u/Battle_Glaive_327

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The universe quietly calls to people when it’s their time to awaken spiritually. How soon they awaken depends on how receptive they are. The Bible uses the analogy of a farm to represent the human heart. If the soil is fertile, deep, and tilled, the seeds of truth flourish and sprout in it. But if the soil is dry, rocky, and shallow the seeds do not grow properly and wither away. If the seeds do not get buried deep within the soil, they can get washed away and eaten by birds. 
Similarly if a person’s heart is distracted by the cares of the world they may miss the invitation to grasp the opportunity to awaken spiritually. Success and wealth can make a person proud and selfish. When all your mental energy is employed to get further in the rat race, or to portray a successful image to the world, you will lack the willingness and capacity to respond to the call. This is like the seeds falling on rocky ground.

Awakening spiritually usually involves a new desire to abandon vain pursuits and the goals that were laid down by the ego. It is an internal transformation in which old interests and motivations are replaced with more noble ones. You no longer enjoy competition and building material wealth starts to take a secondary place to developing a positive character. 
An awakened person values maintaining a high vibrational energy field. When their energy is disturbed by negative people, they feel it acutely and immediately get the urge to return to their home base where they can recover. Awakening activates a person’s sense of compassion and they start to care more about the moral aspects of their decisions. When they see other people suffer they can feel it too, and they spring into action in an attempt to make a difference. 

One can notice certain shifts in thought when the awakening process starts. For example, one day you attend a concert that you normally would find entertaining. As you’re standing in the crowd observing the mass of people moving to the rhythm of the music, you realize something strange. They all seem to be captivated by their emotions and merged with the movements of the group. You feel as though you’re observing this from another standpoint like someone who is immune to all influences. Your mind becomes fully present and you wonder why you haven’t seen the revelry in this way before. You consider for a moment what your priorities have been and what you’ve been striving for, and it seems unimportant now. You then snap out of your epiphany and return to the music and dance. 

These realizations may be soft at first but over time they add up and lead you to make a decision about your life path. You may notice synchronicities happen occasionally that alert you to the brevity of life or to the fact that you’re living in an illusion. Perhaps you become frighteningly ill, or even come close to a near death experience. This causes you to reevaluate your purpose and what you aim to accomplish in life. Many things we take for granted until we realize that they can disappear in a moment. When we’re grateful for the relationships and physical health we have it decreases the discontentment in our minds and our joy grows.

The more you wake up spiritually, the more you are attracted to the simple things in life. Something as mundane as sitting with a warm blanket on a rainy day looking at the drops of water falling against the window brings comfort to you. The ordinary experiences in life take on a magical quality and your addiction to instant gratification fades away gradually. You’re no longer feverishly chasing after your next “hit” to make you forget about the pain inside. Now you are at peace and it's a kind of peace that’s not dependent on your surroundings. The peace of an awakened person is stable because they know that it comes from within and therefore they need not be afraid of losing something external to them. 

A person who has paid attention to the soft calls of the universe is like the seeds falling on fertile soil. They learn to filter out the noise of meaningless entertainment, and pick out the spiritual gems when they come by. Then when it's time for them to contribute and take part in enlightening other people, they are ready to jump into the fray.

If you’re someone who is already interested in awakening, chances are you're already on that journey. For the person caught up in the matrix, a spiritual awakening usually hits them in the head like the apple falling on Isaac Newton's head. The beer drinking, skirt chasing Joe would need to reach rock bottom before he becomes motivated to research the esoteric methods of enlightening his consciousness. 

The problem is that being a good person doesn't usually bring you immediate worldly rewards. In reality it's the other way round. It's a life riddled with misunderstandings, loss, and resistance. Jesus never invited people to follow Him saying that they'll become rich and have lots of friends. You need to be able to appreciate the positive path for the right reasons.

I’ve changed my beliefs multiple times over my lifetime. There was a period when I became disillusioned with religion and I lost faith in God. There were other moments when I was in rapture at the wonder of the Creation, and passionately pursued divine knowledge. My opinion and views of religion in general have changed over time, but I can say that there is a hidden purpose behind religion. The following are what I think are the pros and cons of religion:

Let’s do a thought experiment on what it would be like if religion did not exist on Earth. From the Christian perspective, the scriptures offer people a way of clearing their guilt and shame. As human beings we’re continuously tempted in our daily life and give in to bad decisions. We get angry, frustrated, jealous, anxious, sad, and when we react based on these negative emotions it results in a spiral of more low vibration feelings that causes blockages in our lower three energy centers. In Christianity, the teaching is that Jesus incarnated as a man to live a pure life and make an atoning sacrifice in order that we may be forgiven and cleansed of our sins. This is known as the Gospel of salvation.

