tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post5842904475215092168..comments2024-03-28T20:04:20.286-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: The Satanic Resurrection and Death EverlastingGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-12906136809507774652011-02-19T15:12:25.825-08:002011-02-19T15:12:25.825-08:00Ok, I always thought the name of the song was also...Ok, I always thought the name of the song was also "Spiral Staircase".<br /><br />Frankly, if it's not, it should be. But it might actually be called "More Today Than Yesterday"Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01514033542507136460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-52262726828486416082011-02-19T15:08:27.444-08:002011-02-19T15:08:27.444-08:00Rick, I've been there.
Think of the abyss as ...Rick, I've been there.<br /><br />Think of the abyss as "that which is", and then crank up "Spiral Staircase" by Spiral Staircase.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuqHlv1YPe0<br /><br />Spiral back up!Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01514033542507136460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-73667334571804907912011-02-19T15:03:54.459-08:002011-02-19T15:03:54.459-08:00But space is not the sum of three lower dimensions...<i>But space is not the sum of three lower dimensions</i><br /><br />Mathematically, it is the "product".<br /><br />Cool, huh? I mean, that that word applies so well in both realms.<br /><br />Anyway, from whence do these woodcut type illustrations come? They're cool.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01514033542507136460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85335004232591429762011-02-16T06:42:31.850-08:002011-02-16T06:42:31.850-08:00Will says:
"Obviously, this can happen while...Will says:<br /><br />"Obviously, this can happen while on the spiritual path., ie., the Dark Night comes to roost. In some ways, I think, this particular Dark Night is even more hard-edged than that of the hell that the mundane soul experiences. This is due to the fact, I think, that the spiritual quest-er is self-aware, aware of the shadows that are closing in. In such cases, the Dark Night becomes an hallucinatory wilderness, replete with howling dybbuks."<br /><br />Bob's not talking about the zero gravity point between terresterial and celestial gravitation.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68021518859964324702011-02-16T06:41:05.665-08:002011-02-16T06:41:05.665-08:00First, there can only be one valedictorian. This ...First, there can only be one valedictorian. This was my goal beginning in 9th grade, thanks to my parents. Then you get your "Free College pass" and can move on to the next round of competition, college. I ultimately won only by double scheduling AP classes to boost my weighted GPA, pulling out a victory by beating the saluditorian by 0.14%.<br /><br />In law school, everything is on a forced curve where you have to do better than everyone else to win, so your class rank directly controls your employment prospects. You only get the most prestigious jobs if you are at the top of the (forced curve) pile.<br /><br />Of course, by that time, I was so burnt out and sick of life and no longer really cared.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-43011480862859587892011-02-15T17:36:09.016-08:002011-02-15T17:36:09.016-08:00>> . . . if one is not progressing, one is ...>> . . . if one is not progressing, one is more than merely "stuck." Rather, one is in hell<<<br /><br />Obviously, this can happen while on the spiritual path., ie., the Dark Night comes to roost. In some ways, I think, this particular Dark Night is even more hard-edged than that of the hell that the mundane soul experiences. This is due to the fact, I think, that the spiritual quest-er is self-aware, aware of the shadows that are closing in. In such cases, the Dark Night becomes an hallucinatory wilderness, replete with howling dybbuks.<br /><br />The sensation can be one of complete deadness, complete stasis. However, the saints report that, upon finally emerging from the Dark Night, there comes the realization that, yes, the sense of stasis was itself an illusion, that the soul was indeed being transfigured during the Dark Night. And the saints report that in hindsight, God was always close during the Night, in spite of the sensation of having been utterly abandoned by the divine hand.willnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-58879722041381876482011-02-15T17:04:04.897-08:002011-02-15T17:04:04.897-08:00I'm gearing up for another round with disappoi...I'm gearing up for another round with disappointment, anger, and resentment. I've been on this weary track a time or two before. You do your footwork, say your prayers, and try to leave the results up to God. At least I've done enough laps to know that eventually you find your way out and off. The prayer part is easy, the footwork, is often tedious, and the the results are seldom what you think you wanted, but rather what God had in mind. One day I'll fully grasp that God's results are focused on needs, rather than wants.<br />Nonetheless, I want my wants.<br /><br />JWM<br /><br />JWMJWMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05564732483476859555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-75337506591168655692011-02-15T16:57:58.519-08:002011-02-15T16:57:58.519-08:00JP-
