Luminarium Aranea

About

A blog dedicated to the religious and spiritual teachings, thoughts and quotes from various traditions. The blogger will also share his writings, ideas and thoughts on things related to theosophy, spirituality and esoterica.

Monday, May 28, 2012

STEADFAST SERVICE
By Julian Ochoa

Today’s topic is very if not the most important. For those faithful to GOD and the path to truth, service to humanity is essential. I will speak briefly about service, and will quote different sources to explain what service means from my perspective.

We are living in a time where freedom for the individual is most important. Freedom in this case means freedom to speak for my self, act for my self, think for my self, but people doesn’t see that this freedom is just plain selfishness. Our modern way of thinking asks us to think only for ourselves, and not for others. Sense of community doesn’t exist anymore. There is only a sense of community when a problem affects us all. People today are so immersed in their own selfish bubble that they don’t look to the people around them to see if they are ok. People goes to church, not to pray for the world but for themselves, people prays for the BMW they want, their lotto ticket, their sickness, or to simply ask for salvation. But what salvation, or to which heaven can a man go to if when in life he only thought about himself? Surely he will probably be incarnating back here in no time, and for no other reason than to learn to acknowledge his brethren, and to serve them.

What is service, is it just working in a third world country with an NGO, or working for the Salvation Army?
The third pillar of Islam is to give charity or serve others, Islamcity.com quoted the Prophet Mohammad statement on charity:
“The Prophet said: 'Charity is a necessity for every Muslim. ' He was asked: 'What if a person has nothing?' The Prophet replied: 'He should work with his own hands for his benefit and then give something out of such earnings in charity.' The Companions asked: 'What if he is not able to work?' The Prophet said: 'He should help poor and needy persons.' The Companions further asked 'What if he cannot do even that?' The Prophet said 'He should urge others to do good.' The Companions said 'What if he lacks that also?' The Prophet said 'He should check himself from doing evil. That is also charity.'

According to that quote service is in our hands, service is an everyday act. In most religions and spiritual teachings service is very important. Service is where man puts his knowledge from study and wisdom from meditation and life experience into practice. Service is the path to GOD, as it is said in our liturgy; we best serve GOD when we serve our brothers.

How can we serve our brethren? George Arundale in his book the way of service gives a good guideline as to what a man should do to serve:
IF you desire to be of service to others with advantage to them and without danger to yourself, see that these three principles guide you in your service:
(i) That your greatest joy is to tread the path of service;
(ii) That you know yourself to be but the agent of some force greater than your own which sends the power of service through you;
(iii) That you see in others the same divine nature you yourself possess.

The epistle of today best guides us as to how we should serve. It teaches us that we best serve our brothers when love them, speak kindly of them, help them when they need us, when we forgive them, when we are there in every single moment of their lives unconditionally.

A woman i once met told me that she tried helping others and worrying about others, but that she got exhausted from worrying and caring for others and that now she is only focused on her self. I did not say much at the time, but it made me wonder why she got sick of helping others. And i realized after many years of having met her that serving has no immediate recompense. People that serve think they will get a nobel peace price, achieve salvation or get self gratification, but those that serve with that in mind will only find solitude and a wall of no reward. Serving others should not be about getting a reward, serving others is the only way to serve GOD and to show GOD that you have come to love him through all his creation. In other words, to achieve true nirvana we have to serve humanity in the same way GOD serves us, unconditionally.

Julian Ochoa 00:49

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Saint Alban
By Julian Ochoa

Today we are celebrating the day of our patron saint St Alban. At the beginning of the collect for Saint Albans day we hear: We praise thee, O lord for the example and assistance given to us by the holy martyr St. Alban. To find out what sort of example and assistance St. Alban is giving us i will have to speak about whom he was and how he is helping our church now.

According to the book of constitutions of the ancient and Honorable Fraternity: Saint Alban was born in the 3rd century a.d in hertfordshire, near verulamium. During his youth he traveled to Rome in company of a Christian monk called Amphibalus. In Rome he served in the roman army for 7 years, there he learned the secrets of the craft, and following the great example of the Christian monk he converted to Christianity. (page 76, second edition, 1763) Upon return to England he had become steward of the household of Caurasius. For whom he served as an officer in the fortress. Saint alban also became head of the craft, he improved the craft making more men part of it, improved all of their wages and created a charter for them. (the history of freemasonry, pg:91)in 297 emperor Diocletian permitted the closure of Christian temples and the persecution of Christians. At the time Amphibalus was being sought for beheading, when the roman soldiers came looking for amphibalus St. Alban gave himself away to protect amphibalus, saint alban wore amphibalus cloak that distinguished Christians. During st. Albans imprisonment the soldiers discovered that he wasn’t amphibalus and they discovered Amphibalus hiding place, both St Alban and Amphibalus were beheaded for Christianity.

In the Epistle for the Patron Saint it says: For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them and found them worthy for himself. (liturgy, pg 182) Saint Alban became the first Christian Martyr and the first martyr of the craft. He not only died for Christianity but also for a brother. What we should learn from Saint alban is not his martyrdom but what he did when he was alive. Saint alban lived a moral life not only by working but by improving the living conditions of those around him and by willing to die for his friends and for a worthy cause. Willing to die for a brother is as worthy to die for God. In our daily lives we can live a worthy life by simply loving our neighbors, our brothers. By helping the elderly cross the street, by supporting worthy causes that can improve the conditions of others in our society, or by simply praying for the good of Humanity. We don’t have to be saints to do good, all we have to do is open our hearts and work for humanity in thought or action.

According to bishop leadbeater in the hidden side of Christian festivals, Saint Alban was a manifestation of the seventh ray. The seventh ray being the light of the west, saint Alban helped to introduce into England Christianity and Freemasonry, although both being thought to be contradictory to each other, both are esoterically representations of the same Light. According to Bishop leadbeater the seventh Ray is beginning to rule the world therefore our church is now receiving the Light of Saint Alban more than ever.

Julian Ochoa 02:15

Saturday, May 26, 2012

By Julian Ochoa

My dear love I am waiting for you
Like Gautama waited for Nirvana under the tree of life
I have also tried many things to attain your love
But failed
Now I am waiting under the tree of love until you come to me
I have been bleeding since the day you left me
Only you can stop the flow of blood into the stream of darkness
I will wait for you, regardless of time and space
I will wait until you come back to me.
For you are my enlightenment in this time
You are the smokeless fire of which the wise men speak of
I have merely glimpsed you
Yet it was enough to set me free from the darkness of my mind
I am in the greatest battle of my universe
Beasts of all sorts have manifested in my way to reach you
But none will stop me from being with you
Your silence is deadly yet your words are blessings
Don’t forget me, for I am your lover
And I will love you for eternity
Like the fire that has been shinning through all the universes for eternity.

