Saturday, January 5, 2013

Helpful guidelines for spiritual growth to people with psychiatric disorders


          





                       Many may ask if it is possible for a human caught with an onslaught of a psychosis or neurosis to meditate, get Enlightened and get rid of his/her psychiatric disorder once and for all. If you ask me,  this scribe says yes, the state of Enlightment or the state of Samadhi can alleviate any form of psychiatric disorder on planet earth. This scribe is a living example among this class who has helped himself through the thick and thin of his chronic psychotic illness and helped himself ease through finally. Among the famous saints it is Mr.Eckhart Tolle who got relieved of his mental disorder the moment he got Enlightened.



                     First of all it is very very mandatory that a psychiatric patient get oneself the guidance of a very competent psychiatrist. It should be also kept in mind that such a doctor should be more than willing to arrange  enough time to offer proper counseling. A good psychiatrist usually teaches a technique to bring the symptoms of your disorder under control. This scribe himself learnt a rationalization technique to curb down his symptoms and that was how he could meditate with ease. There was once an ailing man who went to the great Buddha because he was ill, but the Buddha advised him to go to a doctor. The man agreed, went to the doctor and got healed. This example implies that one should meet the concerned specialist or doctor if he has any illness and not an achieved soul because an Enlightened being can only offer spiritual counseling and not medical counseling. Whenever one encounters a psychiatric problem one should go and consult his/her psychiatrist. People are usually cheated with adulterated drugs(medicines) especially in the underdeveloped or developing countries. One should be careful enough  to purchase medicines manufactured in a quality pharmaceutical company that will help bring the psychiatric symptoms under control. Any of the drugs which can be labeled “something like it” will not do.



                  Non-identification is a very powerful technique that can be applied to bring the symptoms under control. The moment you move away from reality and get identified with your unrealistic thoughts a psychotic/neurotic state starts. It is advised to stick to reality at all times and never to get identified with your thoughts. This scribe used the rationalization technique for many years then stopped using the technique and started    meditating on a regular basis. But it is suggested not to use the rationalization technique at all since it may hinder the natural process to reach the source of thought. It is only enough to apply the principle  and realization to which the problem is tied and realize that all psychiatric symptoms are false. Dont make use of meditative sessions to forcefully dissolve the symptoms. The symptoms are best healed naturally by not so forceful meditative sessions. 



                        The two main important points to succeed on the spiritual path would be firstly, to stick   to reality and secondly, to have a firm faith in God. Sticking to reality most significantly means that if you are still single the best option for you would be not itching to hunt for a soulmate. One of the main causes of human suffering is getting identified with transient and unreal things. Our real nature is the non-material nature and the problem that happens if you repeatedly get identified with the material aspect or the opposite sex, a transient and unreal thing as sex and the physical body, is that your destiny, your door to the highest spiritual potential may get hindered and you may regret in the long run. As you climb the higher spiritual planes you will start getting Godly, spiritual and not sexual. Physical union speeds up spiritual growth but there should be complete, harmonious compatibility with your soulmate. Secondly, having a firm faith in God makes you stick to the spiritual path no matter how rigorous the journey. If one surrenders wholeheartedly to God one shall be guided along his/her spiritual journey. One of the most prime factors that gets a psychiatric patient sticking to the spiritual path is counting on God’s grace and guidance to be guided and not having a Master to guide you along the spiritual journey. I had four spiritual Masters before I finally met my meditation instructor and I doubted my previous Masters to the very extreme. Psychiatric patients doubt their Masters very much because of their onslaught of psychosis or neurosis. It is believed that if one doubts his/her Master one may be driven to the points of insanity. One tends to get disturbed when one doubts his/her Master which may ultimately divert one to lose his spiritual path. The best measure to be taken would be to treat God as your guide, for how can one doubt the will of God or the Ultimate Authority? Treat your meditation instructor as only your teacher and not your Master or Sadguru. If imbibing the concept of realizing God becomes difficult you can concentrate on reaching the source of everlasting happiness, a state of no-suffering, the non-material  state or having your soul nature, awareness awakened.As you gradually start getting spiritually elevated you will get tuned and compatible with God  and Godly nature.



