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117 of 127 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lives and teachings of true alchemists, May 21, 2004
Yes, it does seem that the practice of internal alchemy faired far better in the East than in the West. After all there are many more true masters living in India and China. One may add that the general world-view there (at least in China) is more supportive of the practices and life-style required for spiritual attainments. In Taoist Alchemy, there is even classification of immortals, according to the levels of attainment: - Human Immortals remain human, but though they eat, drink and dress like people, they can avoid the calamities of aging, sickness and death - Earth Immortals remain on the earth, but they are not affected by cold or heat, hunger or thirst. Though they cannot project their spirits, they can avoid the bother of food, clothing and shelter - Spiritual Immortals are capable of supernatural powers and transformations; coming and going at will; they can shed the physical shell to attain an ethereal independence. They can dissolve into energy or solidify into form. - Celestial Immortals go even further in their work. They go beyond our human world to another world that cannot be imagined by human intellect. Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East describes lives and provides teachings from what would in Taoist Alchemy be called Spiritual and Celestial Immortals. Supernatural powers emerge spontaneously at certain stages of spiritual development, as a result of one's merging with the "All", with the Infinite, with God, with Tao. Any person who has even meditated for any extended period of time would of necessity become aware of the spontaneous emergence of certain "powers". It is only natural that as one meditates upon the Infinite Life, as one holds in his awareness the Infinite Life, that one becomes filled with more Life. It is only natural that as one hold in his awareness that which is Infinite and Eternal, free of all limitations that the limitations would begin to fall off out of his own life. It is only natural that as ones consciousness is filled with spiritual thoughts, spiritual energy begins to saturate his mind, emotions and body, spiritualizing the body in the process, re-arranging one's neurology and enabling the individual to do easily what he wasn't able to do before. There is nothing unspiritual about using one's legs to walk, why would it be unspiritual using one's higher ability to teleport. When ordinary people work at jobs using their intellectual abilities, it is no more or less spiritual then doing physical labor. So why would manifesting supply directly of the universal substance be unspiritual? Energy follows thought. All that these masters are doing is using their thoughts in a constructive way. After all, the life on spiritual path becomes easier and lighter, as one progresses along. People in Life and Teachings do not use their powers to boost their egos, but when the use of these abilities is necessary. They use their powers responsibly. Ordinary people go to schools and universities to learn some skills and get degrees. That in itself doesn't make them either spiritual or non-spiritual. How they use their skills - to help people or to take advantage of them, their motivations for using them is what would make it spiritual or non-spiritual. We all have the same amount of time and energy available and we choose how we're going to use them, whether we'll just waste our lives, whether we'll develop skills to just get by or whether we'll develop skills and abilities that will enable us to live meaningful lives. Spirituality is not something we do in our spare moments - it is the cultivation of spiritual awareness in all that we think and say and do. And yes, bodies are necessary - that's why we're here and that's why we have them. Our bodies are our alchemical labs, the vessels in which the alchemical transmutation occurs. That is where we cultivate life, where we tend our spiritual embryo, until it is strong enough that the physical body is not necessary any more. As the spiritual embryo grows and matures, the spiritual powers naturally emerge - just like a kid or a man is able to do more than a baby. And there is nothing "unspiritual" about a man using the abilities that naturally emerged with his bigger and stronger body. It is not more spiritual to keep on crawling like a baby, when one can walk, so why should one live bound by limitations of those in "mortal consciousness" after he realizes that he is not a "mortal" and "limited" being, after he is realizes that he is still as God created him, in His image and likeness - free of all limitations.
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by Robert Collier
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