Here in Washington, our Grand Master’s motto this year is Know Thyself. (Actually it’s an Ancient Greek version of Know Thyself, but heh, who can spell such things. The important part of his message is just that:
Last night at Emeth’s weekly Zoom gathering, Rummer & Grapes, our discussion was about the Chamber of Reflection, one of the important features of which are the initials V.I.T.R.I.O.L. These initials stand for a saying in Latin, but again, who can spell such things! The important thing for us is the english translation:
Visit the interior of the earth, and rectifying it, you will find the hidden stone.
The first is an ancient maxim, the second an alchemical instruction. Together they mean the same thing. They point out our duty to ourselves. Our inner quest.
Towards a furthering of that quest, I recently encountered questions that I imagine we might all do well to ponder:
These questions weren’t written specifically for Masonry, nor presented as such when I encountered them. I think we do well to contemplate them both from a Masonic perspective and as they relate to our broader lives.
I’m posting this as a discussion thread, but I imagine that while some might be comfortable posting about them here, others might well consider the subject too private. Feel free to comment, or not, as feels right to you. The important thing, I think, is the personal exploration, the quest to Know Thyself.
1. Hapoiness is something that cannot be persued. It just happens. There is no measure of happiness to try to be happy is to be bitter all the time. Happiness just happen when we accept what we have everyday and at the same time strive for betterment.
2. To pursuit a legacy is much like happiness, we do not look for it. Thinking in leaving something for others while expecting some kind of recognition is the work of the ego. Our goals is to try to make the world better for future generations, while expecting nothing for us.
We have read the books of some amazing people of the past; Pike, MP Hall, Papus, Blavatsky, etc etc. These people left us an amazing library of knowledge, but is not them that we have to thank for. Is the teachers that they had that really did the work by giving us the chance to know these persons. Those teachers worked in silence, never wanted to be recognize. That is what we have to aim.
I don't believe either of those options motivates me. Since I was a teenager I have been motivated to pursue questions of metaphysics, mysticism, and spirituality, and my first encounters with Masonry demonstrated to me that it was a branch of the Western Mystery Tradition, and worth pursuit. Some might argue that this would make me happy, or contribute to my happiness. All I can say to that, is that I am compelled by my personality to pursue these questions, and while I do enjoy finding answers, it feels less like happiness than it does like reflex. I move toward these areas of study as a part of my personality. If happiness or legacy happens, it is a byproduct of my work not a goal.
I can't say that either of those really motivate me. My main motivation has always been getting my head pulled out of my posterior, mainly toward the goal of being able to fulfill my obligations, and finding a bit of Zen peace. I think Socrates said it the best, when he said the unexamined life is not worth living. One could wonder whether a person is really living at all without some level of introspection. As I get on in years, I find the mad scrambling has become a more deliberate course through life, and yet I realize how little I actually do know myself. I would hate to think of the state I would be in had I not our working tools to utilize in this endeavor. To Masonry, and our pursuit of more light, I am eternally thankful.
As others have said, neither provides motivation. But both are key to my life. If I am unhappy, I will take steps to fix it. This relates to masonry. If my lodge experience or in general masonic experience isn't making me happy, I look inward, seek what is the problem, and address it.
As for legacy, I don't join committees or seek office to leave behind a legacy. I do however stride to act in a such manner that I know my kids, wife, family and friends will be proud of. If an action I want to take would diminish that particular legacy, then it isn't an action I will knowingly partake in.
“The Body is the house of God, know thyself, and you are going to know the Gods.” -Luxor Temple, Egypt
“Know thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.” -Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, Greece
“Know yourself and you shall become God” -Ancient Harran, Turkey
To “know thyself,” is the achievement of knowledge of oneself. This is the central theory of any mystical traditions, wherever and whenever that wisdom has appeared in the world. The ascended masters who have stood out in the course of time, utilize the spirit itself as the commanding intelligence to dominate and best use this organism that we inhabit. This is actually the whole purpose of the existence of all the ancient mystery schools. If we look at and study any ancient mystery school, we discover that their primary message was intensely relating to the inner self, knowledge that is hidden, but revealed through the spirit.
The Greek word used for spirit is psyche. To awaken the psyche, one has to be aware of themselves. Not with the subjective reasoning animalistic thoughts, but instead with our objective transcendent developments.
