instruments

Instruments in God’s Hands

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“What have we to desire in heaven and on earth, only the glory of God? But it is necessary to desire the glory of God as he desires it. He who has absolute power over the heart of men, has a plan of operations; he does all things in their time; he waits until the hour is come. In coming into the world, our Lord could have converted the world at once, and destroyed all its vices; but the economy of his wisdom did not so direct. When I hear our Lord say, ‘mine hour is not yet come,’ and wishing neither to advance or retard, for a moment, the hour that his Father has appointed, I am plunged into my nothingness. We are only instruments in His hands, which he may lay aside, or use according to His good pleasure. … Remain therefore, my dear friend, in the hands of God. Let Him accomplish in you, and by you, His good pleasure, whether to cast down, or build up.” ~Madam Guyon

Glory of God

Some, I’m sure, will argue that they care for things other than the glory of God. Even many who believe in God don’t think that it is their business to worry about what God wants, or doesn’t want. What they miss is that part of what God wants is to their benefit. As the father of our spirits and souls, he wants happiness for us. He wants us to live in reasonable comfort. Not the overdone comforts of the greedy, but enough comfort and success to meet all our needs. So it does us well to desire the glory of God, for what He wants includes what we need and desire. And if it isn’t what we desire, it is at least what we need.

Plan of Operations

Madam Guyon is correct in saying that God has a plan. She doesn’t say what that plan is. One reason for that is there is an individual plan for each of us which is different from others. But there is also a more general plan that we are all to work on. That plan needs to be spoken, needs to be discussed. That plan is simply to return the fallen realm of matter and the beings trapped within it to their original spiritual state. God waits for us to serve as his instruments in that plan because he wants us to learn to be responsible co-creators. He also waits because if He were to transform the world back into spirit while many of us continued to cling to our material self as our real self, we would die. Material beings simply cannot live in a world of spirit. And since we have been given a certain degree of free-choice, God won’t force this on us. He waits, for now anyway, for us to decide that it is what we want.

Instruments in His Hands

It is also true that God uses us as tools (or instruments) to get some of His plan accomplished. Some say this is because He wants us to participate. Others say it is because God will not soil Himself by getting too close to the realm of matter. Perhaps there is some truth to both of those theories. Another reason might be that like our earthly parents, God wants us to learn from our mistakes by having us clean up the mess we made.

Now Gnostics know that it was the false god, the Demiurge, who created the physical universe from part of the spiritual one created by the true God. So you might say we had nothing to do with it. But while we, on the spiritual side, are children of God, on the physical side, we are just as much children of the Demiurge or fallen angels. So the mess of matter is, to some degree, our fault, and it is partly our responsibility to clean it up.

One problem, however, is that we really don’t know how to correct this great error. That is why we must be instruments in God’s hands. We must let him guide us without question or resistance. An instrument that resists doing the job that needs to be done is soon discarded as useless. Don’t be one of those discarded.

Cast Down or Build Up

Some will question the idea that as instruments in God’s hands, we should be willing to “cast down or build-up” as God requires. They might argue that destruction is not the way of God. Only building up is of God. God creates, Satan destroys.

While that is true, we have to look at it differently. When God is creating something new out of nothing, those rules apply. But transforming matter into spirit is different. In this case, something must be destroyed, in a sense, in order to create something else. The caterpillar must be “cast down” if a butterfly is to result. A despotic government may have to be cast down in order for a just government to take its place. So there is some degree of casting down required, but only when it serves the purpose of creating what is part of God’s Plan. And if we are to be proper instruments of God, we must try to think in all things, “what would God want me to do?” and act accordingly.

