INITIATION DEFINED
The question anent initiation is one that is coming more and more before
the public. Before many centuries pass
the old mysteries will be restored, and an inner body will exist in the
Church—the Church of the period, of which the nucleus is already
forming—wherein the first initiation will become exoteric, in this sense only,
that the taking of the first initiation will, before so very long, be the most
sacred ceremony of the Church, performed exoterically as one of the mysteries
given at stated periods, attended by those concerned. It will also hold a similar place in the
ritual of the Masons. At this ceremony
those ready for the first initiation will be publicly admitted to the Lodge by
one of its members, authorised to do so by the great Hierophant Himself.
Four words defined.
When we speak of Initiation, of wisdom, of knowledge, or of the
probationary Path, what do we mean? We
use the words so glibly, without due consideration of the meaning
involved. Take, for instance, the word
first mentioned. Many are the
definitions, and many are the explanations to be found as to its scope, the
preparatory steps, the work to be done between initiations, and its result and
effects. One thing before all else is
apparent to the most superficial student, and that is, that the magnitude of the
subject is such that in order to deal with it adequately one [Page 10] should be able to write from the viewpoint
of an initiate; when this is not the case, anything that is said may be
reasonable, logical, interesting, or suggestive, but not conclusive.
The word Initiation comes from two Latin words, in, into; and ire, to
go; therefore, the making of a beginning, or the entrance into something. It posits, in its widest sense, in the case
we are studying, an entrance into the spiritual life, or into a fresh stage in
that life. It is the first step, and the
succeeding steps, upon the Path of Holiness.
Literally, therefore, a man who has taken the first initiation is one
who has taken the first step into the spiritual kingdom, having passed out of
the definitely human kingdom into the superhuman. Just as he passed out of the animal kingdom
into the human at individualisation, so he has entered upon the life of the
spirit, and for the first time has the right to be called a "spiritual
man" in the technical significance of the word. He is entering upon the fifth or final stage
in our present fivefold evolution.
Having groped his way through the Hall of Ignorance during many ages,
and having gone to school in the Hall of Learning, he is now entering into the
university, or the Hall of Wisdom. When
he has passed through that school he will graduate with his degree as a Master
of Compassion.
It might be of benefit to us also if we studied first the difference or the connection between Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom. Though in ordinary parlance they are frequently interchanged, as used technically they are dissimilar.
Knowledge is the product of the Hall of Learning. It might be termed the sumtotal of human
discovery and experience, that which can be recognised by the five senses, and
be correlated, diagnosed, and defined by the use of the [Page 11] human intellect.
It is that about which we feel mental certitude, or that which we can
ascertain by the use of experiment. It
is the compendium of the arts and sciences.
It concerns all that deals with the building and developing of the form
side of things. Therefore it concerns
the material side of evolution, matter in the solar systems, in the planet, in
the three worlds of human evolution, and in the bodies of men.
Wisdom is the product of the Hall of Wisdom. It has to do with the development of the life
within the form, with the progress of the spirit through those ever-changing
vehicles, and with the expansions of consciousness that succeed each other from
life to life. It deals with the life
side of evolution. Since it deals with
the essence of things and not with the things themselves, it is the intuitive
apprehension of truth apart from the reasoning faculty, and the innate
perception that can distinguish between the false and the true, between the
real and the unreal. It is more than
that, for it is also the growing capacity of the Thinker to enter increasingly
into the mind of the Logos, to realise the true inwardness of the great pageant
of the universe, to vision the objective, and to harmonise more and more with
the higher measure. For our present
purpose (which is to study somewhat the Path of Holiness and its various
stages) it may be described as the realisation of the "Kingdom of God within,"
and the apprehension of the "Kingdom of God without" in the solar
system. Perhaps it might be expressed as
the gradual blending of the paths of the mystic and the occultist,—the rearing
of the temple of wisdom upon the foundation of knowledge.
Wisdom is the science of the spirit, just as knowledge is the science of
matter. Knowledge is separative and
objective, whilst wisdom is synthetic and subjective. Knowledge divides; wisdom unites. Knowledge differentiates [Page 12] whilst wisdom blends. What, then, is meant by the understanding?
The understanding may be defined as the faculty of the Thinker in Time
to appropriate knowledge as the foundation for wisdom, that which enables him
to adapt the things of form to the life of the spirit, and to take the flashes
of inspiration that come to him from the Hall of Wisdom and link them to the
facts of the Hall of Learning. Perhaps
the whole idea might be expressed in this way:
Wisdom concerns the one Self, knowledge deals with the not-self, whilst
the understanding is the point of view of the Ego, or Thinker, or his relation
between them.
In the Hall of Ignorance the form controls, and the material side of
things has the predominance. Man is
there polarised in the personality or lower self. In the Hall of Learning the higher self, or
Ego, strives to dominate that form until gradually a point of equilibrium is
reached where the man is controlled entirely by neither. Later the Ego controls more and more, until
in the Hall of Wisdom it dominates in the three lower worlds, and in increasing
degree the inherent divinity assumes the mastery.
(Αlice Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, pp. 9-12)
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου