Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tl00192)

In message <3467EAA6.4E62@dmv.com>, Vincent Beall <vincent@dmv.com>
writes
>when we divide anything into parts it can always collapse
>into an infinite regression which defeats our understanding of the parts
>themselves. We really have only our experiences to reflect on
>ultimately, which makes the mystery of mysteries an explanation of what
>the substance of our sensations is. It is all Yesod, in otherwords, and
>made transcendental in Kether. What is the substance of blue, hot, cold,
>or the fragrance of a rose? These are experience; a rose is a rose, is a
>rose.

Hurrah for Gertrude Stein ...
>
>Notwithstanding, my take is that the roses are the sephirot. So please
>describe your understanding of spirit. If we experience spirit as having
>qualities then isn't structure implied? How do you deduce this structure
>and with what system of words? Why isn't soul synonomus with being?

>From The Teaching:

Understanding is awareness in consciousness.
Knowledge is consciousness.
Knowledge is Being.

Understanding is recognition through awareness.
Knowledge is recognition AS.

The key to understanding is awareness.  There are degrees of
Awareness.  At some times we are more aware than at others.

The key to knowledge is understanding.

Knowledge is consciousness. Understanding is awareness in
consciousness.  Because of this the first step toward knowledge
is awareness of consciousness.  This is the highest degree of
awareness.  It is Self-awareness, for we ARE consciousness.  Many
people, some of them teachers of others, confuse Self-awareness
with Self-knowledge.  I am aware of the cat, but I am not the
cat.  If I KNOW the cat, I AM the cat, and I am at one with God.

True knowledge of this order is very rare, but we all have some
part of it at some period of our lives, so that we shall
recognise it, through awareness, when we meet it again.  This is
a paradox, for such true knowledge is Being itself, is "I Am."

We are born knowing, but unaware.

If you seek to know, then seek to understand.  If you seek to
understand, then seek to be more aware.  If you seek to be more
aware, then look about you at what IS, for what IS is Being, and
Being is Knowledge.  All this if, and only if.

In Spirit is consciousness.
--------------------------

AB