This spiritual lesson is meant for you.

Oh, would you look at that? I am Ray and this is your spiritual lesson for today. What is this in my coffee? A flake of some kind and not even hot. What is going on today? Oops. This should not be here. Don't look at this.

You see, we can never get too comfortable on the spiritual journey because the moment we get comfortable is the moment that life throws us for a loop. Maybe gives us some Froot Loops perhaps if you like um cereal. Like for example, in my own life, a big part of the spiritual practices is an acceptance of what is happening to you right now, to me. Is that confusing? There has been times where I have been forced to accept my circumstances which allows you to surrender and let go and so that life doesn't continue to kick you along. Kick you along screaming. Oh no. Why life? Why are you doing this to me? You shut up. And acceptance gives us that relief like okay stop resisting. like when a minority gets pulled over by the cops. Just so you know, accept, don't resist, but at the same time, sometimes there are things that are unacceptable in your life. And you see, we can get caught in the spiritual bypassing trap of just saying, "Well, let me just accept everything all the time forever for the rest of eternity." But that's not how things work.

Life is a tightrope game. You can never rely on anything too much for too long because your strengths will eventually become weaknesses. At one point on your journey, life will tell you, "Hey, accept and surrender and let go." And at another point, maybe 5 10 minutes later, life is saying, "Go do things. This is unacceptable. Change your life. Change your environment now." And we as human beings like to hold on to these spiritual teachings for dear life as life ro life life rafts life rafts on the ocean of chaos and that helps us get through life. The only problem is the more we hold on to them the more they're going to drag us down unfortunately. It's like religious beliefs. Religious beliefs help you rise up from negative states of consciousness through the teachings whatever that may be. But at a certain point the religious beliefs can also be a hindrance like chains around you keeping you stuck to this oneminded way of thinking.

So moving forward when you hear spiritual ideas or when you hear ideas in general just know it's like somebody said hermetica person alchemy it's coming back to me I have been pondering let me let me ponder yes Hermes yes that's who it was it was Hermes maybe he said every truth is but a halftruth which means that in this life there can be two opposite things that exist at the same time that are both equally true. Just depends on where you're standing. And this is the problem that we get into is that we say, "Well, I'm standing over here, therefore you are wrong over here." It's not true. It's just not true. Both are true. And you could save a lot of your relationships by realizing this. Just because they oppose your beliefs does not mean they are not both equally true in some way. At the very least it's true for you because you believe it. And so you and you see this you see the problem happen in at least American society. Think about the lefties for a moment. The liberals the liberals are all about acceptance. But look what happens when that goes too far. You have, you know, drag queens exposing themselves to children in the name of acceptance and inclusivity. And then you have the righties, the conservatives who are the opposite, who are more about setting boundaries. This is unacceptable. We have to stop this. We have to stop that. No abortions. But you can also take that equally too far. And it is only in the communication of both parties does anything good happen. Otherwise, it's just war. Nothing good happens. Death.

There is no saying this is the truth. I found it. It's over. It's life is a continuously renewing process. Every single moment. It's like you're born again. It's new. It's fresh. Which means that whatever you think about the past that's over, it's no longer serving you in this moment. I mean maybe unconsciously it is but the point is when we hold on to certain beliefs it's the past this is what I learned before this is what I've learned from my life experiences but life is happening now not in the past sure the past can influence your present moment but the point is not to hold on to it for dear life because it will not save you in fact eventually it will destroy you if you're not careful Like you see people who are so stuck in their ways, they never change. And I think everyone falls into this trap on the spiritual journey because it just feels like spirituality is more important than material worldly things. So we prioritize that which it should. But a higher priority even than that, even than the godly things, even than the heavenly riches and the spiritual teachings, higher than that is the balance, the balance between the heavens and the earth. So the heavens aren't better than the earth and the earth is not worse than the heavens, but in fact it is in the dichotomy between them, balancing that which is the highest spiritual thing. And you see that's where people get stuck. They get too attached to their beliefs. And because when you're attached to your beliefs, whatever comes into conflict with your beliefs, you automatically oppose. No, that's not correct. I'm correct. That's not correct. You're wrong. And it is this close-mindedness that keeps us from the truth. And well, the truth is God. So if you want to get closer to God, you got to be open-minded. You can't be so attached to your beliefs because what's going to happen is that the longer you stay attached because life is always renewing itself. It's always changing. You will fall more and more out of alignment with life. Like if you've ever been a DJ, when I mix two songs together, they're either in sync or they're not. And if they're not at the right beats per minute, they quickly fall out of sync. And the result is, "Oh, this sounds like crap. This sounds really bad because the the the beat drums are not playing at the same time. They're playing at different times. So, it's not rhythmic. It's not harmonious. It's chaos. And therefore, that chaotic sound is not pleasurable to the ears. So too when you fall out of an alignment with life, you you too shall not be pleasurable to the ears or the eyes because life itself is the source of harmony. And the more you fall out of alignment with life, the more you fall out of harmony. And what's the opposite of harmony? It's not good things.

