Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Everybody's In Show Biz

We left off with Balthasar's irrefutable observation that "The animal represents a completely new fact that radically changes the situation of epistemology: the new object is now itself a subject. The revolution that this new fact brings with it is fraught with immense consequences."

That living animals exist is obviously an empirical fact. However, the materialist necessarily treats it as any other fact, and therefore fails to appreciate its ontological and epistemological consequences, for a living cosmos can no longer be treated as a dead one and still be considered remotely "understood." Rather, it is an example of a fact that changes everything -- like, say, meeting a girl named Lola at club in old Soho and discovering almost too late that she is a he.

Or, it's like a good film that reveals a mystery at the very end that suddenly recasts everything you've been watching for the previous two hours. What was that movie.... Oh yes. The two-parter, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring. You watch it for four hours, but don't find out what you were actually watching until the last scene. Although, let it be noted that, even of you don't make it that far, the film nevertheless has the intrinsic merit of that scene of Emmanuelle Béart prancing around naked by the mountain spring.

I wonder if the cosmos is like that? I mean, I wonder if one must get to the end in order to know the beginning? Actually, I wonder how it can't be like that. I have a feeling that this will be one of central points of the Theo-Drama, but we'll just have to wait and see. We're still in the middle of the film right now. But one reason why murder is unforgivable is that it's like someone ripping your film out of the projector, so you never get to see its end, and therefore its ultimate meaning.

Speaking of which. That reminds me. One other theologian who talks about life-as-film is Boris Mouravieff, in his Gnosis. He says that the present is actually situated outside time, which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense, otherwise we couldn't be aware of time. The idea is to lift ourselves "higher" above the river of time, so to speak, so that we can better see what's going on with our lives.

In a way, this is what psychoanalytic therapy attempts to do. Instead of just being caught up in our life and merged with the unconscious, we're going to try to "rise above" and consider it like a sort of object. It's analogous to two trains that are about to collide. The engineers in the trains can't see what's about to happen up ahead, but if you were sitting on a hill above the scene, you could "see the future" -- even though you're still in the "same place" as the two trains.

Speaking of witch and wiccan, this is what it is like for me and our trolls. I know their every move, their every line of attack, in advance. Does this mean that I am omniscient? Hardly! It just means that their life is on a train track and that they have relinquished their true vertical freedom (as opposed to horizontal license). You don't have to be sitting on a very high hill to see this.

This, of course, is the secret of God's omniscience, and how it may be reconciled with free will. That is, just as I can predict the thoughts of trolls before they occur, this does not mean that the troll doesn't still have free will, much less that I have "taken it away."

By the way, this problem is more serious in intelligent trolls than unintelligent ones, since the latter at least have the virtue of a kind of "crazy spontaneity," being that they are unable to think in any systematic way. But the most wearisome trolls combine the worst aspects of intelligence and predictability.

Anyway, Mouravieff writes that the present is analogous to a kind of "slot" through which we view the film of life. The present has no measure -- again, it is outside time -- but the slot does. In Raccoon terminology, I would express it this way: one of the fundamental purposes of a spiritual practice is to "dilate" the slot through which we live the film of our life. This dilation is none other than slack.

Some of you are no doubt struggling to understand the point, so I'll try to bring it down to concrete examples. We're all familiar with the opposite of slack -- let's just call it "stress." Stress is when you are so dragged along by the conspiracy that you have no breathing room whatsoever. It is as if there is no gap between you and the world.

Rather, you are simply a function of the latter, being dragged along in its wake. It's as if some thug has carjacked your life and tossed you out of the driver's seat, except that your sleeve gets caught in the door, so you're being dragged through the street like a rag doll.

I hate when that happens.

Many, if not most, people simply grow accustomed to this situation, as if it is natural to live in this manner. Such a person doesn't really know the present. Rather, it is as if they are living on a two dimensional line. The past is behind and the future is ahead, but there is really no present, because they are too enmeshed in the line to appreciate it.

Shocking, I realize, but you may have no idea how many human beings not only live this way, but do so by choice. It's like a life without insight, because insight can only occur as you ascend further up that hill and dilate your slot.

Sometimes it takes a kind of brutal instance of (?!) to wake up and wrench oneself out of time. I think that in the past, these kinds of "moments" were more or less ubiquitous. Disaster in one form or another was always just around the corner -- plague, famine, deadly infection, war, etc. -- so there was simply no way to comfortably assume that the present would continue indefinitely in its present predictable mode. (For those of you who have done your part to keep the Coonifesto in print, I discuss this in slightly different terms in pp. 214-216.)

