Sunday, May 26, 2013

8 and 7

The 8 fold path of the Buddha. I always thought this was an interesting perspective which brings about compassion. One sees oneself as suffering. Then one looks around and sees that everyone is suffering. One develops compassion for both oneself and all others because we all are suffering together. This compassion towards oneself combines perfectly with the compassion for all others. It makes all life suffering in the universe together as kindred in our suffering together. Maybe it could be codified: "Misery loves Company".

However, this is the basis of the most elementary forms of compassion starting with toddlers in a playground or even before that. It is the basis of civilizations great and small. It is the basis of compassion and goodness around the world. It is elementary and elemental to the evolution of human kind through whatever has come before and towards whatever will come for us in the future. Compassion and wisdom builds civilizations. Ignorance tears them down and ends them.

So, the capacity of compassion for oneself and for others is what in the end will allow us all to survive into infinity if that is possible.

The 7th Ray of Saint Germain:

Many of you might be unfamiliar with this. It came down through Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky which has combined with a lot of the teachings of Alice Bailey and Mary Baker Eddy through Christian Science and multiple offshoots. But, I would say it began with Emerson and Thoreau and Transcendentalism and before that it began with thinkers and doers like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and all the others. So, from this point of view it is very American but also very European in it's derivation.

The wisdom born from all the suffering of thousands of years in Europe and the Middle East was distilled in what happened in the Government of the United States at it's inception. All the experience and wisdom garnered over thousands of years was able to crystallize here in the U.S. in 1776 somehow. And all the world has benefitted thus in multiple ways from this experiment in a Democracy in a Republic.

It is said that The Comte De Saint Germain was present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and spoke there to encourage those present by saying something like, "Sign this document even if it is the last document you ever sign. The future of the whole human race is dependent upon what you do here today." The most moved was John Hancock which if you look at the document his hand is the boldest and all the rest followed knowing that they and their families could easily be killed first in the signing of this document (which for many actually happened). But, somehow this document prevailed and has lasted now 237 years to today. And what will happen now is up to each one of us from this day forward.

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