Posted by Introspective On reflecting back on my youth and my spiritual development I have come to realize that I have never really accepted the Judeo-Christian view of reality. It is mostly due to their dogmatic beliefs on creation, original sin and the Good vs. Evil duality. I have also come to realize the power and influence of the world's mythologies on the Judeo-Christian beliefs and the polarizing concepts of Heaven vs. Hell, God vs. Satan, and Devils vs. Angels. These religious beliefs are a reflection of mans search for meaning through the power of myth. That is what led my interest in eastern mysticism because of its personalized and individualized approach to spirituality. I never accepted one religion as being the sole approach to spiritual enlightenment because I believe every person must find their own personal path in life. In my quest to understand the history of the eastern mystical approach to spiritual development I learned about a small group of Buddhist monks that broke tradition with mainstream Buddhism in Tibet approximately 2000 years ago. They wrote about their spiritual insights which have been preserved and studied not only by religious scholars but by modern day scientists. They believed that thought can change the physiology of the human body and subtly change ones environment. They wrote about how loving thoughts and negative thoughts can transmit from a person and affect ones environment in a very subtle way. They also believed 2000 years ago that their energy is eternal. Their concept on thought as being physical energy was unique and profound for that time period. I find it fascinating that modern day science has only begun to discover that energy cannot be created or destroyed. They wrote about creating an image of what one ought to be in ones mind, and never allowing the image to fade away. The mind will slowly aid in developing that image more fully and soon what you have created within you will be how others perceive you. Their energy field had a positive effect on all living things because of their devotion to spiritual development. They wrote about and used examples of how we dream and our dream becoming our reality when we are a sleep. We participate in the dream for a reason and we dream out of necessity. They also believed that there is meaning in the dream and we can learn about ourselves through our dreams. They wrote that when we wake up from our sleep we are in a higher state of awareness and that we can analyze and compare our dreams to learn more about ourselves, our relationships and to gain deeper insight into our psyche. They also believed that when we die we move through various levels of awareness similar to waking up from a dream state. We will be able to analyze our life experiences from a higher state of awareness after death just as we can analyze our dreams when we awaken from sleep. They also believed in reincarnation and they believed that just as we can remember more then one dream so to will we remember each incarnation in our higher state of awareness after death. We will be able to learn about ourselves and our relationships by analyzing our thoughts and actions in our various incarnations as if we were analyzing our dreams in a higher state of awareness. They believed that when we become incarnate in the world our goal in life is to raise our awareness to a higher level and those that accomplish this goal will raise humanity to a higher awareness as well. They wrote mostly about human desires and that the reason we are alive on earth is out of our desire to participate in the world. We learn about ourselves and others by participating with others just as we participate in our own dreams. They also wrote about Karma and that our outcome in life is determined by our thoughts and actions. They believed that just as our thoughts determine our dreams so to do our thoughts determine our outcome in each incarnation. When we learn to control our thoughts our actions will correspond with them. They wrote about various spiritual exercises and disciplines that will aid them to move through various levels of awareness. Their goal was to learn to control their outcome by learning to control their desires which drive their ego to incarnate into the world. They also believed that through many lifetimes of spiritual discipline they well eventually have no desire to incarnate into the world. They also believed that eventually they will be able to assist others from a higher state of being who are working through their Karma. I find their philosophy to be intriguing because it places full responsibility for ones outcome on their thoughts and actions rather then on religious beliefs. There writing is also profound because science is only beginning to unravel their deep insight 2000 years after it was written in the deep caves of Tibet. There insight into the deep interconnectedness of all reality and how we are constantly subtly changing our environment and physical being through our thoughts have also captivated a deep interest among today's scientists. Quantum physicists have also proved that energy cannot be created or destroyed it is eternal; this discovery was one of the major breakthroughs in sub-atomic physics in the 21st century. There are also scientists that are conducting experiments with some of the spiritual exercises that the Tibetans wrote about 2000 years ago. These scientists are conducting Bio-feedback and bio-electric experiments with artificial limbs with the hope that someday our bio-electric energy and thoughts will interface with electro sensitive computers. It is also within the ancient Hindu Sanskrits of India; many dating back well over 4,000 years ago, intuited what science is now catching up with. Buddhism and its spiritual traditions are a continuum of ancient Hinduism. The Hindus believe that we can learn much from what we read but we can learn a great deal more about ourselves from what we write. It was from that premise that a rich collection of wisdom pored forth from the ancient Hindus whose only desire was to embody spiritual enlightenment. In closing, Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) is the Buddhist master that went to Tibet approximately 2000 years ago and profoundly changed the Tibetan consciousness with his introduction of the tantric path of Buddhism. His followers are the Monks that I wrote about they followed and developed the tantra path to spiritual enlightenment. The advent of the super information highway, instant global communication, the acceleration of knowledge and technology has and is continuing to cause an evolution in our collective consciousness. We are intuitively recognizing on a global scale the interconnectedness of all things both in terms of the universe as a whole and within our quest for knowledge and advancements in technology. There is also a collective hunger whether we are consciously aware of it or not for self knowledge. This is being reflected in the pop culture with the popularity of self help books. The quest for self knowledge and spiritual enlightenment predates the written word and is pushing our conscious awareness forward collectively because it is part of our human evolution. We are on the threshold of a major shift in our human development due to our desire to find a balance between knowledge and its proper application. This is being reflected both in terms of science, technology and within our spiritual quest for self knowledge and a deeper spiritual awareness. Human consciousness is evolving at an accelerated rate and we have seen an extraordinary advancement in science and technology in the last 25 years then in any other time period in history. Long before the written word was invented the wise have sought to achieve a balance between what they intellectually thought to be true with what they implicitly and intuitively knew to be true. The power of the human intellect and what it has achieved in just a short period of human evolution in terms of science and technology is only a shadow of what is to come over the next 50 years. Science and Technology doubles every three years due to our internal drive to better ourselves and to push humanity to greater heights. If we properly applied and balanced our internal intellectual drive for knowledge of the external world with our implicit and intuitive self knowledge we would accomplish what the wisest of the wise have sought to accomplish sense the birth of humanity. The wise of ancient times understood that knowledge without wisdom is knowledge non-applied. Knowledge and its proper application can only be accomplished with the proper balance between knowledge of the world around us with our self knowledge. I find it fascinating how Science and Spirituality in our modern technological age are complimenting one another. They are just beginning to merge and penetrate the depths of reality through collective experiences, wonder, imagination, and the power of the human intellect. Written by, Thomas F. O'Neill E-mail: introspective7@hotmail.com
on 10/10/2004, 8:01 am
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