Is time real?

[Uday_Advaita]

Originally Posted by ayar415

Presuming you are a native of India, I am sure you can handle intellectual concepts with ease. Can you tell me about your glimpses and their relevance to the real world we live in?

Yes. I am from India.
We need to take this offline
You may send me your email id on +919833818802.
We will continue our dialogue
Namaskar

[Joe Mc]

[quote=Still_Waters]QUOTE 82 EXCERPT:The key statement there (from my perspective) is that you were driving "in a very contemplative almost wistful mood, quite deep and a little EXPANSIVE".

As that state becomes more and more continuous, one realizes that one becomes more and more aware of forces in motion ... and can thus act intuitively for reasons that transcend the small limited intellect and the five senses.

I will give you a personal example that goes one step further. In 1986, while driving "in a (similarly) contemplative mood" on the Staten Island Expressway, the car in front of me stopped suddenly. I stopped suddenly. I became aware of a car behind me coming at full speed directly at me. When in danger, I spontaneously go into mantra mode which reduces my thoughts to one with the progression being from one thought to none. In that EXPANSIVE state of stillness, I felt completely safe thought that is obviously not-logical from a purely intellectual perspective. I sat there peacefully as the care behind me crashed into my rear with such tremendous force that I could reach behind my driver's seat and touch the headlights of the car behind me. The rear of my car had been crushed and destroyed. The force was so great that it pushed my car into the stopped car in front of me such that the tailpipe of the car in front of me was right at my front windshield. (The tailpipe fortunately stopped short of breaking the windshield and possibly impaling me.) Ambulances arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and people in the other cars were taken out on stretchers. As for me, I had normal blood pressure and pulse ; I didn't even have a scratch. I was completely safe exactly as I had felt. Needless to say, I did not do this consciously; due to years of meditation and practice,this is my "normal" response to perceived danger.

The paramedics insisted on taking me to the hospital to check for a concussion but I insisted that they take me to Coney Island Hospital since it was walking distance from my house. They laughed and told me that I would not be going home that night but would probably be held for observation. I don't recall whether they did an MRI or a catscan. What I do know is that there was nothing wrong and I went home shortly thereafter.

Ponder this story and decide for yourself whether one's energy in that EXPANSIVE state can influence surrounding forces in motion .... as observers were stunned that my driver's seat was essentially SAFE and that I had no injuries whatsoever and my pulse/blood-pressure was perfectly normal ... as in a lucid dream ( ).



A Great Story and a very important one ! Thank you for sharing.

************************************************** **

[Joe Mc]

Originally Posted by mary isaak

Thank you very much for your reply Joe
The transformation should happen inside of me.

So true.

Originally Posted by mary isaak

Absolutely, acceptance is the key. That is what I am discovering now. I thought non-acceptance is what drives the transformation. But the exact opposite seems to be true.

Yes, absolutely agree with you there. The bigger our embrace of our own journey and uniqueness the better Thank you for your reply
and sharing.

************************************************** ************************

Originally Posted by Uday_Advaita

All that is, is THAT
Namaskar

THAT is how the ego/Ahamkara comes into existence.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

A very wise woman once told me that "It's as bad to take offence as it is to give it" and that changed my thinking completely, because it meant that how I 'receive' is my choice.

In essence that's the "Second Arrow" parable. https://mindfulnessmeditation.net.au/arrow/

Concerning cause and effect, what we think we are is firmly anchored within cause and effect - as Swami Vivekananda said "Whoso wears a form wears the chain" - and what we truly are is beyond cause and effect. In the context of what we think we are the first cause is birth and the last effect is death. In the context of what we truly are we were never born nor will we ever die.

In its simplest terms spirituality is the pursuit of freedom from cause and effect. The struggle is that also means freedom from Ahamkara and that is anathema to Ahamkara.

Originally Posted by ayar415

You are giving an answer to a problem, like the kind of problems I confronted in college exams. Can you give the working that support the solution you have for figuring out the Absolute?

One of the roles the Jungian ego (not the redefined-as-the-bad-guy Spiritual one) is that it provides an 'interface' between internal and external reality, and when the focus is on that area between your internal and external realities everything is relative to that perceptual single point. There is you and your environment. The other thing the Jungian ego can do is 'filter' consciousness, you're actually living in the past because, depending on the study, it can take something between 90-120ms for you to be conscious of something, the time it can take your unconscious to process it. Then again, you might never become conscious of it.

All of that gives you a sense of time and Duality and keeps you relative to your environment and the people in it. It also gives you a sense of 'I am'.

We humans have built-in survival mechanisms, and what can happen in times of stress because of exams or the perception of existence-threatening events is that the ego-conscious can 'shut itself down'. Severe emotional trauma works too. You can become 'blind' to external perceptual reality but you are still consciousness, and because your ego-conscious has closed down the focus is now solely your internal reality. It's a sliding scale rather than being on/off or either/or, depending on the influences. That means your ego-conscious become defocussed and your consciousness can become free of the superimposition of your ego. It's similar to dreaming. You become more conscious of your internal reality, which can be understood as timeless, unchanging, and Absolute. Your ego-consciousness gives you the perceptions of time, change, relative....

It's an over-simplification but probably good enough for now. Absolute reality isn't actually absolute, it is reality before the differentiated consciousness separates it into relative/absolute reality.

[mary isaak]

Originally Posted by Dan_SF

If you ever get in a lucid dream or in the astral/out of the body state... so you may have to be in the right one to experience it.

Thank you for your reply Dan_SF
Interesting! I had few lucid dreams, but never experienced how a thought changes the dream. It should be an eye opening experience. Could you elaborate more on the types of lucid dreams?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mary isaak

I had few lucid dreams, but never experienced how a thought changes the dream. It should be an eye opening experience.

If you're interested here are two great resources:

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming ~ Stephen LaBerge. He investigated lucid dreaming for his Ph.D. in psychophysiology at Stanford University.

http://www.newforestcentre.info/uplo...d_dreaming.pdf

Dreamviews. It's a comprehensive resource with forums and guides covering all methods of lucid dream induction as well as stabilization and control.

https://www.dreamviews.com/

Some years back I participated in dreamviews. Good bunch of people and very helpful with practicing/achieving lucid dreaming. I'm not a natural so I needed the help. LOL!

Since you've had lucid dreams think about this and see if it makes sense. A mundane dream is a reality of duality. There's your dream body and you're 100% certain you are it, other dream bodies, dream animals and trees, buildings, streets and cars, scenery, all of it separate from your dream body and also with 100% certainty of reality. When you become lucid you "know" it's all just appearances of you. That there's only You without a second, a reality of non-duality. For me it's always an extraordinary experience, that unambiguous and instantaneous flash of "knowing".

[Uday_Advaita]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

THAT is how the ego/Ahamkara comes into existence.

You are absolutely right about this
Namaskar

[ayar415]

Originally Posted by Uday_Advaita

Yes. I am from India.
We need to take this offline

Why Uday? I appreciate the offer but would like to do it in open forum. I am committed to living spiritually as one indivisible humanity. I do make exceptions and incarnate as an individual person for interactions but only with coarse minds (e.g. cashiers at the store, the postman, etc.) that are caught in Maya. You are a brahmin and would understand.