"Forgive them, for they know not, what they do." - was a recommendation by Jesus, the Master of forgiveness. This speaks of a deep realisation of the imperfect human nature. We are and always will be capable of making mistakes. The quote refers to forgivable sins, it gives a reason for forgiveness and implies, that forgiveness is not unconditional for any sin, that there are sins that cannot and should not be forgiven, the unforgivable sins. Unforgivable sins have to be atoned.The first time we make a mistake, it is an "honest" mistake. We have not made this mistake before and we simply make it - period. At this stage the only consequence is, that from now on, we cannot claim ignorance any longer, but we can assume forgiveness without even asking for it. It is already there. Realising this, we call God the All Merciful. The most difficult thing for a conscientious person may be to forgive oneself for it. In real terms, forgiveness is a redundant concept, for it is only necessary if there was blame before. Blame is an unforgivable sin, which needs to be atoned. Forgiveness is the atonement of the unforgivable sin of blame.
So, what can be our reason for making the mistake a second time? - We become possessed by the advantage we gain from making the mistake. Again this is the way, we are. We seek advantage and we are willing to commit crimes in order to achieve this. The first time, we do this, again falls into the category of "honest mistake" and will be forgiven.
I am not sure, if there is any human being on the planet, who has not committed those two stages of sin. I for my part have done so. When I became aware of the second type of sin, I was shaken. I felt as if I stared right into the core of the ravenous ego-beast inside my own system. My whole body reacted with an internal heat that left no room for thought. It felt like death and death would have been welcome at this moment. The anguish continued and increased steadily. It did not go away, did not pacify of its own accord. My mind was transfixed and did not move for quite some time. I felt as if I was falling into a bottomless pit with ever increasing speed. Then two words appeared, like droplets of sweat: "Never again". The force of those words was like steel and they cut my soul from the gallows.
This experience repeated itself many times, but each time was less severe than the one before. I expect this will continue, as long as I exist. But over the years the whole process has become so fast, every time the steel is hardened by the fire a little bit more. I could not change this and I don't want to change it either. It is a good process.
Then I made an assumption, that turned out to be erroneous: I assumed all people would automatically go through the same process with the same outcome. - It took a long time until I understood, that there is another way out of this burning fire, that there is another possible choice, that will alter the process:
There are individuals, who at the core of their free will, their self-created mind-set, will not welcome death or transformation at such a moment, who will not with their one-pointed will put an end to the harmful pattern and this reluctance will produce another option: Their creative minds will give them a way out to stop the anguish with the words: "I do not care" or "So, what?" or anything of that nature - giving rise to a whole string of self-preserving "philosophy", culminating in a corruption of the essence of spiritual thought, they will demand forgiveness, as if it was a "right".
They will demand ever more time to correct themselves, but do it only half-heartedly or not at all. They will use "fear" as an argument to explain, why they are unable to let go of the desire to continue in the same old way. Any excuse under the sun inclusive of blatant lies, they will even use "human nature", our unfortunate "fallibility" as an excuse to hang on to their callousness and obstinate refusal to learn and evolve, which would translate into needing to give up their cherished positions of power and privilege. They know this and this is what they want to avoid in reality. They know enough about the physical universe to entertain the hope, they may actually get away with it for a very, very long time and they do not rack their brains over their children one hundred generations or more from now - or they count on their ingenuity to find another escape route.
This third "sin" is the unforgivable sin, because it keeps us stuck and threatens life itself.
In the Grimm's tale of the "Water Of Life", the third, the unforgivable sin is represented by the relationship of the two older brothers. They were not grateful, that their failure was corrected by the virtue of the youngest, who rescued them from their prison between the two mountains of duality. But they teamed up, thus creating a trinity (two people plus their relationship), of the evil kind, namely of the third sin of "not caring" and opposed their youngest brother, the third aspect of the dialectic principle, the synthesis of thesis and antithesis, the integration of the duality of mind.
The three sons of the old king can also be seen as the three stages of learning, the temptations of ego and it's transcendence. The symbolism is deep and wonderful. The king represents collective consciousness, the dominant mind-stream, but also human society as a physical entity, who is sick and in danger of dying. The two older sons represent the ego caught in the labyrinth of duality, - presently manifested in the political and religious figure heads of our day, - the youngest it's transcendence, which costs him a piece of himself, his heel. Finally he manifests complete self-forgetfulness beyond effort, the true state of the natural mind.
The dwarf represents wisdom, the female collective consciousness, which is the source of knowledge and by extension the source of the tales as a whole body of work. Contrary to the tales of the male tradition, the prophets, who are all known by name, collected in the Bible, the Torah, the Qur'an, - the female side remained anonymous, they were gleaned by the grandmothers, who never felt they wanted to be identified personally.
The beauty of those tales is their prophetic quality, they reach into the future, they tell us about the qualities needed to overcome the obstacles, but also affirm, that these qualities will manifest and prevail.
The tale describes and predicts the way out of the dead-lock: The youngest brother had liberated three kingdoms due to the powers he received from his virtue. Those three kingdoms are, as I see it, the "upper world" - the non-physical realm, the "underworld" - the realm of the animals and the "netherworld" - the realm of the elemental forces. - The "good karma", the repercussions of gratitude come to his rescue. The three worlds are embodied in the human realm by the figure of the hunter, who is charged to kill him, but does not comply. The hunter is the representative of the natural human mind, the "wild man", most clearly manifested in children and sages. The children and the sages are leading the way and they will win. The two older brothers have to atone for their sin, we hear that the king is angry and wants to punish them, but they flee out onto the ocean - a symbol for the "edge of space" - never to be seen again.
They will forever disappear from the future life-experiences of the people in the rescued kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment