darkworkers and lightworkers : friends or enemies?

[Asmoday]

The website is in a holding pattern, I launched it shortly before moving -- I hope to have it churning again week after next. Hence, no contact info.

The matras are:

You must accept before you can transmute.
You may accept that which you respect.
You only respect what you can control.
You can control that which is worthy.
You are worthy because you transmute.

[Scin]

I have a healthy respect for thunderstorms, but I have no illusions about controlling them.

I would say those mantras are fundamentally flawed in that regard. Ironically, I found a piece of fiction to be more applicable:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.

The last line is purely fiction-specific and as such I left it out. The words are solid, however.

[rwarlick]

thanks, ben. i'll use your set for the exercise.

[Asmoday]

Originally Posted by Scin

I have a healthy respect for thunderstorms, but I have no illusions about controlling them.

I would say those mantras are fundamentally flawed in that regard. Ironically, I found a piece of fiction to be more applicable:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.

The last line is purely fiction-specific and as such I left it out. The words are solid, however.

Well, the difference between a thunderstorm and your emotions is that you are not the source of the thunderstorm (ultimately, even the subjective reality folks say they attracted the storm, not that they are the driving source of the storm). As you are the source of your emotions, this places them directly in your sphere of influence.

It absolutely can and must be done.

Secondly, I didn't create the mantras. I don't put anything on my site that is not field-tested and time-honored. I do this to assure quality and results as much as possible, keeping in mind that I can't sit there with Mr. Warlick to guide the exercise and monitor progress. Of course, its not that I'm against innovation, I love it, its that those mantras are designed with a specific purpose and have been tested through time, by myself and countless others before me, to achieve that purpose.

They are specifically designed, both through content and sound, to put the mind in a more neutral, calculative, state so analysis of the emotions and dualities can occur. The true, lasting power of this exercise are the realizations and insights which it creates. So, you want the mantras to highten that process. Also, the sounds themselves have a specific intent, which I can go into at a later time.

People in the developed world, i.e. the west, polarize Dark very, very easily. The critical weakness is the lack of dicipline and the "now, now" mentality, which, dissapointing as it might be, is very reckless on the left-hand path.

The problem with your mantra is that it is good, but for another purpose. It seeks to drive empowerment, but also in such a manner as to highlight vulnerability -- this is not the purpose at hand for the exercise. It is, however, a great example of a fear-driven thunderbolt. A warrior might recieve benefit from it, though, prior to conflict. Allthough, I might tweak it so it didn't highlight personal deficiency so much.

In any case, sing twinkle-twinkle little star for all I care -- I just want to point out that you're actually slowing down the rate of growth of the exercise by tinkering or replacing the mantra.

Dear god, I have got to get the forums up...

[rwarlick]

So I shouldn't use Scin's mantras (for emotional mastery) for the reason they stir up the emotions?

I'm sure they'll have a use for something later...

[Scin]

I fail to see how the mantra I presented encourages a view of personal deficiency. It definitely emphasizes power above all else to the apparent exclusion of control....but that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Those without the discipline to utilize their emotions effectively will simply fall by the wayside or, with proper direction by a learned master, pass through a trial by fire.

Power is a means and not an end. Freedom is a means and not an end. Both are implied by the mantra (taken, incidentally, from the Sith Code of Star Wars fame). There is no end, only an evolution. Goals are as temporary as the life of a mortal being. Once a goal is reached, a new goal replaces it. Once a life ends, a new life replaces it.

The Sith mantra, then, is useful as a double-edged sword. It weeds out the weak.

[Asmoday]

Okay, first let me say that I am not going to have a prolonged argument, especially not one where the central issue is the validity of a mantra that someone has ripped off from frikking STAR WARS. My time is more valuable than that.

Point: The Sith are movie characters, the left-hand path is quite real.

I would suggest you put down the Star-Wars and Dungeons and Dragons long enough to see that giving someone a mantra that has not been tested by many others, through time, especially when they are first starting on the path, is amateurish and rude.

Secondly, the mantra does highlight vulnerability by its very desperation for power. What you learn along the path is that the power is already there, perception of a lack of it is both illusion and weakness -- hence, vulnerability.

[Scin]

The source is irrelevant. Though, I do question your seeming obsession with "Dungeons and Dragons." After all, nowhere in any of my posts did I mention anything about it...and you've referenced it more than once in Internet writings.

Point: The Sith and the Left Hand Path's origins (Anton LeVey's concept of it, anyway) are both fictional. All mythology, all fables, are fiction. It is the message behind the fiction that one must consider. Surely, you don't discount the Fox and the Grapes as just a sad story about fruit?

We clearly have a very different idea on the way mantras are used. I am not a superstitious person. I personally don't care if the mantra is a recipe for a cheese sandwich; it's the emotion behind them, the drive, that counts. Mantras that must be repeated word for word and understood as such smack of dogma, something that should be considered to be the archenemy of reason.

Power is not omnipresent, available to be tapped at any time. No. The will to have power, the drive towards it, those are omnipresent. The knowledge of others and oneself required to obtain more influence over our world - that is a progressive thing, and requires continual attention and disciplined study. One cannot simply become powerful simply because one wishes it; metaphorical blood must spent to acquire it.