“Let us therefore prepare ourselves to travel to the Lord with an undivided will and purpose. … Let us sever ourselves altogether from the love of the world,and attach our souls to Him only, and keep in mind Him only as our business and care and quest. If we have to be somewhat busied also in body, with the business laid upon us, … let not the mind be parted from the love and quest and longing after the Lord; so that striving in such a mind, and journeying along the way of righteousness with an upright intention, and always taking heed to ourselves, we may obtain the promise of His Spirit, and may through grace be delivered from the perdition of the darkness of the passions.” ~St. Macarius the Egyptian

Way of Righteousness

What exactly constitutes the way of righteousness is a matter of great debate among churches, mystics, and philosophers. It shouldn’t be, but it is. That is because most people speaking on the subject are doing so based on something they were told, or something they read, rather than on personal experience. Only one who has truly walked the way of righteousness and knows what it takes can actually answer the question. For those who have actually walked the way, the descriptions vary little. They may use different words because language simply doesn’t describe the spiritual very well, but the story is similar.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

“To learn to forget is as necessary and useful as to learn to remember. We think of many things every day which it would be more profitable not to think of at all. To be able to forget is to be able to drive away the unseen force (thought) which is injuring us, and change it for a force (or order of thought) to benefit us.

“Demand imperiously and persistently any quality of character in which you may be lacking, and you attract increase of such quality. Demand more patience or decision or judgment or courage or hopefulness or exactness, and you will increase in those qualities. These qualities are real elements. They belong to the subtler, and as yet unrecognized, chemistry of nature.” ~Prentice Mulford

Learn to Forget

“This is probably contrary to everything you have ever heard. Rarely does someone tell you to forget. Only if it is something terrible like witnessing a murder would they say that. But there are many other times when forgetting is useful.

“Many of us grew up as members of a conventional church that teaches social behavior more that any form of spiritual enlightenment. Such churches teach us to listen and conform. To forget such teachings can benefit us greatly.

“Some of us grew up in poverty. There is nothing wrong with that, nothing to be ashamed of. But when it gives us the belief that we are doomed to live in poverty all of our lives, this is something we need to forget.

“Others, on the other hand, grew up in luxury with servants to do just about everything for them. They had cooks to make meals, tutors to help with school, and so on. When it comes to spiritual growth, however, you can’t get your servants to do it for you. Neither can you buy your way in. You have to forget those ideas and learn to do things yourself. A spiritual awakening is a personal thing.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

“They [the Essenes] interpreted the Torah and other Hebrew scriptures in an almost exclusively spiritual, symbolic and metaphysical manner, as did the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo. They also had esoteric writings of their own which they would not allow non-Essenes to see. But even more objectionable to the other Hebrews was their study and acceptance of “alien” scriptures–the holy books of other religions–so much so that an official condemnation was made of this practice. In light of this we can say that the Essenes were perhaps the first in the West to hold a universal, eclectic view of religion. Celibacy was prized by them, being often observed even in marriage, and many of them led monastic lives of total renunciation. They considered their male and female members–all of whom were literate–to be spiritual equals, and both sexes were prophets and teachers among them.

“They believed that the sun was a divine manifestation, imparting spiritual powers to both body and mind. They faced the rising and setting sun and recited prayers of worship, refusing upon rising in the morning to speak a single word until the conclusion of those prayers. They did not consider the sun was a god, but a symbol of the One God of Light and Life.

“They believed that miraculous cures were natural extensions of authentic spiritual life. They would wear only white clothes as a sign that they worshiped God who is Light and were clothed by him in light. … The disciples of Saint Thomas in India had a similar rule, only wearing white clothes in worship.” ~Abbot George Burke

Interpreting Scripture

The Universal Essenes, as well as other spiritual groups, did interpret scripture from all religions in a spiritual way. But what does that mean? Doesn’t everyone interpret religious writings in a spiritual way? Sadly, no, they don’t Many interpret them literally. They act as if they are reading a newspaper or history book rather than scripture.

Scripture is almost always written in the form of allegory, parables. Most ancient myths fall into this category also. They are written this way for several reasons. One is that human languages do a poor job of explaining the spiritual. They are simply not designed for it. So those who have spiritual experiences are forced to describe them in allegory. A second reason is that they wanted people who were not ready for a spiritual awakening to remember these teachings until they were. Making them into allegorical tales made them easier to remember. Third, they wanted to make it difficult for evil and materialistic people to understand the truth, so they hid it.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on NOVEMBER 16, 2018

“Not all things can have a life merely at second hand, that would give an infinite series. There must be some nature which, having life primary, shall be of necessity indestructible, immortal, as the source of life to all else that lives. This is the point of which all that is divine and blessed must be situated, living and having being of itself, possessing primal being and primal life, and its own essence rejecting all change, neither coming to be nor passing away.

“Whence could such a being arise or into what could it disappear: the very word, strictly used, means that the thing is perdurable. … In such an entity this primal and eternal Being cannot be dead like stone or plank: it must be alive, and that with a life unalloyed.” Plotinus

Infinite Life

Plotinus doesn’t just make spiritual sense with his statements here, he is also logical in the intellectual sense.

If there is a factory that produces paper cups, and truckloads come out of the factory daily, it stands to reason that there must be something other than the cups themselves inside the factory. There must be machines forming the cups and probably people operating the machines. The temporary cups can’t make themselves.

All material beings are temporary like those paper cups. And while we can certainly see that people, animals, and even plants are capable of reproduction, that is only part of the story. That reproduced body of matter must be given life. There must be a source for that life, a permanent Being that is always alive and therefore always generating life energy. At some point, the first being of matter had to be created and given life by a being that had life, but was not material. That being cannot be material because everything material changes and dies. This infinite life that is the source of all other lives is God.

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on NOVEMBER 17, 2018

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

“If your knowledge teaches you not the value of things, and frees you not from the bondage to matter, you will never come near the throne of truth.

“If your knowledge teaches you not to rise above human weakness and misery and lead your fellow man on the right path, you are indeed a man of little worth and will remain such till judgment day.

“Learn the words of wisdom uttered by the wise and apply them in your own life. Live them—but do not make a show of reciting them, for he who repeats what he does not understand is no better than an ass that is loaded with books.” ~Kahlil Gibran

Active Knowledge

“It should be clear to anyone that active knowledge is better than inactive knowledge. It should also be clear that knowledge is better than ignorance. Yet knowledge that is not put to use is pointless. It’s like freezing to death in the cold while clutching a heavy coat in your hands.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on OCTOBER 1, 2018

“The soul that really loves God and Christ, though it may do ten thousand righteousnesses, esteems itself as having wrought nothing, by reason of its insatiable aspiration after God. Though it should exhaust the body with fastings, watchings, its attitude towards the virtues is as if it had not yet even begun to labor for them. Though divers gifts of the Spirit, or revelations and heavenly mysteries should be vouchsafed to it, it feels in itself to have acquired nothing at all, by reason of its unlimited and insatiable love to the Lord. … It continues to be insatiable for the mysteries of grace, and for the accomplishment of every virtue. It is smitten with passionate love of the heavenly Spirit, …desiring to be perfectly admitted to the mystical, ineffable fellowship with Him.” ~St. Macarius the Egyptian

Spiritual Humility

“Many people do good deeds. Some do it for God, some not. Some do it primarily for recognition. They will donate only to charities who publicly announce the donations. They are not being charitable, they are buying acclaim.

“St. Macarius says this is the wrong approach. No matter how many good deeds we do, spiritual or physical, we should not brag about it, but give the credit to God who inspires that devotion. In doing that, we show proper humility. Sadly, today, humility is not a popular virtue on Earth, but it still matters a great deal in Heaven. Spiritual humility is an important spiritual attribute.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on NOVEMBER 7, 2018

“The substantial existence of the soul does not depend upon serving as Form to anything: it is an Essence which does not come into being by finding a seat in body; it exists before it becomes also the soul of some particular, for example, of a living being, whose body would be the author of its soul.

