Only one heartbeat away…

(The personal experience ...greater awareness)

I am only one heartbeat away… from my true BEING, the higher principle of perfect love.

In the following lines, I share a part of my personal journey toward greater conscious BEING.

My father died when I had just turned seventeen. Before that, I had never thought about death, but from that moment on, very often. At that time, I read many books about near-death experiences (NDEs), yet a certain skepticism and inner doubt were always present. Many years later, I came across near-death research again on the internet, where countless personal experiences are described on camera. So—is there more after all?

When I look at an object or at our body, what I see appears solid and dense. However, the physics of the atomic world states that 99.99999% of it consists of empty space, and only 0.00001% can be considered solid matter. How real is our reality? Albert Einstein turned the Newtonian worldview upside down. Space and time are relative and therefore not fixed quantities. According to more recent findings in quantum physics, the state of a particle depends on the observer—that is, the world itself is relative and not fixed. Two or more particles can be entangled in such a way that the state of one particle simultaneously determines the state of the other, even if they are light-years apart.

Have we already reached the limits of scientific knowledge?

No one would have imagined 100 years ago that we would be able to make phone calls with a mobile device. Science only creates knowledge that is valid for the moment. In the future, we will know more than we do today—yet this knowledge will also change again as new insights emerge.

“I know that I know nothing.” (Socrates)

Higher truth, on the other hand, always endures—millions of years ago and in millions of years to come. Only we humans—present on this world for a relatively short time—engage in heated debates about how the world works and who is right. I believe that in the future, science and spirituality will join hands, making such debates unnecessary.

To what extent do all these thoughts help us in our daily lives, where we are constantly exposed to ups and downs? Why do we suffer? We are constantly searching for happiness, yet we cannot hold on to it.

Do we even have influence over what happens, or are we victims of circumstances?

What I experience, in the moment of experiencing it—in the now—can no longer be changed. It is as it is.
But HOW I experience something—that I can influence, through the practice of meditation, connection, and “directing thoughts.”

Meditation

Many years ago, I attended an unusually humorous Zen meditation course. “The introduction is free, enlightenment will cost you,” practiced by a Western Buddhist. I had no idea about meditation, but while attempting to sit quietly without thoughts for two times twenty minutes—including the panic that my body, incapable of sitting in a yoga position, might let my already “asleep” left foot die off—I sometimes experienced extraordinarily beautiful feelings of happiness. Had I actually felt happiness because I was thinking less—or not at all?

In everyday life, we constantly engage in an inner dialogue with ourselves, also called the “monkey mind.” Untrained, it does not leave us alone for a single moment. Why does this monkey mind control me—and not the other way around? Through regular meditation, I learn to observe my monkey mind and recognize it as something separate from me. I bring my thoughts to rest and become fully anchored in the here and now. That is the magic of meditation. In that moment of stillness, I do not think. I do not think about past events or the future, but remain exactly in the now—in those magical seconds between moments, “from heartbeat to heartbeat.”

Most beginners experience meditation as boring and cannot concentrate. These perceptions come from our ego, which resists finding access to our higher BEING, because there the ego is useless.

Connection

There are two systems of thinking.

First, thinking through the ego as my personal identity, strongly connected to my personal desires, fears, and needs.

Second, thinking through a higher mental awareness that goes beyond the ego and is independent of me. This creates a deeper connection to our spiritual (mental) higher being.

It seems as if I have two different radio stations available.

“Channel 0” is a loud station of the ego that plays its program in a rather chaotic way. This channel is always on, continuously.

“Channel 1” is a quiet, subtle station of the higher being, which I can only “hear” when my ego is quiet—when I am in stillness.

“Channel 0” keeps me trapped in an emotional roller coaster.
“Channel 1” makes me free and happy.

Normally, we almost exclusively “listen” to “Channel 0.” A connection to my higher mental awareness can only be achieved through stillness of thought in the present moment and through “opening my heart” by meditating on “gratitude” and “unconditional love.” I do not try to achieve anything; instead, I lean back inwardly, surrender my ego in that moment, and hand over the guidance to my higher self. With regular practice, I open a small gap in my inner door to a magical space of perfect love. A sense of faith and a strong connection arises.

“In stillness, I receive God’s knowledge today” (Workbook ACIM)

Directing Thoughts

What is a thought?

Thoughts appear and are suddenly there. But where do they come from? Do they originate in the brain, or are they merely received there as a signal?

Let us consider a near-death experience.

Someone experiences themselves floating meters above their body, as a being separate from the human body. One “sees” without a body, hears without ears, thinks without a brain. The body is not necessary for this. In this state, we are mental—spiritual—beings. Thoughts therefore do not require a body or a brain. Thoughts are energy.

I am not my body. I have a body.

By taking an observer position, I am able to consciously perceive and direct my thoughts. Is it a thought I want to keep, or would I rather let it go? Every thought that I accept and repeatedly think has an effect on me.

Many repetitions form beliefs. Most thinking patterns are formed in childhood. These determine our further thinking, our behavior, and our character. Every thought we keep influences our future perception in everyday life. We are usually not aware of this.

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become your actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
(Frank Outlaw)

There is a nice metaphor for this: I stand waist-deep in a river, and all thoughts float past me like driftwood. Normally, I pick up each of these thoughts and hold on to it. By believing that I am this thought, I identify with it. But I do not have to accept it—I can let it drift on at any time.

I am not my thoughts. I have thoughts.

Thoughts that arise from a state of energetic lack have their origin in fear. For example: “I am worried about… I am afraid of… if only I had… I don’t like him, he is… I am… better, worse, too tall, too small, too fat, too thin,” etc.

This does not mean allowing only positive thoughts. Fear-based thoughts are sometimes even necessary in order to correctly recognize and assess threatening situations.

At its core, it is about dissolving our limiting beliefs.

What appears to affect us from the outside is merely a reflection of inner aspects of our ego that already exist. For example, what annoys me about another person contains a clue to a limiting belief within me (mirror principle).

By observing our thoughts, learning stillness, and recognizing our higher self in the here and now, we can experience that we are much more than we believe. It is our free will to choose between the ego and our higher self.

In any case, we are “only one heartbeat away…”

Werner Vielhaber     Martina Stadler