Breaking The Death Habit by Lapis Blog entry

Blog: One
by Lapis

Breaking The Death Habit

Death is a grave mistake. The psychology of physical immortality: The difference between one person and another is primarily in the quality of ideas they think about. Thoughts of everlasting life produce health. The belief that death is inevitable is unhealthy to humans.

Date: 7/19/2005 4:59:13 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1824 times

More Spiritual/Consciousness Articles

Breaking the Death Habit
http://www.universal-tao.com/article/breaking.html

Another breathing exercise, Alternate Nostril Breathing, came to me from Leonard, who received it from Goraknath: Inhale through the left nostril and exhale through the right nostril. Then inhale through the right nostril and exhale through the left nostril. Repeat this cycle three or nine times. Make the breaths as long as you comfortably can. You can either hold the inhale, or you can connect the inhale to the exhale as in twenty connected breaths. Developing a philosophy of physical immortality is the first step. The second step is to unravel the personal death urge absorbed from family tradition - the psychology of physical immortality. The third step is to develop mastery of the physical body - the physiology of physical immortality. The third step is where practical spiritual purification exercises come in. For example, breath mastery teaches the cleaning of the mind and body in an easy, practical way. Fasting further cleans the blood. Mastery of sleep teaches, among other things, the mastery of the astral world, which most people think is the world of the dead. Water and fire purification are basic. Meditation: I am alive now. Therefore, my life urges must be stronger than my death urges. As long as I strengthen my life urges and weaken my death urges, I will go on living in increasing health and youthfulness.

The philosophy of physical immortality strips the mind of all kinds of fears and miseries. It permits love and divine energy to express themselves more fully in your personality. Therefore, even if you don't realize physical immortality, the philosophy is a wholesome group of ideas to work with and think about. In fact, the philosophy of physical immortality is fun and produces a more fun life even if it does not achieve the ultimate goal. The belief that death is inevitable will kill you if nothing else does. But the truth is that your spirit is already eternal; you only have to move your mind and body into harmony with your eternal spirit. The philosophy of physical immortality gives your body a chance. Deathist mentality guarantees its destruction.

Death is a grave mistake. The psychology of physical immortality: The difference between one person and another is primarily in the quality of ideas they think about. Thoughts of everlasting life produce health. The belief that death is inevitable is unhealthy to humans. This is just common sense. Psychosomatic science has proven that out beliefs influence our health. So what practical value does believing in death have if you desire health? The belief that death is inevitable has probably killed more people than all other causes combined. Even if you survive old age, illness, and accidents, and practice the techniques of rebirthing and affirmation, your own belief in death will get you in the end - unless you change it. Seriously questioning the idea that death is inevitable is good and practical for both mental and physical health. Immortalists argue that if death really was inevitable and beyond your control, then believing in physical immortality wouldn't hurt you. Put simply, the cause of death is really pollution in the body: physical pollution with food and toxins, and energy pollution through other people and our past accumulations. Both food and people are harmless in and of themselves, but it is possible to overdose. Sometimes overdose is obvious; sometimes it is very subtle. For example, it is possible to eat meat 25-50 years before it kills you through heart attack or cancer. Getting rid of physical and energy body pollution faster than we take it in is what I call the spiritual purification game. The more we win this game on a daily basis, the more often we can live in the Spirit, and the more control we have over our lives. When we lose the spiritual purification game, we move towards aging and death.

1.Master the practice of processing your thoughts and feelings to reduce negativity.
2.Master the practice of spiritual breathing and practice it daily - at least twenty breaths connecting the inhale to the exhale in a relaxed rhythm. This includes a consciousness of the energy body.
3.Learn water purification by daily bathing in warm or cold water and its significance in cleaning the energy body and unraveling birth trauma and womb consciousness. Meditating one hour per day in hot water can make anyone a spiritual master.
4.Say the name of God daily: Om Namaha Shivai, or Jesus Christ, or Jehovah, etc. Master mantra yoga.
5.Develop a personal philosophy of physical immortality: eternal life of spirit, mind, and body.
6.Unravel your personal death urge absorbed from family tradition, past lives, culture, etc.
7.Practice three-day fasts a few times each year, and realize the truth about food and diets. Diet changes along with conscious bathing, breathing, fire purification, and an exercise system can heal most diseases.
8.Experiment with sleeping and not sleeping.
9.Participate in a spiritual community that practices all these ideas.
10.Learn to read emotional messages in body symptoms and how to process them with affirmations, breathing, and healthy practices.
11.Learn the role of exercise.
12.Study Herakhan Baba and other immortal masters.

