Close to yourself

Close to yourself

More and more, we discover the wonderful correlation of all life.  

Books are published about the hidden life of trees, their vast root systems and mutual communication. Books about how trees and moulds cooperate and provide so that nature as a  system thrives, as a whole. Books with beautiful points of perspective, ways in which mankind and nature are connected. The influence of the sun, the stars and the cleansing ability of the ocean. Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh tells how everything is joined together in a white sheet of paper – time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sunshine, clouds, rivers, warmth and people.

The logger who felled the tree, the leaves catching the sun, the roots soaking up the rainwater that was carried by the clouds. In awe and great wonder we talk about resonance and perceive energy and vibration fields and the coherence present.
In our complicated and fragmented world, scientific specialisations have brought us a profound knowledge of the earth and humanity. Today we see how between the separated disciplines connections and collaborative links are re-emerging. It is important that we become aware of this incredibly special coherence and unity in life and recognise that we need each other’s cooperation and knowledge. It expands our vision and view of the world. It shows our place in it and our responsibility. What we do matters for now and later, not only for us individually but for the whole.

It is wonderful to discover that in a world of great diversity order and system ensure the vitality and grandiose balance of the whole. And it is wonderful that many books are being written about this, but shouldn’t there be just as many books about the force that underlies all life and is able to purify the multiplicity into what life is really all about for people at its deepest level?

To live is to move. Looking beyond our individual lives, we see that all movement takes place in a circle: the food chain, the cycle of water, life and death. And just as circles in water are caused by throwing a stone into it, Hermes Trismegistos says every movement comes about through something that is itself immovable. It is the unnameable, unknowable, incomprehensible to us, from which the fire of the spirit springs. Using the example of the sun and the planets, Hermes explains that the immovable, silent centre gives control, stability and balance to every movement. All that lives, according to Hermes, carries a spark of that fire, of that spiritual intelligence, known in Chinese thought as Tao’s spiritual essence. And Rosicrucians speak of the divine spark, of gnosis, the inner wisdom and knowledge within the heart. Is it possible then to be able to approach, perhaps even understand, the whole interconnectedness of life, of the world and its people, to be able to comprehend all of this in one simple, encompassing thought, without becoming dizzy and overwhelmed?

Wisdom of all times advises us to connect ourselves with the inner core in the heart. When you profoundly enter your heart, surpassing all knowledge of the world, you meet the Gnosis, the core fire that abides within you, that straightens you towards the connection with your inner being. That strengthens, purifies, sanctifies and gives direction. There you find – according to Hermes – ‘the master of movement’. Call it spirit, call it Tao, God of Biblicality: ‘the light of lights’, the Christ. There, close to your self, you find directions of how to live on the very spot you stand. And that proves to be enough!

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Date: February 18, 2024
Author: Ankie Hettema-Pieterse (Netherlands)
Photo: Marion Pellikaan

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