Friday, February 13, 2009

Finding the Way in the Final Days

For some time I have been hearing from people that all secret societies are evil and that all arcane knowledge is bad; that the Masons are bad, that the Kabala is evil, that any sense of desire for control or any effort to comprehend what is in control is wrong and will lead to disaster. I don’t share those sentiments.

There’s one force in the universe. There is only one controlling entity. Good and evil as they are commonly understood are not particularly good or evil. There’s no separate demonic force arrayed against a heavenly force. On the level of appearances this seems to be true but it’s not. To understand if any organization is evil and whether any particular teaching is deceptive or illuminating... whatever... one has only to look to ‘intention’. It is our intentions that determine our relationship to the single force that animates; creates, maintains and destroys. This single force has three applications and your relationship to any aspect of it is set by your intention.

Force is force. You can drive a nail with a hammer and you can drive that hammer into someone’s head. Something like the Kabala is just a system. You can use it to gain understanding and you can use it to manipulate conditions for good or ill and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference because a great deal of evil has been accomplished under the banner of doing good. I studied in the Kabala for some years but it’s not for me. That’s not a judgment on it. That’s a judgment on me.

This is the Kali Yuga. Because there is a greater darkness in this yuga than in any other, it stands to reason that we are less likely to be clear in this period than in any of the others. What this has come to mean to me is that I am more likely to gain success in my effort to comprehend by following a path of devotion. They call this Bhakti Yoga in the Hindu tradition. It has parallels in all of the other traditions as well. The path of knowledge is likely to be more perilous in these days than in times where the light is more present. Yes, the light is always present but our ability to make use of it is diminished. One should consider the words of Jesus Christ; “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you.”

In other words, anything you think you may be looking for. Anything you may be mistaking for something else and anything you think you want that may not even be what you imagine it to be will be given to you once you find the source of everything. Not only will it be given to you but it will be given to you in the best way. You will also be spared the result of desiring that which would actually destroy you should you acquire it.

In every tradition you are going to find representatives of self-interest and selfless interest. This does not make the tradition evil. It speaks to motive and intention. I consider myself to be engaged in “The operation of the Sun.” as defined by Hermes Trismegistus in The Emerald Tablet. Some number of people from the very few who understand what this process is believes that it is something that ‘you’ accomplish. That is never going to happen, not ever. This operation is accomplished under the direction of The Holy Guardian Angel and our only action in the process is to be still.

Our preparation for this action is to obtain the qualities of the divine. It is these qualities that grant us the ability to ‘be still’ and to endure. One must endure certain things and these tests are not for lightweights and dilettantes. It could be said that we are all engaged in this and have always been engaged in it but that we can only proceed to the degree that our abilities allow for.

Lately I have had some real progress through the period I am in and I have also had the shit scared out of me as well. However, there is nothing else that I want; nothing else that is going to satisfy me, nothing else that can be anything more than a momentary distraction and nothing else that will treat the disease that I feel for as long as I am outside the sanctuary whose confines I am in pursuit of. No cost or effort is too great... even if I am only losing what I never had or which was never mine... even if the only effort is to be still. “Be still and know that I am God” is an interesting phrase and like many timeless phrases it will well repay reflection on its meaning.

I realize that there are organizations that offer a progression of instructions and tests that purport to lead to the goal. Bona fide schools are under the aegis of the invisible brotherhood. For me these external organizations have lost their attraction... or it may be that I have found my fellows. As much as we may all be the same person essentially, we are very different in many ways. For the majority of people on the Earth today... the pursuit of the hidden side of life has no attraction and for the majority who claim to have this interest, it is more for what they may gain and how they may appear. Most of what is offered by the new age is rife with these personalities.

You can think of the world as it exists at present as a magnetic whirlpool of attractive matter. Its purpose is to suck you in. There’s a loosely affiliated group of psychopaths who are milking this phenomena for their own gain... though I wouldn’t call what they are achieving a gain. I would call it a tremendous loss; but they have already given up what is most important in any case. They appear to have great power and their state is envied by many. Some of them believe they will rule in Hell as they presently ‘appear’ to rule on Earth. They jury is presently out on that.

These are dark times and one cannot be faulted for feeling lost, threatened and generally depressed at the conditions that ‘appear’ to surround us. These are all appearances and granting credibility to them increases their seeming hold on you. We should actually be joyful that we can see what is occurring. Many people do not see at all. We should be thrilled that we are given the ability to perceive.

