Love the Lord, Your God!...
Love Your Neighbor!
Vladimir Antonov
Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko
© Antonov V.V., 2010.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all the soul…, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4), “… Love your neighbour as you love yourself…” (Lev 19:18) — these are two statements from the Bible made by Hebrew prophets and repeated by Jesus Christ as the most important commandments from God for Hebrews at those ancient times (Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27).
Yet so few people are capable of understanding what these commandments mean, say nothing of fulfilling them!
… I am recalling now how I once addressed a good-looking young man, who exhibited love for nature …
… And love for nature is very important on the Path of spiritual development! Without developed love for the Creation one cannot fall in love with the Creator and cannot approach Him by the state of the soul! All other variations of “love for God” will be nothing but self-delusion or deceit! The Creator does not approve “love” for Him from a person who does not love His Creation!
… I suggested to that man to become acquainted with our materials on ecopsychology — the direction of science which allows one to advance significantly to realization of the fundamental commandments of God mentioned above.
But the man replied: thank you, no: I follow the Bible!…
… A reasonable person studies the commandments of God and makes efforts on transformation of oneself in accordance with them. An unreasonable one only worships the books where these commandments are written…
A reasonable person understands love for God as, among other things, realization of His Commandments on spiritualization of oneself and on service to Him, also on aspiring to become closer to Him — the Highest Beloved — through cognition of Him and Mergence with Him in the Embrace of Love! While an unreasonable person… just begs from Him, and having fallen into the trap of some sect begins to hate everyone who thinks and speaks not in the same way as is customary to speak and to think in that sect…
… Small and reasonable people are not capable of embracing with the mind all the greatness of the multidimensional universe: they think in much smaller scales. Words and thoughts about invisible for them God frighten them. And they begin to fantasize creating fairy images of fictitious “gods” and other forces of the “other world”: evil, harmful, punishing forces on one side and “our patrons” on the other side… In this way folk primitive variations of faith are created…
On the contrary, a reasonable person, who is aware that the universe is infinite, knows that the Creator is not an invisible flying old man or some other creature but is a Living Ocean of Subtlest Consciousness dwelling in the primordial depth of the multidimensional space and existing in the process of His unceasing development. He is One for all people incarnated by Him on the Earth and for all forms of incarnated and non-incarnated life in the entire cosmic space. And the laws, the principles of existence suggested by Him for all people are the same for everyone.
By the way, no dark forces can compete with Him in power — for He is omnipotent!
Yes, struggle of “light with darkness” indeed takes place or can take place: first, inside ourselves (it is our struggle with our vices); second, outside us but under His full control and for our sake (it is lessons with participation of incarnated or non-incarnated evil beings; these lessons are given to us by Him — our Highest Teacher).
In order that we could withstand in this struggle and to develop further, the Creator gave to us His Teachings actual for all the universe. He has imparted these Teachings many times to people of the Earth in different epochs of the development of mankind in different cultural historical formations — therefore they had different emphases. Everyone can become acquainted with these Teachings integrated by us in [3] and in our other books and lecture materials.
But people created also sectarian religious associations based on concepts which are either absurd or represent different variations of deviation from the United Teachings of God, including its intentional or unintentional perversions. Such examples are satanic sects where their members seek guidance of non-incarnated forces of evil and quite consciously strive to serve them; also sects where the members believe in “national gods”; also all these associations which use false ritualism rather than study the Teachings of God and master the methods of transformation of oneself in accordance with these Teachings. There are also sects whose main subject of belief is terror toward infidels, preaching of drug addiction and suicide…
One can expect from reasonable people that they can discern all these, that they understand in particular the absurdity of endless chanting of prayers and performing various religious bodily movements. By the way, God has never taught such things to people! And let us understand that He does not need this! He needs from us a completely different thing: He needs that we aspire to Perfection — I mean the commandment of Jesus Christ: “Be perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matt 5:48).
He is interested that we achieve spiritual Perfection. Those who have achieved a comparable to Him level of the development of Love, Wisdom, and Power, also the necessary subtlety of the consciousness — such people infuse into Him and thus enrich Him with themselves. So what does it have to do with prayers and bodily movements? They do not make people better!
Contributing to the achievement of Perfection is a completely different thing: development of oneself on the four parameters listed above! This would be one’s true belonging to religion (contrary to what many people think)!
We discussed in detail the subject of the methodology of spiritual development in many publications [1-3, etc] and in films. Among other things, we made for the first time a thematic analysis of the Teachings of Jesus Christ (with the use of the materials of the Apocryphal Gospels) [1-2]. So, we are not going to repeat now many other valuable commandments which Jesus gave to us for the sake of our advancement to Perfection. It makes sense to discuss here the two commandments of God mentioned in the beginning of this article.
So, how can one really fall in love with the Creator with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all one’s strength? And how can one learn to love other people as one loves oneself?
* * *
In general, what is the heart in the context of spiritual subjects?
Some people try to find the spiritual heart in the physical heart.
Others fantasize that since the physical heart is located in the left part of the chest, then the spiritual heart should be located in the right part.
