Post by giovanni on Mar 1, 2006 17:50:50 GMT
THE MUSTARD SEED[1]
Bro. René Guénon
Regarding the symbolism of the Hebrew letter yod depicted inside the heart,[2] we have mentioned that in the radiating heart of the astronomical marble at St Denis d’Orques,[3] the wound is in the form of a yod, and this resemblance is too striking and too significant not to be intentional; on the other hand, in an engraving etched and printed by Callot for a thesis defended in 1625, the heart of Christ contains three yods. This letter, the first of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton and that from which all the others in the Hebrew alphabet are formed, is always essentially the image of the Principle, whether it stands alone to represent the Divine Unity,[4] or whether it is repeated three times with a ‘trinitarian’ meaning.[5] The yod in the heart is therefore the Principle residing at the center, whether, from the macrocosmic point of view, at the ‘Center of the World’ which is the ‘Holy Palace’ of the Kabbalah,[6] or, from the microcosmic point of view, at the center of every being, at least virtually, which center is always symbolized by the heart in the different traditional doctrines,[7] and which is man’s innermost point, the point of contact with the Divine. According to the Kabbalah, the Shekinah or ‘Divine Presence; which is identified with the ‘Light of the Messiah;[8] dwells (shakan) simultaneously in the Tabernacle, for this reason called “mishkan”, and in the heart of the faithful;[9] and a very close relationship exists between this doctrine and the meaning of the name Emmanuel applied to the Messiah and interpreted as ‘God in us’. But there are many other considerations to develop in this respect, especially given the fact that the yod, while having the meaning of ‘principle; also has that of ‘seed’: the yod in the heart is then a sort of seed enclosed in the fruit; here we have indication of an identity, at least in a certain respect, between the symbolism of the heart and that of the ‘World Egg’; and from this we can also understand why the name ‘seed’ is applied to the Messiah in various passages of the Bible.[10] Here is above all the idea of the seed in the heart that should hold our attention; and it deserves to do so all the more in that it relates directly to the profound meaning of one of the best known parables of the Gospels, that of the mustard seed.
To really understand this relationship, it is first necessary to refer to the Hindu doctrine, which gives the name ‘Divine City’ (Brahmapura) to the heart as center of the being, and which, quite remarkably, applies to this ‘Divine City’ expressions identical to some of those used in the Apocalypse to describe the ‘Celestial Jerusalem’.[11]
The Divine Principle, insofar as it resides at the center of the being, is often designated symbolically as ‘the Ether in the heart’, the primordial element from which all others proceed, naturally being taken to represent the Principle; and this ‘Ether’ (Akasha) is the same as the Hebrew Avir, from the mystery of which springs forth the light (Aor), which realizes all extension by its outward radiation,[12] ‘making something from the void (thohu) and from what was not what is’, [13]while by a concentration correlative to this luminous expansion there remains within the heart the yod, that is, ‘the hidden point become manifest’, one in three and three in one.[14] But we will now leave aside this cosmogonic point of view in order to give our attention by preference to the point of view concerning one particular”, being, such as the human being, while being careful to note that between the macrocosmic and microcosmic points of view, there is, an analogical correspondence in virtue of which a transposition from one to the other is always possible.
In the sacred texts of India we find this:
This Atma [Divine Spirit], which resides in the heart, is smaller “than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a grain of millet, smaller than the kernel in a grain of millet; this Atma, which resides in the heart is larger than the earth, larger than the atmosphere, larger than the heavens, larger than all the worlds together.”[15]
It is impossible not to be struck by the similarity of the terms of this passage with those of the Gospel parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”[16]
A single objection could be made to this comparison that seems to impose itself on us; is it really possible to assimilate ‘the Atma residing in the heart’ to what the Gospel designates as the ‘Kingdom of Heaven or the ‘Kingdom of God’? It is the Gospel itself that furnishes the answer to this question, and this answer is clearly affirmative. Indeed, to the Pharisees who asked when the ‘Kingdom of God’ would come, understanding this in an outward and temporal sense, Christ replied in these words:
The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say: ‘Lo here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you (Regnum Dei intra vos est). [17]
Divine action always manifests from within,[18] and this is why it does not catch the eye, which is necessarily turned toward outward things; this is also why the Hindu doctrine gives to the Principle the epithet ‘inner controller’ (antar-yarni),[19] its operation being accomplished from within outward, from the center to the circumference, from the non-manifested to the manifest, so that its starting-point escapes all those faculties belonging to the order of the senses, or which proceed from them more or less directly.[20] The ‘Kingdom of God; like the ‘house of God’ (Beth-El),[21] is naturally identified with the center, that is, with what is most inward, whether with respect to the totality of all beings, or to each of them taken individually.