                      It is best for psychiatric patients to employ a short, practical and effective meditation technique. Practicing pranayama is most favourable for patients suffering from hallucinations as threatening and dangerous hallucinations make it difficult for patients to practice meditation. If you know how to tackle hallucinations then you can easily practice a short, effective and practical meditation. Pranayam develops similar spiritual growth process as meditation does. A fifteen to twenty minutes meditative session is adequate for spiritual growth practiced twice a day on a regular basis. Sri Sri Ravishanker’s meditation technique, Mr.Dipak Chopra’s So-Hum meditation, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi’s T.M.technique are some of the ones that can be called short, practical and effective meditation techniques. Please be careful so as to learn a meditation technique only from a certified meditation instructor. It is advisable to lead an active life so that  once your awareness develops from the dawn of the fifth plane your awareness shall remain intact twenty four hours on a continuous stretch.The more seriously one meditates the quicker the spiritual growth happens.



                   If you feel there are any blocks in your system it is not a thing to worry about. It will be taken care of. Alcohol and drugs are not recommended for people on psychiatric medication and on a daily session of meditation. Tea, cigarettes, tobacco and betel nuts don’t hinder the meditation process. If you have a habit of taking cigarettes, smoke one hour before the meditative session and twenty minutes after concluding the meditation.There are no precautionary measures against tobacco but dont chew tobacco while doing your daily meditation. It is only adequate to employ the right meditation technique.



                      Neurosis can be healed through medication but psychosis can never be healed through medication but only through meditation. There will be very little chances of sanity being restored without reaching the state of Samadhi or Enlightment. In this age  of Enlightment only a firm resolve from your part for a very committed meditation practice is enough to get you healed forever. One point to remember after transcending the fourth plane is not to misuse your power to manifest your desires because the more you misuse your power to manifest your desires the more difficult it will be to climb up to the higher spiritual planes.



                        Metaphysical studies will help you get to know everything about the spiritual field. Paramhansa Yogananda has delved very deeply into the aspect of God and His ways. If one does not misintrepet Paramhansa’s message it is okay but it may cause problems if one really starts talking to God if there is like one of Paramhansas guidance on how to commune with God.   Sometimes very in-depth spiritual reading can also distract psychiatric patients so the best measure would be not to misintrepet any spiritual books and its messages and to read them when you become psychologically balanced after quite  some time of regular meditation. There was a phase in my spiritual career at one time when I got drawn by sex and feared the dawn of the state of Samadhi. At this very instant my instructor advised me to go through Power, Freedom and Grace, a book by Dipak Chopra. Reading this book pulled me through and got me immense spiritual success. This is what the power of metaphysical studies are like. Books written by saints like Paramhansha Yogananda, J.Krishnamurti, Aurubindo, Ramana Maharshi, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, Kripaluji, Sri Sri Ravishanker, Dr.Wayne.W.Dyer, Dipak Chopra, Echkart Tolle is  a must read. Other books on Gita, Upanishads, Vedas, on Ramakrishnna Paramhansha and Vivekananda and on the Buddha will also prove to be effective.



                     Theories about psychology and reading books on psychology will also help one to realize a lot about the mechanism of psychiatric disorders and learning to tackle them. This scribe went through a lot of psychological stuff in spiritual journals which helped him a lot through his meditative growth process. Carl Jung is one good professor on psychology and I personally feel it would not suit the tastes of a spiritual aspirant to read stuffs by Abraham Maslow who prioritises the fullfilment and happiness of his heirs above his Self-Realisation. This scribe keeps wondering how a person such as Maslow who claims to be Self-Actualised(Self-Realised) prioritises his family even above Self-Realisation when a  Self-Realised  person is not attached to his/her family at all. A Self-Realised person is completely detatched from the world and is free of  attachment. It won’t be surprising to note that the very movement(one of the movements in which the scribe was in before) which prioritised sex, relationship and marriage prefered having Maslows theories into their master spiritual workshops and seminars.Just see the similarities. Like mindsets, similar principles and much about the same realizations.



