Satsang with Giten on Buddha:
Bhumis – 10 Steps to Enlightenment
From satsang with Giten, February 25, 2016, in Stockholm
4. Radiance, Aliveness,
Vitality
The fourth Bhumi, the fourth grounding and development level, on the way to enlightenment, is ARSIMATI, which means radiance, aliveness and vitality.
Buddha says: Radiance, aliveness, vitality is the fourth Bhumi, the fourth grounding.
On the fourth Bhumi, the meditator and bodhisattva, the buddha in essence, is also developing the fourth Paramita VIDYA, which means energy and courage.
But ordinarily religious seekers have moved away from life, they have moved away from the world.
Religious seekers have become sleepy, dull and dead. They are not interested in the burden of life, so they are just somehow dragging on.
On the fourth Bhumi, the meditator cultivate the perfection of effort and elimination of afflictions to meditation. He also enter deeper into meditation for extended periods of time.
Be alive, be vital, because it is only through life that you will reach truth.
When we are vital and alive, we have an inner radiance around us.
On the fourth Bhumi, the meditator emits the inner radiance of wisdom.
– Swami Dhyan Giten
Satsang with Giten on Buddha:
Paramita – The Ten Provisions for the Inner Journey
From satsang with Giten, February 25, 2016, in Stockholm
4. Energy, Courage
The fourth Paramita is VIDYA, which means energy and courage.
A meditator and a bodhisattva, a Buddha in essence, need both energy and courage.
VIDYA stands for energy, courage and sustained effort to attain meditation and the persisted effort for the well being of others.
A meditator needs also to be continuously aware that this life energy is not leaking and that the energy is not wasted.
Ordinarily we are leaking and dissipating our life energy.
Infinite energy is given to us, but we dissipate the energy.
We are never sitting silently.
Meditation means to to sit silently, doing nothing.
That was what Buddha was doing under the Bodhi Tree.
He was not doing anything.
He was simply sitting silently, where there was not leakage of energy.
Then the energy was reaching higher and higher.
The energy reached to the Sahasrar, the seventh chakra. It reached the ultimate.
There was a flowering and Buddha became a lotus flower.
We have the same energy, but whenever we have the energy, the desire to throw it away arises in us.
We can call it a sexual urge or we can call it different desires and attachments.
But if we allow the energy to gather inside us, the energy rises higher and higher until it touches higher altitudes of being.
That is what Samadhi is.
The third Bhumi is learning not to dissipate energy.
In the book “Presence – Working from Within: The Psychology of Being”, I talk about the seven chakras, the seven levels of consciousness:, which is a development from sexuality to spirituality, to Samadhi:
THE SEVEN LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
– THE SEVEN STEPS THAT AN INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE
IN HIS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS TOWARDS SPIRITUAL MATURITY
What are the seven levels of consciousness? What life areas include the seven levels of consciousness? The seven levels of consciousness describe the seven steps that an individual goes through in his personal and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity. The seven levels of consciousness describe the whole rainbow of our consciousness. It describes all possibilities of our being. The seven levels of consciousness are also called the chakra system and is a map of human consciousness.
The development process of the seven levels of consciousness is a process from fear to love, from darkness to light and from separation to wholeness.
The seven levels of consciousness are about the esoteric psychology of man, the psychology of consciousness. It is about the psychology of enlightenment, the science of inner transformation.
The chakra system is the seven jewels of human consciousness. It describes the seven life areas and dimensions of the human consciousness, which can help us discover a new clarity and a deeper dimension in relation to many areas of life, for example love, joy, feelings, relationships, awareness, communication, the inner man and woman, intuition, play, creativity, healing, meditation, silence, truth, wisdom and wholeness.
The chakra system seeks to develop and integrate the physical, emotional, psychological, mental, social and spiritual aspects of our being into one coherent whole.
The development process of the chakra system includes the process from the personality, the psychological “I”, to the inner being, the authentic self, the development process of concrete and abstract thinking, the development process from seeing only one’s own needs to developing empathy, the capacity to understand the needs of another person, and the process of understanding the relation between level of awareness and working with people.
