Ray del Sole's Blog, page 8

The training schedule

On the one hand, it seems quite easy to set
up a useful training plan. On the other hand, the complexity can be
overwhelming. So, I want to spread some light on this topic.

The whole training consists of you, the
training plan and the goals which you want to realize with the training. This
is basically important to understand.

So first of all you need to know which
goals you follow, the big goals and the smaller goals which are derived from the
big ones. It is like a destination with milestones. When you focus only on the
destination itself and the journey takes years and more, then your motivation
will collapse easily. But when you focus on the first milestone and then on the
second one, you will be able to make it. Many small aims are easier to realize
than one big aim. And if you have no aim at all, you will wandering around like
a fool, getting nowhere and not knowing if you take the right way. In conclusion,
the first question you need to answer is: What is my highest goal? And what are
the subordinated smaller goals (milestones) which bring me to my destination?
(By the way, goals should make sense to you personally. Law of analogy.)

The answers will show you a map for your journey.
It is the basic structure for your training schedule.

Now, this is all nice, but what about you?
You are the main person in this adventure and you must be ready for it. If not,
it makes no sense. And if you are only “half-ready”, then the journey will make
you suffer. The results will also be not satisfying. And with this, your whole
journey will probably end too soon. It is like being a couch potato with the
idea to climb now the Kilimanjaro.

For the seeker this means that there can be
personal issues of mind, soul or physical health or also of the situation in
life which first need to be addressed, healed, cleared, empowered, etc. to make
you free for your journey. If you wear big iron chains, you can not run fast.
So you need to get rid of all what is blocking you and you need to get fit.

When you have taken good care about yourself
and your goals, then you can focus on the training schedule. Let´s assume that
you want to walk the universal path. Besides this system of exercises and
milestones, there are many other systems of training. Students are tempted to
mix teachings, ideas and exercises in a way they like without asking if this
mix can serve their progress. In most cases, it is an unhealthy mix of
different concepts which do not fit together. The main problem here is that the
training gets too complex and the student spreads his energies instead of focusing
them. If you want to be successful, then you need to focus all your energy on
one goal (or a very small number of goals, for example one goal for mental
training, one for the soul and one for the physical body.) Otherwise, you get
anywhere.

Now, there are the main exercises, then
there are extra exercises of a great diversity and there are supportive
exercises which can help you to manage the main ones. This is important to
understand. Extra exercises are arbitrary. They take your time and energy but
they do not help you directly to reach your goal or your next milestone.
Additional, supportive exercises can help you to master your main exercises in
a more efficient way which will save time and effort and which will offer
faster progress. But in the end, only the main exercises will decide if you
move on or not as they are mandatory. When you use this key, then you can
create a good, functional training schedule. But do not forget that all your
training should be fascinating and fun, – motivating for you.

The last important key for success is that
you should do all your exercises with purpose. We know stupid and boring
training in fitness studios. It is boring because it has no real purpose. It is
just training to increase power, power without specific sense. If you do
training on dancing, then you train your power and your dancing skills and this
makes fun. It makes sense.

The same is true with the spiritual
training. When you do concentration exercises or energy breathing work, then
you should add a useful intention, a command or purpose to it. Then the
produced energy will do something of value. It will support your development.

For example, you can use energy to
activate, strengthen, refine, unfold specific virtues, powers, skills.
Certainly, the law of analogy must be respected. Source, energy and goal must
be analogue.

When you regard these hints, then you can
create an efficient training schedule where you walk from milestone to
milestone to reach your destination in the end.

Unfortunately, most students do no respect
these things and then wonder why they do not finish successfully the first
step.

About life

Imagine that you are at the beach. It is a
sunny day with a fresh breeze and a blue sky. And there are great waves which
are calling you to take your surfboard for enjoying the ride.

You feel alive.

You take your surfboard and swim to the coming
wave.

It is wonderful.

And already in the next moment, you are
standing on your board, riding the wave.

Great fun in the flow of the present moment.

Life can go on like this forever, surfing
on the waves of the ocean.

You are surfing one wave after the other.

And when you fall from the board, you swim
directly back to the surface, catching the next wave to ride it.

Endless joy, endless dynamic flow, surfing
all the waves at the beach.