Spiritual liberation and mastery really mean the same thing. It means to totally heal the emotional mind and thus to have a healthy body. It means eliminating victim consciousness and becoming the source of our goals and desires. It means to live in bliss, free of death as a necessity. It means to integrate spirit, mind, and body and have the ability to heal the body. Spiritual enlightenment begins with the realization that energy becomes what it thinks about! Following is a short list of minimum requirements on the road to liberation and mastery. Choosing physical immortality: building a complete philosophy of life from the physical immortality per life instead of the deathist perspective. Becoming aware of the energy body. Learning to clean the energy body with mantra, earth, air, water, fire, and love practices. Doing the spiritual purification practices for enough years to actually be ahead of the process such that you are healing emotional energy pollution faster than you are taking it on. Making peace with the guru principle. (A guru is an ordinary person who reminds people of their natural divinity. G-U-R-U = Gee, yoU aRe You!) Choosing a lifestyle that supports spiritual growth and mastery. Becoming sophisticated in a knowledge of the great scriptures of all regions. Building spiritual community. Having a successful relationship with Babaji, the Eternal Father in human form. Unraveling the death urge you received from your family tradition. Healing the diseases of senility. Finding satisfaction in career, prosperity, and citizen responsibilities. Eating of the Tree of Life, which means practicing the Presence of God, remains the Source of Eternal Life. God is the source of wisdom, peace, pleasure, mastery, materialization, and eternal life. Devotion to God is the source of the science of everlasting personal aliveness.

1. Mind
*Take charge of the quality of your thoughts.
*Do mantra yoga and practice affirmations.
*Spend time in meditation, analysis, and wonder (raja yoga).
*Heal the emotional mind and your death urge.
*Read the great literature and scriptures (the World of God).
*Choose life and personal practical aliveness over death.
*Learn the power of devotion (bhakti yoga).

2. Air
*Learn to breathe the energy as well as air (prana yoga).
*Master rebirthing (unraveling birth trauma and death urge, etc.)
*Master alternate nostril breathing

3. Fire
*Learn fire purification and the fire ceremony.
*Build fire into your daily life.
*Remember that fire is as important to human health as food.

4. Water
*Do pranayama in the bathtub.
*Bathe twice a day.
*Drink good water.
*Learn the science of cleaning your energy body.
*Achieve peace and relaxation.

5. Earth
*Learn food mastery. How much does your body really need?
*Realize that vegetarianism is a foundation for spiritual enlightenment.
*Develop a personal exercise system.
*Develop a divine career and live your divine gifts.
*Engage in massage and bodywork, as well as playing percussion instruments.

6. People and Love
*Be aware of emotional energy pollution and how to best process the energy of others.
*Be part of a spiritual community.
*Be part of local politics and neighborhood representation.
*Revere and learn from spiritual teachers.

7. Grace
*Learn the meaning of devotion.
*Practice the Presence of God.
*Don't just depend upon grace and ignore the rules!

Air: Air purification means to consciously breathe energy as well as air - pranayama. The simple pranayama that I practice is the pranayama of newborn babies. Infants merge the inhale to the exhale in a continuous rhythm. This is the simplest and most natural pranayama of eternal life. Twenty connected breaths is a quick and tremendously valuable exercise that helps to clean the blood as well as the nervous system. Rebirthing is pranayama, or energy breathing, while relaxing; it is especially powerful when done in a warm bath. We can breathe away negative energy concentrations and clean ourselves inside and out with spiritual breathing. Conscious breathing is a delight more satisfying than fine food. I also practice three rounds of alternate nostril breathing per day as the pranayama Babaji taught me to keep my nadis clear.

Fire: The example of the saddhus in India who live in a dhuni teaches us the value of fire purification. A dhuni is a small structure in which a sacramental fire is maintained twenty-four hours a day. When we sit or sleep near an open flame, the wheels of our energy body (our aura) turn through the flames and are cleaned. The emotional pollution of participating in the world is burned away. Death urges are dissolved by fire and water together as they clean and balance the energy body. Fire is as important as food. Fire may be the highest element of God and requires the most intelligence to use. It is perhaps the most neglected natural divine element of God in our civilization. This neglect has put us on the brink of nuclear war. Nuclear was is involuntary fire purification for people who are not willing to do it consciously and voluntarily. The same technology that has moved our civilization away from the direct experience of fire threatens to bring us back in a few minutes through nuclear war. Central heating systems, electric stoves, and microwave ovens have moved direct contact with fire out of our daily lives. We should use our technology and wealth to build a fire temple in every park and neighborhood. It is critical that we reestablish the direct experience of fire in our religions and our civilization.

