--Thomas Merton

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages.

–Thoreau, "Walden"

Often people come to Gnosticism or whatever spiritual path because they feel cheated, empty or angry. They are running from religion in a perceived need to remove themselves from old modes of being that are perhaps “spiritually” insufficient and maybe unsatisfying. As people most of us prefer a “satisfying meal” than just a “snack” to keep us fed for the day. Give us this day our daily bread, as Christ said….

Religion means to tie or to bind. To bring together. Religion typically here in the west is often though of as exoteric and esoteric. Exoteric meaning for the many and esoteric for the few. It is tempting to place a greater value on one depending on your perspective.

However one could argue that there is no inner or outer, no esoteric or exoteric, no occult (Occult means “hidden”) or unhidden. There just is. One could argue the very "act" of supposing or "making' the esoteric/occult/inner creates a false separation.

The Esoteric (for the few) is often used to mean the “spiritual” or more “in depth” or closer to the divine than the Exoteric (for the many).

As Brother Lawrence states:

The time of action does not differ at all from my time of prayer; I possess God as tranquilly in the bustle of my kitchen –where sometimes several people are asking me different things at one time—as if I was on my knees before the blessed sacrament…It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God; when it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and adore my God, who gave me the grace to make it, after which I rise, more content than a King. When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God.

–Brother Lawrence

Largely then once could argue those "fixated" on the "occult/esoteric" will never really "gain the grail" they will just "sup from the grail."

This "argument" would be like saying something like "I want a secret decoder ring, by using my secret decoder ring I am special, I no longer need the cereal box it came in, I don’t care that I will be starving to death by not eating...cause I have a special decoder ring"

So perhaps the idea that one "only needs inner initiation" is incorrect in that, it is like saying

“I no longer need to eat; ‘cause I can now sup from the grail, but actually obtaining it (becoming the Grail) is not something I will reach, as I only need my decoder ring, not my cereal.”

This is perhaps typified in two Buddhist quotes I like:
....

There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism,

And there is

No Buddhism outside of mundane things.

–Yuan-Wu

...

I gained nothing at all from supreme enlightenment
It is for that very reason it is called supreme enlightenment.

--Buddha

The problem occurs when people "think" they are involved in the esoteric and/or the occult and thus no longer need the exoteric or the un-hidden

To put it into real world less flowery language terms...

It is like a person who partakes in the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet works by cutting down on carbohydrate intake and increasing protein intake. Yes, I know first hand the Aitkin’s diet does work. Cutting down on "carbs" and eating predominantly meat will indeed promote weight loss. But there is the danger of keeping with that diet. Which would cause imbalance, clogged arteries maybe, and even death....?

Does this mean too much esoteric and too much occult without their "opposites" leads to death? In a very real sense, I would say yes....

I think this is very similar to Christ's temptation by Satan and Buddha’s temptation under the Bodhi tree

A good way to combat this would be to actively “Be in the world but not of it.” Join a local church or group. By actually serving, we are actually serving.

“Like grapes, we ripen best on the vine.”

…………..

It was kind of strange, dintcha think, that John McCain came to the defense of his supporters last night after Barack Obama pointed out that people at McCain/Palin rallies were shouting out "terrorist" and "kill him!" in reference to Obama.

Now an Al Jazeera camera crew caught the honest sentiments of McCain/Palin supporters at an Ohio rally:

“I’m afraid if he wins, the blacks will take over. He’s not a Christian! This is a Christian nation! What is our country gonna end up like?”

“When you got a Negra running for president, you need a first stringer. He’s definitely a second stringer.”

“He seems like a sheep - or a wolf in sheep’s clothing to be honest with you. And I believe Palin - she’s filled with the Holy Spirit, and I believe she’s gonna bring honesty and integrity to the White House.”

“He’s related to a known terrorist, for one.”

“He is friends with a terrorist of this country!”

“He must support terrorists! You know, uh, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. And that to me is Obama.”

“Just the whole, Muslim thing, and everything, and everybody’s still kinda - a lot of people have forgotten about 9/11, but… I dunno, it’s just kinda… a little unnerving.”

“Obama and his wife, I’m concerned that they could be anti-white. That he might hide that.”

“I don’t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash… because we’re not!”

Yep, McCain must be so proud.

The rest of us, well ... let's just say those polls should tell the story.

[H/t to Ta-Nehisi Coates, via Spencer Ackerman. Transcript via Prose Before Hos.]

UPDATE: Transcript altered to reflect, as some commenters point out, that the man in the video did not use the actual "N word."

From the microcosmic point of view, as we have seen, "Mary" is the soul in a state of "sanctifying grace", qualified to receive the "Real Presence"; "Jesus" is the divine Seed, the "Real Presence" which must bring about the transmutation of the soul, namely, its universalization or reintegration in the Eternal. "Mary"—like the "Lotus"—is "surface" or "horizontal"; "Jesus"—like the "Jewel"* —is "center" and, in dynamic relationship, "vertical". "Jesus" is God in us, God who penetrates and transfigures us.

