Suffering

I've been focusing a lot lately on William Law and Jacob Boehme (if didn't notice).  Their respective philosophy's are quite similar, almost mirror images if you ask me.  Law came along and interpreted a lot of the German Boehme's writings.  They aren't the easiest esoteric writings to interpret that you'll come across.  For most that come across them they will be viewed exoterically or from the surface and brushed off as just more religious fanatacism.  The majority of people, esotericsts included, see anything Christian and automatically head for the hills.  A year ago I wouldn't have considered reading this type of material.  Six months ago I doubt I could have seen through the allegory despite my new found openness to Christianity.

Jacob Boehme and William Law's teachings are the absolute best I have come across.  Or should I say that they are the best for me in my current state.  Occultism gave me the foundation I needed, but this type of Christian Mysticism is the teaching that will propel you forward.  It breaks the process of enlightenment down to as base a state as possible.  There is no seeking when you are trying to find the center sphere where one could become enlightened.  As they say it is dying to the self that is required, nothing more and nothing less.  They interpret scripture to give the seeker a foundation as to how scripture details this whole process, how we came to be in our current state and how we are able to escape.

How does one go about dying to their self?  First what must be realized is that we are all living in sin, we were born into sin and we are living in sin.  When Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good evil she disobeyed God and thus fell into a world based on duality.  God had forbid the eating of the tree for our own sake.  We were to live our lives in a plant like existence, never detached from divinity.  Lucifer came along and told Eve that she would become like God if she ate of the Tree.  What he didn't tell her was that she would fall down into hell where she would die and be separated from God.  The seed was cut off from God and was forced to live in the world of beasts.  We see this world as normal but if we looked at it from the spiritual worlds, from God's throne, we would see ourselves as beasts.

We now live through our own will.  We have free choice to do as we please.  Because we do not live through God's will we live in sin.  If we want to escape this hell then we must fall back into line with God's will.  The way to do this is through learning from the two poles.  When we observe and experiment constantly switching poles seeing what works and what doesn't, we are climbing the ladder back to our throne.  God is not evil.  The only way back to our natural domain is to see the difference between good and evil and eventually find a balance between the two.  Someone who is afraid to face evil is going to become too attached to this world and being that this world is not natural to us then that is not a good thing.  Someone who is constantly immersed in evil is opposite to God.  God is light, he is not darkness.

God or enlightenment, our natural home is stillness.  It is the center where all is balanced.  This is what we are all seeking either consciously or subconsciously.  Most are not at a stage where they can consciously make the effort to reach the center sphere.  This as the mystics will tell you is the hardest thing anyone in life could endeavor upon.

Shifting poles and working your way up the ladder is a painful task.  To this means much trial and error.  It means constant change.  This change brings about pain and suffering.  We have all built up many bad habits.  We don't like to suffer so at any chance when there is a stillness, when we are in our own mind, we seek to fill it with some activity so we don't have to face the pain.  This silence is the way to alleviate the pain, but first we must face it.  One will see no purpose to suffering, there is no goal that the suffering will bring him to so he will choose not to suffer.  TV and video games and drinking at the bar quells any disturbances within.  To truly walk the path one must be fluid, in mind and body.  We must always keep going, we can never stop or we'll start going back to where we were.  One can't just get to a certain spot and say I'm happy that I've gone this far.  As in the matrix you can either take the red or the blue pill, but once you make the decision to let go and walk the path, the door is shut behind you.

I myself didn't quite know what I was getting involved in.  There was a point I came to where I knew I could not continue down the path that I was going down, getting drunk with buddies at any opportunity that arose.  I'm obsessive about most things, all or nothing.  I was a pothead and essentially an alcoholic.  The flip side of it is that when I started finding my way into conspiracies, then on into spirituality, psychology, religion, etc. I became obsessed with this stuff.  I dedicated my life to it.  Along the way I had a major fall where I got a DUI not too long ago and I made myself stop drinking that moment.  I've also now been forced to stop smoking pot.  These events are pushing me closer and closer to my ultimate goal, where when I was drinking and smoking still I was still holding on to my old world. 

Before when I was having a down moment I would just smoke a little pot and wala I'm seeing vistas and feel connected to everything, my suffering (or potential suffering) was turned into an ecstatic high.  Now I have nothing there to comfort me and that is how I want it.  It's hard to let go and face the pain, but deep down this is what I want.  The goal I have means everything to me and I'm not going to stop until it is fulfilled.  A great example is that I'm taking piano lessons.  There is a recital in February that my teacher asked me to participate in.  I told him I would think about it.  The truth is that I'm deathly afraid of being on stage in front of crowds.  I told him that I am all about conquering my fears so I would like to do it.  But then in the back of my head I knew I would bitch out and take the easy road out.  Now at this point, I know that I must suffer and go through with this.  If I am ever going to achieve the ultimate goal then surely will have to not have problems with doing something as simple as playing a piano in front of people.  What am I afraid of?  A bunch of parents and kids who might witness me fuck up playing piano?  I mean that is ridiculous that I have conquered so many fears that I never thought I could, yet I fear playing the piano in front of people.

Suffering is a beautiful thing.  It makes you that much stronger.  It releases that energy that you have been repressing that is holding you down.   How much pain and suffering are you willing to withstand?  When someone attacks you can you be nice back to them?  It takes a lot to do that. 

So we must find the still quietness inside.  If one was to look at it from the occult side of things they would say I have a desire body (hell) and a vital/soul body (heaven).  The desire body (devil/man's will) now rules over humanity.  The vital body (god/god's will) must overcome the desire body.  Notice I said the desire body was equivalent to man's will and thus man cannot simply will himself to find balance.  Man willing himself would create motion and motion is opposite to balance or our natural state.  This is why we must simply die to ourselves through suffering in the stillness.  If you desire to to fall into line with God's will, your subconscious, the divine half of you will bring it into manifestation.  But you must also stand in the fire and fight to maintain your balance in the center.  It was either Boehme or Law who said that eventually the inner light or sun will come and overtake the darkness, essentially filling it with light and extinguishing the dark as a candle does to a dark room.

It's funny how I thought life would start to get so much easier.  I thought life would be great, I would start gaining some occult powers, the energy inside would start building up, I'd find myself in altered states of consciousness.  Yet here I am some of these things have happened and they don't mean much to me.  They are effects, for some reason after all I've learned I cared about effects.  It was nice to see changes taking place within and their requisite external changes but you have to keep it moving.  After a while it's like the hot water in your shower, eventually it starts to feel cold.

There are going to be just as many lows on the path as there are highs.   Naively I could not see this.  I let my energy go along for the ride on the upswing.  I left the ground, had my head in the clouds and didn't come back down until I slammed into the concrete at 100mph.  One must control his energy.  Keep it in the center.  The tides will naturally change, this is the law of rhythmic change.  You simply don't have to go along for the ride.  Keep stable in times of highs and lows.  When you are low keep your faith.  If you can't keep your faith when times are low then all of your work is for nothing.  Don't be afraid to suffer, this is how you evolve.  This is how you get your energy to vibrate at the correct frequency.  Do not go along for the ecstatic ride when you are on the high end of the cycle.  Keep your feet on the ground.  Watch your pride.

It's funny how I started to think I knew it all because I knew occultism and knew how to use energy a little bit.  This is a dangerous game and anyone who comes into it like I did without a teacher helping them along better stay grounded and go slow.  There is a lot more going on around us and within us than you we comprehend.  If one isn't grounded in reality then he will eventually find himself grounded.  The grounding I got was the best thing that could happen to me in regards to the path.  It was forced suffering.  It changed my viewpoint real fast, but it cost me in the short term.  Short term means nothing.  The short term is a little thimble in the grand scheme of things.  On the path we must take baby steps but we must concern ourselves with the big picture.  You do what you do because of a goal you have that can only be reached in the long term.  Patience is key.  If you're willing to work for years with no return and still keep going that is true faith and you will be rewarded it seems to me.

William Law - Grounds and Reasons For Christian Regeneration

Highlights:

[Reg-19] How many Inventions are some People forced to have recourse to, to keep off a certain inward Uneasiness, which they are afraid of, and know not whence it comes? Alas, it is because there is a fallen Spirit, a dark aching Fire within them, which has never had its proper Relief, and is trying to discover itself, and calling out for Help, at every Cessation of worldly Joy.

[Reg-20] Why are some People, when under heavy Disappointments, or some great worldly Shame, at the very Brink of Distraction, unable to bear themselves, and desirous of Death of any kind? ‘Tis because worldly Light and Comforts, no longer acting sweetly upon the Blood, the Soul is left to its own dark, fiery raging Nature, and would destroy the Body at any rate, rather than continue under such a Sensibility of its own wrathful, self-tormenting Fire.

[Reg-21] Who has not at one time or other felt a Sourness, Wrath, Selfishness, Envy, and Pride, which he could not tell what to do with, or how to bear, rising up in him without his Consent, casting a Blackness over all his Thoughts, and then as suddenly going off again, either by the Cheerfulness of the Sun, or Air, or some agreeable Accident, and again, at times, as suddenly returning upon him? Sufficient Indications are these to every Man, that there is a dark Guest within him, concealed under the Cover of Flesh and Blood, often lulled asleep by worldly Light and Amusements, yet such as will, in spite of everything, show itself, which if it has not its proper Relief in this Life, must be his Torment in Eternity. And it was for the sake of this hidden Hell within us, that our Blessed Lord said when on Earth, and says now to every Soul, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest."


