I had a trip to the underworld yesterday. Because of unique circumstances I stopped in at a gas station I used to go to everyday in my old days. Before pulling into it I thought, "I could run into someone here..."
As I was getting back into my car after buying something to drink then that someone appeared. He was forlornly holding an empty red plastic gas can and making gestures to his pocket as if he needed some money, though he never asked for money. He kept looking at me. "Do I know you?" I queried. He said his name. Yes, he knew me. I recognized the name, but not the face. He was a shade from the realm of the dead.
We greeted each other. I asked him if he needed some money, and gave him a 20. Then he started talking. It was like giving him blood.
He had a strange knowledge of everybody I'd known in my old life. Strange because he wasn't even in all those circles, but his knowledge was coming from the spiritual realm. He talked and talked and talked, and told me what everybody had come to and was doing now. Who had died, who had gone astray of the law.
Then he began to fade, and I gave him another 20. He began to talk animatedly again. I asked him about everybody whose name I could remember. But he mostly didn't need any prompting.
After we'd exhausted all the names from the past he made an obligatory gesture to exchange numbers or see if I'd want to go golfing or something, but my reaction was distanced. We said goodbye, and he went his way, and I drove off.
It was a trip to the land of the dead. He was the shade that came forward.
12.29.2010
12.09.2010
I keep getting this shock (the Two Conscious Shocks as means of being in covenant with God)
Every now and then when I'm reading some secondary source explaining Calvinism (or attempting to) I come across a particular shock that is delivered to me.
The seals of being in covenant with God (He does His part and we do ours) are baptism and the Eucharist. These two seals correlate to 1) the first conscious shock of self-remembering and accumulating higher energy (the Spirit to ever greater degree, whatever our limit, what we can handle); and 2) the second conscious shock of non-identifying and 'eating our suffering' so to speak (conscious suffering), loving our enemy, identifying with Jesus and His suffering in life and on the cross, and not indulging internal-considering, etc.
If you don't yet know classical Covenant - Federal - Theology it is merely biblical doctrine unwatered down, un-negotiated down to the demands of our fallen nature. Calvinism is a nickname for apostolic biblical doctrine. Hardcore. Accepting true doctrine - propositions from the Bible, as difficult as they may be to accept - to the point of it effecting inner re-orientation in us from being man-centered to being God-centered. It is also armor of God.
But this shock I get is powerful knowledge. To actually *know* how to be 'in covenant' with God. I mean *after* monergistic quickening and regeneration and conversion, to actually know *what it is we do.* The two conscious shocks. And they are what initiates the wayfaring. And wayfaring is warfaring, as the saying goes.
The seals of being in covenant with God (He does His part and we do ours) are baptism and the Eucharist. These two seals correlate to 1) the first conscious shock of self-remembering and accumulating higher energy (the Spirit to ever greater degree, whatever our limit, what we can handle); and 2) the second conscious shock of non-identifying and 'eating our suffering' so to speak (conscious suffering), loving our enemy, identifying with Jesus and His suffering in life and on the cross, and not indulging internal-considering, etc.
If you don't yet know classical Covenant - Federal - Theology it is merely biblical doctrine unwatered down, un-negotiated down to the demands of our fallen nature. Calvinism is a nickname for apostolic biblical doctrine. Hardcore. Accepting true doctrine - propositions from the Bible, as difficult as they may be to accept - to the point of it effecting inner re-orientation in us from being man-centered to being God-centered. It is also armor of God.
But this shock I get is powerful knowledge. To actually *know* how to be 'in covenant' with God. I mean *after* monergistic quickening and regeneration and conversion, to actually know *what it is we do.* The two conscious shocks. And they are what initiates the wayfaring. And wayfaring is warfaring, as the saying goes.
11.23.2010
I'll write this post 80 times - the Armour of God
All boils down to having the armour of God. Developing in the possession of and the use of the armour of God. Eph. 6:10-18. It's all there.
When you die you need the armour of God. While alive on the Way you need the armour of God. Especially obviously, though, when you die you need the armour of God. Some live to enjoy life as much as they can. Others live to be able to stand on that day.
You need to be in the Kingdom of God and have the armour of God. Being in the Kingdom now though doesn't make unnecessary the need for the armour of God.
Work ideas/practices/goals, faith, Bible, prayer, progressive sanctification, building being, awakening, etc. It is all in the armour of God.
The two conscious shocks are in our ability to 'stand'. The two commandments of Christ which come under 'truth'. Righteousness comes from Christ. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, not our own. Obviously the entire truth of the Word of God has to be known.
And notice the accent is put on spiritual enemies and forces and powers.
The two conscious shocks activate your progressing on the Way. They put you on the Way. The armour is your defense and means of victory when assaulted on the Way. The goal is to be able to stand on that evil day, and prior, to develop being as high and fully as possible.
When you die you need the armour of God. While alive on the Way you need the armour of God. Especially obviously, though, when you die you need the armour of God. Some live to enjoy life as much as they can. Others live to be able to stand on that day.
You need to be in the Kingdom of God and have the armour of God. Being in the Kingdom now though doesn't make unnecessary the need for the armour of God.
Work ideas/practices/goals, faith, Bible, prayer, progressive sanctification, building being, awakening, etc. It is all in the armour of God.
The two conscious shocks are in our ability to 'stand'. The two commandments of Christ which come under 'truth'. Righteousness comes from Christ. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, not our own. Obviously the entire truth of the Word of God has to be known.
And notice the accent is put on spiritual enemies and forces and powers.
The two conscious shocks activate your progressing on the Way. They put you on the Way. The armour is your defense and means of victory when assaulted on the Way. The goal is to be able to stand on that evil day, and prior, to develop being as high and fully as possible.
11.20.2010
Sitting here, rainy day (13 languages)
At a college, rainy day. Looking at an edition of the Iliad. Start writing a list in the back of it. Title list: Deep Languages.
This is really what we seek (deep, higher, living languages) to develop and to get beyond ourselves. To increase understanding, consciousness, real will...build being.....even the Holy Spirit comes via the living language of the Bible.
I came up with 13:
Bible
Iliad and Odyssey
Fourth Way/the Work
Classical Music
War
Wealth
Grail Romance
Athletics
Performing Arts
Plutarch
Thucydides
Folk Tales
Classical Covenant - Federal - Theology
Salvation is foundational. C Influence is beyond, requires 3rd state of consciousness. The moving, external world of things and events becomes language with it.
Some of the languages/influences effect necessary development. All-center development. Some are ends in themselves.
Plutarch and Thucydides seem out of place there, but I see them as monuments or architecture that deliver language beyond their words. Structure. Other similar works could be included, not many though.
The ones that are ends in themselves are Bible, biblical doctrine, Work development.
The two conscious shocks are the Grail, the two commandments of Christ, the sacramental presence, the key to union with God. What all mysteries and secret schools and higher visual languages and traditions that are true lead to and describe. - C.
11.11.2010
An email exchange, C. S. Lewis, Dark Powers, spiritual warfare, general law, etc.
Here's a good quote from the Business of Heaven (the quote is from Mere Christianity) -
"One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
Notice he says 'surprised' to find this in the New Testament. I'm always surprised to find it left out of most orthodox (small 'o') mainstream theological works.
Paul, you have been attracted to the Book of Job in the past. Thinking about the General Law as the Work describes it, and the spirit of Satan as a Christian learns of it from the Bible, the difference is the General Law plays out mechanically in the world. It works through sleeping, mechanical human beings. Yet there is also an element that seems to require a more active, conscious presence. The latter is like when the devil and his spirits (demons) may focus on you and try to tempt you and so on. Also, perhaps our deepest, ongoing suffering, things none of us really ever talk about, things from birth, or things that would make us seem like whiners or uncool - 'rule' type things that are given to us to help us separate from the world - these things seem like what we see in the Book of Job where the devil goes to God and says allow me to mess with this individual and let's see if they still give their allegiance to you. So God allows it. And we suffer. But the General Law type of phenomena is less personal and more mechanical and a result of the big forces (flowing away from the Absolute vs. flowing back towards the Absolute).
So here, without trying to, I've identified the famous three-front war in spiritual warfare: the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world is the General Law.
The flesh is the temptations and so on that come from our inner being, yet an inner being that has reins attached to it held by the devil and his army.
The devil is things like 'rules' that God allows the devil to give you, or to afflict you with, to try you.
It may have been wrong for me, using the Homeric analogy, to say that C Influence can sometimes be the source of needed friction. Yet, maybe not. That can also be a source. Athena slamming Odysseus' ship, giving him problems in his return. Then also being his main contact with conscious influence and help.
Basically you get it from all directions when you are in the process of awakening. And you must need to get it from all directions. - C.
--- On Thu, 11/11/10, c. t.
>I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.
I know, probably any anthology of Lewis will give a similar impression. The Business of Heaven, though, I think is designed to address various Christian/religious subject matter.
Lewis of course is not literature that is deep language. It's surface knowledge. Really, what Lewis does is compliment and 'direct' one's thoughts and understanding. He plays around at foundational levels though which can be helpful even if you already know the foundational level. He usually ends up residing on middle ground, or a common sense ''what is all the fuss?", we're still in the flesh, leave extreme reactions and find the middle road and stay to it, etc.
He can also 'norm' you after you may have come into contact with some sneaky off-the-mark influence, or you have drifted.
In that sense he seems like an old teacher that is maybe good to run into every now and then but holds no potential for further, deep, being development.
For that you need to take in language. Higher visual language. Living language. Language inspired by the Holy Spirit. I mean regarding words on a page. Lewis would say, "Read Euripides, don't read me." Or Homer. Or the Bible. Which I'm doing now. I'm securely into my 7th complete reading currently on chapter 25 of Genesis. I've read Genesis like 3 times in a row now in aborted starts on my 7th complete reading, but this time I will plow on.
- C.
--- On Mon, 11/8/10, quickeningspirit
I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.
I've just started Euripides. That's 8 plays. Completes the trilogy with Aeschylus and Sophocles. I also note that it bags the first 7 works in the Mortimer/Adler Great List. Not that I was ever thinking of doing that.
If you are doing India for the umpteenth time, you might as well change tack and pick out some of the Mahabharata - it'll keep you busy. I imagine if you can hone in on the right books, it could be revealing and an interesting contrast to some of the works that you have tackled previously.
BTW Mawsynram is a nice village I can recommend for you to visit. It's in the north east and I think very much to your liking. ; -)
"One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
Notice he says 'surprised' to find this in the New Testament. I'm always surprised to find it left out of most orthodox (small 'o') mainstream theological works.
Paul, you have been attracted to the Book of Job in the past. Thinking about the General Law as the Work describes it, and the spirit of Satan as a Christian learns of it from the Bible, the difference is the General Law plays out mechanically in the world. It works through sleeping, mechanical human beings. Yet there is also an element that seems to require a more active, conscious presence. The latter is like when the devil and his spirits (demons) may focus on you and try to tempt you and so on. Also, perhaps our deepest, ongoing suffering, things none of us really ever talk about, things from birth, or things that would make us seem like whiners or uncool - 'rule' type things that are given to us to help us separate from the world - these things seem like what we see in the Book of Job where the devil goes to God and says allow me to mess with this individual and let's see if they still give their allegiance to you. So God allows it. And we suffer. But the General Law type of phenomena is less personal and more mechanical and a result of the big forces (flowing away from the Absolute vs. flowing back towards the Absolute).
So here, without trying to, I've identified the famous three-front war in spiritual warfare: the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world is the General Law.
The flesh is the temptations and so on that come from our inner being, yet an inner being that has reins attached to it held by the devil and his army.
The devil is things like 'rules' that God allows the devil to give you, or to afflict you with, to try you.
It may have been wrong for me, using the Homeric analogy, to say that C Influence can sometimes be the source of needed friction. Yet, maybe not. That can also be a source. Athena slamming Odysseus' ship, giving him problems in his return. Then also being his main contact with conscious influence and help.
Basically you get it from all directions when you are in the process of awakening. And you must need to get it from all directions. - C.
--- On Thu, 11/11/10, c. t.
>I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.
I know, probably any anthology of Lewis will give a similar impression. The Business of Heaven, though, I think is designed to address various Christian/religious subject matter.
Lewis of course is not literature that is deep language. It's surface knowledge. Really, what Lewis does is compliment and 'direct' one's thoughts and understanding. He plays around at foundational levels though which can be helpful even if you already know the foundational level. He usually ends up residing on middle ground, or a common sense ''what is all the fuss?", we're still in the flesh, leave extreme reactions and find the middle road and stay to it, etc.
He can also 'norm' you after you may have come into contact with some sneaky off-the-mark influence, or you have drifted.
In that sense he seems like an old teacher that is maybe good to run into every now and then but holds no potential for further, deep, being development.
For that you need to take in language. Higher visual language. Living language. Language inspired by the Holy Spirit. I mean regarding words on a page. Lewis would say, "Read Euripides, don't read me." Or Homer. Or the Bible. Which I'm doing now. I'm securely into my 7th complete reading currently on chapter 25 of Genesis. I've read Genesis like 3 times in a row now in aborted starts on my 7th complete reading, but this time I will plow on.
- C.
--- On Mon, 11/8/10, quickeningspirit
I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.
I've just started Euripides. That's 8 plays. Completes the trilogy with Aeschylus and Sophocles. I also note that it bags the first 7 works in the Mortimer/Adler Great List. Not that I was ever thinking of doing that.
If you are doing India for the umpteenth time, you might as well change tack and pick out some of the Mahabharata - it'll keep you busy. I imagine if you can hone in on the right books, it could be revealing and an interesting contrast to some of the works that you have tackled previously.
BTW Mawsynram is a nice village I can recommend for you to visit. It's in the north east and I think very much to your liking. ; -)
10.07.2010
Spiritual Warfare and Work Sentences
The 3 Great Divides & Two Great Practices:
1. Worshiping the creation rather than the Creator
2. Seeing Jesus as merely a great teacher rather than Lord and Savior
3. Thinking one can be justified and made righteous by one's own works rather than by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ in His life and on the cross (self-righteousness and self-justification vs. the righteousness of Christ and justification by faith alone in Christ)
Two Great Practices:
1. Act now as if you're in the Kingdom of God now, and God can trust you.
2. Do the two conscious shocks as the means to being in covenant with God.
Overriding Kingdom of God Attitude:
Gratitude over resentment always for everything.
+ + + + + + +
In every locality/event there is something to hold on to. To discern and use as a foundation for that place/event.
Leverage in the spiritual world involves containing force.
Initially meeting the forces in a contained space with strength and fearlessness and awakeness and honesty towards what you're up against is necessary to be able to then stand within that space with presence and power. Honesty in accepting and acting upon what you discern is necessary. If you discern/intuit unfriendliness yet pretend all are friendly you will not survive that environment. Innocence works and protects somewhat in early stages, but not when real stand-your-ground-and-be-present warfare is demanded.
Aim devours emptiness (vanity) in an event. Aim can be simply testing and tempering being. Aim can also be discerned in any event or action along the lines of the three lines of Work.
