Roads and Paths

A person’s individuality, being their most important attribute, requires that the development of their consciousness follow along a certain Way. At the same time, a Way that brings victories and high effectiveness to one person is not necessarily useful to another.

Nevertheless, the entire array of varied individual Ways clusters into basic directions, dictated by the very nature of the human level of consciousness.

In other words, although only one’s own unique Way can be absolutely effective and harmonious for each person, this Way usually falls within one or several of the main developmental directions, the Traditions.

Among Wayfarers who are successfully advancing along their Ways, two kinds of destructors often appear, corresponding to the two aforementioned binary components — either absolutizing one’s experience as the supreme truth, or, conversely, boundless trust in Tradition.

At the same time, the neutralization of this binary requires understanding that, on the one hand, one’s own experience is absolute only for its bearer, while on the other hand traditional approaches, time-tested and validated by many Magi, can spare many mistakes and reinventing the wheel.

Buddhism has a very important concept of the pratyekabuddha — beings who have attained enlightenment outside the Buddhist community and do not preach the Dharma. It is very important to understand that a Way that leads one to enlightenment may well lead another to ruin, and that a personal attainment of a high level of Power and awareness does not guarantee the ability to guide others. In other words, not every enlightened person is a Buddha. And not every Magus is a Master.

History knows many great Magi (capitalized, in the sense of the Degree of Initiation Chokhmah) who turned out to be poor Masters (again, in the sense of the level of Binah). Having reached dizzying heights, even having given the world new Laws, these Great Ones nevertheless did not create an adequate main path for new Wayfarers. (Recall that traditionally the degree of Master signifies the ability to guide along known Ways, while the degree of Magus signifies the ability to forge new Ways and laws of development.)

Every Magus who has made real progress and done so successfully along their Way must remember that their own successes are necessary but not enough to ensure effective guidance, and that approaches fruitful for them may not work for others. This is all the more relevant because sooner or later teaching becomes an essential part of personal development, and it is precisely neutralizing this polarity that underlies the well-known maxim: “the better the Master, the less he tries to teach“.

When venturing to pronounce an authoritative opinion, the Magus should rely less on their own experience than on the experience of his listeners, merely nudging them toward conclusions and approaches that are personally important to them.

It is clear that for a successful Magus to refrain from thinking they are the cleverest is a very difficult task, and to avoid thinking “if it is true for me, then it is true for everyone” is not easy, but without this the Magus turns from a channel of Power into an obstacle on its Way, not helping fellow Wayfarers, but substituting his own battles for theirs, and replacing their understanding with his.