1. 人的身体里有很多微生物, 生活在不同的所在, 很多隶属于不同的器官。假设在某个微生物族群中进化出了类似人的大脑意识这样的功能活动, 它们开始对其生存及其世界和历史进行思考, 就可能重复一部分人类思想的图景和历史。它们之中会出现有神论和无神论, 唯物主义、自然主义和唯心主义, 进化论和创造论, 会流行虚无主义。它们中的哲学家会问, 我们的世界里为什么有万物而不是没有？万物又为什么是其所是？自然主义者认为, 它们的生命是偶然进化出来的, 一切都可以通过物理学和化学得到解释。有神论者则说, 我们的生命看上去生生灭灭, 这个世界始终存在, 而我们暂时的存在必有其起源和根据，the origin and ground of being, 即Man, 我们之所以活着乃是Man赋予的生命, 我们的存在本身就是对Man的证明。唯物主义和怀疑主义哲学家们就会反问, 那你如何证明the existence of Man？作为唯一神的Man究竟内在于还是超越于我们活着的这个世界？假如Man是我们的生命的源头和根据, 那么祂干预我们的生命和历史, 还是任由自然规律支配？

面对这样的质疑, 有神论者中的智者需要向这些生命解释, “你们的思想方式出了问题, 而你们的世界观就建立在错误的思想方式基础上了”。……

2. “智慧瑜伽”所谓的智慧, 归根到底是initiatic knowledge, 至少很多内容要因着人世炼金术的进程到达的特定阶段所带来的体验获得理解。领会是一种解渴、焕然冰释或冲决阻滞的感受。终于明白了的时候, 这样的知识就是良药, 真切直接, 而在这之前距离远的时候就总是抽象的“理论”。所以关乎根本真相的核心原理最不容易讲。不过经历人生困惑苦痛多了, 就是为理解做了准备, 哪怕还不到涣然冰释的时候也可以收获理智的理解, 作为未来的体验和领会的引导和思想储备。

就生命智慧而言, 没有“理论”这回事儿, Truth就是truth, 更没有理论和实践的分别。任何有意识地修行试图做到的事情, 首先都必须在实际人生中做到。古典瑜伽和炼金术即是literal意义上的有意识地专门修行, 又是对更根本的人生过程的象征隐喻。日常人生里没有完成焚烧和溶解, 在山上和蒲团上就很难实现同样的突破。白天分离不了, 夜里练功也是枉然, 尽管后者极有意义。

3. 智慧瑜伽是最上乘的瑜伽之路, 是其他瑜伽途径的基础。Julius Evola阐释炼金术原理的《The Hermetic Tradition》就是对智慧瑜伽的经典说明。第一遍读的时候像是读天书, 第二遍读的时候如痴如醉。就我有限的视野来说, 适合现代人理解的其他经典阐释著作还有, 其一Schwaller de Lubicz夫妇对古代埃及智慧体系的说明, 尤其在Isha夫人两卷本的《Her-Bak》中得到了清晰透彻的表述, 第一卷还原了一个Initiate候选人进入神庙学习之前的生活道路和前提准备, 第二卷则是清楚细致地说明古代埃及的智慧系统和Initiation的要义；其二是尤伽南达大师借助对博伽梵歌的阐发对古代印度智慧体系的现代说明, 最好也借助Alain Danielou的著作。另外还有西藏传统的宗喀巴大师以及后来的多位宗师的典范著作。根本上这些阐释是等价的, 说的是一回事儿。古代埃及和印度的智慧原本表达在神话象征叙事中, 现代人最好通过上述宗师的理性风格的说明来把握。经过这样的著作的引领, 我们就会对上古智慧的透彻、精确和系统完备惊叹不已。Julius Evola则对双鱼座时代的western esotericism的核心要义做了精炼表述。假如一个人有兴趣、花时间阅读消化以上所说的多个传统的经典说明, 融会贯通, 对于人应该如何生活、人生过程自身的炼金术以及在实际人生的功课之余进一步如何有意识地修行实践, 就不会再有困惑。

哲人石工作室曾经承诺, 假如小组成员能聚集起来, 在适当的时候组织几次为期几天的seminar, 以以上几部著作为蓝本, 耐心细致的拆解解读。

4. The Rosicrucians, those enigmatic personages whose custom was to appear in the world as ordinary beings, hiding their true beings and their real mission ……
The initiate is an occult being and his path is neither visible or penetrable. He is elusive, not to be pigeonholed. He arrives from the direction contrary to that towards which all gazes are fixed and takes the most natural seeming vehicle for his supernatural action. He may be an intimate friend, companion, or lover；he may be sure of possessing all your heart and confidence. But he will always be something different, other than what he lets be known. We will perceive this otherness only when we have penetrated his domain. And then perhaps we will have the feeling of having been walking on the edge of an abyss.

The hermetist judges all exhibitionism and personality to be puerile. He has reached a state that categorically avoids all reaction to human judgment. He has stopped talking an interest in what others may think of him, or say about him, just or unjust, good or bad. He knows only that certain things must happen：he provides the precise means and conditions for them and that is all. He does not pretend the action is his own. He is pure instrumentality. “Self-affirmation” is a mania he does not recognize. And the father he advances, the more deeply his center sinks into a superindividual and superpersonal range, like one of the great forces of nature, while those on whom he acts will have the impression of being free.

The Transcendent Man, instead of playing with little phenomena to astound the profane or making “metaphysical investigations”, his objective, he might well prefer to focus his possibilities on the invisible world. “You are not here to struggle with things, but with gods,” said Boehme.

For others, for those who despite everything wish to learn more, there is only one way to direct them：to create in themselves the capacity for a vision in which what is beyond their consciousness and thought be made as clear and distinct as objective things are for the eye and for the mind tied to the body. 

“Anyone who comes looking for us simply out of curiosity will never find us. But if his will truly and in fact is to inscribe himself in the registry of our fraternity, we, who judge by thought. will fulfill our promise to him. We do not divulge the place of our residence, because thoughts, united to the real will, are capable of letting us know him, and him us.”

5. Adults want to be；children want to have. 不错, 这的确说中了要害。可是, 拉康说明了根本的困难。Ego是在话语的参与下参照他者的形象建构的, 而欲望总是他者的欲望。人无法逃离the mediation of the Other. 我究竟是谁？我的true desire是什么？必须经由实际人生中漫长而艰难的炼金术过程才能得到解答。比如, 不经历彻底的焚烧, 欲望就得不到净化。这样说来, 在人世过程中, 对于绝大多数人来说, 终生摆脱不了模仿和从众的心理压力, 不参照他者就不知道自己想要什么, 看见某些人拥有了什么就升起了“我也要……”的欲望, 随时随地都受到他人的刺激, 活在无休止的刺激-反应中。太难了。

从“to have”到“to be”是一项根本的conversion, 福音书无非在说这个主题, Dion Fortune常用的说法是意识重心从personality转移到Individuality, 从the unit of incarnation转移到the unit of Evolution. 一个人经历怎样的累世进化、又在这一世经历了怎样的炼金术过程, 最后才能实现这个跨越呢？想想吧, 有谁愿意经历这样的死亡与重生吗？在这个炼金术过程中要先后承受什么？承受力是怎么来的？