The Book of the Law Study Group 2.21

Always Wondering said:

Well, what have you read of his already? Perhaps we could make some recommendations.

AW

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I've only read third hand sources of which I can't even remember their titles.

Here are two books first reccomended to me.


Magick Without Tears
http://hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/

It has two chapters on Morality


Little Essays Towards The Truth
http://hermetic.com/crowley/little-essays-towards-truth/index.html

AW

I'd second Magick Without Tears, predictably.

But you have to realise, too, that Crowley is considered a prophet, but not in any way a perfect Thelemite. His life is not to be held up as a paradigm of perfection, nor something to which to attain. Just because he felt that something was right, doesn't mean it's right to me, or Always Wondering, or you. The point of Thelema is that you discover what is right to you; that is your True Will. To hand that power over to another person - and AC of all of them! - would be to subvert all that we work for in our pursuit of Thelema.

Crowley's not the be-all-and-end-all. He was just a really great magickian, a superlative intellect, and happened to be the man the Secret Chiefs contacted in order to usher in the New Aeon. That doesn't mean we have to follow in his footsteps.

\m/ Kat

thorhammer said:

Just because he felt that something was right, doesn't mean it's right to me, or Always Wondering, or you. The point of Thelema is that you discover what is right to you; that is your True Will. To hand that power over to another person - and AC of all of them! - would be to subvert all that we work for in our pursuit of Thelema.

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See, this sounds like relativism to me...but it's not.

I mean, the right thing is to find out what your True Will wants to do.

However, we're filled with contradicting desires. How can we be positive that the desire we're following is our "True Will"?

What if your True Will involves controlling people? What if your True Will involves doing something ridiculous? What if it involves self-sacrifice?

This is something about Thelema that I want to better understand.

P.S.
I'm definitelly going to be looking up "Magick without Tears." Hopefully I'll be better able to understand what this all means.

Curtis Penfold said:

However, we're filled with contradicting desires. How can we be positive that the desire we're following is our "True Will"?

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Contradicting desires aren't the true will, its the ego self having a tantrum. The idea is once you discover your real true will, you can let go of the conflicting desires, as you'll know them for what they are.

What if your True Will involves controlling people? What if your True Will involves doing something ridiculous? What if it involves self-sacrifice?

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True will by its definition doesn't impinge on the will of another. True will most likely will be something that is ridiculous. Crowley was a Buddhist when he received the Book of the Law from his HGA, and he hated it, spend a few years ignoring it, and then spent the rest of his life struggling to live up to it. It's not supposed to be easy. Selfsacrifice is fine, as long as it has a purpose, not for sacrifice or false moralities sake is I think the key.

P.S.
I'm definitelly going to be looking up "Magick without Tears." Hopefully I'll be better able to understand what this all means.

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I think it would help if you read the threads on the BoL in their order also, a lot of this we've discussed before in threads that are more specific to this information. They are indexed in the table of contents thread.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=27324 It would be good to steer this current discussion back toward the line that is the topic of this thread a bit, as we seems to be staying a bit. Better to start a new thread for this I think

At the stage of which I am speaking, if a student is to actually practice ruthless compassion, he must have already gone through a tremendous amount of work: meditation, study, cutting through, discovering self-deception and sense if humour, and so on. After a person has experienced this process, made this long and difficult journey, then the next discovery is that of compassion and prajna. Until a person has studied and meditated a great deal; it would be extremely dangerous for him to try to practice ruthless compassion.

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I am wondering what is the danger of ruthless compassion?
In case I am ever able to graduate from rigiours honesty to ruthless compassion.

AW

Always Wondering said:

I am wondering what is the danger of ruthless compassion?
In case I am ever able to graduate from rigiours honesty to ruthless compassion.

AW

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I'd say, maybe mistaking violent tendencies, the desire for revenge or vengeance, vigilantism (notice how many "V"'s there are there? Someone got a Sepher Sephiroth handy?) for ruthless compassion. Ruthless compassion suggests a disconnection, a lack of personal motivation whereas I think the dangerous part is when the personality becomes involved.

\m/ Kat

Yes, I think that would be unfortunate, not pretty, mistaken or disruptive, etc. But "very dangerous" seems to imply something more to me.
And if you take this inward and apply Ruthless Compassion to one's own ego, I wonder if and why the warning still applies.

And also, some people are cruel without any understanding or intent. Wouldn't intent negate some of the negitive?

AW

Always Wondering said:

And if you take this inward and apply Ruthless Compassion to one's own ego, I wonder if and why the warning still applies.

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The first step is always Know Thyself. Without a good deal of self knowledge you're essentially flying blind. Being ruthless with the ego is all well and good, but if you can't differentiate between True Self and ego you're wasting your time and may even be inflicting needless punishment on your self.

The Adept/King is in a different and potentially dangerous situation. (although this still applies, to a lesser degree, to anyone on the earlier stages of the magical path)
The K&C of HGA energizes the whole being of the Adept. It doesn't discriminate and pick and choose among your best qualities. Everything gets zapped. The positive and the negative. So if you don't get your shit together you're going to be in whole world of hurt.

In the Abramelin working this is symbolised by the Adept conjuring the "Four Great Princes of Evil", who personify his/her newly turbo charged lower elemental nature. The Adept must swear them to obedience or risk falling under their power. He/she can't afford to show any weakness because the result will be ego inflation of monstrous proportions.

Wow.

I can't even imagine.

Thank-you.

AW