Sapphire – Energy Begets Energy
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” His observation is scientific and relies on the natural world for his conclusions.
Scientists view out-of-body experiences as being tied to the precuneus hidden between the two cerebral hemispheres. Yet every brain has this region, so why doesn’t everyone have out-of-body experiences?
They’ve located the area of the brain where the energy is taking place, but they can’t answer why some have this experience, searching for an underlying physical cause.
If the brain is injured through trauma or disease, it will affect a person’s mind, but science continues to deny the existence of spirit. This is a vast area of science that is still yet to be discovered.
The brain consists of ten billion neurons, measured by today’s science, yet the spirit is far more complex than the human body. This incomprehension of spirit has created foolhardy experiments like cryogenics since no one cheats death by freezing the body.
Freezing keeps the body from decomposing, yet the interface between spirit and body is broken. The soul doesn’t have the power required to reconnect to the body.
In the cases of near-death experiences, the soul returns by Brahman’s will, and many describe a force pushing them back into the body. This external force is the Creator for only He has the Power over life and death.
Besides, no one ever came back from a deathlike experience and wanted to return. Even if the body was preserved for future use, who would care?
Procreation is similar in that the organs within a woman’s body are the vehicle, and the baby is naturally formed in the womb. The miracle isn’t just physical, but spiritual for without Brahman to connect a soul to the body, there is only a body.
When God creates the soul, He leaves a “spark” of the Divine that is eternal and never dies. This is the Atman and lies above the crown chakra. This “spark” is like the Father, giving the soul the ability to find all that is needed for joy and fulfillment in life.
The West makes false claims in their misunderstanding of the term “co-creators with Christ.” This is a divine state that can’t be reached through praying it into existence, proselytizing, or confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.
The soul doesn’t need to ask God for anything and is already complete with the Atman, a subtle body provided by the Lord, along with the energy centers or chakras.
The East doesn’t give a clear definition of the soul and makes claims that a person is already divine and needs to make their way back to Source-Brahman-Atman through samadhi. In the meantime, it’s produced some fallacious teachings from the gurus with false promises that liberation can be obtained in a day.
There are also some superstitious teachings about cleansing the chakras with stones or burning incense and videos like “how to cleanse the crown chakra.” If the crown chakra has never opened, the soul doesn’t have access.
A person can’t pinpoint a certain energy area within the subtle body and use potions or objects to cleanse it. It also can’t be opened by visualizing it. The being-state must grow to reach the crown chakra through spiritual practices.
The opening of the chakras is not just an energy center, but an indication of the progression of spiritual growth and wisdom from all previous births.
Self-purification through spiritual practices cleanses the soul, working through every chakra up to our current growth. The ego and enemy of the soul are always present, which is why daily spiritual practices are so important.
The analogy in the Muslim faith is that there are two angels, one on each shoulder. One records the bad deeds and the other records the good. It’s accurate in that the Atman keeps a record of all our deeds.
If we take the analogy a step further, the devil (ego) is on one shoulder and the angel (impersonal Atman) is on the other, though it’s actually positioned above the crown chakra. When we engage in spiritual practices, we knock the devil off its pedestal, and the next day, we do it again!
The Atman’s goal is for its whole being to become divine, and we can reach our highest potential in sadhana in every lifetime!
If a person doesn’t engage in spiritual practices, the soul doesn’t reap the benefits of living. It makes a person complacent and despondent about life since real joy is missing.
Thinking about real joy reminds me of the children’s story, Pinocchio. At first, he’s just a wooden puppet and dreams of being a real boy. I was sad upon reading this story as a child for I wanted him to be a real boy too! Later he falls into trouble when he meets up with the fox and the cat.
There are internal meanings in this story for “wooden” describes life without spiritual practices. Like Pinocchio, a person can fall into all kinds of troubles in life without them.
The cricket represents the Atman and plays the part of Pinocchio’s conscience that tries to warn him, but he doesn’t listen. He even tells lies and his nose gets longer which means that telling lies will eventually find us out.
