“Everything is not anything more than appearances –
the image we have of what we call ‘reality’ is false. To build our existence
based on this image is insane. In fact, everything exists differently, in a
parallel world, distinct from the one we imagine. This world is beyond our
customary radius of perception. Only ‘knowledge’ permits us to come to it”
(This is one of the three fundamental ideas, quoted in the book I Ching, known as the book of Chinese wisdom).
How many people, based on distorted conceptions, build
their own existence in a mistaken way?
The search for knowledge, for truth, is a question of
wisdom.
Knowledge is understood here as self-knowledge, which
has a connection with the essence of being, hidden in the depths of the soul;
being different from knowledge itself – which is supported by information –
learned on school benches and at universities, which evidently has its
importance when referring to worldly issues, but, however deep one goes, it
only has bearing on dead, external facts, having no substantial ties to the
experience lived by the person. Of what use is a person who understands
everything without understanding oneself?
Only the knowledge that allows the perception of
truth, which is the true knowledge and has its roots in the essence of one’s
being, in one’s personal experience - and having to do with transformation,
with wisdom – causes man to perceive the existence of this world not normally
imagined, and for this reason considered to be parallel, but which is the world
where a person can, due to being conscious and aware, walk through enlightened
paths, and not dark ones, without mistakes or stumbles.
***
“The body is the soul’s instrument and the soul is
God’s instrument” (Anacharsis, sixth century,
philosopher from Scythia).
John, since childhood, was raised to value only what
was material, concrete and visible.
Always giving value to material things, he studied,
grew up, graduated with a civil engineering degree, and married Tereza – both atheists. He never stopped taking care of his
body, for he thought that it was through it that he could move, work, have a role in the community. In a worldly sense, he was a
successful person. However, after reaching 40 years, he started feeling a bit
nostalgic.
Two years ago – presently John is 48 years old – his
wife began presenting serious health problems, and at this time he started
facing a grave existential crisis.
At this time, Tereza is
about to pass away, and John, who has a good financial situation, is even
making plans to go to the Orient with a friend of his, to spend some time there
meditating. As to their only son, Henrique, it had
been settled that he would stay with his aunt, Juliana.
Thus, out of extreme circumstances – and unbalanced
ones too – John, completely materialistic, was starting out on another phase –
spiritualistic – which should reach its high point upon his arrival in the
Orient, where he would dedicate himself to meditation.
The lesson we can learn from this case is that there
should always be an encounter between the material and the spiritual.
The fact is that the body – concrete, material – and
the soul – spiritual substance – should form an organic unit.
In unbalance, without the existence of the soul –
God’s instrument – man is only a body, which, one day will become a corpse;
thus, sooner or later, he could suppose that life does not have any meaning.
After all, the self is within the body, but it is not the body.
Within this vision of organic unity, in which heaven
(soul) and earth (body) are connected, life is worth living, it is a blessing.
