Views From the Real World
February 17, 1924
…when we talk about freedom we are talking precisely about crossing over into the other river.
But of course it is not so simple—you cannot cross over merely because you wish. Strong desire and long preparation are necessary. You will have to live through being identified with all the attractions in the first river. You must die to this river. All religions speak about this death: “Unless you die, you cannot be bom again.” —p. 238
…This possibility depends on desire, strong wish of a very special kind, wishing with the essence, not with the personality. —p. 239
…Many parts of you want many things, but only one part is real. …Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. …—p. 240
Life is Real Only Then, When I Am
Fifth Talk
…man appears in reality to be merely a slave, …
He is obliged, in relation to his outer world as well as his inner world, to manifest himself in accordance with the orders received…
He cannot have his own initiative; he is not free to want or not to want, but is obliged to carry out passively this or that “result” proceeding from other outer or inner results.
Such a man, that is to say, a man who is related to only two worlds, can never do anything; on the contrary, everything is done through him. In everything, he is but the blind instrument of the caprices of his outer and inner worlds….
…The general psyche of man in its definitive form is considered to be the result of conformity to … three independent worlds.
The first is the outer world—in other words, everything existing outside him, both what he can see and feel as well as what is invisible and intangible for him.
The second is the inner world—in other words, all the automatic processes of his nature and the mechanical repercussions of these processes.”
The third world is his own world, depending neither upon his “outer world” nor upon his “inner world”; that is to say, it is independent of the caprices of the processes that flow in him as well as of the imperfections in these processes that bring them about.
A man who does not possess his own world can never do anything from his own initiative: all his actions “are done” in him. Only he can have his own initiative for perceptions and manifestations in whose common presence there has been formed, in an independent and intentional manner, the totality of factors necessary for the functioning of this third world.
The Reality of Being
8. The watchman
At a certain moment we come to see two aspects, two natures, in ourselves—a higher nature related to one world and a lower nature related to another, a different world. What are we? We are neither one nor the other—neither God nor animal. We participate in life with both a divine nature and an animal nature. Man is double; he is not one. And as such, he is only a promise of man until he can live with both natures present in himself and not withdraw into one or the other. If he withdraws into the higher part, he is distant from his manifestations and can no longer evaluate them; he no longer knows or experiences his animal nature. If he slides into the other nature, he forgets everything that is not animal, and there is nothing to resist it; he is animal . . . not man. The animal always refuses the angel. The angel turns away from the animal.
A conscious man is one who is always vigilant, always watchful, who remembers himself in both directions and has his two natures always confronted.
20. Two currents
What we are in our essence—our highest possibilities—we do not know. What we are in our person—the implacable conditioning that defines us—we also do not know. We identify with our person, ignorant of the relation that should exist between it and our essence. Yet inner development begins with the capacity to know myself, to understand my entire self.
I have to know that I have a double nature, that there are two forces in me: the descending force of manifestation and an ascending force returning to the source. I have to experience them here at the same time in order to know myself as a whole. There must be some reason why I am here, something that is needed for a relation between the two. This is the meaning of my Presence.
In each event in life—whether family, professional or inner life— there is a double movement of involution and evolution. The action is directed toward an aim, toward manifestation, but behind it is something that has no aim, that does not project itself but returns to the source. These two currents are indispensable to each other. We know in theory that the two currents exist, but we are not really conscious of them. I do not know enough the ascending current. I do not have in myself, at the time I wish, the elements that would allow me to feel its life, to feel my life. The other current I do not know either, because I am blindly immersed in it. Yet without the vision of the two currents, the wish to be present at a given place and a given time has no sense. I need a constant vision of them in order to see the point of application of the attention and of the will, the will not to lose myself.
With my attention today I cannot be aware at the same time of two movements going in opposite directions. I am taken by one movement and ignore or oppose the other. Nevertheless, I have to accept that the two currents determine my life, and that I have two natures in myself. I must learn to see the lower nature and at the same time remember the higher. The struggle is in living the two together. I need to have a conscious impression of these two aspects of myself, at first independently of each other, then simultaneously. One nature must serve the other. But what does it mean to serve? I must find my real place and accept it. It is I who is called to be here. I must see that if I am not present, I serve only my ordinary self and go toward the destruction of what I truly am. So between these two currents then there is nothing, there is nobody.
What is important is that the two currents be established in me, having a definite relation that is maintained. Until now the descending current alone has been the master of my Presence, without being confronted. The ascending current has its source in the will to be—not “will” in the usual sense but in the sense of the “wish to be.” It is necessary above all to disengage this will, to make room for it. I must accept being passive, really passive in order that an active vibration can be perceived by my feeling. The effort I can make with my ordinary means, the only effort that is incumbent on me, is one of voluntary passivity—a conscious effort.
Views from the Real World
God the Word
The moon is man’s big enemy. We serve the moon. …We are like the moon’s sheep, which it cleans, feeds and shears, and keeps for its own purposes. But when it is hungry it kills a lot of them. All organic life works for the moon. Passive man serves involution; and active man, evolution. You must choose. …In both cases we are slaves, for in both cases we have a master. Inside us we also have a moon, a sun and so on. We are a whole system. If you know what your moon is and does, you can understand the cosmos.