That. said, we clearly see that the antithesis contained in the Gospel text, that is, the figure of the mustard seed which is ‘the smallest of all seeds; but which becomes ‘the greatest of shrubs; corresponds exactly to the dual descending and ascending gradations which, in the Hindu text, express the ideas of extreme smallness and extreme largeness. Besides, there are in the Gospel other passages where the mustard seed is taken to represent what is smallest: ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed…;[22] and this is not unconnected with the preceding, for faith, by which things of the supra-sensible order are grasped, is commonly referred to the heart.[23] But what is the meaning of the opposition according to which the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ or ‘the Atma that dwells in the heart’ is simultaneously what is smallest and what is greatest? Obviously this is to be understood in two different relationships; but again, what are these two relationships? To understand this it is enough to know that when passing analogically from the lower to the higher, from the outward to the inward, from the material to the spiritual, such an analogy must be taken in an inverse sense in order to be correctly applied; thus, just as the image of an object in a mirror- is inverted with respect to the object itself, that which is first or greatest in the principial order is, at least in appearance, the last or smallest in the order of manifestation.[24] General]y, this application of the inverse sense is also indicated by other Gospel sayings, at least in one of their meanings:
‘So the last will be first, and the first last’;[25] ‘... for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted’;[26] ‘Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’;[27] ‘If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all’;[28] ‘for he who is least among you all is the one who is great’.[29]
Confining ourselves to the case that more especially concerns us at present, and in order to make it more readily comprehensible, we can borrow terms of comparison drawn from mathematics, utilizing both geometrical and arithmetical symbolisms, between which moreover there is perfect concordance in this respect. Thus it is that the geometrical point is quantitatively null[30] and occupies no space whatsoever, even though it is the principle by which space in its entirety is produced; for space is only the development of the virtualities of the point, these latter being ‘effectuated’ by its radiation along the ‘six directions’.[31] Similarly, arithmetical unity is the smallest of numbers if it is envisaged as situated within their multiplicity; but it is the greatest in principle, for it contains all of them virtually and produces their entire series by the simple indefinite repetition of itself. Likewise again, returning to the symbolism in question at the outset, the yod is the smallest of all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but from it, nevertheless, are derived the forms of all the other letters.[32] Moreover, the double hieroglyphic sense of the yod as ‘principle’ and as ‘seed’ is linked to this double relationship: in the upper world, it is the principle which contains all things; in the lower world, it is the seed which is contained in all things. This is the point of view of transcendence and that of immanence, reconciled in the single synthesis of total harmony.[33] The point is at one and the same time principle and seed of extension; unity is at one and the same time principle and seed of numbers; similarly, the Divine Word, whether envisaged as subsisting eternally in itself or as making itself the ‘center of the world’ [34] is at once Principle and seed of all beings.[35]
The Divine Principle residing at the center of the being is represented in the Hindu doctrine as a grain or seed (dhatu), as a germ (bija),[36] because so long as ‘Union’ has not actually been effectively realized, it is in this being only virtually as it were.[37] On the other hand, this same being, and manifestation in its totality to which it belongs, exist only through the Principle and have no positive reality except by participation in its essence, and in the very measure of that participation. The Divine Spirit (Atma), being the one and only principle of all things, immensely surpasses all existence;[38] this is why it is said to be greater than each of the ‘three worlds; the terrestrial, the intermediary, and the celestial (the three terms of the Tribhuvana), which are the different modes of universal manifestation, ant] is also greater than the totality of the ‘three worlds; since it is beyond all manifestation; being the unchanging, eternal, absolute, and unconditioned Principle.[39]
There is still one point in the parable of the mustard seed that requires an explanation in connection with the preceding [40] it is said that in its development the seed becomes a tree; now, we know that in all traditions the tree is one of the principal symbols of the ‘World Axis’.[41] This meaning fits perfectly here: the seed is the center; the tree that grows from it is the axis issuing directly from this center, and it extends its branches through all the worlds; and on these branches there come to rest the ‘birds of heaven’, which, as in certain Hindu texts, represent the higher states of the being. This invariable axis is indeed the ‘divine support’ of all existence; and as the Far-Eastern doctrines teach, it is the direction according to which the ‘Activity of Heaven’ is exercised, the place of manifestation of the ‘Will of Heaven:[42] Is this not one of the reasons why in the Lord’s Prayer, immediately after the petition, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ (it is certainly the Kingdom of God that is in question here), comes ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, which is an expression of the ‘axial’ union of all the worlds with each other and with the Divine principle, of the full realization of the total harmony to which we have alluded and which cannot be accomplished unless all beings combine their aspirations in a single direction, that of the axis itself?[43]
‘That they may all be one; said Christ, ‘even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ... that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one... ‘[44]
This perfect union is the veritable advent of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, coming from within and opening outward in the plenitude of universal order, the perfection of all manifestation and the restoration of the integrity of the ‘primordial’ state. This is the coming of the ‘Celestial Jerusalem at the end of time’:[45]
Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;[46] he will wipe away every tear from. their eyes, and death shall be no more.... [47] There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.[48] And night[49] shall be no more; they need no light of lamp, or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.[50]
Notes
[1] 1st published in Etudes Traditionnelles, January-February 1949. - This article was written originally for the review Regnabit, but it could not appear there, because the hostility of certain ‘neo-scholastic' circles had obliged us to end our collaboration. It falls more especially within the ‘perspective' of the Christian tradition, with the intention of showing its perfect agreement with the other forms of the universal tradition, and completes the few observations we have made on the same subject in ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3. We have modified it very slightly in order to clarify further several points, and above all to add references to our other works where this might be useful for readers.
[2] ‘The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72].
[3] See the beginning of chap. 69 [ED]
[4] Cf. ‘The Great Triad’, chap. 25
[5] This meaning exists with certainty at least when the representation of the three yods is due to Christian authors; as in the case of the engraving just mentioned; more generally (for it must not be forgotten that the three yods are also to be found as an abbreviated form of Tetragrammaton in the Judaic tradition itself), it relates to the universal symbolism of the triangle, which, as we have already indicated, is related to that of the heart.
[6] Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 4.
[7] Cf. ‘‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’’, chap. 3.
[8] Cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 3.
[9] Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 7. - The residence of as-Sakinah in the heart of the faithful is also affirmed in the Islamic tradition.
[10] Isa. 4:2; Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8 and 6:12. Cf. ‘Perspectives on Initiation’, chaps. 47 and 48, and also our article 'The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72].
[11] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3.
[12] Cf. ‘The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times’, chap. 3.
[13] This is the Fiat Lux (Yehi Aor) of the book of Genesis, first affirmation of the Divine Word in the work of creation, the initial vibration which opens the way to the possibilities contained potentially in the state ‘wilhout form and void' (thohu va bohu) in the original chaos. (cf. ‘Perspectives on Initiation’, chap. 46).
[14] Cf. The ‘Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 4.
[15] Chandogya Upnnishad 3.14.3.
[16] Matt. 13:31 32; cf. Mark 4:30-32 and Luke 13:18-19.
[17] Luke 17:21.- We recall in this connection, the Taoist text (already cited more completely in ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 10): 'Do not inquire whether the Principle is in this or in that; It is in all beings. That is why It is given the epithet great, supreme, entire, universal, total.... It is in all beings by the determining of a norm [the central point or the ‘invariable middle'], but It is not identical with beings, being neither differentiated [in multiplicity] nor limited: (Chuang Tzu, chap. 22).
[18] ‘At the center of all things and higher than all, is the productive action of the supreme Principle’. (Chuang Tzu, chap. 9).
