DYNAMIC PASSIVITY

Humanity has been bestowed with three books, small in volume but immense in its content, containing all the wisdom of the centuries: The Gospel of Jesus, the Bhagavad Gita of Krishna, and the Tao by Lao Tzu.

But neither the Christians of the West nor the yogis of the East comprehended the true meaning of these sacred books and gave them interpretations as imperfect as their own interpreters.

The Christian West is constantly agitated working to accomplish their egos, even on the spiritual level and they judge with it the spirit of the Gospel when in the life of Jesus himself there is no trace of this agitation.

The Oriental, for its part convinced that all objective activity is misleading and self-defiled, resolved to isolate itself in perpetual passivity and to be identified with the Absolute Divinity’s truth, far from the illusions of life, from the creative force that manifests itself externally. (1)

And so, we have humanity in two juxtaposed halves without any organic Whole.

Neither the West nor the East has the integral truth, which is neither activity nor passivity, but dynamic passivity or resting activity.

Lately, the West has been invaded by one of the eastern practices, from India's yoga in particular, and many Christians disillusioned with Christianity think they have finally discovered the elixir of truth since their churches have failed to give it.

However, it seems that they did not grasp the real meaning of the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao, as they did not comprehend the cosmic spirit of the Gospel. They are content with certain peripheral yoga practices without reaching its inner essence.

The Gospel does not proclaim the redemption of man by certain external activities - and the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao do not recommend perfection through inactivity. All affirm something incomparably deeper and more fruitful that only a few men so far have been able to comprehend and live. And in this respect, the sacred books of the east are more explicit than those of the west.

It is important to make clear in two characteristic topics this unique truth, which forms the quintessence of both the Gospel as the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao.

Work intensely - tells the Sublime Song of India - and waive every moment the fruits of your labour! Lao Tzu in his writings always refers to “action through inaction”, or the “dynamic passivity”.

Besides, Jesus recommends to his disciples: “When you have done all that ye do, say: We are useless servants; fulfilled our obligation, and no rewards we deserve for it”.

In summary, both tell to work intensely to perform all the deeds required for life and survival - and both require from a man not to work in search of any kind of fruit, result or award, but because of the work itself, considered sacred mission entrusted to man here on Earth. Who depends on the fruits of its labour depends on something that does not depend on it - and this is horrible slavery! Profane man depends on the success or failure, on praise or criticism, on cheering or boos - but none of this depends on him, instead, external circumstances that lie beyond the reach of his will, regardless of his wishes or not.

It is evident, therefore, that a man who depends on something that does not depend on him is a slave and is always on the verge of unhappiness, although this unhappiness is still, in a state of incubation; hatching can happen at any moment since no one is the master of the adversities of nature or the perversity of men.

So, happiness that depends on something that does not depend on me is unhappiness, latent or manifest.

Sacred books that aim at the true and solid happiness of man demands him not to work because of something that is not under his control, but because of whose control is wholly in his power - which is work itself, accomplished with love, joy and enthusiasm, with or without results, in the form of money, praises, gratitude, recognition, admiration or successes of any kind.

The tyrannical ego wants these external fruits - the essentially selfless and free divine Self aims only at its own work done with purity of intention and love because this inner will is part of the Self itself, and when positive leads man to his progressive perfection and definitive self-realization.

The mercenary, tyrannical and Luciferlike ego knows only external accomplishments - our free and Christlike Self wants only self-realization. The ego is blind to the reality of Being, and look after material possessions only - the Self seeks to improve its inner being, in the certainty that material things will not be lacking in the necessary measure; for it comprehended the cosmic philosophy of the words of Jesus; “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness (the perfection of being) - and all other things (the possessions) will be given also.” "So, what is the advantage of a man in winning the whole world (external quantities) if he suffers damage to his own soul (internal quality)?"

The only thing for a man to do is to realize himself, his spiritual quality - and God will be in charge of accomplishing things in material quantities.

What the sacred books recommend or forbid is neither activity nor passivity, but absolute detachment, total and permanent renunciation, either in activity or in passivity. In the present life, man must be active to fulfil his earthly mission as a creative partner of the world and a redeeming partner of humanity, being active with detachment and performing any honest work with 100% perfection, love and enthusiasm.

The sacred books of the East speak a lot about guilt, this negative substance that comes from attachment to the fruits of labour, this poisonous residue that the ego leaves in man enslaved by it. It is not the activity itself that produces guilt, but the false posture with which the activity is performed. This negative stance should be avoided, not the activity itself. The spiritual masters do not invite the man into inertia and passivity, as external and objective facts - what matters is the posture of freedom or slavery with which man is active or passive - and it is the duty of evolving man to be intensely active with full freedom, to draw the straight line of love and purity through all the twisting paths of life's cycles of objective and professional activity.

It is easy to be an active slave like the profane man is.

It is not difficult to be freely passive like the mystic man is.

But to be freely active like the cosmic man ... this is glorious.

For it is precisely for this activity with the freedom that the great sacred books and our true teachers and guides to the infinite invite us without ceasing.

