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MANIFESTATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS Year 1, Lecture 18 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 28, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer There was a presentation of the disciples' essays on the topic: “The most powerful virtue of the disciple”. Next time please write on the topic: “The most powerful feature of Light”. When you write on this topic, take into consideration the feature of Light which one notices first. Any other features which come to mind after the first one are weaker. When you go to a vineyard, notice that the first grapes, which are the ripest and the sweetest ones, show the strength of the vine itself. A vine that gives only sour and unripe fruit is weak. It has no inner ability to develop its fruit. Therefore, each thing that is revealed first, and in a complete and well developed form, is the strongest of its kind. If it comes last, in an incomplete form, it is the weakest one. You should observe the same law in respect to virtues. Each thing that appears first in someone’s soul has the greatest power. Each thing that appears last is the weakest one. Therefore, when you write on a topic, first pay attention to its real aspect, which sticks out first, and then to its abstract aspect which is the weakest one. Now, being still young people, you should be cautious not to fall into certain traps in your Life, which may hamper you. There are certain decoys in the world, similar to the ones that inventors create for people. When they want to attract the attention of the audience to their inventions, they say the following, ‘Do you know how useful our inventions are? If applied in life they will generate great reforms. They will contribute to culture and so on.’ The invention might not yet be available, but they already advertise it. I am asking, how can you recommend an invention that has not been created yet? Each invention can be evaluated only after its implementation. This is the reason why you should consider things well. For example, reflect on the most outstanding feature of water, of fire and so on. Which is the strongest feature of fire in your view? – Fire gives warmth. Which is the strongest feature of Love? Often people fall into contradictions which they cannot solve. You have such contradictions as well. If you are asked, for example, about the strongest feature of the tongue, you will come to a contradiction, and you will not know how to respond. Why? – Because the tongue has several functions. The first one is to facilitate the passage of food and water into the stomach, the second one is to taste – with the tongue you taste food, the third function of the tongue is to speak. Which function is given first to the tongue? - The first one. Actually, in order to maintain life, a human being uses the tongue first to send food into the stomach. Therefore, one should be satiated first in order to be able to speak. First you take food, then you taste it and finally you speak, i.e. you voice your opinion about it. These three physical functions of the tongue correspond to other functions in the higher worlds: the first function of the tongue in eating is in the physical world, the second function – tasting - is related to the Spiritual world and the third function – speech – is related to the Divine world. Love also has different manifestations. It is said that Love requires sacrifices. Which world does sacrifice and self-sacrifice relate to? Who is able to sacrifice himself? It is the wise person who can sacrifice himself, not the foolish one. Consequently, sacrifice relates to the Angelic world. When a fool sacrifices himself, he is like a butterfly that flies around a lamp in the evening and gets burnt up. Its sacrifice is unconscious. A reasonable sacrifice may belong only to a wise person. Consequently, only an intelligent and wise person is able to sacrifice himself. If such a person sees someone drowning in the sea, he will jump into the water, thus risking his life, but he will try to save the one in need. Only a clever person, who has been gifted with intuition, will go into the water to save someone. Do you know what the most powerful feature of Love in the physical world is? It is motion. Therefore, if there is great motion somewhere, there is also great Love there. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Astral world? – Feeling. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Mental world? – Thought, the process of thinking. Which is the most powerful feature of Love in the Causal world? – Causes. The love of someone who lives in the Causal world is solid and never changing. The proverb: “A word spoken is past recalling” is true for such a person. Sacrifice refers to the Causal world. Only such a person lives or at least sometimes penetrates the Causal world - the one who can sacrifice himself. And only such a person who has something to sacrifice is able to sacrifice. Only those who live in the Causal world have something to sacrifice. As long as someone lives in the physical world only, he has nothing at his disposal and can sacrifice nothing. The wealth of a human being lies in the Causal world. That is why there are things there that can be sacrificed. You should all have notebooks to write your essays in. Each topic has a distinctive feature. After you have written the essay, it will introduce a new idea into your mind. Each topic represents a note of a given scale. If you connect all essays into one piece, you will form a whole musical piece. You should note the following: if your limited consciousness prevails over everything in you, it will hamper your progress and your entire development. You could easily verify this. How? If you observe the development of a child, you will see that it grows and develops properly due to the fact that its mind is not busy with the thought of its growth, whether and how it grows, etc. But if you manage to occupy its mind with the thought that it should grow and develop fast, its growth will cease. Therefore, if you begin to live with the thought of your growth, you will be hampered like the little child. One thing is required of you: to have an aspiration towards growing, but then you shouldn't think about it any more. Why? Growth is a Divine process which doesn't depend on you. You cannot make yourself grow. If you want to grow, put aside your temporary limited consciousness and allow your soul to freely develop. Introduce into your sub-consciousness and into your higher consciousness your wish to grow and don't think about it any more. You will see that you will achieve a positive result after some time. Contemporary people are hampered in their development due to certain manifestations that take place too early in their life, before they have come to the relevant stage of development. For example, many have seen visions, dreams or lights before entering the School, so they say to themselves, ‘Let us join the School to attain more knowledge.’ However, until they continue to be guided by such limited consciousness, they will lose even the knowledge they had before. The right thing for them is to preserve the knowledge they acquired from the outside world, because it is not in contradiction with the knowledge they will acquire in the School. Inside or outside, it is the same School. First of all, you should aspire to Freedom – to be free in spirit, soul, mind and heart. If you fail in something, you shouldn't be discouraged. Failure is a good sign. You know how difficult it is to achieve things under the law of evolution. Do you know what trials an ox needs to go through in order to become a human being? If the ox decides to describe its story and calls its path “golden and royal”, it will not tell the truth. How many times it was skinned, how many fields it had to plough, how many times it was goaded! It has gone and will go through great trials and great suffering before it reaches the human status. If you want to move from your present position to a higher one, you will also endure great misfortunes and suffering. It is law. Do not deceive yourself with the idea that you could evolve easily. If someone tells you that you could reach the royal path without trials and suffering, they don't tell the truth. This doesn't mean that you should create suffering yourself, but once you have been put on a trial, you cannot escape it. Be bold and resolute and accept suffering in the way it is given to you. Many of you want to have visions and spiritual experiences. This is an appropriate wish but specific conditions are necessary for it to be fulfilled. If you plant a small flower in a pot, you have to put good soil and water it regularly so that it may grow well. Otherwise it will dry up in a while. The centres needed for contact with the Spiritual world have a similar role. Spiritual experiences require relevant conditions for their manifestation. For example, in order to be a clairvoyant, one needs to have a broad forehead, e.g. well developed imagination skills. If you want to develop clairvoyance, you should communicate with people who have already developed this ability. Thus the energy that emanates from someone's well developed brain centres influence the corresponding underdeveloped centres in someone else. A disciple with an aspiration for music should seek people who have advanced musical abilities. Whoever likes drawing should make friends with artists. Writers should communicate with writers, priests - with priests, disciples - with disciples. As occult disciples, you should seek the company of learned people who know more than you. Before you wish for visions, you should develop inner courage, but not insolence. Some people behave impertinently, they intrude and think that they are courageous. Courage is a quality of a wise person. I will give you now a small exercise for a week: read in the morning and in the evening the third chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, from the first to the thirteenth verse, and reflect on the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. During the reflection, try to remember this talk not only as it was written, but with all those details which are missing but could be read between the lines. Reflecting on these verses will bring new images, new thoughts and ideas into your mind. Nicodemus was with Christ for many hours and they had a long conversation. If you could rebuild even a hundredth part of this discussion, you would attain a lot. If your consciousness is awakened, you will easily link with the past and recollect the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus. If you don't succeed in recollecting this conversation, you will still gain something. If you fail, don't be discouraged. Those who have lived during the time of Christ can easily return to the past and recollect the whole conversation. If you haven't lived in that age, you consciousness will be closed and you won't be able to remember anything. If you reflect on these verses for ten minutes every morning and every evening, you will feel peace and inner calm in your soul. Disciples complain of difficulties and hardships. You will always have difficulties until you create a magnetic atmosphere between you. Such an atmosphere, such an aura has not yet been established among you. You will feel it once it has been created. How? You will feel enthusiasm, enlightenment and an influx of new thoughts and ideas. You will go to bed well-disposed and content in the evening and get up fresh and full of new aspirations, thoughts and wishes for the Great and the High in the morning. And now you go to bed exhausted, you get up worn out with the words: ‘I have lost what I have.’ Why does this happen? - Because you invest all your capital in goods just like traders do, without putting any amount aside. You have goods, but you cannot sell them, you cannot meet your daily needs. This situation darkens your consciousness, so you suffer, doubt and say: ‘Why did I have to enter this enterprise? It would have been better if I had stood aside.’ If things go well, you will be content that you have entered the enterprise. Others prefer not to enter, although they don't gain anything in this way. They are content that at least they don't lose anything either. In my opinion, this is not good philosophy. While you are alive you have to either win or lose. Gains and losses go together in Life. Each gain is followed by a loss and each loss – by a gain. Losses and gains can come accidentally, but they can be conscious too. Next time please write on the topic: “The function of the human thumb”. Find books on this topic and read what has been written about the thumb. You should study your thumb – if it sticks up or down; if it is short or long; if it is well-shaped or not. When you research this question, write no more than twenty lines. Learn to write briefly, clearly, and conceptually. What you write should represent a small sketch. Each idea represents a seed. Collect such seeds in your bags and when the time comes, sow them. Many of you study and work but still think that they haven't achieved anything. As long as they think this way, they have conditions for achievements - this shows that they want to study. When someone comes to school with the idea that he knows nothing, he has possibilities to study and advance. He says: “I am aware now that I know nothing yet. I am glad that I joined the School.” This is the awakening of consciousness. Then the disciple will want to fill his gaps of missing knowledge. Therefore, when someone is aware that he has lost something, he begins to strive for gain. The next homework that I will give you will be on the topic: “Tall and short people and their distinctive features”. You may know nothing about it, but when you think on the topic during the week as well as on the topic of the thumb, some ideas will emerge in your mind and you will write something. Tall people introduce one idea into the human mind, short people – another idea. Turks say that short people are a mischief for God. Short people are troublesome. There is also a saying that tall people are like wasps. But these sayings concern only the extreme types – the very tall and the very short people. If a tall man has narrow shoulders, then his height should correspond to all other parts of his body. The same is true for a short man who has broad shoulders. I will make an analogy to explain why some people are tall and others are short. I often observe the flowers in the garden and I have noticed that some of them, the hollyhock for example, grow higher when planted to the north than those planted to the south. That hollyhock, which is planted to the north, grows higher because it strives to see the Sun. In the same way we could explain why some people are tall and others – short. Tall people live in the north, where there is not so much sunlight. They strive to grow higher, so that they may see the Sun. This is the reason why pine trees grow in height. Thus, tall people develop in unfavourable conditions with a lack of sunlight but an abundance of moisture. Short people have grown in width - with a lot of sunlight but without moisture. This is a material, external, but not a conceptual difference between tall and short people. However there are also other physiological reasons that influence the growth of a human being. As disciples of the Great School do not think that this School comes into contradiction with common universal life. On the contrary, it solves all contradictions in life. Contradictions will vanish, but you should also work, not just wait for their solution without making any effort. Your progress depends on your karma. Whoever has more serious karma will encounter greater difficulties and obstacles and will evolve at a slower rate. Some day you are happy and self-content that you have gained something, but then a creditor of yours comes and robs you of it. Then once again you have to acquire materials and tools in order to work and achieve the same result. Those who have better karma will advance faster. In order to develop well, everyone should know his weakest point, so that he or she can work on it and transform it, because it is like a door through which one’s enemies enter. For example, someone likes boasting. He is given something or told something with the request to keep it secret, but he can't stand being silent and says to a friend: “I am going to tell you something, but don't tell anyone”. His friend tells it to another friend, the latter – to someone else and thus it spreads everywhere. If you are asked to remain silent, you should do so until you are allowed to speak. Someone has many desires, as a result he becomes absent-minded. He wants to be a philosopher, a scientist, a poet, a musician, an artist, a statesman, but he doesn't succeed in any of these fields. If you have many desires, put them aside and start implementing one of them only. When you implement it, then start with the second one, the third one and so on. If you intend to implement all your wishes at once, your thoughts will get scattered, you will exhaust your feelings, waste your time and won't achieve anything. You need to know the following: no matter how much you think about these issues, you will not have the same results as some of you lack well developed imagination skills, others – well developed reasoning, some lack faith, others – hope, observation abilities, reverence, self respect, friendliness and so on. As disciples of this School, it would be good to measure your foreheads in width and height as well as your noses and chins. After you have worked for a year upon your mental abilities or upon your chin as an expression of your will, measure them again and see if there is at least a microscopic change. Even the slightest increase indicates that you have succeeded in your work. Otherwise you will conclude that you have not worked well all year long. It is good for everyone to draw his forehead, nose and chin in exact sizes and to measure them again in a year, so that he can see how much he has achieved. If you worry about it, however, you won't achieve anything. You need to be able to concentrate your thought if you want to attain something and achieve certain results. For this purpose, you need to study the law of concentration in order to transform the occult forces and develop your mental and spiritual centres. That is the only way to achieve any results. If you have failures, don't get discouraged. You are capable of achieving everything – making your foreheads higher, prolonging your