Past, Present, You (One)
18 May, 2022
Past, Present, You……..One
“If you are a student of esoteric literature, you may have read about a remarkable mystery involving the medieval inhabitants of the South of France. There, in the land of Sabartez, the cradle of the Cathars — praised be their name! — a supernatural power was possessed, the power of the consolamentum. By means of the consolamentum it was possible to bring about a separation between animal-man and spirit-man, between the human being of this earth and the original being, in the form it possessed before time began.
The consolamentum was more than a sacramental seal. It was more than simply a magical outpouring of power, because for the Cathars it involved a definitive break with dialectical life. So those who had received the consolamentum were no longer inhabitants of the earth in the absolute sense. In the true sense of the words, they were in the world, but no longer of the world.
Researchers have often wondered about the identity of the spiritual instigators behind this movement in medieval France. They could see quite clearly that this spiritual awakening, if it could have evolved without interference, would have embraced the whole of Europe in a way hitherto unknown. Who were the initiates who inspired the movement, and had such an effect on tens of thousands of people, that the church turned against them with a bloody and terrible hatred?
These initiates were world-citizens in the best sense of the word, who literally loved the whole of humankind and who even now move and appear among us, wherever an opportunity presents itself. Their traces are to be found from east to west, and from north to south. And if one studies world history, one can detect the connections between all the various events and developments they have brought about.
Even so, from earliest times until the present, they have always remained in the background, cloaked in mystery. There is a hermetic veil between them and the masses, and all attempts of self-willed science to trace the source of the mystery must and will always fail.
For the knowledge, the art and the abilities of the Cathars were universal. Their source was not to be found on earth, but only in the Immovable Kingdom itself.
There are authors who deplore the destruction — or rather the apparent destruction — of the Cathars, and lament the loss of their wisdom and power. But this sorrow is misplaced, because any power, any sublime wisdom whose origin is the universal life itself, can never be lost. It is nothing less than the breath of God, which passes over human beings time and time again in its loving efforts to save them, withdrawing again whenever, in their hatred and blood-lust, material and mortal human beings attempt to violate it.
We wanted to consider this European contact with the universal power of love as a prelude to our reflections on a similar divine contact that took place in the Far East — a contact embodied in the sublime being known as Lao Tzu.
It is not known whether he really lived, or whether he was one person or several. Countless legends surround him like a veil. But one thing is certain — that he, in his wisdom, could have dispelled all the sorrow of the observers and researchers of that medieval drama in the South of France. Because the mystery of the consolamentum can also be referred to as the mystery of Tao. Tao comes not and was not; Tao is! But, says Lao Tzu:
People old in experience, who knew Tao
Did not speak of this most secret sanctuary,
Well-knowing that the profane incline towards darkness,
Converting powers of life into destruction.
If certain powers awaken in the human being
And he becomes conscious of his great strength
Without breaking away from his lower self-seeking,
The fire smothers in its own cinders.
So do not reveal the mystery to the profane;
Is not the naked eye blinded by too much light?
To govern a nation means to fulfil a great task:
That of giving light whilst standing in the shadow.
It is said that the Cathars possessed secret books expounding the true life and the Universal Doctrine, which were destroyed by the priesthood of those times. However, the true hidden book of the Cathars is the unwritten book, the same as the book of Tao, and the book `M' of Christian Rosycross, and the book sealed with seven seals mentioned in the Revelation of John. This book, this universal knowledge, is unwritten and hidden from the profane. But it is open, and revealed in fiery, radiant letters, to those who have broken away from their lower self seeking.
That is why, for the Cathars, the consolamentum was preceded by the endura. The endura is a `dying as to nature'; it means freeing oneself of the I-being and making oneself ready for rebirth.
To the extent that you, too, are engaged in this process, you no longer need to waste time and energy searching for books and manuscripts on which you pin all your hopes of liberation. Tao can neither be spoken nor written. Tao, the way, the path, can only be experienced.
This single sentence reveals the poverty of intellectual knowledge and understanding and the foolishness of the brain-consciousness, in all their nakedness. You can only know anything worth knowing, you can only possess anything worth possessing, you can only understand anything worth understanding, when you have died as to nature, when the so deadly I-delusion has been extinguished from your microcosm. Until you begin this process, you will remain profane, godless, immature, staring into the darkness of your reason and possessing nothing, nothing at all.
What you will have, however, is the sorrow, the searing woe of life in dialectics, a terrible, raging fire that is repeatedly smothered in its own cinders, only to blaze up yet again. To remain subject to dialectics means to be consumed by a hellish pain without end, from which you can only obtain freedom by following the path, the way, Tao. You need to pass through the endura, through the self-neutralisation of the lower nature. But you cannot do it alone, and neither do you need to, because the power you need to help you really does exist! And the liberating words really are there to be heard! If only you will leave behind everything you possess, then, like Lao Tzu, you will see:
The hidden power, O mystery, inviolate eternally,
O clear and tranquil fountain, true life's source:
In deepest essence, are we truly one with you;
For, from the One, the multitude flows forth.”
Extract from Introduction - The Sublime Wisdom of Lao Tzu
The Chinese Gnosis - A Commentary on the Tao Te Ching
Jan van Rijckenborgh, and Catharose de Petri