MatiaS
Jedi
So throughout my journey I've bounced between many sets of beliefs in regards to what "spirituality" actually means to me and how it relates to my "physical" life. I tend to be quite an extremist so when I get into something I really get into it. So I've studied a few approaches to this reality and also practiced them. My issue, I think, comes from always wanting more, wanting to find the next rabbit-hole to go down or the next abstract concept I can try to understand the world through.
In the past year or so I've managed to tone it down a bit on the theoretical side and instead trying to focus more on the practical applications of the knowledge. Having kids and a semi self-sufficient lifestyle to maintain though I don't find much time to do meditation or energy work, so when I do have my hours in the evening I usually spend them researching anyway (especially with the plandemic being an inexhaustible source of information right now, tying together many aspects of the overall agenda).
Anyway, the point of this post is to maybe get some viewpoints on this question/pondering I have about the "correct" approach to a "spiritual practice". I always try to simplify and streamline abstract and energetic concepts so I can try to understand them in a 3D way. A fruitless effort I know, since our language I believe can not be used to accurately explain concepts outside space and time as we currently understand those concepts. I mean the use of language (spoken/written) by necessity needs to be expressed linearly. The silver-lining (correct use of this word?) here is though that we can use language to kind of orient our consciousness in the right direction, to understand 'where to look' energetically speaking and to move in that direction, and then once the threshold is passed, the understanding/innerstanding takes on a more energetic/direct knowing.
So finally I get to the core of what I want to convey: It seems to me that throughout all the teachings, philosophies, schools-of-thought, books and materials I've read and acquainted myself with (which of course is a tiny drop in the ocean of all that is available out there), there are two basic approaches that stuff seems to boil down to, which are:
The "passive" approach
The "active" approach
Passive: So what I mean by this is that it seems that many schools of thought seem to heavily emphasize the need to allow things to unfold on their own, without superimposing your petty egoic fantasies on top of it. To just sit and wait and observe. To align your Personal Will with the Will of the Divine. To in many ways detach from the world with its worldly worries and trust that everything is taken care of. Sometimes there is the idea of an external savior, assuring you that in any case, however things may seem, everything will always be okay in the end. In this approach I feel the pursuit of knowledge is often adviced against, since we can't know things "as God knows them", and that all seeming acquisition of knowledge is somehow perverted or incomplete. Just stay in the now-moment and let things be as they are, for they are already perfect, it is our "meddling" with creation that makes it 'negative'/undesirable.
Active: This approach would include all practices of Magick and Witchcraft and "Manifestation/Intention-work" of all kinds. This approach states that to have all the things you want (be they spiritual or material) you must go make it happen yourself. Meditations seem to be more active in a way, still having you observe, but also not shying away from imposing your personal Will to make things happen within altered states of consciousness. Energy work in its different manifestations belong to this category, as well as rituals, ceremonies, astral projection/lucid dreaming etc. This approach is more geared towards the Power of the Individual instead of aligning with a 'Divine' Will.
Thoughts: First I want to say that in my personal Work, I do resonate with parts of both approaches, and ultimately I also do believe that the Narrow Path we are called to walk does incorporate both of these modalities. Even within specific materials or philosophies, the ideas oftentimes incorporates aspects of both of these approaches. I do however have personal alarm-bells going off whenever stuff seems to be too passive. To just sit in lotus position and wait for the storm to pass seems very much like "New age cointelpro" stuff to me.
I have, while scanning this forum, read that many people seem to recoil at mentions of Magickal practices of all sorts, I would like to know why this is? I currently do not practice what would be termed "magickal pracites", and barely dipped my little toe into it when I did look into it, but I do believe we are Magical beings who exert our Will on our surroundings every moment of every day, so why do people advice against practicing something which potentially could lead to a deeper understanding of these mechanics?
The practical stuff I have landed on for the moment is the material of a certain John Kreiter. He presents his work through the lens of Inner Alchemy and makes a big deal about trying to strip away all dogma attached to these fundamentally energetic concepts and realities we are dealing with. The theory he presents is compelling and does resonate with me in a deep way. I have moments of intuitive understandings of the energies at play in our day-to-day life and can see how we've attached layers upon layers of dogma and interpretation on top of these energetic truths, in the process muddying the waters, as we get so hooked on attaching labels and definitions to ideas and energies our language is not capable of expressing adequately.
I am also passionately fascinated by the paradoxes that seem to permeate our reality-construct, and because of this, I might be answering my own question here, that ultimately to walk the Path, you must use both legs.
Does someone else have this line of thinking when it comes to what "spiritual practice" actually entails for you personally? What are the arguments for and against the Passive and the Active respectively, as I have presented them here?
