Sunday, December 10, 2017
5 a.m. December 10, 1941, is the day Thomas Merton entered the monastery. December 10, 1968 is the day he died of electrocution in Asia, after a long trip that included an exchange of experiences as monks with the Dalai Lama.
My little meditation yesterday produced four things I jotted down, and would like to pursue at least a bit.
1) I’ve been thinking that the world isn’t split moment-by-moment by each person’s decisions, but pre-exists with all possible paths existing. That is – let’s take this slowly.
[Nathaniel:] Exactly, but good that you heard. Okay, so continue.
Maybe there aren’t really many physical worlds at the same time, as the many-worlds theory of quantum physicists would postulate (or conclude, rather), or as I have thought the guys were saying. Maybe what we have is closer to what common sense would suggest, but in a different way. Maybe all versions exist in potential, but only one at a time, only the endless caroming of decisions continually changes it – not just going forward, as the senses would conclude, but changing the past, just as Seth said.
We tend to think of things as more permanent than they are. But it isn’t just that things continually go out of existence, but that they also continually come into existence. If the world is a light-show continually being altered by millions of decisions, the lights are continually changing. No two moments of the show can ever be the same, since so many decisions are involved. Damn it, the idea is clear in my mind, but I can’t get it into unambiguous description.
Which is exactly our situation, even with the most skillful 3D assistance.
The second insight was that the ever-changing present moment that we live in, inescapable physically, is in a way like the physical horizon that surrounds us, in that beyond a certain distance, there is always a veil between us and reality. The present moment, like the place where we happen to be, is the center of a horizon, and it doesn’t matter what moment of our life we are in, we are bounded by that time horizon in the way that we are bounded by distance horizons spatially.
You live in a bubble. But you have a choice of attitudes about it. You may choose to look at that inescapable bubble as a prison without walls, or you can look at it as a bubble of life-support, allowing you to live and breathe in an environment that otherwise would be too alien for you to survive in.
Interesting way to think about it. Okay, the third thought was that what John Tettemer was doing in the Swiss Alps in 1915 or 1916 – just about the time that Thomas Merton was busy being born, come to think of it – and that I was doing yesterday is perhaps the same thing. Rather than trying to think about a theme, he was allowing himself to hold the theme in mind and observe what surfaced, not judging it, but paying attention, feeling his way toward it. This was a big leap for a trained intellectual. It went against all his training. As he said, he had spent his whole life accepting other people’s logic and premises, until then. (Well, he didn’t quite say that, but as near as dammit.) Now he was receiving direct feed and instead of manipulating it to match his pre-existing ideas, he was honoring it, following where it led. Big step for an intellectual, requiring not only the courage to do so but the ability to set aside his acquired intellectual prejudices against the process and the result.
And note, the bias that he had to overcome was primarily not creedal, scriptural, theological, but intellectual. That is, it wasn’t his Catholicism that had to be overcome, it was his Aristotelian logic and training. It was only when he experienced that life is greater and deeper than philosophy that he entered into a wider world.
The fourth thought that I recorded was merely that the word I am looking for may be “obsessed” in a special sense of the word. In this sense, it is that a way of s—
Well, that’s interesting.
And only clear in connection with the thought about the veil, you see.
Yes. A certain way of seeing the world is in effect a veil through which we see. The world is seen only through that veil, and unless we are able to remove it, we cannot really change our views. Of course, the fact that we remove one veil doesn’t mean there are no others. I doubt we ever see the world pure, because we never see it purely. But direct feed is probably the only way to see beyond the veil.
You still don’t have the word you want, but note that feeling for it, intending toward it, is one way of focusing on the underlying idea that is actually the thing you are looking for.
Perhaps you can spell that out for us?
There is a way of enchanting someone that is not, at all, benevolent. Fairy tales are full of stories about enchantment. Why do you suppose that is?
A form of hypnotism like Richard Bach’s story I edited, Hypnotizing Maria?
Yes. But we need to say this carefully, lest you or your readers go off half-cocked. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, nor a reason for panic or despondency.
We said, your life is perpetually limited by the present moment. We didn’t say “limited” in that word, but that was the meaning. Your view of the real world is always affected by the present moment you are living in. If you don’t think so, keep a journal and look back a few years.
You don’t need to tell me.
