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"The Great Tradition" of Humankind and it's Spiritual Quest for God-Realization and Communion with the Divine.
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(Please feel welcome to post your musings, inspirations, quotations or perhaps imagery related to the above.)


I thought I would start with something humorous from the
"Crazy Wise Tradition".

Then something perhaps a bit more confronting to the ego ...  

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Reaching enlightenment

    Nasreddin was walking in the bazaar with a large group of followers. Whatever Nasreddin did, his followers immediately copied. Every few steps Nasreddin would stop and shake his hands in the air, touch his feet and jump up yelling "Hu Hu Hu!". So his followers would also stop and do exactly the same thing.
    One of the merchants, who knew Nasreddin, quietly asked him: "What are you doing my old friend? Why are these people imitating you?"
    "I have become a Sufi Sheikh," replied Nasreddin. "These are my Murids (spiritual seekers); I am helping them reach enlightenment!"
    "How do you know when they reach enlightenment?"
    "That’s the easy part! Every morning I count them. The ones who have left – have reached enlightenment!"

Mullah Nasruddin
The Nasreddin stories are known throughout the Middle East and have touched cultures around the world. Superficially, most of the Nasreddin stories may be told as jokes or humorous anecdotes. They are told and retold endlessly in the teahouses and caravanserais of Asia and can be heard in homes and on the radio. But it is inherent in a Nasreddin story that it may be understood at many levels. There is the joke, followed by a moral and usually the little extra which brings the consciousness of the potential mystic a little further on the way to realization.

..........................................


A Quote by Adi Da Samraj on god and reality

There is only God.  REALITY is God and has never required your belief.  This reality no "one" survives.  In Ultimate Reality no "one" is saved either -- there is simply nothing to save you "from" :  you have not emerged from any "other" and there is no place else for "you" to disappear into.  Ever.


Adi Da Samraj

Quote:

There is only God

Here is a list of 2,500 possible Gods:

http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=285

Which one do you refer to?

The One in which all arises ... Reality, Consciousnesses Itself, The One Being, The Divine Person, The Divine, The One Light, The Self-Radiant Energy of Consciousness Itself, The Transcendental Spiritual Reality, Our Very Essence ...  :)  

0ktema wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 7:25pm:

The One in which all arises ... Reality, Consciousnesses Itself, The One Being, The Divine Person, The Divine, The One Light, The Self-Radiant Energy of Consciousness Itself, The Transcendental Spiritual Reality, Our Very Essence ...  :)

Wow - is he on the list?

Who?

Edit: Sorry you meant the list of "Gods You Don’t Believe In"

I'll have to take my time to scroll through all the names presented and get back to you.

Though if I had to guess ... I would say probably not.

The closest I can find (so far) is something from the Hindu tradition where a trinity (of sorts) is often used to describe "God" unfortunately who ever compiled the list missed the mark a bit with regard to their descriptions ... but anyway ...

(Basically things/conditions were seen to arise, be sustained for a time and then fall away (or be destroyed) and the following "gods" were personifications of these processes.)   

Brahma      hindu creator god

Vishnu      hindu creator sustaining god

Siva              hindu create and destructive god
 

If I were to try and give somewhat of a Christian bent  ...

God would be the creator

Jesus or the Holy Spirit would be the sustainer

And the Devil would be the destroyer


At any rate the above descriptions (and likewise all of the "Gods You Don’t Believe In" LOL) were all historical attempts to represent or characterize aspects of peoples experience in relation to life and it's many wonders, horrors and bits in-between. 



 

0ktema wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 8:24pm:

The closest I can find (so far) is something from the Hindu tradition where a trinity (of sorts) is often used to describe "God" unfortunately who ever compiled the list missed the mark a bit with regard to their descriptions ... but anyway ... (Basically things/conditions were seen to arise, be sustained for a time and then fall away (or be destroyed) and the following "gods" were personifications of these processes.)    Brahma      hindu creator god Vishnu      hindu creator sustaining god Siva              hindu create and destructive god   If I were to try and give somewhat of a Christian bent  ... God would be the creator Jesus or the Holy Spirit would be the sustainer And the Devil would be the destroyer At any rate the above descriptions (and likewise all of the "Gods You Don’t Believe In" LOL) were all historical attempts to represent or characterize aspects of peoples experience in relation to life and it's many wonders, horrors and bits in-between.