26.02.2006

Julian Ochoa 02:56

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Today’s intent is purity.
By Julian Ochoa

When one thinks of purity or pure, the colour white comes to mind. In our culture white symbolizes purity, virginity, cleanliness, innocence, or light. I looked in the dictionary what pure meant and it said: pureness, cleanness, freedom from physical or moral pollution.

The dictionary gave me the meanings i wanted to speak about today: As soon as i read that purity means also cleanness i remembered that saying the detergent companies use on the TV: Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I immediately remembered my Muslim friends from university telling me that in their holy book it requires them that before prayer time one should tidy up. I decided to look for this in the Quran and it says:

In the book of Women it says:
“believers , do not approach your prayers when you are drunk, but wait till you can grasp the meaning of your words; nor when you are unclean – unless you are traveling the road – until you have washed your selves. If you are sick or on a journey, or if, when you have relieved yourselves or had intercourse with women, you can find no water, take some clean sand and rub your faces and your hands with it. Gracious is God and forgiving.”

In the book “The Table” it repeats the same but goes further to say:
“God does not wish to burden you; he seeks only to purify you and to perfect His favour to you, so that you may give thanks.”

In our Eucharist before the service begins we use incense to purify the temple from all physical and spiritual impurities.
To open the Eucharist our Priest or Bishop uses the aspergill to cleanse the temple and its congregation:

“The Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist opens with the asperges or sprinkling with consecrated water, whose purpose is to prepare the building, to purify and steady the thought and feeling of the people and to invoke the presence of an angel to assist in the worship.”

It is important that when one can, one should try to be physically clean to pray to God or to do anything in reference to GOD or anything as such for we are constantly striving to be with GOD. But does this mean that those in poor countries that don’t have a means of cleaning themselves be less likely to be able to communicate with GOD or ultimately be with GOD?

Purity can be mistaken for Material purity only; in our own culture we see how purity can signify, the pure race, blue blood, high station in life, intellect, Power. In Gods eyes purity in the physical sense is pretty much meaningless, if there is no purity in the heart of that which tries to be pure then it is not pure at all.

So purity then is not only a physical matter but a spiritual one. What does being pure spiritually mean? It simply means being pure in thought, pure from having mundane thoughts, lower desires, envy, anger, laziness, low self esteem, all those negative things that keeps us from thinking purely about God.
The collect of today says:

“We thy humble servants do now most earnestly desire to keep our hearts unspotted from the world; to reach this purity we ask for strength from thee”
We should try and keep our thoughts pure at all moments but most importantly when we are at the temple ready to invoke God and his servants.
(Bishop lead beater in science of the sacraments says: read from book: page 31. optional)
To fight these impure thoughts we can reflect on our thoughts, meditate, pray and keep our selves busy: studying and serving our community.
“The epistle of today best explains: Love not the world ; neither the things that are in the world. “
I like this introduction into the epistle because it is reminding us that this world is material therefore not pure. Everything we see, hear, touch and smell is of this material world therefore it is not worth dwelling in it or even miss it when we are gone. This quote also reminds us that we should never think of God as we usually do, because we are immediately attaching a material significance to him or to any of his servants. The only true source of purity is God in us, our spirit.

AMEN

Julian Ochoa 21:26

Friday, May 18, 2012

GOD AS PEACE
By Julian Ochoa

The word peace has become very mundane. Politicians use the word “peace” to settle a conflict or to impose rules upon another nation. International organisations like the UN strive for peace around the world, International personality’s make concerts for peace, there are peace movements against wars, but have they brought us any closer to peace?

Krishnamurti speaks after winning a peace medal at a UN convention; he says the following about the matter of peace:

“ One wonders, if one is at all serious, why man kills another human being - in the name of god, in the name of peace, in the name of some ideology, or for his country - whatever that may mean - or for the king and the queen, and all the rest of that business. Probably we all know this: that man has never lived on this earth, which is being slowly destroyed, and why man cannot live at peace with another human being. Why there are separate nations, which is after all a glorified tribalism. And religions, whether it be Christianity, Hinduism, or Buddhism, they are also at war with each other. Nations are at war, groups are at war, ideologies, whether it is the Russian, or the American, or any other category of ideologies, they are all at war with each other, conflict. And after living on this earth for so many centuries, why is it man cannot live peacefully on this marvellous earth? This question has been asked over and over again”.

Peace Is of two kinds internal and external, If a man is not at peace with himself, he will never be at peace with the world. It sounds very simple to say that but peace is an end that we must achieve in order to be able to understand the truth of GOD. To achieve peace be it in the heart or in the world, there must be recognition of the desires that keep us tied up to this world, action must be taken to eliminate this desires.

The Bhagavad-Gita explains it:
“ A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires- that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still- can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.
A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship, and is devoid of false ego-he alone can attain real peace.”

Mahatma Ghandi promoted peace by way of non-violence, although he was misunderstood by many believing that non violence was just a way to get rid of the British out of India. Non-violence was in fact a way to teach the man of the 20th century to solve his conflict with himself and with his fellow creatures by means of non-violence or peace.
Ghandi said: When the practice of non-violence becomes universal, GOD will reign on earth as he does in heaven.

The Buddha thought : “that peaceful minds lead to peaceful speech and peaceful actions. If the minds of living beings are at peace, the world will be at peace.”
How can we practice or try to achieve peace in our daily lives? It is very simple but very difficult to try to attain inner peace or world peace, but we must try. If we do not try, all would be lost. To attain inner peace one should: meditate, reflect on what we have thought, said and done to others. Study the teachings of the masters, as a man without guidance from a master cannot know the formula to change his rough mind into a perfect instrument of peace.

Externally we can start by loving our neighbor as the first epistle states. We can also help those in need; speak gently to others or about others. Serve your community without any other intention but to help because it is your inner most desire to do so. Accept those of other creeds, sex or race. Acceptance of those different from you is accepting GOD for GOD is everywhere and in everyone. And the most important of all is to forget the past, and forgive those that have caused you harm. If one can let go of all that is negative we can surely continue climbing the ladder to peace.

As it is said in the first epistle of today:
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit.
The second lesson quotes Jesus:
Peace I leave with you, my peace i give unto you; not as the world giveth, give i unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
By this he means that we should follow his teachings of love.

And I close by giving the salutation of Peace from our Eucharist:
The peace of the lord be always with you
And with thy spirit.