Water: Just about everyone in the West has indoor plumbing and hot water, making physical immortality available to the modern masses. As a result, it is easy for most people to bathe twice per day, as is the practice of the immortal yogis. I value hot water bathing as the supreme gift of spiritual civilization. I believe human lifespan have doubled in the last hundred years because indoor plumbing and warm water have made water publication so pleasurable. Warm water opens and cleans the charkas. Cold water cleans and automatically closes the charkas. Cold water cleans and automatically closes the charkas. These gifts of science and technology are worthless to us if we don't use them consciously.

Both showers and total immersion are necessary for the full understanding of water purification. Doing breathing exercise in the bath increases their efficiency. Oceans, rivers, lakes, and especially hot springs are infinitely valuable natural resources. Breathing in warm water produces different results than breathing in could water.

The simple act of bathing daily in water can be a profound act of spiritual purification. To gain its full value, you should practice immersion in a bathtub, sea or river while meditating before, during, and after. The value of thinking deeply while going in and out of water is that it enables you to discover how bathing changes your emotional and psychological states. Thinking while lying in a warm bathtub is the greatest form of meditation I have ever tried. Daily bathing cleans the energy body. Drinking good water is also important, but bathing twice a day is the easiest and most pleasurable way to clean the energy body, which is the source of the physical body. To be immortal in today's world, we must learn how to soak.

Earth: Earth means movement, food mastery, and work. The disciplines of walking around your block once per day and fasting one day per week on liquids only may be all that is necessary to achieve perpetual longevity in the earth category. Most people die not from hunger but from overeating. Being a vegetarian is essential but not enough. Fasting one day per week on liquids - milk or juice first, and eventually only good water - is essential to clean the bloodstream and energy body.

Earth purification involves finding work that you love and loving your work. Work is the supreme service to God, to people, and the secret to prosperity in the world. Prosperity means to produce ideas, goods, and services of value for others as well as ourselves. We receive money form others when we give them ideas, goods, and services that they are willing to pay for. A satisfying career taps the joys of our soul. It involves serving others in a way that covers our own life expenses. Earth yoga also involves mastery of sleep. Sleep is a minor death - unconsciousness - that leads to the bid sleep. Sleep is involuntary entrance into the astral world, as well as the suppression of unpleasant emotions. Eventually the body becomes such an unpleasant repository of suppression that we deposit it in the grave and escape permanently into sleep. But we get reborn, as you know. We can master sleep by staying awake all night during the full moon as often as possible, and by arising each day before sunrise. Receiving massage and bodywork and listening to percussion are also forms of earth purification. There are a few other important components of body/mind mastery, in addition to a conscious relationship with the above elements.

Mind: This aspect of yoga means taking charge of the quality of our thoughts. Mantra yoga is meditation on the name of God. You can use any name, but Babaji taught me that OM NAMAHA SHIVAIYA is the Maha Mantra. It is the name given to Moses in the burning bush and is common to many great religions of the world. In Hebrew it is "Om Shivaiya" pronounced backwards: "Ya Vah Shim Omen." The Catholic church changed "Omen" to "Amen." The Sanskrit is transliterated both as "Om" and "Aum." The idea is to clear our minds every day, to raise the quality of our thoughts and feelings. The Names of God constitute the fastest and easiest ways to realize our divine nature. Continual remembrance of God's name merges our consciousness with God; it is the supreme technique of aliveness and wisdom. This is my steady diet. Reading the scriptures and other great spiritual literature also uplifts the quality of our thoughts. We need to heal our emotional mind even if it takes a century. People and Love: The purpose of spiritual purification is to make us wise and loving. Right relationships to people are the fastest way to total liberation. People can upset us and they can liberate us. Love is the secret of Eternal Life. Everlasting life has no value or joy without loving relationships. Being a responsible citizen is also basic for democracy to work. We must respect the immortal saints. We must find our true spiritual teachers and support them. They can teach us a lot. There are many truly great spiritual healers and gurus in the world today. Babaji is the source of all immortals and all forms of immortality. To meet him in his physical body is the greatest opportunity this world has to offer.

