{"id":11320,"date":"2019-10-27T22:23:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T02:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=11320"},"modified":"2022-10-27T13:21:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T17:21:37","slug":"death-and-the-real-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=11320","title":{"rendered":"Death and the Real I"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we keep the image of death constantly in our minds, we will appreciate with bitter regret the value of each lost day.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dark Dream<\/h2>\n
\n\"Muerte<\/a>
Muerte Blanca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was driving on the highway at night, paying close attention to the traffic. A cop car ahead of me, a few cars in the lanes to my left. I accidentally turned off my headlights but could not turn them back on. Suddenly, the entire highway was pitch black. I continued to drive, unable to see anything ahead. The brakes did not work, yet the car was accelerating. I was weaving in and out, all the time thinking that I would crash into something. I speculated on what crash would occur while continuing to drive.<\/p>\n

The ambiguity was clear. Was I heading into the darkness of death? Or was I being guided by unknown forces?<\/p>\n

In Chapter V of Gnosis<\/em> Book 1, Boris Mouravieff includes a meditation on death, which comprised three exercises. The I of the Personality gives little thought to its own death. Mouravieff explains:<\/p>\n

\nAll man can imagine in this respect is to evoke the image of his own corpse: he can never exclude from this representation the observer who contemplates this image.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Holy<\/a>
\nOnly the Real I can contemplate one\u2019s death. While the ego looks for the light, the Real I faces the darkness. In most cases, it takes a major event, a boundary situations, to get the ego to face its own annihilation. Examples are: fright, guilt, finality, and suffering.<\/p>\n

Exercise 1: Remembrance of death<\/h2>\n

\nDeath is the only real and unique event which happens to us without fail. In other words, constantly bearing in mind the idea of death approaching nearer every day is a concrete means of facing an implacable reality \u2014 before which all the joys and all the worries of the Personality fade. It is thus that one learns that in effect: ‘all is vanity and torments of the mind.’\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is insufficient to read this exercise; rather, one must actually do it. The timing is good. During Halloween season in the USA, people decorate their lawns with images of death. Walk around the neighborhood and contemplate the skulls. It is better than candy.<\/p>\n

This week: pray for the dead and visit a cemetery.<\/p>\n

Exercise 2: The narrow road leading to Life<\/h2>\n

\nThis is done by introducing a continuous and permanent attachment between the Personality and the passive Real ‘I’, so as to render the presence of the latter constant in the field of action of the Personality. Then, with time and according to the intensity of efforts, the situation can undergo a complete change: the more the Real I \u2013 like the grain of mustard seed \u2013 takes root in the mental life which was until then dominated by the Personality, the more the latter is subjected, little by little, to the will of the judge. Identifying himself with it, man will rediscover his Real ‘I’ in all its integrity and permanence. For him, life then loses its factitious character, to become logical and factual.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Train the ego, or false I, to become aware of the Real I. The ego lies to himself; it sugarcoats his life. The Real I judges rightly, which the ego dislikes. Ultimately, the goal is for the ego to become passive to the Real I. Learn to distinguish between the speech of the ego and the Real I.<\/p>\n

\nWhen a person speaks, it is generally easy to distinguish whether his records are playing or whether he speaks from some deeper part of himself. In the latter case, he uses a pictorial, rustic and sometimes awkward language; in the former he speaks in a singing tone of voice.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exercise 3: The philosopher\u2019s stone<\/h2>\n

\nThe permanent link which must be introduced between the Personality and the real ‘I’ is esoteric Knowledge.\u00a0 The knowledge and know-how that it permits us to acquire represent the philosophers’ stone of the medieval mystics. They are capable of provoking in man the transmutation to which he aspires.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the best material rather than wild speculations or useless opinions.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/h2>\n