[19] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 15.
[20] The ‘ordering' action, which draws all things out of chaos (kòsmos in Greek signifies both ‘order' and ‘world'), is essentially identified with the initial vibration mentioned above.
[21] Cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 9.
[22] Luke 17:6.
[23] A certain relationship with the symbolism of the ‘eye of the heart' could even be found therein, particularly in this regard.
[24] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3.
[25] Matt. 20:16 and 19:30; Mark 10:31.
[26] Luke 18:14.
[27] Matt. 18: 4
[28] Mark 9:34.
[29] Luke 9:48.
[30] This nullity corresponds to what Taoism calls the ‘nothingness of form’.
[31] On the relationship between point and extension see ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap, 16.
[32] Whence this saying ‘… till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota [that is, one yod], not a dot , of the law will pass until all is accomplished.' (Matt. 5:18).
[33] The essential identity of these two aspects is also represented by the numerical equivalence of the names El Elion, ‘God Most High; and Emmanuel, ‘God in us' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 6).
[34] In the Hindu tradition, the first of these two aspects of the Word is Svayambhu and the second is Hiranyagarbha.
[35]. From another viewpoint, this consideration of the inverse sense can also he applied to the two complementary phases of universal manifestation: development and envelopment, expiration and aspiration, expansion and contraction, 'solution' and 'coagulation'. (cf. ‘The Great Triad’, chap. 6.)
[36] In this connection, the kinship of the Latin words gramen, 'grain', and germen, ‘germ' should he noted. In Sanskrit, the word dhatu also serves to designate the verbal root, as being the ‘seed' whose development gives birth to language in its entirety (cf. ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 11).
[37]. We say ‘virtually' rather than 'potentially' because there can be nothing potential in the divine order; it is only from the side of the individual being and in relation to it that we could talk of potentiality. Pure potentiality is the absolute indifferentiation of ‘prime matter' in the Aristotelian sense, identical to the indistinction of the primordial chaos.
[38] We take the word 'existence' in its strictly etymological sense: existere, that is, ex-stare, ‘to have one's being from something other than oneself; ‘to be dependent on a higher principle'; existence thus understood is therefore strictly contingent, relative, conditioned, the mode of being of that which does not have its own sufficient reason in itself.
[39] The ‘three worlds' are not mentioned in the parable of the mustard seed, but they are represented by the three measures of meal in the parable of the leaven which immediately follows it (cf. Matt. 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21).
[40] Let us also point out that in Hindu terminology the ‘field' (kshetra) is the symbolic designation of the domain in which a being's possibilities are developed.
[41]. Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 9.
[42]. Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 23. - Here we would gladly use the expression ‘metaphysical place' by analogy with ‘geometric place’, which provides as exact as possible a symbol of what is involved.
[43] We should note that the word ‘concord' literally signifies ‘union of hearts' (cum-cordia); in this case, the heart is taken to represent principally the will.
[44] John 17:21-3.
[45] In order to relate this more closely to what has just been said about the symbolism of the tree, we again recall that the ‘Tree of Life' is placed at the center of the ‘Celestial Jerusalem' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 9, and ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 9).
[46] A reference can of course he made here to what we have said above on the Shekinah and on Emmanuel.
[47] Rev. 21:3-4. Insofar as it is 'Center of the World; the ‘Celestial Jerusalem' is effectively identified with the 'abode of immortality’ [cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 7].
[48] This can be seen as an allusion to the 'third eye; which is in the form of a yod, as we have explained in our article ‘The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72]: from the moment they are re-established in the ‘primordial state’ they will effectively possess thereby the ‘sense of eternity’.
[49]. Night is naturally to be taken here in its lower sense, in which it is assimilated to chaos, and it is obvious that the perfection of the ‘cosmos' is at the opposite end of this (one could say ‘at the other extreme of manifestation'), so that it could be considered as a perpetual 'day'.
[50] Rev. 22:3-5. Cf. also ibid., 21:23: ‘And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb’. The 'glory of God' is yet another designation of the Shekinah, whose manifestation is in fact, always represented as ‘Light' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 3).
