Eternal Self (eBook)

The Tantra Science of Consciousness

Phil Nuernberger (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
196 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-0991-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Eternal Self is the product of 50 years of practice in the science of Tantra Yoga in the U.S. and the Himalaya Mountains of Nepal and India. Tantra Yoga, a spiritual science of Consciousness, creates a life of balance and joy. Religion and philosophy tell you WHAT to do; Tantra Yoga shows you HOW to be. Tantra shares the fundamental requirements of science: experimentation, replication and verification. However, Tantra explores Consciousness and reality through introspection and direct experience rather than analyzing material phenomenon. Eternal Self explores the mystery of Consciousness, maps the principles of Pure Consciousness as the source of energy that manifests material reality. Simultaneously, Pure Consciousness remains the core personal consciousness called the spiritual-Self, or soul. These spiritual principles are surprisingly similar to the quantum vacuum of modern physics. Eternal Self presents a unique analysis of the mind as an energetic field consisting of thought-constructs as energy patterns. It maps the relationship of the spiritual-Self to the energy systems of chakras and subtle senses and the objective reality including the physical body. Our most important personal skill is the ability to focus attention. Eternal Self clarifies the nature of concentration and its impact on the mind. It describes how curiosity intensifies focus, and how fear damages the mind and the ability to focus. Tantra science provides methods for mystical transcendence, but its great practical value is its transformational power, leading to greater emotional intelligence and spiritual realization. The introspective tools and methods of Tantra science dissolve ego issues that are the sources of imbalance, suffering and dysfunction in ourselves, and thus in our families, organizations, and nations. Eternal Self explores the full realization of our humanity, and describes the foundation for a spiritual humanism through transformation and transcendence.

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Eternal Self is a practical explanation of the power of Tantra Yoga, an introspective, spiritual science of Consciousness, to create a life of balance, harmony and joy. This book is the product of 50 years of practice, study, and teaching the science of Tantra Yoga, both in the United States and the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal and Northern India. While religion, philosophy, and even science tells you WHAT you should do to achieve this, Tantra Yoga shows you HOW. Through simple tools, such as breathing, concentration, meditation, and other practices, we expand our normally limited awareness to the spiritual-Self, the spiritual core of Consciousness within each of us. Eternal Self begins by exploring the mystery of Consciousness. It then shows how Tantra science shares the fundamental requirements of all science: experimentation, replication and verification. However Tantra explores reality, and in particular Consciousness, through direct introspective experience rather than analyzing material phenomenon. Yoga science understood both mind and matter as energetic structures thousands of years before modern quantum physics. Although Tantra Yoga is a spiritual science, it has more in common with modern science than with organized religion. Eternal Self outlines how each of us participates in this creative process although in contracted, limited ways. This is accomplished through the energetic body that is the underlying reality of our physical body, including the brain. The book shows that through the chakras and subtle senses we experience the energetic quantum reality as a see/touch objective reality. Through systematic meditative practices, we become conscious of these powerful energy centers and utilize them for personal and spiritual growth. The finest instrument we have for material and spiritual success is our mind, but it also prevents us from experiencing the spiritual-Self. Eternal Self presents a unique analysis of the mind as an energetic field consisting of thought-constructs as energy patterns. It maps the relationship of the spiritual-Self (soul) to the energetic Subtle Body involving the chakras and subtle senses, and the physical body and the objective reality. It recognizes that each individual mind is part of a greater energetic field consisting of all human thought that Carl Jung called the "e;Collective Unconscious."e; Eternal Self describes the four functions of the mind and the power of each to create knowledge. Our single most important personal skill is the ability to focus attention, to concentrate. Eternal Self clarifies the nature of attention/concentration and its impact on the mind. It describes the power of curiosity to intensify our focus, and the great damage that fear does to all levels of the mind and the ability to focus. Tantra science provides the method of transcendence, or mystical experience, but its practical utility and value lies in its transformational power to enhance intelligence, substantially increase emotional intelligence, and lead to spiritual realization. Eternal Self speaks to the fact that all organizations (political, economic, religious, social) are only as healthy and effective as the egos that lead them. The introspective tools and methods of Tantra science gently dissolve the ego issues that are the sources of imbalance, suffering and dysfunction in ourselves, and thus in our organizations, cultures, and nations. It provides a prescription to develop spiritual humanism through education by utilizing the powerful tools of concentration, stillness, and introspection provided by Tantra and other meditative traditions.

Textauszug

Chapter One

The Mystery of Consciousness

There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio,

then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Mooji, a spiritual teacher from the Caribbean, offered this little lesson. Let’s pretend that a very powerful and magical genie suddenly appeared before you and offered you everything you wanted – fame, fortune, loving friends and family, security, even eternal life. The only catch was that you would have to give up your consciousness. What would you do? Notice he did not say, “give up your soul,” which would be a more typical approach. Rather, the price would be your consciousness.

Think about the ramifications of this. If you weren’t conscious, what would be the benefit of anything? If you aren’t conscious, then for you, nothing exists, so the offer would have no value whatsoever. It’s not difficult to get a sense of how central “consciousness” is to life. Over the years, everything in your life seems to have changed – your body, your thoughts, friends, diet, even the things you do for entertainment. Change is a true constant of life. But there is one thing that has not changed at all. It is your consciousness, or awareness, of all these things. This awareness may have expanded or contracted, but even as it changes in degree, it is the same awareness or consciousness. We know the subtleties of the material reality only because, and to the degree that, we become conscious of them. The entire history of science, for example, is one of expanding our awareness, becoming conscious of more and more subtle realities.