And in this kind of example, you'll see that like okay, if I'm accepting all the time, I'm accepting everything. Everything is acceptable because my awareness is accepting everything. It's not judging. It's not bias. Only the ego says things are unacceptable. And I'm not my ego. And because I'm not my ego, then it's wrong. But what will happen is that you'll get into situations where bad things are happening and you don't do anything about them because you're living this kind of false idea of I have to accept everything. everything must be accepted when in fact some things should not be accepted. Some things need to be destroyed and getting rid of. And again with the ideas of spirituality like nonviolence or well I don't know if I want to go down that path justifying violence. Trying to think of an example. It's like here's a silly example which I don't know if it would ever happen but it gets the point across. Like say you have a family and you're a man and somebody breaks into your house, but because you got all these spiritual ideas in your house about nonviolence and spirituality and peace and stuff like that, you don't do anything about it. You try to settle the the the problem in a peaceful way, which cannot be done because the barbarians are at the gates ready to kill you. spiritual bypassing to do that because when the barbarians are at the gates, they will kill everyone. And if you don't kill them first, you allow them to destroy all that is good, which is unacceptable. And you can see that's what happens when for example I'm just using liberalism because it's the main kind of problem in today's age which is why you know you see Donald the Trump in power because life is balancing itself returning back to conservativeness when there's too much tolerance when there's too much acceptance you allow the barbarians to freely walk into your home and make a mess of everything. The evildoers can easily walk in because there's no one saying, "No, this is unacceptable." There's no one saying, "Hey, we need a wall here to prevent the barbarians." And in the name of being nice and being kind and being, you know, not mean, we allow for our own destruction. That is why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You have to have discernment between what is right and what is wrong and not get caught up in the spiritual philosophy of well everything is just perfect as it is.

Is that the truth? It is the truth that very few people actually understand. But both are true at the same time. At the same time everything is perfect. Life is perfect. There's nothing wrong. There's nothing you can do to change life at all. Life is already done. It's finished. There is no improving. There is no changing. It's already done. There is no making the world a better place. There is nothing that can be done. But acceptance of life as it is. Because while the universe is perfectly balanced between negativity and positivity, no matter how bad it gets, it'll always get better. No matter how good it gets, it'll always get worse. It will always return to balance. That is what life does because life is the source of balance. So naturally it has the inclination to equilibrium. Like in this example, people get too lefty, the righties come. People get too righty, the lefties come. It will always be like that forever. Just this push and pull, the the swinging of the pendulum back and forth for all eternity. And no matter how hard you try to keep the pendulum on one side, it's always going to go back the other way and worse. Because the more you hold it on this side, the more you create tension, the more you create imbalance. So when you finally let it go, it swings and smashes to the other side. And yet at the same time, life is imperfect and needs to change and needs to be evolved. Society needs to evolve. The individuals in the society need to change and grow and improve and fight for what is right and destroy evil and conquer goals and stuff like that. Make plans. And the only way to tap into that higher spiritual realm is to play both games at the same time. As Jesus said, be in the world but not of the world.

