My spiritual blog & articles - My Spiritual Coach

Why did Buddha say, "All things are impermanent" or "Everything is changing" in his first teaching?

3/10/2023

Buddha discovered a system for alleviating human suffering. He also discovered that one of the major causes of human suffering is that things change. Because we cling to things in the desperate hope that they won’t change and try to control them so they will remain permanent, we are frustrated and frightened. We recognize that, underneath it all, clinging and control don’t work when everything is in a state of flux.

Buddha saw that we cling passionately to our loved ones. And if they die, we can be in mourning for the rest of our lives. Their physical presence is gone. It is not coming back. And we loved them so much, the world looks dimmer and more hostile because of their absence. Who will love us now? Furthermore, this is going to happen to us too. Every cell in our body has changed or been replaced over and over again as we grow, age, begin to weaken, and finally disappear.

This realization causes enormous pain and fear in people and they obsessively fight all the changes: Plastic surgery, large accumulations of wealth beyond what anyone could ever spend, fanatical dietary practices, rigorously dangerous exercise routines, and hoarding all kinds of material goods to hedge against an uncertain future.

The past is not bringing any consolation to our minds in this swirl of change, either. We remember our beloved persons or pets who are gone and the sadness begins again. The recollection of the past, with all of our family sitting together during the holidays or our pets curled up in our laps, underlines the vacuum they have left as the world continues on its inexorable path of transmutation.

An so Buddha told us not to be in denial about this. If we don’t face it, we will be in a constant scramble of trying to keep things the same. And we will always be uncomfortable. We will go through life kicking and screaming over things that are not in our control. We will try to cling, but it will all slip out of our hands. Therefore, we must let it go, let it be the change that is a constant, and follow the Buddha’s suggestions in his Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold path. He gave us a to get out of our misery. If we really adhere to what he presents, we will find a way out of this endless suffering due to clinging to what is constantly changing.

Is it possible to be very intelligent but not spiritually advanced or enlightened?

3/9/2023

Intelligence has nothing to do with spiritual enlightenment. Intelligence depends on the thinking mind, which is like a radar system that ensures our survival. As such, it can be frequently alarmed and live in agitation and fear. Spiritual enlightenment does not depend on the mind, logic, or advanced intelligence. It comes from the heart and gut center and not the head.
We have many different kinds of intelligence, which may be debatable:

Logical-mathematical
Linguistic
Spatial
Musical
Bodily
Emotional
Naturalistic

Our logical-mathematical and linguistic forms of intelligence allow us to communicate our path to enlightenment when we have found it. They also enable us to read books that point the way. But those books are just one way to “get there.” If you can’t read, or even have a below-average IQ, you can still feel at one with the underlying energy flow of the Universe. You may feel it in your bones or through your emotions. Or you may feel the creative forces of nature running through your body.

Sometimes intelligence stands in the way of understanding Source Energy. It wants to dissect, analyze, and prove itself right. It is looking for all the flaws so it can dominate them and protect itself. Very intelligent people can torture themselves endlessly over everything that could go wrong, from cosmic explosions to atomic meltdowns and entropy in interpersonal relationships . Intellectually understanding all the possible consequences of every action can lead to paralysis and incapacitating anxiety.

Spiritual enlightenment is a state of inner peace. It is not the mind racing around trying to solve every problem in the world or even every personal issue. And there are many paths to this peace. The intellect is not usually one of them. Yet the Stoics and other philosophers are able to use logic to arrive at a sense of resignation to what is, combined with a zest for being alive. However, in general, it is not the head, but the heart that opens the gates to enlightenment.

What is your opinion of Baghwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)? Do you think he was a real spiritual leader or simply a psychological trickster? What is your personal experience with him/it?

3/2/2023

I was in India when Rajneesh, or Osho, was ordered to leave. The government had opened investigations into multiple allegations of criminal behavior in connection to Osho. These included charges related to Osho-sanctioned prostitution, international drug trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion. It affected me because I had loved his earlier writings and felt he was pandering to the undisciplined party atmosphere Americans and some Europeans desired.

Ordered by the government, Osho had to pay back taxes, a major blow to his reputation that greatly angered the Rajneeshees. In 1981, the year he left for Oregon from India, more criminality took place. Referred to as one of the most terrible cases of a bio-terrorism attack in America, Osho’s followers reportedly poisoned half Wasco’s county’s voters (in an attempt to take over the county) by pouring or spraying Salmonella-tainted liquid on salad bars of ten popular restaurants. A total of 751 people were affected by the poisoning and hospital beds were full of patients in critical condition.

