Obstacles !

[Guest guest]

Silentsoul,<br><br>"Anhad Naad", is that the Holy

Spirit, the voice of love, kindness, wisdom and

understanding of the Word? I would not call that an obstacle,

but a step in enlightment of our path, a deffinite

encouragement to sadhana. Right?<br><br>The miracles that we

wittness should increase our faith. And, in increasing our

faith, thus our enlightment grows.<br><br>Visions are

glimpses of the future which often serve as a warning or

are answers to prayer that we actually receive

somewhere down the path of enlightenment.<br><br>Visions,

miracles, or the voice of the Holy Spirit then are not

obstacles but small encouragements to keep us on

track.<br><br>Phone calls, door bells, emergencies and illnesses on

the other hand are obstacles which need some how to

be overcome so that we can have successful sadhana.

Or.... we can look at these obstacles as yet another

form of encouragement, that God is "fixin' to" do

something wonderful in our life and therefore the evil one

is trying to deter us.<br><br>As to who is the evil

one....well....that one is also apart of us and to a larger extent

the collective conciousness of all. We can, through

sadahana, learn to and control the evil within ourselves.

We can also learn to see the divinity in all through

our practice of sadahana - Then we will begin to see

the miracles of God/the divinity being present being

present everywhere we look.<br><br>I have found all of

this to be very true in my path and I truly see and

appreciate the divine in all of you, which is something 10

years ago, I would never have been able to

do.<br><br>vicki

[Guest guest]

Silentsoul and all members,<br><br>>>are

obstacles a necessity for sadhna ? what is the latent

purpose behind obstacles...?<< <br><br>I would like

to share a vision with you all that I had some 20

years ago. While it made no sense at the time, today I

see it coming to pass and getting larger.<br><br>Back

during this time (20 yrs. past) I would rise up at

5:00am and pray/meditate for a full hour, totally

without disturbance. At the end of on session a map began

to appear on the wall. Next, my city (Corpus

Christi, Texas) was pinpointed and there were lines

extending out from there all over the world. It was amazing

- fantastic even -my mouth was agape and my

husbands alam went off. One would think that an obstacle

to the vision, but as I went into the kitchen and

fixed my husbands coffee to take to him, all I saw was

the map. It was in all directions and it followed me

or i walked through it all the way to my husband

with the coffee before it dissolved.<br><br>Today, as

I join all of my friends who are hindu, buddist,

muslim and christian on the various clubs and in chat

rooms, I can see that the map was showing me that

through our faith in the divinity we are all being drawn

together and the lines which extended out (at the time it

looked like flight paths) could well have been internet

connections. Realize we are from all over the world and our

faiths vary, yet Love(God/the divine) is at the center

of us all.<br><br>Love<br>vicki

[Guest guest]

By obstacles I am presuming that all the fluffy

inner experiences that crowd the inner senses and

divert the attention from transcending at times. All

those experiences should be understood as just that,

changing and not giving the goal of nirvana or sahaj

samadhi or whatever you want to call the goal. However,

they are certainly signposts to your state of being

and much Vedic lit is given over to those signs

including especially the Upanishads. Some of the minor

Upanishads give more specific understandings. People see

stars and devas, colors or great blackness, see movies

and hear the hum of the body and hears the music of

the spheres. If these visions are common to you then

just know that you will grow used to them and

hopefully fathom them thoroughly by the time of the goal.

To be a master is to know all planes. Patanjali says

not to become a puppet of the various beings but to

stay true to goal. Buddha was tempted by higher powers

before nirvana. Wish I had such problems. Nice topic.

[Guest guest]

I have found that all the visions I have had

have been to lead me along the path. Scary dark

visions have led me in the direction to find the cause or

root of a particularly evil problem i may have been

having in my personality and get rid of it. Some of them

I think were visions of the "fluffy" type that give

hope but all of them have thus far led me to where I

am today. I could never claim to be a master.....I

believe I have gone through many,if not most, of the

planes but since I have done so with out any

instruction, it takes reflection to know if I was there or

not.<br><br>I agree! Lovely topic.<br><br>vicki

[Guest guest]

Ego assists us in labeling things, for example

"visions" that we share with others. Does this mean our ego

wants others to know we are special or better than

those who have no visions? Probably. I have come to a

place that I no longer lable.....I enjoy and learn.

