INITIATION
EDITOR
THE REVEREND STEPHEN FROST PH.D.
Copyright 2000 AD, All Rights Reserved
Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative--University of California, Berkeley.
PREFACE
Allegory, myth, fiction, gospel, graven image, critical research? Herein, you will see for yourself how some truths are discovered, 'brought back for the people' and maintained. How knowledge arises, acts and resolves to its origin. The Nepsis Foundation in itself is a reference to certain 'clear light' schools of mysticism and their influence, potentially. The Nepsis Foundation, as an organization, is a group of persons--some highly trained in various professional disciplines, others are common citizens but with certain, otherwise unrecognized insights and gifts. These persons gathered together to face a complex of problems, terrible challenges that are inherent in the personalities of the group, challenges that threaten the very existence of the world. When this story shimmered with the viscous glimmer of any fetal formation, the various members of this group barely knew each other. The circumstances of their lives brought them together until they all agreed to coordinate their efforts to face these dangers. Except for this report, the real activities and character of this organization are secret. The Editor, Dr. Steve Frost, is an observer of the esoteric activities of this group, and now a member. The others have come to trust him over the years and he functions as a (Roman Catholic) priest and advisor to most Foundation members. (Though not all...) Nonetheless, this report contains a thorough description and some important analysis of the attitudes and activities of the group. For reasons integral to the purpose of this gathering, the Nepsis Foundation has agreed that Dr. Frost should make public the collection presented here. (See TABLE OF CONTENTS below.)
"...That's the background for this presentation. Those are the swaddling clothes spun from pure white gold, cloth upon which the infant of our imagining has lain. ...From the primordial pit of realization, the serpent of resurrection-- scales scraping against scales, shapes the destiny of heroes and gods: Who gets the money, the power, the sex, and whose gene pool produces survival and salvation. ...what the Twins discovered in Xibalba that clearly explains why the Mayan Calendar ends in 2012 and how the doom of that day might be avoided. One Nepsis practitioner, the 'Scholar', provides a few hints about the method and meaning of this presentation near the bottom of this page. To help preserve the anonymity of the members, the titles or category of contribution will usually be used to identify each member. I.e., the Narrator, the Priest, and the Woman made their contribution in the form of novels. The Artist provides painting and sculptures with all-important, telling, captions about the importance of the art to this project. The Poet provides poems that speak for themselves, often foreshadow later action and display a cycle of 'initiation' investigated here. The above-mentioned Scholar provides a thesis, a dissertation, and an essay in three parts. Martial Artists work their influence through out. And there is as well, a Businessman. Though this is a shadowy figure whose real intentions are hard to quite determine, or trust. The Pilgrim is the most sincere, clearest, and happy contributor. His are the best anecdotes—copied by some of the other gospel writers. Though, sometimes he misses home, desperately... The Editor, Dr. Frost, endeavors to organize, analyze, and finally sum up the activity and intention of this presentation from the NEPSIS FOUNDATION.
The Publisher
∆∆∆
NEPSIS
Title Page And Table of Contents
Nepsis: New Testament Greek: ...to be spiritually awake, sober, watchful.
"...It takes a priest to see the problem. It takes a sorcerer to solve it"
__________
NEPSIS is a late 20th Century exploration of consciousness. It is a personal encounter with: Art, Shamanism, Buddhism (Yoga), the Hesychasm (Christianity), Contemporary Critical Thought (Ph.D., Berkeley, 1995); and with interstate Hitch Hikers in an age of Free Agent, Business Warriors riding their Steeds along the Precipice of Eternity. Rock shards fly, also free(?), as the war parties pass-- sparked blithely, we slip clueless into the Abyss
________________________
NEPSIS is a query about person(s) and world(s) and the proper intercourse between them. It records the original and spontaneous, sometimes paranormal, Pacific Rim experiences that set this project in motion... Here flows the adventure of the road and the kindness of God. ...elements coalesce, converge, climax, dissipate----leave behind the receding wave brilliant storms and insightful artifacts.
Then,
INTERSTATES
A black dragon's unabridged history of the world
continues in violence, sensuality and darkness, working its way, no doubt, to "a light that casts no shadow." The ways of scientific discovery and moral right alone, so modestly, authentically, and honestly, somehow, continue to fail in a valiant effort to save [us] from our arrival at this viciously dangerous, historical moment.
Until
emerge
.
.
.
.
SECTION I
FIRST STATES
PAINTINGS: 1973-1987 Last College Work, Canyon Studio, Monastery, Wilshire Studio, Venice, Seminary, Orange, Long Beach
POEMS: 1970-1980
SECTION II
INTERSTATES
To consider is to "draw the stars together" or to give/find order in one's universe. To desire is to "tear the stars apart."
