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Session 37 Overview – Working with the Word cultivates a sensitivity to what the process is, and of our acceptance that we are in it. (12 mins)
And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, and let them serve Jehovah their God; knowest thou not yet that Egypt is perishing? And Moses and Aaron were brought back unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them, Go ye, serve Jehovah your God; who and who are going? And Moses said, We will go with our boys, and with our old men; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flock and with our herd, will we go, because we have a feast of Jehovah. And he said unto them, So shall Jehovah be with you when I let you go, and your babe; see ye that evil is before your faces. Not so; go I pray, ye that are young men, and serve Jehovah; because this ye seek. And he drove them out from the faces of Pharaoh. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt for the locust, and it shall come up upon the land of Egypt, and shall devour all the herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locust. And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the border of Egypt, very grievous; before it there was no such locust as this, and after it there shall not be such. And it covered the surface of the whole land, and the land was darkened; and it devoured all the herb of the land, and all the fruit of the tree which the hail had left; and there was not left any green thing in the tree and in the herb of the field, in the whole land of Egypt.
Exodus 10: 7-15
Transcript
It came up in the shares, the idea of the sensory coupled with sensitivity and its reference to what is green and just, the correspondence of that in terms of photosynthesis. You have the concept there of sensitivity to light in order to produce what is good and how it’s the falsities of the senses or a belief in the senses as something that can bring about what is of heaven, like, the cultivation of delight at that level, that actually closes off that sensitivity. So those falsities represented by the locusts … there’s this idea here of the need for the exposure of the quality of what’s active but unconscious now becoming conscious, in order that it can be dealt with. So that what is represented by the babe, young men, the old men, all those things that have to do with our understanding of the Lord, can be released from the bondage that those sensory elements have over them when they rule. So just again there was this reinforcement of the idea here that this is really an uncovering of what’s active not a ‘coming upon’ of something that wasn’t there before. It’s really just the unveiling of the condition and because it’s through being open and sensitive to what’s arising that enables what is of the Lord to be liberated from what is of self, and then that’s where the empowerment really comes to the fore.
So if you go back to the opening Arcana Coelestia 7651,
And Pharaoh’s servant said unto him how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go and let them serve Jehovah their God knowest thou not yet that Egypt is perishing.
This struck me as being like a voice that comes from within and it has to do with a reaction to what’s happening, you know, the struggle to get beyond what appears to be a hopeless situation when you’re dealing with what’s arising. So often that voice comes through as a voice of weariness and fatigue related to the process. So it’s reaching a stage where there’s this kind of like – “just get it sorted!” you know, like we experienced this periodically. So it’s really a reaction on the part of the proprium to the impact the Word or the light of truth is having upon the mind. And so being tied up in spiritual combats, going around and around through seemingly repeated experiences brings fatigue, and the fatigue arises because we are still identified with the thing that we need liberating from. But we’re seeing a bit of a shift taking place here.
So always fear and anxiety in the spiritual life is a sign that things are being loosened up, it’s actually a sign of progress not a sign of degeneration if you like, but it can certainly appear that way. And so, when that situation happens, what you have in the story here or the explanation for what’s being expressed there is that there is a fear, there’s fear underlying it. And of course, from a proprial perspective it’s the fear of exposure and loss and while we’re identified with that it’s a fear of the loss of my sense of self, of who I am. So, there’s this kind of hanging on for dear life. But fear also produces its own level of sensitivity to danger, to what it perceives to be dangerous. And that’s what this recognition is at the proprial level, is that it’s recognized that Jehovah is at work, that the Lord is at work here. But it can never actually give itself over or surrender to what is of the Lord. But it’s certainly in a state of recognising, there’s a recognition of the danger, and this brings about the presence of Moses and Aaron once again.
So the lifting out this is what’s happening in the Text right, like it’s the lifting out of the sons of Israel from being dominated and ruled over by what is lowest. And so the uncovering of the nature of proprium is such that it has to go to the very extreme because without that we will have excuses for it, until it’s actually seen for what it is. So what the Texts do is provide us with information about the condition, it’s like it’s a diagnostic in a sense. So it’s actually pointing out what the condition is. And one of the things that stands out about that for me is in the Gospels is the Lord constantly telling the disciples what is to come to pass and yet they are all wrapped up in their own agendas and ‘what have you’ around Jesus, if you take it on a more external kind of level, that they don’t hear it or they don’t comprehend it. And then it’s only in hindsight that they see what the Lord had said has actually come to pass. And so the Lord being the Word, the Text itself, is constantly laying out what is to come to pass but it’s not until it’s passed through that it is actually seen. And that is something that occurs as a direct result of engaging with the Word and being drawn in our work to where we need to be in that.
