St. John of the Cross & Mortifications.
“St. Catherine of Genoa said: “I AM NO MORE MY OWN”.
From Facing Adversity with Grace: Lessons from the Saints by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker:
“As we look at the ways saints dealt with adversity, physical pain is a good place to start since almost everyone has experienced physical pain at some time in their lives. In fact, many other types of suffering, such as torture, hunger, disability, and even mental anguish, are expressed physically. Pain is one of the common denominators of humanity.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a saint who didn't suffer physically in some form or another. Sometimes the pain was the result of illness or injury; at other times it was the result of self-mortification, and especially in the past, it was often the result of torture.
Like all addicts, Matt Talbot had to exercise self-discipline in order not to take up drinking again, but he did more than just resist the urge to drink.
Some of his additional self-discipline came in the form of PHYSICAL MORTIFICATION.
WHY IS SELF-DISCIPLINE important when dealing with the suffering associated with addiction?
AS IS THE CASE WITH SO MANY OTHER KINDS OF SUFFERING, IT'S BECAUSE LIVING A DISCIPLINED LIFE STOPS THE CYCLE OF SELF-PITY.”
MEANING ACTIVELY DESTROYING THE EGO.
The Awakening IS THAT.
“Often whatever we concentrate on INTENSIFIES, so if want to lessen our suffering, WE MUST STOP FOCUSING ON IT. Living a disciplined life is the key to making that happen.”
Meaning the Will.
You will see from the rest of the article that many so-called saints are not indeed saints.
Because they forced this focus on something they did not like.
Ending up believing that they “have arrived” when they have not even begun their work of destroying the ego.
From Spiritual Canticle by St. John of the Cross:
“No soul therefore can overcome his might [...] without [...] MORTIFICATION.
St. Paul, saying:
“IF BY THE SPIRIT you mortify the deeds of the FLESH, YOU SHALL LIVE.”
By the siege is meant the passions and desires, WHICH, WHEN NOT OVERCOME AND MORTIFIED [...]”
From that Edition of “Spiritual Canticle” translated by David Lewis: We find;
Mortal 1 time,
mortal flesh 1 time,
mortal body 3 times,
mortal tongue 2 times,
mortal nature 1 time,
mortal eyes 1 time,
mortal sin plus mortal sins 4 times,
mortal life 3 times,
mortal vision 2 times,
mortified 5 times,
mortify 2 times,
mortification plus mortifications 7 times,
mortifying 2 times.
THIS IS THE THEME OF THE TEXT, and of all the “Mystical literature”; TO OVERCOME HIS FLESH.
What is written in the religious texts has nothing to do with the conception of a monotheistic god at all; it's a state 'that it is about'; the mystical state.
For this reason, everything is an allusion in these religious texts:
- For the Allusion exceeds the mental (mind).
Mental in the sense of “something Reactive”.
Example of the mental;
eating chips reminds you of barbecue;
nudity reminds you of sex;
the heat of the sun reminds you of the feeling of warmth, et cetera.
IT'S ALL ABOUT MEMORIES in the mental process; one idea calls 'to another idea'. A tool used 'for the Basis of marketing'.
The MIND “works” this way: one idea calls to another.
I wish it were more complicated, but it's not.
It's simplistic and 'NOT VERY SMART'. IN FACT 'NOT SMART AT ALL'.
TO USE A CONTEMPORARY VOCABULARY: OVERCOMING THE FLESH IS OVERCOMING THE MIND. This mind “that always knows what is best for you”. BUT IN FACT NOT, AS IT IS ONLY REACTIVE.
[...] You know when every time an idea pops up, and that it's just related to what you're used to doing.
But this idea is not the right one, IT'S NOT THE BEST IDEA YOU COULD HAVE.
BUT THAT THERE IS AN INSISTENCE in the brain on “getting this idea through”; because you are used to; IT'S THAT MENTAL ACTIVITY 'that needs to be overcome'. Mystics talk about that nothing else.
It is 'this state that the mystics speak of'. This is what the mystics pointed 'to as a state'; awakening is about that, nothing else.
The mind is not the one, WHICH HAS TO CONTROL YOU, you have to control 'the mind'.
And yes, WE CAN CHANGE THIS BIOLOGY.
This is the Essence of Esotericism. Esotericism is the ESSENCE of Religions, religions are not meant TO BE institutions at all.
It is a 'USURPATION OF RIGHT'.
THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY in a religion AS A STRUCTURE.
NONE.
'Don't be IMPRESSED BY THEM'. IF RELIGIOUS PEOPLE 'TELL YOU OTHERWISE'; THEY LIE.
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE have no legitimacy over you or society.
From A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor and Karen Armstrong:
“BY FIERCE ASCETICISM, cloistered incarceration, sleeping on straw and rising in the darkness after a few hours’ sleep, by abstinence, fasting, humiliation, the hair shirt, the scourge, the extremes of heat and cold, and the unbroken cycle of contemplation, prayer and back-breaking toil.”
'THE GOAL IS TO BREAK THE EGO', that identification “we have”.
What remains after the broken ego will be the mystical state. The Mystical liberation which is the basis of religious texts. ALL RELIGIONS ARE MYSTICAL, then became institutions without authority, WANDERING LIKE 'A CHICKEN THAT HAS JUST BEEN DECAPITATED'.
From Alchemical Active Imagination by Marie-Louise von Franz:
“And then comes the “SYMBOLIZATION”: when one speaks such different languages, one can communicate only by using symbols.
AT FIRST THE BODY CANNOT UNDERSTAND SYMBOLS but always says to stop and cease THAT SYMBOLIC WAY OF TALKING AND BE CONCRETE, FOR HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND IT.
But after a while he begins TO UNDERSTAND THE SYMBOLIZATION, and then they can be reunited IN A NEW ONENESS.”
This is 'why Myths' WERE SO IMPORTANT in the Antiquity and why the population 'was much more' EVOLVED THAN MODERN PEOPLE ARE.
FOR THE PRACTICE OF SYMBOL, evolves this mental capacity towards 'MORE ABSTRACTION'; AND ULTIMATELY “this is how the brain Works.”
The Ancients were much more sophisticated than we are, we see this in their art, in their texts, 'in their poetry', it is they who gave us the MODERN ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY, The Civilization.
Since we have Abandoned this way of functioning, we are 'ONLY DRIFTING', especially in the West WITH THIS RIDICULOUS DEMOCRACY.
“That is why first the separation or distraction, distractio of the mens from the body, is necessary, so that the later union can be achieved. Many call this distractio a voluntary death reached by making animus and anima one and by making them subdue the body, which has to be forced to give up his petulance, his agitation, and his constant worry about worldly things, and also his lack of moderation in his desires.
THIS HAS AN EFFECT ON THE WILL.
The latter starts liking THIS CHANGE AND BECOMES THE MEDICINE.
