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Pujya Deepakbhai Desai received the knowledge of the Soul by the grace of Dada Bhagwan in the year 1971.
To know more please visit:-
In English: www.dadabhagwan.org/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/th...
In Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/the...
In Hindi: hindi.dadabhagwan.org/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/...
Museu Blau, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Spain
Architects: Herzog & de Meuron, project 2009-2010, realization 2010-2012
Relocating the Museum of Natural Sciences into the Forum Barcelona building signals the beginning of a new life cycle for both institutions: one where each mutually benefits from the space, program and potential of the other. With its large exterior and interior spaces and its reference to natural processes and shapes, the architecture of the Forum is a particularly appropriate new home for the relocated Museum. And the Museum of Natural Science promises to energetically revitalise the existing building, replacing vacant space with intense new public activities.
The open public space that marks the approach from the Diagonal and extends under the triangular body of the building is now diversified and activated, engaging with the life of the city. The corner addressing the city centre retains its function as the main public approach. This is enhanced by the three existing pavilions which are reconfigured to provide meeting places for groups and general information along the approach to the museum entrance. The second corner, further along the Diagonal is enlivened with lush external planting and the basin under the water patio. And finally, the corner addressing the sea is activated by a new exterior dining area for students and groups, adjacent to a bar which opens onto the plaza. The interior of the elevated triangular building, which is like a vast interior landscape, structured by patios, creates a specific space well suited to an exhibition of Natural science and to the Museum’s demand for growth and need to display more of its outstanding collection.
Architecture and Museography
The core of the Museum is its permanent exhibition. This consists of an outstanding collection of rocks and minerals, taxidermy, microbes, plants and herbariums, meteorites, scientific drawings, diagrams, fossils and skeletons, sounds and dioramas, gathered together over centuries in Barcelona. The exhibition consists of elements from the permanent collection structured around the concept of Gaia – the idea of a living planet which forms and is, in turn, transformed by life.
This exhibition arrangement follows the logic of the existing space and at the same time radically transforms it. It frees the visitor to explore any number of individual routes while still ensuring an overall logical sequence. It also extends into the museum lobby, where the main stair and the dramatically hung whale skeleton forms the central arrival and departure point for all public programs, including shop, restaurant, media library, classrooms, event spaces and temporary exhibition, as well as administration and support areas. The lobby extends down to the plaza connecting to the large covered public space of the Museu Blau, allowing for the visitor to invigorate the rapidly developing area where the Diagonal reaches the sea.
I've realized so much today. The person I thought I knew was just a distant memory of the person you used to be. I guess I should move on, everyone seems to have without me.
As you can see, I've got a lot on my mind. It's raining, again. I said I would capture another kind of emotion soon. I kept my promise.
I hardly ever do black and whites.
Oh guess what? I'm sick again. Yay..not.
The progress of our soul is like a perfect poem. It has an infinite idea which once realized makes all movements full of meaning and joy.
------Rabindranath Tagore
How can one become free from the cycle of birth and death, and exhaust their karmas? With Self Realization, you will not only become free from the cycle of birth and death but you will also become free from all types of suffering. Let us watch the video to find out more. To read more, visit -
In English: www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/t...,
In Hindi: hindi.dadabhagwan.org/vaignanik-hal/adhyatmik-vignan/karm... ,
In Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/vaignanik-kel/aadhyatmik-vignan/karmnu...
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The Ganga Aarti is an uplifting spiritual ritual that is performed at the banks of river Ganga every evening (at dusk). The offerings during the Aarti ceremony represent the five elements of creation: the flowers represent earth (solidity), water (liquidity), the lamp/camphor represents fire (heat), the peacock fan represents air (movement), and the yak-tail fan represents the subtle form of ether (space). The incense represents a purified state of mind and the burning wick represents the destruction of one’s ego until finally there is only the realization of one’s true Self left (a movement from darkness to light). The Aarti thus is a ritual to acknowledge that one’s existence and all material creation are a work of the Supreme.
Hundreds of common folk as well as the rich and the powerful (easily identified by their government-issue cars with blue or read beacons) turn up every evening to pay obeisance to Mother Ganga. However, I fail to understand one thing: How can one revere and revile the Ganga at the same time? How can one sanctify and defile the Ganga at the same time? The Ganga still continues to be polluted by economic endeavors arising out of human greed. The very politicians and industrialists who come to offer their respects to the holy river every evening have done precious little to help save its dwindling ecosystem. In case of the Ganga, is devotion inversely proportional to action?
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In Story of a City (1994) Munif wrote of his childhood, and his realization, that "although they were separated from Baghdad by a great distance and different accent, Baghdad was also very close."
المدينة أي مدينة
هل لها صورة واحدة
يراها الجميع بنفس الطريقة؟
حين شرعت بكتابة "سيرة مدينة"، كنت أوفي وعداً قطعته على نفسي، أن أكتب عن المدينة التي رأيت فيها النور، والتي قضيت فيها طفولتي وأول شبابي. أما لماذا قطعت ذلك الوعد ولمن، فلأني حين غادرت تلك المدينة غبت عنها ما يزيد على خمس وثلاثين سنة، ولما عدت إليها من جديد اكتشفت فيها مدينة مختلفة، لذا أردت أن أتذكر، مع ناس تلك الفترة، المدينة التي كانت، التي عرفتها، القديمة، كي تقارن بالمدينة الآن، وكي يستطاع من خلال المقابلة بين الصورتين اكتشاف ما يفعله الزمن، وماذا يعني توالي الأيام وكيف يتغير البشر والأماكن بتقدم العمر.
