The Living Presence and the Modified Appearance of that Presence in Time and Space: Part 2
by Richard Harvey on 07/15/16
Dear Richard,
The only reason I mentioned these traditions was
as a reminder that there are different views of the divine consciousness. I
agree that in our times the move is beyond religion. I disagree that all the
recorded tradition was simply created from the human mind. Sure some of it did,
but some of it is not. I am worried that I’m going to get entangled in
semantics and I don't want this to continue as an intellectual debate. Like for
example you say that what is truly spiritual is beyond experience and I would say
that every single thing is spirit -- denser, manifested perhaps but spirit
nevertheless, so for me even everyday life is a spiritual experience, now
whether we can perceive it as such or not is a matter of attunement.
So before I jump into this subject, let me go
back to my original enquiry and try to rephrase it. Do you think that a
person’s unfolding can reach a final state? a point beyond which there is no
further evolution of their consciousness? Is our end goal individuation?
Warmest regards
Thomas
Hi
Thomas
There
is so much more in my last message that you didn’t reply to…? As for semantics,
I believe that how we express ourselves in words is extremely important. In
fact, in recent years I have used the insights I have gained from the written
word as a valuable and effective tool to help in my work with therapy clients
and spiritual aspirants.
You
ask: “Do you think that a person’s unfolding can reach a final state? a point
beyond which there is no further evolution of their consciousness? Is our end
goal individuation?”
Our
end goal is annihilation. That is the point and it is the one that people don’t
seem to be interested in, which is why so much “spiritual” work, seeking and
practice is superficial. Our end goal cannot be individuation because we are
ultimately not separate or individual at all. Our unfolding reaches a state
which may be called final or
evolving, but it depends on where and how you are looking at it. That is why we
have so many religious traditions which are all relatively true. The metaphor I
used in my book The Flight of
Consciousness is being at the very center of a spinning-top where it is
absolutely still and all the action – spinning and evolving – is going on
around the central core of profound stillness. Now in a way you could say the
center, the axis is generating the spinning, like your friend Dr Brooks in the
Tantra Rajanaka school or you could say this non-position position is entirely
free of the action, neither participating nor generating.
In
my book Human Awakening I have
written on this subject extensively, so I don’t think we can do it justice to
it with a cursory answer. But in essence the development of a human life
consists of three stages. First, the transcending of the conditioned self, or
basic ego limitations. Second, the challenges of living humanly, authentically
and compassionately – and even selflessly
– in relationship to oneself, others, and the world. Third, to engage in
the spiritual processes which we might call the quest for the enlightened state
(which entails personal annihilation ultimately) through spiritual,
transcendent and divine levels of attainment – the keynotes here are
renunciation, liberation and surrender.
Warm
wishes
Richard
Hello Richard,
I think we agree though that the only way to see
more light is to go through the darkness, death and annihilation. This is where
the shadow work I do is rooted and although as you said there are a lot of
people not interested in this work, there is an increasing number that are.
Please be patient with me...
Finally, for now, can you say a little about our
sense of individuality, the psychic realms, and psychic phenomena?
With love
Thomas
Dear
Thomas
Today
we have refined our sense of individuality to the degree that we have become
unaware of it. This is and has always been a dangerous impasse to fall into.
The perils of unawareness, particularly in a stage of transition, are great.
The
psychic realms, the realms of personification of the spiritual, of past lives
and synchronicity, magic and even events in the temporal-spatial realms have
always fascinated me… attracted me and even enticed me. I have seen colors and
forms and heard voices and received teachings and been immersed in the
atmospheres of other times. Convergence and phenomena echoing or tying in with
other phenomena across vast time and space is not a matter of doubt or cynicism
for me, because I am aware that everything is connected, that ultimately all
arising forms of consciousness are living and dying in the one eternal
Consciousness.
The
knowledge I was born with, or born into, is that I AM and it includes a
knowing, a fundamental knowing. Of course as soon as this knowing is expressed
in the spatio-temporal realms it is compromised and impure. My task then has
been and remains to overcome -- no, not overcome but harmonize perhaps and at
least respond to that in surrender and grace to God, the form of the Divine
that pervades all things. My concern or perhaps my purpose is beyond or past or
higher or deeper than the relative realms of psychic phenomena and fascination
with arising phenomena, further too than the relative spiritual concerns of
much religious teaching. I am interested in going further in grounding
spiritual truth here in the world without division of any kind.
Love
to you
Richard
HUMAN AWAKENING may be purchased at http://www.sacredattentiontherapy.com/Books.html
THE FLIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS may be ordered from
amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Consciousness-Contemporary-Spiritual-Journey/dp/1853981419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466936314&sr=8-1&keywords=flight+of+consciousness
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