It is impossible to broach this subject without thinking of Malthus who, in 1798 wrote: ‘the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence’’. As always, this visionary had to endure the most acerbic criticisms, which turned to ridicule when the industrial development of the 19th Century, the exploitation of the great reserves in new countries and the technical advances in the transport and preservation of food painted a bright future or at least much more favorable than outlined by the so-called ‘Malthusians’.
But the statistics of the ‘Belle Époque’ where imbued with a certain romanticism and therefore not totally scientific, and their prognostics were based purely and exclusively on European Society, assuming that the rest of the world would come to function as an immense field of production of primary resources for the benefit of western civilization. As the XXth century advanced, the outlook got darker and darker, and Malthus was referred to with more respect and fear.
The advances in preventive medicine, geriatrics and child care, the natural balance damaged the natural equilibrium and the child and elderly populations have grown proportionately, while adults have been reducing their work hours as their tasks have become easier. A veritable demographic explosion took place in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, tripling the world population in a century.
It is to be understood that the same proportion of the active population did not increase, but rather the passive part increased catastrophically. Moreover, the greatest levels of reproduction occurred precisely in human groups with the least amount of buying power and the problem of hunger made itself felt in an alarming way.
Countries of Asia, Africa, and America that before the Second World War, were exporting some 11 millions tons of grain, later needed to import 25 million tons annually. This gave a worldwide dimension to the problem.
Experiments launched by Special Departments of the United Nations, showed that, in Africa and Asia, around 1950, increasing agricultural technology and exploiting non-traditional resources did not solve the problem. It was seen that the population used the better living conditions to ‘’explode’’ demographically, so that those experimental zones were turned into nightmares and must today resort to, for their maintenance, exhausting work regimens, importations of ‘donations’, and having to support levels of poverty worse than have been recorded since Neolithic times.
Historical Antecedents
We have asked ourselves if this is the first time that humanity has encountered this problem, in order to try to draw upon antecedents that could bring us a valid experience for our times.
Our investigation hits the practically insurmountable wall of evidence that what we call ‘history’ is barely a minuscule part of the past, and not of all of mankind, but rather of the Mediterranean basin, and of various more or less isolated and half-known areas. The oldest treatises’ that we have are of Hindu and Chinese origin which are too adulterated, or of which only miserable fragments remain. And among the latter, none specifically deal with what we understand by ‘history’, nor are they ‘chronological’ at least for the modern researcher.
In the Hindu ‘Puranas’, there is an account that is perhaps relevant, being the reference to past humanities or cycles of civilization that had existed before ours, and were apparently destroyed by horrible cataclysms, by natural means and by means caused by man, through the use of uncanny processes that they extracted from certain metals, with destructive results.
It can therefore be said that mankind never perishes, but in a more or less cruel way, manages to reduce its possibilities for survival. Moreover, in reality, those proto-historical texts which are obscure and conceived for a mentality that no longer exists, help us very little, and that which is clear to us is that, even if it really isn’t, the problem seems new to us and its solution should be conceived without delay.
Many Possibilities
Unfortunately the problem of demographic explosion is so serious and pressing, that it has surpassed at least for the time being, mankind’s capacity for reacting, and the confusion has encouraged the most unrealistic proposals. From these, we will select a few, pointing out the difficulties.
A) Let the rich countries help the most poor. Impractical, because where do these great powers get their riches if not from their advantageous trade with the rest of the world? This would then create a closed circle in which the poor would get more and more poor and moreover, would slowly go into debt, losing at the same time strength and autonomy. The Latin Americans, for example, know through sad experience that ‘’cheap is expensive’’.
B) Encourage the production of food in laboratories and marine resources. Impractical, since the costs are enormous and there is no time to make them affordable for them to be effective. Moreover, the last to benefit would be precisely the poor countries that would be incapable of setting up such industries.
C) A redistribution of the world population since it is known, for example, that in America and Africa there are enormous areas of uncultivated land. This could be accomplished, but would require a change in mentality difficult to achieve without deep changes in political, social, and economic conceptions. Without a world government, this does not appear feasible in the next decades.
D) Explore the cosmos in search of more living space. Impractical, because aeronautical technique is still in its infancy, and when it becomes possible to accomplish these migrations, millions of people will have died, and the problem will have been overcome with the most painful methods.
E) Incite a greater collective consciousness with the goal of spontaneously regulating births. Utopic, those who are reproducing do not have that conscience, and it would take centuries to develop it .
The Solution
The exercise of philosophy predisposes us to the resolution of problems and to handle new situations. The search for Essences creates the ineffable habit of postponing personal interests and useless concepts, for the benefit of a solution that is at once practical and moral.
Walking without carrying the weight of old dogmas, nor carrying the full bags of the stones of dialectic materialism, placing one’s sight forward and upward and not to the left and the right, allows anyone to recover the now least common of the senses; paradoxically, common sense.
Therefore we do not see the solution in any of the plans previously put forward, but rather a learned combination of them all, with the scientific input of the specialist in demographics, which they have, and which is good, but are confounded by political and religious interests.
If the demographic explosion is a bad thing, we need to consider it like the measles or the bubonic plague, in a way that would be necessary to develop vaccines and inoculate all of those at risk.
In the case that concerns us, let there be a scientific control of births, managed by doctors and specialists, without prior opinion polls or debates in the more or less inoperative parliaments. While the theorists, moralists, representatives and deputies discuss in comfortable niches, millions of children continue to be born deformed, and condemned to misery and premature death.
This issue is too important to be playing around as we do concerning human dilemmas.
We need to act. Specifically, applying a form of periodical control that regulates a limited amount of predetermined births according to the conditions of each region, and at the same time, implement through all channels the increase of production and the collective awareness of the problem.
If these emergency methods give results, there will be time to decrease them.
Before the customary voices that clamor for the ‘’right to live’’ we oppose not reasons, but the palpable reality of millions of hungry people, whom our indolent attitude denies them the right to live.
To those who invoke religious motives, we ask that, like the master of Nazareth, they multiply bread and fish RIGHT NOW. If they cannot do so, they should stop judging science.
To the ambitious ‘nationalists’, who think that their countries would be more powerful if they had a greater population, we remind them that we are in the ‘atomic age’, and that today an army of a million men is in the hands of small groups of technicians that control a few missiles with nuclear heads.
There is no justification to prolong this agony of so many human beings, nor to promote the genocide of millions in the coming years. If we do not dare to solve this problem, if we do not have a HEART that cares for those disinherited children of Asia, Africa, and America, having conquered the moon, will be of little value, and we will never have the moral right to call ourselves HUMANS.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, May 31, 2009
'Every man and every woman not only need to have clothes, food, and in the best of cases, a car, but also something which is more important: we need to have, you might say, a bit of dignity, a handful of glory. But today’s world and the crisis in force are tearing away that little handful of dignity and glory. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether we are well dressed, nor eat like princes; but it is important to be happy with ourselves and to have that little bit of glory, that handful of inner satisfaction that is the only one that will allow us to assimilate the food that we have in our mouths, the thoughts that we have in our head, the emotions that we have in our heart. It is really urgent to know ourselves.'
from 'How and Where to Know Ourselves' , par. 16
from 'How and Where to Know Ourselves' , par. 16
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Prophecies for the year 2000, part 2
There will be comparative studies done of not only the current great religions, bit also of the religions of the past. Today, no one, if they have a university education and a certain level of understanding and study, can say that the ancient religions were dictated by the devil. Nonetheless, a hundred years ago, this was accepted.
Today we can no longer accept that. We can no longer accept in any way that the great Greek philosophers, like a Socrates or a Plato, were influenced by a kind of animal with big horns, a tail and hoofs, who whispered to them the principles of The Republic or the principles of Being and Existing. We can no longer conceive of an Aristotle that was possessed by demons just before expounding on his Dialectics.
Today we recognize, everyone recognizes, those of us who say so and those of us who don’t, that from the most remote antiquity there were enlightened men, men who thought, men who could delve into the important questions. And the comparative study of these men, between their thought, between their works, will give us a renewed strength, a new impulse and new optimism. Because if within those fraternities and small groups, men who lived and taught emerged, why can’t we do it today? Today they can emerge as well.
The study of the Chivalric Orders of the Middle Ages, for example, is going to become more and more important and meaningful. Up until now, what has been shown of the Middle Ages, especially to the children, is what? Well, that there would be a man holding a very big stick, like a staff, and another man holding a very big stick, like a staff, and they would meet on a bridge. They would then throw themselves into a head on collision and fracture each others skulls. This is more or less what the average person thinks of the Middle Ages. There’s also a lady who always wears this large hat, always peering out of a castle, waiting for a knight that will never arrive.
It is obvious that all of this no longer satisfies us and that the Middle Ages have a different message, a different force. The Orders of Chivalry were something more than two imbeciles breaking each others’ heads at a crossroad. We are beginning to realize that a series of veils have been placed over those elements. In order to see or in order to bear the present, the past has been smeared. The newer research will however will make the humanity that will reach the year 2000 realize and perceive the importance of the olds forms of culture and what can be extracted from them.
Today, the Martial Arts of the Ancient Orient are being studied. Do you think that one hundred years ago , in 1875, somebody in a university chair, in a public place, among the civilized people or Europe, would think that it was necessary to study the codes of Japanese or Chinese Martial Arts? No, on the contrary, this would have been a total aberration. Yet today we are studying them.
Today we recognize that beyond the modern forms such as Japanese Jiu Jitsu, there were very ancient schools that used to train monastic knights in the Far East. And today, there are thousands and thousands of young people who practice these principles, some in a better way than others. And many youths have been helped by these, because these teachings, despite that which the sensationalist movies want to show us with individuals who throw big punches at each other and with the exploits of 007 and 007 and a half who are fighting, today’s youngsters sometimes find in the simple salutation before a tatami, a mysticism that they may not find elsewhere. It’s certain that through the control of their own body, they are trying to assert themselves in a society that does not give them strength and that, in a way, has left them alone.
We will also have to review, in this progression towards the year 2000, our political forms, Many political forms have already been tried, and none of them has been found completely satisfactory; and I’m not saying completely satisfying for everybody, because we will never all be satisfied. It’s like this lecture or talk. Some will say that I didn’t speak well, others will say that I spoke even worse, and others will ask how come I didn’t talk about other subjects. Which means that you won’t agree with each other. In politics, it is the same. Everybody can’t agree with a specific form of government; everybody can’t agree on a specific form of policy; but everybody will agree about the fact that it is necessary to deeply investigate all forms because they have not generated what they could give or what they promised to give.
This deep investigation of politics will lead to a conversion of politics into a Science of Politics, where the one who is in politics holds a Doctorate in Politics, like today where someone who practices medicine holds a Doctorate in medicine; the same with engineering, etc. Which means that Politics will have to abandon, let’s say its primitive and pre-scientific stage of improvisation, so that the ones who talk about politics can be the ones who have studied and know what has been going on up to now, and who have knowledge and capacities, because of their serious preparation; in the same way as the ones who speak of medicine or engineering have necessarily studied and gone through a preparation in Medicine or Engineering.
Perhaps then the politicians will stop fighting with each other. Why is there fighting among Politicians? Because there is no Science. In the same way, doctors used to fight in the stage of pre-scientific medicine, when they were saying that such disease was cured with toad saliva, whereas others said that it was healed with iguana saliva. And such was the fighting between doctors.
Today there are some basic, elementary medicines recognized by all and that are used by all doctors. When Politics gets to this scientific stage where things become clear and stop being opinions and start to become judgments, then this perpetual political race will end. Politics will be converted into the “Art of the Just conduct of the people”.
We are also going to encounter a new expression of Art; that’s to say we’ll find a new expression for Art that will try to transmit a message to people. The era of improvisation will also disappear little by little in the field of Art by the year 2000. This era of confusion when for instance, it doesn’t matter if a frame is set upside down; this will also fade away. Today, sometimes we don’t know if a frame is set upside down or not, because it only represents a formless mixture impossible to decipher. The forms of snobbery will also disappear in the face of a tighter and more open society; a society where gossip will have less importance.
In the face of this new Society, pseudo-artistic forms won’t survive. Today, when we attend an art, music, or painting event what happens? Well, sometimes while looking at a painting, trying to be like everyone else, we wonder “and this, what is it?” but of course trying not to let our bewilderment show on our face! We can see quite often, when we go to the movies or to one of those documentary films, the man hosting the film saying “And here, we can see the wonderful artwork of the painter Don Juan de los Palotes. Look how magnificent it is! And you see six stripes and a big spot. With this he wanted to represent “The Battle of Teruel”. And then everybody saying “Hum, very nice indeed…” But all we see is a big patch and it seems that we are the dumbest person in the world, who doesn’t understand a thing about painting. It is the same thing when, in a concert hall, we are presented avant-garde music that the specialized magazines have glorified, wherein a man gives a few strokes on the keyboard of a piano and the piece’s title is “Variations on a theme from Mozart”.
