Lucifer7, February 2008
Contents
New on Katinka Hesselink Net
Short Quotes
Early Morning Thoughts II
Meditation and passivity
"Without a Parable Spoke He Not Unto Them"
New on Katinka Hesselink Net
Short Quotes
R. Rose, The Albigen Papers
...the Law of the Ladder. The ladder is here used as a symbol
to show that there should be a selective giving of goods, energy, or
spiritual
help. The Law of the Ladder simply says that you should not reach below
the rung upon which you stand, except to the first rung below you - in
order to help people. If you reach down too low, your efforts will be
wasted,
and you may be hurt. Or crucified.
Free after H.P. Blavatsky, Letters, Volume 1, p. 102
[There are those that] accomplish more than they promise and act more
than they speak.
Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, Chapter IX
Life is all-comprehensive, and has plenty of room for both action and
contemplation.
Neither is holier than the other.
Dutch proverb found online
A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
[If someone can tell me which Dutch proverb this is a
translation of, I would be very grateful. I sure don't recognize it.]
Early Morning Thoughts II
R. L. A., Protogonos, March 1997
A battle has begun for some. It lies not on some distant
shore, but within. The weapons are not of metal, but of emotions,
desires and greed.
The Foe is not of man, but his ego supported by illusion. It
is raging day and night, day after day. The Warrior travels not out,
but within. 'Constantly bombarded by inprints planted throughout his
lifetime in the form of samskaras, blinding the Warrior from his SELF,
from that which we all are.
But fear not noble Warrior, your plight is not a lonely one.
Your allies lie just beyond the veil of deception. There you will find
your Strength, your Love and your Light.
Every moment Maya, like a seductive woman, temps you with her
fruits.
But have caution for her fruits are like chains that bind you from the
SELF.
Taste not this fruit noble warrior, for thou will fall victim to her
illusions.
She bares beauty, passion, and she feeds the ego. She builds a
fortress around the mind, holding you back from your True Self. But
caution noble
warrior, have not pride in your Quest, for this too is your foe.
Humility is your sword, kindness your shield, and discipline
your strength. These are all the weapons you will need.
Meditation and passivity
Buddhist Meditation, Samdhong Rinpoche, p. 57
It is dangerous to put the mind into a state of dullness. Some
people think that if they immerse themselves in an object and slide
into a sort of doze, that is meditation, and because their mind is no
longer scattered they think that they have stabilized it. But one does
not stabilize one's mind by letting it get absorbed in this manner; on
the contrary, it is the wrong approach to meditation because clarity
and attentiveness of mind are lost in this practice. Sometimes, by
sinking into this sort of drowsiness, after a period, people may
achieve a kind of peacefulness or a pleasurable feeling of physical and
mental well-being and relaxation. And if this state is maintained for a
longer period, the breathing may even stop for some time and they may
even think that they have reached the state of samadhi, but that is not
so. If people are in such a doze that the attentiveness, alertness,
active participation and clarity of mind are lost, concentration has no
meaning or value. Moreover, the positive qualities of mind will be lost
and it will become forgetful, inactive and lazy. We must, therefore,
take every precaution, right from the beginning [of
meditation-practice], that concentration on the object is accompanied
by attentiveness, alertness, clarity, and the active force of a
participating mind. When it is left unguarded, the mind behaves like a
monkey. It never rests on one point, but constantly moves hither and
thither. When the mind is steadied by concentration on one object this
activity begins to subside. It is important that the energy of the mind
should be channeled and directed to one object. During the process of
concentration the mind should not be lost or scattered but watched to
see that it does not move in different directions.
"Without a Parable Spoke He Not Unto Them"
Mathew xiii. 34.
Preachers have fallen into the habit of treating the Parables
of Jesus
as literal historic narratives, those timed in the future being
interpreted
as prophetic descriptions of what will actually occur. The cumulative
effect
is to build up a conception of unreality about life which is fatal to
the
impressive character of the lessons to be taught. Many will say this is
all
nonsense, that everybody knows they are parables, and cannot make any
mistake.
But usually this is just where a very serious mistake is made, for they
are
applied to the outside world objectively, and not recognized as
Parables
of the Kingdom which is within us and subjective. I have heard hundreds
of
sermons in the last eighty years and am still hearing them on the radio
in
which the appeal is entirely objective without any attempt to indicate
the
subjective nature of the field of consciousness in which all real
religion
has its foundation. Children are very rarely instructed on this matter,
and
I have vivid recollections of sermons on the Parable of the Last
Judgment
when, as a child, I was on one occasion, so impressed with the
elaborate
detail and expansion of the spectacle that as far as I was concerned
our
eternal destiny was settled then and there. I was quite resigned being
a
Goat as I did not like the people who believed themselves to be Sheep.
It
was years before I began to understand that such preaching was all
illusion,
fabulous, or as we say today, Maya. The whole thing is in minds, the
Goat
temperament, the Sheep character, with all the habits, vices and
virtues,
growing together, under the judgment of the Master in our hearts,
impartially
deciding, as our will determines, what the desires we have cherished
will
produce. The Prodigal Son is in each one of us, and both the Elder
Brother
and the Fatted Calf, as well as the loving Father whom we scarcely ever
fully
recognize. We pray to our Father in Heaven, but he is nearer
than the
firmament. The man who had not on a wedding garment may be oneself in a
business
suit. The five foolish virgins are all within us, and the wise ones
too,
but we must elect which company we are going to keep if we expect to be
at
the marriage feast of the Son. The Priest and the Levite are going
strong
in us, especially when our help is needed, but the Good Samaritan is in
us
too, even if he be a bit slow sometimes in getting to the spot. These
familiar
stories are confined to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. St. John
substitutes
Miracles for the Parables and with the same intension of conveying
spiritual
truth in the only way that things spiritual can be given meaning in
earthly
terms; pictorially, or by example, dynamically. St. Paul,
ever practical,
treats the Old Testament as allegory, and in this way it becomes a
golden
lexicon by which the hidden things of the Eternal may be translated
into
the language of time.
Previous
issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of
Lucifer7
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