In Reply to: Re: But since you asked me a direct question...guess posted by MG on January 05, 2010 at 15:56:17:
I spoke of Eckhart primarily or first in mind (Donohue occupied himself with him apparently...just before he died...and Tolle too!?!)...because I had read one book of /about him on my journey...long time ago @40 years and I still remembered, that it talked about emptying yourself...until I found it again similarly in the wiki-article...now how are you going about it...emptying yourself?...of all the rubbish?...meditation/blocking comes most people to mind...which of course I tried to practice at that time..
I was in my searching years getting more & more into the esoteric world and of course in Berlin you had then & now shops, furnishing you with what you "think" you could "need" , try and use.I remember getting this book about the runic alphabet...the author claimed, that by using the runes as a an illustration how to position arms body and legs, you would kind of become like an antenna for whatever he claimed was in the alter spheres...it sounded ok with me then, since I knew from physics, that your body indeed can serve as an antenna as many probably anyway have found out in times of bad reception with the miniscule antenna provided by the producers...any way...I didn't really practice that, you had to go to some hill...I think it was suggested...of course "reception" is better often on a hill...and may be a certain time was suggested...forgot...let me guess now: midnight
Taken from:
When I preach, I usually speak of detachment and say that a man should be empty of self and all things; and secondly, that he should be reconstructed in the simple good that God is; and thirdly, that he should consider the great aristocracy which God has set up in the soul, such that by means of it man may wonderfully attain to God; and fourthly, of the purity of the divine nature
The 19th century philosopher Schopenhauer compared Eckhart's views to the teachings of Indian, Christian, and Islamic mystics and ascetics:
If we turn from the forms, produced by external circumstances, and go to the root of things, we shall find that Sakyamuni and Meister Eckhart teach the same thing; only that the former dared to express his ideas plainly and positively, whereas Eckhart is obliged to clothe them in the garment of the Christian myth, and to adapt his expressions thereto.
– Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. XLVII
leads to??
didn't read all of that...wanted some further info regarding Thor and druids...because of the "holy" oak Boniface fell:
Musicians I listened to which "linked" me to the middle ages...so to speak...just to show...I am not ignorant of the "feel" of it...Celtic and other stuff...
The Pentangle - A Maid That's Deep in Love
High Germany - Pentangle (1972)
(I am not sure, if I ever heard that song before...but just to show...what else "they've got")
Ougenweide - Merseburger Zaubersprüche
(though I don't think, that listened to that particular song of that group then...just using it as example...which groups I favoured)
Before I entered university I had finished reading the Bhagavad Gita...funny enough as a Nazi-time translation I had gotten in an antique bookshop
I had talked to the Hare Krsna/ISKCON disciples frequently on the streets...before I joined (with 20)...I had several books and records of them...I tried to cook/eat according to macrobiotic viewpoints with a short attempt of being a vegetarian....and one of their credo was: everything is maya...illusion....fine...to some extenxtent, I would say nowadays.
I had also made myself a pendulum after the description of a book and tried to pendel relationships...using a letter I had from a French girlfriend ..which I met in Israel working together in the same Kibbuz...the "swinging" intrigued me..."funny enough" I asked the pendulum later, whether I should go to the "poorboy-club" of COG or to visit a rock-concert together with a friend at Saturday night/evening....blame it on the pendulum and my stupidity, that I went and stayed for @ 16 years...although a rock-consert is also not the best of choices to me now.
I hardly ever missed an Indian concert in town...was half in "trance" after all the metamusic-festivals...featuring also Terry Riley...hadn't I joined TF...I would have been somewhat "lost" in some ashram...in India or elsewhere...I actually enrolled in a course in archery...because I was fond of Zen-Buddhism and I also took flute-lessons, buying a flute etc after I was really thrilled about Paul Horn's recording in the Taj Mahal
Paul Horn
Paul Horn - Potala Palace
Rainbow in curved air etc.
Terry Riley
I don't like necessarily this proverbial saying/use...been there done that etc...but.. I was though a bit a "Jack" of many (religious) trades...master of course of none....I haven't experimented with all of what I heard of others...but I'd say it was enough...enough to never wanting it back...those were my formative years, where my search was the most intense...like the saying goes: we couldn't search for HIM, if HE hadn't found us already....I knew something was waiting for me somewhere, but the search was quite a lone struggle at times...friends, I knew had hardly much to contribute...all we knew was, that the visible world couldn't be all.
one of my credos has been..I don't have to reinvent the wheel...nor do I have to understand all the details of the incompletenesstheorem...I don't have to scale Mt. Everest to prove anything to me or the world...the first-time-ever-position is anyhow occupied.
For me it's enough to know what some experts say along the line...I didn't try much drugs...because it didn't work with me...the little I tried... and I knew enough sad outcomes
T.i.I. apparently didn't like my
"marketing-comparison"...but what applies to this world has often similarities for the spiritual affairs/world...if I am a happy customer/consumer...I won't change the brand...I don't need to, by my own "free" will
The beauty of the Bible is, that marriage with a man/woman of "our"/parents/God's choice is likened to getting married to Christ
now being betrothed...and this has nothing to do with the horrible LJR...rather with some of the Song of Solomon...Genesis and Ephesians etc....I am absolutely thrilled about the parallels in marriage ceremonies of the east with this analogy.
To come to the point:If I am super happy with Jesus, why would I need any other mate/spouse/lover???...spiritual speaking, that was what the OT prophets "rambled" about a lot...Israel/Juda going awhoring after other gods...now mind you...which loyal angel would take away of the glory of God???....for Christians it leaves only the interpretation...that if people aren't happy with Jesus, then they got attracted by some satanic counterfeit...in the garden, there was no intervening on God's side...HE let Eve/Adam talk "it over" with Satan...now if lust/desire is so strong, that you disobey God...then you have to bear the consequences...an alternative could have been...could be now:dear God, take away this lust/help me to overcome it...so that you can resist Satan and his devices.I know it's always easier in theory.
Anyway, with all my personal satisfaction, having had immediate peace and love, when I did that prayer in the middle of town in Berlin...my Buddha-biography under the arm then...the growing knowledge since then...that there is only one Jesus who fulfilled that many precise prophecies...besides giving us an outline of world-history....and I did have it very good withh HIM in almost 35 years...so why would I now have reasons to leave HIM...for what???What offer??...but the same question I would like to ask you or any other who left that initial love & relationship...why???
I tell you, MG...I have been...I am ashamed to share that...plenty of times very mad at God...for my twisted roads in life... after TF...I would have liked it better/different at times...if I had it "my way"....but ultimately I knuckle under...believing that my heavenly father knows indeed best....and the praise and honour and glory belongs to HIM...no matter what I think "could have been wonderful or better"
Very good book to read IMO: