Thy soul, be on thy guard; Ten thousand foes arise; The hosts of sin are pressing hard To draw thee from the skies. Om watch, and fight and pray; The battle ne’er give o’er; Renew it boldly ev’ry day, And help divine implore.
Ne’er think the vict’ry won, Nor lay thine armor down; Thy arduous work will not be done Till thou obtain the crown. Fight on, thy soul, till death Shall bring thee to thy God; It’ll take thee, at thy parting breath, To Its divine abode. And OM for the good fortune of great communal upbringing in family, peers and teachers. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : Does behavior have much of anything to do with enlightenment. Well,there is Jesus throwing chairs and tables around the temple. Our own Prime Minister of the Global Country apparently has bad anger and temper management problems. Steve Jobs? Is there a place for psychological counseling even for the enlightened? Steve Jobs? http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34604387 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34604387 ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : Re "How many selves do you have? My angel side, my demon side? My spiritual side, my worldly side?" :Higher vs Lower? How many selves do you have? What About This Side And That Side? My angel side, my demon side? My spiritual side, my worldly side? They call this scitzoidiz fragmentation. How many selves? One! Each of us is that One Self. It's the identical One Self that is incarnating right now as emptybill and S3raph and every other sentient being - including the lost cat that is meowing outside my house now as I type. It is therefore pointless for me to dispute with you as I would be trying to persuade myself to change my own opinion! If I was sitting where emptybill is sitting (which indeed "I" am) I would have an identical take on life as he does - the "take" with which I (my lower self) does not agree. The One Self is the Witness - completely empty (but you knew that!) and without qualities. This is basic Advaita. The simultaneous presence of different "selves" (all those "lower" selves) within each of us is amusing. A man can face a frightening, traumatic situation - say a drunk throwing a punch at him - and experience the appropriate feelings of fear and panic while at the same moment another part of himself can be thinking coldly and objectively: "That was an impressive jab. Not bad. Not bad at all". "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." (Walt Whitman) I like this post, quite bit. The self that is reading it likes it, the self that is drinking some excellent organic Earl Grey from Silk Road tea shop is liking it and even the self that is thinking about what I have to do today thought it was pretty good too. S3 Each of us is that One Self. Oh ... I get it. The great shruti of the Brahmarishi-s. "Us is One". No wonder you need to claim an Emerson quote. Damn yanks were always confused but it must make perfect sense across the pond in the local parish. If "us is one" then when my current thought "I am Emptybill" suddenly ends, as all thoughts do, why isn't my next thought "I am Bhari2"? And then my next thought ... "I am Willy the Moron or "Us Chanuchistani's need to stick together"? If "we is all one" then why isn't there confusion of memories and identities between all these "apparent" individuals? No wonder you need to claim an Emerson quote. Damn yanks were always confused but it must make perfect sense across the pond in the local parish. The quote was from Walt Whitman. But Emerson could have supplied a choice sentence. As could Thoreau or William James or Emily Dickinson. All Yanks and making perfect sense. If "we is all one" then why isn't there confusion of memories and identities between all these "apparent" individuals? That's the million-dollar question. Sometimes the wires do get crossed and there is just such a confusion - as when individuals claim to suddenly experience a previous life - as Barry has so claimed on FFL. Why should it be a previous life of Barry's and not the life experience of another man entirely as seen by The One, the transcendental self which is witnessing everything? As memories belong to our lower self they are localised to each individual brain/body. Normally each of us is locked into our own apparent and separate personalities. If we weren't the game of life would be a cacophony that would leave everyone paralysed so the seeming separation has a survival benefit. And this way we can love and hate each other. Exciting huh? If true. I suspect there's a rather easier way of explaining it. How about this "transcendental self" not actually existing and the reason we think it does is because we can occasionally attain states of mind where our normal cognitive apparatus is changed so that what we usually see as background space becomes all we see thus giving rise to the idea that this transcendental vastness is ever present but we don't normally see it? After all, the only evidence we have is down to experiences gained via drugs or meditation, it is thus very interpretation dependent - we have a good trip and look around for explanations, so far the only ones we really have are all of the "cosmic" variety, I'm expecting something that fits in with our knowledge of evolutionary processes. It's not as much fun granted, but a proper science of mind is going to have to take into account all experiences we can possibly have and the breaking up of normal functioning in meditation is going to be rather revealing as it's a quiet systematic process, I'm sure the correlation between areas of the brain are going to change at each claimed "level" of consciousness. Apart from the lack of something to re-incarnate, my main objection is an evolutionary one; if we could remember past lives it would be so amazingly useful we'd use the skill all the time, but we can't. That makes me suspect that all claimed experiences of such or flashes of other lives however gained are something else entirely. I convert for evidence. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : This might be helpful for your discussion, “The straightest way to spiritual evolution and advanced states of consciousness is via the field of consciousness itself, which is the nonlinear Radiance of Divine Energy that is the substrate of all that exists. The condition of Enlightenment is the state of pure Radiance that shines forth as the Presence/Self. The Self is the essence of spiritual existence and Reality as subjectively Known by virtue of effulgent Identity. The Radiance and Effulgence of the nonlinear Self are autonomous, consequent to relinquishment of the linear/ego positionalities and emotions that preclude their realization. The phenomenon of Enlightenment is thus analogous to the shining forth of the sun when the clouds have been removed. …The personal self, therefore, does not become enlightened but instead falls away and is replaced by the previously obscured Reality of the Self as the Radiance of God Immanent. This is in contrast to linear concepts and beliefs about God as being primarily only transcendent and therefore ‘elsewhere’ in time and location.” -Discovery of the Presence of God, -David R Hawkins, 2006 ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <emptyb...@yahoo.com> wrote : If "we is all one" then why isn't there confusion of memories and identities between all these "apparent" individuals? That's the million-dollar question. As memories belong to our lower self they are localised to each individual brain/body. This is your reasoned response to the question about memories and identity? They are just inhabitants of our "lower self"? This just iterates your previous schizoid claim ... a sort of "My lower self did it". Dear S3, in my experience what you wrote before here was really fine and true in experience. Empty here in a kind of sophistry of baiting is just trying to have you chase your own tail for us to watch. Stick with your own spiritual experience on this. It is fine. Others may weep.