Just as wild animals become ferocious when they eat too much, and get a cancerous tumor when they do not cleanse their bodies of all superfluous juices through the excrement, through defecation, SO THE PHILOSOPHICAL MEDICINE HAS TO CLEANSE OUR BODIES FROM EVERYTHING THAT IS SUPERFLUOUS AND CORRUPT, AND THEN IT CAN CURE THE BODY.”
MORTIFICATION.
“If you read certain medieval texts on the spiritual education of a monk, such as the Exercitia Spiritualia by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, you will see that some orders also have such rules as to how to OVERCOME THE DESIRES OF THE BODY.
Saint John of the Cross even said that someone who really took the imitation of Christ SERIOUSLY SHOULD NOT LIVE BEYOND FORTY.”
The STATEMENT is a bit exaggerated. But it's TRUE in the sense that if you don't economize yourself (if you refuse the gentrification of life), THEN BY DEFINITION you're not going to 'take care of that body' and age faster than someone who does economize. The bourgeois lifestyle being as opposed to the mystical lifestyle and mystics aging faster than a typical 'middle class man'. And the reserves of the body being not inexhaustible. You age faster.
But after enlightenment, this Preoccupation disappears; being alive or dead doesn't matter.
“For in medieval meditation texts, the body is always tortured, mortified, and abused as much as possible, treated completely as an enemy.
Here he is treated not quite as an enemy BUT RATHER AS A POOR CHAP WHO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND, and he gets a decent meal in another room.
He is not just mortified or rejected, as in medieval treatises like Diligendo Deo, or in the writings of Saint John of the Cross and others.”
The objective is to 'BREAK THE RESISTANCE'.
From Cultivating Virtue: Self-Mastery With the Saints by Anonymous, translated from the Italian by A Member of the Order of Mercy. Originally published as A Year With the Saints: A Virtue for Every Month of the Year in 1891:
“In it the soul becomes like that of a little child, enjoys a pure and holy tranquility, never thinks evil of others, nor interests itself in what does not belong to its own position.”
IT'S SUPER HARD TO EXPLAIN, because THERE'S THE RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION that comes up first; THE ONE WE WERE RAISED IN; PURITANICAL, BOURGEOIS. BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S ABOUT. IT'S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL DECORUM.
The transformation (enlightenment) of the body leads to THE INTERIOR. THE ENLIGHTENMENT SEALS THE BODY FROM THE OUTSIDE, NOTHING EXTERNAL CAN ENTER FROM NOW ON.
The Wanderings of others can therefore only be foreign 'to us' because there is no longer a exterior “perceived”.
It is not explicable. This is why esoteric traditions speak of Unification, although Unification “is not the right word”.
“Thence he brought her up to the second terrace, [...] Here he enumerated to her the properties of TRUE LOVE, WHICH IS PURE, SIMPLE, UNSELFISH [...] These are: a true mortification of ALL VICES AND OF EVERY EARTHLY AFFECTION [...] A LIVING DEATH, by which the soul dies to itself and TO ALL AFFECTIONS OF SENSE, and lives in a total annihilation and transformation into its crucified Lord, so as to be able to say:
“I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.” [Gal. 2:20]”
Read this sentence and Especially the End of this sentence; “its crucified Lord, Christ liveth in me”, in a non-dualistic way, for that is what it is all about.
EVERYTHING HAS BEEN INTERPRETED “dualistically” by religions ('institutions'). And the mystical state 'is not about that'.
“The soul that has gained this state seems to have conquered the world, and bears sufferings and crosses as if it could no longer feel them. The fourth terrace, he said, TYPIFIED THE STATE of real and perfect union.”
That is why you read in the mystical writings; “that they walk on the world”.
St. Francis de Sales:
“I hear nothing talked of but perfection; yet I see it practiced only by few. Everyone forms his own ideal of it. Some place it in simplicity of attire; some in austerity; some in almsgiving; some in frequent reception of the Sacraments; this one, in prayer; that one, in passive contemplation; and another, in the gifts called gratuitous. BUT, BY A GENERAL MISTAKE, THEY TAKE THE EFFECTS FOR THE CAUSE, AND THE MEANS FOR THE END.
The greater part of Christians usually practice incision instead of circumcision. They will make a cut indeed in a diseased part; but as for employing the knife of circumcision, to take away whatever is superfluous from the heart, few go so far.”
“FOR MY PART, I KNOW OF NO OTHER PERFECTION THAN LOVING GOD WITH ALL THE HEART, AND OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES.”
And here too this has not been understood by the christian who, from where he is, has God on one side of his head and himself on the other; this is not possible. Whereas the saints and mystics 'do not speak of this' but of a Union meaning not two.
[…] That is, no longer God on one side and you on the other. This means that the monotheistic notion of a God is false and showed by 'the mystical state'.
“Whoever imagines any other kind of perfection deceives himself, for the whole accumulation of virtues without this is but a heap of stones. And if we do not immediately and perfectly enjoy this treasure of holy love, the fault is in us. We are too slow and ungenerous with God, and do not give ourselves up entirely to Him, as the Saints did.”
The Master-Disciple relationship: a relationship that has not existed in the West 'for 1800 years':
“The Saint sought to mortify his disciple, while the latter, in the meantime, obeyed promptly in everything and bore all WITHOUT REPLY.
And thus, in the course of only five years, he reached a very high perfection and sanctity.”
It doesn't take more than 'five to ten years' to awaken; from the moment 'you have two people who have one will.
You don't have that anymore in the West, that's why; there is no way to awaken 'anybody in the West'.
The Esoteric Tradition has been Interrupted in the West and is not in a position to resurrect anytime soon in this 'moribund continent'.
St. John of the Cross:
“I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection DOES NOT CONSIST IN MANY DEVICES, nor in much cogitation, BUT IN DENYING THEMSELVES completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for love of Christ.
And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH, and profitless trifling, although a person should have a very high contemplation and communication with God.”
“CASSIAN WROTE CONCERNING THE ABBOT PAPHNUTIUS THAT THE ROAD BY WHICH HE ARRIVED AT SUCH GREAT SANCTITY WAS THAT OF CONSTANTLY MORTIFYING HIMSELF;
and that in this manner he extinguished in himself all vices, and perfected in himself all virtues.”
THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO GET THERE. You have to 'Nuke' ALL THE MENTAL RESISTANCES, you have to 'purify this mind'.
“FATHER BALTHASAR ALVAREZ PRACTICED CONTINUAL MORTIFICATION AND SELF-DENIAL, not only in great things BUT ALSO IN SMALL; and by this he arrived AT HIGH PERFECTION.
The Blessed Angela di Foligno, in ecstasy, saw the Lord bestowing marks of love upon some of His servants, but upon one, more; upon another, less. Desiring to understand the cause of this difference, she advanced to inquire of Our Lord, who answered thus: “I invite all to Me, but all ARE NOT WILLING TO COME, BECAUSE THE WAY IS INTERLACED WITH THORNS. To all who come, I offer My bread to eat and My cup to drink. But My food IS NOT PLEASING TO SENSE, AND MY CUP IS FULL OF BITTERNESS, so that all do not desire TO SATIATE themselves with those labors which were My meat while I was in the world.
