According to ancient Chinese teachings attributed to the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) and reintroduced by Lao Tzu, the power of the Way (Tao) is in everything. Man’s task is to return to Tao through the practice of the virtue of the Way (te) that encompasses everything. To achieve this, one must master two ways of action that arise from the virtue of the Way: hsin-chou, the art of the heart – correct understanding and immersion in the world and oneself, and wu-wei, action according to the right intention, or the original nature of beings. Liberation unfolds through three stages of following the Way: liberation from external conditioning, liberation from internal conditioning, and the restoration of the connection between man and the universe.
Buddhism speaks of the path of Dharma – the form of religion and the path of liberation among the dedicated who are capable of overcoming the illusion of the world by the power of their own will, turning towards wisdom, and developing love for all beings. The path of Dharma opens up before them, on which they should develop spiritual perfections (paramitas) and climb the steps or stages of realization (dasabhumis). (deleted) in order to become beings of enlightenment (bodhisattvas).
According to any teaching about the Path, a universal law governs the course of life and its direction. Guided by absolute justice, this Law offers all beings the opportunity to fulfill their destiny, or their own evolution whose ultimate goal is to return to the source from which everything originated. Through successive stages of the Path, every being changes and develops consciousness by acting with greater responsibility, and therefore, with more freedom, which is the best way to achieve self-realization.
This process releases action and reaction, or the fruits of action become the cause of new processes and new consequences. In this way, natural differences among people arise as a result of choices and correct or incorrect actions. When the causes and consequences of our actions are harmonized, we actualize ourselves as beings. However, if there is a deviation, the Law will confront us with the same evolutionary task again. If we do not solve that task, it will appear again and again. Moaning is a common reaction to such situations. I always wonder why this always happens to me. The Greek theogony implies elements of psychological development in humans, which, by knowing themselves, they will come to know the world and the gods. This forms the basis of Greek mysteries, according to which the soul (psyche) consists of two parts, one mortal and under the influence of desires (thumos), and the other immortal (tumidos) residing in the eternal world. The present life represents a fall into the body where the soul resides like in a grave. Life is suffering from which humans need to be freed through the power of Dionysus (enthusiasm), and purification through stages of initiation that return the soul to its divine bliss. Relying on traditional teachings, Plato discusses the evolution of consciousness and explains that human consciousness gradually improves. This is a process of personal maturation that leads from ignorance, through opinion, to knowledge, following four consecutive stages of cognitive development: guessing, thinking, knowledge, and intuition. The Brahman teachings from India speak of the great rhythm of the world. The great cycles of creation, maintenance, and decay follow one another. Life unfolds in the circle of samsara, eternal return caused by ignorance. Ignorance causes attachment to the things of this world, which creates a desire for rebirth in humans. Only through the development of one’s own moral qualities, selfless love, and right action on the path of realization (sadhana), is it possible to achieve liberation (moksha).
In addition to ancient philosophers such as Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, who argue that intuition is the highest form of knowledge, similar claims are made by great Indian thinkers such as Patanjali, Shankara, and Nagarjuna. According to their teachings, life in its fullness cannot be understood by reason alone. They argue that there is something that surpasses self-consciousness. Just as our everyday awareness represents a chasm that separates human beings from animals, intuition represents the chasm between what a person currently is and what they could become. and the universe themselves. The Egyptian initiatory tradition, in the myth of Osiris, speaks of the immortality of the Soul and the existence of cosmic Destiny in which man should consciously and actively participate through his own courage and effort. The student on the path of transformation travels through different levels of knowledge along Horus’s or the warrior’s path to ultimate liberation. Superficially, transformation occurs through death, but with a deeper interpretation, it is revealed that it is not physical death, but another form of death that leads to eternal life. The pursuit of wisdom is an inevitable step for anyone who wants to consciously embark on the Path. However, in order to attain wisdom, one must detach themselves from the egocentric delusion about the value of their own knowledge, which leads us to believe that we already know what we still need to learn about life and the Universe. It is necessary to gradually adopt the Doctrine of the Heart, gradually emerging from the labyrinth of ignorance, while simultaneously intertwining our lives with the meaning of everything – nature, stars, other beings. …