We are surprised about the general public opinion that considers that such painting, such sculpture or such piece of music conveys a great richness, an artistic message, when in reality, it is only a confused, deformed and sick reflection of a mind that is also sick and contaminated. Yet, everybody seems to agree that this is Art. Therefore, we often ask ourselves whether it’s because we were born so dumb, so stupid or because we picked up a hereditary flaw from a great grandfather, considering that faced with such music, such painting, such politics, we don’t understand anything.
This feeling of rejection that we are made to feel propels us towards a year 2000 where we can strive to live better. And such demanding and seeking of professionalism, such seeking of reliability, authenticity and truth, because we are tired of hearing lies, lies of all kinds; and because we want things to be clear and straight; this will bring a feeling of human fraternity; but a human fraternity that is real and not a human fraternity that is made up, that exists only in lightly spoken words, when for instance we say “I never forget my donation for the poor children of Africa!”. And then, later on, while we are eating a sandwich, drinking a glass of wine, reading in the newspaper “56,000 people starving in India! Imagine that, those poor people!”, and then we keep on eating our sandwich.
This means that in reality, our fraternity is not a fraternity of heart, but something simply theoretical. We talk of fraternity between men of different worlds, of course, but we don’t talk about fraternity with our janitor, we don’t talk of fraternity with our own brother, we don’t talk of fraternity with our friends.
The fraternity we need, the fraternity that would form the basis of the art of living together for the year 2000, is not a theoretical fraternity applied on abstract masses but a real living fraternity. It is Concord. The fraternity between a man and another man, between a woman and another woman, between a man and a woman. More then anything we need to learn to be good to our dog before being good to the Martians.
We need to learn to live with ourselves, to tolerate our own faults, to admire our greatness’, to put up with our pettiness’, to speed up our slowness’, to elevate all that is valuable within us, as an inner construction.
We need to accomplish a great inner work; that great inner work which is the great liberation of man.
That’s why New Acropolis proposes, for this launch towards the year 2000, the recreation of a new humanism. It proposes the formation of cores of Philosophical Fraternities where Men can meet each other, look at each other in the eyes and do what they think, with no violence, no fear, with the authenticity to say this, to think that; to have the courage to assert and proclaim our own convictions.
New Acropolis proposes the comparative study of Religions, Sciences, and Arts in order to arrive at the real understanding of that which underlies all of these things. Because we are getting tired of the superficiality. Because we can’t live on varnishes. Because we want to breath and drink air and water that is purer and deeper.
New Acropolis proposes the investigation of the unexplored laws of Nature and of the inner Man. That’s to say the knowledge of where I come from, who I am and where I am going. But without being told; I must see it for myself; to be able to somehow live it; I must feel something, experience it, feel it and live it even though I can’t explain it to myself in a rational way. I have to feel, like I feel when touching a column and say “Here, there is a column”. And not something rationalized, something Byzantine like saying for instance “Could it be possible, dear friends, that a column exists at this place? Let’s see, who believes so and who doesn’t agree?” In this world of opinions, we are all going crazy. We can no longer unite through the lower dimension; we need to do it like columns that unite together in the heights where their capitals bloom; there , in the highest part. The multiple and vain opinions are of no use to us; what we need is to put the hands of the body on corporeal things, and the hands of the soul on things of the soul. That’s to say to arrive at the perception, the direct contact, to face these fundamental truths. And then will come a year 2000 that won’t be only new, but that will also be better.
What we propose in this pyramid of evolution in which we live, is to scale our own side of the pyramid, always trying to go upwards and ahead; always trying to go to the highest part and not to the lowest; trying not to poison Nature, trying not to ruin the souls of other people, trying not to exploit the weak, trying not to hurt the ones who live around us.
We want to reach the year 2000 trying to build a New Acropolis, a new High City that does not cut us from the Past, that does not cut us from the Future. A High City that gives us the possibility to leave this stifling present; that allows us to feel that behind us there is something, that our past is noble, that we have not descended from a race of apes neither from decadent or degenerated beings, but that we have descended from men who sought the stars like we do and that ahead of us, there are generations who will know how also seek the valid aspects of Life and Death; generations who are going to investigate, who are going to try to encounter God in every way and who will try to encounter themselves.
From there, what we see for the year 2000, is not only a World that is New but also a World that is Better, and This, will be the result of the work of each of us. May no one say “I can’t”. We all can; in one way or another; at one level or another; in society or in an individual way, we can all say “I can do what I want, what my Will dictates to me”. That’s to say that we all can, in a certain way, meet ourselves. To do whatever little good action a day or a week; investigate what we want to know; enter into contact with the people we want to know.
We can already be living this year 2000, because I say to you that we are all contemporaneous, but we don’t live the same Time. That’s to say we all live in the same year, but mentally, we don’t live the same psychological year. If we can make this effort of consciousness; if we can reject the varnishes I was speaking of earlier; if we can deepen and reach the vein in the wood of History; if we can remove form the surface of the water the impurities that fell in and darkened it and mange to drink the deep, clear waters, then we are already living in the year 2000! We can all manage to live this year 2000, psychologically, fraternally, even if we should die tomorrow.
Today we can no longer accept that. We can no longer accept in any way that the great Greek philosophers, like a Socrates or a Plato, were influenced by a kind of animal with big horns, a tail and hoofs, who whispered to them the principles of The Republic or the principles of Being and Existing. We can no longer conceive of an Aristotle that was possessed by demons just before expounding on his Dialectics.
Today we recognize, everyone recognizes, those of us who say so and those of us who don’t, that from the most remote antiquity there were enlightened men, men who thought, men who could delve into the important questions. And the comparative study of these men, between their thought, between their works, will give us a renewed strength, a new impulse and new optimism. Because if within those fraternities and small groups, men who lived and taught emerged, why can’t we do it today? Today they can emerge as well.
The study of the Chivalric Orders of the Middle Ages, for example, is going to become more and more important and meaningful. Up until now, what has been shown of the Middle Ages, especially to the children, is what? Well, that there would be a man holding a very big stick, like a staff, and another man holding a very big stick, like a staff, and they would meet on a bridge. They would then throw themselves into a head on collision and fracture each others skulls. This is more or less what the average person thinks of the Middle Ages. There’s also a lady who always wears this large hat, always peering out of a castle, waiting for a knight that will never arrive.
It is obvious that all of this no longer satisfies us and that the Middle Ages have a different message, a different force. The Orders of Chivalry were something more than two imbeciles breaking each others’ heads at a crossroad. We are beginning to realize that a series of veils have been placed over those elements. In order to see or in order to bear the present, the past has been smeared. The newer research will however will make the humanity that will reach the year 2000 realize and perceive the importance of the olds forms of culture and what can be extracted from them.
Today, the Martial Arts of the Ancient Orient are being studied. Do you think that one hundred years ago , in 1875, somebody in a university chair, in a public place, among the civilized people or Europe, would think that it was necessary to study the codes of Japanese or Chinese Martial Arts? No, on the contrary, this would have been a total aberration. Yet today we are studying them.
Today we recognize that beyond the modern forms such as Japanese Jiu Jitsu, there were very ancient schools that used to train monastic knights in the Far East. And today, there are thousands and thousands of young people who practice these principles, some in a better way than others. And many youths have been helped by these, because these teachings, despite that which the sensationalist movies want to show us with individuals who throw big punches at each other and with the exploits of 007 and 007 and a half who are fighting, today’s youngsters sometimes find in the simple salutation before a tatami, a mysticism that they may not find elsewhere. It’s certain that through the control of their own body, they are trying to assert themselves in a society that does not give them strength and that, in a way, has left them alone.
We will also have to review, in this progression towards the year 2000, our political forms, Many political forms have already been tried, and none of them has been found completely satisfactory; and I’m not saying completely satisfying for everybody, because we will never all be satisfied. It’s like this lecture or talk. Some will say that I didn’t speak well, others will say that I spoke even worse, and others will ask how come I didn’t talk about other subjects. Which means that you won’t agree with each other. In politics, it is the same. Everybody can’t agree with a specific form of government; everybody can’t agree on a specific form of policy; but everybody will agree about the fact that it is necessary to deeply investigate all forms because they have not generated what they could give or what they promised to give.
This deep investigation of politics will lead to a conversion of politics into a Science of Politics, where the one who is in politics holds a Doctorate in Politics, like today where someone who practices medicine holds a Doctorate in medicine; the same with engineering, etc. Which means that Politics will have to abandon, let’s say its primitive and pre-scientific stage of improvisation, so that the ones who talk about politics can be the ones who have studied and know what has been going on up to now, and who have knowledge and capacities, because of their serious preparation; in the same way as the ones who speak of medicine or engineering have necessarily studied and gone through a preparation in Medicine or Engineering.
Perhaps then the politicians will stop fighting with each other. Why is there fighting among Politicians? Because there is no Science. In the same way, doctors used to fight in the stage of pre-scientific medicine, when they were saying that such disease was cured with toad saliva, whereas others said that it was healed with iguana saliva. And such was the fighting between doctors.
Today there are some basic, elementary medicines recognized by all and that are used by all doctors. When Politics gets to this scientific stage where things become clear and stop being opinions and start to become judgments, then this perpetual political race will end. Politics will be converted into the “Art of the Just conduct of the people”.
We are also going to encounter a new expression of Art; that’s to say we’ll find a new expression for Art that will try to transmit a message to people. The era of improvisation will also disappear little by little in the field of Art by the year 2000. This era of confusion when for instance, it doesn’t matter if a frame is set upside down; this will also fade away. Today, sometimes we don’t know if a frame is set upside down or not, because it only represents a formless mixture impossible to decipher. The forms of snobbery will also disappear in the face of a tighter and more open society; a society where gossip will have less importance.
In the face of this new Society, pseudo-artistic forms won’t survive. Today, when we attend an art, music, or painting event what happens? Well, sometimes while looking at a painting, trying to be like everyone else, we wonder “and this, what is it?” but of course trying not to let our bewilderment show on our face! We can see quite often, when we go to the movies or to one of those documentary films, the man hosting the film saying “And here, we can see the wonderful artwork of the painter Don Juan de los Palotes. Look how magnificent it is! And you see six stripes and a big spot. With this he wanted to represent “The Battle of Teruel”. And then everybody saying “Hum, very nice indeed…” But all we see is a big patch and it seems that we are the dumbest person in the world, who doesn’t understand a thing about painting. It is the same thing when, in a concert hall, we are presented avant-garde music that the specialized magazines have glorified, wherein a man gives a few strokes on the keyboard of a piano and the piece’s title is “Variations on a theme from Mozart”.
We are surprised about the general public opinion that considers that such painting, such sculpture or such piece of music conveys a great richness, an artistic message, when in reality, it is only a confused, deformed and sick reflection of a mind that is also sick and contaminated. Yet, everybody seems to agree that this is Art. Therefore, we often ask ourselves whether it’s because we were born so dumb, so stupid or because we picked up a hereditary flaw from a great grandfather, considering that faced with such music, such painting, such politics, we don’t understand anything.
This feeling of rejection that we are made to feel propels us towards a year 2000 where we can strive to live better. And such demanding and seeking of professionalism, such seeking of reliability, authenticity and truth, because we are tired of hearing lies, lies of all kinds; and because we want things to be clear and straight; this will bring a feeling of human fraternity; but a human fraternity that is real and not a human fraternity that is made up, that exists only in lightly spoken words, when for instance we say “I never forget my donation for the poor children of Africa!”. And then, later on, while we are eating a sandwich, drinking a glass of wine, reading in the newspaper “56,000 people starving in India! Imagine that, those poor people!”, and then we keep on eating our sandwich.
This means that in reality, our fraternity is not a fraternity of heart, but something simply theoretical. We talk of fraternity between men of different worlds, of course, but we don’t talk about fraternity with our janitor, we don’t talk of fraternity with our own brother, we don’t talk of fraternity with our friends.
The fraternity we need, the fraternity that would form the basis of the art of living together for the year 2000, is not a theoretical fraternity applied on abstract masses but a real living fraternity. It is Concord. The fraternity between a man and another man, between a woman and another woman, between a man and a woman. More then anything we need to learn to be good to our dog before being good to the Martians.
We need to learn to live with ourselves, to tolerate our own faults, to admire our greatness’, to put up with our pettiness’, to speed up our slowness’, to elevate all that is valuable within us, as an inner construction.
We need to accomplish a great inner work; that great inner work which is the great liberation of man.
That’s why New Acropolis proposes, for this launch towards the year 2000, the recreation of a new humanism. It proposes the formation of cores of Philosophical Fraternities where Men can meet each other, look at each other in the eyes and do what they think, with no violence, no fear, with the authenticity to say this, to think that; to have the courage to assert and proclaim our own convictions.
