Mouravieff on Lying
(Gnosis, Vol. I, pp. 29-31)
The faculty of lying is the third element in our factitious life. It helps substantially to give it a semblance of continuity. We can easily realize the role played by this faculty of lying if we imagine what our existence would come to if this possibility were taken away. Life would become impossible, due to the shocks and conflicts which we would have to face. In this way, lies serve as buffers, like the buffers of railway carriages which soften shocks. It is this faculty of lying which makes our lives less of a battle, and contributes greatly to the impression of continuity life gives us. We are brought back once again to the fact that we attribute to ourselves faculties which we do not possess -except as possibilities for development: we pretend to be truthful because telling the truth and living a truthful life are possibilities which can become real; but they can do so much later, after we have worked hard and long upon ourselves. In the meantime we are condemned to lie. Whoever denies this only testifies to our difficulty in facing the truth.
(4)
We must linger a while on the question of lying, a question of great importance to which we must return more than once. The faculty of lying is a function of our imagination, a creative faculty. Before we create anything we must imagine what it is we wish to create. This gift belongs only to humans. Animals never possess it.
It is thanks to this gift of imagination, a divine gift, that we have the faculty of lying. We lie for different reasons, wishing generally to ameliorate situations which seem to us unbearable or difficult to accept. Lies thus open the way for mechanisms of rationalization or of justification, which are ways of 'patching up'. We shall see further on how the entangled behaviour of persons round about us provokes many shocks, creating difficult and sometimes insoluble situations of human relations, veritable Gordian knots. It is thus in the utmost good faith that we resort to lies.
This being so, the attitude of the esoteric Doctrine towards lying is clear and realistic. It does not require us to stop lying from the start, because nobody can carry out such a resolution. However, if man cannot stop lying to others, the same cannot be said as far as he himself is concerned. He is therefore asked to stop lying to himself-and this in a definite way. This requirement is absolute, and we can easily understand why. The objective of esoteric work is the march towards Consciousness, which means towards : Truth. It would be a contradictio in objecto to try to approach the truth while continuing to lie to ourselves or to believe in our own lies. We must therefore eliminate any attempt to lie to ourselves: on this point no compromise can be tolerated, no excuse admitted.
But while in our present condition we cannot live without lying to others, we must at least be conscious of our lies.
There is, nevertheless, another recommendation which we can make in this domain. In the ensemble of our lies to others, tolerated esoterically, we must exercise ourselves to distinguish between those lies which are indispensable or inevitable, those lies which are simply useful, and those which are not. The Doctrine asks those who study it to fight energetically against those useless lies.
It is only by training of this nature that we shall progressively be able to master the rooted tendency to lie which exists within us. Every attempt to hurry things, so far as lying to others is concerned, though it be a noble attempt, is doomed to early failure. We live in a world which is immersed in lies and moved by lies. It is to be noted that the Decalogue, which imposes observable commandments on man, does not forbid him from lying except in a small sector of human relations; that of bearing false witness, and also in situations where he is already badly predisposed to someone.
(5)
It is also necessary to guard against a variant of the habit of lying to ourselves, one which we commonly adopt from early childhood and against which we must fight by every means. This variant is widespread because at first glance it appears to us to be a positive attitude. Such an attitude can normally be adapted easily to any case; used in spoken language or in writing; in mundane conversation, or in a thesis for a doctorate, it is betrayed by the phrase: 'yes but...'. This in itself does not imply any harm when it is used. On the contrary, such usage is helpful and even indispensable in discussions, controversies and pleadings -where we resort to it quite frequently. However when applied to ourselves and for our own benefit, with the aim of softening a shock, or rediscovering our inner peace after we have sinned, or excusing our actions or faults, this idiom crystallizes within us over a period of time to create a true auto-tranquillizing mechanism. It is to be noted that the effects of this mechanism are not to be compared with 'sang-froid', or the ability to answer well and quickly, or those of inspirations from consciousness. On the contrary, it is a true mechanism of mental anaesthesia, founded on a refined and disguised lie. It sows hypocrisy in man towards himself.
This auto-tranquillizer, like all other moral buffers, must be destroyed.
