The Kybalion and More
This argument on predestination is getting about as futile as arguing that the moon being made of green cheese. This is a doctrine popular during the dark ages and partially responsible for keeping the people in their darkness. Many felt it was fruitless to use free will to change anything, as everything was already determined.
Next this reader tells me that my teachings on infinity are not in harmony with the Kybalion
I took a look at the Kybalion this evening which can be found at this website:
It is interesting that the Kybalion was supposed to be written by Hermes and some think he was Hermes.
I read some of the Kybalion and some commentary this evening and it says quite a few things in alignment with my teachings. Ironically, it says some things that run contrary to what some here have been teaching.
The text I read says:
“We do not wish to enter into a consideration of Free Will, or Determinism, in this work, for various reasons. Among the many reasons, is the principal one that neither side of the controversy is entirely right–in fact, both sides are partially right, according to the Hermetic Teachings.”
This is in harmony with what I have taught, that both extremes of this teaching are incorrect. Our predestination friend teaches the extreme that all, every detail, has been previously decided. The Kybalion says that this idea is only “partially right.” The other extreme, that nothing is determined or predictable, is also only “partially right.”
I agree with the Kybalion 100 percent on this.
This is also supported in this statement:
“And yet, do not make the mistake of supposing that Man is but a blind automaton–far from that. The Hermetic Teachings are that Man may use Law to overcome laws, and that the higher will always prevail against the lower, until at last he has reached the stage in which he seeks refuge in the LAW itself, and laughs the phenomenal laws to scorn. Are you able to grasp the inner meaning of this?”
As I started reading I saw a major contraction within the teachings of the Kybalion itself. It says this:
THE ALL is SPIRIT which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE…
It thus says that the ALL is undefinable and then proceeds spending a good portion of the book defining it. It says it is unknowable and proceeds to explain it so we can know what it is.
If God or “the All” were truly unknowable and undefinable then it would be silly to define it as “infinite” as does the Kybalion. If it were truly undefinable and unknowable there is no way anyone could be consistent and define it as infinite or all knowing. All one could say is that he doesn’t know what the dickens it is, how big it is, how smart it is or any of its characteristics.
On the positive side I thought this statement from the Kybalion was good and in harmony with my teachings about God:
“Following the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that THE ALL creates the Universe MENTALLY, in a manner akin to the process whereby Man creates Mental Images. And, here is where the report of Reason tallies precisely with the report of the Illumined, as shown by their teachings and writings. Such are the teachings of the Wise Men. Such was the Teaching of Hermes. THE ALL can create in no other way except mentally, without either using material (and there is none to use), or else reproducing itself (which is also impossible). There is no escape from this conclusion of the Reason, which, as we have said, agrees with the highest teachings of the Illumined. Just as you, student, may create a Universe of your own in your mentality, so does THE ALL create Universes in its own Mentality.”
The writer uses the term “mentally” for want of a better word. I use the foundation word of Purpose and the Trinity of Purpose/Decision/Intelligence and Purpose/Light/love as it manifests in creation.
It says: “THE ALL can create in no other way except mentally, without either using material (and there is none to use).
This is in harmony with my teachings that matter has no solid material but is only Purpose in vibration. I have also said that man’s imagination is a reflection of God’s imagination and we both use this principle to create. The main difference is that ‘we cannot out imagine God’ and thus what is unlimited with God appears infinite to the human point of view.”
It says: “Just as you, student, may create a Universe of your own in your mentality, so does THE ALL create Universes in its own Mentality.”
I can see why a reader thought I may have taken a few things from this book as this is a principle I endorse.
My critic says this: “Just like hot and cold is part of the same thing. With different degrees in between the two. There is no place where hot and cold starts or stops. There is no place where finite starts, and infinite stops.”
Actually, cold starts at minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit, and hot cannot exceed the temperature where particles vibrate faster than light. There is a beginning, end and middle to all things in the world of form including hot and cold.
Our friend continues with a number of objections to my teachings, some the result of misunderstanding. Here are some of my clarifications:
Objection: You believe God makes mistakes.
To deny there is such a thing as a mistake is to deny the reality in which we live. Would you call DaVinci ignorant because he made mistakes before he finished the Mona Lisa? Can you find a perfect world among the billions of stars?
Objection: You think God creates without knowing what will happen
God knows the end which he has imagined but does not know all the details in between, nor would any intelligent being want to know. Why would Leonardo want to know how many times he would have to relieve himself in the process of painting the Mona Lisa? Why would God want to know about all the times you scratched your armpit as you are assisting in manifesting a creation? It’s silly when you think about it.
