A master teaches his disciple
Tad Perry
religion". My conscience has torn itself up over such matters since the
age of 8 when I suffered a "subjective tragedy"-the divorce of my parents.
Not only did I feel this divorce was my fault (as many children do)
but being raised by a mother who viewed me henceforth as "that man's
child" (a mother who went from hugging me often to hugging me never) I
was left with a lot to figure out on the subjective side.
When I used to post to this newsgroup, I would occasionally post
material such as this without the vaguest whiff of astrological
content because so many others here are interested in the same
subjects.
However, when I felt I "stood on a foundation of rock, and not of
sand" I could become quite vehement when presenting my side of a
"discussion".
(I have Mercury in Capricorn as part of a Grand Cardinal Cross, you
see.)
I stopped posting here so as not to ruin this group as such issues
could be very emotional for me. I could neither remain silent in my
beliefs nor withstand the emotions resulting from the natural reaction
that would occur when I would take a stance.
Also, despite the moderation of this newsgroup many (most?) of its
participants are not at all ready for what I was attempting to
present--which is the complete and unadulterated truth as I see it.
Anyway, I wrote this article for the Seahawks group (which I also
participate in and which I often subject to off-topic material!), but
since none of you read that group, you'd miss it if I didn't post it
here, too.
So that's why I *am* posting it here, too.
But it reads better unedited, so I include it here unchanged.
*** Begin Article Posted to Seahawks Newsgroup ***
As many regulars in this newsgroup know, I'm into Buddhist and
Christian morals and ethics and I occasionally include this type of
material in posts I make here.
This has bothered some in this group in the past, and out of
consideration, I warn you all now that this post really isn't about
the Seahawks.
But to please the "Powers That Be", (Bill, have you gotten this far? ;-)
I have placed something about the Seahawks in the last paragraphs
and it is kind of funny.
Skip to the very bottom if you prefer not to read off-topic material.
Everything else is completely unrelated to football other than my
usual "bogus" claim that religion relates to everything and that's how
it's related to the Seahawks. :-)
*** A Master Teaches His Disciple ***
Disciple: Who am I master? What is the essence of the I?
Master: The "I" is but an illusion, Grasshopper.
Disciple: An illusion? But how can that be?
Master: As you know: All is One. Everything is connected. This is how
the concept of separation is a complete illusion of the unillumined
mind. There is no way to properly draw the boundary between one thing
and another and say: This is "I", and this other is not "I". Without
the drawing of an artificial boundary, there is no "I".
If this is hard for you to understand, imagine that your feet
themselves are physcially welded to the Earth. And that all things
that appear separate are welded together by the Life Force that
pervades the Universe and that this picture of complete connectedness
is just as powerful, even more so, than the physical connection you
have just imagined.
Imagine that concsciousness itself exists covered over by this blanket
of outer reality that you witness and that you feel you live in. And
that the outer reality is nothing more than this. And further that its
relation to the inner reality is as the image in a mirror is to the
object it reflects.
Always remember that your attitude truly does create your reality due
to this basic relationship, just as the Jedi Master, Qui Gon Jinn,
teaches us in Stars Wars, Episode I.
This underlying consciousness is God. The Atman. God, of which you are a
tiny piece, peeps his head up inside all that is conscious and views
Himself as he unfolds himself. For it is necessary for him to do so
in the proper ordering of the Universe.
Your silly little "I" is your misbelief that you are not God, and that
you are separate, because you are linked to the porthole from which
you view and you cannot see it any other way.
Since you have been raised by misguided parents who could not easily
comprehend this due to the backward nature of this particular dust
ball, you have been literarly beaten through conditioning into this
misbelief that you are separate so that others may rule over you as
you cower in fear of harm from their cruel authority.
You think you are an "I". But you are not. You never truly were just
an "I" and you never truly will be an "I". This concept is useful and
necessary in life, but view this concept as a tool, not a reality.
You must never forget your inherent connectedness to all that is.
This is why hurting others amounts to nothing more than hurting
yourself and why the Dalai Lama cannot hurt even a fly.
Remember that in your divine aspect: You are not an "am", you are a
"will". Choosing a direction, and moving in it, results in movement in
the direction chosen, ever guided by the Atman.
Direct your choices wisely, Grasshopper, for the Laws of Karma are
real whether you readily accept their influence or not. Note also that
the Atman is quite powerful as it demands its Liberation from this
Illusion, for you are subject to Karma as long as you deny the truth
and act other than God, knowing himself as God, would act.
Mind over matter is real. Consciousness controls appearance. Witness
the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. What molded what, Grasshopper? Did
the matter mold the mind? No, it did not. The mind molded the matter,
just as it ever does.
Disciple: Thank you master. You have made it very clear to me.
