Common steps and sub-activities
Relearning
Relearning is part of the Purification stage of the spiritual path.
The rebirth process removes ‘demons’ – analogously software viruses and bugs. But it does not stop us recreating those same bugs and viruses again, or forming memories that are erroneous. Relearning aims to stop us making the same mistakes again.
There are two main sub-processes that form this stage, more details can be found by following the links:
- Memory reconstruction – In this we review past perceptions and form a corrected interpretation and memory of the events
- Function relearning - In software terms this is the stage when we learn how to use the functions we were born with correctly.
Memory reconstruction
Perceptions are never erased. Every thought you have is recorded – like a log of actions – everything we have endured, smelt, tasted, heard, seen and felt. Nothing is left out, the log is continually working to keep a record of what happened.
We use the log to learn, but what we learn can be wholly destructive to us. Even after rebirth the perception remains, so those perceptions can carry on working away and we may simply go back to form incorrect memories – the rebirth experience is then wasted.
What this stage involves is the chance to review perceptions, with the objective of forming a true memory of events, which one can use to constructively move forward on the path.
Events can be relived again and again as need be and the CAUSE and the EFFECT of the event then discovered. By understanding cause and effect, old destructive patterns can be banished and not repeated.
In alchemy this stage is known as albedo - whitening - purification, the washing away of impurity. Allegorically, this stage ‘washes away impurities using aqua vitae’.
It is noteworthy that some people never go through a rebirth experience, but simply move on to a very robust whitening stage. This can be marked by dreams which are full of water.
Numbers 31 - and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water
Function relearning
The functions we are given at birth are contrasting ones. They include some which appear strangely destructive – anger, rage, jealousy, lust, envy…..But these functions are only destructive if we use them to hurt. Many apparently negative functions can be used positively. Our anger at apparent injustice can be channelled so that it does not erupt as violence [hurt], but as robust campaigning.
We may also have learnt functions, which we may also be using incorrectly. In themselves, the learnt functions may be harmless, but we are in a sense misusing them to hurt. An example. We have learnt how to drive a car, but use it to go off-roading destroying wildlife and the beauty of the countryside – hurt.
Relearning is not achieved through direct spiritual experience [visions, out of body, hallucinations], but it may be helped by dreams and invisible input – inspiration and wisdom. Analogously we may be helped via ‘downloads’ on an ongoing basis, much as Microsoft may send us new ‘help’ pages. But we have to be open to new downloads.
Function Relearning is known in alchemy as citrinitas, or yellowing. The alchemists symbolically defined this stage using gold.
Observations
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- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - What is nirvana
- Aurora consurgens - 11 An allegory of purification by fire
- Bach, Dr Edward - True healing
- Coehlo, Paulo - Warrior of Light; a manual
- Cohen, Dr Sidney - A woman patient's reliving of her childhood trauma
- Coleridge, David Hartley - There is a fable that I once did read
- Dickinson, Emily - Through those old grounds of memories
- Dorn, Gerhard - from Philosophia speculativa
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo - All history is subjective
- Evolutionary Rationalism In Dr. V.L. Raikov’s Mosaic Model Of Consciousness - The task to create the man who is the creator
- Gardner, Ingrid - A large room full of mirrors and crystal
- Gardner, Ingrid - The big wet bathroom
- Gnostic Gospels - The Gospel of Truth
- Holy Cow, Aliens, Soul Marriage, and Divinity - Ayahuasca by Mitra 03
- Janet, Pierre - Healing Irène and Justine’s terrifying hallucinations
- Khan, Hazrat Inayat – The Art of Being and Becoming - Editing memory
- Khan, Hazrat Inayat – The Art of Being and Becoming - The eradication of suffering
- Khunrath, Heinrich - Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeterna 1602
- Khunrath, Heinrich - Vom hylealischen Chaos 1708
- Krishnamurti - The Network of Thought - All human experience and knowledge is within oneself
- Krishnamurti - The Network of Thought - Hurt produces walls and more hurt
- Lalla - I didn’t believe in it for a moment
- Lalla - Your way of knowing is a private herb garden
- Maeterlinck, Maurice – Wisdom and Destiny – On Destiny
- Maier, Michael - The Secrets of Alchemy - The phoenix
- Masters and Houston - False memories true perceptions
- Masters and Houston - Perception recall as an aid to purification
- Morrells, Luce and granny's room
- Morrells, Luce and the large house surrounded by water
- Mudras - Cleansing mudra
- Mudras - Dynamo mudra
- Mudras - Fountain rim mudra - Lower belt meridian
- Mudras - Savasana - the 'Offering mudra'
- Mudras - Sokuchi-in - Earth witness
- Mutus Liber 07
- Plato - Timaeus - On Fire and Water
- Plotinus - The Enneads - All the virtues without exception are purifications
- Plotinus - The Enneads - Inner vision as a means of 'purification'
- Plotinus - The Enneads - The solution is in understanding the virtues
- Rolle, Richard - Incendium Amoris - On Divine love
- Romano, Jacques - Healing trauma
- Sahib, Bhai
- Samavedas – Book 04 Chapter 01, IV Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 04 Chapter 01, XXIII Soma Pavamana
- Shakespeare, William - Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2
- St Vincent - Digital Witness
- Stainton-Moses, William - Spirit Identity - A LONG COMMUNICATION OF A VERY PERSONAL NATURE
- Sterry, Peter - On annihilation
- Sterry, Peter - On Purification after rebirth
- Stolz von Stolzenberg, Daniel - Viridarium chemicum 1624
- Stolz von Stolzenberg, Daniel - Viridarium chemicum 1624
- Tarot - 02 Minor Arcana - 08s Learning
- Tarot - 03 Minor Arcana - 07s Redemption [Rebirth]
- Tarot - 05 Minor Arcana - 05s Adversity [purification]
- The Manuals of Taoist Sexual Practise – Ten Questions 04
- The Manuals of Taoist Sexual Practise – Ten Questions 06
- The Means of achieving spiritual experience - Shaivism – 07 The methods of the ‘Bhakta’
- Tzu, Lao - The Sage embraces the One
- Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass - The pleasures of heaven are with me