Thirst for Life
Despite the fact that the driving factor for a Magus in living effectively is awareness of mortality, the Magus is not focused on the afterlife; on the contrary, he is entirely focused on life as an ongoing process of realization.
For the human mind, suspended between two abysses of nonexistence — life and the afterlife — typically displays a strong love of life; it serves as a powerful anchor that keeps it embodied.
Indeed, as soon as the mind grasps the “First Noble Truth” — it understands that “life is suffering” — a strong desire to withdraw may arise in it; even suicidal tendencies may develop, or at the very least, the will to live may be lost.
Just as the materialization of the manifest world is forcibly sustained by considerable efforts of Angels, maintaining an active embodied state also requires significant effort from the mind and from its Keepers.
To attain awareness of the transience of life and at the same time preserve a clear sense of its profound value — this is the difficult task facing the Magus who has set foot on the Way.
As soon as the Magus’s “eyes open” and he sees the futility of his existence, he must remember that there is no other means for him to realize his potentials and develop his mind.
Moreover, one must clearly understand that life is an absolute value in all its manifestations because it is the Way by which the Great Spirit comes to know itself.
Although all religions emphasize life’s value, the real situation is often such that it feels as if life can be easily “sacrificed,” and many justifications are offered for such sacrifice — consider, for example, the Crusades or other “wars for faith.”
The Magus strives to survive in battle not because he is driven solely by a biological survival instinct, but because he understands that he must make fullest use of all available resources to develop awareness that this incarnation offers. For the same reason, the Magus does his utmost to avoid taking life — he does not feel entitled to deny the chance to develop to any form of consciousness.
Of course, this does not mean the Magus becomes a Jain, terrified at the thought of causing harm; nonetheless, his understanding is close to those very extreme forms.
The cruelty and cynicism characteristic of many warriors enamored with combat are a serious obstacle to their development, just as the fear of the struggle, characteristic of many mystics, is an obstacle. The Magus who rushes into the fray and the Magus who hides are equally blameworthy and equally lost.
Of course, the Way of Magic is a path of action, and the Magus is, above all, a warrior — but he is a warrior who will never shed a drop of blood (literally or figuratively) without sufficiently weighty justification. The Magus must impeccably combine mastery of sword and mastery of shield, not hiding when he must strike, but also not striking when he should simply stand firm.
Hmm. Enmerkar, in your opinion, is a person who has interrupted the life of an assailant a cruel and cynical person? Provided that his motivation was not to punish but to prevent evil in the future. If a man was able to infringe on a woman’s personal rights, or worse, then he will repeat this. Leaving him as he is means condoning evil, increasing its presence in the world. And spending time on “re-education” is sometimes unforgivable.
In my opinion, it’s definitely not a magician’s job to pass sentences, and even more so to execute them.
Now I have understood what was discussed in the article. Thank you.
If there is no one to deliver a sentence and especially to carry it out, I think it would be effective to limit the parasitic existence of the assailant by minimizing the “effectiveness” of their existence in society (i.e., to injure) in order to “not to punish them but to prevent them from committing evil in the future”. Of course, this pertains to a specific situation, and it’s just my opinion.
Again (I have already referenced this film in another topic), the ideal option is shown in “The Voroshilov Shooter” – if the organs of justice act ineffectively, then vigilante justice is quite appropriate here. But at the level of the golden mean. He did not take a life, but he shot the abusers’ eggs)))
But again, as it seems to me, “to pass and execute sentences” is appropriate when it concerns the subject personally. One should see the line where “My Struggle” begins and where it ends.
Wonderful! Balancing between extremes, searching for the golden mean, that’s it!
Moreover, one should also take into account that there are different situations leading to the deprivation of life of another being. Deprivation of life can happen during a battle simply because that is the nature of battle – if you do not deprive someone of life, they will deprive you of yours. In war, it’s just war. And here the “sin”, as it seems to me, may consist only in participating in someone else’s battle. However, there is one nuance here. There is an opinion (among practitioners of eastern martial schools) that murder is the lowest level of victory over an enemy (the first, the most basic level is to destroy the enemy physically, the second is to demoralize the opponent, to defeat him psychologically, and the third, the highest – to make the enemy your friend). Another situation is hunting. There is a belief that Power brings the victim to you. The victim seems to choose themselves. A clear example is the story of Carlos Castaneda and the rabbit. The rabbit got trapped. Don Juan said that now CC must kill it. But sentimentality prevented CC from doing so, and in trying to free the rabbit, he accidentally suffocated it. There’s also the option of deprivation of life – ritual sacrifice. By modern western magicians, this is usually not practiced (even among the representatives of the dark side, not everyone practices this. Although medieval grimoires contain explicit instructions on how to carry out sacrifices. And in various currents of Afro-Caribbean magic, known under the term Vodou (which, in fact, is incorrect: Vodou is actually only one of these directions), blood still flows like a river (mostly chicken).
A magician not only strives to preserve the lives of those who possess it but also sometimes breathes life into those in whom it only flickers, increasing the core of life force. For this, first and foremost, the Body of Desires is formed, SINCE THE THIRST FOR LIFE IS INSEPARABLE FROM THE THIRST FOR AWARENESS and gaining new experiences.
IMHO, one should first ask the question, does the one into whom you infuse life want this life to be infused into them. “Don’t help if not asked, and if asked – think first” – I fully agree with this. Theoretically yes, the thirst for awareness is inseparable from the thirst for life. But it is unlikely that a chicken will gain this awareness. In most cases, any chicken is identical to any other chicken (complete interchangeability). I’m not talking about those organisms that have a nerve cluster instead of a brain (fishes, crabs, shrimps, mollusks, etc.).
To evaluate the identity of chickens with one another and to feel the form of a chicken’s consciousness, try to be in its skin and feathers. THE THIRST FOR AWARENESS has many manifestations and is significantly broader than one of its tools – nerve tissue. The memory of trees and plants can be very valuable for developing one’s own AWARENESS.
Doctor, your comment is right on topic:) Right now I’m experimenting a bit with plants. The one I infused energy into started wilting rapidly after I stopped feeding it… I’m afraid I messed up its energy… Now, to keep it from dying, I maintain its life with small doses to nourish its core life. By the way, I thought I was mistaken in “seeing” the core as the energy center. Apparently, I was not mistaken ))
Use the matrix of the plant’s life core in its best state (solvable, preserved in your memory or scanned in time) and slowly bring the plant to it, adding the material that is necessary if you feel it is needed. Good luck and strength.
To support the smoldering spark of life so that a person does not extinguish. This is the most terrible punishment. Only the awareness of the correctness of the path obliges this smoldering heart to live and to realize that the element of will is the Stolen fire.
Are there situations in which suicide is permissible? For example, is such a situation the loss of honor?
Frater_J.: In any case, suicide is permissible for someone who allows it to happen. It is much harder to want to live after losing honor… after all, this is a state of the Zombie. If the Zombie desires to live, then surely sooner or later there will be “ignition of the spark.”
There is no such dirt from which one cannot wash away. Suicide does not restore honor but, on the contrary, fixes its loss. Running away is always easier than continuing the fight, but not always more correct. Instead of settling scores with life, it would be more honorable to at least try to restore what was lost, or at least perish in battle for that restoration.
> As soon as consciousness grasps the ‘First Noble Truth’ — it understands that ‘life is suffering’, it develops a powerful desire to escape from life.
I think the key here is to seek escape from suffering, not from life itself.
Of course. But the Second Noble Truth states: “The cause of suffering is life itself.” And that is why the desire to escape from it arises, without making efforts to change the situation.