So not wanting to be a harbouring of discouragement but you might get out of Egypt, and you might get through the Red Sea…. but where are you right? There’s a wilderness to go through, then you arrive at Canaan and there’s a land to be dispossessed of evil and falsity on a deeper level. We all want it done and dusted but that’s not what life is about, it’s definitely not what spiritual life is about! So, I think what the Word brings us to is an acceptance that this is what life is about and the feelings of discouragement, and being hard on yourself, and all of that, arises because of our attachment. If that attachment wasn’t there to what is opposed to heaven, then neither would the discouragement or the frustrations or all of those what we term ‘negative states’. They just wouldn’t exist for us. But the fact that they are there means that on some level we really don’t want it done and dusted, we just want to be left in peace – but if we want to find peace we need to do the work, we need to go through the process. There’s no other way that the mind can be restructured then by going through the process.
And so, you know, we live in a world of instant gratification, much more instant than it has been in previous times and centuries. So we can take a credit card and go and get what we want even though we haven’t really paid for it. So that principle of getting things without having to make the payment is a falsity, there’s an element of a falsity in that. It’s faith alone. It’s an illustration of it, of being able to get what we want without having to pay for it. That’s the wish in a faith alone state is, ‘just give it to me now’ and let’s not worry about having to go through the process that actually brings about the permanence that’s required for the mind to take a heavenly structure, a heavenly form.
So we’re given the ability to make decisions and to progress through life and meet the effects or consequences of those decisions continually because that’s what builds a new will, a new sense of self, when that’s brought to the Word as the basis for our work. Rather than thinking I’m making a great decision, it’s really about, ‘look here is a decision and whichever way I go is going to offer work’ and that is what’s important. It’s the work that arises out of moving into a decision point and through it not the actual decision so much itself.
So if we take it in terms of a linear progression then the appearance is that things are getting worse. If you take it from a process perspective then what the understanding is, is that no, things aren’t getting worse, the infernal proprium was always hellish, it’s never been anything other than that but what’s happening is, is that it’s being uncovered. So it’s not getting worse we’re just getting to see it in more detail. And so the key is it’s about getting free. It’s about salvation. This is what it takes. It’s just what needs to happen. And it’s not that the Lord wants us to go through the suffering or any of that, but because of our attachment out of that identification with what is lower, that has to be dealt with, and it has to be broken. We have to willingly be prepared to give things up, to accept that what the Word says is true is true, that what our senses say is true is not the case more often than not. So these are the things that we have to give up and it’s all a series of small deaths, that’s our experience of it. But actually, all death is resurrection from a spiritual perspective, so it’s not actually dying – it’s being raised from the dead! That’s what’s happening to us as that new mind gets established within us as something that we actually begin to live from.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.
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And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, and let them serve Jehovah their God; knowest thou not yet that Egypt is perishing? And Moses and Aaron were brought back unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them, Go ye, serve Jehovah your God; who and who are going? And Moses said, We will go with our boys, and with our old men; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flock and with our herd, will we go, because we have a feast of Jehovah. And he said unto them, So shall Jehovah be with you when I let you go, and your babe; see ye that evil is before your faces. Not so; go I pray, ye that are young men, and serve Jehovah; because this ye seek. And he drove them out from the faces of Pharaoh. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt for the locust, and it shall come up upon the land of Egypt, and shall devour all the herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locust. And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the border of Egypt, very grievous; before it there was no such locust as this, and after it there shall not be such. And it covered the surface of the whole land, and the land was darkened; and it devoured all the herb of the land, and all the fruit of the tree which the hail had left; and there was not left any green thing in the tree and in the herb of the field, in the whole land of Egypt.
Exodus 10: 7-15
Transcript
It came up in the shares, the idea of the sensory coupled with sensitivity and its reference to what is green and just, the correspondence of that in terms of photosynthesis. You have the concept there of sensitivity to light in order to produce what is good and how it’s the falsities of the senses or a belief in the senses as something that can bring about what is of heaven, like, the cultivation of delight at that level, that actually closes off that sensitivity. So those falsities represented by the locusts … there’s this idea here of the need for the exposure of the quality of what’s active but unconscious now becoming conscious, in order that it can be dealt with. So that what is represented by the babe, young men, the old men, all those things that have to do with our understanding of the Lord, can be released from the bondage that those sensory elements have over them when they rule. So just again there was this reinforcement of the idea here that this is really an uncovering of what’s active not a ‘coming upon’ of something that wasn’t there before. It’s really just the unveiling of the condition and because it’s through being open and sensitive to what’s arising that enables what is of the Lord to be liberated from what is of self, and then that’s where the empowerment really comes to the fore.
So if you go back to the opening Arcana Coelestia 7651,
And Pharaoh’s servant said unto him how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go and let them serve Jehovah their God knowest thou not yet that Egypt is perishing.
