Sacred Substance – Reincarnation/Spirituality

The Sense of the Sacred and the Feminine Body,

excerpt from a talk given by Angela Fischer at the event “The Feminine and the Earth”, July 2014.

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What is little known, or has been almost forgotten, is that our bodies are sacred and that the body of a woman is sacred in a very particular way.

And if you realize how much and for what a long time the feminine has been violated, and how the feminine body has been treated and regarded, it becomes all too clear how vast the consequences to the spiritual and to the inner light altogether are.

We are used to see this from the perspective of women, and this is of course true: women have been hurt and violated. But widening your view and looking at it from the perspective of the light, of the sacred in the world, of the divine, we see the tremendous violation and denial of the divine, which occurs when you suppress it that much in relation to women.

Why is the body of a woman sacred in a particular way?

Because she has the possibility and the capability to bring the light of a soul into the world.

There is an expression… people say, they “make children”. I don’t like this expression, because women don’t “make” the children, men don’t make them either, neither are they made by both of them together.

What we do is, we make ourselves available and we guide them into the world. We do not make them. And a woman is created in such a way that she can be very close to this and can contribute a substance of her body and of herself, also of the inner substance, not only the physical one, so that the light of a soul can manifest and take on a physical body.

This means, at first she receives the soul. This is the beginning.

There is a tradition that says that in the beginning the soul that is coming into the world is sitting on a woman’s shoulder, before the child matures in the womb. And the woman is created like this – she receives. Like an antenna that receives. She is able to receive a soul. Of course, sometimes a woman and a man receive a soul together, but it is the shoulder of a woman where she is landing.

And secondly the woman prepares a space for this.

She opens a space so that the soul can come closer and find the conditions to manifest within this space.

And the third aspect is that a substance in women – a sacred substance that is living in the cells of her body and in her spiritual centres – participates in the process of light taking on form. Without this substance it is not possible.

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How Souls Choose Their Parents and Families

by Lindsay on October 10, 2013

Years before my baby girl was born, I had a dream that I had a daughter. She came to me and gave me a hug, told me I was her mother, and told me her name was Evelyn.

That dream imprinted on my memory and my heart. So much so that when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I was carrying a girl, and she had already told me her name: Evelyn. Meaning wished for child, which couldn’t be more true!

In order to evolve, our souls come to Earth more than once.  I know that as I’ve grown and changed and learned about soul contracts and reincarnation, my thoughts and beliefs have gravitated to this notion.  For those of you who are on the fence about reincarnation, I invite to you to explore the idea that a soul is born into a (different) body for many lifetimes.

It is my belief that once a soul has made the decision to have (another) earthly incarnation, the first step is to decide on what kind of life they want. This is contingent upon what lessons they wish to learn. This involves being matched with a parent or set of parents. This process really depends on the soul’s purpose and desire for specific lessons and lifestyle.

For example,  if two souls had been together before, perhaps as a mother and daughter set, then they might wish to relive that experience again or perhaps relive it in reverse, so the daughter becomes the mother in the new lifetime. Sometimes, the soul wishes to incarnate in a particular part of the world, and the choice will be less specific to the individual parent.

As diverse as people are, so are our souls and what we wish to create and experience in our lifetime(s).

 http://www.thedailyawe.com/2013/10/how-souls-choose-their-parents-and-families/

Karma Wisdom – Faith

 

The word karma is a Sanskrit term that means “work, deed, or act”; it has also been interpreted to mean “cause and effect.”   Karma can simply be defined as memory. It is not really a “debt” that must be paid according to some universal tally sheet nor is it necessarily a set of specific circumstances that must be experienced because of deeds or misdeeds from the past. Karma is simply memory. It is a pool of information that the subconscious mind draws upon and can utilize in the present. It has elements that are positive as well as those which seem negative. For example, an immediate affinity toward an individual is as likely to be “karmic” as is an immediate animosity toward someone else. To be sure, this subconscious memory has an effect and influence on how we think, how we react, what we choose, and even how we look! But the component of free will is ever within our grasp. 

 

 

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“It is often imagined that the human being is subject to an irrevocable law of karma in which nothing can be changed. Let us take a simile from everyday life to explain the working of this law.

 

A businessman enters debits and credits in his account books; taken together, these entries tell him the current state of his business. The financial state of his business is subject to the inexorable law governing the calculation of debit and credit. If he carries out any new transactions he can make additional entries and he would be a fool if he were unwilling to embark on further business once a balance had been drawn up. In respect to karma, everything good, intelligent and true that has been done by a person belongs on the credit side; evil or foolish deeds belong on the debit side. At every moment the individual is free to make new entries in the karmic book of life. It must never be imagined that life is under the sway of an immutable law of destiny; freedom is not impaired by the law of karma. In studying the law of karma, therefore, the future must be borne in mind as strongly as the past. Bearing within us the effects of past deeds, we are the slaves of the past, but the masters of the future. If we are to have a favourable future, we must make as many good entries as possible in the book of life.

