The Soul Mate Phenomenon

The Possibly of Meeting a Soul Mate is a rare and amazing occurrence which is called, in Pali, Boopayayneeawaht. In English we translate this event as "Soul Mate". It suggests that, in a former existence, two "souls" had mated. And now, in this lifetime that energy has drawn a couple together. However, it is better to think of "soul mates" not as people who have been cycling around linked with us, but as energies to which we have a great amount of affinity. Unity with our soulmates produces a unique state of bliss. Many of us have a sense that there is someone or, perhaps, several someones out there who have been life partners many, many times before this birth. If we think about this from the perspective of our biological family, a soul mate can be compared to a sister or brother, a very special pleasant or unpleasant relationship . We must have some special affinity to these people in order to be reared together in the same nest. I personally regard a soul mate as a person who is dedicated to helping us move beyond the heavy karma and difficult life lessons that we need to master. They haven't arrived here in order to devote their life to the pursuit of our happiness! Soul mates are delighted to support our spiritual evolution. Sacrifice for the other is the heart of a true soulmate relationship. Your practice with the skillful tools I incorporated in the Kit will greatly enhance the opportunity to meet and mate with your Boopahsahneeawaht. This is one of the perks of spiritual life. You are not likely to find this kind of person through a dating service!! But you will be in a position to meet him/her when you are karmatically primed to do so, and, for many of you, the time is ripe to work within that kind of relationship. With a soul mate you will be able to come to understand more refined energies such as healing, humility and self-sacrifice. They bring urgency to your life and encourage you to make the best of every situation. The Other Edge As with everything there is also the reverse. There are other kinds of beings with whom we have affinity from previous lifetimes. These persons want to pull us down. They are enemies of our spiritual and social lives. They drag us into addictions, into misdirected views, into hatred, prejudice, and bias. They encourage selfishness, greed, laziness and ill will. They engage in dishonest or coarse livelihoods. Often they bully us, they rob us of our self-esteem and integrity, they intimidate, create confusion and despair. While they have a certain fascination for us (like king cobras and serial killers) they are definitely bad news. Unfortunately, there are many more of these negative kinds of persons who rejoice in our unskillful behavior than there are soul mates who cherish our development. Mindfully making use of everything in the Kit is a powerful way to draw help and support such as this into your life. The Spiritual MA "In coming to understand who we are and what we are here to do (and then to do it) we close the gap between who we think we are and Reality"                                  While you are at this site I want to provide you with the opportunity to understand something about Mindfulness-Awareness (MA) and its profound effect on our mentality. Although you might not realize It, all along I have been suggesting the value of strengthening your mind with Mindfulness-Awareness. Mindfulness-Awareness is when the alertly waiting mind refuses to become embroiled in the past or future. This mind-state is present, is focused, and is introverted. This situation amplifies energy. Awareness avoids our Involvement in matters of little or no consequence. Insight, the product of awareness, is a kind of magic. It turns us towards higher pursuits and releases us from endless distraction. Awareness will stop the mind, just as holding the breathe will, but in a much more firm manner. Because the mind is clear, you can become aware of your motives before you act. Therefore, you will make far fewer mistakes and leave less and less negative residue behind In your daily life. Your actions will come out of a clear, unhesitating mind-space. Earlier I discussed how the brain mind and the Heart are substantially different. They are not in the same dimension. They are not in the same world. So very much depends on your shifting from the mind to the Heart. These two domains are on a sort of "toggle". When the brain is on", the Heart is "off". When the Heart is "on" the brain mind is "off". This concept can be helpful for those of you who understand the world of computers and metaphysical mathematics. The point I am trying to make is that real Happiness arises only out of the Heart. The whole of spiritual life is directed to living in the Heart. This can be called "returning home", "merging with God", "Being with the Guru", "Being in the Lap of Jehovah or Allah", etc. It is the nature of the world to give this transpersonal, beyond time-space many names so that people can decide the name they prefer. What I am talking about is above and beyond names. This is an energy you can only know for yourself. It points toward that which is beyond greed for things and beyond fear of the unknown. The materials I have assembled in this Kit will work in synergy to take you out of your mind and into your Heart. The key to switching from the mind to the Heart, what I call "In-traction", is using a skillful technique that will work to keep returning you to the Heart. This Is what I call a skillful means that can help break the unskillful pattern of thought proliferation. Every time you go against your propensity to involve yourself in the mind, you strengthen your mind, you develop boon and you fortify your commitment to true maturity. You will understand a deep a fundamental Truth, which operates in this