And what is healing or restoration of health? This would be the first
question to ask. When we feel pain, the immediate desire is to get rid
of it quickly. But what happens when the pain is not physical, but
mental or emotional, what happens when disappointments have wounded our
heart again and again, and it is so full of scars that there is barely
room for one more wound? And how to correct all the physical and
emotional imbalances that have led us to this painful present?
Recovering a state of health has become a social myth. We find it in
many magazines and in advertisements for consumer products, beauty,
fitness, not to mention vaccines, surgeries, prostheses, etc. In fact,
it is a myth, because what we call “health” is not something static:
life is something constantly evolving. It is an evolutionary process
that, for some people ends in death, while for others it never ends, but
goes beyond death. In any case it is a “dynamic” equilibrium, an
equilibrium at a given moment. But this dynamic balance has to be a
state of harmony between the different mental and physical factors that
constitute the human being; unfortunately these factors are almost
always at war.
In the midst of the turbulence of the last century and the present, in the midst of this accelerated time, even faster than our ability to understand and integrate so many changes in such a short life, it is necessary once again, as in all critical times, calm down and look again for the essential keys to continue on our path.
Just as it is relatively easy to meditate in the middle of the night and in silence, while it is difficult or even impossible in the noise of the street, on the subway or while driving a car, the human capacity for introversion has become enormously reduced in recent centuries.
In previous epochs, the environment that surrounded man was limited: colors, tastes, clothing, settings and landscapes, customs and festivals, life and work were well regulated, simple and durable, without many changes over time. It was relatively easy to abstract consciousness from this familiar and controlled environment. On the contrary, the upheaval and acceleration we are experiencing today make it increasingly difficult to assimilate and adapt to new advances in technology, culture and art. As soon as we begin to master a new field of knowledge, it becomes obsolete.
Almost everyone knows the ancient Platonic myth of the Cave, that place dominated by powerful and invisible masters of the cave, and where the prisoners, born there, can only see their own shadows reflected on the walls, as if they were in front of a cinema screen, and which they believe to be themselves.
The interpretive key to the whole matter is twofold: on the one hand there is the illusory world of the prisoners and on the other the self-deception of the jailers, who, believing themselves to be owners of the cave, are nothing more than actors in this drama of life. In fact, the only truth is that no matter whether you are part of the dominated prisoners or the dominant masters, you have to free yourself from the cave, you have to get out of it and return to the true sun light.
Now let's ask ourselves: is the Cave simply a philosophical myth, a more or less attractive story proposed by Plato? Or is it a daily and present reality in our lives? Because if it is real, then all those who desperately ask for freedom (in the family, social, work and political spheres) do not make sense in what they say, unless they mean that we must get out of this cave. The Cave exists in many forms, and we have to learn to distinguish its manifestations in our environment, and know how to recognize it and how it traps us in its darkness.
“Memory is not a passive recorder but
a tool in the construction of the self”
Arthur C. Clark
“What is Truth?” asked Pilate of one who
must have known it…. Bu He kept silent…But the same question stands open
from the days of Socrates and Pilate down to our own age of wholesale
negation: is there such a thing as absolute truth in the hands of any
one party or man? Reason answers, “there cannot be.” There is no room
for absolute truth upon any subject whatsoever, in a world as finite and
conditioned as man is himself. But there are relative truths, and we
have to make the best we can of them.” H.P. Blavatsky
Truth, Maat in ancient Egypt, was symbolized by a feather, because of
its lightness, that is, its lightness in the memory of man, its
immateriality, its spiritual character.
Maat was also represented as a goddess with multicolored and
iridescent wings, under whose protection and projection dwelled all:
gods, human beings, and every thing that exists in this world.
Therefore, she represented the Totality, that is, the Eternal Truth; but
in this world we, the human beings, can only access some of her colored
feathers, i.e.: the relative and temporary truths.
For the Egyptians, that culminating moment, the passage into the
afterlife, was represented by the “Maati” Hall, that is, the Hall of the
Double Truth and Justice. And this truth was verified in the Heart of
every Judged Soul.
The heart was a symbol of consciousness in motion, that is, the
consciousness through time. For this same reason, during the funeral
rites, the heart was replaced by a green beetle, Khepri. A dark and
heavy insect, so earthly that it buries its young hatchlings in dung
balls carried between its legs: a true representation of man in his
eternal toil, dragging his own material creations. But there is hope,
because Khepri is also a verb meaning transformation, evolution,
creation.
This dark animal possesses the capacity to
change, to evolve and recreate itself. Suddenly, responding to the call
of the sun, the heavy insect spreads its wings and flies into the sky.
In the same way, the human being can also make his consciousness free
and soar into the sunlight of the spirit.
