Exceptional Awareness of Life The Mystic by Cogitator

Mystic: "A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the absolute by the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect." Through mysticism, we develop spiritual wisdom, expanded awareness and a sense of connectedness with everything and everyone around us, and, in the process, we become captains of our ship and masters of our fate. This state of mind is evidenced by the Toltec Spiritual Warrior, the Buddha of Buddhism, the Hindu yogi of hatha yoga, the Jesus (Christ Nature) of Christianity and the Sufi of Islam, as well as many other examples. Reaching this level of enlightenment necessitates total understanding of what we are. Everyone has the ability to find their mystical being, but few will make the effort to do so. The mystic lives in a perfect state of being and becomes oblivious to mundane human activities. He has risen above and beyond his animal body because he lives according to Natural Law. He is able to see the entire rainbow. Natural Law is that set of laws that is the working basis of all creation and without which no manifestation can occur and exist. It is universal in scope and manner of operation, simple and direct. Natural Law is always constructive even when it seems indisputably destructive. It is the expression or manifestation of Cosmic Energy and order that humanity is able to discern. There is no such thing as supernatural law. There is nothing more divine than nature, nothing super beyond the natural. The greatest of miracles are not the result of some supernatural law, but of natural law. The mystic has removed all vestiges of fantasy, indoctrination, false beliefs and false values and is synchronized and harmonized with the symphony of life. Mystics do everything they can to cultivate and maintain four primary virtues: understanding, service, compassion, and love. These virtues all flow into one another and end up merging into a perfect unity and forming one entity. Willpower, perseverance, and trust are three further virtues that need to be manifested to achieve spiritual elevation. The choice is ours, for we have our free will. From childhood, we begin hiding our inner self away. We learn to adapt and survive in the outside world. Our families and peers teach us socially acceptable behavior. Our educational system teaches us the technical and social skills we need to sustain a material life. As adults, we are thrust into a society geared towards materialism and maintaining the status quo. Rarely, especially in the early formative years, are we taught inner development; with an emphasis on intuition, the subconscious mind, independent thinking, self-esteem, self-confidence, psychic or inner spiritual growth. The road to enlightenment is an arduous one, but is available to all. That road is not one of learning something new, but rather one of discovering what was always there. Of the four primary values, understanding is utmost in importance for the simple reason that we cannot know others more than we understand ourselves. Performing service with compassion and love comes easily once we understand what we are. We currently occupy an animal body. Like all animals, we have instincts that are innate and natural, like homing instincts, survival instincts, herding instincts and others. These instincts are similar to hard-coded programs in computers that serve to maintain a healthy body while navigating Mother Earth. Unlike most animals, we also have the ability to do unnatural things. We human beings have the ability to examine a stimulus and make decisions about how we will respond to it. We can stop a thought and delve into it for meaning. The ego is the reason for all human ills because it can activate an ignorant response that goes against natural law. "Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to understanding by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." -- Plato "We should stop kidding ourselves. It's always better with the truth." R. Buckminster Fuller. Whether or not others want to achieve Enlightenment is irrelevant to a mystic. He is simply an example and resource for those who wish to understand. He knows that there is no such thing as a permanent ego and, since the ego is the only entity that fears death, the mystic cannot harbor that fear. Communication is the only method human animals can use to feel "alive." The animal body has five physical senses that convey the environment to it - touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. Each of these has a range of vibratory sensitivity that enable it to analyze its environment. "If you want to understand the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." Nikola Tesla. The human brain is bicameral -- two chambers. Normally, the left hemisphere is receiving waves of energy continually and interpreting them in terms of frequency, thus creating the concept of time and number. The right hemisphere receives the same energy waves and interprets them in terms of amplitude, thus creating the concept of size and space. This is the Space/Time Continuum Einstein referred to. Most radios will have a choice of AM (Amplitude Modulation) or FM (Frequency Modulation). Egos will "tune in" to what appeals to them, whether music or talk. This is exactly what we all do when we visualize our personal universe. When we interpret waves of energy as frequency, we imagine Time and number. The only time that exists in truth is the moment we call NOW. There is no such thing as past or future in truth. Our inborn consciousness resides in NOW. We imagine Space and size by interpreting the amplitude and size of the energy waves from our Point of View. That consciousness represents HERE. Our true self has always been and will always be HERE and NOW and designates the center of our universe. It is our Point of View. We will never experience death. The combination of HERE/NOW is the Space/Time continuum Einstein refers to and it will always exist. Ego's universe is finite and temporary while the mystic's universe is infinite and eternal. The conceptualized universe we visualize is caused from