Don Quixote
Moby Dick
War and Peace Has Been Read
Anna Karenina
Brothers Karamazov
Vanity Fair Has Been Read
Tom Jones Has Been Read
Crime and Punishment Has Been Read
Ulysses
Magic Mountain
The Idiot
The Possessed
Pride and Prejudice Has Been Read
Emma
Persuasion
Père Goriot
The Woman in White
Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamamable
Herzog
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Master and the Margarita
The Stranger Has Been Read
Journey to the End of the Night
Nostromo
Deerslayer
The Red Badge of Courage Has Been Read
Robinson Crusoe
Moll Flanders
David Copperfield
Sister Carrie
The Count of Monte Cristo
Middlemarch
Invisible Man
As I Lay Dying Has Been Read
Light in August Has Been Read
The Sound and the Fury
Absalom, Absalom!
The Great Gatsby Has Been Read
Tender is the Night
Madame Bovary Has Been Read
The Recognitions
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Sorrows of Young Werther
Dead Souls
Hunger Has Been Read
U.S.A. Trilogy
The Scarlet Letter Has Been Read
A Farewell to Arms Has Been Read
Steppenwolf
Clarissa
Les Misérables
Brave New World Has Been Read
The Ambassadors
The Castle
The Trial
Kim
A Separate Peace Has Been Read
The Tin Drum
The Leopard
Women in Love
Babbitt
The Call of the Wild Has Been Read
Doctor Faustus
I Promessi Sposi
Of Human Bondage
Tropic of Cancer Has Been Read
The Man Without Qualities
Lolita
At Swim-Two-Birds
Nineteen Eighty-Four Has Been Read
Gravity's Rainbow
All Quiet on the Western Front Has Been Read
The Catcher in the Rye Has Been Read
Juliette Has Been Read
Rob Roy
Frankenstein
And Quiet Flows the Don
Angle of Repose
The Red and the Black Has Been Read
The Charterhouse of Parma
Tristram Shandy
Gulliver's Travels
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Cossacks
Fathers and Sons
Huckleberry Finn Has Been Read
Slaughterhouse-Five Has Been Read
Brideshead Revisited
The Day of the Locust
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Mrs. Dalloway Has Been Read
Germinal
The Age of Innocence
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Has Been Read
Decline and Fall
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Resurrection
On the Road
Naked Lunch
10.31.2008
prophet, priest, and king
Looking back you can see how the school demands a complete education.
One talks of reading Calvin and biblical doctrine at the highest, most comprehensive level, and the world says: "That is what people who are going into the ministry do!"
One talks of war and law and government and wealth, and the world says: "Pick one!"
One talks of the Work and increasing level of being and engaging the Bible to an absolute degree, and the world says: "Lighten up!"
But what it is is the education of one who is a prophet, priest, and king.
One can get drawn into it without realizing the all-encompassing nature of the program one finds oneself involved in.
One talks of reading Calvin and biblical doctrine at the highest, most comprehensive level, and the world says: "That is what people who are going into the ministry do!"
One talks of war and law and government and wealth, and the world says: "Pick one!"
One talks of the Work and increasing level of being and engaging the Bible to an absolute degree, and the world says: "Lighten up!"
But what it is is the education of one who is a prophet, priest, and king.
One can get drawn into it without realizing the all-encompassing nature of the program one finds oneself involved in.
10.30.2008
Book 22 of the Odyssey (those 12 women)
Think about this: in Book 22 of the Odyssey, when Odysseus finally slaughters the suiters and clears out his Palace of their presence (they are the Many 'I's) there is the episode at the end of the book where he uses the 12 maids (a specific number) who had been having sex with the suiters and had been generally promiscuous in sporting with them and all that in Odysseus' absence to clean the palace of the dead and the blood, and then he and Telemachus take the 12 maids out and hang them all from the same rope.
It seems so cruel, but it's because they were foundational to the chaos.
There are alot of little details in this episode that will bear pondering on, but the overall meaning within the context of the Work and the Palace being Odysseus' inner being is those 12 sexually 'boundery crossing' or promiscuous maids represent the sex center of the inner being when it is operating where it shouldn't (sexual energy operating in centers where it doesn't belong) and is contributing to the chaos of the lower centers in sleeping man. And there are 12 of them because there are 12 divisions in the four centers: instinctive, moving, emotional, intellectual.
This goes back to my seeing the Work in full in the Odyssey which I wrote about on one of the yahoo forums way back when. This episode just struck me in its meaning though.
It seems so cruel, but it's because they were foundational to the chaos.