Mouravieff points out that "exterior man" lives his life on that two-dimensional line. It is as if he is always in the "now," and yet, not "present." Presence is what occurs when we dilate the slot, instead of living our lives like a slot machine.

Now, speaking of gambling, life itself is a gamble, a wager that places everything on the line (or above it, to be exact). It is the first attempt by the cosmos to lift itself above the line and dilate the now. That little "hole" is again where everything takes place. It is surely the only "place" where eternity rushes into time and time returns to eternity. It is the place of meaning, of love, of beauty, you name it.

Therefore, the now is ultimately a kind of "circle of return," for which we use the symbols (↓) and (↑). Bear in mind that these occur outside time and inside eternity, at least ideally. When you pray, or meditate, or coontemplate, or engage in bloggio divina, you are really trying to "ease your way into heaven," so to speak, are you not?

And what is heaven? Well, for one thing, it's like existence seen with no slot at all. Or, it's like taking off a tight pair of shoes. I forget which.

In any event, as we proceed on The Way, one of the first fruits will be this dilation of time which opens onto the real present, or more precisely, presence, for there is no real present in the absence of presence or presence of absence. Obviously you have to at least be here in order to be here. As a therapist, I cannot begin to tell you how many people aren't actually here at all. If they were here, they wouldn't be here in therapy.

Here's the bottom line. When you start out on the path, your life is a bad B-movie, in which you are the star. But you want to change this into a Be movie. As Mouravieff explains, "Each human being, then, is born with his own particular film." But exterior man never really sees the film, because he's too much a part of it.

The "second birth" is none other than an escape from "bondage to the film" and entrance into "the domain of redemption." This is when you recognize your membership in the Scattered Brotherhood of the Transdimensional Raccoons, and go from being merely "anthropoid" to true anthropos, i.e., Pontifical Man, the vertical cosmic ladder out of the otherwise oppressive dope opera of the now.

The latter folks are "the dead who, in the words of Jesus, 'believe themselves to be alive.' Esoteric evolution starts when man... proves capable of breaking the circle and transforming it into an ascending spiral" (Mouravieff). Of course, other factors come into play -- grace, the recognition and assimilation of 'B' influences, assistance from other members of the Scattered Brotherhood, etc.

Well, my slot is contracting. See you tomorrow in the balcony!

54 comments:

julie said...

On trolls, yes, exactly - that's why engaging with them on their terms is so boring. Always the same train chugging along the same track, only they somehow think it's as new to us as it is to them. They think they're on Kingda Ka, when actually it's just the Little Dipper. But even if they were on the first, they'd still be tethered to a track, and no matter how big of a rise and fall, ultimately it's just the same old loop over and over. And it still doesn't come close to the brilliance of an Unknown Friend or the rocket-blast of Balthasar.

NoMo said...

"The idea is to lift ourselves "higher" above the river of time, so to speak, so that we can better see what's going on with our lives."

The "now" is the closest we can get to a God's eye view...in this world. That is partly why God's revelation (i.e., The Bible) is so important to our finding Eternal Truth / Life. It tells the story of time from start to finish, while perpetually floating above it. Outside / inside.

Just some thoughts...back to the post.

NoMo said...

Stress is IN and OF.

Slack is IN but not OF the World.

Slack is true freedom, but only ever exists in the "now". Perhaps eternity with God is all "now".

Anyhoo, that's my take.

julie said...

Rather, you are simply a function of the latter, being dragged along in its wake. It's as if some thug has carjacked your life and tossed you out of the driver's seat, except that your sleeve gets caught in the door, so you're being dragged through the street like a rag doll.

I've known so many people like this - they fill every waking moment with tasks, everything scheduled, everything stressed. They complain about not having any free time, but the truth is most of them can't stand it. Being busy makes them feel important, and feeling important makes them feel alive. They struggle and toil to create meaning from the bottom up, instead of receiving it from the top down.

julie said...

or, "What Nomo said™"

wv is seeing phantems

Van Harvey said...

Seems appropriate to say "Two thumbs up!"

NoMo said...

To me, "esoteric evolution" = "spiritual life", and begins at the second birth. Before which we are only ghosts of our latter selves.

