DISPERSING THE GREAT DOUBT
One of the first tasks of any spiritual journey is to disperse the great doubt
Question
All these experiences make me confuse and worry because I do not know the origin and the purposes of all these happenings. Since I do not know the origin, I do more cleansing exercises and less power exercises. I hope you could give me some explanations on this subject.
Dr Daniel, Belgium
Answer
This is part of “the doubt” mentioned earlier. You need not do more cleansing exercises; just carry on as usual.
The doubt occurs because we are so used to our set of everyday conditions that we think, usually unconsciously, that this is the only set of conditions. And we are so used to experiencing reality according to this set of everyday conditions that we think this is the only reality.
For example, when we wake up everyday we touch our bed and find our bed solid. When we open our eyes we see an empty space in front.. We are so used to seeing reality under such conditions — such as the way our hand feels, and the way our eyes see — that we believe the reality we experience everyday is the only reality.
If we recall the science we learned in school, we know that our bed is composed of atoms, and atoms are composed of protons and electrons which are so far apart that atoms are actually more than 99% empty. This means that scientifically speaking our bed is 99% empty, although in our everyday conditions we experience it as solid.
Very few of us have actually seen atoms, but we do not doubt it when our scientists tell us beds are composed of atoms and atoms are more than 99% empty, because we trust our scientists. It is even easier when scientists tell us that the space in front is actually not empty but full of micro-organisms. Although very few of us have seen micro-organisms in the air, many of us have seen them through a microscope.
This give us an idea that the reality we experience everyday is only real according to our ordinary conditions. When we change some conditions, such as viewing our bed through an electronic microscope, or viewing the air through a biological microscope, the same reality becomes different. We have no doubt here because many other people share the same view.
When we are in the midst of a chi kung exercise or as a result of consistent chi kung training, our conditions change, and hence reality also changes accordingly. You can, for example, sense another person's energy, which you could not do before. When these changes are not far from what you and most people experience in everyday conditions, you have no difficulty accepting them. When these changes are far fetch, such as re-living your past lives or seeing into your internal organs, you become skeptical; you question whether they are your imagination.
But as you progress and discover that the different manifestations of reality experienced at different levels of consciousness, are also experienced by other people training the same or similar arts, you become more sure of yourself. And when you discover that great masters also teach the same things as recorded in their great works, your confidence grows and finally disperses your doubt. Eventually the big irony will dawn upon you that the great majority of ordinary people who say spiritualists are deluded, are themselves actually living in delusion.
With this background understanding, it would not be difficult for you to understand the origin and purpose of your experiences as the result of your chi kung or kungfu training. Actually the origin and purpose may be interpreted in different ways according to the different levels of developmental stages of the persons involved. For you, one interpretation is as follows, although this interpretation may be odd to many other people.
Actually there is no origin. It is the same reality, but this reality is experienced differently at different levels of developmental stages. To ordinary people, such happenings are strange, but those who understand may say they are going Home, or going back to their original source, or going back to God.
To ordinary people, God is personalized as a Fatherly Figure, always providing for us, the children, and always loving us. Sometimes ordinary people may read or heard of the expression, which is a great cosmic truth, that God is omnipotent and omnipresent. They believe in it although they do not fully understand the cosmic truth.
The more intellectual or more inquisitive may question. If God is the Fatherly Figure and separated from us ordinary mortals, then how can God be omnipresent? Surely God cannot be Satan! In other words, the space where mortals and Satan occupy, God is not. In the past those who raised such questions were sometimes killed by religious authorities who feared such beliefs might weaken the followers' faith. These authorities also forgot, or chose not to remember, that great saints like St Ignius, St Augustine and St Theresa made such expressions like they were in God and God was in them, and that in their religious ecstasy they could not separate between God and them.
Actually there is no contradiction to say that God is different from mortals and different from Satan, and at the same time to say that God is omnipresent. The apparent difference is due to viewing reality from different perspectives of developmental stages — just as the apparent contradiction in saying your bed is solid and your bed is empty is due to viewing reality from different sets of conditions. In Christian philosophy, the concept of Trinity explains such situations excellently. The problem, of course, is that not many people fully understand the concept of Trinity.
The purpose of the experiences is to let you have glimpses of the way Home, and let you decide whether you are ready for the journey. The way is still very long, but it is the most noble journey and the eventual arrival at the Kingdom of God is the greatest attainment any being can ever achieve. But there should be no hurry. If one is not ready, it is certainly better for him to delay the journey and prepare himself adequately first. It is also comforting to realize that while eternal bliss is found in God's Kingdom, our mortals' home is also full of joy.
Some people, because of their ignorance, may think that to go Home is to die. As I have mentioned earlier, we never die — we only change our physical body. Indeed, at a different level and speaking scientifically, we are changing our physical body all the time. Each time we breathe out, millions of dead cells are disposed off, and each time we breathe in, millions of new cells are born. Literally in every moment, millions of sub-atomic particles which form our body cells are flowing in both directions across the imaginary but familiar line which in our everyday reality we call our skin.
One of the first tasks in any spiritual journey is to disperse the “Great Doubt”. This is attained not through intellectual understanding, such as from reading the explanation here, but through direct personal experience. All spiritual cultivation, as well as all chi kung and kungfu training, are experiential; without direct experience even the teachings of great masters are merely hollow words.
The above is taken from Question 4 of June 2000 Part 1 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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