The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
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ON AFFECTIVITY<br />
it to the disintegration of the pain. If I were not ignorant, if I did not identify<br />
myself with my organism, if I were capable of saying, like Socrates, 'My<br />
enemies can kill me but they cannot do me harm', then I would not feel that<br />
which menaces my organism as a real menace to Myself; I would not suffer. I<br />
would perceive that my organism is menaced, would recognise that the redhot<br />
iron which burns me burns me, and I could then withdraw myself from<br />
this contact if my rational will was to live. But I would not suffer, I would not<br />
submit to any inner pressure in order to defend my life; I would choose in full<br />
liberty to defend or not to defend my life according to circumstances. I could<br />
preserve myself, I would not be constrained, by suffering, to do it.<br />
All affectivity is founded on ignorance, on the implicit illusory beliefs<br />
which represent in me the sleep of my Faith in the unique Reality, the sleep<br />
of the Cosmic Mind. My perception of the aggressive excitation of the outer<br />
world is not illusory, for it informs me correctly about the phenomena which<br />
attack my organism. But the affective character, agreeable or disagreeable, of<br />
my perception is illusory because it is founded on illusory beliefs. I do not<br />
deceive myself in considering that which touches me as being favourable or<br />
unfavourable to my existence; but I deceive myself in considering it as 'good'<br />
or 'bad', in considering it with affectivity. <strong>The</strong> sensation of being burned is<br />
not a delusion, but the pain of the burn is. My perceptions are correct in so far<br />
as they inform me, they are illusory in so far as they affect me. Between my<br />
Absolute Principle which 'is' and my organism which 'exists', between my<br />
noumenon and my phenomena, my affectivity neither is nor exists. Every<br />
affective phenomenon is the interpretive deformation, through ignorance, of<br />
non-affective phenomena. All my affectivity is an interpretive delirium<br />
resulting from illusory beliefs. My real Self is inaffective.<br />
Besides, at every moment, at the same time as I am affectively sensible<br />
to such and such a thing I remain insensible to all the rest of the universe. But<br />
as long as my Faith is not entirely awakened, in satori, my attention allows<br />
itself to be captured by my fallacious affectivity and turns away from my<br />
inaffectivity.<br />
<strong>The</strong> inner work leaves things in this state, it lets the attention wander<br />
towards the affective pseudo-phenomena. But it does more than let it go<br />
passively in this direction, it actively pushes it that way. Where I was<br />
captured by something incomprehensible, and where this fact of being<br />
captured was expressed by suffering, I now project my active attention in<br />
order to seize that which seized me, that which I called my suffering. Now<br />
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