V
IMAGINATION AND FANTASY
It is urgent to understand that true contentment of a tranquil heart cannot be bought or sold, and it arises within us naturally and spontaneously only when we have thoroughly understood the very causes of discontent: jealousy, envy, greed, etc.
Obviously, it is important to make a clear distinction between voluntarily directed imagination and mechanical imagination. Undoubtedly, directed imagination is Conscious Imagination; for the Wise, to imagine is to see. Conscious Imagination is the translucent medium that reflects the firmament, the Mysteries of Life and Death, The BEING.
Mechanical imagination is different; it is formed from the detritus of memory; it is fantasy. It is worth investigating deeply. Obviously, people with their fantasy, with mechanical imagination, do not see themselves as they truly are, but rather according to their forms of fantasy. There are several forms of fantasy; undoubtedly, one of them consists precisely in not seeing oneself as one truly is. Few have the courage to see themselves in their stark reality.
I am absolutely certain that those present here have never seen themselves as they truly are: their mechanical imagination makes them mistake one thing for another, they see themselves in ways that do not correspond to reality. If I were to truly tell each of you what you are really like, what your distinctive psychological characteristic is, I am absolutely certain that you would feel hurt. It is clear that you have a mistaken concept of yourselves; you have never seen yourselves. Your fantasy makes you see yourselves as they are.
Speaking allegorically, in a friendly way, I will only try to make a rough psychological exploration without mentioning names or surnames, using symbolic names so that each of you understands: What would we say, for example, about Cicero? What a great man, so strong, who would deny it, great, eloquent like no other, terribly incisive, we are sure that everything about him is "benevolence." Let us reflect: if we were to point out the gravity of his fantasies, he would feel hurt; if we were to accuse him, he would protest violently. He never murdered Poppaea; we leave that to Nero. He made Poppaea's heart bleed, yet he would in no way feel truly alluded to.
Faced with this fact, we would feel benevolent; that is what our fantastical nature would suggest, mistakenly seeing ourselves through the prism of extraordinary benevolence—that much is obvious.
And what would we say, for example, of one who, yearning for the Light of the Spirit, fails at its very foundation? Is it not said that Icarus soared to heaven on wings of wax, which melted, and then he was hurled into the abyss? Yet he does not think of himself thus; he supposes himself to be loyal in the ranks, certain that he marches on the right path, that he is a man like no other. Continuing on this path, what then would remain for Icarus after plunging into hell? Don't they say that Ganymede ascended to Olympus upon seeing the end? But Ganymede can also be cast to the bottom of the precipice.
The disciple, let us call him Justinian for the sake of symbolism, how many times has he justified himself? He is convinced that he is doing "very well," perhaps he has improved somewhat lately, for has he not protested at certain times? Has he not protested before the Altar of Sacrifice?
But he is certain that he has never protested; he has always done everything in favor of the Great Cause, without ever failing. In the name of truth, although it may seem a little difficult to you, few have seen themselves as they truly are.
Aristotle, time and again in his philosophy, convinced that his wisdom is formidable, has made it more useless, has caused suffering; yet he lives convinced that he has never acted wrongly, he is certain of being magnificent, benevolent, gentle, etc.
In the name of truth, I could tell you this: There is only few person who has seen themselves as they truly are. The rest, all have a fantastic image of themselves; their mechanical imagination makes them see themselves, not as they are, but as they appear to be. So then, my dear ones, I invite you to reflect. Think about whether you have ever seen yourselves as you truly are.
Historians, for example, what have they written? Fantasy and nothing more. What do they say about Nero? That he was homosexual and even married another homosexual. Where did historians get that from? Do they have any proof? In the name of truth, I must tell you that I was reincarnated in Nero's time, and he was anything but homosexual. I often saw him leave through the gates of ancient Rome, seated on his litter on the shoulders of his slaves. A man with a broad forehead and a robust, Herculean body. Historians don't claim this; they emphasize the idea of him as an abominable poet. Instead of being surrounded, as many believe, by homosexuals, on the contrary, I always knew him surrounded by his women. I lived in Nero's time and I bear witness to this; historians have distorted the truth about that man.
Don't they accuse Marie Antoinette of being a prostitute, an adulteress, and who knows what else? Everyone knows that a great scandal erupted over the Queen's necklace, a jewel she had given away to help others. But there's a vast difference between that and her being unfaithful to Louis XVI: we put her to the test in the higher realms, and she proved remarkably chaste, entitled to wear the White Robe. I saw her pass heroically through Paris; she owed nothing, she had nothing to fear. She gave her life for France, and she has never been truly appreciated.
Much has been written about History; it's distorted, it's not worth studying History, dates are the only useful thing there. And even that's not always the case, because how absurd would it be for us to accept that date of 1325 or something like that as the beginning of the founding of the Anahuac Empire, only for it to disappear around 1500 under the boot of Hernán Cortés and his henchmen? Do you believe that a powerful civilization like that of the great Tenochtitlan could have arisen in two centuries, when it took entire generations to build a single pyramid? Do you believe that a powerful civilization like this will arise in two centuries? And so historians adulterate dates, they falsify them; that's why one must be very careful in historical matters.