Much of my endeavors to understand the unknown relates to defining what is happiness - I could not tell you, without looking for the definition from the dictionary - but I can tell you about the pursuit of happiness. Most days it’s that emblematic carrot at the end of the stick, just slightly out of reach so I keep walking that way. Figuratively speaking, one day I decided to stop and turn around. The man holding the stick was my desires, the stick its projections, and the carrot was just an idol of my own thoughts; leading me outward to nowhere.
These ego defects are formed by such emotions of desire, not knowing your own measure, fear, conceit, or lust. In order to eliminate these false idols of self, one has to eliminate all these defects, then you will free yourself from the bondage of false identity. There is an urgent need to be in a constant state of alert perception and acute awareness. If we do not proceed in this way, the consciousness will continue to be bottled up within these psychic aggregates or defects we have in our interior, and for this reason we will never be able to awaken the spiritual consciousness.
From the Gospel of Thomas, Christ Jesus says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
For me personally, it all ties together. I am most happy within the fraternity when I am helping to make it a better experience for everyone. It is what drives me to continue, in spite of obstacles that get thrown in my path. And if I am successful, even for one person, then I feel that I am making a difference, and in that difference, I hope to be fondly remembered when I'm gone. I have a tattoo on my right upper arm that takes from our memorial scroll "Live Respected Die Regretted", which I think sums up my life's goal. I really don't care about awards, or rank, or any other outward displays. Not my motivation at all. I simply want to make this fraternity better than when I joined it, and I think that should be the goal of all masons. It is disappointing to me to see so many brothers sit on the sidelines and not contributing anything, if they even bother to show up at all.
I remember when I was a young Mason there was a Brother from another Lodge who would often visit. He was going through the chairs at his Mother Lodge and would always display excellent decorum as an officer in the line should.
He progressed through the chairs and was elected Master of his Lodge. Shortly before his installation, this Brother abruptly walked away declaring "I'm done with Masonry". I had developed a bit of a friendship with this man and asked him about his decision. He told me how he had read and memorized all the information and realized that there were none of the answers he thought he would find. As such, he quit.
This Brother's experience has stuck with me as an example of how short shortsightedness can rob us of deeper understandings available to us within the framework of Freemasonry.
For me, the Lodge is an opportunity to connect with my Brothers on a deeper level than most others I might encounter in the outer world. I believe that opportunity exists regardless of the topic of discussion as long as we leave space in the meeting for magic to happen.
I appreciate, and I think I've learned from every perspective shared here, so thank you! I come away from reading and absorbing these comments with a much more complex set of thoughts than when I wrote the post.
Greetings Brethrens. To answer the questions:
1. Hapoiness is something that cannot be persued. It just happens. There is no measure of happiness to try to be happy is to be bitter all the time. Happiness just happen when we accept what we have everyday and at the same time strive for betterment.
2. To pursuit a legacy is much like happiness, we do not look for it. Thinking in leaving something for others while expecting some kind of recognition is the work of the ego. Our goals is to try to make the world better for future generations, while expecting nothing for us.
We have read the books of some amazing people of the past; Pike, MP Hall, Papus, Blavatsky, etc etc. These people left us an amazing library of knowledge, but is not them that we have to thank for. Is the teachers that they had that really did the work by giving us the chance to know these persons. Those teachers worked in silence, never wanted to be recognize. That is what we have to aim.
I don't believe either of those options motivates me. Since I was a teenager I have been motivated to pursue questions of metaphysics, mysticism, and spirituality, and my first encounters with Masonry demonstrated to me that it was a branch of the Western Mystery Tradition, and worth pursuit. Some might argue that this would make me happy, or contribute to my happiness. All I can say to that, is that I am compelled by my personality to pursue these questions, and while I do enjoy finding answers, it feels less like happiness than it does like reflex. I move toward these areas of study as a part of my personality. If happiness or legacy happens, it is a byproduct of my work not a goal.