عبد الرحمن مُنيف
"The city – as Abd al-Rahman Munif convincingly writes in his well-known History of a City – is not its monuments, not even in their most detailed description, and is not the waters, the land and the trees one finds there, although, of course, those things all together or individually exist or can be imagined.
The city does not only consist of the people who live there, even though they give it vitality and a special flavour, as well as a past period cannot be recollected by simply examining a number of events, because, no matter how useful they may be in showing us the right direction, they do not allow us to get where we want.
The city, whatever it may be, is the sum of all those things and more, which interlace, mingle and merge, so that their combination turns out to be something different from the elements that compose it, and despite its indissoluble bond with those elements, it is not identical to any one of them."
Cities and Features of Life
Habash: In your book about Amman, you seem predisposed toward writing the “autobiography of a city,” but this story is discussed within a particular history, from the 1940s until the Palestinian migration. Why this autobiography? Why did you frame the discussion within this history? Do you find Palestinian migration to Amman a reason for its economic and architectural birth?
Munif: It is a multi-dimensional question. First, I do not find much writing about cities in our modern literature, and much of the life features associated with these cities would start to disappear unless documented through means which could keep them alive in memory. My writing the autobiography of the city aims at urging many authors to write about two important things: cities and childhoods.
www.aljadid.com/content/unpublished-munif-interview-crisi...
Macro photographs from the Swami's Self Realization gardens in Encinitas, California in Southern Caliornia. Various plant, flower, and nature photographs from a macro perspective.
When you are in something so deep, you don't always see the big picture. Your reality is what you have convinced yourself it to be. There is no reason, objectivity or sincere unbiased thoughts on the matter. You get so comfortable in the illusion that you have created, that truth escapes you. It takes almost an out of body experience to give you the untainted sight required to truly see clearly. Pain will push you to that scenic view. Relentless pain that shocks your soul. That is what lifts you above and beyond petty details and insignificant words. That moment when you see a situation for it's entirety and no language can adequately explain your epiphany. Your mind knows that it can not be translated; your heart feels the nourishment; your soul is content. Now you can move on.
Ryuho Okawa is the leader of Happy Science and the Happiness Realization Party. Just another new religion.
Pujya Deepakbhai attained the Self Realization from Dada Bhagwan in the year 1971 and experienced inner bliss. He began to understand what is pure Soul, what are other elements, mind, intellect, ego and how are the anger, pride, greed and deceit, etc. working and felt separation from His body or the relative Self. Watch this video to understand more about this.
To know more click on: -
In English:- www.dadabhagwan.org/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/th...
In Gujarati:- www.dadabhagwan.in/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/the...
In Hindi:- hindi.dadabhagwan.org/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/...
He comes with a katana, hilt, blaster, 2 x open palm hands, 2 x sword grip hands, 2 x trigger finger hands, and 2 x closed fists.
Gender: Women's
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I believe one of the good things about winter is the realization that it eventually unfolds into the warmth and newness of spring... and yet there are other things. Spring is the promise of winter... apples, peaches, and other crops will not fruit properly without exposure to so many hours of freezing weather. Did you know that water expands when it is both frozen and heated? Winter freezes ground water and breaks up the soil. A snowpack forces more nitrogen into soil than most any other way... just one of the ways God tends his garden of spring wildflowers. Winter often assures the things we look forward to in spring... and gives us the contrast to appreciate them.
For many here on Flickr, each day into winter leaves a longing... and it shows, as I'm beginning to see many images of flowers, blooms, and flourishing color rising from sleepy woods in the hope that winter will just move along. I suppose mine is no different here with these Bradford pear buds. One bud (actually only a 1/4 inch in diameter) shows the inner beauty of colorful anthers and stigma just appearing. As is the way with flowers, this "inner beauty" will soon be overshadowed as the petals emerge... nature's version of a spring bonnet. Come to think of it, that's often the way of people, too. Are our "spring bonnets" what bring a springlike refreshing within ourselves? "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment. . . . Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3:3-4).
Newness isn't always a good thing... Vicki, a dear friend from church in Cedar Grove, was recently diagnosed with aplastic thyroid cancer. The prognosis is not good. She's in much pain from radiation therapy, can't swallow, and is having bad reactions to medication. Today, she had a feeding tube inserted. Ironically, Vicki is the leader of our Relay For Life team. At our first fundraiser of 2012, a country ham and egg breakfast, Vicki was weak, but she was still on her game... to the point that nearly $5000 dollars was raised for the American Cancer Society that morning. You wouldn't believe the effort that goes into feeding hundreds of people within the span of a few hours... it requires team effort, and no one brings a team together quite like she does... though daughter Paula's coming along just fine. Love you, Vicki! Thank you for the "inner beauty" that shines within you. Please remember her and her family in your prayers! "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20).
