@Uni_Verse said

"The Mystics' Rede (of I)

four-square, mystic,
I am a Nigh-hil-is-tic!
Who can know nothing,
there : being, no
thing to know

Though I dare
O, my god !
I DO, DARE : TO WILL
To feel, to think, to be-leaf

When, said:
"This is THAT,"
I recoils, horrified
At the denial of my validity
Sanctity of my solemn-I-ty
Accepting, Respecting
Beliefs
Best I can do as a fellow Me
to You

TOOT, TOOT
HOOT, HOOT"

❤ ❤ ❤

Reading this just brought Brightness of Laughter, pure-undiluted-solar-simple-Happiness, to start my day!
👼

Voices ! Lights ! Sounds !
So MANY - now, and to come.
The 'Mystic' ignores them,
As should the Magician;
Heeding only those whom come
at the appointed hour

I admit this may be tangential, however,
the thought I had
(beyond <insert progression here> Takamba's comment)
is:
"it's your snake dude"

You feed it, you care for it, you nurture it.
I am some ape making weird gestures
in an attempt to respond to your weird gestures
all of which can be quite normal
[in-aim, in-sane,
all the same ?]

My intuition tells me that for one undergoing the Curse of the Magus the thought of self-destruction would represent the very height of optimism. It is the "thought" which is the pinnacle of their optimism, and let it be known that that thought is not borne from any standpoint of self-pity, for the Magus is one who has already attained to the grade of the Master of the Temple.

In attaining the grade of Master of the Temple, the Adept is drawn inexorably towards the HGA with such impact that the qliphoth/Ego that was (or seemed to be) the Adept falls away to the world of phenomena, devoid of life of its own, only to be inhabited by circumstance by the real Adept, the HGA, who in truth dwelleth forever in the Openess of Our Lady Babalon, The Great, The Great... The Babe of the Abyss is the dissonance between the shell (more accurately, the old habits or patterns of the renounced/detattched cognitive faculties; see here) and the Adept. I digress. But indeed, where is there then for self-pity to build a nest in the tree without leaves nor branches nor trunk nor roots?

"He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings."

The death longed after is revelry in the Night of Pan. However, dissolution is not the formula of the Magus, hence the cursed aspect of that grade. The Magus must re-assimilate with concept of self, and with transience, and with sorrow; their formula involves the Coagula, reconstitution, which inevitably must follow any utterly successful spiritual completion of Solve, the process of dissolving. Further, their formula involves becoming always a mouthpiece for Transmission.

The task of the Magus can be summed up thus. The Magus is as upon a stage giving a presentation, and they only want people to focus on that presentation. And yet the whole time they are painfully aware that their own presence will serve as nothing but a distraction to the presentation. Therefore: "How shall He destroy Himself?"

I just wanted to make it abundantly clear what I am referring to by my usage of the word Ego. When I say "Ego" it does not mean excessive vanity, as some are wont to signify by the term. Rather, it is simply the self-referential component of awareness. "I am Jeremy." In that sentence the word Jeremy is the label. What is implied by the word "I" in the sentence is the Ego, "am" denoting its attachment to that label. It is merely that element of our perception which believes that phenomena are occurring to it: "I," "me," "mine." (There's a hint there for those who get what I'm saying in the sum of my posts. 😜)

Again, the Ego is not necessarily something that one is doing wrong. It is a default piece of our cognitive apparatus which happens to latch on to and identify itself with an infinitesimally small portion of the universe. I would conjecture that it is an artifact of our evolution, an erstwhile vital factor for survival that, for most of us, has become complacent and central. To the pre-Adept it only really becomes a serious problem when that one mistakes it for the things which it is Not. 61.

The Ego is the root of duality, hence of sorrow. Love works by way of the dissolution of perceived boundaries. The nature of the Ego, which is identity and attachment, is thoroughly shaken by every manifestation of love. So great is the uniting influence of love that the actions of the Ego are momentarily arrested upon its (love's) appearance. The emotion of love is the primary example.

Please please remember that this is all just rubbish concept. My words are like plastic models. They may get across the idea but are completely lacking in the subtext of reality. These things can only be properly conveyed by way of one's own personal experience. Otherwise there is only intellectual apprehension, another tidbit to heap onto one's pile of Knowledge...

Just a quick bump for those who may have missed this profound book.

Also the book has been updated with a more precise translation from the original Chinese language. You can get it here:

falundafa.org/eng/eng/pdf/Zhuan-Falun-2018.pdf

😄

@Hermitas said

"Gnostics and Scientific Illuminists can be and sometimes are conflicted about their own ability to know reality through personal experience, yet it is the primary assumption of both Gnosticism and Illuminism."

Both of them (like all schools of thought) are ridiculous, ultimately.

"So first, that. Let it be a challenge to self-awareness."

It isn't. Interpretation or comprehension by the mind might encounter such a challenge and be foiled by it, but it's not a challenge to actual Self-awareness. 😉

"This Knowledge is not for all men; few indeed are called, but of these few many are chosen."

Liber Porta Lucis, v. 9

"——-

Second. Yeah, I have an ideal of remaining open, but some stuff is settled."

Cool.

"We are all connected “by Spirit” or “in Consciousness.” Settled. Within myself?"

"Within yourself." 😄 It depends upon one's apprehension of what it means to be "by Spirit" or "in Consciousness." If these are just intellectual comprehensions, then they are complete rubbish. Garbage. Filth. Ugh.

Beyond that...ask... 😜

PS
Takamba's second response here is absolutely fantastic! (for what my endorsement may be worth...)

@seekinghga said

"A small bit of water comes out of the water that the water may know the water. Then in ecstasy is the water poured back into the water. "The pain of division is as nothing and the joy of dissolution all." "

-Here

This draws back to what I was saying about ideas (i.e. knowledge) only being capable of possessing a meaning which is wholly dependent on their relation to similar ideas. Take for analogy a painting consisting of just the same shade of the color blue. A painting like this expresses nothing worthwhile. It is only by the adding of greens or browns (or whatever colors) for the sake of contrast that the blueness can become a "lake" or a "sky" or some other thing so as to make it intelligible to our everyday comprehension. To take this analogy past the goal post we can surmise that all color soever, each being but a partial manifestation of light, makes all appreciation of contrast solely for the benefit of limited observation. The light itself is unhindered in this requirement. Verily, for the light there is only light. However, idealization of this variety as it applies to cognizance is completely impractical in the strictest sense of worldly indication. Hence the need for a faculty with the capacity to interpret partialities and project them into a more or less coherent structure (which, of course, is liable to all of the faults of incomplete apprehension). This faculty has been fabulously coronated with the sublime and mystical, majestic sobriquet of "Mind."

Just to add to Zeph excellent advice Victor.

I would recommend the book, The Tarot by Paul Foster Case. In the chapter on the Tarot card The Star. PFC, give the readers, the Tarot Card attributed to the Chakras. The book will also answer some of your questions. You can also look up the colors that correspond to the Tarot cards along with the musical tones in that book, and in the book, The Spoken Cabala by Jason C Lotterhand. It also, gives the color correspondences along with the musical tones to use while chanting IAO.

Please note what Zeph wrote about the order or sequence.

"Quote Zeph: Chakras should be opened in this order: Saturn, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Mercury."
The above books do not give this sequence, but Zeph is right...
Hope this helps

You are welcome, Corvinae. 😄

hugs

Hego, to follow up on my responses to you I wish to say that the Hindu technique called "Neti, neti" is very powerful in obtaining quiescence of mind. It's not immediate, but it IS powerful. Supplement it with the practices in Liber 3 and it might help.

