Ben thank you for allowing me to feel connected to like minded other souls, sometimes I feel lost here on earth and I certainly know there is more than what we see❤
Excellent information Ben. With the US in so much turmoil, I had to look beyond to help me know and understand my true aspirations and reasoning why I am here in this lifetime. One can easily be sidetracked even with all the news and media turned off. It can consume you. I find a great deal of peace and knowledge from your teachings.
Great video and none of it is rubbish whatever the rumble. All good and inspiring and positive and smiling. Just another video I'm glad spent half an hour with you :)
I knew these thru self studies and research since awakened years back. I’m more to Buddhist side and your way of explaining is so clear & superb! Yr teaching videos are giving me more confidence. Thank you so much and wish to meet your Avata one day! 🤪🥰🤟🏽🙏🙏
The “Free will” Ben mentions is even more illusory than the self because of the illusion of time. “Free will” seemingly implies one chooses what one wants. But if the choice is a consequence of the “will” (that is, the want or the volition), then the choice is not “free”. The “will” determines the choice. Yet, if it truly “free”, then it can’t be a “will”, because the choice is not determined. Ben is a very clever teacher to use the paradox of “free will” in teaching meditation because the paradox cuts to the heart of the matter. “Who” is even making a choice? And “when” if ever is the choice even made? These two questions are like “miracle grow” to expand awareness. Thank you, Ben, for your wisdom and clever use of words. I appreciate you and your teaching. ❤
Choice comes after free will do let’s not go there. Crux is being conscious while making choices- aka exercising free will while being conscious. And the degree of consciousness is directly proportional to degrees of wisdom. Don’t get caught up in choice. That’s something that follows. Think about the will that caused that choice. The quality of the will determine the quality of choice. Case in point: people choosing to smoke.
Choice and will are directly connected. So your statement doesn't make sense. The only thing that limits and therefore violates the law of free will are the limits of life.
@@segoiii You are right. One’s will is the choice one makes. One should believe in the free will, the self, and time, if they are helpful. Illusions can be very helpful. I wish you much success in your adventure. Thank you for your reply. May peace be upon you.
@@karlmiller5009 that´s not what i said. I only said that will and choice are directly connected. Will is not necessarily the choice if outer limits make the real will impossible. Choice between limited, predetermined possibilities is not a sufficiant implementation of free will. And free will is no belief system. Either it exists or not. And in life is does not exist because of the limits of life. Life is a scam, because it requires preplanning without having proper information or sometimes even under pressure. And then within life, corrections aren´t possible any longer and the so called "guides" say that you planned everything for yourself. It´s a textbook scam pattern.
@@segoiii My apologies for misunderstanding your previous message. You are right. I agree with you. “Free will” is both a paradox and an illusion for a finite mind in a material universe.
Great video Ben. Thanks for making it precise and to the point. You never sound like you are rambling on. You come across natural and authentic. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us ❤
Just found your videos today, yt recommended, your description of the moment when you are kind of fed up and ready to move on is spot on, 100% my experience. I started meditating daily this past January 1st as a new year's resolution and by March it kind of hit me, I was in shock, like what the heck am I doing always just desiring and wanting this thing/that thing, then I reread The Power of Now and about 5 other books (still reading similar things), The Power of Now made so much more semse the second time around after this moment of "awakening" or realization. Then I wanted to absorb and understand Buddhism and it was suddenly the only thing that made any sense. Now I currently have a daily meditation practice and I spend a large part of my day giving, helping, supporting others. And here I am now listening to your video which is my exact realization and experience this past 7 months. Thank you 🙏😊.
Hi Ben, I've been following you for a few months. Your videos are a great help in my growth path. You've clarified many things for me and you're very good at explaining even complex concepts. I'm Italian, I don't speak English, I help myself with google translate. Thanks for your help❤
Brilliant video, only stumbled across your channel lately. Gonna keep watching. Thanks. I have been having an interesting year myself and ive advanced myself a lot with what ive experienced and seen but its all been very sudden and im trying to educate myself. I have realised so though that ive been having experiences my whole life without knowing and now they all make sense. Gonna keep watching thank you. Whats this school? im keen perhaps ye. I have been meditating once or twice a day now for 2 months or so after a massive experience I had, I find i can sometimes sit for a whole hour and i feel like its been ten mins sometimes. Minds just empty and nothing happens. sometimes i see purple a lot, other times I get very high vibrations in my hands and upper body. I have had a figure of 8 vibration in my lower back before too and ive had a very realistic dream lately which i woke up from feeling iwas being pulled by something back in. Ive lucid dreamed a lot of times before not knowing what it was and heard voices when im awake but eyes closed specially in the mornings before i open my eyes but this was when i was very young the voices thing. Yea just trying to make sense of it all and educate myself, meditations really been helping me to be happy in myself because i had a very athletic lifestyle and still do but for 18 months Ive been in severe dysfunction unable ot run of hike. So this massively made me question in myself there has to be more.
Great video, thank you Ben 😊. Do you know much about same soul / the twin flame phenomena? I'd love to know your and / or your teacher's thoughts on the topic. Would be an epic video. Keep it up 👍
Thank you for sharing this insightful deep dive into reincarnation and the spiritual journey. I appreciate your openness in discussing such profound topics. However, I’d like to gently offer a different perspective on two crucial points that could greatly enhance spiritual understanding. First, you mentioned that 'we are souls.' In truth, the human being is not the soul itself but has the potential to merge with it during a lifetime through spiritual growth and purification. The soul is eternal, and our personality is temporary. It's a subtle yet essential distinction that shifts the focus from identification with the physical and mental aspects to the journey of uniting with the soul, which leads to true liberation. If not, personality has to come back with the soul into the material realm as subpersonality - meaning, will come into a new body with a new personality and cannot change a thing for x lifetimes and there is no escape in that. Reincarnation in religious terms is called hell. Second, equating 'God' with the 'universe' can lead to a misunderstanding. The universe is a creation, while God is the Source, the Creator - another world. God transcends the material universe and all dimensions, and understanding this distinction helps prevent us from falling into materialistic traps. The universe can be a reflection of divine order, but it is not synonymous with the Creator itself. I hope this resonates with you as we all continue to deepen our understanding of these sacred truths. Wishing you peace and spiritual clarity on your path. 🙏
This is what most people think, but it's not true. The truth is actually much simpler. The little selves that reincarnate are nothing more than characters in a show. The real Self is the One Divine Consciousness. It only appears as all of these various forms. The true Self is never born and never dies. It just watches the show.