Julian Ochoa 13:12

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

In past lives I conquered lands
In past lives I conquered people
Ruled nations with an iron grip
In past lives I fought thousands of battles
In past lives I fought thousands of foes
My kingdoms spread beyond any mans imagination
In past lives men feared me
In past lives men loved me
I was deified after my death
In this life I was born a sword less conqueror
The Trojan fortress and people seem small and weak compared to my new adversary
The Gods are on my side, but the past is against me
I have no legions, no allies, no hoards of horses,
It is me against an army of hundreds of thousands of thoughts
Hundreds of thousands of experiences that hunt me with their spears
They are holding me from conquering the greatest land ever know to man
The GODs and the hierarchy above is on my side, but cannot aid me in this battle
They can only pour their love to me, to strengthen me
In past lives I sat at the throne
In this life I am seeking to be on my knees at the feet of the great throne
I have already defeated half the adversaries army
The greatest of their heroes still remain
But they fear a fall like hectors in the old war
I am getting closer; I sense the fear of my adversary
The closer I move to the end, the more I sense its fear of loosing a life eternal strong hold
Life after life it has taken a stronger hold of that passage I need to go through
But the time has come for me to pass or die
Death is not the end; other men have already passed through this path,
Many lives, many times did they pick up the sword to fight this endless battle
Triumphant they were, triumphant they are sitting above guiding us with love
Once I give a blow to the greatest of my enemies hero
I will hold my love in my arms
I will hold you in my arms for eternity
Triumphant I will be.
By Julian Ochoa 2010

Julian Ochoa 18:39

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The Cathars

By Julian Ochoa

In the first part of this talk I will speak about the history of the Cathars. I will speak briefly about why I decided to speak about the Cathars. I will then give a recount of the period in which the Cathars existed, what world events were happening at the time. And lastly I will deliver the historical account of the Cathars existence in Europe.

My interest in the Cathars started when I was 17 years old, I was back in my native country Colombia. I bought one of those popular books on the cathars they sell in each occult section in book shops ; it was a pro Christian book denigrating the occult and groups that had non Christian views about the world. The Cathars called my attention as they were victims of the inquisition. Having grown in a Catholic country the inquisition was portrayed as an epoch of cleansing that Christendom had to go through to get rid of pagans, idolaters and all sorts of heretics or freethinkers as one would call these days. I dropped the topic for many years until a few years ago I read the Holy Grail and later on the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. I searched on the internet a bit on the Cathars but i found nothing profound until last year when I was recommended to read a book by Arthur Guirdham called Cathars and Reincarnation. At first I thought it was going to be a silly book, by someone claiming to be a Cathar. The book was about Guirdham’s work as a psychiatrist in England dealing with a woman that had dreams and visions about events and places she knew not about, all related to the Cathars in France. When I finished the book a new interest awoke in me about the Cathars and grossness grew in me for any sort of intolerance.
Tobias Churton highlighted Catharism has attracted many people’s minds by having apparent connections to the Holy Grail, King Arthur, Pagan Gnosis, The descendants of Christ, the knights templar, the Rosicrucians, the Ark of the covenant, UFO’s, The theosophical society, Ancient Egypt and Atlantis.

When the Cathars emerged in Southern France in the 11th century, 1000 years had already passed since the Christ had existed as the Nazarene in Judea. 700 years had passed since Rome abolished the worship of several GODs and adopted Christianity as the state religion, or as the universal church. This event occurred in a meeting called the first Nicaean council, which met in Nicaea Turkey, where hundreds of bishops met to decide what gospels to allow into the New Testament and what the church stood for in terms of beliefs.
Any writings or groups that were excluded from this council were made heretics and were persecuted or driven underground. Among the groups excluded were the Gnostics. The Gnostics were different groups that lived around Judea, Egypt, Rome and some parts of southern Gaul, these groups differed in beliefs and their accounts of the Christs teachings were totally different from what was decreed at the Nicaean Council.

The Cathars existed from the 11th to the 14th century. This period is commonly known as the high middle ages. By the 11th century the barbarian invasions had finished and Christendom was spreading across all of Europe. The moors were stationed south of Spain and remained there until the late Middle Ages. The Christian crusades to the holy land started in the 11th century and lasted until the late middle ages. The knight’s templar were founded as an order in 1119 and most of its knights were exterminated after Friday the 13th 1307. It is said that the Knights Templar were the secular faction of the Cathars hence why they suffered a similar fate to the Cathars.

The name Cathar comes from the Greek word Katharos, signifying “unpolluted”. The Cathars were also known as Manichaeans, followers of the prophet Mani. Mani was a Persian Gnostic teacher of the 3rd century whom thought that the world was created by a lesser god, whom had fallen from Gods grace. The Cathars were also known as the albignensians, after the town of Albi located north of Toulouse in southern france. They were named after this town for the inquisition focused its major offensive on the Cathars in the south of France in the areas of Toulouse and Carcassonne. In fact, when the Catholic Church launched its crusade against the Cathars it called it the Albigensian Crusade. The Cathars did not call themselves by any of these names, but as the good men and good women or the good Christians.

As mentioned above the Cathars belief system have been likened to those of the Manichaeans, but the Cathars never mentioned the prophet Mani or prophesied to believe in his system. In fact they used to consider themselves the real Christians. Their system being more closely related to the Christian Gnostics whom existed 800 years earlier. It is thought that Catharism entered Western Europe by way of Eastern Europe, from Bulgaria where a group called the bogomils practiced and believed similar ideas to the Cathars. The Bogomils can be traced back to a Gnostic/Manichean group from Armenia called the Paulicians whom were persecuted by the Christian Church for their heretical believes.

The Cathar belief system was based on the four gospels of the Christian church, however they differed from the church because they did not believe in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, in fact they only had one sacrament. The Cathars believed in Jesus, but not in the same way as the Catholic Church did. The Cathars believed that Jesus never existed in the physical level, but was a projection of the cosmic Christ, therefore he could not have lived an earthly life, or even resurrected as the church claims Jesus did.

This belief alone was enough to anger the church. However the Cathar belief system was far more complex, it also refuted the God of the Old Testament, stating that this God could not have been a good God for God would not have created this material world to make us suffer. for the Cathars there were two Gods, the god that created the material world and the GOD that created the spiritual universe, this view of the world is related to the Gnostic and Manichaean dualist view of the cosmos and its creation. The Cathars had several circles, one of sympathisers, another of followers and the inner circle of priests called the Parfaits the perfected ones. Men and women were allowed into this circle, women were given equal rights, this group was the most devoted of the Cathars. The parfait’s practiced, asceticism, vegetarianism, non-violence. In fact most parfaits before entering the sacred order had families and lived like a common person would, once they had acquired this experiences they were allowed to become parfaits.

A group like this was certainly not going to survive in medieval Europe. The rejection of the Catholic Church, women as priestess, and its ever growing influence in southern france enraged the church and in 1208 under Pope innocent the III the Catholic Church declared war on the Cathars. By the summer of 1209 the Crusaders had assembled in the north of France an army of 10- 30,000 knights and descended into southern France, in what was the first Christian crusade against other Christians, and was also the beginning of the Christian Inquisition.

I will now forward events to the final blow the Christian Crusaders had stricken upon the Cathars. It was the year 1242; the crusade had been going on for almost forty years. The last Bastion of the Cathars in France was in Languedoc near the town of Carcassonne at a fort called the Montsegur. the Montsegur fort was located at the top of a mountain 1200 metres high. It was an impenetrable site, there were two forms of entry, one was through the main entry, which was difficult to get through due to the natural terrain that gave advantage to the defender from ensuing troops.

