The faculty of lying is the third element in our factitious life. It helps
substantially to give it a semblance of continuity. We can easily realize
the role played by this faculty of lying if we imagine what our existence
would come to if this possibility were taken away. Life would become
impossible, due to the shocks and conflicts which we would have to face.
In this way, lies serve as buffers, like the buffers of railway carriages which
soften shocks. It is this faculty of lying which makes our lives less of a
rattle, and contributes greatly to the impression of continuity life gives us.
We are brought back once again to the fact that we attribute to ourselves
faculties which we do not possess — except as possibilities for development: we pretend to be truthful because telling the truth and living a
truthful life are possibilities which can become real; but they can do so
much later, after we have worked hard and long upon ourselves. In the
meantime we are condemned to lie. Whoever denies this only testifies to
our difficulty in facing the truth.
**
We must linger a while on the question of lying, a question of great
importance to which we must return more than once. The faculty of lying
is a function of our imagination, a creative faculty. Before we create anything we must imagine what it is we wish to create. This gift belongs only to humans. Animals never possess it. It is thanks to this gift of imagination, a divine gift, that we have the faculty of lying. We lie for different reasons, wishing generally to ameliorate situations which seem to us unbearable or difficult to accept. Lies thus open the way for mechanisms of rationalization or of justification, which are ways of 'patching up'. We shall see further on how the entangled behaviour of persons round about us provokes many shocks, creating difficult and sometimes insoluble situations of human relations, veritable Gordian knots.
It is thus in the utmost good faith that we resort to lies. This being so, the attitude of the esoteric Doctrine towards lying is clear and realistic. It does not require us to stop lying from the start, because nobody can carry out such a resolution. However, if man cannot stop lying to others, the same cannot be said as far as he himself is concerned. He is therefore asked to stop lying to himself— and this in a definite way. This requirement is absolute, and we can easily understand why. The objective of esoteric work is the march towards Consciousness, which means towards Truth.
It would be a contradictio in objecto to try to approach the truth while
continuing to lie to ourselves or to believe in our own lies. We must
therefore eliminate any attempt to lie to ourselves: on this point no com-
promise can be tolerated, no excuse admitted.
But while in our present condition we cannot live without lying to others, we must at least be conscious of our lies.
There is, nevertheless, another recommendation which we can make in this domain. In the ensemble of our lies to others, tolerated esoterically, we must exercise ourselves to distinguish between those lies which are indispensable or inevitable, those lies which are simply useful, and those which are not. The Doctrine asks those who study it to fight energetically against those useless lies.
It is only by training of this nature that we shall progressively be able to
master the rooted tendency to lie which exists within us. Every attempt to
hurry things, so far as lying to others is concerned, though it be a noble
attempt, is doomed to early failure.
We live in a world which is immersed in lies and moved by lies. It is to be
noted that the Decalogue, which imposes observable commandments on man, does not forbid him from lying except in a small sector of human relations; that of bearing false witness, and also in situations where he is already badly predisposed to someone.
**
It is also necessary to guard against a variant of the habit of lying to ourselves, one which we commonly adopt from early childhood and
against which we must fight by every means. This variant is widespread
because at first glance it appears to us to be a positive attitude. Such an
attitude can normally be adapted easily to any case; used in spoken language or in writing; in mundane conversation, or in a thesis for a doctorate,
it is betrayed by the phrase: 'yes but...'.
This in itself does not imply any harm when it is used. On the contrary,
such usage is helpful and even indispensable in discussions, controversies and pleadings — where we resort to it quite frequently. However when applied to ourselves and for our own benefit, with the aim of softening a shock, or rediscovering our inner peace after we have sinned, or excusing our actions or faults, this idiom crystallizes within us over a period of time to create a true
auto-tranquillizing mechanism.
It is to be noted that the effects of this mechanism are not to be compared with 'sang-froid', or the ability to answer well and quickly, or those of inspirations from consciousness. On the contrary, it is a true mechanism of mental anaesthesia, founded on a refined and disguised lie. It sows hypocrisy in man towards himself.
This auto-tranquillizer, like all other moral buffers, must be destroyed.
Source:
B.Mouravieff, Gnosis I, pages 29-30