SPIRITUAL TIME, SPACE, MASS, LIGHT AND ENERGY

SPIRITUAL TIME, SPACE, MASS, LIGHT AND ENERGY
(Last updated 8/20/00)

 

The "Spiritual Dimensions" section is a very deep area of study, but one that is key to understanding some of the most difficult areas of Scripture, such as those verses in Revelation where the text seems to shift between events on earth and in the heavenlies, as well as not follow a linear time line.
Consider the following quote:

Time is an accident consequent upon motion and is necessarily attached to it. Neither of them exists without the other. Motion does not exist except in time, and time cannot be conceived by the intellect except together with motion. And all that with regard to which no motion can be found, does not fall under time.

A brilliant insight from Albert Einstein, perhaps?

If you answered "probably," you're only off by about 700 years.

In as much as the above quotation sounds like a 20th century theory of Einstein, it is actually from Maimonides, the great Jewish Torah scholar of the twelfth century. (1) Actually, Einstein and his colleagues probably were inspired by Maimonides' writings, which were well ahead of their time.

The last sentence of Maimonides' quote actually pertains to God Himself. As "motion" (as well as space) imply measurement and can only apply to physical objects, and as God is not corporeal, then He is not confined by time or space. Time was created by God, for us. He operates beyond time as we know it.

TIME AND SPACE IN OUR 3-DIMENSIONAL WORLD

There are many ways that "time" and "space" can be shown to have a relationship. A simple example is found in the game of chess. Chess strategy involves interplay between space (how many of the 64 squares of the board you control), and time (how many moves that you are ahead or behind your opponent). Experienced players often "trade" space for time, having to use their intuition as to whether they are getting the "better end of the deal." Only after a beginner understands this "dimension," of the game, can he move forward to becoming an advanced player.

In mathematics, there are complex equations that cannot be solved without introducing a "4th dimension" (something beyond the X, Y and Z coordinates in 3-dimensional space). Again, without "expanding" beyond the elementary and obvious, one cannot advance to the next level of understanding.

Physics has shown that there are relationships between things like energy and mass, as well as time and space, Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2 (Energy equals mass times the constant of the speed of light, squared) was one of the first to link two such elements. Experiments have been done sending atomic clocks through the atmosphere in different directions, arriving at the same destination at the same moment -- however when the clocks were checked, the times were different, thus showing that speed through space affected time.

FIVE SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS

The concepts we call, "time" and "space," as well as, "light," "mass," and "energy," are all part of God's creation and may be considered a "reflection" of His attributes. As God is consistent in what He does, when studying the Scriptures, we should not be surprised to find that there are corresponding elements in the spiritual realm. The study of these spiritual elements plays a key role in understanding who God is, who we are, what is to come, and how we are to get there.

The following are offered for consideration:

• spiritual time, represented by repeated "events" not constricted to the physical linear aspect of time, i.e., the Moedim (including Shabbat, Shemitta and Yovel years, and the seven "Feasts of God"). Many of these are associated with events in the Millennium or Olam Haba (the world to come).
• spiritual space, the dimension(s) beyond our physical one, including aspects of those set on earth for us (i.e., the Tabernacle/Temple, a place where God could "reside" among us on this sinful earth.) Spiritual space is necessary for God's spiritual light to be transmitted, just as physical space is needed for physical light.
• spiritual light, God's word and/or perfect will, either of which is a constant. "You are the light of the world," is an admonition for God's people to teach others His Torah, which is His light. (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalm 119:105.) The glory of God is also represented by "light" in Scripture.
• spiritual mass, any entity whose function is to implement the will of God (i.e., angels, the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit), Messiah or the Shekinah). This would also include "evil angels" (demons), including haSatan, who also ultimately serve God's purpose.
• spiritual energy, the result of the work of; angels, the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit), Messiah the Shekinah or demons --   i.e., miracles or revelation

TIME AND SPACE: SHABBAT AND THE TEMPLE

The Sabbath is shown to have a time-transcending character, as seen in the mystical teachings of the Zohar, and is directly tied to the Millenium/Olam Haba:

Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 88a - Therefore the Sabbath is more precious than all other times and seasons and festivals, because it contains and unites all in itself, whereas no other festival or holy day does so.’ Said R. Hiya: ‘Because all things are found in the Sabbath it is mentioned three times in the story of Creation: "And on the seventh day God ended his work"; "and he rested on the seventh day"; "and God blessed the seventh day" (Gen. II, 2, 3).’
Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 88b - The unique character of the Sabbath is expressed in the words: "Between Me and the children of Israel." And because the Faith is centred in the Sabbath, man is given on this day an additional, a supernal soul, a soul in which is all perfection, according to the pattern of the world to come. What does the word "Sabbath" mean? The Name of the Holy One, the Name which is in perfect harmony at all sides.’ [Tr. Note: This idea is based upon the mystic significance of the three letters of the word Sabbath, shin, beth, tau.]
Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 205b - ‘The prayer offered by the holy people on the Sabbath is of three parts, corresponding to the three Sabbaths, but being in essence only one. [Tr. note: i.e. the Sabbath of the Creation, the Sabbath on which the Torah was given, and the Sabbath of the Millennium.]

Our definition of spiritual space has to do with a place (and means) by which God can "reside" among His creation -- especially in their sinful state.

The first place we see the idea of God creating "spiritual space," is in creation. According to mystical Jewish tradition, the purpose of creation was to provide God with a "dwelling place in the lower realms." Eden was a place where man walked with God, in the spirit (ruach) of the garden. This "space" was corupted by the sin of Adam and Even, and they were banished from it.

God's process of redemption brings us to Mount Sinai, where once again, sin (the golden calf) gets in the way of the plan. In order for God to reside among his people, He needs to create a spiritual space that is not tainted by sin -- first, the Tabernacle, and later, the Temple.

Recall that Moses built the first Tabernacle and its elements according to a heavenly model. The Zohar (3) states that God made everything in this "lower" world along the same pattern as that in the "upper" world. A similar thought is expressed in Midrash Rabbah:

Midrash Rabbah - Genesis II:2 - NOW THE EARTH WAS TOHU E.V. ‘UNFORMED’, etc. R. Abbahu and R. Judah b. R. Simon [gave the follow-ing illustrations]. R. Abbahu said: This may be compared to the case of a king who bought two slaves on the same bill of sale and at the same price. One he ordered to be supported at the public expense, while the other he ordered to toil for his bread. The latter sat bewildered and astonished: ‘Both of us were bought at the same price,’ exclaimed he, ‘yet he is supported from the treasury whilst I have to gain my bread by my toil!’ Thus the earth sat bewildered and astonished, saying, ' The celestial beings [sc. the angels] and the terrestial ones [sc. man] were created at the same time: yet the celestial beings are fed by the radiance of the Shechinah, whereas the terrestial beings, if they do not toil, do not eat.

We are taught in Scripture that our bodies are the Temple of God's Spirit. Just as the Tabernacle and Temple were constructed according to an image given by God, we ourselves are created in the image of the same God. God's "characteristics" are consistent and can be seen in all He does. By studying God's Temple (as commanded in Ezekiel) and properly keeping His Sabbath, we actually learn more of how to restore our personal relationship with Him. Such "wisdom" is considered greater than prophecy in Jewish tradition.
As Paul said, these things are indeed a (wonderful) shadow of what is to come, and don't let anyone "trouble you," if you choose to study and do them in faith (Colossians 2:17).

A UNION OF TIME AND SPACE

It is reasonable to assume that we can look for His "pattern" throughout any part of His creation. As we find the Temple and Shabbat closely linked in the Torah (when they are formally given to us, i.e. Leviticus 19:30), and coming to their fullness together in the Millennium, it is sensible to look for a connection involving spiritual time and space between the two.

Besides the weekly Shabbat, the three pilgrimage feasts of Pesakh, Shavuot and Succot were also called "sabbaths" and related to the Temple:

Deuteronomy 16:16 - Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

The Jewish scholar Nachmanides (12th century), taught that all 613 commandments of the Torah are related in some fashion to the Temple and Shabbat (2), making the Temple and Shabbat as critical to understanding God's revelation (His Torah) and the spiritual world, as the study of physical time and space are to understanding the "reality" of our physical world.

Science proclaims that our present reality is dependent on the relationship between space and time. Reality is made up of the three aspects of the dimension of space (height, width and depth -- or "X," "Y'" and "Z" coordinates) along with the single dimension of time. (i.e., If you want to know the "location" of something on this earth, you need to know the three aspects of where it was/is and the single aspect of when it was/is.)

