It is the mind that really sees, tastes, smells, hears and feels. When you begin to think of the picture of Lord Jesus with closed eyes, it is through the mind's eye that you see the picture. A (devotee), being one with (the Lord God), sees directly with the eye of God (with the eye of seed-body). A Man/Woman of God sees with the Eye of Knowledge of God.
Amplified Bible (AMP) Peri-phrased
4And the Lord said to him/her, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in the midst of it.
5And to the others He said in my hearing, Follow [the man/woman with the ink bottle] through the city and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have any pity.
6Slay outright the elderly, the young man and the virgin, the infant and the women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary. So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord's mark on their foreheads].
10And as for Me, My eye will not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their wicked doings upon their own heads.
11And behold, the man/woman clothed in linen, who had the ink bottle/Pen and paper at his/her side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as God has commanded me.
Slay the Impure Mind
The enemy of God is the impure mind, which is replete with excessive delusion and a host of thoughts. This mischievous and powerful imp of lower mind is the generator of all pains and all fears and the destroyer of all noble, spiritual wealth. Your real enemy is this impure mind only which is full of delusion, and host of other impurities. Lest this enemy of mind should spoil you in diverse ways through the "enjoyments" of the many "pleasures" in this world, slay it in the hope of getting eternal bliss and spiritual illumination. Destroy the lower (impure) mind through the Higher Mind. Destroy your instinctive mind through discrimination and help of your Higher Mind. Then and then alone will you get eternal, infinite peace and bliss of God. Then alone will you become a one who is liberated in this life.
Holy Minds and sinful minds move in diametrically opposite directions. The Holy Mind unifies. Instinctive/sinful mind separates and divides. Voices from the instinctive mind will mislead you. Purify the mind and hear the voice of conscience (The Mind of God). You will have to develop the Mind of God part by annihilating the Devil, lower, impure, instinctive thoughts. Slay this mind through constant enquiry and meditation and rest in your own state this is the way of interpreting visions and dreams, whenever God destroys he also rebuilds, through warnings, sometimes He can save and sometime He cannot. If the lower mind is done away with through the Higher Mind alone, then you will have eternal happiness and peace. Then you will attain supreme knowledge and perennial bliss.
How to Purify the Mind
As one iron shapes another iron, the pure mind of a person which makes efforts in the virtuous path should correct and mold his/her impure mind. Mind is unfailingly rendered pure through true, virtuous and pure actions and constant (association with the wise). Speaking the truth and practice of (pure compassion) are very great purifiers of mind. All lofty aspirations, all-embracing tendencies and pity-all go a long way in increasing the God material of the mind. The Higher Mind is developed.
Sacrifice, gift, compassion, study of the Word and speaking the truth: these five are purifying. The sixth is repentance well-practiced. The last one is highly purifying. Pilgrimage to sacred places is also purifying. You come in contact with holy persons there. You can have good company of the wise.
Charity service of saints-all tends to purify the mind. There will be, doubtless, unalloyed bliss in the mind thus purified.
A Word of God/Mantras purifies the mind. Mere repetition of a Mantra, parrot-like, has very little effect. It has some benefit. It must be repeated with (feeling). Then it produces wonderful effects. The Mantra, unless inspired with the powerful will-force of one's own mind, cannot produce much effect.
Study of philosophical works, right thinking, and exercise of good and noble emotions, prayers and beneficent endeavors, above all, regular and strenuous meditation are the means to improve the mind. These will bring about the rapid evolution of the mind. When the mind is purified, a hole is formed in the center through which purity, light and knowledge flow from The Lord God.
A goldsmith converts 10 carat gold into 15 carat gold by adding acids and burning it several times in the crucible. Even so, you will have to purify your sensuous mind through concentration and reflection on the words of your spiritual preceptor and the Word of God, meditation, or silent repetition of the Name of the Lord, etc.
It takes a long time to purify (yellow oxide of arsenic orpiment). It has to be soaked in cow's urine for seven days, in lime water for ten days and in milk for seven days. Then it has to be burnt out hundred and eight times before a proper oxide (ash) is obtained. Even so, it takes a long time to effect purity of mind. Severe (seriousness) is needed.
As a result of purification of the mind, it becomes more sensitive, gets easily disturbed by a sound or shock and feels any pressure acutely. An aspirant must be sensitive and yet have the body and nerves completely under his control. The greater the sensitiveness becomes, the more difficult is the task; there are many noises which pass unheeded by an ordinary person, but which are torture to one who is very sensitive. You must do your best to get over this over sensitiveness.
