Reflection for August 7th, 2013: The greater must reveal itself to the lesser

If this metaphysical space is to be known,

such knowledge can be attained only by faith and grace,

not by ‘entering’ but by ‘being entered’

-this is so because the greater must reveal itself to the lesser.

Put differently, that which is immanently ‘Spirit’ can only be known receptively,

through its own intellective vision, and not any derivative faculty such as reason,

feeling or sensation. Reason can only discern conceptually,

at best reducing reality to a dualism of subject and object

(as in the case of Descartes) or catagorical postulate

(as in the case of Kant) or dialectic process

(as in the case of Hegel) – its ‘telos’ will tend to be utopian(as in the case of Marx),

fundamentalist( as in the cases of religious, political or secular dogmatism)

or anthropocentrically consencual (as in the case of Rousseau’s social contract);

while sensation or feeling even where elevated to

the level of empirical ‘science,’ can only discern reality as matter or as psyche,

quantitatively, thereby cutting it off from its transcendent

and qualitative roots, leading to an emphasis on hypertrophic subjectivism

(as in the case of Nietzsche), Psychologism(as in the case of Freud),

or reductive positivism(as in the cases of philosophical positivism and of scientism).

That which transcends us cannot be known reductively

but only by that transcendent faculty which is immanent in us-which in

Tradition is termed the ‘Intellect’

or the Self-knowing Spirit. To know is to discern BEING.

We must empty ourselves or our ‘self’ in order to know who we ARE.

We must return to the sacred emptiness of the space that is our

ontological core in order to know that which truly IS.

–M Ali Lakhani (the Distance between us, found in Sacred Web issue 31)

 

Reflection for October 10, 2008: What is Desire?

“To unify your life unify your desires.

To spiritualize your life, spiritualize your desires.

To spiritualize your desires, desire to be without desire.”

–Thomas Merton (Thoughts in Solitude, p56)

……………..

“In the Jewish mystical discussion of Creation, the Creator’s act of tzimtzum—making space in the All-God Presence for the existential possibility of Other—was followed by shevirat hakelim, or the shattering of the vessels (the big bang?). As the God-Will to create filled the space formed by the vacuum of stepping back, of tzimtzum, the resulting universe became a vessel that was capable solely of receiving but not of giving. And so it became filled with so much God-Light that it exploded, and in so doing became a vessel capable of receiving as well as yielding, of containing as well as pouring forth. It is in that universe that our world was conceived. A world of give and take, of inhaling and exhaling, of to and fro, of back and forth, a universe in which there could be dance, where life could be dynamic rather than static. In such a universe there is room for receiving only when there is also the capacity to give, of feeling loved only when there is also the capacity to love.

Shevirat hakelim is experienced by the average person at least some of the time. When you are the recipient of potent dosages of loving from someone and it is coming from a place of authenticity and altruism, you may experience an ‘explosion,’ a bursting-forth transformation in your heart that leaves in its wake amoebic stages of evolving love for the Other, the very beginnings of a wholesome partzuf (countenance) process.”

– Gershon Winkler (The Place Where You Are Standing is Holy)

……..

Tat: But now tell me this; how are the castigations of darkness, which are twelve in number, driven out by ten forces? How does this come about, Trismegistus?

Hermes : The tent dwelling which we have left, is composed from the circle of the zodiac which, in turn, consists of twelve elements; one nature, but manifold of conception, in keeping with man’s erring thoughts. Among these castigations, my son, there are some that act in combination. For instance, undue haste and thoughtlessness cannot be separated from anger. They cannot even be distinguished. That it is understandable and logical that they will disappear together when they are driven away by the ten forces. It is these ten forces, my son, that give birth to the Soul. Life and light are united. And so the number of unity is born out of the Spirit. Likewise, according to reason, the unity contains the number ten and the number ten again contains unity.

Tat: Father, I perceive both the entire All and myself in the Spirit-Soul.That is rebirth, my son – one cannot form any three dimensional concept of it. You know and experience it now thanks to this Discourse on Rebirth, which I have put in writing solely for your benefit, since we would not divulge all this to the multitude, but exclusively to those whom God has chosen.
…………

It’s not just enough to change the players. We’ve gotta change the game.

