THE NEW-AGE RELIGIONS
This page is nothing special. These are all common ideas and opinions. They have no direct relationship with panoramic sensing.
Parent Page : A Focused or Panoramic God
In these modern times, our Western herd mentality doesn't 'trust in God'.
Organised religions don't help. They portray God a bit like a beneficial social state, with CCTV cameras watching over each one of us.
The original creative thinking of Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud et al., broke the old walls down, but then we found our individual egos, and now we want more for them.
Most of our leading thinkers don't open their minds, let alone hearts, to the significance of the great creative big bang, without which we wouldn't even exist. These days, anything resembling God is almost taboo.
And so we developed all the new-age religions teaching new forms of herd mentality – believing in 'finding yourself', self-realisation, self-development, unifying mind-body-spirit – until we are superior beings in a state of pure and universal consciousness, (soon maybe with neuralinks implanted in our brains).
Finding your Real Self
Our modern culture is going through a stage of looking for psychological and scientific answers.Anything as long as it's not reminiscient of the Gods of traditional times – as long as it avoids any from of ego-sacrifice or subservience to any supreme eternal cosmic energy.
So, we're left with psychology mixed with bits and pieces of Hindu, Buddhist and other Asian religions and philosophy, the higher self, the real self, and a few prehistoric nature Gods from Celtic and Greek pantheism.
Some of these methods are horrific. They often have cool sounding names. See Oponopono and Gaia for a couple of modern relatively common-sense methods.
It is irrelevant to give summaries here. There is something essential missing from almost all new-age theories. They originate from a time when an almighty spiritual essence was just taken for granted, it was present in everything we did and thought, it was part of our mind-set.
Another part of that mind-set was that in those times we lived for and because of our social group.
People simply weren't as self-centred as they are these days.
All these methods of self-realisation by the self alone, are essentially self-centred.
Most things can only be done in a wholesome way by deference to something greater than us. The only point where i'd agree with new-age thinking, is that to be still inside and now, and stop all the pointless abstract thinking, that's up to us to do.
Related Practices
Being watchful in a panoramic way is only vaguely related to modern mindfulness practices.The word "mindfulness" is a false translation of the original Sanskrit and Pali. Modern mindfulness exercises usually focus on the breath or body, and the aim is some sort of self-realisation. Panoramic awareness concentrates on sights, sounds, and smells in the environment around us, and it is inherently a selfless state of being.
Focusing on the present moment is directly related to panoramic sensing, but when you are fully aware of the present moment with all its distractions, you will find you are sensing in a panoramic way.
Leadership
It's largely a question of leadership. Nowadays with self realisation as the ultimate aim, the leaders attain this merely by having followers. The followers have their herd mentality, so everyone finds a sense of confirmation and identity.
Animal Gurus
Some new-age methods can undoubtedly unlock hidden potential and help us connect with forgotten or unrealised talents and energies and help bring our lives in balance.But panoramic sensing IS a forgotten, unrealised potential and talent, and evolution's basic balance in life.
Animals teach freely, they ask for nothing back. Animals teach us a surprisingly simple method as ancient as life itself: the panoramic experience of direct awareness, oneness and selflessness.
Animals and young children know how to use their senses in their panoramic capacity. Animals and young children would make the best new-age gurus.
The teaching tradition is safe in their hands, safe from pompous and abstract theories, safe from the 'true self' and its superior egoism.
Please read A Focused or Panoramic God
Sub-pages
Leaders and Followers
Life is a Game
Focusing on the present moment
Oponopono and Gaia
Back to Chapter Five : Panoramic Sensing and The Great Spirit
Back to THE PANORAMA SENSES Priority Pages