Letters
- 3
Men's baggage gives him
the
idea that he
cannot reach his fellowmen, his brothers and sisters and his children
with
their own baggage. It is the baggage that separates. Differences of
opinions
and possessions, differences of opinion what is important, nice,
normal,
tasty, about bringing-up children, about politics, about honesty and
justice,
about fashion, about furnishing, about the new car, about religion,
about
TV-programs, about books, about humour, about smoking, about visits to
the family and family in law, about the next holiday, about letting out
the dog, and many other disagreements. So it are opinions and ideas
that
separate.and only by denying and putting them away it would seem not
feeling
separated but that should be selfdeceit. Only if he should meet a
person
with quite the same opinions, he would feel himself connected to that
person.
Groups, like religions, families, political parties, footballclubs and
so on are characterized by the fact the members share at least some
opinions,
but with that they form apparent unities for they quarrel about the
opinions
they do not share.
So unity only can exist
among
people without
opinions. That is why the sages like Meister Eckehart, Boeddha, Nan-in
and Socrates emphasize to get rid of our opinions
WeI did experience true
learning is unlearning
all we believed and so we did not know for sure, scrutinizing extremely
carefully every conviction and opinion we acquired, daring to doubt of
the validity of all our matters of course, verifying with ourselves we
assume knowing things for sure, because we did experience ourselves or
we did learn things on the authority of somebody else. So to us true
learning
was refuting opinion by opinion until there was no one more left. That
means that the only thing we can learn from each other is we have to
point
out to each other their prejudices, pronouncements based on believing,
parroting others without sharing the same experience, if somebody is
unable
to explain why he is convinced of his opinions. Finally every dialogue
is foredoomed to failure if people use loose and ambiguous phrases and
notions like mystical, spiritual, god, soul, truth, and all those other
abstractions nobody can visualize an image of. Our experience is a
dialogue
only is fruitfully if everybody weights every word he writes and
everybody
has the right to ask explanation of every notion used by somebody else".
People can respect each
others
baggage
but that gets them nowhere. All people have their blind spots what
means
they are blind to their own prejudices and they have to be willing to
face
them and become wiser, without taking it as criticism. Growing is
painful
and people only can (un)learn by experience.
Everybody has his
favourite
writing or
book fit for his own point of view but it are only words, poor
crystallizings
of thoughts and images.
In Plato's Mythe of Theuth
he
tells:
"But when they came to
letters,
This,
said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give
them better memories; it is
a
specific
both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious
Theuth,
the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the
utility
or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this
instance,
you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own
children
have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have;
for
this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners'
souls,
because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the
external
written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which
you
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you
give
your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be
hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear
to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome
company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."
"Heaven is accessible
only to
those who
are unidentified, thus the more you are proud of your identity - the
more
sure you are excluded from Heaven".
I did read your commentary
and
wonder
either you are unidentified yourself for you speak about yourself
nowhere,
is it the view of an unidentified or is it the view of a timeless holy
human being looking down upon that community of adapted ones he once
was
a part of?
You describe the world of
the
timeservers
but you don't ask yourself WHY they behave like they behave and think
what
they think. You don't know their life history, you don't understand why
they became what they are and you don't see why they don't see what
they
ought to see. So you judge and people only condemn others if they are
not
able to place themselves in their position. Your commentary breathes
the
atmosphere of: "Look at me, you stupid timeservers, I am perfect!"
In "Thus spake Zarathustra"
http://eserver.org/philosophy/nietzsche-zarathustra.txt
Nietzsche describes "the three metamorphoses of the spirit: how the
spirit
becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child". You,
like all prophets Enoch included, are still lions, roaring to the herd,
and your only result is the herd creeping together more closely,
closing
the ranks.
"But tell me, my brethren,
what
the child
can do, which even the lion could not do? Why hath the preying lion
still
to become a child? Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new
beginning,
a game, a selfrolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea."
Compassion, becoming lesser
than
the least,
modesty are the keywords to enter heaven,
Some twenty years ago one
of us
lost after
a lonesome and desperate quest, without knowing for what he was in
search,
his ego and fell through the mirror in the other world. He did not know
what happened to him and from that time he has been hard at work to
explain
all the meanings, concepts, experiences, and usages of those things or
patterns that can well be labeled 'ego', as you write, or to decipher
The
Matrix. We experienced indeed all paths to enlightenment are profoundly
unsatisfactory, mysticism is only a apparent enlightenment and all
guru's
yield for at least one of the three traps, sex, power and vanity, but
mostly
more than one.
In our websites we describe
a
simple,
but radical and revolutionary way out, the way to get rid definitively
of your ego or homunculus and to experience a perennial feeling of a
unity
with the entire world. The experience Aldous Huxley described in "The
Doors
of Perception"., but without the use of mescalin.
How can one become
unidentified
and how
can Heaven be entered?.
Actually it is a matter
of
consequently
and logically reasoning. I suppose you desire entering Heaven and that
means your ore not in Heaven at the moment. So you have to be somewhere
else and using the same notions it means you are in Hell or perhaps in
Purgatory. Being in Heaven it means there are no problems, no pain, no
misery, no fear, no sorrow, no anger, and none of all those other
negative
emotions. So being in Hell means the presence of those emotions. Heaven
and Hell in other words are no places but merely an other state of
mind.
Brought up in Hell we are used to live in it and we have learned misery
belongs to life, things happen by chance and have no significance, by
ironic
freaks of fate and life is made up of luck and bad luck, without any
cohesion
and everybody swears each other this is the best thinkable world they
are
doomed to live in. So if you ask how to enter in Heaven you first have
to realize the craziness of the hell you live in.
The usual way of
communicating
is: I have
an opinion and you have an opinion (and we both are not sure of it but
we believe in our "own" opinion). Communicating then means: I utter my
opinion and try convincing you of my right point of view and for that I
bring arguments, supposed proofs, I refer to statements of authorities,
theories, I use phrases as "everybody knows", "it is proofed" an "it is
normal" and "common knowledge" and you in your turn do the same. The
result
will be:
1) I succeed convincing you
of the
correctness
of what I consider to be my opinion and you become a believer of the
opinion
I believe in. I am the winner and you are the loser.
2) Opposite. I am the loser
and
you are
the winner and I am the new believer.
3) We harmonize and find a
compromise.
We find a new opinion and both surrender our original conviction and
apparently
agree. We both are losers but we believe we both are winners.
We pass over the fact HOW we
did
come
by our opinion and WHY we have and need an opinion. Communicating on
the
HOW and the WHY is beyond discussing and is communicating on
communicating
and is called meta-communication. Paul Watzlawick published in the
seventies
some very clear books on it. (The language of Change, Pragmatics of
Human
Communications, Paradoxical Predictions). In the process of changing
meta-communication
is the dialogue between yourself (your Self) and your opinions (your
Ego).
It is the critical questioner that first scrutinizes the HOW and next
the
WHY.
That is the reason it seems
to you
we
are not communicating. You state an opinion and I ask how did you come
to think of it. You try to communicate and I try to meta-communicate
and
that is a different wave length. It is very difficult to communicate
with
a believer whether it is in his "own" opinion or for example in the
theory
of evolution or the historicity of jesus. Everybody only can disprove
his
own opinions.
Ceterum censeo by changing
your
view of
yourself you change your view of the world and reverse. The more you
see
the craziness, unrighteousness, spuriousness and dishonesty of society
the more you see the craziness, unrighteousness, spuriousness and
dishonesty
of people adapted to that society. The more you discern your own
craziness,
unrighteousness, spuriousness and dishonesty, the more you discern
craziness,
unrighteousness, spuriousness and dishonesty of society until you
finally
find a corps. Changing is unadapting and the less adapted the more man
and finally unadapted and unplugged you are ever has been, merely a
human
being,
Words are often
misunderstood
but only
when people use notions and especially concerning feelings and when
they
talk about the unimaginable world . Words like god, soul, nature, mind,
freedom, love, not only are undiscribable, physically unperceptible and
untouchable but also unimaginable. You only can tell what it is not.
