Gold Plated with Wisdom

A couple of years ago, the Egyptian archaeologists discovered a colossal ancient statue of the Pharaonic deity of wisdom, Thoth, in the shape of a baboon. The four-metre tall statue, dated back to the 18th Dynasty, which ruled Egypt until 1292 B.C., was discovered in four pieces along with two statues. Plunging into the dimensional depths of the genuine wisdoms that this statue figure represented had made me jump into some conclusions.

Just as I myself believed that the capacity for self-regulation is a critical first step on the path to ’perfect’ life. I spent many years visiting the Pharaonic temples and visualizing the monuments and relics to learn highly disciplined techniques to control my mind as well as my body. Adhering myself to the orientation emerged from the Pharaonic wisdom described the mystical path that I had gone through. That path is the control of the modifications of mind. It is a system of comprehending one’s own nature becoming the master of that nature and using that mastery for self-elevation. But there discipline was required .No self-mastery can be acquired without discipline.

Nonetheless, I deduced after several years that neither my years of meditation nor his knowledge had prompted me to transcend my ego or to get free of my everyday personality conflicts. If I coincide my mystical path with spiritual path, I will unleash energy, whether positive or negative. The problem, from my point of view, was that the Pharaohs did not realize that if the personality was not relatively cultivated, tuned and understood, the ego could go totally out of control. I felt that I never integrated that part of my nature. I had some high teachings to share, but I could not have brought the pieces of myself under control.

No doubt that there are some symbols and factors related to the Pharaonic civilization that assists me in concentrating and arousing imagination while meditating. For instance, in Egypt, the blue lotus appears on the earliest wall paintings of the 6^th Dynasty at Saqqara’s pyramids and in all funerary stelae. They are granted to the deceased and held in the hand as thought they possess the power to revitalize them: to bring the deceased back to life. Carved out of blue lapis, along with the golden falcon and the sun that are the symbols of the god Horus, the lotus is vitally essential object among the funerary treasures in the tomb of Tutankhamen. Hence, the lotus, becomes a leitmotiv, a symbol most appropriate since its links the water with the sun, the earth with sky which signify fertility and regeneration in Egypt. Moreover, it is the seed of the plant which spells out the cycle of birth-decay-death and rebirth that constitutes the indispensable pattern of belief in these two-riverine and agricultural societies.

Presently, as I transcend gradually into higher level of meditation since I have started spending much time examining the Pharonic wisdom, I feel unusually relaxed and quite free of any conscious thoughts. I visualize some images passing before my eyes, but I do not pay much attention to them. I am taken instead with the loose pleasurable feeling that pervades me, and with the evidence from the tones that I am deeply in some other state of consciousness. I could vary the loudness and frequency of the tones almost at will. I am not sure how exactly I am doing it, but I feel a quiet exhilaration and an unusual sense that while no thoughts are running through my head, I am fully in charge of my state of mind. During the mystical sessions that I am going through, I have begun to feel that it falls into like ‘yoga’ activity where I struggle with the need to maintain control, physically and mentally. As I intermittently flit out of the meditation state and become more conscious, I am seized with apprehension. How, I wonder, am I going to hold on to this vicarious experience I have? As it turns out, I retain a strong sense of what I have done to get there in the first place. It has nothing to do with control or effort. To the contrary, I simply let myself drop toward sleeping while remaining alert. The experience is brief, but I emerge from it convinced that I have discovered a wholly new and potentially useful state. Gaining more facility at shifting states of consciousness is not equivalent to finding wisdom. In effect, flexibility is a means for broadening and deepening consciousness, and ultimately for experiencing a ‘perfect’ life.

When You Get Haunted by Hatshepsut’s Spirit (2)

I began meditating inside that Pharaonic temple in 1989 for the most practical of reasons: I wanted to follow a methodology that could have slowed down the frenzied activity of my mind. I was not interested in gurus or rituals, spiritual awakening, or higher states of consciousness. All what I was aspiring for was the creation of mystical atmosphere, and for me, mystical is the opposite of monotony. I was seeking meditation with no frills. I read several books about the mystical secrets that the Temple of Hatshepsut had borne, so I believed that this Temple was the most convenient site for practising the meditation sessions. I used to focus on repeating two Pharaonic words, ’Ka’ and ’Ba’ while having my psychological sessions. These two words had a sterilizing power that had eliminated all the impurities on my mind and heart. The ‘Ba’ was sort of how the pharos acted, or in other words their personality while the 'ka’ was the life force of all living humans.

I knew that if I allowed the day’s obligations to pile up, I would have begun to find excuses not to meditate. The problem, I learned very quickly, was that this apparently simple activity, sitting quietly and repeating a single word, proved to be one of the most difficult challenges I had faced. The sort of conscious discipline away from meditating in the Temple was that I used to get my writing done, or make myself jog in the mornings .But unfortunately, these latter  activities proved to be  inutile. Telling one’s self not to think or to focus for twenty minutes on these mystical Pharonic words is like curbing a small child from talking and sitting silently for twenty minutes .It was an exercise in futility. My mind, I discovered very quickly, had a mind on its own.

