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But then there are other questions. Ignorance or fallacious conceptions about such questions rules out even the possibility of finding happiness. These questions are precisely those that we have come to regard as the eternal questions of mankind:
• Who are we, a product of evolution or God’s creations?
• Where did we come from when we entered the world, and where do we go after death?
• Do people have souls, and are they eternal?
• Is there a life “beyond the grave”? Does that life include a Heaven and a Hell?
• What is the meaning of life? Does each person have a specific destiny, and if so, how do we find out about it?
• Is there such a thing as Fate, and who decides it? Can a person change his/her fate, or is their entire life predetermined?
• Why is the world made to include so much unhappiness and suffering?
• Are souls reincarnated in a new body after death, or do we only live once?
• Do people have guardian angels and how can one make contact with them?
• What is the meaning of our dreams? Do they have some sort of logic or are they simply the expression of our deep-seated wishes and fears?
• Do each of us have a “soul mate” somewhere in the world, and how do we search them out?
It is ignorance about these questions that bring down sorrow upon a person both here and in the afterlife, regardless of whether or not someone believes in life after death. When people do not know the answer to these questions, or when they possess false conceptions regarding them, it is only possible, at best, for them to find physical pleasure and short-lived happiness during their time on Earth.
We assert that happiness is a state of the soul, which is attained through the implementation of the program for its (the soul’s) fulfillment. Only in such a case will one’s “soul sing for joy.” It is precisely the soul, and not the body, which is able to sing from bliss (which is not the same as true happiness) as a result of this or that earthly achievement or physical pleasure. But is it possible to realize your plan if you do not even suspect its existence? Or if you guess its existence, but cannot imagine what it might contain? Of course not. This is why for ignorant people happiness remains an unachievable dream.
One of the most destructive ideas that stems from ignorance is the opinion that people are created for complete happiness. This theory is the opposite of the “original sin” point of view, but no less dangerous. And it is a theory which has a large number of proponents, among them many respected figures.
There is a widely known saying from Leo Tolstoy’s classic of world literature which says that “man must be happy.”
In Russia there’s another popular saying, also attributable to a former author, Vladimir Korolenko (1853—1921): “Human beings are created for happiness as birds are created for flight.” This author and his works have long been forgotten by the general public, but this phrase took flight and is loved by all.
Konstantin Ushinsky (1824—1871), the founding father of Russian scientific pedagogy, also threw in his ten cents in support of this view of man’s fate: “The right to happiness is an inalienable right of all people.” As the highest authority on pedagogy in all of Russia, Ushinksy’s assertion made its way into all school programs in not only Tsarist but in Soviet Russia as well. And again people saw in this idea what they wanted to see: if a person has a right to happiness, then someone else (but not ourselves) has the responsibility of ensuring that happiness.
This deep misconception with respect to the meaning of life has taken root not only in Russian minds; long ago it spread throughout the entire world. It was developed rapidly during the third century B.C. by the great ancient Greek thinker Epicurus (342—241 B.C.), who not only played a major role in the philosophy of antiquity, but who also exercised significant influence on the worldview of millions of people in the following generations.
Epicurus stated that “for us pleasure is the beginning and end of a happy life.” That satisfaction of material needs will remove suffering and lead to happiness is the core of his philosophy, which quickly and easily took root in the soil of Greece and subsequently succeeded in spreading throughout the world.
The noted French writer and philosopher of the Renaissance Michel de Montaigne (1533—1592) proposed that man exists not to create ethical ideas for himself to strive to attain, but rather to be happy. To be fair, in his book Les Essais he does note that “our good or ill has no other dependence but on ourselves.”
“Man is placed on the earth not to become rich, but to become happy.” So thought the distinguished French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), who has greatly influenced the belief systems of millions of people not only in France but throughout the entire world. This is the same Flaubert, by the way, who wrote in his Memoirs (1853): “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, only pride prevents me…” But few are acquainted with this side of his work, and Flaubert’s depression, by the way, had its roots precisely in his false conceptions about the meaning of life and the absence of any concept of harmony in the Universe.
The Indian philosopher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1914 – 2008) also enabled the wide spread of this illusion about people’s destinies.
In 1957, having undergone training in India, Maharishi created the worldwide Spiritual Regeneration Movement, and in 1958 began missionary work first in America and then in Europe. By the start of the twenty-first century, his Meditation Centers had spread throughout the world and his followers exceeded five million people.
What was the philosophy introduced by Maharishi to the Western World?