There are alot of little details in this episode that will bear pondering on, but the overall meaning within the context of the Work and the Palace being Odysseus' inner being is those 12 sexually 'boundery crossing' or promiscuous maids represent the sex center of the inner being when it is operating where it shouldn't (sexual energy operating in centers where it doesn't belong) and is contributing to the chaos of the lower centers in sleeping man. And there are 12 of them because there are 12 divisions in the four centers: instinctive, moving, emotional, intellectual.
This goes back to my seeing the Work in full in the Odyssey which I wrote about on one of the yahoo forums way back when. This episode just struck me in its meaning though.
10.28.2008
I see unpleasant things in myself
I've been reading some of the comment threads on older posts on my Plain Path Puritan blog (I did get some comments at times), and I'm surprised at how bizarrely knuckleheaded I come across at times. Especially when I couldn't recognize when someone was coming on in a way to intentionally be not hostile like the others and I'd, as if in a daze of 'everybody is the enemy', slam the person. Responding like I was continually under a hail of stones. And I notice that I'd often not answer direct questions which is something I've complained about in others.
Of course I don't know the context now, I mean being called a psycho and a liar 400 times by trolls can make you hyper defensive and hyper aggressive at the same time, but it's really not a 'me' that I like seeing (and I know it IS me).
Writing with understatement and little to no emotional volatility is a mark of a mainstream, or mature, voice. I'm all overstatement and high energy volatility. I can write the other way, but I default to the latter when I don't care and am just being me.
I kind of interact with people as if I'm never going to have to interact with them again. Actually one guy wrote a description of me, and he was just purely going on what he read on PPP (explaining the context would take too much time) and he kind of nailed me. He wrote, about me, on another blog:
"That would be sad indeed if that blog [Plain Path Puritan] was Robert T’s [he meant Robert K's, a name I was using on another blog]. But then again, sometimes the emotionally and psychologically unstable, who find self-justification for their unpleasant personalities by separating from “evil” people and seeing black and white in everything, have been spot on historically in some of their critiques. Anne Hutchinson did rightly discern the legalism in the New England churches, though she was somewhat nutty herself."
This guy proved to have some understanding in other things he wrote on the blog we were both commenting on at the time, before I was banned. When I was banned he announced he would leave too (a comrade!, no, actually I think he just wanted to get back to his daily work). But his words above do describe me: "But then again, sometimes the emotionally and psychologically unstable, who find self-justification for their unpleasant personalities by separating from “evil” people and seeing black and white in everything, have been spot on historically in some of their critiques."
It's hard to gauge just how much you are responsible for having an unpleasant personality and how much of it is a result from conditioning from all the friction that occurs when you are truly developing, not to mention the spiritual warfare crap you receive from the world simply because you have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit (big crime!).
Another difficultly is seeing the 'black and white' thing. Because, when you try to see everything in shades of gray you can lose your discernment of on-the-mark/off-the-mark. Separation becomes mixture becomes 'back in the fun house' and nothing is real or important!
And the two big subjects I've been involved in that has shown up this unpleasant personality in me is the Work, and biblical doctrine. Two subjects where being in the watery middle is the same as being in dead sleep and the devil's camp.
Switching to real life, I HAVE been conditioned to hate people though. I mean, I just *may* be a hater. You should hear me in traffic. Everybody's an annoying moron. I guess I'm doing that 'making requirements' thing, which I added to my list of features of false personality only after Simon brought it to my attention. I didn't see it because that's what I do. MY CHIEF FEATURE! FINALLY FOUND!
I should just tone it down.
Of course I don't know the context now, I mean being called a psycho and a liar 400 times by trolls can make you hyper defensive and hyper aggressive at the same time, but it's really not a 'me' that I like seeing (and I know it IS me).
Writing with understatement and little to no emotional volatility is a mark of a mainstream, or mature, voice. I'm all overstatement and high energy volatility. I can write the other way, but I default to the latter when I don't care and am just being me.
I kind of interact with people as if I'm never going to have to interact with them again. Actually one guy wrote a description of me, and he was just purely going on what he read on PPP (explaining the context would take too much time) and he kind of nailed me. He wrote, about me, on another blog:
"That would be sad indeed if that blog [Plain Path Puritan] was Robert T’s [he meant Robert K's, a name I was using on another blog]. But then again, sometimes the emotionally and psychologically unstable, who find self-justification for their unpleasant personalities by separating from “evil” people and seeing black and white in everything, have been spot on historically in some of their critiques. Anne Hutchinson did rightly discern the legalism in the New England churches, though she was somewhat nutty herself."