New Acropolis proposes the comparative study of Religions, Sciences, and Arts in order to arrive at the real understanding of that which underlies all of these things. Because we are getting tired of the superficiality. Because we can’t live on varnishes. Because we want to breath and drink air and water that is purer and deeper.
New Acropolis proposes the investigation of the unexplored laws of Nature and of the inner Man. That’s to say the knowledge of where I come from, who I am and where I am going. But without being told; I must see it for myself; to be able to somehow live it; I must feel something, experience it, feel it and live it even though I can’t explain it to myself in a rational way. I have to feel, like I feel when touching a column and say “Here, there is a column”. And not something rationalized, something Byzantine like saying for instance “Could it be possible, dear friends, that a column exists at this place? Let’s see, who believes so and who doesn’t agree?” In this world of opinions, we are all going crazy. We can no longer unite through the lower dimension; we need to do it like columns that unite together in the heights where their capitals bloom; there , in the highest part. The multiple and vain opinions are of no use to us; what we need is to put the hands of the body on corporeal things, and the hands of the soul on things of the soul. That’s to say to arrive at the perception, the direct contact, to face these fundamental truths. And then will come a year 2000 that won’t be only new, but that will also be better.
What we propose in this pyramid of evolution in which we live, is to scale our own side of the pyramid, always trying to go upwards and ahead; always trying to go to the highest part and not to the lowest; trying not to poison Nature, trying not to ruin the souls of other people, trying not to exploit the weak, trying not to hurt the ones who live around us.
We want to reach the year 2000 trying to build a New Acropolis, a new High City that does not cut us from the Past, that does not cut us from the Future. A High City that gives us the possibility to leave this stifling present; that allows us to feel that behind us there is something, that our past is noble, that we have not descended from a race of apes neither from decadent or degenerated beings, but that we have descended from men who sought the stars like we do and that ahead of us, there are generations who will know how also seek the valid aspects of Life and Death; generations who are going to investigate, who are going to try to encounter God in every way and who will try to encounter themselves.
From there, what we see for the year 2000, is not only a World that is New but also a World that is Better, and This, will be the result of the work of each of us. May no one say “I can’t”. We all can; in one way or another; at one level or another; in society or in an individual way, we can all say “I can do what I want, what my Will dictates to me”. That’s to say that we all can, in a certain way, meet ourselves. To do whatever little good action a day or a week; investigate what we want to know; enter into contact with the people we want to know.
We can already be living this year 2000, because I say to you that we are all contemporaneous, but we don’t live the same Time. That’s to say we all live in the same year, but mentally, we don’t live the same psychological year. If we can make this effort of consciousness; if we can reject the varnishes I was speaking of earlier; if we can deepen and reach the vein in the wood of History; if we can remove form the surface of the water the impurities that fell in and darkened it and mange to drink the deep, clear waters, then we are already living in the year 2000! We can all manage to live this year 2000, psychologically, fraternally, even if we should die tomorrow.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Prophecies for the year 2000, part1
First of all, I would like to clarify that, for those who are very young, who will live to see the year 2000, who will be able to live in that New and Different World, and for those of us who are not so young and might not live to see it but are nevertheless interested because of our children, our disciples, our loved ones or for the work we leave behind, I would like to clarify for everyone before anything that we have chosen the year two thousand as a point of reference. I do not believe that in the year two thousand, something different is going to happen; because the year two thousand is according to the Christian chronology. If we took the Muslim chronology, for example, we would have to deduct six centuries; if we used the Hebrew chronology, we would have to add several millennium; and if we used the Buddhist chronology we would have to add on another half a millennium, etc. To say that we are in this or that year is basically a chronological arrangement that is determined amongst groups of people and does not really contain any form of dramatic prophecy as is generally seen in those prophecies that announce “the end of the world”.
Everyone knows that around the year 1000, a lot of prophecies were given; there were people who committed suicide or left all their belongings to the Church or to their friends, thinking that some strange comet will come and blow up the Earth, or that some wicked angel will exterminate everyone on the planet.
It is that feeling of fear, of terror, that we must rid ourselves of. It’s true that we are in a kind of “turning point in History”, but this turning point will not arrive as punctually as when we say that in a certain year or on a certain date such and such thing will happen. The premonition of the end of the world or the destruction of humanity is an almost infantile terror that is found in the collective subconscious.
It is obvious that humanity is very old. Archaeological and historical investigations show us that an advanced and civilized humanity, a humanity who thinks - perhaps not the technological mankind that we know, but yes, a mankind who manipulates basic tools, a mankind who loves, who suffers and who dies, has existed for millions of years and will very probably continue to exist for millions more.
We may ask ourselves, nonetheless, what will humanity of the year 2000 be like? First of all, it’s important to understand that History, the course of History, like all things, is cyclical; and the study of History, like all things, teaches us that mankind is part of Nature.
It has been demonstrated that Space is circular. Everyone knows the laws of Einstein that state that not only is Space circular but that Time is also. Everything develops in a circular form. We know that the constellations travel on circular paths; that the Earth, the planets, etc., also function under that law, by the law of eternal return.
Therefore, to project the present time into the future time of the year two thousand would be a mistake; a mistake equivalent to what a futurologist of fifty or sixty years ago, who thought that in 1975, the world would be a projection of what had developed in the preceding century. However things did not happen like that ; great changes occurred.
The person in the year 1000 who tried to visualize what the year 2000 would be like, would have thought that maybe in the year 2000 or in this year, 1975, in many respects, it would be the same, we would all be engaged in a pilgrimage. For the Muslims it would be to the Mecca, for the Christians to the Holy Land, etc. However today, fortunately or unfortunately, nobody is very preoccupied about going on a pilgrimage to the Mecca or to the Holy Land. Today, interests are different; because the interest’s of every age are completely different .
People living in the year 2000 will have interests, will have inclinations completely different from ours as well.
Let’s analyze the possibilities, let’s analyze the trajectories in order to see what we can say about that period that we have fixed at the year 2000 and in what manner we can be part of that current of History.
It’s obvious, for example, that there are a series of studies currently being done in various fields that are going beyond what we could call official science. Everyone knows that official science is muddled in a certain inertia. If mankind would had followed official science (I will give a give a few examples) perhaps Columbus’ ships would not have arrived in America. Because according to the official science of the day, America did not exist and according to the official science of the day, the Earth was not round.
And if we would have left things to official science, we would not have airplanes either, because the universities of the last century maintained and “scientifically” demonstrated that objects heavier than air could not fly; only objects lighter than air could. We would not be able to split atoms either; nor would we be able to communicate over distances by radio and telephone, because official science has, in general, always opposed these innovations; it has always maintained a kind of inertia that looks more towards the past than towards the future.
There are investigations being carried out today that official science practically ignores. Let’s look at some of them, such as the problem of Parapsychology, for example.
The word parapsychology itself doesn’t mean anything, since as you know, it means “that which is beyond Psychology”. And how can we study something that we can’t even define? If you asked me “What is behind this door?” and I were to answer “Ah! What is on the other side of this door is that which is beyond the door”. In reality, that wouldn’t explain anything. But if I where to say that behind the door, there’s my office, there’s a desk, an electric typewriter, a filing cabinet, etc., then you would have an idea of what is behind the door; whereas by saying that what is behind the door is that which is behind the door, I wouldn’t be saying anything.
In the same manner, Parapsychology deals with things that are beyond common psychological phenomena, but an in-depth investigation of this phenomena has not been developed. There has been more development in the investigation of the tricks that could be done to fake this phenomena and therefore prove that this phenomena is not real. Which means that we go back to the same mentality as when it was denied that the Earth was round; there was the attempt to deny the rotundity of the Earth based on speculations. And it is the same with this.
There are a number of investigations and observations pertaining to the fact that there is more than what we understand to be simple Psychology; there are miles of archives that record cases of telepathic communication between two people; of people who have lifted themselves from the ground by way of a phenomenon called levitation; people that accomplish very strange phenomena, such as Mr. Uri Geller, who bent spoons or adjusted watches from a television stage, etc. Some say that they really occurred, others say that they were faked. Nevertheless, there is no serious study, and the studies that depend on testimonies do not arrive at an agreement as to the conclusions, which demonstrates a lack of scientific method. Because if I tell you that water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, we all agree, no one will come and say “No, it’s three parts hydrogen”, and someone else who would say “actually, water is made up of chlorine” or “it’s really made of fluoride…” Why? Because we have arrived at an agreement that two parts hydrogen with one part oxygen forms water, that is, we have arrived at an observation; the composition of water has become what we can call a “scientific truth”.
But in regards to Parapsychology, we have not arrived at a scientific truth. There evidently exists curative methods by way of forces that some call spiritual while others call them psychological or magnetic forces. Nevertheless, today , even among doctors, some make use of simple hypnosis while others do not. Some say that hypnosis comes from the use of will power, that is to say, from an animic force that is transmitted through the human organism to achieve the power of suggestion over another person; and others say that hypnosis is simply a sort of state of manipulation of a person being faced with someone who stares them in the eyes or moves something shiny in front of them.
It is obvious that in the years to come, towards the year 2000, the study of Parapsychology will be done more seriously. It is useless to place barriers in front of things that are evident.
It cannot be guaranteed, even though we know little about flying saucers, that something, from somewhere, does not exist, because there are testimonies regarding this. To be sure, they could be machines, they could be natural phenomena or secret weapons from Russia or North America, or atmospheric reflections of an unknown type; they could be natural micro-satellites that penetrate within our atmosphere, or the so-called St-Elmo’s fire, etc. Many theories exist, but in reality, something of the sort exists and that is what people see.
Science will also open up to these fields, that is, the field of knowledge of things that today are not official. In various institutions, chairs, institutes, laboratories will be created that will, in a serious manner, investigate that outer nature that we ignore as well as that inner nature which we also ignore.
Despite all the archaeological investigations that have been done and that have demonstrated that it is absolutely impossible that during antiquity, with a simple system of pulling with rope, huge rocks, like the great ruins of Egypt for example, could have been moved; yet official science continues to affirm this. Official science continues to maintain that the great masses of stones that can be seen at Tiahuanaco or at Machu Picchu have been transported, let us say “miraculously”, always pulled with a rope, because if it wasn’t otherwise it wouldn’t be considered scientific, across half of the Andes mountains. This statement is completely harebrained and yet regardless, they continue and continue to maintain it…
It is still maintained, for example, that to build the Pyramid of Keops, huge masses were lifted to a height of more than 145 meters, with a ramp. Besides the fact that the remains of this ramp were never discovered, it has been demonstrated that if this ramp had existed it would have had such a length and width as to be greater than that of the Pyramid itself. It has also been proven that in order to be able to transport these great masses pulled by ropes made from palm fibers, the ropes would have to have a thickness so large and a length so great that they would weigh almost as much as the rock, seeing as at that time they didn’t have either the plastic or the metal alloys that we have today. Furthermore, it can be deduced that the quantity of men needed to pull these masses would have been enormous; and since they had neither refrigerated trucks nor trains, nor boats, not aerial bridges, in order to feed these people, in order to sustain them, it would have required a greater multitude than Egypt had ever seen.
All these considerations continue to be kept quiet in the official chairs, or, in order to deal with them, they have become accustomed to attaching simplistic explanations to them.
Those phenomena that we have seen in archaeology will also be investigated in greater depth from other points of view as we approach the year 2000. And it is not because the phenomena has changed, what has changed is the vision of man, being able to explore different angles. If I wanted to know, for example, what is this small relief, I would not only have to look at it from the angle that I’m seeing it now, but also from the front, and from a different angle, from the top, from the bottom; I would have to detach it from the wall to see what it is made of, because just by looking at it, I won’t be able to find out if it’s made of bronze, of plastic or something else.
In that way, there will be an opening in Science towards a wider form of concepts. They will no longer consider things they do not know as “unscientific”, they will simply consider them unexplored. They will no longer make roundabout statements about the characteristics of man that have not as of yet been clearly defined. Science will apparently slow its progress, but it will be more like halting its dogmatizations, that is, making statements about things that have not been sufficiently tested. Science, in this apparent restraint, will open up, nonetheless, to new fields of man, of Nature and the relation between man and Nature, because we know that as we have distanced our lives from Nature, we have poisoned it.
People thought at first “Why should I care if Nature becomes polluted!”; but they did not realize that Nature is like a mirror and if we tarnish it, a time will come when our own image gets obscured or gets blurred. This means that the contamination that we have caused turns to our disadvantage and affects us biologically and psychologically. This is one of the points that we will be able to see more objectively as we gradually approach the year 2000.
