"Light on the Path" by M.C.

[manitou]

The wonderful thing about all these old dead guys is that is either resonates or it doesn't. If it resonates, use it!

[manitou]

Here are the first four Precepts in "Light on the Path" that Ramacharaka comments on:

 

 

1. Kill out ambition

 

2. Kill out desire of life.

 

3. Kill out desire of comfort

 

4. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those who desire it. Be happy as those are who live for happiness.

 

 

Ramacharaka's next paragraph is as follows:

 

"Much of the occult truth is written in the form of paradox - showing both sides of the shield. This is in accordance with nature's plan. All statements of truth are but partial statements - there are two good sides to every argument - any bit of truth is but a half-truth, hunt diligently enough and you will find the opposite half - everything "is and it isn't" - any full statement of truth must of necessity be paradoxical. This because our finite point-of-view enables us to see but one side of a subject at a time. From the point of view of the infinite, all sides are seen at the same time - all points of a blobe being visible to the infinite seer, who is also able to see through the globe as well as around it.

 

"The above mentioned four precepts are illustrations of this law of paradox. They are generally dismissed as non-understandable by the average person who reads them. And yet they are quite reasonable and absolutely true. Let us consider them.

 

"The key to the understanding of these (and all) truths, lies in the ability to distinguish between the "relative" or lower, point of view, and the "absolute" or higher, one. Remember this well, for it will help you to see into many a dark corner - to make easy many a hard saying. Let us apply the test to these four precepts...."

[dwai]

Here are the first four Precepts in "Light on the Path" that Ramacharaka comments on:

 

 

1. Kill out ambition

 

2. Kill out desire of life.

 

3. Kill out desire of comfort

 

4. Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those who desire it. Be happy as those are who live for happiness.

 

 

Ramacharaka's next paragraph is as follows:

 

"Much of the occult truth is written in the form of paradox - showing both sides of the shield. This is in accordance with nature's plan. All statements of truth are but partial statements - there are two good sides to every argument - any bit of truth is but a half-truth, hunt diligently enough and you will find the opposite half - everything "is and it isn't" - any full statement of truth must of necessity be paradoxical. This because our finite point-of-view enables us to see but one side of a subject at a time. From the point of view of the infinite, all sides are seen at the same time - all points of a blobe being visible to the infinite seer, who is also able to see through the globe as well as around it.

 

"The above mentioned four precepts are illustrations of this law of paradox. They are generally dismissed as non-understandable by the average person who reads them. And yet they are quite reasonable and absolutely true. Let us consider them.

 

"The key to the understanding of these (and all) truths, lies in the ability to distinguish between the "relative" or lower, point of view, and the "absolute" or higher, one. Remember this well, for it will help you to see into many a dark corner - to make easy many a hard saying. Let us apply the test to these four precepts...."

 

Relative and absolute...a very relevant aspect of nondual teachings...its so simple a oncept, yet the conditioned mind tends to forget. I interacted with a brilliant philopspher-physicist-practitioner of advaita vedanta and madhyamika (dr. Ramakrishna puligandla) who breaks this down so simply....

 

If all this is that ( the indivisible, unfatomable, indescribable one), all mode of acquiring knowlege of its various aspects and manifestations have to be relative to the framework that is used to acquire the knowledge...to label (name) and describe the forms (call it a categoricl framework). The " truth" realized via each of these frameworks is relative to the oundaries of the framework itself. So realitve truth or relative reality is always in context of one or more frameworks. Absolute s without frameworks...it is therefore described as silence, tao, brahman, etc.

[steve]

I haven't gotten to the Bushmen part but it seems to me that this guy (Atkinson, Ramacharaka - whatever) learned this lesson of relative vs absolute. But it feels like he had direct experience that resonates deeply with my own experience. That's the connection I think m is referring to.

 

I want to say back to him -

 

Namaste

 

_/\_

 

But it's still some white American guy who was a Baltimoron (as am I - born and bred) who was a product of his conditioning and not yet fully purged - are we ever?? anyone want to cast a stone?

Every great guru who has lived within our lifetimes can be picked apart.

It's only those beyond direct contact who are above reproach.

So take it with a grain of salt, but I think the author (or whomever he copied from) had real cred.

[suninmyeyes]

I haven't gotten to the Bushmen part but it seems to me that this guy (Atkinson, Ramacharaka - whatever) learned this lesson of relative vs absolute. But it feels like he had direct experience that resonates deeply with my own experience. That's the connection I think m is referring to.

 

I want to say back to him -

 

Namaste

 

_/\_

 

But it's still some white American guy who was a Baltimoron (as am I - born and bred) who was a product of his conditioning and not yet fully purged - are we ever?? anyone want to cast a stone?

Every great guru who has lived within our lifetimes can be picked apart.

It's only those beyond direct contact who are above reproach.

So take it with a grain of salt, but I think the author (or whomever he copied from) had real cred.

I can see your point about fellow Baltimoron practicioner and resonating, it makes sense .

Just to make clear - what I was doing by writing above was not judging and trying to cast the stone or pick him apart ,but simply pointing out the fact that the guy lacks serious depth(IMO) and discussing my view(this being a disscusion board). There is a difference.

Purley becouse if he is going to discuss the nature of the mind and keep on coming with examples as mentioned previously(plus some other stuff I saw further on), for me it is an important part and simply invalid and it shows lack of understanding at a very important fundamental point no matter what era.

 

At the same time this is not to diss him or to say that there is no wisdom whatsoever coming through him and that he has no understanding. That I dont know as I havent read him enough. There definetly is some good stuff written too , so plenty to pick and choose from if one likes the flavour.

 

I guess it is about resonating as manitou said(not only with dead guys, but with everything).

[manitou]

I remember watching the movie Ghandi some time back. I have a particular memory of one scene. I think it was a reporter or someone who was being hosted by Ghandi around the compound that he lived in, and the reporter said something like "My! You're ambitious!"

 

Ghandi turned to him, smiling, and said "I certainly hope not."

 

KILL out Desire for Life. We've discussed this a lot on this forum lately. He's talking about our attachments, thinking somehow that they are "life" when they are not. When we get down to the Eternal within us there is no clinging to life out of fear. There is just loving it. We realize that consciousness doesn't stop just because the skin bag is gone. As the Toltecs would say, we are the skinwalkers at this point in time.

 

Kill out desire for comfort. In this context, I would guess that the desire for comfort stems from a selfish motive. Comfort too is an attachment. If we walk through life I think M.C. is saying to embrace everything as if it is all One. There is no 'good' or 'bad' happening to anything. It just is. We could say it's a bad thing because someone close to us dies, for example, but does the Dao care about the individual? I don't think so. I think we're all straw dogs, and the rain falls equally on all of us. The love of the Dao, the Void, that treasure that the Sage possesses: it covers all beings, seemingly good or seemingly bad. It becomes our challenge to unpeel the onion and find the Eternal. It's there in all of us.

 

And yet, she is not saying to sit on a couch and contemplate our navels. She's saying that we should thrust ourselves into life with the full enthusiasm of one who desires it out of fear, although we have none. To be happy (as those who live for happiness) this too is found at the Center. Searching for 'happiness' is replaced by a true Joy that remains with us constantly, sometimes overwhelmingly.

Edited October 10, 2011 by manitou

[manitou]

A further paragraph is emphasized in the Light On the Path book. I think this is beautiful -

 

"Seek in the heart the source of evil, and expunge it. It lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple, as well as in the heart of the man of desire. Only the strong can kill it out. The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death. And it is a plant that lives and increases throughout the ages. It flowers when the man has accumulated unto himself innumerable existences. He who will enter upon the path of power must tear this thing out of his heart. And then the heart will bleed, and the whole life of the man seem to be utterly dissolved. This ordeal must be endured; it may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life; it may not come until the last. But, O disciple, remember that it has to be endured, and fasten the energies of your soul upon the task. Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal. This giant weed cannot flower there; this blot upon existence is wiped out by the very atmosphere of eternal thought."

