I reckon it's time to attempt jump-starting this forum again. I drop by here every work day, and feel a trifle disappointed that nobody's posted. But since I'm at work, I can't really take the time to compose a posting myself.
Well, it's a cold grey Friday afternoon, and I don't really have anything pressing on the agenda, so despite the fact that I'm at work, I’ll donate some time to this forum. There've been lots of things on my mind lately, one of them the question of what I feel comfortable in posting on this site. I realize that Frater Serafine has gone to great lengths to create a space that seems "intimate" due to the fact that people get screened and are given a password to get in, but it's still the internet, and I really don't "know" the people in here. I can hardly think of anything more intimate to talk about than one's own psychic and spiritual development. There have been times I've thought of mentioning things in this forum, and then decided against it in the last minute.
An interesting illustration of this is the space Frater S made for people to post pictures of their sanctums. I actually have digital pictures of my sanctum. Because I live in a cramped apartment with a wife and three children (not uncommon living conditions in Budapest), a friend suggested a unique solution for creating a sanctum space in our home. I took pictures in order to e-mail them to some friends in Hungary since it might be a useful idea to them. I thought of posting them on this website, but something inside me shied away from putting something so intimate, so essential to my inner life on the internet. I've noticed that nobody else has posted photos of their sanctums, so I must not be alone in this sentiment.
Nonetheless, as is evident from the number of times I've posted in the past, there are definitely topics, and manners of dealing with topics, that I feel are appropriate for such a forum. But it get a little boring if there isn't enough life in a forum.
Having thrown that out as a preface, let me just jot down what I think might be some conversation starters.
1) Other than noticing when I was a kid that there's kind of an outline around people's bodies about that's a couple inches think (what I've seen referred to as the "physical aura") I've never really noticed aura's in life. Recently, only a couple of weeks ago, I was part of a team interviewing new attorney's for our firm. I have to say here that I'm not a lawyer, but I participate in these interviews as the person who judges the candidate's English skills. There's another fellow who interviews them in German, and then a lawyer grills the candidate on law in their native Hungarian. I was done with my part of the interview, so I was just sitting back and watching this fellow. Watching someone be interviewed is an interesting psychology lesson. Anyway, the candidate was having trouble, because the interviewer kept throwing him questions on law that he couldn't answer. Then she pitched him something that he knew he could hit a homerun with. His face changed, and he sat up straighter, AND I NOTICED THE AURA AROUND HIS HEAD AND SHOULDERS EXPAND. I was surprised. I hadn't been trying to see his aura, and as a matter of fact, auras were the last thing on my mind. But I plainly saw it, and once I noticed it, I tried to continue watching it, but my perception of it faded again after a while.
Today I was talking with a colleague who was sitting at his desk in front of a window. He was in good spirits and enjoying the conversation with me. Quite spontaneously I noticed what I could only describe as light surrounding his head. Again, I wasn't looking for it, I just suddenly noticed it.
I think this may have something to do with the fact that I am at a stage in my studies where I am working with my pineal gland. I can feel something happening, but nothing dramatic. Very subtle actually. A very slight shift in my perception.
2) The AMORC Administration headquarters for Hungary here has a good little library; quite a few of them in English, contributed by a member who lived in Australia for a long time. Among other things, it has most of Raymond Bernard's books. I checked out the series "Strange Encounters", "Secret Houses of the Rose Croix", "A Secret Meeting in Rome", and "The Hidden Empire". (You can read his books "Messages from the Celestial Sanctum" and "A Secret Meeting in Rome" on the website http://www.mystical-tradition.net) What he says about a network of hidden adepts who are actually guiding and protecting the world is fascinating and at times hard to swallow. It's very hard to describe the books, so I hope somebody goes to the site and reads them and tells me what they think.
The administrator told me that she has been instructed to take the Raymond Bernard books off the shelf. Something about copyright and the Rosicrucian Library. Does anyone know anything about this?
