Psychical Self-Regulation and Spiritual Growth

 

Many people suffer of failures in the material world, of illnesses… This results in depressions, neuroses, other kinds of psychic disorders… Many of them become alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, commit suicide…

There are two main reasons for this problem: first, people do not understand the meaning of their lives, and second, they have no knowledge about how they can change themselves in order to overcome successfully the difficulties which we unavoidably encounter on our life path.

We discussed in detail the philosophical-religious aspect of this subject in our books Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present, Ecopsychology, Forest Lectures. I assure you that it is not possible to achieve stable success in mastering psychic harmony and true happiness in life without including God in one’s outlook, also without serious work on bringing one’s ethical sphere in accordance with what God expects from us. And it would be most correct to begin the process of self-transformation with studying the true picture of life in the Absolute and with understanding one’s own place and tasks in It; only in this case one can become convinced in the necessity of making personal efforts on transforming oneself.

Unfortunately… many people raised in the atheistic environment or those influenced by false religious views become incapable of comprehending and accepting the true knowledge about the existence of God; the knowledge which implies not the practice of begging from God or seeking “salvation” through certain forms of ritualism — but active creative work on perfecting oneself as a soul, consciousness. It is this work that God expects from us!

* * *

Our experience of teaching the art of psychical self-regulation in Russia, in the time of Communist Party governing when it was forbidden to talk about God, demonstrated that in the process of such classes almost all students without suggestions of the instructor began to feel the presence of God, to cognize themselves not as physical bodies but as souls incarnated in bodies. And then, quite naturally, they began conscious search for religious-philosophical truths.

It is for the sake of such people that I am writing now — for the sake of those who need first the proof — and only then they are ready to accept the Truth: to accept it not as BELEIF but as KNOWLEDGE.

But in order to receive this KNOWLEDGE one has to make personal efforts on transforming oneself.

Let us try transforming ourselves! Let our goals in the beginning be achievement of harmonious existence among other people, good health, experience of true happiness!

Let us begin with this! Let us acquire such experience by applying to ourselves the knowledge which was very useful for many people before!*

Chakras and Psychical Self-Regulation

The only way of mastering the art of psychical self-regulation is to gain control over the functions of the chakras.*

Detailed knowledge about the chakras, their functions, and possibilities of work with them is presented in our book Ecopsychology. Now let me tell briefly only about those points which are important for our present conversation.

… In total there are seven chakras. Every one of us has them — in the head, in the neck, in the trunk.

Every chakra is responsible, among other things, for supplying with bioenergies those organs of the body which belong to the sphere of influence of that chakra. If the chakra is contaminated with coarse energies, this may result in chronic diseases of the corresponding organs. By cleansing the chakra with the help of the methods described in the book mentioned above, one can cure such illnesses.

But the more important point is that every chakra participates in producing certain psychic states.

For example, the two head chakras are responsible for the thinking function, the neck chakra — for the emotional evaluation of situations perceived by us; the chest chakra, located at the place of the heart and lungs, — for generation of the entire spectrum of the emotions of love; the chakra of the upper part of the abdomen — for vigor; the chakra of the lower part of the abdomen is responsible for the reproductive function; and the lowest chakra located at the level of the coccyx and share bone is responsible for the link with the energy of kundalini.

It is important to know that the chakra ajna, located in the center of the head, is the source of many human afflictions. Even its name in Sanskrit means “non-wise”, or “fool” bluntly speaking.

This chakra, as all others, is necessary, and ideally it must be cleansed and developed. Yet one must not allow it to dominate! Because it gives birth to egocentric emotions and makes its owner an egocentric person.

Such a person is egotistic, jealous, touchy or quick-tempered… Some of such people, being broke, become ever complaining neurasthenics, drunkards, commit suicide.

As angry dogs guard their kennels and bark from inside at everyone — even so such people guard their selves, always provoking conflicts with others. They perceive this way of behaving as a norm; they believe that all people behave so, and that the essence of life consists in mutual struggle between individual egos. They can even justify such a way of life with the motto “struggle for existence“…

If such ajnic features are supplemented with hyperactivity of the chakra of the upper part of the abdomen — then this forms the ajnic-manipuric psychotype. Its most bright manifestation is people who are ever discontent with everything and everyone, irritated and aggressive. They are called also aggressive primitives. One of their characteristic features is disposition to drinking. In this way they “settle their nerves”. It is the representatives of this psychotype that are most inclined to committing all kinds of selfish crimes and to aggressive actions against other people, quite often due to drunkenness.

Anahatic Psychotype

I am not going to continue describing other psychotypes because we discussed this subject in detail in the book Ecopsychology. Let me just note that there is a psychotype opposite of that described above — the anahatic psychotype. People of this psychotype are treasures in human society! They are souls most promising from the evolutionary standpoint!

They may suffer from attacks of aggressive primitives, but they are those who have entered on the spiritual Path already (they may just stand on this Path, but it is better to walk it!).

… God is Love; this truth was taught by Jesus Christ and by all other Divine Teachers.

The only way to become closer to God (what many believers dream about) is by gradually becoming similar to Him. And one has to become similar to Him in the aspect of love, first of all.

The knowledge about the chakras provides necessary details about how one can gain and develop in oneself this main quality of God. The emotions of tender love, care, admiration and respect for wisdom, also love-aspiration to the Creator — all these emotional states are born and sustained in the special emotiogenic structure of the organism — in the chakra anahata. It is in this chakra that the special part of the consciousness, called the spiritual heart, is formed and continues its development.

Only by developing oneself as a spiritual heart, one can gain true spiritual power and approach the direct personal cognition of the Creator and Mergence with Him.