 

 

It's difficult for me to think in terms of 'good and evil', as the first sentence says; again, I think this goes more to when the book was written than anything. I think part of living in the eternal is not to make judgments as to good and evil. But my personal 'evil' is selfish thinking, arrogance, pushiness, and negativity in general. This is my natural state of being, or it was. It is through pursuing my own personal demons (and continuing to do so) that the eternal thought can finally be attained.

[manitou]

Before going to precepts 5 through 8, there is a wonderful discussion of our own nature and how to modify it. I've posted this before, but it bears reposting in this context.

 

"The brute instinct are still with us, constantly forcing themselves into our field of thought. Occultists learn to curb and control these lower instincts, subordinating them to the higher mental ideals which unfold into the field of consciousness. Do not be discouraged if you still find that you have much of the animal within your nature - we all have - the only difference is that some of us have learned to control the brute, and to keep him in leash and subordinate and obedient to the higher parts of our nature, while others allow the beast to rule them, and they shiver and turn pale when he shows his teeth, not seeming to realize that a firm demeanor and a calm mind will cause the beast to retreat to his corner and allow himself to be kept behind bars.

 

If you find constant manifestations of the beast within you, struggling to be free and to assert his old power, do not be disturbed. This is no sign of weakness, but is really an indication that your spiritual growth has begun. For whereas you now recognize the brute, and feel ashamed, you formerly did not realize his presence - were not aware of his existence, for you were the brute himself. It is only because you are trying to divorce yourself from him, that you feel ashamed of his presence. You cannot see him until you begin to be "different" from him.

 

Learn to be a tamer of wild beasts, for you have a whole menagerie within you. The lion; the tiger; the hyena; the ape; the pig; the peacock, and all the rest are there, constantly showing forth some of their characteristics. Do not fear them - smile at them when they show themselves - for you are stronger than they, and can bring them to subjection - and their appearance is useful to you in the way of instructing you as to their existence. They are an amusing lot, when you have reached the stage where you are able to practically stand aside and see them perform their tricks, and go through their antics. You then feel strongly that they are not YOU, but something apart from you - something from which you are becoming rapidly divorced. Do not worry about the beasts - for you are the master.

[steve]

I just finished the commentary on the little book. The next section is on Karma Yoga.

I really like the book. The author speaks to me very directly.

You do need to look past some minor weaknesses like some of the evolutionary and militaristic language.

It sounds a bit Bhagavad Gita what with the battle and warrior references.

But it speaks directly to my personal experience of the relative and absolute and how to take that as a foundation and build - well I hope that's where it goes, I'm only about 1/3 done. I was busy this past week.

Definitely a worthwhile read.

[manitou]

Every book I've ever read that changed my life was found at a yard sale.

 

This was one of them.

 

I'm going to continue with the discussion of the precepts in this thread, but I don't think anybody's reading it. I just like the paradoxes it expresses.

[manitou]

5. Kill out all sense of separateness.

 

6. Kill out desire for sensation.

 

7. Kill out the hunger for growth.

 

8. Yet stand alone and isolated, because nothing that is embodied, nothing that is conscious of separation, nothing that is out of the eternal can aid you. Learn from sensation, and observe it; because only so can you commence the science of self-knowledge, and plant your foot on the first step of the ladder. Grow as the flower grows, unconsciously, but eagerly anxious to open its soul to the air. So must you press forward to open your soul to the eternal. But it must be the eternal that draws forth your strength and beauty, not desire of growth. For, in the one case, you develop in the luxuriance of purity; in the other, you harden by the forcible passion for personal stature.

