Om

[I]this was taken with no edition after a post on philosophical literature; it was inspired while reading some emerson essays.[/I]

The spiritual one is the source from which our thoughts flow.

We can never, perhaps, fully attain the supreme, this would like being god. Yet our awareness of it shows us certain things. Spiritual awakening is progress towards the supreme. In our insights we always catch new glimpses of the soul, which becomes more familiar to us. We are always learning. When we learn new things that we know are true, we usually see that these are true; we remove obstructions from our vision and see something new.

In a writer like Emerson, all of this is explained much more eloquently than I can. He wrote so much that you know he wasn't doing it for any ulterior motive. Yet it is so simple, the sentences are short and it is explained so that the simplest person can understand.

The soul is defined in the Vedas as that which pervades everything. Knowledge is learned and shared and passed on; it's integrated in expansion so that a person can then recreate whole works dedicated to the subject, and their expression is true. The source is that which is attained when we let go. We can only experience truth if we let go of our previous conceptions. In reality, all concepts are equally true or not; and it becomes obvious that of all the concepts, those which are whole works of truth are nourishing to the soul.

When we turn our attention to something like love, and then turn it back to more banal worldly matters, they are seen from above, and seen and understood easily. The whole point of it is to learn and to grow; to incorporate ourselves into ourselves. The point and way of self-realization is manifold. We create reality for ourselves, but then we build on this, and as time passes we make incredible progress. We have visions which we cannot describe in words, but which inspire us; if we do not make some record of them, if we do not seize them with all of our limited ability to translate and record them, then they are lost to us.

The highest knowledge is that there is a difference between temporal and real attributes. Thus a philosopher like Plato stretches out beyond his time, and history for many centuries are incorporated in his writing. Yet, he is not an oracle, because he tells us to heed cause and effect; we learn knowledge as we can truly, the truth of ourselves and our bodies, minds, spirits, the truth of love; all is attainable. In Buddhism, scholars speak of this; surely the path is furthered by studying them. They say; pay attention to the breath, coming into and out of your body. Pay attention to your body. What do we know? It is false; we are always learning, expanding, improving, learning, becoming more healthy. The sky is blue. We look at the sky but can we see the true blue there? Is it not our smile, our love, that makes it blue? We gaze upon it, and when a self-realized soul comes up to us, then, oh then, it is blue, it is true blue. It is more blue. And what are we but that which we see? Our nature is the cosmos, everything great and infinite and patterned we see around us.

We pay attention to breath; we breathe; we pay attention to god, who is our source of refreshment, of love; our bodies and minds are cleansed. What is possibly greater than the soul, what is greater than the knowledge we are learning, we are becoming closer to the source every minute, that as we learn about the soul, and if we can remove our obstructions, our understanding is expanded, and moved more in line with truth? If there is humility, then we can admit we don't know perfectly ourselves, our minds, our hearts, our bodies; but as soon as this happens, we get a more true vision of it. We get a better vision of the fact-- of the perfect fact, the perfect truth, which we do not know as yet. This truth is above all, yet it is manifest in smaller, understandable ways. For instance, I know intellectually that life will be better. I know it is good. But I don't really know these things. I know intellectually that there is no pain, that the truth is beyond my imagining; that my energy comes from things I eat, and so there is no feeling of being tired, this all passes, and then life requires no energy, no expenditure.

And I see that day after day, my mind becomes closer to what is the source. I see that as I come closer to breaking down the obstructions, to attaining the soul; that is, to see myself as I truly am-- which is completely beyond me, my imagining, although I feel I know myself-- and as I am guided more and more by love, that self I am observing becomes higher and higher.

Truth: clears confusion. Knowledge: clears doubt. Doubt: is demonic. What is good: the knowledge that I am clear-minded, and I know these things, and that I am able to be more and more guided by love. Happiness: love.

All of these things I know: what I don't know is anything, or anything else. I only know love by happiness, I only know truth by assurance. I only know grace by love, and love by grace. I only know sanity by faith and love.

I don't know anything, I don't know the knower, or any object at all. I know the soul, or a frail intimation, but I don't know the knower. I am not experiencing reality-- I cannot conceive of reality. I know that my mind is pure, and perfect for where I am. I know that love is the highest principle. Truth is second. I do not equate myself to these things, or humility. As I said I know my mind is pure, although not in the absolute sense. Perhaps, only pure in a derogatory sense. I don't really know my mind; as I said, I do not know reality. I do know what is not reality, though, I know what is not love, what is not truth, what is not goodness. Everything in this life has a touch of not love, not truth, and not goodness. Everything has a touch of green. This cannot be overcome except by complete integration of the soul; of knowledge and release, of form and water, of sky and earth, of heaven and earth; yin and yang, outside and inside, within and without.

It is said in buddhism, "if you know your mind, then you are a teacher of gods, of buddhas. Yet if you don't know your mind, no on can ever show it to you." I know there is no mind but I don't know no mind. If I knew no mind I would be a buddha.

The highest that these ideas can be taken to, as far as I can tell in my mystical experience, is complete mastering of the world. I am standing beyond the world; it is only by my observation of myself in relation to a desolate world; if you take away everything, then there is much desolation; but still the spirit stands. I believe I am a part of and created by this spirit. And after my life, yet I will still exist, in any that is guided by love, the power which overcomes the negative. An exercise in imagination is what gives my experience credence to me; after the end of the world, or even at this present moment, there is a place of such desolation: in the midst of a vast populace, still there is complete emptiness, and there are the signs of the end of the world, or beyond it, of this desolation, yet spirit stands alive and manifest, perfect under guidance of love.

That is, I am not powerful, but still I know I exist: I know that love always exists.