Tag Archives: Philosophy

At the heart of all existence

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Energy can be defined many ways. Are photons real, or illusory/mayavic? Gamma rays? Radio waves? – Physical bodies and structures are composed of energy forms that are composed of subtler energy forms which are composed of subtler … Each can be called energy. – But at the core of it all; the central essence of it all is ultimately undefinable because in defining and labeling something we are confining it within the parameters of our definition. Of our interpretation in that moment. In confining it we are limiting it. But that ultimate essence is beyond limitations. It will always be more than we say it is by being less (subtler than we can picture). We can bask in our oneness with it, we can know it, but we can not define it. Whereas we can define, control, and confine some forms of energy. – And yet I myself refer to that which pulses and flows through all of it as “energy” because I have no other word which will suffice. In calling it energy I am limiting my description, but not the essence.

Great teachers don’t tell you what to do.

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Great spiritual teachers know not to take on other people’s karma. They don’t command or demand. If I tell you to tithe 10% of your income to the church, but then you don’t use your head, and do it even as your children starve, then I am partly responsible for their ill health. If I rail against abortion doctors and then you go out and blow up a hospital, that is partly my fault. A great teacher won’t tell you that you absolutely MUST do this, that you MUST believe that. A great teacher simply points, offers his own life as an example, and shows you love. You can follow, or not, even find your own way, and he will love you.

A great teacher is first and foremost a kind person and a caring soul.

Don’t just parrot the philosophers

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Ancient philosophers were explorers and wanted us to be. They wanted to understand this physical world, but not get stuck there. They didn’t share their insights so we would over-analyze and repeat them in endless loops through forever ad nauseum. Their goals never included being quoted and re-translated until they lost all meaning. They sought to be jumping off points, not stalling out points. They wanted to be doorways, not doorstops.

Friends want to drag you into their darkness

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The universe is based on contrasts: yin & yang / for every action there is a reaction. The world of spirit is no exception. For each teacher trying to lead us toward light there will be another slinging darkness. When we find ourselves dancing in joy we will find friends crowding nearer who want to drag us into their fears, angers, and disillusionment. When we lose ourselves in beauty, others will remind us of ugliness. As our lives fill with magic and wonder, there will always be those trying to beat these away from us with factoids and rumors, with scientific counter-references and left brain limitations.

I picture a dog in a storm outside a large comfortable mansion. He is standing at the door, barking and howling as the masters snuggle inside by the fireplace, dry and warm and feeling wonderful.

They go to the door to let the pooch in, but he won’t budge. He hasn’t been barking for them to let him in; he’s been trying to get them to come outside and share his misery, to join him in this horrible deluge.

So they walk back in to sit again by the fire, to snuggle up in the golden warmth, as he goes back to yapping in the darkness.

We can never rise unless we fall

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Doubt and denial seem to be an important part of spiritual development. Tales are told in most if not all religious traditions about those who deny, and who, other than Judas, lived to recant. Look also at stories of Christian and other martyrs, of Sai Baba, HPB, et al. Where there is a Light Bearer there must be those trying to drag us back into the darkness where they are more comfortable. Where there is purity, folks will sling mud. It seems to be one of the basic and undeniable, unavoidable rules of the universe. Like Yin & Yang, like there can be no up without a down to compare it to. Where there are those trying, we will find those falling short. “Seek & you will find”? Sure. But only if you are willing to get lost so many times that you have felt like giving up. “Knock & it shall be opened”? Maybe. But sometimes it will be the wrong door.
But the light is in there; and someday, you will get all the way home, only to realize that even when failing, even in your very darkness moments, you actually had been there all the time.