What I really know does not come from the knowledge I have gathered, but from the depth of my Self. - IBF
Beyond the person we think we are, is a second person, whom we do not see. - IBF
The following article consists of the highlights of a speech given to members of the Supreme Board of AMORC in Lachute, Canada, in October 2005 by the (passed) Dutch Grand Master Irène Beusekamp-Fabert. Grand Master of the Netherlands Jurisdiction.
WE HAVE ALMOST COME TO THE end of the 2005 Supreme Grand Lodge meeting and I will not present a highbrow speech to you. I have been in this world a long time. I was five years old when I went to school for the first time. I learnt, I studied, and I studied again and again, and now…, I know so much that I don’t know what I know, just like Montaigne who said: “Que sais-je?” (What do I know?).
The exegetes of Montaigne have thought for a long time that he expressed scepticism and disappointment through this rhetorical question. As a very young child he spoke Latin fluently and later in life he had a great command of philosophy and law. He travelled widely and held several public positions, but his interest focussed more and more on the phenomenon of man. So he retired to his chateau where he dedicated himself to the study of man, and as he lived in solitude he himself became the object of his observations, which he recorded in his famous essays. In the silence he found what was most important to him, namely his deep Self, which he called, rather disrespectfully, his “arrière boutique” (his shop at the back). He wrote a great deal about man in the form of essays, and yet he never really knew who or what man is. “Que sais-je,” what do I know, really! He kept silent about any spiritual experiences in the depth of his Self.
I will now return to my own experiences. From everything I learnt, I have acquired a considerable amount of knowledge, but what I really know does not come from the knowledge I have gathered but from the depth of my Self, during short or long periods of pure silence, moments when everything in oneself keeps still, and it looks as if one is surrounded by an ethereal veil and all of a sudden one’s Inner Master manifests himself in one’s deepest Self. This confirms what the Master said such a long time ago: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within us.” “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” May I, student on the Path, repeat this age-old message.
The present illusion of man is the overrating of the intellect, which has brought him so much and has enabled him to change his living conditions through technical miracles. Mankind is in the grip of a technical development which seemingly cannot be stopped. New discoveries are being made in all fields. The universe reveals its secrets to science, and all riches of Mother Earth are boundlessly being used and abused. The world is out of balance: whereas we in Western countries are more and more encouraged to acquire utterly useless consumer goods whilst being too concerned about ‘having’ (we no longer know how to conjugate the verb ‘to be’), the other half of the world is starving and suffering privation of the bare essentials of life, and so far, no technological solution has been found. Isn’t it about time for us to become aware of the deception of our intellectual developments and to go new ways, ways which are becoming more and more apparent and which have always been shown by sages from all civilisations within the framework of one science: the science of the soul? Isn’t it silly that scientists know everything about the smallest of insects, which they can’t even observe with the naked eye, but do not know the how and why of their own existence; that geneticists know everything about the cells of plants, animals and human beings, but do not dwell upon the mystery of their own being and the singularity of their own person; that man crosses the universe, lands on the moon, but cannot find the way to himself. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
May I, student on the Path, repeat this age-old message. It is the message contained in the smile of the Sphinx, which quietly and serenely rises above Egypt’s sand. It is the message of the ancient mystery schools. It is the message couched in different terms by the German mystic Meister Eckhart in the 14th century: “God is in the centre of man.” Thomas à Kempis and Jacob Boehme expressed the same in long and not always easily readable writings based on true experience, experience which is also possible for man at the beginning of this new century. Our time is precisely the time in which godlike values become more apparent, and spiritual life becomes as noticeable and real as material life; the time in which the word ‘initiation’ recovers its original meaning: a beginning, a new beginning. And that’s how it should be, as every person is part of the universal spirit which gave rise to our world, the spirit inhabited by eternal love, infinite wisdom and indestructible Peace.
In the mystery schools of countries with pre-Christian civilisations, initiation was considered an extremely important act. At the end of the ceremonies of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greece, the last words the initiate heard were “May peace be with you…” whereupon he resumed his path with a peaceful soul and a content heart. To him the initiation was nothing but a deep developing awareness of what he really was; it was a completion of his spiritual life, and whoever did not experience this was not a complete person.
If this intimate experience was possible 2000 years before Christ, it is possible 2000 years after Christ. During these 4000 years man’s basic nature has not changed, nor has man’s search for himself, as a student on the path, aspiring to face the Divinity within. In his true reality, as he was and always will be, man is a spiritual being, despite his temporarily dwelling in a material body. Our physical senses have put kind of a spell on us, and are the reason why we confuse our true Self with our physical self. The heavenly does not only surround us during our innocent childhood, but at any moment of our lives; we just don’t know it yet or any more. Beyond the person we think we are, is a second person, whom we do not see: our real or “higher” Self already existing before thoughts and desires took hold of us. Beyond our body of flesh and blood lives a radiant and sublime consciousness. Our true life flows in the depth of our heart and is not part of the superficial mask of the personality which we show to the world. Student on the Path, you are heir to a treasure hidden deep down in the recesses of your own nature: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
Whoever, withdrawn into his own silence, embarks on a quest for himself, is not a dreamer. He only does what everyone at a certain stage of his evolution (the way may be short or long) has to do, and that is to keep his spiritual eyes open and listen to the voice within. One day his higher self will be revealed to him and he will be on the verge of eternity. Whether the gate to our soul opens for a second, a minute or an hour, the revelation will be complete. Neither bitter suffering nor heavy burdens can take away this knowledge, knowledge that cannot be explained in words. The one who has once felt his innermost being dissolve and merge into infinity, knows this cannot be expressed. It is the illumination of mind and heart, the most miraculous thing in life.
Search for your Self, find your true Self and you will know the meaning of life, and the mystery of the universe will unveil itself. Think of the words of the Master from Galilee: “Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened for you.” Discover that you are part of an infinite Life expressing itself in Light and Love. “Who knows his own nature, knows Paradise,” a pupil of Confucius once said. In other words: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