(Gnosis, pp. 161-2)
(9)
We shall now better understand the attitude of the Tradition to lying. If man wants to reach the Way, it is imperative that he stops lying to himself from his first steps on the track. If not, he will not be able to build his cage or, if he is able to start building it, the walls will tumble as soon as he intentionally seeks to cheat himself. He must no longer try to justify himself when a fall occurs, while he knows in his inmost heart that the reasons he is giving himself are not valid. A sincere error is forgivable, but an 'arranged' error ruins everything. We have here one of the aspects of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, that hypocrisy towards oneself that will not be forgiven now, or in the time to come. This concerns the famous leaven of the pharisees, which in spite of all its dangers, always finds human hearts in which to settle.
Next to the interdiction of lying to oneself, there is another less rigid rule which, put into practice, yields great advantage to anyone who observes it: that is not to lie uselessly. If lying to oneself excludes from the start the possibility of esoteric work, the useless lie is a nonsense, and a harmful nonsense, as any sort of lie results in the loss of fine energies which are most precious to us.
When man lies because he can do nothing else, or because he is pushed to it by his emotions or by positive considerations, this attitude can be justified within certain limits: in such cases one can say in effect that 'the end justifies the means'; but to lie for lying's sake is a proof that we have fallen to the lowest degree of degeneracy.
(Gnosis, pp. 163-171)
CHAPTER XVII
(1)
We live in a world ruled by lies. Lying and stealing are the dominant elements of human character whatever the race, creed or caste. Whoever says that this is not true simply tells another lie. Man lies because, in a world ruled by lies it is not possible for him to do otherwise. To all that has already been said, one must add the following peculiarity which at first looks paradoxical; that the progress of this civilization, which is the fruit of an intellectual culture, considerably increases the need for lying.
Jesus told the Jews: 'your father is the devil and it is your will to do the lusts of your father ...He standeth not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he uttereth a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of lies.'
It is evident that this sentence does not only apply to the Jews and to biblical times, but applies to man, whatever era and whatever race he belongs to, as soon as he identifies himself with his Personality, which is under obedience to the General Law. Talleyrand used to say that language was given to man to conceal his thoughts.
Yet man feels that he should not lie. In his inmost heart lives a vague memory of the pure, unperverted consciousness he had before the fall of Adam. Every normal and sane human being experiences, more than once, nostalgia for an uncorrupted life, and bitter regret that they are snared in the meshes of cheating, both moral and material.
Man, however, lets himself be bound more and more in life: his faculty for lying gives him the marvelous impression of being able to arrange things for the best in difficult situations, but he forgets that lies, once uttered, put him under obligation. Imaginary facts created in these acts demand a context which, if not completely identical, must at least support the circumstances within which we live and act. As long as we deal with insignificant facts, lying does not often result in serious consequences; conversely, in the absence of an adequate context, a serious lie unfailingly leads to a catastrophe commensurate with the importance of the problem. We remain unaware of this link between statement and context, which is the underlying reason why this law applies with the harsh rigidity to which Jesus drew our attention by saying: 'There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; nor hid that shall not be known and exposed to the light of day'. In talking about this to his disciples, Jesus added: 'Before anything else, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy,' the form of lie which is most pernicious, as we saw in the previous chapter.
(2)
If we refer to the different aspects of this subject, an analysis of lying permits us to distinguish the following modes:
* Lying to others;
* Lying to oneself;
* Useful lies;
* Useless lies.
To these classic cases of lying, one must add two particular cases:
* Hypocrisy: the pretence of virtue, of praiseworthy sentiments, with the intent to deceive persons of good faith;
* The integral lie: this characterizes that person who, from a habit of lying and cheating on every occasion, ends by believing his own lies and thus loses all sense of truth.
These two last cases are the hardest to cure: hypocrisy, in fact, must be deeply rooted in the Personality of the human being to become an element of his behaviour. To overcome this tendency within oneself requires considerable and painful efforts. No fruitful esoteric work can be undertaken by anyone who has not first rid himself of this vice. It is dangerous for a hypocrite even to start searching for the Way, as he is condemned to fall in advance. It is the same for him who has become a prey to integral lying. Nevertheless, if these lies are not soiled with hypocrisy, meaning that if the intentional mythomaniac element is entirely lacking, this case is easier to cure than the preceding one.
It is anyway rather rare for persons suffering from these defects to become interested in esoteric teaching. Oriented towards the true, this teaching exercises a strong repulsion on those who suffer from these mental anomalies. Thus we can now concentrate our attention on the more widespread cases, which are related to the four modes listed above.
