Meditations on the Tarot – Page 9 – Meditations on the Tarot

2017-01-17

The Human Bodhisattva

The interior life is for all, the one thing necessary. It ought to be constantly developing in our souls; more so than what we call our intellectual life, more so than our scientific, artistic, or literary life. The interior life is lived in the depths of the soul; it is the life of the whole man, not merely of one or other of his faculties. And our intellectual life would gain immeasurably by appreciating this; it would receive an inestimable advantage if, instead of attempting to supplant the spiritual life, it recognized its necessity and importance, and welcomed its beneficial influence—the influence of the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. How deeply important our subject is may be seen in the very words we have used: Intellectuality and Spirituality. ~ Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life

The process of induction (which “ascends from earth to heaven”) and that of deduction (which “descends to earth”), the process of prayer (which “ascends from earth to heaven”) and that of revelation (which “descends to earth”) — i.e. human endeavour and the action of grace from above — unite and become a complete circle which contracts and concentrates to become a point where the ascent and descent are simultaneous and coincide. And this point is the “philosopher’s stone”— the principle of the identity of the human and divine, of humanism and prophetism, of intelligence and revelation, of intellectuality and spirituality. ~ from Letter XXI, The Fool

Meeting notes for 16 January 2017

Introduction

Ekzy’l led a discussion on Frithjof Schuon’s essay Mystery of the Bodhisattva. Since we focused on pages 76 through 79, I’ll start with some points from the first pages of the essay in order to provide some context. Schuon agrees with Valentin Tomberg that Buddhism starts from the human point of view and rises up. Moreover, Schuon points out that this starting point makes it akin to Christianity.

This starting point for Buddha is the insight that all life is suffering. This is not merely verbal, but existential, so much so that the Buddha would not be satisfied until he found a solution. Similarly, the Christian sees that life is toil, suffering, and death. Although Buddha does not provide an explanation for suffering, the Christian traces its origin back to the effects of original sin.

The solution must likewise be existential. Hence, neither Advaita Vedanta nor Neo-Platonism—the highest metaphysical teaching of the East and West respectively—are sufficient, no matter how useful they are to the jnana path. The corollary is that there is no definable process or technique that will lead to an awakening. Rather, “skillful means” are necessary, which may be adapted to different personalities and situations.

Discussion

These are the main points discussed; for clarity, the order of the topics is different.

Schuon distinguishes between the personal, or human, Bodhisattva and the celestial. The latter is more like an avatar, so we focused on the human Bodhisattva to be consistent with Tomberg’s description.
Apocatastasis means the restoration to the primordial state. In Buddhist terms, that involves the reintegration into Nirvana while, in Christian terms, it is the return to the state of Adam before the Fall.
Starting from “below”, i.e., the human state, means to begin in samsara. Normally, our attention is caught in the web of samsara, a state of ignorance. Unaware that samsara is a dimension of Nirvana. The beginning of awakening comes with the recognition of the impermanence of things, which is just their relativity in respect to Nirvana.
The obvious question then is what motivates this awakening. First of all, in experience, although not ontologically, a degree of perfection, i.e., a purification, is necessary.
The jnana must contemplate the Absolute both in the Heart and in the World. Tomberg calls this the “identity of the human and the divine.”
With that preparation, “the Logos descends upon him and dwells in him, just as light automatically dwells on a clear and smooth surface.”
Hence, the “original initiative comes from Heaven and that the support has been brought forth in the realm of the cosmic play solely in view of the manifestation of the Logos and by the Logos itself.”
A Buddha has three sheaths, or bodies, corresponding to Heaven, an Archangel, and humans. Christian Hermetism accepts that, but includes some finer states. The Angelic sheath has nine levels, corresponding to the celestial hierarchies. Ultimately, the highest states relate to the Trinity, not simply the Absolute. Buddhism admits this to a degree by recognizing Being and Beyond-Being as transcendent states.

We concluded with an interesting point about the meaning of the Buddhist teaching about the extinction of the self and the elimination of desire. It was suggested that this means the elimination of the “grasping self”. Of course, that brings to mind the “five wounds”:

the desire for personal greatness, to take, to keep, to advance and to hold on to at the expense of others

This thought opens up the idea of the three vows, purification of the will, and celestial hierarchy, all relevant to the Bodhisattva discussion. But that will be for another meeting.

