Mass Density

Today I happened upon a forum on a site called www.RickRoss.com, and on there the Cult Education Forum. The message thread I was looking at was about Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle (although it focused primarily on Katie). It was titled Byron Katie (the Work) and Eckhart Tolle Legit?? You can view it by clicking here. (warning, there are 96 pages of discussion!).

Byron Katie is the teacher of what she calls The Work. As far as I can ascertain this is essentially a process of self-enquiry that revolves around four questions and what she calls “a turn-around”. You can find out more on this at www.thework.org.

Eckhart Tolle is the author of numerous books, the first and most populate of which is called The Power Of Now. He is a spiritual teacher who is very popular and was made increasingly so when Oprah Winfrey took up his cause and promoted his teachings and online courses with him.

I have read through about 10 of the 96 pages of discussion on this topic. I read these because I found it very educational to gain insight into some of the ways in which people approach teachers like Katie and Tolle (and many others), and how certain people view the work and teachings of such teachers and authors. Please take the time to read through a few pages of the forum thread I am referring to in order to get an impression of what I am talking about.

What I discovered was what appears to be as a form of collective co-dependency. I see a collective playing out of what’s called the co-dependant triangle. This is a model of how co-dependent relations tend to involve three positions or rolls. These rolls are Victim, Aggressor/Victimiser, and Saviour. Co-dependant people will take up all and any of these rolls when relating to other people, events, situations, and the world in general.

On the forum at rickross.com I see people who take up the roll of saviour and who are projecting onto the world the roll of victim, and onto these teachers the roll of victimiser. The basic assumption is that people who attend a Byron Katie workshop, or even buy one of her books, are falling pray to her abuse of their gullibility, or something to that effect. Similarly, people who get into Tolle’s teachings are falling pray to victimisation by him. That he is taking advantage of them. If people get more deeply involved in the activities of these teachers then they are getting caught up and victimised by a cult.

What I observe here are people who at some level are quite probably harbouring a deep pain-filled feeling of being a victim. A victim to what, I can not say. It is only an educated and intuitive guess that this is what’s going on for them at all, but I’d be surprised if it was not.

The basic madness involved here is the notion that people who decide to go to a Byron Katie workshop are not powerful enough to use their God given free will in a way that is ultimately in their own best interest. Even if Katie and Tolle are complete fraudsters who only wish to rip people off a make lots of money, it is completely irrelevant. Each person has the capacity to determine what is right for them in this moment. They may discover in the next moment that their awareness/consciousness has shifted and The Work or The Power of Now is no longer their cup of spiritual tea. They can then choose to move on. They can also discover why they choose to get into something that ripped them off (assuming that’s what they discover).

I have not met Byron Katie, but I am aware of her process it is is almost identical to one I developed myself  by the time I was 20 or so. This was a process or approach to reality I have effectively used to free myself from suffering. It is the most effective tool I have come across so far, and is included in one of my forthcoming books (Empowering Relationships). In fact, I first heard about Byron Katie a few years ago when I was explaining this particular healing approach to reality to a guy who then assumed I must have studied with Byron Katie. Since learning about her process I see we essentially came up with the same thing. So, to put it simply, I have no issue (in principle) with the crux of what she is teaching.

With regards to Eckart Tolle, I don’t agree with everything he has to say in his books, but in principle I find his approach to be very closely aligned with wholeness. I think ostracising the ego, as he does, is a mistake made all too often by way too many spiritual teachers and teachings, but perhaps this is what many people need to hear in order to grow and free themselves up, before they discover the ego is simply the seed of the Presence (or "I" of God) within them. That point aside, what little I’ve seen of Tolle’s work I feel is innately empowering for people and nothing to be afraid of. Yet even if it was dark and abusive, no one is a victim to that. People make choices and then experience the consequence of those choices. If the consequences are painful they have an opportunity to wake up and be more conscious. This is life.

