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SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
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of supernatural light, massive expansions of space, ecstasy etc.27 Expectations of this kind limit the range of what our consciousness accepts as valid events and allows to get through to our attention. While expecting a magnificent breakthrough - which hardly ever occurs in the lower stages of development - we completely neglect the many less spectacular, but nevertheless real insights daily life offers us continuously. Yet these everyday openings (sudden insights into our situation from a superior perspective, impulses to activities we've never done before etc.) are the very key to all stable perception of higher dimensions of our consciousness - if we only pursue and amplify them.
We penetrate deeper into the functioning, features and purpose of our experiences when we gain a feeling, a sense for their more subtle aspects.
Even if we are unaccustomed to directing our awareness towards our feelings and inner reactions, this new orientation alone
27 Experiences of this kind are certainly possible but stabilize only from
the sixth stage of development onwards. All feelings of ecstasy that occur in the first five stages are usually quite fleeting. They do not last longer because our attachment to the themes of life typical for these levels (karma) can only be inactive for a short time. Ecstasy is usually highly volatile and can easily be disturbed by activating karmas - i.e by our attachment and desire for experiences on lower stages of development. Once we fundamentally dissolve this attachment (karma), our experiences automatically become more stable.
Yet as long as we are still subject to karmic limitations, the attractiveness of any state of ecstasy is based on the contrast between our normal state and the temporary insight into a 'higher' state of consciousness. Once this insight becomes more permanent, it matures into the normal state and the feeling of ecstasy fades.
The state of bliss we experience after reaching liberation is far more satisfying than any state of ecstasy that is still subjected to karmic constraints. There is nothing temporary in the state of supreme bliss. Its attraction is not caused by a contrast to lesser states, but by the perception of our innermost nature. - Why go for ecstasy, if we can have the real thing?
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