Grace: Grace is the lubricant for all of these spiritual purification practices. Grace, rest, and devotion are important to personal health & aliveness. Practicing the Presence of God may be the highest goal of the good life.

Grace is unpredictable because it is an expansion of the very personal God of the universe. The quantity and quality of the grace we receive for doing these practices is determined by our love for God and God's love for us. Our meditation on grace is the revelation of this personal relationship between us & God. Grace and spiritual purification constitute an eternal paradox. Babaji is Lord Shiva himself. "Shiva" is the Sanskrit word for God. Babaji is God the Father. Baba means "father". Ji means "supreme" or "respected ruler". There is always only one Babaji, but he has many bodies. "Om Namaha Shivaiya" is the eternal name for God, according to Babaji himself. The first human form of Shiva on Earth was called Shiva and is portrayed in the Sanskrit scriptures as a simple yogi ascetic. His asceticism, however, encompassed all of life, including its pleasures. Shiva participated in everything, including abundant sex at times, but his predominant lifestyle was sitting alone in nature meditating, which he often did for centuries. Mount Kailash and Herakhan have always been his favorite places. He returns to this area millennium after millennium. He calls it the Supreme Universal Spiritual Pilgrimage. Today there is a beautiful ashram here. A constant flow of people visit it from all countries and all religions on Earth. Babaji is the creator and the director of his creation. When he is in a human body, he calls himself Bhole Baba, which means the "Simple Father". He normally lives such an ordinary life when he is in a human form that nobody can recognize him without his grace - in other words, through inner realization. He is not special, except to those who see. As Bhole Baba, he doesn't interfere. He waits for us to evolve enough to see him. He protects us with the minimum of intervention. He likes to see our responsibility and self-sufficiency. Occasionally, he does acknowledge his true identity in public. He allows people to call him the Supreme Lord.

Babaji and Jesus: Jesus spent nine years in Benares, India, with Babaji during the missing years in the gospel record, between the ages of 12 and 30. Jesus learned his simple lifestyle and spiritual practices from Babaji at this time. A book entitled Jesus Lived in India gives the historical evidence for this. Jesus returned to Kashmir thirty or forty years after his resurrection, where he lived another thirty or forty years, then died and was buried there. An indigenous Christian church sprung up in Kashmir and has maintained in his tomb as a holy spiritual pilgrimage site for 1900 years. This information is well-known in Muslim writing but has been suppressed in the Christian West until recent decades. Jesus became a saddhu in India. A saddhu is a person who is seeking God full-time. Jesus is the most famous Western saddhu. You can see his simple saddhu lifestyle in the Bible, but not among Christians today in the West. I experience Babaji's humanity as more richly human than any other person I have ever met. And I experience his divinity as being in a class by itself, even though I know that he is only spirit, mind, and body like I am. I might say that his pure divinity makes him able to be human the way humans are really supposed to be. At a certain level of spiritual development, people become aware of Babaji's physical body when he is in the world and are naturally attracted to him. To visit him is the ultimate pilgrimage. Babaji works silently most of the time. The fact that he is now willing to be visible and speak to the nations is a sign that people may be reaching spiritual maturity. Whether as Shiva, Ram, Krishna, Goraknath, Munindra, Lama Baba, or any of this unrecognized millions of appearances, he uses the games of life to raise our consciousness and our enjoyment of spirit, mind, and body.

*Sing the name of God. Babaji recommends "Om Namaha Shivaiya" as the eternal affirmation of your divinity. It is the supreme name of God - the maha mantra. It evokes all divine powers, wisdom, and emotions. The constant repetition of "Om Namaha Shivaiya" evokes the presence, power, aliveness, and energy of God in human consciousness. This chant can be done twenty-four hours per day until it fills every breath anc cell. It can be done silently. If you prefer, you can chant Jesus Christ, Jehovah, or any other name for God that evokes the divine presence in your mind and body. My favorite translation of Om Namaha Shivaiya is "Om," infinite being, "Namaha," infinite manifestation, and "Shivaiya," infinite intelligence." I like to think of God or Shiva as this trinity of infinite being, intelligence, and manifestation. Infinite being is the eternal Spirit, divine substance, the Source, the Father of the Christian Trinity, or the Mother or Feminine Principle. Infinite intelligence is both creator and destroyer, Thought, the Director of the power of being, the eternal begotten Son of the Christian Trinity, the masculine seed that impregnates infinite being with content. Infinite intelligence is our ever-present divine potential; every thought exists in the middle of infinite being and intelligence. Infinite manifestation is the universe, the thoughts that stay there whether we are thinking them or not, earth, air, light, water, and fire, the Holy Spirit of the Trinity, God in action, the human body, the form of thought and being. It is not possible to represent Babaji without recommending this mantra and the practice of mantra yoga.

