We the Choir Gather and We Learn to Sing Together

[Ohr Ein Sof]

 
Surely, it is well to protect the young from predation and misfortune, but the time arises when each must venture out into the cold unknown to find one's "pearls of great price," those things for which one would give all, and thus enter into the dark tunnel of transformation.

Perhaps this leads to an extremely negative environment?  Perhaps it leads to something else?  The pathways to the heart of self are multifarious, to be sure.

Yes, indeed. we need comfort along the way, and sharing a good cry or a good song (or a good sermon) may suffice for a little while.  But then the personal journey recommences.

Can outer circumstances distort the mature being?  Certainly so.  Am I wrong, or do Confederation sources not teach that seeking the deeper self in such a context is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D?  Do they not aver that the riches thusly found far outweigh the burdens of the seeking?  Do they not say that coming to a clear understanding of what one truly seeks helps to refine the balance of one's soul stream?  Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)? 

Perhaps I've misunderstood this?

  

Well, of course! Yes. If I may, it is well to be with likeminded individuals or individual for protection if one can swing it. It just depends where the seeking is leading I suppose. If one is becoming an adept then it would be safer if he were surrounded by others who can protect him with love or at the least by one more. Even an initiate or a disciple should consider study or spiritual practices involving another likeminded individual. If for no other reason than to increase the power. But, as always, proper discernment is key.
There are some things in which no one else can be a part of in our journeys.
Best to you Sacred!!!

[Ohr Ein Sof]

So long as you remain in this incarnation, no matter how many mistakes you make, you can choose again.

Besides, the universe would have used someone else even had you not volunteered. In that sense, there are no mistakes. In the long term, it all fita together like a puzzle from the future.

Cats can drop things from high up when figuring out puzzles.

I disagree. There is no one else who can serve this spot you occupy as it is designed for you and you only and only you can get the job done.

[Ming the Merciful]

So long as you remain in this incarnation, no matter how many mistakes you make, you can choose again.

Besides, the universe would have used someone else even had you not volunteered. In that sense, there are no mistakes. In the long term, it all fita together like a puzzle from the future.

Cats can drop things from high up when figuring out puzzles.

Another area that has been overlooked, are the teachings of Madam Blavatsky and Alice Bailey. The "Missing Link". Compared to the current strata of thinking, both parties seem to be Primordial and not current, (yet), the information they acquired at the time was phenomenal. Their teachings and philosophy is. (indirectly), related to current day thinking. In the writings of Madam Blavatsky, there are indirect connotations to Ra and Higher Beings, (implying otherworldly). Has anyone read Isis Unveiled" or the "Secret Doctrine". Highly recommended reading. There are more things in Heaven and Earth than you realize. Once again, everything is connected, (is it not). Don't look at the obvious, but the sublime. The God(s) work in mysterious ways?

Both excellent books

When I started reading ISIS Unveiled, it seemed a natural course. Or, a naturalistic flow of Spiritual Knowledge. Although at the same time I was studying under the Zen Master, and I think the understanding came as a bridge. (is not Theosophy Eastern Philosophy). Even then I could see the unification between Religion and Spirituality, (all Religion). There is an underlying essence that permeates all Religion, (and yet), the average person cannot see it, because they are brainwashed and indoctrinated by their separate Religion. I had a friend, (a Fundamentalist Christian), and his standard answer was, "If it is not Christian, it is counterfeit", (a childish response). That sounds hypercritical because before I turned my back on Christianity, I was a Fundamentalist. It appears as if the God(s) had other plans for me? Thank the God(s) of Knowledge and Wisdom? Meanwhile, sometimes I mock the God(s), perhaps its adolescence, (in the Spiritual sense)? My other love is Qawwali music, and there is a certain amount of mocking God when they are praising him.

The "Art of Mocking the God(s)". Another concept that the West has difficulties with. The myriads of God(s). Perhaps three hundred million God(s) is too difficult to comprehend, and it is more simple only having one. Then you don't need three hundred million shrines. I prefer watching Shiva and Shakti dancing in front of Brahma. Apart from the fact such sentiments comes back to personal taste. So ends the discourse...

Peace and Shalom.

[meadow-foreigner]

[Ming the Merciful]

Pas op voor de slang in het gras (het kan een steek in de staart hebben).

We the choir gather and we learn to sing together? So, who is volunteering to become the choirmaster? The God(s) are too busy, and there are not enough Saints. Not that I believe in Saints, (per se).The Saints are a curse to the God(s). Full of self-righteousness after their martyrdom and expecting to spend an eternity in Paradise, (next to the God(s)), as if they deserve special treatment. You are in Heaven, what more do you want? Would you prefer to spend eternity in Hell, (not that I believe in Hell). Do I believe in anything? I believe in the Liberation. The God(s) promising great things, (at a price). You can have Liberation, (but). There is always a but. The God(s) are bad salesmen. They are so busy creating their Universes that they don't have time to look after what they already created properly. The God(s) give no customer satisfaction. You want life? Here! Now deal with it. Don't come back crying to me if you cannot get it right? What more do you want? You are unworthy to become a God. Can't you see that? Go away little man and come back when you are ready. Promises. Promises. That is all it is, broken promises. The God(s) do not understand customer satisfaction. So ends the discourse...

Peace.

[Sacred Fool]

 
Surely, it is well to protect the young from predation and misfortune, but the time arises when each must venture out into the cold unknown to find one's "pearls of great price," those things for which one would give all, and thus enter into the dark tunnel of transformation.

Perhaps this leads to an extremely negative environment?  Perhaps it leads to something else?  The pathways to the heart of self are multifarious, to be sure.

Yes, indeed. we need comfort along the way, and sharing a good cry or a good song (or a good sermon) may suffice for a little while.  But then the personal journey recommences.

Can outer circumstances distort the mature being?  Certainly so.  Am I wrong, or do Confederation sources not teach that seeking the deeper self in such a context is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D?  Do they not aver that the riches thusly found far outweigh the burdens of the seeking?  Do they not say that coming to a clear understanding of what one truly seeks helps to refine the balance of one's soul stream?  Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)? 

Perhaps I've misunderstood this?

  

Well, of course! Yes. If I may, it is well to be with likeminded individuals or individual for protection if one can swing it. It just depends where the seeking is leading I suppose. If one is becoming an adept then it would be safer if he were surrounded by others who can protect him with love or at the least by one more. Even an initiate or a disciple should consider study or spiritual practices involving another likeminded individual. If for no other reason than to increase the power. But, as always, proper discernment is key.
There are some things in which no one else can be a part of in our journeys.
Best to you Sacred!!!  

Thank you.

Rereading my own text, I think I might have overstated my case.  I'm guessing now that my reaction to the Eisenstein quote in the OP was more that I see the sentiment expressed there emphasizing comfy social acceptance more than I feel it to be fundamentally seeking to know the Creatrix in all her unguarded nakedness.  Maybe it feels too facile?

"We hold each other in new beliefs. 'Yes, I see it too. You are not crazy.' We, the choir, gather, and we learn to sing together."
  
I don't feel, in this particular verbiage, the sacrifice of "self-ness" required to truly surrender to love.

 

[Patrick]

I think that the ways of Love can be learned in many different fashions.  A Choir singing in love and about love being but one manner.

A soul alone in the desert with an open heart vibrating in love is also a song that the planet hears.

[flofrog]

Beautifully said Patrick

[Sacred Fool]

I think that the ways of Love can be learned in many different fashions.  A Choir singing in love and about love being but one manner.

A soul alone in the desert with an open heart vibrating in love is also a song that the planet hears.

I'm probably making too much out of this, but the point I was labouring to make is about the surrendering of self to the endeavour.  For example, you can't just "have children," you have to dedicate a good chunk of self, not to yourself, but to the "project."  For a soul alone in the desert, this may be more apparent.  The verbiage in that quote--the putative subject of this thread--doesn't carry that depth for me.  That's my feeling about it.   That's all.
  

[Ymarsakar]

Listening to your inner guidance and intuition is important.

I often challenge it because it does not align with human knowledge. Thus i had to delete the human stuff to make room.

[meadow-foreigner]

Pas op voor de slang in het gras (het kan een steek in de staart hebben).

[Patrick]

I'm probably making too much out of this, but the point I was labouring to make is about the surrendering of self to the endeavour.  For example, you can't just "have children," you have to dedicate a good chunk of self, not to yourself, but to the "project."  For a soul alone in the desert, this may be more apparent.  The verbiage in that quote--the putative subject of this thread--doesn't carry that depth for me.  That's my feeling about it.   That's all.