IOW's, potentially, everyone can get good...JP-<br /><br />IOW's, potentially, everyone can get good grades in school, so I fail to see the zero sum part.<br /><br />OTOH, even if you were the only student in a class you could still fail, so it's not the other students that were a threat to your self success.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-71147601555860739592011-02-15T16:54:54.408-08:002011-02-15T16:54:54.408-08:00This is an important point, because a fully functi...<i>This is an important point, because a fully functioning human being possesses the capacity for integrated movement in hyperspace.</i><br /><br />You'd think that would be enough to convince anybody of the truth.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-24237012775371705692011-02-15T16:52:51.355-08:002011-02-15T16:52:51.355-08:00JP-
I don't follow. How are grades zero sum i...JP-<br /><br />I don't follow. How are grades zero sum in nature? Just because someone else might get an A doesn't prevent anyone else from getting one. <br /><br />Whereas in basketball (for example) only one player can be the top scorer.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-38617660268468670172011-02-15T16:25:57.257-08:002011-02-15T16:25:57.257-08:00Julie says:
"I was thinking last week that o...Julie says:<br /><br />"I was thinking last week that once a person gets to the circles of anger and below, there's a common thread in that one necessarily stops seeing other people as individuals with just as much value as oneself. There can be no love, because first one would have to acknowledge the reality and intrinsic lovability of one's fellow man and of God."<br /><br />This is one of the problems I have with grades and competition.<br /><br />For example, throughout high school, I viewed by fellow students as competitve threats to my success. Because of the zero sum nature of school grades, the only way that I could win would be if they lost.<br /><br />Essentially, I felt I only had value to the extent that I was better than other people.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-11713736032704439072011-02-15T14:10:34.126-08:002011-02-15T14:10:34.126-08:00"In Canto IX, our friends make it through sec..."In Canto IX, our friends make it through security to a rarely visited corner of hell, where they come face to face with the Dark Feminine. There they encounter three talon-nailed demons -- the shrieking furies who serve Medusa, the Queen of Never-Ending Lamentation who turns men to stone and men's stones to jello.<br /><br />Yes my friends, you're watching The View!"<br /><br />AKA A tomb with a view. A consequence of practicing viewdoo. <br /><br /><br />Fascinating post, Bob! <br />And illuminating. Couldn't be more timely for yours truly. Thank you. :^)USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-14535011533326395372011-02-15T12:46:33.277-08:002011-02-15T12:46:33.277-08:00Bob says:
"In Canto IX, our friends make it ...Bob says:<br /><br />"In Canto IX, our friends make it through security to a rarely visited corner of hell, where they come face to face with the Dark Feminine. There they encounter three talon-nailed demons -- the shrieking furies who serve Medusa, the Queen of Never-Ending Lamentation who turns men to stone and men's stones to jello."<br /><br />I kind of think of the Dark Mother (or Other Mother if you liked Coraline) as an algamation of all possible feminime mind parasites lumped into one form. Kind of like a glob of mind parasites fixated within the right brain, incapable of logical, rational, analytical thought. <br /><br />In short the Dark Feminine Cannot Think. (As opposed to the Dark Masculine who cannot Feel).<br /><br />I never thought of it as the "Dark Feminine" before today, though. I like that phrase.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85249658950091671782011-02-15T12:37:59.754-08:002011-02-15T12:37:59.754-08:00"Life is a journey, a movement, an adventure...."Life is a journey, a movement, an adventure...intellectual advance, moral progress, artistic development, spiritual attainment, etc. Ideally none should be separated from the others, but one of the baleful effects of postmodernity is to separate them, the result being that one ends up growing "nowhere." <br /><br />Finally, a concise explanation of our PoMo POTUS, Nowhere Man.NoMohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01100042056270224683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-30611218547929267352011-02-15T12:00:29.328-08:002011-02-15T12:00:29.328-08:00But this only results in an absence of harmony tha...<i>But this only results in an absence of harmony that renders the whole either monstrous or silly. I suppose when men do it it's just silly. But when women do it, it's monstrous</i><br /><br />And of course, this pertains not only to the rarefied field of female bodybuilders, but unfortunately in much of the common culture where not only can womyn do everything men can do, they believe they <i>ought</i> to.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53601804433913154402011-02-15T11:51:24.497-08:002011-02-15T11:51:24.497-08:00Another important point is that love does not avai...<i>Another important point is that love does not avail in a hell this deep.