In order to experience the Truth, one does not need any effort whatsoever. People are accustomed to exerting effort in everything and erroneously suppose that it is impossible to experience the Truth without any effort.
We may need effort to earn our daily bread or to play a game of football, or to carry a very heavy load, but it is absurd to believe that effort is necessary in order to experience that which is the Truth.
Comprehension replaces effort when one tries to comprehend the truth intimately hidden in the secret depth of each problem.
We do not need any effort to comprehend each and all of the defects that we carry hidden in the different levels of the mind.
We do not need effort to comprehend that envy is one of the most powerful triggers of the social machinery. Why do many people want to progress? Why do many people want to have beautiful residences and very elegant cars? The entire world envies what belongs to others, envy is regret for others’ well-being.
Elegant women are envied by other less elegant women and this serves to intensify struggle and pain. Those who do not have, want to have and will not even eat in order to buy clothes and adornments of all types with the only objective of not being less than anyone.
Every paladin of a great cause is mortally hated by the envious. The envy of the impotent, of the vanquished, of the mean person, is disguised with the judge’s toga or with the robe of sanctity and of mastery, or with the sophism of applause, or with the beauty of humility.
If we comprehend in an integral manner that we are envious, it is logical that envy then ends and in its place appears the star that rejoices and shines for others’ well being.
There are persons who want to cease being covetous but who covet not being covetous, there you have a form of covetousness.
There are men who exert themselves in order to attain the virtue of chastity, but when they see a beautiful woman on the street, they pay her some beautiful compliments, and if the woman is a friend, they can do nothing less than ply her with attentions, tell her beautiful words, admire her, praise her beautiful qualities, etc. The secret intentions behind all that coquetry is found in the secret trigger of subconscious, tenebrous and submerged lust.
When we comprehend without any effort whatsoever all the tricks of lust, the latter is annihilated and in its place is born the immaculate flower of chastity.
It is not with any effort that we can acquire those virtues. The ‘I’ is fortified when it exerts itself to acquire virtues. The ‘I’ loves decorations, medals, titles, honors, virtues, beautiful qualities, etc.
Greek traditions narrate that Aristippus, the philosopher, wanting to demonstrate his wisdom and modesty, put on an old robe full of patches and holes, clutched the staff of philosophy and walked on the streets of Athens. When Socrates saw him arrive at his house, he exclaimed: “Oh, Aristippus, your vanity shows through the holes of your clothes”!
The pedantic, the vain, the proud, believing themselves to be very humble, wear the robe of Aristippus. Humility is a very exotic flower, whoever boasts of humility is full of pride.
In practical life we make many useless efforts each time that a new problem torments us. We appeal to efforts to solve it, we struggle and suffer, but then, the only thing that we obtain is to commit inanities and to complicate existence more and more.
The disillusioned, the disenchanted, those who no longer even want to think those who were not able to solve a vital problem, find the solution when their mind is serene and tranquil, when they had no hope whatsoever.
No truth can be comprehended by means of effort. The truth comes like a thief in the night, when one least expects it.
Extrasensory perceptions during meditation, illumination, the solution to a problem, are only possible when no kind of conscious or subconscious effort exists, when the mind does not exert itself to be more than it is.
Pride also disguises itself as being sublime, the mind exerts itself to be something more than it is. The mind, serene like a lake, can experience the Truth, but when the mind wants to be something more, it is in tension, it is in struggle and then, the experience of the Truth becomes impossible.
We should not mistake the Truth with opinions. Many think that the Truth is this or that, or that the Truth is this or that book, or this or that belief or idea, etc.
The one who wants to experience the Truth should not mistake beliefs, ideas, opinions and theories with that which is the Truth.
We should experience the Truth in a direct, practical and real manner; this is only possible in the stillness and silence of the mind, and this is achieved by means of meditation.
To experience the Truth is fundamental. It is not by means of effort that we can experience the Truth. The Truth is not the result, the Truth is not the product of effort.
The Truth comes to us by means of profound comprehension.
We need effort to work in the Great Work, effort to transmute our creative energies, effort to live, struggle and tread the path of Integral Revolution, but we do not need effort to comprehend the Truth.
Samael Aun Weor
