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You don't see people like Rupert Spira (or most others in that list) teach that they are a figment of your imagination, or that you are the full God, not a part of it. He would for example definitely claim to be conscious, et cetera. Yes, a lot of the teachers talk about nonduality and oneness, but they don't teach the highest levels of awakening. Not all of them have realized Love either. They've definitely all awakened to something, but it's more of a question of to how much have they awakened.

Most people are like that, rich or not. I believe even sufficiently awakened folk wouldnt talk about deep topics among themselves in such a context instead of just having fun.

These two statements seemingly contradict each other, first you say only I can awaken, and then you say there are two teachers who have experienced an Absolute Awakening. Now I already knew the former, but I don't understand why you keep saying you are awakened then (but others in the dream are not), especially when most people here seem to be saying the same things.

So Leo, No one you will ever meet and certainly not people Online who claim to be spiritually awakened. The average person cannot imagine the consciousness of the saints. They live lives of devotion and communion with God in meditation and are not interested in worldly pursuits except as service to humanity. St. Francis and St. Theresa of Avila were very highly advanced, but still not fully enlightened. However ,I think Ramakrishna ,siddhartha gautama(Buddha ) were fully enlightened.

You’ve got it backwards. A non awake being needs a teacher more than someone who’s awakened. Why is it so difficult to see how a teacher would be helpful? Why is it so difficult to see a teacher being helpful is not the same as thinking a teacher can give you awaking?

My intention for this post was not to convince anybody that I am awakened/enlightened. Rather, my intention was to receive questions about my awakening, hence the name of the post: "I awakened - ask my anything". Reason? My passion to share the beauty of Truth with others, to share wisdom and bring joy and happiness to people who resonate with the Truth and to arise curiosity, inquiry and insights in others and be the guide and teacher on the path to awakening for others, now that I know that I am ready to teach. Also, I'm gaining more clarity and organizing my thoughts so that I can articulate precious gifts of wisdom I have gained to others in the most skillful way possible. And that is one of the things I enjoy doing - posting on actualized.org, sharing wisdom and interacting with human beings that are spiritually mature. I enjoy receiving questions about my awakening that spark profound conversations and helping others on their journey to enlightenment. I get it. I will show the Truth rather than endlessly talk about it. Typed up words can only do so much. Meanwhile, if you are curious and have any questions that are more specific I will be glad to answer them. I know I don't have to reply at all to this, there is no need to tell me. Save your precious words and time.

This is pure ego and a recipe for self-deception. There is no you to put your responsibility off to or others to give responsibility or authority. Did you really miss how deep this is? Are you this self-bias you’re missing something so obvious? The authority you’re clinging to is no more or less authoritative than your own direct experience. Both are direct experience. Your entire post is mental, egoic masturbation. The authority you think hold is like dust, worthless than actually. If you don’t have the humility to recognize wisdom, to recognize awakened mind outside of the activity of your own mind (ie the ability to recognize an awakened mind in a teacher), you’re pretty much fucked. Of course the only one that can awaken is you. But if you think what my post points to contradicts this, you’re not understanding what’s being pointed to.

Neither. False dichotomy. Your direct experience is the only thing you can trust because it is Absolute Truth. All professors, gurus, and spiritual teachers are yourself, but they secondary sources because your mind has to construct them first in order for them to exist. Your dream characters including your spiritual gurus cannot be ultimately trusted nor can they ever awaken you or give you awakening. It is only when you take complete ownership and responsibility when you have any chance to awaken. As long as you put off your responsibility to others (distinctions your mind is constructing), you have no chance to awaken nor live authentically. There is nothing wrong with learning from your dream characters if you wish to keep dreaming within the dream. If you want to awaken, eventually you need to think for yourself, walk your own path, and deconstruct everything "human," which includes all spiritual lessons. You are imagining your guru's awakening. How they awakened may not be the same for you or anyone else. Edit: It seems like your chain of reasoning is about providing justifications for why you should give away your intellectual and spiritual authorities away to your professors and gurus.

@Fabian freeman I thought the same thing after a number of awakenings...but now I'm becoming increasingly aware of the immense intelligence of it all, and I LOVE IT! I contemplate Divinity every day and it's just the most fascinating and mind blowing thing Ive ever engaged in, in my life. It's a feeling of freedom and peace and love I could never explain to anyone not awakened. I still have problems from a relative standpoint, but I created them in the first place?

