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Why bother about reincarnations ? You see, we're reincarnating every second... every moment is a reincarnation.
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What do you want when you decide to meditate ? Meditation can have many possible goals, or put another way : we can say that there are many types of meditation... to suit all tastes...
Schopenhauer had this wonderful insight when he saw Buddhism as a will-do-die, as a desperate (in his opinion) answer to nature's will-to-live. Freud will rework all of this in his own way...
Then you can also have Nietzschean Occultists such as Crowley, who decide not on a final dissolution of the ego but rather on its divinization (going along with Renaissance guys such as Ficino, Pico, Bruno). And so here we have spiritual and magickal practices aligned with the realization of Life as Will-to-Power.
All of this has been synthesized by Hermetic Qabalists (mind you, not Jewish but Hermetic) as the difference between a) the Mystical Way of the Dove or Arrow - upwards in a straight line from Malkuth to Kether passing by Daath and making a dissolution choice there, and b) the Magickal Way of the Serpent, slowly passing upwards through all the Sephiroth, making a self-divinizing choice at Daath and finally attaining Kether...
Daoist cultivation seems to be akin to the Way of the Serpent, while Buddhist Meditation and Non-dualist mystical practices in general seem to be akin to the Way of the Dove/Arrow...
So Crowley was right after all as concerns the Adept of the Serpent Way when he proclaimed that “Every man and woman is a Star”… for indeed this divinization implies bigger and bigger material structures in the end, and it was not by chance that the ancient Greeks ascribed the stars and constellations to late extraordinary men or heroes… some even whisper that our present Sun was once a man…
Note : some people ask why do authors make a difference between Jewish and Hermetic Qabalistic traditions. Isn’t the Qabalah necessarily a strictly Jewish thing ? Actually, no. Let me give a brief historical explanation : from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance onwards you had quite a few curious European Christian scholars studying under the Rabbis. They translated some key texts into Latin (Knorr von Rosenroth) and often re-invented the Qabalah to suit their particular religious convictions (Reuchlin)... Pico della Mirandola, a pupil of Ficino, blended the Hebrew (and by this time Latin) Qabalah with the Hermetic and Neoplatonic magickal considerations of his teacher. The 17th century German Rosicrucians inherited this mixed Qabalah, and in their turn 18th, 19th and even 20th century Occultists inherited this same brand from the R+C... That's the lineage that is nowadays called 'Hermetic Qabalah', to distinguish it from the purely Rabbinical one.
As to the purists, it may well be said that the mythical Abraham (who brought the Qabalah from the East - presumably the Sepher Yetzirah, according to C. Suarès) was not a Jew. And as even Scholem and Moshe Idel point out, the Jewish Qabalah itself was an amalgam of Neoplatonist, Gnostic and Hellenistic teachings mixed with proper Jewish traditions…
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Q : Are Guardian Angels part of our psyche or are they separate spiritual entities ?
A : Actually there is this constant overlapping of realities... we could say the whole Universe, seen and unseen, is our Psyche... so Gods and Angels are part of us and vice-versa, all the time... there isn't in fact any inside/outside... which makes synchronicities and omens such a natural phenomenon...
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“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted”. This simple phrase, credited by William S. Burroughs to Hassan i Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain and chief of the Assassins (a designation that originates from their use of hashish), wonderfully synthesizes the ultimate truth cognized at the end of numberless Initiations : keeping the outer shell of his social, cultural and legal personality, the Void created inside the Initiate is a Void swarming with possibilities, a truly Daoist Void where Worlds are continuously generated and destroyed.
This phrase resonates deeply on many levels : on the metaphysical, ontological, ontic, ethical, moral, existential, real and imaginary, conscious and unconscious, coloured and black and white levels... And when this transmutation is accomplished true Freedom and its delight begins.
So many veils did the Initiate lift, only to see his own nudity. Magnum Opus. In this Inner Body of Glory, Light and Shadow fuse and Life finally begins, exuberant.
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I wish I had more to say - as the years go by, I have less and less... only my daily practice remains, an encounter with Is-ness, deeper and deeper... Looking at my books, painstakingly collected throughout the years, I feel I could throw my whole library out... an interesting feeling. I suppose it’s a good thing, after all.
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The shaming kiss. In the Templar Trial official documents, which at the end sent them all to the stake, was the statement that affirmed that one of their inner Initiations consisted of kisssing the anus of a goat which they named the Baphomet. To the Inquisitors, this goat stood for the Devil himself...
It is quite difficult to inquire on facts that took place so long ago, however it is interesting to note that this "goat" (an animal famous for its promiscuity or sexual energy) is represented by the Arcanum XV of the Tarot. It corresponds to the Seagoat of the sign of Capricorn, whose regent is Saturn (which is identified with the heaviest of the 7 Alchemical metals, Lead).
In the distribution of the 7 Alchemical metals to the 7 Chakras of the Subtle Body, Saturn/Lead corresponds to the Base Chakra (Muladhara), where the Serpent lies asleep.