Influence can be gathered from seemingly still air. The stars invisible in the blue sky.
The six approaches work for particulars; a general stance of awake wariness is best for the overall situation.
Thoughts will be thrown just like words and should be intentional. Thoughts too should confront challenges and nonsense from the environment. If your words be clear and intentional but your thoughts be unintentional, chaotic, and dishonest - or just vain - you will not set your presence and control your own domain in the environment. Though the devil cannot listen to your thoughts you can throw your thoughts to such a degree that the shallowest in the environment can pick them up.
Moving inward and vertical in time (fifth and sixth dimensions; first and second conscious shocks) to the moment (the moving time of the environment or event) gives speed of perception advantage. Feeling the force and direction and fullness of time. Seeing her world history in an eyelash. A god at the tea party more inward to and above the moment. Still visible to crude sense, invisible otherwise is the god if not showing shame or fear inside. If a god through and through.
Acting on what you are able to know and to see and foresee is different from merely knowing and seeing or foreseeing the thing/event. Prayer is action bridging the vision and the event in time.
+ + + + + + +
1. Self-remembering ignites our being (cosmos) and fills it with a higher energy.
2. Non-identifying defines and secures the boundary of our being (cosmos).
3. Separation (I from 'it') sets the true north of our being (cosmos), orientating us and setting us on the foundation within.
4. External-considering orientates us with other cosmoses.
5. Transforming negative emotion connects our cosmos with the Kingdom of God and feeds us through that connection.
6. Learn to see cosmoses, to discern them.
7. When born you are a cosmos and a cosmos knows what it needs (the infant cries). When you die you are still a cosmos and you acclimate as a cosmos to the new state and situation you come in to. You are a cosmos within a cosmos(es) in contra-distinction to cosmoses.
8. The world and the devil and false personality (the flesh) wants you to 'come apart' as a cosmos; to have breaches in the boundary of your cosmos, a promiscuous traffic with the world. To stand your ground is to maintain the boundaries of your cosmos; to not allow anything external - the world, the devil - to connect with features within your cosmos that make up false personality and thus control you (control you, or, your cosmos); i.e. to attach reins within you as cosmos. (If the features of false personality are not manifesting then false personality is not there, and if not there then there is nothing for the world and the devil to attach reins to from without to control you.) The world and the devil want to be what fills your cosmos, to make the content of your cosmos to be the impressions and illusions and fears and desires and fascinations of the devil's kingdom.
9. The practical observation of cosmoses is seeing them in oneself. Becoming conscious in a higher and lower cosmos is like becoming conscious of different centers within you (emotional, instinctive, moving, etc.) with their different speeds.
10. A person single (no marital mate, no lover) is one kind of comsos. A person married or with a lover is another kind of cosmos. I.e. the two states have potential for different kinds of complete cosmoses (ideally, we can say, charitably). The single person develops the complimentary sides within his/her being. It's romantic to think that two people can develop as two, but two people are the norm of the world, and in such a situation the person who is part of a 'couple' *won't* be in conflict with the world or with one's flesh or the devil. Hard truth.
+ + + + + + +
#
Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Money (or worldly gain), power (or worldly honor), and sex (or worldly pleasure) are not idols they are temptations.
A false idol is something like left-wing politics (Marxism, communism, socialism), or worship of the state; or environmentalism, or worship of mother earth; or multiculturalism, or worship of the ‘noble savage.’
These things don’t just replace God, they are sacrificed to (including human sacrifice) and they make the worshipers conscience feel easy. These false idols forgive their worshipers.
It’s difficult for modern day Christians to see real false idols because most modern day Christians are completely in the power of the false idols they can’t see.
Again, money, sex, power: these are staple *temptations* in the devil’s kingdom, they are not false idols.
Reply
#
Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Unbelievers have a consciousness of guilt – of sin – that they need to have expiated. They refuse to approach God or the only Mediator between man and God, so they set up a false god.
Molech and Baal were not temptations.
Worship of the state is not a temptation. It is a god that is sacrificed to and that gives expiation to a sense of guilt and sin.
The Hollywood ‘liberal’ who makes a ton of money then gets involved in left-wing politics and issues is looking for expiation and is seeking a god to perform that for him/her.
They will sacrifice their freedom to these false gods. Their individuality. Regarding multiculturalism they will sacrifice their culture and civilization and the very safety of their neighborhoods (the ‘noble savage’ can do no wrong, in fact the more the ingratitude, the more the violence, the more the hatred directed by the noble savage to the false idol worshiper's culture the more the false idol worshiper will feel expiated for their 'sacrifice').
People will sacrifice humans to the state. Genocide. In some cases when abortion is a dogma in a person’s mind it becomes human sacrifice.
Money, power, and sex doesn’t expiate the innate sense of guilt and sin in a person. They are not false idols, they are temptations.
Interesting a modern Reformed author would write a whole book on idols and get it so wrong. This is because Reformed Christians have forgotten about subjects like false idols (spiritual warfare would be another).
Read John Owen’s Biblical Theology to learn about false idols and the worship of false idols.
+ + + + + + +
Observe (with conscious labor and intentional suffering) these 7 things:
1. Yourself and active reasoning
2. The person(s), place, thing, event your attention is on
3. Place, or surroundings
4. Your aim
5. The different points-of-view, intents, self-interests and motivations of others around you
6. The unspoken and spoken communications and the web of relationships between others and with others around you; and forces and laws in effect
7. Your conscious role
1. Worshiping the creation rather than the Creator
2. Seeing Jesus as merely a great teacher rather than Lord and Savior
3. Thinking one can be justified and made righteous by one's own works rather than by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ in His life and on the cross (self-righteousness and self-justification vs. the righteousness of Christ and justification by faith alone in Christ)
Two Great Practices:
1. Act now as if you're in the Kingdom of God now, and God can trust you.
2. Do the two conscious shocks as the means to being in covenant with God.
Overriding Kingdom of God Attitude:
Gratitude over resentment always for everything.
+ + + + + + +
In every locality/event there is something to hold on to. To discern and use as a foundation for that place/event.
Leverage in the spiritual world involves containing force.
Initially meeting the forces in a contained space with strength and fearlessness and awakeness and honesty towards what you're up against is necessary to be able to then stand within that space with presence and power. Honesty in accepting and acting upon what you discern is necessary. If you discern/intuit unfriendliness yet pretend all are friendly you will not survive that environment. Innocence works and protects somewhat in early stages, but not when real stand-your-ground-and-be-present warfare is demanded.
Aim devours emptiness (vanity) in an event. Aim can be simply testing and tempering being. Aim can also be discerned in any event or action along the lines of the three lines of Work.
Influence can be gathered from seemingly still air. The stars invisible in the blue sky.
The six approaches work for particulars; a general stance of awake wariness is best for the overall situation.
Thoughts will be thrown just like words and should be intentional. Thoughts too should confront challenges and nonsense from the environment. If your words be clear and intentional but your thoughts be unintentional, chaotic, and dishonest - or just vain - you will not set your presence and control your own domain in the environment. Though the devil cannot listen to your thoughts you can throw your thoughts to such a degree that the shallowest in the environment can pick them up.
Moving inward and vertical in time (fifth and sixth dimensions; first and second conscious shocks) to the moment (the moving time of the environment or event) gives speed of perception advantage. Feeling the force and direction and fullness of time. Seeing her world history in an eyelash. A god at the tea party more inward to and above the moment. Still visible to crude sense, invisible otherwise is the god if not showing shame or fear inside. If a god through and through.
Acting on what you are able to know and to see and foresee is different from merely knowing and seeing or foreseeing the thing/event. Prayer is action bridging the vision and the event in time.
+ + + + + + +
1. Self-remembering ignites our being (cosmos) and fills it with a higher energy.
2. Non-identifying defines and secures the boundary of our being (cosmos).
3. Separation (I from 'it') sets the true north of our being (cosmos), orientating us and setting us on the foundation within.
4. External-considering orientates us with other cosmoses.
5. Transforming negative emotion connects our cosmos with the Kingdom of God and feeds us through that connection.
6. Learn to see cosmoses, to discern them.
7. When born you are a cosmos and a cosmos knows what it needs (the infant cries). When you die you are still a cosmos and you acclimate as a cosmos to the new state and situation you come in to. You are a cosmos within a cosmos(es) in contra-distinction to cosmoses.
8. The world and the devil and false personality (the flesh) wants you to 'come apart' as a cosmos; to have breaches in the boundary of your cosmos, a promiscuous traffic with the world. To stand your ground is to maintain the boundaries of your cosmos; to not allow anything external - the world, the devil - to connect with features within your cosmos that make up false personality and thus control you (control you, or, your cosmos); i.e. to attach reins within you as cosmos. (If the features of false personality are not manifesting then false personality is not there, and if not there then there is nothing for the world and the devil to attach reins to from without to control you.) The world and the devil want to be what fills your cosmos, to make the content of your cosmos to be the impressions and illusions and fears and desires and fascinations of the devil's kingdom.
9. The practical observation of cosmoses is seeing them in oneself. Becoming conscious in a higher and lower cosmos is like becoming conscious of different centers within you (emotional, instinctive, moving, etc.) with their different speeds.
10. A person single (no marital mate, no lover) is one kind of comsos. A person married or with a lover is another kind of cosmos. I.e. the two states have potential for different kinds of complete cosmoses (ideally, we can say, charitably). The single person develops the complimentary sides within his/her being. It's romantic to think that two people can develop as two, but two people are the norm of the world, and in such a situation the person who is part of a 'couple' *won't* be in conflict with the world or with one's flesh or the devil. Hard truth.
+ + + + + + +
#
Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Money (or worldly gain), power (or worldly honor), and sex (or worldly pleasure) are not idols they are temptations.
A false idol is something like left-wing politics (Marxism, communism, socialism), or worship of the state; or environmentalism, or worship of mother earth; or multiculturalism, or worship of the ‘noble savage.’
These things don’t just replace God, they are sacrificed to (including human sacrifice) and they make the worshipers conscience feel easy. These false idols forgive their worshipers.
It’s difficult for modern day Christians to see real false idols because most modern day Christians are completely in the power of the false idols they can’t see.
Again, money, sex, power: these are staple *temptations* in the devil’s kingdom, they are not false idols.
Reply
#
Christian says:
October 29, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Unbelievers have a consciousness of guilt – of sin – that they need to have expiated. They refuse to approach God or the only Mediator between man and God, so they set up a false god.
Molech and Baal were not temptations.
Worship of the state is not a temptation. It is a god that is sacrificed to and that gives expiation to a sense of guilt and sin.
The Hollywood ‘liberal’ who makes a ton of money then gets involved in left-wing politics and issues is looking for expiation and is seeking a god to perform that for him/her.
They will sacrifice their freedom to these false gods. Their individuality. Regarding multiculturalism they will sacrifice their culture and civilization and the very safety of their neighborhoods (the ‘noble savage’ can do no wrong, in fact the more the ingratitude, the more the violence, the more the hatred directed by the noble savage to the false idol worshiper's culture the more the false idol worshiper will feel expiated for their 'sacrifice').
People will sacrifice humans to the state. Genocide. In some cases when abortion is a dogma in a person’s mind it becomes human sacrifice.
Money, power, and sex doesn’t expiate the innate sense of guilt and sin in a person. They are not false idols, they are temptations.
Interesting a modern Reformed author would write a whole book on idols and get it so wrong. This is because Reformed Christians have forgotten about subjects like false idols (spiritual warfare would be another).
Read John Owen’s Biblical Theology to learn about false idols and the worship of false idols.
+ + + + + + +
Observe (with conscious labor and intentional suffering) these 7 things:
1. Yourself and active reasoning
2. The person(s), place, thing, event your attention is on
3. Place, or surroundings
4. Your aim
5. The different points-of-view, intents, self-interests and motivations of others around you
6. The unspoken and spoken communications and the web of relationships between others and with others around you; and forces and laws in effect
7. Your conscious role
10.06.2010
Sin
I think what actually anchors us experientially to the plan of God and the fact of the History and Plan of Redemption is the fact of sin and the existence of evil. This is something we can see in ourselves and see in the world. I think it's the best apologetic, in the practical realm, for believing in what is revealed in the Word of God, not that it is needed if you are regenerated, but it is there to be observed.
Adam in the Garden was truly innocent, yet he had the ability to sin (which he demonstrated by eating the forbidden fruit). He had 'ability to sin and ability to not sin.'
Fallen man is different. Fallen man now has ability to sin and *inability to not sin.* In other words, fallen man is incapable of not sinning. We have original sin in us from birth, and we actively sin the first chance we get. Did you steal that candy from your sister when you were two years old? Yes, you did. Broke the 8th commandment at two. Probably earlier.
Regenerated man is different from fallen man (and similar to Adam in the Garden, though not identical). Regenerated man still has ability to sin, but unlike unregenerated fallen man he now has *ability to NOT sin* (this is similar to Adam before the fall, yet regenerated man is not 'innocent' like pre-fall Adam). Not everything he does, in other words, is as 'filthy rags' to quote Isaiah. Regenerated man can actually struggle with his old, fallen nature and not sin. It's a struggle though.
Glorified man is in an unusual state, different from all the above including Adam in the Garden (glorified man is in a higher state than Adam was in in the Garden). Glorified man has *inability to sin.* That isn't just saying glorified man merely doesn't *want* to sin and holds himself back from it, it is actually a higher state where, kind of like we see in elements of the Olympian gods and goddesses, glorified man literally *can't* sin no matter what he does. Sort of like where higher centers only have positive and no negative.
Adam in the Garden was truly innocent, yet he had the ability to sin (which he demonstrated by eating the forbidden fruit). He had 'ability to sin and ability to not sin.'
Fallen man is different. Fallen man now has ability to sin and *inability to not sin.* In other words, fallen man is incapable of not sinning. We have original sin in us from birth, and we actively sin the first chance we get. Did you steal that candy from your sister when you were two years old? Yes, you did. Broke the 8th commandment at two. Probably earlier.
Regenerated man is different from fallen man (and similar to Adam in the Garden, though not identical). Regenerated man still has ability to sin, but unlike unregenerated fallen man he now has *ability to NOT sin* (this is similar to Adam before the fall, yet regenerated man is not 'innocent' like pre-fall Adam). Not everything he does, in other words, is as 'filthy rags' to quote Isaiah. Regenerated man can actually struggle with his old, fallen nature and not sin. It's a struggle though.
Glorified man is in an unusual state, different from all the above including Adam in the Garden (glorified man is in a higher state than Adam was in in the Garden). Glorified man has *inability to sin.* That isn't just saying glorified man merely doesn't *want* to sin and holds himself back from it, it is actually a higher state where, kind of like we see in elements of the Olympian gods and goddesses, glorified man literally *can't* sin no matter what he does. Sort of like where higher centers only have positive and no negative.
10.05.2010
Threading the needle
I'm going to try to thread the needle in gaining a rarer, deeper, more striking understanding of the Bible, each book, at a deeper level. I mean: it is difficult to do in this sense: secondary reference works on the Bible usually go in one ear and out the other. They seem to always have a shallow effect. It's also difficult in that the Bible is such a big book. Issues of endurance and tactics and approach come into play.
