compassion is the vice of kings
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93 All,
"Metzareph:Also, keep in mind that you can do things that may appear horrendous, but they are in fact the "compassionate things to do"... like killing the horse with broken legs. You are always at risk of making a huge mistake because you are acting compassionately. You loose perspective, but I'll say that it's better to be compassionate than cruel."
"Metzareph: Thinking more on this subject I realized that the only safe way to practice compassion is to become a "king". Below Tiphareth, we cannot grasp the idea of true compassion; we can only strive to act compassionately. If we try to understand the idea standing below Tiphareth, we run the risk of becoming a caricature of the real thing, but, as I said before, it is always the best thing to do."
Your comments raise an interesting question for me Metzareph and that is (What is good and what is evil?)
Compassion is a virtue in most old Aeon religions that one would associate with goodness. But in practice it often leads to being taken advantage of by lowly evolved people. I looked up Compassion on Wikipedia and this is what I got.Quote Wikipedia: Compassion is a profound human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another's suffering. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. In ethical terms, the various expressions down the ages of the so-called Golden Rule embody by implication the principle of compassion: Do to others as you would have done to you. Ranked a great virtue in numerous philosophies, compassion is considered in all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion#cite_note-0Maybe, the consciousness of one who has attained to Tiphareth would be beyond good and evil.
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I have always thought of it as such:
A King does not have power, a King has responsibility...
His 'power' derived from a need to carry out his responsibilities.What is the Kings foremost responsibility? To take care of his people.
And by taking care of his people, the King in turn takes care of himself.
So it is a 'vice' as the King keeps 'brining himself down' in order to maintain his 'high' position. -
I'm seeing a little bit of a contradiction here, as far as I understood, Crowley was also influenced by the Tao Te Ching. I know that the "Book of Law" was dictated to him, and therefore free from any personal beliefs that might have swayed it, but there are at least two chapters of the "Tao Te Ching" that deal with rulers and Virtues.
Chapter 59
For governing others and serving heaven
there is nothing better than moderation.
A person who is moderate returns to the path.
Returning to the path brings an abundance of Virtue.
This good store of Virtue cannot be conquered.
Virtue that cannot be conquered knows no limit.
Only a person who has limitless Virtue is fit to lead.
Only the leader who possesses the Mother of the country will long endure.
This is called making the roots go deep by restraining the trunk.
Learn to focus your life and you will see many days.Does anyone see a contradiction here?
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Liber Tzaddi:
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Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis.
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My disciples are proud and beautiful; they are strong and swift; they rule their way like mighty conquerors.
**25. The weak, the timid, the imperfect, the cowardly, the poor, the tearful --- these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them.
- This also is compassion: an end to the sickness of earth. A rooting-out of the weeds: a watering of the flowers.**
Would this, then, be Thelemic 'compassion'? Is only the Christian and Buddhist notions of compassion attacked in Liber AL? Is compassion really the vice thats 'of service' to Hadit? People seem to jump to conclusions quite quickly...
IAO131
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Hehe, it's so true, only Kings have compassion, and are willing to jump through all sorts of hoops to somehow justify their vice, make it seem good in the end. I am no less liable to this sort of excuse-making (ahem).
But I think compassion is decried in Liber AL, and considered a vice, because it's based on the idea of separation, on the idea that there's someone there, or someone here, to suffer-with. To my mind, chapter i is fundamentally non-dual, and that sets the tone for the book, and the *appearance *of duality in Chapters ii and iii has to be brought in line with it.
But that doesn't mean we have to be all nicey-nice. Naturalness is the key I think.
I think some verses that might be instructive in this connection are AL ii 59-60:
**59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.
- Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master! **
I think it comes down to this: how do you really view your fellow human beings? As kings and queens and stars (albeit occasionally dressed as beggars) or as intrinsically miserable, cowering beggars tossed around by forces greater than themselves?
Do you *really *think that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains?
The thing that scares me is the thought of someone going all Manson and just getting on some insane trip where they think, "hey, it's ok to kill people or rape babies because in fact by torturing and killing these insects I'm giving them the gift of realising their god-like nature sooner rather than later!"
