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    Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them
    Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them
    Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them

    By Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

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    About this ebook

    “The old adage is still true: All that glitters is not gold.”

    “Over and over people have mistaken trivial and pathological conditions for enlightenment, written books, given seminars and gained a devoted following. I have encountered quite a few myself, including people who believed they were the Divine Mother, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Archangel Michael, Lucifer and assorted famous masters of the past. One called our monastery and left lengthy narratives on our answering machine about herself because, she said, she did not want to die without anyone knowing about her experiences and attainment. Another one wrote me a note that simply said: ‘I am the Goddess!’”

    “I have known more than one person who believed all their dreams were revelations of truth. And I have known some that continually predicted their imminent death for decades. Others told me how enlightened they were, including the one that had whiplash from ‘crashing into the divine light.’ What did they all have in common? They had an experience! Not of one of them was an intentional fraud. They believed their delusions based on their experience.”

    “Most of these unfortunate people were completely unreachable with reason. Yet there are those who can have an experience and realize that it really cannot be real, but a vagary of their mind. Some may not understand that on their own, but can be shown by others the truth about it. For them and those that may one day be in danger of meditation-produced delusions I have written this brief study.”

    The above is from the author in the book's preface.

    In Dwelling in the Mirror you will learn:

    • Different types of meditation and the experiences they produce, and the problems and delusions which can arise from them.
    • How to get rid of negative initiation energies and mantras.
    • What are authentic, positive meditation practices and their effects and aspects.
    • An ancient, universal method of meditation which is both proven and effective.

    “I am very grateful for this book, and for the clean, honest wisdom it dispenses, and I would eagerly suggest it to anyone who’s on a path of spiritual discovery. It was certainly not what I expected when I started reading, but by the time I reached the last page, I knew it was exactly what I needed to hear.”
    – Sandra Carrington-Smith, author of Housekeeping for the Soul

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)
    Release dateJul 8, 2017
    ISBN9781370533688
    Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them

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      Book preview

      Dwelling In The Mirror - Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

      Dwelling In The Mirror

      A Study of Illusions Produced

      By Delusive Meditation

      And How to Be Free from Them

      by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

      In the first chapter of Through the Looking-Glass, Alice the heroine of Alice in Wonderland, decides to pretend that she can get through the mirror into another world. While she is saying this to herself as she kneels on the mantelpiece: 

      And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist. In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. 

      And so the dream begins which is a self-induced illusion.

      Published by

      Light of the Spirit Press

      lightofthespiritpress.com

      Light of the Spirit Monastery

      P. O. Box 1370

      Cedar Crest, New Mexico 87008

      www.OCOY.org

      Copyright © 2017 Light of the Spirit Monastery.

      All rights reserved.

      Contents

      Preface

      Part One: Getting Lost in the Mirror

      Part Two: Symptoms of Being in the Mirror

      Part Three: Getting Out of the Mirror

      Part Four: Symptoms of Being Out of the Mirror

      Part Five: A Right Way of Meditation

      Appendix: Abnormal States and Spiritual Illusions

      About the Author

      Light of the Spirit Monastery

      Free Meditation Guide

      Reading for Awakening

      Preface

      The following is part of a blurb of (at that time) a best-selling book about a woman’s supposed enlightenment:

      One day over twelve years ago, as a young American woman living in Paris, she stepped onto a city bus and suddenly and unexpectedly found herself egoless, stripped of any sense of a personal self. Struggling for years to make sense of her mental state, she consulted therapist after therapist. Eventually, she turned to spiritual teachers, coming at last to understand that this was the egoless state, the Holy Grail of so many spiritual traditions, that elusive consciousness to which so many aspire. This book is her story, her own account of what such a terrifying event meant to her when it crashed into her everyday life, and what it means to her now.

      The book is no longer in print, but I can tell you what her experience means to her now: Nothing. Because she is dead from the brain tumor that caused it.

      Over and over people have mistaken trivial and pathological conditions for enlightenment, written books, given seminars and gained a devoted following. I have encountered quite a few myself, including people who believed they were the Divine Mother, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Archangel Michael, Lucifer and assorted famous masters of the past. One called our monastery and left lengthy narratives on our answering machine about herself because, she said, she did not want to die without anyone knowing about her experiences and attainment. Another one wrote me a note that simply said: I am the Goddess!

      I have known more than one person who believed all their dreams were revelations of truth. And I have known some that continually predicted their imminent death for decades. Others told me how enlightened they were, including the one that had whiplash from crashing into the divine light. What did they all have in common? They had an experience! Not of one of them was an intentional fraud. They believed their delusions based on their experience.

      Most of these unfortunate people were completely unreachable with reason. Yet there are those who can have an experience and realize that it really cannot be real, but a vagary of their mind. Some may not understand that on their own, but can be shown by others the truth about it. For them and those that may one day be in danger of meditation-produced delusions I have written this brief study.

      Part One

      Getting Lost in the Mirror

      "The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along."

      Arnold H. Glasgow

      Glitter, not gold

      I am not afraid of you. I love now. I loved you always. I am yours and I am my own. You have forgotten what God is. But I have found Him. I love everybody. I live everywhere. I am the flesh. I am the feeling. You are dead because your aims are death. I am the spirit. I am love. I am Nijinsky of God. I love Him, and God loves me. I am a cloud of God.

      Are these the words of an enlightened soul? With a few adjustments they would bring tears to the eyes of New Age seminar junkies and would sell very well as a wall poster with a nature scene background. They could even be set to music–or at least to the sound of surf and seagulls–and sold at a profit.

      But they actually are the ravings of a homicidal maniac, taken down as he sat on the floor of his padded cell in a strait jacket–a strait jacket that was needed because he would try to kill anyone who came into the cell, including his wife to whom these words were dictated and whom he regarded as a spiritual ignoramus incapable of understanding his great illumination. She had forgotten God and was dead; but he had found God and was life and love–so he was convinced. But he was wrong. He was homicidal. He was insane.

      The old adage is still true: All that glitters is not gold. And all that shines is not light, for if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23).

      Some representative examples

      1) The young yogi had spent several weeks in the Himalayan depths, enclosed in a cave of his own finding. He had left the plains of northern India and come to the abode of silence. There in his cave he had engaged in various yogic practices according to his whimsy. The result was his being overwhelmed by the surety that he had attained total enlightenment and was no longer even human, but divine. Therefore he had no reason for living. He arose and walked out of his cave in a straight path, intending that as soon as he came to a precipice he would calmly walk over it and plunge to his death, ending a now-pointless existence. But in his march to death he passed through a meadow filled with flowers. There he sat down. After some time he seemed to feel the call of all those in the world who needed him, and decided that he would not kill himself. Rather, he would return to the plains and there share his experience with others. This he did, and became a noted and prosperous guru in both India and America.

      2) About the same time another yogi was sitting in the Himalayan foothills, meditating in the total darkness of a vast cave. He had an experience of the subtle energy field of the brain that is not at all an uncommon occurrence even for beginners in meditation. Yet, concluding that he was thereby enlightened, he, too, left to become a famous and wealthy guru of East and West.

      3) Also around this time a young American was meandering through Ceylon. During one of his attempts to meditate he fell asleep and saw a

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