Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Shout-Outs From the O-->(k) Chorale

Just so it's clear, the semi-annual "throwing of the bones" to Dear Leader is not -- not only, to be exact -- a vain exercise in empty flattery or ego boosting. So long as it is not too over-the-top and doesn't cross a certain line into creepy idealization -- which is just the shadow of devaluation -- it serves a vital purpose. For when you think about it, your cosmic witness -- the amen from the Coon choir -- is the only way I can know if my writing is having the intended effect.

Yesterday I mentioned how a true musician -- as opposed to a mere technician -- is able to convey the "substance of music." It is impossible to say this without sounding grandiose, but when I write about spiritual matters, I am attempting in like fashion -- so to speak -- to convey the "substance of metaphysical truth," to the extent that I am able to do so. Now, trying to accomplish this and actually doing so are two very different things. Who knows? It may actually be impossible, even if it does make for a very compelling hobby. But since it is an experimental form of writing, the only way I can gauge the effect is through your fawning, er, objective feedback.

In other words, it is not enough to know that someone simply "agrees" with me. This is the usual a priori error of trolls who come here to start an argument. To be honest, to agree or disagree is in a certain sense to have missed the point. The point is that I am attempting to "reproduce" an experience -- not my exact experience, but your own experience. This is why "disagreeing" with me is to miss the point, but also why merely agreeing with me (i.e., being a subservient "racclone" or "Bobbist") might be even worse.

This is not intended to be a mere exercise in (k) on the mental plane, where knowledge can be passed from mind to mind in such a way that it does not change the object or subject of knowledge. In the case of the transfer of conventional (k), it can truly be said that the mind is more or less a bag full of stuff (speaking euphemistically). I do not sit here at 5:00 AM trying to come up with more stuff to put into your bag, which is already overflowing anyway. If anything, I would actually like to remove some of the stuff -- or perhaps to actually expand your bag, baby.

When you are in the realm of O-->(k), the instrument of knowing is transformed by the knowledge. To "know" something in this way is actually accompanied by an alteration in being. To take an extreme but illustrative example, Paul did not merely "learn" something on the road to Damascus. In fact, I was just rifling through my Bible in search of some more examples, but I can see that the Gospels are full of stories that reinforce the point about O-->(k). There are millions of people -- including many Christians -- who "rationalize" Jesus and reduce him to a sort of prophet who expressed some fine moral sentiments which they endorse. Here again, this is to have missed the point entirely -- the point being that Jesus is hardly conveying (k) or even O-->(k). Rather, if you are a Christian -- indeed, what defines you as Christian -- is that Jesus is O.

So it means little to me if someone simply agrees -- let alone disagrees -- with me. Imagine the absurdity of attending a musical performance, and instead of clapping, the audience yelled, "WE AGREE WITH THAT INTERESTING SEQUENCE OF CHORDS! DO IT AGAIN!" It means everything to me if we are all in this together, making a daily raid on the wild godhead and coming back with a little O-->(k). That is the point of the book and of the blog.

Here, this fine example just came in. Walt writes, "I find the political commentary very supportive, partly because I agree with the depth of your passionate opinions, and partly because I CAN -- i.e., they refer to something I already have 'organized.' But you add a twist, which is unique: presenting the politics as though aimed 'upward' at the vertical; always integrating the day-to-day with the higher, nudging us to 'think vertically' and showing the relevance of the one to the other." While I won't say I am not appreciative of the compliment, it means much more to me that Walt has had the experience of integrating the internal and external and being "nudged vertically." That makes my day.

Ricky Raccoon wrote, "I have never read a book that caused me so often to reread lines for more understanding and really for the pleasure they bring by just re-experiencing the message… or the re-awakening of messages I always had but didn’t realize I had them. I can’t quite describe the feeling of when things suddenly are shown to make ‘sense’. I can’t recall ever having written things in the margins for my own pleasure. My copy has my notes on nearly every page. Multiple notes on some pages." There you go. Provoking his kind of metaphysical disturbance is my fondest hope.

Most of the comments yesterday were in this vein. But you will notice that no one really made it about me. Rather, it was about their own O-->(k). In fact, even the troll who calls himself A Low Form of Life (and who sounds like Will putting us on) -- wrote quite eloquently of a powerful experience in what might be called "upside down O-->(k)," or envy of O. Even if he is not real, he actually articulates a certain very real, "anti-Divine" mind parasite that afflicts many people. Imagine that he's not addressing me, but God: "I feel compelled to oppose you. I read every day, hoping that you'll make a mistake so that I can put you down. I want you to hurt like me. I want you to feel as unappreciated and small as I feel.... For me, One Cosmos is all about emotions. Bad ones.... I can't stop. I must read and wallow in my feelings of shame and inadequacy. I derive some sense that I actually exist when I do this. So, to you Bob I have a mixed message: please keep blogging, I need it. And yes, quit. That would be the ultimate burn. I might feel happy for five minutes."

Now, all of this segues perfectly into the discussion of how transcendental beauty -- "the glory of God" -- reveals itself through religion. For religion is never about mere knowledge, "the true." Rather, the more one ascends toward O -- the source of religion -- the more Truth will be clothed in beauty, and vice versa. In fact, it is because of cosmic analogy -- "as above, so below" -- that truth and beauty even converge on the material plane. For example, world-class mathematicians know that the deep structure of mathematical reality is not only beautiful, but that beauty serves as a sort of guide for the mathematics.

