32 The Limits of the Mental
We have just been speaking of the mentality necessary for acquiring initiatic knowledge, a mentality that is altogether different from the profane mentality and to the formation of which the observances of the rites and outward forms used in traditional organizations greatly contributes, without detriment to their other, deeper effects. But it must be understood that this is only a preliminary stage corresponding to a preparation that is still wholly theoretical, and is certainly not an effective initiation. Indecd, there is good reason for stressing the insufficiency of the mental with respect to all properly metaphysical and initiatic knowledge; we are obliged to use the term 'mental' in preference to any other as an equivalent to the Sanskrit manas because the two are linked by a common root. By this term, then, we mean the totality of the faculties of knowledge that specifically characterize the human individual (which in many languages is itself designated by words derived from the same root), of which reason is the foremost.
We have often enough drawn the distinction between reason, a faculty of a purely individual order, and pure intellect, which on the contrary is supra-individual, so that it would not be useful to return to it here. We will only recall that metaphysical knowledge in the true sense of this word, being of the universal order, would not be possible if there were not in the being a faculty of the same order and therefore transcendent with respect to the individual. This faculty is intellectual intuition in the strict sense. Indeed, since all knowledge is essentially an identification, it is evident that the individual as such cannot attain to knowledge of what lies beyond the
individual domain, for this would be a contradiction; such a knowledge is possible only because the being that in a certain contingent state of manifestation is a human individual is at the same time also something else. It would be absurd to say that man, as man and by human means, can suipass himself, but the being that appears in this world as a man is really quite another thing by reason of the permanent and immutable principle that constitutes its deepest essence. [1] Any knowledge that can truly be called initiatic results from a communication consciously established with the higher states; and terms such as 'inspiration' and 'revelation' clearly refer to such a communication if they are understood in their true sense and no heed is given to their all too frequent abuse in the ordinary language of our time. [2]
Direct knowledge of the transcendent order, with the absolute certitude that it implies, is of course incommunicable and inexpressible in itself, for since any expression is necessarily formal by very definition, and consequently individual, [3] it is thereby inadequate to such knowledge and can only give as it were a reflection of it in the human order. This reflection may actually help certain beings attain this same knowledge by awakening in them higher faculties, but as we have already said it could never exempt them from personally accomplishing what no one else can do for them; it is only a 'support' for their inner work. In this regard, moreover, there is an important distinction to be made between symbols and ordinary language as means of expression. We explained carlier that because of their essentially synthetic character symbols are particularly apt for serving as a support for intellectual intuition, whereas language, which is essentially analytical, is strictly speaking only the
instrument of discursive and rational thought. And we must add that by their 'non-human' aspect symbols bear in themselves an influence the action of which can directly awaken the intuitive faculty in those who meditate on them in the right way; but this relates solely to their ritual use so to speak as supports for meditation, and not to the verbal commentaries that can be made concerning their meaning, which in every case still represent only outward studies. [4] Since human language is strictly linked by its very constitution to the exercise of the rational faculty, it follows that all that is expressed or explained by means of such language necessarily takes on more or less explicitly the form of 'reasoning'; but it must be understood nonetheless that there can only be an apparent and outward similarity, one of form and not of substance, between ordinary reasoning, concerning the things of the individual domain to which it is specifically and directly applicable, and reasoning meant to reflect as much as possible something of the truths of the supra-individual order. This is why we have said that initiatic teaching can never take a 'systematic' form, but on the contrary must always remain open to limitless possibilities in order to preserve the prerogative of the inexpressible, which in reality is what is essential; and in this way language itself, when applied to initiatic truths, participates in a way in the character of symbols properly so called. [5] And yet, whoever has come to a theoretical knowledge of such truths by studying some discursive explanation still has no direct and real (or more exactly 'realized') knowledge, for which this discursive and theoretical knowledge can be no more than a mere preparation.
However indispensable this theoretical preparation may be in fact, it nonetheless possesses in itself only the value of a contingent and accidental means; as long as one remains at this stage there can
be no question of an effective initiation, even of the most elementary degree. If there were nothing more than this, it would only be the analoguc, in a higher order, of any 'speculation' concerning some other domain, [6] for such a merely theoretical knowledge comes only through the mind whereas effective knowledge comes through 'the spirit and the soul', that is to say through the whole being. This is why, outside of the initiatic point of view, mere myslics, who go no further than the limits of the individual domain, are, within their own order of the cxoteric tradition, undeniably superior not only to philosophers but even to theologians; for the least fragment of effective knowledge is worth incomparably more than any mere mental reasoning. [7]
As long as knowledge is only mental it is a mere 'reflected' knowledge, like that of the shadows seen by the prisoners in Plato's allegory of the cave, and it is therefore indirect and entirely outward. To pass from the shadow to reality grasped directly in itself is truly to pass from the 'outward' to the 'inward' and also, from the more particular point of view that we adopt here, to pass from virtual to effective initiation. This passage implies the renunciation of the mental, that is, of the entire discursive faculty, which thenceforth becomes impotent since it cannot go beyond the limits imposed upon it by its very nature; [8] intellectual intuition alone lies beyond
these limits because it does not belong to the order of individual faculties. Using traditional symbolism based on organic correspondences, one can say that the center of consciousness must be transferred from the 'brain' to the 'heart'. [9] For this transfer, any 'speculation' or 'dialectic' obviously can no longer be of use; and it is only from this point that it is truly possible to speak of effective initiation. The point where this latter begins thus lies well beyond the point where all that might be of some relative value in 'speculation' of any kind has its end; between the one and the other there is a veritable abyss that can only be crossed, as we have just said, by renunciation of the mental. Whoever clings to reasoning and does not free himself from it at the required moment remains a prisoner of form, which is the limitation by which the individual state is de-fined; he will then neither pass beyond form nor go further than the 'outward', which is to say that he will remain bound to the indef-inite cycle of manifestation. The passage from the 'outward' to the 'inward' is also the passage from multiplicity to unity, or from circumference to center, to the single point whence the human being, restored to the prerogatives of the 'primordial state', can rise to the higher states [10] and, by the complete realization of his true essence, finally be effectively and actually what he is potentially from all eternity. He who knows himself in the 'truth' of the eternal and infinite 'Essence' [11] knows and possesses all things in himself and by himself, for he has come to the unconditioned state that leaves no possibility
outside of itself. And this state, with respect to which all the others, no matter how elevated, are really still only preliminary stages having no common measure with it, [12] this state which is the ultimate goal of all initiation, is precisely what must be understood by the 'Supreme Identity'.