*Babaji constantly encourages me to take more time to think and meditate. He recommends that we devote several hours per day to pure thought. Clearing the mind and raising the quality of our thoughts is critical - more important than making money, to say the least. The mind is the source of a good life and healthy body. A person with a clear mind has harmonious and loving relationships. I manage to devote two or three hours per day to thinking, even during busy days, and this makes worldly success so much easier and more fun.

*Babaji calls breath mastery mahayoga. "Maha" means supreme or greatest, "yoga" means science of life or union with God. The basic breathing lesson is to connect the inhale to the exhale in a relaxed continuous rhythm. *Babaji recommends carrying out several simple practices of spiritual purification. Part III details some of these practices; below is a brief summary. Water: Babaji bathes twice per day in the Ganga River, which flows through Herakhan. In addition to cleaning the skin, water cleans the aura and balances energy centers. Fire: He has a fire ceremony every morning in which he feeds the fire with grains, fruit, and butter. In addition, he has a fire pit in his bedroom that he normally sleeps next to. Earth: Babaji recommends the mastery of food and sleep. Food mastery is achieved by simple diet changes. Vegetarianism is a simple path to fasting. Babaji also recommends walking, farming, and manual labor. He recommends that the diving person live harmony with plants and animals. Light: Babaji is well-known for shaving people's hair. During the spring of 1979, he shaved mine. Babaji also recommends that you develop a conscious relationship to the sun and moon. He says, "Staring at the moon all night can heal all the diseases of the mind and body. Watching the sun rise can give you cool strength that lasts all day." Babaji is obviously the most adept psychoanalyst, with a cosmic and eternal perspective on each individual's personality. He can transform us rapidly if we are willing. If every person visited him in his physical body to receive his darshan, or divine glance, the realization of one human family would be inevitable. You don't even have to believe to see him. Sometimes the most ignorant and skeptical people have the most beautiful experiences with him.

Bhartriji: Bharaji's ashram is located in the village of Bhartara (named after him) in the district of Alwar in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is on the road from New Delhi to Jaipur near a popular tourist destination named Sariska Forest Reserve. The forest reserve of one hundred square miles is actually Bhartriji's. Most physical pleasures are legitimate for immortals and harmless. In fact, most evils by themselves are relatively harmless; it is when we turn them into habits that they become destructive. When our life energy is controlled by evil habits, the evil habits destroy us by destroying our will to live. Even some good habits can kill us when we are ruled by the habit instead of ruling it. We destroy our body by lack by lack of respect for it as out personal divine gift from God. The physical body is our most valuable possession, but people sacrifice it to win the money game, to support their car or house, or to please their friends or their deathist religion. Without spiritual purification practices, our body becomes heavier every year, diseases become more common, and death is inevitable. You don't have to wait to die and go to hell to be miserable. You only have to neglect spiritual purification and live an unbalanced and undisciplined life. Spiritual practices are more important for personal mastery than knowledge. We become jaded when we learn more and more self-improvement techniques that we don't practice.

1.Choosing physical immortality is level one. It involves building a complete philosophy of life from the physical immortality perspective instead of the deathist perspective. Such thoughts move us in the right direction, but we must produce the right actions to create results. The widely available Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy is a massive contribution to immortal thinking.

2.Become aware of the energy body - a major stage toward mastery.

3.Learn to clean the energy body with mantra, earth, air, water, fire practices, and love practices. There is no substitute for this. These rituals are all very pleasurable to do and create a life of satisfaction and spiritual mastery. They keep our mind and body tuned into the Presence of God, which is the experience of ecstasy.

4.Do the practices for enough years to actually be ahead of the spiritual purification process, so that you are healing emotional energy pollution faster than you are taking it on. Participation in the world of mortals does have a cost. I call it emotional energy pollution. We have to win the game of spiritual purification.

5.Make peace with the guru principle - internal and external discipline. We may need a teacher.

6.Choose a lifestyle that supports spiritual growth and mastery. We may need more solitude!

7.Become sophisticated in a knowledge of the great scriptures of all religions and the great human literature, especially the Shiva Purana. The Bible contains the case histories of five immortals, plus Babaji---the Angel of the Lord. The Shiva Purana contains case histories of thousands of immortals. It contains the most sophisticated story of Creation.