In anticipation of all things new (Revelation 21:5)... www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Q3NrB_eHM
Self-realization or Awakening is the end of the mind; it is the end of all knowledge. In here, we start to unlearn and to assume our Real Nature, our True Nature. It is the end of that illusory mind, with all its productions. It is the end of all beliefs, opinions, judgments and conditioning. ~M. Gualberto ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sua Natureza Real é Silêncio, é Liberdade, é Paz, é Bem-aventurança, é Amor.⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Realização, ou Despertar, é o fim da mente, é o fim de todo conhecimento. Aqui se trata de desaprender e de assumir sua Natureza Real, sua Natureza Verdadeira. É o fim dessa mente ilusória, com todas as suas produções. É o fim de todas crenças, opiniões, julgamentos e condicionamentos. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Foto: Nascer do sol no Ramanashram Gualberto, Campos de Jordão/SP.⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #ramanashramgualberto #satsang #mestregualberto #ramana #ramanamaharshi #prana #gratitude #mindfulness #asana #namaste #selfrealization #selfinquiry #om #awareness #inspirationalquotes #mind #shiva #meditacao #meditation #paz #harmony #sangha #guru #yoga #silence #enlightenment #buddha #heart #guruji #satchitananda
It was a realization that taking pictures during military parade is very challenging. I was right there looking at the participants while marching in front of me, I was holding my camera, and was hesitant whether to shoot or just watch. What so challenging about shooting participants when you just have to aim the camera to the participants? That was the question I repeatedly asked myself, while other photographers fire away I was there just holding the camera, I can see these people who are taking pictures enjoying, but not me, I was contemplating.
I was brainstorming with myself, what is there to shoot aside from marching bands? men in uniform and their wooden rifles? beautiful majorettes (Mariners rocks) and long legged sponsors? Those are the only available subjects that I thought of or probably I was not creative enough to think of something else, the latter is more possible than the former.
I also took pictures of the participants but believe me its completely the same with the pictures taken by other photographers. So here, I was trying to be different, yes, I still shot legs but they were not in parade, I think they were in pain wearing those flashy boots, I felt that their feet were already numb when they walked towards their station just wearing their socks without realizing that the pavement was extremely hot due to the weather.
I'll post some default shots later. :-)
I studied abroad in Capetown, South Africa and took a class on post-apartheid South Africa. I was able to get the most eye-opening stories and experiences from random cab drivers, restaurant owners and strangers during my day to day in Capetown. I learned despite the burden and struggle a country and its people can go through, humans constantly seek to share and connect with each other.
That made me smile.
What is Self-realization (Atma-sakshatkar)? It is to know 'who am I?' Are you the name given to you? No, you are a Pure Soul.
Self-realization is to be aware of the Soul. Such a state of awareness will be a gradual development. No suffering / negativity would touch you when you are totally aware of the Soul. Atma-sakshatkar is to keep observing the non-self part, the mind-body-speech-intellect, and observe what they are doing. Watch this video to find out more about what 'Atma-sakshatkar' is exactly.
Also visit:
In English: www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/k...
In Hindi: hindi.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science...
In Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/wh...
The body of light, sometimes called the 'astral body'[a] or the 'subtle body,'[b] is a "quasi material"aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, posited by a number of philosophers, and elaborated on according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. Other terms used for this body include body of glory, spirit-body, luciform body, augoeides ('radiant body'), astroeides ('starry or sidereal body'), and celestial body.The concept derives from the philosophy of Plato: the word 'astral' means 'of the stars'; thus the astral plane consists of the Seven Heavens of the classical planets. The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an ecstatic, mystical or out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in their body of light into 'higher' realms." Neoplatonists Porphyry and Proclus elaborated on Plato's description of the starry nature of the human psyche. Throughout the Renaissance, philosophers and alchemists, healers including Paracelsus and his students, and natural scientists such as John Dee, continued to discuss the nature of the astral world intermediate between earth and the divine. The concept of the astral body or body of light was adopted by 19th-century ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi, Florence Farr and the magicians of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, including Aleister Crowley. Plato and Aristotle taught that the stars were composed of a type of matter different from the four earthly elements - a fifth, ethereal element or quintessence. In the astral mysticism of the classical world the human psyche was composed of the same material, thus accounting for the influence of the stars upon human affairs. In his commentaries on Plato's Timaeus, Proclus wrote; Man is a little world (mikros cosmos). For, just like the Whole, he possesses both mind and reason, both a divine and a mortal body. He is also divided up according to the universe. It is for this reason, you know, that some are accustomed to say that his consciousness corresponds with the nature of the fixed stars, his reason in its contemplative aspect with Saturn and in its social aspect with Jupiter, (and) as to his irrational part, the passionate nature with Mars, the eloquent with Mercury, the appetitive with Venus, the sensitive with the Sun and the vegetative with the Moon. Such doctrines were commonplace in mystery-schools, Gnostic and Hermetic sects throughout the Roman Empire, and influenced the early Christian church. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians contains a reference to the astral plane or astral projection:"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows." Neoplatonism is a branch of classical philosophy that uses the works of Plato as a guide to understanding religion and the world. In the Myth of Er, particularly, Plato rendered an account of the afterlife which involved a journey through seven planetary spheres and then eventual reincarnation. He taught that man was composed of mortal body, immortal reason and an intermediate 'spirit'.[10] Neoplatonists agreed as to the immortality of the rational soul but disagreed as to whether man's "irrational soul" was immortal and celestial ("starry", hence astral) or whether it remained on earth and dissolved after death. The early Neoplatonist Porphyry (3rd century) wrote of the Augoeides, a term which is encountered in the literature of Neoplatonic theurgy. The word originates from Ancient Greek and has been interpreted as deriving from 'αυγο', meaning 'egg', or 'αυγή', meaning 'dawn', combined with 'είδηση', indicative of 'news' or 'a message', or with 'εἴδωλον', an 'idol' or 'reflection'.[citation needed] Thomas Taylor commented on Porphyry's use of the term: For here he evidently conjoins the rational soul, or the etherial sense, with its splendid vehicle, or the fire of simple ether; since it is well known that this vehicle, according to Plato, is rendered by proper purgation 'augoeides', or luciform, and divine. Synesius, a 4th-century Greek bishop, according to Isaac Myer equated the divine body with 'Imagination' (phantasia) itself, considering it to be "something very subtle, yet material," referring to it as "the first body of the soul." Building on concepts described by Iamblichus and Plotinus, the late Neoplatonist Proclus (5th century), who is credited as the first to speak of subtle planes, posited two subtle bodies, vehicles, or 'carriers' (okhema), intermediate between spirit and the physical body. These were:
the augoeides okhêma, 'luminous vehicle' or 'body of light', which he identified as the immortal vehicle of the rational soul.
the pneumatikon okhêma, 'pneumatic vehicle' or 'body of breath', indwelling the vital breath (pneuma), which he identified as the mortal vehicle of the irrational soul. (cf. pneumatic). Renaissance medicine and magic.Renaissance magic was a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries CE. During the Renaissance period, magic and occult practices underwent significant changes that reflected shifts in cultural, intellectual, and religious perspectives. C. S. Lewis, in his work on English literature, highlighted the transformation in how magic was perceived and portrayed. In medieval stories, magic had a fantastical and fairy-like quality, while in the Renaissance, it became more complex and tied to the idea of hidden knowledge that could be explored through books and rituals. This change is evident in the works of authors like Spenser, Marlowe, Chapman, and Shakespeare, who treated magic as a serious and potentially dangerous pursuit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_magic
Look at the universal world full of the light of the sun. Look at the light in the world’s matter full of all the universal forms and forever changing. Subtract, I beg you, matter from the light and put the rest aside : suddenly you have soul, that is, incorporeal light, replete with all the forms, but changeable.Ficino describes this tenuous form as being of aether or quintessence, the fifth element, spirit, and says that it has a "fiery and starry nature."[e] He also refers to it as the 'astral body,' intermediate between spirit and the body of matter. Such ideas greatly influenced the Renaissance medicine of Paracelsus (1493–1541) and Servetus (1509/11–1553).[20] John Dee (1527–1608/9), a student of Ficino, based his natural philosophy on Ficino and the Medieval optical theories of Roger Bacon, William of Ockham, John Peckham, and Vitello; according to Szulakowska "specifically for his ideas concerning the radiation of light rays and the effects of the planetary and stellar influences on the earth." Dee was also influenced by the Arabian philosopher Al-Kindi, whose treatise De radiis stellarum wove together astrology and optical theory, which inspired Dee's Propaedeumata Aphoristica. In Dee's system of Enochian magic, there were three main techniques: invocation (prayer), scrying (crystal-gazing), and traveling in the body of light. Isaac Newton's occult studies. Isaac Newton (1642–1726/27), despite his renown for his scientific pursuits, held an alchemist's perspective. In the early 18th century, he speculated that material bodies might be transformed into light, connecting this idea with the 'subtle body' of alchemy. Much of what are known as Isaac Newton's occult studies can largely be attributed to his study of alchemy. From a young age, Newton was deeply interested in all forms of natural sciences and materials science, an interest which would ultimately lead to some of his better-known contributions to science. His earliest encounters with certain alchemical theories and practices were during his childhood, when a twelve year old Isaac Newton was boarding in the attic of an apothecaries shop. During Newton's lifetime, the study of chemistry was still in its infancy, so many of his experimental studies used esoteric language and vague terminology more typically associated with alchemy and occultism.It was not until several decades after Newton's death that experiments of stoichiometry under the pioneering works of Antoine Lavoisier were conducted, and analytical chemistry, with its associated nomenclature, came to resemble modern chemistry as we know it today. However, Newton's contemporary and fellow Royal Society member, Robert Boyle, had already discovered the basic concepts of modern chemistry and began establishing modern norms of experimental practice and communication in chemistry, information which Newton did not use. Much of Newton's writing on alchemy may have been lost in a fire in his laboratory, so the true extent of his work in this area may have been larger than is currently known. Newton also suffered a nervous breakdown during his period of alchemical work. Newton's writings suggest that one of the main goals of his alchemy may have been the discovery of the philosopher's stone (a material believed to turn base metals into gold), and perhaps to a lesser extent, the discovery of the highly coveted Elixir of Life. The elixir of life (Medieval Latin: elixir vitae), also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the means of formulating the elixir.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_of_life
Newton reportedly believed that a Diana's Tree, an alchemical demonstration producing a dendritic "growth" of silver from solution, was evidence that metals "possessed a sort of life." Within the last few hundred years, some alchemists have adopted the Tree of Life from the Kabbalah. This knowledge is not used by all alchemists, which is fine, but a basic working knowledge of it can go very far for one's progress, of this I am certain. The Tree of Life serves as a sort of spiritual road map between the physical world and the Absolute, or God. There are different levels of consciousness, each associated with a particular rate of vibration (slower vibrations for lower levels, higher rates for higher levels, eventually reaching to infinity or the Absolute), a planet, and a metal. You can apply this to work both in spagyrics and mineral alchemy, as you can see for yourself just where on the Tree these particular plants or ores/substances are located. As another application, the Tree of Life can be stretched out into a line, levels 1 through 10, ten on the bottom, 1 at the top. Level 10, our physical reality, is the most mundane. Between it and the higher worlds is the first Veil, guarded by our own Guardian of the Threshold, our own morality. Based on the state or evolution of that morality, we can access higher worlds through mysticism (one avenue of which is alchemy). If our intent is noble, our Guardian will allow us access to the higher worlds, the level accessible based on our spiritual evolution. Levels 9 to 7 constitue the Lunar Astral world; Levels 6 to 4 constitute the Solar Astral world; and Levels 3 to 1 constitute the Buffer between the Created worlds and the Absolute.
ethekarius.wixsite.com/alchemy/treeoflife
Some practices of alchemy were banned in England during Newton's lifetime, due in part to unscrupulous practitioners who would often promise wealthy benefactors unrealistic results in an attempt to swindle them. The English Crown, also fearing the potential devaluation of gold because of the creation of fake gold, made penalties for alchemy very severe. In some cases the punishment for unsanctioned alchemy would include the public hanging of an offender on a gilded scaffold while adorned with tinsel and other items.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studies
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) borrowed from Newton's more occult theories with the intention of finding medical applications. He also built on the work of Richard Mead (1673–1754), who hypothesized that due to the astral nature of the human body, it is subject to an "all‐pervading gravitation emanating from the stars." Mesmer expanded this concept, hypothesizing that bodies were subject to a form of magnetism emanating from all other bodies, not just the stars, which he called 'animal magnetism,' describing it as a "fluid which is universally widespread and pervasive in a manner which allows for no void, subtly permits no comparison, and is of a nature which is susceptible to receive, propagate, and communicate all impressions of movement."[f] Mesmer's theories influenced the Spiritualist traditions. Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) wrote of the Augoeides, though her own theories of the astral body were derived from the subtle body traditions of Eastern mysticism. The most substantial difference consisted in the location of the immortal or divine spirit of man. While the ancient Neoplatonists held that the Augoeides never descends hypostatically into the living man, but only more or less sheds its radiance on the inner man – the astral soul – the Kabalists of the Middle Ages maintained that the spirit, detaching itself from the ocean of light and spirit, entered into man's soul, where it remained through life imprisoned in the astral capsule.
Ceremonial magic Éliphas Lévi. In the mid-nineteenth century the French occultist Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875) introduced the term 'astral light' in his Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1856), and wrote of it as a factor he considered of key importance to magic, alongside the power of will and the doctrine of correspondences. Lévi developed a full theory of the 'sidereal body' which for the most part agrees with the Neoplatonic tradition of Proclus, Iamblichus, Plotinus, and Porphyry, though he credited Paracelsus as his source. He considered the astral light to be the medium of all light, energy, and movement, describing it in terms that recall both Mesmer and the luminiferous aether. Lévi's idea of the astral was to have much influence in the English-speaking world due to being adopted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and by Aleister Crowley, who believed himself to be Lévi's reincarnation and promoted a number of ideas from his works, including his idea of the true self or True Will, much of his system of ceremonial magic, and his theories of the astral plane and the body of light.
Florence Farr and the Golden Dawn. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret magical order originating in 1888 in Victorian England, describes the subtle body as "the Sphere of Sensation." Florence Farr (1860–1917) developed the Golden Dawn education system, succeeded William Wynn Westcott as "Chief Adept in Anglia," and wrote several of the Order's secret instruction papers, called the "Flying Rolls." Her magical motto was Sapientia Sapienti Dona Data (Latin: 'Wisdom is a gift given to the wise'). Farr's writings, signed with the initials of her motto 'SSDD', studied the ten parts of a human being which she said were described in ancient Egyptian writings, including the Sahu, the elemental or astral body; the Tet or Zet, the spiritual body or soul; and the Khaibt, the sphere or aura, radiating from the Sahu, and symbolised by a fan. Farr wrote that the ancient Egyptian adepts "looked upon each body, or manifested being, as the material basis of a long vista of immaterial entities functioning as a spirit, soul and mind in the formative, creative and archetypal worlds." She described how the Khaibt forms a sphere around a human being at birth.The occultist Israel Regardie (1907–1985) published a collection of Golden Dawn magical texts which state that "the whole sphere of sensation which surroundeth the whole physical body of a man is called 'the magical mirror of the universe'. For therein are represented all the occult forces of the universe projected as on a sphere..." Regardie connects the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life to this sphere as a microcosm of the universe. The Kabbalistic concept of the Nephesch ('psyche') is seen as "the subtle body of refined Astral Light upon which, as on an invisible pattern, the physical body is extended." The tree of life is mentioned in the Book of Genesis; it is distinct from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Remaining in the garden, however, was the tree of life. To prevent their access to this tree in the future, Cherubim with a flaming sword were placed at the east of the garden. In the Book of Proverbs, the tree of life is associated with wisdom: "[Wisdom] is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy [is every one] that retaineth her."In Proverbs 15:4, the tree of life is associated with calmness: "A soothing tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a wound to the spirit. Jewish mysticism depicts the tree of life in the form of ten interconnected nodes, as the central symbol of the Kabbalah. It comprises the ten Sefirot powers in the divine realm. The panentheistic and anthropomorphic emphasis of this emanationist theology interpreted the Torah, Jewish observance, and the purpose of Creation as the symbolic esoteric drama of unification in the sefirot, restoring harmony to Creation. From the Renaissance onwards, Kabbalah became incorporated as tradition in Christian Western esotericism as Hermetic Qabalah.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life
The occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), the founder of the new religious movement Thelema, translated augoeides literally as 'egg message' and connected it with 'the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel' or 'higher & original (egg) genius' associated with each human being. He stressed that the body of light must be built up though the use of imagination, and that it must then be animated, exercised, and disciplined. According to Asprem (2017): The practice of creating a "body of light” in imagination builds on the body-image system, potentially working with alterations across all of its three modalities (perceptual, conceptual, and affective): an idealized body is produced (body-image model), new conceptual structures are attached to it (e.g., the doctrine of multiple, separable bodies), while emotional attachments of awe, dignity, and fear responses are cultivated through the performance of astral rituals and protections from "astral dangers" through the simulation of symbols and magical weapons. Crowley explains that the most important practices for developing the Body of Light are: The fortification of the Body of Light by the constant use of rituals, by the assumption of god-forms, and by the right use of the Eucharist. The purification and consecration and exaltation of that Body by the use of rituals of invocation.
The education of that Body by experience. It must learn to travel on every plane; to break down every obstacle which may confront it. According to Crowley, the role of the body of light is broader than simply being a vehicle for astral travel — he writes that it is also the storehouse of all experience.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_of_light
Enlightenment or God-realization is the highest aspect of our human potential for growth in body, mind, and spirit. According to many esoteric traditions, as we awaken to our oneness with God, bodily changes occur, most dramatically in the higher phases of enlightenment. In the final phase, the body is alchemically changed from flesh into light, becoming immortal. Enlightenment becomes a literal fact through the transubstantiation of flesh and blood into an immortal body of light. Various traditions have different names for this transubstantiated form, including the light body, the resurrection body, the solar body, and the diamond body. In this article, we will look at this phenomenon from a cross-cultural and evolutionary perspective. We will also consider questions such as; what is the relationship between death and resurrection? What is meant by the terms "ascended masters" and "illuminati"? We will look at Christianity as a Western enlightenment tradition whose purpose is to enable people to develop psychophysically through resurrection to become Christed god-men and god-women. Toward the end, we will look the Shroud of Turin as evidence of bodily transubstantiation and the perfection of the human race. From Transfiguration to Transubstantiation. The model of human consciousness I will be using is essentially drawn from the ancient yogic chakra model of consciousness, which posits seven stages of development that correspond to each of the chakras. Enlightenment is the highest. The American spiritual teacher Sapta Na Adi Da Samraj (formerly known as Adi Da and Da Free John, among other names; born Franklin A. Jones) divides this phase into three substages: transfiguration, transformation, and translation. With transfiguration, the body-mind is pervaded by what he calls Divine Radiance as the person abides in God-realization. Transformation is characterized by the manifestation of extraordinary powers and faculties (sometimes called siddhis), such as psychic healing capacities, genius, and longevity, as spontaneous expressions of further permeation of the body-mind by Divine Radiance. Translation removes the individual from space-time altogether and returns him to what I call the Preluminous Void, the unmanifest state of existence before God said "Let there be light." I believe this model, though valuable, is incomplete. Therefore I would like to suggest adding a next-to-last stage before translation: transubstantiation, or attaining the light body. This is the culmination of the entire evolutionary process of higher human development. It results in a deathless body of light, the perfection of the human body-mind, and it is the subject of this article. The True Nature of Resurrection...Sacred traditions and metaphysical schools of thought generally agree that reality is multileveled and that each level of reality is composed of different energies or of matter with different degrees of vibration and density. In their totality, these energies and forms of matter constitute a spectrum of substance. At one end of the spectrum is purely physical matter; at the other end is pure spirit prior to its manifestation as matter and energy. This spectrum of substance is one of the two primal forms of God constituting the cosmos. The other is the spectrum of consciousness. Together, they are the inner and outer aspects of reality, the subjective and objective, the intention and extension of God. Through our body-mind, we humans partake of all levels of reality, although we are generally unaware of the higher ones. Nonetheless, we retain the potential to awaken to the full spectrum of our being as consciousness and substance. Furthermore, we have a form or container or vehicle for our consciousness on each of those levels—a vehicle that is composed from the substance of that level. Collectively these are called energy bodies. They can be seen as nested one within the other, and all are resident within the physical body, although their energies may extend beyond it. Our physical body of flesh, blood, and bone is merely the container through which we function at the level of reality we know as ordinary space-time. At death, as the physical body decomposes, the other bodies withdraw from it, and the consciousness continues to function in other levels of reality. Those energy bodies have been given various names by various traditions. In one tradition they are termed the gross, the subtle, and the causal levels and bodies. In another they are the physical, the vital, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual levels and bodies. In yet another they are termed koshas or "sheaths" of finer and finer substance enfolding the physical body. Still more names could be given from still other metaphysical systems. Here are some of the names given to the "highest" or "final" energy body in various traditions: In the Christian tradition it is called "the resurrection body" or "the glorified body." St. Paul called it "the celestial body" or "spiritual body." In Sufism it is called "the most sacred body" (wujud al-aqdas). In Taoism it is called "the diamond body," and those who have attained it are called "the immortals" and "the cloudwalkers." In Tibetan Buddhism it is called "the light body."
In some mystery schools it is called "the solar body."
In Rosicrucianism it is called "the diamond body of the temple of God." In Tantrism and yoga it is called the "the vajra body," "the adamantine body" and "the divine body."
In Vedanta it is called "the superconductive body."
In Kriya yoga it is called "the body of bliss." In Gnosticism and Neoplatonism it is called "the radiant body." In the alchemical tradition, it is called "the glory of the whole universe" or the "golden body." In the Hermetic Corpus it is called "the immortal body" (soma athanaton). In ancient Egypt it was called the akh.
In Old Persia it was called "the indwelling divine potential" (fravashi or fravarti). In the Mithraic liturgy it was called "the perfect body" (soma teleion). In the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo it is called "the Divine Body," composed of supramental substance. As I see it, these are different terms for the same ultimate stage of human development. If I understand these terms correctly, they refer to the condition in which a human being, by a combination of personal effort and divine grace, attains a deathless state through the transubstantiation or alchemical transmutation of his or her ordinary fleshly body. The traditions speak of the process in different ways. Is the immortal body created or released, attained or manifested? Is it preexistent within the individual, so that the gross matter of the body and the other energy bodies are simply "burned" away? Or is the gross matter of the body altered through a process not yet recognized by physical science that changes the atoms of flesh into something unnamed on the periodic table of elements? Is there more than one route to the perfected human body-mind?
These are provocative questions, but I have no definitive answers to offer here. I am seeking answers, and I welcome whatever information readers may have to share. Attaining Immortality. Whatever the process may be, it enables the transubstantiated individual to operate within ordinary space-time through an immortal vehicle of consciousness. Unlike biological flesh, that deathless body is no longer carbon-based. Rather it is composed of a finer, more ethereal form of energy substance unknown to conventional physics but long known to metaphysics. For a human individual, this condition is the most exalted phase of higher human development. The person has become fully manifested as what he or she inherently is: a form of God. Such people have been recognized throughout history as "god-men" and "god-women." If we share a common human nature, then what is possible for one is possible for all, at least theoretically. For humanity in a collective sense, then, the body of light is the final stage of evolution, the perfection of man, the complete manifestation of the Mystical Body of Christ. Attaining the body of light is an alternative to death or, more correctly, the conquest of death. As Dr. Charles Musas put it in an article in Astrologia (vol. 1, no. 2, 1974), which I quoted in my book Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment: The most ancient Egyptian teachings were concerned with an occult science—now lost and as yet far beyond the reach of our technology—whereby while still in this life, the carbon-based body, by suitable extradimensional radiation, could be transformed into the new type of energy-substance and form the imperishable, radiant body. In this manner, the initiate so treated could enter into a higher dimensional objective world...without the trauma of physical death. Jesus and the Body of Light. The best-known example of transubstantiation of the human body-mind is Jesus of Nazareth. I regard Christianity as an enlightenment tradition whose true purpose is to enable people to become Christed. That is, Christianity has (or had) both a theory and a practice for attaining enlightenment in the highest degree. But that understanding has been lost in the institutional forms and sects that have arisen over doctrinal and ritualistic differences that are not essential to the process of growth to Christhood. It is important for fundamentalists to realize this fact, but it is also important for transpersonalists, integralists, and secular spiritualists who dismiss certain inner truths about Christianity and thereby overlook the possibility of connecting with a Western enlightenment tradition whose roots extend at least to ancient Egypt. Fundamentalist Christians often speak about the blood sacrifice of Jesus. They declare that his shedding of blood was a mighty act of salvation. A hymn asks, "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" It asks whether the listener is cleansed from sin and redeemed from eternal damnation by accepting the blood sacrifice of Jesus as the sign of his rulership of creation.
With all due respect, that view of Jesus and Christianity is naive, literalistic, and superficial. It is an exoteric understanding of a situation that actually requires an esoteric understanding. In other words, conventional Christianity has the teaching, but not the key that unlocks its meaning. I will explain. Contrary to what many Christian fundamentalists believe, I would like to suggest that the resurrection of Jesus did not involve reconstitution of his flesh, blood, and bone into a functioning biological organism. It was not the restoration of his physical body or the reanimation of a decomposing corpse. Similar examples of this fallacious fundamentalism may be seen in ancient China and in Orthodox Judaism. In ancient China, I have read, it was common for men to save their cut hair and fingernails on a lifelong basis so that upon the person's death they could be placed in the grave or tomb in order to be ready for use in restoring that person's body to life. Likewise, in Orthodox Judaism it is believed that the Messiah will resurrect dead bodies upon his coming, so Orthodox Jews retain even amputated body parts for burial with the person. No matter what form this literalism takes, it needs to be corrected with insight and understanding. There is no need to collect body parts. Doing that is an entirely superfluous and literal-minded view that misdirects one's energy and consciousness. Nor is there any need to be "washed in the blood of the Lamb." The important thing is, as the Bhagavad Gita puts it, to "fix your heart on God" and then invoke the Holy Spirit, the Shekhinah, the goddess Kundalini, or whatever devotional form your particular tradition may provide. Support that with moral behavior, contemplative practice, cultivation of the mind, works of social goodness and civic responsibility. In other words, live a life of integral practice so that your entire being—body, mind and spirit—is oriented to the attainment of enlightenment. God will take care of the rest. However, "the rest," according to esoteric traditions, includes advanced practices that are for all intents and purposes unknown to the exoteric forms of those traditions—the churches, temples, mosques, etc., where conventional worship prevails and enlightenment-knowledge is generally regarded as craziness or heresy. It is not a matter of having all your body parts collected; dead flesh is dead flesh. It is a matter of enlivening your energy bodies so that, through spiritual refinement, the dross is removed and the "highest" body is developed to the point of complete self-mastery. Then you can cast off the flesh body through the death process, but without the trauma of dying. You release the light body from its fleshly cocoon. You put on the "robe of light." You no longer cast a shadow because you no longer have a shadow. Evidence of the Shroud. When Jesus arose from the dead, he lived in a resurrection or glorified body. That is indicated by the Shroud of Turin, which, legend maintains, was the funeral shroud of Jesus when he was buried in the tomb