Monday, May 06, 2019

Awash in the Conscious Joy and Appreciation of an Embarrassment of Riches.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

Ah my friends; big and sweeping changes in the manifest. The totality of it all is an ocean and the transitory dramas that come and go are the waves that temporarily rise and fall upon the surface. The wiser minds identify with the ocean and remain undisturbed by the transitory changes that go on around them. How can waves threaten the ocean? They cannot.

Meanwhile a vast consciousness interpenetrates all things. It is singular and unique within the complexity and diversity of all the comings and goings; all the appearances and disappearances. Yet we are heard even amidst the uproar, in remarkable ways- as the case may be. How wonderful is that? Such miracles occur every day but are unseen by those in the thrall of it all; those whose eyes, whose hearts and minds are fixed on temporary things. The miracles happen but are seldom credited as such. God is real!!! Yes! How grateful am I? Immeasurably. I am rendered mute within the splendor and perpetual wonder of the animator of us all.

I know this is Petri Dish, designed to call attention to obscenities such as this. The vampire queen of the moment is busy as... something or other, paying law firms to take heart tugging cases for the purpose of personal celebrity and coming off as a crusader for truth, justice and personal celebrity. She is going to be a lawyer. It's too bad that William Rick Singer is tied up at the moment because he could help her a great deal to that end. She's engaged in all kinds of spiritual pursuits with the other handmaidens of purity and virtue. That's what Petri Dish has been about. I am so tired of this kind of thing. Tired also of the world celebrating these psychopaths but... that is the nature of the world. No one gets that kind of attention and wealth without terrible sacrifice. It should be none of my affair but... I live in this world (not of it though) and we are all affected by the trends and forces at work in it.

I had just written an extensive commentary on the why's and wherefore's of the sorts of topics I cover at times. I was trying to explain how it is that I don't hate these or those people and am not anti-this or that in any classic sense. I am anti-ignorance, anti-greed- anti-genocide- anti-lies and it so happens that the same people are kingpins in these areas and it is easily proven but seldom addressed with any force or clarity due to ubiquitous cowardice and indifference across the board. In times of material darkness, the servants of material darkness prosper BUT... do not prevail and I must ever remind myself of this. So I shelved my extensive commentary. You've read it all here before. I shouldn't have to keep saying it.

The standards setters and social justice warriors, as well as the PC footsoldiers are waxing various individuals off of social media and I thought I might say something about this; should I seem to disappear all of a sudden. Be assured I will resurface. I am hoping 'the elf' can find the time to get these blogs operative at another location as backup and I am going to start double posting at each place so as to continue without interruption. PLEASE NOTE; if something should happen, we will find a workaround. In the end you can email me for details of forward progress. I have been supernaturally protected in this regard; witness my coming unscathed out of Europe. That was truly inexplicable but I credit it all to the good offices of the ineffable who sees that I am looked out for. There really can be no other answer for it. It astounds me that so many people do not register the fact of an all pervasive and benevolent force that dwells in us all and is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

In the meantime, really crazy shit is going down. My reaction was to just laugh out-loud. I have people who come around here, now and again, trying to argue with me about this. I don't argue to begin with. If you don't agree with me, that's fine. Moving right along.

There are all sorts of crises at work. Some of them are just the way it goes in those places where too many people want to live for any number of reasons. Social disorder is fomenting at every level and to hear the new crop of catamite Democratic candidates for president, the possibilities for conditions becoming much much worse are flexing their muscles in the Event Horizon. These people are certifiable and 'owned' by interests that are darker than most of us have any comprehension of.

So it goes in these times. The war against Christianity has had its Fort Sumter moment at Notre Dame de Paris. People should always seek to remember that when you try to pull down something very big, there is a great likelihood that it will come down on top of them. Many things are connected to each other that might seem incredible at first glance. Vandals should beware, lest they wind up vandalizing their own existence beyond repair.

I think I have said enough now so that I can move on to what motivated me to post today. As most of you know, around Christmas, I began trying to get the Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. It was an ordeal and I didn't finally get the books until some time in February. I read the first book in a shorter time and I am still reading the second. It is densely packed with remarkable material that requires a very thoughtful ingestion. Last night, in the early hours of Sunday, I was reading the last part of “Practical Vedanta- Chapter 1”. It was quite an experience as I was drawn into the mind behind the thoughts. At the end I felt profoundly altered and am compelled to include it in this posting for you today. Some of you will get the power and meaning that affected me so deeply. I hope this stands you in good stead and you are summarily changed as a result. I have a bit of a personal note at the end; not dealing with me personally but with some of the readers who have been coming here for some good while. Thank you for your consideration;





From Practical Vedanta-
Book 2 of The Collected Works of Swami Vivekanada

“The Vedanta preaches the ideal; and the ideal, as we know, is always far ahead of the real, of the practical, as we may call it. There are two tendencies in human nature: one to harmonise the ideal with the life, and the other to elevate the life to the ideal. It is a great thing to understand this, for the former tendency is the temptation of our lives. I think that I can only do a certain class of work. Most of it, perhaps, is bad; most of it, perhaps, has a motive power of passion behind it, anger, or greed, or selfishness. Now if any man comes to preach to me a certain ideal, the first step towards which is to give up selfishness, to give up self-enjoyment, I think that is impractical. But when a man brings an ideal which can be reconciled with my selfishness, I am glad at once and jump at it. That is the ideal for me. As the word "orthodox" has been manipulated into various forms, so has been the word "practical".

