Γνῶσις XIV. ~ ασκητισμός και εγκράτεια II. / Esszénusok ( Therapeuták V. ) / De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ) ~ when they saw the sun rising they raised / "initiating love"

"when they saw the sun rising they raised"

„színről színre láttam Istent, és életben maradtam.”" ( Ter 32, 23-31 ) 

 

 

 „Lelkem várja az Urat, jobban, mint az őrök a reggelt, mint az őrök a reggelt.” ( Zsolt 130, 6 ) 

Sunrise from ISS

 Mindannyian a nagy találkozásra készülünk, melyre illenék, de kell is felkészülni. ( Máriával kapcsolatban már feltettük a kérdést, csak akkor jelent meg neki Gábriel, abban a pillanatban; - vagy az idők kezdete óta ott állt és várt, hogy Mária felkészüljön?

 Fel kell készülnünk megállni a "Kopár fényben"...

"Az Ő országát, a Békét, harcainkra süketségét. Néha átokkal panaszlom de Ő így szól: 

“Nem haragszom!” ( Babits Mihály: Zsoltár gyermekhangra )

Erre a "nem haragszom"-ra nem könnyű felkészülni.

https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/2020/08/nem-isten-dolga-hogy-harcoljon-azok.html

 

Lelkiismeretfurdalásunk alapja az elfecsérelt idő, a haszontalanság, ahogy Nagy Szent Vazultól már idéztük:

"(...) mint a Hádészban bűnhődők, akik értelmetlenül tűzbe gerebenezik a gyapjút; szitába hordják a vizet, és lyukas hordóba öntik."

Ez maga a Pokol.

 https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/2020/08/exorcizmus.html

 

A kulcs szó az "értelmetlenül"... 

Isten atlétája felkészül..., edzi testét és szellemét.

Ezért van az igéret előbb..., legyen "répa" a "szamár" előtt.

https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-megvaltas-uj-kezdet-iv-aztan-vidaman.html

 

 Előbb az ígéret..., aztán a próba a választottaknak. Jákob is hamarabb látta a lajtorját..., s csak évekkel később lett alkalma Istennel birkózni..., ezért nem halt meg. Életre birkózta az Úr. Kiérdemelte a próbatételt...

https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/2022/03/de-praedestinatione-sanctorum-x-az.html

 Aszkézissel ( ασκητισμός ) és mértékletességgel ( εγκράτεια ) ...

"(...) having first of all laid down temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon (...)" ( És ezek a törvénymagyarázók, akik mindenekelőtt a mértékletességet határozták meg, mint egyfajta alapot, amelyen a lélek megnyugodhat, ezen az alapon építsen fel más erényeket, (...) ) ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 34 )

 

"Jézus mondta: Aki megtalálta a világot és gazdaggá lett, lemondhat a világról." ( Tamás evangéliuma, 110., 311 )

S ahogy Novalis írja egy állítás csak akkor igaz, ha fordítva is igaz...

 Sőt!

Miután lemondva megnyertük a világot a sötétségben és hidegben állva várva-várunk a nap eljöttére..., mint Narnia fiai Aslanra.

" - Dicsértessék! - szólalt meg a gazda. - Jobb ember lettem vón egész életemben, ha tudom, hogy ilyen is van a világon!" ( C. S Lewis: A varázsló unokaöccse )

 https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/2020/08/jobb-ember-lettem-von-egesz-eletemben.html

 

Mert hiszük, hogy eljön.

"A hit azt jelenti, hogy az ember elhiszi, amit még nem lát. Ennek a hitnek pedig az a jutalma, hogy látni fogja amiben hisz."
( Szent Ágoston )

Mint az őrálló, ki várja a hajnalt... 

 

 

Őrségben állni felelősségteljes feladat, tiszta agy kell hozzá, éberség, a böjt hozzásegíthet..., ... és tanulás. ( “The ignorant man is an ox. He grows in size, not in wisdom.” ( The Dhammapada ); az is egyfajta Pokol, ha nem tudunk... )
 

"(...) so that they do not occupy themselves solely in contemplation, but they likewise compose psalms and hymns to God in every kind of metre and melody imaginable, which they of necessity arange in more dignified rhythm. Therefore, during six days, each of these individuals, retirung into solitude by himself, philosophises by himself in one of the places called monasteries, never going outside the threshold of the outer court, and indeed never even looking out. But on the seventh day they all come together as if to meet in a sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their ages with all becoming gravity, keeping their hands inside their garments, lhaving their ight hand between their chest and their dress, and the left hand down by their side, close to their flank; and then the eldest of them who has the most profound learning in their doctrines, comes forward and speaks with steadfast look and with steadfast voice, with great powers of reasoning, and great prudence, not making an exhibition of his oratorical powers like the rhetoicians of old, or the sophists of the present day, but investigating with great pains, and explaining with minute accuracy the precise meaning of the laws, which sits, not indeed at the tips of their cars, but penetrates through their hearing nto the soul, and remains there lastingly, and all the rest listen in silence to the praises which he bestows upon the law, showing their assent only by nods of the head, or the eager look of the eyes. And this common holy place to which they all come together on the seventh day is a twofold circuit, being separated partly into the apartment of the men, and partly into a chamber for the women, for women also, n accordance with the usual fashion there, form a part of the audience, having the same feelings of admiration as the men, and having adopted the same sect with equal deliberation and decision;" ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 29-32 ) 

 

Tanulás-tudás a mértékletességről, mely minden erkölcs alapja...