Of course I already have the overall Plan of God in understanding; as-well-as a general reading understanding of the Bible; as-well-as apostolic biblical doctrine from systematic and biblical theological sources and so on. (Which is a lot! Probably most of everything...)
Yet, what I'm getting at is this: can I bring Deuteronomy to mind and really know what is going on in that book? No. Not until I read it *while* taking notes (notes really make a difference, which is why the reference works fail [i.e. if you are only reading them], you really have to take your own notes to get things in memory and understanding).
Good reference works are rare too. Kline wrote a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (available in PDF form on the web). Anything Kline writes is worth reading. There are probably other good general commentaries. It's like reading the phone book, though. Which gets back to tactics and strategy for doing this. You can't be stuck in the mode of reading a phone book.
At my level of all this really Meredith Kline is coming to the forefront. His Kingdom Prologue and all the other books of his. Deep and striking insights made on the foundation of Federal Theology.
Here's what I'm really getting at: Kline's striking observation that the real end times climax begins when Satan and his followers make a claim on ALL the world. That observation is typical of Kline. He got it from the Bible, but it's the type of observation that comes from a 'different level' of engaging the Bible. Those understandings are in there. You have to know the system of the Bible (Federal Theology) and God's overall Plan of Redemption, but then you have to have a deeper parts-in-relation-to-the-whole understanding of the Bible. One where connections and inner meanings and striking insights can be made, or come to light.
Pilgrim politics, for instance, is another insight. It's in the Bible, but not in the eXoteric commentaries. We have to 'see' that for ourselves. And everything else that is currently not in our understanding.
I don't want to confuse any of this with *basic understanding of systematic theology and the overall plan of God.* I have that. That doesn't change or get bi-passed. I'm talking about insights made *on and within the foundation* of apostolic biblical doctrine, or Federal Theology.
These types of insights, too, come when you go to the Bible with a question or with something that is troubling you. The actions and words of Muslims, for instance. One can just abandon oneself to allowing them to yank our chain all the time. Or scare us. Or annoy us to no end. "We will plant a Muslim flag on the White House," said one of them on a major political morning show the other day. If you go to the Bible for understanding you see that God controls the devil's armies (Assyrians, whatever), and they are God's monkeys. They do what God allows them to do. Yes, we react (mainly we don't allow the devil and his armies to make us give up our faith or become their cowering slaves or whatever). In the Bible I looked up even the word 'terror' and what came up surprised me: inferences of God being the terror, using nations to bring terror to His backsliding peoples or to other rebellious nations.
We're also told to *confront the devil* and he will run. But the understanding we get from the Bible itself turns the volume of our out-of-control emotions down, and gives us a perspective on the battlefield, in space and time, and people, places, things, events, and contending ideologies and forces: darkness and light.
Of course I already have the overall Plan of God in understanding; as-well-as a general reading understanding of the Bible; as-well-as apostolic biblical doctrine from systematic and biblical theological sources and so on. (Which is a lot! Probably most of everything...)
Yet, what I'm getting at is this: can I bring Deuteronomy to mind and really know what is going on in that book? No. Not until I read it *while* taking notes (notes really make a difference, which is why the reference works fail [i.e. if you are only reading them], you really have to take your own notes to get things in memory and understanding).
Good reference works are rare too. Kline wrote a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (available in PDF form on the web). Anything Kline writes is worth reading. There are probably other good general commentaries. It's like reading the phone book, though. Which gets back to tactics and strategy for doing this. You can't be stuck in the mode of reading a phone book.
At my level of all this really Meredith Kline is coming to the forefront. His Kingdom Prologue and all the other books of his. Deep and striking insights made on the foundation of Federal Theology.
Here's what I'm really getting at: Kline's striking observation that the real end times climax begins when Satan and his followers make a claim on ALL the world. That observation is typical of Kline. He got it from the Bible, but it's the type of observation that comes from a 'different level' of engaging the Bible. Those understandings are in there. You have to know the system of the Bible (Federal Theology) and God's overall Plan of Redemption, but then you have to have a deeper parts-in-relation-to-the-whole understanding of the Bible. One where connections and inner meanings and striking insights can be made, or come to light.
Pilgrim politics, for instance, is another insight. It's in the Bible, but not in the eXoteric commentaries. We have to 'see' that for ourselves. And everything else that is currently not in our understanding.
I don't want to confuse any of this with *basic understanding of systematic theology and the overall plan of God.* I have that. That doesn't change or get bi-passed. I'm talking about insights made *on and within the foundation* of apostolic biblical doctrine, or Federal Theology.
These types of insights, too, come when you go to the Bible with a question or with something that is troubling you. The actions and words of Muslims, for instance. One can just abandon oneself to allowing them to yank our chain all the time. Or scare us. Or annoy us to no end. "We will plant a Muslim flag on the White House," said one of them on a major political morning show the other day. If you go to the Bible for understanding you see that God controls the devil's armies (Assyrians, whatever), and they are God's monkeys. They do what God allows them to do. Yes, we react (mainly we don't allow the devil and his armies to make us give up our faith or become their cowering slaves or whatever). In the Bible I looked up even the word 'terror' and what came up surprised me: inferences of God being the terror, using nations to bring terror to His backsliding peoples or to other rebellious nations.
We're also told to *confront the devil* and he will run. But the understanding we get from the Bible itself turns the volume of our out-of-control emotions down, and gives us a perspective on the battlefield, in space and time, and people, places, things, events, and contending ideologies and forces: darkness and light.
Re-reading that last email it sounds like I should just read Kline's Kingdom Prologue. I don't need to reinvent the wheel! (It *is* the one book in my possession that I can actually learn new things from. That and his other books. I mean, I do a lot of screwing around with stuff I already know. That's a feature of common human nature though. Truly learning something new takes more effort and a different mind set. You have to catch your breath too. Absorbtion and initiation is part of the piece meal approach over time too, it should be said. - C.
If I were a person who knew nothing about the Bible, Gods Plan or Christianity, what books would you recommend I read in what order?
S
I've had trouble with this question before. It's a difficult subject because it involves so many things. You have to have the Bible in you from complete readings. You have to have the Holy Spirit in you giving you discernment for the truth and motivation to know it...and ability to accept it.
The above requirements are going to separate out most people right off the bat.
It also is not encouraging that most graduates of seminaries and schools of divinity who becomes pastors and bishops and what not don't have the parts in relation to the whole understanding of apostolic biblical doctrine and God's overall plan of redemption.
Also false teachers are legion (and also inept teaching), which makes the process of getting the wheat difficult.
So we are talking about something quite rare and unusual to have.
Then again if it's too complicated it's probably not on-the-mark. It's simple once you get it. Like playing an instrument, I suppose.
For systematic theology:
Beginner: Concise Theology - J. I. Packer
Intermediate: Manual of Christian Doctrine - Louis Berkhof
Advanced: Institutes of the Christian Religion - John Calvin
For the history of redemption (God's overall plan of redemption):
Beginner: Articles like this: http://gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html or this by Vos: http://www.biblicaltheology.org/dcrt.pdf (though Vos is hardly beginning level)
Intermediate: Human Nature in its Fourfold State
Advanced: Kingdom Prologue, and God, Heaven and Har Magedon - Meredith Kline
I'm talking about ultimate understanding. Most Christians don't get near it, and don't have to. But if you are inclined to get parts in relation to the whole understanding of lesser things and then turn to the ultimate thing, the Word of God, then there you are. It's not as easy with the Bible and the history of redemption because you are getting your arms around - or trying to - a cosmos that is not wholly in existence in our space and time. The history of redemption begins from eternity, for instance. And ends when time ends. Yet that isn't the end for glorified man. Also, God is not wholly understandable by us. We can know what He gives us to know, which is a complete understanding for His and our purposes, but the understanding of it has a ceiling beyond which is mystery.
The simple backbone of systematic theology is the Two Adams (federal theology) - Adam from the Garden who fell, and the second Adam Jesus Christ. We are either under the federal head of one or the other. Old Adam from birth, Jesus Christ by faith. What that is, how that happens, why it happens, etc., is the subject matter of systematic theology.
The simple backbone of the Overall Plan of Redemption can be described by covenants (three in particular) or by the four states of man vis-a-vis sin.
For the latter: 1. Man in a state of innocence (Adam in the Garden, were God makes a covenant with him - the Covenant of Works - where is Adam fulfills the covenant he will be given the Tree of Life, but he fails and falls and all mankind falls in him. 2. Man in a state of fallen corruption. This is historical time as we experience it. Nature has fallen too. This world of good and evil and mixtures of joys and sufferings, and sometimes horrible sufferings, is the after-the-fall state of man and nature. 3. Man in a state of regeneration. When an individual is regenerated by the Word and the Spirit - born again - they transfer into a wholly different state than the fallen state. Yet's it's still a struggle with one's fallen nature, but the victory has been achieved (by Christ). Once regenerated always regenerated. 4. Man in a state of glorification (and unregenerated man in a state of eternal hellfire). At physical death, or ultimately at the Second Coming and end of time, the regenerated man is glorified and is in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those are the four states of man in the history of redemption. Created on high, a fall, then a rise back up - drawn back up and also climbing once you have the Spirit in you and are able to climb - to a level that is higher than where you were created at.
The three covenants of Redemption, Works, and Grace describe the mechanics of all the above. They are difficult to get understanding of because sources use different terminology and get petulant about what they demand to include or exclude. It's a subject one just has to get initiated into after absorbing a lot of material and seeking the on-the-mark line of truth. - C.
ps- Search the categories at Monergism.com for other books. It really is a search. You have to find it on your own. Though someone who knows can help with questions and answer type exchanges.
pps- Spiritual warfare is woven all through it all too. Something that gets overlooked in most books. The forces of darkness that battles the Plan of God and the individual who is awakening into the Light. Then another subject is getting to understand why each part of the Bible exists. The histories, the prophets, etc.
Its a lot... A whole journey. I'll save this email for future reference!
S
>>If I were a person who knew nothing about the Bible, Gods Plan or Christianity, what books >>would you recommend I read in what order?
>>S
I really rate Packer's Concise Theology. It delivers very well on each relative subject and intentional or not, it does work at different levels. It's very clean and tidy. I'd package and organise it differently, I'd make much more out of the Biblical references too, but the content is great. Berkhof I'm less enthusiastic about. There's nothing really wrong but I do go to Packer first.
Oddly the two authors I've soaked up more than others are Kline and Vos. Neither of whom I would have discovered off my own bat. We're all dependent on others in some way to direct our attention. And then it's valuation. I have enthusiasm for both authors, although there are times when Vos is too dry and intellectual. He's difficult to recommend really. Kline however is almost mystical, with his word inventions and allusions. In that sense you can miss his point but then he stands (like Vos) to some serious study and like Vos is full of brilliance and Spirit. I love them both and yet I'm not sure in answer to Simon's question that either would be ideal recommendations.
That question demands a plan.
1. Read the Bible. Don't think about it or try and 'get it', just read it.
2. Read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress.
3. Read The Embattled Christian by Zacharias.
4. Read Packer's Concise Theology
For me that hits the key note: the battle, warfare and struggle of the Christian way.
Understanding of the rest is something you can pick up through articles on monergism (like C suggests), and other sites - lots of useful mp3's to listen to and really, loads of books but you just can't recommend them at the outset but only as a person comes into either understanding or degrees of interest or inquiry.
You could just say read the Bible and also study Genesis and Romans.
- Paul of England
And this old post is the practical reason to get this complete understanding:
http://electofgod.blogspot.com/2008/07/doctrine-is-armor-of-god.html
- C.
ps- It's worth noting that Vos, Berkhof, and Kline are considered to be representative in the 20th century of the true line of Reformed doctrine. They all three explain things on the foundation of Classical Covenant - Federal - Theology. (Berkhof is of course more of a straight professor who produced a very well-put-together text book; Vos and Kline are biblical theologians who truly filled out Reformed Theology, mainly in the area of eschatology.) All this means is these three guys have few quirks (Berkhof zero, unless you consider infant baptism a quirk, I don't, because it doesn't effect Federal Theology despite what the more shallow defenders of infant baptism claim). Vos zero as well (though like Paul stated he wrote for academics and can be hard to understand overall - biblical theology as opposed to systematic theology is strange to begin with...requires initiation); Kline's biggest quirk is his Framework Hypothesis, which is a unique reading of the 6 days of creation. It is too clever by half, and really not worthy of adopting or defending. But it doesn't effect his theology overall which is orthodox (small 'o'). If you go back a few generations, Thomas Boston is a major source for on-the-mark Federal Theology. But, again, it's difficult to recommend these guys because, well, for the reason I stated in the first response. Self-motivation is necessary. But the practical end point is the post linked above. It's good to have a practical reason for the study, even if spiritual warfare doesn't cover every reason to know it.
9.24.2010
Recurrence thought
I'll bet once in Hades, in the interval between death and birth, in the recurrence sense, that we get *intensely* nostalgic for our 'past' life. No matter how much it may have been less-than-ideal. We get *intensely* nostalgic for our childhoods and the places and things and people we remember about it.
I mean *intensely.*
You see this power of nostalgia playing out in our human nature in the here and now.
All the negative is forgotten. The danger no longer exists. The unpleasantness is no longer felt.
And when you look at the past from the vantage point of being in the future you tend to see *possibilities* in that past that either weren't there in real time or that you were blind to anyway back in real time, but the *greater vision* of the times that looking backwards gives us makes the times more interesting. Less of an experience of being enchained in humdrum circumstances and necessities and situations and more a vision of what was happening in history and how one could do this or do that and how it is all so opened up and interesting and everybody you know is young again...!
To greater or lesser degree each person would feel and see this.
This draw of nostalgia would not effect (effect as strongly, I'll say) a person who has awakened in life. They, in effect, have *already* seen the bigger vision and it holds little enticement to them.
To use Plato's metaphor, the person who has truly awakened in life would draw less water from the river of forgetfulness (I know that metaphor clashes with how I've put it above). The thirst for the water of the river of forgetfulness would also be, in this sense, the desire to experience the 'past' once again. The draw of nostalgia.
I mean *intensely.*
You see this power of nostalgia playing out in our human nature in the here and now.
All the negative is forgotten. The danger no longer exists. The unpleasantness is no longer felt.
And when you look at the past from the vantage point of being in the future you tend to see *possibilities* in that past that either weren't there in real time or that you were blind to anyway back in real time, but the *greater vision* of the times that looking backwards gives us makes the times more interesting. Less of an experience of being enchained in humdrum circumstances and necessities and situations and more a vision of what was happening in history and how one could do this or do that and how it is all so opened up and interesting and everybody you know is young again...!
To greater or lesser degree each person would feel and see this.
This draw of nostalgia would not effect (effect as strongly, I'll say) a person who has awakened in life. They, in effect, have *already* seen the bigger vision and it holds little enticement to them.
To use Plato's metaphor, the person who has truly awakened in life would draw less water from the river of forgetfulness (I know that metaphor clashes with how I've put it above). The thirst for the water of the river of forgetfulness would also be, in this sense, the desire to experience the 'past' once again. The draw of nostalgia.