"My doxy is orthodoxy; your doxy is heterodoxy." So with practicality. What I think is practical, is to me the only practicality in the world. If I am a shopkeeper, I think shopkeeping the only practical pursuit in the world. If I am a thief, I think stealing is the best means of being practical; others are not practical. You see how we all use this word practical for things we like and can do. Therefore I will ask you to understand that Vedanta, though it is intensely practical, is always so in the sense of the ideal. It does not preach an impossible ideal, however high it be, and it is high enough for an ideal. In one word, this ideal is that you are divine, "Thou art That".

This is the essence of Vedanta; after all its ramifications and intellectual gymnastics, you know the human soul to be pure and omniscient, you see that such superstitions as birth and death would be entire nonsense when spoken of in connection with the soul. The soul was never born and will never die, and all these ideas that we are going to die and are afraid to die are mere superstitions. And all such ideas as that we can do this or cannot do that are superstitions. We can do everything. The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first. As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not believe in a Personal God outside of himself is an atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist. Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism.

To many this is, no doubt, a terrible idea; and most of us think that this ideal can never be reached; but the Vedanta insists that it can be realised by every one. There is neither man nor woman or child, nor difference of race or sex, nor anything that stands as a bar to the realisation of the ideal, because Vedanta shows that it is realised already, it is already there. All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. Know that there is no darkness around us. Take the hands away and there is the light which was from the beginning. Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. We who are fools cry that we are weak; we who are fools cry that we are impure. Thus Vedanta not only insists that the ideal is practical, but that it has been so all the time; and this Ideal, this Reality, is our own nature. Everything else that you see is false, untrue. As soon as you say, "I am a little mortal being," you are saying something which is not true, you are giving the lie to yourselves, you are hypnotising yourselves into something vile and weak and wretched. The Vedanta recognises no sin, it only recognises error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.

Every time you think in that way, you, as it were, rivet one more link in the chain that binds you down, you add one more layer of hypnotism on to your own soul. Therefore, whosoever thinks he is weak is wrong, whosoever thinks he is impure is wrong, and is throwing a bad thought into the world. This we must always bear in mind that in the Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the present life — the hypnotised life, this false life which we have assumed — with the ideal; but this false life must go, and the real life which is always existing must manifest itself, must shine out. No man becomes purer and purer, it is a matter of greater manifestation. The veil drops away, and the native purity of the soul begins to manifest itself. Everything is ours already — infinite purity, freedom, love, and power. The Vedanta also says that not only can this be realised in the depths of forests or caves, but by men in all possible conditions of life.

We have seen that the people who discovered these truths were neither living in caves nor forests, nor following the ordinary vocations of life, but men who, we have every reason to believe, led the busiest of lives, men who had to command armies, to sit on thrones, and look to the welfare of millions — and all these, in the days of absolute monarchy, and not as in these days when a king is to a great extent a mere figurehead. Yet they could find time to think out all these thoughts, to realise them, and to teach them to humanity. How much more then should it be practical for us whose lives, compared with theirs, are lives of leisure? That we cannot realise them is a shame to us, seeing that we are comparatively free all the time, having very little to do. My requirements are as nothing compared with those of an ancient absolute monarch. My wants are as nothing compared with the demands of Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, commanding a huge army; and yet he could find time in the midst of the din and turmoil of battle to talk the highest philosophy and to carry it into his life also. Surely we ought to be able to do as much in this life of ours — comparatively free, easy, and comfortable. Most of us here have more time than we think we have, if we really want to use it for good. With the amount of freedom we have we can attain to two hundred ideals in this life, if we will, but we must not degrade the ideal to the actual.

One of the most insinuating things comes to us in the shape of persons who apologise for our mistakes and teach us how to make special excuses for all our foolish wants and foolish desires; and we think that their ideal is the only ideal we need have. But it is not so. The Vedanta teaches no such thing. The actual should be reconciled to the ideal, the present life should be made to coincide with life eternal. For you must always remember that the one central ideal of Vedanta is this oneness. There are no two in anything, no two lives, nor even two different kinds of life for the two worlds. You will find the Vedas speaking of heavens and things like that at first; but later on, when they come to the highest ideals of their philosophy, they brush away all these things. There is but one life, one world, one existence. Everything is that One, the difference is in degree and not in kind. The difference between our lives is not in kind. The Vedanta entirely denies such ideas as that animals are separate from men, and that they were made and created by God to be used for our food.