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Bodhisattva Notes 1

Meeting Notes from 9 January 2017
We read from the bottom of page 607 to page 611.

The mission of Hermetism – both in the past and to come – is the union of spirituality and intellectuality.

However, not everyone who has contributed to that work is explicitly a Hermetist. Tomberg provides a short list of such thinkers. It is obviously helpful to study one or more of them, although their spiritual paths differed and the intellectual interests were quite disparate.

Vladimir Solovyov: In “Lectures on Divine Humanity”, Solovyov offered an intellectual understanding of the dogmas of Chrisitianity, e.g., the Trinity or the Incarnation. He incorporated ideas from the Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, Boehme, Swedenborg, and the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling. In his lectures, he mentioned the connection between Alexandrian theosophy and Christian doctrine. Spiritually, he was highly influenced by the Divine Sophia, having had several experiences of her presence. Those writings are collected in a book in English titled “Divine Sophia”. Solovyov was highly influential on Tomberg.
Nicolas Berdyaev: Berdyaev was another Russian who reconciled his intellectual interests in philosophy with a deep spirituality based on the creativity and freedom of the human spirit.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Teilhard was a French Jesuit and paleontologist. In “The Phenomenon of Man”, he created a sweeping vision of evolution of higher and higher layers; from life to thought to the centrality of Christ. He looked for the eventual culmination in God.
Carl Jung: Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, who combined the scientific method of his profession with a gnostic spirituality. His discovery of the archetypes was expanded on by Tomberg.

The guardians of the Hermetic tradition have two tasks:

The study and practical application of the heritage of the past
Continuous creative effort aiming at the advancement of the work

This spiritual work, on the historical plane, reconciles two opposing notions, described in several ways

One source is from above, the other from below
The action of continuous revelation and the effort of human consciousness
Revelation and humanism
Avatars and Buddhas
Saints and the righteous

Job, Socrates, and Immanuel Kant are examples of righteous men. Kant, with the discovery and description of the categorical imperative (which Tomberg equates with the notion of Dharma), leads to faith in the nobility of human nature. Tomberg gives us a deeper understanding of the God-Man Jesus Christ. Since He is completely both natures, faith in Jesus Christ should unite both faith in God and faith in man, and love for Jesus Christ unites love of God and love of neighbor.

Jesus Christ, then, unites the Avatar and the Buddha. The corollary of this is that the simplistic notion — popular in some circles — that all “spiritual teachers” including Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus Christ somehow “taught the same thing”. Tomberg, on the other hand, brings out their distinctiveness, while also uniting them.

We discussed the idea of the Avatar and Buddha, particularly why Tomberg chose them as exemplars. The conclusion was that they are not mere ciphers, or placeholders, for his argument. Rather, they bring real revelations to the Hermetist. Hence, we will be making efforts to understand precisely what Krishna (in the Bhagavad Gita) and Buddha taught. And not simply in an intellectual way, but in terms of states of consciousness.

Our task is to be sure to make meditation and prayer part of our daily schedule. Avoid meditations that are based solely on sounds of untranslatable mantras, or those that concentrate on nothing or perhaps just the awareness of breath. Prayer should include both vocal and mental prayer. Also during the day, be sure to awaken yourself several times and observe what you were considering. In mental prayer we are considering God. Dom Lehodey describes it this way:

The considerations are not a mere speculative study; they are not made in order to learn or to know, but to inflame the heart, and set the will in motion. The mind’s eye is fixed

upon some truth in order to believe it

upon some virtue in order to love and seek it

upon some duty to fulfill it

up moral evil to detest and fly from it

upon some danger to avoid it

The fruits of mental prayer are these:

Little by little, mental prayer well made

will render our faith more lively

will strengthen our conviction

will penetrate us deeply with the things of God

will keep the supernatural always present to our mind.

Then there will be no more forgetfulness, no more sleep

Upcoming schedule: In addition to the text on Bodhisattva, we will bring in supplementary material:

An essay on the Bodhisattva by Fritjhof Schuon
A summary of the Bhagavad Gita
An essay on The Essence of the Prayer of the Heart

After that, we will do for Lent a series of seven meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ as described by Tomberg.

