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The idea just mentioned refers to a perspective that does not really enter into the argument οί this book, because it is not concerned with inner, personal behavior, but with oute1'"circumstances; not with present-day reality, but with an unpredictable future upon which one's own conduct should ίη ηο wise depend. This is a perspective already alluded to, which sees that the present time may, ίη the last analysis, be a transitional epoch. Ι will say οηlΥ a little about it before approaching our principal problem. The reference point here is given by the traditional doctrine οί cycles and by the idea that the present epoch, with all its typical phenomena, corresponds to the terminal phase οί a cycle. The phrase chosen as the title οί this book, "ride the tiger," may serve as a transition between what has been said hitherto, and this other order οί ideas. The phrase is a Far Eastern saying, expressing the idea that ίί one succeeds ίη riding a tiger, not οηlΥ does one avoid having it leap οη one, but ίί one can keep one's seat and not fall off, one may eventually get the better οί it. Those who are interested may be reminded οί a similar theme found ίη the schools οί traditional wisdom, such as the ''ox-herding'' episodes οί ]apanese Zen; while ίη classical antiquity there is a parallel ίη the trials οί Mithras, who lets himself be dragged by the bull and will not let go until the animal stops, whereupon Mithras kills it. This symbolism is applicable at various levels. First, it can refer to a line οί conduct ίη the interior, personal life; then to the appropriate attitude ίη the face οί critical, historical, and collective situations. Ιη the latter case, we are interested ίη the relation οί the symbol to the 8 The End of α Cycle 9 doctrine of cyc1es, with regard 10 both the genera1 structure of his10ry and the particu1ar aspect of it that refers 10 the sequence of the "Four Ages." This is a teaching that, as Ι have shown e1sewhere,! bears identica1 traits ίη the East and ίη the ancient West. (Giambattista Vico simp1y caught an echo of it.) Ιη the c1assica1 wor1d, it was presented ίη terms of humanity's progressive descent from the Go1den Age 10 what Hesiod called the Iron Age. Ιη the corresponding Hindu teaching, the fina1 age is called the Ka1i Yuga (Dark Age). Its essentia1 qua1ity is emphatically said 10 be a c1imate of disso1ution, ίη which all the forces-individua1 and co1- 1ective, materia1, psychic, and spiritua1-that were previous1y he1d ίη check by a higher 1aw and by influences of a superior order pass in10 a state of freedom and chaos. The texts of Tantra have a striking image for this situation, saying that it is the time when Ka1i is "wide awake." Ka1i is a fema1e divinity symbo1izing the e1ementary, primordia1 forces of the wor1d and of 1ife, but ίη her "lower" aspects she is a1so presented as a goddess of sex and orgiastic rites. Ιη previous ages she was "sleeping," that is, 1atent ίη the 1atter aspects, but ίη the Dark Age she is said 10 be comp1ete1y awake and active. 2 Everything points 10 the fact that exact1y this situation has been reached ίη recent times, having for its epicenter the civi1ization and society of the West, from which it has rapid1y spread over the who1e p1anet. It is not 100 forced an interpretation to 1ink this with the fact that the present epoch stands under the zodia~a1 sign of Aquarius, the waters ίη which everything turns 10 a fluid and form1ess state. Thus predictions made many centuries ago-for these ideas go back that far-appear strange1y time1y 1oday. One finds here an ana10gy 10 what Ι have said above regarding the prob1em of what attitude is proper 10 the fina1 age, associated here with riding the tiger. Ιη fact, the texts that discuss the Ka1i Yuga and the Age of Ka1i a1so dec1are that the norms of 1ife, va1id during epochs ίη which divine forces were more or 1ess a1ive and active, must be considered as cancelled ίη the fina1 age. During the 1atter there 1ives an essentially different human type who is incapab1e of following the ancient precepts. Not on1y that, but because of the different historica1 and even p1anetary circumstances, such precepts, even if followed, wou1d not yie1d the same 10 Orientations results. For this reason, different norms apply, and the rule οί secrecy is lifted from certain truths, a certain ethic, and particular "rites" to which the rule previously applied οη account οί their dangerous character and because they contravened the forms οί a normal existence, regulated by the sacred tradition. Νο one can fail to see the significance οί this convergence οί views. Ιη this as ίη other points, my ideas, far from having a personal and contingent character, are essential1y linked to perspectives already known to the world οί Tradition, when abnormal situations ίη general were foreseen and analyzed. We shal1 now examine the principle οί "riding the tiger" as applied to the external world and the total environment. lts significance can be stated as follows: ~hen a cycle οί civilization is reaching its end, it is difficult to achieve anything by resisting it and by directly opposing the forces ίη motion. The current is too strong; one would be overwhelmed. The essential thing is not to let oneself be impressed by the omnipotence and apparent triumph οί the forces οί the epoch. These forces, devoid οί connection with any higher principle, are ίη fact οη a short chain. One should not become fixated οη the present and οη things at hand, but keep ίη view the conditions that may come about ίη the future. Thus the principle to fol1ow could be that οί letting the forces and processes οί this epoch take their own course, while keeping oneself firm and ready to intervene when "the tiger, which cannot leap οη the person riding it, is tired οί running." The Christian injunction "Resist not evil" may have a similar meaning, ίί taken ίη a very particular