 

Any discussion?

[manitou]

Okay, no bites. So I'm just going to keep rattling on from my own limited perspective.

 

Kill out all sense of separateness. Kill our feeling of terminal uniqueness. If we buy the Oneness thing, then this all makes sense. We are all One entity, one discovers after years of inner work has been done. I like to imagine that we are all laying down on the sun, on our backs. (Ouch, I know). We have a cloudy lens that, if it were cleared up, would allow the sun's rays to extend through us and out into the universe. It is our choice within this lifetime whether we want to go to the trouble of cleaning the lens or not. There are lots of ways to do this; but without doing it in some way, the clarity will never occur and the sun's ray will never be able to shine through you.

 

Killing out sense of separateness also involves subjugating ego. We love to feel that we are terminally unique, that there's no one else like us. Sure, that's true to a point, but the inner Essence that the seeker finds turns out to be a communal phenomena which is all connected, one to another.

 

 

Kill out desire for sensation. Throughout the many years I've been involved in the Search, it's easy to get sidetracked by the things that do produce sensation. Visions are nice, lucid dreams are nice, kundalini rising is nice to know it's happening to you, but not always so nice to live with. Many meditations are geared toward causing sensational results 'out in space', as it were, but it's my opinion that it's easy to get distracted with what all the funny little things the body and mind can do; I'm just a firm believer in doing inner mining and finding that lump of gold that sits at the bottom of all the personality contortions.

 

Kill out the hunger for growth. Wow, does that apply to the TaoBums, or what? Our egos get all involved when we banter back and forth, and I think this has two sides to it too. On one hand, our communal consciousness is spiraling up; at least, I 'feel' at some level that it is. I think what's done that is the fact that we all come from different starting points and our ideas bounce off one another, leading the evolution ever upward. The other side of this, though, is that our periodic ego-contests are the very tools that we can use to subjugate ego, to our benefit. Maybe to periodically swallow our ego, not say something unkind that we initially want to post to someone who disagrees with us. What funny critters we are....competitive little smurfs.

 

I won't comment on precept 8, as it's so very clear on its surface. But I am particularly taken with the last sentence: "For, in the one case, you develop in the luxuriance of purity; in the other, you harden by the forcible passion for personal stature". Wow. The lens will never clear up by forcible passion for personal stature.

[manitou]

9. Desire only that which is within you.

 

10. Desire only that which is beyond you.

 

11. Desire only that which is unattainable.

 

12. For within you is the light of the world, the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you; because when you reach it, you have lost yourself. It is unattainable, because it forever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame.

 

Yogi Ramacharaka follows up these precepts with the following comments:

 

"These four precepts form another of the many paradoxes contained in the wonderful little manual upon which we are commenting. To those who have not found its key, these four precepts seem strangely contradictory and "wild." To be told to desire a thing that is within you - and yet beyond you - and which is unattainable, seems ridiculous to the average man on the street. But, when one has the key, the teachings seem very plain and beautiful.

 

"The four precepts refer to the unfoldment of Spiritual Consciousness - Illumination - which we attempted to faintly describe in our first series of lessons (The Fourteen Lessons). This is the first great attainment before us on the path. It means everything to the occultist at this stage of the journey, for it takes him from the plane of mere "belief" or intellectual acquiescence, on to the plane where he knows that he IS.

 

"It does not endow him permanently with universal knowledge, but it gives him that consciousness of real spiritual existence, compared to which every other experience and knowledge sinks into nothing. It brings one face-to-face (perhaps only for a moment) with the Real Self, and the great Reality of which that Self is but a part.

 

"This state of consciousness is the great prize which is awaiting the efforts of the race to free itself, and it is a reward worth many lives of unfoldment to attain."

[3bob]

9. Desire only that which is within you.

 

10. Desire only that which is beyond you.

 

11. Desire only that which is unattainable.

 

12. For within you is the light of the world, the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you; because when you reach it, you have lost yourself. It is unattainable, because it forever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame.

