Learning the Secrets

[pointwithinacircle2]

I tell all my friends that I am a Freemason and I am often asked a question like "If Freemasonry is good why do you keep it a secret". After thinking a lot about the question, I have come up with an explanation that I now use as a stock answer. I would like your opinion on it. It goes like this:

The mystic secrets of Freemasonry are like the secrets of tightrope walking. Everyone knows the secret of tightrope walking is balance. The reason that most people aren't tightrope walkers is not that they do not know the secret, it is because they do not practice enough.

Similarly, the mystic secret of Freemasonry is that you can become a better man if you practice enough. Just as tightrope walking seems amazing to those who refuse to learn it, a true Freemason seems amazing to those who are unwilling to do the work to become one.

 

[LAMason]

The only secrets (which they actually are not secret anymore) are the modes of recognition and possibly some of the ritual. Other areas of study that someone may pursue to become a "better man" are available to anyone that is willing to undertake the study. I know that a lot of members want to pretend that there is some great enlightenment that comes from going through the rituals and that just is not the case. It may be the catalyst that cause someone to seek out the information that will help them achieve the goal but that is it. There are no lessons in Freemasonry (other than perhaps the allegorical use of Masonry tools) that is not borrowed from other philosophies/religions/systems of morality and ethics.

 

[Bill Lins]

Becoming a better person is the work of the EA.

I believe it is a lifelong pursuit, regardless of one's degree.

 

[Levelhead]

The secret is, dawn dish soap cleans the dishes better.
LOL


Sent from Mossy Oak Swamp Bottom.

 

[coachn]

Becoming a better person is the work of the EA.

Yep. But it is also the Work of every Degree.

 

[coachn]

Quite so. So what is the work specific to the FC?

Become a better person, intellectually.

And what to the MM?

Become a better person, spiritually.

 

[coachn]

I tell all my friends that I am a Freemason and I am often asked a question like "If Freemasonry is good why do you keep it a secret". After thinking a lot about the question, I have come up with an explanation that I now use as a stock answer. I would like your opinion on it. It goes like this:

The mystic secrets of Freemasonry are like the secrets of tightrope walking. Everyone knows the secret of tightrope walking is balance. The reason that most people aren't tightrope walkers is not that they do not know the secret, it is because they do not practice enough.

Similarly, the mystic secret of Freemasonry is that you can become a better man if you practice enough. Just as tightrope walking seems amazing to those who refuse to learn it, a true Freemason seems amazing to those who are unwilling to do the work to become one.

I: If Freemasonry is good why do you keep it a secret.
R: We don't. But here's a question back at ya: What on God's green earth gave you that crazy idea?

 

[pointwithinacircle2]

Becoming a better person is the work of the EA.

So what is the work specific to the FC? And what to the MM?

Subdue, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subdue "to bring under control especially by an exertion of the will"
Perhaps; the work of the EA is to understand and work on ones relationship to their self,
the work of the FC is to understand and work on ones relationship to their world,
and the work of the MM is to understand and work on ones relationship to their God.

Thanks for asking the question. This is something that I have long puzzled over and the above explanation had never occurred to me until just now. I shall have to try it on and see if it fits.

 

[hanzosbm]

Subdue, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subdue "to bring under control especially by an exertion of the will"
Perhaps; the work of the EA is to understand and work on ones relationship to their self,
the work of the FC is to understand and work on ones relationship to their world,
and the work of the MM is to understand and work on ones relationship to their God.

Thanks for asking the question. This is something that I have long puzzled over and the above explanation had never occurred to me until just now. I shall have to try it on and see if it fits.

I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but, if the different degrees teach the lessons you've outlined above, why have lessons pertaining to other parts?
For instance, there is a great deal in the EA degree that has to do with one's relationship to the GAOTU and our place in the universe (although one must truly seek it out).
The steps you've outlined for the 3 degrees would certainly make sense, but I've long been puzzled by the apparent jumble of lessons. There doesn't seem to be much rhythm or reason to what is taught when. In fact, I've failed to find lessons more important or more deep than those found in the EA. Maybe that's because I haven't yet found them, but it'd be pretty tough to top those.

 

[coachn]

The work of the FC cannot be properly approached until there is satisfactory progress in the work of the EA.

The only problems faced by someone approaching the FC Work who has not progressed sufficiently in the Apprentice work are a lack of discipline and the lack of proper heart development that could create monsters.

This is because Nature will not reveal its hidden secrets to those whose thoughts and emotions are dangerous to other intelligences.

LOL! Have you never watched "the sorcerer's apprentice"? The secrets were all over the place and so was the lack of discipline. Nature was truly revealed and grandly unguided.

 

[coachn]

Perhaps then you would like to tell just one of them - so that we can try it.

Perhaps then you would like to tell us your Affiliation - so that we can try it.

 

[coachn]

So the secrets are all over the place in Disney cartoons, ...

Yep. Haven't you watch Donald Duck in Numberland?

...and "Nature was truly revealed" but you cannot say on a public forum until I (the only reader)

LOL! only... too funny...

...can tell you that I belong to a GL recognised by the UGLE and in a lodge originally chartered by the GLoS? Which I do.

Yep. Now you're getting it.

And it hardly seems worth pointing out ...

