Have I a body or have I none?
Am I who I am or am I not?
Pondering these questions,
I sit leaning against the cliff while the
years go by,
Till the green grass grows between my feet
And the red dust settles on my head,
And the men of the world, thinking me dead,
Come with offerings of wine and fruit
to lay by my corpse.
—Cold Mountain
Dune has been a favorite sci-fi book series of mine since I was a kid.
I have been writing about how reason leads into mystery.
I have been writing about the inner fire of our will.
Sharing poetry that flows.
So yesterday all those themes came to a head when I saw the new Dune movie.
I was moved by a vision Paul had seeing a man he would kill tell him about life after his people had been betrayed and his father killed.
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” – Jamis
Paul hears Jamis in one of his visions where the Fremen explains how people “must move with the flow of the process” and “join it,” making sure that they “flow with it.” While he likely wasn’t referring to controlling aircraft, Paul uses his advice to get away from the storm and land safely in the desert. By simply going with the flow and experiencing “the mystery of life,” the young heir learns an important lesson about learning to let go.
What is noteworthy is how he stops trying to fly his aircraft in a sand storm and he closes his eyes and the flow takes him out of the storm.
This is how life can flow.
This is how you let go and let the mystery take you.
Happy flyin and free fallin.
Caught in Amador, CA last weekend.
Here is a tree older than the forest itself;
The years of its life defy reckoning.
Its roots have seen the upheavals of hill and valley,
Its leaves have known the changes of wind and frost.
The world laughs at its shoddy exterior
And cares nothing for the fine grain of the wood inside.
Stripped free of flesh and hide,
All that remains is the core of truth.
—Cold Mountain 🏔
My mind is like the autumn moon
Shining clean and clear in the green pool.
No, that’s not a good comparison.
Tell me, how shall I explain?
—Cold Mountain
Where does great inspiration and expression come from?
What force drives the madman and great artist or athlete?
Now hold on here, what am I talking about.
Some cannot speak or look inside themselves.
They are storms on earth.
This is a force inside of us, but not our ego.
The Daimon/Daemon is a shapeshifter.
Part of your mind you can’t pin down.
You have to feel and think what it feels and thinks.
It’s like a storm.
We have erected social hedges against it.
It is like a volcanic eruption.
Not rational.
The Daimon feels what nature wants to do through you.
It is nature in you.
It told Socrates what not to do, not what to do.
I listen to my daimon.
I have seen and communicated with it in many ways.
It is will.
Fate.
An impersonal force for some.
Some can integrate it.
You have to negotiate.
It can punish you and doesn’t care to keep you safe.
You can give it too much.
You can surrender to it.
Hitler followed his nonstop.
Trump follows his Daimon without question.
There is no introspection, which is its weakness.
It is not a force of good, it is a force of nature.
It is immoral, neutral.
If you don’t think you have one, you are a fool and a muppet.
A blind robot.
The ego can negotiate with it, mediates it.
You don’t delete your ego!
God no!
Daimon does what it does.
It is what it is.
Your effectiveness depends on your own quality and strength around your will.
I am constantly negotiating with it.
Don’t surrender to it.
Don’t ignore it.
You make yourself irrelevant to deny this force.
You have to dance and wrestle with it.
Use your ego’s moral discernment.
Only you can mediate it.
Honor it.
You have to eat and work and get along.
It doesn’t want your best.
It wants to move through you.
I have listened often to my Daimon and jumped when it pushed.
It creates psychic disease and physical.
It makes you into a ufo nutcase.
Or a conspiracy nutcase.
Or a trump zombie.
That is a group consciousness.
You become mindless.
Doing the bidding of pure will.
Pretty crazy move to go all in with it.
But I did.
It can posses you.
It is Legion.
You can reason with it but it is not reasonable.
You can create a space the Daimon sees when one is open to it.
You have to acknowledge it and give it space.
This is part of you, but not you.
Nature doesn’t change if you don’t understand.
The storm will always be there.
It has tremendous power.
Tremendous!
It loves to be acknowledged and given space.
The trickster.
You have to sharpen your inner hearing.
I was quite amazed to meet it.
In every psychedelic trip, it is there.
In your dreams you are always meeting it.
You can come to feel its feelings and thoughts.
To give it voice is to sing like the stars.
I speak of forbidden things and forgotten dreams.
I write with my Daimon and make art with it.
It is life.
It flows in everything.
Once you see it, you can never go back.
Wisdom becomes a curse in away.
We are innocent for only a whsiper of time.
It is guiding us, even into a wall.
Schopenhauer knew it well, when he said, the Will is blind.
Guide it, focus it and you will go far.
Ignore it at your peril.
“No person is free who is not a master of himself.”
This quote is usually attributed to Epictetus, but found in works attributed to Pythagoras, and stated as: “None can be free who is a slave to, and ruled by, his passions.”