"Πολλῶι τὸ φρονεíν εὐδαιμονίας πρῶτον ὑπάρχει χρὴ δὲ τὰ γ' εἰς θεοὺς μηδέν ἀσεπτεῖν μεγὰλοι δὲ λόγοι μεγάλας πληγὰς τῶν ὑπεραυχων ἀποτείσαντες γήραι τό φρονεῖν ἐδίδαξαν." ( ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΗ )

"A józanság legyen útmutatód..." ( Szophoklész, Antigoné )

https://boatswain69.blogspot.com/

"(...) and the wall which is between the houses ises from the ground three or four
cubits upwards, like a battlement, and the upper portion rises upwards to the roof without any opening, on two accounts; first of all, in order that the modesty which is so becoming to the female sex may be preserved, and secondly, that the women may be easily able to comprehend what is said being seated within earshot, since there is then nothing which can possibly intercept the voice of him who is speaking. And these expounders of the law, having first of all laid down temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon, proceed to build up other virtues on this foundation, and
no one of them may take any meat or drink before the setting of the sun, snce they judge that the work of philosophising is one which is worthy of the light, but that the care for the necessities of the body is suitable ony to darkness, on which account they appropriate the day to the one occupation, and a brief portion of the night to the other, and some men, in whom there is implanted a more fervent desire of knowledge, can endure to cherish a recollection of their food for three days without even tasting it, and some men are so delighted, and enjoy themselves so exceedingly when regaled by Wisdom which supplies them with her doctrines in all possible wealth and abundance, that they can even hold out twice as great a length of time,nd will seancely at the end of six days taste even necessary food, being accustomed, as they say that grasshoppers are to feed on air, their song, as I imagine, making their scarcity tolerable to them. And they, looking upon the seventh day as one of perfect holiness and a most complete festival, have thought it wortlhy of a most especial honour, and on it, after taking
due care of their soul, they tend their bodies also, giving them, just as they do to their cattle, a complete rest from their continual labours; and they eat nothing of a costly character, but plain bread and a seasoning of salt, which the more luxurious of them to further season with hyssop; and their drink is water from the spring; for they oppose those feelings which nature has made mistresses of the human race, namely, hunger and thirst, giving them nothing to flatter or humour them, but only such useful things as it is not possible to exist without. On thiss account they eat only so far as not to be lhungry, and they drink just enough to escape from thirst, avoiding all satiety, as an enemy of and a plotter against both soul and body." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 33-37 ) 

 

Az "ασκητισμός και εγκράτεια" gyümölcsei... 

"And there are two kinds of covering, one raiment and the other a house: we have already spoken of their houses, that they are not decorated with any ornaments, but run up in a hury, being only made to answer such purposes as are absolutely necessary, and in like manner their raiment is of the most ordinary description, just stout enough to ward off cold and heat, being a cloak of some shaggy hide for winter, and a thim mantle or lnen shawl in the summer; for in short they practise entire simplicity, looking upon falschood as the foundation of pride, but truth as the origin of simplicity, and upon truth and falsehood as standing in the light of fountains, for from falsehood proceeds every variety of evil and wickedness, and from truth there flows every imaginable abundance of good things both human and divine." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 38-39 ) 

 

"(...) but they are a despised by the disciples of Moses, wlho in the abundance of their wisdom have learnt from their carliest infancy to love truth, and also continue to the end of their lives impossible to be deceived. But since the entertainments of the greatest celebrity are full of such trifling and folly, bearing conviction in themselves, if any one should think fit not to regard vague opinion and the character which has been commonly handed down conceming them as feasts which have gone off with the most eminent success, I will oppose to them the entertainments of those persons who have devoted their whole life and themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the atiairs of nature in accordance with the most sacred admonitions and precepts of the prophet Moses." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 40-41 )

 