Among the meditations of the Rosary the "joyful Mysteries" con­cern the "Real Presence" of the Divine in the human, from the point of view adopted here and in connection with ejaculatory prayers; as for the "sorrowful Mysteries" they describe the redemptive "imprison­ment" of the Divine in the human, the inevitable profanation of the "Real Presence" by human limitations; finally the "glorious Mysteries" relate to the victory of the Divine over the human, the liberation of the soul by the Spirit.

*We are here alluding to the well-known Buddhist formula: Om mani padme hum. There is an analogy worth noticing between this formula and the name "Jesus of Nazareth": the literal meaning of Nazareth is "flower", and mani padme means "jewel in the lotus".

--Frithjof Schuon

……..

I heard my deceased elder say that even people who do not pray, but who either have the or are sick, see light streaming from every article in the darkest of rooms; they distinguish objects, sense their double, and penetrate the thoughts of other people. But what proceeds directly from the grace of God in the prayer of the heart gives so much delight that no tongue is able to express it. It cannot be matched in any material thing; it is even beyond compare. Everything perceptible is base in comparison with the sweet sensations of grace in the heart.

--The Pilgrim's tale

…..

" Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. "

--The Prayer of the Heart

….

The real purpose of meditation is this: to teach a man how to work himself free of created things and temporal concerns, in which he only finds confusion and sorrow, and enter into a conscious and loving contact with God in which he is disposed to receive from God the help he knows he needs so badly, and pay to God the praise and honor and thanksgiving and love which it has now become his joy to give.

--Thomas Merton

Fucked Loretta Lynn

Fucked Barbara Mandrell

And fucked all of her kin

I've fucked Danny Pearl

I fucked Elvis Presley's little girl

I fucked the Judds

You fucked the Judds?

Hell yeah!

My cuntry boner, it won't go down

It won't go down, it won't go down

My cuntry boner won't go down

My boner, my boner, my boner won't go down

It won't go down, it won't go down

My cuntry boner, it won't go down

My cuntry boner, it won't go down

I fucked Willie Nelson

I fucked him deep inside

I fucked Elvis Presley in the bathroom where he died

I fucked Dwight Yoakum

Johnny Cash grabbed his ankles and he hollered as she poked him

I fucked the Judds!

You fucked the Judds?

My cuntry boner, it won't go down

Group... sex 
 Group... sex  Group... sex  
 

Our cuntry boners, they won't go down

Fucked Alabama

Fucked the Oak Ridge Boys

Fucked Randy Travis with a 12-inch plastic toy

I fucked the cast of Hee-Haw

I fucked Glen Campbell, fucked him on a see-saw

Kenny Rogers thought it crass

When I fucked his big white ass

I can't help it....

My cuntry boner, it won't go down

--Thomas Merton

She's mostly gone
Some other place
I'm getting by
In other ways
Everything they whispered in our ear
Is coming true
Try to justify the things
I used to do
Believe in you

Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Have finally arrived
I am staying right beside you

I tried to stay away
You know
Just in case
I've come to realize
We all have our place
Time has a way, you know
To make it clear
I have my role in this
I can't disappear
Or leave you here

Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Are waving goodbye
I am staying right beside you

(Nine Inch Nails, “The lights in the sky”, album: the Slip)

“The misguided fail to recognize the five elements, the five kinds of trees, the five kinds of animals”

--The book of Giants (Fragment E)

….

I hear the ocean beat upon the shore outside my room.
Calling me up from sleep to listen to her graceful tune.
She makes me feel alive, her power more than words can say.
Send shivers through my person, clears my head to face the day.
...I pray
...The tides will rise and fall again.
I see the sun rise up into a cloudless sky of blue.
Coaxing the shadows back to let the sun's light shine on through.
I feel it touch my skin, its warmth glows through right to my bones.
Drifts softly through my body, heats my flesh then stirs my soul.
...I pray
...The sun will surely rise today.
...And I will not take for granted
That what is there for me.

--Reef (Mellow)

….

"Know that before there was any emanation and before any creatures were created a simple higher light filled everything. There was no empty space in the form of a vacuum but all was filled with that simple infinite light. This infinite light had nothing in it of beginning or end but was all one simple, equally distributed light. This is known as 'the light of En Sof.'

There arose in His simple will the will to create worlds and produce emanations in order to realize His perfect acts, His names and His attributes. This was the purpose for which the worlds were created.

En Sof then concentrated His being in the middle point, which was at the very centre, and He withdrew that light, removing it in very direction away from that centre point.

There then remained around the very centre point an empty space, a vacuum. This withdrawal was equidistant around that central empty point so that the space left empty was completely circular. It was not in the form of a square with right angles. For En Sof withdrew Himself in circular fashion, equidistant in all directions.

The reason for this was that since the light of En Sof is equally spaced out it follows by necessity that His withdrawal should be equidistant in all directions and that He could not have withdrawn Himself in one direction to a greater extent than in any other. It is well known in the science of mathematics that there is no more equal figure than the circle. It is otherwise with the figure of a square, which has protruding right angles, or with a triangle or with any other figure. Consequently, the withdrawal of En Sof had to be in the form of a circle.

