Dialectical Interchange Essay II

Author

Should You Read This Essay?

Preparatory Study

This essay is the second in a series of dialectical interchanges: 1  investigations carried out by the author and the reader in a reciprocal procedure. This series constitutes a new genre, applying the mystical science of maieutic psychagogy via an interactive Web document.

1 Interchange: To give and receive mutually; exchange

Prerequisite Books The Perennial Tradition Progressive Awareness Portals to Higher Consciousness Realizing A New Culture

This dialectical interchange essay is intended exclusively for those who are committed to a serious study of the prerequisite books and the material on this Website as organized in the preparatory study program curriculum. If readers approach this essay in the appropriate frame of mind, its clandestine content, mystical makeup, esoteric elements, and secret substances will affect them in a transformative manner.

A Dialectical Interchange

If seekers actively participate in this dialectical interchange, the result is a definite transformational upheaval 2 in their personality. Very few persons honestly want to change; they feel they're quite okay the way they are. To such persons, this dialectical exchange might seem disturbing--or utter nonsense.

2  Upheaval is required to displace the psyche--mind and personality--from its entrenched intellectual and emotional routines. This is not some vague feeling of uplift or emotion; it is an eruption within the soul.

     Only those seekers who are willing--in fact, eager--to go through the re-training of their psyche to rid themselves of all the false beliefs and moods that keep them from discerning the hidden nature of reality will find this interchange of value. This essay requires that the reader learn how to participate effectively in this entirely new procedure; this is not a capability that persons possess as an instinct or one that the ordinary person "picks up" in the usual course of life.

Have you thoughtfully studied all prerequisite books?

No

Yes

Quiz

In the chapter on Perennialist art in The Perennial Tradition, Perennialist art is said to:

stand out from all forms of modern art except for the impressionists

who are the greatest artists humankind has ever known

produce profound religious ecstasy in anyone who experiences it

produce psychic upheaval in a prepared mind and transport that mind

to a higher dimension

suffer by comparison with impressionistic art

"The superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity and earning of it. . . . Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience." Yusuf Hamadani, Perennialist teacher (sixth century C.E.)

     Which of these do you feel might help qualify you to be allowed to read and study this dialectical interchange essay?

1. I've been studying the Perennial Tradition material for over a year
True
False

2. I have a college degree
True
False

3. I make the claim to be able to understand any kind of material, no matter how complex or arcane
True
False

4. My level of ignorance cries out for sympathy
True
False

5. I don't feel I should have to prove myself to the author of this essay
True
False

6. I'm currently following the preparatory study program
True
False

7. I'm well intentioned and should be allowed to study this essay because of that
True
False

8. I hold a very important job
True
False

9. I've read all the prerequisite books
True
False

10. Any author who requires a person to prove himself or herself to be allowed to read an essay is an elitist
True
False

"People have to respond appropriately to life-experiences and pursue Perennialist study before their inward perceptions become able to connect with the Perennialist transmission of wisdom."

      Which of these items relates to the above statement?

For some people learning can take place by instant illumination

Perennialist teaching material is provided for study so a result may be realized when it can take place, not when the student might expect

Any teaching worth its salt should be able to change a student no matter what the mental or moral state of the student

"Many people who are in reality dead are walking in the streets; many who have died physically are in reality alive." Khirqani, Perennialist Teacher

Are You Alive?

     In this dialectical interchange essay your response to the concepts, experiences, and exercises determines the kind of content you can benefit from and what material is subsequently made available.

      Which of these statements about yourself correlates to the quotation in the box above?

It would be absurd to think that I am dead when I'm very much alive and kicking.

I think the statement about people being "dead" even though they're walking the streets is utter nonsense.

I feel that talking about people being alive even though they've experienced physical death is the kind of nonsense that runs rampant on this Website.

If I lose my moral integrity, I will cease to be.

The moral perfection latent in a small minority of people like myself will blossom in the majority, as will the universal comprehension and love radiated by Christ.

1. Thank goodness the Omnipresent isn't always around to be dealt with.

Agree

Disagree

I have no opinion

2. It's fortunate that the Omniscient doesn't know what I'm thinking and doing.

Agree

Disagree

Who cares?

"Freedom is won by the perception of your Higher Self's oneness with the Eternal." Shankara, Crest Jewel of Wisdom

3. How would you be able to prove that you perceive your Higher Self's oneness with the Eternal?

Being able to explain what it means that you perceive your Higher

Self's oneness with the Eternal

If a priest, rabbi, or minister vouched for you that you perceive your

Higher Self's oneness with the Eternal.

Being able to receive a psychic message from a Perennialist teacher

concerning your capability in this regard.

4. What feeling in you would prove that you perceive your Higher Self's oneness with the Eternal?

Feeling good about myself

Feeling certain that I don't even know what my Higher Self is

Feeling elated at the thought that this might be true

5. In regard to your Debilitating Self

You don't even know what this term means

You sense it when you find that you can't control yourself

You don't believe you have a Debilitating Self

6. Are you able to delineate negative habits or tendencies which you have rid yourself of over the past year?

No

Yes

I don't know.

7. Are you able to forgive other people who have wronged you in the past?

No

Yes

I don't know.

8. Have you done things in the past that you wish you had not done?

No

Yes

I don't know.

9. Are there negative tendencies or habits in your behavior or thought that you find it necessary to work on continually?

No

Yes

I don't know.

"The knowledge of the real by the eye of clear insight is to be gained by one's own sight and not through a teaching." Shankara, Crest Jewel of Wisdom

10. The statement in the frame above would agree with which of these ideas?

The moon's form must be seen by one's own eyes; it can never be known through the eyes of another.

Some teachings can provide a substitute for experiential knowledge.

None but a person's self can set him or her free.




Be sure to write down your score as it appears.

Did you have a:

Negative score

Positive score

Did you receive the psychic message?

No -- Try again

Yes

      This final exercise is intended only for serious students.

      Input your email address.

Email Address

      In the blank text area below, input your score on the quiz above where you were instructed to record your score.

Did you get the correct answer to the question about the message in the status bar?

Did you find any typos in any of the documents related to this exercise? If so, what were they?

Provide whatever feedback you are able concerning your experience in participating in this dialectical interchange.

"Without piercing through the visible, without knowing the reality of the Self, how can men gain Freedom by mere outward words that end with utterance or writing?" Shankara, Crest Jewel of Wisdom