Unfortunately - Christians filled the world with their devils & angels,
goblins, witches & of course Satan.

I get fed up with superstitious nonsense.

Have you read Carl Sagan?

I've seen his old TV series ... but no, I haven't read much of his writings.

Be that as it may - I'm looking forward to viewing the new follow-up TV series "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey"


Quote:

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is an American science documentary television series. It is presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson and is a follow-up to the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan. The executive producers are Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow. The series premiered on March 9, 2014, simultaneously in the US across ten 21st Century Fox networks. The remainder of the series will air on Fox, with the National Geographic Channel rebroadcasting the episodes the next day with extra content. The score for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey was written by Alan Silvestri.

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Space-Time_Odyssey

ww.imdb.com/title/tt2395695/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


P.S. With regard to "devils & angels, goblins, witches & of course Satan." I intend to chase up some old information I came across many years ago now - on the history of psychedelics and how their use relates to the very beginnings/origins of religion.   

Before I start my psychedelic search ... lol

How about another Mullah Nasruddin story ...


Only two sides of the river

One sunny afternoon Mullah Nasruddin was sitting quietly on a riverbank near Lake Aksehir when someone approached the river from the opposite side. After looking around a bit, the fellow noticed Nasreddin and shouted out, “Hey there! Excuse me — please tell me, how do I get across?”

Without getting up, Nasruddin shouted back, “You are across!”

- Mullah Nasruddin



Meaning: Most times, you’re already right where you need to be, but just don’t recognize it.

Another small inspirational piece ... this time from ancient Rome.


I would have you be  ... like a fire well kindled,
which catches at everything you through in, and
turns it into flame and brightness.

- Marcus Aurelius

0ktema wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 9:48pm:

I've seen his old TV series ... but no, I haven't read much of his writings. Be that as it may - I'm looking forward to viewing the new follow-up TV series "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" Quote: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is an American science documentary television series. It is presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson and is a follow-up to the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan. The executive producers are Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow. The series premiered on March 9, 2014, simultaneously in the US across ten 21st Century Fox networks. The remainder of the series will air on Fox, with the National Geographic Channel rebroadcasting the episodes the next day with extra content. The score for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey was written by Alan Silvestri. ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Space-Time_Odyssey ww.imdb.com/title/tt2395695/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 P.S. With regard to "devils & angels, goblins, witches & of course Satan." I intend to chase up some old information I came across many years ago now - on the history of psychedelics and how their use relates to the very beginnings/origins of religion.

Carl Sagan is worth watching in you can always google
a wealth of his sayings in the internet.

As for the bible - I think some of those authors must
have eaten whole bags of magic mushrooms
with the nonsense they wrote.  ;D

I didn't find the exact book I was looking for ... however this piece makes for a pretty good start on the psychedelia/religion subject.


Quote:

