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Discernment
True Discrimination is another name for Discernment. ===================================================== Date: Mon, 16 Sep 96 17:13:19 EDT Isabel, You wrote: "The same type of confusion can be reached with Hitler & Company... Pasolini & Company... etc.etc. There is a point where you don't know what is wrong or right even if you discriminate...there isn't that much to discriminate from because ultimately everything is so gray ...and not black and white at all. Where are they being nice and learning and where are they not?" I'm afraid I must disagree with you Isabel. Perhaps the problem you're having with discrimination is that you're trying to analyze things about other people's personalities (and motives and delusions) that we can't possibly know. This is why we mustn't judge other people. We can't possibly know everything about what is going on inside another person, their personality, and what lessons their Holy Guardian Angel might have in store for them. So concerning the subject of Politics (Hitler) and Art (Pasolini), where do we apply the principle of discrimination? We apply discrimination not to try and get inside someone else's head to guess their motivations and delusions, but to identify the vibration (the fruits of their activities/ideas) and decide what to assimilate to ourselves and what not to. So is everything really so gray? I would answer both yes and no, because there is a continuous spectrum of vibrations out there. Some of them are harmful to the body, some are harmful to our higher (more subtle) bodies. We use discrimination to identify the vibration and see the unity behind it. Thus we are able to act from unity and not react from superficial observation and hasty generalization. Once we develop and use discrimination to identify the vibration, if our own vibration (where we are at physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually) is not in harmony with that perceived vibration then we should not try to assimilate it. Discrimination means learning how to separate the wheat from the chaff, while simultaneously realizing the unity behind both and thus not getting caught up in the pairs of opposites. It also means perceiving what to assimilate and what to eliminate from one's life, without judgment. See also Judgment JC =====================================================
Here's what Jesus (was purported to of) said: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matt 10:34) Jesus was my kinda guy! :-) Tarot K6 (The Lovers, True Discrimination, Zain-the Sword), I believe points to the inner significance of the above quote. JC. ===================================================== The main idea behind Key 6 is that pairs of opposites are really complements, that they mirror each other in the dance of life and death. This Path illustrates the uniting of the Sun and Moon energies, the conscious and the unconscious, within the initiate which join together and are absorbed back into the Great Sea of Binah. The word Zain means "sword" and has a numerical value of 67, the same number as Binah, which means understanding, insight, and prudence, giving rise to a conception of the "Sword of Discrimination." The numeration of the verb "to slaughter, kill, sacrifice" in Hebrew is 17 (ZaBaCh), the same number as the Path of Zain, and implies a connection to Tiphareth as the point of departure and the Sphere of the Sacrificed God (i.e. IHShVH). There is a warning in the interpretation of the 17th Path which says the sword can utterly destroy those who travel across the Abyss, for the ego must undergo a total death before it can be reconstituted. So, Joseph is what you are suggesting the death and reconstitution of the Christos within each of us via the analogy of the Sword in the above stated quote? That the mission of Christ was not to placate the masses with peace but with sacrifice? I would be very curious as to what you are suggesting. As you Will--): S.E. ===== S.E., What am I suggesting? I meant to suggest Discrimination which brings Harmony. You can't have real peace without first establishing Harmony (between Self-C, Sub-C, and Super-C), and that takes Discrimination (Sword). So how does one establish discrimination? See Keys (0,1,2,3,4,5) Also, the serpent of sensation tempts us into actions, from which we learn discrimination. Perhaps Jesus' mission was to help (K5) bring about a leap in Mankind's discriminative faculty, which is necessary in order to establish Harmony? Also note the vertical column in the tarot tableau corresponding to K6-Zain-Sword. It is K6, K13, K20. Lovers-Death-Resurrection. K6 is the principle, K13 is the Law or Agency, and K20 is the outcome. So dying and resurrecting sure would help humanity to be able to discriminate between the form (body) and the true animating principle of Life which is Spirit/Tiphareth/Christ. Dying and coming back to life would be living proof that matter depends upon Spirit, and not the other way around. So to put it bluntly, "I bring not peace, but a sword" could mean: "I'm going to teach you all, by my example (See Tarot K5) how to discriminate (K6) between the gross appearance of form, and the true animating principle behind it ALL, and to the fact that EVERYTHING depends upon this principle (Spirit/Christ/God), and NOT upon form, or physical circumstance." Developing this discrimination is crucial, for one can't follow Christ if they can't seek and find him behind the mask of all form, and Every Thing. Without discrimination, one is bound to take things too literally (falling for the outer form), to be left performing empty rituals (like the Pharisees), and to be worshipping idols (like most of people). The field upon which we must wield this Sword, is the battlefield of the senses, where Krishna lectured Arjuna, and where we each must discriminate between the pairs of opposites. And the first place to start to work is by taking the sword to our own subconscious habits, motivations, beliefs, reactions, and thought processes. Thus in K6, we see the man looking at the woman. This would be interesting to investigate further..... Perhaps now, you know why I previously asked "Why do you want Cosmic Consciousness?" For those who have yet to apply the sword to themselves, this is a deceptively simple, yet daunting question, which reveals the level of consciousness of the one (foolish enough?) attempting to answer. As for myself, I still am tempering and sharpening my blade for more arduous self-pruning work ahead, as I work to produce the calx, or quick lime necessary for making tempered mortar. JC ===================================================== From the Talmud: If this is true, then this implies that in order to truly see X, one must become X. In order to see love, one must become loving. In order to see truth, one must be honest. etc. . . . Thus, the quest for knowledge is vanity, unless one is willing to die to their old self. Nay, knowledge is vanity, unless one is acting to bring about that death. Walk a mile in my shoes . . . . . . Joe X. P.S. Thus to see, one must strive to die daily - to remove every obstacle to
their union with that which they seek. N.J. Responds: Ann Davies said that "to become Adept in living, one must become adept at daily dying." Neither accomplishes through "striving." Are you suggesting that the dying need not be a struggle? If so, then it is apparent that while I would like to do so, I'm not ready to let go. It's one thing to say that one must die, but how? The Tarot, while helping to purify desire, also simultaneously INTENSIFIES it. Whilst in the purifying flames of intensified desire, striving seems unavoidable. JC ===================================================== N.J. : The "dying" we do daily is simply to abandon/give
up an old POV for a new one! We simply relinquish what we no longer find to be
true or useful or perhaps profitable in more than one way for a new POV that
fits our growing (hopefully) understanding.. Relinquishing, a vital esoteric
practice, requires no effort, it is the result of the greater attraction of a
new POV, We just move to an obviously better philosophical position. Requires no
straining, heavy breathing, sweat equity or conditioning. Just an open door to a
new attitude opened by our understanding. NJ Thank you NJ. This is very comforting to know that my dying need not be painful. BUT, there still exists, that situation where we are being pulled in several directions at once, where the old POV still has a grip on us, even though the new POV is gaining. To be able to hold feelings of ambivalence - to live "in-between", and not demand certainty - seems required. To be able to do this without effort, that seems the greater task - to be able to hold Faith and Confidence though I walk though the shadows . . . . JC |