Thoughts

It's not a search. It's a practice.

Perhaps the key insight of Jungian psychology is that mental illness is not a purely individual phenomenon, but that it is a manifestation of much larger imbalances within the culture and the psyche of mankind as a whole. In other words, schizophrenics are, in some sense, the scapegoats of a culture which clings tenaciously to it's own superficial certainties, refusing to confront the contradictions and questions bubbling up from it's own depths; they are the receptacles of all the psychical garbage which has been denied and has yet to be dealt with in the culture. It may even be that they are the aborted saints; the ones who, in their "dark night of the soul", received no shepherding, but were given up as madmen, when in fact they were the chosen of God.

In order to know one thing, we must be ignorant of many things, and in order to know God, we must be ignorant of all. In meditation, opposites dissolve; past and future have no place. There's no thought of incompleteness, or taking action for any purpose. This is the way to samadhi. But this is not a philosophy for living in the world. (In the world, good and evil do not cancel each other out.) Observe it in meditation, and for moments throughout the day when detachment is needed. The sages did not attempt to apply this teaching to all aspects of life.

A teacher wants a student,
no less than a student wants a teacher.

The greatest teaching is "how to be a student".

I need to see myself as more of an artist than a sage. I am not a sage. I may want to express pure truth, but I can only express the obscure visions of my process, my confusion, my questions, and the mysteries that yawn like so many wild abysses on all sides. I straddle a thousand thresholds, describing the visions I see within. And trying not to block the way.

The two faces of a stained-glass window reflect the two faces of virtue;
for they obscure the world outside, while revealing the kingdom within.

Compassion cannot arise in a heart that sees only good. The will is paralyzed. We cannot do good if we think God has it all in hand, and all suffering magically produces good by itself. We must have a genuine experience of horror, in order to respond with compassionate action. The Magician doesn't make way for the blind, circling will of many gods, but makes himself an instrument of the One.

By the will of God, the angels are revealed to the prophets. But magicians must exercise their own wills, through the practice of ritual concentration, to accomplish the same results. A prophet who is also a magician is rightly called a master, for to him is given not only the ability to perceive angels without effort, but to manifest them as well.

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the soldier is the one who paves it; for he is the epitome of misdirected service; the one who murders his family, and believes he has defended his home. For all his courage, fortitude, and faith, he hasn't the sense to know when his very virtues have become weapons of the devil.

The saints are not above us, by any means. But our ceiling is their floor.

It's always been the case:
They can lock you up for being interesting.

Delusions of candor.