Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Dead Men Waking

So, anything that doesn't have its roots aloft in the divine life is essentially dead -- or undead is more like it, since it is the negation of Life, not its opposite. Our undead self consists of identification with various mind parasites, and it is from this pseudo-self "that we have to be rescued, or saved." Deliverance from this state is a kind of resurrection in this life.

"Basically, then, it is a matter of dying to this false self of our ego-consciousness and to its loves and desires, for this self is our dead self" (Sherrard). We must transition from the egocentric to the theocentric position, which is the true basis for the anthropocentric position; as I mentioned in my book, worship of God activates a kind of latent dialectical space between O and (¶), and this is the fruitful space in which it all goes down.

O "strengthens" and vivifies (¶), while (¶) becomes the "lens" through which the energies of O are refracted. In contrast, the local ego, or (•), basically repels the divine energies (↓). And it is too proud and self-sufficient to reach beyond itself to its source (↑), so the cycle of spiritual metabolism is completely disrupted on both ends. You either asphyxiate or become anorexic.

As I've mentioned before, I can imagine some people thinking that the symbolic system of gnotation I use in OCUG to map spiritual growth is a little cold, or idiosyncratic, or abstract. But I explained there that the whole point is that the symbols must be filled with transpersonal experience, otherwise they remain empty categories.

For example, here is how Sherrard describes what I would call (↑): the "condition of being reborn, or resurrected... cannot be accomplished without the fulfilling of another condition: that we continually aspire towards and form links with the divine world, the world of eternity. The purpose of the spiritual life is not achieved through some abstract conception of the Kingdom of Heaven, or even through belief, in the pious sense, in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is achieved through strengthening our living relationship with the Kingdom of Heaven, and through cultivating in ourselves those organs through which we can experience the life of eternity."

This approach properly emphasizes both sides of the dialectic. Obviously, without the grace of (↓), nothing is possible. I mean, you can try, but good luck. More often than not, you'll ether just go in circles while engaging in some kind of glorified auto-hypnosis, or what we call spiritual Ønanism. In reality, it is just unhip gnosis by another name.

If there is a purpose of life -- and there is -- it can only be understood and actualized in reference to eternity. It's not going to be found down here -- that is, unless we have achieved the ability to see eternity in time, or the nonlocal radiating through the lens of the local.

Indeed, this is how human existence is to be understood: man is the local being through whom the nonlocal may be received and transmitted to the others in the form of truth, love, beauty, etc. Our job is to receive and assimilate (↓), but to then propagate it horizontally (<--¶-->).

If we fail to engage in our verticalisthenics (↑) in this life -- and therefore fail to activate and bring forward the (¶) -- then buddy, you've screwed yourself bigtime. "We will remain impervious to the light of eternity and to the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven, locked up in our subjective dreams which are by now second nature to us. Surrounded by the spiritual world -- as we are in fact all the time -- we will not be aware of it: we will be outside it, exterior to it, in hell."

Do you see why? The local ego is "exteriority" as such. When you think about it, it's the only thing that is "outside" the cosmos. It is merely a kind of Darwinian adaptation to external circumstances, and is therefore largely a mirror of the environment. It is more or less exiled from spirit, and in need of deliverance, or salvation. This is why various cultures are so crazy, because they have no living relationship to the truth that transcends the quasi-animal ego. Ultimately they are just neurotic or psychotic collective adaptations to the ubiquitous problem of having a mind. For example, read Scipio's post yesterday about the gories of Islam:

"Imagine if any other religion acted as does Islam -- Christianity for example. If Christians made war upon cartoons? If Christians made war upon Buddhist statues? If Christians chopped off heads on camera? If Christians sent legions of suicide killers into schoolhouses? If Christians murdered their daughters for violations of ‘honor?’ If Christians boasted about blasting civilian airliners from the sky? If Christians were involved in almost every war on the planet? If Christians at the Vatican regularly stampeded and trampled to death hundreds of their own? If Christian youth made a sport of raping non-Christian girls? If Christians hunted down and killed all who tried to leave the faith? If Christians sent out hit squads to murder all who insulted the faith? If Christians around the globe jumped with glee after the towers fell? If Protestant and Catholic Christians engaged themselves in mutual slaughter? If Christians sexually mutilated their adolescent girls?"

I don't just blame Islam for their mess. Rather, I blame man. Mankind is the problem, therefore more mankind surely cannot be the solution. This actually goes to one of the quintessential differences between the illiberal left and conservative liberals, something which Dennis Prager reminded me of yesterday: the leftist "loves" mankind, but treats individuals with contempt -- in the same way that the Islamist loves the idea of everyone living under a worldwide Caliphate worse than death, but has no problem butchering and maiming individual Muslims, who are worthless to him.