Bro. René Guénon
Regarding the symbolism of the Hebrew letter yod depicted inside the heart,[2] we have mentioned that in the radiating heart of the astronomical marble at St Denis d’Orques,[3] the wound is in the form of a yod, and this resemblance is too striking and too significant not to be intentional; on the other hand, in an engraving etched and printed by Callot for a thesis defended in 1625, the heart of Christ contains three yods. This letter, the first of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton and that from which all the others in the Hebrew alphabet are formed, is always essentially the image of the Principle, whether it stands alone to represent the Divine Unity,[4] or whether it is repeated three times with a ‘trinitarian’ meaning.[5] The yod in the heart is therefore the Principle residing at the center, whether, from the macrocosmic point of view, at the ‘Center of the World’ which is the ‘Holy Palace’ of the Kabbalah,[6] or, from the microcosmic point of view, at the center of every being, at least virtually, which center is always symbolized by the heart in the different traditional doctrines,[7] and which is man’s innermost point, the point of contact with the Divine. According to the Kabbalah, the Shekinah or ‘Divine Presence; which is identified with the ‘Light of the Messiah;[8] dwells (shakan) simultaneously in the Tabernacle, for this reason called “mishkan”, and in the heart of the faithful;[9] and a very close relationship exists between this doctrine and the meaning of the name Emmanuel applied to the Messiah and interpreted as ‘God in us’. But there are many other considerations to develop in this respect, especially given the fact that the yod, while having the meaning of ‘principle; also has that of ‘seed’: the yod in the heart is then a sort of seed enclosed in the fruit; here we have indication of an identity, at least in a certain respect, between the symbolism of the heart and that of the ‘World Egg’; and from this we can also understand why the name ‘seed’ is applied to the Messiah in various passages of the Bible.[10] Here is above all the idea of the seed in the heart that should hold our attention; and it deserves to do so all the more in that it relates directly to the profound meaning of one of the best known parables of the Gospels, that of the mustard seed.
To really understand this relationship, it is first necessary to refer to the Hindu doctrine, which gives the name ‘Divine City’ (Brahmapura) to the heart as center of the being, and which, quite remarkably, applies to this ‘Divine City’ expressions identical to some of those used in the Apocalypse to describe the ‘Celestial Jerusalem’.[11]
The Divine Principle, insofar as it resides at the center of the being, is often designated symbolically as ‘the Ether in the heart’, the primordial element from which all others proceed, naturally being taken to represent the Principle; and this ‘Ether’ (Akasha) is the same as the Hebrew Avir, from the mystery of which springs forth the light (Aor), which realizes all extension by its outward radiation,[12] ‘making something from the void (thohu) and from what was not what is’, [13]while by a concentration correlative to this luminous expansion there remains within the heart the yod, that is, ‘the hidden point become manifest’, one in three and three in one.[14] But we will now leave aside this cosmogonic point of view in order to give our attention by preference to the point of view concerning one particular”, being, such as the human being, while being careful to note that between the macrocosmic and microcosmic points of view, there is, an analogical correspondence in virtue of which a transposition from one to the other is always possible.
In the sacred texts of India we find this:
This Atma [Divine Spirit], which resides in the heart, is smaller “than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a grain of millet, smaller than the kernel in a grain of millet; this Atma, which resides in the heart is larger than the earth, larger than the atmosphere, larger than the heavens, larger than all the worlds together.”[15]
It is impossible not to be struck by the similarity of the terms of this passage with those of the Gospel parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”[16]
A single objection could be made to this comparison that seems to impose itself on us; is it really possible to assimilate ‘the Atma residing in the heart’ to what the Gospel designates as the ‘Kingdom of Heaven or the ‘Kingdom of God’? It is the Gospel itself that furnishes the answer to this question, and this answer is clearly affirmative. Indeed, to the Pharisees who asked when the ‘Kingdom of God’ would come, understanding this in an outward and temporal sense, Christ replied in these words:
The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say: ‘Lo here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you (Regnum Dei intra vos est). [17]
Divine action always manifests from within,[18] and this is why it does not catch the eye, which is necessarily turned toward outward things; this is also why the Hindu doctrine gives to the Principle the epithet ‘inner controller’ (antar-yarni),[19] its operation being accomplished from within outward, from the center to the circumference, from the non-manifested to the manifest, so that its starting-point escapes all those faculties belonging to the order of the senses, or which proceed from them more or less directly.[20] The ‘Kingdom of God; like the ‘house of God’ (Beth-El),[21] is naturally identified with the center, that is, with what is most inward, whether with respect to the totality of all beings, or to each of them taken individually.
