The starting point for self-knowledge was insight (wisdom) into the true nature of reality. Such wisdom would give a clue as to the way to realize the oneness of creation within oneself.
For the ancient Egyptians, the central idea for gaining wisdom knowledge pertained to salvation. They believed that once ones soul was liberated from its bodily fetters, a human could become God-like and associate with the immortal god.
To this end, they taught all Neophytes the Ten Virtues deemed necessary for eternal happiness. The key to gaining powerful knowledge, they said, is to understand the ancient African concepts of the planes of existence, the type of knowledge contained in each plane, and the type of power conveyed by that knowledge.
Perhaps their teachings went something like this. If the sky is like the crossbar of the letter H, above the sky is God and the heavens -- both being immaterial (or spiritual); both consisting of love; and both being unknowable to the human mind. Just below the sky is the Sublime, bathed by Gods love and goodness in the most concentrated form available to human beings.
Whereas the Sublime consists of intangible matter (the ether lacking the characteristics of matter e.g. mass, rigidity), the planes below it constituted the tangible world -- with its unbounded, partially bounded, and bounded subdivisions of increasingly dense matter.
The rules governing these planes are all different. Knowledge of Gods love is realized intuitively (an effortless immediate understanding of the truth) which results from being immersed in the universal energy of life. It is above reason and requires no proof. Knowledge of the Sublime comes from meditating into the experience of total freedom beyond space and time.
In this plane there is the absence of fear; a sense of unification with everything and everybody; and a clear awareness of truth, total love for the whole of creation, and unconditional love showered by the Creator.
In the unbounded tangible realm, knowing is the mind having insight into principles -- a knowledge grounded in and supported by valid experience, sound reasoning, and pure feelings so as to sharpen discernment (seeing faint differences).
Involved in obtaining this knowledge is precision (exactness of boundaries); accuracy (conforming to a standard); clarity (distinctiveness); consistency (a permanent and stationary pattern), and a matching of cause and effect.
The partially bounded tangible is known by the senses; the bounded by anything definable as being without hazy borders. Examples of the unbounded are thoughts and feelings; of the partially bounded, hearing, tasting, smelling; and the bounded, anything that can be weighed, counted, or measured (e.g. size, mass, rigidity).
Similar to building self-confidence, powerful knowledge is the accumulation of principles in all planes and successfully using it in all decision making and problem solving. For example, powerful knowledge is built when you figure out how and why some experience you had succeeded or failed.
It is added to when you use that information to succeed even faster and more easily - or at least to not fail. Knowledge becomes power when you distinguish appearances from reality and then not follow evil appearances, even though they are masquerading as beneficial pleasures.
Knowledge is power when your correct opinions, estimates, interpretations, selections of facts and right beliefs are all applied in the interest of the greater good and your legacy purpose in life.
Knowledge is power when the more you know, the better able you are to control yourself in tough times as well as to control or prevent those outside forces which lead to trials and tribulations. Knowledge is power when you use it to discern good from bad people and then make wise offensive or defensive choices.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D
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