TGU — the plasticity of the present moment

Friday, May 11, 2018

4:15 a.m. Very well, shall we talk about the plasticity of the present moment? Remembering that it is always the present moment, and that somehow it is the same present moment.

And remembering to hold contrasting qualities in mind as we do so. The inertia that amounts to the drag of other minds holding an attitude toward it, and on the other hand the quality that balances that inertia. They must be examined while keeping in mind their essential unity, lest the idea arise that what is one thing manifesting two ways is actually two things each manifesting separately.

Understood, but – “the drag of other minds holding an attitude toward it”?

It should come clear as we discuss plasticity.

All right.

You know that someone described magic as the art of producing changes in reality in conformance to the will. You have seen Dion Fortune’s lucid explanations of the use of magic, and have read many times in her novels her descriptions of how magical manipulation is accomplished. You have read many other accounts, some lucid and many not, but all having the air of someone honestly describing things experienced. And of course you have read accounts of magic that were not thought of as magic by the very author of the account. On a personal experiential level, which outweighs all reading (but may be brought into focus by such reading), you have had your own experiences.

You also know that you have always been drawn to history and magic both, although most are drawn more to one or the other, rather than both. Or so you have assumed. The reality is somewhat different. The reality is that you were looking equally outward and inward, and most people prefer to look inward or outward. That is the distinction you noticed, which appeared to you as their outward manifestations.

I see it as you say it. It wasn’t only history that is the opposing pole. For some it was mathematics or science or fashion or money-grubbing or politics.

Yes. The opposition was – is – between looking inward and looking outward. The form that either approach manifested varies. For some the inward gaze manifests as psychology or religion or philosophy or abstract metaphysics.

All right, I’m reoriented now.

Think of it this way, then: People gazing outward maintain the assured reality of the 3D world. Those gazing inward retain the possibility of altering it by altering themselves. Only – don’t expect this to make sense right away. There is more reorienting to be done, first.

Jung said those who gaze outward dream, and those who gaze inward awaken.

That may be more a paraphrase than a careful statement of fact, but it is in line with what we are saying here, only that statement refers to the effect of such orientation on the individual aspect of reality, and here we wish to look at it on the communal aspect.

Jung was asked if the world could avoid nuclear war and he said it depended on whether enough people were willing to work on themselves.

That’s right, and our discussion here may shed some light on how that could be – how the relationship between the two could be. He did not mean, It depends upon enough people getting together in coordinated group activity. He meant what he said, because, you see, he knew the indivisible unity of the human mind. He also knew that the overarching mind has local divisions, but he knew that the unity was there.

So if you will hold in mind our discussion of the inertia that holds the world in being, you will perhaps redefine plasticity as a different kind of inertia, the inertia that holds the world in being as it changes aspect.

Let me try.

Yes, go ahead.

Inertia may be defined as the force (or tendency, or whatever) that makes an object at rest want to remain at rest, but it is equally the force that makes an object in uniform motion remain in that motion. This is stated clumsily, because this isn’t my turf, but I can see that an object at rest and an object in uniform motion are actually the same condition, only language distorts their identity and makes the seem like two different states. That’s why inertia covers them both, because they aren’t really a “both,” but a unity.

Good, so try again.

In terms of your present exposition, inertia v. plasticity doesn’t mean no-change v. change. It means, the continuity aspect v. the alteration aspect. That’s the best I can do at the moment.

Not so bad. The important distinction to be drawn is that it is not a matter of two forces – or even of one force seen in two aspects – enjoining either stillness or motion.

The term “dynamic stability” comes to mind from somewhere.

But let’s not get off the point, which here is that that living present moment has its inertia and that inertia is a living moving thing, not a dead unmoving thing that must be overcome. “Drag” is a relative term meaning, in context, a tendency to be slower than the desired motion. This is not a scientific description, mind you.

So I guess the question at hand is somewhere between, “What causes change in the living present moment?” and, “How can we – any of us or several of us working together – effect such change?”

And we say, in practical terms, look to scripture and magical practice. In theoretical terms, we’ll continue.

The scripture I had in mind was Jesus advising people to pray two or three together, though that wasn’t quite the context. Magical practice isn’t so different, I suppose – or maybe prayer should be considered to be a magical practice, come to think of it.

And what is it that prayer or magical incantation seeks to do?

Yes, I get it. They seek to connect humans to a super-human level of power or awareness or state of being.

The vagueness at the end of your statement shows you the vagueness of your thought in that respect. Vagueness is always a flag indicating an area that could do with some thought.

