Official Social Network of The Theosophical Society in America
15 Spiritual Laws I wish I had been taught as a child
1) The laws of nature operate such that you cannot steal anything and you cannot give anything away. Anything you steal will be taken from you at a later time. Anything you give away will be given to you many times over. What you do to someone else will be done to you.
2) Every thing you experience, good or bad, happiness or suffering is the direct result of action you have taken sometime in your past. You alone are responsible for your present condition in life. Suffering arises because you have caused suffering to others. There is no other reason. Your more recent actions affect you much more strongly than the actions you committed in distant lifetimes. Therefore, you can change your karma for the better if you stop wrong action and start performing right and good actions now.
3) The laws of nature are setup to fulfill your desires. You live in a desire world and when you desire something, you begin to draw fulfillment of that desire toward yourself. The more spiritually advanced you are (the stronger your consciousness), the faster your desires are fulfilled. A man in Brahmin or God consciousness has his desires fulfilled instantly. If he wants something not available then the desire is fulfilled internally on the level of his consciousness. For others, the process to fulfill a desire takes longer, but if you keep desiring, it will arrive. Be careful what you desire.
4) That which you put you attention on grows strongest in your mind. Think about God and you draw God toward you. Think about sex or wealth or luxury and you will draw that toward you. Think about world peace or helping others and you elevate yourself. Think negatively about others and you create a negative effect on yourself. Your thoughts create a powerful effect. Be careful what you think.
5) God is everywhere, but where you will find Him first is within yourself. Only when your mind has been purified to experienced God within on the level of your consciousness, can you begin to find Him external to yourself on the level of your consciousness. Inquire within.
6) There are seven states of consciousness, the three normal states waking, dreaming and sleeping; Transcendental consciousness, which is experienced in meditation; Cosmic consciousness (“I am That”); God consciousness (“Thou are That”); and Unity consciousness (“All this is That”). There is a further refinement of Unity, referred to as Brahman consciousness. Always desire to obtain Unity consciousness for yourself and enlightenment for the entire world. You will begin to draw this toward yourself.
7) To find God, you need to purify yourself. That can be done most easily through daily meditation. Prayer and intellectual knowledge, are important, but insufficient. Seek a meditation technique that comes from a long tradition of Saints. The meditation you practice should provide you with the experience of your own pure consciousness within yourself, complete silence beyond time or ego, the experience of Transcendence. Your meditation should be effortless and pleasing (the Transcendent is pleasing!). If not, then move on. Keep seeking.
8) That which is closest to the truth lasts longest. Seek ancient wisdom.
9) Natural disasters such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, lack of rain arise because the people in that area of violating the laws of nature, God’s laws. The “disaster” is an attempt by nature to purify herself, to remove the negativity.
10) Whenever you meet people, be watchful and notice your first reaction to them. This tells you much about whether you knew these individuals before in a previous life. Anyone that becomes your friend is someone you knew and became comfortable with in a past life or the friendship would not be possible. Avoid people who are engaged in wrong action or negativity. They will affect and drain your spiritual consciousness.
11) Don’t eat red meat. The karma from killing any animal isn’t good, but the karma from causing the suffering and death of higher level animals is something you don’t want to incur.
12) Don’t eat frozen food, leftovers, processed food, food that has been fermented or aged, genetically engineered food or food that has chemical additives. Don’t eat mushrooms. Eat a vegetarian diet if you can do so comfortably. If not, eat turkey, chicken or fish, and eat these during the mid-day meal when digestion is the strongest. This is the most basic wisdom of Ayurveda (the science of life).
13) Avoid having a southern entrance to your home in any degree. It is best if the entrances to your home face east (influence of enlightenment) or north (influence of prosperity) to within five degrees, but at least avoid a southern entrance in any degree because it brings all influences of negativity. This is the most basic wisdom of Sthapatya-Veda (Vedic Architecture), planning and building in accord with Natural Law.
14) “Do good works without hesitation.” “The world is your family.”
15) “To get a human body is a rare thing—make full use of it. There are four million kinds of births which a soul can gather. After that one gets a human body. Therefore, one should not waste this opportunity. Every second in human life is very valuable. If you don’t value this, then you will have nothing in hand and you will weep in the end. Because you’re human, God has given you power to think and decide what is good and bad. Therefore, you can do the best possible kind of action. Whatever may have happened up to now may be because you didn’t know. But now be careful. After gaining a human body, if you don’t reach God, then you have sold a diamond at the price of spinach.” (Swami Brahmananda)
2) Every thing you experience, good or bad, happiness or suffering is the direct result of action you have taken sometime in your past. You alone are responsible for your present condition in life. Suffering arises because you have caused suffering to others. There is no other reason. Your more recent actions affect you much more strongly than the actions you committed in distant lifetimes. Therefore, you can change your karma for the better if you stop wrong action and start performing right and good actions now.
3) The laws of nature are setup to fulfill your desires. You live in a desire world and when you desire something, you begin to draw fulfillment of that desire toward yourself. The more spiritually advanced you are (the stronger your consciousness), the faster your desires are fulfilled. A man in Brahmin or God consciousness has his desires fulfilled instantly. If he wants something not available then the desire is fulfilled internally on the level of his consciousness. For others, the process to fulfill a desire takes longer, but if you keep desiring, it will arrive. Be careful what you desire.
4) That which you put you attention on grows strongest in your mind. Think about God and you draw God toward you. Think about sex or wealth or luxury and you will draw that toward you. Think about world peace or helping others and you elevate yourself. Think negatively about others and you create a negative effect on yourself. Your thoughts create a powerful effect. Be careful what you think.