Now, I do feel the need to remark on the method of Liber 3. Liber 3 DOES NOT achieve its end result due to the sole influence of physical negative reinforcement. It is all about cultivating subconscious vigilance against performing a particular activity or harboring a particular thought. The first time I tried it was with a knife and it worked. Then I tried it with a rubber band and that also worked. Then I tried it with a simple sheet of paper kept in my pocket, which I marked with a pen every time that I made a break, and that worked too. I highly suggest the paper and pen incarnation of the practice, as it is equally effective and leaves punishment of the body to asana practice. 😉

You give me more riddles to solve my own riddles Takamba. Magic glasses is a marvel to behold for me but I can't think of a way to use it as a tool to decipher man cover. "What's in the box" is all I can think of.

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

@danica said

"
@Ab-ul-Az said
"
I just feel like these are Old Aeon methods, which I'm not wholly devaluing, as I appreciate their technical precision, but I choose to take from them what is in conformity with my True Will."

The "methods" is The Holy Qabalah 😄
In practice, I personally see it as a matter of scientific approach (or lack thereof)."

And also some seem for forget that their "True Will" had them born in this certain historic period and in their individual conditions. If you were born a Catholic, for instance, Catholicism is not "against" your "True Will," it is there for its reasons to serve your "True Will." It's part of the science in the "science and..." thing.

or

go about things artlessly if you wish.

The trouble with Freudians is [censored]-obsession.

It isn't 'all about [censored]' it's about orgone i.e. chi y'know prana.

"Is it safe to say that ones natal chart is the symbolic representation of this?"

I think that's an excellent observation.

A human with strong, conflicting traits has potential for self-sabotage, or great synergy. Working out the configuration of the roles each part plays is an individual discovery.

@seekinghga said

"So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers"

That verse can be summed up in one word: perfection.

The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none!

Samadhi is when the difference between subject and object goes away. That difference (i.e. imperfection) is a statement or function of the mind. In dreamless sleep what has ever been encountered that is imperfect? Such state of sleep is a condition where the mind is temporarily subdued and silenced. Samadhi is a state where the mind is temporarily subdued and silenced, yet in the case of samadhi it is "under will" rather than from exhaustion.

Love, in the Thelemic sense, that is not "under will," is tantamount to spiritism, as opposed to the discipline exercised in ceremonial magic. This comparison is not equivalent but has the same principles guiding. Rather than Willfully combining the elements of "self" and "other" and thereby weakening separation/restriction, one places oneself at the mercy of the forces in their environment. Indeed, this is what occurs when our Love isn't "under will."

@LD330 said

"but I mean repetition or the tendencies."

It sounds like what some Hindus and Buddhists call the "vasanas". These are the tendencies which are accrued through learned, repetitive behavior (or metempsychosis/prarabdha karma if you are so inclined) and are responsible for all modes of attachment, including desire, addictions, personality, etc. These are also what need to be curtailed, sutured and brought back to focus in order to experience samadhi. They are what "remains" of the Ego from the standpoint of being across the Abyss. As Nothing can cross that wasteland intact save for that which is One, the vasanas or tendencies provide the loose structure in which the Neschamah (I'll admit to a fondness for Crowley's preferred terms 😉) inhabits to interact with multiplicity. The Ego then not being any kind of truth is merely a codified Habit which nevertheless allows us to broach the gap of the planes as it were.

See: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14646&p=101953#p101359">viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14646&p=101953#p101359</a><!-- l -->

That is the best advice I have heard. Thanks!
And I am fully experienced with aurial phenomena of 1000+ug delysid, a full array of the pops, clicks, gushes, rushes, and sounds of the internal clockwork. But your advice works with this phenomena too as long as I banish.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

@Heg said

"93,

My sincere gratitude for the time you spend on helping me seekinghga. I really really appreciate it. I've read the Psalms of an Aeon from the beginning till the end, and #20 is truly a great guide not only for me but for the most aspirants. The effort you spend for me and others is beyond admirable. You inspire me, for that, I thank you again."

You are most welcome. I hope it helps.

