SUN of God?

[Etznab]

Look at 9:00 minutes into the video.

https://youtu.be/FbkQjIeJFec

Is it just conjecture, or something true?

[Etznab]

So it looks like this natural phenomena was anthropomorphized and personalized by numerous cultures.

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/anthropomorphize

And somehow, in the first few centuries A.D. the Roman Empire allowed people to follow the new Christian religion. (Didn't Rome fall shortly thereafter?) And that religion bestowed upon Rome a new empire. The Holy Roman Empire.

This is very curious to me. The idea that something agricultural, or important to farming communities would took on the symbology of a man, or the Son of God. However, by far, what is more curious to me is the fact that people who did not believe so much of the symbology literally (or would not believe it) were often tortured and even killed as a result!

It's no wonder there were the Dark, or Middle Ages in Europe (after they all converted, or started converting to catholicism?) and a time when the average person was forbidden to own, or read a Bible. Is this how the Kings went about controlling all the many people living in the city-states? Or did they just really admire the Sun so much that they wanted to BE the sun?

Light and dark. I wonder. Was it acted out like a play that people then watched for amusement. I mean How did it happen that people lost sight of the natural phenomenon and replaced it with a symbolic and fictional one?

It was only a few years ago when I learned about the parallels between al of these Sun Gods and the seasons of the year.

Speaking of Sun Gods ...

"Many men have become gods and many gods have become men. But the Mahanta is the living Light, in the tradition of the ancient sun gods of Asia."

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.religion.eckankar/LY2buFu8FdQ/uzPNFDmb3XAJ

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.religion.eckankar/sB6HsKSvogQ/RInTcGvy6WEJ

I believe that quote was from The Spiritual Notebook, by Paul Twitchell. In the index for the 10th Printing 1983 edition one can find an entry for "Sun-Gods of Asia" pages 23, 145. The quote I illustrated was from p. 23. The quote on p. 145 is similar, but adds more. It lists a number of the God names mentioned in the video link.

So here I like to ask some of my favorite questions. Did Paul Twitchell always give information about Eckankar history based on what an unbroken lineage of masters said? Or did Paul Twitchell often use hand-me-down words gathered from books? along with recycled information such as you find on the Internet today? (as if some Bot Army had launched so many bytes of information to serve out a personal agenda?)

Recycled hand-me-down information from books and various authors, complete with personal politics, prejudice, preconceptions, religious slants, fictions and lies, etc., etc. IMHO is hardly equivalent to wisdom handed down by word of mouth since the time of Gakko on Venus through an unbroken line of living masters!!!

Tell it like it is is what religions could probably do better to gain more members instead of a shrinking church where too many young people today (and via the Internet and scientific discovery now) can see right through the fabulous stories that might have worked so well to fool people in the past. In fact, I already see this happening in a lot of the progressive Christian churches where people are not expected to believe all the stories literally, but regard them as metaphor, etc. I wonder. Is Eckankar on board with this trend?

It seems that religions today (including Eckankar) that have a male leader to serve as God's representative (whatever) can only go so far with reforming and telling the truth. Because revealing truth about the "Godman" component could probably sink the battleship for a number of spiritual teachings and churches. It would take the power away from a single man and institution / corporation / religion and give free reign to the average person to make up things to their heart's content. But maybe this was the REAL purpose for a spiritual leader, or a church to begin with. To control the wild wanton beliefs and imaginations of the masses. To measure out sacred wisdom to initiates when they were more mature and ready for it.

Something happened on the way to Heaven? Are those lyrics from a song? I don't remember.

[Etznab]

No. That's not Paul Twitchell :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0soY3Dk6QI

[wernertrp]

9:00 von der Aufhebung der Schwerkraft träumt jeder Physiker.

[fife]

Oder entscheidet, dass es Seelenreisen ist.

[Tisra Til]

On Sunday, December 2, 2018 at 7:43:32 AM UTC-6, Etznab wrote:

I think telling it like it is would not be a good thing for Eckankar, because of the emphasis on initiations as signs of a person's psychic and spiritual growth, rather than the ancient view that humans are part and parcel of the cycles of nature, and no spiritual master is really needed to understand this. I do believe that in ancient times astronomy AND astrology were taught - probably in a mystery school, or whatever they called it back then. Initiates were given the secret knowledge about universal nature, and their place within it. The Sun of God and Son of God myths were probably part of pre-Christian civilizations around the world. Those "in the know" probably understood these to be metaphorical or symbolic images and tales not to be taken literally, while the masses may have taken the images connected to the ideas literally. I think the Roman Church likely knows these levels of knowledge - the symbolic and the literal - and has used the literal levels to subjugate and control a large portion of humanity for centuries.
People are starting to wake up, but there are still millions out there who are dyed in the wool believers of the literal translations of their holy books (or spells).

[fife]

Yeah. Initiation.

There's a book that's been around for 45 years called Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by a Tibetan meditation master now deceased. It's a series of lectures he gave in the fall of 1970 and the spring of 1971. One of the chapters is "Initiation". That's preceded by the chapter "The Guru" and followed by the chapter "Self-Deception".
Essentially the whole book is about ego and self deception. On the part of students, on the part of teachers, on the part of anyone trying to clear up the confusion in their mind.
Anyhow, these are a few sentences from the chapter "Initiation".

"It really seems worthwhile to be cynical in this regard. People would like to receive initiation: they would like to join the club, receive a title, obtain wisdom. Personally, I do not like to play on people's weaknesses, their desire to get something extraordinary."

"Who is deceiving whom?"

"There are so many different titles to receive. Do these names, credentials bring any real benefit? Do they really? Half an hour's ceremony does not bring us to the next stage of enlightenment..."

The message of Eckankar today - and what has been the message for a long time - is be nice, be good, be kind. And with a lot of stories to support that. Well, you can't really argue with that. My problem with it is that's all it is. No one really knows anything and they don't really care that they don't really know anything. They like what's on the menu and that's it.