I will tell you a metaphor.
Imagine a
block of marble. There is a beautiful statue within and you know it
because
in men's history many have seen it and have described its unbelievable
beauty, the perfect roundings and proportions, the beautiful colours
and
marvelous shape. As long as it is a block of marble you cannot see,
feel
or admire the statue. You cannot even talk a sensible word of it. You
only
can tell what it is not. Like a sculptor you first have to cut and saw
and drudge all stuff that conceals the unspeakable, all pieces that are
not the statue. And finally when you have cut of the last piece there
is
merely wonder and astonishment that within such a shapeless rock this
treasure
was hidden.
It is senseless and useless,
like
mystics
have done, to speak about true life, freedom, the Kingdom, Nirvana,
Erewhon,
Utopia, the Elysian Fields, Arcadia, God, Heaven, Nature, reality,
love,
paradise and all that words about the unspeakable and unimaginable. Let
us talk about the rubbish, the obstructions, the obstacles, the mud and
all things that hinder us to see clearly. Everybody knows what is pain,
hate , annoyance, grudge, doubt, insecurity, misery, insipidity, sense
of inferiority or superiority, anger, jealousy and the base of all is
fear
in essence. Let us talk about our way of life, the obstacles we meet
and
let us help each other to overcome until we finally meet in the other
world,
When I sit quietly
thoughtless
and timeless
staring with my eyes at infinite, I feel one with and borned by my
surroundings.
It is an indiscribable feeling but somewhat like embodied in all
that is. Flowing resistanceless upon and in the ever streaming and
changing
river of "life". I am in heaven then but I know my words are absolute
inadequate
to describe that feeling.
When I am thoughtless
staring
there is
no I and it is merely a human being sitting there, no past no future,
no
will, no desire, totally coinciding with my self. And then thoughts
tear
me, that human being, loose from that magnificent feeling, out of
time-space
as you call it. Whole creation always is what it is, all living
creatures
always are what they ought to be and they cannot deviate from their
nature,
from nature. No spider can force itself to eat vegetarian, no cow will
eat meat. Only men can force animals to deviate from their instinct by
domesticating them. Only men, loose of "god" or nature will do that.
You wrote about the
Realm, the
Kingdom
whatever we call it:
"It has no government, no
citizens, no
armies, no frontiers, no priests, no schools and no religion" an to my
question if a priest will stay a priest and a doctor will stay a doctor
your answer is : Yes!
I will offer you a logical
and
consequent
reasoning to demonstrate the contrariety in your assertation:
If there are doctors in the
other
world
or paradise there have to be illnesses and if there are illnesses there
is misery and pain. If there are doctors they need pills and
instruments
to cure ( not heal) their patients. If there are pills en instruments
there
must be scholars and factories to invent and produce that stuff. If
there
are factories there must be workmen to build that factories and to
produce
pills. Then you need also brickfactories, steelfactories, and many more
factories to maintain production. And all that workmen have to live in
houses, need transport, cars, television, refrigerators and so on. And
there have to be hospitals and nurses and to educate them you need
schools,
teachers and teachers who educate teachers and universities and finally
you have to conclude the world we live in is the best thinkable world
and
there is no way out.
To me the very feature of
paradise
or
the Kingdom is that it is beyond misery and blessedness does not go
with
illness, fear and tears. I was well educated and well adapted up to
university.
I filled my head with many theories facts and thing worth knowing but
nothing
about life and the question Why was absolutely forbidden. They told me
you cannot get an answer yet and moreover that question is not
scientific
and belongs only to philosophers who cannot find the answer too. I
became
a faithful believer of the prevailing truths and an esteemed member of
society and profession. But the questions remaind. Why comes just this
person just now, just with this complaint and symptom to me. All
theories
seemed unsatisfactory. Gradually my insights changed, I exchanged
theories
for understanding and at the moment I know I'm only playing a role like
my patients do and I cannot clearify it to them. That is the reason I
assert
in the Kingdom are no doctors.
Reading the Gospels
carefully,
you will
see there is talk of two ways the notion Kingdom is used. The first
meaning
is you can enter the Kingdom by changing your awareness by awakening or
putting an end to your blindness and deafness. The second has an
eschatological
meaning. In Matthew 3:2, 6:10, 11:12 and Marc. 9:1 for instance there
is
something quite different going on for to me it is impossible reading
and
understanding those sayings merely as a other awareness and has to to
with
for instance logion 10, 16 and 71. It is a matter of consequently
reasoning.
The writers of the Gospels had understood and foreseen that if people
in
great numbers would change their awareness (would enter the Kingdom in
their mind) and so their behaviour, it would spread like a virus all
over
the world and would make an end to society, to all manmade structures,
to all power and that is the reason Jesus said in Matth. 24:2 "See ye
not
all these things? verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here
one
stone upon an other, that shall not be thrown down". He predicts the
end
of a culture and foresees a righteous world with righteous people, like
in the Credo of the Roman Catholics it is called "the community of
saints"
or awakeneds. In the community of whole men, of freedom and equality
and
brotherhood there are no doctors because nobody will be ill ever.
I understand your
relationship
to the world
is unreal. For what you call one reason or another, you seem to have
developed
descriptions of the world which you run through your brain like a tape
runs through a taperecorder. And that these descriptions may have had (
I understand you are not sure) some use you first developed them, but
they
still also are in the way of your seeing reality. The reality you call
heaven, but apparently your descriptions prevent you from seeing it.
Perhaps you forget it are
not only
the
descriptions of the world but the descriptions of yourself too, your
self-image
that prevents you from seeing yourself and they are indissolubly bound
together. People who don't see themselves are not able to see the
world.
What you regard as normal in yourself, you regard as normal in the
world
around you. It is all projection.
If your body is in
time-space I
suppose
there is an you that has a body and that body apparently is somewhere
els
than you are. Is it your body that sometimes is the Buddha or is it
that
you? I wonder what is that you and who talks about it? It seems to me a
rather split existence. Time-space is a nice word but with the best
will
of the world I can not make an image of it though I think I understand
what you mean by it. If I get you right every creature, every living
being
is always in time-space for no animal or plant has an I that possess
their
shape and so they have to be only what they are and they all always are
plugged in nature or reality and cannot loose themselves from it on
their
own hook without doing by man, loose of "God". Thus what you mean by
time-space
comes to they ever named vis vitalis, "god", the fourth dimension, Tao,
nature, Brahman, the unspeakable, cyberspace, every era its own name
for
the same. If I understand you correctly you are in heaven if there is
no
you.
I not only wonder why you
cannot change
yourself ( otherwise a strange expression, because you are a human
being
and you never can become somewhat else, you cannot change your self or
your nature for it is unchangable, you can have your hair and beard
growing
but you will stay you, you can give yourself a new identity, an other
name,
talking an other language and practising an other profession and so on,
but you stay the same human being. Finally you can carry conviction
your
traits of character are genetic fixed in your genes and then I
understand
you really cannot change yourself) but the question is why should
people
change and what can they change. For example I can assume my
aggression,
my jealousy, my slovenliness, my acrophobia and hypochondria are stated
genetical and I have to live with that and tell people they have to
accept
me as I am with all my oddities for I cannot change myself but at the
same
time I know, and my parents can affirm that, when I was a little girl I
was quite different. The logical conclusion is that there is
something
changed in me and I am no longer what I have been ever. I have seen so
many children be born like princes an princesses and changing within
some
years into clamorous, frightened, shy and insecure creatures knowing
what
they original were no longer, raised by parents who forgot it decades
earlier.
The way up and the way down are the same.
I cannot imagine someone
choses to
be
in hell and nobody choses to go out. By believing that you start from
the
phantasm of free will and fate.
