Jan F. Brouwer containment thread

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Jan F. Brouwer
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Jan F. Brouwer containment thread

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:11 pm

Note to the admin. This thread contains posts from the writer Jan F. Brouwer. All my posts are contained in this thread with the intent not to overcrowd the board with new threads.

The topics of this thread are diverse, but mainly concerned with mysticism, religion, philosophy, science and spirituality.

Jan F. Brouwer
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Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:06 pm

Approximations

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:13 pm

We cannot know our true being. We can only know the manifested objects of our being. Since these objects are impermanent, fleeting, temporal, -both in our mind, as in the the world surrounding us-, no sure knowledge can be found on them, only provisional knowledge, getting as good as it gets.

Though our Supreme State in itself is unknowable, we may see and know the workings of it, its emanations, both in our body/mind, as well as in the world. Our Supreme State reflects in us its wisdom, its love, its bliss and goodness. We can see it in the world also, in the beauty and the love of all that surrounds us.

However, since love, wisdom, beauty and goodness are also objects of being and not Being itself, they are, like all objects of manifestation, flawed, provisional and impermanent. They too are within the realm (dream) of duality. The more we approximate our being, the more solid our love and goodness becomes. But as long as we are in this body/mind our love and wisdom will never be perfect.

Jan F. Brouwer
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Peeping through the whole

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:15 pm

When we see a circle, we tend to miss its midpoint. We see only the periphery, only the space within the periphery. But the tiny spot whence the circle originated escapes our notice.

The same with our self. We see only the periphery: the outside world surrounding our self. We see only the inner space of the circle: all the mental objects floating on the screen of our consciousness. But that tiny spot, that little spark of light, from where our whole existence originates, we completely overlook.

There is a little hole in the paper of our self. Put it to your eye and through it you'll see a magnificent world of light that escaped your notice. Via that little midpoint we can reach our true home.

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Post by swetha » Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:20 am

moved to spirituality forum

Jan F. Brouwer
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Getting out of the way

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:27 pm

When the mind is in pain and suffers, it seeks a solution to get out of its misery. It goes on a quest for happiness. This quest wearies the already weary mind even more. Happiness now becomes so crucial to us that we cannot relax anymore. We are now unable to sleep. We cannot sit still and do nothing. 'Do something!', the mind says. 'Make me happy!'

This restlessness and sleeplessness of our weary mind eventually leads us further down the road of depression. Brooding over our brooding makes us brood even more. We cannot turn our mind, so desperately searching for happiness, down.

This is all a waste of energy. We will never succeed in finding happiness with our mind. So the first thing to do, -to stop wasting our energy-, is to give up seeking answers with the mind and totally accept the fact that we are in a poor condition, right now. This acceptance and embrace of our suffering will, in a natural way, give us the energy to recover.

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Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:18 pm

"For, after all the efforts of the soul, it cannot by any exertions of its own actively purify itself so as to be in the slightest degree fit for the divine union of perfection in the love of God, if God Himself does not take it into His own hands and purify it in the fire, dark to the soul." ~ Saint John of the Cross

Indeed, the mind can only to a limited degree be of use on our spiritual Path (eg. in setting up beneficial preliminaries and conditions for the mind to relax and open up). But eventually we are to be cleansed of our imperfections by the Darkness of meditation. This can only be done by surrendering to the Divine. The deeper workings of our enlightenment are beyond our control. Here trust, faith and surrender are needed, and eventually even their negation, because the enlightenment process, in its later stages, totally transcends the mind.

Jan F. Brouwer
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The new Satan

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:40 pm

We must take heed not to turn 'mind' into the new spiritual Satan of the twenty first century. In many modern books about religion and spirituality 'mind' is set on a par with 'ego' as the psychic entity par excellence obstructing our religious experience. Both 'mind' and 'ego' are believed to make us callous and impervious for the higher, postrational and spiritual Truth to enter our souls.

