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"Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity." -Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching 52
"Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity." -Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching 52
The Sweet Sacramental Act between Soul and Spirit:
Mind, the All-Father, who is Life and Light, gave birth to humanity, which bore his own image, and he took delight in his offspring. Joined to gods by a sense of kinship, humanity worshipped them with piety and holy thoughts, while, for their part the gods watch over humankind with concern and mercy.
At first man was solely eternal and spiritual, but God saw that his new creation could not tend the Earth unless he sheltered him in a material envelope - - giving man a mortal body as well as an immortal soul.
So, God bade Nature be, and from his voice came a woman's form, so lovely that the gods were smitten with her beauty. God made Nature mistress of the World. She communed with herself, producing all kinds of seeds which God took hold of with his hands and scattered over the Earth, who is the mother of all worldly things. Seeing in man a beautiful image of God, Nature was filled with insatiable love.
She clasped him to her, and they merged to become one in love. Mortal and eternal blended and mingled so that Man may perform the demands of sources of his nature. Firstly, to serve God - venerating and praising the things of heaven. Secondly, to assist and administer the things of Earth, by tilling the soil, navigating the waters, building on the land, and by serving each other - that strongest of bonds that links the human race together.
Then God, the master of generation, bestowed on mankind the sacrament of reproduction - full of affection and joy, gladness and yearning, and all the heavenly love that is in his Being. I would have to explain the nature of this compelling sacred bond that binds a man and a woman together, were it not that each one of us, if we explore our innermost feeling, can experience it for ourselves. Contemplate that supreme moment, when each sex infuses the other. One giving forth and the other eagerly embracing, at that moment, through the intermingling of the two natures, the female acquires the male vigor, and the male is relaxed in the female languor.
This sweet sacramental act we celebrate is shared in secret, because if performed openly before impure eyes, the ignorant may mock and the divine power manifesting in both sexes will shy away.
When Awareness knows Sensation, Consciousness (son/Sun) is born.
Mind, the All-Father, who is Life and Light, gave birth to humanity, which bore his own image, and he took delight in his offspring. Joined to gods by a sense of kinship, humanity worshipped them with piety and holy thoughts, while, for their part the gods watch over humankind with concern and mercy.
I have to comment on you guys postings only to give a different angle of view.
I want to use the last five words in the quote above "...humankind with concern and mercy...and ask the question, why concern and mercy?
Quote:
At first man was solely eternal and spiritual, but God saw that his new creation could not tend the Earth unless he sheltered him in a material envelope - - giving man a mortal body as well as an immortal soul.
"At first", is questionable and here is the reason why:
leave out the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and you will have a body with a soul but without a trial.
The very fact that you are aware of what you are is because of the trial.
The tree of knowledge of Good and Evil makes us as gods, with our own will.
Color gods in any way shape or form, making of mythical stories, to justify the condition in which mankind found itself in.
The fact remains, we are here, subjected to this form of life under these conditions not by will, but by Him who subjected us to it.
And by the same, also subjected us in hope, as His endless mercy saves us from ourselves.
I find no worth in myself as myself, but do find God by Jesus resting in my soul, born there as a babe, and continuously growing in spiritual stature, to that of Christ, as His doing and not mine.
To that (Him) I owe my life!
The flesh is as grass, one day green and the next dried up and withered.
Yet, my soul delights in joy of my salvation, as He who is all to me.
I have to comment on you guys postings only to give a different angle of view.
I want to use the last five words in the quote above "...humankind with concern and mercy...and ask the question, why concern and mercy?
"At first", is questionable and here is the reason why:
leave out the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and you will have a body with a soul but without a trial.
The very fact that you are aware of what you are is because of the trial.
The tree of knowledge of Good and Evil makes us as gods, with our own will.
Color gods in any way shape or form, making of mythical stories, to justify the condition in which mankind found itself in.
The fact remains, we are here, subjected to this form of life under these conditions not by will, but by Him who subjected us to it.
And by the same, also subjected us in hope, as His endless mercy saves us from ourselves.
I find no worth in myself as myself, but do find God by Jesus resting in my soul, born there as a babe, and continuously growing in spiritual stature, to that of Christ, as His doing and not mine.
To that (Him) I owe my life!
The flesh is as grass, one day green and the next dried up and withered.
Yet, my soul delights in joy of my salvation, as He who is all to me.
Blessings, AJ
1. Why concern and mercy?
A. Why Love?
2. At first is questionable?
A. Read as, In the beginning.
3. leave out the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and you will have a body with a soul but without a trial.
The trial/quest is in annihilating the ego (Conquering Satan- is Satan a God?).
[SIZE=3][/SIZE] Metaphysics is applicable theory, science is practical and not at all exact, though it is exacting, e.g. trying. Illusion is the opposite of Reality.
If real is what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, "reality" then is nothing more than electrical signals or vibrations interpreted by the brain.
