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Logical Understanding and Applications of Spirituality

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sravna

sravna

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Dear Folks,

As a result of all these years of thinking about spirituality and also based on my experiences, I plan to start a new topic which aims at logical understanding and applications of spirituality. It is not typical religious writing but one that focuses on concepts such as spiritual energy, spiritual laws and on aspects that stand independently of any religion. But I plan to draw from all the religious teachings, divorce them from the influence of space and time in which they were taught and distill just the universal and timeless essence.

It will be a long thread and will take a few months to complete.

Please do not post in this thread but you may in a separate thread that I have started for discussions.
 
The quest to understand nature has been there in mankind from time immemorial. There have been two types of inquiries into nature, one is probing the self and the other is probing the external world. Spirituality and Science represent these two diverse approaches to knowledge. In addition to understanding of nature, knowledge helps in solving practical problems.

Spiritual knowledge is concerned with what cannot be sensed or measured . It is concerned with the evolved forms of nature. Since it talks about what cannot be sensed or measured, logical understanding of spiritual knowledge and its applications have been minimal. But as I see, it is a very powerful untapped source of knowledge that can both give a deep understanding of nature and be used for significant practical applications.

I see spiritual energy as a concept central to spiritual knowledge. To properly understand spiritual knowledge and put it to practical use one needs to know ways of finding the presence spiritual energy, understand its nature and also the laws under which they operate. Once that it done I believe we have the key to understand deeply the nuts and bolts of nature and benefit from it. Science has just scratched the surface and the innards of nature remain largely hidden.

I will present my understanding of spiritual energy, spiritual laws and other insights I have gained from my experiences in the past several years in just the way concepts such as physical energy, matter and the physical laws under which they operate are presented. I am also working on the ways to establish the proof for spiritual energy through the various initiatives I have undertaken.
 
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I will start with the most fundamental concept which is energy.

Energy is the basis of everything, in fact everything that exists is energy. Something exists if it can be perceived by something else. I propose that the source of all energy is the energy that is beyond space and time. I call this energy pure energy. There has to be a reality beyond space and time because everything except that which is absolutely unchanging needs to have a cause and is created. Only a reality beyond space and time can be unchanging and so need not have a cause.

Since everything that exists is energy, space and time are also energies which which are caused by the unchanging energy.
 
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Since pure energy is beyond space and time it is just one entity and with just one unchanging experience. It is beyond action and thinking. So we can see that even thinking is a lower state than just experiencing.

Let me make a digression. We know from science that constant evolution has been happening in our universe with life forms having evolved first and then from life, progressively and ultimately human species with the ability to think evolved. So there seems to be a direction or purpose in this. This will be clear when we understand the evolution happened from physical energy spanning unit space to matter spanning some space and logically extending it to time with earliest life forms spanning unit time i.e, their consciousness extending for unit time and the consciousness of mental beings extending lot more in time. I will elaborate this in more detail in the next paragraph. The logical conclusion would be an entity spanning all of space and time i.e, beyond space and time.

We also see that the most evolved entities i.e, the humans are physically a solid form. But solids do not extend as much in space as liquids or gases do. And we have seen that the extent of evolution depends on how much the extension in space or time is. So how can we say that humans are the most evolved? The physical form has to contain a mix which would explain this. The elements with the greatest spanning capability would have to be the most in the mix. That has also given the higher consciousness and the mental capability which makes it possible to span in time

The evolution can be mapped to the reverse of what happened as devolution with time being first projected and then space and after which the elements which form a mix in everything. Thus we see a logic, with projection of lower and lower states happening first and then combinations happening to become more and more evolved forms and back to the original state of pure energy.
 
Having seen that there is a pattern in the way universe was created and in the likely way it will dissolve back into pure energy, it makes us ask whether there is purpose behind the creation of the universe? Besides we should understand that the creator of the universe that follows precise laws should be an intelligent entity and so is most likely driven by purpose in creating the universe.

We need to understand this purpose in order to correctly understand the laws of the universe and its workings.
 
We know that the pure energy is beyond thinking and beyond being driven by purpose and so could not have been directly responsible for the creation of the universe. So logically we need a thinking and acting version of the pure energy that can create the universe. That thinking version cannot have been the creation of the pure energy but which is automatically projected from it. We call this thinking version as thinking energy. The thinking energy should exist in a special version of space time which is equivalent to the abode of God or heaven in religion.
 
We should understand that the thinking energy is a version of pure energy because anything coming out of timeless entity has to be the same entity, timeless entity being undifferentiated. The thinking energy should have been responsible for the creation of time, space, subtle elements and then physical energy and matter, life and mind arising out of interactions.
 
