The mixing of religious and non-religious beliefs in an individual.

discovering the true Elf within..the only "True Self"

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who

dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds

wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the

dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may

act out their dream with open eyes, to make itå

possible”.

            T.E. Lawrence: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

        The spiritual world is “like a Bird of Paradise,

which flieth near the Eye, and toucheth it’s Pupil

with it’s beautiful Wings, and wisheth to be seen.”

             Swedenborg or Blake?

Jesus says..“If thine eye (I), be
single thy whole
body will be filled with light”

so..If your whole body is filled with light your eye,

(I), will be single-minded

     The corollary is also true. If thine eye is not

single you will have darkness within..so let us

examine the light within ad the single eye or I.

or..”bringing every thought into captivity”

2 Corinthians 10:5

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but

mighty through God to the pulling down of strong

holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high

thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of

God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the

obedience of Christ;

        Your True Self (Soul), is not
what you “think”.



Q    What, where, when, and who is the,(your), “True

Self” or Soul..(Sol)

A     Inside everyone of us resides the “true” self..liike sunshine.”

       “The Kingdom of Heaven is Within”

              Jesus

Q     What is the true self?.

A      Pure Light

Q      Where is it?

A      “It” fills the body, very very quietly, like the sun illuminating
an otherwise dark room.

Q       When is it apparent?   When can we notice it or recognize it?

A         Only in the present moment, (our access to eternity is now..
only.)

Q         Who is it?

A          It is the real you, not the fictional person you

think you are, based on life's experiences from birth

(and maybe before birth from impressions absorbed

intrauterine, while we float in that sea of amniotic

fluid, attached by that lifeline to mother).. All

those impressions imprinted on your mind, conscious

and unconscious..all those feelings, memories, images,

interactive relationships, ie father, mother, sister,

brother, friends, enemies..none of these impressions

are or are a part of your True Self..in fact they

cloak the true self and like static in the

attic..that otherwise dark and foreboding room..they

just make noise and demand your attention

      What it is not.,

it is not the body or any of the body’s needs.

It is not our thoughts no matter how lofty they may

be. It is not our accomplishments no matter how

satisfying or no matter how much of our energy and

resources we marshal to achieve our goals and desires

with our so called will power.

    (You really don't have much power in your will as

you shall soon see.)

     In the meantime say to yourself, “I am going to

prove this guy wrong. I do have a will to power”

        I say, well then, use all that awesome will power

to simply concentrate on the second hand on your watch

or the clock on the wall with the thought “I am going

to concentrate all my powers of will, to just watch

that second hand only. I am not going to think about

anything else but that, for an extended period of

time.

        What is almost immediately realized is that

after a very few seconds your mind wanders and you

forget that exercise of will power and whooosh, the

mind begins to wander all over the map. So try

again....same exercise..Ooops, my thoughts go helter

skelter completely out of my control. Verdict? No

will power to do the simplest of tasks.

         (What we do have that we mistake for “will

power”, are strong I’s (inner I’s or inner

personality manifestations..thoughts..images and

imaginings etc.) in our personality..”heavy lifters”

inside, that have been trained by our life

experiences, survival instincts, defense mechanisms,

emotional urges, fits of anger, jealousy and rage

etc. to aggressively “take over” our personalities for

a spell..literally a “spell” or trance like passing

fancy, giving us the “illusory” sensation of will

“power”).



Q     So what in blue blazes is this true self?

A.    It is the only part of you that can objectively

discern or “sensate” the present moment and

simultaneously “witness” and monitor (To Watch! or the

watcher within), the only truly objective observer, or

the impartial witness, to all the infinite variety of

momentary and fleeting internal events, feelings,

thoughts, actions, reactions, decisions, pains,

sorrows, exaltation of joy crashing depressions,

triumphs and failures, Everything! internal!) your

actions and reactions to all the myriad impressions

streaming into you from all the senses and the body's

demands as well. Sometimes it is called “Awareness”,

sometimes “Mind” (not intellect, those are the linear or ceaseless
thought streams), sometimes in the language of psychology
“Consciousness”, in the language of religion it is

called your soul that little God spot, that resilient

and brilliant candlelight within. It is that pure

sense of the present moment unencumbered by thoughts,

feelings, bodily sensations, sensory input, it is the

field of energy that permeates the body/mind, but

since it has no accountability or substance, or

excitability from the senses, (try a sensory

deprivation experiment sometime where all you five

senses are cut off artificially or cloaked or isolated

from your immediate environment....you will go mad in

a very short time..because we are hollow people with

nothing constant inside..no rock to stand on), it has

remained virtually undiscovered by modern psychology

because psychology is preoccupied with behavior

patterns, aberrations, and personal issues. Modern

psychology is designed to make people more efficient

machines better equipped to conform to this mechanized

world of cause and effect..action and reaction..good

and evil dichotomies and moral judgments, sensory data

coming in and responses to that data organized by our

training and education to delver the goods upon

demand.