 

Yogi Ramacharaka follows up these precepts with the following comments:

 

"These four precepts form another of the many paradoxes contained in the wonderful little manual upon which we are commenting. To those who have not found its key, these four precepts seem strangely contradictory and "wild." To be told to desire a thing that is within you - and yet beyond you - and which is unattainable, seems ridiculous to the average man on the street. But, when one has the key, the teachings seem very plain and beautiful.

 

"The four precepts refer to the unfoldment of Spiritual Consciousness - Illumination - which we attempted to faintly describe in our first series of lessons (The Fourteen Lessons). This is the first great attainment before us on the path. It means everything to the occultist at this stage of the journey, for it takes him from the plane of mere "belief" or intellectual acquiescence, on to the plane where he knows that he IS.

 

"It does not endow him permanently with universal knowledge, but it gives him that consciousness of real spiritual existence, compared to which every other experience and knowledge sinks into nothing. It brings one face-to-face (perhaps only for a moment) with the Real Self, and the great Reality of which that Self is but a part.

 

"This state of consciousness is the great prize which is awaiting the efforts of the race to free itself, and it is a reward worth many lives of unfoldment to attain."

 

"...You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame."

 

Why, because all memories and or weavings are consumed inside that flame... and only one out of a billion of us may be ready to return all that way? (which is ok)

[manitou]

"...You will enter the light, but you will never touch the flame."

 

Why, because all memories and or weavings are consumed inside that flame... and only one out of a billion of us may be ready to return all that way? (which is ok)

 

Why can we never touch the flame? Great question, hotshot

 

Let's figure it out. What is the flame, anyway? I knew an enlightened old man many years ago that told me there were souls in the sun. I don't know what the hell me meant by that. I have consternated over this particular thing he said for the past 30 years. It's always in the back of my mind as a possibility, though. After all, we are, at our base, made from stardust. We are the sun in a cooled and modified state.

 

I guess maybe because we're an Emanation of the Sun, as the supreme metaphor. Or perhaps it's not really a metaphor at all! Perhaps what M.C. Collins meant was that we can never touch the sun WHILE IN BODY. Perhaps that's where the collective souls accumulate and mingle in the collective consciousness while out of body.

 

Or not.

[Jeff]

Why can we never touch the flame? Great question, hotshot

 

Let's figure it out. What is the flame, anyway? I knew an enlightened old man many years ago that told me there were souls in the sun. I don't know what the hell me meant by that. I have consternated over this particular thing he said for the past 30 years. It's always in the back of my mind as a possibility, though. After all, we are, at our base, made from stardust. We are the sun in a cooled and modified state.

 

I guess maybe because we're an Emanation of the Sun, as the supreme metaphor. Or perhaps it's not really a metaphor at all! Perhaps what M.C. Collins meant was that we can never touch the sun WHILE IN BODY. Perhaps that's where the collective souls accumulate and mingle in the collective consciousness while out of body.

 

Or not.

 

Consider that you are the light... The closer to the flame, the less perceived separation and the less of "you"...

 

[manitou]

Consider that you are the light... The closer to the flame, the less perceived separation and the less of "you"...

 

 

 

Nice. I know on my own inner journey, the light does keep receding. It has been so for many years. As you say, we are the light...we are the emanation of light from that which emits. It is this 'emitter-mind' that we cannot fathom, other than to realize we are acting out and interacting that which it wants to realize. Real-ize.

 

The room where all paths meet, this forum.

[3bob]

Why can we never touch the flame? Great question, hotshot

 

Let's figure it out. What is the flame, anyway? I knew an enlightened old man many years ago that told me there were souls in the sun. I don't know what the hell me meant by that. I have consternated over this particular thing he said for the past 30 years. It's always in the back of my mind as a possibility, though. After all, we are, at our base, made from stardust. We are the sun in a cooled and modified state.