—Barack Obama

………….

“Lord, those are Your best servants who wish to shape their life on Your answers rather than shape your answers on their wishes.”

Amen

–St Augustine (Confessions 10, 26)

 

Reflection for July 23,2008: can’t touch it, show it, taste it,

“If we set out into this darkness, we have to meet these inexorable
forces.  We will have to face fears and doubts.  We will have to call
into question the whole structure of our spiritual life.  We will have
to make a new evaluation of our motives for belief, for love, for
self-commitment to the invisible God.  And at this moment, precisely,
all spiritual light is darkened, all values lose their shape and
reality, and we remain, so to speak, suspended in the void.

The most crucial aspect of this experience is precisely the temptation
to doubt God himself.  We must not minimize the fact that this is a
genuine risk.”

–Thomas Merton (CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER,  page 77)

I know that I am presenting the solution in difficult terms, but there is nothing difficult in the Word of Truth. But since the Solution appeared so as not to leave anything hidden, but to reveal all things openly concerning existence – the destruction of evil on the one hand, the revelation of the elect on the other. This is the emanation of Truth and Spirit, Grace is of the Truth.

The Savior swallowed up death – (of this) you are not reckoned as being ignorant – for he put aside the world which is perishing. He transformed himself into an imperishable Aeon and raised himself up, having swallowed the visible by the invisible, and he gave us the way of our immortality. Then, indeed, as the Apostle said, “We suffered with him, and we arose with him, and we went to heaven with him”. Now if we are manifest in this world wearing him, we are that one`s beams, and we are embraced by him until our setting, that is to say, our death in this life. We are drawn to heaven by him, like beams by the sun, not being restrained by anything. This is the spiritual resurrection which swallows up the psychic in the same way as the fleshly.

But if there is one who does not believe, he does not have the (capacity to be) persuaded. For it is the domain of faith, my son, and not that which belongs to persuasion: the dead shall arise! There is one who believes among the philsophers who are in this world. At least he will arise. And let not the philosopher who is in this world have cause to believe that he is one who returns himself by himself – and (that) because of our faith! For we have known the Son of Man, and we have believed that he rose from among the dead. This is he of whom we say, “He became the destruction of death, as he is a great one in whom they believe.” Great are those who believe.

The thought of those who are saved shall not perish. The mind of those who have known him shall not perish. Therefore, we are elected to salvation and redemption since we are predestined from the beginning not to fall into the foolishness of those who are without knowledge, but we shall enter into the wisdom of those who have known the Truth. Indeed, the Truth which is kept cannot be abandoned, nor has it been. “Strong is the system of the Pleroma; small is that which broke loose (and) became (the) world. But the All is what is encompassed. It has not come into being; it was existing.” So, never doubt concerning the resurrection, my son Rheginos! For if you were not existing in flesh, you received flesh when you entered this world. Why will you not receive flesh when you ascend into the Aeon? That which is better than the flesh is that which is for (the) cause of life. That which came into being on your account, is it not yours? Does not that which is yours exist with you? Yet, while you are in this world, what is it that you lack? This is what you have been making every effort to learn.

–The treatise on the resurrection

Zen mind is the “Natural” state of our beings: No self, no identity, no memes, no beliefs.

Any idea of “what is” takes us away from what is – to be in the moment, all ideas need to be gone. There’s not even an “I” to have the ideas.

The natural being acts as an outcome of the movement of the universe, in the same way that an artist’s brush is moved by its “universe”.

All “teachings”, “spiritual” paths or “sacred” practices actually take us away from the moment, because it needs an “I” to do them, with an agenda of some kind, something to gain. All of which removes our beingness from the identity-free moment.

The only way that “what is” can be experienced is to lose all traces of self, in which case the “what is” can’t be experienced because there is no one there to experience it.

Any description of the state of the natural mind is false, including this one. “It” cannot be described. “It” is always “bigger” than the limiting description.