Pure Mind and impure or the instinctive mind or desire-mind as it is called are the two kinds of mind. There is the lower mind filled with passion. There is the Higher Mind filled with (purity). There are two minds. You will have to make it into one- mind only-if you want to meditate. It is through the Higher Mind that you will have to control the lower or instinctive mind of passions and emotions.
There are two kinds of Buddhi. There are two kinds of the Ego or Egoism, viz., which identifies with God and which identifies with the Satan. There are two kinds of resolution, viz., (thoughts of God) and (thoughts of the flesh and the world).
The impure mind which creates impure thought, the worldly intellect and impure egoism-all three create a vicious circle. These three work in co-operation. The seed of the mind is egoism. Mind is merely a bundle of thoughts. Of all thoughts, the 'I' thought is the root thought. It is the first thought also that emanated from the mind. Therefore, mind is only the thought 'I'. Intellect is the basis of egoism. It is Intellect that forces you to identify yourself with the physical body. It is Buddhi/Intellect that creates difference (the Intellect that drives) and (the idea of the world).
The eyes present before the mind some forms or images. It is the mind that creates good and bad forms. It says, "This is good. This is ugly. This is beautiful." Here comes bondage and trouble. Good and bad, ugly and beautiful are pure mental creations. If mind can create, it can destroy also. Similarly, the ears bring some sound vibrations before the mind. It is the mind that says: "This is praise. This is censure." Eyes and ears are not to be blamed at all. They are innocent. Mind causes the mischief.
The mental processes are not limited to the field of consciousness alone. The field of subconscious meditation is of a much greater extent than that of conscious meditation. The mind is not conscious of the greater portion of its own activities. As man can hold in consciousness but one fact at a time, only a fraction of our knowledge can be in the field of consciousness at any one moment. Only ten per cent of mental activities come into the field of consciousness. Ninety per cent of the mental activities take place in the subconscious mind.
Messages, when ready, come out like a flash from the subconscious mind to the surface of the conscious mind through the door in the subconscious mind.
We sit and try to solve a problem and fail. We walk around, try again and again fail. Suddenly an idea dawns on us that leads to the solution of the problem. The subconscious processes were at work.
You repeatedly fail at night to get the solution for a problem in arithmetic or geometry. In the morning, when you wake up, you get a clear answer. This answer comes like a flash from the subconscious mind. Even in sleep, it works incessantly without any rest. It arranges, classifies, compares, sorts all facts and works out a proper, satisfactory solution.
Sometimes, you go to sleep at 10 p.m. with the thought, "I must get up at 2 a.m. in the morning to catch a train." This message is taken up by the subconscious mind and it is this subconscious mind that wakes you up unfailingly at the exact hour. Subconscious mind is your constant, trustworthy companion and sincere friend.
With the help of the subconscious mind, you can change your vicious nature by cultivating healthy, virtuous qualities that remain dormant in every human heart. If you want to overcome fear, mentally deny that you have fear and concentrate your attention upon the opposite quality, the ideal of courage. When courage is developed, fear vanishes by itself. The positive always overpowers the negative. This is an infallible law of nature. You can acquire a liking for distasteful tasks and duties by cultivating a desire and taste for them. You can establish new habits, new ideals, new ideas and new tastes and new character in the subconscious mind by changing the old ones.
The universe is not mental creation of mind but of “One” single, organized thought of the Source/Cosmic Mind/the Mind of God has materialized as the seeming universe. This phenomenal universe is but an outcome of the Divine Will, seeming to be real through the workings of the mind.
Before you write out a drama, you have a vivid mental picture of the whole drama in your mind. Then you write it out in succession in four acts. When it is staged, it is acted in succession, part by part. Similarly, the universe with its movements is a vivid mental picture in the Cosmic Mind-in the mind of God. There is neither past nor future for Him. Everything is 'Present' for Him. There is neither 'near' nor 'far' for Him. Every place is 'here'. Every time is 'now'. The events come out in succession on the stage of the long world-drama as Time rolls on. Atoms rotate continuously. Old becomes new and new becomes old. In reality there is no such thing as old; there is no such thing as single. The individual minds are witnessing the events in succession. But God the Christ knows all events at one sweep. He is (all-knowing). He is (all-understanding) also. He knows every detail of His creation. The Cosmic Mind creates.