Psychedelia Past, Present and Future A censored and taboo aspect of human culture that has always existed from since time immemorial to the present day and which may be a forbidden doorway to divine realities. This section deals with what is certainly one of the most controversial topics in the broad and diverse world of spirituality, religion and mysticism. It concerns the idea that certain plant extracts, fungaloid or cacti preparations and also specific chemical formulations; can induce various and varying states of connection with that which one may or may not want to call God. At the outset, I'll say here that in no way do I wish to recommend, condone or promote the use of these powerful and sometimes harmful substances. It is necessary however to explore the role and nature of psychedelic substances; if we are to fully understand the early history of world religion and also some aspects of the spiritual landscape today. When we explore the early history of religion and examine the various holy scriptures of different faiths, then we find mentioned mysterious substances with divine connotations, which were either eaten or drunk. So in the Bible we have the enigmatic manna or the food that fell from heaven. In the Bhagavad Gita and the Rig Veda we find described the Soma drink, which allowed people to enter into the divine. And in early Zoroastrianism we find mention of the mysterious Huoma, used by the Magi for their sacred rituals. When we examine the mystery traditions of ancient Greece we discover the Kykeon, the beverage that played a central role in the Eleusian mysteries. And the Greek Oracles of Delphi and the Roman Sybil of Cumae are believed to have achieved their prophetic states of mind through the inhalation of mind altering volcanic hydrocarbon gases emanating from the depths of the earth. Going over to ancient Egypt we correspondingly find the use of the plant, the Blue Lotus of the Nile, by the Egyptian high priests. This Blue Lotus plant may be related to the lotus of the 'Lotus eaters' in the classical Greek myth Odysseus. When mythology is understood as spiritual allegory then this would make perfect sense. If the journey of the mythological hero is a journey of spiritual development and discovery then a visit to the land of the lotus eaters can be understood as a reference to some psychedelic substance. Also it is worth mentioning here that 'Soma' which was mentioned earlier, means 'to press out and extract' in Sanskrit. And there exist ancient Sanskrit texts that describe the Lotus plant as soma. So it is reasonable to deduce that in antiquity, something was pressed out and extracted from lotus plants, which was then prepared as a beverage and ingested. It is very possible that the Lotus eaters and the Soma drinkers were actually partaking of the same psychoactive ingredient. Moving on to the ancient civilization of Babylon we find the myth of Gilgamesh, which is the oldest recorded story known to man. In the tale, the hero Gilgamesh is told to seek out the plant of immortality, another obvious reference to a psychedelic plant. When we examine all these facts together then a clear picture emerges. It is one where we can see that early religion or proto-religion involved the use of psychedelic substances in order to facilitate communion with the divine. This view is further supported by the use of psychedelic substances in many primitive indigenous religions practiced by native tribes in the world today. Also many scholars believe that Taoism, which is the native spiritual tradition of China, was derived from Siberian Shamanism. Almost without exception, shamanistic practice goes hand in hand with the use of these facilitator substances i.e. psychedelics. So at the dawn of civilization, our primitive ancestors discovered a door into the divine, that seems almost purposefully set up by the Cosmic Intelligence, in order that we may enter it. That is certain plants and fungi acted as gateways to the transcendent. The visions and mystical insights obtained through using these substances certainly found their way into the primitive systems of religious thinking that would later evolve to become the great faith traditions of the World.

ww.iawwai.com/Psychedelia.htm

I have a bit more to share regarding the evolution of religion from it's very early Animistic and Shamanistic beginnings ... but I'm not sure if I have the energy for it right now ... to be continued!   

Woo Hoo ! Only 20 more posts before I can start posting live links ...   :)

Bobby. wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 10:57pm:

Carl Sagan is worth watching in you can always google a wealth of his sayings in the internet.

Here a few quotes of his ... that perked my interest.
(P.S. I'm also interested in reading more about his friendship with Timothy Leary!)

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
Carl Sagan
     
Love, Small, Creatures



The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
Carl Sagan
     
Intelligence, Good, Brain



The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
Carl Sagan
     
Universe, Seems, Nor

Woops ... I shall post something here soon  :)

0ktema wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 11:32pm:

Bobby. wrote on Mar 12th, 2014 at 10:57pm: Carl Sagan is worth watching in you can always google a wealth of his sayings in the internet. Here a few quotes of his ... that perked my interest. (P.S. I'm also interested in reading more about his friendship with Timothy Leary!) For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. Carl Sagan       Love, Small, Creatures The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. Carl Sagan       Intelligence, Good, Brain The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. Carl Sagan       Universe, Seems, Nor

And there are 100s more sayings.

0ktema wrote on Mar 12^th, 2014 at 10:16pm:

Before I start my psychedelic search ... lol How about another Mullah Nasruddin story ... Only two sides of the river One sunny afternoon Mullah Nasruddin was sitting quietly on a riverbank near Lake Aksehir when someone approached the river from the opposite side. After looking around a bit, the fellow noticed Nasreddin and shouted out, “Hey there! Excuse me — please tell me, how do I get across?” Without getting up, Nasruddin shouted back, “You are across!” - Mullah Nasruddin Meaning: Most times, you’re already right where you need to be, but just don’t recognize it.