There will also be a wider and more open investigation of religious problems. We will see that mankind, after the experimentation that began in the age of Enlightenment and the Cartesian experimentation, will little by little end up exhausting the experiments of a purely scientific-materialist type. Mankind has arrived at the realization that you cannot weigh or measure the soul; but in one way or another, we all know that the soul exists. Whether we believe in the immortality of the soul or not, whether we believe in a specific religious form or not, inside of every normal person, inside of every man, of every woman, especially if that person is young at heart, all feel that something exists beyond that which is simply material, we all feel that we have something inside ourselves that gives us an impulse and justifies us.
This interest, perhaps not for formal religions, bur certainly for mysticism, will also continue to develop. It is obvious that the current generation of young people have a greater interest in religious questions than the generation of young people of fifty or a hundred years ago. But that interest has to be properly channeled. It is logical that young people often tend to group together in a more or less disorganized manner, and so they begin to read books, and those books have a big influence over those who read them (the books with the greatest print run are generally the best sellers and are perhaps the most superficial) making many people feel that they guide them in their search. But the searching is there.
And we are certain that the cradles will be full of children who, more and more, will have need of this mystique, of a little solitude. Our great large cities, our megalopolis’ that we thought could arrive at a kind of image of paradise, in reality have become a reflection if not of a hell, then a kind of cemetery. The people, those who can, try to live outside of the big cities or if not, spend a few months of vacation outside of them, because in the big cities, on top of feeling alone, we feel crushed by the human mass.
Demographic growth, which is completely uncontrolled, and the methods to fight it, which we are unable to implement, force people to feel and perceive a sensation of being squeezed-in amongst the crowd of people. This is not some kind of theory, you know this. In the big cities, one only has to go out during one of the “rush” hours; where can I walk? Where can I park my car? And when I want to go in to drink a coffee, when I want to have lunch at a restaurant, I have to wait in line until others have finished before I can go in. And we all get the feeling, although we have money and live well, that we are in a kind of concentration camp where we have to be in line, one behind the other, waiting to get a bit of food.
And if we have to make a transaction in whatever government office, we clash against an enormous bureaucracy. In front of us, there is a mountain of people; behind us, there’s another mountain of people. When we arrive at the counter, they tell us “when your number is called, present yourself”. And we think to ourselves “ah! I no longer have a name, I’m no longer a man or a woman; now I’m a number”. And then someone shouts “number 75!” and someone answers back “that’s me!”
All of this mass alienation and numerical pressure is destroying our sense of individuality; but we have inside of us the capacity to react and to search for a New World and a Better World. The big cities will no longer be able to continue growing; the mega-cities; that are beginning to slow down, will perhaps be in recession in the year 2000. Mankind needs to return to living with Nature; and many are realizing that if you go on vacation or if you go to the country, but you bring a portable TV, a radio, a typewriter, or a tape deck, then it’s the same as not having gone at all. Mankind is beginning to perceive the beauty of his surroundings: jumping into clean water, being able to see the fish in a pond, watching the birds fly, etc. Today mankind needs a fresh return to Nature. He needs to clear himself away from the multitude, he needs a bit of solitude. This search for solitude must be contemplated by all those who wish to interpret the new currents of History that will take us to that year 2000.
Translated from lecture transcript
Everyone knows that around the year 1000, a lot of prophecies were given; there were people who committed suicide or left all their belongings to the Church or to their friends, thinking that some strange comet will come and blow up the Earth, or that some wicked angel will exterminate everyone on the planet.
It is that feeling of fear, of terror, that we must rid ourselves of. It’s true that we are in a kind of “turning point in History”, but this turning point will not arrive as punctually as when we say that in a certain year or on a certain date such and such thing will happen. The premonition of the end of the world or the destruction of humanity is an almost infantile terror that is found in the collective subconscious.
It is obvious that humanity is very old. Archaeological and historical investigations show us that an advanced and civilized humanity, a humanity who thinks - perhaps not the technological mankind that we know, but yes, a mankind who manipulates basic tools, a mankind who loves, who suffers and who dies, has existed for millions of years and will very probably continue to exist for millions more.
We may ask ourselves, nonetheless, what will humanity of the year 2000 be like? First of all, it’s important to understand that History, the course of History, like all things, is cyclical; and the study of History, like all things, teaches us that mankind is part of Nature.
It has been demonstrated that Space is circular. Everyone knows the laws of Einstein that state that not only is Space circular but that Time is also. Everything develops in a circular form. We know that the constellations travel on circular paths; that the Earth, the planets, etc., also function under that law, by the law of eternal return.
Therefore, to project the present time into the future time of the year two thousand would be a mistake; a mistake equivalent to what a futurologist of fifty or sixty years ago, who thought that in 1975, the world would be a projection of what had developed in the preceding century. However things did not happen like that ; great changes occurred.
The person in the year 1000 who tried to visualize what the year 2000 would be like, would have thought that maybe in the year 2000 or in this year, 1975, in many respects, it would be the same, we would all be engaged in a pilgrimage. For the Muslims it would be to the Mecca, for the Christians to the Holy Land, etc. However today, fortunately or unfortunately, nobody is very preoccupied about going on a pilgrimage to the Mecca or to the Holy Land. Today, interests are different; because the interest’s of every age are completely different .
People living in the year 2000 will have interests, will have inclinations completely different from ours as well.
Let’s analyze the possibilities, let’s analyze the trajectories in order to see what we can say about that period that we have fixed at the year 2000 and in what manner we can be part of that current of History.
It’s obvious, for example, that there are a series of studies currently being done in various fields that are going beyond what we could call official science. Everyone knows that official science is muddled in a certain inertia. If mankind would had followed official science (I will give a give a few examples) perhaps Columbus’ ships would not have arrived in America. Because according to the official science of the day, America did not exist and according to the official science of the day, the Earth was not round.
And if we would have left things to official science, we would not have airplanes either, because the universities of the last century maintained and “scientifically” demonstrated that objects heavier than air could not fly; only objects lighter than air could. We would not be able to split atoms either; nor would we be able to communicate over distances by radio and telephone, because official science has, in general, always opposed these innovations; it has always maintained a kind of inertia that looks more towards the past than towards the future.
There are investigations being carried out today that official science practically ignores. Let’s look at some of them, such as the problem of Parapsychology, for example.
The word parapsychology itself doesn’t mean anything, since as you know, it means “that which is beyond Psychology”. And how can we study something that we can’t even define? If you asked me “What is behind this door?” and I were to answer “Ah! What is on the other side of this door is that which is beyond the door”. In reality, that wouldn’t explain anything. But if I where to say that behind the door, there’s my office, there’s a desk, an electric typewriter, a filing cabinet, etc., then you would have an idea of what is behind the door; whereas by saying that what is behind the door is that which is behind the door, I wouldn’t be saying anything.
In the same manner, Parapsychology deals with things that are beyond common psychological phenomena, but an in-depth investigation of this phenomena has not been developed. There has been more development in the investigation of the tricks that could be done to fake this phenomena and therefore prove that this phenomena is not real. Which means that we go back to the same mentality as when it was denied that the Earth was round; there was the attempt to deny the rotundity of the Earth based on speculations. And it is the same with this.
There are a number of investigations and observations pertaining to the fact that there is more than what we understand to be simple Psychology; there are miles of archives that record cases of telepathic communication between two people; of people who have lifted themselves from the ground by way of a phenomenon called levitation; people that accomplish very strange phenomena, such as Mr. Uri Geller, who bent spoons or adjusted watches from a television stage, etc. Some say that they really occurred, others say that they were faked. Nevertheless, there is no serious study, and the studies that depend on testimonies do not arrive at an agreement as to the conclusions, which demonstrates a lack of scientific method. Because if I tell you that water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, we all agree, no one will come and say “No, it’s three parts hydrogen”, and someone else who would say “actually, water is made up of chlorine” or “it’s really made of fluoride…” Why? Because we have arrived at an agreement that two parts hydrogen with one part oxygen forms water, that is, we have arrived at an observation; the composition of water has become what we can call a “scientific truth”.
But in regards to Parapsychology, we have not arrived at a scientific truth. There evidently exists curative methods by way of forces that some call spiritual while others call them psychological or magnetic forces. Nevertheless, today , even among doctors, some make use of simple hypnosis while others do not. Some say that hypnosis comes from the use of will power, that is to say, from an animic force that is transmitted through the human organism to achieve the power of suggestion over another person; and others say that hypnosis is simply a sort of state of manipulation of a person being faced with someone who stares them in the eyes or moves something shiny in front of them.
It is obvious that in the years to come, towards the year 2000, the study of Parapsychology will be done more seriously. It is useless to place barriers in front of things that are evident.
It cannot be guaranteed, even though we know little about flying saucers, that something, from somewhere, does not exist, because there are testimonies regarding this. To be sure, they could be machines, they could be natural phenomena or secret weapons from Russia or North America, or atmospheric reflections of an unknown type; they could be natural micro-satellites that penetrate within our atmosphere, or the so-called St-Elmo’s fire, etc. Many theories exist, but in reality, something of the sort exists and that is what people see.
Science will also open up to these fields, that is, the field of knowledge of things that today are not official. In various institutions, chairs, institutes, laboratories will be created that will, in a serious manner, investigate that outer nature that we ignore as well as that inner nature which we also ignore.
Despite all the archaeological investigations that have been done and that have demonstrated that it is absolutely impossible that during antiquity, with a simple system of pulling with rope, huge rocks, like the great ruins of Egypt for example, could have been moved; yet official science continues to affirm this. Official science continues to maintain that the great masses of stones that can be seen at Tiahuanaco or at Machu Picchu have been transported, let us say “miraculously”, always pulled with a rope, because if it wasn’t otherwise it wouldn’t be considered scientific, across half of the Andes mountains. This statement is completely harebrained and yet regardless, they continue and continue to maintain it…
It is still maintained, for example, that to build the Pyramid of Keops, huge masses were lifted to a height of more than 145 meters, with a ramp. Besides the fact that the remains of this ramp were never discovered, it has been demonstrated that if this ramp had existed it would have had such a length and width as to be greater than that of the Pyramid itself. It has also been proven that in order to be able to transport these great masses pulled by ropes made from palm fibers, the ropes would have to have a thickness so large and a length so great that they would weigh almost as much as the rock, seeing as at that time they didn’t have either the plastic or the metal alloys that we have today. Furthermore, it can be deduced that the quantity of men needed to pull these masses would have been enormous; and since they had neither refrigerated trucks nor trains, nor boats, not aerial bridges, in order to feed these people, in order to sustain them, it would have required a greater multitude than Egypt had ever seen.
All these considerations continue to be kept quiet in the official chairs, or, in order to deal with them, they have become accustomed to attaching simplistic explanations to them.
Those phenomena that we have seen in archaeology will also be investigated in greater depth from other points of view as we approach the year 2000. And it is not because the phenomena has changed, what has changed is the vision of man, being able to explore different angles. If I wanted to know, for example, what is this small relief, I would not only have to look at it from the angle that I’m seeing it now, but also from the front, and from a different angle, from the top, from the bottom; I would have to detach it from the wall to see what it is made of, because just by looking at it, I won’t be able to find out if it’s made of bronze, of plastic or something else.
In that way, there will be an opening in Science towards a wider form of concepts. They will no longer consider things they do not know as “unscientific”, they will simply consider them unexplored. They will no longer make roundabout statements about the characteristics of man that have not as of yet been clearly defined. Science will apparently slow its progress, but it will be more like halting its dogmatizations, that is, making statements about things that have not been sufficiently tested. Science, in this apparent restraint, will open up, nonetheless, to new fields of man, of Nature and the relation between man and Nature, because we know that as we have distanced our lives from Nature, we have poisoned it.
People thought at first “Why should I care if Nature becomes polluted!”; but they did not realize that Nature is like a mirror and if we tarnish it, a time will come when our own image gets obscured or gets blurred. This means that the contamination that we have caused turns to our disadvantage and affects us biologically and psychologically. This is one of the points that we will be able to see more objectively as we gradually approach the year 2000.
There will also be a wider and more open investigation of religious problems. We will see that mankind, after the experimentation that began in the age of Enlightenment and the Cartesian experimentation, will little by little end up exhausting the experiments of a purely scientific-materialist type. Mankind has arrived at the realization that you cannot weigh or measure the soul; but in one way or another, we all know that the soul exists. Whether we believe in the immortality of the soul or not, whether we believe in a specific religious form or not, inside of every normal person, inside of every man, of every woman, especially if that person is young at heart, all feel that something exists beyond that which is simply material, we all feel that we have something inside ourselves that gives us an impulse and justifies us.
This interest, perhaps not for formal religions, bur certainly for mysticism, will also continue to develop. It is obvious that the current generation of young people have a greater interest in religious questions than the generation of young people of fifty or a hundred years ago. But that interest has to be properly channeled. It is logical that young people often tend to group together in a more or less disorganized manner, and so they begin to read books, and those books have a big influence over those who read them (the books with the greatest print run are generally the best sellers and are perhaps the most superficial) making many people feel that they guide them in their search. But the searching is there.
And we are certain that the cradles will be full of children who, more and more, will have need of this mystique, of a little solitude. Our great large cities, our megalopolis’ that we thought could arrive at a kind of image of paradise, in reality have become a reflection if not of a hell, then a kind of cemetery. The people, those who can, try to live outside of the big cities or if not, spend a few months of vacation outside of them, because in the big cities, on top of feeling alone, we feel crushed by the human mass.
Demographic growth, which is completely uncontrolled, and the methods to fight it, which we are unable to implement, force people to feel and perceive a sensation of being squeezed-in amongst the crowd of people. This is not some kind of theory, you know this. In the big cities, one only has to go out during one of the “rush” hours; where can I walk? Where can I park my car? And when I want to go in to drink a coffee, when I want to have lunch at a restaurant, I have to wait in line until others have finished before I can go in. And we all get the feeling, although we have money and live well, that we are in a kind of concentration camp where we have to be in line, one behind the other, waiting to get a bit of food.
And if we have to make a transaction in whatever government office, we clash against an enormous bureaucracy. In front of us, there is a mountain of people; behind us, there’s another mountain of people. When we arrive at the counter, they tell us “when your number is called, present yourself”. And we think to ourselves “ah! I no longer have a name, I’m no longer a man or a woman; now I’m a number”. And then someone shouts “number 75!” and someone answers back “that’s me!”
All of this mass alienation and numerical pressure is destroying our sense of individuality; but we have inside of us the capacity to react and to search for a New World and a Better World. The big cities will no longer be able to continue growing; the mega-cities; that are beginning to slow down, will perhaps be in recession in the year 2000. Mankind needs to return to living with Nature; and many are realizing that if you go on vacation or if you go to the country, but you bring a portable TV, a radio, a typewriter, or a tape deck, then it’s the same as not having gone at all. Mankind is beginning to perceive the beauty of his surroundings: jumping into clean water, being able to see the fish in a pond, watching the birds fly, etc. Today mankind needs a fresh return to Nature. He needs to clear himself away from the multitude, he needs a bit of solitude. This search for solitude must be contemplated by all those who wish to interpret the new currents of History that will take us to that year 2000.
Translated from lecture transcript
Monday, March 16, 2009
How and where to know oneself, part 2
But then we are confronted with the problem of knowing ourselves. We won’t be able to know ourselves by looking at a photograph; it would be necessary but it isn’t enough. It would be, perhaps, as necessary as when someone is presented to us, for example, and we tell them: “Ah, it’s very nice to meet you!”, but the truth is that its just an expression since why is it so nice when I don’t know the person who is in facing me? Evidently the pleasure of meeting someone is not felt in the palm of one’s hands, and it’s the same if the pleasure is of a spiritual nature. However, we are used to talking in that way. We can know our physical aspect in terms of proportions, shape, face, body, etc., but we must also try to know ourselves on the other planes as well; and in this case, we have taken examples from the currents of India and Egypt. We must know our vital aspect, the why and how of our vital cycles; what happens inside of us, how and where the “life” inside of us flows. We must also look inside and see what part of ourselves emotes, why and at what level; the only way which we can master them, channel them is by knowing them. Sometimes we commit acts of injustice because we let ourselves be carried away by our emotions, our anger, with unthinking words that we often regret later on. How many times have we been deceived, defrauded, for no other reason than that someone has manipulated this imponderable factor. For example, the salesman who talks and talks, and manages to make us feel the need to own some book or sixteen-volume encyclopedia that we never thought we’d buy; but we are made to feel the almost physiological need to have it, the sensation that if we don’t own this book or encyclopedia, we are nothing but some uncultured beast or something. This, then, is the emotional part that we must investigate.
Through our concrete mind, with which we begin to speculate, to think, and to see how some things can be, how other things exist, we don’ realize if we are ourselves entirely, deeply, or if we are nothing more than a small part of ourselves. We must also look at what possibilities we have of being enlightened by God or by Nature; we can have some type of intuition, some way of penetrating the mysteries of life, the why and the how; we shouldn’t always be informed just by the latest books or magazines that are in style. And thus, we can finally arrive at the inner part of our soul, our inner self.
It’s urgent for us to encounter ourselves. Obviously, in order for us to encounter ourselves we must keep in mind that there are a series of elements which we must consider: elements of disappointed emotions, thoughts, dreams, illusions, hopes; and all of this has power inside of us modifying our lives; we are the age that we are, we are what we are, we have the money that we have, there are a series of imponderable elements that aren’t strictly physical but completely modify our life, our form of being, our relationship with others. We are facing a difficult world, a world in crisis, whether we look at it from a political, economical, etc. point of view. In many countries of the world, they have tried to solve things in one way or another. Nonetheless we can observe that the problems have not been solved, there is every time more delinquency, more hunger, more people without jobs or who are completely destitute. This is because none of the systems that we know of, when put into practice, succeed in establishing something that, in theory or experimentally, appeared to work.
Its obvious then that what we need is a stage of inner revolution. That’s to say, RE-EVOLUTION, a change from the inside, a great inner cleaning, a great encounter with ourselves. We need to be, as it where, stones or sand of that High City. We need to unite our wills, our dreams, and in some way, our hearts. As the philosophers of Rome say, achieving CONCORD, which means: heart to heart. As the right and left hands interlock, in order to pray, in order to grasp something- precisely because they have harmony by opposition- we, by knowing and mastering ourselves, can arrive at a concord, at a feasible hospitality between men. We all speak of hospitality, of peace, of love, and of human rights; but there is an increasing amount of hunger in the world, more people that are illiterate or are condemned to consuming pornography. There is an increasing number of students who attend University and who later cannot find employment in their field, and an increasing amount of retired people living in misery. Faced with these blights that are as real as the ground we walk upon, what use are abstractions, words, declarations? What we need is something as concrete as we are, like our thoughts, which are also as concrete as our need for existence, for hospitality, for peace, for warmth, and for beauty. Every man and every woman not only need to have clothes, food, and in the best of cases, a car, but also something which is more important: we need to have, you might say, a bit of dignity, a handful of glory. But today’s world and the crisis in force are tearing away that little handful of dignity and glory. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether we are well dressed, nor eat like princes; but it is important to be happy with ourselves and to have that little bit of glory, that handful of inner satisfaction that is the only one that will allow us to assimilate the food that we have in our mouths, the thoughts that we have in our head, the emotions that we have in our heart. It is really urgent to know ourselves.
Like plants which need water in periods of drought to bring them back to life, and like the birds that call to the morning light with their singing, we claim as a given right, that different life, that different world where not everything will be material, where there will be room for dreams, for spirit and that handful of glory, not that Napoleonic kind, but inner glory, inner dignity. We are asking for a different form of hospitality, a different treatment and a different courtesy, a different kind of man and a world that will not only be New but also Better; a world where Knights and Ladies can meet themselves and progress in that that current of life towards the New Man that will one day come. We mustn’t lose hope nor must we think that humanity is constantly progressing. Our problem is that our mechanical alienation has, obviously, made machines progress much more than man. We have, for example, a man who drove a chariot in Rome who went 40 km an hour; and today a man can fly a jet that goes 1 000 km an hour: the difference is in the machines, between the chariot and the jet, not between the men. Men continue to have problems, pains, deceptions, and continue to have needs.
Today more than ever we need to restore that ancient knowledge, to experience it again in an experimental, logical, current manner, with practical and sincere results. We don’t think that with this we are going to touch the sky with our hands. What we need to touch is the heart of man, and to once again arrive at a basic and human hospitality. That was what the old hospitality of our grandparents was like, when someone needed something, people would come and help out. Today, although we live in big cities, we live in a complete anonymity amongst ourselves and we don’t care in the least what may happen to our neighbor or to the man beside us or far away. We read in magazines, in the greatest of comfort, while we are having breakfast, that thousands of people have perished in a war or a catastrophe. We do it with a complete insensitivity, and that is because today’s world has rendered us insensitive. When we eat a bowl of soup, neither the spoon nor the bowl can taste the flavor of the soup, it simply contains it; and currently, we are containing a culture but we aren’t feeling its flavor, nor are we living it or being nourished by it. The materialistic elements must be replaced by natural ones. The material plane needs to be considered, although not as the totality, but rather as a crystallization of something superior, that is more spiritual, more lasting, something that can allow the Golden Aphrodite to rise in our heart, a kind of eternal youth where there is no sickness nor aging nor situations that change; we must be eternally young and eternally happy. But we will only achieve this by working hard, that is encountering ourselves, working on ourselves, and uniting ourselves with those who have the same preoccupations. One of the great fundamental problems of the day is that of ethics: traffickers and thieves are quick to unite and form a gang. Idealists, on the other hand, when they want to do something, when they want to promote culture, generally are divided and separated into a pseudo-individualism.
We must succeed then in changing that current of life; we must begin making the wheel of time turn, as if it were that of a windmill that is going to grind flour; that new flour that will feed that New Man that we all dream of.
Through our concrete mind, with which we begin to speculate, to think, and to see how some things can be, how other things exist, we don’ realize if we are ourselves entirely, deeply, or if we are nothing more than a small part of ourselves. We must also look at what possibilities we have of being enlightened by God or by Nature; we can have some type of intuition, some way of penetrating the mysteries of life, the why and the how; we shouldn’t always be informed just by the latest books or magazines that are in style. And thus, we can finally arrive at the inner part of our soul, our inner self.
It’s urgent for us to encounter ourselves. Obviously, in order for us to encounter ourselves we must keep in mind that there are a series of elements which we must consider: elements of disappointed emotions, thoughts, dreams, illusions, hopes; and all of this has power inside of us modifying our lives; we are the age that we are, we are what we are, we have the money that we have, there are a series of imponderable elements that aren’t strictly physical but completely modify our life, our form of being, our relationship with others. We are facing a difficult world, a world in crisis, whether we look at it from a political, economical, etc. point of view. In many countries of the world, they have tried to solve things in one way or another. Nonetheless we can observe that the problems have not been solved, there is every time more delinquency, more hunger, more people without jobs or who are completely destitute. This is because none of the systems that we know of, when put into practice, succeed in establishing something that, in theory or experimentally, appeared to work.
Its obvious then that what we need is a stage of inner revolution. That’s to say, RE-EVOLUTION, a change from the inside, a great inner cleaning, a great encounter with ourselves. We need to be, as it where, stones or sand of that High City. We need to unite our wills, our dreams, and in some way, our hearts. As the philosophers of Rome say, achieving CONCORD, which means: heart to heart. As the right and left hands interlock, in order to pray, in order to grasp something- precisely because they have harmony by opposition- we, by knowing and mastering ourselves, can arrive at a concord, at a feasible hospitality between men. We all speak of hospitality, of peace, of love, and of human rights; but there is an increasing amount of hunger in the world, more people that are illiterate or are condemned to consuming pornography. There is an increasing number of students who attend University and who later cannot find employment in their field, and an increasing amount of retired people living in misery. Faced with these blights that are as real as the ground we walk upon, what use are abstractions, words, declarations? What we need is something as concrete as we are, like our thoughts, which are also as concrete as our need for existence, for hospitality, for peace, for warmth, and for beauty. Every man and every woman not only need to have clothes, food, and in the best of cases, a car, but also something which is more important: we need to have, you might say, a bit of dignity, a handful of glory. But today’s world and the crisis in force are tearing away that little handful of dignity and glory. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether we are well dressed, nor eat like princes; but it is important to be happy with ourselves and to have that little bit of glory, that handful of inner satisfaction that is the only one that will allow us to assimilate the food that we have in our mouths, the thoughts that we have in our head, the emotions that we have in our heart. It is really urgent to know ourselves.
Like plants which need water in periods of drought to bring them back to life, and like the birds that call to the morning light with their singing, we claim as a given right, that different life, that different world where not everything will be material, where there will be room for dreams, for spirit and that handful of glory, not that Napoleonic kind, but inner glory, inner dignity. We are asking for a different form of hospitality, a different treatment and a different courtesy, a different kind of man and a world that will not only be New but also Better; a world where Knights and Ladies can meet themselves and progress in that that current of life towards the New Man that will one day come. We mustn’t lose hope nor must we think that humanity is constantly progressing. Our problem is that our mechanical alienation has, obviously, made machines progress much more than man. We have, for example, a man who drove a chariot in Rome who went 40 km an hour; and today a man can fly a jet that goes 1 000 km an hour: the difference is in the machines, between the chariot and the jet, not between the men. Men continue to have problems, pains, deceptions, and continue to have needs.