 

I guess maybe because we're an Emanation of the Sun, as the supreme metaphor. Or perhaps it's not really a metaphor at all! Perhaps what M.C. Collins meant was that we can never touch the sun WHILE IN BODY. Perhaps that's where the collective souls accumulate and mingle in the collective consciousness while out of body.

 

Or not.

 

 

hot shot, good one.

 

Yes, there are souls in the sun so to speak, (and visiter passes are possible) but a sun like ours is only a young daughter of the Great Central Sun or Great "Flame" - as I interpreted the qutoed saying earlier. Anyway, weavings of light are still weavings,(or souls) and to go beyond the weaver and weavings can not really be spoken of (especailly by an un-qualified beginner like me) although one can find attempts from those qualified who making alludings to such.

 

Om

Edited November 3, 2011 by 3bob

[3bob]

"visiter passes": Partly made possible by and thus given with a certain degree of involvement of the Master/Saints of those realms... for passage through the related Elder Beings or stern Guardians is not taken lightly!

[manitou]

Not such a beginner, methinks.

 

Can you speak a little more about your understanding, in any context, of souls in the sun? My feeling is that the eternal flame inside us is a chunk of the sun; do you ever wonder if the sun is an accumulation of the stream of consciousness, the gathering place of the disembodied souls both before and after us here?

 

And perhaps our living sun is merely a break-off from the other suns, the other living accumulations, which are somehow part of an ever grander Whole. If not accumulations on this plane of existence, then perhaps the Tao's Intent is contained within the magical fire of the sun. Perhaps it is the 'fire of passion' which is the very evolutionary / creationary spirit that lies within all and causes it to spiral upward toward the sun. Man's cumulative spirituality and understanding of himself. Because at the base of himself, lo and behold, we find the eternal flame, if we are earnest in our search.

[3bob]

Not such a beginner, methinks.

 

Can you speak a little more about your understanding, in any context, of souls in the sun? My feeling is that the eternal flame inside us is a chunk of the sun; do you ever wonder if the sun is an accumulation of the stream of consciousness, the gathering place of the disembodied souls both before and after us here?

 

And perhaps our living sun is merely a break-off from the other suns, the other living accumulations, which are somehow part of an ever grander Whole. If not accumulations on this plane of existence, then perhaps the Tao's Intent is contained within the magical fire of the sun. Perhaps it is the 'fire of passion' which is the very evolutionary / creationary spirit that lies within all and causes it to spiral upward toward the sun. Man's cumulative spirituality and understanding of himself. Because at the base of himself, lo and behold, we find the eternal flame, if we are earnest in our search.

 

Hello Manitou,

 

There are vast myriads of suns and souls!! I'd say that those mature souls are not "disembodied" in the sense of some of the connotations that that word might give for they (and we) are unique soul-light-bodies that all the other forms of 'body' depend upon. Thus in another sense or manner of speaking when we forget our soul we are then more or less soul-disembodied from such spiritual identity because of various veils. (which also have a purpose)

 

Learning there is like learning at the speed of light. (or faster) All is and all are connected, they sing together in harmony; the sun is an intense transformer and also a circuit or path to its source, a path which continues on and on until reaching the roaring silence of Om Itself. The accumalations you speak of to me are the pooling of the life force by like Beings, and in the sun there is no interference, no resistance, nothing unclean there to try and steal or break the Beauty... (as sometimes happens in other realms)

 

I don't know much about a lot... but I do know that what is inside the heart of the grand weaver is also inside our hearts, thus there is no difference in the quintessential nature of that Spirit or "flame" if you prefer. Further, that is why no ture lord or master can ever "lord it over on another" Being or prevent the Spirit from reaching Itself.

 

Om

Edited November 4, 2011 by 3bob

[manitou]

the sun is an intense transformer and also a circuit or path to its source, a path which continues on and on until reaching the roaring silence of Om Itself.

