Kopperregel nr 5

Ikke se ned på den som ser opp til deg.

Pir Zias kommentar:

This is, of course, a very timely reminder for us as we are advancing on our path and as we do so we face a certain danger, and that danger is the pride of attainment. It happens when, as we advance on the path, in our concentrations, in our contemplations, in our meditations, we are opening up vestigial faculties, actualizing potentialities, opening the conduits for the free flow of the energetic essence of the body, awakening divine attributes.

There is a transformative process that occurs, sometimes invisibly and sometimes visibly. The result is that one’s whole being begins to vibrate at a higher frequency, and more resoundingly. And the result is that one becomes, to some extent, conspicuous, at least for the one with eyes to see. The one whose eyes are beginning to open recognizes this divine glow, which has nothing to do with the trappings of a spiritual tradition, but has to do with the intense quality of livingness that one begins to embody as one proceeds.

And the result is a resonance. One creates a field of attraction, and those who are, themselves, beginning to awaken, perhaps lack what we enjoy, the incredible privilege of the structured support of an esoteric school. But naturally, as part of the intrinsic evolution of the soul, all beings are moving in the same direction consciously or unconsciously, even those who ideologically are absolutely opposed to any metaphysics.

Nonetheless, it is the birthright, it is the destiny of each soul to evolve toward a fuller understanding of life. And so as this awakening happens, it is stimulated and it is quickened by the presence of those in whom this maturation of the heart has more fully revealed itself. As one develops, as Christ said, one becomes a fisher of souls.

One exerts a kind of magnetic attraction, a field of resonance. Like attracts like. And as you vibrate in accordance with pure thoughts, pure feelings, benevolent intentions, then the one who is awakening to that quality of being gravitates toward you.

In this way, the message has been promulgated wordlessly from heart to heart over the generations by the law of attraction and resonance. So when one dwells upon these deeper, fuller, truer thoughts and emotions, then one attracts the same temperament in one’s life. And contrarily, when one is fixated upon peripheral, narrowly conceived, exclusivistic and destructive impulses, one finds oneself in a world of that kind.

So as one’s heart expands, one attracts those whose hearts are, themselves, expanding. There is a field of resonance. And the one who is drawn to you will recognize in you perfection that he or she is striving to attain in himself or herself, and you will see yourself in the gaze of another who sees his or her true self in you.

And therein lies the great danger. In that moment there is the temptation to see all of the beauty and power that comes to you through the glance of the one who looks to you in admiration, to claim it possessively as your own, to take pride in it, to exult in it, to feel a kind of egoism that is even greater than the egoism of the worldly self, the narcissism of spiritual perfection. An assumed spiritual perfection is the greatest hubris.

And the means of avoiding this temptation is to recognize with clear discernment that the beauty and power that the one who looks up to you sees in you is purely the perfection of his or her own soul, that he or she can only see in the mirror of you at this time. But you are simply a mirror. Whatever anyone sees of greatness, it is recognizable to them only because it is of the essence of their own being. We see such perfection as exists in our awakening consciousness. But the self is unable to see it in itself.

My father used to say, “You see yourself in another yourself who is more able to manifest yourself than you.”

So when this is clearly recognized, then all adulation, admiration, praise is recognized clearly for what it is, a mirror play of lights in the palace of mirrors. And ultimately, wa li’lahi-l-hamd, “All praise is of God and for God.” Praise is divine. And that means that every act of praise is an act that is performed by God and every act of praise is an act that has as its object nothing more or less than God. Praise is from and to God, period.

So in this way, we must recall when we do find ourselves in this field of resonance, attracting the gaze of a sincere one who is seeking to actualize qualities that he or she perceives as evident in oneself, to avoid the temptation to attribute those qualities to oneself, to see that praise is from God to God, and to have gratitude for one’s participation in the process of the expression of praise and the revelation of the divine qualities but to release, dispossess any inkling of private possession.

And see in the projection of praise that is directed in one’s own direction, the imprint of the beauty of the one who looks to you. And that imprint is nothing less than an effigy of the divine qualities. So this is our rule of the day. I’ll say it once and then we’ll say it together:

My conscientious self, do not look down upon the one who looks up to you.