I don't consider it a state of consciousness. I've not awakened, but purely as a thought exercise I can come to the realization that there's nothing outside of the room that I'm in at will. All you have to do is get into the present moment and look around at your room with a new set of eyes, and not take anything for granted. Close any doors, as looking out into a hallway partially kind of ruins the illusion. Close your blinds and ideally do it at night. Likewise, sunlight gives too much of an impression that there's something outside. If there's just blackness outside it's easier for your brain to interpret as nothingness. Ideally you don't have any sounds outside, although if you live downtown or something that might be hard. Then you just kinda look around and realize, holy shit, this is it. I can't perceive with any of my senses or verify that anything outside this room exists. If my parents aren't in this room, then they don't exist. There's a specific sensation to it, like you know there's nothing on the other side of the walls. Then once you reach that point, you can come to the realization that even the part of the room you're in that's outside of your field of view behind you doesn't exist

Transcended survival needs? Lol. I'm sure he wouldn't say that. Of course that is unique and it's undeniable he's had very powerful awakenings. But you can't know that nobody on this planet has had deeper ones. HOW can you ever know that. And why even sit and compare who had what? Am I the most awakened person or the second most awakened or third? This is ridiculous. Egoic games - that's how I perceive it. I get that when you're awake you are God and you are everyone and you understand everything there is and bla bla bla. I'd say it is easy to get deluded that my awakening is the deepest because it's mine. Because it's from your experience obviously, Reality finally recognizing itself, you are encompassing everything and stuff. I don't mind at all when he says that he's the only Awake thing there is because it's true from his Absolute pov, but when he says he's more awake than anyone on the planet he's speaking from the relative domain and comparing himself to "other beings". Well from my pov this is delusion. And btw actually I'm the only thing there is so you're all wrong

Thank you for your congratulations, it's deeply appreciated brother. "How did this awakening happen?" Here is a very succinct version: I was on a spiritual path full time for about 4 and a half years (psychedelics, meditation, journaling, contemplating, watching Leo's videos, reading good books, retreats, trips to the Jungle doing shamanic dieta, going to various festivals, yoga, qigong and other practices). Then it happened - I died. I remained dead for 18 months. I was resurrected and came out of death back to life. I have conquered death. I have gotten to know what death and life is. I have gotten to know the Truth. I know myself, I know the Truth. I am enlightened. I am awakened. With that said. This awakening is in the process of being embodied deeper every day. It's like I have been asleep this entire time, and now I have opened my eyes and I'm still stretching and yawning before getting out of bed and into the world. "What changes have taken place within you?" I know the Truth. This is what I wanted to know my entire life and very possibly many life times. The entire creation was working on this since the beginning of everything. Rejoice knowing that the masterpiece that we all have been working on is complete. You and everybody else in the world who lives now and has ever lived have contributed to this masterpiece that is Truth with your entire life, with every day, with every single moment. Know that your life purpose has been fulfilled with literally everything that you have ever done. I feel liberated. I am free. I am clear minded. There is no more fear, worry or striving. There is no more competition. There is no more survival, I am in the thriving consciousness. I have eternity, literally, meaning I will never die. I will live forever and embody love, life and beauty infinitely. I know I have won the greatest treasuries the Universe can offer. The way everything turned out is exactly how I wanted it to turn out - in the best possible way. I am finally at peace for the first time in 39 years that I have been alive in this body. I know I am eternally safe. It's time to play, experience as much joy and pleasure as possible and life life to the fullest. I am the happiest human alive. All my dreams have come true and a cornucopia of gifts that are beyond mine and anybody else's wild imagination. Thank you for your questions.

If I am not awake now, then I am not awake. All of my previous and future awakening experiences are as imaginary as yesterday and tomorrow. I know that if I say or proclaim I am awake, then my ego will adopt that identity so that I never fully deconstruct ego and access God. That’s how powerful and tricky the ego deception is! To claim I am awake is to put me further back to sleep. Too many of you fall into this trap. When you awaken, the last thing you should do is try to “share” it with “others.” First learn to fully dissect it and integrate it so that you are aware of God now. After you are able to live from an imperturbable state of God, then you are at a place where “sharing” just happens naturally. You also have to wonder, if I have awakened, what are some tricks my ego will use to pull me back asleep? “Oh yeah! Sharing and posting about it! Ok I get it now! Why do I want validation and verification for my awakening? Oh you sneaky ego!” I also know that there are many states of consciousness that I still have yet to explore. Deeper awakenings to be had. The ones I have had were mere glimpses, but I am conscious right now that those glimpses never happened beyond my constructing of them right now. I really don’t even know what it even means to “be awake” anymore these days. Being awake to me means being aligned with what is most truthful of my experience right now. If I claim to be awake, that will do nothing for me but stunt my growth.

