The festival which COTB refers us to is interesting in that, for some people, it could be merely another way to take on the "style and fashion" which he feels gets in the way of communion with the unity.
I am reminded of people who got into taoism or zen buddhism and were essentially more attracted to the "orientalist" trappings than the lessons to be learnt. The finger pointing at the moon.
I am not sure where that leaves us.
Probably back at my comments about human frailty existing in all human belief systems. Or perhaps about how you say something being as important as what you say.
Rather - i was using the festival in question as an example of something, supported by the leaders of multiple faiths and celebrating EVERYTHNG that i have explained to you, that would perhaps seem to be 'too cheesy' to be accepted by you. Amusingly enough, I think you just proved me right too
And yes, thats why I personally like Crowley so much, because he was into all of this stuff and had a lot to say about the 'orientalist' issue and the nature of style/fashion that i am also talking about. Since you seem to also be somewhat of a fan, I will quote one of my favourite Crowley moments, from Eight Lectures on Yoga (in which he explains the science):
'There is nothing mysterious or Oriental about anything, as anyone knows who has spent even a little time intelligently in the continents of Asia or Africa. I propose to invoke the most remote and illusive of all Gods to throw clear light on the subject (Yoag) - the light of common sense'
This is the spirit, or the direction, in which i am coming from.
further to this, i'd suggest the average person is much more in touch with the unity and oneness of everything as opposed someone who spends hours worrying about healing crystals and occult symbols that have no real meaning. at least they are living in the here and now - which i believe is what people like cotb strain to achieve with all this stuff anyway. i don't think hes quite there with the loss of ego thing just yet, do you?
any worldview that involves looking down your nose at the majority of people is bullshit and deserves to be treated as such.
Interesting - i have already told you i am not interested in involving myself, and I have already mentioned that anymore personal stabs will at best prove my point that you are being unneccessarily aggressive, cynical and will thus use anything you can against me to avoid the point i am trying to make. At this point it would be good for you to sit back and meditate on that one rather than being anymore negative and/or making anymore of a fool of yourself.
To answer you question, not to prove myself but in order to quench your thirst to comprehend how one can live their life with this kind of understanding - i live every day in rememberace (or zikr in the sufi tradition) of the unity of all things and of the love and light of the present moment, and impart this in a non-direct way on all whos paths i cross. However, I have not spent any time in any sort of traditional spiritual setting such as a temple or such, and am thus not a particuarly purified being such as you would find when a human being submits itself to hardcore spiritual training 10 hours a day or other such things. I see no morality behind this. I do however use crystals as a means of stilling my consciousness, use certain healing modalities that i am trained in and perform certain meditations, and abstain from alcohol and drugs (though i do take some mescaline every year or so). I don't claim to be enlightened or purified in any way such as you have projected on me due to your own assumptions (which are the mother of all fuck-ups by the way), and see myself as havin an equal footing with all beings in this universe. However, i will claim that any chance i get to dissolve any part of myself that is not in elignment with Truth - i take it.
You may also want to roll back to the start of this thread and examine where the judging and personal stabbing started, for your own reference... anyway...
Yes, why talk about this stuff? Because people like us are very logical people but we have very unconventional minds also - we are interested in the truth of things but we must have as much proof as possible in order to accept it. I would not bring this stuff up in such a logical framework with anyone but people like yourselves, whom, I might add, i have always had a great deal of respect for. Dissensus has always represented to me the cutting edge of cultured, intelligent, open-minded people - people interested in a plethora of human experience represented by all forms of artistic endevour. So I was interested to know how that would face up to all this stuff. When, how, and why does the cultured and intelligent mind turn ugly when it is confronted with things that it can't handle?
I might also add that i was not always like this, and once had a massive ego that would react violentally if anyone ever said anything that fell below a certain elitist standard of style that i once had. That part of myself, it turns out, just needed to be beaten into submission by volleys of common sense...
Submission - yes. Perfect, graceful, and harmonious submission...
