A Humble Response
I was honored today with a response via email to one of my past posts. I felt compelled to share it here in a new post, as my personal life has prevented me from keeping up with sharing my thoughts on R&W.
Hello KDouglass,
I really liked your article about logismoi.
Why arent these truths getting preached in church anymore or at least being spread in society?
Do you agree with Steiner that this sin is brought forth from entities that feed on fear?
Best regards,
E.Oni
My response:
Hello E.Oni,
First, I deeply appreciate your sentiment regarding my article. As I have several websites, I can only assume that you are referencing this article:
That said, here are my responses to your questions:
First, I am – after many, many years of searching, reading, studying and, most importantly, experiencing, the many paths that presume to be “the truth”, I have become an Anthroposophist, following the teachings of, but not limited to, those of Rudolf Steiner.
That being said, in answer to your question on why such truths as the realities behind “logosmi” are not taught from behind the pulpit, as it were, are somewhat manifold.
First, Father Maximos, whom I quote and upon whom I rely as an authority on the subject, did not always find favor in those of authority in the (Orthodox Christian) church. Whether or not that bears any influence on your question is unknown – at least by me. In my experience, those who claim to be an “authority” on any subject should be suspect and therefore should be questioned (internally) on whatever they claim to “know”. Fr. Maximos was not one who claimed to be an authority but was, by my reckoning, a humble soul.
Regarding the state of the “church” today: The “time” of the church is coming to an end. In times past, it was incumbent on the Church to disseminate “truth” to the people in such a way that, according to the capabilities of the general populace at the time, they could grasp Truth in some form or fashion that aided their personal direction in life. What I mean here is that, in the past, human cognition, human consciousness, was not yet developed enough to be able to grasp the deeper truths of Christianity – or any true religion, (true) Christianity being the fulfillment of all true religion. It is akin to teaching a child in analogy or metaphor (e.g. Christ teaching in parable). That time has now passed. Human consciousness has developed to a degree whereby – dependent solely on the desire and aspiration of the individual – one can know the Truth that sets one free. In short, the “time” of the “church” is over – Truth must be sought sincerely by the individual, we must now think on such things for ourselves.
Regarding your second question: I agree fully with the statement that fear is humanity’s greatest challenge. If one looks deep enough, and sincerely enough, into one’s soul, it becomes evident that fear drives us toward that which desires only comfort or self-satisfaction. As sensual beings, we detest the idea of having to experience pain and suffering. Against such, therefore, we pursue what we call “happiness” i.e. the fulfillment of anything and everything that causes us pleasure. But if we were to be honest with ourselves and step back, we would realize that what makes me happy makes another suffer, or, at a minimum, makes another sad or unhappy. This defines happiness as subject (to circumstance), not object (universal in scope). Buddha taught, and very rightly so, that life is pain. Franz Bardon, IMHO, said it best:
“On Earth every human being has two teachers: firstly, him- or herself and, secondly, fate. What Man is not able to achieve by his own diligence, practice, renunciation, pain, grief, etc., will be served up by the buffets of fate. Life is a school, not an amusement fair.”
Therefore, in sum, we “fear” pain and suffering. As such, fear becomes for us the avoidance of suffering – or at least the attempt of avoidance. If we fear getting ill and are told that such-and-such vaccination will prevent the proposed illness, what do most do? They run to get a foreign substance injected into their very blood (the source of life). This is a reaction to our inner fear with no logical basis, no (personal) thought to what, in reality, we are doing.
Another Father of the (Orthodox) Church dear to me is quoted as saying, “Our thoughts determine our lives”. The first Hermetic principle states that “All is mind” i.e. God – all that the concept of God entails – is mind, is thought. Though we are a reality – you and I – our origin began with a thought of the Father Principle – of God. For us, as spiritual beings having a human experience, it should be easy to see that our thoughts, if we allow them to be, are enraptured by a state of fear.
In short, yes – I not only believe, I know that adversarial forces actually do feed on fear. Why? because they desire us to be steered away from Truth and desire us to follow their illusionary phantom of truth. They, like us, possess a will to survive. Yet they can only persist in their perverted schema of truth by subverting and undermining true Truth. And their goal is to drag us down with them into an eternal state of perdition – which, we fail to understand – is a future reality for human and spiritual evolution for those who live in fear.
I want to be clear, however: There are those that claim to “fear nothing” and stand upright with boldness against any accusation of being otherwise. But many wildfires are fought by fire i.e. creating boundaries by the controlled burning of fuel in the direction of said fire. Standing firm and stating one has no fear is – in many if not all cases – simply fearing to be afraid. To overcome fear is not manifest in a boldness against fear. Overcoming fear is searching in earnest – and finding – the truth of who and what we are and especially of the forces that work both for and against our development forward.
I’ll leave you with a shameless plug for words of wisdom my grandfather left me:
“Life is motion, action and energy. When we do not advance, we fall back. If we stop, we are beaten and ultimately outdistanced. If we are silent, we are soon forgotten. We cannot stand still.”
I hope this addresses your questions to your satisfaction. If not, I humbly invite you to continue our exchange – it is valuable to you, to I, to all.
Very sincerely,
-ken / anthony