Soul
of the subject surfaces slowly? Or the subject of Soul surfaces slowly? Or the
surface of the Soul slowly introduces to the subject?
Certain subjects because of the very voluminous and
valuable content already available by
virtue of in depth study and experience from very ancient times by great souls
and stalwarts instill a sort of discomfort even for people who are high on confidence and who adopt an attitude of I care
two hoots to what my predecessors have said.
In addition if that subject cannot be that easily either
tangibly proved through scientific experiments or cannot be measured and/or evaluated and besides, if these subjects also
involve too many uncertainties and vagueness involving varying religious
interpretations and beliefs, you can imagine the plight.
So, the very thought of getting into such an arena
is like getting into a den of a pride of hungry lions wherein the entry point
closes the movement you enter. Imagine the shivers that such a situation would
send down your spine, your pants would become obviously wet. But then what if
life presents you with one such situation all of sudden or you stumble upon
one, then you have no other option than to refer to the literatures of your
predecessors in humility, even if not total understanding and remain at peace
for some result to emerge and stay in the hope that would help you either by
encouraging your encounter or showing ways to escape.
I stumbled upon one such subject with two rather
vague but new and unusual paths which ventured into the subject which sounded
as good as making a statement about the heat of the sun’s core with the shadow
of a tree produced by the angle of its [sun’s ] rays, as logical or illogical as
that may sound, but then it provided an opening for people to attempt to note
1] That the sun exists,
2] That it is hot,
3] That the angle of its rays causes shadows etc
So as mentioned earlier in this rather long preamble
I am not going to expose my ignorance nor am I going to claim any knowledge
about the subject but I can safely say that I have read enough materials, loads
and loads to get myself academically confused, if not clarified; that I have
encountered enough experiences in my life to believe in it; I have had the
privilege of having had friction with great giants in flesh and blood and
through books as a result of which I gained immense knowledge about the
subject.
I am going give below the recent materials that have
emerged on this subject and some discussions that have taken place on this
subject not necessarily the most entertaining nor enlightening but nonetheless
some attempts to explore the subject by ordinary people.
Before I even attempt to introduce what subject I am
going to talk about I would like to very cautiously guard myself to avoid attracting
too many controversies and counter views as I have explained already I am not
an expert but I am enjoying the journey in the subject.
The actual topic of the subject is yet to surface
but before I proceed to introduce the topic I would like to take a small detour
and make some observations about word or language itself, though often the best
available medium to express several experiences of life but still how an
inadequate tool it is sometimes, as expressed and felt not by an ordinary
mortal like me but by great scholars, writers, philosophers, scientists etc. Here
are some of their statements.
“Words, he decided, were inadequate at best,
impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.”
-― Patricia A. McKillip, In The Forests
of Serre
“The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to
escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits
of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what
is not in the dictionary.” ― Italo
Calvino
“For in spite of language, in spite of intelligence
and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to
anybody.”― Aldous Huxley
Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws
one person to another, not words.”
― Rumi
Spirituality for me is recognizing that I am
connected to the energy of all creation, that I am a part of it and it is
always a part of me. Whatever label or word we use to describe "it"
doesn't matter. Words are completely inadequate.- Echart Tolle
An Interview with author Neale Donald Walsch author of ‘Conversations With God’by Sirona Knight & Michael Starwyn
You
feel communicating with God takes you to a place you experience as a true home,
then?
Neale:
Yes, it's a feeling of oneness. The feeling is indescribable and words are
impotent and puny in the face of the actual experience. Anyone who has had this
kind of experience, in meditation or in a moment of divine samadhi where they
have felt one with all of it, knows there are no words to describe the feeling.
In addition to the inherent in adequacy as expressed
by such great scholars words also have their own romance and are fallible to
the manipulators how it is you can read in this link http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/01/romance-of-words-and-its-manipulators.html
There have been even articles like these ones http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/scientists-prove-that-dna-can-be-reprogrammed-with-words-and-frequencies/
So, after this long prelude of precaution and still,
before I introduce the topic I would like to mention that the subject is so much part of too many entities
some of which were always viewed as mere abstract philosophizing, some as more
to do with people preoccupied with religion and/or spirituality. However as it
is the most intrinsic part of life, but not actually experienced by many, it
has been or forced to be explained with reference to or in connection with or
associated with many other related phenomena/phenomenons or noumena /hypotheses
as you would like to call them as. For example: self, divinity, universal
principle, spirit, universal spirit, reincarnation etc.
Now after enjoying the somewhat safe feeling of
friction beneath my feet of the sand on the shore I would like to carefully
slide into edges of the ocean which is the subject of the topic and try to
churn out whatever little I can with different tools and methods of churning. I
do not dare to come out with any of my own definitions, descriptions or even
interpretations of the subject .So I am confining myself to churning and would
like all those who wish to join to enjoy the process of churning and wonder at
the many things that the ocean throws up.
The ocean and subject are known or referred by the
word ‘Soul’ and hence invariably interconnected, interrelated, interspersed
,inter changeably used, sometimes also superimposed along with a host of many other
terminologies like self, divinity,
awareness, actuality, reality, universal principle, spirit, universal spirit ,
reincarnation etc
Even Voltaire
said, “Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul
is”.
“True religion is real living; living with all one's
soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.” “My religion consists of a
humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the
slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” Albert Einstein (1879-1955-Theoretical
Physicist, Philosopher, Nobel Prize Winner)
We shall gradually immerse in the ocean of many such
definitions, descriptions, detailed discussions by wise souls slowly but before
getting into churning I would like to mention what motivated me to get into
churning into this ocean, curiously it was because of some materials which are
not normally associated with it as would you can discern from the many
interconnected words and terms referred above this ocean is invariably
frequented by religious, spiritual, philosophical and at the most literary
people but recently I came across some materials of scientific study, including
some measurement based ones, I am not passing any judgments here as to how
valid, good or useful they are. These also instigated some group discussions
some of which also I have reproduced at the end of the write up so that let the
churning continue and throw up all it can.
Here I would like to touch lightly picking out just
a few sentences from Osho, “It was
necessary to evolve certain principles; that has been done by me. The work of
the scientist is over. Now the work is for the technicians. A scientist
completes the work, like Edison discovering electricity and inventing an
electric lamp. Thereafter, it is the work of the electrician to fix the bulb.
There is no difficulty in that”.- from OSHO
: Dimensions Beyond the Known, Chapter 4 what a wonderful chapter it is? I
shall be failing miserably in this churning process if I do not reproduce the
whole chapter which I shall, of course, do later on.
"We live in succession, in division, in parts,
in particles. Meantime within man is the
soul of the whole: the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part
and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and
whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect
in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the
spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.
We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the
tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul."Excerpt from The Over-Soul, by Ralph Waldo
Emerson, first published in 1841.
“Nobody doubts that he exists, though he may doubt
the existence of God. If he finds out the truth about himself and discovers his
own source, this is all that is required.” –Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Maharshi.html
“You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien
universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived
pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer
form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred,
that it cannot be spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it
now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it
for yourself.”- EckhartTolle
“Having access to that formless realm is truly
liberating. It frees you from bondage to form and identification with form. It
is life in its undifferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into
multiplicity. We may call it the Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all
things, the Being within all beings. It is a realm of deep stillness and peace,
but also of joy and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become
"transparent" to some extent to the light, the pure consciousness
that emanates from this Source. You also realize that the light is not separate
from who you are but constitutes your very essence.” – EckhartTolle
“Many expressions that are in common usage, and
sometimes the structure of language itself, reveal the fact that people don't
know who they are. You say: "He
lost his life" or "my life," as if life were something that you
can possess or lose. The truth is: you don't
have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades
the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or
blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Can you sense deep within that you already know
that? Can you sense that you already are That?”- EckhartTolle
''That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit, Eternal,
full and infinite Bliss, Shines in everyone...."-Selected quotes from his
work. Forty Verses On Reality is included in its entirety.- Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi
“One of the marvels of the world is the sight of a soul
sitting in prison with the key in its hand!
Covered with dust,- From Book 5 of the Masnawi Translated by Coleman Barks in The Soul of Rumi
The Wisdom of Swami
Vivekananda
“The soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it
takes the color of whatever is near it.
Whatever the soul touches... it has to take its color. That is the difficulty. That constitutes bondage. The color is so strong, the crystal forgets
itself and identifies itself with the color.
Suppose a red flower is near the crystal: the crystal takes the color
and forgets itself, thinks it is red. We
have taken the color of the body and have forgotten what we are. All the difficulties that follow come from
that one dead body. All our fears, all
worries, anxieties, troubles, mistakes, weakness, evil, are from that one great
blunder-- that we are bodies. This is
the ordinary person. It is the person
taking the color of the flower near to it.
We are no more bodies than the crystal is the red flower.”- Swami Vivekananda
“If you have built castles in the air, your work
need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under
them”.- Henry David Thoreau
“Identification with your mind creates an opaque
screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that
blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you
and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It
is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the
illusion that there is you and a totally separate "other." You then
forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and
separate forms, you are one with all that is.”- The Wisdom of Eckhart Tolle
Here again Osho very clearly explains mind is intellect and therefore it by itself is never real ‘Intelligence
“Mind is not your intelligence. It may sound strange
but this is a truth, that mind is not your intelligence. Mind can be
intellectual, which is a very poor substitute for intelligence. Intellectuality
is mechanical. You can become a great scholar, a great professor, a great
philosopher, just playing with words which are all borrowed, arranging and
rearranging thoughts, none of which are your own.
The intellect is absolutely bankrupt. It has nothing
of its own, all is borrowed. And that´s the difference between intelligence and
intellect. Intelligence has an eyesight of its own, a capacity to see into
things, into problems. Intelligence is your born quality.”-Osho
“I simply believe that some part of the human Self
or Soul is not subject to the laws of space and time.”-Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)-Founder Of Analytical Psychology
“The downside, of course, is that over time
religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of
soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of
nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish
the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go
through life following an inappropriate moral compass.”~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes from Good Business
“Being is not only beyond but also deep within every
form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it
is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't
seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it
only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully
and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood
mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of
"feeling-realization" is enlightenment.” -The Wisdom of Eckhart Tolle
“The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: 'Who am I?'
After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is
certain. The 'I am this' is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.
To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are
not. Discover all that you are not -
body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that - nothing, concrete or
abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that
you are not what you perceive. The
clearer you understand that on the level of mind you can be described in
negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and
realize that you are the limitless being.”- NisargadattaMaharaj
“Soul is reflected in appearance, that unique
expression of you that is forever expanding and growing based on your life
choices. Soul evolves through physical experience to move beyond the judgment and fear of the mind. Soul transcends self-created limitations to
come to recognize itself as eternal and ultimately, unites with the oneness of
Spirit.” From the wonderful link http://www.dreambuilders.com.au/inspirations/about-soul
Also another link worth referring to quotes on soul
Soul as depicted in Bhagwat Gita
Excerpted from the Compilation "Reality, Soul
and the Worlds of God"[From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh:]
The Reality of the Soul — Understanding Your True
Self
Conversely and really the soul can also be
ameliorated as Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900);
Scholar, Writer, Philosopher says about SOUL,
“There is one thing one has to have: either a soul
that is cheerful by nature or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and
knowledge.”
Or as Oscar
Wilde says,
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing
can cure the senses but the soul.”
Or as Wallace D. Wattles Quotes from The Science of Being Great
“Genius is the union of man and God in the acts of
the soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds. They are in connection
with a reserve power that is without limit.
You must always learn to see yourself as a great
advancing soul.
Begin to do small things in a great way…You must put
the whole power of your great soul into every act.”
Or as Neal
Donald Walsch says in his work ‘ Conversations with God ‘
“There is only one purpose for all of life, and that
is for you and all that lives to experience fullest glory…everything else you
say, think, or do is attendant to that function. There is nothing else for your
soul to do, and nothing else your soul wants to do.”
