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Thanks for sharing this, Prasanna. Do you know whether the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are similar or identical to Vedanta? I'm gonna read his book, Science of Being and Art of Living. Will that teach me Vedanta?

We believe that love is the meaning of life, and that love is what we are. So basically, yes.

This is of a Christian deity, not a Hindu one, but you all might find it interesting. Also, a friend had the experience, not me. My friend grew up in a very abusive home, his dad was an aggressive alcoholic, and all three of his sisters were drug addicts. He became a Christian at a very young age, and eventually got his whole family to be church going Christians (his dad quit drinking completely when he got saved). Well, one night when he was laying in bed, a man (who I believe was the Holy Spirit) appeared in his room, and put his hand over him, and said, "Behold the Holy Ghost." It was a baptism. Can you imagine being baptized by the Holy Spirit himself? Mike said the man's eyes were filled with peace, and he had a long brown beard. After the man baptized him, Mike's awareness went to the ceiling, and he was looking down on his body. He said he had ex-ray vision and could see his own bones. I've always found this story very inspiring.

One time I broke up with a girl because she wasn't "spiritual," and I ended up deeply regretting that choice. I was much younger then, and I probably would not have done that these days. The question is, what gives you joy? Would you be happy in a relationship with a partner who didn't share your beliefs? There's no right or wrong answer. It's just a matter of following your heart and doing what makes you happy.

I agree with both of those statements. And the great thing is, every situation, every choice, is an opportunity to love oneself.

You have to know that it's best for YOU to forgive others. Forgive OTHERS for YOUR OWN SAKE. It's very wise to forgive. It's emotionally, and can even be physically, healing. Anger can be a block to one's divine Self; forgiveness releases that block. The key to forgiving lies in knowing that it's SELF-LOVING to forgive others. I'm sharing this not only for everyone here, but because I need to learn it more deeply also.

Everyone, your posts on this thread have inspired and empowered me. I've learned a great deal from reading them, and they definitely speak directly to my current circumstances and where I am. Thank you!

I've realized that what we really desire is our divine nature. The utter irony is that our divine nature is the main thing we're avoiding. It's like we keep it "at bay," we keep it at a safe distance. It's very possible to WANT something and to simultaneously FEAR it. That's how it is with one's divine reality in my opinion. It's the basic object of both our fear and our desire.

Based on my understanding, this is definitely one of the best things I've ever read here on this website. I agree. One can achieve a state where forgiveness is unnecessary because they understand that there wasn't a REAL "attack." Love is all there really is. This is what ACIM calls "the real world," where everything is seen as perfect and one no longer believes illusions are real. Thanks so much for your post, Astral_butterfly. I needed to hear what you said.

You said, "I think there are only two options left to me- either go find a real master to learn from or cut my losses and just give up the whole thing." The thing is that not having profound experiences definitely doesn't mean that your meditation practice isn't successful. That's a huge misunderstanding. You might not be consciously aware of the benefit that meditating has given you. Intuitively, I sense that it has benefited you in many ways. I think you've developed a sense of pure BEING, which is one of the goals of meditation. I also sense that you've gained a great self-awareness and mental clarity. I'm getting these ideas psychically. The idea that a fruitful meditation practice must involve supernatural or otherwise "spiritual" experiences is really just completely and totally false. I feel very strongly about that. Look deeply at yourself and you might be able to see what you've gained from meditating so much. And DON'T QUIT! Often people quit doing their spiritual practices because their EGOS feel threatened because the person is on the verge of transcending. So ego, to protect itself, wants them to stop practicing. They're close to transcending ego. I hope you find my words helpful. And yes, please post updates of your experiences. Peace.

Of course, you're only kidding, not being serious. But unfortunately, many people really do think that way. Revenge, not only in big ways, but more often in small and subtle ways, is many people's way of dealing with their anger. Revenge is probably the LEAST wise solution a person could possibly use to handle anger. Just now I was going to explain why I believe that, but I'll just say that I feel very strongly about it, and I think with some contemplation and reason, it's easy to see. Probably no Ph.D. psychotherapist would recommend to a patient who has anger issues to seek revenge. It seems somewhat comical to me to imagine a good psychotherapist making that suggestion to a patient.

"It's not the secrets themselves that create the fear, but the secrecy." -Cris Loesser (a former teacher of mine) Probably the majority of people in the US believe in eternal hell. At least they intellectually assent to it, whether they honestly believe it or not is another question. Personally I doubt many people do, they believe it because of societal factors. But it's a taboo, a secret. People don't talk about it much or even THINK about it. Most people never ask themselves if they think they'll go to hell. And few of them question how a God who's supposed to be infinitely loving could cause or allow someone to suffer unbearably for all eternity. It's a taboo, clearly. I remember when I was an evangelical Christian, I never one single time considered the possibility of my going to hell forever, I never thought about it. I was AFRAID to. Well, most of us here at this website, including me, would consider the idea of eternal hell to be absurd. But the thing is it's not only absurd, it's DANGEROUS. Religious lies like eternal hell stand as a massive block or wall that prevent individuals, as well as the "consensus reality" (the masses), from finding spiritual truth. I feel that if humankind is ever to become an enlightened civilization, then societal taboos, such as the idea of eternal hell, must be exposed and brought out of secrecy.

I just want to say that I'm not just "preaching" to everybody. The reason I'm saying this is largely because it's what I, myself, need to learn. ACIM says, "The possibility of looking within and seeing guilt only SEEMS to be the source of fear. The real source of fear is that you'll look within and see innocence." It's not the idea that we're GUILTY that scares us. It's the fact that we're NOT GUILTY. Chogyam Trungpa teaches that we're afraid to FACE ourselves. What we're afraid to face is not the darkness within us, but the light.

