The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist

THE EXISTENTIALISM OF ZEN
genital apparatus which we leave aside for the moment, converge towards the
muscles and their movements; that is to say that all existing converges on
living, on action; the human machine seems indeed to be made for action.
But what purpose is served now by the action of this machine? We have seen
that the ordinary man only attributes value, real usefulness, to action which
affirms him egotistically. But this usefulness that is purely individual is
illusory from the universal point of view; one cannot think that the human
machine in general exists so that Mr. So-and-so may affirm himself in so far
as he is Mr. So-and-so and not Mr. Somebody Else. This egotistical
usefulness of action once eliminated, what purpose is served by the 'acting' of
this machine-for-action which is the human organism?
Very numerous kinds of action evidently serve to maintain the actingmachine;
man acts in order to get himself food, shelter, clothing, etc., or to
get them for other acting-machines. There are other actions which have as
much usefulness but of a less obvious kind; they are the actions which
distinguish the man-animal from the non-human animals: scientific
discoveries, artistic creation, intellectual research for the truth; that is to say
search for the good, the beautiful, the true. But the good and the beautiful
serve existence by tending to improve its conditions; truth also, since man
expects of it the appeasement of his anxieties, and so the harmonious peace
of his existing organism.
In short, if one looks at things objectively, the existing machine tends,
through action, to maintain its existence, and one cannot perceive any object
for existence other than existence itself. But is not that to say, at the same
time, that existence has no object? (We are here leaving aside any thought of
a cosmic utility for man's existence, utility of which the ordinary man cannot
have any consciousness that is felt or experienced). The reproductive
function, that we left on one side a moment ago, is not at variance with what
we are saying now, since it seeks to maintain existence at the level of the
existing human species.
Therefore, once the illusory utilisation of action for my egotistical
affirmation as a distinct individual is eliminated, I see that my action, to
which all the architecture of my organism tends, itself only tends towards the
existence of this organism endowed with action; it only serves to prevent the
cessation of existence, or death. The famous living, beside which existing
seemed to me to be nothing, only tends to serve this existing. Action
emanates from existence and serves it, therefore existence is the principle of
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