The Stoic Epictetus says in
his
Diatribs
IV:27:
"But from the other side it
speaks
of
foolishness and brag saying : "I am free of passion and I am evenly
balanced;
do know people while you are disturbed and are in commotion for the
sake
of worthless things, only I are free of all unrest. So it is not
enough to you not having pain, if you do not proclaim: "Come together,
you all suffering from gout, from headaches, from fever, you who are
crippled
and blind., and look how healthy I am, free of all complaints." That is
idle and vulgar talk, unless you like Asklepios can show at once, by
what
treatment those others also will be free of illness at once and you for
that purpose offer your own sanity as example. Such a man namely is the
Cynic, whom Zeus has deigned the sceptre and diadem and who says: In
order
that you people see that happiness and tranquility of mind is not where
you look for it, but where it is not. Look, for that reason I am sent
to
you by God as an example: I possess nothing at all, neither a wife nor
children, not even a bed, no shirt, no piece of furniture; and look how
healthy I am; put me to the test and when you see I am free of unrest
then
listen to the medicines and treatment that cured me."
Insights and understanding
are
gifts nobody
chose for and charges the receiver with a responsibility he cannot run
away from.
I hope you realize how
carefully you have
to be, wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Like in The Matrix you
know once unplugged that everybody is an agent and he who is not with
you
is against you. Honesty and righteousness is merciless punished in this
society of dishonests and unjusts. Moreover modesty and being lesser
than
the least is a condition to pass through the narrow gate. Realize
people
never choose their way of life for you then believe in the myth of free
will, it never is your own choice if you feel a drive to take leave of
this crazy society. It is not that people do not have empathy to start
their journey out, but they only are mortally afraid to leave the herd,
the prison they are used to, the fear to become alone in the world,
uncomprehended
by their formerly friends, expelled from the church, their family and
so
they stay where they stay. Insights are gifts, ever people called clear
thoughts Angels, who came to them in a dream or clear moment like a
stroke
of lightning. Insights never are own merits for you cannot do your best
to get them. You only have to admit them and not resist them. The more
you get upset by an insight, the more your resistance, the more you
know
for sure it is right. The truth is horrible.
Wisdom and justice are
joined to
each
other indissolubly and dedicated to find the way out means at the same
time dedicated to an righteous world. You have to find a corpse.
"Is there truly anything
after
dying?"
It is an understandable question in a world turned upside down. To us
the
question was not "is there life after death?' but "is there life before
death?". Long ago we wondered if the life we lived at that moment was
the
most attainable and we concluded life perhaps could be more than what
was
assigned to us apparently. We did not accept our slavery no more.
Actually
it was the question of Job, why happened all misery to us, having the
idea
we lived as honestly as possible, conforming to the social rules, and
still
disturbed by the conduct of others and circumstances. And then we
concluded
there had to be something wrong with ourselves and that was the
starting
point of our quest. Why happened to us what happened to us. And we
realized
that as honest as possible is not honest, taking things for the sake of
peace is maintaining war, that it is impossible to change an other,
that
we made so many compromises in our life and with every compromise we
compromised
ourselves. and finally that if we could not change the others or the
circumstances
the only solution was to change the way we look at them and so to
change
ourselves. We never have been afraid of death, far from that, we often
desired to get lost of the life we lived formerly, but always we
realized
it would be cowardly and would always be somewhat like revenge on
people
who had contributed to our misery apparently and always we realized
that
even that thought was not honestly for by doing that we ran away for
the
responsibility of our own life. and all we contributed to others
actually
was projection. So we gradually changed our life, with many tears,
despair,
struggle, until it was past suddenly. In essence the fear for death is
the fear for true life.
Below a translated section
from
our website:
"It is possible", written some 20 years ago by one of us:
On the fear of dying:
Afraid of the way of
their
dying, seeing
so many uncomprehended and sad deaths in their environment, people try
to protect themselves against it and take precautions to prevent that,
while they even do not know why those people die. Being afraid of a
long
sick bed, a painful agony of death and dependence on others, they still
trust the doctors and helpers their salvation and doing so they evoke
where
they are afraid of. And then there is the fear of having to leave
behind
all their valuable things they are so attached to and they slaved their
whole life for and they know the be lefts will fall upon like carrion
vultures
and will unsavoury fight the struggle for the estate. The fear of being
neglecting all they cherished in their life. Frightened by all those
idle
stories about predestination, hell and damnation, Afraid realizing they
have so much to redeem, all that not made up quarrels, people they
wronged
and failed. Afraid for just now in their death bed they realize they
put
their children on the track they now experience it is an blind alley
and
they cannot change it no longer. Afraid to release the strings they
always
have pushed, to lose control and what will become of them? Afraid
because
they are not yet and will been ready and can not finish nevermore.
Afraid
for they hold responsible and indispensable for others and those others
have to be thrown on their own resources and the dying man never
trusted
them an afraid of being forgotten and somebody else will take their
seat.
In their death bed people have to resign of all whether they like it or
not. The more attached to all things the more painful the fight to
release.
For that reason it is wise to live in such way you are always ready and
you not have to find out your oil lamp is empty like in the metaphor of
the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1.whem it comes to the point. That is
the only requirement to a mildly death, the only true euthanasia,
departing
with a peaceful hearth realizing you did live according the meaning of
life at last, even it was for one day only. That the message of the
parable
of the labourers in the vineguard in Matthew 20. For everybody the
reward
is the same finally. Knowing you did not saddle other people with all
the
mess that is brought about through you. First then you realize:
"There is no death, but
only a
crossing
from the one world into the other" (Chief Seattle)
"He who dies before he dies
does
not die
when he dies" (Mohammed)
Actually the essence of
the
websites is
the true Golden Rule and the rest is comment.
Once a passer by, escaped
from the
Matrix,
or like Truman in The Truman Show (hope you did see these two marvelous
metaphorical movies) and passed through the Door in the Wall (hope you
do know Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception), you are continuously
in a different world indeed wherein you experience whole nature as an
expression
of "God" and necessarily all man-made creations as absolute crazy and
arrogant
nonsense. All the time you see people moving driven by shortsighted
unconscious
motives, in chaotic patterns. I don't see God's grace when I see a
crying
child or visit a butcher's shop. I don't see God's grace when I visit
Amsterdam,
but I see a man-made chaos, a crazy wilderness, inhabited by crazy
people,
a cancerous tumor, that sucks out its environment. I don't see God's
grace
typing at my keyboard writing you this letter for to me it's only a
help
to make all this nonsense superfluous finally. In the Doors of
Perception
Huxley describes what he sees ego-less during a mescaline-trip: "We
walked
out into the street. A large pale blue automobile was standing at the
curb.
At the sight of it, I was suddenly overcome by enormous merriment. What
complacency, what an absurd self-satisfaction beamed from those bulging
surfaces of glossiest enamel. Man had created the thing in his own
image
- or rather in the image of his favorite character in fiction. I
laughed
till the tears ran down my cheeks.". That is the crazy world we have to
adapt to when we were still a small child. First when your inner world
is in harmony, you see all that is not harmonious in the outer world
faultless.
Only when you live according nature, God's will or your conscience,
there
is nothing left to project and you see what is not according nature or
God's will faultless and you hardly can imagine you didn't see it
before.
You have to know exactly what is nature and what is culture, before you
can free yourself from all learned luggage. When you walk in a virgin
landscape
and there is only just one trace of a man's god-forgotten hand, just
one
stump of a cigarette, you will see it at once, but to understand what
is
false and unnatural in yourself, is very difficult but an absolute
requirement
to freedom. Speech, clothes, emotions, sickness, and all symptoms of
any
sickness are unnatural, signs of imperfection and losing the right and
simple way.
I read most of your website
and
there
are many similarities, especially when you write about the children. My
objection is you use so many unclear and difficult notions and that is
a major obstacle to simplicity. Perhaps our advantage is we have to do
most of the time with simple people and children and the force us to
use
simple words. To us the only true way to use language is to make it
superfluous,
like it is superfluous for children..