I'm not consenting to be one with this being. And i'm not consenting to reincarnation. Life is not a show, it's an abusive trap. If it's just a show, why is major information hidden and why is it so hard to leave ? It's obviously not a show. I've never seen a show where the actors are mindwiped and forced to act.
Imagine the old man fought many battles on earth clung to its materialistic life All his life he has battle his best of the best options on the materialistic plane The bigger TV, the nicer car. interested in nothing outside his own well being. The more into your own success, the less you know outside world. The issue comes when getting aging your neuron networks in the brain start to degenerate. You less and less become adequate to the world you live in. All the world starts to scare you. You are becoming an old man in fear of all its surroundings, not trusting anyone. A living nightmare in your last days. on the surface on your face there is still the Ego trying to represent and keep an adequate social face, but behind it the living nightmare is in its last days. The fear is the last thing you will leave the world. And then when you fall asleep in the dark you gonna wake up in Syria, or Afghanistan, or in the cobalt mine in Kongo or whatever nightmare you are talking about.
So in few words Don't think there is some GOD judging and making accounts for your deeds. The one judging is YOU yourself And the more you justify your bad things with your survival, the more you gonna survive one day, putting yourself in difficult situation to justify your guilty conscience The conscience in its absolute purity is your awareness into the so called GOD spark Hope YT not gonna delete my comments as always because of being lengthily or too frequent
Waited a few minutes not YT to take my comment for spam and delete it again So of course everyone would like to have a good and nice and decent and colorful and fun incarnation. But all these comparisons are possible because of a good brain condition, with its good neuron networks able to make comparisons, decisions and choices. The brain does that in the company of your body glands secreting their hormones into nice feelings and experiences you experience the world you live in So obviously you will lean to these experiences to make a good choices for good incarnations The issue is that once you get really old, you will have none of it You won't be able to do that. That's why the old teachings are preaching that the purpose of the life is to prepare yourself to die And you do that by turning off your brain, and glands, becoming fully aware with your purest possible awareness to brake that infinite loop of re-incarnations
@@p14menYou’re on the right track, but it isn’t just about age. All kinds of physical conditions occur at all ages that will essentially dictate one’s thinking, one’s emotions, and therefore, one’s choices. Human beings are not created on a level playing field, yet we all tend to judge everything and everyone by our own experiences without understanding what has caused us to have the reactions we have. Scientists say 90-95% of thoughts occur in the unconscious. The unconscious is programmed by the age of 8. If a person doesn’t even have access to most of what they really think, how is there truly free will? Even years of meditation will probably only help so much; we know this is true because there are a number of “gurus” who have been perceived as being enlightened, yet have manifested dysfunctional behavior. It’s more likely that we can change a small amount around our set point, whatever that is. A horse can’t become a zebra. Maybe it can become a slightly better horse, but only if it’s healthy enough to have an aspiration to change.
@@SS-kw2fl Glad your are interest :) and made that comment It is as you said numerous different conditions dictate different emotional configuration, different attitudes and vistas One could easily fall into depression and felt dead, angry, worsen its egotic behaviors, give up the joy, and thousands of different experiences of its subjective reality in the day he woke up But there are always opportunities for the new day and for the change as long as you are young, as long as your glands still secrete their chemistry But when the death approaches you have to succumb with only the few glimpses remaining in your awareness all your life you are in your hope of justice waiting for your on the other side. But on the death bed there is no justice, because there is no brain conditioning And you will awake in the spark of the tunnel towards realization you didn't had before as long as it has been justified with the corners of your remainging awareness and then you will harvest what was missed before. To have all things you didn't had to have as circumstances For others succumb in the darkness without any awareness or love they will wake in the harsh reality your awareness has brought you in
Great video. .. not easy for most people to believe unless they accumulated some previous understanding. Can you help explain why when we reincarnate, we don’t remember anything?
The Law of Attraction is real. I have asked them to give me more info about wtf is up with this gross world, about spirituality, etc. Even lately, every time I sleep I experience A LOT of worlds (name it parallel world, different dimensions, unique creatures, etc) and those are either previous lives, or people from other worlds I have full control and experience, like I'm in their bodies and I feel everything. Even I asked them to make the water more cold, so that I may practice the cold tolerance, and it came at the next day. They even gave me info by you lot giving me info about soul trap, about spirituality, etc.. Speaking of which, what's your take about the dreams? Unlike many people, very few, like me, can actually remember them and can write them down, or narrate them to others. I have had pleasure of amazeness and excitement over there with the dreams, unlike the reality where I'm awake and dead bored of.
I have a question, I was meditating a few minutes ago and I think I reached the third stage of meditation that you talked about in a previous video I saw of yours. I began seeing a lot of purple, and my vision became kinda blurry, and for a few moments, I felt complete relaxation like I’ve never felt before. I’m not sure if I actually achieved the next step because I’ve only been meditating for not even two weeks, and I’ve never really felt anything in the past, so it was kinda sudden. It would also be good to mention that I was listening to meditation sounds in my earbuds this time around
Vishwamitra,Madhavacharya, Vashisht,Kapil Muni,Agastya Muni,Patanjali,Gorakhnath and many more munis are mentioned in ancient texts you just need to do some research . They all engaged in very deep meditative states and they have intriguing stories. Watch videos they are available for free. If talk about recent 500 years then Ramana Maharishi,Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Neeb Karoli Baba, Mira engaged in deep meditations. Many more names like Osho,J Krishnamurthy,Swami Vivekananda they have explored human consciousness deeply and meditated upon . On thing to tell you that people will try to associate their name to religion but they are above that. These are eastern enlightened folks like Buddha may be more deeper specially those mentioned in ancient scripts. These all are eastern enlightened beings(actually there are thousands but these I remember at the instant)
Ben, I like many of your videos, following you for a while, but I have strong feeling with this one you repeating something what you can't know. This kind of teaching taking people away from real job.
Question: What happens during the 50 years between life times while we're in the Astral? How are we made to reincarnate? Does it happen automatically, as if we're dying there?