A PILGRIM
LETTER TO A BISHOP: The New Missal
BRILLIANT PASSAGES: Conclusions to begin...
A SCHOLAR
First Interstate Reflection: Religious Initiation and States of Consciousness
INTERSTATES An Investigation into the Inter-phase Between Discursive and Non-discursive Perception according to Pertinent Criteria in the Works of Raimon Panikkar.
Second Interstate Reflection:
SATISFACTION: An Essay: Introduction
FURTHER ESSAYS on Satisfaction: Icons, Mandalas and the Nude. "Satisfaction, Parts II and III"
A STUDENT
THE COMPANYAs with all the fiction works here, "The Company" is developed from "Second Fiction" above and properly belongs in LETTER TO A BISHOP, Part II. Here are distinguished five characters and five stories: Chris, Agnes, Stephanie, Catherine, and the Priest (See Section III, "What Georgia Did" endnote, for a recent edit.)
A POET
AN ARTIST
THE NARRATOR, A Businessma
INTERSTATES, A Novel
THE PRIEST
ADAM'S WAY, A Novella
THE WOMAN
CHRIS AND STEPHANIE, A Short Fiction
THE GOLEM
HOW DIONYSIUS SAVED HIS MOTHER FROM HELL and Thus Saves the World. Three Short Fictions of Magic, Mysticism and Rocket Science…
PAINTINGS: 1987-1995 Long Beach, Berkeley
POEMS: 1980-1995
SECTION III
...neither separate from, nor subject to, oneself...
IMPORTANT FICTIONAL AND 'REAL' CHARACTERS: WHAT THEY DID
Some of the following characters are 'real' characters unheard from in NEPSIS before this. They stand here with imaginary characters and scenes from NEPSIS fiction and poems and other fragments from this collection so as to draw together 'internal' processes of perception with 'external' processes. Thus, knowledge is integrated, history is transformed and the world is saved!
SELECT
TO ACCESS THESE FOLLOWING REFERENCES
1. The Narrator's Last Note and Dread Conclusion (From NEPSIS, Section II Fictions.)
2. What Mike Did
3. What Georgia Did
4. Emptiness
5. The Company Disbands
6. The Author's Last Note: Last Luxor, i.e., Yemen and the Great Experiment.
7. HOW DIONYSIUS SAVED HIS MOTHER FROM HELL:
"Book III--Resolution" and "Regarding Resolution"
POEMS: 1995-1999
PAINTINGS: 1995-1999
∆∆∆
∆∆∆
__________________________________
From the Scholar:
Nepsis
explores certain flexible qualities about human identity in nature and culture
using 'the search for the real'* of the studio
artist, the philosophy of science, and religious practice--yoga, monastic
asceticism, et al--to identify and
ponder salient issues in the construct of perception... Nepsis
overcomes/integrates the Passions.
As each instant slips into the past, we form memories of that
instant, spontaneously creating a form of historical fiction. Poetry and mythic
operatives distill essential elements from that vast array of
memories--personal, genetic, environmental--to form culture and personality.
These are the play of spirit and matter investigated here...
The
primal format one finds in the study of shamanism usually divides the subject
into two parts: Initiation and Practice. I believe that format provides a good
approach to this presentation as well. In fact, most of the material here falls
under the heading of 'Initiation.' There are also suggested here the beginnings
of a practice that at once includes actual events as well as creates liturgical
metaphors for a wide spectrum of human activity, history and identity.
Pratityasamutpada
refers to the primordial law or essence of how things work from the Buddha's point of view.
Nairatmyavada
refers to the question of a self, or human identity, Atman or Anatman. What is the nature of human experience in time and out of it?
"Who climbs up on the Cross?"
Avyakrtavastuni
refers to the typical Buddhist calm.
What is the nature of a worldview in which one perceives a problem? What is the solution in such a vision?
States of Awareness, Kenosis and the Integration of Knowledge,
Certain Theories About
RELIGION
ART AND CRITICAL THOUGHT
Under-lie the Action and Insights Presented Here.
WHO IS INITIATED? INTO WHAT?
___________________
From the Poet:
God
Smiling
His rapture through
Undulating waters
In
Dark and crystal
Waves behind our boat.
God whispers
Her sweet kisses
In tiny breezes across my ear... chattering
en
thus
i
asm
By
Our friendly talk
Sailing past sunset
Down the Nile
Through the arms of life
and the embrace of stars!
Steve Frost
Egypt, 1997
Alternative ending to above "Nile" poem:
sailing past sunset
down the Nile
through the arms of life
and the embrace
of star encrusted black
and empty space
...
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This site, though still under construction, is nearing completion. Any comments or corrections the viewer might like to report should be sent to the editor, Dr. Steve Frost,