Q      Why should we care about this so called true self?

It does not seem to have anything to do with our life?

A.      Correct!, it has almost nothing to do with your

existence..except it is your true you..the rest of all

your actions are strictly mechanical..you are

programmed, randomly, (perhaps along with the

celestial influences of the sun, moon and planets and

stars), or religiously if you are a follower of any

particular religion in their teachings gleaned from

other teachers, (although we as born again Christians

do have a distinct advantage if we have a strong and

intimate relationship with Jesus, but that’s a big if

for most)

      Our programming is instilled, absorbed, or

imprinted in a very very sophisticated way.and, like

a machine, we remain predictable in our reactions to

the myriad and random patterns, experiences, sensory

input, thoughts and feelings which we can’t seem to

control. All our bodily needs, all our thought

patterns and emotional distress are dormant and

resident inside, soaked up from our outside world and

all a result of our cultural trappings, via our

senses, in response to data streaming in from the

outside world.. Like “Sponge Bob” himself..we each

are born as sponges soaking up all the spilled

impressions surrounding us at all times.

         Everyone of us are efficient, absorbent,

delightfully complex, and beautiful sponges.

Q      Where did you find out about this idea?

A        I first read about this radical set of ideas ( but

very real and immensely important “IF” one wants to

be set free from any and all illusions about this

“vale of tears” we call Life) ) and concepts first n

the works of P D Ouspensky, a Russian

journalist/mystic/ in his book “In Search of the

Miraculous”, about 45 years ago, and it absolutely

changed my inner world of thoughts, feelings, concepts

about ‘reality” and a whole host of other subjects

including religion and metaphysics.

Q.     What did you do when you first read about this

thing called “the true self”?

A        I began the arduous task of contemplating it,

meditating on it, thinking about it, reading more about it,

and working with others of like mind on deliberate “Waking Up” process.

          I also read and studied “The Fourth Way”,

Ouspensky's later book, which is full of questions and

answers about the system or The Work, or The

Ouspensky/Gurdjieff School

         ”The Work”..and “The School” are names that

have been associated with this unique and unusual

insight into the human condition. (“The Work” and

“The System” or “The Fourth Way” are names given to a

very ancient body of knowledge that usually appears in

history as the “esoteric” teachings, or hidden

teachings or sometimes as I use it   The Ancient Lost Teachings of Jesus
Restored)



        ”“The Work” was chosen as part signifier of

the system which Gurdjieff taught to Ouspensky and

then Ouspensky published in his “In Search of the

Miraculous” which introduced the system to the general

public in the 1930’s.

          “The Fourth Way” is the name given by

Gurdjieff to signify and differentiate this system

from the three other traditional ways that an

individual could attain “Consciousness” development

and spiritual growth. The three traditional ways

required a” retreat” into a special cloistered

environment that was divorced and isolated from ordinary society such
as a monastery, ashram or special schools

dedicated to strict exercises and disciplines away

from the distractions of this world.

   The way of the monk, he way of the yogi, and the way of the fakir,
are the names of those disciplines..the "Fourth Way",

is more exemplified by what we have learned about the

Sufi philosophy..that of “living in the world but not

of it”, and it offers a more wholesome or well rounded

way, where the individual is taught how to use the

friction of everyday life as a tool for psychological leverage, and as a
energy source to convert negative thoughts, feelings and circumstances
into positive internal and vital energetic use in order to “feed” the
“True Self” consciously, with intention and awareness as the operative
and cognitive state of mind. It is a strange but the fact of human
nature that people are very attached to their negative emotions of
morose, melancholy, anger, jealously, hate, greed, suspicion, and even
that big bogey man “lust. They are taught all these feelings from an
early age in the home, school yards, workplace, in the entertainment
industry, newspapers, and even self generated emotions like self pity.
anxieties of all kinds, and so forth. Nowhere are we taught that all
these negative emotions are really not ours in the sense that we can
jettison them at any time and “change our mind” and switch our thoughts
to a positive cannel like using the remote on our TV sets with a push
of a button..but most people revel in their angst and delusions..it
gives them the old familiar sensations that have attached to them from
an early age so they think that all these thoughts and feelings are
theirs..”they own them.”

