Effortless Effort
One of the most difficult binaries that a Magus must neutralize to ensure high effectiveness in his development is the battle/game binary, the integral of which is the concept of the Magical Hunt.
On the one hand, the Magus understands perfectly well that he lives in a world saturated by consumerism, and his task is to break out of this vicious circle.
On the other hand — it is equally obvious to him that, by its “design,” the world, as the embodiment of the Great Spirit’s intention toward self-knowledge, is potentially perfect, and its corruption is merely an overlay, overlaid upon it.
Accordingly, the Magus must, on the one hand, take the battle for the right to be oneself entirely seriously, as if it were the ultimate reality, but on the other — he must be just as clear that no one could or will take that right from him; therefore the cosmic cycle is merely a game, an illusion.
Accordingly, the Magus must be relentlessly vigilant and prepared for fierce combat, and at the same time — completely relaxed and, in the Daoist manner, practice non-action.
An incredible number of destructors are layered on this binary, and the mind almost inevitably leans toward one extreme or the other, but until the Magus learns to hold such a balance, his efforts will either be wasted, or he will be swept away by contemplation of potential light.
The Magus must understand that, on the one hand, all change and all development occur “by themselves,” like water naturally running its course. Since the task of the cosmos is the Great Spirit’s self-knowledge, nothing and no one can obstruct this process. At the same time, the Magus must clearly see that the riverbed of the mind is usually heavily polluted and dammed by all manner of obstacles that impede the normal flow of power, and on the other — the source of this river lies somewhere in potential reality (all sacred rivers, myth says, begin in the heavens and only then descend to earth), and in order that this source does not dry up, constant active effort is required to receive it.
From the point of view of the Myth we describe, the world is, above all, a field of possibilities for actualization. It is precisely in the continual identification and neutralization of new binaries that the Way opens to differentiation of ever-new potencies of the Great Spirit, and therefore — the Way to Its self-knowledge. Accordingly, effective intellect, as an aspect of the Great Spirit, must continuously broaden and deepen its range of elements available to it, seeing in each a possibility for realization — that is, duality that creates differences in potential, and consequently movement, actualization.
We have already said that from the perspective of the Magus’s Way, the traveler’s efforts should be directed, first and foremost, at cleansing his mind of distractions, and then — at the search for potentials that are to be realized.
However, if the first component is relatively clear, many problems often arise with the second. Many Magi try to pursue every inner impulse indiscriminately, and instead of realizing true desires — only nurture caprices and whims, dissipate energy and feed predators. Others, conversely, are so overly meticulous in searching for “the self” and “true desire” that they accomplish nothing at all, tread water, or fall into blissful contemplation of potential perfection.
As the well-known Zen parable says, “enlightenment is like the sunrise; it cannot be produced by personal effort, but personal effort is needed so as not to oversleep that sunrise.”
The Magus builds his Way so as to be as alert, attentive, and honest with himself as possible. Although his efforts are merely efforts to maintain a wakeful state of mind, “merely” requires such a colossal amount of energy that one must behave impeccably at all times.
And so it turns out that, on the one hand, in the life of a Magus everything happens “by itself,” yet he fights without lowering his sword, from the first crossing of the Veil of Keshet until the very end of his life.
So, the more allowed borders and identified contradictions, the more effort is required to maintain purity? I was just thinking about this recently. It seems like I realized it, but then again you kind of slip back to the beginning and lose vigilance. You have to stretch your memory a bit and in key moments slow down your consciousness to think about the situation. It’s like in any practice, at first everything is slow and calm, you memorize movements, grasp meaning, so that later everything goes automatically. But repetition is the mother of teaching.
Finally, everything (that has occupied me lately) has finally fallen into place, and my intuitive guesses have been confirmed. Thank you.