This struck me as being like a voice that comes from within and it has to do with a reaction to what’s happening, you know, the struggle to get beyond what appears to be a hopeless situation when you’re dealing with what’s arising. So often that voice comes through as a voice of weariness and fatigue related to the process. So it’s reaching a stage where there’s this kind of like – “just get it sorted!” you know, like we experienced this periodically. So it’s really a reaction on the part of the proprium to the impact the Word or the light of truth is having upon the mind. And so being tied up in spiritual combats, going around and around through seemingly repeated experiences brings fatigue, and the fatigue arises because we are still identified with the thing that we need liberating from. But we’re seeing a bit of a shift taking place here.
So always fear and anxiety in the spiritual life is a sign that things are being loosened up, it’s actually a sign of progress not a sign of degeneration if you like, but it can certainly appear that way. And so, when that situation happens, what you have in the story here or the explanation for what’s being expressed there is that there is a fear, there’s fear underlying it. And of course, from a proprial perspective it’s the fear of exposure and loss and while we’re identified with that it’s a fear of the loss of my sense of self, of who I am. So, there’s this kind of hanging on for dear life. But fear also produces its own level of sensitivity to danger, to what it perceives to be dangerous. And that’s what this recognition is at the proprial level, is that it’s recognized that Jehovah is at work, that the Lord is at work here. But it can never actually give itself over or surrender to what is of the Lord. But it’s certainly in a state of recognising, there’s a recognition of the danger, and this brings about the presence of Moses and Aaron once again.
So the lifting out this is what’s happening in the Text right, like it’s the lifting out of the sons of Israel from being dominated and ruled over by what is lowest. And so the uncovering of the nature of proprium is such that it has to go to the very extreme because without that we will have excuses for it, until it’s actually seen for what it is. So what the Texts do is provide us with information about the condition, it’s like it’s a diagnostic in a sense. So it’s actually pointing out what the condition is. And one of the things that stands out about that for me is in the Gospels is the Lord constantly telling the disciples what is to come to pass and yet they are all wrapped up in their own agendas and ‘what have you’ around Jesus, if you take it on a more external kind of level, that they don’t hear it or they don’t comprehend it. And then it’s only in hindsight that they see what the Lord had said has actually come to pass. And so the Lord being the Word, the Text itself, is constantly laying out what is to come to pass but it’s not until it’s passed through that it is actually seen. And that is something that occurs as a direct result of engaging with the Word and being drawn in our work to where we need to be in that.
So not wanting to be a harbouring of discouragement but you might get out of Egypt, and you might get through the Red Sea…. but where are you right? There’s a wilderness to go through, then you arrive at Canaan and there’s a land to be dispossessed of evil and falsity on a deeper level. We all want it done and dusted but that’s not what life is about, it’s definitely not what spiritual life is about! So, I think what the Word brings us to is an acceptance that this is what life is about and the feelings of discouragement, and being hard on yourself, and all of that, arises because of our attachment. If that attachment wasn’t there to what is opposed to heaven, then neither would the discouragement or the frustrations or all of those what we term ‘negative states’. They just wouldn’t exist for us. But the fact that they are there means that on some level we really don’t want it done and dusted, we just want to be left in peace – but if we want to find peace we need to do the work, we need to go through the process. There’s no other way that the mind can be restructured then by going through the process.
And so, you know, we live in a world of instant gratification, much more instant than it has been in previous times and centuries. So we can take a credit card and go and get what we want even though we haven’t really paid for it. So that principle of getting things without having to make the payment is a falsity, there’s an element of a falsity in that. It’s faith alone. It’s an illustration of it, of being able to get what we want without having to pay for it. That’s the wish in a faith alone state is, ‘just give it to me now’ and let’s not worry about having to go through the process that actually brings about the permanence that’s required for the mind to take a heavenly structure, a heavenly form.
So we’re given the ability to make decisions and to progress through life and meet the effects or consequences of those decisions continually because that’s what builds a new will, a new sense of self, when that’s brought to the Word as the basis for our work. Rather than thinking I’m making a great decision, it’s really about, ‘look here is a decision and whichever way I go is going to offer work’ and that is what’s important. It’s the work that arises out of moving into a decision point and through it not the actual decision so much itself.
So if we take it in terms of a linear progression then the appearance is that things are getting worse. If you take it from a process perspective then what the understanding is, is that no, things aren’t getting worse, the infernal proprium was always hellish, it’s never been anything other than that but what’s happening is, is that it’s being uncovered. So it’s not getting worse we’re just getting to see it in more detail. And so the key is it’s about getting free. It’s about salvation. This is what it takes. It’s just what needs to happen. And it’s not that the Lord wants us to go through the suffering or any of that, but because of our attachment out of that identification with what is lower, that has to be dealt with, and it has to be broken. We have to willingly be prepared to give things up, to accept that what the Word says is true is true, that what our senses say is true is not the case more often than not. So these are the things that we have to give up and it’s all a series of small deaths, that’s our experience of it. But actually, all death is resurrection from a spiritual perspective, so it’s not actually dying – it’s being raised from the dead! That’s what’s happening to us as that new mind gets established within us as something that we actually begin to live from.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.