The Way as a Natural State
In an age of information abundance, with so much talk about the Way and development, with reports of attainments and those who have attained everywhere, and with Schools, Orders and Lines numerous, it is surprising that unenlightened people still exist on earth. Despite this accessibility, the number of saints, and especially the number of the enlightened, relative to the population, not only fails to increase but steadily declines. Buddha’s Dharma is widely known, Christ’s teaching has been reproduced in millions of copies, but soundness of mind, as well as unconditional love, remains a great rarity.
The main problem facing the modern person is no longer the absence or inaccessibility of teachings; it is, on the contrary, the replacement of the Way with surrogates in the form of imitations of movement.
The Way seems to modern people as a set of actions, a set of “techniques,” “practices,” by performing which one can supposedly attain an unconditioned mind.
But what slips from view is a simple yet important understanding: The Way is not merely a set of actions, the Way is a state.
A state in which each successive awareness induces the next, and so on, leading to the gradual unfolding of the mind, the actualization of its potentials, its realization. In other words, actions, although they constitute the “formal” content of the Way, are secondary to this state; it is not actions that give rise to the Way, but the Way that gives rise to the actions it requires. It is precisely the inversion of this view that explains why the growing number of practitioners is not accompanied by a growth in the number of the Attained. The Way is a state of mind penetrating being; it is a state of Light entering a vessel.
It is impossible to “force” oneself to develop. It is impossible to expand one’s mind by constraining or stifling it.
Discipline, control, actions — these are not means of developing the mind; they are means that create conditions for that development. Development happens “by itself,” taking root in the depths of one’s nature, in the original nature of the mind.
The mind gravitates toward development, expansion, and actualization by its very nature, and all that is needed is to provide opportunities, to create conditions for development.
What the Magus does — grain by grain, drop by drop — is purify, distill his being, separating his own essential elements from those imposed from outside, from distorted and disrupted components. In doing so a path is cleared for the free flow of Power, a path for the manifestation of the mind’s potentials, and a path for its expansion. The Magus builds his Way, builds his mind, but he does not do this by repeating others’ actions, but by discovering his own inclinations and actualizing them.
Any attempt to “force” oneself to develop by imitating someone else’s actions, by copying someone else’s methods, leads only to a deeper immersion in illusion, to a false sense of progress.
In order truly to give the mind the chance to develop, one must first accustom it to honesty. Do not imitate love and tolerance when anger or irritation are present. But honestly admit that this event (or this person) arouses that negative state, and that we cannot yet cope with it, we cannot yet transform anger into mirror-like wisdom, or jealousy into the wisdom of fearlessness. Do not imitate nonattachment when inclinations remain within. But honestly admit that we are not yet free of those inclinations. It is equally important not to justify destructive impulses; do not treat irritation as justified or whims as acceptable. But also do not close your eyes to what has yet to be endured, uprooted, or transformed. It is very important not to ignore your enemies, but equally not to allow them to prevail in your mind.
The Magus cleanses his perception, removes its fragmentations, integrates it, and thereby promotes development. An emphasis on the present moment, inner honesty, sobriety of vision and adequacy of actions — these are all the “techniques” truly needed for development.
As feedback, I will allow myself to publish lines from one of my acquaintances from the forum of the ‘Solium’ project:
Madness Record from Nastena posted on 13.03.2014 at 10:57
To go mad to understand the meaning of existence…
To kill one’s mind to gain
consciousness,
To understand that I – is not really me,
But a part of the unified creation of the universe.
Where is the boundary between madness
and reason?
What is accepted as normal, and by whom?
How is it better to live? To acquire a corner,
To give birth to children, to work, to lie… Why?
Whoever has embarked on the Path, can no longer turn back. The fruits of knowledge are so tempting with their light. Those who dared to grasp madness, there is no road back to a world of answers…
Understanding that the path is a movement from one state of consciousness to another is aided by the ancient Indian game Lila. Here, the synchrony of game moves and life moves is present. Each experienced state has its own level, corresponding to the chakras. As you change states, you either move forward or fall down, you remain in place or walk in circles.
And it is clear here that all sorts of attributes—work, businesses, hoods and candles, asanas and vipassanas—are just decorations of that play you are currently acting in. They change depending on your play, your state. Not the other way around.