The consistency of God's rules would apply to the reality of the spiritual realm. As the Millennium is the return of spiritual reality to its "proper state," we should view the union of of the Temple with Shabbat at that time in such terms, keeping in mind the three aspects of space and one of time. (We will also see later in this study, that there is a "fifth dimension," a spiritual/moral one, that indicates a status of: good/evil, clean/unclean, holy/unholy. This, like the others, is also not "static," (i.e., things that are clean can become unclean and vice-versa).

As we go through this study, we will find that "space-related" things such as; the structure of the Temple, the terms of the Besorah ("Gospel") and the New Covenant, are interwoven with the "time-related items" of; Shabbat, Yovel Year (Jubilee) and Yom Kippur.

Physical time and space are indeed a shadow of their spiritual counterparts:

"Space by itself and time by itself, are doomed to fade into mere shadows."- Herman Minkowski, a contemporary of Einstein, in a scientific address given September 21, 1908

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come ..."
- Sha'ul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 2, verses 16 & 17
"HaMakom V'HaZman Echad Hu" - "Time and Space are One"
- 16th century Jewish saying
"Mehitabut ha'orot, nithavu hakelim -"From the condensation of the lights, were the vessels brought into being."
- Ancient Jewish mystical saying

---

1. The Fifteenth Premise, from Maimonides' The Guide of the Perplexed, Introduction to the Second Part. A study of any of Maimonides' works is very beneficial to understanding deep Biblical concepts. Much of his material can be found on Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com. His work, The Guide of the Perplexed, is an outstanding piece of literature and recommended for understanding the Jewish Scriptures.

2. Nachmanides commentary on Leviticus

3. Zohar, commentary on Exodus 3:1

http://www.yashanet.com/studies/revstudy/rev4.htm

Totem good luck

pray for PEACE

100 Benefits of Meditation

100 Benefits of Meditation
Physiological benefits:
1. It lowers oxygen consumption.
2. It decreases respiratory rate.
3. It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4. Increases exercise tolerance.
5. Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6. Good for people with high blood pressure.
7. Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8. Decreases muscle tension
9. Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10. Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11. Helps in post-operative healing.
12. Enhances the immune system.
13. Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14. Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15. Helps with weight loss
16. Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17. Higher skin resistance
18. Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19. Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20. Decreases the aging process.
21. Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22. Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23. Makes you sweat less
24. Cure headaches & migraines
25. Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26. Reduced Need for Medical Care
27. Less energy wasted
28. More inclined to sports, activities
29. Significant relief from asthma
30. Improved performance in athletic events
31. Normalizes to your ideal weight
32. Harmonizes our endocrine system
33. Relaxes our nervous system
34. Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35. Helps cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).


Psychological benefits:
36. Builds self-confidence.
37. Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38. Resolve phobias & fears
39. Helps control own thoughts
40. Helps with focus & concentration
41. Increase creativity
42. Increased brain wave coherence.
43. Improved learning ability and memory.
44. Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45. Increased emotional stability.
46. Improved relationships
47. Mind ages at slower rate
48. Easier to remove bad habits
49. Develops intuition
50. Increased Productivity
51. Improved relations at home & at work
52. Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53. Helps ignore petty issues
54. Increased ability to solve complex problems
55. Purifies your character
56. Develop will power
57. Greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58. Respond more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59. Increases ones perceptual ability and motor performance
60. Higher intelligence growth rate
61. Increased job satisfaction
62. Increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63. Decrease in potential mental illness
64. Better, more sociable behaviour
65. Less aggressiveness
66. Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67. Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68. Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69. Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70. Increases sense of responsibility
71. Reduces road rage
72. Decrease in restless thinking
73. Decreased tendency to worry
74. Increases listening skills and empathy
75. Helps make more accurate judgments
76. Greater tolerance
77. Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78. Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79. Develops emotional maturity
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Spiritual benefits:
80. Helps keep things in perspective
81. Provides peace of mind, happiness
82. Helps you discover your purpose in life
83. Increased self-actualization.
84. Increased compassion
85. Growing wisdom
86. Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87. Brings body, mind, and spirit in harmony
88. Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89. Increased acceptance of one self
90. Helps learn forgiveness
91. Changes attitude toward life
92. Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93. Increases the synchronicity in your life
94. Greater inner-directedness
95. Helps living in the present moment
96. Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97. Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98. Experience an inner sense of Assurance or Knowingness
99. Experience a sense of Oneness
100. Leads to enlightenment

Ka (Spirit)

Ka (Spirit)

The Ka (k3) was the Egyptian concept of spiritual essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter’s wheel and inserted them into their mothers’ bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person’s Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions.

