The Dreaded Gomboo or The Imaginary Disease That
Religion Seeks To Cure.
A Collection of Essays and Talks on the “Direct”
Process of Enlightenment.
By Da Free John.
Compiled and edited with an introduction and commentary
by the Renunciate Hermitage Order.
THE DREADED GOM-BOO
Part I: Understanding
CHAPTER 4
The Cult of Narcissus and the Culture of
Participation
an essay by Da Free John
December 3, 1982
SECTION I
The foundation of my Teaching Argument is this: You are,
as a matter of habit, and in every part, conformed to the
activity and the results of self-contraction. It is not
possible to affirm and Realize the existence of God, or the
Living Spiritual Divine, or the Condition of Self-Radiant
Transcendental Being until the self-contraction is
thoroughly observed, understood, and transcended. Therefore,
all other propositions of my Teaching are built upon the
proposition of necessary self-transcendence.
The ego, or the essence of every person (personified as
“I”), is not an inner entity or subtle essence. The ego is
the activity of self-contraction. And it is observable in
the person of the “I,” the body-mind or psycho-physical
persona, as the feeling of separateness and the performance
of every kind of separative activity. Therefore, as I have
indicated in The Knee of Listening , the ego may be
recognized and transcended through consistent self-enquiry
in the form “Avoiding relationship?”
It is the tendency of the ego (or egoic body-mind) to
want to relate to consoling and even ultimate propositions
of knowledge and experience, rather than to concentrate in
the ordeal of self-understanding and self-transcendence.
Therefore, egos may just as likely appear in a religious or
spiritual mode as in a secular, atheistic, non-religious, or
non-spiritual mode.
There is a long-standing tradition for talking about
ultimate matters and making ultimate propositions, without
otherwise doing what is necessary in order to enter into the
domain of ultimacy. And so the world of egos is busy
wondering: “Is there a God? Are we immortal souls? Is there
an ultimate Condition that is eternal Happiness?” Just so,
there are always ample numbers of self-deceiving and
other-deceiving personalities who busily affirm to us all:
“Yes, there is a God. We are souls. We can, by certain
means, go to a Place of eternal Happiness.” And there are
always an equal and opposite number of benighted characters
who affirm: “No, there is no God. We are mortal material
entities. We can only struggle to survive with as much
pleasure and as little pain as possible.”
But what is the Truth? I propose to you that all of the
differing and opposing views of ordinary mankind are
developed from the same base. All authorities and all
ordinary people are animating and also suffering from the
same limitation. The only superior point of view is founded
on a unique base, which is freedom from the self-base. All
other views are self-bound, self-deluded, and
self-perpetuating.
God, soul, and Transcendental Being as well as no-God,
no-soul, and no-Transcendental Being can be proposed
intellectually, or analytically, or by logical transactions
of the mind, but not one of these ultimate propositions (or
negations of ultimate propositions) can be proven by the
same means. That is to say, the mind, or even the total
psycho-physical person, is not in a position to affirm or
prove any ultimate propositions to the ultimate degree. This
is because the “I,” or the bodily based persona, is founded
in egoity, or the universally effective act of
self-contraction.
Because the usual man or woman is not merely a
psycho-physical entity but an actual or active ego, the
body-mind-self or “I” is always uniquely expressed as the
tendency of non-participation. The unique effect or result
of the self-contraction is always present non-participation,
or what I call the adventure of Narcissus.
Except in the case of true Enlightenment, the individual
personality is an ego. That is, every ordinary personality
is rooted in a self-possessed and counter-relational mode of
presumption and activity. This root-orientation plays a most
profound role in every individual life and, therefore, in
every collection or society of individuals. Egoity
determines destiny. And the activity of egoity is operative
universally in every function and fraction of individual and
collective existence.
Therefore, the world of un-Enlightened human beings
represents a Cult of Narcissus. Every feature of human
knowledge and experience is an emblem of this Cult-unless
the Cult itself is broken. We are all caught in the snare of
egoity, all at war with ourselves, and one another, and the
world, and total Nature, and the Transcendental Spiritual
Divine Condition. We are all by root and tendency involved
in an effort of non-participation, countering all possible
relations and conditions, and suffering the prime result,
which is confinement to self and its experiential solitude
and its self-bewildered views. How can this be doubted? How
can we fail to take this observation into account?
