“The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself;
everything that you want, you already are.” – Rumi

“The enlightened man knows himself without self-regard;
Treasures himself but does not seek honour from others;
He rejects the latter and acts on the former.” -Tao Te Ching

As is often the case when I start writing on a theme, I find a flood of relevant information coming in every day via newsletters, newsfeeds and social media. While everything on the subject of Self is written with the best of intentions, barriers invariably crop up because of the unavoidable difficulty of expressing non-physical concepts in words.

Nowhere is it more common for teachings to fall victim to semantics than in attempting to describe “Self.” Some will tell you that you have many selves; others, that you have one self but it is divided; then there is the idea is that there is really only one Self. Add to that, all the adjectives regularly prefixed to Self, such as inner-, over-, higher-, true-, spiritual-, shadow-, and one gets lost in the wordplay.

Here is one way of looking at the Self. Consider it to be a field surrounding your physical body. I prefer to see it as a sphere, like Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, or the planet’s geomagnetic field. This energetic field is composed of the Vital Life Force and Consciousness, and all of it is “You.”

Read the full article on Paul’s blog at his web site southernsunlightcom.wordpress.com.

“Thy speech is not right, O man! If thou supposes that he that is of any worth at all, should be apprehensive of either life or death, as a matter of great hazard and danger; and should not make this rather his only care, to examine his own actions, whether just or unjust: whether actions of a good, or of a wicked man, etc. For thus in very truth stands the case, O ye men of Athens. What place or station whatsoever a man either has chosen for himself, judging it best for himself; or is by lawful authority put and settled in, therein do I think (all appearance of danger notwithstanding) that he should continue, as one who fears neither death, nor anything else, so much as he fears to commit anything that is vicious and shameful, etc. But, O noble sir, consider I pray, whether true generosity and true happiness, do not consist in somewhat else rather than in the preservation either of our, or other people’s lives. For it is not the part of a man that is a man indeed, to desire to live long or to make much of his life while he lives: but rather will in these things wholly refer himself unto the Gods, and believing that which every women can tell him, that no man can escape death.” ~Marcus Aurelius

Apprehensive of Life or Death

As a general rule, humans worry too much. We worry so much that we even worry about opposites. We worry will we have enough of a thing, and we worry that we might have too much. We worry about overeating, and we worry about starving. We worry about death, but we worry just as much about life and what to do with it.

Two Sides of a Coin

Life or Death is not a choice. They are the two sides of the same coin. The physical world is temporary. Everything in the physical world is temporary. So physical life is automatically temporary. There is no magical potion or drug that will change that. We need to accept it as a reality and function accordingly. That doesn’t mean fearing death or worrying about it. When we do that, we fail to live what life we do have.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on February 15, 2021

“The other world the world beyond, is a world of purity. Man’s opportunities lie in purity. The good life lies in purity. Where there is impurity, it always brings suffering. Disharmony brings suffering too. But harmony, purity, fairness, meekness, abstention and self-restraint, they are the qualities that bring great good.

“I say the world needs conductors of Love, The Divine and reasonable one. Man must be a conductor. Do you know what it means for man to be a conductor? For a man to be a conductor, he must have the faith that a child has. Mothers take their children to pray for rain. One kid took an umbrella in his hand. His mother asked him: ‘Why did you take the umbrella?’ The child replied, ‘Because it will rain.’ The mother said, ‘Maybe it will rain, maybe it will not.’ Now we pray and say: ‘Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t.’ We have to have the children’s belief that it will be.

“There is a law in Nature that says: every though , every feeling, and every deed cannot go without producing their consequences. And that what we think one day will come to us. So the first thing is: Strive to be set right in your soul, be fair. Man must be fully fair.” ~Biensa Douno

A World of Purity

Many who call themselves spiritual say that we cannot achieve perfection and to constantly try only frustrates us, therefore we should stop trying. Perhaps those people will prefer Douno’s approach and say that we need purity rather than perfection. While it is the same thing in some ways, it is also different. What exactly perfection is we often don’t know. But purity simply means cleansing ourselves of everything that shouldn’t be a part of what we are. The more of those false or negative things we remove from us, the purer we become. And I think everyone can understand that pure gold is more useful and more valuable than gold ore, that pure oxygen is easier to breathe than polluted air.

