Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The beginning, Hexagram 3

The things I might pose about hexagram three are not obvious, and some might take issue, but those truly schooled in Eastern thought, and/or esoteric Christianity, might recognize the full potential of these ideas. Hexagram three is really the first hexagram. Hexagram one and two are merely archetypes for that perennial energy that has always existed. In reality it exists as one. There is no separation of yin and yang. The separation is merely a necessary illusion so that life may have experience. When the one becomes two, there is division and separation.

The book of Changes, or the Yi Jing, is really a story of the prodigal son. In the 3rd hexagram, the son leaves his father's home. In essence, yin and yang is divided and the son recognizes both joy and sorrow. In hexagram sixty one, the son finds inner truth, and in hexagram sixty two he returns to his home base. Hexagram 63 and 64, however, show us the cyclical nature of time and space, and that there is nothing new under the sun. In other words, what has happened before will happen again, and the son will once again leave his heavenly home. In the same way, spirit enters into, and becomes matter. However, matter is not dead solidity, as we have believed in our illusion for so long, for it is infused with spirit, which has awareness. All matter is spirit, and therefore aware. The nuclear hexagram in hexagram three tells us of this fall from grace, Adam from the Garden, spirit into matter. The prodigal son leaves his home. (Hexagram fifty six tells us something of the wonderings of the prodigal son in the material realm. The realm of illusion. Hexagram 47 tells us of the dreariness of this "world of illusion." A gloomy place.) The prodigal son goes through the dark night of the soul, and once again, decides to return to his fathers home, where he can find his true spirit, his true home, his true life, his riches, his inheritance.

Since the way back home involves the reintegration of yin and yang, in their proper places and matches, (hexagram sixty three is the only one that is totally correct) then the image of a marriage of soul mates is presented in this hexagram. In order to properly integrate yin and yang, we must have a proper match with our inner psyche with our outer consciousness. Without this we just wonder in the wilderness. (hexagram fifty six, as well as others.) On a societal level, the integration comes about by finding our true soul mate. (There is much discussion of this, much longing for this in society today, but one must realize, one will never be integrated with his or her true soul mate until such time as a full ripening of the individual comes about. Before this time, even though we more than occassionally meet and marry our soul mate, it does not appear to be so, and divorce or trouble happens because we do not have the true inner integration.)

And one more point for tonight, before we go on about this hexagram, on a third level, the integration is between the individual and the sage. Hexagram three says we cannot do it alone, we need helpers. Line three says something to the effect, "If we hunt in the forest without a guide, we only get lost in the forest. To integrate yin and yang, we need spiritual teachers. True teachers who have proven themselves. We cannot integrate without a teacher. And hexagram four is about the teacher.

More on this later.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

That which endures

Hexagram 32 teaches us that it is that which changes which is that which endures. This is because what changes is what is cyclic in its progression. What has happened will happen again. But within the individual it is an unswerving direction that endures. This is what counts. It goes without saying that that direction should be positive. Different people, however, will have different opinions on what is positive and what is not. Often peoples intentions seem very negative to others but very positive to those who are carrying them out. This is why we need a guide. Hexagram three line four says, "Whoever hunts deer without the forester only loses his way in the forest." To most of us it seems that we come into life without a guide for living. That is not true however, we do have guides. We have the sacred literature. We have the I Ching, the Tao Teh Ching, and the Bible. Often though, we unknowingly trivialize them and do not recognize them for what they are. Even when we recognize the power of the literature, we often think of it as only a trinket, useful for divination, or for some knotty question, but never as a true guide for ourselves. There was some discussion some time back on online clarity about whether there is even such thing as a sage. Mark my words, those who think there is not a sage, do not have a very deep understanding about what spirituality is all about. The sage is there to guide us and to teach us. He is at our disposal, as long as we approach him/her with the proper respect, and dignity. The Sage is the forester, who shows us the way through the wilderness. The Sage is the one who is discussed constantly in the words of the text, and in the judgments and images. The Sage is the one with the keys to the kiingdom. (See hexagram 20 line 4.) The Sage shows us where we are on the ever changing cycle of time. When we are in the peak of a time or energy wave, when we are in a valley, or when we are on an even keel. He/she is the one who sees us through the gloomy valley of hexagram 47, who helps us with our deliverance from karma in hexagram 40, the one who abides in the deep ravine of knowledge and wisdom in hexagram 29. The Sage teaches us when to advance, and when to retreat. (Hexagram 33 and 34) The Sage teaches us to look at the positive potential in times of darkness, (hexagram 12) and the inherent dangers that lurk in times of peace. The Sage teaches us that all things ebb and flow, and we must learn to read the signs of the times. This is what never changes, is that ebb and flow. As Sun Tzu said, "it is not enough to know that when the leaves change color winter is approaching, or to know that when the ice thaws spring approaches, one must read the signs before the obvious signs, and in time will come to not just know, but be reconciled and one with the ebb and flow of all things, and therefore, always prepared. Do we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, with the right understanding of the signs of the times?