3) In a recent issue of The Rosicrucian Beacon (the official magazine of the English Grand Lodge for Europe and Africa) there is an article on the appropriate incenses for meditation. One of the recommendations frankincense. The article recommends using oil of frankincense, which I've never seen here in Hungary. I don't really feel like messing with charcoal and real frankincense on a daily basis either. I began burning frankincense scented stick incense during my morning exercise and meditation sessions. I can report that I find it soothing and inspiring (the article says it has the quality of calming and settling the mind). I can also warn people that there is a vast difference between various brands of incense some are very flowery and perfume-y and vaguely smell like frankincense, others smell like the genuine article. If you don't know the difference (frankincense is a very distinctive scent) get someone who knows the scent to help you shop for it
4) I hope this gives someone something they'd like to respond to.
it is the eleventh hour for my house. what is not discovered and boxed up will become landfill. I did manage to extract four old foot lockers away in the back cornor of the garage. they may have been put there in 1958. the CONTENTS date to around World War II or earlier and may have not been seriuosly rearranged since my father stashed the stuff after he retired from the U.S.A. Navy in the mid 1950's.
with both parents gone and only one relative (my Dad's side) I know of well enough to talk to this veritable time capsule of my family means a lot to me even though I wont be able to learn much of the stories behind it.
these letters, photos, ect of my father are completely at odds with the person I knew and grew up with. my aunt only corroborates the disskinpency: Dad was completely different when he was in the navy and/or he "lost it" after the War.
it isnt so much my father turned his back on things as it is he became over whelmed and discouraged. he never dreamed I would latch onto the stuff and treasure it! or that I might try and carry on where he left off.....
what I find particually telling is he and mother pushed the education bit on me and me brother and thought everything would be happy ever after. it didnt work that way at all. Dad must have learned something camping out in the Florida Everglades or just studying the stars on board Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean..Something he forget when a family and kids took all his attention...something I never was taught in 18 years of school but had to EXPERIENCE on my own
It would be nice to FEEL the emotions of the owner when I hold momentoes of my dads life 50 or 75 years ago. but then I might be as unhappy and miserable as he became.
that to me is the biggist and most heart wrenching thing about actual historical items: you would think after you are dead and gone all the things you felt died with you and all the injustices and triumps would come to naught. I know it doesnt. people do come along, peruse the old letters, feel empathy; even if everyone alive is in denial that doesnt mean some one cant come after you are dead and see and understand.
I will try to be more self confident. vindication will be evident AFTER I have lived and died and "done my thing". in the mean time I too must work and play and find a new home. even if I dont feel like talking to anyone but Samantha (the dog) the disussions can resume later. what was too personable to deal with in life can be delt with a hundred years later when all is ready!
If only dad knew .......if only he knew .....the secrets would not die so quickly or be forgotten.
>george
The reason I am not inclined to post Here
is because I cannot re~edit my posts.
This really impedes my creativity.
Sorry Fratre Lemos, for sounding like a Snot.
I would also like to actively link my URL's in my messages,
so that Members can directly access them.
Is the pinneal gland referred to as the Mind's Eye?
Daylight via the eyeball affects it hormonally I think.
me best posts were done in the BBS days via SideKick and Telix using simple ANSI. anyways I dont see auras. I dont even see letters normally unless I look hard. words I see . the words dont suit me purposes anymore all that much.
the dog doesnt care if I literate or not. me ego will be re-adjusted. She really WANTS to communicate.
you know I do too .......
a new adventure @!
So I see my post flushed two interlocutors out of the tall grass. Great! If that’s who’s here, then that’s who I’ll talk to. My wife participates in a forum here in Budapest that’s made up of about eighteen women, with a hard core of about ten who post daily. They are united by the fact that they are all mothers of young children, and they are all Hungarian (there is a participant who lives in Germany and one in Austria). One of the advantages they have is that they also communicate by phone sometimes, and also occasionally invite the other women (with their children) to get together at their house. It’s an amazing, tight, loving, mutually supporting group. I admire them. This has been going on for more than a year now. It’s a totally private forum. It isn’t listed anywhere. Their posts run into the multiple pages a day.
