Theosophy - The Path of Wisdom by Radha Burnier
THE
PATH OF WISDOM
by Radha Burnier
THE
International Centre of Theosophical Studies was formerly known by the simple
name ‘School of Wisdom’, which suggests what is the real purpose
of such a Centre. It is to gather together for study, enquiry and discussion
people who are seriously interested in finding wisdom. The Theosophical Society
is an open Society and one finds people with varied ideals, occasionally
and unfortunately sometimes people with no ideals, becoming members of the
Society. But within the Theosophical Society there are those who are concerned
with how human beings should live. They want to find out the real destiny
of man and the meaning of life, man being part of the universal life. What
is knowledge and what is truth? These are all questions which are of importance
to a thoughtful person, to every serious student within the Society. And
this Centre is intended to provide opportunities for small gatherings of
those who are seriously trying to understand and resolve these questions
which are of basic importance. To discover the answers to these questions
is of course to find wisdom.
It is
not necessary to meet together in order to obtain knowledge. It may be useful
for young people and children to go to a school in order to obtain knowledge,
because their minds are still untrained. They may be undisciplined little
creatures and they have to learn to give attention, to quieten themselves
and so on. But for older people, especially for those who have received education,
or who have educated themselves, it is unnecessary to go to classes in order
to find knowledge. Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence can study
by himself and obtain knowledge.
It is
much more difficult to tread the path of wisdom and we need help from many
sources in order to gain wisdom. We need the aid of silence as well as of
discussions. We need the aid of nature as well as of man. We need the aid
of books, up to a point, and the words of those who have already found wisdom,
the Wise Ones.
Aid
can be obtained in many different ways, and it is very important, as our
late Brother Dr. Taimni frequently pointed out, that an aid on the way to
wisdom should not be mistaken for the aim itself. Very often the means become
important and the end is ignored. The books we study may be helpful, but
studying books is not an end in itself. Similarly, the discussions which
take place here and the classes which are held, the ideas which are propounded
by others, are all forms of stimulation for each student to undertake that
enquiry, that way of life which will bring him wisdom and make the light
which is within him reveal itself. We should not forget that these classes
are not meant to be prosaic in the sense of providing mere information. Every
student has to exert himself to reveal from within what he really knows in
his innermost being.
The
path of wisdom has been very clearly indicated in those well-known Upanishadic
words with which theosophists are familiar, because they have been printed
in At the Feet of the Master: ‘Lead me from the unreal to the
Real, from darkness to Light, from death to Immortality.’ We shall
not discuss just now what is meant by the words ‘Lead me’. Who
is to lead? That would be a subject in itself. But the sentences indicate
the direction which has to be followed in the progress towards wisdom.
Everyone
who is seeking wisdom has to use his discernment assiduously, not casually,
to find out what is real and what is unreal. This is something which has
been reiterated for ages, but it is nonetheless profoundly valid and we can
never afford to be forgetful of it. People place so much importance on the
incidents which happen in life. There are countless incidents and situations
within the life of every single individual. There are innumerable happenings,
ups and downs, with the pleasures, unhappinesses and fears which arise from
the way in which the individual meets the trials, conditions and the environment
in which he lives. And one tends to give great importance to each little
incident which arises, and there is a reaction of either pleasure or of disappointment,
of hope or of fear, or irritation or of a sense of repose. But possibly,
none of these incidents is of importance. We do not examine the question
whether all that agitates us and impels us in daily life, the situations
which arise out of our relationships with fellow human beings, with nature,
with animals, with the society in which we live, whether all these incidents
have a significance in themselves, or whether they exist in order to awaken
in us an awareness, a perception of what is Truth; in other words, whether
they exist so that wisdom can blossom from within. Perhaps the incidents
have no importance in themselves, they have importance only in awakening
wisdom only in teaching us how to meet what happens in daily life.
We place
very great importance on this physical existence with all that is implied
in that, but to find wisdom one has to question every preconception and,
as we said, nor merely occasionally, but consistently, diligently, assiduously,
so that finding out what is real and unreal becomes our very life. Unless
the student gives his heart to the question of finding wisdom, it will not
come. One cannot ask for wisdom in casual terms and hope that it will give
us of its beneficence. One has really to sacrifice all else, live a life
of renunciation in order to receive wisdom.
