Established Marvel : a Monk by Abbreviation

THE MESSAGE ON 
THE JAILHOUSE LAWN:

‘Unless your faith is firm YOU shall not be firm,’ it said on the church-sign which announced a sermon or somesuch - (of course it was the same church outside of which the illuminated sign read ‘Thank God for Summer!’ as most people grumbled and swore about the 100 degree sustained heat and humidity – but so much for that). I thought that was a particularly BOLD and erroneous sign for such a place to present to its public, since, in its reality it would essentially bankrupt and make foul the very church which proclaimed it, in that  -  going back to previous points on the personal psyche and systems of belief  -  once the ‘me’ personality crosses its crisis point successfully and with awareness, other things begin to happen, and a person certainly would no loner 'need' the church. 'God' can be quite transformative you know. If they in that church only knew, I really don't think that sign would be up. Once the 'self' gets wind of this, you see, here's what happens : the focus personality tries to continue its expansion, while still maintaining its 'previous orientation' with the world (the 'Bob' we know), and to correlate its unofficial information in terms of its religious and cultural beliefs. At this stage they are usually trying to – for example – prove that their new visions are true in the world’s terms. And as another example, if they begin with – say – automatic writing which gives ‘extraterrestrials’ as its source, they might then try to prove that those beings exist literally, and they will be convinced that the ‘space’ people, rather then they themselves, possess the abilities. Or, if their reason then convinces them that such ‘space people’ do not exist in those terms, they throw the whole thing over in disgust and do not use this opening wedge to understand that the psychic events were important even if their clothing was symbolic. The initial psychic event is often dramatic or outrageous, in normal terms, simply to draw their attention. And it may be some great psychological undertaking – all art and colors and vivid richness – yet they still insist (the old them) upon judging it according to the most rigid true-or-false standards, so that such experiences, visions, or interior revelations, become bigger than the ideas of what life and existence are and are then refused.  At that pint, and because of it, many people then stay at the initial level, in a confusion and wonderment, and they try to interpret the events in a framework too small or still within their cozy religious or pseudo-scientific circles. Thus, talking statues, or weeping angels. Those circles, which, of course, will provide SOME freedom from the ‘official’ line of consciousness by allowing such psychic ventures. But only IF they follow certain set conventions characteristic of the group. BUT this approach then hampers the ‘personality’ from developing any further, and then -  if the 'latest unofficial data'  contradicts the ‘party line’  -  that person is ‘out in the cold’ again; so that many people – after some first and initial steps – become frozen in development,  and merely mouth the current psychic religious or pseudoscientific dogma. (Again I refer to ‘unless your faith be firm you shall not be firm’ a cheeky and deceitful canard). And the obvious and ready-made symbols of religion and pseudo-science  -  as a ‘fall-back’ position  -  are probably at least helpful to many people after this point, insofar as it may provide them then with a 'limited orientation' for inner activity and growth within ‘bounds.’ But, if the arrangement becomes permanent further, experiences are programmed too rigidly and such people never work through to the truly personal or original aspect selves hidden within. (And they become instead some semblance of the St. Theresa of Avila type – seeing EVERYTHING mystical through the church and Jesus lens).  These stages, left alone, merely mirror the aspects of the psyche being activated – showing themselves only and always in the characteristics and comforts of the personality involved, (again St. Theresa), and any‘latent’ creative abilities might then be personified as a muse for example. The person's normal, 'focus personality' might be presented with new skills or interests, but this personalized and tailor-made assistance of the psyche to the focus personality may not emerge if the rigid concepts continue to cloak the experiences.  These people more often than not are replete with the good and bad spirits of religion and myth and never take it past that point  :  the park-lawns and baskets of the homeless are filled with these types.
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Let’s not forget here any Dr. Chemist or the Scholar or a School-Marm trainee setting about to indoctrinate – after their own training is done – myriad others with the same stale information which has arrested their own developments. For the upper west side, NYC, right here is full of them and the monied and storied rich just above them often carry the same sorts of attitudes as those just below them and yet the selfsame sun which glows setting orange in the wide windows of the rich fronting the river is SOMEHOW the selfsame sun being shielded by the arm and the broken sunglass of the homeless and the unattached down there below.

5. MESSAGE TO MR. CHURCH:

 Dear Church : I noticed a sign on your lawn about being firm, and have written (just previous) a little bit about that - but what I wrote only takes it to the point of people who end up still believing in the basic structures and beliefs of the society around them anyway. YET now I’d like to entertain some further thoughts about those who – after illumination – take themselves well past your paltry signage. THE PEOPLE who can get PAST those initial stumbling blocks on their ways towards self-enlightenment end up literally worlds away from those who falter after that first step. In these people, the SELF, the ‘focus’ personality, becomes reassured enough to accept new data as a part of a greater reality in which the physical world is couched and it is ready for true self-fulfillment, which means identifying with portions of the psyche formerly considered 'Not-self' (the early needs for ‘death of the self’ only exist early on,  when arbitrary standards between the Self and Not-self still predominate. BUT THIS SOON GOES AWAY ! and the newer stage is the one interpreted in religious terms as the death of the self and the new birth – the death of the will or in other concepts of a similar nature – which concepts are actually quite distorted ones, unfortunately, for actually the new person learns that nothing works for it but the new orientation fully accepted, and this means that it expands and accepts its own larger framework and sees that nothing is lost and IN FACT the world is gained in a new way and this new stage can be a quick realization or a gradual trial-and-error process in which the focus personality fluctuates between the previous stages until it FINALLY receives enough momentum to break through. AND THEN the personality enters truly a new country – one in which the ‘me’ of me realizes that the assumptions of the official consciousness only apply at that level. Those assumptions are then dropped as valid descriptions of reality, and they are treated instead as ‘respected local ordinances’  -  and the seeming contradictions between intellect and intuition, good and evil, object and subject, vanish – these stages vary in time-length for everyone and they can be quick or they can be long – but overall these are the stages through which we each come to psychic maturity. That's where Art comes from, and Creativity, and the daring needed to create.

To one extent or another they take place in each person regardless of culture – as they represent intuitive revelation and assimilation (ancient civilizations once provided mobile groups of guidelines as symbols but our society tries to stifle things at this point by staying with the primitive and early first stage) and an entire world and culture is formed around a very specific and limiting and local area of consciousness and this level (dear Church) is particularly disadvantageous because its assumptions are made to seem to be the only criteria for reality since any ‘unofficial’ data that would show alternate patterns is discouraged and scoffed at  -  and of course the ‘local’ winners accept all that and prosper very well within the confines but OTHER stages of consciousness immeasurably fill out usual reality – adding depths and nuances not generally perceivable and they provide their own kind of evidence [these are natural stages experienced to some degree by everyone and beyond them are stages of ecstasy almost impossible to sustain in ordinary living and they are the mark of the mystic stage the dynamic dance of the dervish perhaps.
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I feel that is the TRUE meaning of ‘unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm’ and it has NOTHING to do with the church or its message – which is by comparison restrictive and limiting and encumbered by stipulation and demand. I guess what I'm saying is, there are no halfway measures, and  -  dear little church and church signboard in the woods  -  be careful what you proclaim, for you may very well come to regret it. True belief leaves organizations behind.
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