Apech

I think the best way of putting it is compassion as skilful means.

Sounded like concussion - compassion to me LOL.

like m & m's, mmmm. you mean the real Slim Shady? will he please stand up.

Best wishes and good luck to you. Thanks for everything you have done to keep TBs going.

Can I drive it like an Italian?

@cat ... thanks very interesting.

You're right ... I haven't bought a red car and there are no red cars outside my house. Baffling.

Has appeared in the picture .... looks ominous is it a portent of doom????

They close their eyes as well ... all is peaceful and we have a nice trip.

I think I'll save that for a discussion on alchemy in the Hermetic sub ... seeing that my attempts to discuss Theurgy have met with an overwhelming silence

The philosopher's stone.

I was just thinking that you could make the strongest chain in the world with non-duality links.

If his views were 'soundless' we wouldn't hear them .....

I have had an admittedly very quick look at this document and would say from the parts about Britain that there is a level of misuse of statistics (which always need interpreting anyway). One point, which is pretty obvious I suppose, is that if guns are in the criminal community then gun control doesn't work. Only law abiding people bother with licenses and so on. I'm not saying that's an argument either way just a fact. There has been an influx of guns into Britain over the last couple of decades for various reasons mostly relating to organised crime ... this is why the level of gun related crimes has risen. In fact you could if you wanted just use this in a straighforward way to say more guns in the community = more gun crime ... which is fairly obvious. The issue with Scotland is an outlier statistically as there must be specific conditions in Scotland which make the gun crime so high on the graph. Otherwise the countries with gun control do generally have less gun crime but there is no straight line correlation ... on the other hand you could argue that those that allow more guns don't suppress crime as much as you might expect (including the USA). I would think that the fact is that the US is starting from a different place to other countries (where the numer of guns are fewer) and with a different political/cultural attitude. So the solutions ... the strategies to combat shootings may well have to be different. Where there is only a small criminal minority who carry guns in a community then by bearing down on the numer of guns generally available and cutting off supply it might be possible to make everyone safer. But this would not work in a country where there are already a very large numer of firearms in circulation. I think the US needs to get out of the highly emotive and politicised stances taken by both sides of this debate to find its own unique solution. Start by defining the problem ... what is it exactly that makes people go into schools on a shooting spree ... what psychologically/socially and so on are the defining factors and so on. Then design a solution which targets these causes.

Thank you. V interesting but the article was very badly written and mixed concepts of temperature ... see the comments on the article for the general confusion ... which was a shame.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91083019@N05/8387534570/ Can any one tell me who this figure is and/or read the inscription.

Thanks!

My last post magically disappeared ... So again we all have three part brains reptilian, mammal, human. http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_05/d_05_cr/d_05_cr_her/d_05_cr_her.html

...

I think its going to eat the guy doing tai chi ... unless that eagle gets it first

I love to listen to Icke ... just because he questions everything. Some of his conclusions are a bit suspect ... well ok very suspect .. but i don't care ... he's on a journey and I like to listen. I know he talks for hours ... some on youtube and I've watched bits. Only downside is he kept goal for Coventry City which can't be a good thing.

This is just a few thoughts to kick start a general discussion on Theurgy. If possible can we stick to the subject and help each other develop a shared understanding of this important theme in the Hermetica. I am not claiming any exclusive knowledge or understanding so feel free to disagree with what I say if you wish >>>> If the best description of reality given in the Hermetica is Spirit which is 'one and all' … then we can say that the Hermetic view is that all is Spirit which is unified (one) in the sense that there is nothing other than Spirit and all in the sense that everything is a precipitate of Spirit. Spirit itself is a word connected with breath (as in aspiration) and denotes energy or power which is its own 'prime mover' … energy which does work, which changes, develops, transforms. The connection with breath is important and well known to anyone who practices qi gong. So perhaps we can best describe reality as a field of Spirit, a field of energy, which precipitates the sense objects we perceive and is thus that which 'lies beneath (or above)" our ordinary experience of life. We can say that things, objects, trees, houses, people and so on are nothing but Spirit in a certain place and behaving in a particular manner. Of course Spirit itself exists in ways far more subtle than the sense world and so we we can think of 'levels' at which Spirit is more a more closely attuned to itself. That is more freely responsive to its own inner movements than in its grossest expression in the form of sense objects. At a high level Spirit exhibits its own essential qualities as what can be seen as intelligences or the essential energies which arise from it and thence pervade the cosmos. These are the gods. Here we can find a link from Hermeticism to the pagan Ancient World. The pagan philosophy of the ancient world, far from being the superstitious nonsense that it is sometimes characterised as was actually what some have now called Polycentric Polytheism. That is the idea that the universe is actually composed of many powers (gods) all arising from and linked by the Spirit which is "one and all' or 'one and many'. The Ancient Egyptians for instance saw the world as being composed of gods, or the souls of gods (which they called Neter - a word which means concealed power). So the sky is the soul (ba) of the goddess Nut. In the same way we could say that the universe is the product of and suffused by the field of Spirit and that the primary vibrational functions of that Spirit are the gods. In addition there are a myriad of actual and potential spiritual entities which the Spirit in its pure creativity pours forth. Deities of place, natural features such as trees, lakes and so on, as well as a hierarchy of possible vibrational activity between the 'highest' or most subtle and the 'lowest' and most gross. By the rule 'as above so below' it is possible to invoke through correspondences these entities and intelligences. As with the other rule 'as without so within' to activate potentials within oneself for greater wisdom, abilities and powers in harmony with the Spirit. Obviously there are dangers in invoking disharmony and harm. Hence the focus on proper preparation and procedure in all the works of the masters.

I don't think so. if people post about reated subjects not strictly vedanta I don't think anyone would object ... unless of course its Alwayson just making trouble as usual.

And the Pit is below.

I suppose Vedanta is a bit narrow ... but since I'm taking it to mean anything Vedic then that vaguely covers anything that popularly goes by the name of Hinduism ... though you could argue that some parts of this are not actually technically Vedic. Of course this is only a problem if people stay on topic ... which I think has happened once or twice in the history of TBs.