16 Cultural Pathways to the Self?

[Sacred Fool]

  
This is a very interesting brief discussion of cultural bias towards understanding spirit and what lives in the wild out past that zone: that is, beyond the verbiage lies experience.

The vibration of love is the vibration upon which the planets turn in their courses, the suns rotate in the galaxies ever so slowly to your eyes [as they] climb the heavens. You are a spark of that one original Thought. Advancement in any density can be measured by how near the vibration of your consciousness matches the vibration of the one infinite Creator. *

You do not mean to subvert or dilute this consciousness of love. It is inevitable that there will be distortion. There will be a measurable dynamic betwixt the vibration of love and the vibration of your being at this moment. You are seeking to lessen that distortion so that you may avail yourself of the vibration of love and be taken into the waters of that consciousness.

Those who would be priests among all peoples have generally sought to work with consciousness itself, to work with their thoughts, both on a moment-to-moment basis and on the deeper level of work in consciousness, to tune their thoughts to the pitch of love. In many, many ways there has been the dedication to devotion of the beloved One. There has been time set aside to tabernacle with the Creator, to come in from the desert of everyday life into the oasis of grace and mercy, to enter the tent of prayer and to rest in silence with the Beloved, blind to the world, open to the spirit.

You may have wondered why there is such a multiplicity of takes on how to serve the Creator, how to know the Creator. The answer to that, my friends, lies deep within the history of your planet, deep within the minds of its people. You have, among you on Planet Earth, sixteen different archetypal minds. They vary in seemingly small ways, yet the cultures produced by these archetypal minds vary widely in the way perception works. And it is according to the perception of people that they must work within the veil, veiled from memory of other incarnations for the most part, veiled from memory of the way things are outside of the veil. Various archetypal minds, various cultures, have found different doors of perception that work for them. **


The perception of those such as the one known as Y has found useful is a perception that does not accept the reality of third density in the physical illusion. This is radically different from, for instance, the typical perception of those within the American culture or the European culture where great respect is given to the solidity of life, its mass and weight and physical characteristics. Your culture has found great value in coming more and more to understand how things work from the standpoint of chemistry, physics, mathematics and so forth.

Those who are able to develop the kind of realization that frees them ultimately from the bounds of the physical are those who have grown up breathing in the air of belief in the reality not of this illusion but of the Creator. It is indeed bewildering to many who are in the European or American cultures to consider that their bodies, their obviously physical, obviously present bodies that have weight and mass, might not be real. It is a matter of perception. Those growing up where value was given to the physical illusion would not tend to be capable of opening those doors of those masters of the Far East. This does not mean that those who focus according to Buddhist or Hindu principles have less opportunity or more opportunity to open the gateway to intelligent infinity. It means that their perception of what they are doing varies, sometimes radically.

We will say this, my friends, there are ways in which individuals steeped in a culture that supports the unreality of physicality will find, given a lifetime of work in consciousness, to be able to manipulate matter so that it appears and disappears. You have seen in those who demonstrate hypnosis that if the perception of a person changes, actions can be taken that would seem to harm that person, such as running a needle through the arm or walking on coals that are burning embers. Yet under the influence of a hypnotist, a hypnotized person feels no pain at the stick of the needle, feels no burning as he walks over fire. It is a matter of perception.

For those who find these methods of seeking the love and the light of the infinite Creator such a seeking to cleanse the body, furnish the mind, understand what is happening and so forth, all of these various efforts can be very helpful. We suggest that the seeker play with such ideas lightly, musingly, as the cow chews its cud slowly, and if the mind catches fire, if the heart catches fire, then perhaps this method is one which will be a good resource for you.

* In my opinion, this is one of the most succinct and profound statements of Q'uo.  It presents a compass, if you can see the needle, showing where from any point the lodestar lies.

** I find this an helpful way of accepting the conflicting variety of ways "organized religions" prescribe what it takes to know the self.  How can they be so disparate?  This perspective gives a spacious context for consideration of such.  It also implies that, although many evident alternatives may be unattractive to the seeker, there may be other ways of deepening one's perception of being which are oriented more advantageously or appropriately vis-a-vis oneself.


Continuing.......

In a world where everything is, in a clichéd way, relative, you can easily and comfortably accept the proposition that your experience is subjective. You may strive all your life to achieve objectivity, but you see, my friends, you are there. You are a witness, and that which you observe is observed according to your perceptions. The truth lies beyond perception. The truth lies beyond the conscious mind; that is, the intellect. It is not beyond the mind of the heart, which is consciousness itself. Yet consciousness itself is. It is not a doer. You are the action figure in your drama. [Consciousness] abides. Therefore, it is easier to be love than to be able to speak of love.

Your creation is made up of the way you choose to think about things, the way you choose to observe and perceive things. The striving of humanity in third density is to move beyond the limits of normal perception and open the doors to all that there is.

