Thursday, February 24, 2022
Currently reading
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Silence as a shattering of ego
Intuitively, this felt right and like the more transcendent, more Godly, patient, gentle approach. As I thought more about it, though, I did come upon a couple of caveats. One is that yes, certainly many issues do need to be talked through, and we do need to hold ourselves and others accountable for behaviors. Confrontation shouldn't be avoided at all costs in favor of submissiveness, but sometimes it might be best to be silent, and to let this silence be its own prayer, a lesson from God straight to us.
Another caveat about choosing silence as a response when we feel defensive or as though we've been wronged is that this silence must not be a pregnant silence, meant to punish or convey upset, disappointment, anger... instead, if we choose this method, we should focus on an internal cleansing in that moment, via prayer or song perhaps, that we may truly let this perceived slight go, and to release trying to control others thoughts, responses, beliefs, or attitudes toward us.If we feel ourselves emotionally triggered, or if there is enough of a discrepancy in comprehension and emotional intelligence, a solution-oriented conversation is probably not likely, and the exchange will deteriorate rapidly into a fussing of egos, dueling monologues.
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Traditionalism vs Perennialism
Friday, February 4, 2022
The fifth Veda?
Pulling from the ideas in my last post on transcendence in the Kali Yuga (if it's truly possible in an era where we are so attached to the physical reality, especially these dense bodies), transformation was suggested as a companion approach, rather than relying on transcendence alone as the path of relationship with God and survival of the soul at death.
In his Yoga of Power, Evola offers one specific technique for transforming the dormant energies in the body:
"...the Tantras have claimed for themselves the dignity befitting a 'fifth Veda.' that is, a further revelation beyond what is found in the traditional four Vedas. To this they added a reference to the doctrine of the four ages (yugas) of the world. It is claimed that the teachings, rites, and disciplines that would have been viable in the first age (the Krita or Satya Yuga)\,the equivalent of Hesiod's 'golden age') are no longer fit for people living in the following ages, especially in the last age, the 'dark age' (Kali Yuga, the 'Iron Age,' 'the age of the Wolf' in the Edda). Mankind in these later ages may find knowledge, a worldview, rituals, and adequate practices for elevating humans over and beyond their condition and for overcoming death (mrityun javate), not in the Vedas and in other strictly traditional texts, but rather in the Tantras and the Aganas. It is stated therefore that only Tantric practices based on shakti (shakti-sadhana) are suitable and efficacious in our contemporary age: all the others are considered to be as powerless as a snake deprived of its poison."
With Tantra, action replaces contemplation. Much like Yoga requires determined practice, Tantra calls the initiate onto a path of direct experience.
However, at least in the West, Tantra is [likely mis]understood as some kind of orgiastic event, delighting in sensory pleasure, probably due to commercialism and the sweeping contemporary watering down of all attempts at divinity and union, but I'm not yet sure.
My knee-jerk concern is this: would this approach not be to further bolster the self, the ego, activating the sensory pleasures and steering away from self-purification? If this transformation is to unlock the dormant energies the body possesses, absorbing and transforming them into personal power, how does this contribute to union with God? Is it self-focused like so many of the modern/digital spiritualities this article so elegantly calls attention to?
Though it does seem if this path were to be taken, the power it could unlock in the individual would require as a precursor, a properly initiated person, who could wield the power wisely, that is- for transcendence, otherwise the approach is dangerous.
I don't have an answer yet; much more to learn.
Michelangelo's Dream. Painted by Joseph Noel Paton (1821–1901) |
"It is therefore not enough to abide by the theory of the identity between the deeper self (atman) and the principle of the universe (brahman) and 'to remain idle,' vaguely thinking of the conscious ether.' The Tantras deny the value of knowledge to this. In order to obtain true knowledge, one must be transformed by action..." - Julius Evola, The Yoga of Power
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Transcendence in a dark age
I've come across a new perspective recently which struck me as very reasonable and possible; this is the notion that the teachings for transcendence of antiquity might not suffice for you and I here in the midst of a dark age, dense in our materiality.
"It is claimed that the teachings, rites, and disciplines that would have been viable in the first age (the Krita or Satya Yuga, the equivalent of Hesiod's 'golden age') are no longer fit for people living in the following ages, especially in the last age, the "dark age" Kali Yuga, the 'Iron Age,' the 'Age of the Wolf' in the Edda)." -Julius Evola, The Yoga of Power
Evola goes on to highlight essential features of the Kali Yuga we find ourselves in now, one of which is that:
"... mankind living in this age is strictly connected to the body and cannot prescind from it; therefore, the only way open is not that of pure detachment (as in early Buddhism and in the many varieties of yoga) but rather that of knowledge, awakening, and mastery over secret energies trapped in the body.
So is a transcendent path enough during a time when debauched living is a societal norm that we've all grown up around? Can we even recognize our low standards amidst such debased living reflected in the world around us? Is it even possible in the degree that would be required to make the Olympian leap, for the soul to survive death? Is devoting our hearts, our thoughts, our wisdom-seeking toward God, behaving righteously, and singing or chanting our devotional songs as many times each day as we can manage... is it substantial, in this era, for any save the very exceptional tucked away in monasteries?
Evola goes on to respond that it isn't, and that transformation is also necessary.
"The second characteristic is that of the dissolution typical of this age. During the Kali Yuga, the bull of dharma stands on only one foot (it lost the other three during the previous ages). This means that the traditional law (dharma) is wavering, is reduced to a shadow of its former self, and seems to almost be succumbing. During Kali Yuga, however, the goddess Kali, who was asleep in the previous ages, is now fully awake. [...] This symbolism implies that during the last age elementary, infernal, and abyssal forces are untrammeled. The immediate task consists in facing and absorbing these forces..."
Are we capable of that, I wonder? Of interacting with unseen and strange forces, not grasped by modern man, enough to be able to absorb and victoriously transform them, thereby elevating our own ontological nature?
Certainly such a process would require proper Initiation first, and can a true guru be found in this age? Is self-initiation possible? If so, I believe it would be vital still to maintain ones daily devotional rituals to God together with this approach, staying prayerful and centered when encountering such forces, and especially if ever absorbing them into your own being.