Reflection N° 110 - I was born as a slave
Freedom and justice are not within the reach of an incarnate man. To reach them, he is to soar to highest dimensions of reality, or by mystic ascetic efforts or by natural evolution, incarnating again and again for millions of years along with Humanity, making all experiences, knowing right and wrong, suffering and experiencing deepest desolation. You reach the first path by Renunciation of Holocaust, and the Second one by Knowledge, as the lesson says in Course “Archaic Symbology”, Teaching “The Two Paths”. In particular, the Canon doctrine teaches Renunciation of Holocaust, as was practiced by the Ordained of Community in Cafh. Also it is the doctrine of those mystics who left their mark in spiritual history: Saint Paul of the Cross, Armand-Jean de Rancé and the Trappists, and also monks of Mount Athos, ascetics in Himalayas, and many others everywhere in the world. But none pays them any attention and people feel they are something strange and remote while Humanity is sinking more and more in degeneration: Humanity must touch the bottom of all crimes before it disappears and makes room for the New Race. That is the show we are seeing and living day by day.
We are born as slaves. Every confinement in the prison of flesh becomes a very hard bondage. The first sign for a baby is that painful cry as soon as air and world enter his lungs. Since that moment he will cry all life. Afterwards, other prisons are coming: others, an unknown society, struggle for life, wife and children, old age and death. Experiences of Siddhartha when he was young and happy are decisive. So he chooses Renunciation of Holocaust for getting himself free and helping to others. Buddha is the most beautiful historic figure amongst all other Great Masters, and perhaps the most modern one. Master Santiago did not follow any religion but he said if he had to choose one, that one would be Buddhism.
I was born and I am the same as others: a slave. I cannot get out of that prison that encloses me without any break. Even though in dreams I am able to fly to other landscapes, I remain tied by a silver thread which retains me, however far I may go. I must come back. To awake is like a soft incarnation, with all attributes and difficulties of daily life. This is the human destiny since the beginning of individuation, when monads could inhabit prepared bodies, about the middle of the Lemurian Race. And the Aryan Race has as its mission harmony of pairs of opposites, of spirit and matter.
Guides of Humanity, those Great Masters as Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Jesus spoke about freedom, every one in his own way, according to epoch and place, and pointed out paths to attain it. They all preached Renunciation and liberation as soon as the goal is reached, in other dimensions, not in this one. Jesus ever said his kingdom was in heaven and constantly taught a way to attain it: detachment from possessions, family, greed and instincts.
Mystique of Holocaust (or of Ash) has been preached by wise men, and takes its image from a ritual of sacrifice practiced by ancient peoples. When they expected to get a benefit, an officiant sacrificed an animal, roasted it, and later distributed it amongst the present to eat. But when they desired something great and valuable, that officiant sacrificed the animal letting fire to get extinct until it became ashes. Holo: means whole, and caust, fire. In the same way, the one who wants something very great –freedom, justice– should sacrifice himself until becoming ashes. Spiritual synthesis of Ordination: nothing to win, nothing to have, nothing to be.
Many things are said about freedom, rule of law, democracy in a society of masses, but these are empty words, that is to say, hiding a reality opposite to that which those words proclaim. The Inter American Press Association feels to be defending freedom of the press, but information media are in the hands of powerful groups which regulate information according to their economic interests. Today, in communication media, war between Iraq and Afghanistan is nonexistent, information is absent, but in reality there is much destruction and dead and wounded people day by day. None informs about misery in Argentina, slums, carton recyclers, and begging, but newspapers and TV sets are flooding spaces with disgusting photos and stories about football matches and those primitive persons are earning millions. Where is justice? Where is freedom? Even those social simulacra are not true, but an immense propaganda that is instrumental in sales by anesthetizing consciences. As Joseph Ratzinger recognized the existence of conformist authorities in front of their subordinate priests; he recognized it, asked forgiveness and everything remains the same.
