119. The third eye: Chapter 18 - Standing on the doorstep of life, consciousness

 

If we look at our world through a keyhole, we will only see fragments of it, because the door hides the rest, the essential part. If we wish to see, hear, perceive, and experience the whole, we must open the door to the world, and thereby to ourselves. The question is whether we have the will and courage to open the door and step across the doorstep, transitioning from the state of individuality to that of universality. What is the threshold of ignorance we must pass in order to achieve change, enter a different state, and reach consciousness? Anyone seeking universal knowledge and consciousness must open the door to life and step across the threshold of their own ignorance. They must raise the stakes and constantly seek newer and deeper knowledge. The timid, of course, will continue to be satisfied with their keyhole vision, with their individual consciousness of “I know,” and what’s troubling is that they often expect others to remain in the same ignorance. The first step of opening up is the recognition that there exists a deeper knowledge than the one we possess as individualists, knowledge that we are taught and shown. The second step is having the courage to open the door. The third step is crossing the doorstep — that is, embracing the state of consciousness. Those who step across the doorstep actually face two choices: either they shut the door behind them, break with their former ignorance, and begin searching for deeper knowledge and consciousness, thus pushing the boundaries of their knowledge; or they step back into the keyhole individuality, remaining slaves and executing others' orders. 

We perceive and experience the external world through our five senses, which are individual, personal, and irreplaceable. The perception and experience of our internal universality, however, are made possible through the intellect, consciousness of our soul. Those who cross the doorstep learn that universality is not about opposites, but about the complementary dual pairs: outside and inside, up and down, male and female, cold and hot, etc. These are not opposites but pairs. Opposites are always born of ignorance. Note: The existence of opposites in reality can already be found in pre-Socratic thought, such as in the ideas of the first Greek rational philosopher, Heraclitus, who believed that contradiction was the basis of change, and that reality is constantly changing. One of his followers, Aristotle, is considered the founder of European, Western materialist philosophy. Those who do not admit their ignorance are like those peeking through the keyhole, the individualistic power-mongers, and the misled, manipulated, timid masses, who prefer shouting from the side-lines rather than participating in the game. 

Those who cross the doorstep take on the task of renouncing the individual, external, and personal perception and choosing universal, internal, conscious perception and experience — for example, the stillness that comes with body-mind meditation. Meditation (reflection) and contemplation (viewing) help transition from individual experiences and consciousness to universal experience and consciousness. Life, motion, change, and the conditions that sustain life, as well as the sacred creations of life, are all universal. Since our life is participation in the universal gifts and the sacred creations of life, we cannot claim, “this is my life, and “that is your life.” We jointly “use” the sacred creations, and thus, each other. 

When we declare, “This is my life,” we must realize that it is only a small piece of the great universal life, a portion that we receive for ourselves. Our life is a share in the great life. Since we are part of universality and the sacred creations, we cannot claim, "This is my land, my air, my light, my water," or "This is my man." Everything we possess, including our life, is a gift that serves our universality. Nevertheless, in our ignorance, we use these gifts for profit-making and exercising control over others. Ignorance leads us to claim that the sacred creations are "mine." Profit-making, utility, is about saying, “this is mine.” But it is not. 

If, due to ignorance, we surrender ourselves to power, why should we be surprised when we are treated as slaves? Anyone who lowers themselves to the status of a slave should realize that they are merely an executor, often executing themselves. Authority and power exist because one person executes the commands of another. If we look at things from the perspective of individual commands, we will always see opposites and enemies, and never the complementary pairs or the peace-loving people. It is no accident that every form of power sees opposites everywhere. And when opposites don’t exist, power, under the command of “divide and rule,” creates them — for example, the 1789 French Revolution, the 1989 Romanian unrest, or the 2004 Ukrainian Orange Revolution. 

Creating enemies is fashionable; otherwise, people would live peacefully. Opposites always arise from what we identify with. If we identify with individuality — for example, “this is my land, my house, my nation, my flag” — we will always get into conflict. If we identify with universality, there will be no conflict, dogma, religion, problem, worldview, power, nation, flag, or any other form of individuality. What does the message of our Initiation Master mean when he says, “I give you my peace”? It means that peace is the elimination of opposites, the quieting down, the respect for the other, when we say “ours” and thus do not harm the other. 

Our life unfolds in the pairing of flowing time and incomprehensibly vast space, simultaneously in the present, past, and future. What connects these details, what is perceivable and experienced, is the slow or fast movement, the pulsation, the circularity — which is nothing other than the visible or invisible networks, energy fields, and quantum relationships changing between the components. Our life, reality itself, is change, constant transformation, quantum pulsation. Nature takes care of external changes, such as the aging of our bodies. We, however, must take care of our internal changes, the continuous maturation of our souls. Those who are not engaged in internal change, in the return to the One, are the living dead, the half-living and half-dead mass people. We are truly alive when we can say: 1) “If my life was to end today, it would still have been full,” 2) “I do not know what tomorrow will bring,” and 3) “I am in control of my life.”