Who are you communicating with when Divining?

[athribiristan]

Originally Posted by I-Ching

I accept that perfect is an extreme statement, but my point still remains that I use Divination to enhance my intuition. Due still being in a conditioned state my intuition alone is not sufficient

I say use whatever gets results. Any modality that reveals Truth is absolutely valid.

Originally Posted by Quintessence

My religious practices and beliefs hedge on being animistic (as well as pantheistic and polytheistic), so that's pretty much why. Everything has a spirit to me.

Does that mean that you think that all inanimate objects have a soul incarnated in them. e.g. my chair, my desk, my cup. What makes a soul incarnate into an inanimate object? What separates one inanimate object from another? Does every grain of sand on the beach have soul? Since inanimate objects don't die how does the soul leave this position. Generally the sign that a soul is present in matter is that it goes through the stages of birth, growth, producing by-products, maintenance, dwindling and death. I do believe that their are demi-gods that control different aspect of nature though.

Originally Posted by Quintessence

Nothing I said was intended to be taken personally, much less in a degrading fashion. If you took it that way, I'm sorry. Unfortunately, many occult/metaphysical terms are stupidly nebulous; I probably should have asked what you meant.

I was referring to advice that i get from the I-Ching. I don't mind if it corrects me, I do mind if it degrades me.

Originally Posted by Quintessence

This begs a question, though. How do you know if guidance is not favorable to your spiritual advancement? Can't lessons be gleaned from everything?

Some lessons you can learn by hearing, you don't like have to experience it for yourself. E.g. You don't have to try every drug to know that it is not a good idea. To me spiritual advancement means increasing my Divine Love and decreasing lust, greed, etc. If your "guide" is encouraging you get addicted to some form sense gratification then that is not favorable. Of course sense gratification is necessary in moderation since we are embodied and finding that balance is where we require Guidance.

[norseman]

"Truth" is not an Absolute. It is subjective and interpreted by a point of view.
btw Divination is 100% intuition, there is nothing mystical or magical about it.

Originally Posted by sound

My beliefs vary ... you already identified that earlier

Do your beliefs vary from day to day or hour to hour? That sounds confusing. What is your belief about the purpose of life?

Originally Posted by sound

How do you manage that? lol

Everything I belief comes from higher authority. Because I am imperfect whatever beliefs I concoct will also be imperfect. My ultimate authority is the I-Ching, but I am also influenced by the Vedic scriptures.

Originally Posted by sound

Is the belief in stumbling blocks all that helpful?

Different mentalities and activities will certainly block your Advancement. So believing in stumbling blocks is helpful because they are a reality. Try to have ones beliefs as close to reality as possible is always helpful.

Originally Posted by sound

... there are alternate paths ... you do realize that dont you?

Each person is unique so they require a slightly different Path and that is why we require Guidance. Some "paths" are of course dead ends. There is the Christian saying that "the road to hell is very wide, but the road to heaven is very narrow". I think there is some truth to that. Since very few people are willing sacrifice anything to attain Enlightenment, the majority want to be cheated, so they get cheated.

Originally Posted by norseman

"Truth" is not an Absolute.

This is an absolute statement.

Originally Posted by Gem

Good question... I haven't really thought that through before.

Divine Guidance is essential in order to make Advancement. The mind is very powerful. Without a Teacher to protect you, the mind will always lead you in wrong direction.

[norseman]

Originally Posted by I-Ching

This is an absolute statement.

Not if you quote the full statement including the qualifier.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by I-Ching

Divine Guidance is essential in order to make Advancement. The mind is very powerful. Without a Teacher to protect you, the mind will always lead you in wrong direction.

What I do is find a trust within, as best I can... we talk about things like intuition, but each one has to have trust...There is talk about Absolute Truth, but we already know what it is to be truthful.

Truthfulness is the 'way'.

Originally Posted by I-Ching

Some lessons you can learn by hearing, you don't like have to experience it for yourself. E.g. You don't have to try every drug to know that it is not a good idea. To me spiritual advancement means increasing my Divine Love and decreasing lust, greed, etc. If your "guide" is encouraging you get addicted to some form sense gratification then that is not favorable. Of course sense gratification is necessary in moderation since we are embodied and finding that balance is where we require Guidance.

I understand the types of examples you were thinking of now. Thanks! I'd like to think that a person's common sense would prevent them from undertaking anything that feels so obviously wrong to them.

Originally Posted by I-Ching

Does that mean that you think that all inanimate objects have a soul incarnated in them. e.g. my chair, my desk, my cup. What makes a soul incarnate into an inanimate object? What separates one inanimate object from another? Does every grain of sand on the beach have soul? Since inanimate objects don't die how does the soul leave this position. Generally the sign that a soul is present in matter is that it goes through the stages of birth, growth, producing by-products, maintenance, dwindling and death. I do believe that their are demi-gods that control different aspect of nature though.

Souls can be defined in many different ways; I'll admit my concept is far from conventional (at least relative to my surrounding culture). I use the word soul/spirit to basically describe the essence of something, so it can apply to any level of organization be it the entire universe or a grain of sand. Souls/spirits exist within a context, and their essence cannot be understood without that context. As such, I don't particularly see souls as "individual" in any absolute sense. When people draw lines between things and categorize them, it's a map, not the territory. To use an example, whether a human being is an individual or an aggregate of a bunch of cells is a matter of point of view. You can work with the essence/spirit/soul of both the person as a whole and a component part of that aggregate.

But this is all somewhat of an aside to the main topic at hand; I don't usually like to derail threads with something off-topic, but since you asked, I thought I'd answer at least a little.

[athribiristan]

Originally Posted by I-Ching

So your view is that Divination is a means to communicate with yourself? What is the value of that? Where does the "Divine" part come in?

We are the Divine.