Arthur Osborne - Adventures on the Path #7

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Even if the philosophers had never formulated their theories

at all, if there were no other texts, no books, no theories, the

basic meaning is contained entire in the shahada itself: ‘There

is no god but God’; and according to Islamic tradition this has

been used with full understanding, as a weapon for fighting the

‘greater holy war’, from the beginning. It is the same as that

tremendous sentence from the Bhagavad Gita: “There is no

existence of the unreal and no non-existence of the Real.”

Whether philosophers write books about it or not, whether they

agree with Plato or not, does not concern the spiritual wayfarer,

whose task is not to theorise about it but to use it.

 

I had not long returned to Bangkok before I received a

letter from Martin saying that his guru had seen photographs

of my murshid and some letters written by him and was not

happy about him, in fact did not consider him a realized man.

 

My wife had already formed such an opinion prior to this as

soon as she heard my account of the guru and saw his picture.

This started a general correspondence among those concerned

that at times became acrimonious. My murshid revealed a talent

for abuse that embarrassed me. Two more members of our

original Guenon group were able to come to India despite the

war; they met him and were not impressed. Martin wrote

reminding me of Guenon’s teaching that there were two grades

of initiatic organization: that where the guru had only ‘horizontal

authenticity’, that is to say valid appointment in succession to

an unbroken chain of gurus, and that where he had ‘vertical

authenticity’ also, that is direct connection, through realization,

with the divine source of initiation. Initiation into the former

should bestow a certain grace but could not lead to realization;

for that the realized guru was necessary. This made a deep

impression on me, for never at any time was I willing to

relinquish pursuit of the Supreme Goal. I held out for a while,

partly out of loyalty to my murshid, but largely also from

reluctance to admit that I was in the wrong; but eventually I

gave in, convinced of my error.

 

Years later I perceived how futile the whole dispute had

been, when I appreciated at last the significance of the term

‘Realized Man’, and when I found that Martin’s guru (whom I

never met) was explaining that the guru need not be realized,

while Martin himself was telling new aspirants that there was

no hope of Realization in this lifetime. This is not mere

pessimism but a sinking to the exoteric level. It betokens a failure

of the basic understanding of non-duality required for the quest,

and therefore, on the spiritual level, it is an error. It is itself an

impediment to realization, since it vests the unreal with a

temporary reality by asking when and whether it can cease to

exist. Forgetting that ‘there is no existence of the unreal and no

non-existence of the Real’, it substitutes the exoteric fallacy that

there is a temporary existence of the unreal, which may be

replaced by the Real on some future occasion. To put it quite

simply, saying that you cannot attain Realization in this lifetime

means asserting what you should deny — the existence of a

‘you’ who can or cannot attain — and thereby closes the door

to Realization. The question whether you can attain or not

ought not to arise; it ought to be dissolved in the real question:

who is it that seeks to attain?

 

I did not grasp all this clearly at the time, but was quite

determined not to remain on a path that did not lead to the Goal.

Was there any benefit from the initiation I had rushed so impatiently

to acquire and all the exercises I had done? Such a question is not

always easy to answer. A man is ill, he takes medicine and gets

better; but is it because of the medicine or in spite of it or

independently of it? There seemed to be an increased depth and

subtlety of understanding after the first initiation and of spiritual

vigour after the second. It may be said that there was benefit from

the determination and enthusiasm that made me seek.

 

So far as my murshid goes, I was never really wholehearted;

perhaps that was what made it comparatively easy for me to

abandon him. Others have been less fortunate, becoming attached

to gurus who were not merely incomplete, lacking Self-realization

(in that there is no harm so long as they recognize their limitation)

but false and deluded, misguided and misguiding others. It is a

sign of the times — the time of false Christs and false prophets of

which Christ warned his followers. Some such are widely known

and publicized, others almost unknown. They make the highest

possible claims for themselves, or allow their disciples to make

them: this one is Christ at his second coming, that one is God

Incarnate. How far they are self-deluded and how far consciously

deluding others is usually very hard to say. A man may spend

years in solitude, practising yogic discipline, as a result of which

various powers may develop, both internal powers such as vision

and audition, and outward directed powers such as telepathy and

hypnotism. Then the ego, forgetting that its own immolation is

the ultimate goal of the process, may pride itself on what it has

acquired, regarding this as realization. In some cases this capital,

accumulated during the time of training, may be gradually

exhausted, like an overdrawn bank account, and the guru survives

on his former reputation, if at all; but in other cases it may continue

or even grow with the growth of the ego. For the ego will grow;

there is no food on which it flourishes more than the adulation

of disciples. The seeker needs to use great caution in estimating

not only the guru but also the purity of his own motives, for any

impure motive may be reflected outwardly in an imperfect guide.

And then not only will he not be led forward into greater

purity but will be infected by the imperfections of the guide,

drifting into a worse state than before; for qualities of the ego

are as infectious through psychic contact as a disease is

through the physical.

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from Arthur Osborne's MY LIFE & QUEST