Someone recently asked me to do a blog regarding the relationship of Discipline and Dharma. My family and I are just stepping out the door for a few days of rest, so please allow me to be brief and perhaps a tad playful with the following quote which is an old Alaskan saying:
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“The only things that go with the flow are dead fish.”
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It sometimes requires a great deal of discipline to do your dharma.
Never underestimate the value of sleep.
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During meditation retreats we like to say that sleep is king. By that I mean that it is good to get to sleep early so that you are fully rested for your daily meditations. If necessary, take a nap in the afternoon, so that you are fresh for your evening meditations.
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Remarkably, upon hearing “sleep is king,” some choose to sleep through their meditations. Oh my, how easily the knowledge is lost. If sleep comes during meditation do not resist it, but structure your life to make the most of your meditations.
The Fly Wheel effect exists transgradiently – on all levels of life. It refers to momentum, habit, and conditioning. The world-view into which you are born often stays with you for the rest of your life. The result of the Fly Wheel effect is like wearing a set of blinders, it narrows and limits your vision.
Personally, I needed a better reason than I happen to be born into a Christian home to dedicate my life to Christianity. People born in Muslim cultures are Muslim, in Hindu cultures are Hindus, in Buddhist cultures are Buddhists, and so on. This is the Fly Wheel effect at work. I needed a better reason.
In the short term the Fly Wheel effect is quite lively as well. For example, it is recommended that you change your fitness routine about every month. Due to the Fly Wheel effect, that is very difficult to do. In many ways, the most difficult routine you will ever do is the first day of a new routine.
As new understandings are revealed, a natural resistance rises up to oppose them. This too is the Fly Wheel effect. I recently heard a nice quote, “Whatever is innovative will be met with resistance.”
You would do well to look to your own life and identify the Fly Wheel effects that permeate it. Long, short, and intermediate term.
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What you long for lies beyond the Fly Wheel, yet it is veiled by the Fly Wheel.
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There are three realms to existence. The most superficial is the physical, the deepest is the transcendental, and the intermediate is the psychoenergetic. The psychoenergetic is what is commonly called energy or electromagnetic. The personality exists on that level. In fact, everything has a personified correlate on that level. The personified correlates make up what is called the astral realm. Even tension in the shoulder can be viewed as an astral quality, a negative being, a rakshasa, for example. Remarkably, the world can be interfaced with on that level, yet it is a dangerous path born of duality and polar opposites. It is the realm in which good carries within it the affirmation of its antithesis. It is a realm in which one can get lost for lifetimes. Yet it is a very real aspect of life. If one is capable of navigating those waters wisely, the astral realm can add meaning to life.
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What does it mean to navigate those waters wisely? It means to see beyond that realm, not just intellectually or emotionally, but also physiologically. To be awake to that level which dwells beyond the astral, beyond duality, beyond the field of polar opposites.
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When awake to that level, one knows that the transcendent, God, has no polar opposite. There is only the transcendent and lack of awareness of the transcendent. In that sense there is such a thing as absolute good (God), yet there is no such thing as absolute evil (D-evil). Evil is nothing more then lack of awareness of ones own true nature.
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Until the transcendent is perceived clearly (this is a state of physiology, not a perspective) notions of God are astral echoes of God. Echoes of truth perceived as truth hold truth at bay. Direct experiences of emotions regarding God fall far short of the direct experience of God. The path to God is one of humility.
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In its purist sense, everything is rooted in the transcendent. However, common practices of all of these things are astral echoes of that Truth. Thereby, they hold the practitioner in the clutches of the astral. Do you believe you can practice such things without loosing part of yourself to them? Perhaps you would do well to think again. The relative is sticky. Aspire to the highest.
Bruce Lee is considered to be the rebel of martial arts. His conviction regarding classical styles was to ‘absorb what is useful and reject what is useless.’
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I have little doubt that the original masters of each style saw eye to eye with Bruce Lee. However, over time, their knowledge was reduced to a rigid system, i.e. their knowledge was lost to a degree.
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It is the obligation of each generation to pursue and uphold the purity of the knowledge. However, Knowledge does not exist in books or rules. It exists only in the awareness of the enlightened. Now I am not saying that Bruce Lee was or was not enlightened. However, I am saying his approach to martial arts maps on to (corresponds with) the principle stated here.
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My work is to bring this principle to spirituality… to re-enliven the knowledge in its purity at the only place it dwells… within the awareness of the individual. Of course to do so, means we must enlighten the individual. That is no small task.
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Unfortunately, spiritual scholars today are more often historians than they are true scholars. A true scholar knows Truth from within their being. A historian recites memorized informational residue from the past and thinks of that as Knowledge. Though it is correct to revere the ancient Masters, it is incorrect to think that a historical record of their teaching embodies their Knowledge. When the Master speaks, it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and becomes what the listener heard. This is, of course, equally true of their written words.