At the risk of stating the obvious (never stopped me before).

Rick said...

Haven't read the post yet...
But I see Mr Levin's book is already otta the sidebar.
No like? or not yet?

Gagdad Bob said...

Have not read it. I'm not actually a fan of his radio style -- I find him abrasively unpleasant on the ears -- although I realize his authorial voice may be different.

Van Harvey said...

"The latter folks are "the dead who, in the words of Jesus, 'believe themselves to be alive.' Esoteric evolution starts when man... proves capable of breaking the circle and transforming it into an ascending spiral" (Mouravieff). "

Isn't that manic rootedness into the moment, also where depression sometimes comes from, when the current goal is accomplished, what then? Looking around, there are only details looming around you, but without purpose or meaning. The previous goal, acted as a faux perspective pulling you forward... but like the 6'4" Hollywood leading man who turns out to be wearing 6" platform shoes, his dashingness is dashed when the director calls cut and he slips the stilts off (mixed metaphors are for pikers, I prefer a good metaphor smoothie).

It seems like it always comes back to the quantity->quality issue. Until you look up and see the quality which all these quantities express... there is only infinite instances... all separate and different... nothing is contained or graspable, but the Quality, once you look upwards, provides you that rising hill of perspective and ability to grasp the manic many with a One.

(hmm... a little tart... that one needs some more meta berries... has a nice kick though....)

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "I find him abrasively unpleasant on the ears -- although I realize his authorial voice may be different."

I'm kind of in the same boat, I can't listen to him speak for long (Laura Ingraham kind of grates on my ears in a similar way, I can't listen to her for long for that reason alone), but he is quite able at putting his thoughts into print. His "Men in Black" did a good job of pointing out where the supreme court has gone off the rails, and so far, I'm into the 'Free Market' chapter of 'Liberty and Tyranny', he's doing a good job of laying out the essentials, why they are important, and what is undermining them.

My only other criticism so far, and it is unfortunately typical of conservatives, is that he only just touches on his explanation of Natural Rights, and leaving something so essential to our concept of law, with little better than a poetic level definition and little or no philosophic rebar, leaves the whole structure open to attack by the leftist termites... and that has been the focal point in most attacks upon constitutional law.

Djadja said...

This is good. We so often hear people talk about “living in the moment.” But living in the moment is the stress of the now, the slack of the present is a window into eternity. So if leisure is the basis of culture, it all started with our furbearers opening some slack.

julie said...

I don't know why, but this makes me laugh.

Perhaps it's the assumption that anything worth having or doing in life comes without risk of being difficult or painful, or if it's either it should not require any amount of endurance. While the underlying question could be one of depth, it's asked and answered by the shallowest of the shallow. Nowhere is there mention of love, or joy, honor or the sanctity of life; it's all so utterly selfish in the worst sense.

And Gaia forbid anyone should be "...much more interested in their personal/familial lives than the outside world..."

I have to admit, I'm not sad that more people in her circumstances are running screaming from the thought of reproduction.

Rick said...

Yep. Mark can be abrasive. Course he works without a teleprompter, and radio is not his core business. He seems to draw from a ‘different’ pool of callers than say, Rush. In other words, the dopey callers often deserve it. He does make me laugh though during the 15 minute commute home. He knows the law. And often brings news to the airwaves not noticed or skipped over by the other radio guys who do radio for a living. Rush is not as qualified in this respect. Hanity I can’t listen to anymore – it’s the same show everyday; Rush-lite. I want to say Mark got his start in radio by calling into Hanity, because that’s how I first heard him. I like the guy. It’s a taste thing. His ‘book voice’ is completely different. But I’ve only read half of this new one.

OT: New bumper sticker:
“Don’t bonus me, bro!”

Anonymous said...

I am a visitor who desires to be pleasing to the readers here--

This is a good post--it provides an expansion on Eckart Tolle's work ("The Power of Now," and "Silence Speaks"), although certainly Tolle's work does not require elaboration to be an effective teaching device.

Bob's metaphor of "the Slot" is a handy one that concretizes for the reader the actual mechanics of time and how we exist within it.

Some attention has to be paid to the past and future in order to function, however it's a delicate balance. The bulk of awareness should be concentrated in the now, as Bob alludes. Good luck with that...its a beyotch to do but worth it.