That. said, we clearly see that the antithesis contained in the Gospel text, that is, the figure of the mustard seed which is ‘the smallest of all seeds; but which becomes ‘the greatest of shrubs; corresponds exactly to the dual descending and ascending gradations which, in the Hindu text, express the ideas of extreme smallness and extreme largeness. Besides, there are in the Gospel other passages where the mustard seed is taken to represent what is smallest: ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed…;[22] and this is not unconnected with the preceding, for faith, by which things of the supra-sensible order are grasped, is commonly referred to the heart.[23] But what is the meaning of the opposition according to which the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ or ‘the Atma that dwells in the heart’ is simultaneously what is smallest and what is greatest? Obviously this is to be understood in two different relationships; but again, what are these two relationships? To understand this it is enough to know that when passing analogically from the lower to the higher, from the outward to the inward, from the material to the spiritual, such an analogy must be taken in an inverse sense in order to be correctly applied; thus, just as the image of an object in a mirror- is inverted with respect to the object itself, that which is first or greatest in the principial order is, at least in appearance, the last or smallest in the order of manifestation.[24] General]y, this application of the inverse sense is also indicated by other Gospel sayings, at least in one of their meanings:
‘So the last will be first, and the first last’;[25] ‘... for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted’;[26] ‘Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’;[27] ‘If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all’;[28] ‘for he who is least among you all is the one who is great’.[29]
Confining ourselves to the case that more especially concerns us at present, and in order to make it more readily comprehensible, we can borrow terms of comparison drawn from mathematics, utilizing both geometrical and arithmetical symbolisms, between which moreover there is perfect concordance in this respect. Thus it is that the geometrical point is quantitatively null[30] and occupies no space whatsoever, even though it is the principle by which space in its entirety is produced; for space is only the development of the virtualities of the point, these latter being ‘effectuated’ by its radiation along the ‘six directions’.[31] Similarly, arithmetical unity is the smallest of numbers if it is envisaged as situated within their multiplicity; but it is the greatest in principle, for it contains all of them virtually and produces their entire series by the simple indefinite repetition of itself. Likewise again, returning to the symbolism in question at the outset, the yod is the smallest of all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but from it, nevertheless, are derived the forms of all the other letters.[32] Moreover, the double hieroglyphic sense of the yod as ‘principle’ and as ‘seed’ is linked to this double relationship: in the upper world, it is the principle which contains all things; in the lower world, it is the seed which is contained in all things. This is the point of view of transcendence and that of immanence, reconciled in the single synthesis of total harmony.[33] The point is at one and the same time principle and seed of extension; unity is at one and the same time principle and seed of numbers; similarly, the Divine Word, whether envisaged as subsisting eternally in itself or as making itself the ‘center of the world’ [34] is at once Principle and seed of all beings.[35]
The Divine Principle residing at the center of the being is represented in the Hindu doctrine as a grain or seed (dhatu), as a germ (bija),[36] because so long as ‘Union’ has not actually been effectively realized, it is in this being only virtually as it were.[37] On the other hand, this same being, and manifestation in its totality to which it belongs, exist only through the Principle and have no positive reality except by participation in its essence, and in the very measure of that participation. The Divine Spirit (Atma), being the one and only principle of all things, immensely surpasses all existence;[38] this is why it is said to be greater than each of the ‘three worlds; the terrestrial, the intermediary, and the celestial (the three terms of the Tribhuvana), which are the different modes of universal manifestation, ant] is also greater than the totality of the ‘three worlds; since it is beyond all manifestation; being the unchanging, eternal, absolute, and unconditioned Principle.[39]