I can't say that either of those really motivate me. My main motivation has always been getting my head pulled out of my posterior, mainly toward the goal of being able to fulfill my obligations, and finding a bit of Zen peace. I think Socrates said it the best, when he said the unexamined life is not worth living. One could wonder whether a person is really living at all without some level of introspection. As I get on in years, I find the mad scrambling has become a more deliberate course through life, and yet I realize how little I actually do know myself. I would hate to think of the state I would be in had I not our working tools to utilize in this endeavor. To Masonry, and our pursuit of more light, I am eternally thankful.
As others have said, neither provides motivation. But both are key to my life. If I am unhappy, I will take steps to fix it. This relates to masonry. If my lodge experience or in general masonic experience isn't making me happy, I look inward, seek what is the problem, and address it.
As for legacy, I don't join committees or seek office to leave behind a legacy. I do however stride to act in a such manner that I know my kids, wife, family and friends will be proud of. If an action I want to take would diminish that particular legacy, then it isn't an action I will knowingly partake in.
“The Body is the house of God, know thyself, and you are going to know the Gods.” -Luxor Temple, Egypt
“Know thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.” -Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, Greece
“Know yourself and you shall become God” -Ancient Harran, Turkey
To “know thyself,” is the achievement of knowledge of oneself. This is the central theory of any mystical traditions, wherever and whenever that wisdom has appeared in the world. The ascended masters who have stood out in the course of time, utilize the spirit itself as the commanding intelligence to dominate and best use this organism that we inhabit. This is actually the whole purpose of the existence of all the ancient mystery schools. If we look at and study any ancient mystery school, we discover that their primary message was intensely relating to the inner self, knowledge that is hidden, but revealed through the spirit.
The Greek word used for spirit is psyche. To awaken the psyche, one has to be aware of themselves. Not with the subjective reasoning animalistic thoughts, but instead with our objective transcendent developments.
Much of my endeavors to understand the unknown relates to defining what is happiness - I could not tell you, without looking for the definition from the dictionary - but I can tell you about the pursuit of happiness. Most days it’s that emblematic carrot at the end of the stick, just slightly out of reach so I keep walking that way. Figuratively speaking, one day I decided to stop and turn around. The man holding the stick was my desires, the stick its projections, and the carrot was just an idol of my own thoughts; leading me outward to nowhere.
These ego defects are formed by such emotions of desire, not knowing your own measure, fear, conceit, or lust. In order to eliminate these false idols of self, one has to eliminate all these defects, then you will free yourself from the bondage of false identity. There is an urgent need to be in a constant state of alert perception and acute awareness. If we do not proceed in this way, the consciousness will continue to be bottled up within these psychic aggregates or defects we have in our interior, and for this reason we will never be able to awaken the spiritual consciousness.
From the Gospel of Thomas, Christ Jesus says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
For me personally, it all ties together. I am most happy within the fraternity when I am helping to make it a better experience for everyone. It is what drives me to continue, in spite of obstacles that get thrown in my path. And if I am successful, even for one person, then I feel that I am making a difference, and in that difference, I hope to be fondly remembered when I'm gone. I have a tattoo on my right upper arm that takes from our memorial scroll "Live Respected Die Regretted", which I think sums up my life's goal. I really don't care about awards, or rank, or any other outward displays. Not my motivation at all. I simply want to make this fraternity better than when I joined it, and I think that should be the goal of all masons. It is disappointing to me to see so many brothers sit on the sidelines and not contributing anything, if they even bother to show up at all.
I remember when I was a young Mason there was a Brother from another Lodge who would often visit. He was going through the chairs at his Mother Lodge and would always display excellent decorum as an officer in the line should.
He progressed through the chairs and was elected Master of his Lodge. Shortly before his installation, this Brother abruptly walked away declaring "I'm done with Masonry". I had developed a bit of a friendship with this man and asked him about his decision. He told me how he had read and memorized all the information and realized that there were none of the answers he thought he would find. As such, he quit.
This Brother's experience has stuck with me as an example of how short shortsightedness can rob us of deeper understandings available to us within the framework of Freemasonry.
For me, the Lodge is an opportunity to connect with my Brothers on a deeper level than most others I might encounter in the outer world. I believe that opportunity exists regardless of the topic of discussion as long as we leave space in the meeting for magic to happen.
I appreciate, and I think I've learned from every perspective shared here, so thank you! I come away from reading and absorbing these comments with a much more complex set of thoughts than when I wrote the post.