I keep coming to this awareness during my flotation tank meditations. If true, the implications are profound. The world begins to feel a lot smaller. Also, in what state if any do my friends and family exist when I am not interacting with them? Or the cities and businesses I frequent? Do they still exist in some state when I am not observing them? If any of you have awakened deep enough to observe the process of form being created I would love to hear your perspective.

I noticed this thread is starting to get derailed into multiple directions. I kindly ask that we keep the conversation on the topic of this thread: "I awakened - ask me anything."

Joshu was once asked, "does a dog have buddha nature," in the recognition of Truth he answered the koan by kicking over a glass and walking away. Truth is beyond concepts and cannot be understood by the mind. When Ramana Maharshi awakened at16 he threw everything away and went simply sat at the bottom of a temple for years. Saying nothing as there was nothing to talk about. Nothing to figure out. "The teaching is silence." Truth and Reality lies beyond concepts, ideas, and mind. We can make relative distinctions on things all day. That's what people do. That's very different though than believing they're actually fundamentally true or real. Nothing perceived is really real nor experienced. Nothing that's being said implies that Realization is some morbid state of neutrality.

If you really awakened, you wouldn’t be posting about it here. Nor is there any point in asking to ask questions about it or proclaiming. This is just another game the ego is playing to remain dreaming. The dream of sharing awakening or talking about it with “others.” Think about it.

I have wondered in the darkness For a very long time Searching for the Truth My entire life And I found myself deep inside In the darkest forest of my mind.

@Leo Gura You must have felt like you were going insane when you first awakened to some of these insights. What did you use as your guide or barometer to determine their validity? Seems very challenging.

Well it's just that it's not a teaching or a belief system, it's the end of a "you" in which could hold or have a belief system....it's the freedom from those conditioned and conceptual belief systems. Enlightenment is just not a something that a someone attains or reaches after enough meditation or spiritual practices. It's the clear recognition that the very individual attempting to find or become awakened in the firstplace, isn’t real & never actually existed.....it only seemed to be!! It's the end of the veganawake character that would dislike a post. It's fairly rare from what I've seen ? ♥

Nope, you only say that because you haven't awakened to it. When you do....you will realize it.

