The Good Choice

[QUOTING]

You cannot love your True Self unless you first hate your body, my son. But if you do love your True Self, you will possess the Spirit-Soul; once you possess the Spirit-Soul, you will also partake of Its living Knowledge.

It is impossible, my son, to adhere to both material and divine things. As there are two states of existence, the embodied and the bodiless, the mortal and the divine, you will have to choose consciously between these two, for one cannot adhere to both. As soon as the choice has been made, the waning of what has been rejected will be proved in the active force of what has been chosen.

Thus the good choice will show its glory not only by the deification of the one who has made it, but also by demonstrating his attachment and devotion to God.

The bad choice, on the other hand, leads to the destruction of man, and is, moreover, a sin against God. Just as, in processions, people walk in the middle of the road and can do nothing else than hinder others in their movement, so those who have made the bad choice can do nothing else than move in this way through the world, urged on by their bodily desires.

Therefore, the gifts emanating from God have always been, and will always be, at our disposal. It is for us to see to it that what emanates from us is in harmony with it and does not fall short. For it is not God who is the source of wickedness, it is we ourselves who chose it in preference to The Good.

Do you realize, my son, how many vehicular states, crowds of daemons, veils of matter and courses of stars we have to pass through during our wearisome ascent to the One and Only? The Good cannot be reached by way of a convenient crossing. It is limitless  and without end, and in itself it is without beginning, too, though to us it may seem to have had its beginning in the Gnosis, the All-Knowledge of God.

Indeed, the Gnosis is not the beginning of the Good, but it imparts to us the beginning of what we will come to know of The Good.

Let us therefore take hold of this beginning and accomplish with haste our passage through all that awaits us; for it is difficult indeed to abandon what is so familiar and to leave behind all that one has, in order to turn back to the ancient and first things. What is visible imparts delight, while the invisible gives rise to disbelief and doubt. To the ordinary eye, evil is well-known and manifest, while The Good is invisible. It has neither form nor shape, it is unmanageably like Itself and, therefore, unlike anything else. That is why the incorporeal is invisible to corporeal man.

Because of all this, the Unchangeable, that which remains like Itself, is more excellent than the changeable and the changeable is poor in comparison with the Unchangeable.

The Oneness, the One and Indivisible, the Original and Root of everything, is present as such, in all things. There is nothing without origin. The Origin, however, as the starting point of everything else, has its origin in Itself only.

The number "one", as the origin, contains all other numbers within itself, without itself being contained by any of them. It brings forth all numbers, without itself being brought forth by any other number.

All that has been brought forth is imperfect and divisible, and subject to increase and decrease. What is Perfect, however, has none of this.

Since what can increase derives its increase from The Oneness, it succumbs through its own feebleness if it can no longer offer room to The Oneness.

Thus, I have drawn for you, as far as is possible, an image of God; if you carefully contemplate it inwardly and steadfastly observe it with the eyes of your heart, you will, believe me, my son, find the way to heaven. Or rather: God's image itself will guide you on this way. Inner directedness to this image causes those who have begun to turn towards it to be held captive by its power and to be drawn upwards by it, just as a magnet attracts iron.

Corpus Hermeticum - Book VII

[END QUOTING]
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