PART II, "Demystifying the Spiritual World —— 'Higher Self' Is Different from 'Higher Spirit'

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At the end of PART I of “Demystifying the Spiritual World”, we say that in fact, the way how the Higher Spirit influences our lives is not based on "words" or "teaching of ideas", but "with your entire life". Then, what does that mean exactly?
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When your consciousness is on the brink of touching the "consciousness of the Higher Spirit", what you will gradually see will be the spectacles as described in the following two points:

1. "God" really creates "miracles"; that is, many things happen simply to change your decision at this moment. Besides, when you see this, you can also see “Who” contributes to these phenomena and then you will know what it means by the images of the Buddhist world as painted in "Tibetan Thangka". In the "Postscript" of our book “DEVOTION", we once described its key message to be "Gratitude + Self Examination = Devotion". In the early morning when this message was given, the magnificent scene Mr. M and I came to awaken to was an example (note).

(Note) Please refer to page 178 of our book "DEVOTION".

People in general sometimes feel "presence of god" in daily life, but it is just a wonderful feeling, which will be diluted with and forgotten by other things. Some can go further to feel very touched at that moment, but they are unable to understand the heart-throbbing experience, and then this touching feeling is covered with daily trifles. What is the meaning of that heart-throbbing experience? It is that –––

There are really a lot of people, things and stuff –– the occurrence of all these causes is for my change of decision at this moment –– “specifically for me”!

Most people, even when they have a glimpse of this, feeling a subtle wonder, or even when their inexplicable touching feeling wells (heart-throbbing to tears, or warmth surges at the moment), they are still unable to live in this awareness. Because it is actually an instant leading to that “Great Oneness”, and “Great Oneness" is like a sun with millions of degrees Celsius, your ego will be incinerated on getting closer. Therefore, the ego of physical body and mind will instinctively repels that "Great Oneness”. It will retreat to hold on its many "more wants" to itself.

Therefore, the so-called "ready to leave samsara" means that when a soul is still in the physical body, he has become less repulsive to this "Great Oneness”, and he can live more and more in the “light”. This is the status of being ready. However, this is not the topic today. For those who would like to know more about this part, they can read our new release in November (2018), “The Omnipresent Treasure Sutra”.

2. The deeper you are connected to “The Higher Spirit”, the more you will understand the meaning of the following sentence.

“God” means that “there is someone else”.

In other words, "God" is all the “Other People”, who stand at different angles and form the sum total of powers that "support you being here and help you come to realization". This is exactly the uppercase "GOD" in Western culture, and it is also called "Tathagata" in Eastern culture (or by the name of “Vairocana” in Esoteric Buddhism). He is omnipresent. You cannot leave Him. He has been supporting you, watching you, putting your law of attraction to work at every turn (everywhere).

However, God “ubiquitously” helps you in two ways; one is "paradise mode” while the other, "hell mode". When you are “good” at heart; that is, if your thought in the very moment enables you to see “Gratitude + Self Examination = Devotion”, heading for Oneness, then His way of supporting you will be in "paradise mode” to open up your opportunity to learn.

On the contrary, when your inner decision violates the “Tao” of this universe; that is, if you become “more mind-dominated" and "more selfish”, then there will also be a mode of “violating the Tao” for you to activate. In other words, the same GOD will now become the so-called "Shiva" as He is called in India and appears in your life. "Shiva" is the god of destruction and the god of death; that is, He will show up as the "hell mode" to help you learn your homework.

In actual life, this is, as they say, ”To pay tutoring fees”. For someone who does not awaken to self-examining his "ego", you can observe that he will always “pay tutoring fees” all his life as if the "God of Destiny" would always pick a fight with him. Although he has been paying tutoring fees, he has been repeating that mistake. Why? Because he is asleep, he will keep doing this same homework all the time. Not until one day he really has a sincere wish, saying, "I am willing to let go of my ego and ‘see’”, will it be possible for him to find the exit out of hell. Therefore, why does the dharma emphasize so much about awakening? (Because) only when you are awake will you know why so important are the eight words “Shin Tsuen Shan Nian; Fu Chi Mian Yan”(Keep good thoughts at heart; blessings last long”.