Thursday, March 15, 2007

A copy of my review

This is a review of a book I have admittedly only partially read by Ben Witherington III, regarding the church and the Da Vinci code. The name of the book is, The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci (Paperback)

But I do want to bring up the importance of the meaning of history in terms of whether one believes in the more literal or more allegorical meaning of the gospels.

"I am not going to say a lot because in all honesty, I need to finish the book. But there is an important statement here I would like to make. So much boils down to what an individual believes is the history of the church. Ben Witherington the III seems to be of the opinion that the gnostic scriptures do not come until later. This is certainly not my understanding of history. And in order to take this view, this stance, of history one must be somewhat apologetic of the Roman Catholic Church, even if one is a protestant. It is stated in the book something to the effect that Constantine became a Christian and presided in a kindly manner over the council of Nicaea. It is certainly questionable whether Constantine ever was a convert in anything more than name. His only conversion was one of convenience to keep Rome from falling apart. It is my understanding of history, that in presiding over the council, Constantine consistently used the power of the sword whenever his view of what Christianity should be was challenged, and Bishops who opposed his point of view were removed from the council by force, and a revote was taken. Can I prove this? No. Not any more than I think anyone can prove otherwise, but the weight of the actions of the church over a 1000 year reign, I think, proves incontroversably, that the church was not interested in truth, but in control. It is without question, over the next 1000 years of the reign of Rome via the church, that multitudes of individuals who questioned the church in any way were tortured horribly and killed. They were furthermore, tortured and killed even if they recanted and admitted they were in error. I don't think anyone can deny this aspect of history. It is too well documented. So why would the church care about preserving the truth? It is also, without question, that the church over the next thousand years, sought out any documents they considered detrimental to the churches rule, and burned those documents. It has been well established that the church added and deleted text from the supposedly cannonical scriptures. Can anyone therefore, affirm incontrovertibly, that the scriptures that have come down to us are the inerrant words of God regardless? I think this is a very dangerous position to take.

It is also questionable whether the gnostic documents came earlier or later. Throughout history there have been God man saviors who were surrounded by a mythology, so to speak, almost identical to the story of Jesus. Is it still therefore reasonable to believe in a literal and only literal interpretation of the Bible? Why then did Jesus speak in parables? Why was it that even when he interpreted the parables, he claimed that the disciples still did not understand? Even without gnostic texts it becomes apparent that there was a secret doctrine. And when one delves into the secret doctrine, they find they can no longer go back to that literalness, it is no longer of import to them, not because they are ignorant or deceived, but because they now have the "inner light" of gnosis, something Ben Witherington apparently knows nothing about. When one attains a deeper understanding, one realizes unquestionably the futility in believing in a literal god man savior. It, folks, just aint so. But prove it? Each person will have to decide for themselves.

At any rate, if one is of a fundamentalist disposition, one will tend to believe the so called scholars who are also of that persuasion. If not, one is more inclined to believe those scholars that are more critical of the church. There is no proof one way or another that one set of doctrines came earlier than another. To many of us who study these things it appears very strongly that both sets of doctrines were preached at the same time. The more literal set was preached for those who were not ready for the higher mysteries. There is ample evidence in the cannonical gospels themselves that there was a set of doctrine for the masses and another for the elite.