It is not only the crazy,
ridiculous and
unrighteous world that can serve as our instructor. Can serve, for as
long
as you are adapted to this world you are and have to be blind and deaf
to all contradictions. All you consider as normal in your own
behaviour,
you consider as normal in the outer world and all of your convictions
serve
to justify that. The real "Messengers of God" are your conscience, all
small still egoless children and virgin nature. What you call the
spiritual
journey actually is the dialogue between ego and conscience in order to
get rid of your ego finally.
People are not plagued by
cancer,
people
do not have cancer, but people cancer inside and gave up the struggle
against
their outer world and all that hate, disappointments and self pity is
turned
upon themselves. Cancer always is a disguised suicide, giving up
the fight to get his own right and a final conclusion of many not
understood
former warnings. There are no diseases (that are manmade constructions)
but only symptoms of an unrighteous and dishonest life and the only
meaning
of them is to urge man to change his life turning back to the straight
and simple path. Man is doomed to be free and blessed. There is no
wrath
in nature nor in what you call God. Wrath, like all emotions, merely
are
attributes of wandering people and attributing them to God or nature is
projection. It is all much more simple than you think.
It is not for nothing in
Logion
39 is written:
"But you be ye wise as serpents and innocent as doves". Even mysticism
always has been a huge threat to all religions for by the knowing you
have
to find God in yourself you throw overboard the clergy. In our Dutch
permissive
and godless society hardly taboo's are left, there is a great freedom
of
speech, everybody can in public ridicule any religion unpunished and
hardly
nobody feels offended by that. The role of the churches and clergy is
in
Holland marginal and we have no more holy cows and we all permit
ourselves
under cover of respect. In Holland the taboo is being in doubt
about
the blessings of science, progress and medical science and talking to
an
other about his behaviour. To me a person only can feel attacked and
threatened
if he has something to defend and actually is not sure about and that
hostile
feeling is not due to the person who queries the convictions or
opinions
of the defender, but to the fear of the defender to query his
convictions
and opinions.
"He who finds something
has
badly sought"
is a verse from a poem of a well-known Dutch poet. In logion 2 of the
Gospel
of Thomas you can read: "He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until
he finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and if he is troubled,
he will be amazed, and he will reign over the All" I suppose something
is quite different from All and a seeker is quite different from a
finder.
I cannot imagine somebody urges on seeking knowing you cannot find yet
and it seems very frustrating to me you have to seek your whole life
without
finding and even not knowing where you are looking for. All mystics
pretend
to have seen the light and were enlightened and you deny that by
stating
man has to be an eternal seeker and so never can find rest. There was a
TV-series by the BBC "Walking with Dinosaurs", and I can visualize and
make an image of that, but walking with God is completely unimaginable
to me. I can walk with my father, with friends and I can figure that to
myself, even in my mind, but walking with God is totally meaningless to
me. There are two totally different ways. The first is "the narrow way,
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14)
and the second is "the path of life" (Psalms 16:11) and "the way of
righteousness"
(Prov. 8:20).
If it is true you only
can
experience God
and indeed all mystics told and still tell that, it has to be true too
you never can transmit such an experience. It is the same like pain,
sorrow
or fear. You never can express those emotions in words, you never can
share
the feeling. You only can express experiences in images and metaphors
and
people only can understand them if they experienced it themselves. You
never can explain to another who is not afraid of spiders the feeling
it
gives to you if you look at a spider when you have a spider phobia. To
an other it will be incomprehensible. So no mystic is able to transmit
his experience of wholeness, experiencing God, except to other mystics
and that is senseless. Trying to comprehend where they are talking
about
is a hopeless task. What do you mean of levels in enlightenment? Can
somebody
be less or more enlightened? And is not seeing The Reality quite
the same as "There is only God" only in different words, trying to say
the unspeakable? Is Reality and God the same in essence? So if you do
not
see reality or experience God there have to be a blindness and by what
is that blindness caused?
A nice quote as for that
from
Multatuli:
"Doubting of nothing is the most sure means knowing anything never. He
who never doubt will never depart and who does not depart will never
arrive.
He who does not strive will not atain. He whp does not seek will not
find.
Not striving for the truth, selfknowledge, is the proper only
punishable
only odious immorality." It is the question if somebody does what he
says
and says what he does and so lives according his utterances. I know
many
people who tell beautiful words and live in a contrary way. Pious
church
goers who in their daily life do all things God forbade. Actually I am
not interested in theories but in life. But don't trouble.
About this lecture:
Everywhere around me I see
people,
human
beings like myself, as equal to each other as every seagull, with the
same
nature, but driven not by their nature, but by their fears,
insecurities,
expectations, will, desire and dependent of authorities, teachers,
doctors,
lawyers, bakers, milkmen, and many many others. Looking to all those
people
they belong to reality, but not what happens in their heads. That is
their
own virtual apparent world and has nothing to do with reality. All that
is belongs to reality and when I look thoughtless around me I not only
see reality but I realize I form a part of reality. A man is a man is a
man whatever he fancy he is. There are even people who are convinced
they
are not a human being but American or christian, mystic, doctor or
perhaps
a Dutch socialistic gay manager, or another strange mishmash. That is
not
reality but happens only in their heads. The Kingdom is only accessible
to pure human beings for the gate is too small to admit blow up persons
loaded with all their baggage.
Reading this mail I
wonder I
live in an
absolute different world than you live in. If I have to believe you
with
your caring, loving and protecting mothers there is never a crying
child,
never an angry or shouting mother, never a frightened child, never
quarrels,
never a flick, never a troublesome child, never waifs and strays, never
an ill-treated child, never a punishment, never an impatient mother. It
is all peace, love, care and protection. What a wonderful world. It is
almost paradise.
In Holland it is quite
different.
Here
every year 50 children are beaten to death by one of their parents and
10.000 are so maltreated they have to be treated in a hospital. And
this
are only the physical maltreatments not to mention the psychical
maltreatments
like humiliation, belittlleing, threats, punishing, withholding love
and
attention. You must have an very selective memory and you are blind for
what happens before your eyes and everywhere in the world. You see it
and
don't see it for you apparently close your eyes to what you don't want
to see. That is spiritual or psychical blindness. Idealizing your
childhood
is a major obstacle to selfknowledge,
In men's history there
have
been many mystics.
They told about an other world they had seen in a vision, in a mystical
experience, under the influence of drugs or in a dream. In their
enthousiasm
(en theou= in God) they produced many beautiful words, poems, and
quotes
to transfer their experience to the people in their society, they left
for a short time. And all they told was coloured by their own
prejudices
and is by that only their "own" interpretation. They are the one-eyed
kings
in the land of the blind. All small children live in that other world
and
in essence they are perfect mystics, not only unable to tell about
their
world, but they even are not in want of sharing that with that strange
grown ups. When they grow up and try to explain what their experience
is
an the way they see things, the grown ups laugh at them and find their
utterances funny or witty and so they lose their child's paradise,
their
wholeness and holiness like you and I did too. The only thing you can
learn
from a mystic is that there is an other world and it is possible to
refind
it. All their talks about that other world is bullshit, senseless and
useless.
Imagine I visit an indescribable beautiful palace and I come back to
tell
people about all beauty I have seen. Everybody will imagine his own
image,
dependent on their own experiences, of the inner of the palace. And
endless
and for generations they discuss among themselves about the blessedness
to dwell in such a wonderful world, and their leaders, who never have
seen
the palace themselves, convince their followers there is no palace in
this
world and you first can find it after death. Mystics are people who
lost
their way back and have been unable to show the way to the other world
to the staying behind.
The Boddhisatva is the only
visitor to
the other world who has come back to show the way and they always are
killed,
exiled, burned at the stake and crucified. In this time they are locked
up in madhouses.
Once you have become a
finder you
are
a seeker no more, but a looker-on in a world of the blind. And you
experience
at the end of the quest being a indissoluble part of a perennial
renewing
world, walking and not wandering on the simple and straight way. The
way
to the Way has come to an end.
If you talk about "a
great Zen
Master"
you perhaps display the biggest stumble-block there is on the way out.
With the judgement ye judge, ye do not shall be judged, but ye judge
yourself.