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Bruce Lee met with great resistance as he pursued his goal. Martial artists felt he was disrespectful of the traditions of Masters. Actually, the opposite was true. Likewise, I certainly have been, and will meet with, resistances as I pursue my goal to bring forth Knowledge. It is my mission, my purpose in life, to do so.
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For us all, Bruce Lee stands as a symbol of dedication to that type of journey.
The concept of “The Power of Attention” is well known. What is not well known is how crucial the nature of that attention is.
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Unhealthy attention limits the mind, as if one were putting on blinders.
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Healthy attention frees the awareness to expand and penetrate ever deepening levels of wisdom and understanding.
A devotee once asked an Indian saint, “Why did the universe manifest?” He answered, “It didn’t.”
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The transcendental realm, is sometimes called the “absolute.” Put simply, the transcendent realm equals Pure Consciousness. Pure Consciousness is the ultimate reality, it is Truth. In the final analysis, Pure Consciousness is the only thing that actually IS.
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All that exists is pure Consciousness.
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My own discovery of the transcendent occurred when I was in college. I often pondered life and its meaning. Is there anything that I can say I really KNOW? I looked at my hand and wondered, “How do I know that this is my hand?” Senses can be deceiving, and how did I know that, as some philosophers suggested, there wasn’t a manipulator, a deceiver, behind the idea that my hand was actually a hand?
During that time, I noticed that all fields of study contained the same principles. Whether we’re talking about mathematics, music, or engineering, there’s a commonality, an underlying basis that unifies all fields of existence. I began to have profound spiritual experiences. I knew that Einstein was correct—there is a unified field, a oneness to everything! I experienced that Consciousness is the continuum in life, the unified oneness—The Eternal One.
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Because of these experiences I rephrased Descartes’ famous quote, “I think, therefore I am,” to “I think, therefore Consciousness is.” Pure Consciousness, the transcendent, is all that we really have—it’s the commonality, or unified field, out of which all else springs.
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Transcendence is oneness. It connects everything and everyone.
It rises above, or transcends, both the physical and the electromagnetic realms.
Consciousness is the only thing that is not created by our projections.
This realm includes the different levels of the Auric field, the energy field that penetrates and surrounds the human body. The Auric field determines the structure and health of the human physical body.
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The auric field reflects your personality and psychology. This field contains thousands of different energy centers—some small, some rather large. The larger ones are referred to as chakras, the smaller ones, acupuncture points.
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One level deeper than the Auric field, the Hara also exists in the Psychoenergetic Realm. The Haric level is a “being level” of standing wave energy, where the energy exists but does not flow. From the ancient Chinese, we understand that the Hara represents an axis, a reference point, the concept of unshakability. By centering themselves in the hara, martial artists can perform tremendous physical feats.
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A level still deeper in the Psychoenergetic Realm is the Core Point, a point that represents the unique essence of your being. It is your divine center, the divine spark. It correlates to what is known as the Atman in the deeper transcendental realm.
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Like healing on the physical realm, healing on the electromagnetic realm involves fixing something. Perhaps some energy lines are broken and need to be reconnected. Psychodynamically, perhaps your beliefs about the world are hampering your life and need to be brought into balance.
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The Psychoenergetic Realm is the groundwork for the physical realm. Healing in Psychoenergetic Realm is, therefore, essential in order for healing on the physical to hold. This is the level where hands-on healing generally focuses.
The physical realm is sometimes referred to as the material or “Newtonian” realm of existence. When your perception is confined to the range your senses normally provide, you believe that the world is matter, that reality is material, and that understanding material reality means understanding everything about life. You assume that everything works and can be explained by the laws of Newtonian physics.
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The Physical Realm focuses on the linear and mechanical world of cause and effect. It is the foundation around which our cities are built, our vehicles run, and water is pumped into our homes. It relates to our purely physical being—our arms and legs, our internal organs, our toenails—and is at the heart of most modern western medicine and technology, yet, this Newtonian world is limiting—it doesn’t account for quantum physics—such things as paradox, freedom through imagination, or the unpredictable.
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Healing on the level of the physical realm essentially involves fixing something. Perhaps a knee joint is out of alignment and needs to be straightened. Perhaps there is a chemical imbalance that needs correction. The physical realm involves viewing the body as a machine that needs fixing.
The physics of the past would lead us to believe that we exist in one realm—the physical world. Actually we simultaneously exist in different realms.
Reality changes when we experience it from the perspectives of the different realms.
Of the three basic realms, two—the electromagnetic and the transcendent—have sublevels.
The Three Realms of Existence and their Sublevels:
PHYSICAL
• Basic Physical World
PSYCHOENERGETIC
• All Levels of the Auric Field
• Personality
• Psychology
TRANSCENDENTAL
• Quantum Mechanics
• Transcendent
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I will break down the three levels of existence in future blogs.
The Truth about Religion and Flatlining
