Eongar
Dagobah Resident
This is a compilation on Gnosis I of Mouravieff. He talks about lying:
The faculty of lying:
The faculty of lying is the third element in our factitious life. It helps substantially to give it a semblance of continuity. We can easily realize the role played by this faculty of lying if we imagine what our existence would come to if this possibility were taken away. Life would become impossible, due to the shocks and conflicts which we would have to face. In this way, lies serve as buffers, like the buffers of railway carriages which soften shocks. It is this faculty of lying which makes our lives less of a rattle, and contributes greatly to the impression of continuity life gives us. We are brought back once again to the fact that we attribute to ourselves faculties which we do not possess — except as possibilities for develop- ment: we pretend to be truthful because telling the truth and living a truthful life are possibilities which can become real; but they can do so much later, after we have worked hard and long upon ourselves. In the meantime we are condemned to lie. Whoever denies this only testifies to our difficulty in facing the truth. (4) We must linger a while on the question of lying, a question of great importance to which we must return more than once. The faculty of Iyng is a function of our imagination, a creative faculty. Before we create anything we must imagine what it is we wish to create. This gift belongs only to humans. Animals never possess it.
It is thanks to this gift of imagination, a divine gift, that we have the faculty of lying. We lie for different reasons, wishing generally to ame- liorate situations which seem to us unbearable or difficult to accept. Lies thus open the way for mechanisms of rationalization or of justification, which are ways of 'patching up'. We shall see further on how the entangled behaviour of persons round about us provokes many shocks, creating difficult and sometimes insoluble situations of human relations, veritable Gordian knots. It is thus in the utmost good faith that we resort to lies. This being so, the attitude of the esoteric Doctrine towards lying is clear and realistic. It does not require us to stop lying from the start, because nobody can carry out such a resolution. However, if man cannot stop lying to others, the same cannot be said as far as he himself is concerned. He is therefore asked to stop lying to himself— and this in a definite way. This requirement is absolute, and we can easily understand why. The objective of esoteric work is the march towards Consciousness, which means towards Truth. It would be a contradictio in objecto to try to approach the truth while continuing to lie to ourselves or to believe in our own lies. We must therefore eliminate any attempt to lie to ourselves: on this point no com- promise can be tolerated, no excuse admitted. But while in our present condition we cannot live without lying to others, we must at least be conscious of our lies. There is, nevertheless, another recommendation which we can make in this domain. In the ensemble of our lies to others, tolerated esoterically, we must exercise ourselves to distinguish between those lies which are in- dispensable or inevitable, those lies which are simply useful, and those which are not. The Doctrine asks those who study it to fight energetically against those useless lies.
It is only by training of this nature that we shall progressively be able to master the rooted tendency to lie which exists within us. Every attempt to hurry things, so far as lying to others is concerned, though it be a noble attempt, is doomed to early failure. We live in a world which is immersed in lies and moved by lies. It is to be noted that the Decalogue, which imposes observable commandments on man, does not forbid him from lying except in a small sector of human relations; that of bearing false witness, and also in situations where he is already badly predisposed to someone.
We live in a world ruled by lies. Lying and stealing are the dominant elements of human character whatever the race, creed or caste. Whoever says that this is not true simply tells another lie. Man lies because , in a world ruled by lies it is not possible for him to do otherwise. To all that has already been said, one must add the following peculiarity which at first looks paradoxical; that the progress of this civilization, which is the fruit of an intellectual culture, considerably increases the need for lying. [...] Of all forms the man feels that he should lie.
Yet man feels that he should not lie. In his inmost heart lives a vague memory of the pure, unperverted consciousness he had before the fall of Adam. Every normal and sane human being experiences, more than once, nostalgia for an uncorrupted life, and bitter regret that they are snared in the meshes of cheating, both moral and material.
Man, however, lets himself be bound more and more in life: his faculty for lying gives him the marvellous impression of being able to arrange things for the best in difficult situations, but he forgets that lies, once uttered, put him under obligation. Imaginary facts created in these acts demand a context which, if not completely identical, 2 must at least support 3 the circumstances within which we live and act. As long as we deal with insignificant facts, lying does not often result in serious consequences; conversely, in the absence of an adequate context, a serious lie un- failingly leads to a catastrophe commensurate with the importance of the problem.
