Theos-Talk Archives (October 1998 Message tt00005)

Jerry & Dallas wrote:
>
>
> >All selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature
> >[personal mind] before its divine state of contemplation and
> >impartiality can be reached.  So long as the smallest selfish or
> >personal desire - even for spiritual attainment for one's own
> >sake --  remains, so long will the desired result elude and be
> >put off.
>
>
> This sounds like the requirements for Crossing the Abyss.

I submit further that it simply can't be done. Selfishness is the
defining characteristic of the personal nature. To be conscious in the
personal vehicles necessitates experiencing the mayavic illusion of
separate individuality, the human experience of emotion, passion,
thought and identification as "one (multiple) among many". Eliminate
that and the personal individual is no more than a pretender with a
messiah complex. Buddha taught that "Right Desire" was part of the Noble
Eightfold Path and that desire for enlightenment was just such a "Right
Desire." It's a double bind. If you try to be spiritual for the sake of
others, but don't include yourself, you are subtly proud. If on the
other hand you try to be spiritual for "All Mankind's benefit," but
imagine that to exclude your own self, you're delusional.

The true union is something else.

> >The process of evolution up to a conscious and voluntary reunion
> >with the Divine [ in understanding and thought - which does not
> >erase the individual in any way ] includes a successive elevation
> >from rank to rank of power and usefulness.
>
>
> Why do you think that the individual is not erased in any way?
> What about the dew drop sinking into the sea? What about
> Buddhist anatma?  I think our individuality is purely mayavic.

The "spiritual" union that preserves individuality happens at the level
of the Causal Body. The higher initiations eventuate in the dissolution
of the Causal vehicle.

Mark
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