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Seven Lessons in Reality

1.  Reality is Not.  Reality is Nothing (No-Thing).  Reality is No-Thing that can be perceived by any of the senses.  Reality is, so to speak, the exact opposite of what it appears to be.  Example:  a red rose is not red; it is every colour but red.  A red rose absorbs every ray of colour in the spectrum except red, which it rejects by reflection.  Thus a red rose is not red and appears to be the one thing it is not. 
    Apparent Reality is relative to one's Point of View - relatively speaking. 

2.  No-Thing in existence is absolutely anything.  No-Thing is absolutely Positive.  No-Thing is absolutely Negative.  Everything is a mixture, of variet proportions, of one thing and another, or of many things.  Everything is a combination of Negative and Positive, in varied ratios.  (Positive and Negative, in equal proportions, cancel each other out to create Neutrality.)  Thus in the apparently Negative, Positive qualities exist, while in the apparently Positive, Negative qualities exist.  If one encounters something apparently Negative one does not, if wise, run from it to attempt a permanent escape from it - one seeks the Positive qualities within the apparently Negative and turns it to "good", i.e., employs the apparent Negative in a Positive manner. 

3.  To avoid and ignore the (apparent) Negative is not Positivism (Positive Thinking and Action).  To avoid and ignore the (apparent) Negative is simply Escapism, the coward's way out which eventually leads unto a dead end.  Escapism is a very temporary solution to any difficulty (if it may even be called a solution; postponement may be more appropriate).  Escapism employed as a momentary enjoyment and relief from the pressures of Reality is Positive if the Realities are soon after faced and dealt with.  Escapism used as a means of attempting a permanent shirking of one's duty to deal with Reality, however personally distasteful, is utter folly.  Reality cannot be forever avoided.  Reality is the Inevitable in Life.  However many times you attempt to avoid it, Reality will return, again and again - or more precisely - no matter how often you run from Reality your course will inevitably lead to it again and again, forcing you to face Reality and either deal with it effectively or be crushed by it. 
    To avoid a problem (i.e., an apparently negative situation) almost never solves that problem.  Avoiding a problem only gives it time to become more unmanageable and if avoided long enough, when one is inevitably led back to it, it can become too much to handle and crush he or she who sought to avoid it. 
    Positivism (Positive Thinking and Action) is not avoiding the apparently Negative. 
    Positivism is the acceptance of things as they are rather than straining to see things as one would wish them to be. 
    Positivism is the effort made to discover the Positive qualities within the apparent Negative, and then to employ these Positive qualities to make things as one would wish them to be, at least within one's own being and personal universe. 

4.  A thing very quickly done is seldom done right, if done at all. 
    A worthwhile and lasting accomplishment is not instantly done with a wish; it is achieved by careful planning, hard work carefully done, and often this takes time that is trying upon one's patience.  Almost absolute endurance is needed to achieve a long lasting and worthwhile accomplishment. 
    That which appears to have been accomplished in a very short time, after little or no work, is either utter illusion or so poorly done that it will not long last and is likely to be easily undone under the least pressure applied to it. 

5.  To dream and by dreaming alone expect the dream to come true is foolish. 
    To dream and then pretend the Reality to be as the dream is ignorance, stupidity and weakness. 
    To dream and then to carefully proceed to make the dream come true by accepting Reality and altering apparent Reality is Wisdom most profound! 

6.  All that is is Not.  All that exists, all that one can perceive with the senses, as well as all that can be conceived, is an Illusion - a mere image of True Reality, which is That which is beyond perception and conception. 
    "Then," says the pseudo-intellectual, "if this be so, that all is an illusion, by creating an illusion, a dream, no further effort is needed to alter the illusion we call reality!" 
    "This is true," the inspired intellectual agrees, "however, the created illusion effects only one's personal Illusion of Reality.  No one exists alone and entirely apart from others.  Thus one's Illusion of Reality, so simply created, conflicts with the multitude of differing and conflicting Illusions of Reality created by others.  Furthermore, one's personal Illusion of Reality conflicts with greater Illusions of Reality, carefully created over long periods of time, and such conflicts are bound to eventually destroy one's personal illusion by sheer brute force, in a manner of speaking. 
    "To alter and maintain one's personal Illusion of Reality one must do more than say 'So it is'; one must make it be, not only for oneself, but for others of like mind.  This takes careful planning, hard work carefully done, and great patience and endurance. 
    "When one's Illusion of Reality is sufficiently constructed it can compete or co-exist with other such Illusions of Reality. 
    "Still, in creating and strengthening an Illusion of Reality one must keep in mind that it is only an illusion.  One must employ the illusion and not be the slave of that or any other Illusion of Reality. 
    "Furthermore, every Illusion of Reality must conform to True Reality or its structure will not hold together.  It need not, indeed it cannot, conform to every aspect of True Reality.  Illusion and the Illusion of Reality is but a small and relative part of the Whole, which is True Reality, the Absolute, which cannot be perceived or conceived." 

7.  To attempt to raise oneself by lowering another is foolish, for one accomplishes only the lowering of oneself below the level of the other. 
    The wise one, to raise himself, respects others, accepting all levels as essentially equal, while asserting the equality of his own level. 
    The Taoist trick (or the way of some sincerely modest persons) is to speak and act as if lowering oneself, thus raising oneself in the eyes of others.  This, however, does not always work and may actually accomplish just the opposite, i.e., by lowering oneself one may be lowered instead of raised. 

By the hand of G.M.Kelly 
who is Frater Keallach 93/676 

Anno LXXIX, Sol in Capricornus 
8th of January 1984 E.V. 

NOTE:  Seven Lessons in Reality was originally written for a certain soror with the "Cocaine Mentality" in mind, after a number of A.·. Opera, but it is of great need to many others, occultist or not, who fail to face and deal with the realities of life, much to their own detriment and the harm of society as a whole.  K. 

(1984 E.V. Winter Solstice Encyclical Letter)