The chakra system relates both to the development process of the individual, to countries and to the whole world.
Light on the chakras
What is a chakra? How do the three lower and the three higher chakras relate to each other? The word “chakra” means “spinning wheel” in the ancient language Sanskrit. There are seven chakras, seven energy wheels in the body that moves clockwise. These charkas receive energy from the universal energy field, which is everywhere around us. The equivalent to the chakra system in the physical body is the endocrine glands, which regulates the hormones in the body.
Ckakras are the energy centers that take in universal energy, which we need to be alive.
Each chakra or awareness level is an energy center, which describes different life areas and psychological development issues in life. Each chakra also relates to a certain area in the body.
Each chakra plays a vital role both when it comes to physiological functions and to the development of our consciousness. The chakras relates to biological and physiological functions, to colors and light and to the development of our level of awareness.
The chakra system describes the three general development stages that an individual goes through in his psychological development: the animal, the man and the divine. The first three chakras belong to the animal and are about the themes survival, sex, power and money. The heart is a bridge between the animal and the divine. Love is the bridge between the animal and the divine.
Below the heart, man is an animal. Through the heart, man discovers the human within himself. Above the heart, man discovers the divine within himself.
The seven levels of consciousness are:
1. Survival – Grounding, Coordination and Physical Survival
2. Sensations – Feelings, Sexuality and Satisfaction
3. Power – Vitality, Strength and Self-sufficiency
4. The heart – Unconditional Love and Acceptance
5. Communication – Learning to Be Creative
6. Vision – Learning to Know Our Self
7. Unity- Opening to Universal Consciousness
The first three levels relate to the personality, the psychological I, and the outer world. The heart is the fourth level, which is a bridge between the three lower levels and the three higher levels. The heart is a bridge between the three lower and the three higher charkas. The heart is the river between the outer and the inner self, between the personality, the psychological self, and the inner being, the authentic self.
The three lower chakras belong to the physical world. The heart is the golden bridge between the physical and spiritual world. The three higher chakras belong to the spiritual world.
The first chakra represents our relationship to the body, to the earth, and the seventh chakra represents our relationship to consciousness, to the sky.
The power chakra relates to the inner man, to the surface and periphery of our consciousness. The power chakra relates to the outer world.
The heart is the door to the inner woman, to the meditative quality within ourselves, to the inner source of healing and wholeness, to the inner capacity to surrender to life. The heart is the door to the inner world.
The three higher chakras relates to our inner being, the authentic self, and to the inner world.
This division in higher and lower chakras is only schematic. It does not mean to valuate chakras in better or worse. The key to understanding chakras is to learn to live in all chakras. Chakras are also connected with each other in pairs. The first chakra Survival and the seventh chakra Unity are, for example, connected with each other like body and soul, earth and heaven. It means that the higher we spread our wings in spirituality, the more we also need to find the natural roots in the body. It was an insight for me when I was working out with weight lifting in the gym one day, and suddenly had an insight that I was actually developing my spirituality by working on my first chakra through physical training. This insight gave me a both concrete and profound understanding of the relationship between the first and seventh chakra. It was an insight that there is really no division between body and soul, between matter and spirituality – it is one whole.
I have preferred the three higher chakras before, but now I also begin to appreciate the three lower chakras and to live in all seven chakras.
A chakra can also be overactive, under active or balanced. In the description below of each chakra, it will be described what it means for each chakra to be overactive, under active or balanced.
The seven levels of consciousness are about learning to accept and appreciate all steps and levels of our psychological and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity. It helps us to see that both positive and negative experiences are teachers in life to help us to become spiritually mature. It is about learning to love the imperfect and incomplete within ourselves.