Master: You are most welcome, Grasshopper. You are a Great Student, and
I see a great future behind you.
Disciple: Behind me, Master? Now I am confused.
Master <laffing>: We will leave that for another lesson, Grasshopper.
But the short version is: There is no past. There are two futures.
In one you are ignorant and do not apply the lessons you have learned.
In the other, you have learned and understood, and choose your path
wisely.
Reverse the Great Wheel and choose the illumined path that contains
blessings for all living beings and you may be reborn to a Buddha
World that rains flowers and where birds sing symphonies the likes of
which you can only now imagine.
Or perhaps, if we are most fortunate, we may give birth to such a
world on this very dust speck of a planet. You just never know.
In these aspirations lie our liberation, Grasshopper. And you must
fight a bitter fight if you would achieve Heaven on Earth for yourself
and others.
Disciple <Dumbfounded>: Wow. No shit?
Master: No shit, Grasshopper. No, shit.
*** Side Notes, True Stories, and an Obligatory Seahawks Reference ***
Side Note:
The Life Force is sometimes referred to as Orgone Energy on this planet
as per the research of one Wilhelm Reich in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.
Wilhelm Reich was a natural scientist originally connected with the
pychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud.
Reich's research into sexual disfunction revealed the actual presence
of the Life Force in the pranic aura (called by him "surface charge"
on the skin) during sexual arousal. (He measured this using electrodes
attached to the skin of people as couples, er, you know, "did it".)
Later in his career he connected low charge in the Life Force to the
occurance of cancer in patients (which he called "the Cancer
biopathy). He was working on a cure for cancer that involved
directing more Life Force into patient's bodies through the use of an
"orgone accumulator".
He was jailed by the FDA for being a "quack" because it was so
unbelievable to those in power in the 1950's and he died in prison
without ever completing his research.
Nowadays, the accepted treatment for cancer just happens to make many
people a quick buck as they sell you an "magic elixer" (now
conveniently relabeled a "prescription") that does little in the way
of an actual cure.
Meanwhile there are true stories of miraculous remission of cancer
(one quite famous to poker players) that nearly always involve the
patient suddenly developing "a love for life and a will to live", but
that's a different story. (My pet theory is that love for life opens
the chakras and in flows the life force, but you'd have to believe in
chakras to buy that explanation.)
As I was taught by mother, a head labaratory technician for Group
Health for nearly three decades, it used to be that the chemotherapy
was so poisonous that it would kill you.
Now it's just a lot of prolonged pain and suffering and you can
actually hang on for quite a while. The bills mount quite
conveniently, but those that do it honestly believe they are helping
you.
Ha!
Out of fear of dieing, many unfortunate souls accept these
chemotherapy treatments without realizing the true barbarity of them.
Personally, I'd rather be leached like in the Middle Ages.
True Story:
I was in a bar once and overheard a conversation between two couples who
had just returned from skiing. It seems one of the men had been knocked
down by exhuberant youths as he got off the ski lift and he had broken
his leg!
He was complaining about the utter lack of consideration of these
people.
The other man, his friend, was kidding him about how he, the
complainant himself, always flails his arms when he gets off the ski
lift and has hit others and nearly knocked them down many times over
his long skiing career. The man complained vehemently that he had
never hurt anybody and that it was completely different.
Given my Buddhist leanings, I just couldn't help it; I just had to
butt in: "But all those minor instances added up into this one bit of
retribution to teach you a lesson? Don't you see it? It's karma?"
The man laughed at me and said: "Karma is for the weak-minded."
To which I nearly responded: "Maybe that's why it keeps happening to
you."
But that would have started YABF (Yet Another Bar-Fight), so I bit my
tongue and just kept my mouth shut.
True Story and Obligatory Seahawks Reference:
Late Saturday night, my friend, Fat Pat (who I met playing poker in
public cardrooms in the Seattle area), pulled the alarm at the Westin
Hotel so that the Dolphins wouldn't get a full night's sleep.
God, it's good to host a playoff game.
tvp
PS: The Sabian Symbol for the Degree of my Ascendent is:
"A master instructs his disciples."
Wierd, huh?
Carolefarm
(one quite famous to poker players) that nearly always involve the
patient suddenly developing "a love for life and a will to live", but that's a
different story. (My pet theory is that love for life opens the chakras and in
flows the life force, but you'd have to believe in
chakras to buy that explanation.)>>>
As you probably know Tad, there is a new type of medicine in the healing
community called energy medicine. When I began to study astrology and
metaphysics, I noticed that some people in the field that I met had a kind of
vitality. Even though they were in their later years and many times not
specimens of physical beauty, they still had a zest for life. So I wanted to
learn more about that.
