Threshold

[A Fellow Lighter]

This journal marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life, a journey of rebirth prompted by the weight of my own growth.  Having reached a point of philosophical contentment, I now feel a strong pull to explore the realm of magic.  This 'weight' isn't a burden, but rather a signal, a call to explore a different dimension of reality. I'm seeking a crystallization of consciousness, to allow stronger light, stronger stimulation of perception, that will allow me to experience the world more deeply and open me up to new sources of wonder.

[A Fellow Lighter]

This journal marks not an end, but a profound transition.

My philosophical journey, a quest that once consumed me, has reached a point of completion.  The questions that fueled my intellectual exploration have found answers that satisfy, and my mind is now at peace.  However, this intellectual contentment has revealed a new challenge: the world I once knew to be wonderous has become small for me.  I have outgrown it, and it no longer offers the stimulation or meaning I seek.  My drive, once philosophical inquiry, has shifted. I am no longer driven by logic, but by a yearning for something more… something otherworldly (or perhaps inner-worldly).

This is why I speak of rebirth.  I seek a re-enchantment of the world, a return to the sense of wonder and awe that characterizes a child's experience of reality.  I believe this can be found by entering the world of what I call 'literal magic' – the realm of psychic influence or dynamism.  I anticipate that this exploration will provide the powerful stimulation my mind and spirit now crave.  This journal will document this journey of transformation, this quest for a new kind of understanding, a new way of being.  It will be a space to record my reflections, experiences, and insights as I navigate this new territory and seek to define what 'magic' truly is.

[A Fellow Lighter]

My Philosophy 

By that I mean my personal and unique perspective on the nature of reality as well as the nature for reality, shaped by my experiences, reflections and introspection.

My philosophy is a complete philosophy. It is a comprehensive system that addresses all major areas of philosophical inquiry: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, etc.

I have strived to acquire a holistic worldview that leaves no fundamental questions unanswered, and acquire it I have. 

[A Fellow Lighter]

The practice of magic requires one to have a religion, is what I came to realise. Magic is not a secular practice, it requires a system of beliefs, rituals and structures of context to provide the necessary power source for magic to occur.

So I'm looking for a religion that matches my philosophy. At the moment, Taoism holds the most potential.

[A Fellow Lighter]

ANY PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE, at least once in their lifetime, the urge to venture beyond the everyday world of the mundane into the world of the spirit.

These journeys into the spiritual world often take us into a universe we normally do not encounter in our everyday lives, and allow us to explore regions of our consciousness that we have not before known.

This book is a guide to the spiritual landscape of Taoism.

~ Eva Wong 

 

[A Fellow Lighter]

On the Tao

The Tao is the source of all things. It is nameless, invisible and ungraspable by normal modes of perception. It is boundless and cannot be exhausted, although all things depend on it for existence. Hidden beneath transition and change, the Tao is the permanent underlying reality. 

Although the Tao is the source of all life, it is not a deity or spirit. This is quite different from the shaman's animistic view of the universe. In the Tao-te Ching, the sky, the earth, the rivers and the mountains, are part of a larger and unified power, known as Tao, which is an impersonal and unnamed force behind the workings of the universe. 

However, in the Tao-te Ching, this unnamed and unnamable power is not entirely neutral — it is benevolent. 

"The Celestial Way is to benefit others and not to cause harm" (Chapter 81, Tao-te Ching), and since the "Celestial Way follows the Way of the Tao"(Chapter 25, Tao-te Ching) we can assume that in the Tao-te Ching, the Tao is a benevolent force.

[A Fellow Lighter]

My Philosophy 

Section 1: Cosmology & Ontology 

Ground of Being (Part 1)

Before anything, or anything in particular, rather, such as space and time, there already is a presence. Before everything, before reality, before illusion, or even meaning itself, there is this presence.

The presence is irreducible; the presence is unquantifiable. It cannot be divided nor can it be multiplied. Nothing can be added upon it and nothing can be subtracted from it. There is nothing to compare this presence with, and there is almost nothing that can be said about it. Nothing, save for this: the presence is absolute.

This presence is not nothingness. This presence is not emptiness. Rather, this presence is wholeness itself. This presence is completeness itself. But what is it that is so whole that it can be described as "wholeness itself"? What can be so complete that it is described as "completeness itself"?

The Eternal Primordial Current (Part 2)

Beyond the apparent dynamism, beyond the constant change of experiences as well as the experience of change itself — the change of environments, the changing space-time and the bodies occupying the space-time, and the changing states of matter — beyond all this apparent change is an unchanging flow.

There is a flow. It is not a flow of any real movement or change, no. It is, rather, a flow of continuity, like a circle — a perfect circle if I may add. This is the presence I mentioned earlier. But what is it? What exactly continues, or flows, unchanging and unstopping ? What is the primordial current, and why is it eternal?

It is the flow of awareness — pure awareness. Yes. How is .. or why call it pure? Because on the ground of being, on the absolute level of all of reality, there is only one beingness. Thus, any awareness that can be (and is) present on such a level plane of existence, well, it can only ever be a self-awareness — a total self-awareness — as there is literally nothing else but being itself to be aware of. And so I call this total awareness pure because in truth it is pure. It is pure because it is the only true awareness that there is at the ground of being. It is pure because it is self-awareness or self-referential awareness, if you will. One may even call it, as I personally do, the total awareness of truth.

Truth is simply that which is the case, and what could be the case at the ground of being if not the Sein — beingness itself. This is why it is eternal, because there is nothing outside of it that can change it. The flow, not of change or movement, but of continuity, is the truth itself (unopposed and unchallengeable). 

Knowledge as the Primordial Current (Part 3)

In your life, what is it that you've known or otherwise continue to know, that is neither concept (our sole idea of what something is) or percept (how we perceive something is), and is actually based on direct awareness and understanding? I'll make the question even more fair. What is it, in your entire existence, that you've known or still do know, if not your very capacity to know? Think about it. The only true knowledge you have is the knowledge of knowledge itself. This is what you know, that there is a knowing going on. There is no particular knower during this knowing, hence it is a circle, hence it is a flow.

Self-awareness is the only true and timeless knowledge that there is. I say self awareness because the awareness itself is self-referential — it knows nothing other than itself, other than it knows.

to be continued ...