Beyond Doubt

PREFACE

‘Beyond Doubt’ is another work by Raphael in which a dialogue develops that originates from an urge to seek. On one side there is a wandering about in the shadow of insecurity and restlessness, and on the other side we find the firm position of consciousness concerning the Knowledge of Advaita (non-duality), which is devoid of opposition and is founded on a comprehension which is able to accept others for what they are and give each one what is needed by each consciousness at that moment without wishing to force the situation.

The person who begins the dialogue expresses his own materialistic faith, which is rigidly based on sensory perception and experience. He is an ‘atheist’ who not only does not believe in any God, because none of his senses can provide any proof of God, but does not believe in anything at all. Raphael does not answer his question straight away, but puts other questions which are appropriate, precise, and cogent. With these questions he undermines the certainties expounded by the enquirer and brings him to the point of making embarrassing admissions from which he cannot escape without contradicting himself. At the same time he helps him - but without seeming to do so - to discover the truth by himself and to become increasingly aware of the significance of his thoughts.

At a critical moment the questioner, although anchored to an empirical, sensory reality and bounded by the limits of his view, is obliged to admit the existence of an energy/intelligence, but subsequently - like a child who picks up again an abandoned toy because he is attracted by it - he obstinately repeats ‘Everything is matter’ and takes up simplistic positions of retreat such as ‘I believe in what I can see and perceive’.

But believing in a substance which, even as one observes it, does not remain the same and which, on account of its fluidity, cannot constitute the basis for a valid, real, and constant knowledge, makes a man unhappy and anguished. How can he not be so if he identifies himself with appearance (māyā), movement, becoming, and with everything that crumbles in his hands and nullifies his effort to build something stable which will give him security and confidence? Man seeks and desires his own fulfilment, and wishes to find himself, but he is not capable of seeing beyond his restricted, individual, egoic limit, which constrains him to seek himself in external data, which of themselves are transient and incomplete. Until he opens himself to universal values and seeks his own Fullness in the very depths of his being, he will always be tormented by desire and dissatisfaction.

Raphael is very ‘attentive’ to the suffering of this man/child who cannot escape from the restrictions of his own immaturity, and with patient love he shows him how he has two roads in front of him: the philosophy of becoming and the Philosophy of Being. The first sees man only in his psychosomatic constitution and, as such, being goaded by countless needs. The second sees him in his entirety, in his cosmic relationship of Harmony. Someone on the first road will require sensory satisfactions to appease his desires; someone on the second road will wish to attain inner peace, harmony of himself with the whole creation, and Bliss. The aim is the same: to attain one’s own good. But the philosophy of becoming, the source of nothing but dissatisfaction and pain, will guide the individual to seek the good in external objects: power, success, products of technology, which will never quench his thirst for well-being which burns more fiercely the more it is ‘satisfied’. The Philosophy of Being, by contrast, will direct him into his own self, where being free from all external bonds, he will find his Fulfilment.

A man guided by the philosophy of becoming is a slave from many perspectives: he is conditioned by his own mind, by the collective unconscious, by false ideas, by the mass of superimpositions which he himself has created, by the concept of time and space, by the duality of cause and effect, by the erudition which is the culture of factual knowledge typical of the world of becoming, by remorse, the useless crystallisation of a past which has to be transcended.

Only one who has risen above all polarity is beyond all this, is Silent, and is a law unto himself. This is why the Author, who ‘sees’ man as truly free, touches upon all the themes listed above, which are the cause of doubts, and enlightens his questioners with the light of his knowledge, Knowledge with a capital letter, which is centred on everlasting, universal principles and which he continuously and lovingly bestows upon the reader and all who are able to receive his gift. This gift of love is the means which Raphael uses to take man beyond doubt, so that his certainty of being pure Consciousness will make it easier for him to re-discover himself and be re-integrated into That: Love without words, the sacrifice of his pax profunda, his own Silence offered to all who are not yet able to ascend by themselves on the way of Asparśvāda (the path without supports).