Obviously, there is nothing spiritual about killing people, or trying to kill people for the sake of power. Also, Osho’s goal of having 365 Rolls Royces for every day of the year did not denote a life of simplicity in the guru lineage. Furthermore, Osho’s ruthless deputy Sheela attempted to have his physician, Dr. Andrews, killed, ordering an accomplice to poison him with a shot of adrenaline to the buttocks. By this time, Osho was a regular Nitrous Oxide user (administered by Dr. Andrews) and it wouldn’t have looked good if word got out about this addiction.

Finally, for spiritual enlightenment or awakening, we don’t need to go into extended periods of ecstatic dance and indiscriminate sex to get there. This appealed to Americans, who wanted to party hearty and still have the trappings of spirtuality. Osho’s theory is that we must overcome our inhibitions to get into the deeper layers of our consciousness. But sitting quietly and centering on the Higher Self through conscious breathing is a much more effective method and truer to the yogic path. All that sweaty dancing around and orgiastic behavior may be fun, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with understanding the non-dual aspects of the Universe.

Hatred, killing, poisoning, and sexual exploitation are the paths to chaos, not to any kind of spiritual realization. At one time Osho spoke beautifully of love and I admired his way of expressing eternal truths.

“Love is a spiritual experience – nothing to do with sexes and nothing to do with bodies, but something to do with the innermost being.”

“I teach you to be more conscious. And love will come as you become more conscious: it is a guest that comes, that comes inevitably to those who are ready and prepared to receive it.”

But somewhere along the line, he got twisted, as so many “gurus” have. It then became all about ego, greed, power, sexual exploitation, addiction, and destruction. Osho’s ego-mind overcame and counterbalanced all the good he brought to the spirit-based life he had passionately proposed in his early practice.

Is it necessary to get rid of desire for enlightenment?

2/28/2023

The Buddha pinpointed that the cause of all suffering is desire. To rid ourselves of suffering we must give up desire. We need to give up this kind of desire because desire is always for something that is not here. It is in the future. And while we are striving after the future and thinking that our salvation and happiness resides in it, we cannot fully appreciate the present moment. Desire is always for something else. We can’t desire it if we already know we have it.

Yet, it is not in human nature to give up desire. Desire is the intention that has fueled great inventions and works of art. Desire has spurred all intellectual and spiritual growth. We want something better. We want to be better. We want to feel better. And we desire to feel secure in the future. Therefore we take action to accomplish our desires.

In this sense, desire is just part of the Big Picture of constant transformation, expansion, and growth. We don’t need to give it up, because it is built into the system of being human. We only need to give up our attachment to the outcome of our desires. Things may not turn out exactly the way we desired and we cannot control that. Therefore, we suffer and the present moment is something we’ve got to muddle through until our next desires impel us to act.

For example, we want to have a fun-filled family picnic. Then it rains, the flies come out and bite us, the ants consume the food, and the car gets stuck in the mud. We can either suffer through this because our desires were not fulfilled, or we can accept that life is full of surprises and have fun dancing in the rain. Our desire to control the outcome of our actions in a mysterious world is what causes so much psychological suffering.

As we begin to recognize that the results of our desires may not always produce what we were hoping for, we gain emotional maturity. We are able to cope with whatever life manifests and even welcome it. “Bring it on. I want such-and-such, but the Universe, in it’s infinite wisdom, has produced something else. Let me welcome this gift.” Desire is a great springboard into the future but contains the element of dissatisfaction that a keeps us looking for more, and more, and more.

And so, desires are not something to get rid of, but rather intentions that are to be put in their place. It’s great if things work out the way we wanted. Yet we are willing to accept whatever happens and not feel we can control everything through just wanting the results we crave. They dissolve all by themselves as an instrument of suffering and become simply the energy of intention.

What are your thoughts on "The Secret"? Have you tried any of the techniques it teaches? Do you think it can actually help someone be successful and happy in life?

2/13/2023

“The Secret” is based on the works of Abraham Hicks, who originated the term “Law of Attraction.” However, as “The Secret” is as old as human consciousness, it’s been around for a long time. The Secret popularizes it by presenting it in a flash-cut documentary style that can appeal to the masses who want entertainment.

And so, The Secret is pitched as something that will make your physical life successful and happy. You can get all the goodies and fun experiences you want by just employing this immutable law: Like attracts like. If you put out enough good vibrations, all the great stuff will come to you and you’ve won the game of life!

