As you read, I invite you to have an open mind. If you do, I assure that you will gain perspective and insight that will serve you for the rest of your life. I implore you to read with the intention of gaining understanding and comprehension. If you are looking to find your purpose, place, or connection in life, then combine these definitions with your current understanding and you will learn. I ask that you do not become defensive or look to rationalize or justify your current perspective. Our perspectives are not at war. They are not in competition. They are given to us to compare, combine, and create anew together.
I invite you turn within. Allow the inner most desires, thoughts, and feelings to come forth and be heard. In your life, apply the principles that speak to you and you will know them to be truth as they bring forth good fruit. If something speaks, resonates, or feels right, I encourage you to listen and then act upon what feels right.
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Life is the one word in your many languages that comes closest to carrying the meaning that some of you are seeking to express when you use the word Allah or God or Brahman or Vishnu or Shiva and that you hope describes or can be a container for the stuff that God is. In one word, life is the stuff that God is. Life is. Life is that which is. It has no shape, no form, no gender. It has no color, no fragrance, no size. It is all shapes, all forms, all colors, all fragrances, and sizes. It is both genders and that which is genderless as well. It is the all and the everything and it is the ‘no’ thing from which the ‘every’ thing emerges. There is nothing that life creates that is not life itself. All that you see everywhere around you is life expressing.
Life is everything.
It runs in, as, and through everything. You are life expressing and life is you expressing itself as you. Everybody else is life expressing. There is no one, not a single living being that is not an expression of life. Even those you consider the worst among you are an expression of life. None of these statements seem controversial. Not many people would seriously argue with them. The truth of these statements seems obvious on the surface. Now, play a little trick on yourself. Play a little game. Exchange the word life for the word God and see what happens. Watch your mind go crazy. Make the same statement, the exact same statement as above but use the word God in place of the word life and watch what your mind does with it.
Neale Donald Walsch – Tomorrows God |
GOD – Virtually all cultures of the human race have included references to a GOD: Creative Force, Source, Higher Power, Supreme Being, The Tao, Brahman, that “which is”, or Divine Presence. It has often been associated very closely with organized religion, cultural norms, and values; however, GOD is infinitely more powerful, pure, and perfect than any man made creation or organization. Even the greatest of human perspectives of prophets, sages, Masters, and Gurus have struggled within the confines of language, culture, and current consciousness to express the infinite and perfect nature of GOD. GOD may also be referred to as: Chi, Life Force, Mother Nature, Mother-GOD, Shakti, Father Sky, Father-GOD, Shiva, Energy, Spirit, etc. GOD is everywhere and part of everything, tangible or not. There is nothing that is not GOD. GOD is not separate from anything.
GOD is available toanyone with eyes to see, ears to hear, or a heart to feel. GOD is our foundation and at the core to our being. From GOD we came, of GOD we are, andto GOD we return. Balancing, synchronizing, and harmonizing body, mind, and spirit with GOd is the natural expression and progression of GOD. The Mul Mantra(chant, prayer, or meditation) offered by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sihk faith, as he awakened fromthe slumber and illusion of duality, death, and separation from GOD, described GOD in the following:
Ego (Self) – The illusory construct of what we are and anything we choose to associate and identify with. This includes but is not limited to our perception of our mind, body, spirit, thoughts, emotions, feelings, roles, perspective, etc. Our ego is anything that distinguishes us from anything and everything else. Our ego is a limited, filtered, separated, and isolated perspective of the world. This is something that occurs individually as well as collectively. A collective ego may be witnessed in statements such as: My country is the best. My religious, political, or social group is of greater value than yours. Our people are smarter, more deserving, better. Our religion has all truth while all others are wrong or incomplete.
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The mind seemsto be intelligent and conscious…It has only a borrowed intelligence…the mind is not the seer, but only an instrument of knowledge, an object of perception like the outside world…
Every perception arouses the ego-sense…
When an event or object in the external world is recorded by the senses, a thought-wave is raised in the mind. The ego-sense identifies itself with this wave. If the thought-wave is pleasant, the ego-sense feels, “I am happy”; if the wave is unpleasant, “I am unhappy.” This false identification is the cause of all our misery–for even the ego’s temporary sensation of happiness brings anxiety, a desire to cling to the object of pleasure, and this prepares future possibilities of becoming unhappy.
How to Know God – The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali p. 15-17
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The ego may also be referred to as the natural, physical, and carnal portion of our being. To some it is known as our shadow, others may refer to it as the “devil on our shoulder”. The ego/lower-self “is the body of desires, is a reflection of the higher self, distorted by the murky ethers of the flesh…The lower self is an illusion, and will pass away…[it] breeds hatred, slander, lewdness, murders, theft, and everything that harms…The lower self is rich in promises, but poor in blessedness and peace; it offers pleasure, joy and satisfying gains; but give unrest and misery and death. It gives men apples that are lovely to the eye and pleasant to the smell; their cores are full of bitterness and gall.[i]”
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The only devil from which men must be redeemed is
self, the lower self[ego]. If man would find his devil he must look within; his name is self. If man would find his savior he must look within;
and when the demon self has been dethroned the savior, Love, will be exulted to the throne of power.