I've been thinking about this issue because I have been re-reading Hans Urs von Balthasar's magisterial -- a word that somehow falls short -- The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. Before you decide to casually wade into the world of Balthasar, bear in mind that this is a seven volume project, each book consisting of some 400 to 700 pages, and that this seven volume series is only part of a trilogy consisting of six additional weighty books (the Theo-Drama and the Theo-Logic). If Balthasar is not the greatest Christian theolgian of the 20th century, then he is certainly the most wordy.

I discovered Balthasar because he wrote the afterword to Meditations on the Tarot -- which only serves to emphasize how misleading the "tarot" is in the title of a book that is quite esoteric but nevertheless kosher. Off hand, I cannot think of anyone other than Schuon who so emphasizes the centrality of beauty to the spiritual life. Schuon, who fundamentally agreed with Plato that "beauty is the splendor of the true," wrote that, "like the sun," beauty "acts without detours, without dialectical intermediaries." And like love, "to which it is closely connected, it can heal, unloose, appease, unite or deliver through its simple radiance."

Schuon further noted that "beauty stems from the Divine Love, this Love being the will to deploy itself and to give itself, to realize itself in 'another'; thus it is that 'God created the world by love.'" As such, while the cosmos may contain ugliness, in its totality it cannot but be beautiful. This is actually one of the sources of Christian hope, which may be coonceptualized as beauty expressed temporally. In other words, no matter how bad things may look in the "now," somehow the pain or ugliness of this now will be redeemed in the end, in the "fullness of time" -- which is to say, eternity.

Obviously, religion is not dealing fundamentally with exterior beauty but interior beauty. Or, to be perfectly accurate, the external forms are there to support the experience or "recollection" of interior beauty. Beauty is "something limitless expressed by means of a limit," but the limit -- i.e., the form -- is required in order for the beauty to "enter" the world. Through it, "the unfathomable mystery of the Self is 'deployed' in Being."

Properly understood, beauty allows us "to pass beyond the appearance and to follow the internal vibration back to its roots." A couple of days ago we spoke about the importance of having a center and living from the inside out, as opposed to our consciousness being dispersed and living from the outside in. Metaphysical beauty can contribute to centration and union because it communicates, so to speak, "the substance of O" in a direct and unmediated way. This is because it is ultimately "the outward projection of a universal quality immanent in us, and quite obviously more real than our empirical and imperfect ego gropingly seeking its identity." Because beauty is "unitive," it "excludes, with a kind of musical evidence, the fissures of doubt and anxiety."

I'm running out of time here, but this all circles back to O-->(k), because metaphysical beauty -- the glory of God -- is clearly something that bypasses the mind's ability to reduce the divine plane to something "containable" by the lower mind. To put it another way, nothing as ugly as atheism could possibly be true.

60 comments:

Anonymous said...

Waiting for a friend.

One hot summer day, standing quietly under the multi-dappled and orange-diffused light of a huge Poinciana tree in bloom, waiting for a friend, a callow one was overcome by an ineffable and wondrous awareness. He was aware in the strongest way of all his senses and yet it was more. He smelled the frangipani fragrance from his yard and felt absolute fusion with the aroma. He smelled and heard the electricity running through the wires above. His ears filled with the sounds of hundreds of cicadas and felt the sound as visceral vibrations - as though the sound waves moved through his entire being, interlacing molecules of moving air with atoms of his interior, his body and his soul, rendering ears unnecessary. He followed his breath and knew it was involuntary, a gift. Smelling light and color, he was alive; He expanded, touched by grace. Everything around was vibrantly alive and he dissolved into it, melting as slowly as the asphalt on Fleming Street; different, changed, an entirety unfolding, a defining moment. He was no longer. One continues to seek racoonity now. It is why one follows where the journey leads and passes by here knowingly, frequently.

Thanks,
bubba

Lisa said...

Wanted to share a new, not totally new, (but for most coons post 2000 is new, right?), called The Black Keys. This is some new stuff that actually moves me. Have the Chulahoma EP and it is excellent. You get the feeling you've heard it before and the it vibrates nicely in the body. That same kind of feeling I sometimes get when Bob is really articulating an O-k experience that I have found comprable in my own. It's really amazing how each different medium of expression is able to speak the same language in the end. Allowing many of us to find commonality and coherence in a macrocosmic way using our own preferred mediums.

Van Harvey said...

"For religion is never about mere knowledge, "the true." Rather, the more one ascends toward O -- the source of religion -- the more Truth will be clothed in beauty, and vice versa. In fact, it is because of cosmic analogy -- "as above, so below" -- that truth and beauty even converge on the material plane."

Something I noted a while back, for the ancient Greeks "vulgarity" displayed a lack of experience in things Beautiful. One of the things a [Classical] Liberal education should do is familiarize us with experience in things beautiful. Reverence, Truth and Beauty are themselves a trinity, they reinforce and enhance eachother and make our lives and souls more full.

