Читать книгу The Ellipse: The Fall and Rise of the Human Soul, Secrets of the Cosmos - Zakariyya Ishaq - Страница 8

Introduction

Imagine a world not much different from ours outwardly, but looking closely at it, it lacks very important things in it that we have. It does not have violence, ignorance, crime, wars, sickness, old age, death and other terrible things we spend all our time fruitlessly trying to eliminate. We are so used to these elements in our world that we cannot even conceive of any other possibility of a world devoid of these negative elements. Even the rich and wealthy in the end will face sickness, death, and suffering. Many of them also live with the same psychological suffering as any of us - despite their wealth, that in the end will not save them from what the great teacher Buddha saw in the decrepit old man wasting away who inspired him to seek the knowledge of what causes this inevitable suffering. The question then arises: What can we do to understand and possibly eliminate this condition?

According to tradition, Buddha eventually found the meaning of life, and the etiology of suffering. This condition he labeled dukkha, a Sanskrit word denoting suffering. The first noble truth in his system of spiritual cosmology was that humans are in an existential condition of suffering. This suffering he said has a cause, and that cause is ultimately desire, that eventually will wreak inevitable havoc with all of our lives. By desire, he meant excess, wayward, or perverted desire that denotes internal imbalance somewhere in the soul. His design to free us from this condition is enumerated in the rest of his philosophy. According to him, if one can follow his well-defined philosophy, this will make existence bearable as well as enabling you to acquire peace, happiness, and enlightenment.

He taught that there was a cause of everything, and that if one examined life closely one could find the cause behind any phenomenon.

Many of his students questioned him about deep metaphysical topics, such as, what is the nature of God? Often he answered with silence, or he would offer the following analogy to the enquiries: If you find yourself with an arrow stuck in your heart, should you waste time and contemplate what kind of arrow is in you, or rather, wisely devise a method for taking out the arrow before it poisons you to death?

One can’t help appreciating such wisdom, and cannot argue with it. However, I say, what if your child had an arrow inside of him in the back yard of your home, and you took it out and saved him? Would you then send your other child to play in the same back yard without first finding out who or what is shooting arrows at children? Far be it from me to dispute one of the wisest of men. However, is it not the nature of we modern thinkers to seek the knowledge even beyond the prescription of the Buddha, since indeed whatever he discovered, it has not remotely eliminated suffering on this planet, and his prescription carries a price most cannot pay to arrive at his success?

Most humans find it impossible to achieve that prescription of holiness, perfection, and intense meditative practices, along with the sincere practice of virtues. In addition to that, it has dawned on many that the Buddha as a philosopher, amongst many of his attributes, was most likely referring to beginners in his system -who should shun seeking answers to philosophical and cosmological questions. And not to established practitioners who he knew full well would seek answers to the question of the meaning of life, as he himself did.

Suffering, according to Western spiritual cosmology - the lore of the “People of the Book” that includes Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - began in the era of pre-history known as the primordial period, when humans once lived in a world where suffering was non-existent. The ancient scriptures provide an allegory for these events that describe our sojourn in a paradise on earth. That, according to other traditions outside of Western spiritual lore, was a period of earthly bliss in our pre-history that encompassed millennia; in fact, one could not even measure the period since time itself, as we know it, did not even exist.

Many traditions in religion, from the lore of the shaman of the Americas to the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian religious texts, record a time when man lived above the sufferings he is steeped in today.

The ancient lore of the mythical Atlanteans, and Lemurians, whom historians still today dispute, is another historical series of legends that have pervaded our lore of history that speaks to this mysterious period of pre history that intrigue us even today, as in the past.

Were these legends true concerning the ancient Atlanteans and the Lemurians? Many claim that they are - and have offered proof - although some of these individuals are called “alternative historians”. Nevertheless, it seems certain that there is a prehistory that is unknown to us, and what we know of it is only from the holy books that many of us accept at face value. This mystical and religious lore cuts across many traditions over the spectrum of all of our culture’s myths, and stories that indeed tell us something. Many people feel there must be a reality behind these ancient myths that seem to pervade our entire race, and the same or very similar myths exist in divergent peoples all over the globe. The story of the Garden of Eden or a paradise on earth is widespread, and seems to be an indigenous myth in many cultures’ religious lore. It is the opinion of this author that the tradition in our heritage that has come down in history, concerning the great agility, and awesome power of the Atlanteans and Lemurians, is an indication that a part of their race is probably the race of “devils” or jinn, that was partially responsible for the fall of man. The myths known to us about them, though, are accounts of this archetypical period of the race of superiors recorded in The Book of Enoch. Although they cannot be blamed exclusively for man’s fall, they did have a hand in it.

The minute details of who is who in history ultimately does not matter, since this is pre-history. The important thing in this entire chronicle is the science of the cosmic law and events that occurred on an inward level; this book minutely details that inner, hidden history.

The allegory of the Garden of Eden, and the fall of man, as recorded in the Torah and Quran, is about the inner psychic elements of humankind that got distorted through a horrible ancient experience that is based on a spiritual science of states and stations. The story conveys the events of how humans became trapped in a lineage, tree, or vine of one of these states.

Because of the fall, the mystical and religious sciences -according to metaphysical lore - were revealed to humans as a guidance to return them to the nature they lost in the Garden of Eden. The Quranic theme of “That all will return to us” is the cosmic law that determines this reality and its inevitability.

This book is not a linear history. It is a revealing of the spiritual cosmic laws that determine the quality of our existence. Certain psychic-spiritual elements went awry in the human soul because of the fall. This occurred due to inner cosmic laws, not any curse, or overt act of punishment by any sky-God. The elements that were corrupted are from the very essence of our inner soul. These elements are slowly returning to their original position in the soul structure of all human beings. Indeed, it is that simple in the end, as if one would go outside and skillfully sling a boomerang in the sky, and just as that boomerang in a certain time will return to the thrower, similarly these awry elements of our transcendent soul are on a trajectory of return to us.

So our story begins with that great event in pre-history, that all of us deep down in our souls know all about, yet do not seem to remember. But as recorded in these pages, we indeed remember what happened, on a very deep level, and know what will happen in the end.

The end of time.