8. Build spiritual community as a personal support environment for our collective healing and physical survival. Churches only work if they are based upon spiritual practices. Most people in most churches are dick and dying like everyone else. Breath work and spiritual practices with fire, fasting, etc., are the source of the true revival the Christian church is seeking.

9. Find satisfaction in career, prosperity and citizen responsibilities. Choose a career that supports our aliveness and is not too costly from the supports our aliveness and is not too costly from standpoint of emotional energy pollution. One's career must have a proper balance between solitude and participation---between meditation and worship and worldly success. Spiritual purification is more important than money.
And it supplies us with the energy and wisdom to achieve great success. Jesus was right when he said, "seek first the Kingdom of Good and His righteousness, and all material things will be effortlessly and joyfully added to you.

10. Have a successful relationship with Babaji, the Eternal Father in human form, and make him available to your friends on this path. He usually has at least one body on the planet at all times. God, the Eternal Father-Mother, has not stopped revealing Himself-Herself. They are participating in history today and appear to thousands of people magically every day. They are willing to play with you! Open you mind!

11. Unravel the death urge you received from your family tradition. This is easy for some and difficult for other. Some people can't even feel the death urge until their parents die. But what if your parents become immortal and don't die?

12. Heal the diseases of senility. Senility is the final exam to the human condition, a major barrier to physical immortality. Most people give up and die rather than go for personal mastery. We would rather let someone else do it for us. This is where we have to master helplessness, hopelessness, infancy consciousness, birth trauma, womb consciousness, etc. You must know that it is possible to live through and heal all the popular terminal of senility. One of the reasons Christianity doe is because it still preaches welfare salvation. Re (which Jesus preached) works better---repentance means the science of changing one's mind.

I. 13. Actually heal birth trauma, womb and infancy consciousness, the parental disapproval syndrome, and the unconscious death urge from family and past lives, and consciously use the power of the human mind. Healing the emotional mind is our mind is our main job in our first century
II. 14. Shiva Kalpa is the basic rite of rejuvenation--- a twelve years course.

The above all relation to mastery of the human condition; next comes our divine potential.
15. Learn transfiguration---dematerializing and re-materializing the body at will.
16. Experiment with teleportation, astral projection, levitation, walking on water, etc.
These skills are attained after us become a loving and enlightened humanitarian. They are less important than being a fully participating citizen.
17. Master foods, sleep, and sex. The forty-day fast (no food or water) was a common denominator of immortals in the Bible. Mastering food seems to have something to do with mastering the body and death. This is obvious if you think about it.
18. Develop a conscious relationship to the sun, moon, planet Earth and its ecology, etc. The scriptures of the immortal yogis have much to teach us about this.
19. Master the body organs instead of being controlled by them.
20. Be able to heal the body and make it invincible to wound, diseases, and death, even bullets.
21. Master the millions yoga that it takes to build a human body directly out of spirit with the mind. Evolution can begin at any point and proceed in any direction. We are wholly the Eternal Spirit right now---body, atoms, and cells included.

Suggested Practices for Spiritual Purification
The simple breathing practice of connecting the inhale to the exhale for one hour per day seems to dissolve the effects of all kinds of psychological causes, though the accumulation of trauma and tension since birth gives some people difficulty mastering this simple breathing lesson. Most people need five to twenty two-hour lessons to clear the gross accumulated trauma and tension out their minds and bodies before they can maintain this simple breathing rhythm for one hour with out dramatic physical and emotional changes. Rebirthing breath work can be mastered by many people in ten two-hour sessions with a well-trained rebirth. (I recommend that you interview two or three rebirth before choosing one to do your ten sessions with.) Going through what is called the hyperventilation syndrome in one or two sessions is a natural part of the rebirthing process. Rebirthing has cleared up hyperventilation, "kundalini casualties," and many kinds of respiratory difficulties.

Alternate Nostril Breathing
Following is another profound and simple breathing exercise for spiritual and physical purification. The inhale is pulled softly through the left nostril, held as long as it feels good and expelled softly through the right nostril. Then the inhale is taken softly through the left nostril, held as long as long as it feels good, and expelled softly through the right nostril. Then the inhale is taken softly through the right nostril, held as long as it fells right, and exhaled through the left nostril. This exercise can be done once, three, or nine times daily. I personally experience that three times a day creates powerful cleansing experiences.

