PHILOSOPHY, METAPHYSICS, BIBLICAL SYMBOLISM, ANALISES OF MYTHS & REALITY
     

 

BEYOND RELIGION I

 Collected Essays by Stanislaw Kapuscinski

 VOLUME ONE

 

 TO ORDER CLICK ON COVER

 

   ISBN 978-0-9780267-9-0

   Non-fiction, 240 pages

  AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF BEING 

EBOOK EDITION

 The First of the 3 collections of essays sharing author's thoughts on Reality cover the period between November 1996 and May 1997.  We are offered always perceptive, often humorous, as often 'deep' reflections on the Nature of Being. The author delves into ancient scriptures as well as into the latest scientific discoveries to explain his Perception of Reality.
 

 Stanislaw Kapuscinski, architect, sculptor and prolific writer, demonstrates his unique perspective on subjects as diverse as The Last Things, Phenomenology, Life, Power, Body and Soul, Freedom, Duality; Pleasure, Prayers, Traditions, Myth and Reality, Sex, Salvation and many others.
 

  Beyond the doing right, and doing wrong, there is a field. I'll meet you there

 [Jalaluddin Rumi]

11CONTENT

22FOREWORD
00INTRODUCTION

1. I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD How it all started...
2. THE LAST THINGS On eschatology
3. PHENOMENOLOGY Comments on "His Holiness"
4. LIFE On the nature of nephesh and El
5. POWER On meaning of corruption
6. BODY AND SOUL On our identification
7. KNOWINGNESS On outer and inner knowledge
8. FREEDOM On responsibility
9. QUALITY CONTROL From Moses to Deming
10. 666 On work ethic
11. CELESTIAL AND OTHER BODIES On theory and practice
12. THE DEAD, THE LIVING AND THE DYING
13. BEING AND BECOMING
14. HE UNKNOWN
On instinct and intuition
15. I DON' T BELONG
16. DUALITY
On opposing forces
17. CREATIVITY On the creator, creating and the created
18. OLD AGE? On the New Age
19. SELF On id, ego and superego
20. A HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOUR The four horses of the Apocalypse
21. CYCLES On walking in circles
22. PLEASURE
23. PRAYERS
24. TRADITIONS

25. THE MANY AND THE ONE On outgrowing our gods
26. THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP On the three levels of understanding of the Bible
27. MYTH AND REALITY On Christian Creed
28. THE CARROT AND THE STICK On heaven and hell
29. VANISHING WORLDS More on illusion of reality
30. A STRANGER An inquiry into human progress
31. THE STAGE On perception of reality
32. FAITH The purpose of faith
33. YE ARE GODS On human potential
34. VENGEANCE On the futility of hatred
35. PURPOSE To be or not to be...
36. GENESIS On the creative method
37. THE MESSAGE (and the Messenger)
38. NECESSITIES On two modes of existence
39. QUESTIONS On self discovery
40. CLONING On Scottish sheep and cardinals
41. MEN AND WOMEN OF EVERY ILK On gays, lesbians and celibates.
42. SEX
43. PROBLEMS
On challenges and opportunities
44. SANCTIFYING Completeness
45. SILENCE
46. PARALLEL EVOLUTION
On centrifugal and centripetal forces
47. ADAM On the first and other men
48. GRACE States of consciousness
49. SALVATION The saving of nephesh
50. EVE More on the animal soul
51. THE UNIVERSAL AND THE PARTICULAR
52. BEYOND RELIGION
On evolution of consciousness

 

 

  
 
 

BEYOND RELIGION I - EXCERPTS

 Foreword

 "...it is not in our stars by in ourselves that we are underlings"

 Shakespeare
 

 
 

In my earlier years I used to skip the Foreword to get into the meat of the book, to delve into the mind of the writer, fathom his or her hidden thoughts, perhaps, innermost secrets. I was in error. I have learned since that omitting the foreword was like forgetting to meet the host when entering his house. Surely the rooms are saturated with the presence of him whose very being is, for the most part, held and contained within the space and time by the walls one is entering. Yet to fully understand the dwelling, one must meet the dweller.

My true dwelling is my state of consciousness. It is not my permanent abode, but rather a transient expression of the conditions, that, at any particular moment, have bearing on my awareness of the outside universe. I say outside, because while my haven is both, within and without the reaches of my senses, imagination, or even mind, that which defines my essence is within a realm that is unchangeable, singularly permanent, indestructible. I, no more than a pilgrim, reach out from my haven; perhaps heaven is a better word, and stand in awe of the wonders that surround me.