While sharing is paramount to learning in this type of

forum, it also leads us to labels. Is there a way around

this? Or should we all just enjoy where we are and know

that divine love leads..all we have to do is follow,

without questioning or intellectual why's and how's. in

love, mirabai

[Guest guest]

The question of obstacles along the path is an

interesting one indeed. <br><br>If we accept the idea of an

underlying Oneness in the Universe then all there is, is the

seeker seeking herself or himself. That premise, in

turn, would answer your next series of questions: "Who

is the creator of obstacles ? Is it god, Mother

Nature, Our Karma, Universe, or some other entity?" The

answer would be: "All of the above -- and 'they' are all

you."<br><br>The individual embodied soul creates her or his own

obstacles. They are all just manifestations of the

particular forms of maya that are preventing a particular

jiva from experiencing the internal Oneness -- in

which all is well, in which there is no conflict, in

which we realize all is well and all is well. We are

are own enemies and our own saviors.<br><br>It's

rather easy to reach an intellectual understanding of

Oneness and Maya and all that. But the thing is to

experience it, which is a different matter altogether --

because words, the mind alone, cannot take us there; they

can only point the way. If it were easy, everyone

would do it. But it's not easy. It's the spiritual

equivalent of winning an Ironman Triathalon -- and then

some. In other words, it's something that most people

could theoretically achieve if they were to devote

enough time and effort, if they were able to muster the

discipline and stick to it, and work through the pain

necessary to achieve success. <br><br>But the fact is, most

people don't actually do it despite being "theoretically

able" to -- not because they're bad or lesser people;

it's just that they have not committed the necessary

energy and will to the goal. Because not long after

"training" begins, the honeymoon period falls away -- the

novelty is gone; the drudgery begins. Bad days, bad

moods, muscle pulls, dreary and cold mornings -- a

million distractions of everyday life that make it easy

to say, "Oh, the hell with it," and move on to other

things.<br><br>The path of serious spirituality seems similar. And

here I'd quote the wonderful feminist scholar of

Tantra, Madhu Khanna, who wrote: "The process of becoming

is not unilinear, moving in one direction either up

or down, but it is dialectical, will pulls and

pushes at every level. The Kundalini does not shoot up

in a straight line, but at each stage of its

unfolding it must undo the knots of different energies.

With each successive untying, a specific

transformation occurs...."<br><br>I like to consider our

self-created "obstacles" reflections of our own needs along

the path -- lessons we need to learn; knots being

untied.<br><br>Aum Maatangyai Namaha

[Guest guest]

Thank you! Your post spoke to me in a personal

way and is so very true on all counts!! It is so easy

to understand when you put it like that without all

the intellectual foo foo which usually looses me. I

bow to you friend and thank you again! in love,

mirabai

[Guest guest]

Mirabai,<br><br>I dont consider myself any better

for having had visions and I certainly dont wish them

on others!<br>I havent had a vision in many years;

yet, I used to have them regularly. MOst of my visions

we like the quinessential night mare; they scared

the bajabbers out of me! I believe that some of us

just need the extra push(?) to get us going on a

spiritual path and stay there. <br><br>The Divine gives us

all different gifts from the seemingly mundane to the

totally miraculous and they are to be used to the glory

of the Divine and never to be construed as making

anyone better than the next. The Divine is in all things

and should consider ourselves blessed to be able to

share and learn in divine fellowship.<br><br>These same

questions you brought up come up in christian groups also.

One prophesies so all want to prophesy. One speaks in

unknow tongues so all want to do the same. It is either

that or they want to condemn those who do prophesy or

speak in tongues. <br><br>No gift from the Divine is of

any worth if there is no love, for love is the

greatest gift of all. Now, the prophet/disciple Paul

advised that it is not wrong to seek the gifts of the

Divine, but he strongly advised all of us to seek love.

Love is the strength that will weld us together as

one.<br><br>vicki

[Guest guest]

Vicki, that was not personal, just using it as an

example because that happened to be the post I was

reading when I was thinking about the label thing. I

think the last line of my post says it all and in that

respect it appears we are in agreement yes? ) in love,

mirabai

[Guest guest]

Devi,<br><br>I do love they way you explained

obstacles alont the path.<br><br>In the bible, the Old

Testament, Moses took the path, in the story of taking his

people through the wilderness(darkness or evil of the

mind). It took him 40 years! He was met with (or he

himself)argueing, grumbling, complaining and murmuring about every

little thing.<br><br>In the New Testament, Jesus took

the path into the wilderness the same as Moses, but

it only took him 40 days. So there you can see that

the time varrience can be quit a bit between

individuals as we defeat the snares of fear and the tangles

of doubt and all the other stuff that is in the mind

which does not belong there.<br><br>vicki

[Guest guest]

MOst deffinitely in agreement, mirabai! Yes!!!!<br><br>vicki