He who sees himself only on the outside

I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.



–Revelation 22:13

Actually, the ground of everything is within me and it is God, and it’s within everybody too. And there’s one ground for everybody, and this ground in the Divine Mercy. . . . The peo­ple of the unveiling, that is to say the Sufis, ask the Mercy of God to subsist in them. These are the ones who ask in the Name of God and He shows Mercy upon them only by making the Mercy subsist in them. This is a totally different outlook. It is the outlook whereby the Mercy of God is not arranged on the outside in events for me-in good and bad events-but it is subsisting in me all the time. Therefore what happens is that if the Mercy of God is subsisting in me-and that goes to say if I am united with the will of God- . . . if I am completely united with the will of God in love, it doesn’t matter what happens outside, because everything that is going on outside that makes any sense is grounded in the same ground in which I am grounded. The opposition between me and everything else ceases, and what remains in terms of opposition is purely acci­dental and it doesn’t matter. And this is . . . a basic perspective in all . . . the highest religions. You ought to get down to this,
you get down to it in Christianity, you get down to it in Buddhism, you
get down to it in Hinduism, and so forth. It is arriving at a unity in
which the superficial differences don’t matter. It doesn’t, mean that
they’re not real, it doesn’t mean that they’re not there. They still
subsist… .



–Thomas Merton



1. Left Hand Path Practices in the West


<blockquote class="Q">“Satanism is not a white
light religion; it is a religion of the flesh, the mundane, the carnal
- all of which are ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand
Path“

The Satanic Bible, Book Of Lucifer 3:paragraph 30
</blockquote>
The Left Hand Path is solitary, individualistic, personal, based on self development, self analysis, self
empowerment. Altruism is materialistically equated as long term
selfishness. I think all forms of Satanism are considered Left Hand
Path, even Devil Worship and inverse Christian-Satanists are Left Hand
Path, although they are frequently considered deluded. Frequently
called “evil” and “dark” by non Satanic religions,
the followers of the left hand path often have had to remain in the
darkness or face severe persecution from the religions that ironically
call themselves “good”. This is testimony enough that the image of the
purely “good” icons is a veneer; a non-truth.
Features of LHP philosophies frequently include:

• Emphasis on freethought, not dogma or strict systems.
  
• Highly individualistic
  
• A distinct rejection of absolutes and moralism
  
• Personal, not universal.
  

Freethought, Individualism and moral relativism
Left Hand Path philosophies all have an emphasis on freethought; not
dogma or strict systems. The “rules” in LHP religions are frequently
merely “guidelines”. The same attitude it applied to all knowledge,
including that of the knowledge of reality and morals. Subjectivism and
relativism are almost universally assumed amongst followers of the left
hand path.
Personal Belief, not Universal
Left Hand Path philosophies do not claim that they are the best
religion for all people and frequently claim they are only a valid
religion for some people. “Satanists are born, not made” _{Anton LaVey}.
Satanism and the LHP is striking for the lack of missionizing. This is
probably the result of the admission that no religion, philosophy or
belief system is suitable for all people.

“Yes,
I can see why the idea of free thought, individualism and moral
relativism (which requires the effort to think for yourself before
judging something right or wrong) may be a turn off for some people or
why they just don’t get it. I hope that doesn’t apply to you.”


oh I get it, I understand it fully
at a fundamental level I think it is un-Christ like though…
give and receive…vessels and light…kabbalah, that is all there is.
I know many see the divine as a nice treasure chest to plunder…I don’t.
I think the “gimme gimme gimme” approach to life and the divine is childish.
At a very real fundamental level it is rape to my mind, forcing the hand, taking the fruit before it is ripe
Agenda is agenda. Agenda is always wrong, as you are not following the true self, the “divine will”; I realize it is your path and that it embraces selfishness and sees that as divine will…to some extent.
However I will never agree to something that is fundamentally about
the self, survival is one thing, taking and empowering at the expense
of others is another
This is not meant to be an attack, it is just my view.
You wrote
” Self development? Isn’t that what spiritual training is supposed to offer? Isn’t this the point of alchemy?
Self Analysis? Aren’t we supposed to learn about ourselves? Don’t we value the inward path?
Self Empowerment? Don’t we prefer to be beings that have significance in the world of others or do we prefer to be
ineffectual?”