There is not even an “ultimate” state to gain, because the very idea that there is, takes us away from it.

All there is, is the operation of the universe in its all-ness. There’s no such thing as “enlightened” or “unenlightened”. These are just ideas of what is.

Even “bliss” or “transcendence” is a state of mind that needs an “I” to experience those feelings.

Thoughts are the glue of our belief structures. “I” is the creation of thoughts and beliefs.

What’s happening, when we think we are functioning human beings, is the operating system of the brain, running sophisticated meme/belief structures that create the content of our identities and sense of self.

The only act awareness can “do” is to let go of “self” awareness. Awareness, to be fully there, needs to have no “I” attached to it.

Where there was self, there is now “active” emptiness.

Action, from this place, is an instantaneous, pure response to the call of the moment. It is the moment, the universe acting, not the person.

True peace is an absence of agitation, an absence of self-generated internal activity. So peace cannot be “done”, or created – it’s an absence of doing. This allows unadulterated “what-is” to be.

All action out of this state is completely harmonious and non-conflicting. There is nothing there to conflict with anything else.

A transcended being feels the world cleanly, whereas an “I”, full of beliefs and ideas of self, overlays those unadulterated feelings with external content, imbuing them with emotional “charge”. This charge is reactive to the world around it, continually creating conflict as it attempts to dissipate.

Whatever is actual or real can only be there when all ideas, all thoughts, all belief, all traces of identity are gone – when there is no “I” left to take us out of the moment. If the eternal now moment is all there is, this may be the only way to be in it.

Thought is only necessary, only of any use, when it is called for by the moment, for a particular task. To keep thinking beyond the particular call of the moment is the same as keeping your arm above your head all the time, or hopping on one leg all the time.

What comes out of the moment relates only to that moment. It’s already past and nonexistent as it is experienced. To hold to anything experienced or said in that moment, is to live in the dead past.

If you can’t touch it, show it, taste it, does it have any reality?

http://www.becomereal.com/zen.html

……..

In the beginning there are intellectual structures to help us
understand our experiences – then the structures necessarily fall
away as we fall back into the bliss of simple being.

 

Concerning Death

“I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.” —Walt Whitman

“Learn thou! the Life is, spreading life through all; It cannot anywhere, by any means, Be anywise diminished, stayed, or changed. But for these fleeting frames which it informs with spirit deathless, endless, infinite, They perish. Let them perish, Prince! and fight! He who shall say, “Lo! I have slain a man!” He who shall think, “Lo! I am slain!” Those both know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!” —Krishna – Bhagavad Gita

for me the answer lies in the tree of life

As has been topuched upon by Isabella and myself, in a different group one can relate the tetragrammaton
in several ways upon the tree of life. For example some like the middle pillar:

Yod Kether 1   spiral(mobile)/ pluto
Heh Yesod  9  moon
Vau Tifferet 6 sun
Heh Malkuth 10 Earth

another example is the one used by the Sangreal solidality which places the 4 primary arch angels at:

Hod air 8 Mercury Rapahel Yod
Tifferet fire Sun Michael Vau
Yesod water Moon Gabriel Heh
Netzach earth Venus Uriel Heh

This is a powerful combination as it forms a lightning flash pattern, this of course differs fromt he standard crowley/golden dawn attribution…
A third way would be to relate the tetragrammaton to the small face and the large face or the supernal triangle and the other 7

kether chockmah binah: yod heh vau

chesed geburah tifferet hod netzach yesod and malkuth Heh

This is of course very Gnostic, and where as many simply place Christ at Tifferet, christ can be seen to be the lower Heh
This of course ties in with Gnosticism that claims Christ and Sophia are twin beings, one half of each other…or the Shekinah for those not clear on Sophia…

How does this relate to death?
At Chesed and geburah we have the abyss, the place of Daath (Gnosis)
Here we have the great bridge…. the Sangreal Solidality place the tarot card Judgement between Chesed and Geburah, this can be seen as akin to the egytian weighing of the soul.
It is here in Daath and the abyss where we choose…we choose life or death, darkness or light.
Note the 7 stages “below” us to reach this point… VITRIOL
Visitae Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem… visit the interior of the earth(self) through purification you will find the hidden stone(your self/christ)
This of course relates to the 8 fold noble path and the false 7 heavens of the archons (Gnosticism)

So it is here where we cross over, we sink and drown in the ocean that is Binah or we swim.

