More on Service

[qos]

On further reflection, I felt it important to mention that I believe an enlightened soul could also choose a path of service that involved remaining disincarnate.

The focus of most spiritual writing tends to be on the challenges of material, incarnate life -- but if we admit to belief in worlds and forms of existence beyond this one, it naturally follows that there is work to do in those other realms as well as this one.

It would be wrong, I believe, to assume that souls who choose not to return do so out of unwillingness to aid their fellows. The paths of the bodhisattva and the sacred king are simply two among many, and not all of them lead back into incarnation in this world.

Comments

[rainstardragon.livejournal.com]

I believe this as well. Thank you for speaking of it.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment, and thanks for friending me!

[rainstardragon.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, and thanks for friending me as well. It's always very nice to meet new people and to find common views.

[upasaka.livejournal.com]

From a Mahayana perspective, human incarnation is all the more rare and precious precisely because we have the opportunity to work for the liberation of all sentient beings -- and that includes gods, demigods, animals, hungry ghosts, and those dwelling in the hell realm, as well as all humans. Each of these non-human incarnations is a limitation for a different reason, but in each case the incarnate being is too concerned with their own pain, pleasure, or survival to hear any dharma teaching.

Those who have reached Buddhahood, in the other hand, are concerned entirely with the liberation of all others in all realms.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! Thank you.

[revpanthera.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I work with beings that are called, from my training, Healing Masters and Psychic Surgeons. These are being do service and have chosen to use their knowledge while remaining in spirit form.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

You know. . . . we really need to sit down with a bottle of wine (or something!) and have a really long talk someday!

I would love to hear more about your various paths. We have so much in common but also such different experiences. It would be great to get to know you better in person.

a book that may interest you

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Priestess:

This February, 2008, we have published a book entitled Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition. The themes we cover include The Metaphysics of Romantic Love; Spiritual Courtesy; Love in the Imaginal Realm; A Comparison of Muslim and Christian Chivalry; The Fedeli d'Amore; The Templars and the Holy Grail; Love, Human and Divine; Love in the Kali-Yuga; Armed Courtesy; Love Against the World.
During our 30-year marriage, we have come to understand how deeply “the World” hates human love – particularly love between a man and a woman, which is not considered “politically correct.” Romance has not just faded out – it has been systematically cursed. And our shared interest in traditional metaphysics has revealed to us both the exalted station from which Romance ultimately derives – that of God’s most intimate Self-Knowledge – and also the infernal depth of the evil that hates Romantic Love, and wants more than anything to wipe it off the face of the earth, as part of its ongoing agenda: the deconstruction of the human form.
If the World fails to incite rivalry between a husband and a wife, it may draw its final weapon: to stir up rivalry between one’s human beloved and God. Satan too has his great intellectuals, his “fallen cherubim”, and one of their ploys is the attempt to separate God’s Transcendence from His Immanence, placing each in the shadow of the other, playing one against the other in our confused and darkened minds -- because nothing threatens the Prince of Darkness like human love seen and known and lived in the light of Divine Love.
I (Charles Upton) have composed the “intellectual” part of this book: metaphysical discourse, psycho-social criticism, history. My writing, being expressive, comes out to meet you. I write about Spiritual Romance, as if it were a kind of mental or imaginative understanding of something.
I (Jennifer Doane Upton) have composed the “existential” part of this book: spiritual meditations, poems in prose and verse, written directly out of the sometimes grim depths of Spiritual Romance itself. My writing offers you nothing; it makes no appeals. Take it, or leave it alone; just be aware of your choice.

Sincerely,
Charles Upton and Jennifer Doane Upton

Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition: Sophia Perennis, 2008; 184pp. $17.50 [£9.95]. Available through www.barnesandnoble.com , www.amazon.com , and www.amazon.co.uk. RESELLERS: This book is distributed through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bertrams and Gardners; query jameswetmore@mac.com for further information.