An
Opportunity Before
Those Who
Have Eyes to See
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Carlos Cardoso Aveline

Every earnest
student of philosophy gets sooner or later fully aware of the struggle between
that in his life which is enlightened and that which stays in the shadow and
boycotts his progress towards light.
And the student asks himself:
“How can I deal with the shadow of ignorance so as to
transform it into the light of wisdom?”
The answers to this question do not remain unchanged. They
evolve and acquire deeper meanings as the pilgrim makes progress along the way.
How to deal with the shadow becomes an urgent question because ignorance seems to
get stronger from the moment the pilgrim makes a firm decision to search for
wisdom. In fact, it gets more visible. The light of truth reveals everything:
victory and defeat, devotion and disloyalty, right actions as well as wrong
deeds - in us and around us.
Negative thoughts and feelings may hypnotize, if one’s
vigilance is not strong enough. Regarding the paradox of light and shadow,
esoteric philosophy teaches:
“When you have found the beginning of the way the star
of your soul will show its light; and by that light you will perceive how great
is the darkness in which it burns. Mind, heart, brain, all are obscure and dark
until the first great battle has been won. Be not appalled and terrified by
this sight; keep your eyes fixed on the small light and it will grow.” [1]
This is the student’s greatest weapon. Contemplation of
the spiritual world leads to harmlessness and liberates one from the dilemma
created by an alternation between fear and anger. It opens room to happiness,
fullness, humility - and peace.
The key to victory lies in keeping the central focus
of one’s mind and heart concentrated on that which is good, and secondarily
looking at failures and mistakes with the firm intention of correcting them.
Karma depends on the intention. Do we really want
wisdom? We must then search on every occasion for that which is balanced,
morally beautiful and ethically just. Having
an elevated focus of mind we can see that, whether we know it or not, we are
side by side all the time with a divine energy. The sacred presence is
Atma-Buddhi, the Universal Law, the Inner Master, the immortal soul or higher
self. Whether they are asleep or awake,
with concentrated or distracted minds, human beings are ever in front of, or
beside, such a divine and multidimensional energy. No term or name is good
enough to fully describe it. The practice of sacred presence consists in
remembering that, by being human, we are constantly in the presence of the
Eternal Law and Unlimited Intelligence. This is a Pythagorean idea, later
absorbed by Christian mysticism.
It is easy to forget that there is a divine
intelligence next to us. And even while the sacred presence is forgotten, it remains
fully active in the aura of the individual. Its objective aspects make
“photographs” of all thoughts, emotions and facts, both pleasant and
unpleasant. Nothing escapes the Law, and as a Master wrote, everything is
unceasingly recorded for one’s future credit and debit.
The Homing Instinct
Many a student of theosophy tries to keep in mind an
active remembrance of the fact that his own inner being is essentially correct,
and secondarily subject to illusions and mistakes.
He firmly remembers the sacred presence for some time
and then forgets it; he recalls it again, and thus the struggle goes on. He learns more at each new mistake. Little by
little, he comes to know how to receive a victory with humbleness and face a
defeat preserving inner peace. Thus the ups and downs of the “karmic tide”
cease to have an exaggerated impact on the pilgrim.
However, real progress is a long-term process. An
entire lifetime is not enough to accomplish the task. A few incarnations are
necessary for the constant and “instinctive” perception of the sacred presence
to be born in the Heart and Mind of the pilgrim. The true awakening then takes
place.
During an international meeting in the 1990s, a
European theosophist talked about the existence in human soul of a “homing
instinct”, an “instinct which leads us back home”. What is the meaning of the
word “home” in the sentence? The spiritual soul is one’s Home. It is from the
immortal soul that a ray of light is projected so as to start each new
incarnation. And it is to the immortal soul that the lower self “instinctively”
comes back after the death of the physical body. It is in the spiritual soul that
the lower self rests and dissolves itself in peace, while sleeping as a baby sleeps
in the loving arms of his mother.
The theosophical path changes the process. It
anticipates the time of “coming back home”, so that it takes place during
physical life and while the student is in good health. The process occurs
through the student’s discovery of divine wisdom in his own heart and mind. As
a result the mind places itself “instinctively” at the service of the Heart,
which happens to be an occult counterpart of the Sun.
In Astrology and Esoteric Philosophy, the heart is a
miniature of the center of our solar system. When one’s mind and heart are
united, both become representations of the Sun. The golden aureole around the
heads of saints in ancient pictures symbolizes this fact, as a Master of the
Wisdom writes in the Mahatma Letters.
How can the pilgrim avoid the dangers of the shadow
produced by the light of his soul’s little sun?
There is no need to feed superstitious fears regarding
the “shadow”. The shadow is the unlearned lesson. It is the wee hours of the
morning, which promise and prepare the next sunrise. The shadow is also the
spiritual intuition. It is the eve of the Light. Everything is made of Light in
the Universe, whether manifested or potential, and the “dark night of the
soul”, in the phrase coined by John of the Cross, is the early morning of
spiritual enlightenment.
Every light must face challenges. They are easier to
overcome due to the mutual help among pilgrims.
A candle may produce a shadow if it is not well
placed. When there are various candles, however, the whole room gets
enlightened with no significant shadows.
It is a good idea, therefore, to combine the lights of different and
reliable individuals and preserve the common focus of these independent small suns,
all centered in the source of universal wisdom.
NOTE:
[1] “Light on the Path”, M.C., Theosophy Co., India,
commentary to rule 20 in the first set of rules, p. 19.
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The above article was published on the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists on 16 September 2015.
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Read more:
* The Practice of Divine Presence, by CCA.
* The Direct Experience of Sacredness, by CCA.
* The Notebook of Willpower, by Jean des Vignes Rouges.
* Obstacle, a Precondition of Willpower, by Jean des Vignes Rouges.
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