But those who are most constant in bearing Me company, they certainly are My dearest and most favored ones.”
Simple enough for a Mystic to understand BUT NOT FOR A RELIGIOUS PERSON; the reason Why these mystical-religious texts are not understood 'by them'.
Let's go back to the text “Cultivating Virtue: Self-Mastery With the Saints by Anonymous”.
The problem with the religious is these good sentiments (do-gooders) and actions only apply to morality meaning SOCIAL DECORUM. Since they have not been initiated and won't be (not their nature), they will apply solutions 'from where they are'; and where they are is not very far.
Ending up creating worse results than before their actions.
This is why religious people 'are always social dangers'; and the social Threat.
“Then it was revealed to him that so great a grace had been given him by God in reward for the little mortification which he accepted in serving Mass.”
Religious people being brought up in 'this BOURGEOIS ATMOSPHERE of social decorum' cannot understand that 'one must first destroy oneself' in order to enjoy 'the fruits of this destruction'.
That is to say, to no longer suffer from this mind 'which dictates life'.
THE RELIGIOUS ADD MORE MENTAL (mind) TO THE SOCIETY, to a western society already well taken in the mental, since the inception of Christianism. Doctrine coming from the East at least in its mentality and not understood by a 'Western population', not used to this kind of mentality.
The religious, the bourgeois par excellence, apply an outside (exotericism: 'politics'), and 'what should' be applied is an Inside ('Esotericism').
Ending up applying a whole bunch of isms, collectivism ... ecologism the last seen of the isms, this destroying 'THE STRUCTURES OF SOCIETY' which are only based 'on the transformation of the individual'; its awakening.
THE WESTERN COLLECTIVISM of the 20th century being therefore only this political application of internal precepts (esotericism), on (the external) politics.
THIS IS WHY THERE IS A CONSTANT WESTERN CONFUSION BETWEEN THE PRIVATE AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE WEST, and these western maternalist states that always dictate “life to people”.
It's unbearable but this is the monotheistic West. Because the ESOTERIC DOCTRINES have not been understood by the population, and are not understandable for the Westerners (different Mentality).
St. Francis de Sales:
“Our greatest fault is that we wish to serve God in our way, not in His way—according to our will, not according to His will.”
That is, we act through the mind, which always dictates our lives:
that mind that 'has not been domesticated yet'.
And this is why the religious people SEES AN EXTERIOR, because he has not 'been transformed', and why he sees a God; an object.
God not being definable, he defines it. And loses himself in a concept, 'in the conceptual mind'. God not being definable and therefore not being graspable by the mind, we end up in the west with that stupid doctrine of monotheism. In Monotheism; on the one hand there is you and on the other God; esoterically 'this is not possible'; there cannot be two things; because esotericism is inside and outside does not exist; outside 'are just projections'.
St. Francis de Sales:
“Our greatest fault is that we wish to serve God in our way, not in His way—according to our will, not according to His will.
When He wishes us to be sick, WE WISH TO BE WELL when He desires us to serve HIM BY SUFFERINGS, we desire to serve Him BY WORKS; when He wishes us to exercise charity, we wish to exercise HUMILITY; when He seeks from us RESIGNATION, WE WISH FOR DEVOTION, a spirit of prayer, or some other virtue.
And this is not because the things we desire may be more pleasing to Him, but because THEY ARE MORE TO OUR TASTE.”
MEANING PLEASURES —THROUGH THE 'DOPAMINE MECHANISM'—.
“This is certainly the greatest obstacle WE CAN RAISE TO OUR OWN PERFECTION, for it is beyond doubt that if we wish to be Saints according to our own will, WE SHALL NEVER BE SO AT ALL.”
“TO BE TRULY A SAINT, it is necessary to be one according to the will of God.”
“St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi knew this most important truth; and, with the guidance of so clear a light, she knew how to submit her will to that of God so perfectly that she was always contented with what came to her day by day, nor did she ever desire anything extraordinary. She was even accustomed to say that she would consider it a marked defect to ask of the Lord any grace for herself or others, with any greater importunity than simple prayers, and that it was her joy and glory to do His will, not that He should do hers. Even as to the sanctity and perfection of her own soul, she wished that it might be not according to her own desire, but to the will of God. And so, we find among her writings this resolution: To offer myself to God, and to seek all that perfection and only that perfection which He is pleased that I should have, and in the time and way that He shall wish, and not otherwise.”
This, Precisely, is not understood 'BY THE RELIGIOUS' who act bourgeoisly and in the desire only to satisfy himself, ending up becoming totally neurotic and the Worst actors of society.
“In conversation with an intimate friend, she once said: The good which does not come to me by this way of the Divine Will, DOES NOT SEEM TO ME GOOD.
I would prefer having no gift at all except that of leaving my will and all my desires in God, to having any gift through desire and will.
Yes, yes, in me sint, Deus, vota tua, et non vota mea—THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE.
The grace which she asked most frequently and most earnestly of the Lord was this: that He would make her remain till death entirely subject and SUBMISSIVE to His Divine Will and pleasure; thus it is no wonder that she became SO HOLY.”
SUBMISSIVE IS 'THE KEY HERE'.
“Even among THE HEATHENS, there are to be found those who by the light of reason alone clearly understood this truth. Plutarch disapproved of the common prayer of the people: May God give you all that good which you desire. No, he says, we ought rather to say, May God grant that you shall desire what He desires. And what is more, Epictetus practiced it; for he said: “I am always content with whatever happens, it all happens by the disposal of God, and I am certain that what God wills is better than what I can ever will.””
St. Francis de Sales:
“Two mistakes I find common among spiritual persons. One is that they ordinarily measure their devotion by the CONSOLATIONS AND SATISFACTIONS [PLEASURES] which they experience in the way of God, so that if these happen to be wanting, they think they have lost all devotion.
No, this is no more than a sensible devotion. True and substantial devotion does not consist in these things, but in having a will resolute, active, ready, and CONSTANT NOT TO OFFEND God, AND TO PERFORM ALL THAT BELONGS TO HIS SERVICE.
The other mistake is that if it ever happens to them to do anything WITH REPUGNANCE AND WEARINESS, THEY BELIEVE THEY HAVE NO MERIT IN IT.”
Fools!
These Eastern teachings have NEVER BEEN 'UNDERSTOOD BY THE WESTERN MASSES'.
The Western mind cannot grasp the thought of the East.
IT IS UTTERLY USELESS TO CONTINUE IN THIS, we have to find something ELSE MORE SUITABLE FOR THE WESTERN MASSES.
St. Teresa:
“We are not to regard great favors from God so much as virtues, but consider who serves the Lord with the GREATEST MORTIFICATION.”
You have to Break this mind, TO BE ABLE TO FUNCTION NORMALLY IN SOCIETY.
St. Francis de Sales:
“Humility and charity are the two master-chords: one, the lowest; the other, the highest; all the others are dependent on them. Therefore it is necessary, above all, to maintain ourselves in these two virtues; for observe well that the preservation of the whole edifice depends on the FOUNDATION AND THE ROOF.