Today more than ever we need to restore that ancient knowledge, to experience it again in an experimental, logical, current manner, with practical and sincere results. We don’t think that with this we are going to touch the sky with our hands. What we need to touch is the heart of man, and to once again arrive at a basic and human hospitality. That was what the old hospitality of our grandparents was like, when someone needed something, people would come and help out. Today, although we live in big cities, we live in a complete anonymity amongst ourselves and we don’t care in the least what may happen to our neighbor or to the man beside us or far away. We read in magazines, in the greatest of comfort, while we are having breakfast, that thousands of people have perished in a war or a catastrophe. We do it with a complete insensitivity, and that is because today’s world has rendered us insensitive. When we eat a bowl of soup, neither the spoon nor the bowl can taste the flavor of the soup, it simply contains it; and currently, we are containing a culture but we aren’t feeling its flavor, nor are we living it or being nourished by it. The materialistic elements must be replaced by natural ones. The material plane needs to be considered, although not as the totality, but rather as a crystallization of something superior, that is more spiritual, more lasting, something that can allow the Golden Aphrodite to rise in our heart, a kind of eternal youth where there is no sickness nor aging nor situations that change; we must be eternally young and eternally happy. But we will only achieve this by working hard, that is encountering ourselves, working on ourselves, and uniting ourselves with those who have the same preoccupations. One of the great fundamental problems of the day is that of ethics: traffickers and thieves are quick to unite and form a gang. Idealists, on the other hand, when they want to do something, when they want to promote culture, generally are divided and separated into a pseudo-individualism.
We must succeed then in changing that current of life; we must begin making the wheel of time turn, as if it were that of a windmill that is going to grind flour; that new flour that will feed that New Man that we all dream of.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
How and where to know oneself, part 1
We all need to know ourselves. Although it seems paradoxical, self-knowledge is one of the oldest founts of philosophy, one of the most difficult and, in certain ways one of the least explored in the natural and direct sense of the word.
We have all had little experiences in this regard; everyone has. How many times when looking at a picture that was taken of us, and I don’t know whether it’s because of vanity or some such thing, but we say: “Is that me?”. We see a face that we recognize as our own but it’s hard for us to believe it, it seems that we never look natural or that we look better or worse, or that it was out of focus or that, in one way or another, that face in the picture isn’t exactly the one that we imagine we have; as well, sometimes, when we feel that we are alone, looking into a mirror, it seems that the person in the mirror isn’t us, but rather some other person that is looking at me and although I know it’s me, in some way I also know that we are two: the reflection and myself. Another experience that everyone has experienced is recording one’s voice on a tape recorder: a speech, a conversation, the reading of a poem. Someone who hears this for the first time is really amazed to hear his voice, although he recognizes it, it sounds strange, it seems to have a higher pitch or it seems muted or something, but they don’t quite recognize their voice exactly; it isn’t the same voice that one hears when one is talking.
Even when dealing only with what is strictly physical, the outer aspect, it is very difficult to know ourselves because that implies a state of consciousness of reversion that not everyone can achieve very easily. I’m not going to broach this subject in technical terms. We are not going to make an analysis of psychoanalysis or psycho synthesis. Neither will we be dealing with the recent theories of for example the philosopher Levi, who delivered many lectures in Europe on non-conformity, the isolation of man in society or on the impossibility of man knowing himself because society, in one form or another, pressures him and deforms him to the point where it is impossible to recognize oneself. In other words, being faced with a paradoxical figure that disconcerts and creates an inner dichotomy. We are going to refer to something much older to later come back to our topic in current and practical terms.
We are going to see in what way some of the oldest peoples have dealt with this subject. We won’t be able to mention all of them, partly because we are lacking information and partly because the task would be too great. We’ll only discuss two great currents of thought: one that comes from India and another from Egypt. Egypt and India have left us documents that are sufficiently eloquent for us to see what they thought of man in his totality.
Man is not only that which we can see. What do we see of other people and what do they see of us? The truth is that we see the epithelial cells, a bit of hair, a mustache, clothes, shoes, but we don’t really see the man or woman that is in front of us. That masked and hidden reality that we have is much richer. That is the reason why our own face, which is external and material, can be altered many times by our inner life. No one will deny that we don’t have the same face when we are quietly reading a favorite book or with a friend, than in a moment when we are angered by whatever circumstance, by someone who has insulted us or because of some great injustice that has been done to us; that’s when the blood rises to the face. This medically demonstrates that there is a series of physiological changes, in the blood pressure or in the whole endocrine area, that becomes altered according to our relations with our surroundings, with the outside world, in such a way that we aren’t the same throughout the whole day; an easy thing to notice because, without being famous doctors, psychiatrists, or philosophers, we can realize that we are not the same in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night; there are days in which we wake up with a certain pessimism, a certain feeling that bad things will happen to us, that it’s not even worth the trouble of leaving the house; but it isn’t something rational, it’s something that comes from the inside. Other days we are euphoric: we sing while taking a shower, we leave the house singing, and we feel that everything is going to turn out well. It’s obvious that, physically, we aren’t the same when we are depressed than when we are euphoric but in what way? What is it inside of us that is euphoric or depressed? What makes us all of the sudden remember someone whom we have lost track of, and why do we remember at that particular instant? Why is it that at other times we practically don’t care at all about the life we have lived and the only thing that matters is the moment we are currently living? These are questions that we all ask on a daily basis at any time.
The men of India and Egypt of a thousand years ago who were philosophers, not the current ones, undertook an in-depth investigation of mankind as it existed in ancient civilizations; these men had different values from or own. You are aware that every civilization has its prejudices, a series of beliefs, a different way of life, which gives importance to certain things. Today we wonder how the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians or the Incas managed to live in the way that they did, with their social, political, economical and religious organization. If an Egyptian or an Inca would walk through this door today, and if we had the courage to refrain from getting up and leaving in a hurry, if we were able to converse with him, he wouldn’t understand us either, he wouldn’t understand our economical and political systems, nor our way of living, nor would he recognize things that today we consider entirely immoral but would appear to him, however, completely natural. And, on the other hand, things that they would look at with sincere indignation, we do every day like it was the most natural thing in the world.
We are therefore going to look at what those two great currents of thought that we have chosen, one from India, the other from Egypt. I will insist once again, so there won’t be any confusion, that I’m not referring to the India or the Egypt of today, but rather to ancient India of thousands of years ago, the one called the Aryavarta, and to the old kingdom of Kem which the Greeks rebaptized with a name that resembles the one that we use today-Egypt-and which means “that which is unknown’. These people thought that the complete man, the holistic man, isn’t made up strictly of his physical aspect, but that he had other elements interrelating in different dimensions.
We could compare it to the peels of an onion, although it isn’t exactly like that. In fact, they thought that it was like different dimensions, like the dimensions of time and space today. They considered that there exists in man a body, that the ancient Hindus called Stula Sharira which means: “a cover that one can hit, that one can touch, that one can seize with one’s hand.” The Egyptians called it Chat. In the Egyptian hieroglyphics one can often see it represented by a cube with a human head, that is to say the material part, the concrete part that we can hold, the part that is evidently physical.
Next, in a higher plane of consciousness, there was a kind of vital or energetic body that the Hindus called Prana Sharira, which is the part of that ancient Prana or energy of the great life of nature that we have in each one of us. That is, in each one of us there is a vitality that has been crystallized that is like that which is in all things and has taken a definite form: one for human beings, another for vegetables and another one for animals. The Egyptians represented this part with the Ankh, the old key of life. Today it has come back in style and many people wear it around their necks; the Ankh is the figure of the living man, the figure of the standing man.
In another dimension, a higher one, say the Hindus, there exists that which the current translators call the Astral Body. They call it Linga Sharira or “body that one cannot touch”, “luminous body”; this parts corresponds to the emotional plane of the individual, the sum of all the emotions. We would therefore have, following this line of thought, a body that encompasses in some way all our emotions, our feelings, and our sensibilities. The Egyptians represented it by the Ka or the double, the phantom; we could say that it is this invisible counterpart within us that gathers all the feelings, all the emotions.
The Hindus place above this, Kama Manas, which means, literally translated, “body of mental desires”. That is to say, it would be the part of our mind in which desires spring; not the higher mind but the speculating one, the one that measures, the one that sees what advantages I may gain, what disadvantages might others have, how may I buy things at the lowest price and sell them at the highest price. This part of the mind is the Ab-Hati of the Egyptians. They represent Ab-Hati and Bai, which signifies the mind as well, as two brothers. Ab-Hati has a very showy appearance, and Bai, on the contrary, generally appears very humbly dressed or simply naked before the light of Amen or the light of Amon, the Universal Light the everything bathes in. By analogy, that which Bai represents for the Egyptians was known in India as Manas (from the root Man = man) and characterizes human beings. As human beings, we have the characteristic of possessing, on top of a concrete speculative mind, a higher mind that even transcends us, that dreams, that progresses towards the future; a mind that imagines a Better World and a series of Archetypes.
According to the Hindus, this mind or Manas is illuminated by Budhi (from the root Bud, light, illumination): it is that which gave the Buddha his name - Siddhartha Gautama- which means : “the enlightened” and is the equivalent of Christ, which in Greek also means “the enlightened”, different from Chrestos, which means “he who will receive the light”. In Egypt, this plane was called Cheybi and was represented by a bird resembling a swallow that symbolized the resurrection to the light and all the higher things. The ancients said that this is where our power of intuition comes from, since man, in some way, can sometimes see things that are going to happen or are happening far away. There is a modern science, called Parapsychology that is undertaking great investigations in this field; the name itself obviously means nothing, because Para-Psychology signifies “that which is beyond Psychology”. It’s like the old term Meta-Phyiskae or Meta-Physics, which signifies “that which is beyond what is physical”, which also signifies nothing. It’s like if someone where to ask: “What is behind the wall that I see?”, and someone answered: “Oh, it’s the Metawall”; that is, that which is beyond the wall; merely an abstraction. When we are dealing with abstract terms it’s very difficult to speak concretely; the great difficulty for man is not in perceiving and understanding these things, since any man who has a little spirituality can easily manage it; the real problem is to seize it, placing it on a human level and being able to apply it to daily life and within ourselves successfully. Lamentably, the serious problem of many currents of “spiritualism” - or whatever you want to call it-is that they practice a series of exercises, of abstinences, of mutilations of daily life that don’t always give practical results. Which is why we see, as you know, that in many parts of the world there are people who are straining to realize their potential, to increase their memory, to be able to gain intuition, control their bodies, their emotions; and nevertheless, we see little difference between someone who doesn’t do any exercises and doesn’t study anything and someone who devotes several months of effort to this difficult task.
And finally, we have the superior part of man, which the Hindus name Atma. Atma is undefinable; it could be called the Spirit. In Egypt it is called Shu or Atmu, which is also the superior part, and which the Egyptians-with their figurative penchant-represented by a man of great height, as seen in the papyrus of Ani, from the British Museum. It’s a giant, a man with the height of a god, who has arrived at this divine dimension. It is in this way then, that they explain that man not only has a physical body, but other bodies as well, those other zones of living or points of consciousness inside of ourselves.
Lecture transcript - 'Como y donde conocerse a si mismo'
We have all had little experiences in this regard; everyone has. How many times when looking at a picture that was taken of us, and I don’t know whether it’s because of vanity or some such thing, but we say: “Is that me?”. We see a face that we recognize as our own but it’s hard for us to believe it, it seems that we never look natural or that we look better or worse, or that it was out of focus or that, in one way or another, that face in the picture isn’t exactly the one that we imagine we have; as well, sometimes, when we feel that we are alone, looking into a mirror, it seems that the person in the mirror isn’t us, but rather some other person that is looking at me and although I know it’s me, in some way I also know that we are two: the reflection and myself. Another experience that everyone has experienced is recording one’s voice on a tape recorder: a speech, a conversation, the reading of a poem. Someone who hears this for the first time is really amazed to hear his voice, although he recognizes it, it sounds strange, it seems to have a higher pitch or it seems muted or something, but they don’t quite recognize their voice exactly; it isn’t the same voice that one hears when one is talking.
Even when dealing only with what is strictly physical, the outer aspect, it is very difficult to know ourselves because that implies a state of consciousness of reversion that not everyone can achieve very easily. I’m not going to broach this subject in technical terms. We are not going to make an analysis of psychoanalysis or psycho synthesis. Neither will we be dealing with the recent theories of for example the philosopher Levi, who delivered many lectures in Europe on non-conformity, the isolation of man in society or on the impossibility of man knowing himself because society, in one form or another, pressures him and deforms him to the point where it is impossible to recognize oneself. In other words, being faced with a paradoxical figure that disconcerts and creates an inner dichotomy. We are going to refer to something much older to later come back to our topic in current and practical terms.
