[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Trisha:

The antidote to fear is Love. As love seems to be there for you and him, maybe expand that (human) love to embrace him, you and everybody else. Then fear will run away. Fear is afraid of Love.

Here is a poem:

I am afraid of this,
I am afraid of that,
I am afraid of myself,
I am afraid of them
I am afraid of this,
I am afraid of that,
But fear itself,
is afraid of Love,
And Love is That
You Are That

Blessings,

Menas

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[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Jennifer:

All good points. AI is not an independent “form of life” that somehow will swallow us. As are nuclear weapons, pollution, etc., they are our creation. AI cannot replace Consciousness because AI is invented by Consciousness. Unless we let it take over our lives. As division, strife and hatred seem to have taken over our lives.

Blessings,

Menas

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[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Psychedelicacy:

They say that all fears spring from the innate fear of death. All of them. Being afraid to be alone can be exactly that, being afraid to “leave everything behind”, which is a way perhaps to be afraid to die. Maybe you can explore that.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear MM:

Absolutely, unequivocally Yes!

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Aiden Cahill:

Beautiful but even more beautiful is that now you get same and greater experiences through meditation. And no need for external stuff. There are many windows to Reality, in fact infinite number of them. Meditation is a nice and “easy to open” window with numerous other benefits.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Trisha:

Psychic phenomena and mediums are real. But as everything in life, there can be false or not genuine. Like everything else in life. So it depends, who and what. Now the point is, and this is serious, we all have these capacities. It is whether we discover them or develop them or pay attention to them. If you start looking for miracles in your life, you will find them everywhere. And then the extra-ordinary becomes the ordinary!

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Aurora:

Beautiful question. Only a poem can answer it. Here is a (simple) poem:

You Are That,
I Am That,
We Are That,
All there is, is That,
And That is That!

Blessings,

Menas

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[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Jennifer:

You say “astonishingly”. That is the point, the Universe and “us” are the same, ultimately. The “stuff” of “both” Consciousness. The universe “unformulated by man” might be better put the universe as “understood by the limited mind”. However, the vast expanses of Consciousness are always there, to be experienced in deep states. And to merge the individual with the universal.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Psychedelicacy:

Maybe the answer is more than one. First possibility: Definitely not, you as your present form is not permanent. So individual soliptism is out. However, since everything and everyone is ultimately One, then in a certain way the universal Self is soliptic but is experienced as many. Second possibility is right, if what you say “one self” is the Cosmic Self (experienced as many). Third possibility: Also true but in a relative way! Fourth possibility is really a variant of three (as long as in three we allow for eternal selves) and it is true. In conclusion, many selves are ultimately the One but are experienced relatively as many, as distinct individuals. The latter is the illusion of separation as monism teaches.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Shivansh:

Excellent question. This is the central problem or issue with the human mind, how to deal with the mind (by the way, the mind is not “physical”, see below). The mind seems to torment us and if unchecked, it can lead us astray or cause major psychological and psychophysical problems (as mind influences the physical state of a human being). However, the mind is also a great friend, our true companion if we treat it right. It is like a horse in the old days, it can get us anywhere; however, we are the rider. Who is the rider? Pure Awareness. Now the ancient monistic systems such as Vedanta and Saivism taught that the individual and the universal Reality (Brahman) are one, the individual mind and the cosmic Mind are one. So this is the point. In terms of ‘obsessive’ thoughts, they are fed by feelings and in turn influence feelings.

Meditation is the right antidote to a restless mind. Patanjali taught that the purpose of meditation is to still the modifications of the mind. Then the Self (the universal Mind that is always there) is revealed, like the bottom of a lake with waves is revealed when the waves are not there; otherwise, we cannot see the botom of the lake.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Here you are:

Like ships
Passing by each other at night
We go through life
Not realizing we are brothers and sisters
In the vast universe of infinity
Our true Self as the Master Captain
Guides the infinite number of ships
Us, to the other shore
With loving care and steady hand
Reminding us
The ancient Truth
You Are That
You Are the Universe

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[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Please also see my website http://www.menaskafatos.com

There are videos, YouTube, interviews, etc. For all issues.

In particular, for thsi question, see a brief video Living the Living Presence”; the Korean TED which I gave “Who Am I?”; as well as interview by Huffington Post Korea with same topic.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Dheeraj:

You ARE the Self! You are pure Awareness. They say, we (our soul, which is the same as the Self, Atman is Brahma) take a body to experience (or maybe to work out karma). But we never cease being the Self, Brahma or Siva, pure Awareness. Perhaps we go through cycles of life (and death) until we realize who we truly are.

But all these are hypotheses until we experience them, no?

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear Rachel:

How do you really “abandon” your Self? When we refer to “Self”, we mean innate Awareness, That which is always there. Abandoning the body and mind happens at the time of death. During deep meditation, we temporarily abandon identification with the body-mind ego. You are not “abandoning your Self” (with cap S) as That is your true Existence. The point is to diminish the influence of the (false) ego. The ego exists because of the body, senses, mind. But your true Self is beyond these, it is the Awareness of these.

You cannot truly “abandon” your Self. You can only forget it (for a while). And your Self never abandons you!

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

Dear MC:

Witnessing and meditation help in not creating new karma. And meditation, little by little, dissolves karma that has not manifest yet. There are three basic types of karma: The ones that have not manifest yet in the life. The ones we create in this life. And the ones we are born with. As long as we have a body and a mind, we have the third kind. Hard to get ride of these as they really disappear with the falling of the body. It is the first and second types we want to NOT create. This is where meditation and Self-Awareness help.

Blessings,

Menas

[Menas KafatosModerator Upvotes: 41 votes@menask]

…she holds the key…

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