[383] World Scripture - Meditation - 5. Visualizations and Visions

[대태양/김현수]

Part Three - The Path of Life

Chapter 16 Prayer and Worship

2) Meditation

5. Visualizations and Visions

World Scripture

Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind, Fireflies, lightning, a crystal, a moon— These are the preliminary appearances, Which produce the manifestation of Brahman in yoga. Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.11 (Hinduism)

Buddha then replied to Vaidehi, “You and all other beings besides ought to make it their only aim, with concentrated thought, to get a perception of the Western Quarter. You will ask how that perception is to be formed. I will explain it now. All beings, if not blind from birth, are uniformly possessed of sight, and they all see the setting sun. You should sit down properly, looking in the western direction, and prepare your thought for a close meditation on the sun; cause your mind to be firmly fixed on it so as to have an unwavering perception by the exclusive application of your thought, and gaze upon it when it is about to set and looks like a suspended drum.

“After you have thus seen the sun, let that image remain clear and fixed, whether your eyes be shut or open—such is the perception of the sun, which is the First Meditation. “Next you should form the perception of water; gaze on the water clear and pure, and let [this image] also remain clear and fixed; never allow your thought to be scattered or lost. “When you have thus seen the water you should form the perception of ice. As you see the ice shining and transparent, you should imagine the appearance of lapis lazuli.

“After that has been done, you will see the ground consisting of lapis lazuli, transparent and shining both within and without. Beneath this ground of lapis lazuli there will be seen a golden banner with the seven jewels, diamonds and the rest, supporting the ground. It extends to the eight points of the compass, and thus the eight corners [of the ground] are perfectly filled up. Every side of the eight quarters consists of a hundred jewels, every jewel has a thousand rays, and every ray has eighty-four thousand colors which, when reflected in the ground of lapis lazuli, look like one hundred thousand million suns, and it is difficult to see them all one by one…

Lodged high up in the open sky these rays form a tower of rays, whose stories and galleries are ten millions in number and built of a hundred jewels. Both sides of the tower have each ten thousand million flowery banners furnished and decked with innumerable musical instruments. Eight kinds of cool breezes proceed from the brilliant rays. When those musical instruments are played, they emit the sounds ‘suffering,’ ‘non-existence,’ ‘impermanence,’ and ‘non-self’—such is the perception of the water, which is the Second Meditation…

“Make the images as clear as possible, so that they may never be scattered or lost, whether your eyes be shut or open. Except only during the time of your sleep, you should always keep this in your mind. One who has reached this stage of perception is said to have dimly seen the Land of Highest Happiness (Sukhavati). “One who has obtained samadhi is able to see the Land clearly and distinctly: this state is too much to be explained fully—such is the perception of the Land, and it is the Third Meditation.” Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 9-11 (Buddhism)

Before I could go on my vision quest, I had to purify myself in the oinikaga tipi, the inipi, the sweat lodge… With the buffalo-horn ladle, Good Lance poured ice-cold water over the red-glowing stones. There was a tremendous hiss as we were instantly enveloped in a cloud of searing white steam…

Good Lance prayed. He used ancient words, “This steam is the holy breath of the universe. Hokshila, boy, you are in your mother’s womb again. You are going to be reborn.” They all sang two songs, very ancient songs, going way back to the days when we Sioux roamed the prairie. Suddenly I felt wise with the wisdom of generations. These men, my relatives, sang loud and vigorously… The little hut was shaken as if in the grip of a giant hand. It was trembling as a leaf trembles in the wind. Beneath us the earth seemed to move. “Grandfather is here,” said Good Lance. “The spirits are here; the Eagle’s wisdom is here.” We believed it; we knew it. The pipe was passed…

Four times we smoked. After the last time, Good Lance told me, “Hokshila, you have been purified; you are no longer a child; you are ready now and made strong to go up there and cry for a dream.”… Our vision pit was an L-shaped hole dug into the ground, first straight down and then a short horizontal passage deep under the roots of the trees. You sit at the end of that passage and do your fasting, anywhere from one to four days… in my case, it was decided that I should stay there alone without food or water for two days and two nights…

The first hours were the hardest. It was pitch dark and deathly still. I sat there without moving. My arms and legs went asleep. I could neither hear nor see nor feel. I became almost disembodied, a thing with a heart and wild thoughts but no flesh or bones. Would I ever be able to see and hear again?… I don’t know how long I sat there. All sense of time had left me long ago. I didn’t know whether it was day or night, had not even a way to find out. I prayed and prayed, tears streaming down my cheeks. I wanted water but kept praying. Toward evening of the second day—and this time is only a wild guess—I saw wheels before my eyes forming up into one fiery hoop and then separating again into bright, manycolored circles, dancing before my eyes and again contracting into one big circle, a circle with a mouth and two eyes. 

