Jiva wrote:I'm intrigued by what you mean when you say “contextual discrimination”? I am (probably incorrectly) interpreting this as similar to the English “white lie”. However in an earlier reply you stated that “a dishonest occultist dims his inner sight with those lies or half-truths he spreads”.
I didn't mean the so-called white lies. If my use of English held such indication, it was because of my lack of familiarity with the associations of the words/idioms in that language. Which is a great thing to come up in this discussion, for it is obvious that in addition to intellect, one also needs the correct instruments for sharing the ideas, i.e. correct use of language. (And I don't mean as much grammar as the cultural associations.) I'm glad I'm having this possibility to sharpen up my understanding of English in this forum - the last weekend I just received this forum as an area of responsibility in the brotherhood -, for I will have use for that kind of practice!
By the "contextual discrimination" I tried to say that we must think about the context we are talking, in order to be as meaningfully truthful as possible. That our words would not only be without a conscious lie, but "pregnant with truth" as well. For the world is full of meaningless truths, which wouldn't give anything to the people we are in conversation with. We can so easily give emphasis on wrong words or ideas, and withhold data that might help. I think that is one aspect of the teaching that "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matthew 12:36)
I must use a little different manner of speech whether I'm talking with my fellow brother, an atheist without any mystical interest, my little sister, my lady friend, a priest, or a clerk from some bureau. BUT it is also my responsibility - or so I strongly feel - to work myself so whole & complete a human being that I can always be wholly truthful, without playing games, without telling any white lies, and without making myself a completely different character in different situations. To try and slowly remove all masks but the personality itself, which is the supreme mask. It's just that these different conversations are able to harness different kinds of associations, so I can (and must!) add nuances to all the conversations. Words are never just words. They are that plus they give slight or heavy suggestions about other emotions, associations, energizing & barring possibilities. Even all straight words are hints to other truths. And it must be so, for as of yet our languages (even if we have mastered them, like our mother tongue) are unable to pass the exact truths. There's so much more attached to any thing but those things which we can say with yea or nay.
That is also one reason why I'm often talking quite much when with any people. I think it's my responsibility to give them as much "covert" information as possible.
We can also see that the emphasis on the development of skill for sharing ideas - even the problematic ones - is one of the those stressed in the lodge Lucifer, which is the most "diplomatic" lodge of the brotherhood. When we're doing work with other lodges, it's usually on the grounds that tries to help them somehow attain new communication possibilities & relations to people. But it's of uttermost importance that this is done in honesty, trying to keep our eyes in the Meaning even more than in words. In that way, words can become a true bridge.