Anthony66 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 3:24 pm Another thing that has occurred to me is the emphasis of faith in the gospel accounts. There is a hidden element, something most vital, something that silently abides amid change, the constantly inexpressible within each transitory expression. This hidden aspect has to be taken hold of by faith. Esoteric practice seems diametrically opposed to this, or at least in significant tension. One enters into this holy of holies to take hold of it.
I would like to add a few more thoughts here, because it is an important question. I think most people notice this seeming tension. It certainly took me awhile to get a good sense of where faith fits into the esoteric path of intuitive thinking. I'm sure Federica would say she has or is wrestling with that as well. We could give all sorts of abstract schemes here, like our bottom-up heartfelt thinking is an upward stream which meets the downward stream of wisdom/grace in a progressive feedback which spirals upwards into higher and higher stages of spiritual evolution towards our Divinity. Ultimately, though, it is a matter of inner experience.
Federica and I were discussing on the other thread how we constantly wrestle on the esoteric path with retaining the insights we have gained. These deep insights are always slipping out of our holistic understanding and it is a struggle to continually put them back in place. Every time we read something and feel to have a great grasp of spiritual reality, a few days later we have released that grasp and have to work our way back. We also discussed how it can even get to the point where our physiological equilibrium is thrown into upheaval. There is no question for us that this is a direct result of our spiritual striving, because everything else has remained the same (and we find this process confirmed by other esoteric writers). Our entire body-soul-spirit organism is resisiting this spiritual transformation, which is a necessary process of growth but also a stark reminder of how far we have fallen.
All of that reveals to us, in the most intimate way, how feeble the powers of our limited personality are to reach the Spirit. We inwardly awaken to the lifelessness, rigidity, inflexibility, moral corruption, and overall diseased nature of our psycho-physical organism, which obstructs the inflowing Spirit at every turn. These aren't abstract concepts of 'original sin', 'depravity', and so forth, but living experience of our fallen and sinful nature. It becomes abundantly clear that we cannot hope to reach the higher worlds of soul-spirit but through the grace of the Divinities, who patiently pick us up every time we fall down and drag us kicking and screaming towards our destiny. The only thing we can do, and therefore must do, is express our love and faith, which comes through not only our life of action and feeling, but our devoted thinking through the inner and outer creation. It is when we faithfully will our thinking towards the Divine ideals, or more accurately unite our thinking with the Divine Will (via spiritual practice), that we open a portal for Grace to flow down into our feeling and will on the physical plane. Then our entire organism becomes the faithful and fully conscious (free) instrument of the progressive Divine intents.