Reminds me of a joke.
A traveller was driving through a small country town and stopped for directions from a local.
"Excuse me sir, what's the best way to get to The Old Mill?"
"Are you walking or driving there?"
"Driving"
"Yep, that's the best way"

Sort of answer country folk give.
I love it.

^^^ lol ... good old dry country humor ... got to love it!

I am reminded of another similar one ...


Quote:

The spiritual master Adi Da used to tell a joke. A man gets lost driving in the country outside of London. He pulls up to a yard where an old farmer sits in a chair. "Can you tell me how to get to London?" asks the lost driver. The farmer thinks for a moment, scratches his chin. Finally he says, "You can't get there from here." So with enlightenment. You can’t get there from here.

The bellow came from the same page as the above ... sorry I know it's quite a long excerpt - but I could hardly help myself from pasting it all - I found it both inspiring for the spirit yet at the same time sobering for the old ego.


Quote:

In Zen Buddhism, you are not supposed to want enlightenment; you are supposed to sit in zazen merely to sit in zazen. This is called having No Gaining Idea. It is coveted. Ah, but how to gain No Gaining Idea? If you ask Zen masters they are prone to saying, "Just Sit Zazen," not unlike the old Nike slogan, "Just Do It." In fact, Zen master Seung Sahn liked to exclaim exactly that to his students. "Just Do It!" For the record, this is much harder than it sounds. So why, exactly, are we not supposed to want enlightenment? I mean we are talking about “the peace supreme and infinite joy,” as the Dhammapada puts it. What's not to want? The main reason, as far as I can tell, is that wanting enlightenment is dualistic, meaning that enlightenment is already our True Nature. The sixth patriarch, Hui Neng, said our True Nature is like a mirror upon which no dust can alight. The problem is that we forget this, and on a truly epic scale. Then we project it out onto some objectified future ideal, which we call enlightenment, nirvana, liberation, realization, and try to attain it. But trying to attain something that’s already your True Nature is, evidently, like trying to exist. Hence, of the True Man of the Way, Zen master Rinzai says, “Not even for a fraction of a moment does he aspire to Buddhahood.” But this dualism business isn’t the only problem with wanting enlightenment. We also apparently don't have the remotest idea what enlightenment is. In fact, if there's one thing everyone in the enlightenment racket seems to agree on, it's that enlightenment cannot be conceived of. In the face of enlightenment’s utter inconceivability, I’ve simply made up my own version, a collage of images and emotional associations that have filtered in to me over the years. There’s video footage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from when I was six years old (my parents got the family into Transcendental Meditation because The Beatles did it), his eyes glittering with a secret impish light, hands fluttering lyrically in the air. There’s the TV show Kung dam you, with David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Kane, who I was pretty sure was enlightened. These and a hundred other odd, disparate fragments make up the goulash of my emotional associations with enlightenment. Yet, for all the hubbub about not wanting enlightenment, the world's spiritual traditions, including Zen, seem full of equally fierce exhortations that you should want enlightenment very badly. Zen masters always seem to be saying things like, “You must want enlightenment as urgently as you would want a fire in your hair to be extinguished.” Oh, there’s one last problem with our desire for enlightenment: Evidently it’s a complete lie. None of us really wants it at all. In fact, according to lots of great masters, enlightenment is the last thing we want. Because somewhere deep in our hissing reptile brains, we sense that enlightenment will have the nasty side effect of annihilating us, and far more decisively than the quaint hiccup of physical death. More to the point, enlightenment reveals that the whole “me–who–wants–to–be–enlightened” never existed in the first place. To become enlightened is to awaken to the mad truth that the precious personas we've been parading around as all these years, maybe all these lifetimes, are fictional constructs. Smoke and mirrors. In other words, we ourselves are all sizzle, no steak. To awaken is to realize this. Of course, the Heart Sutra and pretty much everything else in Zen Buddhism have been telling us this forever, but apparently it’s quite a different matter when your entrenched ego actually senses its own imminent and non-theoretical demise. (w)ww.tricycle.com/blog/getting-there-here