Some people have been kind enough to start an antivivisection society. I asked a member, "Why do you think, my friend, that it is quite lawful to kill animals for food, and not to kill one or two for scientific experiments?" He replied, "Vivisection is most horrible, but animals have been given to us for food." Oneness includes all animals. If man's life is immortal, so also is the animal's. The difference is only in degree and not in kind. The amoeba and I are the same, the difference is only in degree; and from the standpoint of the highest life, all these differences vanish. A man may see a great deal of difference between grass and a little tree, but if you mount very high, the grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same. So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same. If you believe there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures must be the same. A God who is partial to his children called men, and cruel to his children called brute beasts, is worse than a demon. I would rather die a hundred times than worship such a God. My whole life would be a fight with such a God But there is no difference, and those who say there is, are irresponsible, heartless people who do not know. Here is a case of the word practical used in a wrong sense. I myself may not be a very strict vegetarian, but I understand the ideal.

When I eat meat I know it is wrong. Even if I am bound to eat it under certain circumstances, I know it is cruel. I must not drag my ideal down to the actual and apologise for my weak conduct in this way. The ideal is not to eat flesh, not to injure any being, for all animals are my brothers. If you can think of them as your brothers, you have made a little headway towards the brotherhood of all souls, not to speak of the brotherhood of man! That is child's play. You generally find that this is not very acceptable to many, because it teaches them to give up the actual, and go higher up to the ideal. But if you bring out a theory which is reconciled with their present conduct, they regard it as entirely practical. There is this strongly conservative tendency in human nature: we do not like to move one step forward. I think of mankind just as I read of persons who become frozen in snow; all such, they say, want to go to sleep, and if you try to drag them up, they say, "Let me sleep; it is so beautiful to sleep in the snow", and they die there in that sleep. So is our nature. That is what we are doing all our life, getting frozen from the feet upwards, and yet wanting to sleep. Therefore you must struggle towards the ideal, and if a man comes who wants to bring that ideal down to your level, and teach a religion that does not carry that highest ideal, do not listen to him. To me that is an impracticable religion. But if a man teaches a religion which presents the highest ideal, I am ready for him.

Beware when anyone is trying to apologise for sense vanities and sense weaknesses. If anyone wants to preach that way to us, poor, sense-bound clods of earth as we have made ourselves by following that teaching, we shall never progress. I have seen many of these things, have had some experience of the world, and my country is the land where religious sects grow like mushrooms. Every year new sects arise. But one thing I have marked, that it is only those that never want to reconcile the man of flesh with the man of truth that make progress. Wherever there is this false idea of reconciling fleshly vanities with the highest ideals, of dragging down God to the level of man, there comes decay. Man should not be degraded to worldly slavery, but should be raised up to God. At the same time, there is another side to the question. We must not look down with contempt on others. All of us are going towards the same goal. The difference between weakness and strength is one of degree; the difference between virtue and vice is one of degree, the difference between heaven and hell is one of degree, the difference between life and death is one of degree, all differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. All is One, which manifests Itself, either as thought, or life, or soul, or body, and the difference is only in degree. As such, we have no right to look down with contempt upon those who are not developed exactly in the same degree as we are. Condemn none; if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way. Dragging down and condemning is not the way to work. Never is work accomplished in that way. We spend our energies in condemning others. Criticism and condemnation is a vain way of spending our energies, for in the long run we come to learn that all are seeing the same thing, are more or less approaching the same ideal, and that most of our differences are merely differences of expression.

Take the idea of sin. I was telling you just now the Vedantic idea of it, and the other idea is that man is a sinner. They are practically the same, only the one takes the positive and the other the negative side. One shows to man his strength and the other his weakness. There may be weakness, says the Vedanta, but never mind, we want to grow. Disease was found out as soon as man was born. Everyone knows his disease; it requires no one to tell us what our diseases are. But thinking all the time that we are diseased will not cure us — medicine is necessary. We may forget anything outside, we may try to become hypocrites to the external world, but in our heart of hearts we all know our weaknesses. But, says the Vedanta, being reminded of weakness does not help much; give strength, and strength does not come by thinking of weakness all the time.

The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them. Instead of telling them they are sinners, the Vedanta takes the opposite position, and says, "You are pure and perfect, and what you call sin does not belong to you." Sins are very low degrees of Self-manifestation; manifest your Self in a high degree. That is the one thing to remember; all of us can do that. Never say, "No", never say, "I cannot", for you are infinite. Even time and space are as nothing compared with your nature. You can do anything and everything, you are almighty. These are the principles of ethics, but we shall now come down lower and work out the details. We shall see how this Vedanta can be carried into our everyday life, the city life, the country life, the national life, and the home life of every nation. For, if a religion cannot help man wherever he may be, wherever he stands, it is not of much use; it will remain only a theory for the chosen few. Religion, to help mankind, must be ready and able to help him in whatever condition he is, in servitude or in freedom, in the depths of degradation or on the heights of purity; everywhere, equally, it should be able to come to his aid.

The principles of Vedanta, or the ideal of religion, or whatever you may call it, will be fulfilled by its capacity for performing this great function. The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves. Born with the consciousness that they were to be great, they became great. Let a man go down as low as possible; there must come a time when out of sheer desperation he will take an upward curve and will learn to have faith in himself. But it is better for us that we should know it from the very first. Why should we have all these bitter experiences in order to gain faith in ourselves? We can see that all the difference between man and man is owing to the existence or non-existence of faith in himself. Faith in ourselves will do everything. I have experienced it in my own life, and am still doing so; and as I grow older that faith is becoming stronger and stronger. He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself. But it is not selfish faith because the Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means faith in all, because you are all. Love for yourselves means love for all, love for animals, love for everything, for you are all one. It is the great faith which will make the world better. I am sure of that. He is the highest man who can say with truth, "I know all about myself."

Do you know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces are still lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man first came here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness. "This Âtman is first to be heard of." Hear day and night that you are that Soul. Repeat it to yourselves day and night till it enters into your very veins, till it tingles in every drop of blood, till it is in your flesh and bone. Let the whole body be full of that one ideal, "I am the birthless, the deathless, the blissful, the omniscient, the omnipotent, ever-glorious Soul." Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes part and parcel of your life. Meditate upon it, and out of that will come work. "Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh," and out of the fullness of the heart the hand worketh also. Action will come. Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of the thought.

If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory. Would to God no superstitions had been put into your head! Would to God we had not been surrounded from our birth by all these superstitious influences and paralysing ideas of our weakness and vileness! Would to God that mankind had had an easier path through which to attain to the noblest and highest truths! But man had to pass through all this; do not make the path more difficult for those who are coming after you. These are sometimes terrible doctrines to teach. I know people who get frightened at these ideas, but for those who want to be practical, this is the first thing to learn. Never tell yourselves or others that you are weak. Do good if you can, but do not injure the world. You know in your inmost heart that many of your limited ideas, this humbling of yourself and praying and weeping to imaginary beings are superstitions. Tell me one case where these prayers have been answered. All the answers that came were from your own hearts.

You know there are no ghosts, but no sooner are you in the dark than you feel a little creepy sensation. That is so because in our childhood we have had all these fearful ideas put into our heads. But do not teach these things to others through fear of society and public opinion, through fear of incurring the hatred of friends, or for fear of losing cherished superstitions. Be masters of all these. What is there to be taught more in religion than the oneness of the universe and faith in one's self? All the works of mankind for thousands of years past have been towards this one goal, and mankind is yet working it out. It is your turn now and you already know the truth. For it has been taught on all sides. Not only philosophy and psychology, but materialistic sciences have declared it. Where is the scientific man today who fears to acknowledge the truth of this oneness of the universe? Who is there who dares talk of many worlds? All these are superstitions.

There is only one life and one world, and this one life and one world is appearing to us as manifold. This manifoldness is like a dream. When you dream, one dream passes away and another comes. You do not live in your dreams. The dreams come one after another, scene after scene unfolds before you. So it is in this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent happiness. Perhaps after a while it will appear as ninety per cent happiness, and we shall call it heaven, but a time comes to the sage when the whole thing vanishes, and this world appears as God Himself, and his own soul as God. It is not therefore that there are many worlds, it is not that there are many lives. All this manifoldness is the manifestation of that One. That One is manifesting Himself as many, as matter, spirit, mind, thought, and everything else. It is that One, manifesting Himself as many.

Therefore the first step for us to take is to teach the truth to ourselves and to others. Let the world resound with this ideal, and let superstitions vanish. Tell it to men who are weak and persist in telling it. You are the Pure One; awake and arise, O mighty one, this sleep does not become you. Awake and arise, it does not befit you. Think not that you are weak and miserable. Almighty, arise and awake, and manifest your own nature. It is not fitting that you think yourself a sinner. It is not fitting that you think yourself weak. Say that to the world, say it to yourselves, and see what a practical result comes, see how with an electric flash everything is manifested, how everything is changed. Tell that to mankind, and show them their power. Then we shall learn how to apply it in our daily lives. To be able to use what we call Viveka (discrimination), to learn how in every moment of our lives, in every one of our actions, to discriminate between what is right and wrong, true and false, we shall have to know the test of truth, which is purity, oneness.

