meself in the wee hours

"Erudition, no matter how scientific or comprehensive, is at best only ancillary to the direct knowledge gained by detached intellection." C.F.Kelley

"When the mind is happy, the whole universe is happy."
Seung Sahn

Click into here for eventual delightful closeup:

Illustration by Gustav Dore, A Wild Ride

we are not our thoughts

Two talented, creative, and loving folk, who live not far from here, brought it up that "thoughts come and go -- we remain" and who is the we?

First of all, this is an appropriate challenge to my statement in an earlier post: "You are your thoughts." In this blog, I sometimes write from the perspective of the nondual and sometimes from the dual: the world of splitness. Many of us live in the dualistic world most of the time. When we do, we entangle ourselves in our thoughts. The energy principle, whatever we attend to, we become, kicks into play. We become our thoughts.

In the nondual, we are not our thoughts. And in the nondual, the question of who we are disappears. The answers to that question, from a dualistic perspective, range from "Who is asking the question, grasshopper?" to "God, of course, since there is always no one ever here but him." Both answers, and other answers of that kind, are designed to discombobulate the dualistic mind.

get this

Get this. You are your thoughts.
Know this. Change your thoughts, change you.
Glom on to this. The more you stare at a thought,
the more powerful it will get.

etchings on the faceless tomb

We all want story. We must have story. Without story we will die, should die, must die. Main characters in the unfolding saga of ourselves. Bit parts in other's tellings of their tale. Give me story or give me death. Lord, let us leave some impression etched upon this faceless tomb. Could we have a few words here, just a few words? With a subject (that'd be me) and a verb (me again in action) and an object (of course me). The object of my story and my words: to put me in order. To orderly arrange me. To put me in my place.To resurrect me once again in some form. In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and the evening and the morning were the freshest newest day. Wake up! Wake up! Time for your story!

the imaginal realm

Our society has focused almost entirely on the sense-able/sensual and the rational/intellectual aspects of our being and has paid the price as a result. A precious baby, the Imaginal Realm, has been thrown out with the bathwater of superstition and fantasy. It is time to reclaim the baby.

The Imaginal is the realm of the Magi (which we are when we open to it), the realm of Spirit, of spirit-uality; a realm more real and more substantive than the sense-able and the ratio-nal. The Imaginal connects us to a vast spiritual heritage transcending all religious form and to a spiritual holoarchy present with us now.

Islam, Christianity, Judaism

This representation of the transfiguration of Elijah, Jesus, and Moses
shows a meeting of the representatives of the three major religions that are having conflict on earth today. Elijah, shown sending out heart energy blessings, is a major figure in the Islamic Sufi tradition. Moses, holding the tablets of the Law, represents the Jewish lineage. Jesus, holding the new scroll of the Word, is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

If these three get along so well, why can't their followers?

Maybe one answer is in the painting. The humans don't know what to make of it all and are reduced to blithering idiots. Looks as if we would have figured it out by now. WE ARE TO BE TRANSFIGURED. Those three are our role models and teachers. So how about if we quit falling and crawling and looking to build tabernacles and GET ON WITH IT!

Melchizedek and Abraham

After Abram (he was not given the name Abraham until he was 99 years of age when he was told by God that he and Sarai, who was now to be named Sarah, and who was 89, would have a son) rescued his kin from captivity, King Melchizedek of Salem,"a priest of God Most High", brought out bread and wine and blessed him.

Melchizedek is an interesting figure. Jesus himself is said (in the Christian Holy Book) to be "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." There is a spiritual lineage here which continues to exist including and transcending Jewish-Islamic-Christian bounds.(Painting by Dieric Bouts, 1462)

a consciousness structure of revelation

Not all minds have the same degree of discernment. Some see only the surface, the face value, while others discern the hidden depths.

A psychological or consciousness structure for ascertaining the esoteric, that allows hidden or deep meanings to be revealed, must exist. Some are endowed with this structure. Some are not. Those who have this consciousness structure of revelation either exercise it or let it lie fallow.

Explanations of these differences in consciousness across humans tempt one to understand human consciousness as evolving. Perhaps so, perhaps not. Perhaps we are of two different species. Whatever, the question still remains: how is it that some humans see deeply and some do not?

Those who see the hidden meanings live within a "softer" universe, one more highly interactive; within a universe willing to disclose itself and does so.

Our society is founded on the absolute willingness to regard the superficial, the apparent as the only reality. Undiscerning minds have thus far "ruled" our society with willing eagerness by the undiscerning. Only the sensible (what the physical senses observe) and the logical (rationality) are adhered to in decision making. It's a flatland world. No depth.

Perhaps at some point we will begin as a society to move to a re-integration of the depths into our consciousness. Perhaps what is known in mainstream society as mystical consciousness or awareness, if it is known at all, will play a greater part in our decision making. Perhaps we will begin to trust and to cultivate that aspect of our consciousness we have so brutally lobotomized.