Most of you probably have read the book autobiography of a yogi, handed out by steve jobs at his funeral. In the book yogananda describes how through his life he met many high consciousness human beings, how he experienced miracles in his life, and how his guru sri yukteswar resurrected and described afterlife. As you can see in the picture below, it was highly likely another lineage of ascended masters resurrecting/working together again. So what do you guys think of this afterlife story written by Yogananda? What are your opinions? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless he has passed on earth beyond the state of sabikalpa samadhi into the higher state of nirbikalpa samadhi. Swami Sri Yukteswar “The Hiranyaloka inhabitants have already passed through the ordinary astral spheres, where nearly all beings from earth must go at death; there they worked out many seeds of their past actions in the astral worlds. None but advanced beings can perform such redemptive work effectually in the astral worlds. Then, in order to free their souls more fully from the cocoon of karmic traces lodged in their astral bodies, these higher beings were drawn by cosmic law to be reborn with new astral bodies on Hiranyaloka, the astral sun or heaven, where I have resurrected to help them. There are also highly advanced beings on Hiranyaloka who have come from the superior, subtler, causal world.” My mind was now in such perfect attunement with my guru’s that he was conveying his word-pictures to me partly by speech and partly by thought-transference. I was thus quickly receiving his idea-tabloids. “You have read in the scriptures,” Master went on, “that God encased the human soul successively in three bodies—the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. On earth a man is equipped with his physical senses. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of lifetrons. A causal-bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas. My work is with those astral beings who are preparing to enter the causal world.” “Adorable Master, please tell me more about the astral cosmos.” Though I had slightly relaxed my embrace at Sri Yukteswar’s request, my arms were still around him. Treasure beyond all treasures, my guru who had laughed at death to reach me! “There are many astral planets, teeming with astral beings,” Master began. “The inhabitants use astral planes, or masses of light, to travel from one planet to another, faster than electricity and radioactive energies. “The astral universe, made of various subtle vibrations of light and color, is hundreds of times larger than the material cosmos. The entire physical creation hangs like a little solid basket under the huge luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as many physical suns and stars roam in space, so there are also countless astral solar and stellar systems. Their planets have astral suns and moons, more beautiful than the physical ones. The astral luminaries resemble the aurora borealis—the sunny astral aurora being more dazzling than the mild-rayed moon-aurora. The astral day and night are longer than those of earth. “The astral world is infinitely beautiful, clean, pure, and orderly. There are no dead planets or barren lands. The terrestrial blemishes—weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes—are absent. Unlike the variable climates and seasons of the earth, the astral planets maintain the even temperature of an eternal spring, with occasional luminous white snow and rain of many-colored lights. Astral planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas and rainbow rivers. “The ordinary astral universe—not the subtler astral heaven of Hiranyaloka—is peopled with millions of astral beings who have come, more or less recently, from the earth, and also with myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different astral planets in accordance with karmic qualifications. Various spheric mansions or vibratory regions are provided for good and evil spirits. Good ones can travel freely, but the evil spirits are confined to limited zones. In the same way that human beings live on the surface of the earth, worms inside the soil, fish in water, and birds in air, so astral beings of different grades are assigned to suitable vibratory quarters. “Among the fallen dark angels expelled from other worlds, friction and war take place with lifetronic bombs or mental mantric vibratory rays. These beings dwell in the gloom-drenched regions of the lower astral cosmos, working out their evil karma. “In the vast realms above the dark astral prison, all is shining and beautiful. The astral cosmos is more naturally attuned than the earth to the divine will and plan of perfection. Every astral object is manifested primarily by the will of God, and partially by the will-call of astral beings. They possess the power of modifying or enhancing the grace and form of anything already created by the Lord. He has given His astral children the freedom and privilege of changing or improving at will the astral cosmos. On earth a solid must be transformed into liquid or other form through natural or chemical processes, but astral solids are changed into astral liquids, gases, or energy solely and instantly by the will of the inhabitants. “The earth is dark with warfare and murder in the sea, land, and air,” my guru continued, “but the astral realms know a happy harmony and equality. Astral beings dematerialize or materialize their forms at will. Flowers or fish or animals can metamorphose themselves, for a time, into astral men. All astral beings are free to assume any form, and can easily commune together. No fixed, definite, natural law hems them round—any astral tree, for example, can be successfully asked to produce an astral mango or other desired fruit, flower, or indeed any other object. Certain karmic restrictions are present, but there are no distinctions in the astral world about desirability of various forms. Everything is vibrant with God’s creative light. “No