Constancy of Aim and Effort and Non-laziness

There is a story about a spiritual aspirant who was looking for a guru all over India. One day, he saw a guru meditating near a lake. He sat beside the teacher and waited. Finally, the guru opened his eyes and said, "What can I do for you?" The student answered, "I would like to achieve illumination in a very short period of time." The guru said, "Very good, my son." Then he held the head of the student and put it into the water. Finally, when the student was almost drowning, he pulled him by the head. He asked the student, "What did you desire most when you were drowning?" "Air", replied the student. To this the teacher said, "If you can desire illumination as much as you desire air, you will have it fast."

This author once met a yogi who was initiated by a certain swami. The swami gave him a certain technique. The yogi meditated immediately. He ate and slept very little. After meditating almost non-stop for several days, he achieved samadhi. Some of you already have teachers and you have been told to meditate. You decide to meditate at night but instead of meditating, you say, "Let me read the newspaper first," or "Let me watch TV," or "I'll listen to music first," or "Let me call my friend." When night comes, your body is already tired so you say, "Let me go to sleep. I will meditate tomorrow." Tomorrow comes and you go through the same thing. This goes on for months or years. This is why you need constancy of aim and effort. This virtue also means non-procrastination.

You have to decide whether you want to do spiritual practice or not. Nobody can force you. Practice only if you really want to practice, not because everybody is meditating. When you have decided to meditate regularly, make a schedule and follow it. Constancy of aim and effort and non-laziness is the key to success and spiritual development.

-- GrandMaster Choa Kok Sui, Inner Teachings of Hinduism Revealed

on Kundalini Syndrome

yes, it is real.

yes, it can affect "even you", so swallow this pride, keep on with purifications and start forgiving yourself today, dude!

"it's not about how many times you fall down, but how many times you get up"

maybe some day she will be able to understand it...

1 ano sem ela

bem melhor agora.

não fosse assim, improvável que esta última volta ao redor do sol levasse o título de "a melhor de todas" (acho que não falava isso desde 2005).

foam diversos momentos ao longo destes últimos anos, muitos bons, outros nem tanto; compreendo que o que aprendi com ela ajudou para que eu me tornasse quem sou hoje.

é claro que ainda vamos nos cruzar pela vida, numa festa aqui ou numa praia acolá; por vezes ela pode ameaçar me seduzir, mas não cabe mais, definitely all over now, baby blue. você não cabe mais no meu caminho.

so long, and thanks for all the fish...

"The purpose of meditation is to experience that you are not the body, not the emotion, not the thoughts, you are the 'I AM'. When you experience the 'I AM' within you, you start to experience a certain level of connection to everyone. That is the oneness with all, the Christ Consciousness."

-- Master Stephen Co, disciple of GrandMaster Choa Kok Sui

The Hermetic View of Religion

(by Franz Bardon)

There are two basic philosophies of religion: the first is the relative and the second is the absolute or universal. From the beginning of humankind to the present day, all those religions which belong to the relative philosophy of religion have gone through their initial stages, have reached their peaks and, during the course of the ages, have come to their end. Each relative religion has its own founder. I refrain from citing all the systems of relative religion; anyone who has studied religious philosophy will have become acquainted with a number of religious systems of the relative type. They are all subject to the same law of transitoriness, regardless of whether they have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years. The length of time a religion may exist always depends upon its founders and teachers. The more universal laws a religion contains, the more universal truth it represents and preaches, the longer it lasts.

Its existence will be shorter the more one-sided, fanatical, dictatorial, and authoritarian its doctrines are. However, each religious system has thus far had its good purposes and its special mission. Each has always contained certain partial aspects, however concealed, of a portion of universal truth and lawfulness, whether symbolically or as an abstract idea.

A true adept will see in each relative religion, regardless of the historical era in which it may have existed, fragments of some basic ideas that had their origin in the universal religion and which point to universal law. Therefore, the adept appreciates each religion equally, without paying any attention to whether it is a religion of the past or whether it still exists today or whether it will exist in the future, because he is aware of the fact that each religious system has followers whose maturity suits that of the religion.

From the Hermetic point of view, even materialism is a kind of religious system, one whose representatives may believe in God but not in anything supernatural, and who adhere only to that of which they are able to convince themselves – in other words, to them it is matter which prevails. Since the initiate knows that matter is the symbolic representation of the divine appearance reflected in the laws of nature, he will not judge anyone who believes merely in matter. The more mature a man has become during the course of his incarnations and evolution, the closer will he come to the universal laws, and the more deeply will he be able to penetrate into them, until finally no relative religious concept will satisfy him. A person like this has become mature for the universal religion and is capable of approaching the universal laws in the microcosm and the macrocosm.

This is to say that any religion that does not represent the universal laws completely is relative and transitory. The universal laws have been unchangeable from the beginning of the world and will continue thus until the end.

The mature Hermetic may officially belong to any religion, depending on whether he really wants to do so and whether he considers it preferable in his dealings with people – perhaps to avoid drawing the attention of immature individuals to himself. However, in the innermost of his spirit and his entire being he will profess the universal religion, by which the universal lawfulness is to be understood. An initiate does not believe anything unless he can convince himself of its validity; neither does he believe in any personified divinity nor any kind of idol. Rather, he worships the universal law and harmony in all forms of existence.

