Chance, Fate, Destiny, and Luck

Many deterministic thinkers do not like the idea of finding the real purpose of life because they believe everything is destined. They believe in fate and providence, and so live passive lives. Some who happen to be unsuccessful in life consider themselves unlucky and some who happen to be successful in life consider themselves lucky.

Even great physicists like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein firmly believed that whatever happened in the universe had to be predestined. According to them, the universe ran like a clock. In classical mechanics, there was no such thing as chance. Everything was bound by fate or destiny as determined by the known laws of physics. This was most exemplified by Einstein’s famous statement, “God does not throw dice.”

Although later developments in quantum mechanics decisively proved that everything in the microscopic world is probabilistic and happens by chance (based on conditionality), Einstein was not willing to accept this fact. He even modified his theories of relativity to remove aspects of chance (probability) from quantum mechanics. Another physicist, Niels Bohr, once chided him, “Don’t tell God what to do!” Eventually Einstein gracefully accepted his mistake with a statement, “I have earned the right to be wrong.”

Classical mechanics does not allow chance, and quantum mechanics relies solely on it. In soul mechanics (for details, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org), on the other hand, chance, fate, and destiny are fundamentally similar except for their potency in generating a particular manifestation of the volitional force. Fate is stronger than chance. Destiny is stronger than fate. On a scale of probability of generating a particular manifestation, you could say that chance is at the lowest level. Fate is in the middle, thus having a greater chance. Destiny is at the top, thus having the greatest chance. Most of the significant events in our lives occur due to fate or destiny, rather than by chance or luck. Luck is just another word for chance taken personally.

There is a greater chance of leading happy, peaceful lives if we generate wholesome volitional forces. There is a greater chance of leading painful, unhappy lives if we generate unwholesome volitional forces. Those of us who perform wholesome deeds have a greater chance of having good fortune than those who perform unwholesome deeds. If we choose to perform only wholesome actions and abandon unwholesome actions, consistently and ardently, we can change the direction of our fate and destiny. However, we must not wait. We must make right choices right now. The longer we wait, the harder it is to change our fate or destiny for good.

In short, we always have a chance in life to make it better. We are not bound by some fixed fate or destiny. So we need not blame fate or destiny for our misfortunes.

Nothing goes unnoticed in the universe. As was said earlier, soul mechanics is a perfect accounting system. It produces immediate results, as well as long-term results that can eventually change our luck. However, do not overreach and try to identify with it or to own it. Just as there is choice without a choice maker, there is luck, but no owner of it. There is fate, but no owner of fate. There is destiny, but no owner of destiny.

Chance, fate, and destiny are simply volitional phenomena that produce a karmic drama. In this drama, you are stuck playing the lead role as long as you identify with it or “own it” due to ego. When ego is finished, the drama ends, and real life begins. What begins is the unfolding of your real life purpose, leading to happy abiding and bliss.

Soul Meditation: A Vehicle for Developing Higher Intelligence

Soul meditation is the result of my awakening experience (described in the Introduction). Although I say I developed it, what really happened was a spontaneous creation. Here, I am conveying it to you in a structured manner that is the result of further reflection.

Soul meditation is like a spiritual vehicle with a four-wheel drive. The four wheels are analogous to the four intertwined practices of mindfulness, non-reaction, wise attention, and concentration that make up soul meditation. The practice of mindfulness develops present-moment-awareness and serves as a foundation for mental development (somewhat equivalent to IQ). The practice of non-reaction eliminates mental impurities, such as greed and hatred (equivalent to EQ plus the emergence of SQ). The practice of wise attention removes delusion, generates equanimity, and fuels understanding (equivalent to SQ plus the emergence of soul intelligence). When mindfulness, equanimity, and some degree of understanding are combined with higher levels of concentration, the mind is purified, sharpened, and perfected, ultimately leading to the awakening of soul intelligence. The stronger, the better tuned, and the better balanced the four wheels are the faster will be the development of higher intelligence. If you were to thoroughly investigate the depth and breadth of human suffering, you would come to realize that they are the direct manifestation of the lack of mindfulness, non-reaction, and wise attention. Because these elements are always present in soul meditation, it is a sure way to attain freedom from suffering.

