Enlightenment

These are pictures of my Sofia meditating.


After she had watched me she said it was her turn.
















I was in awe as I watched her.......






Making me think that it's true......





We know so much as a child.......





....and forget as we get older.





Enjoy the post by Odyssey Spirit.....




















From: Odyssey Spirit ~~Chris tina~~
Date: Aug 25, 2007 6:27 PM


Enlightenment
- by Kiara Windrider


"Enlightenment is the only solution to all problems faced by man today;


I have heard a lot about the idea of enlightenment. What is it really? Is enlightenment really possible in this day and age?
Simply stated, enlightenment is the dissolution of the sense of a fixed, separate self. Once we realize that our concept of the self is an illusion, we become capable of experiencing ourselves as a flow of consciousness that is no longer subject to the limits and conditioning of the mind. And yes, it is possible in this day and age.

Why is that?
It has to do with an evolutionary cycle for humanity and the Earth. We are moving out of a Kali Yuga, an age of darkness and chaos, into a Satya Yuga, an age of awakening into light. This transition began in the year 2003 AD, and will reach a 'critical mass' by the end of the year 2012 AD.

How can Bhagavan claim to simply give enlightenment to people?
Many people associate enlightenment with extraordinary effort, struggle, discipline, and asceticism - resulting from a total renunciation of the world and complete dedication to the spiritual path. Nothing can be further from the truth. Enlightenment cannot be achieved through effort, no matter how hard you try. In fact, these efforts themselves can become our greatest obstacle! It is would be like trying to pull yourself out of quicksand by tugging at your own hair. Most Indian traditions teach that enlightenment can only be given as a gift of grace. In this case, the grace is a product of a neurobiological change in the brain.

How does this neurobiological shift happen?
It happens through means of a transfer of energy known as the 'deeksha', which is programmed by Bhagavan and Amma to repattern the structure and physiology of the brain. Once this process completes itself, a person finds himself or herself in a permanent state of enlightenment. This is not necessarily a mystical state, but simply a state of experiencing reality as it is, without the limiting filters and conditioning of the human mind.

Would I have to give up my present lifestyle if I were to become enlightened?
Only if you want to. You do not have to go vegetate in a cave somewhere, unless you feel like it. Bhagavan emphasizes that enlightenment is a very natural state, and that a person would if anything become much more functional, joyful, loving, and efficient in every aspect of life.

Do I have to change my religion in order to come to the Golden City?
Religion has nothing to do with enlightenment, nor even spirituality. It is a purely neurobiological phenomenon. Once enlightened, your guiding light will come from within yourself, and you will reconnect with the essence within whatever religion or spiritual tradition you belong to or don't belong to.

How long will it take to become enlightened?
It depends on many factors, including the state of your chakras and nadis, your childhood conditioning, your fears and resistance to change, your concepts of God, and your karmic destiny. Some people have become enlightened with just one deeksha, others require a much longer period of time. Bhagavan says that everyone, as long as they are in a human body, WILL become enlightened.

What about people who have died?
Once the mass enlightenment takes place, they too will become enlightened, says Bhagavan.

How can you promise enlightenment in such a short time, when so many of us have been struggling for lifetimes without coming an inch closer to this?
It is not so short a time. Humanity has been on the path for a very long time. We have now entered the Golden Age, and new energies are available to humanity that were not available before. Bhagavan says that we have already done our sadhana. Now is the time to complete this journey as a human species.

Is enlightenment the end of our spiritual journey? What comes afterwards?
No, it is like stepping through a doorway into a new world, but the journey is without limits! The journey is just beginning.

How will I know when I become enlightened?
You will know you are enlightened when you are no longer trying to become enlightened. Suffering is essentially the resistance to experiencing reality as it is. Once enlightened you will no longer be forever seeking to change, deny, defend, or deify your experience of reality. You will naturally experience the present moment for what it is.

What does enlightenment look like?
Bhagavan speaks of enlightenment as making a hole in the wall of your mind. For some people it may take a little longer than for others. For some people it may be a tiny crack at first, while for others the entire wall may collapse at once. Regardless of how it happens, once you experience the hole in the wall, you can walk through the hole into a different perception of reality. Our senses become much more acute. Mystical realities begins to interpenetrate the ordinary realities of our daily lives. As we dissolve the sense of separateness that has kept us walled off from the rest of the universe, the entire universe can move and flow through us! But this must be experienced directly!

Will I be able to perform miracles when I become enlightened?
All life will become a miracle when you release the rigid conditioning of the human mind. What you call miracles then become the normal experience of life.

Will I be able to do my ordinary work when I become enlightened?
You will not be plucked out of the world. You will continue to live your life, do your work, engage in your relationships. As you become more present with each moment, each ordinary moment will become an extraordinary experience.

Will my relationships change when I become enlightened, and how?
You will discover that what you have called love was simply the survival needs of a neurotic self. You will begin to experience unconditional love and limitless joy in all your relationships, including your relationship with yourself!

Is mass enlightenment really possible, or is this wishful thinking?
The idea of mass enlightenment is based on natural law. Whether you call it the 'hundredth monkey phenomenon' or the law of 'entrainment', the idea is that when you have a certain number of people holding a 'higher' state of consciousness, what we call a 'critical mass', the mass consciousness automatically comes into resonance with it.