Actually, we do, in a way. You are used to thinking that you change over time. That’s certainly true. But what does it mean? You can’t say it’s continual growth. You certainly can’t say it is logical growth. You can’t say it is meaningless change, either, unless you can believe in chance and disconnection. You don’t grow or change according to some system or some cumulative process. We know it looks that way, but that isn’t it. You grow – even “grow” is misleading; let’s say different versions of you emerge – in response to, in interaction with, the world around you. but, what does that mean? The external unconnected-to-you world that common sense posits? Hardly.
We’re at another point where I feel that there’s a whole log-jam of information waiting for the right peavey.
That’s showing off.
Yeah, it is, a little, but why else do crossword puzzles, if not to pick up useless information? It’s a pretty accurate metaphor, though. I can’t help you by putting it into my own words, because I don’t have the sense of where you’re going with it.
You’re going to have to associate several factors. (1) The quality of the present moment always surrounds you like a bubble. (2) Everything changes, continually. (3) Everything persists; nothing is lost except from the perspective of a limited present-moment, ever-changing-and-passing-away. (4) You are not in the bubble alone and isolated and disconnected; you continue to exist in the dimensions beyond 3D; you are always a part of your larger being; you always share strands with your fellow beings.
Add these facts together, and see what you get.
I will think about it – muse on it, like yesterday – later. What I get right away is that the only way to see beyond the distorting veils is direct feed from other parts of ourselves, and I suppose from non-3D helpers who may not be directly a part of us (or may), but are anyway in resonance with us.
Rather, you are in resonance, temporary or permanent, with them. But, yes.
And there’s our hour?
And there’s our hour. We are well aware of the teasers we left the other day [Thursday, December 7], but there is no hurry. This was good work.
Okay, thanks, and till next time.
“Good work” seems like an under statement this morning.
Thank you, Frank! There is layer upon layer of clarity and quality in this morning’s process.
———-
btw, I pondered a bit about “the word” yesterday. I came up with the word “eclipse” when parsing the word occult. And when thinking back to your past conversations with Nathaniel, I thought of the word “curtain” – as in a play or acting. This may or may not be helpful (and that’s fine).
‘Seeing beyond the veil’ put me in mind of the use of a scrim in theater. When lit from the front, it’s backdrop, and a substantial one. But when lit from beyond we can see that the stage piece is part of a larger world. And what we see beyond changes our perspective of what was an isolated view.
Good Morning Frank & All….And thank you very much as always.
Well, as I am reading the above, I am opening the newly arrived book, A Seth Reader( I am reading four books at the same time in these days, the one Seth-book and the two volumes by Yoganandas and the one book by Nanci L. Danison about “Backwards Beliefs: Revealing Eternal Truths Hidden in Religions).
And here comes something which I found in the “old” Seth-Book(printed in 1966):
QUOTE:
“IN YOUR TERMS (underlined with a thick black line) however, you dream whether you are living or dead.”
Further down the same page:
“You always examine your dreams from an “alien” standpoint. However, the dreaming condition is consequently experienced in distorted form. While you must of course hold accurate focus in time and place, there is still no basic reason why you must so divorce yourselves from dream experience. Few understand, however, that private reality is like a finished product, rising out of the immense productivity that occurs in the dreaming condition.
– So, from other streams of actuality you choose those events that you want physically materialized; and you do this according to your beliefs about the nature of reality.
On page 176: The true art of dreaming is A SCIENCE (underlined) long forgotten by your world (and the very same says Yogananda). “You are dreaming, however, whether you are living or dead.” Jane calling it “The Wonderworks”, and with good reason.
The above quotations are from The Unknown Reality, Vol. I.
And on page 175 Seth says:
“No system of reality is closed. The probable actions that you call your official experience does not just dangle, then, out in space and time – it interweaves with other such strands that you do not recognize. You have other selves whom never reincarnates – but the “portion” of your reincarnational selves ALWAYS “interact” with its “portion.”
Continues:
“Because you have in the past convinced yourselves that the conscious mind MUST (underlined) of necessity be CUT OFF (underlined) from inner reality, you think that it must be alienated from the dream state. Sleep is almost as a small death” (the same says Edgar Cayce),
And here, “to jump” over to Yogananda’s words in Vol. I, page 427 (I read the same book MANY YEARS AGO !):
“Whatever be one`s vocation in life, one needs to feel his connection with God/The Creator. The cultivation of a spiritual life requires solitary places for divine communion. You are always among a spiderweb of MANY vibrations & influences, and therefore sound is the most distracting sensation. Man`s mind is usually busy with the sensation of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste in the daily life. However, if a person makes a super effort of will, he can concentrate in spite of such distractions.” The vibration of their restless thoughts (people’s) and activities pass through the body of the meditating individual and keep his energy rushing toward te senses instead of being released to flow toward God (Yogananda always using the word “God”, because WORDS are VIBRATION).
