Who are the black brothers?

(Caveat: I will say here that I claim no grade. I had some experiences once, and some people affirmed some things that may or may not be true, and I seem to be at a stage in life that equates to a grade, but who doesn't? Such things are really just a convention, a way of talking about things rather than something absolute. I say what I say now only by way of opinion, not from any authority, so take it or leave it in that spirit)

Every system has it's fair share of boogeymen and heretics. Perhaps the most infamous in the Tree of Life system, is the Black Brother. This figure stands in stark warning to the unwary initiate, 'you must give all of your blood for the cup, to do otherwise is to be a Black Brother' (or sister). In theory at least, a Black Brother could be defined as a mature Adeptus Exemptus who refuses the final step, usually defined as the leap into the Abyss. Another way of putting it might be that he is somebody who, on completing his journey to Chesed, and perceiving that the last thing to do is to embrace that emptiness which is being/non-being, at One with the All, and thus None, but instead refuses and chooses instead a life of personal aggrandisement, indulgence, self ego stroking. 

It strikes me as incomprehensible, that a person on the threshold of liberation, should refuse it, and choose instead to continue in their old ways. It has the ring of St Augustine's prayer:

"Oh lord, make me pure, but not yet!" 

Such a person has we suppose, had a glimpse of that infinite emptiness/fullness, and chosen instead to ignore it and instead amuse themselves building sand castles on the edge of the eternal ocean. However, my sense is that if a person has really, for an instant, caught an authentic glimpse of that eternity, they would not, could not, refuse. In fact, I doubt very much whether it would either be a choice, once you've seen it you're done, if you think you have a choice you aren't really there. It would be like a suffocating man refusing to take a breath, a fish refusing to swim. The moment you perceive it you know in your bones, you are that.

There are of course those who get a glimpse of something and freak out, reporting de-personalization, a sense of not existing, as sometimes happens in intense meditation retreats I am told, although I feel that such people are unusual and usually unstable, they don't stay in that state but make all effort to get back to their ordinary consciousness. An example I came across recently was a woman on YouTube talking about non-duality, and her body language and the way she spoke of her experience looked to me more like a mental break than enlightenment, but then what do I know?

We are told that in earlier grades and stages, the Black Brother cannot exist, since by definition such a person has not yet confronted emptiness. By this I don't mean intellectual assent in the concept, which is generally garnered much much earlier in the path, but actual direct apprehension. Once you have directly perceived a thing you cannot then un-know it, though you can of course be in denial.

It is also fashionable to label as Black Brother any aspirant/initiate who's personal views you dislike. There are of course liars, deceivers, egomaniacs abounding in the occult and religious spheres, all looking for a following, ready to tell a story to make themselves look good. We might be tempted to label such as Black Brothers, but my feeling is that they cannot be such, because if they even once perceived that emptiness, everything else would fade into insignificance. If you directly perceive truth even once it is like a breeze blowing into a dusty room, dispelling the cobwebs of the mind.

It is thus you can know that those who tick all the boxes for insincerity, egomania, and the rest are not in fact Black Brothers, but are of a much lower order. If I were to grade them I would say failed Practici, since truthfulness and integrity are central to that grade, so they are in fact no higher than Yesod, the Sphere of delusion. The Universe is based on truth, and if we are to be in harmony with it, then we must also base our lives on truth, not simply the inclination to not tell lies, but that essential integrity of nature  that is antithetical with falseness, with delusion, glamour and contradiction.

In the Inner Order Grades, one does not advance oneself. You don't fulfill a set of exams and move on to the next grade. Grades are not formal, but real, one cannot help but live in accordance with your inner truth, which is your real 'grade'. 

Grades are not bestowed from without either, another person might recognise you as this or that grade, but they cannot confirm it nor do they need it, anymore than a dog needs confirmation that it is in fact a dog. These grades are only recognitions of ones state of being. 5=6 appreciates his Karma (True Will) as the trajectory and nature of his life it is obvious when he sees it. 6=5 learns to live in accordance with it and gradually removes impediments to that nature (usually self imposed), and a 7=4 having become 'exempt' from Karma by having reduced internal contradictions to a level where they no longer thwart the overall trajectory of life, is in a position to teach, and must therefore write his thesis. It is by virtue of momentum (affinity with the dharma we might say), that he quite naturally merges into emptiness. No need to fling oneself or do violence to oneself or the universe in general.

The 7=4 who does not merge with emptiness naturally like this, was never really a 7=4. It isn't a choice, it is a destiny. Just as a caterpillar is destined to become a butterfly because it is its nature. If such a person, willfully (small w) tries to cross the 'abyss', it shows only that they are deluded about it, are 7=4 in name only. Such a person will not become a Black Brother because they by definition have not seen emptiness, even in a dream, and thus haven't turned back from anything. You have to know what you are giving up, to truly give it up. To 'give something up' implies duality, and if you have really perceived and known your own emptiness there is nothing to give up anyway.

So who are the Black Brothers? The very concept is a contradiction. There are those who directly perceive emptiness and embrace it, whom I suspect we never hear from, who possibly don't give a damn about it. And there are the rest of us in our ignorance, chips on our shoulders, planks in our eyes, perhaps contemplating emptiness but not really perceiving it. We like the idea of the Abyss, of Emptiness, but to us it is only a word, an idea, and where there are ideas there is no emptiness, we lose it the moment we conceptualize it.

Thus we are generally so far beneath this idea of the Abyss, even though were were to see it even for a moment we would be instantly across, yet while it might be closer than an arms length, it might as well be a universe away. To call somebody a Black Brother because you don't like their opinions, their politics, their dress sense, ignores the basic fact that such a person has most likely never even come close to truth, even in a dream, and so can't in fact be defined as a Black Brother. 

Who are the Black Brothers? 

They don't exist.