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Siddhartha

Siddhartha Begins His Spiritual Journey

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“Siddhartha was thus loved by everyone. He was a source of joy for everybody, he was a delight for them all. But he, Siddhartha, was not a source of joy for himself, he found no delight in himself. … Dreams and restless thoughts came into his mind, flowing from the water of the river, sparkling from the stars of the night, melting from the beams of the sun, dreams came to him and a restlessness of the soul, fuming from the sacrifices, breathing forth from the verses of the Rig-Veda, being infused into him, drop by drop, from the teachings of the old Brahmans. Siddhartha had started to nurse discontent in himself, he had started to feel that the love of his father and the love of his mother, and also the love of his friend, Govinda, would not bring him joy forever. … The sacrifices and the invocation of the gods were excellent—but was that all? …

“Not to be looked down upon was the tremendous amount of enlightenment which lay here collected and preserved by innumerable generations of wise Brahmans.—But where were the Brahmans, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge but also to live it? Where was the knowledgeable one who wove his spell to bring his familiarity with the Atman out of the sleep into the state of being awake. …

“Was not Atman in him, did not the pristine source spring from his heart? It had to be found, the pristine source in one’s own self, it had to be possessed! Everything else was searching, was a detour, was getting lost.” ~Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha Begins His Journey

Siddhartha had grown up in a spiritual family. His father was a Brahman. So he knew the importance of spiritual development. He knew it was necessary. So he practiced his meditation diligently. He prayed and fasted. But eventually, like many today looking around at the conventional churches, realized that these daily practices were not helping him progress. They were doing little more than taking up time and keeping him under control. He mentions at one point that these spiritual practices are doing nothing more than helping one hide from the world. He realized that they did no more than alcohol or drugs do for many. He was little more than a drunk who hid from reality and real spiritual growth in ritual fasting, praying, and meditating.

Siddhartha and Asceticism

So Siddhartha then decides to join a group of ascetics. He gives up his fine clothes and good meals and begins to wear rags ad eat little. He soon discovers that this path isn’t really doing any more than the constant praying and meditation.

Then he hears of Gautama Buddha. Everyone is saying this man has become a true Buddha, an enlightened one, yet has rejected asceticism as the best path to follow.

Siddhartha and Buddha

So Siddhartha, along with his best friend Govinda, leaves the ascetics and goes off in search of this new enlightened one, Gautama Buddha. They find him and listen to him give a public talk. Both Siddhartha and Govinda are impressed with Buddha’s speech and whole personality. He is clearly one who has achieved a high level of enlightenment. This causes Govinda to join the group of devoted followers who pledge to listen to and follow the teachings of the master. Siddhartha, however, does not. He meets with Buddha and explains to him that, while he recognizes that the Buddha is an enlightened one, he has learned from Buddha’s own teachings, that simply listening to the talks of an enlightened one will not bring about his own enlightenment. He must seek enlightenment within himself and not from others. Buddha smiles a faint agreement and wishes him well.

What Siddhartha Learned

We hear so much these days from spiritual people on social media that religion is about hearing other’s experiences, spirituality is having your own. Yet those same people ask others for recommendations of books and videos that can bring them enlightenment. That is doing exactly the same thing as the religious people, just with different books! And following meditation methods with little or no evidence that they accomplish anything except turning people into docile sheeple is no different than the religious people attending weekly services that have become empty ceremony. They are correct in rejecting the empty ceremonies as a path to true enlightenment, but too many of them are simply following a different, yet equally empty, spiritual path.

Siddhartha learned that we must awaken our own spiritual self and learn from that true self. All we can get from books or teachers are methods for doing that. The teachers cannot give us truth, they can only point us in the right direction. And hiding from the world in drugs, booze, or meditation isn’t going to do that.

More to Come

This is only the beginning of Siddhartha’s journey. I’m sure I will have more to say about it as it continues.

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changeling

Changeling Fantasies in a Modern World

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“These days in our America, so many go about proclaiming ’empowerment,’ by which actually they mean ‘resentment,’ or ‘catering to resentment.’ To be empowered by eloquence and vision is what Emerson meant by self-reliance, and is the start of what I mean by ‘mere Gnosticism,’ where ‘mere’ takes its original meaning of ‘pure’ or ‘unmixed.’ To fall in love with great poetry when you are young is to be awakened to the self’s potential, in a way that has little to do, initially, with overt knowing. The self’s potential as power involves the self’s immortality, not as duration but as the awakening to knowledge of something in the self that cannot die,because it was never born. It is a curious sensation when a young person realizes that he or she is not altogether the child of that person’s natural parents. Freud reduces such a sensation to ‘the changeling fantasy,’ in which you imagine you are a fairy child, plucked away by adoptive parents who then masquerade as a natural mother and father. But is it only a fantasy to locate, in the self, a magical or occult element, older than any other component of of the self?” ~Harold Bloom

