Appamāda (vigilance and austere concentration) constitutes the base of every virtue. An ascetic who delights in appamāda and who guards against mental laxity, will advance like a fire, burning every bond, both great and small. He cannot err.

The discipline of constant control of the thought, with the elimination of its automatic forms, gradually achieves what in the texts is called appamāda, a term variously translated as "attention," "earnestness," "vigilance," "diligence," or "reflection." It is, in point of fact, the opposite state to that of "letting oneself think," it is the first form of entry into oneself, of an earnestness and of a fervid, austere concentration. When it is understood in this sense, appamāda constitutes the base of every virtue. It is also said: "This intensive earnestness is the path that leads toward the deathless, in the same way that unreflective thought leads, instead, to death. He who possesses that earnestness does not die, while those who have unstable thought are as if already dead." An ascetic "who delights in appamāda - in this austere concentration - and who guards against mental laxity, will advance like a fire, burning every bond, both great and small." He "cannot err." And when, thanks to this energy, all negligence is gone and he is calm, from his heights of wisdom he will look down on vain and agitated beings, "as one who lives on a mountaintop looks down on those who live in the plains."

 

--------

 

Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part II., Chapter 2. - Defence and consolidation (excerpt)

Done