The Gospel offers people an external solution to their patterns of negative attitudes and behavior. In this paradigm they are taught to rely on the teachings from the Church and the Bible, carrying out habits that will indirectly cultivate a righteous state of being within them. Regardless of whether the religious dogmas of Christianity are true or not, the system does intend to lead lost souls towards higher states of being. The teachings of Jesus are based on love, and if someone is immersed in an environment which promotes such teachings they could be influenced positively by the principle of osmosis.

Another aspect to Christianity which is an important consideration for those interested in spiritual awakening is that it offers a guideline for living by faith. By living by faith I mean the ability to appreciate that whatever happens to you in life is meant to happen for a higher purpose. For Christians this is their belief that God will provide for them and lead them to make good decisions. To put it in another way, it is being aware that the Universe or your higher Self arranges events and circumstances in your life in such a way as to allow you to gain the most spiritual development as possible in accordance with your path of spiritual evolution. Certain things happen to you so that your soul can make polarizing choices which either nudge you towards the positive path or away from it.

In Eastern religions, spiritual teachings are more direct although they are still veiled in the form of stories, mythology and traditions. Gurus and spiritual masters plainly encourage devotees to focus on internal development and get to know themselves. This kind of spiritual education gradually uncovers illusions and personal patterns which a person’s ego puts in place. The result is humility, compassion, and a willingness to be of service to others. Let’s disregard the religious dogmas for a moment and recognize that underneath it all is a structure that leads people towards the light if they need it. There will be fake individuals and narcissists within any social group. Unfortunately the tendency is to judge the entire religion based on the behaviors of these prominent leaders. It is critical to base one’s judgements on the intention behind the religious teachings and make sure you know what the content is.

Everyone is at different stages in their spiritual journey. I risk sounding divisive, but certain people are more spiritually advanced than others. All people deserve love and should be treated fairly. The point is that there are not millions of enlightenment people such as Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna walking around. These spiritual masters, who have almost a mythical and miraculous reputation, are in short supply if not barely existent. With that said, the path of human evolution starts from the selfish personality and develops towards the loving personality devoted to service to others. The selfish, egoic personality controls and exploits the environment and other people to benefit the self. It sees the world and a collection of material objects and has not gained the metaphysical understanding that all is one.

For the adepts who are closer to the upper end of the spectrum of human evolution, relieving the suffering around them and maintaining a high vibration energy field becomes the priority in their lives. They tend to prefer to be in solitude, not because they are antisocial or dislike other people, but because they care about spiritual hygiene. The disconnected attitudes of lack and fear that they sense in the collective energy fields around them has a strong impact on their mental and psychological state. You desire to be in a world where people are honest and love each other, but you find yourself in a world which is full of the opposite. Spiritual adepts tend to feel more comfortable in religious settings even if they are only in partial agreement with the outer teachings. They enjoy the “music” of what is said on the pulpit or temple floor as opposed to the specific arguments that are made.

If there were no religions in the world, there would be no support for those people who are early in their spiritual journey. People would be left to wrestle with their own confusion and negative emotions, and this would lead to a staggering increase in crime. Otherwise, if the society is already civilized enough, it could lead to an increase in depression and loss of purpose. With the rise of the internet and social media, people are already losing the value of in-person relationships and the sense of being part of a community. Without religion to provide the system for moral support, there would be less of a reason to be a good person. The mythology, parables, and rituals used to indirectly cultivate positivity and integrity within the soul would be unavailable. The only thing left standing in the human vision would be survival of the fittest and winning the rat race. Compassion, kindness, and the value of life, would be left to the scattered spiritual adepts to protect all by themselves.