</i><br /><br />I was thinking last week that once a person gets to the circles of anger and below, there's a common thread in that one necessarily stops seeing other people as individuals with just as much value as oneself. There can be no love, because first one would have to acknowledge the reality and intrinsic lovability of one's fellow man and of God.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-67942033821955214432011-02-15T11:47:15.727-08:002011-02-15T11:47:15.727-08:00We should always feel as if our life is in movemen...<i>We should always feel as if our life is in movement. </i><br /><br />My son gave me a book, <b>Born to Run</b>, about ultramarathoners. It's part biology, part physics, and an occasional puff of don Juan. Fascinating stuff all around not only in the descriptions of physical prowess but in the 'supernatural integrated movement through hyperspace' state of mind they adopt to do it. In the book there's a phrase that recurs from time to time: <i>You don't stop running because you get old; you get old because you stop running. </i><br /><br />That advice applies to a lot of targets - depression being a big one.<br /><br />There's no standing still here at OC. I have to run consistently just to keep the back of the pack in sight.robinstarfishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15665546554663005609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-22355202371339205512011-02-15T10:57:04.997-08:002011-02-15T10:57:04.997-08:00Of interest to me are the people who manage to be ...Of interest to me are the people who manage to be lifted out of their own private I'd-a-Hell. Note I don't say "lifted themselves" as I know from personal experience this is wholly impossible. Personally my experience was an early hamster wheel of Maherian debauchery which eventually gave way to a craving for wealth -- all of which represented strategies to stave off underlying depression. I was <i>stuck running in circles</i> -- express train to Nowheresville on a circular track.<br /><br />Release from addiction took many years because I rejected Grace at every turn. Money was even stranger: the year I finally realized my then goal of a seven figure net worth resulted not in the earthly paradise of my imagination, but rather in even more depression. Money made NO difference at all after the initial rush. <br /><br />Gradually though I began to stop resisting Grace and allow the gentle uplift and cleansing to proceed naturally. Life today is hardly perfect, but radically different than it "should" have been had I followed my own materialistic non-plan to the letter. I feel now I'm on a spiritual ascent, however turbulent the ride gets from time to time. These days anything that feels like depression I treat as a flag that I'm somehow not in sync with O. The "cure" is to find that grOove again.Stephen Macdonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13474300559219020772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-57677303423616948482011-02-15T09:40:15.693-08:002011-02-15T09:40:15.693-08:00"What I mean by this is that, just as length,..."What I mean by this is that, just as length, width and depth combine to make three-dimensional space, intellect, aesthetics, and virtue -- the Good, True, and Beautiful -- combine to make the hyperdimensional space where human beings have their freedom of movement."<br /><br />That's an illuminating way of putting it... the coordinates of spiritual space? I wonder if the size of your inner Elysian Fields might be being surveyed and mapped by them, enabling you to navigate and colonize the landscape... would it deflate if you allowed the integrity of one dimension or another to be punctured?<br /><br />"If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." I could easily imagine the flattening view working like a pin upon your inner sphere,<br /><br />"One of the greatest dangers of the lower psychic forces to a spiritual traveler is that under their influence he may become fascinated and transfixed by the Outer Darkness, the power that leads one always further into the externals of things, where the soul must die"<br /><br />You can almost hear the air being spirited out of it... <i>"...sssssssssssssssss..."</i>Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-17755618404221257172011-02-15T09:33:59.064-08:002011-02-15T09:33:59.064-08:00It is the sense of constriction and lack of option...It is the sense of constriction and lack of options that tell me I'm depressed as opposed to just feeling bad. You are in a different world when you are depressed. Addiction also has a way of narrowing your options until there is nothing left but the addiction.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03149296283560293988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1273189747545851692011-02-15T09:17:37.992-08:002011-02-15T09:17:37.992-08:00"If you gaze for long into the abyss, the aby..."If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."<br /><br />I don't know if this qualifies but perhaps the most <i>depressing</i> thing about my depression was the depression. In lesser worlds, it was a downward spiral where I would look around and see today that I was worse than yesterday. Then off again we goes..down..Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.com