The government has authority. The state has authority. The police, the law, soldiers, parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc., have authority.
There are two types of authority:
- First: subconscious authority.
- Second: cognizant authority.
Unconscious or subconscious authorities are useless. We urgently need authorities with self-cognizance.
Unconscious or subconscious authorities have filled the world with tears and pain.
Unconscious authorities abuse authority at home and at school, precisely because they are unconscious or subconscious.
In this day and age, unconscious parents and teachers are only blind leaders of the blind, and as the sacred scriptures state, both shall fall headlong into the abyss.
During infancy, unconscious parents and teachers forced us to do absurd things that they considered logical. They allege that these were for our own good.
Parents are unconscious authorities, as is demonstrated by the fact that they handle their children like trash, as if parents are superior beings from the species of mankind.
Teachers end up hating certain students and pampering or spoiling others. Sometimes they severely punish any hated student even when the latter is not indolent, and instead they reward with magnificent grades their spoiled students who do not really deserve it.
Parents and teachers dictate erred norms to children and young people. Authorities who do not possess self-cognizance can only do absurd things.
We need authorities with self-cognizance. Let self-cognizance be understood as the integral knowledge of oneself, that is, the entire knowledge of all of our inner values.
Only the one who truly possesses the complete knowledge of his Inner Self is awake in an integral manner. This is what is called self-cognizance.
Regrettably, everyone believes they have self-cognizance. Notwithstanding, in life it is very difficult to find someone who truly knows his Inner Self, since the concepts that people have about themselves are totally mistaken.
To know oneself requires great and remarkable efforts. Only through the knowledge of oneself do we truly achieve self-cognizance.
The abuse of authority is due to unconsciousness, therefore an authority with self-cognizance would never abuse its authority.
Some philosophers are against all authority, they detest authorities; such a way of thinking is false because superior forces that control and direct as well as inferior forces that are controlled and directed exist within everything created. From a microbe to a sun, there are levels and levels, degrees and degrees.
In a simple beehive, the authority lies with the queen. In any anthill, there exist authority and laws. The destruction of the principle of authority would lead to anarchy.
The authorities of these critical times in which we live are unconscionable, and obviously, due to this undeniable psychological fact, they enslave, shackle, abuse, and cause pain.
We need completely self-cognizant masters, instructors, or spiritual guides, government authorities, parents, etc. Indeed, only in this manner can we create a better world.
It is stupid to state that spiritual masters and spiritual guides are not necessary.
It is absurd to be unaware of the principle of authority that exists in all of creation.
Those who are self-sufficient and proud have the opinion that masters and spiritual guides are not necessary.
We must recognize our own nothingness and misery; we must understand that we need authorities, masters, spiritual instructors, etc., but ones with self-cognizance, since only in this manner can they guide and help us wisely.
The unconscious authority of teachers destroys the power of creativity in their students, i.e. if a student paints, the unconscientious teacher tells him what he must paint, which tree or landscape he must copy, thereafter, the scared student does not dare to step out of line of the mechanical norms of his teacher. Thus, the student is not creating.
It is necessary for a student to become creative, to be capable of stepping out of line of the unconscious norms of an unconscious teacher; in this manner the student will be able to transmit all that he feels, i. e., all that he feels in relation to a tree; that is, all the enchantment of the life that flows through the tremulous leaves of that tree, all of its deep significance.
A teacher with cognizance would not oppose the liberating creativity of the spirit.
Teachers with cognizant authority would never mutilate the minds of their students.
Through their authority, unconscious teachers destroy the mind and intelligence of their students.
Teachers with unconscious authority only know how to punish and dictate stupid norms so that their students will behave well.
Teachers with self-cognizance teach their students with extreme patience, helping them to comprehend their individual difficulties, so that through comprehension they are able to transcend all their errors and thus successfully advance.
The cognizant or self-cognizant authority would never destroy intelligence, whereas the unconscious authority destroys intelligence and causes serious damage to students.
Intelligence only emerges from within us when we enjoy authentic freedom. Teachers with cognizant authority truly know how to respect creative freedom, whereas unconscious teachers believe that they know it all and thus they step all over the students’ freedom. Thus, unconscious teachers, by means of their lifeless norms, castrate the intelligence of their students.