"According to my records, it was maximum 40 minutes so far, though afterwards I lie down in weird positions to ease the pain and numbness in my feet. 😀"

One must never switch asanas unless there is dire need to do so. I became possessed of such need from using the Dragon myself because it really hurt the ankles to sit that way for more than ten minutes, and not in a way which indicated it was a question of willpower. I stuck with it for like a month before switching to a simple cross-legged position and got my Result with that (eventually, it takes time). From my own experience I found that after conquering one asana I can sit in any comfortable or semi-comfortable position and within seconds of attempting to quiet the mind the body will shut up with its complaints. Asana seems to be one part physical to four parts psychological. In fact, asana should be regarded as a sub-category to pratyahara.

"I listen it from an external source, usually from a headset to eliminate all kinds of noise in the environment. I'm so easily distracted by anything and everything. If I listen to white noise, I also chant too."

This tells me that your concentration is still in its fledgling stage. Pratyahara, the mental function which isolates the attention from distraction, will only become strong as concentration becomes stronger. Points 1 and 3 of my Psalms of an Aeon (PoaA) #20 are directed towards this exact thing. The white noise is probably helpful but may not always be available. Crowley's "John St. John" (I forget the liber number, something in the 800s I think) is the best thing that he ever wrote on the practice of yoga, in my opinion. Also, like I said, points 1 and 3 of my PoaA #20 must be followed, more and more as time goes on.

The thing is to get those diverging streams of your thought to cease their arbitrary meandering and change course so that they can all be channeled into a singular flow of mind. What worked for me was devoting an increasing amount of time to concentration practice, and to either be chanting a mantra (mine was "the joy of dissolution all"), doing pranayama, or reading the Thelemic Holy Books, VII, LXV, and CCXX especially, when not meditating. If I was not sleeping then my mind was engaged in one of those four tasks (though you can use any practices which you deem worthy to the task at hand, these examples are just from my own experiences). It's not easy at first, the mind wants to play, but with practice it will behave. My PoaA #1 is all about the difficulties I had with maintaining this regimen at work because the duties expected there and interaction with co-workers conflicted with the development of one-pointed mind.

"Then I'll also try to do pranayama before the asana."

It took me about 2 months to go from the easiest cycle given in Liber E to one of 20secs out-10secs in-30secs hold. During the holding of the breath, kambhakam, I try to keep the mind as still as possible--nothing exists but the timer, and that barely!

"Ah, my impatience, the desire to attain something with haste, always troubled me my entire life. I am nearly 28 and slowly began to realize my mistakes at that point. The price of my mistakes paid with the irrecoverable coin "the time"."

Liber Legis I:44 can not be mentioned enough. But don't be too hard on yourself, Hego. You now recognize the issue and can work to fix it. 😄

"
""I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit. As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man. I shall not rest until I have dissolved it all.""

I might even use that phrase instead of a mantra!"

Holy Book mantras are good. Let me repeat that reading those books every day will go a long, long way to getting your mind into a unified flow. I must digress for a moment.

The most important factors which will lead to success in meditation are cultivated during the day when you're NOT meditating. I keep saying about getting the mind into a "singular flow"; a "unified flow." Every waking moment of the day not spent on concentration training needs to be spent on practices (pranayama, mantra, Holy Books, etc.) that keep the mind focused within a narrow vicinity related to meditation. Think of it this way. The things that you do throughout your day which are favorable to meditation are like a diet. The meditation itself is just the stepping onto the scales to weigh your progress. Neglect the dieting and the weigh in won't be very impressive.

If you want to succeed then your whole life must eventually be devoted to that end, every ounce of energy directed to the One goal. You have to understand that even if you were the best meditator in the world you would not get very far if you concentrate perfectly for an hour and then allow the mind to do as it wants the rest of the time. I think it is a Hindu adage that it does no good to lock your belongings from thieves for 1 hour a day and then let them open for the other 23 hours. The mind must be disciplined at all times. I cannot stress this enough. It will be HARD. The mind will resent the sudden and severe curtailing of its proclivities, but with patience the struggle will pass into harmony.

"I never thought about it like this. I was thinking being elevated is something that I should achieve or shoot for."

