Mr and Mrs Average
Jean Pearson by Saul Leiter. 1948.
July 2, 2022
Mr and Mrs Average……..
Our task now is to uncover what is meant by the mysterious virtue - an exceptionally accurate formulation of the state of being of the Taoist, the Transfigurist.
We first need to consider what virtue is meant, and why it is called mysterious. The virtue referred to here is the ultimate state of liberation, of tranquillity, of not-being. What is mysterious is the way in which this liberation comes about, because it cannot be grasped by the dialectical understanding.
In our nature, the various stages of any person's development can be traced in detail, but the development of the Transfigurist presents us with an enigma. The life of a mystic, who withdraws from the world to engage in a life of pious meditation, devotion and penance, is quite transparent. It is easy to describe his life and trace what has happened to him and why. The way an occultist's life unfolds, too, can easily be understood by anyone familiar with the occult mentality and practices. There is nothing mysterious about it. A person whose intellect has been trained, who goes to university and afterwards becomes a specialist in some subject or other, is a person whose life can be known and understood, regardless of what specialism he has chosen. The course of such lives follows a programme, one could say.
The more successfully the programme is followed, the more eminent, famous and admired these persons become. They become historical figures, held up as examples to all. But their virtue cannot be called mysterious; it is a very open, very clear virtue, and its development has followed a clearly discernible programme: he started out like that — then he did this — and he became that. All quite clear.
But the development of the Transfigurist cannot be traced. There are results that can be observed with remarkable clarity, but how they came about no one can say. The way a Transfigurist's life develops is not apparent to the world.
An example can be found in the life of Jacob Boehme, who was a shoemaker. He cobbled shoes and he fathomed the divine All-Manifestation. His understanding of reality, of eternity, was so profound that all the professors in the world wouldn't be able to match him in a thousand years. Mysterious virtue, mysterious liberation, mysterious even for Jacob Boehme himself!
That is the signature. Listen to Paul's words:
Whether it is outside the body or inside the body, I know not, but it is there.
The mysterious virtue!
Have such entities cultivated virtue, or studied it? No one knows! They do not even know themselves. They are ignorant. But their light penetrates everywhere, and that is why they can remain ignorant. Virtue is present, its attributes are there, but the way they came to be there is a great and glorious miracle! Not one centimetre of that way can be 'willed', 'mysticised', 'cultivated' or 'studied'. One must even remain quite ignorant of it.
Is it not wrong, then, to speak about that way? Well, there is just one, very positive thing that can be shown you of the path, and that is the beginning. The path - Tao - must begin with the self-surrender of the dialectical ego to the Kingdom within you. And if the ego has given itself away like this, what more can it do? It is no longer there!
If such a beginning is made, just watch what happens next! Time and time again you will see virtue descending on the path in all its wondrous glory, and it will be just as mysterious to you as to everyone else. And it will remain mysterious, even when you continue along that path. For the mysterious virtue means becoming one with the other nature, with another soul state, and what do you know of that?
High up a mountain you discover a hidden spring. You strike a rock and the spring gushes open. Can you tell in advance what course the stream of water will take as it seeks and finds its way down the mountainside? Can you tell how it will reach the sea?
You are living your everyday life and you have your place in it, in an office perhaps, or a shop, or a house or somewhere like that. Many people know you - where you live - what you are worth - what you do for a living. They know your abilities and shortcomings, and any limitations you may have. Some of them may have known you from your schooldays as a child of average ability. You didn't know much then, and you still don't, and you don't feel you are in any way special.
Now, driven by inner need, and at the suggestion of the School of the Rosycross, you are on the point of making the glorious, Johannine sacrifice of self. That mediocre I of yours, that many people know so well, brings you to the sprit in the valley, and in total surrender you empty yourself for the Other One who must grow in you.
Suppose you really do that. Suppose Mr or Mrs Average actually does that. What happens then? You strike the rock and a stream of living water comes gushing out and flows on its way.
And what then? In the eyes of the world, in the eyes of those who know you so well, you will initially remain the same Mr or Mrs Average. You go on doing your job, whatever it may be, and you go on living in the same place, in the same street. But you are no longer there. You have gone, like the central character in Gustav Meyrinks novel, The White Dominican.
A miracle now unfolds: the stream of the new soul-state, whose outpouring you made possible by your total self-sacrifice, now flows along a certain course, carrying with it the `house you left behind'. The result is the manifestation of remarkable new accents and facts in your life, much to the amazement of all those who knew you so well: `How is it possible?' they ask themselves. Mysterious virtue!
The being who was formerly you smiles and is silent; he continues with his everyday work for as long as is necessary, typing invoices, selling merchandise, meeting clients, or anything else that might be required. And all the while the Other One is giving birth to things in you and nourishing them.
Extract from Chapter 10-III The Mysterious Virtue
Jan van Rijckenborgh and Catharose di Petri
Article on Saul Leiter and his beautiful images and philosophy here www.wallpaper.com/art/saul-leiter-street-photography
“…..the nothingness where, infact, everything happens” (third paragraph)
“…..this might be understood through Leiter’s belief in a very Japanese concept: ‘Saul lived in accordance with the mayor zen principle of not attaching any great significance to himself, or even his art, and having no defined purpose or intent in life except for being present to the world and always highly aware of its fleeting beauty,’ Vermare writes. ‘Not preaching, just looking.’ (last paragraph)
Beautiful.