The Cosmic Tree of Life #2

(Continuing with the first & uppermost triad:) 

Keter-Understanding-Wisdom

which
incorporates the polarities of

Truth vs. Denial & Doubt 

and

 Hope, Belief, Trust, Surrender vs. Hopeless,  Resignation, Detachment

   

Hope, Belief and Trust (Surrender)
and there Counterparts of
Hopelessness, Denial, Resignation, Detachment 

Hope, Belief and Trust have somewhat similar characteristics but subtle differences. Belief is not as strong as Faith (just below Keter) which occurs in the absence of any reason and can be blind. Belief usually requires some evidence to support it - Faith does not. Both have their dark side and Belief may be influenced by dogma or deluded facts and false Understandings.  The shadow side of Wisdom is the arrogance of thinking one knows it all.
Truth and Belief will be determined by how well we scrutinize all the credible evidence which these days can be very challenging. In other words, our Understandings and what we do with facts.

Without right Understand and Wisdom we will not be able to distinguish between our skillful or unskillful Beliefs

             UNDERSTANDING                                  WISDOM

The Truth will depend on how we balance the Wisdom of Knowing with the Understanding that comes from Knowledge. We need both Sephirot. These two energy systems will also help us decide what we really need to Believe in. Faith goes beyond evidence and cognitive thinking but if True will invoke the Wisdom of an Inner Knowing. 

Hence the Truth that was quoted last week that the 

"intuitive is closest to I am that I am." 

The intuitive is closest to the macrocosm of the Creator and "feeling" the energy of the Divine. For instance the indigenous mind of the hunter-gather that relies entirely on nature to survive and that lives beyond the five senses to hunt effectively, can reach ecstatic states of being and of "Knowing" without being literate. Wilderness gives him or her all the lessons that scripture can teach.

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path...

The Ancestors

This is the middle way that the Buddha taught. 

Wild nature is an incredible place to balance all the multiple polarities and find it.

The Ancestors 

A lack of any Hope, Doubt and Denial of any Hope, can lead to Resignation, Detachment and even Despair.  

Surrendering requires Trust and the Ancestors teach us to...

Beware the odiousness of Doubt!!

Resignation, Doubt and Denial can be comforting, as in the "couch potato syndrome," where a certain complacency and Hopelessness implies there is nothing that can be done about the situation. Resignation and Denial lead to Detachment.

Resignation and Detachment are a giving up!

Surrender on the other hand is not waving the white flag of defeat but rather 

a giving IN to something much bigger than oneself, 

 NOT a giving up. 

Surrender implies connecting with one's higher Self and the "Field," letting go with trust, being unattached and in the flow or the Tao. 

Surrender which requires Trust is a giving in to a higher force and purpose.

The Ancestors

Next week we will do the second triad of

Love-Judgment-Mercy

Click to highlight then download and meditate on their words

/Messages_from_Ancestors_vol_4_-_MP3s/06%20Faith.mp3

from_Ancestors_vol_3_-_MP3s/15_Wisdom_for_the_Way.mp3

The Cosmic Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is an ancient archetype also found in  Druid mysticism that signifies the link between; heaven and earth, the material and spiritual, this side and that side, the microcosm and the macrocosm.

The Tree of Knowledge (T.O.K.) got us kicked out of the Garden of Eden when we lost our innocence and came into recognition of our shadow, ego and monkey mind through the tempting serpent (who in some scriptures represents Satan.)

There was another Tree in the Garden besides that of Knowledge and we can regain Eden by negotiating our way slowly and methodically up the Tree of Life (T.O.L.) This Tree holds all the polarities for Self transformation. If we take this journey and climb to greater heights we can become congruent with our Divine nature. 

The Left side represents Contraction, 
 The Right Expansion  
The Center holds the balance through 
Will, Intention, Passion and Courage. 
There are similarities with the yoga model of chakras which I will refer to from time to time. 
The Shechina, the feminine essence of the Divine rests below at 
Kingdom and is similar to Shakti the yoga equivalent which also resides in the lowermost energy center or chakra.