—As quoted in Florilegium, XVIII, 23, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p.368
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.61
I often see Christians projecting their beliefs on Stoicism, let us compare them and be clear how these world views differ and overlap. I practice Stoicism and like to associate with others doing so, ancient and modern. There seems to be a tendency toward atheism these days among Stoics. Ancient Stoicism had the concept of Logos which represented a God figure, Zeus, but this concept was not defined by a personal relationship, as it is in Christianity. Zeus represented nature. I am not debating those differences between Stoics in this little essay. Disclaimer, I have no interest in Jesus or Christianity, beyond studying their historical impacts. I grew up as an evangelical Christian. I find the Stoic spiritual practices of ethics and virtue to live the best life, far superior to belief and faith in things unseen. Stoics help themselves using their reason and will.
Stoicism and Christianity are both concerned with how best to live, but Christians feel this life is a shadow of a life to come. The Stoics didn’t talk much about an afterlife and were agnostic about what, if anything lies beyond death. For the Stoics, what matters isn’t so much what may or may not happen after death, but how we make best use of the time we have now. This is one of the main reasons I practice Stoicism and not a religion idolizing people or worshipping a god beyond nature or the life we know now.
I do not agree with the Christian world view on original sin and death, which is why I practice Stoicism and not the Christian or any other religion. Stoics are focused on the life we have, not one to come. The Stoics viewed death as natural, a return to Nature. The Stoics believed that life should be lead through actions rather than words. I concur. What we do matters to us. The Stoics provide practices to help you control your reactions to thinking and difficult physical circumstances now, which is the only thing in your control.
Discourses Book 1.1 “About things that are within our power and those that are not.”
Epictetus speaks for Zeus/Nature, from Discourses,
“…I’ve given you a certain portion of myself, this faculty of motivation to act and not to act…the power to make proper use of impressions.”
—Epictetus Discourses, Fragments, Handbook, translated by Robin Hard, Book 1.1.12
Stoicism is an Ancient Greek philosophy formed in Athens while the Greek world was in chaos after the death of Alexander the Great. Zeno of Citium founded the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Stoicism is based on the moral ideas of the Cynics. Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature.
“Now, If virtue promises to enable us to achieve happiness, freedom from passion, and serenity, then progress towards virtue is surely also progress towards each of the states.”
—Epictetus Discourses, Fragments, Handbook, translated by Robin Hard, Book 1.4.3
(Epictetus does seem to often have a personal view of the divine as related by Arrian in Discourses.)
The Greek term for word is Logos. Five hundred years before Jesus was born, Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, used Logos (the word) to explain what he saw as the universal force of reason that governed everything. He said all things happen according to the Logos. This belief became the foundation of Stoicism. Greek speaking Jews came to view the Logos as a force sent by God. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; he is the driving force sent by God.
Modern day Christianity has a splintered past and is practiced differently between the Protestants and Catholic Church. Eastern Christianity is often thought closer to the original church that formed after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. I would argue that the Pauline Gospel is the foundation for the modern Western church more than other competing strains of early Christianity. This form of Christianity developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Apostle Paul through his writings in the New Testament. These are muddy waters.
According to Christianity, it is only through Jesus of Nazareth that people can achieve eternal salvation. Humans save themselves through grace instead works, while the forgiveness of sins comes by faith alone.
I do not concur due to my experience. I take no one’s word as final on life and death. I am living this life now. Christian belief to me is a tyranny and not well reasoned or aligned with natural life and death. There are no similar concepts in Stoicism, where what you do is its own reward or punishment now, in the moment. We practice to be ready to act with reason and not be overwhelmed by emotions or fear.
Stoicism and Christianity are both monotheistic. Stoicism follows Heraclitus and believes in one Logos; Christianity follows Jesus, and requires followers to believe in the one true God and have no other gods before him [her]. Additionally, both Stoicism and Christianity serve the will of the Logos/God. They teach we can liberate ourselves from fear and anxiety by submitting to the will of the Divine.
In Christianity, the Word (Logos) was made flesh and dwelt among us. In Christianity, a relationship with the Logos is much more personal.
“The Stoics also referred to the seminal logos (“logos spermatikos”), or the law of generation in the Universe, which was the principle of the active reason working in inanimate matter. Humans, too, each possess a portion of the divine logos. The Stoics took all activity to imply a logos or spiritual principle.” — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#Stoics
“The Stoics often identified the universe and God with Zeus, as the ruler and upholder, and at the same time the law, of the universe. The Stoic God is not a transcendent omniscient being standing outside nature, but rather it is immanent—the divine element is immersed in nature itself.”
— https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoic_physics#God
“The Stoics [defined] free will as a voluntary accommodation to what is in any case inevitable. According to this theory, man is like a dog tied to a moving wagon. If the dog refuses to run along with the wagon he will be dragged by it, yet the choice remains his: to run or be dragged. In the same way, humans are responsible for their choices and actions, even though these have been anticipated by the logos and form part of its plan.”
