Eye witness accounts of the spirit world

[Sunya]

dawg, very interesting posts, thanks.

 

Just curious, how are you affording to live in Thailand at a monastery for such a long time? Do you have a large savings and no debts at home? I'd love to do that. I'm happy for you that you've created such wonderful conditions for yourself to practice.

[Gerard]

 

The Observer:

Does enlightenment really have to be sought out for or does it happen naturally after living and experiencing many, many lives?

 

It's a natural process for all sentient beings to reach nirvana/return to the Tao. You start like a microbe and end up like a Buddha or a saint (and thousands of lives in between), this is how long it takes, like a ripple of the Amazon river. Now, this process takes so long that is not fun at all. It is the way it is. This explains why Buddha referred to existence using the terms of dukka as suffering, dukkha as dissatisfaction and dukkha as conditioning due to its impermanent nature caused by the flow 'everything' is immersed in:

 

 

and while we journey along that flow we project onto a world following our karma. I'm not sure if the Pali Sutras mention this but it is how it happens. I'll be very surprised it they didn't. Maybe it wasn't mentioned to stop people from practising but still you'll start practising after you reach a certain number of rebirths which is conditioned upon your positioning in the flow/how far you are from reaching the source of reality. The closer you are the stronger your motivation to dedicate your life cultivating your innermost essence.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Gerard

[Gerard]

 

Hey Dawg thanks for your replys :-)... which raises a few more questions lol. Ok so the earth spirits are bummed due to use human folk ravaging the earth,... how is it that we are so dominate anyhow? I take it they are powerless to stop us eh? As for the gods and godesses are they suffering greater mortality now that less people tend to believe in them and sacrific to them? Are we as humans doing a fairly good job of throwing our corner of the universe out of wack? :-S

 

Because of our Yin power/earthly rootedness. They are more Yang/ethreal than us, even though they are Nature's gardeners and control the cycles of Nature in our complex planet, they can't change what we do in terms of destructive power. They are very upset with humans, trust what I am saying here and also what the OP stated several times in this thread.

 

Humans are experiencing great difficulty right now. Too many baby and young souls coverged in this planet all at once in our modern age. There is little balance of the amount of more mature and older souls reborn as humans in our modern times...it was a lot better in ancient times when sages and saints were respected by the community at large, but not today. Little wisdom, total disregard of the Tao and the natural laws, control over nature in the name of science and technology a lot of material gratification and lack of moral values. This is no good, unfortunately. Humans suffer, earth spirits suffer and the whole planet suffers. I just hope things change for good, but knowing that what follows this age is the FIRE age...and fire only means one thing: purification before the planet can be reborn again (earth age). This could lasts thousands of years. I am afraid...

 

 

Vajrahridaya:

 

 

It is totally possible and in fact we do exist simultaneously in many realms at once and are only aware of what we choose out of habit to be aware of dimensionally. While living through this body our mind is in the so called spirit world at the same time, but we are generally focused through the 5 senses thus limiting our perception of phenomena.

 

 

Yes, true; this is because all those worlds exist within us. We are just a mirror of the Universe we have within, which we are projecting externally via the 5 elements/qualities of yang-yin in every rebirth. Literally what is happening here is a gradual opening of the MIND, every rebirth you are journeying closer and closer to the source, up and down the scale according to karma, More evolved beings are in touch with higher realms and lower evolved beings 'live' in the lower planes (root chakra, excessive liver fire/lust/anger/greed).

 

 

Definitively, we are multidimensional beings as a result of what he contain within. We exist in various layers as you stated: namely yang (physical, wake time), yin (physical, sleep time), astral (sleep, meditation), causal (karma), spiritual (karma and opposite to the physical world). They are all part of the Taoist trinity: heaven-human-earth, which is the major model of the Universe, human in the middle of the two and also mirroring them via 5 elements.

 

Enlightenment is the total opening of the MIND, there is not need to rely on a form or matter of any kind whether it is a human, angel or god to exist. What the Taoist Mo Pai school call reaching level 72 means total freedom, very few humans have attained this state while still living in a physical body. No idea about other planes.

 

forestofemptiness:

 

 

I like this post. A Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, and a Hindu can all look at a mountain and agree that it is a mountain. But when we come to the so-called "spirit world", we are led to a variety of differences. No two people report the "spirit world" the same way.

 

People who become interested in the "spirit world" are simply exchanging one set of thoughts, feelings, and sensations for another. The truth is not to be found in one set of sensations over another--- the truth is so whether you are in a dream world, a waking world, or a spirit world. Exchanging a prison of iron for one of gold may look better, but the fetters still bind the same.

 

The Buddha did not teach retreating into a "spirit world", he taught the end of suffering through the cessation of clinging/craving.

 

Indeed, just a by-product of practice. Meditation is very important though, as is attaining wisdom, morality and developing boddhicitta/compassion. There are practitioners who attained arahantship via dry-jhana. Don't get discouraged if you can't see into the 'spirit world.' If you still want to and have trouble I recommend meditating near a running freshwater source, deep in a forest or on top of a mountain. But in the end:

 

"Nyanaponika Thera also points out that in some respects the method of bare insight is better suited to our contemporary times."

 

"Under such circumstances, it would amount to a neglect of promising roads of progress if one were to insist rigidly on an exclusive approach through the absorptions, instead of making use of a method emphatically recommended by the Buddha himself: a method which is more easily adaptable to the current inner and outer conditions, and yet leads to the aspired goal. (The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, p. 104)."

 

From the link above.

 

All the very best in your personal practice.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Gerard

[eye_of_the_storm]

The "heavenly realms" seem demonic if "gods" are using animal and human sacrifice to sustain themselves... how do you know that all these realms arn't part of the matrix..

you'd think "buddhas" or whatever would want to sort that diabolical behavior out

Level the playing field uno...

Buddhas and their bliss can go to hell if they don't have the...infinite time to sort these things out

compassion eh

Appears Buddhists are just in some mad dash to carve out their little piece of paradise...while the rest of the world burns... speak of non-attachment but are addicted to bliss? Rather than approach the world with courage, creativity, perseverance. They accept that "life is suffering", deny the physical world and in so doing create living hell on earth... and call it enlightenment

Earth can be a Heaven, Earth can be Bliss, I have seen it.

There is no greater task than to bring Heaven to Earth?

We are the gods.

Edited December 3, 2014 by eye_of_the_storm

[idiot_stimpy]

Do you know what a bodhisattva is?

[Infinity]

The eye_of_the_storm has his first 'bite'.

 

Do you know what a bodhisattva is?

 

Is not the storm created by the column of air in its eye? Storm in a teacup?

 

Ha ha :-)