The two feet upon which one walks to perfection are mortification and the love of God. The latter is the right, the former the left foot.”
THIS LOVE OF GOD IS ONLY THE LOVE YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF.
God does not exist, it is a fragment of your imagination.
As long as you think there is an outside, like being in other people's business, you are not on the Inside, so you don't know what love is.
But love will not come until you have enlightenment, that is, until you have killed that mind, killed because you have desired it and you have killed the Beast, there the esoteric reference/imagery around “slaying the dragon”.
KILLING THIS EGO IS A —VOLUNTARY ACT—.
Revelation 20:1-3
“1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2, And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him.”
“By the aid of these, St. Francis Assisi climbed TO THE LOFTIEST PERFECTION. He led a life so austere and rigid that at the point of death he felt that he must ask pardon of his body FOR HAVING TREATED IT SO ILL.
We read in old chronicles of a young lady who was so severely afflicted that she seemed to be suffering THE PAINS OF HELL.
After remaining for a long time in this state, she one day turned her whole heart to God in this prayer:
“My sweetest Lord, only remember that I am a poor creature of Thine! for the rest, do with me what pleases Thee, now and through eternity!
I abandon myself into Thy hands, and am ready to suffer these torments as long as it shall please Thee.”
THIS ACT OF RESIGNATION.”
THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT. YOU HAVE TO SURRENDER COMPLETELY.
AND THE MADNESS STOPS AT THAT POINT; 'THE DUALITY STOPS THERE'.
If you read psychiatric literature, you will 'see many profiles revolving around this suffering of liberation'. Not finding a way out of their suffering; and yet 'they are the way out; that is THEMSELVES TO STOP THAT SUFFERING.
The dualism that has struck the West; the monotheism, in this dichotomy between an outside and an inside, which does not exist, making the 'Westerners' the most mentally crazy population in this world.
All the isms of collectivism 'were born in the West', westerners have brought this monotheistic plague to the whole world, all the way to Asia.
“St. Catherine of Genoa said: “I AM NO MORE MY OWN; whether I live or die, I AM MY SAVIOUR’S; I have no longer any possession or interest of my own.”
THIS IS WHY “THE ESOTERIC FIGURE of the savior”, which was not understood by the Westerner, who saw “an external Savior”, an historical Jesus, WHEN IT WAS THEMSELVES “WHO HAD TO SAVE THEMSELVES”.
This was not understood by the Westerner.
This same figure “which is taken up dozens and dozens of times in the religions of the East before applying it in the very clumsy Christian formula.”
“AS THE SPIRIT OF MORTIFICATION IS THAT OF THE CRUCIFIED”.
You understand 'why the MULTI-MILLENNIAL figure of the crucifixion was chosen to illustrate the awakening process'.
Abbot Moses:
“Place thyself under the discipline of a stern and austere man, who will treat thee harshly and with rigor; and then strive to drink in all his reproofs and ill treatment as one would drink milk and honey; and I assure thee that in a little time thou wilt find thyself ON THE PINNACLE OF PERFECTION.”
All this is no longer applicable in the West since the fall of Rome, the Westerner who has become a retarded Teenager refusing to become Mature, and insert himself into the Society of men.
The West is screwed up.
“St. Francis de Sales was often blamed by his friends, as they did not approve of his course in not sustaining his dignity and defending himself more vigorously AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF THE MALEVOLENT. He replied to them that mildness ought to be the characteristic of bishops; and so, although the world and self-love has established maxims of another kind, he did not wish to make use of them, BECAUSE THEY WERE CONTRARY TO THOSE OF JESUS CHRIST, IN CONFORMITY TO WHICH HE HAD ALWAYS GLORIED.”
As long as you are going TO BE ON THE OUTSIDE, YOU ARE GOING TO BE ON THE OUTSIDE and You will always find problems with this world.
Luke 14:11:
“For everyone who [..] HUMBLES himself WILL BE EXALTED.”
But Mortification is misunderstood; many people (religious) think that mortifying the body means acts of 'torture of the body'. No. This is how many religious people have attributed to themselves bodily abuse, such as flogging, WHICH ARE USELESS!
THE GOAL IS TO LIMIT ONE'S PLEASURES AND TO RENOUNCE THEM; MORTIFICATION IS THAT.
The goal is to avoid the 'DOPAMINE MECHANISM' in the brain' that consumes this body; more pleasures lead to more desires for pleasures, like an addict.
The goal is to regularly cut out these daily pleasures, until —YOU NO LONGER NEED THEM—.
Because you have understood that they 'enslave you', and you have understood the pleasures mechanism.
Gradually this biology will become 'more resistant' to outside solicitations until totally 'cut the outside'; and awakening is about that; the control of your biology.
St. Jerome:
“The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from the progress we make IN THE VIRTUE OF MORTIFICATION; for it should be held as certain that THE GREATER VIOLENCE we shall do ourselves in mortification, THE GREATER ADVANCE WE SHALL MAKE IN PERFECTION.”
“When St. Francis Borgia heard it said that anyone was a saint, he used to answer, “He is, if he is mortified.”
When a young monk once asked an aged saint why, among so many who aim at perfection, SO FEW ARE FOUND PERFECT, he replied,
“BECAUSE IN ORDER TO BE PERFECT IT IS NECESSARY TO DIE wholly to one’s own inclinations, AND THERE ARE FEW WHO ARRIVE AT THIS.””
Hence the IMAGE OF DEATH and Resurrection, in 'all Esoteric traditions'.
St. Francis de Sales:
“IT SHOULD BE OUR PRINCIPAL BUSINESS TO CONQUER OURSELVES, and, from day to day, to go on increasing in strength and PERFECTION.
Above all, however, it is necessary for us to strive TO CONQUER OUR LITTLE TEMPTATIONS, such as fits of anger, suspicions, jealousies, envy, deceitfulness, vanity, attachments, and evil thoughts.
For in this way we shall acquire strength to subdue greater ones.”
St. Vincent de Paul:
“He who allows himself to be ruled or guided by the lower and animal part of his nature, DESERVES TO BE CALLED A BEAST RATHER THAN A MAN.”
“Philip, Count of Nemours, after leading a very bad life, experienced on his deathbed wonderful contrition, so that he begged his confessor to have his body carried to the public square and left there, saying, “I have lived like a dog, and like a dog I ought to die.”
St. Vincent de Paul:
“Mortification of the appetite is the A, B, C of spiritual life.
Whoever cannot control himself in this, will hardly be able to conquer temptations more difficult to subdue.”
This Saint had, by long habit, so mortified his sense of taste that he never gave a sign of being pleased with anything, but took INDIFFERENTLY ALL THAT WAS GIVEN HIM.”
AND THIS IS WHERE THE ERROR I QUOTED 'ABOVE LIES'; – That is to say that you replace a pleasure by a pleasure; the pleasure of dissatisfaction 'IS ALSO A PLEASURE'; that is to say that 'the dopaminic mechanism' is identical.
