THE SPIRITUAL MATRIX preview

Introduction

Before you read this book, I would like to share with you some of the events in my life that led up to the writing of the ‘The Spiritual Matrix’. I believe these events reveal the spiritual guiding force in my life that is within all our lives, and can, when we acknowledge it, fill us with such wonder and awe and provides us with our day to day strength and joy.

Prior to writing this book, I had been on a spiritual quest for years without ever really knowing it. As a boy I wondered, like everyone else, about what happens when we die, and because this question was largely un-answered, I have been yearning for answers to my spiritual question ever since. And even though by my twenties I had read a number of spiritual books for some reason I still had not found the answers I was looking for.

During this time I should have been happy, as I owned a house, had a loving wife and family and had embarked on a career in civil engineering. But for some reason I wasn’t happy and I often complained about my job, complained to my friends about my wife being overweight and I tended to see the negative in a lot of things and only seemed to desire the things I didn’t have. I felt like something was missing or lacking. Ironically, my wife obviously felt the same way, because one day she decided to leave me. This event was a turning point in my life and a blessing in disguise, as it gave me the impetus that I needed to find myself, although I didn’t feel that way about it at the time.

Soon after the divorce, the house was sold and I was single again. I was fortunate enough to meet some amazing people who helped me through these hard times and made me realise how unhappy I had been. For the first time in years I felt free and enjoyed life with my new friends. But the new happiness and freedom I experienced was mixed with occasional sadness and loneliness, as I wasn’t adapting well to being on my own again.

To compensate for this, and the feeling of needing to be loved, I embarked on a string of relationships that didn’t work out. To make myself happier I bought a sports bike and a fast car. But within twelve months I had a near-fatal accident on the bike and was left with thousands of pounds of debt after losing money when I sold the car. I also took on a job miles away from my friends, and ended up living pretty much in isolation. Then one day, I had a flash of inspiration and decided that I would go travelling. I told my boss I needed time off and within a few weeks I was away. As part of my travels, I spent four months on a beautiful island in Thailand and during that time became a scuba-diving instructor. This break from my career, my friends and the past was just what I needed and it gave me the opportunity to have fun and recharge my batteries.

Upon returning to the UK , I quit my job and a good friend helped convince me to go into business for myself. This involved providing engineering services for companies, proved to be very lucrative and also gave me the freedom to keep travelling, which interested me. For the first time in my life I felt like things were falling into place and that I was so lucky to be alive. I felt as if I was taking responsibility for my future and that all those years of hard work in engineering on low pay had been worthwhile.

It was around this time that I met Joy, a London girl who was originally from the Philippines . We just clicked, and within a week had moved in together. Joy took little convincing when I said I was going travelling again, this time to Australia, and asked if would she like to come with me. After a few months of planning, we were ready to leave, but a week before our departure we discovered that Joy was pregnant. This was a shock, but also very happy news too, as we loved each other very much. We decided to go travelling regardless and had a wonderful six months taking in the sights of Australia in our campervan.

During this time I began meditating. Spending so much time with nature, it just seemed like the natural thing to do. I meditated with the sunrise and with the sunset. This was a big step spiritually and I benefited in so many ways from it. I began to make more sense of my life, to discern the loving guidance behind all my life events and also to feel grateful for where I was now as a person. Even in those early days I felt I was being looked after by someone or something that I sensed was with me when I meditated.

During our travels, Joy and I were fortunate enough to meet a very reliable clairvoyant in Harvey Bay on the north-east coast of Australia . During the reading I kept quiet, as I didn’t want to give the clairvoyant any clues. She did all the talking, and her vision and the degree of her accuracy regarding our lives startled me. One of the more interesting points of our conversation was when she said that I had been meditating. This, the clairvoyant knew without me telling her. She also said that all my learning would come together and that I would grow spiritually from a realisation of how simple it is to get in touch with spiritual truths. She also said I would write a book, which I pretty much instantly dismissed, since I thought, ‘Who am I to write a book?’ and ‘What do I know?’

To say that this meeting with the clairvoyant left a lasting impression on me is an understatement. I wanted to know more about how anyone could have spiritual insight like that and I felt compelled to continue to focus my attention on learning everything I could about personal and spiritual development.

I continued my daily meditations and also studied more. During this time I was also fortunate to have a great teacher in my father, who started sharing all the spiritual knowledge he had accumulated over the years with me. I am so very grateful for this and will always be in his debt.

