This life is limited. One day, every one of us will die. So, what is our real purpose in this limited world with limited time? Who were we before we were born, and what will happen to us after we die? Who are we . . . really? In this springtime of spiritual awakening, profound realizations about our true nature and our true self consciousness can easily and naturally be experienced by all of us. In understanding our true self, our spiritual journey and the key connection of our heart, our life will take on new meaning, and our daily activities and relationships will be filled with beauty, joy and purpose. Through easy-to-understand information and inspiring personal experiences, The Real You: Beyond Forms and Lives provides valuable insight, wherever you are on your spiritual journey. Topics include: Who/what is our true self or spirit The journey of our true self How to communicate with our true self The three human consciousnesses: brain, soul and spirit (true self) The real us: understanding our true self Reincarnation Psychic abilities Our heart and using our heart to surrender to the Creator Our Inner heart and letting our inner heart be the director Whether seeking spiritual connection, authentic happiness, or a deeper understanding of yourself and others, The Real You: Beyond Forms and Lives delivers a deeply profound and universal reminder of how we can best live the life we've been given to realize our true purpose and fulfill our ultimate destiny.
THE REAL YOU: BEYOND FORMS AND LIVES
By Irmansyah EffendiBalboa Press
Copyright © 2012 Irmansyah Effendi, M.Sc.
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4525-5384-9 Contents
List of Illustrations..................................................................................ixPreface................................................................................................xiChapter 1. Introduction................................................................................1Chapter 2. Humans' Three Consciousnesses...............................................................9Chapter 3. Consciousnesses.............................................................................13Chapter 4. The Real Us: True Self (Spirit).............................................................18Chapter 5. True Self in Different Places...............................................................26Chapter 6. The Journey of Our True Self................................................................31Chapter 7. The Human Form (Why the Limited Physical Body)..............................................37Chapter 8. Reincarnation (Multiple Life Forms).........................................................43Chapter 9. Psychic Abilities...........................................................................47Chapter 10. True Self's Main Shortcoming and the Lessons Assigned in Life..............................50Chapter 11. Using This Life (Using Our Heart)..........................................................54Chapter 12. Steps in Strengthening and Using Our Heart.................................................66Chapter 13. Inner Heart................................................................................73Chapter 14. Using Our Inner Heart......................................................................78Chapter 15. Do We Need to Know Our Own True Self?......................................................81Chapter 16. True Self and The Purpose of Life (Attaining the Real Purpose of Life).....................84Chapter 17. Common Misconceptions......................................................................90Chapter 18. True Self Program..........................................................................94Appendix 1.............................................................................................97
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
When I was young, I would read holy books, and I often came across the term 'spirit' or 'true self.' However, back then, I thought that spirit was something deep within us that we could not possibly know about while we were still alive on this earth. I did, however, feel that somehow our spirit was affected by our attitude and condition while we were still alive.
In a way, what I thought of about our true self was both right and wrong. Before I explain further, I will tell you my "meetings" related to stories about true self.
After my graduate studies in the U.S.A., I returned to Indonesia and studied meditation from the late Mr. Ammirudin. He would tell me stories about true self, and it was clear from the way he was telling the stories that matters related to the spirit/true self were important. However, because of my limited understanding back then, I was fascinated by the stories themselves instead of the meaning or the main message of these stories, which was about true self.
Mr. Ammirudin told me about his meeting with an American professor who spent more than a decade traveling the world to learn about his own true self because he knew that getting to know his own true self was crucial in his spiritual journey/spiritual progress. Mr. Ammirudin told me that after doing a certain exercise, the professor was able to see his own true self in a mirror.
In addition to Mr. Ammirudin's story about the professor, another teacher of mine also shared with me his own personal experience. He told me about how he had spent 50 years learning about spirituality and how he was able to go to higher dimensions. According to him, in one very high dimension, beings there did not have the lower part of their bodies because the lower part of the body was the center of lust and desires. Without the lower part of the body, there was no lust or desire.
Hearing these fascinating stories impressed me, but I still did not really understand why these people were looking for their true selves and would want to go through all kinds of experiences. I also did not understand why in telling me all these stories, my teachers' mannerism and attitude showed very clearly that spirit/true self was very important.
Years later, I read many spiritual books, and some of these books talked about our true self. They often mentioned" the self within us," "the perfect self," "the all-knowing self," and other statements about true self. Many of the writers considered true self as the spark of the Creator, and this was the reason why true self knew everything and was even perfect. The writers also claimed that when we obtained information from our true self, everything would become easy. Some of them even believed that when a person reached his/her true self's consciousness, spiritually he/she was near perfection.
In addition to claiming that true self was perfect and the benefits of getting information from true self, many of the writers talked about how to make a connection with true self. They call the method of communicating with true self "channeling." In channeling, one would contemplate about a topic and would write down whatever comes to mind. This information would be considered information from a higher consciousness or even from true self. Indeed, there are many interesting stories about channeling.