way. One abandons direct action and retreats to a more internal position. The perspective offered by the doctrine οί cyclical laws is implicit here. When one cycle closes, another begins, and the point at which a given process reaches its extreme is also the point at which it turns ίη the opposite direction. But there is still the problem οί continuity between the two cycles. Το use an image from Hoffmansthal, the positive solution would be that οί a meeting between those who have been able to stay awake through the long night, and those who may appear the next morning. But one cannot be sure οί this happening. lt is impossible to foresee with certainty how, and οη what plane, there can be any continuity between the cycle that is nearing its end and the next one. The End of α Cycle 11 Therefore the line of conduct to be followed ίη the present epoch must have an autonomous character and an immanent, individual value. Ι mean to say that the attraction of positive prospects, more or less shortterm, should not play an important part ίη it. They might be entirely lacking right up to the end of the cycle, and the possibilities offered by a new movement beyond the zero point might concern others coming after us, who may have held equally firm without awaiting any direct results or exterior changes. Before leaving this topic and resuming my principal argument, it may be useful to mention another point connected to cyclicallaws. This concerns the relationship between Western civilization and other civilizations, especially those of the East. Among those who have recognized the crisis of the modern world, and who have also abandoned the idea that modern civilization is the civilization par excellence, the zenith and measure of all others, some have turned their eyes to the East. They see there, to a certain degree, a traditional and spiritual orientation to life that has long ceased to exist ίη the West as the basis for the effective organization of the various realms of existence. They have even wondered whether the East might furnish useful reference points for a revival and reintegration of the West. It is important to have a clear view of the domain to which such a proposition might apply. If it is simply a matter of doctrines and "intellectual" contacts, the attempt is legitimate. But one should take note that valid examples and pQints of reference are to be found, at least partially, ίη our own traditional past, without having to turn to non-European civilizations. Not much is to be gained by any of this, however. It would be a matter of conversations at a high level between isolated individuals, cultivators of metaphysical systems. If one is more concerned with real influences that have a powerful effect οη existence, one should have ηο illusions about them. The East itself is now following ίη our footsteps, ever more subject to the ideas and influences that have led us to the point at which we find ourselves, "modernizing" itself and adopting our own secular and materialistic forms of life. What is still left of Eastern traditions and character is steadily losing ground and becoming marginalized. The liquidation of "colonialism" and the material independence that Eastern peoples are 12 Orientations acquiring vis-a-vis Europe are closely accompanied by an ever more blatant subjection to the ideas, the mores, and the "advanced" and "progressive" mentality οί the West. Based οη the doctrine οί cycles, it may be that anything οί value from the point οί view οί a man οί Tradition, either ίη the East or elsewhere, concerns a residual legacy that survives, υρ to a point, not because it belongs to areas that are truly untouched by the principle οί decline, but merely because this process is still ίη an early phase there. For such civilizations it is οηlΥ a matter οί time before they find themselves at the same point as ourselves, knowing the same problems and the same phenomena οί dissolution under the sign οί "progress" and modernity. The tempo may even be much faster ίη the East. We have the example οί China, which in-two decades has traveled the whole way from an imperial, traditional civilization to a materialistic and atheist communist regime-a journey that the Europeans took centuries to accomplish. Outside the circles οί scholars and specialists ίη metaphysical disciplines, the "myth οί the East" is therefore a fallacy. "The desert encroaches": there is ηο other civilization that can serve as support; we have to face our problems alone. The οηlΥ prospect offered us as a counterpart οί the cyclicallaws, and that οηlΥ hypothetical, is that the process οί decline οί the Dark Age has first reached its terminal phases with us ίη the West. Therefore it is not impossible that we would also be the first to pass the zero point, ίη a period ίη which the other civilizations, entering later into the same current, would find themselves more or less ίη our current state, having abandoned-"superseded"-what they still offer today ίη the way οί superior values and traditional forms οί existence that attract us. The consequence would be a reversal οί roles. The West, having reached the point beyond the negative limit, would be qualified to assume a new function οί guidance or command, very different from the material, techno-industrial leadership that it wielded ίη the past, which, once it collapsed, resulted οηlΥ ίη a general leveling. This rapid overview οί general prospects and problems may have been useful to some readers, but Ι shall not dwell further οη these matters. As Ι have said, what interests us here is the field οί personal life; The End ο( α Cycle 13 and from that point of view, ίn defining the attitude to be taken toward certain experiences and processes of today, having consequences different from what they appear to have for practically all our contemporaries, we need to estab1ish autonomous positions, independent of anything the future may or may not bring.