All that being said, I am till the odious anonymous Tolle Troll so my visit here will not be pleasing after all. Oh well...

Not all Trolls are spiritual retards; some of us are just plain odious for other reasons, usually because we are ego contaminated and not at peace. This kind of troll knows the right path, just can't quite nail it yet.

To get peace you must first want it, and yes I do want it. I'm working on it.

Once I get it, I won't be stinking up this blog anymore.

Van Harvey said...

Ricky said “Yep. Mark can be abrasive. Course he works without a teleprompter, and radio is not his core business. He seems to draw from a ‘different’ pool of callers than say, Rush.”

Lol!

"Hanity I can’t listen to anymore – it’s the same show everyday"

Agree with you completely on Hanity – too many cloying bromides and cheap debate-point shots for me.

Don’t get me wrong on Levin, when I’ve listened to him he is clear and to the point, and quite often hilarious in his shutting down of the idiots – he doesn’t grant them the faux-courtesy of pretending they have reasonable points – but after awhile that gets a bit annoying to me and I really just can’t listen to his voice for long at a time, heh, it’s a ‘style over substance’ issue for me! Of course others it doesn’t faze – another beauty of the free market.

“I want to say Mark got his start in radio by calling into Hanity”

Actually I think Levin made his entry through a contact with Rush via his legal site, and soon after doing call ins to his show, where he became known as ‘The Great One”, and so on from there.

Van Harvey said...

"I am till the odious anonymous Tolle Troll"

Duh.

Van Harvey said...

tolle troll said “Once I get it, I won't be stinking up this blog anymore.”

Said the miser to the stove, “Give me some heat, then I’ll light your fire”

Anonymous said...

I actually wasn't gona post no-mo', but all this talk about bloggio diva - wotever that means, but I like how it rolls off me' tounge - made me reconsider.

Practicing my own version of it took/takes many forms one of which is my movie about Nina, Lars and the Talking tree. A story I wrote years ago (destroyed since) which went something like this gist....

She was a young girl who lived on the edge of a small pastoral town (www.biskupiec.pl) who just like me, on those late Spring's enchanted mornings walked along a streach - as straight as arrow -tree-lined road to school. . . Graced on one side by undulating with wild flowers field and bird songs. The other side, flanked by a tall cedar hedge and a sturdy wooden bench....Head and heart soaring and gushing at the green, lace-like, not-yet- mature leaf canopy. Wishing, she could fleet about just like the birds.

(lucky for me, that was my fav. time of the morning. On occasion, I would dance the entire streach - almost 1 km. long road leading to town's center.)

And, since it was my story, one fine morn' magically Nina was transported to a Rainbow Palace. . . Beeming with pleasure -inside the main hall - at the dancing rainbow - colored sparkles. Music too, I think.

Excited she ran to fling-open one of the many tall windows! Claping hands with delight when oh-so-cute boy cought her eye. And, since it's my castle I can jumped out the window if I wan to (graceful-like mind you:) to greet him. . .

Obviously, he acted as tho meeting me was the most exciting thing ever:) Lars....oooooh so dashingly handsome he:)

"I can't wait for you to meet my friend!" he exclaimed.
So, off we goeth where-ever imagination takes us. . . Frolicking across a meadow with lazy brook flanked by Forget-me-not . . . We jump the stream holding hands. Giddy with mirth. (Obviously) He picks a handful of flowers and offers them shyly to her. . . To shy to kiss him? Ohwell, maybe next time - gush golly me)

(Oh the joy-filled moments spend there for real!)

"There", Lars pointed. His friend, the "talking Tree?". No matter, soon I found out it was a "Wisdom talking Tree".... And, I promissed to take its Teaching to my heart. . . . Arms holding, cheek-pressing its rough, sun-warmed bark. . . Then suddenly, friend's voice rang out "Hurry up, we'll be late for school!"

"yah, yah, boring math and history wotever."

*

Under a canopy of century old tree in my own back garden, many a'times' sending prayfull thoughts.....

Theofilia

robinstarfish said...

This is one of those 'aha' posts...

He says that the present is actually situated outside time, which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense, otherwise we couldn't be aware of time.

Aha! Is this equal to getting up off all fours and standing up, assuming the vertical position?

About 'slots' - in pinhole photography, all it takes to produce an image is poking a tiny hole in a flat surface and letting the light come through into the darkened chamber. The image on the back wall, however, is upside down. Where have we heard that before?