So I can give you an example of how I experience reality on a fundamental level primarily. I'm over here. You see smile. Oh, that's not a smiley face. That's a I don't It's shock and awe face. Now he's got a mustache. Darn it. Now he's the joker. The primary way I look at life is that everything is perfect. God is already in control. Everything is pre-ordained. Well, not necessarily pre-ordained, but God is in control, which means that everything is always working out perfectly. There's nothing wrong. There are no such things as problems. It's all just God's divine play that we can enjoy that I enjoy. But I'm not approaching life like I'm some kind of spiritual master. At least not over here. Over here, it is really just like shock and awe of this divine thing going on called life. And so everything's perfect already. But at the same time, I'm living my normal earthly existence just like everyone else. A little slow, a little monkey. What are you going to do? Which means I can sit here and say, "Yeah, I'm a spiritual teacher. That's what I do for a living. And when somebody asks me, I'm not saying, "Well, none of this is real. You're not real. This is all a dream. I am God." Because people would just throw you in a mental hospital. When I talk to people, they don't even know anything about what I speak about here. I'm literally a normal human monkey like the rest of us. I don't even talk to people about spirituality unless they bring it up because I'm not attached to spirituality. I'm not attached to being spiritual. I don't care. It literally means nothing whether I'm being earthly or whether I'm being spiritual. It's the same. It's all spiritual. It's all the same thing. It's all just God's divine play. And that's the key difference. And that's what makes this hard because we like being spiritual. We like being high. But there's also a part of us that likes being monkey. So, do you reject the monkey and say, "No, monkey, go in your cage. I'm going to fly to heaven tonight." Take the monkey with you like Aladdin. A brave new world. Thank you for the comments. I figured it out. Oh, wait. No, not a brave new world. A whole new world. Two very different stories. Sorry, the Aladdin reference was on my other channel. I realized I could be confusing.

So, the spiritual journey goes a little something like this. for your information. Does that even make any sense? For your information, this information is for you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. In the beginning, there's ignorance. Everyone starts in ignorance like a little baby knows nothing. Unconscious completely. And you rise into let's say awakening where you begin questioning the nature of your reality. You begin to awaken. Now during these times you got beliefs but in the state of ignorance most of the beliefs are ignorant and then you begin to awaken and then you have more awakened beliefs beliefs that are more accurate to the truth less ignorance. So you start shedding your ignorant beliefs and thoughts about everything. So this might look like religious beliefs. They might be both here religious beliefs. But up up here is ignorant religious beliefs. Down here is a little less ignorant. This could also be spiritual as well. Some people have really stupid spiritual beliefs and they're very ignorant and pretend to be not. So you go from ignorant beliefs to less ignorant of beliefs to let's say the awakened threshold, whatever that means. So I guess I'll use my life as an example once again. For a long time I was living in ignorance. No knew nothing. Started to awaken because of suffering. Began to shed my ignorant beliefs. And then I hit the awakened threshold which means that you've somewhat stabilized in your spiritual wisdom in your spiritual understanding. Like a rocket ship going about Earth. here is, you know, the rocket ship's just standing there doing nothing. The rocket ship turns on, the rocket ship is beginning to leave the atmosphere. So now here in this state, you've heard all the teachings before and you understand them, not just intellectually, but experientially and there's not that much struggle anymore. You're kind of just, you know, you figured it out basically figured it out enough. There still may be lingering problems and things like that, maybe lingering attachments, but you figured it out enough here. You have some wisdom and understanding like your beliefs turn into actual life experience that this is where a lot of people can stop because they feel like they've reached the finish line, but you're not out. You're not in outer space yet. You're almost there. All along this path, there is someone embarking on a spiritual journey. Up here is the NPC, no nothing. Then you awaken, you enter into the spiritual journey. You keep going, you keep going until you ripen. And here you experience many of the fruits of the spiritual journey, but the separation is still present. The individuality is still present, which means you'll still be attached to spiritual ideas.