This universe is nothing but a mode of the mind, self-evolved from The Lord God, the cause of the universe. All the universes which appear only through Minds are no other than its modes. The mind is subjectively consciousness and objectively it is this universe. Hence, this all-pervading world is nothing but consciousness itself.
Thought is a vital, living force, the most vital, subtle and irresistible force that exists in the universe. The thought-world is more real relatively than this physical universe. Thoughts are living things. Every change in thought is accompanied by vibration of its matter (mental). Thought as force needs a special kind of subtle matter in its working.
Mind assumes the form of anything it contemplates. When you think of an object, your mind shapes itself into the form of that object. When you change your thought, your mind also changes its shape. Many modifications continually arise in the mind. Your thoughts rapidly change. Your mind also changes its shape rapidly. Every moment, mind is continually creating hundreds of these thought-forms and continually dispersing them again. It never holds on steadily to one thought-form for some time.
Every thought has a certain name and a certain form. Form is the grosser name the finer state of a single manifesting power called thought. But, these three are one. It is the unity in trinity, the three degrees of existence of the same thing. Wherever the one is, the others also are there. Suppose your mind is now perfectly calm, entirely without thought. Nevertheless, as soon as thought begins to rise, it will immediately take name and form. Thus you find that every idea that man has, or can have, must be connected with a certain word as its counterpart.
Language is different, but thought is one. Mental image is the same in all. Sound has got four forms, viz is the ordinary speech. It differs in different countries. But sound and speech are one and the same that lies dormant in the Lord God.
Thought is subtle matter. A thought is as much solid as a piece of stone. You may die, but your thoughts can never die. They have form, size, shape, color, quality, substance, power and weight. A spiritual thought has yellow color; a thought charged with anger and hatred is of a dark red color; a selfish thought has a brown color; and so on. A Prophetic/psychic individual can see directly with his inner eye all these thoughts.
The stronger the thoughts, the earlier the fructification thought is focused and given a particular direction and, in the degree that thought is thus focused and given direction, it is effective in the work it is sent out to accomplish.
Thought is a great force. Thought is a dynamic force. Thought moves. Thought is infectious. Thought creates. You can work wonders with the power of thought. Through the instrumentality of thought, you acquire creative power. There are nowadays numerous books on thought-power, thought-dynamics and thought-culture. Study them. You will then have a comprehensive understanding of thought, its power, workings and usefulness.
The power of thought is very great. Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible way. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your success in life and the pleasures you give to others by your company- all depend on the nature and quality of your thoughts. You must know thought-culture.
If you entertain healthy thoughts, you can keep good health. If you hold on to sickly thoughts in the mind, thoughts of diseased tissues, thoughts of weak-nerves, thoughts of improper functioning of organs, you can never expect good health, beauty and harmony. The body is the product of the mind. If you hold on vigorous thoughts in the mind, then the physical body also will be vigorous.
Evil thoughts of all kinds befoul and insure the mind and, if persisted in, will become veritable diseases and maiming’s of the mind, incurable during the period of life.
"As a man thinketh, so he is." "Man is created by thought; what a man thinks upon, that he becomes." Think you are strong; strong you become. Think you are weak; weak you become. Think you are a fool; fool you become. Think you are God; God you become. A man forms his own character, becoming that which he thinks. If you meditate on courage, you shall work courage into your character. So with purity, patience, unselfishness and self-control. If you think nobly, you shall gradually make for yourself a noble character, but if you think basely, a base character will be formed. Steady persevering thought sets up a definite habit of the mind and that habit manifests itself as a quality in the character. The thread of thought is woven into mental and moral qualities and these qualities in their totality form what we call character. You can build your character as surely as a mason can build a wall, working with and through the law.
The first step towards a deliberate creation of character lies then in the deliberate choosing of what we will think and then of thinking persistently on the quality chosen. Ere long, there will be a tendency to evince that quality; a little longer, its exercise will become habitual. Thought makes character. You spin the thread of thought into your destiny.
Whatever you think upon in life, you becomes in another. If the mind dwells continually upon one train of thought, a groove is formed into which the thought-force runs automatically and such a habit of thought survives death and since it belongs to the ego/pride of life, it is carried over to the subsequent earth life as a thought tendency and capacity.
Every thought has got its own mental image. Every individual has a mental world of his/her own; his/her own views, his/her own sentiments, his/her own feelings, his/her own habitual thoughts, his/her own experience and his/her own mode of thinking. The essence of the various mental images formed in one particular physical life is being worked out in the mental plane as your VISION! It constitutes the basis for the next physical life. Just as a new physical body is formed in birth, so also a new mind and a new Intellect are formed in your VISION.