This is life!

Life is comparable with this situation.
When you incarnate, you face the waves of life, coming and going, up and down,
and it is left to you to ride them, to take one wave after the other, to stay
on top, to enjoy the present moment, the flow, the feeling of being completely
alive. And when you fall from the board, going down, gasping for breath, maybe
losing the orientation, – the best thing you can do is to swim to the surface,
looking for the next wave. When you deal with life like that, then life can be
great with all its challenges (waves).

Be a surfer on the waves of life!

Enjoy each moment!

Problems and new opportunities

Quite often in life we make the experience
that we got stuck in a problem or in a bad situation. We have tried everything
to escape or to solve it but there is no chance, no matter what we try. When we
talk to a family member, coworker or friend about this problem then the other
person tries to help with well-meant suggestions. But this does not help
either. It only shows how stuck the situation is.

Now, we have to options. First option: Just
continuing with headaches about the problem, thinking over and over again about
the same approaches to solve it, only to see again that nothing works. This deepens
the frustration and suffering. Or we understand that the situation or problem
is already petrified and that it is a waste of time to invest more thinking and
energy into finding a solution. Then we are open for the second option: To ask
for a new opportunity. Something new must come with better conditions than
before. And this means that you set a new focus switching from problem to
solutions, to new opportunities. Here it is important to be willing to let go
the old situation and to open up for something new, something good.

Imagine you have a cup of coffee. The
coffee does not taste well. It is really bad in quality. Now you can be
annoyed. You can suffer. You can curse. But no matter what you do, the bad
coffee does not change its quality. Now you might think “I have paid the
coffee, I must drink it!” But this rigid adherence only supports your
suffering. Let´s imagine, you choose option number 2 and so you simply dump the
bad coffee down the drain and get a fresh one. The problem is solved and the
new opportunity is taken.

Now when, we think about serious issues
like job or relationship then we see that we have invested a lot of energy and
effort, and for this reason it seems very hard to give up, independent how bad
it is. It is a psychological problem. We have a tendency to cling to “our
property”. But as soon as we free ourselves from such clinging, we become open
for better opportunities.

In all cases, it is necessary to make this
conscious step, saying that you are ready to leave the problems and to enter a
new and better opportunity. Then you should call on divine support, so that a
new situation can materialize for you. For example, due to some “coincidences”
you get informed about a new job offer in a nice company or you find a person
where you feel a deep and happy connection for a wonderful relationship.

Just trust into divine opportunities and
support from the spiritual realms. Pray, express your heart´s desires to God,
ask for help, be grateful and then open your eyes and ears, see and listen,
watch out for signs, follow your intuition. Things will unfold for you.

About expectations

Expectations are born from ignorance, when
we are going to do something new. It doesn´t matter if you taste new food, if
you consult a therapist for the first time or if you meet a spiritual teacher.
You have your ideas, your wishes and needs, and you think or hope that your
expectations will be satisfied.

The only problem is that you are
(completely) ignorant about these new experiences and so your expectations are
something like phantasy, often far away from reality.

A wonderful and common example is when you
have a problem and you go to a doctor. You expect the doctor to give you meds
to get instantly cured. Today, this expectation is supported by the
pharmaceutical industries and the work of doctors.

Now, if you go to a naturopath or to a
spiritual healer, you have the same expectations. Then you wonder that you
don´t get any pills for instant healing but that the therapist asks you about
thousand things and tells you that you need to change behavior if you want to
deal not only with the symptoms but also with the hidden causes. Then you might
think that you are in the wrong movie and eventually you want to tell the
therapist how he should do his job.

Ignorance and illusionary ideas about
reality are very unhealthy and a big trap for people, especially today. The ego
wants this or that but it does not ask if it is realistic. The ego is also
presumptuous, arrogant and believes that it can tell experts how to handle
things.

It is wise to understand these things and
to be open when you do something new, without any expectations, just going with
the flow.

Tasting new food might be trivial but when
it is about undergoing a therapy to cope with old problems or if you want to
make spiritual progress, then it is very important to be open. Ego-attitude and
stupid behavior can easily kick you out. There is no law in creation which says
that a therapist or spiritual master has to work with fools.