Levitation, sweating, and jumping around like a frog are all mentioned by Crowley (who was surely hopped up from reading the Shiva Samhita) in his books. These are distractions. If they happen, fine, but if you're meditating properly (concentrating the mind on a single object) you won't even notice.

"How I long and yearn for that Union, even though I haven't got the slightest clue about the experience itself."

This is excellent! In my PoaA #20 I describe in point 9 the conditions which bring about Result. I purposely left out description because that would just create no end of mischief by the mind (others' and my own), much like the "feeling of elevation" idea did for your focus with meditation. That you don't know what to expect will keep you from lusting for result. That's a very good thing.

"It is not a single voice sadly, It is the entirety of bad memories of a lifetime, self-doubts, self-critics and many more. All came to me as legions to ram down the walls of my peace of mind."

Those assaults usually get worse before they die down.

"The wisest thing I've heard or read for a long time. When I learn about the faults and defects of my mind I truly want to change myself, however the one who learns and the one with defects is the same! It shatters the "I" in me and questions get a little weirder. In the poem "AHA" in Equinox there was something like:

"All thoughts are evil. Thought is two:
The seer and the seen. Eschew
That supreme blasphemy, my son,
Remembering that God is One."

How can I unite the image of myself (the one who tries to control the wandering thoughts and self doubts) and my simple self (the one who creates these wandering thoughts). I always judge myself or criticize myself over the negative thoughts or feelings I have. Can we be truly one, can I train my mind to be loyal at my side? More self-doubts. And again when I feel like this I read:

"*Plod on, and when your legs tremble and give way under you, crawl on, crawl on if on all fours, and clench your teeth and say “I WILL”; but on! and on! and on! And behind you tireless strides along that old grey hound ever breathing forth temptations upon you; filled with crafts, and subtleties, and guiles, ever eager to lead you astray, ever ready to guide you back" *

I might have overstepped the boundaries of the original discussion and the post. Yet one question begets the other. One thought begets the other. One doubt begets the other. It is really a challenging journey however. And seekinghga my deepest thanks once again.

With love,
Hego."

Your doubts exist for a reason. Some of them are just the Ego at its self-preservation game. Yet others are the issuance of unresolved conflict within your being. The Great Work has been (aptly) called The Solution of Complexes. The legions of thought gather to ram down the walls of silence and so they must be faced, all of them. It would be tremendously irresponsible and hubristic of me to presume to tell you when, where, or how to face them. It is a large part of the Great Works of all of us to discover the manner for this on our own. The proper combinations of circumstance for triumph here are as varied as there are people on this earth. The best advice that I can give to you is to become thoroughly intimate with the statment: "Love under will." Study it. Learn it. Breathe it. Be it. You are a star, Hego. You are the manifestation of Godhead. These doubts and complexes that we all experience are as a curtain that divides the light of oneness. However, if we try to tear this curtain down violently we will only make it thicker and stronger while we get tangled... Remember, Love under will.

From your posts here you remind me a lot of myself, Hego. I know! I know! There's no cause for me to insult you! ahem What I mean is that when I first started meditating I was plagued with preconceived notions and doubt: the failure of the former to materialize only served to bolster the latter. Love functions by way of dissolving perceived boundaries. You experience doubt because there is a separation seen by you between what you think you are and what you think you should be. Want to know a secret? They're both wrong. The only way to effectively combat doubt or uncertainty is to become certain. "Know Thyself" is not just some tired axiom. It is a living and evolving formula for self transformation. You must come to terms with all aspects of yourself. It's not easy, analyzing oneself and one's motives, but it must be done. It will be done. Love under will is the way, the means and the goal. Know thyself to love thyself. Love thyself and love all.

Love is the law, love under will.

"I have hidden myself beneath a mask: I am a black and terrible God. With courage conquering fear shall ye approach me: ye shall lay down your heads upon mine altar, expecting the sweep of the sword. But the first kiss of love shall be radiant on your lips; and all my darkness and terror shall turn to light and joy."