The books also talked about methods people employed to reach their true self consciousness. One common method was hypnosis, and another through trance. I personally felt that something was not right with hypnosis or trance. Later on, after I realized the differences between the soul and the spirit (true self), I understood that there was a mix-up and a misunderstanding about the soul and true self by those who used hypnosis and trance to reach their true self consciousness.
In the meantime, as I was practicing meditation routinely, my Kundalini was awakened spontaneously without proper preparation. I experienced Kundalini syndrome, looked for help, and after my Kundalini problems were taken care of, I started meeting nonphysical teachers. One of my nonphysical teachers taught me about Shing Chi (detailed information can be read in my Shing Chi book). I then started practicing Shing Chi, Kundalini, soul consciousness, and other spiritual exercises until I completed them all. Yet, even with all that fast progress, I felt that I was still behind a huge wall. There were still many spiritual matters that I did not understand.
A part of me felt that the next step was to reach my true self consciousness, but I had no clear reference on how I could reach this true self consciousness even after I looked everywhere and read all kinds of books including those in psychology and other fields.
Years later, after I changed the type of exercises that I did, i.e. moving away from Kundalini, Shing Chi, and other spiritual exercises to remembering True Source's Blessings and starting to rely on True Source's Blessings, it was True Source's Blessings that helped me reach my true self consciousness.
Reaching my true self consciousness was the next step of my spiritual journey. As a true self, I witnessed many things that were unclear and were questioned by many people. I began to realize that the things that I read and knew about (that were considered common knowledge in the spiritual world) were actually very limited.
The realizations that I obtained about so many things were no longer based on merely peeking or looking at these things from afar but were from a firsthand experience as a true self. For example, I was able to see that the knowledge obtained from "channeling" was not completely correct. Through channeling, one tends to be connected to one's subconsciousness instead of the true self consciousness which was the highest consciousness. Channeling did not even connect someone to the mediator consciousness, which was the soul, a consciousness higher than our daily consciousness, the brain (more information on this is in Soul Consciousness).
Through firsthand experience as true self, my understanding about True Source's Love changed, and this was a very important and valuable realization. I saw clearly how what the books said about the Creator being busy taking care of many things and therefore the Creator gave us "toys" in the form of paranormal abilities to keep us occupied was not true. Some books also said that the Creator was too busy to even listen to our call. As a true self, I saw clearly how untrue all this was.
The Creator definitely does not give us toys to keep us occupied because there are other matters to be taken care of. The Creator/the Source of our true self loves us completely, and to True Source, nothing is impossible and everything can be done easily. It is us who need to let go of all of the "toys." We are the ones who are busy with our desires, busyness, and our own ways, and this is what prevents us from accepting True Source's Love. We are the ones who need to remember the real purpose of our lives. We need to continue to call out to the Source of our true self/True Source with our heart directed to the True Source, letting True Source take care of us completely.
As a true self, I also saw very clearly how many humans and other beings, when praying to the Creator, do not use their hearts well enough. In addition, many beings pray to the Creator only for their own needs or desires; to them, praying is like reading a shopping list.
With the change of my understanding of True Source's Love as a result of what I had witnessed and realized as true self, I decided to let go all that I knew, even if the knowledge contained some truth. I realize now that I need true knowledge, and it is better to have one piece of knowledge that is 100% true rather than having 100 pieces of knowledge that are not 100% true because everything affects our attitude and our direction. I do not want to hold on to knowledge that is contaminated and have my attitude and direction be contaminated.
With this attitude, I stopped practicing to get something, and I started to open my heart and to surrender to the Creator/True Source. The more I open my heart and surrender to True Source, the more I realize how True Source is indeed the Most Loving.
It is obvious that it is us who are too busy with our own desires and our own ways, to the point where we do not even remember True Source, or when we do remember True Source, it is only for our needs and desires again. Even in communicating with True Source when we do remember True Source, we use our own ways instead of using our heart, the special Gift of Love from True Source that is the key connection to True Source.
Because our heart is the key connection to True Source, I invited others to strengthen their hearts and open their hearts to True Source through Strengthening of the Heart exercise and Open Heart Prayer. Both Strengthening of the Heart exercise and Open Heart Prayer are not techniques to get anything except to rely on and surrender more to True Source. Strengthening of the Heart exercise connects us to our heart naturally and strengthens our heart and the beautiful feeling from our heart. Open Heart Prayer is a prayer that relies on True Source's Blessings to cleanse our heart from the negativities that we create ourselves because of negative emotions such as anger, arrogance, envy, jealousy, sadness, disappointment and so on that are very much present in humans' lives. Every time we experience negative emotions, we create negativities, and we send out these negativities to our surrounding, and we dirty our heart. We cannot cleanse our heart. Only True Source can cleanse our heart. No other being can touch or affect our heart. This is why our heart is special. Opening our heart to True Source means we are letting True Source cleanse, open, direct, and do the most beautiful and wonderful things to our heart.