[Reg-34] (15.) To proceed: That I have not stated Man’s first Dignity too high, is evidently plain from the Scripture Account of it. It is a fundamental Truth of our Religion, that he was created in Paradise for a Life suitable to it. But Paradise is a Divine Habitation, still existing where it was at the first, though not visible to Eyes which see only by the Light of the Sun, and is the Habitation of such as have attained their first paradisiacal Nature; it was in this Paradise, that our Saviour, through a Miracle of Love, promised to be with the Thief on the Cross.

[Reg-35] It is also a fundamental Truth of Scripture, that Man was created to be immortal, incapable of Death, and of everything that had any Likeness to it, so long as he continued in the Perfection of his State. That it was Sin alone which brought Sorrow, Pain, Evil, Distress, Sickness and Death upon him.

[Reg-36] But if this be a Truth that cannot be denied, then it must be equally true, that before he sinned, he must have stood in such a Paradise, as kept everything in the outward World entirely under him, so that neither Fire nor Water, nor any other Element, could have the least Power over him. But if Fire, the fiercest of the Elements, had not the least Power of touching his Body in any hurtful Manner, or of causing any Pain to it; then it must be granted, that Paradise covered, and governed the Power of all the Elements of this outward World; that Man lived in it as an absolute Lord over it; and therefore it undeniably follows that the Manner, in which he now is under the Power of the Elements, capable of receiving Pain and Evil from them, is a State that he was not in, till Sin took Paradise from him, and left him in the same poor Condition, that we now are in, capable of receiving Pain and Death, from almost everything that is about us.

[Reg-37] That Man in Paradise lived in this World insensible, and also incapable of any Evil from it, superior to all its Elements, is plain from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

[Reg-38] For how could it be more plainly told us, that outward Things, the Stars and Elements could not affect his State, or make any Impression upon him, than by telling us, that he had no Knowledge of Good and Evil in this World, till he had eaten of that Tree? Is not this directly telling us, that before such eating, he was above the Nature of this World, that it had not Power to operate upon him, or give him any Sense or Feeling, of what there was of Good or Evil in it.

[Reg-39] Now that he was created to be, and to continue thus a Lord over all temporal Nature, superior to all the Influences and Effects of the Stars and Elements, is also plain from the Prohibition given him, not to eat of this Tree of Knowledge.

[Reg-40] But he was not content with this happy Superiority above the Evil and Good of outward Nature. His Imagination, helped on by the Devil, longed to look into, to know and feel the secret working Powers of that outward Nature, which it was his Happiness, and Paradise to be insensible of.

[Reg-41] When God forbade his eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it was the same thing as if he had said, Fall not into the outward World, under the Dominion of its Stars and Elements, but keep thy State in Paradise.

[Reg-42] When Man disobeyed God, and took the Fruit of the Tree into his Body, which brought the Nature and Power of the Stars and Elements into it; this is not to be considered, as that single Act of Eating, but it signifies as much as if he had said; By eating this Fruit, I desire to come within the Influences of the Stars and Elements, and to be made sensible, and feeling of the Good and Evil that is in them.

[Reg-43] Therefore, small as the Action seems to be at the first View, and of a very limited Nature, it was his refusing to be that, which God created him to be; it was his express, open, voluntary Act and Deed, by which he chose to fall into this outward World, in the Manner we now are in it.

[Reg-44] Therefore it was not the mere eating of a Fruit, that brought Adam's Misery upon him, but it was the eating a Fruit, as his chosen Means of entering into this World.

[Reg-45] God himself was not angry at all, or at a small Act of eating a Fruit, and so in Anger turned Man out of Paradise, into a World cursed for that Sin. But Man freely and voluntarily chose, against the Will, and Command of God, to be in the World in its cursed State, unblessed by Paradise; For he chose to enter into a Sensibility and Feeling of its Good and Evil, which is directly choosing to be, where Paradise is not; for nothing that is in Paradise, can be touched, or hurt by anything of the outward World. Therefore the first State of Man was a State of such Glory, and heavenly Prerogatives, as I have above related; and his Fall, was a Fall into, or under the Power of this outward World.

[Reg-46] (16.) If it be also further asked, What sufficient Proof there is, first, that the Likeness and Image of God, in which Man was created, signified thus much, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each brought forth their own Nature in him, and in him saw themselves in a creaturely manner? And then, secondly, that by the first Sin, this Birth of the Son of God, and Proceeding of the Holy Ghost was extinguished and lost in the Soul of Man? It may be answered, that these great Truths stand attested by undeniable Evidence of Scripture.

[Reg-47] First, from the Means and Manner of our Redemption. For there is nothing that can so fully, and justly show us the true Nature of our Fall, as the Nature and Manner of our Redemption. And it seems highly suitable to the Wisdom of God to let the first, be but in part discovered, till the latter showed and proved itself in an undeniable Manner. And this, no doubt, is the Reason why Moses is suffered to write no more of the Nature of the Fall of Man, or what it implied, than he has done. Because the Time for a plain Insight into that Matter, was not then come, and it was to lie as much a Secret, as to the true Nature of it, as the Nature and Manner of our Redemption then did; which was then only obscurely declared, by an Enmity between the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent.

[Reg-48] But when the Seed of the Woman showed itself to be the Son of God, the Second Person of the holy Trinity, united to our human Nature; then the Nature of our Fall, and what we fell from, and what was the Seed of the Serpent in us, manifested themselves in the same Degree of Certainty. And therefore it is very unreasonable to hold, that we ought to say no more of our first State before the Fall, of its Dignity and Perfection, and what was lost by the Fall, than what is openly and expressly declared by Moses. For as it seemed Good to the Divine Wisdom to conceal the Mystery of our Redemption and Salvation for many Ages, and to let Moses only discover it under a Declaration of a Serpent-destroyer; so there was a Fitness, and even Necessity, that the Nature and Degree of our Fall should be kept in the same Degree of Secrecy, then only to be discovered with a sufficient Degree of Plainness and Certainty, when our Redemption and Salvation came plainly to be laid open. The Religion of the Jews was suited to that State of Things and Times in which they lived; neither the Mysteries of the Creation, nor Redemption, were then discovered; Things past, and Things to come, had then only their Figures, Shadows, and Types.

[Reg-49] But when the Son of God became incarnate, and showed forth in the plainest Manner, the Nature, Manner, and Necessity of our Redemption through his Blood, and a Life received from him, then the Nature and Degree of our Fall became equally plain and manifest; and everything that he has told us of the Nature and Necessity of a new or second Birth from him, was so much told us of our first Birth in Paradise.

[Reg-50] For the Nature and Greatness of our Redemption, must show the Nature and Greatness of our Fall. These Things have such a necessary Correspondence, as cannot be denied, but by a Mind utterly indisposed to receive Conviction.

[Reg-51] If our Redemption proposed to restore to us a Divine Sight, would not this be a sufficient Proof, that by the Fall we had lost some Divine Manner of seeing? So, if God himself takes our Nature upon him to redeem us, and it be declared that nothing, but this uniting the Divine Nature to the Human, can be our Redemption, can we want a Proof, that the Divine Nature existed in some manner in us, before the Fall?

[Reg-52] Now it is a plain, manifest Doctrine of the holy Scriptures, that Man by the Fall is in such a Condition, that there was no help or Remedy for him, either in the Height above, or in the Depth below, but by the Son of God's becoming incarnate, taking the fallen Nature upon him. If this alone could be the Remedy, does not this enough show us the Disease? Does not this speak plainly enough, what it was that Man had lost by his Fall, namely, the Birth of the Son of God in his Soul; and therefore it was, that only the Son of God in so mysterious a manner, could be his Redeemer?

[Reg-53] If he had lost less, a less Power could have redeemed him. If he had lost something else, the Restoration of that something, would have been his Redemption.

[Reg-54] But since it is an open, undeniable Doctrine of the Gospel, that there can be no Salvation for Mankind but in the Name, and by the Power of the Son of God, by his being united to the fallen Nature, and so raising his own Birth and Life in it, is it not sufficiently declared to us, that what was lost by the Fall, was the Birth of the Son of God in the Soul?

[Reg-55] Secondly, this same Doctrine is not left to be drawn from any Consequences of Things, but is in express Words taught us, when it is said, that we must be born again from above, born of God; for this is expressly telling us what Birth we have lost, and is only saying, that the first Birth is to be restored, or that the Divine Birth is to arise, or to be brought again into us, as at the first, when the living Image of the Holy Trinity was brought forth in us.

[Reg-56] What this new regained Birth is, we are plainly told by St. Peter, that is a being born again of an incorruptible Seed by the Word, that is, the eternal Word, or Son of God. Which Divine Word being only in the Soul as a Seed, is to restore by Degrees the first Birth of the Word, or Son of God in the Soul. Which is Proof enough that this was the State of the Soul in its Creation, that this Birth was then in it, and so was an Image of the Holy Trinity; and that the Death which Adam died in the Day that he sinned, was the losing this holy Birth from his Soul. And on this Account it was, that nothing could restore him, but that which was able to restore this Birth again to his Soul, and make it again such an Image of God, as that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, might therein see themselves again in a creaturely Manner, and dwell in it, and it in them.

[Reg-57] Thirdly, the Holy Ghost is in the Scriptures declared to be the Sanctifier, or Renewer of Holiness in the Soul, and this in such a manner, that all the Motions and Operations of the Soul, so far as they are without it, and unmoved by it, are so far unholy, and unable even for a good Thought.