 

It is a great and potent thought to know that nothing we do is in vain, that everything has its effect in the future. The law of karma is the reverse of depressing; it fills us with the splendid hope, and knowledge of it is the most precious gift of spiritual science. It brings happiness inasmuch as it opens out a vista into the future. It charges us to be active for its sake; there is nothing whatever in it to make us sad, nothing which could give the world a pessimistic colouring; it lends wings to our will to co-operate in the evolution of the earth. Such are the feelings into which knowledge of karma must be transmuted.

 

When a person is suffering, people sometimes say: ‘He deserves his suffering and must bear his karma; if I help him, I am interfering with his karma’. This is nonsense. His poverty, his misery is caused through his earlier life, but if I help him, new entries will be made in his book of life; my help takes him forward. It would be foolish to say to a businessman who could be saved from disaster by 1000 or 10000 marks: ‘No, for that would alter your balance sheet’. It is precisely this possibility of altering the balance-sheet that should induce us to help someone. I help him because I know that nothing is without its karmic effect. This knowledge should spur us on to purposeful action.”

 

– from ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM by Rudolf Steiner (ISBN 9781855840638)

The Wise Deer – Myth And Legend

https://sathyasaimemories.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/deer_by_yaphleen-d53y92k.jpg

Sri Yogananda and the 16h Karmapa have both stated most strongly, one of the worst actions a human can do is hunt wild animals. There is no gain in killing an innocent animal for the sake of blood sport, yet often the richest people and the most powerful among us, in all countries, indulge in blood sports. Those who do not need to kill for food or for any other reason than for taking life are attracting to themselves very bad  karma in future.

Although it was a crucial part of humans’ survival 100,000 years ago, hunting is now nothing more than a violent form of recreation that the vast majority of hunters do not need for subsistence.(1) Hunting has contributed to the extinction of animal species all over the world, including the Tasmanian tiger and the great auk.(2,3)

Less than 5 percent of the U.S. population (13.7 million people) hunts, yet hunting is permitted in many wildlife refuges, national forests, and state parks and on other public lands.(40 Almost 40 percent of hunters slaughter and maim millions of animals on public land every year, and by some estimates, poachers kill just as many animals illegally.

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The Tale Of  The  Wise Deer – Buddhist

It is written in the great books of the East, the Buddha once took on
an incarnation of a beautiful deer, possessing the qualities of
strength, swiftness, intellect and above all a deep love for all
creatures.

Like all deer he lived simply and according to his dharma. He ate
grasses and berries and drunk only pure water from the mountain
stream. In silence he wandered through the forest showing respect for
all the other creatures who dwelled there, in returned they too,
respected him.

One day the king was out hunting in the forest but he took a wrong
path and found himself in a dense and dark part of the forest where he
hadn’t been before. Suddenly between the thick trees, he spotted the
great deer grazing in a nearby glen. Over come with excitement at the
size and beauty of the animal, the king quickly laid an arrow onto his
bow. But the deer was too quick for him and ran towards a hidden chasm
where he quickly jumped over to the other side and to safety.

The king unwilling to lose the deer, followed him but when his horse
arrived at the chasm it came to an abrupt halt, hurling his royal
master into the darkness below.

The deer became aware of the silence behind him. Looking back, he saw
the riderless horse peering into the depths of the ravine and realised
that the king must be lying on the rocks below.

With wondrous compassion the noble deer slowly retraced his steps
towards the one who sought to take his life for mere sport.

At the edge of the chasm the deer looked down and saw the king laying
in a heap below. His sharp ears picked up a faint sound of moaning as
the king, obviously in pain, cried out for help.

Tears welled up in the deer’s large soft eyes,

“Oh Your Majesty,” he said,

“You command the respect and loyalty of countless subjects. Through
God’s grace you have brought goodness to the land and prosperity to
your people. I pray that you have not suffered any serious injuries
from your fall and that you will continue to rule your kingdom with
love and respect in your heart. Although I am only a creature of the
forest, I ask you to trust me because it is within my power to help
you out of your unfortunate situation – but only if you grant me
permission.”

The king replied, “my armour saved me from serious wounds, but now I
suffer a greater pain and that is one of great shame for wanting to
take your life, a creature of such righteousness and compassion. I
accept your offer of kindness. But first, tell me why you would risk
your life to help the one who sought to kill you for sport?”

The deer answered, “does not the Lord of Life who illumines my heart
also illumine yours? Beyond the superficial awareness that I am a deer
and you are a man lies the supreme Truth that within us burns the same
light of God. So in saving your life, O King, I acknowledge and honour
the divine Self within us both.”