LOL! Yep, yet we can all count on you doing it anyway. ;-)

...that there is a great overlap between the secrets of a genuine MM and those of a Feng Shui master, a Qi Gung master and an alchemist.

Yup, and you have left far too many important others out in your list.

Thus there are many secrets published in many forms although often in a grudging manner and hence garbled as well as veiled.

And many many more that are published and on display in plain sight that people do not have the capacity to recognize as such. These things are hidden in plain sight because the people revealing them know that these things are not SEEN BY the majority, even though these things are right in front of them and have been all the time. It takes no effort to hide something someone cannot see.

I have noticed in the past that various posters tell us that the secrets are ineffable and that if they told then we would not understand.

You contradict yourself. If they are truly ineffable, they could not possibly be told. Such claims hold no credibility.

I have never however seen any of those posters provide an accurate veiling of any of those secrets - except where copied from the ritual (where the ritual was still reasonably true).

Or perhaps they have been pointing to them all along and you are blind to what they share.

Stay tuned though, the veils are all over the place and they are lifted by those who do the Work.

 

[pointwithinacircle2]

...

I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but, if the different degrees teach the lessons you've outlined above, why have lessons pertaining to other parts?
For instance, there is a great deal in the EA degree that has to do with one's relationship to the GAOTU and our place in the universe (although one must truly seek it out).
The steps you've outlined for the 3 degrees would certainly make sense, but I've long been puzzled by the apparent jumble of lessons. There doesn't seem to be much rhythm or reason to what is taught when. In fact, I've failed to find lessons more important or more deep than those found in the EA. Maybe that's because I haven't yet found them, but it'd be pretty tough to top those.

Here is a possible explanation. A human being cannot use their eyeball to directly observe their own eyeball. It is necessary to use some tool to reflect the image back to the eye. Perhaps, in a similar way, the self needs something to reflect it's own image back to itself so that it can evaluate itself. Perhaps contact with the world provides the feedback that tells us who we are, and reverence for deity shows us who we could become. The disparity between the two showing us the work to be done.

 

[LAMason]

I (the only reader) can tell you that I belong to a GL recognised by the UGLE and in a lodge originally chartered by the GLoS? Which I do.

Why did you qualify your statement by adding the word "originally"? Does that mean that it is no longer chartered by GLoS and that you are trying to obfuscate. You have previously raised concern for your privacy if you disclose the name of your Grand Lodge. How would simply giving the name of your Grand Lodge compromise your privacy?

 

[coachn]

>How would simply giving the name of your Grand Lodge compromise your privacy?

I have been the subject of the attentions of several brethren that do not take their 3rd degree obligation seriously across several fora while using different names. You may have observed similar non-fraternal activity on most Masonic fora.

1) To be more Accurate, you have MADE yourself the Subject of Attention due to your Claims.
2) Had you not made such Claims, you would not have become this Claimed Subject.
3) Now that you are the Subject, and by your own hand, you cannot also Reasonably Claim Victimhood.
4) Pointing to Members of the Society and Claiming that they do not take the Obligation serious is a red herring.
5) The fact is, the Members of the Society of whom you Claim do not take their Obligations Seriously are in fact Taking their Obligation Seriously and that is the very reason WHY you are the Subject.
6) The fact that you are experiencing this same phenomena in most Masonic Fora is a strong indication that others are indeed taking their Obligations Seriously too.
7) It's odd that you can't do the math on this. Isn't this one of the 7LAs&Ss that FCs are supposed to Work upon?
8) One additional point for you to Perpend: As you have indicated, it makes no difference what name you use, the results are consistently demonstrating that you have drawn attention to yourself by what you post. And now that you have that attention, you are claiming to be a victim only because the attention that you have drawn is not what you wanted.

 

[coachn]

QED

<cue up Dr. Phil voice> QFFFS

 

[Glen Cook]

>How would simply giving the name of your Grand Lodge compromise your privacy?

I have been the subject of the attentions of several brethren that do not take their 3rd degree obligation seriously across several fora while using different names. You may have observed similar non-fraternal activity on most Masonic fora.

And which part of the obligation do you believe them to have violated? Having Masonic communication with a clandestine Mason?

Could I also point out that assuming a fictitious name which many of us connect with the Brother of our Saviour may lead to perceptions about the underlying bases of your posts.

 

[coachn]

Glen Cook ↑
How would simply giving the name of your Grand Lodge compromise your privacy?

I have been the subject of the attentions of several brethren that do not take their 3rd degree obligation seriously across several fora while using different names. You may have observed similar non-fraternal activity on most Masonic fora.

Glen Cook ↑
And which part of the obligation do you believe them to have violated? Having Masonic communication with a clandestine Mason?

Could I also point out that assuming a fictitious name which many of us connect with the Brother of our Saviour may lead to perceptions about the underlying bases of your posts.

By their fruits you shall know them.

<sigh> Like so many of your other responses, your latest response doesn't answer the question posed at all.

 

[pointwithinacircle2]

Proverbs 18:2 m New International Version (NIV)

Fools find no pleasure in understanding
but delight in airing their own opinions.

 

[pointwithinacircle2]

Proverbs 18:2 m New International Version (NIV)

Fools find no pleasure in understanding
but delight in airing their own opinions.

The great thing about this quote is that you can throw it out in any argument and both sides will think you are supporting them.