The psychological and spiritual development process of the chakra system can be described as a building with seven floors. Understanding the development process through the chakra system is a process of seeing the world from a within-and- out perspective, rather than from an outside-and-in perspective. We create our own reality through our ideas, attitudes and concepts – and these concepts can lie on different levels of consciousness. This can be compared with a building. For example, you have a building in Stockholm, where you live in the cellar. In this cellar, you have two or three small windows, and your perspective of Stockholm is through people’s feet when they pass by the windows. But if you instead take the elevator up to the seventh floor, you are still in Stockholm, but now you have a greater view of Stockholm. You have more potential and more possibilities. But here something interesting happens in the psychological development process: in the outer world opposite energies attract each other for example positive and negative, man and woman and good and bad. But that is not true in the inner world: in the inner world similar energies attract each other and opposite energies repel each other.
The classic Indian book Bhagwadgita is about the struggle between light and darkness, between our lower and higher nature. The chakra system also includes the struggle between light and darkness, between good and evil, between awareness and unawareness and between separation and wholeness. The chakra system represents the choice between learning to listen to our intuition, to our inner source of love, truth and wisdom, or to listen to the endless desires of the ego.
Basic functions
1. Survival – Grounding, Coordination and Physical Survival
The first chakra or level of awareness is called Survival and relates to the physical body. It is also called Root chakra. Survival is placed at the bottom of the spine.
Survival represents our relationship to the physical body. It relates to physical grounding, coordination and survival. It relates to instincts, to physiological functions and basic biological functions for example thirst, hunger, sleep and work. It also relates to emotional needs such as safety, security and our will to live.
Survival is the first chakra, where we become conscious about ourselves.
The first level of awareness is about learning to take responsibility for oneself and to develop a basic trust in life that life supports us and takes care of us. It also relates to our relation to money, work and home. The first level of awareness relates to our capacity to generate money and understanding that Existence is abundance and not just a struggle for survival. Survival relates to taking responsibility for ourselves. When we are not grounded in the first chakra, it creates a doubt that life supports us and takes care of us.
When we are born, the Survival chakra is first activated. It develops from birth to about 3-4 years of age.
The first chakra is the center that gives the soul roots in the physical body. It is the base for our human existence in the physical world. If this chakra is blocked, it results in an individual that feels rootless both in his physical body and in his spiritual existence.
Through the first months of the relationship of love, care and union between mother and child, the physical and spiritual existence of the child is developed in a sublime way. In the love between mother and child, the physical world is joined together with the highest form of spiritual love. It is a melting together and a symbiosis between mother and child. That is why the first months are so important for the child, since this period gives the newborn child the essential base for his continued physical and spiritual development. If this first period between mother and child is shortened or is completely omitted, it can become difficult for the child to accept that he had to leave the spiritual plane to enter a body. It can create restlessness in the child, but it is also possible to heal this lack later in life.
When a mother lovingly takes care of her child, the light from their root chakras are melting together and their energies are joined together, so that the tie to the physical body that the child needs is strengthened and makes the separation from the spiritual plane easier for the child.
2. Sensations – Feelings, Sexuality and Satisfaction
The second chakra or level of awareness is called Sensations. It is placed three centimeters below the navel. Sensations is the center for feelings and relates to social needs, sensuality, sexuality, satisfaction and melting together with another person. It relates to feelings of anger, fear, sorrow and sympathy.
Sensations also relates to the ability to feel sympathy and being emotionally connected with other people.
The second level of awareness is about psychological issues in relation to other people, for example parents, family and friends. It relates to liberating oneself from parents in order to grow up to an integrated, independent and whole individual.
Sensations start to develop from 3 to 7 years of age.
The second level of awareness is focused on the needs of the individual, which primarily are governed by emotions.
The second level of awareness also relates to the relation between food, sex and emotional issues.
People who have been let down by other people often have problems trusting others. This creates a defensive attitude and keeping people at a distance, which relates to the second level of awareness.
3. Power – Vitality, Strength and Self-Sufficiency
The third chakra or level of awareness is called Power. It is placed in the area around the solar plexus. Power relates to psychological issues like power, strength, self-respect and self-sufficiency.