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly,
is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007);Writer
“There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can
circumvent, or hinder, or control a firm resolve of a determined soul”.~ Unknown Quotes
“Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the
call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has
faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship
in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side
all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel
into an infinite sea. This talent and this call depend on his organization, or
the mode in which the general soul incarnates itself in him. He inclines to do
something which is easy to him, and good when it is done, but which no other
man can do. He has no rival. For the more truly he consults his own powers, the
more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. His ambition
is exactly proportioned to his powers. The height of the pinnacle is determined
by the breadth of the base. Every man has this call of the power to do somewhat
unique, and no man has any other call. The pretence that he has another call, a
summons by name and personal election and outward "signs that mark him
extraordinary, and not in the roll of common men," is fanaticism, and
betrays obtuseness to perceive that there is one mind in all the individuals,
and no respect of persons therein.”~ Ralph
Waldo Emerson Quotes from The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in
muscles.”-Alex Karras (born
1935);Athlete, Actor
“The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.”-Helen Keller (1880-1968);Author,
Lecturer, Activist
“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities.
It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.
And those three things are going to carry on forever.”-
Jimmy
Valvano (1946-1993);College Basketball Coach
“The soul is born old but grows young. That is the
comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's
tragedy.”~ Oscar Wilde Quotes from A
Woman of No Importance, 1894
“The soul--which I'm defining as our capacity for
these deeply positive human qualities--is something that, in most of us,
desperately needs to be developed. Too many of us live in a fractured state,
deeply divided against ourselves--often far more so than we are aware of or
able to feel. We exist in a self-generated vacuum of moral ambiguity, where
everything is relative and our attention is focused mainly on our emotional
state. Most of us know a lot more about what really matters than we are willing
to live up to. Indeed, we are attracted to that which is beautiful, profound,
and meaningful but find ourselves lacking the soul strength to really struggle,
to engage in a life-and-death wrestling match with our own division, cynicism,
and inertia. The awful truth is that it is just easier for us not to care that
much. In order to care that much, we have to be willing to feel a connection
with life that is so deep that it hurts. We have to be ready to step onto the
field of our own experience in a way that is authentic, unconditional, and
deeply committed--to embrace a kind of fearless vulnerability where our
transparency is our strength and the living experience of connection is
permanent, unbroken, and inescapable”.~ Andrew
Cohen Quotes
Past
Lives and the Science of the Soul
OSHO : Dimensions Beyond the Known, Chapter 4
OSHO,
“You have told us what happens to the soul during
that timeless interval between two births. But some points remain unresolved,
regarding the bodiless soul: in that bodiless state, does the soul remain
stationary or can it move about? And how does it recognize other souls? In that
state, is there any possibility of a dialogue between souls?
In this connection, two or three things may be
remembered. Firstly, neither is there any stationary condition nor any movement
in that state. That is why it becomes even more difficult to understand. It is
easy for us to understand that if there is no movement there must be a state of
rest or vice versa. In our thinking, these are the only two possibilities for
everything. We think that in the absence of one the other must prevail. We are
also under the impression that these two states are opposite to each other.
So firstly, we should understand that movement and
non-movement are not opposites, but different aspects of the same thing. When
the movement is such that we are not able to see or grasp it, we call it
non-movement. Movement is, likewise, a state of non-movement which we are not
able to comprehend. If something moves at a great speed, you will find that it
appears stationary.
If a fan is moved at a high speed, you will not be
able to see the blades. At that speed, you will not be able even to tell how
many blades the fan has, because the empty space between the three blades
becomes filled before we can see it. A fan can move so quickly that you cannot
put anything through the spaces between the blades. Things can be moved in such
a way that even if you touch them with your hand you will feel that they are
not moving. That is why science says that all things that appear stationary to
us are also moving, but the movement is very fast and at levels that are beyond
the grasp of our senses. Therefore, movement and non-movement are not two
things. They are different states of the same thing differing only in degree.
In the realm where there is no body, both these
conditions will not be there because where there is no body there is neither
time nor space. From what we have known thus far, it is not possible for us to
conceive of a realm beyond time and space because we have not known anything
that is beyond.
What then shall we call that condition? We do not
even have any word to express a condition where there is no time and space.
When, during a religious experience, messages of such a state were received for
the first time, difficulties arose regarding how to describe it. What is the
name of that state? An embarrassment similar to this is also experienced by
science when it has difficulty in naming a newly discovered phenomenon; when
something happens which is different from and beyond all our pertinent
knowledge, this becomes very difficult.
For example, some years ago, when the electron was
first discovered, the question arose whether to call it a particle or a wave.
We cannot call it a particle because matter is always static; nor can we call
it a wave because a wave is always moving and is weightless. The electron is
both simultaneously. Then difficulty arises -- because in our understanding a
thing can be only one of the two, but not both. But the electron is both a
particle as well as a wave. Sometimes we comprehend it as a particle, sometimes
as a wave. There is no word in any language of the world to express this
phenomenon.
For the scientists who observed this, it seemed
inconceivable. It became a mystery. When people asked Einstein why he was
describing the electron as both a particle and a wave, they felt that his
thinking was becoming illogical and mysterious. Einstein, in reply, then asked
them whether he should believe fact or logic. The fact is that the electron is
both at the same time, but logic tells us that a thing can be only one at a
time. A man is either standing or walking. Logic tells us that he can be one
thing at a time; he cannot be both standing and walking simultaneously. Logic,
therefore, will not agree. But the experience of the electron required that
scientists should put aside logic and hold fast to facts. The electron is an
example.
The experience of religious individuals tells us
that during that interval between the leaving of one body and the taking of
another, the bodiless soul is neither stationary nor in movement. This is
beyond our understanding. That is why some religions say the bodiless soul is
stationary and others say that it is in movement. But this is only due to the
difficulty of explaining -- because the boundaries of space and time within
which movement or non-movement is observed do not exist during that interval.
For both movement or non-movement, a body is necessary. Without body, there can
be neither movement nor non-movement.
The body is the only medium through which these conditions
can be observed.
For example, this is my hand. I can either move it
or keep it steady. Someone may ask, when I do not have this physical hand,
whether or not my soul will be moving. The question itself is meaningless
because without this hand the soul can neither move nor remain stationary.
Movement and non-movement are both qualities of the body. Beyond body, the
words"movement" and "non-movement" have no meaning.
This is applicable to all dualities. Take, for
example, the condition of speaking and the condition of remaining silent.
Without the body, it is neither possible to speak nor to remain silent.
Ordinarily, we can understand that it is not possible to speak without body,
but it is difficult to understand that it is not possible even to be silent
without body. Through the medium which enables one to speak, one can express
silence as well. Becoming silent is only a way of speaking, a state of
speaking. Silence is not only a state of not speaking, but of speaking as well.
For example, a man is blind. One may feel that
perhaps he is only able to see darkness. This is illusion. Even to see
darkness, eyes are necessary. Without eyes, it is not possible even to see
darkness. You may close your eyes and think that because you are seeing darkness
it is possible, but you are making a mistake. While you close your eyes, your
eyes do not cease to be there; you do not become blind. If you become blind
after once having had eyes, then you will know what darkness is. But for the
one who is blind since birth it is not possible to know what darkness is,
because darkness is also an experience of eyes. You experience darkness with
the same medium used to experience light. One who is blind since birth cannot
know what darkness is.
You hear through your ears. In language, we may say
that one who has no ears is not hearing. But that state of not hearing is also
not known to those who are deaf. Ears are necessary even to know that you did
not hear. It is just like eyes being necessary to know what darkness is. Non-movement
is possible only through that sense in which there is movement. If there is no
sense, there is no experience of non-movement. In the bodiless state, the soul
can neither speak nor remain silent. There is no instrument for speaking or for
remaining silent. All experiences are dependent on the instrument -- on the
body, on the senses.
But this does not mean that such a bodiless soul has
reached liberation. The descriptions of a soul in liberation and one that is in
the interval between life and rebirth may appear similar. What then is the
difference between the liberated soul and the one that is in this interval? The
difference is of potentiality, of seed existence.
During the bodiless existence, the interval between
two bodies, the experiences and impressions of all previous births remain with
the soul in seed form. As soon as the soul acquires a body, they will become
active. For example, if we cut the feet of a person, his experiences of running
will not disappear. Without feet he can neither run nor stop, because if he
cannot run how can he stop? But if he acquires feet, all of his experiences and
impressions will become active again and he will be able to run if he wants to.
It is like taking away a car from a person who has
always been driving.
Now he cannot drive a car or press an accelerator --
because he has no car. Neither can he apply brakes to slow down. But his
experiences of car driving remain with him. He is out of the car, but his
experiences of driving remain with him in seed form. If he acquires a car after
some years, he will be able to drive it as soon as he puts his foot on the
accelerator.
The liberated soul becomes free of these
impressions, whereas in the interval between two bodies the soul only becomes
free of the senses, the instruments. In liberation, all experiences,
impressions and desires are destroyed. In both conditions of the soul, there is
one similarity -- that there is no body. But there is one dissimilarity. In
liberation there is neither body nor the chain of bodily experiences. In the
interval between births, though there is no body, there is a great chain of
body-related experiences existing in seed form which can become active at any
time upon acquisition of a body.
So whatever experiences one may have in this
interval will be such as can be had without body. As I have said, these will be
experiences of meditation. But the experiences of meditation are had only by
very few persons. Out of millions of people, only one has that experience of
meditation. What experiences can the remaining people have? Their experiences
will be of a dream life. In a dream, no sense participates.
It is possible that if a person is in a dream, and
if you can keep him in the dream and cut off his limbs, his dream may not be disturbed.
But the chances are that his sleep will break. If it were possible to cut off
his limbs one after the other without breaking his sleep, then his dream would
continue undisturbed because none of the limbs of the body are necessary for
the dream. The body is not at all active in a dream; there is no use of the
body in it. Without the body the dream experience will remain. In fact, all
experiences will remain in dream form.
If someone were to ask you whether you are
stationary or in movement during a dream, you would find it difficult to reply.
When you awake from the dream, you find that all along you were lying in the
same place, but you were in a dream. Upon waking, you find that there have been
long, deep happenings in the dream, but, remember, there was no movement at all
in it.
If you understand properly, you will find that you
are not even a participant in a dream. In a deep sense, you can only be a
witness. That is why one can see oneself dying in a dream; one can see one's
own body lying dead. In a dream, if you see yourself walking, then the one whom
you see walking is a dream phenomenon and you are but a witness.
That is why religion has put forth the idea that if
a person can view this world like a dream he will have the highest religious
experience. From this only, the theological concept of calling this world maya
-- an illusion or a dream -- has been put forth. The deeper meaning of this is
that if one can view the world as if in a dream, then one becomes a witness. In
a dream, one is always a witness and no one is a participant. In no
circumstances are you ever an actor. Though you may see yourself as an actor,
you are always the spectator, the seer, the one who is seeing.
Therefore, all bodiless experiences will be like
dreams -- seed-like. Those whose experiences have created misery for them will
see nightmares and dreams of hell. Those whose experiences have brought them
happiness will dream of heaven and will be happy in their dreams. But these are
all dreamlike experiences.
Sometimes different types of events may also happen,
but these kinds of experiences will differ. Occasionally, it may so happen that
souls which are neither stationary nor in movement will enter other bodies. But
to say that the souls will enter is a linguistic fallacy. It would be better to
say that some body may behave in such a way that it will cause a soul to enter
into it. The world of such souls is not different from ours. That world exists
also beside us, close by. We are all residing in the same world. Every inch of
space that is here is filled with souls. The space right here which appears
empty to us is also full.
There are two types of bodies which are in a state
of deep receptivity.
One is of those that are in great fear. Those who
are in great fear cause their souls to contract within their bodies -- so much
so that they vacate some parts of the body completely. Some nearby souls drift
into these empty parts like water entering a ditch. At such times, these souls
experience things that only a soul with a body can experience.
Secondly, a soul can enter a body when it is in a
deep prayerful moment. In such prayerful moments also, the soul contracts. But
during fearful moments, only such souls drift in which are in great misery and
agony, that see only nightmares. Those are the ones whom we call evil spirits.
Because a frightened person happens to be in an ugly and dirty state, no higher
soul can enter him.
A fearful person is like a ditch: only downward
moving souls can enter. A prayerful person is like a peak: only upward moving
souls can enter. A prayerful person becomes filled with so much inner fragrance
and so much inner beauty that only the highest souls take interest in him. And
such higher souls will enter only by what we call invocation, invitation or
prayer.
