Two items on Bible reading

1. Lately when I've taken up Homer to finish yet another reading of the Iliad and Odyssey I have had Penelope speaking to me to read the Bible. (This is not a remark on Homer by Penelope; Penelope is just saying you have that language, now read what is real and living and true.) And I have to add this for certain types of Christians: no, Penelope isn't *actually* speaking to me. Penelope, though, in the visual language of the Homeric epics, represents something in ourselves that is of a higher elevation and nature than what we normally deal with and use...

2. Remember that prayer for understanding is something we can do before reading the Bible, and I have found it often noticeably effective (not that we need to or even can see the effect in real time). In fact, it seems to me that though it often seems strange to pray to the Person of the Holy Spirit, and it is rare for Christians to do it, to pray to the Holy Spirit for understanding of the Word of God seems very natural and right.

Some thoughts on getting understanding of sex

You know I'm always thinking about education and getting understanding and I think about how one would do that in different eras, and it occurred to me that the difficult area of getting understanding of sex is interesting to think about regarding rural areas and past rural times. If you think about it, children saw animals, farm animals, copulate (or whatever the correct word is for animals) and that event alone would pretty much give a young person all they need to know about sex. They'd see the mechanics of it, and they'd also see the animal nature of it and hence put it in context. It would make them modest (that's what the animals do, and I'm a human, but, hey, I have those body parts, but still, it's no big deal, it's what animals do) but not weakly modest because it would be modesty based on understanding of it. Also, you could see how it would give the mother or father the opportunity to naturally instill adult wisdom on the subject to children. Also, the children would see animals giving birth. They'd see the whole process. Everything. So the innocence with which youths in rural areas and on farms and such are always portrayed is not really true. They have understanding of that big area of life and they got it in a natural way. Yes, they are not the same as kids in the city who have to furtively get glimpses of the nether side of life, however they can do that, visual pornography, prostitutes, written word. You can see though which youths are in the better situation for having a mature understanding. And a real understanding.

I will share a second conscious shock insight

It came to me that when you say 'transforming negative emotion' you are talking directly about the General Law and Law of Exception in this way:

The Ray of Creation flows in both directions, away from the Absolute, and back towards the Absolute. The General Law maintains things to be in the control of the flow away from the Absolute. The Law of Exception allows a flow against that current back towards the Absolute.

Like swimming up river.

Now connect that with this: the 2nd conscious shock allows vertical movement in the 6th dimension of time (just as the 1st conscious shock is movement towards the center in the 5th dimension of time). Picture that time diagram I drew a long time ago. So when you transform negative emotion in the 2nd conscious shock way you are doing it *in the face* of the General Law (which is usually provoking the phenomenon/event itself) and moving 'up', but also moving 'up stream' in the Ray of Creation.

None of this is new, I know, but I'm trying to get at the new connection...

With the above in mind you can now see clearly that each confrontation with the General Law is your ticket - if you allow your personality to die and not become resentful and identified and so on - to take a step up that Great Highway of the Ray of Creation.

It's really just a matter of 'seeing' those General Law confrontations in a new light. *They* are where it all happens regarding vertical movement and vertical development of being.

And things get supernatural. People get bizarre around us. We expect it because we are like Jesus even in their midst. They want to kill us.

But if we're continually stuck in the mode of crying "Injustice!" when we are bizarrely treated we are just inane. We have to see that we are different. As different as Jesus, whose experience we experience.

This verse gets at it:

Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Then, if we meet it as spiritual warriors and wayfarers:

Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

7th reading of the Bible

When I have to resort to Henry James to find something - anything! - to read in the category of novels I think I may be at the end of a cycle.

I'm continually intrigued about how to go about a final 7th reading of the Bible (after I finish my 6th). I mean, how to *really* get it cut deeply into memory, will, and understanding (more so than it already is, I should say, hopefully). Since there is nothing new under the sun I suppose I can research it.

I suspect though that 'speed' is a necessary factor. Speed of perception that is. Simple higher emotional center activity. Faster centers. And a clean, copious notebook.

One new thing with the Bible is to 'see' higher contexts. Like seeing the realm of death in the 12 Dancing Princesses (and you see the higher context of the realm of death in Psalm 18 as well). That type of higher context. That makes you see the language anew. And more deeply. Even if you don't understand immediately what you see, it will be there for when things appear before you and give you opportunity to see the new meaning.

General Law and Law of Exception

I'm not going to become anemic.

A while ago (years? months? I don't remember) I stated that in all my presentation of the Work I probably should have made spiritual warfare a more prominent, foundational element in the presentation.

The Work idea for this is: General Law and Law of Exception.

Obviously I wrote about the General Law (less on the Law of Exception), but my main focus from the beginning was for 'beginners' after all. Hence my main focus on B influences and describing what self-remembering actually is, and so on. (Actually not just beginners, but the necessity of clearing the ground that the false and dumb teachers had set.)

Another thing, lately, is my need to get a 'seamless' robe constituting the Bible and the Work. Spiritual warfare is this.

I was shocked a bit recently in coming across a site where a person (not a Work person, or a Christian) was describing the General Law very accurately (with understanding that comes from experience). Describing it from an angle of being harassed in general by gangs or whatever. This person had found Ouspensky's and Mouravieff's writings on the General Law and then wrote about it rather impressively (I also suspect they came across my various writings through general searches because I see my language being used). I was shocked because this is the element of the Work I myself had let slip from my approach or my general awareness when thinking in Work terms. All that happened to me recently regarding my family was just pure General Law manifestation, just rather hardcore levels of it.

Read the first four posts listed on this page at this person's site, you'll be impressed (and perhaps inspired to re-hit the ground running):

http://gangstalkingjournal.com/blog/

The Law of Exception embodies things I've also been touching on that are foundational, but that have hung around the periphery. The necessity of accepting you are doing something unusual and rare. That you are a prophet, a priest, and king and what that means. Avoiding the vanity and pride while not avoiding the reality that you are not common. Etc. - C.