Everything that makes for oneness is truth. Love is truth, and hatred is false, because hatred makes for multiplicity. It is hatred that separates man from man; therefore it is wrong and false. It is a disintegrating power; it separates and destroys. Love binds, love makes for that oneness. You become one, the mother with the child, families with the city, the whole world becomes one with the animals. For love is Existence, God Himself; and all this is the manifestation of that One Love, more or less expressed. The difference is only in degree, but it is the manifestation of that One Love throughout. Therefore in all our actions we have to judge whether it is making for diversity or for oneness. If for diversity we have to give it up, but if it makes for oneness we are sure it is good. So with our thoughts; we have to decide whether they make for disintegration, multiplicity, or for oneness, binding soul to soul and bringing one influence to bear. If they do this, we will take them up, and if not, we will throw them off as criminal.

The whole idea of ethics is that it does not depend on anything unknowable, it does not teach anything unknown, but in the language of the Upanishad, "The God whom you worship as an unknown God, the same I preach unto thee." It is through the Self that you know anything. I see the chair; but to see the chair, I have first to perceive myself and then the chair. It is in and through the Self that the chair is perceived. It is in and through the Self that you are known to me, that the whole world is known to me; and therefore to say this Self is unknown is sheer nonsense. Take off the Self and the whole universe vanishes. In and through the Self all knowledge comes. Therefore it is the best known of all. It is yourself, that which you call I. You may wonder how this I of me can be the I of you. You may wonder how this limited I can be the unlimited Infinite, but it is so. The limited is a mere fiction. The Infinite has been covered up, as it were, and a little of It is manifesting as the I. Limitation can never come upon the unlimited; it is a fiction.

The Self is known, therefore, to every one of us — man, woman, or child — and even to animals. Without knowing Him we can neither live nor move, nor have our being; without knowing this Lord of all, we cannot breathe or live a second. The God of the Vedanta is the most known of all and is not the outcome of imagination. If this is not preaching a practical God, how else could you teach a practical God? Where is there a more practical God than He whom I see before me — a God omnipresent, in every being, more real than our senses? For you are He, the Omnipresent God Almighty, the Soul of your souls, and if I say you are not, I tell an untruth. I know it, whether at all times I realise it or not. He is the Oneness, the Unity of all, the Reality of all life and all existence. These ideas of the ethics of Vedanta have to be worked out in detail, and, therefore, you must have patience. As I have told you, we want to take the subject in detail and work it up thoroughly, to see how the ideas grow from very low ideals, and how the one great Ideal of oneness has developed and become shaped into the universal love; and we ought to study these in order to avoid dangers.

The world cannot find time to work it up from the lowest steps. But what is the use of our standing on higher steps if we cannot give the truth to others coming afterwards? Therefore, it is better to study it in all its workings; and first, it is absolutely necessary to clear the intellectual portion, although we know that intellectuality is almost nothing; for it is the heart that is of most importance. It is through the heart that the Lord is seen, and not through the intellect. The intellect is only the street-cleaner, cleansing the path for us, a secondary worker, the policeman; but the policeman is not a positive necessity for the workings of society. He is only to stop disturbances, to check wrong-doing, and that is all the work required of the intellect.

When you read intellectual books, you think when you have mastered them, "Bless the Lord that I am out of them", because the intellect is blind and cannot move of itself, it has neither hands nor feet. It is feeling that works, that moves with speed infinitely superior to that of electricity or anything else. Do you feel? — that is the question. If you do, you will see the Lord: It is the feeling that you have today that will be intensified, deified, raised to the highest platform, until it feels everything, the oneness in everything, till it feels God in itself and in others. The intellect can never do that. "Different methods of speaking words, different methods of explaining the texts of books, these are for the enjoyment of the learned, not for the salvation of the soul" (Vivekachudâmani, 58). Those of you who have read Thomas a Kempis know how in every page he insists on this, and almost every holy man in the world has insisted on it. Intellect is necessary, for without it we fall into crude errors and make all sorts of mistakes. Intellect checks these; but beyond that, do not try to build anything upon it. It is an inactive, secondary help; the real help is feeling, love. Do you feel for others? If you do, you are growing in oneness. If you do not feel for others, you may be the most intellectual giant ever born, but you will be nothing; you are but dry intellect, and you will remain so. And if you feel, even if you cannot read any book and do not know any language, you are in the right way.

The Lord is yours. Do you not know from the history of the world where the power of the prophets lay? Where was it? In the intellect? Did any of them write a fine book on philosophy, on the most intricate ratiocinations of logic? Not one of them. They only spoke a few words. Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. Intellect is like limbs without the power of locomotion. It is only when feeling enters and gives them motion that they move and work on others. That is so all over the world, and it is a thing which you must always remember. It is one of the most practical things in Vedantic morality, for it is the teaching of the Vedanta that you are all prophets, arid all must be prophets. The book is not the proof of your conduct, but you are the proof of the book. How do you know that a book teaches truth? Because you are truth and feel it. That is what the Vedanta says.