Both these types of experiences by souls are such as
could be had only with body. Thus, there is a complete science for invoking
devatas -- gods. These devatas do not descend from some heaven, nor do those
whom we call evil spirits come from hell or some devil's world. They are all
present right here, coexisting with us.
Actually, in the same space, there is a
multidimensional existence. For example, this room where we are sitting is full
of air. If someone burns some incense, some aromatic substance, the room will
become filled with fragrance. If someone sings a melodious song, sound waves
will also fill the room. But the smoke of the incense will not clash with the
waves of the song. This room can be filled with music as well as with light,
but no light wave will clash with any sound wave. Nor will the light waves have
to leave to make room for the entry of sound waves.
In fact, this very space is filled in one dimension
by sound waves, in another by light waves and in a third dimension by the
airwaves. Likewise, hundreds of things fill this room in hundreds of different
dimensions. They do not in any way hinder one another, nor does any one thing
have to move out of the way for something else. Therefore, all this space is multidimensional.
For example, in this place we have a table, but we
cannot keep another table in the same place because tables are of the same
dimension. But an existence of another dimension will not find the table to be
a barrier. All these souls are very much near us; any time there can be an
entry. When the souls enter, then they will have a bodily type of experience,
and these experiences are such as can be had only through body.
Another factor concerns the way in which these souls
that enter living bodies communicate.
Communication is possible only between the soul
entering and the soul existing in the body. That is why, so far on this earth,
no spirit, evil or godly, has been able to communicate directly with us, right
before our very eyes. But it is not true there has not been any communication.
Communication takes place. Information that we have about heaven and hell is
not something out of people's imaginations, but it has been communicated by
such souls through mediums.
Thus, in olden times, there was a system. For
example, with the Vedas of the Hindus, none of the rishis of the Vedas would
ever say that he was the writer of such and such a Veda; in fact, he was not a
writer at all. It is not out of humility or modesty that the rishis did not claim
to be the writers. It is a fact that what they had written down was, in a
sense, heard by them. This is a very clear experience: when some soul enters
into you and speaks, the experience is so clear that you know full well you are
sitting aside while someone else and not you is speaking. You too are the
listener and not the speaker.
This is not easy to know from outside, but if
observed with proper attention it is possible. For example, the manner and
style of speech will be different, the tone will differ, the diction and the
language will also differ. To the original owner of the body, everything will
be crystal clear from inside. If some evil spirit has entered, then the person
will perhaps be so much afraid that he will become unconscious. But if a celestial
soul has entered, then he will be aware and awakened such as he never was
before. Then the situation will be crystal clear to him.
So those in whom the evil spirits enter will be very
clear about the fact that someone had entered into them only after such evil
spirits leave the body -- because they become so fearful that they faint and
fall unconscious. But those in whom celestial souls enter will be able to say
at the very moment that "what is being spoken is by someone else, not by
me."
Just as two persons may use only one microphone,
both these voices will use the same instrument. One will stop speaking while
the other will start. When the senses of the body can be so used, it is
possible for bodiless souls to communicate. That is how whatever is known to
this world about devas and evil spirits becomes communicated. There is no other
way to know about these things.
For all this, complete sciences have been evolved.
Once a science is evolved, things become easier to
understand. Then these things can be made use of with full understanding. When
these kinds of events happened in the past, scientific principles were derived
from them. For example, if accidentally and suddenly some celestial soul had
entered into someone, then from the study of that happening certain principles
regarding the conditions conducive for such a phenomenon would be evolved. Then
it could be said that if such conditions can be created again, then again such
souls will enter.
For example, Mohammedans will burn lobhan and
benzoin. This is a method of inviting good spirits by creating a specific
fragrant atmosphere. Hindus also burn incense and they light a flame made from
ghee. These things appear to be ritualistic formalities today, but at one time
they had a deep meaning.
Hindus will chant a specific mantra which becomes an
invocation. It is not necessary that there should be a meaning to the mantra.
Ordinarily there is none, because mantras with meaning become distorted with
the passage of time. But meaningless mantras do not become distorted. With a
meaningless mantra nothing extraneous can enter with the passage of time. That
is why all mantras of depth are meaningless. They have no meaning, so they
remain changeless. They are only sounds. There are methods for the chanting of
these sounds. If there is a specified beat, intensity and rhythm, the soul that
is invoked will enter instantly. And if the soul for whom the mantra was
devised is dissolved into nirvana, another soul of similar purity will enter.
All the religions of the world have certain mantras.
The Jainas have Namokar:
I bow down to those who have destroyed all enemies.
I bow down to those who have achieved liberation.
I bow down to those who are the religious
preceptors.
I bow down to those who are the priests.
I bow down to all the religious aspirants.
It has five divisions. On each division there is an
invocation which becomes deeper and deeper. Ordinarily, people chant the entire
mantra, but this is not the proper way. Those who desire to contact high souls
should go on repeating only the first part. The remaining four parts need not
be repeated. There should be full emphasis on one part only because the souls
related to that part are different from those related to other parts.
For example, the first part of this mantra, namo
arihantanam, is a prostration to the arihantas -- those who have destroyed all
enemies and those who have transcended all their senses. Ari means an enemy and
hantameans the destroyer. Therefore, this is a particular invocation to fully
enlightened souls who can take only one birth more. This one part should be
repeated with a special sound and impact. In this invocation, other Jaina souls
are not included and, therefore, they cannot be contacted.
This arihant is a special technical word which is
connected with the highest Jaina souls. With this mantra, the soul of Jesus
Christ cannot be contacted; there is no such desire expressed here. With this
mantra, even Buddha cannot be contacted. This is a technological term for the
invocation of a particular category of Jaina souls. Like this, in all the five
separate parts of Namokar, there is an invocation for five different categories
of souls.
The last invocation, namo loye savva sahunam, is for
invoking all the religious aspirants. It is directed to all aspirants of all
religions; it has nothing to do with the Jainas or any specific group other
than Jainas. It is a very generalized invocation for contact with any religious
aspirant without any particularization.
All religions have such mantras through which
contacts have been made. These mantras became shakti-mantras, and they became
highly significant. A mantra is like a name given to a person, such as the name
Ram. When the person is called by the name, immediately he becomes alert.
So there are also mantras for ordinary spirits.
There are sciences for invoking both ordinary and extraordinary souls.
Sometimes it may not be possible to contact a particular soul who is invoked
because he may not be there due to the lapse of time. But it will always be
possible to contact souls of a similar type with a mantra.
Now take the example of Mohammed. He always said
that he was only a paigamber, a messenger, because Mohammed never felt that
whatever he was experiencing was his own. The voice which came to him from
above was very clear. His experiences are described by Mohammedans as ilham --
revelations. Mohammed felt that something entered into him and began speaking.
He himself could not believe the happening. He did not think that anyone else
would believe him. If he were to say that what was spoken was spoken by
himself, he thought that no one else would believe him because he had never
spoken that way before. He was not known to the people to speak in such a way.
People did not know that he could tell such things, so he knew that no one
would believe such a story.
He came back home from the place where the
revelation took place in a mood of great fear, trying to avoid others and
escape being seen. He did not want to reveal immediately what he knew, because
then people would not trust him as he did not have a background for such things
in his earlier life. Upon coming home he told his wife what had happened. He
also told her that if she was able to trust him, then he would tell it to someone
else -- otherwise not, because that which had come to him had come from above.
Someone had spoken to him; it was not his voice. But when his wife trusted him,
he began telling others.
With Moses too, the same thing happened. The voice
descended upon him. In order for this voice to descend, some great divine
spirit must use someone as a medium. But everyone cannot be used as a medium.
This capacity and purity to become a vehicle, a medium, is not a minor thing.
Communication can only be possible if a capable vehicle is available.
For such communication, another's body has to be
used.
This type of attempt was made in recent times with
Krishnamurti, but it failed.
This is the story of the attempted reincarnation by
Buddha under the name of Maitreya. Buddha had said that he would take one more
birth, with that name. A great deal of time had elapsed -- about two thousand
five hundred years -- but still Buddha did not take birth. Indications had been
received that Maitreya was not able to find a suitable mother or womb.
Therefore, a different type of attempt was made. If it was not possible to find
a suitable mother or womb, some selected individual might be developed and made
ready through whom Maitreya could speak whatever he wanted to.
For this purpose, the large theosophical movement
was started -- to arrange for the selection of a suitable individual and
prepare him in every way to deserve to be the vehicle for Maitreya. The soul
which wanted to give a message through Mohammed found in Mohammed a ready-made
vehicle; he did not have to prepare anyone. Even the soul that gave a message
through Moses did not have to make a vehicle. They found the vehicles
ready-made. Those times were simple, and people were more innocent and less
filled with ego. It was easy to find a vehicle then because one could, in full
humility, surrender one's body to another soul for use, as if that body did not
belong to him.
But now it is impossible. Individuality has become
rigid and ego-centered; no one wants to surrender. Therefore, the Theosophists
selected four or five small children -- because it could not be confidently
predicted how each child would develop. They selected Krishnamurti as well as
his brother Nityananda. Afterwards, they also selected Krishnamenon and also
George Arundale.
Nityananda died a premature death as a result of the
intensive preparations to make him the medium for Maitreya. Krishnamurti became
so mentally disturbed by his brother's death that he himself could not become
the medium.
Krishnamurti was selected at the age of nine by
Annie Besant and Leadbeater. But this world is a big drama; this experiment was
done by great powers. The drama was played on an international stage by
powerful individuals. When the possibility of Maitreya entering into Krishnamurti
became very near, certain, the soul of Devadatta who had been Buddha's cousin,
and who had for his whole life opposed Buddha and attempted several times to
kill him, influenced the mind of Krishnamurti's father.
Thus, a legal suit influenced by Devadatta was filed
by Krishnamurti's father against Annie Besant and the other Theosophists,
demanding back the possession of his son Krishnamurti who had been in their
custody. This suit was fought up to the Privy Council. This fact has not been
told before. I am telling it for the first time: Annie Besant fought the legal
battle tooth and nail. But in the law courts, it was not possible for her to
win because it was the father's right to claim possession of his minor child.
Even if the child were to refuse to go to the father it was not possible for
him to win because he was a minor. Therefore, it was necessary for them to run
away from India taking Krishnamurti with them. In India, the suit was going on
and Annie Besant ran away out of India with Krishnamurti. The suit went on up
to the Supreme Court; there also Annie Besant was defeated. It was a legal
battle and Devadatta was more powerful.
Ordinarily, the law becomes more cooperative in the
hands of bad men because a good man is not preoccupied with matters of law. The
bad man first makes all the necessary arrangements for his legal battle.
Afterwards, Annie Besant appealed the case to the
Privy Council in London, and there the decision was reversed, against all legal
provisions, to let the child remain with Annie Besant. There had never been any
such precedent before, nor was the judgment just and proper. But there was no
further appeal beyond the Privy Council. This judgment was made possible by the
influence of the soul of Maitreya who did not interfere in the lower courts or
the appellate courts. He reserved his powers of influence for the last court of
appeal.
Thus, on the lower plane, it was an enacted drama
witnessed by big headlines in newspapers and legal battles fought in law
courts. But on the higher plane, a great battle was fought between two powerful
souls. Afterwards, such great pains were taken in Krishnamurti's preparation
that had, perhaps, never been taken before with any other individual.
Individuals may have taken greater pains in preparing themselves for certain
achievements, but so many people had never staked so much on one person.
But in spite of all this great effort, when the time
came all hopes fell through. Theosophists had gathered some six thousand people
in Holland from all over the world, and it was scheduled to be announced that
Krishnamurti had on that day given up his own personality and accepted that of
Maitreya. All the preparations were made. The long awaited moment came when he
was to climb up to the rostrum to announce that he was no more Krishnamurti, so
that the soul of Maitreya might enter and begin to speak. Six thousand
delegates from all over the world had gathered together from far and wide, in
great expectation, to listen to the voice of Maitreya. A great unprecedented
event was to take place.
But nothing happened. At that crucial moment,
Krishnamurti refused to relinquish his individuality. Devadatta had made his
final attempt, and what could not be done in the Privy Council was made
possible in that last court of the delegates. He made Krishnamurti announce
that he was not a teacher -- not a world teacher, that he had nothing to do
with anyone else's soul, that he was what he was, and that he did not want to
tell anything more. A great experiment failed. But in one sense, it was the
first experiment of its type, and there was a greater possibility of failure.