I guess that for wanderers at least, coming down here is pretty much that, whatever one does.  The whole incarnation being such a dedicated endeavor.

[Diana]

@ meadow-foreigner: I love that illustration of the snake/yin/yang. 

[Sacred Fool]

I'm probably making too much out of this, but the point I was labouring to make is about the surrendering of self to the endeavour.  For example, you can't just "have children," you have to dedicate a good chunk of self, not to yourself, but to the "project."  For a soul alone in the desert, this may be more apparent.  The verbiage in that quote--the putative subject of this thread--doesn't carry that depth for me.  That's my feeling about it.   That's all.

I guess that for wanderers at least, coming down here is pretty much that, whatever one does.  The whole incarnation being such a dedicated endeavor.

Oh, I expect a wanderer could be just as lazy or indifferent to knowing self as the Creatrix as anybody else.  Why not?  A wanderer might have an inherently underlying higher vibration or desire to serve, but they can avoid doing the hard work of knowing the self deeply as anyone else, right?  Do they get a pat on the back just because they wandered over this way for awhile?  I dunno.  It kind of sounds like an ego trip to me to say, "Hey, I'm a wanderer, so I don't need to slowly strip away the parts of me that are not the Creatrix so that I may be of deeper service to All."  Of course, that may not be be exactly what you're saying...?
   

[Patrick]

It may not be what I'm saying. I wouldn't know. Because I don't know what I'm saying anymore.

Maybe this thread is actually about the Law of Squares? Learning to sing about love together?

[Sacred Fool]

It may not be what I'm saying. I wouldn't know. Because I don't know what I'm saying anymore.

Maybe this thread is actually about the Law of Squares? Learning to sing about love together?

Maybe so, Patrick.  But it's also a lot of diligent work that allows a choir to sing on pitch, in time and with a meaningful sense of the music.  This much I know.
  

[Patrick]

I am a tenor in an actual choir.

Well precovid. I'm starting to really miss it.

[Sacred Fool]

 
Good for you!

Well, when you show up for rehearsal or a performance, do you tell people, "I'm a wanderer, so I'm just going to radiate my high vibration self and not do the work of learning the music?"  I kinda doubt it.

Anyhow, this is sort of what I'm trying to get at.  That quote in the OP is about validation from others just for showing up.  That's fine, but if you really want to do the work of making music, you must "pay your dues," no?  Ergo, a wanderer can just show up and hang out--and maybe that was a carefully chosen pre-incarnative choice, for example, sometimes you just need an easy lifetime to balance out the rougher ones--you can just show up and vibrate casually, or maybe you wanna do serious work in consciousness?  Maybe you want to go so deeply inside the music that your sense of self becomes transparent?  Maybe not.
  

[Ming the Merciful]

Pas op voor de slang in het gras (het kan een steek in de staart hebben).

I like the snake in the, (metaphorical), grass. Or in this case, entwined in "Yin-Yang". A good Omen. Honor the "Sacred Snake". It just happened last week on TV, I watched a program in the series, "Ancient Aliens" and pertaining to snake worship. According to theorists, the Christian dialogue is misrepresented in the fact that with most things, (Christian), the beliefs were corrupted by the Roman Church. Then it is said, that modern Christianity is so far removed from the original Middle Eastern version, it is more like "Hollywood", (or), the Westernization of something Middle Eastern. In fact, the original Christianity, (the first two hundred years), was closer to Islam than Jewish. What most people in the West do not realize, is the fact that there is a grey area where Christianity and Islam are so intertwined, it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. I have told every Christian who has tried to convert me, (as a former Fundamentalist), read the history of your Religion. It is full of surprises.

I shall go to the "Alter of Discontent" and slaughter a goat to appease the God(s). What has Christianity and Islam got to do with the Law of One. The snake entwined within Yin-Yang. Everything is connected and interconnected. Like the threads of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. I am quickly concluding that Dark Energy and Dark Matter is the Matrix which everybody is talking about. The "Binding Force". The connections where an atomic particle on one side of the Universe has an influence, (and reflection) on the opposite side of the, (aforesaid), Universe. The scientists cannot find Dark Matter and Dark Energy, (simply), because it is in another Dimension. Use the Force. Intuitive thinking.

So ends the discourse...

Peace.

[Ymarsakar]

Esoteric or non dogma based psiritual seeking is close between islam and the other branches.

[Patrick]

...when you show up for rehearsal or a performance, do you tell people, "I'm a wanderer, so I'm just going to radiate my high vibration self and not do the work of learning the music?"  I kinda doubt it...

I don't tell people that no.

Although, that is closer to reality than you might think.  I'm not a musician or a singer per se.  There is a minimum of technique involved, I cannot read partitions but I do look at it for the words and the notes going up or down gives me an idea of if my pitch should be going up or down, etc...  But if I record myself alone, it's very much lacking.

In the choir, I just sing from my heart.  Together it's no longer lacking, it becomes beautiful.  After a public performance, I've had people from the audience tell me they could feel it coming from the heart.  There was even a new member that joined specifically because of this.

So I never felt the need to do the work of learning how to make proper music.  We learn to make music together.

...Anyhow, this is sort of what I'm trying to get at.  That quote in the OP is about validation from others just for showing up...

You don't get the benefits just for showing up.  You also have to want to sing.  To join with these energies.

That is not done for validation.  It's just an unconditional giving of the self.  There is no expectation of return.

...That's fine, but if you really want to do the work of making music, you must "pay your dues," no? Ergo, a wanderer can just show up and hang out...

Making music per se maybe, but in a choir I'm not sure no.  I am basically just showing up and pouring my heart out.  I rarely practice by myself outside the choir (although they do encourage that of course).

...and maybe that was a carefully chosen pre-incarnative choice, for example, sometimes you just need an easy lifetime to balance out the rougher ones--you can just show up and vibrate casually, or maybe you wanna do serious work in consciousness?  Maybe you want to go so deeply inside the music that your sense of self becomes transparent?  Maybe not.

Not sure I'm following.  But people can choose not to sing, to sing alone, in small groups, in a choir, join the planetary song, join the universal song.  Also, whatever the little self incarnated here does, a part of us never stopped singing the universal OM song.

[Diana]

...when you show up for rehearsal or a performance, do you tell people, "I'm a wanderer, so I'm just going to radiate my high vibration self and not do the work of learning the music?"  I kinda doubt it...

I don't tell people that no.

Although, that is closer to reality than you might think.  I'm not a musician or a singer per se.  There is a minimum of technique involved, I cannot read partitions but I do look at it for the words and the notes going up or down gives me an idea of if my pitch should be going up or down, etc...  But if I record myself alone, it's very much lacking.

In the choir, I just sing from my heart.  Together it's no longer lacking, it becomes beautiful.  After a public performance, I've had people from the audience tell me they could feel it coming from the heart.  There was even a new member that joined specifically because of this.

So I never felt the need to do the work of learning how to make proper music.  We learn to make music together.

Honestly, that's just beautiful Patrick and I can feel the heart even behind your words here. I think this is a great example for this thread.

I can relate to what Sacred Fool says, too. As an artist (most of the time, illustrator), I have natural talent and the desire to create art, but I also have extensive training which polished my ability to express myself in the best possible way—in a way that would be received with more clarity and the maximum of impact by others. I have instilled in me the basic skills of perspective, light and shadow, form and structure, color theory—all of which is now beneath the surface of my conscious mind and does not have to be thought about. I learned a great deal as well when I first began as an advertising illustrator. My illustrations became very effective as I strove for excellence. And I feel that while I may not have a direct, face-to-face connection to the people who are viewing any art I do, that there is still a connection between us, perhaps because I put my heart into my work.

So I think there can be heart in an infinite number of expressions. I remember one night when I was at my sister's whose daughter at that time was about 14 or 15. She had two friends there. We decided to do karaoke. There were some songs on disc that the three girls loved, and one in particular that they repeatedly sang because they loved it so much (for whatever reason). After I got the basic tune, and of course the words were there on the screen, I just sang my heart out with those girls. All four of us were just singing as loud as we could and it was like the law of squares amplifying everything about the expression. I could literally feel my chest expanding with heart energy. It is a delicious memory and the connection I felt to those young girls while we were singing together was also part of that seemingly mundane but awesome experience.

[Sacred Fool]

  
P&D:  Those are both very sweet stories and I appreciate where you're coming from.  I certainly felt that way singing along in my high school choir.  It was such a pleasant shift to be participating in something beautiful that was bigger than self and, frankly, better organized than self.  It's a cool experience of subordinating (or lending) individual primacy to the conductor and to the group as an whole for a "greater purpose."

Rather than continuing to stumble over trying to make a general point, I'll just say personally that from there I took a very different path.  Singing along wasn't enough for me because, in my being, it just let off hints of the far more satisfying experience of perfecting the instruments of body and soul in order to much more deeply interweave self with the medium in a more self-directed way: as soloist and as composer.

So, it's kind of like a translation problem for me.  For me a phrase like "learning to sing together" doesn't mean "singing along," it's a far more complex vibratory experience which engages self on many subtle levels.  And there's an underlying current of yearning to "return to the waters of my birth," metaphysically speaking, that can carry me away when these kinds of issues come up.

I'm sorry I troubled you with my biases.  Be well and carry on!!!
  

[Ming the Merciful]

...when you show up for rehearsal or a performance, do you tell people, "I'm a wanderer, so I'm just going to radiate my high vibration self and not do the work of learning the music?"  I kinda doubt it...

I don't tell people that no.

Although, that is closer to reality than you might think.  I'm not a musician or a singer per se.  There is a minimum of technique involved, I cannot read partitions but I do look at it for the words and the notes going up or down gives me an idea of if my pitch should be going up or down, etc...  But if I record myself alone, it's very much lacking.

In the choir, I just sing from my heart.  Together it's no longer lacking, it becomes beautiful.  After a public performance, I've had people from the audience tell me they could feel it coming from the heart.  There was even a new member that joined specifically because of this.

So I never felt the need to do the work of learning how to make proper music.  We learn to make music together.

Honestly, that's just beautiful Patrick and I can feel the heart even behind your words here. I think this is a great example for this thread.

I can relate to what Sacred Fool says, too. As an artist (most of the time, illustrator), I have natural talent and the desire to create art, but I also have extensive training which polished my ability to express myself in the best possible way—in a way that would be received with more clarity and the maximum of impact by others. I have instilled in me the basic skills of perspective, light and shadow, form and structure, color theory—all of which is now beneath the surface of my conscious mind and does not have to be thought about. I learned a great deal as well when I first began as an advertising illustrator. My illustrations became very effective as I strove for excellence. And I feel that while I may not have a direct, face-to-face connection to the people who are viewing any art I do, that there is still a connection between us, perhaps because I put my heart into my work.

So I think there can be heart in an infinite number of expressions. I remember one night when I was at my sister's whose daughter at that time was about 14 or 15. She had two friends there. We decided to do karaoke. There were some songs on disc that the three girls loved, and one in particular that they repeatedly sang because they loved it so much (for whatever reason). After I got the basic tune, and of course the words were there on the screen, I just sang my heart out with those girls. All four of us were just singing as loud as we could and it was like the law of squares amplifying everything about the expression. I could literally feel my chest expanding with heart energy. It is a delicious memory and the connection I felt to those young girls while we were singing together was also part of that seemingly mundane but awesome experience.

When you find your "Inner Reality", you have no need to find anything else. Karaoke? My favourite method of reaching my Higher Self, is, (of all things), Trance Remix music, or Qawwali, (Sufi Devotional Music). Last week i discovered Devotional music from, (of all places), Morocco. I have always had a taste for Middle Eastern and Far Eastern music. I actually prefer Pakistani and Afghani music to Indian music. The other music I love, (it is in my DNA), is Classical Chinese music. There is a past life recognition there somewhere, and  then there is the connection in my family ancestry, (Russian and Chinese).

De enige uitweg is door naar binnen te gaan. De barrière is het Zelf.

Nederlandse if you are wondering, (above). Translation. The only way out is by going in. The barrier is the Self. What has the Netherlands got to do with my family ancestry? Nothing. It just happens to be my favourite European country, and I speak Nederlandse. Plus a little German, French and Italian, (not fluently). So, I am a man of the world, and the Earth is my playground. The Europeans have a more relaxed attitude to life than the North Americans. As the Europeans advanced philosophically in the "Old World", as the North American grew, they clung to the their "Old World" values. So now Europe is liberal while North America remains static. Fundamentalism and Mormonism as the perfect examples. I also have the argument that the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" could never happened in Europe. Simply because the various countries would not allow for such childish beliefs. Joseph Smith was a fraud and a conman, and preyed on the gullible. So ends the discourse...

