Lacewing
Yes... as you can (hopefully?) see by my responses. Do my responses make sense to you, even though they don't use your language? Can you see/accept that conscious expansion (in any direction) is accessible to all, and does not require a specific path, and does not manifest with the same outer characteristics?
Your responses are sensible. I may disagree with certain of your ideas but they are still quite reasonable. For example I don’t believe the majority have any interest in conscious expansion so deny their own possibilities. But this raises the question of need. How many really need to experience the reality of the human condition when the pursut of pleasure is far more attractive? Jacob Needleman wrote In “Lost Christianity:”
Of course it had been stupid of me to express it in quite that way, but nevertheless the point was worth pondering: does there exist in man a natural attraction to truth and to the struggle for truth that is stronger than the natural attraction to pleasure? The history of religion in the west seems by and large to rest on the assumption that the answer is no. Therefore, externally induced emotions of egoistic fear (hellfire), anticipation of pleasure (heaven), vengeance, etc., have been marshaled to keep people in the faith.
How many Simone Weil’s come along in a generation who are willing to die rather than live without this truth? I’ve experienced that for most conscious expansion is defined by self justification. And yes, secularized religious expression often provides pleasure through self justification via condemnation as opposed to opening to the experience of the human condition as it manifests within us. Conscious expansion seems like a nice ideal but who really wants it?
I think it's worth acknowledging that there are many, many people who are evolving consciously without any form of religion. And there are many, many people who are connected to spirit (or whatever one calls it), without any form of religion.
I agree. Of course Simone Weil is a perfect example. She was not involved with any organized religion. But the essence of religion is is not a secularized religion. It is really an esoteric school with techniques that further awakening as opposed to indoctrination.
Take alcoholism for example. Some can beat the disease on their own yet most need AA or the group effort with help from above to get clean. But only some people can defeat their own personal demons so the rest remain alcoholics.
"Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it We must continually suspend the work of the imagination in filling the void within ourselves."
What if Joseph and Mary were involved with an esoteric school? What if Mary practiced techniques to remain free from imagination and provided an inner space for the immaculate conception to take place. What was possible for Mary is impossible for an ordinary woman filled with the results of imagination. Can you see how easy it is to underestimate the reality of human being and what it is capable of? It isn't a matter of belief or denial butof opening to conscious contemplation.
Yes, I do. On this earth plane, I think humans get to act out in all kinds of ways. It's sort of like a drunken party. There are people who are smashing the place up. There are people over-indulging and passing out in the corner. There are people trying to be of help to others. And there are people standing on the lawn gazing up at the stars, and thinking big thoughts.
The Great Beast in action revealing the many sides of the collective human personality. We both do not accept a personal God so that's a start.