Every one of us is ‘overlooked’ by an agent of the one. Every single action in our lives is a special interaction between the divine and our selves. This is difficult to see for the reason that ‘appearances’ hold such sway over our minds through the medium of the senses. The force of the material world is great but... it is as much under the control of the one as is everything else.

Everything we experience has the sole purpose of tempering us. Our metals are being refined in the furnace of existence. We should ‘be still and know’. We should pray without ceasing and practice remembrance or... if you prefer... the presence of God. We are alone in the pursuit of our self interest or we are not alone in the pursuit of our self. An aperture is opening that has not been open for many thousands of years. It is a matter of personal intent whether we will be drawn through that aperture or into the whirlpool for recycling into the next period of coming and going through the next series of lives... departures and returns.

Winning or losing anything here is of no consequence. Things come and go; positions of power and influence come and go like the tides. We can easily be transformed from an oil baron to a prison inmate. We can change from a world leader to a galley slave. It happens all the time. There was something said about not laying up your treasures where moth and rust corrupt. I think that’s the wiser course and wherever one may find wisdom they should grasp it and hold it fast. Even if you have to steal it, that’s okay too.

Visible sings: God in Country by Les Visible♫ Every Day ♫
'Every Day' is track no. 11 of 11 on Visible's 2001 album 'God in Country'
Lyrics (pops up)

God in Country by Les Visible

18 comments:

kikz said...

aye, cripez..
blogger acting funky..
i'll try to post again.. @@


mornin les,
beautifu effort!


love
k*

Anonymous said...

Hi Les, morning.
Matt Groening said something which relates to the attitude toward material things, events, the world , which I thought might be appropo-
"If you keep your expectations tiny you'lle go through life withou being so whiny."
Sorry to go off topic a bit with the next but it came just now

If one sees a lot people acting like puppets then it's time to start looking for the puppetmaster.

Anonymous said...

The quote by Matt Groening was put up by me, sorry I pushed the wrong button. And sorry for the typos. I cant watch the screen while I type

Sandra said...

When I read your words, I thought I might have been the one to write them. :) Sandra

Anonymous said...

"The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater."

Anonymous said...

Les

To be sure, you have shared a much larger vision than before. It is coming faster for you now?

To be "still," is of couse, the first tool or path. Will it bring many pieces together in the pause. Soon movement will return and newer tool, not yet visable will be waiting for us.

Matt durkeematthew@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Well, Les -
that was just splendid!
this 'becoming/being one-mind' thing is really happening right here and now.
your venues are bringing out more light than I ever dreamed - both your posts and the 1st class comments.
yes, I stick to the bhakti path too, though I keep acquiring knowledge, but it's the bhakti practices that keep my sanity intact, and my optimistic outlook happening.

damn, there's even all that self-interest crap in the new age bhakti scenes, but I've managed to extract myself/get around it for the most part. but, as you know, intention is everything, and folks will do what they will - try to co-opt or co-create.
thanks so much for this one, bro!

respects,
bholanath

Anonymous said...

Brilliant-as usual. 93's bro.

Anonymous said...

Lord Krishna says.."If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, I will accept it."
The real purpose is to exhibit one's loving devotion to the Lord; the offerings themselves are secondary.

Anonymous said...

I have been around the edges and out of the corner of my eye, and just tingling a bit these past days. I have been constantly, and lovingly reminded to relax and breathe—slow down—task at hand—in the now--ONLY

DON’T PUSH IT—Let it happen—don’t try to control anything—because you can’t—you are where you are, and there is a reason—if you are listening to all that is—but don’t try to understand that reason because it is beyond my understanding—it’s a good gentle/strong thing--

I have come to the realization, or it has been given to me that wherever I am, whatever I do, it doesn’t matter—it is in sync with all that is. I don’t plan on bugging out, I don’t plan on anything really—I just am where I am, when I am.

It’s me whether I am here or there—20 lbs heavier or lighter—richer or poorer—always me just the way I am when I am—it simply can’t be any different—how could it?

Any worry, dread, or fear are off the map and gone---I have had glimpses of this before, for a time, but something is different this time—almost as if it has all been done for me—which, of course it has because that’s how it happens—I’m not analyzing as that would be out of balance and would mean that I am trying to take charge of something I don’t know anything about

It may change from hour to hour, or day to day—or it may just stay the same—it doesn’t matter—I will be where my place is if I don’t push it and try to “outthink” that which has a destiny for me—it is, like all destiny, temporary—

An assured place for me, is not where I might wish it for me—too much of too much allows for too little—this is beyond me, yet very comforting at the same time—happily letting go—

Jj
I posted this over at mirrors but it felt more at home here..

Anonymous said...