But what the Law of Attraction is really about is the inner journey of depth and spiritual understanding. It’s not about “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Yes, all good things are possible for us on the physical plane. Yet we must acknowledge that on the physical plane, it all goes away, dies, decays, goes out of fashion, or ultimately becomes another problem. “The Secret” does not make this distinction.

When we experience life from depth and inner being, even if we live in a simple room and find our entertainment in nature, which is free, we are rich. We don’t need all the stuff—The Monster Buses, the cruises, tons of excess money, tons of excess everything that needs maintenance and protection. And so The Secret has been twisted around by our culture of accumulation and outward displays of wealth, relying on magical thinking and formulas that are akin to the incantations of our primitive ancestors.

I have found that in my own life, the Law of Attraction works. Because when we are attuned to the beauty of life, we are also awake to the opportunities to use the talents we are channeling from the Source Energy of the Universe. And we stay out of our own way. But to use the Law of Attraction for our ego’s gratification or to blindly acquire stuff that makes us feel secure because we have not done the inner work, is another misguided quick fix.

Are spiritual healing and energy work compatible with modern medicine?

1/17/2023

Spiritual healing and energy work may be compatible with modern medicine in certain cases. For example, if you have a broken bone. Modern medicine (and even ancient medicine) can be of service to you. But how quickly you heal, as well as your attitude towards the inevitable pain, depends on energy systems that you tune into.

Pills, cutting, and burning can only take us so far down the healing process. They remove things such as pain, set things such a bones, and. destroy things such as cancer cells. But they can do nothing whatsoever to speed healing. Healing depends on how tuned in we are to the abundant energy of the Universe. It depends on our trust in all of its miraculous systems instead of running and hiding out of fear. Modern medicine feeds our fear to feel pain for even one instant, instead of seeing pain as our friend that is there to guide us further into healing.

Modern medicine is based on fear and the raging need for survival at all costs. It has caused us to view all people as possible vectors for disease. If we want to survive, we should keep away and be very afraid of them. They could make us die. Instead of a friendly face that could add beauty to our lives, we see masked up faces scurrying along, trying to make it through another day. Trying to make it through another day of fear, with some escapes, courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry.

So from that point of view, modern medicine is not compatible with energy healing techniques or approaches. However, I have used spiritual healing approaches to find the right physician when I did need one. I also did metaphysical work and intentions to guide his or her hands. This has worked out very well for me. I have had two knee operations with almost no visible scarring. During the healing period I kept my consciousness in a blissful state through conscious breathing to speed the healing process. Now both my legs are stronger than ever.

I did not use the pain pills because I needed my body to signal when it was time to get up and start moving around. I did not want to fool it into a false sense of where I was into the healing.
Many physicians chose the field of modern medicine because they wanted to help people and to save lives. Coming from that intention, they can be of enormous service. But if people herd to them like sheep and give up any sense of responsibility for their own health, it is also not compatible with energy healing. Energy healing is about determining the root cause, not putting a bandaid on it and suppressing it. It is about looking within instead of finding something “out there” to save us.

The root cause may be any form of imbalance, any form of immoderate behavior that simply showing up at a doctor’s office and saying, “Here doc, make me better,!” will not cure. What is causing us to drink too much, eat too much, smoke too much, or do other self-harming practices? That is what we need to address and that is where energy healing is effective. Modern medicine does not address these issues, nor can it, for these are sicknesses of the Soul and they cannot be seen under a microscope.

What is the connection between eating mindfully and being mindful according to Thich Nhat Hanh in "The Miracle of Mindfulness"? How is it related to Buddhism (in general)?

1/11/2023

Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment, instead of racing ahead to the next thing that needs to be done. It also means not getting lost in ruminating about the past, especially past suffering. And since Buddhism is all about healing our suffering, mindfulness of the beauty of the present moment brings us peace.

If we rush through our meals because they are an obstacle to getting things done, we turning our eating time into another arena of suffering. We gallop through the meal, barely tasting anything. Shoveling the food into our gullets so we can “get on with it.” Eckart Tolle tells about a meal he had with some accomplished professors. They stopped slamming down the food in long enough to make a verbal point, and then resumed their ravenous slurping.

Or, we can be ruminating about the past. Some past hurt that we felt and continue to feel because we bring it up again and again. We can go through a whole meal this way and not taste anything or appreciate the harvest of the earth. Not even appreciate the skill of whoever prepared it. This type of lack of mindfulness can actually bring on heartburn and other digestive issues. We are not at peace while our body is trying to digest food. We are secreting too much acid or not enough acid and we will feel it shortly thereafter.