—(xix-xx) Gregory Hays
Another big difference between the two worldviews is Christians ask God for help, while the Stoics seek help from within. Through prayer, Christians ask to be released from suffering, healed when sick, and comforted in sorrow. By contrast, Stoicism tells us that if we want any good, we need to get it from ourselves. No spirit will relieve us from our pains.
Stoicism and Christianity have competing views about human nature as well. For the Stoics, nature has instilled people with the capacity to reason, which we can exercise to live out virtuous, dutiful lives. Christians, on the other hand, believe people are born with original sin, which has corrupted our internal moral compass. While it is possible to better ourselves by using reason, it is only by the grace of God that people are improved and saved.
This was just a high level survey of some of the differences between Stoicism and Christianity. I have nothing against Christians or anyone practicing Stoicism. The historical Jesus was not a Stoic as far as we know. We practice Stoicism here to live the best we can in a chaotic world beyond our control, bounded by birth and death. I’d argue Stoicism is about being the best Human Being we can be here now. We should not hold dogmatically to the ancient Stoics or cultural beliefs in my personal view. Epictetus said roughly the same. I think discussing these and other worldviews is beneficial if you can keep an open mind. But the words are just pointers to how to choose the best action any given moment.
“Such is the law that God has laid down, saying, ‘If you want anything good, you must get it from yourself.’”
—Epictetus Discourses, Fragments, Handbook, translated by Robin Hard, Book 1.29.4
In conflict it is better to be receptive
than aggressive, better to retreat a foot
than advance an inch.
This is called moving ahead without advancing,
capturing the enemy without attacking him.
There is no greater misfortune than
underestimating your opponent.
To underestimate your opponent is to
forsake your three treasures.
When your forces are engaged in conflict,
the one who fights with sorrow will triumph.
–Tao Te Ching, Translation by Brian Browne Walker
My house is at the foot of the green cliff,
My garden, a jumble of weeds I no longer bother
to mow.
New vines dangle in twisted strands
Over old rocks rising steep and high.
Monkeys make off with the Mountain fruits,
The white Heron crams his bill with fish
from the pond,
While I, with a book or two of the Immortals,
Read under the trees–mumble, mumble.
–Cold Mountain
I am no theist or deist.
I embrace all religions, as Walt Whitman did.
Today if one rises and says 2 + 2 = 5 and repeats it enough, others will believe them and you have a new religion.
In a cosmos of mystery, anyone offering assurance, is raised up as a false god.
No other or thing can be your god.
This is what trump did.
I can offer you no assurance of anything.
I can’t even tell you what death is.
So how can I tell you what birth is?
We only have impressions.
If you can let your dogmas and beliefs go, you can read any book, sit in any church and appreciate the emotional expressions.
Epictetus said: “What is good enough for the universe, is good enough for me!”
I concur.
My church is all of this.
We do not have reasons or logic to explain things, we only have impressions, visions.
To have a clear mind is a great benefit in this wayward lost world humanity has created.
To be free of theories and suspicions and conspiracies allows one to live the best life they can.
To make calls to a savior or god or priest or portal or princess or president is dishonest and dastardly and stupid and wrong.
One should ignore fools spitting this or that truism or morality or theory or belief or god.
We all just have sense impressions.
Yours are no more or less valid than mine.
Your conclusions are, for I have none.
To claim some absolute truth is nonsense.
I only report my impressions of life.
That is all anyone can do.
There is no system, there simply is what is.
What we see is superior to what we reason about.
What establishes itself in the age and in the heart is the only real logic and the only real verification anyone has.
Do you accept the universe and all that is in it?
This is the most important question I feel.
We take it all in.
Some can see farther and deeper than others.
Listen maybe to these more than the logicians and reasoners.
They do not know.
They live apart from this.
But I am of this and I know myself and thus know this.
No one can claim or explain absolute beginnings or endings.
These are children and fools doing so.
They should know better than to draw such conclusions.
I do not disdain life, I love this and am optimistic about this, based on my experience of life.
Realizing only my mind made this world and life and death a hell was freedom.
Evolution no more clears up our beginnings and endings than any philosophy or religion does.
There is no demiurge or apocalypse in my mind.
There are no angels or demons tearing me apart.
Far from it.
These are the rantings of those lost in imagination.
There are no serpents or lizards or conspiracies against you.
Those are concepts that create a hell and tyranny in our minds.
Do not resist these concepts, simply let them pass through you.
People hurting others know no better.
They only hurt themselves.
And their punishment is felt in themselves, you know this from experience, just as kindness and virtue and character are their own reward.
You will not be rewarded in the sky by a god.
Or punished in a hell later for what you do now.