Thus, the truth is that, in fact, no one is not connected with the Higher Spirit (Tathagata) because you are primarily in this “Oneness". However, if your divinity is asleep, you will feel disconnected, isolated and small, and crushed by impermanence at any time, to the extent where you will not believe in God even when you are told so, and instead, you would rather believe ghosts in the world.
Ghosts, however, are also from Oneness to help you awaken, the only difference is that this course is more painful and bumpy. Therefore, at the ultimate level, ghosts are also Tathagata, who uses this method only to connect with you in your darkness.

Thus, our book “‘Anything Goes’ Is A Big Awakening” starts with the passage that we call “The Supreme Mantra”,

The Power of Compassion in the universe, I thank you for this moment,
For the whole universe is helping me;
Every single thing, every single person, every single stuff,
is all another version of me,
Helping me in this moment to awaken!
　

When you really walk in love and perceive your life with love (instead of living with the self-righteous “concept of love (brain)”), you will gradually broaden your horizons with clarity and "see" the truth of the above passage. Then, this is an attainment of the level of connecting the Higher Spirit, not just that of the Higher Self.

"Walking in love”, so to speak, is a practice starting from “having others at heart”. In this way, you will discover your divinity so that you can fly from your 2D perspective of life up to a 3D bird’s eye view of life. (Please refer to Part I, “Demystifying the Spiritual World”.) If you can have your feet planted firmly on the ground for this practice of “ having others at heart”, the Higher Spirit will connect with you in “paradise mode”. Your life will manifest to you as a path to an enlightened Buddha. This manifestation is the secret meaning that “Tibetan Thangka" really has to tell.

Therefore, please do not underestimate the account of “having others at heart”. Why is there an “order”, so to speak, when you go to worship at a temple? For example, the first one to worship is “Tien Gong”(Heavenly Father), followed by other Buddhas, deities, Wang Ye, etc …… “Having others at heart" is like this, with multi-levels. The way how you slowly "surrender" yourself up through these levels is exactly the soul’s journey “home". “To surrender" means “to give yourself to heaven” sincerely in good faith, which also means “Devotion”. If you truly want to surrender yourself up through levels , you will discover your divinity.

In other words, ”nothing coming, nothing going”, as they say, is that you have really experienced in “things coming, things going" and you have "surrendered" yourself through levels before you can reach the realm of “nothing coming, nothing going”. Or, you do not have to go through everything yourself, but you can understand that "coming and going" through wisdom, and you can truly live in “nothing coming, nothing going”.

Added to that, what is “enlightenment"? "Enlightenment" is not something that makes "you soar into the sky or disappear into the earth, or that makes you super powerful”. Instead, “enlightenment” is that you have developed “loving kindness”(Tse) to this world and no longer live in “grievances”(Bay) because you have truly understood the nature of everything, and your understanding is telling you “nothing coming, nothing going”.

What is samsara, then? It is the fact that one’s divinity is “asleep”, so one must experience in person through physical reincarnation all the torments created by “coming and going” due to "selfishness" and “no understanding".

For example, everyone is living in the monetary “torments of coming and going”.
The reason is the cyclic system that intensifies “monetary flow to just a few persons” due to the selfishness in the hearts of most people –– and this is closing love. However, this is exactly what people taking birth on the level of Earth will do.

From time immemorial, people of all time are fond of talking about new technologies, but may we ask, “what do you invent AI for?” Without love, it is only cheap labor that you want. Then with the development of this AI, it is more likely that you will even choke yourself to death. Ｗhy? Even if you are a big boss and has robots in your company, will others not have them? Since you all are pursuing only profits, you still choose to live a life slashing one another. If you push yourself into a "white giant tower", like some giant monsters fighting for life, will you have a good life? When you want only cheap labor, at the same time, you are keeping money from flowing to the general public. Then, they even dare not give birth, nor buy a house. When the economy is dead, where else can you make money?

