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alchemy
September 2008 
A Common Thread
Posted on Mar 10th, 2008
by 
pRiMaLeVe
pRiMaLeVe
A man with a curio shop was trying to sell to a female tourist what he described as "a very important embossed-metal picture of the Last Supper". I stood riveted to the spot when I heard her say, "What's so wonderful about the Last Supper anyway, now if you had a picture of the First Supper, that might be something. Besides, when is the Last Supper?"
~ Idries Shah
The Way of Transformation
The huwo/man who, being on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers her refuge and comfort and encourages her old self to survive.
Rather, she will seek out someone who will faithfully and exorably help her to risk herself, so that she may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it, thus making it a "raft that leads to the far shore".
Only to the extent that one exposes herself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within her. In this lies the dignity of daring. Thus, the aim of (spiritual) practise is not to develop an attitude which allows one a state of harmony and peace wherein nothing can ever trouble her. On the contrary, practise should teach her to let herself be assaulted, perturbed, moved, insulted, broken and battered, that is to say it should enable her to let go her futile hankering after harmony, sucrease from pain, and a comfortable life in order that one may discover, in doing battle with the forces that oppose her, that which awaits beyond the world of opposites.
The first necessity is that we should have the courage to face life, and to encounter all that is most perilous in the world. When this is possible, meditation itself becomes the means by which we accept and welcome the demons which arise from the unconscious, a process very different from the practise of concentration on some object as protection against such forces.
Only if we venture repeatedly through zones of annihilation, can our contact with Divine Being, which is beyond annihilation, become firm and stable. The more one learns whole-heartedly to confront the world which threatens one with isolation, the more are the depths of the Ground of Being revealed and the possibilities of New Life and Becoming opened.
~ Karl Gras von Durkheim
This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing Persons, recollect
the Snow-
First-chill-then Stupor-
then the letting go-
~ Emily Dickinson
~ Idries Shah
Dido - Dont Leave Home
The Way of Transformation
The huwo/man who, being on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers her refuge and comfort and encourages her old self to survive.
Rather, she will seek out someone who will faithfully and exorably help her to risk herself, so that she may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it, thus making it a "raft that leads to the far shore".
Only to the extent that one exposes herself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within her. In this lies the dignity of daring. Thus, the aim of (spiritual) practise is not to develop an attitude which allows one a state of harmony and peace wherein nothing can ever trouble her. On the contrary, practise should teach her to let herself be assaulted, perturbed, moved, insulted, broken and battered, that is to say it should enable her to let go her futile hankering after harmony, sucrease from pain, and a comfortable life in order that one may discover, in doing battle with the forces that oppose her, that which awaits beyond the world of opposites.
The first necessity is that we should have the courage to face life, and to encounter all that is most perilous in the world. When this is possible, meditation itself becomes the means by which we accept and welcome the demons which arise from the unconscious, a process very different from the practise of concentration on some object as protection against such forces.
Only if we venture repeatedly through zones of annihilation, can our contact with Divine Being, which is beyond annihilation, become firm and stable. The more one learns whole-heartedly to confront the world which threatens one with isolation, the more are the depths of the Ground of Being revealed and the possibilities of New Life and Becoming opened.
~ Karl Gras von Durkheim
This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing Persons, recollect
the Snow-
First-chill-then Stupor-
then the letting go-
~ Emily Dickinson
Access: PublicTagged with: The First Supper, spring, thaw, melt, water, flow, imitate, snow, Hour, of, Lead, gray, crystallization, letting, go, spirituality, journey, regeneration, becoming, opening, five, presence, stability, Ground of Being, Don't Leave Home, trust, faith, swim, stream, practise, discipline, focus, integrity, third, solar, hora, chakra, sun, light, Light, day, east, East, Idries, Shah, story, storytelling, photography, International, Day, Women, The Way of Transformation, transmutation, alchemy, healing, healed, healer, Dido, Life for Rent, music, video, divine, divinity, love, life, heart, centeredness, green, nature, meditation, conscious, unconscious, courage, process, love what you find, find what you love, homeostasis, Karl Gras von Durkheim, Emily Dickinson, quotes, quotations, timelessness, bridge, blue, express, cleanse
I llove that top image … Ascension.
what I long for :-)