Imagine being fatigued at the end of the day from practicing the faith in real time

How do we live the faith, practically, in real time?

Conscious labor, intentional suffering.

I like this language. It is more Eastern Orthodox(ish) sounding language. I got it from Gurdjieff (though I'm not a Gurdjieffian, for those who know what I'm talking about along those lines). It is good language.

It is what Jesus did (and commanded). We are to emulate Jesus. Be like Him.

Conscious labor means be awake, in real time. Imagine Jesus walking down your street. He's going to seem different than the usual person who walks down your street. He's going to seem awake, not lost in ever turning mechanical thoughts, fantasies, resentments, imaginary conversations, etc. I.e. barely aware enough of one's environment to stay out of the traffic.

Jesus will have an "I am here" presence with Him. (This is a common phrase from the Old Testament, so don't freak out.) "Here I am." "I am here." Spoken when someone was in the presence of God, in thought or reality. Jesus said love God with all your heart, mind, and will. The first great commandment. To do that you have to remember God. You have to feel God's presence in real time, right where you are. There's more to it, but that is a start. This is conscious labor.

Then intentional suffering. What is that? Did Jesus do that? Yes, He did. It means a conscious act. There are a few different types of suffering. There is fake suffering which is the most common type of suffering we all indulge in. Resentments, making requirements on people and our environment, mechanical annoyances of all kinds, never-ending.

Then there is real suffering: loss of life of a family member or friend; real sickness or injury; acts of God like earthquakes or floods or what have you. This is real suffering, yet it can turn into fake suffering quickly if it is indulged too long.

Then there is the more mysterious *intentional suffering.* What is that? You have to be awake to engage in intentional suffering, hence *conscious labor* and intentional suffering. If you're not awake to begin with you'll miss opportunities to intentionally suffer. It's when you have gratitude for things that would normally make you angry or resentful or depressed. It's in effect transforming negative emotional energy into higher emotional energy by not being in a state of identification with whatever would normally make you negative. Usually these events involve other human beings, either in thought or in real time events.

Much of this requires a more subtle language which can be found in the Fourth Way by Ouspensky.

Suffice to say: to really be doing the faith would be to get back in from a long day of conscious labor and intentional suffering. Imagine have done it all day to the point where you are fatigued as if you'd been digging ditches. The effort to be in the presence of God, and the effort to intentionally suffer by having gratitude when human beings would normally make you resentful or depressed.

This is what increases level of being of a Christian. Then when you go back to the word of the Bible you see more. You don't get original with the word of God, but you see more in the basics. You get more to the experiential level. Your understanding truly increases (as does your spiritual body).

I just ate the Odyssey

It's used as a metaphor, but it's real: the Bible is food for our soul. For our being. Our mind, our heart, our will. It actually feeds us in that sense as actual food feeds our body. Man doesn't live by bread and water alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God (paraphrased from memory).

And many of us are so careful what we take into our body regarding nutrition. We're very observant of that.

Yet we don't give a thought to what we take in via language and impressions and sound and so forth.

Epictetus (in his Enchiridion) pointed out we are very attentive to not allowing our body to be tussled about in a crowd ("I beg your pardon! Excuse me? You can't touch me! I'll call the police!") Yet when the same people 'tussle' with our mind and emotions we react differently. ("No, fuck you! How about that? Fuck you! Here, you want a piece of my mind? Come here, bitch, I'll give you a piece of my mind!") as opposed to, "Please stop forcing your words and attitude onto me. I don't have anything to do with them. They're garbage negativity and belligerent. If you want to have a constructive conversation, then I'll find some time for you. Otherwise stop assaulting me."

See the difference? The first is 'mixing it up' - promiscuously. The second is 'what does this have to do with me?'

So words. Language. The Bible. What ultimate food for our soul. Other books as well though. I live amidst television watchers. No book readers (story of my life, surrounded by people who have little in common with me). One of them just left the building. I was thinking: how would her life be changed for the better if she dedicated some time each day to reading a short story (or anything of literary value)? It would be like good nutritious food being taken in to her system.

Today I ate an orange, some chicken, some vegetables, some cookies, drank some milk, drank some water, and ate the 7th book of the Odyssey. I also ate two Grimm's tales.

+ + + + + + +

Often I eat Beethoven's 3rd Symphony.

Just recently I ate the complete Iliad.

Sorry about the f-bombs in the post. I wanted some realism.

When you eat Plutarch's Lives or The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire it changes your soul's DNA, so to speak. You become different.