If we refer to the different aspects of this subject, an analysis of lying permits us to distinguish the following modes:
— Lying to others;
— Lying to oneself;
— Useful lies;
— Useless lies.
To these classic cases of lying, one must add two particular cases:
- Hypocrisy: the pretence of virtue, of praiseworthy sentiments, with the intent to deceive persons of good faith;
-The integral lie: this characterizes that person who, from a habit of lying and cheating on every occasion, ends by believing his own lies and thus loses all sense of truth.
These two last cases are the hardest to cure: hypocrisy, in fact, must be deeply rooted in the Personality of the human being to become an element of his behaviour. To overcome this tendency within oneself requires considerable and painful efforts. No fruitful esoteric work can be undertaken by anyone who has not first rid himself of this vice. It is dangerous for a hypocrite even to start searching for the Way, as he is condemned to fall in advance. It is the same for him who has become a prey to integral lying. Nevertheless, if these lies are not soiled with hypocrisy, meaning that if the intentional mythomaniac element is entirely lacking, this case is easier to cure than the preceding one.
It is anyway rather rare for persons suffering from these defects to be- come interested in esoteric teaching. Oriented towards the true, this teaching exercises a strong repulsion on those who suffer from these mental 6 anomalies. Thus we can now concentrate our attention on the more wide- spread cases, which are related to the four modes listed above.
One can say in general that all men lie in these four ways, and those who approach esoteric work do not escape from this rule. It is only the intensity which differs from one person to another. Setting aside cases who lie for the sake of lying, at the root of lying we can distinguish a whole series of motives; they can spring from the baseness of our natures or be inspired by
the noblest sentiments. For example, we do not tell the truth to persons who suffer from a malady which is hopeless. We lie sometimes to attenuate the brutal effect of bad news. On the other hand, there exist cases where we try to ameliorate the effects of facts by lies not out of hypocrisy but, if we can say so, out of a taste for the marvellous and for the miraculous. Such cases deserve our attention because they are out of the ordinary. We may remember the text of the liturgical prayer by which, Jesus addressing Himself to the Father, said: 'Thy word is Truth'. 7 This creative force of the Word, of the logos, which is the Son's very nature, lies within us in our inmost heart.
We must note that we currently attribute to the subconscious world phenomena and messages which really come from higher levels of Consciousness. Moved by vague recollections, the man of good faith and a generous heart sometimes feels the need of bringing consolation, a note of optimism, and so distorts the facts by presenting them in a favourable light. It is doubtless a praiseworthy attempt, but it is ineffective because of the insufficient means available. For our word is not yet a word of Truth. If they had had the power of the word of Jesus our lies, taking miraculous power, would actually have improved the facts. The facts, however, re- main in the same context as they were, before the man of good faith attempted to improve them. This sort of lie could be defined as an attempt to perform a miracle with insufficient means.
[...]
As for efforts at suppressing lies to oneself, they entail quite different and important consequences. Such lies grow deep roots. In this domain, paradoxical situations sometimes arise, some of them of such psychological subtlety that it is difficult to draw them out of the shade. It is enough to mention the question of marriages where one of the partners, having realized that this union is an error, persists in trying to convince himself of the contrary. If he is of an affectionate nature, he will redouble his amiability towards his partner as if truly toward his polar being. The absurdity of the situation reaches its limits if the other partner reacts by adopting a corresponding attitude -without truly feeling any sincere or spontaneous glow of tenderness. This true 'play of love' is evidently to the greatest profit of the General Law. The danger from the esoteric point of view is that, by mere force of habit, such a situation takes on for one of the partners, or even for both of them, the value of true love. This kind of lying to oneself can go on for dozens of years with people who are amiable and of good faith, and they entail tragic disillusions in the end.
The man who starts to struggle against lying to himself must be fore-warned of these difficulties, and of the possible collapse of some or all his greatest values. But it also happens that such inner collapses are produced in people who never approached esoteric work, but afterwards come to search for something more solid and permanent. All should know that true esoteric work only begins after the novice has passed through a general bankruptcy, and has had his gods helplessly thrown to the ground.
