The God Djehuty (Pure intellect) protects the soul by driving away the ego (2017 Neterian Conference)
Udja
A good posting.
I usually do not comment on postings that are interactive conversations but this time I will since you said a few things that are integral to the proper conduct of effective spiritual practice.
ABOUT YOUR STATEMENT:
“This issue is interesting to me at this particular time since I do feel that I am making progress based on the indicators previously discussed but I am also cautious and mindful that our desire to believe that we are progressing can also be delusionary.”
FEEDBACK
Indeed many aspirants hold the notion of being more advanced than they really are just as most people think things will be worse than they are in the future or better than they will be in the future or that the past was better or worse than it actually was, etc… This relates to the human mind’s capacity to remember and imagine but distorted/perverted by feelings that coupled with the effects of hope and fear due to establishment in ego as opposed to the Higher Self-which has no need for hope or fear or desire or feelings or imaginations. People fear the future so they hope it will work out-even though the intellectual evidence says it will be worse, that is ignored, pushed out of mind and replaced with a delusion. This operates in relation to terrible outcomes such as war or global warming. In the same way, in the spiritual field, most aspirants think they are more advanced than they really are; this is additionally an effect of ignorant pride (pleasure in remaining ignorant-as in orthodox/fundamentalist religious [faith-based]practice) actively rejecting new knowledge and choosing unproven notions that are comforting even if they lead to suffering, intellectual pride (thinking one knows and understands a subject perhaps even better than the teacher, therefore not needing instruction or correction) as many have the capacity to understand the philosophy and then project that intellectual knowledge onto the supposed state of enlightenment and thus figure “yea I’m enlightened”. As stated previously, there are two factors that alleviate this problem. One is integral movement, not relying on intellectualism alone to discern spiritual attainment in terms of self-assessment. Two is being in the company and receiving regular instruction from a qualified teacher; someone who can help the person maintain a grip on reality and not fly into fancies about the nature of attainments.
ABOUT YOUR STATEMENT:
“This point I think was later made by Sebai Maa when he said that much of the content of Demaz Alexis’s essay reflect the aspirations of the Aspirant but from a practical point of view cannot be expected to be attained by a beginning Aspirant who is not sufficiently purified and grounded in the teachings. I do agree with this sentiment and that one should take much caution in how one proceeds with the practice as one may experience negative psychological consequences if it is not done in an integral fashion. I think this is my biggest challenge at present which I am trying to work on.“
FEEDBACK
Indeed, purity of the personality is essential for proper cognition, which in turn is required for proper perception of reality; not just the mundane worldly reality, but also transcendental realities that have to do less with mind and more with the capacity of experiencing being, beyond ego and time and space. Purity –which may be equated with health of body, conscious mind and unconscious mind, is to be achieved by observing proper care of the main aspects of the personality (feelings, intellect, ethical actions, and inner reflection and meditation time.) If these are observed with proper guidance and lifestyle (the highest lifestyle of ancient times was the ritual life of the temple) with perseverance (antet-begag) and “pereniality” (an-chen) or continuous practice; these are ingredients for eventual success in purity and experiencing higher consciousness in an integral (balanced) and therefore safe and natural manner in the course of optimal life that a human being can expect. A further detail is given relating to mental purity; this in addition to intellectual brightness and understanding of philosophy means also handling and resolving mental complexes, compulsions, cravings and angst that many people often bury or ignore in favor of action, even good action like temple rituals, so as to feel they are beyond such “lower issues”. Yet those issues are like vermin that eat away at the unconscious power and capacity to both have deeper clarity, beyond conscious mind, and also diminishes, eats away, the spiritual strength needed to put forth the valiant spiritual effort needed to move forward spiritually. Eventually these complexes catch up with the personality and the person becomes surprised at the “unknown” sources of trouble affecting the personality when it was thought that was all dealt with and all that was left was stepping over to the western horizon (higher consciousness) or that one was there already. For this reason one of the most important boons given by the Neteru (gods and goddesses of the Neterian retinue relates to qent and necht (spiritual valor and spiritual strength). After having lived for millions of lifetimes many aspirants think they have attained enlightenment after a few years of hearing the teaching, not realizing the mind’s capacity to self-delude has been strengthened manifold with 50,000 thoughts per day over lifetimes.
Each thought entertained by the mind potentially forms an aryu, a nidus of potential support of ego-delusion. How? That nidus remains as content of the unconscious, holding feeling and energy about a past actions thoughts and/or feelings, that have presently and in the future, an effect of perception ability. At present it holds energy away from conscious access and blocks transcendental perception. It causes opacity in the sub-conscious and unconscious levels of mind so that when one looks within oneself, either in reflective times or meditative practice, one remains seeing a reflection of ego instead of the Higher Self and the ego-looker remains as the reflected illusion; that nidus also holds potential for sprouting into new distractive thoughts and desires that maintain the personality pursuing mirages in time and space as opposed to working out the mysteries of life and working out, resolving and dissolving illusions about the nature of self and reality beyond ego, seeing through the delusions of self as ego instead of self as pure essence of being (Un). Due to lack of purity an aspirant may confuse the delusion as the Un, since both have the same supporting source. Yet for authentic sages that is no more possible than it is for an authentic painter to mistake the paint, colors, combination of colors, shapes of the painting, etc. mistaking all that for the canvas upon which it was all painted. And for the mystic even the canvas is a quaint idea, a marvel of cosmic mind, with no more abiding reality than the paint.
HTP