Astrologers are very odd in that even though there are great differences of
approach within the community, there is still a sense of community, a community
-- in a sense with and without walls.
In ones personal life, however, one needs to build walls or boundaries for self
protection. If someone tells you differently, try this experiment. Ask them
out to lunch and as you are talking during lunch, begin pushing your silverware
over into their side of the table. See how they react. That tendency to
create boundaries is pretty instinctual and part of nature.
Sometimes people will come to you and ask you to tear down the walls or they
will ask to enter within the walls you have built for various purposes.
Sometimes they will tell you that it is to your advantage for them to enter.
It may well be or it may well not be. Only you can decide that.
On my wall at home, I have a series of eight photographs of paintings done of
the chakras. They are hung vertically. A yoga teacher I knew acquired them on
a trip to southern India in Pondicherry in the 70's where he was studying at
the ashram of Swami Gitananda. He made friends with a
certain woman there who was a painter and he asked her to paint them for him,
which she did. Here in the states he kept these prized possessions in storage,
but agreed to let the husband of a friend of mine photograph the paintings.
This friend gave prints of them to me in exchange for an astrology reading.
Later, I had them framed and they have been with me since.
After that time, I tried to find information about the chakras (or wheels) and
I have also used them as a point of contemplation. Trying to understand what
they were and where they came from.
The way in which people build up and contain their energy may be very crude and
very primitive. For example, if one defeats an enemy, it may give one a
"charge." But there are social implications, if one does that. Also, if there
are only two people who fight - it appears that one will win and one will
loose. But that, of course, may be where illusion begins. Still, it can be
pretty grim if you are the one with the black eye.
There are ways to build up energy that are less drastic, but always at issue in
our daily exchanges in life is this change of energy. That is really what
economics is all about. If I let you into my space, will I have enough energy
to deal with you or you with me. If I don't let anyone in, I may be able to
maintain my energy, but .... it can get pretty lonely. I may try to create an
even exchange or develop a system in which there is a heirarchy and an uneven
exchange. And there are a lot of questions you can ask about this. To the
extent that one is not embued with the energy of life at any point in time,
then one has the opportunity to ask questions in hopes of getting to a place in
which one has enough energy to live and sustain ones life. There really is a
lot of that energy available and it is obtainable in so many ways. And as you
say, good health depends upon that.
Carole
Peter Hillyar-Russ
d.rad.washington.edu> writes
>I stopped posting here so as not to ruin this group as such issues
>could be very emotional for me. I could neither remain silent in my
>beliefs nor withstand the emotions resulting from the natural reaction
>that would occur when I would take a stance.
>
>Also, despite the moderation of this newsgroup many (most?) of its
>participants are not at all ready for what I was attempting to
>present--which is the complete and unadulterated truth as I see it.
Tad,
Whatever - I still miss the insights into astrology that your
postings gave me, and still want to read more.
Sure, on some topics, you can make the short hairs on the back
of my neck bristle..... (But we have seen worse than your postings).
But your astrology - that is always worth reading. It may be
because you are a real Master of astrology, that, on this subject, you
can instruct disciples, and show greater sympathy for, and understanding
of, the disciples' comparative ignorance. Perhaps, maybe, (I stick my
neck out here) you know enough astrology to know how little you will
ever know.
But, please, Tad, continue to share your wealth of astrological
learning with us in this group.
--
Peter Hillyar-Russ
doovinator
in their lives, though not on the same schedule. The same lesson one
person learns at fifteen another learns at fifty (check the aspects!). I
also think the master is only the master in one area of his or her life
and never in all. We are all the master to someone and the student to
someone else.
As a teenager I went to Hollywood for a summer with a moderately
successful actor friend of my father's (you may have see him play
Clarence Earp on the Andy Griffith show) who knew Eastern philosophy,
which has been of great interest to me since I was very young. He was
indeed knowledgeable and provided me with a LOT of insight about the way
I had been living; indeed for me at that point he was the master and I
the disciple. He told me at one point he could make it rain, which I
didn't really believe, but driving through Death Valley on a roasting
summer day I told him I wanted to see him do it. Within half an hour we
got a tiny little rain cloud which followed our car along the road for
twenty miles or so--the sky was clear and sun shining within a couple
hundred yards to every direction; the rain overhead and overhead only,
and following the car. I was very impressed, and eventually learned a
few tricks of my own.
A few years later he needed psychiatric treatment. He went competely off
his rocker, and had lots of personal problems I'm not going to detail.
He became a disciple of a completely different type of master (but
eventually came out all right).
I think it's always that way. Sometimes, you can even be master and
student to the same person (I think a lot of good marriages are like
that). We learn from where and whom we learn from, and no one has ALL
the answers. That only comes from within, by fusion of a whole.
DJ