SECTION II
I propose to you that every feature or characteristic of
your psycho-physical existence is merely an expression of
root-egoity, or self-contraction. What is more, I Argue that
self-contraction is unnecessary. It is something we are
adding to the conditions and the Condition of existence. We
are simply not noticing the Reality and the realities of our
existence, because we are priorly and always established in
a state of self-contraction, and thus we are animating
ourselves in a self-possessed and separative mode.
Therefore, neither body nor mind is set free in the plane of
relations, and we are not in a position to know or
experience what is . For this reason, our lives, our bodies,
our minds, our emotions, and our human world are
contaminated with our own presence. We are not free, and,
therefore, we are not Happy.
The habit of Narcissus, or universal egoity, is reflected
in every destiny, and in every fraction of human culture.
And un-Enlightened humanity specializes in the method of
Narcissus. True, we are always struggling against these
results, but we are also, even unintentionally, always
enforcing this cause.
What is “knowledge” in our time? It is epitomized by the
method and the accumulated culture of scientism. And the
method of science epitomizes the tendency toward
non-participation. The method of science is, at its best, a
right and useful tool for acquiring certain kinds of
information or data about conditional events. But as a
world-view, or an ideal orientation toward existence, it is
nothing other than the attitude and method of egoity. This
is because it is based upon the abstraction or separation of
the observer from the observed. It expresses a preference
for the non-participation (or non-interference) of the
observer in the observed and in the results of the
observation. The observed, or what is presumed to be wholly
objective and independent of the observer, is the “god” of
our scientific path of knowledge and experience. And,
therefore, the observer has become the “golem” or even the
“dragon” that stands between knowledge and things as they
are.
The disposition of scientism has, in our time, become the
model or ideal attitude toward what is . Science has come
out of the closet, from an esoteric discipline engaged by a
few revolutionaries, to a world-view that commands what is
acceptable as knowledge for all. I do not object to the
factual usefulness of the scientific method as one of the
possible tools of Man, but I thoroughly and vehemently
object to the culturally enforced notion that it is the
single, sufficient, and ideal tool of Man.
The technique of abstraction, or the method and ideal of
nonparticipatory knowledge, cannot be rightly or fruitfully
applied to the intimate or inherently relational context of
human existence, nor can it be rightly or fruitfully applied
to the ultimate context of existence itself. We cannot by
non-participation discover what is noticeable only in the
context of thorough and perfect participation!
Scientific method and scientific culture, applied as a
thorough and singular ideal, only destroy the truly human
bond of relations and preclude the human possibility of
discovering (and thus participating in) the realities and
the ultimate Reality of existence. Therefore, in the few
hundred years in which the materialistic culture of
scientism has been ascending in its dominance, the previous
dominance of religious and esoteric spiritual institutions
has been steadily declining. And, what is more important,
the general ability of people to enter into a truly
religious or spiritual mode of existence has been gradually
eclipsed in this same period. The reason for this is that
the ancient religious and spiritual way of knowing (which
was based on the participatory rather than the
non-participatory attitude) has been gradually suppressed
and even eliminated as a viable tool of humanity.
I call for us to understand ourselves and our cultural
history, and so be free to modify and correct our personal
and collective destiny. I do not call for the suppression of
the scientific method. But I do call for us to accept
responsibility for that method and the views and results
that become its consequences when it is not applied
responsibly. We should accept the fact that there are as
many critical and negative results to come from
irresponsible application or idolization of the scientific
method as there are to come from irresponsible use of the
hydrogen bomb or any of the other sophisticated technologies
that may be developed by means of our common science. To
idolize science and allow it to dominate human life is to
idolize egoity, the destiny of Narcissus, and universal
separation from Reality.
SECTION III
Science is not love. Science is not surrender. To do
science is to stand apart and inspect and analyze. To know
without love and submission is to magnify power and the
motive of control. Power and control are secondary needs of
Man. Such knowledge is, therefore, only a secondary need of
Man. Science is only a secondary tool of Man. What is our
primary need and our primary tool? We need love, union,
unity. Our primary tool is participation. And participation
requires submission of self to what is . Therefore,
participation is love, or the act of loving or
self-transcending submission. If we act as love, submission,
or in the attitude or by the tool of self-transcendence,
then we also come to know and experience. But the knowledge
and experience that come by such means do not enhance or
magnify the power of self to control what is. Rather, they
enhance and magnify our freedom, our Realization of Reality,
and our ultimate Happiness.