It is difficult to explain the detailed workings of thought and Karma. Every Karma produces twofold effects, one on the individual mind and the other on the world. Man makes the circumstances of his future life by the effect of his actions upon others.
Every action has a past which leads up to it; every action has a future which proceeds from it. An action implies a desire which prompted it and a thought which shaped it. Each act is a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, each effect becoming a cause and each cause having been an effect; and each link in the endless chain is welded out of three components-desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself in an act.
Selfish coveting of the possessions of others, though never carried out into active cheating in the present, makes one a thief in a later eventually in earth-life, while hatred and revenge secretly cherished are the seeds from which the murderer springs. So again, unselfish loving yields as harvest the philanthropist and the saint; and every thought of compassion helps to build the tender and pitiful nature which belongs to one who is a friend to all creatures.
You should learn the method of sending out helping, loving thoughts to others and the whole world at large. You should know how to remove distraction and collect all thoughts and send them out as a battalion of helpful forces to do good to the suffering humanity. Thought-transference is a beautiful science. It is an exact science.
Just as a river flows brings joy and coolness to those who live on its banks, so also your strong thoughts of love and peace must flow out as a healing stream to bring solace, peace and glee to those persons whose minds are filled with care, worry, anxiety, tribulation, affliction, etc.
Even some good natured persons entertain some occasional good thoughts and send out into the world some helpful thoughts. This is not sufficient for an aspirant in the path of Truth. A continuous stream of helpful thoughts must gush out from your mind. It must be a perennial, healing stream of loving, helpful thoughts. You must be able to charge groups of twenty persons, masses of hundreds and thousands with love, joy and cheerfulness. He must stir them with a mere glance and a few sweet, powerful words into enthusiasm, high spirits and exalted moods and exhilaration. This is spiritual strength, will-force, the Holy Spirit.
Clairvoyance is vision of distant objects through the inner Spiritual/Astral Eye or psychic eye. Just as you have physical sense in the physical body, there are astral counterparts of these in the inner, subtle, astral body. The Prophetic/Psychic develops these inner organs through practice of concentration. He develops clairvoyant vision. He can see objects in far-off climes.
Just as light rays penetrate a glass, just as X-rays penetrate solid, opaque objects, so also the Prophet/Psychic can see the things through a solid wall, can see the contents of a sealed envelope and the contents of a hidden treasure underneath the ground through his inner Prophetic/Psychic Eye. This psychic eye is the eye of intuition. One has to develop this inner eye through concentration. Just as the microscope magnifies the small cells, germs, etc., so also he can see things of the astral world very clearly through this inner eye and can magnify them also by special focusing of the inner astral lens.
He creates an astral tube by willing and the strong wishing and thinking and, through this astral tube, he sees things at a distance. The vision may not be very clear in the beginning. Just as the new-born baby learns, so also he learns in the beginning. As he advances in his practice, his inner vision becomes quite distinct. There is another method that I like the most. The Spiritual/Astral journey is where you see things during this Spiritual/Astral travelling unconsciously.
Just as light rays travel through space, so also the Spiritual/Astral light rays travel with tremendous velocity. They are caught up by the Spiritual/Astral eye. Every one of us has got these Spiritual/Astral senses. But few only consciously develop them. A clairvoyant can see the events of the past or future by looking into the Spirit. The degree of power varies in different individuals. Advanced clairvoyants are very rare.
Clairaudience is the hearing of distant sounds in the astral plane by means of the Spiritual/astral ear. The process is similar to clairvoyance. The astral sound-vibrations are caught hold of by the astral sense of hearing. A clairvoyant need not necessarily be a clairaudient. These are two distinct powers.
By concentration and meditation combined on the relation between the ear and Heaven comes divine hearing develops this power of distant hearing... These psychic powers are all by-products of concentration. Just as there are various coal-tar derivatives and various petroleum preparations, so also there are these powers manifest in when an individual concentrates. These are all obstacles in the path of spirituality. The aspirant should ignore them and develop dispassion for making only money. Then only will he be able to reach the Heavenly goal.
All the sound vibrations are in the Scrolls of God. The prophet or psychic can hear these sounds nicely you can hear the sounds of whatever you want. Just as you can hear now the music and song of a songster who died fifty years ago on a MP3 player or CD, so also the prophet or psychic can hear the sounds by concentration connecting his or her astral in the twinkling of an eye.