Piety And The Path

[QUOTING]

Being a pious and devout person in the gnostic sense differs entirely from being a 'religious' person. A religious person recognizes and accepts a deity in the same way as a citizen recognizes and accepts a government. He shows a certain reverence for, and a proper gratitude to his god; he performs his religious duties, but otherwise, he remains in bondage, completely of the earth. He celebrates the great days of the Christian year; he knows his church festivals, his religious anniversaries; he remembers Jesus the Lord in His dying and resurrection. However, it will never occur to him that he has to follow Him in His dying and that he can, even must, participate in His resurrection.

It is precisely in this respect that real gnostic pupilship stands or falls. The hermetic philosophy tries to make it clear that by devotion, by the courage of piety, it is you yourself who hold your salvation, your sanctification in your own hands. He who realizes and experiences this will give his speechless thanks to the Divine Architect. The original principle of self-freemasonry is that everyone is capable of placing the imperishable building of his own salvation on the one foundation stone. You should understand that, no matter what the circumstances may be, it is given to every human being to walk The Path of Return. Everyone, without exception, can do so. However, the problem is that theoretical knowledge of this possibility is not at all liberating. You must put theory into practice. You must bring to life the possibilities granted to you through the courage of piety.

And having said this, let us stop pouring out our troubles to one another and saying that it is so difficult and so complicated. If only you can summon up the necessary courage, your certainty will be matched by your experience. The gratitude, which results from experiencing the Living Truth, will cause the devotion of the candidate to increase still further. It then becomes even more positive, more dynamic and more irresistible.

People sometimes say to us: "Alas, who am I? What can I do? I am only a..." and then follows one or another commonplace. If you talk like that, you will remain as you have always been. You have possessed all the possibilities for your liberation from your very birth. Listen now to what the hermetic philosophy reveals:

"Never, my son, will the soul, even if it is in the body, be able to slip down into its opposite, if it has reduced the weight of its debts (karma) so as to grasp what is really Good and True. For if the soul comes to know its Pymander (link to the Spirit)...it will be filled with immeasureable love; it will forget all evil and can be no longer separated from what is Good". If the soul has turned back to its origin and has been resurrected in it, it cannot do otherwise than love, because love is the essence of the Living soul-state.In this way, the aim of true piety is reached.

The aim of piety is to be resurrected in the nature of death (earth 'life'), without being part of it any longer, through soul-birth and its results. This means to celebrate the real Easter event, a personal, everlasting Easter festival; to be in the world, but no longer of the world.

When used in this sense, the expression "in the world but no longer of the world" really acquires a profound meaning. It not only implies vegetarianism, abstinence from nicotine, alcohol and so on; it does not have an exclusively religious meaning. It explains that, if only you make use of the possibilities, you can already be perfectly free although you still live in the nature of death. All this stems from piety.

If you have fulfilled the aim of true piety in this way, "if you return to this state and live in the right manner and die in blessedness, your soul will certainly know whither it should wing its flight. This, my son, is the only way to Truth, which was also walked by those who went before us". All who in the course of world history have gone this way have, without exception "received the Good". All of you, without exception, possess the possibilities to practice true piety. The results of this effort are eternally certain: all who have followed the Way have obtained the Good. They have forgotten all evil and can no longer forsake the good. This can come about in one lifetime, during your life! This is the eternity which can prove itself in your time.

Therefore, you must dispense with all mystical talk; merely repeating the holy language is of precious little importance. Use every second to practice piety. You will then experience that eternity can prove itself in time.

From The Imitation of Christ - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis And Its Call In The Eternal Present - J. van Rjickenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Anything you've ever really wanted in your life, you devoted all of your attention to it. You ate, slept and dreamt it until it either became a reality for you, or you got tired of doing the work that it took to obtain your objective.

Attaining the One Goal of soul-rebirth and liberation from the nature of death is no different. Talk won't do it. One must walk the Path, with one-pointed focus, fierce devotion and true piety.

The rewards that await those who are successful in accomplishing this Great Work are beyond man's ability to describe or imagine. Just know that obtaining "the Good End" is only the beginning.

Eternity calls us. Immortality beckons.

~ g
.