ljazztrumpet

It currently feels like a 'baancing act' to me. I really feel that total surrender is key. At the same time, I think that one needs to approach a master, such as JC, as a friend...a compatriot. What I mean is that a being like that, at that high level of consciousness, is approached with an acknowledgement of his mastery, while we maintain the knowledge that that level of consciousness is absolutely attainable by us. Any previous experience I've had of Jesus is that there is an absolute insistence on total humility - what I would call an 'empowered humility' - and any attempt to view him as above us, putting him up on a pedestal, is met with a great affirmation that this is not the way. In the Gospel of Thomas, as well as other teachings by JC, there is emphasis on practical, experiential implementation of what he is teaching into daily life. Right in the GoT there is the instruction to heal the sick and to love everyone as yourself. From my experience with people at this high level of consciousness, the healing of the sick and the high level of unconditional love go hand in hand. I can't think of a better demonstration of one's level of agape love than the healing of the sick. To me, it's the ultimate 'safeguard' that one is not just fooling themselves, thinking they are embodying these teachings of high consciousness in totality but, in reality, they are still only intellectually understanding it in the mind - even though the intellectual understanding is usually an important step and the beginning of internalizing these types of teachings. Even with non-dual realizations of oneness and all that, there still is a maintenance of focus of perception where perception is still located within that specific body/mind despite these realizations. But, with someone like Jesus, I get the sense that there is a transcendence that happens where the center of perception being located in the specific body/mind is overcome - and I'm referring to the incarnations where he was alive on earth.

Righto, old chap. And when this happens, there is no longer any concern about physical death.

This is a great passage and I feel it is right up there in applicability with the ‘plank in your brother’s eye’ and the prodigal son. I don’t think JC is saying that accumulating material wealth in your life is not advisable. To me, this passage is about fear of death and using some other means to distract yourself and give yourself security against it. When you embrace death as your best friend, and one of the best things that could possibly happen to your being, then you can accumulate material things in the world for your own, and others, enjoyment at the time without being attached to it. The fear of death seems so unreasonable to me. I’m sure it existed in Jesus’s time as well, but I think the real Christians, the ones who really understood and internalized what JC was saying in his teachings, didn’t have this. From that early time, up to now, there are a number of stories of Christians facing torturous deaths while singing and laughing, apparently feeling no pain. It reminds me of characteristics of the Buddhist monks who self-immolate. Another interesting tidbit. I had studied once with a well-known Christian healer. He was able to effect pretty amazing physical and emotional healings within people. He recounted a story about what you had to do in JC’s time if you wanted to become a Christian. If you expressed the desire to become Christian, you would go to the group of Christians hanging out on the corner and tell them. They would say, ‘Sure, sounds like a good plan. We need to take you down to Billy Bob’s house down the block (Hmmm…his name probably wasn’t ‘Billy Bob’) who is paralyzed and, once you can heal him and get him walking again, you’re in!’ I’ll never forget that because it made so much sense to me. You weren’t trying to join a group and get a ‘label’. This was about elevating your consciousness to the level where it was so high that you would embody JC’s characteristics - so you would also embody that level of peace, love, and wisdom. I feel JC is at a very high level of intensity when he speaks, and is always trying to convey to people that it is all about experiential, practical experience and that all the power is within you - too bad so many people misinterpret his teachings! The vibe I get is that he really wants people to stop suffering and to realize that 'greater things than he shall you do'. After all, we really, ideally, should be evolving beyond those who teach us.

Hey, you figured out the reviewer was me! Your welcome Shanmugam. Again, thanks for writing it. Looking forward to the sequel - I know there will be one! All the very best to you, Lex

And hats!

All I know about that reviewer is that he is an incredibly handsome fellow that wears great aloha shirts year round

Dude! Someone already posted an Amazon customer review!

Thanks for making this book freely available to us Shanmugam....Congrats on a great book!

Anyway, about JC.. He's not the 'lovey-dovey, angelic' type that many people might make him out to be. His vibe comes across pretty good in this GoT. Very hardcore type of love - Very, 'This is a very narrow path and you really have to get your shit together to be on it. No F-ing around!'. So that's why it's a little intimidating for me to try and reconnect with him yet again. After my first session with that lady I mentioned a couple of months ago, I had a dream with JC in it - and this was before I knew she was into Jesus and that she felt he was the main dude/spirit/being working through her. Don't get me wrong, I realize Jesus is a very great spirit/being who is here to help people and to show us that's it's possible to do what he did - because we are exactly like him - We are made of the same exact stuff and are the same exact being - it's just that he's way further evolved. I don't know what's going to happen from here regarding JC and all that. I am just an average guy with no special gifts but, for whatever reason, I've attracted people into my life over the years who have absolutely tremendous mystical gifts and who I've had a lot of mystical experiences with. So it's anyone's guess what's going to happen next. In Jesus's last lifetime (as a healer in Germany in the 1940's/50's) he recommended people read a book called 'The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East' which I believe is a 5 volume set that was published in the 1920's by Baird Spaulding. It's a work of didactic fiction that continually points out that all the power we seek is right within us and that all the 'spiritual masters' in those books, including JC, are just people like us and they are continually emphasizing that we can do what they do - and to never elevate them, put them up on a pedestal, or anything like that. They are just normal dudes that have evolved further and it's where we're all going.