The scarab amulet deposited among the bandages has a recitation
inscribed on its base:
Heart of mine, heart of my mother, Heart
of mine from my mother, and your earthly heart of my successive
transformations. Do not oppose me at the Judgment, may the Divine Judges
not reject me. Be not hostile to me in the presence of Him who holds the
Balance. Thou art the original force and cause that formed and protected
my limbs. May you too reach the happy place to which we yearn. Do not
make my name rot and stink among the Almighty Lords who shape the
Destiny of Man. Do not utter lies about me before God, but may the ears
of the gods rejoice and their hearts be satisfied when my Words are
weighed in the Balance of Judgment. (Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chap
XXX)
That is what it is all about, that is all the Judgment that is
needed, it is about Fidelity, about distinguishing the celestial heart,
that is to say the celestial consciousness, from the terrestrial heart
or the daily consciousness in constant transformation, the terrestrial
consciousness that disappears with death. Both are subject to time, but
to two types of different times. The terrestrial consciousness is
subject to vulgar time, it travels through time forgetful of itself,
only capable for retaining the momentaneus experience, the passing
criterion only useful to survive from day to day.
However, the Celestial Heart or celestial consciousness travels or,
better said, lives in the Great Time, that of the Great Cycles that go
beyond life and death, because it lives in the time of the One Life.
The one who is judged asks to this double consciousness to be
faithful and not to betray him only judging his words and memories,
because what we think of ourselves and the others is always colored by
false and distorted perceptions produced by this illusory world, in
which we are incarnated and deluded.
The soul tells his heart: Do not bear false witness, do not make
mistakes, do not declare what is not real, do not say that you are just
when you are unjust, do not say that you love when you don’t love, do
not say that you are good when you lack goodness.
Only fidelity, the Great Fidelity that only exists in the Eternal
Time, Fidelity to the Truth, to the Truth of who we really are, and not
the fictional “character” that we have become, only this is the
guarantee of Permanence in the bosom of That which does not die.
(If you like music, accompany this reading with that one that
inspired me)
After writing the last letters of an unfinished poem, the poet turned
his hands away from the cold, crumpled paper, as cold as his own
soul.
Trough many desperate attempts, he had been unable to find within
himself the divine inspiration for his poem.
“I need music; I need angels to touch my dry heart!” he said to
himself. With moist eyes and trembling hands he once again spun the old
record with his favorite music.
Slowly, languidly, he followed the aerial trajectory of the divine
music, ascending to ethereal planes that only he knew, saving his soul
from dying one more day.
Sublime landscapes then appeared before his now serene eyes, forests
of eternal green, fountains of turquoise waters, where fairies quench
their thirst.
Then, his consoled heart was filled with warm joy, so much so that
for a moment he thought he might even die of happiness….
The next morning, a servant slowly opened the door of the study and,
surprised by the silence, entered the room, but it was already too late.
His lifeless body lay on the desk.
Everyone mourned his loss, and his unfinished work. A mourning crowd
accompanied his body to his final resting place.
That same night, the poet, who had been sailing through infinite
paradises of celestial inspiration, returned from that secret place to
finish his poem… but he was unable to find his body.
Sad, without heaven and without body, without hands to write, his
soul remained absorbed for a long time in front of the old desk.
Then he heard a different music, coming from an unknown place, so
beautiful that it suspended his soul in a kind of eternal and infinite
instant and, although he had no body anymore, he could still feel his
heart beating…
Many days and years passed, letting thousands of sunsets fall
uselessly on the opaque and dusty curtains of that room. Until one
lonely night an angel passed on his way back through that lonely and sad
place to take with him the broken shreds of what was once a ghost in
love.
But before he left, with his own heavenly hands he wrote the last
word, the end of the most beautiful poem ever written by a man and…. an
angel.
Beneath our apparent mask of optimism sold to us by the
media, of joie de vivre, of unlimited expansion of human possibilities,
hides materialistic pessimism.
Materialistic pessimism is based on the idea that everything, after
all, is matter, and beyond it there is only the inexplicable void. The
horror before it, the anguish of what has no solution, generates fear
and pessimism, which one tries to compensate with an increasingly
evanescent and transitory present, to which one gives oneself trying to
forget.
Materialism explains the existence of pain as the result of a
nonsense (for them) that began with the differentiation of the
homogeneous matter of the beginning, from the Big Bang, towards the
infinite diversity full of contrasts and contradictions of our present
reality.
As there is no ulterior end, but only the absurd end of existence;
the tireless search for pleasure (physical, emotional and mental)
becomes the only way out of this pessimistic background of human life.
It is a false optimism based on a deadly pessimism.
Let us live and eat today, as the texts of the famous
Carmina Burana suggest, let us delight in
earthly pleasures, human love and the enjoyment of nature. In all that
there is nothing wrong in itself, except that everything that lacks a
context, a transcendent purpose, and it is ultimately meaningless.
Fortune spins without rules, giving sometimes freedom, sometimes
relief, and sometimes oppression and pain to human beings, as presented
in the image above from the original text on which Carl Orff’s Carmina
Burana is based. Below is the music that perfectly characterizes this
insane joy of Fortuna:
O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning;
hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty
and power it melts them like ice….
