In yoga there is the notion of separative consciousness (the ego) and unified consciousness (God/Spirit). In the Bible it says that 'whenever two or more of you are joined I am there.' To me, this is a Biblical reference to the notion of joining and reunion, which is also the aim of yoga. In this way the destination of yoga is the same as all religions and spiritual paths including the fundamentalist ones.

There is another important concept; Anything that brings you closer to yourself, another or God (which are all really the same) is a spiritual practice. Conversely, and here's the rub, anything that divides or separates us from ourselves, another, or God is the work of the ego, or in fundamentalist terms, the devil. The view that “there is only one way” is one that separates people. To me the ego is nothing more than the belief that we are separated from God. So the “devil” is just a thought.

By contemplating the idea of separation it begs the question “Could we really be separated from God, if God didn’t want that?” Would God throw us out of the house only to lead us back? (think of the parable of the prodigal son). It makes sense to me that we could be unaware of our God connection even in its presence, just as we are unaware of the Sun at night. Also consider that if God wanted us to be separate then there would be no way back. It makes sense that a loving God would never threw us out and that we could never leave unless God willed it, although we could imagine leaving and its consequences. Could another force greater than God have forced us out? If there were a greater force, then God would not be GOD!

So what happened? (I want to acknowledge here that none of us knows for sure) The Bible says that “Adam fell into a deep sleep” yet, nowhere in the Bible is there any mention of Adam waking up! This suggests that Adam dreamed. This idea of the world being a dream is present in many spiritual traditions including yoga. So what's a dream and what's REAL?

I'm going to define REAL as what God creates. If God is eternal and he creates like himself then his creations are also eternal. The extension of this is that whatever is REAL is eternal. Logical so far, right?! Then if something is transient (like the world and everything in it) it isn't real in the sense in which I have defined it. 'But it seems pretty real, doesn't it? When we dream the dream seems real, too.

Let's pull this together. This means that in spite of appearances we are eternal, whole, pure creations of a loving God and that this part of ourselves is still connected to God (and in fact can not be disconnected, even if we wanted to be); Our SPIRIT is still in heaven. NOTHING and NO ONE can change this. None of what you or another have thought, felt, heard, said or done has in any way tarnished your SELF or another ONE's Self. Not even God can change your perfection, for how can the eternal be changed? Let's use our dream metaphor again; if you have a nightmare when you wake up there has been no harm and in fact the dream quickly vanishes from memory. This is what will happen when we wake up from the dream of this world; it will pass into the mists of memory. The problem is that we don't believe it. Awakening from the dream is the process of enlightenment or self-realization (realizing the our Self is God and is You and that we are ONE). As a friend of mine wrote on my yoga mat; If you want to live your dreams, WAKE UP! (Thanks Peter!)

This is a good spot to talk about the role of forgiveness. In the context as I have described it, forgiveness is the release of our thoughts of anger, limitation, separation in all its forms not because someone has earned it or we are good, but because nothing has happened to our Spiritual Self. So, Forgive and Forget! Now back to practice!

Good luck on your journey!

Philip

• Home
  • Meet Philip
  • Spiritual Life
    • My Perspective
    • Inspiration
    • Practices
    • Humour
    • Postive Actions
    • ACIM
  • Site Map
• iRest
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Reiki
• Private