Impurity Brings Suffering

It amazes me sometimes how many people seem to embrace impurity—intentionally or unintentionally—and are surprised when they end up sick, tired, angry, and otherwise unhealthy. They eat anything that tasted good, then complain that they are very overweight. They drink, smoke, and expose themselves to harmful radiations, then wonder why they are always sick, rundown, and plagued by headaches. It amazes me even more that many doctors and medical practitioners today tell such people to take one drug or another, but rarely advise them to stop eating junk, stop smoking, stop sitting and doing nothing. They should be telling people to start cleansing themselves, purifying themselves. We won’t get a world of purity when the occupants of the world are heavily polluted.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on February 8, 2021

Hermes and Isis

“Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, the founder of Egyptian learning, the Wise Man of the ancient world, gave to the priests and philosophers of antiquity the secrets which have been preserved to this day in the myth and legend. These allegories and emblematic figures conceal the secret formula for spiritual, mental, moral, and physical regeneration commonly known as the Mystic Chemistry of the Soul (alchemy).

“These sublime truths were communicated to the initiates of the Mystery Schools, but were concealed from the profane. The latter, unable to understand the abstract philosophical tenets, worshiped the concrete sculptured idols which were emblematic of these secret truths. The wisdom and secrecy of Egypt are epitomized in the Sphinx, which has preserved its secret from seekers of a hundred generations.The mysteries of hermeticism, the great spiritual truths hidden from the world by the ignorance of the world, and the keys of the secret doctrines of the ancient philosophers, are all symbolized by the Virgin Isis. Veiled from head to foot, she reveals her wisdom only to the tried and initiated few who have earned the right to enter her sacred presence, tear from the veiled figure of Nature its shroud of obscurity, and stand face to face with the Divine Reality.” ~Manly P. Hall

Complimentary Hermes and Isis

It is not surprising to those who have studied spiritual symbology that Manly Hall links Hermes and Isis together. They belong together like a married couple.

Isis veiled

Hermes was the teacher of wisdom and his spiritual and philosophical teachings are still followed today in many spiritual schools. Veiled Isis represents the spiritual truths that were kept secret lest they be misused by the ignorant and uninitiated who would likely use them for material gain resulting in negation and great harm to themselves and the world.

Mystic Chemistry of the Soul

The mystics didn’t study ways to worship God. They studied the way to return to God, to become once again one of His fold. Most churches today claim that simply by claiming that have returned to God, you have done so. Likewise, many modern spiritual schools teach that simply by declaring that you are fed up with materialism, you have become spiritually awake. The wise followers of Hermes and Isis never believed such nonsense. It’s like claiming you have put out a forest fire simply by declaring you have.

The mystic followers of Hermes and Isis, as well as those of other ancient mystery schools, knew that a spiritual awakening and spiritual growth was a process, not simply a decision. It was, and is, a process that takes years to complete. Unlike Superman, we can’t jump to the top of the highest mountain in a single leap. Neither can we jump from a mundane, materialistic level of consciousness to the highest level in one leap, or in one day. There are many intermediate steps to be taken. Hermes and Isis took those steps, and so did their students. They didn’t seek out shortcuts by using hallucinogenic drugs that only bring about illusions, not enlightenment.

Divine Reality

Another reason why Isis is veiled, meaning that the secrets are revealed slowly, and only to those who are ready to handle them wisely, is because revealing too much too soon can cause the person to go mad. It has happened more than once. The mystery schools of Hermes and Isis were careful not to overwhelm the initiates. For that reason, study in such schools was a lifetime project, not an overnight adventure. Many spiritual students of today disagree, and claim they have learned it all in a year or two. In actual fact, they have completed no more than the equivalent of first-grade in a real spiritual school like those of Hermes and Isis.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on February 12, 2021

“When man learns of the existence of his spiritual mind and begins to recognize its promptings and leadings, he strengthens his bond of communication with it, and consequently receives light of a greater brilliance. When we learn to trust the Spirit, it responds by sending us more frequent flashes of illumination and enlightenment. As one unfolds in Spiritual Consciousness he relies more upon this inner voice, and is able more readily to distinguish it from impulses from the lower planes of the mind. He learns to follow Spirit’s leadings and to allow it to lent him a guiding hand. Many of us have learned to know the reality of being ‘led by the spirit.’ To those who have experienced this leading we need not say more, for they will recognize just what we mean. Those who have not yet experienced it must wait until the time comes for them, for we cannot describe it, as there are no words to speak of these things which are beyond words. … Spirit, Man’s seventh principle, is the Divine Spark – our most precious inheritance from the Divine Power – a ray from the Central Sun.” ~William Walker Atkinson