And it is still worse, for it is not your own judgement somebody is a
great
Master, but you accept upon authority of others somebody else is
better,
higher, smarter and more virtuous than you are and by doing that you
condemn
yourself. All people are equal, but some are judged more equal than
others.
Nobody is better, higher, smarter or more virtuous than you are and you
humiliate yourself if you think they are. The only difference between
you
and what you call that "great Zen Master" is you think he sees things
more
than you do. Moreover the quote you quote is demonstrable dualistic
nonsense.
Right and wrong only can exist in a dualistic and judging society. Who
can have the pretension to judge what is right and what is wrong? There
is no right thinking and wrong thinking for the problem is thinking
itself.
The thing is to stop thinking, that strange occupation of your ego fed
by your past and future and to empty your head. Wisdom and
salvation
are reserved for everybody and it is not to your judgement for some
there
is not. Not condemning is no commandment but condemning is only a sign
of sense of superiority or inferiority. Not condemning others means you
understand your fellow men as equal and it is merely your ego that
condemns
their ego.
Conditioning makes people
think
they are
something else than a human being. People believe they are American or
Dutch, male or female, Muslim or Christian, a Capricorn or a Lion, a
pupil
or a teacher, a husband or a father, a master or a slave, a patient or
a doctor, a priest or a believer, passionate or jealous by nature, and
all sorts of combinations of that garments. It is the age-old
discussion
on nurture and nature. If you are an a believer in the theory of
evolution,
a so called evolutionist, you can find in nature many different species
of animals at choice to explain and gloss over your traits of
character,
your lasciviousness, your aggression, your promiscuity, your herd
instinct
and the crowning sensation of the survival of the fittest. So the
precondition
is to know what is nature and what is learned and the best examples are
the small children, "the man aged in his days will not hesitate ask a
little
child of seven days about the place of life". They are what you call
the
simple mirrors, a thousand times brighter than any mirror, and the
amount
of mud people's mirrors are dimmed with.
Just people who think they
are
something
change their surroundings, they adapt their surroundings to themselves
and adapt themselves to their changing surroundings, alter their
houses,
their clothes, their head-dress, according the prevailing fashion and
trends.
Everybody has his/her own
inner
Master,
his infallible inner Guide, and a true Master coincides with his/her
inner
Master, like all small children do. A true Master has found back his
Self
and coincides with himself and has found back and accepted he always
had
known. So a true Master only can tell you what you actually have known
always deep in your heart but have forgotten to listen to. A true
Master
tells the truth and the truth is horrible and if you listen to the
words
of a true Master you find your ego being in a scrape between the
personified
Self and your own Self and that feels uttermost threatening. And
probably
most people will react like the certain ruler in Luke 18:18 when Jesus
asks him to abandon all he has and when he heard this, he was very
sorrowful:
for he was very rich. Not only rich in possessions but also in
meanings,
opinions, traditions and prejudices.
If the truth would be nice,
somebody would
have found it long ago undoubtedly.
If the truth would fetch
money, a
true
gold fever would take possession of people.
If people would have to
undertake
far
voyages of discovery to find the truth they would have found it for
years
ago.
If the truth would yield
appreciation
or pats on the back, it would not be a secret any more.
If you could find the truth
in a
book,
somewhere in a library, between al those million and million books it
had
to be found.
If the truth would be
probable
people
would take it for granted.
If the churches, that all
pretend
to speak
the truth, would not be so afraid for it they would proclaim it on the
rooftops.
If the truth would be
scientific,
it would
be taught in universities.
If people would be able to
appropriate
the truth with violence, they would have thought out a bomb to lay it
bare.
If the establishment could
use the
truth
to safe their positions, they would have appropriated it for themselves
for centuries.
If the rich had could buy
it, it
certainly
would have been sold out.
If the truth would have been
complicated
and would require much knowledge, science would have known it for sure.
If people would have hear
the
truth gladly,
it would be put about everywhere.
If people would have find it
by
doing
and achievements, the task would have been performed long ago.
If the truth could have been
thought out,
in all those centuries with all those great thinkers, anyhow one of
them
would have invented it.
If people could have served
their
own
interests with the truth, it would be no question anymore.
So you can conclude from all
this
nothing
else than the truth is painful, unprofitable, unfindable in books, self
evident, leads to scorn and denouncing, is improbable,
heretical, not scientific,
anarchistic,
revolutionary, unpayable, simple, shaming and impracticable,
uninteresting
and unthinkable.
Long ago the gospel as you
can
read in
the sermon on the mountain was a simple message, but only for the poor
in spirit, the mourning, the meek, they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness,
the merciful, the pure in hearts, the peacemakers and the persecuted
ones.
As for me I never have
had the
idea I wanted
to be something. I did not chose my family, I did not chose the
religion
of my parents, I did not chose to be a Dutchman, I did not chose the
way
of living, of communication, of thinking, my social class, the
expectations
of my parents, their short comings, their past. I did not chose my
brothers
and sisters. I only took the place they offered me and played their
game,
their rules, their standard. I learned to find nice what they thought
it
was nice, tasty what they thought it was tasty, pretty what they
thought
to be pretty, normal what they thought to be normal. I had to listen to
my parents and when I did not they got angry, or worse disappointed and
worst sadly. No child wants to disappoint his parents and all children
experience that they can influence the mood of them for good or for
evil
and the effects of their mood returns on the children's head. So for me
it was necessary to be honest and meekly for the sake of peace. I
learned
that children are responsible for the happiness of their parents and
guilty
if they are not, like my parents experienced that in their youth. I did
not chose my school, I did not chose my studies but even when I toke
the
line of the least resistance there was something in me that made that
choice.
Free will and free choice are myths and a phantasms and an obstinate
belief.
And that is way I became something and my parents were proud of me for
I went far in society and I paid a heavy toll and that was my turning
point
for I wanted to know why this happened to me. That was not Adam's
choice
and it was not my choice but something in me that made that choice,
call
it grace.
Nobody is responsible for
his
shortcomings
but everybody is responsible for the results of his shortcomings and
perpetuating
the shortcomings of their fellowmen by hearing, seeing and keeping
silent
and those results should be a stimulation to face and correct those
shortcomings.
Conditioning starts by the parents adapted to this society. Society is
merely a notion for there are only people and what we call society is a
common way of thinking and behaviour and conditioning is not wrong but
makes the original simple life complicated and laborious.
Wise men always in their
times
without
internet have been very cautious for they realized they were a threaten
to the establishment and the prevailing religion. Jalal al-Din Rumi
said:
"The prophets and saints do
not
shirk
discipline. Their first discipline is to slay this self that is
controlled
by desires and lusts. That is the “Greater Holy War.” When they achieve
this, and establish themselves in the station of security, then wrong
and
right become revealed to them. Yet they are still engaged in a great
struggle,
for these mortals do everything wrong. The saints see this and must
endure
it. If they do not, and speak out declaring those mortals wrong, not
one
person in Heaven or on Earth will stand beside them. But God bestows on
the saints a great and mighty capacity to endure. Out of a hundred
wrong
acts, they mention one, so that it will not become difficult to
overcome.
The other mistakes they hide and even praise, saying, “That wrong of
yours
is right,” so that little by little they can overcome this ignorance".
In Dutch we have the saying:
"Soft
healers
make stinking wounds" and Lao Tzu said: "Agreeable words are not true
and
true words are not agreeable". So the more words are disagreeable the
more
you know they are true.
It is not man's
responsibility
to understand
his distorted outlook but he first has to understand his responsibility
for his own distorted outlook and life. And that is the essence of his
problem. From early childhood they have learned to turn over the
responsibility
for all things that happen in their life to others, authorities,
parents,
doctors, teachers, priests, lawyers, circumstances, chance, and fate.
There
is no wrong and right, which merely are notions of a dualistic world.
There
are only things that make you feel happy or unhappy. Feeling is all
there
is. If you feel unhappy, sick, tired, depressed or angry, you can blame
others or circumstances and you can go to the doctor or the
therapeutist,
you can take pills or drugs or alcoholic liquors but in all cases you
run
away from the responsibility of your own life.