BTW: Nice weather today and watching the beautiful snowswept hillsides (not much snow though, but bright, and the covering the landscape white). A Christmas-feeling as seen on a old-fashioned postcard.
At least it is beautiful, smiling, Inger Lise.
Thanks for giving us the benefit of your wide reading and retention in these matters. (You remind me of Charles in that.) It’s very useful to us, because nobody can read everything, and everybody will remember and apply different things at different times. That’s another reason why I wish someone would set up a forum for us.
I love that you include the weather in your part of the world! Generally, it has been fairly similar to mine here in New Mexico. Not much snow here, either, just a skiff, but it does feel seasonal and holiday-ish. And I always love your comments. They give me much to think about.
Jane thank you very much indeed. I did not knew New Mexico to have the same weather as in Norway ?
That`s a big surprise. I know Alaska, The state of Washington, Oregon and Colorado as well, which to have a similar climate as Norway.
Well, there is a big difference in the weather – system between the South East – and in the South – west of Norway,. Especially along the coastline(with the Golfstream) – and also along the inland areas in SOUTHREN Part of Norway, in comparison with the weather /climate, further up in the Northren parts of this country. There is to be two all different “body-parts.” Even Norway is counted as a little country – the LONGITUDE AND THE LATITUDE are far-strecthed as such. The Norwegian OCEAN – Sea area (belonging to the norwegian territory) are much larger than the norwegian landmass. Or else, Norway is the owner of a HUGE landmass in the Arctic. And there we are neigbours with Australia and U.K.
Very good for us to become protected by the Aussies and the British(blinking with the one eye).
Okay, Denmark and Norway are NATO-members(learned from the occupation back in time; better to be in companion with others of similar FAITH).
BTW: A wider perspective all-in-all: We are living upon th same beautiful BLUE PLANET – looking at it from the Space-Stations.
I am appreciating your comments likewise Jane. It is after all our daily life(at the time being).
Smiling !
Well, I know New Mexico has the tail end of the Rockies and is high desert, very different from your part of the world, but I notice that often our temperatures are almost the same. I envision us having our coffee or tea while sitting in the same coziness of ambient air, looking at our internet screens, our books around us, our notebooks handy. Maybe the idea of the shared weather is just a metaphor for the connection I feel to you, allowing me to imagine other similarities of thought and preference. I enjoy feeling that connection–and I can see by what you write and read that the things that are important to me are important to you.
Thanks ! You know Charles and I am as (it is an old norwegian saying learned from my long gone granny), the two birds sitting beside each others on the same limb (on a tree), in agreement….Even we have never met each others face-to-face in this life-time around at all,. But “out-of-time-concept” Charles have done a formidable work in learning me “how to do” the comparative content in reading the books more effectively. I have come to see it is as miraculous as everything else we are to learn throughout a lifespan – There seems to become A PROCESS “in the system.”
Or else:
I am a computer-dummy – the more of the NEW things (within the Digital/PC- World) “coming forth” – the more I am to loose “the thread of interrests.”
I have tried out facebook BUT wonder “how on earth” to MANAGE in following up all the thousands (even only about 100 of the friends), in whatever they are to do all the time ? I am NOT interested in what they eat for lunch or dinner, or what they eventually, keeping up with
ALL THE TIME, sad to say ! Hm, wonder if my opinion has to do with becoming too old ?
I am following Seths advice:
” … step out of The Official Line of Consciousness … ”
Laughing, Inger Lise
For those who may be interested, our friend Charles has a blog (which he neglects disgracefully) at https://charlessides [dot] wordpress [dot] com. My inserting [dot] in place of the actual dot is probably unnecessary caution, but it can’t hurt to be cautious.
Frank? There is FELT as “an alignment” of some sorts upon your blog as well as Charles` – as a thread ” of leading” to The Value Fullfillment (using a Seth-Book-Term).
All of a sudden Charles and I am “coming up with the theme” of the Kundalini-experiences among peoples & books(and us).
But as Edgar Cayce(and Paramahansa Yogananda) once upon a time to have told – about how to achieve the Kundalini – ONLY by the practice of SPIRITUAL LAWS at first to become safe — And thereafter the Force of the Kundalini will arise NATURALLY in the body without effort.
The Kundalini is about COOPERATION between God/ The Creator, and The Spirit of the Body-parts. All about “The awakening.” And no more “bubbles.” All of us living happily ever after(both serious & smiling).