Tharien
May 5th, 2004, 04:07 PM
A term i losely give to my path, i do not know its roots but i remember hearing it as a path based on Balance and the idea that good and evil are simply concepts of the human mind in an attempt to defien the world around us. My path is centerd around 5 tenets, and i like to call this 'The Path of The Shadow' in referance to the idea of Balance and good and evil.
So i thought i'd share a bit of writing of mine which is an overview of my path i have developed over time.
I'm still young on my path, being 17 and on my spiritual journey so to speak for about 3-4 years now so any comments/opinions/disagrements are welcome as all are a part of learning and growing.
So here is the overview of the 5 tenets, Balance, Awareness, Wholeness, Perception and Perspective, and the Indefineable (God/Tao/Magick/The Force/Whatever)
Balance
Balance tends to be confused as equal amounts of light and dark, good and evil, but to the Shadow this is not so.
The shadow does not concern him/herself with the concept of good and evil when talking about balance and realises that everything just 'is'.
So what is balance then? It is just there, it is the natural flow of life, always balanced in itself.
Balance can be divided into Inner and Outer balance, though in essence there is no division.
Inner balance is the balance we find within ourselves, what one could call the balance between Mind body and spirit.
These things are always balanced, though people can sometimes describe these as being out of sync with each other this to me seems not the case.
The realisation of all these working as one then can lead to there development, and by development all I mean really is simply to become more aware of them and how they operate, after all if we learn how to do something, say write with a pen, we first become aware of how to use a pen, then we try it ourselves and with practise we become more and more familiar with the way writing with a pen works, and I feel this is the same for all types of learning including spiritual.
Outer balance comes from inner balance, once we realise this balance in ourselves, we become then aware of the balance all around us, as it is said we must first understand ourselves before we can understand the world around us.
These two concepts of balance are as one, which I like to call ‘Wholeness in action’, the flow of the greater whole.
Awareness
This is simply being aware of the self and our surroundings.
For us to be able to learn anything, we must observe it, if we wish to learn about emotions, we must become aware of the self and observe them. But to see something for what it truly is we must look at it objectively, and this important to the Shadow, seeing things as they truly are, though one can never be 100% objective the Shadow becomes aware of his/her own perceptions and perspectives, bringing them closer to objectivity.
"You will find that the less time your mind spends defining things, the more time it has to be aware of more things."- Unknown
Wholeness
This is the realisation that everything is connected to everything else.
The Shadow must take into account all parts of his/her being and accept them as whole, for example: To embrace happiness and deny anger would not be the way of the Shadow, we acknowledge the presence of both in our lives.
Wholeness to me is the result of realising the previous 2 tenets, when we accept balance and become aware, we then realise and embrace the whole.
Perception and perspective
These I feel link in with Awareness, becoming aware of your own perceptions and perspectives.
Perception is the way things come to us, we all view the world differently, this is how things appear in our eyes, and perspective is what 'colours' it, how our past experiences of similar things affect the way we see these events.
Realising this helps us towards objectivity, and helps us become more aware of the self, if we realise we have these perceptions, we can open our mind to wider views and opinions wile still holding to that individuality that most of us hold dear, and it gives room for a change in opinion without harm to a persons sense of what they believe in.
A person who is truly aware of the self can accept the possibility of them being wrong, yet doest disband there views in an instant if a strong counterview is presented.
Acknowledging your own perceptions is realising others have them to, and a counterview to ones own beliefs in effect can either strengthen or change a persons views for the better.
The Tao/God/Magick/The Force
These 4 things, all to me simply different names for the same thing.
Sometimes described as an energy, sometimes personified as a deity , however nothing truly defines or explains what it really is.
So what can I say about it, well personally I like the way it is described in Taoism.
“The Tao we talk about is not the real Tao, for the real Tao cannot be defined by words”
What ‘is’ simply exists, we cannot say what it is, we can only feel its presence.
“Words are for conveying ideas, and once the idea is understood, we forget the words”
So what is the idea I would try to convey, well in what I like to call the Force, lies wholeness, it is in everything and everything is a part of it.
This is the unifying, the idea that we are all connected as one is a concept in many religions and paths around the world, not much else can we say about this, as the idea itself is pretty simple, however maybe it is the comprehension of this idea that is more complex, of course try to imagine everything as one, yet in a universe were there is no end the idea of a ‘one’ seems to again try to define the indefinable, and this is were we must stop, or you could run about in circles with this, now after hearing this concept, it is important to now try to forget what is said, and feel what is.
The living force is another concept of this greater whole.
It is what I like to see as wholeness in motion, the balance that creates and sustains life.
This can be seen as the energy the universe is made from, the more definable aspect of what ‘is’.
Part of this can be things such as gravity and the electromagnetic field, along with the physical plane, life such as animals and plants as a flowing force existing in balance. The forces science looks to explain lie within the living force.
Both of these, the unifying and the living are two concepts of this greater whole, they are not separate from each other, however to get to a better understanding sometimes we must use the power of perception to look at these things differently, and ultimately coming to realise a more objective view of what ‘is’.
