How to Know God
by Tahl Raz
In your book, How To Know God, you describe biological mechanisms that explain the different ways we relate to the spiritual experience. Are you saying the spiritual path is also scientific?
Our different states of awareness have very specific biological correlates, and as we experience these different states of awareness our biological responses also change. The most primitive biological response is the fight-or-flight response, where in any situation that is challenging we either fight or we run.
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| Chopra's first five ground rules on beginning the spiritual journey: |
| Know your intentions. Create awareness by focusing on your spiritual intentions each day. Identify them and work out the anger or fear you attach to them. |
| Set your intentions high. Aim to be a saint and a miracle worker. Why not? Spiritual mastery begins with a vision. |
| See yourself in the light. "You can escape this whole package of illusion [the needs of the ego] if you see yourself not in a shadow fighting to get to God but as in the light from the first moment." |
| See everyone else in the light. Each person does the best they can from their level of consciousness. Judgment is a spiritual hindrance. |
| Reinforce your intentions every day. Discipline yourself to stay focused. Use meditation and prayer. Write down your intentions and your progress. | |
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The second biological response is the reactive response, where we manipulate, we try to control, we engage in melodrama, attachment to outcome, fulfillment through other ego satisfactions. These are reactive responses, built out of our evolutionary history.
The third biological response is restful awareness response, where we actually consciously communicate with people, where we are conscious of our unconscious maturations, where we remain centered in the midst of challenges. We are detached and engaged simultaneously, which is also a specific biological feature of the human nervous system.
The fourth response is the intuitive response, where we access a form of intelligence that is beyond our rational mind, and yet it has a computing ability that is more precise and more accurate than anything in the realm of rationality. It's a form of intelligence that is holistic, nourishing and relational and goes beyond direct cause-effect relationships.
And beyond the intuitive response is the creative response, which is when man becomes creator or procreator, not only in terms of art or science but in the procreation of reality.
Beyond the creative response is the visionary response where we go into archetypes and the collective unconsciousness, and you can tap into the consciousness of say a Christ or a Buddha, or Gandhi or Mother Teresa.
And, finally, the sacred response where you get in touch with the source. It is experienced as pure bliss, pure intelligence, pure being. This is a map that I'm laying out in my new book, but I believe that this is a physiological map — it's a biological map. We don't need to be prophets, or speculative or metaphysical. If anything can be understood it should be understood through the eyes of science.
The times are a-changin'
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