Just Cook: Part I

 

Note: The word "cook" can mean either preparing food for consumption by means of heat or being prepared for consumption by means of heat. Although the former use of the word is more common, I employ the latter use throughout this post.

When you want to make a fried egg, you put a raw egg in a frying pan and you let it cook. Once it has cooked long enough, it will be a fried egg. Becoming a magician is similar. You just have to let yourself cook long enough. 

A lot of Bardonists these days like to waste time. That wasted time should be spent on something important, such as cooking. Prayer is one way of cooking. Meditating is another way of cooking. If you find yourself with free time, don't waste it. Use it to cook. Go sit in your chair and watch your breath. When you inhale, watch your breath going in. When you exhale, watch your breath going out. When your mind has wandered from your breath, gently bring it back. That's all you need to do. You might think you're wasting your precious time just sitting in a chair and watching your breath, but that's far from the case. You're cooking when you do that. Is a raw egg sitting in the frying pan wasting its time? No. It is cooking and therefore on its way to becoming a fried egg. When you meditate, or pray, or whatever, you are cooking too. I know prayer can be challenging for some people who are lacking in faith, and I know meditating can be boring for some people who are lacking in patience, but does a raw egg need to cook forever in order to become a fried egg? No. It might be challenging to cook, and it might be boring to cook, but you don't have to cook forever; you only need to cook long enough. So just cook. Pick up your komboskini and repeat over and over again the prayer "Lord God Almighty, please give me wisdom and understanding, please help me cultivate humility and compassion, and please purify my heart. Amen." Sit in your chair and watch your breath as it goes in and out. If you are too tired to practice sitting meditation without falling asleep, then get up and either pray, practice walking meditation, go to Mass, or do some other activity where you're not as likely to fall asleep but that is still beneficial for your magical advancement. It's not possible to enter the jhana states through walking meditation. When you're in fourth jhana or even first jhana, you are cooking very intensely. When you practice walking meditation, you're not cooking as intensely, but you're still cooking. You should try to cook all the time, but you don't have to cook intensely all the time. Even light cooking will bring you closer to your goal. 

I sometimes get asked for advice on staying motivated to practice. I think that's the wrong thing to ask. Motivation is often short-lived, and trying to sustain your motivation just seems like a tiring and never-ending endeavor. When you love being cooked, that love is far better than any motivation. In the past, when you sat down and meditated, perhaps all you thought about was how stupid it was and how much of a waste of time it was to just sit in a chair and do nothing but watch your breath. But when you love cooking, then you really enjoy this, because you realize that you are cooking. If a naked person starts doing cartwheels in front of you, you don't pay attention but just continue watching the breath, just continue cooking. If the best restaurant in the entire world opens right across the street from your house, you don't go there to eat but just continue to sit in your chair and cook. If an intense argument breaks out on your favorite esoteric forum, you don't jump in or even notice it is happening; you're too busy watching the breath. Sometimes, Bardonists tell me they desperately want to decrease the amount of time they spend on social media, since they are wasting a lot of time on social media and therefore aren't practicing that much. I actually need to increase the amount of time I spend on social media. I love to pray, and I love to watch my breath. The result, however, is that sometimes it takes me a while to reply to emails and Facebook messages since I am just sitting in a pot being cooked rather than at my computer.

Now, when a raw egg allows itself to cook in order to become a fried egg, it does not want to become a fried egg for the sake of becoming a fried egg. Its end goal is to nourish whoever consumes it. So whenever we allow ourselves to cook, either by meditating, praying, pore breathing, practicing visualization, or simply remaining mindful throughout the day, what is our end goal? 

Well, I'll tell you the answer to that question. If you're on the beginning or intermediate steps of IIH, I don't think you'll really understand the answer, but I'll tell you anyway. Even most advanced students of Hermetics would not understand the answer to this question. Here it is though.

In the lyrics to the song "Linked," there's a set of lines that goes as follows. 

Past the rings of Saturn
Across the Milky Way
Where it's raining diamonds
We'll return someday

And in the lyrics to the song "If I Could Be a Constellation" (from Bocchi the Rock!), mention is made of stars hundreds of millions of light years away. So this realm of stars which is past the rings of Saturn and across the Milky Way is where we're trying to get to. It's hundreds of millions of light years away, but it's where the constellations are. When we get there, then all that is foretold in Sabrina Carpenter's song "We’ll Be the Stars" will come to pass. When you've cooked long enough, you will be a magician, and you'll be able to evoke the spirits described in PME. It is those spirits who will tell you how to get to this realm. 

Now, you might think, "Ah, yes, this realm is what Christians call the kingdom of heaven and what Buddhists call nirvana." Is it though? Note that all three of these songs are about personal love. Is personal love emphasized in the New Testament? No. Is personal love emphasized in the Pali Canon? No. Many Bardonists have some sort of religious background, but what I am referring to here is not part of the teachings of any religion on earth. So don't turn to the religions which currently exist on earth to try to understand what I'm saying. There is only one text I am aware of that can shed light on the things that I have written here, and it is not part of the scriptures of any religion. It is a story written by William Mistele about two lovers named Rilus and Kitan. I have a copy of that story, but I won't share it. You can go searching for it if you want, but unless you know where specifically to look, I doubt you will find it. In any case, it doesn't matter. Instead, just cook. Someday, when you have cooked long enough, you will be able to meet spirits who can initiate you into the sacred mysteries reflected in that story. Then you will really understand what I am saying here.