As for the quote of Raman
Maharishi it
shows clearly the lack of compassion and his egoistic and selfish
attitude
toward his fellowmen. Nobody can be much enlightened for you are
enlightened
or not, it is all or nothing. When you are awaked and you see all your
fellowmen around you sleeping and stumbling and wandering, when you see
their misery, their tears, their fears and despair and you stay in your
ivory tower I am sure your enlightenment is fake. Perhaps you have seen
the beautiful metaphorical movie "The labyrinth" of David Bowie. If you
finally have found the exit of the labyrinth and are arrived in the
palace
you can stay there like a mystic and tell the wanderers in the
labyrinth
about all pleasures in the palace, but the only task you have is to
show
them the way out. A mystic is someone who didn't find the way back to
the
world of his fellowmen. Plato's metaphor of The Cave is also a clear
and
in essence the same message.
Regarding by a enlightened
his
fellowmen
as strawdogs is denigrating and elitistically.
Mystics have told most
horrible
prejudices
and for example some quotes of that applauded and highly esteemed
mystic
Rumi:
"God showed the Prophet a
straight and
hidden way. What is that way? Marriage, so that we can endure the
trials
of living with the opposite sex, to listen to their demands, for them
to
ride roughshod over us, and so in this way to refine our own character".
"By enduring and putting up
with
the tyranny
of your spouse it is as though you rub off your own impurity on them.
Your
character becomes good through forbearance; their character becomes bad
through domineering and aggression. Once you have realized this, make
yourself
clean. Know that they are like a garment; in them you can cleanse your
own impurities and become clean yourself. Rid yourself of pride, envy
and
jealousy, until you experience pleasure in struggling and endur-ing.
Through
their demands discover spiritual joy. After that, you will endure such
struggles, and you will not run from oppression, since you will see the
advantages they bring to you".
"The way of the Prophet is
this:
It is
necessary to endure pain to help rid ourselves of selfishness, jealousy
and pride. To experience the pain of our spouses’ extravagant desires,
the pain of unfair burdens, and a hundred thousand other pains beyond
all
bounds, so the spiritual path can become clear. The way of Jesus was
wrestling
with solitude and not gratifying lust. The way of Mohammed is to endure
the oppression and agonies inflicted by men and women upon each other.
If you cannot go by the Mohammedan way, at least go by the way of
Jesus,
so you will not remain completely outside the spiritual path".
It is absolutely dark to
me
when you write:
"regarding religion- I mean by religion, the way of living" . Is the
American
way of life a religion too? Has religion a meaning, is religion a goal
in itself or is it a help to attain a goal, so when you have reached
the
goal you do need the help no longer? Is it perhaps like a ladder?
Words and notions like
society,
nation,
government, religion, belong to what Plato called the world of ideas,
the
virtual and not existent world of thoughts, toys to build imaginary
structures,
to play with, with no relationship to reality. Nobody has ever seen a
society,
a religion or a nation. There are only people. So to me it was not
society
that made me believe all sort of things, but my parents, my teachers,
and
all other people that I had to accept as authorities.
"Abandon false ideas,
that is
all" and
"there aren't any true ideas" is to me the essence of this quote. So
you
first have to know your false ideas and because there are no true ideas
all ideas are false. Opinions, convictions, truths are all ideas. Is as
simple as that. Sometimes, Mourad, the feeling of discomfort you
cherish
a personified God creeps over me, a God with by yourself attributed
emotions,
a "God to whom vengeance belongth" and that does not tally with any
mysticism,
Chuang-Tzu
(http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/sbe39/sbe39.hm)
was the rebellious antireligious sage, ridiculing the prevailing
religion,
with their priests and rituals, their chief and slave of the
establishment
Confucius, trying to free the credulous out of their claws. Realizing
how
threatening his words were, he usually used the figure of speech to
talk
about the Sages and True Men of old which he made say what he
wanted
to say. Unfortunately his writings are polluted as much as all
wisdomwritings
by his so-called followers but still there are many brilliant pearls
within.
For example on knowledge:
"The knowledge shown in
the
(making of)
bows, cross-bows, hand-nets, stringed arrows, and contrivances with
springs
is great, but the birds are troubled by them above; the knowledge shown
in the hooks, baits, various kinds of nets, and bamboo traps is great,
but the fishes are disturbed by them in the waters; the knowledge shown
in the arrangements for setting nets, and the nets and snares
themselves,
is great, but the animals are disturbed by them in the marshy grounds.
(So), the versatility shown in artful deceptions becoming more and more
pernicious, in ingenious discussions as to what is hard and what is
white,
and in attempts to disperse the dust and reconcile different views, is
great, but the common people are perplexed by all the sophistry. Hence
there is great disorder continually in the world, and the guilt of it
is
due to that fondness for knowledge. Thus it is that all men know to
seek
for the knowledge that they have not attained to; and do not know to
seek
for that which they already have (in themselves); and that they know to
condemn what they do not approve (in others), and do not know to
condemn
what they have allowed in themselves;--it is this which occasions the
great
confusion and disorder. It is just as if, above, the brightness of the
sun and moon were darkened; as if, beneath, the productive vigour of
the
hills and streams were dried up; and as if, between, the operation of
the
four seasons were brought to an end:--in which case there would not be
a single weak and wriggling insect, nor any plant that grows up, which
would not lose its proper nature. Great indeed is the disorder produced
in the world by the love of knowledge. From the time of the three
dynasties
downwards it has been so. The plain and honest-minded people are
neglected,
and the plausible representations of restless spirits received with
pleasure;
the quiet and unexciting method of non-action is put away, and pleasure
taken in ideas garrulously expressed. It is this garrulity of speech
which
puts the world in disorder".
Clinging to material
possessions is perhaps
a minor problem and actually merely derived from convictions and
prejudices
and the base of all is fear. So the clinging is in your head and the
fear
is the result of not knowing yourself and the world around you. Men
talk
about chance, luck and bad luck and the reason is they look with a tube
look and so do not survey the whole. Actually the Gospel of Thomas,
Egyptian
as Mose, Philo and the Therapeuts, is a very simple scripture, for the
only and essential message is to look at yourself, understand all you
project
from your innerworld upon the outerworld. Contemplation has to be
self-examinition
or rather ego-examination, weigh and find wanting. It is the way to
demolish
your ego step by step until you are almost ready and then the last step
is given and you enter the Kingdom or the apatheia and you will be a
passer
by in a crazy world. All those people have the illusion that the
American
way of living is the only possible way of living and from that strange
world picture, wherein they are the good guys, they look at the rest of
the world projecting all their problems on others. Meanwhile they
try to understand a scripture that shows them it is wicked to blame
others.
Bush, who prides himself to be a newborn christian, forgets there is
written
you have to love your ennemies and you have to offer your other cheek
if
your are smitten on the one. That is the true curse and take the name
of
the Lord thy God in vain.
You assert there is only
One
Being. How
do you know that? Have you ever seen that Being and what is its shape?
And what do I have to figure to myself by a Realm? Has it a government
and citizens, an army to defend its frontiers, priests and schools and
perhaps churches and religions? Do I still need the Bible of the Quran?
Do I need a pasport to enter and can I go out again. Why would I do my
best to go in? And imagine I succeeded to go in what will be then my
attitude
towards my formal fellow-sufferers in this world? Or do I become a
spiritual
being and will I be invisible to my former fellow men? And imagine all
people give up their blindness. Will a priest stay a priest and a
doctor
a doctor? Is the Realm only for special people like Rumi said:
"God has sealed the eyes of
some
people
so they can cultivate this present world. If no one were blind to the
other
world, this world would be empty. It is this blind-ness that gives rise
to culture and progress".
So according Rumi the world
needs
blinds
to allow others seeing and to slave, collecting rubbish, cleaning
houses,
working in mines and factories to create the condition for the elected
to see. It sounds absolute crazy and unfair to me.