With that idea of education completely missing from the scene, along with an intellectual respect for religion, not to mention Truth... it's no surprise that Beauty is so infrequently found in everyday life.

Most 'serious' people today would never say that something is beautiful, unless it was to use the word to blather on about something obviously ugly to any racoon with eyes; they would consider it unsophisticated (how appropriate!) and would be embarrased at being connected with it.

Anonymous said...

One Cosmos does not look for the 'coon rather it is 'coons gone looking.;~)

Leaders have great wisdom, great courage and great carelessness of self.:-|

Anonymous said...

Van,
How true - today's classical liberal education has warped the idea of "finding the extraordinary in the ordinary" to mean "finding ugliness to be beautiful." While it is true that many things which are outwardly ugly posess an inner beauty (and vice versa), there are just as many things which are brutally ugly - those things which tend to Absolutely offend the senses (Marylin Manson, cadaver art, etc. ad nauseum), which are just ugly. Today's colleges teach that anything that "challenges" a person to question their boundaries and expectations is good and worthy of consideration (and therefore beautiful). Meanwhile, things like true beauty, American cultural traditions, or acts of heroism do not "challenge," they simply are, for anyone with the rudiments of human sensibility to appreciate (i.e. they are not sophisticated enough); they don't need a dissertation to be experienced and understood, therefore, they cannot possibly, to the liberal mind, be beautiful.

Anonymous said...

As such, while the cosmos may contain ugliness, in its totality it cannot but be beautiful. ...In other words, no matter how bad things may look in the "now," somehow the pain or ugliness of this now will be redeemed in the end, in the "fullness of time" -- which is to say, eternity.

C.S. Lewis was the first to introduce me to the dust-up over Dualism. Many folks raised as Christians in the U.S. are never exposed to more than the simple duality of Good v. Evil; God v. Satan.

Now, my dear momma didn't know much about metaphysics, she just warned me to never give the devil any credit for anything. Possibly the best, most centering spiritual advice a young 'coon could have received in formative years. It was another compass point or filter for much of what "religious" folks would attempt to teach later.

Much later, Lewis confirmed my mom's good instincts with a debunking of Dualism. So protected was I from the concept that even all my fundie friends and churches of years ago never convinced me of Satanic power as an unbound entity. I know and knew firsthand of "his existence", and influence, but I knew his boundaries and permissions. Evil poses as Real, and it still is being allowed, if you will, to exert an Eternal pressure in the temporal life. But in Evil there is simply no peerage of power, influence, or possession to rival the One.

From that point of view, the poet in me sees ugliness, or evil, as being the shadow created by something purposely blocking the Light. Lots of manmade things do so physically. Lots of mind parasites do so mentally. It would seem to follow that there are spiritual entities that attempt something similar at the nexus of the horizontal and vertical plane in our life.

That's when we need fellow Raccoons to point us upward and inward, reminding us of Beauty when there is no Light to see by.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, it's funny you mention The Black Keys, I am listening to 'Rubber Factory' as we speak. If you like them, you will probably like Mofro's "front porch soul" as well.

NoMo said...

Van - I regularly find myself pointing out beauty to those rushing by me. Although surprised, they also seem to appreciate the moment.

Here is some beauty no matter how you interpret it:

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever." (Rev 22:1-5 TNIV)

Van Harvey said...

Juliec said "Today's colleges teach that anything that "challenges" a person to question their boundaries and expectations is good and worthy of consideration "

They don't challenge "Today's colleges teach that anything that "challenges" a person to question their boundaries and expectations", because their 'values' are flat, they aren't hierarchical, they don't reinforce each other or deepen (I think Gagdad's illustration of Colonizing the mind is perfect in this), and so once a 'limit' has been reached, it quickly becomes fully explored and known, and like any other perceptual thrill, it no longer gives a thrill - like the umpteenth time on the rollercoaster in a row, it's confining and annoying.

By venturing into the Vertical, one concept reinforces and extends another - there is little or no possibility of exhausting a single particular concept, let alone a general idea such as Beauty. It doesn't need shock value to call for your attention; the ever expanding possibilities for colonizing and developing the intellectual/spiritual landscape are without end.

wordverif:gzgxga wasn't that an alien invasion video game? somehow appropriate.

Stephen Macdonald said...

Blogger is eating my posts again.

How does The Black Keys compare with The White Stripes?

Anonymous said...

The leftist camp is currently experiencing a spasm of mysticism in the form of a DVD called "The Secret" that is unique in that it promotes no person and asks for no money.

This sermon-like thing circulates among the leftist cadre by word of mouth. I got wind of it because I am embedded in a college campus, smack among the enemy.

I watched the whole thing--about two hours--and it seems to be an updated version of Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking."

What is happening here? I want Bob to check this thing out and give an opinion is up with the mass of nutcases who are so numerous in our nation.

Anonymous said...

Bob, another word from a full time, fairly new reader. I enjoyed your book to the point of putting it up alongside "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter. I am at the end of Book 1 the second time around, this time sharing with a friend who is an avid reader, but she also has diabetes and has lost most of her sight.