The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (k3w) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.

Article Source: Wikipedia.org

Persevere

Persevere with all your might
Persevere and put up a fight
Persevere and do what's right
Persevere through the night
Persevere through the pain
Persevere through the rain
Persevere and you will gain
Whatever is on your mind.

Would you say that you need the power of God to endure whatever comes with a good temper?

Love is the key that unlocks forgiveness for you. To forgive an individual is to decide that their wrong won't affect the decision you have made to do what the Word says in responding to their actions. You decide that you will not retaliate, but will respond scripturally. And as far as you are concerned, you will maintain a good relationship with that person, because you walk in love. A love person lets love rule the relationship.

Would you say that you need the power of God to endure whatever comes with a good
temper? I certainly do. Well, God has given us all that is necessary to fulfill His
will in life. And the element He is given us to maintain a good temper in all things is forgiveness, which comes out of a heart of love.


Forgiveness covers our heart and other extremities. Why is it so important?
Unforgiveness does not hurt the other person; it hurts you. Also, God said that He will not forgive you unless you forgive others. Forgiveness helps you to maintain a good temper at all times.

God requires that you walk in love. That love will cause you to maintain a good temper because 1 Corinthians 13:4 says that love is patient. Love can endure anything and everything that comes your way. And when you have that kind of supernatural element working in your life, joy and peace is sure to follow.

The Five Spiritual Powers

The Five Spiritual Powers ...Sarah Doering
IMS Dharma Talk / Three Month Retreat / October 1999
www.Dharma.org

[Sarah Doering has had a long association with the Insight Meditation Society and with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. On both boards for many years, she has been a devoted practitioner of insight meditation, and has been teaching at IMS for the past several years. Sarah is currently one of the resident teachers at the newly opened Forest Refuge.]


For forty-five years after his enlightenment, the Buddha wandered about northern India teaching. He spoke publicly as many as ten thousand times. But he was not teaching in order to argue philosophical theories. He was teaching for one purpose only: to bring to an end all the suffering which he saw around him.


The assumption underlying all his teaching is that we don’t have to be the way we are—that all the sorrow and pain and grief and fear that we all know is not necessary. It can be eliminated. New ways of being can be cultivated. He taught so that we may know not suffering, but happiness and peace. These teachings are trainings for a spiritual way of life. This means a way that is real and true, and beneficial for all beings, both now and in times to come.


Tonight I want to speak about five qualities of heart and mind which are known as the “five spiritual powers.” They’ve been called “five priceless jewels,” because when they’re well developed, the mind resists domination by the dark forces of greed and hate and delusion. When the mind is no longer bound by those energies, then understanding and love have no limits. These five powers are also called the “controlling faculties.” When they’re strong and balanced, they control the mind, and generate the power which leads to liberation. The five are faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.


When I first heard this list, I was puzzled. I come from a Christian background. Faith seemed, of course, exactly right to be there. Wisdom, too, belonged on the list. But the others—effort and mindfulness and concentration—sounded very clinical and psychological and dry. Where, I wondered, was love? I did not in any way understand then that the cultivation of these five factors leads directly to love. They’re all necessary. They all work together and interweave very closely.


Faith—which here means trust and confidence in the Dharma—inspires an outpouring of energy. When energy is strong, then the effort to be alert and pay attention is easy. Mindfulness prospers and becomes more and more continuous. The stronger the continuity of mindfulness, the more focused and steady the mind. Concentration grows. As concentration deepens, in the stillness of an attentive mind, wisdom emerges. It’s the wisdom of emptiness, whose only expression is love.