Trusting the Spirit Isn’t Simple

We must trust the spirit, but doing so isn’t simple. Every flash of inspiration that comes to us may seem to be coming from the Spiritual Mind (also known as the Soul), but many are actually coming from the lower mind, or worse yet, from outside influences that are often less than benevolent. Knowing which of these inner voices or gut feelings are coming from the spirit takes practice, but it is worth the effort.

I know from personal experience that several important decisions in my life came from intuition, so I  know that trusting the spirit works.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on February 5, 2021

So this is who I am
And this is all I know
And I must choose to live
For all that I can give
The spark that makes the power grow

Immortality by Celine Dion (1998)

The ancient Greeks often quoted the maxim, “Know Thyself,” which I have adopted as my own life motto. When I first learnt of it many years ago, I heard it as “Man, know thyself,” attributed to Thales of Miletus in the 7^th century BC. I now know that it was inscribed in the forecourt of Apollo’s Temple at Delphi – in Greek (naturally): γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated as gnōthi seauton and meaning “Know Thyself.” So, the word “Man” is probably superfluous.

The quest to know oneself gives rise to the question: “Who Am I?” If you make the statement, I want to know myself, it implies that there are two parties involved: I and Myself. It is important, I believe, to love yourself – not in a narcissistic way, but with true, spiritual, unconditional love. Once again, the inference is that there are two selves.

To clarify this, I will draw on the explanation used by one of my favourite teachers, Dr Sue Morter. According to Dr Sue, it is limiting to ask whether you are the “I “or the “Myself.” It means you are identifying with the mind. Our identity becomes attached to the mind and we think that is who we are. We are compromised in this situation – it means we haven’t yet anchored to our real self and we need to build presence in our central being. She says that we are talking from the mind, and we want to know our soul.

Read the full article on Paul’s blog at his web site southernsunlightcom.wordpress.com.

“The Working of Blessed Love. It were bitterer than death to me if ever I did that which is good, without God.”
~by Mechthild of Magdeburg

Good Without God

Why would Mechthild say that it would be worse than death to her if she ever did good without God? Because when humans try to do good without God they do what they think is good, but often isn’t. It may be good for them as individuals but is bad for others. Or it may be good for people, but is harmful to the environment. Of course, atheists would argue otherwise, but studies show they are wrong. While they may claim you don’t need to believe in God to be a good and moral person, studies show that while first generation atheists maintain much of the morality of their religious parents, by the third generation much of the morality is either completely lost, or followed only when convenient.

When I took a class in Systems Analysis (what they called Efficiency Expert in the 1950s and 1960s) one of the things the teacher taught us about solving a problem for a person or a business is to make sure the solution does not create problems that are worse than the problems you are trying to fix. The environmentalists back then clearly were not Systems Analysts and did not follow that concept when they advised us to stop using paper bags and switch to plastic. We know now in hindsight that plastic bags are far more environmentally destructive than the paper ones were.

But even a trained systems analyst using pure science can make mistakes. But a mystic like Mechthild with a direct connection to God will not because God always knows the answer, so we should never try to do good without God.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on February 22, 2021

“Use only one vessel, one fire, one instrument.

“The door to success lies in the unity of will and purpose and the proper adaptation of the means to the end. There are many roads leading to the celestial center. He who follows the chosen path may succeed, while he who attempts to walk on many paths will be delayed.

“If the molten metals are allowed to cool off before they are transformed into higher ones, they will become hard again, and the whole process will have to be recommenced from the beginning. Use the inextinguishable lamp. Its light will not go out unless it is driven away by force.