But the conservative liberal has no great regard for mankind. Rather, he loves individuals and individualism. Which is why an illiberal statist such as Obama must be his sworn enemy. The leftist pretends he can cure mankind with various material inducements, or simply by coercively rearranging the socioeconomic floors of the cultural titanic.

Won't work. Can't work. Wrong species. You're not going to get people out of hell by imposing it on them. Rather, they must realize where they are, and then make the effort to leave. Obama says, "don't worry. No need to change. We love you just the way you are. We'll just change everything else but you."

Real change and real hope can only result from real rebirth. First and foremost, we must nourish and cultivate the subtle organs of spiritual perception, or cʘʘnvision. Engaging in a serious spiritual practice simultaneously opens us to spiritual energies and influences (not just from God, but from certain authorized Deputies and helpful nonlocal operators).

Equally importantly, this will "awaken and galvanize in us the latent spiritual potentialities of our being, those that foster our rebirth, that allow us to transmute our consciousness, to free it from its hidebound ego-centered state in such a way that it is once again able to perceive and mirror divine realities and to interpenetrate with the consciousness of God" (Sherrard).

So the day-to-deity work of spirituality involves severing certain links and nourishing others. Conversely, egoic death-in-life consists of feeding and strengthening the links that keep us bound to illusion and sin, and ignoring those energic channels that would liberate us from our fetters. So the choice is yours: undead man walking, or dead man waking.

More tomorrow on how to circumnavelgaze and I-ambulate around in Bob's peculiar map of hyperspace...

19 comments:

Van Harvey said...

"You're not going to get people out of hell by imposing it on them. Rather, they must realize where they are, and then make the effort to leave. Obama says, "don't worry. No need to change. We love you just the way you are. We'll just change everything else but you.""

We are only visible in our lives, by way of the choices we make; choices of how to behave, present ourselves, further our lives, provide for ourselves and loved ones, what to laugh at and what to frown at, etc. But as choices and decisions are made for you, forced upon you, You are little by little excluded from being in your own life.

The leftist loves you as you are, all right, because you will only be allowed to be, as they have decided you will be, bodies animated not by their own souls, but by the dead hand of govt decree.

Again with the zombies.

robinstarfish said...

The local ego is "exteriority" as such. When you think about it, it's the only thing that is "outside" the cosmos.

That's a refreshing viewpoint, one of those "aha, of course" double-takes, obvious only after someone else points it out. Not unlike pulling one's head out of one's ass.

Van Harvey said...

"The local ego is "exteriority" as such. When you think about it, it's the only thing that is "outside" the cosmos."

Talk about alienation.

Really goes well with "Dead men waking", rising up out of the cold and dark earth and entering into the light, Or empty men without chests being inflated/inspired....

QP said...

Indeed, this is how human existence is to be understood: man is the local being through whom the nonlocal may be received and transmitted to the others in the form of truth, love, beauty, etc. Our job is to receive and assimilate (↓), but to then propagate it horizontally (<--¶-->).

"[T]think of the appeal Christ made to men and women! He had many, but His favourite was to their chivalry and valour. Often He underlines the difficulties of discipleship, warns us what it will cost, that it means risk and loss and sacrifice, and pulling hard against fierce currents; and then He turns and looks at us, with that honouring trust of His in us that sets the blood tingling and makes the cheeks flush with pride. That, He says quietly, is why I am so sure that you will come: you are too big to keep out of it! And, indeed, in His own day, it was only daring and adventurous spirits who would risk declaring for Him, as it is only daring and adventurous spirits still who have the pluck to try to follow so original and unpopular a Master in the real living-out of life."

         - A. J. Gossip, From the Edge of the Crowd

Joan of Argghh! said...

But as choices and decisions are made for you, forced upon you, You are little by little excluded from being in your own life.

My Pepper Dog always says she can't wait for me to be here. I tell her that I too, am waiting and wondering when I'll be.here.

mushroom said...

Things are a little slow today, but I don't understand why. As Robin and Van have noted, seeing the ego as exterior grabs you by the throat. Of course. After the last couple of weeks, you may have saved my life with that statement.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Hi Bob, great post!

It seems to me that along with spiritual warfare there is a lot of overlapping psychic warfare going on as well within us.
They are separate, but one can find they may share the same battleground at times.

As I understand it, mind parasites are created by us, often as a form of defense or unconcious reaction to tragedy, abuse, pain, horror, fears, and any number of circumstances, and not all need be traumatic.

They can even be roles we create for ourselves and which we don't wanna let go of, at least unconciously speaking, because they have "helped" us, or at least convinced us that they did. They may not be malicious or intend evil, although they can result in evil, or a hinderance to our growth in any sense.

But would any of our alter egos actually "conciously" choose to help demons, or provide demons carte blanche access to our self for the sake of evil?
Not likely I believe, although it depends on which mind parasites we are talking about.
Again, that's not to say mind parasites don't make a demon's job easier.

