God doesn't exist
-
@Froclown said
"The important difference in Crowley's 0=2 from the general Hinhu and Buddhist concept, is that Crowley's void is attained by unity of opposites, rather that by removing or casting out of elements. "
Are you aware of Bhakti yoga?
"It is ego transcendence by invoking the non-ego, rather than the traditional Buddhist method of banishing the ego. "
More like banishing ego and non-ego, but yea... Its not that straightforward. They dont 'banish' anything like you would understand in the magick sense, they just come to realize theres no ego - and even perform egoless meditations like Mahasatipatthana (which Crowley recommends in about 4+ places... gasp!).
"The Buddhist tend to remove themselves from life."
This is incorrect and a common misperception. SOME might. Theravada Buddhism generally consists in trying to get beyond the wheel of life and death, so yea you can easily extroplate the idea of 'removing themselves from life' fmor this - they're also removing themselves from death, though. Mahayana buddhism is all about becoming a Bodhisattva to help all beings attain enlightenment etc, and very much is 'in' the world. In fact, some Buddhists practice meditation with their eyes open to symbolically affirm their acceptance of life and the world.
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. "
This also is the Tantric Buddhist and Tantric Hindu method... And Bhakti yoga.
65 & 210,
111-418 -
I have no doubt that there is no God.
Read Chapter 50 of Book of Lies and especially the commentary: "God the macrocosm and the microcosm beetle... both imagine themselves to exist... the things which really exist, the things which have no Ego and speak in the third person, regard these as ignorant on account of their assumption of Knowledge."
There is also a chapter in there, somewhere between 30 and 60 where he makes the point that math won't do to explain ultimate reality, so 0=2 is not his ultimate "proof" of anything, but a pretty great suggestion.
The non-God is described as IT in Chapter 31 of Book of Lies. Check out Chapter 42, Dust Devils and Chapter 40, HIMOG.
There is nothing to perfect. All is pure joy.
Crowley has described something exactly throughout his work which is found elsewhere in the Atiyoga teachings, which explain fairly well his disagreement with old friend Allan Bennett, who was a Theravadin Buddhist. A Theravadin and a Dzogchen practitioner agree on just about nothing because the Theravadin is so far behind and below in general comprehension. Notice how throughout Book of Lies, Crowley sort of "puts down" Samadhi and emptiness and says repeatedly that magick is more important. He says the mind is more than rest, it is also movement. This is an important difference between Dzogchen and Theravada! The Theravadin's goal is rest (samadhi) while the Dzogchen practitioner realizes that the Nature of Mind is both and therefore never loses himself throughout his daily business, unlike the meditator who gets up and leaves the state of meditation. Yet, the theme throughout the entire Book of Lies is that the Great Work is the practice of meditation to obliterate yourself. A Dzogchen master would agree with this all, too. A Theravadin says, "All is suffering." A Dzogchen practitioner says, "All is pure joy."
Chapter 51, Terrier Work, shows that IT is a STATE (see commentary). This is the IT refered to in Chapter 31. But, in Chapter 51 it is referred to as THAT. And IT comes as a result of doubt (obliterate yourself).
The Nature of Mind itself is clear. It is awareness full with potentiality. It is likened to the sun because it is radiant awareness, illuminating all things. IT is not "one thing" because "one" is a concept relative to thingness. If we're going to use numbers to describe nonduality, 0=2 better represents the idea of lack of thingness (nonduality) relative to duality (thingness).
To go beyond this point-perspective, sense of self is dissolved into a broader perspective which reveals the knowledge of all things, which are in flux, relative and interdependent. Going beyond point-perspective due to a different interpretation of reality, one does not actually lose all sense of perspective, else there would be no multiplicity of realized beings. But, there are many, each different but with an identical nature underneath the Ego. When the illusion of Ego is discarded, the true nature is revealed. But, it is not sinking into "one" or "Godhead."