Does it then make a difference to realize that to see the 'present', one must stand on one's head? Aho!

wv: achingst...longing to see You...

Cory said...

"Many, if not most, people simply grow accustomed to this situation, as if it is natural to live in this manner. Such a person doesn't really know the present. Rather, it is as if they are living on a two dimensional line. The past is behind and the future is ahead, but there is really no present, because they are too enmeshed in the line to appreciate it."

Julie makes an accute observation when she writes of people who are always so busy they never seem to take time to actually stop and look around and SEE what is there. When such people look around they seem compelled to link what is in the present with the past (in which case it is seen as either something repellant or something swathed in a fog of sentimental nostalgia depending on the associations made) or to tie it into some plan for the future (in which case it is valued solely for its assumed usefulness and the less useful the more discardable or - in the case of something seen as an obstacle to the plan - the more detestable it is and thus worthy of destruction). It seems as if these two functions are linked with a desire to avoid repetition of an unpleasant, painful past or replicate something remembered as pleasant and good which in turn feeds a compulsion to try and force the future to comply with these desires. Thus all that "busyness".

There is also a powerful tendency to embellish memory or to make it up altogether. Ditto notions about bright futures based on nothing save the imagination and desire. I think cases of this sort are a sign of a really disturbed person and when such persons attain power they are truly dangerous as they will do all in their power to force the present to conform to their "vision". Brother Robert has a pretty good bead on these sorts, I think.

This would certainly explain why obvious goods are discounted or ignored altogether while obvious evils are defended and even celebrated. What IS simply isn't because some people are literally blind to what is right in front of them. Which also explains why some conversions are rather violent affairs (emotionally anyway) as the person suffers a rather severe shock being introduced to reality for the very first time.

Really like the post, Brother Robert. Thank you. You keep writing them and I will keep reading them.

Warren said...

Sorry to lag behind, but I only just got around to reading some of the comments on yesterday's thread. Lame Duck sought to warn the Catholics who read One Cosmos about the heterodoxy of Balthasar, because:

"(One of) Balthasar's most controversial theological assertions... the possibility that all men will be saved..."

It is correct that this was Balthasar's position. It is NOT correct that it is a heterodox position. It has been affirmed by the last two Popes (B16 and JP2) that Balthasar's position on this issue is, in fact, the Church's own position and is fully orthodox.

The key word in the statement above is "possibility". Catholics are encouraged, even obliged, to hope and pray that all will be saved. This is enshrined in the Fatima prayer (among others), which, as part of the Rosary, is repeated millions of times a day by Catholics. But, Catholics ARE forbidden from believing that all will ASSUREDLY be saved. The Church's official position, then, is that we hope, but we don't know - it's not our call. And this is all that Balthasar was saying.

I just wanted to make it clear that no Catholic needs to be "warned" about Balthasar's theology - at least not on this particular issue (nor any other issue that I am aware of).

Cassandra said...

"Isn't that manic rootedness into the moment, also where depression sometimes comes from, when the current goal is accomplished, what then? Looking around, there are only details looming around you, but without purpose or meaning."

Hmmmmmmm. So much on target that I suspect you know a little bit about depression firsthand! Of course, a true expert depressive (like me) will solve this 'problem' by procrastination and irresponsible task avoidance. This technique allows one to live in a perpetual swing between paralyzing, guilt-ridden inertia and frenzied deadline-driven panic!

I don't know how others like me---I assume there are others---
spend their time during the 'slothful' periods. I can't say I WASTE that much time since I do so much reading, studying, contemplating, and engaging in what you would call Racoonish pursuits. But I have a hard time making the transition from learning and KNOWING that Mankind has a truly divine purpose and KNOWING that I, as an individual, do.

Cassandra said...

Oops!
My 12:23 quotation was from Van's comment.

julie said...

"...people who are always so busy they never seem to take time to actually stop and look around and SEE what is there."

While I agree with your take, Cory, there is also another side of it that I had in mind. Many of the people I was thinking of actually seem incapable of tolerating a quiet moment; if nothing is happening, boredom quickly sets in. They rush to fill quiet with chatter, stillness with busyness and calm with drama. Real peace and quiet drives them utterly bonkers, and this seems to be true of the majority of people I know. I suspect it's because they just aren't comfortable in themselves; they've never learned to be, in a culture that places virtually all of life's meaning and value in horizontal action.

