78 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
SORROW.
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The Aspiration to become a Master is rooted in the Trance of Sorrow.
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This trance is not simple and definite; indeed, it commonly begins in a
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limited selfish form.
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The imagination cannot pierce beyond terrestrial conditions, or the
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sense of self grasp more than the natural consciousness.
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One thinks at first no more than this: "there is nothing possible that
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is good enough for me." Only as one grows by Initiation dies one approach
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the asymptote "sabb(ace)e pi Dukkham" of the Buddha, when the relations of
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subject and object, both expanded to infinity, are seen to be no less in
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the bosom of the Great Curse than were their first avatars, the petty Ego
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and the perceptible Universe.
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So also for the transcending of this Trance of Sorrow. At first the
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victory often comes by trick of mind; extending subject or object, as the
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case may be, by an effort to escape reality, one seems for a moment to have
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defeated the Equation "~Everything is Sorrow"; but the clouds regather as
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the mind recovers its equilibrium. Thus, one invents some "Heaven,"
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defining it arbitrarily as free from sorrow: only to find, on exact
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examination, that its conditions are the same as those of "Earth."
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Nor is there any rational issue from this hell of thought. The
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transcending of the Trance of Sorrow is to be made by means of such other
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trances as the Higher Beatific Vision, the Trance of Wonder, and others,
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even the Trance call the Universal Joke, though this last is thereunto
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strangely akin!
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There is this further consideration; that every subject of contemplation
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asks only that the mind should become fixed upon it, in a degree far
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inferior to that of true concentration such as secures Samadhi, to become
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evidently an illusion.
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So much for a brief summary of the technical aspects of the matter. But
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all this is remote indeed from the simplicity of the affirmation of the
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Book of the Law:
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~"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy: that all the sorrows are
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but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
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Upon what can depend this perception, which claims to sweep away with
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the fire of scorn the formidable batteries of all serious philosophical
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thought? The solution must lie in the metaphysics of Thelema itself.
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And here we come upon what is apparently a paradox of the most
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disconcerting order. For <20>MDUL<55>The Book of the Law,<2C>MDNM<4E> anticipating the
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most subtle of recent mathematical conceptions, that of the greatest genius
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of this generation, makes the unit of existence consist in an Event, an Act
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of Marriage between Nuit and Hadit; that is, the fulfillment of a certain
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Point-of-View. And is not the procession of events the very conditions of
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Sorrow as opposed to the perfection of "Pure Existence?" That is the old
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philosophy, a tangle of false words: we see more clearly. Thus:
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Each Event is an Act of Love, and so generates Joy: all existence is
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composed solely of such Events. But how comes it then that there should be
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even an illusion of Sorrow?
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Simply enough; by taking a partial and imperfect Vision. An example: in
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the human body each cell is perfect, and the man is in good health; but
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should we choose to regard almost any portion of the machine which sustains
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him, there will appear various decompositions and the like, which might
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well be taken to imply the most tragic Events. And this would inevitably be
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the case had we never at any time seen the man as a whole, and understood
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the necessity of the divers processes of nature which combine to make life.
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ADDENDUM
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Furthermore, to the normal or dualistic consciousness it is precisely
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the shadows `which pass and are done' which constitute perceptibly: what
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ma~n "sees" is in fact just that which obstructs the rays of light. This is
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the justification for the Buddha saying: "Everything is Sorrow": in that
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word `Everything' he is most careful to include specifically all those
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things which men count joyous. And this is not really a paradox; for to him
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all reactions which produce consciousness are ultimately sorrowful, as
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being disturbances of the Perfection of Peace, or (if you prefer it) as
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obstructions to the free flow of Energy.
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Joy and Sorrow are thus to him relative terms; subdivisions of one great
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sorrow, which is manifestation. We need not trouble to contest this view;
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indeed, the `Shadows' of which our book speaks are those interferences with
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Light caused by the partiality of our apprehension.
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The Whole is Infinite Perfection, and so is each Unit thereof. To
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transcend the Trance of Sorrow it is thus sufficient to cancel the subject
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of the contemplation by marrying it to its equal and opposite in
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imagination. We may also pursue the analytical method, and resolve the
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complex which appears Sorrow into its atoms. Each event of it is a sublime
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and joyous act of Love; or the synthetical method, proceeding from the part
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to the Whole, with a similar result.
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And any one of the movements of the mind is (with assiduity and
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enthusiasm) capable of transforming the Trance of Sorrow itself into the
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cognate Trance attributed to Understanding, the Trance of Wonder. |