In fact, there are many nice stories where
ego-focused people were sent back immediately just because they were not mature
enough or ready to receive teachings or healing.

In conclusion, if you have best intentions
for yourself, then be open for new experiences without delusionary
expectations. And if you are a spiritual healer, therapist or special teacher,
then tell your clients directly at the start that they should drop all
expectations and open themselves for new experiences (like an innocent child
with enthusiasm).

Wishes and visions

We humans have a lot of wishes. But
normally, we do not ask if our wishes are beneficial for us. Sometimes it is
just a desire which needs to be satisfied and here we need instant satisfaction
while the effects do not interest. “If I do not get this immediately, the whole
world will end!” But there are also other wishes, following ideas about what we
need to be happy. “If I get these new shoes, I will be happy!” or “If I have a girlfriend
with long blonde hair and blue eyes, I will be happy!” These are all sentences
with a condition. Why not being happy in first place, independent from buying
or getting something?

This is one point. The other point is that
we normally project something, instead of getting a clear vision or insight
about what would really be good for us.

For example, let´s imagine that you are a
young man and that you have been conditioned with a specific type of women in
advertisement, on covers, etc. It is the typical “model”. Due to your
conditioning over years, you believe that the woman you will marry one day,
looks exactly like one of these models, – very tall, thin, stylish hair and
makeup, flirting, blonde long hair, blue or green eyes. Now, you started with
hermetic studies and you consciously wish for such a woman to appear in your
life. As you use good techniques, you meet such a woman and you are completely disappointed
that you both do not fit at all together.

Now, let us imagine that he is a smart
student and learns that it should not be a matter of the ego and its limited
ideas, but that it is a matter of higher sense and plans which were made before
his incarnation. So, the key is to try to get information about his wish for
marriage.

The student gets into his meditation state,
prays and opens himself to divine guidance and intuition. And then he receives
images, sensations and ideas offered by the spiritual realms. He understands
now, that the right woman will be a soul which he knows already, that she will
have a very specific charisma which is attractive and nourishing for him, that
their sense for humor will be a great basic for their happy relationship, that
they will have two children, and so on. His future wife won´t look at all like
these models. She will be smaller and funny, and he understands that it is
exactly this what is attractive to him.

After this meditation, he feels ready to
meet her. Now, he knows for whom he is looking for.

This was a short example. It is the general
rule to ask for hints and insights to get a vision of for what you are meant
to, and not for your limited ego thinks is good. Try to perceive the divine
plans which have been made for your life on earth. Let yourself be guided for
their realization. Follow the higher sense. And, – become ready!

“Becoming ready” is another important
point. For everything, for every event in life, the time and situation must
fit. And we must prepare ourselves for these events, dissolving blockades,
making progress, growing in personality, really wanting things to happen, and
only then, they will come in a way which is good.

This means also that you should question
yourself if there is anything which needs to be dissolved, healed, prepared to
enable your wish to realize.

In conclusion, realizing wishes is not what
people tell in the internet – ego satisfaction – but it is to ask for divine
guidance for the right things to happen.

And if you feel that something takes a
little bit too long, then you can ask the spiritual realms about the obstacles,
blockade, problem and about the fitting solution.

Standards, – what is normal?

When you ask someone what is normal, then
he will probably describe the present time with all its conditions as normal.
This is the general standard. This general standard changes already when we
move into a different country. And as we have a lot of different countries and
cultures, we have a lot of different standards, – what people call normal. When
people go on holidays in a foreign country then they wonder a lot about the
differences. “How can they behave like this? How can they eat that? And so on.”
Now, the funny things it that people do not question their own standards, only
those of other people.

Besides these things, the understanding of standards
is a psychological phenomenon. What do you feel is normal and with this the
standard?

Imagine that you grow up in a happy family
with a lot of love, compassion, etc. Then these experiences are the standard
for you in your own perception and behavior. You simply cannot imagine that it
could be different.

Now imagine that you grow up in a violent
family where it is normal to be slap children and to punish them for small
mistakes. It is also normal to curse a lot and to speak bad about others. As
you know nothing else, you take this for normal, for your standard. And if you
do not make other experiences, you will go on like this with your own family.