One thing has already become apparent: when she asks me to read a certain sentence again, it is always one which I have highlighted or noted, or both. And it will also be followed by "In other words,..." what you meant by that. So it is an interesting study, and I thank you for the chance to make her life a little better, a bit more enjoyable. She was a Professor of Business at Averett University, an extremely well educated and spritually inquisitive lady. We seem to all be on the same page, or at least the same book.

robinstarfish said...

karesansui
qi-to sees the fifteenth stone
wabi-sabi dust


********
wv: azlanpw (claws retracted?)

James said...

Bob,

Your writing speaks to me in a powerful way. I don't even know how to put it exactly. I never considered Christianity a serious religion. I bought into the one-dimensional portrayal you find in the media and in some organized churches. Your writing opened up the world of serious intellectual religion to me. Suddenly, there was this religion that you had to think about that made it interesting. Then I started praying, and found grace which, now that I understand more, I know my soul was starving for. I went from not thinking about God at all, not even considering him worthy of meta physics to an unshakable faith in God. I've managed to pick up quite a few pearls here. You suggested a commenter to read the book "The way of the Superior Man" I was having my own relationship issues and I picked it up. Bob, you are a real cuss. Before I started here I thought I had all the meta-physics I needed. I had all the answers. Now, I see the world differently and know that I can never contain the awesomeness that is Truth. My little mind would explode. Truth is some much more the the terrible academic simplicities which pass for the foundations of modern society. I thought I knew something about relationships; now I'm cast off in a much larger and more dramatic mystery. Thanks Bob for plucking me from my certitude and throwing me into the heart of a mystery. Of course, you just told me what the experience is like. I was moved by a higher power, so I can't really blame you. I can complain about it though. I don't even know what I'm saying half the time anymore. But I have faith it's for the best.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Every time some anonymous bozo deposits a cow-pie on the O.C. rug, there seems to be an inordinate amount of finger-pointing in my direction. (thank you, LISA)

Fact is, in my recent wasted condition, I simply am not capable of the perverse eloquence and bottom-feeder panache displayed in A Low Form of Life's post.

Somewhere out there, the real Low Form of Life is no doubt feeling very neglected. But that was probably his/her design, I do believe. Well played, sir!/ma'am!

Meanwhile - if people keep thinking of me as Universal Trickster, then maybe that's what I should be. I mean, if 14 out of 15 people tell you you're drunk, maybe you ought to just go lie down.

NoMo said...

Philly Calling - "The Secret" is just another sparkling, alluring, dead-end counterfeit. IMHO.

Check out
www.thesecret.com.au for all you need to know. Big bucks!!!

Anonymous said...

Philly,
I have a close friend that is currently under attack from "The Secret". It appeals to liberals because it A) avoids the science of how wealth is actually created by making it into voodoo, and B) claims to be the "real" secret to all that the sages of old were trying to tell us (thank goodness, finally), and C) involves interacting with or following people who are deeply involved with psychic entities--known collectively as "Abraham"--which is somehow very much like being at home for them, since they feel comfortable with lots and lots of mind parasites anyway.
Suffice it to say "The Secret" is contrary to all revealed religion and all true science. It is also impossible to argue against as when one comes up with the literally millions of cases where it simply cannot be true, then the response is simply, "you do not have enough faith".
Further, it is based on "The Law of Attraction", which, is certainly true to an extent, as all spiritual people know, but, not unlike, say, the law of gravity, one cannot make a universal metaphysic out of it.
"Fred, if you simply believe in the law of gravity, you will have everything you ever dreamed of."

Anonymous said...

Dearest Will:

Oh gracious, do get hold of yourself, young man. By conforming your persona in accordance with public opinion, you are simply "doing a Beaglehole", as we say. Yes, years ago, a handful of the Colonel's sotted admirers - mostly teenage runaway girls, as I recall - assured the Colonel that he was a "new age pioneer" and a "psychedelic sugar daddy Galahad" or something to that bathetic affect. Ever since than, the Colonel has been doing his risible best to live up to that reputation. I ask you, dear Will: is this a path you truly wish to trod?

Anonymous said...

>>is this a path you truly wish to trod?<<

Gee, I dunno, Dame Edith. Maybe, if it's scenic with a lot of clean rest stops.

Anonymous said...

Dr Bob,
“to “reproduce" an experience”…
Forgive me if this has been considered, but I likewise wish to see you continue to share what you do here with many more people who I think are there and ready to benefit by it.
I made my way to your blog by way of American Thinker - the blog site I used to visit first everyday. I don’t know how large their audience is, but I’m guessing it’s pretty big and their readers would be interested in seeing more of your writing there. I also know Rush refers to that site often. Have you considered writing specifically for that site?

Anonymous said...

Yikes - looking at the Secret website made my brain hurt. It amazes me that anybody who considers himself a serious thinker would actually fall for that. The site looks like an internet version of those late-night infomercials that appear to be made in somebody's basement, promising x, y and z if you just try product q for a free thirty days (after which you only make 40 monthly payments of 29.99! guaranteed!!)

People always want a magic instantaneous solution to life's problems. The Secret looks like just one more quack remedy, guaranteed to help people avoid the real solutions for a few months longer (and likely cause a few more problems along the way).

wv: nilfm - norse mythology now?
*okay, this word verification is getting ridiculous - three tries now? grrr....