Another example here, you're all earthliness. It's all earthliness. In the second stage, you start to trade some of that earthliness for more holy things. like you start improving your life, self-improvement. You make the decision to live a better life and stop living in ignorance and stop living a slave to your animal instincts and your senses. You strive toward the heavens. This is what it is. So, you're improving. You're improving. And now you've improved enough to taste the fruits of your improvement. Now you do mostly holy things, mostly spiritual things, mostly good things. And you've got rid of many of the animalistic tendencies that keep you down. In Hinduism, they call it the three goonas. I think that's right. Goonas. Goonas. Everyone's a goona. Yeah. The three goonas. The three goonas of the apocalypse. The three goonas are essentially the quality of energy. So tamas, it's like a black hole. It's chaos. It's slow. Like in a guitar string. It's too loose. It's so it's not musical. Tomas leads to destruction. It's like depression. That's what it is. Just slow like walking through mud. And in order for you to escape that energy, you must transmute it to the next section which is rajas. Rajas is like the sun energized. So there's a lot of energy. It's like um it's like fire. And when you're embodying this energy, it's like I'm going to get I'm doing things. I'm really taking a lot of action. So up here is no action. Slow, depressed. Up here is taking a lot of action. Doing the most. Here your strings are too loose. Here your strings are too tight. You're wound up. Got to stick up your bit. And then the next is the satva which is the holy energy and it's really the balance between these two not too fast not too slow perfectly balanced the quality of spirituality holiness. But the last stage is beyond all three of these things. So if you're stuck here you haven't figured it out. If you're stuck here you haven't figured it out. And even if you're stuck here, you're close. They say the sata quality is the only quality that brings you to God. So it is good to do good things and spiritual things and holy things, but it's not the end. Let's let's look at it this way. Beyond awakening. Wow. Beyond awakening. And in this state, you're not attached to any spiritual teachings. You're not attached to any of these qualities. Like you can be depressed and it's okay. There's depression and you could be really going out and getting the things. Your dynamic life is really active and there's a lot of things going on, but you're not attached to them. And even when you're in church praying and trying to be holy, you're not attached to it. It's just another thing. It's just another changing experience. But we judge the changing experiences at the last stage. It's like going into outer space where you have to become empty and let go of all of your attachments to your beliefs. Doesn't mean you can't have beliefs. It means you're not attached to them. Meaning like for example in my life, all of my beliefs, all of my philosophical stuff, I'd throw it away in an instant because it doesn't mean anything. It's just words to help people get you to a certain point to awaken the divine in you so that you can reach this space. But fundamentally, all words, all philosophy, all teachings fall short of the glory of God to truly have communion with God. It's not about thinking about God. It's not about speaking about God. It's about being with God. That is all. nothing else. So when we're in the sata state, we're we're reading and studying all the holy teachings, listening to the spiritual teachers and really about that life, spiritual discipline. Same thing with here. You're still doing the same thing here. The only difference in this last stage is that you can perform your duties. You can be holy. You can be active. You can be slow and tired. But for you, it's all God. It's all God's play. And there's no distinction between the different qualities of life. This is where you live the teachings. You embody them. Here in the Raja stage, you intellectually understand the teachings. Here in the awakened threshold, you have wisdom and understanding because you've had actual life experiences. And in the last one, you're just living your life in the present moment. Almost like you return back to the beginning where you're just living your life except for living in ignorance. You're now living in enlightenment. Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, job wood, carry water, same thing. But you're living your life from a different space, a different quality that's beyond all of these qualities because God in its formless state is without quality. Therefore, it is beyond all qualities. It's beyond all understanding.

I mean, think about it practically, right? If a big asteroid came and destroyed the earth tomorrow, what would happen to God? What do you think? Well, anyone who believes in God would say, "Well, nothing happens to God." But what happens to the humans? All of our religions, all of our beliefs, all of our philosophy would be turned to dust instantly as if it never existed at all. And yet we rely on our human religions and our human philosophies to understand that which could not be understood from a limited state of being. Meaning all religions fundamentally are false. All philosophy is fundamentally false. Now as human beings that's just the things we have to deal with. We're limited. We can't understand the limitless from this limited perspective. But we can use these different vehicles to get us there. But as you see at the end of it, you have to let go of the vehicle. It's too heavy. You have to let go of the philosophies and the religions and the beliefs so that you can actually get to God. So that you can actually experience God because God is not a concept. What a concept. God is an experience and you cannot experience God intellectually. Language in its very essence is not enough. Therefore, no thought nor words can express God. They can only be signposts that lead you the way. But the problem is the whole point of this is to stop valuing the signposts leading you to God and start valuing the God because that is what we do. We look at our religions and say, "Oh, well, this is the best religion that ever existed." But it's like if you have a map, right, and the map leads you to treasure. People are so busy looking at the map. Oh my, my map is the best. Your map sucks. Get away from me, you heretic fool. Look at my map. Don't you see? It's better than yours. More accurate. And that is a complete waste of time. I mean, it's silly when you actually think about it, but that's what everyone does. We take our little beliefs that we love so much and cherish those. It's like we turn our holy books into false idols. Worship those. Worship the religion. Forget about God. So, we get all of the surface level feeling like, "Oh, I'm better than everyone else because I'm right and they're wrong." But we get none of the actual fruits of God. Realize that the map is only there as a means to an ends. End. Religion is only there as a means to an end. The Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, it's only there as a means to an end. It serves no other purpose. It's a vehicle to get you to point A to point B. Forget about it. Once you get to point B, let it go. You can always come back to it and go for a joy ride. But the point is to get to point A to B. not to sit there and drive it all around and never actually get to the destination. I'm not necessarily even criticizing religion. I'm criticizing people who don't know what they're doing, who don't realize that the purpose of religion is to get you to God, nothing else. And you can tell that people don't know this because they spend their time arguing about religion, not actually spending their time with God.