          The Fourth Way teaches how to “not react”

mechanically or negatively to life's unending

challenges and our seemingly unending negative

thoughts and feelings. To “catch” them before they

can manifest for example. The” catching them” is the

key to the entire system. The speed of emotions and

thoughts is so quick that catching thoughts before

they can manifest is nearly impossible at first. Once

you have developed that “objective self” or that

“detached observer within”..then you have a “Catcher”

equipped to first recognize the incoming missile

(negative thought) and capture it and deflect it and dispel it before it
can manifest itself in a harmful or destructive

form..either to oneself or towards others. Only that

“Catcher” or the detached observer..that true self is

capable of that sudden action that can catch and stop

the “mechanical” reaction of patterned behaviors.

“Conscience” is an aspect of this “Catcher” and has

the feature of “knowing” when an act or a thought or

a feeling is appropriate and can monitor all the

mechanical manifestations whirling around inside each

of us.

     Most people operate on the assumption that

their feelings or thoughts are their own, and that

negativity for example is a normal and natural

condition of the mind..but it is not..it is a learned

condition, a mechanical condition that consumes

tremendous amounts of vital energy needlessly. That

is just one of the basic examples of the value of

the Fourth Way. When one retreats from this world

into “artificial” environments, and monastic orders

one becomes less able to function socially and serve their fellow man
who lives and acts and reacts in normal society.

       There are now many books and many “schools” that have been
established as a result of the Ouspensky/Girdjieff pioneer efforts to
communicate this esoteric modality to the public in the twentieth
century.. This new psychological paradigm and modality (actually it's
very ancient in its’ origins and was taught by the greatest philosophers
in the East and the West even before Christ) has been taught in every
generation of recorded history. It has taken many different “cultural”
forms, and has many different personalities and spokesmen each with a
slightly different vocabulary and choice of words and phrases to share
the penultimate concept to the public at large. The penultimate insight
or the most “inclusive” and “unitarian” “holistic” (think spherical or
think circle), concept that describes the state of mind necessary to
experience this transforming idea, is sometimes found in the most
unlikely places and in the most often overlooked sources.

     An American example is Ralph Waldo Emerson, someone we all have
heard about but unfortunately is now mostly untaught in our haphazard
educational system. Emerson has been marginalized now as an old
fashioned and quaint philosopher of the nineteenth century and has not
been required reading for several generations. But if one returns to
Emerson one will find pearls of wisdom unlike anyone else has had in
recent times, to offer us with his essays of crystal clear observations
and critiques of our society. Emerson's sometimes “mystic” and lofty
remarks are a rich field of study and in fact if one is interested in
the concept of “spiritual illumination” or metaphysics, or
Transcendentalism in general you cannot be better served than Emerson’s
thoughts. Here is an example of Emerson addressing that mystic state of
mind that ennobles the individual to achieve the mountain top point of
view of “the true self” and the “true self’s mental and intellectual
vista.



     “There is one mind common to all men. Every man is an inlet to the
same, and to all of the same. He that is admitted to the right of
reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato had thought
we may think, what a saint has felt, we may feel. what has befallen at
any time any man, he can understand. Who has access to the universal
mind, is party to all that is or can be done., for this is the only and
sovereign agent.

     Of the works of this mind, history is the record...

     The human mind has wrote history, and thus must read it. The
Sphinx must solve her own riddle. If the whole of history is in one
man, it is all to be explained from individual experience...

     Of the universal mind, each man is one more incarnation...”

     Another example of this rare and unfortunately esoteric insight is
found in the writings (difficult and abstract to the extreme), the
twentieth century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In his “Notebooks”
he says..

     “The philosophical I is not the human body or the human soul with
the psychological properties, but the metaphysical subject, the boundary
(not a part) of the world. The human body, my body in particular, is a
part of the world among others, among animals, plants, stones, etc.
etc.