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Philadelphia, I too would love Bob's take on this as it seems kind of basic to me and not particularly harmful but I'm in the I don't know anything
Here is an email that was sent to me vis a vis "The Secret". Deepest gratitude to you Bob, for turning on the high beam and showing those of us that are deeply shallow how you do it. This is always my first stop in the morning and last at night.
Gecko
FEELINGS AS OUR TEACHER...
as explained by Jack Canfield in "The Secret".

"Our feelings are a feedback mechanism to us about whether we're on track or not, whether we're on course or off course."


Remember your thoughts are the primary cause of everything. So when you think a sustained thought it is immediately sent out into the Universe. That thought magnetically attaches itself to the like frequency, and then within seconds sends the reading of that frequency back to you through your feelings. Put another way, your feelings are communication back to you from the Universe, telling you what frequency you are currently on. Your feelings are your frequency feedback mechanism!

When you are feeling good feelings, it is communication back from the Universe saying, "You are thinking good thoughts." Likewise, when you are feeling bad, you are receiving communication back from the Universe saying, "You are thinking bad thoughts."

So when you are feeling bad it is communication from the Universe, and in effect it is saying, "Warning! Change thinking now. Negative frequency recording. Change frequency. Counting down to manifestation. Warning!"

The next time you are feeling bad or feeling any negative emotion, listen to the signal you are receiving from the Universe. In that moment you are blocking your own good from coming to you because you are on a negative frequency. Change your thoughts and think about something good, and when the good feelings start to come you will know it was because You shifted yourself on to a new frequency, and the Universe has confirmed it with better feelings.

BLESSING:


There is only One mind, the Mind of God, creating infinitely as the Absolute
Loving Presence, responding to my thought and always mirroring back to me
what I really believe. My thought takes form within the One Mind, causing my
life to unfold according to what I think and feel.

Centering in the Spirit of Love, I open my heart and remember I am One in
God, and of God, and from this I speak by word. I accept perfect health,
harmony, and peace in my life now. Right now, I begin to feel healthy.
Vitality flows through every part and all systems of my body. Divine energy
fills me as I express my gifts and talents daily in the world and I feel
prosperous. I am blessed with friendships and family that truly care and
support me and I feel the love that surrounds me every moment of every
day. All fear, anger, worry, or discord is a temporary experience escorting
me to places that feel better and bring about wholeness. I am secure in the
knowledge that the Universe will correspond to the nature of my inner
feelings and manifest by the mandate of my feeling tones so I release all
notions that negativity is a permanent state of living and shift to recognize
that these feelings are simply my Wayshower.

Filled with thankfulness I affirm this Truth allowing it to prosper all people and
me. As I learn, so I teach making the aliveness of Spirit within palpable. Universal
principles change my life, and I am grateful.
And so it is.

Anonymous said...

I have some thought on that, but now I'm really urious to hear Dear Leader's take as well...

NoMo said...

Uh oh. We may have stumbled on Bob's own "secret" to success!

Yeh.

;o)

Anonymous said...

I love OC and visit almost daily, making up for missed days the following. I have no idea what readership numbers Bob encounters. I selfishly request that he continue each time he questions the value of what he does either for himself or others.

Each of us frequent fliers knows what enormous value lies here.

There is another blogger for whom I shamelessly shill. He pours great wisdom into his writing as well, has published a book and has fewer readers than Gagdad, I imagine, if comments are any indication. The intellectual level of the comments (mine included) left there infrequently rises to what is found here. I do not think that reflects in any way on the quality of what he posts, but indicates a certain fear of his obvious intellect. He does not suffer fools gladly, but will engage the relevant observation.

His musings cover more ground than Bob's, but the two intersect a surprising amount of the time.

So, if you ever come here and don't find leftisits and atheists being sufficiently raked over the coals of their own making, check out INSTAPUNK:

http://www.instapunk.com/

Today's entry includes another of his takes on the great 'Global Warming/Climate Change' hoo ha.

His book 'The Boomer Bible' is an extraordinary work. Playful, mysterious and enraging, it eviscerates every sacred cow one can imagine and a few more, including your own.

Anonymous said...

The secret of 'the secret' isn't a secret, it's merely a repackaging of new age clap-trap, designed to manipulate feelings to suck your will and money, and to colonize your conciousness with mind parasites to control one via freakwhensees.

As with all lies the Left embraces, it worms its way into ones mind and soul through ones feelings.

Not all 'bad' or 'negative' feelings are bad, and not all 'good' or 'positive' feelings are good.

If it's not based on truth it is worse than crap, because it damages ones very soul.

Indeed, there is nothing new under the Son (sun).
Beware of anything that is based on making you feel 'good' as the be all end all purpose.
It is deception bought with the high price of destruction.

Lisa said...

Smoov- I think The Black Keys fit quite nicely with The White Stripes. A girl can dream and also add Wolfmother to the line-up.

