Any Spiritual Working in Any Religion is Our Ballad of a Thin Man -- We Know Something is Happening, But We Don't Know What It Is (Sorry, Zimmy, and Thanks)
When we converted into whatever religion we are in, we knew something was happening, but we did not know what it was.* We knew it was real and, not knowing any better, we accepted whatever the synagogue, church, mosque or temple said it was and taught us about it. I mean after all, we KNEW it was real because it worked experientially and these were the people with whom it had worked. They believed it would work for them because their books -- the Tanach, Bible, Qu'ran or whatever Book -- said it would, and the book must be right because it did.**
Unfortunately, we are all a bunch of rank amateurs considering these things in ignorance. We all are in a state of amnesia from forgetting what we are and what we are doing -- everything we forgot at birth. It is hard to be bright and easy to be confused when we have been born blanked-out and have to piece everything together from scratch over many years of education and contemplation. When something works spiritually, we grasp onto it as a conceptual anchor: "I know at least this was real. It IS the truth because I know that it worked."
We build upon what we know, or at least think we know. Unfortunately, all we know is that something worked. Just what it was and why it worked, well, maybe in our ignorance we and our teachers do not read our books as perceptively as we might and misread and misinterpret what the authors of our books meant. And maybe, just maybe, we have a little egotistical prejudice for what our teachers taught, because after all, it DID work!
Yes, it happened, but we do not know what it was: "Come down, Brother Joseph!" Saint Joseph of Cupertino had the unusual experience of levitating in his ecstasies. They tried to take Lahiri Mahasaya's photograph, but he was always missing in the prints. When I first spoke in tongues in the ecstasy of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I had nothing to do with it except to NOT express self and NOT do anything. One moment Saint Antony was on one side of the Nile, and the next he was on the other. Jesus, if there was a human Jesus other than ourselves, excelled in spiritual surrender and action; and Therapeut Mark likened him to Gautama. What I am getting at is the idea that whatever happens to any of us spiritually is essentially the same thing, but we prejudice it with our learned interpretations. All of these happenings which we really do not understand are awakenings in spiritual awareness that we -- inside -- are the Mind of God.
The Mind of God is not just inside, of course, that is just where we are active in thinking about it. EVERYTHING is the Mind of God! When what we do in conversion works, it is just that we have stumbled upon initial awareness of it. Every religion is at some time going to focus on meditation for the purpose of waking up. Its leaders might not know anything about it, but they know that we are supposed to do it. Unfortunately, most leaders do not have a clue as to HOW to meditate. It can be made so slow and laborious! I do not think God is interested in our waking up being a long, drawn-out process. The how to wake up just has to be discovered! The Ineffable found out on His own, so we have to find out on our own, too -- THAT is the deal: we have to be generated into him in like manner as He was generated into him: the "as below" has to be generated into the "as above" by the same process, otherwise it won't be!
Wow, what a challenge! How did the Ineffable Source become the Ineffable Source? Well, we are doing it! HE is doing it. And the Scriptures are our Success Manual. "Believe ye receive," is not just for getting things; it is for BECOMING Something -- Something we already are in ignorance. 'Adam' is that Mind in us, as is the Lamb. Gee, I wonder why John keeps saying, "Worthy is the Lamb!"
*Back in 1965 I was junior in high school. Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" came out that year. It was the longest song on the radio as I drove around Avocado and Hacienda Heights. Its refrain, "Because something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is . . ." stuck with me through my hippy days. Eh, come to think of it, they aren't over yet. I am still trying to find out What It Is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDC0b7rfK5U
http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/ballad-thin-man
**When you meet a cult (which every religion is) and their myths work and you realize you have found God, their myths are validated in your mind as Right and Truth and you reject all others. This might entail your becoming a Pentecostal, a Dervish, a Yogi or some other kind of mystic fanatical in whatever camp you happened to have found the Truth in. Please remember that kids do not "have" parents; parents have children, and your religion is a child of the Truth. Your cult's doctrines have not created God. God's "It works!" has created your religion -- just as it has created many other religions. Be tolerant an listen to each of the others -- they might have something that will improve your surrender and service. Remember, you DON'T want to be an ignorant a-hole.
