Captives III: Remorse, Divine Awe and Prayer

Jesus going to Pray (Tissot)

In Mythraism and Christianity, this day rememorates the rebirth of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun. From here onwards, days become longer, light conquers darkness. And this was used as symbol for deities, many of which were called Christ even before the popular Jesus Christ.

Inwardly, we can think the Winter Solstice points to an inner rebirth in us. And as it was said saw yesterday, before being reborn, the “old man” must die, and before that, one must realize how terrible the inner condition is. In the beginning there might be little awakenings that come and go, but these can´t last until one doesn´t feel and see the misery of the blind and selfish situation, a realization that is usually hindered by “psychological resistances”, forcing oneself to sleep longer. 

Hence the importance of ralizing how divine conscience touches our “lower nature”, generating conscious remorse. Then we feel we are not as we should. Thus “something” rebels and gets sad; the Divine suffers in us (see The Language of Depression, published on 8th of August 2009). 

There is a profound feeling which is quite absent in modern humanity:

In the Bible it is awfully expressed as Fear of the Lord, when it´s rather Awe of Divine I amness (Yirah Adonai). Fear of Lord/God makes people believe it is fear to be punished by a God or being afraid of offending some God –two views that have no sense, unless it refers to a false, wrathful, punitive, proud and minor “god”. 

The awe of God is the instinctive and sublte feeling of fragility and awe in the contemplation of something sublime that shatters the little "ego-complex" into pieces, and also when we feel our insignificance or imperfection after being touched by the Light of Consciousness.

An feeling modern man rarely experiences given the habitual hypnotic state of ego inflation.

When we are touched by something deeply, the veils of selfishness fall, and it´s then when sentiments such as compassion, remorse, true love and awe emerge easily. And divine is the faculty behind them; in fact, it is our divine part what feels wonder and awe.  

(A more complete article on this was published as Awe of the Lord on the 5th of June of 2014)

These realisations help one adopt an adamant and detached attitude, allowing the true self to manifest, raising a “no” towards harmful habits.

Iamness can became a form of meditation and prayer in several traditions.

A good example lies in the Old Testament, when the Divine presents itself to Moses with the enigmatic name:

 I am that I am (Exodus 3:14)

 Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58)

It is difficult to express in words the art of prayer, so let´s avoid making things too complicated. It suffices to know the I am prayer is "contemplative", not a "prayer of petition"; in other words, its content is meant to be experienced, as in the Lord´s Prayer. 

The I am prayer is basically oriented to those moments in which it is necessary to resist and be detached from a certain psychological tendency: anger, stray thoughts, restlessness, etc. Its most simple form, well known in many traditions, consists in “inhaling” through the nose, feeling “I” in back of the head, solar plexus and spine –as if one stood up watching–, and “exhaling” naturally through the nose feeling “am”, relaxing the whole body. The words are not verbalized externally, but internalized until it is no longer necessary, since the crucial point is to be a "silent witnessing force", aware of sensation and feeling of divine life in oneself. 

This sense is often cancelled by some forms of prayer, such as  one practised by the Fathers of the Desert and Hesycasts: Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, mistaken one; Kyrie Iesu Christé, Yie tou Theou, éleison me, ton hámartolon.

Hamartolón derives from hamartia, which means to “miss the mark”, the “fall” of the heroe in his journey, as Aristotle points in the Poetics. Some use the word “sinner”, which does not fit here, for it is so corrupted that it does not resonate as it should.

And the truth is we rather should assume the Loving Light. And this makes one see the uselessness of begging, mummbling and grunting at high speed –as it is usually done in churches. Prayers are to feel something deeper within that may purify and heal. After all, the Loving Serene Conscience is the Anoited One, the true original Christ.

Concerning the art of praying, Yeshua said almost everything (Matthew 6:5-8): 

 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites...enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

There is another exemplar text, quoted below. [2]

With this, we leave this crazy year 2013, and hope that our captivity can be useful in the Real World.

________________

[1] The Power of the Name. 

See exposition of Ted Nottimgham. Link in the post Captives

[2] With regard to prayer:

"Take the ordinary God have mercy upon me! What does it mean? A man is appealing to God. He should think a little; he should make a comparison and ask himself what he is and what God is. Then he is asking God to have mercy upon him. But for this, God must first of all think of him, take notice of him. But is it worth while taking notice of him? What is there in him that is worth thinking about? And who is to think about him? God himself! You see, all these thoughts and many others should pass through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then it is precisely these thoughts which could do for him what he asks God to do. But what can he be thinking of and what result can a prayer give if he merely repeats like a parrot: 'God have mercy! God have mercy! God have mercy!' You know yourself that this can give no result whatever." (G.I.Gurdjieff in Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, Ch 15).

Captives II: Bitter Awakening

The Screen (Edvard Munch)

In response to the two questions raised in the previous post, and anticipating the Christmas theme, which symbolizes a "higher birth", one would like to present an incredibly concise and lucid passage, almost of compulsory reading for any Western seeker. It is contained in a famous book that gathers lessons of the master of dances George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff to his pupils. It says the following [1]: 

"To begin with, let us take the well-known text about the seed which must die in order to be born. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.'