There is some ground for saying so. Often a too intellectual, highly critical (discursive) take on the world bars out our subtle enjoyment of life's (spiritual) riches. We all know living specimens of such persons, who brood daily over their personal philosophies, becoming more and more depressed with every thought they have, the Camus-es of this world, who end up craving for suicide as the result of the over-activity of their mind. Here 'mind' is indeed a kind of spiritual sickness: the more tensed and depressed we are, the more we think and use our mind. Here 'mind' is more or less the cause of our illness: we suffer because we think too much.

But 'mind' can also be used in a more positive way, as a tool to help us find solutions for the problems we face. It may also help us in assessing the spiritual insights we have. It's also our mind that informs us about the value or non-value of the spiritual teachings and books we come across.

In the beginning -before we start to improve spiritually- all we have is our mind. Let's make well use of it. It may eventually lead us to the 'no-mind' and the 'beyond-mind' of enlightenment.

So 'mind' is -like so many things in spirituality- a paradox. It both obstructs and opens. It is both a Satan and an Angel.

Jan F. Brouwer
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Enjoying the mystery

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:19 pm

“The 'Beyond-being' does not refer to a some-thing, since it doesn't posit any-thing. […] It merely indicates that It is 'not that'.” ~Plotinus Enneads V.5.6 11-17~

We cannot say about God that It is 'this or that'. It is not like anything we see or feel with our senses or understand with our mind. In our mystical practice this entails that we refrain from speaking about the Ultimate Source of life. We cannot know if It planned the world or made some Intelligent Design for it, nor started the process of Darwinian evolution, nor any such thing. Religion should refrain from trying to answer these questions.  These questions are for science to answer (as their objective value is concerned).

God is not ID nor evolution nor life force or anything. It is beyond all that. We make God poor and small when we reduce It to such qualifications.

This is not to say that the Divine is utterly unknowable. We may detect the workings of the Divine both in the world surrounding us, as well as in our selves. The immanent God, the God as It reveals Itself in this world, we can know by looking at the world or by looking in ourselves, trying to detect Its qualities. But what God is in Itself remains for all ages to come a complete mystery.

Religion is one of those mysteries in our life that make us ecstatic without us fulling comprehending the reason why. We enjoy music and art without knowing what music exactly is, without knowing how it succeeds in making us so happy and ecstatic. The same it is with love and other enjoyments of the soul.

All this makes the word God superfluous. We can enjoy the mystery without naming the mystery God.

Jan F. Brouwer
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Being free of God

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:00 pm

Fundamental principles build up a sort of tension blocking our enlightenment and happiness. It may be compared to risky behavior we are trying to avoid by responding to it with 'I'll never have sex again', or 'Ill never drink again' or 'I'll never eat American hamburgers again'. These fundamental principles, conversely and paradoxically, drive us into the arms of the unhealthy behavior we are trying to avoid. The allurement becomes greater when we resist too much (example: the Southern States of the US, having the strongest views on God and marriage morality, show the highest rate of porn consumerism).

The same it is with principle views on God. In this case it becomes 'I believe in the God I believe in', which is altogether something different from 'I believe in God'. In the first case we think we know who or what God is, turning him/it into an unalterable principle.

When I enter my prayers or meditations with preconceived notions about what or who it is I'm coming back to, I close myself out of precisely what I'm seeking. I tend to miss it, because 'God' is always bigger, greater and stronger than anything I might conceive of.

Turning God into a principle is to miss it altogether.

"Pray God that we may be free of God" ~Meister Eckhart~

Jan F. Brouwer
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Die before you die

Post by Jan F. Brouwer » Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:37 am

Our attachments makes us suffer. We feel there must be something in this life of us that makes it worthwhile to invest in it. There must be something in it for 'me'. But all the while the process of life is impersonal. It doesn't care much about us, the John and Mary we are, as long as our biological needs are met with food, shelter and propagation.

These needs are easily met for most of us. So w
e do not suffer so much biologically as well as psychologically. We expect too much. These expectations makes us cling to life, like the donkey cannot let go of the carrot dangling in front of his eyes.

Stepping back from these expectations and desires first feels like a kind death. But when we have grown accustomed to merely watching without the 'what's in it for me?', we feel we enter a new life of tremendous freedom.

It's fear of this psychological death that prevents us from being blissfully free.

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