The Practice of Gnosis
Theories have filled the world with confusion and troubles. The chaos in which mankind finds itself is a result of the intellect.
Frankly, I want to tell you that erudition without experimentation can only lead us to a conflict, to a fight of antitheses.
Nowadays we cannot deny the existence of two world-wide trends that are fighting each other to the death for supremacy. First we have the spiritualistic trend, consisting of all religions, schools and beliefs. Then we have the materialistic trend, its dialectics, etc.
The spiritualistic trend thinks that it, only it, has the absolute truth. The materialistic, atheistic trend also thinks that it has the truth. The spiritualistic trend worships the Spirit-God, whatever name may be given to him: Allah, Brahma, God, etc. The materialistic trend worships the Matter-God, whatever his name might be.
These are the two trends: The spiritualistic trend is based upon its theories; the materialistic trend-likewise. Who is right and who is wrong, then? Those on the right or those on the left?
We must say, without any intention of hurting delicate sensibilities, that neither of them really know that which is called the truth.
The fanatics of spiritualism and materialism have filled the world with theories, hypotheses and suppositions which have never been proved by experimentation.
“A man who does not put his metaphysics into practice is like a donkey loaded with books”, as Mohammed said.
Theories have already become tiring and they are even sold and resold at the market... so what then?
Authors contradict one another in their works. The poor readers have to drink from the bitter cup of doubts. Theories are only good to cause us preoccupations and make our lives bitter.
Those poor people of the intellect want to put and ocean into a crystal glass. They suppose that universities can control all the wisdom of the universe and that all the laws of the cosmos are forced to submit themselves to their old academic rules.
The lovers of reason want to scrutinise the arcana of nature with the poor faculty of the intellect. We could not deny that the mind and reason are useful in practical life to carry out certain daily tasks, but wanting to analyse and solve the great mysteries of life and death with the intellect is the same as wanting to observe the stars with a microscope or bacteria with a telescope.
In reality, intellectual information is not personal experience. Erudition is not experimentation. The exclusively three-dimensional test, proof, or demonstration is not total, nor integral.
Latent within us, there exist faculties superior to the mind that are independent of the intellect and able to give us knowledge and the direct experience of any phenomenon.
We must understand that opinions, concepts, theories and hypotheses do not mean verification, experimentation, full consciousness of any phenomenon.
Theories are useless; we need to be practical and know by our own experience the purpose of our existence.
Students search here and there, read and reread every book on occultism and magic they find, and the only thing the poor aspirants accomplish is to be full of terrible intellectual doubts and confusions. There are millions of theories and thousands of authors. Some repeat the ideas of others. Some reject others: All against one, one against all. There is bitterness among colleagues and they fight each other: Some against others and, in fact, everyone is against everybody else.
Some authors advise their devotees to be vegetarians; others tell them not to be. Some advise them to practice breathing exercises; others tell them not to practice them. The result is frightening for the poor seekers. They do not know what to do. They desire the light; they beg, implore and nothing comes, nothing, absolutely nothing.
Win the field of mysticism, we have known supremely mystical individuals, “group heroes”. Many of them are vegetarian, abstemious, virtuous etc., etc., and as a rule they are very sincere and want the best for their followers, but like everyone they sigh, suffer and cry in secret. Never have the poor people seen what they preach. They do not know their Guru, they have never had the pleasure of conversing personally with him. They have never seen planes of cosmic consciousness, the superior planes or worlds of which they make such beautiful diagrams and give such interesting descriptions.
Without pride we must assert that the Gnostic studies are a balsam to the insatiable light seeker among so much darkness.
Dear reader, Gnosis offers you keys and procedures to experiment by yourself, in a scientific way, each of the elements that make up the universal wisdom.
These practices are not opposed to any religion, sect, school or belief. All priests, guides, instructors of all schools and orders, can do these exercises to develop their faculties. Thus they will better be able to direct their respective groups.
The awakening of internal faculties should progress parallel with cultural, intellectual and spiritual development.
Goethe had good reason to say that “all theories are grey and only the golden-fruits tree of life is green”...