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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 26 - Page 8 |
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Reports of a Lost Esotericism It is clear that even today lay communities which relate closely to what I have called esoteric monasteries - communities that include to my knowledge devout populations within one small seaside town, and in an industrial suburb of a city - show clear evidence of an improved level of emotional education that makes them the diametrical opposite of the problem elements of Western populations. It is equally clear that most Westerners who enter esoteric monasteries find the whole thing too difficult. The emotional ‘luggage’ they carry is too much and they, among others, fail to achieve their spiritual goals. To put it bluntly, you cannot be in two states of consciousness at the same time, and so a general principle of spirituality is that the emergence of a higher state requires the renunciation of the lower. To renounce the lower state requires that we give up all that belongs to it: all the related interests and outer and inner possessions. Many people are unwilling to take up their cross and make this sacrifice. This is the same point which the disciples of Jesus reached and where, as described in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Saint John, many of them left him: "Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." ( John 6:60-66.) The modern individual carries a large burden of inner possessions. This burden makes conventional monasticism impossible to most of us. It is because of this that chapter 12 of this book addresses the question of an alternative to the monastic method. It is all very well to write of solutions available at some time in the past. But what do we know today about emotional education? More to the point, what can we do today? |
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