Now the wealth of this world is constantly flowing to the so-called "Top of the Pyramid”. However, reaching the “top" without the land underneath, the person who has climbed to the top comes to only a dead end. The reason why those vested interest holders now can still live as well and cruel as jackals, wolves, tigers and panthers is that, in this world, still many people are doing their duty with love. Otherwise, imagine –– no matter how much more money you’ve got, even if you can afford a private jet, as long as a maintenance worker fails to do his part, distractedly screening for stocks while working and improperly attaching screws on the plane wing, you will fall to your death.

So if it were not for some people in this world still doing things with a sense of responsibility to others, those who do monkey business would not make a haul. It is like real estate in Taiwan; now everyone dares not give birth and cannot afford things, and you simply cannot make any money no matter how you cut corners on building projects, can you? Then, why does Taiwan become what it is now? It is these moneyed companies that
have been delinquent in their duties and creating real estate hype over the past few decades.

Since time immemorial, these councillors, legislators, politicians, and companies in Taiwan have been pursuing short-term profits together. Then, the foundation of the entire pyramid –– the entire society –– changes gradually like the increasing temperatures of the water to boil frogs. To begin with, the poorest people cannot survive. Then, the inability to make a living spreads upwards and everyone falls down together in the end. This is also the ecology of "cancer cells”.

Some say, "But those tycoons can run away with money to another country!”

Such thinking implies that they do not understand the phenomenon of "parallel universe”. "Parallel universe" means, if your mind is here, your "system" will be here; that is, it is "your parallel universe” that you live in and you cannot escape from it wherever you go. The above-mentioned parallel universe, without love and for profits only, is called “hell”. This hell is not to be escaped from wherever you go. Not only is it unescapable, but also you will be bogged down layer by layer and mired into ever increasingly bitter situations. Not until someone totally loses the feeling of sweetness and lives in pains only will he think of climbing up. However, it is not so easy to turn back then. Definitely, still many others neither understand nor believe this now, and they even ferociously dig into it toward this direction. This is exactly the first lesson for the humans born in the classroom of the Earth level. Therefore, this is also not mind-boggling.

Added to that, why is it very important to “take spirituality courses”? (Because) when it comes to “taking spirituality courses”, what matters is not “spirituality”, but to understand how you will not be pulled down by others’ lessons to suffer in the “Hell Mode”. “Taking spirituality courses” is for you to understand the karma of your whole life and the whole world so that you will be able to know how to “repent and be saved” instead of being drawn to hell by the self-made law of attraction even when you go wrong. So why does Buddha say, "All living entities fear effects whereas Bodhisattva fears causes"? When you really understand causes and effects of all kinds of things, you will be “awakening”; only then will you be “taking spirituality courses”.

Is it possible for anyone living in hell to “repent and be saved”, even “to liberate in one lifetime”? It is also possible. It all depends on the fact whether you “worship” that “God” in your heart –– that is, do you have gratitude and respect to “God”? Then, what is God? To substantiate that for you, every "other person" is your “God"; every "external" is your inner “teacher". If you are not using “God", but you acquire your own wisdom through "God", you are likely to liberate in one lifetime.

Of course, if you did all kinds of evil before, though you decided to turn back, you still have to endure the karma from the past. That is the reason why some people have challenges to confront when they decide to follow virtue. However, this is not a bad thing. This is to accelerate the maturity of your past karma. As long as you stick to your determination to follow virtue, even down and out temporarily, you will have a flourishing future again. The life stories of some entrepreneurs are literally like this.

