Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Chapter 17 – The arch-absurd: According to the assertion of Beelzebub, our sun neither lights nor heats
“First of all, you must know that everything in the Universe—all that was intentionally created and all that has automatically arisen—exists and is maintained solely on the basis of the ‘common-cosmic trogoautoegocratic process.’
“This most great common-cosmic trogoautoegocratic process was actualized by our Endless Uni-Being when there already existed the Most Great and Most Holy Sun Absolute, on which our All-Gracious Endless Creator had and still has the chief place of His existence.
“This system, which maintains everything that arises and exists, was established by our Endless Creator to permit the ‘exchange of substances,’ or ‘reciprocal feeding’ of everything existing, to proceed in the Universe, so that the merciless Heropass would no longer have its maleficent effect on the Sun Absolute.
“This most great common-cosmic trogoautoegocratic process is actualized, always and in everything, on the basis of the two fundamental cosmic laws, the first of which is called ‘the fundamental first-order sacred Heptaparaparshinokh,’ and the second ‘the fundamental first-order sacred Triamazikamno. ‘
“Owing to the action of these two sacred cosmic laws, there first arise from the substance called ‘ethernokrilno,’ under certain conditions, various what are called ‘crystallizations’, and from these crystallizations there later arise, also under certain conditions, various large and small, more or less independent, definite cosmic ‘formations.’
“And it is just within and upon these cosmic formations that the processes called ‘involution’ and ‘evolution’ take place, of course also according to the two fundamental sacred laws; and all the results obtained from these processes in the atmospheres—and furthermore, by means of these same atmospheres—blend to assure the actualization of this ‘exchange of substances.’
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 4
“It is impossible to study a system of the universe without studying man. At the same time it is impossible to study man without studying the universe. Man is an image of the world. He was created by the same laws which created the whole of the world. By knowing and understanding himself he will know and understand the whole world, all the laws that create and govern the world. And at the same time by studying the world and the laws that govern the world he will learn and understand the laws that govern him. In this connection some laws are understood and assimilated more easily by studying the objective world, while man can only understand other laws by studying himself. The study of the world and the study of man must therefore run parallel, one helping the other.
The Reality of Being
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
New York, February 22, 1924 – The Two Rivers
..there are two directions in the life of humanity: active and passive. Laws are the same everywhere. These two laws, these two currents, continually meet, now crossing each other, now running parallel. But they never mix; they support each other, they are indispensable for each other.
…As long as we are in this passive current it will carry us wherever it may; as long as we are passive we shall be pushed about and be at the mercy of every accident. We are the slaves of these accidents.
At the same time Nature has given us the possibility of escaping from this slavery.
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 born again.”