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Author
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Topic: Spiritual Practice -- The Root, or The Fruit?
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Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 9864
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted February 02, 2009 07:01 PM
 
I incline toward the belief that these methods, are the fruit, not the root, of insight. I suspect that people evolve organically, and the natural outgrowth is that their thinking becomes increasingly positive and they take up practices (affirmations, yoga, what-have-you). Then they mistake this effect for the cause of their increasing well-being, and write self-help books about it. Still, this is how it should be, since, the people who pick up these books do so because the books reflect their present stage of development. As you read the book and put its contents to use, you imagine that the contents are responsible for the changes within you. Really, the changes within are responsible for your "attunement" to the contents of the book, or the practices. If the book or practice did not exist, you would still evolve in a parallel way. Certain interpretations and manifestations would be different, if you hadnt read the book and done the exercises, but the changes would be essentially the same. That's the belief I lean toward, anyway. One could suggest that practice is both root and fruit, but even that would be a simplification. Since the deeper reality is acausal correspondance, or "synchronicity", there is, ultimately, no practice, and no one who practices. They are One.IP: Logged |
good girl
Knowflake Posts: 860
From: ohio
Registered: Nov 2008
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posted February 02, 2009 07:42 PM
I think of it as more like the chlorophyll. Taking in the light , using it to produce nourishment for the tree. Which in turn causes growth and a renewed need for nourishment.IP: Logged |
sesame
Moderator Posts: 1643
From: Oz
Registered: Nov 2003
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posted February 09, 2009 01:04 AM
Yes, I feel that its a symbiotic relationship - you use the book, and the book uses you. If you didn't read it, it might not reach as many people. If you glean something, you may tell others who may also glean something. At any point, the whole system could fall over when an apathetic person says "huh". Then, the book's life through that person dies. But so too may the evolution of that person until they meet a book that speaks to them. We all walk our own paths at our own speed. No one but ourselves can hasten the journey - I don't even know if we can do this ourselves. The path is, and we either walk it or no. Great thread, as always   Dean. IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 9864
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted February 10, 2009 10:02 AM
Thanks, Dean.IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 9864
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted February 10, 2009 10:20 AM
Ever heard this quote:"All the wit in the world is lost on the man who has none." You could say the same for all the wisdom in the world.
I dont think we are ever not on the path...
I just think sometimes it looks more like a path than others. Really, the unconscious is running the show,
and everything we do, consciously or unconsciously,
has its part in bringing us to fuller consciousness. Jung said something like:
"What we are unconscious of happens to us as fate."
And when it happens, it enters conscious awareness. Whether we act consciously or are unconsciously acted upon,
our actions proceed, organically and necessarily,
from the interplay between our conscious and unconscious minds. And that which you are as a person is determined by what you are unconscious of,
just as the shape of an object must be determined by the negative space around it. If you were conscious of everything, you would not be a person,
or a form appearing in contrast to the Void, -- but God.
IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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