But these two bits were really good.
Meditation by Gem.
Hi,
I'm going to talk, but I have no interest in influencing people and their meditation techniques.
Meditation is the presence that continues throughout the changing experience. Equating the experience with meditation creates expectations and desires that meditation should be like this or that; however, people describe a vast range of experiences that occur during meditation, so it's obvious that no particular experience defines what meditation is... The word 'during' is relevant in the sense that meditation endures the mentioned variety of experiences.
This invariably comes back to you, and I use you in the generic sense because meditation must be a universal to all people. If it's a type of meditation, that's a personal practice, but the principle mediation is always the still presence of mind that remains throughout the changing experience.
It's often the case that the presence of mind is skittish, and change causes mental reactions that 'break' the trance-like spell of quiet beingness. That's quite normal and there is no reason to be disappointed, disheartened or deflated. The mind is accustomed to these deflating feelings and the sense of 'not getting it right' or something like that, but that's merely mental habits and there isn't any valid reason for it. There is no room for such feelings in meditation practice, so if one notices these counter-productive feelings,they would do well to cultivate patience and persistence in their place. These are the virtues that grow where disappointment and defeat dissipate.
To elaborate on the experience, there are pleasant and unpleasant experiences, and since meditation isn't pertinent to experiences per se, but to the stable self presence of the meditator, one cultivates a neutral balance of mind that is reflective of the central stillness of any one person's being. It doesn't matter if pain manifests in the body or if a flow of energy delights the senses, because if one can't meditate during a painful episode, and instead, is mentally unbalanced by their reactions to it, it reveals to the meditator that there is some work to do toward stablizing their balance of mind. In the case of pleasure the problems are more nuanced, but people tend to become desirous of pleasure, and are are unsettled when they don't get what they want, or they cling to it as opposed to letting it pass as it wont to do. In such a case, the person can also practice to enhance their stability and balance. This goes to say, that regardless the nature of the experience, all experience is an opportunity to cultivate the balance of one's mind.
I wish to explain why that is important. People are accustomed and habitualised to react with desire to pleasure and aversion to displeasure, and they don't always understand this kind of hatred and love is generated as mental reactivity that perpetuates egocentricity i.e. "I react". This illustrious figure, I, is completely constructed of the action/reaction process which drives the karmic wheel, produces the egomanic symptoms of me and my and mine, and perpetuates the very movement of mind that disturbs the meditator. It's the basis of suffering.
The body and mind are an interwoven fabric. The body manifests the contents of mind, and all of a persons emotional content is manifest in the sensual experience. If a person contains hard emotions from their past traumas or from self defeating beliefs, those emotions will manifest as hardened and painful sensual experiences, and they are toxic if held over the long term.
The reason they stay there for so long is that they are very unpleasant to endure, so people create an adverse reaction process. When that discomfort arises in their consciousness, they are compelled to engage an activity in order to avoid the feeling as it occurs, and persue a pleasurable feeling in order to distract themselves from it. This is the loop of aversion and desire or the duality of love/hate, and that process drives the continuation of the mind until all the stored thoughts and feelings finally complete their inevitable process (which we refer to as destiny, in a manner of speaking)
This brings me back to the cultivation of a neutral and stable balance of mind. This balance enables the unshakable presence of being to remain consistent. If one ceases the mental movement that I described above, and adopts a still disposition, the mental and emotional phenom manifest sensationally can be observed as they happen to be, and because the mind remains balanced, they can pass as freely as they are wont to do. Once they have completed their passage, they dissipate and are gone, and cease to recur (since the mental and emotional content no longer exists).
I must be coming to a conclusion. The thought that began about a half hour ago is now fading into an obscure mist; it came to me and went through a process of change that lasted for a while, and now it's fading fast.
Thanks
Then there's Bartholomew, channeled by a chap in Vancouver, Canada. about religion.
The first thing is to deal with religions. They, all of them, are necessary because of the immaturity of the human race as a whole. The average man is not equipped to understand greater realities so he is given a simple "believe and be rewarded" format instead. OK that sounds pretty harsh and a critic will use the term, "judgemental". So be it.
the first thing to understand so that the complexity of the world makes better sense is to realize that creation, once begun, has never stopped. New "baby" human souls come into existence all the time just as mature ones "graduate" from the need to express through physical bodies. If it weren't for this fact no religion would have endured as long as they have. Considering the planet as a whole most, by far, of the humans who live on her are very young souls. Only a small percentage are older and there is only a very small group of advanced souls (in bodies) here on earth. Jesus is one of these but since the average soul could not relate to greater truths it is better to use the "father son" relationship instead when speaking of Him and God. The entire Bible is nothing more than an answer to the level of maturity of man. If man were "static", if all of us were the exact same spiritual age, there would be only one religion. In Christianity there would not be "denominations". The earth is not that way though. We are very diverse so religion is also. Want to know who is junior and who is senior. One way to find out is to look at who pushes religious conversion. No advanced soul would do that. Likewise it is unkind in the extreme to attempt to "down preach" the religious zealot. They cannot understand and such attempts just cause them pain.
