Spiritual Practice: fasting

Fasting Is Prescribed in the Abrahamic Faiths <3 span="">

The Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions all enjoin fasting. Moses observed a fast of forty days at Mount Sinai at the time of the revelation of the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 24:18) Although less common now, it is Jewish tradition to fast when mourning or when in danger. Most practicing Jews still fast on the Day of Atonement and for the one-week commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. Jesus of Nazareth, peace be upon him, also fasted on the Day of Atonement and the forty days of Moses’ fast to ward off Satanic temptation.

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” (Matthew 4:2)

Many Christians observe a forty-day pre-Easter fast, although now it includes abstention from only certain food items rather than all food and drink. Muslims fast the month of Ramadan and may, optionally, fast on most other days of the year.

The One God prescribes fasting for the faithful; and it has many benefits. Material pleasures can be generalised into food and drink, sexual pleasures, and vanity. Fasting requires abstaining from these, going against the natural instinct of Man to observe the commandment of God.This builds and strengthens a person's self-control, nearing them to their Creator. Other benefits of fasting include:

• Fasting instills patience, teaches self control and discipline.

• Fasting increases compassion for the less fortunate.

• Fasting builds focus on spirituality and deminishes focus on materialism.

• Fasting has many health benefits.

• Fasting can be atonement for sin and can earn great reward.

• Fasting is part of a strong spiritual and physical renewal plan.

• Fasting commemorates important sacred religious events.

The Muslim fast of the month of Ramadan is a continuation of the long history of fasting in the Abrahamic faiths. The self-improvement benefits of fasting make it an important means of improving one’s faith and practice of religion.

“And men who fast and women who fast…God has prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.” ( Holy Qur’an 33:35)

Deeper Understandings

sacred space upon a hill by Rizza Dela Cruz

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014

Partzufim - Divine Personas, Holy Family


Partzufim: (Aramaic, “Countenances,” “Personifications”). First outlined in the Zohar, this metaphysical concept is more fully devel­oped by Isaac Luria. According to the Lurianic cosmog­ony, after the catastrophe of the Breaking of the Vessels, the shattering of the primeval structure of light, the ein sof reconstitutes the fragments of the cosmic order into five “countenances” or “visages” that are able to mediate between supernal and material realities in a way the pri­mordial vessels were not. Think of the Partzufim as analo­gous to a “patch” for a faulty computer program.'


The biblical proof text that Chayyim Vital offers for the partzufim is Gen. 2:4, where he reads the compound word behibaram, “when they were created,” as a notarikon, breaking it up into be-Hay-baram, “Through ‘5’ He created them,” “them” being all of positive existence (Etz Chayyim, Gate III, 39). 


The Partzufim interact with humanity in the work of tikkun. These countenances also constitute and encompass the personal dimensions of God that are described in biblical and rabbinic writings, since they symbolize the male and female principles operating within the Godhead. In fact, the partzufim constitute a kind of “holy family,” a familial metaphor for the divine pleroma. In some writings, the various partzufim are assigned the names of biblical figures: Jacob and Israel; Rachel and Leah. Presumably, one can map the functions of the partzufim on the celestial level through studyingthe biographies and actions of those biblical characters. Other partzufim get titles, such as Yisrael Sava, “grandpa Israel,” for Abba.


 This aspect of Lurianic thought has a complex relationship with the sefirotic structure of classic kabbalah, not unlike the “wave/particle” phenom­enon in quantum physics. Thus whether the divine struc­ture manifests itself as the sefirot or as the partzufim de­pends on certain conditions, but they are essentially two aspects of the same divine force. The five countenances are:

Arikh Anpin: The “long/great countenance,” also called the Atik Yamim, “Ancient of Days.”
Abba: “Father,” the male aspect of the divine gamos is linked to the sefirot of Keter and/or Cho­chmah.
Ima: “Mother,” the celestial mother is tied to Binah.
Zer (or Zaur) Anpin/Ben: “The short/lesser countenance.” Product of the union of Abba and Ima, it is tied to the lower six sefirot: Chesed, gevurah, tiferet, netzach, Hod, and Yesod.
Kalah/Malcha/Bat: “Bride/Queen.” The feminine counterpart to Zer Anpin, she is linked to malchut.


The Partzufim, like their sefirotic counterparts, are also integral to the notion of the restoration of the Adam Kadmon, the cosmic human. In a kind of inverted “imi­tatio dei,” all human actions that advance the cause of cos­mic restoration are mimicked by the Partzufim.2 Thus humans help to activate them and ensure the healing flow of divine energies between higher and lower worlds. by GEOFFREY DENNIS   




1. Scholem, Kabbalah, 140–44.
2. Faierstein, Jewish Mystical Autobiographies, 28–29. Also see Green, Jewish Spirituality, vol. 2, 65–70.

