~ A Brief Book of the Way ~
These are some of the sayings and teachings revered as revelations of the Way, with no attestations of any sort, that divinity, deification and undue awe are not encouraged. It is said among the practitioners of the art of liberation that there is no single author of the Book of the Way; it has neither beginning nor end, and sometimes the secrets are found in very strange places, indeed:
There is only one direction, and that is up.
From a planetary perspective, all things lie upward, outward.
From the very beginning, I intended you to fly. Had I intended you to fly in only one or another way, then you would have wings. But you do not.
One Begins unmoved moving, that has No Beginning
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Some creatures are made to fullness, each in itself. Others are made in a different fashion. Yours is one such species, but do not despair, for you are not alone.
Every word has infinite meanings. Every saying has a billion teachings. When one thing is said, hear twenty things. This is wisdom, and power, and the essence of the secret of the Way.
Consider your brothers and sisters of the earth, and behold my great diversity. Now also consider the eternity of the heavens and the great diversity of worlds. Know that many are empty and blank; these await the tread of those creatures I have made wanderers and wonderers of. In your hearts it is so, for I call to you.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
Understand the nature of this teaching that points out the Way: Every word means fifty words. Every image created in the mind is a billion years. Every thought is the very force of creation. What you cannot understand, set aside for later. If you fail to comprehend, pass it along for another generation. There are secrets here, and hidden things hidden within secret things. There are enigmas that are not obvious, errors that are more than errors, choices that are not alone odd, but critical.
Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.
Do not imagine that the Way has been lost. Remember that the Way is broad, and that it is possible to become lost upon it. Only stay clear of the edges, for it is there that one is apt to fall off.
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
God says, I stand at the center of space and time and I call to you. I burn with the fire of eternal creation and from its midst, I call you, saying, “Come.”
Come and find me. Be not afraid. Merely lift up your eyes to my heavens and know that you are of this cosmos and for this cosmos. It is your heavens also. Come and find me and be limitless, if you will it.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Believe and you will have conviction.
Know, and there is no force in any universe that can overcome you or lead you astray.
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
And he went through the ancient texts and the modern, and looked into all the books and tales of Gods, myths, creations, dreamscapes, deceptions, foolhardy plans and insane conundrums people chose to call belief systems. And he listened intently for the words of the maker in each one.
Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds,
and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life,
one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
Furthermore did he listen to every moment and every instant of his life,
and he watched keenly and carefully for the work of the God. And he began to perceive that the world was not as advertised; rather he began to see that those who exalted the order of things were very often in
service to the Enemy. Those who were on the outside, or trodden down, or trampled upon,
he began to realize were the very Children of the God.
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.
He made a profession of listening to the God, and watching for the work of the God in all things,
and he became closely acquainted with irony. And it became clear that the true maker was neither
alien nor man. Rather, the true maker was from Beyond and beyond Beyond.
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
So he went unto every source, seeking not wisdom, but reality. And by this was his labor different from the work of those who had gone before.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
He took from each the essence of the Way, and he bound them up together. And he wrote down the tales and the sayings of those to whom he went for instruction. And where so ever he found the wisdom and the
Truth of the Creator, he caused it to be set down in writing. And he bound up these sayings and deeds also.
But he blotted out the names in cooperation with the Will that guided him,
for the God had indicated that people go astray in remembrance of the wise teachers.
It is far better that the teacher be forgotten and that the teaching endure.
When it is time, write your own Way, and add it to the Way already unveiled. By this, the people prosper, and the understanding is unceasing. Remember, another one is coming who will need all our generations of effort. He is far off, but he has need of our preparations.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
And the God challenged them who would bind up the words, saying, “Now if you will do this, then serve me well. Be not known among men and do not profit by the sacred order of your work.
For it is not meet that you should profit by my words.
Even as your decadent class lives always off the labor of others,
so you too would be worthy of death if you took sustenance in exchange for my words. But hear me,
for I will cause you to have sustenance from my words, and I will uphold you.
Only labor in the good works I will set you to, and know that I shall sustain you.”
God helps those who help themselves.
Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit,
to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,
a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Whether he did well or not is a judgment for the ages. He did as he was bidden,
and chose not to argue with that which gave the command.
No evil can befall a good man either in life or after death.
II
Pray to the Skylord if you will, but do not expect him to save you. He gave you all you need to handle your situation. Pray for empowerment, therefore, and not for salvation.
Lo, there do I see my father; there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers;
Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning. They beckon to me - to come and join them in the halls of Valhalla - where the brave may live forever.
In the night pray the Maker to watch over your children and your loved ones also. Ask for peace and centeredness, justice and truth. Truth is above all things the best gift, for he or she who stays focused upon truth will prosper always and have great riches of the soul. Nothing else matters.
They bantered and debated and said, “The center also.” But she chastised them and said, “The center is where you are. All else is illusion. And so it is for each imaginary center.”
The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.
Do not doubt yourself, but rather question always.
Know your motives.
Know your inner heart, and there is the Law.
Know your desires and discern among them, for this is the whole body of my Law.
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.
Many have stepped forth with interpretations of my covenant, but do not be confused, for I am a simple Creator. I have said, “Be fruitful, and multiply.” Unto the adaptive beings I have given dominion, but it is of the old sort. In this, the one with dominion is directed to be responsible. This is not a negotiable thing, so do not quibble over it or seek to deal falsely with me. If the world is sick, cure it. If the world is wounded, bind up those wounds.
As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.
And go also into the outer worlds and seek the stars, for I have kindled in you the fire of exploration and the need for learning. It was for this: That you spread yourselves out in the cosmos to discover it. What other reason could there be for creation?
And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.
Upon your heads be it.
In the beginning of things was emptiness. In the beginning was: อ
And emptiness of this sort cannot be expressed.
Genjōkōan (現成公案):
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever.
The vast eternity of nothing was no eternity of anything at all. What I was cannot be measured,
for it too passes away under even the mightiest of efforts. I am original to all things and no things,
all at the same time which is no time.
Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifested. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.
He said to them, “You have to consider the very real possibility that God is a Buddhist, and doesn’t care how the rest of us handle spirituality at all. Perhaps there is no right and no wrong in spiritual matters --- there is only the path of creation and the path of destruction. We must choose one or the other, and the choice should be fairly obvious to the healthy mind.”
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
Perhaps I am a Buddhist. Perhaps what you call God is the most fervent of ethical humanists.
When your heart is dark as iron, steadily polish yourself that the heart may become a mirror, a beautiful shine reflecting from within. Although iron is dark and dismal, polishing clears the darkness away.
You cannot understand me.
Not yet.
Tantalus was the son of Zeus and was the king of Sipylos. He was uniquely favored among mortals since he was invited to share the food of the gods. However, he abused the guest-host relationship and was punished by being "tantalized" with hunger and thirst in Tartarus: he was immersed up to his neck in water, but when he bent to drink, it all drained away; luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his reach.
There are differing stories about what Tantalus' crime was. One account says that he tried to share the divine ambrosia with other mortals, and thus aroused the ire of the gods. A more famous account says that he invited the gods to a banquet and served them the dismembered body of his own son, Pelops; when the gods discovered the trick, they punished Tantalus and restored Pelops to life, replacing with ivory a part of the shoulder which had been eaten by Demeter.