In conclusion, good conditions as well as
bad conditions in life can be perceived as normal, as the standard. And when
something is normal, then it is accepted. And this is a very important point.
Evil can easily be accepted and maintained just because it is set as the
standard.

So, when you live in a society where
violence, torture, death penalties, etc. are “normal”, then it is accepted and
maintained. “We have done it like that throughout centuries. My forefathers did
it. It is culture, religion and tradition. It is normal. Why should we change
anything?”

Especially, when there is no possibility for
comparing your standard with different standards, you believe all is fine.

In conclusion, what you believe is normal,
the standard, and this can be quite dangerous. This is valid for all fields of
life. We are conditioned on a subconscious level and we should, – must question
everything to escape the prisons of society and belief. Freedom lies beyond the
blind conditioning of society.

About Happiness

When you ask people, what is important in
life, then most will answer “Happiness”. People say that it is the goal they
are striving for. When you ask esoteric or spiritual people, then they say that
their path is meant to bring happiness, eternal happiness.

This sounds nice and probably everyone
would instantly agree.

The funny thing is that this isn´t true. Let´s
have a closer look.

In life there are only two different states.
The state of deficiency and the state of saturation. In the first state you are
in need of something. When you get it, you are in the second state. You feel
saturated or complete in this specific aspect and this offers satisfaction or
happiness. So, you are happy when you have what you need.

Further on, we can differentiate between
mental, astral and physical needs, satisfaction or happiness. You can be
mentally happy; you can be emotionally happy, and you can be happy for your
material wealth.

Happiness is always a matter of being
complete, full, saturated and in balance. For this reason, happiness comes
along with a feeling of peace and freedom.

In a world of artificial deficiency, we
must work permanently to be temporarily happy. We need to work to make money
and to buy things we need.

Now, if pure happiness was the over all
goal, then everyone would simply eat as much as the belly can take and then get
some pills to be high and rest in the bed. But this rarely happens. It is the
same wrong idea like the dream of the land of milk and honey where you do not
need to do anything but just eating, drinking and chilling.

We human beings are not designed this way.
Otherwise, we would look like Jabba the Hutt.

The truth is that we are all creators, like
the Great Creator, and as creators, we enjoy the process of creating things and
this is what makes us happy.

It is the happiness which comes from
following our true nature. When you do something, which is corresponding to
your nature, then you are in balance with yourself and creation, and then you
feel good.

This idea of being a creator comes along
with challenges, with obstacles, with trial and errors, with efforts, pains and
in the end, you have realized your piece of art. This realization of an idea,
of a task, etc. brings real satisfaction and the energy to go on with new
things.

In conclusion, it is not about simple
happiness in life, it is about following your nature as a creator.

Further on, when we think about
incarnation, then we see that no one incarnates just to have a happy life. In
fact, we incarnate to make desired experiences, to learn, to grow, to balance
old problems, to heal and when we achieve these aims, then we feel happiness.
Life on earth is not meant as a land of milk and honey. It is meant as a chance
to prove yourself in your creator skills.

Another funny point is, that you can drop
completely the idea “I want to become happy”, focusing only on your development
as a conscious creator of your life circumstances and on realizing your ideas
and then as a natural side effect, you become happy.

This means, better focus directly on your
development and on being a creator, and all the good like happiness, abundance,
success, fortune will come naturally.

Now, maybe a few words about spiritual
happiness. There are these superficial slogans in the internet like “Follow the
path and enjoy divine happiness and inner peace.” If it was all about this, you
can simply stay in bed after having a good pizza.

The point is something different. When you
realize your original spirit nature – enlightenment – then you take part in
this nature and its qualities of freedom, inner peace, balance, lightness, abundance,
detachment form the world of matter and from lower emotions and lower thoughts
and all this offers you a basic feeling of happiness. It is a happiness which
does not ask for anything. It is the happiness of pure being as you are anchored
in the pure being, in your original, spiritual nature. You are like the vast
sky, untouchable.

In conclusion, again, it is not about
happiness in first place on the spiritual path. It is about the realization of
your original nature and happiness is a side effect.

In the end, it might be good to understand
this and to correct own goals in life to reach real happiness.