9.06.2010
We have to remember our fallen nature hates God
1.
Celestial fire...higher energy...it is the Holy Spirit. The H.S. is God. Our fallen nature hates God. Here is something to observe: in the backlash state when we are full of accumulated energy (after self-remembering effort), and we are castigating people, from memory, in real time, the usual internal-considering, i.e. in the midst of a negative emotional blowout, try to observe how everything you are saying is *really* directed at the Holy Spirit. It's *supposedly* directed at some girl, some guy, some event, memory, whatever. No, see that it is directed at God.
Then note the language you use. "Creep. Fuck off. Who are you? You're nothing. I'll fucking kill you. Screw off. Compared to me you're nothing."
You think you're talking to some human from some past event in your life. No, you're talking directly to God.
This is a powerful and true realization.
You're castigating the Holy Spirit within you. Grieving the Holy Spirit.
2.
This is why this interval - this second conscious shock - is nigh impossible to cross. Because we are spitting at and fighting the only force that can get us across: God.
Celestial fire...higher energy...it is the Holy Spirit. The H.S. is God. Our fallen nature hates God. Here is something to observe: in the backlash state when we are full of accumulated energy (after self-remembering effort), and we are castigating people, from memory, in real time, the usual internal-considering, i.e. in the midst of a negative emotional blowout, try to observe how everything you are saying is *really* directed at the Holy Spirit. It's *supposedly* directed at some girl, some guy, some event, memory, whatever. No, see that it is directed at God.
Then note the language you use. "Creep. Fuck off. Who are you? You're nothing. I'll fucking kill you. Screw off. Compared to me you're nothing."
You think you're talking to some human from some past event in your life. No, you're talking directly to God.
This is a powerful and true realization.
You're castigating the Holy Spirit within you. Grieving the Holy Spirit.
2.
This is why this interval - this second conscious shock - is nigh impossible to cross. Because we are spitting at and fighting the only force that can get us across: God.
9.04.2010
Celestial Fire - Higher things need higher language
1.
Rare, new things need new, higher language to be identified. Work language is higher language, but I mean everyday language to identify something like the higher energy that is accumulated by self-remembering effort. Maybe the Work language has fallen short a bit here in not providing one, but maybe it's something we have to see eventually on our own and provide it.
Example: celestial fire. It captures the Work as practice. We're burned by it, illuminated by it, emanate it. Consume it.
I got the phrase from John Owen, Calvinist theologian. Psalm 104:4 alludes to it.
My main point: when we see higher levels of energy as celestial fire we react differently to it. When we get emotionally negative as a result of having accumulated such energy by self-remembering we see we are being burned by something rare and higher: celestial fire. I.e. we focus on the energy itself and not on what's making us angry and resentful and out of control in the backlash state and difficult events.
When we focus on the higher energy itself we are not in a state of identification with people, events, whatever. "I'm all angry because I have celestial fire in me. I have to embrace the celestial fire, not grieve it. Not fight it. And what's happening in my thoughts and imagination and events out here in the world...is nothing. It's between me and celestial fire. My limits."
2.
This idea may sound new agey, but really it isn't. It's using language to identify something that is new and rare. When we say 'higher energy' (the result of self-remembering effort) those words don't really denote the rare substance of what we're talking about and dealing with. Higher energy? We've all had high energy. Kids have it. Such words mingle to closely with mundane things.
So celestial fire, though it may sound grandiloquent, is the type of new language needed to identify something that is new and different.
Really, it is biblical too. The Bible uses such language. Fire. Having fire. The Holy Spirit as well is what we are accumulating. Jesus had the Spirit 'without measure'. The only human who *could* have it without measure. We can have it by increasing degree, but our limits are provoked blow out. We "grieve" the Spirit. We're a temple of the Holy Spirit once regenerated, yet we defile the temple.
That is the struggle. Provoking limits so as to then extend limits, with subtle effort.
And it's important to repeat that when you focus on the energy itself (the celestial fire) you aren't focused on the subject(s) of your resentment (whatever they or it is in the moment when you're indulging intellectual and emotional and physical negativity). You realize, whatever difficult thing is happening, that it is the 'celestial fire' that you are in the presence of and that you don't want to 'defile' it by using it for resentment and anger and so on.
Before all the subjects of your resentment were in the forefront. They are tangible (even if negative imagination and bad memories). Now, the higher energy itself is forefront because it has a name; something that identifies it as being rare and new...and present.
Rare, new things need new, higher language to be identified. Work language is higher language, but I mean everyday language to identify something like the higher energy that is accumulated by self-remembering effort. Maybe the Work language has fallen short a bit here in not providing one, but maybe it's something we have to see eventually on our own and provide it.
Example: celestial fire. It captures the Work as practice. We're burned by it, illuminated by it, emanate it. Consume it.
I got the phrase from John Owen, Calvinist theologian. Psalm 104:4 alludes to it.
My main point: when we see higher levels of energy as celestial fire we react differently to it. When we get emotionally negative as a result of having accumulated such energy by self-remembering we see we are being burned by something rare and higher: celestial fire. I.e. we focus on the energy itself and not on what's making us angry and resentful and out of control in the backlash state and difficult events.
When we focus on the higher energy itself we are not in a state of identification with people, events, whatever. "I'm all angry because I have celestial fire in me. I have to embrace the celestial fire, not grieve it. Not fight it. And what's happening in my thoughts and imagination and events out here in the world...is nothing. It's between me and celestial fire. My limits."
2.
This idea may sound new agey, but really it isn't. It's using language to identify something that is new and rare. When we say 'higher energy' (the result of self-remembering effort) those words don't really denote the rare substance of what we're talking about and dealing with. Higher energy? We've all had high energy. Kids have it. Such words mingle to closely with mundane things.
So celestial fire, though it may sound grandiloquent, is the type of new language needed to identify something that is new and different.
Really, it is biblical too. The Bible uses such language. Fire. Having fire. The Holy Spirit as well is what we are accumulating. Jesus had the Spirit 'without measure'. The only human who *could* have it without measure. We can have it by increasing degree, but our limits are provoked blow out. We "grieve" the Spirit. We're a temple of the Holy Spirit once regenerated, yet we defile the temple.
That is the struggle. Provoking limits so as to then extend limits, with subtle effort.
And it's important to repeat that when you focus on the energy itself (the celestial fire) you aren't focused on the subject(s) of your resentment (whatever they or it is in the moment when you're indulging intellectual and emotional and physical negativity). You realize, whatever difficult thing is happening, that it is the 'celestial fire' that you are in the presence of and that you don't want to 'defile' it by using it for resentment and anger and so on.
Before all the subjects of your resentment were in the forefront. They are tangible (even if negative imagination and bad memories). Now, the higher energy itself is forefront because it has a name; something that identifies it as being rare and new...and present.
8.21.2010
A fact of recurrence
I'm going to give you a fact about recurrence: we are in Hades now - that interval between death and birth - just as we are here now at this mechanical point of our living time (which we perceive as a circle, but which includes more than this one - linear time - dimension).
When we awaken now, in this mechanical point of linear time we awaken in all the time of our time body or our living time. Which means we also awaken in that interval between death and birth which I call Hades, because the Bible uses that word, and because Plato gave a pretty good - if not exactly close - description of it in the Myth of Er.
When we awaken in Hades it is very noticeable there. The forces of darkness and light exist there. When you awaken there - in Hades - it is like you are walking out of the camp of darkness into the camp of light, and there is friction and opposition to you at first when this process begins. Eventually you have the armor of God to protect you.
This friction and opposition to you in Hades also is mirrored in the now of this physical life. The world gives you friction and opposition. The reins the devil has on your internal being - your fallen nature - gives you friction and opposition. The devil overall gives you friction and opposition.
Think of how many little victories are attained over you when the process begins and commences. Because you are innocent to the fact that you are in a battle. Yet think also of how your victory is inevitable (seen from the rear-view mirror of having been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit).
People might have pleasant death experiences simply because they have no opposition or friction from the darkness because they are not swimming against the current of the darkness, or the Kingdom of Satan.
People who experience difficulty may be in in-between states of awakening and regeneration.
People who experience triumph have been fully regenerated by the Word and the Spirit and have awakened *and have already engaged in the spiritual battle here and now and also in the spiritual realm.* They are not innocent of it all. They are fully soldiers of Christ with experience of the battlefield.
It's clarifying to see this 'point' in time (in our so-called circle of time, which is like the first dimension of time, a linear dimension, making a 'circle') as a *mechanical* point. Mechanical in terms of our consciousness. Once we increase level of being and attain the third and fourth levels of consciousness we are no longer just mechanically moving around that line that forms a circle but we are moving inward from that line (which forms a plane) and we are moving upward from that plane (which forms a three-dimensional manifestation of time.
This solves the problem we have when we think: "Why am I only conscious here, at this age, now, at this point of my linear life-to-death experience?" The answer is: because when we are in a state of mechanical level 'consciousness' we are stuck in this 1st dimension of time, this line which to our perception forms a circle, and the fact that we are stuck in *a point* in this line (a point which moves like a train on this line) seems to be a mechanical law of existence. That's the answer though: it's *mechanical.* But when we begin to truly awaken we awaken in all of our time, and we begin to move - consciously (by degree) - in all dimensions of our living time. And that includes becoming awake in that interval between death and birth, where we are NOW just as we are here in this physical body and world now.
+ + +
If you want to really feel the power of this Work get the whole-time-perspective and feel that you carry with you. That you operate within the theater of. All that that means. The effect you have on others in your time, who are not just living alongside you now but who are no longer here, yet exist in all their time including in death. In that season in Hades. That interval. Where you exist now as well.
Think of the spiritual battle.
Think of how much more radical your thoughts and words and deeds and actions in general now are with this full-body-time in view.
If you're able to think this now it means you've already been through the motions of recurrence. All the development. The different experiences. The different identities within, or covering, the same person. The type fulfilling its mechanical fate while emerging and developing, a living kernel in essence, in the mechanical ride. Eventually overtaking the mechanical ride as something bigger than the law of fate. Will. Real will. Real consciousness, real understanding. A full body with the full armor of God; a full robe of righteousness (this gets into the Christian reality) which is the righteousness of Christ.
When we awaken now, in this mechanical point of linear time we awaken in all the time of our time body or our living time. Which means we also awaken in that interval between death and birth which I call Hades, because the Bible uses that word, and because Plato gave a pretty good - if not exactly close - description of it in the Myth of Er.
When we awaken in Hades it is very noticeable there. The forces of darkness and light exist there. When you awaken there - in Hades - it is like you are walking out of the camp of darkness into the camp of light, and there is friction and opposition to you at first when this process begins. Eventually you have the armor of God to protect you.
This friction and opposition to you in Hades also is mirrored in the now of this physical life. The world gives you friction and opposition. The reins the devil has on your internal being - your fallen nature - gives you friction and opposition. The devil overall gives you friction and opposition.
Think of how many little victories are attained over you when the process begins and commences. Because you are innocent to the fact that you are in a battle. Yet think also of how your victory is inevitable (seen from the rear-view mirror of having been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit).
People might have pleasant death experiences simply because they have no opposition or friction from the darkness because they are not swimming against the current of the darkness, or the Kingdom of Satan.
People who experience difficulty may be in in-between states of awakening and regeneration.
People who experience triumph have been fully regenerated by the Word and the Spirit and have awakened *and have already engaged in the spiritual battle here and now and also in the spiritual realm.* They are not innocent of it all. They are fully soldiers of Christ with experience of the battlefield.
It's clarifying to see this 'point' in time (in our so-called circle of time, which is like the first dimension of time, a linear dimension, making a 'circle') as a *mechanical* point. Mechanical in terms of our consciousness. Once we increase level of being and attain the third and fourth levels of consciousness we are no longer just mechanically moving around that line that forms a circle but we are moving inward from that line (which forms a plane) and we are moving upward from that plane (which forms a three-dimensional manifestation of time.
This solves the problem we have when we think: "Why am I only conscious here, at this age, now, at this point of my linear life-to-death experience?" The answer is: because when we are in a state of mechanical level 'consciousness' we are stuck in this 1st dimension of time, this line which to our perception forms a circle, and the fact that we are stuck in *a point* in this line (a point which moves like a train on this line) seems to be a mechanical law of existence. That's the answer though: it's *mechanical.* But when we begin to truly awaken we awaken in all of our time, and we begin to move - consciously (by degree) - in all dimensions of our living time. And that includes becoming awake in that interval between death and birth, where we are NOW just as we are here in this physical body and world now.
+ + +
If you want to really feel the power of this Work get the whole-time-perspective and feel that you carry with you. That you operate within the theater of. All that that means. The effect you have on others in your time, who are not just living alongside you now but who are no longer here, yet exist in all their time including in death. In that season in Hades. That interval. Where you exist now as well.
Think of the spiritual battle.
Think of how much more radical your thoughts and words and deeds and actions in general now are with this full-body-time in view.
If you're able to think this now it means you've already been through the motions of recurrence. All the development. The different experiences. The different identities within, or covering, the same person. The type fulfilling its mechanical fate while emerging and developing, a living kernel in essence, in the mechanical ride. Eventually overtaking the mechanical ride as something bigger than the law of fate. Will. Real will. Real consciousness, real understanding. A full body with the full armor of God; a full robe of righteousness (this gets into the Christian reality) which is the righteousness of Christ.
8.08.2010
Types, categories, patterns, the language of cosmoses
Here is some deep knowledge. If you can begin to see common or universal types, categories, and patterns (in everything) it changes you internally. It changes your relationship to people, places, things, events, ideas. It's a way of seeing that higher being has. There is more individuality higher up. Just like in works of literature or music, the higher the work the more unique and individual it is. The lower the work the more common and numerous it is. To put it colorfully: angels see humans as types. If you've broken down out of a type you will be more noticeable and unusual. Perhaps in an in-between state of development. Heading higher. Everything though, people, families, things we tend to think of as unique and different from each other, to higher perception fall into common types and categories and patterns. This perception takes the illusion out of what we see. It takes much of the everyday charm of life away from us as well. It gives greater understanding but diminishes our interest in everything. It also subdues our emotion regarding things and also gives us insights into recurrence. This subject would be a part of the language of cosmoses.
8.06.2010
A good-natured, laughter of the Gods pursuit of C Influence is in order
email
I've let you guys down by adopting this lame "everything sucks now" line. Talking about myself is not a good idea. Not productive. The fact is, I havn't even opened a Work book in many, many years. The biblical doctrine I have understanding of now I had understanding of many years ago too. I'm being almost lunatic repetitive, revealing perhaps a bit of a compulsive, obsessive disorder. A trace. Also, a shut-in mentality. Nothing unusual, mind you, when you've actively pursued and devoured every higher influence that exists, pretty much. Every category and level anyway. Without becoming an Olympic athlete or playing at Carnegie Hall or publishing the great American novel. You don't have to. You don't have to be Casanova to get the measure of flesh. Again, repeating myself (I was writing on this theme back in the early years of this decade, if it's still this decade and not the next decade). It's like, I've used up all my water, and I'm only half way across the desert (water being influences and desert being life span). Yet there is C Influence.
