CHAPTER XVI
HE BOOK OF LIFE
A person is what their life is. That which continues beyond death is life. This is the meaning of the book of life that opens with death.
Looking at this matter from a strictly psychological point of view, any given day of our life is really a small replica of the entirety of life.
From all this we can infer the following: If a person doesn't work on themselves today, they will never change.
When someone claims they want to work on themselves, and doesn't work today, postponing it until tomorrow, such a claim will be a mere plan and nothing more, because in today lies the replica of our entire life.
There is a common saying: "Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today."
If a person says, "I will work on myself tomorrow," they will never work on themselves, because there will always be a tomorrow.
This is very similar to a certain notice, advertisement, or sign that some merchants put up in their shops: "NO CREDIT TODAY, YES TOMORROW."
When someone in need comes to ask for credit, they encounter this dreadful notice, and if they return the next day, they find the same unfortunate sign again.
This is what is called in psychology the "disease of tomorrow." As long as a person says "tomorrow," they will never change.
We urgently need to work on ourselves today, not lazily dream about the future or an extraordinary opportunity.
Those who say, "I'll do this or that first, and then I'll work," will never work on themselves. These are the inhabitants of the earth mentioned in the Holy Scriptures.
I knew a powerful landowner who said, "I need to round myself up first, and then I'll work on myself."
When he became terminally ill, I visited him and asked him, "Do you still want to round yourself off?"
"I'm truly sorry I wasted my time," he replied. He died a few days later, having acknowledged his mistake. That man owned a lot of land, but he wanted to acquire neighboring properties, to "enlarge" his holdings, so that his estate would be exactly bordered by four roads.
"Each day has enough trouble of its own!" said the Great Kabir Jesus. Let us observe ourselves today, in relation to the ever-recurring day, a miniature of our entire life.
When a person begins to work on themselves, today, when they observe their displeasures and sorrows, they are on the path to success.
It would be impossible to eliminate what we do not know. We must first observe our own mistakes.
We need to know not only our day, but also our relationship to it. There is a certain ordinary day that each person experiences directly, except for unusual, extraordinary events.
It is interesting to observe the daily recurrence, the repetition of words and events, for each person, etc.
This repetition or recurrence of events and words deserves to be studied; it leads us to self-knowledge.
CHAPTER XVII.
MECHANICAL CREATURES
We could in no way deny the Law of Recurrence at work in every moment of our lives.
Certainly, in every day of our existence, there is a repetition of events, states of consciousness, words, desires, thoughts, volitions, etc.
It is obvious that when one does not observe oneself, one cannot become aware of this incessant daily repetition.
It is evident that whoever has no interest in observing themselves also does not wish to work to achieve a true radical transformation.
To make matters worse, there are people who want to transform themselves without working on themselves.
We do not deny the fact that everyone has the right to true spiritual happiness, but it is also true that happiness would be more than impossible if we do not work on ourselves.
One can change on a personal level when one truly manages to modify their reactions to the various events that befall them daily.
However, we cannot change how we react to the events of practical life unless we seriously work on ourselves.
We need to change our way of thinking, be less negligent, become more serious, and approach life differently, in its true and practical sense.
However, if we continue as we are, behaving the same way every day, repeating the same mistakes, with the same negligence as always, any possibility of change will be eliminated.
If one truly wants to know oneself, one must begin by observing one's own behavior in the face of the events of any given day.
We do not mean by this that one should not observe oneself daily; we only mean that one must begin by observing one day.
Everything must have a beginning, and beginning by observing our behavior on any given day is a good start. Observing our mechanical reactions to all those little details of the bedroom, home, dining room, house, street, work, etc., etc., etc., what one says, feels and thinks, is certainly the most appropriate thing to do.
The important thing is to then see how or in what way one can change those reactions; however, if we believe we are good people, that we never behave unconsciously or wrongly, we will never change.
First and foremost, we need to understand that we are people-machines, mere puppets controlled by secret agents, by hidden I "s".
Many people live within us; we are never identical. Sometimes a mean person manifests within us, other times an irritable person, at any given moment a splendid, benevolent person, later a scandalous or slanderous person, then a saint, then a liar, and so on.
We have all kinds of people within each of us, I”s” of every kind. Our personality is nothing more than a puppet, a talking doll, something mechanical.
Let's begin by behaving consciously for a small part of the day; we need to stop being mere machines, even if only for a few brief minutes each day. This will decisively influence our existence. When we observe ourselves and don't do what this or that ego wants, it's clear that we begin to stop being machines.
A single moment, when one is conscious enough to stop being a machine, if done voluntarily, usually radically alters many unpleasant circumstances.
Unfortunately, we live a mechanistic, routine, absurd life every day. We repeat events, our habits are the same, we've never wanted to change them, they are the mechanical track on which the train of our existence runs, yet we think the best of ourselves...
Everywhere you look, there are "MYTHOMANIACS," those who believe themselves to be gods; mechanical, routine creatures, characters from the mud of the earth, miserable puppets moved by various egos; such people will not work on themselves...
CHAPTER XVIII
SUPERSUBSTANTIAL BREAD
If we carefully observe any day of our lives, we will see that we certainly don't know how to live consciously.
Our lives seem like a train in motion, moving on the fixed tracks of mechanical, rigid habits, of a vain and superficial existence.