I think the experience of living through the cycles of runes and other things is about the same.
I might be mistaken. But it seems to me that the Path is the search for oneself. This search includes all life circumstances, games, ups, downs, family, childbirth, work, creativity, wars… absolutely everything.
When a person finds themselves fully, then all this ceases.
Then a person begins to BE.
To be in everything and everywhere. Then the searches cease. Then life begins. On the one hand, this is its simple flow, on the other, its creation. By thought, desire, intention. Although, perhaps in that state, all of it unites into one state – inspiration.
imho
Marina, one question. So, I found myself; what’s next? Based on the fact that the path is the search for oneself, the path is finished.
No really, I searched and searched, and bam – I found! You sit on the couch, your eyes blink, but what’s next? At this point, some sort of stagnation may arise.
Speak – rely on yourself, find yourself. But how is this done? How to find and awaken in oneself that seed from which our individuality can unfold?
I think it is very simple. You need to hear yourself, believe in yourself and believe in yourself.
Sadly, the external world often treats such attempts unfavorably. Therefore, there are numerous tricks that prevent you from believing in yourself, in yourself and learning about yourself.
The external world does not need your individuality. It prefers robots, zombies that can be easily controlled and freely ‘fed’ on you.
That’s why it is very difficult at first to simply find your path, because the external world will build illusory roads in front of you, relying on your weaknesses.
Here qualities of a warrior are essential.
Our external world is binary. It is practically based on extremes. But a person is a holistic being. They just forgot about this, submitted themselves, and let duality of the external world into themselves. Thus, one needs to remember their wholeness, ‘delete’ what gives birth to duality inside you. How you do this – that is your individual Path.
Every path is individual because every person is unique. To successfully traverse your path, one must be honest with oneself (Enmerkar has a blog post about this somewhere).
If you let something go, ignore it, do not pay attention to it, you simply return to that unlearned lesson. But in a stricter version, it usually goes like this 🙂
Therefore, one needs to honestly ‘examine’ themselves, like under a microscope 🙂
and examine all their ‘flaws’. Not the right word. Perhaps ‘misconceptions’ would fit better 🙂
Identify the reason for their occurrence, forgive yourself, and let go. We carry a lot of ‘junk’ within us. Various prejudices, societal setups, our own and others’. It is precisely these that prevent a person from being themselves.
But most importantly, you need to do all this with love for yourself.
Each person is a tremendous value for the universe, each one.
That’s probably a bit of what is needed to step onto your path, rather than imitate it. Unfortunately, today’s reality is full of imitation.
“Every person is a tremendous value for the universe, each one.”
Where do you have information about the value system of the Universe?
I share my knowledge. If you don’t like it, don’t accept it 🙂
Lila.
A person is the least aware being with the most unique possibilities. Very individual. No one knows what a being named Person can come up with next and how it may end:)
Who else is so interesting to observe for the gods, who know all the nuances of the game:)
“Our external world is binary. It is practically based on extremes. But a person is a holistic being.”
Maybe it is the reverse; the world is holistic, and binarity is a characteristic of how a person perceives the world. By knowing the world, a person overcomes this duality that is inherent to them, expands their wholeness to unity with the world.
“How you do this—this is your individual Path.” Can you give a concrete example?
In general, I love things to be simple. One can describe a cat for a long time in poems and prose, in scientific texts. It is altogether a different shape—to let someone play with it or at least show them a picture.
The binary world is OURS, not the entire Universe.
To ‘get’ to the understanding of the unity of the Universe, a person needs to overcome duality within themselves and become a holistic being. Then one can see the multidimensionality, the facets of the Universe and its various manifestations. Just like that humanity is a large single collective consciousness.
Regarding images, this needs to be practiced on oneself. What is a kitten for one can look like a lion for another.
An individual person is a part of a huge tapestry, but their thread is unique. Just as where this thread is woven, in which pattern, and what color depends only on them.
