Alchemy of Happiness

[deviadah]

There is plenty to say about this text, and I find that it resonates a lot with how I perceive alchemy, or spiritual transformation. Somehow the Arabs manage to express themselves well with words. Here is one of my favourite quotes from this book regarding knowledge of the self:

Some of thy attributes are those of animals, some of devils, and some of angels, and thou hast to find out which of these attributes are accidental and which essential. Till thou knowest this, thou canst not find out where thy real happiness lies. The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping, and fighting; therefore, if thou art an animal, busy thyself in these things. Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit; if thou belongest to them, do their work. Angels contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely free from animal qualities; if thou art of angelic nature, then strive towards thine origin, that thou mayest know and contemplate the Most High, and be delivered from the thraldom of lust and anger. Thou shouldest also discover why thou hast been created with these two animal instincts: whether that they should subdue and lead thee captive, or whether that thou shouldest subdue them, and, in thy upward progress, make of one thy steed and of the other thy weapon.

Of course there is talk of God and the Quran in this book, but one has to look into the subtext... which I always try to do.

To take a simple instance: suppose a man wishes to write the name of God. First of all the wish is conceived in his heart, it is then conveyed to the brain by the vital spirits, the form of the word God takes shape in the thought-chambers of the brain, thence it travels by the nerve-channels, and sets in motion the fingers, which in their turn set in motion the pen, and thus the name God is traced on paper exactly as it had been conceived in the writer's brain. Similarly, when God wills a thing it appears in the spiritual plane, which in the Koran is called The Throne; from the throne it passes, by a spiritual current, to a lower plane called The Chair; then the shape of it appears on the Tablet of Destiny; whence, by the mediation of the forces called angels, it assumes actuality, and appears on the earth in the form of plants, trees, and animals, representing the will and thought of God, as the written letters represent the wish conceived in the heart and the shape present in the brain of the writer.

No one can understand a king but a king therefore God has made each of us a king in miniature, so to speak, over a kingdom which is an infinitely reduced copy of His own. In the, kingdom of man God's throne is represented by the soul, the Archangel by the heart, the chair by the brain, the tablet by the treasure-chamber of thought. The soul, itself unlocated and indivisible, governs the body as God governs the universe. In short, each of us is entrusted with a little kingdom, and charged not to be careless in the administration of it.

Do I need to point out what this reminds me of?



Check out: Alchemy of Happiness by Al Ghazzali

[LadyHydralisk]

Hrrrmmm, yes, yes you do....

[deviadah]

Hrrrmmm, yes, yes you do....

Are you sure?

In short, each of us is entrusted with a little kingdom, and charged not to be careless in the administration of it. - from Alchemy of Happiness

Perhaps Robert Fludd can help you...

Swedenborg talked about the holographic qualities of reality and that all humans may seem separate but are in fact in a cosmic unity. In heaven we are all in miniature, in fact the whole physical universe is a microcosm of the greater divine reality. The visible reality that we see every day is only a wave-substance. Likewise we are within as everything is without!

A greatly ignored OF thread here, and an older version with some other info too (and also ignored) on AF here. No one notices me...



Edit = I've created this topic here too now: Holographic Universe

[LadyHydralisk]

Poor thing....

I know about the holographic universe theory, I've been revisiting it since Kath over at OF reminded me.

The basic gists of it is that there are two tiny particles manifesting the entirety of a material space or something...it's complicated and I don't have the material on hand at the moment.

This has something to do with the parallel universe laws put forth by Tegmark...

time to bury myself in my work...

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