“Life is Bliss. Man is born to enjoy the grace of God. Just float in a stream of bliss and nature and this stream will take care of everything else.”
Of course, how could millions of suffering people not like such a philosophy? All that remained was to find this “stream of bliss,” immerse your head in it, and forget all about your troubles and sorrows, along with all your plans and responsibilities. The stream will take care of the rest.
Intentionally or unintentionally, Maharishi’s philosophy engendered the rise of the hippy movement, which took hold of the West during the 1960s. Hippies protested against traditional culture, called for peace and unity with nature, grew out their hair and wore ragged clothes, listened to rock-n-roll, smoked marijuana and engaged in meditation, sex, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism. Of course, they didn’t work anywhere and lived “in the stream of bliss and nature,” exactly as Maharishi suggested. But the word hippy only superficially resembles the word happy, and so the hippy movement, having exhausted itself, had already come to nothing by the 1970s; but the philosophy of bliss remained. And so, today 200 million drug addicts (according to the UN) are searching for the oblivion of “the stream,” which is carrying away not only happiness, but their very lives as well.
Over the loud choir of preachers suggesting the possibility of a Paradise on Earth it is almost impossible to hear the voice of German dramatist and philosopher Gotthold Lessing (1729—1781) coming to us from the depths of the eighteenth century:
“The primary reason for our dissatisfaction with life is the unfounded assumption that we have a right to complete and undisturbed happiness; that we are born for such happiness.”
Please read these words one more time: “…the unfounded assumption…” Where did Tolstoy, Ushinsky, Flaubert and other great minds draw their assumptions from, or, more precisely, assertions? Most likely from a great desire to be happy. Just as every man wishes to be happy, so that it was so easy for the sayings of these authoritative figures to pass on to their children and grandchildren… As a result millions of people in the world are absolutely sure that they are born to be happy. And because of this, they are in truth born bound for a completely different end: a collision of their false belief system with harsh reality, leading to stress, which is soon followed by depression and suffering. This is the source of Flaubert’s depression, of Gogol’s sad thoughts, and of the suffering of millions of people throughout the world.
So much suffering is produced by this one illusion! And so many more harmful misconceptions are firmly entrenched in people’s consciousness!
We are fully united in the conviction that it is not the harsh conditions of life that are themselves the reason for suffering, but our conceptions about what is good and bad for us and about how the world ought to be. This thought was clearly expressed two thousand years ago by the great Roman Emperor and no less great philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180). As he departed this life, he left to posterity not only a prospering and well-defended Rome, but also an entire collection of wise thoughts, which later formed a book by the title The Meditations. Here is an example taken from among them:
“Take away your opinion, and there is taken away the complaint, […] Take away the complaint, […] and the harm is taken away” [10].
And so, everything depends on our thoughts, on our attitudes towards the people, subjects and phenomena that surround us. It is precisely our thoughts, values and convictions, i.e. our worldview, rather than material conditions, that defines the quality of our life.
Another German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860), was among those who share the sensible beliefs of Gotthold Lessing. He writes:
“There is one misconception at the root of all problems – it is the belief that we are born to be happy.”
But Shopenhauer’s words went unheard; as a rule people only hear what they want to hear.
For this reason the ideas of their countryman Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900) received wide acceptance throughout the world. Among his ideas is the concept of suicide as an escape from difficult situations. He claims, that if happiness does not show its smiling face, we can quietly part with life, ridding ourselves of all stress and suffering in a single stroke:
“My death, praise I unto you, the voluntary death, which cometh unto me because I want it.”
The idea of suicide so attracted Nietzsche that he actually poeticized it:
“…Do I go out like a candle, which is not blown out by the wind, but palls, having spent itself; a burnt-out candle? Or in the end, do I blow myself out, so as not to burn low?”
Could even the great Nietzsche write in ignorance? And why not? Who added him to the list of great philosophers? This is unclear, but what is well known is that Nietzsche spent the last twenty years of his life suffering heavily from physical and psychological ailments. It was in precisely this period that he wrote his great philosophical works. What else can we expect from a man sick in both mind and body but hymns to death’s sweet deliverance? That deliverance, by the way, finally came to the philosopher in a psychiatric ward.