So it is not possible for souls to communicate
unless they can enter into someone's body.
That is why a birth as a human being is
indispensable. For example, someone dies now, and if he remains in a bodiless
state for a hundred years there is no development of any type whatsoever during
the hundred years. He will begin in the new birth from where he was when he
died in the previous life -- right from there -- no matter how long the
intervening period may be. This intervening period is not a time of
development. It is like waking up in the same bed where you had slept the
previous night.
That is why many religions went against sleep,
because during sleep there is no progress. These religions began to reduce the
sleeping time because of lack of development during sleep. You get up in the
same bed you had slept in, unchanged. Exactly the same way, when you take birth
again you pick up from where you had left off when you died. There is no change
in your condition. It is like my stopping the watch now, but when I start it
again it will start exactly from where it had stopped.
In the interval between births, all development is
blocked. That is why no devatas can reach salvation while in heaven -- because
there is no action there; one cannot do anything there. There one can only
dream endlessly. For doing something, one has to take a human birth on earth.
Also, in regard to souls recognizing each other, two
spirits desiring to meet each other can do so only by entering into two
different bodies. There is no way of direct recognition. It is like twenty
persons sleeping in this room. They will remain the whole night in the same
room, but in sleep there is no way for them to know one another. They can know
one another only after waking.
When we wake up, our recognition continues -- but in
sleep it is not possible; there we have no relationship whatsoever. It is
possible that one person may wake up and see all the rest that are sleeping.
This means that if one soul enters into someone's body that soul can see the
other souls. But the other souls cannot see that one soul.
If one soul enters into somebody's body, it can know
something about the other souls that are bodiless.
But those bodiless souls cannot know anything.
Actually, the fact of knowing and recognizing is possible only through a brain
residing in a body, and upon death the body dies together with its brain.
But there are some other possibilities. If some
persons have experimented while living, and have established relationships
through telepathy or clairvoyance, which are methods of knowing without use of
the brain and which have nothing to do with the brain, then such persons may
succeed in establishing relationships with evil spirits as well as celestial
souls.
But there are very few persons of that capacity.
However, information about the conditions prevailing in the spiritual world has
been given to us only by such souls.
The situation is like this: twenty people drink
liquor and all become unconscious. But among them one person who had a long
habit of drinking could remain fully conscious, and so he could tell about the
experiences of being drunk. The others could not because they became unconscious
before they came to know anything.
There are a few organizations working in the world
who prepare persons to communicate information about the spiritual world after
death. For example, in London, Sir Oliver Lodge, who was a member of a
spiritualist society, tried for a long time after his death to give a message,
but failed. For twenty years, in spite of great efforts, no message could be
communicated. Some other souls, in fact, informed that Oliver Lodge was trying
sincerely to give a message, but tuning in could not be established.
For twenty years, he knocked at the doors of people
to whom he had promised to give a message immediately after death. He was
prepared by the society for this work. It appeared as if he had tried to awaken
his friends from sleep. They would awaken and sit up alert, feeling that Oliver
was somewhere nearby, but no one could become attuned in order to receive what
Oliver had to say.
Oliver died ready to communicate and continued his
efforts for twenty years, but there was no one ready to understand the language
of the dead. Very often, some friend passing on the road felt Oliver's hand on
his shoulder, knowing full well the touch of his hand. But when he would try to
talk to them, the awareness of his presence would become lost. All of his
friends would be very much upset over this, but in spite of Oliver's best
repeated efforts no message could reach.
Preparations have to be twofold. If someone is
capable of telepathic experiences while he is living, if he has developed the
capacity to convey thought without words, if he has a capacity to see far off
things with closed eyes, then such a person would know many things about the
spiritual world.
Knowing is not only dependent on our physical
existence. For example, a botanist, a poet, a shopkeeper and a child may go to
a garden. They all go to the same garden, but they do not go after the same
thing. The child will run after the colorful bees, the shopkeeper would think
about his shop problems, the poet would stop at flowers and become lost in
composing a poem, and the botanist would try to verify many things about trees.
The shopkeeper can see neither the flowers nor any
poem in them. The botanist sees every root, every leaf, every flower, with such
analytical eyes that he confirms the knowledge he has gathered over the last
twenty or fifty years. None of the others can see what he can see. Similarly,
those who die without knowing anything except the body cannot have any
recognition of the other world, nor can they establish any relationship with
it. They die in a coma, in a deep unconscious state, awaiting a new birth. But
those who made preparations in advance will be able to do something. There are
scriptures for such preparations.
If, before death, one dies in a scientific way with
full preparation for it, with a plan and a methodology as to what he would do
after death, then he can do something. There are chances for great experiences.
But when a person dies ordinarily, he may take birth immediately or after some
years. Then he will not know anything about the condition of the intervening
period between births. That is why there is no possibility of direct
communication.”
OSHO, for some time I have been feeling that you are
in a hurry. What is that hurry and why? I am not able to understand. But the
fact that you are in a hurry is evident from the letters which you have written
to some of your devotees.
The question also arises whether the purpose for
which you had to take birth has been fulfilled. If you have completed the task,
then would you explain a statement you once made that you would roam about from
village to village creating challenges for people, and if by chance you met
with eyes that could become the lamp, you would work on such persons in an
all-out effort. You have also said that you would do this so that at your time
of death you will not have to say that you searched for a hundred persons but
you could not get them.
I am in hurry for three reasons: first, no matter
how much time one has, one will always find it insufficient. Always, any amount
of time and energy would be insufficient -- because the work is as big as the
sea, and the energy and the time one has are like the hollow of one's palm.
Even if one is a Buddha or a Mahavira, a Krishna or a Christ, the effort cannot
be greater than the hollow of the palm, and the expanse of the work is as vast
as the sea.
This is only ordinary haste, which is usual. But
there is haste for another reason too. Some time periods move slowly so that
the time appears not to be moving at all. As we look to our historical past, we
will find that time used to move very slowly. Then there are some eras that
move fast, in which everything seems to be moving at a high speed. Today we are
in such a fast-moving era. Everything is moving at a high speed, and nothing
seems to remain steady or stable. If religion continues to move at its ancient
slow speed, it will lag behind and die.
In the old days, even science moved slowly. For ten
thousand years the bullock cart remained the same. The bullock cart remained a
bullock cart and the blacksmith used the same old tools. Everything moved as
slowly as a river moving on non-sloping plains. You would not know at all that
anything was moving. Banks of such rivers still remain here and there.
In such times, religion also moved slowly. There was
a sort of harmony in that movement, and science and religion both were in step
with each other. But now religion moves slowly while science and other things
are moving at a faster pace. Given these conditions, if religion lags behind
and walks hesitantly, then it is no wonder people are not able to keep in step
with it. For this reason also there is hurry.
Looking at the speed at which the world's knowledge
about matter is increasing and the speed at which science is making great
strides, religion should actually remain somewhat ahead of science and achieve
a higher speed -- because whenever religion lags behind science it causes great
harm. Religion should remain a little ahead to guide, because an ideal must
always remain a little ahead; otherwise the ideal becomes meaningless. The
ideal should always be ahead of achievement and should remain beyond it. This
is the fundamental difference between these two.
If we look back at the era of Ram, religion was
always ahead of him. If we look to the modern era, man is always ahead of
religion. Nowadays only that person can become religious who is very backward.
There is a reason for this: it is only because such a person alone is able to
keep in step with religion. Today, the more progressive a person is, the
farther he is from religion, or else his relationship with religion will remain
only formal -- will be just for show. So religion must remain in the forefront.
If we look back to the time of Buddha or Mahavira,
it will be very surprising to know that those who had the best minds in their
times were religious. But in our civilization, if we look to the modern
religious man, he has a lesser intelligence. In those days, those who were the
leaders, those who had reached the top, were religious people. And now, those
who are rustic, rural and backward are religious. The more intelligent minds of
our times are not religious. This means that religion is not able to march
ahead of man. For that reason also I am in hurry.
Another reason for being in a hurry is that these
are times of emergency, of crisis.
For example, when you are going to a hospital, your
footsteps have a faster pace than when you are going to your shop. The speed
you use to go to a hospital is that of an emergency or a crisis. Today, the
state of things is almost as if some religion is not able to create and put
forth a strong vigorous movement it is possible that the entire humanity may be
annihilated.
It is a time of emergency, like that of being
admitted to a hospital. It is possible that the patient may die before reaching
the hospital or before any medicine can be administered or by the time the
disease is diagnosed, but the ill effects of this prevalent condition are not
affecting any religious thinkers. Instead, they are affecting the younger
generations of the entire world, and they have hit the younger generations of
the developed nations the hardest.
If American parents tell a son to study for ten
years in a university so that he may get a good job, the son retorts by asking
whether there is a guarantee that he will live for ten years. The parents do
not have the answer. In America, there is little trust in tomorrow. Tomorrow
cannot be trusted; it is not certain whether there will even be a tomorrow.
Therefore, there is a desire to enjoy today as much and as fast as one can.
This is not accidental. It is like a patient who is
lying on his deathbed and may die any moment. The whole humanity is becoming
like that. There is a hurry, because if the diagnosis is slow there can be no
quick remedy. Therefore, I am in a hurry that whatever is to be done should be
done fast.
About my statement that I will move from town to
town: I have by now, in one sense, already done that work. I have in mind some
people; now it is a matter of working on them. But the difficulty is that it
would be better if instead of my keeping them in mind they keep me in mind. And
as long as I do not come into their minds, nothing can be done.
But I have started this work also. My going and
coming or my staying are all for the purpose of doing something. After
preparing some persons, I want to send them out in two years to various towns.
They will go. Not one hundred but ten thousand persons will be prepared. These
persons of crisis are as full of potential as they are of dangers. If time is
properly utilized, great potentialities are developed; otherwise the result is
calamity.
Many persons can be prepared. This is a time for
enterprise, and many people can be prepared for a jump into the unknown. It
will happen. I have told you about the outer state of things. But whenever an
era of destruction appears near, there will be many a soul that will have
reached the last stretches of development on the inner plane. Such souls only
need a push, and with just that they will take the jump.
Ordinarily, when death is felt to be coming nearer,
it can be seen that one begins thinking about what is beyond death. Every
individual begins to become religious in such a situation where death is
drawing nearer to him. The questioning about what is beyond begins at the
approach of death. Otherwise, one's life remains so much engaged that such a
questioning does not arise.
When a whole era approaches a near-death condition,
then millions of people begin to think inwardly about what is beyond.
This situation can also be utilized; it has great
potentialities.
Therefore, I will slowly confine myself to a room: I
will stop coming and going. Now I will work on those who are in my mind. I will
prepare them and send them out. The moving from place to place, which I cannot
do myself, I will be able to do by sending out ten thousand people.
For me, religion is also a scientific process.
So I have in my mind a complete scientific technique
for it. As people become ready, the scientific technique will be passed on to
them. With the help of that technique, they will work upon thousands of people.
My presence is not for that. I was required only to find such people who could
carry out that purpose. Now I shall be able to give work to them.
It was necessary to evolve certain principles; that
has been done by me. The work of the scientist is over. Now the work is for the
technicians. A scientist completes the work, like Edison discovering
electricity and inventing an electric lamp. Thereafter, it is the work of the
electrician to fix the bulb. There is no difficulty in that.
Now I have an almost complete picture of the work to
be done. Now, after giving people the concept and getting them to do the technique,
I will send them out as soon as they become ready. All this is in my mind, but
the potentialities are not seen by all. Most people see only the actualities.
Seeing the potentialities is a different task, but I can see them.
The conditions that were existing in one small area
of Bihar during the time of Mahavira and Buddha can come about very smoothly
within the next few years on a global scale. But an absolutely new type of
religious person will have to be prepared, a new type of sannyasin will have to
be born, a new type of yoga and meditation system will have to be devised. All
this is ready in my mind.
As I come across people they will be given these
things, and they will further pass along the same to others. There is a grave
risk, however, because if the opportunity is lost it will cause great harm. The
opportunity must be utilized because such a valuable time as exists today can
hardly come again. From every angle, the era is at its climax or peak.