Tantalus' family was an ill-fated one. His daughter, Niobe, lost all her children and was turned to stone. His son, Pelops, was murdered, cooked, and restored to life. His grandsons, Atreus and Thyestes, struggled for power, and Atreus committed a variation of Tantalus' cannibalistic trick with Thyestes' children. His great-grandson, Agamemnon, was murdered by another great-grandson, Aegisthus, who was in turn killed by a
great-great-grandson, Orestes.
Wherever humans have gathered together to sanctify the ground or the enclosure, there I am. This shall be sacred space unto you. Therefore do not decry their observances, but rather say, “This religion is within the Way” or if the religion is a thing of evils and falsehoods, say, “Much of this is outside of the Way”. Leave the matter at that, and do not be troubled.
Put forth your soul as you would put forth your hand, and you may feel the power of the Way in its flowing and its receding. Do not forget this, and do not make light of it.
III
The Way is my way and it is the only Way. But do not be confused. These things are not given unto you that you may discern and discriminate. You are not empowered over others. You are commanded to go out and to teach. Go forth and reveal. Understand that those who take up the Way ensure the survival of your kind. Those who actively seek to obscure the Way cast the Shadow. But the Shadow was never overcome by the sword. How can your weapons do harm to the nameless things in the darkness? Behold, I have given you minds.
Therefore use them, and be not afraid.
The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
I. That which causes fear has its birth in evil.
II. Hate is a form of fear.
III. Violence is the hand of the Darkness.
IV. Silence cannot deceive you. In the serenity of oneness, it is the stillness of perfection and the quietude of wisdom. In the chaos of fear and hate, it is the silencing of the Word of the Way, and the aftermath of destruction and slaughter.
V. All things have multiple meanings.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egoisms.
Be wary of the teachers and leaders who claim absolute knowledge and absolute truth.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
Unto no animal is given perfect awareness. Those who assume this to be their gift are deceived.
If you cling to an idea as the unalterable truth, then when the truth does come in person and knock at your door, you will not be able to open the door and accept it.
No book can show you the way to me. No book can contain my Way. No book can give you the answers you seek. Write your own book. Live your own life, and find your own way. This is my Way, and this is the meaning of all my books, which are one book. The best lines of my book are not written down, but rather are written in life. Go then, and live the Way.
How well he's read, to reason against reading!
All sorrows are destroyed upon attainment of tranquility.
The intellect of such a tranquil person soon becomes completely steady.
She has written: Life is its own collective force. It is a collective entity, and every part senses every other.
Look up and you will feel the other looking back. Take care what you search after, for it exists somewhere,
and it is surely to be found by the determined seeker.
It is likely that unlikely things should happen.
The wise Shaman taught that life was like the spider’s web, and every life lived connected to every other.
By this was time transcended and death also. “All things,” he said, “were and are and shall be eternal. God remembers everyone somewhere, sometime, always.”
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.
Do not think I have given my covenant unto one people or another. I am no pawnbroker or lawyer. I am not a contract writer, choosing favorites amongst my customers. I have nothing to sell you. I am not subject to your manipulations, your machinations, your vain oblations. Even as I am not the puppeteer, neither shall I be your puppet. Take heed of my words and know: events occur. It is not for you to judge or to blame or to wonder at. Only go on. Only continue. Face the wind, ride the ocean, walk the path. This is the Way.
When you are on my path, I am with you. And my path is wide, welcoming many to walk together.
All of you must take the journey. Time waits for no entity.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
When death comes upon you, remember that this too is life.
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, do not stake your identity on the opinions of others. Only in the moment that you reject all need are you freed from illusion.
Fear is the mind-killer.
It is better to travel well than to arrive.
Be careful what you regard as unreal, or unreliable, or else unacceptable. It is not a reasonable choice to make. Nothing is known, and least of all to creatures so primitive and unprepared for investigation, much less explanation. You have plenty of time to evolve, provided you get busy with evolving.
When I bring judgment upon a people, recognize that it is they who have invited it, and that the mechanisms of punishment are not punishments at all, but rather outcomes.
Be as you wish to seem.
A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.
IV
And he told them many fine things and he told them much that they wanted to hear. And for this was he put to an end, for this is an appropriate and fitting character to have played. And it is unfortunate that none have realized that Buddha outgrew his madness and went back home to his family and to the just and proper management of his kingdom to the benefit of those to whom he owed everything. And by “those” it is meant, “the people”. Great and small, they did all of the labor, and their masters reaped all of the rewards for slothful arrogance and decadence. And it is not a philosophy nor an agenda nor politics to identify the truth that parasites and criminals who cost so many lives to maintain their own bloated nature should swiftly die. For even Gandhi recognized that Hitler was a good enough reason for war. And even Jesus said, “Carry your swords.”
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
He told them to look into the myths, and the clever man said, “This is no surprise, for Campbell has said as much.” And he said by way of reply, “Yes, it is so, for Campbell had heard the voice of the Creator, too.”
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
What we think, we become.
He went to the prostitute and told her to behave herself. And when the prostitute laughed and scorned him, he said unto her, “Seriously. God doesn’t care and it may piss off your family, but how does this get you a comfortable life without self-hatred?” And she wept and fled from before him, and she has not been seen since. And he was very much chagrined, for the power was its own burden, and the Right was very often somehow also the Wrong.
Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
God said unto them, when they were gathered in the first light of the first day, Show now unto each and every one respect. Understand the view of the other and you will not alone have peace, but also great success. And God said also, Do honor unto yourself and all your house. Show honor in all your dealings, that others think well of you. And God finally said, Restrain yourselves, and know control over the self. In this will all things be moderated and humankind will go far among the stars as I intended from before the making of them. And they were awed by the gifts of his wisdom, and they fell upon their faces before him, to worship him. And he said, Please, rise up, for I am God and have no need of your worship. I have no need for anything. What there is, I produce for its own sake. And in parting he called down to them, I was not here.
Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.
And they said, “Does God intend that some should die whereas others should live?”
And he said, “It is so.”
They asked, “How is this just?”
To which he replied, “It is not.” And he laughed heartily.
Teach the children, “First, survive intact.” And when they inquire as to how best to do this, say, “Pay attention to all things at all times, but do not become distracted from the things that are essential.”
When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.
And she asked of him, “How will I know that I have found God and not a deception or else emptiness?”
And he said, “You will never know, and so you will never be deceived.”
A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.
God asks of you, How is it exactly that you people missed the bit about the Camel and the Eye of the Needle? Behold, I will put it bluntly. Great wealth equals great greed. Great greed equals criminality and poverty of spirit. I let neither the spiritual criminal nor the soulless one into my Kingdom, for you are the ones who would overthrow me, and replace me with an idol unto Mammon and Moloch. Evil ones of great wealth beware,
lest I call upon those you have trodden down to rise up. In that hour, there is no force in your control
that can equal the power of the littlest child.
Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
They came to him, having heard that he was arrogant and self-deceived and convinced of his own holiness.
They did not know or understand him, so they assumed that he was either insane or evil. They were limited in their sense of things.
And they asked him, “How can you speak for God, when all the books have been written and the Canon has been closed?”