Many mystics, or pseudo-mystics, to preserve themselves from the burden inherent in all things the ego produces, have decided to impose silence and inertia on this Luciferlike ego - because they have not realized that there is a redemption of this burden; and who redeems us from the sin of the ego is precisely the divine Self, the Christlike Self in the man who does not want any objective reward, but rejoices in the grand mission of improving the world and humanity; and this is sufficient “internal reward” to renounce all pseudo external rewards.

It is in this aspect, of renouncing all pseudo external rewards, that the profane man encounters his greatest problems. Why I have to work, he asks, if it's not because of the fruits or results, I expect from my work? What another stimulus would I have to do difficult and prolonged work, if I did not cheer myself daily, every moment, from the perspective of good results, even if they are distant? The presence or approximation of the results cheers me up in the middle of the struggle; the absence or fear of frustration would eventually discourage me sooner or later ...

With these words the inexperienced person proves complete ignorance about itself; identifying with its profane ego, and know nothing of its sacred Self; sees all the physical-mental-emotional peripheries, and perceives nothing of its cosmic spiritual centre.

Therefore, the solution of the great problem of life is the comprehending factor, i.e., self-knowledge, as the ancient philosophers of Greece, used to say: “Man, know thyself!” But man, to this day, does not know himself … man, this stranger ... Persists in his ignorance of identifying with the peripheries he has, and closing his eyes to the centre he is. It even comes to the absurdity of writing books to decide if he has a soul - when he is that soul, this divine Self, the soul that has a body, the Self that has this ego as its instrument.

The ego, says Eastern philosophy, is the worst enemy of the Self; but the Self is the ego's best friend.

The ego is an enemy because it is ignorant - for enmity comes from ignorance.

Self is a friend because it is wise - friendship is the offspring of wisdom.

While man ignores himself there is no solution to the fundamental problem of humanity. But how to lead man from ignorance to wisdom? From incomprehension to comprehension? From inexperience to self-experience?

This experience of oneself is not the result of the study of psychoanalysis, because it does not go beyond the boundaries of the ego. Some ultra-ego factor is necessary for man to cross the mysterious boundary between what he has and what he is. This great I AM is not self-manufactured, it is not the product of intellectual analysis, it is not created by the conscious, because it is the superconscious in man - and the lesser cannot produce the major, the effect is not greater than its cause. It is therefore mathematically certain that the ego, with all its cleverness, cannot produce a comprehension of the truth about the nature of the Self.

This comprehension must come from a greater source - it must come from the Infinite itself, from the Universe, from the Whole, which is dormant in man but which is of man, and yet he only experiences this central immanence in himself, in a peripheral, transcendent form; someday the true initiated will know that the Cosmic Infinite is identical with the human I AM – “I and the Father are one” ...

And this is self-realization. And in theological terms: “When a man has faith, God gives him grace.”

Being alert, or having faith, is not the cause of the advent of truth, of grace - but they are a necessary and indispensable condition for the cause, the Infinite, to act upon the finite being. Who does not open a window will not have sunlight in the room; those who do not tune their channel to the source do not receive the transmission - but this does not prove that an open window or a connected channel causes light or transmission; it only proves that they are vehicles or necessary conditions for the cause (the sun, the source) to act.

This propitious environment for man to create around and within includes certain known factors, such as loneliness, silence, introspection, meditation, self-emptying, and longing for cosmic fulfilment; this attitude conducive to self-knowledge and self-realization is something like a silent cry of the soul, a painful nostalgia of the finite for the Infinite, immense auscultation of the telluric traveller to grasp the hollow echo of a distant Voice, more guessed than heard. In his ethical and social life the candidate for divine inspiration must live as if already graced by this revelation; for the ethical experience preludes the mystical experience, and this, once realized, totally transforms the ethical experience, making the truth of the great paradox comprehended: ”For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” ...

When man, through self-knowledge and self-realization is totally free from the impure desire to enjoy the fruits of his labour; when is no longer evil to fall into hell, neither is good to enter heaven; when he realizes that he is an ambassador of the Cosmic Nation here on Earth to continue the creation of the world and the redemption of humanity within the disinterested spirit of his divine Commanders - for the first time then, he feels fully freed from all his needs and passions and acquires perfect autonomy over his earthly life and eternal destiny.

And it is then, and only then, when man will begin to engage dynamically and beneficially in favour to help to redeem humanity.

This is the quintessence of the sacred books!

 

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(1)- In fact, even before the colonial period in the seventeenth century, and when England dominated international trade through the infamous West Indian Company in the pursuit of easy profit from emerging capitalism, India gradually lost its metaphysical spirit of isolation and meditation, contaminated by the spirit of greed. Paul Brunton, in one of his books, already warned at the beginning of the twentieth century that this spirit had been lost.

Today India is a powerful atomic power, one of the countries that most imports weapons of destruction, keeps satellites in orbit around the Earth, sends rockets to search the dark side of the Moon and even one orbiting Mars. However, the vast majority of its almost 1,5 billion inhabitants do not have the privilege of sewerage and sanitation; the slums and garbage around the big cities are an insult to the human condition, and where the caste system is still rooted within this so-called civilization.

And the question remains: when will does India return to the cosmic vision of the Bhagavad Gita? ...