intoxicants

Many Intoxicants to Keep Us Away from Reality

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“We do not want our fear, our anger, our pain, so we suppress it by filling up our lives with the things provided us by modern civilization: websites, games, films, music. All these items can contain many toxins that only serve to increase our sickness, our fear. Suppose you watch one hour of television. That seems like very little, but you know there can be a lot of violence, a lot of fear, and a lot of poisons in that one-hour program. And you practice intoxicating yourself every day. You think you’re getting some kind of relief, but while entertaining yourself you continue to bring into the depths of your consciousness even more elements of pain and suffering. So the blocks of pain deep within you keep growing bigger and bigger. We intoxicate ourselves with what we consume every day.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

A World of Intoxicants

When you mention intoxicants, most people will think of alcohol and drugs. But looking at it in a broader sense, As Hanh does, we find that there is a lot more in the world that serves to intoxicate us. Further, we find that contrary to the war against drugs, our governments, schools, and other institutions often encourage intoxication in one form or another.

Entertainment

One of the greatest of the intoxicant categories. Outside of drugs and alcohol, is entertainment. This includes television, movies, concerts, plays, amusement parks, and others. While a few of these may be educational, the vast majority serve one primary purpose: to keep us under control.

The skilled pickpocket distracts us while his hand is grabbing our wallet, watch, or cellphone. He might bump into you. He might pretend he recognizes you and starts a conversation. Whatever it is, the purpose is to keep you from noticing him grabbing your valuables. The entire entertainment world serve the same purpose.

Think about it. Do you ever plan a government protest while watching a movie? Do you talk to friends about how unfair the business payment model is while thoroughly engaged in a concert? Of course not. The governments know that. So do the business operators and the super wealthy people who keep one half of the world’s wealth in one percent of the people. Continue reading “Many Intoxicants to Keep Us Away from Reality” →

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light of life, grounding, escape darkness, Summer Sun Spiritual Clarity

Dark Light, Light, and Light of Life

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“The first principle (the Darkness) takes the fierce and sudden fire-flash. … The second principle retains its Light for itself, which is the pleasant habitation which shines where the darkness is dispelled. …

“And the third principle retains its Light wholly for itself, which (as soon as the Light of Life springs up) presses into the tincture of the Soul,to the Element, and reaches after the Element; but it attains no more than to the Light of the Sun, which is proceeded out of the Quinta Essentia out of the Element. And thus the Stars and Elements rule in their light and virtue, which is the Suns.” ~Jacob Boehme

Three Principles of Light

Jacob Boehme informs us that there are three “principles” of light. I find it interesting that he doesn’t even refer to the very dim light on the material level as light at all, but instead calls it fire-flash. The second level is an intermediate light that might be considered as between material and spiritual. The third and highest light is purely spiritual.

Fire-Flash

The fire flash is the dimmest form of light, the lowest in frequency. It is probably this light which forms the Great Illusion we call the material universe. While it is the dimmest light, it has fooled many into thinking it is the true light of God. Continue reading “Dark Light, Light, and Light of Life” →

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confusing the senses, senses delusion

Confusing the Senses in Many Ways

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“Perhaps the most familiar example of mistaken sense-reports is that of the movement of the earth. The senses of every person report to him that the earth is a fixed, immovable body, and that the sun, moon, planets, and stars move around the earth. … It is only when one accepts the reports of the reasoning faculties that he knows that the earth not only whirls around on its axis every twenty-four hours, but that it circles around the sun every 365 days. …

“I am not trying to make any of you doubt the report of the five senses. That would be most foolish. … Instead, I am trying to acquaint you with the real nature of these five senses, they you may realize what they are not, as well as what they are; and that there is no absurdity in believing that there are more channels of information open to the ego or soul of the person.” ~William Walker Atkinson

Confusing the Senses

It’s curious that there are still people who will say they believe only what they can perceive with the five senses, and nothing else, when there is so much evidence that the senses can be confused or tricked.

Atkinson mentions one of the most common of these illusions. If we are moving in a car at 80 mph (128 k), we feel the speed. Our senses tell us we are moving. But when we are sitting still in a chair, we are actually moving about 19 miles or 30 kilometers per second around the sun. The senses are fooled because the whole planet is moving at that speed. We seem to be still because our sense work relative to the earth and to what we see around us.

Have you ever been sitting in a plane or train that is not moving, then the one next to you starts moving. You feel a strange sense of movement because your senses are confused. They don’t know which plane or train is moving and which is sitting still.

Optical illusions are another one. A favorite of mine in recent years is the sidewalk drawings that are done so that they appear to be 3-D objects.

3-D Sidewalk Art

Other senses can be fooled as well. Real estate agents will tell you that certain scents like apple pie make a house more appealing. The house would be exactly the same if it smelled like boiled cabbage, but it wouldn’t sell. Continue reading “Confusing the Senses in Many Ways” →

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scripture, spiritual doctrine

Scripture has two Sides: Literal and Allegorical

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“All sacred Scripture can be divided into flesh and spirit as if it were a spiritual man. For the literal sense of Scripture is flesh and its inner meaning is soul or spirit. Clearly someone wise abandons what is corruptible and unites his whole being with what is incorruptible.

“The law is the flesh of the spiritual man who here corresponds to sacred scripture; the prophets are the senses; the Gospel is the noetic soul that functions through the flesh of the Law and the senses of the prophets, revealing its power in its actions. …

“He who fulfills the law … abstains from the actual commission of sin. … he who has been trained by the prophets’ words not only refrains from the outward fulfillment of the passions but also renounces all assent to them in his soul.” ~The Phyilokalia

Two Sides of Scripture

I have never thought of comparing the two levels of scripture with the two levels of man, but it makes perfect sense to do so. It also helps explain why certain types of people misinterpret scripture, while others—the more spiritual ones—make perfect sense of it.

The Physical Side

Those people who are caught up in the physical realm and think matter is just what it appears to be rather than illusion are likely to interpret scripture literally. This interpretation is not completely wrong, just limited. It is like the person who sees the iceberg only as the ten percent above water. Then they wonder what happened when their boat hits the much larger part that is underwater.

Some knowledge of ancient history can be found in scripture. In that sense, the literal interpretation is useful. The problem is that much of scripture, regardless of which religion produced it, was never intended to be taken literally. It is purely symbolic. A good example is circumcision. It was never intended to be used to maim male infants. It was a spiritual circumcision that was intended by the prophets. An even more extreme example is a cult in India that follows the teachings of a certain guru now dead. That guru said that men should be more like women if they wanted to become spiritual. The members of the cult, using a literal interpretation, castrate themselves and dress in women’s clothes. That, of course, does not make them spiritual at all. Fortunately, it’s a small group.

Religious and spiritual books are not the only place we find this confusion. Perhaps the most common form of it in the modern world is found in teen slang. Words like “cool,” “dude,” and “bae” become nonsense if interpreted literally. The same with most scripture here truth was intentionally hidden in allegory to keep the unworthy from understanding it. Continue reading “Scripture has two Sides: Literal and Allegorical” →

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