The other entry was at the east side of the mountain which was an entry that could only be scaled, and was used by the Cathars to bring in goods to sustain the siege. The siege of Montsegur last 1 year, the longest siege in the Albigensian crusade, the other Cathar pockets of resistance fell through faster than this one. There were about 500 people inside the fort. 200 were women and children, 200 were parfaits, and there were only 100 knights to defend the fort. Outside the fort the Crusaders were numbering at 10,000 and had access to relief and supplies to last a long period, whereas the Cathars inside the fort slowly ran out of supplies.
In the Christmas Eve of 1243 a few crusaders entered the fort through the east side of the mountain, killed the guards and facilitated access to the fort passing the first moat of the fortress. By March of 1244 the fort fell into the hands of the besiegers. The knights and the common people that survived were interrogated and later on joined the 200 parfait at the stake. All Cathars refused to repent and submit to the church believing that if they did they would be giving themselves into Satan; therefore death was a better solution as it would liberate them from this material world.

What was the impact the Cathars had in southern France? The high middle ages were a time where the Catholic Church was very powerful, but not very spiritual. The Catholic Church demanded from all landlords’ money for their profits and vast lands as a path to heaven. There was great poverty across Europe and the church was the only entity that had mass control over Europe. Southern France at the time was a great crossroads of trade and ideas, all that came from Moorish Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean to Britain and Scandinavia passed through southern France. In the years that the Cathars grew, the economy of southern France grew as well and so it attracted attention not only of people that wanted to go there for trade, but of the church. The church sent spies to survey Cathar influence and it found that where the Catholic Church failed the Cathars triumphed. The Catholic Church on the one hand charged landlords for money whereas the Cathars thought spirituality without any cost. Moreover the Catholic Church always imposed its views of God and how to live in the world, and this was not so popular in southern France where a prosperous economy and a more liberal Catharism gave the opportunity to men and women to take the spiritual path without so many constraints. Women had the freedom to explore spirituality without the patriarchal oppression of the Church and were allowed to explore their sexuality like men did. The Cathars went as far as worshipping the feminine side of GOD through the image of Mary Magdalene. The Cathars did not have a religious structure which allowed individual Cathars to have their own set of beliefs and understanding of the cosmos. Southern France had become Liberal Economic zone which had slipped from the hands of the Catholic Church, and it had to be subdued or it would have become a greater threat than the Saracenes as Pope Innocent the III said when he declared war on the Cathars.

In a period of forty years the Albigensian crusade killed 500,000 people in just southern France, the Last Cathar to have ever lived was burnt in the 14th century. The Vaticans thirst for dominance and wealth led them to act with boldly to the rising Cathars. The heresy of the Cathars, cannot be measured with the slaughter that the Church unleashed upon them, it is to remember that when the witch hunt was happening a knight asked his commander Arnald-Amalric whom he should kill in the city of Beziers and, Arnald responded: Kill them all, God will look after his own. The Cathars are only known for being heretics, but as explained their heresy was simply to think differently and to allow women to take an equal role in society. It is said that a troubadour sang after the crusades that the Cathar land will once again flourish in 700 years.

Part II

As mentioned in my last talk, the Cathars emerged obscurely in Europe in the Middle Ages, exactly in Southern France in the 11th century; the Cathars nearly exist for four centuries, but were persecuted and exterminated by the Catholic Church. The persecution against the Cathars was called the Albigensian crusade, it was the first crusade against other Christians and the Cathars were the first people to suffer from the inquisition. The Catholic Church launched this crusade against the Cathars, for various reasons. The most famous one being that they had a different view of the world and were critical of the Catholic Church, its beliefs, its hierarchy, the corruption and politicking. The Vatican also saw the Cathars as a threat to their rule in Western Europe and to their control of assets and wealth in the south of France. At this time the Merovingian Dynasty had already broken down and the Carolingian Dynasty was left as a remnant of it in northern France. In 1209 With help of the Vatican and knights from different parts of Europe the French king sent 30,000 men to execute the cathars This crusade lasted 40 years and at the end 500,000 people were killed for following Catharism or for supporting them.
It is said that before the Cathars lived in southern France, the Druids lived in Southern France, the Romans and after the fall of the Roman Empire the Goths lived in Toulouse. All these groups left their legacy of spiritual beliefs there, this amounted to the arrival of Islam to the south of France in Spain and Christianity and Gnosticism from Italy and Byzantium, Egypt and the Middle east.
What made the Cathars so especial to the Catholic Church that they had to make sure none of them were left a live? Land, wealth and power were very important to the church, but most importantly what threatened the foundations of the church were the Cathars beliefs, these beliefs were so radical that it made the people that lived in southern France at the time renounce Catholicism and embrace Catharism. The people that opted to continue following Christianity in Cathar areas, loved living under them because of their tolerance and open mindedness to all other religions.
The name Cathar comes from the Greek word Katharos, signifying “unpolluted”. The Cathars, had a hierarchy, but not as centralised like that of the Vatican. At the top of the Cathar hierarchy there was a Bishop, followed by two other persons called, filius major and filius minor. To join the Cathars the candidate had to go through several requirements, if the candidate fulfilled them he or she would become a Perfecti, a perfect person or a good person a priest of the Cathars. The other members of the Cathar Church were the credentes and auditores, the believers and listeners. The credentes were people whom believed in the Cathar teachings but were not ready to take the life of an ascetic like the perfecti did. They did however help and contribute to the church in as many ways as they could. The Auditores were people that were open to listening to the Cathar teachings, but were still practicing Catholics, or were just mere beginners.

The word perfect has been used by other spiritual groups throughout history; in Greece the Eleusinian and the Pythagoreans used a similar term to describe their hierophants. In the Middle East the Essenes used a similar word for their priests. In the Theosophical Siftings it is highlighted that in Pauls Epistle the word perfect is used in two different ways. In one way if signifies a person irradiated by the inner God, in the other way a person who has conquered his lower self as a means to enter into the higher mysteries. The term perfect has been used by many mysteries schools to identify its hierophants. (Vol. VII, 1894-5.)
The perfecti can be considered Hierophants or initiates like those of the Ancient Mysteries. Blavatsky considers the perfecti successors in the west to the Gnostics, their rituals and lifestyle show why they would be considered carriers of the ancient wisdom. The Cathars were ascetics, vegetarians and abstained from drinking. For the credentes to become Perfecti, they had to go through trials and spiritual development to reach the level of perfecti. If the credentes passed the tests and finished their training, they would receive the cathars only sacrament called the Consolamentum. The consolamentum meant that the person had to lead a strict life abstaining from any form of toxic substance or sexual act. To receive the consolamentum was a serious step and it was seldom performed on people as it meant that the candidate was initiated into the higher mysteries, if any of the vows were broken the consolamentum was cancelled and all efforts would be futile and could set back the candidate in his spiritual progression.