Philosophical pessimism
Unlike the above, philosophical pessimism starts from the recognition
of the need to annihilate the insatiable Desire, confronting the
evidence of a world that in itself is nothing more than a Great Test, a
great battlefield, where souls have to fight again and again, and
against the thousands of internal and external enemies that come their
way.
In Philosophy, the annihilation of the Self is unthinkable, for that
is something impossible; however, the same does not happen in the field
of materialistic pessimism where, as we have seen above,
self-forgetfulness, the accelerated search for the end of so much
suffering, is disguised in cheerful colors, in orgiastic resignation,
with the motto “let us live to the fullest” before our only days are
over.
Neither is philosophical pessimism the negation of the world, nor is
it seeking refuge, isolated from the world, in a place where no one can
reach us. It is rather a matter of accepting the challenge, of “playing
the game” against Maya, the illusion, acting well in the scene we have
to represent, an illusion that is reflected in the unforgettable verses
of the famous Calderón de la Barca:
It is true, then: let us repress
this fierce condition,
this fury, this ambition,
in case we ever dream.
And so we will do, because we are
in a world so singular,
that living is only dreaming;
and experience teaches me
that the man who lives dreams
what he is until he wakes up.
The rich man dreams of his wealth,
who offers him more care;
dreams the poor who suffers
his misery and his poverty;
The one who begins to thrive dreams,
the one who strives and pretends dreams,
the one who hurts and offends dreams,
and in the world, in conclusion,
everyone dreams of what they are,
although no one understands it…
The philosophical pessimist knows, then, that death is
nothing more than a change of clothes, a new stage to play, and
he fulfills his role as best he understands it, because he knows that
peace and happiness do not reside in this world, but that this world
offers him all the tools to play this great game, to escape from the
bonds of Maya, the true Evil, though necessary, like the pains of
childbirth, in order to give birth to a truly free and wise Being.
Finally, his philosophical pessimism, now free from the shackles of
deadly materialism, allows him to struggle happily in this life, with a
real and transcendent optimism proper to the one who knows that one day
he will reach his goal.
The ultimate liberation of the human being is a collective task. Except for the Robinsons Crusoes, who suffer their own eslavement, most human beings are by nature social beings. The Bodhisatttvas Buddhist ideal proposes liberation as a common goal for all beings, without exception.
Social progress depends fundamentally on knowledge, education and its dissemination, which does not bring directly liberation, but may facilitate it. In ancient Athens, only those who freed themselves from common necessities of daily life could devote their time to philosophizing. The gap between the most powerful and the most humble may be narrower and precisely thanks to the expansion of knowledge and the participation in its development and dissemination.
For this reason, in order to free oneself from the pressing burden of extreme poverty, which does not even allow one to lift one's head to look at the sky, teaching and learning is the most revolutionary task for those who want to dedicate themselves to other's welfare. Sharing and exchanging it is the most human attitude.
Virtue and nobility of character does not consist in having a lordly pose, but in sincere and true action, without barriers of class, race, gender or social condition. Abstract service to humankind consists of concrete individual service to our fellow men, this being a necessary step in the learning of this task, since it is not possible to serve humankind without first serving our fellow men and women around us.
A piece of bread, a coin, a word, an uplifting idea, delivered directly, is worth more than anonymous checks donated to fashion NGOs. But serving in this way is not enough either, since the final objective is the whole humankind, a previous and necessary step to find God in nature.
The Patricians, the Lords of war, the Nobles, the Hierarchs, in short, the self-illuminated Leaders, who have no more light than what they assign to themselves, are the children of separatism, individualism and pride, always worried about being recognized, imposing for this purpose to the others visible "signs of submission", typical of courtiers.
Likewise, its opposite, false modesty, self-flagellation, and after that feeling a redeemed sinner, are hidden forms of excessive ambition, a sort of "investment" to obtain benefits in the other world, in exchange for giving up this one. Whoever seeks liberation in this way will never find it.
My immediate liberation does not consist in the search for unattainable goals, baits placed in the way of my ambition, but in the perfect communion and deep feeling that recognizes the divinity in Nature, in myself, in my brothers, in my little brothers, the animals, and in all the extension of this wonderful universe suffering in heroic evolution. Undoubtedly a very difficult task, but one that produces innumerable personal and community fruits, as in the old parable of the sower.
Instead of lamenting my many shortcomings and my hundred defects, and beating myself in the chest, what I have to do is simply to work on reforming myself, because selfishness, self-centeredness and ignorance attached to this conditioned self is the source of millions of mistakes. Therefore, I will focus only on defeating the Real Destroyer, the Selfish Ego, and then the entire enemy army of my faults will be destroyed.
My liberation from the tyranny of the self is achieved without looking for it, without mental concentration efforts, without mantramatic repetitions, without Byzantine analysis of philosophical concepts. It is achieved by putting my hands to work and bending my back in the task of freeing others from mine and their own ignorance. There is no liberation in the high towers of pride of those who only see themselves.
Liberation is a serene and inner joy that makes the kingdom of heaven begin here on earth. You don't have to die to see heaven.