Cooly, Milana inhaled her cigar curled in a cat's posture she purred someone responded with a corresponding shudder...

WHAT IS SACRED?

small tits
big book
sacred space
sacred text
life giver
sharia law
'what is sacred?'

What is sacred to a Holy Man, an Iman?
If pussy & love were cherished, not feared would laws be in place to judge women and women's powers? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY: Jesus was dark?

In an online discussion a nice sensitive white woman expressed incomprehension at the breathe and depth of racism with some naivete. But she also asked for solutions to a complex problem that is constantly expressing itself, and unraveling in our lives on a daily basis. Denial and assertions of mixed race relationships in white families is a mixed bag of contradictions when used as a defense against being called a racist. Marrying a white woman or man in a Black family is not felt the same way in Black families, and  if one pays attention to details each claim of a white person not being a racist is matched by pained reactions from Blacks. Why? Because every action of white Europeans for centuries has produced dark ominous realities for people of color around the globe. This is too much for whites living today to bear. It is unbearable the historical weight of what they have done, and who they have become as a result. My heart has learned to go out to them. The pain is in their actions, their heart  songs, and their words. The spiritual work required to heal these deep wounds is feared because it is so intense, so terrifying because it will rend asunder the fabric of individual's lives.

The healing modalities available are being used by healers in sacred circles and lodges around the globe, but sadly Christians are not great participants in these circles. Immersed in a pitiful state of denial, and a bizarre commitment to mediocrity millions of Christians envelope themselves in asinine dialogues that dismisses facts, and asserts destructive images in to replace fact and knowledge. It's weird, but a subject of great interest in the atheiest and agnostic communities, and in indigenous circles the world over.

Claiming Jesus was not an African, not a married Rabbi, that the 12 tribes of Israel were of all four races is a profoundly soul damaging assertion into the face of fact, and the face of the man, Jesus,to whom so much accord is given as being the Son of God. In his day on Earth there were only two people of the white race in African affairs: the Greeks and the Romans. The racial conflicts we have now are traceable. There is a need to mention how the Church validated conquest, and murderous missionary work. The end result is in the racial claims Christians are fond of making that continue to degrade people of African descent, and the Africans living in the Mother Land suffering deeply from the colonist's legacy and the missionary's bloodied  handiwork. What continues to be done to the tribes within the United States by the churches is a sin before God and Man, but it is condoned and sanctioned by the Fathers and the lay people of those churches who believe, who need to believe in a white Jesus!

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are African religions. The Eastern thought that authored their revered sacred books is disrespected by inserting previously non-existent theology, and socially restraining dogma, and teaching conquered people to assume and believe the Bible comes from Western orientation of thought and spirituality, and that Jesus was a white man!

These are words from my life. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Black Madonna

marriage, puritan ethic, technology

Earth

The puritan ethic, fundamentalism of Christianity, Islam and machismo, and the general consensus of the American perception regards the man as head of household and head over the wife. Translated into real life how true is this? How does it compare with the power of sexual politics, the prerequisite vulnerability of intimacy and the change and challenge technology introduced into marriage?

The actor, Ossie Davis, was often asked about and always admired for his long marriage to Ruby Dee. They had children and two careers as working actors, writers and directors but stayed tight and secure in their marriage business affairs, and friendship. In one interview Mr. Davis said that technology came into play and altered the tenor and fabric of all marriages. He spoke against the tendency of many to cling to paradigms that worked sixty, or seventy years ago against the life style change modern technology brought to the game of marriage.

I myself, divorced, found the creation story, Adam and Eve, full of flaws. Those flaws of perception were deeply imbedded into my consciousness. They needed to be examined and examined honestly. I took the basic premise of their teaching and turned it upside down for a simple and obvious reason. A man cannot give birth!  I placed Eve as first created and adjusted my place in the world and my world around this conceptual view, and my entire world changed!

I dare you.

~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories July 28, 2007


“The problem with divine healing is in the interpretation and understanding of divine healing. Divine healing is a complete and immediate healing. It ignores the structures of belief and practice that creates the illness and heals.” ~ Gregory E. Woods, 1993

Dawn Wolf

GNOSTIC CREATION MYTHS

Background: Gnosticism was sort of a variant of Christianity that existed until the late fifth century. It was more rooted in Greek philosophical traditions (and in the Syrian version of Zoroastrianism) than in Judaism. There wasn't really one single religion called Gnosticism, but rather a series of movements generally characterized by a belief in a secret knowledge ("Gnosis") imparted by God for the salvation of humanity, and an extreme duality between the material (which is very bad) and the spiritual (which is very good). Some went so far as to say that the Old Testament Creator of the Earth was really Satan, distinct from the divine and heavenly God of the New Testament. Under this circumstance they viewed death by self-inflicted starvation was the only correct answer. The point is that many of these people thought the bodies they lived in were horrible and irredeemable weights on their immortal souls.