“What then is the soul’s Being? If it is neither body nor a state or experience of body, but is act and creation: if it holds much and gives much, and is an existence outside of body; of what order and character must it be? Clearly it is what we describe as Veritable Essence. The other order, the entire corporeal kind, is process: it appears and it parishes, in reality it never possesses Being, but is merely protected, in so far as it has the capacity, by participating in what authentically is.” ~Plotinus

Body and Soul

“It is clear that when Plotinus speaks of the body, he is talking only about the physical body. It is also clear that he is lumping spirit and soul together and simply calling the whole thing “soul”. This simplified approach may miss some details, but is essentially correct.

“In Cosolargy, we say that humans have three “bodies”. The physical body of matter is one. The psychic body of thought and energy is the second. The spirit and divine soul make up the third.

Chicken or Egg

“Plotinus argues (successfully, I think) that the body cannot be the author or creator of the soul. The soul cannot be an offshoot of the body since an offshoot of something cannot be greater than the initial thing. Spirit and soul, being greater than the physical body, cannot therefore be created by the body.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on OCTOBER 6, 2018

“If thou shalt intend that which is present, following the rule of right and reason carefully, solidly, meekly, and shalt not intermix any other businesses, but shalt study this only to preserve thy spirit unpolluted, and pure, and shall cleave unto him without either hope or fear of anything, in all things that thou shalt either do or speak countering thyself with heroical truth, thou shalt live happily; and from this, there is no man that can hinder thee.” ~Marcus Aurelius

Intend Unpolluted Truth

“Imagination is a wonderful thing. But it is also something that is often misused. We misuse it when we hide form reality by filling it with fantasies. Not just by reading books or watching movies, but by letting our view of the world around us be hid under a veil of imagination.

“Zen masters say we must empty our cup before it can be filled again. This means that we must remove those fantasies, false beliefs, and opinions about the world and the universe that allows our imagination to hide reality from us. We don’t need to empty out the truth, just the lies.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on JULY 30, 2018

“Knowledge and understanding are life’s faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding your staff and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasure.

“He who understands you is greater kin to you than your own brother. For even your own kindred my neither understand you or know your true worth.

“God has bestowed upon you intelligence and knowledge. Do not extinguish the lamp of Divine Grace and do not let the candle of wisdom die out in the darkness of lust and error. For a wise man approaches with his torch to light up the path of mankind.” ~Kahlil Gibran

Crown of Knowledge

“True knowledge is indeed the crown. The crown of achievement greater than any man-made trophy. A crown of light brighter than the brightest intellectual who still relies on theory and opinion, while the one with Divine Knowledge simply knows.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on JULY 9, 2018

To “If a man does not walk on the path of Wisdom, he cannot have light and knowledge. If a man does not walk on the path of truth, he cannot have freedom.

Three rules for living:

• Make Love be a way in your life.
• Have Wisdom be a way for knowledge and light.
• Let truth be a way for your freedom.

Apply this as a foundation, and you will avoid unneeded suffering. …If a man loves truth, it will always help him. The man who lives and loves in truth will always be helped; truth is reasonable.” ~Biensa Douno

Path of Wisdom

“The words in this quote have to be read and studies carefully. Douno doesn’t say that one has to have wisdom before he can have light and knowledge. He says only that he must be on the path of wisdom.

“If you are in any spiritual groups in social media, you probably see quite regularly posts, or answers to posts, that say there is no correct path, no right path. All paths are the same they say. The only ones who teach that are those who simply don’t know what the true path is and don’t want to admit it.”

Read the entire article online at spiritsun.net.

Original article posted by HAROLD BOULETTE on JUNE 16, 2018