One day my master told that I was not fully qualified to be a buddhist. "To be a true buddhist, you need to cultivate to be a real good human being. You have to get rid of all your bad behaviours, must develop good moral standard, must able to do at least one good deed everyday like the scout's vow and must keep on cleansing yourself and reflect every moment of what you are doing." He gave three bowls, one bowl consisted of black seeds, one with white seeds and one, an empty bowl. While doing meditation, the moment a distracted bad or useless thought come to me, I would pick up a black seed and out it into the empty bowl. When I had a good thought coming to me, I would pick up a white seed into the empty bowl. This method wasn't easy to accomplish. It took many years before One could fill the empyty bowl with only white seeds.
Hence even today, I daren't tell people that I am a buddhist because occasionally the five poisons; greed, anger, ignorance, pride, doubts and other minor misbehaviours still occur in my mind. ( 2 cents story )
Hence even today, I daren't tell people that I am a buddhist because occasionally the five poisons; greed, anger, ignorance, pride, doubts and other minor misbehaviours still occur in my mind. ( 2 cents story )
Who is suffering? It is our body. The six senses open to negativity that causes our body to suffer. Our inner being is always in silence and in bliss. No outside and innner occurances can cause it to suffer. Just be constantly be aware of your inner self, you are completely free from suffering. ( 2 cents opinion )
There are thousand methods of meditation that we may come across, but the only way to be awakened is to go deep into your heart realm.
Contributed by Bina Hariharan
( Read with your decision, your own judegement , your own spiritual level of understanding; for interest, knowledge or information )
Our spiritual identity is defined by our soul. Not only has this been vividly described by wide-ranging ancient scriptures, but individual experiences of near-death events and of alternate healing techniques like past life and spiritual regression also reinforce the existence of our spiritual being as soul.
Our soul is the formless life force, the consciousness, that brings alive our human form. It is also our true essence, our eternal self. As French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
While many of us connect with this realism, rarely do we reflect enough on how souls possibly operate. Every individual soul is bound by its eternal journey to be one with the Supreme soul, the source of universal consciousness. However, interestingly, it is only in the physical form of a human body that the soul can progress on that journey.
Stating simplistically, at the time of death, the individual soul leaves the human body and reconnects with the Source. While this provides the soul a comforting homecoming and some sense of being whole again, the soul still carries the karmic imprint of its cumulative existence across various lives. The soul’s recognition of its karmic imperfections and its motivation to continue to purify itself, in line with its eternal goal, leads to its need for rebirth.
Among other possibilities, the soul eventually takes birth in a new body on earth. It is important to emphasise here that every such birth has a special significance and purpose for the soul – the specific aspects of its karmic imprint that it wishes to neutralise and thereby progress in its eternal journey towards merging with the Source.
However, human life throws up interesting challenges to the soul. The strength of the human brain, coupled with the powerful experience of physical senses, often makes the soul lose track of its original objectives of reincarnating. Egoistic desires, sensual pleasures and materialistic pursuits consume us. In the process, we forget our deeper purpose of being on this planet.
This is a kind of spiritual amnesia – loss of memory of the soul when overpowered by the physical form. The less advanced the soul is in its eternal journey, perhaps the greater is its propensity to be forgetful in the physical form.
Our recurring sources of suffering, whether physical, mental or emotional, are invariably clues for personal spiritual lessons we need to learn in this lifetime. Ask yourself if you need to be more patient, accepting or grateful; or be less judgemental, aggressive or fearful. Do you need to make extra effort to cultivate equanimity or compassion?
Each of us has a unique and special purpose for being here. However, we need to slow down from our fast-paced life to discover that personal purpose. We need to create moments of quiet solitude to connect with our inner self; practice meditation to recognise our true nature; and listen to the voice of wisdom that resides within each of us, so we can recollect our core purpose.
Once we can identify that purpose and commit to living it, we start to experience greater inner strength, peace and happiness. Aligning our life to our soul’s purpose makes the human journey effortless and vastly more meaningful. It also helps the soul progress on its own eternal journey towards becoming one with the Source.
Reversing Our Spiritual Amnesia By: Rajiv Vij
( Read with your decision, your own judegement , your own spiritual level of understanding; for interest, knowledge or information )
Our spiritual identity is defined by our soul. Not only has this been vividly described by wide-ranging ancient scriptures, but individual experiences of near-death events and of alternate healing techniques like past life and spiritual regression also reinforce the existence of our spiritual being as soul.
Our soul is the formless life force, the consciousness, that brings alive our human form. It is also our true essence, our eternal self. As French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
While many of us connect with this realism, rarely do we reflect enough on how souls possibly operate. Every individual soul is bound by its eternal journey to be one with the Supreme soul, the source of universal consciousness. However, interestingly, it is only in the physical form of a human body that the soul can progress on that journey.
Stating simplistically, at the time of death, the individual soul leaves the human body and reconnects with the Source. While this provides the soul a comforting homecoming and some sense of being whole again, the soul still carries the karmic imprint of its cumulative existence across various lives. The soul’s recognition of its karmic imperfections and its motivation to continue to purify itself, in line with its eternal goal, leads to its need for rebirth.
Among other possibilities, the soul eventually takes birth in a new body on earth. It is important to emphasise here that every such birth has a special significance and purpose for the soul – the specific aspects of its karmic imprint that it wishes to neutralise and thereby progress in its eternal journey towards merging with the Source.
However, human life throws up interesting challenges to the soul. The strength of the human brain, coupled with the powerful experience of physical senses, often makes the soul lose track of its original objectives of reincarnating. Egoistic desires, sensual pleasures and materialistic pursuits consume us. In the process, we forget our deeper purpose of being on this planet.
This is a kind of spiritual amnesia – loss of memory of the soul when overpowered by the physical form. The less advanced the soul is in its eternal journey, perhaps the greater is its propensity to be forgetful in the physical form.
Our recurring sources of suffering, whether physical, mental or emotional, are invariably clues for personal spiritual lessons we need to learn in this lifetime. Ask yourself if you need to be more patient, accepting or grateful; or be less judgemental, aggressive or fearful. Do you need to make extra effort to cultivate equanimity or compassion?
Each of us has a unique and special purpose for being here. However, we need to slow down from our fast-paced life to discover that personal purpose. We need to create moments of quiet solitude to connect with our inner self; practice meditation to recognise our true nature; and listen to the voice of wisdom that resides within each of us, so we can recollect our core purpose.
Once we can identify that purpose and commit to living it, we start to experience greater inner strength, peace and happiness. Aligning our life to our soul’s purpose makes the human journey effortless and vastly more meaningful. It also helps the soul progress on its own eternal journey towards becoming one with the Source.
Reversing Our Spiritual Amnesia By: Rajiv Vij
The first thing in the morning after my breakfast I will look into the home page to check who are having their birthdays. Then I will wish them to have their wishes come true. Then I will continue to read the articles written by fb friends. If I find some articles which are suitable for my readers, I will share these articles with them. After that I will sit tight to wait for my brain to think. If there are some ideas coming to my mind I will write them out for them to share. Next I will check into my messages to see if there are any urgent matter for me to solve. Most of the time I recieve good blessings from some high monks and good fb friends. Then this will take me about 2 hours before I start to do my reading or running my errands. Everyday is peaceful to me. I am very contented with my simple living.
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