We are going to see in what way some of the oldest peoples have dealt with this subject. We won’t be able to mention all of them, partly because we are lacking information and partly because the task would be too great. We’ll only discuss two great currents of thought: one that comes from India and another from Egypt. Egypt and India have left us documents that are sufficiently eloquent for us to see what they thought of man in his totality.
Man is not only that which we can see. What do we see of other people and what do they see of us? The truth is that we see the epithelial cells, a bit of hair, a mustache, clothes, shoes, but we don’t really see the man or woman that is in front of us. That masked and hidden reality that we have is much richer. That is the reason why our own face, which is external and material, can be altered many times by our inner life. No one will deny that we don’t have the same face when we are quietly reading a favorite book or with a friend, than in a moment when we are angered by whatever circumstance, by someone who has insulted us or because of some great injustice that has been done to us; that’s when the blood rises to the face. This medically demonstrates that there is a series of physiological changes, in the blood pressure or in the whole endocrine area, that becomes altered according to our relations with our surroundings, with the outside world, in such a way that we aren’t the same throughout the whole day; an easy thing to notice because, without being famous doctors, psychiatrists, or philosophers, we can realize that we are not the same in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night; there are days in which we wake up with a certain pessimism, a certain feeling that bad things will happen to us, that it’s not even worth the trouble of leaving the house; but it isn’t something rational, it’s something that comes from the inside. Other days we are euphoric: we sing while taking a shower, we leave the house singing, and we feel that everything is going to turn out well. It’s obvious that, physically, we aren’t the same when we are depressed than when we are euphoric but in what way? What is it inside of us that is euphoric or depressed? What makes us all of the sudden remember someone whom we have lost track of, and why do we remember at that particular instant? Why is it that at other times we practically don’t care at all about the life we have lived and the only thing that matters is the moment we are currently living? These are questions that we all ask on a daily basis at any time.
The men of India and Egypt of a thousand years ago who were philosophers, not the current ones, undertook an in-depth investigation of mankind as it existed in ancient civilizations; these men had different values from or own. You are aware that every civilization has its prejudices, a series of beliefs, a different way of life, which gives importance to certain things. Today we wonder how the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians or the Incas managed to live in the way that they did, with their social, political, economical and religious organization. If an Egyptian or an Inca would walk through this door today, and if we had the courage to refrain from getting up and leaving in a hurry, if we were able to converse with him, he wouldn’t understand us either, he wouldn’t understand our economical and political systems, nor our way of living, nor would he recognize things that today we consider entirely immoral but would appear to him, however, completely natural. And, on the other hand, things that they would look at with sincere indignation, we do every day like it was the most natural thing in the world.
We are therefore going to look at what those two great currents of thought that we have chosen, one from India, the other from Egypt. I will insist once again, so there won’t be any confusion, that I’m not referring to the India or the Egypt of today, but rather to ancient India of thousands of years ago, the one called the Aryavarta, and to the old kingdom of Kem which the Greeks rebaptized with a name that resembles the one that we use today-Egypt-and which means “that which is unknown’. These people thought that the complete man, the holistic man, isn’t made up strictly of his physical aspect, but that he had other elements interrelating in different dimensions.
We could compare it to the peels of an onion, although it isn’t exactly like that. In fact, they thought that it was like different dimensions, like the dimensions of time and space today. They considered that there exists in man a body, that the ancient Hindus called Stula Sharira which means: “a cover that one can hit, that one can touch, that one can seize with one’s hand.” The Egyptians called it Chat. In the Egyptian hieroglyphics one can often see it represented by a cube with a human head, that is to say the material part, the concrete part that we can hold, the part that is evidently physical.
Next, in a higher plane of consciousness, there was a kind of vital or energetic body that the Hindus called Prana Sharira, which is the part of that ancient Prana or energy of the great life of nature that we have in each one of us. That is, in each one of us there is a vitality that has been crystallized that is like that which is in all things and has taken a definite form: one for human beings, another for vegetables and another one for animals. The Egyptians represented this part with the Ankh, the old key of life. Today it has come back in style and many people wear it around their necks; the Ankh is the figure of the living man, the figure of the standing man.
In another dimension, a higher one, say the Hindus, there exists that which the current translators call the Astral Body. They call it Linga Sharira or “body that one cannot touch”, “luminous body”; this parts corresponds to the emotional plane of the individual, the sum of all the emotions. We would therefore have, following this line of thought, a body that encompasses in some way all our emotions, our feelings, and our sensibilities. The Egyptians represented it by the Ka or the double, the phantom; we could say that it is this invisible counterpart within us that gathers all the feelings, all the emotions.
The Hindus place above this, Kama Manas, which means, literally translated, “body of mental desires”. That is to say, it would be the part of our mind in which desires spring; not the higher mind but the speculating one, the one that measures, the one that sees what advantages I may gain, what disadvantages might others have, how may I buy things at the lowest price and sell them at the highest price. This part of the mind is the Ab-Hati of the Egyptians. They represent Ab-Hati and Bai, which signifies the mind as well, as two brothers. Ab-Hati has a very showy appearance, and Bai, on the contrary, generally appears very humbly dressed or simply naked before the light of Amen or the light of Amon, the Universal Light the everything bathes in. By analogy, that which Bai represents for the Egyptians was known in India as Manas (from the root Man = man) and characterizes human beings. As human beings, we have the characteristic of possessing, on top of a concrete speculative mind, a higher mind that even transcends us, that dreams, that progresses towards the future; a mind that imagines a Better World and a series of Archetypes.
According to the Hindus, this mind or Manas is illuminated by Budhi (from the root Bud, light, illumination): it is that which gave the Buddha his name - Siddhartha Gautama- which means : “the enlightened” and is the equivalent of Christ, which in Greek also means “the enlightened”, different from Chrestos, which means “he who will receive the light”. In Egypt, this plane was called Cheybi and was represented by a bird resembling a swallow that symbolized the resurrection to the light and all the higher things. The ancients said that this is where our power of intuition comes from, since man, in some way, can sometimes see things that are going to happen or are happening far away. There is a modern science, called Parapsychology that is undertaking great investigations in this field; the name itself obviously means nothing, because Para-Psychology signifies “that which is beyond Psychology”. It’s like the old term Meta-Phyiskae or Meta-Physics, which signifies “that which is beyond what is physical”, which also signifies nothing. It’s like if someone where to ask: “What is behind the wall that I see?”, and someone answered: “Oh, it’s the Metawall”; that is, that which is beyond the wall; merely an abstraction. When we are dealing with abstract terms it’s very difficult to speak concretely; the great difficulty for man is not in perceiving and understanding these things, since any man who has a little spirituality can easily manage it; the real problem is to seize it, placing it on a human level and being able to apply it to daily life and within ourselves successfully. Lamentably, the serious problem of many currents of “spiritualism” - or whatever you want to call it-is that they practice a series of exercises, of abstinences, of mutilations of daily life that don’t always give practical results. Which is why we see, as you know, that in many parts of the world there are people who are straining to realize their potential, to increase their memory, to be able to gain intuition, control their bodies, their emotions; and nevertheless, we see little difference between someone who doesn’t do any exercises and doesn’t study anything and someone who devotes several months of effort to this difficult task.
And finally, we have the superior part of man, which the Hindus name Atma. Atma is undefinable; it could be called the Spirit. In Egypt it is called Shu or Atmu, which is also the superior part, and which the Egyptians-with their figurative penchant-represented by a man of great height, as seen in the papyrus of Ani, from the British Museum. It’s a giant, a man with the height of a god, who has arrived at this divine dimension. It is in this way then, that they explain that man not only has a physical body, but other bodies as well, those other zones of living or points of consciousness inside of ourselves.
Lecture transcript - 'Como y donde conocerse a si mismo'
Sunday, March 1, 2009
An interview with H.P. Blavatsky, part 2
- Madam, everyone knows you as H.P.B. ... I don’t wish to be impolite, but my readers often ask why you name yourself Blavatsky, the name of a spouse who could have been your grandfather and with whom you refused to live. I know that it isn’t for economic reasons, since upon taking your North American citizenship you automatically renounced the important pension of a Russian general. Neither was it for prestige, since you were born a noble and were related to the family of the Czar ... Why Blavatsky?
- The truth is that I didn’t believe, in my youth, that it would have any importance. I got married impetuously in order to free myself from family control, and in order to reaffirm this, I took the name of my husband, which was the custom of the time. And afterwards ... I got used to the name and the initials, and it seemed to me a lack of respect to the memory of an old knight to return to my maiden name.
- You have severely attacked Spiritism and your teaching on “astral shells” that torture mediums became popular. Why did you practice it in despite the difficulties that it brought? And in some way where you not yourself a kind of medium in certain occasions?
- In the middle of the XIXth century, Spiritism was an explosive fashion... This has happened various times in History, and even in the Old Testament those who practice such things are condemned. Summoning the spirits of the dead, or of those who pretend to be, is the simplest, most popular form of replacing phenomena of let’s say... a religious origin. The advance of Positivist Materialism caused a regression in all the known religions, the one’s in Asia included, and some cults were so degenerated, like with the Christians with the inquisition and the corruption of the bishops, that the Hierarchy decided to encourage this Movement as a momentary opportunity for spiritual nourishment. I didn’t combat spiritism, but rather I explained what it was and the excesses into which it had fallen... many times by the hands of the very same religions. I could have been a good “medium”, and in a certain manner I was in my childhood and my adolescence, but the presence of my Master was constant and his powerful Servants protected me.
I was twenty years old when, walking with my father in Hyde park, in London, I saw my Master physically, who I had seen so many times in the Astral Light... I “felt” that he was alive, that he was a real and incarnated Being... but it caused a great emotion for me to witness this. He was walking with other Hindus and noticing my intention to approach Him, he gave me a sign not to. I told my father everything, as we were very close at that time. The next day I returned alone to the same place, and the Master was also there. We walked for hours in that park and talked about many things...
Obviously I cannot reveal everything... but we talked, above all about myself... My uniqueness was explained to me, having always been so different from most people, he explained the reasons why; he also spoke of my work in my present incarnation, and especially how to dominate my own powers and the world of elementals and other invisible beings and the strange forces that have manifested themselves in my presence. He advised me on travels, and people, and books and ... shall we leave it at that?
- It was Master K.H.?
-Excuse me.. but would you give the name of your Master in a public article? There have been too many misunderstandings and waves of spite and incomprehension because of what has filtered to the outside. In the eagerness to spread this archaic form of Philosophy known as Theosophy, we gained many friends and caused much beneficial consternation in the fight against the obscuring darkness, but we also brought up to public vituperation respectable things and the ridiculing of Sacred Books, that, unfortunately, aren’t published without transformations and fragmentations. I went through difficult trials and, in part, I’m so sick that I’m almost unable to feel the lower extremities of this poor body, for being unable to dominate my attack of nerves in front of so much injustice.
- Madam... we cannot avoid asking how H.P.B., with her extraordinary psychic powers and an exceptional capacity of concentration and mental development, was, nevertheless, so vulnerable to the attacks, which where, through their own nature and convictions, predictable that they would launched.
- This subject is very complex. I don’t know exactly why myself.. but, making a simile, think of a test tube in a chemical laboratory, in which are produced reactions that liberate strong heat and other types of vibrations. The container does not always resist and therefore cracks and carbonizations appear; this container will continue to unconsciously self-destruct and can even burn those who are closest to it. But the Work is accomplished... the athanor is irrelevant.. When it is finished breaking, it turns to dust... I want my body to be cremated and my ashes scattered... The test tube is - how would you say in the XXth century?- Contaminated.
-Tell us something about the Theosophical Society.
- I suppose that you know more than me about its development, but I can’t nor do I want to know details about the future. Of the past I can say that, when I was very young I made my first trip to Egypt, I wanted to found some form of society or center for Esoteric studies. It was several years later, in New York, when I got to know Olcott well, trying to do the same with some very influential friends, and with others who were simply curious. The 17th of November, 1875, we formed the Theosophical Society, which I helped found with the permission of my Master... Its principles changed various times in their form because the initial enthusiasm unsettled us all. However, on advice from my master, I was only officially Corresponding Secretary, since many travels awaited me in the future... The true Founder was Colonel Olcott who, as you know, is a lawyer and an expert in psychic phenomena and spiritism.