Beyond the fact that we on this forum can’t really get together and meet (though I’d love to meet some of you sometime) the lesson I have learned from watching the dynamic group of women my wife interacts with is that the power of their forum comes from its interactiveness. They really talk to one another, and they really get into important issues.
So I have two interlocutors. Let’s talk!
Hai dozo, Faye-chan! I reckon a martial arts practitioner like yourself recognizes the invitation from another warrior to train together. I trained in aikido for nine years, and was a teacher for several of them. I had a student for a short while whose main discipline was Bujinkan (Ninjutsu). She came to me for cross-training. Then she brought her teacher to my class. I was humbled. He was a far more accomplished martial artist than me, but it spoke volumes about his character that he would be willing to bow into my class and take instruction from me. I was also amazed at the similarities between the two “styles”.
But all that is far behind me. I moved to Budapest in 1992 to follow my destiny. I checked out the first aikido class I could find here, but just didn’t like the way they trained (kind of on the macho side). Then I realized I just didn’t have the time to be an aikidoka and be serious about other pursuits. Martial arts are very time intensive. It’s still an important element of my character. I know I am a very different person than I would have been without those years on the mat. I still do T’ai Chi exercises every morning before I meditate.
The pineal gland. Well, I don’t want to come off all wise and knowledgeable about something I’m just learning about. There are umpteen websites where you can find information about this gland just by typing it into a search engine, both of a scientific/anatomical nature, and of a mystical nature. I guess it’s been referred to as “the mind’s eye”, and indeed, the anatomical literature says it’s intricately bound together - in ways that modern science still doesn’t understand – with the nerves and brain centers associated with sight. In some lower vertebrates it still functions as a light sensor. And, yes, its hormonal secretions are linked to the amount/duration of sunlight we get.
I guess I’m not giving away the family jewels to say that the pineal gland plays a central role in psychic perception, which is why some say it is the “third eye” of occult lore. I can attest to the fact that when one focuses energy on it, noticeable things happen.
As to the software this forum runs on, I think it’s probably the best Frater Serafine could get for free, or without a major time investment to learn how to run another forum. I have always tended to compose my posts on a text editor and then cut and paste them into the forum. That way I can spell check it and re-read it at my leisure.
Gruntal: I still don’t quite know how to take you (which is how I think you want to be taken). I read your posting wondering if you’re just being intentionally obtuse, or if you are making subtle commentary on my post.
Dad issues: My father wasn’t born too much later than yours (1928) and it seems there might be a few parallels. He was a highly intelligent young man who got a position as an assistant professor back when it was easy to get jobs like that, and then stagnated the rest of his life while being overwhelmed by the reality that he was the father of three. He “lost it” somewhere along the line, too. He serves me as an object lesson in what happens when you stop believing there’s a point to life and you just go through the motions and do your best to stay intellectually entertained. There’s a big difference between being entertained and being happy.
There are lots of parents who think education is the key to happiness. Unfortunately that’s only partially true. Nowadays (and to a certain extent ever since the industrial revolution) education is very narrowly conceived as that complex of knowledge and skills that make an individual useful to the economy. The more useful you are to the economy, the more you are rewarded by the economy.
That’s why my children go to Waldorf school. Rudolf Steiner, the creator of Waldorf education (and one of the most influential mystics of the 20th century) designed a way of teaching children based on a mystical understanding of what a human being is, in terms of our place in the grand scheme of the universe. The goal of Waldorf education is not to prepare you for a profession, but to make you prepared for life. If you are a well-adjusted individual with deep self-knowledge, there is no limit to the things you can master, including the profession of your choice.
The average parent’s intentions are honorable, even if short-sighted: they just don’t want their children to end up poor and suffering from being at the bottom of the economic totem pole. Unfortunately, the push for as much education as possible as early as possible produces people with lots of earning power and no spiritual compass. Great! I have a big house, two shiny cars and vacations in Tahiti, but now what do I do?
