Dr John Hagelin The Core Of Nature Interview by Iain McNay Pt 1 – 6

MANUAL FOR A PERFECT GOVERNMENT
For the last quarter century, Dr. Hagelin has led an international investigation into the nature and origin of consciousness, including higher states of human consciousness. In his seminal book, Manual for a Perfect Government (now in its second printing), Dr. Hagelin shows how, through educational programs that develop human consciousness, and through policies and programs that effectively harness the laws of nature, it is possible to solve and to prevent acute social problems, and to profoundly enhance governmental achievements.
Excerpt

“Governments everywhere are in crisis—torn by conflicting interests and facing seemingly intractable challenges. This is because governmental theory and policy are rooted in obsolete 19th century principles, not in a comprehensive scientific understanding of how Nature functions.

“Today’s unified quantum field theories reveal the ultimate unity underlying all life, confirming the timeless wisdom of the ages. This unified reality and its applied technologies, from both modern science and the ancient Vedic science of consciousness reformulated and systematized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, promote an ideal, problem-free administration in which myriad tendencies in society are managed with the same skill and efficiency with which Nature governs the vast universe.

“The problems of our age are human problems. Crime, terrorism, drug dependency, even pollution result from failure to comprehend life’s essential unity. The only way we can overcome these problems is through the expansion of consciousness—education that actualizes the full potential of the brain. With maximally expanded consciousness, individuals naturally behave in their own best long-term interests while simultaneously promoting the interests of society as a whole—action fully aligned with natural law.

“We now possess a profound and scientific understanding of natural law that can bring peace to the world, and at last fulfill the dreams of America’s Founders—a self-governing nation, where all citizens naturally respect and promote each other’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

—Dr. John Hagelin

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When we violate the laws of nature then we suffer ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Q: What is the significance of Arghya (offering water to the sun)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Water is symbol of love. In fact, in Sanskrit, it is synonymous to love. ‘Apa’ means water and it also means love. That is why, someone very close to you, what do you call them? Apta – means very dear. Apa and Apta are very close. So, giving water is not important, feeling the connection with the sun is important.

What people used to do was they used to hold water in their hands and let the water leak out of the hand slowly, and for that much time they used to do sun gazing. You look at the sun, gaze and allow the water to seep down. So you need to know timings – It will take a couple of minutes, maybe two or three minutes for the water to leak out. Till that time, you gaze at the sun and let the water leak out and you will see that your body gets energized. That was the technique behind it. Not just giving water to the sun like that, it will not work.

Q: Guruji, you had said that this universe was created by the union of Prakriti (nature) and Paramatma (Supreme Being/God). So going back to the Paramatma, who is Poorna Anand (supreme and absolute bliss) how did this sankalpa (thought/intention) arise in Him?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it is there in the Upanishads that earlier there was only Paramatma and He felt that He was alone, and He wanted to become many, so He became many. The intention happened on its own ‘ekoham bahusyama’. Sankalpa is not a deviation. It is not considered as a deviation. When a seeker (sadhak) transcends from the small mind to the Big Mind, then he considers sankalpa as a hindrance. But from the point of view of the Big Mind, it is a step to go further. So if you think why did sankalpa arise in the Paramatma, He should remain unwavering (nirvikalpa) – this is not so. Sankalpa is also Paramatma, nirvikalpa is also Him and vikalpa is also Him. Like in an ocean, waves arise on their own, in Paramatma, a thought arose to become many, so He became many. Different types of nature, different types of people and different types of intelligence were created.

Day before yesterday, I was watching a National Geographic documentary on the creation of Earth. It said that about 400 billion years ago, there was only gas. Gas started spinning and fire erupted. Then from fire, water arose and then the Earth was formed. I suddenly realized, ‘Oh this has been said in the Vedas! What new have they said?

In our Vedic knowledge, it is said in the form of shloka – In the space, first there was air, from the air fire arose, from fire water, and from water earth was created. The idea behind giving water to fire is that we go back to ourselves. From water to fire, fire to air and then, we do pranayama after giving arghya to the sun – we go to the air element. From the air we go to the space and then sit in meditation. All these are different types of stories; examining them more deeply reveals something new.

Q: It is said that we should not keep the photographs of our deceased parents along with the pictures of the gods and goddesses whom we worship. Some people also say that we should not even hang the photographs of deceased parents on the walls of our home. Is it true?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, there is no problem with it. You can keep the photographs of your departed parents along with the pictures of god, it is fine. If it is a sanyasi, even his picture can be placed with that of God, even when he is alive. If he is leading a grihastha (married) life, then we do not keep his photograph, such is the practice.

Q: Guruji, please explain the reason for suffering?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Okay, suppose I tell you, you should eat five masala dosa tonight, what will happen to you? Suppose you are force fed five masala dosa or 20 pooris, what will happen to you? First of all, you will suffer. Tonight you cannot sleep, right? It will create headache, stomach ache and then all types of aches.

Firstly, when we violate the laws of nature, then we suffer. Second, ignorance – if you don’t know what you are eating and you eat some wrong things, then also you will suffer, right? Third is, if you have violated some laws at some time in the past, in the previous life, that also can bring some karma. So karmaja, agyanaja, and pragyaparadh; three things bring suffering. How to remove the ignorance? Through knowledge and understanding; Asking questions like you are doing.

Q: How to forgive truly?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truly? Is there any false forgiveness?
I don’t know false forgiveness. I know only true forgiveness. Forgive means forgive, that’s it. Gone is gone, people did mistakes, finished. Move on.

You know why something comes back is because of your attachment to some pleasure. That is not the other’s mistake. Suppose you had some pleasure, someone had given you some pleasure, and then they have cheated you or they did a mistake, you can forgive that mistake, but what comes back is your craving for pleasure. When you see that it is just an illusion, you become more centered.

Q: What is special in 2012?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know for us every day is special, every year is special. According to the Hindu calendar, the next year is called ‘nanda’. ‘Nanda’ means happiness. The year of ‘Ananda’.

The past year which ends on March 23rd, is called ‘khara’. ‘Khara’ means for sure, certainty. Before that, it was the year of uncertainty and this year is of certainty, surety. Next year is happiness.

Q: Does the soul experience happiness and sorrow, or the mind experiences it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Only the mind experiences. All the experiences are of the mind. The experience of the soul is also at the level of the mind. When the mind is calm, then the soul is experienced. The soul is an embodiment of joy. Mind experiences sorrow. When the mind dissolves, then joy is experienced.

Q: Where is the boundary for the mind and soul? Until where is the mind, from where does the soul start?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Like there are waves and the ocean. Just as there are waves in the ocean, mind is in the soul. So the mind is not a different entity. It is the wave of the ocean. It comes up a little bit and then calms down, again comes up and then calms down.

Q: Guruji, why do some people have to suffer throughout their life? Some people are born in slum areas and keep suffering, whereas some are born in good homes and lead a comfortable, happy life? I want to know. I see others, as well as myself, suffering.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Are you suffering? Tell me if it is your suffering or others’ suffering. Ans – I am suffering too. You too? But you are smiling! Looking at your face, it doesn’t seem that you are in great suffering! Only this is needed! When you are doing sadhana, don’t you see a smile on your face? You smile in difficult times also, that is life.
Every difficulty comes to go away. It goes as soon as it comes. No problem stays forever. It comes and goes.

Q: Guruji, is there rebirth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Absolutely!

Q: Guruji, what should I do to become your favorite disciple?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just keep doing whatever you are doing, you are already my favorite! Do seva, sadhana, keep coming to satsang, become a teacher. Do good to others.
My disciple itself means my favorite. There is nothing like favorite disciple and non-favorite disciple, okay?

Nyaya, the lamp at the door, shining inside and outside – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Nyaya, the lamp at the door, shining inside and outside – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

1. Dr. Hagelin: Last week, Maharishi declared that, in truth, there is no difference between the unmanifest Unified Field and its manifest expressions in the universe: “Between the unmanifest and the manifest, there is nothing; it is the same thing.” Maharishi also said this unified reality of life is explained in the Nyaya Sutras of the Vedic literature: “Nyaya is the lamp at the door; the outside and the inside meet at the door.” My question for Maharishi is this: If there is no difference between the outside and the inside, ultimately, then what is the door that stands between them?