I have so many connected ideas I would like to tie into this but it's already a lot of text and I think the main point kind of got out there at least.
Thanks for reading
In the past year or so I've managed to tone it down a bit on the theoretical side and instead trying to focus more on the practical applications of the knowledge. Having kids and a semi self-sufficient lifestyle to maintain though I don't find much time to do meditation or energy work, so when I do have my hours in the evening I usually spend them researching anyway (especially with the plandemic being an inexhaustible source of information right now, tying together many aspects of the overall agenda).
Anyway, the point of this post is to maybe get some viewpoints on this question/pondering I have about the "correct" approach to a "spiritual practice". I always try to simplify and streamline abstract and energetic concepts so I can try to understand them in a 3D way. A fruitless effort I know, since our language I believe can not be used to accurately explain concepts outside space and time as we currently understand those concepts. I mean the use of language (spoken/written) by necessity needs to be expressed linearly. The silver-lining (correct use of this word?) here is though that we can use language to kind of orient our consciousness in the right direction, to understand 'where to look' energetically speaking and to move in that direction, and then once the threshold is passed, the understanding/innerstanding takes on a more energetic/direct knowing.
So finally I get to the core of what I want to convey: It seems to me that throughout all the teachings, philosophies, schools-of-thought, books and materials I've read and acquainted myself with (which of course is a tiny drop in the ocean of all that is available out there), there are two basic approaches that stuff seems to boil down to, which are:
The "passive" approach
The "active" approach
Passive: So what I mean by this is that it seems that many schools of thought seem to heavily emphasize the need to allow things to unfold on their own, without superimposing your petty egoic fantasies on top of it. To just sit and wait and observe. To align your Personal Will with the Will of the Divine. To in many ways detach from the world with its worldly worries and trust that everything is taken care of. Sometimes there is the idea of an external savior, assuring you that in any case, however things may seem, everything will always be okay in the end. In this approach I feel the pursuit of knowledge is often adviced against, since we can't know things "as God knows them", and that all seeming acquisition of knowledge is somehow perverted or incomplete. Just stay in the now-moment and let things be as they are, for they are already perfect, it is our "meddling" with creation that makes it 'negative'/undesirable.
Active: This approach would include all practices of Magick and Witchcraft and "Manifestation/Intention-work" of all kinds. This approach states that to have all the things you want (be they spiritual or material) you must go make it happen yourself. Meditations seem to be more active in a way, still having you observe, but also not shying away from imposing your personal Will to make things happen within altered states of consciousness. Energy work in its different manifestations belong to this category, as well as rituals, ceremonies, astral projection/lucid dreaming etc. This approach is more geared towards the Power of the Individual instead of aligning with a 'Divine' Will.
Thoughts: First I want to say that in my personal Work, I do resonate with parts of both approaches, and ultimately I also do believe that the Narrow Path we are called to walk does incorporate both of these modalities. Even within specific materials or philosophies, the ideas oftentimes incorporates aspects of both of these approaches. I do however have personal alarm-bells going off whenever stuff seems to be too passive. To just sit in lotus position and wait for the storm to pass seems very much like "New age cointelpro" stuff to me.
I have, while scanning this forum, read that many people seem to recoil at mentions of Magickal practices of all sorts, I would like to know why this is? I currently do not practice what would be termed "magickal pracites", and barely dipped my little toe into it when I did look into it, but I do believe we are Magical beings who exert our Will on our surroundings every moment of every day, so why do people advice against practicing something which potentially could lead to a deeper understanding of these mechanics?
The practical stuff I have landed on for the moment is the material of a certain John Kreiter. He presents his work through the lens of Inner Alchemy and makes a big deal about trying to strip away all dogma attached to these fundamentally energetic concepts and realities we are dealing with. The theory he presents is compelling and does resonate with me in a deep way. I have moments of intuitive understandings of the energies at play in our day-to-day life and can see how we've attached layers upon layers of dogma and interpretation on top of these energetic truths, in the process muddying the waters, as we get so hooked on attaching labels and definitions to ideas and energies our language is not capable of expressing adequately.
I am also passionately fascinated by the paradoxes that seem to permeate our reality-construct, and because of this, I might be answering my own question here, that ultimately to walk the Path, you must use both legs.
Does someone else have this line of thinking when it comes to what "spiritual practice" actually entails for you personally? What are the arguments for and against the Passive and the Active respectively, as I have presented them here?
I have so many connected ideas I would like to tie into this but it's already a lot of text and I think the main point kind of got out there at least.
Thanks for reading