Dharma – The Way Things Are. The real experience and realizations of a spiritual practitioner. Volume I. The Universe

The second edition of «Dharma – The Way Things Are. Real Experiences and Realizations of a Spiritual Practitioner» is a more detailed and better-structured teaching than the one presented to the reader in the first version. Due to the deeper and more extensive meditative experience, the author has significantly revised the book's original text. All chapters in the three volumes have been changed to some degree, and completely new sections have been written. For example, it includes the 17 levels of the Heavens of the Higher World of Forms as experienced in deep meditation (dhyana) and the subsequent Samadhi. The experience of each stage of meditation and Samadhi is also described more precisely. Many sections have been expanded, such as the section on the independent state of the True «Self» (Atman) section, and the question of why this original state of Nirvana was lost in the beginningless past has also been addressed in more detail. Both versions of this book are unusually vivid, rich, and detailed, with modern accounts of the one universal Law (Dharma) that is the essence of the teachings of Buddhism, Yoga, and Taoism. The author of this book, a researcher of Dharma and a high-level practitioner (yogi), writes about the theory and practice of Buddhism, Yoga, and Taoism as a single teaching that may point a person toward his true original nature (the True «Self») and allow one to realize this state through proper practice. His personal study, presented in this book, is based on ancient original sutras, texts, and statements of Gurus of different traditions of the past and present, as well as his personal spiritual experience. Since the author uses ancient texts and his direct spiritual experience, the discussion of advanced and sometimes highly complex teachings becomes more understandable, vivid, and perfectly practical. To show the reader that the Dharma is not a frozen religious form of the past, but a living and practically effective teaching that is fully up to date and entirely relevant to our time – that is the author’s central and precise aim. The first volume describes the structure and functioning of the false «self», or the Five Skandhas: body, sensations, perceptions, formed experience, and distinguishing consciousness. Also, the first volume includes a detailed description and explanation of the multilayered consciousness and the three worlds of the Universe: the World of Passions (World of Phenomena), the World of Forms (Astral World), and the World of Formless (Causal World). The first volume culminates in a final chapter in which the author provides a summary of the contents of the first four chapters, as well as a detailed description of death and rebirth and the tendencies of reincarnation in the intermediate state of the Bardo. The second edition contains a detailed description of the lower realms of the Astral and Causal Worlds, the 17 Heavens of the Higher World of Forms, and how karma manifests itself. All of the following descriptions are accompanied by illustrations (tables, diagrams, and drawings). Some of the first edition's illustrations have been corrected, some have been completely redone, and many new illustrations have been added in order to help the reader understand the teachings presented in the book more accurately. The book is intended for a wide and diverse audience. It will interest both those with a newfound interest in the spiritual world and those who already confidently follow the spiritual Path.