As far as The Secret goes, it is fine for what it is. A little redundant and cheesy but overall a good message. Our brain is a very powerful thing that we only use around 10%. Coons maybe 13 ha ha. I especially love how they try to sneak the fact of God into it after a while. I believe that if you can envision how you want your life to enfold and focus on that, it usually happens when you add some action or movement. People just think a lot of destructive things about themselves and it ends up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy also seen as bad habits. Of course tragedy happens no matter how positive you are but that's what makes life interesting and gives you deeper perspective. I'll close this with a quote from Kathy Grant, "Live life loosely."


wv: fttrrps! what a long strange one it's been....

Anonymous said...

Bob said:
"In the case of the transfer of conventional (k), it can truly be said that the mind is more or less a bag full of stuff (speaking euphemistically). I do not sit here at 5:00 AM trying to come up with more stuff to put into your bag, which is already overflowing anyway. If anything, I would actually like to remove some of the stuff -- or perhaps to actually expand your bag, baby."

Heh! Now that's a good bagophesy!
One Cosmos is like a cosmic hunting trip.
We expel mind parasites (leeches) and bag us some truth.
Not just any 'truth', but the good stuff.
The best part is: there is no limit!

Thanks Bob, for being such an honest hunting guide.

Anonymous said...

Warning! My feeling feedback loop is telling me that I smell a dangerous and backwards ideology. Perhaps even more dangerous than A Course in Miracles. shudder...

Let's be very clear about this, so nobody gets sucked into this perverse ideology of "The Secret."

Feelings, by their nature, are unpredicatable and irrational. They are sub-rational. They come from the sub-conscious.

They are part of the fractured and layered human consciousness. But they are sowething less than our rational faculties.

This is not to devalue emotions, but only to put them in their proper place.

Feelings are to be mastered by the intellect, which itself is to be mastered by the soul and spirit.

"The Spirit" is obviously confusing emotion with intellection.

This is a very serious no-no, as it elevates the vital to the higher vertical, while simultaneously blocking any potential for recognition of the true vertical realms.

All that can result from such a backwards metaphysic is the promotion of hedonism, pleasure and "feeling good" to the highest good and truth.

In reading the blessing, I am reminded that before man can realize his true divinity, his true unity with his Creator, he must first realize how far he actually is from His Source.

Man must recognize, admit, and reconcile his Falleness before he can commune and ultimately unite with divinity. This is the only road (of course, in myriad forms)to salvation.

"The Spirit" is just another insincere knock-off of the genuinely realized great spiritual traditions. It is another attempt to replace the genuine spirituality of traditional religion that liberals have long-since rejected.

True spiritual growth is at times difficult and painful. It is not a feel-good, new age journey of acceptance.

Ideologies like this can only result in spiritual blindness and ultimately, more pain.

Please don't be taken in by this rubbish.

Van Harvey said...

At the moment, I suspect the 'secret' is guerilla marketing.

NoMo said...

Re: "The Secret" - Ben, River, Stu, Van -- amen, amen, amen and amen!

I'm just so agreeable.

Stephen Macdonald said...

bubba:

Gee bubba, thanks a lot!

Great blogs are such a rarity. The only time I ever find new ones is through references like yours. I found One Cosmos through Wretchard. I love Wrtechard himself, but his comments section is a cesspit of cynincal conservative atheists, which as a group are barely more tolerable than leftists. Some are worse than leftists.

Anyhow, a quick scan through Instapunk indicates it is probably my kinda joint.

Van Harvey said...

Joan of Argghh! said "...Evil poses as Real, and it still is being allowed, if you will, to exert an Eternal pressure in the temporal life. But in Evil there is simply no peerage of power, influence, or possession to rival the One..."

Yep. IMHO Evil's entire source of power, is what we allow it to pretend it has. Evil is pretence, opposition to reality - but only reality is real, so its only power is in persuading us it has power. To the extent that power is allowed to affect your life, by acknowledging that something is something else, and not the something it really is, you disintegrate your own mental and physical connection to reality, you begin decolonizing your mental habitat.

"The road of good intentions..." begins with seeking to have things both ways.

As regards the Sec... uhmm... shhh! the True Truth we've found that no one else realizes is the real truth behind all success and happiness and RICHES!!! (sorry... shhh!) , a good rule of thumb might be that which promises you that doing endless Happy smiley things will lead to Happiness, is going to take you in the other direction.

Van Harvey said...

P.S. Joan & River C, regarding evil as the shadow... Think of Truth, the realization of truth, being like an electrical connection made which gives a spark - the bigger the connection, the more the spark.

Think of those moments when you grasp a connection between things you hadn't integrated before, that those Gagdadian frontal lobe mental swirls, the "Aha! Eureka!" moment behind discoveries and clean laughter, don't you feel like a light has gone off in your head and heart? The moment of Truth is Realized within you.

Then think of mis and dis-integrations as being those connections being slowly separated, the deepening gloom and mental darkness that seems to abound when you get sucked into a false belief, a destructive habit given exercise, a vicious humor...

Just a thought.

Van Harvey said...

How is it that I say "Thomas the Obscure said...
hello Cosmos-ians. " just that much, and instantly the thought flashed "Inte's back", hmm?

Perhaps you are different typists, I might believe it more if you were to substitute "The Borg" for "Co-op".

"I hope you won't dismiss me outright because I " believe out of hand intellectually untenable trash which has no relation to this or any other reality?

Nah, perish the thought.