Such profundity Les. What can I say? I wish I could find that depth in my spiritual life. I try from time to time to practice the ‘present moment’ where God/Jesus is to be found. It is hard in these days. So much noise in the world. I get easily distracted and caught up in things. I want to let go of everything but the ‘self’ in me clings on as the world calls louder and louder. It takes a lot of discipline just to sit quite for any length of time these days. I must be an unruly child in the eyes of my God. I here Him calling. I here Him saying things like the one you just mentioned “be still and know that I am God”.

Jesus says…
Within my heart there stands a well, a well do deep that no bucket can be dropped to its depth. It is a well of love. To you, who wish to seek this love, must find, within himself, the source that carries him to Me. The love that is there is incomprehensible to man, but in your search for Me – for that light that glows within you – search, search, My children. I died to show you what My love consists of. Fly, fly to Me and let Me show you these things. The longing within your breast that drives you to Me – it is I, my child, knocking at the door of your heart. I too, long to live in you, just as you long to be with Me. Feel me within you now. Feel the passion that grows there, for it is my love. I give you freedom, My children, from the ways that the world shows you. Come to me, for I long to take you away from this ruin that you set yourselves up in. Come, let Me free you from your worries, your worthlessness. I long, I yearn for you every day that you live.

I remembering reading this for the first time some years ago and I go back to it now and again. It reminds me that God is the most important thing in life and that finding Him and knowing Him is worth more than anything the world can offer in a thousand life times. His voice is in the silence, but I prefer the noise of the world. What a foolish man I am, I should be, "Finding the Way in the Final Days." That reminds me. I have a well to look in to.
Good post Les.
God bless.

su said...

Again it boils down to the only thing worth focusing on.
Find the source within of all external actions.
Find that unchanging, ever present Self which is unaffected by everything appearing on the screen of consciousness.
Anything else is illusory and interesting but of no value.
I guess it is a choice between the fascinating and the nothing.
Guess what most choose?

Anonymous said...

The carnival sideshow or the quiet of the mountain stream--a time for both I suppose--but where do we want to live--
Gosh, we just don't want to miss anything--it might be important--or not--

Jj

su said...

That is it Jj, we might miss something.
For me I say I want nothing more than to sink into the space that I am and yet I dive into the water of happening every day. Despite myself.
The thing is the carnival is so predictable. The candyfloss is tasteless and always leaves an unquenchable thirst.

Anonymous said...

"Atma-bhakta" works good for some, maybe you too. Means: devotion to the Self, one of the ancient bhakti paths of India.
The big 'S' Self, source of all the guidance and grace and power you'll ever need.
No 'god/gods' OUTSIDE needed. No 'higher power' needed. No 'savior' needed.
You - Atman/I&I - are IT...All there is, at the penultimate level.
In the silence, we are there, we simply are. Impeccable action flows from this place, with no forethought or self-censorship or self-limitation.
The false selves/imposters cannot reach or touch this place, this beingness. Their unreality is why they haven't a snowball's chance in hell of ultimate victory.
This may not be a practice for everyone, and definitely not easy to hold, but it is the perspective of many of the great unknown/anonymous sages of the non-dualist traditions.

respects,
bholanath

Anonymous said...

Glorious Les! your writings have brought about many insights over these last few years and then to read the comments/communications from 'the gang' - as i have come to think of you all -the regular contributors...
ain't the wide world web just Grand! How we can commune electronically (to start), but then, how sometimes it can morph to where we do not really need the keyboards so much any more... Knowing that you all are 'out there'... (words can sometimes be so awkard!)
Anyway, i had to post a comment after reading this latest offering... to pay my respects and say Thank You Les and all the gang... for being.
Keep on keeping on...love..
:)R
Guess i am now an ex-lurker?

Anonymous said...

And what of Paramatma?

Anonymous said...

I find in staying still the ability to recognize other forces acted upon must be present. The ability of understanding the distinction between what is our own force(s) and outside force(s)
I find intuition to be a key to this
*keep in mind there are many forces that act upon us- many only see in this realm of existence, but sight into the many layers is an ability that aids this recognition





BOOKS, MUSIC, VIDEO


FEATURED READ-




Visit the recommended reading page for many more.





FEATURED MUSIC-


'I Need More Light' from the Les Visible Album
God in Country



Visit the Blog Music Page
to stream all of Visible's music for free
(purchase is always appreciated but entirely optional)





FEATURED VIDEO-


A classic Visible post:



With gratitude to Patrick Willis.

Click here to watch and comment on Vimeo and here to read the original text.



Visit the Blog Videos Page for many more.