Your podcast is absolutely wonderful.
This was exactly what I needed to hear today.
And this practice can completely change your life.
It's amazing as you get used to it and get into the habit of it.
Even like Michael said,
Being in like routine,
Daily,
Like things that we do all the time,
It makes it so much more and so much more fun to stop and go beyond and come back and remember that whatever is going on down here is just not that serious.
It's just stop and go beyond and keep coming back and keep remembering that you're so much more than whatever you think you are.
So thank you,
Thank you so much for sharing.
What is beyond the universe?
Where do we come from?
What does it feel like to go beyond this world and beyond human experience?
What if there was an easy practice that could give you perspective and freedom?
Would you like to try it?
Welcome to the Spiritual Recharge Podcast.
This is the Awakening Series.
In the last two sessions,
We dove into who we are as spiritual beings,
Beings of divine light,
Eternal spiritual presence,
How to recharge our spiritual energy through our divine link of remembrance,
Remembrance of the Source of God,
The infinite ocean of all bliss,
Love,
Pure peace,
Divine power,
Freedom,
And joy.
Today,
We'll be exploring where we as spiritual beings come from and where we go back home to.
This is Arielle and I am here with our host,
Michael McIntosh.
Welcome.
So let's just take a moment to ask a simple,
Powerful question.
Are you willing to let go of the details of life and explore what is beyond?
Are you willing to go into the unlimited and re-experience your eternity?
We live in a world where there is so many things going on,
But this whole thing we call life will at some point come to an end.
And what happens then?
And what happened before we got here?
These are profound questions.
And when I was a child,
I used to lay in bed at night,
Imagining the stars above me.
My parents put these fluorescent little stars on the ceiling.
And so I used to imagine what's beyond the real stars.
And I would imagine,
Lying there at night,
Imagine flying through the stars as far as I could,
And then going beyond that,
And then flying beyond that,
Trying to reach the end of the universe.
Where is the edge of the universe?
Is there an edge?
And if so,
What is on the other side?
And if there's no edge,
Then how is it possible that it just keeps on going indefinitely forever?
I never actually figured it out as a child,
And eventually I forgot all about it and grew up and got on with my life.
And then when I was 18,
I had a spiritual experience that completely changed my life and began me on a beautiful spiritual adventure,
The practice of divine remembrance,
Which you're learning now,
Reawakening.
And I was blown away by these spiritual experiences,
And I started attending classes in Cambridge with Brother Prashant at the Raj Yoga Center.
And there was a lovely room in the center above a river with these beautiful,
Big,
Comfy chairs and green walls,
And it was called the Green Room,
Like the green room that people have before going on a stage.
So oftentimes when actors or musicians are about to go on stage beforehand,
They have this comfy room so they can relax.
So it was called the Green Room in memory of that.
And in that room,
Which I'm sure is still being used now,
Probably with the same chairs,
Prashant would lead a meditation specifically to go beyond the world into the spiritual realm,
A world of eternal light.
And if you can imagine a beautiful golden sunset,
Have you ever seen one of those epic sunsets where the whole sky is beautiful golden red-pink color,
A blaze?
And imagine that light was unlimited and it surrounded the entire universe,
The feeling of infinite peace.
This is what the Buddhists call nirvana,
The land beyond sound.
This is what Christians call rest in peace.
And I used to sit there in this class and try and reach the light.
I'd go there every day at six o'clock in the evening.
And I found myself having a pretty hard time getting out of my head and thinking about all these things and actually breaking through into this unlimited light.
And I used to sit around hearing other people sharing their remarkable stories.
And I was wondering what was wrong with me.
But I kept going back to these classes every night.
And one day as I sat there,
The sun started to set and there was a candle in the room on a table.
And after a while,
The candle was the only light in the room.
The candle flickered away and we sat there.
And before I knew what happened,
The candle stopped flickering.
And I started noticing that it turned into what seemed like a black and white image.
Everything stopped moving,
Became black and white and still.
And I realized that I was in the light,
Looking back from a distance at the world far,
Far away.
And a whole beautiful feeling of infinite peace washed over my whole being.
Total silence,
Infinite stillness,
Complete freedom,
Freedom from everything.
A place where I'd never done anything,
Nothing had ever happened.
A place before all memories.
And I really felt that souls are imperishable.
And I'd returned back to the sweet home,
My home.
And everything stopped for what seemed like an eternity because it was beyond time and beyond space.
Then I came back and the candle started flickering.
And I remember feeling a very profound,
Deep peace.