[Reg-58] Now how could our Thoughts or Operations be unholy in themselves, and want the Sanctification and Renewing of the Holy Ghost, unless this Holy Spirit had first existed in us, and by our Fall had been separated from us?

[Reg-59] Had not the Birth of the Holy Ghost arisen in us at our Creation, we could no more be unholy for want of it, than the Beasts are, nor any more now have wanted to be renewed by it, than the Beasts that never had it. But since there is now no Sanctification or Redemption for us, but by having the Holy Ghost as a free Gift of God breathed again into us, it is no less than a Demonstration, that we had before we fell, this Holiness by the Nature which God gave us at first; and that the Holiness of our Creation consisted in this, that the Holy Spirit then proceeded, or arose forth in our Soul, as the Birth of the Son of God did; and that it might for the same Reason be then called the Holiness of our Nature, as it is now after the Fall, called a Holiness by Gift or Grace. For if we are now to be born again of the Spirit by Grace, does not this tell us, that we had this Birth of the Spirit in us at the first, and that then it was the Birth of our Nature by Creation?

[Reg-60] Fourthly, these same great Truths are evidently signified to us in the fullest Manner by our Baptism, and the Form of it. Our Baptism is to signify our seeking and obtaining a new Birth. And our being baptized in, or into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, tells us in the plainest manner, what Birth it is that we seek, namely, such a new Birth as may make us again what we were at first, a living real Image or Offspring of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

[Reg-61] Is it not owned on all hands, that we are baptized into a Renovation of some Divine Birth that we had lost? And, that we may not be at a loss to know what that Divine Birth is, the Form in Baptism openly declares to us, that it is to regain that first Birth of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in our Souls, which at the first made us to be truly and really Images of the Nature of the Holy Trinity in Unity. The Form in Baptism is but very imperfectly apprehended, till it is understood to have this great Meaning in it. And it must be owned, that the Scriptures tend wholly to guide us to this understanding of it. For since they teach us, a Birth of God, a Birth of the Spirit, that we must obtain, and that Baptism, the appointed Sacrament of this New Birth, is to be done into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can there be any doubt, that this Sacrament is to signify the Renovation of the Birth of the Holy Trinity in our Souls? And that therefore this was the holy Image born or created at first, when God said, "Let us make Man in our Image, after our own Likeness," that is, so make him, that we may see ourselves, our own Nature in him, in a creaturely Manner.

[Reg-62] What an harmonious Agreement does there thus appear, between our Creation and Redemption? and how finely, how surprisingly do our first and our second Birth answer to, and illustrate one another?

[Reg-63] At our first Birth it is said thus, "Let us make Man in our Image, after our own Likeness", when the Divine Birth was lost, and Man was to receive it again, it is said, "Be thou baptized into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost": which is saying, Let the Divine Birth, be brought forth again in thee, or be thou born again such an Image of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as thou wast at first.

[Reg-64] These Considerations all taken from the plain Words, and acknowledged Doctrines of Scripture, do, I think, sufficiently declare and prove to us, these great Truths of the last Importance, namely, that the Image in which Man was created, was such, as in which, the Holy Trinity saw itself, or its own Nature in a creaturely Manner, in which the Father's Nature generated the Nature of the Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeded from them both, as the amiable moving Life of both.

[Reg-65] That by Adam's Sin, this holy Image of the Holy Trinity was broken, and in such a Manner, that the Birth of the Son of God, and of the Holy Spirit, was no more in it, and that therefore in a stupendous Mystery of Love, the Son of God united himself to our fallen Nature, to recover, and restore to it, all that it had lost, and in such a Manner, that it might never be lost again to all Eternity.

[Reg-66] As soon as it is observed and known, that our Fall consisted in the losing of the Birth of the Son of God in our Soul, and consequently the proceeding forth of the Holy Spirit in it, there appears a surprising Agreeableness and Fitness, in the Means of our Redemption, namely, that we could only be saved by the eternal Son of God; that he only could save us, by taking our Nature upon him, and so uniting it with him, that his Life, or Birth might again arise in us, as at the first, and so we become again a perfect living Image of the Holy Trinity.

[Reg-67] (17.) Now the Reason why I have gone thus far in inquiring into the Dignity of Man’s original State, and searched thus deep into his lamentable Fall, is this, to point out to the Reader the true Nature of the Christian Religion, and the infinite Importance of it; which Religion is administered by God, as our only Relief from our sad Condition; and that he may at one View see the Height and Depth of Divine Love, which has had so great Care of Mankind.



[Reg-71] (18.) The Condition in which I have represented our Soul to be by the Fall, a mere dark Fire-breath, of an hellish Nature, showing itself in every Man more or less by its Fruits, by such Eruptions and Breakings forth of dark Passions, but hiding itself under an outward Appearance of Good, and a feigned Civility or Rectitude of Manners, is what every Man must be forced to own to be more or less in himself.

[Reg-72] For this is the State of every Man’s Soul, because it has lost the Birth of the Son of God in it, and so is only as a strong Root of a fiery Life, unenlightened, and unblessed by that holy Word, which is the Brightness of the Father’s Glory.

[Reg-73] This dark Root of a fiery, self-tormenting Life, which is the whole Nature of the fallen Soul, destitute of the Birth of the Son of God in it, is a Life that subsists in four Elements, as the Life of this World hath its four Elements.

[Reg-74] Now the four Elements of this dark, fiery Soul, or fallen Nature, are, (1.) A restless Selfishness; (2.) A restless Envy; (3.) A restless Pride; and, (4.) A restless Wrath or Anger. I call them the Elements of the fallen Soul, because they are that to it, which the four Elements of this World are to the Life of the Body.

[Reg-75] Now these four Elements which nourish and keep up the Life of the fallen Soul, are also the four Elements of Hell, in which the Devils dwell; they can no more depart from, or exist out of these Elements, than an earthly Life can depart from, or exist without the four Elements of this World, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

[Reg-76] Now, as the Soul, by the losing of the Birth of the Son of God in it, is become an aching dark Root of Fire, that has this restless Selfishness, restless Envy, restless Pride, and restless Wrath in it, which are the four Elements of Hell; so by its being in these, or having them in it, it is come to pass, that evil Spirits have such Communion with it, and so great Power over it.

[Reg-77] Every stirring of the Soul in the Element of Pride, is a moving in the Devil’s Element, where he is, and has Power to join and act with it; every Motion in the Element of Envy or Wrath, is so far empowering him to enter into the Breath of our Life, and settle his fiery Kingdom in us.

[Reg-78] And thus in every one of these four Elements, so far as we willingly are in their Sphere of Activity, and act and stir according to them, so far we become Members of the Devil’s Kingdom, and have him for our Leader, and Guide. How watchful therefore ought we to be of our Hearts, how fearful of consenting to, or not enough resisting every Motion of these Elements within us, since every voluntary yielding to them, is opening the Kingdom of Darkness in our Souls, and giving the Devil Power to infuse his wretched Nature into us. And we have still further Reason for this Fear and Watchfulness, if it be considered, that as no one of the Elements of this outward World could be, or subsist, if the other three were not, because they are the mutual Cause of one another; so it is in these other Elements, if we live in one, we live in all; Selfishness cannot be, or subsist without Envy, nor Pride without Wrath and Selfishness, nor any one of the four, without carrying the other three in its Bosom; therefore we must have the same Fear of any one, as of them all, for the Name of every one is Legion.



[Reg-91] The Reason why we know so little of Jesus Christ, as our Saviour, Atonement, and Justification, why we are so destitute of that Faith in him, which alone can change, rectify, and redeem our Souls, why we live starving in the Coldness and Deadness of a formal, historical, hearsay-Religion, is this; we are Strangers to our own inward Misery and Wants, we know not that we lie in the Jaws of Death and Hell; we keep all things quiet within us, partly by outward Forms, and Modes of Religion and Morality, and partly by the Comforts, Cares and Delights of this World. Hence it is that we consent to receive a Saviour, as we consent to admit of the Four Gospels, because only Four are received by the Church. We believe in a Saviour, not because we feel an absolute want of one, but because we have been told there is one, and that it would be a Rebellion against God to reject him. We believe in Christ as our Atonement, just as we believe, that he cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalene, and so are no more helped, delivered, and justified by believing that he is our Atonement, than by believing that he cured Mary Magdalene.

[Reg-92] True Faith, is a coming to Jesus Christ to be saved, and delivered from a sinful Nature, as the Canaanitish Woman came to him, and would not be denied. It is a Faith of Love, a Faith of Hunger, a Faith of Thirst, a Faith of Certainty and firm Assurance, that in Love and Longing, and Hunger, and Thirst, and full Assurance, will lay hold on Christ, as its loving, assured, certain and infallible Saviour and Atonement.

[Reg-93] It is this Faith, that breaks off all the Bars and Chains of Death and Hell in the Soul; it is to this Faith, that Christ always says, what he said in the Gospel, "Thy Faith hath saved thee, thy Sins are forgiven thee; go in Peace." Nothing can be denied to this Faith; all things are possible to it; and he that thus seeks Christ, must find him to be his Salvation.

[Reg-94] On the other hand, all things will be dull and heavy, difficult and impossible to us, we shall toil all the Night and take nothing, we shall be tired with resisting Temptations, grow old and stiff in our Sins and Infirmities, if we do not with a strong, full, loving, and joyful Assurance, seek and come to Christ for every Kind, and Degree of Strength, Salvation and Redemption. We must come unto Christ, as the Blind, the Sick, and the Leprous came to him, expecting all from him, and nothing from themselves. When we have this Faith, then it is, that Christ can do all his mighty Works in us.