You punish or reward yourself through your actions.
Let all of this pass through you and notice what is happening.
It is foolish to deny the substance and feeling of life.
That is the ground of our being.
We have imagined so much that we have lost our way.
Come back
Come back
Come back
Mystery is not the denial of reason, but its honest confirmation.
Reason leads to mystery.
If you have not this sense of things, you are lost in your mind.
Come back
Come back
Come back
Mystery is not superstition.
Mystery and reality are two halves of the same sphere.
If you have lost the mystery of life, I am sorry for you.
You nor anyone alive knows Jesus or any from the past.
We are here now.
I can’t tell you who they were.
We only have manipulated stories.
Let fixed positions and stories and myths and facts pass through you.
Let prophecies pass through you.
Let dogmatism pass through you.
Let the lies pass through you.
Grab nothing.
Those who hate others, hate themselves most.
Let easy answers and conditioning pass through you.
Mystery is on the other side of this.
Wondrous mystery.
There you will find your joy.
There you will find your greatness and beauty.
Your fate is yours, as your will is yours.
I claim all as my religion, nothing need be excluded.
The universe is more than enough for me.
I need nothing more.
To shun others, is to shun yourself.
To silence others, is to silence yourself.
I am not irreligious or an infidel.
I am deeply connected to my being, or I couldn’t write like this.
It is all meaningful and all beautiful.
Hell exists in the imagined distance one maintains from this.
Most live in their own imagined hell.
You will never talk anyone out of their own hell.
You can only find your own way out of it.
I am not traditionally religious, no.
My religion is being a human being in the cosmos, a mystery.
I need add nothing nor take away anything from this.
There is no conflict here.
We end, where we began.
So enjoy the ride.
I have nothing to argue with anyone.
Their view is their own.
It is easy to beat a believer and prophet with the mystery of the present.
It is easy to beat a materialist and eschatologist.
I can beat them with a look.
I bend into shapes they could not imagine.
Let artificial positions and conclusions pass through you.
Nothing imagined can beat what is.
To know thyself is to know the mystery.
It is a koan, we can’t penetrate the mystery, but only acknowledge it exists.
The best words and actions cancel themselves out and simply leave what is right before you.
The best words show you, your identity is make believe.
There is no mine or yours.
There are no borders to defend.
I have no one name, all names are mine.
The cosmos = zero.
Sometimes you’re up, sometimes down.
But it all ends in zero.
Energy can’t be destroyed or created.
So what happens when you die?
Here is what I think, speaking for myself, which is no self really.
The self is the imagined problem.
That’s the whole problem with all of this, right there.
That word, self.
That is not a word, that is not right, that isn’t.
How did we forget this?
The body stops a cell at a time.
But the brain keeps firing those neurons.
We don’t really feel any of this.
We are too busy in the moment to remember.
Every atom in my body was forged in a star.
This matter and body is mostly just empty space.
This energy that appears as me is just energy vibrating very slowly.
There never was a me.
Electrons in my body mingle and dance with those in the ground and in the air around me.
We are no longer breathing when we die.
Then we remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin.
This is dying before dying.
This is the only way to remember.
I remember I am energy, not memory or self.
Everything I feel I am, came after me.
I was before them and will be after.
Everything else are pictures that rose up in imaginary time.
We are knots of space-time.
We have a sword, a sharp one that one can cut through the knot when you are ready.
I am the lightening that ties all the pictures together.
I am returning home.
A drop falling back into the ocean.
All of this is one.
The cosmos and its infinite dreams.
We are the cosmos dreaming of itself, thinking we are selves.
Thinking and dreaming, the same.
We forget our dreams so easily.
But when I remember, there is no time or death, life is a wish made again and again.
I am that I am.
Good luck with your stories, and myths and conspiracies.
None of that will remain.
You and all of this is but a dream, here and gone.
Take solace in this.
Relax into this.
Then you will know real peace.
the everlasting gospel
Meditations, Observations, Whimsies
Enjoying the view...
ruins of the buddhist real
Raku pottery, vases, and gifts
sanjana singh // Just another humain(e) with ideas
Dating, Poetry, and More
God, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji, Dr. Harbhajan Singh, Biji Surinder Kaur, Kirpal Sagar, Unity of Man, Spirituality, Love, Compassion, Peace, Non-Violence, Right Understanding, Consciousness, Togetherness, Religions, Mind, Maya
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
Astral Lucid Music - Philosophy On Life, The Universe And Everything...
Exploring the world of Religion, Spirit and the Soul
Mindfulness, Philosophy, Spirituality, Meditation, Awareness, Religion, Nature Photography
Home of Lukas Kondraciuk Photography
Poetry, story and real life. Once soldier, busnessman, grandfather and Poet.
Dr. Andrea Dinardo, Psychology Professor
Quantum Heart 