...to link and to bind...
The Web is full of "spiritual" messages channeled by many
well-intentioned but often deluded workers. Authors enjoy the
freedom to present their views without any editorial review or
censorship. This is a good exercise of freedom of expression and
provides a most useful test of discernment among the viewers and
consumers of these channeled messages. However, only experienced
souls are able to fully discern the true facts in the midst of
glamorous claims and misrepresentations of the Good, the Beautiful
and the True.
To guide us all in the art and science
of spiritual discernment, the following practices are suggested
(adapted from
--Esoteric Psychology II, pp. 572-73):
- Look for a spirit of true humility in the messenger.
Humility has been defined as an "adjusted sense of right proportion."
True spiritual messengers always hold inclusive viewpoints.
- Look for internal and external consistency in the message
itself. True spiritual messages are always part of a much wider and
deeper Divine Plan. Refuse to accept any message which sets its
recipient apart as a special individual or group (Messiah complex).
- Look for freedom from emotional appeal. Be ever mentally
polarized, using the mind as the rational ruler of the emotions,
and as the gateway (i.e., sixth sense) to the world of spiritual reality.
There are many sources of these messages: 85% emanate from the relatively
nice, well-trained subconscious nature of the recipient; 8% are impressions
from the soul, which are translated into concepts and written down
by the personality; 5% are teachings given by a senior or more
advanced disciple on the inner planes to a disciple under training (the criterion here
is that nothing, literally NOTHING, will concern the recipient's personality, nor will they contain platitudes of the recipient's religious background);
and 2% are true communications from a Master to disciples (Telepathy, pp.75-77).
In summary, "a true contact with the Hierarchy and the true
accolade of service carries with it the conviction of the existence
of the many servers in the one Service, of the many messengers
carrying the one message, of the many teachers of the many aspects
of the one Truth, and of the many and various ways back to the
Heart of God."
Suggested Internet Sites
A group is mathematically defined as a set of elements (i.e.,
individuals) joined by an associative binary operation (i.e., love)
such that:
-
ALL interaction within the group, as defined by the associative
binary operation, is part of the group. That is, the group is
hermetically enclosed within the bounds of a common and freely
agreed group purpose. Individuals are wholeheartedly pledged
to that purpose.
-
The freedom and responsibility of individual identity ("I AM")
is essential to the group purpose.
-
Group identity ("I AM THAT") is the dialectic synthesis of
complementary and reciprocal elements within the group.
The associative binary operation assures the existence of a
reciprocal complement for each and every element in the group,
and thus balance is attained.
-
Individual identity and group identity converge ("I AM THAT I AM"),
and "we KNOW, as we are known". Identification with Reality
becomes possible (i.e., "knowledge through identity"): to truly
know is to love deeply.
The binary operation which defines a group is associative when the
order of the elements in any interaction, as in service, is
irrelevant to the group purpose (as long as the group purpose is
attained, of course). This associative attribute adds a functional
egalitarian quality to balance the inherently hierarchical structure
of group
formation. This associative attribute is also the basis for shared
leadership in a group once stifling tridimensional concepts of
time-and-space "order", of "greater and lesser" have been
transcended.
THOTh, last revised 15FEB98