Life
and the World Are Becoming Liquid
Carlos
Cardoso Aveline
Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017)
* Quietness is a source of efficacy. As one learns to
better retreat from action into contemplation, one attains to a greater
effectiveness in the outward world. In fact, right action, inner contemplation
and detachment from results usually
coexist in time and place.
* The deliberate upward movement of one’s soul
provokes a realignment in the lower layers of one’s Karma which is not
necessarily pleasant in its purifying procedures. The symmetry between the
higher and the lower is unavoidable. Firmness and transcendence are necessary
in all occasions and at every level of the pilgrim’s consciousness.
* All forms of harmonious syntony must grow in time or
else fail and cease to exist. Love for truth is no exception to the rule. One’s
ability to place a lucid understanding of facts above other goals - and search
for truth in itself - can only expand little by little. It takes time to leave
aside comfortable consensus or pleasing appearances and choose hard facts, a
habit which gives us a higher order of contentment.
* Self-organization and realistic planning allow us to
transcend small topics, study universal laws and search for eternal knowledge.
He who does not want to organize himself regarding external aspects of life
will find it hard to make serious decisions involving his spiritual soul. Self-organization
produces peace and silence in the inner world of the pilgrim, and this expands
his consciousness.
* Once we see the quiet presence of the Universal Law
in daily events - everywhere and in any century -, peace gains strength in our
soul. Placed on the firm foundations of tranquility and wisdom, efforts to
attain objective goals become more effective.
* The beauty of life is in its limitlessness, as long
as the world of form is concerned. The baby being born, the insight coming to
us and the Sun rising in the morning all speak of renewal and transcendence.
And yet stability is also part of the beauty of life. Relative permanence is
necessary for one to understand the very ideas of spring, birth and change.
* I must not disdain the challenges that wait for me
before I attain my goals. They are my teachers, I must learn from them.
However, the best way to face obstacles is to carefully examine them, to place
them in the wider context of my soul’s learning, and concentrate on the
practices of right view, right understanding, right contemplation, right
action. By thinking mainly of that which is correct and acting accordingly,
mistakes are overcome.
* One thing is the total amount of duties, tasks,
lessons, privileges and opportunities waiting for me. Another thing is how I
organize myself and plan my activities, so as to create good karma and attain
my main goals. Time and Energy are two natural resources of great value. Using
them in wise ways is a science in itself, and part of the art of sowing that
which we would like to harvest.
* The attachment to lower levels of perception prevents
the pilgrim from proceeding along the uphill path toward truth and makes him
feel like a bird that can’t fly. Renunciation to blind attachment liberates one
from unhappiness and enables him to be effective in all departments of life,
including material duties. The soul can fly as a bird while at the same time
its outward dimension as a pilgrim walks on firm soil.
* An anonymous theosophist wrote, a few years ago: “A
lack of moderation is an absence of respect and love for oneself. One’s purpose
must be to serve equilibrium and express love.” Indeed, a sense of balance is
necessary for the student of esoteric philosophy to deal with the sharp
contrasts produced by life. Self-knowledge generates self-confidence, and
self-confidence in time will pave the way to moderation.
* As long as my horizon is narrow and my goal remains
limited to short-term timing, a sense of failure will fortunately teach me the
art of obtaining a broadening horizon, and the science of searching for a
bright, lasting goal. And when my horizon becomes wide and my goal impersonally
includes many thousands of years, then my short-term actions will be far more
important - because they will unfold in a larger context.
* Sudden change often takes place after many delays
and constant postponements. The change in the consciousness and Karma of our
mankind is getting quicker in our century. Falsity becomes unsustainable, and
social structures based on illusion get increasing unable to resist their own
weight. Truth shines, and all that it shows is not beautiful. Yet no one can
stop the Sun from rising in the morning.
* Artificial spirituality tries to deny and ignores
the physical aspects of life. True wisdom teaches us instead to gradually
reorganize every department of daily existence on the basis of our perception
of the Law. All life is sacred if looked at and transformed from the point of
view of the Soul. The physical body is a temple and it can be respected as
such. One’s emotional world is another atmosphere in and around the shrine. So
are the thoughts, ideas, higher impressions and one’s central, noble purpose.
* Perceiving the truth of the existence of a
reincarnating Self in each human being is a great source of peace. It changes
our relation to eternity and makes us become friends of endless time. It also
improves our relation to passing aspects of life. Each minute becomes more
meaningful, and the years and decades ahead are seen as part of a broader
context.
* Peace and order use to go together. Human conflicts
can be understood as symptoms of a deficit in order. Disorder generates
frustration and hostility. Order can only exist where harmony is present; and
harmony, on its turn, needs knowledge. With these elements, we have a virtuous
circle that deserves study and observation. Knowledge brings about a perception
of unity. Conscious unity is the substance of harmony. The dynamics of harmony
opens the door to a natural order, and order produces a lasting sense of peace.
* Many kinds of karmic acceleration make it hard for people
to think before acting, and to duly observe facts, before making decisions.
* Whenever someone or a social group loses contact
with the ethics of higher levels of consciousness, the result is a sudden
feeling of pride and an exaggeration in self-confidence. The individual or
collectivity then gets euphoric and leaves aside things like moderation or
prudence.
* In times of sudden karmic acceleration, one must
keep to the fundamentals and avoid all thoughtless conclusions. Blind
attachment to appearance and circumstances is a trap. Inner silence and a
profound independence from established ideas are effective protections to him
who searches for wisdom.
* The Law of Ethics and Equilibrium loses nothing by
being ignored, but those who try to leave it aside have much to lose.
* When truth is suppressed for a long time, it may
come back with a large and profound implosion of sophisticated structures that are based on illusion, and often on
fraud.
* Sincerity may be difficult to accept sometimes, but
it gives strength to living structures. When it is consciously ignored and denied, it
becomes increasingly “unbearable”, until truth comes back and destroys whatever
stands on its way. It then makes the entire
landscape of karma change.
* Since human beings are the fundamental building
blocks of every group, institution or nation, it is only by the
self-improvement of the individual himself, in the first place, that social
structures can be corrected.
* Humanistic efforts have a decisive importance in
human future because they offer stimuli and useful information to those who
want to improve themselves, who try to cease making unnecessary mistakes and
practice the art of right action. The moral quality of social life also depends
on long and short Karmic cycles which are the subject of deep studies in
theosophy. At any point of the cycles, however, to do one’s best is a safe
source of inner bliss.
* Life is getting “liquid”, as Zygmunt Bauman wrote in
his books. Forms and structures are melting. Everything seems to be falling
apart. Not being a student of esoteric philosophy, Bauman could not see that
life is becoming astral, in reality, and that this has at least two sides. On
one hand, our lower selves lose a lot of certainties they used to have, and
which - by the way - were false, although they gave us comfort. On the other
hand, we painfully learn detachment from outer form and obtain freedom of
action in a wider horizon. There are of course gains and losses in the fact
that life becomes more astral, or “liquid”, and less physical. Considering all
factors and levels of consciousness involved, no one has reasons to complain.
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“Thoughts Along the Road - 34” was
published as an independent text on 09 July 2019. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the
name of the author, is included in “The Aquarian Theosophist”, May 2017 edition,
pp. 10-12. A few short notes written by the same author and anonymously published
in that edition of “The Aquarian” were
added to form the article.
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