Absence of Resistance

The Game of Concession is one of the most beloved and effective strategies by which the dark part of the mind brings about the halt of the light’s development.

In fact, most who have been defeated in their mental development do not even suspect that they have been defeated — much as most of the dead do not realize they have died.

It seems that having won a few skirmishes and having uncovered a couple of complexes, the mind is happy to declare itself the victor and either become self-satisfied or simply divert attention from the struggle and take up “life in the light.”

Mass consciousness, infused with a diluted form of the Eastern Way, swarms with ideas of “enjoying what you have,” “the universe helping you,” and the like, and a puzzling question arises — if it is enough simply to “enjoy,” then why did Milarepa and Bodhidharma sit in caves for years instead of walking through cities with a beatific smile?

If someone who merely knows how to find hidden objects on a TV game show can give advice on all areas of life and the development of mind, then why did Pythagoras die during the mystery rites, why did Crowley wander deserts — didn’t they all simply fail to understand that “the universe had already prepared everything for them”?

At all times and in all situations Magic has asserted that the essence of the World-process is struggle. However, understanding struggle as mere fighting is far from the sense the Tradition invests in the word. Struggle in Magic is the realization of differences in potential; it is a state of tension that generates movement; it is self-knowledge through the separation and subsequent reunification of aspects of the One reality.

Accordingly, the absence of struggle also means the absence of development; dwelling in the “light of truth” means occupying only one pole of the duality, a renunciation of the fullness of manifestation and, therefore, of realization.

At the same time, the opposite extreme — focusing attention only on the dark side of reality — is equally unproductive. Although the Way out of darkness always passes through darkness, its driving force must be attraction to light; and only by clearly recognizing the dual nature of the “Great Limit” is it possible to achieve real progress in expanding awareness.

So long as a person is merely a person, he does not constitute a threat to the established consumption system; he does not feel struggle, tension, or fervor. Yet the higher the intensity of his movement, the greater the potential differences within him, and thus the fiercer the struggle and resistance. Conversely, in falling, in the renunciation of development, the struggle subsides again, and battle gives way to quiet decay. And how many have mistaken the warmth of that decay for the Primeval Light! Luxuriating in a decaying mind, people not only cease to strive to change their condition; they call others to do the same, becoming sources of degradation for those around them.

The Magus must understand that if he does not feel resistance, then either he has already traversed the entire Tree of Life and reached the degree of the Most Perfect, or he has stumbled and strayed from the Way. Of course, it is far more pleasant to accept the first explanation, but that, among other things, would imply an alteration in the very structure of the materiality of the channels of the mind; so if a person looks in the mirror and sees eyes, a nose, ears and other signs of embodiment yet does not feel assaults or struggle, then most likely he has been deceived and his enlightenment is an illusion.

Even fully realized beings experience resistance — in the form of the suffering of other beings, which they feel keenly. Although the Magus who has crossed the Paroket feels inner ease from his practice and cultivates a state of harmony within himself, he is always alert and receptive to manifestations of darkness as well as to strikes of light.

Regardless of the terminology a Magus uses, and regardless of whether he calls his enemies demons, parasites, or complexes and delusions — if he does not see them and does not feel their activity, he urgently needs to begin an analysis of his mind and search for the error he has made. The Magus’s struggle is not a renunciation of happiness; on the contrary, it is the Way to achieve the deepest and fullest awareness, to feel the universe’s effervescence, to sense its real life. The Way of the Magus is constant overcoming, growth, transcending limits, and therefore — transcendence.