Malias - Page 3

The third page of the Maliad. The poem is 61 lines long now, and I've reached the critical moment of the first scene.

Then rising to his feet, Kameus said to the men: The temples have vast riches from the gifts that they receive, those golden labryses and many herd animals. Why do they deny me a just portion as a tribute? For the sky and the wind have no need of such things. Therefore let her go and bring me my just due!

Some nodded in approval, for indeed his store rooms were full of the things they had brought, olive oil and wine, prized ivory from Libya and other kinds of goods; and the halls of the palace smelled of their cooked sacrifices. They had given generously, so why should the temples hold back?

But gray-haired Dionides came forward and said: Man cannot take that which was offered to the gods, nay, however much he may desire it, lest they become angry with him and punish him for his hubris.

And Teliassa said: Hear now, Kameus, the words of wise Dionides, and do not hunger for that which is above you, for you are but a king and dust before the gods.

Now Kameus was furious, his pride wounded, and he said: Behold now, brethren, if she does not give me wealth from the temple, then I will take what she did bring!

Koan and Rosicrucianism

An addendum to my last post. One of the goals of Rosicrucian study is developing your intuition, and intuition is key to the Zen koan. These are questions that you can't answer through conscious reasoning. You have to meditate on them until an intuitive answer comes into your mind.

Working out the meaning of the answer (and thus, of the question itself) can lead to a satori (悟り) or moment of understanding, moment of awakening.

In short, this is why I think Zen practice and Rosicrucian study can complement each other.

I'm not learned enough to say that it would be a mistake to do Rosicrucian study without other tools to maximize the benefit, but I would strongly encourage Zen for that purpose, both to get the most out of Rosicrucian study and to help you remain critical of Rosicurcian materials as you progress. There's a particular ontological framework in the Rosicrucian tradition, but it shouldn't be blindly absorbed with religiosity. Instead, it should be examined critically and experimentally, and this is a benefit of the Zen approach.

Koan practice

One of the most famous Zen koans is "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" It's so well known the people don't really take it seriously, but in fact I find it to be one of the more difficult koans to grapple with. It takes real effort, and is well deserving of its prominence within the 'effort school' of Zen.

An answer I came up with while meditating on it is: "A picture of my grandmother after my grandfather died."

That ended up being literally a vertigo-inducing answer. What the koan was really pointing me toward was the question of contingency, and the realization that my existence is not contingent on my grandparents. That's actually quite scary. It's a realization that pulls out from under you a foundational element of your concept of self. It begs the question: What is my existence if it's not contingent on them?

Quite often, spiritual practice doesn't bring you peace, but exactly the opposite. It deprives you of concepts which seem stable, and leaves you with nothing in their place except the hard task of making peace with a non-conceptual answer.

Malias - Page 2

Here is the second page of the Malias. If you read the first page, you should note that I made a change to it - I changed the somewhat anachronistic name Alexius to the older Adamaos, a name attested in Linear B script.

Now fiery-haired Teliassa, priestess of the temple on the mountain where Zeus was born, entered the palace dressed in a gown with sparkling purple trim. She wore an iron armlet in the form of a serpent, and sandals stitched with cloth of silver. All eyes were upon her; women, envious of her great beauty, chatted in the corners, and men watched her with ravenous looks. She approached the alabaster throne with a regal gait, her gaze fixed on Kameus, and said: I offer you honors from those who serve the gods, Zeus and Hera, and Poseidon and Posideia, Hermes and well-girdled Aphrodite.

Nearby, Adamaos was staring at Teliassa as if struck by the arrow, for indeed he was, standing mute on the spot where love had overcome him.

The king too was struck by desire, but desire of another kind. He wrung his bear-like hands and said: I see you have the richest clothes, and an armlet more valuable than gold¹; yet in spite of your wealth, you bring me only words.

¹ In the bronze age, iron was extremely difficult to produce and was therefore more valuable than gold