114. The third eye: Chapter 13 - Tools to know reality

 

When choosing the tools for understanding our dual – spiritual and material – world, we also ask ourselves what kind of knowledge we should seek: material or spiritual, or perhaps both. If we wish to gain knowledge about the visible material world, we must use the tools of our rational mind; but if we want to know about the invisible spiritual world, we need our faith in revelation, our self-awareness, and our consciousness. As Thomas Aquinas says, "with reason, we rise to faith, and with faith, we descend to reason," which also means that our faith provides higher knowledge than our mind. If we want to establish a hierarchy between reason, the body-mind, and faith, we must recognize that faith came first because the soul, the form, determines the manifestation, that is, the content, the body. Both are necessary for knowledge acquisition. 

The faith of revelation and the rationality of reason are in a hierarchical order, because the former determines the latter. Our dual soul, on the one hand, represents the constant, absolutely unmoving universal self, the manifestation of the One, which is the object of our complete knowledge. On the other hand, our individual self enables partial knowledge, which is moving, relative, susceptible to influence, and can be grasped by our five senses. Note: In the matter of reason and faith, we refer to the thoughts of Thomas Aquinas, who followed Aristotle, because, after Augustine, he perhaps dealt most extensively with the compatibility of reason and faith..

With rational reason and the mind, we can understand the outer, visible, tangible, sensory world; with the intellect of our faith, we can understand the inner, invisible world. When we use both tools to explore universal truth, freedom, and order – the singular reality – it does not imply the existence of two different truths, orders, freedoms, or realities, but rather that we interpret truth, order, freedom, and reality in duality and are equipped with two tools for this. The faith of revelation and the rationality of reason are in hierarchical order, as the former defines the latter. Our dual soul represents, on one hand, the constant, absolute, unmoving universal self – the manifestation of the One – which is the subject of our complete knowledge. On the other hand, our individual self makes possible partial knowledge, the moving, relative, influenceable, and sensory knowledge. 

In the process of gaining knowledge, rational philosophy reaches understanding through perception (primary experience) and reasoning and conclusions (secondary experience). Therefore, in philosophy based on thought, errors are common, because both experience and conclusions can be interpreted differently. This is why there are many different philosophies. In contrast, the faith of revelation and, thus, intellectual knowledge is infallible, since revelation comes from the One’s infallibility, perfection, order, and harmony. Since rationality is subordinate to faith, understanding the reality of the One purely through rational philosophy is a risky venture. It is pointless to ask whether it is better to believe than to think or better to think than to believe. Real knowledge requires both, but in the correct order and context. 

Thus, faith and reason complement each other, and their proper use does not contradict each other. Rational philosophy draws conclusions from the material part of our world and builds knowledge into our minds, while faith builds knowledge from the spiritual, paradoxical counterpart of our world. When we apply the method suggested by Thomas Aquinas and speak of the stages of reason's elevation to faith, we move from rational, material existence to metaphysical knowledge beyond the physical realm, which is no longer visible or tangible, and is closer to faith than rational thought. When we abandon metaphysical knowledge, we reach the intellect of our soul, which can be understood through transcendent faith. 

This shift, or transformation, is called initiation into the intellect of the soul, which can be achieved through quieting the noisy workings of the mind, reflection, and contemplation. To gain clarity, we must note that faith (our self-awareness) is not religion, because while everyone has a religion, not everyone has faith, inner vision, or consciousness. Every religion is based on a system of rules created by reason, a power-driven dogma, which, due to its limitations, excludes metaphysical knowledge and the faith of revelation. It could also be said that dogma supports unbelief, since dogma is created by rational reason to be effective through influencing and manipulating the individual self. 

All power originates from rational thought, and it operates through influencing the individual self that we have built. Religions based on equality and the dogmas that underpin them – whether material or non-material – are rational and not transcendent. In the dogma of equality, such as original sin in the old scripture or the dogma "workers of the world unite," there is no transcendence, only materialism. If we insist that theology must always be associated with the faith of revelation as a means of knowledge, we must be aware that this is not always necessary. If we speak of pure theology – that which we must truly understand – then theology can be connected with the knowledge of faith. Otherwise, we will encounter many types of theology, such as anthropomorphic, liberating, moral, philosophical, scientific, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Old Testament, New Testament, and so on. 

All of this is simply because the ignorant human has shaped the One in his image and complicated theology by associating incarnation, inherited beliefs, and even philosophy with the revelation of the One, thus creating many theological dogmas from their combinations. But all of these are merely separate interpretations. Moreover, in theology (with intellect) and in philosophy (with rationality), humans search for proof, and when they couldn't find it, they assumed it and tied it to some constructed authority. To preserve the purity of knowledge, it is not worth combining theology with dogma and philosophy. Both are needed, but adhering to the hierarchies, each should remain within its own domain of knowledge. 

When Thomas Aquinas applies logical reasoning – counter-argumentation and conclusions – in the realms of religious faith and reason, he is using the methodology of rational reason, not the meaningful intellect of the soul, which understands the paradoxical nature of the faith of revelation: for example, I believe in the One as in the universal self within me, which is the image and identity of the One. The dialectical method of argumentation is unsuitable for interpreting paradoxes contained within it, such as those found in Hungarian folk tales that represent the transcendent mapping of the world, for example, the opening lines "once upon a time, there was and there wasn't," where what is, is and what was, is. In the realm of faith, this is the continuously created world of ours, which, because of its circularity, horizontality, and verticality, is in eternal change. 

Argumentation techniques struggle with the concept that what is inside, is also outside, or that within the white is the black, or in the warmth is the cold, in the man is the woman, and in the woman is the man, etc. Note: In Hindu yoga culture, the idea of inclusion was recognized thousands of years before our Initiation Master. In the case of paradoxes, such as existence and life, love, rationality, etc., logic fails. Thomas Aquinas did not recognize that neither the thousand-year-old Platonic teachings (such as the speculative idea theory) nor the Aristotelian substance theory are suitable for understanding the paradoxical, dual nature of existence and life. While small, approximate results are possible, dialectical reasoning is not suitable for understanding the entirety. Speculation, however, is possible.