What is a morphogenetic field?
A 'morphogenetic field' is a term coined by biologist Rupert Sheldrake to represent a field of consciousness specific to a given species. The more members of a species that exhibit a certain trait, or vibrate to a certain consciousness, the easier it becomes for all the other members of that species to 'entrain' with that trait or consciousness!

Will I be able to heal people when I become enlightened?
What often happens is that your chakras and nadis become activated upon getting enlightened, which in turn activates the capacity for healing the body as well as emotional patterns from the past. The capacity for healing increases even more once you become God-realized.

Do you find that synchronicities in your life increase once you become enlightened?
Once you become enlightened, you are no longer trying to run your life from your limited perceptions of life and reality. You find that the entire universe moves through you. Synchronicities become a way of life, opportunities come your way with seemingly little effort, and life becomes spontaneous and easy.

It seems that enlightenment is generally an Eastern concept. Is it the same as becoming one with God?
It is a difference in emphasis. You can be enlightened without being God-realized. You can also be God-realized without being enlightened. But when the two go together, then you truly have the grace, power, and splendour of divine consciousness radiating through everything you are and do!

I keep hearing that Amma and Bhagavan are avatars. What is an avatar?
An avatar is a descent of divine consciousness, and can take many forms for many different purposes in order to accelerate the process of human evolution. We are at a time now as we enter the Golden Age when we preparing to transcend our current level of dualistic consciousness. Amma and Bhagavan are here with the specific mission to help humanity along this path.

What happens during the process offered by Oneness University?
You enter a fairly intense process of self-examination called "samskara shuddhi" during which you are offered the opportunity to see yourself from many facets, including the deep, dark and ugly. You see and clear your emotional issues, your negative conditioning and childhood patterns, and let go of the fixed ideas that have held you in suffering for so long. You then move along into a process of emptying, through which you see "through" the self, and thereby free yourself from the self. From this new state of being, one is prepared for the final phase of the 21-day process, which is the Divine Descent.

I have experienced states of enlightenment before. What makes this so different?
Perhaps it is not so different in some ways. The morphogenetic field of enlightenment is sweeping the planet, and many who have never been exposed to these states are spontaneously beginning to experience them all over the world. What many people experience with the deekshas, however, is not just occasional peak experiences but a neurobiological change in the brain, leading to a permanent state of enlightenment.

What is this dark night of the soul we hear so much about? It feels a bit frightening to me.
When we bring more light into the body, there is a corresponding emotional and biological reaction. Old barriers, physical blocks, and emotional patterns come to the surface in order to be released. The dark night of the soul represents a cleansing of the personal unconscious in preparation for a deeper descent of light, and is usually considered as a prerequisite for the deeper stages of mastery. Jesus experienced this dark night of the soul prior to his public mission as he 'wrestled with Satan' in the wilderness. Buddha also experienced this during his process of enlightenment as he fought the 'temptations of Mara'. It is only frightening as long as we are afraid to die. Once we realize that there is no 'self' left to die, a new dawn can begin.

You say that mass enlightenment will take place by 2012. Does this have something to do with the Mayan calendar?
The Mayan calendar does refer to 2012 as the ending of linear time, and the beginning of a new phase of experience for all creation. The Hindus also refer to this same time period as a critical moment for our collective transition into the next Golden Age. The two systems coincide, along with the visions of many people throughout the world, who have seen something new and exciting emerge on the planet around this time.

Does karma play a role in becoming enlightened? What happens to karma when you become enlightened?
Your personal karma is certainly a factor in bringing you to the doorway. Once you are at the threshold of enlightenment, however, only grace can take you through the doorway. And once the self is gone, so is your karma. There is still a measure of 'national' karma or 'human' karma that remains, but your 'personal' karma disappears along with self.

I have heard of enlightened beings who did not have a guru. How can you say that a guru must give it to you?
The guru does not have to be in physical form. He could be a divine being or even your own antaryamin. For most people, however, it is easier to trust and relate to someone who is incarnate in a physical body. The fact remains that it is a gift of grace, and must be given to you. It is like trying to escape from the prison of the mind using only the tools of the mind. The key is on the other side!

Can I expect to be enlightened when I come to do an enlightenment process at Golden City?
Let go of all expectations. You cannot achieve enlightenment through your own efforts no matter how hard you try. And if it is your time, you will be enabled to receive this gift no matter how hard you think you can resist! All you can do is to open your heart and say 'yes' to the experience. Let the deekshas do the rest. The universe will respond in perfect timing!

posted by odyssey spirit.....love and hugs always

Using Unhappiness as Motivation

This is from Odyssey Spirit. I wish more people were "odd" like her.