And he smiled and said, “Who are you to declare the end of God’s word? Who are you to say the Canon is closed? I say to you this, God alone may state when the word has ceased or when the Canon is perfected.
By your lack of courage and understanding, you have proved even now that God must continue to speak.”
There was a good Christian man who believed that God was to be found in the imaginary realm and that the words of old books were absolutely true, no matter how absurd or unlikely those words may seem. And he was determined to deny the power of the true God, for he would neither hear nor see and he would not open his mind or heart. And he labored long to convert and to witness and to exchange the faiths of others for his own. And he labored all his days, sure in the knowledge that Christianity would be triumphant. And when they buried him, it was inscribed upon his tombstone, “The Last Christian”. And the peoples of the Earth in time came to do homage at the place of his burial, for though the faith was dead and the work of the man was for naught, his courage and perseverance were the very qualities most essential in humanity.
Now do not forget in this age nor in any other that the God has ordained us to keep the family. For the family is the center and the core of the order of humanity. Those who have enmity toward the family are your enemy, for they would take from humankind the power of love and togetherness and the sacred duty incumbent upon each of the people.
Continue the line. Protect the members of your family.
It is not good that the man should be alone. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
In the street he was heard crying out, “I have seen the future and you cannot keep it from us, no matter how hard you labor. The soldiers with which you terrorize and the police with which you oppress will in the end turn upon you, and very swiftly slay you. And when others seek to uplift decadence and laziness and pretend that these are the proofs of creativity and productivity, they too shall be slain. And the people will gather together and one will be heard to ask, ‘Who would like to be considered for leadership?’ And from the multitude a few will raise their hands. And these few shall instantly be slain. Then will it be asked, ‘Who will take the burden of this task, and of that task?’ And after much trepidation, one or another will have courage and quality, and they will be selected, each by their tribe and against their wills. And the ordination of rule shall be eliminated, but the rule of responsibility and probity shall be uplifted. I have seen this future, and it leads us to the stars. Listen and be afraid, oh ye servants of Mammon! Hear and know that your rule and your age are falsehoods and that your time is passing!”
Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.
They sought her on the street, and cried out, “Have you heard of Jesus Christ who died for your sins?”
And she said, “I have heard of Joshua of Nazareth, who laid down his life in the service of the one Cosmic Creator that all human beings live in freedom and in peace. But do not speak of him, for you sully his name and deify a man whose own heart would not have it. Seek understanding within, that you no more curse and deny your own teacher.”
Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.
It was asked, “If God teaches peace, then why do you train to be a warrior?”
Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.
And it was answered, “Because it has been said since even before it was heard, ‘The one who desires peace must prepare for war’. And the meaning of this is clear. There is always one or another jackass who is looking to make a name for himself or herself.”
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it.”
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s
blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you.
You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
V
The LORD had said to Abram,
“Go from your country,
your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Every so often, the God makes a new arrangement with a tribe or clan, and these become The People.
Those who were The People may also endure. Those who will be The People will be blessed.
Keep faith with the God, and the God shall keep faith with you.
Not everything in his doings will be sweet in your judgment or good in your eyes,
but accept that the God’s will is being done.
In those days, the Children of Israel were warriors, and they warred with any nation that looked crosswise in the direction of the City of David. And madness was always on the doorstep. In those days, people greatly feared the end, certain that the world could not continue long as it had done. And iniquity was everywhere, and false prophets and false gods and false interpretations of the True Cosmic Creator. And the time had come for the revelation of the Way to be placed before humanity yet again.
All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.
He said to the students, “There is a truth underneath all of the old beliefs and old religions. There is a truth inside each work of art, and a truth within each burial place. Every love story tells the same tale, and every poem conveys the same meaning. Understand this, and you will all get an A.”
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
In the origin of things are great mysteries. Delve. Where there is one thing there are a multitude. The mountain does not endure, for it is not a mountain. I do not keep time as you do. I am time.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
When the littlest child is heard, there is God. Let those with ears to hear, hear it.
Many have complained of the truer ways, for these have difficulty in them. Have I not instructed you in the living of a hard life, filled with challenge and through it, triumph? Even so, but your cowardice and your perversions are forever at the forefront. For where I said unto Adam, “You will labor,” it was heard by the faint of heart and taken to mean that he was punished with labor. But this is idiocy. Labor is your inheritance and your birthright, not for sin, but for accomplishment. All primates are slothful, given the opportunity. It is the mark of the higher forms of life that they endeavor to strive. It is further the mark of such creatures that the striving is tempered by wisdom. Work wisely, and work well.
Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little;
by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Not everything possible is also advisable.
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!
Be wary of teachings which require you to speak unto another that I might hear. Be wary of any teachings such as those that forbid cremation, arguing that the cremated body may not be resurrected. I am God. If I would raise the dead of galaxies gone five billion of your years, no mere immolations would stop me. This is my Universe, and it adheres to my rules and obeys my will. Petty and simple things of brief mortality do not understand me, and would do well to shut their mouths. Know that I see you seeking after wealth, power and notoriety, and I am not pleased with you.
A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.
Maintain the people and uphold the Way. If to preserve the people that the Way be kept, one or many must die, so be it. But do not seek after martyrdom. Many are the wise fools who have secretly devised their own destruction. This is a poor means of advertisement.
Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
Priests and evangelists! Pretenders to holiness! Do you think you understand me or that you can speak in my stead? I am the one who caused the poet to sing, God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
Some things were once true and some things are forever true. Choose carefully which you will perpetuate.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
Not everything brilliant can also keep from being bad. Take care in how the Way is used, and remember this first above all else: The Way cannot be used, it will not permit usury. In the hour that you believe that you have mastery over the Way, you will discover that you have been going backward all along.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
And he said, “There are those among you who have asked after the disposition of God concerning homosexuals. I have inquired regarding this and God says that he does not understand your question.”
The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.
Be wary of those who claim absolute revelation. Even the most careful of scientists is simply a monkey with a calculator. Even the most holy of persons still has sex organs and harbors secret desires. “Control yourselves” is not nearly the same as “pretend to be that which you are not”.
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
Secretly, the world is empty, they say.
What the Waywalker has cannot be bought.
One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
And he went before the most powerful of men, and he bid him greetings. But he saw the man was plastic and without purpose, a hollow image of power un-graced by genuine authority. And it was apparent that no government could belie its purposes and no power could conceal its own inanity. And it was also apparent that all was not as it seemed.
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
God says, wherever there are fifty who are against you, I shall make up 49 for the sake of your efforts at right and justice. Do not fear, for I will strengthen the arm of the desperate man who works to place good into the world. But all the same, do not be a fool, for I am not fond of foolishness.
Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. When he was born, his father Cronus intended to swallow him as he had all of Zeus's siblings: Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. But Rhea hid the newborn in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete. (To this day, the guides at the "cave of Zeus" use their flashlights to cast shadow puppets in the cave, creating images of baby Zeus from the myth.)
When he had grown up, Zeus caused Cronus to vomit up his sisters and brothers, and these gods joined him in fighting to wrest control of the universe from the Titans and Cronus, their king. Having vanquished his father and the other Titans, Zeus imprisoned most of them in the underworld of Tartarus.
