Focus On The Spiritual Self

[Kwame Nyame 64]

What is the make up of man? What are the components that make man?
Largely,we do not know ourselves.This knowledge and the search for it is to a great extent neglected.This is more so in the western world.
Why is it that many of us are resigned to spending our lives in the pursuit of all other things except for the knowledge and understanding of who we are?
When we study religious history of mankind,it is found that spiritual enlightenment has always been after an individual pursuit.It doesn't come to a group.lt has always been an individual pursuit.Pick any spiritual giant or sage in history and it is found that the truth they came upon or the spiritual enlightenment they attained was as a result an individual quest.
The one important lesson that may be gained from studying the lives of past Saints is that,like each one of them,you too can attain an understanding of who you are.
Must we settle for dusty signpost or look to the very present for ways to gain self mastery or knowledge of our spiritual self?
Great pointers can be gained through the study of these past Saints but we must understand that a baby cannot gain nourishment from a deceased mother no matter how much love the mother loved it.Also,a patient cannot be healed by a deceased physician.
A closer look at the teachings of those who in the past history of mankind has attain self mastery will reveal something along the lines of ....."you too can attain this heights and even go further"
I came across a statement by a sage that amazed me to my core.
It is that none of us(all Souls without exception) do not differ in the power we have.Our only difference is the power we REALISE we have and USE.
What sets up apart is only the amount of power we realise we possess and use.wow!
Let us take the power of the brain of man.
It is common knowledge that on average,we use a tiny tiny percentage of our brain cells.There is a million times greater powers of the brain not bring used that is lying latent in us.

"lf we could have the true awakening of the whole brain,it is known that we could achieve miracles,on that level,that would put all saviours and magicians to shame.However,we are actually too lazy,too bound in dogma and rituals,to think of anything other than our own physical comforts"
-Paul Twitchell.

What makes up man? What are the components that comprises man?
Are we more that flesh and blood?
This is the starting point in that we can see the physical body.We can feel our body.If you are hit,you feel pain.You fall ill.Death of the physical body is a fact of life.
There is another body of man.lt is a subtle body.You cannot see this body ordinarily with the physical eyes.Some call it the light body.This body is not as dense as the physical body.ln the west,it is commonly called the ASTRAL BODY.The name is culled from starry,starlike from the Greek Word for star.At a certain vibration,this finer body can be seen as many many stars or even ball of fire hence the name.lt sparkles like a million stars when seen.
We are talking about clothes or sheath.
Soul(our real self)due to the coarseness of the physical world clothes itself with a physical body.
In the same way Soul is clothed in the next dimension above the physical world with a sheath.Soul is encased with an astral body in that corresponding dimension,state,heaven or whatever name you want to give to the world immediately beyond our physical plane of existence.
We have our 5 physical senses.The astral body also has its senses.lt has its own five senses too.
We Are not often aware of these.This is particular so when one is solidly frozen in the human consciousness.
At physical death,Soul withdraws into the astral body awaiting a return to another physical shell or moving even further into to higher states all depending on one's spiritual unfoldment.lf at the end of your present physical life you owe earth a pesewa,you will have to return into physical embodiment to settle that debt.This law works with mathematical exactitude.
There is a another body within the astral of a finer quality still known as the CAUSAL BODY.The Sanskrit name for this body is KARAM(causal) SARUP(body).This is the seed body.
The causal body is finer than the astral body the way the astral body is finer than the physical body.
The next cloth around Soul is the mental sheath.
The mental body is a sheath in the form of a transmitter.lt transmits stuff between Soul and the other bodies.
This 4th component of man is the finest and as mentioned earlier is endowed with great powers.
To behold yourself as Soul,this is the last body to drop.
Soul(our real self) needs to clothe itself in the lower mansions of the universe thus the mental body on the mental plane,the causal on the causal world and finally a physical body here on the physical world.
Out of body experience is the phrase used to describe the act of Soul sneaking out of the lower bodies.

"So long as we are in the lower worlds,then we must retain the bodies of these various sheaths around Soul because of the vibrations on each plane.As Soul goes downward into the physical world,lt cannot of ltself stand the coarse vibrations which are so much lower than the pure worlds which lt usually inhabits.Therefore,lt must adopt bodies,or sheaths,to protect ltself."
-Paul Twitchell.

The last body is Soul,the divine spark.lt has many names in various religions.
It is sometimes called the consciousness of God in man because all consciousness resides here.
All things shall pass away,discarded except Soul.Even the mind must be dropped.It is common to mistaken mind for Soul.Mind is the closest to Soul and used more than the other lower bodies of man.
So why the descend of Soul into the lower worlds of creation?This is so lt can gain experience,become useful and takes lt's place as a Coworker with God.
This can be compare with a child that starts school,goes through training to eventually become a responsible adult living a useful and productive life.
This education cannot take place in a single existence in the schoolroom created in God's lower universes.
This is why Soul is put on a wheel of reincarnation.lt will continue on the wheel of awagawan all the time gaining understanding about who and what lt is.
Eventually,Soul returns to lt's true home as an experienced Soul ready to help in the administration of the universes.
This is the whole reason why the lower worlds including earth was created.

Like l mentioned earlier my understanding is that,realisation of who we are is never decided together.lt is always a personal pursuit."lt comes to the alone with the Alone"
This road is not travelled as a collective group.Each of us must find our own way.This is why l think depending on an ancestor,past master or guru for enlightenment is to a large extend wasting time and energy.
Also,since all consciousness resides in Soul as pointed out earlier,there is no reality outside ourselves.
A sage once said,you can know all without leaving your house.
Rumi said......."you take a step without feet.
When we talk about states of awareness,Soul can establish ltself in any state throughout the universes.