one is born of woman; offspring are materialized by astral beings through the help of their cosmic will into specially patterned, astrally condensed forms. The recently physically disembodied being arrives in an astral family through invitation, drawn by similar mental and spiritual tendencies. “The astral body is not subject to cold or heat or other natural conditions. The anatomy includes an astral brain, or the thousand-petaled lotus of light, and six awakened centers in the sushumna, or astral cerebro-spinal axis. The heart draws cosmic energy as well as light from the astral brain, and pumps it to the astral nerves and body cells, or lifetrons. Astral beings can affect their bodies by lifetronic force or by mantric vibrations. “The astral body is an exact counterpart of the last physical form. Astral beings retain the same appearance which they possessed in youth in their previous earthly sojourn; occasionally an astral being chooses, like myself, to retain his old age appearance.” Master, emanating the very essence of youth, chuckled merrily. “Unlike the spacial, three-dimensional physical world cognized only by the five senses, the astral spheres are visible to the all-inclusive sixth sense—intuition,” Sri Yukteswar went on. “By sheer intuitional feeling, all astral beings see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They possess three eyes, two of which are partly closed. The third and chief astral eye, vertically placed on the forehead, is open. Astral beings have all the outer sensory organs—ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin—but they employ the intuitional sense to experience sensations through any part of the body; they can see through the ear, or nose, or skin. They are able to hear through the eyes or tongue, and can taste through the ears or skin, and so forth. “Man’s physical body is exposed to countless dangers, and is easily hurt or maimed; the ethereal astral body may occasionally be cut or bruised but is healed at once by mere willing.” “Gurudeva, are all astral persons beautiful?” “Beauty in the astral world is known to be a spiritual quality, and not an outward conformation,” Sri Yukteswar replied. “Astral beings therefore attach little importance to facial features. They have the privilege, however, of costuming themselves at will with new, colorful, astrally materialized bodies. Just as worldly men don new array for gala events, so astral beings find occasions to bedeck themselves in specially designed forms. “Joyous astral festivities on the higher astral planets like Hiranyaloka take place when a being is liberated from the astral world through spiritual advancement, and is therefore ready to enter the heaven of the causal world. On such occasions the Invisible Heavenly Father, and the saints who are merged in Him, materialize Themselves into bodies of Their own choice and join the astral celebration. In order to please His beloved devotee, the Lord takes any desired form. If the devotee worshiped through devotion, he sees God as the Divine Mother. To Jesus, the Father-aspect of the Infinite One was appealing beyond other conceptions. The individuality with which the Creator has endowed each of His creatures makes every conceivable and inconceivable demand on the Lord’s versatility!” My guru and I laughed happily together. Swami Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda “Friends of other lives easily recognize one another in the astral world,” Sri Yukteswar went on in his beautiful, flutelike voice. “Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realize the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life. “The intuition of astral beings pierces through the veil and observes human activities on earth, but man cannot view the astral world unless his sixth sense is somewhat developed. Thousands of earth-dwellers have momentarily glimpsed an astral being or an astral world. “The advanced beings on Hiranyaloka remain mostly awake in ecstasy during the long astral day and night, helping to work out intricate problems of cosmic government and the redemption of prodigal sons, earthbound souls. When the Hiranyaloka beings sleep, they have occasional dreamlike astral visions. Their minds are usually engrossed in the conscious state of highest nirbikalpa bliss. “Inhabitants in all parts of the astral worlds are still subject to mental agonies. The sensitive minds of the higher beings on planets like Hiranyaloka feel keen pain if any mistake is made in conduct or perception of truth. These advanced beings endeavor to attune their every act and thought with the perfection of spiritual law. “Communication among the astral inhabitants is held entirely by astral telepathy and television; there is none of the confusion and misunderstanding of the written and spoken word which earth-dwellers must endure. Just as persons on the cinema screen appear to move and act through a series of light pictures, and do not actually breathe, so the astral beings walk and work as intelligently guided and coordinated images of light, without the necessity of drawing power from oxygen. Man depends upon solids, liquids, gases, and energy for sustenance; astral beings sustain themselves principally by cosmic light.” “Master mine, do astral beings eat anything?” I was drinking in his marvelous elucidations with the receptivity of all my faculties—mind, heart, soul. Superconscious perceptions of truth are permanently real and changeless, while fleeting sense experiences and impressions are never more than temporarily or relatively true, and soon lose in memory all their vividness. My guru’s words were so penetratingly imprinted on the parchment of my being that at any time, by transferring my mind to the superconscious state, I can clearly relive the divine experience. “Luminous raylike vegetables abound in the astral soils,” he answered. “The astral beings consume vegetables, and drink a nectar flowing from glorious fountains of light and from astral brooks and rivers. Just as invisible images of