Apr 092011
 

The defining work of Harold Waldwin Percival is Thinking & Destiny, undoubetedly.  However, each of his books does deserve special attention as each elaborates on a specific point addressed within T&D.

Democracy is Self-Government explains why we can never have a true Democracy in this world until we literally govern ourselves from within.  Which is to say “govern our Self, from within.”  When the majority of the individuals existing within the political borders of a given region each are goverened from within, then that political region would be able to experience a true Democracy.  Presently, American is the closest thing this world has to a Democracy, though America is in no way a true Democracy.

In a true Democracy, there would be no political parties.  Party politics divides the people, plain and simple.  The division of the people should be avoided.  Sadly, one of the only things that unifies us, as a people, is a common enemy; be it people not geographically near to us or people with different beliefs, or an abstraction like “terrorism” or even something tangible like drugs.  Whatever the case may be, the fact is that we only unify in opposition to a common enemy.  The reason for this?  We are not Self-governed.

By and large, we are governed by fear.  We are reactionary.  We want for ourselves that which we would deny the next person from having.  Whether we admit it or not.  This is not a commentary on America, this is a commentary on human beings.  America happens to have a toehold on moving in the proper direction, but that toehold is tenous, at best.  Once you choose to govern yourself, from within, you will manifest that in the external world and you will see your Government change.  Government change; that’s a topic for another day.

I have drifted off-course of what this book is truly about, however anyone intersted in the theme of this blog, as a whole, should read this book.  It is available for purchase, or as a free .pdf download, at: http://word-foundation.org/b-Democracy_is_Self_Government.htm

 Posted by at 10:17 am
Jan 272011
 

What is “destiny?”  Simply put, destiny is the manifesting/manifested result of karma.  What does that mean, though?

Well, you wake up every morning.  Stuff happens.  Sometimes you consider this stuff to be “good” stuff, sometimes “bad.”  How you classify this stuff is a matter of perception, which we’ll discuss on another day.  The fact of the matter is, any day that you wake up… stuff will happen.  As sure as stuff will happen, you will react to said stuff.  Cause and effect.  One way to take control of your life at any given moment is to become a person of action, rather than a person of reaction.  Most people initially react significantly more than they initially act.

Whether you are acting or reacting in any given moment, you are generating a karmic force.  Any action that you take must be proceeded by a thought.  You cannot perform any action without initially having thought of said action; it’s impossible.  Don’t mistake my over-simplified example as a law.  Karma is a topic that we’ll discuss at length in the future, for now we are grossly over-simplifying.  The point is, every moment of every day with the thoughts you think and the actions you perform, you are making deposits into your own personal karmic “bank account.”  At the same moment, you are making withdraws from the same account.  The manifestation, which is to say “the appearance in or on the physical realm,” of the results of this karmic account is what we refer to as “Destiny.”  Because fundamentally, destiny is that which happens to you in any given moment; it’s not just the epic events that are destiny.  When it comes to the facts of the matter, it has to be all or nothing.  You meeting and marrying your “soul mate” is no more or less your destiny than what you ate for breakfast… again, since we’re presently dealing with a gross over-simplification.

The standard argument then, is this: If everything is planned out like this, then where does Free-Will come into it or are we simply characters in a Universal play that is already pre-determinded such that we get no say in our own lives?

The answer is yes and no.  See, that karmic account that you are perpetually crediting and debiting from… it has existed for as long as you have existed as a consciously aware individual being.  Now, there was a particular point at which this came to be.  In a nutshell, the biblical story of Adam & Eve is a metaphor for this event, which every single person alive on the planet Earth today experienced.  This is explained in great detail in T & D, but regrettably there’s no way to properly condense that into an acceptable length for use within this blog post.  In a nutshell, every single one of us was given a simple trial, or test, and every single one of us on Earth failed.  Those who passed, there was no cause for them to exist in this world of birth and death and birth and death… those who passed said test skipped this grade and went directly to that place which we shall all go once we work ourselves out of this karmic hole that we have dug for ourselves.  See, life as we know it is basically just a cul-de-sac on the road of existence.  We turn into it, and whoops realize it’s a cul-de-sac and eventually we reach the end, turn around go back and get on the main road.  No matter who you are and what you do and how you feel about yourself or any other human being… we’re all just hanging out in this cul-de-sac, some of us on our way in and some on our way out, but we are all in this Universal cul-de-sac together.  Because we all failed that which T & D terms “the trial test of the sexes.”

