From the top of the marine observatory I glimpse the horizon.
The sky and the sea seem to have no end.
When the day begins, seagulls are seen gliding over the cliffs. With an attentive look, in clear time, the quietness and transparency of the water allow one to guess the abyssal depths full of beings, many still unknown.
My mission is recognition and rescue. After all, like the maritime beings I observe, I am attentive to the infinite sea of human essence that manifests itself in me.
To recognize demands previous knowledge. Rescuing requires love and courage. Therefore, recognizing depends on a special memory and rescuing requires commitment in constant action. Each step on this path of self-knowledge takes me higher and deeper into this essence. As Hermes Trismegistus would say: As above so below. I use everything that can be useful. I give myself totally to that art – the sacred Art – the real sacrifice (from the Latin words sacer “sacred, holy” + faciō “do, make”).
I take a deep breath, trying to make the most of my memories of other missions. I observe the immense collection of the Observatory Museum. Each collection corresponds to a vast catalogue that other observers have bequeathed to me. However, it is necessary to check one by one, to capture with my own eyes every detail. It is as if I were looking at this magnetic bubble in which my own self is immersed: this microcosm full of memories of thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions, mine and so many others.
But knowledge is not only the fruit of thoughts, theories, readings, catalogues. I observe that my gaze is selective. I like one specimen more than another, I feel different emotions when I come into visual contact with them. I touch each one, I perceive different colors and sizes. The smell of the sea brings me memories of flavors. Some make me relive natural sounds and I remember different beings. Some are predators, others are true workers of the endless sea. I try not to select thoughts and feelings like “good and bad”, “right and wrong”, “sinful and pure”. The idea of sin is a human creation, not a divine one! It is only a stumbling block, a passing flaw. The meaning of the word in Latin is exactly this: peccatum, from pecco + ātum = to stumble, to take a false step; to err; to sin. It is a concept generated by guilt and by ideas divided into opposing pairs.
In the museum, the specimens are all static, lifeless – as is the theory about them. There was a time when I sought to catalog my thoughts, emotions and actions. I realized it was pure exercise of the mind. Dead word.
That is why I often start the day diving to get to know them up close, to see their movements, their daily lives. Nothing is as good as observation without analysis, guilt, fear or any criterion other than pure observation. After all, as Krishnamurti says, “The highest form of human intelligence is the capacity to observe without judging. (…) True thinking and feeling are situated above and beyond opposites, while correct or conditioned thinking is oppressed by them”.
I prepare myself carefully, thinking of security, but also of the best way to observe life using time well according to the exact amount of oxygen I carry. Everything that exists in my little world reflects the life in it. But I must recognize my limits in order to act according to my step.
In the silent solitude of the observatory, time can be a prison or open new dimensions. I can spend hours diving or admiring nature from above. But I can also get lost in minutiae by reading catalogues in the museum. I realize that it is no use trying to learn only from books and trying to control the silence to obtain better self-observation: silence comes naturally, flowing without thought.
We must be careful with the routine: it repeats itself and makes us repeat our reactions. When we do not notice it, we become prisoners of the beauty of the sky and the sea, of the sun and the moon, of marine beings and seagulls. We forget that we are there to observe. It can happen, also, that an observer lets himself be entangled by the amount of knowledge of the museum and spend almost all his time inside it, without seeing sky or sea, sun or moon. Others, fascinated by the exercise of diving, almost run out of air looking for the abyssal beings, their colors and shapes, their beauty or monstrosity. There are so many distractions that the world gives us! To let flow is not to be condescending or to be distracted. It is being attentive.
Each observer has their own style, their own stories, their own personal goals. But observation is simply what it is – without words or concepts. It is a step on the road to recognition and rescue. To observe is to be present in the here and now. As a group, we observe more details, with more clarity of soul.
But “recognition” and “rescue” have different meanings for each. The words do not describe our mission well.
This is how I began to “immerse myself in observation”. In this dive, everything is new! Nothing depends on opinion, criticism, fear or guilt. The goal is to recognize and rescue. To recognize each day as an opportunity. To rescue our strength so that we can act at the right moment.
Many times the recognition starts with the memory of a previous knowledge, seen in the museum catalogue. In this case, I observe an eel and think: this is an eel. But do I know what an eel is beyond the museum catalogue? Then I “dive into observation” and identify myself with that being, with its movements, with its burrow, with its interests, its intentions. I no longer put a name to it. I just observe. I don’t experience charm or feel repulsion. I observe the life that moves in the here and now, flowing. The memory of thought is not the same as spontaneous reminiscence – which flows, creating moments of extreme lucidity.
When I am on a rescue mission, I go equipped with instruments according to what I need to do: to care and to rescue. The others, the healthy specimens, I let them follow their path, until life indicates their destination. Predators do not attract me: they represent nothing for my mission. Thinking-feeling-acting can be sick actions, but it can also be a forgotten, concatenated, harmonious dynamic: in this case, this movement needs to be rescued.
I learned from my observations that to take care of a being is not to imprison him in an aquarium: it is to open possibilities of healing for him from his own strength. As soon as the process is over, he himself feels ready to recover his freedom in the endless sea: that is the rescue! When I see him healed, free and happy, what joy, what lightness I feel in my heart! The self-knowledge that comes from attentive and light observation can be an instrument of healing and an object of great fullness.
Thus, when the day is over, I can savor the delights of nature from above the observatory. Up there, I have installed the light of an ancient lighthouse, which illuminates the waters to the horizon line – for me and for other passing navigators. When the observation is illuminated by the force of the heart that yearns for other dimensions of consciousness, every effort is concentrated so that this radiant light pours out in all directions for all humanity. This is the mission: Operation Rescue.
And it is from this place, immersed in my observations, that I perceive within me thought-beings, emotion-beings and reaction-beings. I observe them at every moment. Without fear, without criticism, without self-flagellation, without guilt. Lovingly, I recognize them one by one. Some, I let them follow their path until I know what they are for. Others, I stop feeding them, so that their divine nature may dissolve them. Those who are more sensitive, I gradually gather to take care of their spiritual health in homeopathic doses every day.
This is how, under the light of the lighthouse, they are prepared for the rescue towards the Great Sea of True Life.
References:
- Trismegistus, Hermes: Tabula Smaragadina, analysis by Rijckenborgh, Jan van. In Original Egyptian Gnosis, tomo I, p. 23, Lectorium Rosicrucianum, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
- Krishnamurti, Jiddu: Self-Knowledge, Correct Thinking, Happiness, Quietude pp. 49-50. In: https://www.krishnamurti.org.br/index.php/correto-pensar-atencao-suspensao-pensar-quietude/
