bad possibilities, animals do not fall off that cliff; they are stable in the moment.
• Have you tried a meditation class? But much relies on the bonding abilities of the teacher. In class you still your body, relax and focus on your breathing. Not everyone finds it easy to relax. Relaxing is an art. Massage from a trained expert may help.
• Find a quite spot in Nature far from the maddening crowd and sit and focus on the wonders of the veins in a leaf, the smell of a snapped twig, the glitter in the sand.
• Normally, all that is needed to mediate is to isolate yourself in an environment and then, mind empty of extraneous thoughts, filling your mind with your breathing, you expand your mind to encompass its surroundings and in the bonding of inside to outside, to FEEL, to know yourself and the world together as One. Thinking is not everything, we are creatures that need to FEEL. Just as we need to love and to be loved.
Here is a poem, my version, from the famous poet Li Po (701-762 A.D.)
A CONVERSATION IN THE MOUNTAINS
If you were to ask me
Why I come to life
When in mountains of greenery,
I smile silently
as my soul breathes free.
The blossoms of peach
follow wherever the water flows.
There is Another
Heaven and Earth
Beyond this world of men.
Hey Cheney,
ReplyDelete"Where does the entity, that is you, begin and end?"
That is a very good question. When you speak of entity are you referring to the person, the whole package (as with soul and spirit) or are you only referring to the soul?
I will proceed with my comment upon clarification of this point.
Awesome post, man.
Later
Hi Max,
DeleteWhen talking of “You” I mean all of you, the whole package. As I am looking at the Parameters of Being, trying not to leave any stone unturned, to see all of the sides. To leave out any part of a You or a Thing or an Entity would mean negligence.
So you have parameters or borders of substance that are physical, of substance that is energy, of substance that is sensual, of substance that is mental, of substance that is influential (a thing is known by its relationships), and of substance that exists not only in the three or more dimensions of space (a la advanced physics) but also of existence or presence in the dimension, or Event Relationship, of Time. There are the undefinables also, or the mysteries, such as “Soul” that needs some consideration, if only vaguely, as it is common in people’s philosophies or experiences of “Self”. Whatever is shared, and not totally isolated to one person only, cannot be ignored. There is also the paranormal, which is a highly disputed and divisive subject. As we are all Beings in Time, Time Travellers: we must examine our past histories recorded by mankind, shifted from ancient fragments by scholars, dug up by scientists, examined by cosmologists.
And also our Future Existence towards which we are all rushing, sometimes falling over ourselves, What do we project from knowing the Past and the Present, an ever changing, refining, expanding knowledge (at least in science), what are we all converging or diverging into? The Tao of Yin and Yang; the great dichotomy; the convergence of Love, the rending asunder of Hate.
So all-in-all what is our purpose, as we Are here, what is our Meaning? And from That we will better know what we must do Now. What we Do we Are. We are Beings of Choices that influence all our surrounds. Our bodies evolve and, as has been pointed out by science, we retain redundant body parts; we evolve over eons into a future being differing from what we are now, but still we are a conscience married to a subconscious “Self”. The superficial and the deep.
Maybe we are all an encompassing single “You”: so the lesson is to treat each other better and treat our own “self” better. Our minds seem to choose what they like and our bodies follow after. Truly Knowing who you Are gives confidence, assurance, a centredness, and we can walk and talk without doubt and Fear into the future shadows with our unwavering light. We can be an energy that lights the world; and though we may be lesser, radiate Well Being like any angel.
Cheney,
DeleteThanks for your answer.
Where does the entity begin and end? It begins upon creation of the Soul and ends upon the obliteration of the Soul. Mind you, I speak not of the body, because nothing ends with the death of our bodies, it just proceeds on to the next experience. In Judaism, we believe that the Soul is destroyed when a serious offence against Hashem has been done, the most severe ones being the desecration of G-d's name and of the Shabbat (if we don't correct it while we're on earth); but then there are others that lead to that same result as well.
"So all-in-all what is our purpose, as we Are here, what is our Meaning?"
Our purpose and our Meaning are two different things. Our purpose is our Mission on earth, the one G-d engraved in our soul. Our Meaning is the one engraved in our Spirit. How do we retrieve the knowledge of both? Through Meditation.
"Truly Knowing who you Are gives confidence, assurance, a centredness, and we can walk and talk without doubt and Fear into the future shadows with our unwavering light. "
Yes.
Cheers
I meditate on the Name of Hashem, it keeps me calm. Always a pleasure to read your work, Stephen.
ReplyDeleteYes, Celeste, if I may go mystical for a moment: when you meditate you light the candle that is yourself. For those who understand the serenity of the warrior-monk personality: We are the calm before storms, we are the eye of the whirlwind, we are the centre around which the maelstrom rages. Chaos is a rain without form but when we meditate, we form a calm liquid-like pool around us that sends ripples outward, giving the calmness of our soul to others. When giving of ourselves to others we blend and nourish them as well as ourselves. When we take from others, wrench from them, then their presence intrudes on us and our centre of balance gets pushed out of alignment. You do not own things, things own you. Freedom requires a projecting of the Inward, Outward. From our touching palms and fingertips we unify a flame of being that rises upward to open our minds to the heavens. We ourselves are the key to the other world. When we shape ourselves we create whom we wish to be and form a structure to shape our environments. We ourselves are the magic that breathes life into the beauty and into the good. For, as all cruelty is ugly, so all good is beautiful.
DeleteI will try this method next time I go to the dentist. Then I will let you guys know if it worked or not!
ReplyDelete