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Post by a on Mar 2, 2005 6:19:19 GMT
Middlepillar I am off thinking, but let me offer these specific comments just now you could be a great Mason but as in everything by the fact that you could be great you also could be a complete disaster. I wonder if you have any idea how many hours I have spent on ethics and responsibility once I came to appreciate the duality of life? You are however correct in your statement here.You are of course assuming that I have not been able to find a way to do such work directly. Which is one of my concerns. From the little that I understand about esoteric societies I do fear that some may feel a little insecure when they come to realise how much of esoteric theory I know is real. There is still much for me to learn, and a lot more that I need to refine and test. But having just started to read esoteric books with any seriousness, I can tell you that there is a lot of truth within their pages. Some of it however still goes over my head. I just wonder what the head of an esoteric society would think if I were to sit in front of them as a candidate and really pour my heart out. I have done this before I realised that it was esoteric, and that was an interesting all afternoon meeting but now that I know, I do just wonder. From some of the correspondence that I have received, I suspect that some have known this about me long before I did, while others appear from their words to be frightened. Baffling. Anyway Middlepillar, thankyou.
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Post by taylorsman on Mar 2, 2005 8:41:02 GMT
Stewart, Middlepillar has put it very succintly indeed, far better than I. I also await with interest your revelation on your 40th Birthday, (Is it soon?) . What ever you do I wish you well.
As to the need to be a Member of anything to follow Esoteric teachings, does a person have to be a member of a Church to be a Christian? There are many who are not. Being in an Organisation does give one many benefits and enables sharing of knowledge but also of necessity brings with it restrictions and rules etc.
Good Luck!
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Post by a on Mar 2, 2005 9:32:12 GMT
Taylorsman
Indeed.
I will make a post by the end of this month, could be the start of a new year for me. That is the trouble with the big four zero, life is suppose to begin then, or so they say. You will however understand my reluctance to post on the web my precise date of birth. If you want to do some kabbalistuic numerology on it or anything, email me and I wil confirm it.
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staffs
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Post by staffs on Mar 2, 2005 15:08:20 GMT
Stewart,you are reading too much into the "life begins at 40" bollocks.
A mid life crisis is more propbably the reason you feel the way you do.
On my 40th Birthday i had my interview for Freemasonry but apart from that it was just another day.
You will wake up on your Birthday and realsise that nothing has changed and that you have to Get over it and get on with it,
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Post by leonardo on Mar 2, 2005 15:21:24 GMT
Anyone who's seen my photo will know it my external work that needs taking care of ;D I agree with Lee about the 40 age crap. I'm 47 in two week and feel brilliant. I did not wait until The person who brought up this "life begins at 40" nonsense should be shot.
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Post by a on Mar 2, 2005 15:31:24 GMT
Staffs
I appreciate your bluntness, and you may be right about the mid life crisis.
And yes you are right my birthday will just be another day. Its significance here is that it is on that day that I gave myself to decide what I was going to do Masonically and in life in general. As it happens I made my decision ages ago. What you will see from me after that day is a re-focusing in how I go about doing things, both in relation to freemasonry and in how I am involved with the wider world.
Just remember it is my crisis, I have worked hard for it, and I am going to enjoy it.
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Post by staffs on Mar 2, 2005 16:58:51 GMT
Stewart,enjoy it please. i enjoyed mine ;D
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Post by Seeker on Mar 3, 2005 1:52:11 GMT
Anyone who's seen my photo will know it my external work that needs taking care of ;D If you plan had been to live fast and die young to make a good looking corpse - I am sorry your plan didn't work:o
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Post by leonardo on Mar 3, 2005 12:40:39 GMT
If you plan had been to live fast and die young to make a good looking corpse - I am sorry your plan didn't work:o What plan? This is all down to Nature
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Post by a on Mar 3, 2005 14:20:43 GMT
What plan? This is all down to Nature And you think that Mother Nature does not have a plan? Oh dear.
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Post by leonardo on Mar 3, 2005 15:30:48 GMT
Well Stewart all I can say is Mother Nature's plan sucks
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Post by a on Mar 4, 2005 7:11:53 GMT
Whistler
Just to let you know that I have not forgotten about responding to your points, but you really have given me so much material to work with, that a full and proper response will take time. Internal Work is not always quick, as I am confident that you will appreciate.
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Post by taylorsman on Mar 4, 2005 10:10:42 GMT
Sorry Stewart, maybe it's just me, and I don't mean to mock in any way but your phrase "Internal Work" still invokes to me the ideas of "Inner Cleanliness" which were the obsession of the Victorians and Edwardians and even up to the 1950s as evinced in adverts for patent medicines such as "Andrews Liver Salts" "Beecham's Pills", "Syrup of Figs" etc, also the idea of "Mens sana in corpore sano" of the English Public Schools with cold showers, cross country runs, team sports etc.
Now the idea itself is not that strange, the Marxists have the concept of "Constructive self-Criticism" and the Roman Catholics have "Examination of Conscience". Neither idea appeals to nor is practiced by myself but I can understand the principle involved. Would your "Internal Work" be similar to these better known practices?
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Post by a on Mar 4, 2005 10:37:28 GMT
Steve
Would you believe that I have just written a short piece on internal work and its importance to us all as individuals, and to the structures in our world like Freemasonry, the Churches, the Martial Arts, etc, and to our world. Even mentioned illuminati within these structures, though not in the sense commonly written about, so please dont start thinking about NWO type stuff as that is not what I mean. Anyway I finish my internal work paper (1st draft anyway) and immediately check this forum to find your post. Freaky.
