If we were able to open up and let the metaphysical sky fall down into us- it travels on a pathway involving not only the top of the head, but the center of the forehead and the base of the cerebellum- the light of heaven would descend into us unimpeded, and a higher Will would surely be done.
Since very ancient times, it's been the aim of religion- and yoga- to make this possible, yet it remains, for the largest part, impossible. We’re blocked from this action; and perhaps wisely so. A man or a woman can only receive what they are prepared for, and we are all so full of contradictions and negativity, so consistently subject to their action, that true heavenly forces would be catastrophically corrupted if they entered us.
This is, indeed, one of the many esoteric points of
Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthy Delights, which represents a progressively corrupted Tantra. As I have pointed out in my analysis of the painting, it depicts an inner action, not an outer one, and the theme is not the corruption of the world, but of the soul.
In what may be the supreme irony of our existence (and I assure readers that I speak here for myself, as much as for any other) we don’t sense this process; what Gurdjieff called sleep renders us unaware of it. Negativity and contradiction- unmindfulness- dominate our very superficial inner actions, and we dwell primarily in these superficial aspects of Being... fearing our deeper, inner, potentially transformative waters.
It is as though we spent all our lives on the surface of an ocean periodically subject to fierce storms and terrible waves, not understanding that this was but a fraction of existence; and that underneath us, a profound, serene, and stately realm contained a much more fundamental aspect of our Being.
Our preoccupation with the external prevents us from seeing, through the inner eye, the remarkably fine, and heavenly, aspect of Being and of Reality, which penetrates everything. A sensation of this brings a unique and remarkable fineness of perception; some drugs may mimic it, but no external chemistry can truly plumb the depths of Being as it exists and manifests within inner consciousness. Truly, it is possible to not just know, but to
see, to
feel, how everything is contained by everything else... until there is only one thing.
Heaven is calling us from within, exactly
where Christ said it was located. Through these influences, each aspect of life becomes an inner treasure. Those treasures are a blend of outward impressions, the sensation of experience, and the inner combination of these impressions through blending with associations. The deeper this action is, the more fully the Kingdom expresses itself.
We encounter these treasures through feeling; we understand them through intellect; we sense them with the body. Paradise is composed of a feeling-experience derived from this action, which is bestowed by Grace.
There is no need to be under the influences of Hell; the difficulty (and the paradox) is that so much of us, deprived of any proper understanding of heavenly food, are eager for them. They offer a crude kind of stimulation that can in no way compare to the influences of Heaven; in ignorance, we pursue them, unaware of the fact that to do so persistently reinforces the gate that stands between us and the inner Kingdom of Heaven.
I've seen this through much experience, but knowing it has not provided any ready remedies. This is part of the search; to continually question how I am, and why things are arranged this way. We are called by Heaven; but we are expected to work to get there. The abundant mysteries and Graces strewn along the path multiply as one draws closer; and some are unbearable, as though we were creatures very nearly unfit for the light we can receive. Only a gradual approach can prepare us for the opening of the inner flowers.
May your soul be filled with light.