2. Nyaya, the lamp at the door, is the science of investigation about what makes light outside, what makes light inside: What makes silence behave like dynamism, what is the source of dynamism.

3. Investigation into that is called science: vigyan. The vi of vigyan comes from vishesha and vivrita.

4. The reality of the lamp at the door is that there is one light that is seen outside and inside. This is vivrita. It takes the vision round and round. This process does justice to the reality of light, revealing that it’s not two lights. The two appear, in the same way as a snake appears in the string.

5. The same is seen in the field of Vedanta with reference to the word and the gap. The structure of Veda itself is appearance and disappearance.

6. Veda is the supreme authenticity. 7. Science and technology both are the two aspects of self-referral consciousness.

8. For education to be preparation for successful life, affluent, fulfilled life, it has to be Vedic education. Children in this education will rule the world. Their territory will be Brahm–aham brahmasmi. The education of Vedic University will do justice to the total field of knowledge.

9. The total field of knowledge will create a civilization worthy of man. Human existence is purely divine.

10. German people want to create an education which will generate leadership. Our German Rajas are active on that.

11. Peace Government will purify the whole world consciousness.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is widely regarded as one of the foremost scientists in the field of consciousness.

Does the Unified Field have a Creator? – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

1. Dr. Hagelin: Maharishi, we have a question from the field of religion that I think is very interesting. It says: Maharishi, I am a religion writer and I have a question about God. Maharishi speaks about the Unified Field as being a field of infinite silence and infinite dynamism. My question is, Does the Unified Field itself have a Creator? Or is it God?

2. The Unfied Field is nitya and apaurusheya. Nitya means eternal, and apaurusheya means not made by anyone. Unified Field is a self-sustained, eternal reality endowed with all the values of silence and all the values of dynamism.

3. Within the mass of unmanifest, eternal, uncreated reality, all possibilities are lively. That is why we say Almighty. It is shruti, smriti, and purana. It’s unmanifest, total reality–light of God.

4. There is no creator of it, no sustainer of it, no inducer of it. It is its own scientist; it is its own technology. It is on its own total knowledge; it is on its own total action. It is a field of all possibility, and that is what the word means: light of God

5. Veda is not anybody’s creation, it is its own voice, its own memory. This is that light of God, not created by anyone.

6. One reveres Mohammed or Christ or Buddha, but the light of God is on its own, uncreated by anyone.

7. The Light of God is not human imagination. When it comes in human imagination, then it ceases to be human imagination-then it is God’s imagination, it’s the light of God.

8. Aham Brahmasmi, Ayam Atma Brahma, all these beautiful exhortations are not manmade. Man may participate into that existing value and be honored with that.

9. The science, the scientist, technology and the technologist, they are all one. And its characteristic is unmanifest, all possibility, invincibility. To unfold that is the purpose of education

Emptiness is the Potential of Everything – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Emptiness is the Potential of Everything, explains Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Transcendental Meditation is the direct means to realize this truth. http://www.tm.org

Who Was Confucius and Why Does it Matter ? ~ Rodney L. Taylor, Ph.D

Confucius was born in the 6th Century B.C.E. in the small state of Lu, located in the present Shantung peninsula. He lived during the Chou Dynasty at a point when the central authority of the dynasty was being challenged by the growth of increasingly powerful states attempting to challenge the power of the central government. Confucius himself was a member of what was referred to as the ju, a class of people primarily occupied with the study of writing from the earliest generations of the Chou period, the writings that become known as the ching or Classics, numbering five or six, but accruing additional numbers with the passage of time. So Confucius was essentially a scholar of his time.

Confucius can be understood in his historic context. That context is the slow disintegration of the stability and order of the political order of his day. His focus is upon a series of writings that described the harmonious ways of the generations before him and even further in the past, a time when sages, sheng, brought their wisdom to the governing of the world. For Confucius the Classics were the documentation that when sages governed, the world was ordered. This concept of order was defined largely in terms of a moral code of humaneness, the concept of jen, goodness, exercised by the sage rulers toward their subjects and in turn became the governing principle for all people in society.

The contrast between what Confucius read of the records of the ancients and his own age was stark. As a result Confucius sought to bring the ways of the ancients to his own generation. For many years he traveled from state to state, often at great personal risk, to attempt to inculcate the teachings of moral goodness to the rulers of the various states

In this endeavor he was a remarkable failure! No ruler was interested in a teaching of moral goodness. Is it any different today? What a surprise, such rulers were only interested in strategies to guarantee their own sustaining power and authority! Finally with no measurable success, Confucius retired to his home state and gathered increasing numbers of students around him, teaching the moral principles of the ancient sages. The formal biography ends with his role as a teacher, but his influence began with his role as a teacher.

And what was the nature of these teachings? He stressed the need to learn, hsüeh, to engage in study of the Classics and the ways of the ancient sages. His hope was that through these teachings the world would be brought back to a state of harmony and order and all society would live at peace. What were the underlying features of these teaching? The focus was upon the cultivation of a moral self, self defined in terms goodness, caring, compassion, altruism and benevolence. There are many specific teachings corresponding to these various ideas but when Confucius was asked by his disciples whether there was not one principle idea running through his teaching, he answered by saying that the “single thread” of his teachings could best be described by the term shu, most frequently translated as reciprocity.

The term reciprocity is central to Confucian teachings. The Chinese character is composed of two parts: one part means “to be like,” the second part means “heart” or “mind.” Taken together the character means literally “like-hearted” or “like-minded,” suggesting one shows care to another. It could be expressed by our word sympathy, but sympathy suggests condescension of attitude and that is not implied. Our word empathy, however, strikes at the quintessential meaning. So reciprocity is empathy. But Confucius himself goes on to define the term in a sentence sounding remarkably familiar to our Western ears: “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.” Confucian teaching is articulated in no more basic moral axiom then this statement and it remains foundational throughout the history of the Confucian tradition.

Why does it matter who Confucius was? To answer this question we need to understand that in the centuries following Confucus’ death, his teaching rose to a position of greater and greater prominence in two spheres. Confucian teachings became the official ideology of the Chinese state, a position it held with virtually no break until into the 20th century. On the individual level, Confucian teachings became the central focus of individual learning and moral cultivation, the goal to become a moral person modeled upon the sages of antiquity.

And this aspect of Confucian teachings lasted not only into the 20th century but to our own day and presumably into the future. Historically we also witness the spread of Confucian teaching at both levels from China to both Korea and Japan and into South East Asia as well. The entire East Asian and South East Asia spheres have been dominated by Confucian values through out their history. To understand the thought and values of East and South East Asia, particularly in our own day, we simply must understand the teachings of this man Confucius.

But it goes further: to understand why Confucian teachings addressed not only the ideology of the state, but found their true focus upon the learning of the self to create a moral self, we must understand this man Confucius. Why? Is it important to create a moral self in a world not unlike the chaos of the world Confucius himself faced? Are we so very different? Have we travelled so very far from that fundamental necessity of finding the single thread of reciprocity and living by its virtue? Perhaps we all need to return to the simple teachings of Confucius to reacquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of living as a moral person and thereby creating a moral world. The message of Confucius is nothing more than the call to each person to fulfill his or her capacity of goodness, jen, and thereby, one by one, transform the world from what it is, to what can be and ought to be.

Dr. Rodney L. Taylor, Professor of Religious Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder for more than 30 years, received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in East Asian religion. His principle area of specialization is the understanding of Confucianism as a religious tradition both historically and in the modern world where Confucianism can be a voice in the contemporary discussion of religion and spirituality.

His books include: The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism; The Way of Heaven; The Confucian Way of Contemplation; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism; Confucianism (high school text); The Cultivation of Sagehood as a Religious Goal in Neo-Confucianism; They Shall Not Hurt: Human Suffering and Human Caring (with Dr. Jean Watson); The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective (with Dr. Frederick Denny) and his most recent volume, Confucius, the Analects: The Path of the Sage from Skylight Paths.