There are two main polarities on the Tree represented by Love and Fear (in some texts called Judgments.) The former are biased on the right and the latter on the left. 
Keter (the Crown,) Wisdom, Mercy, Love and Non Attachment represent the Five Loves (and are shown as hearts above.) 
Understanding, Judgment, Attachment (to the object of one's desire,) Ego and Kingdom are the Five Fears. 

There are ten energy centers or Sephirot (somewhat analogous to the seven chakras which are linear rather than in three columns.)

There are 22 pathways connecting the Sephirot. 

Understanding and Wisdom here appear together in yoga as the Third Eye or Sixth chakra which focuses mainly on intuition.

Faith is not a true Sephira. It represents Grace and can be a direct link to the God head. One does not need a Phd or any education to get to Keter - simple innocence and humility with integrity and Faith can get you there. Hence Jesus said 
"the meek will inherit the earth."
Complete faith is also a key polarity in spontaneous remission of disease proven incurable by modern medicine. There are numerous examples of this described by the Vatican medical commission that have occurred at Lourdes in France. Faith is necessary not only for spiritual transformation but also for miracles.

The various polarities of left, right with balance in the center on the T.O.L. are aligned with Three Main Triads.

The Three that deserve our attention are 

Keter-Understanding-Wisdom

Love-Judgment-Mercy

Ego-Attachment-Non Attachment 

(to the object of our desire)

This first blog will start to discuss

Keter-Understanding-Wisdom

the balance of which can allow access to Keter the Crown (similar to the Crown chakra in yoga)

If we look at the different polarities of Understanding and Wisdom we can see some analogies to the shadow side of the "Tree of Knowledge."

The "T.O.K." and our education system is hung up on proven data but...

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”  Einstein

and

The Ancestors

Understanding vs. Wisdom

Understanding - left uppermost is Verbal, (mind) thought, more the kind of thought we get in our culture which is cognitive, based on data and left brained. Most of our education occurs here. It is important but limited. Einstein called this thought our servant (not our master.)

The Ancestors

Wisdom - right uppermost, on the other hand, is 
Undifferentiated, Non Verbal thought. 
Imagination is vital to this thought form and the Ancestors say
What cannot be imagined cannot be realized. 
Einstein wanted to understand the mind of the Creator and said that his powers of fantasy or imagination were more important to him than his cognitive abilities. Einstein is the archetype for Wisdom and Undifferentiated, Non Verbal thought and he was also a firm believer in the power of intuition which he said was the master. 
The Ancestors also teach that

the Intuitive is closest to I am that I am (the God head.)

The Ancestors tell us that

Information is not to be equated with Knowledge, Knowledge is not to be equated with Understanding,

Understanding is not to be equated with Wisdom 

and Wisdom is not to be equated with Virtue.

Wisdom and Virtue reside on the right side of the tree, 

the others on the left.

Today we can get all the information we want on our smart phone but that doesn't make us smart, wise or virtuous. The Ancestors warn ...

and

In summary these are the qualities of the two polarities of Understanding                          Wisdom

Depending on whether we have whole brain function our appreciation of Truth is going to differ if we employ Understanding or Wisdom alone. It is far closer to real Truth if we involve both.

Truth can be in the present moment

depending on the flux between Understanding and Wisdom and also depending on one's point of view.

Furthermore,

The opposite can be true 

and sometimes one needs to live in paradox to find the truth. It is possible for two truths to occur simultaneously. The Western mind takes issue with this but mysticism and indigenous wisdom have no conflict with paradox.

 The Ancestors warn that

Truth can be Ego holding to its own image

and we must accept the Truth from whatever source it comes.

and

(Wisdom and Understanding 

also incorporate the polarities of

Denials vs. Truth

 Hopeless, Doubt, Resignation vs. Hope, Belief, Trust and will be covered in next week's blog.)

Click to highlight then download and meditate on their words

/Messages_from_Ancestors_vol_2_-_MP3s/07_Knowledge.mp3

Happy and productive 2019 everyone

This years' blogs will begin next week on the archetypal and cosmic Tree of Life