We have already noted the results of our own research regarding “spiritual questions” among our students. Their level of knowledge was nothing to scoff at. Now let’s take a look on the world level; what do people believe in and what do they know of the global questions regarding their existence? Let us begin our review in the Unites States, the country with the greatest number of universities scientific institutions and the greatest amount of financial investment in education. However, as it turns out, all these universities and investments are ineffective at enlightening people about the global questions of their existence. An analytical report from Gallup International paints a striking picture of American ignorance regarding what goes on beyond the boundaries of traditional science. The following results were received by Gallup as the result of phone interviews with 1,002 people over the age of 18 during June of 2005:
59% do not believe in extrasensory abilities;
68% do not believe in ghosts;
69% do not believe in telepathy;
74% do not believe it is possible to look into the future or the past;
79% don’t believe it is possible to contact the souls of the dead;
80% do not believe that souls are reborn into new bodies after death (reincarnation).
Only 1% of Americans simultaneously believe in all the above phenomena, and 27% do not even believe in one of them! And this despite the fact that all these phenomena are confirmed and proven by thousands of experiences and experiments and are written about in hundreds of books! But, as it turns out, people prefer comics, detective novels and trashy novels to such books.
Research into such questions in Western Europe and in Russia yielded similar results.
The Gallup Center’s statements regarding the number of people who believe in God and spiritual life after death are of similar interest. It would seem that these numbers should coincide – all religions speak of the immortal soul – but look for yourself at the results of their polls:
What God is it that people believe in if they deny the existence of life after physical death?
We took an interest in similar research carried out by other organizations and received several other facts. 121,215 people from all over the world took part in internet-surveys regarding the question “Do you Believe in God” on the site www.yesnogod.com. Here is how their votes were divided:
As you can see, the number of believers is significantly less than in the Gallup Center research.
In June of 2006, on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany, a German sociological institute conducted a poll in which only 50% of respondents indicated a belief in God. At the same time, according to statistics 65% of Germans officially belong to either the Roman Catholic or one of various Protestant churches. Does it follow that 15% of Germans belong to the church but do not believe in God?
We began to sort through these contradictions by carrying out research among our students, and revealed that all the above mentioned statistics are unreliable; not one of them reflects the real state of affairs. Here’s why.
In responding to the proposed questions with a monosyllabic “yes” or “no,” each person saw in the answer their own understanding of the given question, an understanding which turned out, under detailed questioning, to be either incredibly vague or completely absent. And so, including themselves among believers in God were people who have never read the Bible (such people constituted 60%), who do not observe the majority of their religion’s tenets (82%), who do not go to confession (99%), who know nothing about the life of even one saint (93%) and who even have a very incomplete understanding regarding the life of Jesus Christ (75%). Even the “Lord’s Prayer” could be recited by only 15% of those who responded as “believers.”
Those who did observe religious ceremonies couldn’t explain their content, origins or significance for the development of the soul. “Believers” did not even know the very core of Christian teaching, couldn’t explain what it means “to turn the other cheek,” Christ’s command to “love your enemies,” or the phrase “blessed are the poor in spirit.” There were few who could even list Christ’s commands from the Sermon on the Mount, not to speak of regularly applying them to their lives. But the saddest result of our research was that many people’s very understanding of God turned out to be alarmingly primitive. Most people imagined God as some sort of entity that constantly fixes us in his field of vision and carefully tallies good and bad deeds so that after each person’s death they can be called to account for their actions. Such an image is very similar to that which reined among our ancestors hundreds and thousands of years ago.
Many people counted themselves among Christians simply on the basis that they sometimes attend church. Others did it just to feel “like everyone else,” in case the people around them primarily consisted of such “believers.” A few were sincerely convinced that to consider oneself a Christian and to call oneself a believer on the survey it was enough to simply not kill, not steal and attend church on major holidays.
People who considered themselves atheists also did not shine with knowledge about even one of the questions directed at them. “I don’t believe, and that’s it!” proudly replied the unbelievers. “What specifically do you not believe in?” we attempted to clarify. “Not in God, not in the devil!” “And why don’t you believe?” “I don’t believe, and that’s it!”
In general, things went along the lines of the following parable:
The Parable of the Great Atheist
In ancient times, several thousands years ago, there lived a young man who considered himself an atheist. At the time rumors were circulating about some Great Atheist who could defeat any priest in a debate. The young man decided to find this Great Atheist and become his pupil. And so, after much wandering, he came to the hut where he had been told the Great Atheist lived. His knock was answered by an elderly voice:
“Who has the night brought searching to my door?”
“I seek the Great Atheist, so that I might become his student,” said the young man.
The elderly man allowed him to enter and began to question him.
“What do you wish to learn from me?” he asked his first question.
