|
The
Rhythm of the All-Manifestation
Love
is a fire, a power of the heart. Hate, too, is a fiery power, but
one that destroys and withers. Between these two streams, the human
heart moves to and fro for a long time, until a human being
perceives the essence of both. Then he arrives, seeking for Light
and yearning for relief, at a certain neutral goodwill. On the third
path, he encounters, from the very first moment, the essence of love
itself: the rhythm of the all-manifestation.
free
translation of J van Rijckenborgh
Just
as the truly good resides in God alone, so also does love reside in
God alone. Neither is found in any nature-born human being. Hence it
is a wise seeker for truth who does not try to find them where they
are not to be found. However, neither should we hate human goodness
and human beauty, simply because hate burns and destroys.
Love,
too, is a fire. Love is an astral power that concerns the heart.
When a human being, seeking love, is disillusioned, he always
experiences a purification and his hunger for the one thing
necessary becomes ever purer and more urgent. But just as the fire
of hatred, another astral radiation in the heart sanctuary, destroys
and withers the heart, nothing is left for the person who hates.
However,
there is a third mode of life, in which we neither expect nor seek
what is impossible. We then adopt a purely objective point of view
with respect to these things, and in this way maintain a kind of
neutral goodwill, in which matters are simply accepted as they are.
This is why hermes says:
‘We can neither escape nor hate human goodness and human
beauty, for the hardest thing of all is that we need them and cannot
live without them.’
For
as long as we are passing through nature-born life, we need this
life and its attributes. This is why we are advised: do not harbour
hatred on account of your life in nature and do not try to escape
from it.
Detachment
But what then? If we neither love nor hate human beauty and
goodness nor try to escape from them, we are standing in detachment
with regard to dialectical nature. Then there is neither anything
binding us to it nor is there anything restraining us from it. We do
our daily duty without grumbling, without sighing, without feelings
of revenge and without rebellious actions. We are passing through
the dismal life of this nature as the result of a law compelling us
to do so. We cannot deny our birth in nature. So, let us do our
duty, by virtue of the fact that this is what we have to do at this
moment, and we do it with our heads held high, without hate, without
running away, without love. And if, on life’s paths, we meet a
fellow seeker for truth, we content ourselves with an understanding
wink.
Where,
then, is the seeker for truth heading? The seeker for truth is on
his way back to the foundation of things, to the basis of all
genesis. The truth-seeker is returning to the only good. Only in God
is the good to be found. And he who finds God, he who is going to
share in the good, is from then on no longer of this world. When we
have found God, we will exist with the other brothers and sisters in
the new field of life, in the soul world.
A state of being without cast shadows
The divine manifestation is governed by a certain rhythm,
which is present in even the tiniest atom. This state of being knows
no antitheses, it casts no shadows, and always brings forth itself.
Good is not set against evil there, neither is beauty against
ugliness, love against hatred, reality against delusion. The Gnosis
does not have love; it does not radiate love; indeed, it is
love! In other words, divine love is not something, for which we
have to aim, and it does not know conflict or efforts. It simply is,
in itself. This is why its power is boundless, and can be compared
with a bellows. If a bellows is pumped rhythmically, it generates a
great deal of power. In the same way, the rhythm of the
all-manifestation generates an enormous power and nothing that
conflicts with this rhythm can ever enter it.
Knowing
this, we will understand better than ever before how absolutely
hopeless our nature is. Then we will resolve to waste as few words
as possible on this hopelessness. We will not argue with people who
do not understand. We will leave the world for what it is. In
complete self-control and genuine service to God, we will focus only
on that which is capable of assimilating the divine rhythm and which
is of the same nature: the wondrous atom, the rose of the heart, the
kingdom not of this world.
Literature:
J
van Rijckenborgh, The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis and its call in the
eternal present, part 3, chapter II The Mystery of The Good
J
van Rijckenborgh, The Chinese Gnosis, chapter 5 The
All-Manifestation does not love as humans do |