Elihu – The Aquarian Gospel – Chapter 8
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So, you ask if it is good to have an ego, and that is a very large question.
It all depends on what you are trying to do.
If you are using the ego as a tool with which to ultimately experience the Only Reality, it is good. If the ego is using you to stop you from experiencing that reality, then it is not good. To the degree that it is stopping you from doing what you came here to do, it is “not good.”
Neale Donald Walsch – Friendship with God
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Many believe that the ego must be conquered, destroyed, eliminated, or banished because it appears to be “evil”; however, the ego is an innate and essential part of our totalbeing. In the current realm of duality, the ego provides much needed contrast to allow for choice and agency toexist. Our ego provides the experiential energy necessary to transform dualistic perception (i.e. good/bad,ego(self)/non-self, beginning/end) into the transcendent realm of unity, non-duality, love, and G-d Consciousness.
Non-Self – Anything we do not associate or identify with. This includes but is not limited to other individuals, places, things, and their related emotions and energy. Non-self is anything with a perspective that our ego does not currently accept or share. This is a mental construct and an illusion that separation, isolation, or detachment exists. Recognizing and acknowledging the constructs of self (ego) and non-self naturally begins to dissolve their imagined boundaries.
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Above all, one has to sacrifice the belief that there is any power or endurance in evil
apart from the power that we ourselves give it by believing in it.
Emmett Fox – The Sermon on the Mount
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Evil and Sin – The way in which evil and sin are to be regarded in this account are fundamentally different than common perception and interpretation. To most, evil is an outside force that must be resisted, battled, and defeated. From an eternal perspective, evil is a temporary phenomena. It serves as a transformational catalyst of human consciousness from fear, death, and separation to love, life, and unification. Sin and evil are “conquered” in overcoming our tendency to engage and indulge in selfish, sensual, carnal, and ego based thinking and behaviors. Such a shift in perspective gives evil a much different denotation (direct meaning) as well as connotation (secondary or implied meaning). Directly, evil is that which consciously or not, creates, plants the seeds of, or spreads the fire of separation, suffering, and selfishness. The Tao Te Ching (60) states “Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.” Evil provides contrast and differentiation wherein we may use our agency to consciously create that which promotes love and lessens the suffering of others.
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Now, if we really are the children of God, capable of eternal and flawless perfection, there can be no real power in evil, not even in sin, to keep us permanently in bondage. That is to say, with the right method of working, it can be only a matter of time before we assume our true condition of spiritual salvation; so now let us lose no further time before commencing our upward march. Let us now- at this very moment, if we have not already done so- rise up, like the prodigal son amid the husks of materiality and limitation, and cry, with all confidence in the teachings and promises of Jesus: “I will arise and go unto my father.”
Emmet Fox – Sermon on the Mount p. 84
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When men defy their consciences and listennot to what they say,
the heart is grieved and they become unfitted for the work of life; and thus they sin.
The conscience may be taught. One man may do in conscience what another cannot do.
What is a sin for me to do may not be sin for you to do.
The place you occupy upon the way of life determines what is sin.
There is no changeless law of good; for good and evil both are judged by other things.
Jesus, The Christ – The Aquarian Gospel – Chapter 119
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From an old world view,sin is the lure, bait, trick, or trap laid by the separate source of evil to entice, entrance, or ensnare us into becoming evil. From a new perspective, sin is when we internally “miss the mark” of consciousness by promoting the suffering of self and/or non-self. The “mark of consciousness” is to co-create love, expression, expansion, and experience in life with all aspects and beings within God and nature. From an old view, sin is evil and associated with fear, guilt, shame, remorse, and other negative, self limiting tendencies. From a new view, when we sin, something that comes from within, not without, we miss the mark, or generate some form of suffering, and we, like the archer missing the target, see it as an opportunity to learn from our mistake, change our aim or focus (repent or turn from our sin) and try again to hit the mark.
Jesus taught another perspective on the origin of evil and sin that coincides well with a ‘new world view’ of ego, evil, sin, and consciousness. This is a view in which we are capable of discerning and correcting when our lives are out of tune as well as reconciling the existence of evil and sin in a universe where God is the source of all. This ‘new world view’ does not blame the devil or any outside source for sin and evil, it places accountability upon the shoulders of mankind.
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8. I pray you, honored masters, tell me how that evil can be born of that which is all good?
9. A magus rose and said, If you will answer me, your problem will be solved.
10. We all do recognize the fact that evil is. Whatever is, must have a cause, If God, the One, made not this evil, then, where is the God who did?