This kiss is at the same time an Ophidian reverence and a Serpentine propitiation... It renders concrete the Aspirant's vow to attain Gnosis, Enlightenment, to attain the Awakening and Ascension of this Energy. Strangely, we are taken to the doctrines and practices of Ancient India... We'll never know for sure in how many veiled ways this knowledge tried to reach the West throughout the centuries - through heretical, Occult and symbolical trappings...
Note : one arrives at these same conclusions through the Occult attributions of the Arcana (Qabalistic, Alchemical and Planetary attributions) and by the careful study of these aspects in the Tree of Life and Cube of Space diagrams. As this is not the proper setting for its exposition, I'll content myself to suggest its study and to point out the Occult relationship that exists between Arcanum XV and Arcanum XXI.
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Pragmatic intuition. Perhaps there comes a time in the Path when one moves beyond Truth - perhaps it is only a phase, though, and one gets back to 'caring about Truth' again in the end. But at this juncture, one just keeps polishing the tile - through Method and Practice.
Perhaps it is a 'postmodern' phase in the Path. As 'all is discourse', all speech or 'Truths' become redundant... just Action and its tangible results remain – results obtained through Method and Practice. It could be called pragmatic intuition, or even spiritual pragmatism.
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Resonance. Our life as a continuous emission of a certain wavelength – a certain rhythm or subtle beat. We therefore attract events and people that phase in with this rhythm. In this sense, the regular practice of a Meditation technique imprints ever more clearly this beat pattern, minimizing inner and outer noise. This translates itself in events. This text, although seemingly commonplace, is not commonplace.
READING SUGGESTION
•Itzhak Bentov. Stalking the wild pendulum. Rochester : Destiny Books, 1988.
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Synchronicities. When these happen, sometimes one has the feeling we’re only dreams dreamt by the Symbols themselves. So perhaps Plato was right, the only true Reality is the World of Ideas, and we’re only pale reflections and shadows.
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HU (Him), one of God's Names - like the sound the wind makes across the plains, hooooooo - Immanent, closer than your jugular vein as they say.
Why do we bother to write about these subjects ? These descriptions only make sense (and are not just flatus vocis) for readers who had at least a teeny-weeny parcel of these experiences. But thank God people still write about them throughout the Ages, like messages in bottles thrown at sea.
Zahir/Batin, the chiaroscuro of Existence.
What would the world be without these testimonials of Immanence and Transcendence ?
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Kalachakra and Shambhala. The Kalachakra material has always puzzled us, and also the present Dalai Lama's relation with it and his giving of Kalachakra Initiations... The Kalachakra Tantra has always been considered as one of the most Esoteric and hidden traditions of Tibetan Buddhism - Blavatsky was one of the first writers to mention it publicly, in the 19th century.
C. G. Jung loved Mandalas and their usual Quaternary structure... he thought they expressed the Self. We agree they seem to have a very strong psychically organizing effect... as to the Kalachakra, imagine a psychically organizing effect on a Global scale... seems an interesting idea, don't you think ? A wise man, the Dalai Lama...
LINKS
•A talk on the Kalachakra, by David Reigle.
•D. Reigle’s site, with very interesting material.
Kalachakra thangka from Sera Monastery, Tibet
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What is "left" after we die ? The Self, this Being or Ocean that we sometimes tap during Meditation, this very deep level of transcendence. Personality is dissolved, and this blessed Ocean is "left". What a wonderful feeling of peace. Nothing else. The surface ripples are gone. Pure Transcendence.
The drop goes back to the Ocean.
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As we read John Michell's last book and Philosophical legacy on Sacred Geometry, we note how he always refers to Heavenly Jerusalem, as if present or Immanent in the World. It is as if we only needed eyes to see it so we could conform ourselves and our institutions/society to its structure. A very similar reference to Heavenly Jerusalem is in Ibn Arabi's account of his own Mi'raj or Ascension, this time from a Mystical Alchemical point of view (again, the Regeneration motif, of Metals and of Man).
There is the same Quaternary structure in both the Kalachakra Mandala or blueprint and in Heavenly Jerusalem, as one reads the latter’s description in St John's Apocalypse. Again one senses the Esoteric reason behind the present Dalai Lama's Kalachakra Initiations...
So it seems the Pure Land has always been here.
When we did in the distant past a number of DMT or Ayahuasca sessions, we could distinctly feel the Pure Land for a number of days following the ritual. Daily reality seemed Regenerated (and ourselves with it). Then it gradually faded away. So we are left with the old question posed by Gurdjieff and other Spiritual Adventurers : how can we crystallize Inner Change so that it doesn't just fade away ?
So many voices, pointing to the same direction.
SUGGESTED READING
•Ibn Arabi. L’Alchimie du Bonheur Parfait. Paris : Berg, 1981. A chapter from his monumental Kitab al-Fotuhat al-Makkiya.
•John Michell and Allan Brown. How the World Is Made. Rochester : Inner Traditions, 2009.
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