Initiation: Realizing You are Not the Body

The main goal of initiation is to come to the knowledge that you are not the body. This is realized in in the trial and lessons as well as experiences throughout our life. If we are consciously working with ourselves we can ascend the ladder of initiation more quickly and come to the illumination of the beings within the body.

In ancient times the initiation rituals consisted of inducing a near death experience to the initiate and the bringing them back to life through various means. This is how they were able to gain the knowledge that the I AM, the individuality continues when the body dies.

When we are unconscious or ourselves we live our lives as if we were the body in and of itself. We may feel that we are automatic, we do not have much control of our thinking patterns and reactions. In the beginning the consciousness is very much asleep to its divine origins. At around age four the ego starts manifesting and completely making its home in the human body. We begin crystalizing our ego in our adolescence and from there on up it is up to us to come to the realization that we are in a body not the body it self.

I remember when I was seventeen years old I woke up in the night and became very frightened with the feeling that I was not my body but something or someone trapped inside of a body. This realization was terrifying as if before I identified solely with the body but by feeling my self and coming to realization of I Am Consciousness separate from the body and mind a feeling of entrapment took place. From this point on I came to more experiential knowledge of being separate from the body.

The first stage of initiation is simply hearing and intellectual understanding that we are souls inside of a body. After a while of mediation and dedicated austerities, we begin to get a more distant feel of the spot where the I am appears and the body itself. We begin to feel that the body is enveloped within ourselves, that the body is actual inside of the Soul.

Practice sitting with the sense of I Am, take no thought and simply feel the feeling of being itself. Try to come to the feeling that you re not the mind that the mind is a computer that’s the true self or soul is connected to and once departs is no longer bound by the mind itself.

This world is produced by the Minds, we are not the Minds but the beings with minds. The mind is the machine the soul uses to express itself in a limited way. Once we begin to Identify with who we are which is the being we will see the body as a vehicle. Life will no longer be the same, you will be merged with the inner witness which is always safe.

The soul cannot be harmed  in this creation or even by Almighty God. Therefore, Ch 2 of Gita says the Soul cannot be cut or wet or dried or burnt by elements. The Soul is part of eternal Truth it has its nature.It is the mind and body (gross or subtle) that is of elements and haste elemental nature and affected by them. Once we come to this knowledge of self we will no longer have fear, even when the body is in severe pain we will be safe within our being and know that the conscious continues eternally. You will come to a sense of looking in from somewhere else rather than being trapped in the body.