I think people are
offended
when you talk
about their blindness ( I really didn't know there is somewhat like
spiritual
blindness. Does it mean you have spiritual eyes too?) because by
criticizing
them you pretend you are a seer in the land of the blinds and I am
afraid
you cannot clarify to them what you see they are blind to. Moreover
they
see your shortcomings and hear and read your prejudices and the only
thing
they think is you better first can look to the beam in your own eye
before
you criticize the mote in your brothers eye. Only if you are perfect,
that
means you cleared the whole beam in your eye, you see clear and I
suppose
you are not perfect. If you are not perfect you are blind and more or
less
blind remains blind, like you are awake or sleeping, living or death
and
there is nothing between.
Indeed it is useless to know
if
you are
in heaven or not for it is a feeling, an awareness and an experience
and
has nothing to do with knowledge. In heaven, or the Realm as you call
it,
is no desire, no fear, no problems, no misery, no pain, no hate, no
insecurity,
no past and no future, no worries, no illness, and when you experience
all those vices and distresses are gone definitively you realize you
are
in this world but no longer of this world. It is the timeless
experience
of blessedness and reserved for everybody and not only for the elected.
"God" does not discriminate.
We live in a fascinating
era,
the world
is burning and the System everywhere disintegrates and is driven crazy,
discord never has been so immense, the war in Iraq is a desolate and
desperate
attempt of power to maintain a losing control and they even dare to
call
it defending freedom. There is so much restrained aggression and hate,
up to now most of the time imploded in depressions, cancer, suicides,
but
there is only a spark needed to let explode the powder barrel. People
are
so afraid, so tired by this crazy way of life, they are excellent
culture
mediums for epidemics and the SARS advances irresistible. It is
fascinating
to see the way scientists sow panic and the credulity of their victims
and that is only the beginning. These are the signs of the times, the
signs
of a collapsing culture, signs of the pride of mankind. And spasmodic
our
leaders assure us it is only a crisis and they already see light in the
darkness an that we can go to sleep quietly and they all know better.
This
time is very comparable with era some 2000 years ago, when the Imperium
Romanum ruled the world and everywhere hotbeds and seditions appeared,
and finally perished by mutual division. So you have to step out of
this
crazy world figuratively. There is only a few time left. I hesitate
using
the word God, a word for the unspeakable is a contradictio in terminis,
but the only solution is a radical and absolute return to nature, from
humanoids to men, from culture to nature, from knowledge to wisdom,
from
a unrighteous world to paradise. And the end will be like the beginning.
Perhaps the greatest
obscurity
is the notion
"sin". I think there are as many definitions of it as there are people
and the quote stands or falls with a clear definition of the word. Even
in the gospels the word is not used unequivocal. In the orthodox
christian
church in my village the clergyman preaches to his believers their
illnesses
are the punishment of God for their sinfulness but in His inscrutable
goodness
He sends the doctor with his medicines to cure. "You know
doctor'"
people say, "you can do nothing by yourself but you are only an
instrument
in the hands of the Lord." I nod and keep silent.
There is an immense
difference
between
our feeling and tenor of our website. We have no want to describe our
joy
with al those superlatives as mystics do. talking about the unspeakable
is of no use to anybody and feelings you only can experience. I only
can
tell by own experience that blessedness is a continuous absence of all
suffering, pain, problems, anxiety, fear, worrying, anger and all other
negative emotions. That is the way we experience our daily life and we
understand it has to be unbelievable for others.
The meaning of our websites
is to
show
others the way to this simple, all loving and marvelous way of living
what
Buddha called the Nirvana, the Stoïcs the apatheia and Jesus the
Kingdom.
When you once see and experience you searched such a long time, you
hardly
can imagine you didn't see it so simple and self evident it is. It is
impossible
to search if you do not know what to find, so the only way is to
eliminate
all things by which you stand in your own light. It is looking for the
answer on all why's, like the quest of Job. Changing your life holds
the
conclusion you mistook yourself before and for most of the people it is
asking toot much.
To be reborn it is necessary
to
find what
has been lost, you write, but it is rather you have forgotten and after
you refind it you only can admit you always have known.
The so-called rebirths
are the
most strange
and intolerant. With the best will in the world I cannot find it more
than
wordfucking they write, playing with notions and scoring off each other
with trivialities and prejudices. Actually it is to me almost a waste
of
time but I stay curious about what is going on everywhere in the world.
It is a thrilling time and to me it is fascinating seeing society
shaking
to its foundations and the spasmodic efforts of people keeping
appearances
and allaying each other and themselves it is only a small dip and it
all
will come right, against their better judgement. It is a cheek that
this
society, build on discord and dissatisfaction only can be saved by an
always
growing consumption and the Dow Jones and Nasdaq are the gauges of
happiness.
I found a somewhat cynical
quote
of the
Sufi-mystic Rumi:
"God showed the Prophet a
straight and
hidden way. What is that way? Marriage, so that we can endure the
trials
of living with the opposite sex, to listen to their demands, for them
to
ride roughshod over us, and so in this way to refine our own character.
By enduring and putting
up with
the tyranny
of your spouse it is as though you rub off your own impurity on them.
Your
character becomes good through forbearance; their character becomes bad
through domineering and aggression. Once you have realized this, make
yourself
clean. Know that they are like a garment; in them you can cleanse your
own impurities and become clean yourself. Rid yourself of pride, envy
and
jealousy, until
you experience pleasure in
struggling
and endur-ing. Through their demands discover spiritual joy. After
that,
you will endure such struggles, and you will not run from oppression,
since
you will see the advantages they bring to you.
The way of the Prophet is
this:
It is necessary
to endure pain to help rid ourselves of selfishness, jealousy and
pride.
To experience the pain of our spouses’ extravagant desires, the pain of
unfair burdens, and a hundred thousand other pains beyond all bounds,
so
the spiritual path can become clear. The way of Jesus was wrestling
with
solitude and not gratifying lust. The way of Mohammed is to endure the
oppression and agonies inflicted by men and women upon each other. If
you
cannot go by the Mohammedan way, at least go by the way of Jesus, so
you
will not remain completely outside the spiritual path"
All over the world people
have
started
in the search of themselves, wisdom and true knowledge. But they are
careful
and wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The quest is dangerous and
full of temptations but the only thing you have to believe is there
finally
will be an end. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness;
and all these things shall be added to you. That means you first have
to
find after a apparently lonesome journey, the same we went some decades
ago, and meanwhile you have to keep silent for otherwise the lefts
behind
will try to pull you back, convincing you to do normal and readapting
yourself.
The main message of the websites is you have to look and listen to
yourself
compromiseless and to have the apparent arrogance to understand all
scholars
and so-called great of the earth are mistaken. Knowledge is contrary to
wisdom. You not only have to change your perspective about
christianity,
but about religion, science and human relationship. The traps are
vanity,
power and especially sex. Kierkegaard wrote: "actually believing is go
further on a way where all human signposts point only one direction:
back,
back, back" Don't listen to them and follow your own conscience
even
when it seems crazy. Free yourself from The Matrix.
Finally you will conclude
christianity
is a huge mistake, like all religions and cultures are.
The Gospels are merely
ingenious
composed
myths to hang on a message and the writers have lent from the prophets,
from the Psalms and Proverbs, from Henoch, from Plato and many other
scriptures
to construct a propagandistic lampoon to spread their message for a
righteous
world. It became a failure. They made mistakes, they have not been
enough
clearly, they made compromises and the scatterbrain Paul dealt the
death-blow
to the freedom movement. It is not important Jesus has been an
historical
person or not, for it is only the example of what we all can be and to
follow him stands for following your Logos or your conscience until you
finally fall in with it.
We realize what we assert
is
totally different
from what is accepted commonly to be true and so it meets all the
criteria
of heresy. You know from history the fate of all heretics who were not
enough cautiously, became victim of their vanity or yielded to power.
All
wisdomscriptures are written by anonymous writers for they all did know
they always are contrary with the establishment, like so many
critics
of society wrote their satires and lampoons (and Gospels!) by
pseudonym.