There *is* more.
Laziness is a disorder with me too. (Realizing this, actually writing it down, perhaps the subject was now coming out of the pit that was the stumblingblock. Rising up, yes, blinking at the sun...)
A good-natured, laughter of the Gods pursuit of C Influence is in order. The Work, Homer, and the Bible are the foundation for that. The Faith being everything, of course, but the Work and Homer being some sort of 'sight line' keeping to the straight and narrow... - C.
7.24.2010
A list of higher world things, just like lower world things
You have to find, or connect with, the people, places, things, events, and ideas (or language) of the higher world.
7.22.2010
Something about historical time and eschatology
I'd had some left-over difficulty (mainly due to not pondering and meditating upon it but letting it hang there) in trying to see the history of redemption in a temporal context. It *is* temporal, but then it becomes non-temporal. Sort of leaves time. Shoots upward, eschatologically.
It's like this: Adam in the Garden; then the fall of man and creation (still in historical time here); then (leaving historical time) individual regeneration by the Word and the Spirit; then (the end of time) glorification.
Of course when we are regenerated we are still alive in historical time, but of those four states - innocence in the garden, corruption after the fall, regeneration by the Word and Spirit, glorification after physical death - it's difficult to place individual regeneration in a historical 'time-line'. Regeneration is also, meaningfully in this context, when an individual is separated out from the world and becomes a stranger in this world; in this world not of this world. And a bit more timeless. Out of recurrence, even, it can be argued.
(In this sense the Work teaching is the unavoidable 'making-more-complicated' by 'pressing' into it intellectually - pressing into the Truth - of which the Bible and the simple-yet-profound and probably rare experience of regeneration actually IS.)
I'm not discounting the Work teaching at all in the above, simply stating that much of the experience described is contained in the experience of regeneration; and really what the above refers to is the 'Work person' who does not *have* regeneration by the Word and the Spirit. This is the 'making it complicated and intellectual' referred to, really. I had regeneration prior to connecting with the Work teaching. Prior to that I'd come into contact with it, but couldn't - or refused to - connect. It's a big difference we can forget: having the Spirit *and* Work understanding vs. not having the Spirit and merely having Work books and the attendant babble that usually accompanies it all.
In God's plan He is *gathering* his elect (believers, his people). The analogy of fishing is used in the Bible. Once a fish is 'hooked' and pulled up out of the water it is no longer in its world. When you are regenerated - gathered into the Kingdom of God - you are pulled up out of the world and out of time. Then you say: "Gentlemen, this world of ours is a bore!" or many similar things. (It's murky, it's cold, there's a lot of horror of fish eating other fish...)
It's like this: Adam in the Garden; then the fall of man and creation (still in historical time here); then (leaving historical time) individual regeneration by the Word and the Spirit; then (the end of time) glorification.
Of course when we are regenerated we are still alive in historical time, but of those four states - innocence in the garden, corruption after the fall, regeneration by the Word and Spirit, glorification after physical death - it's difficult to place individual regeneration in a historical 'time-line'. Regeneration is also, meaningfully in this context, when an individual is separated out from the world and becomes a stranger in this world; in this world not of this world. And a bit more timeless. Out of recurrence, even, it can be argued.
(In this sense the Work teaching is the unavoidable 'making-more-complicated' by 'pressing' into it intellectually - pressing into the Truth - of which the Bible and the simple-yet-profound and probably rare experience of regeneration actually IS.)
I'm not discounting the Work teaching at all in the above, simply stating that much of the experience described is contained in the experience of regeneration; and really what the above refers to is the 'Work person' who does not *have* regeneration by the Word and the Spirit. This is the 'making it complicated and intellectual' referred to, really. I had regeneration prior to connecting with the Work teaching. Prior to that I'd come into contact with it, but couldn't - or refused to - connect. It's a big difference we can forget: having the Spirit *and* Work understanding vs. not having the Spirit and merely having Work books and the attendant babble that usually accompanies it all.
In God's plan He is *gathering* his elect (believers, his people). The analogy of fishing is used in the Bible. Once a fish is 'hooked' and pulled up out of the water it is no longer in its world. When you are regenerated - gathered into the Kingdom of God - you are pulled up out of the world and out of time. Then you say: "Gentlemen, this world of ours is a bore!" or many similar things. (It's murky, it's cold, there's a lot of horror of fish eating other fish...)
5.28.2010
Some thoughts upon wandering through Work forums on the internet
I've recently been going around the 'net to various Fourth Way sites and forums and reading bits here and there. It causes unique reactions for me. I mean feelings, thoughts. Much of what I find on the 'net doing this comes across as helter skelter, almost hellish in a sense. And you find the usual forum nonsense. The control, banning (not me, I havn't been participating, but of people who are not conforming to the moderator's program, all that). The usual nonsense.
The usual scent of cult activity and personalities not far away, if not directly present (though that seems rare on the internet).
It also makes me question my own relationship with the Work. I saw one comment that referred to "B Influence junkies" and wondered if I'd fallen and rested comfortably a bit into that characterization.
But more deeply questions of connection come to the fore; that vertical connection that was once so real.
It seems that when I was in that connection I didn't realize how I was viewed by the world (and really didn't care). But I know now.
I think what my parents must have thought (but strangely I seemed to in some way have brought them along with it, evidence being my father's talking of recurrence on his death bed). In their old age they were kind of living in a timeless realm anyway at that point. Their past life, and eras of their lives were pretty far away at that point, and they were static, in the same house at the end for years, same chairs, same routine.
The fact is, you're going to effect your entire family when you truly change internally and develop to some real degree. Without realizing it of course because that is not part of your motive or anything you are aware of at the time.
I think prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance here is in order. At this stage. We rarely think of praying directly to God the Holy Spirit, yet He it is that guides us in our sanctification after regenerating us and after our conversion.
That's really what is going on, perhaps. A larger stage (as in theatre) is reached. (I always seem to want to spell theatre the English way when I use the word like that.)
Just as in the past when I had a real connection I wasn't aware of it being real spiritual warfare, at least not directly, yet then that aspect comes to the fore in a big way. A bigger stage. Less innocence.
Before I didn't have the armor of God, let alone the full armor of God. Now I am conscious of needing the full armor of God.
The Holy Spirit doesn't abandon us, yet graduation seems real regarding stages of the Work. That can't be denied.
I can walk down the same roads, metaphorically speaking, as I did back then, doing the Work, yet the difference I have to recognize is the spiritual warfare nature of it. I've sort of recognized that in the last several years, yet I've not been walking those old roads like of old. I've just been recognizing spiritual warfare in everyday life experiences, including more rare experiences.
Two things: prayer for guidance to the Holy Spirit, and also a recognizing of that hardcore Work practice of being present for duration, depth, and frequency. Both are needed. The latter doesn't become beneath us. It is what leads to true change and true new realms. The former, all of the faith, is the foundation and guidance and everything too. But that true effort of self-remembering, non-identifying for real duration, uncomfortable, and then dealing with the backlash, and everything else, is what makes your connection real or not.
The usual scent of cult activity and personalities not far away, if not directly present (though that seems rare on the internet).
It also makes me question my own relationship with the Work. I saw one comment that referred to "B Influence junkies" and wondered if I'd fallen and rested comfortably a bit into that characterization.
But more deeply questions of connection come to the fore; that vertical connection that was once so real.
It seems that when I was in that connection I didn't realize how I was viewed by the world (and really didn't care). But I know now.
I think what my parents must have thought (but strangely I seemed to in some way have brought them along with it, evidence being my father's talking of recurrence on his death bed). In their old age they were kind of living in a timeless realm anyway at that point. Their past life, and eras of their lives were pretty far away at that point, and they were static, in the same house at the end for years, same chairs, same routine.
The fact is, you're going to effect your entire family when you truly change internally and develop to some real degree. Without realizing it of course because that is not part of your motive or anything you are aware of at the time.
I think prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance here is in order. At this stage. We rarely think of praying directly to God the Holy Spirit, yet He it is that guides us in our sanctification after regenerating us and after our conversion.
That's really what is going on, perhaps. A larger stage (as in theatre) is reached. (I always seem to want to spell theatre the English way when I use the word like that.)
Just as in the past when I had a real connection I wasn't aware of it being real spiritual warfare, at least not directly, yet then that aspect comes to the fore in a big way. A bigger stage. Less innocence.
Before I didn't have the armor of God, let alone the full armor of God. Now I am conscious of needing the full armor of God.
The Holy Spirit doesn't abandon us, yet graduation seems real regarding stages of the Work. That can't be denied.
I can walk down the same roads, metaphorically speaking, as I did back then, doing the Work, yet the difference I have to recognize is the spiritual warfare nature of it. I've sort of recognized that in the last several years, yet I've not been walking those old roads like of old. I've just been recognizing spiritual warfare in everyday life experiences, including more rare experiences.
Two things: prayer for guidance to the Holy Spirit, and also a recognizing of that hardcore Work practice of being present for duration, depth, and frequency. Both are needed. The latter doesn't become beneath us. It is what leads to true change and true new realms. The former, all of the faith, is the foundation and guidance and everything too. But that true effort of self-remembering, non-identifying for real duration, uncomfortable, and then dealing with the backlash, and everything else, is what makes your connection real or not.
5.25.2010
Big perspective post (dead on a gurney II)
With my uncharming 'dead on a gurney' post I was trying to do something I'll try again here.
It is necessary to look at humankind and history and individual lives and ask what is the most important thing that could happen with an individual in an individual life?
Making millions? No. Being famous, even for impressive reasons like discovering or inventing something? No, again. Obviously those are good things and worthwhile, but they are not the most rare, unique things that can happen within an individual in an individual life.
Developing Magnetic Center, regeneration by the Word and the Spirit, true awakening, getting out from under the tyranny of vanity and worldly pride and self-will, becoming God centered rather than man-centered, having saving faith, these and similar things are the rare and unique things that can happen to an individual in an individual life.
They involve higher influences (B and C influence), they involve the Word of God and the call that becomes effectual internally, they involve painful separation from the world (the General Law, the world of sex, all that) including the pain of being forced to see our own nothingness, and in that they involve the breaking down of personality and the developing of essence.
The Work language gives us understanding of these ultimate things. Biblical language and doctrine does as well in a different way.
Roles are played in life, in history, influences are created, God's providence puts all beings in their place, where they need to be. I say this to say we can't put down the world or make null all parts and forces and directions of life in the world. Yet when we look at individual lives, in history, we can see what is most unusual and rare and unique.
So when we make contact with such things...realize it! *Continually.*
We have to continually get perspective.
Much of all this development requires unusual *self-motivation* (or inwardly motivated action) or internal (conscious) shocks rather than the usual external shocks mechanical life is excited and controlled by. It's unusual for us. We're use to things just 'happening.' We have to formulate aims. Engage in active reasoning. Live from the Work rather than from life.
It is necessary to look at humankind and history and individual lives and ask what is the most important thing that could happen with an individual in an individual life?
Making millions? No. Being famous, even for impressive reasons like discovering or inventing something? No, again. Obviously those are good things and worthwhile, but they are not the most rare, unique things that can happen within an individual in an individual life.
Developing Magnetic Center, regeneration by the Word and the Spirit, true awakening, getting out from under the tyranny of vanity and worldly pride and self-will, becoming God centered rather than man-centered, having saving faith, these and similar things are the rare and unique things that can happen to an individual in an individual life.
They involve higher influences (B and C influence), they involve the Word of God and the call that becomes effectual internally, they involve painful separation from the world (the General Law, the world of sex, all that) including the pain of being forced to see our own nothingness, and in that they involve the breaking down of personality and the developing of essence.
The Work language gives us understanding of these ultimate things. Biblical language and doctrine does as well in a different way.
Roles are played in life, in history, influences are created, God's providence puts all beings in their place, where they need to be. I say this to say we can't put down the world or make null all parts and forces and directions of life in the world. Yet when we look at individual lives, in history, we can see what is most unusual and rare and unique.
So when we make contact with such things...realize it! *Continually.*
We have to continually get perspective.
Much of all this development requires unusual *self-motivation* (or inwardly motivated action) or internal (conscious) shocks rather than the usual external shocks mechanical life is excited and controlled by. It's unusual for us. We're use to things just 'happening.' We have to formulate aims. Engage in active reasoning. Live from the Work rather than from life.
5.23.2010
Pool reading
Ignore the title of this post. It's just free association for now.
I've always been on to the need to have a basic list of books that are balanced and ultimate influences for you. Yet I've never really married to that the advantage (or necessity and need) to re-read certain influences to really make them our own. Not all books (influences) are worth re-reading, or need to be re-read, of course, but a handful are worth it.
Along the lines of Luther's (and many other peoples') comment that it's better to know a handful of books well than to know many books to a shallow degree.
When you come to a point where you've read basically everything (every level and category or genre of book) you are always wondering what to read now. Rarely do you think of going back and re-reading a great influence.
So beyond a rock like list of basic books one needs also to engage in pool reading. By that I mean having a basic pool of influences that one gets to know really well. The notion of pool here means not just the particular books that make up your definitive list itself, but all secondary works on the subject of those books, or critical essays on each one, or similar works in their category, if that applies, etc.
For the Bible and Federal Theology this is obvious.
Wealth of Nations and On War less so, though it applies.
I guess the main point is to get to know a handful of influences really well. When we begin with influences we can't know what are worthwhile in this sense, but as we get understanding of the entire field, so to speak, and can discern the handful worth knowing really well, then all this applies.
I don't know if I'd ever get much from reading a work of fiction more than once. Perhaps so in some cases, if a lot of time has elapsed, just to see how one's understanding has developed over time. Liker reading an old journal or diary.
Homer definitely. Very little worthwhile secondary literature on Homer though. You have to write your own. Which I have. Here and there.
Shakespeare is most likely a main candidate. The first time we course through Shakespeare we are a bit fazed by it all. And wondering if it's really as great as it's reputation. So to struggle with that (and assuming it is, since it's hard to go up against a vetter like Time) we have to go at it multiple times over time. A worthwhile influence for that.
I just know I've been delinquent in re-reading great influences, other than the Bible and Homer and Reformed Theology and the Work. You shouldn't really just read Herodotus *once*, for instance. Or Thucydides. Works might suffer upon second readings, but so what. You learn something.
I've always been on to the need to have a basic list of books that are balanced and ultimate influences for you. Yet I've never really married to that the advantage (or necessity and need) to re-read certain influences to really make them our own. Not all books (influences) are worth re-reading, or need to be re-read, of course, but a handful are worth it.
Along the lines of Luther's (and many other peoples') comment that it's better to know a handful of books well than to know many books to a shallow degree.
When you come to a point where you've read basically everything (every level and category or genre of book) you are always wondering what to read now. Rarely do you think of going back and re-reading a great influence.