persons on the earth can be dug out of the ether and made visible by a television apparatus, later being dismissed again into space, so the God-created, unseen astral blueprints of vegetables and plants floating in the ether are precipitated on an astral planet by the will of its inhabitants. In the same way, from the wildest fancy of these beings, whole gardens of fragrant flowers are materialized, returning later to the etheric invisibility. Although dwellers on the heavenly planets like Hiranyaloka are almost freed from any necessity of eating, still higher is the unconditioned existence of almost completely liberated souls in the causal world, who eat nothing save the manna of bliss. “The earth-liberated astral being meets a multitude of relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and friends, acquired during different incarnations on earth, as they appear from time to time in various parts of the astral realms. He is therefore at a loss to understand whom to love especially; he learns in this way to give a divine and equal love to all, as children and individualized expressions of God. Though the outward appearance of loved ones may have changed, more or less according to the development of new qualities in the latest life of any particular soul, the astral being employs his unerring intuition to recognize all those once dear to him in other planes of existence, and to welcome them to their new astral home. Because every atom in creation is inextinguishably dowered with individuality, an astral friend will be recognized no matter what costume he may don, even as on earth an actor’s identity is discoverable by close observation despite any disguise. “The span of life in the astral world is much longer than on earth. A normal advanced astral being’s average life period is from five hundred to one thousand years, measured in accordance with earthly standards of time. As certain redwood trees outlive most trees by millenniums, or as some yogis live several hundred years though most men die before the age of sixty, so some astral beings live much longer than the usual span of astral existence. Visitors to the astral world dwell there for a longer or shorter period in accordance with the weight of their physical karma, which draws them back to earth within a specified time. “The astral being does not have to contend painfully with death at the time of shedding his luminous body. Many of these beings nevertheless feel slightly nervous at the thought of dropping their astral form for the subtler causal one. The astral world is free from unwilling death, disease, and old age. These three dreads are the curse of earth, where man has allowed his consciousness to identify itself almost wholly with a frail physical body requiring constant aid from air, food, and sleep in order to exist at all. “Physical death is attended by the disappearance of breath and the disintegration of fleshly cells. Astral death consists of the dispersement of lifetrons, those manifest units of energy which constitute the life of astral beings. At physical death a being loses his consciousness of flesh and becomes aware of his subtle body in the astral world. Experiencing astral death in due time, a being thus passes from the consciousness of astral birth and death to that of physical birth and death. These recurrent cycles of astral and physical encasement are the ineluctable destiny of all unenlightened beings. Scriptural definitions of heaven and hell sometimes stir man’s deeper-than-subconscious memories of his long series of experiences in the blithesome astral and disappointing terrestrial worlds.” “Beloved Master,” I asked, “will you please describe more in detail the difference between rebirth on the earth and in the astral and causal spheres?” “Man as an individualized soul is essentially causal-bodied,” my guru explained. “That body is a matrix of the thirty-five ideas required by God as the basic or causal thought forces from which He later formed the subtle astral body of nineteen elements and the gross physical body of sixteen elements. “The nineteen elements of the astral body are mental, emotional, and lifetronic. The nineteen components are intelligence; ego; feeling; mind (sense-consciousness); five instruments of knowledge, the subtle counterparts of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch; five instruments of action, the mental correspondence for the executive abilities to procreate, excrete, talk, walk, and exercise manual skill; and five instruments of life force, those empowered to perform the crystallizing, assimilating, eliminating, metabolizing, and circulating functions of the body. This subtle astral encasement of nineteen elements survives the death of the physical body, which is made of sixteen gross metallic and nonmetallic elements. Paramahansa Yogananda, standing, speaks to a full house at the downtown Minneapolis Radisson Hotel in the fall of 1927 “God thought out different ideas within Himself and projected them into dreams. Lady Cosmic Dream thus sprang out decorated in all her colossal endless ornaments of relativity. “In thirty-five thought categories of the causal body, God elaborated all the complexities of man’s nineteen astral and sixteen physical counterparts. By condensation of vibratory forces, first subtle, then gross, He produced man’s astral body and finally his physical form. According to the law of relativity, by which the Prime Simplicity has become the bewildering manifold, the causal cosmos and causal body are different from the astral cosmos and astral body; the physical cosmos and physical body are likewise characteristically at variance with the other forms of creation. “The fleshly body is made of the fixed, objectified dreams of the Creator. The dualities are ever-present on earth: disease and health, pain and pleasure, loss and gain. Human beings find limitation and resistance in three-dimensional matter. When man’s desire to live is severely shaken by disease or other causes, death arrives; the