VARIOUS PATHS and METHODS
You cannot force yourself to believe anything that doesn’t make sense. The entire task before us is to learn what we already know thoroughly enough that believing it becomes a moot point. When we know that we know that we know it’s absolutely true then we don’t need to worry about whether or not to believe it anymore and we can concentrate on processing and accepting it down deep within our soul.
There are various levels of spiritual apprehension. Some factors that ‘seem’ to weigh heavily are language proficiency, levels of openness, awareness, receptivity and a genuine desire to experience an entirely new way of Life.
ONE, ALL, ‘All-One’, ‘A-U-M’, I AM.
All Holy books and teaching declare that Spirit, God is Life: Lao-Tzu, Christ, Zen, Koran, Buddha, Talmud, etc.
The word “Christ” doesn’t have to be a problem to you at all. You may be coming from a place of pretty much hating the whole construct and I don’t blame you – that’s what religion has done to it. it’s organized religion as well as taking mysticism literally (physically) that is so hideously detrimental. You can substitute other words for Christ but you may start to miss out on the real intended message that cannot – I repeat cannot – be found in any – I repeat any – religion! You could think of CCC when you think of Christ: Corrected Christ Concept. Once you step out of the body-mind, there is no “into.” Step out equals awaken: it’s the same thing. And Christ = The Word, the universal begotten Son = all of us, since forever.
SATTORI (Jap) Zen. Also The Word. The whole secret. Enlightenment. When your human consciousness which wasn’t spiritually enlightened becomes illumined, that’s SATTORI. You always had it but now you are fully aware and free.
When you’ve been engrossed in many issues in the world as we all seem to need to be and you realize you haven’t been thinking in terms of The Word, Spirit, Christ, Soul, God, Self, then you do need to step out. Whether the image of ‘stepping out’ is helpful to you or not is entirely up to you. I belabored it for some time and then I realized that “step out” equals “awaken”! – it was just that instantaneous! But when I was swimming in the mesmerism and hypnotism of the world it seemed as though I needed to make a conscious and conscientious effort to step out of all the stuff that I was knee-deep in. The moment I just simply mentally stepped out, I became fully awake!
TO. BE. OR. NOT. TO. BE.
Make an effort? Just rest? Use the mind? Overcome the mind? How to heal? How not to try to heal?
Let’s not get caught up in an over- abundance of language and terminology. For example, some will argue that Soul is a very Important concept, saying that it’s much more than a concept: it’s a definition of God so it’s a definition of Us. I happen to agree with them as it’s very helpful for people who subscribe to it and are open to it. Others will argue that it is confusing because it admits of error, is of the body and the body’s mind. I’d simply chalk that off to low level Interpretation, in view of the fact that ‘Soul’ is an actual synonym of God and therefore all the attributes of Soul, which is Spirit, are your attributes and your abilities and your talents.
Taking the theme of various levels to its obvious conclusion we necessarily realize that we live between two worlds when we have an infinite world and a finite world. Guess what? We’re all living between two worlds, never quite aware that we literally have our eternal life right now!
But tell me this: what could be more happifying than to discover that you will never die? That you will live forever? In a brand new perfect spiritual body? Wow!!! Still think you lost or wasted many precious years of your life? Your ‘material’ life? Let’s imagine your eternal life is for 1,000,000 years and you lost 10-20-30 years of it. Can you do the math? It’s infinitesimal! Your life is eternal, but when will you awaken to that incredible truth?