And many religious people, also among those 'considered saints' have fallen 'into this trap of the mind'.
The aim is to break the mind, replacing one pleasure by another DOES NOT SOLVE ANYTHING.
You see tons of examples in christian literature, having made this mistake, of Replacing one 'pleasure by another'. Here are some examples:
“The Empress Leonora was remarkable for this virtue. Her usual dinner was of herbs, pulse, and other food of the poor, always the same both in kind and quantity.
St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, fasted on bread and water about half the year.
The blessed Jacopone, having one day a desire for meat, bought a piece. He hung it up in his room and kept it until it was spoiled; then he had it cooked and ate it with unspeakable disgust.
St. Isidore suffered [...] so excessively that he could not go to the table without tears, and the command of his Superior was needed to force him to take some nourishment.
St. Catherine of Genoa practiced this. She loved to submit her preference to that of others, in all things.”
ALL THIS IS USELESS, ON THE CONTRARY you promote the opposite; REINFORCING THE EGO.
Personally, to tell you what to do; I DON'T PAY ATTENTION 'TO WHAT I EAT';
With time you will see 'that you do not pay attention to what you eat' and all those little everyday acts.
But to go the other way and mortify this body in disgust, is the opposite of what you should do;
The point of esotericism is to stop paying attention to “THE DETAILS.”
If you hate what you eat, you are still paying attention to the details; you have just “changed the polarity”;
That is, you have gone from the positive of flavors to the negative of flavors; but it is still pleasure. That is, YOU ARE TAKING 'PLEASURE IN THIS —NEGATION OF LIFE—'.
“St. Vincent de Paul practiced continual mortification of the senses, depriving them even of lawful gratifications, and often inflicting on them voluntary sufferings. When he was traveling, instead of allowing his eyes to wander over the country, HE USUALLY KEPT THEM ON HIS CRUCIFIX.”
'THESE SIMPLETONS' have not understood 'what to do'.
“Sister Joanna Maria of the Trinity, a Discalced Carmelite, had this excellent custom of seeking and finding mortification in everything. And so she always selected what was most insipid in food; poorest in clothing and shelter; most laborious in work; most unpleasant in matters of inclination. In a word, SHE ALWAYS CHOSE what was most inconvenient and disagreeable for herself, seeking in all things only the pleasure, honor, and glory of God.”
IF YOU ARE STILL CHOOSING, then you have not gotten rid of the ego.
Choosing 'what you don't like is still Choosing'.
It's a pity that the author of this book did not understand this precept. Because this book by the collection of saints is very important in the WHOLE REPRESENTED.
That's why I say 'these esoteric teachings are too complex for the westerner', who doesn't have the 'adapted' mentality as in the east.
THERE IS A FATALITY that you don't find in the westerner, and yet 'this is the Axis to dance on'.
This christian Positivism has just destroyed the West, which could not overcome 'THIS DUALISM'.
St. John of the Cross:
“The ignorance of some is greatly to be pitied, who load themselves with unwise penances and other unsuitable exercises of their devising, putting all their confidence in them, and expecting to become saints by their means. If they would put half of this labor UPON MORTIFYING THEIR APPETITES AND PASSIONS, they would gain more in a month than by all their other exercises in many years.”
“WHEN THE KING [THE MIND] IS TAKEN, 'THE BATTLE IS WON'.”
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez:
“The principal thing upon which we have to turn our attention, that we may mortify it and eradicate it from our hearts, is the predominant passion—that is, the affection, inclination, vice, or bad habit, which reigns most in us, which makes us its captive, which brings us into greatest danger, and most frequently causes us to fall into grave transgressions.
WHEN THE KING IS TAKEN, THE BATTLE IS WON.
And until we do this, we shall make no great advance in perfection.”
“St. Ignatius once had a novice of a fiery disposition, to whom he often said: “My son, conquer this temperament of yours, and you will have in Heaven a more resplendent crown than many who are gentle by nature.” One day, the Father in charge accused this young man to him as intractable. “Not so,” answered the Saint; “for I believe HE HAS MADE MORE IMPROVEMENT IN A FEW MONTHS, THAN SUCH A ONE, WHO IS NATURALLY GENTLE, IN A YEAR.”
St. Francis de Sales confessed that the dominant passions he had most difficulty in subduing were love and anger, and that he had conquered the former by stratagem, the latter by open force; that is, he had conquered love by diverting his mind, and proposing to himself another object of love; for he said that as the human soul cannot exist without some love, the whole secret lies in giving to it only WHAT IS GOOD, PURE, AND HOLY.
Anger, on the other hand, he had subdued BY ATTACKING IT IN FRONT, and never yielding to it at all. Whence it happened THAT THOUGH HE WAS NATURALLY PASSIONATE, HE WAS THOUGHT TO BE OF A GENTLE TEMPER.”
All the people who have awakened (broken the ego) were 'pissed off' by nature. The opposite; being of a calm temperament 'closes the doors to Awakening'.
That is why this esoteric tradition is not exportable to the masses, because there are TOO MANY SHEEP IN THE MASSES.
Matthew 11:12
“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERS VIOLENCE, AND THE VIOLENT TAKE IT BY FORCE.”
St. John of the Cross:
“Do not weary thyself in vain; for thou wilt never succeed in possessing true spiritual sweetness and satisfaction, unless THOU FIRST DENY ALL THY DESIRES.”
St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi:
“THE LIFE OF OUR FLESH IS THE DELIGHT OF SENSUALITY; its death is to take from it all sensible delight. The life of our judgment and our will is to dispose of ourselves and what is ours, according to our own views and wishes; their death, then, is to submit ourselves in all things to the judgment AND WILL OF OTHERS.”
- THE LIFE OF OUR FLESH IS THE DELIGHT OF SENSUALITY.
YES. —THIS IS CORRECT—.
- SUBMIT OURSELVES TO THE WILL OF OTHERS.
NO. “THIS IS FALSE”.
I DESCRIBED the process above; pleasure is always pleasure; the goal IS TO STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO EVERYDAY DETAILS.
Religious people, and many of “those who have been considered saints” are obviously not. They are not because they have not understood this mechanism of pleasure or DO NOT HAVE THE WILL TO GET RID OF IT.
DISSATISFACTION IS ALSO A SATISFACTION, it is always a pleasure linked to the senses.
The goal is to stop PAYING ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS OF LIFE; this is the goal; the enlightenment;
“St. Catherine of Genoa said: “I AM NO MORE MY OWN”.
That's where WE NEED TO ARRIVE.
“St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi invented a great and secret mortification, which she afterwards practiced for the rest of her life. When she noticed that her Superiors, through regard for her health, tried to give her such food as she liked best, she showed a preference for what was disagreeable and unpleasant to her taste, and made it appear that those things which she really desired were objects of aversion, and would make her ill. And so it happened that what she disliked was often given her, and what would have suited her taste was forbidden. In reward for this, she enjoyed imperturbable peace of soul and the constant presence of God.”