Van Harvey said...

wo - truly the hand of DuPree is fearsome and swift!

;-)

NoMo said...

Van - I don't know. Wouldn't Dupree take credit? Perhaps the unwelcome visitor trashed himself. I note a new little trashcan icon after each of my comments since Bob switched blogspot systems.

NoMo said...

Uh oh. Maybe it only shows up after my comments.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Cuz for keeping the Den clean!

We don't need no indoctrination...
We don't need no thoughts control...
No dark commie crap less than stupid...
Commies leave those kits alone...
Hey! Commies! Leave those kits alone!

Anonymous said...

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of evil men and the tyranny of trolls. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost Raccoons. And I WILL STRIKE DOWN UPON THEE WITH GREAT VENGEANCE AND FURIOUS ANGER THOSE WHO WOULD ATTEMPT TO POISON AND DESTROY MY BROTHERS UNDER THE PELT! And buddy, YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME IS THE LORD WHEN DUPREE LAYS HIS VENGEANCE UPON THEE and DELETES YO' ASS!

Anonymous said...

Tuning in to The Secret trailer, and as one whose recent life has been devoted to the principles that:
--Suffering is optional;
--Having "all things needful" is the norm, not the exception;
--Words and companions matter immensely;
-- Desire and will (no, not him....) are to be followed with gusto and refined with discrimination:

I nonetheless declare the approach and the implied promises of The Secret pure *^%$^ola.

For those interested in magic, white, taupe, or black, see Letter III of Meditations on the Tarot, distinguishing service to the world via miracle, vs. personal / sympathetic magic.

Matthew 6:33 sets out the priorities -- not a shabby standard of payback, either. To reverse the priorities by strategizing to "attract" is likely, as per the Law of Attraction, to align one with more than he knows, and set him hopping erratically in the Sorcerer's Apprentice percussive score.

I have concluded it is neither wise nor fruitful to consider myself entrusted with make-it-happen secrets or esoteric partial truths smaller than the liturgical mantra of faith: God is good and loves mankind. That it is enough that there is Grace, and the Soul.

Or, alternatively, over to you, Dupree....

Lisa said...

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the heads up about Mofro. I will definitely check them out next month at the Knitting Factory. They have a raw, gritty, real sound that I like. I saw Soul Live there last month. It's actually a very good venue for Hollywood. Big but not too big, plus the bouncers will buy you shots of tequila if you accidentally throw ice on them! ;0)

Anonymous said...

Dilys, funny you should mention chapter 3 of Meditations, I just started reading that today. And you're right on about the secret. Pure, unadulterated BS. Like all great lies, there is just enough of a grain of truth for the weak of mind, heart or spirit to swallow that crap whole.
Fortunately, anyone with even a hint of Coon sense can detect the foul reek for what it is.

Anonymous said...

Really, it takes less than three sentences to refute The Secret...

Yes, God gave you a heart. He also gave you a brain. FUCKING USE IT.

Anonymous said...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1787712/posts

Just a thought as to how to get the Vertical message into a horizontal world.

Anonymous said...

The marketing of mastermind systems like The Secret is typically targeted towards desperate MLM types. And now someone figured out that a glitzy Bleeplike movie might attract even more dollars to the top of the pyramid. Follow the money - there's Barnum sitting up there laughing his ass off. Again.

Having been required to attend a corporate 3-day "happy camp" full of such training, I can say that the intended effect (from the corporation's POV) was not realized by any of the hundreds who attended. Maybe the naked naps was the bridge too far, who knows?

At the worst, a person who buys into the whole Secret program could end up with a disabled conscience and a very warped view of God (e.g. count the number of "I's" in the BLESSING) but they would have to be very cult prone and half over the edge to begin with. Anyone in that state is in need of much more than a DVD. Perhaps a good psychologist. Say, don't we know one?

The Secret won't have any more lasting impact than any of its precedents did. I'm thinking the best defense might be, oh let's see...ridicule! Nah, too easy.

Anonymous said...

Lisa,

They are definitely a good live show, but I enjoy their music most on a late afternoon outside with a cigar and an adult beverage, or else while out driving around the lowcountry with the top down. I think "Music To Slack To" would be a good summation of their sound.

(wv:ihtzmyx - that's probably why she left you...)

Anonymous said...

A reflection and tangent on the topic of bibliolatry mentioned earlier.

http://www.margaretbarker.com/Temple/default.htm

Do check it out

Anonymous said...

wv: ukamzgoq (like a cross between ukalele and "oh-my-god!")

Here's the real "secret" to our condition, courtesy of St. Theophan the Recluse:

The Sinner's Condition

For the most part, the word of God depicts the sinner, who is faced with the necessity of renewal in repentance, as being submerged in deep slumber. The distinguishing characteristic of such people is not always outright depravity, but rather the absence in the strictest sense of inspired, selfless zeal for pleasing God, together with a decided aversion for everything sinful. Devotion is not the main concern of their cares and labors; they are attentive about many other things, but are completely indifferent to their salvation, and do not sense what danger they are in. They neglect the good life and lead a life that is cold in faith, though it be occasionally righteous and outwardly irreproachable.

