Reaching for the stars

Have you ever gone to heaven? Do you remember going to heaven in your dreams? Have you ever met and talked to others there, and recounted it with them the next day?

I have and I do. I have had real time experiences going to the other side in dreams, visions, guided meditations, spontaneously and in clinical hypnotherapy. Do you think it’s possible?

My own answer to that is found in the depth of the experience. Some truths resonate so incredibly deeply inside of you that there is absolutely no denying they are true; you couldn’t deny it even if you tried.

Is a real time journey to heaven something you aspire to experience? Do you want to experience heaven on earth? For real?

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What is the highest purpose of spiritual blogging?

• Is it to inform, teach, preach, persuade?
• Is it to guide, lead, or comfort?
• Is it to take idealistic positions and opine about them?
• Should it be something singular to you, or common to everyone?

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The Greatest Fear

Fear is a thing that comes from within,
A thing that is not from without.
But our greatest fear of the fear that’s within
Is a day of going without.

23 Nov 2001

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After some years of living, and a bit of forgiving
It’s really much easier to see,
That the confusion in life, indeed most of the strife
Comes from a paradox known simply as me.

23 Nov 2001

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We wonder why we don’t understand our purpose, or why we can’t do it. Sensei explains it’s because we’re all stopped up. Does what he is saying make sense?

We have a condition in the world called asthma.

A lot of people suffer from it and say, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Well, the reason they can’t breathe is not because they can’t get air in; it’s because they can’t get air out. Isn’t that remarkable?

And when we get them to breathe out, the air comes in easily. But they wouldn’t let any of it out; that’s why it wouldn’t come in. They think they can’t breathe in, but that’s because they don’t have anywhere to put it.

These are people that want to give, but there’s no where for them to give the thing that they’re trying to give. They get all blocked up with something that they’re trying to give, but it doesn’t have anywhere to go.

The air doesn’t come out of them – life doesn’t come out of them – universal flow doesn’t come out of them. They get all blocked up. Nothing can come in, and they start starving because they’re not receiving anything new. Why? Because they haven’t been able to get rid of or give away that which they are already connected to, the thing they are supposed to give.

Sensei. “Introduction to the Second Degree”. Montvale: Great River, 17 Feb 2000. (5)

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Martial arts can be a great vehicle for developing higher understanding and deeper awareness. For example, you can actually learn to overcome your adversary without ever physically touching them. You can throw them and never lift a finger.

How does this relate to developing understanding and awareness? Because to do these things you must learn to engage in the spiritual dimension of your self.

We are multi-dimensional beings living in a three dimensional world. That is a difficult obstacle to overcome (as the book “Flatland” attests). A way to illustrate this is to look at how we often describe states of being. We’ll say we are physical, mental and spiritual creatures. Or, we’ll say we are physical, psychological and spiritual. Notice how we often describe ourselves from the perspective of three dimensions. We rarely describe ourselves as physical, emotional, mental and spiritual beings. This is because in a three dimensional world it is difficult to conceive of or coordinate in more than three dimensions.

The martial artist, through persistent training and an excellent instructor, eventually learns multi-dimensional movement and control. In time he or she learns to coordinate themselves in multiple dimensions extending beyond the limitation of three dimensions. Over more time he or she learns to coordinate within their own multiple dimensions, while also coordinating in an environment of multi-dimensionality. Then, you learn to coordinate with dynamic situations, multi-dimensionally, while maintaining one point. Then by maintaining more points, simultaneously maintaining one point, and so on.

This training brings you to conscious awareness of the spiritual aspects of being. But it not only brings you into conscious awareness, it also allows you to practice the application and coordination of multiple dimensions under the watchful eye of an instructor.

So, in time you learn to engage your self and the environment in the spot that lies between understanding and awareness, between attack and defend, between static and dynamic… in other words, the spot that is in between, or in the center of, all things.

Martial arts can teach you to connect to the center within your self, and the center within your adversity. That is not a physical spot. So when you connect to that, it has a way of causing the attacker (or any adversity or situation) to pause. Because they are feeling the center inside of their self; sometimes for the very first time, consciously.

One of the great benefits of quality martial arts training is it clearly proves the existence of the spiritual realm. While spiritual matters are sometimes considered to be very subjective experiences, the manifestation of them in physical form – which martial arts is so capable of doing – is evidence that cannot be denied.

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So what do you think of this?

A church founded on teaching understanding, and teaching understanding in everyday language and for practical everyday life applications?

A church that would welcome all ages, social backgrounds, cultures, creeds and religions, including atheists. A church that anyone could get something out of.

A church that would focus on teaching understanding. How to understand. Anything.

It wouldn’t teach understanding about everything, but would teach you how to understand anything… that you were out to understand. No matter how deep you wanted to go, or what you wanted to apply it to.

In ways you could understand and relate to.

So what do you think?

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Understanding

You understand, at least you think you understand
But what about what you don’t understand?
I understand that. Do you?
What if you can’t understand but you want to understand
Do you have a way to understand that, too?

I understand that I don’t understand
And when I don’t understand, I do.
And if you don’t understand what you don’t understand
That’s ok, just understand that, too!

Sensei

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There are a number of ways to define hell. The point of this short excerpt is to answer the question of whether you can or can’t escape from hell, and whether light even exists in hell.

One time some people were witnessing for Christ with me, and the question was, “When you die and go to hell is there any way to get out of hell?”

I said, “There’s always some measure of light in hell, but it’s a question of whether you can recognize it.”

They said, “No, there is not.”

I can prove it. I can bring light into hell, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to use your free will to choose it. The biggest problem with going to hell is that you’re resigning yourself to denial as your way, and you end up believing that denial represents your whole definition for being, that it represents your greatest truth.

When light comes in that illuminates inside of your field of denial, you become blinded because you’ve been in the darkness so long you no longer have the capacity to see the light anymore. To bring light into hell means to bring light to blind people. It’s very possible. Just look at our own society. We can take people who are blind and teach them to interface with life.

Sensei. “The Path to the Application of Higher Understanding”, Part 3. Montvale: Great River, 16 Dec 1999. (12)

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