[Reg-95] (21.) From the foregoing Account anyone may be supposed already to see the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration, or the New Birth. It is as necessary as our Salvation. By our Fall, our Soul has lost the Birth of the Son of God in it; by this Loss it is become a dark, wrathful, self-tormenting Root of Fire, shut up in the four hellish Elements of Selfishness, Envy, Pride, and Wrath; considered as a fallen Soul, it cannot stir one Step, or exert one Motion but in, and according to these Elements; therefore it is as necessary to have this Nature itself changed, and to be born again from above, as it is necessary to be delivered from Hell, and eternal Death.

[Reg-96] For these Elements are Hell, and eternal Death itself, and not without, or standing at a distance from us, but Hell and Death springing up in the Forms, and Essences of our fallen Nature; they are the Serpent that is in us, and constitute that gnawing Worm which never dieth; for they mutually beget, and mutually torment each other, and so constitute a Worm, or worming Pain, that never dieth.

[Reg-97] Now as this Hell, Serpent, Worm, and Death, are all within us, rising up in the Forms and Essences of our fallen Soul; so our Redeemer, or Regenerator, whatever it be, must be also equally within us, and spring up from as great a Depth in our Nature. Now the Scripture sufficiently tells us, that it is only the promised Seed of the Woman, the eternal Word, or Son of God made Man, that can bruise this Head, or kill this Life of the Serpent in us; therefore this Seed of the Woman must have its Dwelling in the Ground and Essence of our Nature, because the Serpent is there, that a new Life or a new Nature may arise from this Seed within us; and therefore it is plain, that Regeneration, or the New Birth, is, and can be no other thing, but the recovering of the Birth of the Son of God in the fallen Soul.

[Reg-98] And this is what the Scripture means by the Necessity of our being born of God, born again from above, born of the Spirit. Hence also we see in the clearest Light, the Meaning of all those Passages of Scripture, where we are said to be in Christ, that Christ is in us;—that he must put on Christ;—that he must be formed in us;—that he is our Life;—that we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood;—that he is our Atonement, that his Blood alone cleanseth us from all our Sins; that we have Life from him, as the Branches have Life from the Vine;—that he is our Justification, or Righteousness; that in him we are created again to good Works; that without him we can do nothing, and have no Life in us: All these, I say, and the like Sayings of Scripture, have a wonderful Congruity and Plainness in them, and fill the Mind with the most excellent and solid Truths, as soon as it is known, that Regeneration is absolutely necessary, and that this Regeneration signifies, the recovering of the Birth of the Son of God in the Soul.

[Reg-99] (22.) And as it does this Justice to so great and concerning a Part of Scripture, so it sets the whole Scheme of the Christian Salvation in the most agreeable and engaging Light, and such as is enough even to compel everyone, to embrace it with the utmost Earnestness. The Mystery of this Salvation is still preserved, and yet hereby so unfolded, that every Man has as much Reason to desire to be born again, and to believe that the Son of God can only bring forth this Birth in him, as to believe that God made him, and can alone make him happy.

[Reg-100] A Mediator, an Atonement, Regenerator, thus understood, must be as agreeable and desirable to every human Mind, and as much according to his own Wishes, as to be delivered from the Uneasiness and Disquiets of a Nature, which he finds himself not Master of, nor able to fix it in a State of better Enjoyment.

[Reg-101] What is it that any thoughtful, serious Man could wish for, but to have a new Heart, and a new Spirit, free from the hellish, self-tormenting Elements of Selfishness, Envy, Pride, and Wrath? His own Experience has shown him, that nothing human can do this for him; can take away the Root of Evil that is in him; and it is so natural to him to think, that God alone can do it, that he has often been tempted to accuse God, for suffering it to be so with him.

[Reg-102] Therefore to have the Son of God come from Heaven to redeem him by a Birth of his own Divine Nature in him, must be a way of Salvation, highly suited to his own Sense, Wants and Experience; because he finds, that his Evil lies deep in the very Essence and Forms of his Nature, and therefore can only be removed by the arising of a New Birth, or Life in the first Essences of it.

[Reg-103] Therefore an inward Saviour, a Saviour, that is God himself, raising his own Divine Birth in the fallen Soul, has such an Agreeableness and Fitness in it, to do for him all that he wants, as must make every sober Man, with open Arms, ready and willing to receive such a Salvation.

Jacob Boehme - Regeneration of Man

Like I said yesterday, I am pretty ecstatic to have found a bunch of writings by Jacob Boehme, the 15th century mystic.  The guy worked in a shoe shop and in his spare time wrote stuff life this:

17. THE outward World with the Stars and four Elements, wherein Man and all Creatures live, neither is, nor is called God.  Indeed God dwelleth in it, but the Substance of the outward World comprehendedeth him not.

18. We see also that the Light shineth in Darkness, and the Darkness comprehendeth not the Light, and yet they both dwell in one another.  The four Elements are also an Example of this; which in their Original are but one Element, which is neither hot nor cold, nor dry, nor moist; and yet by its stirring separateth itself into Four Properties, viz. into Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

19. Who would believe that Fire produceth or generateth Water?  And that the Original of Fire could be in Water, if we did not see it with our Eyes in Tempests of Thunder, Lightening, and Rain; and did not find also, that in living Creatures, the essential Fire of the Body dwelleth in the Blood, and that the Blood is the Mother of the Fire, and the Fire the Father of the Blood.

20. And as God dwelleth in the World, and filleth all Things, and yet possesseth nothing; and as the Fire dwelleth in Water, and yet possesseth it not: Also, as the Light dwelleth in Darkness, and yet possesseth not the Darkness; as the Day is in the Night, and the Night in the Day, Time in Eternity, and Eternity in Time; so is Man created according to the outward Humanity; he is the Time, and in the Time, and the Time is the outward World, and it is also the outward Man.

21. The inward Man is Eternity and the Spiritual Time and World, which also consisteth of Light and Darkness, viz. of the Love of God, as to the eternal Light, and of the Anger of God as to the eternal Darkness; whichsoever of these is manifest in him, his Spirit dwelleth in that, be it Darkness or Light.

22. For Light and Darkness are both in him, but each of them dwelleth in itself, and neither of them possesseth the other; but if one of them entereth into the other, and will possess it, then that other loseth its Right and Power.

23. The passive loseth its Power; for if the Light be made manifest in the Darkness, then the Darkness loseth its Darkness, and is not known or discerned.  Also on the contrary, if the Darkness arise in the Light and get the upper-hand, then the Light and the Power thereof are extinguished.  This is to be observed also in Man.

24. The Eternal Darkness of the Soul is Hell, viz. an aching Source of Anguish, which is called the Anger of God; but the Eternal Light in the Soul is the Kingdom of Heaven, where the fiery Anguish of Darkness is changed into Joy.

25. For the same Nature of Anguish, which in the Darkness is a Cause of Sadness, is in the Light a Cause of the outward and stirring Joy.   For the Source or Original in Light, and the Source in Darkness are but one Eternal Source, and one Nature, and yet they, viz. the Light and Darkness, have a mighty Difference in the Source; the one dwelleth in the other and begetteth the other, and yet is not the other.  The Fire is painful and consuming, but the Light is yielding, friendly, powerful, and delightful, a sweet and amiable Joy.

26. This may be found also in Man; he is and liveth in three Worlds; the First is the Eternal dark World, viz. the Centre of the Eternal Nature, which produceth or generateth the Fire, viz. the Source or Property of Anguish.

27. The Second is the Eternal light World, which begetteth the Eternal Joy, which is the Divine Habitation wherein the Spirit of God dwelleth, and wherein the Spirit of Christ receiveth the human Substance, and subdueth the Darkness, so that it must be a Cause of Joy in the Spirit of Christ in the Light.

28. The Third is the outward visible World in the four Elements and the visible Stars; though indeed every Element hath its peculiar Constellation in itself, whence the Desire and Property arise, and is like a Mind.

29. Thus you may understand, that the Fire in the Light is a Fire of Love, a Desire of Meekness and Delightfulness; but the Fire in the Darkness is a Fire of Anguish, and is painful, irksome, inimicitious {hostile, unfriendly}and full of Contrariety in its Essence.  The Fire of the Light hath a good Relish or Taste, but the Taste in the Essence of Darkness is unpleasant, loathsome and irksome.  For all the Forms or Properties in the Eternal Nature, till they reach to Fire, are in great Anguish.    

What I realize now is how difficult walking the path truly is.  In the beginning you naively think that life will start to get easier if you raise your consciousness.  Life does get easier, you get into the flow and everything becomes more clear.  Life becomes more interesting and purposeful.  The other side is that there is an equal level of responsibility that must be maintained.  You cannot just take a day off if you really seek to attain the ultimate goal.  It is not for the lazy or weak minded.  And I can attest to the fact that you will be tempted and you will be most likely be inclinded toward pride.  You will start to think how great you are that you have learned all of these great teaching that no one else knows about.  This is the "devil" at work as Boehme says.  If you are naive and don't really know what you are doing then there is much room for error.  It is actually a dangerous proposition.  It is like walking a tight rope.  I myself became prideful and I had a major fall.  I went from a ecstatic high in one moment to the lowest low of my life.

You must let go of your pride and thinking how great you are.  As these mystics say, none of this new knowledge gained is your doing.  None of it is accomplished without the source or God.  Become selfless and acknowledge that your new found knowledge is due to the Spirit coming into you.  You must become the passive conduit for the masculine spirit to come into.