 "In the first place, these men assemble at the end of seven weeks, venerating not only the simple week of seven days, but also its multiplied power, for they know it to be pure and always virgin, and it is a prelude and a kind of forefeast of the greatest feast, which is assigned to the number fifty, the most holy and natural of mumbers, being compounded of the power of the right-angled triangle, which is the principle of the oignation and condition of the whole. Therefore when they come toogether clothed in white garments, and joyful with the most exceeding gravity, when some one of the ephemereutae (for that is the appellation which they are accustomed to give to those who are employed in such ministrations), before they sit down to meat standing in order in a row, and raising their eyes and their hands to heaven, the one because they have leant to fix their attention on what is worthy looking at, and the other because they are free from. the reproach of all mpure gain, beng never poluted under any pretence whatever by any description of crimnality which can arise from any means taken to procure advantage, they pray to God that the entertainment may be acceptable, and welcome and pleas Sings and after having ofiered up these prayers the elders sit down to meat, still observing the order in which they were previously arranged, for they do not look on those as elders who are advanced in years and very ancient, but in some cases they esteem those as very young men, if they have attached themselves to this sect only lately, but those whom they call elders are those who from their earliest infancy have grown up and arrived at maturity in the speculative portion of philosophy, which is the most beautiful and most divine part of it. And the women also share in this feast, the greater part of whom, though old, are virgins in respect of their purity (not indeed through necessity, as Some of the priestesses among the Greeks are, who have been compelled to preserve their chastity more than they would have done of their own accord), but out of an admiration for and love of wisdom, with which they are desirous to pass their lives, on account of wlhich they are indifferent to the pleasures of the body, desiring not a mortal but an immortal offspring, which the soul that is attached to God is alone able to produce by itself and from itself, the Father having sown n it rays of light appreciable only by the intellect, by means of which it will be able to perceive the doctrines of Wisdom." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 63-68 )

"And the order in which they sit down to meat is a divided one, the men sitting on the
right hand and the women apart from them on the left, and in case anly one by chance suspects that cushions, if not very costly ones, still at all events of a tolerably soft substance, are prepared for men who are well bon and well bred, and contemplators of philosophy, he must know that they have nothing but rugs of the coarsest materials, cheap mats of the most ordinary kind of the papyrus of the land, piled up on the ground and projecting a little near the elbow, so that the feasters may lean upon them, for they relax n a slight degree the Lacedaemonian ngour of life, and at all times and in all places they practise a liberal, gentlemanlike kind of frugality, hating the allurements of pleasure with all their might. And they do not use the ministrations of slaves, looking upon the possession of servants of slaves to be a thing absolutely and wholly contrary to nature, for nature has created all men free, but the injustice and covetousness of some men who prefer inequality, hat cause of all evil, having subdued some, has given to the more powerful authority over those who are weaker. Accordingly in this sacred entertainment there is, as I have said, no slave, but free men minister to the guests, performing the offices of servants, not under compulsion, nor in obcdience to any imperious commands, but of their own voluntary free will, with all cagemess and promptitude anticipating all orders, for they are not any chance free men who are appointed to perfom these duties, but young men who are selected from their order with all possible care on account of their excellence, acting as virtuous and wellborn youths ought to act who are cager to attain to the perfection of virtue, and who, like legitimate sons, with affectioate rivalry mister to their fathers and mothers, thinking their common parents more closely connected with them than those who are related by blood, since in truth to men of tight principles there is nothing more nearly akin than virtue, and they come in to perfom their service ungirdled, and with theirmidst was widened, and cut into a level and dry road, along which the people passed over to the opposite land, being conducted onwards to higher ground; then, when the sea returned and ran back to its fommer channel, and was poured out from both sides, on what had just before been dry ground, those of the enemy who pursued were overwhelmed and perished." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 69-72 )

 "When the Israelites saw and experienced this great miracle, which was an event beyond all description, beyond all imagination, and beyond all hope, both men and women together, under the influence of divine inspiration, becoming all one chorus, sang hymns of thanksgiving to God the Saviour, Moses the prophet leading the men, and Miriam the prophetess leading the women. Now the chorus of male and female worshippers being formed, as far as possible on this model, makes a most humorous concert, and a truly musical symphony, the shrill voices of the women mingling with the deep-toned voices of the men. The ideas were beautiful, the expressions beautiful, and the chorus-singers were beautiful; and the end of ideas, and expressions, and chorus singers, was piety: therefore, being intoxicated all night till the morning with this beautiful intoxication, without feeling their heads heavy or closing their eyes
for sleep, but being even more awake than when they came to the feast, as to their eyes and their whole bodies, and standing there till morning, when they saw the sun rising they raised their hands to heaven, imploring tranquillity and truth, and acuteness of understanding. And after their prayers they cach retired to their own separate abodes, with the ntention of again practising the usual philosoply to which they had been wont to devote themselves. This then is what I have to say of those who are called therapeutae, who have devoted themselves to the contemplation of nature, and wlio I have lived in it and im the soul alone, being citizens of heaven and of the world, and very acceptable to the Father and Creator of the universe because of their virtue, wlhich has procured them his love as their most appropriate reward, which far surpasses all the gifts of fortune, and conducts them to the very summit and
perfection of happiness." ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 87-90 )

 

"intoxicated all night till the morning with this beautiful intoxication" ( Alexandriai Philón, De vita contemplativa ( On the Contemplative Life ), 89 )

A kereszténység vallásgyakorlatában nem sok újítást hozott..., a Therapeuták szinte mindent feltaláltak már korábban, sőt sejtésük is volt, kit várnak..., de miért is kellett volna. Az "initiating love" nem csak egyetemleges, de örök is.

Ahogy az "avatar" várás is az.

Az "initiating love", maga a Γνῶσις !!!