FAITH


The first of the five faculties, faith, actually is a rather suspect word today. The most conspicuous examples of faith are in the various extremes of religious fundamentalism, where faith is often a coercive force, a force which is used to control insiders so that they’ll stay within the confines of the faith. It’s also a force that’s sometimes imposed upon outsiders in order to encourage them to believe. But faith in the sense that I want to speak of tonight has nothing to do with force. It has nothing to do with conventional belief. It’s an innocence of conviction, an open heart that is not afraid to trust, and so can move beyond the known. It senses the possibility of transcendence—that what seems to be, isn’t all there is. It senses that there’s some profound human possibility to be realized, even though it’s not immediately apparent.


Such faith is born in experience. It can’t be given. It arises spontaneously, out of seeing and knowing for oneself. From it flow devotion and gratitude and commitment. It’s a natural self-giving. It stems from knowing the problematic nature of life, from realizing that human existence is very imperfect. Because of this one is sensitive to what else might be, to some other way of being. Faith may arise from hearing the Buddha’s words that say there’s a cause for suffering, a cause that can be removed so that suffering comes to an end. It may arise from seeing someone whose presence, whose manner or words, are so compelling, that they suggest possibilities not at all understood. It may come from reading something that suddenly reveals a meaning that speaks to the heart. It may dawn through music or art or, as happened to me, from a glimpse of something seen in nature.


Each of us has our own story, which brought us here tonight. No one here is without faith. You came in response to an attraction to some wordless possibility—some possibility of discovery, of change, that’s implicit in these long weeks of silence. Faith is critical for a spiritual journey, for it’s through faith that we move from the known to the unknown. Without faith, not much is possible in any endeavor. If there’s no end goal which we particularly value, or if we lack faith in our own strength and ability to get to it, we tend to stay in a rut. We don’t go much of anywhere.


When faith first dawns, the mind is filled with brightness and love and devotion. But faith that’s new is vulnerable. If it meets a skeptic who doubts, and has many views and opinions, faith wants to run away and hide. At least I did, in those years. Because the source of faith is outside ourselves, we’re very dependent on its not changing in any way at all. But gradually faith is internalized. We see for ourselves that the teaching works. We discover that we can sit with physical pain and not be overwhelmed. We begin to taste the happiness of a concentrated mind. Faith deepens, and gives the courage to go beyond our former limits. We begin to allow ourselves to feel more of what we’re feeling. So much of what we feel, we close off, because we fear the pain will be too much to bear. But faith that’s been tested in the crucible of experience comes to know that even in the midst of suffering, there is calm.


When we meet difficulties, faith gives the courage to go on. It’s important to note, however, that faith is very different from hope. Hope is for a specific outcome. Hope is associated with expectation and desire. If hope is disappointed, sadness and fear or anger are the result. Faith is different. It’s trust in the ongoing process. It’s confidence that we can handle whatever comes—for in faith, we can. It’s knowing that each step we take is an unfolding of our life’s journey, even if we don’t know at all where we’re going.


Faith in the truth of the Dharma, by its very nature, implies faith that we have the ability to realize that truth. The whole movement of deepening faith is inward, toward more and more trust in ourselves, more and more trust in the understanding and the love within our own hearts and our own minds. Faith has a very great influence upon consciousness. That’s why it’s the first of these spiritual powers. It removes the shadows of doubt that are so debilitating. It gives a clarity to the mind, which is energizing


EFFORT


Energy, or effort, is the second spiritual power. These two words are linked, but they’re not quite the same. Energy comes first, and effort channels it, and puts it to use. Nothing happens without effort in any kind of endeavor, but especially, perhaps, in spiritual practice. This practice isn’t easy. The instructions are simple, but carrying them out isn’t simple. To be with the breath, feeling it, knowing it, and not identifying with it; to be with an emotion, a mind-state, feeling it, knowing, not identifying; to be with sensations, thoughts, the whole spectrum of experience, seeing it clearly and dispassionately—such work is not child’s play. A lot of energy is expended here just to get out of the pull of habit, the kind of gravitational pull of the mind that would get us and keep us in the grooves of habit that have been worn over years of time. The mind is used to wandering, just erratically wandering from one thing to the next, keeping itself busy with planning and hoping and fantasizing, fearing, complaining, judging. It doesn’t even know that anything might lie outside of its own limited scope.


