Sunmaster

Please explain it to me as if I were 8. Thank you

I don't pretend to know what karma is all about, but I have an idea of what it is not. And I don't believe for a second that it's some sort of divine punishment or soul retribution for past misdeeds. This speaks to me... "The basic idea of karma is not punishment. Karma presents the opportunity for development; to make use of opportunities that were not taken advantage of, to fill in gaps of ignorance, to enlarge understanding through experience, to do what should be done." —TES8 Session 388 December 20, 1967

It's not blind faith at all. Not for me at least. And it's not something you see with your physical eyes. Like I said previously, physical (outer) senses are useful in the physical world. To experience the inner world however, you have to use a different set of senses. That's what yoga (among others) teaches. By using these senses you can train yourself and experience it all on your own. No need for gurus, amulets, priests...and certainly no need for blind faith. Now, if you're not interested in knowing yourself on these terms, then no problem. It's your choice.

If by master you mean your own higher Self, your true nature and identity....then yes. The same way a dream character needs a dreamer to exist, we exist as a product of the Self.

You're absolutely right. But it's easier to imagine we are connected to our inner/higher Self than talking about God. When we speak about God, it seems so farfetched and removed from our day to day experience, that we can't imagine it to be ever present. When we speak about higher Self, we can perhaps feel the connection better. Ultimately, both terms point to the same thing. Lower impulses = actions dictated by the limited point of view of the ego Higher impulses = actions in accordance with your true identity.

This made me think more about happiness, which in my opinion is a byproduct of a mental state or shift of perspective. Often we project happiness as some future goal or achievement. "If I just study and learn/make more money/behave well, I will be happy."...or... "If I just meditate enough, I will find happiness.". I think we all fall prey to this kind of thinking, at one time or another. What we maybe forget though, is that happiness is available in every single moment along the journey. It is ever present and free of charge. It always exists as a state, or frequency or a plane if you will. Sometimes it seems that the more you try to grab it, the more elusive it becomes. It's always one step ahead it seems. Maybe then, we could just allow happiness to happen. Relax. There's no need to fight for anything, no need to strive for something. It is already here. Right now. If you keep this thought alive during the following day or days, and imagine it to be true, the idea will gain depth and power, and things around you will begin to change. The more they change, the more they validate your thoughts and a new belief will have been formed. Happiness happens. Allow it to happen.

I think it's the other way around. Right now we are slaves of our emotions and thoughts. They rise up uncontrolled, form storms, rattle our boats and drift it wherever they want to go. On the other hand there is control and surrender. It looks like the two are irreconcilable opposites, but they are not. You gain control over your thoughts and feelings and at the same time surrender to your higher Self. The higher Self is your true identity and has all the answers you'll ever need. By opening and surrendering to it, you become truly free from all slavery. No religion, no science, no intermediary needed.

Sometimes we get so caught up with logic, rationality, mental concepts and best way to convey ideas in our dealings with others, that we forget to engage the heart. There is no real communication without the heart.

That's trippy. Need to put that in my pipe and smoke it for a while. ????

What a beautiful post. Thank you

I think a scientist could practice meditation just like any other human being. But yes, if they then tried to provide scientific proof of their findings, then they would have trouble. Not because their findings are wrong or illusions, but because science doesn't have a framework to incorporate and examine such findings. Take yoga for example. Science goes as far as validating yoga when it comes to physical benefits and more tentatively, even for the mental benefits. This, because the benefits fit in the framework and can be analytically observed. So, at this point one would reasonably deduce that yoga is right in its claims and can be regarded as a trusted source. Yet, here is where the trust ends. Yoga is ALSO, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY a tool to access the inner world (the spiritual dimension of a human being) . This aspect is not recognised (or ignored) by science. Herein lies the problem. The main question for you then is: if science is not a trusted source of information when it comes to the inner world....why don't you rather trust the info YOU got from the inner world?

Who knows..., judging by the speed they are going, in 1000 years maybe scientists will discover the true nature of consciousness....and validate what we already knew for the past 5000 years. I don't know about you, but I can't wait that long. ????

And at the same time there are sources where people have studied consciousness for 1000s of years from the inside and described it in great detail. But "unfortunately " they are not scientists, so let's just ignore all that. Too messy anyway. ????

The topic is literally "Do you believe in God and why?" Someone did ask....

I realize this is not your quote....just wanted to add this quickly. As long as you realize that any of the gods are expressions of the one divine, then you can chose to worship any one of them and the result will be the same. If however you believe that you are separate from them and they are separate from each other, then you can just as well worship your teapot or your nose. The result will be the same.

