A Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology 

CHAPTER 3

PSYCHOLOGICAL REBELLION

It is not superfluous to remind our readers that a mathematical point exists within us.  That point, unquestionably, is never found in the past, nor is it ever found the future.

Those who want to discover that mysterious point must search for it here and now, within themselves, exactly in this moment, not a second earlier, not a second later.

The two beams, Vertical and Horizontal, of the Holy Cross intersect each other at this point.

So we find ourselves from moment to moment before two paths: the Horizontal and the Vertical.

The Horizontal path is clearly a very cheap way to go, traveled by “everyone and his dog.”  It is evident that the Vertical is different.  It is the path of intelligent rebels, the path of revolutionaries.

When we remember ourselves, when we work on ourselves, when we don’t become identified with all the problems and sorrows of life, we are in fact walking the Vertical Path.

Certainly it is never an easy task to eliminate negative emotions, to lose all identification with our lifestyle, with all types of problems, with business, debts, loan payments, mortgages, telephone, water and power payments, etc.

Those who are unemployed, those who have lost their position or job for one reason or another, clearly suffer for lack of money and for them to forget their situation and not worry, not become identified with their own problem, is in fact frightfully difficult.

Those who suffer, those who cry, those who have been victims of some betrayal, one of life’s injustices, an ingratitude, calumny or fraud, really forget themselves, their inner Real Being.  They become totally identified with their moral tragedy.

The Work on oneself is the fundamental characteristic of the Vertical Path.  No one could tread the path of the Great Rebellion if he never worked on himself.

The work to which we are referring is of a psychological nature; it deals with a certain transformation of the present moment in which we find ourselves.  We need to learn to live from moment to moment. 

For example, a person who is desperate about some sentimental, economic or political problem has obviously forgotten himself.  If that person were to stop for a moment, observe the situation, try to remember himself and then make and effort to understand the reason for his attitude…

If he were to reflect a little and think that everything passes away, that life is fleeting, illusory, and that death reduces all the vanities of the world to ashes...

If he were to understand that at the bottom of it, his problem is nothing more than “flash in the pan,” a fatuous fire that will soon die out, he will suddenly and with surprise see that everything has changed. 

It is possible to transform mechanical reactions through "logical confrontation" [1] and the "inner self-reflection of the Being."

It is clear that people react mechanically when faced with the diverse circumstances of life.

Poor people!  They usually turn themselves into victims.  When some flatters, they smile; when someone humiliates them, they suffer.  They insult if insulted, they wound if wounded; they are never free.  Their fellowmen have the power to take them from happiness to sadness, from hope to despair.

Each of those persons traveling along the Horizontal Path is like a musical instrument on which each of his fellowmen can play whatever tune he feels like playing.

Those who learn how to transform mechanical reactions, in fact enter onto the Vertical Path.

This represents a fundamental change in the Level of Being, an extraordinary result of “Psychological Rebellion.”