Liberating Wisdom

As we have already discussed, many teachings, schools and lineages speak of Wisdom as a special energy, emphasizing its exceptional evolutionary and liberating quality. From this perspective, Gnosis, Sophia, Shakti, Jnana are precisely characteristics of a mode of existence, a particular capacity — the ability to find and neutralize dualities, the ability to see the causes and foundations of manifestations, and not merely a cognitive ability.

We discussed that Kabbalah distinguishes Wisdom as an environment, a primary attribute of manifestation’s basis — Daath (that is, the Wisdom of the unmanifest), and as a particular feature of the processes there — Shekhinah (or Wisdom in Manifestation); within Shekhinah, Kabbalah distinguishes two parts — Good (Mazal, Descending wisdom) and Truth (Emet, Ascending current).

Similarly, Gnosis as a special, higher, enlightened or purified state of mind manifests as a “mutual interpenetration” or “mutual reflection” of the “Call” of Infinity — Barbelo (Pronoia) and the mind’s “Ascent” in response to this call — Epinoia (Pistis Sophia). It is no accident that in the Gnostic tradition the manifested world is the syzygy (interaction) of Sophia and Teletos, Wisdom and Desire, the energy of vision and the energy of action.

In Buddhist terminology, Higher Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) is a combination of the vision of Emptiness (shunyata, groundlessness of manifestation) and Luminosity (vidya, primordial clarity as the nature of mind). One can come to such a vision by three paths — through Compassion (Avalokiteshvara), Power (Vajrapani), or Wisdom (Manjushri).

One way or another, the description of the Energy of Wisdom amounts to the ability to combine and transcend affirmation and negation, activity and passivity, being and non-being.

When the Gnostics repeat the words of Christ: “Know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free,” they mean the same ability to rise above dualities that classical Advaita regards as the path to liberation. Sige, Aletheia — “the Wisdom of Silence” — is precisely the highest state of Sophia, the last step that the created mind takes before its final apotheosis, identification with Depth (Bythos), or, what is the same — the first step the Deity takes in creation.

Thus, it is not difficult to understand that the path to attaining gnosis, the highest liberating energy of mind, is, in fact, an ascent along the Column of Wisdom of the Tree of Life; this is not learning in the usual sense, not the acquisition of knowledge or skills — this is a change in the mind’s mode of functioning, or more precisely — its going beyond the limiting bounds of dualities.

Like the other two Paths — Holiness and Severity — the Path of Wisdom begins with “primary unity” — understanding the “nature of forms and phenomena” — Yesod. However, in the “side” Paths, Yesod is traversed in passing; attention does not immerse in the experience of forms, whereas the path along the Middle Pillar requires full awareness of underlying causes on which the mind of the traveler relies. In other words, one can go toward Holiness and Severity, knowing oneself during the process, but one can move toward Wisdom only after clear identification of one’s drives, aspirations and attractions. If the traveler is inclined toward the Path of Mercy, he then moves toward Primary Union — Netzach; if his nature is in identification of causes and agents, then he ascends to First Understanding — Hod; but if he gravitates toward the Middle Path, he goes straight through Qeshet, which requires a revolutionary leap in the so-called “Riding the Dragon” — the vision of the essence of desire’s energy.

<pThen, while movement along the “side” columns can occur by evolutionary methods, “step by step,” gnosis is attained by leaps, not steps, since both the distance from Yesod to Tiferet, from the vision of form to the experience of samadhi — the highest harmony, and, all the more so, the dash from Tiferet through Daath to Keter — these are not steps, but flights of mind, an error in each of which can lead to a fall into the Abyss, where the chaos of Choronzon lies in wait.

It is clear that it is impossible to carry out such “flights” without sufficient energy — which corresponds to the movement of epinoia or the current of vidya. It is precisely the acquisition of this energy of movement that is, thus, the goal of that “Riding the Dragon,” that primary self-study and self-discipline that occurs at the stage of Yesod. For this same reason, in the hermetic Schemes of the Tree from Yesod, there are Paths both to Tiferet (in the case of fully living through this, eidetic, level) and to Hod and Netzach, to the same “side” Paths which one could also enter directly from Malkhut, from the “starting” point of the neophyte. Most Travelers, even having “tested” themselves in the field of self-knowledge, still in the end “turn off” onto longer, but less extreme “side” Columns. On these “side” Paths, the Energy of Wisdom still must be acquired and accumulated, since the crossing of the Abyss still lies ahead in the end, and it is impossible without the wings of gnosis; however, this accumulation happens much more gradually, it is a consequence of the path, not its cause, as on the Middle Pillar.

Thus, for successful development, realization, and liberation of mind it is important to understand several principles:

1) Wisdom is not “knowledge,” not a set of knowledge and skills, but a special energy lying at the foundation of the cosmos;

2) Its acquisition is the result of self-knowledge, discovering the mind’s higher sources, and also — identifying and overcoming destructive forces;

3) Possessing the energy of Wisdom is acquiring the ability to neutralize and transcend dualities.

One could say that Wisdom is not the acquisition of some new or special understandings or visions; it is the acquisition of the very capacity to know, the capacity to see manifestation not merely at the level of phenomena, but at the deep, causal level.

Thus, one can say that striving for gnosis is not a search for knowledge or even Knowledge; it aims to transition to another level of existence; it is an exit — from limited, “kenomic” manifestation — to free, “pleromic” (even when it has not yet been fully realized, but is only sensed in advance).