[Diana]

  
P&D:  Those are both very sweet stories and I appreciate where you're coming from.  I certainly felt that way singing along in my high school choir.  It was such a pleasant shift to be participating in something beautiful that was bigger than self and, frankly, better organized than self.  It's a cool experience of subordinating (or lending) individual primacy to the conductor and to the group as an whole for a "greater purpose."

Rather than continuing to stumble over trying to make a general point, I'll just say personally that from there I took a very different path.  Singing along wasn't enough for me because, in my being, it just let off hints of the far more satisfying experience of perfecting the instruments of body and soul in order to much more deeply interweave self with the medium in a more self-directed way: as soloist and as composer.

So, it's kind of like a translation problem for me.  For me a phrase like "learning to sing together" doesn't mean "singing along," it's a far more complex vibratory experience which engages self on many subtle levels.  And there's an underlying current of yearning to "return to the waters of my birth," metaphysically speaking, that can carry me away when these kinds of issues come up.

I'm sorry I troubled you with my biases.  Be well and carry on!!!
  

You aren't troubling anyone. I, for one, always like varied perspectives. I thought, in my own way, I expressed that I get what you are saying.

I am definitely on a solo sort of path and always have been. I feel very much like an ET visitor here, experiencing this reality, joining in, but walking a lone journey. It's not separation but a sort of gap in direction. I feel a strong pull regarding my own reasons for being, which have seldom lined up with or been understood by others I have known. I think to varying degrees, everyone feels that way perhaps. I just don't think it's as simple as labeling it "separation." And because someone feels very involved with humanity it is not necessarily "unity." Things are just more dynamic, many-layered, and complex for such black-and-white terms.

[Ymarsakar]

"I'm sorry I troubled you with my biases."

I think trying to figure out why you feel the way you do, is useful and beneficial for the collective. Assuming things about other people, projecting, and focusing on other selves, can be the distraction that leads to discord and hurt feelings.

If a cat is minding its own business and looking at things from on high, that is ok. But if it tries to knock things over so it falls on the humans below, that's not ok.

[Ming the Merciful]

"I'm sorry I troubled you with my biases."

I think trying to figure out why you feel the way you do, is useful and beneficial for the collective. Assuming things about other people, projecting, and focusing on other selves, can be the distraction that leads to discord and hurt feelings.

If a cat is minding its own business and looking at things from on high, that is ok. But if it tries to knock things over so it falls on the humans below, that's not ok.

Wij zijn het Collectief, (Wij zijn de Borg).

Why does that have a familiar ring to it? We are the Borg? I can assume the "Collective" meaning the "Unified Mind", and the loss of individuality. Although as yet, the Collective does not exist, (it remains in the Dreamworld on the Walkabout). I am not me, I am you. I am everyone. A State which can only be seen as elusive and otherworldly? Although such States would be good for communication, (in a non-communicative sense). My thoughts are your thoughts, and I have no thought. My thoughts are not my own. I am the Collective. I am Borg. Even my last sentence is contradictory because it is also the loss of "I AM". Then I ask, would we be willing to give up our individuality? I have become accustomed to my self-identification and Self-Being, or Self-Recognition. I also ask, how many people would willingly give up their individuality for the "Group Collective". Resistance is futile. We are Borg. We must be objective about this? Is this the fear of Primordial Man speaking? Man only stepped out of the cave a few years ago, and is he ready to become the Collective? Evolution is a strange beast that has to be tamed. Go forth unto the Universe and join your Spiritual Brothers. However, do not come as the individual, come as ONE.

[Ymarsakar]

"We are the Borg? I can assume the "Collective" meaning the "Unified Mind", and the loss of individuality."

Ever hear of herd immunity, the 100th monkey effect, or the double slit quantum light experiment?

[Ming the Merciful]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5HYIXeQ2Rc

If anyone wants to see what it looks like to see a choir singing in unison, watch, (above).

Don't make a momentary judgement, watch it for at least ten to fifteen minutes, (its three hours long). If such music is used in Meditation, it definitely would take you Samadhi. I am flying just by watching it, (not in Meditation). There is a past life recognition in me somewhere, because watching it feels natural. The God(s) work in mysterious ways?

