A LONG THOUGHT

ON THE WILL TO SACRIFICE

 

 

My insight is that in order to reach the higher I must sacrifice the lower, that the path to freedom (the fifth kingdom in nature) is to give out love and sacrifice, that sacrifice means to give up egoism to serve evolution and mankind.

 

This is no new teaching but was known to the ancients. Using gnostic parlance we say that we should become “sacrifices of atonement” by “taking up our cross” and like Jeshu bear the “sins of the world”, endure contempt, calumny, persecution, etc. Only so can we be liberated from our illusions, from our identification with the lower.

 

With each higher kind of consciousness (energy, reality) the self acquires, the self is liberated from its dependence on lower kinds: in turn from its dependence on being attached to things physical, emotio­nal, mental, causal, etc. The lower has once and for all lost its allurement, its power to fascinate, to lead astray. This is the essence of freedom, the gaining of power over whatever has held sway until then, the liberation from life ignorance and impotence.

 

As long as life in lower worlds can enchant and attach and hinder us to strive for the infinitely richer life of the fifth natural kingdom, so long we have still much to learn, we con­demn ourselves to further incarnations. What we should be able to learn from life at the mental stage is that human wisdom affords us no knowledge of reality and life, that the kingdom of man is but a kingdom of preparation.

 

It is important to realize that you do not give up the lower un­til you have mastered it completely and you know that it has ful­filled its purpose, has nothing more to teach you. You reach nothing higher by “sacrificing the lower for the higher” before all condi­tions are fulfilled. That is a thing you can never decide by your­self. The will to renounce, the power to re­nounce, is a good thing, but to renounce too soon is always a mis­take.

 

We must give up suffering and we must also suffer in order to develop. These are not two contradictory principles. There is much unnecessary suffering, which one does not want to give up. Then there is some inevitable and necessary suffering, which one must accept if one wants to get something: knowledge, understanding, qualities. On the path, not all at once, one has to sacrifice all unnecessary things: wrong theories, talk, imaginary suffering.

 

Much of our suffering is not real, and we increase it by imagination. Real suffering is limited by many things, by time for instance. It may be impossible to stop or limit imaginary suffering. Imaginary suffering takes away knowledge. Real suffering may not be connected with negative emotions; imaginary suffering always is.

 

Everybody has some kind of suffering he does not want to give up, self-pity, for instance. Such imaginary suffering can be the man’s most cherished possession. For many people, to sacrifice their chief negative emotion would mean sacrificing their whole life. It has already become a habit. In order to get rid of unnecessary suffering, the first step is to decide to give it up in one’s mind. One efficient method of doing this is realizing that there are higher and lower values, another method is dividing things into real and imaginary ones.

 

Everything has its price. If you want something you have to sacrifice something. Suppose you have a grievance, either you are hurt or offended or something. Sacrifice your imagined suffering – negative emotions and negative imagination. It is a great liberation to realize:  “I have nothing to worry about. Nobody is guilty.”

 

By itself suffering can bring nothing, but if one remembers oneself in connection with it, it can be a great force. Usually people try to escape suffering, or they identify with it and in this way destroy something that could be of the greatest benefit to them. Until we get rid of useless suffering we cannot come to the useful.

 

We get nothing by pleasure; from that we can only get suffering. Efforts are usually suffering, realizations are often suffering, unpleasant truths about ourselves. Value suffering from the point of view whether it helps or hinders your work!

 

Most of our suffering depends on identification, and if identification dissappears, our suffering disappears too. One must realize that it is no use suffering if it is possible not to suffer. Nobody can suffer for anyone else.

 

Every kind of suffering can be transformed into positive emotion, but only if it is transformed. Nothing transforms itself. It must be transformed by effort of will and by knowledge.

 

If you receive suffering volutarily, consciously, you can rid yourself of it and become free. Voluntary suffering can become school-work. Nothing is more difficult and at the same time nothing can create so much force as voluntary suffering, suffering received without identification and without negative emotion.

 

We are far from understanding the idea of suffering, but if we realize that small things can be attained with small suffering and big ones with big suffering, we shall understand that it will always be proportionate.

 

There is suffering which can be relieved and suffering which cannot be relieved because it depends on bigger causes. Sleeping people have to suffer, because only suffering can eventually wake them up. If they can arrange their lives so as to be happy and contented in sleep, they will never awake.

 

My Augoeides: Lead me from unreality to reality, lead me from darkness to light, lead me from death to immortality.