Consider Twitter: The question that kicks it off is, "What are you doing?" Because to do is to be, doncha know?

If what you are doing is sitting quietly, trying to still your mind while listening to birds chirping and the soft snuffly breathing of snoozing dogs and watching the leaves of an orange tree dance softly in the breeze and finding it all indescribably, ordinarily beautiful, well, who cares? What have you accomplished? Outwardly, not a damn thing. Inwardly, maybe something blessed, but that doesn't have any value to anyone but you and God. And since nobody else obviously benefits from that (and therefore finds one important or useful or otherwise validated), the act itself is not only not valued, it is almost intolerable to most people. Even watching TV has more tangible value, because then they are gathering information they can use in future conversations. They have something in common to discuss, should any awkward quiet moments arise in the company of others.

Real timelessness - that relaxed feeling that you aren't in a hurry to be anywhere, that wherever you are right now has value and is worth lingering over (even, sometimes, if its painful; pain shapes us into who are to become, after all) and taking in, well - you can't experience that if you're always expecting to be happier later, or if you don't know the present.

Anonymous said...

From the "I see the world as God sees it", angle -- to remind that with TRULY enlightned awareness, the bodhisatva can do a lot for those who seem 'lost'. . .

"Perhaps you will arise as Avalokiteshvara, whose ever-present awareness takes the form of gentle compassion. In the brilliant clarity of ever-present awarenss, all sentient beings arise as equal forms of intrinsic Spirit of pure Emptiness, and thus all beings are treated as the sons and daughters of the Spirit that they are. You will have no choice but to live this compassion with a delicate dedication, so that your very smile will warm the hearts of those who suffer, and they will look to you for a promise that they, too, can be liberated into the vast expanse of their own primodial awareness, and you will never turn away." - ch. 12

The Eye Of Spirit, penned by Ken Wilber

*

Talking about how others are sooo unclued at infinitum - how productive is that? Could be a way of releasing tension tho, no?

Theofilia

lame duck said...

Warren: I think you misunderstood. Please re read my comments from yesterday.

And Now, For Something Completely Different said...

Squeez Bacon!

Anonymous said...

Theofilia:

You have discovered, alas, the wound afflicting many at this site.

The deficit is called FOC, or "failure of compassion." The root cause is a willful failure to acknowledge unity. Therefore, compassion becomes optional instead of mandatory. This leads to the behaviour of critizising others on their moral or spiritual incapacities.

Reccomendations to gently guide the less fortunate instead of critisizing them are seen here as too soft or repugnant as in aggressive evangelism.

The practice of being harshly critical is defended by Bob as needed to produce change, and I agree with that assessment up to a point. For Bob, being critical appears to be his occupation. He is sanctioned. The others are synchophantic that way but are less conscious and their authority to render constructive criticism is dubious.

There are gratuitous FOC's here here which are not carefully thought out, and these are probably just to blow off tension, as you suggest.

In keeping with the tenets of compassion, I do not fault the raccoons. They are as incapacitated as anyone else, including ourselves.

What to do? Obviously, there is only one thing to do. Be compassinate.

Anonymous said...

o heavingly wilbur, colored be thy scheme, when all shall come to see that bad guys are just people in differing shades, then shall all meaning be lost and all happily be the same!

Spiraling down, my color scheme is better (of course), though all are condescendingly praised, my parot knows my name.

*

Lo, my bacon is red, but its label is light blue,
I am tasty, and so can you!

*

I may not write again, but I know your silence is in awe of me, not replying you call to me -
Still, I like pie

How is my top my bottom flipping and black?

*
the colors!

***

theefulloya

ximeze said...

Retread Anon 2:03

Is your breadmeat lackluster, leaving your satisfaction the no?

Squeez Bacon sounds like just the thing for this problem:

Now your breadmeat shines with deliciouness mostly yes!

NoMo said...

Theofilia - Now that you've quoted Wilber I feel compelled to ask, with all due respect, from what mental space are you broadcasting? Certainly, much of what is said here is difficult to understand, but not usually because it makes no sense. Get grounded! (hopefully in Truth)

Timothy wrote (II 4:3-4), "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

Also, to second Van's recent friendly suggestion: If you had your own blog, not only could you post your stories, thoughts, favorite quotes, etc., but it would provide you with your very own blog name to use here when commenting. Don't be anonymous forever!

julie said...