Whoever realizes this will not want to procure a preeminent place for
his own body...

     The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is
the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as
good as dead: his eyes are closed."-Albert Einstein

     So it is not that we do not all have access to this so called
“esoteric” traditions and knowledge and teachings at all. It is simply
that we each need to recognize the value of it. Once we can place a
value on it as any commodity we need (or think we need) we can pay
attention to it and create it inside. It is an act of creation and/or
birth inside. It takes conception to understand it and growth to
develop it,which requires nourishment from healthy sources, just like we
are already familiar with in our organic life we are experiencing..but
the nutrients are something not bestowed by ordinary nature..even though
nature shows us many metaphors that can be studied to facilitate and
remind us of the “transformative” nature of this rare but human
potential.

     Keep in mind the fact that “the true self” is really not connected
to this world in any “appreciable” way. Our senses and our bodily needs
and our emotional needs all are in opposition or at least uninterested
in that mercurial and elusive “true self”. Once we recognize the value
of that unusual state of mind, and desire it for ourselves, above all
else, then we can begin the slow arduous and sometimes painful (we will
have to jettison some very old habits, addictions, patterns of behavior,
routines, mistaken egoistic attitudes and prideful familiar modes of
thinking and feeling, and often in a religious context self
righteousness), process of disciplining and practicing the efforts
mentally, emotionally and intellectually to develop that singular (and
solitary) state of mind. I say solitary because it may require solitary
episodes where we retire or retreat from the bee hive lifestyles and
rat races that all to easily beset us.

     What is the value of that unearthly (and unnatural) state of mind?
Well it is the Liberator..it sets us free form ignorance first of
all..it begins the truly necessary “education” that we need to escape
the truly machine like condition we are all victims of. It has other
names and words to define that true you..it is the hero or heroine..it
is the Jester that can poke fun at ourselves and the misplaced obsessive
appetites of society at large..it is the light within..the hackneyed
term that connotes the desire to transcend this obviously limited and
currently hazardous world we inhabit. It is the divine spark that
illuminates and animates everyone. It is the “Life” that we all talk
about and the biggest and most unsolved question we can ask of ourselves
and it is the mystery of our very existence.

     Now I must add this is not as simple as I seem to make it. There
are many forces, natural as well as super natural acting against the
success of this effort..this set of disciplines and yes this spiritual
warfare. There will be battles and struggles of serious consequence
that may require truly “heroic” individual efforts of very unique
proportions. As you begin the “liberation” from your normal “reality”
beliefs, and as you begin tunneling yourself out of this prison you have
“voluntarily” submitted too, you will begin noticing your fellow
prisoners and their unease with your new found excitement and
enthusiasm, and you just may encounter opposition from your friends and
family members that are rather trapped in their old ways and old
patterns and learned habits, thoughts, values, interests, and
conclusions that feed their particular “reality principle”

    And then there were later books by students

of The Work, like Rodney Collin, who wrote “The Theory

of Celestial Influence.” It is an update of Ouspensky’s works
Ouspensky’s books are somewhat theoretical, but also contain much of a
very practical nature, especially about the fact that we are truly
asleep and how to wake up. Much of what he discusses is the need for a
new source of energy to feed and

nourish our True Self; a new source of energy, a higher yet more subtle
kind of energy that is around us but not needed since we can operate
quite well or at least quite efficiently without it.

to be continued...

Tags: Gurdjieff, Jesus, Self, awakening, conscio0usness, energy, light, pure, self, sun, More…true

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Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on April 24, 2010 at 5:12pm

continued from above..The True Self..

Q “So, why would one care about expending
energy, there is more where that came from?

A Yes energy as we know it at it’s roots
inexhaustible..but our time here is not..there is
much work to do to escape the “normal” reactive
condition of the mindset of humanity..the roots of
the crimes of humanity for example are simply the
reactive mind at work. Envy, greed, hate,
covertness are all manifestations of that mechanical
condition that has enslaved mankind and it has kept
them in that machine like state. Once the “True
Self” is experienced for the first time..these
concepts and ideas and efforts to “Wake Up” become the
rope or lifeline or ladder to higher states of
consciousness and a gradual liberation form the myriad
of destructive manifestations and influences of
others.

