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SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
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regions are inhabited by beings with similar attitudes (narakas), this desire can be satisfied without disturbing others who have different objectives in life. Once this attitude weakens, i.e. once the corresponding karma is dissolved, someone bound to this level will get the opportunity to leave the respective region.
It is important to understand that these two types of existence denote no (religious) concept of heaven and hell in the sense of 'punishment' and 'eternal damnation', or 'reward' and 'eternal bliss', but a mechanism that positions us in exactly those conditions of life that are ideally suited for our desires and present abilities. It is an optional path we alone define by our very behavior in the present.51
The inhabitants of celestial and infernal regions are clairvoyant and telepathic by birth. These abilities do not arise from the dissolution of karma, but are a fundamental feature of their current level of existence. Any karma that might block extrasensory perception on the human level of existence becomes inactive during the time spent in celestial or infernal regions.
Though the ability is inborn, devas and narakas do not all possess the same degree of clairvoyance. The differences mirror their individual degrees of development. As human beings perceive true or flawed knowledge through their senses, devas and narakas also take in true or flawed knowledge through clairvoyance.
51 We get a taste of the mechanics of these two regions in our dreams.
Here our desires and thoughts manifest instantly - the ones we want to experience as well as those we dread. We remain immersed in a particular sequence of events for as long as our desire binds our consciousness to its inner content. Only by extracting our attention from this content - i.e. when we rise above our desires that attracted the event - do we become able to leave situations we are entangled in.
Time is of hardly any issue here - we may feel immersed in a particular dream for years, yet when we wake up in this reality, mere 20 minutes may have passed. Our 'dream-body' appears indestructible and its form quite changeable. And we seem to confront everything we missed or were able to avoid in this reality.
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