communicating with energy and is based upon our understanding. Our understanding is limited by our ignorance, and our ignorance is primarily caused by our level of literacy when we attempt to communicate ideas to others. "Wisdom begins with the definition of terms." Aristotle. "The first chapter of wisdom is truth." Thomas Jefferson. "The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision." Helen Keller. Helen Keller wrote fourteen books and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) among many other achievements. She was deaf and blind from an early age and yet made full use of her mystic capacity. How she envisioned her universe is far beyond the average individual. She had no ego to contend with. Only with the agreement that the ignorant human ego is the ONLY cause of human strife can we proceed on the path to enlightenment. "Men are prisoners of their own mind." Franklin D. Roosevelt. "The simple secret of the universe is that we create our own reality." Captain Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut. Becoming aware that we are all responsible for what we behold is the first mandatory step to enlightenment. "I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self." Aristotle. The self is our personality or ego. It is the source of all humanity's woes and problems. It is an artificial (man-made) mind created by its ability to think, feel and experience its worldly existence. It is the differentiating factor between the human animal and all other natural life forms. It seeks to be independent in its self-defined universe, even though there is no such thing as independence for any life form. All life is dependent on all other life in order to "be." "Learn to see. Everything is connected." Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was not the only one to recognize this basic truth. Gauthama Siddartha, the first Buddha, said the same thing when referring to the oneness of everything. Carl Jung made the same observation, and Albert Einstein's Relativity equation boils down to depicting that all forms are manifestations of energy. The first step to understanding the self and bringing it under control is accepting that truth. Ego is very much like a gatekeeper to its perceived universe. Its job is to gather input from our physical senses and submit it to our true mind, but it has the ability to reject new information from entering if the information threatens its Comfort Zone. It does not like to change when it feels comfortable. If pressured, ego will activate its "fight or flight" reflex to relieve the pressure. The other option is to stay indifferent to the stimulus and simply do nothing. Running away from truth and/or remaining as an obedient animal doesn't improve our perceived universe. It is when ego attempts to fight truth that we have the opportunity to improve. It is impossible for truth to be defeated, but the conflict may allow the ego to recognize the faulty thoughts it had harbored. In the effort to prove itself right, the ego may "see the light" of truth. There are numerous ways to be aware of when the ego is taking charge of our actions. Anger, greed, fear, lust, pride, vanity, dominance, and other selfish behaviors are ego traits and easily recognized (and/or manipulated) by the ruling class. Those traits indicate a lack of understanding. To remove any ego trait, we must fight to remove it by knowing why we exhibit it. "Nothing pains some people more than having to think." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The human ego has the unique ability to stop a thought and contemplate it. The cycle of thought processing goes through several stages -- Awareness, Focus, Analysis, Action and Adaption. The place to be while executing these steps is in our Corpus Callosum. That is the center and balance point of our consciousness. It can be had by meditation. It is our Creative Thinking Center. Ego has no control when we are in this meditative state. We will have achieved self-control. We will be able to change the perception of our universe by changing our thoughts. The mystic who knows something of the inner light of consciousness is bound to be a little difficult to be absorbed; he is going to be an upsetting force. Most egos don't want to be disturbed, even though they may be in misery. They are in misery, but they are accustomed to the misery. And anybody who is not miserable looks like a stranger. He who has achieved self-control is the greatest stranger in the world; he does not seem to belong to anybody. No organization confines him, no community, no society nor nation. His very way of being is rebellious - not because he is fighting against anybody or anything, but because he has discovered his own true nature and is determined to live in accordance with it. He challenges us to be courageous enough to take responsibility for who and what we are and to live according to truth. All of us need other people to learn from. We need the example and teaching of others who have done so before us, especially those who have gained insight into the nature of reality themselves. More broadly, "Mystic" refers to the people with whom we share our spiritual lives. We need the guidance of personal teachers who are further along the path than we are, and the support and friendship of other practitioners. This is very important because mysticism is not an abstract philosophy or creed; it is a way of approaching life and therefore it only has any meaning when it is embodied in people. Moral rules and ascetic rites are not necessary for Enlightenment. Rules and rites exist in the realm of the ego and its animal instincts, not in the spiritual universe of the mystic. Attachment to sensual desire, creature comforts and selfish interests are no longer important. The attraction of conceit, selfishness and ego development is eliminated, along with ill will towards all. The mystic desires to live in the formless universe of Consciousness, Eternity and Infinity and the true Spirit of Living. He strives achieve understanding and peace without restlessness. Recognized

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