Great question. If there is no ‘intent’ behind the action, the karma is ‘neutral’. No unskilful karma is created. Same goes the other way - if you do good, but your intent isn’t there, it’s also neutral. With regards to buying & eating meat, for the majority of people, there’s no bad intent towards the animal. A lot of people don’t think that deeply about to either, so in those cases there’s also not karma created. People who hunt, or kill animals and get some kind of enjoyment out of it - that’s a totally different thing. 🙏
@bensmithreal ahh I see. Thank you so much for answering. That's true, most people mean no harm towards the animals but I think some of it is wilful ignorance. I wonder if being willfully ignorant about the suffering that goes on from industrial farming would constitute unskilful karma. After I thought deeply about this, I couldn't bear to be involved in such industries. Do you think it matters in our lives if we knowingly choose unethical companies/industries or products? Do you think this comes with 'bad' karma? Or are we all trying to do the best we can? Again, thank you for your teachings. You have helped me more than you can understand. I hope to join your online school soon! 🙏
@isis-daisy3384 The more realised a person becomes, the more is expected of them. I am the same as you in that I turned vegetarian about 7/8 years ago because I couldn’t bear the thought of an animal being killed so I could eat. Even if I had carried on eating meat, my intent still wouldn’t have been to kill the animal, so it wouldn’t have incurred karma, but from a personal point of view (similar to you I guess), I made the decision to switch😊 Ps - thanks for your lovely words! It’d be great to see you in the school one day, I’m sure you’d love it 🙏
There are a number of problems with this kind of thinking. To start, it is egoic and encourages superiority (I’m a more experienced, mature soul than you, so I’m on a spiritual journey, but you’re not. Deny it all you want, but if you’re on a spiritual journey and you’re brutally honest with yourself, you likely feel this way deep down.) It prioritizes good over bad while simultaneously teaching there is no difference between the two and all should be accepted and not judged. (Treating my body well is good, treating it bad is bad.) It reflects an enormous amount of ignorance about the relationship between the body and mind, and where choice fits in. (Example: A genetically vulnerable person is horribly mistreated as a child, so ends up being a psychopath. I assure you, the resulting lack of empathy is BIOLOGICAL. That person cannot make caring choices to accumulate good karma and will likely do the opposite because a zebra is a zebra and can only behave like a zebra. It’s a fallacy to think there is a full spectrum of choice here. They’re just going to increase their “bad” karma. What’s worse than being a psychopath the next time around? That person would never dig themselves out, just like people who accumulate too much debt.) People need to stop accepting such simplistic answers and become ok with the “I don’t know” space. We’d all get along and life would improve immeasurably.
Yes I agree, I've been working with the IDK space a bit and it's very relaxing and promotes awareness over judgement. You're right about the psychopath analogy. Everyone is a product of their environment and therefore a loving God knows this and will intervene on behalf of the soul in my opinion. Otherwise, it has no chance of moksha. Thanks again
Hi there, I normally ignore negative comments like these, especially when they are written in a tone that offers no room for being corrected. But I feel I want to correct you on this occasion. I respect your argument, but it’s build on misunderstanding. Firstly, karma has a pivotal point - ‘intent’. The ‘direction’ so to speak of the karma that will follow will depend upon the intent behind the action. Therefore, if someone does something that harms another person, but their intent was actually neutral or even positive, then karma would not be created. This principle is very important and largely misunderstood. As I explain in the video - good and bad are labels based on our perception. What is bad to one person isn’t an issue for another, but some actions will give you favourable results, some won’t. ‘Favourable results’ meaning you will be able to live a more comfortable peaceful life which will make your journey smoother. Also, this idea that it somehow makes us look down on those who aren’t ‘spiritual’ is totally untrue. Yes, there are undoubtedly people who probably think like that - but that is an ego trait of the person that would manifest elsewhere if given the chance, it’s nothing to do with the teaching. It’d be like blaming knives themselves for killing people. It’s not the knives at fault, it’s the people that use them for that purpose. Those people would use anything given the chance. This teaching really is simplistic, it’s just that many misunderstand the finer details.
Thanks for this explanation, but I wonder if you could also talk about what comes after "merging with the divine"..? I imagine that this karmic "cycle" that we are supposedly trying to "end", is actually a much larger cycle that continues. Do we merge with the divine and then get bored of it and want to experience emotions and polarities etc again...? Do we then incarnate and get right back into the karmic cycle that we are trying so hard to elevate ourselves out of...? If this is the case, I'm not in any rush to get out of thus plane of existence that I am inevitably going to come back to. I am happy to take my time, learn and grow in this world, and love and enjoy the experiences that are right here and right now. The world is messy, but it is also such a beautiful place❤❤❤
At some point you have to "get down" to refresh yourself, re-discover yourself once again, because when the river stops it becomes swamp, and nothing in the cosmos is static but eternal movement, renovation and creation. Otherwise all become still, dead and pointless
@@bensmithreal I like her book convulted universe it's absolutely bizarre but her study on karma is very similar that you come back to clear karma from your previous life I'm hoping I have cleared mine I don't want to do another round on this planet 🤣. I used to practice mediumship I spent 8 years in a closed circle then had a breakdown got myself in bad situation I'm slowly going back into it now. I been more focused on my music past 5 years check out my page let me know what you think. I like your page totally awesome gonna watch some more tonight at work ☺️.
I have a serious question, due to being visited by a being in my dreams, and i hope someone can give me some answers about it. This divine being that people talk about, can it be also known as Yahweh? Or is Yahweh not a divine being at all? The reason why i ask is because i know nothing about this being, but he approached me in my dreams and revealed himself to me. I can tell you one thing...he looked very confident in himself.
When you merge back into source, do you keep your individual soul still? So your still a individual piece of consciousness just merged back into the whole again?
If someone attains realisation whilst still in a human form, they will still have their own individual consciousness, but they will know the truth. After death of the body though, everything merges back into source along with the sense of individuality. So no, all sense of individual conscious will disappear.
I was taught that even when merged with the source, you keep your sense of individuality. If the Divine created INDIVIDUALS, doesn't make sense in taking it away. I believe it remains , but no more in the sense of an ego
@@bensmithreal so your actual Soul disappears and merges into source . I find that quite scary 😦 thinking I might no longer exist. I thought my individual consciousness is infinite.
@EvertonTarocco I respect that, but I would also add that if we are the Divine (which we are), then we effectively gave ourself individual consciousness for a period of time. Therefore in truth, we are really just giving ourself back to ourself. There’s no taking away, because it was us that gave it in the first place
Tom Campbell says we are here to become love and get rid of are fear. Is that just another way of saying the same thing you have been saying Ben? Is heading towards love less karma, and fear based more karma?
@@bensmithreal Is that why animals eat other animals? And as humans we should no better than to eat animals? Or are fruits and vegetables alive as well? I currently eat meat, but have thought 💭 the only thing that wants to be eaten is fruit. As you eat the fruit poop out the seeds, and another plant grows again.
Why reincarnation only on earth though, why not on other planets? Surely an earthly "journey" isn't the only possibility... I refuse to believe that earth is the only realm of learning.
This is not how the process of reincarnation TRULY works - this is your version/explanation of how you perceive it works... or how you've been taught it works. You left an awful lot of primary elements out...
So the reincarnation cycle is not much different from the bible. We're getting punished when we don t find the key and act accordingly to diminish karma. We're getting more punishment if we are not clever enough to find consciousness. And when we do find it we have to 'do everything right' or else we are getting punished again by making karma and we have then to reincarnate again into another shitty or worse life..... Wow this is so much better and more spiritual than the bible.... and the terms are of course much better.......we have to do ór God's bidding ór Karma's bidding and pray or meditate the hell out of ourselves to escape this cycle. And when you think of it; why were we so stupid to reincarnate here on earth? So we could taste an apple and touch your table cloth? I say; we were framed!
How is it a punishment? This is the most misunderstood aspect of all of this. You are receiving exactly what you have put out into the world. The books are balanced perfectly. Take responsibility for your life and act with good intent and you will create a helpful future. The whole system is very fair.
I'm just curious as to where this comes from? I imagine it's just a religion, someone's ideas, what proof is there of reincarnation? How do these "avatars" know this information to be true? Memories exist in the brain, so they would not be transfered from one life to another so there would be no point in experiences not remembered, why are there more people alive now than 100 years ago if they are all reincarnated? None of it adds up.
There are many ways. Meditation, spontaneous self-realization, even psychedelics under the correct circumstances. For myself it was the latter. I was shown/felt all of my previous incarnations. Of which there were hundreds, if not, thousands. I could feel each one distinctly. I had done heinous things. I had done noble things. Yet, there was no judgment. It was all just experience. I agree with most of this video except I don't believe karma follows you outside of your current incarnation. Also, since time is illusory, your next incarnation could be in 500BC. We don't remember our previous incarnations because that would violate the free-will of your next incarnation. You won't be 'you' ever again. You will however recall all prior incarnations while in the astral plane each time the body dies. This is where you review your prior incarnation and make plans for your next one. There are more people now because earth is a happening place. The potential for catalyst is extremely high. Especially as the world seems to become crazier and crazier. What better place for free will to have infinite experiences. There are souls that aren't 'from' Earth just clamoring to be here. Remember, the universe is infinite.
I feel to reply here. Reincarnation has many proofs.cases where 7 year old says his previous lifetime name and related experience. This is just an example. Memory is not in brain. Think of brain as transmitter and receiver. Information and memory are not exactly and exclusive property of brain by itself.
@@minnuk1230 I sceptical of those stories unfortunately there are lots of people who will make things up for publicity and money, most people who come out with reincarnation stories claim to have been wealthy or famous in a past life, that alone should set alarm bells off, they are also children most of the times and children have wild imaginations and say a lot of things that aren't true but when you get pushy parents jumping on that and putting ideas in their kids heads then your going to get stories, kids are also prone to making up stories at very young age that they later solidify as memories. Claims are not proof unless there is overwhelming evidence and from what I've seen and heard there's none that holds up to critical thinking.
I can tell you exactly where all this stuff comes from. Fear of non existence. The brain evolved in the effort to game future survival. So people invent all sorts of b.s. in the effort to insure their survival beyond death. Fortunately, it's all nonsense. No one in their right mind would want to undergo life over and over again.
Each and every SANSKRIT term you used like ‘avatar’, ‘samsara’ etc are all concepts from Hinduism. Buddhism borrowed them but they are primarily Hindu. The concept of reincarnation itself is Hindu. Buddhism is essentially one of the schools of thought under Hinduism specifically the Hinduism’s atheistic school of thought as Buddha rejected/ignored the notion of a higher power. It saddens and frustrates me to see westerners contribute many of the advanced spiritual concepts to Buddhism and completely ignore the actual source which is Hinduism. I understand you guys are gravitated towards Buddhism because it is simpler and lightly rules based and kinda similar to rules based or commandment based Abrahamic religions but please don’t exclude the actual source. Without all the concepts laid out by Hinduism to begin with, Buddhism would not have existed.
Most of my teachings are truly a blend of both Hinduism and Buddhism. I like to think I take the mind - control aspects of Buddhism, but the devotion to the Divine and deities from Hinduism. I don’t care much for the blurred lines of who created what first (with respect).
It’s funny how we come to earth to watch a RUclips video on how to stop incarceration
Fr i wanna get outta here so bad
Ben thank you for allowing me to feel connected to like minded other souls, sometimes I feel lost here on earth and I certainly know there is more than what we see❤
Excellent information Ben. With the US in so much turmoil, I had to look beyond to help me know and understand my true aspirations and reasoning why I am here in this lifetime. One can easily be sidetracked even with all the news and media turned off. It can consume you. I find a great deal of peace and knowledge from your teachings.
Thank you 😊🙏
Great video and none of it is rubbish whatever the rumble. All good and inspiring and positive and smiling. Just another video I'm glad spent half an hour with you :)
It was very well explained with in short time and straight to the topic. I appreciate it!
I knew these thru self studies and research since awakened years back. I’m more to Buddhist side and your way of explaining is so clear & superb! Yr teaching videos are giving me more confidence. Thank you so much and wish to meet your Avata one day! 🤪🥰🤟🏽🙏🙏
Thanks! 🙏
Your videos help me soo much! I also in your Skool, but watch all your RUclips videos as well. 🙏
The “Free will” Ben mentions is even more illusory than the self because of the illusion of time. “Free will” seemingly implies one chooses what one wants. But if the choice is a consequence of the “will” (that is, the want or the volition), then the choice is not “free”. The “will” determines the choice. Yet, if it truly “free”, then it can’t be a “will”, because the choice is not determined. Ben is a very clever teacher to use the paradox of “free will” in teaching meditation because the paradox cuts to the heart of the matter. “Who” is even making a choice? And “when” if ever is the choice even made? These two questions are like “miracle grow” to expand awareness. Thank you, Ben, for your wisdom and clever use of words. I appreciate you and your teaching. ❤
Choice comes after free will do let’s not go there. Crux is being conscious while making choices- aka exercising free will while being conscious. And the degree of consciousness is directly proportional to degrees of wisdom.
Don’t get caught up in choice. That’s something that follows. Think about the will that caused that choice. The quality of the will determine the quality of choice. Case in point: people choosing to smoke.
Choice and will are directly connected. So your statement doesn't make sense. The only thing that limits and therefore violates the law of free will are the limits of life.
@@segoiii You are right. One’s will is the choice one makes. One should believe in the free will, the self, and time, if they are helpful. Illusions can be very helpful. I wish you much success in your adventure. Thank you for your reply. May peace be upon you.
@@karlmiller5009 that´s not what i said. I only said that will and choice are directly connected. Will is not necessarily the choice if outer limits make the real will impossible. Choice between limited, predetermined possibilities is not a sufficiant implementation of free will. And free will is no belief system. Either it exists or not. And in life is does not exist because of the limits of life.
Life is a scam, because it requires preplanning without having proper information or sometimes even under pressure. And then within life, corrections aren´t possible any longer and the so called "guides" say that you planned everything for yourself. It´s a textbook scam pattern.
@@segoiii My apologies for misunderstanding your previous message. You are right. I agree with you. “Free will” is both a paradox and an illusion for a finite mind in a material universe.
I'm a high school student and I love watching your videos ben your really inspired me 🙏
thanks for all knowledge.
Great video Ben. Thanks for making it precise and to the point. You never sound like you are rambling on. You come across natural and authentic. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us ❤
I enjoyed watching this video, my aim of life is to merge with divine again and breakfree from samsara.
Just found your videos today, yt recommended, your description of the moment when you are kind of fed up and ready to move on is spot on, 100% my experience. I started meditating daily this past January 1st as a new year's resolution and by March it kind of hit me, I was in shock, like what the heck am I doing always just desiring and wanting this thing/that thing, then I reread The Power of Now and about 5 other books (still reading similar things), The Power of Now made so much more semse the second time around after this moment of "awakening" or realization. Then I wanted to absorb and understand Buddhism and it was suddenly the only thing that made any sense. Now I currently have a daily meditation practice and I spend a large part of my day giving, helping, supporting others. And here I am now listening to your video which is my exact realization and experience this past 7 months. Thank you 🙏😊.
Epic video! Thank you !
So clear. Amazing. Thanks Ben.
Great stuff Ben!
Hi Ben, I've been following you for a few months. Your videos are a great help in my growth path. You've clarified many things for me and you're very good at explaining even complex concepts. I'm Italian, I don't speak English, I help myself with google translate. Thanks for your help❤
This was very clear and matches my beliefs as well. Thank you for sharing this in-depth explanation!
Thanks Ben for your insights in reincarnation 🙏🙂🙏
Thank you 🙏🏻 this video tied up the loose ends of information for me
Very well explained and performed.
Brilliant video, only stumbled across your channel lately. Gonna keep watching. Thanks. I have been having an interesting year myself and ive advanced myself a lot with what ive experienced and seen but its all been very sudden and im trying to educate myself. I have realised so though that ive been having experiences my whole life without knowing and now they all make sense. Gonna keep watching thank you. Whats this school? im keen perhaps ye. I have been meditating once or twice a day now for 2 months or so after a massive experience I had, I find i can sometimes sit for a whole hour and i feel like its been ten mins sometimes. Minds just empty and nothing happens. sometimes i see purple a lot, other times I get very high vibrations in my hands and upper body. I have had a figure of 8 vibration in my lower back before too and ive had a very realistic dream lately which i woke up from feeling iwas being pulled by something back in. Ive lucid dreamed a lot of times before not knowing what it was and heard voices when im awake but eyes closed specially in the mornings before i open my eyes but this was when i was very young the voices thing. Yea just trying to make sense of it all and educate myself, meditations really been helping me to be happy in myself because i had a very athletic lifestyle and still do but for 18 months Ive been in severe dysfunction unable ot run of hike. So this massively made me question in myself there has to be more.
thanks bro 🙏
Thank you, Ben. I had asked you about reincarnation, so really appreciate you dedicating a video about it. Very helpful. 🙏
PRECIOUS AVATAR MASTER GUIDANCE AND KNOWLEDGE!!!
THANK YOU💙🐬💙
Great video, thank you Ben 😊. Do you know much about same soul / the twin flame phenomena? I'd love to know your and / or your teacher's thoughts on the topic.
Would be an epic video. Keep it up 👍
thank you Ben x
Thank you for sharing this insightful deep dive into reincarnation and the spiritual journey. I appreciate your openness in discussing such profound topics. However, I’d like to gently offer a different perspective on two crucial points that could greatly enhance spiritual understanding.
First, you mentioned that 'we are souls.' In truth, the human being is not the soul itself but has the potential to merge with it during a lifetime through spiritual growth and purification. The soul is eternal, and our personality is temporary. It's a subtle yet essential distinction that shifts the focus from identification with the physical and mental aspects to the journey of uniting with the soul, which leads to true liberation. If not, personality has to come back with the soul into the material realm as subpersonality - meaning, will come into a new body with a new personality and cannot change a thing for x lifetimes and there is no escape in that. Reincarnation in religious terms is called hell.
Second, equating 'God' with the 'universe' can lead to a misunderstanding. The universe is a creation, while God is the Source, the Creator - another world. God transcends the material universe and all dimensions, and understanding this distinction helps prevent us from falling into materialistic traps. The universe can be a reflection of divine order, but it is not synonymous with the Creator itself.
I hope this resonates with you as we all continue to deepen our understanding of these sacred truths. Wishing you peace and spiritual clarity on your path. 🙏
Great video
This is what most people think, but it's not true. The truth is actually much simpler. The little selves that reincarnate are nothing more than characters in a show. The real Self is the One Divine Consciousness. It only appears as all of these various forms. The true Self is never born and never dies. It just watches the show.
That is the truth, I just didn’t have time to get to that part 😅🙏
I am, we all are Pure Love Consciousness. Much Love 💗 😌
@@bensmithrealcould you make another video on this part?
I'm not consenting to be one with this being. And i'm not consenting to reincarnation. Life is not a show, it's an abusive trap.
If it's just a show, why is major information hidden and why is it so hard to leave ? It's obviously not a show. I've never seen a show where the actors are mindwiped and forced to act.