I know that without me the Theosophical Society would not have interested so many people. Today there are three centers of power: the United States, England and India, where Adyar is, which maybe one day will be its official capital at the international level. For now, it is so more in name than in reality. But I also know that I caused it much harm, because the attacks from the incompetent religious and scientific fanatics have slandered the society and many of its members through my fault. I never deceived anyone and I never missed it, since I actually had to limit the paranormal phenomena, rather than provoking it, as it was natural for me. But I wasn’t able to do things correctly, avoiding groups of people deranged by the effects of mediumship or simply by their spiritual baseness, their envy and desire for conflict. Today, while I am writing “The Secret Doctrine” and correcting its typed version, I write articles for “The Theosophist” and other theosophical and scientific magazines and have started to gather around myself that which some people call the Blavatsky Lodge: an Inner Section, which is the real Esoteric School. I know that many aren’t prepared, but it’s all I can do; to work with the human material that’s available... Not to do it would be worse, although at times I don’t know... My voices, that used to teach me, have become quiet... my Astral Mirror reflects nothing... I obey and act on, to the best of my strength, what I have been ordered.
I have also thought about writing a Glossary of words useful for reading “The Secret Doctrine”. There are many pedagogical diagrams as well that will be added with time.
- Madam, for all of those who appreciate your extraordinary and superhuman work, it is saddening for us that you couldn’t avoid so many curious people wasting your time seeking phenomena and private consultations... Today, in order for you to be able to finish your Work, I understand that the Masters have had to give you... extra vitality. Why did you squander this vitality, previously, in phenomena of limited real usefulness?
- Pardon me, but everyone is allowed to live one’s life the way one wants and can. Freedom doesn’t mean voting in a sheep-like manner, but rather something much more profound, with an individual and unchangeable root.
- Excuse me... I didn’t want to criticize your attitude, it’s just that many have suffered with you over so much ingratitude; having started a worldwide movemen, that has depended in certain respects on friends or disciples who’s commitment is based on nothing other than a personal link with yourself...
- It is a form of work, which isn’t yours, but it is mine. All forms of authority that aren’t firmly based on a spiritual concord seem ridiculous to me, and it is probable that that is one of my many faults, but the participation of one’s own personality is unavoidable... Everyone has to be who they are, and without authenticity we couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry, but I love long evenings of discussion about a thousand and one topics with people who have different views than mine. And it’s very difficult for me to refuse someone who has asked me something... I don’t believe in the transcendence of paranormal phenomena, but they have been used since the most remote antiquity. Take away the paranormal phenomena from the Bible, for example, and the Old Testament becomes nothing but a compilation of the vicissitudes of tribal band, and the New Testament becomes a series of moralizing precepts like any Stoic book. The phenomenal is an ingredient that cannot be totally done away with... The paranormal phenomena, if authentic and done without desire for profit, although very dangerous, is remembered much more than an oral or written teaching, above all for those who fear life and death... And we all, in some way fear certain aspects of this cycle of life and death. It’s not enough to remember past incarnations... as you well know.
- How come we are unable to remember anything of the periods between incarnations, when our conscience is in Devachan, or Heaven, or whatever you wish to call it?
- Because one tries to recollect with one’s mortal part, and thus one only remembers one’s mortal existences. If we elevate our conscience to that which is not directly affected by destruction, we can obtain information about that Celestial Life that Plato and so many Initiates have spoken of... And now, if you permit, I must return to my work... It’s slow... sometimes I need two days to obtain a date, a quote, a simple extract from a recently published book which I’ll never be able to read.... I thank you for the intent of this article and for having taught your disciples that my works aren’t a roof, but rather a door. In any event, the future seems difficult and thinking of it is often frustrating. It’s more advisable to do one’s work without any long term projects...
- Thank you Madam, for existing, since that nosegay that you said you have used to unite so many bouquets of Wisdom, has allowed us to know some valid and sure things in the midst of a growing verbiage. And thank you for the tea, served so strangely...
- Perhaps, in a few years, the only thing that will be remembered about this interview is the way the tea was served.
- H.P.B. laughs and seems in an excellent mood, although I noticed a certain tiredness and her hands, automatically, have returned to her papers.
I give my farewell and get up. It seemed only a few minutes went by.
New visitors are received at the door, since today is Saturday and Madam Blavatsky receives selected visitors, but just as numerous as in the past. I can’t help smiling to myself and thinking that H.P.B., when it comes down to it, will never change... She’s a phenomenon; she knows it and couldn’t care to conceal it.
The sun has started to set and I slowly walk towards the shadows, gripping my notebook like a treasure... which I must memorize in order to compose this interview.
- The truth is that I didn’t believe, in my youth, that it would have any importance. I got married impetuously in order to free myself from family control, and in order to reaffirm this, I took the name of my husband, which was the custom of the time. And afterwards ... I got used to the name and the initials, and it seemed to me a lack of respect to the memory of an old knight to return to my maiden name.
- You have severely attacked Spiritism and your teaching on “astral shells” that torture mediums became popular. Why did you practice it in despite the difficulties that it brought? And in some way where you not yourself a kind of medium in certain occasions?
- In the middle of the XIXth century, Spiritism was an explosive fashion... This has happened various times in History, and even in the Old Testament those who practice such things are condemned. Summoning the spirits of the dead, or of those who pretend to be, is the simplest, most popular form of replacing phenomena of let’s say... a religious origin. The advance of Positivist Materialism caused a regression in all the known religions, the one’s in Asia included, and some cults were so degenerated, like with the Christians with the inquisition and the corruption of the bishops, that the Hierarchy decided to encourage this Movement as a momentary opportunity for spiritual nourishment. I didn’t combat spiritism, but rather I explained what it was and the excesses into which it had fallen... many times by the hands of the very same religions. I could have been a good “medium”, and in a certain manner I was in my childhood and my adolescence, but the presence of my Master was constant and his powerful Servants protected me.
I was twenty years old when, walking with my father in Hyde park, in London, I saw my Master physically, who I had seen so many times in the Astral Light... I “felt” that he was alive, that he was a real and incarnated Being... but it caused a great emotion for me to witness this. He was walking with other Hindus and noticing my intention to approach Him, he gave me a sign not to. I told my father everything, as we were very close at that time. The next day I returned alone to the same place, and the Master was also there. We walked for hours in that park and talked about many things...
Obviously I cannot reveal everything... but we talked, above all about myself... My uniqueness was explained to me, having always been so different from most people, he explained the reasons why; he also spoke of my work in my present incarnation, and especially how to dominate my own powers and the world of elementals and other invisible beings and the strange forces that have manifested themselves in my presence. He advised me on travels, and people, and books and ... shall we leave it at that?
- It was Master K.H.?
-Excuse me.. but would you give the name of your Master in a public article? There have been too many misunderstandings and waves of spite and incomprehension because of what has filtered to the outside. In the eagerness to spread this archaic form of Philosophy known as Theosophy, we gained many friends and caused much beneficial consternation in the fight against the obscuring darkness, but we also brought up to public vituperation respectable things and the ridiculing of Sacred Books, that, unfortunately, aren’t published without transformations and fragmentations. I went through difficult trials and, in part, I’m so sick that I’m almost unable to feel the lower extremities of this poor body, for being unable to dominate my attack of nerves in front of so much injustice.
- Madam... we cannot avoid asking how H.P.B., with her extraordinary psychic powers and an exceptional capacity of concentration and mental development, was, nevertheless, so vulnerable to the attacks, which where, through their own nature and convictions, predictable that they would launched.
- This subject is very complex. I don’t know exactly why myself.. but, making a simile, think of a test tube in a chemical laboratory, in which are produced reactions that liberate strong heat and other types of vibrations. The container does not always resist and therefore cracks and carbonizations appear; this container will continue to unconsciously self-destruct and can even burn those who are closest to it. But the Work is accomplished... the athanor is irrelevant.. When it is finished breaking, it turns to dust... I want my body to be cremated and my ashes scattered... The test tube is - how would you say in the XXth century?- Contaminated.
-Tell us something about the Theosophical Society.
- I suppose that you know more than me about its development, but I can’t nor do I want to know details about the future. Of the past I can say that, when I was very young I made my first trip to Egypt, I wanted to found some form of society or center for Esoteric studies. It was several years later, in New York, when I got to know Olcott well, trying to do the same with some very influential friends, and with others who were simply curious. The 17th of November, 1875, we formed the Theosophical Society, which I helped found with the permission of my Master... Its principles changed various times in their form because the initial enthusiasm unsettled us all. However, on advice from my master, I was only officially Corresponding Secretary, since many travels awaited me in the future... The true Founder was Colonel Olcott who, as you know, is a lawyer and an expert in psychic phenomena and spiritism.
I know that without me the Theosophical Society would not have interested so many people. Today there are three centers of power: the United States, England and India, where Adyar is, which maybe one day will be its official capital at the international level. For now, it is so more in name than in reality. But I also know that I caused it much harm, because the attacks from the incompetent religious and scientific fanatics have slandered the society and many of its members through my fault. I never deceived anyone and I never missed it, since I actually had to limit the paranormal phenomena, rather than provoking it, as it was natural for me. But I wasn’t able to do things correctly, avoiding groups of people deranged by the effects of mediumship or simply by their spiritual baseness, their envy and desire for conflict. Today, while I am writing “The Secret Doctrine” and correcting its typed version, I write articles for “The Theosophist” and other theosophical and scientific magazines and have started to gather around myself that which some people call the Blavatsky Lodge: an Inner Section, which is the real Esoteric School. I know that many aren’t prepared, but it’s all I can do; to work with the human material that’s available... Not to do it would be worse, although at times I don’t know... My voices, that used to teach me, have become quiet... my Astral Mirror reflects nothing... I obey and act on, to the best of my strength, what I have been ordered.
I have also thought about writing a Glossary of words useful for reading “The Secret Doctrine”. There are many pedagogical diagrams as well that will be added with time.
- Madam, for all of those who appreciate your extraordinary and superhuman work, it is saddening for us that you couldn’t avoid so many curious people wasting your time seeking phenomena and private consultations... Today, in order for you to be able to finish your Work, I understand that the Masters have had to give you... extra vitality. Why did you squander this vitality, previously, in phenomena of limited real usefulness?
- Pardon me, but everyone is allowed to live one’s life the way one wants and can. Freedom doesn’t mean voting in a sheep-like manner, but rather something much more profound, with an individual and unchangeable root.
- Excuse me... I didn’t want to criticize your attitude, it’s just that many have suffered with you over so much ingratitude; having started a worldwide movemen, that has depended in certain respects on friends or disciples who’s commitment is based on nothing other than a personal link with yourself...
- It is a form of work, which isn’t yours, but it is mine. All forms of authority that aren’t firmly based on a spiritual concord seem ridiculous to me, and it is probable that that is one of my many faults, but the participation of one’s own personality is unavoidable... Everyone has to be who they are, and without authenticity we couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry, but I love long evenings of discussion about a thousand and one topics with people who have different views than mine. And it’s very difficult for me to refuse someone who has asked me something... I don’t believe in the transcendence of paranormal phenomena, but they have been used since the most remote antiquity. Take away the paranormal phenomena from the Bible, for example, and the Old Testament becomes nothing but a compilation of the vicissitudes of tribal band, and the New Testament becomes a series of moralizing precepts like any Stoic book. The phenomenal is an ingredient that cannot be totally done away with... The paranormal phenomena, if authentic and done without desire for profit, although very dangerous, is remembered much more than an oral or written teaching, above all for those who fear life and death... And we all, in some way fear certain aspects of this cycle of life and death. It’s not enough to remember past incarnations... as you well know.
- How come we are unable to remember anything of the periods between incarnations, when our conscience is in Devachan, or Heaven, or whatever you wish to call it?
- Because one tries to recollect with one’s mortal part, and thus one only remembers one’s mortal existences. If we elevate our conscience to that which is not directly affected by destruction, we can obtain information about that Celestial Life that Plato and so many Initiates have spoken of... And now, if you permit, I must return to my work... It’s slow... sometimes I need two days to obtain a date, a quote, a simple extract from a recently published book which I’ll never be able to read.... I thank you for the intent of this article and for having taught your disciples that my works aren’t a roof, but rather a door. In any event, the future seems difficult and thinking of it is often frustrating. It’s more advisable to do one’s work without any long term projects...
- Thank you Madam, for existing, since that nosegay that you said you have used to unite so many bouquets of Wisdom, has allowed us to know some valid and sure things in the midst of a growing verbiage. And thank you for the tea, served so strangely...
- Perhaps, in a few years, the only thing that will be remembered about this interview is the way the tea was served.
- H.P.B. laughs and seems in an excellent mood, although I noticed a certain tiredness and her hands, automatically, have returned to her papers.
I give my farewell and get up. It seemed only a few minutes went by.
New visitors are received at the door, since today is Saturday and Madam Blavatsky receives selected visitors, but just as numerous as in the past. I can’t help smiling to myself and thinking that H.P.B., when it comes down to it, will never change... She’s a phenomenon; she knows it and couldn’t care to conceal it.
The sun has started to set and I slowly walk towards the shadows, gripping my notebook like a treasure... which I must memorize in order to compose this interview.
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