What I'm attempting to say is that if you consider gnosis an accomplishment then you're gonna want the credit for your "work".
If you consider gnosis a gift, then it not your's to claim credit for. It's a different dynamic and one for which you don't have to defend a claim. Alexander Pope, the British poet and philosopher wrote, " Modesty is the art of power." By that I figure he meant that to practice modesty is the only culpable way to use power as an art. The use of power as a science results in needless death and destruction like in Hiroshima. It's politically expedient to consider gnosis as a gift.
I mischaracterized my intent when I used the term "culpable" in the paragraph above. I guess I should have just used the term "responsible" in order to be plain-spoken. I'm perfectly aware that I'm not plain-spoken in my writing at times. There are probably other times I'm not plain-spoken enough, but I fairly apathetic about doing that if I do. Who knows?
There is a Hexagram in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching entitled Modesty. There are no secondary explanations or descriptions like there are with most of the other Hexagrams. There are no bad or negative omens associated with the Hexagram. It's the only Hexagram in the entire Book of Changes that has all good omens. That's why it's considered as exceptional. No blame.
Each Hexagram in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation (like with the Bible, there are many other translations of the I Ching) has two original sayings to which other commentary is added. They are called THE JUDGMENT and THE IMAGE.
THE JUDGMENT
MODESTY creates success.
The superior man carries things through.
THE IMAGE
Within the earth, a mountain.
The image of modesty.
Thus the superior man reduces that which is too
much,
And augments that which is too little.
He weighs things and makes them equal.
I just now realized while copying this from the Yellow Book that this description reads a lot like that from the astrology Sign Libra, The Scales. The first day of which is the autumnal equinox. As a vegetable oracle Libra represents the weighing of the fall harvest to find out if there will be enough extra to sell at the market place.
I used to collect sayings on modesty. I've forgotten many of them. Just now, I stopped writing to do a web search on "modesty". There are not many sites that appear to view the possession of modesty to act as the art of power. That's sad in a way, but I don't care any more. People see what they think is out there, and that's what they act like is so. I don't even want to do anything about that anymore. Probably because it's impossible, and even if it wasn't, it ain't my job.
When I put "modesty" in Google, the results page showed a considerable number of Catholic pages that looked like from the headers on the links to be mostly about women's behavior. This seems to tie in to the notion of behaving in a modest, polite manner as a way of dealing with the wild passions of men in lust.
In the same way, but in different circumstances, behaving modestly during a Gestapo interrogation might work mo' bettah than spitting in their faces. Or when your fellow inmates are muttering about playing "drop the soap" with you when you're all herded into the showers in prison. Practicing modesty in these admittedly extreme situations appears to be no less important than handling my own wild, intractable passions and emotions when confronted with any situation I can't deal with by fight or flight in the face of an overwhelming and determined enemy.
"The meek shall inherit the earth."? Meekness takes on a whole new light when it's interpreted as modesty, and affirms once again the meaningfulness of Alexander Pope's remark, "Modesty is the art of power." Women have power. Men have strength. Both have both.
My youngest brother is the one person who is constant to remind me to look up stuff on the internet. He means well by it, and I have a deep appreciation of his constancy. Today, in the composing of this journal entry, was the first time I consider doing a web search on the various and sundry meanings of "modesty".
I used the I Ching as an oracle practically every day, usually several times a day or more, for over thirty years. My investigation of the possible meanings associated with the notion of modesty were sorta random, serendipitous, and hit or miss depending on which libraries I might be near to tramp through their stacks.
Now? I type in "the art of modesty" into the Google inquiry box and hit the Enter button, and I got 1,970,000 hits in .27 seconds. That seems to trivialize a lifetime's work. Why would it not? It doesn't change the me-and-thee-ing (meaning) of how politeness works even with the most hardened of criminals and the grandest of all the most vainglorious poobahs, but to have it's diverse ramifications available to me in the blink of an eye seems to make it insignificant in some way I don't yet understand.
I do not attempt to tell the God's own truth here because I don't know what the truth is or hardly ever. I try to capture the drifting thoughts that randomly appear in my imagination for reasons I may not understand. I don't know if the content I capture with these words is true or false. The Comments settings are turned off to prevent me from having to defend what amounts to little more than fanciful, sometime crude speculation. Great moments in our lives never return.