Then the deer began his perilous journey to the bottom of the ravine.
The King embraced the sacred animal, who knelt to allow the king to
climb onto his back. Carefully the deer climbed up the rocky path to
the horse waiting patiently at the top.

Once the king was safely on his horse again, he asked the deer to
return with him to the palace where he would live his life protected
from hunters in the palace gardens.

“Your offer is very kind,” answered the deer,

“But my home is in the forest with my family and other creatures. If
you really want to help me, then protect the forest by banishing
hunting altogether. Let the animals live in peace and according to the
laws of nature. If you agree to this your life will be ennobled and
you will be a monarch of supreme virtue and wisdom.”

Then the Deer bestowed his grace upon the king and turned and walked
back to his sylvan domain, leaving the king to return home with a
profound realisation of the sanctity of life.

– Anon

Precious Treasure – Metta Teachings

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Karma means we have had many former lives and many more will follow. Each lifetime could well see us born into an entirely different culture, and if the culture is evolved, then it can serve us by helping us to develop our own evolution to become a free being, rather than dominating us to produce or die for the culture itself. Unfortunately, this dark age goes against the grain, and has mostg of the planet striving for all the wrong ideals. We see ourselves as hopelessly lost in a world that is constantly urging us to worship only money and power.

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Human life itself is a precious treasure. The metaphor of the Buddhist sutras is that the human embodiment, especially with all wits intact, and especially in a country where there’s a teaching and the idea that evolutionary liberation is possible, then such a life is the precious jewel of the human embodiment. And the Buddha said, if you lose through suicide your precious human life, endowed with liberty and opportunity, that precious jewel that you have now, it’s like throwing a jewel in the trash.

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And, to get it back, to work your way back through generosity, morality, patience, wisdom, meditation, to achieve these virtues and come back to be a human, will be as likely as if the old turtle, (who lives in the great ocean and surfaces once every hundred years,) were to surface and put his neck through the hole in a golden yoke that just happens to be floating in the ocean. So, what a treasure it is to have a human life.

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There is the idea that there are treasures everywhere if we had the wisdom to see. There’s the story about the great adept Padma Sambhava in one of his biographies. Someone gave him a bag of gold dust. He took the bag and scattered it to the wind, and the person was really shocked because he had spent a long time collecting this – it was his offering. Then Padma Sambhava snapped his fingers and shared his vision for a moment with that person: they perceived all of the mountains and sky and everything as solid gold, they saw that there was no difference between the earth itself and the gold.

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Enlightened vision sees everything as a treasure anyway, and the only thing that makes us not see everything that way is our ignorant self-obsession which makes us feel that the universe is an alien thing, separated from us, that we’re against it and we must conquer it. By this way of thinking, we are fighting a losing battle with the universe. That’s the notion of ignorance in Buddhism. And the ignorance is what makes us unable to find the hidden treasure right in our own cells, right in our own atoms, right in our own brains…

-Robert Thurman

Blissful Mother – Inspirational Quotations, New Year’s Updates Prashanthi

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The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma

by Alexander Lipski

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an excerpt from the book I am reading just now…. 

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Since Anandamaya Ma urges man to start upon the return trip to the Divine One, does she imply that man has free will successfully to undertake the journey by his own efforts?

As we well know, theologians across the centuries have disputed this thorny question.  She makes it clear that there is a subtle interrelationship between free will and grace,  free will being, in the ultimate sense, a part of grace, as contradictory as this may sound, and thus She states:

“Verily, everything in the world is achieved by will-power. If, by determination and patience, someone can translate his highest ideals into life, his actions will be inspired. Such a worker is backed by divine power.”

As long as we are in ignorance, we are seemingly free in minor matters only. Our weaknesses, our inadequacies bind us. We are the slaves of our moods, cravings and impulses and our old thinking patterns.   If we have had fame or a fortune etc.,  we will cling to this, no matter what, until we discover that these old thought patterns of past karmas are a hinderance to us. All our unresolved problems from the past should be met with courge and overcome. This will allow us to continue on our spiritual journey. Any weaknesses or refusal to deal with our karmas will result in failure. Thus, a strong will power is essential on the spiritual path… 

Anandamayi Ma likens the average man’s freedom to that of a cow which is tied by a rope to a post. Within the limits of the rope she (the cow) has freedom. But, of course, were the cow able to break loose from the rope, she would gain complete freedom. Similarly, the person who makes the right spiritual efforts can cut the finite world of pseudo-happiness and attain freedom. 

 

Might add this is New Year’s Eve in Puttaparthi… Could be Bombay or London. (smile) – So few people for the morning bhajans and vedas, but so many out eating in restaurants and doing all the partying stuff.  I really cannot understand why these folks, when given the chance to  lap up the many blessings here in Puttaparthi at the moment, don’t take more advantge of it.  But  folks, that’s the way it goes. I did notice this doesn’t happen at  ‘Krishna Consciousness’ Centres and temples – perhaps because they make their own food…  🙂

Will be hopefully offering more positive reports in the upcoming days….   

