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Date Posted: 09:29:01 10/09/02 Wed
Author: CRACKpot
Subject: Re: Saint Stephen's Sermon on Self
In reply to: steve 's message, "Saint Stephen's Sermon on Self" on 21:25:19 09/07/00 Thu

>I thought I would cristen this with a little personal
>thought...Ok Tommy, I just got it all togther for
>you...read this...
>
>I think in an imperfect world that is held togther by
>the finite social glue of limits and artificial
>control, the only frontier that can be pure and free
>is the frontier of ones thought, yet it is a constant
>effort in which such a pursuit requires a continuos
>waking effort. I live for my thoughts, for that is all
>I truly have. What are material things, what are their
>true value in the scheme of things? Nothing at all
>really, for you can be as fat and happy as you like,
>yet still ignorant and imprisoned. I believe
>everything should be observed, life is a constant
>learning process, and experience from which our proper
>function is to gain spiritual progress and wisdom. If
>we ever evolve as individuals on a grand scale, then
>and only then can we have true change.
>
>You may have something to gain from following someone
>else's path, whether it be a religion or philosophy,
>but there is a limit to it: it is the conception of
>another, and it cannot be expanded within your
>framework, for know the limit of belonging to someone
>else. However, if you learn what it has to offer, you
>can build upon it and expand from this collective
>foundation of other individual: this is progressive.
>
>Fist, however, you must find personal freedom. In
>order to do this, you must know yourself. You must
>know what you really believe, and apply logic and
>reason to this, and then understand while you feel
>this way. If it is logical, then you should retain the
>belief and expand upon, if it is illogical you should
>replace it with a new one that is more reasonable,
>preferably a self created on, or some expansion built
>from the foundation of an others production. You must
>find self governance, you must actualize self control
>on a personal level. You see, when people are born,
>they have no waking conscious knowledge of self, they
>first perceive the existence of others. From this
>basis, the conditioning and the creation of the false
>self, or societies pile of cay to be molded, is
>forged. The first institution is the parents, followed
>public education and religious institutions, and drone
>peers programed to exterminate individuality. From
>this, we are controlled, we know limits. Mass thought
>is created and progression is limited.
>
>In finding self, you must take a sojourn from society,
>and look within. On this pursuit, you will more then
>likely encounter great sorrow as universal forces are
>mounted against you. Those who are seeking ad not
>aware of it encounter this sorrow also. There are
>three ways of dealing with it, you back away and
>choose not to feel, you can wallow in it and drowned
>in your sorrow, or you can engage it and embrace it,
>seek to know the sorrow and turn it to your
>advantage(most notably through art and expression). I
>have found when you encounter this force, it is a
>great definition of self. Many become addicted to it
>because it is the only feeling of self that is real.
>They wallow and drown in it, for they never progress
>beyond it. You must look beyond the sorrow, for the
>beauty in all things, the peaceful beauty within
>yourself, and the potential beauty of everything if
>wrought with the right care. When you find this, you
>will find yourself, and a great freedom and power that
>is beyond control over anything artificial or other:
>true enlightenment.
>
>Through this looking glass of self, you must look to
>define the world around you, instead of letting it
>continue to define you. Through this control of self,
>you will find that there are no limits, that the truth
>is merely limitless possibility: what the free mind
>can carve it into. Through this sense, nothing can
>truly control you or stop you: you can achieve
>anything for you will only truly peruse what makes you
>happy, thus what your true purpose has come to be.
>Anything you must do to survive will become trivial,
>for you will really be in love with life and want to
>better yourself: when your mind is free, who can truly
>control you? You will also come to respect other
>people on a greater level, for in them you will see
>the possibility of another boundless set of
>possibilities, yet fostered from a different
>perspective of experience. You must seek to cultivate
>these people as well, for the greater the mass of free
>thinkers, a greater the measure of material freedom
>will come to pass. Through this, we can expand the
>quality of the human experience for all people.
>
>If you choose not to know true self, but instead, the
>mass produced artificial being, you will never be
>truly happy. You will be placated to a designer sense
>of artificial happiness, you will be limited. In
>limiting yourself, you will limit other people, and
>not help set the stage to free more minds. Without
>personal self control and true recognition of self,
>you will not find the only true frontier of freedom
>possible at this current juncture; Without a greater
>sense of mental freedom and self recognition, we can
>never expand this freedom progressively to other
>realms of physical and material manifestations of
>freedom.
>
>Love,
>Itieldin