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Originally posted by VIL

I'm going to be reading this tomorrow, too, Doc. Have you read this? I'm not all that familiar with Saints. Do you know anything about this writing? It's funny, since I did a search on the material you listed and I found this, and yesterday I was reading on Da'ath, the Abyss, in the Kabbalah, which is deemed "The Dark Night of the Soul". Couldn't have been more perfect: :

http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/sai...darknite.htm

Thanks:



VIL

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Alchemy is a compound word that can be broken down into Al-Chemy. Al is Allah, or El, the God of Light, and chem is khem or the greek kimia, meaning to fuse or cast a metal. Therefore, Alchemy is the Chemistry of God, the fusion of man with divinity.


The wise man throughout history has known Alchemy is a spiritual allegory for a revolutionary psychology that first burns the ego into ashes and later raises the Phoenix, the Christified Soul.

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christi: It is interesting (to me anyway), that when Jesus talked about who he was (which he seemed to do quite a bit), he didn’t mention love. I once heard about a Sufi teacher who lived in Northern India, who was asked about the end game in meditation and whether or not it was divine love. He didn’t want to talk about it, but finally when he had been asked three times (you always have to ask divine masters three times in India for some unknown reason), he finally said “there is a state beyond love”.

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..."love itself can be a veil, since it blinds the seeker from realizing that he is at unity even with the One Whom he loves. When the seeker himself disappears, he enters a condition of annihilation in the presence of God—faná—the way a candle's flame vanishes before the sun. Although this state is nothingness in relation to the seeker, it is baqá (eternity, subsistence) in relation to God. "This is the plane whereon the vestiges of all things are destroyed in the traveler..."

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Originally posted by ajna:

Sages have opined that nothing happens without God's will (including seemingly horrendous happenings). So are we robots dancing to the already written script??

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yogani:

Hi Yoda:

I don't necessarily buy the "reality is a projection of our thoughts" idea; as in, nothing exists except through our projection of it. Sometimes "serious" jnana (discrimination) can lead to the nonsensical in this respect - "That truck that just ran over me doesn't exist, and neither do I, anymore!"

However, our interpretation of reality and thinking about what it is (and acting/karma-ing that out) is just as you say, building layers and layers of "knee-jerks" (samskaras) in the subconscious mind/nervous system, and then we find ourselves living within our own illusions, often not even knowing we are in that mode. And so it goes.

Of course, the full scope of yoga is for unwinding all of this, and the whole thing can be taken back to the original "happy" of stillness/self in action.

It takes a while... With effective methods, progress is noticeable. Watching illusions dissolve is one of the most fun things there is, though it can be a bit scary in the beginning: "Pleeeease, don't take my illusions away! They are all that I think I have!"
What's that about?

The guru is in you.

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...One of the created phenomena is the dream. Behold how many secrets are deposited therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed. Observe, how thou art asleep in a dwelling, and its doors are barred; on a sudden thou findest thyself in a far-off city, which thou enterest without moving thy feet or wearying thy body; without using thine eyes, thou seest; without taxing thine ears, thou hearest; without a tongue, thou speakest. And perchance when ten years are gone, thou wilt witness in the outer world the very things thou hast dreamed tonight.

Now there are many wisdoms to ponder in [33] the dream, which none but the people of this Valley can comprehend in their true elements. First, what is this world, where without eye and ear and hand and tongue a man puts all of these to use? Second, how is it that in the outer world thou seest today the effect of a dream, when thou didst vision it in the world of sleep some ten years past? Consider the difference between these two worlds and the mysteries which they conceal, that thou mayest attain to divine confirmations and heavenly discoveries and enter the regions of holiness.

God, the Exalted, hath placed these signs in men, to the end that philosophers may not deny the mysteries of the life beyond nor belittle that which hath been promised them. For some hold to reason and deny whatever the reason comprehendeth not, and yet weak minds can never grasp the matters which we have related, but only the Supreme, Divine Intelligence can comprehend them:

How can feeble reason encompass the Qur'án,
Or the spider snare a phoenix in his web?:
Baha'u'llah

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1) AUM. The VIRAT is said to be the sum total of all the quintuplicated five elements and their effects. This is called the gross body of the Atman (soul).

Waking is that state, where the senses give rise to the knowledge of objects. The Atman, which identifies Itself with both the waking state and the gross body, is known as the VISHVA.

These three (the gross body, the waking state and the VISHVA) together are represented by the first letter 'A' in the syllable 'AUM'.

2) The five unquintuplicated rudimentary elements and their effect, the subtle body, both together constitute what is called the HIRANYAGARBHA. The material subtle body has seventeen parts, viz. the five vital forces, the ten organs of perception and action, the mind and the intellect. This is said to be the subtle body of the Atman (soul).

3) When the sense-organs are quiescent or withdrawn, the knowledge arising out of impressions of the waking state and the imaginary objects there perceived, are together called the dream state. The TAIJASA is the Atman which identifies Itself with both the dream state and the subtle body. These three, i.e. -- the subtle body, the dream state and the TAIJASA -- are represented by the second letter 'U' in 'AUM'.

4) Bound up with reflection of Pure-consciousness, the Nescience, which hides the Atman and is the cause of both the gross and the subtle bodies, is called the 'AVYAAKRTA' or undifferentiated. This is the causal body of the Atman. This is neither existent nor non-existent, nor even both existent and non-existent; neither different from, nor identical with, nor both different from and identical with, the Atman. This Nescience is neither composite, nor non-composite, nor both composite and non- composite, but removable by the knowledge of the identity of Brahman and the Atman alone.

When all thoughts cease and the determinative intellect, too, lapses into its causal condition, the state of deep-sleep appears. The personality appropriating these two, i.e., the causal-body and the deep- sleep state is described as 'PRAJNA'.

These three (the causal-body Nescience, the deep-sleep state and the PRAJNA) are symbolised by the last letter 'M' in 'AUM'.

Now, 'A' the waking-personality, should be resolved into 'U', the dream-personality, and the 'U' into 'M' i.e., the deep-sleep personality. Again, the 'M' should be reduced into 'AUM' and the 'AUM' into 'I'. I am, the Atman, the Witness of all, the absolute of the nature of Pure Consciousness; I am neither Nescience nor even its effect but I am Brahman alone, Eternally Pure, Ever Enlightened, Eternally Free and Existence Absolute. I am the Bliss Absolute, One without a second and the Innermost Consciousness.

Remaining in this state of absolute identification is what is called 'SAMADHI' or the Super-conscious state.

'Thou art That', 'I am Brahman', 'Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman', 'This Self is Brahman', etc. -- all these Srutis, i.e., the Upanisadic sayings (known as Mahavakyas or the great dictum) are direct evidences to the identity of the Atman, the individual soul, and Brahman. This is what is called 'PANCHKARANAM' or quintuplication. Adi Sankaracharya
788-820 CE

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Thus, too, Luqmán, who had drunk from the wellspring of wisdom and tasted of the waters of mercy, in proving to his son Nathan the planes of resurrection and death, advanced the dream as an evidence and an example. We relate it here, that through this evanescent Servant a memory may endure of that youth of the school of Divine Unity, that elder of the art of instruction and the Absolute. He said: "O Son, if thou art able not to sleep, then thou art able not to die. And if thou art able not to waken after sleep, then thou shalt be able not to rise after death." Baha'u'llah

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Originally posted by ajna:

"Hi Doc - One day God will wake up from his cosmic dream and say Ahhh... what a bad nightmare i had. Before that if we press upon him the idea that we are suffering, well his answer may be "Who is suffering?", YOU do not exist, it is all me!!"

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