Left-Hand Path
From Wikinfo
- For criticism see Criticism of Left-Hand_Path
Left-Hand Path (LHP) religions are religions that share most of the following characteristics:
- The belief that at least some people (the ones suited for the LHP) can become like deities and have knowledge and spiritual insight through their own bodies (direct knowledge through intuition). LHP traditions are totally inner directed in their religious approach.
- An esoteric understanding of concepts such as karma, divine retribution, Threefold Law, resulting in more fluid (or one could say amoral) codes of morality.
- The cultivation of the self (though not of the ego). Things are done by, with, and for, the self, because the enjoyment found in doing and becoming, and not because of some protestant-like work ethic.
- That deity, internal and external, is both transcendent and immanent.
- That a person is solely responsible for his own actions and there is no external salvation from the results of those actions.
- That the forces of the universe can be bent to one's personal will (magick). These practices are closely aligned with the spiritual or occult practices for enlightment. It is the tie between knowledge/understanding and power.
- The understanding that we are all interconnected to, and are an inseparable part of, this Existence.
- An agnostic view of the existence of gods and goddesses, often a Platonian-like view of gods and goddesses as "First-Forms."
- That magick is based on natural laws and works in accordance with scientific principles that cannot (yet) be explained.
- The possible existence of both a male and female polarity of natural forces.
In the west the established beliefsystems are almost exclusively Right-Hand Path. In the East Vajrayana or Tantrik Buddhism and Taoism are completeley LHP, while Hinayana Buddhism and Confucianism can be seen to be Right-Hand Paths. Mahayana Buddhism is LHP in the sense that the reason for its existence is that it is a path of knowing from the inner method even if it takes slow, methodical steps to this knowledge. Mahayana is also RHP because it is the doing of deeds that help the person "acquire" this knowledge.
The term does not seem to have distinct origins. Some people believe that the terms Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand Path and the philosophy relevant to them came from India. Left and right are associated with female and male, with yin/yang, and passive/active. This connection is not exclusively eastern. However, in the west the "left" has been demonified, along with the divine feminine, as can be seen in the etymology of words such as sinister (from the italian word for left: sinistra) and, the obvious one, the dual meaning of the word "right". This western demonification of the left is expressed this Biblical verse:
- And he shall separate them one from another,
- as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
- And he shall set the sheep on his right,
- but the goats on his left.
- — Matthew 25: 32-33
Followers of the Left-Hand Path in the West sometimes utilize the symbol of a goat or Baphomet. They sometimes refer to followers of the Right-Hand Path as sheep, implying that they exhibit a "herd mentality".
Some Pagans and Satanists are considered to be Left-Hand Path, and define the Left Hand Path (LHP) as a means to achieve or find a certain esoteric goal as well as to impart esoteric knowledge and abilities. The goal is variously described (e.g.‘Gnosis’, the Philosopher's Stone, Enlightenment). In addition, the Left Hand Path is regarded as free from contraints or boundaries or moralty, unlike the Right Hand Path (RHP).
In contradistinction, the LHP in its methods is non-structured. In the genuine LHP there is nothing that is not permitted - nothing that is forbidden or restricted. That is, the LHP means the individual takes sole responsibility for their actions and their quest. This makes the LHP both difficult and dangerous - its methods can be used as an excuse for anti-social behaviour as they can be used to aid the fetishes and weaknesses of some individuals as well as lead some into forbidden and illegal acts. However, the genuine Initiate of the LHP is undertaking a quest, and as such is seeking something: that is, there is a dynamic, an imperative about their actions as well as the conscious understanding and appreciation that all such actions are only a part of that quest; they are not the quest itself. This arises because the LHP Initiate is seeking mastery and self-knowledge these being implicit in such an Initiation. Accordingly, the LHP Initiate sees methods as merely methods; experience as merely experience. Both are used, learned from and then discarded.
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