The Fourth Way & Esoteric Traditions

Cultivating: Technique and Discipline

Hands and feet also symbolize methods that enable a man to rise from the state of sleep to the state of Divine Presence. When the hands are raised up in the air, the arms quickly tire. Likewise is the effort to promote Presence, which is like training a muscle. The more one practices, the more one can do it.

Q. I cannot by effort reach a state that sometimes comes accidentally.
Ouspensky: If you had not made efforts it would not have come accidentally, so it is not really accidental. The more efforts you make,
the more you will have these accidental moments of self-remembering,
of understanding, of being emotional. It is all the result of effort.

We are given hands and feet so we might use them in ways
agreeable to God.
-- The Philokalia, Peter of Damaskos

The King has sprung up to heaven on the fingers of the God,
Lord of the ladder.
-- Pyramid Texts

Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war,
[and] my fingers to fight.
-- Psalms 144:1

Feet also symbolize steadfast effort and the ability control the devil-like lower self.

Stamp under the feet, everything that is not Him,
This is the way of reaching the Beloved.
-- Jalaluddin Rumi

Horus has placed your enemy under your feet, that you might live.
-- Pyramid Texts

I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise they are fallen under my feet.
-- Psalms 18:37-39

The place of the self is under your feet.
-- Shams