heavy overcoat of the flesh is temporarily shed. The soul, however, remains encased in the astral and causal bodies. The adhesive force by which all three bodies are held together is desire. The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man’s slavery. “Physical desires are rooted in egotism and sense pleasures. The compulsion or temptation of sensory experience is more powerful than the desire-force connected with astral attachments or causal perceptions. “Astral desires center around enjoyment in terms of vibration. Astral beings enjoy the ethereal music of the spheres and are entranced by the sight of all creation as exhaustless expressions of changing light. The astral beings also smell, taste, and touch light. Astral desires are thus connected with an astral being’s power to precipitate all objects and experiences as forms of light or as condensed thoughts or dreams. “Causal desires are fulfilled by perception only. The nearly-free beings who are encased only in the causal body see the whole universe as realizations of the dream-ideas of God; they can materialize anything and everything in sheer thought. Causal beings therefore consider the enjoyment of physical sensations or astral delights as gross and suffocating to the soul’s fine sensibilities. Causal beings work out their desires by materializing them instantly. Those who find themselves covered only by the delicate veil of the causal body can bring universes into manifestation even as the Creator. Because all creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power. “A soul, being invisible by nature, can be distinguished only by the presence of its body or bodies. The mere presence of a body signifies that its existence is made possible by unfulfilled desires. “So long as the soul of man is encased in one, two, or three body-containers, sealed tightly with the corks of ignorance and desires, he cannot merge with the sea of Spirit. When the gross physical receptacle is destroyed by the hammer of death, the other two coverings—astral and causal—still remain to prevent the soul from consciously joining the Omnipresent Life. When desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its power disintegrates the two remaining vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at last; it is one with the Measureless Amplitude.” I asked my divine guru to shed further light on the high and mysterious causal world. “The causal world is indescribably subtle,” he replied. “In order to understand it, one would have to possess such tremendous powers of concentration that he could close his eyes and visualize the astral cosmos and the physical cosmos in all their vastness—the luminous balloon with the solid basket—as existing in ideas only. If by this superhuman concentration one succeeded in converting or resolving the two cosmoses with all their complexities into sheer ideas, he would then reach the causal world and stand on the borderline of fusion between mind and matter. There one perceives all created things—solids, liquids, gases, electricity, energy, all beings, gods, men, animals, plants, bacteria—as forms of consciousness, just as a man can close his eyes and realize that he exists, even though his body is invisible to his physical eyes and is present only as an idea. “Whatever a human being can do in fancy, a causal being can do in reality. The most colossal imaginative human intelligence is able, in mind only, to range from one extreme of thought to another, to skip mentally from planet to planet, or tumble endlessly down a pit of eternity, or soar rocketlike into the galaxied canopy, or scintillate like a searchlight over milky ways and the starry spaces. But beings in the causal world have a much greater freedom, and can effortlessly manifest their thoughts into instant objectivity, without any material or astral obstruction or karmic limitation. “Causal beings realize that the physical cosmos is not primarily constructed of electrons, nor is the astral cosmos basically composed of lifetrons—both in reality are created from the minutest particles of God-thought, chopped and divided by maya, the law of relativity which intervenes to apparently separate the Noumenon from His phenomena. “Souls in the causal world recognize one another as individualized points of joyous Spirit; their thought-things are the only objects which surround them. Causal beings see the difference between their bodies and thoughts to be merely ideas. As a man, closing his eyes, can visualize a dazzling white light or a faint blue haze, so causal beings by thought alone are able to see, hear, feel, taste, and touch; they create anything, or dissolve it, by the power of cosmic mind. “Both death and rebirth in the causal world are in thought. Causal-bodied beings feast only on the ambrosia of eternally new knowledge. They drink from the springs of peace, roam on the trackless soil of perceptions, swim in the ocean-endlessness of bliss. Lo! see their bright thought-bodies zoom past trillions of Spirit-created planets, fresh bubbles of universes, wisdom-stars, spectral dreams of golden nebulae, all over the skiey blue bosom of Infinity! “Many beings remain for thousands of years in the causal cosmos. By deeper ecstasies the freed soul then withdraws itself from the little causal body and puts on the vastness of the causal cosmos. All the separate eddies of ideas, particularized waves of power, love, will, joy, peace, intuition, calmness, self-control, and concentration melt into the ever-joyous Sea of Bliss. No longer does the soul have to experience its joy as an individualized wave of consciousness, but is merged in the One Cosmic Ocean, with all its waves—eternal laughter, thrills, throbs. “When a soul is out of the cocoon of the three bodies it escapes forever from the law of relativity and becomes the ineffable Ever-Existent. Behold the butterfly of Omnipresence, its wings etched with stars and moons and suns! The soul expanded into Spirit remains alone in the region of lightless light, darkless