The Master resides within you, within me. It is a force that constantly applies Gnosis (or Living Wisdom) to our lives, but it is up to us to listen in to the guidance and even more so, it is up to us to apply such guidance. It is a challenge to identify the Greatest thing, as the least identifiable — and so humanity forms tapestries of belief. Historically humanity formed the doctrines of El, which turned into the Abrahamic faiths later on (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Other tapestries of Gnosticism, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism flourished. Each and any belief system, puts up a tapestry of images, dogma and ideology from which to inspire us in the spiritual. It is how we derive spiritual power.
Spiritual Power
For the neophyte, spiritual substance is not easily gained. They require boundaries, foundations and images for the mind to utilize. From a work of Intention, Belief and Desire, the seeker manifests reality. In other words, it is challenging for a beginner to understand the pathless path, so they create a path. A path is defined by signs, images, and imagination. When Belief (faith), Intention (will) and Desire are applied, a magical operation results. One has a miracle, or a manifestation of spiritual truth.
This is the crux of faith, but it is limited by the human mind that created the path. If the path that is created has laws pertaining to morality, how to worship and the attributes of God, then the path is limited by those human constructs.
Yes, a Muslim raised to believe in Jinn, will manifest Jinn, just as a Christian will manifest both angelic and demonic behavior. Strong beliefs, with a foundation in Intent and Desire for it to be real, will create personal realities.
Given enough growth a person will graduate to a belief of Inner Guidance. The tapestry of belief is now one of their own. They may find themselves in a modern religion, or their own faith — they could even discover a faith based on known fiction. In any case, they manifest the Master through their own methods of dogma and ideology. If they are open minded, then the Master is equally expressed. If they are closed minded about a certain topic, then the Master is likewise represents the close minded aspect — representing their current state of mind. Although limited, this is growth, compared to the prior state. Instead of following the dogma created by another, one is following that which inspires or is created by themselves.
Yet more is to be found by going even deeper. True spiritual power is within you. It has no name, it has no dogma. It is a pathless path, and ultimately is accomplished without effort. Lacking any identity, it becomes what it is: the Master. Without tapestries of a religion, or an open minded ideology, it simply is experienced. In this way, the spiritual power is made known by the lack of ego and personality. It becomes us.
Tapestries of Inspiration
The stages of spiritual growth are not condemned, just identified. A zealot manifests the dogma handed down for thousands of years. They reject all opposition to dogma, but in the end the dogma fails as their own inner guidance seeks to push beyond limitations put in place by clergy. One who goes beyond the zealot, is inspired by a tapestry of something alluring. It could be a more open and accepting faith, a path of dedication or even a tapestry born of modern fiction. These can inspire the path, and through that inspiration the Master is able to guide us even more so.
The problem with tapestries, is when they become the focal point, and not the inspiration. It’s one thing to be inspired by the teachings of a group, it’s another to define one’s spiritual truth by it.
I’ve been inspired by many different faiths. Having been a Buddhist, follower of Hinduism and the Tao, a Christian, Scientologist and occult seeker, I have found inspiration in almost anything. From the Book of Certitude comes the phrase “Crimson Pillar” that inspired this set of workings. At one time I was so inspired by Star Wars, that I constructed a belief based on the Force, with a foundation in Taoism.
Behind all tapestries is one being: the Master. It is our Greatest form of Self. It is beyond the body, and reaches outwards back to the point of creation. It is greater than the sum of all our parts. Yet tapestries have a purpose. They help inspire the work.
Reading a selection from Luciferian Michael Ford, I found myself inspired by a tapestry of his own making. These things can offer benefit, as long as they don’t become the focus. A tapestry that is seen through, will inspire to that which is beyond it (the Master). However, focusing on the tapestry will create boundaries and beliefs, akin to the work of the spiritual neophyte.
“Losing My Religion”
R.E.M. wrote those lyrics so long ago, “that’s me in the spot light, losing my religion…” When I first heard the song, I thought it was a testimony of someone leaving a spiritual path in favor of atheism. Today, I think it means something quite different. In order to grow spiritually, we move away from hard beliefs, hard tapestries of faith. Moving into softer and more abstract tapestries, we begin to find inspiration in images, without the dogma. We lack the religious rules and live by a personal ethic, guided by the Gnosis of the Master.
In time we lose our religion.
By letting go of the defined path (a path created by someone else, long ago), we find our own path with our own images of inspiration. For each of us the path shapes differently. Your images and tapestries are shaped by you, and therefore unique.
Pathless Path
Osho wrote a book (which I haven’t read) regarding the Tao of Taoism being a “pathless path.” The Tao te Ching describes the spiritual work as something without effort. The effortless path, or the Pathless Path, is the nature of the Tao. This revelation is also the extension of moving away from hard tapestries.
First we have the hard tapestry of a religion. In time the seeker loses the religion, in favor of softer tapestries. This can evolve into a plethora of different tapestries, even ones of their own making. Extending the thought even further, a seeker ultimately discovers the Master without any tapestries.
The Master laid bare, is the direct experience of the Master, without any images, dogma or belief systems. This is how a Path becomes Pathless. I can not determine the Path for you, anymore than you can for me. It is for each of us alone to discover this direct experience of Gnosis – of the Master.
When the Tao Te Ching reads, “the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao, the name that can be named is not the eternal name…” it is regarding this very topic. Those who reveal a dogma, are attempting to tell you about the “Tao that is told.” Using human words, dogma and tapestries, they limit what the Path is. When they describe the spiritual power (God, Master, etc.) they are limiting the nature of the Being. Even I do this. So you must always seek to find your own descriptions of God, of the Master.
Going beyond all tapestries is the ultimate truth. It is the act of no longer seeking, no longer believing, no longer hoping. It is the act of certainty through direct experience.
Direct Experience
It may appear that direct experience is the end of the path – when the path becomes pathless. Direct experience of truth will manifest through the process. It can manifest within the tapestry of faith. It is constantly with us and it is a superior experience to that of blind obedience and dogma. Knowing a belief, or the attributes of a spiritual ideal, is just a work of the mind. True spiritual power comes from direct experience. Gnosis is living wisdom: more than “knowing” something, it is living it.
That direct experience can occur in a rigid belief system. If followed it will likely unwrap the hard beliefs, and open the seeker to more abstract ideas.
Direct experience is perfected in the pathless path. When one directly experiences Gnosis, (or the Master) without any tapestries, then they are One with the Greatest form of Self.
At first these experiences will be fleeting, in time they overtake the seeker – to where enlightenment is the fulfillment of the work. The seeker becomes One with Gnosis, with the Master. Such is the ultimate ideal.
By moving from tapestries, to the identify with the Force behind it all, we become the Force itself. This is our enlightenment.