Spirituality for Living

What is the difference between resistance and principles? Principles manifest as essences, and they don’t block you. They empower you. To say I believe that love is the highest ideal. What does love as the highest ideal prevent you from? Really nothing. It engages you more in life. It’s like saying food is good for [...]

If you do a thing and you do it right the first time, what must you learn? Really nothing. That is not defining of the human condition, but we make it a part of it. Mostly because as I have said before, we are taught to resist our problems. When all you have is a [...]

What do you think was REALLY meant by the concept of “Original Sin”? The symbolism of the Tower of Babel, and the concept of the original sin are one and the same. A separation of reason from intuition, of language from the collective. The perception of the mind and soul as fictional or as entirely [...]

In Gnostic Christianity they speak of resurrection in the Gnostic sense, of being truly reborn into life. They see a life without knowledge of spirit as being among the dead, under the governance of Samael lord of the blind. a.k.a Shaitan to the Yazidi people. The demi-urge, who took governance of this world after the [...]

There are stories where the Zen master says something, and the student is said to be ‘enlightened’.  In that moment the words didn’t matter as much as the students thinking, and what will do that for any student differs. This is why you see the symbol of the dorje or lighting bolt in Buddhism, because [...]

How did Satan as a figure get into the Christian story? It stems from a schism in Semitic faiths, and the catholic or “universalist” agenda of early Christianity. This schism in Semitic faiths echoed even in Egyptian religion. This is why there was a conflict between them and the Egyptians. Set was a Semitic deity [...]

What do you see when you dream at night? Not the days events in a factual way, but your projections onto life. Dream is caused from intelligence not being able to sleep. Intelligence isn’t able to sleep because it doesn’t need to and intelligence projects. Your projections dictate your actions which dictate your future, and [...]

So to speak more on mortification of the flesh practices, they often show that there is more to us than our desires. Practices served as rights of passage, much like tribal ritual scarification. It still is practiced in the Opus Dei. They are flagellates if I recall. Opus dei, work of god in Latin. Some [...]

Example of a modern mortification of the flesh: caffeine. It tends to make us feel very alert, but also uncomfy.  However, it is so taken for granted that it is little questioned in general and we schedule our time and lives around an unnatural rhythm. It has a positive affect for some and isn’t an [...]

Yes, I have changed. I have reached a personal crisis, and it is here that I have had every idea or belief reduced to a bottom line. My instinct is fear.  Now I have transcended that fear and thus transcended my old self, but I didn’t get it from being a good boy and believing [...]

We are self medicating to avoid the real problems and the world of greed and intolerance. We demonize vices and thus wind up worshiping them. Greed is bad and no one really thinks about greed. The greedy person often reviles their own greed, but they don’t stop it. It is an addictive behaviour. It is [...]

Jainism is a religion of Indian origin, but with a minority following that may be the oldest example of an ascetic religion in the world and does still exist today. It shares many concepts with Vedantism, also known as Vedic Hinduism, but differs in its emphasis on the individual and the sanctity of the individual [...]

Sometimes it is just good to be angry, or cry without having to stop because you are suppose not to? Yes. We burn the bridge before we even cross it. We want peace, but won’t allow ourselves to be at peace with what disturbs us.
When you seek to deny anything about you, you make yourself [...]

Have you ever noticed that you can be acquainted with different people at times and think; ‘Wow this is the nicest person?’ They are always smiling and doing good things like they are living in a Brady Bunch world.  But then all the sudden they see opportunity, or you do something they don’t like and [...]

Christ was a living person? Well, this is where people get confused. Christ isn’t a name, and even old Gnostics saw the messiah as a spirit. Swedenborgian Christianity believes that the prophecy is already fulfilled, but Christ was socially a title. Even King Herod who was King of the Jews bore the title Christ. Though [...]

What would you say about someone who has killed a couple of hundred people, and accepts that, sleeping soundly knowing that only the dark part of his soul enables that same sleep? Is the soldier a criminal for having killed? Is someone who sees the world darkly an enemy for that view alone? I would [...]

Who can we trust? Your self when you know yourself. The problem is mostly people don’t know themselves. They know an idea of self. A role among other things and a prejudice, a judgement.
We only have ideas of others, so is there no trust in others? For the most part. “Trust no one” is commonly [...]

To quote Kahlil Gibran about raising children: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For [...]

The Kabbalah is Jewish esotericism. It’s a bit more widely known than people realize, and some of its arguments are arrived at and used by people who aren’t Kabbalists. The basic concept is that Gods essence is incomprehensible to us, and though Christians criticise this mysticism they still use that idea. The universe exists as [...]

Judaism doesn’t have any concept of hell, but the emanations in some schools of Kabbalism have a shadow aspect. The tree of life and its shadow. It’s called the tree of life because it is seen as an outgrowth of the infinite God, and the emanations arose in stages. It’s shadow element isn’t much talked [...]