Present Moment, a Spiritual Perspective.

What a beautiful gift one shares when living in the eternal present moment. When not thinking of the struggles from the past, nor thinking with anxiety about the future, but always living in the here and now.

When we choose to live in the present moment, we live by the Spirit that is beyond past, future.

It is in Divine moments that we are open to the inner light of Grace.

Whether we live in regrets of our past or in fears of the future, nothing prevents us from connecting with the present moment, where we can let go of past struggles and anxieties.

Let us not look for lasting happiness outside of ourselves, for we won’t find it there, because it is within us at all times.

It is the ego that hides our true nature, which is of joy, pure potentiality and unconditional love.

We need to realize, that Spirit flows through us only in the present moment, only in the here and now. So let us walk in Spirit and let it express through us in service and in love.

When we remember our Divine nature, the “I am”, we realize that living in the present moment opens us to freedom, harmony and peace.

The present moment connects us with being, not with doing; it is being that leads to the path of enlightenment and wisdom.

How glorious it is to know, that within us resides that which cannot be threatened by any outside influences or circumstances. That something is our eternal Self.

We will need to trust, that when we are anchored in the Infinite, life will take care of us. All our legitimate needs, as they arise, will be satisfied, but we must do our part.

With this understanding we will live every moment of our life as it is meant to be, in inner peace and freedom. 

Religion seen in a new way

A common ground for all religions can be seen in three respects:

1) All religions agree that there is a God, an agent of what they call downward causation. This is to be distinguished from materialists’ upward causation model; namely that all cause originates from the base level of matter, the elementary particles.

All religions don’t necessarily disagree with materialists’ upward causation, but they additionally postulate occasional intervention by a (non-material) God, such as creation events.

2) All religions also conceive the existence of non-material “subtle” bodies connected with our internal experiences like feeling, meaning, and values, in addition to the material body. The subtle bodies correspond to the pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, and the Vijnanamaya kosha of the Upanishads.

3) All religions postulate the importance of certain values as the goal of life; values as, love, truth, beauty, justice, good.  Religions maintain that these godly qualities are what give life meaning.

Scientists negate downward causation. They reject the idea of a -God interacting with matter? They also reject the idea of subtle non material bodies interacting with the material a body? They claim that this is Dualism. Dualism is not scientifically feasible because two bodies that have nothing in common cannot interact without a mediator and there is no mediator that one can see.

As for the third contention of religions, the importance of values in our lives, materialist science does not exactly deny it. But they maintain that values originate in matter as genetic programs but no programmer is required. Instead these programs evolve through Darwinian evolution (natural selection) because they help the organism to adapt to environmental changes.

In quantum physics, objects are not determined things, they are waves of possibilities. When we observe these waves, they collapse into actual events in our experience. Instead of observing spread-out waves, what we observe is a localized particle. This is the famous observer effect.

In every event of observation, there is the object that the observer is looking at and a second object consisting of the observer, a brain. Before observation, before collapse, both are waves of possibility. When consciousness chooses, only then the brain is actualized along with the external object as experiences, as appearances in consciousness.

Consciousness identifies with the brain due to a specialness of the brain, a specialness that makes an object with a brain an observer. This conscious identity is what we call the self, what we experience as a subject looking at the collapsed object. Consciousness, the chooser, transcends both the immanent subject and object.

In this generalized science within consciousness, upward causation gives us the waves of possibility to choose from; downward causation consists of the act of choice. Both modes of causation are incorporated. And there is no dualism; the subject-object duality is seen to be an appearance!

The next step was to realize that the choosing consciousness must transcend personality, must be unitive–the same for all of us. If this were not so, you could look at a multifaceted quantum possibility wave and choose one facet and simultaneously somebody else could look and choose an alternative contradictory facet. The world then would be pandemonium.

Repentance, confession and forgiveness

Repentance and forgiveness are the basic mechanisms of personal and societal growth, directing us through a deliberate, and often uncomfortable, path of honest self-evaluation.

Repentance, then, is the process that is used to correct destructive actions by returning us to our True-self; to a commitment to courageous love in truth that will lead one away from the ego’s need to dominate and control, the attitude that caused the destruction action.

This is a powerful shift, which is the goal of all spiritual practice.