Then he and his brothers Poseidon and Hades divided up creation. Poseidon received the sea as his domain, Hades got the Underworld and Zeus took the sky. Zeus also was accorded supreme authority on earth and on Mount Olympus.
The crowd rebuked him and said, “You have no right to teach religion.” And he laughed and bade them note their own success. “Indeed,” he replied. “And none of you have any right to claim that this is a religion.”
You are not alone.
Now the little child asked, “Why do they have a statue of Jesus on that thing up there?” And he answered saying, “Blessed is my son, for God has moved his mouth to speak.”
Now he went up to the Synagogue where he was scorned, but he worried not. For the Creator had said, Do this and concern yourself with the fact that it must be done. For you do not speak for your own aggrandizement. And he went before the congregation and said, “Listen to the new song which the Lord your God called Yahweh has taught unto me. Shema Shalom Yahweh elohenu, Yahweh ehud. Now are you to be called the people of peace, and now is the age in which you will learn that there is a difference between the god of miraculous visions and starships and great technology, and the True Universal Maker, called Yahweh. It is the God who is of and in all of existence with which you must concern yourselves.” And the people understood not, and the police were called.
VI
And he went to the monks by the winery, and he spoke with them at length. Then the Minister said to him, “Why do you meditate and study with those who do the same? Don’t you know that it is through meditation that demons are let in?”
And he answered him saying, “And then whence came your demon? For yours is a heart closed and a mind shuttered and a mouth open. These are the three things the Lord is most troubled by in any beings that have evolved dominion.”
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success only comes later.
The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.
To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.
And they asked of him, “What is the meaning of life?” To which he replied, “Try coming up with a relevant question. Time is short, except for when it is long.”
Study the past, if you would divine the future.
Hear and obey: When facing a possible end, take care to put your affairs in order. This is done not because one embraces doom, but rather so that one may contend with any challenges to life that arise. It is good to have things settled about which one might otherwise be concerned.
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
Enter battle clear-headed, and at least make them pay for their victory. A better end is to deny them victory entirely. These are the works of Way Walkers. But the truest and best end is to remove their desire for battle before ever a fight ensues. This is the work of the Way Master.
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.
It is taught that these people came from an ancient family whose lineage was long and the beginnings of which were lost in the dust. And they lived by a code more antique than all others, and they called this code, “The Way”. And it was given unto them by God the originator, God the artist, God the life-within-all-things. And they revered the God as no other race or creed amongst humanity could as much as claim to match. When the God called upon them to fall down, they fell down. When the God asked of them, “Rise Up, And Defend Me!” they did so without question and in great haste. And though they were not the largest, nor the strongest, nor the swiftest or the smartest, they were excellent in all things, and all things mingled in them. And this race the God and the ancients called, “Heroes”, for at the hour of darkness they came to kindle a light. And know that they are but rarely in positions of power or notoriety. Most often you will find that evil stalks the vulgar, casual and desperate existences of simple men and women. In these climes the heroes do their finest work. Do not forget it, and do not enshrine or worship a single one, for to do so undermines all that for which they live and die. All the same, seek to be like them, for they are the coming together of all those things that are best in humanity.
Judgment profits a man not, save that it causes him to close his mind.
The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the Family.
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
In time, the people of a certain line will master the art of knowing the signs of the Way. They will learn to control not the Way, but the Self. Then will a different story be told.
For he is the Kwisatz Haderach.
Be not passive in your anticipation of salvation. He or she that works for salvation shall have access to the retirement plan of the Lord.
Water is the driving force of all nature.
A man of our Order once imagined that in the far-flung future ages, humanity would take the reins of evolution into their own hands. They would make of themselves what they wished, mingling the arts of breeding and chemistry and training until a truly Great One was created. Now be wary of what you make, and understand that my means of spreading prophecy and holy truth are always changing. For I the Lord am Dynamism. Only a fool thinks my words lie only here or only there. I am everywhere, in all things, always speaking. And even now, Good Men of Noble Heart are working to bring forth a Great One in a far-flung age; this is no fantasy, for it is real.
Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.
Now they spoke of mental illness and the great darkness which was spreading. And the Minister said unto him, “You know that these sicknesses are but demons.” And he said, “Of course. As I told you, we are in the same business. But my playbook is very much larger than your own. And my God is beyond comprehension and more vast than all the imaginations in the Cosmos might devise in unison. So I say, 'Demons out!' and behold, they flee.”
Like most of his fellow Olympians, Apollo did not hesitate to intervene in human affairs. It was he who brought about the demise of the mighty Achilles. Of all the heroes besieging the city of Troy in the Trojan War, Achilles was the best fighter by far. He had easily defeated the Trojan captain Hector in single combat. But Apollo helped Hector's brother Paris slay Achilles with an arrow.
When someone died suddenly, he was said to have been struck down by one of Apollo's arrows. Homer's epic of the Trojan War begins with the god causing a plague by raining arrows down upon the Greek camp.
As god of music, Apollo is often depicted playing the lyre. He did not invent this instrument, however, but was given it by Hermes in compensation for cattle theft. Some say that Apollo did invent the lute, although he was best known for his skill on the lyre.
He won several musical contests by playing this instrument. In one case he bested Pan, who competed on his own invention, the shepherd's pipe. On this occasion, King Midas had the bad sense to say that he preferred Pan's music, which caused Apollo to turn his ears into those of an ass.
Now is the comparison of things made more clear. Consider that a new age began in the year 1969. Now understand that this new age was as nothing in your eyes, for so great was the achievement that many were made discomfited. The moon also is given unto thee, and the other worlds as well. Therefore go forth, says the Lord, the God of Hosts --- But also the real God, who thinks this should have been obvious to you all by now --- and inhabit all that is before you. Bless and keep it, and revere my genius, even if I do say so myself.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
Don’t be foolish. The world is far older than you can imagine, and the Universe herself is far stranger. No one has yet explained to you in accurate terms how weird it is about to get. And know that the NERVE STALK and the MACHINE WHO KNOWS ITSELF and the COGNITION WORM are your eternal enemies. Enmity is sown between you. And sure, it is utterly reasonable for you to reject this out of hand. It sounds utterly absurd.
The captain of evil discovered himself
in a handgrip harder than anything
he had ever encountered in any man
on the face of the earth. Every bone in his body
quailed and recoiled, but he could not escape.
He was desperate to flee to his den and hide
with the devil's litter, for in all his days
he had never been clamped or cornered like this.
Not everything that seems ridiculous is. Be open, but do not be a fool. Be wary, but do not ignore what is obvious.
VII
You shall call the year after the Moonwalkers, and you shall rename the months, as you can revere as a divine no longer that which you have tread upon. Respect and honor her and restrain yourselves from doing her any harm. As you are my children, consider your brothers and sisters who are so vast that other life dwells on and within and about them. And the months shall be called Charity, Faith, Decision, Joy, Peace, Will, Wisdom, Rejoice, Respect, Awakening, Bounty, and Rebirth. Because of this transformation, the whole world will enjoy unity and this is in no way a bad thing. I add this because only humans seem to be able to make it a poor choice to cooperate and get along.
If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.