Ouspensky and Gurdjieff used the term
“higher hydrogen's” as a term that represented the
subtle kind of energy needed to feed that tiny
newborn (once first conceptualized as an idea then
experienced for the first time), “True Self” (or soul
in religious terms), that is literally born the first
time you experience it in context of this system of
training.
First the concept of a “True Self” is
presented and explained .then an experience of it for
the first time , (birth), then the realization that
it is nearly impossible to experience it again for
more than a few seconds at a time because of our
mechanical nature so dominates our so called
“reality principle”, and we just immediately fall
back into our routines, habits, familiar thought
patterns forms, and familiar reactions and actions,
like a well oiled machine..no different.
Another phenomenon that plagues and
bewilders and befogs the True Self is memory. Memory
actually takes us into the past and away from the
present moment where the True Self exists. The True
Self only exists in the present moment It cannot
exist in the past, thoughts of or about the past, nor
can it exist in the future..thoughts about the future
or even within a thought about “it” in the
present..that's how subtle and difficult it is to
experience it.
In a sense and in the context of the
work, "Time" itself is an illusion that we create by
our linear stream of thoughts..past, present and
future thoughts streaming horizontally through our
minds eye, create the illusion of time. Any access we
can have of "Eternity" can only exist in the present
momnet..the rest is just theoretical and hypothetical
talk, abstract mental games and intellectual
masturbation (s'cuse the metaphor), but in a sense it
is a fantasy of "wondering" about the nature of
time/space/and reality.
The “higher hydrogen's”, (found in abundance in sunlight), or food for that
infant True Self” are unavailable or unnecessary to
function in this world. We have learned to perform
our tasks quite well without that kind of energy, and
given enough rest, exercise, nutrition, and a decent
lifestyle we can go about our business easily and for
an entire lifetime in that asleep state. We are
fabulous machines but still machines.

Q. . “What or Who are some examples of individuals
that have learned how to operate in an awakened or
relatively awakened state?

A Gurdjieef taught that the best we can hope for
in our awakening is to fall under fewer laws,
natural and cosmic, ie societal pressures and data
observed and assimilated from birth as well as the
influences of the sun moon and stars, that govern
humanity.

The best analogy or symbolic ideogram to
picture this human condition is found in the shape of
a triangle form, like the Great Pyramid for example.
Humanity exists in terms of the masses, or the vast
majority of humanity at the bottom of the triangular (four sided)
pyramid. As we wake up we climb that pyramid upward
towards the apex. As we climb we fall under fewer
laws as we develop our being. First lets say we fall
under 120 laws,then after some period ot time of of “self
remembering” we can fall under 96 laws,,then up
another step 75 laws then up to 48 laws and so on
until we reach the top and fall under only One law
and like Jesus, we are it One with the Creator

So we do not know much about anyone that is
fully awake. There we usually point to the examples of
religions and the “miraculous” abilities of a few
Yogi’s or other what seem to anomalies and or people
of geniuses.
In monasteries and ashrams of the far East
there are the stories of those that have achieved
extraordinary faculties and extraordinary physical
and mental feats of transcendence. Yogi’s and Fakirs
have chosen that kind of focus in their inner
disciplines and schools..of which there are many to
choose from.

In the West we have the stories of Jesus and
His disciples and His miraculous life, death and
resurrection, to wonder about.
Ouspensky and Gurdjieff (and many other
proponents of Esoteric Christianity, ie Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Alchemists of old, the concepts and ideas associated with the Quest of the Holy Grail, believed that the
“Great School” is,that mysterious place, where
ancient and sometimes secret teachings, still exist
today. This idea or concept adds that this School is
located and hiding from easy discovery, off the
beaten track. They also believed with good reasons,
that this kind of knowledge is “Esoteric” (hard to
find) for a reason. First of all there is only a
small minority of people that have even heard about
it,or desire it, and also because some of what is
taught contains very powerful psychological insights
and in the wrong hands (heads) it is abused and
misused by those that have a desire to dominate and
control others..as is evidenced by the prime example
of the last century Adolph Hitler who had studied
“religiously” from many “esoteric” texts, teachers,
and sources found in secret societies of his time and
achieved an extraordinary power over others until he
had a whole nation of otherwise intelligent and
enlightened people entranced and for all practical purposes controlled.
But all those kinds of stories are extreme
examples compared with the realization that we are
asleep individually and to a person, and that we can
wake up, once we realize for the first time that we
are sound asleep..that is the big "if" and big
problem..that initial realization, and it is best
realized within the ‘context” of the system, within
the context and the vocabulary of the system itself.
The system was “holistic” in that sense. It was not
perfect but it was entire enough to give the
individual sufficient tools to work with and concepts
and ideas aplenty for the intellect to use to begin
the arduous mad lifelong process of awakening.

