The textbook of life. The laws of the mind. Martin Kojc
was with God... The seminal work of Buddhist philosophy, Dhammapada, speaks of the same idea in the first line of the first verse:
Thought leads all things,
Thought begets and shapes them.
If a man full of evil thoughts
Talks or acts,
Suffering follows him
Like a cart the hooves of a harnessed steer.
(Dhammapada, MK 1987)
That which we wish must always be present in the form of an image, a picture. The more often we see such pictures, and the more energy we put into them, the more likely becomes their realization. This, which magic has known for thousands of years, now introduces itself in the methods of so-called creative imagery, creative imagination and positive thinking. Of course it is possible to implant such ideas, notions and pictures willfully into the consciousness of other people, which is a method used not only by populist leaders, propagandists and other seducers, but also forms a part of any therapy, including psychotherapy. In order for that which is suggestive to act on a person it has to become auto-suggestive. As we have already mentioned, imaginative pictures and opinions strengthen each other if they are in harmony with each other. Kojc puts it this way: Same attracts same.
Thus, it is not only: I think, therefore I am, but also: I am what I think! C.G. Jung pointed out that the essence of neurosis is erroneous opinion. Neo-analytical schools of thought see symptoms of neuroses in what are they term illusory expectations, which correspond to the opinions of Jung's terminology. But the question is: Does not everything start with opinions? The psychotherapist is repaid for the effort of many months and years when erroneous opinions get corrected. It is not by chance that such opinions are the most stubborn cause of neuroses, for they are constantly reinforced by the neurotic's viewing of the world as he knows it through his own faulty optics. The paradigm from psychiatry is appropriate because of the nature of Kojc's work in general. We can find examples and confirmations in all areas of life.
It is perhaps worthwhile to examine at some length Coué's axiom that in a conflict between will and imagination, will always wins. This idea is embraced by Kojc, indeed it ties his Textbook of Life together like a red thread. We cannot deny will, since we need it even to read these lines, and in fact need it for any activity. When Kojc states that will is somehow an enemy to man, he is referring to what we could call stubbornness or the overly strong striving of an hypertrophied Ego. This neurotic striving or wrong will has a strong opponent in imagination. The collective unconscious ceaselessly influences the imagination of an individual, since it is the source of all inspirations. If the will is, among other things, the ability to freely decide about a given activity, then we know that in many ways we are not free, since all that has passed -- all experiences and the opinions connected with these experiences by means of memory pictures -- always influences, by way of an individual unconscious, our every decision and choice.
Kojc's attitude towards reincarnation is very important. According to him, the present state of a person corresponds to the maturity which he gained in previous incarnations. The circle of births and deaths, the ceaseless flow of being which flows from life to life and which is in India called samsara, could also be one of man's opinions which, according to the above starting points and laws, can realize itself and become reality. Is this a law which is universal and not tied to the knowledge of it? The answer to this delves into the realm of metaphysics and as such remains an enigma. We decide about such questions on the basis of our (?) world view, intuition and other considerations. Thus it is possible with equal strength to agree or disagree with Kojc.
Answers to metaphysical questions never come to us when we are willing them to appear, but rather always -- and only -- in special life situations, crises, difficulties, and illnesses, as well as in happiness and in ecstatic experiences. Kojc does not give guidelines on how to escape from the charmed circle of birth and death, but he implicitly stresses what little significance a person should attach to all external manifestations of being. He teaches that we should not wish for those things which have until now been the object of our wishing, and that we should not desire that which has up to now been the content of our desires. In this he is very similar to the saying of Christ taken from one of his sermons: Whoever wishes to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses it for my sake will find it. Likewise, Buddhist philosophical thought sees a possibility of escape from samsara precisely in the renouncing of wishes. The more wishes we have, the stronger the circle becomes. We firm it up moment by moment, and loosen it at any moment if we renounce our wishes. This probably also works in the manner of wu-wei, as we have already described. Wishing is absurd since, as Buddhism teaches, the fulfillment of wishes cannot bring true happiness, which lies in a state that is without wishes or desires. This impacts not only the possession of material goods, but also the possession of other things that can be the object of our wishes -- for example, people, knowledge..., as taught by Erich Fromm.
Kojc's description of meditation is of interest, in that it was published at the time of the first editions -- i.e., more than 50 years ago. Publications of the past two decades, inspired by a tide of Eastern teachings, have brought to us many similar meditating exercises. In order for meditation to be effective it is necessary to descend into an alpha state. Kojc called his exercise or technique concentration, but the more accurate expression is meditation, which is in fact what it is. We must not look for and find meditation only in the wisdom of the East, since we know that it was and still is a part of Christian mysticism, mental exercises and a preliminary to a higher level which we call contemplation.
If we agree to Kojc's metaphysical understanding of life as a circle of births and deaths, then we must also agree with an opinion which is therapeutic and preventive -- i.e., that suicide does not solve anything in the short or long run, since everyone is forced to start anew from the point at which they stopped. The law of Karma is implacable and cosmically just, or, as the Bible says: By their works you shall know them.
We need to reread the Textbook of Life several times in order to understand it. Professor Karel Osvald, the first person to write the introduction in 1935, also made this point. It is going to be welcome reading for anyone who is working through a personal crisis. Life has not changed in any essential way in these fifty-four years. The advance of technology has in no way contributed to man achieving a better and deeper understanding of himself. Admittedly, external conditions of man's existence have greatly improved. Man's upward striving was realized with the first step on the moon's surface, but man has yet to step into the depth of himself. In many ways the distancing from himself is a flight from himself and his internal problems, the splitting asunder into different spheres, between personal and public, persona and the inward self, between conscious and unconscious...
While we harnessed and are still harnessing the so-called external powers of man, those that are intended for external effects, we have not awakened, or have even intentionally put to sleep, those inner powers which could be activated for inner growth and maturation. Georg I. Gurdjieff (1877-1949), a Russian sage, philosopher and magus, was of the opinion that most people live in a kind of awake sleep and that can only with difficulty be called consciousness. Men are considered to be like husks, living dead... This probably for this reason: because their core is not awakened, that which C.G. Jung and other psychologists after him called Self (Selbst). The aim of many meditative disciplines is to find a way to this core and a synthesis with it. This is the synthesis of Ego and Self.
A man on the path which is life seeks a light because he often is aware of the fact that he is walking in darkness. But this light is already within him, just not turned on. The Gnostics, who preferred their own experiencing of Godliness over institutionalized dogmas, directed people towards their inner selves (God's Kingdom is inside you) and towards the development of an inner ability to find their own path and inner light. Modern psychotherapeutic exercises which direct work on oneself and with oneself are no different, just not mystical. However the boundary between the mystical and the psychotherapeutic is hard to define because of the pervasive intertwining of the sacred and profane.
The Textbook of Life is a book which should be a help for inner searching. It will not answer all of life's questions, and may produce many new questions. But this is precisely the beginning of the Path which has started with this first step.