2017-01-06

The Bodhisattva in Consciousness

In Letter XXI, the Fool, Valentin Tomberg describes the characteristics of the Bodhisattva to come:

He will not simply explain the profound meaning of revelation, but he will bring human beings themselves to attain to the illuminating experience of revelation, of a kind that it will not be he who will win authority, but rather He who is “the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world” (John 1:9)—Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, who is the way, the truth and the life.

Not very long ago, a Jain was explaining that his people were expecting the coming of the next avatar. I asked him how he would recognize the avatar when he appeared. He was flummoxed by the question and told me he would get back to me after consulting with his guru in India. Needless to say, he never got back to me.

So how would we, in the West in our time, recognize the Bodhisattva when he comes? Does he arrive with a certificate of authenticity, a diploma, a letter of introduction? Perhaps he will appear on TV or even perform an occasional miracle? Rudolf Steiner made the same point this way:

It is certainly true that in our time there is a rooted disinclination to recognise genius in human beings. But on the other hand, mental laziness is very prevalent, with the result that people are only too ready to acknowledge some individual as a great soul, merely on authority.

The disinclination is the lack of the ability to recognize a higher teaching, or even the denial that such a teaching is possible. Although Tomberg warned about this, the personal and subjective elements are much more attractive than pure intellectuality. Mental laziness is tied to the “bandwagon effect”, so that a “great soul” is confounded with a “greatly popular soul”. Tomberg then gives us a clue:

The mission of the Buddha-Avatar to come will therefore not be the foundation of a new religion, but rather that of bringing human beings to firsthand experience of the source itself of all revelation ever received from above by mankind, as also of all essential truth ever conceived of by mankind. It will not be novelty to which he will aspire, but rather the conscious certainty of eternal truth.

We see that we will not recognize the Bodhisattva not through anything external, but rather by re-experiencing firsthand what the Bodhisattva experienced. Before considering Tomberg’s description of that experience, a short detour is necessary.

The Right Track

The teaching of moral development is not the same as the impulse for such development. ~ Rudolf Steiner

For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 1 Corinthians 4:20

Tomberg claimed that Rudolf Steiner was “on the right track” in his understanding of the coming Bodhisattva. Now there are several areas of incompatibility between Steiner and Tomberg, so we will focus solely on what may have been on the right track. In 1911, Steiner delivered a lecture in Milan titled Buddha and Christ: The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas. There he expanded on a legend from the Middle Ages about the Bodhisattva:

Consciousness of this truth was demonstrated in a beautiful legend written down by John of Damascus in the eighth century and well known throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. It is the legend of Barlaam and Joshaphat, which relates how he who had become the successor of Buddha (Joshaphat is a phonetic variation of ‘Bodhisattva’) received teaching from Barlaam about the Christ Impulse. The legend, which was subsequently forgotten, tells us that the Bodhisattva who succeeded Gautama Buddha was instructed by Barlaam and his soul was fired by the Christian Impulse. This was the second impulse which, in addition to that of Buddha, continues to work in the evolution of humanity. It is the Christ Impulse and is connected with the future ascent of humanity to Morality. Although Buddha’s teaching is in a particular sense moral teaching, the Christ Impulse is not teaching but actual power which works as such and to an increasing degree imbues mankind with moral strength.

That passage makes the important distinction between a moral teaching (as an intellectual exercise) and the power to act on that teaching.

The Two Streams

In our period of evolution, two streams of spiritual life are at work; one of them is the stream of Wisdom, or the Buddha-stream, containing the most sublime teaching of wisdom, goodness of heart and peace on Earth. To enable this teaching of Buddha to permeate the hearts of all men, the Christ Impulse is indispensable. The second stream is the Christ-stream itself which will lead humanity from intellectuality, by way of aesthetic feeling and insight, to morality. ~ Rudolf Steiner

Tomberg sees the two streams in a slightly different way. He recognizes the Buddha-stream like Steiner, but he attributes the second stream to the coming of the Kalki Avatar as taught in Hinduism. The first stream represents spiritual humanism, i.e., the realization of all human possibilities on the natural plane. The second stream represents spiritual religion, or the realization of supernatural possibilities.

The two activities that will activate these possibilities are respectively meditation and prayer.