“From his death bed Ouspensky implored
Rodney Collin to destroy his work (metaphorically speaking)to allow it to take on a new life, or words to that effect. So he did. He took Ouspensky’s body of knowledge to this hemisphere
where he proceeded to search for clues of an esoteric
or hidden nature in the solar cultures of Mexico and
Peru. What were the subtle forces of nature used to
develop the higher states of consciousness prevalent
within their cultures? How did they learn their concepts and ideas separate from the parallel evolution of the European civilization. (The Mayans for example developed lunar and solar calendars in advance of ours and they in fact invited the concept of Zero that mathematical factor that has streamlined
all of our calculations in math and science?)
From his years of study and research Collin
wrote his opus, “The Theory of Celestial Influence”.
This book was a tremendous advance of Ouspensky’s
earlier works documenting more recent scientific
discoveries about bio-energetics, human psychology and
mental exercises that Collin discovered in Mexico and
Peru, because of his interest in the ancient solar
cultures and their application and discussion in their
writings and hieroglyphs of many aspects of “the
system” that existed in antiquity, He (Collin) goes
on to combine and compare these insights with the Holy
Scriptures, especially those taught by the bible and
held in reverence inside what we call Christianity,
and the often coded words of Jesus appearing in the
New Testament like “If thine eye be single thy whole body will be filled with light”, and

“My yoke (yoga) is easy my work is light”.

( all this writing about "the True Self" is foundational and introductory to the system I learned in Peru that carries these ideas and concepts into a more rarefied study of the effects of direct sunlight into the eyes to feed our "true self" or in
the religious terminology our Soul (Sol).)
If you are content with that state of
existence..read no further.

The following is aimed at the Christian community..those that have had a “born again” experience and have a relationship with the person Jesus but have a need for more instruction on how to “clean the house” inside so that the Holy Spirit can occupy that inner place with more of itself

Have you noticed how difficult it is to maintain
your faith as a constant, daily, hourly, yearly?
Have you tried and tried to stay constant
(continuously without interruption or hesitation or
doubt), in your desire for an intimate relationship
with Jesus? After being inspired in a meeting with
fellow Christians, or by watching a beautiful sunset
or suddenly to understand a bible verse in a new way,
you are suddenly plunged into the sea of pride, self
righteousness, anger, irritation, jealousy, covetous,
or any of the other countless urges, negative
attitudes and fears that so easily beset us? Of
course. That is because we have little real control
over the squirrel cage we call the mind. Why is that?
Because we are sponges and need to be squeezed dry
dually, hourly and minute by minute in order to be
free to learn what God is showering us with
constantly.
God is always offering us or doing a “new thing”
in our lives. He (the Father side of Him there is
also the Mother side but more of that side later),
wants us to grow in Wisdom and knowledge and
especially Wisdom. In order to grow we need His pure
sunshine in daily doses.