Geppetto represents the Heavenly Father, and the fairy represents spiritual teachings. In the end, Pinocchio obeys the fairy and becomes a real boy. It’s a divine children’s story and the deeper lessons are timeless.
Exuberance in living through spiritual practices enhances the senses, which enables us to live joyfully in the moment.
Remember early childhood when the world was fresh, new, and alive? We can return to this childlike state again and again, without being child-ish. Better yet, we are grown and are no longer at the mercy of our parents or birth circumstance, to find this source inside.
Childish is a good description for the ego with temper tantrums and demanding more ice cream in childhood. Later, it hides behind “good” intentions since it still demands “ice cream,” though with a better understanding of societal expectations.
This is true, too, as a person progresses through the chakras. The fifth chakra may appear as an “angel of light,” due to their advanced level of creativity in masking the ego.
Sadhguru is a good example, yet no one really knows why his wife died since he quickly had her body cremated the next day. We’ll uncover this and more of the ego’s tricks as we progress through the doctrines.
The ego still fights to the bitter end, and it is a fierce battle depicted in the imagery that John of Patmos recorded in Revelation. Closer to the goal, a person may become confused about their identity like Sai Baba, proclaiming himself to be the Lord.
His spiritual experiences were so profound, he became confused about his identity. If he had won the war, he would have known that he wasn’t the Lord, so the ego, though wounded, lives on.
The stage of a bodhisattva is those closest to the goal and their misidentification is due to divine madness, which is a truly divine state that Sai Baba, an illumined, anticipates but hasn’t experienced yet.
Sai Baba’s being-state is impressive, and much further along than Sadhguru’s, but he’s not yet a master, and much less the Master.
There are many divine stories brought by the bodhisattvas that have internal meanings and leave a profound spiritual effect. The series, “Twilight Zone,” is such an example.
Rod Serling’s episodes remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories that are divine and yet dark, and mysterious. Both were bodhisattvas so it’s possible, this might be the same individual.
The episode that comes to mind is “Kick the Can.” The characters are in a nursing home and one fellow sees the children playing kick the can. The children run off and he picks up the can and wonders if he’s found the “fount of youth.”
He convinces the others that if they all play kick the can, they’ll become like children again. One fellow refused to play and thought the idea was ridiculous. They played and became children again, while the one who refused was left to grow old alone.
The internal meaning initially points to rebirth, but there are deeper truths to be gleaned from this story. First is the action of playing or karma yoga which helps the soul reopen the chakras during childhood.
If a small child is never allowed to move, like in some reported child abuse cases, spiritually, they will incur a tremendous amount of suffering.
Those that spend their preteen years enveloped in video games, given the choice, may stunt the chakras from opening due to a lack of exercise and engaging in the physical world. With new advances in technology, the dangers for children become more pronounced and varied.
Moving the body through karma yoga is physically and spiritually beneficial, regardless of age, but the only route as a child for reopening the chakras. This is why they should be running, playing, and engaging in the physical world.
Meditation shouldn’t begin until the mind gains more maturity, and the general age is sixteen. If more drawn to meditation, a girl could start at fifteen since, typically, girls emotionally mature faster than boys.
As adults, we still play “kick the can,” through karma yoga, and through the added practice of meditation, we play “kick the ego.” This enables us to live in a childlike state, thus becoming more like the Lord.
Jesus said, “You must become as children to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” His Nature is childlike which is also portrayed in the stories of Krishna.
Innocence points to childhood, too, and being Christlike. Yet childhood is not innocence in sadhana, but living in the present and a joyous state, which engages the soul in being more like the Creator.
We can always use karma yoga to gauge our spiritual practices. In this instance, take a nature walk and look around at all the miracles of life and try to leave your cares behind. Like childhood, as the mind focuses on the miracles of life, it adds more joy to the day.
This action of communing with nature is spiritual, which is what the Lord would do, and a reminder of all of God’s blessings. It produces a thankful heart through our actions without saying it.
God doesn’t want our praise like the song I’ve heard. “Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise, praise the Lord. For those chains that seem to bind you, they drop powerless behind you, when you praise Him.”