The consolamentum was pivotal at the time of the inquisition as it was given to most credentes before their death to prevent them from fearing the fatality of their end at the hands of the inquisitors.
The Cathars View of the world was that there are two opposing forces, the God that created the spiritual world and that is in everything, and a lesser God that created the material world. The cathars state that the Spiritual God had nothing to do with the creation of the material world, the Material world as we know it was created by the Devil, or a demiurge and his main purpose was to create order out of chaos by giving shape to the material world. This concept was attributed to the Cathars, however as Blavatsky explains, this concept of dualism is simply an exoteric concept for the esoteric concepts about the creation of the world teach that the universe spiritual and material reside at the hands of the one universal GOD.
The Cathars believed that in the beginning there was a struggle between God and the Devil, it started by a rebellion from some of Gods angelic forces, which led to their own fall into the material world and their everlasting imprisonment in the world of desires and suffering. To the Cathars the material world was an illusion, where all the fallen angels or Human egos were punished trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth according to the laws of karma until the soul was made perfect once again.

According to the Cathars the mission of o man’s life is to enter into harmony with one self and with the universe. And this was done by living an ethical and moral life, a peaceful life, and service to others. By leading a good life man could once again become one with God. To the Cathars the earth was where we came to fix our past deeds either in our present incarnation or in the next one. The idea of hell for them did not exist for they believed the earth; the material world was hell itself therefore the mission was to live a pure life as possible in order to break from the chains of the material world.
The Cathar view of Jesus Christ was that he had descended into the earth to teach humanity how to lead a better life so to break away from the chains of the material world. The Cathars believed that jesus existed but not totally in a physical body, especially not at the time of his crucifixion where they believe that what was hanged at the cross was just the flesh, but not the Christos.

The Cathars refused to worship any idols, saints or even the cross for they believed that the cross was a negative symbol for the process of initiation, for it represents the suffering world. The Cathars disbelieved in the Catholic Sacraments for they did not believe that the Body and blood of Christ could be manifest through bread and wine. They also disbelieved that the Priest and bishops were higher than the common folk, for any man could enter in touch with God and Christ if they lived a worthy life. The Cathars themselves did not impose their believes or way of life on the profane, the rules were imposed only on those that were perfecti or that had taken the consolamentum.

The Cathars like all mystery schools had exoteric and esoteric teachings. There were monasteries and convents where the neophytes would be trained to become parfaits. They were very good preachers and proselytes, hence why Catharism spread so fast throughout Europe. The parfaits used to travel from town to town, and were known to be dressed in black or dark blue robes and carried the gospel of john, the most spiritual of the four Christian gospels. They used to preach in the local language rather than in Latin like the Catholic Church did. Some have likened the Cathar teachings to those of the Buddhist, there is speculation that they received the Buddhist teaching by means of the story of Barlaam and Josafat, they are both Christian saints canonized after The Buddha. Other similarities to Buddhism were their belief in Non-violence, Reincarnation and vegetarianism the cathars practiced meditation to have inner peace in order to have a more receptive mind to divine powers that will give the person a higher spiritual perception of the world. The Cathars were also known to be Psychics, clairvoyants and herbal medicine doctors. Their most common prayer was our father.

The main influences of Catharism are Gnosticism and Manichaeism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnosis meaning wisdom or knowledge. The Gnostics were groups of Christians that claim to know the real teachings of Christianity. The Gnostics had similar tenets to those of the Cathars, but some were influenced by paganism or had very different views of Jesus and his teachings, Manichaeism is a Gnostic religion that existed at the beginning of the third century of our era. It was a religion founded by the prophet Mani from Persia. Manichaeism was a religion inspired by many traditions from the east and Christianity. It remained a dualist religion, but did not last long as it did not manage to infiltrate deeply into the bureaucracy of the Persians of the time. Manichaeism grew and expanded fast but it also fell quickly by the fall and execution of its prophet by the same Persian kings.

In most recent times the Myth of the Cathars has been related to the knight’s templar, an order of knights whom fought in the crusades at the beginning of the 11th century. The Cathars and the Templar’s had temples and monasteries located in southern France. When the Vatican asked the knights templar’s to participate in the crusade against the Cathars they refused, a few decades after the Cathars were exterminated the Vatican moved to hunt the knight’s templar for sharing some of the Cathars views. To this day there are speculations that state that the knight’s templar were the warrior faction of the Cathars and that at the time when the Catholics and their dark knights descended on the Cathars the knight’s templar’s fought on behalf the Cathars. There are also speculations that both groups were protectors of the Holy Grail and that that they both worshiped the Black Madonna, which was a symbol of Mary Magdalene. According to the recently found Gnostic gospels they stated that Mary Magdalene was a close disciple and lover of Jesus. According to recent speculations the Cathars and the knight’s templar had this information and had the real teachings of Jesus in their power. In movies like Indiana Jones the last crusade, the myth of the Holy Grail is revived, where Indiana and some Nazi agents are chasing the grail. It is also speculated that the Nazis were hunting the Holy Grail and hence why the last crusade of Indiana Jones was a faceoff with the Nazis. In other words, the battle of good and evil continues in our TV screens, and more recent the Da Vinci code although it does not mention the cathars, the lore of the Da Vinci code touches on the same period when the whole myth of Mary Magdalene sparked the horrible inquisition.

The Cathars were the beginning of the inquisition and were the main reason the church moved quickly to oppose any person or group that had a free spirit. Whether they were of druid origin, Gnostics, or Manicheans did not matter, what matter was that they lived for a short time, good lives of service, study and meditation. The Cathars proved that their belief was greater than life and therefore worth dying for. Today a lot of spiritual groups are going through a crisis. This time it is not the inquisition chasing them. Our whole world is now globalised and there is greater access to information, even to esoteric information, but even then the world has descended deeper into the material world. What threatens spiritual groups today is all the entertainment and hard work that keep humans distracted from finding that truth that will liberate world from this material enclave. What the spiritual groups and spiritual people of today have to do is not be ready to die like the Cathars, but live and give a perfect example of how a spiritual life should be, as an example for the conduct of others.

Julian Ochoa 20:48

Friday, May 11, 2012

GOD AS LIGHT
By Julian Ochoa
The topic of today’s sermon is very interesting. God as Light. When i first heard of the topic I was excited as I thought the sermon would only be about sun and fire worship. Going through Bishop leadbeater’s chapter on God as Light in his book, The Hidden side of Christian festivals and following today’s lessons I quickly came to realize that today’s sermon was filled of allegories.

