“While he desires to quench his thirst, a different thirst is created. While he drinks he is seized by the vision of his reflected form. He loves a bodiless dream. He thinks that a body, which is only a shadow. He is astonished by himself, and hangs there motionless, with a fixed expression, like a statue carved from Parian marble…
Unknowingly he desires himself, and the one who praises is himself praised, and, while he courts, is courted, so that, equally, he inflames and burns. How often he gave his lips in vain to the deceptive pool, how often, trying to embrace the neck he could see, he plunged his arms into the water, but could not catch himself within them!
What he has seen he does not understand, but what he sees he is on fire for, and the same error both seduces and deceives his eyes.
Fool, why try to catch a fleeting image, in vain? What you search for is nowhere: turning away, what you love is lost! What you perceive is the shadow of reflected form: nothing of you is in it. It comes and stays with you, and leaves with you, if you can leave!”
-Ovid, The Metamorphoses, Book III: Narcissus Sees Himself and Falls in Love
In the ancient Greek tradition, Narcissus was a beautiful youth and child of a nymph. He was loved by many but rejected all, until he saw his own reflection in the still water and fell in love with himself.
“Narcissist” is now a term for a psychological disorder characterized by self-absorption, selfishness in general, and callous disregard for others.
There seems to be much more interest in the concept of narcissism in recent years, often explained as more sophisticated psychological diagnostics. From an esoteric perspective narcissism is actually increasing in humanity because of the apocalyptic times we are in. The logic of the abyss- the infra-dimensions within our psychological depths- is ever more prevalent.
Egoic self-absorption is a source of suffering for self and others and traps us in an inferior level of being. Gnosis teaches us that in order to awaken consciousness, to be truly alive and truly human, we must raise our level of being. This can be shown as a horizontal line intersected by a vertical line creating a cross.
The horizontal line indicates the external events of life from birth to death, and the vertical line represents the eternal present moment and the opportunity to transform ourselves here and now.
The higher the level of being, the greater the sacrifice of our own desires for others, the greater the love and the wishing of well-being for others. The greater the comprehension of the wisdom of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”.
The lower the level of being, the more selfishness, the more greed. The more we end up sacrificing others to fulfill our own desires and cause great suffering.
The story of Narcissus shows a great deal of suffering. He fell in love with his own insubstantial reflection, something he could not hold in his arms, or share a life with, or with which he could create anything new. And so he faded away.
Divine Nature
As long we forget our divine nature we will default to egoic selfish tendencies. We think we are the center of the universe, but so is everyone else. The remedy is to remember the divine inner Being from where we come.
The difficulty is that we have inherited the intellect, and the habits of putting the intellect in service of the ego, and forgotten our divinely given, creative energy, which is the key to becoming a true human.
Artificial Intelligence
“Intellect which is placed in the service of the Spirit is useful; intellect which is divorced from the Spirit becomes useless.”
-Samael Aun Weor
Intelligence is truly a divine virtue, and in the Hebraic Kabbalah is called Binah.
Intellect, on the the other hand, is merely the computer-like functioning of the intellectual center within the human machine: reasoning, rationalizing, analyzing. Certainly useful, but limited as a means of human flourishing and development of the soul.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is better called artificial intellect. It is the collective intellectual consensus through a certain language pattern recognition; lacking comprehension, lacking wisdom, or even understanding. Unfortunately, even with so much information at our fingertips, AI bring us to a self completion which is really a dead-end.
The discussion around AI sometimes is about whether or not this new technology should be widely embraced and funded since it is useful for many intellectual and technical tasks.
But the problem of AI is not that it is a new technology. Nor that it is in danger of becoming conscious if we really understand what the consciousness is.
AI is a problem because it amplifies the existing human problem that we are in love with the intellect.
We are in love with ourselves.
We feel separate from others and separate from all of creation, and from our creator. We worship intellect but do not have interest in the divine intelligence latent within our consciousness.
Human Nature
Humans have the capacity for thriving, cooperation, harmonious existence, helping and serving others, the capacity of genius, kindness, beauty, art, psychological growth, wisdom, and love. We have the capacity to create technologies, which become an extension of our values.
Do we really want the highly processed and condensed accumulation of the data on the internet, fueled by powerful technologies to be completing our very thoughts? Do we want the spontaneous and sometimes subtle wisdom of the consciousness to be subsumed by an intellectual, political, and cultural consensus as determined by powerful corporations? To allow our divinely-given creative energy to be stolen by a form of sexual seduction that is completely based in ego and not love?
Don’t we want more from this world than a mirror of ourselves “auto-completing” our own thoughts, desires, and will?
Instead of staring at ourselves in the mirror and becoming fascinated with our own intellect, let us grasp the golden thread of consciousness with meditation, prayer, and contemplation of the heart.