The third level of awareness is about developing a trust in our ego in order to be able to direct and control our life.
The power chakra is the center of the ego. It is about control, power and dominance over other people. A person who is on the level of awareness of power wants to change other people, but he does not want to change himself.
The power chakra is usually activated around 7-10 years of age. Children begin to become occupied with competition, achievement and to show their accomplishments around this age.
The power chakra also means to develop concrete logical and rational thinking, which primarily focus on one’s own needs, winning and self-sufficiency.
The power chakra relates to the outer world. It relates to the inner man, to the surface and periphery of our consciousness.
Ordinary relationships are often power relationships, which mean a fight and struggle between my needs and the needs of the partner. Often the two partners in a power relationship have the same strength in order to learn to develop their power through struggle and fighting. Strength and aloneness are also two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same phenomenon, and fear of expressing our strength is often a fear of aloneness, of being abandoned, and of not being loved and accepted.
Acting aggressively has its roots in fear, judgments and insecurity. Violence and aggressiveness is about control and dominance over another person. To judge and to love are two sides of the same coin. Judgments about another person are really about ourselves. When we stop judging others and ourselves, our hearts opens. The heart is a healer that transforms fear to love, judgments to acceptance and separation to wholeness. The heart heals.
The society is created out of the ego, and the need of the ego to create a hierarchy of power, status, respect, position, norms, roles and conformity. Many people in the West lives in the power chakra, and is occupied with competing with others to prove that they are somebody important, and finding their place in the hierarchy.
During the 20th Century, the psychological development level of humanity has been on the awareness level of the power chakra. The focus of humanity has been on power, dominance, position, status, money and control over energy resources. We are technologically advanced and the technology governs the development of the society, but this technology is at the same time destroying the earth. Energy resources are also distinguishing issues in the power balance between countries.
Working with people is basically a question of presence, awareness and energy. Chakras also relate to working with people and the third level of awareness relates to working individually with people.
On the third level of awareness, a person begins to ask himself the question: “Who am I?” He comes to a point in his psychological development when his drama, defenses and self-sufficiency no longer works, and he begins to search for something more. But what? He may not know what he is really searching, but there is a feeling of dissatisfaction, a lack of meaning, and an inner need to be in contact with himself, with other people and with life, in a more true, meaningful and real way. This is what Indian mystics have called “The dark night of the soul”. It is when the endless desires of the ego and the rewards of the outer world are no longer satisfying. The outer world seems dark and empty, and when he turns within himself to the inner world; it is also dark and empty. This is the point in a person’s development when he realizes that real power is love and compassion.
Power and strength is like a sharp sword. It can be used either for destructive or creative purposes. It takes awareness to learn to use the strength in a loving and creative way.
4. The heart – Unconditional Love and Acceptance
The forth chakra or level of awareness is the human heart. The heart relates to unconditional love and acceptance both for others and ourselves. It relates to qualities of empathy, joy, acceptance, trust, intuition, understanding, compassion, playfulness, healing, friendship, sincerity and a feeling of unity in love.
The heart chakra is the center in a system of seven chakras. The heart is the golden bridge, where the physical and spiritual worlds meet.
The heart is the most important chakra. The heart is the base for spiritual growth. It is the seed for unconditional love, for the inner capacity to feel love for all and everything.
Love is the create aspect of life. Societies that only emphasize intellectual and academic education create spiritually challenged people.
The heart is the golden key to the greatness of being a human being. It is through the human heart that mankind has made the greatest achievements. The human heart is the only way to save mankind out of the present situation in the world.
Humanity as a whole is in-between the power chakra and the heart in its psychological and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity.
The power chakra relates to the ego and the outer world. The power chakra relates to the inner man. The heart is the door to the inner world. The heart is the river between the inner and outer self, between the ego and the inner being, the authentic self. The heart is the door to the inner woman, the meditative quality within, the inner source of healing and wholeness.