God as light has been an idea that has existed since the dawn of man, man seeking that which is hidden and all seeing found that the sun was the best representation of that which cannot be seen, but that is everywhere omnipresent. Today in our western society sun worship is seen as an old pagan tradition or worse devil worshipping. But as Bishop Leadbeater highlighted in his chapter on God as light, the idea of worshiping the sun in ancient times was not taken literal, the sun was seen then as the most perfect reflection of God in the material world. Bishop Leadbeater quotes on this matter the following:
It is said in our scripture that God makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and on the unjust: He pours his sunshine upon all without any difference or strength, and that great light of his is always shinning.
In the Ritual of the Mystic Star by C. Jinarajadasa, God as Light is beautifully explained:
“The true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” is Osiris, who dwells in the heart of every man. “Osiris comes forth from the Light, He dwells in the light, He is the light.
“The Light is hidden everywhere; it is in every rock and in every stone. The light is nearer than aught else, within a man’s very heart. All comes forth from the Light, and to the Light all shall return.” “Look for the Light. Follow the light; Thou art the light. Let that Light shine.”
God as light is an important idea for humanity as a whole, for light is what we seek, in times of ignorance, darkness and in times when we decide to be a light unto others.
Through light we find knowledge and wisdom, and wisdom through light leads man to find that truth that will shape him to be a man fit to be a beacon in this darkness.
Light in times of darkness doesn’t just mean that god will appear from afar like a light, but that when you are in any sort of trouble he will send his angels to protect you and to guide you. God could also send to you in your worse time a friend or an unexpected person as a light into your life. Gods Light on earth could be a friend, a relative, a church, a book or a prayer that you needed to do to get a flash of love into your heart.
Today’s lesson teaches us that we can act as Gods light here, right now. By thinking positively, speaking positively, meditating upon the light and its virtues and acting positively; by following these simple principles you will begin to shine and to give light to those around you.
No one could have explained God as Light as good as our Brother O’ Rourke has:
1) The 1st lesson reminds us that if we hate our brother we walk in darkness, so the light can only shine brightly by helping our brother, by altruism and mutual help.
2) Service and sacrifice can be given in many ways, food, shelter, money, counselling, emotional support, but these only give temporary, though useful, aid, and the best way is by helping people to know that the Way, the Path, exists, and that it is always open. As said in the final Benediction at the end of the liturgy, ‘may the holy ones, whose pupils we aspire to become, show us the light we seek...’
3) By living a virtuous life, and actively co-operating with the laws of evolution, then each one may be ‘a light unto themselves’, and so to inspire others to live a life of service and sacrifice by the example of one’s own light and life.
4) Each one of us may be a channel which may bring the higher light to others, ‘that ye may be children of the light’; like a mirror that reflects the sunlight into dark corners that the sunlight cannot reach.
Let’s be that light that we are.
AMEN

Julian Ochoa 13:52

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

"In other traditions, good and evil are relative to the position in which you are standing. What is good for one is evil for the other. And you play your part, not withdrawing from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but seeing that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder: a 'mysterium tremendum et fascinans.'

"'All life is sorrowful' is the first Buddhist saying, and so it is. It wouldn’t be life if there weren’t temporality involved, which is sorrow — loss, loss, loss. You’ve got to say yes to life and see it as magnificent this way; for this is surely the way God intended it …

"It is joyful just as it is. I don’t believe there was anybody who intended it, but this is the way it is. James Joyce has a memorable line: 'History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.' And the way to wake from it is not to be afraid, and to recognize that all of this, as it is, is a manifestation of the horrendous power that is of all creation. The ends of things are always painful. But pain is part of there being a world at all …

“'I will participate in the game. It is a wonderful, wonderful opera – except that it hurts.'

"Affirmation is difficult. We always affirm with conditions. I affirm the world on condition that it gets to be the way Santa Claus told me it ought to be. But affirming it the way it is — that's the hard thing, and that is what rituals are about."

-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Julian Ochoa 23:19

Thursday, March 29, 2012

"SITTING IN YOUR CHAIR YOU CAN TRAVEL FURTHER THAN EVER COLUMBUS TRAVELLED AND TO LORDLIER WORLDS THAN HIS EYES HAS RESTED ON. ARE YOU NOT TIRED OF SURFACES?
COME WITH ME AND WE WILL BATHE IN THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. I CAN POINT YOU THE WAY
TO EL DORADO."
Candle of Vision, by A.E.

Julian Ochoa 20:28

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

"true knowledge is based on true tolerance.
From this true tolerance comes absolute
comprehension, and true comprehension gives
birth to peace, which enlightens and purifies."
Nicholas Roerich

Julian Ochoa 21:30

Monday, May 16, 2011

The term " Universal Brotherhood" is no idle phrase. It is the only secure foundation for universal morality. MKH. The Mahatma letters to A.P Sinnett

Julian Ochoa 01:05

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Theosophy is the vehicle of the spirit that giveth life;
consequently, nothing dogmatic can be Theosophical.
Gems from the East, by H.P Blavatsky

Julian Ochoa 12:23

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

Atisha (11th century Tibetan Buddhist master)

Julian Ochoa 22:25

Thursday, March 03, 2011

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein
i found him not.

I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; No trace of him was there.

I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandahar but
God i found not.

With set purpose i fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found
there only 'anqa's habitation.

Then i directed my search to the Kaaba (mecca), the resort of old and young; God
was not there even.

Finally, I looked into my own heart and there i saw him; He was nowhere
else.
By Rumi

Julian Ochoa 09:51

Saturday, May 15, 2010

When the light of the love of GOD shall descend on thy heart and soul,
then thou wilt become more glorious than is the sun in the sky.
Hafiz-Theosophist Magazine april 1910- june 1910.

Julian Ochoa 12:14

Saturday, April 10, 2010

We of the present day are content to accept a monkey as our ancestor, but the proud Greeks traced their lineage to the Gods.
Theosophy.Vol 27, #3 1939. Ancient Landmarks

Julian Ochoa 08:11

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Not knowing how near the truth is, people seek it far away-what a pity!
They are like one who, in the midst of water, cries pitifully from thirst...
Hakuin (1685-1768)

Julian Ochoa 02:57

Friday, March 26, 2010

Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred only ceases by love. This is the eternal law. The Dhammapada.

Julian Ochoa 04:21

Friday, February 26, 2010

"What room for doubt and what room for sorrow is there in him who knows that all spiritual beings are the same in kind and only differ from each other in degree?"
William Q Judge-Ancient Hindu Texts.

Julian Ochoa 01:41

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

There are only two mistakes one
can make along the road to truth:
not going all the way and not starting.
-Buddha.

Julian Ochoa 02:06

Monday, January 18, 2010

From The Heart of The World: The Elder Brothers Warning. By: Alan Ereira

Julian Ochoa 14:55

Friday, December 25, 2009

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'
--Jalal ed-Din Rumi (1207-1273)

Julian Ochoa 01:23

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

On Self Sacrafice:

ENQUIRER. And what may be the duty of a Theosophist to himself?

