Just thought I'd pop in, and throw something around, because well, I haven't done it in a while. I want to ask a question, and I want to hear opinions. Some of you may answer, some may not, but if your eyes cross this I would implore you to at least have an answer in your head even if you're not willing to share, which is actually what I would like.
Before I start I will harp on something that Jesus said in the bible, and I don't care if you have, haven't, or don't care to read the bible or even if you put stock in the bible, it's not the point.
Jesus said in the bible that people should "take up their cross daily."
Much much later another man says that "he strives to die daily."
Here is my question: How do you think these two things relate to each other?
and a second part: What could this mean to you and I as a general practitioner of magick?
(these are not questions I need answers to, this is something I wold just like feedback on from those willing to ponder on some thoughts that may just be worth having>)
"take up their cross daily."
Could be given several/many meanings, but I believe it means to hold true to your faith daily and share knowledge of your faith daily.
"he strives to die daily."
Simply suicidal, as far as my interpretation goes this has nothing to do with the first quote. Unless of course this guy was told to get close to Jesus and rather then bonding emotionally he took it literally and is now trying to die so that he can get to heaven and be with Jesus. I think that's just a little bit twisted though.
Death implies change and individuality if thou be
THAT which hath no person, which is beyond the
changing, even beyond changelessness, what hast
thou to do with death?
The bird of individuality is ecstasy; so also is its
death.
In love the individuality is slain; who loves not love?
Love death therefore, and long eagerly for it.
Die Daily.
I assure you it's not suicidal, and I don't believe he is even speaking of physical death.
(by the way if I could turn back time I would go back and take away so quotation marks in my early post...I was kind of inebriated when I made this post, but I think I still know what I was thinking. lol)
To carry your cross implies to not only acknowledge your faults, but to carry the burden that comes with the beliefs you hold. Carry the cross that people who do not understand your beliefs have put you on and do so gladly.
To die daily, I think, means at the end of the day...admitt to being nothing in the grand scheme of things. Be whatever lable you wear doing in the day, deal with what you need to..but at the end of the day, realize you are nothing.
How do they relate to magick?
We carry the cross's society has put on us. We can choose to do this, no one makes us. But to whole heartedly believe what we beleive and be comfortable with who we are, we must carry our cross's.
Die daily? Yes...we as magick practitoners can manipulate energy or pray to our god/dess for the ability to do things...but at the end of the day..the energy will always be there and we are nothing with out it. We are not the powerful ones, the energy that has always been and will always be is the greatness.
I think I've said " at the end of the day " enough here lol
"very little experience on the mystic path will show him that of all the impressions he receives, none of them is true. Either they are false in themselves or they falsely interpreted in his mind.
There is one truth and only one. All other thoughts are false.
And as he advances in the knowledge of his mind he will come to understand that it's whole structure is so faulty that it is quite incapable, even in it's most exalted of moods, of truth.
He will recognize that any thought merely establishes a relation between ego and non-ego."
"take up their cross daily"? In my personal opinion means our conscience. Every one should carry their own mistakes own their own, because no one can feel some one else pain or vice versus (even as an empath is not the same as feeling it at first hand). My problems are for me to resolve, because I cannot carry the problem of others but my own. I am not sure if I am making myself clear. "he strives to die daily." As my interpretation goes, it means that every time a new day starts, one is not the same person from yesterday. So the old version dies in the past, and the new one comes forward and by the end of the day ones dies again. In another words, if you keep living the same, deducing that nothing new was learned. So, to "strive to die daily" is to be born once again.. new knowledge obtain.. a new point of view has being born. Both sayings are metaphors of life, one implies our guilts, sorrows, dislikes, etc.. and the other implies satisfaction within every single day, living to the fullest as if there was no tomorrow because there isn't.
This two questions relate to each other quite well. No matter what one did in the past one cannot change it, but can get better each time. This will helps carry the "cross" and be born once again or rise up from the pit. The cross can either get heavier or lighter. If one dies at the end of the day, by the next day, one is born again with a new cross to deal with.
As a practitioner, this means that I should learn from my mistakes, and not let them drag me but to keep on going because there is not much I can do about the past, but so much of what can be.
I like this because these are two very different people, perhaps even contrasting people depending, people from different times, telling us essentially the same thing.
Indeed, acknowledge your shortcomings, ( but only to refine them), but the most important thing we are being told, is to sacrifice ourselves.
I suppose this could mean different things to different people, but I believe this to be talking about The seventh level of consciousness. Samadhi.
perdurabo, again you pose such questions as to stir peoples minds and hearts ;) the concept of dying daily, is something i strive for daily, it is only in allowing your own self to let go completely that we can truly experience with our whole soul and not be "boarded away" from he world by ego and paradigms. to take up your cross at execution, was your time now to reflect on your sins, your final walk to death, to look at the value of your life and face your end. again, to daily assess your life and see your faults and strengths, face death openly and bravely knowing your sins and repenting for them and then "die" only to open your eyes with a second chance to do better. isnt this something we should all try to achieve, wouldnt this help us all be better people?
i know i often harp on ego death but this essentially is what it boils down too. through ego death we have a chance to let go completely into something (light, dark, plants, our planet, the universe, yourself, your partner, even into energy centres) and we dissolve into nothing, and so we touch everything in that element. and in opening your eyes you have understandings and realisations of that experience, and so we learn more about it. if knowledge is power, and ego death allows purity of soul and complete understanding of all things, isnt it your greatest tool?
