12-30-2012, 03:43 AM
The album, We are the Same, transcribed through my nervous system....
Self conscious beings have always existed. “Self-conscious beings” is the only definition of humanity that is consistent or meaningful. How many feet high, how many feet wide, how many arms or legs or heads, any and all physical attributes are much too trivial to define what it means to be human.
If this is so, the debate about whether or not our present physical form is descended from a prototype ape-like being is ultimately irrelevant. If we evolved from a lower form of life is not important for our growth to enlightenment; what is important is that we realize we are all manifestations of, and remain connected to, the Source of all that is.
This Source has been called many things. Any name for it is just fine, for the Source is impossible to offend. But because so many names for the Source have become associated with belief systems, and some of these belief systems have become associated with fear or are in other ways distorted by the ego, in this Teaching, the Ishayas usually call this Original Prime Force the Ascendant.
The Ascendant is the sum total of everything that is. It is the Source and the Essence and the Goal of all that lives. This entire enormous Universe of one thousand billion galaxies (each containing an average of one hundred billion stars) is a part -- a small part -- of the Ascendant. Every human that exists, every human that has ever existed or ever will exist is a part of the Ascendant. Every plant, every animal, every grain of sand, every particle of energy, every impulse of rational thought, every emotion, every single thing in every level of creation is included within the Ascendant. There are no exceptions. Everything everywhere at every time, past, present or future, is part of the Ascendant. There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything anywhere that is not part of the Ascendant.
Most people can, at least intellectually, grasp such a concept. But most also have a hard time conceiving of what this really means. And yet if an individual could do so, even for an instant, that individual would find his or her life permanently altered.
There is not now, there has never been, there will never be a human who cannot experience the Ascendant. The state of health of the physical body is not relevant; the state of health of the mental body -- the intellect, mind and the emotions -- is not relevant, the belief systems, habits and judgments about life, none of these are relevant. There are no requisites for experience of the Ascendant; the Universal Source of all that is.
And yet, few do consciously experience Universal Mind. And if one is lucky to have a fleeting glimpse into the workings of the Ascendant, typically the glimpse is short and quickly shrouded. Why, if the Ascendant is present everywhere, and if anyone anywhere at any time can experience it, why is it that so few consciously do? Why have so many of those who have believed in the existence of the Ascendant believed also that it is difficult to attain it? Why have many felt that it takes years of arduous effort and even then a great deal of luck to succeed? The Eastern literature is filled with the extraordinary hardship considered necessary to realize enlightenment, full conscious communion with the Ascendant. And in the West, the “dark night of the Soul” has been thought to be the usual lot of the Christian lover of God -- a rare and fleeting taste of the Divine is followed by the inevitable re-immersion in the tragic fog of the Earth-life of the senses. It is believed that it is the lot of the seeker of Truth to be cursed by earthly desires, enslaved by matter and doomed to a most frustrating life. No wonder so few anymore seek the goal! Why spend years on a doubtful quest when the end result is so unlikely?
Rare indeed anywhere on the globe has been the fully realized sage, the enlightened sorceress, nagual, priest, magician, saint -- the name for those in conscious contact with the Ascendant has been different in different traditions, but the Reality is Universal.
There have been those throughout history who have described experiences of higher states of consciousness. These descriptions have frequently been so different as to make us feel that different realities were being described. When followers hold rigidly to the words of their Teachers without sharing the experience of conscious absorption in the Ascendant, then confusion is inevitable. This is the tragedy of knowledge: to break into small shards on the hard rocks of ignorance.
If both are fully developed human beings, there is no difference between the enlightenment of the Sufi Muslim and the absorption in God of the Christian saint. A fully realized Hindu in nirvikalpa samadhi is not living in a different state of consciousness from a perfectly adept Taoist established in Nirvana or a Zen Buddhist in permanent satori. We may appear different on the surface, our beliefs and language-concepts may be so widely at variance that we can hardly understand each other, but the essential inner Reality of consciousness is the same.
Even in the common, everyday waking state, we are much more similar than we are different. What will be most useful to our understanding of the nature of the Universe and of ourselves is the simple realization of how alike we all are.