“How to debate with priests and to counter their arguments. I already do not believe in either God, souls, or the afterlife, but my arguments don’t suffice for debate.”
“But why don’t you believe?” asked the old man.
“It’s all nonsense!” cried the young man, “They simply doesn’t exist!”
“But have you read the Bible or the Koran?”
“Of course not! I’m an atheist!” he proudly replied.
“And have you consulted with priests?”
“So far no. That’s precisely why I came here, to learn how to argue with them.”
“And what do you know of clinical death?”
“At this point nothing.”
“Have you tried to leave your body?”
“No! Can one even do such a thing?”
“Have you talked with people who claim that this is not their first life?”
“I haven’t met any such people.”
“And what do you know about reincarnation?”
“I don’t even know that word.”
“Well, then you are not an atheist,” the old man summed up the conversation, “and you have nothing to do with me.”
“Then what am I?” said the surprised young man, “I don’t believe in anything!”
“You’re simply a fool,” the Great Atheist sighed compassionately.
Why is it that we are examining these questions about faith in such detail? Is it really necessary, in order to find complete happiness, to be a true believer, to delve into religious canons and practice saintly compliance with all religious tenets?
Of course not. We raise the question of faith in God simply because without a clear conception of the soul and its relationship to God it is impossible to understand either the meaning of life or its purpose, without which understanding happiness will, in its turn, seem unobtainable and the defeat of suffering – impossible.
And so, we have established the firm connection between people’s suffering and their total ignorance about the global questions of life. The diagnosis is clear, but what is the cure? Is it possible that knowledge could be the cure? And what knowledge in particular is necessary to embark on the road to happiness?
The results of our years of research point unequivocally to one conclusion: understanding oneself, the meaning of one’s life and one’s purpose and the fulfillment of that purpose here on earth is the one path to achieving true happiness.
Happiness begins where ignorance ends
We have become convinced of this both due to our own long marriage experience of 35 years and the experiences of our students, many of whom have managed to transform from suffering, unhappy people to successful, happy ones. And there’s no big secret here – these people simply began to seriously study and to grasp concepts about which they previously had either no knowledge at all or had misconceptions. Of course success was achieved only by those who didn’t simply attend lessons but who obstinately worked at them and who, furthermore, did so by employing the special methods which we shall discuss a little later.
We have already noted that in 1999 we opened the “School of Business” for the professional training of managers from commercial companies. And we really do train people in successful sales methods. But that’s not all we do. In our School’s program there are twenty topics which could be categorized as relating to personal growth if not for one “but.” This “but” consists in the fact that all these “spiritual” topics, as we call them, turned out to have enormous influence on the professional growth of our students. As such, we have long ceased to divide the subjects taught at our school between those related to professional growth and those related to personal development. They are simply concepts which lead to improvements in life as a whole: to health, to successful business, to understanding the meaning of life and to self-realization, and, in the end, to happiness.
Specifically what knowledge is it that helped us and thousands of our students to change our lives on a basic level, to be done with despair and to achieve, if not complete happiness, then at least a peaceful, harmonious existence?
Before all else, it is knowledge of the Divine Nature of the Universe and of man as its building blocks, of the meaning for mankind’s existence and of personal destiny. In this area we were greatly helped by recent discoveries in the field of quantum physics.
Understanding of the cycles of development of the planet and of society, of the true reasons for the alarming events taking place on the Earth today: of global warming and natural catastrophes, of economic and demographic crises, of increased violence and mental illness, about the ties between them and their relation to cosmic factors such as, before all else, the precession of the earth’s axis.
Understanding of human energy, the ability to direct energy along paths in your body, the mastering of various methods of holographic therapy.
Understanding of the material character of our thoughts and the mechanism for fulfilling one’s desires in life, comprehending the “Dream Formula.”
Understanding the magical power of words and the fact that it is possible, with the help of verbal self-affirmation, to shake off disease and strengthen one’s self confidence.
Understanding the physiological basis of family relations and sexual cycles.
At our School, we teach our students a diverse range of topics and, for a start, help them to discover their potential. We work off the idea that each person, from birth, is endowed with a massive collection of abilities, but during the coming of age process, he or she accumulates false conceptions and fears, like a husk. In the end the individual transforms into a twisted, insecure, suffering being. We see it as our mission to use our collected knowledge to help each person to peel back this husk, layer by layer, and to reveal his or her true, Divine existence. Our experience tells us that it is within the power of each person who sincerely wants change in his or her life, and who is able to overcome his or her idleness.