It too embarressing to be intimate in this forum so I disguise myself as the cosmic clown. Besides I was in danger of losing my sense of humor anyways. So I learned three dimensional Calculas and can't even figure out how to play with Samantha (the dog). What a waste!
You talk of communicating and the written efforts and poetic prose and death bed confessions. I dont know the martial arts invitations. I am being taught to read Samantha (the dog's) signs she wants to play. Nobody will come up to you and say "I am ready". A megaphone would not help. Samantha rarely if ever even barks at me. Her amber eyes are more imporatant to watch, her emotions singularily honest if beyond my abillity to fathom at this time.
Some of the most distant people may only be a heartbeat away; a shared joke would break down the barriors instantly: the time and place may NEVER come to pass to do so. An opportunity lost because it was never recognized.
Sometimes I would like to be like the Doctor in the BBC television series. I remember a classic dialog between two captors of the Doctor questioning the Doctor at gunpoint and only getting rediculous answeres. One said "I dont think he is really that dumb" to which the other captor said "I dont think anybody could be that dumb". They were right!
If you had a choice would you value a communication from the smartest person or the "slowest" or most culturely distant? Which would be the greatest challenge? The biggest reward?
And to think I dont even like dogs ........
>gruntcake
Ah, my dear Gruntal. You ask: “If you had a choice would you value a communication from the smartest person or the ‘slowest’ or most culturally distant? Which would be the greatest challenge? The biggest reward?”
I’m not so sure I’m left with a real choice here. Why are you lumping the “slowest” and “the most culturally distant” together? I can hardly think of anyone more culturally distant than Hungarians. I’ve lived here for twelve years now, and I still can’t figure out how these people think, or what motivates them. But they are anything other than slow. Frighteningly bright is more like it. But in a really impractical way. You have a nation that’s full of people like Szilard and Teller and von Neumann, and they can’t make the railroads run on time or even organize a picnic.
I guess a partial answer to your question is that I highly value communication with those who are culturally distant from myself. That’s why I live abroad. I also don’t discount the opinions of someone who hasn’t had a lot of formal education. That’s what mysticism is all about. (This is a mysticism site, after all.) We all have the same Cosmic Intelligence operating deep down underneath all the denser layers. That goes for Samantha, too. (I can just see Samantha reading over your shoulder while you type and thinking to herself, “Who’s he callin’ slow?”
You also say, “Some of the most distant people may only be a heartbeat away.” Ain’t that the unvarnished truth? I’m sittin’ here in Budapest, lookin’ out my office window at various styles of old architecture that you’ve never seen, and I can hear office mates in the hall speaking in foreign tongues, but my mind is focused on a man half the globe away who’s dealing with the contemplations one goes through when packing up a house filled with years’ worth of detritus. Sometimes the latter is more real to me than the former.
It cold here and miserable 'cuz there no heat in house and I want my Samanmtha and where my Thanksgiving feast with double portions of pecan pie ?! I guess this isnt my year to party. Me friend might volunteer giving out dinners at the local "Rescue Mission" to the "slow and culturely distant" meaning skid row bums or worst. I doubt if she talks much to them but that how it goes. She confides in me as I do to her even if I cant talk to our familes about things.
Sometimes family is the hardest ones to talk to. Manners and civillity win out over honesty. You learn to live with someone and get along at the price of sponteanity. You get desparate and do the "beggars banquent" thingie only to discover there are so many souls you have nothing on common with, least of all a shared language. Even the moral underpinning can go haywire: what a waste to even try to convince the world why you act the way you do. They dont get it .....
I am more interesting in tales and what people think is important; or how much they are willing to give or bend: the way they spin these things out betrays their belifes and values. And to briefly touch on the subject of another post here: sometimes you come to a point in your life where you feel duty bound to sacrifice yourself as proof positive of your commitment. And again: some people will never understand this. They are culturely distant to the point of being unreachible. I dont think loyalty is funny.
I hope I can construct the fence in time so Samantha cant get out and get squished by a bus I hope I hope. Even if technically she isnt even me dog.
>gruntchop (do I have food on my mind?)