What is the proof of the Christs and Buddhas of the world? That you and I feel like them. That is how you and I understand that they were true. Our prophet-soul is the proof of their prophet-soul. Your godhead is the proof of God Himself. If you are not a prophet, there never has been anything true of God. If you are not God, there never was any God, and never will be. This, says the Vedanta, is the ideal to follow. Every one of us will have to become a prophet, and you are that already. Only know it. Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”





I cannot imagine anyone not being inspired by what they have just read. I am impacted to the very base of my being by what is written here. I pray that the same may be true for those of you capable of sifting the meaning from what has been said and integrating it into your consciousness as the truth that it is.

I mentioned a personal note earlier. Our long time reader and personal friend, Robert Hitt is still hospitalized and recovering from a stroke and other concerns. By God's grace he may yet be mobile among us again. I know the profound power that is prayer and I ask all that may be willing to seek out the ear of our creator and ask for his help in this matter. Also, long time reader and friend, Robert Pyle and his wife- Friedom. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. They are experiencing great emotional and physical distress, most especially Friedom. All three of these good souls could use the great good that prayer generates when spoken from a believing heart. I appeal to all of you so inclined to add your prayers to mine that their suffering should be short or even miraculously ended. Thank you!


End Transmission.......

20 comments:

Duane Riley said...

Such a beautiful and lovely Petri Dish article Mr. Visible. Prayers and good thoughts sent to the creator on behalf of Robert Hitt, Robert Pyle and wife Friedom. I myself had recently lost my wife of 21 years to cancer, will be exactly 5 weeks tomorrow. It is such a hard thing to go through but I am happy and most assured that I will see her again :).
Much love,
Eskimo Joe

Visible said...

That is the only sane attitude to have and Yes! You most certainly will.

Beun said...

Great read! I am pleased that these teachings parallel those of Joel Goldsmith who writes of the Infinite Way. We are indeed infinite and only need to realize the truth.

Ray B. said...

Vis, a good, deep column. Thanks!

On Notre Dame: A couple of decades back, I was lucky enough to make a short visit to Bangkok. Even more luckily for me, the main Buddhist meditation hall in the ancient city was shut down for renovation. During this period, tourists were allowed into this normally monks-only area. Well, the 'vibes' were outstanding! I wanted to slip into a meditation state, just walking in. Powerful...

This gets to the ESP-ish concept of Psychometry. This is where events result in the 'imprinting' of objects or spaces - good or bad. Ever walked into a place and immediately felt good or bad about it? Psychometry. Ever picked up an object and known intuitively how/when/why it was used? Psychometry.

Notre Dame has been used for prayer/devotion/ceremony since the 1200s. That's a lot of 'imprinting'. I haven't been to Notre Dame, but a number of religious/spiritual assembly places have had these wonderful vibes (or terrible vibes: I visited the Coliseum in Rome). I suspect the same would be true for Notre Dame.

Now, if you wanted to retain the 'imprinting' within Notre Dame, you would do the absolute minimum of clean-up/rebuilding. (You might even want to bring-in an individual with strong Psychometry sense to say, "Leave this area alone.") This would leave the conditioning vibes in place (like in the Bangkok main meditation hall). It would continue to 'feel' holy, uplifting, and spiritual.

On the other hand, if you wanted to alter/destroy the 'imprinting' within Notre Dame, you would do the opposite. In this case, the larger the makeover the better. "Kill it with kindness" might be the best term. The clean-up/rebuilding might even 'target' areas of high vibes and such.

At the end, the huge amount of donated money might produce a renewed-but-sterile edifice. Magnificent, but somehow 'empty feeling'. That might be the deeper plan here...

---

On the Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda: "The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first. As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not believe in a Personal God outside of himself is an atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist. Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism" is well said. Most people will not say it as it is truly meant. Congrats to SV for standing firm...

(The one area I disagree with is his "You know there are no ghosts..." [in the context of confronting one's fears]. If he meant that literally, I have had a different experience. I have 'seen' several ghosts, and Higher Self has convinced a few to return to all-God, Source, or whatever. A few ghosts were even happy with what they were doing 'down here', so were given a tip-of-the-hat and left to do their thing. One was a Druid man guarding the entrance to Avebury, one was a Celtic woman guarding a sacred well in northern England, and one was a Mother Superior guarding Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. There is even a 'special' class of near-ghosts, whose physical bodies are gone but who are existing quite-happily in their etheric body rather than as an 'earth-bound spirit'. These types seem to be more associated with spiritually-evolved groups like Druids and Asian monks. Cool.)

Best Wishes,
Ray B.

Anonymous said...