                   Lastly, it would not be wise for a psychiatric patient to attach oneself to movements which are anti-God  and very very radical simply for the reason that he/she may get extremely disturbed if one does so. For example, there is one Non-Being movement which claims that the Zen technique is their meditation style and method. This scribe does not feel a Zen test is something that is imposed on an aspirants life who are at the very basic consciousness levels and that too on a psychiatrically ill patient. Let me give you an example. There lived a Zen Master ages ago who had a disciple who got Self-Realised. The Zen Master was dying and he was in search of an achieved disciple who could take over his reins. So one day when the Self-Realised disciple of his was fanning him with a fan the Zen Master cut one of his fingers with a knife all of a sudden. The disciple never said a word and did not object in any manner. This instance of accepting the will of the Infinite Being is what the Self-Realisation state all about and this was a proper Zen test. The concerned fact here is, the so-called Enlightened masters of this radical movement I was in before created persecution like tests in the name of a Zen test, that too among disciples who were at the very basic consciousness levels and who were psychotic/neurotic. How can a very basic aspirant and a psychotic/neurotic one accept a test in the name of a Zen test who are not realized enough  to accept a single thing in their life? This scribe wonders if these       so-called Zen masters can even spell the word “Zen” correctly. One of their persecution like Zen tests goes like this. One day while I was attending their workshop on the     eight-fold path of Buddha one of the so-called acharyas fired a volley of rash words in great anger directed at a middle-aged woman who they believed was not treating her husband properly. Immediately after the volley was fired the woman was a bundle of nerves and nearly broke down. If these so-called acharyas think she is not treating her husband properly don’t you think the so-called Enlightened beings who guide these acharyas and disciples to pass these unnecessary so-called Zen tests are realized enough to believe that we’re not the doer,we’re not the roles we  play but only mere instruments in the hands of God. I myself tried committing suicide on that very  day one of the so-called great yogis of this movement instrumented his disciple to deliver one of this so-called Zen tests to  me. I also know of one incident in which a brother of a friend of mine went insane while attending one of their meditation camps. Whether he  went insane solely due to one of their “Hitlerian authoritarian dictatorship persecuting the Jews” like case or due to natural causes is yet to be affirmed. These are such class of people who can land any potential aspirant in the doldrums forever. We have more of these spiritual smart-alecs and we will have uncountable spiritual aspirants into a hell-hole forever. This scribe is  just wondering what an undercover espionage network is doing to bust their movement these days. So be careful and smart enough to choose between the right and wrong and move ahead to the appointed spiritual destiny with lots of zeal and enthusiasm.It won’t take any competent individuals to realize who is achieved, Self-Realised, Enlightened and who is not. These people better realize not to  poke  their noses into other’s business, not to assume that they have the entire planet to themselves and not to undermine God’s authority.These  people prefer taking God’s authority into their own hands. God lay’s down the law, everyone is to obey and no one is to interfere. Dont worry! You’re not suffering from a psychiatric disorder because you’re a sinner! Consider your so-called sins as your negative karma. Perform responsible actions so that you will never feel guilty. There is a state in the spiritual growth process where all your negative karmas shall be washed away.



                    All these psychiatric disorders that we suffer from are only a process of evolution and it is how we take these processes and evolute that we really adapt and develop further. I never regretted suffering from the onslaught of a two decades of Paranoid Schizophrenia but took this as a  stepping stone and opportunity to propel me onto the path of meditation and this is exactly what you should be doing. One can get deep insights from the shortcomings in ones life. It is only when you don’t want to realize and learn from your lessons that you become stagnant.


YOU ARE A DIVINE, SPECIAL AND A PRIVILEGED CHILD OF GOD AND YOU SHALL BE TAKEN CARE OF. GOOD LUCK!!!
                                            (This article is the copyright of Ashwas Thapa)

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