Now, from that point on, we began this karmic system of credits and debits.  So you see, you have been accessing this account for an amount of time that can fairly be called “eternity.”  From our human perspective, it might as well be forever, in that it extends back well beyond a time such that we are able to remember or even conceptualize.  In that amount of time, you have been pauper and prince, man and woman, grandparent and child… you have been hater and hated, lover and fighter, noble and pathetic.  The sum part of your entire past is credited into your account; every thought and action you have ever create and performed is there on the ledger.  Only you are responsible for this ledger.  There is no absolution.  Jesus didn’t die for your sins to be wiped clean.  That is simply another metaphor; a metaphor for the moment when you acknowledge accountability for your actions and resolve to correct them… which is simply restoring to balance all that you have caused to be imbalanced as a result of these past thoughts and deeds.  Once you accept this accountability, Jesus has thus died for your sins… metaphorically speaking.  So… don’t let him die in vain, or something.

That aside, I hope I have effectively established the existence of this karmic account and how, as a result of innumerable past lives, you have basically set up a system such that seemingly random events can now take place in any moment of any day… all of which are your destiny, as dictated by your karma.  So, you see, you do have free will to react to your present circumstances, but that reaction will cause manifestation at some future point the circumstances that exists as a direct result of that prior action.  You will then react to those circumstances, which are then your destiny, and said reactions (and thoughts related to said actions) become karmic deposits towards that future manifestation.  Never forget; all things are cyclical.

When next we meet, we’ll speak more directly about karma.

 Posted by at 4:35 am
Jan 112011
 

The three books are:

Thinking and Destiny” by Harold W. Percival

What the Bleep Do We Know!?” by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse & Mark Vicente

God Wants You Dead” by Sean Hastings & Paul Rosenberg

The intention is to use the information contained within these three books to fuel this blog.  Simply put, these three books contain all you need to know about the human condition, this world and our place in it.  Be it the esoteric (Thinking & Destiny), the quantum-physical (What the Bleep!?), the literal (God Wants You Dead) and/or, and most importantly, how all of the above fit together in such a way that you & I are able to experience that which we term “reality” every moment of every day.

I have been reading T&D for almost a decade; since my early 20′s.  I’ve read it cover-to-cover at least a dozen times.  It is my “desert island” book, without a doubt.  What the Bleep!? was initially a documentary movie that was released in 2003.  I first saw it in 2005, the same year that the book version was published.  As for God Wants You Dead, I came accross this dubiously-titled .pdf in 2007 and shortly thereafter acquired a physical copy.  There are a few other books that I would consider “required reading,” but these three are the foundation by which you can begin to  understand not only your own existence, but this world that we all share.  You can grasp the fundamentals of the evolution of ideas and how they shape the reality we experience.  You can consciously observe the fact that you are the conscious observer.  However, none of it means jack… unless it does.  Whatever that means.

For the novice, T&D might be a bit on the intimidating side.  It is not an easy read, by any means.  It is exceptionally well-written, not challenging in that aspect, but more in the way that it is a very dense tome that must not just be read, but thought through and will challenge many of your present beliefs, more likely than not.  God Wants You Dead, on the other hand, is much more easily digested and is written with a conversational tone, almost like a super intelligent friend is simply waxing philosophic and you’re fortunate enough to bear witness.  What the Bleep!? is necessary to add a scientific framework to the information presented in the other two books.  It is the book that gives balance and credence to certain ideas presented in the other books, as well as providing actual physical explanations of the manner in which many of the ideas presented actually manifest, sub-atomically speaking.

Each of these three books are extraordinary and deserve to be read, without a doubt.  However, when taken and considered together, the information therein becomes so much more than simply the sum of its parts.  My intention is to interest you in the ideas presented in these books enough to cause you to actually read these books yourself.

So, there’s our premise.  I’m going to be reading each of these books again this year and sharing with you here the thoughts and findings related to such and, to a degree, how they have affected and shaped my life.  I will also present related ideas and books that would also be of interest.  Hopefully, it will be an interesting and respectable read.

If there was a number of beginnings, I suppose that number would be 1.  Welcome to the beginning.  Happy 1/11/11!

Helpful links:

Thinking and Destiny is available as a free .pdf download, or you may purchase a physical copy, from the publisher’s website: http://word-foundation.org/ The direct download link is http://word-foundation.org/PDF/T%26D_13th_ver10.pdf

God Wants You Dead can be read for free, in its entirity, on the author’s website: http://www.whysean.com/god-wants-you-dead/ or purchased at http://www.ascolibooks.com/vera-verba/god_wants_you_dead.html

What the Bleep Do We Know!? can be purchased from the official website, where you can also download the first four chapters as free .pdf files:  http://whatthebleep.com/reality/

 Posted by at 1:32 am