(August 11, 2014 at 1:17 pm)Confused Ape Wrote: I had a strange experience related to a place I hadn't been to at the time. In one of my inner journeys I was standing under a tree looking across a moat at a bit of castle wall and I could also see the bottom of a round tower Some years later I visited Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey where I stood under a tree and looked across the moat to a bit of castle wall and the bottom of a round tower. I soon came up with a mundane explanation for that. My husband had a lot of books on castles and there were photos of Beaumaris showing the tree. My unconscious mind obviously imagined what I would see if I stood under that tree.

What may have happened is that your subconscious gave you a look at a previous life in which you were in that place so your inner journey related to that place in which you really were and then when in this life you see that place you wonder and you think that you were there before.
It happen time by time to most of us.
Nothing really strange about it.

Quote:The reports are of a being of light but people have interpreted it as God, Jesus or some other religious figure.

This is a very tricky point Ape.
All depend who you take as your God or savior in this life.
Christians think that God look like Christ so they will see Christ.
Buddhist will see Buddha and so on.
I am sure i will see my guru and people who believe in anything else will see whatever they were following in their life.
Everything is God and at the same time God will let everybody believe what they like most.
However what is really important is the sincerity.
God doesn't really care about the way people see Him.
What does he care is how sincere they are.

Quote:Yes, it's possible to interpret NDE experiences as meeting God and some kind of existence after the death of the body but it's not 100% conclusive proof. This is why I'm cautious. Also, I don't want to convince myself it's all true and then start living my current life with the sole intention of getting a good afterlife or a good place in the world next time round. Maybe that kind of attitude wouldn't count as spiritual progress if the yoga belief is correct.

Spiritual progress is all about reducing the radius or distance that separate the microcosm from the macrocosm or you from God.
Of course there has got to be a goal or finishing line.
Your father wouldn't be really happy to make you go around and around in circle so looking at a goal is not really wrong.

Quote:It's just a case of how the word, science, is used in the modern day. Your term, intuitional science, now comes under the heading of intuitional insights which are classed as psychology - this makes it easier not to confuse things with physical science. Spirituality is classed as transpersonal psychology.

I already explained that psychology is some mental thing which is different from intuitional science which explain the spirit within.
What modern intelligence say related to this point is totally irrelevant to me.

Quote:If I was God I wouldn't have created a world where living beings could suffer physically and mentally. How can it allow child abuse, factory farms, experimenting on animals, wars and all the other horrors of the physical world? It that its idea of entertainment?

You may not be God at this stage but as a parent you behave exactly like God.
You grow your kid in the best way but as soon as they start growing up they may not listen at you anymore.
They may do things that you really dislike but what can you do?
Sooner or later as they will have banged their head on a brick wall so many times they will learn the lesson.
That is the only way to go Ape.

Quote:So it's really all down to God being bored and lonely. Great.

Not at all Ape.
It is all about the power that get misused.
Some smart people don't learn the hard way but most of them they do learn the hard way.
God have to give the freedom to his children as you would with yours.
He doesn't really enjoy to see the rot as you may think but the path to perfection is very dangerous as you progress you get more power and power without spirituality lead to disaster.

Quote:I can't say I'm thrilled with this idea of God. According to your belief I'll have spent countless lives going through who knows what just to keep it amused. I'm supposed to be grateful there's a way out of this pointless round of being a plaything?

You got to consider that the pain come when you think that you are separate from Him.
As your consciousness realize that you exist in his mind and you are Him then the show end for you but if you wish to keep thinking that you are separate from everything else then the show continue and continue as long as you keep on thinking in this way.
In reality is all an illusion but you also have the choice to end this illusion or to carry on with this physical-mental reality.

Ricky, if you don't stop using up all those damn confused-falling emoticons, you can do the stationery order for the next month. They don't grow on trees y'know.

(August 13, 2014 at 6:14 am)Riketto Wrote: I am here also to help people in trouble like you.
I got a solution to your important problem.
Guess what?
Stop searching for this thread and the problem will disappear for ever.