The open heart is like a fountain, which no longer make any distinction between “I love you – I do not love you”. The open heart does not any longer make any distinction between friends and enemies. The open heart is open both for others and ourselves. The open heart is unconditional love.
When there is a genuine love between two people, there is a natural will to give, instead of demanding.
When our heart is closed, it can create a lonely and isolated feeling together with an attitude of: “Nobody loves me” or “Nobody cares about me, which can make it difficult for other people to love us.
Many people live without really being in contact with their own heart. They live without really being in contact with themselves. Their energy goes from the power chakra and makes a detour around the heart, and goes straight up to the Communication chakra.
During a period in my life, I felt that relationships with people just ended up in problems. I felt that relationships sooner or later ended up in a ditch. The two people in my life that I thought were my real friends, who I thought loved me and who I thought I could trust, had let me down. During this period I consciously decided to close my heart for a while. It surprised me when I realized that this is actually the way that many people live, without even being aware about what they are missing in their lives. This makes them emotionally and spiritually challenged. It leaves them without emphatic ability, without ability to understand either themselves or other people. It also leaves them without contact with their intuition, with their true inner voice, with their inner source of love, truth and wisdom. Instead they live their lives out of ideas, ideologies, and are directed from without themselves by other people and outer forces. Because of the lack of love in their lives, which would be really fulfilling, they seek a substitute instead in respect, status, fame, money, power and position.
The heart relates to developing abstract logical and rational thinking. The heart is also about developing empathy, the capacity to understand the situation of another person, and to see beyond our own needs and understand the needs of another person.
The level of awareness of a person also relates to how a person eats. On the level of awareness of the heart, a person becomes attracted to simple vegetarian food. This is also a help for the continued spiritual growth. It is like tuning our inner instrument.
Blocks in the heart chakra manifest itself as heart problems, a decreased immune system, and a lack of empathy and compassion.
Healing is pure love. The human heart is a healer, which heals both others and ourselves.
Working with people is basically a question of presence, awareness and energy. Chakras also relate to working with people and the fourth level of awareness relates to working with groups of people. To work with groups of people, the therapist needs to have achieved the level of awareness of the heart. The therapist needs to be available with a quality of presence and heartfulness to be able to work with a group of people in a relaxed way.
Intuition is a function of the heart. Intuition is our true inner voice, our constant available inner source of love, truth and wisdom, the silent voice of Existence within. Through the intuition, we are in contact with Existence. Our heart is the door to how much we can allow life to guide us, instead of being directed by our ideas, attitudes and learned concepts of how things should be.
The human heart has both an active and outgoing quality, and a receptive and ingoing quality. The outgoing quality of the heart is active love, and the ingoing quality of the heart is to allow both ourselves and others to love us.
A beautiful friend of mine once told me that she had a reading of her heart chakra, and that she was told that her heart chakra had the quality of a faithful and trusting dog. She was very cute when she told me this with a slightly ironical tone. She would probably have preferred to have a heart chakra with a more challenging, mysterious and adventurous quality.
Our heart is the door to allow Existence to guide us. Our heart is the door to surrender to life. Our heart is the door to our inner being, to the inner world. When we begin to open our heart, we realize that we are a part of life, a part of the Whole.
Above the heart, we need a teacher and a guide. It is somebody who “knows”, who has walked further on the path than us, and who can guide, encourage and inspire us. There is an Indian saying: “When the disciple is ready, the teacher appears”.
5. Communication – Learning to Be Creative
The fifth chakra or level of awareness is called Communication. It is placed in the throat. Communication is related to creativity and the capacity to communicate. It is about recognizing our creative potential, and its function is creativity and communication both in relation to ourselves and to other people.
On the fifth level of awareness, we begin to develop the second life area Creativity.
The fifth level of awareness is also called Creative center, since a healing process occurs when we bring things from within ourselves out in the light and share it with others. When our Communication chakra is closed, the result can instead become confusion and a lack of distance to ourselves.