Hereafter, there will only be anticlimax. Now America will not be able to
progress further; it will only undergo disintegration.
The civilization has touched its peak, and now it
will disintegrate. These are the last years.
We have not noted that India disintegrated after
Mahavira and Buddha. After them, that golden crest could not be touched again.
People ordinarily think that this happened due to Mahavira and Buddha, but in
fact the case is just the opposite. Actually, just before disintegration
begins, persons of the caliber of Mahavira and Buddha are able to work, not
before that -- because just before disintegration, everything is in disorder
and just on the point of crumbling.
Just as death faces an individual, so now death
shows its dark face before the collective consciousness of an entire civilization.
And that civilization's collective mind becomes ready to go deep into the
realms of religion and the unknown. That is why it was possible that in a small
place like Bihar fifty thousand sannyasins could move along with Mahavira.
This can repeat itself again; there is a complete
possibility for it. I have a complete plan and a blueprint in my mind for this.
In one sense, my work of finding the people I wanted is nearabout complete.
Also, they do not know that I have found them. Now I have to give work to them
by preparing them and sending them out to spread the message.
As long as it was my work, I knew what I had to do
and I was doing it with comparative ease. But now I have to give work to
others; now I cannot remain in that ease. I have to hurry up. This is another
reason for my hurry. I therefore want to make it clear to all friends that I am
in a hurry, so they should also hurry up. If they keep on at the speed with
which they are walking, they will not reach anywhere. If they see me in a hurry,
then perhaps they will also pick up speed. Otherwise not.
Jesus had to do this. Jesus said to the people that
the world was very soon coming to an end. But people were so foolish that it
was very difficult for them to understand. Jesus said that before their very
eyes everything would be destroyed, that it was time for them to make a choice,
and that those who did not change then would never get a chance to do so later.
Those who heard and understood him became transformed, but most of the people went
on asking when that hour would strike.
Now, after two thousand years, some Christian
scholars, priests and theologians sit back and think that it seems as if Jesus
had made some mistake -- because up until now that day of judgment has not
arrived. Jesus had said that the event of world destruction would happen before
their very eyes -- while he was there -- that the day of reckoning would come
and that those who missed would miss forever. But that time has not come yet.
Was this the mistake of Jesus or have we
misunderstood him? Some say that he made such a great mistake because he did
not know anything about the matter, and therefore there may have been many
other things about which Jesus did not know. Still others say that there is
something wrong in our interpretation of the scriptures. But none of these
people know that there are deep reasons and a calculated purpose behind what
people like Jesus say. By saying these things, Jesus created an atmosphere of
emergency in which many people became transformed.
People become transformed only during emergencies.
If one knows that one can transform tomorrow or even
the day after, he will not do anything today; he will postpone it for tomorrow
or the day after. But if he knows that there is no tomorrow, then that capacity
for transformation comes into being.
In a way, when civilizations are on the verge of
disintegration tomorrow becomes uncertain. One is not sure of the next day.
Then the today has to be so compact that it can complete all that has to be done.
If one has to enjoy, he has to do it today. If he has to surrender and
renounce, that too he has to do today. Even if one has to destroy the ego or
transform, that also must be done today.
So in Europe and America, a positive, decisive
mentality has come into being that whatever one wants to do must be done today:
"Forget the worries of tomorrow. If you want to drink, drink; if you want
to enjoy, enjoy; if you want to steal, steal. Whatever you want to do, do it
today." On the material plane, this has happened.
I want this to happen also on the spiritual plane.
This can run parallel to what is happening on the material plane. I am in a
great hurry for this idea to dawn. It is definite that this idea will come from
the East. Only Eastern winds could carry it to the West, and the West will jump
into it with full vigor.
There are particular places suitable for the rise
and growth of certain things. All types of trees cannot grow in all countries.
There are particular roots, a particular kind of land, a particular climate and
particular water required for the growth of certain things. Similarly, all
types of ideas also cannot arise everywhere, because different roots, land,
climate and water are necessary for these as well.
Science could not develop in the East. For that tree
there are no roots in the East. Religion could develop in the East because for
that the East has deep roots. The climate, the land and the water -- everything
required for its growth -- are available in the East. If science has come to
the East, it is only from the West.
If religion goes to the West, it will be only from
the East.
Sometimes there is an exception to this. For
example, Japan, a country of the East, can challenge any country of the West in
science. But it is interesting to note that Japan only imitates; it cannot be
original. But it imitates in such a way that even the original looks pale
before it. But still, it is imitation. Japan does not invent anything. If Japan
makes a radio, it can outwit America in doing so, but it has to copy the basic
one. Japan will be very skillful in copying, but the seed will come from
Western countries. It will sow the seed and bring up the plant carefully, but
it will never have original seeds of its own.
With religion also, America can outshine and surpass
the East.
Once the seed of religion reaches there, America
will outdo the East in its growth. But all the same, this will be imitation.
The initiative, the first step in this matter, lies in the hands of the East.
That is why I am in a great hurry in planning to
prepare people in the East who could be sent to the West. The spark will catch
like wildfire in the West, but it has to come from the East.”
OSHO
: Dimensions Beyond the Known, Chapter 4 ~ends.
“Inside us
there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”
― José
Saramago, Blindness
“Life is an endless cycle of souls, swirling along
the path of the universe, being reborn, but never truly dying before being
reborn again.
As long as this cycle continues, we will never
really die.” ― Ameila Wolfe
“Your soul doesn't care what you do for a living -
and when your life is over, neither will you. Your soul cares only about what
you are being while you are doing whatever you are doing. ”― Neale Donald Walsch
“There is no truth except the truth that exists within
you. Everything else is what someone is telling you.” ― Neale Donald Walsch, Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends
“A Soul Knowing: You are the sum total of the Body,
Mind, and Soul, and each of these aspects of you has a purpose and a function,
but only one has an agenda: the Soul.”
― Neale
Donald Walsch
“If you want guarantees in life, then you don't want
life. You want rehearsals for a script that's already been written. Life by its
nature cannot have guarantees, or its whole purpose is thwarted.” ― Neale Donald Walsch
“There is no particular way that God wants you to
worship God. Nor, in fact, does God need to be worshipped at all. God's ego is
not so fragile that She must require you to bow down to Her in fearful
reverence, or grovel before Him in earnest supplication, in order to find you
worthy of receiving blessings. What kind of Supreme Being would need to do
this? What kind of God would this be?”- NEALE
DONALD WALSCH, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God
“God--the force, the energy, the design, the
experience that some call Divinity--shows itself in your life in the way that
is exactly and perfectly suited to the time, place, and situation at hand. You
either call that experience "God" or you call it something else--coincidence,
synchronicity, "random event," whatever. Yet what you call it does
not change what it is--it merely indicates your belief system.” -NEALE DONALD WALSCH, Tomorrow's God
Self-Enquiry – What exists in truth – the One or the
many?
“All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the
world, the soul, and God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests Itself
as these three. One can say, “The three are really three only so long as the
ego lasts.” Therefore, to inhere in one's own Being, where the “I,” or ego, is
dead, is the perfect State.” (Ramana
Maharshi, FVR, verse 2.)
“Self-Enquiry – Three senses of self must be
understood: Jiva, Atman, and Paramatman
As the ego, which is the direct and immediate sense
of “I,” is centred and figured in each of the distinct and separate individuals
in a subtle movement of life-force and mind-stuff, it is termed Jiva here. This
sense of “I” is separate in each individual being and preserving the
distinctness of the individual, behaves in a manner that would strengthen the
individual's distinct character. But, such a movement of the ego or the
apparent self has its root and support in something that is the real basis of
individuality and that does not move with or lose itself in the movement of the
apparent self, a something that is a continuous conscious principle related to
the past, present and future; that is the Real Self signified, the Lakshyartha,
in the individual, of which the ego is the apparent self. This latter is
different in different individuals and is loosely called the Jivatman . But
Atman, the Self, is really one; the Self of all individuals as of all existence
is one. But Jivas or living beings are many, as many as the individuals are
formed. These are soul-formations that are dissoluble in time, unlike their
supporting Self which is eternal, being identical with the Infinite Eternal
which maintains its many-centred existence in an endless movement of formation
and dissolution.
Thus, we see that there are three distinct senses in
which “I” is used. The supreme meaning of “I,” its Paramartha , is the Purusha
who becomes the Lakshyartha (the signified sense) in the individual, as it is
the same self that presides over individual existence and the immediate or
apparent sense of “I” (Vachyarta ) is the ego or the apparent self formed
temporarily for purposes of individuation. Threefold then is the sense of the
Self, the “I,” and in its threefold sense it is to be understood. (Ramana Maharshi, SDB, 20-1.)
Do
you have a soul? by Christopher Calder
“To know truth you must have a deep desire to see it, and a willingness
to let go of the old lies.
When I was a
child, I was an atheist and only believed in what I could see and touch. By age 19 I started to believe in the
existence of souls and reincarnation as a result of my exposure to a number of
famous Indian yogis and the majestic J. Krishnamurti, who once claimed to have
remembered all of his past lives. At age
21 my belief in soul was dramatically reinforced by explosive experiences I had
with Acharya Rajneesh, later known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Osho. I never believed in any "God," but
for 35 years I lived under the shadow of the great meditation masters and was
fairly certain that we all possessed souls that would survive our physical
death. [This essay was written in 2004.]
Unlike
Hindus, most Buddhists believe in some mysterious and poorly defined soulless
form of personal karma which survives death.
I never believed in the Buddhist concept of immortal personal karma
without soul, because when you reject the idea of a soul you lose the only
credible vehicle for the transference of karma from one lifetime to the
next. To my mind, if there is no soul
then there is no possibility of immortal personal karma and reincarnation.
When I met
Acharya Rajneesh in 1970, he not only spoke of souls and reincarnation, but
also claimed to have the power of astral projection. I believed his claim because of what I
thought were authentic experiences I had with this "master" astrally
projecting himself, not just into my room, but into my body while he was
physically several miles away. After
reading Matthew Alper's book, The "God" Part of the Brain, I wonder
if those amazing experiences were really what I thought they were. Alper
summarizes the latest scientific research into how the human brain functions
while having religious experiences. In
this essay I have added additional neurological data obtained from medical
journals, and my own observations and theories regarding several of the main
points of Alper's book.
Medical research has shown that if you stimulate
certain areas of the brain with a small electric current, you can give people
the experience of spiritual visitation.
You may feel that Jesus is touching your heart, or that the soul of a
dead relative is near you. There is no
evidence to support a belief in authentic soul travel, however, as all studies
indicate that consciousness only exists in the brain cells which create
it. You cannot remove consciousness from
the physical body because consciousness is a physical phenomena created by
chemistry, just as a firefly's light is created by chemical reactions. That is why you can turn consciousness on or
off by injecting a person with drugs to wake them up or to put them to sleep.
Near death
experiences and even certain drugs, such as ketamine and sodium pentothal, can
give you the feeling of being outside of your body, but researchers say that is
just an illusion of the holographic nature of human consciousness, which is
produced by the physical human brain.
When neural communications between the body and brain are reduced, the
brain is free to project your sense of self anywhere it chooses, and this can
happen while under partial anesthesia, while partially asleep, or even during
the preliminary (and reversible) stages of death. Prolonged fasting and isolation can also
produce hallucinations and other distortions of reality, and such ascetic
practices are a major source of the Asian myths of astral projection.
While true
astral projection may be impossible, there is credible scientific evidence to
suggest that telepathic communication is possible between human beings. The human brain is an organic electrochemical
computer so complex that no existing silicon based supercomputer can approach
its capabilities. Think of all the
things your relatively simple cell phone can do. There is plenty of computer power in the human
brain to imagine that some portion of its circuitry could be allocated to
broadcasting and receiving messages, or at least sensing basic electromagnetic
radiation from other human brains. Such
an ability would have obvious survival value for the species, and thus would be
understandable in terms of evolution and survival of the fittest. A rudimentary telepathic communicative
ability may be the reason disciples feel the presence of their spiritual
teachers so strongly.