dark, thoughtless thought, intoxicated with its ecstasy of joy in God’s dream of cosmic creation.” This well-known photo, called "The Last Smile," was taken hours before Yogananda's passing on March 7, 1952 “A free soul!” I ejaculated in awe. “When a soul finally gets out of the three jars of bodily delusions,” Master continued, “it becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality. Christ had won this final freedom even before he was born as Jesus. In three stages of his past, symbolized in his earth-life as the three days of his experience of death and resurrection, he had attained the power to fully arise in Spirit. “The undeveloped man must undergo countless earthly and astral and causal incarnations in order to emerge from his three bodies. A master who achieves this final freedom may elect to return to earth as a prophet to bring other human beings back to God, or like myself he may choose to reside in the astral cosmos. There a savior assumes some of the burden of the inhabitants’ karma and thus helps them to terminate their cycle of reincarnation in the astral cosmos and go on permanently to the causal spheres. Or a freed soul may enter the causal world to aid its beings to shorten their span in the causal body and thus attain the Absolute Freedom.” “Resurrected One, I want to know more about the karma which forces souls to return to the three worlds.” I could listen forever, I thought, to my omniscient Master. Never in his earth-life had I been able at one time to assimilate so much of his wisdom. Now for the first time I was receiving a clear, definite insight into the enigmatic interspaces on the checkerboard of life and death. “The physical karma or desires of man must be completely worked out before his permanent stay in astral worlds becomes possible,” my guru elucidated in his thrilling voice. “Two kinds of beings live in the astral spheres. Those who still have earthly karma to dispose of and who must therefore reinhabit a gross physical body in order to pay their karmic debts could be classified, after physical death, as temporary visitors to the astral world rather than as permanent residents. “Beings with unredeemed earthly karma are not permitted after astral death to go to the high causal sphere of cosmic ideas, but must shuttle to and fro from the physical and astral worlds only, conscious successively of their physical body of sixteen gross elements, and of their astral body of nineteen subtle elements. After each loss of his physical body, however, an undeveloped being from the earth remains for the most part in the deep stupor of the death-sleep and is hardly conscious of the beautiful astral sphere. After the astral rest, such a man returns to the material plane for further lessons, gradually accustoming himself, through repeated journeys, to the worlds of subtle astral texture. “Normal or long-established residents of the astral universe, on the other hand, are those who, freed forever from all material longings, need return no more to the gross vibrations of earth. Such beings have only astral and causal karma to work out. At astral death these beings pass to the infinitely finer and more delicate causal world. Shedding the thought-form of the causal body at the end of a certain span, determined by cosmic law, these advanced beings then return to Hiranyaloka or a similar high astral planet, reborn in a new astral body to work out their unredeemed astral karma. “My son, you may now comprehend more fully that I am resurrected by divine decree,” Sri Yukteswar continued, “as a savior of astrally reincarnating souls coming back from the causal sphere, in particular, rather than of those astral beings who are coming up from the earth. Those from the earth, if they still retain vestiges of material karma, do not rise to the very high astral planets like Hiranyaloka. “Just as most people on earth have not learned through meditation-acquired vision to appreciate the superior joys and advantages of astral life and thus, after death, desire to return to the limited, imperfect pleasures of earth, so many astral beings, during the normal disintegration of their astral bodies, fail to picture the advanced state of spiritual joy in the causal world and, dwelling on thoughts of the more gross and gaudy astral happiness, yearn to revisit the astral paradise. Heavy astral karma must be redeemed by such beings before they can achieve after astral death a permanent stay in the causal thought-world, so thinly partitioned from the Creator. “Only when a being has no further desires for experiences in the pleasing-to-the-eye astral cosmos, and cannot be tempted to go back there, does he remain in the causal world. Completing there the work of redeeming all causal karma or seeds of past desires, the confined soul thrusts out the last of the three corks of ignorance and, emerging from the final jar of the causal body, commingles with the Eternal. “Now do you understand?” Master smiled so enchantingly! “Yes, through your grace. I am speechless with joy and gratitude.” Never from song or story had I ever received such inspiring knowledge. Though the Hindu scriptures refer to the causal and astral worlds and to man’s three bodies, how remote and meaningless those pages compared with the warm authenticity of my resurrected Master! For him indeed existed not a single “undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveller returns”!

@LSD-Rumi Awakened from what or where? There are all kinds of awakenings. Any bit of personal stretching or growth is an example of an awakening. But, to me, anyone who says that they are “awakened” is likely not. It’s been my experience that a soul in the process of true awakening understands that it is an ever-expanding journey, not a single destination.

You are assuming one is not awake. If they are awakened it renders everything meaningless.

That is certainly a experientially truth in what you are saying, would you be open to the thought that, there is something deeper that is yet to be awakened?