The yagna ceremony is an exception. There is something about the mantra power and intention of the official Sanskrit fire ceremony that is unique. A yagna is a special fire ceremony by a Sanskrit priest that offers rice, butter (ghee), honey, sugar, flowers, fruit, etc., to the flames of a fire large enough to consume it. The mantras recited during this ceremony take about an hour. A yagna changes the energy of everyone who participates. Every fire releases prana energy that accelerates the health and growth of trees and plants. Its powerful life energy released into the atmosphere heals and nourishes nature. The ashes make an excellent fertilizer. Each safe fire creates a beautiful spiritual vibration. But one bad fire can cause a lot of destruction. How ever, even the destruction of accidental fires can heal mass death urge in a community.

The Fire Ceremony
When I went to India to seek out the immortal yagis, I watched Babaji do the fire ceremony every day. It consisted of offering rice permeated with melted butter, fruits, nuts, flowers and sometimes yogurt, honey or sugar to the fire while thinking or speaking Sanskrit mantras. You may not be as dense as I. You may be ready for the fire ceremony right now. The ceremony is very simple. You build a fire, then offer your favorite foods to the fire. If you like, you can say, "Om Namaha Shivaiya Swaha." Its mean "I offer to God." Fire is thought of as the Mouth of God. The fire ceremony is an act of love and devotion. The fire ceremony can be done in its simplest form by sprinkling sugar in the flame of a candle. The full yagna ceremony is very elaborate. It is probably the most powerful spiritual ceremony in the world. It may be the greatest ritual. This ceremony must be done by a properly trained Sanskrit priest. That gravity causes it ---no pushing or holding. In addition, do ten to twenty spiritual breathing sessions with a well-trained spiritual breathing teacher or rebirth. This should include warm-and cold-water rebirthing.

Food: Abstain from food for one day each week for a year. It probably should be a weekday. Weekend days are often social and therefore not good to establish a rhythm. Do only one day per week the first year. Then do two days per week the second year; three days per week the third year. I don't recommend accelerating this program because you mind and body like lots of time and experience to integrate these new food habits and rhythms. It is OK to do half-day to learn something about the yoga of comfort and pleasure. Liquids are permitted on fast days. I recommend vegetarianism and fruit diets (eating only fruit and nuts for a week or a month) as a regular practice. Macrobiotics is a valuable diet. Being scientific means that we experiment until we get the healing or the result we desire, then we know the truth about what works. This truth sets us free from diseases and gives us victory and mastery.

Name of God: Sing the Name of God daily. You can sing or chant any name for God, but I have received the greatest value from singing Om Namaha Shivaiya. The purpose of repeating the Name of god every day is that it evokes the divine presence and all divine emotions. It is wonderful to remember the Name of God constantly throughout the day until it becomes an ever presence thought. This may be the simplest and greatest technique of spiritual purification.

Sleep: Stay awake all night once each month. Meditate on the emotional changes and body feelings. Meditate on the moon and the sunrise. Use the exercise in Step 1 to process your disturbing thoughts and feelings.

Spiritual community: Participate in a monthly town meeting on your block or in your watershed. The purpose is to realize a spiritual family and friendships, as well as to fulfill the basic responsibilities of citizenship. If your neighbors aren't receptive to this sort of community, you may want to reconsider being where you are. The more people there are who are interested in physical immortality, the easier it is for all of us. In addition, learn as much as possible from the great saints on Earth.

Hair: Shave your head at least once ever ten years. I recommend during one year every decade or so, you shave your head twice per week (Sundays and Wednesdays) for nine months. This cleans your energy body, heals the physical body and reverses the aging process. It also accelerates the your thing process.

Bathing: Water purification is simple and easy. I have had the practice of meditating while immersed in a warm bathtub for one hour per day for many years. Taking showers daily is effective, but I recommend total immersion in water at least once per week. Doing connected breathing while entering the water produces special value, but you can easily experience your energy body-the human aura-by meditating or feeling changes as you enter water.

Fire: We have taken fire for granted in the twentieth century. We use the power of fire in our cars, our homes; it does most of our work for us and is the source of infinite comfort and pleasures. In India and in Native American cultures, people practice a ceremony of feeding a fire with ordinary food as an act of respect and gratitude for what fire does for us. American Indians also sometimes give food to their water sources as well to feed the gods of nature. These are good practice.