I don't search for this thread, genius. I only see it when I'm looking at Today's Posts. And no, I'm not going to stop looking at Today's Posts because one stupid thread has gone on for over 100 pages.

(August 13, 2014 at 6:14 am)Riketto Wrote: Beside before i started this thread i was thinking about a different title.
I was thinking to title it.......Atheism the biggest oxymoron ever....
but then i came up with the redneck one.

Just as well, since you apparently don't know what an oxymoron is.

I'm determined to plumb the depths of the stupid. Lead on Rikky.

Are we sure Depak Chopra doesn't come on this site and post under pseudonyms like Muslim Atheism and Ricky?

He's really let himself go if he does.

(August 13, 2014 at 7:51 am)Riketto Wrote: What may have happened is that your subconscious gave you a look at a previous life in which you were in that place so your inner journey related to that place in which you really were and then when in this life you see that place you wonder and you think that you were there before.
It happen time by time to most of us.
Nothing really strange about it.

I've had experiences which I've been told were flashbacks to past lives and the Beaumaris experience was nothing like that. Here's a picture of the castle with the tree. It would be very easy for my unconscious to imagine what it would be like standing under it looking at the castle. As for those so called flashbacks I had, there's no proof that they really were of past lives.

(August 13, 2014 at 7:51 am)Riketto Wrote: I already explained that psychology is some mental thing which is different from intuitional science which explain the spirit within.
What modern intelligence say related to this point is totally irrelevant to me.

I did a google search for Ananda Marga and psychology and found this on the Ananda Marga website.

Biopsychology

Quote:"The human body is a biological machine." The mind controls this body-machine through its direct connection and interaction with the glands via the hormones and nerves. This relationship is part of the science of Biopsychology.

What Is Biopsychology? - an article on About Coms' Psychology section.

Quote:Biopsychology is a branch of psychology that analyzes how the brain and neurotransmitters influence our behaviors, thoughts and feelings. This field can be thought of as a combination of basic psychology and neuroscience.

From that article about Intuitional Science where the writer is explaining the spiritual philosophy of yoga.

Quote:“Intuition” is a mental process that is not intellectual; it is beyond the intellect, a more subtle form of cognition.

Meditation is intuitional in that it is a psycho-spiritual process in which the totality of one’s psychic identity is associated intuitionally with infinite consciousness.

Cognition is a term from psychology. Psycho-spiritual is a term from Transpersonal Psychology.

From the Who We Are page of that website.

Quote:ABOUT ANANDA MARGA: Innovative thinker P.R. Sarkar, founder of the Ananda Marga movement, brings the ancient scientific practice of yoga and meditation to the modern world.

Going by all that, yoga has two aspects -

1) The physical - meditation techniques and diet affect the brain and body. (Biopsychology)

2) The spiritual. (Psycho-spiritual/Transpersonal psychology)

Now do you see what I mean about the spiritual being classed as psychology in the modern world?

(August 13, 2014 at 7:51 am)Riketto Wrote: You may not be God at this stage but as a parent you behave exactly like God.
You grow your kid in the best way but as soon as they start growing up they may not listen at you anymore.
They may do things that you really dislike but what can you do?
Sooner or later as they will have banged their head on a brick wall so many times they will learn the lesson.
That is the only way to go Ape.

So what lessons are animals in laboratories and factory farms supposed to learn?

(August 13, 2014 at 7:51 am)Riketto Wrote: You got to consider that the pain come when you think that you are separate from Him.
As your consciousness realize that you exist in his mind and you are Him then the show end for you but if you wish to keep thinking that you are separate from everything else then the show continue and continue as long as you keep on thinking in this way.

Tell that to animals suffering misery in factory farms and laboratories. I'm sure they'll appreciate being told that all their pain comes from their thinking they are separate from God.

(August 13, 2014 at 7:51 am)Riketto Wrote: In reality is all an illusion but you also have the choice to end this illusion or to carry on with this physical-mental reality.

