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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 18 - Page 4 |
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Links with Gnosis, continued If Mouravieff's "study and commentary" is "directly drawn" from the sources he mentions, then it should be possible to retrace his steps, connecting the commentary with what is being commented upon. Below we have reproduced a passage from Gnosis, with hypertext "popup" windows that contain teachings from the Philokalia linking directly with Mouravieff's commentary. The subtitle of Mouravieff's work must not be overlooked: Gnosis contains commentaries on a long-standing Tradition - a tradition in which commentary on recognised texts forms one of the main teaching methods and prevents excessive 'personalising' of the teaching. This method protects against the introduction of purely imaginary content. In the example below, these teachings of the Fathers appear as a set of hypertext 'footnotes' to Mouravieff's work. This study shows some of the relation between Mouravieff's commentary and these teachings and others in the same Tradition. But to understand these connections we often have to try to put the relevant teachings into practice. "Practice makes perfect." The Philokalia cannot be understood without long preparation. Study without practical work, if carried on too long, will eventually create a serious imbalance in the psyche. Yet to know what to do next in any investigation, we must begin with study. To help in this we include an excerpt from Boris Mouravieff's Gnosis: Volume I, Chapter VI, sec. 6 ( pp. 49-50) "What has been said above should lead us to ask ourselves what is the meaning and mission in evolution of the Personality; this fine and complex organism which nevertheless is a 'Non-I;' with which we identify ourselves, and from which we should be able to detach ourselves at the price of particularly painful efforts. "We must remember that it is since the fall of Adam that the spiritual man, having become an animal man, has lost contact with his higher centres, that is to say, with the Tree of Life, by giving pre-eminence to his lower centres, that is, to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nevertheless by means of the Personality and of its three centres, we possess within us -- either in embryonic or developed state -- all the elements of which the Universe is composed, which the Orthodox Tradition calls the 'World'. These elements are represented by corresponding parts of our Personality. As he gradually acquires mastery and control of his Personality, man, with the aid of this complex instrument, succeeds in Knowing the Universe in all its parts -- and in establishing conscious organic links with it. This occurs according to the principle of Plato which says that: 'Like can neither be grasped nor understood except by like'. "This is the objective meaning and place of the Personality in the evolution of the 'I': by a kind of conscious identification which is the fruit of appropriate exercises of concentration, he who seeks will succeed in Knowing the exterior 'Non-I' by means of the interior 'Non-I,' that is to say, by means of his Personality. This procedure, to which we shall return later, will give him access to powers. 'Try to penetrate inside the inner cage and you will see the outer cage, (the Universe) for both are one'." |
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