Wise men recognize that justice is not possible on Earth because none is able to administer it. None knows the Law of God even when there are many different laws according to times and peoples. Babylonians had a list of punishments written on the diorite stele of Hammurabi, and Romans had a conventional code, and modern justice derives from it. In Middle Ages, Inquisition was in charge of administration of justice, which many times ended in torture (Savonarola) and in a person burned at stake (Joan of Arch). At present, opinions are divided. Death penalty is not supported by the Church, and in North America legislation is variable according to States. It is the nation with the highest number of prison cells, and they are building more. They tortured in Guantanamo. In China, justice is summary and expeditious; a killer is fastened and taken for a walk by the street so that the people may see him up to the court, whose deliberations last half hour. As a rule, the sentence is capital punishment. A policeman takes the culprit to a rear yard and shoots him dead on the back of the neck. Later, police delivers him to relatives. In Argentine, there is a corrupt justice, who protects criminals and robbers, and this means that justice is not fair but nonexistent.
To define justice is complicate because the Universal Law and order of human evolution is unknown. Different peoples have kept different traditions, according to the particular history of every one. But beyond social crimes, there are codified wicked things, because they are perpetrated in protected areas like a family, or are not discovered, or take place in the intimacy of the soul, being externally expressed or not. But every action, or good or bad, is registered on Annals and subject to the law of karma, that is, the law of cause and effect. Master Santiago taught that if one does not eat meat, in Argentina it has no individual effects because this country lives on stockbreeding and karma is collective. But to smoke brings about personal karma. So, there is both general guilt and private guilt.
In the world, there is a wider and wider social phenomenon that is an aid to understand how justice works, whatever is the time and dimensions of events; the worlds are inter-related and interdependent. They are those who are born handicapped, blind, mute, mongol, or idiot, who are unintelligible, especially to their parents. Their relatives wonder why and do not find a comforting answer. Divine justice is long, hard and exact. Only a clairvoyant that is able to enter previous lives of those persons could give an understandable explanation but they do not do. According to an old assertion, even Great Masters do not dare to intervene in karma of souls, whether here or on hell. In the same way, persons may protest and get indignant about how a torturer or a sex abuser can be free, enjoying social freedom and even committing new crimes. If not on this incarnation, then on next incarnation that person will appear as a total handicapped, for many incarnations, until he has paid the last cent for his debt.
It would seem that the destiny of men is very sad and without hope, and that Spiritual Masters offer solutions of impossible fulfillment. Most people become degraded because they do not believe or trust in anyone and live the moment, pleasure and sense satisfaction. They run after money to indulge in all pleasures and do not think beyond, including those spiritual persons that are well informed. They do not care about future punishment.
Flanked by thick ramparts, the way offers to the sensible traveler a beautiful alternative that he can fulfill at every stage of the way, even at the start and being himself imperfect; this alternative is peace. Out of three great goals in spiritual development, namely freedom, justice and peace, the latter is most humane and can be attained at any moment if the pilgrim is ready to what is right and practices a discipline. Freedom and justice is the final prize; peace is a gift from the way.
A man is not simple or homogeneous; he is a composite of many diverse things which are not congruous and are fighting amongst them. Like Harlequin suit, it is made of many patches. One day he is happy and other day, his life is a tragedy. A Sunday, he is happily having lunch with his family, but later is running to the soccer field and becomes a wild beast surrounded by the mob. His job is in an office like a servant, but later he spends his vacation on the beach making nothing. Sometimes he cries, and sometimes roars with laughter. He has no peace. Peace consists of setting discipline and harmony in all those parts constitutive of a being. Peace is balance in components, whatever they may be. No general method can achieve it because each man is a particular case. Every one must find his most proper method for better results. The Teachings contain academic Meditation methods for all, which are helpful to learn. But in pacifying the being, one is to find fitter forms for his particular nature. It is better not to apply to any theory, however good it may seem, but to study his own behavior and tendencies, and whereby to get helpful conclusions for his own pacification. It would be worse to apply to a psychiatrist for advice. None knows better one’s soul than us. And we have experiences throughout years and suffering so as to know ourselves. Renunciation is the best way to approach peace. One should not add new patches to his Harlequin suit, but to take out those patches that still we have, little by little, so as to feel eventually the lightness of our suit.
José González Muñoz
June 2010