Very powerfull

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Les for yet again another deeply inspiring read.
Thanks & Prayers given.
All the best,
Bill

Love To Push Those Buttons said...

Book 2 really hit home. Wonderful post, as usual. (99.9999999999% The other two that I thought were 'meh', I wouldn't have missed for the world, though.)

nick said...

Great, Powerful message and beautiful in it's simplicity. Vedanta and the Holy Road to Truth here we come and here we are. Love and Light-Nick

robert said...

Dear Visible,

Swami Vivekananda’s writings support the message from The Impersonal Life

Your godhead is the proof of God Himself. If you are not a prophet, there never has been anything true of God. If you are not God, there never was any God, and never will be. This, says the Vedanta, is the ideal to follow. Every one of us will have to become a prophet, and you are that already. Only know it. Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”

The challenge to the soul's desires from the temporal self's fearful clinging to the appearance of order, may inspire inappropriate harshness in the lessons necessary.

Somehow, our minds, driven by the desire to "do it myself", are deluded into taking a flamethrower to the place of self-control, in an attempt at spring cleaning!

This temple dweller has been taught to punish the self in absurd examples of tough love!

Yet Visible and others remind us not to reject or resist our fantasy self (the self usurping the Self) but to love it, to ground it in the Being of the One, somehow!

We may perhaps admire the cleverness of the implanted limiters of mind control, which has fooled even those who know better, into browbeating the little self with attitude, instead of surrendering our little wills to a greater Will in mercy.

Everything, every event, thought and feeling is to call us back to being more than mere meat puppets serving the mass mind's false version of reality just to “get along”...

Easy but painful to examine the mess our finite thinking has made of the promise of our lives, even if we note the constant mercy applied to our hard cases!

We all keep down our rising consciousness in order to pretend that we are not enough, not worthy to serve the greater good because of all our flaws and mistakes, to put off the taking up of the responsibility to relate to the infinite One.

When the dawn arrives when we see in stark clarity that we have been the ones condemning our hearts to serve an insane partial mindset and throwing away our precious time to relate to the Infinite in a misery of ignorant choices.

Our unbelief is fatal, time and time again, yet irrationally, we prefer the pain of being irresponsible with our lives to the growing pains of letting go of our childish things, those mental/emotional strategies which worked expediently when we were first trying to stand up.

The big picture is simply overwhelming to the heart in the death grip of a finite mind.

No wonder we resist leaving our perceived place in the unconscious order that used to provide comforting familiarity, for a high drama in which we must find the Strength and the Will of the One in order to be effective while remaining among the living!

1/2

robert said...

2/2

What can incent us to leave the illusive comfort of spiritual childhood for an unknown path?

When there is not enough of the illusion left for the mind to lie soothingly to the heart, trying to rally more heartbeats into walking another mile alone in the deadly mindset of the isolated self.

When nothing satisfies anymore, even for a few minutes.

When our fierce hearts rebel with conviction against the superficial, unsatisfying life.

When compassion for the very evident suffering of our other aspects commands the soul to fully inhabit, to fully concentrate, to fully realize its place in the real world, beyond the will of selfish humans.

The longer we resist the call from the One to join the party and leave the death trap, the more painful.

When we can no longer bear to go on being led by our illusions, the emotional math comes out differently and we see only one way to live.

Then, finally we choose to live in the larger life of the One.

Too scary if we still see ourselves as resource-limited beings but refreshing to the heart waiting to fully believe in unlimited Life!

Only unity is life!

Diversity is but a mean-spirited illusion designed to reduce all beauty to offal shit, so that those without a light body can enjoy their misery without invidious comparison to those who, knowingly or not, are of the light body of the One.

This aspect of the One is deeply grateful for all seekers of the One!

May we be fulfilled by what we find!



Visible said...

Thank you Robert-

AS the ineffable says to me every day- "rely on me. Rely on me. Rely on me." It doesn't matter what I say or what I ask- Often it is, "asked and answered, rely on me!" and then I often have to laugh. It just doesn't change.

GregS said...

Hi Les
much was said and there is much food for thought, many truths spoken but not every truth. (We are still very much in the age of darkness.)

Indeed true, it seems we are all soular systems, animals, bugs and critters included. As it is rather the soular system as a dipole field that grants sentience at the base level and it is our soul, where woman is a portal, that grants us divinity and eternity.

But at the moment we are still crawling on all fours as mere godling on the relative scale of things. To 'know ghod is there' we may certainly need to feel it with our hearts, but to take command the system and sustain ourselves in a chamber of our own generation, nature has it, is going to require the skill set of advanced intellect.

Greg



Visible said...

Nearly EVERY time I see someone having conflict with something someone else said, it is always a conflict of and confusion of terms. People take a meaning from things said that wasn't intended and then they expand on it, although that wasn't what the person meant in the first place and the world as we know and do not know it is the result of that. Anyway... moving right along.