[Mod: edited with original English Gnosis text]
The faculty of lying:
The faculty of lying is the third element in our factitious life. It helps substantially to give it a semblance of continuity. We can easily realize the role played by this faculty of lying if we imagine what our existence would come to if this possibility were taken away. Life would become impossible, due to the shocks and conflicts which we would have to face. In this way, lies serve as buffers, like the buffers of railway carriages which soften shocks. It is this faculty of lying which makes our lives less of a rattle, and contributes greatly to the impression of continuity life gives us. We are brought back once again to the fact that we attribute to ourselves faculties which we do not possess — except as possibilities for develop- ment: we pretend to be truthful because telling the truth and living a truthful life are possibilities which can become real; but they can do so much later, after we have worked hard and long upon ourselves. In the meantime we are condemned to lie. Whoever denies this only testifies to our difficulty in facing the truth. (4) We must linger a while on the question of lying, a question of great importance to which we must return more than once. The faculty of Iyng is a function of our imagination, a creative faculty. Before we create anything we must imagine what it is we wish to create. This gift belongs only to humans. Animals never possess it.
It is thanks to this gift of imagination, a divine gift, that we have the faculty of lying. We lie for different reasons, wishing generally to ame- liorate situations which seem to us unbearable or difficult to accept. Lies thus open the way for mechanisms of rationalization or of justification, which are ways of 'patching up'. We shall see further on how the entangled behaviour of persons round about us provokes many shocks, creating difficult and sometimes insoluble situations of human relations, veritable Gordian knots. It is thus in the utmost good faith that we resort to lies. This being so, the attitude of the esoteric Doctrine towards lying is clear and realistic. It does not require us to stop lying from the start, because nobody can carry out such a resolution. However, if man cannot stop lying to others, the same cannot be said as far as he himself is concerned. He is therefore asked to stop lying to himself— and this in a definite way. This requirement is absolute, and we can easily understand why. The objective of esoteric work is the march towards Consciousness, which means towards Truth. It would be a contradictio in objecto to try to approach the truth while continuing to lie to ourselves or to believe in our own lies. We must therefore eliminate any attempt to lie to ourselves: on this point no com- promise can be tolerated, no excuse admitted. But while in our present condition we cannot live without lying to others, we must at least be conscious of our lies. There is, nevertheless, another recommendation which we can make in this domain. In the ensemble of our lies to others, tolerated esoterically, we must exercise ourselves to distinguish between those lies which are in- dispensable or inevitable, those lies which are simply useful, and those which are not. The Doctrine asks those who study it to fight energetically against those useless lies.
It is only by training of this nature that we shall progressively be able to master the rooted tendency to lie which exists within us. Every attempt to hurry things, so far as lying to others is concerned, though it be a noble attempt, is doomed to early failure. We live in a world which is immersed in lies and moved by lies. It is to be noted that the Decalogue, which imposes observable commandments on man, does not forbid him from lying except in a small sector of human relations; that of bearing false witness, and also in situations where he is already badly predisposed to someone.
We live in a world ruled by lies. Lying and stealing are the dominant elements of human character whatever the race, creed or caste. Whoever says that this is not true simply tells another lie. Man lies because , in a world ruled by lies it is not possible for him to do otherwise. To all that has already been said, one must add the following peculiarity which at first looks paradoxical; that the progress of this civilization, which is the fruit of an intellectual culture, considerably increases the need for lying. [...] Of all forms the man feels that he should lie.
Yet man feels that he should not lie. In his inmost heart lives a vague memory of the pure, unperverted consciousness he had before the fall of Adam. Every normal and sane human being experiences, more than once, nostalgia for an uncorrupted life, and bitter regret that they are snared in the meshes of cheating, both moral and material.
Man, however, lets himself be bound more and more in life: his faculty for lying gives him the marvellous impression of being able to arrange things for the best in difficult situations, but he forgets that lies, once uttered, put him under obligation. Imaginary facts created in these acts demand a context which, if not completely identical, 2 must at least support 3 the circumstances within which we live and act. As long as we deal with insignificant facts, lying does not often result in serious consequences; conversely, in the absence of an adequate context, a serious lie un- failingly leads to a catastrophe commensurate with the importance of the problem.
