|
Home
Doors
Essays2007
Essays2008
Essays2009
Essays2010
Wisdom
Gallery
Links
Bios
Contact
|
..:: Spiritual
Truth ::..
By
Alan Schneider
The method of production of
this essay was
noteworthy, in that it involved inducing a trance state by walking
around my truck in the garage in a clockwise direction very rapidly
until an altered state of consciousness was achieved. While in trance,
the text of this essay was channeled into my consciousness from my
Spiritual Source of Higher Consciousness, after which I immediately went
inside my home and transcribed it verbatim into a composition that I
simply entitled “A Gift”. The work is presented sans header here,
because it nonetheless remains s very significant guide for spiritual
development. The full
content of this essay can be found in THE SEARCHLIGHT website under
the title “Dharma” in the
Wisdom page
link...
Dharma
is devotional service to God, including personal sacrifice, good works,
and all forms of yoga, prayer, and meditation. Dharma is inherently
rewarding – this action burns, or releases, Karma and also develops a
relationship with the Divine Consciousness. For this reason, Dharma is
to be performed without the consideration of either punishment or
additional reward, but is simply offered in the awareness of a higher
purpose in life – the Truth. My gift of these words is Dharma.
Karma
is God manifesting in the multiplicity of forms which we experience with
our senses as the physical universe of matter, energy, and action. Karma
exists at every level from the most minutely personal – a subatomic
particle – to the most universal – the known cosmos itself. Karma is
generated by willful action, or desire, and released through Dharma and
non attachment to the material forms of the world around us. Karma is a
condition of temporary, separate manifestation that establishes where we
are in our spiritual development.
Maya
is the human sensory experience of Karma. Because Karma is a
manifestation of God in multiplicity, or many separate forms, it cannot
be known as the ultimate Truth of God by anything which is itself
separate – including the human physical form. Our senses can only show
us reflected images of the Truth. We learn through culture and
experience to assemble these images into a model of existence which we
accept as reality. Maya is an illusion created by the senses – this is
what we are without Enlightenment. Maya is driven by Karma and generates
desire and attachment to that extensive and complex interaction of the
senses which is the ego. We frequently believe that this ego is who we
are, but this is simply another, more deceptive illusion occurring in
Maya.
Atma
is the Soul. This is the spiritual core or essence of God found in all
of the separate forms manifest in Karma. The Atma radiates from, and is
part of, the Divine Consciousness. In this sense, even a common pebble
has a Soul, or spiritual consciousness. The human form is a special
creation, and has Atma which is very close to God, close enough to
generate total self awareness. Much of the time, this awareness is
distracted by the attachment to Maya, but can be turned inward, away
from the senses, through meditation. This process ultimately leads to
the discovery of the Soul as a level of transcendental existence beyond
the senses, originating in God. This is who we are.
Brahma
is the Collective Soul, the sum total of all Atma manifestations. Brahma
is the source of all Creation at every level of manifestation, including
Karma and Maya. Brahma is the Divine Idea radiating from, and within,
the Divine Consciousness. As the process of meditation draws the
personal human awareness into the Soul, a powerful and profound bond is
established between the two which enables the direct knowledge of Brahma
through the Atma. The senses are what we are in the separate Karmic
reflection of Maya. Brahma is what we are as the collective Creation of
God.
Krishna
means “Christlike”, or “Pure in Form”, referring to a condition which is
not diluted by any type of separation, specifically from Divine
Consciousness through the expression of Karma. Brahma radiates from
Krishna – the Personality, or Mind, of God – the literal Divine
Consciousness. This Supreme Absolute Truth is actually manifested in
transcendental form as Krsna, and is not knowable in Maya. The addition
of the “i” and “h” symbolically renders God’s Identity into a form which
the human ego can describe. Krsna is the ultimate reality and unified
condition of everything. Through Brahma, Krsna manifests in the
multiplicity of Karma, and the individuality of Atma. This duality
establishes the dynamic relationship the ancient Chinese mystics called
the Dao – the Divine Union of universal Female and Male manifestation
which creates all of the known forms of existence. The Female form of
the Dao is called Yin, and is an expression of the Atma. The Male form
is Yang, and is a complementary expression of Karma. The Yin is passive
– the Atma exists in Divine Form, but resides in the background of human
awareness, and must be sought out by that awareness. The Yang is active
– the influence of Karma is immediate as dynamic action and literally
generates Maya as a reflection in the foreground of awareness. However,
Maya nonexists in the form of a separated (if persistent) sensory
illusion. Krsna achieves the Creation of human awareness in this way as
the ultimate Gift of Love in Free Will. The Dao establishes precisely
the condition of balanced forces required to enable our awareness to
both seek and ignore the Truth on an independent personal basis. Krsna
is total, complete, and unconditional Love and Acceptance, an infinitely
powerful single Consciousness that also manifests the ultimate challenge
to consciousness – Karma! Just as Karma is where we are as an expression
of separation, so it is that Krsna is where we are in reunification with
the Supreme Absolute Truth.
Yoga
literally means “yoke”, and is a reference to an ox yoke, used to
harness one or more oxen to a cart. The spiritual meaning of Yoga is
“union”, specifically, the union of human awareness with the Atma,
thence Brahma, and ultimately Krsna. The use of the term “yoke” is very
insightful. Like human beings, the ox is an expression of the separate
condition of Karma, and it would seem that it would be in an ideal
condition in a wild and unrestrained state. The paradox (pair-of-ox?
paired-ox?) of Karma is that this separate condition is really the least
satisfying state, creating a sensory manifestation that requires endless
gratification as the price of temporary survival. In fact, the oxen and
human beings are both being guided in a better direction through Yoga.
In the service of the carter, the ox is afforded a measure of care and
protection not found in the wild. In the service of the Atma, the
awareness is directed away from the doomed temporary manifestations of
Karma and Maya, through Yoga as the vehicle of Enlightenment and higher
consciousness. Our awareness is reincarnated through the agency of Karma
at the level, and under the circumstances, required to regain the
highest level of consciousness attained in the previous incarnation –
the death of awareness is not inevitable with the death of the body and
physical sensation as Maya would seem to indicate.
Yoga begins with the simple practice of Asana, or physical
postures, and then advances through successively more refined
techniques, including Dharma. Yoga dispels the attachment to the
illusion of Maya through this ongoing Enlightenment process. When we
have achieved the advanced state of Enlightenment in which Krsna is
experienced everywhere as Life in Divine Manifestation, and all Karma
and attachment have been released, we have come home to the Truth.
All suffering is the result of attachment to Maya, although
this cannot be known from that perspective. The great challenge of
Dharma is to live in Enlightenment through Yoga, and without forming
attachment to the senses and subsequently directing our actions through
the motive of desire. The essence of desire is the illusion of
gratification through manipulation of the senses. This approach to
living may seem to be successful for a period of time, but only
generates more Karma by reinforcing the illusion that we are separate
from the objects of our desires, and in a separated condition, when we
are all ultimately united in Love by God. I give you this Gift.
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2008, Alan Schneider)
Return to Top
|