Right effort is the effort to be mindful, and to bring the mind back when it wanders, so it knows what is happening right now. To do this is really a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand, hard work is needed, in the attempt to keep paying attention. On the other hand, there’s nothing to do, because awareness is already present. It’s just that we’ve been distracted. Right effort is not striving. Striving leads to clinging. It reinforces the sense of self, and can be very painful. Right effort isn’t trying to get anything, for there’s nothing to get. It’s not trying to penetrate something and go deeper and deeper. Rather, it’s the effort to listen with greater sensitivity. It’s a soft receptivity. Just total surrender, receiving and welcoming whatever is here.


When effort is balanced, without any strain, there’s no sense of, “I should do this.” Rather, there’s just a willingness to do. Out of that willingness there comes a more and more constant flow of energy. This quality of energy is bold and courageous. A Pali word describes it as “the state of the heroic ones.” It gives patience and perseverance in the face of difficulty. If pain arises, the heat of the energy burns away fear, and makes it possible to do what ordinarily is very difficult to do—to go right to the center of the pain.


There are many levels of effort. Like the gears of a car, one level leads to the next. But the key to them all is being willing to start fresh, to start all over again. At the beginning of each day, at the beginning of each sitting, at the beginning of each breath—to bring back the wandering mind and start fresh. As we become more skilled, effort becomes smoother and steadier, and mindfulness grows.


MINDFULNESS


Mindfulness is the third of the spiritual powers. It’s the one factor of mind of which we can never have too much. Mindfulness is the observing power of the mind, the active aspect of awareness. Mindfulness means not forgetting to pay attention, not forgetting to be aware of whatever is happening within us, around us, from moment to moment to moment. It’s a very subtle process.


When first we notice something, there is a fleeting moment of pure awareness, before the thinking mind jumps in. It’s a moment that’s nonverbal, pre-verbal. It has in it no thought. It’s a moment of seeing with very great clarity and no thought. The thing noticed is not yet separated out, but is simply part of the whole flow of the process of life. Perception then fixates on the thing, puts boundaries around it and labels it. Then the thinking mind jumps in, and the mind is back in its everyday mode.


Under ordinary circumstances, that first pristine moment of awareness is very brief, and it goes unnoticed. What this practice of mindfulness does is to prolong the moments of pre-verbal knowing. The effect of doing that, over time, is profound. It’s a kind of deep knowing which changes the way that we understand the world.


When mindfulness is present, it’s like an empty mirror. It sees whatever appears before it with no distortion. Mindfulness has no likes and no dislikes. There is no passion or prejudice to color what is seen. It knows things in the round, as it were—in their totality, just as they are.


The question, of course, is, “How can we come to such clarity?” “Interest” is the answer. Get interested in what’s going on. Krishnamurti once said that the way to watch thoughts is the way that you would watch a lizard crawling on the ceiling of a room. This seemed to me a very odd recommendation when first I heard it. I had no connection with it at all, until a few years later. Then I found myself on the island of Antigua, in the Caribbean. I had just arrived. It was late at night and I was half-asleep, but too tired to go to bed. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something moving on the wall. Attention woke up. It was galvanized. Now, what was moving was a lizard. It was a big one, maybe between nine and ten inches long from the tip of its tail to its nose. It was a dull, mottled brown. Nothing remarkable; it looked very ordinary. I sat, attention just riveted, as it climbed the wall, slowly crawled across the ceiling, down the other side, and then slithered out an open window.


The intensity of that brief little moment was so great that I can see every detail in my mind’s eye right now. Interest was amazingly total. Awareness was complete. There wasn’t a thought, an emotion, to disturb what was seen. All that was there was the seeing of each movement of this little creature from the moment it appeared to the moment it disappeared. Krishnamurti’s words came back into my mind then, and I knew exactly what he had meant. Interest makes the difference. When interest is there, awareness is total, and it’s effortless.


Now, the breath may not have the same compelling quality as seeing a lizard crawling on the ceiling, but the more careful attention we pay to it, the more we get into the habit of paying attention. Interest grows. Careful attention in itself creates interest, for it brings us close to experience—increasingly close, so that we see the texture, the detail, the remarkable wonder of experience. In the doing there comes a brightness and a vividness to things.


Emily Dickinson knew this quality well. She lived a very quiet life, saw few people, and spent most of her time alone in her room. Yet she was so attentive, and saw with such sensitivity and precision, that she could only sum up her experience in this way: “To live is so startling, there’s little time for anything else.”