Suddenly, I heard a voice. It seemed to come from within the bundle that was me, a voice from the dark. It was hard to tell exactly where it came from. It was not a human voice;hackles rose… “Remember the hoop,” said the voice, “this night we will teach you.” And I heard many feet walking around in my small vision pit. Suddenly I was out of my hole, in another world, standing in front of a sweat bath on a prairie covered with wildflowers, covered with herds of elk and buffalo.

I saw a man coming toward me; he seemed to have no feet; he just floated toward me out of a mist, holding two rattles in his hand. He said, “Boy, whatever you tell your people, do not exaggerate; always do what your vision tells you. Never pretend.” The man was wearing an old-fashioned buckskin outfit decorated with quillwork. I stretched out my hands to touch him, when suddenly I was back inside my star quilt, clutching my medicine bundle of stones and tobacco ties. I still heard the voice, “Remember the hoop; remember the pipe; be its spokesman.” I was no longer afraid; whoever was talking to me meant no harm.

Suddenly before me stretched a coalblack cloud with lightning coming out of it. The cloud spread and spread; it grew wings; it became an eagle. The eagle talked to me: “I give you a power, not to use for yourself, but for your people. It does not belong to you; it belongs to the common folks.” I saw a rider on a gray horse coming toward me, he held in his one hand a hoop made of sage. He held it high… and again everything dissolved into blackness. Again out of the mist came a strange creature floating up, covered with hair, pale, formless. He wanted to take my medicine away from me, but I wrestled with him, defended it. He did not get my medicine. He, too, disappeared.

Suddenly somebody shook me by the shoulder. “Wake up, boy.” My father and my uncle had come for me. The two days and two nights were over. Leonard Crow Dog, Sioux Vision Quest (Native American Religions)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

As you become one with all beings, what phenomena will occur? You will feel something multidimensional that you have never felt before. It will come mysteriously…

Once you enter the door to your mind, you will have intuitions and premonitions. Maybe as you walk down the street you see a bird flying. All of sudden, you feel the door to your mind opening. You do not realize what is happening, but suddenly you receive a heavenly inspiration that teaches you some lesson. Maybe the inspiration will hit you when you hear someone talking. The more you practice, the more often you will experience such incidents.

The next stage is to enter a dream-like state, not a dream in deep sleep but a state half dreaming and half waking. The Apostle Paul experienced three levels of heaven in that state, when he did not know whether it was a dream or reality…

Do not let such experiences pass casually. Collect them, analyze them logically, and figure out the direction that God is leading you. Keep a record of your experiences every day and you will see that your most unforgettable visions actually came true; their predictions were one hundred percent accurate.

Maybe in that dream-like state you were talking with someone about certain things, and later on you actually talk with that person and the things you discussed actually happen. Maybe in your dream you and a friend were singing a certain song. Later on that person actually sings it. Such phenomena can take place. What do they mean? You entered a spiritual realm, and there your mind was resonating with everything in that realm. Your mind was like a tuning fork, resonating with the vibrations of the cosmos. If you have such an experience, treasure it as precious…

Where does God appear to us? Not in the sky, but in the [original] mind. For this reason, we know that our self and our original mind are two different entities. If you do not feel it, it is because your original mind has not fully established its existence. Being often dragged about by the body, it cannot stand. Therefore, once your mind is established in its existence and subjectivity, things will change.

Once you reach a higher state, during prayer you can communicate with your original mind.
Your prayer will resonate with your mind, and you will hear yourself in your mind. At this stage you
will receive messages or warnings about events in your daily life. Religious people should keep a
record of these experiences.

Whenever you relate with someone, do not be careless or indifferent. Think, “What can this
person teach me?” Have a hungry mind, eager to learn something new from him or her. Also, you
should discern right away whether to relate to him or her as your subject partner or as your object
partner… Then your mind will be happy and will be automatically attracted to that person. 

This is due to the influence of mind waves. Do you believe that every mind emits mind waves? When you meet a butcher, don’t you smell meat? When you meet a fabric merchant, don’t you smell fabric? Just as you can smell a person’s unique body odor, you can also smell the mind’s odor. Such phenomena happen.

In our body, we have a special sense which strives to reach out to everything. It sends out invisible energy waves to locate its object partners. It is true. Even if our mind wants to go its own way, it cannot. As the pole of a magnet is attracted to the opposite pole, minus is attracted to plus, and plus is attracted to minus.