Spirituality and Intellectuality

Even if the Bodhisattva arrives on the historical plane, we will recognize him by his inner teaching. Specifically, we need to re-enact the spiritual alchemy in our own consciousness; only then we will recognize the Bodhisattva. There are three stages:

the experience of the separation and opposition of the spiritual and intellectual elements within one’s soul
advancement to parallelism, i.e. a kind of “peaceful coexistence” of these two elements
cooperation between spirituality and intellectuality which, proving to be fruitful, eventually becomes the complete fusion of these two elements in a third element —the “philosopher’s stone” of the spiritual alchemy of Hermetism.

The third stage is reached when the intellectual life if no longer dominated by formal logic, but passes through organic logic and finally to moral logic. The urge to dispute, argue, analyze, and judge is the fruit of formal logic. This stage is dominated by the reign of quantity.

Organic logic deals with qualities rather than quantities. It sees the whole, while formal logic focuses on the parts. The former synthesizes, the latter analyzies.

Finally, moral logic deals with values. This manner of thinking is invisible to those on the first stage of formal logic. Using Tomberg’s example, the world, in terms of formal logic, operates by logical and natural necessity. However, according to moral logic, the world is created in an act of love. “Hate and indifference are not creative,” only love is. Vatican I made the dogmatic declaration that Christian faith could not be compelled by natural or formal logic. Otherwise, androids would all become Christians.

So Tomberg can assert that the essential articles of faith are established by moral logic. Hence, God is Love or else there would have been no creation. A big bang has no desire to create a universe. The soul is immortal, or else morality would make no sense. Man is free, otherwise he could not even be moral. Moral logic is the language of the spiritual world, so we should be sure to make it part of our prayer life.

Prayer and Meditation

Moral logic is, as Tomberg asserts, the logic of the head and heart united. It unites meditation and prayer. He describes prayer in these words:

Prayer—which asks, thanks, worships and blesses —is the radiation, the breath and the warmth of the awakened heart: expressed in formulae of the articulated word, in the wordless inner sighing of the soul and, lastly, in the silence, both outward and inward, of the breathing of the soul immersed in the element of divine respiration and breathing in unison with it.

Prayer has three aspects:

Magical aspect: formulaic and liturgical prayer
Gnostic aspect: an inexpressible inner sighing
Mystical aspect: the silence of union with the Divine

Meditation, which is the gradual deepening of thought, also has three stages:

Pure and simple concentration on a subject
Understanding the subject within the totality of relationships that is has with reality
Intuitive penetration into the very essence of the subject

Tomberg repeats Rene Guenon’s writings on this topic, and it is worth repeating here:

Metaphysics is not human knowledge. Thus, it is not in so far as he is man that man can attain it; it is the grasping in effective consciousness of supra-individual states. The very principle of metaphysical realisation is identification through knowledge—according to Aristotle’s axiom: a being is all that he knows.

The most important means is concentration. Realisation consists initially in the unlimited development of all possibilities contained virtually in the individual, then in finally going beyond the world of forms to a degree of universality which is that of pure being.

The final aim of metaphysical realisation is the absolutely unconditioned state, free from all limitation. The liberated being is then truly in possession of the fullness of his possibilities. This is union with the supreme Principle.

Christian Meditation

Guenon’s teaching is correct as far as it goes. Nevertheless, Christian meditation seeks to go beyond even that. God is revealed both through Scriptures and Creation. Christian meditation therefore seeks a more complete consciousness and appreciation of Christ’s work of redemption. Hence, the subject of mediation will be the seven stages of the Passion, for example. There are further subjects for mediation which will be covered at a different time. But the goal is to return to the state of primordial purity before the Fall.

By the alchemical marriage of prayer and meditation, we may recognize the Bodhisattva.

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Incarnation of the Logos

The tendency is certainly accentuated, if not prevalent, amongst contemporary Hermeticists to occupy themselves more with the “Cosmic Christ” or the “Logos” than with the human person of the “Son of Man”, Jesus of Nazareth. More importance is attributed to the divine and abstract aspect of the God-Man than to his human and concrete aspect.