If we refer to the different aspects of this subject, an analysis of lying permits us to distinguish the following modes:
— Lying to others;
— Lying to oneself;
— Useful lies;
— Useless lies.
To these classic cases of lying, one must add two particular cases:
- Hypocrisy: the pretence of virtue, of praiseworthy sentiments, with the intent to deceive persons of good faith;
-The integral lie: this characterizes that person who, from a habit of lying and cheating on every occasion, ends by believing his own lies and thus loses all sense of truth.
These two last cases are the hardest to cure: hypocrisy, in fact, must be deeply rooted in the Personality of the human being to become an element of his behaviour. To overcome this tendency within oneself requires considerable and painful efforts. No fruitful esoteric work can be undertaken by anyone who has not first rid himself of this vice. It is dangerous for a hypocrite even to start searching for the Way, as he is condemned to fall in advance. It is the same for him who has become a prey to integral lying. Nevertheless, if these lies are not soiled with hypocrisy, meaning that if the intentional mythomaniac element is entirely lacking, this case is easier to cure than the preceding one.
It is anyway rather rare for persons suffering from these defects to be- come interested in esoteric teaching. Oriented towards the true, this teaching exercises a strong repulsion on those who suffer from these mental 6 anomalies. Thus we can now concentrate our attention on the more wide- spread cases, which are related to the four modes listed above.
One can say in general that all men lie in these four ways, and those who approach esoteric work do not escape from this rule. It is only the intensity which differs from one person to another. Setting aside cases who lie for the sake of lying, at the root of lying we can distinguish a whole series of motives; they can spring from the baseness of our natures or be inspired by
the noblest sentiments. For example, we do not tell the truth to persons who suffer from a malady which is hopeless. We lie sometimes to attenuate the brutal effect of bad news. On the other hand, there exist cases where we try to ameliorate the effects of facts by lies not out of hypocrisy but, if we can say so, out of a taste for the marvellous and for the miraculous. Such cases deserve our attention because they are out of the ordinary. We may remember the text of the liturgical prayer by which, Jesus addressing Himself to the Father, said: 'Thy word is Truth'. 7 This creative force of the Word, of the logos, which is the Son's very nature, lies within us in our inmost heart.
We must note that we currently attribute to the subconscious world phenomena and messages which really come from higher levels of Consciousness. Moved by vague recollections, the man of good faith and a generous heart sometimes feels the need of bringing consolation, a note of optimism, and so distorts the facts by presenting them in a favourable light. It is doubtless a praiseworthy attempt, but it is ineffective because of the insufficient means available. For our word is not yet a word of Truth. If they had had the power of the word of Jesus our lies, taking miraculous power, would actually have improved the facts. The facts, however, re- main in the same context as they were, before the man of good faith attempted to improve them. This sort of lie could be defined as an attempt to perform a miracle with insufficient means.
[...]
As for efforts at suppressing lies to oneself, they entail quite different and important consequences. Such lies grow deep roots. In this domain, paradoxical situations sometimes arise, some of them of such psychological subtlety that it is difficult to draw them out of the shade. It is enough to mention the question of marriages where one of the partners, having realized that this union is an error, persists in trying to convince himself of the contrary. If he is of an affectionate nature, he will redouble his amiability towards his partner as if truly toward his polar being. The absurdity of the situation reaches its limits if the other partner reacts by adopting a corresponding attitude -without truly feeling any sincere or spontaneous glow of tenderness. This true 'play of love' is evidently to the greatest profit of the General Law. The danger from the esoteric point of view is that, by mere force of habit, such a situation takes on for one of the partners, or even for both of them, the value of true love. This kind of lying to oneself can go on for dozens of years with people who are amiable and of good faith, and they entail tragic disillusions in the end.
The man who starts to struggle against lying to himself must be fore-warned of these difficulties, and of the possible collapse of some or all his greatest values. But it also happens that such inner collapses are produced in people who never approached esoteric work, but afterwards come to search for something more solid and permanent. All should know that true esoteric work only begins after the novice has passed through a general bankruptcy, and has had his gods helplessly thrown to the ground.
[Mod: edited with original English Gnosis text]
