#prajna

[restorativeluciferian]

Why Cultivate Wisdom in Luciferianism?

Photo by Alley Feeley

This post was originally posted on my blog Restorative Luciferianism

a: ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : insight b: good sense : judgment c: generally accepted belief d: accumulated philosophical or scientific learning : knowledge 2: a wise attitude, belief, or course of action 3: the teachings of the ancient wise men

- Merriam Webster

Wisdom is a concept or quality associated with Lucifer and demons via King Solomon, a significant figure in the Hebrew Bible who later lent his name to "Solomonic magic." This is because 17th-century compiled magical texts such as The Lesser Keys of Solomon bear his name. In the Jewish texts, King Solomon is the third king of ancient Israel and is specifically known for his grand wisdom. The most infamous story about him in the Torah (I Kings) involves two women fighting over a baby being brought to him. He suggests they cut the baby in half to share, knowing the real mother will desperately try to intervene and thus prove her parentage.

In the Talmud, King Solomon features in other stories, including those that involve the demon king Ashmedai (often currently called Asmodeus). Ashmedai himself is probably a figure descended from the Zoroastrian daeva* Aēšma, viewed through an ancient Jewish lens. In the first such story, King Solomon wishes to build a special temple and, after torturing a couple of demons for information about it, all he yields is that he should ask Ashmedai. Ultimately, King Solomon tricks Ashmedai out of his heavenly and earthly studies by getting him drunk on wine, which Ashmedai drinks only out of desperate thirst, in order to to compel him to build the temple against the latter's will. From a modern perspective, it's an interesting albeit ethically terrible story. However, we do see Ashmedai laughing, crying, and feeling sorrowful for humans throughout the course of the narrative, demonstrating a wide intellectual and emotional range. It accidentally reveals that demons are also people in the course of this.

I may have a different view of King Solomon than many others based on my modern (as well as demon-sympathetic) readings of the Jewish texts. However, it is fairly indisputable that the emphasis on Solomon's quality of "wisdom"—as questionably as its depicted in some of the ancient narratives—meant that the ancient Jewish individuals who put together and preserved the stories about him saw that that concept was worth aspiring toward. Judaism, of course, is not the only organized religion that teaches and encourages wisdom. Prajñā, for instance, is a Buddhist term often translated to English as "wisdom" or "insight." It is one of the 10 perfections—or pāramī in Pali—that Buddhists strive to attain. Both Buddhism and Hinduism also emphasize sadhana, which is the name for exercises wherein practitioners are invited to go inward and achieve wisdom or insight. From a secular perspective, there are even tropes in entertainment that point to the valuing of wisdom. In all these frameworks, it is inferred if not outright stated that we need wisdom to get to the right or better place for ourselves.

In Luciferianism, I have personally experienced needing to cultivate wisdom for a few different reasons. The fact of the matter is, Lucifer himself is a trickster spirit. While contrary to the claims of Medieval Judaism and throughout all Christianity he is often benevolent, he is not every moment reliable due to his fundamental nature. This shifts the weight in our relationship to my needing to have a stable foundation within myself in order to navigate both spiritual and material circumstances that spring from our dealings. Aiming for wisdom—my personal preference being Buddhist-framed wisdom with the recognition that all feelings and experiences are temporary—allows me to keep my eyes on my long term goals even as I don't always understand what Lucifer is providing in the present moment.

As part of this, I have to remember that Lucifer is not an embodied mortal, but a deity. Depending on your framework, what even makes a deity differs. However, across cultures and traditions, they're generally believed to be much older and more powerful than biological humans. This grants them inherent vision, perspective, and therefore wisdom that humans must work much harder in shorter amounts of time to try to obtain. This is where our human-deity partnerships matter because a human or human society's ability to rely on a deity's generosity to survive nature's difficult terrains (yes even now where corporations are trying to take over nature's role) is fairly essential. That does not mean that generosity on the deity's part is going to feel pleasant on the humans' parts. I practice wisdom because when my life or paradigm is thrown into turmoil thanks to Lucifer, I can keep perspective and try to understand that he is employing a form of "skillful means" (or upaya, a Buddhist term for trying unusual choices or ways to reach enlightenment) that I am unable to recognize from my smaller vantage point. Wisdom in this way acts as a filter to provide me more peace and acceptance.