So which version of history do you believe in? It is up to each individual to decide. But I am very unattracted, though I once found refuge in, a literalist church that in one way or another was created and/or strongly influenced by Roman Catholicism. I find it very, very hard to believe in a God whose attitude is that those that don't believe the way he prefers they do should be burned at the stake as heretics. Even as the book of Revelations says, "Mystery Bablyon,(Roman Catholicism) mother of harlots, (protestant churches) and abominations in the earth."

When you wear Rose colored glasses, you tend to see religion, as well as everything else, in a perverted way. Is there a savior outside of ourselves? A deeper understanding of the hidden meanings of the parables and sayings of Jesus, with the alternate and deeper meanings of the Greek and other language words, would indicate there is not. In fact, the gospels begin to sound a lot, and I mean a lot more like a Bhuddist or Taoist text than a god savior manuscript. I will even go further. A deeper understanding shows a text full of meanings that mirror and parallel quantum physics, and the way we can related to the "Divine Matrix," as some would call it.

Nothing more at this time, but I do feel that Ben Witherington, not to critisize, he has written and excellent book, needs to look deeper into the material that he himself presents, unprejudiced by a fundamentalist eye."

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Overcoming the world

There is much in sacred scriptures, Eastern and Western, that relates to the "overcoming of the world." As we become spiritual, we attain less interest in worldly matters. But perhaps there is a deeper meaning here. If we think of the world as meaning "the illusion" maya, the materialization of the "Divine Matrix," then we can understand "overcoming the world" in a whole different light. Many mystics and saints, many deeply spiritual monks, priests, and what have you, have sought refuge in temples away from the world, to complete their meditation, their yogic practices, and their transforming of the mind. And this is not wrong, but we can look at this in a deeper way. Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We can look at this without being wrong in the same sense we think of this as becoming "superior" to the world. But let's take a paradigm shift, or a perception shift and look at this as a matter of overcoming the tendency to look at the world as an object that exists outside of ourselves. Let's look at this as meaning one who no longer looks upon the world as a real entity separate from oneself, but now understands that the world is an illusion created by the mind, and can just as easily be dispelled by the mind. Such a person has overcome the world in the sense that he/she is no longer under its power and subjugation, but realizes that since he/she is one with this world, and that it is just an illusion of the mind, that the world becomes a malleable instrument through which he can communicate with the universal subconscious mind behind it, and that the world bends to his will. In essence he/she becomes a co creator, with God. He/she understands the meaning in quantum phsyics of "spooky action at a distance," because the world is not really physical, it is immaterial, and is subject to the will of the creator, and the co creator.

In the gospel of Thomas it is stated, "he that has found the world has found a corpse." The world as we know it is just that, a dead piece of material that has no intelligence, and is simply hard matter, nothing more. This is indeed a corpse. But in a different sense, finding the world is finding a corpse because it is not real. It simply appears real to us. It is Maya, it is an illusion. It is as we perceive it. Jesus said to the rulers of his day, "ye are from below, I am from above. Below is the world, the illusion that we believe to be real. He was from above; he operated from a set of principles that recognized the unreality of the physical dimension. He was above the world in the sense that he did not operate from Newtonian scientific principles, but from Quantum principles, the metaphysical reality that no one really yet understands. The world is truly subject to our will, if we really understand the principles behind it. Can we overcome the world? Can we say like Jesus, "I and my father our one." The father is that divine matrix, from which we all are born, and from which we all return. Both the organic and the inorganic, all part of that divine matrix.

Hexagram seventeen speaks to us of conforming. But what do we conform to? The essence of the hexagram is a matter of recognizing what is right and following it. The secret is recognizing what is right. When we see with a higher vision, (hexagram 20) we understand better what is right. We also gain a deeper understanding of the principles of life, of the matrix. In another sense, hexagram seventeen gives us another view of our relationship with the Sage, with the I Ching, with the Christ, with the Buddha, with the Tao. For we must conform to the divine father/mother's will. This is our proper attitude toward the I Ching, is that of a student willingly following a proven correct teacher; a master. We must know how to adapt to the yardstick that is set before us, adapting to the time, to the way, to the teacher. In so doing, the standard changes, (line one). When we have a "second birth, a spiritual birth, the standard of our perception changes to an understanding that the world is merely an illusion. Are we willing to be "born again?" Are we willing to change our perspective, and see the world for what it is, a dead corpse?