11. And Jesus said, Whatever God, the One, has made is good, and like the great first Cause, the seven Spirits all are good, and everything that comes from their creative hands is good.
12. Now, all created things have colors, tones and forms their own; but certain tones, though good and pure themselves, when mixed, produce inharmonies, discordant tones.
13. And certain things, though good and pure, when mixed, produce discordant things, yea, poisonous things, that men call evil things.
14. So evil is the inharmonious blending of the colors, tones, or forms of good.
15. Now, man is not all-wise, and yet has will his own. He has the power, and he uses it, to mix God’s good things in a multitude of ways, and every day he makes discordant sounds, and evil things.
16. And every tone and form, be it of good, or ill, becomes a living thing, a demon, sprite, or spirit of a good or vicious kind.
17. Man makes his evil thus; and then becomes afraid of him and flees; his devil is emboldened, follows him away and casts him into torturing fires.
18. The devil and the burning fires are both the works of man, and none can put the fires out and dissipate the evil one, but man who made them both.
Jesus, The Christ – The Aquarian Gospel – Chapter 39
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Conscious Being – The essence, source, and core of each human being. It may be referred to as spirit, soul, chi, life force, higher self, or Ātman. It is beyond birth and death, beginning and end. It is not found through identification, association, attachment, or addiction to anything on the exterior. It is found, witnessed, and experienced by turning within. A Conscious Being is capable of transcending, ascending, or rising above the duality and opposition of the Universe noted primarily between ego(self) and non-self. A conscious being is one that is aware of their physical body, their mental/logical mind, their emotional/abstract mind and the ability to create and therefore accept responsibility and consequences for their lifestyle, behaviors, and attitudes.
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The real Self, the Ātman, remains forever outside the power of thought-waves, it is eternally pure, enlightened and free–the only true, unchanging happiness. It follows, therefore, that man can never know his real Self as long as the thought-waves and the
ego-sense are being identified. I order to become enlightened we must bring the thought-waves under control, so that this false identification may cease. Emmett Fox – The Sermon on the Mount p.50
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Awakened Being – A Conscious being that observes, accepts, and harmonizes with the flow of God, life, and nature, becomes fully realized; freed through overcoming the attachments, aversions, self indulgences, and false identifications of the world, becomes an Awakened Being. Awakened beings continuously cultivate life in balance of organization/structure (logic/masculine) and flow (abstract/feminine). They yield to that which is far greater than the selfish desires and cravings of the individual ego. They are capable of sharing a unified and harmonious perspective with everyone and everything, regardless of life paths or circumstances. They foster cooperative coexistence. They quickly relinquish their attachments and identifications as they flow naturally through the times and seasons of life. This is a state of being many term as Christ or God Consciousness. Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad are three examples of Awakened, Christ (love) Conscious Beings. Love Consciousness is not bound by time, matter, or perspective. Love does not cast judgment. Love accepts. Love is unconditional and without expectations.
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Time never was when man was not.
That which begins will have an end.
If man was not,
the time will come when he will not exist.
Jesus, The Christ – The Aquarian Gospel – Chapter 32
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Love is. You are.
I AM.
Yoga –
- Union. Union with God. Union is marriage of opposites. Marriage is combination, co-creation, and creative expression of polarities: on and off, always and never, black and while, male and female.
- Any practice, path, principle, perspective, method, means, mantra, meditation, doctrine, dharma, dogma, exercise, experience, expression, science or similar, that acknowledges, allows, invites, promotes, or progresses towards Yoga (union) with God.
Yoga is nothing but a clean science to create a clean union of the finite with Infinity.
Yogi Bhajan
- Every thought, word, deed, choice, and behavior is a Yoga. They involve breath, or the lack thereof, form, or the lack thereof, posture, or the lack thereof, movement, or the lack thereof, consciousness or the lack thereof, and are manifested as states of being. Yogas are “causes” in life. They “result” in one of two states of being: harmony and disharmony. There are infinite expressions of harmony and disharmony. When harmonious, melodies of wholeness, unity, reconciliation, and love are experienced. When disharmonious, noises of disease, separation, war, and suffering are experienced.
- Exercise science for discovery, exploration, and play in the ecstasy (love, light, truth, bliss, energy, frequency, vibration) of God.
- Revelation of the Universal Self (God) through the 8 Practices of Yoga as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.
- Yama – Moral Codes
- Niyama – Self-Purification and Study
- Asana – Posture
- Pranayama – Control of the Breath
- Pratyahara – Control of the Senses
- Dharana – Concentration
- Dhyana – Meditation
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And Jesus said,
All men are sons of God by birth; God is the Father of the race; but all are not the sons of God by faith.
He who attains the victory over self is son of God by faith, and he who speaks to you has overcome, and he is called son of God, because he is the pattern for the sons of men.
He who believes and does the will of God is son of God by faith.
The Aquarian Gospel Chapter 139
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