THEOSOPHIST. To control and conquer, through the Higher, the lower self. To purify himself inwardly and morally; to fear no one, and nought, save the tribunal of his own conscience. Never to do a thing by halves; i. e., if he thinks it the right thing to do, let him do it openly and boldly, and if wrong, never touch it at all. It is the duty of a Theosophist to lighten his burden by thinking of the wise aphorism of Epictetus, who says: "Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflection the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power, and consequently should not be any part of your concern."

The Key to Theosophy.
H.P.Blavatsky

Julian Ochoa 11:06

Monday, December 07, 2009

True compassion is more than flicking a coin to a beggar.
Marthin Luther King.

Julian Ochoa 13:57

Sunday, November 29, 2009

What we do for ourselves dies with us what we do for others and the world remains immortal.
Albert Pike

Julian Ochoa 13:53

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Know ye not that ye are the Temple of GOD, and that the Spirit of GOD dwelleth in you?
Corinthians 3:16

Julian Ochoa 10:39

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

THE JOURNEY
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
Our march toward the infinite is a
long journey, not to be finished within
a few hours, a few days, or a few years.
Though we see many around us falling
or retreating, we must go forward.
-Swami B. Br, Sridhar

Julian Ochoa 21:59

Monday, April 06, 2009

Who toiled a slave may come anew a Prince
For gentler worthiness and merit won
Who ruled a King may wander earth in rags
For things done and undone.
Sir Edwin Arnold: from Lives of Alcyone, by C.W Leadbeater & Annie Besant

Julian Ochoa 14:03

Friday, August 22, 2008

Evolution

In the great wind sweeping Southward
Where the Southern Cross hangs high,
Lies the whisper of lost nations,
Lost forever where they lie.

Lost these strange old worlds forever,
Gone their glory and their gold,
Some by forest deeply hidden,
Some by oceans water cold.

Dust to dust, so runs the story,
Nations rise nations fall.
Constant struggle through the ages.
What the purpose of it all?

Man evolves through endless effort,
Nations are but training schools.
Each day a recitation,
In the work of schooling fools.

Slowly as the ages circle,
More awaken to the light,
More arise and take their places,
Sons of God , who see aright.

They shall guard the earth and lead her
From destruction and dismay,
From all was and immolation,
To the ancient Holy Way.
The Temple of Amon RA, Mary Gray

Julian Ochoa 10:09

Friday, June 20, 2008

Each religion has its own mission in the world, is suited to the nations
to whom it is given, and to the type of civilisation it is to permeate.

I has been well said that while things essential there should be unity,
in things non-essential there should be liberty, and in all things
there should be charity. Were that wise rule followed by each, we should hear
less of the religious antagonisms and sectarian disputes
that bring sham on the very word 'religion'.
Annie Besant. Theosophy in Australia, june 2008 vol 72, # 2

Julian Ochoa 09:19

Friday, May 23, 2008

There is no need for us to say anything about others. There is no need for you or for me to regard other's actions in our thoughts one way or another. The worst thing we can do is to force people to agree with us. I mean that we shouldn't try to impose our will when people don't behave the way we want them to. The worst thing one can do is to confront human beings bluntly. A warrior proceeds strategically. If one wants to stop our fellow men one must always be outside the circle that presses them. That way one can always direct the pressure.
Journey to Ixtlan, By Carlos Castaneda.

Julian Ochoa 12:29

Thursday, March 20, 2008

We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety. Alain de Botton

Julian Ochoa 14:46

Friday, February 22, 2008

Avoid the wicked company and associate with saintly persons. Acquire virtue both day and night. Always meditate on that which is eternal, forgetting the temporary. In this way you will achieve success.
Chanakya Pandit

Julian Ochoa 15:24

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Christianity isn't moving people's lives today. What's moving people's lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It's a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn't even an ideal that anybody's fighting for.
Joseph Campbell

Julian Ochoa 22:04

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Labels: Krishnamurti-The real revolution part 1 of 2, youtube.

Julian Ochoa 14:14

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

"A glory shines across the coming years,
The glory of a race grown great and free.
'Twas seen by poets, sages, saints and seers,
Whose vision glimpsed the dawn that is to be.
A shining shore is by the futures sea,
Whereon each man shall stand among his peers.
As equal; and to none shall bend the knee.
Awake, my soul, shake off your doubts and fears;
Behold the magic of the morning face;
And hear the sweet and wondorous melody
That floats to us from far-off golden days-
It is the choral song of liberty
It is the anthem of the coming race."
A dweller on two planets. By Phylos.

Julian Ochoa 17:32

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The world view most people associate with science
has been left behind. The concept of space and
time, life and matter, and the universe itself, has changed.
The cosmos is not a life less, soulless aggregate of innert chunks
of matter: it is closer to a living organism. It is not a matter
that is a fundamental component in it: physical reality is made up
of a variety of familiaras well as strange fields, forces, and
energies. Space and time are not a passive backdrop
to the blind concourse of particlesand atoms: they are the
unified background of the evolution of galaxies. This view
is not the final, immutable truth of course, but it is
likely to be closer to the way things really are
than any previous conception.
-Ervin Laslo
Holistic Science & Human Values 2003

Julian Ochoa 16:04

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Prayer Before Birth
I am not yet born; O hear me.Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club-footed ghoul come near me.I am not yet born, console me.I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me, with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me, on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.I am not yet born; provide meWith water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me.I am not yet born; forgive meFor the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, my treason engendered by traitors beyond me, my life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they live me.I am not yet born; rehearse meIn the parts I must play and the cues I must take when old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white waves call me to folly and the desert calls me to doom and the beggar refuses my gift and my children curse me.I am not yet born; O hear me,Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me.I am not yet born; O fill meWith strength against those who would freeze my humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton, would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with one face, a thing, and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, would blow me like thistledown hither and thither or hither and thither like water held in the hands would spill me.Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.Otherwise kill me.
By louise McNeice

Julian Ochoa 11:11

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

To the philosopher, the body is "a disturbing element, hindering the soul from the acquisition of knowledge....What is purification but...the release of the soul from the chains of the body?"
The Socrates of Plato's Phaedo

Julian Ochoa 15:27

Monday, April 09, 2007

"A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look foward to posterity, who not look backward to their ancestors."
Burke

Julian Ochoa 20:28

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Does anyone want to take the world and do what he wants with it?
I do not see how he can succeed.

The world is a sacred vessel, which must not be tampered with or grabbed after.
To tamper with it is to spoil it, and to grasp it is to lose it.

In fact, for all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind;
A time for slow breating and a time for fast breathing;
A time to grow in strenght and a time to decay;
A time to be up and a time to be down.

Therefore the Sage avoids all extremes, excesses and extravagances.
Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching.

Julian Ochoa 19:23

Thursday, March 29, 2007

"We can live in the world, and walk not in the darkness of its ways but in the light of our own understanding of the wisdom that belongs to the one self that trancends yet exists in the heart of every being."
N. Sri Ram, Thoughts for Aspirants.