I don't think I described what Epictetus was saying very well with that point in the post. He was saying if somebody shoves you you react like you are very conscious of having a boundary that has been crossed, and you protect that boundary. Yet if somebody insults you you let it cross right through your boundary and you let it bother you to no end. You have to be the same with the insult as you are with the shove.

The counterfeit trinity

The counterfeit trinity is the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.

The Beast is tyranny. Government tyranny is the Beast's most explicit manifestation.

The False Prophet is idolatry. Anything that draws you away from faith in God to put your faith in some aspect of the creation. Anything that gives you false information; that dissuades you from the truth; that fools you; that tempts you into error.

The Dragon is Satan. He has his reins on man's fallen nature. You're the horse, he's the rider. As long as you're under the control of your worldly pride, your vanity, and your self-will (and as long as you aren't even aware of those things) he's your master.

The analogy to the true Trinity probably works this way:

The Dragon is usurping the place of God the Father (but throw out the horse metaphor because I don't think God rides us like we're a horse).

The Beast is usurping the place of Jesus Christ.

The False Prophet is usurping the place of the Holy Spirit.

The world says worship the Beast. The Beast offers control, coercion, imprisonment, darkness, death. Jesus, on the other hand, says my burden is light. What Jesus demands He gives you the ability to give. Jesus liberates from the tyranny of the law and the fallen angels and demons.

We encounter the False Prophet through news media, through entertainment media, through educational institutions, through churches (most churches these days). They tell you truth is subjective; that it's relative; that is evolves; that it doesn't exist. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is the Spirit of Truth and discernment. The Holy Spirit represents truth to man as objective, unified, and unchanging; because it resides in the mind of God; and it can be accessed via the word of God (the Old and New Testaments) and the book of nature (general revelation).

The world says worship the Dragon, a created being. Don't recognize the Creator/creation divide. Worship the Dragon as the King of this world. The world tells you to get power from the Dragon; get riches from the Dragon; get sensual gratification from the Dragon; get fame from the Dragon. The world tells you to worship others who do the same. Or attempt it. Worship the darkness. Worship death. Be in love with death. Worship Hell. Be in eternal hellfire. With others who worship the Dragon. The power is useless. The riches are fleeting (or impractical in the scale of a human life). The sensuality, if you look closely, is ugly. The fame is annoying; like being followed by Harpies everywhere, all the time. (And on the riches again: notice evil people who have great riches attain it about in their fifties, and before long are the typical billionaire in their eighties and nineties? That's fun, isn't it? If they don't die of some disease the moment they attain their wealth. They build massive homes that are empty shells regarding any life. Everything is pretty much empty for them.)

A short note on a possible exception: Jeff Bezos attained his wealth relatively young. Divorced his wife to take up with the fifty year old wife of his lawyer who, forgive me, has had so many plastic surgeries she looks like a frog. Maybe he's in love. Or maybe the Dragon has convinced him a hundred billion dollars should get a man a middle aged woman who looks like a frog. He's also been drawn deep into the business of the Deep State. God knows what he's been involved with. The darkness of the Dragon's world.

If you worship God the Father instead of the Dragon you get all that God owns (and He owns everything); you get a resurrected, glorified body; you get company amidst other people who have resurrected, glorified bodies; you get true power that's based on self-command and loving your neighbors (no more enemies); you get the drama of rising to ever higher levels of being, as opposed to the bloody drama of good vs. evil, light vs. darkness (though a higher level will always present itself as a baptism of fire to one below that level hence the drama and effort and suffering are real, though also just staying right where you're at is paradise too). I'm speculating some on Heaven, but it seems within the bounds...

The unforgiveable sin

People have always asked what is the unforgiveable sin, and establishment theologians have always given weak, cuckish answers.

In these current times with the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Dragon in open warfare on God's people and God's Kingdom we see the unforgiveable sin playing out.

People who know the truth and choose to work for the darkness are committing the unforgiveable sin.

Those of us in the truth community see it in the deep state shills in our midst. Many of them are people who give evidence they are capable of knowing the truth. Yet when they expose themselves as shills (as they always eventually do) putting their desire for their deep state thirty pieces of monthly silver over allegiance to the true, the good, and the beautiful they commit the unforgiveable sin.

They throw in with Satan for short term gain, and will pay the price of eternal hellfire.

They're really bad people.

The Baltic origins of the Iliad and Odyssey

I remember talking about this book when it was only in manuscript. Here it is published. Read the description.