So basically what happens is that the more you get down here, the more you forget about the world and all of its nonsense. Everything, all of your attachments to this reality gone. And the only thing you focus on is God all the time. And it's not like something you do on purpose. It's just your awareness, the reality that you experience. And from this state, you go back and return and do everything you were doing before, but now you're enlightened. Congratulations. So just realize all ideas, all thoughts, everything that I say, it's just signposts, even me, I'm just a signpost, just an object for your objectification. Is that by definition? It's like going to a nice restaurant and looking at the menu and trying to eat the menu because there's pictures of food on it and you're hungry. That is what religion is like. so busy eating the menu and the waiter comes along and looks at you like, "Sir or ma'am, what are you doing?" This is a five-star restaurant. Don't you see? The McDonald's is across the way. The menu is only there to give you an idea about what the food is like, what food you want. It's leading you to the food. So too, if you're on a road trip camping, if you're so busy looking at the map, oh, the map, the map, the map, the map, you're never going to get to your destination. So too, if you're walking across a bridge, you're so amazing or you're so you're so astonished about how beautiful this bridge is, that's great. Acknowledge the bridge, but remember that the point of the bridge is to get to the other side. Don't stay on the bridge forever. So do if you're driving a nice car, enjoy the car. Enjoy the wheels and the engine. But remember that all cars serve the same purpose. It doesn't matter if you're driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or a Ford pickup truck. It's all the same purpose. And now you understand why the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side. A chicken is more wise than you. How can this be? A chicken does not stop and look and gawk at the signpost. Huh. I wonder if that sign means I should not cross here. where I should or no it just walks across. So too at the end of the day just remember the human language is not enough which means that thoughts fall short of the glory of God, words fall short, philosophy falls short, religion falls short, it all falls short. Like Peter Diglitch in Game of Thrones, he fell, I am only here to remind you of the purpose of all of this, the purpose of religion, the purpose of ideas. I too am a signpost leading you to the way. But if you look at me and say, "Oh, you're so cool. I love you so much." Obsessing over the signpost. Well, then you're going to get distracted. Forget about the whole point of all of this. Doesn't mean you can't follow me and listen to what I say. Just reminding you of the point over and over again. Do not mistake the moon for the finger pointing at the moon. When you see a beautiful sunset, don't say, "Wow, this is a beautiful sunset." Just be in awe and enjoy it in silence. And now you have known the way at least for a moment. In that moment where you appreciate the beauty of life, you have been enlightened. But we might just fall back into our ignorance the next moment. Get a phone call. Hey, uh, what do you want for dinner? Uh, noodles, Asian food. Back into the world of 10,000 things. But if you can hold on to that brief glimpse of life, you can remember it over and over again and and eventually stay there forever because most people are just living life through their minds, through their thoughts. Few people are actually living. And that is what is this is all about is to live and enjoy this present moment because that is all there is. Everything else is thought. Everything else is past and future concepts. But life can only be experienced in the present moment. And the more you're separated from the present moment, the less you're truly living. I am Ray. This is my cool sto. Much peace and many blessings. And remember, just