We Are Conduits

a reply to: zosimov

I have always found that no matter how old we get, there are still new things to learn about, explore, experience or be reminded of. The universe and our existence is so wondrous, complex, deeply beautiful, and at the same time, so filled with tragedies, sorrow and struggles. Together as spirits having a human experience, we can hold each others hands, inspire and lift each other to new heights as our lives unfold.

I love and appreciate you dear Zos!

a reply to: Night Star

I love and appreciate you Night Star!

And what you wrote is just beautiful. I love your outlook on life.

Big hugs!

a reply to: zosimov

Maybe she is right, maybe not. I don't think we carry more than one soul in us. We have one soul but it is our duty to make that soul grow and become stronger.
www.evawaseerst.be...

a reply to: zandra

I love that link you provided, thank you, wonderful stuff!
This part is similar to Dr. Houston's idea that not only do we live in the universe, but the universe lives in us:

God is Love, God is Light. We believe God is everything (let's call it the universe). And that 'Everything' thrives on electromagnetism (light). We believe the human soul contains a particle of that 'light'. when we die, that particle is released and together with other particles it forms a large light that travels through the universe and provides communication. Just like the lights in our brain take care of communication between neurons.

I agree that we only house one soul, but I also agree with the speaker that we have many different personas.
(For example, when I second guess myself, this is one aspect of my self questioning another.) I've heard it called an internal congress also. Isn't even being introspective a form of dividing the self? (One to objectively observe the other).

Thanks for your interesting addition to the conversation!

a reply to: zosimov

Thank you ... You make me think

a reply to: cooperton

I very much agree. Once you understand it all, you may as well just sit tight and enjoy the ride.
It's not that the "story" is pre-written. Only "key" inflection points or moments. It's like saying, before your death, you will go to Berlin, Moscow and New York... OK, that still gives you plenty of margin of maneuver.. I guess figuring out what this universe is and how it works should give us more serenity and less fear... I mean, if you KNOW you're an eternal soul, and that your entire life, from the perspective of your soul, is like picking which clothes to wear on a day in your human life, it lets you live a bit more... free I guess!
I wrote about whether it's important or not to "awaken" to this realization here:
**SNIP** Mod Edit

a reply to: zosimov

Beautiful!

Throughout my life, even as a small child, I have always consciously opened myself up to whatever unseen unknown forces there may be, even to the point of inviting the "devil" to possess my body and mind. The idea of being a conduit has always come naturally to me.

Being "open" in a way can only happen if you accept your inner fallibility, you know you're not the end all be all of everything, and there are yet things for you to discover and learn.

I watched the lecture, this is the first time I've heard of Jean Houston I think. I like her!

Wonderful thread. S & F!

a reply to: geezlouise

Lou,
This idea is really only something I've tried out theoretically, never in practice. Although I definitely feel a force flowing through, not from me, when I'm at my creative peak, I'd really be interested in trying to tap in. I love your point about the change in perspective (not being the end all be all of anything let alone everything lol) that comes with being open to allow outside forces to work through you.

It's always great to hear from you, and to read the insight you have to add to cool philosophical concepts. Hope you are doing great, sending love!

It's been a long time since I've watched this lecture and I wonder if I'm due.

a reply to: zosimov

How does one tap in? And in fact does "tapping in" give you a sense of control, therefore making it more comfortable to think about experiencing? Because what if the whole idea is based off of not being in control, and letting go of that control, where being a conduit is the exact opposite of tapping in and letting that something else tap into you?

I also really connected when Jean Houston talked about "surprising" yourself- finding out you can do things you never thought you could or gave a thought to prior. That happens to me all the time, lol! My mind does weird things that I never thought possible sometimes.

And it's ultimately because I doubt myself, because I know that I don't have the one true absolute answer to all things, so I'm always open to other possibly better ways and better answers. She talks about that as well, something I've kind of always done I think. It's also probably why I was so easily taken advantage of- I know that now.

In a way, in order to establish this openness- one must temporarily abandon all ideas of who you think you are. You have to be able to say, "I don't know who I am, I am not what I think I am, I could be something else!"

And lastly I would like to point out that you never really do lose yourself- not ever. In fact I might say you draw closer to yourself whenever you lose yourself, paradoxically.

