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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
