Food for Thought
A lot of times when I post to this blog I have to be in a certain mood; quite a few times I've deleted entire posts and just scrapped the idea of posting until it felt right. A recent event prompted that same "it's ready" feeling in me, only this time the feeling was directed at me and not to a post. It felt hugely and subtly transformative, a lot of strong feelings and emotions washed away.
Recently I was helping someone at work and talk moved to the character Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. I had looked up his name once before and came up with information about the Tree of Life from the Jewish Kabbalah. At the time I wasn't hugely interested in studying it further and simply went about my life. But, having previously come across the relation between Sephiroth and mysticism, hearing his name again prompted me to, again, look him up. This time though I'm actually very interested in learning more about the Tree of Life.
It's fascinating to me how you can come across the same thing at two different points in your life and respond so differently to it. The Tree of Life is an understanding of the archetypical mind of our Logos. (I'd rather not use the word God because of the many connotations attached to it.) I first heard about this probably in 2002 when I stumbled across the Law of One. In those books other understandings of the archetypical mind were presented: astrology and the tarot. I've always liked astrology so I was familiar with it -- of course if you've ever heard of a horoscope you're likely familiar with it. The tarot is something that I've had some vague familiarity with and I got a little bit more acquainted with it via the Law of One books. The Tree of Life though was utterly new to me and I didn't pursue it. Ra did state that it is useful to become familiar with all three perspectives of the archetypical mind to find the one that you were most attracted to. So now, some 5 years later, I am attracted to the Tree of Life.
Another passage in the book I was reading mentioned the usefulness of disease to the body, stating that it was actually a natural function, providing an opportunity to cease viability of it. The plan of life being to acquire a satisfactory amount of life experiences in an incarnation. The idea of gathering life experiences reminded me of how I drink things. A lot of times I take in as much as my cheeks will expand to and then I swallow, rather than just drink as a stream. When I do this it allows me more time to taste the liquid. I started thinking life experiences are somewhat like that: you acquire as much as you can withstand and then you process them, you process them as they come, or more likely some combination of the two. Might explain why I'm ready to learn more about the Tree of Life now: I've made room for it by processing previously stored life experiences.
The mind is like a big oven. When you bake food in an oven you first add the ingredients, stick them inside, and later a new item comes out. Contemplation, at least for me, serves the oven role as it processes life experiences into a new perspective.