Understand mechanical memory and the memory of Gnostic Esoteric Work. Mechanical memory leads one to erroneous conclusions. Are you sure you remember your life exactly as it was? I'm not asking you about your past lives, but about the present one. Impossible, there are things that appear distorted in mechanical memory. If, as a child, even if born into a middle-class family, one has lived at least in a clean, tidy house, surrounded by bread, clothing, and shelter, one has seen a few coins. It may happen that, as time passes and the years go by, one retains something distorted in their mechanical memory.
As children, a few banknotes seem like millions to us, small pine trees in our garden, or near our window, can seem colossal. I would say that Our bodies are small, so it wouldn't be strange if, as adults, we said: "When I was little, as a child, I lived in such and such a place, my house was magnificently furnished, with large gardens, what a beautiful table, so much money." That's mechanical memory, it's absurd; therefore, the only real memory is the memory of work.
If, through retrospective exercise, we were to remember in part, we would see that that house of middle-class boys wasn't the palace we once thought it was, but a humble dwelling of a hardworking and honest father. Those fabulous sums that surrounded us were just small amounts to pay the rent, to buy travel expenses. Mechanical memory is more or less false.. What does that prove? That mechanical memory is unreliable.
You've many times told a story, shared it with a friend, who in turn told it to someone else, but in doing so, they added more and took away a little; it's no longer the same story, it's been distorted. And that person, in turn, tells it to someone else, and so the story continues to be distorted, and in the end, even you yourselves don't recognize the story. It's become so distorted that it bears no resemblance to what you originally told.
That's how mechanical memory works; it's useless because fantasy exists within mechanical memory. Mechanical memory and fantasy are closely linked. So how do we control fantasy? There's only one way to control it: through Working Memory. Mechanical memory makes us see our lives as they are not, as they never were. Through Working Memory, we dissect our own lives and come to discover them as they truly are. So, what does this mean? It means that with the memory we retain after the Work we've done, it's impossible to control fantasy, to eliminate it. And to eliminate it radically, yes.
It is therefore advisable to eliminate this mechanical imagination, because it in no way allows us esoteric progress. Look at the lady who primps before the mirror, who paints her dark circles, who thins her eyebrows, who puts on enormous false eyelashes, who tints her lips with red. Look at her dressed in the latest fashion, how she gazes at herself in the mirror, in love with herself; she is convinced that she is exquisitely beautiful. If we were to tell her that she is that she is not what she thinks she is, physically speaking, she would feel wounded in her vanity, mortally. She has a terrible fantasy; her form of fantasy makes her see herself as something she is not.
So everyone has a mistaken concept of themselves, a completely mistaken one, and that is terrible. One can feel brilliant, capable of dominating the world, a sparkling intellectual, convinced of one's abilities. If one were to understand that what one has in one's personality is not one's own but foreign, that one's ideas are not one's own because one read them in this or that book, that one is full of terrible moral flaws. Few have the courage to strip themselves bare and see themselves as they truly are. Each person projects a form of fantasy onto themselves, and it is in this form that reality has never been seen. And that is terrible, appalling.
Thinking aloud, to share with you, we'll say that as long as one doesn't dissolve the forms of fantasy, one will remain very far from the Being. As one disintegrates all the forms of fantasy, Being will manifest itself more and more within itself.
When one delves into what life, the world, truly is, one discovers that frankly, one hasn't seen the world as it truly is; one has seen it through the forms of fantasy, nothing more. Mechanical imagination—how serious that is! Dreams of the fantasy, for sometimes in dreams one remains silent, other times one talks about them, and other times one wants to put them into practice. Obviously, in the third case, the matter is serious.
When a dreamer wants to bring their dreams to life, they commit terrible follies, for their dreams don't coincide with the mechanics of life. The silent dreamer expends a lot of vital energy, but is not so dangerous. The one who talks about dreams, fantastic dreams, can infect other psyches, other people; But the third, the one who wants to turn his dreams into frank facts of life, that one is completely out of his mind, he's crazy, that's obvious. Continuing with this exposition, we see clearly that mechanical imagination or fantasy keeps us very far from reality, from Being, and that is truly lamentable.
People wander the streets dreaming, they go about in their phantoms, they work dreaming, they marry dreaming, they live a life dreaming, and they die dreaming. In the world of the unreal, they never saw themselves, never; they always saw a form of their fantasy. Removing that form of fantasy is terrifyingly difficult. There are various forms of fantasy, naturally; thus, each of us has a fantasy self, a fantasy persona that does not coincide with reality. The fantasy person has existed from the beginning, and if you are now convinced that this fantasy persona is reality, and it turns out it isn't, that's the serious problem.