Twenty-six centuries after their origination, the principles laid down in the Analects of Confucius still act as the foundation of Chinese philosophy, ethics, society and government, and play a formative role in the development of many Eastern philosophies. In this intriguing look at the ethical and spiritual meaning of the Analects, Rodney L. Taylor, the foremost American researcher of Confucius as a religious and spiritual figure, explains their profound and universal wisdom for our own time. He shows how Confucius advocates learning and self-cultivation to follow the “path of the sage” or “Way of Heaven,” a journey that promises to promote reason, peace and understanding.

Alongside an updated version of the classic translation by Sinologist James Legge, Taylor provides informative and accessible commentary that illuminates the meaning behind selected passages from the Analects and their insights on character development, respect and reverence, and the nature of learning, goodness, truthfulness and righteousness.

The Karmic Law of Return

The Karmic Law of Return

As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, similarly, the fire of Self-knowledge reduces Karma to ashes.
~ Bhagavad Gita

Throughout the History of Mankind, many different cultures and belief systems talk about the need to be responsible for our actions. The Kabbalists teach that we are responsible for every event that happens in our lives.

We attract all the events in our lives, through the choices we make daily. Our thoughts and actions are the source for the entire cycle of cause and effect.

The explanation for all the challenging events we face resides in the way we Perceive and the way we treat other Beings in our lives. To treat others differently instead of as equals, not recognizing our state of Oneness and the unity behind all, can be the cause of many of the spiritual illnesses.

This life is likened to a field in which our Karma is the seed.
We harvest what we sow.
No less, no more.

The Individual’s Connection with the Universe of Memories in the Unmanifest – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The Indiividual’s Connection with the Universe of Memories in the Unmanifest.

Maharishi explains how to contact to the Transcendental Field or Unmanifest through pure lifestyle and practice of Transcendental Meditation.

What Mother Nature Is Saying About Us ~ Deepak Chopra

Recently the Gallup Organization released its findings about public opinion on global warming. It’s not good news for activists. Fully 48% of respondents believe that the threat of climate change is exaggerated, up from 31% in 1999. In keeping with this wishful thinking, more Americans believe that scientists have greater doubts about climate change (not true) while fewer Americans think that the effects of global warming are already being felt. In sum, you can say that fewer Americans are worried about the environment when it really counts.

You can mark this down to crisis fatigue. We certainly are feeling that about the Gulf oil spill, where a general sense of gloom prevails over viable calls to action. Is the whole planet going to be like that one day, a state of perpetual disaster? Or are we seeing ourselves in Nature’s mirror? If it is the latter — and I think it is — we don’t have to feel so paralyzed (or stick our heads in the sand, which is what the Gallup data comes down to).

For centuries, human beings looked at Nature as basically a source of endless abundance. The Bible told the Judeo-Christian world that God had provided this outpouring out of love for his children. An ethical standard was built in, too. We were supposed to be the stewards of Nature, taking care of it as it provided for us. What did this say about human nature? That we were the favored species in Creation, that all other creatures were lesser, and that we had every reason to be optimistic about the future. Nature, like God, was infinite in its ability to sustain us.

Today all those beliefs have been seriously eroded. Few people seriously connect the ecology with a divine creation. The ecology is a vast system governed by finite laws. Rather than acting as stewards, we ruthlessly plunder the limited resources that remain. Even the threat of outright catastrophe doesn’t cause us to change our ways. Yet as we grab more and more from the feast table, people are not in a festive mood. They feel quite depressed and anxious about Nature. (In relation to the Gulf oil spill, for example, about half of Americans believe that the affected beaches will never return to their former clean state, while almost 60% believe that the damaged animal populations will never return to their old numbers.) Clearly, the present state of belief can’t be endured forever — neverending gloom can only lead to more numbness, denial, and helplessness.