Quote:

Easy Death: Transcending Mortality and Death in the Divine ................................................................ Adi Da recommends that everyone be told this joke on their birthday each year: A person jumps out of a skyscraper window. On the way down, someone shouts out from a window as the jumper passes by: "How's it going?" The jumper responds: "So far, so good!" ......................................... Life, rightly lived, is an intentional freefall. You cannot at all prevent your death. You cannot call the hour, the day, the moment of it — it could happen at any time. Even right now, while we are talking. Anybody could drop dead at any time. You cannot prevent it. You can build your life on trying to prevent it, but it is an illusory effort, a terrible philosophical ordeal, because you cannot prevent it. You can indulge in illusions that desensitize you to this, and that is what most of "religion" is about. That is what exoteric "religion" is, for most people. It is a way of desensitizing them to the facts of existence in this conditional life. One cannot blame them for the fear — and their clinging, then, to consolations. But there is no Truth in it. The true renunciate knows there is no Truth in it, and relinquishes those consolations, and allows the freefall. Then you make great discoveries. That is what the esoteric life is about — the discoveries in freefall. You cannot control the ultimate thing you fear. That freedom from fear is about allowing the freefall and relinquishing consolation. Your right relationship to Me is not a matter of consolation, it is a matter of the embrace of the Beloved, the certainty of the Absolute, under circumstances in which you are utterly bereft of certainty otherwise, in which you allow the overwhelming force of conditionality to be the way it is. It is only in that disposition that you discover the Truth of Existence. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, June, 1980 http://www.adidaupclose.org/death_and_dying/

The Cosmic Mandala

http://i59.tinypic.com/2zhqcuf.jpg


Quote:

Each of the levels of this Great Mandala of the Cosmos represents a quality of energy, or light. In each of the rings or portions of this Mandala that move out from the central Whiteness are infinite numbers of possible worlds and kinds of embodiment. In this gross plane in which you now exist, you are at the outskirts of the Great Mandala of the Cosmos at this present moment. There are grosser conditions of awareness, grosser possibilities, than the present one, which may be called "hells", or degraded states, or states of embodiment less than human. They may appear as forms of worlds other than the present one, as well as states in the plane of this gross world that are not necessarily apparent to vision. You are presently existing in the outer frame of the Great Field of the Cosmic Mandala. Unless there is responsibility for attention, there will be no movement closer to the Center. Unless there is Divine Enlightenment, there will be no permanent residence in the Center, or the Source, of the Cosmic Mandala, and there is no permanence anywhere but in the Source. All possibilities, all forms of embodiment and experience in the planes of manifested light, or the rainbow of the Cosmic Mandala, are temporary. It is possible to live a long time in any plane. It is even possible to live a long time in this gross world under certain conditions of Yogic transformation. It is possible to appear as an ordinary human being in this world for hundreds or thousands of years. Typically, people live for just a few years, but they could live longer. To live longer is not to Realize Divine Enlightenment—it is simply to live longer. It is possible to realize a state of relative equanimity, in this world or in any other world, and to live more peacefully, more happily, more pleasurably, more sensibly, more sanely. Even so, so to live is not itself to be Divinely Enlightened, nor is it a permanent condition. Sooner or later life comes to an end. Subtler worlds exist closer to the Center of the Cosmic Mandala. Even in the golden-yellow ring there are subtler worlds closer to the Center. In the blue field, there are all kinds of worlds. In general, to live in any of the worlds closer to the Center is to live in a condition that is more benign, with greater powers and with a greater range of phenomenal possibilities, than the usual life in this gross world. But to live in these worlds is not to be inherently and Divinely Enlightened, Free, or immortal. Nor would immortality be desirable in those planes, because there is no Ultimate Happiness there, even in the state of equanimity.

http://www.adidam.org/death_and_dying/journal/cosmic_mandala.htm