Books

I am very happy right now.  I just found access to a ton of books by Jacob Boehme and William Law among others.

Behold:

http://www.passtheword.org/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/index.html


Enjoy!

William Law - Spirit of Love

This book should be a must read for anyone seeking the higher life.  I believe Aldous Huxley alluded to the fact that William Law is the most underrated and under appreciated theological scholar of the last 1000 years.  Almost everything he writes is an illuminating quote.  Here is where I found the e-book:


http://www.davidcox.com.mx/library/L/Law,%20William%20-%20Spirit%20of%20Love%20(b).pdf

Do yourself a favor and read it

Below are some quotes or paragraphs that stood out for me:

"Now the Difficulty which you find in attaining to this Purity, and Universality
of the Spirit of Love is because you seek for it, as I once told you, in the Way of reasoning:
You would be possessed of it only from a rational Conviction of the Fitness and
Amiableness of it. And as this clear Idea does not put you immediately into the real
Possession of it, your Reason begins to waver, and suggests to you, that it may be only a
fine Notion that has no Ground but in the Power of the Imagination. But this, Sir, is all
your own Error, and as contrary to Nature, as if you would have your Eyes do That which
only your Hands or Feet can do for you. The Spirit of Love is a Spirit of Nature and Life;
and all the Operations of Nature and Life are according to the working Powers of Nature;
and every Growth and Degree of Life can only arise in its own Time and Place from its
proper Cause, and as the genuine Effect of it. Nature and Life do nothing by Chance or
accidentally, but every Thing in one uniform Way. Fire, Air, and Light, do not proceed
sometimes from one Thing, and sometimes from another; but wherever they are, they are
always born in the same Manner, and from the same Working in the Properties of Nature.
So in like Manner, Love is an immutable Birth, always proceeding from the same Cause,
and cannot be in Existence till its own true Parents have brought it forth".

So if you have done the necessary things and taken the right steps you will be united with God.  Your seeking and rising tension due to you believing you deserve illumination only bring you farther away from what your desire.  God is all knowing and knows more about you than you do.  If you are worthy of His light then he will bestow it upon you.  There is no luck involved, it is a black and white issue.  If you have caused it to happen through your correct thinking and action then the proper effect will occur.


"The Fire then is that which changes the Properties into a new and heavenly
State: Therefore the Fire does two things; it alters the State of Nature and brings Heaven
into it, and therefore it must Work from a two-fold Power; the Deity and Nature must both
be in it. It must have some Strength from Nature, or it could not work in Nature. It must
have some Strength from the Deity or it could not overcome and change Nature into a
Divine Life. Now all this is only to show you, that the Fire can only be kindled by the
Entrance of the Deity, or supernatural God, into a Conjunction or Union with Nature. And
this Conjunction of the Deity and Nature maketh, or bringeth forth, that State or Form of
Life, which is called and truly is, Fire: First, Because it does that in the spiritual Properties
of Nature, which Fire doth in the Properties of material Nature; and Secondly, Because it is
that alone, from which every Fire in this World, whether in the Life of animal or vegetable
or inanimate Matter, has its Source and Power and Possibility of Burning. The Fire of this
World overcomes its Fuel, breaks its Nature, alters its State and changes it into Flame and
Light. But why does it do this? Whence has it this Nature and Power? It is because it is a
true Outbirth of the eternal Fire, which overcomes the Darkness, Wrath, and Contrariety
of Nature, and changes all its Properties into a Life of Light, Joy, and Glory. Not a Spark
of Fire could be kindled in this World, nor a Ray of Light come from any material Fire, but
because material Nature is, in itself, nothing else but the very Properties of eternal Nature,
standing for a Time in a material State or Condition; and therefore they must work in Time
as they do in Eternity; and consequently there must be Fire in this World, it must have the
same Birth and do the same Work in its material Way, which the eternal Fire hath, and
doth in spiritual Nature. And this is the true Ground and Reason why every Thing in this
World is delivered as far as it can be from its earthly Impurity, and brought into its highest
State of Existence, only by Fire; it is because the eternal Fire is the Purifier of eternal
Nature and the Opener of every Perfection, Light, and Glory in it. And if you ask why the
eternal Fire is the Purifier of eternal Nature, the Reason is plain; it is because the eternal
Fire has its Birth and Nature and Power from the Entrance of the pure, supernatural Deity
into the Properties of Nature, which Properties must change their State, and be what they
were not before, as soon as the Deity entereth into them. Their Darkness, Wrath, and
Contrariety, is driven out of them, and they work and give forth only a Life and Strength
of Light, and Joy, and Glory. And this two-fold Operation, viz., on one hand taking from
Nature its wrathful Workings, and on the other hand opening a glorious Manifestation of
the Deity in them, is the whole Nature and Form of the Fire, and is the Reason why from
Eternity to Eternity it is and must be the Purifier of eternal Nature; namely, as from
Eternity to Eternity changing Nature into a Kingdom of Heaven. Now every Fire in this
World does, and must do, the same Thing in its low Way, to the utmost of its Power, and
can do nothing else. Kindle Fire where, or in what you will, it acts only as from and by the
Power of this eternal purifying Fire; and therefore it breaks and consumes the Grossness of
every Thing, and makes all that is pure and spirituous to come forth out of it; and therefore
Purification is its one only Work through all material Nature, because it is a real Out-birth
of that eternal Fire which purifies eternal Nature, and changes it into a mere Heaven of
Glory".

My brief take on this paragraph is that he is talking about the spark that must kindled to light the fire within.  To change the inner state from that of darkness to that of the light of God.  It seems as though he is describing alchemy.  That all in nature is going through the slow process of change and evolution until the point where God takes over in all creating the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.  The New Jerusalem is when God's spirit will infuse all living things on earth.  God's fire will purify all the drossness and evil that now infuses the earth.  We must open our hearts completely to let God in.  We must connect and become One.  God must take dominion over the earth as He has over the higher worlds.  We must do the work though and set the stage for His return.

"The Perfection of every Life is no way possibly to be had, but as every Flower comes to its
Perfection, viz., from its own Seed and Root and the various Degrees of Transmutation
which must be gone through before the Flower is found: It is strictly thus with the
Perfection of the Soul: All its Properties of Life must have their true natural Birth and
Growth from one another. The first, as its Seed and Root, must have their natural change
into an higher State; must, like the Seed of the Flower, pass through Death into Life and be
blessed with the Fire and Light and Spirit of Heaven, in their Passage to it; just as the Seed
passes through Death into Life, blessed by the Fire, and Light, and Air of this World, till it
reaches its last Perfection, and becomes a beautiful sweet-smelling Flower. And to think
that the Soul can attain its Perfection any other Way, than by the Change and Exaltation of
its first Properties of Life, just as the Seed has its first Properties changed and exalted till it
comes to have its Flower, is a total Ignorance of the Nature of Things. For as whatever dies
cannot have a Death particular to itself, but the same Death in the same Way, and for the
same Reasons, that any other Creature, whether Animal or vegetable, ever did or can die;
so every Life and Degree of Life, must come into its State and Condition of Life in the
same Way, and for the same Reasons as Life, and the Perfection of Life, comes into every
other living Creature, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Therefore the Deists’ Religion or
Reason, which is to raise the Soul to its true Perfection, is so far from being the Religion of
Nature, that it is quite unnatural and declared to be so by every Working in Nature. For
since Reason can neither give Life nor Death to any one Thing in Nature, but every Thing
lives, or dies, according to the Working of its own Properties, every Thing, dead and alive,
gives forth a Demonstration, that Nature asks no Counsel of Reason, nor stays to be
directed by it. Hold it therefore for a certain Truth, that you can have no Good come into
your Soul, but only by the one Way of a Birth from above, from the Entrance of the Deity
into the Properties of your own soulish Life. Nature must be set right, its Properties must
enter into the Process of a new Birth, it must work to the Production of Light, before the
Spirit of Love can have a Birth in it. For Love is Delight, and Delight cannot arise in any
Creature till its Nature is in a delightful State, or is possessed of that in which it must
rejoice. And this is the Reason why God must become Man; it is because a Birth of the
Deity must be found in the Soul, giving to Nature all that it wants, or the Soul can never
find itself in a delightful State and only Working with the Spirit of Love. For whilst the
Soul has only its natural Life, it can only be in such a State, as Nature, without God, is in,
viz., a mere Hunger, Want, Contrariety, and Strife for it knows not what. Hence is all that
Variety of blind, restless, contrary Passions, which govern and torment the Life of fallen
Man. It is because all the Properties of Nature must Work in Blindness, and be doing they
know not what, till the Light of God is found in them. Hence also it is, that That which is
called the Wisdom, the Honour, the Honesty, and the Religion of the natural Man, often
does as much Hurt to himself, and others, as his Pride, Ambition, Self-Love, Envy, or
Revenge, and are subject to the same Humour and Caprice; it is because Nature is no
better in one Motion than in another, nor can be so, till something supernatural is come
into it. We often charge Men, both in Church and State, with changing their Principles; but
the Charge is too hasty; for no Man ever did, or can change his Principles, but by a Birth
from above. The natural, called in Scripture, the old Man, is steadily the same in Heart and
Spirit in every Thing he does, whatever Variety of Names may be given to his Actions. For
Self can have no Motion but what is selfish, which Way soever it goes, or whatever it does,
either in Church or State. And be assured of this, that Nature in every Man, whether he be
learned or unlearned, is this very Self, and can be nothing else, till a Birth of the Deity is
brought forth in it. There is therefore no Possibility of having the Spirit of Love, or any
Divine Goodness, from any Power of Nature or Working of Reason. It can only be had in
its own Time and Place; and its Time and Place is nowhere, but where Nature is overcome
by a Birth of the Life of God in the Properties of the Soul. And thus you see the infallible
Truth, and absolute Necessity, of Christian Redemption; it is the most demonstrable Thing
in all Nature.— The Deity must become Man, take a Birth in the fallen Nature, be united to
it, become the Life of it, or the natural Man must of all Necessity be forever and ever in the
Hell of his own Hunger, Anguish, Contrariety, and Self-Torment; and all for this plain
Reason, because Nature is, and can be, nothing else, but this Variety of Self-Torment, till
the Deity is manifested and dwelling in it".

Man in this is world is forever longing for his original state.  He desires his original stillness that is God.  He cannot accomplish this in of himself.  Man does not change himself.  Man only changes when he is changed from a higher level.  A lot of people refer to this as "raising one's consciousness".  Law is referring to it as the deity becoming man.  He says that man's hunger for unification with God must be done in a blindness.  I would relate this to not having expectations.  You must first be empty if you want the fullness of God to enter you.  Religious man or "deist" as he puts it holds himself up to be honorable, moral, and honest.  These qualities or opinions of one's self are in fact as detrimental as selfishness, envy, avarice, etc. 

I want to pull this quote out of the above quoted paragraph and isolate it for it's own light:

"Nature must be set right, its Properties must
enter into the Process of a new Birth, it must work to the Production of Light, before the
Spirit of Love can have a Birth in it. For Love is Delight, and Delight cannot arise in any
Creature till its Nature is in a delightful State, or is possessed of that in which it must
rejoice"

What he seems to be saying is that you must first set the tone for the Spirit to enter you.  I have learned from Enoch Tan to approach your (altruistic) desires as if they have already occurred.  Law seems to be saying that you must first feel delight within before the deity will bestow love upon you.  He says to feel delight you must first put yourself in a delightful state.  Do not cry out in agony because you are still hungry for God's light.  This would imply that you lack faith.  If Jesus Christ stressed anything it was to maintain faith and that the most faithful were highest in their Father's eyes.  Have faith that the Father is watching over you.  Act as if you already are One with Him and have His love.  Plant the seed for His Love by being delightful as if you already have it.  Do not want, just be as you are.  

He goes into more depth regarding morality:

"And now, Sir, you see also the absolute Necessity of the Gospel-Doctrine of
the Cross, viz., of dying to Self, as the one only Way to Life in God. This Cross, or Dying
to Self, is the one Morality that does Man any Good. Fancy as many Rules as you will of
modeling the moral Behaviour of Man, they all do nothing, because they leave Nature still
alive, and therefore can only help a Man to a feigned, hypocritical Art of concealing his
own inward Evil, and seeming to be not under its Power. And the Reason why it must be
so is plain; it is because Nature is not possible to be reformed; it is immutable in its
Workings and must be always as it is, and never any better or worse, than its own untaught
Workings are. It can no more change from Evil to Good, than Darkness can Work itself
into Light. The one Work therefore of Morality is the one Doctrine of the Cross, viz., to
resist and deny Nature, that a supernatural Power or Divine Goodness, may take
Possession of it, and bring a new Light into it".

William Law sums it up

"To return to our chief subject: The Sum of all that has been said is this: All
Evil, be it what it will, all Misery of every kind, is in its Birth, Working and Extent,
nothing else but Nature left to itself, and under the divided Workings of its own Hunger,
Wrath, and Contrariety; and therefore no Possibility for the natural, earthly Man to escape
eternal Hunger, Wrath, and Contrariety, but solely in the Way as the Gospel teacheth, by
denying and dying to Self. On the other hand, all the Goodness and Perfection, all the
Happiness, Glory, and Joy that any intelligent, Divine Creature can be possessed of, is, and
can be, from nothing else, but the invisible uncreated Light and Spirit of God manifesting
itself in the Properties of the creaturely Life, filling, blessing, and uniting them all in one
Love and Joy of Life. And thus again: no Possibility of Man’s attaining to any heavenly
Perfection and Happiness, but only in the Way of the Gospel, by the Union of the Divine
and human Nature, by Man’s being born again from above of the Word and Spirit of God.
There is no Possibility of any other Way, because there is nothing that can possibly change
the first Properties of Life into an heavenly State, but the Presence, and working Power, of
the Deity united with, and working in them. And therefore the "Word was made Flesh,"
and must of all Necessity be made Flesh, if Man is to have a heavenly Nature. Now as all
Evil, Sin, and Misery, have no Beginning, nor Power of Working, but in the Manifestation
of Nature in its divided, contrary Properties; so it is certain that Man has nothing to turn to,
seek or aspire after, but the lost Spirit of Love. And therefore it is, that God only can be his
Redeemer, because God only is Love; and Love can be nowhere else but in God, and
where God dwelleth and worketh".

So he says that evil is simply man left on his own separate from God with his own free will.  And that man will always have unbalanced hunger inside of him so long as he work for himself or is selfish.  To find peace man must die to himself, this is the only way.  All the beauty, harmony and joy in the world can only be of God and nothing else.  Just as I said in the last post that there can be no effect without the cause, I can have no knowledge or light in my life without God where it springs from.  I cannot become prideful and start to think that I accomplished the learning that I have.  There is no I without Him.  Thus all knowledge is attained through God's Spirit and Love.  All praise be to God.

Stillness vs. Motion

I've been reading through "Atomic Suicide" by Walter and Lao Russell more thoroughly than I did the previous time I read it.  I also have a greater overall understanding (in my mind) of how things work, how they are ordered.  I also started reading a book by William Law titled, "Spirit of Love".  Russell comes from an extreme scientific viewpoint where Law comes from a more theistic viewpoint.  They both end up saying the same thing.  They both are describing God's universal love and both call it such.

What I learned from Russell is that God is the still fulcrum within.  Stillness is the essence of life, this is the point where all springs from.  God decided to separate himself into lower world based off of two poles.  Each of these two poles having a male and female aspect, both being positive equal opposites of the other.  When they come together they become one, or whole again.  God's stillness is the magnetic center.  The material universe we see is electric in nature.  It is based off of motion.  As Law puts it, everything seeks to achieve that which it lacks.  It seeks the other pole.  As we move away from the center atoms start to cool.  What happens is the atom becomes trapped or encased in the material body.  This is it's unnatural state and it seeks to return to it's natural state of rest.  It can do so through unification within or without.  It can achieve oneness through achieving stillness or it can die to the material world.  In death the atoms radiate from the body.  The energy is discharged completely, it returns to the magnetic center it arose from.  This is the constant cycle or expansion and contraction, life and death.

Law said something that really hit home for me.  He said to get to our current state we had to move.  We moved away from center.  We seek to return to our center and we assume that to do this we simply move back to the center.  The problem is that the inherent nature of the center is stillness.  How can we achieve the stillness we desire if we are moving?  This is where something like Tao and Quantum Mechanics come in for me.  I am not an expert or even close to on any of these things but I understand the general concepts.  Quantum Mechanics says that we can be at any place in the universe in less than the speed of light.  If this is the case why would you need to seek God and go anywhere?  If the universe is inside of you then you do not have to move anywhere.  Same thing with the Tao.  The Tao seeks to balance all of this out.  Action through inaction.  There is nothing to do.  You must simply find stillness.  Through seeking in motion we find ourselves running on the never ending treadmill.  Stuck in purgatory, not gaining anything.  We expend more energy in maintaining our illusions then we would in journeying back to center.  Death is easy, life is not.

So when esotericists say that cause creates effects and that you cannot look at an effect to KNOW something, what they are saying is that without the CAUSE there is no EFFECT.  The material body cannot just stand on it's own.  It needs a cause (spirit) first to become relevant.  God decides to create the universe so He springs his Spirit into motion.  This is not enough.  He also detaches Himself from the experience and gives living beings a soul or individuality.  The body is simply a mental image.  It is a vehicle for each soul to gain the experience it so desires.  We have all left the Father and once we gain enough experience we have the free will to come back in line with His Spirit.  We can become dead to self and KNOW Him.  We can again return home and vibrate in line with Him.  We can again know that he is the only TRUTH.  That all else (motion) is but an illusion that sprung from His stillness.

Here is how Law puts it:

"Now a Desire that cannot be stopped, nor get That which it would have, has a
threefold Contrariety, or Working in it, which you may thus conceive as follows: The first
and peculiar Property, or the one only Will of the Desire, as such, is to have That which it
has not; and all it can do toward having it is to act as if it were seizing it; and this is it
which makes the Desire to be a magic Compressing, Inclosing, or Astringing, because that
is all that it can do toward Seizing of that which it would have. But the Desire cannot thus
magically astringe, compress, or strive to inclose, without Drawing and Attracting: But
Drawing is Motion, which is the highest Contrariety and Resistance to compressing or
holding together. And thus the Desire, in its magical Working, sets out with two contrary
Properties, inseparable from one another and equal in Strength; for the Motion has no
Strength but as it is the Drawing of the Desire; and the Desire only draws in the same
Degree as it wills to compress and astringe; and therefore the Desire, as astringing, always
begets a Resistance equal to itself. Now from this great and equally strong Contrariety of
the two first Properties of the Desire, magically pulling, as I may say, two contrary Ways,
there arises as a necessary Birth from both of them, a third Property, which is emphatically
called a Wheel or whirling Anguish of Life. For a Thing that can go neither inward nor
outward, and yet must be and move under the equal Power of both of them, must whirl or
turn round; it has no Possibility of doing any Thing else or of ceasing to do that. And that
this whirling Contrariety of these inseparable Properties is the great Anguish of Life and
may properly be called the Hell of Nature; and every lesser Torment which any Man finds
in this mixed World, has all its Existence and Power from the Working of these three
Properties: For Life can find no troublesome Motions, or Sensibility of Distress, but so far
as it comes under their Power, and enters into their whirling Wheel."

Again I don't fully comprehend what he is saying here or at least I don't think I do, but my take is this.  When we go out seeking something, this motion creates equal opposition on the other side.  If we were forever moving seeking desires we would forever be in motion and thus not be in line with our true nature.  This is a world based on experience and so this structure obviously is purposeful.  This is how we learn.  Eventually we will see the errors in our seeking and will find our home at the still center.  We find ourselves trapped in between these two poles in motion.  This is the nature of our existence on this plane.  When we are in motion we are unbalanced (God is balance) and we are at the mercy of nature.  We see ourselves going round and round making the same mistakes over and over.  Seeing the same things happen again and again.  We must realize that we are simply patterns and that to move forward we must change the patterns.

God detached Himself from us and let us go out into the wilderness to fend for ourselves.  We have the free will and we create every aspect and event in our lives.  It seems as though we must now flip it around.  We must detach ourselves from the experience that God gave us and let Him take the wheel and drive.  We must complete the cycle by letting His Spirit take over and work through the vehicle that we have been using.  There is nothing separate from Him and He is the truth.  We must become dead and let His Spirit take over and born again.

Max Heindel - Mysteries of the Great Operas

The following quoted text from "Mysteries of the Great Operas" by Max Heindel just made me look at things a different way:

"As exercise is necessary to the development of physical muscle, so development of the moral nature is accomplished through temptation.  The Ego being given choice, may exercise it in whatever direction it chooses, for it learns just as well by its mistakes as by right action in the first place, perhaps even better.  There in the Job myth, the devil is permitted to tempt; and in the Faust myth he makes the request:

"My Lord, if I may lead him as I choose, I wager Thou him yet wilt lose."
To this the Lord replies:
"'Tis granted thee!  Divert
This spirit from its primal source,
Him mayst thou seize, thy power exert,
If he will go the downward course.
But stand ashamed when thou art forced to own,
A good man in his darkest aberration
Still knows the path that leadeth to salvation.
Go, thou art free to act without control.
I do not cherish hate for such as thee;
Of all the spirits of negation
The cynic is least wearisome to Me.
Man is too prone, activity to shirk,
And undisturbed in rest he fain would live;
Hence this companion purposely I give
Who stirs, excites, and must as devil work.
But ye, O faithful Sons of God, none wronging,
Rejoice in all of everliving beauty,
The everliving, evergrowing, and becoming;
Now gird yourselves about with love and duty."

So I see this illustrating a man who is at the center.  Or at least he is seeking to find the center where he came from.  To dwell in the center he must be selfless, he must not identify with objects, he must be un-attached from everything including self.  To test one's worthiness of dwelling  in the center temptation must be put before man.  If he can deny temptation and remain balanced then he has shown his worthiness.  His balanced thinking is what keeps him there.  Not a biased God or anything of the sort.  If he thinks as the Creator does then he is balanced as the Creator is.  Balance remains in this void.  If you are not in line with the center circle it means you have unbalance within.  Man gains the most experience through leaving this center void.  If he learns from his experience correctly through pain and suffering, he will realize he seeks to dwell in the stillness at the core.  Because all is in motion it is not easy to hit this target.  He must work with the external world.  Most times he will swing to the other side.  He does not have his base as of yet.  As he learns more and more of the extended poles he can start to shift less and less until he finds the center.  Once he can hold his place in suspension, move along in rhythm with the Creator, he and the Creator shall be One.  So when we give in to temptation we are being induced away from our true Self, our true nature.

You could also look at this from the standpoint of the fall from heaven down into matter.  Man was tempted with knowledge of the creative faculty by the Lucifer spirits and so that he would feel pain, die and gain experience slowly working his way back up to heaven.  Either way, I love the allegory that the book Faust illuminates to the world.

Esotericism with Vernon Howard

Some esoteric quotes from Vernon Howard:

"Any action that is truly right for you, is truly right for another.  And what is truly wrong for you is also harmful to your neighbor.  You are not separate from your neighbor except on the physical level.  Any action that fails to develop your own inner strength is useless to others.  If a lighthouse is to help passing ships, its own light must radiate into the fog."


Admission to Reality (in regards to people feeling attacked by the truth)
"He is unaware how he clings to the source of his own misery.  For example, when with others, he insists upon conforming to the popular opinion of how he should behave.  The real man is not present at all.  He fights fiercely to retain his stage role because he knows no other way to act before others.  The though of being caught without memorized words and movements is so terrifying he instantly rejects everything which seems to threaten him.  What will help him become real?  He can run out of places to run.  AT first this will seem worse, but he finally glimpses something.  He sees how abandonment of the costume pays for admission to the real man inside."

"Whoever tastes an apple for himself will never need to ask others about its flavor."

"Having no self centeredness, (an agile mind) wastes no time and energy wondering how a situation might be hurtful or beneficial.  Having no interference from anxious thoughts, it simply acts.  When meeting a troubled person it acts wisely, not falling under the influence of the other's gloom.  When confronted by a new challenge it walks right into it and out again, unharmed, for it knows that harm comes only by fearing a challenge."

"Anguish is nothing more than a mental movie which the sufferer carelessly permits to run through his mind.  Where there is no mental movie there can be no anguish."  - Break the mental movie and you will see the anguish ceases and you will see a different person inside.

Thought of the Moment

Man must become thinking plant.  This demands that he balance himself between heaven in earth.  The plant is unthinking has no self conscious or desire body.  It simply has a dense body and a vital body.  It's consciousness is essentially dreamless sleep when related to the human.  The plant is rooted in the earth and receives sunlight from without to keep it vital.  Man while grounded by gravity, has no roots like the plant.  He has the choice to leave the earth and lose his grounding in reality and become delusional.  He receives light from without just as the plant does for sustenance.  Unlike the plant, man is able to attain sunlight from within as well.  This is not forced upon him as God or the Light is a detached God.  When man comes to God seeking the light within God will fulfill his wish and give him knowledge.  Man has a choice to seek the light out and fill his soul with it but he must also remain grounded to the earth therefore forming a balance union of heaven and earth.

The Spirit wishes to fill you and work through you but you must first attain the knowledge that this is the path to fulfillment of destiny, the completion of the cycle.  So man can become to spiritual and lose his grounding on this earth, loose sight that the purpose for being on this earth is to experience it and perfect it along the way.  Most men will simply see the material world as all there is and ever will be.  They will be forever unbalanced until they are able to absorb the knowledge of the reality of the spiritual world.  All in nature must attain balance.  The plant is in balance always because it has no free will to choose to go against God's will.  But it also lacks the self consciousness that man has the gift of experiencing.

This relates to a story Jesus told.  He talked of two sons who each inherited half of their father's fortune.  One son chose to go off on his own and leave town and squandered all the inheritance in over indulgence.  The other son stayed at home and did everything perfectly and never sinned.  When the son was down and out dealing with famine he decided he would return home to his Father.  Upon return his Father celebrated joyously.  He said they would have a feast of great proportions.  The good son came to his father wondering why he himself had not once had a feast in his honor yet he had done good every step of the way.  His Father said to his son that he had forever been with his Father.  He had always been in his heart and that his brother was dead.  He was lost but now was found.

What is this story trying to say?  To me it says that there is no reward for staying home.  If you stay home there is never a chance to fail.  There is nothing ever truly gained when you stay home and take no risk.  The son who left home gained much through experience.  With this knowledge he could turn it into wisdom and be reborn.  One who was good all throughout his life and suddenly does something bad, could never be considered good, for he never had the chance to do bad before.  The person who does bad all his life and then finally does good can now be considered good because he has seen both sides and has made the CHOICE to do good.  We must celebrate those who leave the Father's house and take risks and not condemn them if they fail.  We must celebrate the fact that they set in hopes of trying to gain experience and eventually we know that they will bring the boon back to save the rest of us as long he never gives up no matter how many times he fails.  If the Father praised the son who stayed at home there would be no push towards evolution.  Rewards must come only through risk taking when the outcome is in doubt.  This is what pushes humanity onward toward becoming balanced and one with heaven and earth. 

"End and Means" - Huxley

I'm taking a break from reading Walter Russell and reading some of "Ends and Means" by Aldous Huxley.  If you want to understand the essence or inside of how society works on all levels then this is a book you should read.  Here are some quotes with my take on it"

"Self-esteem has as its complement disparagement of others.  Vanity and pride beget contempt and hatred.  But contempt and hatred are exciting emotions-emotions from which people "get a kick."  Devotees of one national idolatry enjoy getting the kick of hatred and contempt for devotees of other idolatries.  They pay for that enjoyment by having to prepare for the wars which hatred and contempt render almost inevitable.  Another point.  In the normal course of events most ment and women behave tolerably well.  This means that they must frequently repress their anti-social impulses.  They find a vicarious satisfaction for these impulses through films and stories about gangsters, pirates, swindlers, bad bold barons and the like.

