A True Definition of Denying Ignorance - Hermes Book 7

Book 7 - Corpus Hermeticum

Whither are you being carried, O men, drunk as you are, having swallowed neat, the word of ignorance, which you cannot keep down, but are already vomiting up? Stop, be sober. Look up with the eyes of the heart; and if all of you cannot, at least those who can. The evil of ignorance floods the whole earth and completely destroys the soul confined to a body, not allowing it to be brought to a safe harbour.

Therefore don't be carried down (downward spiral) by the great flood, but make use of the tide (Baptism). Let those of you who can find the safe harbour bring your ship in, and seek one who will lead you by the hand to the gates of knowledge in your heart (Christ / Gift of Salvation). There is a bright light, clear of darkness, where no one gets drunk, but all are sober, looking with the heart to Him who wills to be seen (God / Faith). He cannot be heard, He cannot be uttered, nor seen by the eyes, but by Nous and the heart. First, you have to strip off the garment which you are wearing, the web of ignorance, the fabric of evil, the knot of destruction, the girdle of darkness, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the robber of your house, him who hates through what he loves and bears malice through what he hates (Beast of Selfishness).

Such is the hateful garment you wear, which binds you down in itself lest, when you look up and see the beauty of truth and the Supreme Good which lies within, you should hate the evil of this garment and realize its treachery. This has ensnared you, making the seeming senses, which are not acknowledged, insensible; for it has blocked them up with much gross matter and filled them with loathsome pleasure, so that you do not hear what you should hear and do not see what you should see.

---The best translation is a little book called The Way of Hermes.

Revelation 3

'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches.

It is a little known fact that the book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that gives a special blessing to the one reading it out loud and the one hearing it spoken (Chapter 1). Denying ignorance requires embracing truth. The Spirit teaches the mind from scripture. Reading is the blessing of hearing. Confucius said, "I hear and I forget. I see and I learn. I do and I understand."

James 1

25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

This is the ONLY way to deny ignorance. Be a doer of the Word and Law. The law is love.

Beautiful correlation you have presented my brother!

Truly, Trismegistus has spoken the truth, and you have relayed it with much wisdom!

If you do not find it offensive, allow me to share Brian P. Copenhaver's translation of the Corpus:


"Where are you heading in your drunkenness, you people? Have you swallowed the doctrine of ignorance undiluted, vomiting it up already because you can not hold it? Stop and sober yourselves up! Look up with the eyes of the heart - if not all of you, at least those of you who have the power. The vice of ignorance floods the whole Earth and utterly destroys the soul shut up in the body, preventing it from anchoring in the havens of deliverance.

Surely you will not sink in this great flood? Those of you who can will take the ebb and gain the haven of deliverance and anchor there. Then, seek a guide to take you by the hand and lead you to the portals of knowledge. There shines the light cleansed of darkness. There no one is drunk. All are sober and gaze with the heart toward one who wishes to be seen, who is neither heard nor spoken of, who is seen not with eyes but with mind and heart. But first you must rip off the tunic that you wear, the garment of ignorance, the foundation of vice, the bonds of corruption, the dark cage, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the resident thief, the one who hates through what he loves and envies through what he hates.

Such is the odious tunic you have put on. It strangles you and drags you down with it so that you will not hate its viciousness, not look up and see the fair vision of truth and the good that lies within, not understand the plot that it has plotted against you when it made insensible the organs of sense, made them inapparent and unrecognized for what they are, blocked up with a great load of matter and jammed full of loathsome pleasure, so that you do not hear what you must hear nor observe what you must observe."


May Love and Light continue to cleanse our mankind of corruption, ignorance, and delusion.

Peace.

reply to post by Kgnow


Great translation. Where is that found? The only other copy I have in book form is the Hermetica by Freke and Gandy. I like the Way of Hermes better, but yours is easily read as well.

reply to post by EnochWasRight


Brian P. Copenhaver published "Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in English Translation, with Notes and Introduction", which I purchased, as there are no free or downloadable copies available.

His introduction and notes greatly detail the history of the Corpus, along with a scholarly analysis and review of previous Hermetica experts and their editions, compilations, and translations.

The modern style of his translation does not hurt the essence of the Corpus, and actually brings a new life to it.

Peace.

Originally posted by Kgnow
Then, seek a guide to take you by the hand and lead you to the portals of knowledge.