Others yet understand the heart not as a structure but as an aggregate of all human emotions. They interpret the statements “to live by the heart” as to simply live without trying to control and to regulate with the mind and the will one’s own emotions of sexual passions, of jealousy, of envy, of hatred, etc… This understanding was accepted in literary classics of Soviet historical period in our country; in this way many generations of schoolchildren were raised and taught… And in the same way the majority of adult population of our country continue to think in the present…
But the spiritual heart is a real bioenergetical structure, which is present in every person (as it is present in all highly developed species of animals: mammals, birds) — at least in embryo form capable of development. Initially it is located in the anahata chakra, that is in the chest — where the lungs are located. It is in this chakra that the spiritual heart can begin to develop — and then to grow from this chakra outside the material body. The spiritual heart is principally important on the spiritual Path, because it generates the emotions of cordial love; other states are generated in other chakras.
But in order this to happen there must be corresponding conditions. A natural growth of the spiritual heart takes place in situations which provoke us to feel bright emotions of love — for a beloved person against the background of sexual relationships, for children, for gentle animals, for tender beauty of nature or for corresponding works of art of different genres, etc. This is why all this is extremely important for our spiritual development!
There are also special methods for accelerated growth of the spiritual heart. They are, first of all, psychophysical exercises, then corresponding meditations on special places of power, then direct communication with Representatives of the Creators — Holy Spirits — including direct apprenticeship with Them and Mergence with Them [2]. As a result of this, a person who has being making such efforts for several years turns into a giant and Divinely refined spiritual heart, which is infinitely larger than the size of the material body.
Only having become such a giant and subtle Consciousness (Soul) consisting, first of all, of the developed to this level spiritual heart — such a person gains the ability to interact easily with Holy Spirits and with the Creator in His Abode. Then follows Mergence with the Creator. Further activity in the Creation dedicated to helping incarnated beings is realized by such a Person from the state of Coessentiality to the Creator.
Corresponding methods of development of the spiritual heart are described by us in [2] and demonstrated in our films. But it is especially important to take into account that one cannot achieve success without performing intellectual correction of one’s own emotional sphere and behavior. In order to destroy in ourselves the former false stereotypes of reacting, we have to return again and again to studying the corresponding recommendations of God, also to use the method of repentance [2]. If we do not do this, we cannot pass the trials which our Divine Teachers — Holy Spirits — offer to everyone walking the spiritual Path.
… Every one of us has to understand also that we are not material bodies. We are consciousnesses (souls). We are incarnated by God into material bodies only for a time — for the sake of our further development. But until we become large and correctly developed consciousnesses we cannot experience fully our non-sameness to our bodies.
… There is a widespread mistake typical of many esotericists, especially of those who try to develop themselves through oriental martial arts. It consists in making emphasis on the development of the lower dantian (hara): a complex of the three lower chakras. Thus one grows the power aspect of the consciousness, yet without love and subtlety (the latter qualities are present in such people only in good movies but not in reality).
The power of the consciousness is needed, but the power aspect must be developed after the aspect of love, not prior to it. Otherwise it is very hard to avoid developing in oneself ethical vices and coarsening of the consciousness, which leads one to the outer darkness (in terms of Jesus Christ), i.e. to hell rather than to the Abode of the Creator.
The power aspect of a correctly developed soul is the steadfast power of love directed toward the Creator. This power allows one to discard all attachments to the “earthly”, to overcome all outer obstacles on the Path to the Highest Goal, to realize effectively service to God which is manifested in spiritual service to people.
Let us dwell on the subject of service to God. We have discussed already that the Universal Consciousness exists in Its unceasing development. This constitutes Its Life. It is interested in this. With this purpose, It included in the process of the evolutionary development us: souls incarnated by It into material bodies. Therefore the more intensive the process of development of incarnated people is — the more it is favorable for the Universal Consciousness. And therefore, the highest form of service to God is effective help provided to people in the task of their spiritual development.
For a spiritually progressing person it is very important to learn to live experiencing oneself as an integral part of One Evolutionary Flow of the Universal Consciousness.
In particular, it is not I who develops — it is united we: all the entirety of souls going to the Creator. This provides the feeling of commonness with all of them — and then also with the Goal which we aspire to. This allows one, in particular, to get rid of one’s former egocentric “I”, also to achieve full selflessness in the work of helping others walking this Path.
Also in this case I cannot have even a fleeting thought that someone else outdoes me or excels me in something — and therefore I have to stop this person… On the contrary: if in this Flow someone moves faster than I — I help him or her to move even faster!
I cannot even think about taking something away from others: after all, I and we have merged; we are I…
The coessentiality of souls merged together in this common Flow is reflected in the second one of the Biblical commandments considered by us.
Bibliography
- Antonov V.V. — God Speaks. Textbook of Religion. “Polus”, Saint Petersburg, 2002 (in Russian).
- Antonov V.V. — Ecopsychology. “New Atlanteans”, “Lulu”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present. “New Atlanteans”, “Lulu”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — What Is Truth? “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Evolution of Consciousness. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
