The Mandala Wall And Manta Point Diving Sites, West Pemba Island, Zanzibar, And A Bit About Conducting Yourself
The Mandala Wall And Manta Point Diving Sites, West Pemba Island, Zanzibar, And A Bit About Conducting Yourself
One of the ways that I have found life to be increasingly joyful
is by learning how to conduct myself in ways that bring me joy.
A personality is not a given trait, nor is it something you were born with.
A personality is the sum of a series of choices that we are constantly making.
I have found that maintaining a soft character, and not dwelling on the faults of others, gives me tremendous inner peace.
The constantly judging mind is a very tiresome thing.
If you entertain it, it will make you fatigued and line your face with a grimacing look.
It will also make your daily experiences hellish, although some people are so lost, that they might not know the difference between heaven and hell.
There is a constant reminder in Buddhism, that “One should know that the Buddha evolved from an ordinary human being.”
In Christianity, the concept of enlightenment is hidden behind the misconception that Jesus was somehow “A special Son of God,” and not an elder brother who was showing all of us the way towards remembering our own divinity and Godliness as sons and daughters of the almighty God.
Jesus himself said that one day, when we all rise up to remember the Heaven within us, we will do greater things than he did, raise the dead, walk on water, heal the sick and ascend or transcend death.
Heaven and Hell are not afterlife realms.
In fact, believing in the afterlife could hamper or at least delay your spiritual growth.
Everything happens right here and now, on different dimensions.
Buddhism illustrates very clearly the different aspects of hell, but it is easier to understand by looking at the Catholic list of the seven kinds of hells.
What are the seven hells?
They are:
* Lust
* Greed
* Gluttony
* Anger
* Ignorance/ Heresy
* Violence
* Deceit or Fraud
To understand the seven hells, one only has to look at the emotions that each of these states of being brings up inside you.
When a person feels lust, he is in hell.
Sexual lust leads priests to molest young innocent boys, or cheat on their spouses.
Lust is sleazy and unwholesome and it is directly related to the other hell, greed.
Material lust and greed lead people to cheat on their business partners, betray their siblings, and go to wars seeking illusory and imaginary powers.
Passion and wholesome desires are the other side of greed and lust.
When you are passionate about what you are doing, you are calm, energetic and driven to pursue it.
Gluttony is real hell.
When you overeat, you put a big burden on your body, mind and emotional body.
Overeating makes you heavy, both physically and mentally.
It leads to regrets, self hate, self sabotage and to inner frustrations with yourself, all hells you can avoid by not allowing gluttony into your life.
Gluttony is not just related to food, alcohol and sweets.
It is overconsumption of any kind.
There can be Gluttony in buying houses, cars, airplanes, boats, all to satisfy the insatiable ego that will never be happy with you.
Anger is real hell.
Every time I feel anger, I feel a fire that consumes my energies.
After the anger subsides, I feel tired and fatigued, and in need of a restful sleep.
This is exactly why I try not to get angry.
I fail often, but I do try my best not to go to that hell called anger.
This is why anger is considered one of the “three poisons” in Buddhism, along with ignorance and greed.
Ignorance or Heresy is hell, because one is in a state of dissatisfaction and unhappiness, without even knowing what she is doing wrong.
Many people can understand that ‘anger and greed’ are poisons for your peace of mind, but most people do not understand that ‘ignorance’ is also a poison.
Ignorance implies a lazy lack of interest and disregard for the Truth principles that govern the world.
One must never be ignorant of the principles of Truth, and must study them often, in order to improve one’s condition in life, and acquire peace of mind.
One must strive to evolve in the Light, become a better person, see beyond illusions and understand our Oneness with one another and with the Divine.
If you were created in God’s image, and endowed with so many gifts of powers and Sidis, your ignorance of these innate powers within you is keeping you in hell, believing you are a limited, mortal being, instead of manifesting your heavenly powers wherever you go.
In Buddhism, ignorance is inexcusable, and along with anger and greed, leads to the appearance of all illusions.
Violence is pure hell.
It is when the fire of anger is allowed to be out of control, leading a person to the point of no return.
Nothing, absolutely NOTHING good ever happens when violence is allowed to take over a person.
Violence can lead to a life in prison, to murder, crime, and inhumane behaviors.
Deceit or fraud is hell.
Having a deceitful mind or attempting to defraud others keeps one in pure hell.
It implies that a person is powerless, and cannot achieve what they desire by rightful means.
It implies that there is a limited supply of goods and resources which, if others hold, one can only have by defrauding others.
It is a state of despair and extreme lack, and one must NEVER entertain these hellish thoughts.
Well, if you tuned into this post to read about the diving sites on Pemba Island, I apologize for the lecture on heaven and hell that you got instead.
I often dive into whichever reef my mind takes me, knowing that there is always a reason for these dives.
There were no Manta Rays to see at Manta Ray Point.
It used to be a Manta cleaning station, where manta rays used to come to get cleaned by small cleaning fish, but the mantas no longer come here.
But it is an awesome dive site and visibility was great.
I had a fabulous time, diving only with the Afro Divers dive center’s owner and dive master Michael, and his lovely French girlfriend Carlotta, who dives with no wetsuit or BCD.
From Pemba Island, I send you bubbles of light,
Tali