The Miracle of Mindfulness is the abundant peace we feel instantly when we just stop with all this ruminating and anxiety about the future—or thinking that the future is better than right now. When we eat mindfully, we are not so intent on filling up the empty hole that we feel. This can help with weight management, because we are not just flinging food down our throats because we feel so empty inside. We don’t run to food for comfort because our mind is quiet enough when we are fully in the Now.

Eating mindfully means tasting each bite. Appreciating the flavors. Feeling gratitude for everyone and everything that made this food possible. It means slowing down and experiencing all the textures, flavors, aromas, and the vibrations of care and love with which they were combined and prepared. This is gratitude for what basically sustains us. It is living with appreciation and attentiveness. The future is not going to bring anything better than right now. And so we are in a state of bliss as we pay attention to the present moment.

Can a woman attain enlightenment in Buddhism?

1/10/2023

As a woman, whose entire life has been devoted to the Spirit and the unseen powers of the Universe, I have been dismayed by some of the antiquated views on the ability of women to be enlightened.

In some world religions, such as Svetambar Jains, women don’t have a chance of getting off the wheel of birth and death until they are reborn as a man. They were reborn as women as a result of being deceitful in a former life and have to work like crazy to prove themselves worthy of even being born a male next time around. One of the Jain sacred texts states:
“As the result of manifesting deception, a man in this world becomes a woman. As a woman, if her heart is pure, she becomes a man in this world.”

In the Aganna-Sutta from the Pali Canon, a record of the teachings of Gautama Buddha, imply that women are responsible for the downfall of the human race.

These attitudes toward women were imposed many, many centuries ago, when women were not seen as men’s equals. Historically they were seen as men’s possessions or as brood mares for ensuring the birth of a son. A girl birth was seen as a liability, especially when it came to the dowry for marriage.

In other religions such as Islam, women may not pray in public. They are also not permitted to pray during menstruation as they are not considered clean. Judaism also has constraints around women’s spiritual attainments with the concept of not being clean for the menstruating woman. If a woman is seen as not clean during the natural process that enables her to have a child, it brings a great stigma in terms of self-worth even if it not acknowledged.

Buddhism can then also be seen as a sexist religion in this way. Buddha himself was reluctant to take women as nuns. He was afraid of the various consequences that would arise if women were enrolled. The consequences he thought would have a negative impact on the society at that time, when women were held at little value. It was only upon the request of his stepbrother Ananda that Buddha agreed to take female followers into the worship practice.

And even when allowed to enter the practice, only women were required to follow the eight garudhammas. These are the “eight heavy restrictions” the male practitioners were not ordered to follow. These eight restrictions clearly kept monks at a much higher level than the nuns. One of these restrictions is:

"A nun who has been ordained even for a hundred years must greet even a newly-ordained monk by rising up from her seat and saluting with joined palms."

Therefore, women were not considered as complete entities in the old Buddhism of thousands of years ago. This attitude has still carried over to modern times in some Buddhist societies. Women's bodies are not considered fit to attain enlightenment and to become Buddha. There is a still a concept that women are not complete until they attain enlightenment when reborn as a man. The man’s form is required for completeness. The Bahudhatuka-sutta states that there could never be a female Buddha.

The psychological impact of this view is to keep women in a weaker and inferior position. Their morale is kept low because they think, “What’s the use? What if I get born as a woman again? How holy do I have to be before I get a chance at freedom from this bondage? There’s something wrong with being a woman.”

According to Ajahn Sujato, the early texts state that the first garudhamma, which states that every nun must bow to every monk, was instituted by the Buddha because of the customs of the time. But modern scholars doubt that the rule even originated with the Buddha.

The rules were written only after the people started to become literate. And in ancient times, men were the first ones to learn to read and write. It was only much later that women got the chance to be educated because they were seen to be more at the level of the animals. These rules were written by a male-dominant society to favor that male Buddhists. It was one more power play over women.

But now, the world has changed. Yet fundamentalist world religions have not changed. Their opinions and beliefs are based on what seemed practical many centuries ago. These beliefs do not apply today if they ever applied at all. As a deeply spiritual person, I know that we are not just these bodies, miraculous as they are. At the Soul level, we are beyond being men and women. The body and its endocrine and hormonal systems do not apply to the world of the Spirit. Any view about men being spiritually superior to women is not relevant when we know that women are capable of every task a man can do—and also produce children!