 

 

Very nice. The same could be said of us; we're an intense transformer on a path to its source. Macro / micro.

[3bob]

Very nice. The same could be said of us; we're an intense transformer on a path to its source. Macro / micro.

 

Yes, and what also takes one by surprize is that it is not really a matter of time, or in the future... maybe it could be called a double un-bind.

 

A tiny excerpt from what to me is the profound Khandogya upanishad:

 

(6th Khanda)

 

"...5. Rik is the white light of the sun, Sâman the blue exceeding darkness (in the sun). This Sâman (darkness) rests on that Rik (brightness). Therefore the Sâman is sung as resting on the Rik.

 

6. Sâ is the white light of the sun, ama the blue exceeding darkness, and that makes Sâma. Now that golden person, who is seen within the sun, with golden beard and golden hair, golden altogether to the very tips of his nails,

 

7. Whose eyes are like blue lotus's, his name is ut, for he has risen (udita) above all evil. He also who knows this, rises above all evil.

 

8. Rik and Sâman are his joints, and therefore he is udgîtha. And therefore he who praises him (the ut) is called the Ud-gâtri (the out-singer). He (the golden person, called ut) is lord of the worlds beyond that (sun), and of all the wishes of the Devas (inhabiting those worlds)..."

 

Om

 

Edited November 4, 2011 by 3bob

[manitou]

That is wonderful. Going along with the micro part of this, think about the blue at the bottom of the flame when you strike a match - same thing.

 

I think the golden person referred to in #7 has risen above all for two reasons. First, he no longer sees things as 'good' or 'evil' at all; it all just is a different phase of creation, happening now. Good and evil aren't separate, not really; as they are opposite sides of the same coin. The golden person has often traveled through the illusion of good and evil, has transcended it. Perhaps his path has taken him through it several times over.

 

But in the end, the golden person realizes that there's nothing of value here to have at all, other than loving Awareness. Love is nice, obviously....but love is only a reflection of what the golden person already has in his heart. He 'feels' love for everything even if he doesn't have a specific one on which to lavish it. He is One in himself and has his provision cart with him, always. the Taoistic traveler.

[manitou]

These precepts number 20 - I forgot to mention earlier. Here's precepts 13 through 16:

 

13. Desire power ardently

 

14. Desire peace fervently.

 

15. Desire possession above all.

 

16. But those possessions must belong to the pure soul only, and be possessed therefore by all pure souls equally, and thus be the especial property of the whole only when united. Hunger for such possessions as can be held by the pure soul, that you may accumulate wealth for that united spirit of life which is your only true self. The peace you shall desire is that sacred peace which nothing can disturb, and in which the soul grows as does the holy flower upon the still lagoons. And that power which the disciple shall covet is that which shall make him appear as nothing in the eyes of men.

 

 

Ramacharaka's comment on the 13th precept is this: "Here is another example of the relative and the absolute. "Desire power ardently". And yet power, selfish power, is the greatest curse of the man who possess it. The power of the Spirit, which is "the power which the disciples shall covet," may indeed make him "appear as nothing in the eyes of men" who are striving after material power.

 

For it is the conscious power of which the average man knows nothing - of which he is unable to form a mental image. And he is very apt to regard as a fool the man who possesses it, or who is reaching out for it. The power which is applied to unselfish uses is incomprehensible to the average man who seeks for worldly power - and yet that worldly power, and all that it is capable of accomplishing, will crumble before the flame of time, as a sheet of tissue before the match, and will be in ashes in the twinkling of an eye, while the real power of spiritual attainment grows stronger and mightier as the ages roll by. The one is the substance - the other the shadow - and yet the world reverses their position because of its imperfect vision...."

 

(I'll add his commentary on precepts 14 thru 16 in a couple days.

 

A big fat air kiss to anyone else who wants to comment on this precept.

Edited November 6, 2011 by manitou