My feeling of Oneness April 18, 2012

Oneness is a spiritual phenomenon suggesting that All is One, that all living creatures and materia are tightly connected and we can percept and enjoy that.

Some people get fantastically beautiful experiences of Oneness, I posted already the story by Daniil Andreev, let me quote it:

“Everything on Earth and everything that must exist in the heavens poured exultantly and noiselessly through me in a single stream. In bliss barely supportable by the human heart, I felt as if slowly revolving, graceful spheres glided through me in a universal dance, and everything I could think of or imagine merged in a jubilant oneness.

The ancient forests and clear rivers, the people sleeping by the fire, the peoples of countries near and far, cities waking up and busy streets, cathedrals with sacred icons, seas tossing tirelessly, and steppes with blowing grass— everything indeed was within me that night, and I was within everything. I lay with eyes closed, and beautiful white stars, large and blossoming, not at all like those we are used to seeing, also floated along the world-turned-river like white water lilies.

 Although the sun was not visible, it was as if it, too, were flowing somewhere just outside the range of my vision. Everything was suffused not by its glow but by a different light, one I had never seen before. Everything flowed through me and at the same time rocked me, like a child in a cradle, with all-soothing love.”

I am in awe of that overwhelming feeling! I could never experience that, at the most just the feeling of dissolving in the sorrounding.. Another stunning experience of Oneness I found in the book I reviewed recently here.

My personal experience of Oneness is much more modest, but luckily ongoing. 

The Rose of the World – my review November 17, 2009

The Rose of the World by Daniel Andreev is a unique and poetic cosmological treatise passionately written out of personal experience. It offers a prophetic call for the spiritual reunification of all people and an open and harmonious relationship among the great world religions. For Daniel Andreev, whose mystic revelations are often compared with those of Dante and William Blake, the Rose of the World is a spiritual flower whose roots are in heaven: each petal is a unique image of the great world religions and cultures, and the whole flower is their joint co-creation with God.

Roza Mira (full title in Russian: Роза Мира. Метафилософия истории, literally The Rose of the World. The Metaphilosophy of History), that was written in the fifties of the 20th century gives a unique and fresh view on the history and future of mankind. The uniqueness of this perspective its intellectual brilliance combined with a deeply spiritual insight…

According to Roza Mira, there are no contradictions between different religions, because they tell about different aspects of spiritual reality, or about the same things in different words. Daniil Andreev compares different major religions to different paths leading to one and the same mountain peak (which is God). Andreev names five world religions, he believes in the Trinity of God, but the third hypostasis, instead of being the Holy Spirit, is claimed to be the Eternal Femininity. (which is by the way, one and the same thing to me personally).

Beautiful vision, isn’t it? The more so, Andreev also tired to give a solution how exactly this could work out!  However I can’t say I was delighted about the book. Why?

This book is  the most contradictory of all books I have read in the last 10 years. The contradiction for me lies  in the fact that one and the same book has some highly vibrational pieces and some that can block one’s mental level completely. When I read some pages I feel the author was a true saint of a rare caliber. However at some points his visions not only lack vibrations, but I would not recommend to read them at all…The reason for that “quality variety” may lay in the different methods by which Andreev obtained his knowledge and visions. Some of them were probably from the supraconsious site. Whatever it is, I would like to share with you my impressions.

What is the difference between SPIRIT and SOUL? December 4, 2008

 image by axinia

There seem to be a confusion about the terms “Spirit” and “Soul” and I am happy to share with you my observations.

Wikipedia says:

The English word “spirit” comes from the Latin “spiritus” (breath). The term is commonly used to refer to a supernatural being which is transcendent and therefore metaphysical in nature. For many people, however, spirit, like soul, is a natural part of a being, and is identified with mind, or consciousness, or the brain.

In many religions and parts of philosophy, the soul is the immaterial part of a person. It is usually thought to consist of ones thoughts and personality, and can be synonymous with the spirit, mind or self. In theology, the soul is often believed to live on after the person’s death, and some religions posit that God creates souls. In some cultures, non-human living things, and sometimes inanimate objects are said to have souls, a belief known as animism.

The terms soul and spirit are often used interchangeably, although the former may be viewed as a more worldly and less transcendent aspect of a person than the latter.

As a linguist, I believe that there are no two words with the same connotation – if there are several different words for a seemingly same thing, it is still not the same thing. And it is for sure not the case with such an essential phenomenon like spirit or soul.