The message is fairly simple. 
(1) You know the world through your perceptions (which are culturally inflected). 
(2) Truth lies beyond the apparatus of mental perception and analysis thereof.  Truth is pure consciousness.
(3)  But consciousness is passive and you are the active element in the drama of being. 
(4)  That which is active (the "action figure," ha ha!) knows it is "on the beam" when its vibration is as similar as possible to the "mind of the heart."  (See  *  above in paragraph two.)
  
   
   

[flofrog]

So interesting Peregrine, this cultural affect.

I was born in Europe, live in America, and was lucky to go a few years ago to India and Tibet. The vibration in India is clearly different immediately as you arrive there. So it is in Tibet. But this palpable feeling, not mental, you get by just walking there is in fact pretty close, at least for me, to the feeling of vibration I have when meditating. And it is interesting because both India and Tibet, due to political turbulences, are not apparently peaceful places either. But you catch that beam definitely.
And as it happens, both these countries are places where there is ample ‘use’ of meditation in day to day life.

Definitely truth lies beyond the apparatus of mental perception and apparatus.

[Diana]

The message is fairly simple. 
(1) You know the world through your perceptions (which are culturally inflected). 
(2) Truth lies beyond the apparatus of mental perception and analysis thereof.  Truth is pure consciousness.
(3)  But consciousness is passive and you are the active element in the drama of being. 
(4)  That which is active (the "action figure," ha ha!) knows it is "on the beam" when its vibration is as similar as possible to the "mind of the heart."  (See  *  above in paragraph two.)
  

Excellent summary.

I think this idea is also reflected in the following quotes from Ra:

80.10 ▶ Questioner: Now, the fifteenth archetype, which is the Matrix of the Spirit, has been called the Devil. Can you tell me why that is so?

Ra: I am Ra. We do not wish to be facile in such a central query, but we may note that the nature of the spirit is so infinitely subtle that the fructifying influence of light upon the great darkness of the spirit is very often not as apparent as the darkness itself. The progress chosen by many adepts becomes a confused path as each adept attempts to use the Catalyst of the Spirit. Few there are which are successful in grasping the light of the sun. By far, the majority of adepts remain groping in the moonlight and, as we have said, this light can deceive as well as uncover hidden mystery. Therefore, the melody, shall we say, of this matrix often seems to be of a negative and evil, as you would call it, nature.

It is also to be noted that an adept is one which has freed itself more and more from the constraints of the thoughts, opinions, and bonds of other-selves. Whether this is done for service to others or service to self, it is a necessary part of the awakening of the adept. This freedom is seen by those not free as what you would call evil or black. The magic is recognized; the nature is often not.

80.11 ▶ Questioner: Could I say, then, that implicit in the process of becoming adept is the possible partial polarization towards service to self because simply the adept becomes disassociated with many of his kind or like in the particular density which he inhabits?

Ra: I am Ra. This is likely to occur. The apparent happening is disassociation whether the truth is service to self and thus true disassociation from other-selves or service to others and thus true association with the heart of all other-selves and disassociation only from the illusory husks which prevent the adept from correctly perceiving the self and other-self as one.

80.12 ▶ Questioner: Then you say that this effect of disassociation on the service-to-others adept is a stumbling block or slowing process in reaching that goal which he aspires to? Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is incorrect. This disassociation from the miasma of illusion and misrepresentation of each and every distortion is a quite necessary portion of an adept’s path. It may be seen by others to be unfortunate.

80.13 ▶ Questioner: Then is this, from the point of view or with respect to the fifteenth archetype, somewhat of an excursion into the Matrix of the Spirit in this process? Does that make any sense?

Ra: I am Ra. The excursion of which you speak and the process of disassociation is most usually linked with that archetype you call Hope which we would prefer to call Faith. This archetype is the Catalyst of the Spirit and, because of the illuminations of the Potentiator of the Spirit, will begin to cause these changes in the adept’s viewpoint.

@ Flo: That is so interesting about India and Tibet.

[Sacred Fool]

80.13 ▶ Questioner: Then is this, from the point of view or with respect to the fifteenth archetype, somewhat of an excursion into the Matrix of the Spirit in this process? Does that make any sense?

Ra: I am Ra. The excursion of which you speak and the process of disassociation is most usually linked with that archetype you call Hope which we would prefer to call Faith. This archetype is the Catalyst of the Spirit and, because of the illuminations of the Potentiator of the Spirit, will begin to cause these changes in the adept’s viewpoint.

Yes, one can chat in a facile manner about perceiving Truth out beyond the zone of intellect, but indeed, the process of hewing one's vibration to synchronize with that of the one infinite Creatrix is, at best, a slippery endeavour.
   

[Plenum]

Mod Note: thanks for posting peregrine.

A long url was anchored to a piece of descriptive text, to prevent the forum template from breaking (the natural word wrapping).

Please see the attached image.

[flofrog]

The Ra 80.11 quote and following are definitely in there... as excellent as Peregrine's, thank you both