It was contact with the person of Jesus Christ which opened up the current of miracles and conversions. And it is the same even today. ~ Valentin Tomberg, Letter VIII: Justice

With these words, Tomberg is warning us not to forget about the first coming of Jesus in the flesh, regarded as somehow inferior to an esoteric interpretation. A fortiori, the Hermetist’s goal is not to create an alternative or “better” religion. Nevertheless, there is always a stream of “New Age” gurus who claim something similar. For example, one such popular guru claims to have discovered the real meaning of all the religions, viz., what the Buddha “really” taught or what Christ “really” taught. He then claims that the religions have distorted those teachings and offer no authentic path. Although he came to that realization spontaneously, he will teach you certain “modalities” for a hefty price to reach the same realization. This is the sin of simony, the notion that spiritual enlightenment is a commodity that can be bought and sold.

The idea of the Logos was not unknown to pagan philosophers and Hermetists prior to the first Christmas. However, it is the fact of the Incarnation that matters most, as St John pointed out in the remarkable claim that the Logos became flesh. So Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the Mosaic law, He is also the fulfillment of the natural law. This is made clear by the visit of the Magi.

Tomberg makes us wrestle with a philosophical conundrum. The thinking mind, restricted to dianoia, knows essences, and the Logos is “the fundamental universal [or essence] of the world”. And Jesus Christ is then the “particular of particulars”. Some minds, like that of the new age guru, see that a representing a limitation on their thought; hence they resort to a sort of Docetism which denies the need for the physical, including a birth, visible church, sacraments and so on. It is a small step, then, to reach the conclusion that there is no need for the purification of the head and the heart in order to reach higher states.

Since for God, essence and existence are One, to know God is to know both his essence and existence. Tomberg explains that

Christian Hermeticism itself can only be knowledge of the universal which is revealed in the particular.

Hence, the Christian Hermetist “aspires to mystical experience of the communion of beings through love”. Thus he seeks spiritual friendships in the particular.

Yet, not unlike the pagan Hermetists—his precursors—or even the new ager perhaps, he also seeks the mystical experience of communion with the Logos, i.e., the knowledge of the universal.

Spiritual Beings

Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange tells us that the angels know intuitively, not rationally. Each higher level of angel understands more through the knowledge of ever more encompassing principles. Tomberg asserts:

For Hermeticism there are no “principles”, “laws” and “ideas” which exist outside of individual beings, not as structural traits of their nature, but as entities separated and independent from it.

This makes perfect sense, since knowing and being are one. If an angel, then, “knows” a certain principle, it is ipso fact the embodiment of that principle. Ideas have no power on their own, they are purely passive. An idea has effects only when it is immanent in a being. We can choose to understand our environment as an abstraction, the mere interplay of impersonal forces. Or else, we can choose to understand it as a great drama of personal forces.

A recent episode of the Vikings series on the History Channel had an interesting scene. Rollo was a Viking warrior who converted to Catholicism and was rewarded with the Duchy of Normandy. Unable to totally forget his pagan past, he explained to his wife, “When you hear thunder, it is only thunder. But when I hear thunder, I hear the sound of Thor.”

Tomberg tells us we must “love our pagan past”, so perhaps we can learn something from Rollo. Now this is not a new teaching, but actually something we forgot. So perhaps we can try to remember. The mystic visionary, Catherine Emmerich, saw that the world was populated with angels: each country, city, diocese, and parish has its own guardian angel. Fr. Ripperger, in a youtube video, reminds us furthermore that each generation has “generational spirits”, not all benign, as a sort of Zeitgeist.

If we can overcome the Zeitgeist of scientism, we can meditate on our role in the cosmic hierarchy. See yourself in relation to your family, parish or other community, nation, Church, then ascending through the angelic hierarchy. And when you get to the Logos, see also the Baby in the manger.

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Advent Meditation: Purity of Will

It is futile to attempt to be concentrated if the Will is passionate about other things. The oscillations of the mind will never be able to achieve silence unless the Will itself infuses it with silence. Only the still Will can render the imagination and the intellect silent in concentration.

St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa d’Avila never tire of repeating that the concentration necessary for spiritual prayer is the fruit of the moral purification of the Will. ~ Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot

Concentration can be applied on three planes:

Mental
Astral
Physical

We began with learning concentration on the physical plane. Then we transferred that knowledge to our thoughts or mental plane. Finally, we will do the same to our emotional life for the purification of the soul.
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