No it is Self development, not self development. In the east views
generally speaking there is ONLY self. This is the root of one of the
misunderstandings of the LHP since its inception. That
self is NOT the self, it is THE SELF; or, GOD. The self development of
alchemy etc. is to grow the true self as Thomas Merton calls it. It
really has nothing to do with the self at all.
The I before is I and WE, the I after is I, and only I as there is no WE. And there is no i.



That is the fundamental point. Your
view is like a man who opens a door..but refuses to enter. They are
happy quickly going in, and running back out. Having gotten something
that they want it is time to stay outside the door. This makes illusion
more attractive, nicer, you are indeed self empowering. But illusion is
illusion.



Like a drug addict you have to carry on taking
more drugs to keep that high. That is of course part of where other
people come in; little fish feed on big fish at a very real physical
and spiritual level. Exploitation. There is someone at the top of the
pyramid, sat back laughing, gaining all the power.
Just as the Buddha gained many great powers along the way, he also
rejected them all. For trinkets and power is not what it is about. That
is the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert.

So no, I would say spiritual training has nothing
to do with self development, no matter how many paper bags you put over
your head to “look nice”, you are still wearing a paper bag… This goes
for knowing yourself also, knowing yourself is NOT KNOWING YOURSELF.
This is fundamental basic thing.







“He who sees himself only on the outside,

not within, becomes small himself and makes others small.”

–Mani (turfan fragment M 801)

Power and influence,
again this is a false notion. God is the only Rabbi as the Jewish
proverb goes. Only God has power. Mankind may think he can build a dam
and conquer nature, but he is fooling himself. Power is for the weak.
Power in its “correct” application is about serving and sacrifice.
Agenda is agenda, and again is un-Christ like.
You said
“Emphasis on free thought, not dogma or strict systems? What’s wrong with respecting members to be conscious and
sentient adults who are capable of thinking for themselves and deciding what is the right or wrong course of action
instead of slavish devotion to some ancient text or the words of some “authority figure”? “
There is nothing wrong with free thought. But often it becomes
childish. Too often people seek the mysteries, spirituality etc etc out
of rebellion.
Free thought is good, rebellion is good it helps grow new branches, new
plants, where none would have grown. However it soon devolves into as
what James Dean said “What you got?” Until the point is reached when
all you are doing is rebelling. You gain a new uniform, a new prison.
Your prison becomes that of the “rebel”, the “free thinker”

The
fruitfulness of our life depends in large measure on our ability to
doubt our own words and to question the value of our own work. The man
who completely trusts his own estimate of himself is doomed to
sterility. All he asks of any act he performs is that it be his
act. If it is performed by him, it must be good. All words spoken by
him must be infallible. The car he just bought is the best for its
price, for no other reason that he is the one who has bought it. He
seeks no other fruit than his, and therefore he generally gets no other.

If
we believe ourselves in part, we may be right about ourselves. If we
are completely taken in by our own disguise, we cannot help being wrong.



–Thomas Merton

We exchange one strait jacket for another. Instead
of embracing what is called the middle way. If we are rebelling we
eventually miss the basic truth, the basic truth is we are all on the
same boat. Spending your life preening and shouting “look at me, I am
special, I think for myself, not like you” is great and dandy, but it
really is childish. Like a teenager who dresses up as a punk or a Goth.
Nihilism and solipsism only serve to embrace the self as opposed to the
SELF. Spiritual masturbation serves no purpose, it may feel good, and
seem good..But again, like a drug addict you have to carry on doing it
perpetually; or you are back to square one.
Instead there is another way…you open yourself to the wind and fly
like a kite, like a kite that is unrestrained..guided by the wind…taken
and changed and moved by what is. Instead of fighting the wind and
insisting that the wind does not exist. Like the Shakespearean
king….you can try to hold back the sea all you like, you are really
fooling yourself.
You wrote

