[I]Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of tears![/I]
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There are grave misconceptions about the nature of spiritual activity today. The informational boom indeed created a big chaos. One was relatively safe in the bosom of one’s tradition, even in the beginning of the XX century. Now it is no longer the case. Everything is available everywhere, but in a superficial way.
Prayers are coming from times when people still had the expereince of spiritual realities - prayer, meditation, ascetism, all it is done to contact and expereince the suprasensible. To bridge a gap - religare, religio, to relink the human being to what he once belonged.
The higher worlds are called higher for a reason. They are inhabited by spiritual entities who are much more advanced than human souls. It is normal than to assume that anyone daring to enter these worlds (lokas), must prepare him/herself for a superhuman experience. How many times, in the Bible you found the image of a human being falling to the ground in the presence of a superhuman entity ? Such experiences result in a shock of awe … and most of the time they do not meet God, but a messenger.
[SIZE=3]One must be careful in trying to be good. What I have learnt, is that everytime I wanted to be good, I only learnt about how miserable and selfish and limited I am. If one is not prepared to see what one is as a human being, form a higher perspective, one cannot transcend human condition.
God is inhuman. The spiritual worlds are inhuman. Not as opposed to human beings, but inhuman in that they are different. And one’s soul accustomed to earthly existence simply cannot enter them and in this way, it is prevented from harm. Even in death is one protected by various entities (angels, devas).
Now, if one still desires, and strives for such expereinces, one must be more prepared than an astronaut going to Mars, and more prepared than an athlete preparing for Iron Man race, and more prepared than a soldier going to the frontline. After all, all these belong to earthly human expereince - and we want to go higher.
There is no place for curiosity here. You do not go there unless you have some serious business. Careful with prayer, and what you ask, careful with meditation what you do not know how it works.
Example: the natural bonds between one’s thinking, emotional and willing nature are losen up through initiative practices. It is necessary, if one has to transcend human condition. But herein is a great danger hidden. Normally, some thoughts awake certain emotions and those, make us to act in certain ways. But if these natural bonds are severed, depending on temperament, one can end up as a dry intellectual mind with apparently no concern to emotions or actions in this world, or one might end up as an emotional slave of others, being only capable of devotion but without discernment, or one might end up totally ruled by a will of such strength that one crushes anything and anyone in one’s way.
Indeed, one needs to know all these aspects of one’s being, but without the natural bonds, one must take charge of the work formerly done unconsciously. One must learn to be free from the natural inclinations of human soul, and take them in one’s own hands. There is no more room for instinctual aversions or likes, for fleeting superficial thoughts, or for random instinctive actions. Any spiritual discipline works towards this direction. But imagine what happens. What was natural, became now your task, and your own resposnability. This comes as the price for the freedom you get. Now, if one is not aware of how these things work, and to what purpose, he might lose these natural bonds without actually having idea what to substitute them with. If one is not guided well, because at some point one loses all support received before, one can end up in terrible situations.
Hence the need for guidance - and good preparations. Yama and niyama, the commandments, especially all moral practices help a lot in developing the necessary soul qualities.
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