So what happens at death? we come back in order to swim in Binah, until our time is up..then we must choose life or death…life is to swim in binah death is to drown and be “recycled”
we find our VITRIOL or we do not…..
“Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world.”

“The counterfeit of the spirit is stationed without the soul, watching over it and dogging it, and the rulers bind it to the soul with their seal and with their bonds, and force it to commit mischiefs unremittingly, that it may be their slave forever, and be under their subjection forever in the transmigration into bodies: And they seal this counterfeit to the soul, so that it may be in every kind of sin and all the desires of the world. It is because of this that I have brought the mysteries into the world, which break all the bonds of the counterfeit of the spirit, which make the soul free and ransom it from the hands of its parents, the rulers, and transform it into pure light, to bring it into the kingdom of the True Father, the first everlasting mystery.”  Pistis Sophia

 

reflection for March 20, 2008: Yohanna d Masbuta (John the Baptist)

“True solitude is found in humility, which is infinitely rich. False
solitude is the refuge of pride, and it is infinitely poor.”

–Thomas Merton

	In Beginning was Mind;
	And Mind was with GOD.
	So Mind was God. This was in Beginning with GOD.
	All kept coming into existence through it; And apart from it came into existence not a single [thing].
	What has come into existence in it was Life; And LIFE was the Light of the [true] Men.
.	And the Light shineth in the Darkness; And the Darkness did not emprison it.
		It was the True Light, Which enlighteneth every Man Who cometh into the world.
		It was in the world; And the world kept coming into existence through it And the world did not know it.
		It came unto its own; And its own did not receive it.
		But as many as received it, To them it gave power To become Children of God,
.		To those who have faith in his name,
			Who were brought to birth, Not out of [the blending of] bloods,
			Nor of urge of flesh, Nor of urge of a male, But out of God.
			So Mind became flesh And tabernacled in us,
.			And we beheld its glory, Glory as of [? an] only-begotten from Father, Full of Delight and Truth.
				For of its Fulness we all received, And Delight over against Delight –Gnostic John the Baptizer

PRE-EXISTENCE OF YOHANNA

An example of Yeshu (Jesus) teaching reincarnation can be found in the seventh book of the Pistis Sophia (an ancient Manichaean text dated to the 3rd century or earlier). In it we read of the reincarntion of Elijah, or Elias, as Yohanna d Masbuta (John the Baptist):

“Now it happened that when I came into the midst of the archons of the aeons, I looked down at the world of mankind, at the command of the First Mystery.

I found Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist , before she had conceived him and I cast into her a power which I had received from the Little Jao , the Good, who is in the Midst, so that he should be able to preach before me, and prepare my way and baptise with water of forgiveness .

Now that power was in the body of John. And again, in place of the soul of the archons which he was due to receive, I found the soul of the prophet Elias in the aeons of the sphere; and I took it in and I took his soul again; I brought it to the Virgin of the Light, and she gave it to her paralemptors. They brought it to the sphere of the archons, and they cast it into the womb of Elisabeth. But the power of the Little Jao, he of the Midst, and the soul of the prophet Elias were bound in the body of John the Baptist.

You doubted now at the time when I spoke to you because John said : ‘I am not the Christ’ and you said to me : ‘lt is written in the scripture : when the Christ shall come, there will come Elias before him and he will prepare his way’. But when you said this to me, I said to you : ‘Elias has indeed come and he has prepared all things, as it is written : And they did to him as they pleased. And when I knew that you did not understand what I said to you concerning the soul of Elias, which was bound in John the Baptist, I answered you openly in speech, face to face, saying : ‘If it pleases you to accept John the Baptist, he is Elias of whom I have said that he will come'”. – Pistis Sophia, ch 7

 

reflection for March 14, 2008: The Prophecy of Lao Tzu

Mar Mani, the founder of Manichaeaism had a mysterious life. According to the Taoists themselves Mani was the reincarnation of Lao Tzu. The HISTORY of Mani’s life was unimportant to his followers (bearing in mind Manichaeaism lasted for around a 1000 years, so it was not a small group); what was important was the spiritual prowess and leadership of Mani. Any history of Mani was first and foremost to show his spiritual significance, and his factual life a distant second. We could perhaps take this into consideration when it comes to “official” lines on the historical Jesus..

