METAPHYSICAL PRAXIS III - THE FACTS
238. In every manifested state it is essential that one should swim against the current towards the source.
239. Swimming against the current, backwards, toward the Source, towards the Light, towards God, towards Myself.
240. It is impossible to initiate Modern man - only archaic man can be initiated. Therefore man’s task above all is to archaize himself.
241. Descent, the »going down to the netherworld«, should by all means take place and it does take place and it takes place intentionally. But while if I descend using my own will powers my descent will be followed by an ascension, if I descend subjecting myself to the forces of a foreign will it will not be followed by an ascension.
242. Realisation without asceticism is pure nonsense.
243. He who controls himself, controls the world.
244. By gaining power over consciousness man gains power over being.
245. While I do not have control over my circumstances I should at least try not to let circumstances have control over me.
246. What detaches bandha (bondage) from karma (action), and what will not let an action in the domain of deeds become fate, is not other than dominion.
[This is the principle of karma-yoga. For what binds man is not action itself, but the uncontrolled nature of an action - that is, an action in which the subject of the action is not maximally present.]
247. The most fundamental question, the »Who am I?«, which, with a concentrative-meditative-contemplative aim, was put into words by Ramana Maharsi, is in fact a question to which, in the sense of formulated-ness, no answer might be given. The question of »Who am I?« is a question but not in the sense in which questions are questions. The question »Who am I?« is the key sentence of ranging myself, formulated in the form of a question: orally it is still a question but internally not.
248. It is possible to fix one’s attention on anything, but one can only concentrate (sanskrit dhāranā) on an intuition or at least the place of a not long departed intuition.
249. Attempting self-correction in the domain of unrealisable tasks is an excellent opportunity for man to avoid making corrections in himself.
250. There is hardly a better chance for man to exempt himself from the requirements of realisation than by setting himself such high norms which he surely cannot attain.
251. Making haste is from the the devil, as well as delaying.
252. »As it is possible«: only this is left open for the man of today.