On the fifth level of awareness, we become like a comedian. We begin to discover a humor, awareness and a distance to our personality, to our thoughts, feelings and psychological attitudes. We begin to be able to laugh at ourselves and to take success and failure with a laugh.
On the development level of the Communication chakra, our love becomes more and more meditative.
On the fifth level of awareness, we realize that we are not the physical body. We are not identified any longer with the body.
Working with people is basically a question of presence, awareness and energy. Chakras also relate to working with people and the fifth chakra relates to working with large groups of people. The focus of working with people on the fifth level of awareness changes from the nation to the whole world, to the whole planet. Eric Rolf, international therapist and consultant, author of the book Soul Medicine and a precious friend of mine since many years, described this as being a global personality.
A country that has developed the fifth level of awareness focuses on equality, where issues like injustice, racism and socio-economic rifts in society need to be solved.
The more aspects of our being that we develop, the richer and more creative our life becomes.
6. Vision – Learning to Know Our Self
The sixth chakra or level of awareness is called vision. It is placed in the middle of the eyebrows. It is also called the third eye. The theme for this chakra is to dissolve the feeling of being a separate “I” and to unidentify ourselves with the ego.
When the sixth level of awareness is not developed, there is still identification with the ego, with the separate “I”, and a feeling of separation from Existence.
On the sixth level of awareness we stand on the threshold of physical existence, where all duality and opposite tendencies, for example masculine and feminine, light and darkness, intellect and intuition and life and death, begins to dissolve and disappear. Through awareness and understanding, we can see beyond the personality to our inner being, to our essence and authentic self. We discover the inner being, the silent place within ourselves, which is the inner watcher of the drama of the outer life, and where nothing ever happens.
The physical body manifests the duality of life and of opposite tendencies through two pair of legs, arms, ears and eyes, while the position of the third eye indicates the dissolution of the duality of life.
On the sixth level of awareness, meditation becomes a thirst in our heart and being. It is a thirst after truth. It is also on the sixth level of awareness that we begin to develop the third life area Meditation.
When we begin to open the third eye, our thirst and commitment increases to discover our inner being, to understand the ultimate mystery of life, and to become one with Whole.
I remember an insight that taught me much about life. One day I felt that I had everything that I really wanted in life. I had a creative and meaningful work as a therapist and course leader, I had a relationship with a beautiful woman, who I loved and who loved me, I had friends that I trusted, and I had money to do what I wanted. But in spite of all this, I still had a feeling that there was something missing in my life. I was not satisfied. The thirst and longing in my heart was still searching for something more. It made me realize that the deepest pain in my heart was that I was still separated from the Whole, and that no relationships and things outside of myself could ease this pain.
On the development level of the Vision chakra, love is no longer a relationship. Love becomes a presence and a quality of our being. Love becomes a natural quality in our aura. It is no longer a question of loving a certain person, we simply are love. We are unconditional love.
The sixth level of awareness also relates to ordinary logical thinking with capacity to handle a lot of facts and information. The sixth level of awareness is also the center for intuition and awareness. It relates to a specific form of intuition, which is called clairvoyance. Clairvoyance means clear seeing and is described in Patanjalis book Yoga Sutras as one of the siddhis or psychic powers that a devoted meditator develops. Clairvoyance is a form of intuition, which is not limited in time and space. Through clairvoyance we can remember past lives, which can help us understand unconscious psychological patterns from past lives, and give us a broader perspective of life.
Another psychic quality that is developed on the sixth level of awareness is a telepathic perception and sensitivity, which gives us the insight that no man is an island in the ocean of consciousness. We are all parts of the same whole, we are all small individual rivers on our way towards the same ocean and on the inner plane we are continuously in contact with each other.
Working with people is basically a question of presence, awareness and energy and chakras also relates to working with people. On the fifth level of awareness, the focus expanded to include the planet. On the sixth level of awareness, the focus expands from the planet to include the cosmos.
Blocks in the vision chakra manifest as problems with the eyes.