Obviously I think that demons and mind parasites are seperate, for the reasons I am illustrating. MP's have their own agendas or roles but they need the host, so most won't seek to destroy the host, but they will seek to distract the host or steer the host (us) away from any truth's that might expose them or cause the host (us) to wanna destroy them.
They do have a sense of "self" preservation.

Of course, once they are exposed we must have the will and fortitude to do all we can to eradicate them, but speaking for myself this ain't an instantaneous battle. Some of the MP's I had are indeed history, but some don't go down that easy.

How many times have I thought I was free of some MP's only to find they only went dormant for awhile, or even a long time? Sadly, many times, but Hope remains eternal, and I know by God's grace I Am free. I just gotta gear up and continue to fight no matter what.

I reckon my point is that MP's are widely varied and very, very complex.
Personally, I'd rather fight demons which don't think like me and don't "know" me like I do. And they can't hide their evil for long.

MP's are akin to "good intentioned" lefties or just "do-gooder" busybodies that really do wanna "help", while demons are akin to terrorists and serial killers. The results, however, are often the same.

Now, let me throw a wrench into the mix and ask, is there such a thing as benign mind parasites?
Okay, let me rephrase that:
Is there such a thing as MP's actually helping their hosts temporarily (to mentally or psychically cling to sanity in the face of extreme trauma for example)?
And wouldn't that be why we cling unconciously to them?

Doesn't it seem as if there are many categories of MP's created for many different purposes?
Has this ever been broken down (or translated from psychiatric terminology into metaphysical terms other than what Bob has done)?

How many MP's are mental illnesses? Or are some mental illnesses simply signs of MP's?
Which ones?
Bob has answered these questions at least partially, if not more (I don't always recall so well), so I reckon I'm really askin' for more specifics if you have the time, Bob.
I know this is some really complex stuff and I'm a bit on the dense side. :^)

This is just one of many reasons why all of the spiritual n' psychiatric stuff Bob and you all talk about is so helpful to me, because the "map" helps me to see myself more clearly, as well as where I'm at now.
It helps when plotting courses, plotted by the Master of course.

The Master said...

What courses? You're supposed to be in drydock, dummy!

The Navigator said...

Can one chart a course on a map, or map a deustination on a chart?

Skully said...

Van said...
"The local ego is "exteriority" as such. When you think about it, it's the only thing that is "outside" the cosmos."

Talk about alienation."

Alien nation wasn't just a cool movie and tv series.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Sorry about the length of my last comment. I think it was
Van-dalized. :^)

Van Fan said...

Yeah, sure it was. Van's comments have been significantly shorter for over a year now.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Just kidding Van Fan. :^)

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Van Fan said...

Oh. Well, okay but get with the program. Not only is Van's comments (and posts) shorter, but they still contain the same Vantastic quality as the long one's did.

It's top notch and it's all free. I'm happy to say I'm president of the official Van club!
Van has saved me countless hours of research, and he backs up what he says.
So just remember, if you mess with Van you mess with Van Fan.

Van Harvey said...

Ben said "...but they need the host, so most won't seek to destroy the host..."

However that assumes that MP's are concerned with reality... an assumption that I think is a dangerous one to make.

"MP's are akin to "good intentioned" lefties or just "do-gooder" busybodies that really do wanna "help", while demons are akin to terrorists and serial killers. The results, however, are often the same."

Yup.

"Now, let me throw a wrench into the mix and ask, is there such a thing as benign mind parasites?"

My most persistent 'benign' bugger is using anger to accomplish a task; it had its uses when I had a brother twice my size picking on me daily, but that issue resolved itself long ago. MP's still here though. It doesn't have full control, I've never physically allowed it off the leash towards anyone, but my face does get red and my voice does get loud... and I find it must unhelpful in doing things like replacing toilets, though it seems to think any frustrating task can be accomplished better with some Hulk action. I still fail to see how the situation of being unable to fit the toilet into place was in anyway helped by hurling the toilet out into the hallway... other than of course providing my wife and kids with a tale which cannot be retold often enough.

But there ya go. MP's and reality aren't on good speaking terms.

The rest is above my pay grade, and I'll leave for Gagdad and Petey.

Van Harvey said...

Ben said "I think it was
Van-dalized. :^) "

LOL!

Van Harvey said...

Van Fan said "Van has saved me countless hours of research, and he backs up what he says."

Ooh! Well thank you very much.

No messin' with Ben or Skully though... they (and anyone else who uses their head) are free to tweak me as needed. By royal decree, don't cha know.

;-)

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Thanks, Van!

That was very helpful. :^)
I cooncur as well that the rest is above my paygrade. Mind parasites really are much more complex than I initially thought.
Realizing them and then fighting them sure as hell ain't easy, but I love a Good fight. Ha ha!

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