Cybernetic_Jazz wrote:TY
I guess my question on the top of that quote - it seems like while most western and eastern mystery traditions share reincarnation, chakras, astral/etheric layers of being, they tend to have different stories of origin and different concepts of what constitutes the general shape of evil and that being the case it also tends to cause subtle variances in what they consider to be success in God's eyes in overcoming the trials and stepping off the karmic wheel. I was just wondering if you found anything that lead you to a particularly strong belief one way or another regarding whether it's a localized illusion, astral light under confusion of people who don't know they're using it, an actual accuser essentially delegated by The One to see what we're made of, etc..
Ah, I see. I don't think it's merely any one of those things.
Modern science on more than one front, at least both quantum physics and genetics, have made remarkable breakthroughs in recent years which seem to make extremely convincing arguments that do indeed question the very nature of existence - and which potentially could lead to some rather shocking conclusions in the years to come, like confirming a 'localized' illusion or simulation. The strongest argument perhaps being the nature of space and time itself... if theories supporting time itself being quantized is true, then that would be an almost inescapable conclusion. At the same time, it would seem to confirm much of what is written about the nature of deity, and could explain how a supreme Deity could be omnipotent and omnipresent and still not violate the laws of our understanding of this reality (physics), for example. Statements such as "the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity" would finally make more sense. That would be a rather remarkable achievement for science, but it's not an absolute given yet.
With that in mind, it would not be a huge leap at all to understand how something like astral travel or astral light could be possible as well. It would be the nature of the state here, and the state somewhere else outside of this plane of existence. Similar, perhaps, to how quantum entanglement works - a particle's state can instantaneously effect its state no matter the distance, seemingly sending information faster than the speed of light. There would be nothing necessarily preventing entangling something in this existence with something outside of this existence, or in other words separating the object state from the implementation, though to be clear this is a separate concept than dreaming.
And finally, it may not be a huge leap to suggest that the system itself was created as a proving grounds of sorts, with the idea of an accuser/devils and angels playing roles. In other words, all three statements may simultaneously have elements of truth. Yet, at the end of the day, the here and now is very real - and just as important. There is good work to do in the world, and not enough good people to do it. In closing, as I head to sleep, I will leave you with one of my favorite poems by Poe:
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
-Edgar Allen Poe