The Book of Shiva

[Jhanon]

I am sorry for flooding this thread, but your work here has brought up a number of things in mind that should like to reconcile. We are treading very close to "sexism", but I wish to express that I am not "sexist." I have some questions for you, Alexander, that I wish to know how you see.

1) Why are there so few woman seekers of enlightenment?
2) Is it because their ticket to enlightenment is companionship with a man headed to enlightenment?

(removed some personal content)

3) Is the vision at the end of your post something that you actually experienced?

[Alexander]

1) Why are there so few woman seekers of enlightenment?
2) Is it because their ticket to enlightenment is companionship with a man headed to enlightenment?

I have pondered these questions many times myself. I am inclined to say that yes, women are dependent on us for their spiritual health. If we do a poll of the GWV, we find that nearly every one of us here is male. If we go back in history, we find that nearly every spiritual teacher was male as well. I find this interesting: because if the genders were truly the same, then the one area where you could find gender equality would be in the world of the spirit.

3) Is the vision at the end of your post something that you actually experienced?

This seems to be the suggestion; however, it is quite ambiguous. I do not begin and say Vyasa had the vision. So, perhaps it was not his. Also, other than the ending, there are many other things in the work that are suggestive. But I will leave it to you to find them. :)

"Manhood is rare because it includes in itself contradictory qualities. A man is both virile and good. Usually men are not like this. As a rule men are either virile and cruel, or good and weak."

This suggests to me that manhood is a balance of feminine and masculine qualities, wherein an individual is whole without a separate entity such as a wife. And, this agrees with my past insights. But what of women who have entered "womanhood"?

What I suppose I am trying to say is that a man in manhood and a woman in womanhood are very similar in qualities because they are balanced in and of themselves. So, it seems to me that most of the quoted material is in reference to man and woman in their natural state. Not in their enlightened state.

I am not sure what you mean at the end. I agree that when a man becomes complete, he adopts female qualities. It is the same with women: when they become complete they adopt male qualities. I explore this a little in the section on the Shiva/Shakti Yantras:

Vyasa. There is often an esoteric symbol associated with you, the Shiva Yantra. What does this symbol represent?

Lord Shiva. The Shiva Yantra represents the idea of three forces.

Vyasa. What does it mean when the Shiva Yantra is facing up? Down?

Lord Shiva. When it faces up, it represents the complete male. When it faces down, it becomes the Shakti Yantra and represents the complete female.

Vyasa. What is it meaning of the Shiva and Shakti Yantras together?

Lord Shiva. The union of the two symbolizes completion in the absolute sense.

So, the idea is we are composed of active and passive forces. But, in the incomplete man, the active force is dominant, and in the incomplete woman, the passive force is dominant. To become a complete man, or a complete woman, you must adopt the opposing force. But, to do this, you must embrace the third or reconciling force.

[Alexander]

The Shiva and Shakti Yantras

[Jhanon]

1) Why are there so few woman seekers of enlightenment?
2) Is it because their ticket to enlightenment is companionship with a man headed to enlightenment?

I have pondered these questions many times myself. I am inclined to say that yes, women are dependent on us for their spiritual health. If we do a poll of the GWV, we find that nearly every one of us here is male. If we go back in history, we find that nearly every spiritual teacher was male as well. I find this interesting: because if the genders were truly the same, then the one area where you could find gender equality would be in the world of the spirit.

Yes, I agree. I have not contemplated this subject much, but it surfaced in a discussion with my companion; "I reflected that I do not know a single female who practices toward enlightenment, or at least they don't talk about it or make it apparent. I only know of women who are enlightened (like 1st-3rd stage out of the 4) due to their intimacy with a male who practices diligently. Now I'm beginning to be unsure if this is sexism or actually part of nature.

I started thinking....despite a lack of practice...you experience immaterial phenomena often. I connected that with how my presence tends to cause enlightened behavior and immaterial phenomena (Shaktipat.) Also, I considered how, anatomically, it is the woman who "receives." Since the chakras are considered part of the immaterial anatomy of material beings, this would suggest women to have higher receptivity to the "immaterial seed" as well. In other words; if you can get pregnant, you get enlightened. "

Also, this explains the animal magnetism I have experienced since I started practicing regularly.

[Jhanon]

3) Is the vision at the end of your post something that you actually experienced?

This seems to be the suggestion; however, it is quite ambiguous. I do not begin and say Vyasa had the vision. So, perhaps it was not his. Also, other than the ending, there are many other things in the work that are suggestive. But I will leave it to you to find them.

>_<

[Alexander]

So, I spent the past month sending query letters to literary agents, and was again unable to find someone to represent me. So, I have made my works available digitally via Smashwords.com, which was recommended to me a couple years ago by Jeffrey.

I do not expect to sell any copies of my works; but, I am listening to my Inner Guide, which told me to write these things and to make them available to people.

I've updated all the threads of my works on here to have a free PDF as well as an ebook link.

[Alexander]

I recently reread this interesting little book I wrote a few years ago, and I have to say it is fascinating. There are very few books like this in the world and I do feel more things like this are necessary.

This entire book was the product of what I guess you could call "intuition." I tried to take the role of someone being open to these "ideas," and just wrote them down as clearly as I could. I may have made a few small errors in translation. One thing that has bothered me (though I would not go back and edit it) was the line "true thoughts and feelings" should be reversed and say "true feelings and thoughts"... emphasizing the emotions of men before the thoughts, though the meaning is basically the same...

One thing that always impressed me (I think it left a mark on me at a young age) was that in Plato's philosophy all his writings are at "second hand." Meaning there is no text where Plato goes out and writes an essay saying "and this is what I believe, and this..." Instead you read his dialogues and the characters in the dialogues have their own opinions and you as the reader are forced to interpret them and also make your best guess at what Plato believes.

Creating a text like this allows the writer to create a work with many layers to it, and this is very important because people at different levels of understanding can read the work and all get something out of it. For example, you might take one part symbolically, or literally, or understand the same line in different ways. Then you return to the same part of the text later on and understand it completely differently as you grow.

I feel like I am supposed to create a few more of these written works, and that is part of my "job." So assuming I do not drop dead in the meantime, I am supposed to write "The King Will Ride Out," "Emily" (a very different version of the current), "The Orientalist" (the same) and a "travelogue"... The first of these may be finished soon, within the next year, though each of the others I anticipate will require at least 1-2 years each, meaning I would need some time to get them all done.