Close attention opens the heart. When there is interest, real interest, there’s no judgment. Whatever appears is welcome. Acceptance is unconditional. Awareness has a benevolent quality, a friendly quality, about it, which leads to bodhicitta. This welcoming acceptance allows whatever comes to reveal itself in its fullness. Ultimately, mindfulness opens into the realm of the sacred. To speak of knowing things as they are, as they really are—what is that but spiritual talk?


CONCENTRATION


Faith… effort…mindfulness…The fourth spiritual faculty is concentration. Concentration arises naturally out of the effort to be mindful. It gives the power which makes mindfulness so effective. Concentration is often defined as “one-pointed attention.” In the context of insight meditation, it is steady, one-pointed attention upon a succession of changing objects. Concentration keeps attention pinned down upon whatever object mindfulness is noticing. As mindfulness moves from, say, the breath to a sound, concentration moves with it, and again keeps attention focused and steady. In each case it lasts for just a moment, because the mind moves so quickly. But it begins again in the next moment, with the same intensity. This so-called “momentary concentration” provides the power for the work of our practice.


The key to developing concentration is one word: effort. It’s the effort to pay close attention, to keep coming back. Usually the energies of the mind are scattered in a thousand different directions. The mind is all over the place, and its energy is simply frittered away in random thoughts and desires, hopes, fears, feelings. All the huge potential power that it has is wasted. But as the effort to be mindful becomes more consistent, these scattered energies come together and converge around a single point, and the mind becomes focused, like a lens. If parallel rays of light fall upon a piece of paper, they won’t do much more than warm the paper. But if the same amount of light is focused through a lens, the paper will burst into flame. In the same way, concentration focuses the energy of the mind, and gives it the power to cut through surface appearance.


As concentration deepens, the mind becomes calm and centered. It’s less reactive. It comes into greater emotional balance. We can more easily let go and let things be. The mind has a spaciousness which gives room for pain and anger and fear all to arise and pass, without our being broken by them, or needing to act them out.


Concentration is very powerful, but it’s only a tool. Despite its astonishing power, it cannot of itself lead to wisdom. When it’s balanced with mindfulness, the two together cut through conventional reality, and understanding unfolds by itself.


WISDOM


Wisdom is the last of the spiritual qualities. It is ongoing inspiration for the work of the other four, and also their fulfillment. Wisdom is not knowledge. It cannot be learned from books, for it is intuitive understanding that arises from close observation of experience. It is insight into reality, into the nature of things as they are.


One aspect of wisdom is seeing the omnipresence of anicca—impermanence. Wisdom knows that nothing in this conditioned realm will last. It knows that everything that arises passes away. It knows that change occurs at every level from the cosmic to the microscopic. A star, a civilization, a tree, a thought—each arises, evolves through time, disintegrates and disappears. Timetables differ of course, for every phenomenon and event. And change can be so rapid—or so slow—that it is not ordinarily seen at all. But the trajectory is always the same. Whatever is, will be was.


We may think we know this truth, and perhaps we do. But is it living wisdom? For each of us, the mark of impermanence reveals itself most intimately in our inescapable mortality. We all are going to die. However unwelcome that thought may be, death is at the end of every life. You and I are no exception. Everything that is born will die. But because we do not live our lives from this place of understanding, we suffer.


There is a constant clash between the nature of existence and our desires. In a world of radical change, we want permanence and security and enduring happiness, and they cannot be found. We live in an imaginary world, and grasp and cling to the way things used to be, or how we want them to be, and find it hard to accept the way they actually are. The result is dukkha—suffering, all the dissatisfactions and sorrows of the human heart. Dukkha is the second truth, which wisdom more and more deeply comes to know.


But the deepest lesson that wisdom has to teach is the fact of anattà—the fact that nothing is inherently substantial and real. We think that we are separate, solid entities, and struggle to protect and satisfy and gratify our precious sense of self, not understanding that at the closest level of examination, no permanent, unchanging self is ever to be found. The constituents of mind and body are, in fact, in constant flux. Body, sensations, thoughts, emotions, arise and disappear, arise and disappear, moment by moment by moment. Keen observation reveals that mind and body are an ever changing process, a moving energy field. There is no permanent being behind phenomena to whom it all is happening. There is no one here to suffer. A Sri Lankan monk summed this fact up very simply: “No self. No problem.” Yet this truth is baffling, and eludes us until the mind is purified.