The brain is
the most metabolically active human organ, and requires a steady supply of
oxygen and glucose as fuel. Although the
brain represents less than 2% of the body's mass, it utilizes 20% of the body's
oxygen consumption and 15% of its cardiac output, thus our brains produce an
extraordinary amount of energy in relationship to the rest of the body. The human body uses chemical reactions to
produce both mechanical movements and electrical currents, which flow through
all of our living cells. Our brain acts
as both an analog and digital computer, and the DNA code which creates our
brains is digital. Brain cells
communicate through electricity, and the average human brain contains
approximately 100 billion neurons connected by trillions of synapses, which can
be viewed as naturally occurring transistors.
Consciousness is born of the intricately woven flow of electrons created
by brain cells, and this is true for all of earth's animals that have
significant consciousness, from elephants to ants. It is not difficult to imagine that the
fantastically complex human brain could have mysterious capabilities beyond our
current level of understanding.
Perhaps what
I thought was astral projection was simply Rajneesh concentrating on me,
sending me his super-mental energy long distance. That powerful jolt of energy may have caused
my brain to supply the added illusion of personal visitation on top of the
strong telepathic transmission. There is
no doubt that Rajneesh had tremendous mental powers, but was that power really
supernatural or just a product of his own unique brain structure and meditative
skill?
If you inject any human being with enough sedative,
enlightened or not, they will become unconsciousness. If you damage certain areas of the brain you
can drastically alter human behavior.
You can turn a conservative bank president into a garbage eating bum
just by killing off some of the brain cells that contain the biocomputer
program for his personality. If you
damage other areas of the brain, you can erase all memory.
If consciousness, personality, and memory are all
physical phenomena of brain cells, then when your brain dies there is nothing
left of your individual identity. Your
permanent identity of time-energy-space (see The TES Hypothesis) continues
unharmed, but there is no soul, no reincarnation, and no Buddhist transference
of personal karma. If this is true, it
means that all of the major world religions are wrong. It also means that we all achieve
"moksha" (liberation) at the time of our death because there is no
personal cycle of birth and death to escape from, and no magical
afterlife. You are born once and you die
once, and you will never come back.
One theory states that we have souls and/or personal
karma which transmigrates from one life to the next, and another theory states
that nothing survives death and only DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and the will
of the living determines the future of our species. Which theory is correct? I once believed in reincarnation with a high
level of certainty. After many years of
seeing the rampant corruption of gurus, "enlightened" or not, the
idiocy of disciples, cults, and organized religion, and with the new scientific
evidence in hand, I find the soul-reincarnation-karma theory far less
plausible.
You do not have to believe in anything supernatural
to believe in cosmic consciousness (satori).
Anyone can take the drug psilocybin and get a dramatic imitation of the
natural religious experience. Clinical
research shows that our brains are built to have religious experiences. As time-energy-space is one singular
phenomena, it is only natural that we occasionally experience the grand cosmic
unity. I personally suspect that even
animals have satoris, though they apparently have no ability to give it a name
or understand its implications.
One of the most interesting concepts of Matthew
Alper's book concerns the rise of self-consciousness in human animal, and how
knowledge of our impending death has affected our brains and even our DNA
code. If you put a dog in front of a
mirror, he will never figure out that he is looking at his own reflection. If you put a higher primate in front of a
mirror, such as a chimpanzee or human child, the higher primate will eventually
use the mirror for grooming purposes because he recognizes himself in the
reflection. Man's self-consciousness is
so highly developed that humans have come to realize that our life expectancy
is short, and that our personal demise is inevitable.
Other animals fear death, danger, and pain, but most
have no real understanding of time and the inevitability of their own
destruction. Non-human higher primates
and elephants may have some perception of the time-death equation, but that has
not been proven scientifically. Our
human understanding of the inevitability of death can become a constant source
of anguish. A strong survival instinct
is built into our DNA code from our long evolutionary journey from bacteria to
man. When the survival instinct collides
with the self-conscious knowledge of impending death, the human brain needs
both a psychological and a neurological barrier to block the conflict and
tension. That barrier we call religious
belief and "the God part of the brain." The theory states that man has invented myths
of God, soul, reincarnation, karma, and afterlife as a way to provide the brain
with mental opium, a buffer to the constant ticking clock inside our heads that
tells us that our inevitable destruction and decomposition is getting closer
every day.
The psychological need for a feeling of immortality
is so great that our religious tendencies have become part of our DNA
code. Humans who believe in the
supernatural religions tend to be calmer, healthier, and thus live longer than
the nonreligious. Believers also tend to
show more bravery when courage is needed to protect their tribe. Genetic tendencies to have religious feelings
are fortified over thousands of years of evolution through survival of the
religiously fittest.
If your
religious beliefs feel exactly right to you, it may be because your subconscious
mind wants you to believe them so that you will have a better chance for health
and a long lifespan. If you intuitively
sense that you have been alive on planet earth before, perhaps that feeling of
déja vu comes from your DNA code, not from a reincarnating soul, because DNA
has been active on planet earth for at least 3.8 billion years, and we are all
created and united by its existence.
Scientists know that there is only one real life
form on planet earth, and that is DNA itself.
DNA is like a giant vine that has taken over the world. Through the never ending chain of DNA code we
are not only closely related to other mammals, but also intimately related to
insects, plants, and even bacteria. Many
times in earth history the higher life forms have been wiped out by impacts of
asteroids and comets, and by massive volcanic eruptions which made our
atmosphere toxic, yet the surviving bacteria have always evolved upward into
more complex plants and animals. DNA is
not just a helpful chemical substance that resides inside us. DNA is our biological level identity, our
three dimensional physical 'soul.'
All over the
world, wherever you find man, you will find supernatural religions promising
some form of life after death. Muslim
extremists gladly kill themselves in the name of their religion. American war heroes have died fighting
Japanese and Germans in the name of Jesus, and no doubt many felt they were
going to heaven for their heroic efforts.
God is a pretty handy device to have when your tribe is in trouble. Almost all of us, atheist and theist alike,
instinctively call out to God for help when we are in grave personal
danger.
Man's philosophical beliefs have also been shaped by
a survival contest of world religions to see which religion can most completely
satisfy our emotional needs for a feeling of comfort and safety. Organized religion is a business and must
have money and public support to survive.
If your spouse or child dies, you want a priest, rabbi, monk, or swami
to tell you that your loved one's soul is going to a better place. Can you imagine a funeral service where a
holy man bluntly states that the deceased has no soul and is gone forever? That would seem cruel, and any religion that
provided such a terse death ritual would not last long in the religious
marketplace.
Why do so many enlightened teachers believe in souls
and karma? It has been my observation
that even the enlightened are affected by cultural conditioning and have a
tendency to pass on the religious teachings of those who came before them with
only minor modifications. For example,
the famous enlightened teachers from meat eating societies in Tibet, China, and
Japan also ate meat, while the great sages from strictly vegetarian India believe
that eating meat is a horrible unspiritual practice. So I ask, did Rajneesh and J. Krishnamurti
believe in souls because of some direct experience, or simply because they grew
up in soul oriented India? Rajneesh once
stated that even plants have souls, and that if an enlightened man (Rajneesh
himself) sat next to a plant, that plant would be so graced that in its next
incarnation it might be born as a human being.
I find that grandiose and self-serving statement difficult to believe,
and I suspect a significant amount of the time Rajneesh was simply shooting his
mouth off without even thinking about what he was saying.
On another occasion, Rajneesh stated that we are
attracted to beautiful people because their outer beauty represents the inner beauty
of their souls, as it is the soul which creates the physical body and
mind. Science has proven conclusively
that DNA creates the body and brain, not any mysterious and immaterial
"soul." Outward beauty does
not always mean inward beauty, or even a sane mind. The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy was
quite handsome physically, yet he is estimated to have murdered between 35 and
50 women just for the thrill of it. If
the great "enlightened" Rajneesh could be mistaken about something
this basic, then couldn't he be wrong about anything?
The "master" Rajneesh presented many
idiotic theories about life right here and now, so why should anyone believe
his theories about souls and reincarnation?
It is only because of his great psychic presence that his disciples
refrained from laughing out loud at some of his ridiculous ideas. Rajneesh was living proof that enlightenment,
intelligence, and honesty are separate phenomena. You can be a fool, a liar, and a criminal,
and also become a great energy channeler (enlightened) if that is your
predisposition and desire. Freedom means
free choice to be good or bad, and you have that choice no matter how powerful
your meditation skills have become.
George Gurdjieff, the famous Greek-Armenian mystic, was an alcoholic. Rajneesh became a drug addict, yet both men
could channel great cosmic presence that inspired thousands of spiritual
seekers.
Rajneesh's use of drugs, especially Valium, nitrous
oxide, and LSD, also casts doubt on his soul theory of enlightenment. Rajneesh once stated that from his own
personal experience, LSD can produce the same consciousness as a Buddha. During his younger sober days, Rajneesh
stated that LSD produced a "false samadhi" and that consciousness was
the product of "soul," not just physical chemistry. Rajneesh changed his teaching to rationalize
his drug use by stating that "You are nothing but chemistry." He thus implied that it is acceptable to use
chemicals to alter consciousness because you are chemicals bonded together in
an organic biological machine. One could
ask that if Rajneesh really had the power of astral projection as claimed,
wouldn't flying around the world in his soul body be more entertaining than
getting cheap thrills from taking LSD and nitrous oxide?
Rajneesh claimed to be as enlightened as the
historic Buddha, and I believe that he was, but why does a Buddha need to take
hallucinogenic drugs? My answer is that
Rajneesh became bored with the Void because the Void can only provide
peacefulness long term, but not an eternal buzz of blissfulness. Judging from my own meditative practice and
reading of science, the buzz and bliss of meditation comes from a buildup of
excess neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine in the brain. When you meditate in formal sessions, you are
conserving the chemical energy of your brain by not wasting it on thoughts and
sensory distraction. Thus, you become
blissful and may experience nonsexual orgasms during meditation sessions, but
that ecstasy gradually dissipates after you return to your normal work
routine. The feeling of spaciousness and
peacefulness continue, but the buzz settles down to a feeling of neutrality and
quiet emptiness. There is no eternal
orgasm-ecstasy-buzz-bliss possible because any human feeling that has a
beginning must also have an end due to the inherent chemical nature of the
brain.
The Buddha is reported to have said that there is
"no bliss." Rajneesh at times
admitted that he himself felt "no energy," though those around him felt
awash in his energy. U.G. Krishnamurti
stated that there is "no bliss."
When I meditate in formal sessions, I experience bliss and nonsexual
orgasms felt in the hara (belly center), the heart center, the forehead center,
and in the center of the head directly behind the eyes. The problem is, the orgasmic feelings never
lasts. I have to go back to my
meditation room and sit to regain the neurochemical energy that dissipates
during the daily routine of work. Using
my brain for utilitarian proposes eats up those neurotransmitters rather
quickly. It may also be that the brain
itself wants to bring us back to a state of neutrality, because a neutral brain
has the greatest ability to ensure our physical survival. A man distracted with a blissed-out brain is
likely to be the first member of the tribe eaten by the lion, not the
last. Meditation and enlightenment may
be a neuro-chemical experience, not a magical soul experience outside the laws
of chemistry and physics.
Rajneesh changed his name to "Osho" and
ended his life in a state of dementia due to illness and drug addiction. J. Krishnamurti avoided major scandals,
stayed sober, and is still highly revered long after his death. But was J. Krishnamurti really a saint and
somehow better ethically than any normal human being? I know many people who lead virtuous lives
who don't meditate at all. What made J.
Krishnamurti different was not how he lived, which was ordinary, but his
tremendous presence of being. You stood
next to him and felt flooded in cosmic energy which pushed you high into the
sky, destroying all feelings of limitation.
Was J. Krishnamurti's grand presence the result of many past lifetimes
of spiritual effort, or was it the result of modest effort in meditation
combined with a genetic gift for cosmic consciousness?
Matthew Alper
points out in his book that some forms of epilepsy cause hyper-religiousness
and mystical experiences. J.
Krishnamurti's mother was an epileptic, and we know epilepsy can be genetically
transferred. J. Krishnamurti never had
fits, but he often mysteriously passed out, giving those near him warning that
he was about to lose consciousness. The
Indian sage Ramakrishna was reported to have had fits in which he thrashed on
the ground uncontrollably. The
universally revered Ramana Maharshi claimed that his emotional heart center was
located in the "right side" of his chest, which I suspect represents
a brain abnormality. In normal human
beings the emotional heart center is located in the exact center of the chest.