One can say in general that all men lie in these four ways, and those who approach esoteric work do not escape from this rule. It is only the intensity which differs from one person to another. Setting aside cases who lie for the sake of lying, at the root of lying we can distinguish a whole series of motives; they can spring from the baseness of our natures or be inspired by the noblest sentiments. For example, we do not tell the truth to persons who suffer from a malady which is hopeless. We lie sometimes to attenuate the brutal effect of bad news. On the other hand, there exist cases where we try to ameliorate the effects of facts by lies not out of hypocrisy but, if we can say so, out of a taste for the marvellous and for the miraculous. Such cases deserve our attention because they are out of the ordinary. We may remember the text of the liturgical prayer by which, Jesus addressing Himself to the Father, said: 'Thy word is Truth'. This creative force of the Word, of the logos, which is the Son's very nature, lies within us in our inmost heart.
We must note that we currently attribute to the subconscious world phenomena and messages which really come from higher levels of Consciousness. Moved by vague recollections, the man of good faith and a generous heart sometimes feels the need of bringing consolation, a note of optimism, and so distorts the facts by presenting them in a favourable light. It is doubtless a praiseworthy attempt, but it is ineffective because of the insufficient means available. For our word is not yet a word of Truth. If they had had the power of the word of Jesus our lies, taking miraculous power, would actually have improved the facts. The facts, however, remain in the same context as they were, before the man of good faith attempted to improve them. This sort of lie could be defined as an attempt to perform a miracle with insufficient means.
(3)
Lies gravely affect our mind; they distort the undeveloped organs of the Personality, upon which depends the effort that must lead us to the second Birth. In an exterior man who starts esoteric work, these organs, which are in an embryonic stage, are more tender and more delicate than those of the physical foetus in his mother's womb. Each lie attacks and distorts them. Time and conscious efforts are needed to correct the effect of these true traumas and revert back to the previous state. Even more, lying makes the man who aspires to evolution go backwards. It bars his path to esoteric growth, by accentuating the imbalance between his three lower centres. These are the organs which, in spite of their incomplete character, permit man to receive 'B' influences, and feel drawn towards them. The growth of these, if it happens in a normal way and in favourable conditions, assures the formation and development of magnetic centre in man.
When we live in a world where lying rules, it is certainly difficult if not impossible to exclude lying from the start. This is the reason why religious law does not categorically forbid us to lie. Among the Ten Commandments given in negative form such as: 'Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery,' etc., we do not find the imperative: 'do not lie.' Not that lying is permitted, but it is recognized that it is impossible to suppress it completely while man lives in an environment of illusion; the anaesthetic by which the General Law keeps man in the meshes of a net with hardly any margin for free movement. The Decalogue therefore envisages only a very narrow sector of human relations where lying is forbidden: this concerns giving false testimony against friends; and while frankness, thirst for justice, and a pure heart are praised in the New Testament, we still do not find an explicit interdiction against lying.
We can see from this that the Cycle of the Son, like that of the Father, belongs to the Mixtus Orbis, not yet transfigured; a mixed world where the Light shines in the Darkness and where Darkness has not yet abandoned its efforts to possess it. To live in the true, with all lies excluded, is the prerogative of the Cycle of the Holy Spirit; Light without Shadow.
While we wait for the coming of this era, an interdiction against lying nevertheless applies to certain Individualities: we speak here about certain men who have attained or who are about to attain the Second Birth, that is, interior men. We find only one indication on this subject in the New Testament, but the text of St Paul the Apostle leaves no room for any ambiguity:
'Lie not one to another: seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto the knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman; but Christ is all and in all.'
This is only addressed to a small minority of interior men, in their relations between themselves, yet such a restriction applies fully as soon as a given degree of evolution is reached, since this governs our capability for truth.
Addressing himself to his disciples of Corinth, St Paul also wrote:
'Aspire earnestly to the best gifts. And I will show you a way that is perfect above all.'
That way, a way of Love, was defined by the Apostle as follows:
'Love,' said he, 'is patient, it is full of kindness, Love is not envious; love vaunteth not itself is not puffed up with pride, does nothing dishonest, does not seek its own interest, is not provoked to irritation, does not suspect evil, rejoices not in injustice but rejoices in the truth; it forgives all things, it believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.'