There is, in fact, no "one mind" behind it all, no "one mind" experiencing it all. To experience, consciousness experiences in point-perspective, which immediately cuts it off from other perspective. This is why, in various meditative practices, we practice "cutting at the root," or, as soon as differentiation occurs in our minds.
But this sense of radiant sun-like awareness, stripped bare, this "IT STATE" does not experience the entire Universe as his body in the way that "one mind" or "union with Godhead" would suggest, as if the planets are his fingertips and the stars his internal organs, as if simultaneously knowing the whereabouts of Fred in Colorado and Zrilok far off in the opposite corner of a parallel universe. IT is "one mind" as much as water is "one". Nature of Mind has one "quality", which in itself is qualitylessness, essencelessness, invisible awareness, which is what differentiates it from all else, but unites it with whatever it experiences. What differentiates IT is that IT remains relaxed and unattached to foci. IT is space which is found throughout all, whether it be matter, energy or seeming spatial emptiness.
Realization of IT is called a STATE, which should tell us something, just as water is a state of molecules relative to each other in motion through space. Those individual molecules are not water, but they are in the state of water. But, when oxygen and hydrogen mix in the right combination, we have one thing called "water," regardless of where or when we put those molecules together. Similarly, our True Nature is identical to that of the IT, when the obscurations are stripped away and naked awareness is left. Billions of individual beings can be in the same state of mind, but that does not mean they are a one-minded entity, literally speaking.
Everything is interdependent, so of course, it is natural that the material world would eventually connect back to our mental experience. The "subconscious" was a phrase coined to label this unseen gap. We know that in everyday reality, the subconscious simply refers to our deep memory. In terms of karma, we may think of it as a sort of "universal memory" like the Hindu Akasa, or consciousness energy, but the very fact it is a one-word label should give it away as a mistaken idea. Any movement in space is going to affect all the points in space around it, just as dropping a pebble in watter will cause ripples and bubbles. All IS in the mind: the mind magically creates when it experiences point-perspective. Delusion arises like a chain of friends supporting each other; all these little points of consciousness creating a mutual support of relative existence for each other. This is karma or Adjustment.
In the illustration of the mirror, the reflection is likened to the "image-making" energy of the mind. The mind does this endlessly, the way a mirror just reflects. The Nature of Mind rests... and IT moves (see Book of Lies). If a mirror didn't reflect, it wouldn't be a mirror at all. Similarly, the mind reflects, which is what makes it mind. But, the very fact that the mind reflects the projections of otherness-mind shows that point-perception is what makes mind be mind.
At least, in my mind, none of this indicates to me that there is "one mind" beneath this delusion. Not at all, no matter how. If there was "one mind," there would be no experience. Or else, it would be as if an initial mind thought about other beings and in so doing impregnated those other beings with a mind and life of their own. And the beings multiplied infinitely, yet somehow the original mind is the only one that matters because it is the "real mind." This is just Theism. And it is patently silly. How could One create motion? The object of our analysis is a plural, but it is empty everywhere, pregnant with potential since the beginning and throughout.
Note how frequently Crowley used Tibetan Buddhist terms throughout his work and especially Book of Lies where these very Dzogchen-specific ideas are related through his Theory of the Universe. "Guru, chela, om mani padme hum," etc. His description of the wind of the mind is identical to Dzogchen teachings regarding the initial swirlings of Nature of Mind, which wrap around a subtle sense of self and create the Universe as delusion we experience through the illusion of "I."
The mind can be thought of as an infinite luminous sphere: nothing, everything, both and neither and beyond these 4 categorizations. Leaving things simply as they are, there is no need for or room for God. There is only the self-liberating, all-creating power of Mind which itself is self-existing for all time. For more clarification on these ideas, I'd recommend "Flight of the Garuda" by Keith Dowman or this short text: www.dharmamind.net/TM1.htm
-
@Metzareph said
"Last night having dinner with a friend of mine, we discussed things related to God. After the typical premises of "God is everything" and that "God is everywhere" we touched on the nature of "everything" and "everywhere". It seems that the illusion of time and space creates the illusion of distance and the illusion of past-present-future along with the aspects of creation of different things, different places and different times.
Grasping the fact that all is here, right now, including the past, the present and the future was pushing the envelope, but the most interesting thing was coming to the conclusion of the non-existence of God. Basically, God cannot exist, because God is essentially nothing. It does not exist, and by not existing it can be anything and be anywhere.
I felt an incredible relief, like somebody had lifted a heavy weight off my chest. God is more complicated than I was able to understand, but just coming to the realization that we all attribute God our own projections and our own fabrications, made me breathe with confidence. The idea of God "in need" of its own creation to experience everything was very oppressive and depressing, because it implies the idea of co-dependence, not matter how joyful and wonderful and everlasting these cycles of creation and destruction of universes can be, because, yes, we talked about the nature of creating and destroying, big bangs and all those cycles. But somehow, even all this will become routine, and that I refuse to even begin to think of creation becoming boring.
It seems to me that the only purpose of creation is to become nothing and then be perfect that way, because anything that exists is by definition less than what doesn't exist. There is limitation in existence, so for one thing to be perfect, it has to be non-existing.
All those prayers to a non-existing God have now being re-directed to what I think God is like, when God is nothing, or no-thing. God is pure potential and its nature is to stay that way."
I have comed to the same conclusion myself, i perfectly agree with you.
I just have to add that acording to my belief, the purpose of creation is to become nothing as you said, but in the other extremis of nothing, that is infinite. For infinite and 0 are but the same thing, two faces of the same coin, and we are traveling toward the infinite , to unite with God, the Nothing. I really have to think more about it, but the main idea is this. -
@xfilesalbania said
"
I have comed to the same conclusion myself, i perfectly agree with you.
I just have to add that acording to my belief, the purpose of creation is to become nothing as you said, but in the other extremis of nothing, that is infinite. For infinite and 0 are but the same thing, two faces of the same coin, and we are traveling toward the infinite , to unite with God, the Nothing. I really have to think more about it, but the main idea is this."The only problem I have with this sort of thinking is that it glorifies the illusion of God. In the Book of Lies and elswhere, Crowley has repeatedly pointed out that God is an illusion or a delusion just like anything else in relative reality ("they imagine themselves to exist"). It is the not-god which we want to experience in order to understand our own delusion, and our projected God we create ourselves from our relative perspectives. Isn't this part of the key to Liber Al? What about Liber418 the 10th Aether? The Book of Thoth description of the High Priestess? Or the "water of water" description of the Queen of Cups (which not only applies to a personality type, but the condition of water of water itself)?
The wording of "traveling toward the infinite , to unite with God" implies that this is a deliberate set-up from the beginning to evolve, when in fact spiritual transformation goes up or down, not just upward, and always has since beginningless time. Realization does not involve a journey toward the infinite, since it is available here now in the present. Infinite or finite are only concepts. The realization is nonconceptual.
Other similar lines of thought that always stick in my craw are: "God is playing hide-and-seek with himself because it's fun!" or some such crap. We are not aware of our real nature due to the collective clinging and delusion of the essential elements of space, which over enough time produce the illusion of Self. These elements are part of the Nature of Mind which is the real, invisible, Nothing "substance" of awareness. As soon as the "winds" of the Nature of Mind begin to twist around the elusive sense of differentiation, we are on our way to heavier and heavier forms of distinction, separation and conditioning until we get to the point we are totally deluded about the nature of reality, an aggregation of elemental conditioning consumed by dualistic considerations. It is not like "the wise old man created everything and then rolled over and went to sleep" we repeatedly hear from people like Lon Milo DuQuette, etc. This sort of simplistic mythologizing is part of the problem, in my opinion. It creates a real obstacle to learning when everything becomes a personification.