The Bible says that we are to forgive as God forgave us (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13). God forgives us when we repent (Mark 1:15, Luke 13:3, 5, Acts 3:19).

The ultimate purpose of forgiveness is the healing of a relationship. This healing occurs only when the offender repents and demonstrates remorse and the offended one grants a pardon and demonstrates loving acceptance.

Matthew 4:17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repentance occurs when we awaken to God’s glorious potential for our lives.

Sanatana Dharma

Sanatana Dharma is a code of ethics, a way of living through which one may achieve moksha (enlightenment, liberation). It provides its followers with an entire worldview, a way of life with a coherent and rational view of reality.

Definition

Sanatana Dharma is by its very essence a term that is devoid of sectarian leanings or ideological divisions. This is evident by the very term itself. The two words, "Sanatana Dharma", come from the ancient Sanskrit language. "Sanatana" is a Sanskrit word that denotes that, which is Anadi (beginningless), Anantha (endless) and does not cease to be, that which is eternal and everlasting.

With its rich connotations, Dharma is not translatable to any other language. Dharma is from dhri, meaning to hold together, to sustain.

Its approximate meaning is "Natural Law," or those principles of reality which are inherent in the very nature and design of the universe. Thus the term Sanatana Dharma can be roughly translated to mean "the natural, ancient and eternal way."

When translated into English, Sanatana refer to Eternal, Perennial, Never Beginning nor Ending, Abiding, Universal, Ever-present, Unceasing, Natural, and Enduring while Dharma refers to Harmony, The Way, Righteousness, Compassion, Natural Law, Truth, Teachings, Tradition, Philosophy, Order, Universal, Flow, Religion, Wisdom, Divine Conformity, Cosmic Norm, Blueprint, Inherent Nature, Law of Being, and Duty.

What is Sanatana Dharma?

Sanatana Dharma does not denote to a creed like Christianity or Islam, but represents a code of conduct and a value system that has spiritual freedom as its core. Any pathway or spiritual vision that accepts the spiritual freedom of others may be considered part of Sanatana Dharma.

First and foremost, Sanatana Dharma is without beginning and also without a human founder. It is defined by the quest for cosmic truth, just as the quest for physical truth defines science.

Its earliest record is the Rig-Veda, which is the record of ancient sages who by whatever means tried to learn the truth about the universe, and man’s relationship to the cosmos.

They saw nature including all living and non-living things as part of the same cosmic equation, and as pervaded by a higher consciousness. This search has no historical beginning; nor does it have a historical founder. This is not to say that the Rig-Veda always existed as a literary work. It means that it cannot point to a particular time or person in history and say: "Before this man spoke, what is in the Rig-Veda did not exist."

The Nature of Sanatana Dharma

By its nature, Sanatana Dharma is:

    God-centered rather than prophet-centered

    Experience based rather than belief based

    Beyond any historical date of founding

    The process of growth, which comes from the seed

    Inherent in, and inclusive of all

    In the world, while beyond the world

    Both immanent and transcendent

    The whole and the parts

    Loving of all and excluding of none

Human beings are meant to live in a way that best manifests for the entire world to witness our innermost essence, as eternal spiritual beings, who are currently on a temporal, material journey.

We are meant to recognize the presence of the Divine in our everyday lives, and to then humbly manifest infinite love, compassion, and wisdom toward all sentient beings.

Rather than reveling in exploitation of the Earth and our fellow living beings, we should grow in our dedication to serving others.

Rather than reveling in greed, envy and anger, we should develop our natural spiritual capacity for giving, of celebrating life, and of being full of joy.

Rather than living in fear, we must embrace the full scope of our own boundless freedom.

Each of us can honestly aspire to achieve self-realization and spiritual transformation as radically free individuals, outside the confines of sectarianism, intolerance, closed-minded fanaticism, and organizational denominationalism, and in accordance with Dharma - the Natural Way of the Cosmos.

In this way, we can all strive toward a higher degree of happiness both as individuals, and as a society. We can save the world from its illusion...but it begins with each one of us liberating ourselves from our own illusion first.

This is how we are meant to live.

Seat of knowledge

Study with right understanding. A note on sutras: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is the most comprehensive treatise on mind and its control as well as transcendence available in world spiritual literature.