Quote:There never was a time when I was not, nor you, nor these rulers of men,
nor will there ever be a time when all of us will cease to be.
-- The Bhagavad Gita
Self conscious beings have always existed. “Self-conscious beings” is the only definition of humanity that is consistent or meaningful. How many feet high, how many feet wide, how many arms or legs or heads, any and all physical attributes are much too trivial to define what it means to be human.
If this is so, the debate about whether or not our present physical form is descended from a prototype ape-like being is ultimately irrelevant. If we evolved from a lower form of life is not important for our growth to enlightenment; what is important is that we realize we are all manifestations of, and remain connected to, the Source of all that is.
This Source has been called many things. Any name for it is just fine, for the Source is impossible to offend. But because so many names for the Source have become associated with belief systems, and some of these belief systems have become associated with fear or are in other ways distorted by the ego, in this Teaching, the Ishayas usually call this Original Prime Force the Ascendant.
The Ascendant is the sum total of everything that is. It is the Source and the Essence and the Goal of all that lives. This entire enormous Universe of one thousand billion galaxies (each containing an average of one hundred billion stars) is a part -- a small part -- of the Ascendant. Every human that exists, every human that has ever existed or ever will exist is a part of the Ascendant. Every plant, every animal, every grain of sand, every particle of energy, every impulse of rational thought, every emotion, every single thing in every level of creation is included within the Ascendant. There are no exceptions. Everything everywhere at every time, past, present or future, is part of the Ascendant. There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything anywhere that is not part of the Ascendant.
Most people can, at least intellectually, grasp such a concept. But most also have a hard time conceiving of what this really means. And yet if an individual could do so, even for an instant, that individual would find his or her life permanently altered.
There is not now, there has never been, there will never be a human who cannot experience the Ascendant. The state of health of the physical body is not relevant; the state of health of the mental body -- the intellect, mind and the emotions -- is not relevant, the belief systems, habits and judgments about life, none of these are relevant. There are no requisites for experience of the Ascendant; the Universal Source of all that is.
And yet, few do consciously experience Universal Mind. And if one is lucky to have a fleeting glimpse into the workings of the Ascendant, typically the glimpse is short and quickly shrouded. Why, if the Ascendant is present everywhere, and if anyone anywhere at any time can experience it, why is it that so few consciously do? Why have so many of those who have believed in the existence of the Ascendant believed also that it is difficult to attain it? Why have many felt that it takes years of arduous effort and even then a great deal of luck to succeed? The Eastern literature is filled with the extraordinary hardship considered necessary to realize enlightenment, full conscious communion with the Ascendant. And in the West, the “dark night of the Soul” has been thought to be the usual lot of the Christian lover of God -- a rare and fleeting taste of the Divine is followed by the inevitable re-immersion in the tragic fog of the Earth-life of the senses. It is believed that it is the lot of the seeker of Truth to be cursed by earthly desires, enslaved by matter and doomed to a most frustrating life. No wonder so few anymore seek the goal! Why spend years on a doubtful quest when the end result is so unlikely?
Rare indeed anywhere on the globe has been the fully realized sage, the enlightened sorceress, nagual, priest, magician, saint -- the name for those in conscious contact with the Ascendant has been different in different traditions, but the Reality is Universal.
There have been those throughout history who have described experiences of higher states of consciousness. These descriptions have frequently been so different as to make us feel that different realities were being described. When followers hold rigidly to the words of their Teachers without sharing the experience of conscious absorption in the Ascendant, then confusion is inevitable. This is the tragedy of knowledge: to break into small shards on the hard rocks of ignorance.
If both are fully developed human beings, there is no difference between the enlightenment of the Sufi Muslim and the absorption in God of the Christian saint. A fully realized Hindu in nirvikalpa samadhi is not living in a different state of consciousness from a perfectly adept Taoist established in Nirvana or a Zen Buddhist in permanent satori. We may appear different on the surface, our beliefs and language-concepts may be so widely at variance that we can hardly understand each other, but the essential inner Reality of consciousness is the same.
Even in the common, everyday waking state, we are much more similar than we are different. What will be most useful to our understanding of the nature of the Universe and of ourselves is the simple realization of how alike we all are.
WE ARE THE SAME