Ximeze, lol. I loved that video; it's amazing the lengths people will go to for bacon ;)

julie said...

Via Daphne,
President Bertie Wooster? Suddenly, it's all so clear...

Van Harvey said...

Nomo said “Theofilia - Now that you've quoted Wilber I feel compelled to ask, with all due respect, from what mental space are you broadcasting?”

W*K*R*P* in Cin-Cinnn-attiiii!!

Anonymous said...

Anony, teefoolia (or wotever you call your self)

What has being compassionate to do with Wilber? He didn't invent "compassion" last time I checked. Getting pissed is good tho. Look in a mirror, eh?

Or, look up "transference."

*

This last Saturday I went out! A rare occurance indeed. And it was fun galore:) even tho I knew I would "pay for it", I was willing to endure of what's to follow.

Because on energy level we are just a cloud of energy, those of us whose crown chakra opened to Infinity, have no choice but absorb the denser energies into our vast energy field/aura. And, if you ever felt your being streach out to infinity then you would know what I mean.

Don't think I don't know you want me to get the frig out of here.

Aaanyway, back on track ... At some point during the evening, invitably, I (even) ended up placing my hands on a drunk and depressed individual (stranger). Even tho I hate it when my energy system has to release that energy consciousness afterwards.

As indicated in earlier posts, my body-system is plugged into the 'battery of the world', that's why it is on a constant 24/7 work-DUTY.

At some point after the party night - release time. With awareness peacfully tucked away 'inside' the eye of the storm I felt and heard the force of the energy release in a form of gale force wind. Literally, it felt as tho I was inside a powerful howling vortex of energy....
Guess, I was too tired to stay awake to watch it rip through my body system...Not something I bargained for when I told God to do what He wills with me.

I could rhyme off plenty of examples of "miracle" healings - for conditions the medical profession was not able to cure - as a result of laying on of hands, but won't. Even tho one very happy patient said, "You have million dollar hand". You wouldn't belive me anyway. Same woman asked my sister in law years after the healing if I "still do that". "With tears she told me how much you helped her."

How do you heal the pain of the world?

Theofilia

BG said...

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?

GB said...

One word. Ninjas.

Anonymous said...

NoMO,
asked

"From what mental space are you broadcasting?"

My body emanates golden glow - from whence does it come from?

Visible to my higher sens-vision as recorded in my journal, a short entry. Something I never thought I would be sharing on the internet.

"May 94' Saw my Etheric aura!!! Electric Blue!" (in dif. ink pen adding below) "by August Saw my golden light" -

The etheric aura looks like a finger wide ribbon of light. The gold light radiates out and is pretty wide.

My two sons saw their "blue ribbon" too:). One kept pocking his finger into it with "oh cool", oh cool!"
The other, after longish look-see in silence, got all teary eye and said "What is it?"

Get "grounded", you suggest. Well, sorry to disapoint you but I live in Heaven.

Theofilia

Anonymous said...

When you make this collaboration with Him, you don't have anything to give, but God has everything and freely offers it to you. All that He wnats to do is to live in your heart and through you, manifest His wonders to the world so that others can also see Him.

- Bishop Edir Macedo

Theofilia

ximeze said...

Julie, I thought it was for real at first. Why not? me thought: a la potted-meat or all the roe-pastes eaten all around the world. Lots of them now come in tubes, somewhat like Kalles kaviar. Mixed with solid-fat, or brined and dried, the stuff last forever, is packed with fuel and nutrients & has been a staple for sea-going peoples for thousands of years.

Yeah, it's kinda gross if, unlike me, you're not a fan of stinky ultra-sea-tasting edibles. But then, I sucked on seaweed, relished seasnails & sea urchin as a kit too, so perhaps roe-pastes are an aquired taste.

It would work for bacon, but we're kinda food-weenies in this country too, so good luck with that.

Andy Kaufman's Ghost said...

Yer comedy gold, Theo. Gotta love ya.

Dissedoc

Anonymous said...

Andy, sela vie eh? Lifes' a beeetch and then you laugh too:)

*

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowlegde for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

-Popes Essay on Man (I think John Paul 2)

Which reminds me, this am hour in bed I heard his name.
wv sez "quest" heh:)

Theofilia

ximeze said...

Just received Language alert email:


How would you pronounce this child's name?

