What Kind of Inner Discipline Allows Universal
Consciousness To Be Reborn At Every Moment?
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Building a correct world is an unlimited potentiality
* “Happiness is not a destination, it is a way of life”, says the popular saying.
* And happiness starts when one perceives that one needs nothing. The whole world is OK as it is, if seen from a higher perspective. Realizing such a fact does not liberate us from our specific responsibilities. It gives us a general view of life whose substance is contentment. It reveals to us that although names may differ, it is correct to say that perfect justice is the road to bliss.
* The Zen thinker Yen-t’ou, who lived from 828 to 887, wrote:
* “There is no other task but to know your own original face [your higher self, your spiritual soul]. This is called independence; the spirit is clear and free. If you say there is some particular doctrine or patriarchy, you’ll be totally cheated. Just look into your heart; there is a transcendental clarity. Just have no greed and no dependency and you will immediately attain certainty.” [1]
The Lesson of Epictetus
* In which direction is the Western civilization going?
* Our personal or even group influence on collective karma is relatively small, especially in the short term. It is not possible to change the general trend of events around us.
* The process of historical facts is too complex to be consciously controlled by anyone. Not even the great Masters of humanity do that. Evolution has its cycles. There is a time for everything. Having learned this fundamental lesson of modesty and realism, it is also necessary to put aside the pretense of knowing everything – which is the omnisapience of fools.
* It is enough to know that which has to do more directly with us. We can – and it is our duty to – put the facts that depend on us in the right direction. This will open before us the unlimited possibility of building a correct world in that which is within our reach. Such an unfoldment takes place through the mutual help among people who are linked to us through the bonds of affinity and similarity of goals.
* In order to use time wisely, therefore, it is important not to intend to control that which does not depend on us, but rather to do that which is waiting for us to be done. In this consists the immortal lesson taught by Epictetus.
The Despair of Materialistic Narcissism
* There is no need to get unduly hypnotized by external circumstances. Traditional Eastern wisdom invites us to experience an immediate joy of life which comes from within.
* Life is a timeless, unlimited process of continuous creation through endless cycles of expansion and retraction. So whenever a whole cycle of human civilization is concluding, one can think of the next one. When there are signs of ethical decay, one can dedicate one’s time and effort to establish the foundations of a new cycle of ethical rebirth.
* Do we live the crisis of egocentrism and the despair of materialistic narcissism? Then life is being born again. It’s time to get ready for a new cycle of respect for nature, for a new age of voluntary simplicity and common sense.
The Path to Celestial Knowledge
* The whole Way to Wisdom depends on the connection between one’s lower self and one’s higher self, or spiritual soul.
* A student of philosophy must try to understand the silent dialogue and interaction between the terrestrial realm and the higher world. What attitude regarding life allows one to better listen to the voice of the silence, and clearly perceive the higher essence of his own consciousness? It is not difficult to identify the actions that might interrupt the ladder between heaven and earth in one’s personal universe. It is easy to see the actions that preserve and strengthen the ladder to celestial consciousness.
* What kind of inner discipline allows universal consciousness to be reborn again at every moment? One’s animal nature can be kindly led to be in harmony with the Law.
The Rock and the Wind
* If a feeling of anxiety seems to dominate many, it is correct to dissociate oneself from social automatisms based on the practice of blindness.
* An undue acceleration of external events paves the way to self-destruction for those forms of organized ignorance which cannot resist their own weight any longer.
* As the sensible citizen sees the implosion of unsustainable collective structures, he strengthens his own tranquility and his syntony with the victory of his soul.
* He preserves his detachment and independence from any form of artificially fabricated consensus.
* He expands his contact with nature. He listens to silence. He relates to the wind and to the trees as his elder brothers.
* He sees lightning, rainwater, rivers and oceans as his special advisers. His fortress is a vigilant tranquility. He practices Wu-wei – the philosophical principle of ancient China – and acts in a decisive way while maintaining an apparent immobility.
* His work looks like nothing in the eyes of others. His victory seems invisible, so it’s safe. His main strength is tasteless, odorless and colorless and has no form: therefore it is durable and firm like rock, and as flexible as the wind.
NOTE:
[1] From the book “Teachings of Zen”, edited by Thomas Cleary, Shambhala Publications, Boston and London, 1998, 199 pp., see page 32. Thomas Cleary was born in 1949 and lived up to June 2021.
000
The article “Thoughts Along the Road – 74” was published as an independent item in the associated websites on 20 May 2024. An initial version of it is part of the September 2021 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 14-15. The note “The Rock and the Wind”, also by CCA, comes from page 12 in the same edition.
000
Read more:
* Other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
* Some writings by Jean des Vignes Rouges.
* How to Build a Theosophical Lodge (by a Master of the Wisdom).
000
Print the texts you study from the websites of the Independent Lodge. Reading on paper helps us attain a deeper view of philosophical texts. When studying a printed text, the reader can underline sentences and make handwritten comments in the margins that link the ideas to his personal reality.
000
Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
000