By the way, this is the answer to the question raised by a number of people: is it good to have a developed anahata but suffer attacks from malicious primitive people? Isn’t it better to develop coarse power in oneself with the help of the methods of black magic or through “gladiatorial” kinds of sport, where usually the most coarse and aggressive people achieve success?

I can answer that everyone has a right to make their choice — the right given to us by God. Yet one has to reflect first on the consequences of the choice. The destiny of those who preserve or even develop such coarseness in themselves is hell!

And the perspective of those who develop themselves as spiritual hearts, as love — is paradise or even higher abodes!

After the death of the body, we abide in those states of consciousness to which we accustomed ourselves during the life in the body.

Those who are accustomed themselves to various manifestations of malice — will continue to live in these emotional states among other souls similar to them. This is what hell is. (By the way isn’t it appropriate to revise our attitude to those kinds of sports where such qualities are encouraged and developed intentionally? I am sure that sport must exalt the Beauty rather than confrontation between people, aggressiveness, violence, cruelty!)

Those used to live in the state of tender and caring love will also continue to live in these states among other people similar to them. This is paradise.

One attains paradise or hell not due to belonging to certain religious organization, not due performing certain deeds — but as a result of correct or wrong evolutionary advancement of the soul: to the Creator — or from Him.

It is easy to understand for any reasonable person…

* * *

So what should we do if we value the principle of Love, believe in the existence of God, but do not want to be weak?

The answer to this question must be clear to you now: we have to become more and more close to the Creator, to grow ourselves more and more as spiritual hearts. It is in this way that we gain true spiritual power and the invulnerability in relationships with incarnate and non-incarnate beings of hell.

Yes, an incarnate soul possesses the ability to change not only qualitatively by abandoning one qualities and gaining, developing others. A soul can also grow quantitatively. We have the possibility to grow as spiritual hearts — first inside the chest of the material body and then outside it — to the sizes of several meters, then — kilometers, then — thousands of kilometers… And having grown to such sizes, having acquired much experience, the soul then can infuse itself into the Creator and enrich Him thus.

This constitutes the meaning of our lives: to develop oneself to the extent when one becomes worthy of approaching the Abode of the Creator in the multidimensional universe — and to merge into Him. He receives in Himself only those who became Love as He is. There are no other possibilities of cognition of Him.

And what will happen if you begin to transform yourself in this way? What changes will happen quite soon, not in the distant future?

The first and the most important thing is that you will become capable of feeling, experiencing the state of love. It will be not short periods of emotional upliftment but stable state of benevolence and calm. The unpleasant emotions of dislike, hatred, irritation, fear, envy, impatience will go away. The illnesses caused by dominant negative emotions will be cured too. The energy field of the organism will change as well: it will be pleasant for people to communicate with you; you will improve your relationships with those with whom you had no friendship before; and you will find new sincere friends. Possessing true spiritual experience, you will have knowledge to share with others. In this way you will find companions in your spiritual quest.

And then quite soon you will have new Friends — Holy Spirits, Representatives of the Creator, Who will be your Spiritual Guides, Teachers.

In this way God — as living Reality and not as merely a symbol, an object of questionable faith — enters our everyday life, becomes Real Father-Mother, Friend, Beloved Teacher.

How to Achieve This Practically?

There are natural means of development of cordial love in oneself.

They are, first of all, all the good things related to the reproductive sphere: selfless, tender, caring sexuality, care towards children.

They are also emotional attunement with the subtle beauty: the beauty of various manifestations of nature, the beauty of harmonious human bodies.

Yet there are also auxiliary methods for cleansing and development of the corresponding energy structures of the organism — the chakras and several most important meridians. The use of these methods allows one to accelerate significantly both the mastering of psychical self-regulation and the spiritual growth in general. As we understand now, it concerns first of all the chakra anahata and the spiritual heart growing in it.

It is important to emphasize that quick advancement in this direction can be achieved if one works in nature. It is better to work on special natural places called places of power (we described them in our books mentioned above).

… And now let me tell you how to begin this work on oneself — i.e. how one can learn to separate oneself from the material body — of course, not forever but for the time of meditative training.

The only correct way to do it — is to exit as a developed spiritual heart from the chakra anahata.

Having mastered this completely, we can become convinced that we are not bodies! We are souls, consciousnesses, energies aware of themselves — able to perceive themselves not only in the body but outside of it as well!

Fear of the death of the body disappears then: I can easily exist, continue to live without the body!

And we can continue our study as free consciousnesses, who explore the multidimensional Absolute under the guidance of our Divine Teachers — the Holy Spirits. The main task of our Teachers will be to bring us to the Abode of the Creator.

It is very important for everyone to understand that they are not material bodies! Unfortunately even those people who consider themselves believers lack this knowledge!

Let me note that even in the translation of the New Testament into Russian (and probably into some other languages) there are such expressions as “my soul”, “your soul”. I have heard even such a fool expression as “to lose the soul”…

But the soul is what man is!

The well known interpretation of the international signal SOS (“save our souls”) is also absurd! It implies a call to save bodies, not souls!

The way to saving the soul is completely different: through explanation of religious philosophical truths, through learning the methods of spiritual self-development!

And there is no sense in mourning for deceased people: they are alive! It is only their temporary “dwellings” — their bodies — that have died!

Also there is no meaning in clinging to the life of the body when death comes.

Another thing is much more important: how have I lived the life? To what extent have I managed to realize the purpose of my life in this body — before God?

Therefore, let us hurry to become better! And we know now — how to do this!

So, let us begin to work — and God will necessarily help us! He wants this from us most of all! And He is personally interested in this!

 

Vladimir Antonov, Ph.D. (in biology)

Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko

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