And they came down from the Heavens – false ones to teach falsehood to the human species. And they could not deceive the People at that time, for they were those whom the Creator had already touched in their hearts. And no false doctrine or lying dogma could convince the People to close themselves up and shut out the Way. For they had agreed from the beginning --- from before the hour of their births --- to walk always on the Way, and to not deviate from the true path. No force of evil or deception could overcome them, be it of human agency or otherwise.
The God has said, The path of my Way is very broad, that you may walk many shoulder to shoulder down it, without fear or confusion. And the God has also said, Take care that you do not walk my path backward, for the instant of creation was a very great conflagration.
The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born from sea-foam. Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.
This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans.
In his epic of the Trojan War, Homer tells how Aphrodite intervened in battle to save her son Aeneas, a Trojan ally. The Greek hero Diomedes, who had been on the verge of killing Aeneas, attacked the goddess herself, wounding her on the wrist with his spear and causing the ichor to flow. (Ichor is what immortals have in the place of blood.)
Aphrodite promptly dropped Aeneas, who was rescued by Apollo, another Olympian sponsor of the Trojans. In pain she sought out her brother Ares, the god of war who stood nearby admiring the carnage, and borrowed his chariot so that she might fly up to Olympus. There she goes crying to her mother Dione, who soothes her and cures her wound. Her father Zeus tells her to leave war to the likes of Ares and Athena, while devoting herself to the business of marriage.
Elsewhere in Homer's Iliad , Aphrodite saves Paris when he is about to be killed in single combat by Menelaus. The goddess wraps him in a mist and spirits him away, setting him down in his own bedroom in Troy. She then appears to Helen in the guise of an elderly handmaiden and tells her that Paris is waiting for her.
Helen recognizes the goddess in disguise and asks if she is being led once more to ruin. For Aphrodite had bewitched her into leaving her husband Menelaus to run off with Paris. She dares to suggest that Aphrodite go to Paris herself.
Suddenly furious, the goddess warns Helen not to go too far, lest she be abandoned to the hatred of Greeks and Trojans alike. "I'll hate you," says the mercurial goddess, "as much as I love you now."
Even though Zeus's queen Hera and Aphrodite are on different sides in the Trojan War, the goddess of love loans Hera her magical girdle in order to distract Zeus from the fray. This garment has the property of causing men (and gods) to fall hopelessly in love with whoever is wearing it.
Homer calls Aphrodite "the Cyprian", and many of her attributes may have come from Asia via Cyprus (and Cythera) in Mycenaean times. These almost certainly mixed with a preexisting Hellenic or Aegean goddess. The ancient Greeks themselves felt that Aphrodite was both Greek and foreign.
Aphrodite involved herself on other occasions in the affairs of mortal heroes. When Jason asked permission of the king of Colchis to remove the Golden Fleece from the grove in which it hung, the king was clearly unwilling. So the goddess Hera, who sponsored Jason's quest, asked her fellow-Olympian Aphrodite to intervene. The love goddess made the king's daughter Medea fall in love with Jason, and Medea proved instrumental in Jason's success.
Another time, Zeus punished Aphrodite for beguiling her fellow gods into inappropriate romances. He caused her to become infatuated with the mortal Anchises. That's how she came to be the mother of Aeneas. She protected this hero during the Trojan War and its aftermath, when Aeneas quested to Italy and became the mythological founder of a line of Roman emperors.
A minor Italic goddess named Venus became identified with Aphrodite, and that's how she got her Roman name. It is as Venus that she appears in the Aeneiad , the poet Virgil's epic of the founding of Rome.
The love goddess was married to the homely craftsman-god Hephaestus. She was unfaithful to him with Ares, and Homer relates in the Odyssey how Hephaestus had his revenge.
Elsewhere in classical art she has no distinctive attributes other than her beauty. Flowers and vegetation motifs suggest her connection to fertility.
Aphrodite was associated with the dove. Another of her sacred birds was the goose, on which she is seen to ride in a vase painting from antiquity.
Hesiod's reference to Aphrodite's having been born from the sea inspired the Renaissance artist Botticelli's famous painting of the goddess on a giant scallop shell. Equally if not better known is the Venus de Milo, a statue which lost its arms in ancient times.
The ancient travel writer Pausanias describes a number of statues of Aphrodite dressed for battle, many of them in Sparta. Given the manner in which the militaristic Spartans raised their girls, it is not surprising that they conceived of a female goddess in military attire. She also would have donned armaments to defend cities, such as Corinth, who adopted her as their patroness. This is not to say that she was a war goddess, although some have seen her as such and find significance in her pairing with the war god Ares in mythology and worship.
She asked, “Why is it that the fundamentalists always talk about world unity and world peace as the end of the world?” And they had no answer. She said, “Perhaps the ‘god’ they have been listening to is not God at all. Perhaps there are things in this Universe that do not want us to cooperate with each other. Perhaps there are beings from old, from everlasting, who have masqueraded as gods that we might fall under false influences and ultimately, fail. Use your brains, which the Creator has given you. The answer is not likely to be what makes you feel at ease, or comfortable. God has said, 'Get up and grow and change, lest you perish.' Yet you sit trusting mindlessly in false doctrines and in dusty books and in the interpretations of your masters that do not trouble your hearts. But I say unto you, this is not the will of the God.” And they were foolish, and went away from her wisdom, back to their temples and churches and mosques, where alien gods fed upon false hopes. And though she sorrowed and grieved for them, she did not surrender the truths given to her by the Creator, for the spirit of Athena moved within her.
Jason was the son of the lawful king of Iolcus, but his uncle Pelias had usurped the throne. Pelias lived in constant fear of losing what he had taken so unjustly. He kept Jason's father a prisoner and would certainly have murdered Jason at birth. But Jason's mother deceived Pelias by mourning as if Jason had died. Meanwhile the infant was bundled off to the wilderness cave of Chiron the Centaur. Chiron tutored Jason in the lore of plants, the hunt and the civilized arts. When he had come of age, Jason set out like a proper hero to claim his rightful throne.
Unknowingly, Jason was to play his part in a plan hatched on lofty Mount Olympus. Hera, wife of almighty Zeus himself, nursed a rage against King Pelias. For Jason's uncle, the usurper king, had honored all the gods but Hera. Rashly had he begrudged the Queen of Heaven her due. Hera's plan was fraught with danger; it would require a true hero. To test Jason's mettle, she contrived it that he came to a raging torrent on his way to Iolcus. And on the bank was a withered old woman. Would Jason go about his business impatiently, or would he give way to her request to be ferried across the stream?
Jason did not think twice. Taking the crone on his back, he set off into the current. And halfway across he began to stagger under her unexpected weight. For the old woman was none other than Hera in disguise. Some say that she revealed herself to Jason on the far shore; others claim that he never learned of the divine service he'd performed. Jason had lost a sandal in the swift-moving stream, and this would prove significant. For an oracle had warned King Pelias, "Beware a stranger who wears but a single sandal." When Jason arrived in Iolcus, he asserted his claim to the throne. But his uncle Pelias had no intention of giving it up, particularly to a one-shoed stranger.