world. And that Truth is that the whole of the future radiates into infinity out of this present moment. To evolve, to transform, you should turn inward toward the present. Transform your life!! Make the present your abiding. You just need to get on with it. In the guided meditation on the Kit's tape you will be led beyond conventional thought. The tape is designed to relax, to inform, and to generate boon. The tape will guide you, explaining the correct way to sit, and how to allow your mind to relax. Through this relaxation, you can learn to take control of your consciousness. Begin in this way. Sit in a comfortable position. A chair is fine as long as you can sit comfortable without experiencing too much discomfort. Allow the mind to relax. Just say to yourself "relax". This suggestion is capable of empowering a transition process. Then, you will wait patiently as youand listen for a sound that resonates behind all mental phenomenon. Something like a buzz. This sound will emerge when you just sit patiently waiting, not wanting, just waiting. Everyone can hear this sound. It is recognized in much the same way as when we peer into a 3-D image or visual puzzle, just looking, soon the animals and birds appear! . Through the process of attending to our inner world, the world of Spirit, we develop perspective. With perspective we don't follow our conditioned tendency to absorb into our moods, our feelings, our hope, or our dreams. With perspective we see these conditions as passing clouds in the sky of consciousness. This sitting quiet insight practice produces a visceral experience of who were are and what we are here to do. Sitting quietly opens us towards intuitive understanding. It is ignition key that widens and deepens our worldview. It is a posture beyond religion. Karma, "Re-loaded" As you explore your inner world, thereby deepening your understand of the-way-things-are, you will realize the power of karma and the consequences of your actions. Your foresight and insight will give your leverage and control over your future. Your mindfulness-awareness will give you the courage and confidence to face anything in life including death. Your awareness that your actions have meaning in the universe will inspire you to continually conduct yourself in wholesome ways, especially through the practice of generosity, ethics, and meditation. Your good and harmless lifestyle will increase your chances of a good rebirth and speedy enlightenment. How one dies depends largely on how one has lived. Ultimately, the role of our karma in this birth is unpredictable. All we can talk about is probability. We would be wise to increase the probability for positive energies to mandate our destiny. Do the best you can, and you will live and die without anxiety. The few crucial moments of consciousness before death could well determine a future lifetime of celestial bliss, or human pain and pleasure, or suffering in a woeful plane. You can only be prepared, smile and accept that moment of death by preparing ahead of time. As this understanding pervades your consciousness, you will be able in a strong position to help friends and family. Your actions will be in line with your mind and your mind will be balanced in the Heart. What is to be gained from this program? 1. Ease of mind 2. Better rebirth 3. Disposition to focus on one's life towards spirituality 4. Maximized life force, for your own good, and for the good of others 5. Detachment from the mundane and distracting 6. Enhanced ability to heal --that is, to allow the body to heal itself naturally 7. Warm contented feelings in the heart from having nurtured Metta 8. Spiritual fellowship and association with spiritual community 9. Considered discipline to guide your life 10. Ability to circumvent danger Just beyond this page you will find a form you can make use of if you would like me to send you the Kit I have assembled. If you feel that you have gained something by reading what is contained on these pages, the Kit will help you to deepen this knowledge and further increase your chances of a meaningful life and a favorable rebirth. We would be delighted if you recognize the value of our efforts to provide you with these materials via the Internet. However, if you just contemplate this information, I will also be delighted. Regardless, feel free to print out this material (as well as the material in the Kit) and give them to friends with my blessing. Let me close by saying once again that the lack of understanding of karma is the most dangerous and menacing problem facing the world today. It is, and has always been, the most problematic situation in society. It is far worse than the AIDS pandemic, cancer, heart disease, the black plague, SARS and all the other diseases we know of in the world. So much of its danger comes from the fact that it is invisible and that one needs boon to see it. Regardless of whether we see karma of not, all of us are subject to disintegration. Every day, every hour, every second our body inclines towards dysfunction. Right now it may be functioning well enough, but behind this apparently evident reality our body Is straining to maintain Its life rhythm. It Is fighting a losing battle against the sands of time. One day, in the not too distant future, this body we depend upon will succumb to the ravages of the environment. And the forces of karma will determine our destiny. While we are alive we are in a position to develop wisdom and compassion. In doing so, not only do we live happier, more beneficial lives here and now, but we set ourselves up for a favorable rebirth when that event arises. In developing wisdom and compassion ("In-traction") we need to quiet our noisy minds and to develop more generosity through sacrifice. As we increase our boon, we build a wall of protection around ourselves as our actions cease being the actions of emotions and impetuosity and become the actions of patience, endurance, sharing and forgiveness. < Prev