The Master’s offering, however, is not enough to make a realised man of the disciple: the active participation of the disciple himself is also essential. The enlivening ray of sunshine is not sufficient to produce germination of the seed lying in the protective womb of the earth: the seed has to catch hold of that light, absorb it, and make use of it in order to flower, just as the disciple has to be able to make use of what the Master places at his disposal in order to transform his consciousness. So he will have to live the teaching imparted to him, entrust himself to his guide, and employ the techniques as suitable means for recalling or, rather, re-awakening - in the manner of Platonic ‘reminiscence’ – that which is already within him. These are the means, helps, and supports which are suitable for the type of way that is followed and the position of consciousness that is reached, of which there will be no further need once the axiom ‘You are That’ found in the Upaniṣads is realised. But until that moment, how necessary the Master is! Did Raphael himself have a Master? This is a legitimate enquiry put by one of the questioners. The reply is not what one would expect: it does not give a precise name, but it does provide a great deal to meditate on. The Author says that the individual cannot go beyond personality, and is always looking for it, forgetting that ‘Brahman can manifest itself in countless ways’. One needs to reflect on these words, because they could point to an exceptional intervention - not of a specific type or in a form we are accustomed to - in the spiritual life of this Knower, and this would explain many of those things which now form a halo of mystery, as it were, around his Person.

The themes presented in this book are so numerous and so interesting that, together, they constitute a text available for the nourishment and satisfaction of all, whatever their personal, intellectual, and cultural level of consciousness might be. In contrast to Self/Knowledge, ego/ignorance¹ is spoken of: an ego which fears for itself, for its own survival, and sees the risk of death in silence and stillness. There is a dialogue on sex, which needs to be freed from the crystallisations of the past, from the conceptualisations of manas (the analytical mind), and from subconscious influences. Then it will be possible to re-discover the simple, joyful expression of a sacred ritual, as it was once seen to be, compared to nowadays, when the sexual act has been degraded to the level of physical gratification and mechanical habit anchored to grossness and no longer knows the beauty of freedom and Harmony, is no longer ‘līlā’, a game as innocent as the flight of swallows’ but bears the stains typical of modern life.

Here we have the first reference to Harmony, the pivotal point of ‘Vibrant Life’, one of the most beautiful and original chapters in the book, a chapter in which everything is music, tone, wave, a symphony of notes, rhythms, and accords, from which the reader draws a harmonious vision of the life he would like to embrace, a life in which his senses are so subtle that they can show him the musical interrelationship flowing amongst all creatures, so that he can witness the cosmic harmony arising in luminous sounds from all the spheres. His powers of reception, unfortunately, may be so limited that they will not allow him even to imagine this universal euphony, but merely let him catch some notes on the periphery and thus prevent him from penetrating the wondrous mystery of a composition which unites, in a single stupendous accord, the vibrations of every being and every created thing.

In this marvellous ascending musical scale, which embraces all the living kingdoms, man could find his place as the ‘musical demiurge’ who is able - if he refines ‘the string of Consciousness’ – to play harmonies which will wipe away from the earth all suffering, strife, and opposition.

In this work, too, the Author holds man responsible, but goes further: he makes him active in facing events, removes his passive resignation, and involves him in transforming himself. If man can be open enough to receive instruction, then the teaching of Jesus on the value of Love will not have been in vain, the warnings of the Buddha about the dangers of desire will have served their purpose, and Śaṅkara’s efforts to make us distinguish the ‘rope’ from the ‘snake’ will not have been wasted. Raising the tonal quality of one’s own harmonic expression - rather than expanding its quantity to the point where it cannot be contained and leads to self-destruction, which is what is happening these days - is the only way of improving the quality of the human race and saving mankind.

This is such a fascinating chapter that we might like never to leave it, especially because we feel that it is not an intellectual work that the Author has produced but a gift He is offering to us of his own personal experiences, so that at certain highly significant and stimulating moments we seem to be able to enter that amazing realm of divine harmonies which are pouring out into space and to listen to them and comprehend them in His company. By meditating deeply upon his words, it may be possible for all of this to become a reality for each of us one day, enabling us to effect the syntonisation of individual harmony with universal, cosmic harmony.

Spiritual writings are very edifying because they put forward theories and experiences that are woven from truth, and they act upon the attentive and qualified reader, persuading him to go within himself, a process which often awakens latent aspirations and leads to important existential choices. And when an Author can enhance his work, as Raphael does, with the tones of truth that has been experienced, then he becomes a ‘Master of Life’, a guide who takes the uncertain beyond doubt. This is why - when he deals with the topic of post mortem – he does not restrict himself to explaining those parts of the Bardo Thötröl which may either satisfy man’s curiosity when facing the most important event in his life (after birth) or dispel the anguish aroused in many anxious and confused egos by the uncertainty of a reply to the question ‘What happens after death?’ but he moves decisively to the part related to realisation.

The contents of the Bardo are expounded in a way that makes them valid and accessible to us in the West by pointing out the correspondences between certain concepts and expressions typical of the