So beyond a rock like list of basic books one needs also to engage in pool reading. By that I mean having a basic pool of influences that one gets to know really well. The notion of pool here means not just the particular books that make up your definitive list itself, but all secondary works on the subject of those books, or critical essays on each one, or similar works in their category, if that applies, etc.
For the Bible and Federal Theology this is obvious.
Wealth of Nations and On War less so, though it applies.
I guess the main point is to get to know a handful of influences really well. When we begin with influences we can't know what are worthwhile in this sense, but as we get understanding of the entire field, so to speak, and can discern the handful worth knowing really well, then all this applies.
I don't know if I'd ever get much from reading a work of fiction more than once. Perhaps so in some cases, if a lot of time has elapsed, just to see how one's understanding has developed over time. Liker reading an old journal or diary.
Homer definitely. Very little worthwhile secondary literature on Homer though. You have to write your own. Which I have. Here and there.
Shakespeare is most likely a main candidate. The first time we course through Shakespeare we are a bit fazed by it all. And wondering if it's really as great as it's reputation. So to struggle with that (and assuming it is, since it's hard to go up against a vetter like Time) we have to go at it multiple times over time. A worthwhile influence for that.
I just know I've been delinquent in re-reading great influences, other than the Bible and Homer and Reformed Theology and the Work. You shouldn't really just read Herodotus *once*, for instance. Or Thucydides. Works might suffer upon second readings, but so what. You learn something.
5.17.2010
Dead on a gurney
Picture yourself lying dead on a gurney. Look at your lifeless face. See others looking down on you. Professional people who see corpses often. Another dead human.
Now think of what you did in your life that had any real meaning. You read a lot of books, but did any of them produce any real change? Your effect on other people, etc.
Here is how I see the real positive change: did you awaken in a real way during your life? In the way that language such as becoming God-centered rather than man-centered suggests?
Did you really get above the dark and silent internal tyranny of your vanity and pride and become able to recognize anything higher than you? Did you recognize your Creator? That is a real development. That is real change. Looking down on that dead face on the gurney one could say something really happened for that person in their life. A real change.
Such things as recognize original sin in oneself. And active sin. The need for a mediator between yourself and God. It is not 'normal' to be able to recognize such things.
Let alone did you come to where you could discern and value the difference between self-will and Real Will (or God's will in you)?
At this point the corpse has a half smile.
Now think of what you did in your life that had any real meaning. You read a lot of books, but did any of them produce any real change? Your effect on other people, etc.
Here is how I see the real positive change: did you awaken in a real way during your life? In the way that language such as becoming God-centered rather than man-centered suggests?
Did you really get above the dark and silent internal tyranny of your vanity and pride and become able to recognize anything higher than you? Did you recognize your Creator? That is a real development. That is real change. Looking down on that dead face on the gurney one could say something really happened for that person in their life. A real change.
Such things as recognize original sin in oneself. And active sin. The need for a mediator between yourself and God. It is not 'normal' to be able to recognize such things.
Let alone did you come to where you could discern and value the difference between self-will and Real Will (or God's will in you)?
At this point the corpse has a half smile.
5.14.2010
A final word on 'sacraments'
I think the best way to understand the 'sacraments' is this: prior to being regenerated by the Word and the Spirit ritual sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper) provide for the currently unregenerate a visual parable to teach them and keep them drawn towards Scripture (ideally).
After regeneration though ritual sacraments become vain matter. Regeneration itself is baptism of the Holy Spirit. What the Lord's Supper symbolizes is union with Christ which a regenerated Christian has in reality.
The unregenerate in the church (especially leadership) never want to think anybody is regenerate. So the regenerate Christians have to just silently grin and have understanding for them. While at the same time not allowing themselves to be drawn into dead ritual or an experience of the faith that is beneath them. (Intentionally chosen words there.)
Fear God, not man. Don't ever exalt man and ritual above the Word and the Spirit. (Man being cleric or scholar or anything else.) And don't succumb to those who demand that man and ritual be exalted over the Word and the Spirit. That is a point of difference that defines the battle-line in the spiritual world. A soldier of Christ - a true spiritual warrior - does not concede or play such games for *any* reason or justification or demand on the part of the currently unregenerate.
After regeneration though ritual sacraments become vain matter. Regeneration itself is baptism of the Holy Spirit. What the Lord's Supper symbolizes is union with Christ which a regenerated Christian has in reality.
The unregenerate in the church (especially leadership) never want to think anybody is regenerate. So the regenerate Christians have to just silently grin and have understanding for them. While at the same time not allowing themselves to be drawn into dead ritual or an experience of the faith that is beneath them. (Intentionally chosen words there.)
Fear God, not man. Don't ever exalt man and ritual above the Word and the Spirit. (Man being cleric or scholar or anything else.) And don't succumb to those who demand that man and ritual be exalted over the Word and the Spirit. That is a point of difference that defines the battle-line in the spiritual world. A soldier of Christ - a true spiritual warrior - does not concede or play such games for *any* reason or justification or demand on the part of the currently unregenerate.
5.12.2010
Faith, hope, charity
Came across something recently. This verse:
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
means this: faith and hope are still forward looking (or are in things still yet unseen), yet love now is the beginning of the same love that will exist beyond the veil.
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
means this: faith and hope are still forward looking (or are in things still yet unseen), yet love now is the beginning of the same love that will exist beyond the veil.
5.09.2010
Dostoevsky, interesting
It's interesting (to me, anyway) that when you write a list of Dostoevsky's major novels, novellas, and stories there aren't that many.
About a baker's dozen:
The Double
Notes from Underground
Crime and Punishment
The Gambler
The Idiot
The Eternal Husband
The Possessed
The Brothers Karamazov
White Nights
A Nasty Story (also trans. as 'A Disgraceful Affair')
Bobok
A Gentle Creature (also trans. as 'The Meek One')
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Dostoevsky is interesting because he portrays the psychology a person who has developed into being able to see and value the Work possesses. Experiences are similar. Alienation. Isolation. The insulted and humiliated. Embarrassment as a means and an end in development. One I love, the 'scandalous feast' or 'scandalous gathering' where the veil is lifted on the facade of societal unity and people are exposed and things get crazy. D. has these scenes in all his major novels. The love triangle (which doesn't need to involve consummated love). The figure of the 'dreamer.' The dreamer as idealist who wants to transform his squalid reality into something more noble, more lofty, more beautiful. It ends badly. Reality triumphs. Though the ideals are vindicated in various ways. Then, isolated consciousness has recognized its isolation. Love this quote from Notes from Underground: "...to tell long stories of how I defaulted on my life through moral corruption in a corner, through an insufficiency of milieu, through unaccustom to what is alive, and through vainglorious spite in the underground - is not interesting..." Another motif is the motif of the double, the lack of unity or oneness in a person. Obvious Work theme. Then, the General Law, depicted as the social nexus (the outer, collective world) that impinges upon the inner, personal world. These clash in the aforementioned 'scandalous feasts' or 'scandalous gatherings.'
In the above paragraph, in places, I have paraphrased Richard Pevear in his Intro to the Bantam Classics edition of The Eternal Husband.
I didn't mention one other theme because Pevear presented it as confused. The theme of separation from 'what is living' leads to violence towards what is living. What is confusing is Pevear doesn't say if 'what is living' is the isolated individual or the collective social milieu.
For us, Work types, we can see that there is an element of violence going on, and criminal behavior is always close. Perhaps a percentage of inmates of prisons are in very early stages of development (recurrence) and succumbed to violence. I always use to say: "Don't get yourself into a prison cell!" when talking about accumulating higher energy in early stages of development.
About a baker's dozen:
The Double
Notes from Underground
Crime and Punishment
The Gambler
The Idiot
The Eternal Husband
The Possessed
The Brothers Karamazov
White Nights
A Nasty Story (also trans. as 'A Disgraceful Affair')
Bobok
A Gentle Creature (also trans. as 'The Meek One')
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Dostoevsky is interesting because he portrays the psychology a person who has developed into being able to see and value the Work possesses. Experiences are similar. Alienation. Isolation. The insulted and humiliated. Embarrassment as a means and an end in development. One I love, the 'scandalous feast' or 'scandalous gathering' where the veil is lifted on the facade of societal unity and people are exposed and things get crazy. D. has these scenes in all his major novels. The love triangle (which doesn't need to involve consummated love). The figure of the 'dreamer.' The dreamer as idealist who wants to transform his squalid reality into something more noble, more lofty, more beautiful. It ends badly. Reality triumphs. Though the ideals are vindicated in various ways. Then, isolated consciousness has recognized its isolation. Love this quote from Notes from Underground: "...to tell long stories of how I defaulted on my life through moral corruption in a corner, through an insufficiency of milieu, through unaccustom to what is alive, and through vainglorious spite in the underground - is not interesting..." Another motif is the motif of the double, the lack of unity or oneness in a person. Obvious Work theme. Then, the General Law, depicted as the social nexus (the outer, collective world) that impinges upon the inner, personal world. These clash in the aforementioned 'scandalous feasts' or 'scandalous gatherings.'
In the above paragraph, in places, I have paraphrased Richard Pevear in his Intro to the Bantam Classics edition of The Eternal Husband.
I didn't mention one other theme because Pevear presented it as confused. The theme of separation from 'what is living' leads to violence towards what is living. What is confusing is Pevear doesn't say if 'what is living' is the isolated individual or the collective social milieu.
For us, Work types, we can see that there is an element of violence going on, and criminal behavior is always close. Perhaps a percentage of inmates of prisons are in very early stages of development (recurrence) and succumbed to violence. I always use to say: "Don't get yourself into a prison cell!" when talking about accumulating higher energy in early stages of development.
5.05.2010
A stinging recognition
While reading a discussion of the Trinity on a forum (one person who should know better was refusing to recognize the orthodox biblical teaching on the Trinity) it reminded me of a realization - a sharp, as in stinging, realization - I had recently. I recognized that I was dishonoring the Holy Spirit by neglecting the language He introduced me to and taught me (enabled me to understand).
To clear my mind on the Trinity after reading that forum discussion I read J. I. Packer's chapter on the Trinity in his Concise Theology, and at the end of that chapter he notes that part of having a biblical understanding of the Trinity - of accepting the biblical teaching - is we are reminded to honor all three Persons of the Trinity, or Godhead.
I.e. pay equal attention and give equal honor to the gracious ministries of all three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
To clear my mind on the Trinity after reading that forum discussion I read J. I. Packer's chapter on the Trinity in his Concise Theology, and at the end of that chapter he notes that part of having a biblical understanding of the Trinity - of accepting the biblical teaching - is we are reminded to honor all three Persons of the Trinity, or Godhead.
I.e. pay equal attention and give equal honor to the gracious ministries of all three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
4.20.2010
Just got a glimpse of...higher time 2 (disappearing from our living time now)
Following on that last post think about this:
The problem of how we can exist in all parts of our living time at the same time doesn't really appear (i.e. the problem doesn't become a problem) until a person begins to awaken and thus having a 'point' of consciousness in that living time.
It very well might be that before we awaken we are just totally mechanical throughout our 'time-body' in our living time and there thus really *is no* single point of consciousness, but 'you' throughout all of that 'time-body' is equally mechanically-asleep, going through mechanical motions.
Sure, there is the phenomenon that people wake up when in contact with another person who is awake (sometimes they do), and that fools us, if we are the awakened one. But normally that person is just dead, mechanical asleep in their life all the time. Their 'I', or 'point of consciousness moving around the circle of their time', so to speak, is Imaginary 'I', so their whole time-body is imaginary 'I', one thing, happening at the same time. We are seeing them at a particular point, but they are no more awake at that point than at any other point of their living time.
We, on the other hand, who have awakened in our time (let's be generous to ourselves and describe us that way) just 'may' in fact *disappear* from every other part of our living time. I.e. *right now.* Because Imaginary 'I' holds that all together, but once Observing I appears (a degree of Real I) boom, we are here, and no longer everywhere at once in our living time.
Think about that. Relations disintegrate. People from your past start to fade away. (I.e. because *you* have faded away from their time).
Graduation is in store. You have begun to awaken and are now 'present', thus you graduate. You disappear from your time. And that is happening NOW. You as a child, for instance, are no longer in those times and spaces. Those events. You are here now, right where you are now.
Graduation must happen once a person awakens. That means literally disappearing from your living time. Which occurs *while you are still alive*. My childhood is no longer 'there' because I am no longer there in mechanicalness, going through the motions, because *I am here.*
Read this again, and think about it. It is interesting.
It is eschatological as well. It brings an immediateness of results of awakening to the present.
The problem of how we can exist in all parts of our living time at the same time doesn't really appear (i.e. the problem doesn't become a problem) until a person begins to awaken and thus having a 'point' of consciousness in that living time.
It very well might be that before we awaken we are just totally mechanical throughout our 'time-body' in our living time and there thus really *is no* single point of consciousness, but 'you' throughout all of that 'time-body' is equally mechanically-asleep, going through mechanical motions.
Sure, there is the phenomenon that people wake up when in contact with another person who is awake (sometimes they do), and that fools us, if we are the awakened one. But normally that person is just dead, mechanical asleep in their life all the time. Their 'I', or 'point of consciousness moving around the circle of their time', so to speak, is Imaginary 'I', so their whole time-body is imaginary 'I', one thing, happening at the same time. We are seeing them at a particular point, but they are no more awake at that point than at any other point of their living time.
We, on the other hand, who have awakened in our time (let's be generous to ourselves and describe us that way) just 'may' in fact *disappear* from every other part of our living time. I.e. *right now.* Because Imaginary 'I' holds that all together, but once Observing I appears (a degree of Real I) boom, we are here, and no longer everywhere at once in our living time.
Think about that. Relations disintegrate. People from your past start to fade away. (I.e. because *you* have faded away from their time).
Graduation is in store. You have begun to awaken and are now 'present', thus you graduate. You disappear from your time. And that is happening NOW. You as a child, for instance, are no longer in those times and spaces. Those events. You are here now, right where you are now.
Graduation must happen once a person awakens. That means literally disappearing from your living time. Which occurs *while you are still alive*. My childhood is no longer 'there' because I am no longer there in mechanicalness, going through the motions, because *I am here.*
Read this again, and think about it. It is interesting.
It is eschatological as well. It brings an immediateness of results of awakening to the present.
4.19.2010
Just got a glimpse of...higher time
Just got a glimpse of how you can be in difference parts of your time at the same time. It had to do with a key and a lock. The door to the building I'm living in. I started having a feeling of presence when I was at this door and putting the key into the lock. Each time. Over time. Saying things, feeling things, like: "What am I doing here?" and "Here I am again." So this particular event built, and then just now I got a glimpse of how I could be here putting this key into this lock while at the same time be in other parts of my time. *Not in the usual way we can only think that*, but in a "I just ate psychedelic mushrooms and saw beyond linear time" way. Yet no mushrooms involved.
Hate to bring mushrooms into that. It cheapens the explanation, or the realness, of the experience.
