The Woodcut shows a pilgrim who after a long and fruitless spiritual quest
for a terrestrial and heavenly paradise is on his knees. Finally
he realizes his helplessness; he understands Gurdjieff's dictum, ‟Do all that you can, and then ask God for
mercy.″
It is then, at his wits′ end, that the pilgrim may be allowed to see through the shell of appearances, to
arrive at an understanding of the fundamental mechanism that lies behind them.
He may finally find what he′s been looking for at a place where heaven and earth meet: a
power behind and beyond all duality.
The pilgrim symbolizes a human being′s personality or ego, searching for happiness on earth. Not finding it on earth, attention is shifted to the search for bliss in heaven. But this search is still ego-driven, and not finding happiness in heaven either, the pilgrim realizes his helplessness; he has searched everywhere to no avail. Realising that his desires have not been fulfilled, his personality becomes passive, his spiritual Heart comes alive and it is then that Truth is revealed.
The cosmic quest theme is anticipated in an early passage of
Corpus Hermeticum
(circa fourth century AD), where Hermes Trismegistos (the Thrice-Great Hermes)
proclaimed:
"Learning well the essence [of the heavens]
and sharing in their nature, the man wished to break through the
circumference of the circles [heavenly spheres] to observe the rule
of the one given power over the fire. Having all authority over the
cosmos of mortals and unreasoning animals, the man broke through the
vault and stooped to look through the cosmic framework, thus
displaying to lower nature the fair form of god."
"One of the oldest and grandest inducements to philosophical thoughts and mystical insights is the mystery of the night sky. Long before astronomy disclosed the vastness of space, or the brilliant birth of new stars along with the ominous presence of devouring black holes, men and women looked at the dark, star-encrusted vault of the heavens and drew inspiration from that vision. One of the images arising from contemplation of the night sky is the contrast of the innumerable points of light with the heavy blackness upon which they seem suspended. A dark bowl or lid seems to cover our world, enclosing us in dense, oppressive opacity. Yet this inverted sphere is riddled with specks of light that are easily imagined as perforations in the black veil, hinting at a boundless world of light from where the light of the stars proceeds.
Leonard Cohen sings in ′Anthem′:
His simple metaphor might easily have been uttered two thousand years ago by the unusual and ever-fascinating people who came to be known as the Gnostics."
"To know that all has failed is the beginning of a new journey. To know that ′All that I have achieved is lost′ is the beginning of a new search for something that cannot be lost. When one is utterly disillusioned with the world and all its successes, only then one becomes spiritual."
"Rooted in meditation you will have wings of compassion. That′s why I say that I would like to give you two things: roots into this earth and wings into that heaven. Meditation is this earth, it is here and now; the very moment you can spread your roots, do it. And once roots are there your wings will reach to the highest sky possible. Compassion is the sky, meditation is the earth, and when meditation and compassion meet a buddha is born."
"Listening is one of the basic secrets of entering into the temple of God. Listening means passivity. Listening means forgetting
yourself completely -- only then can you listen. When you listen attentively to somebody, you forget yourself. If you cannot forget yourself, you never listen. If you are too
self-conscious about yourself, you simply pretend that you are listening -- you don't listen. You may nod your head; you may sometimes say yes and no -- but you are not
listening.
When you listen, you become just a passage, a passivity, a receptivity, a womb: you become feminine. And to arrive one has to become feminine. You cannot reach God as
aggressive invaders, conquerors. You can reach God only... or it will be better: God can reach you only when you are receptive, a feminine receptivity. When you become yin, a
receptivity, the door is open. And you wait. Listening is the art for becoming passive."
"You don′t have to do anything. Enlightenment is not your doing.
And it is not a gift. You are already enlightened, just you have
not looked in the right direction.
The difference between the enlightened and unenlightened being
is not much; it is negligible. One has looked into himself, the
other has not looked into himself. This is not much of a
difference. At any moment the other can also look into himself.
Perhaps when your eyes are tired of looking outside, you close
them in utter boredom and tiredness and look inside.
You have searched much and found nothing outside. You look in
and suddenly all that you were seeking is already there. You
have come with it into the world, it is your intrinsic quality."
"Life in itself is dormant, it is fast asleep. Enlightenment is absolutely awake. But it is the same energy that was asleep that becomes
awake. So they are not synonymous, but they are two extremes of the same energy.
But this, if taken as an intellectual understanding, is not going to help you in any way. It has to become your own experience.
You have to see that light.
You have to see that explosion within your own being.
You have to see the darkness disappearing.
You have to see the new dawn of a new life – a life of grace and gratitude, a life of beauty and blessings."
"If I were to save only two books from the whole world of the mystics, then these would be the two books:
The Hadiqa is the essential fragrance of the path of love. Just as Sosan has been able to catch the very soul of Zen, Hakim Sanai has been able to catch the very soul of Sufism. Such books are not written, they are born. Nobody can compose them. They are not manufactured in the mind, by the mind; they come from the beyond. They are a gift. They are born as mysteriously as a child is born, or a bird or a rose flower. They come to us, they are gifts.″
(Osho - Unio Mystica, vol.1 #1)