The Present " Awake and Present, same-same"

The Present

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"Awake and Present, same-same" by Ajahn Sumano Now, I want to introduce you to an extraordinarily simple way to awaken to the present: the present is the Path to the Spirit. It is your present! Begin by closing your eyes and holding your breath. Hold your breath only as long as it is comfortable to do so. What you will discover is that this activates an enhanced awareness and puts the thought process into abeyance. It grounds to a halt the train of compulsive thought that provokes the confusion we often experience. Of course, you can only make use of this technique for a minute or so. You can't hold your breath long enough for it to become a practice. But now that you know how this feels - this feeling of being In the present - you can use it as a template. Next you can learn to slow down thought through carefully watching your mind, this will eventually allow you to stop all thought. You will know when this happens from remembering how you feel in the present moment when you hold your breath you will have experienced a taste of the present moment. When you are in the present moment you will have arrived into your life-stream; you will be present. Present-moment-awareness will come to know the still, tranquil mind. The template-of-presentness which you now know will become indelible. You can use this throughout your life to breakout from the past and future. In the next stage of your practice you will find a sound ringing in the background of your mind. This sound is the existential background sound that rings in the silence. Turn your attention towards listening for "the sound of silence". As soon as you turn toward the sound, you should feel both the body and mind relax and settle down onto a cloud of calm-tranquility. This is the core of meditative prayer. As I said earlier, silence is the heartwood of all religions and is the quality that lifts the mind into the Heart. Immersing in silence brings about relaxation and subdues thought. The mind is strengthened. This strengthening can and should be called "boon". It is this strong, "boon-full" mind that is able to meet anything and everything with clarity and fearlessness.  Finally, after you have spent some dedicated time becoming proficient in inclining towards the sound of silence, you can develop another stage in which you turn awareness towards noticing change. At this stage, you could benefit by doing retreat under the guidance of a skilled teacher. Now is the time to begin by holding your breath. Recognize that this is the right time to begin your spiritual life phase or your wouldn't be reading this page. Right in this lifetime, in this mind-moment, beginning from this present moment onward. The time to begin is always only in the present moment. The time to free is always in this present moment. You can use the stopped breath technique to deal with pain. Simply by momentarily holding the breath, pain is diffused, it is reduced significantly, and the natural healing process is able to get on with its work. When the breath is held there won't be the struggle to avoid or run away that signifies the arrival of fear. Have your child use this technique while visiting dentist or doctor, he or she will be surprised to find that the feelings of pain that we usually try and run away from lose their intensity and transform into interesting sensations. The fear factor that pain has held over us can no longer generate dread or fright. Fear can no longer intimidate. Whenever we are in a painful situation all we need to do is hold the breath just long enough to allow the pain to diffuse so that the natural healing process easily engages. Simple is profound ...ah,simplicity With this practice we will learn what-things-really-are. We will shift our priorities. We will become aware that much of what we do, we do out of habit. We pursue habitual, culturally indoctrinated activities rather than truly meaningful pursuits. When we notice this we begin to let go of the unnecessary activities in our life and begin to invest more and more time and energy into what needs to be done. The truth is always in the here-and-now, when you are awake; you are in the learning mode. When you are awake you are present. The present is the mother of the future. Living from present moment to present moment frees us from the past. The heavy karma of the past resolves itself. "...and the painted ponies go up and down. We're all trapped on a carousel of time." by Joni M. Karma You may be still be asking yourself, is Karma real? What and where is it? Karma is real. As discussed earlier, it is the positive and negative stuff that sticks to our life stream. The karma we accumulate is entirely the result of the personal intentional choices we make. It must be stressed that all karma is born out of intentional action. This aspect makes it clear that we are the creators of our karmic destiny...this is Natural Law. We make the choices (these choices are not exactly free as they depend upon the boon, which chooses our choices!). When we act with generosity and selflessness, and these actions lead to feelings of satisfaction and contentment. We also do foolish things, and this leads to feelings of regret. That's just the way things are. Karma is a real energy mechanism that is impersonal and immutable. Wherever we go our karma comes along. I can guarantee you that you are here right now as a result of your karma. After this life-span where "you' go depends entirely upon your karma. To bring home the point as powerfully as I can, I will elaborate. The karma we accumulate is entirely the