"Where's Your Proof?"

[QUOTING]

The fourteenth chapter of the Tao Te Ching draws attention to a rather weak spot in the transfigurist's armour concerning his relationship with ordinary researchers. 'Where is that world-order of yours?', people ask, 'Where is the Immovable Kingdom? Show me one glimpse of it and I shall accept it and bear witness to it'.

This is an age-old question. You can read it in the Confessions of (Saint) Augustine, who asked it of the Manichean Brothers. Receiving no answer, he left their ranks, to which he had belonged as a preparatory pupil and went on to become one of the pillars and founders of the Roman Catholic Church. Augustine, who is also highly-regarded in protestant circles, was a failed pupil of the transfiguristic Spiritual School.

Entering the transfiguristic Spiritual School is an uncertain venture. Do we have anything concrete to offer you as a starting-point? Lao Tzu admits it openly: in terms of the reality of ordinary nature, no such starting-point exists. We, too, say that nothing concrete can be proven on the basis of that reality. If people speak to us about empirical research and scientific proof, we fall silent. For the existence of the Realm we want to enter, the Kingdom of Tao, can never be proved in those terms.

It would be very helpful if you were to impress this fact clearly on your mind. By all means, consider the possibility that we might be taking you for a ride. We would not blame you if you were to leave our ranks on those grounds, just like Augustine, who left the Manicheans and later wrote about how foolish they were to believe and affirm what they were never once able to prove, and what they could only explain in a very abstract, philosophical way. It would be good, very good, if you were able to understand these things. We cannot prove the essence and reality of Tao any more than the Manicheans could. In the eyes of many pupils we often read amazement and the unspoken question: 'How do you know the things you talk about? Why don't we know them? Give us something concrete to go by'.

Recently we were asked outright, 'Give me something tangible to go on. Does your information come from some book that I don't know about? What is it called? Where can I find it?' We replied that our teachings are never  drawn from books, although we often refer to world literature to illustrate the points we want to make. It was a vague answer; we were well aware of that. We said that one can only get to the bottom of things by following The Path. The enquirer became rather reserved. We could understand that. He was full of questions and disbelief. We doubt whether he will follow The Path.

It is much easier for the religious and occult groups of this nature. The reflection-sphere provides them with a rich source of proof, on which they can draw to provide 'evidence' of anything they like. The nature-aeons furnish those who try to maintain themselves in the reflection-sphere with everything they need to gain credence. There, Augustine was able to find plenty of what he wanted -- 'proof' of another kingdom -- like picking flowers in a meadow. There is certainly no shortage of reflection-sphere brotherhoods ready to help your I-being. You can meet such masters in any shape or form you wish. All tastes are catered for. They will be only too pleased to appear before you.

The majority of them are certainly not deceiving you on purpose. On the contrary, they possess much that is 'good' in the dualistic sense. They are trying to make this nature-order acceptable.  much effort they put into it, so much work. It is only that they are victims of circumstance, just like the others. They, too, have looked at Tao but not seen it; they, too, have listened but not heard, touched but not felt. Just like Augustine. How could they do anything but deny Its existence, just as he did? Could you be blamed if you denied it as well? Better a bird in the hand than ten in the bush. Countless reflection-sphere figures, all of them splendid, exemplary types, are offering you their 'other kingdom'  -- that exists, and whose existence can be proved. 'So there's no need to believe what those Taoists or modern transfigurists say. With us, you can come and see it for yourself. We can put you in touch with a whole host of accomplished adepts. We challenge you to produce any transfigurist adept who could compare with them, just one!'.

But there isn't one, not even one! We can only point to historical figures like Lao Tzu and many others from earlier or much later times. We can only say that these entities apparently did not die, because the microcosms with which they were connected cannot be found, either in the material-sphere or in the reflection-sphere.

'Well', say those who want to oppose or deny, 'isn't that proof enough that these entities never existed? Otherwise, surely all those distinguished adepts would know about them? So what you are saying must be pure fantasy'.

Yes, in dualistic terms, our case is weak in the extreme. Indeed, no words exist that could express the threefold enigma of Tao. That was true a hundred thousand years before our era and long before that. So let us not even try to define what cannot be defined: They blend together into one

Somewhere in his writings, Lao Tzu says that defining the word 'Tao' is like striking a blow at nothingness. 'Tao's above is not in the light; its below is not in the dark. So Tao is shadowless. Tao is eternal and cannot be defined by any name; it always returns to not-being, to an absolute silence. It is the image of the imageless and the form of the formless. It is an absolute mystery. Approach Tao and you do not see its beginning. Follow it and you do not see its end.

Are these words enough to satisfy the modern person of the twentieth (now twenty-first) century? You approach and you see nothing. You listen and you hear nothing. You touch and you feel nothing! So if you want to belong to this Spiritual School, you will have to make the choice on your own, and it will be your own responsibility. In brief, it is like this: we are making a pilgrimage, a carefully planned, methodical journey. We no longer want to die, and neither do we want to live; we no longer wish to be found, anywhere. In other words, our destination lies neither in the reflection-sphere, nor in the material-sphere, but in the 'Eternal Nothingness', as it is called by the dualistic world and all it aeons and entities.

From "Look At Tao And You Do Not See It" - The Chinese Gnosis - Catharose di Petri and Jan van Ricjkenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Proof of the Gnosis? Proof of transfiguration? We have none. One either knows these things to be True from within, or one doesn't. As it is written,

'Those who have ears to hear, let them hear'.

~ g
.