Ive had quite a number of mystical experiences with JC.. One lasted for over a year where he taught my friend and myself just about every day.. So I have connected with a 'realized teacher' and, perhaps, this is how I've gotten as far as I have so far. But there is another person I am currently working with that understands a great deal about all of this and was able to heal herself remarkably and help heal other people. She also talks to me about connecting with Jesus..Oh in fact she just texted me and I am calling her..Will write more before I leave if I have time! Thanks for all the good sharing guys!

I don't think we choose - We are products of our conditioning and, although it seems like every moment I'm choosing, really, there is no free will choice. There's no way I can maintain this idea in my active life, so I go around feeling like I'm always choosing. But there was a 'start' to all this - Humans evolved on the earth (maybe, but for the sake of simplicity in this thread, I'll say this) So, whatever created humans is responsible for the suffering of humans. In one sense it could be said that the creator is 'us', since there is no separation in reality but, from a practical 'here and now' stance, where we perceive ourselves to be separated beings, there is a creation, incarnation, souls, lives that go through suffering, etc.

That's a little too esoteric for me to keep in mind through my day and activities. Keeping in mind to send love out to everyone throughout my day is much more practical for me, and I think it's accomplishing the same purpose. I think enough Love for everyone/everything can dissolve the illusions of separation and 'lead to' the realization of oneness. All I can say right now is that this practice is working for me better than anything else I've tried.

My own conscience won't let me accept that. I feel like I can find another way. If I find out anything really fantastic about this in this life, I will share with you guys.

I do know we can not suffer no matter what happens to us for sure. There are people who go through absolutely horrible circumstances and don't suffer. But it seems to be that most people have to experience tremendous suffering, throughout the course of lifetimes, to get to this point.

Oh, right, that makes sense. Thanks. See my reply to CLounge just above!

I feel I just don't know enough about Life and Existence to use the word 'must' in this case. I believe there must be a better way to be 'purged', to release our 'egoic blocks/illusions'. I just don't know what it is yet, but I'm not going to stop trying to figure it out!

Yes, that's the impression I get too. I feel the idea is that the suffering pushes us to 'awaken' - To get rid of all the blocks rooted in fear and ideas of separation. I don't think too many people would disagree with the fact that suffering can trigger immense spiritual growth. The problem I have with what both Jesus and Paul are saying is that they are basically pointing out that 'the end is justified by the means'. Yes, of course suffering can lead us to a greater good - a greater realization that greatly benefits ourselves and others. This often occurs, but I have a problem with this mechanism since I see it as cruel and sadistic. There must be a better way to raise our consciousness than to do it through suffering!

WOW - C T thanks so much for sending this! It really explains a lot to me. I think 'cold' was referring to the difference between empathy and compassion earlier in this thread. This makes SO much sense to me. I have a very good friend who is a medical intuitive and extremely empathic. I have seen her pick up all sorts of stuff from people - even to where she's 'dry heaving' or throwing up from taking on negativity of others. I can't wait till she reads this article as I think it will really help her. I think I was also strongly empathic as a child and I learned to do various things to 'numb' it as I got older - I felt I had to or I don't think I'd be here today. And this also explains to me why the love practice is so helpful to me. I have done formal metta and tonglen in the past, as that article refers to some metta concepts, but I think I had a sense of 'separation' between the formal practice and going out into the world living my daily life. Just keeping it super simple for myself and thinking about sending out love to whatever comes to my mind, makes it the easiest for me to try to use every conscious moment as a practice. Thanks again C T - You're one of the good ones!

Also Dr. Franz Gringinger - another wonderful cat and MD who would come over, and I think he still does. Also Dr. Michele Galante who is over in NJ and was healed of a serious heart ailment spontaneously: http://okinhealth.com/articles/the-key-to-tomorrows-health-bruno-groening

Dr. Mattias Kamp - He was associated with 'The Bruno Groening Circle of Friends' for a number of years, as was I. He would come over from Germany and I would drive a group of us up and down the East Coast of the USA where he would give free lectures on spiritual healing.. Really wonderful fellow with a very high love consciousness that is palpable. He wrote 'Revolution in Medicine' which is a book about spiritual healing and the teachings of Bruno Groening: http://www.gh-verlag.de/en/Books-english/Bruno-Groening-A-Revolution-in-Medicine.html