We have to wonder, though, why we are alive in all our living time (childhood on up to now) yet we are only awake in this time and place right now, and I think it is because it's like a train moving across a landscape and the towns and cities (you at different times of your life) it passes through are still there and active and alive, but you, the train, are only there in one of them at a time. The train would be some 'thing' apart from your physical body that stays with you in linear time. And the you that is past, the town that is 'back there', that still exists, is really you, but is a you that is not much awake and goes through mechanical motions. You can see how when a person truly begins to awaken things get strange for all their living time. I can look back at childhood, in school, and see things that can only be explained by such strangeness. Strange anger at you from others. Memories of being in a sort of bubble of higher awareness yet not pin-point on anything. All kinds of strange things can be going on. You could be in a different gender, yet some 'ex' is acting towards you as if you were still the you they knew.
(I still say gender is easily flipped in the womb. Genitalia goes internal or it goes external. Boys and girls both have the material for breasts. Then all secondary sexual characteristics are the effect of hormones, or whatever. Voice, shape of body, hair growth, etc. Having children will seem to lock you into one gender or the other in your time, but I also think even such a profound thing can be easily changed, such as a sibling having your children. My sister had a little girl *after* she'd had an operation regarding her uterus that practically made it impossible for her to have another child. That little girl *had* to be born in her time. Children, families, it all is more involved in universal types than we can see up close. From a higher perspective you see it. So there can be mix and match without profound changes in the person's fate. That's what I'm getting at.)
Getting the vanity and pride knocked out of you is the unpleasant part. The 'rule' or rules God gives you that are designed to get you separated from the world (the general law). You can either deny the existence of the rule, or you can accept its existence and allow it to do its job. Yet that is the painful baptism. Being truly separate. *Truly* getting your vanity stabbed to death over and over. Your pride as well. Enduring *contempt* coming at you. Especially if you've been used to being liked and all that. Recognizing that the treatment you are now getting is probably how you treated others too when you were asleep and in your worldly strength. Then having no where to turn, or to go, so you 'go' into higher influences. You go vertical.
Hate to bring mushrooms into that. It cheapens the explanation, or the realness, of the experience.
We have to wonder, though, why we are alive in all our living time (childhood on up to now) yet we are only awake in this time and place right now, and I think it is because it's like a train moving across a landscape and the towns and cities (you at different times of your life) it passes through are still there and active and alive, but you, the train, are only there in one of them at a time. The train would be some 'thing' apart from your physical body that stays with you in linear time. And the you that is past, the town that is 'back there', that still exists, is really you, but is a you that is not much awake and goes through mechanical motions. You can see how when a person truly begins to awaken things get strange for all their living time. I can look back at childhood, in school, and see things that can only be explained by such strangeness. Strange anger at you from others. Memories of being in a sort of bubble of higher awareness yet not pin-point on anything. All kinds of strange things can be going on. You could be in a different gender, yet some 'ex' is acting towards you as if you were still the you they knew.
(I still say gender is easily flipped in the womb. Genitalia goes internal or it goes external. Boys and girls both have the material for breasts. Then all secondary sexual characteristics are the effect of hormones, or whatever. Voice, shape of body, hair growth, etc. Having children will seem to lock you into one gender or the other in your time, but I also think even such a profound thing can be easily changed, such as a sibling having your children. My sister had a little girl *after* she'd had an operation regarding her uterus that practically made it impossible for her to have another child. That little girl *had* to be born in her time. Children, families, it all is more involved in universal types than we can see up close. From a higher perspective you see it. So there can be mix and match without profound changes in the person's fate. That's what I'm getting at.)
Getting the vanity and pride knocked out of you is the unpleasant part. The 'rule' or rules God gives you that are designed to get you separated from the world (the general law). You can either deny the existence of the rule, or you can accept its existence and allow it to do its job. Yet that is the painful baptism. Being truly separate. *Truly* getting your vanity stabbed to death over and over. Your pride as well. Enduring *contempt* coming at you. Especially if you've been used to being liked and all that. Recognizing that the treatment you are now getting is probably how you treated others too when you were asleep and in your worldly strength. Then having no where to turn, or to go, so you 'go' into higher influences. You go vertical.
4.17.2010
Simple and plain 2
See, with this 'simple and plain' post I'm identifying a simple, compact way of orienting oneself in the face of everything, internal or external.
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That 'pressing into the battle' sense.
Thinking of Shakespeare?
Thinking of angels?
Thinking of your job?
Thinking of social life?
Thinking of new technologies?
Thinking of changing demographics?
Thinking of boredom?
Presented with images from media?
Having trouble with your flesh body?
Having vague thoughts of Work teaching?
Forgotten the Bible from past complete readings?
Lost the key?
In fragmented mind set?
Driving, sitting, walking, talking, doing, showing, categorizing, strategizing?
Whatever it is, you can think 'spiritual warfare' and you have the means come to mind and the goal.
I would like to instill the unique and universal truth of Federal Theology into whoever will listen and learn. It's sounds, I know, just like 'one of any number of theologies', but it's not. It's the theology of the Bible. Unwatered-down, un-negotiated down to the demands of fallen man. It's the structure and mechanics and substance of God's plan from eternity. With it you place yourself. And you understand where you stand and what you stand on. It is the foundation and building structure of mystical union with God.
The Work is a language of the Holy Spirit, a language of war.
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That 'pressing into the battle' sense.
Thinking of Shakespeare?
Thinking of angels?
Thinking of your job?
Thinking of social life?
Thinking of new technologies?
Thinking of changing demographics?
Thinking of boredom?
Presented with images from media?
Having trouble with your flesh body?
Having vague thoughts of Work teaching?
Forgotten the Bible from past complete readings?
Lost the key?
In fragmented mind set?
Driving, sitting, walking, talking, doing, showing, categorizing, strategizing?
Whatever it is, you can think 'spiritual warfare' and you have the means come to mind and the goal.
I would like to instill the unique and universal truth of Federal Theology into whoever will listen and learn. It's sounds, I know, just like 'one of any number of theologies', but it's not. It's the theology of the Bible. Unwatered-down, un-negotiated down to the demands of fallen man. It's the structure and mechanics and substance of God's plan from eternity. With it you place yourself. And you understand where you stand and what you stand on. It is the foundation and building structure of mystical union with God.
The Work is a language of the Holy Spirit, a language of war.
4.15.2010
Simple and plain
The Work can get too intellectual, and with the inclusion of biblical faith it can seem to get all mixed up.
Here it is simply and plainly:
Spiritual warfare.
The three-front battle (which includes our fallen nature, the Old Man within us, which is what much of the Work teaching is involved with). The flesh, the world, and the devil. False personality, other people, and the Kingdom of Satan and all its forces.
When you think of the two conscious shocks - of doing them - think of 'pressing into the battle.'
Who wants to press into a battle? Obviously it's not comfortable.
Well, if you can see the goal of doing it, and value that goal, it's different.
The Celestial City, as Bunyan depicted it. The Kingdom of God. The Holy Mountain of God. The New Jerusalem. Heaven.
Once you know the battle exists you are in it anyway. But to remain back and away from the front lines means to decay into 'Village of Morality' sleep and mechanicalness and Imaginary 'I' that overtakes you to become what you are.
Not good.
The Work has always been closest to two historical classes of Christians: the mystics, and the Puritans. Not surprisingly they are the two classes of Christians who actually wrote on the subject of spiritual warfare. They knew it.
Federal Theology becomes mystic. Calvin's writings become mystic. They become the necessary foundation and framework for the spiritual warrior's understanding of the terrain and of himself. The Work as well. School knowledge and practice (or being).
To make that simple: what is contained in Louis Berkhof's Manuel of Christian Doctrine. But seeing the 'whole' of it. The three covenants, the connection between the two Adams (Adam in the Garden and Jesus Christ). Five solas. Doctrines of grace.
Then Work teaching.
(I just picked up a new trans. of John Calvin's The Secret Providence of God, and he sounds like a mystic once again. A very sharp one. Something that won't be understood by the common unregenerate academics in the Reformed environments of today.)
It all comes together though in spiritual warfare.
Pressing into the battle by the effort of self-remembering and non-identifying for duration, depth, and frequency. Then relying on prayer and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and faith, the Shield. The full armor of God (Eph. 6:10-18).
That second conscious shock lifts us to new realms. Out of those surprise battles, if we don't fall from our horse (emotion) and we keep our sword, and we move on.
That very 'moving on' needs to be valued as well. It is a continual moving away from the world. Can we do that and still be in this world? Of course we have to say we can. Sanctification itself is, by God's plan, meant to take place after regeneration and conversion in the remaining time we have in the flesh. We also influence others.
Here it is simply and plainly:
Spiritual warfare.
The three-front battle (which includes our fallen nature, the Old Man within us, which is what much of the Work teaching is involved with). The flesh, the world, and the devil. False personality, other people, and the Kingdom of Satan and all its forces.
When you think of the two conscious shocks - of doing them - think of 'pressing into the battle.'
Who wants to press into a battle? Obviously it's not comfortable.
Well, if you can see the goal of doing it, and value that goal, it's different.
The Celestial City, as Bunyan depicted it. The Kingdom of God. The Holy Mountain of God. The New Jerusalem. Heaven.
Once you know the battle exists you are in it anyway. But to remain back and away from the front lines means to decay into 'Village of Morality' sleep and mechanicalness and Imaginary 'I' that overtakes you to become what you are.
Not good.
The Work has always been closest to two historical classes of Christians: the mystics, and the Puritans. Not surprisingly they are the two classes of Christians who actually wrote on the subject of spiritual warfare. They knew it.
Federal Theology becomes mystic. Calvin's writings become mystic. They become the necessary foundation and framework for the spiritual warrior's understanding of the terrain and of himself. The Work as well. School knowledge and practice (or being).
To make that simple: what is contained in Louis Berkhof's Manuel of Christian Doctrine. But seeing the 'whole' of it. The three covenants, the connection between the two Adams (Adam in the Garden and Jesus Christ). Five solas. Doctrines of grace.
Then Work teaching.
(I just picked up a new trans. of John Calvin's The Secret Providence of God, and he sounds like a mystic once again. A very sharp one. Something that won't be understood by the common unregenerate academics in the Reformed environments of today.)
It all comes together though in spiritual warfare.
Pressing into the battle by the effort of self-remembering and non-identifying for duration, depth, and frequency. Then relying on prayer and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and faith, the Shield. The full armor of God (Eph. 6:10-18).
That second conscious shock lifts us to new realms. Out of those surprise battles, if we don't fall from our horse (emotion) and we keep our sword, and we move on.
That very 'moving on' needs to be valued as well. It is a continual moving away from the world. Can we do that and still be in this world? Of course we have to say we can. Sanctification itself is, by God's plan, meant to take place after regeneration and conversion in the remaining time we have in the flesh. We also influence others.
4.06.2010
A list to sort out the lines between secular and sacred histories
1. History as the four states of man (innocent, fallen, regenerated, glorified). Thomas Boston's Human Nature in its Fourfold State is the best source for this.
2. The history of revelation. This is 'biblical theology', as opposed to systematic theology. Vos (Biblical Theology) and John Owen (Biblical Theology) are good sources of this.
3. The history of redemption from eternity to eternity. This is the subject of classical Covenant - Federal - Theology. From the Covenant of Redemption made before the foundation of the world, to the Covenant of Works made in the Garden with Adam, to the Covenant of Grace which plays out in historical time until the consummation (second coming of Jesus Christ). This history can be gleaned from good Reformed systematic theologies like Berkhof, and - to a further degree - from Meredith G. Kline's God, Heaven and Har Magedon. Herman Witsius' Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man is another. There are a few on-the-mark sources for this.
4. The history found in any universal history of the world. Anything from H. G. Wells Outline of History to J. M. Roberts History of the World, to Susan Wise Bauer's ongoing four-volume history of the world. Secular, temporal, known history of man and cultures and civilizations on this planet. This category also includes philisophical histories such as Hegel's or Spengler's and every other kind of history one normally thinks of as history such as the classical historians or histories of individual nations or what have you.
5. The history of idol worship. This is a bigger category than it looks. It is basically secular history, yet at the more unseen level. It includes all other world religions - other than Christianity, that is - as well. John Owen in his Biblical Theology has a series of chapters on the history of idol worship that contain knowledge you won't find anywhere else, least of all in any modern day works.
6. The history between the two Advents of Jesus Christ. This is what is found in the material of the Book of Revelation, for the most part. It is a mixture of secular and sacred history. Historicism which reads the Book of Revelation as history gets at this.
7. The history presented in the entire Bible. I.e. the history of creation, of the Israelites, of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, etc. The Holy Bible, AV1611 is the source for this.
8. The history of the micro individual level: Work history. This is about Fourth Way ideas, practices, and goals. If one is a Christian unaware of such teaching then skip this one. Yet Work history is real history, for an individual. You are the historian for this.
9. The history of the micro individual level: regeneration, conversion, sanctification. The Holy Spirit is the historian of this.
10. The history of Christianity and the Church. This has always been an awkward category of history. It is blatantly temporal and unhidden and, really, in the secular category of history, yet it touches on the divine workings of the Triune God's plan of redemption in history. Phillip Schaff's 8-volume History of the Christian Church is the ultimate source for this.
11. 'Mesoteric', or in the middle between exoteric and esoteric, history such as material on the '12 Tribes of Israel vis-a-vis Europeans' is a real, if muddied and easily-mocked, category of history. Grail romance and related 'history' is in there too. 'Serpent seed' material. These types of things. It is real history if for no other reason that it has ability to bring people to the faith, if by a necessary oblique gateway.
This list now is left at an uncomfortable '11'. That is rare for me. I can usually fill out a 7 point or 10 or 12 point list. Maybe it is an 11 point list because this subject is a bit helter skelter. Or maybe I shouldn't have included 'Work history' above. Whatever the case I'll leave it as is, and hopefully it will provide something to work off of for anybody pondering this subject.
2. The history of revelation. This is 'biblical theology', as opposed to systematic theology. Vos (Biblical Theology) and John Owen (Biblical Theology) are good sources of this.
3. The history of redemption from eternity to eternity. This is the subject of classical Covenant - Federal - Theology. From the Covenant of Redemption made before the foundation of the world, to the Covenant of Works made in the Garden with Adam, to the Covenant of Grace which plays out in historical time until the consummation (second coming of Jesus Christ). This history can be gleaned from good Reformed systematic theologies like Berkhof, and - to a further degree - from Meredith G. Kline's God, Heaven and Har Magedon. Herman Witsius' Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man is another. There are a few on-the-mark sources for this.
4. The history found in any universal history of the world. Anything from H. G. Wells Outline of History to J. M. Roberts History of the World, to Susan Wise Bauer's ongoing four-volume history of the world. Secular, temporal, known history of man and cultures and civilizations on this planet. This category also includes philisophical histories such as Hegel's or Spengler's and every other kind of history one normally thinks of as history such as the classical historians or histories of individual nations or what have you.
5. The history of idol worship. This is a bigger category than it looks. It is basically secular history, yet at the more unseen level. It includes all other world religions - other than Christianity, that is - as well. John Owen in his Biblical Theology has a series of chapters on the history of idol worship that contain knowledge you won't find anywhere else, least of all in any modern day works.