There is still one point in the parable of the mustard seed that requires an explanation in connection with the preceding [40] it is said that in its development the seed becomes a tree; now, we know that in all traditions the tree is one of the principal symbols of the ‘World Axis’.[41] This meaning fits perfectly here: the seed is the center; the tree that grows from it is the axis issuing directly from this center, and it extends its branches through all the worlds; and on these branches there come to rest the ‘birds of heaven’, which, as in certain Hindu texts, represent the higher states of the being. This invariable axis is indeed the ‘divine support’ of all existence; and as the Far-Eastern doctrines teach, it is the direction according to which the ‘Activity of Heaven’ is exercised, the place of manifestation of the ‘Will of Heaven:[42] Is this not one of the reasons why in the Lord’s Prayer, immediately after the petition, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ (it is certainly the Kingdom of God that is in question here), comes ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, which is an expression of the ‘axial’ union of all the worlds with each other and with the Divine principle, of the full realization of the total harmony to which we have alluded and which cannot be accomplished unless all beings combine their aspirations in a single direction, that of the axis itself?[43]
‘That they may all be one; said Christ, ‘even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ... that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one... ‘[44]
This perfect union is the veritable advent of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, coming from within and opening outward in the plenitude of universal order, the perfection of all manifestation and the restoration of the integrity of the ‘primordial’ state. This is the coming of the ‘Celestial Jerusalem at the end of time’:[45]
Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;[46] he will wipe away every tear from. their eyes, and death shall be no more.... [47] There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.[48] And night[49] shall be no more; they need no light of lamp, or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.[50]
Notes
[1] 1st published in Etudes Traditionnelles, January-February 1949. - This article was written originally for the review Regnabit, but it could not appear there, because the hostility of certain ‘neo-scholastic' circles had obliged us to end our collaboration. It falls more especially within the ‘perspective' of the Christian tradition, with the intention of showing its perfect agreement with the other forms of the universal tradition, and completes the few observations we have made on the same subject in ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3. We have modified it very slightly in order to clarify further several points, and above all to add references to our other works where this might be useful for readers.
[2] ‘The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72].
[3] See the beginning of chap. 69 [ED]
[4] Cf. ‘The Great Triad’, chap. 25
[5] This meaning exists with certainty at least when the representation of the three yods is due to Christian authors; as in the case of the engraving just mentioned; more generally (for it must not be forgotten that the three yods are also to be found as an abbreviated form of Tetragrammaton in the Judaic tradition itself), it relates to the universal symbolism of the triangle, which, as we have already indicated, is related to that of the heart.
[6] Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 4.
[7] Cf. ‘‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’’, chap. 3.
[8] Cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 3.
[9] Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 7. - The residence of as-Sakinah in the heart of the faithful is also affirmed in the Islamic tradition.
[10] Isa. 4:2; Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8 and 6:12. Cf. ‘Perspectives on Initiation’, chaps. 47 and 48, and also our article 'The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72].
[11] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3.
[12] Cf. ‘The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times’, chap. 3.
[13] This is the Fiat Lux (Yehi Aor) of the book of Genesis, first affirmation of the Divine Word in the work of creation, the initial vibration which opens the way to the possibilities contained potentially in the state ‘wilhout form and void' (thohu va bohu) in the original chaos. (cf. ‘Perspectives on Initiation’, chap. 46).
[14] Cf. The ‘Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 4.
[15] Chandogya Upnnishad 3.14.3.
[16] Matt. 13:31 32; cf. Mark 4:30-32 and Luke 13:18-19.
[17] Luke 17:21.- We recall in this connection, the Taoist text (already cited more completely in ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 10): 'Do not inquire whether the Principle is in this or in that; It is in all beings. That is why It is given the epithet great, supreme, entire, universal, total.... It is in all beings by the determining of a norm [the central point or the ‘invariable middle'], but It is not identical with beings, being neither differentiated [in multiplicity] nor limited: (Chuang Tzu, chap. 22).
[18] ‘At the center of all things and higher than all, is the productive action of the supreme Principle’. (Chuang Tzu, chap. 9).
[19] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 15.
[20] The ‘ordering' action, which draws all things out of chaos (kòsmos in Greek signifies both ‘order' and ‘world'), is essentially identified with the initial vibration mentioned above.
