1 result for (book:nopr AND session:647 AND stemmed:anim)
6/44 (14%)
Satan
denial
Adam
evil
Buddhism
[... 5 paragraphs ...]
(Pause.) Hence you have the majestic elements given to Satan, and the power. The earthly characteristics often appear as he is depicted in animal form, for he was also of course connected with the intuitive terrestrial attributes from which the new human consciousness would spring.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
Now: This new kind of consciousness brought with it the open mirror of memory in which past joy and pain could be recalled, and so the realization of mortal death became more immediate than it was with the animals.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]
The birth of imagination initiated the largest possibilities, and at the same time put great strain upon the biological creature whose entire corporeal structure would now react not only to present objective situations, but imaginative ones. At the same time members of the species had to cope with the natural environment as did any other animal. Imagination helped because an individual could anticipate the behavior of other creatures.
(10:41.) In another way, animals also possess an “unconscious” anticipation, but they do not have to come to terms with it on an aware basis as the new consciousness did. Again, good and evil and the freedom of choice came to the species’ aid. The evil animal was the natural predator, for example. It would help here if the reader remembers what has been said about natural guilt earlier in this book. It would aid in understanding the later myths and the variations that came from them. (See the 634th session in Chapter Eight, among others.)
As the mind developed, the species could hand down to its offspring the wisdom and law of the elders. This is still being done in modern society, of course, when each child inherits the beliefs of its parents about the nature of reality. Apart from all other considerations, this is also a characteristic of creaturehood. Only the means are different with the animals.
The acceleration continues, however. Ideas of right and wrong are always guidelines that are then individually interpreted. Because of the connection with survival mentioned earlier (in the last session), there is a great charge here. Initially the child had to be impressed with the fact, for example, that a predator animal was “bad” because it could kill. Today a mother might unwittingly say the same thing about a car.
[... 27 paragraphs ...]