The question, then, is whether a new set of beliefs about Nature can emerge? The old religious-based values are not going to return. The only answer is to look in the mirror again and see who we really are. If we don’t act like privileged children of God or helpless gluttons on a desperate feeding frenzy, human beings will always be creative. Creative enough to pursue the next great innovation. We are also capable of empathy, bonded at a basic level, gifted with foreknowledge of the future, and imbued with love of the natural world. Seeing those things in the mirror isn’t hard. But will these positive qualities amount to a new belief system?

Until that question is answered, halfway measures will prove futile. Recycling, alternative energy sources, and reduced carbon footprints are catching on, but gradually and generally only in the developed world. Even there, political resistance is firmly entrenched. There are too many corporations who won’t sacrifice today’s profits to save the planet in decades to come, and too many citizens with comfortable lifestyles they want to protect, whatever may happen to the next generation. With that in mind, many environmental scientists have privately decided that climate change is inevitable. Rather than trying to stop it and meeting with failure, it’s wiser, they believe, to start adapting to a more crowded, polluted, grossly imbalanced ecosystem.

Let’s accept this stark view if we must, using it not for defeatism but as motivation. Bad news has given rise to sudden leaps of creativity before. Our new belief system has to begin there. If we look into the mirror and see endless creativity, that gives rise to new optimism. But more than that, it gives us a reason to educate as much of the world’s population as possible. More brains means more chances of finding a solution. Instead of seeing China and India as rivals, we need to see them as a great source for new creative minds.

That adds the element of bonding. We are all in this together; therefore, wars and nationalism are luxuries we can no longer afford. The new belief system would then encourage us to put maximum funds into research and development to find technologies that can accomplish global results, such as removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and cleaning up the world’s oceans.

Some might say that such a belief system is already being born — I think they’re right — but that there’s not enough time left and not enough willpower to accomplish global tasks. If that’s true, it’s because the last element of the new belief system is lacking: a sense of the sacred. In the past, when human beings looked in the mirror of Nature, they saw God as sacred, or not, but never themselves as sacred. But there is no conception of the future that will sustain us until we realize that sacredness is either human or it is nonexistent.

I realize that this notion runs counter to what people now see in the mirror. They see the image of despoilers; they fear that humanity is a cancer spreading across the planet, endangering the existence of all other creatures. But at the same time we are masters of our own evolution. The essence of humanity lies there. We define ourselves, and since the fund of the world’s wisdom traditions is rich in experiences of higher evolution — by which I mean genuine experiences of God consciousness and unity with the divine –only by making an evolutionary leap can we sustain ourselves. The material aspect of climate change is secondary. Our perception of ourselves is primary. We must stop adding secular sins to our roster of bad deeds and start adding secular spirituality. It’s a funny phrase, but secular spirituality simply means being spiritual in oneself, without the need for external dogmas and organized faiths.

In the sacredness of the self is the redemption of the world, both as an ecosystem and as a home for human aspirations. There are many paths to achieve such a sense of the sacred. This space is too small for me to outline them. I only wanted to show that we aren’t living in an either/or situation. It’s not either God or giving up on ourselves. Finding God within ourselves offers a new way. Every step on that path reduces our destructive effect on Nature and brings us closer to loving union with her.

Maharishi, can you explain the paradox of Self-sufficiency?

Reporter from the Washington Post: I found it very interesting that the level of consciousness can be equal while individuality can be maintained. My first question has to do with your statement that a country can be more independent, more self-sufficient; and you compared the superlative of self-sufficiency in Nature. You mentioned that Nature is self-sufficient. But it’s my observation that things in Nature are interdependent. For example, a tree is dependent upon other things to live. So, could you please clarify that apparent paradox?

Maharishi: When we say that Nature is fully independent, we mean Nature in it’s holistic character. When we say the universe is governed by Nature – all these big, huge galaxies all governed by Nature. So Nature is that self-sufficient intelligence which is at the base of all creation. In that, my Nature is also included. The Nature of the rose is also included; Nature of everyone taken individually, and Nature as a whole, taken universally. So, when we say Natural Law, we mean both the things: the are Laws of Nature which govern the whole universe; the laws of nature which govern our mind, and body, and behavior. This is also Natural Law, that is also Natural Law.