'Love will never perish even when prophecies come to an end, when tongues cease to be, when knowledge disappears.'
He who reaches Love would not know how to lie. But to triumph over lies requires an esoteric culture, which is inaccessible to ordinary men.
(4)
The analysis we have just developed will allow the person who enters the track, in hope of reaching the Way, to see more clearly the facts of the important problem of lying. The struggle against lying is long and drawn out. It is first of all a struggle against ourselves, against our spontaneous tendencies, and against that mechanicalness that makes us revert constantly to lying.
In the preceding chapter we briefly examined the case of lying to oneself. Useless lies to others are classed in a separate category. This is far less harmful than lying to oneself-and easier to master and heal; much easier than lying to oneself, which sometimes takes on extremely finely shaded forms that necessitate total and sustained attention, together with methodical and persistent efforts of presence in oneself. To eliminate useless lying to others does not demand continual effort: one must simply watch to see that it does not slip into conversation. At the moment when it is on our lips a simple effort of attention is sufficient to stop it. That is why in struggling for truth it is recommended to begin with this type of lie.
We must note a peculiarity which distinguishes work on these two categories of lying. We easily understand that lying to oneself, or the struggle against this kind of lie, is not perceptible from the exterior. Certainly, as soon as this struggle is undertaken, the inner attitude of man towards those around him, and more generally towards people with whom he comes into contact, can undergo certain changes. Nevertheless, these changes must not take on too obvious a character. One must let time make the necessary adjustments between interior evolution and the response from one's surroundings.
When we stop lying uselessly, this will also be unnoticed by those around us. One can say that in practice the struggle against these two categories of lies does not alter man's relations with other men in any way, although it is very effective for the person who undertakes it. We can therefore begin it without delay, as long as we do it discreetly so as not to draw attention to ourselves, and so do not provoke increasing pressure from the General Law.
As in all the easier inner struggles, the only real difficulty in the struggle against useless lies comes from the fact that we do not pay attention to it, so that today, as yesterday, our tongue mechanically continues its deceitful talk. It is generally after prolonged chattering that we notice we have lost sight of our decision no longer to lie uselessly. We nevertheless gain a lot in turning off this 'tap': thus we conserve a considerable quantity of fine matters.
As for efforts at suppressing lies to oneself, they entail quite different and important consequences. Such lies grow deep roots. In this domain, paradoxical situations sometimes arise, some of them of such psychological subtlety that it is difficult to draw them out of the shade. It is enough to mention the question of marriages where one of the partners, having realized that this union is an error, persists in trying to convince himself of the contrary. If he is of an affectionate nature, he will redouble his amiability towards his partner as if truly toward his polar being. The absurdity of the situation reaches its limits if the other partner reacts by adopting a corresponding attitude -without truly feeling any sincere or spontaneous glow of tenderness. This true 'play of love' is evidently to the greatest profit of the General Law. The danger from the esoteric point of view is that, by mere force of habit, such a situation takes on for one of the partners, or even for both of them, the value of true love. This kind of lying to oneself can go on for dozens of years with people who are amiable and of good faith, and they entail tragic disillusions in the end.
The man who starts to struggle against lying to himself must be forewarned of these difficulties, and of the possible collapse of some or all his greatest values. But it also happens that such inner collapses are produced in people who never approached esoteric work, but afterwards come to search for something more solid and permanent. All should know that true esoteric work only begins after the novice has passed through a general bankruptcy, and has had his gods helplessly thrown to the ground.
(5)
We have indicated the absolute necessity for anyone who aspires to esoteric development to cure himself as soon as possible of this deep-rooted habit of lying to himself. We shall now look at this problem from another angle: that of the objective results which man obtains when he is able to stop lying.
Gradually in this work, which takes time, demands the courage to face disillusion, and needs self confidence and faith in the teaching he follows, the seeker as he advances feels a new sentiment. He will sometimes feel bitter regret as his beautiful dreams vanish, but at the same time he will feel himself more and more liberated. His growing sincerity towards himself will establish an atmosphere of truth in his inner life. The law proclaimed by Jesus: 'ye shall know the Truth and the truth shall make you free,' will apply to him in its fullness. It is not useless to concentrate for a moment on these words. Jesus lived and preached in a world ruled by a regime of slavery. The word 'free' was chosen by Him to contrast to the state of slavery. After each operation of inner purification, painful as it may be, the seeker will feel more and more fully a profound gratitude for being freed from this absurd slavery, quite unintentional, which made of him, a subject by divine right, an object according to imagined human rights.