A possibly interesting biofeedback site

Some of you might find this meditation/biofeedback site interesting.

http://www.biocybernaut.com/

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Pointing at the moon

When one attempts to teach a lesson, in a sense, he is pointing at the moon. One must remember, the finger pointing is not the moon. In many different ways, an instructor points at the moon, but it is too easy for the student to get caught up in the meaning of the finger and not look at the moon. I myself, in presenting this material, have never figured out a way to adequately or accurately point at the moon. Even when all the pointers are taken together, the message is still not clear, and I am not sure how to deal with this. Jesus, or the Sage in the I Ching, had no problem presenting their meaning, albeit in allegorical form, in a way that could by those most adept at understanding the symbolical forms, and "pulling down the kingdom."

It is to be remembered, though, that even the disciples of Jesus, of the Buddha, of Mohammed, of Lao Tzu, or whoever, could not fully fathom the message that was being taught. They needed to break through their world view of a material world, and even when doing that, it is in a superficial way. A few of Jesus' disciples understood better than others, but did any really get it? I don't know. Do I? Probably not on a really truly deeply level. You see, we have all bought into a viewpoint of an existing material world, where things outside of us need to be controlled. Some have bought into it deeper and more powerfully than others. As such, many of us have bought into the idea of the Jesus story being a religious thing. The same is true of the Confucian model and the Taoist model. Actually, it is not religion at all, and is in fact, a higher level science than the science that exists in our classrooms today. For the true teaching of Jesus and Lao Tzu, and the Buddha, was that of a way that our souls, our deeper psychological being could interact with the "Divine Matrix," as Greg Braden would call it, that "web that has no weaver." The deeper teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism are not concerned with religion, they are not concerned with a "we approach God this way, not that way, mentality," but are concerned with the way, the only way, that a human being, male, or female, can interact with the "Divine Matrix." This Matrix is now starting to be very seriously taken by quantum physicists, and believe me, the parables of Jesus are quantum physics at its finest. The parables, eastern, and/or western, are concerned with one thing. The way reality works, the maleability of reality according to our inner belief systems, and the way to approach and become one with this underlying unity. When Einstein first learned about the strange world of quantum physics, he could not accept it, calling it quantum spookiness at a distance. ( Because information packets, or quantum packets, photons, what have you seemed in some cases to arrive at their destinations before they left.) Every particle in the universe seems to interact with every other particle in the universe, and it does so immediately. The Chinese have been saying this in their own way for centuries. They have said something to the effect that, "the wave of a hand changes particles throughout the universe, and it does so instantaneously." Think of the implications of this. Think for a moment what that and the following really mean." The following being that, it appears that all particles/waves, are nonlocal. In other words, they exist everywhere at the same time. People have questioned, "If there is a God, where is he? Is he in this solar system? Maybe over there, maybe over here, or maybe he is in another galaxy." Their point is that there can be no God. Well, when you talk about that kind of God, they are right. There is no God. But there is that. There is this. When talking to Moses, Yahweh says, "I am that I am." In other words, there is nothing that he is not, and there is nothing that he is. He/She is the "Divine Matrix." The web that has no weaver, the Tao. When we understand that, and when we understand all that that entails, that we are all one, the scriptures, east and west, begin to take on a new significance. We understand why Jesus must have spoken in riddles. As such, the apostle Paul says, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery..." Why? There are at least two reasons, one, understanding the laws of the universe by those who are not purified could lead to dire consequences, and we can see that in the present when mankind, for example, now has access to nuclear weapons, but is not on a sufficiently high moral plain to be able to use them wisely. The second reason is, most of the mysteries of the kingdom would not be understood by the masses anyway, who, in their minds, cannot help but notice that all the objects in the world are separate from each other. What utter nonsense to think otherwise. As Paul again said, "Which none of the princes of this world knew,,," And unfortunately, to a large extent, neither do we know, for we have not been yet accepted the offer of the kingdom, even though Jesus said, "It is the father's good will to give you the kingdom." How it behooves us to understand the deeper message. Rather, as Jesus said, "ye have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear." For when the gospel of the kingdom is given unto us, we do not enter in ourselves, nor do we allow others to enter in.