Skenny said...

Visible:

I loved this post!! It makes so much sense... so logically right.

As to your friends, I came across the wonders of fasting (distilled water only, no food) for many, many ailments. Here's some good articles that talk about the underlying tenets of Natural Hygiene:

http://naturalhygienesociety.org/articles/classics4.html

Visible, I'm pretty sure the perspective for Natural Hygiene will resonate with you.

Cheers,

Skenny

For fasting articles: http://naturalhygienesociety.org/articles/classics3.html

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this inspiring message yet again. Here is my current dilemma . I have been attending some bible studies.
The interpreter reads from passages in the Bible and the Bible says we are dust and sinners and we will be resurrected at the second coming. In the meantime we sleep, the Bible does not mention soul or our spirit rising before such a time. It is disturbing to me , Eastern beliefs have always rang true to me, while the Bible makes me sad in respect to Death and also who we are in life. Which is not spiritual beings having a human experience. It is just confusing and hard to reconcile the two. If you could shed some light on this it would be appreciated.
Reggie

Visible said...

Reggie;

I was just treating with something of this nature yesterday. When we try to understand anything; as it is and apart as itself, in the mix of other things, as something referenced at a distance but not experienced, we are always having to deal with 'terms'. We are always confronted with the way in which something is described by someone else and invariably we become a house-guest of the subjective. We see and interpret things, concepts, images and the like, according to a general social and cultural awareness of it- it gets shaped by the minds through which it has passed and it gets bound or grounded by the majority impression. None of any of it is true.

Anyone can say something and in their mind be seeing it very similar to how you might be seeing it but the terms used to describe it can vary widely from a common similarity that might exist before words got into the picture.

The first thing to do is to not be confused. In other words, don't wrestle with someone else's impression of something. Just stay centered in the fundamental, "I don't know." This might seem to be in conflict with coming to a better understanding about anything but... so long as you know, God does not. The moment you know, God steps back and says, "Fine! What is is. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks it is. It is what it is."

When you don't know, God does know and is then in a position to 'inform you' on that or on any matter. God is the repository and reservoir of all knowledge, of all knowing, period.

You cannot pour more water into a vessel that is already filled. You have to empty out the vessel. In times of material darkness, we live in a world of know it alls. There are experts everywhere whose entire body of knowledge is based on a false premise to begin with.

It is extraordinarily difficult to explain something like 'the indwelling presence' to anyone who is not in the possession of it, or possessed by it. Once again, 'it is what it is' and it radiates what it is in a profound impact of itself upon the mind considering it, where words most assuredly fall short.

The saving grace is that the indwelling presence is there, whether you are aware of it or not. So... what one does is to 'constantly' remind themselves that it is there. It is a kind of 'prayer without ceasing'. Sooner or later, the constant remembering. the constant calling to mind, WILL RESULT in the experience of it. This has happened to me so I am speaking in the affirmation of that occurrence.

If you set out for Kansas City and you take the proper roads, which any map can provide you with the details of; you will get to Kansas City, just as you will get anywhere you head off to. You won't get there before you get there... though............... in this case, Kansas City is everywhere and one has only to remind themselves of that. Don't worry about how so and so explained this and/or that. Don't argue in your head about anything. Pour out the water and wait- in the meantime, celebrate it. Its arrival is a certainty. It is ALREADY THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving right along...

Visible said...

A new Visible Origami is up now-

The Power of God is Limitless and the Power of God is Love.

Anonymous said...

From Bill C.
Reading through this most excellent post to include the comments was enlightening!! Drifting from here to other tomes that caught my eye in recent days produced this synchronistic video that just blew me away in all the good Dr. espouses as being true. I was awe struck that a gentleman with this much service to mankind was able to discern about our sojourn here!! Enjoy! Enjoy!! (never learned to link)
https://www.youcanhealyourlifesummit.com/lessons/you-never-experience-true-death?utm_campaign=aff_3854%3F

Sincerely
Bill C

GregS said...

Sentience is a soular system. We all have soul. All sentient being has a soul. This a major revelation and would represent a major paradigm shift from a lot of peoples current position.

That you pulled it in, to my eye, posits you as correct. I just extrapolated to the next point to underscore and expand.

Cheers. :-)

Ty said...

I got to see my true self for a few minutes the other day, man it felt like I was reuniting with God after a lifetime of neglect and abuse, except it was my true self.

sad thing is, it is god that doesn't allow me to do that for very long. I went hiking the other day and did some prayers for a while and he decided to remove his demonic entities from me for a short while. He stopped killing children in my mind quite a while ago, so things are slowly improving especially after I kick the living shit out of him in all self respect and respect for others.

Thanks so much for your understanding pal, you're so swell. I am just grateful that someone out there has it well.





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