Soul meditation is the result of my awakening experience (described in the Introduction). Although I say I developed it, what really happened was a spontaneous creation. Here, I am conveying it to you in a structured manner that is the result of further reflection.

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

How to find life's purpose

When there are no selfish desires or goals, the purpose of life is illuminated in our consciousness. From this perspective, you may realize that the real purpose of your life is invariably rooted in desireless, choiceless actions. If you can discover this real purpose, you can change your life from misery to mastery.
A simple, pragmatic way to find your life’s purpose is to start minimizing unwholesome actions and start maximizing wholesome ones. Whenever there is a sense of greed or hatred, you ought to abandon the action. Whenever there is self-interest or delusion, you ought to abandon the action. See list below:

Greedy Actions (To Be Minimized):
Acquiring
Accumulating
Attaching
Clinging
Conning
Corrupting
Craving
Dominating
Exhibiting
Excessive cheering
Excessive consuming
Excessive entertaining
Excessive partying
FlatteringGambling
Hoaxing
Intoxicating
Lying
Longing
Lusting
Stealing
Scamming
Sexually overindulging
Passion
Patronizing
Pestering
Possessing
Showing off
Stalking
Womanizing
Hateful Actions (to be minimized)
Accusing
Aggravating
Arguing
Antagonizing
Being Mean
Competing
Complaining
Condemning
CryingEnvying
Fighting
Forcing
Getting bored
Hating
Killing
Punishing
Polluting
Regretting
Resenting
Slandering
Deluded Actions (to be minimized)
Advertising
Becoming suspicious
Believing
Bewildering
Celebrating
Dogmatizing
Endorsing
Fearing
Feeling restless
Forgetting
Grieving
Holding back
Indoctrinating
Lazing out
Manipulating
Judging
Justifying
Mystifying
Opining
Overreaching
Performing rituals blindly
Politicizing
Standardizing
Self-mortifying
Self-aggrandizing
Self-satisfying
Worshipping without understanding
Worrying
Wholesome Actions (To Be Maximized)
Admiring
Agreeing
Appreciating
Attending wisely
Balancing
Befriending
Caring
Concentrating
Contemplating
Cooling
Cooperating
Detaching
Developing pure understanding
Devoting
Discovering
Empathizing
Enabling
Enjoying
Equalizing
Establishing faith with understanding
Fearing wrongdoing
Forgiving
Gifting
Giving
Gladdening
Guarding mindfulness
Healing
Helping
Honoring
Investigating
Just being
Lightening up
Listening
Neutral observing
Neutralizing
Meditating
Moderately consuming
Neither believing, nor disbelieving
Non-adhering
Non-discriminating
Non-disturbing
Non-forgetting
Non-hindering
Non-opposing
Non-resisting
Non-wobbling
Observing silence
Penetrating
Promoting virtue
Promoting welfare
Purifying
Rejoicing
Remembering
Removing others’ suffering
Renouncing
Resolving
Respecting
Resting
Serving
Simplifying
Smiling
Studying
Sympathizing
Thanking
Trusting
Wielding
Wondering
Worshipping with understanding
For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

Karma

Just as the ideas of physical action (force or motion) and space-time are pivotal to describing the mechanics of physical objects, the idea of volitional action is pivotal to describing the mechanics of non-physical objects.

Volitional action means mental action, but not just any action, such as thinking or feeling. It is a mental action that has an ethical quality of wholesomeness (good) or unwholesomeness (bad).

All mental phenomena involve volition, the universal mental element that is ethically neutral. When volition combines with wholesome or unwholesome mental elements, it gives rise to either unwholesome mental action or wholesome mental action: the two types of volitional action. Thus, a volitional action is always ethical. Here, ethical does not mean moral, but having the mental quality of being good or bad.
Water is colorless. When you add blue or red color to it, it becomes blue or red water. Volition is like water and volitional action is like blue or red water.