I am drawing your attention to this so-called cult bashing because I feel it highlights a number of very significant human dynamics that are playing out in this world, and which have been playing out for many thousands of years. Particularly:

• The global victim mentality
• Co-dependency and projection
• The fear of change
• The insanity of the collective mob trying to resist people breaking out into their own sovereignty.

My father asked me "how do we get through to people like this" (those who are found in this forum thread). I said that I don’t think I need to. They are free beings, and they are free to get up in arms about whatever they like. It is only them who will reap the consequences, and grow accordingly and to their particular capacity in any given moment.

May we all remember to accept and honour each person’s approach to life and reality.

© Jonathan for Forever Expanding Awareness In Liberation, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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The following statements are the first 21 statements attributed to Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Saint Thomas. During the excavation of ruins in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in 1897 and 1903, over 5,000 fragments of ancient Greek texts were recovered from an ancient library. Among them were partial sections of what was believed to be the Gospel of Thomas. The statements below are from the translation made by Thomas O. Lambdin.

1. And he said, “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.”
2. Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.”

   Greek version, which differs from the above Coptic version:
   [Jesus said,] “Let the one seek[ing] not stop [seeking until] he finds. And when he find[s he will marvel, and mar]veling he will reign, an[d reigning] he will [rest.]”

3. “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
4. “The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place in life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same.”
5. “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”
6. His disciples questioned Him and said to Him, “Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?” Jesus said, “Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered.”
7. Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man, and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man.”
8. And He said, “The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9. “Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed(s) and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil and produced good fruit; it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure.”
10. “I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.”
11. “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”
12. The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader? Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
13. Jesus said to His disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell Me whom I am like.” Simon Peter said to Him, “You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew said to Him, “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to Him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom You are like.” Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.” And He took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things which He told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
14. Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth – it is that which will defile you.”
15. “When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. That one is your Father.”
16. “Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary.”
17. “I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind.”
18. The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.”
19. “Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being. If you become My disciples and listen to My words, these stones will minister to you. For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death.”
20. The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.” He said to them, “It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.”
21. Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples like?” He said, “They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come they will say ‘Let us have back our field.’ They will strip themselves naked in their presence, in order to let them have their field and give it to them. Therefore I say unto you, if the master of the house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You then be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength, lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will surely materialize. Let there be amongst you a man of understanding! When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in hand and he reaped. He who hath ears to hear let him hear.”

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It is interesting to note that many people take up what is called an Avatar in the virtual realm we has available to us through the Internet. Avatar is a Sanskrit word that essentially refers to a Being who is in all effects and purposes God incarnate. A fully God-realised Being incarnated as a human. Some might say that the story of the Christos is the story of an Avatar.

So in this virtual Kingdom of the Internet we have the experience of incarnating there as an Avatar. From the perspective of the virtual Kingdom we (our human/non-virtual self) is in Heaven and is fully conscious of its nature as a human. The online Avatar is a mere projection of our full and true (human) self into a virtual world were we take on a role and interact with the Avatars (digital incarnations or indigiations [to coin a new word]) of other fully conscious human beings. The online Avatar is completely ignorant of its true nature as a projection of a human. It is “asleep” to this fact. Asleep to its origins.

What I see here is a metaphor for life on Earth. This human self we have is merely a projection of our true Divine Self. It is an Avatar. I know for a fact that most of the Avatars I meet out in the world are all asleep to their true nature and source. They are yet to wake up.

The human self is our id-entity. Id is Latin for “it”. So our human identity is nothing more than an “it”-entity. An entity that arises through our identification (id-entification / it-entitication… entering the “it”). We can remove the “d” and we end up with an I-Entity. Making a quasi mathematical formula we could perhaps say that:

Id – d = I
Whereby d = dimension or density, or more specifically 3D or the 3rd Dimension.
I = the Supreme “I” that is the “I” (or Eye) of God.

It is not my intention to say anything conclusive in this blog post, rather to simply provide some food for thought and further self-investigation.

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