In addition—and this is a tough one to embrace as someone whose deepest wish is safety, stability, and gentleness for all beings in this realm—it does seem to be the case that every individual is born with their own fortune, good, bad, and both. We can see it in natal charts and palm lines, but even my very atheistic ex-husband experienced deeply misfortunate and abrupt event patterns he couldn't be anything but aware of. This is where I become skeptical of the Solomonic grimoires and others like them, which is to say yes, I have experienced demons and other spirits granting me things along the promises of wealth, status, and love discussed within the texts, BUT! Seemingly only within my personal fortune or pathway. To elevate one's fortunate or pathway can only be achieved through wisdom because it helps you to understand what your values are, what your goals are, and how to behave in alignment with all of that so that you achieve what you desire or at least come to acceptance with what you can't.

It has also been suggested to me that when one achieves wisdom, they work for others as well as themselves. When that becomes the case, spirits can and will do better efforts for you because their power uplifts multitude not just the one. This, in essence, is what love is; acts of sharing care and prosperity. Even demonized spirits want to experience and share love. This, along with strict guidance from Lucifer on who I am permitted to contact and when, is apparently a factor of why I have yet to experience any issues with a demonized spirit. Through wisdom, I don't truly enter into a conjuration or relationship expecting conflict and in the case where they may be conflict, I believe I have the ability to handle it either restoratively or with appropriate boundaries. Because of this, it is through wisdom in which we can find our true power as individual living beings.

*Of note, the Zoroastrian sacred texts called the Avesta consider daēvas to be malefic while another type of spirits called ahuras are divine, benefic beings. Those familiar with Hinduism will notice that in the Vedic traditions, this is swapped—daevas are benefic while asuras are malefic. I suspect that this is less a situation of inconsistent human taxonomy and more of a mark of multiple ancient polytheist groups in the region fighting each other on spiritual grounds, as we can see in another part of I Kings with Elijah/YHWH going up against Queen Jezebel/Ba'al.

[aretheyl0lish0ta]

May I request/submit Prajna from Food Fantasy?

Prajna is a puppet made and manipulated by Orochi, one of the bosses from the game

Prajna just look really cute, especially the attire, very adorable

Is Prajna (Food Fantasy) a shota?

Yes!

Nah, But he can be through the power of Fanfic/Fanart

Not even close to being a shota

Voting ended onJul 16, 2025

[numbers-31]

THE DUHKHA-PRAJNA SUTRA

Thus have I heard. In the quiet dusk the Blessed One addressed his disciples on Wisdom-through-Disillusionment:

“Monks, know that true insight springs only from the crucible of suffering. Wherever ignorance holds sway, its collapse brings pain — inevitable yet instructive. Embrace each disillusioning blow as the teacher it is: let shattered beliefs open the eye of wisdom. As the blade is tempered in fire, so the mind is forged by duḥkha’s flames. Without this burning, the steel of insight remains unquenched and brittle. Therefore, lean into unavoidable suffering—not to cling, but to learn; in each wound of illusion sew the seed of awakening.”

[chifar]

The boys are lying around and cooing. A gift.

[tsultrimpawo]

The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge

Thus have I heard. Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Råjagriha at Vulture Peak mountain, together with a great gathering of the sangha of monks and a great gathering of the sangha of bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered the samådhi that expresses the dharma called “profound illumination,” and at the same time noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahåsattva, while practicing the profound prajñåpåramitå, saw in this way:

He saw the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Shåriputra said to noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahåsattva, “How should a son or daughter of noble family train, who wishes to practice the profound prajñåpåramitå?” Addressed in this way, noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahåsattva, said to venerable Shåriputra, “O Shåriputra, a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajñåpåramitå should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Shåriputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Shåriputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas; no eye dhåtu up to no mind dhåtu, no dhåtu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhåtu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no nonattainment. Therefore, Shåriputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajñåpåramitå. Since there is no obscuration of mind,

there is no fear. They transcend falsity and attain complete nirvåna. All the buddhas of the three times, by means of prajñåpåramitå, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of prajñåpåramitå, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequaled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering, should be known as truth, since there is no deception. The prajñåpåramitå mantra is said in this way:

OM GATE GATE PÅRAGATE PÅRASAMGATE BODHI SVÅHÅ

Thus, Shåriputra, the bodhisattva mahåsattva should train in the profound prajñåpåramitå.”

Then the Blessed One arose from that samådhi and praised noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahåsattva, saying, “Good, good, O son of noble family; thus it is, O son of noble family, thus it is. One should practice the profound prajñåpåramitå just as you have taught and all the tathågatas will rejoice.”

When the Blessed One had said this, venerable Shåriputra and noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahåsattva, that whole assembly and the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the words of the Blessed One.