That sounds like a theory from A Course in Miracles
Let's ask a child who just died in a bombardment about what an amazing experience he had...
Imagine the old man fought many battles on earth clung to its materialistic life
All his life he has battle his best of the best options on the materialistic plane
The bigger TV, the nicer car. interested in nothing outside his own well being.
The more into your own success, the less you know outside world.
The issue comes when getting aging your neuron networks in the brain start to degenerate. You less and less become adequate to the world you live in. All the world starts to scare you. You are becoming an old man in fear of all its surroundings, not trusting anyone. A living nightmare in your last days. on the surface on your face there is still the Ego trying to represent and keep an adequate social face, but behind it the living nightmare is in its last days. The fear is the last thing you will leave the world.
And then when you fall asleep in the dark you gonna wake up in Syria, or Afghanistan, or in the cobalt mine in Kongo or whatever nightmare you are talking about.
So in few words
Don't think there is some GOD judging and making accounts for your deeds.
The one judging is YOU yourself
And the more you justify your bad things with your survival, the more you gonna survive one day, putting yourself in difficult situation to justify your guilty conscience
The conscience in its absolute purity is your awareness into the so called GOD spark
Hope YT not gonna delete my comments as always because of being lengthily or too frequent
Waited a few minutes not YT to take my comment for spam and delete it again
So of course everyone would like to have a good and nice and decent and colorful and fun incarnation.
But all these comparisons are possible because of a good brain condition, with its good neuron networks able to make comparisons, decisions and choices. The brain does that in the company of your body glands secreting their hormones into nice feelings and experiences you experience the world you live in
So obviously you will lean to these experiences to make a good choices for good incarnations
The issue is that once you get really old, you will have none of it
You won't be able to do that.
That's why the old teachings are preaching that the purpose of the life is to prepare yourself to die
And you do that by turning off your brain, and glands, becoming fully aware with your purest possible awareness to brake that infinite loop of re-incarnations
@@p14menYou’re on the right track, but it isn’t just about age. All kinds of physical conditions occur at all ages that will essentially dictate one’s thinking, one’s emotions, and therefore, one’s choices. Human beings are not created on a level playing field, yet we all tend to judge everything and everyone by our own experiences without understanding what has caused us to have the reactions we have. Scientists say 90-95% of thoughts occur in the unconscious. The unconscious is programmed by the age of 8. If a person doesn’t even have access to most of what they really think, how is there truly free will? Even years of meditation will probably only help so much; we know this is true because there are a number of “gurus” who have been perceived as being enlightened, yet have manifested dysfunctional behavior. It’s more likely that we can change a small amount around our set point, whatever that is. A horse can’t become a zebra. Maybe it can become a slightly better horse, but only if it’s healthy enough to have an aspiration to change.
@@SS-kw2fl Glad your are interest :) and made that comment
It is as you said numerous different conditions dictate different emotional configuration, different attitudes and vistas
One could easily fall into depression and felt dead, angry, worsen its egotic behaviors, give up the joy, and thousands of different experiences of its subjective reality in the day he woke up
But there are always opportunities for the new day and for the change as long as you are young, as long as your glands still secrete their chemistry
But when the death approaches you have to succumb with only the few glimpses remaining in your awareness
all your life you are in your hope of justice waiting for your on the other side. But on the death bed there is no justice, because there is no brain conditioning
And you will awake in the spark of the tunnel towards realization you didn't had before as long as it has been justified with the corners of your remainging awareness and then you will harvest what was missed before. To have all things you didn't had to have as circumstances
For others succumb in the darkness without any awareness or love they will wake in the harsh reality your awareness has brought you in
Great video. .. not easy for most people to believe unless they accumulated some previous understanding.
Can you help explain why when we reincarnate, we don’t remember anything?
Me too it’s tooo hard lonely sad evil
The Law of Attraction is real. I have asked them to give me more info about wtf is up with this gross world, about spirituality, etc. Even lately, every time I sleep I experience A LOT of worlds (name it parallel world, different dimensions, unique creatures, etc) and those are either previous lives, or people from other worlds I have full control and experience, like I'm in their bodies and I feel everything. Even I asked them to make the water more cold, so that I may practice the cold tolerance, and it came at the next day. They even gave me info by you lot giving me info about soul trap, about spirituality, etc..
Speaking of which, what's your take about the dreams? Unlike many people, very few, like me, can actually remember them and can write them down, or narrate them to others. I have had pleasure of amazeness and excitement over there with the dreams, unlike the reality where I'm awake and dead bored of.
I have a question, I was meditating a few minutes ago and I think I reached the third stage of meditation that you talked about in a previous video I saw of yours. I began seeing a lot of purple, and my vision became kinda blurry, and for a few moments, I felt complete relaxation like I’ve never felt before. I’m not sure if I actually achieved the next step because I’ve only been meditating for not even two weeks, and I’ve never really felt anything in the past, so it was kinda sudden. It would also be good to mention that I was listening to meditation sounds in my earbuds this time around
Can you talk more about the bhudda and other enlightend folks? Im facisnated by their journey
Vishwamitra,Madhavacharya, Vashisht,Kapil Muni,Agastya Muni,Patanjali,Gorakhnath and many more munis are mentioned in ancient texts you just need to do some research .
They all engaged in very deep meditative states and they have intriguing stories. Watch videos they are available for free.
If talk about recent 500 years then Ramana Maharishi,Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Neeb Karoli Baba, Mira engaged in deep meditations. Many more names like Osho,J Krishnamurthy,Swami Vivekananda they have explored human consciousness deeply and meditated upon .
On thing to tell you that people will try to associate their name to religion but they are above that. These are eastern enlightened folks like Buddha may be more deeper specially those mentioned in ancient scripts.
These all are eastern enlightened beings(actually there are thousands but these I remember at the instant)
Would love your opinion on the prison planet theory by Isabella Green.
Ben, I like many of your videos, following you for a while, but I have strong feeling with this one you repeating something what you can't know. This kind of teaching taking people away from real job.
Question: What happens during the 50 years between life times while we're in the Astral? How are we made to reincarnate? Does it happen automatically, as if we're dying there?
I am NOT coming back!
Unless you have a plan, you come back until you get it right. Jesus taught reincarnation. Men took it out in 432.😮
I am hoping for atleast a “break” in between lives. My soul feels tired 😮
@@danielconnaughton1521you gonna fall in darkness you can decide on your own if you stop or not
What happens if you accidentally hurt someone (without malintent) or what about harming animals for food etc.?