Julian Ochoa 14:08

Saturday, January 27, 2007

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is; and God the Soul."

"Worlds without number
Lie in this bosom like children."
The Kabala.

Julian Ochoa 01:26

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

"There is above the celestial lights an incorruptible Flame always sparkling; the spring of life, the formation of all beings, the original of all things. This Flame produceth all things, and nothing perisheth by what it consumeth. It maketh itself known by itself... it encompaseth the heavens.

The heart should not fear to approach this adorable fire, or to be touched by it; it will never be consumed by this sweet fire, whose mild and tranquil heat maketh the binding, the harmony, and the duration of the world. Nothing subsisteth but by this fire, which is GOD himself. All is full of GOD, and GOD is in us all." G.R.S Mead

Julian Ochoa 10:46

Saturday, November 11, 2006

"Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligeble picture of the world. He then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it....He makes this comos and its construction the center of his emotional life in order to find in this way the peace and serenity which he cannot find in the narrow whirpool of personal experience....The supreme task of (The investigator) is to arrive at those universal elementry laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction.... (O)nly intuition, resting on the sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them."
-Albert Einstein, 1918.

Julian Ochoa 00:36

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

” . . . It is a sottish presumption to disdaine and condemne that for false, which unto us seemeth to beare no show of likelihood or truth: which is an ordinarie fault in those who persuade themselves to be of more sufficiencie than the vulgar sort.

” . . . But reason hath taught me, that so resolutely to condemne a thing for false and impossible, is to assume unto himself the advantage to have the bounds and limits of God's will, and the power of our common Mother Nature tied to his sleeve, and that there is no greater folly in the world than to reduce them to the measure of our capacitie and bounds of our sufficiencie.

”If we term those things monsters or miracles to which our reason cannot attain, how many doe such daily present themselves unto our sight? Let us consider through what cloudes, and how blinde-folde we are led to the knowledge of most things that passe our hands; verily we shall finde it is rather custome than Science that receiveth, the strangenesse of them from us: and that those things, were they newly presented unto us, wee should doubtless deeme them as much or more unlikely and incredible than any other.” (Essays, chap. xxvi.) Montaigne

Julian Ochoa 23:10

Saturday, May 27, 2006

The ideal of a single civilisation for everyone implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life. Octavio Paz

Julian Ochoa 01:26

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Avoid outshinning the master. All superiority is odious, but the
superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is fatal.
This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach us- they may be related to the sun, and just as brilliant but they never appear in her company.
Baltasar Gracian. 1601-1668.

Julian Ochoa 19:36

Friday, May 12, 2006

Initiation is equivalent to basic change in existential
condition; the novice emerges from his ordeal endowed
with a totally different being from that which
he possessed before his initiation; he has become
another.
Mircea Eliade

Julian Ochoa 21:19

Saturday, February 25, 2006

The Mysteries of the faith are not to be
divulged at all....It is requisite to hide
in a mystery the wisdom spoken.
(Clen. Alex., "Strom. 12.)
The Secret Doctrine, Book II, Part II.
H.P.B.

Julian Ochoa 23:56

Monday, February 20, 2006

What is inside me,
What is outside mine..
When these thoughts end.
Compulsion stops,
Reception ceases,
Freedom Dawns.
Nagarjuna.

Julian Ochoa 11:55

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

It is only by facing our commonplaceness and living happily
with it that we can realise its opposite and achieve a measure
of real individuality. The liberated man does not have to
claim that he is different. He can afford to be ordinary.
Hugh Shearman.

Julian Ochoa 23:51

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Unless we ask with our whole being, heart and soul and mind, unless we can hardly eat or drink or sleep unless we know, unless life is no longer worth living without the experience of living truth, we shall not gain it. We must deisre truth more than life itself if we are to be worthy of experiencing it. J.J van der Leeuw.

Julian Ochoa 14:25

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Superstition is another mighty evil, and has caused much terrible cruelty. The man who is a slave to it despises others who are wiser, tries to force them to do as he does. Think of the awful slaughter produced by the superstition that animals should be sacrificed, and by the still more cruel superstition that man needs flesh for food.Many crimes have men committed in the name of the God of Love, moved by this nightmare of superstition; be very careful therefore that no slightest trace of it remains in you.
J.Krishnamurti. At the feet of the master.

Julian Ochoa 10:32

Monday, August 15, 2005

Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honour, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul."
Plato, Apology. p56, line29e.

Julian Ochoa 14:58

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

The modern world provides a continual testimony
to the fact that growth of knowledge does
not create a better world.What is essential is
not more information either in the physical or
psychic fields, but a growth in love and wisdom,
tranquility and unselfishness by whose power
and virtue humanity can truly redeem itself.
Mrs Radha Burnier.

Julian Ochoa 00:20

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

To act and act wisely when the time for action comes, to wait and wait patiently when it is time for repose, put man in accord with the rising and falling tides (of affairs), so that with nature and law at his back, and truth and beneficence as his beacon light, he may accomplish wonders. Ignorance of this law results in periods of unreasoning enthusiasm on the one hand, and depression on the other. Man thus becomes the victim of the tides when he should be their Master. HPB.

Julian Ochoa 01:15

Monday, July 18, 2005

Changing Bodies
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones,
the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the
old and used ones.
Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 3, verse 18.

Julian Ochoa 13:20

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The superior nature can be taught, the inferior nature can be controlled.
Han Yu, Yuan Hsing.

Julian Ochoa 15:18

Monday, June 20, 2005

The Journey.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Our march toward the infinite is a
long journey, not to be finished within
a few hours, a few days, or a few years.
Though we see many around us falling
or retreating, we must go foward.
-Swami B. R. Sridhar.

Julian Ochoa 16:13

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Those who cling to life die, and those who defy death live.
Uesugi Kenshin.

Julian Ochoa 23:24

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Covered Soul
As fire is covered by smoke,
as a mirror is covered by dust, or as
an embryo is covered by the womb,
similarly, the living being is covered
by different layers of lust.
Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 3, verse 38.

Julian Ochoa 13:31

Monday, May 23, 2005

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
Emily Dickinson.

Julian Ochoa 21:31

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

"Dogmas take endless forms, and when you can persuade different people to hold opposing dogmas, the manipulation of conflict and control through 'divide and rule' becomes easy. It is happening today in the same way - more so, in fact - as it has throughout human history."
Unknown.

Julian Ochoa 00:21

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Little Fly,Thy summer's playMy thoughtless handHas brushed away.Am not IA fly like thee?Or art not thouA man like me?For I danceAnd drink and sing,Till some blind handShall brush my wing.If thought is lifeAnd strength and breath,And the wantOf thought is death,Then am IA happy fly,If I liveOr if I die.
William Blake.

Julian Ochoa 00:11

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