Clinging and Coexistence

We have already discussed more than once that clinging — the mind’s getting stuck in certain processes or interactions — is an obvious distractor, a distortion of the force of attraction. We have also said that the cause of such an error is the false sense that something can be brought in from outside without activating the corresponding forces and matrices within the mind.

The nature of the mind is a flow, and therefore the chain of its interactions with perceived objects (regardless of whether it evaluates them as “internal” or “external”) should be formed as a sequence of interdependent contacts leading to the gradual expansion of the mind’s horizons and its spiral development. Accordingly, getting stuck on one interaction causes the flow to loop and deplete.

The stimulating effect of inspiration on the development of the mind is well known, yet attempting to cling to the source of that inspiration diminishes the intensity of development. For example, arriving in a beautiful, inspiring place, a person, instead of using the possibilities of such an interaction completely, becomes distracted by extraneous stimuli and compensates for the feeling of not fully using that inspiring resource with thoughts like I wish I could return here — in other words, they begin to cling. As a result, the completion, the full utilization of the opportunities presented by that interaction, is postponed to an abstract future, and the interaction itself significantly loses its effectiveness.  

Just as the drive for individual existence, self-separation, manifests as a force of repulsion (of everything perceived as non-self), which in extremes appears as anger and is distorted into aggression, the impulse toward “knowing”, toward discerning and recognizing particular qualities and elements, manifests as attraction and is distorted into possessiveness.

However, complete denial or refusal to let these forces manifest, driven by a desire to rid oneself of their destructive expressions, is clearly wrong and in itself leads to indifference — an even worse barrier to development.

For the Magus, the way to rid oneself of distractions lies neither in accepting nor in ignoring them, but in distilling them: isolating their “pure basis”, their natural expression, and “replacing Demon with Genius”. In other words, it is necessary to identify which specific impulse, which particular force is being distorted in a given distraction and seek to restore that force to its original form.

Thus, at the root of clinging lie two impulses — the impulse toward pleromic unity (the primordial force of love) and the impulse toward knowing, toward discerning certain components. Instead of union we often actually strive to possess, and instead of establishing a correspondence between outward manifestations and the reactions to them within, we try to bring the external phenomena inside, forcing them into the place where their reflections should be.

It is clear that such a forcible “union” requires a great deal of energy, and is therefore exhausting and unpromising.

Rather than trying to cling to external triggers or striving to add something from outside to ourselves, it is far more effective to use these triggers and interactions for self-knowledge, to discern particular properties within ourselves.

This does not mean that one should “let go” of what is of one nature (as in the common manipulative maxim: “let go, and if it’s yours, it will remain”); on the contrary, it should be held firmly — but that holding must be consubstantial with the holding of one’s own qualities, one’s own states, one’s own identity, and not an attempt at external accumulation or forcible seizure.

And then it becomes clear that there are things (phenomena, beings) of one nature with us (in our current state), and those that possess other basic properties. What is of one nature with us, consubstantial, is already inseparable from us because it is bound by this inner unity, while what is alien to us can be held only by expending much energy.

Accordingly, the clearer our individuality becomes, the better we know ourselves, the less effort we need to expend to hold onto anything, and therefore — the best way to acquire and retain what is truly ours is through self-knowledge and self-identification. Likewise, the more clearly our nature is expressed, the less effort we must spend on repulsion, since what is not consonant with us is naturally excluded from the energy exchange, like water surrounding a drop of oil, and thus the need to expend energy on repelling disappears.

Therefore for the Magus two skills are essential — the skill of full engagement, of making maximal use of the resource in the given moment, and the skill of maximal self-identification, of awareness of one’s basic properties and qualities at the current stage of development. These skills make it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of being, reduce energy dispersion, the shedding of shadows, and tying unnecessary knots.