Tell that to animals suffering in factory farms and laboratories. I'm sure they'll be a lot happier if they know all their pain is just an illusion.

What you said in Post #829.

Quote:Suppose you are God.
You got everything but you are alone so you want to create something that take away this emptiness.
Your mind create a space in which the action take place and you fill with the element that allow life like air, light, water and the matter.
Here the action begin.

This strikes me as humans projecting human qualities onto God. "God was feeling empty because I'd feel empty if I was the only thing that existed."

I much prefer the idea of Brahman being the ultimate reality which cannot be understood or defined by the intellect.

I did a bit more research and found this on the Ananda Marga Gurukula website.

Psychology

Quote:excerpts from the writings Shrii P. R. Sarkar

The study of psychology may be divided into the following main branches:
General Psychology
Bio-Psychology
Parapsychology
Apexed or Pinnacled Psychology

A few quotes from each of the sections other than parapsychology.

Quote:1) General Psychology

It has four mental states — ja’grat (wakeful), svapna (dream), sus’upti (sleep) and turiya (transcendental). From a practical point of view, the mind is divided into conscious, subconscious and unconscious portions.

2: Bio-Psychology

Bio-psychology may be divided into several classes

• human psychology;
• psychology of creatures which stand upon two legs, for example, orang-utans;
• psychology of other beings [including monkeys, quadrupeds and other developed animals];
• psychology of reptiles which move through the pressure of the chest but cannot fly;
• psychology of flying creatures, that is, birds;
• psychology of multicellular protozoa, unicellular protozoa, multicellular metazoa and uni-cellular metazoa.

You should all learn the various psychologies of the different groups. You should learn about human psychology in particular, and about non-human animate psychologies.

4) Apexed or Pinnacled Psychology

When the movement of the human mind is not in many lateral directions — north, south, east and west — but towards the Supreme Entity, then the mind becomes apexed, pinnacled. This pointed mind either merges in the Macrocosm, or gives up its individual existence in the Supreme Cognitive Faculty.

Number 4 sounds very much like what others call psycho-spiritual/transcendental psychology.

If classifying all the different aspects of yoga as various forms of psychology was good enough for P .R .Sarkar it should be good enough for anyone following the Ananda Marga spiritual path.

(August 13, 2014 at 4:53 pm)Confused Ape Wrote: If classifying all the different aspects of yoga as various forms of psychology was good enough for P .R .Sarkar it should be good enough for anyone following the Ananda Marga spiritual path.

1) In your rush to make a point you forgot something very important.
Sarkar tell us that .......When the movement of the human mind is not in many lateral directions — north, south, east and west — but towards the Supreme Entity, then the mind becomes apexed, pinnacled........but in here it does not tell you how to do all this in order to reach that goal.
Psychology is like a map that show the direction to take but then you need to actually go or get there and here you need spirituality which is the vehicle to take you there.
2) About animals suffering in factory farms and laboratories.
Here again you jump to quick conclusion.
It could be that in previous lives these animals were butchers or laboratory experimenters or anyone eating meat so in this life they were born to experiment the same suffering that they force upon other animals.

---

(August 13, 2014 at 12:05 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: ............you apparently don't know what an oxymoron is.

Ok. allow to let me explain what an oxymoron is.
Suppose one guy say........I AM ATHEIST......in order to say that he believe that God does not exist.
At the same time he wish to learn more and more all the time.
Now the problem is that while the human desire is infinite as only the infinite can give total peace of mind everything within this universe is finite so how is ever possible to satisfy the thirst for infinite in a finite universe?
Sooner or later the guy will inevitably cross the border between finite and infinity and there is where is God.
Oxymoron thinking is about something that does not make any sense just like the atheist attitude that does not take the unavoidable into account.

(August 13, 2014 at 6:14 am)Riketto Wrote:

(August 11, 2014 at 2:45 pm)Losty Wrote: Lol. I like onions

Oh, this may be an handicap to our future marriage.
But i see what can i do.

I'd give up onions for you my beloved Ricky