Beelzebub’s Tales
Chapter 10 – Why “men” are not men (excerpted)
…”So, my boy, …the Most High Commission decided, among other things, to implant provisionally in the common presence of the three-brained beings there a special organ with properties that, first, would make them perceive reality ‘upside down’ and, second, would cause every repeated impression from the outside to crystallize in them data that engender factors for evoking sensations of ‘pleasure’ and ‘enjoyment.’
…”And this ‘something’ they then for the first time called the ‘organ kundabuffer ‘
…”… although this astonishing organ and its properties were destroyed in them, the consequences of its properties, for many reasons, began to be crystallized in their presences
From the Author (excerpted)
The chief difficulty in the way of liberation from complete slavery is that we must, with an intention coming from our own initiative and a persistence sustained by our own efforts—that is to say, not by another’s will but by our own—succeed in eradicating from our presence both the already fixed consequences of certain properties of that “something” in our forefathers called the “organ kundabuffer,” as well as the predisposition to those consequences which may again arise.
…Great Nature, in her foresight, for many important reasons…—was constrained to place within the common presence of our remote ancestors a special organ, through whose properties they might be protected from the possibility of seeing and feeling reality.
Although this organ was later removed by Great Nature from their common presence, yet owing to the cosmic law of “the assimilation of the results of oft-repeated acts”— …the predisposition formed in our ancestors was transmitted by heredity from generation to generation, …the consequences of the various properties of this organ began to arise in them and, …were gradually assimilated and ultimately engendered almost the same manifestations as in their ancestors.
…Great Nature, having become convinced that in the common presence of most people there are no longer any factors for meritorious manifestations proper to three-centered beings, has providentially and wisely protected them by allowing the arising in their common presence of various consequences of those properties unbecoming to them which, in the absence of proper actualizations, permit them not to perceive or sense reality.
And Great Nature was constrained to adapt herself to such an abnormality, in the objective sense, because owing to the conditions of ordinary life established by men themselves, the deterioration in quality of the radiations required of them for higher common-cosmic purposes insistently demanded, for the maintenance of equilibrium, an adaptation in the number of arisings and in the duration of these lives.
Thus it is clear that life is given to men not for themselves but for serving these higher cosmic purposes, and that is why Great Nature watches over this life so that it may flow in a more or less tolerable form, and takes care that it should not prematurely cease.
In the same way Nature takes all measures to ensure that we shall live without seeing the terror, and not hang ourselves, but live long, and then, when we are required, she slaughters us.
In the established conditions of the ordinary life of people, this has already become an immutable law of Nature.
There is in our life a certain very great purpose and we must all serve this great common purpose—in this lies the whole sense and predestination of our life.
All people without exception are slaves of this “Greatness,” and all are compelled willy-nilly to submit, and to fulfill without condition or compromise what has been predestined for each of us by his transmitted heredity and his acquired being.
Now, after all that I have said, … I wish to remind you of the expressions employed several times in defining man—namely, “real man” and “man in quotation marks,” and in conclusion to say this:
Although the real man who has already acquired his own “I,” and the man in quotation marks who has not, are equally slaves of that same “Greatness,” the difference between them, as I have already said, consists in this, that since the attitude of the first toward his slavery is conscious, he acquires the possibility, even while serving the “all-universal actualizing,” of applying a part of his manifestations, according to the providence of Great Nature, to the attainment of “imperishable Being”, whereas the second, not cognizing his slavery, serves during the entire process of his existence merely as a thing, which, when no longer needed, disappears forever.
…
In summing up all that has been said…, the various consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer appear much more intensely in the common presence of people in recent times, I consider it necessary to say, and even to emphasize, that all misunderstandings arising in the process of our collective life, …and even such great events as wars, civil wars, and other calamities are simply the results of a property of the common presence of ordinary people who have never specially worked on themselves, which I would call “reflecting reality upside down. ”
The Reality of Being
#4. “I” am not here (excerpt)
Ordinarily impressions are received in a mechanical way. They are received by our personality, which reacts with automatic thoughts and feelings that depend on its conditioning. We do not assimilate impressions because personality itself cannot be alive—it is dead. In order to be assimilated and transformed, impressions have to be received by essence. This requires a conscious effort at the moment of the impression. And it requires a definite feeling, a feeling of love for being, for being present. We must respond to impressions no longer from the vantage point of personality but from love for being present. This will transform our whole way of thinking and feeling.
The first necessity is to have an impression of myself. This begins with a shock when the question “Who am I?” arises. For an instant there is a stop, an interval that allows my energy, my attention, to change direction. It turns back toward me, and the question now touches me. This energy brings a vibration, a note that did not sound until now. It is subtle, very fine, but nevertheless communicates. I feel it. It is an impression I receive, an impression of a life in me. All my possibilities are here. What follows—whether I will open to the experience of Presence—depends on the way I receive this impression.
We do not understand the moment of receiving an impression and why it is so important. We need to be present because it is the shock of the impression that drives us. If there is nobody here at the moment an impression is received, I react automatically, blindly, passively, and I am lost in the reaction. I refuse the impression of myself as I am. …Usually I try to awake by forcing, but it does not work. I can and must learn to awake by opening consciously to the impression of myself and seeing what I am at the very moment. This will be a shock that awakens me, a shock brought by an impression that I receive. It requires a freedom to be in movement, not to stop the movement.
In order to wish to be present, I must see that I am asleep. “I” am not here. I am enclosed in a circle of petty interests and avidity in which my “I” is lost. And it will remain lost unless I can relate to something higher. The first condition is to know in myself a different quality, higher than what I ordinarily am. Then my life will take on new meaning. Without this condition there can be no work. I must remember there is another life and at the same time experience the life that I am leading. This is awakening. I awake to these two realities.
I need to understand that by myself, without a relation with something higher, I am nothing, I can do nothing. By myself alone, I can only remain lost in this circle of interests, I have no quality that allows me to escape. I can escape only if I feel my absolute nothingness and begin to feel the need for help. I must feel the need to relate myself to something higher, to open to another quality.