Space and other four physical elements in their combinations provide information to the senses but information in the form of knowledge happens at a higher level which is from the three projections of most connected knowledge, less connected knowledge and least connected knowledge.

I propose these three levels of knowledge because in the last case we interpret actions or events in isolation with least interconnectedness with other events or actions. For example we understand somebody is walking or running and the understanding is limited more or less to that isolated level. We are not able to read much into any action or event. The next level is we are able to connect actions and events well but our understanding is restricted because it is based on what we sense and so based on the gross only. At the final level we are able to go beyond what we sense and see deeper knowledge i.e, the most connected knowledge. So corresponding to our three levels of understanding I postulated these three levels of knowledge in reality. The highest knowledge is ofcourse at the level of pure energy which is perfectly connected knowledge.

The three projections happen in the dimension of time which is the dimension of knowledge.
 
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Next we will see about the concept of God in various religions and the purpose for the creation of universe according to them.
 
The concept of God has importance when we have to think about the creation of universe and about the necessity for a moral living. So I will consider two reasons why we should consider the idea of God:

1. Possibility of existence of omniscience and omnipotence as required for creation
2. Necessity of moral considerations in living

So I will discuss what major religions say about the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient entity and whether we are required to lead a moral life.
 
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Religions were founded by the greatest of thinkers. If that is the case how can they have divergent views and why did not all tell the same truth. The fact is the founders did say the same truth but each in a different way. When we think of God and believe in Him based on faith we see him as an omnipotent and omniscient entity and responsible for everything including creation. We see God as external to us and separate from us. But that firm belief in such an entity will discipline us to a reasonable extent and largely keep us from committing inhuman acts.

Suppose we do not believe in God but can we be still moral? Definitely, we can be moral without acknowledging an omnipotent and omniscient entity. That also has to be done on faith and that was the role of religions like Buddhism and Jainism which did not teach the idea of creator God but definitely laid emphasis on righteous behavior.

So if we try to think beyond the superficial dissimilarities of religion, the powerful spiritual message that would be seen is that one needs to lead a righteous and disciplined life and elevate oneself mentally. The timing of the birth of major religions will throw more light on this and the emphasis of each varied according to place and time though the inner message is the same.
 
Let me say that the idea of omnipotent and omniscient entity is real as there has to be a timeless entity which I called as pure energy and a timeless entity implies it is all powerful and all knowledgeable in space and time. My earlier point was that all religions are instrumental in making people lead a disciplined and elevating life either through appeal to an all powerful God or by advocating the need for a righteous life or both. The sad fact that such instrumentality is being misused sometimes is a different topic altogether.
 
I believe that every major religion was founded with good intentions of spreading love and instilling discipline in people but the messages were delivered in accordance with the prevailing place and time. Most of major religions say that worshiping God and reconnecting with god as the major objective of creation though religions like Buddhism do not acknowledge a creator God. But we know that all major religions urge us to be righteous and so irrespective of whether they acknowledge a creator God or not, the purpose of life unanimously according to all religions is to keep elevating our mind. Those religions that espouse the idea of creation by God, say that the result of elevation is reconnecting with God or becoming one with Him but the rest do not talk about that but just say that we attain an exalted state. I think both these views make the same substantive points and differ more on details. The details, I believe make up the main differences among religions and are due to the differing time, place and therefore the purpose of the founding of a religion.
 
If according to religions the purpose of creation of physical world by God is to make beings in that world to understand His glory and reunite with Him, why should He really do that if He is already under bliss? I believe the reason for the creation of hierarchy of realities is that the experience that God gets in the creation of universe is orthogonal i.e, totally unrelated to the experience that He as a spiritual entity has. Whereas, the experience as a spiritual entity or pure energy is one of one blissful experience, the experience due to creation comes as one of constant tension between the physical and the spiritual. The latter experience is relished by God as a totally different experience.

If one were to ask to explain the cruelty, sufferings and sorrow and other negative actions and experiences that fill the physical world, the answer is , at the ultimate level there is only one reality as pure energy. Everything in the physical world is therefore a projection of the ultimate reality. It is therefore God Himself that is the real experiencer of all that happens in the physical world and thus He is not only the creator of everything but also the real experiencer of everything that happens. The argument that sufferings and sorrows will not happen if there is a benevolent entity as God, becomes very tenuous. They are necessary for creating the tension that God relishes.

So the ultimate reality exists for the experiences that it has, one coming out of harmony and the other out of tension both being perfectly positive for it.
 
In conclusion in creating the universe, God is playing the game of Hide and Seek with Himself and making the game as realistic, intelligent and interesting as possible.
 