At first, I found it intolerable to sit in meditation for more than few minutes .I squirmed .As my mind wandered ,I recalled long-forgotten obligations and could not have resisted running to fetch my laptop to type them down .I daydreamed over present disputes and planned new ventures ,chewed over past events. Unwittingly, I had entered a pitched battle with an endlessly resourceful opponent: my own mind.

Meditation inside the Temple quickly became the center of my life,FOUR hours in the early mornings and four more in the late afternoon. This intense discipline came to me easily. It assisted me in releasing my inner demons, unresolved anger, chronic anxiety and severe stress.

When You Get Haunted by Hatshepsut’s Spirit (1)

Beneath the cliffs at Deir El-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile near the Valley of the Kings in Egypt lies The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. This mortuary temple is dedicated to the god of sun, Amon-Ra. It has served both as an inspiration and later, as a quarry. It is considered one of the "incomparable monuments of ancient Egypt."That temple was the main resource that incited me to think of getting into meditation sessions.

I arrived at the Temple for the first time in 1991 uncertain what to expect, but full of curiosity and anticipation. I knew the Temple of Hatshepsut only by its reputation when it had become celebrated as one of the greatest temples belonging to the 18^th dynasty. My image was of a place where people shed their inner impurities, shucked their concerns, allowed their most patent feelings to surface and expressed them with blunt directness to hell with any consequences. That Temple, in my mind, was a place of intense encounters, dramatic emotional breakthroughs and open spiritual experimentation. I simply was not yet aware that it had also served as a useful clearinghouse, launching pad and initial meeting place for an extraordinary array of pioneering thinkers and practitioners who together began to develop a unique approach to the pursuit of wisdom.

No sooner did I turn onto its grounds than I understood a key aspect of Hatshepsut Temple enduring allure. It consists of three imposing terraces.  On the southern end of the first colonnade, there were some scenes, among them the famous scene of the transportation of Hatshepsut’s two obelisks, while on the north side of that colonnade, there was a spectacular scene that represents the Queen offering four calves to Amon Ra. The second terrace was accessed by a ramp; originally it would have had stairs. The famous Punt relief was engraved on the southern side of the second colonnade. The journey to Punt (now is called Somalia) was the first pictorial documentation of a trade expedition that was recorded and was discovered in Ancient Egypt. While I was walking towards the airy and rustic northern side of the second colonnade, I felt an immediate buzz, but also a sense of great chill at the moment of seeing a fascinating scene depicting the divine birth of Hatshepsut. The Queen claimed that she was the divine daughter of Amon Ra to legitimise her rule.

Still, if the Temple was once seen as the apotheosis of me, civilization’s narcissism, I would have this feeling beyond the colonnade at the North are the chapel of Anubis, God of mummification and the keeper of the necropolis. I was drawn not just by the particular scenes or the practices I was exploring, but by the prospect of being contained by this shrine who are genuinely committed to make civilization. After living few hours while being enchanted by these beautiful surroundings, I invariably went to the third terrace that was also accessed by a ramp. It consisted of two rows of columns, the front ones taking the Osirid form (a mummy form).How then, I wondered, was I to reconcile these very different visions in my own search for wisdom?   

Ramses III Meet Hamlet

Ramses III lived in psychological turmoil after his encounter with Moses, the prophet. He believed that Moses was threatening his existence as he could have definitely dispossessed his throne. Consequently, he started to attire Hamlet’s garment and plunged himself into Hamlet’s existentialism.

Sometimes the spirit of Hamlet’s ghosts dipped into distraction, compulsion and preoccupation reflected itself in the ambiance of Ramses III’s chamber. In matter of weeks, Ramses III seemed to be more easily absorbed into the word one and the rhythmic pattern of his breathing. Paradoxically, he found that when he was not actively thinking, his awareness had become broader and clearer than usual.

Whenever Ramses III had heard any news about Moses, he felt as if there was no a sanction to resort to. Feeling frightened, he decided to close his eyes and see if meditating, focusing all his attention on something other than adhering himself to Hamlet’s scruples and yielding to anticipated pain, could somehow have helped. When the moment of transferring himself from the state of meditation into the state of falling asleep had come, he reluctantly opened his eyes.Thirty minutes passed. To his astonishment, all the disillusions went away and felt no pain. He felt as if he had experienced an aura emerged from a Pharaonic amulet and did not lead directly to migraine. In effect, he had gained control of an involuntary inner conflict. He used the same technique the next time he experienced an aura.

Having that experience of meditation encouraged Ramses III to practice how to frame himself into the right mood of meditation. He decided to close his eyes and focus on repeating the word one silently while breathing slowly and rhythmically. Very rapidly, he lost his track of time and became absorbed, instead of yielding to the inner conflicts, into his meditative process. The longer he sat, the calmer he felt. When he started to surrender to moments of relaxation, Hamlet’s ghosts had begun to stir his emotions to mold them into a melting pot dyed with everlasting inner torture. It occurred to him that he had stumbled onto a piece of a much bigger puzzle. What seemed to interest RamsesIII was the unique consciousness that would be of great assistance for him to control pain, and the possibility of establishing a relationship between his inner self and the reality he was living with the purpose of seeking wisdom.