I repeat, how do we control fantasy? There is only one way to control it: Memory Work, being honest with yourselves, working to eliminate the undesirable elements within yourselves. And as we eliminate them, we discover order in the Work. Who establishes this order in Esoteric Work? The BEING. This Working Memory allows us to eliminate fantasy, your fantasy person, from ourselves.
There are rare moments in life, very rare, when one manages to see one's own ridiculousness, moments when one perceives one's fantasy I, one's fantasy person. When that happens, there is a very deep moral pain, but then sleep returns, it seeks a way to right the wrong, and finally it consoles itself in fifty thousand ways, forgets the matter, and the world continues "at peace" as always.
It is worthwhile for us to be honest with ourselves. It's about self-knowledge, if we truly want to manifest the BEING within us, if we truly aspire to reality and nothing but reality, without a single atom of fantasy. We need the courage to tear ourselves apart, to shatter that fantasy persona that doesn't exist. Others know it doesn't exist, but we believe it does.
Of course, we need to use the scalpel of self-criticism; otherwise, self-criticism wouldn't be possible. If we proceed in this way, we will manage to break the fantasy self, we will manage to destroy it, reduce it to ashes, to cosmic dust. The objective: to discover the BEING that dwells in our depths; but the fantasy self eclipses the BEING, it keeps us so fascinated with what is not real that it prevents us from discovering the BEING. Do not forget, my dear brothers and sisters, that the Kingdom of Heaven is within ourselves, that it has different levels, and the Kingdom of Earth is also here within us, and the highest level of the Kingdom of Earth is no match for the lowest level that lives in Heaven. But how can we leave the different levels of Earth to even enter the lower level of the Kingdom of Heaven? The first level of the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, not outside of us. The Kingdom of Earth has different levels, some higher, some more refined; but the most refined level of Earth is not the Kingdom of Heaven.
To pass from the highest level of the Kingdom of Earth to the lowest level of the Kingdom of Heaven, a change is needed, a transformation; one needs to be reborn of Water and Spirit; one needs to split into two: the earthly personality and the Psychological Man, the Inner Man.
How could this splitting into two occur? An earthly Inner Man situated at the ordinary level and another at a higher octave within himself. How could this separation of these two types of men truly occur within us? Do you believe this would be possible if we continued with this fantastic personality that we believe to be the true one, when it is not? As long as one is convinced that the form one is seeing is true, psychological splitting will not be possible, it will not be possible for the Inner Man to separate from the external, it will not be possible, therefore, to penetrate the first step of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Obviously, fantasy is what humanity has immersed in the state of unconsciousness in which it finds itself. As long as fantasy exists, Consciousness will remain asleep: fantasy must be destroyed.
Instead of fantasy, we must have the Memory of Work. Thus, whoever practices the retrospective exercise to review their life ends mechanical memory and establishes within themselves Conscious Memory.
Working Memory. So, with retrospective exercises, we can recall past lives, putting an end to fantasy; in this way, Working Memory and Conscious Imagination will allow us to embark on the path of self-discovery. That concludes my remarks. If any of you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Q: Master, what might be the best exercises for developing the Pineal Gland?
V.M.: Since Conscious Imagination is directed imagination, we must undoubtedly learn to direct our imagination. For example: we relax our body and then focus our attention on the process of birth and death of all things: Conscious Imagination will develop.
Let's imagine the seed of a rosebush, for example, how it germinates, how the stem grows, how it produces, branches, thorns leaves, and flowers. Let's then consider the reverse process, the involutionary process: how the petals gradually wither, how the leaves fall, and finally the rosebush is reduced to a pile of wood. It's a marvelous exercise that fosters the positive development of the imagination.
Q: How do we eliminate fantasy from ourselves?
V.M.: Simply put, first of all, the fantasy self. We have to start by seeing ourselves as we are, not as we apparently are or as we believe we are; it's difficult to see oneself as one truly is. We usually see ourselves as we are not, as we believe ourselves to be, according to our fantasy. That's where we have to begin to break free from our fantasy.
When we have truly seen ourselves as we are, in our starkest realism, we usually suffer a terrible disappointment in ourselves, a dreadful disappointment. If we eliminate mechanical memory and establish Working Memory, then we eliminate fantasy, because fantasy exists within mechanical memory.
I already mentioned the case of the beloved historians of our history: it's pure fantasy. Were historians actually present at the French Revolution? Did they know Charles V of Spain, or Philip the Handsome? They write versions distorted by time, products of fantasy. If, instead of mechanical imagination, which is pure fantasy, we establish Working Memory, if we work on ourselves, dissolving the undesirable elements we carry, we will obviously acquire Conscious Memory, the Memory of Work.
This Conscious Memory or Memory of Work is marvelous, and applying it to Universal History will allow us to study different things, the stark reality of the French Revolution, of Marie Antoinette, or of any page of History in general.
Thus, Conscious Memory applied to ourselves takes us very far; applied to the universe, it allows us to know, in the Akashic Records, any event in History. Therefore, as one eliminates all that is fantasy, Conscious Imagination will become more and more active.
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