” A distinct rejection of absolute moralism? What is wrong with seeing that what may be considered right yesterday may not
be right today (such as burning witches, jews, locking jews up in ghettos, killing in the name of religion, executing
homosexuals, not giving women the same rights as men, etc.). And what is wrong when thinking that what may be
acceptable may not be so tomorrow and that there is a better way? Is this “moral relativism” worse than the moral
absolutism that created the atrocities mentioned above?
Personal, not universal? What is wrong with accepting that there are many paths to spiritual growth and development and
that each person has a right to choose which is the best for them? “
Now right and wrong are arguably subjective terms, yes I agree. In
Gnosticism (as you’ll read below if you read it) there is no good and
evil per se, there is more “levels of imperfection.” So what are we to
do when faced with good and evil, morals and dogmas? We have
discernment. Like a good parent would never hand a box of matches and
gasoline to a child, we need to work out what is helpful and what is
not. For the LHP there is often stated the phrase “nothing is wrong,
everything is permissible.” This is the mantra of Chaos magicians, as I
am sure you know. Well find and dandy, if we follow this logic, it
means we should stick pencils in our ears and nose…after all it is not
wrong, and ultimately will help in our spiritual development. Clearly
this is absurd. Everything is permissible is nonsensical, an excuse for
debauchery and to again bathe in temporary pleasures…back to taking
drugs, again.
Your rejection is based upon the idea that absolute moralism=hatred.
This is untrue. Anything taken to extremes and to an unswerving ascetic
extreme is wrong. Atrocities are atrocities, and are again about the
individual not the group. The individual hates the Jew and the
homosexual. The individual wants them gone, dead, removed. These people
are of the collective, the collective is the collective. By singling
out the Jew, the witch, the homosexual…these acts are selfish. Suffer
not a homosexual or Jew to live.
“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” –Adolf Hitler.
The act of purification, inquisition…again is serving a part of the
collective, it is serving individuals. NIMBY or “Not In My Back Yard”
mentality. “I do not mind homosexuals or blacks, as long as they don’t
live near me.”
In the end LHP becomes miniature acts of solipsism, misanthropy and nihilism.
Solipsism is, well just plain “silly.” I have interacted with the non
physical since I was child. Before I even knew what I was doing. So I
reject solipsism.

Nihilism is rejection, to take it to a tongue in
cheek extreme; I would say the ultimate goal of nihilism is suicide. I
would argue nihilism is suicide on a smaller lesser “vibration.”

Just as Nihilism is suicide, misanthropy is
purely selfish. But that is the LHP, “selfishness and indulgence.”
There really is nothing else to the LHP at a fundamental underlying
basic level. If Nihilism is suicide, then misanthropy in its embracing
hatred of all mankind can only lead to one conclusion. Misanthropy
requires you to kill everyone, but yourself…in order that you are more
and more self empowered. Of course this never happens, but on a smaller
level people try… Or as the rock star Marilyn Manson wrote “There’s no
time to discriminate, hate every motherf****** that gets in your way.”
To conclude, this is what is wrong with the LHP, as you can see, I
have indeed thought about this…for a very long time. I really do like
to think for myself. But I am not afraid to admit and embrace
knowledge, experience “energy” etc. that is far more wise, profound and
simply BETTER than my self….as opposed to my SELF.



“To respect the personal aspect in man is to respect
his solitude, his right to think for himself, his need
to learn this, his need for love and acceptance by
other persons like himself. Here we are in the realm
of freedom and of friendship, of creativity and of
love. And it is here that religion begins to have a
meaning…”
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, (N.
Y: Doubleday, 1989) p 82.

Further (although flawed, but still interesting):
“TRUE SELF” AND GAY SPIRITUALITY

Everyone was the ALL before they became the ME (or I) and the only way to get back to the ALL is thru the realization that we are all each other's cosmic mirror....

When I basically outlined the basis of the Kabbalistic ideas to my oldest, she said, "So God broke up into so many little peices just so I could be me?"

From the mouths of babes....

hi
that is so awesome of your daughter, she is very decerning and perceptive! have you noticed holy spirt gifts of dreams., or clairvoyance , prophetic , sensing preasance? we are living in the time of the quickining, in the out pouring of the spirit and power on high. i belive mine and probley very extremley likley yours are too. i also think alot of autism is nothing more then children being born readily able to endure the jump to the next eveolutionary platform. to also say, my thought on her
comment, when the first human act of disobidence happ end we shattered the image we are created in and we totally became disconnected in our spirit { god source} soul{ essance of self emotions, personality and mind} and physical body earthen vessal