WISHFUL THINKING.
ALL THIS IS MENTAL MASTURBATION!
THE GOAL IS THAT THERE IS NO MORE MENTAL MASTURBATION ANYMORE! NEGATIVE MENTAL masturbation whereas before it was A POSITIVE ONE. But it is still a MENTAL MASTURBATION.
DELUSION AND DECADENCE 'OF THE RELIGIOUS'.
St. Fulgentius:
“Would you know who are true monks? Those who by mortification have brought THEIR WILL UNDER SUCH CONTROL that they no longer have any wish except to obey the precepts and counsels of their Superior.”
St. Francis de Sales:
“EVERY SISTER, ON ENTERING RELIGION, SHOULD LEAVE HER OWN WILL outside the gate.”
“ST. DOSITHEUS SAID OF HIMSELF THAT FROM HIS FIRST ENTRANCE INTO RELIGION HE COMPLETELY GAVE UP HIS OWN WILL.
And he added that in this way he had attained such peace of heart and tranquillity of mind that nothing COULD EVER DISTURB HIM.”
St. John of the Cross:
“TO ARRIVE AT PERFECT UNION, THERE IS NEEDED A TOTAL AND PERFECT MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES AND DESIRES.”
From Elizabeth of the Trinity by Sr. Giovanna della Croce:
“Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross told her that there ARE NO “WIDE AND EASY STREETS TO BE TRAVELED, BUT ONLY THORNY PATHS” that, winding “THROUGH BRAMBLES,” bring one to union with God.”
—THERE ARE NO EASY WAYS— to Reach 'Enlightenment'.
From In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, Vol. 2: Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide by Francis Fernandez:
“Detachment from material goods, mortification and abstinence purify us from our sins and help us to find God in our everyday life.”
Nope!
It's still concentration. Concentration on one point;
- 'on the material needs'.
THERE IS THIS FAMOUS SAYING:
“What you resist, PERSISTS.”
And that's exactly what it's all about; if you always focus on one thing, then that same thing will come up.
The goal IS TO STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO IT.
From Little steps to great holiness by Charles Hugo Doyle:
““MORTIFY YOUR PASSIONS,” says 'Cassian, “AND YOU WILL LIVE IN PEACE WITH YOUR BRETHREN.””
You will not begin “to change the world until you have changed yourselves”; that is awakening. All this masturbation about changing the world, will only succeed TO DESTROY THIS HUMAN SPECIES. From collectivism now to Ecologism; these religious people ARE THE WORST, because they are not changed but are always the 'same delusional baboons'.
““Of all hostile feelings,” Whately says, “envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly anyone owns IT EVEN TO HIMSELF, BUT LOOKS OUT FOR ONE PRETEXT after another to justify HIS HOSTILITY.””
This is the —Story of the Religious—.
“The renowned spiritual work entitled Spiritual Combat carries THIS POINTED PARAGRAPH:
“Some people, considering the spiritual life solely from the exterior side, make it consist in corporal penances such as hair-shirts, disciplines, fastings, vigils, and other like acts of mortification. Others, more especially women, think they have reached the summit of perfection when they have recited many vocal prayers, heard Mass frequently, said the divine office, received Holy Communion often, and passed long hours in the church. Even among those who have given themselves wholly to the service of God in the cloister, we find some who place all their perfection in performing all their choir exercises, loving seclusion and silence, and perfectly observing the exterior rules of their convent.
Thus these Christians all place perfection in one or another exercise of devotion and, by so doing, THEY DECEIVE THEMSELVES—ONE AND ALL.
FOR ALL EXTERIOR WORKS are simply helps to holiness or its fruits; they cannot possibly, in themselves, constitute CHRISTIAN PERFECTION nor THE TRUE SPIRITUAL LIFE.””
From Overcoming Sinful Thoughts: How to Realign Your Thinking and Defeat Harmful Ideas by Fr. Thomas G. Morrow:
St. John of the Cross:
“Hence, we call this nakedness [this mortification of appetites] a night for the soul, for we are not discussing the mere lack of things; this lack will not divest the soul if it craves for all these objects. We are dealing with the [emptying] of the soul’s APPETITES AND GRATIFICATIONS.
This is what leaves it free and empty of all things, even though it possesses them.
Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it; rather, it is THE WILL AND APPETITE dwelling within that causes the damage when set on these things.”
“Fasting and doing penance are primarily about denying the Will, not just the body. [...] St. Catherine of Siena, “He who desires for My sake to mortify his body with many penances, And not his own Will, did not give Me much pleasure.” And, of course, fasting or doing penance must always be done with prudence. Fasting to the point of ruining your health is not pleasing to God, as St. Bernard learned the hard way.”
WHAT AMUSES ME about religious people is the KIND OF NARCISSISTIC pervert games “that end up destroying THEIR HEALTH”.
“Many spiritual writers have stressed THE IMPORTANCE OF SUFFERING AS PART OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.”
This is ABSOLUTELY NOT UNDERSTOOD 'BY CHRISTIANS'. And Although “this theme of crucifixion” is the “christian theme”; they don't get it at all. Nor understand its benefits. Fools.
“Jesus told Rose of Lima that, “without the cross [souls] can find no road to climb to heaven.”
St. John of the Cross asked for three things:
first, that he might suffer something each day;
second, that he might not die as a superior in his Carmelite Order;
and third, that he might end his life in humiliation, disgrace, and contempt.”
For a 'NON-MYSTIC', —it's IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND—.
From T.S. Eliot Volume 2 (Critical Heritage) by Michael Grant:
“But from a spiritual viewpoint such a darkness and such a realization of the emptiness of material achievement awaken in Eliot above all thoughts of ‘The Dark Night of the Soul,’ THAT PASSIVE NIGHT, that intense purification with which God, according to St. John of the Cross, visits the soul.
To such as desire purification St. John of the Cross says:
“Advice must be given to learn to abide attentively and TO PAY NO HEED EITHER TO IMAGINATION or its workings; for here, as we may say, the faculties are at rest, and are working not actively BUT PASSIVELY BY RECEIVING.”
And in this spirit Eliot tells us.
“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
To recover purity of vision, [...] We must learn from
“the agony Of death and birth”
– that is to say ‘rebirth’.
The way to this, according to Eliot, is St. John of the Cross’ ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ as we have it explained in the concluding lines of Section III:
“In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein THERE IS NO ECSTASY.
In order to arrive at WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW
You must GO BY A WAY WHICH IS THE WAY OF IGNORANCE.””
That's why I say 'OFTEN' THAT AWAKENING IS A 'DRY STATE'. DON'T LOOK 'FOR PLEASURES' IN IT BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE.
“And it is clear that Eliot wants the source of these lines to be readily recognizable in order that his reference may enjoy the advantage of all the accumulated commentary and explanation linked to St. John of the Cross’ mystical philosophy. We can see this from the closeness with which he makes them echo a translation of the saint’s own words:
“– In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything,
Desire to have pleasure in nothing…
– In order to arrive at a knowledge of everything,
Desire to know nothing.