Like the manna, an early symbolic nutrient described in the book of Exodus of the Old Testament, in our history as children of God, the Israelites, were given every morning, when it fell like dew, as they marched and camped, in their crossing of the the desert, organized as tribes, and trekking, as a vast army, over mountains and through deserts and valleys, under the burning desert sun on their forty year exodus to their destination that land of promise.
That miraculous manna is symbolic of the divine
food we need as we trek through life headed for that
promised land of eternal peace and light. The manna
was stored with the rest of the most important
“symbolic” keepsakes, inside the ark, the most holy
and powerful, (and dangerous because it housed
judgment against Israel's enemies as well as against
Israel herself.) physical collection of objects
decreed by Jehovah (YHVH more precisely) to Moses for
their guidance and correction. Today we have the
distinction and privilege of having the Holy Spirit
and Jesus Himself to empower and transform us and
correct us and strengthen us. Keep in mind though
that the Ark, (Of Moses), had very real “powers”
within it, and those same powers are necessary for our
growth and maturity today as we stumble across life's
deserts, mountains and valleys towards our ultimate
destination “the promised land” where the lion shall
lie down with the lamb in Peace forever..
The manna was “symbolically” stored inside the Ark of the
Covenant, in a container or urn made of gold. Gold
represents our spiritual self our divine and heavenly
gift and it also represents the sun in its daily supply of physical and spiritual nutrition. More about that later.
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim
and came to the Desert called Sin,, which is between Elim
and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month
after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the
whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The
Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the
Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat
and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought
us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly
to death." Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain
down bread from heaven (Here is one of the many titles
and names that are given to Jesus when He made
manifest the powers of God to the entire world), for
you. The people are to go out each day and gather
enough for that day. In this way I will test them and
see whether they will follow my instructions. On the
sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and
that is to be twice as much as they gather on the
other days." , (that is of course so that they had the
day of rest..Sun Day we call it today) So Moses and
Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you
will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of
Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of
the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against
him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"
Moses also said, "You will know that it was the Lord
when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all
the bread you want in the morning, because he has
heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are
not grumbling against us, but against the Lord." Then
Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite
community, 'Come before the Lord, for he has heard
your grumbling.'" While Aaron was speaking to the
whole Israelite community, they looked toward the
desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing
in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, "I have heard
the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At
twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you
will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I
am the Lord your God.'"

That evening quail came and covered the camp, and
in the morning there was a layer of dew around the
camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost
on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the
Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is
it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to
them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each one is to
gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each
person you have in your tent.'" The Israelites did as
they were told; some gathered much, some little. And
when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered
much did not have too much, and he who gathered little
did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as
he needed. Then Moses said to them, "No one is to
keep any of it until morning." However, some of them
paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until
morning, but it was full of maggots and began to
smell. (this is to show us that eating the “spiritual”
food that God gives us is a daily act and not a
occasional event..we need to work at it daily;y in
order to grow spiritually). So Moses was angry with
them. Each morning everyone gathered as much as he
needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away
So the Sun governs our spiritual diet and forces us to
require the “manna” every morning).

On the sixth day, they gathered twice as
much--two omers for each person--and the leaders of
the community came and reported this to Moses. He
said to them, "This is what the Lord commanded:
'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to
the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what
you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it
until morning.'" So they saved it until morning, as
Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots
in it. "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is
a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on
the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but
on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be
any." Nevertheless, some of the people went out on
the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse
to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind
that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why
on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days.
Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no
one is to go out." So the people rested on the
seventh day. The people of Israel called the bread
manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted
like wafers made with honey.

Moses said, "This is what the Lord has commanded:
'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations
to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat
in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.'" So
Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar and put an omer of
manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept
for the generations to come." As the Lord commanded
Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony,
(more about this fabulous thing later), that it might
be kept The Israelites ate manna forty years, until
they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna
until they reached the border of Canaan.
(An omer is one tenth of an ephah.)

Ex 16:31 -
The people of Israel called the bread manna. It
was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers
made with honey.

Ex 16:32 -
Moses said, "This is what the Lord has commanded:
'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations
to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat
in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.'"

Ex 16:33 -
So Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar (of pure
gold, symbolic of the sun) and put an omer of manna in
it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the
generations to come."

Ex 16:34 -
As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna
in front of the Testimony, that it might be kept.

Judge 8:3 -
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then
feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your
fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live
on bread alone but on every word that comes from the
mouth of the Lord.

John 6:31 -
Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it
is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

John 6:58 -
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your
forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on
this bread will live forever."

Re 2:17 -
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will
give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a
white stone with a new name written on it, known only
to him who receives it.
(More about this awesome white stone later)

The light of God is also considered as "the bread
of God":

JN 6:33-35 "The bread of God is he who cometh down
from heaven, and giveth life unto the world… I [the
Christ] am the bread of life; he that cometh to me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst.."

There are many symbols in the cavalcade of
Christianity that have been applied within the
orthodox church such a that the symbolic communion
wafers were made circular and had a cross on them
simply because they represented the sun, "the bread of
God".

MT 6:22 The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of
light.

LK 11:34 The lamp of thy body is thine eye (inner eye
that is), : when thine eye is single, thy whole body
also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body
also is full of darkness.

LK 11:36 If therefore thy whole body be full of light,
having no part dark, it shall be wholly full of light,
as when the lamp with its bright shining doth give
thee light.

