Shangri-la

To continue the last posting - still entirely experimental: I don't think anybody's reading it but me - one of my favourite books is 'Lost Horizons', the original 'Shangri-la story. 4 assorted people find their aircraft hijacked and end up at the lamasary of Shangri-la in a remote part of Tibet. Miss Brinklow is an elderly and rather rigid missionary. Talking to their hos,t who goes simply by the name of 'Chang', she demands to know what the lamas believe ...
"I of course, believe in the true religion."
'Madam," Chang replied, in his correct and carefully flavoured English, "Must we believe that, because one religion is true, all others must be false."

It seems to me Chang was making the same point as Kahlil Gibran, quoted in the last posting. He goes on to remark when, later in the book he is showing them round another temple of a different order down in the valle ...
"The jewel has many facets."

The jewel of return to the divine source is precious and our own path must be special enough, but we must remember that "the jewel has facets" and we should avoid (as far as we can) being dismissive of any other path, even when we think it is entirely wrong for us.

Balance - Equilibrium - Ma'at

Ma'at was the ancient Egyptian Goddess who held the scales in which the heart of each dead person was weighed - against the feather she carried. Only those whose heart was as light as her feather (i.e., free from sin, I suppose) were judged fit for eternity. Whether that means the rest were simply thrown into oblivion or waited for some final judgement day or perhaps that the ancient Egyptians believed in reincarnation nobody seems certain I don't pretend any authority on the subject, but it does seem a reasonable inference.

The medieval church believed in Purgatory and Pardons, and some modern Christians think they can behave as they like and all they have to do is believe that 'Jesus saves' and he will. Dion Fortune remarked that "The only mercy in perfect justice is the right to try again" but she quite definitely believed in reincarnation. So what do you believe?

I think we must all find our own path back to the divine source and I offer my help to those in occult difficulty without any preconditions.Kahlil Gibran said, in The Prophet:
Say not "I have found the truth" -
Say rather "I have found a truth."
Say not "I have found the path of the Sprit" -
Say rather "I have found the Spirit on my Path."