** "Le-a"
**
Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess Again.
*
**
This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, LA. Her mother is irate** **because everyone is getting her name wrong. It's
pronounced "Ledasha".

When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she
said, "the dash don't be silent."

SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember
to pronounce the dash..


If they axe you why, tell them the dash don't be silent.*


Oh brother

julie said...

Ximeze, I believed the bacon for a minute, especially because Insty had it linked in the same breath as Batter Blaster (which I've actually seen in my local grocery stores, so it must be catching on). It's pretty amazing the lengths people will go to for an April Fool's joke, but this one was genuinely funny, especially the video.

And speaking of April Fool's, please oh please tell me that last comment of yours was a joke! Of course, even if it's not real yet it's probably only a matter of time...

Cory said...

It is probably not good to confuse compassion with obeisance to the gods of self-esteem. There is much belief, speech and action in this world that is fully worthy of scorn and ridicule. And there are people around who actively promote insane evil as a great good. It is good to confront and oppose such people.

And to be really candid I don't believe there is a call to try and convert everybody (or anybody for that matter). There is a call, to some, to proclaim the truth. How truth is received is out of the control of the one making the proclamation. If feelings are hurt (and they are always hurt) maybe that is a good thing. When people are uncomfortable they tend to shift position in an effort to alleviate the discomfort. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don't. But if there were no discomfort they wouldn't make the effort to move at all - in any direction.

walt said...

Bob -

Been mulling this post since early this morning. The word that repeatedly came to mind throughout the day was "freedom."

The effect of the ideas you presented today give me a sense of freedom. I could say that about the OC themes overall, but when you focus on the present, and presence, and "rising above it all," i.e. becoming oriented to a more vertical perspective, then I get a little light-headed. So to speak.

Instead of just being caught up in our life and merged with the unconscious, we're going to try to "rise above" and consider it like a sort of object.

Amazing how many internal knots this loosens! How nice to let go of the ties that bind.

...there is no real present in the absence of presence or presence of absence. Obviously you have to at least be here in order to be here.

How can we access the Cosmos and be available to it without presence? And what "quality" of presence is needed? Something far beyond thinking about it, I suspect.

Reminds me of the first lines of the Analects, where Confucius asks, "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?" Sounds like serious business ... but the results are "freedom."

Great Post!

ge said...

"...being dragged through the street like a rag doll.

I hate when that happens..."

tell me about it!


1996
A summer dusk
I was hanging out girlwatching at my friend's curbside bookselling table on Avenue A. Half a block south, a taxicab let out three passengers, one of whom, a teenage guy, reapproached the driver's window...
The guy leaned down toward the cab & spoke to the driver…he may have also reached in, or got his hand grabbed by the threatened(?) driver because very quickly the cab took off, with the guy's hand still in the window! -caught or pinned! Oh shit-- The cab sped up, fishtailing in acceleration & the poor guy couldn't keep running, but was now being dragged so fast his sneakers smoked…
The cab screeched the wrong way down a side street & we saw that the poor schmuck was going to have lifelong hand/wrist problems for sure! His 2 companions were dazed, shocked as we all were on the avenue…what could have caused the disagreement? Was the driver attacked & defending himself? No one I saw called for help
…My bookseller friend later said the word on the street was: this guy was thrown in the trunk, killed--drowned in the river-- all covered up by the brotherhood of Muslim taxidrivers.

ximeze said...

"please oh please tell me that last comment of yours was a joke!"

Heck, who can tell anymore, considering the daily inverted pronouncements spewed by TOTUS & the MSM

hmmm, let's see

julie said...

Daphne unearths a lot of treasure, including this gem.

Anonymous said...

"May 94' Saw my Etheric aura!!! Electric Blue!"

Would that be Electric Blue Boogaloo, or just Electric Blue?

Anonymous said...

Anon-

Jesus said "I Am the Truth and the Light."

Not, I am the compassion and the light. Remember, true compassion is not acting like that idiot Ghandi.

Do you recall how Jesus treated the money changers and pharisees?
Or how he berated his disciples when they were stupid?
That was compassion, because it was grounded in truth not emotionalism.

Magnus Itland said...

Stillness, peace of mind and quiet don't make me feel uncomfortable. They make me fall asleep.

julie said...

Ah, well - I guess it's not for everyone, Magnus. And let's face it, I am pretty weird that way. Those probably aren't necessary to be present, but for me they're a good starting place. :)

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