Long ago we even were so naively that we have tried to interest
publishers
in our writings but no one dared to get his fingers burnt. Fortunately
we did not realize that time all consequences of our message. With the
lapse of years we have become more cautiously all the time for we
noticed
people avoided us when we talked to directly, often even when we only
asked
why they said something, why they liked what they liked and why they
did
what they did. And not only the question why but even more the question
how people come by their opinions is not discussable and a real taboo.
Moreover we all still yet hold apparently respectable positions in
society
and we believe it is our strength.
We do not agree we force the
Gospel of
Thomas in our philosophy for to us both the Gospel and philosophy is a
way of living and not an intellectual and brainy exercise. All sages
always
impressed upon people that it is not enough to talk about freedom,
righteousness,
honesty and all other virtues but to put them into practice and that is
why Thomas a Kempis could write his Imitatio Christi and Lao Tzu his
Tao
The Ching.
It is your "own" opinion you
describe
about the fall of man and we hope you do not think it has been a
historical
event. There is no little child with an innate sense of shame, at least
we never have met such a child, neither we noticed that with our own
children.
We believe that only that fact unsettles your interpretation of the
fall
of man.
Tertullian wrote "credo quia
absurdum
est" and you write that our way to the pre-fall state is both absurd
and
impossible. We experience it is possible and that is why we wrote our
Elucidation
of the Secret Sayings.
Ceterum censeo that
converting a
heathen
is a christian job and converting a Christian is a hell of a job.
As regards logion 114 the
following. The
biggest stumbling block in understanding the gospels is people
regarding
Jesus as a historical figure, like all christians do. It is a Flatland
idea. Concerning the gospels as a metaphor of a messianistic movement
only
can make all pieces of the puzzle let fall on the right place. For if
you
are fixed on the messenger it is impossible to understand the message.
The message is arisen from the Essene-community and other exclusive
male
monasteries and so contaminated by a false male feeling of superiority.
Further you have to realize even the Gospel of Thomas is polluted and
unnecessarily
made turbid by using difficult notions like spirit, God, kingdom of
heaven
and so on, while at the same time it is the intention to become like
the
children. Actually all scriptures merely are an explanation of the
Golden
Rule and for to understand yourself you only have to know what to do
NOT
until at the end you realize for living a perfect life you have to do
nothing.
Being is blessedness.
If you clean logion 114 from
all
cultural
deposit it runs as follows:
"A human being, prinked with
a
name, Simon
Peter said to them: Let that human being, pricked with the name Mary go
forth from among us, for human beings behaving and thinking as women
are
not capable to get rid from their learned selfimage, thinking and
behaviour
to reach the perfect life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall show to her all
things she is not, all her luggage that prevents her to see and
experience
what she really is, so that she can become a human being again, in
order
that she also may become a perfect human being like you human beings.
For
every woman who makes herself a human being shall enter into the
perfect
life".
Aldous Huxley has written
many
interesting
books, for example "The perennial philosophy", but till the end of his
life he remained a seeker, a wanderer between heaven and earth, and
that
implies that his writings contain many contradictions. In the quote:
"Each person is at
each
moment capable
of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving
everything
that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain
and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused
by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge" and "Each one
of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals our
business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival
possible,
Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the
brain
and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle
of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the
surface
of this Particular planet. To formulate and express the contents of
this
reduced awareness, man has invented end endless elaborated those
symbol-systems
and implicit philosophies which we call languages".
It is evident where he
switches
from the
one world to the other. It is not the function of the brain and nervous
system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this
mass
of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, but in their education
people
are programmed to select what they see and hear and to push away what
they
cannot use for their role in this crazy society and to that deformed
brain
that knowledge is useless, irrelevant and above all dangerous indeed.
People
have to be blind and deaf for that is the condition to be a languid
cogwheel,
an uncritical consumer, a not self-thinking follower of authorities,
defenders
of what they consider as their own world-picture and self-image. It is
their business to survive, like animals, in their self-created hell.
And
for that the Mind at Large has to be funneled through that reducing
valve,
so life in Flatland is bearable. It is amazing the way people are
forgotten
the time they still were small Spheres before they were forced in
artificial
Triangles, Squares and other two-dimensional shapes with that strange
and
awkward accompanying communication.
First of all: don't be
suspicious. Our
website and our message are not bait though it might sound to the
children
like the fairy tale of the Pied Piper. We proclaim an absolute honesty
for we failed in the other part of our life because we made compromises
and always covered problems for the sake of charity until we almost
smothered
in it. We recognize a lot in your life story for all escape stories are
equal in essence. The only difference is we understood the incitement
"Love
your enemies" in the way it is meant. We knew the life histories, the
fears,
the sense of inferiority, the fear of loss of control, the fear to lose
their jobs and status, their impossibility to confess their mistakes,
and
understanding is forgiving. Even we are convinced they meant well by us
but fright is a bad adviser. We didn't fight back, we didn't act
according
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and very often we had the
opportunity
to do that. We always thought honesty pays and it did although we had
to
wait many difficult years. We don't have malicious pleasure by their
misfortune
now, we don't cry they have to blame themselves but we feel compassion.
It sounds crazy but in fact we even feel grateful to them for by
expelling
us out of their game they enabled us to find the way out. They made
another
choice and their frights let them take the line of the least resistance
and knowing their life history, their unchosen youth and parents we
understand
the way they did. You only condemn somebody if you are not able to
place
yourself in his position. And we always realized what they told about
us
told more about them than about us. Nobody is an Agent voluntarily
unless
you maintain the false concept of free will. They are all victims of
their
lost youth and to us they always still are fellow men and it were their
unconscious motives that let them act like they did. They are all
slaves
of the Matrix and they're not aware of it. They don't know what they do
and it is not righteous to blame them for that. Everybody who isn't
totally
unplugged is a potential Agent.
Forget those infected
notions
about the
Holy Spirit, Father and Son, Heaven and Garden for the key is humility,
modesty and compassion. You are a man and nothing more or less and
every
small child is exact like you and you always have to realize it is not
your own merit but you got it. It isn't rightly to be proud of a gift.
You only have to use those words to beat the Matrix with his own
weapons.
What we state is not only enough to get us burned in at least seven
major
religions but our biggest enemy is science, that new religion.
In the metaphorical language
of
The Matrix
(as metaphorical as all gospels) every Agent who repents stays a
potential
Cypher until he is totally unplugged. So for us everybody is an Agent
and
everybody except our faithful followers from the beginning. In their
struggle
to the goal people always, even in the last meters, can drop out and
become
a Judas.
There is no Father who
speaks to
you for
you only can listen to your conscious that speaks to you. Logos and
Spirit
are only notions, images constructed to explain a meaning. Forget them
when you are ready. Jesus never has existed. He is merely a constructed
image to hang on a message. You can compare it with the stories of
Donald
Duck. His nephews act as his conscious to guard him from problems. The
Beagle Boys are the personification of evil. Just the same as in the
story
of Pinocchio wherein Jiminy Cricket plays the same role. Along history
millions and millions reached the top but kept silence. Every little
child
stays shortly at the top.
We feel ourselves absolutely
secure and
we are imperturbable indeed. We realize it is wrong to put to the test
providence and for that we are anonymous and carefully as snakes and
harmless
as doves.
We only have chosen the
Gospel of
Thomas
to elucidate our message because it is less filthy than the Dhammapa or
the Tao The Ching but it would been possibly too. The second motive is
in our western society the Judeo/Christian thinking is the cement that
holds up the whole building and if we can succeed to render it harmless
the whole building will collapse and that's our meaning.
We refuse to resign
ourselves we
have
to sit out the rest of the game. Nobody wants to play this crazy game,
no child wants to leave its paradise voluntarily, nobody has chosen for
this life in this insane society, nobody chooses for a life in misery,
pain and sorrow and we want to show them it is not necessarily and the
way they can go out.
We are convinced everything
is
much more
easier than you think.