So, I have a problem with this one statement. My "guides" don't agree with the guides that this dude (the original author) had guiding him. I suppose that this can only mean that my guides are evil and from Satan (or whoever the bad spirit thingy is). Especially since none of us simple, stupid human beings can ever really know anything that isn't told to us by some ultimate master of all truth and knowledge - am I getting this right?

Y'know....it seriously irritates me when someone tells me that I can't make sense out of what sits right there in front of my face. Especially when they have no idea who I am, or what I see sitting right there in front of my face. Hell, I can probably tell you why it's so damn important to the likes of this author for dopes like me to chug this soup whole and keep from burping up a drop of it, but only in terms of why most people like him force-feed this trash to others.

When I die, and transition to the eternal realm, I may take some time to set some of these "ascendent masters" into their own hell spirals, just as a subtle gesture of contempt for all the mind-numbing hell they've inspired on this one planet. Obviously, if they actually believe this crap, then they're open season for anyone who's figured out what really sits at the bottom of this bowl.

reply to post by NorEaster


Hello NorEaster.

By our very intrinsic design, humans are a species that must rely upon others. We need others. We are created with the 'Desire to Receive.' No human infant can survive after being birthed without the help of others, for surely the child would die. This is illustrative of the fact that our very first quality of life is 'to receive'.

None of our collective understandings and achievements would exist without the accumulation and culmination of others.

"Especially since none of us simple, stupid human beings can ever really know anything that isn't told to us by some ultimate master of all truth and knowledge"

You would not be proficient in the English language unless it was told to you, or unless you absorbed it from observing and experiencing others.

My dear brother, it is indeed the self-delusional and egocentric view that we adults have cultivated in believing the lie that we do not need others. If you were to say that you don't need others to teach or help you when in your infancy, where would you be today? You would be a dead infant. If you carried this mentality with you during your childhood and initial learning development, where would you be? You would be an ignoramus lacking all tools of mankind's accumulated understandings.

As infants we scream and cry for the help of others; 'Desire to Receive'. As children we rely upon others to learn, develop, and provide nourishment and protection. In our maturity (or lack thereof), we forget all of this and are blinded and enslaved by the illusional falsity that we are self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-existing. Even right now, try to live your life without the knowledge, achievements, inventions, and contributations of others. It is impossible! Even in the most miniscule of examples, will you abandon language that was taught to you by others?

Peace brother.

Originally posted by Kgnow
reply to post by NorEaster

 

Hello NorEaster.

By our very intrinsic design, humans are a species that must rely upon others. We need others. We are created with the 'Desire to Receive.' No human infant can survive after being birthed without the help of others, for surely the child would die. This is illustrative of the fact that our very first quality of life is 'to receive'.

None of our collective understandings and achievements would exist without the accumulation and culmination of others.

"Especially since none of us simple, stupid human beings can ever really know anything that isn't told to us by some ultimate master of all truth and knowledge"

You would not be proficient in the English language unless it was told to you, or unless you absorbed it from observing and experiencing others.

My dear brother, it is indeed the self-delusional and egocentric view that we adults have cultivated in believing the lie that we do not need others. If you were to say that you don't need others to teach or help you when in your infancy, where would you be today? You would be a dead infant. If you carried this mentality with you during your childhood and initial learning development, where would you be? You would be an ignoramus lacking all tools of mankind's accumulated understandings.

As infants we scream and cry for the help of others; 'Desire to Receive'. As children we rely upon others to learn, develop, and provide nourishment and protection. In our maturity (or lack thereof), we forget all of this and are blinded and enslaved by the illusional falsity that we are self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-existing. Even right now, try to live your life without the knowledge, achievements, inventions, and contributations of others. It is impossible! Even in the most miniscule of examples, will you abandon language that was taught to you by others?

Peace brother.

In my life, I was also taught to not believe everything that people tell me. I was also taught that some people lie and that they've got their own agendas, regardless of what they insist. And I learned on my own that if someone conflates unrelated specific when trying to defend misinformation statements that it's best to really pay attention to whatever it is that they're trying to sell, because it's probably even more messed up that it seems at first blush.

The need for community and the need for help in establishing survival basics is NOT the same as relinquishing all effort to determine what is true about what is real and allowing someone else - anyone else - to "guide" you to whatever it is that they've prepared for you. Believing that an unknown "master" has your best interests at heart is naive at best , and tragically stupid at worst. Especially when you've (basically) spent years lining up your own open availability to being preyed upon in advance, without ever even considering that conscious, intelligent beings lie all the time (as even the most simplistic "spiritual" notions admit). And while it's true that anyone who willingly walks into that trap probably deserves whatever happens to them, I still feel compelled to offer a few words of warning before leaving them to the likes of you folks.

reply to post by NorEaster


May I ask, if you are so much against others "selling" an idea or "guiding" others, why is it that you yourself seek to guide others and sell ideas with the books you have listed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble? You speak hostilely towards me, you guide and sell with your books, and then you attack others that guide and sell ideas? I don't quite understand.