Great question. If there is no ‘intent’ behind the action, the karma is ‘neutral’. No unskilful karma is created. Same goes the other way - if you do good, but your intent isn’t there, it’s also neutral.
With regards to buying & eating meat, for the majority of people, there’s no bad intent towards the animal. A lot of people don’t think that deeply about to either, so in those cases there’s also not karma created. People who hunt, or kill animals and get some kind of enjoyment out of it - that’s a totally different thing. 🙏
@bensmithreal ahh I see. Thank you so much for answering. That's true, most people mean no harm towards the animals but I think some of it is wilful ignorance. I wonder if being willfully ignorant about the suffering that goes on from industrial farming would constitute unskilful karma. After I thought deeply about this, I couldn't bear to be involved in such industries. Do you think it matters in our lives if we knowingly choose unethical companies/industries or products? Do you think this comes with 'bad' karma? Or are we all trying to do the best we can?
Again, thank you for your teachings. You have helped me more than you can understand. I hope to join your online school soon! 🙏
@isis-daisy3384 The more realised a person becomes, the more is expected of them. I am the same as you in that I turned vegetarian about 7/8 years ago because I couldn’t bear the thought of an animal being killed so I could eat. Even if I had carried on eating meat, my intent still wouldn’t have been to kill the animal, so it wouldn’t have incurred karma, but from a personal point of view (similar to you I guess), I made the decision to switch😊
Ps - thanks for your lovely words! It’d be great to see you in the school one day, I’m sure you’d love it 🙏
@@bensmithreal
You need to be Vegan Not vegetarian
Vegan 100%
There are a number of problems with this kind of thinking. To start, it is egoic and encourages superiority (I’m a more experienced, mature soul than you, so I’m on a spiritual journey, but you’re not. Deny it all you want, but if you’re on a spiritual journey and you’re brutally honest with yourself, you likely feel this way deep down.) It prioritizes good over bad while simultaneously teaching there is no difference between the two and all should be accepted and not judged. (Treating my body well is good, treating it bad is bad.) It reflects an enormous amount of ignorance about the relationship between the body and mind, and where choice fits in. (Example: A genetically vulnerable person is horribly mistreated as a child, so ends up being a psychopath. I assure you, the resulting lack of empathy is BIOLOGICAL. That person cannot make caring choices to accumulate good karma and will likely do the opposite because a zebra is a zebra and can only behave like a zebra. It’s a fallacy to think there is a full spectrum of choice here. They’re just going to increase their “bad” karma. What’s worse than being a psychopath the next time around? That person would never dig themselves out, just like people who accumulate too much debt.) People need to stop accepting such simplistic answers and become ok with the “I don’t know” space. We’d all get along and life would improve immeasurably.
Yes I agree, I've been working with the IDK space a bit and it's very relaxing and promotes awareness over judgement. You're right about the psychopath analogy. Everyone is a product of their environment and therefore a loving God knows this and will intervene on behalf of the soul in my opinion. Otherwise, it has no chance of moksha. Thanks again
Hi there, I normally ignore negative comments like these, especially when they are written in a tone that offers no room for being corrected. But I feel I want to correct you on this occasion. I respect your argument, but it’s build on misunderstanding. Firstly, karma has a pivotal point - ‘intent’. The ‘direction’ so to speak of the karma that will follow will depend upon the intent behind the action. Therefore, if someone does something that harms another person, but their intent was actually neutral or even positive, then karma would not be created. This principle is very important and largely misunderstood. As I explain in the video - good and bad are labels based on our perception. What is bad to one person isn’t an issue for another, but some actions will give you favourable results, some won’t. ‘Favourable results’ meaning you will be able to live a more comfortable peaceful life which will make your journey smoother. Also, this idea that it somehow makes us look down on those who aren’t ‘spiritual’ is totally untrue. Yes, there are undoubtedly people who probably think like that - but that is an ego trait of the person that would manifest elsewhere if given the chance, it’s nothing to do with the teaching. It’d be like blaming knives themselves for killing people. It’s not the knives at fault, it’s the people that use them for that purpose. Those people would use anything given the chance.
This teaching really is simplistic, it’s just that many misunderstand the finer details.
@@bensmithrealthank you 🙏🏻
Thanks for this explanation, but I wonder if you could also talk about what comes after "merging with the divine"..? I imagine that this karmic "cycle" that we are supposedly trying to "end", is actually a much larger cycle that continues. Do we merge with the divine and then get bored of it and want to experience emotions and polarities etc again...? Do we then incarnate and get right back into the karmic cycle that we are trying so hard to elevate ourselves out of...?
If this is the case, I'm not in any rush to get out of thus plane of existence that I am inevitably going to come back to.
I am happy to take my time, learn and grow in this world, and love and enjoy the experiences that are right here and right now. The world is messy, but it is also such a beautiful place❤❤❤
At some point you have to "get down" to refresh yourself, re-discover yourself once again, because when the river stops it becomes swamp, and nothing in the cosmos is static but eternal movement, renovation and creation.
Otherwise all become still, dead and pointless
What are your thoughts on Dolores cannon ?
She’s great
@@bensmithreal I like her book convulted universe it's absolutely bizarre but her study on karma is very similar that you come back to clear karma from your previous life I'm hoping I have cleared mine I don't want to do another round on this planet 🤣. I used to practice mediumship I spent 8 years in a closed circle then had a breakdown got myself in bad situation I'm slowly going back into it now. I been more focused on my music past 5 years check out my page let me know what you think. I like your page totally awesome gonna watch some more tonight at work ☺️.
@@bensmithrealfor some reason RUclips won't show my comments I'm writing I have liked and subscribed to your page it's awesome 😎
I'm still reading convoluted universe very bizarre book
I have a serious question, due to being visited by a being in my dreams, and i hope someone can give me some answers about it.
This divine being that people talk about, can it be also known as Yahweh? Or is Yahweh not a divine being at all? The reason why i ask is because i know nothing about this being, but he approached me in my dreams and revealed himself to me. I can tell you one thing...he looked very confident in himself.
When you merge back into source, do you keep your individual soul still? So your still a individual piece of consciousness just merged back into the whole again?
If someone attains realisation whilst still in a human form, they will still have their own individual consciousness, but they will know the truth. After death of the body though, everything merges back into source along with the sense of individuality. So no, all sense of individual conscious will disappear.
