A Firm and Long-Term
Effort Opens the Doors of
Wisdom
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Whoever
decides to study theosophy must have patience and humility, for it will be
necessary to live side by side with the unknown. Realization will gradually come,
if the student has the sort of modesty that allows him to live with unknown
factors, without pretending to know them in advance. Opinions cannot replace
knowledge. He should calmly investigate
matters, letting the answers come out in due time.
One’s contemplative reading must have a stable method and rhythm. In
order for theosophy to have a deeper effect on the pilgrim and produce an inevitable
self-forgetfulness, one factor is decisive in almost every case: the daily
study of esoteric philosophy, preferably at a regular time of the day and when there
is relative calm and silence. It is highly recommendable that the student take
notes on the study.
The Several Levels of
Consciousness
The main source of mental dispersion is to excessively think about
oneself. By forgetting himself, the student concentrates his mind on his goal. As
a result, his higher intuition starts to awaken.
Self-forgetfulness is the ability of not placing his own little “self”
as the center of all things. Leaving one’s lower self aside is an essential
factor in esoteric learning and does not occur by chance. It emerges in the
consciousness of one who contemplates the universal truths. He who looks at the
universe gets detached from the world
of narrow-mindedness. The student who searches
for wisdom and tries to live accordingly soon realizes that there is in his
personal existence a daily, intense fight between selfishness and altruism.
Upon reflecting on such a struggle, he can better understand the teachings
on the seven principles of consciousness. The conflict in his soul is sometimes
subtle, sometimes brutal. Before fully understanding it, one must give up the
habit of vainly complaining about others, or about the circumstances.[1] It is by acting in the right way
that one creates good karma.
The Trap of Spiritual Pride
Depending on the amount of inner discernment, the student will face
greater or smaller difficulty regarding
the test of “spiritual vanity”.
Naïve souls, who are still beginning to approach the spiritual quest, have
a tendency to limit themselves to using beautiful concepts and ideas about the
path. They find it hard to admit they know little or nothing. They do not want
to be patient. They delude themselves with words and use them as if they knew a
lot. They rarely ask themselves about the substance of wisdom, and are anxious
to represent the role of one who seems to
possess all the answers about the philosophy of the universe.
One must carefully examine the challenges present in the initial stages
of the quest for truth, once the higher self makes the life of the student entirely
reorganize itself around the idea of the
inner path and the theosophical work.
There are subconscious reactions.
The blind part of the lower self typically comes to believe that it is the true owner of spirituality and
dedicates itself to “posing for pictures”. It wonders why is it that the entire
world does not see how “enlightened” it is.
When the higher self of the student is applauded and stimulated by
anyone for having done something good and selfless, the backward part of the
lower self immediately reacts thanking the other person for the incentive and
support, as if they had been given him. In this phase of the path, the lower
section of the lower self is like an agitated
monkey, drunk with words and external attitudes, which will do anything
“to be in the picture” and to look nice!
Each time a higher inspiration quietly occurs, the blind section of the
lower self emerges in the scene, “modestly” presenting itself as the author of
all things good. It needs to pretend to itself and to others that it is “the
best” in every situation. Such sublevel of personal consciousness can’t forget
itself, and it looks at everything as if it were a personal matter.
In pseudo-esoteric organizations, such sublevel of perception is often stimulated
by the offering of attractive and fake initiations in “masonic” orders and
other “prestigious positions” according to the nature of the association.
These are occult instruments to control people’s hopes and behaviour
through the use of illusion. Every legitimate pedagogical system must warn
people about two facts: 1) That ritualism
is worse than useless, because it blocks self-knowledge and self-forgetfulness
through a pretense of personal promotion; and 2) That a sense of personal importance, associated with the
appearance of spiritual path, leads to ethical disaster.
In spite of appearances, whenever there is a sense of self-importance the Christic or Buddhic
consciousness, the sixth principle, is still crucified. In consequence, as the
student looks for happiness, he finds pain. While feeding hope, he meets
disappointment. As he seeks clarity, he
gets confused.
He will attain the bliss of self-forgetfulness after the
monkey-mind, exhausted and tired of going adrift, unconditionally accepts inner peace and
realizes that it can only benefit from making a pause and listening to the
Voice of the Silence.
