Course XXXVI - Teaching 14: Liberation

Humanity is weighted down with the bondage of desire, and instead of getting rid of ties that bring it to a standstill it becomes more and more involved in the chain of sorrow.
Mankind is enslaved by the flesh, enslaved by diseases, enslaved by old age, enslaved by death, and though all claim for freedom, to men, freedom is a sphinx, a veiled Isis.
But, the Spirit is destined to be liberated and to reach happiness and the highest bliss of Divine Union.
To liberate themselves from these ties, human beings attach extreme importance to future life and happiness in higher worlds, when this represents to lock oneself in a mental cage if desire has not been removed.
We do not get liberation by stating, in order to get rid of the desire, that all is illusion, that nothing is worthwhile, and that to love and to suffer are ties; since when we refuse to observe the laws of life, we can become slaves of indifference and apathy.
Liberation can be achieved only by absence of desire, not by absence of resulting desire.
Liberation is not to dispose of everything, but to live life not desiring it, to accept sorrows as we accept a power that has to lift it over human miseries, and over all, to work for the sake of working, without expecting any reward.
You surpass illusion by knowing it, not by disposing of it; and to know it is not to be tied to it. A true absence of desire, which permits the inner liberation, impedes always the identification of the soul with the object of its experience.
To live and love is a part of the Eternity, if you live and love with your thought centered on the real end. When life ties us, when a being crosses the paths to the Manifestation knowing, but not being tied to anything, he identifies with the Divine Will, which is the gateway to the Eternity. Schopenhauer properly said the principle of manifestation was the will, and the Universe was made by will.
We attain absence of desire, which leads to Divine Union, or Liberation, through four paths:

• Through Real Love
• Through Assistance and Work
• Through Mystical Asceticism
• Through Teaching
  These four paths are really one; the four lead a soul to the Golden Temple; the four can grant the highest Achievement; they are different ways to only one center.
  Some day, a sage and a saint met, and during their conversation realized the two knew in the same way. The sage asked the saint: “How do you know what has cost me so many years of study?”, and the latter replied: “I know it because I feel it, like you feel what you know”.
  Love is the beginning of the path.
  All is love in the Universe, and as there are not two loves, because human love is a miniature of Divine Love, he who loves can reach the Supreme Realization.
  Love creates heroes, forgives criminals, fosters virtues, beautifies ugliness and joins with an indissoluble tie soul and spirit, good and evil, finitude and infinitude.
  Jesus said to the Magdalene: “Your sins, which are many, are forgiven, for you loved much”, and Ramakrishna said: “One starts with love and ends with love”.
  Thousands of souls apparently ignorant, without any knowledge, without any extraordinary action, reached the Divine Union through love. Little Therese of Lisieux said properly: “My vocation is to love”.
  Assistance and love is the path of the brave; it is hard to travel, full of trials and obstacles, the difficult action hardens the hands, but transforms the object of the labor into Divine Ideal.
  All great men of the civilization and progress were strenuous laborers, despised and vexed. They knew never would get an immediate satisfaction for their work; but they continued it fearlessly. They knew the true fruit of work is eternal and inaccessible to human short-sightedness.
  The path of Mystical Asceticism is harder, but surer. It is difficult to internalize us to know us better and to make of life a spontaneous act of self-control; but it brings surprising results of inner liberation. A man that observes this method examines himself minutely, physiologically, psychically and astrally, and eventually reaches the Eternal Spring.
  Here are the methods to observe: Meditation, Contemplation and Ecstasy and, finally, Divine Union. Some people believe, however, that the path of Assistance is more useful than the latter, for it helps directly to mankind; but they forget that the true and primordial help emanates from mind, from thought. Solar Initiates of the Fourth Category appear on the Earth, and disappear as soon as they achieve their public labor of Teaching and Sacrifice; but Solar Initiates of Third Category cannot stop one moment their Labor and keep the Idea-Mother on Earth.
  Teaching is the path of study, knowledge and learning.
  A serious researcher, a tenacious scientist, a philosopher and a theologian, cleave infinite ramifications through their thoughts and the thought of Humanity.
  A continuous study forces Nature and Cosmos to reveal their Mysteries; knowledge is illumination of the mind. Christ said: “Knowledge will set you free”; and learning got throughout long years of illuminating speculations, discover to the student the fundamental truths of the Universe, which are a sure token of liberation.