Empowerment

Empowerment is defined as sharing information, resources, and power with employees so they can do certain tasks better. I’m not sure if that is the same definition it had when Bloom wrote the quote above. In any case, I don’t see how he thinks that what most people mean by empowerment is actually resentment. However, he does have a point in that what it usually means is limited to material things. So when he says it is really more like what Emerson called “self-reliance,” he is saying that it is more correctly thought of as a spiritual thing rather than something given to us by other people. In other words, real empowerment comes from within ourselves, not from others. We may get advice from others, but it is only when we decide to accept that advice and act on it that we become empowered.

Loving Poetry

Mr. Bloom says that loving poetry when you are young is a kind of spiritual awakening. But which came first, the chicken or the egg? It may not be that loving poetry develops your spiritual self. Instead, it may be that you have a love of poetry because you already are spiritual. Or you might develop a love of poetry at the same time that you are developing your spiritual self. It is true, though, that the two often go together. And it isn’t limited to poetry. Spiritual people are attracted to all things of beauty and peace. Music, art, gardening, They are also attracted to things that deal with truth and justice rather than lies and misdirection. As Bloom says, they are “ empowered by eloquence and vision.”

Immortal Self

We do have an immortal self. That “Self” is not physical. As Jesus said, flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The higher realms are those of spirit. Those spiritual realms are the only ones where immortality can exist. No matter how hard they try, medical research will never make the physical body immortal. When the planet itself is mortal, how can any being living on it be immortal?

Bloom adds that this immortal self cannot die because it was never born. Hose still clinging to the illusions of matter may have difficulty grasping that. They end up asking senseless questions on social media like, “Who gave birth to God?” or “How do you know if your soul is old or young?” No being gave birth to God because He was never born. He just is. Likewise, your soul was never born. It just is. It exists outside of time and space. Therefore, there are no old souls or young souls. Aging has nothing to do with souls.

Changeling Fantasy

If you think the changeling fantasy is dead, you don’t use social media very much. Or at least you don’t see what is posted on many spiritual groups. There you find a few who may claim to be children of fairies. More often, however, they claim other changeling concepts today. Some changelings believe they are not from earth, but come here from planet Asturias, or Perseid, or some other planet or star. Other changelings are star children from some unspecified star send to help the human race evolve. Others are simply called Indigo children, crystal children, or other new age names that have no connection to reality. Yes, there are special people, people who are destined for great spiritual development. But they are people who have humility, so you will rarely find them making egotistical claims of superiority.

As Bloom notes. These changing fantasies are just a means, on the part of such individuals who have usually had a partial awakening, a glimpse into the spiritual, to understand why they are different. But they are not from other planets or stars. A changeling is just as much an Earthling as anyone else. But they feel the awakening of their souls which are from heaven. Not a physical location at all, but a higher dimension of reality, a higher state of consciousness.

His doesn’t mean that we should make fun of those who have changeling fantasies. They are only trying to deal with something they don’t understand. One day they will all understand they are dealing with spiritual things and spiritual beings, and they are not aliens or Starseeds. Until then, just let them believe whatever comforts them.

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cultivating yourself

Cultivating Yourself on All Levels

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“Some people spend all of their time thinking about common and ordinary things; no wonder they don’t progress much. Others spend half an hour and more thinking about the good, faith, love, thinking about the great things of the world. These people are cultivating the soil for their future genius.

“God’s teaching is the best soil; whoever falls on that soil will grow and multiply.

“Evil in mind is an abnormal condition. It is manifested through weak people. Strengthen your will; do not let your negative traits manifest themselves.

“Tell yourself the truth about your defects and you will free yourself from the restrictions you are living in.

“Prepare yourself for paradise. With the burden of materialism, one will not stay a second in paradise. The materialism that a man has in his consciousness is so heavy that if he happens to enter paradise with it; he will be expulsed for less than a second or he will go down.