“Then four hundred and fifty or so years after my last manifestation, I, Lao-Tzu, shall ride on a vapour of the Tao of natural light. I shall leave the domain of Truth and Calmness and fly into the precious territory of Hsi-na (?Rome). In the kingdom of Su-lin (Assuristan) I shall descend into the royal palace and be born as crown-prince. I shall leave my family and enter the Way and be called Mo-mo-ni (Mar Mani), I shall turn the wheel of the great law (dharma) and I shall explain the canonical commandments and regulations and the practice of meditation and knowledge, as well as the doctrines of the Three Epochs and Two Principles. I shall instruct both gods and men and make them realize that the Present Moment reaches up to the Realm of Light and down to the paths of Darkness. All the beings will thereby be saved.

Five times ninety years (450 years) after Mani, the metallic vapour (or vital force) will rise and my teaching will prosper. As a sign, holy images of Mani will come spontaneously from the Western Regions to the Middle Continent (China).This will be a sign of realization. The two vapours, yellow and white, will coalesce and the Three Schools (Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism) will be united together and return to me. The temples of benevolence and the places of cultivation (will be so numerous) that they will join their beams and link their rafters. The bright and venerable law of the Later Sage will be translated and interpreted. The Taoist masters of the Middle Continent will extensively explain the doctrine of cause and effect (hetupratyaya). They will be the ships of the world and enlarge the scope of service of the law. All that moves, grows. or has life will be saved. This is known as the total absorption of all schools.”

–The Prophecy of Lao Tzu

(taken from Mani, The Angel and the Column of Glory, Andrew Welburn)

In the Name of the Great Life!

Up, Up! Ye Elect righteous ones,

Rise up, ye perfected and believing ones!

Rise, worship and praise the Almighty Living Ones!

And praise the great King Shishlam-Rba,

And praise the Occult Tanna and Ham-Ziwa,

And praise thr great Yawar and Zlar the great,

And praise Simar-Hiia,

From whom all the worlds came into being;

And praise the Wellspring and Datepalm

From Whom the Father of Uthras came into being.

I worship and praise that lofty and great

King of Light, the compassionate One

Who is full of loving kindness.

 

the acorn

a small acorn falls from a great height
It lands below on the ground
The rain rains down upon it
fed by the leaf litter and other nutrients of the soil
the acorn begins to grow
over time the acorn grows into a tree
many years pass the tree is tall and old
the tree stands old and dying
slowly it rots and decays
it falls down to the ground slowly
it becomes one with the earth and leaf litter
nearby
a small acorn falls from a great height
It lands below on the ground
The rain rains down upon it……..

Metempsychosis

“What is the good (of erecting a tomb)? The body is dirt and rubbish when once the soul has left it!” – from Mandaeans of Iraq & Iran, pg 184

 “Awake, brethren, chosen ones, on this day of spiritual salvation, the 14th of the month of Mihr, when Jesus, the Son of God, entered into parinirvana.”. – Parthian Manichaean fragment M104 from Turfan

Greek Term	Aramaic Term	Jewish Term
Soma/Sarx (Physical Body)	Pagra (Physical Body)	Guf (Physical Body)
Hyle/Soma (Instinctual Soul)	Napsha (Instinctual Soul)	Nephesh (Instinctual Soul)
Psyche (Emotional Soul)	Ruha (Emotional Soul)	Ruach (Emotional Soul)
Pneuma (Spiritual Soul)	Nishimta (Spiritual Soul)	Neshamah (Spiritual Soul)

The Fate Of The Body & Soul At Death According To Gnostic Sources