I’ve just dealt with the positive aspects of religion and now I’m going to focus on their negative side. Modern Christianity has some toxic ideas which are like weeds inserted among the good doctrines. There are problems in the areas of gender, the sinful human nature, and salvation by faith. Much of what is taught in churches today are based on the writings of Paul and contradict some of what was taught by Jesus. It would be more apt to call it Paulianity instead. The teaching that wives must submit to their husbands causes contention in marriages. The idea that we’re all born with a sinful nature and are unable to be good people is erratic. Jesus invited people to follow Him and copy His example because they were able to do it. If you believe that you’ll be saved simply by believing that Jesus died for you, you will build up a lot of karma by not allowing yourself to learn from the consequences of selfish behavior.

The disparity between scientific observation and the biblical origin story is an elephant in the room for a lot of people. I have a background in electronic engineering so I’m a very logical person and I appreciate scientific discovery. The idea of a young Earth of only 6000 years throws a spanner in the works of Christian dogma that just can’t be taken out. There is no evidence of any other planet that was formed in 7 days. Why would God stop creating new planets just because He created us? If we have a sinful nature that means extraterrestrial humans from other planets would also have to be assigned this sinful nature to be fair, and they would need to have their own incarnated Jesus to clean up their sins. It’s amazing what happens when one shifts your perspective to a broader viewpoint.

The teachings of Eastern philosophy can become negative in a different way. I’ve seen a way of thinking that is radically accepting of everyone. This paradigm may seem positive at first and ultimately it is true, but the world we live in is not in the “ultimate dimension”. We live in the third density of existence where evil does exist and you must be able to defend yourself against it. We have locks on our doors and police patrolling neighborhoods for a reason. If you’re focusing entirely on meditation, kirtan (devotional music), family celebrations, and energy, you miss out on learning about the forces of good and evil. Yes, everything is ultimately good, but evil exists in this world to help us polarize towards positivity. When you deny the existence of the immoral, you deny yourself the option to choose against it and actively relieve suffering in the world.

Eastern religion is also very ingrained with the culture where it originates. To fully participate in Hinduism you need to be familiar with Hindu culture and preferably be born into an Indian family. The same is true of Islam. It’s quite difficult to adapt to the Islamic religious practices as a revert when you’re alone. It would be easier to follow Islam if you were born into an Islamic family and learned Arabic growing up. These are not really negative things about these religions but it can produce a divisive mindset where you naturally draw a line between your belief system and the rest of the world. Keep in mind that I’m not suggesting that eastern religions openly teach exclusivity.

Religion can be very useful for you depending on where you’re at on your spiritual journey. Overall, I’d say religion is an important part of human civilization considering the effects it has had on society broadly speaking. It can be a sanctuary for the home sick spiritual adept, or a hospital for the lost soul seeking spiritual warmth.

The universe quietly calls to people when it’s their time to awaken spiritually. How soon they awaken depends on how receptive they are. The Bible uses the analogy of a farm to represent the human heart. If the soil is fertile, deep, and tilled, the seeds of truth flourish and sprout in it. But if the soil is dry, rocky, and shallow the seeds do not grow properly and wither away. If the seeds do not get buried deep within the soil, they can get washed away and eaten by birds. 
Similarly if a person’s heart is distracted by the cares of the world they may miss the invitation to grasp the opportunity to awaken spiritually. Success and wealth can make a person proud and selfish. When all your mental energy is employed to get further in the rat race, or to portray a successful image to the world, you will lack the willingness and capacity to respond to the call. This is like the seeds falling on rocky ground.

Awakening spiritually usually involves a new desire to abandon vain pursuits and the goals that were laid down by the ego. It is an internal transformation in which old interests and motivations are replaced with more noble ones. You no longer enjoy competition and building material wealth starts to take a secondary place to developing a positive character. 
An awakened person values maintaining a high vibrational energy field. When their energy is disturbed by negative people, they feel it acutely and immediately get the urge to return to their home base where they can recover. Awakening activates a person’s sense of compassion and they start to care more about the moral aspects of their decisions. When they see other people suffer they can feel it too, and they spring into action in an attempt to make a difference. 

One can notice certain shifts in thought when the awakening process starts. For example, one day you attend a concert that you normally would find entertaining. As you’re standing in the crowd observing the mass of people moving to the rhythm of the music, you realize something strange. They all seem to be captivated by their emotions and merged with the movements of the group. You feel as though you’re observing this from another standpoint like someone who is immune to all influences. Your mind becomes fully present and you wonder why you haven’t seen the revelry in this way before. You consider for a moment what your priorities have been and what you’ve been striving for, and it seems unimportant now. You then snap out of your epiphany and return to the music and dance. 