That I had actually managed to become free,
Experienced genuine freedom.
Because this world is called the land of peace,
This world beyond.
The land of infinite peace,
The land of freedom.
And after acting in this physical world,
We've been here,
Some of us have been here a very long time.
We've been doing lots and lots of things and thinking lots of thoughts and running around and dealing with people and situations.
Even dreams can be tiring.
And the closest thing I can,
That kind of sums this stuff,
This experience up,
The closest thing is what happens in deep sleep.
When you're asleep and you're not dreaming,
Why do we want to fall asleep?
Why do we love sleep?
You love sleep,
You know,
I'm sure.
After a long day,
We're just like,
Oh,
I just can't wait to get to bed and just lie down and drift away into deep sleep.
That feeling of waking up,
Feeling completely rested,
That state of going beyond,
That is what that world is like permanently.
It's like the deepest sleep you've ever had for eternity.
So after experiencing this,
I realized what a huge relief it is to have the capacity to go into that deep,
Deep sleep,
That deep peace,
That complete freedom from everything and then come back here.
And this isn't escapism,
Because what happens is that when you go away and come back,
Life actually feels fresh.
It's like going away and then going on vacation somewhere and doing all these things and then having a long journey and then arriving back to your house and going,
Oh,
Wow,
This is pretty cool.
This is a beautiful place.
That sense of newness that you come back again with renewed appreciation.
We're sharing how to re-experience that practice and something that you can deepen and you can do this multiple times a day.
This is one of the most easy and profound practices that you'll ever learn,
Because what you're doing is you're going from being in one awareness,
That I'm this person stuck in this body running around doing all these things,
To coming into a state of feeling,
A state of consciousness,
A state of awareness,
Where you are completely and totally free.
And one of the things that I learned when I was practicing this is that when you go to this place,
Nirvana,
You're actually tapping into a state of being where you have never done anything wrong.
Nothing bad has ever happened to you.
So you're free of all guilt,
All shame,
All pain,
All suffering,
All confusion,
All karmic accounts,
All these things that cause us problems,
Disappear.
And this is the most healing experience we can have.
So many religious practices,
People go into this world of light,
The sannyasis in India,
They remember the Brahm element,
They sit there in the forests and they leave their home and family and they go in the forest and they remember the light.
And a lot of them have a lot of power because they practice this all the time.
In Buddhism,
The aim is to leave this cycle of birth and death and go into Nirvana.
In Christianity,
It is to go rest in peace.
All these different religions,
Different ways,
They all reference this experience.
But one of the key things that I discovered is that this spiritual home,
This world of light,
Is not the same as God.
This is a fascinating thing to realise,
That oftentimes people think God is this infinite golden light.
But what we realise is that this light is the home and God is the being in the home who is a being of infinite bliss,
A living,
Real living being like us,
With a real personality.
And just like you can imagine your friends living in their house,
If I say,
Can you imagine a friend or family member in their house,
I'm sure you can remember somebody,
You don't think that the house is your friend.
You know that there's a real being in the house.
In the same way,
God,
The supreme being,
The ocean of bliss,
Is that real being living in the home.
And we're all from the same home.
And one of the beautiful things we experience when we practice this is we realise that all of us,
All the people in the world,
With different religions and different politics and different this and different that,
Different races and different ages and genders and whatever else,
Everyone comes from the same home.
So on a deep,
Deep,
Deep level,
We all belong to the same place,
The same home and we're all one big family.
And all these divisions and all these conflicts are all based on the body,
Based on body consciousness,
Based on limited things.
And can you imagine what would happen if everyone realised that we're all from the same place,
We're all one family,
How much more beautiful the world would be?
We're tapping into a state of consciousness,
Of unity,
Of the unlimited,
Of our spiritual identity,
And that which unites us all.
This experience of oneness in which we are all united.
And so going into the home,
Each one of us may experience this in our own way.
Michael's a very visual person,
He's had visions,
You might have visions as well.
And it's also something you might experience as this deep feeling of being pulled beyond,
And a deep silence that washes over you.
And you're there.
And so there are many ways we can experience the home,
When we have the intention to experience the home,
When we bring our attention to that vast,
Divine space,
Non-physical light,
The home to which we all belong.
And as Michael was sharing about God being in the home,
In the same way that you might go to someone's home,
And the home feels,
The vibrations of the home feel like that person,
That person's consciousness,
The atmosphere that that person's creating,
In the same way this home is completely colored by God's unlimited,
Eternal,
Divine peace,
And light,
And love.
So it's going to your eternal spiritual father's home.
You're going home to your mother and father.
And the feeling is beyond any physical feeling.
It's a feeling that is so pure and spiritual and unlimited and divine.
So just take a moment to breathe in that experience,
That memory,
To allow your heart and mind to be filled with that vibration.
Your divine,
Eternal home.
Here in the world,
You're on vacation.
You are on an extended vacation,
An extended holiday.
Where you are right now isn't your home.
It's a guest house.
It's a vacation house.
Where you belong is beyond,
In the eternal light.
And it's a beautiful vacation.
Yeah,
I guess.
Think of it like this.
Have you ever experienced being really caught up in something,
Maybe a relationship or a problem or some project,
And you're obsessed about it,
And you're really a big deal,
And you lose sleep over it?
And then a few years later,
You look back and you think to yourself,
What on earth was that all about?
That was so ridiculous.
I was making such a big deal about it,
And it was no big deal at all.
Yeah,
I'm sure you can think of something like that.
Or even a TV show or a series that pulls you in.
A lot of people,
They get pulled in by various very addictive television shows and can't stop watching till they finally find out the end.
They're binge watching.
So we get pulled into things,
And then later on,
We look back and think to ourselves,
That really wasn't a big deal.
And there's much more to life than that.
But at the time,
It really seemed like a big deal.
Nowadays,
Games are a big deal,
And virtual reality has become a whole new world,
The metaverse,
The whole new world superimposed onto this world.
And it's a bit like somebody who has been playing games relentlessly,
Getting really caught up in it,
And then they realise,
Hang on a minute,
I haven't eaten,
I haven't been paying attention to things.
And they come out and they realise there's this whole world,
And they go outside and they realise there's the trees and there's the sun,
And there are real people who they can talk to and connect with.
This is what we're dealing with here.
We're in this world,
It's a bit like a virtual reality,
And behind this world is infinite peace,
Infinite security.
And we're not going to get that physically in this world.
This world we live in,
This physical world,
Is constantly changing.
The one thing that we can be sure of is that it's going to change.
The body is changing,
People are changing,
Society is changing,
Nature is changing,
The weather changes.
It's a world of endless and continuous change.
The world of light,
Our home,
Is a world of complete peace and is unchanged and unchangeable and completely safe.
And that's really what we're looking for.
So you can experience this,
It's a wonderful practice we teach you.
It's very easy and it's like going on vacation and then coming back.
So you get the good feeling of going beyond,
Going on vacation,
Getting out of it,
And then you also get the enjoyment of coming back and seeing it all fresh.
So let's do a little practice now and I'll just share how it works and then we can practice it together.
So first thing we do is we say,
Okay,
Here I am,
I am here,
A spiritual being in this body.
And by the way,
It's not a mistake that we're here,
That we're here for a reason.
This isn't a cruel mistake,
This is a wonderful opportunity.
So that's why we're here.
So you first of all recognize that here we are in this beautiful experience that has all sorts of different flavors and shapes and forms and different textures and ups and downs,
It's complicated life.
And then in a second,
You can imagine yourself,
Have the awareness that I am in my home,
In that infinite golden light,
As if you've floated away or rocketed away in a second into the higher dimension.
And you are completely free and you're in the company of the ocean of peace,
The ocean of love,
Divine company.
And then we come back and we say,
Okay,
I've incarnated in this body,
Here I am,
What a wonder.
I'm here temporarily to have a beautiful life,
To share,
To shine,
To enjoy.
And then again,
You can fly back,
Fly back home in a second,
All the way back into that light.
And then you come back here and then you can go back.
And if you want,
You can point your finger up to the sky.
I actually find this quite helpful.
You just point upwards and it helps you bring your awareness up.
So you go all the way up and then you come back down.
And many people have had near-death experiences where they physically leave their body,
They're pronounced dead.
In hospitals,
People have,
They like,
Heart stops working or something happens.
And they literally leave their body,
They go all the way up into this light.
And a lot of the time,
They don't want to come back because it's so peaceful and it's so beautiful and they're so relaxed and it's just heavenly that they say,
I don't want to come back into this ridiculous world.
But they're sent back because they have things to do.
There's a reason we're here.
And then they come back and they have a complete change of heart about the purpose of life when they return.
So you can practice this.
You go beyond and then you come back.
And then you go beyond and then you come back.
Then you go beyond again.
And if you do this over and over again,
It goes from being theoretical to being a very visceral,
Deep,
Meaningful,
Powerful experience that is extremely nourishing and you will find this experience is so beautiful,
So blissful.
