“If man were all of one piece—I mean, if he were nothing more than a mere thing, acting and acted upon according to a fixed nature—he could be no more subject to reproach and punishment than the mere animals. But as the scheme hold, man is singles out for condemnation when he does evil; and this with justice. … For he is no mere thing. …
“This does not, however, outside the Providence of the Reason of the All; the Over-World cannot be dependent upon the World of Sense. The higher shines down upon the lower, and this illumination is Providence in the highest aspect: The Reason-Principle has two phases, one which creates the things of process and another which links them with the higher beings. … “Men possess, then, a distinctive Principle: but not all men turn to account all that is in their nature; …” ~Plotinus

Man is Different

“We do not consider an animal evil when it kills other animals to survive. Even when it kill a human, we generally don’t think of it as evil or needing punishment, though we probably hunt down and kill it for our own protection, not to punish it. Likewise, when a person eats a poisonous plant and dies, we do not blame the plant, for the plant did not choose to be poisonous or to be eaten. Man is, on the other hand, held responsible for his action, on both the material and spiritual levels. Man has a spiritual link.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

Different types of sports played by people

“This threefold union with Reality, as your attention is focused now on one aspect, now on another, of its rich simplicity, will be actualized by you in many different ways: for you are not now to suppose that an unchanging barren ecstasy is now to characterize your inner life. … The sense of your own dwelling within the Eternal transfuses and illuminates it, the sense of your own necessary efforts, a perpetual renewal of contact with the spiritual world. … When the greater love overwhelms the lesser, and your small self-consciousness is lost in the consciousness of the Whole, it will be felt as an inner stillness, a quiet fruition of Reality. … Since you are a child of Time as well as of Eternity, such effort and satisfaction, active and passive love are both needed by you, if your whole live is to be brought into union with the inconceivable rich yet simple one in whom these apparent opposites are harmonized.” ~Evelyn Underhill

“Today, perhaps more than ever, it is hard to stay focused on one thing, but that is not necessarily bad. I don’t mean the kind of lack-of-focus some people have where they never accomplish anything because they keep changing their mind on what they want to accomplish. I mean those of us who do no what we want, and will work towards a goal for years when necessary, but not all day, every day. We need to live a rich life of many worthy activities, not just one, but make sure spiritual growth is one of them.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“When the alchemists stated that every animate and inanimate thing in the universe contained the seeds of gold, they meant that even the grains of sand possessed a spiritual nature, for gold was the spirit of all things. Concerning these seeds of spiritual gold the following Rosicrucian axiom is significant” ‘A seed is useless and impotent unless it is put in its appropriate matrix.’ Franz Hartmann comments on this axiom with these illuminating words: ‘A soul cannot develop and progress without an appropriate body, because it is the physical body that furnishes the material for its development.’ … Everything which exists has a spirit—the seed of Divinity within itself. … Regeneration actually the unfoldment of the omnipresent Divinity in man, that this Divinity may shine forth as a sun and illuminate all.” ~Manly P. Hall

Seeds of Gold

“If you were hoping that Seeds of Gold was something you could buy at your local Nursery and plant in the back yard to grow your own gold, sorry to disappoint you. As usual, when the alchemists spoke of seeds of gold they meant the spirit hidden in all things, just as the true alchemists sought to turn the man of lead (materialist, low consciousness) into a man of gold (spiritual, high consciousness) and not literally change one metal into another. Referring to this spiritual nature as “seeds” seems appropriate to me since, like seeds, they are a potential that can grow into something much greater, just as an acorn can grow into a great oak tree.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“The devil cannot see the Soul, for the second Principle, wherein it lives, and in which God and the Kingdom of Heaven stands, as also the Angels and Paradise, is shut up from him, and he cannot get to it.
“In this consideration you may find what I understand by a Principle. For a Principle is nothing else but a new Birth, a new life: Besides, there is no more than one Principle wherein there is an eternal life, that is, the eternal Deity. And this would not have been manifested, if God had created no Creatures in Himself, (viz. Angels and Men,) who understand the eternal and indissoluble band, and how the Birth of the eternal Light is in God. …
“The divine Essence in the divine Principle has wrought in the root of the first Principle, which is the begetter, Matrix, or Genetrix. … In the second Principle, (viz. In the holy Birth,) there is only Spirit, Light, and Life.” ~Jacob Boehme

The Principles

“It seems that Boehme is using the word “Principle” in the way that we use “Dimension” in Cosolargy. Another difference is that he seems to be numbering them starting with the highest as number one, then down to the lowest. In Cosolargy, we number the lowest dimension as one, and go up to the highest as the ninth. So what Boehme calls the first Principle, we call the ninth Dimension.