The Sun is a divine object for visual veneration and contemplation..the portal to our "finishing school".

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Khem the Is Real-ite on April 24, 2010 at 9:42pm

The corollary is also true. If thine eye is not single you will have darkness within
--Incorrect usage of the word "corollary".

What it is not.,
it is not the body or any of the body’s needs.

--Incorrect. The self is nothing but the body. The "soul" is the "image" (abstract significance) of the body.

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Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on April 25, 2010 at 6:38am

I find that interesting..pnderingly so.....so... looking at the sun fills my body/soul with light..so when this bod finally ages to the max and my breath stops..heart stops..brain stops..then what happens to it?

Scenario #1

Then they put it gently into a casket (redwood preferably), and the women (including grandaughters), play their casketnets and dance on my coffin with their "prearranged" golden tap slippers, while the vendors pass through the crowd hawking pictures (autographed of course) of my body photo shopped to look like a thirty year old, (all monies to go to the support and maintennence of the two Republics of New Canaanada and the then thriving and robust New JerUSAlem Amusement Estates Benevolence Fund), ), and they lower the said coffin into that six foot by seven foot by 31/2 foot cavity and down that body goes until it rest gently upon that off brown earth..then the dirt and lots of it.

After a few days..(probobly seven), of this pitch black darkness and silence, the advance party of worm scouts discover that redwood casket (pocked with the tap tap tap marks left by the frolicking women and grandaughters' golden slippers), crawl into (worm their way), into that coffin and fulfill the prophetic "ditty", "then all is well for about a week and then the coffin begins to leak.. the worms crawl out the worms play pinochle on my snout", and begin the gnawing and the chewing until they are stopped dead in their tracks by bones all neatly joined together into that awesome "prearranged" skeletal structure (the flesh has been by now churned and chewed into worm fesces..Oh Yuk!), and then my skull...Oh that Temple...

an alternative view..#2...

My luminous soul now entirely grown up by the steady diet of light and not only filling the contours of this heap of bones encumbered by fleshy parts, but pulsating and throbbing outside the bodily frame and contours has become one..er..ONE with my Creator in His concoction "light soup"

or better yet...#3...

my true body lives outside of this space/time paradigm but is made of a finer substance than what is available down here, and it is the true form for the true self that I speak of, and it is the eternal form..the preexistent form that my current framework is but a "abstract of"

please pick a viewpoint that I can live with..thanks..er..thanks a lot.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on April 25, 2010 at 11:05am

The Foiurth Way..the 4th option..once this dense, gravity laden,, solar/lunar..space/time matrix is slughed off..

Solar Wind: Scripture: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4
Scripture: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4

As a goldsmith fashions an old ornament into a new and more beautiful one, so the Self, having reached the end of the last life and dispelling all ignorance, makes for himself a new, more beautiful shape, like that of the devas or other celestial beings.

this sounds groovy..too many choices..as usual..maybe throw a dart?

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Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on April 25, 2010 at 11:13am

The corollary is also true. If thine eye is not single you will have darkness within
--Incorrect usage of the word "corollary". (Khem says)

Hmmmmmm

corollary (sinonyms)
noun
job losses are the unfortunate corollary of budget cutting... consequence, result, end result, upshot, effect, repercussion, product, by-product, offshoot.

Here Khem... pick one that fits your life experience..

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Permalink Reply by Robert DeFord on June 30, 2011 at 8:06pm

khem..does all the activity inside the body have anything to do with the soul?

All the systems..plumbing, nervous, lymphatic, brain, subtle energetic systems..aka chakras, all that activity..is it all ..soulish?

Or is the soul totally independant of all that activity?

Does the soul have its own systems? LIght channels?

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Permalink Reply by Khem the Is Real-ite on June 30, 2011 at 8:29pm

Nope. The Soul is the Image of the Body, nothing more. It is entirely independant of the body's functions. The Soul must be "born again" into a "soul-body" in order to be capable of volition. (What's born of the flesh is flesh, what's born of the spirit is spirit). This is why discussions of "neurology" in relation to the soul will lead nowhere.

As for the body's innards, if you are observant you will see that "death" can be defined as "when the inside comes out". When the "blood is spilled", for example. Even semen (the French: le petit mort).

This is true for the Spirit as well.