Most advanced humans on earth live quiet lives in isolation. There is no necessary correlation between spiritual age and temporal position. Thus we find often that leaders in countries are apt to behave poorly. This works out to benefit us all in the end though.
The average person need not know about reincarnation. The information would be misused. Better not to know. There is a story that comes form ancient China where a person could legally promise to repay a debt in a future lifetime. No mature human would even consider such a thing. Better that we don't know. But some of us do know (about the universe of spirit) otherwise why would this website be here?
Souls are born, not in perfection, but in innocence. The begin their long journey in bodies on planets. Some come here and are humans. Very seldom do souls change planets because of great differences that would cause problems, getting in the way of learning. We live a thousand or more lifetimes on Earth. We all live as male, female, fat, skinny, ugly, good looking, rich, poor, gay, straight, tall, short, sick, healthy and as members of all the racial groups. By the time this is finished we've learned all the Earth can teach us. The acquisition of wisdom is the goal beyond which the "salvation and resurrection" of the Christian occurs.
Religions exist for the purpose of assisting us on our paths. The Bible of Christianity is written entirely in metaphors. The entire work is in parable form. In scripture are meanings within meanings within meanings. The Bible speaks clearly of the higher truths but the immature minds see these references and do not understand them. They choose instead to promote superficial meanings. This is good. Remember that religions are designed for immature souls. It would be inappropriate for advanced humans to attempt to correct them. Remember that new souls are coming to Earth all the time and these need the kind of guidance that only religions can provide.
You mention "soul plans" in your post. They exist. We all plan our lifetimes in advance. We select the type of body and the setting in which we will live in accordance with what we want to learn. The religious person will say that God does this but it is we who live our lives. God is the ultimate source but how are we to grow if we don't play an active part in our own lives? Where will wisdom come from if we can't participate in our own destinies? So, yes, we make plans for each life. What are our weaknesses right now? Are we quick to anger for instance? Then it is likely that this inclination is what we are attempting to overcome. Are we grossly ugly and fat? Perhaps we need to learn humility and have chosen to do it the hard way. Does a baby die in the crib? What acceptance lessons might the grieving parents learn? Are we judged unfairly and sent to prison for crimes we did not commit? Maybe we had unresolved violence issues in past lifetimes that were never finished. All this is possible.
Religions exist to make things easier for us. Better it is to be presented with a set of beliefs and rules than to sink or swim in the higher truths that sometimes would be so devastating. Religions are like safety valves. That they are superficially incorrect or incomplete is OK. A greater purpose is served.
One last thing is for us to realize that it is not our place to run around trying to "teach the world". The one who does this forgets that most of the world does not need to hear great truths. Most of the world needs what religions have to offer.
I was raised a Christian. I believe too much to be one now. No matter. I still enjoy the occasional visit to a church (I go to them all in turns) to experience what others around me have to share. Do we think in terms of acceptance? Most of us at least entertain the idea. Make it so then. Accept the fact that humanity is diverse, of all spiritual ages and that "the needs of the many seldom dovetail with the needs of the one". (Mr. Spock of Star Trek.)
As for "ah ha moments" that you mention. There are some of these every day it seems. Good that you put it that way. It's real.
A very BIG ah ha moment is the realization of the fact that not all souls are the same age and experience and that, further, religions do not account for this in their teachings.
One last thing. Christianity teaches us that we were created in perfection and that later we "fell" and are now sinful. This is incorrect. The doctrine of Original Sin is false. We were born in innocence and coming to Earth from the spirit worlds (Eden) was the plan all along. Remember the serpent in the garden? The snake is the almost universal primitive symbol of the Earth. Thus the snake in the garden signifies the necessary pull of the Earth to Adam and Eve. (everything is in metaphors) What the serpent said to Adam and Eve is irrelevant. The fact of it's presence at that moment is not. We had to come here to learn. Simply being created and living a stagnant, un-dynamic existence (through obedience) in heaven would be pointless. The reason the truth of this is not stated clearly in the first place is because if it were there would be no motivation through guilt and fear for us to make an attempt to advance. In the beginning we had no wisdom so we needed it's distant cousin, fear. We should not judge religions too harshly for this deception. It was necessary. Religions do not hide truth. The great souls who dictated scripture to prophets chose to "color" truth in terms that would be suitable for early, immature, man. Religions were then formed around and based upon these.
__________________
Blessings...
Blessings...
Lot's of stuff eh? Good stuff though.