after crucifixion. Although a carbon-14 test in the 1980s purportedly showed that the Shroud was no older than the fourteenth century—and therefore was a hoax—it has now been shown that the results of this test were badly flawed by two major factors. First, the sample of the fabric tested was recently found to be part of a sixteenth-century patch or invisible repair of the original cloth, which had been damaged. (The repair was revealed by microscopic examination.) Second, microscopic biological material (mold microorganisms) was present on the piece of fabric tested. These factors led to a medieval date for the Shroud. New tests move the relic's age back to the first century. Moreover, other research has identified pollen grains on the Shroud that could only have come from the vicinity of Jerusalem during the months of March and April, when such localized vegetation is in bloom. Finally, the weave of the cloth has now been identified as specific to Palestine in the first century and not to medieval Europe. For these and other reasons, the Shroud is now clearly established as an authentic first-century relic. As for the image of the man in the Shroud, research likewise indicates that it is no hoax. The blood stains are real (type AB) and contain human male DNA. Shroud researcher Frank Tribbe notes in his book Portrait of Jesus? that the closest science can come to explaining how the image of the man was imprinted on the Shroud is by comparing the situation to a controlled burst of high-intensity radiation similar to the Hiroshima bomb explosion, which "printed" images of disintegrated people on building walls. Shroud researcher Ray Rogers, a physical chemist from Los Alamos Laboratory, said, "I am forced to conclude that the image was formed by a burst of radiant energy—light if you like." In other words, the image is recorded on the cloth as if by a photoflash of brilliant light rising from the body of the man in the Shroud. Another Shroud researcher, Alan Adler of Western Connecticut State College, concluded that the image could have been created only by a form of energy that science cannot name. Apparently a self-induced nuclear "explosion" was the means by which Jesus transubstantiated. This line of reasoning means that Jesus actually died, physically and biologically. While he may have been alive in a yogic swoon or a near-death condition when placed in the tomb, nevertheless at some point he underwent biological death in order to attain resurrection. But unlike the typical corpse, which undergoes decomposition into its elements, Jesus's physical body was altered into something more elemental—indeed, more fundamental, although it is not understood by fundamentalists. From my point of view, Jesus called people to duplicate himself, to grow into "the stature and fullness of Christ," so that in our own bodies—our own flesh and blood—we perform the true and complete imitation of Christ. Institutional Christianity, from evangelical to mainstream churches, aims at producing Christians when it should aim at producing Christs. The kingdom of heaven to which Jesus called humanity is not an astrophysical location but a state of consciousness known as enlightenment. Jesus' life, death, and postmortem acts opened "the gates of heaven" for everyone, but mere belief in Jesus is not enough. No one will pass through the gates unless he or she lives a God-centered life resulting in God-realization. And in the final phase of God-realization, one literally becomes light. Ascended Masters and the Illuminati. There may have been others before (and after) Jesus who attained the glorified body or resurrection body, as is implied in various ways in both biblical and extrabiblical literature. The pharaonic ceremonial tradition of ancient Egypt is primarily about the process of consciousness transference from the flesh body to the spirit body or akh. Knowledge of that process may have passed into Judaism through Moses, who, according to the Bible, became a member of the pharaoh's household when he was rescued as a baby by a pharaoh's daughter. From Moses, according to esoteric legends, the akh knowledge descended through the centuries as an underground stream in some branches or schools of Judaism, emerging publicly and most dramatically through the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Legends and some esoteric documents also have the tradition continuing through some of the early Christians to the Cathars of southern France, and thence to the Knights Templar and modern Freemasonry as expounded by scholars such as Manly P. Hall and W. L. Wilmshurst. Although Jesus is the primary Western exemplar of resurrection, there are others, both Eastern and Western, whom history and legend record as similarly transubstantiated. According to various esoteric traditions, a number of "ascended masters" have attained to that condition and are accessible to us when they choose to be. Among them are Melchizedek, Ezekiel, Count St. Germain, Boganathar, Kriya Babaji Nagaraj (also known as Mahavatar Babaji and Shiva Baba), Koot Hoomi, Morya, Djual Kool, Matsyendra Nathan, and Swami Ramalingam. Collectively, they are known as the White Brotherhood, the illumined ones or the true illuminati. In a different but related situation—that of near-death research—are reports by the thousands of people who, while clinically dead, have found themselves in a nonterrestrial environment and have then become aware of the presence of a being of light. These light beings have been identified by the near-death experiencers as gods, angels, devas, saints, holy people, mythological personalities, and other figures associated with divinity. The reports imply a veritable society of such entities, operating in what seem to be vehicles of consciousness identical to the one Jesus had after his resurrection. That society resides at the top of the divine hierarchy of worlds extending from the lowest physical level to the highest of the metaphysical. The hierarchy has often been called the Great Chain of Being; it connects all life to God, from the lowest microorganisms, through humanity, to the forms native to the higher worlds, such as angels, devas, and archangels. At the highest level, the Logos—where creation itself begins—are those Christed ones of humanity who have ascended to the throne of God, that is, who have attained the condition of existence that is the seat of power for God's governing of the cosmos. Despite the apparently vast distance which separates them from us, they are simply "elder brothers and sisters" of ours who have traveled the evolutionary path before us. They present themselves to us in ways that appeal to our deepest nature and that urge us to externalize that nature in every aspect of our own being, including relationships and social organization. They are models for human aspirations of spiritual growth. Thus Jesus, properly understood, is not a vehicle of salvation, as fundamentalists claim, but a model of perfection drawing us beyond ego to the transpersonal and the mystical.
From my perspective, someday in a distant evolutionary future we humans will wear the seamless robe of light. May all beings attain enlightenment!.
www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/resurrec...