Consciousness, the most obvious of realities, is also the most mysterious. It is something we all experience, and yet we experience times when it seems to disappear. We seldom think about it, and when we do, it’s usually because we are concerned about not having it or it seems unnecessarily diminished. Scientists try to ignore it, but quantum physics, the most sophisticated science of all, has run headlong into it, and does not know what to do with it.

Definitions from a dictionary don’t really shed any light on what consciousness actually is. We all “know,” of course, that we are either conscious or not, so what is the mystery? But with a few moments of thought, the mystery of consciousness unfolds in numberless ways. For instance:

1. When we fall asleep, most people lose awareness, or consciousness. But on waking, we are aware that we did dream. Many people are aware of their dreams as they occur. In fact, we can be fully conscious while we are dreaming, change them with ease, or stop them completely, and do so without waking up. This is called Lucid Dreaming and easily learned with a bit of practice. Not only can we consciously direct the content of our dreams, it is possible to actually project our awareness to other physical locations. In other words, we can “travel” with our conscious awareness and be aware of what is happening while we are sleeping. Those who study and practice lucid dreaming say that this ability can be developed through lucid dreaming practices.

   As a young boy, a personal friend was consistently able to be conscious of the roof of his home while sleeping. He felt himself move out of his body and move above the roof. During this time, he was able to accurately see which tiles on the roof were loose, and report these tiles to his father the next day. His father would check, and would replace the exact tiles that his son reported. Another individual, a contractor in Minneapolis and friend of my father-in-law, was able to “travel” with his awareness while he was dreaming. He would regularly visit close family in California, and was accurately knowledgeable about their activities. This ability did not seem at all strange to him. While most scientists may disregard these events, many of us have had similar experiences or know of others who have had similar experiences. So the concept that consciousness is only a quality of the waking state is already patently false.

2. During deep sleep, again, we are supposedly unconscious. But how is it that we know we had deep sleep? Somehow, there must be some awareness of this deep sleep or we would not recall having it at all. If something occurs halfway around the world, we normally wouldn’t claim to be aware that it happened. Yet we do this with deep sleep all the time. It is also quite possible to be fully conscious while in deep sleep, as research at the Menninger Clinic with the yoga master Swami Rama proved back in the late 1960’s. While in deep sleep, producing delta waves and even snoring gently, Swami Rama was fully conscious of everything going on in the room, as well as in other parts of the building. In yoga science, this is called yoga nidra, being fully conscious while the mind and body are experiencing deep sleep. Again, this is something that can be learned if one is willing to do the practice.
3. There is evidence that we can be conscious of events that happen in distant time and space in our waking state as well. In the above example, Swami Rama was fully aware of what was happening in other rooms in the building while in deep sleep. The author personally experienced this remarkable ability of Swami Rama a number of times during his long discipleship with Swami Rama. One example is a phone call made from the United States to India in the presence of the author when Swami Rama teased a close disciple for not following through with a task that she was doing at the time he called. This long-distance awareness is more common than one might suppose. Many of us have experienced, or know others who have, being aware that something – an accident, or a death – has happened to a distant loved one or close friend at the time it happened.

   Moreover, there is solid research evidence for telepathy, remote viewing and telesomatic effects such as distant healing through prayer. As Ervin Laszlo points out in his book, Science and the Akashic Field, there is irrefutable evidence that human beings, even animals, have a transpersonal connection through consciousness that is not limited by space or time, or the speed of light. Laszlo states, “It appears that even ‘normal’ people possess ‘paranormal’ powers.”

4. The technical ability to bring individuals back from death has opened a can of worms concerning consciousness for Western science. There is increasingly available solid and conclusive scientific data that individuals, who are brain dead, with no heartbeat, are fully conscious of what is happening to their body and in their surroundings. These are referred to as near-death experiences (NDEs). It is becoming difficult to deny that individual consciousness survives physical death.

   Pim van Lommel M.D., a world-renowned Dutch cardiologist, has spent a lifetime studying the near death experiences of his cardiac patients. His research is presented in his very interesting book, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience.3 Of course, there continues to be materialistic scientists and skeptics who offer rather ludicrous reasons for this research and these experiences, even some going so far as to attack the researchers, claiming that the research is faked. But it’s interesting how when one of these researchers has the experience themselves, they change their tune.4

5. When someone is in a deep coma, we typically think of him or her as being unconscious, but as science and experience has shown, this is not necessarily accurate. Individuals in deep coma with no reaction to sensory stimuli have been shown to be fully aware of what people are saying and doing in their surroundings. Often the individual may be aware of what is going on or being said, but simply unable to respond in any way or in extremely limited ways like a tightening of the hand or a facial muscle.
6. After 100 years of brain research, no one has been able to demonstrate where consciousness emerges from or even if it is localized in the brain. Nor is there any evidence even suggesting that a quantum particle or collection of particles creates Consciousness as the physicist Roger Penrose suggests.
7. Consciousness has become a central problem in quantum mechanics, in no small part because the evidence is clear that, as physics has shown, electrons and photons don’t even seem to materially exist until we measure them in some way. In other words, until we become conscious of them.
8. Throughout history, most people have believed in some after-life. Although belief is certainly not evidence, this belief has been pervasive throughout human history. The question is, if consciousness does not survive physical death, how will you know that you are in heaven or hell unless you are conscious of this heaven or hell?

The well-known philosopher René Descartes once said “Cogito, ergo sum,” which means, “I think, therefore I am.” But Descartes, like most western philosophers, was overly enamored with thought and the process of thinking. Simply because one thinks does not alone prove existence. After all, there are times when all of us do not “think” at all, such as in deep sleep. If thinking was the only proof of existence, then we must pop in and out of existence every...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.5.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-0991-X / 109830991X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-0991-6 / 9781098309916