Gnostics had a wide array of creation myths. One Gnostic myth says that humans existed in the distant past, but were destroyed by Darkness (or Satan or any of a number of evil Greek gods). Darkness then created Adam and Eve as a corrupted image (i.e. one in which the sinful/materialist acts like sex, eating, and the like are involved) of these ancient humans. Jesus was sent by God with secret gnosis to redeem these creatures from their evil, corporeal selves.


Another is the story of the 2nd century AD Egyptian Greek writer Hermes Trismegistus. He said man was created in the image of God, who is androgynous. God also created the Demiurge, who was the god of the material world. Man fell in love with the reflection of God in the waters of the material world, and went to look at it. This brought man under then control of the Demiurge, who created gender, the need for food, and so forth.


Most other Gnostic creation myths follow the general theme of a good, spiritual Creator God and a material seducer. The most interesting point is that the main creator is almost always the evil counterpart to God.


Some scholars claim that the creation story in the Book of John ("In the beginning was the Word") is a variant on the Gnostic creation story, but I have not been convinced of this. "Logos" (Greek for "word") is a Gnostic construct, but using one Gnostic buzzword did not a Gnostic make.


Source: a half dozen religious studies classes and "Encyclopedia of Creation Myths" by David Adams Leeming with Margaret Adams Leeming (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 1994).

photo: Convergence

TRANSFORMATION

"If it is a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two opposite thoughts or opinions in your head, then it is a mark of a successful marriage to be able to truly see the other person's point of view. This is also the mark of a successful society."

(read: John 8:1-11)

This exercise requires the development of an individual to the highest levels of being. The impeccability required is, disturbingly so, outside of the Christian curriculum. Jesus was impeccable. How he became impeccable, and was able to transcend the role of Teacher to Saviour to Messiah was work not a magic trip. The review and study of what Jesus studied, and whom his teachers were is the real stuff of energy work. Merely looking at and studying his few recorded words, and the re-telling of his life by people many years after his death cannot, by any stretch of the will, fathom the depth of our calling as Humans in this lifetime, or being to plummet into the depth and breath of his spiritual work!


Transformation is the requirement of the times we live in, and the traditional superficial spiritual work acclaimed by millions of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish people has lost its potency, and is no longer, in my estimation, the antidote for what ails the world. Living as deep as I have since birth has kept alive the deep sense of the mystery of being alive in a mystery and has helped me survive the dogmas that taught me that we were born into sin. The very notion of being born into sin is contemptuous of Life, and the gift of Life from the Creator. Its philosophical and practical offspring has engineered so much tragedy, given rise to Judgment, and the dichotomies Judgment produced in the souls of people and nations is killing everything magical about simply being ourselves.


Trying to see other’s points of view can be learned intellectually, but ‘seeing’ is another dimension of spirituality. Seeing the depth of views from whence cometh an action, a thought, a sense of self, or the source of pain in relation to fear, and suffering, or the depth of love for a lover who holds contempt for your very presence ventures into an arena that danced behind Jesus’ words, “Go and sin no more.”


Jesus was sitting drawing in the dirt, the storyteller said, when a group of men dragged a woman in front of them. She had been caught having sex either with a married man or she was the married woman with an unmarried man. Either way they were spying and probably waited until the man came, and was done, and dressed before they dragged her out of bed. They argued a point of Law with Jesus who continued to draw in the dirt.


When he was ready Jesus said, “He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.”


He went back to his drawing. One by one each man dropped his stone. Instead of stoning her, which Mosaic Law required, the stones, one by one, fell to the ground, and the men walked away. When the last of the men had evaluated his life, and left, Jesus, still drawing in the dirt, asked the woman, “Where are your accusers?


If she were a ghetto chick she would have said, “Deh gone!” If she were a country girl she might have said, “Dun no. De up n lef.”


Jesus said, “Woman, where are those your accusers? Has no man condemned you?”


She must have been studying him deeply the way women do after giving themselves, in bed, to a man, and suddenly finding themselves facing condemnation, and their death. Jesus looked up from his writing with the deep set, and penetrating eyes famous for seeing beyond the norm into the valance barely masking souls, truths, knowledge and powers, and said simply to her response, ‘No man, Lord’, and said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”


After this the storyteller, John, said Jesus turned to the Pharisees, and spoke the language of an initiated man above their understandings of Law, Truth, and Self. It is a deep teaching, and an insight without parallel into the levels of existence Jesus’ initiations can plunge us into. Beyond giving one’s life to Jesus, and baptism, and the pouring of the Holy Spirit there is work, and that work can lead to impeccability, if we knew who taught Jesus, what he studied, where he laid his seed, and what ceremonies he practised.


Without the tutor the Teacher will not be reached. But through desire a person will be led to what they thirst and lust after. ~Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0EsPGNdShk