Now after this withdrawal of En Sof (which left an empty space or vacuum in the very centre of the light of En Sof, as we have said) there remained a place in which there could emerge the things to be emanated, to be created, to be formed and to be made. There then emerged a single straight line of light from His circular light and this came in a downward direction, winding down into that empty space.

The top end of this line derived from En Sof Himself and touched Him, but the bottom end of this line down below does not touch the light of En Sof.

By means of this line the light of En Sof is drawn down to extend itself down below.

Into that empty space He caused to emanate, He created, He formed and He made all the worlds.

Before the emergence of these four worlds En Sof was One and His name One in a wonderful, mystical unity of a kind beyond the comprehension even of those angels nearest to Him. For the mind of no creature can comprehend Him since He has neither place nor limit nor name."

- Chaim Vital (Etz Chayim - treatise 1, part 2)

………

Mani's revelation embraces many aspects of the universe, divine, natural and human. It is impossible to draw within it the kind of distinctions later drawn by Western Christianity between natural knowledge and revealed truth, or more crudely between faith and knowledge. That does not necessarily mean that Mani mixes things up: rather we might reflect that our separation of domains in their official representation which in living practice constantly overlap has led in part to the spiritual alienation of the West. For Mani, knowl­edge is charged with moral and religious significance. In his vision, we can never be 'detached' because our coming to knowledge is itself a manifestation of the on-going world-process, the struggle between Light and Darkness.

We concentrate first upon his vision of human nature. The reference books generally claim that Manichaeans were taught to hate the body, since they considered it merely an evil from which they should escape. In reality, Mani shows a considerable interest in the body, its inner workings and its active role in perceiving, knowing and remembering. We should recall that he was also a healer. In Manichaeism the created world is the instrument of the gods to defeat the Darkness, to bring meaning out of contingency, and on the human level the body is the domain in which we experience the conflicting tendencies directly. We are there in the position of a god in our own ‘little world' or microcosm. Our primary need is not to reject but to understand the body's relationship to the spiritual 'fivefold man.'

That conception is perhaps a novelty to us: it is with the basic patterns of Mani’s thought that we need to begin.

--Andrew Welburn (Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory)

………..

(19)

Jesus said,
“Blessed is he who came into being

before he came into being.
If you become my disciples

and listen to my words,
these stones will minister to you.
For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall.
Whoever becomes acquainted with them

will not experience death.”

--Gospel of Thomas (commentary http://magdelene.net/thomas19.html below)

......

This is the face God gave me,
and this is the face I will use.
It cannot leave me, but I wondered if I could:
Walk around and stare it out.

No use saying maybe when your thoughts are driving you crazy.
Choose your life. Choose it well.

Dream denial well I never understood it.
If it feels good tell me, why can't I do it?
Look myself in the eye.

No use saying maybe when your thoughts are driving you crazy.
Choose your life, choose it well.

Where's my time? My time is now.
So when you find it, don't put it down.
Let the music take you around. The fire in you has a right to burn,
so don't let anyone put it out.
Choose to live.

….

One stroke has made me forget all my previous knowledge,

No artificial discipline is at all needed;

In every movement I uphold the ancient way,

And never fall into the rut of mere quietism;

Wherever I walk no traces are left,

And my senses are not fettered by rules of conduct;

Everywhere those who have attained to the truth,

And declare this to be of the highest order.

–Zen discussion on Satori

…

Change is a foreign policy that doesn’t begin and end with a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what’s not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years – especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.

We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must. It’s time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future. It’s time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care they need and the benefits they deserve when they come home. It’s time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda’s leadership and Afghanistan, and rally the world against the common threats of the 21st century – terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. That’s what change is.

Change is realizing that meeting today’s threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy – tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn’t afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for. We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy. That’s what the American people want. That’s what change is.

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it. It’s understanding that the struggles facing working families can’t be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but by giving a the middle-class a tax break, and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation. It’s understanding that fiscal responsibility and shared prosperity can go hand-in-hand, as they did when Bill Clinton was President.

–Barack Obama

Satori (悟 Korean oh; Japanese satori (from the verb satoru); Chinese: wù) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means “understanding”. It is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with Kensho, but Kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as “awakening“. Kensho is not a permanent state of enlightenment, but rather a clear glimpse of the true nature of existence. Satori on the other hand is used to refer to “deep” or lasting enlightenment. It is therefore customary to use the word satori, rather than kensho, when referring to the enlightened states of the Buddha and the Patriarchs.

According to D. T. Suzuki, “Satori is the raison d’être of Zen, without which Zen is no Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal, is directed towards satori.”^[1]

Satori is also analogous to the concept of creativity, in the sense that it reconciles apparent opposites. It is also known as the “Eureka!” moment of discovery - upon the clarification of a paradox, which is a moment of catharsis, or purification.