(btw The Force is a term for what 'is' that i've carryed since my early teens, coz i'm a bit of a Star Wars Freeak lol, but i've always liked the term so i use it, in the end it doesnt matter, as The Force is behond defenition)
So i thought i'd share a bit of writing of mine which is an overview of my path i have developed over time.
I'm still young on my path, being 17 and on my spiritual journey so to speak for about 3-4 years now so any comments/opinions/disagrements are welcome as all are a part of learning and growing.
So here is the overview of the 5 tenets, Balance, Awareness, Wholeness, Perception and Perspective, and the Indefineable (God/Tao/Magick/The Force/Whatever)
Balance
Balance tends to be confused as equal amounts of light and dark, good and evil, but to the Shadow this is not so.
The shadow does not concern him/herself with the concept of good and evil when talking about balance and realises that everything just 'is'.
So what is balance then? It is just there, it is the natural flow of life, always balanced in itself.
Balance can be divided into Inner and Outer balance, though in essence there is no division.
Inner balance is the balance we find within ourselves, what one could call the balance between Mind body and spirit.
These things are always balanced, though people can sometimes describe these as being out of sync with each other this to me seems not the case.
The realisation of all these working as one then can lead to there development, and by development all I mean really is simply to become more aware of them and how they operate, after all if we learn how to do something, say write with a pen, we first become aware of how to use a pen, then we try it ourselves and with practise we become more and more familiar with the way writing with a pen works, and I feel this is the same for all types of learning including spiritual.
Outer balance comes from inner balance, once we realise this balance in ourselves, we become then aware of the balance all around us, as it is said we must first understand ourselves before we can understand the world around us.
These two concepts of balance are as one, which I like to call ‘Wholeness in action’, the flow of the greater whole.
Awareness
This is simply being aware of the self and our surroundings.
For us to be able to learn anything, we must observe it, if we wish to learn about emotions, we must become aware of the self and observe them. But to see something for what it truly is we must look at it objectively, and this important to the Shadow, seeing things as they truly are, though one can never be 100% objective the Shadow becomes aware of his/her own perceptions and perspectives, bringing them closer to objectivity.
"You will find that the less time your mind spends defining things, the more time it has to be aware of more things."- Unknown
Wholeness
This is the realisation that everything is connected to everything else.
The Shadow must take into account all parts of his/her being and accept them as whole, for example: To embrace happiness and deny anger would not be the way of the Shadow, we acknowledge the presence of both in our lives.
Wholeness to me is the result of realising the previous 2 tenets, when we accept balance and become aware, we then realise and embrace the whole.
Perception and perspective
These I feel link in with Awareness, becoming aware of your own perceptions and perspectives.
Perception is the way things come to us, we all view the world differently, this is how things appear in our eyes, and perspective is what 'colours' it, how our past experiences of similar things affect the way we see these events.
Realising this helps us towards objectivity, and helps us become more aware of the self, if we realise we have these perceptions, we can open our mind to wider views and opinions wile still holding to that individuality that most of us hold dear, and it gives room for a change in opinion without harm to a persons sense of what they believe in.
A person who is truly aware of the self can accept the possibility of them being wrong, yet doest disband there views in an instant if a strong counterview is presented.
Acknowledging your own perceptions is realising others have them to, and a counterview to ones own beliefs in effect can either strengthen or change a persons views for the better.
The Tao/God/Magick/The Force
These 4 things, all to me simply different names for the same thing.
Sometimes described as an energy, sometimes personified as a deity , however nothing truly defines or explains what it really is.
So what can I say about it, well personally I like the way it is described in Taoism.
“The Tao we talk about is not the real Tao, for the real Tao cannot be defined by words”
What ‘is’ simply exists, we cannot say what it is, we can only feel its presence.
“Words are for conveying ideas, and once the idea is understood, we forget the words”
So what is the idea I would try to convey, well in what I like to call the Force, lies wholeness, it is in everything and everything is a part of it.
This is the unifying, the idea that we are all connected as one is a concept in many religions and paths around the world, not much else can we say about this, as the idea itself is pretty simple, however maybe it is the comprehension of this idea that is more complex, of course try to imagine everything as one, yet in a universe were there is no end the idea of a ‘one’ seems to again try to define the indefinable, and this is were we must stop, or you could run about in circles with this, now after hearing this concept, it is important to now try to forget what is said, and feel what is.
The living force is another concept of this greater whole.
It is what I like to see as wholeness in motion, the balance that creates and sustains life.
This can be seen as the energy the universe is made from, the more definable aspect of what ‘is’.
Part of this can be things such as gravity and the electromagnetic field, along with the physical plane, life such as animals and plants as a flowing force existing in balance. The forces science looks to explain lie within the living force.
Both of these, the unifying and the living are two concepts of this greater whole, they are not separate from each other, however to get to a better understanding sometimes we must use the power of perception to look at these things differently, and ultimately coming to realise a more objective view of what ‘is’.
(btw The Force is a term for what 'is' that i've carryed since my early teens, coz i'm a bit of a Star Wars Freeak lol, but i've always liked the term so i use it, in the end it doesnt matter, as The Force is behond defenition)