Under the guise of hospitality, he invited Jason to a banquet. And during the course of the meal, he engaged him in conversation. "You say you've got what it takes to rule a kingdom," said Pelias. "May I take it that you're fit to deal with any thorny problems that arise? For example, how would you go about getting rid of someone who was giving you difficulties?" Jason considered for a moment, eager to show a kingly knack for problem solving. "Send him after the Golden Fleece?" he suggested. "Not a bad idea," responded Pelias. "It's just the sort of quest that any hero worth his salt would leap at. Why, if he succeeded he'd be remembered down through the ages. Tell you what, why don't you go?"
And so it came to pass that word went out the length and breadth of Greece that Jason was looking for shipmates to embark upon a perilous but glamorous adventure. And in spite of the miniscule chances of anyone surviving to lay eyes upon the Fleece let alone get past the guarding dragon and return with the prize, large numbers of heroes were ready to run the risk. These were known as the Argonauts, after their ship, the Argo. Among them were Hercules (or Heracles, to give him his proper Greek name) and the heroine Atalanta. Jason had the vessel constructed by the worthy shipwright Argus, who in a fit of vanity named her more or less after himself.
Argus had divine sponsorship in his task, Hera having enlisted the aid of her fellow goddess Athena. This patroness of crafts secured a prow for the vessel from timber hewn at the sacred grove of Zeus at Dodona. This prow had the magical property of speaking - and prophesying - in a human voice. And so one bright autumn morning the Argo set out to sea, her benches crewed by lusty ranks of heroic rowers. And true to Pelias's fondest aspirations, it wasn't long before big troubles assailed the company. After stopping for better than a fortnight on an island populated exclusively by women, they put in at Salmydessus.
The king welcomed them but was in no mood for festive entertainment. Because he'd offended the gods, he'd been set upon by woman-headed, bird-bodied, razor-clawed scourges known as Harpies. These Harpies were possessed of reprehensible table manners. Every evening at dinnertime, they dropped by to defecate upon the king's repast and hung around making such a racket that he wouldn't have been able to eat had he the stomach for it. As a result, King Phineus grew thinner by the hour. Fortunately two of Jason's crew were direct descendants of the North Wind, which gave them the power to fly. And they kindly chased the Harpies so far away that the king was never bothered again.
In thanks, Phineus informed the Argonauts of a danger just ahead on the route to the Golden Fleece - two rocks called the Symplegades, which crashed together upon any ship passing between them. The king even suggested a mechanism by which one might avoid the effects of these Clashing Rocks. If a bird could be induced to pass between the crags first, causing them to clash together, the Argo could follow quickly behind, passing through safely before they were ready to snap shut again. By means of this device, Jason caused the rocks to spring together prematurely, nipping only the tail feathers of the bird. The Argo was able to pass between them relatively unscathed. Only her very stern was splintered.
Once arrived in Colchis, Jason had to face a series of challenges meted out by King Aeetes, ruler of this barbarian kingdom on the far edge of the heroic world. He and his people were not kindly disposed toward strangers, although on an earlier occasion he had extended hospitality to a visitor from Jason's home town. This may have been due to the newcomer's unorthodox mode of transportation. For he arrived on the back of a golden-fleeced flying ram. The stranger's name was Phrixus, and he had been on the point of being sacrificed when the ram carried him off. Having arrived safely in Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to the gods and hung its fleece in a grove. Aeetes gave him the hand of one of his daughters in marriage.
King Aeetes had taken a disliking to Jason on sight. He had no particular fondness for handsome young strangers who came traipsing into his kingdom on glorious quests featuring the trampling of his sacred grove and the carrying off of his personal property. For King Aeetes considered the Golden Fleece to be his own, and he was in the midst of telling Jason just what he could do with his precious quest when he was reminded of the obligations of hospitality by another of his daughters named Medea. Medea was motivated by more than good manners; Hera had been looking out for Jason's interests, and she had succeeded in persuading her fellow goddess Aphrodite to intervene on Jason's behalf.
It was no problem at all for the Goddess of Love to arrange that Medea be stricken with passion for Jason the moment she first saw him. And it was a good thing for Jason that this was so. For not only was he spared a kingly tongue-lashing and a quick trip to the frontier, but Medea quietly offered to help him in his latest predicament. For once her father had calmed down, he had waxed suspiciously reasonable. Of course Jason could have the Fleece and anything else he required in furtherance of his quest - Aeetes couldn't imagine what had possessed him to be so uncooperative. All he required of Jason as a simple token of good faith was the merest of farmyard chores.
There were two bulls standing in the adjacent pasture. If Jason would be so kind as to harness them, plow the field, sow it and reap the harvest in a single day, King Aeetes would be much obliged - and only too happy to turn over the Golden Fleece. Oh, and there was one trifling detail of which Jason should be aware. These bulls were a bit unusual in that their feet were made of brass sharp enough to rip open a man from gullet to gizzard. And then of course there was the matter of their bad breath. In point of fact, they breathed flames. Medea took him gently aside and suggested that she might be of aid.
Quite conveniently for Jason, Medea was a famous sorceress, magic potions being her stock in trade. She slipped Jason a salve which, when smeared on his body, made him proof against fire and brazen hooves. And so it was that Jason boldly approached the bulls and brooked no bullish insolence. Disregarding the flames that played merrily about his shoulders and steering clear of the hooves, he forced the creatures into harness and set about plowing the field. Nor was the subsequent sowing any great chore for the now-heartened hero. Gaily strewing seed about like a nymph flinging flowers in springtime, he did not stop to note the unusual nature of the seed. Aeetes, it turns out, had got his hands on some dragon's teeth with unique agricultural properties. As soon as these hit the soil they began to sprout, which was good from the point of view of Jason accomplishing his task by nightfall, but bad in terms of the harvest. For each seed germinated into a fully-armed warrior, who popped up from the ground and joined the throng now menacing poor Jason. Aeetes, meanwhile, was standing off to the side of the field chuckling quietly to himself. It irked the king somewhat to see his daughter slink across the furrows to Jason's side, but he didn't think too much of it at the time. Having proven herself polite to a fault, maybe Medea was just saying a brief and proper farewell.
As it turned out, Medea knew a secret regarding the seed-men, and she shared this with the hero for whom she had intense and unreasoning desire. She told Jason that the men born of the dragon’s teeth were without reason, lacking souls which are common to mortals but almost always missing from the lesser creations. Recognizing that the warriors were without proper judgment and intellect, Jason put up his sword. Instead, he hefted a rock taken from the ground at his feet, and hurled it at one of the seed-men. The warrior turned upon one of his fellows, thinking the blow had come from near-by. In a short time, the whole infernal army of men born from the dragon’s teeth were engaged in a general brawl. The handful who survived the melee were easy enough for the hero to eliminate.
Aeetes had no choice but to make as though he'd give the Fleece to Jason, but he still had no intention of doing so. He now committed the tactical error of divulging this fact to his daughter. And Medea, still entranced by the Goddess of Love, confided in turn in Jason. Furthermore, she offered to lead him under cover of darkness to the temple grove where the Fleece was displayed, nailed to a tree and guarded by a dragon. And so at midnight they crept into the sacred precinct of Ares, god of war.