These realizations may be soft at first but over time they add up and lead you to make a decision about your life path. You may notice synchronicities happen occasionally that alert you to the brevity of life or to the fact that you’re living in an illusion. Perhaps you become frighteningly ill, or even come close to a near death experience. This causes you to reevaluate your purpose and what you aim to accomplish in life. Many things we take for granted until we realize that they can disappear in a moment. When we’re grateful for the relationships and physical health we have it decreases the discontentment in our minds and our joy grows.

The more you wake up spiritually, the more you are attracted to the simple things in life. Something as mundane as sitting with a warm blanket on a rainy day looking at the drops of water falling against the window brings comfort to you. The ordinary experiences in life take on a magical quality and your addiction to instant gratification fades away gradually. You’re no longer feverishly chasing after your next “hit” to make you forget about the pain inside. Now you are at peace and it's a kind of peace that’s not dependent on your surroundings. The peace of an awakened person is stable because they know that it comes from within and therefore they need not be afraid of losing something external to them. 

A person who has paid attention to the soft calls of the universe is like the seeds falling on fertile soil. They learn to filter out the noise of meaningless entertainment, and pick out the spiritual gems when they come by. Then when it's time for them to contribute and take part in enlightening other people, they are ready to jump into the fray.

If you’re someone who is already interested in awakening, chances are you're already on that journey. For the person caught up in the matrix, a spiritual awakening usually hits them in the head like the apple falling on Isaac Newton's head. The beer drinking, skirt chasing Joe would need to reach rock bottom before he becomes motivated to research the esoteric methods of enlightening his consciousness. 

The problem is that being a good person doesn't usually bring you immediate worldly rewards. In reality it's the other way round. It's a life riddled with misunderstandings, loss, and resistance. Jesus never invited people to follow Him saying that they'll become rich and have lots of friends. You need to be able to appreciate the positive path for the right reasons.

The universe quietly calls to people when it’s their time to awaken spiritually. How soon they awaken depends on how receptive they are. The Bible uses the analogy of a farm to represent the human heart. If the soil is fertile, deep, and tilled, the seeds of truth flourish and sprout in it. But if the soil is dry, rocky, and shallow the seeds do not grow properly and wither away. If the seeds do not get buried deep within the soil, they can get washed away and eaten by birds. 
Similarly if a person’s heart is distracted by the cares of the world they may miss the invitation to grasp the opportunity to awaken spiritually. Success and wealth can make a person proud and selfish. When all your mental energy is employed to get further in the rat race, or to portray a successful image to the world, you will lack the willingness and capacity to respond to the call. This is like the seeds falling on rocky ground.

Awakening spiritually usually involves a new desire to abandon vain pursuits and the goals that were laid down by the ego. It is an internal transformation in which old interests and motivations are replaced with more noble ones. You no longer enjoy competition and building material wealth starts to take a secondary place to developing a positive character. 
An awakened person values maintaining a high vibrational energy field. When their energy is disturbed by negative people, they feel it acutely and immediately get the urge to return to their home base where they can recover. Awakening activates a person’s sense of compassion and they start to care more about the moral aspects of their decisions. When they see other people suffer they can feel it too, and they spring into action in an attempt to make a difference. 

One can notice certain shifts in thought when the awakening process starts. For example, one day you attend a concert that you normally would find entertaining. As you’re standing in the crowd observing the mass of people moving to the rhythm of the music, you realize something strange. They all seem to be captivated by their emotions and merged with the movements of the group. You feel as though you’re observing this from another standpoint like someone who is immune to all influences. Your mind becomes fully present and you wonder why you haven’t seen the revelry in this way before. You consider for a moment what your priorities have been and what you’ve been striving for, and it seems unimportant now. You then snap out of your epiphany and return to the music and dance. 

These realizations may be soft at first but over time they add up and lead you to make a decision about your life path. You may notice synchronicities happen occasionally that alert you to the brevity of life or to the fact that you’re living in an illusion. Perhaps you become frighteningly ill, or even come close to a near death experience. This causes you to reevaluate your purpose and what you aim to accomplish in life. Many things we take for granted until we realize that they can disappear in a moment. When we’re grateful for the relationships and physical health we have it decreases the discontentment in our minds and our joy grows.