You know I always love your threads, hope all is well with you. You're a beautiful wonderful human being, ilyfnmw!

originally posted by: geezlouise
a reply to: zosimov

How does one tap in? And in fact does "tapping in" give you a sense of control, therefore making it more comfortable to think about experiencing? Because what if the whole idea is based off of not being in control, and letting go of that control, where being a conduit is the exact opposite of tapping in and letting that something else tap into you?

LOL!
This makes lots of sense, haha! I am a weirdo control freak too, even as I understand that control is an illusion (we're never really in control), I still have the hardest time letting go of that illusion.

You know I always love your threads, hope all is well with you. You're a beautiful wonderful human being, ilyfnmw!

Thank you, all is well here! I love you too, and thank ATS for connecting me with such a beautiful soul Lou.

a reply to: zosimov

Ha! I was just reading a book that punched this ball with a very different stick (N. Winklers introduction to Meister Eckhart).

6. One as Unity

The goal of the rational form of life—of living in and with the spiritual perfections at the level of that transcendental being or being (esse, ens) convertible with the termini transcendentes (the one, the true, and the good)—is living in and from the absolute one (in and from the divine nature as presuppositionless unity). If the ground of the soul, as something uncreated and uncreatable—attributes which Meister Eckhart’s contemporary Eckhart von Gründig explicitly ascribes to the ground or ‘little spark’ of the soul that Meister Eckhart often invokes (cf. Winkler, 1999), thus indicating that he in fact employed these attributes—if human reason—not as human, but as reason—is one with the divine nature or ground (Echardus, Predigt 5b; DW I, 90, 8: “Hie ist gotes grunt mîn grunt und mîn grunt gotes grunt”: “Here, God’s ground is my ground and my ground God’s ground”), then man is no longer simply on the way towards unity (unio). Instead, unity is something that has always already been achieved. This being-unified is alone what matters (Echardus, Predigt 12; DW I, 197, 8–9; Predigt 39; DW II, 265, 6–266, 2), because man as reason has left behind everything that stands in the way of his living in and from unity, and because the ground of the soul is more interior in this unity than it is in itself (Mojsisch 1983a, 140–141; 2001, 163–165). This is true equanimity—letting-go (Gelâzenheit)—as the goal of human life.

Living in and from unity in the manner envisioned by Eckhart as the end of self-discovery becomes possible through a change (metabole) in intellectual disposition. The possible intellect—which, as defined by Aristotle, can become all things (cf. De anima III 5, 430a14–15)—is able to know either as ordinary consciousness (in images, species of things) or as self-consciousness through self-knowledge (without images, free from images). The conversion in disposition—Plato speaks of a peristrophe of the soul (cf. Res publica VII, 521c5)—leads the possible intellect to the uncreated and uncreatable ground of the soul, whose movement, as a process of reason, reaches its goal in the absolute one (unialiter unum, a combination suggested by Proclus; Eckhart speaks of the luter pur clar Ein or indistinctum, the undifferentiated). This goal, however, is itself nothing other than the ground of the soul. The ground of the soul in the absolute one is its own goal because self-consciousness is nothing other than one and the one, because freedom is nothing other than one and the one, because moral responsibility for oneself and others—Eckhart speaks of justice—is nothing other than one and the one. Self-consciousness, freedom and justice are always and everywhere only themselves, having nothing ‘outside’ of, additional or foreign to them.
[...]

Meister Eckhart

His theology works without any "foreign" interventions, it's more of an intrinsic value, or a potential of sorts. Some might even call it a whole universe working within us. From this vantage point, one could say we already are the living, breathing monads of entire parallel universes bumping into each other.

“One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works.”

Meister Eckhart

Good read. Goes down like hemp-oil. TY all.

a reply to: zosimov

What about those that cannot or choose not to see?

a reply to: zosimov
We are conduits of passing fancies. Fancily passing ever on by. Sometimes like lazily drifting clouds in clear blue sky's, and sometimes like dark and furious clouds in stormy sky's.

People see what they want to see, and play games the games they want to play. And some choose to play stupid and pointless games, just so they can learn not to play stupid and pointless games. So there is a point to even the pointless.