Observe, and you will see both kittens and lions:)
This is a very important question in my opinion. I immediately started to think. In my view – the path begins from the moment of discovering this small territory, which is precisely – myself. Until then – it’s like being nowhere to take a step. In one of the blog themes about the various abilities of magicians, there was a good thought that we all know about them in early childhood. From my experience, this is true – until about the age of 5, we know about ourselves very well. Until we go through all the crises of socialization (child psychology is very well described and all the conclusions and transformations happening in a person at this time). All this teaches us to live in society. And I won’t say that this is bad; perhaps it is necessary. The only thing is that there are not many options when we are taught to correspond with ourselves during this time. Rather, this education resembles numerous lessons on conforming to others. Why this is about adapting rather than interacting—I do not know.
In general, one can look to childhood, try to remember.
Another aspect is already adult pain, from my experience – everything that causes suffering, if you do not run away from it but try to understand, signals to us about ourselves. And it doesn’t matter what a person suffers from—love, money, or whatever else there is—if you do not run away from it but honestly look, you can find yourself. That usually happens, only it takes time. Because we might try to escape from uncomfortable conditions—the lesson sometimes drags on for a lifetime, and one can no longer discern where the roots lie.
Carefully looking into the face of your pain, looking at the fire after which the most valuable remains—the indestructible. This is the second method I know.
The third is rituals (probably I would include the ones described in the blog as Kol). When consciousness is helped to be in an environment where action is only possible from a more or less whole element. From my experience, this is not something to dream of—there have not been tougher situations forcing one to grasp on to oneself. But, of course, it is worth it.
Any experience on the brink, even if unrelated to magic, also helps to know oneself.
I also suspect that there is a chain of experiences, initiations, that helps at the right stage—to find the necessary part of oneself. Again, life offers them to us in one form or another, but probably talking of complete cleansing of consciousness in one life would be difficult. If viewed from the outside—then some people live their whole lives with one conclusion. Initiation rituals likely help one to realize everything and move on to the next stage without facing the real death of old age.
Regarding that all this is easy—I agree with the author’s opinion, which is confirmed by my own experience—every expansion of consciousness leads to a clear change of perception, reality, and oneself. Clearly. It no longer remains the same, and this is noticeable even to the naked eye. If such changes within oneself and around are absent, then it’s likely speaking about a comfortable existence at the current level rather than a new turn of development.
Thank you: childhood, adult pain, rituals; individuality as a way to overcome the binarity of the world—would be clearer with some illustration.
“Why regarding ways of interaction and not ways of adjustment” – probably, this is more energy-saving, more survivable.
I would actually like to thank you for your question. Because if it hadn’t been asked here and I hadn’t read it – I wouldn’t have dug within myself. It helped me structure my experience. I try not to share examples—this is a new kind of practice; I don’t know where it will lead) I would like my words to be understood someday without piling up events from my life.
Here is the translation to English:
An актуal article. So much spirituality around that one can go blind. There’s a lot of positivity. So much positivity amid elementary illiteracy, cynicism, and duplicity. Spirituality has long become a fashionable gimmick. It is still unknown what’s worse—the information hunger or the profanation amid all this abundance.
I want to add the following from myself.
Human happiness is much closer than it seems. The path of a magician is much more absurd and dangerous than one can imagine from the articles which are very cultured and restrained and do not reflect the everyday life of a magician.
The commonly accepted understanding of happiness and the happiness of a magician are so different that they can sometimes be mutually exclusive concepts.
Poverty, failures, loneliness, and social alienation have always been normal moments in a magician’s life. Most of my acquaintances in this business have either drunk themselves to death, ended up in prison, or moved away from magic altogether, preferring to return to the ordinary. And these were people of strong, very strong will.
Do you need it? There’s nothing really good on this path.
It would be much more pleasant to see people honestly trying to become human, not striving towards the lofty heights. And enlightenment, as it was correctly stated in the article, will come by itself.
That’s all from me 🙂
Thank you, blog author. The path is where a person currently is; everything they need for growth is already present… manifesting. The whole trick is how they meet this… where they focus their sight… what they emphasize… what they listen to.
A person is arranged in such a way that the more you give them, the more they need. The abundance of information has negatively affected people. There are thousands of different ways to achieve higher spiritual development – but people do not want to do anything; they are only enough for conversations about the path. This is our laziness. The path does not generate action; it is just impossible to walk while doing nothing – these are interconnected things, like a river and its channel. If they diverge, nothing good will come from that.