The curious thing is that it never occurs to us to change our habits; it seems we never tire of repeating the same thing over and over.
Our habits have petrified us, yet we think we are free; we are appallingly ugly, but we believe ourselves to be Apollos...
We are mechanical beings, more than enough reason to lack any true feeling for what we are doing in life.
We move daily within the old track of our outdated and absurd habits, and thus it is clear that we do not have a true life; instead of living, we vegetate miserably, and we receive no new impressions.
If a person were to begin their day consciously, it is obvious that such a day would be very different from the other days.
When one embraces the entirety of their life, as if it were the very day they are living, when they don't put off until tomorrow what must be done today, they truly come to understand what it means to work on oneself.
No day is ever insignificant; if we truly want to transform ourselves radically, we must see, observe, and understand ourselves daily.
However, people don't want to see themselves. Some, even those who long to work on themselves, justify their negligence with phrases like, "Working at an office doesn't allow for working on oneself." These are meaningless, hollow, vain, and absurd words that only serve to justify indolence, laziness, and a lack of love for the Great Cause.
People like this, even if they have many spiritual yearnings, will obviously never change.
Observing ourselves is urgent, imperative, and cannot be postponed. Intimate self-observation is fundamental for true change. What is your psychological state upon waking? What is your mood during breakfast? Were you impatient with the waiter? With your wife? Why were you impatient? What always upsets you? etc.
Smoking or eating less isn't the whole change, but it does indicate some progress. We know well that vice and gluttony are inhuman and bestial.
It's not right for someone dedicated to the Secret Path to have an excessively fat body with a distended belly, lacking any eurhythm of perfection. That would indicate gluttony, greed, and even laziness.
Daily life, profession, and employment, while vital for existence, constitute the dream of consciousness.
Knowing that life is a dream doesn't mean having understood it. Understanding comes with self-observation and intense work on oneself.
To work on oneself, it's essential to work on one's daily life, starting today, and then one will understand the meaning of that phrase from the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread."
The phrase "each day" signifies the "super-substantial Bread" in Greek, or the "Bread from Above."
Gnosis offers this Bread of Life in the dual sense of ideas and forces that allow us to dismantle psychological errors.
Each time we reduce a certain "I" to cosmic dust, we gain psychological experience, we eat the "Bread of Wisdom," we receive new knowledge. Gnosis offers us the "Super-substantial Bread," the "Bread of Wisdom," and points us precisely to the new life that begins within ourselves, here and now. Now, no one can alter their life or change anything related to the mechanical reactions of existence unless they have the help of new ideas and receive Divine assistance. Gnosis provides these new ideas and teaches the "modus operandi" by which one can be assisted by Forces Superior to the mind. We need to prepare the lower centers of our organism to receive the ideas and strength that come from the Higher centers. In the work on oneself, nothing is negligible. Every thought, however insignificant, deserves to be observed. Every negative emotion, reaction, etc., must be observed.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPER
To distance oneself from the disastrous effects of life, in these dark times, is certainly very difficult but indispensable; otherwise, one is devoured by life.
Any work one does on oneself with the purpose of achieving mental and spiritual development is always related to a well-understood isolation, for under the influence of life as we always live it, it is not possible to develop anything other than personality.
We in no way intend to oppose the development of personality; obviously, it is necessary in existence, but it is certainly something merely artificial; it is not the true, the real thing in us.
If the poor intellectual mammal mistakenly called man does not isolate himself, but rather identifies with all the events of practical life and squanders his energies on negative emotions and on Self-consideration and vain, insubstantial chatter, ambiguous and unedifying, no real element can develop within it, beyond what belongs to the realm of mechanics.
Certainly, whoever truly wishes to achieve the development of Essence within themselves must become hermetically sealed. This refers to something intimate, closely related to silence.
The phrase comes from ancient times, when a Doctrine on the inner development of man, linked to the name of Hermes, was secretly taught.
If one wants something real to grow within, it is clear that one must prevent the escape of one's psychic energies.
When one has energy leaks and is not isolated in their innermost being, it is undeniable that one will not be able to achieve the development of anything real in their psyche.
Ordinary life relentlessly seeks to devour us; we must fight against life daily, we must learn to swim against the current... This work goes against life; it is something very different from everyday life. And yet we must practice it from moment to moment; I'm referring to the Revolution of Consciousness.
It's clear that if our attitude toward daily life is fundamentally wrong; if we believe that everything is going well just because, disappointments will come... People want things to go well for them, "just because," because everything should go according to their plans, but the harsh reality is different. As long as one doesn't change internally, whether one likes it or not, one will always be a victim of circumstances.
Much sentimental nonsense is said and written about life, but this Treatise on Revolutionary Psychology is different.
This doctrine gets to the point, to concrete, clear, and definitive facts; it emphatically states that the "Intellectual Animal," mistakenly called man, is a mechanical, unconscious, dormant biped.
"The Good Housekeeper" would never accept Revolutionary Psychology; he fulfills all his duties as a father, husband, etc., and therefore thinks the best of himself, but he only serves the purposes of nature, and that's all.
In contrast, we will say that there is also "The Good Housekeeper" who swims against the current, who doesn't want to be devoured by life; however, these individuals are very rare in the world, never abundant.
When one thinks according to the ideas of this "Treatise on Revolutionary Psychology," one obtains a correct vision of life.
Archangel Samael-Planetary Logos of Mars
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