Having reached a certain stage in this internal liberation, man will understand the full value of the magical power expressed in the word freedom.
(6)
We must insist on the fact that the conquest of this inner freedom is the sine qua non condition of success in esoteric work. This alone makes it possible to observe the work of the lower centres objectively. This observation begins from the magnetic centre, this command post, this undivided domain of the 'B' influences whose existence permits impartial observation and judgement.
When our interior world is purified by the penetration of 'B' influences, the rays of the cosmic Sun; when the interior cage is built and organized as a command post; when we have ceased to lie to ourselves; what attitude must we then take to the world and to other people? As we have seen, this problem is far from easy to solve. Let us try to recognize it more clearly. By so doing, we will be brought nearer to the solution. For the latter to be correct, it is important that we do not hurry things. If it is written: 'the kingdom of heaven is forced, and it is the violent men who hold it,' then we must not forget to compare this text with the principle according to which the kingdom of God is within us and not outside us. It is therefore proper to resort to force and violence above all towards ourselves. This method is always useful, and is sometimes necessary to eliminate the roots of Illusion within us, the mother of lies to ourselves. In our actions in the milieu in which we live, we must take care not to believe that those around us automatically follow our evolution stage by stage, and that they are at each moment at the level we have reached by following conscious and sustained efforts which they have not made. Such an idea would certainly be absurd; but does not man live in the absurd?
(7)
The feeling of liberation, even though partial, and the joy felt after each victory over oneself, surpass the limited and weak understanding of exterior man; and he feels the need to express them. This need is in a certain way legitimate. We must nevertheless be prudent. The Tradition's rule on this subject is explicit; it prescribes: 'keep silent.' But it would be an error to think that it requires a true vow of silence. To keep silent, in the esoteric sense, means to talk, but to talk within well defined limits: man must say what must be said, when it must be said, and to whom it must be said. This naturally excludes all gossip and loquacity.
Another prescription, which we must force ourselves to respect from our first step in esoteric work, is added to the rule which prescribes silence. If we observe people who participate in a conversation or general discussion, we will constate that, instead of listening for themselves, in order to learn, and speaking for others, each speaks for himself, and listens to others out of politeness to them. We do not escape this rule. Everybody wants to insert his ideas somewhere, and searches for the most suitable occasion to do this. While waiting for our chance, we listen with patience and more or less attend to what is being said. When a conversation is being led in such a way, it is of course a conversation of the deaf, where we can rarely learn, and where generally we learn nothing. When they separate, each participant takes back the luggage with which he came, with this difference, that this sort of conversation provokes a considerable loss of fine energies.
Lastly, it is firmly recommended to remain earnest in contacts with people like ourselves. This precept demands a comment. Being earnest, in this case, does not mean being morose, still less taciturn. Esoteric work requires a vigour of the mind. What we are asked to do is to maintain a positive emotional attitude within us, and to acquire inner serenity. Man must keep an attitude of benevolence towards all; he must rejoice with the happy, be charitable towards those who suffer, and indifferent to the wicked. He must not play the role of a clown. Much as this may be astonishing, such an attitude is much more harmful to him who is addicted to it than we may think. In reality, it tends to debase everything to the level of triviality and platitude. Clowning, derived from scepticism, is a true opponent to the enthusiasm indispensable for passing through those difficult moments which will never be wanting in esoteric work.
These rules must therefore be observed. That of keeping silent is imperative. Jesus attached great importance to it. So much so, that when expressing it to his disciples, He chose a form of striking brutality. This was to better anchor in their minds the need for preserving the tender and delicate germ of the new life, of real Life, when that germ is just starting to appear in man following his first conscious efforts. Jesus said: 'give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine,' and he indicates the penalty: 'lest they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you.'
Nevertheless, people whose magnetic centres have made their appearance and are developing feel the need to talk about it. 'It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.' But let them only share their joys and experiences with those who, like them, have undertaken esoteric work. Besides, the rule of keeping silent is not obligatory, except at the beginning of esoteric training. Soon, by virtue of his conscious efforts, man starts to evolve and perceives the futility of most mundane relations. To mix the fruits of evolution with this life is always erroneous.