That is wrong thinking too. Why? Because it *also *relies on the validity of the idea of separation, difference.
One thought I keep coming back to with these kinds of verses in AL though, is this: what person worth their salt would "obey" words in a book anyway? "Obeying" Liber AL (in the sense of the hypothetical crazy Thelemite being obnoxious and rude to all around him, pulling the wings off flies and eventually actually killing and torturing people because he thinks Liber AL says he should) gets the booby prize.
If you are compassionate, be compassionate. To hell with the Book of the Law!
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@Ankh said
"Maybe, the consciousness of one who has attained to Tiphareth would be beyond good and evil."
No, I thing it is beyond "you" and "me". It is the first step in the "becoming". Tiphareth encompasses the idea of compassion because it is the first point you are actually transcending lower aspects of the psyche and starts to see that we are all part of the body of God.
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@gurugeorge said
"I think it comes down to this: how do you really view your fellow human beings? As kings and queens and stars (albeit occasionally dressed as beggars) or as intrinsically miserable, cowering beggars tossed around by forces greater than themselves?"
I DO NOT see ALL fellow human beings as kings and queens. I see them as stars. A king and queen in this context represents a level of spiritual attainment of at least 5=6, or in other words, somebody that has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
@gurugeorge said
"The thing that scares me is the thought of someone going all Manson and just getting on some insane trip where they think, "hey, it's ok to kill people or rape babies because in fact by torturing and killing these insects I'm giving them the gift of realising their god-like nature sooner rather than later!"
That is wrong thinking too. Why? Because it *also *relies on the validity of the idea of separation, difference."
I may also add that a person like this is not only wrong, but crazy. You can drive yourself insane and have this kind of megalomaniac thoughts when you are operating based on your ego. A very important step in the path is to understand that the ego will not get you very far and that in fact doesn't know where it's going. Going back to my argument that this exercise of compassion can be risky if you haven't understood the mysteries of 5=6.
@gurugeorge said
"If you are compassionate, be compassionate. To hell with the Book of the Law!"
I don't think the Book of the Law is telling you not be compassionate.
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@Metzareph said
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@gurugeorge said
"I think it comes down to this: how do you really view your fellow human beings? As kings and queens and stars (albeit occasionally dressed as beggars) or as intrinsically miserable, cowering beggars tossed around by forces greater than themselves?"I DO NOT see ALL fellow human beings as kings and queens. I see them as stars. A king and queen in this context represents a level of spiritual attainment of at least 5=6, or in other words, somebody that has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel."
Yeah good point, I got a bit overexcited there
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@h3fall3n777 said
"Does anyone see a contradiction here?"
I don't, but I'm intrigued. What contradiction do you see?
Love=Law
- C
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@h3fall3n777 said
"I'm seeing a little bit of a contradiction here, as far as I understood, Crowley was also influenced by the Tao Te Ching. I know that the "Book of Law" was dictated to him, and therefore free from any personal beliefs that might have swayed it, but there are at least two chapters of the "Tao Te Ching" that deal with rulers and Virtues."
I think that The Book of the Law is coloured to some extent by Crowley's views and preoccupations at the time, just as sunlight shining through tinted glass takes on some of its hues. There's some elements of the Book which suggest this.
Best wishes,
Michael.
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This excerpt from The Vision & the Voice might help clear some things up:
"This wine is such that its virtue radiateth through the cup, and I reel under the intoxication of it. And every thought is destroyed by it. It abideth alone, and its name is Compassion. I understand by "Compassion," the sacrament of suffering, partaken by the true worshippers of the Highest. And it is an ecstasy in which there is no trace of pain. Its passivity ( = passion) is like the giving-up of the self to the beloved." - Liber CDXVIII, The Cry of the 12th Æthyr
The language here (understand, suffering [Dukkha], passivity, etc.) is highly indicative of Binah (as is the Æthyr itself), & Compassion has here been equated with Sangraal. Maybe Compassion doesn't imply compassion at all.
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""To destroy our enemies" is to realize the illusion of duality, to excite compassion." - An Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magick
Compare the language used in the previous excerpt to that of v. 25 & 26 of Liber XC.