The more you wake up spiritually, the more you are attracted to the simple things in life. Something as mundane as sitting with a warm blanket on a rainy day looking at the drops of water falling against the window brings comfort to you. The ordinary experiences in life take on a magical quality and your addiction to instant gratification fades away gradually. You’re no longer feverishly chasing after your next “hit” to make you forget about the pain inside. Now you are at peace and it's a kind of peace that’s not dependent on your surroundings. The peace of an awakened person is stable because they know that it comes from within and therefore they need not be afraid of losing something external to them. 

A person who has paid attention to the soft calls of the universe is like the seeds falling on fertile soil. They learn to filter out the noise of meaningless entertainment, and pick out the spiritual gems when they come by. Then when it's time for them to contribute and take part in enlightening other people, they are ready to jump into the fray.

If you’re someone who is already interested in awakening, chances are you're already on that journey. For the person caught up in the matrix, a spiritual awakening usually hits them in the head like the apple falling on Isaac Newton's head. The beer drinking, skirt chasing Joe would need to reach rock bottom before he becomes motivated to research the esoteric methods of enlightening his consciousness. 

The problem is that being a good person doesn't usually bring you immediate worldly rewards. In reality it's the other way round. It's a life riddled with misunderstandings, loss, and resistance. Jesus never invited people to follow Him saying that they'll become rich and make lots of friends. You need to be able to appreciate the positive path for the right reasons.

To have faith in someone means we believe in their future prospects and remain confident in their abilities despite apparent failure. We do not give up on them if they take longer to carry out their endeavors than we expected. 

Similarly, when we set out to achieve our own goals we have faith that we will succeed based on our past  experiences and our self knowledge. We might not know precisely how we would go about completing certain objectives but we believe that we'll figure it out when we cross the bridge. 

Faith has this characteristic of not needing clear vision. To have faith we do not need all the calculations to be done, to have all our decisions planned, or to be certain that we'll receive support. Faith is the state of knowing that everything will be okay regardless of the current situation.

Your future might not turn out the way you expect it to, and you may get disappointed but when you have faith it's easier to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. What has happened to you was meant to happen, and if you had a change of heart, that is also meant to be.

We live in times where our spiritual education must be accelerated. I think the reason we don't live hundreds of years is because we can reincarnate more frequently with a shorter lifespan. This way we get more lessons done in a shorter period of time. This may be necessary because the Earth is changing and we're transitioning into a new spiritual era. Our souls need to be ready to graduate, so to speak.

So when the universe gives us difficult assignments and we suffer through them, it's like a catalyst that speeds up our spiritual development. If you only use light weights at the gym when you train, your physical strength will take long to increase.

Similarly if you have an easy life where everything is handed to you on a silver platter, you are not engaging the higher emotional parts of your being such as patience, acceptance, forgiveness, and faith. This makes for a life that lacks a sense of purpose. 

"Don't pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. " Bruce Lee

Synchronicities are signs that are given to you by the universe to remind you that you have a higher purpose. They are like a thumbs up indicating that you're on the right path or that you're thinking in the right direction.

For example, you could be eating your lunch at a usual spot and you get a random urge to look at the time. You see that it is exactly 1:11. Numbers that occur like this in patterns are a classic type of Synchronicity. This happens subconsciously since you do not time yourself for when you'll notice them. Other sets of numbers include 2:22, 12:12, 3:33, 17:17 and so on.

It makes me think of those news suggestions that appear on your phone which are based on your recent internet searches. Let’s say you searched for a camera, and then you got suggestions for articles about how cameras operate or about photography. The big data companies like Google were monitoring your behavior. The universe does a similar thing. 

Let’s do another thought experiment and say one day you wake up and you remember you had a dream about motorcycles. Then the next day you agree to meet up with someone at a restaurant. When you're there, you look around and find that the walls are decorated with motorcycles, but you were not aware of this beforehand. Strange coincidence or a nod from the universe? In this case it could be a message telling you to pay attention to what the opportunity has to offer. Next time this happens to you, stop and ponder it a little. The more you notice them, the more frequently they start to happen.