– In order to arrive at that wherein thou hast no pleasure,
Thou must go by a way wherein THOU HAST NO PLEASURE.
– In order to arrive at that which thou knowest not,
Thou must go by a way that THOU KNOWEST NOT.
– In order to arrive at that which thou possessest not,
Thou must go by a way that THOU POSSESSEST NOT.”
This is clearly not defeatism or apathy.”
NOPE IT IS NOT DEFETISM, IT'S THE OPPOSITE, and it has not been understood 'by the Westerners', this active character of passivity; esotericism.
Whereas exotericism is the opposite, that is to say; a passive character of activity.
That's why Westerners are so active and yet they don't succeed in building anything. And that since the fall of Rome and the end of esotericism in Europe nothing is built 'that lasts OR WILL LAST'.
It is the relationship of master to slave that is not understood, and the reason for this Permanent desire in the Westerner TO STOP BEING A SLAVE ('EGALITARIANISM').
WHILE THE SLAVE IS PRECISELY “THE ONE WHO HAS THE POWER IN THE MASTER/SLAVE RELATIONSHIP.”
Fools!
“This is clearly not defeatism or apathy. NOR IS IT A PHILOSOPHY OF ESCAPE such as so many critics are constantly seeing in Eliot’s writings.
But ‘to sit still’ in the sense advocated by St. John as a necessary step to spiritual purgation.
For Eliot feels with St. John of the Cross, that we must undergo not only the mortification of the flesh by The Ascent of Mount Carmel but also THE TRIAL OF THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, before we can hope FOR THAT PERFECT UNION [...] AND FOR THE DIVINIZATION OF ALL OUR FACULTIES described by St. John of the Cross in ‘The Spiritual Canticle’ and ‘The Living Flame of Love.’
Then in summing up his conclusions from the advocated approach of St. John of the Cross, Eliot returns in the last three lines of Section III to Heraclitus, ‘The Dark’ – THE UNITY OF OPPOSITION, THE HARMONY OF STRIFE:
“And what you do not know IS THE ONLY THING YOU KNOW
And what you own is WHAT YOU DO NOT OWN
And where you are is WHERE YOU ARE NOT.”
For among the Heraclitean fragments we read
“THE UNLIKE IS JOINED TOGETHER, AND FROM DIFFERENCES RESULTS MOST BEAUTIFUL HARMONY, AND ALL THINGS TAKE PLACE BY STRIFE. (XLVI)””
From The Context of Holiness: Psychological and Spiritual Reflections on the Life of Saint Therese of Lisieux by Marc Foley:
“This was Thérèse’s situation every day and it is also our own. We too live and work with people whom we don’t like and who bore us to tears. But this situation is not an obstacle on the spiritual path because God does not ask us to like people but to love them. And in some mysterious way, the people we find most difficult to relate to are those whom God has brought into our lives for our sanctification.
St. John of the Cross writes, “you should understand that those who are in the monastery are craftsmen placed there by God to MORTIFY YOU by working and CHISELING AT YOU… so you become worthy of heaven” (Co. 3).
John is presenting us with both a reality and a choice. The reality is that some people will grate on our nerves. The choice is whether we relate to them as irritants or AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATION.
If we choose to bear this person’s irritating mannerisms, foibles, and idiosyncrasies WITH LOVE, THEN OVER TIME, patience will produce a PEARL.
Thérèse made such a choice in the extreme during the last year of her life when SHE FREELY CHOSE TO WORK WITH SR. MARIE OF ST. JOSEPH.”
THIS TEACHING OF LOVE from the Esoteric Tradition 'HAS NOT BEEN UNDERSTOOD at all BY THE CHRISTIAN BODY.
Who once again externalized this act ('social decorum'), while it is an ESOTERIC ACT.
All the esotericism has not been understood by the Christian. It seems that they are totally 'hermetic to EVERYTHING ESOTERIC'.
Matthew 11:12
“The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, AND THE VIOLENT TAKE IT BY FORCE.”
You cannot awaken WHILE WAITING, it's contrary to the procedure; this body/matter is passive by definition; you are the active element in it (THE WILL). IT IS THE WILL “THAT MUST PREVAIL”, —THE WILL OVER THE MATTER—.
From The Twelve Steps to Holiness and Salvation by St. Alphonsus Liguori:
“We must do violence TO OURSELVES in temptations BY CONQUERING OURSELVES and mortifying our senses.
St. Ambrose:
“THE GREATER THIS VIOLENCE THE MORE PLEASING IT IS TO JESUS CHRIST.
WE MUST RULE OVER OURSELVES [...] IN ORDER TO WIN HEAVEN.”
According to St. John of the Cross, “We must mortify our senses and desires.”
St. Jerome had retired into the grotto of Bethlehem, where he constantly prayed and mortified his body; and yet he was frightfully tormented by the recollection of those women whom he had seen long before at Rome. “What is injurious to us,” says St. Francis de Sales, “is not so much the casual glance, but rather THE INTENTIONAL GAZE.””
IT IS THE WILL —THAT MUST BE MASTERED—. We often talk about the mind, but mental activity is not autonomous, the 'will' is. If you can master your will, then the mental activity is only WHAT FOLLOWS. The brain is really ONLY A REACTOR, it is not AN AUTONOMOUS ORGAN.
“Cassian adds that if we mortify OUR SELF-WILL, WE CAN EASILY ROOT out all vices, because THE LATTER SPRING FROM THE FORMER.”
THOUGHTS DEPENDS FROM 'YOUR STATE OF MIND'. If you are excited, then the flow of 'thoughts that will excite YOU WILL NOT STOP'.
It's as Simple as that.
St. Bernard:
“Yes, we are cruel, if you will, towards our bodies when we afflict them WITH PENANCE; BUT YOU ARE FAR MORE CRUEL TOWARDS YOURSELVES when you gratify YOUR SENSUAL CRAVINGS.”
“St. Aloysius Gonzaga had very poor health. Nevertheless, he was so intent on crucifying his body that he sought for nothing BUT MORTIFICATION AND WORKS OF PENANCE.
One day someone said to him that sanctity did not consist in these things, but in the renunciation OF SELF-WILL.
He meekly replied in the words of the Gospel:
“These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone.” (Matt. 23:23).
On this account the Apostle said: “I chastise my body AND BRING IT INTO SUBJECTION.” (1 Cor. 9:27)
If the body IS NOT MORTIFIED, it is very difficult to make it obedient to the law of God.
WE OURSELVES OUR WORST ENEMY.
BUT BY MORTIFICATION WE MAY ATTAIN GREAT GLORY IN HEAVEN.
“If contestants,” says St. Paul, “abstain from everything that might WEAKEN THE BODY and prevent them from winning a perishable crown, with what greater zeal ought not we to mortify ourselves in order to obtain a priceless AND ETERNAL CROWN!””
The goal —IS TO STABILIZE THIS BIOLOGY—. Esotericism is for that; 'all these texts were left for that', because we have the ability to “evolve” (evolution) this biology.