In man five 'powers' exist, which are the agents of perception---that is to
say, through these five powers, man perceives material things.
These are;
sight, which perceives visible forms;
hearing, which perceives audible sounds;
smell, which perceives odors;
taste, which perceives foods; and
feeling, which is all parts of the body and perceives tangible things.
These five powers perceive outward existences.
Man has also 'spiritual 'powers': These are;
imagination, which conceives things;
thought, which reflects upon realities;
comprehension, which comprehends realities;
memory, which retains whatever man imagines, thinks and comprehends.
The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers is
the 'sense' which they posses in common---that is to say, the sense which
acts between the outer and the inner powers, conveys to the inward powers
whatever the outward powers discern.
It is termed the 'common faculty', because it communicates between the
outward and the inward powers and thus is common to the outward and inward
powers.
For instance, sight is one of the outer powers; it sees and perceives this
flower, and conveys this perception to the inner power-the common
faculty---which transmits this perception to the power of imagination, which
in turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to the power of
thought; the power of thought reflects and, having grasp the thought,
conveys it to the power of comprehension; the power of comprehension, when
it has comprehended it, delivers the image of the object perceived to the
power of memory, and the memory keeps it in repository.
The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing, of smell, of
taste and of feeling.
The inner powers are five; the common faculty, and the powers of
imagination, thought, comprehension and memory.
It is true that "We are Lived", "Life Lives Us" and "We are an expression of the One Life".
Does this mean that we are not the 'Doer' of anything?
Actions arise, things get done - there is no doubt about that.
The question remains - Who or what is the 'Doer'?
We only have two candidates nominated as the 'doer'.
Awareness / Consciousness / Aliveness.
Awareness / Intelligence-Energy is Omnipresent - which means that it is Present in every possibly location in the Universe, without being 'more Present' in some places and 'less Present' in others.
There is no possible separation that can exist - and all apparent separation is an illusion. One is All. There is no room for a separate 'god' and no room for a separate 'you' or a separate 'me'.
There cannot be a separate 'doer'.
Some hold that "Consciousness is the 'ultimate doer' ", but that is Dualistic. There is no separation between Consciousness and anything else, even an 'ultimate 'doer'. The 'ultimate doer' is just a concept, a label, an abstraction. The actuality is there is only DO-ing but no separate 'Doer' except in the mind as a thought.
Everything arises in Consciousness in the immediacy of the Present Moment. It does not arise from a 'separate Doer' or a 'separate Source'.
Consciousness is non-personal - there is no entity that can be a 'Doer' or a 'Source'.
Everything just arises. That is it.
There is only Consciousness / Awareness / Intelligence - Energy. God.
The 'me', the egoThe ego is just a thought. The 'me' is just a thought. It has no power at all in it's own right.
The 'me' cannot be the 'doer' but it certainly claims to be.
Awareness sees and the 'me' says "I see". Awareness hears and the 'me' comes in and says "I hear".
The seeing and the hearing have already occurred before the thoughts "I see" and "I hear" arise.
These thoughts are 'after thoughts' - occurring after the event to which they refer.
Thoughts have no power of themselves.
Thoughts cannot be the 'doer'.
The understanding is that there IS NO DOER AT ALL. Everything just arises in consciousness.
We are Lived. Life Lives us. But what then of the statement 'I am not the doer'?
This statement is flawed for two reasons - the assumptions on which it is based.
There is an assumption that a 'me' or an 'I' actually exists as a separate entity. So there is a belief in a non-existent 'me' which denies being the 'doer'.
That entity, when investigated is found not to exist, at which point the issue of 'who is the doer' is no longer an issue.
The 'doer' actually does not exist anywhere else other than thought. It is an abstraction. What happens is DO-ing, which is a Movement of Consciousness in the immediacy of the Present Moment.
The mind (which likes to divide and separate) latches onto this and describes it in terms of a DOER and something that is DONE - but in fact there is only DO-ing.
So the statement "I am not the doer" is correct except that there is no 'I' and there is no 'doer'.
How about "there is no doer and people should not be blamed for what they apparently 'do' and nor should you blame yourself either ".
This statement is seriously flawed as well, in addition to the reasons above, which equally apply to this statement
In blaming yourself there is an implicit belief in the 'me' that is doing the blaming and the same 'me' that is being blamed. So it is the Ego blaming the Ego. Total mind stuff. None of this exists except in the imagination.
Whether there is blaming or not is not the issue - the issue is the solid and steadfast belief in the existence of the 'me' in the first person. There is a similar belief in the separate entity of others (their 'me'). All are illusions. None actually exist.
If there is no 'me' here - how possibily could there be a 'me' over there?
When the 'me' is seen through - seen for the fiction that it is - the subject of blaming does not arise. It is a red herring.
I still hold to the center of my existence, Jesus Christ.
Blessings, AJ
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