So,
it requires a certain type of life to be a student of the wisdom. What we
study, the lectures we hear, the discussions we have, are of little value
if they do not help us to move on continually from the unreal to the real.
The unreal, as has often been pointed out, is of a temporal nature. Whatever
is temporal is only relatively real. The Buddha said that one of the great
truths that every human being has to understand is the truth of impermanence.
The mind of man attaches itself to that which is impermanent, it values the
security which appears to come from things of impermanence. A state of ignorance
alone can in fact make a person think that what is fleeting can give security.
If we use our intellect, we see clearly that a person who clings to what
is temporal is like a person who is drowning in the sea and trying to save
himself by holding on to a straw floating upon the water. Yet we all do it,
because we do not give our minds and hearts to the task of examining how
we live and what values we consider to be worth while.
In ordinary
experience we can notice that what is purely transitory does not give a sense
of fulfilment or of completion. If an individual experiences only momentary
happiness, he would agree that it is rather unreal and that a happiness which
can endure is more true and real. But we forget that the fleeting is unreal
when that temporal things has become somewhat stretched, perhaps through
the length of one’s physical incarnation. Out of attachment to the
temporal comes the materialistic attitude. We may claim to be theosophical,
there are others who claim to be religious or philosophical. But mixed with
longings for something more elevated, there is always materialism, the materialism
which does not want to let go of what is of little value, because it is of
passing importance.
In what
is material itself, there is nothing wrong. It is in the value we attach
to the material and to the temporal that the blindness lies. Matter is part
of the one existence. The wind is not different from its movement. The movement
of the wind is the wind, and the appearances in the world of matter are part
of a greater existence. Out of that outer appearance there do not arise our
sorrow, our problems, our tensions, our ill will, or the lack of peace which
we create for ourselves. It is our attitude to what exists that generates
problems. It is our unwisdom, our ignorance which makes humanity live so
chaotically. Through learning what is unreal and rejecting it in daily life,
and seeing that cling to temporal things is the cause of the misery of individual
man as well as of humanity, there comes wisdom. Theosophy gives a grand outline
of universal processes. It conveys some idea of the constitution of man.
We study all that only in order to understand how one should live; what is
one’s destiny; what is the relationship of the individual to the whole.
The
other sentence which we mentioned, ‘From Darkness lead me to Light’,
is also of profound import. The mind has been described in theosophical as
well as other literature as the slayer of the real. It is blind to its perceptions
because it does not penetrate into the core, into the essence, it does not
have insight, because of selfishness.
The
selfishness of man creates immense gloom for him. Only we find out for ourselves
what is the fallacy out of which selfishness arises can we move from darkness
to light. The teaching of the Buddha not only pointed to the need to find
out what is the truth about impermanency, but also the truth about the notion
of the self. In the Yoga-sútras also avidyá and asmitá are
both mentioned as obstacles to realization.
What
is the nature of I-consciousness? What is death and what is the nature of
immortality? Death has been defined as the perception of diversity. Where
there is a sense of separateness, of many-ness, and the ignoring of oneness,
there is death. Those questions cannot be examined in a brief time. But it
is important that we should not dissipate energy in the consideration of
non-essentials. The way in which we consider questions should bring us nearer
to the wisdom, and not leave us satisfied with mere knowledge and information.
The more we study and discuss, the more energy it should evoke for finding
out that which is deeper, of more profound value. If these sessions have
that quality, they will be of great benefit not only to the Theosophical
Society as a whole, but perhaps even to a wider extent. The Society itself
would be a wonderful body if it consisted of seekers for the truth, not people
with superficial aims. And truth includes within itself everything else which
is of eternal value: goodness, beauty, profound peace and so on. All that
is of the nature of goodness is in truth. If we are real seekers for the
truth, then everything else will come of its own. There is the beautiful
saying in the Bible, ‘Seek ye the truth and the truth shall make you
free.’ If you seek the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Truth, then all
else will be added unto you. If there is an arduous yearning, which in the
East has been called mumukshatva, a fiery aspiration for that which
is immortal and not that which is mortal, it brings all the gifts that are
worth having.
The
Theosophist December 1980 |