This guy proved to have some understanding in other things he wrote on the blog we were both commenting on at the time, before I was banned. When I was banned he announced he would leave too (a comrade!, no, actually I think he just wanted to get back to his daily work). But his words above do describe me: "But then again, sometimes the emotionally and psychologically unstable, who find self-justification for their unpleasant personalities by separating from “evil” people and seeing black and white in everything, have been spot on historically in some of their critiques."
It's hard to gauge just how much you are responsible for having an unpleasant personality and how much of it is a result from conditioning from all the friction that occurs when you are truly developing, not to mention the spiritual warfare crap you receive from the world simply because you have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit (big crime!).
Another difficultly is seeing the 'black and white' thing. Because, when you try to see everything in shades of gray you can lose your discernment of on-the-mark/off-the-mark. Separation becomes mixture becomes 'back in the fun house' and nothing is real or important!
And the two big subjects I've been involved in that has shown up this unpleasant personality in me is the Work, and biblical doctrine. Two subjects where being in the watery middle is the same as being in dead sleep and the devil's camp.
Switching to real life, I HAVE been conditioned to hate people though. I mean, I just *may* be a hater. You should hear me in traffic. Everybody's an annoying moron. I guess I'm doing that 'making requirements' thing, which I added to my list of features of false personality only after Simon brought it to my attention. I didn't see it because that's what I do. MY CHIEF FEATURE! FINALLY FOUND!
I should just tone it down.
10.24.2008
The Bible and classical music
How many times I've read a book of the Bible, set it down, and then let it disappear out of mind as I plaster my attention on the everyday world around me.
When you don't ponder what you've read it disappears. There is, of course, the initial impact of reading the Bible for the first and second and third time. The big fact of it gets into you.
But to get it in memory like a symphony requires pondering it after you set it down.
That is a good analogy. When you *know* a work of classical music you can draw it's movements and musical themes up into memory. You can see and hear its whole.
To get this with Bible books requires a more diverse approach (since each book contains different kinds of material).
I recently read Philippians. After setting it down I pondered what I'd just read and what came to mind was the statement Paul makes that whatever you need ask God for it; and to be equally content whether you are in a good situation or in a bad. In so many words (the words in the AV are much better, but I didn't just look up the passage, yet it's there for the finding).
So that is something I have in memory for Philippians. It's a start for that book (that work of music).
My goal is to know each book as I currently know Beethoven's 3rd or 7th Symphony...
When you don't ponder what you've read it disappears. There is, of course, the initial impact of reading the Bible for the first and second and third time. The big fact of it gets into you.
But to get it in memory like a symphony requires pondering it after you set it down.
That is a good analogy. When you *know* a work of classical music you can draw it's movements and musical themes up into memory. You can see and hear its whole.
To get this with Bible books requires a more diverse approach (since each book contains different kinds of material).
I recently read Philippians. After setting it down I pondered what I'd just read and what came to mind was the statement Paul makes that whatever you need ask God for it; and to be equally content whether you are in a good situation or in a bad. In so many words (the words in the AV are much better, but I didn't just look up the passage, yet it's there for the finding).
So that is something I have in memory for Philippians. It's a start for that book (that work of music).
My goal is to know each book as I currently know Beethoven's 3rd or 7th Symphony...
10.10.2008
Hammering the Bible into essence
Hammering the Bible into essence.
A practical thing to do is to hammer the Bible into essence. Get it past the shell of personality and directly into essence.
I've had experience with this with psalms which I meditated on while walking and self-remembering. These are moments that I can remember to this day. I would often visualize images to accompany the verses, but just having higher energy and devoting real meditation on the Word at hand does it.
Imagine having that fire from higher energy and hammering the entire Word of God into essence and having it in essence pure and whole and complete.
Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
A practical thing to do is to hammer the Bible into essence. Get it past the shell of personality and directly into essence.
I've had experience with this with psalms which I meditated on while walking and self-remembering. These are moments that I can remember to this day. I would often visualize images to accompany the verses, but just having higher energy and devoting real meditation on the Word at hand does it.
Imagine having that fire from higher energy and hammering the entire Word of God into essence and having it in essence pure and whole and complete.
10.04.2008
From B to C Influence
Once you have chased B Influences to their summit (and you have exhausted A Influences or seen their limits and all that), then you have C Influence left. And to be in contact with C Influence you simply have to be in the third state of consciousness (self-remembering, non-identifying).
So B Influence is exhausted? Good! A rare accomplishment. Now you only have C Influence to chase and work with.
But you don't know what that means *concretely*? Just a little bit, but not much? So, that just means you are a beginner in it. What is analogous to engaging B Influences regarding the realm of C Influence? Reading books and building understanding is to C Influence how? Building one's inner bodies?
