The Great Adversary

[QUOTING]

Question: I have been in the School for six years. I have welcomed it from within and recognize it a the only way of salvation. Yet at certain moments there arises a complete resistance in me, accompanied by feelings of fear, presumably the primeval fear of the animal-I. This condition causes me much suffering, for I do not want it, but it still comes to the surface from within my system. Would it be better for me to return to preparatory pupilship?

Answer: No friend, it would not be better. For what seems to be happening to you? When the Light touches us, we make the great adversary more wakeful. You should not see this adversary as a 'devil' that exists outside you, but as an inner resistance that is inside you. The fact that your adversary is agitating against you and causing tensions to arise in you proves that the Light is intervening in your life.

Think in the context of the gnostic gospel of the Pistis Sophia, of the intense struggle that she has to engage in and that is depicted in such wealth of detail on that gospel. The Pistis Sophia is -- if you think, for instance, of her Songs of Repentance -- cast into the deepest doubt on various occasions and finds herself in the same situation as yours, although she expresses it in different words: 'Would it not be better for me to stop?' For right in the beginning she penetrates behind the veils of the Thirteenth Aeon, but is then driven back to her natural place. For one cannot omit anything on the Path! One must overcome everything, and the adversary within you exerts itself right up to the last moment.

How did the adversary in your system come into being? Well, that can be quite easily understood. You will know that this life is not the first one you have lived. Many lives lie behind you, many conditions of existence in the nature of death. And in this nature of death you have transgressed the laws of the Lord many times in the past, and have done many things in the wrong way. That is logical, for otherwise, you would not be sitting here. And that applies to everyone.

It is as a result of all this that a sinful being, an adversary, has come into being and grown within man. It is a living, astral situation which -- and this is not nice to hear -- does not die but is re-animated in man at each new birth, with the animation of each new personality. That is why we are sitting here, and that is what we have to reckon with, as we can read in the Bible in connection with Jesus the Lord. Before he walked his via dolorosa, He had to settle accounts with the satan in Him.

Jesus the Lord gave us the example, and so it must be with all of us: we must settle accounts with the adversary within us. Therefore, questioner, do not be troubled. Have absolute confidence in your pupilship, for during these days you have received everything you need to deal with this fatal adversary in such a way that it will never come back.

The adversary in you is a being of delusion, but nevertheless a being that lives, in the same way as the reflection-sphere lives but is nevertheless a total delusion. If you want another example, think of Gustav Meyrink's book, The Angel in the Western Window. Think of the central character in this story who, even though he stands in the court of initiation, is confronted there with his adversary. The adversary, which manifests itself in various guises, appears in that story in the form of a most beautiful woman, who beguiles him into a situation which could have proved fatal. But just in time he begins to reflect, and suddenly realizes that this wonderful seductive woman is no longer there: she has disappeared forever. A mist rises, full of rottenness and death, and with that the struggle is ended. Had he gone one step further, he would have fallen into an abyss, so the story tells.

In many respects, this story gives a very clear image of reality. So, questioner, it would be foolishness to say: "I will simply go back to preparatory pupilship", for in most cases, though not all, this is the beginning of the end. This thought is being suggested to you by your adversary! It is the adversary within you that suggests: "Don't bother to try. You just won't succeed. You are not strong enough!" And it entices you with thoughts of all sorts of so-called 'pleasures' of ordinary nature, such as your cigar. So do not go back to preparatory pupilship. Just persevere!

From "The Light-Vesture of the New Man" - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Man's greatest adversary is himself. As described above, we fight that which lives within. This is why the battle is so difficult, because we are prone to go lightly on ourselves and take the path of least resistance. It has taken us a long time to accumulate the strength and resolve to make the effort we are making now, in this life. Don't throw it all away. With each day, vow to make that much more progress.

Once the decision is made to walk the Path of Return, we are linked with a tremendous Radiation that is not-of-this-world. If we steadfastly walk this Path, the way will be made smooth, the adversary will weaken, wither and eventually withdraw. If we back-slide, it will be as if we are trying to cross a mighty river against an overwhelming current. The strengthened adversary will throw us over its shoulder and carry us away as war booty.

Be sure that this is the Path you wish to tread. Be certain that you desire it with all your heart. There is no going back. Ahead, glory awaits.

~ g
.