Is it possible that natural variations in our
genetic code could produce in each century a handful of people with brains
perfectly adapted for enlightenment, thus making meditative practice so easy
that they reached the goal with little effort?
Ramana Maharshi is reported to have achieved "God
consciousness" at the tender age of 17!
Rajneesh claims to have become enlightened at age 21. J. Krishnamurti was in his early twenties
when people around him started to feel that he was fully enlightened.
Ramakrishna was reported to have been "born enlightened," as was the
ancient Chinese mystic, Lao-Tse.
Are the spiritually gifted among us the rare but
naturally occurring result of genetic variation? Of the 20,000 to 25,000 genes that make up a
human being, roughly half are suspected of being devoted to blueprinting our
central nervous system. Thus, with
10,000 to 12,500 individual genes controlling the formation of our brain and
spinal cord, the potential for major variations in the level of human
consciousness is enormous. For example,
scientists have found that changes in just a few human genes can have a
dramatic affect on the level of our intelligence. Is it therefore logical that human gene
combinations exist that control the amount of raw consciousness we possess as
well.
Few humans have the artistic talent of Michelangelo,
or the mathematical genius of Albert Einstein.
If there is a natural genetic "bell curve" for intelligence,
then why not a natural genetically driven bell curve for psychic power as
well? [See The Bell Curve: Intelligence
and Class Structure in American Life, by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles
Murray.] Research has shown that
identical twins tend to have the same level of interest in religion and/or
mystical experience. This suggests that
there is a strong genetic component to our personal meditative potential. If DNA can explain the vast differences
between a mosquito and a man, then why can't genetic variations also explain
the vast mental differences between a Hitler and a Buddha?
Are the
enlightened simply those few individuals at the extreme forward edge of the
bell curve, with the masses of the world population stuck near the middle? If there are child prodigy pianists, artists,
and even child prodigy golfers, then why not child prodigy meditators as
well? The Asian cultures may have simply
mistaken naturally occurring genetic variations in the human brain for evidence
of a romanticized past life history that does not exist in fact. The group conditioning became so strong that
the myths of reincarnation fooled even the enlightened ones. History shows that the easiest explanation
for a phenomena that has the most supporting evidence is usually correct. Grand claims require grand evidence to
justify a belief in them, and there is currently no scientifically valid
evidence of reincarnation or a magical transference of personal karma.
If the
spiritual bell curve theory is true, it could help explain the obvious
corruption of gurus. Rajneesh was a
convicted felon and a proven liar of historic proportions. George Gurdjieff was also a chronic liar and
a loud and often rude alcoholic. The
genetics based view of enlightenment helps explain why there are so few
enlightened ones at any given time. If
every soul has multiple chances to improve its meditation skills over lifetimes
of effort, then surely the world would produce more than the meager handful of
enlightened sages that are born each century.
Since at least the dawn of Hinduism (about 1500 BC), long before the
historic Buddha was born (about 563 BC), millions of human beings have been
making sincere effort at meditation, so where are the results of these
lifetimes of effort? The mathematical
logistics of the soul-karma theory just do not add up.
The argument
for souls and/or immortal karma is that enlightenment is a process that takes
many lifetimes of effort, and the fruition of our long journey through time is
the eventual payoff of "moksha" (final spiritual freedom), infinite
ecstasy, and liberation from all suffering.
This highly romantic idea appeals because it brings a sense of warmth
and justice into a cold and often pointlessly cruel world. It intuitively seems fair that right action
is eventually rewarded with positive results, but this belief in inevitable
karma has also caused negative results.
In Tibet it produced a kind of fatalistic inaction which aided the
Communist Chinese in their military takeover in 1950. To quote Drupon Samten Rinpoche, "They
can be taking this life, but they cannot take the next life." This feeling of immortality has brought
Tibetan Buddhists a great sense of peace and compassion in the face of invasion
and genocide, but is it based or real-world fact or just wishful thinking?
Belief in
souls and immortal karma has had many negative effects in India, where the
theory of reincarnation helped establish the ancient Hindu caste system. The caste system was abolished by law in
1949, but lives on as an unfair social class structure which is considerably
worse than the traditional class snobbery practiced in Europe. The lower caste, the Shudras, are considered
inferior to the higher castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. Even below the Shudras are the outcasts,
known as the "untouchables," who have no caste at all. The untouchables are looked down upon as
being spiritually unworthy due to past life sins, and are limited to performing
the most unpleasant jobs, such as disposing of dead bodies and cleaning toilets. The theory of reincarnation has been used in
India as a convenient rationalization to exploit those who are poor and
uneducated. Skin diseases, such as
leprosy, are considered signs of punishment for evil deeds committed in past
lives. Medical science has proven that
leprosy is just an ordinary bacterial infection that anyone can contract given
sufficient exposure to the bacillus: Mycobacterium leprae. Even the great Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
promoted the inhumane karmic explanation for leprosy.
Reincarnation and immortal karma were a way ancient
peoples could explain and rationalize the inherent inequities of life, death,
disease, riches, and poverty in religious terms that had no basis in fact. All of the major world religions are relics
of the prescientific era, and all have negative biases woven into their
teachings. I therefore suggest that it
is time to embrace a pro-science meditative attitude that does not promote
irrational belief in magic and the supernatural, things which exist in our imagination,
but which have no real existence in fact.
Rejecting the soul theory negates any need to answer
such impossible questions as where do souls come from and why do they
exist. The rebellious sage U.G.
Krishnamurti stated "There is no such thing as enlightenment," and
that his state of continuous cosmic consciousness was without cause, or
"acausal." Could it be that
the real cause of enlightenment is rarefied DNA combined with modest effort? Perhaps the ancient Hindus and Buddhists
invented myths of souls and immortal karma simply because they were uneducated
observers of the natural phenomena around them and inside them. Siddhartha Gautama never knew about neurons
or DNA, so how could he be expected come up with any explanations for life that
were not based on inherited cultural myths of the supernatural?
I dismiss claims of past life memories because of
the projective nature of the human brain.
The brain can project any image or feeling, and it is exactly the same
neurological mechanism that projects fantasies of the subconscious that also
projects authentic memories stored in brain cells. What comes out of that one singular projector
may be real memory or real fantasy, but no one can tell the difference with
certainty, not even the late J. Krishnamurti or the Dalai Lama.
False
memories are a common occurrence in courtrooms and have sent many innocent men
to their deaths for crimes they never committed. Just imagine a monk walking into a courtroom
claiming to remember all of his past lives.
Then imagine the monk being grilled under cross-examination and he
cannot even remember what he had for lunch just a few days before. Even the enlightened sages have memory
problems and need to write down important dates and facts so they won't forget.
If a high Tibetan lama or Hindu yogi enters a
medical laboratory full of skeptical scientists and proves through testing that
he can transfer his consciousness out of his body, then belief in souls and
reincarnation would be easier for everyone.
To date that has not happened, and hospital tests designed to prove
out-of-body episodes during near death experiences have yielded no positive
results. As far as scientifically valid
evidence of soul is concerned, the well is completely dry. Human beings exist as footprints in the
sand. One day the footprints will be
erased and only the sand will be left behind.
There is no reincarnation and there is no personal continuity of karma.
I use to dismiss U.G. Krishnamurti's claim that there
is no enlightenment, no soul, and no reincarnation as just his negative way of
teaching. Perhaps, however, he was just
trying to tell us the truth no matter how shocking that truth may be. Instead of becoming attached to the small
personal identity of a mythical human soul, or to the very real human body, it
is apparent that we must identify with nothing less than infinity itself to
find authentic immortality. That is a
pretty tall order for a human brain that only weighs about 3 pounds (1,300 to 1,400
grams). All of the great religions of
the world may be wrong and just a product of our own fear of dying. That possibility is electrically shocking to
me, but it may well be true.”
A
summary of the main issues
a) There is
no positive proof for the existence of souls, immortal karma, reincarnation, or
any spiritual afterlife. It is
interesting to note that in their last years even Rajneesh/Osho and J.
Krishnamurti reversed themselves and stated that there was no reincarnation and
thus, presumably, no soul. If there is
no reincarnation and no heaven or hell, then the question of soul is moot.
b) There are
legitimate science based alternate explanations for phenomena attributed to
souls and immortal karma. The
enlightened teachers seem to confuse the effects of DNA for the effects of
soul. For example, people with higher
intelligence and a more finely articulated DNA code are perceived by them as
being older and higher souls.
c) There are
obvious profit and political power motives for those who promote belief in the
supernatural. How many gurus have made
fortunes off the idea of souls and reincarnation? How many monasteries, ashrams, churches,
mosques, and synagogues would go out of business if people found out there is
no soul or immortal karma? How can
governments and the religious hierarchies control the masses if word leaks out
that we all end up in the same state of eternal unconsciousness after we die,
no matter how we behave while we are alive?
Would there be a Vatican City or Tibetan Portola Palace without a belief
in souls and/or immortal karma? The idea
of soul has historically been as much a matter of politics as it has been an
issue of personal religious belief.
d) It is
highly probable that human animals have a built-in genetic predisposition to
avoid the inevitable fact of our future death in order to reduce fear and
stress. Our brains create myths of God,
soul, immortal karma, reincarnation, and afterlife as a buffer against the
hurtful knowledge of the inevitable demise of ourselves and everyone we
love. By inventing myths of afterlife
and/or reincarnation, the brain can exist comfortably without the highly
charged survival instinct electrically connecting to the newfound knowledge of
the inevitability of our own death. The
supernatural myths thus act as resistive electrical insulation, blocking a
dangerous short circuit between two parts of the brain.
e) The wild
and colorful supernatural myths of Hinduism and Buddhism were created by the
human brain mixing up the very real phenomena of cosmic consciousness with the
romantic, fiction producing part of the brain that makes us fall in love. Humans have an inbuilt biological need for
love so we can sexually reproduce the species.
This urge for romance becomes embedded in our DNA code through the
evolutionary process, just as our need for strong bones and sharp teeth. Love is a survival requirement for the human
species, and it is the very same internal brain wiring and euphoric brain chemistry
which also creates fantastic myths of reincarnated religious superheroes. The flawless Godly guru becomes our
non-sexual, fantasy spiritual lover.
Many Asian and Western gurus have taken advantage of this brain
phenomena, and used their own females disciples as a personal harem. Sexual scandals follow gurus almost as
regularly as summer follows spring.
f) The
soul-karma-reincarnation theory has no reasonable explanation as to how
disincarnate souls enter a mother's womb and merge with a newly formed
fetus. The traditional Asian myths state
that low souls get less auspicious bodies, and higher souls get better looking,
healthier bodies with more intelligent brains.
Few true believers of reincarnation have ever asked themselves how low
souls are rejected from better quality fetuses, and how high souls avoid the
trap of getting attached to poor quality fetuses. The theory implies that souls have
consciousness that lets them figure out which wombs to enter and which to
avoid, and fetuses and/or wombs have built-in restrictions as to what type of
soul may apply to enter. Certainly, even
low souls would like to enter better quality fetuses, because everyone wants to
be good looking, healthy, and wise.
There are a thousand and one Hindu and Buddhist explanations for this
process, which sounds allot like house shopping and applying for a home
mortgage. None of the traditional
theories meet even marginal standards of believability in explaining such an
impossibly complex theoretical process.
g) Life on
earth was created through the nonhuman laws of chemistry, physics, and
probability. Strands of chemicals (DNA)
were created by sheer accident and replicated themselves faster than they could
be destroyed. By further accident, some
DNA strands became encased in protective shells which increased their
survivability dramatically, creating the first bacteria. From simple bacteria more complexity was
added until a myriad of multi celled creatures were produced. Through this slow process of evolution over
billions of years, there was never any need for soul except as a myth to help
human animals deal with their growing consciousness of the inevitable
time-death equation. Scientists have
produced the genetic heart of active bacteria from their base chemical
components, and they did so without concocting any "soul."
h) The
logistical mathematics of the soul theory do not add up. Does every new bacteria, seed, egg, spider,
minnow, or cockroach that appears in the world demand a soul to go along with
its already sufficient DNA code? We know
that humans evolved from bacteria. When
did soul come into the picture and why?
