The Kybalion and Metaphysics. ME-TA. PHYS-ICS. Jeesus Chirst....

[wolven7]

Muse - [The Small Print]--- I just finished reading The Kybalion. I... well i had the same problem with it that i had, while reading Peter van Inwagen's Metaphysics. It's arrogant, it's exculsive, it thinks it holds all the answers, scoffs at new-comers, unless they agree, and if they only Partially agree, it pats them onthe head, and basically says "That's Nice Dear." In short, it pisses me off and felt like patronisation of the highest order.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cast - [I've Got a Theory]--- They, the so-called "Three Initiates," speak in the terms of Higher and Lower, which we all know i hate, with the firey passion of a thousand suns. They Claim extreme dichotomy, polarisation of the universe, and the layering, traveling upward, toward reunion with The All. They deny Change, in the All. And that Irks the shit out of me.

They continually claim to explain everything Existent, in terms of science, except where science has not yet caught up, excepting-- of course-- The All. (Covenant - [Tabularasa (KMFDM Remix)]). The All, in their words, is outside of laws, because because it is The Law. Potential Judge Dredd jokes aside, this creates a partial paradox. If the All is the Law, then it cannot, by definition, be outside of the "lower" laws, which flow therefrom. I am not above my Arm, because i am Me. My arm is an intrinsic part of me, without which i would be temporarily inconvenienced, and for which i would then have to compensate. It has a Function, In Me. So, if the All is not affected by the laws, then the laws are not part of it, or connected to it, in any way. Not even by vibration. No matter that these laws are supposedly "less" than the all; as we have said, they are Part of the All. They exist in it.

Tom Waits - [The Black Rider]--- So, thoughts in your head affect you. They do, because you think them, and then you think about them. Subtle, important difference. If, as The Kybalion claims, we are merely thoughts in the infinite mind of the All, then we are affecting It, as well as it, us. By the way, we are all infinite. We contain an infinity, within us, infintesimally small bits pieces, strings (past Planck length are smaller strings that look like stuff. Trust me), and that connects, and interweaves with the whole of all that is.

Rasputina - [You Don't Own Me]--- That makes our influence, our scope, our Spheres, infinite as well. We can do anything, as long as we have an idea as to how or what we're doing. Sometimes, only if we Don't. It's a strange world. Oh yes.

Digressed. Kind of. Not really. Anyway. Now, don't let this all make you think that The Kybalion held nothing useful, at all, for me, because that's not true. It held nice starting paths, showing and reminding me of the places i started, and different paths. (Verious Artists - [Susy May]). It showed new paths i hadn't thought of, and took them interesting places. It agreed with me, in many ways, that's true. But it didn't go far enough.

It spoke of the co-existence of freewill and determinism, but framed them in a way that worked that whole "Higher" /"Lower" angle, again. It limits, in its very framework, restricting, telling the potential student "You may achieve great heights, and you may even go This Far. But no Farther." And we all know how i feel about being told "No Farther." Icarus learned something, at least.

The Tea Party - [The Messenger]--- I'm going to take what i gathered, from the book, and turn it into something useful, to me. Which is kind of standard. It had some good points, but... Man. It sure had some bad ones, too.

That LJ cut title has a component of partial, implicit irony, by the way. Find it, and win a cookie. Or cake. I have more cake than cookies, so it'll be cake. You'll have to come to me, to get it, though. Sorry.

I'm out, kids. Enjoy.

{10.11pm:Pain - [Put 'Em Back]--- Also, thanks to mr_hinzelmann, for loaning me the book.}

Comments

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

Meh, no one ever said that ceremonial types and hermetics didn't tend to get sticks stuffed somewhere uncomfortable by their endless systems and hierarchies...It's the problem with organized paths; people get stuck on that path and the idea it is the Only, out of their love for it, or a need to follow rules or whatever. Fuck, I get frustrated when I start Trying to follow some path, cause it means I'm limiting myself.

I personally have never read it, though, except for that bit that morning at your mom's when I woke before you. Just heard that quote I used somewhere, when I needed to hear it, and adopted it.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Like i said, it has some really good qualities, if you can extricate them from the really bad ones. Applying it to itself: Transmutation.

Oh, and they're hypocrites: The propose Denying The "Lower, Negative" levels of consciousness, ie bad moods. Eh. Like i said. Worth it, with a containre of salt.

[renatus.livejournal.com]

Really, I like the way you think. Something about all sorts of beliefs and methods had been bothering me for ages and I hadn't put a finger on what it was exactly until a previous post mentioning otherkin and the folly of High vs Low. This solidifies it.

Stratification is for rocks, dammit.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

It's gravity's fault, really, for the orientation of up and down, at certain distances. Yes, it's useful, like having a point of view is useful, but it is not the Absolute. Take where you're standing, right now, and travel to the exact opposite side of the world. Cartoons always showed China as "Upside down."

Anyway, i'm kind of babbling. But my point is that it moves toward a Spherical Centrednes. Not a stratified thing. And every piece of it is important, and fulfils a role. Yes.

Most of the time, i like the way i think too. Good morning.

[ikkin-of-avalon.livejournal.com]

Sorry I can't read all of this post yet as I've not finished the book.

B must think you're something pretty special to give you that book! I'm impressed and intrigued.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I understand. We'll talk when you have.

And i don't know what to say to that... Hmm.

The tao can be talked about, but not the eternal tao

[mr-hinzelmann.livejournal.com]

The Kybalion, like so many other texts of that ilk, is limited by both the writing and the writers. If it's as old as they say it is, which is debatable, and no one wrote it down until 1912, how much of the original point was descimated by the oral tradition? There is a Shao Lin saying about truth, saying that it is like the sun, you can stare directly at it without going blind, you cannot approach it without being consumed, you may only see it by its nature. I think The Kybalion is like that, the reflection of a greater truth by a mirror, clouded by time, language, and perspective.

Furthermore, the introduction says that the book will pass into your hands when you're ready. You, yourself, said that you learned from it. Perhaps it was never suppossed to be an end in itself, but another tool by which you may view the greater existential framework. Yet another lens through which you may view the sun.


But that's a little determinative, isn't it? Or perhaps determinativism is the free will of another exerted on the exestential whole and that, if all things are cyclical, we ascend to levels of greater control only to discover that we are again controlled. Or perhaps the goal is to discover, once again, that all things are one thing, and that our recognition of the universal pull will allow us to be players and not pawns. Or perhaps, as is often true, the first and last step, is the mastery of self.

But what do I know?

Re: The tao can be talked about, but not the eternal tao

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about it being a tool. But that's what i think about everything. Even my own thesis will only be a stepping stone.

And you know nothing, and everything. Isn't that fun?