“Recognize the true Prima Materia. It is to be found everywhere, but if you do not find it in your own house, you will find it nowhere. It is a living substance that can be discovered only in places inhabited by man. It is the only substance from which the Philosopher’s Stone can be prepared, and without that substance no genuine silver or gold can be made. In thirty pounds of ordinary mercury, there is usually not more than one pound of the true substance, and a hundred pounds of ordinary sulfur usually contains not more than one pound of that which is useful. It can only be found above he earth, not below it. It is before everybody’s eyes; no one can live without it; everybody uses it; the poor usually possess more of it than the rich; … it can be perceived by the sense of feeling, but it cannot be seen with the material eye.” ~Franz Hartmann

One Vessel, One Fire

Hartmann is saying that if you are seeking true spiritual growth rather than just studying the teachings out of curiosity, you must choose a particular school or discipline and follow it completely and regularly. If you find at some point that you made a bad choice, move on to a different school, but don’t just jump willy-nilly from one school to another, one method to another. Let’s consider the issue with an analogy.

A man who is by profession a home construction engineer wants to build himself a house. He starts by laying out a few boards and making a partial frame. But then decides a brick house would be better. So he starts laying bricks but does only a few dozen before he decides stone would be better than brick, so he tears down the brick and starts again with stone. If he continues on like this, not only will he not get the best home possible, he won’t get one at all! He has to make a firm decision and stick with it. The same for choosing a spiritual school or spiritual discipline to follow.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on December 21, 2020

Irving Finkel is a renowned expert and literate in the ancient written language of cuneiform.

He teaches classes on how to write cuneiform and is the leading authority on the history of board games.

He is an Assistant Keeper at the British Museum.

Here are a few comments regarding Finkel’s lecturing skills:

“This guy could talk about paint drying and I’d listen.”

“I loved listening to him, it’s like Monty Python + archeology.”

“Someone get this man a TED talk, a TV Series and a Movie deal”

Below is a summary and link to his 2016 talk “The Ark before Noah: A Great Adventure”:

The recent translation of a Babylonian tablet launches a groundbreaking investigation into one of the most famous stories in the world, challenging the way we look at ancient history. A world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, Irving Kinkel found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.

Watch the video on YouTube (58:18).

Article and link submitted by Michael McIntyre

THE SHIP OF GOD

“Deep companion of the beings of light! In your mercy, give me your strength and help me with your own hand. Dress my soul, O Lord, and speak to me. Help me when enemies close in. … Beneficent friend, free me. My soul is crying in my body at every blow and dagger stab. My hour of life and this form in flesh is over, and all its days of turbulence. … Springs of darkness opened, and the giant fishes transfixed me with fear. My soul fainted before those dreadful forms, hideous to look at. Their bodies lack a human shape. These are the demons, the banished princes, transfixing me with terror. … They rose to drown me. In every neighborhood there were storm winds. Rain, the mist of all fogs, lightning and drums of thunder, shores of clouds, hail, crashing sea. The skiff rose over the crest of a wave and glided into a hidden trough. … With the drownings the sails swallowed water, and the masts shook together in the turmoil. The rudders dropped into the sea. Those left on board turned to stone. Redemption became a habit. From every source the wind blew the prison locks loose. Stars whirled wildly about, planets fell out of orbit. The earth shuddered, as did my foundation. Lofty heavens sank. … The wheel of the zodiac lost its course. The seal of my feet and joints of my toes, every link of my soul’s life was loosened. Each joint of my hands and fingers was loosened and its seal taken off. Their meaty life grew feeble. My limbs fell cold. My knees froze together in fear. In my legs the strength was struck and drained away. When I saw the dark, the strength in my limbs collapsed, and my soul moaned at all its opposing forms. Who will save me? Who will save me; make a new way? … Who will rip off this body and dress me in a new one? After I spoke with trembling soul I saw the savior.
“After I spoke with trembling soul I saw the savior and saw his helmsmen, who came down to dress my soul. I raised my eyes that way and saw deaths hidden by the envoy. Hurt was remote. So too sickness and distress. Their vision left, their darkness fled. Everything was holy and unsurpassed. Light shone elating and lovely, swelling my mind with gladness.” ~Parthian Songs

Ship of God?

This Parthian Manichean song is titled The Ship of God, yet when you read the first part of it, you would think it is more like the ship of Satan. In fact, it almost seems that the first part of the song is talking about a completely different ship than the final section. In truth, there is no ship at all, it is pure allegory. The allegory could represent the material world or the human soul. Both interpretations seem to work. This might be better titled Ship of God on the Sea of Satan.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on December 28, 2020