At its simplest, it is about looking at yourself. The decisions and choices that you have made and the situations that you have been in.
You need to look at the good and the bad, but lets focus on the bad here (but don't forget the good for balance is ever so important). Pick a decision that you once made which you now in some way regret, it doesn't matter how small.
Think about why you made the decion when you did, what influenced you, what your emotions were. Would you want to make the same decision today? If not, would you actually fall back on what you know and repeat the decision, or would you hope that you could battle through and make a better decision this time around? What would you do to make yourself be able to make a better decision should such a situation present itself to you again? Could you then do what is required to aid your personal evolution?
This is just one way of looking at it.
If this internal work is neglected it is difficult to evolve. And it is so easy to make excuses, and excuses just lets darkness grasp hold. But once you start doing a lot of internal work, and it is very difficult to start doing properly, then it really is quite illuminating.
Another way to look at it, is your ritual. Full of moral messages. It is easy to read and (not so easy I bet) to memorise. But what does memorisation and rote regurgence do for (the phisophical) you? What would happen to (the phisophical) you if you really thought about each of those messages, and actively worked hard to incorpoarte them into your everyday life?
If every Freemason (or church member) [works slightly differently in Martial Arts] did this with real thought, imagine how much more respected and in effect more powerful Freemasonry and Religions would be in our world today?
Everyone has the material, God has provided us with numerous sets of tools to help us work and shape that material and come to know ourselves. One key to this is Internal Work.
I have done this the hard way, through trial and error, making mistakes and learning from them. What saddens me is that we have been provided with tools (if we can find and access them) to help people do these things, but they seem to be so neglected in our world today.
Does that help?
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Post by taylorsman on Mar 4, 2005 12:37:17 GMT
I can see this being a very dangerous Pandora's Box to open. We all have our good points and our bad. The ratio varies, those with a preponderance to good with very little evil can be considered Saints, e.g Mother Teresa, Father Damien, Albert Schweitzer, Archbishop Oscar Romero, to name but a few of very many, others biased in the opposite direction are considered villians, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Fred West, but most people are fairly mid line in my experience neither good nor bad. I have only met one person in my 52 years whom I would consider truly wicked.
Now what I have found is that too much introspection can lead to all sorts of emotional and mental problems. How many people who now have to take anti-depressants or are in asylums or even commit suicide were affected by looking too deeply inside themselves and not liking or being able to handle what they found?
At best such excessive and gloomy introspection can lead to a loss of self confidence, depression, demotivation . I certainly did NOT join Freemasonry as form of psychoanalysis, I have very little time for that sort of thing.
I feel we are given the strengths and weaknesses and have to cope as we can with Life and make use of the tools we have or make. Now"Internal Work" may be the solution for some, it works for you Stewart, but I would no sooner indulge in this than pick up a discarded syringe in a car park and prick myself with it. I feel it is just too dangerous a procedure for all but the most stable personalities or under the guidance of some well trained and experienced person be that a psychiatrist or a priest etc.
To be blunt I prefer to face Life with my eyes and ears well open and looking outwards at what is approaching for good or ill, not with my head stuck up my own anus!
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Post by Trinityman on Mar 4, 2005 13:41:10 GMT
Stewart,you are reading too much into the "life begins at 40" bollocks. A mid life crisis is more propbably the reason you feel the way you do. On my 40th Birthday i had my interview for Freemasonry but apart from that it was just another day. You will wake up on your Birthday and realsise that nothing has changed and that you have to Get over it and get on with it, Chuckle ;D Actually, life begins whenever you want it to. The sooner one realises that, the better.
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Post by a on Mar 6, 2005 12:19:03 GMT
Bill
Would that be:-
1. You choosing to incarnate? 2. Joining Freemasonry, which I understand that some call being alive as opposed to being in the world of the dead? 3. When you decide to live as opposed to just riding along life? (Stewart awaits the inevitable innuendo here). 4. Something else?
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Post by taylorsman on Mar 6, 2005 13:30:07 GMT
I can't follow his line either Stewart For me I suppose "Life" began on Tuesday 1st February 1972, which was when I started my first day of independent life away from my parent's home in Glasgow to move down here to Reading. Although my 18th birthday hade been in August 1971, I really consider my Adult Life as to have begun on 1st Feb 1972 and I celebrate it as "Personal Freedom Day" every year much as former colonies have their Independence Day. Since then there have been good times and bad, all part of the great learning curve which really only ends when one either dies or loses one's mind which is to me tantamount to the same thing. Other people have their own ideas on this, perhaps this might be an idea for a new thread, "When did LIFE begin for you"? Care to start it Stewart?
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Post by staffs on Mar 6, 2005 20:58:13 GMT
good Question Steve .
have to have a long hard think about that one.There are several episodes of my life when one might say that is when it begun but to be specific ??
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Post by staffs on Mar 6, 2005 21:04:07 GMT
Stewart you may even find that life begins at 40 again and in some way it does and it does force you to evaluate wher you want to be at a later stage in life.
A very good friend of mine always tells me that we should be constantly evaluating our life and our business and that we should project where we want to be with such in 3,5,7 years ,And NO he is not on the square.
These evaluations are constantly affected by events and we need to be aware but for some people they are more than happy to just go with the flow and if this suits them then that is fine.
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