I was taught that even when merged with the source, you keep your sense of individuality. If the Divine created INDIVIDUALS, doesn't make sense in taking it away. I believe it remains , but no more in the sense of an ego
@@bensmithreal so your actual Soul disappears and merges into source . I find that quite scary 😦 thinking I might no longer exist. I thought my individual consciousness is infinite.
@@EvertonTarocco that was my thinking also.
@EvertonTarocco I respect that, but I would also add that if we are the Divine (which we are), then we effectively gave ourself individual consciousness for a period of time. Therefore in truth, we are really just giving ourself back to ourself. There’s no taking away, because it was us that gave it in the first place
Is it always a human form for reincarnation?
Yes🙂
So if you're not a Buddhist what are you?
Tom Campbell says we are here to become love and get rid of are fear. Is that just another way of saying the same thing you have been saying Ben? Is heading towards love less karma, and fear based more karma?
Absolutely, I agree with him. Fear is ego - love is Divine. It’s like our consciousness moves from animal to human, then from human to Divine.
@@bensmithreal interesting.. and would I be correct that my consciousness have started as a animal and worked up to a human? Is that how it works?
@@Lonewolf__666I think so, even a rock
That’s absolutely correct🙏 Now we are in the process of dropping the animal traits completely and become Love, as Tom says.
@@bensmithreal Is that why animals eat other animals? And as humans we should no better than to eat animals? Or are fruits and vegetables alive as well? I currently eat meat, but have thought 💭 the only thing that wants to be eaten is fruit. As you eat the fruit poop out the seeds, and another plant grows again.
What do you mean by 'full enlightenment'. Is that ParaBrahman or something else?
God-realisation 🙏
Why reincarnation only on earth though, why not on other planets? Surely an earthly "journey" isn't the only possibility... I refuse to believe that earth is the only realm of learning.
Exactly in autobiography of yogi yogananda says many places to reincarnate
💟💟💟
I’m just wondering what happens once you merge with the divine. Is it heaven? What will life be like
Guess we won’t know until it comes 😅
Have you ever asked yourself why you want to believe all this stuff?
This is not how the process of reincarnation TRULY works - this is your version/explanation of how you perceive it works... or how you've been taught it works. You left an awful lot of primary elements out...
So the reincarnation cycle is not much different from the bible. We're getting punished when we don t find the key and act accordingly to diminish karma. We're getting more punishment if we are not clever enough to find consciousness. And when we do find it we have to 'do everything right' or else we are getting punished again by making karma and we have then to reincarnate again into another shitty or worse life..... Wow this is so much better and more spiritual than the bible.... and the terms are of course much better.......we have to do ór God's bidding ór Karma's bidding and pray or meditate the hell out of ourselves to escape this cycle. And when you think of it; why were we so stupid to reincarnate here on earth? So we could taste an apple and touch your table cloth? I say; we were framed!
How is it a punishment? This is the most misunderstood aspect of all of this. You are receiving exactly what you have put out into the world. The books are balanced perfectly. Take responsibility for your life and act with good intent and you will create a helpful future. The whole system is very fair.
Thank you for your reply.
I'm just curious as to where this comes from? I imagine it's just a religion, someone's ideas, what proof is there of reincarnation? How do these "avatars" know this information to be true? Memories exist in the brain, so they would not be transfered from one life to another so there would be no point in experiences not remembered, why are there more people alive now than 100 years ago if they are all reincarnated? None of it adds up.
In curious too
There are many ways. Meditation, spontaneous self-realization, even psychedelics under the correct circumstances. For myself it was the latter. I was shown/felt all of my previous incarnations. Of which there were hundreds, if not, thousands. I could feel each one distinctly. I had done heinous things. I had done noble things. Yet, there was no judgment. It was all just experience.
I agree with most of this video except I don't believe karma follows you outside of your current incarnation. Also, since time is illusory, your next incarnation could be in 500BC.
We don't remember our previous incarnations because that would violate the free-will of your next incarnation. You won't be 'you' ever again. You will however recall all prior incarnations while in the astral plane each time the body dies. This is where you review your prior incarnation and make plans for your next one.
There are more people now because earth is a happening place. The potential for catalyst is extremely high. Especially as the world seems to become crazier and crazier. What better place for free will to have infinite experiences. There are souls that aren't 'from' Earth just clamoring to be here. Remember, the universe is infinite.
I feel to reply here. Reincarnation has many proofs.cases where 7 year old says his previous lifetime name and related experience. This is just an example. Memory is not in brain. Think of brain as transmitter and receiver. Information and memory are not exactly and exclusive property of brain by itself.
@@minnuk1230 I sceptical of those stories unfortunately there are lots of people who will make things up for publicity and money, most people who come out with reincarnation stories claim to have been wealthy or famous in a past life, that alone should set alarm bells off, they are also children most of the times and children have wild imaginations and say a lot of things that aren't true but when you get pushy parents jumping on that and putting ideas in their kids heads then your going to get stories, kids are also prone to making up stories at very young age that they later solidify as memories. Claims are not proof unless there is overwhelming evidence and from what I've seen and heard there's none that holds up to critical thinking.
I can tell you exactly where all this stuff comes from. Fear of non existence. The brain evolved in the effort to game future survival. So people invent all sorts of b.s. in the effort to insure their survival beyond death. Fortunately, it's all nonsense. No one in their right mind would want to undergo life over and over again.
Each and every SANSKRIT term you used like ‘avatar’, ‘samsara’ etc are all concepts from Hinduism. Buddhism borrowed them but they are primarily Hindu. The concept of reincarnation itself is Hindu. Buddhism is essentially one of the schools of thought under Hinduism specifically the Hinduism’s atheistic school of thought as Buddha rejected/ignored the notion of a higher power. It saddens and frustrates me to see westerners contribute many of the advanced spiritual concepts to Buddhism and completely ignore the actual source which is Hinduism. I understand you guys are gravitated towards Buddhism because it is simpler and lightly rules based and kinda similar to rules based or commandment based Abrahamic religions but please don’t exclude the actual source. Without all the concepts laid out by Hinduism to begin with, Buddhism would not have existed.
Most of my teachings are truly a blend of both Hinduism and Buddhism. I like to think I take the mind - control aspects of Buddhism, but the devotion to the Divine and deities from Hinduism. I don’t care much for the blurred lines of who created what first (with respect).