Teachers with self-cognizance know that they do not know, thus they even give themselves the luxury of learning by observing the creative capacities of their disciples.
It is necessary for school, college, and university students to overcome their condition as simple, disciplined machines in order to acquire, as intelligent free beings, an enlightened position, so that they will be able to face all the problems of existence with success.
This assignment requires self-cognizant, competent teachers, who are really committed to their students. These teachers must be well paid so that they may never have monetary problems of any type.
Regrettably, every teacher, every parent, and every student believe themselves to be self-cognizant, to be awakened; behold, this is their gravest error.
Indeed, to find in life an awakened, self-cognizant person is a great oddity, since people’s consciousness usually dreams when their physical body sleeps, and likewise it dreams when their physical body is awake.
Yes, people drive cars with dreaming consciousness, they work with dreaming consciousness, walk in the streets with dreaming consciousness, live all the time with dreaming consciousness.
This is why it is very natural for a professor to forget his umbrella, or to leave a book or wallet unnoticed in his car. All of this happens because the professor has his consciousness asleep; thus, he dreams…
It is very difficult for people to recognize that they are asleep, since the entire world believes themselves to be awake. Nevertheless, if someone was to recognize that his consciousness is asleep, it is obvious that he would begin to awaken from that very moment.
A book or notebook that a student has to take to school is left at home; this type of forgetfulness seems to be very normal, and it is usual, nevertheless this indicates the sleepy state of the human consciousness.
The passengers of any urban transport service often miss the street where they should have gotten off because their consciousness was asleep, and when they became aware, they realize that they have missed their street and have to walk back a few blocks.
In life, the consciousness of the human being is hardly awake; when this does awaken, it is only for a brief moment, i.e. in cases of infinite terror, the human being momentarily sees himself in an integral form. These moments are unforgettable.
It is very difficult for a person who returns home after having traveled through an entire city to remember in detail all his thoughts, incidents, people, things, ideas, etc. On trying to remember, the person will find huge gaps in his memory; these gaps correspond precisely to the most profound sleepy states of his consciousness.
Some students of psychology have set out to live from moment to moment with their consciousness in an alert state, nevertheless, suddenly their awareness falls asleep, perhaps on meeting a friend in the street, or when entering into a store in order to buy something, etc., thus, hours later, when they remember their decision to live from moment to moment with their consciousness in an alert and awake state, they realize that their awareness started to fall asleep when they entered into such and such a place, or when they met such and such a person.
To become self-cognizant is something very difficult, however, one can reach this state by learning how to be alert and vigilant from moment to moment.
If we want to attain self-cognizance, we need to know ourselves in an integral manner.
Every one of us has the “I,” the self-willed, the ego, which we need to explore in order to know ourselves and thus become self-cognizant.
It is essential to observe ourselves, to analyze and comprehend each one of our defects.
samael aun weor
It is necessary to study ourselves in the fields of the mind, emotions, habits, instincts, and sex.
The mind has many subconscious levels, regions, or departments that we must know in depth by means of observation, analysis, in-depth meditation, and profound inner comprehension.
Any defect can disappear from the intellectual region and continue to exist within other unconscious levels of the mind.
The first thing we must do is awaken in order to understand our own misery, nothingness, and pain; afterwards, the ego begins to die from moment to moment. This death of the psychological ego is urgent.
Only by this psychological death is the truly cognizant Being born within us. Only our Being can exercise true cognizant authority.
Awakening, death, and birth: these are the three psychological phases that lead us to a true, cognizant existence.
We must awaken in order to die, and we must die in order to be born. Whosoever dies without having awakened becomes a stupid saint. Whosoever is born without having died becomes an individual with a double personality: the very just one and the very perverse one.
True authority can only be exerted by those who possess a cognizant Being.
Those who still do not possess a cognizant Being, those who still are not self-cognizant, tend to abuse authority and cause great harm.
Teachers must learn how to rule, and students must learn how to obey.
Those psychologists who pronounce themselves against obedience are in fact very mistaken, because no one can rule consciously if he has not first learned how to obey.
It is necessary to know how to consciously rule and how to consciously obey.
Samael Aun Weor