I. Particulars for a Person Who Lacks Grace.

That is the general characteristic. Here are the particulars for a person who lacks grace: Once he has turned away from God, the person dwells on himself, and makes self the main goal of his life and activity. This is because at this point, after God, there is for him nothing higher than self, especially because, having previously received every abundance from God and having now forgotten Him, he hurries and takes care to fill himself up with something. The emptiness that has formed inside him because of his falling away from God causes an unquenchable thirst inside him that is vague but constant. The person has become a bottomless abyss. He makes every effort to fill this abyss, but he cannot see or feel it getting full. Thus, he spends his entire life in sweat, toil and great labors; he busies himself with various occupations in which he hopes to find a way to quench his unquenchable thirst. These occupations take up all his attention, all his time and all his activity. They are the highest good, in which he lives with his whole heart. Thus, it is clear why a person who makes self his exclusive goal is never himself; instead, everything is outside him, in things either created or acquired by vanity. He has fallen away from God, Who is the fullness of everything. He himself is empty; it remains for him to seemingly pour himself out into an endless variety of things and live in them. Thus, the sinner thirsts, fusses, and troubles himself with occupations and numerous things outside himself and God. This is why a characteristic trait of sinful life is, in its disregard for salvation, the care and trouble about many things (cf. Lk 10:41).

Excerpts from the Path to Salvation
http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/salvation_theofan.htm#_Toc13899776

Anonymous said...

white roofs shrink quickly whispering in the gutter gurgling down the spout
miles seem as water flows





robinstarfish,
That was a great hit in WoVeri, beautiful cover too. ;~)



Sacrifice, two and a half hours, Fat Tuesday closes.

Anonymous said...

Well, that's at least three folks, myself included, who found their way here through a link at Wretchard's site.

I can remember the mention. Wretchard said something like -- it was real short -- "this guy says interesting things and has killer prose".

Boy was Wretchard right on the money with that.

Anonymous said...

juliec - You spoke of acts of heroism earlier.

This woman is Heroic.

Christine of Charlotte County, Virginia is relentless in her pursuit of Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra.  And she's doing it—has to do it—because the threat is next door. 


Christine of Charlotte County reminds me of another American heroine - Mrs. Schuyler Burning Her Wheat Fields on the Approach of the British.

Mrs. Schuyler is that rarest of female subjects in art: a woman who should be contemplated not only for the beauty of her face and figure, but for the heroism and valor of her deeds. Christine like Mrs. Schuyler is not cringing in fear, hiding under a bed, or running away like that editor of The Southside Messenger.

Anonymous said...

Well, in minor defense of "the Secret" and all things "name-it-and-claim it" and power-of-positive-thinking: Yes, they gloss over the deeper meanings and implications of the spiritual path, but they do contain some truth. And that truth, however gussied up to play to one's material ambitions and fantasies, can eventually lead one to a more discriminating, deeper spiritual wisdom.

I myself first delved into "higher mind" philosophy by way of a NV Peale book. Granted, I was about 14 at the time, had only recently abandoned the idea of being a career SuperHero, and was thrilled at the idea of "mastering the world" via mind technique. But Peale in all his Babbittry lead me on to other research re; the mind, soul, and spirit.

I sometimes think that in this overwhelmingly materialistic world, we should be at least mildly appreciative for anything that can, even slightly, help people to become aware that there is something other than the material dimension.

Not to be Pollyannish about it, but I think it sometimes pays to meditate on the way that all things can work to the good. As Sri Aurobindo once put it, " . . . error is really a half truth that stumbles because of its limitations; often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal."

Anonymous said...

Will - Thank you. I trust your review of The Secret - I just didn't feel called to go there.

My experience with positive thinking comes from my own practice based on The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn: The Game of Life and How to Play It, Your Word Is Your Wand,the Secret Door to Success, the Power of the Spok.

She was a metaphysical teacher and writer (1871-1940) who used wisdom passages from the Bible.

"That which I seek is also seeking me."

"If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for."

"Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way."

"Giving opens the way to receiving."

"We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation."

"The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy." #

Some other oldies-but-goodies for this Shout-Out at the O->k Chorale:

"Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People who make music together cannot be enemies...at least while the music lasts. ~Paul Hindemith

Anonymous said...

River -
Can't get your comments to work. Ideas?

A blessed and fruitful Lent to those celebrating.

phil g said...

Interesting how many of us seem to all share the same basic blog habits...Belmont Club, American Digest, American Thinker, etc. I was pointed here by Gerard of American Digest who was pointed here by the good Doctor of the Doctor Is In site. I followed the reference and have been hanging out ever since.

Stephen Macdonald said...

phil g:

also belongs in this category.

Stephen Macdonald said...

Blogger really flipping sucks!

It mangles or eats half my posts. Does anyone know how to include a standard html link (anchor) here? It works on "preview", but not in the actual post.

I cannot believe this crappy software has been around so long.

Anonymous said...

River,
Word verification does not appear.
Yes, my browser is old. Any computer re-habbing will have to wait for daughter to come home on Spring Break.

Was just going to recommend 'How the Reformation Happened' by Belloc as historical background for your Bibliolatry research.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

sal: thanks! I will put it on my Amazon Wishlist.

Theme Song

Theme Song