"Submissive to the wife, kind to the children, couteous to the neighbourss, the soul of honest in business, the good citizen feels a thrill of delight when his country "takes a strong line,'"enhances its prestige,""scores a diplomatic victory," "increases its territory"-in other words when it bluffs, bullies, swindles and steals."

Look at the public policy and general climate in the US.  You see the big powerful, prideful, know it all nation stand up with arrogance and show its might.  This bred contempt and hatred.  People today feel the stress of conformity, they fight it consciously and thus this repression must come out in other arenas through established pathways.  Man today needs revenge.  He lacks self esteem because subconsciously he knows that he is a slave.  Because of this imbalance between desire and reality he must act out.  He does this through games.  Sadistic TV shows and movies also serve an important purpose in allowing man to release this repressed energy but to do so so that it is contained and will not harm others around him.  Man is too terrified to stop one moment and sit still and know reality and see it for what it is.  He hates himself because he has conformed and is living a life that does not make him happy.  He is a slave to his family and thus his job, but more so he is a slave to himself.  If he could only face himself and find his center, he could turn it all around.  The fear of failure keeps him from attempting to make the situation right.  He is not big enough to admit that he fucked up.  Thus he cannot ever hope to solve his problem.  His lack of courage relegates him and his family to a life of misery where this misery is hidden from the conscious mind through always staying active, never stopping once to contemplate the state of his life.

It is all easier to repress and whenever he is reminded of his ultimate failure of not trying to make it better he simply blames the people who are willing to take responsibility.  Why do they watch gangsters?  Gangsters are the complete opposite of what they are not.  The gangster puts it all on the line.  The gangster takes foolish risks and ultimately ends up dying an early death or rotting away in jail.  The repressed father/husband slave envies that gangster in one sense and in the other he has contempt for him because he breaks the rules like he desires to but lacks the courage or heart to do so.  We can also sit on our high horse and condemn the gangster as being evil and thus we can puff ourselves up to be good.  Deceiving ourselves once again through unbalanced, selfish thinking.  Also now we see the media using pirates to captivate and subconsciously scare the masses.  The slave must always have a big banker, idiotic politician, gangster, or pirate to blame.  Anyone that takes responsibility for themselves is showing the average citizen that he is a slave.  He must not know he is slave for he may become violent so he is given someone to blame who will accept the blame while continuing to fuck him over because he refuses to be inside of his mind and think.

Johnny citizen is given a cookie at the beginning of a cycle and at the end of the cycle when that cookie is gone, he will not be given another and he will suffer because now he accepts the cookie pole as reality.  He doesn't want to shift back to the non-cookie pole.  He must must understand that in the nature of the cycle there is always going to be oscillations.  He will continually go from being the have to the have not.  If he uses his brain and observes that the cycle simply repeats itself over and over (is objective) then he can learn to only eat half the cookie in the summer (cookie pole) and save the other half for winter (non cookie pole).  So the essence of the problem is that first he must be willing to face reality and obtain experience and go through both the cookie phase and non cookie phase of the cycle as opposed to eating the whole cookie in the summer and then taking out credit to cover the other half of the cycle and just letting it build up higher until war must be waged and he must play the lottery of numbers and take a chance he may survive (subject yourself to others power as opposed to controlling your own destiny).

If everyone were to use their brains and reason then there would be no need for war.  Once the over eating along with over population begins society is doomed to have to go to war to balance the system.  The family/tribe/society must guage their resources and not indulge in sex if they cannot sustain anymore children. This is what the bible refers to as the Tree of Knowledge.  When we violate the Tree of Knowledge through hedonistic indulgence in the reproductive function then nature will become unbalanced and find a means to find balance once again.  We have the choice to be respectful of nature and not over use our power of creation.  When we do so we find momentary sense pleasure but in the long run, in reality we are only killing ourselves or making life that much more uncomfortable.

If the resources provide for it and God wills (as in conception occurs) then they should have children.  But when people become reckless, arrogant (get too comfortable), most often they lose self control and stop thinking, then they are slowly going to bring down society until war and infanticide are staples.  When this process starts the war machine must be built up.  The country suffers because significant portions of the countries revenue or GDP are used to arm the nation to either seize more territory and balance out the supplies lost due to over indulgence or to defend against another nation with that very agenda.  The outcome is a depressed society that is only a shell of it's former pre war self.

Nationalism is created to motivate the citizens into fighting for their great country.  In the reality the war is meant to kill him off to better the life for his family and neighbors.  Man is in general no longer a beast or animal (I mean this in the sense of violence, he is a beast because he cannot gain self control and use his mind, I think the violence is simply an effect of the cause).  Inherently he does not seek to fight I would say, but the environmental conditions dictate that he must fight to survive.  The unbalance of his environment which started with man first now continues to revolve and force him to be at the mercy of society or nature.  Love has been cultivated to a point.  This is why fake enemies must be created so that he can develop this pride and wish to defend his country.  He must have a valid reason (in his mind) to go kill another.  If you tell him he is being attacked and amplify that his family is in danger and that his "freedom" is in jeopardy he will go to fight and die in a war meant to balance the world population out.  But telling him that he is a sacrifice in essence is not enough.  There is no emotion behind the true purpose and it is something that he most likely cannot comprehend.

I just thought of something interesting.  Think about a government who was in the stage of eliminating the weapons of it's society.  There is a fear inherent in that situation.  The citizen feels the strain of not knowing if the goverment is lying to him and that once all guns are removed that the promised peace will infact become slavery.  I would say it requires a morsel of faith to hand over the gun, but in the end is it  possible and rational to try and fight such a power?  To me this mirrors the process of surrendering to God.

There are people higher in the hierarchical structure (like the government) that tell you to achieve balance (peace) you must must completely surrender your whole personality to God.  You must give up youself and become nothing to know Him.  This is the culmination process that is so difficult to let go because of our fear of death or there being nothing left after we give up the self.  The government and God have the best intentions in mind.  To become whole we must first become nothing.  To take a step forward we must first take one step back.  It is not easy to make that change and shift around, but we must look toward the future.  We must observe how the past created the present and now we must see what future out present is creating and put the cycle together with no fractures.  If one gun (base desire/repression) remains then the cycle cannot be whole (peaceful/balanced) because of the fear of being helpless to stop it.  It must be full on black/white movement made to be able to make the next step forward.  So there is no subjectivity in this equation.  You either eliminate all guns (all lower ego characteristics) or war (unbalance) continues.  The road to balanced one-ness with God is through complete removal of all weapons inside that your lower nature holds over you.  If one weapon remains then there is at some point guarenteed to be an incident (symptom) to throw the system off again.

We must observe nature and learn from the ascended masters and go out and live it ourselves to find our way through wilderness to the tabernacle.

Atomic Suicide - Walter and Lao Russell

Here are some more quotes/discussion from The Russell's:

"The one amazing thing about all matter, which is not known today, is that all matter wants to explode, it wants to die.  To live is an effort.  To die is effortless.  matter is not held together from within by the attraction of gravity, as generally supposed, it is compressed together by a force exerted from the outside toward its center.  Life is hard to maintain, for that reason, and for the same reason it is easy to die because it wants to die.  You must understand this fact if you wish to comprehend how radioactivity kills.  It is against all modern scientific belief, because the general belief is that a material nucleus holds the atom together.  Nature does not work that way.  Atoms do not have nuclei.  Nautre creates her atoms the same way that you would compress air into a tire.  It is hard work.  You pump it in from the outside toward its middle.  Then you put a cap on it to imprison it.  If it is not sealed and imprisoned it would escape without effort by you.  It does not need help to expand.  It only needs help to be compressed."

"Matter is an abnormality.  The normality of this universe is a conditioin of rest - an equilibrium.  Matter is not an equilibrium.  It is a created condition which divides a resistant equilibrium.  That division results in termendous tensions.  Tensions are not normal to the universal equilibrium.  Tensions have within them a great desire for relief from tension.  Decay, death, discharge, explosions and flame give matter that relief from tensions which it desires.  Bear this fact in mind.  Remember that the first desire of all Creation is Mind-expression by division of universal equilibrium.  Remember also that the desire to again return to the normal universal equilibrium is equally intensive.  To divide an equilibrium requires work.  To return to the normality of universal equilibrium does not require work.  Bear in mind then that it is hard to live but easy to die.  Radioactivity is making it harder for bodies to live by releasing the tensions which makes them die."

So all matter is imprisoned.  It is heat encased or crystallized by cold.  The nature of the universe is to be at rest so matter is forever trying to escape this tension.  So obviously we are encased in a material body that can be likened to a prison.  Radioactivity would light the spark and induce death if it were to overtake the earth.  Russell uses the analogy of sparking a piece of dynamite so that it can explode and escape.  Now how can humans escape this prison without "dying"?  The mystics have long told of this process.  Most will probably refer to it as illumination or enlightenment.  So what is going on here?  Well we know we must ignite a spark inside.  We realize this that this means we must raise our inner temperature.  As I see it we must start to vibrate at a higher rate.  We must commence our body to move so fast that it becomes still mirroring the true nature of existence.  Once you find this center point the Spirit will fill you with it's Light.  It has been described as a bright white light being seen.  One's consciousness would then be able to leave the physical body.  Everyone feels that must do something to find this place, that they must go on a journey and seek the "Kingdom of God".  When in reality we must only find the stillness within that is our true nature.