Manual Labor: Physical work is holy. I recommend that your regularly use your body to do housework, gardening, carrying out your own trash, etc. Working with or on the earth produces good feelings and spiritual enlightenment. Farming is the holiest occupation on Earth. Bodywork methods, massage, martial arts such as tai chi, and athletic activities also quality as manual labor. Receiving massage and bodywork is a method of spiritual purification.

Population control: Each person must exercise responsibility for his or her reproductive powers to control population growth. As physical immortality become more population growth. As physical immortality become more popular, more conscious childbearing becomes important. Unraveling the trauma of the birth-death cycle rehabilitates our ability to appear and disappear on Earth by choice. Transfiguration is an acceptable alternative to physical death as a method of reducing overpopulation problems on Earth.

Money: Winning the money game through intelligent, enjoyable, and loving service is a method of spiritual purification. You rewards in life, both tangible and intangible, are directly proportional to the quality and quantity of service that you render to your fellow beings on this planet. See Chapter 15 for more on money. The revelations and freedom that will be inspired in you as a result of practicing these thirteen simple and natural spiritual purification practices have the power to realize heaven on Earth. Your personal perfection has been waiting for you throughout all eternity. These spiritual purification exercises will open you up so you can let it in. They will enable you to release all of your negativity. They are both fun and enlightening.

Water and Air Purification: The following purification is to be done in solitude. Twice a day, repeat the process below.

1. Fill the bathtub with water.
2. Start a connected breathing rhythm, inhaling and exhaling through your nose.
3. Place one foot into the water while breathing.
4. Continue breathing until physical and emotional changes are integrated.
5. Place the other foot into the water and continue breathing until changes are integrated. For example, some people have warm or cold flashes.
6. Sit sown in the tub and continue breathing until changes are integrated. (At this point, you may notice that the exhale is full of excretory material.)
7. Continue breathing until the ex-hale becomes lighter, more balanced and mores free.

Thought is the smallest particle of the universe. Thought creates atoms. Thought is also the biggest thing in the universe. Thought creates and surrounds galaxies. Thought is not the source of truth, but the chief executive of truth. It is essential to master your thoughts. Unconscious and negative thoughts accumulate into emotions, which can cause the body organs to malfunction. Negative thoughts and emotions cause tension, misery, and pain, which not only kill the body but also destroy our joy of life and therefore our will to live. Everybody who dies is killed by thoughts. Our thoughts and habits are manifesting our body the way it is right now. When we master a thought, we master a result. It is personal power. Obviously to be a conscious master takes most people hundreds of years. The traditional practice of physical death and reincarnation is a needless interruption in our learning process. People demonstrate in ordinary daily life that they can suspend natural body processes, control them, change them, and cause them, in all kinds of miraculous ways. Our present-time creative power can forever enter into the lows and processes of nature and alter them by pure intention. Life becomes most stress-free when we don't have to deal with supernatural energies and are living in harmony with our ordinary divine and human nature. We misuse our mind even more than our body by disrespect for or total ignorance of the power of thought. Thought is omnipotent, except for the pure life Energy, which empowers thought. To build a human body directly out of pure energy with thought is the ultimate level of mastery. To do this, we have to master our ability to manifest thought into physical form. This is not difficult. Our thoughts have a natural tendency to manifest into form. We only have to control the content of our thinking---all our thoughts, all the time. Jesus called it "watching.

Fire and the Physical Immortality Machine: In the yoga tradition, this practice is called Panchagni, the five fires. Four fires are built, one at each corner of a square about three or four meters apart. The yogi sits in the middle of the fires and stares at the sun, which is the fifth fire. A yogi will practice this day after day until he or she can look at the moon all night. The full form of this practice is of course very advanced. Some one brings meals to the yogi, if necessary. I've done the five fires a few times with a group. We each sit in the center for an hour or more while the others are feeding and tending to the fires. It is a very powerful practice. It cleans the energy body so quickly and thoroughly that we dubbed it the "physical immortality machine." This is another exception in which I can enjoy fire with other people. Because when I commit a whole day I go through a complete energy cycle with the pain of the group members and we all feel great by the end of the experience. Mastering food takes ten to twenty years of practice. Trying to do it too rapidly can make you insane and very sick. It can bring to the surface so much pain that you might try to kill yourself to get rid of it all. When you do it right, fasting is amazingly great. It opens up many new worlds of mind and body. Fasting cleans the blood, the cells, the memory. It can heal anything. It is a great adventure of the soul and can produce more psychedelic effects than drugs. Fasting is more fulfilling that TV, more interesting than working on our house. Fasting is fun!