 

New Year’s day update:

Happy New Year to one and all… Very nice darshan this morning. The Hall was only half-full until 9 a.m. The VIPs were few in number today but Baba’s family came to enjoy the concert. They sit opposite to where I sit on the ledge beside the chair ladies.   The boy’s brass band gave a short concert of interesting music. They actually played very well and kudos to them for their choice of tunes….. (popular 1930’s blues music… ) Now everyone is off for the New Year lunch/brunch  and once more Puttparthi is thrown into chaos. I had an appointment with the massage ladies and spent my time relaxing and taking a steam bath. Hopefully, the massages will help relieve my 18 month bout of tendonitis in my knee.  

I want to mention again the decorations in the hall are still up and dancing in the breeze. Today they added even more  pretty ones all around the Samadhi – a really colourful selection of joyous colours and shapes that took  my eye. We were able to watch the morning activities from the large video screen on the ladies side.

I will be posting later on next week on morning darshans. This is the time when I feel the best vibes are in the hall. The peace and quiet reminds me of days of old when Baba used to come out from the temple and be with us. Yes, for me anyway,  the mornings, here right now, are a good reminder of those far off days.

Also will be doing a New Years report on all those ‘famous’ or well known devotees who have generously shared their videos and books with us over the years. Sometimes too generously but there you go, we can forgive that…  🙂  Many of them are now Old-Age Pensioners and some have already left for the celestial planes. So I feel it’s time to take a short walk down Memory Lane  “Sai Wise”…. There is no one quite like George Harrison, who was a Krishna Consciousness devotee, to add to our list, but none-the-less, we have a few goodies. I will probably start with Al Drucker, who is my all-time favourite early devotee. His erudite writings are a joy to read and have inspired many. Now he resides in Florida in the USA and has been heavily involved with the the teachings of The Course In Miracles. – Well more later….

Sai Ram 

 

Dreams – “You Are Love” – Sathya Sai Memories

A very old photo of Sai Baba

Last Christmas, 2008, I had a vivid dream of Swami upon my arrival in Puttparthi.  Not sure it was a dream as such, because Swami spoke to me so clearly, I thought he was there with me.

In the dream, I was in a very small ashram quietly positioned  in a  pretty setting of flowers, trees and lily ponds. In between the trees,  there were a number of small colorful buildings. The small rooms  in the  dreamlike ashram appeared relaxing and peaceful.  I felt comforted. I sat in one quietly contemplating. Then Swami appeared and began to speak.

He said: “What question do you have?”

I answered: “Why was I born?”

“You are born because of Karma. And you have very good Karma,” he said. “But you are lonely.”

I tried to ask him why I was lonely but he turned and walked away. I glanced over to where he was going, then suddenly he entered an elevator, which appeared out of nowhere. The doors closed behind him. The elevator moved downwards. (I thought this meant he was getting to the bottom of the problem.)

The words he said were so clear and the dream so vivid, I knew it was Swami actually speaking to me as in an interview.  I instantly awakened,   pondering on the dream  experience – ‘what question do you have?” – I am sure that is exactly the way Swami speaks to people. Sitting  in bed, I began to reflect on my ‘karma’.

The truth is I don’t feel I have good Karma. I was born into an abusive family where my childhood was hard. I often felt  afraid. I married early into another family where there’s little love. I love my husband, but the extended family, we never hear from.  I do miss the protectiveness of an extended family.This epecially affects me at Christmas time and birthdays.  What I do have and am thankful for is my beautiful home in France, and through the years, I’ve been lucky to live in many countries all over the world.  This  brought its own rewards.

Back to the dream and Swami’s words. Of course I don’t know how Sai sees karma. Perhaps suffering to him, is good karma. I can only think it is.

You Are Love

Another very clear dream I recall from Sai Baba came shortly after my husband’s  serious accident in 1998. I was in shock and quite lost in myself. I prayed to Swami, “I don’t know anymore Swami, who I am, nor where I am going.”

I said those words several times before falling asleep that night. Early the next morning I dreamed of Swami. He was sitting at my computer typing. I remarked upon this and said to Him, Swami you are often seen on the Internet (or words similar to that.) He smiled and typed, L O V E. He said, “L” is for a word I didn’t catch – he went on to explain the o, v, and e in the same way. Then he said, ‘Love is – he continued with my full name ending with my passport name of Mason.

At the time,  I’d had my passport name changed to  my single name of  Mason as mentioned in the above para. Swami had revealed his knowledge of  the name change in this dream, also the knowledge that he had heard my heartfelt prayer.

·**•.♥LOVE♥.•**·life·**•.♥LIFE♥.•**