Perhaps.

Much wisdom is available if we open to it. I could tell you what I see but you won't believe it. You have to see it for yourself. Each of us has to exercise (or not) our abilities to see symbolically, to see "through," to open to our own transparency, to the Living Universe from which we emerge, which we represent, and to which we shall return.

Inability to open to the Wisdom realm of the cosmos is partly due to unwillingness to believe in its existence. Yet this is where all creativity is birthed. The exercise of our consciousness structure of revelation is a foremost necessity of action today as we face what we face and look through into the depths with discernment, comprehension, and wisdom.

As within, so without. As we are in our "inner" world, so is the "outer" world." I put those in quotes because there is no separation between the two. The inner and the outer are the same world. When we are vibrant and alive and loving, so is the "outer" world.

the voice of the eagle

"He left behind him all the realities contained within the limits of the world and was raised up to the heights." -- Eriugena writing of John the Baptist as quoted in Christopher Bamford, The Voice of the Eagle.

Powerful words. He left behind him all the realities contained within the limits of the world and was raised up to the heights.

Two major actions here. The first essential step is a turning away and a leaving behind. None of that irresolute wavering of "a dog returns to his vomit as a fool returns to his folly." None of that turning around, looking back and turning into a pillar of salt. More like Satchel Paige's "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

"He left behind him." That is clear and strong. No clinging to anything back there. Not even re-cognizing (thinking it through once again) that there is anything back there. Gone, totally gone. "Gate, gate, paragate" as our Buddhist buddies say.

But let us take a look back since we may not have made the step he did (as yet). What did he leave behind? "All the realities contained within the limits of the world." Whew! That's a bunch. Most of us like to dive and play like porpoises in the realities contained within the limits of the world. We define ourselves by these realities. We snorkel in these realms, regard them as our particular reef barriers of delight. I mean, come on! Who wants to head out into the vast ocean?

I do! said John. I do! said Eriugena. I do! said Buddha. I do! said Jesus. I do! said Muhammad. I do! said Abraham. I do! said Paul. I do! said Mary. I do! said Teresa. I do! said Hildegard. I do! said Beverly. I do! said Ibn 'Arabi. And many others on earth today, just regular folk, raising their hands and waving them with a big I do! And some are already out there (but you are not going to see them on CNN).

Action two: "and was raised up to the heights." The universe is fully cooperative here, a strong partner in this endeavor. As soon as we turn away, we are raised up.

It is said that we live between seven hells and seven heavens. Each of us in our current condition has grasped a handful of a certain number of each. To give an idea of the range, those who grasp a handful of each hell and none of the heavens live in darkness and their ways are evil. Those who grasp a handful of each heaven live in light and their ways are good. Most of us have our little handfuls of hell along with some of the heavenly graspings.

The role model expressed here is to go ahead and make the transition. "Lay up your treasures in heaven." "Die before you die." If you are like me, this is a continuous practice. I find the universe to be true to its word. As I turn away from my precious hellishness I am raised to the heights.

the soul survivor

The soul has fallen into disrepute in our modish post-modern world. All slick and sheen, we say we do not need that extra baggage. We have shaved with Occam's razor and have no such hairy extrusions. Bald runners through the night, busily converting matter into waste for our pleasure and just because we can do it. No soul please. None of that ephemeral ghosty stuff. That is for our superstitious ancestors. We are surgical steel squeaky clean.

I laugh. We cannot find soul because it is soul doing the looking.

eye disease

Idolatry occurs where the eye stops -- rather than "seeing through." We see this far and no further -- a form of blindness. Dogma forms around what was once a process but is now an object -- whether it be an object of veneration or of hostility -- whether it be a person or a group or a nation or a people or an idea. This is a psychospiritual form of macular degeneration. We create an eye doll and lose our central vision. Love sees clear through.

Partners

When we fall spiritually asleep,
the Angel of our Being
prays alone in the wilderness.

turning the world inside out

In the beginning stage of studying Henry Corbin's works and his descriptions and explanations of Islamic mysticism (I've concentrated primarily on Christian mysticism until now), I am appreciating his understanding that in our spiritual journey, we eventually stop being a soul in a strange world and become so large-souled that the world is inside us.

In other words, quantity is now inside quality. We have reversed the ordinary (ordinal-ary) mode of being in which we search for quality inside quantity ("I'm sure my soul will feel better if you can super-size that").

We engulf the world and then invest it with our spiritual energies -- with the energies of the Presence we feel so deeply and at our core we are. No longer are we victims in a vastness. We are the vastness assisting the victim's healing. Corbin calls this turning the world inside out.

This qualitative space, this realm of quality rather than quantity, this consciousness realm, is neither the Sensory nor the Intellectual, but is the Active Imagination, the aspect of our consciousness that has been downgraded in our current world, has been turned over to those who are scoffingly tolerated as merely poetic.