During this time, I decided to stay in Australia , and everything just seemed to fall into place without me having to make an effort, and before I knew it, our application for permanent residency had been accepted. I continued to conduct my research into spirituality and also kept meditating to search for my inner wisdom. Slowly but surely, I began to feel as if I was finding the light within, although, not considering myself enlightened, I have continued to study, meditate, ponder the meaning of existence and search for those ever-elusive inner truths. Then one day, during my lunch hour at work, I felt compelled to begin writing. I don’t know why, I just did.

The first words that appeared on the screen were ‘The World is an Illusion’. Quite quickly, I had written four pages of material as if from nowhere. It just poured out.

I read the pages to a trusted friend and his response was, “That’s good stuff, mate. You should write a book you know.”

Then it hit me. I realised that the one thing that had bothered me during my quest for spiritual knowledge was that there did not seem to be a book that was a guide to everything spiritual and explained it all in layman’s terms. Maybe I could write this kind of book myself, if I tried hard enough?

So I began questioning my father and other spiritual people about the nature of existence and the path to enlightenment. I meditated. I read more, and after some time I started to write down ideas that came to me and I realised that this hidden knowledge seemed to flow out effortlessly. Before I knew it, I had written about twenty thousand words.

As time passed, my attention moved away from learning purely for myself to the notion of how wonderful it could be if just one other person found my words inspirational and life-changing. So I started writing this book, which has evolved as my own knowledge and understanding has itself evolved. I realise now that it is a natural progression in life to want to share with others what you consider to be profound spiritual teachings that have had a powerful effect on your own life.

For me, other than setting down some guidelines for people to follow, the writing of this book has been my primary way of achieving this. I have to point out here that I am not qualified spiritually in any way. I am neither priest nor clairvoyant. I do not consider myself a master; I have no special powers. But I do know that, looking back through my life I can see that a loving, wise, powerful force has been guiding me to where I am today. I see how all opposites are in fact together and part of the one underlying force that drives the universe.

I see God in everything and feel so in awe about the creation we call the universe. I see how all events, whether we call them good or bad, give us opportunities to grow towards the light. I hope that the fact that I consider myself just an ordinary person but feel this awe, respect and love for life, will be encouraging.

That’s the beauty of it all. You don’t have to be special, you just have to ask for help and God will answer, because he loves us all.

Foreword

First and foremost, I hope that this book aids your spiritual journey. I also hope that, by reading this book, you will feel better informed about the real world we live in and that you will be able to use this knowledge to achieve greater peace, and understanding about why you are here and what your individual purpose in life may be. If only one other person benefits from reading it, then I feel it will have been worthwhile. Consider this book as your personal guide. A guide to what the world is really all about, and in particular, a guide to your spiritual development through the practical application of knowledge.

Becoming spiritually aware is a slow process, and this book is intended to be one small step on the many rungs of the ladder, as I don’t profess to have captured all of life’s answers within these pages. However, this book is intended to be thought provoking and take you through the many steps which I feel are important to tread on the path towards spiritual enlightenment. These steps include understanding, awareness, and self-mastery, generating love for all beings, meditation and healing, to name a few.

I believe that, once your curiosity is awakened regarding the spiritual path, the only thing that will stand in your way is you. It is true that the spiritual path can be very challenging with all sorts of obstacles to overcome, including conquering ourselves, our fears and desires. But it is important to remember the journey is one to be loved, and the reward for the soul recognised as unparalleled. I guarantee that if you keep on trying to follow the path to enlightenment and live by inner truths, all you truly need and desire will come to you. One day, you will wake up and see the wonder of who you are and the wonder in all things. This world and the myriad of life forms and cultures it embraces will suddenly appear to you in a different light. You will no longer be fearful but will have a new-found respect and love for all things and feel blessed to be able to take part in this wonderful play called life.

This spiritual path I speak of is one that we all must follow at some point in our spiritual journey. Whether we choose to do it now or later is our own decision. But one could say that humanity as a whole is being lovingly guided towards the process of re-discovering its spiritual side that we have been out of touch with for centuries. This is evident in the growing interest in spiritual matters of people all over the world, and also in the progress being made by organisations and individuals in helping others to realise the love, light and power within themselves.

You too, by reading this book and wanting to change your life to a more positive, spiritual one, will contribute towards the progress of all, the unlocking of your own potential and the manifestation of the spirit within.

Chapter 1 - Creation

The story of creation has been written in many different forms and has fascinated the human mind since we first appeared on the earth. There are many variations of the story. I’m sure that some may be more accurate than others, although, essentially they all try to convey the same message, which is that of a mysterious, loving, wonderful creator, in whom we should be in total awe.

