Piety In Action

[QUOTING]

What should we do to achieve a correct balance with the primordial gnostic law and receive the key to liberating Life? Hermes says that we, who live in a world of physical phenomena, should try to penetrate to what's behind them. Then we will understand. Then you will understand your fellow man and be able to help them. You must try to obtain knowledge of how it happened that man fell and degenerated to this present state of life and behavior. Once you possess this wisdom, which is not intellectual knowledge but first-hand inner wisdom, as a property that streams throughout your whole being and which you cannot ignore, you will love your neighbor -- that is, mankind as a whole -- and you will also understand the nobility of your deeper self.

To come to this wisdom you will have to lead, as Hermes put it, a God-serving life, you will have to become pious. "He who is truly pious will love wisdom beyond all measure, for without love of wisdom it is impossible to reach the highest piety".

So we have to ask ourselves what piety means as a way to arrive at wisdom, as a method of raising us to the Arch-Gnosis.

The answer might appear to be simple and you could say: "I know what piety is, I know perfectly well what it means". But do you really know what a God-serving and pious life is?

When we speak of a pious life, we often think too much of what is considered to be a religious life. Throughout the centuries many mystics have buried us under various statements concerning piety. Such virtue is considered to be connected with the life of religious people who fulfill their religious duties faithfully and conscientiously.

There are millions of such people and there always have been. But, where then is the Truth, the liberating Truth which must necessarily be the result of a pious life?

He who clings to a certain religious form of expression or associates with a habitual pupilship will unavoidably crystallize. Because of this crystallization it will become increasingly difficult for the Light to approach such a pupil. Therefore, this kind of pupilship, as it is sometimes understood, involves an enormous danger.

As soon as the foundation stone has been laid, building must begin. The building must rise into space. Something will have to be realized which did not previously exist, and when it is realized it must be used. Consequently, religiosity and devoutness are entirely different from piety. We are told that the key to becoming a True Man lies in piety, that is, in the courage to persevere in the face of impediments, against all opposition, to persevere in spite of what people may say and in spite of the situations and difficulties that may be gathering around you.

If you cannot summon up this courage, if you do not possess this perseverance, if you do not desire to break through, you will never attain wisdom, never arrive at love for mankind in the sense of the primordial law of the Gnosis. To "love God above all" means to persevere in spite of everything, even if it sometimes does not suit you with respect to your everyday life. The wisdom that is of God will come to you if you show this courage of conviction constantly. Then you will have passed the gate. If you really dare to entrust yourself to the mighty Light-field of the Gnosis, in perfect sincerity, and push all the difficulties aside without accepting them, without acknowledging them, you will have passed the gate.

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 the church festivals, his religious anniversaries; he remembers Jesus the Lord in His dying and resurrection. However, it will never occur to hmi 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.

The aim of piety is to be resurrected in the nature-of-death., 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.

From Chapters IX and X - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. II - Jan van Ricjkenborgh

[END QUOTING]

It is not enough for us to stand in one place after obtaining gnostic insight into man's plight and the Path of Return. We must endeavor to learn what is expected of us, required of us and then undertake to live those requirements, every minute, every hour, every day. A complete and total reversal of the personality vehicles is what must take place in order for the power of the Rose to grow and develop.

Many reach this point in their journey and stop in their tracks, thinking to themselves "I now know it all. I have found The Great Secret! My quest is over. Here I will rest". No! The opening of the Rosebud, although it represent a glorious new chapter in the life of the Candidate so fortunate, is but a beginning. The insight and knowledge gained must be put to use; the Light received must be shed for others. It is from here that we proceed from power to power and from glory to glory.

Never stop working towards the Good End. The Path of Return is not a place of rest. It is a way of action. If one remembers this and above all truly practices piety in action, the rewards will flow effortlessly, to be shared with all those who are still in darkness.

~ g
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