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True Help
One who wants to help
receives help. There are two forces that make human beings act:
desire and will. As a result, everyone feels in their life the
continual alteration of joy and sadness that are aroused through
these two forces.
Some people consider this alteration natural and pursue their
path from birth to death in resignation - such is life! To desire,
to wish, followed by happiness and sadness; and again to desire, to
wish, happiness and sadness; and so on. But there are also people
who, at a given moment, no longer accept this situation. This change
often occurs following some deep inner suffering, either one's own
or that of a fellow human being.
People who are thus shaken to the depth of their souls have a
difficult time detaching themselves from their suffering. Then the
question of the meaning of life is posed to them irrevocably,
opening a period of seeking that represents a new stage of life that
is full of burning questions, difficulties and mistakes, but also of
extraordinary events and encounters. Different paths are presented
to the seeker according to his or her state of being and
circumstances - paths that all lead to the same goal: the solution
to the problem of life.
Let us follow, for example, the steps of a seeker who is
concerned about social questions. What is going to happen for him?
How, in the same situation, would it happen for us?
This seeker suffers primarily because of the suffering caused to
his fellow human beings. As he no longer can, nor wants to, follow
the monotonous course of daily life, and he is driven by compassion,
he does not cease to help and sustain his neighbour. He talks about
it, he acts, perhaps he sacrifices much in order to satisfy his
goal. It is just this seeking urge that leads him or her to discover
a marvellous small book: The Voice of the Silence.
Doesn't one always get what one needs? Then he reads:
Let thy soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the
lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.
Let not the fierce sun dry one tear of pain before thyself
hast wiped it from the sufferer's eye.
But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there
remain, nor ever brush it off, until the pain that caused it is
removed.1
Sustained by these words, he or she goes out with increased
strength to help fellow human beings. However, sooner or later, the
moment comes when he realizes that it is impossible for him truly to
help others. What a painful realization! As much as he does his
best, and acts with love, and works hard... still he does not truly
help. At most, he delivers a small consolation, a little temporary
relief, an instant of forgetting the sad reality. But there is no
question of 'true help!'
A SITUATION EVERYONE WILL
ONE DAY MEET
However, that is what he wants to offer with all his heart: true
help! So then he desperately asks himself what he must do. Continue?
That would resolve nothing. And disappointed, the heart always
filled with the right desire to put an end to the suffering of
others, this seeker then engages himself in the following phase of
his quest.
Reflecting deeply on the problem of suffering, he again picks up The
Voice of the Silence. He rereads the same passage, but, rich
with new experience, he reads it with different eyes. Little by
little he understands what is expected of him. He believes he has
reached the heart of the problem, seized it and understood it.
THEN HE READS:
These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the
streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal.
'Tis on such soil that grows the midnight blossom of Buddha
more difficult to find, more rare to view than is the flower of
the Vogay tree. It is the seed of freedom from rebirth. It
isolates the Arhat both from strife and lust, it leads him through
the fields of Being unto the peace and bliss known only in the
land of Silence and Non-being.2
Persevering in his desire to understand how 'truly' to help
others, the idea grows in him that something needs to happen
internally. A seed must grow in his heart, the seed of a rebirth -
that is deliverance! But in order for this growth to take place, he
himself must disappear, must dissolve. However, a new question then
arises: how can one be reborn? What should one do to achieve this?
AND HE READS:
Kill out desire, but if thou killest it take heed lest from
the dead it should again arise.3
And many other exhortations follow. Then he sets to work
courageously and tries to put into practice all this advice. He
trains himself. He tries to kill out his desires. If he wants 'truly
to help,' the seed must germinate so that the flower may blossom!
However, after many deceptions, he perceives that it is not possible
for him to kill his desires by himself.
Disillusioned once again, but rich with new knowledge, he finds
himself again at his starting point: he is still not able truly to
help others! Nevertheless, he has not yet lost the desire to do so.
At that moment, he asks himself if there is not something erroneous
in this recommendation: Kill out desire! It is, however, quite
explicit, and it is what he wants!
He does not give up... and the strength of his right desire
causes him to meet other people and read other books. Suddenly he
understands that all human beings, for centuries, have struggled to
resolve these same problems, individually and collectively. But how
can the seed germinate? How is the flower going to be brought to
life? What is to be done? How is he going to kill out his desire?
What is desire anyway?
He perceives that through the centuries the same instructions
have been given over and over in order to resolve these questions.
They are universal ideas, and only the expression differs according
to the period and the nation. He discovers the Baghavad Gita, the
Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu, the Bible, and The Call of the Brotherhood
of the Rosycross.
IN THIS LATTER WORK HE
READS:
Desire is a force not of this world, and this force can only
be fulfilled in a Kingdom not of this world... a power that
permeates your blood and drives you on by day and by night, until
you reach a state of total inner deadlock. Then you will seek the
secret of salvation.4
Thus one who seeks obtains the answers to his questions. He
recognizes that the force of desire is buried and
ineradicable in every human being. He recognizes that it is this
force that has driven him; and that desire flows in every direction,
toward the depths as well as toward the heights, and hence also
toward the will to help others. The Voice of the Silence
speaks to him of the wonderful flower. He learns how to put the
secular recommendations of the Universal Wisdom into practice. The
Christian mysteries are unveiled to him, as they are to each human
being who is ready. He knows that for him the time has come.
Casting a glance behind him on the path thus travelled, he sees
the unfolding of his quest, his trials, and the goal of all his
efforts. Is it not necessary for him to attain the limit of his
possibilities in order to pass on to a following phase? And having
come to this limit, he realizes that he, who has sought and has
tried everything, has helped himself in order to 'truly help'
others. He sees his task clearly before him.
When the pupil of the Rosycross is willing and able to die
to his primary desire by passing away in Christ, a magic miracle
will be performed...5
And he knows that he is ready. He knows that he is capable. Full
of confidence, he abandons himself to the mystery of Christ in order
to be transformed so that he can finally 'truly help' others.
sources
1, 2, 3: The Voice of the Silence, H.P. Blavatsky, 1889.
4, 5: J. van Rijckenborgh, The Call of the Brotherhood of the
Rosycross, Rozekruis Pers, Haarlem, The Netherlands, 1988.
©
Pentagram, 2005.
Article
from Pentagram, Vol 27, 1997, No 2 |