And so again,
You might come to that question of why do I come here?
Why do we have to be here?
And it's this eternal dance of consciousness with matter.
In the home,
It's like we're dormant or like in a dormant state.
We're alive,
We're conscious.
It's like a dormant,
Deep,
Deep state of peace.
And when we're here,
It's like we're actors.
And as consciousness interacts with matter in this eternal dance,
You experience.
So it's like that dormant seed that you are,
The soul,
Comes into matter,
Is planted in the grounds of this physical world.
And you grow and you bloom and you blossom and you experience and you express and you take form.
And there's something so miraculous about that.
It's a miracle.
It's beautiful.
Comes with all seasons.
And so being aware of that,
That there's that dormant state and there's that experience now that we very much need to go home,
To go to our divine parents home and recharge.
And to experience the spiritual power and light.
And then to appreciate this eternal dance with matter.
And to realize that God is the being who stays in reserve.
It's constantly,
Eternally powerful.
Eternally full of all virtues,
All powers,
All light.
And so by the time we get to this stage in the cycle of life,
We're quite tired and worn out and confused.
And so this is when we do spiritual recharge,
When we reconnect to the divine,
To the parent,
To the one in the home,
To have a spiritual awakening to remember and to recharge.
So we can enjoy,
Enjoy these things.
So beautiful.
Go beyond.
Go home.
Feel that infinite peace.
Like having wonderful sleep and then coming back refreshed.
It really is very similar to having a beautiful,
Beautiful night's sleep.
Deep,
Deep sleep.
And then you might have been stressed out when you went to bed and there was all these things.
Then you have beautiful rest and then you wake up and you're like,
Ah,
Yes.
And that wonderful stretch in the morning.
And it's like,
Ah,
Yeah,
Ah,
It's that.
Basically,
It's that times a thousand.
And especially if I'm sure we've all experienced nights when you don't sleep.
I had one of those recently.
That moon was very strong.
We had recently.
And and so then when you finally sleep after not having slept for maybe a day,
Maybe it's more than a day.
You know,
Some people experience long times without sleeping.
When you finally drop into that deep space,
You feel so refreshed.
So with a spiritual practice,
We're going all the way home and resting in the deepest state of peace.
So would you love to experience more deep peace?
It's as simple as going beyond.
Now,
You know what you're going beyond,
Too.
You're going into that golden light.
Next time you see a golden red sunset,
Just look at it and just really feel into it.
Because I've noticed that people all over the world.
I remember when I was living in Hawaii,
People from all walks of life,
Different ages,
Different backgrounds would gather to watch the sunset.
And when the sun turned that golden red color,
All these people who are normally talking and rowdy,
Everyone just goes quiet,
Almost speechless to take in that light.
Because that reminds us every day when we see these sunsets of the light.
And so we're being reminded again and again,
If you look up into the skies,
Into the sky at night,
You see that we come from the light,
From the stars,
Beyond the stars.
We're like little shining beings.
Then when you see the sunset or the sunrise,
We remember our home.
So the physical world is giving us these little clues all the time.
It's almost a little bit cheeky.
You know,
It's right there.
And now we can even deeper go into that experience.
And like I was showing before,
It starts out as just a nice idea.
But as you practice it,
And as you really have the intention to go deeper into this awareness,
You'll feel that your whole life starts to feel lighter and more free.
It's such a beautiful topic,
Such a beautiful place to remember,
To go home to,
To be with the beloved in the home.
And the more you practice this,
You will experience waves of bliss and peace wash over you,
Clearing and cleansing your mind and your heart,
Uplifting you,
Giving you energy,
Giving you peace,
Giving you clarity.
Really,
Anything,
Any elevated experience that you want to attain can be attained through this practice.
So you can set the intention yourself.
What do you want to experience?
What state of consciousness do you want to experience?
And the more you recharge spiritually,
Go beyond,
Into the home,
Be with the one,
The more beauty unfolds in your life in every way.
It's almost difficult to put words to.
We're using language,
A limited,
Limited language,
To describe that which is beyond words,
That which is beyond sound,
That which is beyond space,
Beyond time,
The eternal.
And so we invite you to go beyond,
Into the eternal,
Again and again.
You can listen to meditations we have that support you going home.
And we look forward to hearing your experience,
Your transformation,
Because we already know it will be remarkable,
Divine.
So a little practice you can do is just to go beyond 10 times a day.
You can point your finger up,
You can remember I come from the light.
Imagine,
Feel yourself,
Experience yourself outside of all the endless details,
In the infinite peace,
In the light,
In the company of the divine.