Once the change ('awakening') has occurred “you don't go back” to your previous state because the body —that you are has changed—.
“St. John saw the blessed in Heaven with palm branches in their hands.
From this it is evident that to be numbered among the elect WE MUST ALL BE MARTYRS.”
—AND THIS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOT BEEN— 'UNDERSTOOD' by Christians. Who do not understand 'THE UTILITY OF THE ACT OF MORTIFICATION'.
This makes me say again and again that Christianism is not soluble in the West.
Besides, this religion is deserted in the West; Empty churches, no more new Priests, et cetera.
This religion is a failure for the Western mind; it never really took, and we would have done better to stay in the GREEK PANTHEISM, which 'was soluble and the Western mind'.
“St. Peter says that the blessed are the living stones with which the heavenly Jerusalem is built.”
Except that these living stones are rare and you don't build a society/civilization ON SCARCITY.
Unless you have a caste society WITH 'THE BEST ON TOP', which is not the case with democracy.
It's the failure of the West in these two fields; christianism and democracy not SOLLUBLE IN THE WEST.
“Many Christians perform acts of devotion, go frequently to Holy Communion, fast and spend much time at prayer, but they neglect to mortify their passions, and harbor feelings of revenge and aversion, and entertain dangerous attachments. THEY MAKE NO EFFORT TO BEAR WITH CONTRADICTIONS, TO GIVE UP CERTAIN ASSOCIATIONS and to be subject to obedience and the Will of God.
What progress can such hope to make on the way to perfection?”
None. These teachings 'ARE NOT FOR THEM' ('NOT FOR THE MASSES').
“They always HAVE THE SAME FAULTS, and according to St. Augustine THEY ARE OUTSIDE THE RIGHT WAY.
“They run well,” says the Saint, “BUT OUTSIDE THE PATH.””
That is why the West has only been able TO TRAIN A MIDDLE CLASS AS RULERS for the last 1800 years.
And that there is no more training of Elites 'since that time'.
“St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say: “The day spent without mortification is a day lost.”
In order to teach us the value and necessity of mortification, our Blessed Lord chose to live a mortified life, a life without sensible consolation, a life of sorrow and shame.”
One wonders why these teachings have been repeated for the past 1800 years when THEY ARE NOT SOLUBLE 'IN THIS WESTERN POPULATION'.
“If you, Christian soul, desire to become holy and enjoy uninterrupted peace, strive as often as you can to MORTIFY YOUR WILL.
DO NOTHING FOR YOUR OWN SATISFACTION.
Worldly-minded people are intent upon following their own will as much as they possibly can; it is the constant aim of the Saints TO MORTIFY THEIR WILL, and they seek opportunities for doing so.
St. Andrew Avellino made a vow always to oppose his own will. Make it a practice at least every day to perform a few acts of SELF-DENIAL.”
From What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey:
“The renowned mystic St. John of the Cross advised believers to MORTIFY ALL JOY AND HOPE.”
Lol. It amuses me because I'M ALWAYS RIDICULING RELIGIOUS PEOPLE “AND THEIR STUPID HOPE”.
Benjamin Franklin:
“There is perhaps no one of natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it. Struggle with it. Stifle it. Mortify it as much as one pleases. It is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself.... Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.””
You have TO 'BREAK THAT EGO'.
From Saint Teresa of Avila by William Thomas Walsh:
““The reason for which it is necessary for the soul, in order TO ATTAIN TO DIVINE UNION WITH GOD, to pass through THIS DARK NIGHT OF MORTIFICATION OF THE DESIRES AND DENIAL OF PLEASURES IN ALL THINGS,” wrote Saint John of the Cross [...] The reason is that TWO CONTRARIES [...] CANNOT COEXIST IN ONE PERSON.”
YOU CANNOT BE PASSIVE AND ACTIVE IN YOUR LIFE, YOU MUST 'CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER'; and ONLY ONE OF THE TWO PAYS.
““THE MORTIFICATION AND CROSS OF THE CHRISTIAN IN THIS DOCTRINE IS PLAINLY FELT WHEN THE FLESH IS DEAD, SICK, AND EXHAUSTED ... AND IS EXPERIENCED BY THE PERFECT WHEN THE EYES NO LONGER SEE, NOR DOES THE HEARING HEAR, NOR DOES THE SENSE OF TASTE DISTINGUISH ANY FLAVOR IN WHAT IS EATEN.””
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: or Manresa by St. Ignatius Of Loyola:
““HIS CONTINUAL MORTIFICATIONS—HE RENOUNCES, HE CRUCIFIES HIMSELF IN ALL THINGS; HIS LIFE IS A COURSE OF FATIGUES, OF FASTS, OF WATCHINGS: “THE WHOLE LIFE OF CHRIST WAS BUT ONE CROSS AND ONE CONTINUAL MARTYRDOM”” (Imitation of Christ, 1.2–12).
From Free Grace Broadcaster Issue 201 – Mortification by Various:
Romans 8:13:
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but IF YE THROUGH THE SPIRIT do mortify the deeds of the body, YE SHALL LIVE.”
GOSH IT MAKES —NO SENSE TO REPEAT— these esoteric teachings to christians, which WILL 'NEVER BE UNDERSTOOD'.
“MORTIFICATION OF SIN IS PECULIARLY FROM THE DEATH OF CHRIST.”
You can't have a CLEAR MIND FREE of this stupid mental process of identification (memories 'that bind to each other') —WITHOUT DYING—.
Which means that this biology that you are now (operating with this process) must die 'to be replaced BY A MORE FUNCTIONAL ONE'.
There is nothing more complex, IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT.
And this process of destruction will not happen until you decide it will.
And like Alice going through the looking glass, this act will change you, because this biology; YOU WILL HAVE CHANGED.
I CAN'T BE ANY CLEARER THAN THAT.
You have to “take control over your will; and stop like any good religious person waiting and letting YOURSELF DRIFT.”
NO ONE IS GOING TO SAVE —YOU BUT YOU—.
Saint John of the Cross & Mortification #John-of-the-Cross #Mortification #Mortify #mortifying #John-Cross #John-ofCross #Mortification-flesh #John-Cross
https://bittube.tv/post/6f01d961-fa0b-4e13-b830-3089998c3c07 – Part 1 https://bittube.tv/post/77c4e63d-aae2-4d41-b769-2127ef45d7e3 – Part 2 https://odysee.com/@periodic-reset-of-civilizations:c/Saint-John-of-the-Cross---Mortification:4 https://tube.midov.pl/w/4rN2GyaQWTjWd6zFBKz3q6 https://www.bitchute.com/video/8iEf0DaGq8RS/
All the platforms I Am on: https://steemit.com/links/@resetciviliz/link-s
▶ BITCOIN 34c3XCeSyoi9DPRks867KL7GVD7tGVcxnH ▶ ETHEREUM 0xAc1FBaEBaCc83D332494B55123F5493a113cE457 ▶ TEESPRING https://periodic-reset.creator-spring.com