A better way to say it would be –?

Prayer – any magical incantation – seeks to remind a 3D being of its essential All-D nature so that it may transcend its limitations that follow from its self-definition as a (merely) 3D being.

But to say that is not to say that there aren’t forces at a higher level.

Of course not. But it moves beyond the obvious “reaching for assistance from higher forces” to the more subtle fact that those “higher forces” are in intimate unbreakable relation to the 3D beings themselves. In a sense, everybody is connected not only laterally (so to speak) bit hierarchically. It is because 3D humans can focus that they are useful to the rest of reality. It is because they tend to get stuck in that focus that they require assistance.

And I guess this brings us to consideration of the vast impersonal forces you have been mentioning?

Not quite. It brings us to consideration of vast personal forces, which are not the same thing. These are not the weather but the raincoat, so to speak, though that seriously diminishes their role. They are your allies in the battle, your assistance in bringing in the crops before it rains, your larger mind helping you function. Any number of analogies possible; season to taste. For the moment, say the personal v. the impersonal, and leave it at that, while remembering that all oppositions, all polarities, are ultimately part of one unbreakable unity.

Well, there’s our hour and a little more, and as so often, it doesn’t seem like we’ve gotten very far.

Yes, and do you know why it feels that way sometimes? It is because you get a sense of a larger field of view, and the contrast between what you vaguely sense and the little that we can spell out at the moment is discouraging.

I suppose. Very well, till next time.

 

14 thoughts on “TGU — the plasticity of the present moment

  1. I like this session a lot! More things are coming together. Often the support of my “larger mind helping you function” has felt like magic.
    Thanks.

  2. I’m mulling over the thought that prayer and magical incantation are the same thing: a reminder to my 3D self of my All-D nature, and an invitation to transcend my self-imposed limitations. Interesting!

    I suppose that’s true for me, in that my way of praying, especially intercessory prayer, has changed. I center, affirm my oneness with the divine, and bring to mind the one who needs assistance. Sometimes I imagine this large pool of loving energy, readily available to all, and see my person floating in that energy, receiving what they need to be whole and well. This is no less a ritual than a magical incantation. Both are methods for connecting to the All That Is, whether in the illusion of separateness or oneness.

    Over the years, I have studied the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. It’s a simple prayer, made of of phrases that affirm who God is and our relationship. The English rendering is flat compared to the Greek, as our verb tenses don’t catch the nuances of the present, subjective, and imperative voice. One can easily read it as a reminder to the 3-D person of their relationship to the All-D. I’ve often read it as a stepping into dominion, reminding myself of the relationship to the divine that Jesus came to remind us of.

    Good food for thought today.

    1. Can you give us a rough translation that preserves some of the nuances you get in the Greek? Even if the phrasing came out clunky, or somewhat clunky, I’m sure many of us would be interested in reading it.

      1. The Our Father (Catholic title) or the Lord’s Prayer (Protestant) is only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. The prayer is shorter than what we know today, and various ancient texts of the gospels will have slightly different wordings. As I compare the two gospels, I will denote the additions from other ancient authorities as ‘OAA’. I am using an interlinear translation from the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament, plus nine hours of graduate level Koine Greek. The translation will be very stilted from the Greek, but I do that purposely to preserve the tense of the verbs and convey the sense that what we have today is not a direct translation from Greek to English.

        Matthew’s prayer:

        Father of us, the one in the heavens,
        Let be revered the name of you.
        Let come the kingdom of you, Let be done the will of you,
        As in heaven, also on earth.
        The bread of us daily give to us today (or bread for tomorrow, OAA)
        And forgive us the debts of us, as also we have forgiven the debtors of us.
        And do not bring us into temptation (or do not bring us to the time of trial),
        But rescue us from the evil one (or from evil).

        Matthew’s gospel ends the prayer here, and other ancient authorities add the benediction, “Because yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, amen.”

        Luke’s prayer:

        Father, let be held in reverence the name of you,
        Let come the kingdom of you,
        [Let your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us, OAA,]
        The daily bread of us (or our bread for tomorrow) give to us each day
        And forgive us the sins of us
        For indeed we ourselves are forgiving everyone being indebted to us.
        And may you not lead us into temptation, but rescue us from evil (or the evil one.)

        You can see some differences between these texts. Jewish folks do not say the holy name of God, often written as 4 Hebrew letters. Jesus doesn’t use an accepted alternative, Adonai, or ‘my Lord,’ but uses a very personal name, Father. I like the flourish, “Let your Holy Spirit . . . cleanse us,” but we don’t see that commonly used. The Greek word for ‘our daily bread” can also mean ‘the bread for tomorrow’ or ‘the bread necessary for existence.’ Luke talks about debts and sins, two different Greek words, whereas Matthew only discusses debts and debtors.