Using my heart frequently, I can feel that my connection to True Source changes beautifully. Now, every time I pray, I am able to feel True Source's Unlimited Love that True Source gives abundantly, and my heart is filled with the beauty of the Love and much joy.
Another very important realization that I obtained was about our heart's and true self's limitation. Through my experience of helping others reach their true self consciousness, I saw how even though everyone saw and experienced the same thing as true selves, each had different understandings. I initially thought that only our brain was limited and that true self consciousness, being the highest consciousness of ours, was not limited. The different perceptions over the same truths by different true selves who go through the same experiences show clearly how our true selves are just like our limited brain.
Upon my realization that even our highest consciousness was limited, I prayed and prayed to True Source, asking for guidance. I was given the realization that true self is still learning; this is why we are on this earth. If our true selves were perfect, we would not be here. We are here for our true self to learn.
Knowing that we are limited and that we can have different perceptions of the same truths should help us see even more clearly that we need to follow not our true self but the core of our heart and the core of our true self, which is the spark of True Source: our Inner Heart. None of our consciousnesses (brain, soul, or true self) is perfect. We are far from perfect. We are still learning. We do not know what is proper or the best. Our Inner Heart, the spark of True Source, is the only one that can realize real truths. Instead of relying on our brain or even our true self, we need to have our Inner Heart be the director.
Having our Inner Heart as the director should answer many people's question about why our true self, the highest consciousness, must be given two lower consciousnesses, i.e. soul consciousness and brain consciousness. How can our true self learn from a much lower consciousness such as our brain?
The realization that the spark of True Source should be the director reminds us again that we need to follow only our Inner Heart and not our true self. We do not need to waste our time trying to find out what our true self knows. We do not need to wonder any longer why our highest consciousnesses still needs two lower consciousnesses: it is clear that the purpose of the soul consciousness and the brain consciousness is to help our imperfect true self to learn. Even our lowest consciousness, our brain, is a beautiful facility given by True Source to help us to remember about our Inner Heart and to use Inner Heart so that all of our consciousnesses, including our true self can learn to use Inner Heart.
The emphasis that our Inner Heart is a spark of True Source is NOT to compare our Inner Heart with True Source. Not at all. Although our Inner Heart is a spark of True Source, it is like a speck of dust. The emphasis that Inner Heart is a spark of True Source is only to remind us that only the spark can connect with the Creator. No other parts of us, especially not the flesh and blood part (our brain) can realize the Will of the Creator's the way the spark can realize it. I am giving this explanation because a participant in an Inner Heart workshop asked me whether this was about comparing ourselves to the Creator. Not at all. In the intermediate level of my workshops, I invite people to "witness" the experiences of other true selves by using their Inner Heart and their Heart so that they can start recognizing many things about true self and our connection with True Source. In the higher level of the workshops, everyone is given the opportunity to rely onto the Blessings to reach true self consciousness (to realize themselves as true selves).
I have been helping many people all around the world to reach their true self consciousness simply by relying on True Source's Blessings to surrender more to True Source. I understand some people are concerned about true self because holy books talk about true self yet at the same time say that information about true self is limited by the Creator. Everything I share in this book is not a reading report based on other people's writing but is based on my own experience and the experience of thousands of people I have helped in reaching true self consciousness just to surrender more to the Creator. Those I helped in reaching their true self consciousness and I myself used our Inner Hearts to reach our true self consciousness, and it was possible only because of the Creator's Blessing as we rely solely on the Creator. If the Creator does not want us to know certain matters, obviously we will not know about these matters. Things that we are not supposed to know will not be shown to our Inner Heart.
This book will start with an explanation of what true self is as well as the two lower consciousnesses. I ask that you distance yourself first from everything that you have ever known about true self while reading this book so that you can read the information here in detail and to please remember that the information here is not a theory or a summary of various literatures read.
The main discussion in this book is about the connection between our true self and us as a whole being with the Creator. You will understand why our true self was given this limited physical body that can get sick, get tired, and can die. We need to have this understanding so that we can live our life the best, according to the real purpose of life. Some of you may be disappointed because I will not talk about fascinating matters even though many people and I have reached our true self consciousness and have realized these matters very clearly. This is done purposely so that you are not busy comparing your own experiences related to your own true self as things that look similar can actually be very different.
No matter what your knowledge is in regard to true self, hopefully this book can give you an understanding of what true self is, just to understand the real purpose of life and to use this life the best simply by surrendering to the Creator.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE REAL YOU: BEYOND FORMS AND LIVESby Irmansyah Effendi Copyright © 2012 by Irmansyah Effendi, M.Sc.. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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