"Let us for the moment accept at face value that the Divine is personal. Ego is "the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world". If one celebrates the self and one's self is not separate from the divine, then - by the transitive property - one celebrates the divine. I have long objected to the degradation of ego and the self in many religions including the one in which I was raised"
The definition of the ego given above is true in conventional terms, but false in absolute terms. Adi Da would say that the ego is an ACTIVITY, not an entity.
That the sense of separation is just a CHARACTERISTIC of this activity, and that the sense of separation is essentially false, because the ego is an activity ARISING IN the Divine.
In these terms, the Divine is happening in various and sundry PERSONAL ways, filtered through somewhat contracted egos, and othertimes very contracted egos.
"I think that the core teachings of most religions (and certainly the most popular ones) are laid bare for all to see"
Yes, very true, the EXOTERIC Teachings. If you would like I can get and give you a listing of books that describe the
ESOTERIC Muslim traditions. You will see that these books are not mainstream titles.
"You suggest that I should change my own consciousness. To what?"
The ego wants to participate in a plan for the change of
its own consciousness and it wants to know what it is going to get to, and what it has to do to achieve that. Then it wants to know what it will lose in so doing.
In contrast, genuine changing of consciousness only occurs when the ego relaxes into its source light-energy, and allows itself to be used as an instrument responsive to the Divine impulse, WHATEVER that may be. That is a very different process than what the ego conceives. It is also not possible for the ego to do!
"The ideas you have expressed are - in my opinion - noble, but naive"
Torus, thanks for your good words. However, I am least double your age, and TWICE as cynical. Likewise, I have not found much value flowing from "philosophers". However, over 17 years I have TESTED what Adi Da says, through the most intense cynical appraisal, and I have not found ANYTHING
untrue.
I don't expect you to take my word for it. Nobody does. Everybody has to do their own Due Diligence.
You raise many more questions than I can answer now, but if you send me a PM with what is outstanding, I will do my best.
Namaste!
Jim |