Absolutely my experience - and I've talked with a number of people who are very high in love consciousness and have watched them do some pretty amazing things - They seem to have endless energy..going for very long periods without sleep or food. One of these people is a medical doctor who is also very interested in spiritual healing and freely gives his time speaking about it all over the world. I seem to attract people into my life who are at a very high level of love consciousness and that further inspires me to see what is possible. ---------------------------------------- From George Ritchie's book 'Return From Tomorrow' - Wild Bill As you'll see, "Wild Bill" was a truly unforgettable person, a miracle worker par excellence, and by all appearances a powerful example of what the Course passage above is talking about. Here is Ritchie's account of him: He was one of the inmates of the concentration camp, but obviously he had not been there long; his posture was erect, his eyes bright, his energy indefatigable. Since he was fluent in English, French, German and Russian, as well as Polish, he became a kind of unofficial camp translator. We came to him with all sorts of problems; the paperwork alone was staggering in attempting to relocate people whose families, even whole hometowns, might have disappeared. But though Wild Bill worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day, he showed no signs of weariness. While the rest of us were drooping with fatigue, he seemed to gain strength. "We have time for this old fellow," he would say. "He's been waiting to see us all day." His compassion for his fellow prisoners glowed on his face, and it was to this glow that I came when my own spirits were low. So I was astonished to learn, when Wild Bill's own papers came before us one day, that he had been in Wuppertal since 1939! For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration. Perhaps even more amazing, every group in the camp looked on him as a friend. He was the one to whom quarrels between inmates were brought for arbitration. Only after I had been at Wuppertal a number of weeks did I realize what a rarity this was in a compound where the different nationalities of prisoners hated each other almost as much as they did the Germans. As for the Germans, feelings against them ran so high that in some of the camps liberated earlier, former prisoners had seized guns, run into the nearest village and simply shot the first Germans they saw. Part of our instructions were to prevent this kind of thing and again Wild Bill was our greatest asset, reasoning with the different groups, counseling forgiveness. "It's not easy for some of them to forgive," I commented to him one day as we sat over mugs of tea in the proceeding center. "So many of them have lost members of their families." Wild Bill leaned back on the upright chair and sipped at his drink. "We lived in the Jewish section of Warsaw," he began slowly, the first words I had heard him speak about himself. "My wife, our two daughters, and our three little boys. When the Germans reached our street they lined everyone against a wall and opened up with machine guns. I begged to be allowed to die with my family, but because I spoke German they put me in a work group." He paused, perhaps seeing again his wife and children. "I had to decide right then," he continued, "whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people's minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with." Loving every person…this was the power that had kept a man well in the face of every privation. (George Ritchie, Return from Tomorrow, 129-132)

Thanks for sharing that LIT - I would assume that, if you are cultivating a state of quiet, peaceful togetherness, when you do interact with others, you probably have positive, helpful interactions in general. I was saying I feel Life has forced me into this love practice. Another way I think of it is that practicing this 'love sending' is taking away the emotional suffering that was going on before. In the past, I have also tried to cultivate a state of peaceful togetherness through meditation. For some reason, this never worked for me - even after years of dedicated practice. I don't know why. For many people, it seems to work wonderfully. But I am just really grateful to have found something that helps me and that really resonates with me in my whole being. A big part of this resonance is because I'm very interested in spiritual healing, and the real 'masters of spiritual healing' always talk about cultivating this love. So that's exciting to me

Well thanks LIT but, to be perfectly honest, I feel forced by Life to do this. It is, 'Either do this or suffer.' To me, that's not much of a choice..no humans want to suffer! But I do enjoy the practice too because of the way it makes me feel and the benefits I am starting to receive in my practical life. I started trying this practice over 10 years ago after I first read 'Love Can Open Prison Doors' by Starr Daily.. It's only been in the last several months, from working with a lady who has a high love consciousness and was able to heal herself and others, that I am able to do it more consistently. We did some distance healing sessions and there was some type of 'consciousness/energy transfer' that went on that I can't really currently explain.

That’s what I have thought for a long time as well. The more I can have that experience of non-separation, the more compassion would naturally arise. I am skeptical to whether anyone ‘lives in’ this awareness 100%, although many like to claim this - especially if they make their living giving satsangs! Yeah man, really well put - This is one of the reasons I do my current practice of trying to send love out to everyone as much as possible. I definitely consider this to be a 'heart-mind' practice. Having studied many intellectual teachings, as well as carrying out a number of different types of meditation, this is giving me better, real-world, practical results than anything else I have tried.

I agree steve. I think it's fear that blocks it and, as we get rid of 'fear blocks', the compassionate nature 'shines through' more and more. Really well put steve.. Thanks for writing this out. This is how I currently feel about it too. All the best, Lex