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Cosmic Teachings of a Lama: Pratimoksha

Pratimoksha

We start this chapter with a beautiful poem from Don Ramon del Valle Inclan:

Gnostic Rose

Nothing can be that has not formerly been.
Nothing can be that shall not become tomorrow.
Eternal all instants are and have been,
as the grain which the clock scrapes with sorrow.
Eternal is the rose’s grace,

as the earliest skylark that announces the morning,
as the caterpillar, whose flower the butterfly did brace.
Eternal is, within my conscience, my guilt’s mourning.
Reclined at the verge of the way, coated with rime,
is the worm which germinates in mud as swine,
this is how I sense the black anguish of my crime
as an aspiration to the whole divine.
The Gnostic mystery is present
in the quiet soaring of the dove
and the sin of the world in the (Tempting) serpent
which bites the foot of the angel who subdues it with love.
Upon the eternal nights of a forgone time
the eternal nights of tomorrow open, they grapple
each hour a larvae of crime
and the symbol of the serpent and the apple.
Time keeps the enigma of form,
as a dragon which keeps vigil upon the worlds
so that, the Whole and Unity, supreme norm,
can weave from its stele, the infinite worlds.
Nothing turns off the flame of the crucible,
for sealed in its bottom is, as eternal flaming rage,
the idea of Plato. Suns, distant and invisible
one day shall illuminate our hermitage.
While my shroud the Parca spins,
on my forehead, a cross of ashes, I represent.
Time is woodworm’s dust, pains
through Satan. Yet, God is the present!
Everything is eternity! Everything happened already!
Thus everything which is now, shall be tomorrow
in these moments opened by this moment, making ready,
under our feet the hole of death, with sorrow!

Beautiful poem, is it not? “Nothing can be that has not formerly been. Nothing can be that shall not become tomorrow.” Behold here the law of Recurrence. A constant repetition of successive lives.

Thus, in every existence everything comes to occur again such as it happened before. Indeed, “time is woodworm’s dust, pains through Satan…”

The repetition of this drama of existence is a vicious circle…

Do you want to know what will be your destiny in your future existence? I want you to know that “upon the eternal nights of a forgone time, the eternal nights of tomorrow open…”

Do you comprehend…? When again you will be born in this valley of tears, the past will become future…

This signifies that your present life with all of its vain happiness, sufferings, and sorrows will unfortunately be repeated…

But, what about Epigenesis, or creation of new causes, then what…? Woe, wretched mortals of the earth! Do you believe, perchance, that the ego or pluralized “I” is capable of creating something new…? Do you ignore that the ego is memory, that it is accumulated dust from centuries…?

Gnostics…! It is indispensable for you to dissolve the ego. To die from moment to moment is urgent. What is new arrives only with death…!

Did you ever hear about the Buddhist Pratimoksha? This is the ceremony of discharge. We, the Gnostics practice it…

To publicly confess our crimes, to exhibit them, to place them over the carpet of actuality and not to hide them, signifies, as a fact, to scorn oneself, to scorn one’s “I.”

One given night, I assisted with the Pratimoksha in the Gnostic Church. Somebody else, it does not matter who, seated himself upon a comfortable chair in front of the congregation and a great Being placed himself behind him.

The devotee publicly confessed all the crimes of his life in front of the Brotherhood…

After confessing some crime, the devotee paused. Then, in those moments, the priest and the congregation were begging to the penitent’s Divine Mother Kundalini to cast the “I” that personified such a sin downwards into the Infernal Worlds…

It is obvious that the Divine Mother Kundalini wisely operated by eliminating the entity that personified the confessed crime.

I comprehended then that indeed, the Buddhist Pratimoksha is a ceremony of discharge.

To declare such crimes implied, as a fact, to publicly describe the history of his life.

It was explained to me that this type of Pratimoksha is practiced three or five times during the course of our existence.

Pertaining to the Gnostic Liturgy, a very special form of monthly Pratimoksha exists, which is very necessary for all the devotees. In this monthly Pratimoksha, the devotee publicly confesses in front of the fraternity only the crime or crimes committed within the last thirty days of his existence. (Study this, as it is explained in our Second Chamber book entitled Gnostic Liturgy and Constitution for Gnostic Institutions).

It is obvious that without the help of the Divine Mother Kundalini, the elimination of all the diverse entities that personify our errors would be impossible.

These diverse forms of Pratimoksha are very useful in order to eliminate all of those diverse psychological aggregates that constitute the ego.

The return of the seventy confirms the Pratimoksha:

And the seventy returned again with joy saying, Lord, even the devils (egos of the people) are subject unto us through thy name. - Luke 10:17

It is written that Jesus, the great Kabir, answered:

I beheld Satan (the pluralized “I”) as lightning fall from heaven. Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions (black entities of sin), and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the (malignant) spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. - Luke 10:18-20

Be careful, Gnostic priests, of falling into pride as a result of having been given the power in order to work with Devi Kundalini, for the elimination of the devil “I’s”… Be meek, pure, and simple.

The Pratimoksha is necessary during the work with the gold and with the silver, with the Sun and with the Moon, in the forge of the Cyclops.

Let us remember Joshua uttering:

Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed (symbol of the esoteric work), until the people (the Initiates) had avenged themselves upon their enemies (their devil “I’s”).

Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the Sun (Christ) stood still in the midst of heaven (in order to guide the Initiate, as He always does it), and hasted not to go down about a whole day. - Joshua 10:12-13

The Cosmic Christ, the Solar Logos, the Sun of midnight, guides all of those who fight against their enemies, the tenebrous “I’s,” the red devils of Seth, the ego.