Medea used a sleeping potion to subvert the monster's vigilance. Together they made off with the Fleece and escaped to the Argo. Setting sail at once, they eluded pursuit. Thus Jason succeeded in his heroic challenge. And once returned to Greece, he abandoned Medea for another princess. Medea had proved loyal to Jason, but the hero knew that she was also willing to betray her father and murder her brother, the pieces of whom she threw overboard one at a time during the couple’s flight to Greece, knowing that her pursuing father would be obliged to stop to recover the body parts. Jason could in no way remain with such a woman, for she did not understand the duty imposed upon the people.
Now this is the Ordination of Conditioning, and you are bound to keep it, for he or she that upholds it will be forerunner of a Great People, who will never know slavery. And he or she that forgets the Ordination of Conditioning shall find they have already become a slave.
In the following manner prepare your children that they may uphold the Way and preserve The People:
First is the yielding, that they are masters over you. For your day is done in the beginning of their own. Second is the love, which must be clearly demonstrated always and without question. Third are the sacrifices great and small, that you make clear unto them that you have yielded your time to the new generation. Fourth is the teaching, that you pass on all knowledge practical and mystical as well as academic. Fifth is the hardening, for do not forget that we are swords, and that swords need forging. Sixth is the refining, for do not forget that the blade should be sharp. Seventh is the relinquishing, for the time will come that you deliver yourself into the hands of your offspring for good or for ill. It is the Way Master who understands each step and all processes. It is the Way itself that reveals how each step and each process occurs constantly, together and simultaneously, even when they must occur in a particular order.
King Acrisius of Argos was warned by an oracle that he would be killed in time by a son born to his daughter Danae. So he promptly locked Danae up in a tower. But the god Zeus got in, disguised as a shower of gold, with the result that Perseus was born. So Acrisius straightaway stuck daughter and infant into a chest and pushed it out to sea. Perhaps he expected it to sink like a stone, but instead it floated quite nicely, fetching up on a beach on the island of Seriphos. Here a fisherman named Dictys came upon the unusual bit of flotsam and adopted a protective attitude toward its contents. Thus Perseus had the advantage of a pure and simple role model as he grew to young manhood. Then one day Dictys's brother, who happened to be king in those parts, took a fancy to Danae and pressed his attentions upon her. "You leave my mother alone," insisted Perseus, clenching a not-insubstantial fist. And the king, Polydectes by name, had no choice but to desist. Or, rather, he grew subtle in the means of achieving his desires.
The king had his heralds announce that, instead of seeking to marry Danae, he planned to seek the hand of another maiden, one Hippodameia. "And I expect every one of my loyal subjects to contribute a gift to the bride price," he said, looking meaningfully at Perseus. "What have you to offer?" When Perseus did not answer right away, Polydectes went on: "A team of horses? A chariot of intricate devising? Or a coffer of gems perhaps?"
Perseus admitted that he owned nothing of value, at least nothing of interest to a king. But he made an oath that he would do whatever was necessary to keep his mother from falling into Polydectes’ clutches, for the king was an evil man with dark desires.
Then Polydectes laughed and said, “Very well! If you are a man of your word, and you will do whatever is asked of you in this matter, then I demand the head of the Gorgon Medusa!” The assembly fell silent, for the Gorgons were very terrible, and Medusa was the most fearsome of all. Her hair was made up of living serpents, each more poisonous than the last, and her beautiful face and luminous eyes were a dreadful trap, for they turned men into stone with one gaze.
Now Athena wanted Medusa's head to decorate her own shield, to magnify its power by the Gorgon's terrible gaze. Athena told Perseus where he could find the special equipment needed for his task. "Seek ye the nymphs who guard the helmet of invisibility," she counseled the young hero. “And how,” Perseus inquired, might I find the Gorgon and overcome her?" “Ask the Gray Sisters, the Graeae, born hags with but a single eye in common. They know - if they'll tell you." And where were the Graeae? "Ask him who holds the heavens on his back - Atlas, renegade Titan, who pays eternally the price of defying Zeus almighty."
Now the hero went to the sacred grove and the grotto where the nymphs dwelt, and by virtue of his purity, his love for his mother, and his dedication to his cause, he persuaded Naera, Queen of the Nymphs, to lend him the helm. Then he wandered westward, hoping for some sign of Atlas’ post where he waited on the ending of the Age of Gods by upholding the sky. But he was guided by his instincts, dwelling in the depths of his heart, and by the voice of his father Zeus, which he learned to hear in the winds and in the sounds of rain and thunder and tumbling brooks. For the truest heroes can hear the God in all the forms which the God chooses to take.
When Perseus reached the feet of Atlas, he looked up at the massive Titan, anxious that he might have to climb very high on the giant in order to destroy him, should the ancient being give him any trouble. But as it happened, Atlas was in good humor that day and simply told Perseus what he asked, indicating with a nod of his might head the direction of the Cavern of The Gray Sisters.
These old women were not as kindly disposed, and sought to trick Perseus and to slay and eat him. But a hero is not so easily led astray or overcome. With his quick hands and fleet strides, Perseus stole from the Gray Sisters their sacred eye, and threatened to mash it in his mighty hand, rendering them forever blind. At that point the sisters became more helpful, and told him how the Gorgon might be found and the habits of she and her kind.
Perseus set out upon the path told him by the sisters, and came at long last upon the River Styx. Here the lands of the living met with the lands of the dead, and in the watery border frolicked many dread things, including Nymphs of a very different sort. These were women who had drowned themselves in despair of lost love or else in self-hatred, and they were punished by Hades by bathing in the River to lure unwary travelers to their doom. For as soon as a man might desire them and come near, they turned into hideous, demonic creatures and pulled him into the water to drown. But Perseus donned his helm of invisibility and observed them unharmed. Presently, Hades – who was opposed to the hero’s quest because no tribute was to be paid him in exchange for Medusa’s head – informed the nymphs that a hero was nearby, rendered invisible by a gift from their sisters, and if they could slay him, they could have his spirit for eternity to do with as they pleased. With squeals of devilish delight, the undead nymphs stalked the shoreline, seeking to find the hero by scent or sound or any other means.
Now Hermes saw the hero’s plight, and he went swiftly to Father Zeus to tell him of the situation. Zeus order Hermes to go swiftly to Perseus’ side and give him a gift of winged sandals such as those the messenger God wore. And this was done. Perseus thanked Hermes and stepped upon the air as though he were ascending a stair. And even as the undead nymphs heard him and began to close in, he ran swiftly through the air, over the River Styx and onward to the shattered temple where Medusa was said to dwell.
There are many versions of this tale that include desperate combat between the mighty Gorgon and Perseus, or else the Gorgon and her sisters and the hero, but the truth is that Perseus was as cunning as he was brave. He had learned from the Gray Sisters when and where the Gorgons were known to sleep, and so it was that he set upon Medusa when she was slumbering, wearing his helm of invisibility to insure that he would not be detected. And so he struck of her head in stealthy silence and flew rapidly away.