The ego takes advantage of these words as if words have power. Power isn’t in words, but the exuberant state that accompanies the gathering of those who want to be like the Lord and that’s powerful!
A heart of praise grows when a person pursues spiritual practices and continues them throughout their life! In doing so, the “chains will drop powerlessly behind you.” Then praise the Lord tomorrow by doing it again!
Communing with nature is also a good way of gauging our meditation periods. As the senses come alive, joy overflows. The last stanza of I Saw a Tree says, “I saw a forest in sunshine glowing, and I knew I was in paradise. Life is all around me blowing and tears of joy o’erflood my eyes.”
That’s a tremendously joyful and ecstatic state and the result of meditation. Those who don’t meditate might have to “stop and smell the roses,” after reminding themselves.
The difference in the analogies is one of remembrance versus exuberance and wonder at God’s magnificent miracles!
The soul is accomplishing spiritual growth and the response from the Atman is powerful! That’s much more effective in measuring spiritual growth than the ego using words like superstitious incantations and posturing spiritual growth.
Singing in a church setting is a reminder of the spiritual practices that we should be doing to live a life of praise and exuberance, and the true meaning of worship, which is found through daily practices.
Through exuberance, work begins to take on a worthwhile meaning. If not, the struggle may end in defeat, and we miss the opportunities the day may bring.
Work is so much more effortless when we get up in the morning and want to tackle the day with love and joy in our hearts. It only becomes difficult with a lack of spiritual practices.
You may think, “I have to do that every day, too?” Yes! A joyful and exuberant state is powerful and motivates our sadhana forward. No one ever got anywhere by being “wooden” and complacent in life.
It’s like looking back in hindsight with “would have, could have, and should have,” or Wynkin, Blynken, and Nod. Neglecting daily spiritual practices is similar to this lullaby.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
and Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
is a wee one’s trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
as you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.
It’s a divine lullaby, but children grow up and no longer need lullabies to fall asleep; they need spiritual practices to awaken from slumber!
Proverbs describes it as, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
It speaks of spiritual poverty and the effect on the soul without spiritual practices. The ego will attack its own soul and everyone else like “an armed man.” Contrary actions knock the Atman “off the shoulder,” blocking rational thinking and leaving the soul to make more grievous mistakes.
As a response, we experience sadness since we’re striving against the Atman, instead of the ego, leaving the soul to function in a poverty-stricken and weak state.
There’s no middle ground with not meditating since the “devil” or unconscious mind always wins without spiritual practices, and the day’s struggle is lost before it’s begun.
The soul striving to find fulfillment through the senses alone is void of life without seeking the Atman and responds like a “wooden puppet” running after the next sense experience.
The result is sadness and despair since the ego doesn’t have life or consciousness by itself. It’s only a mechanism the soul uses for survival in the physical world.
As the soul grows through the chakras, the ego is no longer needed for survival, yet it’s still there. Now, it becomes the soul’s enemy and without spiritual practices, the being-state becomes “wooden,” obstinate, devoid of joy, and weak.
When we meditate, we find our energy and motivation through exuberant joy, and it carries over into all our karma yoga for the day! And real joy doesn’t require some outlandish circumstance to be in our favor. An exuberant heart doesn’t need the “ice cream” of exorbitant paychecks or a fancy house to feel happy and free!
In this state, we’re more thankful for what we have with more energy to focus on improving our health, income, and relationships, affecting all areas of life. It’s life-changing and, through spiritual practices, world-changing!
God’s instruction of becoming as children before we can enter Heaven is true since exuberance is a heavenly state.
Through meditation, the soul finds the most joy in karma yoga, deepening the understanding of selfless devotion to God. Meditation unlocks the energy inside and gains momentum in karma yoga through daily service.
The more effort we put into our work, the more energy we acquire, and the momentum keeps building!
We have all we need inside to pursue heavenly joys. Work enthusiastically, exercise the mind, and above all, seek joy through spiritual practices! Within it, you’ll discover that energy begets energy every time!