Is there a printing press somewhere stamping out trillions of new souls
every second to keep up with the demand?
The soul theory lacks logical credibility, and science has shown that
the universe is extremely logical in its structure, formation, and evolution.
i) The famous
film director, Alfred Hitchcock, often added a theatrical ploy to his movies
called a "MacGuffin." The
MacGuffin distracted the audience long enough so that suspense could be created
and the plot could develop without giving away the true course of the
story. In the end, the MacGuffin has no
meaning in itself. Likewise, Hindus and
Buddhists have invented complicated myths of reincarnation and/or immortal
karma, declaring that we are all trapped in a cycle of birth and death and only
our eventual enlightenment can set us free.
The Eastern traditions have created a highly sophisticated myth
structure, but the underlying function of their myths is identical to the more
childlike myths of Christianity, with its almighty God, angels, and
heaven. The belief in karma and
reincarnation is the MacGuffin that keeps our minds diverted from the
inevitability and finality of our own death.
No one can
honestly say that it is impossible that human beings have souls or immortal
karma. You cannot prove an absolute
negative against such a big and complex issue.
One can only say that given the proven facts of life and nature, the
possibility of soul is unlikely. On one
side of the scale you have an almost infinite preponderance of evidence that
the supernatural does not exist, and on the other side of the scale you have
rumors, myths, and wishful thinking.
J] "We live in succession, in division, in
parts, in particles. Meantime within man
is the soul of the whole: the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which
every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and
whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect
in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the
spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.
We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the
tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul."
Excerpt
from The Over-Soul, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841.
Christopher Calder Note* Christopher Calder's website
no longer exists.
His essays are archived here.
Copyright notice:
Please feel free to copy, repost, or publish Do you have a soul? (© 2004
Christopher Calder) for educational, noncommercial use. You may repost or publish any of my essays
without cost, but you must clearly state that the essays were written by
Christopher Calder, you must not change any of my words or their meanings, and
no one has been granted permission to use my writings to sell any products or
services. This is a 100% free website,
published only for the benefit of other students of meditation.
Suggested reading
The
"God" Part of the Brain, by Matthew Alper. Alper details the logical scientific argument
that spirituality is the product of genetics and biochemistry, and that God,
soul, and reincarnation are inventions of the human brain, used as a device to
relieve the tremendous stress of death awareness.
Note Opinions expressed on this page must be viewed
as the ideas of an ordinary student of meditation. While I truly believe everything I say, you
should not believe anything unless you see it, feel it, and know it for
yourself. I make no claims of
infallibility. In fact I absolutely
claim fallibility. Also, this author
suffers from dyslexia. If you find any
spelling or punctuation mistakes in any of my essays, please let me know.
Is
There Such a Thing as a Soul?
So to understand this question of death, we must be
rid of fear, which invents the various theories of afterlife or immortality or
reincarnation. So we say, those in the East say, that there is reincarnation,
there is a rebirth, a constant renewal going on and on and on the soul, the
so-called soul. Now please listen carefully.
Is there such a thing? We like to think there is
such a thing, because it gives us pleasure, because that is something that we
have set beyond thought, beyond words, beyond; it is something eternal,
spiritual, that can never die, and so thought clings to it. But is there such a
thing, as a soul, which is something beyond time, something beyond thought,
something which is not invented by man, something which is beyond the nature of
man, something that is not put together by the cunning mind? Because the mind
sees such enormous uncertainty, confusion, nothing permanent in life, nothing.
Your relationship to your wife, your husband, your job, nothing is permanent.
And so the mind invents a something which is permanent, which it calls the
soul. But since the mind can think about it, thought can think about it; as
thought can think about it, it is still within the field of time, naturally. If
I can think about something, it is part of my thought. And my thought is the
result of time, of experience, of knowledge. So, the soul is still within the
field of time.
So the idea of a continuity of a soul that will be
reborn over and over and over again has no meaning because it is the invention
of a mind that is frightened, of a mind that wants, that seeks a duration
through permanency, that wants certainty, because in that there is hope.
J.
Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
Even
your soul is not permanent
How eager we are to have everything permanent! We
want permanent relationships, don’t we?, a permanent wife, a permanent husband,
a permanent relationship with regard to ideas, action, everything. It must be
permanent, which is mechanical—all the time being certain. Is there anything
permanent in life, your ideas, your relationships, anything? Perhaps your house
is permanent; even that may not be; there are earthquakes. Is there anything
psychologically permanent, including your gods, your beliefs, your amusements?
Surely, there is nothing permanent, and yet the mind demands permanency,
security, because it is frightened to
live in a state of uncertainty. To live in such a state requires a great deal
of balance, understanding; otherwise one becomes neurotic. Only when the mind
is not caught in the desire for permanency is it free, because there is nothing
on God’s earth, or inwardly, that is permanent. Even your soul is not
permanent; it’s an invention of the priests.
The
Collected Works vol XVI, p 193
Detailed account with evidences for reincarnation
are available aplenty in
Neale
Donlad Walsch’s Conversations with God-
volume –III- a must read book.
“Each person has an ideal, a hope, a dream which
represents the soul. We must give to it the warmth of love, the light of
understanding and the essence of encouragement.”
Colby
Dorr Dam
For more academic debates on soul especially as
depicted in western analytical approach read the link http://gramata.univ-paris1.fr/Plato/spip.php?article101=
Swami
Vivekananda uses the term Soul to refer to various
manifestations of the inherent, intrinsic and inevitable divinity, universal
spirit etc in different contexts and therefore to the purely analytical and
academic mind it would throw up lot of meanings each if observed in the
specific context would reveal the many facets of what the soul represents.
Here are some of the sayings of Swami Vivekananda
Sometimes it is used to mean the intrinsic value or
essence or pulse of something as it here,
“All who have actually attained any real religious
experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are
expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they
have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same
tongue.”
If we glean through his writings we can also infer
that he refers to the two the individual soul sometimes and the universal soul
and he uses the same word soul without linguistically specifying r
differentiating it as individual soul and universal soul etc knowing well that
or hoping that the context in which the word is used would do the explanation.
For example he says in place, “As body, mind, or
soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss
(satchidananda). You are the God of this universe” here soul refers perhaps to
individual soul which is tuned more to the frequency of the mind and body and
not to the frequency of Consciousness
“The animal has its happiness in the senses, the
human beings in their intellect, and the gods in spiritual contemplation. It is
only to the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world
really becomes beautiful.” Here the word soul refers to the Universal Soul.
He also acknowledges that the individual soul as
part of the universal soul and is the only aspect of infinitude in a human ,
“In this external world, which is full of finite things, it is impossible to
see and find the Infinite. The Infinite must be sought in that alone which is
infinite, and the only thing infinite about us is that which is within us, our
own soul. Neither the body, nor the mind, nor even our thoughts, nor the world
we see around us, is infinite.” He also further emphasizes, “The essence of
Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in
full, not a part of that Being.” “The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. God is
within us. He is the Soul of our souls. See Him in your own soul. That is
practical religion. That is freedom.”
“The Self when it appears behind the universe is
called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe—the
body—is the soul”.
“The Soul is not composed of any materials. It is
unity indivisible. Therefore it must be indestructible”.
“This life is a hard fact; work your way through it
boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger”.
“There is
only one sin—and that sin is weakness. When I was a boy, I read Milton’s
Paradise Lost. The only good man I had any respect for was Satan. The only
saint is the soul who never weakens, faces everything, and determines to die
game”.
“To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul.
Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.”
“True religion is not talk, or doctrines, or
theories, nor is it sectarianism. It is the relation between soul and God.
Religion does not consist in erecting temples, or building churches, or
attending public worship. It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in
lectures, or in organizations. Religion consists in realization. We must
realize God, feel God, see God, talk to God. That is religion.- Swami Vivekananda
Mythological, religious, and contemporary
pseudoscientific ideas about the human soul
Someone has interpreted like this Soul need to be core-self and as defined
by Shankaracharya as CHIT ANAND RUPA
SHIVOHAM SHIVOHAM. Thus soul is consciousness which is a continuum filled with
bliss and is pure (seraphic).
This is surrounded by five KOSHA while one is alive and one identifies oneself with these KOSHAs by ignorance of self. We are not these PANCHAKOSHAs (annamaya, pranmay, dnyanmay, vidnyanmay or anandmay), we are beyond these.
Soul is beyond these, while what we call as spirit as something that leaves body at the time of death has to be deprived of anna and prana and thus remaining three KOSHAs with soul is the remaining spirit. These three remaining KOSHAs preserve knowledge to reconstruct another body and partial knowledge.
Thus, soul is a central core of our being, while spirit consists of soul and three KOSHAs with an ability to reconstruct body and this reenters suitable body and is reborn with part knowledge (of previous birth) sealed like a zip file, which is not easy to reopen
This is surrounded by five KOSHA while one is alive and one identifies oneself with these KOSHAs by ignorance of self. We are not these PANCHAKOSHAs (annamaya, pranmay, dnyanmay, vidnyanmay or anandmay), we are beyond these.
Soul is beyond these, while what we call as spirit as something that leaves body at the time of death has to be deprived of anna and prana and thus remaining three KOSHAs with soul is the remaining spirit. These three remaining KOSHAs preserve knowledge to reconstruct another body and partial knowledge.
Thus, soul is a central core of our being, while spirit consists of soul and three KOSHAs with an ability to reconstruct body and this reenters suitable body and is reborn with part knowledge (of previous birth) sealed like a zip file, which is not easy to reopen
From
S.Kumar On Thursday, 2 January 2014, 3:53, S kumar <kumar_8134@yahoo.com> wrote:
“a. When
Dr.Banerjee of Jaipur researched on rebirths and many cases of small children
remembering the previous birth, disowning their own parents of present birth
and yearning for the house, relatives of previous birth, with many cases
proving true to exact details of the child's previous birth locations..etc., the
question was raised how the soul enters another foetus and in rare cases the
memories of previous birth continues.
b. In
many such cases when Dr.Banerjee himself accompanied the child to the house
claimed to be his/her own, the child identified the streets, reached the house
and hugged elderly members as her sisters or brothers including their names,
their playmates..etc.
c. This
confirms the possibility of some form of energy/matter entering the foetus at
the appropriate time (Garbham Pushyathi Sapthamey) and activating the brain of
the memory.
d.Scientifically,
it could be assumed that neurons of the brain do not die either in cremation or
decomposition in the graves, but move around in space waiting to enter another
body esp. in the foetus, and the memory too is carried by some of these neurons
while triggering the brain.
e. Indeed
neurons do not have any shape, size or weight that could be identified but
float in space, perhaps out into space away from the Earth and to other
inhabited planets or clusters.”
“Madhukar-Jee......
This topic of human
soul and its weight was discussed few months ago on the forum.
Personally
speaking.....I have a theory about it. Since I am not a Medical Doctor and
don't have access to necessary equipment. Perhaps....some able Medical Doctor/s
may like to think about my theory.
We have air all around
us and it weighs. Since air weighs.....therefore air in our Lungs must
have some weight, too. Before going further.....like to tell you about a
British TV Documentary. They Videoed Dying Patients. As they took their Last
Breath. An Orb of LIGHT came out of the body and floated in the room.
Medical staff opened the windows
and Orb went out.
Back to my
Theory..Since air has got weight and Air in the Lungs must have got weight,
too. Perhaps..perhaps....Last Breath of Air Exhaled was 21oz.
Here I am Lost.....was
Orb a SOUL and weighed 21oz.......or......the last breath exhaled weighed
21oz ???????
Personally, I believe
in SPRITUALITY.I am NOT in Bondage to ANY Religious
affiliation. But....do have Great Respect for Each and Every
Religion. Hasten to
add some is/are Pure
Divisive and Destructive.
2 comments:
To understand the vital, animating principle called soul or spirit that is found in all living entities, we have to examine the single, fertilized, Egg Cell that is formed at human conception. You have to find soul and spirit in that cell and describe the nature of functions it performs.
in order to know about the essence of life, we need to understand the origin of humans. Loved your content
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