Thanks Bindi. Peace.

You're probably right. But I'll give a few reasons why I'm 99.9999% sure of it. 1. Near-death experiences. Many people who have had NDE's come back believing in reincarnation. Btw (I'm currently editing this), no one believes in BOTH reincarnation and eternal hell- it's one or the other. 2. Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a pantheistic (all is god) and monistic (all is one) phenomenon that goes against the idea of eternal hell, and no spiritual master (at least none I've ever heard of or read) believes in it. 3. Past-life regressions. There have been many accounts of people seeing their past lives, and what they saw has been confirmed factually. 4. Channeling. NO non-physical, "channeled," entity has ever taught eternal hell. ALL of them teach reincarnation. 5. Logic. It just doesn't make sense that an infinitely loving God would cause or allow people to suffer unspeakably for eternity. I, myself, wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, and I'm nowhere close to infinitely loving. Now, ironically, the evangelical leaders whom I've heard and read, would say that the first four of these reasons (actually they would say this applies even to my logic) are SATANIC- lies that the Devil has created. Just check out a book written by an evangelical, or listen to a sermon about it. NDE's- it's the Devil PRETENDING to be God. Enlightenment- again, the spiritual master is having a "demonic experience." Past-life regressions- the information that was factually confirmed was given by the Devil or demons. Channeling- the non-physical entities are demons. These are some of the reasons I feel very confident that there's no eternal hell.

One way to look into the whole thing is to imagine yourself NOT indulging your defenses. Two habits I have, which I would consider defenses, are staying up very late, and engaging in certain fantasies throughout the day. When I visualize myself NOT doing those things, my fear of divine truth becomes apparent. I can consciously perceive what I'm really avoiding by those two defenses. One time I was gonna go to bed, and I decided to stay up. Then I looked into the possibility of going to bed, and it's like I saw that it meant, to me, that I was OKAY, that I'm fine, that I'm innocent.....well, THAT'S what scared me, THAT'S what I was avoiding. And with the fantasies I can also see what I'm defending against, what I'm avoiding. It's like if I didn't engage in those fantasies, I'd be face-to-face with my divine nature, I'd see it, I'd be conscious of it. And again, THAT'S what scares me. I still haven't overcome this problem, but the more clearly I see it, it loses its power over me. So basically, imagine yourself NOT engaging in your defenses, and see what that would mean. It can especially help to imagine yourself not THINKING, because most people are ADDICTED to thinking. When you're thinking so much, look into the possibility of NOT thinking, of quieting your mind, and see what comes up.

You're probably right in my opinion.

It's possible that your negative reaction was ego's defense against the divine truth about you, a way to protect its existence. I attended a retreat many years ago, and had an experience of my divine nature, and when I arrived home after the retreat, I was totally devastated. So much so that two months later I jumped off of a hotel balcony attempting suicide. After my suicide attempt, I slowly became well again; it took about a year. It seems to me that your situation is similar to mine. I've always been consciously aware that I was avoiding the light. I've always recognized that that's what I was doing. It might not be necessary to know exactly WHY you've had such a negative reaction to your spiritual experience, other than the insight that the nature of your problem is fear- fear of your divine reality. ACIM says that all illusions, including sickness, are forms of fear. Probably what it is is that you happen to be very consciously aware of the threat to your ego that your divinity poses, and that makes the fear more extreme. One of the lessons in ACIM is to simply repeat to yourself, "There is nothing to fear." Doing this can heal the fear. Know that there's no REASON to be afraid of your divine nature. You can simply remind yourself of this frequently, and because you ALREADY know it's true in your heart, reminding yourself will likely be very beneficial. Based on your posts, I think you're very spiritual aware, and sometimes unique problems can arise out of extreme awareness, but there's definitely a solution to those problems. It might really help to try what I said about repeating, "There is nothing to fear," and also to simply keep that fact in mind. Another thing is that fear can arise out of guilt and shame (ACIM says, "fear depends upon guilt"). So it could possibly help tremendously to know that you are INNOCENT, meaning NOT GUILTY. Even people who do great wrong are, ultimately, guilty of nothing. And know that God loves you unconditionally and never gets angry, and never punishes anyone for any reason. I hope all this helps. Peace.

Ego-identification creates fear of one's divine nature. The acceptance of one's divine nature is the demise of ego.

It's just what I believe. I base that belief largely on reason. My reasoning consists of analyzing data from personal experience, the experiences of others, intuition, and the teachings of entities I trust, both human and non-physical.

Emmanuel (a non-physical entity) said once, "Don't you see that you can't go wrong when you follow your heart?" The rightness of a particular path can be discerned by whether or not it's the path of your heart. The path of your heart FEELS right, it gives you peace.

Recognize that you ALREADY have both absolute being and total awareness.

Seeking experiences such as you've described can be done either as an escape, or as a healthy way to explore truth. You see, it depends on WHY you're doing it. I believe that every choice we make is either born of love, or fear. To do what you're saying could be either. Do you see my point? It's a matter of your REASON for making that choice.

I just had a fun idea that could result in great growth and healing. It was to read 1 of the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching each day for 81 days, and think about and try to apply the wisdom of that verse each day. I've always liked the idea of daily devotionals and I'm gonna begin immediately with the Tao Te Ching. I really feel that this idea was divine inspiration.

I'd love to hear anyone's opinions about this form of Qi Gong. I've meditated for many years, but I'm relatively new to Qi Gong. I've learned the techniques of Spring Forest, and I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts and/or experiences with it. Thanks.