My dear brother, I did not launch any insult at you, and I used the word "we" as much as possible. I have spoken to you as a brother. NorEaster, you have used the directive "you" towards me with such belittling statements. You may categorize and insult me based upon assumptions and without ever knowing me, but I know that you and I are "we", and the compartmentalization and further "I'm different and separate from you" type of mentality is a leading cause of mankind's suffering.



I do not promote that anyone blindly follow nor surrender their mind to the agendas and concepts of another. Guidance is guidance and totalitarian obedience is totalitarian obedience. We are helped and guided all throughout our developmental lives and every time we learn something new from another. It is our responsibility to weigh, measure, discern, and analyze all guidance. Guidance is undeniable, but to be a slave to it is a sad hinderance.

Peace.

Originally posted by Kgnow
reply to post by NorEaster

 

May I ask, if you are so much against others "selling" an idea or "guiding" others, why is it that you yourself seek to guide others and sell ideas with the books you have listed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble? You speak hostilely towards me, you guide and sell with your books, and then you attack others that guide and sell ideas? I don't quite understand.

I explain what I've learned and always suggest that people do their own work to verify what it is that I've claimed. No one should ever accept anyone's word (not mine either) on anything pertaining to the true nature of what awaits them after they've finished their corporeal phase of physical existence. I sell the book because (1) it costs me to offer it, and (2) I know that it's been repeatedly proven that people value what they've paid for, and that they generally don't value what they've been given free. Yes, it sucks that this is true, but it's true, and if I want someone to take something I have to offer seriously, I know that I have to charge a nominal fee for their access to it or they won't value it at all.

Selling an idea - if it's a good idea - is wonderful. Nothing wrong with it. Especially if it has taken you years to research, internalize, and devise a means of translating what you've learned into a digestible and accessible idea that can benefit others. By all means sell that idea and I wish you the best. The effort to convince people to submit to an unknown or unknowable authoritative source, and to simply trust that this authoritative source is divine, or even benevolent, isn't what any sensible person could ever claim is a good idea. It just isn't. My problem is with that idea, and that's the idea that you and your similars are pushing on this site and have been pushing on this site for years.

I'll always challenge that idea with my own idea that they need to be aware of the dangers inherent in simply surrendering their capacity for intellectual discernment to anyone who can't even describe the full nature of what it is that they're supposed to surrender to. I make no apologies for how i view your and similar ways of thinking in this critical matter.

My dear brother, I did not launch any insult at you, and I used the word "we" as much as possible. I have spoken to you as a brother. NorEaster, you have used the directive "you" towards me with such belittling statements. You may categorize and insult me based upon assumptions and without ever knowing me, but I know that you and I are "we", and the compartmentalization and further "I'm different and separate from you" type of mentality is a leading cause of mankind's suffering.

I referred to "you" in the collective...

I still feel compelled to offer a few words of warning before leaving them to the likes of you folks.

In fact I even added "folks" to make sure it was clear. That said, I don't apologize for aggressively challenging anyone who works to convince others to look for a "guide" to bring them to "knowledge" that they aren't capable of ever "knowing" on their own. That smacks of treachery where I come from, and I only know what I know as a result of who I am and where I come from. Obviously, I'm much more aware of the human potential for that sort of thing than some folks. In fact, Satan is a piker compared to the kind of people that are loose on just this side of the veil. I can't even begin to imagine the possibilities roaming the eternal realm, and prepping people to be vulnerable to that crowd doesn't seem to be either a good idea or a morally decent effort.

I do not promote that anyone blindly follow nor surrender their mind to the agendas and concepts of another. Guidance is guidance and totalitarian obedience is totalitarian obedience. We are helped and guided all throughout our developmental lives and every time we learn something new from another. It is our responsibility to weigh, measure, discern, and analyze all guidance. Guidance is undeniable, but to be a slave to it is a sad hinderance.

Peace.

And yet, a cursory reading of your advice suggests exactly the opposite. Suggesting that "guides" will be how one moves forward toward knowledge in the afterlife. Specific "guides"...specifically.