Objection: No hinderance is possible with God.
But the Kybalion says God is unknowable, so how can you claim to know this and accept the book?
God’s will always manifest, but it works its way through many hindrances. Without such hindrances creation would be no fun and God would not even participate. Would you play Monopoly if you got the roll of the dice you wanted each time? No, you would not. Neither would God.
As God jumps into the game of creation and life through His reflections (us) He has to figure things out through us to manifest his will. It’s not that we are made the way we are on purpose. We have always been and are not created because (as the Kybalion says) THE ALL is in ALL. As creation manifests, we all have to plow with the horses we have until mastery is attained. This is verified by reality.
Objection: You think that God is without order .
I have never said God is without order. What makes things unpredictable is not chaos for chaos is fairly predictable. What makes things unpredictable is intelligence making decisions. Intelligence produces order, not chaos, and the decisions of one who is intelligent are the most difficult things to predict.
Example: Before World War II DK tells us that Christ and his Hierarchy thought they had the path of evolution into the new age figured out. Then an evil genius named Hitler made decisions that were not foreseen and created situations that caused the Hierarchy to reformulate many of their plans. We will still enter the new age as planned, but the path is different than anticipated.
Objection: You do not acknowledge that good and evil are two sides of the one polarity.
There is no such thing as two sides of a duality being the same polarity. By definition a polarity can only exist when the pull is to one side of the duality.
Dualities exist in our world, but are an illusion originating from a place where there are no polarities, except in t
Objection: There can be no problems where God’s will rules.
I would like to know where you get the idea that there can be no problems, no errors and no mistakes in life. This is not taught in the Kybalion or by any teacher of significance I can think of.
Yes, God’s will rules, but part of His will is to have a game with lots of pitfalls so he can enjoy the win in the end.
Objection: Scripture says that the son of man goes as it is written of him. That is another way of explaining predestination if you hadn’t noticed.
I do not notice. This has absolutely nothing to do with determinism as you teach it. There is no argument that some things can be predicted. The argument (perhaps you have not noticed) is whether everything down to the smallest detail can be predicted. In other words, it can be predicted that there will be a crime mentioned in tomorrow’s newspaper, but no one can email me the exact text of the details or tomorrow’s newspaper.
Objection: Your belief in a world beyond time and space is not logical
This is actually explained quite well in the Kybalion. It tells us that all things in form are created from the imagination of the mind of God. This mind does not exist in time and space, but creates it and incarnates within it.
From the Kybalion: “The Teacher instructs the student to form a Mental Image of something, a person, an idea, something having a mental form, the favorite example being that of the author or dramatist forming an idea of his characters; or a painter or sculptor forming an image of an ideal that he wishes to express by his art. In each case, the student will find that while the image has its existence, and being, solely within his own mind, yet he, the student, author, dramatist, painter, or sculptor, is, in a sense, immanent in; remaining within; or abiding within, the mental image also. In other words, the entire virtue, life, spirit, of reality in the mental image is derived from the ‘immanent mind” of the thinker. Consider this for a moment, until the idea is grasped.
“To take a modern example, let us say that Othello, Iago, Hamlet, Lear, Richard III, existed merely in the mind of Shakespeare, at the time of their conception or creation. And yet, Shakespeare also existed within each of these characters, giving them their vitality, spirit, and action.”
Objection: How could a formless world even exist? If there is no form there is nothing, right?
Not quite. The lowest of the formless worlds is a world of essential ideas. Consider the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles. Even before the formation of the Beatles, the essence of the song existed beyond time and space as an idea in the mind of God. As an essential idea it had no form. Then Lennon and McCartney tuned into this formless idea and brought it down into time and space and clothed it with vibration, vinyl and sheet music.
If every piece of form representing this song in this world were destroyed the essential idea would still exist in the formless worlds and take form again somewhere, sometime.
Look at your computer, a coffee cup, your watch… These are all ideas clothed in form. The idea behind each form (including your body) is eternal and exists in the higher worlds and is experienced by pure life energy, which resides there.
To tap into the formless worlds, we must go beyond consciousness in time and space and identify with essential life energy which is one with all other lives in a world of ideas. Actually, living there beyond time and space is beyond regular human consciousness. The best we can do is tap into these higher worlds and bring some inspired ideas from on high down to human consciousness.
I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much. Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997)
June 17, 2006
Copyright by J J Dewey
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