What was it about your spiritual awakening experience that allowed you to connect so deeply with your guides/spirits?

1/2/2023

It was actually through my Spirit Guides or angels that I became connected to the vast unseen realm of infinity and eternity.

I was four years old when both of my parents were afflicted with fatal illnesses (a brain tumor and pernicious anemia—both considered un-healable at the time in Brazil). And so I was left in the hands of caretakers who were sometimes neither kind nor honest. I began to play a game—if God is everywhere, let’s see if I can hide from Him. I discovered I couldn’t. That God, the Holy Spirit, the Source of All That Is, the Eternal One is indeed everywhere.

Just then, by grace, guides and angels visited. I needed them badly and they appeared with comfort,, compassion, love, and a sense of peace. They were not embodied. They were energy and waves of peace. Turmoil was around me, I had found the eye of the storm. I knew They were there and all I had to do, any time of the day or night, was let them in, acknowledge them, and thank them. They transferred their wisdom and deep knowing to me and they have been my companions ever since.

This was different from a child’s make-believe friends. I had them too and they were fun in a child’s world. But this was something much more profoundly touching. I wouldn’t be able to put words to what happened until I was 12 years old and began reading Alan Watt’s writings and other mostly Eastern approaches to the deeper questions of life and death.

And so, since I was four years old, my view of life is that we are in the Physical now, yet we are also connected to the endless power and beauty of the Universe. The messengers of this realization were my guides. Since then, I have added many more to the “team.” Beautiful Souls that have left their physical forms are still there for me—only they are not in the physical any more. This makes them stronger for me than even when they were alive, in terms of their wisdom and power.

And so it was my guides that initiated me into a life-long devotion to the underlying Wholeness of the Universe. Spirituality has been my biggest love, without which, the daily chores of bodily maintenance and taking care of business would be akin to an insect mechanically going about self-preservation. I would be busy and accomplish things but at base would be a meaninglessness and fear that would make life more pointless than beautiful.

This doesn’t mean I am a saint or don’t feel any of the negative emotions that cause suffering. It only means that my guides are clearly there for me. Inasmuch as I am willing to let them in, they impart everything I ever need to feel the profound beauty of the Soul. They came to me through grace and mercy and I am grateful for them.

Can you explain how quantum mechanics or something similar can be used to understand spirituality?

12/29/2022

Quantum physics and mechanics point to underlying energy forces that are not perceivable through the physical senses. They extrapolate that the entire material world is dependent on the observer. What we consider to be solid matter, composed of atoms and molecules, is actually patterns of energy that can either be a particle or a wave, depending on the observer and on probability.

The observer interacts with the particle or wave during the act of observation, for the scanning electron microscope alters what it is aimed at through light energy that interacts with the observed. This makes it almost impossible to pin material objects down to solid forms when we are examining them at this level. The basic building blocks of all that is felt, seen, heard, tasted, so elusive that we cannot measure them under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, they are not blocks or structures that can be quantified.

Spirituality is also based on the unseen and unmeasurable. It is observer-dependent. The observer perceives through spiritual senses the underlying energy patterns from which all material forms arise. As Lao Tau says in verse 25 of the Tao, “There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born.” From this formlessness, all forms arose and all perished. But the underlying formlessness from which it arose is eternal, unchanging, and One.

Lao Tzu said this 2,500 years ago and it still perfectly describes the paradox that all this stuff around us that we think is real, perishes and therefore cannot be “really” real. Yet it comes from something that never perishes. It comes from something eternal. Some will call it God, some the Source Energy of the Universe, some the Tao, all in an attempt to understand what seems to be illogical. But it cannot be pinned down to one name.

In Newtonian physics we have measurable laws of cause and effect, gravity, and thermodynamics. In Quantum physics, cause and effect don’t apply because an atom might be a particle or a wave based simply on probability. Everything exists in the realm of possibility. And so it is in spirituality as well. It is a space of infinite possibility, unbounded by physical, material laws. At it’s root, matter is not real because it is not eternal. The only thing that is eternal is the fountainhead from which everything that exists proceeds. And that cannot be seen, heard, named or quantified in any way.

The underlying structure holds all in place, and yet we cannot “see” it. And cannot “see” the atom either. This requires a leap of faith that all is well and perfectly organized, even if the human brain cannot grasp it. And this is the same faith that pervades spirituality, regardless of the form it takes.