Giving up and Acquisition

 

We can view progress as giving up or displacement, or in terms of acquisition. The first is negation and the second affirmation or inclusion.

We relinquish one thing, but obtain something else, in other words, the displacement of the lower by the higher or the supplanting of a lesser thing by a greater. Energy shifts from one thing to another, and lesser things fall away as we become more absorbed in finer ones.

Esoteric “inclusion” is the obverse of denial. We can move forward by denial or inclusion. And though the approaches may differ, inclusions and denial are, in a sense, aspects of one thing. We can express this difficult concept with an example.

Here is flower. Shall we renounce it? My answer is yes and no. We might respond to the flower as a personality in a superficial emotional or sentimental way. But there are other levels of response. The soul is artist and beauty is the essence of spirituality. The flower is symbol and gateway. We may well renounce the flower if our eyes are glancing off it superficially. But the flower is a manifestation of spirit, and hence an instrument of transformation–it can be a portal into which we are ushered into the meaning of life.

The Essence and Body of Thought

According to temperament, thoughts manifest in images or in words or sounds. We become aware of thoughts as they manifest, but there is a subtle moment just prior to manifestation, just prior to words and images—in this moment thought is without a body. Visualize the expression of thought-images and thought-sounds as from a circle of light with a brighter point of light at the center. In the process of embodiment, thought-light radiates downward or outward from the center to the periphery. If we draw close enough to this center we arrive at a quiet space where we can apprehend thought before it is incarnate, before it has a body.