The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist

ON THE IDEA OF ‘DISCIPLINE’
energy wells up, still informal, from the source where it is unmanifested; we
have then affirmed the existence of an energy at once manifested and
informal. This seems to be a metaphysical absurdity, since manifestation
cannot be conceived without form. But this absurdity only comes from words
which appear to immobilise the movement of the birth of energy; in speaking
of energy at once manifested and informal, we would, by these disputable
words, evoke the instant without duration in which the energy leaves its
source. We would point it out on the frontier that we suppose to lie between
non-manifestation and manifestation, in the instant at which, envisaged with
regard to the source, it is already manifested, and at which, envisaged with
regard to the manifestation, it is still informal. And the accumulation of
informal energy of which we have spoken should be understood as a
possibility, unceasingly increased, of sparing the energy of the imaginativeemotive
vicious circle.
After this reminder of the inner task understood as a 'letting go', as an
instantaneous and total decontraction of our conscious being, we reach the
essential point of this study; when is it desirable that we execute this not
'doing', this letting-go? A trap is set for us here: if I incorrectly conceive
satori as an accomplishment of myself-as-a-distinct-being, in the illusory
perspective of a 'superman', I shall covet satori, desire it positively, I shall
wish for it in the usual sense of this phrase. If I thus demand satori, and if on
the other hand I have understood the efficacity of a letting-go in view of
satori, it is going to be necessary for me to carry out this letting-go. A
compulsion of my primordial spasm, the logical result of my claim to be-asa-distinct-being,
forces me to impose on my organism, whether it likes it or
not, the gesture of decontraction. It is very clear that no real decontraction is
possible thus and that what will be achieved will only be the contracted
mental evocation of the image of decontraction.
This is not to say that there is no discipline in the inner task correctly
carried out; but it must be clearly understood. In all inner discipline
'something' directs the functioning of my psychosomatic machine; but what
should this something be, in order that the inner task may be correctly carried
out?
To reply to this question we will first of all show what this something
should not be, and analyse to that end the usual notions of 'self-control', of
'self-mastery' and 'will'.
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