The difference between an artist that has developed his creativity to the awareness level of Communication, and a mystic on the awareness level of Vision, is that the artist has both his eyes focused outwards to the outer world, while the mystic has one eye focused outwards to the outer world, and one eye focused inwards to the inner world. An artist is not a mystic, but a mystic can also be an artist.
7. Unity – Opening to Universal Consciousness
The seventh chakra or level of awareness is called Unity. It is also called The Crown Chakra. It is placed on top of the head. Unity relates to opening to universal consciousness, to receive the ultimate wisdom.
The seventh level of awareness relates to learning to know God. It relates to truth, unconditional love, to enlightenment and to the experience of being one with the Whole.
The experience of the seventh chakra is an experience beyond words. It is an experience of joy and freedom beyond words. It is to be everything and nothing at the same time. It is to discover that we have really never been separated from life. It is to be in a deep unity and harmony with Existence. Our separate little individual river has finally joined with the ocean of consciousness, with the Whole.
When we have begun to open the seventh chakra, the thousand petalled lotus flower opens. We have learnt the lesson of life. Our inner tree has given fruit. We have become spiritually mature.
The word ”religion” originally means ”to return to the source”. It means to rediscover the contact with our inner being, with the source of life within ourselves. The deepest pain in our heart is that we are disconnected from our inner being, that we are separated from life. The deepest thirst and longing in our heart is to return to our being, where we are one with life.
The goal of meditation is enlightenment. In the depth of our being, we are already enlightened. We are an inseparable part of Existence, but we have forgotten our true nature. We have forgotten our inner Buddha. Meditation is the way to discover our inner being, our authentic self, our inner Buddha. Enlightenment is the fruit of meditation. It is to realize the highest attainment in human consciousness. It is to climb the inner Mount Everest.
I was 9 years old when I had my first glimpse of wholeness. It was early Christmas morning and I was standing in my pajamas in the living room, and looked out of the large windows. Outside the windows, white snowflakes effortlessly and slowly singled down towards a silent, snow-clad landscape. Suddenly I was filled with a feeling of being one with the slowly dancing snowflakes, one with the silent landscape. I did not understand then that this was my first taste of meditation, but it created a deep thirst and longing in my heart to return to this natural and effortless experience of being one with the Whole.
Each human being is unique; each human being contains a divine spark, an aspect of God. We are much more than we think we are. The mystery of life is that it is impossible to understand, but we can live life. We can never really understand life, but we can become one with life. We can become one with the dance of life, one with the ultimate mystery of life.
I had a magical day during one Sunday when I walked out in nature. On the outside this day just consisted of taking a walk out in the beautiful sunny weather and cleaning my apartment, but on the inside everything suddenly changed. When I walked out in nature in the sunny weather, there was suddenly a silent explosion within me, and my whole perception of reality changed. In a single moment, everything changed – although nothing on the outside had really changed. Everything on the outside was exactly as before, but my way of seeing had changed. The difference was that before I did not see, and now I could see. My eyes were open. Suddenly I was one with everything, one with the stones, one with the trees, and one with the people that I meet on my walk. My heart danced with joy together with a feeling of: ”I am God”. Not that I am the creator of everything, but that I am part of the whole, part of the divine. It felt like coming home, that Existence is my home. I saw that even if the people that I meet did not understand that they are a part of the Whole, they still are a part of the Whole. I felt the waves of Existence in my own heart and being, and I felt like a small wave in a great ocean. It gave me a taste of the eternal, a taste of the limitless and boundless source of creativity. In just a few moments, I learnt more than during 20 years in university. Wisdom is basically the understanding that we are all a part of the Whole. We are all small rivers moving towards the ocean. I laughed at the fact that enlightenment is really our innate birthright, and that small children already lives in this mystical unity with the Whole.
This unity with the Whole does not mean that our unique individuality disappears. It means that the richer our life experience is, and the more qualities of our being that we have developed, the richer the quality of our enlightenment becomes.
When we realize that we are one with life, the world becomes our home. We are at home everywhere.
– Swami Dhyan Giten
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