Ignoring the Active Imagination is like seeing as real only the Father (Intellectual) and the Son (Sensory) and ignoring the Holy Spirit. One-third of the Trinity, the realm of mystical awareness, of direct knowing of the Presence, has been tossed overboard.

The realm of creative or active imagination is not "just a fantasy in our heads" but is a huge and vastly productive aspect of our Being. Reclaiming it, or allowing it to reclaim us, will transform us and our society. The world is transformed by becoming larger than the world.

the imaginal realm

If you are a Christian or a Muslim, then it is highly likely that you believe in angels, if for no other reason than that the Book you follow speaks of them extensively. Angels do not appear to live in heaven or on earth but in a realm between the two. They are messengers from one realm to the other, usually thought of as from heaven to earth, but I think it is a two-way street. "Go tell them this and that" and then "What did they say? How did they react?" Of course the relay back to heaven could be instantaneous, since God no doubt lives in nonlocal time, if he ever bothers to live in time at all.

So what is this in-between place, this third place that is neither heaven nor earth? Balthasar (Theo-Drama, Volume IV: The Action) refers to such a place in his writing on the Book of Revelation -- "The vantage point from which the seer is shown these things is neither heaven nor earth but a neutral place between the two."

This sounds similar to Ibn 'Arabi's realm of the Imagination in which "spiritual beings, Angels and Spirits" dwell (Henry Corbin, Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi). Not too surprisingly, we have a Catholic theologian and a Sufi mystic, both geniuses of theological insight and comprehension, pointing to a similar locale -- to use Ibn 'Arabi's term, an Imaginal realm.

I think locale is exactly the right word -- an actual spot or location. The Imaginal realm is as real as, but differs from, the Sensory (the locale of sensation) and the Intellectual (the gymnasium of fine thought) realms. And while the Book of Revelation can provide long hours of intellectual gymnastics and is richly sensual in tone, the Book itself comes into being from the realm of the Imaginal.

Voices speak from this realm. Visions come. Knowing with clear deep certainty arises. Even today.

carrying the water bucket for the Teem

The form one adopts to seek the Divine is the form in which the Divine appears.

Though the form may be thought to be necessary, and in some sense is, the form is both inclusive and exclusive. One has to be careful or one can get snug and smug in the form and think that Truth exists nowhere else.

When we follow the profane (pro, outside; fanum, the temple), when we adopt the form of deliberately living outside the temple of the Divine, the profane is the only form in which for us the Divine appears.

Every form in which we seek the Divine is the form in which the Divine appears. There is no water outside our cup. Or so we think. And so we experience. Adopting a form has both blessings and limitations.

The anti-form is also a form.

Every form in which we seek the Divine is the form in which the Divine appears. God appears according to our carrying capacity.

the three realms

We live in three realms.
We are these three realms.
The Sensory or sensible realm.
The realm of the Intellect.
The realm of the Creative Imagination.


Our western society claims and operates from the first two.
The third, Creative Imagination, is officially rejected as unreal.
As a result, our three-legged stool has only two legs.
We are so smart. We sawed off one leg.
Result: Serious imbalance, unstable, insane.

We are seeing that we are not so smart.

The realm of the Creative Imagination is as real as
the realm of the Senses and the realm of the Intellect.
More real, in that it is a bridge, a gateway to the Divine.
Even better, it is a large room with no walls.

Here dwells the Muse, all symbols, all imagery.
Here dwell Angels, Archetypes.
Here is the Voice and Companionship of the Holy Spirit.
Here live Ecstasy and Joy.

The realms of the Senses and of Intelligence will fail.
The realm of Creative Imagination will never fail.

bruteangel gyre

I find it interesting that though I am generally a loving person who wonders why we can't all get along and even coined the term "Navel Tribe" to point out our global commonality, I still after all these decades appreciate grabbing one of my sticks and going through some moves designed to totally devastate anyone on the receiving end. And that even though I have cried and thrown up after feeling forced to hit another person, I am on the way to developing a class for senior citizens that will teach martial moves with walking canes. What the hell and what the heaven?

A brute with angel wings wearing a halo with horns.

In puzzling this out (which for me is not some form of Aristotelian logic nor a ponderous thought process attuned to the philosophers of the ages but simply sitting my butt in a chair and repeating the first part of the above mantra -- what the hell?), I immediately find strong imagery -- a spiraling vortex of energy moving from brute to angel and from angel to brute and both of those directions simultaneously. Kind of a bruteangel whirlwind, if you will.

I smack my psychic lips. Aha! This is my practice! As I move in these age-old martial ways, I transform the brute. The brute gets happier and looser, more open to the angel. The angel meanwhile is becoming more solid, anchoring in this brutish realm. Each opens to the other and a melding does occur.

No hell. No heaven. Just this.

I suppose everyone has some form of bruteangel transformational melding (now there's a name for a workshop!). What might be yours?