Post by giovanni on Oct 12, 2005 20:56:47 GMT
THE INITIATE’S WORK
By Mauna Ujjayi
Citing the Poet, we could say that midway upon the journey of our life 1 the need of the inner improvement led us to knock at the door of the temple. We however acknowledge – at least we ought to – that we are a finite, limited, imperfect entity, subject to continuous change; fleeting, always in the reign of the dualism, between good and evil, nice and ugly, right and wrong and so on for ever. The human condition wriggles continuously between the finite and the infinite. Being finite we long for the infinite, the absolute, the perfection.
The fight of the contraries is not, however, a mere philosophical concept. The self-conscious man is aware that this hard struggle has to be fought on the field of his own life, which is impregnated with difficulties and successes, sufferance and happiness, mistakes and glory, hate and love.
Along this path, knowledge (jnana) is the instrument by which the initiate is helped in approaching the perfection. The knowledge we are speaking about, however, is that which conducts us toward the truth, it is not erudition, viz. that which is obtained by reading books or studying either at any school or even at any university. This latter can be of some help for us, but it is quite unnecessary to gain a superior level of knowledge (paravidya).
The initiates search after the knowledge of the Self (vidya), as from the individual one (atman) to the universal one (paramatman).
In the bookshops man can find a lot of papers dealing with initiatory stories, but this is merely initiatory education and not initiation itself. Education, as it is commonly intended in the West, could even remove an individual from the true spirit of the initiation. Let us recall the words of Plato, written in the Apology: that God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing…2
The true initiatory experience is the provisions to take an inner journey in order to know oneself, to conquer the truth, to walk along the path of the inner improvement, thus getting full mastery and self-knowledge.
The initiatory experience allows us to experiment the truth; the essence and the acquaintance that are so gained are, above all, cathartic acquaintance, the door to the deep transformation of the conscience. To be masters (guru - acarya), therefore, does not mean to have a pedantic book learning. To be masters means to realize a status of conscience, a dignity that no mental and intellectual erudition will ever be able to give. The initiatory acquaintance is transmitted from “ear to mouth”, from master to disciple (guruparamparam), through a complex ritualistic and symbolic apparatus, that it is handed on for an immemorial time and constitutes the initiatory tradition. Which is the place where the initiates can improve their instruments that are necessary to transmute themselves and eventually get the supreme liberation (mokşa).
The primary work, or better, the primary duty to enter into the temple of the truth consists in being conscious of one’s own flaws and to correct them. This work is like an unceasing struggle on the field of our being, in order to search after and to rectify it. We have to clear the field from its historical enemies: the ego and the ambition, the presumption and the pride, the desires and the vanity, old always alive sons of the ignorance: in us a God lives that can only speak in absence of vanity, of pride, of poor profane interests; in presence of heart’s purity.
The initiatory work can be fruitful if it is done with engagement and dedication, love and devotion (bhakti) towards our Being, the inner Self, that God that remains silent since it is wrapped in the darkness of the ignorance (avidya), in the veil of the prejudgment and the presumption, in the mantle of the attachments, of the illusions (maya) that weight down, slow down and often prevent the way towards the light. The realization begins to give its yields progressively, while man is working on his own transformation, facing the more difficult fight that the man has never fought: that against his passions, against his conflict ego.
A very hard work, to be done in silence and secrecy, within our inner. The attachments of the profane life, the desire of money, the ambitions and the prejudices must be kept under strict control and possibly rejected during the journey.
The charity is useless to transmute oneself. It demagogically cleans our conscience, but has no effect on the inner transformation. Charity and other pious actions is the natural by-product of the man who realized himself, that is free from the neuroses, that has gone beyond the appearances. Who has caught self-conscience he actually works for his transmutation, in total respect of the Tradition; he will then be brought beyond the time and the space, till to the Supreme Knowledge.
To know is therefore to be. This is the identity’s principle of the initiatory realization. Man has to directly experiment this assumption. By means of a constant self-discipline (sadhana), this knowledge will become a life style, a true habit rather than a mere appearance.
In their cultural patrimony, any and all traditions represent the three phases of the realization. Essentially, they consist in:
1. A process of descent into the deepest inner, to purify oneself;
2. A subsequent process of assimilation in which man learns how to conform to the traditional teachings; the individual conscience is thus expanded and is going to merge into the universal one;
3. The full identification with the truth.
The being, totally free (jivan-mukta), is now the shining sun where there are no differences between light, fire and burning matter: he is the pure Self. Man becomes what he thinks, affirms Maitry Upanishad.
Even if the initiation is practiced in a community, it is nevertheless a unique, ineffable experience. Man has to live it directly, in person. Nobody could rationally describe it, even by approximate words, as said Plato. Nobody can be our substitute for the solution of the Eternal Mystery.