[21] Cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 9.
[22] Luke 17:6.
[23] A certain relationship with the symbolism of the ‘eye of the heart' could even be found therein, particularly in this regard.
[24] ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 3.
[25] Matt. 20:16 and 19:30; Mark 10:31.
[26] Luke 18:14.
[27] Matt. 18: 4
[28] Mark 9:34.
[29] Luke 9:48.
[30] This nullity corresponds to what Taoism calls the ‘nothingness of form’.
[31] On the relationship between point and extension see ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap, 16.
[32] Whence this saying ‘… till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota [that is, one yod], not a dot , of the law will pass until all is accomplished.' (Matt. 5:18).
[33] The essential identity of these two aspects is also represented by the numerical equivalence of the names El Elion, ‘God Most High; and Emmanuel, ‘God in us' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 6).
[34] In the Hindu tradition, the first of these two aspects of the Word is Svayambhu and the second is Hiranyagarbha.
[35]. From another viewpoint, this consideration of the inverse sense can also he applied to the two complementary phases of universal manifestation: development and envelopment, expiration and aspiration, expansion and contraction, 'solution' and 'coagulation'. (cf. ‘The Great Triad’, chap. 6.)
[36] In this connection, the kinship of the Latin words gramen, 'grain', and germen, ‘germ' should he noted. In Sanskrit, the word dhatu also serves to designate the verbal root, as being the ‘seed' whose development gives birth to language in its entirety (cf. ‘Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta’, chap. 11).
[37]. We say ‘virtually' rather than 'potentially' because there can be nothing potential in the divine order; it is only from the side of the individual being and in relation to it that we could talk of potentiality. Pure potentiality is the absolute indifferentiation of ‘prime matter' in the Aristotelian sense, identical to the indistinction of the primordial chaos.
[38] We take the word 'existence' in its strictly etymological sense: existere, that is, ex-stare, ‘to have one's being from something other than oneself; ‘to be dependent on a higher principle'; existence thus understood is therefore strictly contingent, relative, conditioned, the mode of being of that which does not have its own sufficient reason in itself.
[39] The ‘three worlds' are not mentioned in the parable of the mustard seed, but they are represented by the three measures of meal in the parable of the leaven which immediately follows it (cf. Matt. 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21).
[40] Let us also point out that in Hindu terminology the ‘field' (kshetra) is the symbolic designation of the domain in which a being's possibilities are developed.
[41]. Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 9.
[42]. Cf. ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 23. - Here we would gladly use the expression ‘metaphysical place' by analogy with ‘geometric place’, which provides as exact as possible a symbol of what is involved.
[43] We should note that the word ‘concord' literally signifies ‘union of hearts' (cum-cordia); in this case, the heart is taken to represent principally the will.
[44] John 17:21-3.
[45] In order to relate this more closely to what has just been said about the symbolism of the tree, we again recall that the ‘Tree of Life' is placed at the center of the ‘Celestial Jerusalem' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 9, and ‘The Symbolism of the Cross’, chap. 9).
[46] A reference can of course he made here to what we have said above on the Shekinah and on Emmanuel.
[47] Rev. 21:3-4. Insofar as it is 'Center of the World; the ‘Celestial Jerusalem' is effectively identified with the 'abode of immortality’ [cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 7].
[48] This can be seen as an allusion to the 'third eye; which is in the form of a yod, as we have explained in our article ‘The All-Seeing Eye' [chap. 72]: from the moment they are re-established in the ‘primordial state’ they will effectively possess thereby the ‘sense of eternity’.
[49]. Night is naturally to be taken here in its lower sense, in which it is assimilated to chaos, and it is obvious that the perfection of the ‘cosmos' is at the opposite end of this (one could say ‘at the other extreme of manifestation'), so that it could be considered as a perpetual 'day'.
[50] Rev. 22:3-5. Cf. also ibid., 21:23: ‘And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb’. The 'glory of God' is yet another designation of the Shekinah, whose manifestation is in fact, always represented as ‘Light' (cf. ‘The King of the World’, chap. 3).