http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/wave13e3.htm
MH: I set out to learn how to be a Fool.
OM: No, you set out the follow the Way of the Fool. There is a difference. And what is the result of such a journey? The result is a wise Fool. A fool is the one who gives up everything for an idea. The wise Fool is the one who knows that he never had anything to give up in the first place. Is that Foolish? ...Now, what is the difference between an old Fool and a young Fool?
MH: Is it commitment? The old man has committed himself, while the young one has not?
OM: Yes, exactly so. The old man has committed himself. He has made a stand. Life has made him do that. He has drawn a circle around himself, and said, "This is where I stand, this is what I must do." He has committed himself to an action.
Because he has drawn a circle around himself, others can see where he stands. He can be attacked by others. His position is weak. Those who have not committed themselves can mock, if they are so inclined.
The one who has committed himself appears to be in a weak position. Yet the Spiritual truth is quite otherwise. It is the one who accepts commitment who is strong.
The true commitment is the artistic one. This is why artists are so often attacked. They are attacked for their morals, for their ideas - even for their work. Yet their essence - their commitment - is the secret which is unassailable.
The true artist knows that creativity is its own reward.
Ordinary people fear commitment, you see. Ordinary people fear creativity. They know that if they allow that seething cauldron of yellow liquid to boil over within themselves, then their whole lives will be changed.
People fear change. People do not wish to be creative and artistic in any real sense. They wish to decorate, perhaps, and to make things around themselves pleasant - but this has little to do with creativity. All spiritual paths should be creative. Creativity is involved with sacrifice. That stew of yellow liquid which boils in everyone is a sacrificial broth...
MH: The sulphur?
OM: Yes, the sulphur. The first of the Three Principles. It is in a sacrificial cauldron. It is an excess. Creativity is Spiritual delight, and overpouring of sulphur. Some time ago you asked me about the word sulphur. We both agreed that Fulcanelli was right, and alchemical sulphur is the equivalent of the sexual energies in man and woman. The sexual energies may come out in a selfish way or in a creative way. Jakob Boehme saw the division in the word sulphur in a slightly different way. He divided the word itself, and said Sul was the soul of a thing, the oil. The Sul is born of the phur, the light. ...Have you ever looked at spilt oil? Under certain conditions it can look like a thin filament of a rainbow. This is the light imprisoned in the oil. The light rises upwards. It liberates the rainbow. It is as simple as that.
MH: Then all creative activity must be "foolish?" In which case, thinking must be "foolish?"
OM: Perhaps thinking is "foolish." Certain forms of thinking undoubtedly are "foolish." After all, most people are vulnerable in their ideas: they fear to think for themselves. The Fool learns to think for himself: he or she makes it an exercise of the soul. Others refuse that Way. This is why our civilization is so under threat. We are living in a world where every effort is being made to ensure that the body is comfortable, yet little is done for the growing soul.
MH:Creativity is itself, a form of selflessness?
OM: Exactly so. Creativity is the giving away of Spiritual energy. Creativity is the soul in the expenditure of a bottomless purse. One gives sulphur away - initially perhaps, through an excess of joy - that is the foolishness of the young. Later, one gives away energy through commitment to an idea. Creativity is the ultimate deed of unselfishness. When a man knows that creativity is its own reward... Well, then he is ready to work with people.You think of yourself as a loner. You do not see how much you are needed. You are needed to point the way.
MH: But I know nothing!
OM: You do not believe that when you sit before a group you do so alone? You are there as a representative of the spiritual world. Fools like myself become teachers, because we find suddenly that there is no one else. It's as simple as that. You realize how great is the gulf between you and others. There is a curtain between you. And you understand that this curtain is good for neither of you. The house out there is burning. You can see the flames, but those others cannot see the flames. ... Now the question is, can you leave those people in the flames? Would it not be the act of a Fool to snatch one, or perhaps two, out of the conflagration?
MH: If that is what they want.
OM: They cannot see the flames, but they do not wish to be burned. You see. You know that there are two sorts of flame. There is the soft and slow flame of the inner heat, and that terrible burning flame which consumes, and which feels no human pain. ...You cannot continue widening the gap between yourself and the world, What for others is light is for the Teacher an old light - another word for darkness.We live in a foolish paradox, for while we have forever, we do not have much time. [Hedsel, 2000]