“Boehme tells us that the second Principle (eight dimension) came into existence when God created the Angels and Men. This tells us that God alone exists at the highest level that Boehme calls the first Principle.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“Something may here be said concerning the environment in which this [spiritual] training should be undertaken, for this is not without some importance. … Anyone practicing in an environment filled only with self-seeking interests, as for example, the modern struggle for existence, must be conscious of the fact that these interests are not without their effect on the development of his spiritual organs. It is true that the inner laws of these organs are so powerful that this influence cannot be fatally injurious. Just as a lily can never grow into a thistle, however inappropriate its environment, so, too, the eye of the soul can never grow to anything but its destined shape … .
“Especially fortunate is the student who can carry out his esoteric training surrounded by the green world of plants, or among the sunny hills, where nature weaves her web of sweet simplicity. This environment develops the inner organs in a harmony which can never ensue in a modern city.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Location, Location, Location

“The environment in which we practice spiritual development techniques is important. The reason ancient holy people like the Essenes went to mountain tops or open fields to do their practices was not just to avoid being seen, but also to get away from the materialistic thought vibrations found in the crowded cities and towns. We did find an interesting exception to the idea that cities are bad places to conduct spiritual techniques. A few years ago a group of us took a trip to Greece where we visited many ancient religious and spiritual sites, but we also spent several nights in the crowded and bustling city of Athens. In the morning, we would go to the rooftop patio to do a few minutes of spiritual sun gazing (gazing at the spiritual sun, not the material one) before breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which was also on top of the hotel. In most big cities, the sun feels harsh when you do this, but it was surprisingly mellow in Athens.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“In the degree that Man realizes the existence of the Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what spiritual development means—the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us. Try to remember this last definition—that of spiritual development. It contains the Truth of True Religion. … There are many planes of being … and all depend upon the advancement of beings in the scale, of which scale the lowest point is the grossest matter, the highest being separated only by the thinnest division from the SPIRIT of THE ALL.” ~The Three Initiates

“There are a lot of people calling themselves spiritual these days, and a lot of schools claiming to teach spirituality or spiritual development. There seems to be considerable difference, however, in what different people and different schools call spiritual.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“’In a place beyond uttermost place,
in a track without shadow of trace,
Soul and body transcending,
I live in the soul of my Loved One anew.’
Thus cries the great Sufi poet, Jalalu’ddin; and the suggestion which his words convey is perhaps as close as speech can come to what Ruysbroeck meant byOnwise. The change of consciousness which initiates man into this inner yet unbounded world—the world that is ‘unwalled,’ to use his own favorite metaphor—is the essence of contemplation; which consists, not in looking at strange mysteries, but in movement to fresh levels, shut to the analytic intellect, …
‘It has no attributes,
And here all the works of reason fail,
It is not God,
But it is the Light whereby we see Him.’” ~Evelyn Underhill & Ruysbroeck

“It is indeed difficult to describe spiritual things using languages designed to describe the very different physical world. This is one reason why all great spiritual teachers say such things must be experienced, not just taught.

“What the great poet meant by a place beyond place is an example of this.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“An important research project, led by the UK’s University of Dundee, aims to improve knowledge of Sun’s complex magnetic fields using mathematics. The goal is to find out the effects of space weather caused by the Sun and its magnetic structures origins.”

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contributed by Paul V. Young

“The Divine Spark does not derive from the Solar Logos but is conditioned by the evolution of the Solar logos until the cycle of its Solar development is completed. This takes place when the Individuality, as a result of certain evolutionary processes in the Solar Logoidal jurisdiction comes to the point where it need no longer stay in that jurisdiction but is able to recognize its own true being.” ~Dion Fortune

“The Divine Spark doesn’t come to us from the Solar Logos, but from God. It is found in our soul. But like a gas heater that won’t work if you don’t light the pilot light, that Divine Fire won’t burn if you don’t light the pilot light by awakening your dormant spiritual faculties.

“The Solar Logos is found in the Spiritual Sun or Sun of Righteousness and, if we want to benefit from it, we need to take in the light from the Spiritual Sun where it is found.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette

“You have long been like a child tearing up the petals of flowers in order to make a mosaic on the garden path; and the result of this murderous diligence you mistook for a knowledge of the world. When the bits fitted with unusual exactitude, you called it science. Now at last you have perceived the greater truth and loveliness of the living plant from which you broke them; have, in fact, entered into direct communion with it, ‘united’ with its reality. But this very recognition … must entail for you a consciousness of deeper realities, which, as yet, you have not touched. … A mere cataloging of all the plants … will never give you access to the Unity, the Fact, whatever it may be, which manifests itself through them. To suppose that it can is the cardinal error of the ‘nature mystic’: an error parallel with that of the psychologist who looks for the soul in ‘psychic states.’” ~Evelyn Underhill

“A Surface Consciousness

“This quote from Underhill sounds mostly negative, but it has a positive side to it. She starts by complaining about the scientist who is like a child, tearing petals off a flower, arranging them in patterns, and thinking he now understands nature. It sounds foolish, but I remember reading a few years ago that scientists determine what nutrients are in foods by burning them and studying the ash left behind. That means that any nutrient that gets burned up in the process doesn’t get recognized. Hopefully, they have learned better and no longer use that method.

“She then adds a positive side to it by saying that the spiritual or mystical student, who recognizes that the whole living plant is more important than studying the chemical composition of the petals of the flower has learned an important lesson, and indeed he has.”

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contributed by Harold Boulette