So in the previous blog we learned how Esoteric Knowledge is to be lived and applied to our lives not just studied and looked upon as an interesting curiosity to be forgotten about at the end of the day as we continue on in our materialistic lives in exactly the same way. In this blog we will look at how our motivation for seeking out knowledge will determine our discovery of the truth. Let's begin with understanding the meaning behind this parable from Matthew 7:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matthew 7:7–8
What this parable alludes to is that those who seek to find truth will find it if they are seeking with the right intentions. If the heart and mind are aligned with the pure motivation to seek truth for truth alone then ultimately the seeker will find the truth. However if a person is seeking knowledge for reasons of vanity because they want to feel intellectually superior to others or find fame, or to appease others in their congregation or group, or to financially profit from the knowledge then the veil will remain over their eyes, even if they believe themselves to be in possession of truth they are only fooling themselves. You can learn every Bible verse by heart or study every philosophy book in existence but if you aren't actually seeking truth for the sake of truth alone you won't find it.
This verse from the Hermetic Arcanum explains that the veil that blinds the mental eye from truth is only removed when the seeker is found to be worthy of it, if your heart and mind are not aligned with the purest of motivation for seeking this most sacred of knowledge then your access to Divine truths will be denied.
The light of this knowledge is the gift of God, which by His will He bestoweth upon whom He pleaseth. Let none therefore set himself to the study hereof, until having cleared and purified his heart, he devote himself wholly unto God, and be emptied of all affection and desire unto the impure things of this world. - The Hermetic Arcanum
Note that this Hermetic teaching is not saying that the seeker must be a saint, free from vice and sin, but that their pursuit of worldly vices and material success is removed and the motivation in their heart for seeking the truth is pure. Because it is in the purity of that motivation that the veils of the mind are slowly dissolved and our memory of who we are is returned to us.
The Sufi mystic Idries Shah explains it like this:
Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind. - Idries Shah
This knowledge is already within us waiting to be remembered but it is our access to it that is prevented when we are not motivated by pure intentions and the reason we may not have pure intentions of finding truth is because we are still very much attached to the material world. It is that attachment which keeps the veil firmly over our mind's eye because if we were to truly understand and know beyond all doubt that we are aethereal in nature as well as physical then we would be more willing to release our desire to be only a physical being chasing the shallowness of materialistic successes in a physical world. If we can't understand that we are aethereal beings first and foremost then how can we understand God's kingdom that exists beyond the material.
This verse from the Kolbrin Bible relays it in this way:
Truth is not a quality of Earth, but an infusion from the Greater Region beyond the veil, where Truth is manifested in purity. Here on Earth, things do not disclose their true nature to the eye, for the things we see with the eye are as the eye sees them, and not as they are in reality and Truth. The eye is a poor interpreter of reality. Truth is not with man, nor of the Earth. It is with God alone, and when man sees Truth in its purity he will see God. – The Kolbrin Bible: Book of Morals and Preceps (Chapter Thirty-Four – Truth)
Therefore we must seek truth with something beyond what the eye can see in our physical world, we must utilize our inner sight too which can only be accessed when we align both our mental faculties and our heart, because if we are only thinking but not feeling then we are not engaging all of our senses in our search for truth. If we try to rationalize everything mentally within only the boundaries of our physical world then the truth will remain elusive to us because truth is beyond our physical world.
As Paracelsus explains it:
A knowledge of spiritual things cannot be obtained by merely reasoning logically from external appearances existing on the physical plane, but it may be acquired by obtaining more spirituality, and making one's self capable to feel and to see the things of the spirit. - Paracelsus
Another hindrance a seeker may experience in searching out truth is having an expectation for what truth will be. This relates back to what we discussed in the last video where the seeker must be a blank canvas and must be removed of all opinions and expectations and allow the truth to reveal itself completely even if aspects of the truth are hard to look at and accept. It is only when a seeker is willing to accept the truth regardless of what that truth is, regardless of whether it is what they expected or wanted it to be, only then is the seeker's motivation pure and in earnest and only then will the mental eye see the truth.
The Gospel of Buddha states:
"The truth is not arbitrary nor a matter of opinion, but can be investigated, and he who earnestly searches for the truth will find it. The truth is hidden to the blind, but he who has the mental eye sees the truth.” - Gospel of Buddha
This is what is meant by opening the third eye, it is not something that is done through an external process of diet or using psychedelic drugs or chanting mantras and affirmations or sitting on a yoga mat meditating. It is when a seeker has diligently dedicated themselves to seeking out the truth with a pure intention and has let go of their attachment to the material world and it's shallow appeal of success, it is only then that a soul finally remembers themselves in their true form and knows this beyond all doubt.
When a soul has a complete understanding for themselves as not only a physical being but an aethereal one too, then the sleeping third eye is opened and the mind illuminated with truth. This is what is meant in the verse from Matthew 6:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. - Matthew 6:22
“If therefore thine eye be single” is pertaining to bringing the physical and aethereal parts of who you are together and seeing yourself correctly as a whole and complete being, when a seeker has that full understanding of themselves then they are full of light or enlightened.
I will finish this blog with this teaching from Manly P Hall about those who believe they can take shortcuts to enlightenment by just engaging in certain mechanical processes or religious invocations:
"Those who dedicate themselves to the processes of discipline and self-improvement set down by the old masters, are preparing themselves to enter the house of wisdom by the proper gate. On the other hand such foolish mortals as believe they can breathe, intone, psychologise or affirm themselves in to a state of all knowing are trying to pick locks for which they have not filed the key. Such misguided ones are like the howling dervishes described by Omar, who wail before the temple gates but have nothing in them that merits their admission." — Manly P Hall