Monday, March 05, 2007

A hidden mystery

In the East it is reported that the old Chi Kung, or Tai Chi masters, or Kung Fu masters, were really looking for a way to mortality. However, the few that found it, were very careful about who was the recipient of their secrets. In the West, it is somewhat the same way, although the methodologies to gain the "fountain of youth" in the west have been all but lost. In the East the masters closely guarded their secrets. In the west, this too, in a way is true, albeit in a different way.

Alah, the story of Jesus. Much has been in the news lately about the finding of the burial ground of Jesus, the story has been developed by Mr. Cameron, the Cameron that created the latest story about the Titanic. This creates a furor in Christian circles because western Christianity is founded on the believe that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. Paul says, "if Christ be not raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain." As William Henry says, a deep researcher into the hidden meanings of the gospels, "the beliefs of the average Christian are so superficial..." And that, I must declare, is true. For the true esoteric Christian, or gnostic Christian believer, it makes little if any difference whether Jesus actually rose from the dead or not. The important part of the story is the allegorical.

A hidden mystery abounds. In this world, we have a cache of men, and I suppose women, who are deadly serious about enslaving mankind. They have wanted this through the ages, and have not ceased in their efforts to enslave mankind. Since there are much more of the average good person around, they must use deceit excessively to reach their goals. There is also a small group of people on this planet who wish for the upliftment of mankind. These work for the most part in the dark also. Not because they are of the dark, but because they realize mankind as a whole is not ready for the deeper teachings. So while the enslavers purposely perpetrate religious systems that are for a large extent false, the liberators allow it and even to a certain extent encourage it so that those who are not ready will not receive the deeper teachings.

As such the darker side of the Roman Catholic Church, in their attempt to use the Church to unify Rome, enforced an incorrect and superficial doctrine of literality to be followed by the laity. But the deeper teachings of Jesus have not been totally confused. In the gospels, where it talks about Mary coming to see the empty tomb, she sees Jesus. At first she doesn't recognize him, but she recognizes his voice. (My sheep hear my voice.) The Jesus says, do not touch me, for I have not yet risen to my father. The vast majority of Christiandom has not a single clue as to why that pasage has survived in there. The Roman Church didn't bother deleting it from the "Holy" scriptures, because they too, knew no one would have a clue as to why it was there. But a few do understand the greater impact of the verse. The verse, as most verses are, is an allegory regarding the building of a light body, a body that is incorruptible: Not something we get in some far off heaven, but something we get here and now when we do the work. This is the deeper meaning, and/or the deeper aspect of the second birth. The birth of the spiritual body. In developing his light body, Jesus needed for a time the opportunity to allow the full body of light to develop without being touched, for the touching of real flesh would indeed stop the process.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches the literal, if anything, to the masses, but they themselves admit there is a deeper doctrine. Well, did Jesus say of the Pharisees, as well as those who would come later in sheep's clothing, "You do not enter the kingdom of heaven yourselves, and you do not allow anyone else to do so either." They demanded strict adherence to the literalness of the law, though they did not obey it themselves, and they refused to follow and teach others the following of the deeper allegorical meanings. The churches for the most part today are guilty of the same thing.

I am not saying there is no value in the literal understanding. but there is something much deeper, and that in early Christianity required the "second initiation." As the book of Hebrews would say, "For the time that you ought to become teachers... and have become as such that need milk, and not of strong meat." The milk is the literal interpretation, the meat is the deeper, allegorical meaning. The story of Jesus is an allegory of the birth of the Christ Child within, the light body, that is, the immortal spirit, called the immortal fetus in China, the death of Jesus is an allegory of the death of the ego, the resurrection is an allegory of the newness of life in the light body. Is the light body tough to create? You bet it is, and for most of us it is no longer an option, but the point I make here is that we need to look deeper, to understand the spiritual meaning of the verses in all the sacred scriptures; to come to a deeper understanding of the nature of love, of reality, of the spiritual laws, of the meaning of prayer and meditation, and how it can benefit us. So that one day we too, even if we can't in this present life, may reach nirvana, or in western terms, the kingdom of heaven.