Knowledge is inherent in the mind. We receive various types of information from the external world through perception, from books and teachers. This may give the impression that knowledge comes from the outside. But the truth is understanding, which is what knowledge really means. Understanding is an inherent function of the mind.

All knowledge, secular or spiritual is inherent in the human mind. In most cases it remains covered and when the covering is being removed, we say we are learning. What one knows is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

From this we can see that knowledge is intrinsic, inherent in the three realms, the physical, the pranic or life and the mental. All these types of knowledge are manifestations of consciousness immanent in matter, in life and in the mind.

Self effort and fate a yoga perspective

Self effort is of two categories: that of past and that of the present mental and physical activity.

Fate can be explained as the effect of one’s past self effort or past mental and physical actions.

Self motivated activity or self effort which is not based on higher truth principles or critical thought, will often result in undesired outcomes. When this occurs one should examine the resulting effects in the light of one’s thought patterns and correct them accordingly and immediately. Unfortunately many people tend to blame fate or bad luck instead of accepting responsibility for their mistaken thoughts and actions.

There is great power in correct present action, as it will determine future results as they impact on one’s life.

Hence, one should take to self effort and overcome evil by good and by what is seen as fate by present right action.

One should never yield to laziness but strive to obtain liberation, realizing that life is ebbing away every moment; neither should one be consumed by sense pleasure, for it leads to bondage.

One who says "Fate is directing me to do this" is misguided.

By self effort one acquires wisdom and then realizes that this self effort is not without its own end, but will lead one in the direction of truth.

When afflicted by suffering, people often blame their circumstances on fate or even some divine intervention. What is referred to as fate or by some even divine will is in actuality the result of one’s prior action.          

The present is infinitely more potent than the past.

It is foolish to be satisfied with the fruits of one’s past actions and not be engaged in present self effort. One should also free oneself from likes and dislikes, and always do what needs to be done now on all levels: physical, mental and spiritual.

Self effort is that, which springs from right understanding that manifests in one's heart and which has been exposed to correct ethical and moral scrutiny.

Such self effort has a threefold root and therefore threefold fruit:

1. An inner awakening of intelligence,
2. An act of will
3. Right physical action

He who desires mental freedom should also purify his mind.

For those who accept past life existence, they need to realize that tendencies brought forward from past incarnation are of two kinds - pure and impure.

The pure ones lead one to liberation and the impure ones invite a troubled existence.

We need to come to the realization, that we are consciousness itself; not inert physical matter. Therefore, we are not impelled to action by anything other than our own self will.

Hence, we are free to strengthen pure latent tendencies in preference of the impure ones. The masters of perfection emphasize to persistently tread the path that leads toward the eternal good of all.

The wise seeker knows: that the fruit of one’s endeavours will be commensurate with the intensity of one’s self effort, and neither fate nor God can ordain it otherwise. Indeed, such self effort alone is responsible for whatever one obtains in life.

When one is in a state of unhappiness, to console him, people often suggest that it is his fate or bad luck. No one has seen such a fate or a bad luck, but everyone has experienced how an action (good or evil) leads to a result (good or evil).

Hence, right from early life, one should endeavour to promote one's true good by a keen, intelligent study of truth principles, and by right self effort.

Fate or divine dispensation is merely a convention which has come to be regarded as truth by being repeatedly declared to be so.

In this world, except in a state of inertia, everything is active and it is activity that yields its appropriate results.

No one has ever realized the existence of fate or divine dispensation.

People use such expressions as "I am impelled by fate or divine dispensation to do this" for self satisfaction, but this is not true?

Many have attained self knowledge by self effort alone. Hence, we need renounce fatalism in favour of accepting that our present condition is the result of the law of cause and effect of our own action

Soul and Spirit explained

Spirit is ever existing, ever conscious, ever new omnipresent Joy.

The soul is the individualized reflection of the ever existing, ever conscious ever new joy confined within the body of each and every being.

Souls are co existing with spirit and of the same essence, just as the sun and its rays are one.

Though incarnate, the soul belongs to the noumenal regions, which is changeless. All matter forms belong to the regions of phenomenon.

Worldly people do not know what the soul is or how it comes into the physical body and thus after a short journey, to what destiny it slips away.

It can be said, that the soul is in the body cup. Once the cup breaks, the soul returns to its source, Spirit.