The term Atheist is very misleading.
Most religious people think that those are ‘evil’ people.
But,
According to Albert Einstein, it essentially just means those folks,
like himself, simply do not believe in an imaginary sky ‘god’.
Most religions have a very naive childlike imagination of what ‘God’ is,
yet demand that their mystic projection is to be taken as the literal truth…
this fallacy is a dead end to truly exploring ‘Divinity’.
For those that have had the feeling that:
When we die…
It’s just ‘lights out’, pow! Yer dead, gone, done and over.
Although I don’t advocate drugs for fast simple easy way towards
the full fruition of an in-depth spiritual path…
it could be useful as an eye-opening, mind-expanding door towards
experiencing the ‘wordless wisdoms’ that profoundly influences
one’s perspectives into higher consciousness.
Sometimes a mind-altering mushroom trip or such
may bring about the profound realization that…
There must be more to this world, this ‘here & now existence,
my life and all life…
Than what we’ve come to settle for.
Harvard psychology professor Richard Alpert aka Ram Dass
certainly experimented with much drug influenced sessions
and it opened up the door towards a lifelong pursuit of
the highest aspects of human consciousness.
He is quoted to say:
“I didn’t have one whiff of “God” until I took psychedelics.
Starting in 1958,
Alpert work with Timothy Leary for a handful of years
developing a way to use mind alternating hallucinogenic drugs such as
psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals,
through their Harvard Psilocybin Project.
When the two adventurous academics were shit-canned from Harvard in 1963,
they continued their research with a growing number of like-minded professionals…
They began to integrate non-drug use to find
a permanent route to higher consciousness.
Their Castalia Foundation, named after the intellectual colony
in Hermann Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game
hosted weekend retreats on the estate where people paid
to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through
meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions.
In 1967, Alpert traveled to India where he met American spiritual seeker
Bhagavan Das whom guided Alpert throughout India,
eventually introducing him to Neem Karoli Baba,
whom Alpert called “Maharaj-ji”, who became his guru at Kainchi ashram.
Neem Karoli Baba gave Alpert the name “Ram Dass”, which means
“Servant of God”, referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama.
Alpert was curious about the guru’s take on LSD.
The day after their first meeting, Neem Karoli Baba asked Alpert to
give him the “medicine”.
Alpert gave him one dose of “white lightning”,
but he asked for 2 more tabs (915 μg or 9 times the average dose);
after trying them,
the LSD seemed to have no psychotropic effect on Neem Karoli Baba,
but instead told him that the same state could be achieved through meditation
and that he could live in that state.
————————
To pursue a spiritual Path with the goal of attaining
the highest level of consciousness possible in one’s life…
Self-Realization is a key Wisdom towards the Ultimate Fruition of such a Path.
If one had previously considered themselves as an “atheist”
because they felt like when “they” died, it was simply
lights out, pow, done & gone…
With nothing else awaiting ‘you’.
Well…
In a very big way, that is true….
On the account that, most of us spend our whole lives
re-enforcing a mistaken identity of who we are.
“We” think ‘we’ are our egos that are ‘somewhere inside’ this body
and controls everything ‘we’ do.
Neuroscience has proven this is a fallacy by
connecting people up to an MRI machine,
giving the person a button to press when they
consciously know the answer to the questions being asked.
By knowing what part of the brain lights up
when an answer is calculated by the brain,
they can determine exactly what point of time
did the person realize the answer.
This always happens significantly later than
when the brain with it sub-conscious mind systems
have already determined the answer
that is eventually sent to our conscious thinking mind.
In other words…
There is no “self” inside us that is in control and making our decisions.
Along the spiritual Path, one will study spiritual psychology and philosophies,
like the Buddha’s teachings…
put them into a daily Practice…
this gives one an analytic conventional understanding of the ‘big picture’.
In other words,
One can, at this point, intellectually understand Buddha’s teachings of:
Anatta –‘no self’…
But,
It’s not until one experiences the disembodied aspects of this
during very deep ‘Insight Meditations’… or the Jhana states…
the highest states of human consciousness…
it is during these experiences that it becomes clear what one’s true Nature is…
this is:
Self-Realization.
Taken to it’s fullest Fruition… it’s called:
Enlightenment.
And even then, the ‘mysterious’ aspects of the Path…
The so-called “Mystic” experiences become understood
and then they are no longer …
“Mystic”.
You are then Liberated from the ignorance of not knowing your True Nature
and can live the rest of your life as productive and creatively fulfilled
as humanly possible.
You will never be bothered by the pain & suffering
that most sentient beings are inherently burdened with.
To answer the most curious question about life…
“What happens after this life?”…
Once one becomes “Self-Realized”…
They abide in their ‘Natural State’.
In Dzogchen, it’s called ‘Rigpa’.
In Advaita Vedanta it’s called, the “I am’ state.
It’s simply ‘resting in awareness.
In Zen, during deep meditations they refer to as ‘Za Zen’…
One just sits…
No thinking, no one there is meditating, no one is on a spiritual path,
no one is seeking…
One just is.
“You” just are.
“You” just… let go, surrender to the loving bliss
like your drifting away on a cosmic raft… and…
Be.
Like Ram Dass famously and simply stated:
“Be here now”.
When Enlightened masters have gathered their disciples around them
for their anticipated ‘transcendence’…
The highest masters would engage in Maha Samadhi…
A meditation that leads to the ultimate surrender…
They would communicate during this period
as they teetered back and forth between the ‘bardo’ states…
Many have managed to communicate this simple statement:
“Nothing changes”.
To one that can abide in the ‘Natural state of ‘Rigpa’…
Pure awareness…
Nothing changes.
If you are earnestly curious about what happens after this life…
Pursue this Spiritual Path to its fullest fruition and those
wordless Wisdoms will be understood…
Experientially.
But,
If one prefers to live with the pain and suffering that our
inherent ignorance challenges us with and
would rather believe in make believe fantasies or naive religions…
All good.
Nothing will change what happens when we are
liberated from the burden of the body.
What comes after this life will be as natural as the falling rain.
From here,
For the curious aspirants…
Read my articles on the fallacies of ‘Enlightenment’…
Plus countless others here:
https://mauimarryingman.com/inspiring-spiritual-insights/
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