I have loads of question stored up so feel free not to answer them all and sorry I'm late!
How would you know if you’re seeking Gwynfydd to get away from unresolved issues in your life or because you’re ready for it? I have loads of mess in my life that I know was mostly caused by my personality and upbringing and I’m working on fixing that and magic is helping. I’m also just really curious about Gwynfydd. But another part of me would really like to not be a social primate anymore at all, so that’s kind of a motive of wanting to escape. If you have mixed motives what does that mean?
On a related note, I’ve read people saying that aiming at self-improvement is a distraction from achieving enlightenment and can get in the way of it – that’s it’s just a game the ego plays. I think this is more Eastern, buddhist-influenced mysticism than the tradition you come from. Is that attitude a rejection of the world as it is, an attempt to stop people from confusing morality with spirituality, or something else?
Also, I read a blog by a girl who claims to be enlightened and described a state of what feels like love all the time. But then she said that years later she’d discovered that there are things beyond that and she’s not in that zone anymore. Is there some ‘mystical’ experience that’s the source of the idea that God is love?
And what is the truth about that? I come across Christians, New Age types, Buddhists and lefties who all share this idea. Usually what they mean by love is basically compassion although they all have different names for it. Christians on a forum I’m on insist that agape is the ultimate reality, Buddhist-influenced types say it’s loving kindness, lefties say it’s solidarity and unity. Leaving aside that whenever I get to know such people I usually find they’re among the nastiest you’ll ever meet… are they right on some level? I’m extremely disagreeable by temperament so maybe it just grates on me that my natural disposition is apparently so un-God-like!
The Christians tell me that what they mean is that something like agape is the closest reflection at the human level of the divine spark. But then they believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent creator god too, which I don’t, but I don’t want to discard everything they say either. I’ve been reading Eliphas Levi and I think to the extent Jesus existed he was probably a pretty advanced initiate. And he was the one who started the whole ‘God is Love’ thing as far as I know. I don’t think anyone ever said Zeus was love.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-26 11:03 am (UTC)How would you know if you’re seeking Gwynfydd to get away from unresolved issues in your life or because you’re ready for it? I have loads of mess in my life that I know was mostly caused by my personality and upbringing and I’m working on fixing that and magic is helping. I’m also just really curious about Gwynfydd. But another part of me would really like to not be a social primate anymore at all, so that’s kind of a motive of wanting to escape. If you have mixed motives what does that mean?
On a related note, I’ve read people saying that aiming at self-improvement is a distraction from achieving enlightenment and can get in the way of it – that’s it’s just a game the ego plays. I think this is more Eastern, buddhist-influenced mysticism than the tradition you come from. Is that attitude a rejection of the world as it is, an attempt to stop people from confusing morality with spirituality, or something else?
Also, I read a blog by a girl who claims to be enlightened and described a state of what feels like love all the time. But then she said that years later she’d discovered that there are things beyond that and she’s not in that zone anymore. Is there some ‘mystical’ experience that’s the source of the idea that God is love?
And what is the truth about that? I come across Christians, New Age types, Buddhists and lefties who all share this idea. Usually what they mean by love is basically compassion although they all have different names for it. Christians on a forum I’m on insist that agape is the ultimate reality, Buddhist-influenced types say it’s loving kindness, lefties say it’s solidarity and unity. Leaving aside that whenever I get to know such people I usually find they’re among the nastiest you’ll ever meet… are they right on some level? I’m extremely disagreeable by temperament so maybe it just grates on me that my natural disposition is apparently so un-God-like!
The Christians tell me that what they mean is that something like agape is the closest reflection at the human level of the divine spark. But then they believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent creator god too, which I don’t, but I don’t want to discard everything they say either. I’ve been reading Eliphas Levi and I think to the extent Jesus existed he was probably a pretty advanced initiate. And he was the one who started the whole ‘God is Love’ thing as far as I know. I don’t think anyone ever said Zeus was love.
Thank you,
Dot.