“Iwas thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day exhibited,
Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars above…
I was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless around me myriads of other globes.”
– Walt Whitman
One of my earliest childhood memories occurred almost 40 years ago. One warm summer night, holding my father’s hand, we walked along an airplane runway. I remember stopping and looking up at the starry sky, focusing my eyes on the beautiful line formed by three stars in perfect symmetry. It seemed so well organized within the chaotic starry world that I must have stared at it for a long time. I remember my father took me in his arms, sat me on his shoulders, and pointed to the three stars. Then he said, “These three stars, and the four in the corners, are the constellation Orion.”
From that night on, no matter where I have been on the planet, or in whatever emotional, personal, and existential state I was in, I have always looked up again seeking that symmetry. Each time I see it again, I experience a deep emotion, not only linked to the memory of my father but also to the fact of knowledge itself. That my father pronounced the name of that constellation meant that for the rest of my life I will be able to recognize it no matter where I am or who I am.
Self-knowledge means to know the Self. It is the study of the third and fourth states of consciousness in oneself. Who in us can conduct this study? Only something above and quicker than the four lower centers: the soul, the observer, the third eye, or whatever we call it. It must begin to know and recognize itself as something apart from the subjective world of the many ‘I’s. It will have a new kind of knowledge, not consisting of words and concepts, but of direct perception of the truth.
We all have had the experience of hearing the words of a teacher and realizing that we have had the same experience, but were never able to put it into words. We cannot come to self knowledge by ourselves. It needs to be pointed out to us. This is the role of a teacher. The role of the student is to recognize this state in themselves once it is pointed out. Recognize (re-cognize) means to know again. This state is already in our experience, we have simply not recognized it yet.
“It takes a swan to know a swan” – Robert Earl Burton
We were sitting across from each other, my teacher and me. There were other diners at the table but somehow the whole environment gradually faded away, became blurred. As he spoke, even his words also faded away. Even ‘I’ was fading away through my efforts to remember myself.
In an instant, everything disappeared and remembering myself no longer involved effort. It was simply happening in the most luminous and natural way possible. At that moment I was deeply aware of every beat of my heart, every subtle burst of energy passing through my being, everything that composed me and my surroundings. Somehow I was experiencing a state of non-identification, of no thought, no impulses of any kind. At the same time there was full consciousness, with a newfound notion of eternity, infinity, and depth. My teacher, staring at me and fixing me with his awakened gaze, interrupted his silence and said, “This is your soul being present.” Then I truly knew, far beyond any doubt.
I will always know the beautiful rectangle with a diagonal line formed by three stars is the constellation Orion. And I will always know that the state in which I experience the infinitude within, that depth in the vastness of all, is my soul being present.
“Someone, I tell you, from another time will remember us.” – Sappho