[Steppingfeet]

Surely, it is well to protect the young from predation and misfortune, but the time arises when each must venture out into the cold unknown to find one's "pearls of great price," those things for which one would give all, and thus enter into the dark tunnel of transformation.

This speaks to me of the hero's journey: separation, initiation, and return.

If you'd be interested in sharing, I'd be interested in hearing. What was your cold unknown, the dark tunnel, and the pearls gained thereby?

Can outer circumstances distort the mature being?  Certainly so.  Am I wrong, or do Confederation sources not teach that seeking the deeper self in such a context is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D?

“Seeking the deeper self in such a context [as adverse catalyst creates] is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D” is a helpful way to frame it. I like that. In fact, the early Logoi in this octave, according to Confederation testimony, intentionally made third-density much more difficult, catalytic, confusing, and therefore prone to disharmony because those blissed-out third-density entities weren’t performing the seeking you describe.

The Logoi did this by innovating the veil. We became cut-off not only from each other, and the Creator, seemingly, but from our own deeper resources, our selves. Such was the consequent confusion, in fact, that a whole new path immediately sprung up, one predicated upon the rejection and wholesale denial of truth, of love, of What Is.

I’m not contending that a hard third-density environment is wrong or should be abolished. Nor that the entity should be placed into bubble wrap to protect them from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The “pearls of great price” you referred to in this post become all the more dear because of the sacrifice and effort of their purchase or acquisition. In other words, the hard catalyst that burns away the false self has purpose.

But precisely because of that challenging environment, particularly our catalyst-on-steroids environment, being with other like-hearts becomes all the more conducive to polarization, that is, *toward achieving what the Confederation says is the goal of third-density.*

Again, it was a group that produced the only third-density entities to be available for harvest at either of the last two 25-thousand-year openings of the gateway. It was group work, according to Ra, that produced their third-density positive harvest.

I am saying that there is value in supporting one another in shared culture. Wasn’t that one of your primary hopes and objectives when asking whether the forums ought to be closed? You seemed to want a more curated environment in a protected space that cut out the “detuning” elements so that harmony, connection, community, and upward movement would be more readily available.

I may be misreading your contributions to this thread. If so, I apologize. If not, I would be interested to know how your thoughts in this thread square with your previous visions for Bring4th.

Do they not aver that the riches thusly found far outweigh the burdens of the seeking?  Do they not say that coming to a clear understanding of what one truly seeks helps to refine the balance of one's soul stream?  Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)?

I think those are well articulated, the first two questions. There is indeed an unmistakable fundamental tenet in the Law of One which places radical responsibility on the self for its own processing of catalyst, reinforced in the thought that we cannot learn for another and another cannot learn for us. Ra even indicates that....

Ra: It is impossible to help another being directly. It is only possible to make catalyst available in whatever form, the most important being the radiation of realization of oneness with the Creator from the self, less important being information such as we share with you. - 17.2

As to your third question, though - “Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)?” - we may be reading different Confederation material.

The Creator is to be discovered not only in the self, but in all others. And toward that end they speak repeatedly of the benefits—from the opportunities of service to others, to the strengthened capacity for *self-discovery*, to the increase in power via the Law of Squares—available to those who work harmoniously in group.

Questioner: Could you expand on what you mean by that interaction of polarized entities in piercing the veil?

Ra: I am Ra. We shall state two items of note. The first is the extreme potential for polarization in the relationship of two polarized entities which have embarked upon the service-to-others path or, in some few cases, the service-to-self path. Secondly, we would note that effect which we have learned to call the doubling effect. Those of like mind which together seek shall far more surely find. - 83.17

***

Rereading my own text, I think I might have overstated my case.  I'm guessing now that my reaction to the Eisenstein quote in the OP was more that I see the sentiment expressed there emphasizing comfy social acceptance more than I feel it to be fundamentally seeking to know the Creatrix in all her unguarded nakedness.  Maybe it feels too facile?

It is also plucked from a book of thousands of more words that speak to the possibilities of a more beautiful world with open-eyed, sober awareness of the harsh and degrading circumstances that imprison many in our world systems.

