The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist

ON HUMILITY
the infinite and to try to reach it under this form, by incessantly rising. But
this attempt is hopeless; no ascent in the finite can reach the infinite. The way
towards the Being is not infinity but zero which, besides, being nothing, is
not a way.
This idea that humility is not a 'way' is so important that we would like
to come back to it for the last time. If I don't understand that, I shall
inevitably withdraw such and such manifestations of my pretension in
practical life, confine myself in a mediocre social rank, etc. I shall avoid
humiliations instead of using them; imitations of humility are never anything
but imitations. It is not a question of modifying the action of my fundamental
pretension, but of utilising the evidences which come to me in the course of
this action, owing to the humiliating defeats in which it necessarily results. If
I cease artificially to fight against the Not-Self, I deprive myself of
indispensable knowledge which comes to me from my defeats.
Without always saying so in an explicit manner, Zen is centred on the
idea of humility. Throughout the whole of Zen literature we see how the
masters, in their ingenious goodness, intensely humiliate their pupils at the
moment which they judge to be propitious. In any case, whether humiliation
comes from a master or from the ultimate defeat experienced in oneself,
satori is always released in an instant in which the humility of the man fulfills
itself in face of the absurdity, at last evident, of all his pretentious efforts. Let
us recall that the 'nature of things' is for us the best, the most affectionate, and
the most humiliating of masters; it surrounds us with its vigilant assistance.
The only task incumbent upon us is to understand reality and to let ourselves
be transformed by it.
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