The influence of C Influence is Providence? That is a non-concrete statement, but yet that doesn't means there is no truth in it. The moving world of things and events? Does it include general revelation? Probably it's more in the realm of special revelation since C Influence involves actual contact with the source.
But when you are in actual contact with the source it requires a level of circumspection and responsibility and seriousness that can be taxing, no? Yes! One reason why we avoid this *contact with C Influence*? One reason. Maybe a bigger reason than we think.
Especially when you're no longer in the innocent stage. In the more advanced stage where you *know* what is happening and what you are getting in to more is required of you. "Wait a minute, I can get myself killed here! I've gotta be awake...!"
I'm on a battlefield...
Building being...
In actual contact with C Influence...which is not necessarily pleasant as we can see in the Homeric epics. Athena helped Odysseus, and she also smashed his ships... All for a purpose that was going in the same direction...
So B Influence is exhausted? Good! A rare accomplishment. Now you only have C Influence to chase and work with.
But you don't know what that means *concretely*? Just a little bit, but not much? So, that just means you are a beginner in it. What is analogous to engaging B Influences regarding the realm of C Influence? Reading books and building understanding is to C Influence how? Building one's inner bodies?
The influence of C Influence is Providence? That is a non-concrete statement, but yet that doesn't means there is no truth in it. The moving world of things and events? Does it include general revelation? Probably it's more in the realm of special revelation since C Influence involves actual contact with the source.
But when you are in actual contact with the source it requires a level of circumspection and responsibility and seriousness that can be taxing, no? Yes! One reason why we avoid this *contact with C Influence*? One reason. Maybe a bigger reason than we think.
Especially when you're no longer in the innocent stage. In the more advanced stage where you *know* what is happening and what you are getting in to more is required of you. "Wait a minute, I can get myself killed here! I've gotta be awake...!"
I'm on a battlefield...
Building being...
In actual contact with C Influence...which is not necessarily pleasant as we can see in the Homeric epics. Athena helped Odysseus, and she also smashed his ships... All for a purpose that was going in the same direction...
From an intro to the Brothers Karamazov
I won't type it out because it's too long, but the intro to the Bantam paperback edition (Andrew R. MacAndrew trans.) of the Brothers Karamazov is interesting. The writer shows how BK sums up all of Dostoevsky's previous works. In the great novels that came before each had a single protagonist at its center where Dostoevsky presented a part of personality (he even shows how D. has a theory of personality and essence though he saw it as the shell of personality and the inner part where the spirit resides). Then in BK he created three brothers who each represent together the total personality (Ivan = intellectual, Dimitri = emotional, Alyosha = will).
Basically, without knowing it, this intro writer, very knowledgeable of Dostoevsky and his works, was describing Work knowledge regarding centers and personality and essence and so on.
Yes, I'm embarking on a thousand page novel: the Brothers Karamazov. A very handsome paperback edition, by the way. Nice cover.
I may regret it (or decide it is not what I want to do after reading 30 pages or so), but it IS one of the ten great, iconic, canonic novels I have identified.
An aside: it's interesting how critics mock or deride Dostoevsky's Christianity. They want to claim his works as part of their intellectual world, but they don't want the Christianity. Harold Bloom mocks the Epilogue to Crime and Punishment where Raskolnikov (oh, I won't say, in case anyone hasn't read it and wants to). This writer I am referring to now doesn't mock the Christianity in this intro, but I've seen it elsewhere. Like I noted with CandP: liberals of the 20th century couldn't have really read Dostoevsky since D. saw directly through them and made such fun of them in his novels...
Basically, without knowing it, this intro writer, very knowledgeable of Dostoevsky and his works, was describing Work knowledge regarding centers and personality and essence and so on.
Yes, I'm embarking on a thousand page novel: the Brothers Karamazov. A very handsome paperback edition, by the way. Nice cover.
I may regret it (or decide it is not what I want to do after reading 30 pages or so), but it IS one of the ten great, iconic, canonic novels I have identified.
An aside: it's interesting how critics mock or deride Dostoevsky's Christianity. They want to claim his works as part of their intellectual world, but they don't want the Christianity. Harold Bloom mocks the Epilogue to Crime and Punishment where Raskolnikov (oh, I won't say, in case anyone hasn't read it and wants to). This writer I am referring to now doesn't mock the Christianity in this intro, but I've seen it elsewhere. Like I noted with CandP: liberals of the 20th century couldn't have really read Dostoevsky since D. saw directly through them and made such fun of them in his novels...
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