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“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”
Socrates
Following a spiritual path requires change. Following a path implies going somewhere, somewhere else where presumably things are different, even better.
We often find ourselves lamenting the state of our lives, the state of society, the state of the world. Certainly there is much to lament. But does it help anyone, out there or especially ourselves, to moan about it? We can, after all, only change ourselves. And change within ourselves does change the world around us, in the way we look at it, in the way we affect it, in the way we let it be without trying to control people or situations.
When we truly long for the new life, for a life for the Soul, then the best help is to focus on that, on the New Soul, and not lament the rest of it, not lament what our ego has to leave behind. We will have to leave it all behind eventually anyway, and now we are given the conscious opportunity to begin that process, which is what is meant by ‘dying while living.’ Why not be free now? That is liberation, that is not being tied down by -- well, anything. We can each list our own particular weights, the baggage that we carry around with us. But if we want to build a New Soul, then Socrates advises us to let this baggage go rather than to focus on it or bemoan it.
As members and pupils of a gnostic spiritual school, we have material available that is meant for the Soul, that can help free the Soul from our baggage. We have books, we have online programs, we have meetings and conferences and time in the Temple, and we have a developing Soul that can recognize what is good for it. When we provide the soul-nourishing food in our focus and in our thoughts, then we provide it peace and we too are quiet and restful. It is a state we come to recognize and appreciate, a different state than chasing after the ephemeral prizes of the material world. Even in the midst of worry or turmoil, we can recognize the still quiet center of the heart and choose to serve it rather than our ego, even while the ego is striving to achieve some outward satisfaction.
It is unlikely that we will always succeed in pulling our focus from our ego to our Soul, but we do learn the consequences each time that we make a choice. Gradually we learn to anticipate when we are making a conscious choice for the ego or for the Soul. The more we concentrate on this, in our thoughts, in our longing, then the more we can build the New.
LRC Contact Letter - Change - February 2016
~ g
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LRC Contact Letter - Change - February 2016
~ g
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4 comments:
g
I have been going back to some of the older blogs and refer to 29 April 2014 Equanimity
In it it says "The astral body has three faculties: attraction, repulsion and equanimity". I always thought indifference was the third faculty.Or is it saying when the Soul becomes active equanimity replaces indifference?
Andrew,
Equanimity and Indifference, although not direct synonyms, can be construed to share a similar meaning.
Equanimity: fairness, impartiality, evenness of mind, calmness, equilibrium.
Indifference: lack of interest or concern.
Stripped of their human definitions, the three faculties of the astral body are positive, negative and neutral. The neutral faculty is represented by words such as "indifference" and "equanimity". No matter what words are used, the meaning is the same: neutrality. "Neither for, nor against". To say that it is a state of "not-caring" would not be quite correct. It is more a state of objective disinterest, where one is not affected by the constant pull of duality, whether the pull is one of attraction (positive) or repulsion (negative).
~ g
g
Thank you for clarifying that. Some words that School uses seem old fashioned, like the word dialectics which could have many meanings. Why make it so difficult to understand?
Andrew,
It was never the intent of Jan van Rijckenborgh, Catharose de Petri, or the Spiritual School to make the Gnostic Path of Return or the doctrine of Tranfiguration difficult to understand. On the contrary, he spent a large portion of his life trying to make it easier for the Seeker to understand the eternal Mysteries embedded in works such as the Corpus Hermeticum (The Egyptian Gnosis), The Tao Te-Ching (The Chinese Gnosis), or The Pistis Sophia (The Christian Gnosis). All of these works (indecipherable to many in their original form) were analyzed and presented to humanity by JVR in the language of the then-common man in the hopes that the veil would be lifted from these works.
People of the 1930's, 40's, 50's and even the 60's were not the same as the people of today. There was no TV. Reading was a major pastime. Those who were exceptional readers and writers usually had a very wide vocabulary. That's just the way it was. There are many words that were in common usage in the 20th century that are no longer in use. Dialectics is one of those words.
In addition, JVR was European, and Europeans tend to utilize the English language a bit differently than Americans. Europeans will choose their words based on the definition of the word accurately matching the meaning that they are trying to convey. Americans are more prone to using slang and shortcut words to convey meaning.
In a large number of van Rijckenborgh's works, there is always a glossary after the last chapter. In the glossary, "dialectics" is always clearly defined in terms that the Seeker can understand. This glossary definition will be posted.
~ g
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