Reminder for the mystical practice

The normal training can offer satisfaction
like regular fitness training. You have done your exercises and you feel good
about your discipline and workout. In best case, you enjoy progress,
breakthroughs and new experiences. This is all good and necessary.

But really satisfying is the mystical
practice where you experience happiness, moments of divine unity, great
inspiration and wonderful feelings. This is the essence. This is what is all
about, – the ecstasy in God, in the divine virtues, feeling high, uplifted.

The whole magical training is one aspect to
reach mastery in all kinds of skills but in the other aspect it is supposed to
help you experiencing God in all states of ecstasy and wonder.

Unfortunately, it is easy to forget these
things and to focus only on the “hard” magical training, neglecting the great,
mystical experiences. Life in general is too focused on these everyday duties
and routines. It has dulling effects and we need consciously to go against
this, to color our grey life and make it wonderful.

I wish everyone to see all the wonders, the
beauty and the mysteries again in life, in your beloved ones, in creation and
to unite with God in ecstasy. It is so crucial for us, for spiritual people,
for everyone. It has great vitalizing effects. Otherwise we live like machines.

The smiling face of the great Tempter

When we think of the “devil”, the “boss” of
the dark side, then we probably associate him with a “not nice looking” figure
of the Greek deity Pan. This might fit into the “hate” of the church for the
old pagans, but it does not fit into reality. Let´s keep this term “tempter” as
it is his profession and fits perfectly instead of all other names. So, his job
is to tempt us, to test us, to show us who we really are, if we are stable in
our good qualities or still easily to manipulate.

Indeed, it is always the same story. You
have a problem and there is no simple solution. It takes you a lot of effort to
manage this problem. It is often a problem regarding love, money, fame,
success, – in main ego stuff. The ego is hurt, or the ego has great desires and
this calls for satisfaction. Only in rare cases, it is about other people,
beloved ones.

So, you have a problem but not a nice
solution. And then the great tempter comes, showing you a bright smile with
wonderful white teeth and starts talking to you, so that you go nuts. He
directly addresses your emotions, – your pains, hurts, your desires, your desperate
situation. Doing so, he increases your pains and sorrows and when you cannot
take it any longer, he makes a nice proposal, offering a quick solution for
your problems. As you are already sitting at the bottom of the deep, dark hole,
you welcome this sunshine of a solution. You are full of hope and expectations.
But now the great tempter tells you about the deal as he wants a “return
service”.

The price to pay might not sound too high,
maybe it sounds strange, maybe you think that you can get out without paying
and maybe the price kills you already just by thinking about it. However, your
desire, need or wish is causing even more pain and so, in the worst case, you
make the deal.

Now, the deal is done, and the solution is
realized. The problem is that the solution was realized in a dark way with
painful sacrifices and you still have to pay back. Paying back comes along with
great sacrifices too. In the end, you understand that it was a very bad deal to
say it in a nice way.

In conclusion, such deals are made daily
and everyone has faced such situations already in his life with a kind of tempter.
Shall we take the seemingly easy way or the hard way?

If it is a “good” = professional tempter
then you can identify him easily. These tempters always have a bright smile,
look quite often like business men, are very smart, polite, good in small talk
and they smell your problems and emotions on long distance. They seem to be
very sympathetic, with great charm, but you feel that something is wrong with
them. In fact, they are simply psychopath, predators, which smell their prey.
They have no empathy, no compassion. They just want to do good business with
you.

It is the bright smile together with the
coldness of the eyes which exposes them.

You find them in politics, in all positions
of power, in the management of companies, in secret societies at the top, at
the army and in places where you wouldn´t imagine finding them.

Once there was a TV series called “Reaper”.
Ray Wise played the “devil” and he did it in a brilliant way. This is just one
example which can give good hints.

In the end, we all need to be careful when
we listen to those in power. In 99,99% they have not the best intentions but wonderful
promises where we are meant to bring great sacrifices.

Converting demons

There are religious stories where demons
have been converted to the “right faith”. These are fascinating stories of
great spiritual masters defeating wild demons in fights and making them obey.
After this conversion, the demons follow higher, spiritual ideals and take the
position as protectors of the faith and the followers, also of holy temples.

