The Publican and the Pharisee

Reflecting a bit on the various circumstances of life, it is well worth seriously understanding the foundations upon which we rest.

One person rests on their position, another on money, that one on prestige, that other on their past, this one on such and such a title, etc., etc., etc.

The most curious thing is that everyone, whether rich or beggar, needs everyone and lives off everyone, even if we are puffed up with pride and vanity.

Let’s think for a moment about what they can take away from us. What would be our fate in a revolution of blood and liquor? What would become of the foundations on which we rest? Woe to us, we think we are very strong and we are terribly weak!

The “I” who feels within himself the foundation on which we rest must be dissolved if we really yearn for authentic Bliss.

Such an “I” underestimates people, feels better than everyone else, more perfect in everything, richer, more intelligent, more expert in life, etc.

It is very opportune to quote now that parable of Jesus the Great KABIR, about the two men who prayed. It was said to some who trusted in themselves as righteous, and despised others.

Jesus the Christ, said: “Two men went up into the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a Publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this Publican: I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I gain. But the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote his chest, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner’. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (LUKE XVIII, 10-14)

Starting to realise our own nothingness and misery in which we find ourselves is absolutely impossible as long as there exists in us that concept of “More”. Examples: I am more righteous than that one, wiser than so-and-so, more virtuous than what’s-his-name, richer, more expert in the things of life, more chaste, more dutiful, etc., etc., etc.

It is not possible to pass through the eye of a needle while we are “rich”, while that complex of “More” exists in us.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.

That thing of your school is the best and that of my neighbour is useless; that thing of your Religion is the only true one, so-and-so’s wife is a terrible wife and mine is a saint; That thing of my friend Roberto is a drunkard and I am a very judicious and abstemious man, etc., etc., etc., is what makes us feel rich; which is why we are all the “CAMELS” of the biblical parable in relation to esoteric work.

It is urgent to self-observe ourselves from moment to moment with the purpose of clearly knowing the foundations on which we rest.

When one discovers what offends them the most in a given instant; the annoyance they were given for such or such a thing; then they discover the foundations on which they rest psychologically.

Such foundations constitute according to the Christian Gospel “the sands upon which he built his house”.

It is necessary to note carefully how and when one despised others, feeling superior perhaps due to the title or the social position or the experience acquired or the money, etc., etc., etc.

It is serious to feel rich, superior to so-and-so for such or such a reason. People like that cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is good to discover in what one feels flattered, in what one’s vanity is satisfied, this will show us the foundations on which we lean.

However, such observation should not be a merely theoretical question, we must be practical and observe ourselves carefully in a direct way, from instant to instant.

When one begins to understand their own misery and nothingness; when one abandons the delusions of grandeur; when one discovers the foolishness of so many titles, honours and vain superiorities over our fellow human beings it is an unmistakable sign that one is already beginning to change.

One cannot change if one closes oneself off to that which says: “My house”. “My money”. “My properties”. “My employment”. “My virtues”. “My intellectual capacities”. “My artistic abilities”. “My knowledge”. “My prestige” etc., etc., etc.

That thing of clinging to “Mine” to “Me”, is more than enough to prevent us from recognising our own nothingness and inner misery.

One is astonished at the spectacle of a fire or a shipwreck; then the desperate people often seize things that are laughable; things of no importance.

Poor people! They feel themselves in those things, they rest on nonsense, they cling to that which has not the slightest importance.

To feel oneself by means of external things, to base oneself on them, is equivalent to being in a state of absolute unconsciousness.

The feeling of “SELFHOOD” (The REAL BEING), is only possible by dissolving all those “I’s” that we carry within our Interior; before that, such a feeling is something more than impossible.

Unfortunately, the worshippers of the “I” do not accept this; they believe themselves to be Gods; they think that they already possess those “Glorious Bodies” that Paul of Tarsus spoke of; they suppose that the “I” is Divine and there is no one who can get such absurdities out of their heads.

One does not know what to do with such people, one explains to them and they do not understand; always clinging to the sands upon which they built their house; always stuck in their dogmas, in their whims, in their foolishness.

If those people seriously self-observed themselves, they would verify for themselves the doctrine of the many; they would discover within themselves all that multiplicity of people or “I’s” that live within our interior.

How could the real feeling of our true BEING exist in us when those “I’s” are feeling for us, thinking for us?

The most serious thing about this whole tragedy is that one thinks that one is thinking, feels that one is feeling, when in reality it is another who in a given moment thinks with our martyred brain and feels with our pained heart.

Unhappy are we! How many times we believe we are loving and what happens is that another within ourselves full of lust uses the centre of the heart.

We are unfortunate, we confuse animal passion with love!, and yet it is another within ourselves, within our personality, who goes through such confusions.

We all think that we would never pronounce those words of the Pharisee in the biblical parable: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men”, etc. etc.

However, and although it may seem incredible, we proceed in this way daily. The meat seller in the market says: “I am not like the other butchers who sell meat of poor quality and exploit people”

The fabric seller in the shop exclaims: “I am not like other merchants who know how to steal when measuring and who have become rich”.

The milk seller affirms: “I am not like other milk sellers who put water in it. I like to be honest”

The lady of the house comments on a visit, the following: “I am not like so-and-so who goes with other men, I am thanks to God a decent person and faithful to my husband”.

Conclusion: The others are evil, unjust, adulterous, thieves and perverse and each one of us a meek sheep, a “Little Chocolate Saint” good to have as a golden child in some church.

How foolish we are!, we often think that we never do all those foolish things and perversities that we see others do and we come for that reason to the conclusion that we are magnificent people, unfortunately we do not see the foolish things and pettiness that we do.

There are strange moments in life when the mind, free from any kind of worry, rests. When the mind is still, when the mind is silent, the new arrives.

In such instants it is possible to see the bases, the foundations, on which we rest.

With the mind in deep, ulterior rest, we can verify for ourselves the crude reality of that sand of life, upon which we built the house. (See Matthew 7 - Verses 24-25-26-27-28-29; parable that deals with the two foundations)