METAPHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE, part III

METAPHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE, part III - by Guenther Zuehlsdorf, translation from the original German edition into Portuguese by Huberto Rohden and translated into English by Flavio de Mello.

 

 

 

 

 

Truth and error are in our own thinking. Second-hand truths, dogmas, creeds, customary routines retard the experience of Reality and weaken the spirit. Even the complicated experiences of many yogis and occultists runs around in the sphere of illusions, simulating higher states. Shankara speaks of "a misrepresentation of the vision of truth", arising from the interference of thought in the area of intuitive experience. According to Ramana Maharishi, it is precisely the mental transfiguration, thought in its most subtle form, and therefore more dangerous, that enslaves man more ominously. Because, truth can only come after the restless dialectic of analytical intelligence is controlled, and when the formless intuitive consciousness is reached.

 

 

These reflections make it comprehensible why the great Shankara did insist on the purpose of all spiritual exercises, especially meditation, to be the following: "to liberate man from the impact of changing objects" to which men give erroneously the name "knowledge". Accordingly, admits Shankara the Raja Yoga of Patanjali, because - though in disparity with current interpretations - yoga has a pure metaphysical sense, distancing itself from customary and ordinary yoga practices.

 

 

A Chinese fable dramatically illustrates the truth that no everyday experience can provide the basis for a superior experience. "One should not talk with a frog about the sea, because the frog only knows his lair. With a butterfly one should not speak of ice, because the butterfly only knows the summer. With a profane one should not speak of Tao because he is limited to his thoughts".

 

 

The wise men of the Upanishads and others, when emphasize the illusory nature of mental mechanism, when they relegate the experiences of the intellect to the realm of the  avydia (ignorance), do not intend to declare mental activity as superfluous and worthless; what they want it is only to show the limits of common mental process, that always gives us an imperfect and blurred vision of Reality. They do not dismiss as non-existent, the objects of thought, but emphasize the fact that this cognitive process is coloured, unilateral and superficial, since it takes place only through conceptions, images and representations of the intellect. First of all, these sensory and intellectual conceptions refers, exclusively, to the world of external facts, reason why cannot fail when it comes to the Reality of the inner world. The ultimate and supreme experience cannot be achieved by simple contact with anything visible in the Universe, with some existing object within the context of time and space and destined to perish; the true experience of Reality is processed directly, without the cooperation of the senses and intelligence.

 

 

We have a word of Buddha which shows how originates superior knowledge: "The doctrine which I declare did not come to me by tradition, nor by reasoning, nor by way of comparison - but within myself opened the eye, within myself the light dawned, within myself the Truth was revealed".

 

 

 

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