"The world can be viewed as being an infinite number of states of consciousness.Accordingly,those worlds beyond the physical can be seen as a continuation of these countless levels of consciousness.The lowest states are in the physical world,but they grow brighter and exceedingly more exquisite as we travel through them to the God State.
We are not actually travelling,in the normal sense of the word,but we are experiencing what is known as being there."
-Paul Twitchell.

Soul is immortal being. Soul existed before birth and lives beyond time.Soul comes to earth from the higher spiritual worlds.Soul comes into the lower worlds to gain more experience,lifetime after lifetime all for the chance to learn.

[Kwame Nyame 64]

Lessons lt must learn.
The moth in a cocoon will eventually take flight and gain liberty.Soul will eventually gain spiritual liberation.lt must embark on a personal quest for liberation.Help is at hand.Since nobody can give it spirituality,lt must walk the path to truth by ltself.
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STRUGGLE OF THE EMPEROR MOTH
A biologist found the cocoon of an emperor moth and took it into his lab for study.lt sat on his lab table for quite a while.Finally the cocoon began to tremble as the moth made its effort to get out into the world.
The scientist noticed that the cocoon was shaped like a bottle,wide at the bottom but very narrow at the top.The top was made of a concretelike substance.The scientist thought,There's no way the moth will make it through that hard material.
He watched the cocoon for a while,getting more and more impatient.Finally he decided to help the moth out.So he took a tiny pair of scissors and carefully cut through the hard concretelike material,opening the cocoon at the top.
The moth popped out almost instantly.The biologist waited for the moth to spread its beautiful wings and show its pretty colours.But nothing happened.The moth was misshapen,with a huge body and very tiny wings.
It finally died,unable to lift itself off the ground.
The scientist began to read about the emperor moth,trying to figure out what had happened.
Other people had made the same mistake he had,trying to help the moth into the world.
It seems there is a purpose for the moth's cocoon being shaped the way it is.
In order for the moth to fit itself through the narrow neck of the cocoon,it must streamline its body.The fluids in its body are squeezed into the wings,which made them large and the body small.
When it finally emerges into the world,the emperor moth is a creature unsurpassed in beauty.
The struggle of the emperor moth is essentially the struggle of Soul in the lower worlds.
It's an important phase of Soul's development.Through hardships and struggles Soul develops the beauty and grace necessary for lt to become a Co-worker with God.
-The Book Of ECK Parables
Harold Klemp.

[Kwame Nyame 64]

The Heavens Of God.
There is always one more heaven.lt is like saying there is no end. This is the plus element.There is always one more heaven.
However for simplicity and in order to make sense on things,we can look at the 12 planes or heavens commonly known.

PHYSICAL
This plane comprises all the galaxies known and yet unknown.Here we have the illusion of reality;Science;Body.This is the arena for day to day events.We all can see the world around us.We live on earth.We known of a few planets.Hubble telescope is sending amazing pictures of the vastness of our physical plane to us.
The characteristics associated with eg Earth are no in many ways disputed.Verification is often within army's reach.

ASTRAL(Emotional World)
Feeling emotional,sympathy,sad,joyful,compassion,These come from the Astral World.
You can take how a group conduct their rituals,worship service or pray to find the heaven or plane they are operating from.
This the area where people can practice astral travel.
The UFO ,flying saucers that sometimes enter our physical realms originate from this plane of existence.This is the region for ghost and many psychic phenomena.disembodied spirits come from this region.
When Soul drops lt's physical clothes;a process called death,lt first withdraws to this heaven.
This is a plane of existence too.The life span here compared to earth is so long some residence here wrongly think they have immortality.
The prototype of inventions due for earth eg are here on the Astral plane.Many of Earth's inventors are familiar with this plane of existence.
There are cities just like we have here.
The Capital City or region of this plane is commonly called Sahasra-dal-Kanwal.

CAUSAL WORLD
This plane reminds me of the scene in the Movie Bruce Almighty.This is the plane where all the good and bad we have created is stored.lf you want to find out what has occurred and figure a way out,this is the place to come.
I don't trust middlemen.lol. I'd strongly suggest you find a competent guide to teach you spiritual techniques for visiting this world to look at your karmic record or what is often known as The Akashic Record.

THE MENTAL WORLD
"Next is the Mental Plane,the are from which all the intellectual and mental processes of man originate.Symbols,symbology,and all the different languages and alphabets spring from this realm. the Mental Plane is also the area where the heavens of some of the major orthodox religions are located.
It upsets a lot of people to hear that the Christians,Buddhists,Hindus,Jains,and some of the others have their heavens in the same place.
Not all in the same heaven,of course;they don't get together in heaven any more than they do down here.
Each religious path has its own heaven,because each group has its own consciousness.They keep to themselves.The Mental Plane is still one of the heavens of separation"
-Harold Klemp
This plane of existence is the source of philosophy,ethics,and moral teachings.

The ETHERIC PLANE
The unknown and unconscious motivators that run us originate from the plane.The subconscious corresponds to this world.The psychologists would call it subconscious.
This is to top of the mental world.
It is the dividing line or region between the lower worlds of creation and the pure higher heavens.

The SOUL PLANE next.
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