According to all the masters of rational and spiritual philosophy, what prevents man's ultimate fulfilment and happiness is the illusion that the ego is something separate from the Creative Power.
But does this ego consist of what?
Certain philosophers think that the ego is not a permanent substance but the total of successive and transitory experiences, a collection of conscious acts, regarded as not inherent on any fixed basis.
This conception can be considered parallel to what atomic science calls “atom”.
But what is an atom? Is it some permanent substance like that “indivisible particle” of Democritus of Abdera's atomic theory in Greek philosophy? 1
Through Leibniz to Einstein, modern science does not admit atoms as material particles but recognizes atoms as energetic fields, polarized into positive focuses (protons) and negative focuses (electrons). But do these energy fields, these vibrations consist of what? Do they subsist in themselves? Are they autonomous, self-sustaining, independent vibrations? If so, these polarized and balanced vibrations in the unity of the atom are uncaused, absolutely independent first-cause; they are, practically, what is called in philosophy, the Absolute, the Infinite, the Eternal, God or the Absolute Thesis.
If the static-material atom of Democritus, or the dynamic-energetic atom of Einstein, are not intimately linked on another basis as in their efficient cause and producing source, then the atom, whether static or dynamic, is the supreme and ultimate reality of the Universe; not only of the physical universe but also of the metaphysical one.
However, nuclear science has already surpassed the conception of the atom as consisting of the bipolar game of protons and electrons; Einstein's latest book on the “Unified Field” goes to the extreme edge of the physical world, proclaiming cosmic light as the origin of all things. In the beginning, it was the light; everything was created by light. This paraphrase of the beginning of the Fourth Gospel is today achievement of mathematics and physics. All things in the physical universe, not excepting the chemistry elements, are generated by light.
And the light, was it generated from whom?
If it were only generating, without having been generated, if it were “pure activity”, without any ingredient of passivity, it would undoubtedly be proclaimed as the First and Absolute Cause of the Universe. However, science says that light contains a percentage of passivity; light, however immaterial, is still material. Its immateriality is maximum in its own zone; that is to say, it has a relative immateriality, but it does not have an absolute immateriality; light, however active or vibrant, is not at all active for materiality is passivity. Although, if one gives to light, for example, 99% of activity and only 1% passivity, consequently, this single degree of passivity or materiality prohibits it from being absolute and total activity.
If light were the First and Absolute Cause, uncaused-cause, it must possess the infinite activity and no passivity; it must be the pure activity of which the philosopher Aristotle speaks. But that's not what happens. Though the most active of all things in the physical universe, light is not infinitely active in the Universe taken in its total and absolute sense. Beyond the extreme boundary of light, there must be something more active. Ultimately, logic forces one to reach a point where there is something of infinite activity and zero passivity, that is, the Absolute Reality, without any trace of relative unreality.
An analogous fact occurs on the level of the mental world.
The "mental atom" of the conscious ego cannot consist of mere mental vibrations or conscious, not even subconscious, acts. Behind this "mental atom" of the ego, something must serve as an intimate union, just as physical light is the intimate union of the polarized vibrations of protons and electrons. And this same phenomenon of intimate association, this kind of light from which conscious and subconscious acts originate, cannot be self-subsistent either.
According to the criterion of physical-mental parallelism, the conscious and subconscious acts of the ego correspond to the electronic proton atoms of nuclear physics – while the basis of this intimate union corresponds to the criterion of the Einsteinian formula. That superconscious base or substratum, of which the ego is a conscious or subconscious manifestation, is the Self.
But just as physical light presupposes something prior to it, and causes it, so the Self, though driving the ego, is also caused by a higher Reality; it is not autonomous, independent, but heteronomous, dependent, ultimately requiring an Absolute Reality as First Cause.
The ego is therefore not self-subsistent nor separate from its vast substratum. The ego is a derived object, intimately linked in the subject of the Self, also derived; both, however, are ultimately linked in a non-derived Reality.
The intellect, which only reaches a specific boundary, considers the ego as something separate and self-subsistent, creating the illusion of persona or mask. When an actor speaks on stage through the mask of a king or a beggar, he is neither king nor beggar; behind it is the individual. This man “is” neither king nor beggar, but “functions as if he were” these individuals. He is an individual masked in personality. The real is the individual (the “undivided”), the fictitious is the persona or mask.
People say that I am a teacher and a writer, but I am neither this nor that. I only “function” in the horizontal level, through these attributes or “personas”, in the scenario of my terrestrial life. I am my Self, the individual, who for a time plays the role of the personal ego of teacher and writer. I “have” this transitory profession, but I am not permanently this. I am my individual Self, not my personal ego.
In a few years or decades, I do not know in which part of the Universe my permanent and central Self will perform the transitory function of some other peripheral ego, perhaps as a worker or street sweeper, possibly also as an ambassador or head of state. However, whatever my transitory functions, my permanent and individual Self will always be the same, untouched by peripheral vicissitudes. My Self is eternally identical with itself. It will never divorce me from my core Self because that is me.
However, this central Self is not accessible to the analytic intellect; only my intuitive reason is aware of it. For intelligence, there is only the ego, isolated, separate – for the reason, there is the Self, united and in solidarity with the Whole.
The sense of separation from the ego generates the consciousness of sin, while the consciousness of the united Self brings about redemption. Intelligence (Lucifer) sins, reason (Logos) redeems. Intelligence creates the illusion of separation, and reason leads to the truth of union.
A self-subsisting creature is a contradiction in terms. No creature, precisely because it is a creature, can be autonomous; every creature is itself heteronomous.
When intelligence creates the sense of the ego's autonomy, it opens the door to egoism, that is, to the worship or idolatry of the ego as an autonomous deity. Sin is essentially the intellectual illusion of the ego's separatism, which, in this illusion, tries to proclaim its independence. The primitive sense of sin is failure, error. This word was used in antiquity to express the fact that an archer, in the Olympic games, missed the target that it was shooting.
The sacred books of all peoples call the personal ego, made up of physical-mental elements, the “old man”, the “earthly man”, the “outer man”, the “enemy”, the “slave” – whereas designating the individual, rational-spiritual Self as the “new man”, the “heavenly man”, the “inner man”, the “new creature in Christ”. The terms “old” and “new” refer to the process of consciousness and its progressive historical evolution, according to which the physical-mental ego (the persona, the mask) was discovered first, and only then the rational Self (the individual). However, just as the intellectual man was latent in the sensuous man, the rational man is latent in the sensuous, intellectual man. Man's self-realization does not consist of introducing a new element, which does not exist in man, but in the evolution of the central Self, always existent in him, although in an embryonic and unknown state.
Therefore, the complete self-realization of man consists in the total integration of the physical-mental ego into the rational Self. With this integration of the ego into the Self, the ego reaches its supreme perfection, thus giving birth to the cosmic, Christlike man.
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1)- Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), meaning “chosen of the people”, was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher born in Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the Universe.
His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the 19th-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers; however, their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus is said to have been disliked by Plato so much that the latter wished all of his books burned. Nevertheless, he was well known to his fellow philosopher Aristotle and was the teacher of Protagoras.
Many consider Democritus the “father of modern science”, but unfortunately, none of his writings have survived; only fragments are known from his vast body of work.
Of a witty and cheerful temperament, he was called the “philosopher who laughs”, saying that he prefers to discover a causality rather than become a king of Persia!
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