Notes
1. Dante, The Comedy, Inf. I, I
2. Plato, Apology
By Mauna Ujjayi
Citing the Poet, we could say that midway upon the journey of our life 1 the need of the inner improvement led us to knock at the door of the temple. We however acknowledge – at least we ought to – that we are a finite, limited, imperfect entity, subject to continuous change; fleeting, always in the reign of the dualism, between good and evil, nice and ugly, right and wrong and so on for ever. The human condition wriggles continuously between the finite and the infinite. Being finite we long for the infinite, the absolute, the perfection.
The fight of the contraries is not, however, a mere philosophical concept. The self-conscious man is aware that this hard struggle has to be fought on the field of his own life, which is impregnated with difficulties and successes, sufferance and happiness, mistakes and glory, hate and love.
Along this path, knowledge (jnana) is the instrument by which the initiate is helped in approaching the perfection. The knowledge we are speaking about, however, is that which conducts us toward the truth, it is not erudition, viz. that which is obtained by reading books or studying either at any school or even at any university. This latter can be of some help for us, but it is quite unnecessary to gain a superior level of knowledge (paravidya).
The initiates search after the knowledge of the Self (vidya), as from the individual one (atman) to the universal one (paramatman).
In the bookshops man can find a lot of papers dealing with initiatory stories, but this is merely initiatory education and not initiation itself. Education, as it is commonly intended in the West, could even remove an individual from the true spirit of the initiation. Let us recall the words of Plato, written in the Apology: that God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing…2
The true initiatory experience is the provisions to take an inner journey in order to know oneself, to conquer the truth, to walk along the path of the inner improvement, thus getting full mastery and self-knowledge.
The initiatory experience allows us to experiment the truth; the essence and the acquaintance that are so gained are, above all, cathartic acquaintance, the door to the deep transformation of the conscience. To be masters (guru - acarya), therefore, does not mean to have a pedantic book learning. To be masters means to realize a status of conscience, a dignity that no mental and intellectual erudition will ever be able to give. The initiatory acquaintance is transmitted from “ear to mouth”, from master to disciple (guruparamparam), through a complex ritualistic and symbolic apparatus, that it is handed on for an immemorial time and constitutes the initiatory tradition. Which is the place where the initiates can improve their instruments that are necessary to transmute themselves and eventually get the supreme liberation (mokşa).
The primary work, or better, the primary duty to enter into the temple of the truth consists in being conscious of one’s own flaws and to correct them. This work is like an unceasing struggle on the field of our being, in order to search after and to rectify it. We have to clear the field from its historical enemies: the ego and the ambition, the presumption and the pride, the desires and the vanity, old always alive sons of the ignorance: in us a God lives that can only speak in absence of vanity, of pride, of poor profane interests; in presence of heart’s purity.
The initiatory work can be fruitful if it is done with engagement and dedication, love and devotion (bhakti) towards our Being, the inner Self, that God that remains silent since it is wrapped in the darkness of the ignorance (avidya), in the veil of the prejudgment and the presumption, in the mantle of the attachments, of the illusions (maya) that weight down, slow down and often prevent the way towards the light. The realization begins to give its yields progressively, while man is working on his own transformation, facing the more difficult fight that the man has never fought: that against his passions, against his conflict ego.
A very hard work, to be done in silence and secrecy, within our inner. The attachments of the profane life, the desire of money, the ambitions and the prejudices must be kept under strict control and possibly rejected during the journey.
The charity is useless to transmute oneself. It demagogically cleans our conscience, but has no effect on the inner transformation. Charity and other pious actions is the natural by-product of the man who realized himself, that is free from the neuroses, that has gone beyond the appearances. Who has caught self-conscience he actually works for his transmutation, in total respect of the Tradition; he will then be brought beyond the time and the space, till to the Supreme Knowledge.
To know is therefore to be. This is the identity’s principle of the initiatory realization. Man has to directly experiment this assumption. By means of a constant self-discipline (sadhana), this knowledge will become a life style, a true habit rather than a mere appearance.
In their cultural patrimony, any and all traditions represent the three phases of the realization. Essentially, they consist in:
1. A process of descent into the deepest inner, to purify oneself;
2. A subsequent process of assimilation in which man learns how to conform to the traditional teachings; the individual conscience is thus expanded and is going to merge into the universal one;
3. The full identification with the truth.
The being, totally free (jivan-mukta), is now the shining sun where there are no differences between light, fire and burning matter: he is the pure Self. Man becomes what he thinks, affirms Maitry Upanishad.
Even if the initiation is practiced in a community, it is nevertheless a unique, ineffable experience. Man has to live it directly, in person. Nobody could rationally describe it, even by approximate words, as said Plato. Nobody can be our substitute for the solution of the Eternal Mystery.
Notes
1. Dante, The Comedy, Inf. I, I
2. Plato, Apology