result of the personal intentional choices we make. It is born out of intentional action. The positive and negative energy that is left behind from our intentional actions sticks to our life stream. This is a Natural Law. The choices we make are directly dependent upon our boon. We perform acts of generosity and selflessness, and this leads to feelings of satisfaction and contentment. We also do foolish things, and this leads to feelings of regret. That's just the way things are. Karma is a real energy mechanism that is impersonal and immutable. Wherever we go our karma comes along. I can guarantee you that you are here right now as a result of your karma. After this life-span where "you' go depends entirely upon your karma. Bad karma (dire/unskillful karma) is the energy that, even before its fully ripened, can produce a terrible rebirth. Here in this lifetime we can see how often and how painful ill-fated relationships can be. We all know of violent, jealous, exploitive, loveless, deceitful, sexually abusive, STD infected, ill-fated relationships, etc. These come about as a result of negative karma. Negative karma is also the force behind extreme poverty, low I.Q., frail health, and chronic bad luck. It is much of the force behind road accidents, theft, sexual molestation, and "being-at-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time". If you wish to produce karma leading to these kinds of events and relationships all you have to do is live carelessly, abuse drugs and alcohol, lie, cheat, be greedy, selfish, or lethargic. We can call this life at the periphery...life in the darkness. Whenever there is a lack of circumspect awareness at the time we perform a deliberate action, problems are likely to arise for ourselves and for others. All intentional activities carry a karmic risk. The result of this kind of negligence (rather than attentive-alert-awareness) drives us into fumbling behavior. It may be simply an improper, ill-timed comment or gesture. It could be an exaggeration, sarcasm or a comment intended to disparage another person. The net effect of this inappropriate response to a situation will be a sense of disharmony and unease. Again, we can rely on the Law of Karma that operates with unbiased justice. It guarantees that good karmic energy produces a good rebirth. All acts of goodness contribute to a favorable rebirth. We can characterize it as the storehouse of beneficial energy which, when ripened, lead directly to favorable living in this life and the next ones. "Consider the state of the world and reflect upon the good fortune to be somewhere where bombs don't regularly explode around us, where bullets don't whiz by us as militia fight civil wars, where people don't disappear, where we can access sufficient food and clean water, where our children our likely to live in safety and attain an education, where we have the right to speak our truth. Many, many people live in this world in such wretched poverty that all they can manage to do during a brief life span is to survive and procreate. Recognize that you are in a temporary situation that can provide you will the opportunity to serve yourself and all other Beings." by Ajahn Sumano There are six possibilities, or six worlds, where we could be reborn, which are known as "realms of abiding". Some of them you really don't want get trapped in at all. You may not have recognized that you have visited these realms already. You have. For they are, at the least, psychological states of being. You have experienced them in this life when you were caught in rage, jealousy, hatred, etc. There are hell realms that simulate being addicted (craving for something continuously but never getting quite enough), or simulate physical or psychological slavery (feelings of having no freedom whatsoever. There are hell realms into which beings fall that simulate a desolate, desperate poverty realm where pain and hopelessness goes beyond the imaginable. These are negative mind states that produce heavy karmic repercussions. There are also beautiful, concordant realms of mind simulated when we are living skillfully in harmony with Nature. Then, the mind is free from wanting and free from fearing. You have visited these realms when you felt compassion, love, and generosity. You have visited them when you sacrificed for another, when you fed a stray dog or cat, when you dropped a coin into a homeless or disabled person's cup. I want to prevent you from falling into the hell realms. Uplift your life by employing skillful ways of living in this world. Unskillful ways of being in this world are very, very dangerous. Because foolish activities are the major determinant responsible for driving us spinning into the next life hell realms. On the other hand, spiritually dynamic activities have value in this life, as well as the next one. Much of my motivation in presenting this holy tool KIT. is to help as many beings as possible to understand the value of wholesome mind states and the impact it has on our life and on our death. Then, to point to ways you can replace unenlightened, coarse habits of mind with enlightened ones. This web site is designed to provide you with the opportunity to circumvent the worst possible case scenarios. Being born a human is a phenomenal event, in itself. More so if we are born with all our faculties intact with and the emotional and intellectual capacity to explore and investigate our lives. All of us have been born into an environment where we have in abundance all four of the requirements for life: food, shelter, clothing and medicine. That surely signifies that we already have great deal of boon going for us. We are in an ideal position to skillfully continue our evolutionary journey. And we are in a position to earn an auspicious rebirth. We would be very foolish to blow it