It is my impressions of these wonders that I wish to share with you. I have no desire to convince anyone of anything, to praise or condemn anyone or anything, though it may seem so, at first. I have as much respect for the state of consciousness you inhabit, at any particular moment, as I have for the universe in which we all find the intimacy of our being. In many ways, the two are inseparable. Further-more, in most essential ways we are all One; we all look out from our inner sanctum, we enter countless states of consciousness; we observe, experience, learn, and retreat to our City of Peace.

What follows I have variously named thoughts, ideas, essays or even, in my more pompous moments, dissertations. In truth - they are neither. They are little more than one man's way of looking at the world. Neither better nor worse than countless others. I trust my way will add, without detracting, expand without creating new barriers to the spectrum of reality. I offer a viewpoint that, hopefully, eliminates paradoxes. I ask no one to adopt my way of looking at the world. I ask everyone to remember that they, like myself, are unique. It is through boundless diversity that the One Consciousness finds Its expression. I like to think that you and I are indispensable components of the Whole.

continue reading in the book...

 

 

 

 

 

 Essay #9

Quality Control

An American giant, W. Edwards Deming , suffered from the scourge that affected all the wise men of the past. His own people spurned him. He wasn't the first to be so treated. Luke, the evangelist, said it plainly: "No prophet is accepted in his own country". Then or now. Jesus cried. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee..." How little has changed in 20 centuries! Oh, we seldom kill our visionaries any more; we do stone them with words though, and with luck, we expel them from our midst.

The unfortunate consequence of this maxim is that by ostracizing the messenger we tend to disregard the message also. It is fortunate, however, that contrary to the prophets of Jerusalem, today's seers can, and do, go somewhere else. The prophets are no longer obliged to teach the hard-necked rabble. The centuries have pushed back, expanded the horizons. No ocean is too great to cross for the message to find fertile ground.

And W. Edwards Deming crossed the Pacific Ocean.

He is best known as the father of Japan's post-second-world-war industrial recovery. And his game plan was really quite simple. Mr. Deming proposed a system which, when applied to any industrial process, would result in an unparalleled financial success. A tempting offer. Japan listened while America ignored him. Once again the prophet was not accepted in his own country. Who is this Deming to tell us how to improve our quarterly returns, they asked with a smirk on their curling lips. Are we not the greatest world power? Perhaps. But Mr.Deming's teaching not only put Japan at the forefront of the world economy but, in just a few years, it helped the country of the rising sun overtake the U.S. of A. at her own game. And remember, Japan had lost the war!

So what was this Deming secret?
The very same as all the other prophets'.

Mr. Deming advocated quality control. Not so much the quality of the product, as the quality of the process which would result in a superior product. It basically meant that a good product is a corollary of a good methodology applied to good, everyday living, ah... pardon, everyday production. He claimed that a good apple usually falls from a good tree. He told the Japanese to plant a good orchard. To never mind the apples. To use good soil, good fertilizer, to take care of their orchard. Mr. Deming simply stated that if one controls the quality of the process, the end-result would take care of itself.

Take no thought of the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. It almost sounds as though Mr.Deming had been preaching the gospel! Perhaps the truth doesn't really change. It just finds new applications.

Throughout history this was the teaching of the prophets. Throughout history the prophets had been, and continue to be, misunderstood. People insist on the end-product, on the quarterly returns. On the bottom line. They are result oriented. Yet in terms of a production line, the end-product is as death is to a human being. After all, death is the end-product of our life. And under the circumstances is it any wonder that the prophets had been preoccupied with life? Isn't life a process that can be enjoyed enormously, or endured until the final end-product, death, will relieve us from suffering? From Moses to Deming, all the avatars have taught, the few who would listen, the art of living.

They taught us to control the quality of life.

They were never concerned with religions, or with what would happen after our physical death. They never built churches or temples or synagogues. They sensed the omnipresence of the Creative Force. They never found time to be concerned with the ultimate result. It was too far into the uncertain future. They were too busy living each and every day; each successive instant on the endless procession of fragments of eternity.

There is, of course, another explanation for their wisdom.

For anyone who attains the realization of immortality, of being immortal, there can be not such thing as an end-product. The great avatars had been so far advanced that they knew, without the slightest doubt, that they were, are, and forever will be, immortal. They knew that a few years sojourn interacting with matter, before discarding their physical envelopes, can be great fun. They also knew that this sojourn is not more than a flicker of an eye in the immensity of existence.

It seems that some of us still don't believe them. In time we shall. Time is what we have so much of. It stretches forever, beyond the furthest rainbow.

51 more essays await you in the book...

 

 

 

 

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