6. The history between the two Advents of Jesus Christ. This is what is found in the material of the Book of Revelation, for the most part. It is a mixture of secular and sacred history. Historicism which reads the Book of Revelation as history gets at this.
7. The history presented in the entire Bible. I.e. the history of creation, of the Israelites, of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, etc. The Holy Bible, AV1611 is the source for this.
8. The history of the micro individual level: Work history. This is about Fourth Way ideas, practices, and goals. If one is a Christian unaware of such teaching then skip this one. Yet Work history is real history, for an individual. You are the historian for this.
9. The history of the micro individual level: regeneration, conversion, sanctification. The Holy Spirit is the historian of this.
10. The history of Christianity and the Church. This has always been an awkward category of history. It is blatantly temporal and unhidden and, really, in the secular category of history, yet it touches on the divine workings of the Triune God's plan of redemption in history. Phillip Schaff's 8-volume History of the Christian Church is the ultimate source for this.
11. 'Mesoteric', or in the middle between exoteric and esoteric, history such as material on the '12 Tribes of Israel vis-a-vis Europeans' is a real, if muddied and easily-mocked, category of history. Grail romance and related 'history' is in there too. 'Serpent seed' material. These types of things. It is real history if for no other reason that it has ability to bring people to the faith, if by a necessary oblique gateway.
This list now is left at an uncomfortable '11'. That is rare for me. I can usually fill out a 7 point or 10 or 12 point list. Maybe it is an 11 point list because this subject is a bit helter skelter. Or maybe I shouldn't have included 'Work history' above. Whatever the case I'll leave it as is, and hopefully it will provide something to work off of for anybody pondering this subject.
3.28.2010
archiving an email
If anybody thinks I've become less serious let me just remind everybody that I outlined the Plan of God for a reason. It is the substance of the understanding derived from objective consciousness. All that about Federal Theology (which is Covenant Theology systematized), about the Bible, about all the subject matter of systematic theology (which includes what is going on inside man), bringing it together, seeing the parts in relation to the whole, that is a big part of everything. A big part.
I'm getting reminders of it all as I read actual Reformed theologians writing things now that I was writing on their blogs back then. (I wasn't banned from all of them, by the way.)
You need the Spirit to discern such things. But to have it all as a whole is obviously very valuable.
My point is you all didn't follow me much into all that territory, this is OK, we're all in different stages and all that. But it's not like I was doing nothing.
The more real understanding one gets of the Plan of God the closer one gets to supernatural realms and beings and events.
The catch is the love for the world (including indulging resentments and fake sufferings via things that happened when one was solely in the world) that seems to be the hardest thing to cast off. It's what prevents the second conscious shock.
The two conscious shocks are the real 'sacraments' of the Faith.
I'm getting reminders of it all as I read actual Reformed theologians writing things now that I was writing on their blogs back then. (I wasn't banned from all of them, by the way.)
You need the Spirit to discern such things. But to have it all as a whole is obviously very valuable.
My point is you all didn't follow me much into all that territory, this is OK, we're all in different stages and all that. But it's not like I was doing nothing.
The more real understanding one gets of the Plan of God the closer one gets to supernatural realms and beings and events.
The catch is the love for the world (including indulging resentments and fake sufferings via things that happened when one was solely in the world) that seems to be the hardest thing to cast off. It's what prevents the second conscious shock.
The two conscious shocks are the real 'sacraments' of the Faith.
2.16.2010
An insight, Christ and death
I recently had an insight I think is worth something. Awhile back on Plain Path Puritan I wrote a post about how when Paul the apostle says all I want to know is Jesus Christ crucified what he is saying is that is a way to remember *all*, the history and mechanics of redemption as summed up in the name Jesus Christ. It's shorthand and assumes knowledge of what is behind it, the whole.
Then I was thinking that for the Work a similar summing up would be: death.
Because death is the ultimate testing ground for development of being. And the two conscious shocks are eschatological in the moment. With the first you enter the fifth dimension of time, and with the second you enter the sixth. Vertically you break planes. And each is a real *dying* in the moment. Especially the second conscious shock (but the two conscious shocks are two sides of the same coin).
Remember those exercises I called 'death tests' where you would decide at a certain time or event or sound or what have you you would try to be awake right in that moment (I think that was the exercise, it may have been even better than that, but I don't recall at the moment). But the point is *that* really is what all the effort points to: being awake at the point of death.
Also I was thinking: it is really a powerful thing to imagine our own physical death. Try to sense and visualize what it is and will be like. Get that sense of entering eternity, so to speak. The more you do that the more use you get to the fact of it. Intellectually you can get beyond fears by seeing things like your body being a cosmos, and how you will have a spiritual body that will still be a complete cosmos. You won't dissipate like smoke at death.
Of course that spiritual body is what we try to develop with Work efforts. The more consciousness, understanding, and real will we have the better the 'seed' we sow at death.
So, with Christianity and salvation and faith we think: Jesus Christ.
With Work ideas, practices, and goals we think: death.
They contain the core of each and go beyond mere intellectual memory into a deeper emotional memory and understanding.
Then I was thinking that for the Work a similar summing up would be: death.
Because death is the ultimate testing ground for development of being. And the two conscious shocks are eschatological in the moment. With the first you enter the fifth dimension of time, and with the second you enter the sixth. Vertically you break planes. And each is a real *dying* in the moment. Especially the second conscious shock (but the two conscious shocks are two sides of the same coin).
Remember those exercises I called 'death tests' where you would decide at a certain time or event or sound or what have you you would try to be awake right in that moment (I think that was the exercise, it may have been even better than that, but I don't recall at the moment). But the point is *that* really is what all the effort points to: being awake at the point of death.
Also I was thinking: it is really a powerful thing to imagine our own physical death. Try to sense and visualize what it is and will be like. Get that sense of entering eternity, so to speak. The more you do that the more use you get to the fact of it. Intellectually you can get beyond fears by seeing things like your body being a cosmos, and how you will have a spiritual body that will still be a complete cosmos. You won't dissipate like smoke at death.
Of course that spiritual body is what we try to develop with Work efforts. The more consciousness, understanding, and real will we have the better the 'seed' we sow at death.
So, with Christianity and salvation and faith we think: Jesus Christ.
With Work ideas, practices, and goals we think: death.
They contain the core of each and go beyond mere intellectual memory into a deeper emotional memory and understanding.
2.07.2010
Interesting extract from A. W. Pink on body, soul, and spirit
What is below is from Pink's Gleanings In Genesis, 1. Creation and Restoration. (I've bolded some parts.)
5. "And God divided the light from the darkness." Hebrews 4:12 tells us, the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This is not a figurative expression but, we believe, a statement of literal fact. Man is a tripartite being, made up of "spirit and soul and body" (1 Thess. 5:23). The late Dr. Pierson distinguished between them thus: "The spirit is capable of God-consciousness; the soul is the seat of self-consciousness; the body of sense-consciousness.’’ In the day that Adam sinned, he died spiritually. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body; spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God. When Adam died, his spirit was not annihilated, but it was "alienated" from God. There was a fall. The spirit, the highest part of Adam’s complex being, no longer dominated; instead, it was degraded, it fell to the level of the soul, and ceased to function separately. Hence, today, the unregenerate man is dominated by his soul, which is the seat of lust, passion, emotion. But in the work of regeneration, the Word of God "pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," and the spirit is rescued from the lower level to which it has fallen, being brought back again into communion with God. The "spirit" being that part of man which is capable of communion with God, is light; the "soul" when it is not dominated and regulated by the spirit is in darkness, hence, in that part of the six days’ work of restoration which adumbrated the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, we read, "And God divided the light from the darkness."
5. "And God divided the light from the darkness." Hebrews 4:12 tells us, the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This is not a figurative expression but, we believe, a statement of literal fact. Man is a tripartite being, made up of "spirit and soul and body" (1 Thess. 5:23). The late Dr. Pierson distinguished between them thus: "The spirit is capable of God-consciousness; the soul is the seat of self-consciousness; the body of sense-consciousness.’’ In the day that Adam sinned, he died spiritually. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body; spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God. When Adam died, his spirit was not annihilated, but it was "alienated" from God. There was a fall. The spirit, the highest part of Adam’s complex being, no longer dominated; instead, it was degraded, it fell to the level of the soul, and ceased to function separately. Hence, today, the unregenerate man is dominated by his soul, which is the seat of lust, passion, emotion. But in the work of regeneration, the Word of God "pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," and the spirit is rescued from the lower level to which it has fallen, being brought back again into communion with God. The "spirit" being that part of man which is capable of communion with God, is light; the "soul" when it is not dominated and regulated by the spirit is in darkness, hence, in that part of the six days’ work of restoration which adumbrated the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, we read, "And God divided the light from the darkness."
2.03.2010
2 Corinthians 4
Read 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This chapter is about living in the flesh after regeneration. The already/not yet state that can perplex or tempt one to whine. Read the whole chapter with this verse in mind:
This is a constant theme. Being constantly humbled and not being allowed to think we are the cause of what God does. Regeneration is an act of God in us, nothing we do. Justification is by faith (something itself worked in us by the Holy Spirit) and not works so that we cannot boast. And here we are in earthen bodies even though regenerated and justified and in God's Kingdom. In the Old Testament the theme emerges whenever Israel - or even a gentile nation - thinks that when it wins a battle or war it is they that do it and not God. They usually get sent a message of the truth of that in some way.
2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
This is a constant theme. Being constantly humbled and not being allowed to think we are the cause of what God does. Regeneration is an act of God in us, nothing we do. Justification is by faith (something itself worked in us by the Holy Spirit) and not works so that we cannot boast. And here we are in earthen bodies even though regenerated and justified and in God's Kingdom. In the Old Testament the theme emerges whenever Israel - or even a gentile nation - thinks that when it wins a battle or war it is they that do it and not God. They usually get sent a message of the truth of that in some way.
2.02.2010
A note on biographies
Biographies are interesting as a category of books because they can be phantasmagorical in this way: when you have some higher energy in you, and you already know the basics of history and philosophy and arts and sciences and music and the human nature and ways of the world you can get from literature in general then a biography, really about anybody, will give you all sorts of impressions and bits of information that you can put together and see so much more between the lines and from a higher perspective and so on. A vision of the times the person lived in. All the human nature of the relationships and so on. You know, the sense that everything falls into patterns and types, and that there is nothing new under the sun; also the sense that you can see the universe in a grain of sand. A mere detail, or event in the life of the person can give a window onto so much more. History books do this as well. Maybe biography more because the focus on a single life makes the impressions stronger for seeing the universal in a detail.
1.23.2010
Here's an idea... Modern Library Chronicles
I came across a volume in this series called London, by A. N. Wilson in a used bookstore. The series itself intrigued me. They are a series of 'chronicles' published by Modern Library, usually around 200 pages, give or take, on different things in history, by different authors.
It's occured to me if one were to develop an eccentric hobby of collecting everything of something you wouldn't completely waste your time doing it with this series. I mean if you actually also read each one.
Here's a Wikipedia page with an apparently incomplete list of the series.
Each may not be the 'best' source on its particular subject, but, hey, you are just collecting each one and reading it. With a goal to get every one. Eccentric, yes, but better than collecting figurines of donkeys or something.
And a benefit is the series editorial style of the books, coupled with the fact that each has a different author, is such that each would give you, in a light way, little facts and images and events and so on such that would contribute to the base of your already accumulated knowledge. Just some new things to add to the mental furniture. Nothing that will effect spiritual development or give you deep language or anything, but, you know, just an eccentric goal/hobby to pursue...
It's occured to me if one were to develop an eccentric hobby of collecting everything of something you wouldn't completely waste your time doing it with this series. I mean if you actually also read each one.
Here's a Wikipedia page with an apparently incomplete list of the series.
Each may not be the 'best' source on its particular subject, but, hey, you are just collecting each one and reading it. With a goal to get every one. Eccentric, yes, but better than collecting figurines of donkeys or something.
And a benefit is the series editorial style of the books, coupled with the fact that each has a different author, is such that each would give you, in a light way, little facts and images and events and so on such that would contribute to the base of your already accumulated knowledge. Just some new things to add to the mental furniture. Nothing that will effect spiritual development or give you deep language or anything, but, you know, just an eccentric goal/hobby to pursue...
1.16.2010
. . .
"So he prayed, and far in the depths they heard him, all the Nereids, Phorcus' chorus, virgin Panopea and Father Portunas himself, with his own mighty hand, drove the racing Scylla swifter than Southern winds or a winging arrow, speeding toward the shore to find her berth in the good deep-water harbor."
- Bk. 5, lines 267-72, Virgil's Aeneid, Robert Fagles trans.
1.11.2010
Feeling there is nothing to do, and the reality of it
The situation we can find ourselves in where we say: "There's nothing to do..." I think can only happen when we get above the necessities of basic survival. Basic survival is obviously something to do. Something to keep one busy. I don't just mean a job one goes to everyday. I mean, when you have to make your own shelter, grow your own food, make your clothes, etc. When those things get easier we realize we don't have anything to do, and instead of seeing it in the context of basic survival having become easier due to culture and civilization we live in we make of it a philosophical thing and we get all existential about it. It's a full belly talking.
But also: when we *do* have free time to pursue higher things, like B Influence, that is something to do as well. Meeting A Influence demands is something to do, but then pursuing B Influence too is something to do. It is when you exhaust, truly exhaust, B Influence that you can *really* feel there is nothing to do.
But then you still have C Influence to contact and engage. But that requires a new level of valuation and effort.
But also: when we *do* have free time to pursue higher things, like B Influence, that is something to do as well. Meeting A Influence demands is something to do, but then pursuing B Influence too is something to do. It is when you exhaust, truly exhaust, B Influence that you can *really* feel there is nothing to do.
But then you still have C Influence to contact and engage. But that requires a new level of valuation and effort.
1.05.2010
Lombardo's Homer
I just read some of Lombardo's Odyssey (last part of book 13), and it reminded me that his translations of Homer are unique. Plain, but you seem to get a closer sense of it all. The conversation between Odysseus and Athena seemed like I hadn't even remembered it.
It just doesn't seem like a waste of time to re-read Homer. The language is real, from a higher source, and powerful. If what is left after B Influence and regeneration by the Word and the Spirit is spiritual warfare and increasing level of being and understanding then Homer still has something to offer.
And its of course in picking up higher (visual, symbolic, metaphoric) language to then be able to see what you can't see now. Even if it's carried in just a detail, or if it's contained in a bigger structure that we can't see all at once as we are going through it. Even if you've picked up most of it from previous readings, I suspect the well is deep enough to have more.
It just doesn't seem like a waste of time to re-read Homer. The language is real, from a higher source, and powerful. If what is left after B Influence and regeneration by the Word and the Spirit is spiritual warfare and increasing level of being and understanding then Homer still has something to offer.
And its of course in picking up higher (visual, symbolic, metaphoric) language to then be able to see what you can't see now. Even if it's carried in just a detail, or if it's contained in a bigger structure that we can't see all at once as we are going through it. Even if you've picked up most of it from previous readings, I suspect the well is deep enough to have more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