Why does the saying go, ”Fortune favors fools”? Some are willing to devote themselves or sacrifice immediate interests based on their heart, gratitude and conscience. To a shrewd man, such a person seems to be a fool, but in fact, he is the most blessed because he has the strongest link to “God". On the other hand, if a person has no link to God, but blasphemes against God, or even challenges God, then his lessons will soon be coming, and that totally out of his expectation, and that at a time when he finds it absolutely impossible.

At last, let’s get back to the "Paradise Mode” and see how you can discover your divinity from now on?

First of all, practice gratitude. When you really feel grateful for something, you “see” from this gratitude –––– For this thing to happen this way, what causal condition must there be? Then you will gradually see “miracles”. You will feel a lot of "Gods" hidden in these things. It is not by chance. Then in this sense of happiness, you think, “What virtue and what ability do I have to deserve such a blessing?" Then you “see” yourself and see what you can do next (self-examination). Usually, an idea from the heart will appear.

Whenever you have this idea of “seeing what you can do” from the heart, it is that you have grown wings and begun to fly up within the confines of your life. (Because) you have been able to look down on what is going on in your life from a higher energy, a higher consciousness, and you can sense your direction. Then, when you really do it (devotion), these "dos" accumulate bit by bit, and you will find incredible and unexpected improvement in all aspects of your life. Accordingly, you will also perceive the overall context, of which some puzzles always baffled you and were invisible to you before. Then, you will have a clear idea of how you can crack these puzzles and let them evolve in your desired direction.

The above process is the trilogy of "Gratitude", “Self-Examination", and "Devotion".

A particular warning ––
Some people can be aware of that “sense of miracle” when they can be grateful for certain conditions in life. However, if his state of mind remains at this "wondrous" feeling, and even reinforces the sense of "all-power" or superiority of his ego, then he falls “asleep” again. Thus, when you feel the presence of "God", you have to go on with self-examination, “How can I devote myself?” This way, you can really see the "next step" necessary for your life progression (soul evolution).

In other words, people can predict. If you really want to have the ability to "predict", you must enter the stage of "Devotion" and be willing to open up to “Devotion". This way in your “inner space” you can see the path you should take and the things you should do. Then, while you are doing it, if you pay attention to the surroundings, you will find that more things, corresponding the thing you are doing and the path you are taking, continuously pop up for you to see and to know that you are right to do this. That is the initiation of “prediction"! (Because) you already can see the difference between “how it evolves if you do not do it and how it evolves if you do”. When you can see this way, you will deeply understand that if you do not take the path of “Devotion”, there is no way you can find that these people and things, which are inherent, have already been around your current life and have been telling you what to do to go upwards.

These are the actual procedures of “divinity discovery" and the scenery along the way.

The last thing for you all is ––
It is impossible to explore the mysteries of the spiritual world outside the gate. It is like, if you have never been rich, then saying that you understand the rich world is only superficial. It is more of your own imagination and misunderstanding. Similarly, people have been suffering from birth, old age, disease, death, and a “dog-eat-dog” world.

If you do not turn this “five-dregs evil world" into your “omnipresent treasure”,
If you do not testify to God’s grace in person step by step in it (For Every Step A Lotus Blooms),
If you study others’ supernatural power, or try to be psychic by yourself,

then you would not only be unable to enter the "spiritual world", but also get the opposite result. You would be controlled deeper by your mind, and then you will be swallowed up and manipulated by the other more sophisticated minds of this world. You could not see what your own life lessons are. You would waste a precious life of your own for nothing.

As long as man pursues in his selfishness, the spiritual world will remain hidden and look like a “five-dregs evil world" to him. On the contrary, when you are willing to take the path of “Gratitude + Self Examination = Devotion”, you will really clearly see the law of spirituality, and how powerfully God is working a great miracle actually in all aspects of your life. Then you will see a clear fact ––––

You just did such a little bit but you have got soooo much! With this Mode of Heaven, this Great Oneness, you will feel so grateful that you can find no words for it.

Original Text in Chinese