5) God is everywhere, but where you will find Him first is within yourself. Only when your mind has been purified to experienced God within on the level of your consciousness, can you begin to find Him external to yourself on the level of your consciousness. Inquire within.
6) There are seven states of consciousness, the three normal states waking, dreaming and sleeping; Transcendental consciousness, which is experienced in meditation; Cosmic consciousness (“I am That”); God consciousness (“Thou are That”); and Unity consciousness (“All this is That”). There is a further refinement of Unity, referred to as Brahman consciousness. Always desire to obtain Unity consciousness for yourself and enlightenment for the entire world. You will begin to draw this toward yourself.
7) To find God, you need to purify yourself. That can be done most easily through daily meditation. Prayer and intellectual knowledge, are important, but insufficient. Seek a meditation technique that comes from a long tradition of Saints. The meditation you practice should provide you with the experience of your own pure consciousness within yourself, complete silence beyond time or ego, the experience of Transcendence. Your meditation should be effortless and pleasing (the Transcendent is pleasing!). If not, then move on. Keep seeking.
8) That which is closest to the truth lasts longest. Seek ancient wisdom.
9) Natural disasters such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, lack of rain arise because the people in that area of violating the laws of nature, God’s laws. The “disaster” is an attempt by nature to purify herself, to remove the negativity.
10) Whenever you meet people, be watchful and notice your first reaction to them. This tells you much about whether you knew these individuals before in a previous life. Anyone that becomes your friend is someone you knew and became comfortable with in a past life or the friendship would not be possible. Avoid people who are engaged in wrong action or negativity. They will affect and drain your spiritual consciousness.
11) Don’t eat red meat. The karma from killing any animal isn’t good, but the karma from causing the suffering and death of higher level animals is something you don’t want to incur.
12) Don’t eat frozen food, leftovers, processed food, food that has been fermented or aged, genetically engineered food or food that has chemical additives. Don’t eat mushrooms. Eat a vegetarian diet if you can do so comfortably. If not, eat turkey, chicken or fish, and eat these during the mid-day meal when digestion is the strongest. This is the most basic wisdom of Ayurveda (the science of life).
13) Avoid having a southern entrance to your home in any degree. It is best if the entrances to your home face east (influence of enlightenment) or north (influence of prosperity) to within five degrees, but at least avoid a southern entrance in any degree because it brings all influences of negativity. This is the most basic wisdom of Sthapatya-Veda (Vedic Architecture), planning and building in accord with Natural Law.
14) “Do good works without hesitation.” “The world is your family.”
15) “To get a human body is a rare thing—make full use of it. There are four million kinds of births which a soul can gather. After that one gets a human body. Therefore, one should not waste this opportunity. Every second in human life is very valuable. If you don’t value this, then you will have nothing in hand and you will weep in the end. Because you’re human, God has given you power to think and decide what is good and bad. Therefore, you can do the best possible kind of action. Whatever may have happened up to now may be because you didn’t know. But now be careful. After gaining a human body, if you don’t reach God, then you have sold a diamond at the price of spinach.” (Swami Brahmananda)
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Roger Earl Pirkle on -
Thanks for the reply.
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Schwager on
-
Frank - thank you for this terrific post. I have a question to you which I don't mean as a criticism, but a genuine inquiry. How would you explain the catastropic treatment of the Jews by the Nazis, and the horrific murder of over six million innocent men, women and children? I heard a very interesting hypothesis by a great spiritual leader - spoken to me and asking for anonymity - that this was an incredible sacrifice by the Jewish group soul, to expose the great darkness at the time in order to shatter it with enormous Light. It was an offering to the Universal Zeitgeist, he told me; and a great contribution to the evolution towards human enlightenment. Your thoughts? Best, Mike Schwager
-
Permalink Reply by Frank McLaughlin on -
I do not buy the argument that Jews were picked to suffer for no fault of their own to help mankind. The reason people suffer is through their own past actions. There isn't one set of laws of nature for you and me and another for Jews.
As to exposing the great darkness of the time (WWII), at that time there were more examples of darkness than you could count, what need was there of more suffering? The Japanese were slaughtering people all over Asia. Stalin killed 20 million Russians during the war. (The plight of the Jews was not known until the Allied forces arrived). The British, the French, the Dutch treated their colonies--India, South Africa, Indonesia--in horrible ways. The British are estimated to have killed more people in their colony, India, throught their practice of governing than the number of Jews killed in Europe.
I certainly don't believe that six million Jews did something in that WWII life to deserve the most horrible treatment ever visited on a people, but they must have done some horrible things in past lives, which came back to them. Maybe when they did these horrible things in the past, they weren't Jews--perhaps they were Catholics coming back to get a taste of their own medicine. If you read the Old Testament, you might argue that the Jews did their share of slaughter. Did the Canaanittes die to "expose the great darkness of that time?" The Jews slaughtered all of them to take over the promised land. How about Jericho? The Jews entered the city and killed all men, women, the kids and animals. This is in their holy book.
Read our Guide to Community Features to learn your way around!
Also, check out our Guidelines for Community Conduct to review our rules.
Have a question or issue to report? Send a message to the moderators and let them know.
Do you enjoy using this site and other online resources provided by the Theosophical Society in America? Would you like to contribute to these efforts? Click below to make a monetary donation. Your support is appreciated and will help us to add to the resources we offer online.
Events
© 2009 Created by The Theosophical Society