Therefore, the attitude of believers should be that all beings are related to us. Why? Due to the Human Fall we lost all relationships—with God, among human beings and with nature, all were entirely severed. In order for us to reconnect our relationships, we should always strive to make these connections ourselves. If we do not have the attitude to make connections with others, we cannot improve the environment in which we live.

For this reason, you should all have a mind to anticipate new things. When praying in the morning, you should feel, “Today, something good will happen.” But do not just think that good things will just happen. You have to seek for them. This attitude of seeking should be your life of faith. Experience and continual practice bring relationships to life. Yet it all stems from cultivating a dream-like state in meditation. (76:129-133, February 2, 1975)

Sometimes we hold all-night prayer vigils, focusing on God and leaving all worldly matters aside. We do not sleep, but try to enter a state beyond sleep. As we cultivate the mind and repress our consciousness, remnants of our flesh mind sink down and our spirit rises to the surface like pure water. Then although we are tired, we reach a state beyond sleep—a state where we are half sleeping and half awake. We can hear sounds, but not precisely; we can see things, but not clearly. Dream-like phenomena unfold, and God can instruct us. 

We hold prayer vigils to disconnect from carnal desires and unify the spirit. Your spirit will be elevated to the point where God may give you a glimpse of your future. After many of these vigils, you will arrive at a state where in prayer you see visions and hear voices. Your eyes see events both spiritual and earthly; your ears hear sounds both spiritual and earthly. Then you can direct events in the spirit world and on earth. (91:275, February 27, 1977)

At the next level, we can receive oral directions or symbolic visions. Visions require careful analysis. Directions are directly given, but visions require interpretation, and this is where we meet with problems. Heaven often teaches us by words, but sometimes it is through a vision. For example, you have a vision of a beautiful spring-like day; a pair of deer drinks at a stream and then looks far off at the mountains. That vision is a very good sign, and you can expect that something good will happen.

This is not a coincidence. God is working to cultivate the field of your mind. Why so? The field of your mind is not flat like glass. It is rough and uneven. It may appear flat, but look closer and you see that its surface is rough. When the light of Heaven hits a rough surface, it is not reflected, but scatters in all directions. That is why revelations are received and interpreted differently. Therefore, to properly discern Heaven’s guidance, we need to cultivate the various aspects of our mind, piece by piece. This requires our effort.

Beyond the stage of revelations as oral directions or symbolic visions, we arrive at the stage of direct revelations in silence. Like John in the Book of Revelation, you can have spiritual experiences all day long, journeying into the other world and exploring its mysteries. Eventually, everyone is to be connected to the spirit world, reaching the realm of God’s heart and feelings.

Unless you experience such things in your life of faith, you cannot carry out God’s great Will on the stage of your own life. Therefore, I do not trust believers who have not had actual spiritual experiences. Please understand how important it is for you to have these spiritual experiences for cultivating your life of faith…

God works when you pray, sending His spiritual power like electricity. But since this high-voltage energy is stronger than your consciousness, it will lift your consciousness to feel the supernatural.

However, when supernatural and divine emotions come inside you, your body, imbedded with fallen nature, rebels against God’s original divinity. Fallen people do not naturally harmonize with God’s divine energy, no matter how strongly it tries to penetrate. As a result, the energy does not come all at once. Like alternating plus and minus energies, like a spreading sound wave that is sometimes strong and sometimes gentle, the energy comes as a series of vibrations. They overwhelm your conscious mind and display their spiritual power. That is how God performs His work.

When God is working with you all the time like this, what happens? Your body-centered fallen nature is gradually purified, and eventually it will accept God’s indwelling activity naturally and 100 percent. Then, when God ceases sending His spiritual power in this way, your own spirituality will exceed God’s work in you. At that point God will be with you, and He will teach you without your realizing it.

You should reach this level of total purification, after going through all these stages: the dreamlike state, oral directions, revelations, and so on. At this level, your mind will fully direct you. You may want to chastise someone, but your mind will stop you. You may want to say something sweet, but instead you say words of admonishment. Such phenomena can seem incomprehensible. You need to learn how to adjust to them, otherwise, you could be regarded as an insane person. 

You must absolutely experience something like this in your life of faith. People who experience these things in their life of faith, always testing and experimenting, will become strong. They have first-hand knowledge and do not need to believe what others tell them. Experience and practice are the most necessary elements in our life of faith. (76:133-136, February 2, 1975)