- Philip Larkin
Throughout November, Catholics all over the world are pondering the mysteries of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
In the Work, of course, we are advised to keep our minds constantly on the thought of our own death. This, Gurdjieff says, will help to counteract the terrible disease of procrastination.
And although November is the month when we are bidden to concentrate on the reality of our passing away, Catholics also remind themselves of this fact every time they say the "Hail Mary" prayer, which we pray at least once a day, and many more times than that if we are saying a rosary.
The particular line in question is: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death".
We know that Conscious Humanity designed the world's great religions, and that the various festivals and their times of celebration accord with cosmic energies. In November, the year is drawing towards its darkest point. The harvest has been gathered in, and gales blow the last traces of autumn leaves from the trees, leaving the land bare and stark. As we process inexorably towards the Winter Solstice, the time of greatest darkness, we may recall that our ancestors chose this time to slaughter much of their livestock and salt it to provide food for the winter months to come. In some countries, November is called the Blood Month. No wonder that the reality of death is pondered now.
In the Christian year, November culminates in the triumphant festival of Christ the King, to remind us that, despite the outer darkness and decay, Christ has conquered death, and so may we.
Then, the year continues with the beautiful season of Advent, when in the Work we remember the need for something new to be born in us, born in our Essence, which alone will survive death.
What will be destroyed at death? False Personality, certainly, which is unreal, a cruel and stern, false slavemaster which holds many of us in captivity until the moment of our death, when it dissolves completely.
It has to be so: who would take their False Personality with them into eternity? Imaginary I, of course, wishes to prolong its own sham existence and does its best to convince of us its power and its determination to survive. But it is composed of unreal, negative emotions and I's built out of fear and anger. It could not possibly be allowed to enter eternity.
Think for a moment: What is it that you would have survive of yourself? Which I's do you think are worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you, in fact, have any I's which would be allowed to enter? Many people do not, and if they are solely based on False Personality, then they will not survive death in an individual form.
Then there are the I's in Personality, many of which can be useful in the Work. Without a strong Personality, Essence cannot develop. Personality must grow and strengthen so that it can enable us to deal with life, and life's problems, and so that it may protect and feed the immature Essence developing within.
At the moment of death, our Personality is no longer of any use to us, however. For what will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and survive after our physical death is, of course, our Essence, and within our Essence, our Real I.
And if Essence has remained undeveloped throughout our lifetime, it cannot have any individuality. It will return to the "melting pot" from which new three-brained beings are constantly created. Without individuality, it cannot manifest itself in any particular form, and so cannot attract a particular body, a particular life.
Our task, then, is to develop our Essence to the point that it rules our life and guides our destiny.
When Essence matures, it knows what needs to be done to complete our spiritual development. It chooses the right conditions for us to live on this planet, and after the end of this life it may continue to grow and develop in higher spheres. To continue its journey, however, Essence may see that another life on Earth is necessary, and it will choose its next lifetime in accordance with its spiritual needs.
Marian and Mrs Pogson insisted all their students read Plato's "The Story of Er," and the Gnostic "Hymn of the Robe of Glory". In these two works we see the state of the soul between lives, and the task it must complete in order to return with honour to the place from whence it came.
We come to this Earth in order to overcome certain very specific problems and to contribute to the evolution of humanity. Essence knows what our task is, and selects the best way for us to fulfil it. But in the process of reincarnating, the newborn baby becomes once again a helpless creature, dependent on the goodwill and spiritual maturity of those around it, and in every lifetime our Essence must once more undertake the arduous and perilous task of becoming conscious.
If we have worked on ourselves in previous lifetimes, the right circumstances for our development - which may be harsh or soft, physically easy or very difficult - will be selected for us before we are born. We will have access to a certain "spiritual memory" that lies within a developing Essence, and we will meet the Work sooner in this lifetime than before.
If we have lived as Good Householders, we will reap the benefits in our next lifetime. We may encounter the Work, and finish our necessary tasks so that we may then be free to leave this planet and continue our spiritual journey elsewhere.
Or we may, if we have reached a high level, choose to reincarnate in order to be able to help those beings still trapped in illusion. Only the greatest saints or bodhisattvas reach this level of development, and have this choice. We may be sure that Gurdjieff was among them: this is why he came. But any one of us has the chance to evolve to this level.
A well-known saying quoted in the Work is "Blessed is he who hath a soul, and blessed is he who hath none, but woe and sorrow to him who hath it in conception".
In other words, creatures who have no possibility of acquiring a soul in this lifetime, such as the birds and animals, live in many ways more freely than do we three-brained beings. They don't have to worry about spiritual matters - they fulfil their destiny by living as nature created them to do. Human beings may choose to live in this thoughtless, mechanical way, and if they don't know any better, they won't agonize over lost possibilities. Their individuality will not continue after death.
And blessed are the saints and those who have reached a higher level of development, who can truly be said to have souls, or, as the Work says, Higher Being Bodies. At this level we become better able to help God in His tremendous Work. We experience real freedom, and real, lasting, positive emotions. We know and understand our place in the great Ray of Creation.
But those of us in the middle - that is, most of us - are in the process of creating our souls, our Higher Being Bodies. Essence may guide us, but too often we fail to listen, and drown out its voice by mechanical behaviour.
Yet, before we die, we must achieve the state of a developed Essence. That is our most urgent task. When we do so, we have nothing to fear from the Four Last Things.
And Larkin was right: in Essence we can reach Real I; and Real I is love itself, and light, and truth. And all of this is what will survive.
No comments:
Post a Comment