"This text has many different meanings and we shall often return to it. But first of all it is necessary to know the principle contained in this text in its full measure as applied to man.

"There is a book of aphorisms which has never been published and probably never will be published. I have mentioned this book before in connection with the question of the meaning of knowledge and I quoted then one aphorism from this book.

"In relation to what we are speaking of now this book says the following:

" 'A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.'

"In another place it says:

" 'When a man awakes he can die; when he dies he can be born.'

"We must find out what this means.

" 'To awake,' 'to die,' 'to be born.' These are three successive stages. If you study the Gospels attentively you will see that references are often made to the possibility of being born, several references are made to the necessity of 'dying,' and there are very many references to the necessity of 'awakening'-'watch, for ye know not the day and hour . . .' and. so on. But these three possibilities of man, to awake or not to sleep, to die, and to be born, are not set down in connection with one another. Nevertheless this is the whole point. If a man dies without having awakened he cannot be born. If a man is born without having died he may become an 'immortal thing.' Thus the fact that he has not 'died' prevents a man from being 'born'; the fact of his not having awakened prevents him from 'dying'; and should he be born without having died he is prevented from 'being.'

"We have already spoken enough about the meaning of being 'born.' This relates to the beginning of a new growth of essence, the beginning of the formation of individuality, the beginning of the appearance of one indivisible I.

"But in order to be able to attain this or at least begin to attain it, a man must die, that is, he must free himself from a thousand petty attachments and identifications which hold him in the position in which he is. He is attached to everything in his life, attached to his imagination, attached to his stupidity, attached even to his sufferings, possibly to his sufferings more than to anything else. He must free himself from this attachment. Attachment to things, identification with things, keep alive a thousand useless I's in a man. These I's must die in order that the big I may be born. But how can they be made to die? They do not want to die. It is at this point that the possibility of awakening comes to the rescue. To awaken means to realize one's nothingness, that is to realize one's complete and absolute mechanicalness and one's complete and absolute helplessness. And it is not sufficient to realize it philosophically in words. It is necessary to realize it in clear, simple, and concrete facts, in one's own facts. When a man begins to know himself a little he will see in himself many things that are bound to horrify him. So long as a man is not horrified at himself he knows nothing about himself. A man has seen in himself something that horrifies him. He decides to throw it off, stop it, put an end to it. But however many efforts he makes, he feels that he cannot do this, that everything remains as it was. Here he will see his impotence, his helplessness, and his nothingness; or again, when he begins to know himself a man sees that he has nothing that is his own, that is, that all that he has regarded as his own, his views, thoughts, convictions, tastes, habits, even faults and vices, all these are not his own, but have been either formed through imitation or borrowed from somewhere ready-made. In feeling this a man may feel his nothingness. And in feeling his nothingness a man should see himself as he really is, not for a second, not for a moment, but constantly, never forgetting it.

"This continual consciousness of his nothingness and of his helplessness will eventually give a man the courage to 'die', that is, to die, not merely mentally or in his consciousness, but to die in fact and to renounce actually and forever those aspects of himself which are either unnecessary from the point of view of his inner growth or which hinder it. These aspects are first of all his 'false I,' and then all the fantastic ideas about his 'individuality,' 'will,' 'consciousness,' 'capacity to do,' his powers, initiative, determination, and so on.

"But in order to see a thing always, one must first of all see it even if only for a second. All new powers and capacities of realization come always in one and the same way. At first they appear in the form of flashes at rare and short moments; afterwards they appear more often and last longer until, finally, after very long work they become permanent. The same thing applies to awakening. It is impossible to awaken completely all at once. One must first begin to awaken for short moments. But one must die all at once and forever after having made a certain effort, having surmounted a certain obstacle, having taken a certain decision from which there is no going back. This would be difficult, even impossible, for a man, were it not for the slow and gradual awakening which precedes it. 
"But there are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep.

"First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth and understanding his position. 

There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep...

Well, the rest for another occassion. There are numerous ancient traditions which have a lot to say about the hypnotic state of man and the dark forces which cause it. 

Now let´s focus on that which may help us directly to "die" and "be reborn" spiritually. So, the next Christmas day, if nothing prevents it, we will listen to ancient advises about one of the most powerful tools that exist to evoke purifying sentiments, and whose art was forgotten, although preserved and rescued by the Fathers of the Desert.

_______________

[1] G.I.Gurdjieff in P.D.Ouspensky´s Fragments of An Unknown Teaching. Ch 11.

Captives I: The Fall

The Winter Solstice arrived yesterday. Helios, the Sun, reached the bottom of its journey, touching without hesitation the frightening pit of darkness, where it is crucified. There it will rest three days, as Jesus on the tomb, rising on the same spot (hence solstice, from sol-stare), until it is born again, as every year.

