Spiritual Evolution

The Seventh Heaven

First realisation

When, as a newborn child, you found yourself in this material realm, the first thing that you realised was that you were aware. The first thing you knew was that you were alive. It was so obvious and natural that it needed no consideration. All you know at this stage is 'I AM', I EXIST.

The most obvious is always the most difficult to see because you do not focus your attention on things that you believe need no consideration. This is how most people go through life, neglecting the obvious, being aware but not concerning themselves with what that awareness is. They focus so much on what is outside of them, that they neglect what is inside of them, and so the first realisation is lost.

Second realisation

The second thing that you realise as a newborn child is the information coming from your physical senses. You realise that you are connected to a body, a body that reacts according to your will. At this stage there is only contentment and discontentment, pleasure and pain, and you have no control over either.

It is because so much focus is given to the physical body and the self is taken for granted, that the two become as one. The self's true identity fades into the background and a new identity as the physical body takes precedence in the mind.

Third realisation

The third thing that you realise as a newborn child is the realisation that you depend on others for your needs, in fact for your survival. A newborn baby would not survive long on its own. It is a lesson so easily forgotten that we need others, even if it is only for company. Not to survive as adults but rather to give life meaning.

If you woke up tomorrow to find that you were the only person left on the planet, and that everything in the world was yours to enjoy, how long would that pleasure last before it came to the point that you would trade everything for the company of another person?

No amount of pleasure found in possessions, or security found in triumph over fear, could ever satisfy a soul that is alone and without the company of its kind. To know that there is someone there, even an enemy, is not the true depth of loneliness that our animal nature would lead us to. We need each other or we have nothing of worth.

Fourth realisation

The fourth realisation is that we have a split mind. It is like walking down a road that has a line down the centre.

On one side are our spiritual instincts and our self image as a spiritual being.

On the other side there are our animal instincts and our self image as a physical being.

A balanced mind takes you along the centre line, always undecided and in conflict with both self images. Unless a soul makes a choice of which side of the road to stay on, that is to say, which side they will choose completely and which side they will reject completely, there can be no peace for that soul.

Fifth Realisation

The fifth realisation is knowing the path that you travel.

A sleeping soul is one who walks only the animal side of the road. Their self image as a spiritual being has been forgotten. They believe that they are a mortal physical being and in that they find the peace that is found in the absence of the conflict between self images.

An awakened soul is one who remembers their spiritual image, but is still uncertain and so spends most of the time on the spiritual side of the road, but all too often is drawn to the animal side because of desire or fear. The time spent on either side of the road is relative to the degree of their spiritual awareness or faith.

The enlightened soul is like one who has been born again, and has seen the obvious. It knows that it is the life and not that which it animates, or that which is outside of it. The enlightened soul does not need the material world or a physical body, except to show others the truth it has found, so that it can share the company of those who are like it.

Sixth realisation

The sixth realisation is that the physical senses and the material world can never satisfy the thirst for knowledge that the only knowledge that will satisfy the seemingly endless curiosity is within.

If you could live in the world forever, and learn all that there is to know about the Universe, where then would curiosity fall but on the Self? You would say 'I know what that is, but what am 'I'.'

Seventh realisation

The seventh realisation is that of the absolute eternal truth, the truth that brings an eternal end to all sufferings, it frees the spirit from all bondage that is harmful. There are no illusions for the one who does not desire their reward.

The Absolute Truth is unchanging and eternal. It can only reside in a soul that is unchanging and eternal, one that has chosen the correct path and found its end. The seventh realisation is that you have become the Absolute Truth. You have become Love. You have earned your pass through the gates of your Creator's Heaven.

Heaven within

The mind is the Self's domain, it is a part of our Creator's domain, a part that is given and used to encapsulate the Self.

Our mind, or little piece of heaven, is what we make it or what others lead us into making it.

The seven realisations are the seven states of mind, the Seven Heavens. The Seventh Heaven is our Creators Heaven. On reaching a state where Love destroys all that is not of Love in our mind, and we have realised what we are and the way we should live, our outer mind-shell is removed and we share in our Creator's personal domain. Only the incorruptible can share in the Seventh Heaven.

Love can only give of itself. It is for the fulfilment of Love that you were created. To realise that Love is the only way, is the reason that you are here.

How long before mankind turns from the world and turns to each other? How long will they hide in the shadow of their minds, chewing on the bone of discontentment, thinking that they have won something that will sustain their life? How long will they hide from each other and themselves?