"these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them. This also is compassion"
These excerpts, paired with the one from The Cry of the 12th Æthyr, shed an interesting light on CCXX, II:21. This murderous language seems to me to be a call from Nuit to realize & abandon the illusion of duality.
729
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93,
This is a very interesting thread. I went through the posts quite rapidly, so I hope I'm not mentioning something that has already been touched on.
However, I'm going to touch on this subject through the Kabbalah. Yup, with a "K".
Sometimes there is confusion due to a partial understanding of Hebrew terms. I will try to clear up some of this confusion where it pertains to the topic at hand.
There are three pillars on the Tree of Life. Left, Right, and Center. This is common knowledge. Typically these pillars are named after the Sefirah that heads them (below the Supernals).
The left hand pillar is called the pillar of "Severity" because the Hebrew term "Geburah" is often translated as severity. Yet Geburah can also mean "Strength". The term "Din" (strict justice/judgement, or judicial rigor) can also be applied to the left hand pillar as a whole, as well as it can be applied to the fifth Sephirah.
The right hand pillar is called the pillar of "Mercy" because the Hebrew term "Chesed" is often translated as mercy. Gadulah (Greatness, Growth, or Maturation) can also be applied to the right hand pillar and the fourth Sephirah. However, the term "Chesed" can cause some problems. In Kabbalah it is translated as "Loving Kindness" just as often as it is translated as "Mercy". Sometimes the translation "Loving Kindness" is more accurate.
Where the translation of "Chesed" as the single word "Mercy" really becomes problematic is when we examine the Central Column or read Kabbalistic texts that utilize "Loving Kindness" for "Chesed", and "Rachamim" for "Tiphareth".
Tiphareth is usually translated as "Beauty" but the Sixth Sephirah has a second name, "Rachamim". "Rachamim" is also the title of the Central Column. "Rachamim" can be translated as "Mercy" or "Compassion".
If we utilize the term Severity (Geburah) for the left hand pillar, and Mercy or Loving Kindness (Chesed) for the right; then we may utilize Compassion (Rachamim) for the central column.
Now, we can see that compassion is the "balance" of mercy and severity. It is also the Middle Pillar and the Palace of the "Holy King".
One may be content to arrive at this place. This is the "Vice" of "Kings". A complacency with this level of attainment. This too must be poured freely into the Chalice. The blood is the Nephesch (in Kabbalah that is). The Ruach unites with Neschamah in the Heart (which pumps the Blood). Good wine "ferments". This "Lifeblood" has transmuted itself and is now that which reaches beyond the Reason and causes "Drunkenness". It is the "Blood of the Saints" since they have attained "Rachamim". Now, the opposites, their equilibrium and balance, the King/Saint, and the whole shebang needs to be destroyed. To be complacent with this level of attainment (Tiphareth) is quite definitely a "Vice" of "Kings".
Well, that is my take on things.
93 93/93
Love and Light,
Dennis -
@Arsihsis said
"""To destroy our enemies" is to realize the illusion of duality, to excite compassion." - An Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magick
Compare the language used in the previous excerpt to that of v. 25 & 26 of Liber XC.
"these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them. This also is compassion"
These excerpts, paired with the one from The Cry of the 12th Æthyr, shed an interesting light on CCXX, II:21. This murderous language seems to me to be a call from Nuit to realize & abandon the illusion of duality.
729"
That is the only meaningful interpretation to me, except from the obvious personal-political idea that if you want to do something, and people are standing in your way, either you stop doing that something or you destroy those standing in your way. That interpretation too is a bit silly because Love is the law, love under will - why not unite with them and bend them towards the One Aim also?
In the end There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt and the other lines are just helping hands to get us to understand Do what thou wilt in its many facets, applications, and such.
IAO131
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@Maya93 said
"Perhaps it means that the King shows compassion because it gives him personal pleasure, not because he is required to, as in other systems."
Why single out compassion for 'personal pleasure'? I can get personal pleasure from moving my legs around after exercising but I dont think the Law needs to tell me about that... same with 'being nice to people' and such.
IAO131