all. The Kit I have assembled is for some Earth beings that have all this "good stuff" going for them. The other billions of humans on this planet are outside of our ability to serve in this way. They must bear the great difficulties and challenges involved with their karmic predicament. Life is just too overwhelmingly tough for them. They know only the day-to-day struggle. We can all do our part by sending loving kindness to them and sharing the boon accumulated through our goodness. Protection We all need protection from falling into some of these lower realms that are also present right here in this life. Sophisticated people may look upon themselves as post-modern, scientific, rational, educated and intelligent. None of this conceals the fact that most of us are ridden with fears. Subconsciously we all recognize just how frail and vulnerable we are. Even a small accident causes great pain to our body. And as for our mind, we are battered with pain continually. We feel pain when we don't get what we want, when we get what we don't want, when others demean us, when we are not appreciated or respected, when we are deceived, when we clash with loved ones. There is some ancient "software" that works for people like us. Since we can't walk around in a suit of armor not relating to others or lock ourselves up in a vault, what can we do? The answer is simple: we can control our actions and by so doing we can refrain from doing/indulging in the unnecessary and unworthy. The standard I use is to refrain from killing things, minimizing the use of drugs or alcohol, refraining from adulterous relationships, and speaking positively are boundaries that keep us out of trouble and are means of providing protection for ourselves. This is a model of protection that have been recommended by wisdom grounded people in all cultures, in all religions, in all times. These are all modes of protection that have been recommended by wisdom grounded people in all cultures, in all religions, in all times. It puts us in alignment with the appropriate realm that we humans need to abide in. When we are well protected, we can block out the unskillful energies, which exploit our weaknesses. Be it addictive substances, sensuality or whatever. With a bit more strength to work with we can avoid a lot of personal distress and avoid troubling our friends and family. Kindly work to incline your life towards lives natural harmony. Getting Going The Kit I have assembled is for some Earth beings that have all this "good stuff" going for them. The other billions of humans on this planet are outside of our ability to serve in this way. They must bear the great difficulties and challenges involved with their karmic predicament. Life is just too overwhelmingly tough for them. They know only the day-to-day struggle. We can all do our part by sending loving kindness to them and sharing the boon accumulated through our goodness. On the cassette tape that Is part of the Kit, you will hear several monastic reflections chanted. The chants have been adapted for your use. You will easily be able to chant along with them and soon find that you have them memorized. Once in memory you can make use of them to enhance protection and increase your understanding of "the-way-things-are". The Loving-Kindness, or Metta Chant The first and last chant on the tape is the loving-kindness or Metta chant. You will find that by inclining your mind towards loving-kindness, ill-will will be converted into positive energy. As remnants of ill-will dissipate, loving-kindness will take anger and convert it into compassion. This is the way to banish hostility from your life and replace it with friendliness and goodwill. This chant will help us to heal emotional scars and brings us to a point in time when we can forgive and accept the pain that we, previously, had not been able to bear. This is a kind of "fast-tracking" through time and space. When we become capable of forgiving we mature spiritually. This is something that will just happen on its own as one moves out of the past and relinquishes concerns about the future. In the present, wisdom and compassion lead our life out of the ruts and limitations of the past. Chants on "the-way-things-are" The next chants on the cassette tape Included In the Kit are reflections on the- way-things- are. Reality in metaphysical terms is just this; things come and go and are dependent upon other dependent conditions. Where they go depends upon underlying conditions. Those of us in the human realm will leave this condition and be driven by our karma and boon to the appropriate abiding. Chants on the brevity of our lifetime The tape will provide you with a perspective on time and the fact that we are continually run out of it. "The days, weeks, months and years pass quickly. Ask yourself, how well are you using your lifetime?". Protection Chants There are several chants on the tape asking the "devatas" to watch over and protect us. The notion that there are angels who can look after us and protect us from harm is part of our intuitive psyche. They are acknowledged in just about every culture. We can assume that there are angels who recognize the difficulties and dangers we face and endeavor to shelter us. If there are no such angels we lose nothing. In fact we become rather more humble in acknowledging the vulnerability of our situation. Meditation and Silence The last segment on the tape is a guided meditation, incorporating aspects of all the major spiritual traditions. It will be a tape you can make use of your whole life to remind yourself of the point of this life and where to find true meaning in the midst of this seemingly crazy world. This guided meditation will help you develop tranquility, strengthen the mind and will lead you toward Insight. It will open your life to new vistas.