Having seen the big picture so far regarding reality let us start to understand some of the inner workings of reality. We will start with the concept of perceiver and the perceived. Both the perceiver and the perceived are components of reality. A perceiver experiences and perceived is the object of experience.We saw that there are three levels of reality, one is space and its constituents, the next is time and its constituents and the ultimate reality being timeless pure energy. Entity at the level of space just exists . Entities which are bereft of the capability of awareness of the environment or self are those that are at this level. These entities cannot perceive though they can be perceived.

Experiencing starts with the reality of time. Entities at this reality begin to perceive. At the level of timelessness there is no distinction between the perceiver and the perceived and they are one and the same. Because there is a holistic experience and holistic experiences increase the joy of the experience, at the highest level, the experience is one of bliss.
 
At the physical level, perceived is made of matter and physical energy and the perceiver who is at a higher level of experiencing, is aware by sense organs. Now when the perceived itself is at the level of experiencing, there has to be something higher than matter and physical energy that the perceived is made of because the perceived also experiences at this level. The higher level component is what we call the mind. Here the perceiver can be at the same level as the perceived but here the perceiver cannot fully comprehend the other minds and the intent of minds are known only indirectly through the actions and words. The accuracy of perception depends totally on the mind of the perceiver. Mind is also required for understanding what is not patently revealed to the sense organs. The mind needs to transcend this level when the perceiver and the perceived become one and a single experience happens as pure energy. It is exactly for the purpose of transcending, knowledge is not patently revealed and one's mind is made to learn and grow by putting the pieces together. .
 
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Since mind is at a higher level it is a deeper part of self and it survives the body. There has to be a part of self that is deeper than mind because there is the ultimate reality of timelessness higher than the reality of space and time. The spiritual knowledge calls it the soul and it is deeper than mind.
 
The self at each of its level , i.e, as body, mind and soul makes use of the information gathered from the physical universe by the physical body and interpret them in light of their own realities. The interpretation of the one that is the strongest prevails. The body is capable of only the animal instincts and responds accordingly. The mind can potentially reason given a situation and responds according to reason. The soul potentially can empathize given a situation and responds accordingly. Let us call them physical, mental and spiritual responses.

A person who lacks mental maturity is immune to reason and higher values and responds with his animal instincts. A person who is mentally mature but lacks spiritual maturity can control his instincts but is marked by selfish motives. The level of maturity of a person is in sync with the type of knowledge he is able to receive through his mind. For example, a spiritually mature mind receives well connected knowledge.

The three levels of self keep operating and it is the result of their interactions that decides a persons thoughts and actions and also the soul's evolution.
 
To understand soul, mind and even body we need to first understand timelessness, time and space.We will set aside the discussion of timelessness for now. I will start with the discussion of time.

It is thought that time has only 1 dimension but I will argue that time has 3 dimensions. Past represents 1 dimension, present represents 2 dimensions and future represents 3 dimensions.

This is because when we consider past neither present nor future is in consideration. When we consider present , past also plays a role and so it requires past and present to describe present. Similarly to describe future we need to consider past, present and future.
 
Thinking beings in addition to living in and experiencing the 3 dimensions of space also experience the dimensions of time. All thinking beings are equally and totally evolved with respect to space and hence experience i.e, sense the physical world in the same way. With respect to time , the truth is different.

Some are constantly worried about the past and fail to live in the present and they live in 1 dimension of time and practically gain little knowledge from the experiences of time. Some others learn something from the past and want to live well in the present. They are more evolved and live in 2 dimensions of time. Some, learning from the past mistakes would want to live well in the present and future too but many others also plan and so there may be conflicts in plan. So those whose plans are not mostly in sync with rest see their plans not fructifying but succeeding to some degree and for a modest extent of time and so they are more in sync with the dimensions of time compared to the previous two types of people. A few others develop non conflicting plans and are the most successful and they are able to realize their plans mostly though certain things are beyond planning and so they are most in sync with the 3 dimensions of time.
 
Just as there are different experiences in the dimensions of time according to the level of evolution of one, matter also goes through this evolution before transcending space and leaping into life form. Matter starts its journey from one dimensional experience of space to 3 dimensional experiences. These correspond to freedom from the fundamental forces of nature such as gravitational force, electromagnetic force , strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force one by one. When matter transcends space after such experiences, it leaps to life form and the journey starts again in time. The reason why mind is not affected by the four physical forces of nature is because they have been transcended.
 
Matter in its most sophisticated nature is in solid form which is it gross manifestation but the matter itself should exude subtle energies that are getting free from the influences of the physical forces until those subtle energies evolve as higher consciousness firstly as life and then with another leap as thinking consciousness or mind.
 
I have touched upon the different parts of physical , mental and spiritual reality such as space, physical energy, matter, life energy, time, mind and soul. Let us now try to understand the relationships and the inner details and workings of each.
 
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