Some would say the truth is that, even the world’s greatest scientists do not fully understand the subject of creation and that any talk about it is only conjecture. So why talk about it? I believe we should talk about it because, even if we cannot fully grasp the full reality of how creation came about, we can at least try to comprehend the symbolism behind the many stories about it thus, begin to understand a little about our place in the universe. Then, knowing our place, we can see how we are to step forward and evolve.

In the story that follows, I have attempted to provide my own interpretation of the story of creation. My intention is for it to be symbolic to help you to gain a sense of the deeper, hidden meaning behind the reason for the existence of the universe and our place in it. For the sake of the narrative, I have used the word God to represent our creator. Ultimately, our creator is, He that nothing can be said about, and therefore words to describe God are pretty meaningless and come down to semantics.

In the beginning, God was like an amazing energy a thought form with unlimited power in an infinite world of watery darkness. God had within himself infinite love, power and wisdom. But since all of God’s existence was purely spiritual, there was a longing within him to manifest physically in order to understand his own existence and express his qualities. To satisfy this longing, God brought about an act of creation which resulted in the universe coming into existence. This act was one of supreme sacrifice, since it involved a division of God’s love, wisdom and consciousness. Instead of him, being in his present state of one, cohesive, infinite being as a whole, he would become many separate parts.

Essentially, the parts would be less conscious, less powerful and less all-knowing. God knew that, the separate parts would need to be in darkness for a time if they were to eventually see the light within themselves. But in his wisdom and understanding, God knew that these individual units would rise in consciousness and came back to him, richer for the raw experience of life. Together they would become one conscious being again, the sum of his parts being greater than before.

So, in an act of pure love and supreme sacrifice, God decided to create. First, he focused his thoughts on the infinite watery darkness of his being. He imagined withdrawing all his energy from one part to create a vacuum. Then he spoke. And it was done.

From within this vacuum he said, “Let there be darkness,” and there was darkness.

Then he said, “Let there be a light aside from the darkness,” and so there was a light filled with his love.

Finally, God said, “Let there be matter,” and so in an amazing blast of thought energy, he issued forth a large part of his very being and created the universe as we know it, with time, space and all the various planes of existence.

God was a part of, and conscious of, everything he made. He was the father and mother, the giver and receiver, the body, mind and spirit of all creation. He was everywhere and everything, the manifest and un-manifest, the changing and the changeless. In one of God’s most divine acts, he made the souls of humanity in his own image with the potential power of thought, love and wisdom and the ability to be one with all things. Within each soul was born, a desire to perfect the union of spirit with matter and through love enable God to manifest himself in them.

So the souls incarnated to earth and in doing so blended harmoniously with all of God’s creatures. They breathed the air, swam in the sea, felt the warmth of the sun’s rays and experienced life first-hand. But, so immersed in their physical bodies, were some of these early souls, they limited their consciousness and began to forget their heritage. These souls became absorbed in thoughts, emotions and actions and some could no longer remember their connection to God

Through their actions, they also began to accumulate karma and, in accordance with God’s laws, needed to reincarnate repeatedly to balance the good and bad deeds they had performed. In this sense, having to reincarnate and feel separate from God, these souls descended into darkness. But God, with his infinite love, took pity on these souls and in different periods of time and cultures, lit the fire of divine love, knowledge and wisdom within some of their hearts and minds.

He created these heavenly beings to lift the veil of illusion of separated-ness from the eyes of humans. These beings were to help humans remember the reason for their existence; to perfect the manifestation and union of spirit in matter. This union did not mean that the spirit should be absorbed in matter or necessarily transcend it. Rather, it was to enable the spirit to play its small part in helping God to manifest, understand and express himself.

The veil of illusion lifted through the messages from God and his heavenly beings. One by one, the souls of humanity descended into the depths of their own hells as they tried to break free from their suffering before ascending to the heights of heaven until they were one with God once more.

So now, we come full circle to the present day, where humanity is at a pivotal period in its evolution. Each of us has a choice as to whether we attempt to tread the right path in life and ascend the steps that lead to the light or whether we wish to continue in darkness. Since God is all things, darkness and light are but two aspects of him. Be sure though, that for us, one path leads to an experience of unfolding awareness and love and the other to self-centred, arrogant, materialistic behaviour. One path may lead to spiritualising the earth and a union of all its creatures, the other to death and destruction. One may lead to salvation and one-ness with God, the other to separated-ness. One path is hard but worthwhile; the other is easy but will only lead to continual suffering.

So, we can either acknowledge the divine love, power and wisdom that we all have within us or we can continue to live in a world of illusion.



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