---

Lotsåwa bhikúhu Rinchen De translated this text into Tibetan with the Indian païçita Vimalamitra.

It was edited by the great editor—lotsåwas Gelo,

Namkha, and others. This Tibetan text was copied

from the fresco in Gegye Chemaling at the glorious Samye vihåra. It has been translated into English

by the Nålandå Translation Committee, with reference to several Sanskrit editions.

[yoga-onion]

- A message from 23 nights temple -

“Knowledge without wisdom, leads to disaster, and charity without compassion leads to resentment.”

-二十三夜堂からのメッセージ-

”智慧のない知識は惨事を招く、また慈悲のない施しは怨みを招く。”

[errantabbot]

On Metacognition, Samadhi, Sadhana and the Places In Between:

The psychologization of the dharma in the west has not been an entirely negative movement. In many ways the marriage of psychology and mindfulness has been a fruitful one that has made Buddhist principles more accessible to the masses. Certainly the ongoing dialogue between observational science and Buddhist spiritual practice has helped to both verify and refine the transmission and translation of various doctrines and practices into a culturally accessible format.

However, this hasn’t been a movement without shadow. The conflation of the dharma with mindfulness alone, as the crown jewel of the psychological reductionist perspective has been a hindering force for many practitioners, who often come to conflate awakening with metacognitive awareness. That’s a grave mistake.

The dawning of metacognition is a substantial doorway, but a doorway nonetheless. It’s not the path made manifest. Likewise practice cannot be reduced to metacognition. Metacognition is a relatively early consequence of meditative practice, but it’s not samadhi, and it’s certainly not prajna.

Samadhi is often misunderstood as some kind of blank absorption into mindless being. This is a substantial pitfall, a trapping of the mind that the ego is all too happy to allow the practitioner to become infatuated with. Hanging out in “nothingness” after all is a safe space for the ego, wherein subject-object dualism can be safely maintained. After all, samadhi as it is most frequently reported is a state of “I” slipping away for a time, after which it can emerge from its bath in nothingness fully aware of its journeying, and often proud of it to boot.

True samadhi on the other hand, true meditative absorption into the heart of reality, is a manifestation of nondualism. It is the realization and effortless expression of subject-object sameness, and embodying of the true-self, which is limitless in time and space, while somehow yet identifiable through the singular body of one’s birth (after all, form IS emptiness and emptiness IS form). It is from this samadhic state that prajna, or the spontaneous expression of wisdom before thinking, can appear.

Zen Master Seung Sahn often noted that practitioners must find “correct situation, correct relationship, and correct function.” Situation, relationship, and function in spontaneous harmony and accord is, in effect, prajna arising from samadhi.

In this it may he further understood that samadhi is not a drop into some well of neutral blankness, but a conscious swim in-and-as the dynamic tension that may be interpreted through such terms as rupa and sunyata, purusha and prakriti, yin and yang, waves and particles, etc.

It is not with any degree of levity that Zen prescribes the essentials of great faith, great doubt, and great determination. We must have some degree of considerable degree of faith that our practice can yield resolution to the matter of life and death. We must uphold a continual resolve to push beyond the limits of what we hope to be the end of the path and into the real, doubting that the full picture has ever quite entered our conscious regard. And too, we must devote ourselves to persistence in this faith and doubt, understanding sadhana (shugyo) as the only path to true liberation and awakening.

~Sunyananda

[thichnhathanhgems]

We have a tendency to think that we have a separate self that is born at one moment and must die at another, and that is permanent during the time we are alive. As long as we have this wrong view, we will suffer; we will create suffering for those around us, and we will cause harm to other species and to our precious planet.

We are not limited to our physical body, even when we are alive.  We inter-are with our ancestors, our descendants, and the whole cosmos. We don’t have a separate self, we are never really born, and we never really die. We are interconnected with all life, and we are always in transformation.

Can you see how you are continued in your parents, in your brothers and sisters, in your teachers and friends? Can you see the continuation body of your parents and loved ones? We don’t need to get old or die in order to see our continuation body. We don’t need to wait for the complete disintegration of this body in order to begin to see our continuation body, just as a cloud doesn’t need to have been entirely transformed into rain in order to see her continuation body. Can you see your rain, your river, your ocean?

Each one of us should train ourselves to see our continuation body in the present moment. If we can see our continuation body while we’re still alive, we’ll know how to cultivate it to ensure a beautiful continuation in the future. This is the true joy of living. Then, when the time comes for the dissolution of our physical body, we will be able to release it easily.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ”The Art of Living”.

Art: Lobsang Melendez Ahuanari