These few words should suffice to demonstrate the difference between relative and absolute philosophies of religion.

concerning my past, present and future

"In general, there are two methods through which one can attain a mystical state or a higher level of consciousness, meditation and drugs. While some writers have tried to demonstrate that the prophets engaged in drug experiences, there is no objective evidence, either from the Biblical text or from the classical literature, that such substances were involved.

With regard to meditation, the precise opposite is true."

-- Arieh Kaplan, "Meditation and the Bible"

concerning choices ii

1. Ainda que eu falasse as línguas dos homens e dos anjos, e não tivesse amor, seria como o metal que soa ou como o sino que tine.

2. E ainda que tivesse o dom de profecia, e conhecesse todos os mistérios e toda a ciência, e ainda que tivesse toda a fé, de maneira tal que transportasse os montes, e não tivesse amor, nada seria.

3. E ainda que distribuísse toda a minha fortuna para sustento dos pobres, e ainda que entregasse o meu corpo para ser queimado, e não tivesse amor, nada disso me aproveitaria.

-- 1ª Epístola de São Paulo aos Corintios, Capítulo 13

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"eu já te amo faz tempo..."

concerning choices

“I’m going to ask you a question,” he said, “and you must be absolutely honest in your answer. If you tell me the truth, I’ll teach you what you ask. If you lie, you must never again return to this forest.”

Brida gave a sigh of relief. He was going to ask her a question. She simply had to tell the truth, that was all. She had always assumed that a Teacher would demand really difficult things of someone before taking them on as a pupil.

“Let’s suppose that I do start teaching you what I’ve learned,” he said, his eyes fixed on hers. “Let’s suppose that I start to show you the parallel universes that surround us, the angels, the wisdom of nature, the mysteries of the Tradition of the Sun and the Tradition of the Moon. Then one day, you go into town to buy some food, and in the middle of the street, you meet the love of your life.”

“I wouldn’t know how to recognize him,” she thought, but decided to say nothing. This question was turning out to be more difficult than she’d imagined.

“He feels the same and comes over to you. You fall in love with each other. You continue your studies with me. During the day, I teach you the wisdom of the Cosmos, and at night, he teaches you the wisdom of Love. But there comes a moment when those two things can no longer coexist, and you have to choose.”

The Magus paused for a few seconds. Before he actually asked the question, he felt afraid of what the girl’s reply might be. Her coming there that evening meant the end of a stage in both their lives. He knew this, because he understood the traditions and intentions of Teachers. He needed her as much as she needed him, but she had to answer the question he put to her truthfully; that was the sole condition.

“Now answer this question with total honesty,” he said at last, screwing up his courage. “Would you give up everything you had learned until then—all the possibilities and all the mysteries that the world of magic could offer you—in order to stay with the love of your life?”

Brida looked away. Around her lay the mountains and the forests, and down below, the lights in the village were beginning to come on; soon, families would be gathering around the table to have supper. They worked hard and honestly, they feared God, and they tried to help their fellow man. They did all these things because they had known love. Their lives had a reason, they could understand everything that was going on in the universe without ever having heard of things like the Tradition of the Sun and the Tradition of the Moon.

“I see no contradiction between my search and my personal happiness,” she said.

“Answer my question.” His eyes were still fixed on hers. “Would you give up everything for that man?”

Brida felt a tremendous urge to cry. It wasn’t so much a question, it was a choice, the most difficult choice anyone would have to make in life. It was something she’d already thought about a lot. There had been a time when nothing in the world was as important as herself. She’d had several boyfriends and had always believed that she loved each one, only to see love vanish from one moment to the next. Of all the things she’d experienced until then, love had been the most difficult. Just then, she was in love with someone slightly older than herself; he was studying physics and had a completely different vision of the world from hers. Once again, she was putting her belief in love, trusting her feelings, but she’d been disappointed so often before that she was no longer sure of anything. Nevertheless, this was the great gamble of her life.

She continued to avoid the Magus’s gaze. Her eyes were fixed on the village and its twinkling lights. People had been trying to understand the universe through love ever since the beginning of time.

“I’d give it all up,” she said at last.

The man standing before her, she thought, would never understand what went on in people’s hearts. He was a man who knew the power and the mystery of magic, but he didn’t know people. His hair was grizzled, his skin burned by the sun, and he had the physique of someone used to walking in the mountains. He was so very attractive, with eyes that revealed a soul full of answers, and he would once again be disappointed by the feelings of ordinary human beings. She was disappointed with herself, too, but she couldn’t lie.

“Look at me,” said the Magus.

Brida felt ashamed, but did as he asked.

“You told the truth. I will be your Teacher.”

-- Paulo Coelho, "Brida"

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a certeza da resposta não extingue o sofrimento da escolha.

10 signs of a spiritual awakening

Sobre deixar o corpo

"Para o iogue, a morte não tem importância; ele não se importa com o momento em que morrerá. [...] Ele só se ocupa do viver, de como pode estar vivo para melhorar a humanidade. Depois de haver passado por vários tipos de dor em sua vida e de ter adquirido um certo domínio sobre a dor, o iogue desenvolve compaixão, passa a ajudar a sociedade e a se manter em estado de pureza e santidade. O iogue não tem outros interesses além desse."

    -- b.k.s. iyengar, "a árvore do ioga"

David Broza @ SP

"I collect bad wines"