Why is Self-discovery essential for a safer world?
Self discovery is essential for a safer and more peaceful world. This is because it is a way to produce real changes in ourselves. Only by developing a deeper understanding of ourselves and in directly experiencing the corresponding insights will it be possible to change our decision-making processes. With better decision making, a safer and more peacefully shared World can become a reality.
Let me elaborate this point. In meditation and self-discovery, we will discover and experience a different kind of joy. One that is the result of letting go of unnecessary desires and their associated emotions of anger, greed and fear. This is a far safer and wiser route. In contrast, before this experience and insight can take hold, our sense of happiness is solely based on the fulfillment of our desires. And if our desires are based on wanton greed for money and power, it will mean that something else will have to be sacrificed in the process. That something else will always be others including resources, nature and wildlife. Eventually, the effect will come back to us, in the form of lack.
Experience is much more valuable than ideas
Experience is more valuable than ideas.
My personal impetus for awakening
In 1986, at age 14, I sat down to do a meditation. That fresh innocent mind was perfect for an amazing blissful experience.
This experience of oceanic bliss is the most awesome, magnificent and beautiful thing I have ever had. It made all other forms of mundane happiness appear like poor imitations. It is simply pure, brilliant, unadulterated bliss.
For two days after the meditation, I was basking in the blissful after-effects. When it finally subsided, my body was aching. The experience although wrapped me in emotional ecstasy, physically wracked my feeble human body. I also became addicted to bliss. I want to return to that state.
After the incident, I set an intention to eventually return to the experience of Bliss. I have been prodding along an un-relentless spiritual quest ever since.
The World is not how we see it
The initial ‘awakening’.
“The Matrix” is one movie that got many viewers pondering on the nature of reality. I, for one, am a great fan of The Matrix. In many ways, although not exactly true, the movie is symbolic of the nature of reality.
Many times, meditation allows one to catch glimpses beyond the mundane.
I am an avid meditator. There are some meditation sessions that literally redefined my identity and altered my perception of the world. I must emphasize that meditation is the major modality that helped me to understand myself and the nature of Reality better.
In one ‘awakening’ meditation, I came to a state of zero thoughts. Such experiences are very hard to describe. This is because the explanation process itself, is within the medium of thoughts and concepts. It is impossible to describe a state of zero thoughts using thoughts! Anyway, in the void of no thoughts, one naturally assumes that everything must be an unconscious blank. However, that was not the case! What came next was quite a revelation to me. In the void of no thought, all-pervading Presence is being experienced… Here’s how I will describe the experience.
“The Presence is all pervasive, yet un-intrusive. This awareness seems to be in all things and observes with utter passivity. Awareness can exist beyond concepts, beliefs and does not need any form. Therefore, I understand this awareness as timeless.
You can say that I was completely blown away by the experience. That spurred me on an ardent search to understand and make sense of it all. I corresponded with whoever I think can help me unlock the mystery. These people included clairvoyants, other meditators, people on spiritual paths and new-agers. I had also checked out Buddhist descriptions of different meditative states.
From these investigations, something becomes certain. That is, a human being is much more than a body that can talk and think. The Human Personality, which is our character, is only a surface-deep consciousness of the human. With regard to our identity, our personality is merely the tip of the iceberg. Within the human being’s psyche lie much subtler and often-obscured levels of consciousness.
That ‘zero-thought experience’ was not the only mystical meditative experience. As mentioned before, I have also experienced being a vast ocean of bliss. From these meditative experiences, I have come to an irrefutable conclusion. That is: Our awareness and our beingness is not what it appears to be.
If you are not excited by this revelation, then I am.
After these initial experiences, I wrote a free ebook (similar to this one). This attracted several Spiritual Teachers. These Teachers guided and pointed me in ways that help in my progress. I am eternally grateful to these Teachers.
Over the years, new insights are discovered and spiritual experiences have been cycled and refined many times. I will explore the other insights in the subsequent texts.
Vibrational states are distinct and definite forms of experiences.
For example, the higher density/vibrational states cannot experience/feel the physical sensations associated with being a physical form. The vibrations states are like distinct gateways of different experiences. Once you have ascended (meditatively) into a higher state, the state below it may not be experienceable. Depending on how you see it, this can both be an advantage as well as a disadvantage.
Higher vibrational and more pleasant feeling is experienced by the skillful dispassionate release of the lower and more unpleasant ones. And insights borne from meditation and spiritual practices are essential for enabling such skillful dispassionate releases.
These insights progress in stages and it is not just one single discovery.
The Discovery of Split in the Human Consciousness
As human beings we are aware of 2 main states of consciousness, the waking and the dreaming. However, there are other states as well.
In one meditation, I was able to temporarily suspend the human mind. This allowed for the perspective from a Higher level of consciousness. This level of consciousness is not the same as the Presence of Zero-thought experience. It is something different. In the terms of newage, it will be the Higher Self or Oversoul. From that perspective, one is able to view the life’ intention and ‘plan’ so to speak. However, as exalted and vast when compared to the Human personality, it is not fully perfected. The imperfection is why there is a need for physical rebirths.
Investigative Spirituality meeting Science
Eventually, in the future, if the Investigative types of Spirituality are seriously researched, its findings will overlap with mainstream Science as a common understanding and knowledge. And it seems to be happening in the area of Quantum Mechanics. For example, the finding of the Quantum Entanglement strongly suggests that the Observer and what is being Observed are interdependent. This is similar to the idea of non-duality associated with Investigative Spirituality such as Buddhism.
You may want to watch an explanation of Quantum Entanglement here
https://youtu.be/5_0o2fJhtSc
What if the World is holographic
What if the universe is holographic. This is the hardest to understand.
The things that we experience are registered by all the sense organs. The eye sight registers vision, the ears register sound, the body registers sensations. These perceptions, sensations and experiences are not happening in some places. They are the experience of the arising of certain conditions. There is no solidity and physicality in the actual experience.
What we experienced is not universal and common to all. Here’s an example to illustrate that: We know that as human beings, we see in terms of colours. Some animals are however colour-blind, thus they see differently from us. But none of us is really seeing the truth of Reality directly. The senses of different species of sentient beings experience things differently. So who is seeing the real image of an object? None.
Likewise, the various planes and dimensions of existence are due to different conditions arising. In certain types of meditation, one is said to be able to access these planes of existence. This is because they are not specific locations. They are mental states and are thus non-localised. In these meditations, our consciousness changes and ‘aligned’ more with these other states or planes of existence.
All the planes of existence are simultaneously manifesting, but because our senses are human-based conditioned arisings, we only see the human world and other beings that share ‘similar’ resonating arising conditions. But nevertheless, the other planes of existences are not elsewhere in some other places.
What we think of as places are really just consciousness and there is no solidity whatsoever. Even our touch sense is just that. The touch sense gives an impression of feeling something that is physical and three-dimensional. But there is really no solid self-existing object there. Instead, it is simply the sensation that gives the impression of physical solidity and form.