To live with one another freely we must love, tolerate,
and be compassionate toward one another. Therefore, we
cannot live with one another dispassionately, abstracted, as
in the mood of science or egoity. We must participate in one
another. Just so, we cannot by abstraction notice or Realize
what is . We must freely participate in what is to know and
experience it (or It). Therefore, in order to know and
experience what is we must transcend ourselves-we must
transcend Narcissus, the ego, the self-contraction, or the
universal avoidance of relationship.
SECTION IV
We cannot discover whether or not there is God, or soul,
or Transcendental Spiritual Reality by analytical or
non-participatory means. The ego cannot discover the Truth.
Therefore, science cannot discover the Truth. Science is one
of the possible tools of Man. But it is a secondary tool.
Even so, the ego is not at all a proper tool of Man. The ego
is the primary impediment of Man, and it distorts our use of
every tool available to us.
Our greatest need is to discover the Truth. And in order
to discover the Truth we must understand and transcend
ourselves. If we understand and transcend ourselves, we may
then also do science, but we must certainly become
religious, which means that we will inevitably become
Spiritualized beings.
The domain of science is non-participatory knowledge of
apparently objective Nature. But the Domain of Man is
participatory knowledge of what is . I ask you: What is when
we cease to add our own self-contraction to what is ?
Analytical, self-abstracting, other-objectifying methods of
knowing merely extend the habit of egoity. But if the
self-contraction is observed, understood, and transcended,
then whatever remains simply evident simply is . And
whatever is ultimately is Reality.
Our primary obligation is to be supremely intelligent
about ourselves. It is thus that we become capable of
communing with and conforming to whatever is ultimately, and
it is also thus that we become capable of serving others
must truly and profoundly. The ego and the scientific mind
also want to serve others by conforming to reality, but
reality conceived by means of self-abstraction and the
objectification of existence is not what is . It is a false
view, an imagined reality, a circumstance presumed on the
basis of self-contraction or non-participation. We can know
or Realize what is only through self-understanding that
becomes not merely self-information but self-transcendence.
Therefore, we must first become capable (through
self-understanding and self-transcendence) of
self-submission and free participation in what is prior to
our own self-contraction.
I do not merely propose the idea of God, or soul, or
Transcendental Being. Such propositions cannot be rightly
believed or presumed by the separate and separative ego.
Therefore, the ideas of religion that occupy egos and the
egoic culture of self-abstracted scientism are themselves
false views, representing a poignant and inevitably
frustrated longing for love, release, and ultimate
Happiness. On the contrary, I propose self-observation, true
self-understanding, and perfect self-transcendence. And if
the Way of self-transcendence is magnified as the fullness
of participatory capability, then what is will be discovered
to be Divine, unbound, eternal, Transcendental
Happiness.
SECTION V
The word science comes from a root-word that actually
means “to separate”! But the common meaning of the word is
“knowing.” Therefore, on the basis of this common meaning
(rather than the root meaning) the Way that I Teach may be
described as a “participatory science.” It is our primary
tool, the alternative tool, or the basis for the application
of all secondary tools. The Way that I Teach also involves a
rigorous experiment. My “method” requires, for its ultimate
performance, rigorous and then perfect transcendence of the
self-contraction and, on that basis, perfect participation
in what is .
Our ordinary science is at best a secondary tool of our
manifest humanity. We must not make a “culture” out of it,
or dominate our minds with it. Our right and true culture is
the super-culture of primary endeavor, the culture of
participation. When the ego or self-contraction is
transcended, the body-mind or “I” becomes love, or a truly
and uniquely human presence. And when “I” is love, what is
is self-evident, beyond doubt. I Argue that what is
ultimately is Divine, Spiritual, and Transcendental, prior
to and beyond the stepped-down complications of conditional
Nature. But what is ultimately is not obvious to the
non-participatory or self-contracted view of the ego.
Therefore, first of all, I Argue for self-observation,
self-understanding, and self-transcendence. The Narcissistic
ego and its results are completely evident to our immediate
view. If we will transcend that self-contraction and be
given up to love and participate in what is prior to the
self-contraction, then we will swoon in the Immense
Spiritual Reality. That Reality is what is , and It is
Obvious when the self-contraction relaxes. Therefore,
transcend the Cult of Narcissus, and what I propose
ultimately will be Self-Evident in your own case.
“Hear” me by self-understanding and “see” what is ,
beyond yourself. Do this “science” and I will magnify your
“hearing” and “seeing” with the Baptism of Immortal
Happiness.
The Dreaded Gom-Boo – Table of Contents