From the hermetic point of view, these are
nice stories and obviously based on real happenings. The point is that we have
to differentiate between real demons, – which are negative spirits in the
spheres and dualistic astral beings which belong to the realms of nature, which
can be understood as deities of nature. So, in the hermetic language, we cannot
“convert demons”. We only can get into control of these astral beings and make
them follow higher purposes. This has happened in the stories. A real demon is
a spirit far away from earth, a being of the spheres, with a well-defined field
of action in the administration of creation. A spiritual master can get to know
demons and their functions, and a master can appear to a demon as a higher,
divine authority to whom the demon must obey.

These are possibilities and a master must
decide if there is sense in getting in control of certain demons. Eventually,
it might be for study reasons or as a part of initiation, growing on the
spiritual path, or it is necessary for specific divine missions and tasks. In
most cases, it should be sufficient to work with the opposite, the so-called
angels, better called deities.

One interesting aspect is the idea to use
demons to deal with dark forces, negative people or beings. Here we get to the
idea of the Catholic Church which normally condemns the evil and all evil
beings, but on the other hand proclaims the power over the dark forces. Indeed,
the Catholic Church has the idea that it rules over all forces of light and all
forces of evil. And so, the devil is just an “employee”, doing his job,
punishing bad souls in the hellfire. This must be understood. For this reason,
we also find all the gargoyles at the cathedrals, demons which should scare off
evil forces. 

In conclusion, it is a big difference if
you belong to the “good” side, the “bad” side or if you understand yourself as
superior of good and bad and in control of both to strive for your aims. Here
we have the dualistic attitude to do both depending on personal preferences,
the ego and the situation. “The end justifies the means!” This is the slogan of
the dualistic attitude. Especially, the young religions follow this idea.
Besides these ideas, there is the attitude of the righteous, – the true initiate
and spiritual master. The righteous one is a temple of God, embodies the laws
of creation and follows the divine wisdom in all he does. He does not care
about the ego but only about what is good and right, regarding the laws of
creation, the principles of wisdom. He asks for the higher sense, the causes
and the consequences.

These are some thoughts about an interesting
topic. It is useful to be able to differentiate and to understand these things.

Now let us do a thought experiment. Let´s
imagine that you are a normal man with family, enjoying a peaceful life. But
one day, you hear the news that wild warriors are on their way to raid your
home. Now you have two options. First option: You fight against the wild
warriors. Second option: You hire a wild warrior to fight them.

The first option is good against bad and as
you are not a warrior yourself, you have a big problem to deal with them.
Second option is bad against bad. Here is the advantage that your hired warrior
knows exactly how the other warrior will behave as he is from the same nature.
Indeed, it is the old idea to “fight fire with fire” which is also used in the
homeopathic treatments.

Now imagine that a noble knight has to
fight with an evil warrior. The noble knight is limited by high ideals while
the evil warrior will use all means to win. Fair against unfair. This is a
problem. Again, it makes sense to let two evil warriors fight each other. Your
evil warrior serves a higher, good purposes while the other one follows selfish
desires.

In conclusion, we often face this question:
Shall we balance one pole with the opposite pole, or shall we balance the
negative pole with itself, working for the higher purpose? Water with fire or
fire with fire?

When we transfer this to the level of
society, then we see the same problem on a bigger scale. The good people in society
try to deal with the bad people. This is like sheep against wolves. It does not
work, unfortunately. Sheep do not understand the nature of wolves and so they
cannot understand their strategies, their instincts and drives. And sheep do
not have the sharp teeth of wolves. Here it is hard to balance fire (wolves)
with water (sheep). The only solution would be if sheep hire some wolves to
fight and defeat the evil wolves. This means that some professionals of the
dark side need to be “converted” to serve positive values, fighting their dark
brothers.

This is a nice and fascinating idea and it
could work out. Unfortunately, it is the other way round and the dark side
infiltrates positive structures of society, converting good members into evil
to take over power and control.

It is a topic to think about. Why must
noble knights fall while evil warriors are unlimited in their work?

By the way, Pope Paul II. used this
strategy to manage his financial problems. He simply hired a wolf of the financial
sector to make as much money as possible for the church. The wolf had only one
request, – to give him freedom of action (for the dirty business). And the Pope
agreed. In shortest time, the wolf realized the desired results, – great profits
for the church.