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Steven Berger's avatar

A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel

By St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

I had this book in my library for thirty years and never read it until this last year. It describes exactly what you mentioned here:

"These nerves relay body/brain information, including senses of vision, taste, smell and hearing; overcoming these sensory nerves is part of the reason the mythical Christ was said to be crucified — the five senses bind man to the human condition — and overcoming the human condition truly qualifies a Herculean labor."

It then goes on to describe exactly how to 'overcome the human condition' and exactly what the fruit of that would be.

Here is the table of contents:

CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

The Attributes of the Mind and the Body

CHAPTER TWO

Concerning the Mind

CHAPTER THREE

Guarding the Sense of Vision

CHAPTER FOUR

Guarding the Sense of Hearing

CHAPTER FIVE

Guarding the Sense of Smell

CHAPTER SIX

Guarding the Sense of Taste and the Tongue

CHAPTER SEVEN

Guarding the Sense of Touch

CHAPTER EIGHT

Guarding All the Senses in General

CHAPTER NINE

Guarding the Imagination

CHAPTER TEN

Guarding the Mind and the Heart

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Spiritual and Proper Delights of the Mind

CHAPTER TWELVE

An Epilogue on the Spiritual Delights

After finally reading it, I couldn't believe that I had waited thirty years!

Oh well, better late than never, I guess!

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aux is playing's avatar

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet."

Ah, dear Juliette, but you are too dismissive, too hasty. There is mystique in names, and mystique is power!

Teeming with facts and historicity, I have enjoyed reading this more than I have for a long time, and I'll have (more) interesting and deep things to ponder for some time yet.

One small point of discord with my understanding: the ancient calendar consisted of 13 lunar phases - aligning with women's menstrual cycles, a rhythm that carried profound significance in cultures worldwide since time immemorial - was first replaced by the Romans with a 10-month system, equivalent to our March to December, the winter season was not assigned to any month, so the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter. Later, a 12-month system set around Roman culture and mythology was adopted. If one considers the 13-month lunar phase calendar, I wonder how this wrinkle might propagate through to an enhanced/diminished understanding?

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