“Arm yourself with Truth, Good, Wisdom, and Love, and begin to erase your sins from the past. Ask for forgiveness and forgive.” ~Biensa Douno

Common and Ordinary Things

Many people will insist they do not spend all of their time thinking about common and ordinary things. They think of great things, important things. They think about the rules of law. Some may think about running a business. Other may be studying and experimenting to make some great scientific discovery. But while those things may seem great on the level of materialism, in reality, they are very much the common and ordinary things that Douno is talking about. Virtually anything about the realm of matter, with the possible exception of escaping from it, is common and ordinary. What is really sad is that many today seem to think they are engaging in some sort of spiritual activity when they are trying desperately to manifest material things. Manifesting is only spiritual if you are manifesting spiritual things. But I’m not even sure manifesting is possible with spiritual things. The realm of spirit doesn’t function like thought-manipulated molding clay. Only matter does that since it is illusion to began with, and has no definite shape.

When Douno says the people who spend all their time and effort on common things “don’t progress much,” he doesn’t mean in the material sense. Of course such people become governors, senators, and business executives. He means they don’t make any meaningful progress. In other words, they don’t make spiritual progress.

Cultivating Yourself

Spending thirty minutes developing yourself daily is indeed cultivating yourself. It doesn’t have to be thirty minutes a day. It could be a few hours a week. It might be only fifteen minutes a day. The important thing is that you never stop learning, never stop growing. This is important for your mental self but is even more important for the spiritual self.

In today’s materialistic world, the spirit and soul are, on average, the least developed parts of humanity. And then we wonder why we live in violence and poor health. We wonder why we are never satisfied with what we have. The answer is that deep down some part of us is craving a spiritual awakening. That is what we need more than anything else. Cultivating yourself includes body, mind, and spirit.

Truth, Love, Wisdom

Douno says we need to prepare ourselves for paradise. That certainly sounds like a good idea. But how? You have to have some understanding of what heaven is in order to be ready for it.

If your boss tells you that it would be great if you learned to operate a glopstugel, it doesn’t help you any if you don’t have any idea what a glopstugel is (I certainly hope you don’t, I made it up).

Douno helps by telling us to arm ourselves with truth, good, wisdom, and love. While that is certainly a big part of cultivating yourself, even here there are some problems of understanding. In order to prepare for heaven, you need to go beyond ordinary truth, ordinary wisdom, and self-serving love.

If, for example, you see an oak tree across the street, and I ask you what it is, if you say it is an oak tree, you think you have told the truth. But you haven’t. You have only told the truth within the boundaries of the great illusion of the world of matter. The real truth is something much deeper that few people ever see, or even realize exists.

Wisdom is even more confusing. In today’s world, knowledge and wisdom are often confused. Many think that being wise simply means having a lot of knowledge. Others will say that wisdom is knowing how to use what knowledge you have. While that second one is correct, it too comes with a caveat. First, if your knowledge is limited to the world of matter, it is incomplete and inaccurate. In such a case, it is impossible to truly use it wisely.

Love and good are also too vague to truly understand. But there is an answer to this dilemma.

Awakening to Gnosis is Cultivating Yourself

Our mind is limited to an understanding of the physical world. The soul knows the realms beyond the physical. But that doesn’t do us any good if we spend our entire life on Earth with our soul dormant. We are born into this realm with our spirit and soul in a coma-like state. They are not dead, but they can’t really function until awakened. Doing that takes effort. While there may be some very rare cases of the soul awakening without effort, just sitting back and waiting for that to happen is like planning on winning the lottery to finance your retirement. Make the effort to awaken them.

It takes energy to awaken our spiritual faculties. Energy that comes from God, down to the spiritual sun, and then down to Earth. So we need to turn to the spiritual sun and actively take in that energy. We need to do that regularly. That is not just cultivating ourselves, it is cultivating our real selves, our permanent selves. Cultivating yourself means seeking out and excepting that energy that awakens and nourishes the soul.

When the spirit and soul are truly awakened, they understand the real truth. They also know real love, real goodness. That gives them real wisdom.

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