    2. Jesus’ prayer, as presented in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, my use of it has changed over the years – especially in the last 6 years.

      A few years ago (2013), before I ever knew about OBE’s, I had a non-physical experience with my chakras (light body) so I began to use Jesus’ prayer in a top-down motion as a flow through the chakras – with sentences of the prayer representing each of the chakras. While doing this and meditating, I eventually found an Aramaic translation of the prayer which I found insightful. Greek translations were not as helpful for me individually. The Aramaic (which Jesus spoke) provided me some particular meanings for the prayer nears its ending that I had not been presented before. I used this process regularly for a couple of years, before I came to the out of body experience.

      Now a few more years later (e.g., and getting through Frank’s recent communications with Rita and Nathaniel), I experience Jesus’ prayer as my “Sam Prayer” (e.g., directing it to my Spirit-Creator). Upon Rita pointing to the Sam early last year in a very particular way, the prayer (Jesus words) immediately made more sense to me. I realized more clearly that he (Jesus) was acknowledging his Sam (Spirit) in the prayer. So, I more clearly re-directed the prayer towards my own understanding and experiences with my Sam.

      And then, when Nathaniel expanded upon Rita’s concepts of the Sam by discussing Spirit (e.g., Sam = Spirit) from a unitary perspective, that created some new questions in the use of Jesus prayer. I set the prayer and chakra work aside. However, as we progressed through the Nathaniel conversations here, eventually Nathaniel spoke up and provided their own summation of Jesus’ general intentions for the prayer.

      It was at that time that I permanently set aside my Aramaic translation, and replaced it with the wording presented by Nathaniel. I have regularly been using their (Nathaniel’s) wording since. I keep the words written in my Guidance notebook (e.g., where I cluster dreams and other experiences) next to my bed.

        1. I will attempt to gather up the information and email it to you.

          It may take me some time to re-create. Unfortunately, our computers and home network were hacked aggressively near the end of 2017, and I lost a lot of my work.

          1. I went digging around on Google and found this. Don’t know if it’s close to the Aramaic translation that Subtle Traveler is referring to. I saw other translations and a lot of debate out there, so one could question its authenticity. I like it — it has a nice feel to it.

            Aramaic to English translation of the Our Father

            Oh Thou, from whom the breath of life comes,
            who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration.
            May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest.
            Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
            Let Your will come true – in the universe (all that vibrates)
            just as on earth (that is material and dense).
            Give us wisdom (understanding, assistance) for our daily need,
            detach the fetters of faults that bind us,
            like we let go the guilt of others.
            Let us not be lost in superficial things,
            but let us be freed from that what keeps us off from our true purpose.
            From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act,
            the song that beautifies all and renews itself from age to age.
            Amen

  3. Absolutely loved this part:

    “It is because 3D humans can focus that they are useful to the rest of reality. It is because they tend to get stuck in that focus that they require assistance.”

    It just made me smile from ear to ear. 😀

  4. Frank:

    Regarding the requested translation of Jesus’ prayer in Aramaic, I am placing it here instead. I would suggest looking at the work of Rocco Errico. His current translation of Jesus’ prayer is at this web site:

    https://noohra.com/the-lords-prayer/

    I will also provide it here now:

    Our Father who is everywhere
    Your name is sacred.
    Your kingdom is come.
    Your will is throughout the earth,
    even as it is throughout the universe.
    You give us our needful bread from day to day,
    And you forgive us our offenses,
    even as we forgive our offenders.
    And you let us not enter into materialism.
    But you separate us from error.
    Because yours are the kingdom, the power and the song and praise.
    From all ages, throughout all ages.
    (Sealed) in faith, trust and truth.

    For those who wish to understand in more detail about Rocco Errico’s interpretation of the prayer, I can suggest a series of YouTube videos with Rocco Errico teaching the translation of Jesus’ prayer, line by line (over 3 hours of videos). These videos provide instruction about the Aramaic language, the prayer, the culture it came from, etc. The videos are grouped here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-iFLOsu-1g&list=PLR7iKOcq0ikR-bOPGGIiITDpIU0KTmDTK

    Again, I no longer use a “from Aramaic” translation of the prayer myself. I am currently working with and adapting a version of the prayer suggested by Nathaniel a few months ago.

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