Unfortunately, we are all a bunch of rank amateurs considering these things in ignorance. We all are in a state of amnesia from forgetting what we are and what we are doing -- everything we forgot at birth. It is hard to be bright and easy to be confused when we have been born blanked-out and have to piece everything together from scratch over many years of education and contemplation. When something works spiritually, we grasp onto it as a conceptual anchor: "I know at least this was real. It IS the truth because I know that it worked."
We build upon what we know, or at least think we know. Unfortunately, all we know is that something worked. Just what it was and why it worked, well, maybe in our ignorance we and our teachers do not read our books as perceptively as we might and misread and misinterpret what the authors of our books meant. And maybe, just maybe, we have a little egotistical prejudice for what our teachers taught, because after all, it DID work!
Yes, it happened, but we do not know what it was: "Come down, Brother Joseph!" Saint Joseph of Cupertino had the unusual experience of levitating in his ecstasies. They tried to take Lahiri Mahasaya's photograph, but he was always missing in the prints. When I first spoke in tongues in the ecstasy of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I had nothing to do with it except to NOT express self and NOT do anything. One moment Saint Antony was on one side of the Nile, and the next he was on the other. Jesus, if there was a human Jesus other than ourselves, excelled in spiritual surrender and action; and Therapeut Mark likened him to Gautama. What I am getting at is the idea that whatever happens to any of us spiritually is essentially the same thing, but we prejudice it with our learned interpretations. All of these happenings which we really do not understand are awakenings in spiritual awareness that we -- inside -- are the Mind of God.
The Mind of God is not just inside, of course, that is just where we are active in thinking about it. EVERYTHING is the Mind of God! When what we do in conversion works, it is just that we have stumbled upon initial awareness of it. Every religion is at some time going to focus on meditation for the purpose of waking up. Its leaders might not know anything about it, but they know that we are supposed to do it. Unfortunately, most leaders do not have a clue as to HOW to meditate. It can be made so slow and laborious! I do not think God is interested in our waking up being a long, drawn-out process. The how to wake up just has to be discovered! The Ineffable found out on His own, so we have to find out on our own, too -- THAT is the deal: we have to be generated into him in like manner as He was generated into him: the "as below" has to be generated into the "as above" by the same process, otherwise it won't be!
Wow, what a challenge! How did the Ineffable Source become the Ineffable Source? Well, we are doing it! HE is doing it. And the Scriptures are our Success Manual. "Believe ye receive," is not just for getting things; it is for BECOMING Something -- Something we already are in ignorance. 'Adam' is that Mind in us, as is the Lamb. Gee, I wonder why John keeps saying, "Worthy is the Lamb!"
*Back in 1965 I was junior in high school. Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" came out that year. It was the longest song on the radio as I drove around Avocado and Hacienda Heights. Its refrain, "Because something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is . . ." stuck with me through my hippy days. Eh, come to think of it, they aren't over yet. I am still trying to find out What It Is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDC0b7rfK5U
http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/ballad-thin-man
**When you meet a cult (which every religion is) and their myths work and you realize you have found God, their myths are validated in your mind as Right and Truth and you reject all others. This might entail your becoming a Pentecostal, a Dervish, a Yogi or some other kind of mystic fanatical in whatever camp you happened to have found the Truth in. Please remember that kids do not "have" parents; parents have children, and your religion is a child of the Truth. Your cult's doctrines have not created God. God's "It works!" has created your religion -- just as it has created many other religions. Be tolerant an listen to each of the others -- they might have something that will improve your surrender and service. Remember, you DON'T want to be an ignorant a-hole.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
2:03 AM
1 Comments:
thank u Dan Steele very good !
By
Bruce shorter, at 4:54 AM
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