As volitional actions occur they accumulate and form volitional patterns due to grasping or clinging by a person’s mind. These are known as volitional formations. For example, non-greedy actions done over a period of time give rise to a formation of generosity. Non-hateful actions done over a period of time give rise to a formation of love and kindness.
Karma is a popular Eastern term primarily used in regard to volitional action, but also in regard to volitional formations. Many people wrongly assume that there is an individual soul that generates karma. Many also misunderstand karma as a storehouse of things or deeds possessed or owned by an individual soul. Contrary to these beliefs, you don’t carry around good or bad karmas (volitional formations) in your spiritual suitcase. Karma is simply a volitional (mental) phenomenon that underlies the mechanics of soul.

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

What is Soul

Soul is simply a term used to denote an impermanent, impersonal phenomenon arising from the interaction of body (matter), mind, and consciousness. Soul is not something that belongs to any one person. It does not to you or me, or to anyone else.

Figuratively speaking, just as the elements of hydrogen and oxygen interact with each other to generate water (h20), matter, mind, and consciousness interact with one other to generate the soul. While soul is obviously not a substance like water, its presence is dependent on matter, mind, and consciousness in the same way that water is dependent on the elements hydrogen and oxygen for its existence. To be precise, the existence of soul, as you will soon discover, is dependent on 28 elements of matter, 52 elements of mind, and 121 types of consciousness.

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

Intelligence

We can define intelligence simply as the “mental ability of consciousness.” Intelligence is not quite the adaptability or computability or cognitive ability of a person or a being. Rather, it is a mental phenomenon, or conditionality, which facilitates understanding reality as it is without the need of a being. In other words, soul intelligence is pure understanding, which is commonly known as “wisdom.” The word “pure” is emphasized to indicate that intelligence is a phenomenon devoid of any being. However, it cannot exist independent of consciousness.

You might know that the word intelligence itself comes from the Latin verb “intelligere,” which means, “to understand.” It understands, so it is intelligence.

Ultimately, intelligence is a state of knowing (the reality, the truth) without a sense of being a knower. Soon I will shed more light on this phenomenon and illuminate its profound practical implications.

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

Meditation

Meditation is essentially the phenomena of mental development. It is basically the procedure by which we develop intelligence and thereby experience mental development. It is a procedure, as well as an experience.

Chanting or relaxing can become a true form of meditation provided it incorporates the development of intelligence. For example, while you are trying to relax by listening to soft soothing music, if you simply become aware of how you are feeling, you may develop an understanding of the relationship between the softness of sound and the softness of feeling. You may then use this knowledge to change your feelings by simply changing the characteristics of sound in you and around you. By simply making your voice softer, by removing noise and harshness from your immediate environment, or by removing yourself from a noisy environment, you may be able to improve your feeling state to better.

Similarly, while chanting a mantra or a word such as “om” or “love,” if instead of simply uttering it you focus on the meaning of it, you may be able to cultivate it in your mind and make it your nature. Likewise, simply praising or uttering your deity’s name may be relaxing and may even assist you in minimizing discursive thinking, but it won’t become a meditation until you focus on the qualities of your personal god. When you do that, you are automatically inspired by those qualities and you start developing them. For example, if you recollect and concentrate on the qualities of Jesus (such as loving-kindness, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness) while listening to or singing his name in prayer, you are more likely to become like him.

An ascetic concentration practice of a martial artist, a monk, or a yogi can become a meditation if it is used for sharpening the mind (developing penetrating focus), so that subtle realities about the ego can be pierced, exposed, and purified. A mere ritualistic training of concentration for becoming powerful does not qualify as true meditation unless it leads to purification of mind.Note that “purification” is a spiritual word for phrases like “evolution” and the “development of intelligence.”

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org

What is love

Once a child asked an angel, “What is heaven?”

The angel replied, “My dear one, heaven is none other than the heart full of love.”

The child then asked, “What is hell?”

The angel replied, “My dear one, hell is none other than the heart empty of love.”

For more information, visit www.soulresearchinstitute.org