Breathing, Humility, Pride

 We don’t create the air we breathe through the act of breathing, nor do we create the spirit with our meditating or whatever practices. 

Any thought of gaining enlightenment through our efforts or of “ascending” by doing so is, however subtly concealed, dangerously entwined in pride and egotism - that we create the spirit in us through our efforts. In the divide between the spirit and the carnal, which isn’t just flesh but also the individual self, this equates to the carnal. Just to reiterate that: in the divide of spirit and carnal, the self equates to the carnal. It’s not simply the body, and this self isn’t just going to give itself up. It is utterly entwined in us, and in the divide of spirit and flesh, to be humbled, with crucifixion being the ultimate vision of this. By “the world” in a negative sense is meant a world and in thrall to the self. 

Within the world of the spirit, if the self isn’t humbled but tries to exalt itself, this equates to the wrong path. It ends up with Aleister Crowley and so on. Humbling isn’t weakness or cowardice. Imagine by contrast being arrogant about breathing. “Look how I sustain myself with my inhalations and exhalations. I have mastered many types of breathing. I am lord over the material universe!” Good man!