And as you do it more and more and more,
You will feel huge shifts in consciousness.
I remember I was one time working in an eight hour a day job,
Which is the only time I did it and it nearly killed me.
I hated it.
It was really hard because I'm not used to working eight hours a day.
I was marking exams and it was awful work.
It was multiple choice English foreign student exams.
And in between each exam,
I had a little bit of time.
So to stop me going crazy and feeling too bored,
I went into the light in between each one and I remember experiencing that one day I felt terrible because I wasn't practicing anything.
I was just doing eight hours a day of boring work.
Next day,
I did this practice of going beyond in between my work and that day I left the job feeling like I was flying.
I remember feeling this is better than any meditation I've ever had in my life,
Really,
Because I did it so many times.
I probably did it about a thousand times because there's so many little things in between each question I was doing it.
So you answer the question,
Go beyond,
Come back,
Do the next question.
And it really had such a profound effect on me that I felt like I was flying as I left the room on that day.
So if you practice this in your daily life,
In between things,
In between situations,
You just try it out.
Try it out yourself and see and feel the difference.
So beautiful that even in a situation like Michael was in that was so mundane and you could say kind of boring,
Eight hours of grading papers.
Oh my goodness.
Right.
But how even that can be transformed into this elevated spiritual experience because that's what you are.
It's about bringing your awareness there.
So every scene of life can transcend that mundane,
Heavier consciousness into this elevated divine experience.
So it's been a real joy to share this today.
Such an elevated topic.
The vibrations of this topic are elevated and you must be feeling that as well.
So may you be a divine cosmic traveler,
A spiritual eternal traveler who goes beyond when you feel like and comes back when you feel like.
May you experience total freedom.
So much love and eternal blessings.
Om Shanti.
Your podcast is absolutely wonderful.
And sometimes it's a rare treat that I actually get to listen as you're doing it live.
This was exactly what I needed to hear today.
And this practice can completely change your life.
Amazing as you get used to it and get into the habit of it.
Even like Michael said,
Being in like routine daily,
Like things that we do all the time.
It makes it so much more and so much more fun to stop and go beyond and come back and remember down here is just not that serious.
It's just go beyond and keep coming back and keep remembering that you're so much more than whatever you think you are.
So thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you,
Nea.
So always so good to hear you and feel your voice.
And feel your vibrations and your experience.
And yeah,
I can feel and see you going beyond so many times when you're at work and you're such a sweet soul.
I know you work a lot and you give a lot.
You know,
You offer a lot of service.
And to have this practice must be so magical to bring that magic into every moment.
So it's really beautiful to hear from you.
And it is really is like Nea was saying,
It's fun and games.
It becomes more fun.
Life can become a real challenge if we haven't got that spiritual awareness.
It can become really,
Really awful,
Actually.
And this is a way of pulling us out of the mundane into the extraordinary in a second.
So it's an amazing thing to experience.
And the secret really is to take it to heart and try and do it thousands of times a day.
That day when I practiced it in the examination hall,
Marking all these exams,
I literally probably did it.
I can't say I didn't count them,
But it probably was at least 1,
000 to 2,
000 times.
And I still remember that now all these years later because it was so powerful and such a profound experience.
I felt like I was literally floating on air,
Leaving the room rather than feeling terrible and drained.
It was such a huge contrast.
So we can practice it when we're walking.
We can practice it when we're in between things.
You can even practice it when you're driving.
Just don't do too much in case you're not paying attention to the road.
Just maybe don't do it.
I don't think you should do it when you're driving.
So amazing to connect in such an elevated way.
We are so blessed to be connecting with the eternal.
There are so many souls in the world in this very moment who are not aware of this,
Who are not having this discussion.
And so may our vibrations from this call reach each and every soul of the world,
Even if just for a moment,
Just for a second,
They feel themselves go beyond.
A wave of peace washes over them and they feel lifted out of their trouble,
Their suffering,
Their pain.
So we can all take a moment to have that intention.
And that may each and every soul experience the eternal home divine.
And the more we experience this,
The more we create that atmosphere and vibration around us.
So that more and more souls can tune into it as well.
So thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you for your presence,
For your service in our world.
We will have an hour of meditation later today as well.
And let today be a day of eternal awareness.
Awareness of that which is beyond,
Forever,
Divine.
Om Shanti.
Wishing you infinite peace,
Total freedom.
Thank you for your presence.
And enjoy,
Enjoy,
Enjoy the wonders of this amazing world.
Lots of love.
