The last two days of Mental Diet I have jammed together on purpose in very much the same way as I jammed cause and effect together into one word, as above. If you been in SOM 100 with me you'll be familiar with this idea. But to review for a moment, the Universe is a UNITY and therefore there cannot really be cause AND effect. The one must be included within the other in much the same way as the acorn is cause to the oak, so that the entire oak tree is in the acorn as Aquinas would say in potentia . That is to say there exists in the cause the possibility of the oak tree as well as all of the subsequent acorns and oak trees. I was listening to a wonderful discussion of "Time" on CBC's Ideas on Wednesday evening that also relates to this blog but that's for another time.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/living-on-oxford-time/index.html
So day 5 is about cause and day 6 is about cause and as such they are both about effect. DAMN! I hope I can make myself clear about this. It is the Law of Causeffect that Kinnear says is inescapable. He says Life withholds nothing. Great news right? Well maybe. Embedded in my thought process about my health, wealth, and love life as cause is the outpicturing of that thought as effect. I don't have to work on it or struggle with it anymore than the acorn has to work at becoming an oak. All I need to do is recognize it and ask myself, "So is this the life you want."
My notes to myself when I worked on this last in 2003 were about controlling the outer ... even other people; using the Law. It's great to recognize that I'm learning a few things too. My old buddy Plotinus affirms that for me.
"As for Soul, the part of it directed to Intellect (Spirit) is, so to speak, within, and the part outside Intellect directed to the outside." (Enneads V. 3-7)
So long as we remain filled with our illusory ego-selves, absorbed in what we mistakenly consider ourselves to be, Spirit can only "write its Laws" on whatever blank pages of Soul exist."
When we use the Law we may, in fact in our own minds at least, become more spiritual. When we let the Law use us we become more Spirit. Use of the Law is intellectual. To be used by the Law is to live at the level of the intuitive faculty. When I let Life help me, as Kinnear suggests, I live at the level of the intuitive action of LIfe in me, as me. The battle that I wage is not with life or even the circumstances or conditions of my life. Instead I become aware that the only thing against me is my own thinking.
How much potential is there in an acorn? We know for a fact that there is at least one 1000 year old oak and innumerable 999 year old oaks and in fact a virtually inexhaustible supply of 998, 997, 996 year olds etc. etc. The acorn uses all that it is because it knows intuitively (in a manner of speaking) all that it is. We on the other hand often do not use all that we have because we have forgotten all that we are. The hidden splendor of the human being spoken of by Wordsworth, the splendour of the Sefirot, all of the created world, is what we have lost sight of. We now find ourselves imprisoned in the dark world of the Law. Kinnear finally says on Day 6, Free Yourself! Instead of knowing the laws of the cosmos come to know you are the lawgiver.
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What happens if the acorn is eaten by a squirrel? Sorry, I really don't mean to be cheeky. I'm simply torn between the idea that we have the power to control our life and manifest what we desire, as in the law of causeeffect with the awareness that events happen in life that we definitely would not have chosen. And yes, we can make wine out of sour grapes, but it is still a painful process, one which we may have preferred not to experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our thinking is what gets in the way of allowing Spirit to express through us. I am conflicted between the desire to control my outer experience with my thoughts and the awareness that my greater good is a direct result of letting go of that idea of control. Causeeffect supports the idea that we, by using the law, have control... but somehow there's more to it than if I'm nice, nice things will happen to me. Otherwise, we'd all be nice because we'd have figured that one out, by now, or one would think.
It would seem, there are many levels of human expression effecting the law of causeeffect, the most obvious, i.e. appearance in form, being the least powerful in terms of creation, while the invisible nature of oneself is the more powerful in our ability to attract, with God as us being the most powerful.
Now i'm totally perplexed - Thanks for the inspiration, Terry.
The "causeffect" of the acorn is not that it is oak tree but rather that it is acorn (with all the possibility that implies including being food for a squirrel. It is the human mind that determines what is good or better; to become a tree or food for another; whether to be nice and have nice experiences or ... some alternative.
ReplyDeleteThe causeffect of being Terry is to BE Spirit having a human experience. My guess is that is more about letting go than controlling.
Do you ever get up early on a Sunday!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Terry, well said.