Crowley is talking about escaping God concepts, even escaping the known Universe, which is in a "desert"... in other words, life as we know it is a spiritual desert, empty, harsh and dying:
DUST-DEVILS
In the wind of the mind arises the turbulence called I. It breaks; down shower the barren thoughts. All life is choked. This desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe. The Stars are but thistles in that waste. Yet this desert is but one spot accursed in a world of bliss. Now and again Travellers cross the desert; they come from the Great Sea, and to the Great Sea they go. As they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate the desert, till it flower. See! five footprints of a Camel! V.V.V.V.V.(High Priestess!)
WHEEL AND--WOA!
The Great Wheel of Samsara. The Wheel of the Law [Dhamma]. The Wheel of the Taro. The Wheel of the Heavens. The Wheel of Life. All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of the TARO alone avails thee consciously. Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon this Wheel, revolving it in thy mind Be this thy task, to see how each card springs necessarily from each other card, even in due order from The Fool unto The Ten of Coins. Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny complete, mayst thou perceive THAT Will which moved it first. [There is no first or last.} And lo! thou art past through the Abyss. -
you really make good points, and i agree with you to a certain point.
By the way, i really haven't read yet the book of lies, or the other "liber" series. In fact i don't know much, i just see Crowley as an example to follow and find much inspiration in him.
But you shouldn't have problems when dealing with different points of view. Absolute truth does not exist at all, and the significance of existence, god, etc varies from person to person, none of us is right, but also , none of us is wrong.
Existence and life itself is a paradox, so everything is true and false at the same time. -
Definitely read Book Of Lies. I was flipping through it last night after my posts and there are quite a few chapters about this... in fact, the whole book is about this, I think.
Everything is true and not true, as you say, to a certain extent, but that is only because our magickal essence makes it so. We differentiate with the power of the word and project our essence into that label or container to make it true. So, Gods are beliefs come to life which are conceptual personifications of energy. Who conceptualizes and personifies? If self is an illusion, then these creations are temporal phantoms proceeding from Nothing. The magickal power to create is inherent in the Nothing from whence the idea of Self emanates. As Crowley stated, God does not exist until Tiphareth and Man not until Malkuth. They each are the result of potentialities and tendencies created by that potentiality from the original radiant source, which is always there waiting to be rediscovered. If not, nobody cares. No God is up there waiting for you to wake up or wake him up. In fact, the Universe is designed to kill you, since everything is only temporary. Crowley reverses the typical thinking of "life is a meaningless fight" to "fighting is a good enough reason to live." His aim was to teach worthy people to find their essence and beat death at its own game by seeing it from the other side. This is won by confronting fear and limitation and going beyond it, which includes God.
-
topics like this seem a good waste of breath. No offense, I see where you are coming from, but when you start talking about the negative in the positive....speech just seems to cancel out any progress you are trying to make. Maybe this is why buddha was always silent when students asked him about God. Silence seems the best answer.
-
"Buddha was only silent to certain people. In his lifetime, he taught totally different things. If Crowley was silent, I wouldn't be here now."
Ditto! So sayeth the Bornless-Headless One in the Speechless Speech!
-
93
I say numbers and math is a waste of breath sure to cause a headache but philosophical debate is the foundation of change! Then just to contradict myself in the name of freewill IF 2=0 THEN 3=1 thus the only proof of the existence of God as well as only numerical equation that actually makes sense to me...
-
Very late reply on this one, but going back to one of the basic books of a beginning student, the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, it is quite clear that he warns to fear "God." There's an eternal mystery that no one will ever know. As Abramelin records, it shouldn't even be questioned. Because when one one tries to state vehemenly that there is no "God" (and I don't mean an old man with a white beard -- although I could mean that
) what of Kether? The Qabalah? And the Ain Soph? There's a place where we reach the unknowable in all things. If we're lucky. Is the book of lies a book of lies? (Or isn't it?) -
@Nudor said
"Very late reply on this one, but going back to one of the basic books of a beginning student, the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, it is quite clear that he warns to fear "God.""
Otto's mysterium tremendens et fascinans
"There's an eternal mystery that no one will ever know."
How do you know there is an eternal mystery then? What about all those mystics back in the day who wrote those books?
"As Abramelin records, it shouldn't even be questioned. Because when one one tries to state vehemenly that there is no "God" (and I don't mean an old man with a white beard -- although I could mean that
) what of Kether? The Qabalah? And the Ain Soph?"You ARE aware these are Jewish Kabbalah terms, right? These presuppose a system where there is a God.
The phrase "I am alone, there is no god where I am" refers to the unity that comes in attainment where there cannot BE 'another' or some 'other' like 'god.' You either declare "This is all ME" or "This is all God." At this point, labels don't really matter.
"There's a place where we reach the unknowable in all things. If we're lucky."
I didn't know luck had much to do with it...
"Is the book of lies a book of lies? (Or isn't it?)"
Falsely so-called
IAO131
-
lies fall short of the truth, the truth is silence.
The highest Truth has no expression and no manifestation, thus all words, expressions and manifestation fall short of the TRUTH this they are lies.
Thus what we is the world call truth or reality are lies.
The book of lies, are those expressions which aim at truth, but veer off skew-wise.
The book of lies is number 333 which is Choronzon. The noise which both veils the truth and reveals it by contra-distinction.
A signal can only exist in distinction to noise, yet noise can also drawn the signal.
The Magus creates the signal, the Master hears it clearly. but bellow the abyss, all is garbled with noise.
The book of lies is about filtering out the noise from the signal.
-
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."
What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?
-
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!
-
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!"
Liber Astarte? Liber Cheth?
IAO131
-
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!"
Liber Astarte? Liber Cheth?
IAO131"
Any classic Bhakti Yoga texts that could be suggested? Are there any good translations of the texts that you would recommend?
-
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!"
Liber Astarte? Liber Cheth?
IAO131"
Any classic Bhakti Yoga texts that could be suggested? Are there any good translations of the texts that you would recommend?"
Bhagavad Gita has some good parts on Bhakti. Ramakrishna talks about Bhakti all the time. Rumi is pretty much Bhakti but from the point of Sufism/Arab world. Even Song of Solomon could be considered Bhakti...
IAO131
-
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!"
Liber Astarte? Liber Cheth?
IAO131"
Any classic Bhakti Yoga texts that could be suggested? Are there any good translations of the texts that you would recommend?"
Bhagavad Gita has some good parts on Bhakti. Ramakrishna talks about Bhakti all the time. Rumi is pretty much Bhakti but from the point of Sufism/Arab world. Even Song of Solomon could be considered Bhakti...
IAO131"
Swami Vivekananda wrote a book called "Bhakti Yoga". I haven't read that one, but I've read his books "Raja Yoga" and "Karma Yoga" and found them to be quite good.
-
@bryan said
"
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Aum418 said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Frater Pantha said
"
@Froclown said
"Crowley's method is to fully merge with life, be it pleasure or pain, hedonistic or ascetic, the key is in doing what you repulses or intrigues you, until it no longer does either. The ultimate goal is the same as the Buddhist, release from ego attachments. Perfect control over the repulsions and inclinations of the body and mind, by transcending them via burnout, rather than use it or lose it methods of Buddhism."What Crowley book(s) most focus on this method? What Bhakti Yoga books are suggested that focus on the like method?"
I thought there would actually be a lot of quick responses to this one... I guess I was wrong!"
Liber Astarte? Liber Cheth?
IAO131"
Any classic Bhakti Yoga texts that could be suggested? Are there any good translations of the texts that you would recommend?"
Bhagavad Gita has some good parts on Bhakti. Ramakrishna talks about Bhakti all the time. Rumi is pretty much Bhakti but from the point of Sufism/Arab world. Even Song of Solomon could be considered Bhakti...
IAO131"
Swami Vivekananda wrote a book called "Bhakti Yoga". I haven't read that one, but I've read his books "Raja Yoga" and "Karma Yoga" and found them to be quite good."
Raja Yoga is his best work by far in my opinion.
IAO131