I once went to a supermarket to buy a jar of strawberry jam. There were many brands on display and I went for an American brand. I chose that because it said "Number 1 in USA". Yes, I fell for this little bit of false advertising and it was the worst thing I tasted in a long time. Highly processed with seemingly no trace of real fruit. According to some people's "logic", I should have deduced that all jams are as bad and that all jam manufacturers lie about their product. I should have also deduced that strawberries (the actual berries) taste like <deleted> and I should make it my mission to warn everybody not to eat strawberries. I prefer to go to the farmer myself, pick the best strawberries and make my own delicious jam. I KNOW where the fruit comes from, I KNOW that the fruit will be of the highest quality and I KNOW all the ingredients in that jam. Now, if it wasn't clear enough, the American jam represents (a) religion. Some people might like it that way, but it's not my taste. Different brands are different religions, some are better than others. The farmer represents the Source. Why settle for some foul tasting artificial product, when you can cut out the middleman (who's in it for financial profit) and go to the Source directly? Stop complaining about the low quality products and make your own jam!

Aaaaand still talking about religion. The only thing missing is a quote from Richard Dawkins and a video from Ricky Gervais. ????

No problem ???? I used to take things personal in the past, which resulted in pretty heated debates. Nowadays, I feel I'm not so emotionally attached to the ideas presented here. I simply enjoy the exchange of ideas for the sake of learning. If someone tries to troll though, they can do so but without me. I will not engage. Makes my life much more peaceful.

If we swap the term soul with consciousness, then I agree. Like Tippaporn said, everything is imbued with consciousness as the most basic building block...from the tiniest particle, cell, organ to planets and the vastest galaxies. Infinite expressions of the one Consciousness. And only a small part of those expressions need a material vessel (body). Fields within fields within fields....ad infinitum.

I would disagree. The idea of cause and effect needs a linear timeline to work....a beginning (cause), a period of change and a resulting effect. This can only make sense on a plane that is restricted by time, such as ours. If you take out time from the equation, then "cause and effect" become just floating moments in an eternal NOW. For this reason, cause and effect seem to me the exception rather than the rule, when it comes to planes of reality.

The way I understand it, is that the "soul" (I prefer to call it "self" due to the heavy religious associations with the word soul), is our true identity. Our present incarnation/individual personality is just one part of that soul. The soul is also the connecting link between us as an apparent individual and the divine consciousness (some call it God). The soul is not bound by space or time as we are and consciousness on the soul level is not so heavily restricted the way it is squeezed in the material form. For example, we are bound by forces that seem very deeply ingrained our day to day life: time, space, the apparent disconnection between our ego-identity and the true self. But the connection is always there, always present. There seems to be a sort of membrane in place, or a veil of ignorance between the Ego-self and the self. This membrane functions as a safety valve and only lets a tiny bit of data come through from the self. The individual would not be ready or strong enough to receive the full force (knowledge, consciousness) of the self, and the self only provides the individual with the right amount of data as the individual can handle. There is a lot more to say about this here, especially free will, but let's try to keep it short. Now, these are not static, unchangeable circumstances. We can train ourselves to lessen the grip of the ego and open ourselves more towards the inside. We can make ourselves stronger and thus manipulate the membrane, with the result that more consciousness/knowledge/intuition can be accessed by the individual. At the most basic: the weaker the identification with the ego, the stronger the connection with the soul/self. To answer your question then....the soul/self, not being restricted by time and space, has no concepts of birth and death, beginning and end, cause and effect. They only make sense in our material 3D world. We, the apparently disconnected ego-individuals walking around in a perishable flesh coat, eventually will shed this coat and realize that our lives were just a blink in the ocean of eternity that is the soul/self's existence. Just like a smaller electromagnetic field can exist in and be part of a bigger field, the individual's memories will not be lost, but are stored as an integral part in the bigger field that is the self, which itself is a small field in the ultimate field called God. This is some pretty heavy stuff for 9am. ????

Regarding cell memory. I had to mull it over for a few days, and the question(s) that popped up in my mind was.... A fetus in a womb, developing into a baby. Where or how does it learn to make the heart work? When it is born, how does it know how to breathe? Obviously nobody is teaching it how to do it. So, where does this knowledge come from? Is it stored in our genes? Cells? Atoms? Or is it stored in some psychic database to which the baby has access? Or is it data carried by a cosmic field to which we have all and always access?

I agree with what you say about a model of reality that must include and make sense of every aspect of reality. Both objective and subjective. I'm not so versed in panpsychism to comment on that, and regarding Sheldrake, I think it would be interesting to hear what he thinks about your criticism. Still, with all the faults his model may have, I think he's doing a good job at shaking things up. It's a step in the right direction and makes people think that there is more than what conventional science tells us. The world is not quite ready for Seth. I wish it were.

Welcome back! We found all the answers to the mystery of life. Apart from that, not much. ????

Agree 100%