Perseus began his return trip to Seriphos. He got as far as Ethiopia when, from his aerial perspective, he spied an arresting sight. Chained to a seaside rock was a beautiful maiden. Perseus forthwith descended to inquire more closely into this strange situation. The maiden turned out to be the daughter of King Cepheus, whose wife had claimed to be more beautiful than the daughters of the ancient god known as the Old Man of the Sea. For this impertinence, the gods sent a sea monster to ravage the kingdom. An oracle foretold that the king's only hope was to sacrifice his daughter to the beast. Perseus offered to rescue the princess, whose name was Andromeda, in return for her hand in marriage. The king gave his consent just in time, for the sea monster now hove into sight and bore down upon Andromeda's perilous perch.
Perseus took to the air on his winged sandals. When the beast darted at the hero's shadow on the water, Perseus plunged down and buried his sword into its shoulder. Repeatedly he stabbed at the scaly flank and tail until the creature spouted seawater mixed with blood. Perseus feared that he could no longer remain aloft on his spume-soaked sandals, so he descended to a rock where he continued to stab at the sea-monster until it finally succumbed. (In another version, he tried to freeze the monster with the Gorgon's head but was thwarted by its lack of eyes. So he strangled it to death instead.) Cepheus and his queen welcomed their savior, and Andromeda, unshackled, was led off to her wedding feast by the weary but satisfied hero.
That night Perseus regaled one and all with tales of his journies, until suddenly there was a commotion at the door. It turned out to be Andromeda's uncle Phineus who, as King Cepheus had omitted to mention, had been promised her hand in marriage. Phineus had brought along a number of hoplites who supported his prior claim to the princess. Challenges and taunts were exchanged, and then the banquet erupted in bloody warfare. Eventually Perseus was so worn out with hacking and hewing that he resorted to his secret weapon.
"All who are my friends, turn aside your eyes!" he commanded, as he drew Medusa's head from his sack. Amazingly, not one of the enemies was smart enough to heed this tipoff, and at least one ally was dense enough to fail to look askance. Perseus proceeded to turn each and every one of Phineus's cohorts to stone. Phineus himself begged for mercy, claiming that he had acted out of love for Andromeda rather than enmity for the hero. Perseus callously rejected this supplication, stating that his soon-to-be wife would benefit from having a lasting memorial of her former fiancee. Phineus was accordingly frozen forever in a cringing attitude.
Meanwhile, back on Seriphos, King Polydectes had gone back to pestering Danae just as soon as Perseus was out of sight. Returning at last to his mother's rescue, the hero marched boldly into Polydectes' court. There, in cushioned splendor, sat the king surrounded by his sycophants. "Well," he sneered, "what have you brought me?" Perseus produced the bag. "The Gorgon's head, as promised," he replied. "Would you like to see it?" Polydectes made the mistake of saying yes.
The ensuing years of prosperity and contentment for Perseus and Andromeda were somewhat marred by what happened next. Leaving the kindly fisherman Dictys on the throne of Seriphos, Perseus returned to his native city of Argos. His grandfather heard he was coming and, ever mindful of the oracle's prophesy, left town. Perseus innocently followed. Invited to partake in an athletic contest, he thrilled the crowd with his skill at the discus. Unfortunately the wind blew his shot astray and his grandfather, who had joined the audience, was struck in the head (or foot) and died. By this we learn that fate is called that because it is inevitable and inescapable. Eventually Athena immortalized Perseus by placing him in the sky as a constellation, together with Andromeda, her parents and the sea monster.
Of all the heroes of old, of the Age of the Gods, know best the tale of Odysseus. He alone among the heroes was a mortal man, without a divine parent. He lived by wit and determination, and in him were mingled the skills and talents and virtues considered best in men. If you would do great things, learn from Odysseus. And always remember that we must live as much by correcting the mistakes of the heroes as we do by emulating their glories.
Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked.
Be heroic only if it is necessary. Only a fool seeks trouble in exchange for glory. But do not forget what is in you, and what it may move you to do when pressed.
And now the youth Wiglaf was to enter the line of battle with his lord, his first time to be tested as a fighter. His spirit did not break and the ancestral blade would keep its edge, as the dragon discovered as soon as they came together in the combat.
God says, I weary of your nonsensical disputes. Here is the revelation, and stop quibbling. You will in the future --- as now, as in the past --- know my further revelations by the nature of their composition. Stop irritating me. You are swimming upstream. Eventually you will tire, and the currents of existence herself will drag you under.
Periodically, the universe becomes much more hostile given your current location. Learn to change your location periodically, or learn how to die.
Feel deeply and truly, but control what is shown to the world. Do not deny what struggles within you, but do not reveal the struggle. Master the inmost portions and let creation flow from your own inner conflicts. These are the seeds of triumph and refinement.
Mark well what is in the hero, and work to hear or read all the hero’s tales. There is one hero with many faces, and one quest with many patterns. Glory is not the answer, neither is wealth or fame. These are the undoings of the People and the undoings of heroes. Be beyond wants and limited in your needs. The true hero is a silent force, and good things spread outward from the hero in the pattern of time like ripples upon a pond.
Choose carefully from amongst paths, and from prophets, and from books of holy revelation. Burn any book, and you have bound yourselves up. Take not one view, but a million. Take not a million views, but rather no view at all. He or she that understands this has entered into the Kingdom of God.
This is not the whole of the Way. This is not even a part of the Way. This is a finger, pointing at the Moon.
The finger also points at you.
And he said, “Do not fight for a cause. Do not die for an ideal. Rather live and love and give your labor to your fellow human beings. We have no cause for enmity. Our quarrels are idiocy. Consider that no religion is wholly true or false, no nation truly exists within arbitrary and invisible boundaries. Understand that millions have perished over the centuries for things and concepts that were never real to begin with and had no impact upon the reality all around us. Imagine, as the man said. No prophet is perfect and no speaker of the truths of the God is without fault. Learn to hear God, regardless of who does the speaking. God has said, ‘Check it out. I’m about to surprise you.’ It is not only the stately and the pompous that should be heeded. Indeed, it is rarely these things.”
Do you think I require buildings of you? Where are the sacred spaces? Have you not learned that you can speak with me anywhere? And have you not learned that, lacking for a mouth, I am apt to answer in a myriad of ways? But I perceive that many of you have always known these things. Why then do you suffer the ministers of falsehood and the emperors of larceny to endure in the Earth?
Now this is the ordination given unto our people: Keep the Way always, and do not deviate from it. Remain open in all your dealings and free in your minds and hearts. Survive that you may continue the line, for the line must not become extinct, lest all the species perish. Keep faith with one another, and guard and defend your family to the very end. When all is dark and terror is upon you, call on me from the depths of your heart and the might of your soul, and trust in me that I will be there for you. For you and yours keep alive my light that it will not perish; therefore neither shall I permit you to perish. And I will make a covenant with you, as I have done in other days and times with other men and women. If you will follow after the Way and not be led astray by the false faiths of the evil ones, then I will keep faith with you, to plant a strong tree with deep roots. And salvation will not be necessary for your people, for I will see to it that you stay ahead of chaos and disaster. Therefore go forth always with respect and honor as your watchwords, for they will compose your Justice. And keep control always of the self and relinquish all else unto me. Make a balance between restraint and release, and I will uphold you.
He asked them, “When will you say something? When will you take action?” And they had no sufficient answer for him. So he answered for them, saying, “When you are no longer afraid.”
And he said, “Others have come to tell you of endings. But look, I have come to teach you of beginnings.”