But if you read that quote as advocating for “comfy social acceptance,” then that helps to speak to the adjectives and allusions that you previously used. SF, I am not particularly drawn to inauthenticity, feigned acceptance, or shallow, persona-based relating. True group work ought to be that which uses and communicates shared catalyst. I have learned and earned MUCH in that regard through both great success and abysmal failure. But hard work and nourishing, mutual support can go hand in hand, yes?

Community can fail spectacularly for so many reasons - primary among them being we're not all that great at harmonizing - but where it succeeds, it feeds, nourishes, and supports the self on its journey toward greater authenticity.

Not to uphold this group as the quintessential example, or the only model in the world, they are simply the ones most proximate to me, I watch a group of spiritual seekers in Asheville dig into this very hard work of literally practicing "radical honesty" (particularly through regular circles they call "radical honesty"). They have ups and downs, successes and failures, cohesion and entropy, but I have heard repeated testimony of the benefits that community brings, that being with one's choir confers upon the self. And I notice no diminishment to individual will and faith. To the contrary, each of their fires burn brilliantly, so much so that work in consciousness is pretty much their main vocation.

I'm probably making too much out of this, but the point I was labouring to make is about the surrendering of self to the endeavour.  For example, you can't just "have children," you have to dedicate a good chunk of self, not to yourself, but to the "project."  For a soul alone in the desert, this may be more apparent.  The verbiage in that quote--the putative subject of this thread--doesn't carry that depth for me.  That's my feeling about it.   That's all.

You just don't want it to come easy, do you? You want some grit and hard work in there.

I’m joking.

But there IS a point to stripping the cozy level that the original 3D inhabitants had and making it more difficult.

Ra: Let us continue the metaphor of the schooling but consider the scholar as being an entity in your younger years of the schooling process. The entity is fed, clothed, and protected regardless of whether or not the schoolwork is accomplished. Therefore, the entity does not do the homework but rather enjoys playtime, mealtime, and vacation. It is not until there is a reason to wish to excel that most entities will attempt to excel. - 82.28

Ra: Those entities which do not do their homework, be they ever so amiable, shall not cross [the boundary of third density into fourth]. It was this situation which faced the Logoi prior to the veiling process being introduced into the experiential continuum of third density. - 82.29

The realization of ALL goals requires a price of the self. I guess it all depends on how high the self or the group wants to reach:

Questioner: Then I am guessing that the crossed legs of the entity in Card Four have a meaning similar to the cross of the crux ansata. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct. The cross formed by the living limbs of the image signifies that which is the nature of mind/body/spirit complexes in manifestation within your illusion. There is no experience which is not purchased by effort of some kind, no act of service to self or others which does not bear a price, to the entity manifesting, commensurate with its purity. All things in manifestation may be seen in one way or another to be offering themselves in order that transformations may take place upon the level appropriate to the action. - 94.26

***

P&D:  Those are both very sweet stories and I appreciate where you're coming from.  I certainly felt that way singing along in my high school choir.  It was such a pleasant shift to be participating in something beautiful that was bigger than self and, frankly, better organized than self.  It's a cool experience of subordinating (or lending) individual primacy to the conductor and to the group as an whole for a "greater purpose."

Carla’s soul was fed and nourished simply by being able to be one voice singing in unison with other voices. My wife, Trish, sang in a choir throughout school and still thinks about returning to one, feeling her heart open when we have choir music on around the house. And me… I played the alto sax from 5th – 12th grade, but never had an experience of transcendence.

But my own experiences of harmonized group work, particularly the 18-yr-long one with a small band of spiritual seekers I work with in shared mission, has been one of my greatest sources of joy, comfort, and means of service that also provides a strengthened field for doing all that hard statue-in-the-raging-fire work ofself-discovery.

Could I discover the self in a Russian gulag? Certainly. People do. But whatever your solitary wiring may be, I find myself most strengthened when lending my service to a group and “blending energies.”

Which makes me think and then laugh about “intelligence adequate to process” in this statement:

Ra: There are societies wherever there are entities conscious of the self and conscious of other-selves and possessed with intelligence adequate to process information indicating the benefits of communal blending of energies. – 83.10

***

Singing along wasn't enough for me because, in my being, it just let off hints of the far more satisfying experience of perfecting the instruments of body and soul in order to much more deeply interweave self with the medium in a more self-directed way: as soloist and as composer.

Some people shine more brightly as a soloist. The choir or the soloist can share their song for the upliftment of others. And you do. Much love.