the monster and its slayer

The monster within -- we make it into a cosmic figure that must be slain by a cosmic figure. I open wide, swallow them whole, the monster and its slayer, let them do their Tao dance at my core. Happy now they have a home, they whirl merrily. I go on, attend to other things.

philosopher mystic

To try to speak of what is known is like trying to put a size 12 foot into a size 5 shoe or, more apt, the ocean into a thimble. Mercifully, words are alive and willingly aid the process.

the same ternal

In the conclusion to his "The Philosophy of Plotinus," Emile Brehier was concerned with  "... the need for discovering in external reality not an inert and unyielding object but a place favorable to spiritual activity."

I see the resolution of that need as the next essential step in the evolution of consciousness of humankind. It is already happening among many.

The need "for discovering in external reality not an inert and unyielding object but a place favorable to spiritual activity" is easily resolved. When we live IN the cosmos, we experience an internal and an external reality. When we live AS the cosmos, there is no internal - external. Internal and external are the same ternal. 

In the Jewish and Christian Holy Book, a reference is made to the understanding that we are gods: "I said, You are gods, and all of you are sons (and daughters) of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6). When we live AS the cosmos, we fulfill this understanding.

We can't get all puffed up about this though. Hubris is the downfall of all gods. The very next verse (Psalm 82:7) puts us in our place: "Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any of the princes." In living AS the cosmos, I find this comforting. The booster rocket drops away. The cosmos keeps on going.

what a mess

As soon as you say there was a beginning,
you must say there was something before the beginning.
As soon as you say there was something before the beginning,
you must say there was nothing before the something.
As soon as you say there was nothing
before the something before the beginning,
you must say there was no nothing before that nothing.
This is the limit of ordinary rational (ordinal ratio) consciousness:
that there is no nothing before the nothing
before the something before the beginning.
What a mess you get into because you say there was a beginning!

As soon as you say here is a this,
you must say there is a that.
As soon as you say there is a that,
you have created a gap, a division.
As soon as you create a division,
you are out of relationship.
As soon as you are out of relationship,
you are alienated.
What a mess you get into
because you say this and that and here and there!

thought systems

We live this life according to our thought system.

A thought system based upon ordinary reality winds up chasing its own tale. (Hence Aristotle, scientism, and materialism.)

A thought system springing from non-ordinary reality and in accord with the flow of Being is, in one sense, no thought system at all. (Hence Zen and all it teaches.)

In another sense, it is the largest and most comprehensive thought system of all. It cannot be contained, springs forth with ever-new understanding. It has been called the realm of the Imaginal. (Hence Ibn al'Arabi and Henry Corbin.)

Many humans on earth today live under the sway of the thought system of ordinary reality. Others attempt to open to no thought system at all. As for me, I find most energy, awareness, and understanding in a thought system that springs from our role as cosmic beings -- a thought system in which all concepts fall away. The Mystery is unveiled and stands here smiling.

venn dreamograms

Since ordinary reality is a dream, a dream at night is a dream within a dream. We often rush to interpret the night dream, but neglect to interpret the day dream. We think our day dream is reality. We sit firmly in our day dream and take ourselves ever so seriously. Hahahahaha!

throw the dog a bone

Am beginning to understand my dissatisfaction with the concept of the Unconscious: it denotes an arena which we cannot know, a realm more powerful than us which emerges despite us, a something outside of us laden with knowledge and information which bursts through in dreams and imagery: imagery that shakes us to our core or provokes dissatisfaction that gnaws on us as if the Unconscious is some large invisible dog and we are the bone. When disturbed enough by this, we drag our bone to a dog whisperer for translation and relief.

I see the Cosmos as transparent, not as some dark force of unknownness that must shake us between its jaws. The veil of the temple is "rent," is torn asunder. All is available to be known. Our thick cellular mem-brain is permeable. Information flows freely. No separation. We are radiant spheres of being, infinity in every "direction."

We are the ones who posit an Unconscious. I propose that we are unconscious in positing an Unconscious. When conscious, we do not have to posit anything. All is always revealing.