From: Odyssey Spirit ~~Chris tina~~
Date: Aug 25, 2007 2:58 PM


Using Unhappiness As Motivation


"Desire is a more powerful motivator than fear ever dreamed."
We fear obesity and rejection in order to motivate ourselves to diet. We scare ourselves with thoughts of lung cancer and emphysema, visualizing ourselves in hospitals on respirators to get ourselves to stop smoking. We visualize our lovers leaving us so we'll be nicer to them. We became anxious about unemployment to get ourselves to work harder. We feel guilty to make ourselves do what we think we should. On and on it goes, using unhappiness to get ourselves to do or not do, be or not be.
Why do we use unhappiness to motivate ourselves? Perhaps we believe that our desires aren't enough. If our happiness isn't dependent on it, maybe we won't be motivated enough to change and pursue what we want. So we turn our "wanting" into "needing" believing it will somehow make our desires more powerful and our actions more purposeful.

Needing something implies that there will be a negative consequence if we don't get it. We need food and water to live, or we'll die. We need to breath, or we'll die. But do we really NEED to be thinner? Have that new car? Get that raise? Unfortunately, the unhappiness (fear, anxiety, nervousness) resulting from turning this want into a need take lots of our emotional energy and leaves little left to actually use towards creating what you want.

What if our happiness wasn't based on getting what we wanted? Would we still have motivation to pursue your desires? From personal experience, I can tell you the answer is a resounding YES.

"When we use desire for our motivation, the difference between wanting and attachment becomes clear. Wanting is moving toward. Attachment includes the experience of need and, often, fear of our very survival. We use attachment to connect our selves to the object of desire with our fear, our sorrow, our guilt, our experience of need, as if that draws the object of desire to us. But it doesn't work."

"To believe that I need something requires, by definition, that I also believe that I cannot be okay without that something. It may be an object or an experience that I desire. In this view of reality, if I don't get it, that very not-getting threatens my well-being, my hopes for happiness, my ability to be okay. When I use un-happiness in order to help myself get what I want, or to get you to give me what I want, I live in that need. That experience is self-extinguishing - it is the state of non-being. The very thing I do to help myself cripples me, choking my life force and my ability to create."

"The experience of desire is self-fulfilling. It allows happiness now. It permits a sense of well-being, of okay-ness. It simply acknowledges, "more would be welcome. This is the more that I welcome."
- Emotional Options, Mandy Evans

We also use unhappiness as a gauge to measure the intensity of our desires. The more miserable we are when we don't get what we want, the more we believe we wanted it. We fear that if we are perfectly satisfied with our present conditions, that we might not move towards changing them or taking advantage of new opportunities. This simply isn't the case.

Let your desire and wanting be your motivation. Focus on the imagination, inspiration, creativity, and anticipation that desire creates. Let that feeling be your guide.

Unhappiness To Motivate Others
We get hurt to try and make our spouses take notice and to get them to change. We get irritated with our children to make them move quicker. We get angry at the sales clerk so they'll treat us with respect. We get angry at our employees to make them work faster. All in the attempt to get others to behave as we want or expect them to. For more information on how we motivate others with our unhappiness, see the relationship section.


Unhappiness To Show Our Sensitivity
We become visibly sad when someone we love is unhappy to show them we care about them. Believing it would be callous and insensitive if we were not unhappy when they were unhappy. We even have cultural set guidelines for determining how long a spouse should mourn the death of their partner. God forbid a man dates shortly after the death of his wife. That would surely mean he didn't really care for his now deceased wife, right? This is another one of those beliefs we've passed on from generation to generation. We as a society then reinforce that belief.



Contrary to conventional wisdom, psychologists from the University of California in Berkeley and Catholic University in Washington, D.C., say laughter is the best way to get over grief when a loved one dies. In the past, it was thought that a person had to "work through" the stages of anger, sadness and depression after a death. "It may be that focusing on the negative aspects of bereavement is not the best idea because people who distanced themselves by laughing were actually doing better years later," one of the researchers said. "We found the more people focus on the negative, the worse off they seem later." (UPI)




I specifically remember an incident in High School where my fellow team members tried to teach me that "unhappiness is a sign of caring". Our senior women's basketball team was in the state finals. It was the last game of the tournament and if we won, we would be state champions. We lost. The scene was in the women's locker room after the game. I was sitting in front of my locker, head down, thinking of all the mistakes we had made, what I could have done differently, and feeling very disappointed. There were a few girls quietly crying in the corners, being consoled by other team members. There was no laughter and no discussions. The environment was a very somber, much like a funeral.

I distinctly remember thinking to myself... "hey, wait a minute, the game is OVER. There's nothing I can do to change that. What's the point of feeling miserable about it?" And I started thinking about all the things I had to look forward to.

My mood changed almost instantly. I felt happy and ready to go on with my life. I stood up, started changing out of my uniform, and began joking with some of the other girls, hoping to help them "feel better". The reaction I got was remarkable. The dirty looks, the exasperated sighs, and one of the more assertive girls angrily said to me, "God Jen, don't you even CARE that we lost? You obviously didn't have your heart in the game."

That's when I learned that I had to be unhappy to show I cared. Actually, I decided I COULD be happy and still care, but that it just wasn't a good idea to let others see my happiness in the face of what some saw as a traumatic and difficult situation. If I wanted others to view me as a sensitive and caring person, I would have to hide my happiness.

auther found soul2soul .com

posted by : Odyssey Spirit ~~Chris tina~~