Similarly, we, the human spirit, is crucified into matter, captured by Mrs.Deception:

 If the thought begins innocently as a simple “suggestion”, if the soul dialogues with it, then comes the “ascent”. When the object lodges for long time and the soul gets used to it, finally comes “captivity”, when the heart is dragged alone involuntarily. Hence St.Basil says we must watch over ourselves and always have our attention in an awakened state. [1] 

This is how the Fathers of the Desert used to teach, going direct to the wound. And we may follow them, guessing that our "ascent" takes place on Mount Sinai. 

Isn´t such a gradual fall interesting?  Its subtlety is overwhelming. What makes it so appealing? The donkey-mind hears something or watches something, and suddenly, a reactive mental image or words emerge, as activated by a button; a force then drives smoothly the mind, which  blindly considers the "suggestion", and before the rooster crows, the human automaton feels forced to obey and react like a hyena, caught by gluttony, anger, groach, hate, lust or any other passion.

Such is the daily behavioral ABC of the so called homo sapiens sapiens –“man knower-knower”:), who believes to be the apex of evolution and of the food chain; who believes he is the "owner of himself"; who calls himself “Christian, Muslim, Jewish, socialist, republican, democrat and then condemns, hates, despises and kills the neighbour”; who regards himself as “rational”, “artist”, “creative” and "owner" of a planet full of insane dumps...

Why is man such a terrible fool? And why “knowing it” is not enough to change? 

Well, we will focus on these questions on the next post. Now, without going too far, we can start realising that something strange in our DNA pulls us down, for it splits our nature into two: “the animal nature” and “the spiritual nature”. And perhaps that is necessary to evolve, but both natures tend to coexist as enemies. In many cases the weak part wins without effort and the spiritual side simply retreats, ashamed and horrified of its savage earthly vessel. In other cases these two natures struggle with ardent passion against each other, as a group laughing hyenas trying to devour a wounded lion. And despite the fire generated gives access to "precious jewels" everybody would long for, sometimes there is so much cruelty in the struggle that one side kills the other, and the evolution is thwarted.

For this reason, lucid teachings invite us not destroy the dark, but rather to transform the negative and passional side into a positive and willingful one, such as anger into creative will, self-love into self-respect and so on.

So, will we keep playing the role of victims, blaming old shaitanic forces and the dark prehistory of our DNA for our slavery or we will rather open our eyes and start unveiling the “psychological” roots of our contradictions? How much pain are we willing to endure to transform our "false selfishness" and fulfil a higher purpose? Where is our true love for the Divine that shines in us and in others? How can we liberate our trapped Unicorn? Do we want to be truly free or our longing for love and freedom is just cheap poetry?

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[1] from The Power of the Name, by Alphonsse and Rachel Goettman, quoted by Ted Nottingham on the wonderful presentation Early Christian Mysticism: The Jesus Prayer: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqZs5NzK1_s

Circle Mêtis

Enzo
Circle of Reality in Japanese Zen Art

Mêtis is the particular quality of intense alertness that can be effortlessly aware of everything at once. While our wandering minds go off on their endless journeys, it always stays at home. And its home is everywhere. Mêtis feels, listens, watches; can even be aware at the same time, if left to itself, of every thought drifting into and out of our consciousness. It misses nothing.

This is how the circle begins.

When we really become aware of the sights and sounds and other impressions coming from all around us, after a while there is no longer the sense of just hearing and seeing this or that: instead, there is the awareness of everything as forming a single whole. Everything is exactly what it is, and always has been — but as a continuity now, all together, without any separation or division. And in this wholeness even the past and future start to merge until they are no longer separate. For they are both included in the now.

Then even the sense of any motion disappears. Mêtis is so fast in its response, so rapid in its alertness to the moment, that any movement is only perceived as stillness. But, by now, instead of just perceiving a tree or a chair you have become aware that you are perceiving one single being: whole, unmoving, quite still. 
And eventually, if you look, you will discover that instead of you perceiving reality, what in fact is happening is that reality is perceiving itself through you.

This is how the circle ends. 

And you may not be surprised that one of the symbols of mêtis is a circle. Mêtis is the encircler; the completer of the circle; the awareness that allows us at any moment, in spite of the ranging torrent of appearances,  to connect the beginning to the end.

(...) But really there is nothing at all to understand. For even to try to understand something is to step out of the one reality surrounding you in every direction and to separate yourself from it. These words are no different from any other shapes and sounds around you, with only one exception.

They are different in reminding you they are no different.

(Reality, pp.186–187, Peter Kingsley)

Such a quality of reality is not something complicated or otherworldly. On the contrary, it acts all over the universe, evidenced in the way stars and planets revolve effortlessly, in how the fish swim togeher in shoals, in how birds fly using the air currents, in how humans perform unbelievable feats,  dodging mortal blows, singing like angels, transforming negative emotions into positive on the spot, including rather than excluding, co-creating rather than destroying, finding the pathless path to the serene stillness around which all spins.