The doors of perception are gradually cleansed as the spiritual powers gather strength. Mindfulness sees ever more deeply, and greed, hate and delusion diminish. Our endless likes and dislikes thin out and fall away. The confusion that clouds perception begins to dissolve. We glimpse the interweaving laws of impermanence, suffering and selflessness, and the knowledge is transforming. The way that we understand ourselves and live our lives begins to change.


We don’t hold on so much, and make fewer demands upon existence. We begin to relax, and ease more into the flow of things. We can delight in the good things of life when they are present, and accept change without protest when they end. The heart opens wider as it learns there is nothing to lose…


The sense of self lessens. We become less selfish, less self centered. As mindfulness reveals our dukkha and we experience its pain, we begin to feel the suffering of others. Boundaries disappear, and we turn to the needs of others as if they were our own. Gradually the delicate art of loving without possessing becomes apparent—the art of how to care, yet not to care. There is a growing sense of similarity, of oneness, of communion with all—which more and more means that the only possible response is concern and care for all.


Wisdom is very hard won. It comes from facing our own suffering and learning the profound lessons that suffering has to teach. The lessons are all about letting go. Not holding on to desire, but letting it go. Wherever we hold, the sense of self is present together with suffering. When we let go, self vanishes and suffering dissolves into lightness, ease and peace.


It is in the deep understanding of suffering that compassion comes to full bloom. For when the heart/mind no longer holds to anything, it is fully open. There is no self-centeredness and so, no separation. No I, no you. Love then is boundless, and ceaselessly responsive.

Love Testing

Love Testing

Amazing Video

Enjoy !!!

This video was made in the Antwerp, Belgium Central (Train) Station onthe 23rd of March 2009.. . . with no warning to the passengers passing through the station,at 08:00 am a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' beginsto play on the public address system.

As the bemused passengers watch in amazement, some 200 dancers beginto appear from the crowd and station entrances.

They created this amazing stunt with just two rehearsals!
Enjoy!

Copy onto your browser and listen with your speakers ON !!!!

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=7EYAUazLI9k&annotation_id= annotation_ 72265&feature=iv

I LOVE YOU

Ghost Pictures

This picture was taken by a reporter in Indonesia , in 1993. The reporter wanted to take a photo of a room where a mass killing was done.When the photo was developed showed this!! It is said that people that were looking at this picture for long, had nervous breakdown problems afterwards.

This fotograph taken in 1916 is showing a figure likely being the soul of someone departing.

A couple on vacation took a photo of their daughter.When the film was developed, a lady without legs appeared. This ia a scene from the film called 'Three men and a baby'. A boy behind the curtains appeared. They say that this boy was killed in the same room that the film was taking place.

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NO COMMENTS (below pictures taken)

Without the comment!!

In love with NATURE

One of the deepest known cave pits, Fantastic Pit in Georgia's Ellison's Cave descends 586 feet (179 meters) in a straight tunnel:

Garni caves in Armenia. (photo by Eco culture)

Already mentioned Luray Caverns in Virginia are full of celebrated speleothems formations, calcite crystals of abnormal shapes - all formed when the chambers were completely filled with water, highly charged with acid. The acid began to eat away the softer material, resulting in ornate pinnacles and arches...

Largest Cave Systems We mentioned the Jeita Grotto - the largest cave system in the Middle East- in our recent Lebanon article. The longest known stalactite in the world is found there at 8.2 meters long. - The deepest known cave is Voronya Cave in Abkhazia, Georgia and has been explored to a depth of 2191 meters. - The longest continuous cave system yet explored is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, covering 591 kilometers.

Gruta do Mimoso, Brazil

Gruta do Mimoso, Brazil

A "Wishing Well" at Luray Caverns in Virginia (photo by Declan McCullagh)
Gruta do Lago Azul, Bonito, Brazil.

Caves: The World Beneath the World!
If you are stretched and squeezed by everyday life, then you might be in perfect shape to explore caves. Enter a narrow natural passageway that may lead to simply mind-boggling underground world. Caves may lurk right under your feet: a fascinating and unexpected environment, which is often known only to spelunkers and dedicated Gollum-seekers.