Then the inner learning starts.
Up to this point, the attempts to walk along the path are largely made
of varnish. Now the soul finds it pleasant to honestly recognize that it knows
little or nothing. By renouncing personal knowledge, the soul learns to share in part the very substance of Infinite Wisdom. Now the
individual can see that to be one with Knowledge in one’s heart is better than just
“knowing things”.
Humility ceases to be a new and attractive coat which one uses in front
of other people, and wisdom is no longer a source of personal pride or a means to
obtain applause. The strongest sectors of one’s lower self have now their deepest
joy in being loyal to the higher self and helping it. The pilgrim starts to forget
himself. The deeper truths and a sacred silence are now in the center of his
thoughts, words and actions. He has discovered
the happiness of going beyond the walls of self-centrism. He must organize his
daily life in a growingly effective way.
Questions Before the Study
The student advances most by establishing the right balance between heart and head. As one sits
down to read, and in other occasions as well, it is correct to observe one’s
emotions and ask oneself:
1) Am I connected with the center of peace
in my consciousness?
2) Is there serenity in my heart?
3) Can I leave my personal world aside, before
reading the first sentence? Am I ready to forget myself for a while?
A one-minute meditation is useful on these questions. They
are one in essence. They make a great
difference, for theosophy is not limited to concepts.
Wisdom does not consist of words: it uses words and concepts.
Real knowledge is made of direct perception and free from intermediation. Words
are important tools and must be employed with respect, clarity and
responsibility. When they are correctly used, they help one attain wisdom. Yet no words can replace right understanding.
In order to perceive truth, the student must solve his personal equation and observe the dynamic movement of spiritual
ignorance in his daily life. Solving a mathematical
equation is an exercise in abstract equilibrium. As the student comes to know
the unknowns, he develops the sense
of balance. By solving the equation of his mental and emotional existence, he
produces harmony between the two karmic sides of the scale and forgets himself.
Thus he gets entitled to search for universal truth in itself, and not for the
personal advantages which a spiritually ignorant individual may hope to obtain
from universal truth.
The Seven Principles
The blessing starts now, and it will grow little by little. It descends
upon one’s life like the morning dew, while the whole sky is not enlightened
yet. Among many subjects which become easier to understand, the student attains
a better view of the teachings about the seven principles of consciousness.
He can see various aspects of the interaction between each concept and
the different levels of his internal consciousness. His mind and heart have a
growing understanding of the seven main steps
of the stairs of perception, which are:
1) Sthula-Sharira, the
physical body;
2) Prana, the vitality in
itself;
3) Linga Sharira, the set of
abstract archetypes of one’s vitality, which includes the genetic heritage and the skandhas or karmic records of past
lives, in what they relate to prana;
4) Kama, the place of feelings like desire,
attachment, rejection and search for safety; in other words, the center of
personal emotions and animal instincts;
5) Manas, the mind, the dual
principle which sometimes looks at the terrestrial dimensions of existence, and
sometimes at the spiritual world;
6) Buddhi, the universal intelligence, universal compassion, spiritual
intelligence, higher intuition (metaphorically, the light); and
7) Atma, the supreme
principle, universal and with no attributes (metaphorically, the star).
The next step is to carefully investigate how the central focus of
consciousness gets transferred from the lower levels to the higher triad -
Atma, Buddhi and Manas. While the
transfer of focus is slow at the beginning, it accelerates after the student is
content to realize that “some fundamental principles and facts are more
important to him than his own personal life.”
The change of consciousness is neither easy nor uniform. The road ahead
includes many unexpected ups and downs. In some cases, the number of probations
and difficulties seems to be absurd to the eyes of the student: yet there is no other path to go. It is by
facing tests that the wisdom of theosophy ceases to be “a distant ideal” in the
student’s world, and becomes a practical
way of living.
NOTE:
[1] See the article “A
Broad View, or Looking in the Distance”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline. The text is
available at our websites.
000
Translated
from the Portuguese language text “O Desafio de Estudar Filosofia Esotérica”,
by CCA. The article is available at our associated websites.
000
On the role of the esoteric movement in
the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical
Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
000