noses, re-modelling your chins. There is nothing you can't achieve or improve about yourself. A disciple should work and develop patience. How will he or she develop patience? Here is a method: when you are in low spirits and see a disharmonious feature on your face, take a mirror and look at it for ten minutes until you define the location of this feature on your face. Do not look into your eyes for more than ten minutes because you could fall asleep. While looking at your image in the mirror, you may say to yourself: “You need to be corrected!” Hold your negative feature in your mind and in a while you will see that it has been transformed under your suggestion. This method is not easy, but many of you can use it and achieve good results. If your eyes become watery when you look into the mirror, it is a sign that your nervous system is weak. If your eyes stop getting teary or never did, this indicates that your nervous system begins to strengthen or doesn't need strengthening. To begin with, look into your eyes for a minute or two without winking and forget that you want to influence yourself. Thus you will see that everything comes in its own time, unexpectedly for you, but gradually, not at once. Secret prayer

The Influence of the Music Lection seventeen from the Teacher delivered at the common Occult class on the 22nd of June 1922, Thursday A secret prayer The works for music have been written. Now, if they ask you which world touches music or which world descends from music, what are you going to answer? – From the Mental world, i.e. only an intelligent man may sing. Therefore, music and human intelligence go together. Because the right thought, is music. Now I shall give you one little musical attempt. Of course those of you who don’t know how to sing have to make an effort. Firstly learn the scale, the seven tones and from them – learn the natural tone which the scale starts from. You may take the natural tone of the organ or the piano. Some pianos starts from higher or lower with a half tone. Learn the tones of the scale without rising or lowering, naturally, everybody here learns C, D, E…C, B – forward and backward. When you have a good frame of mind, sing the tones. Afterwards, after your frame of mind changes, sing them again and notice what the difference is. For example, if you are angry, sing C, D…C, B and backwards and see what resistances you will meet. Observe psychically, make a difference in the singing: sometimes you have an inharmonious temper – see in which tones what disharmony comes; sometimes you may have some inner fear – sing the scale again forwards and backwards, note the tones you don’t sing properly. You will make psychical observations. Make these attempts and psychically you will differentiate how far you are far from perfect. For example, some musicians, I have heard, take higher D, cannot sing it correctly. Why? – Because they are extraordinarily active. At some point they don’t sing B correctly, somewhere they don’t sing C correctly. To sing means that you must always make the tones correctly. After you change it in whatever relation, you are not a musician any more, you do not keep the rules. Therefore, a musician is only this, the one who in all conditions keeps the natural relations – I see the sensible natural relations that exist between the tones. For example now, when you quarrel, and the quarrel is music, somewhere the emphasis in some tone is higher. In speech there is rising and lowering, isn’t there? If we translate anger into a musical language then when somebody gets cross, he sings forte; when somebody wants to gloss himself, he sings very softly, sings pianissimo. But you will see that in all of you the tones are weakly included. In the past, you didn’t learn music and now you have to make a very big effort. And your failure in life is due to a lack of music. The criminality in people is due to the fact that there is no music. For example, people – killers do not have any music. Therefore, the music is one stimulus – after you start to sing, the blood starts to flow into the front part of the head, the brain attracts the blood to the front part, and so it develops correctly. And the first thing in the Black lodge is that it always says, “You are old, you do not need singing, God may do and without your singing, you are indisposed today, do not sing!” And you start to become coarse, to become coarse till you lose this feeling, and the blood goes down in the lower centre of the brain and everything in you begins to pine. Afterwards in some people there is a shame – they love music but don’t sing since the others will laugh at them. There is no shame in this because there are no singers. I have heard only one singer sing nicely, to control her voice so much – one Turkish woman, I listened to her twenty years before. I have heard two or three singers who sing nicely – where the soul takes part, not only to quaver the voice, but also to make an effort. Music is one natural art. When you sit, you start to think how you will sing. No, you have to sing without thinking; if you start to think how you will sing, you will not sing. When a man starts to think how to pay his debts, he does not have money in his box, and when the case is full, he doesn’t think, but pays; and whoever comes along says, “How much do I have to pay you, here you are.” Why? – His box is full. All of us are people that think a lot – we think about religion a lot, about the virtues we think a lot. Why do we think? – Because the boxes are empty. Now the disciples of the Occult School do not know music. After the box is empty, you will think but you will know that without music you can’t be disciples of the School that you have to know. One condition: without music, you can’t be disciples of the School, so good disciples. And the first exam we will give is on music and there you may degenerate. The first exam in the School is music – they will give you one part to sing, one very easy song will be given to you to sing. So, you understand already, music and thought go hand in hand. And after that we can use the music as an educational resource. Watch different people and see what kind of songs they like. When somebody is indisposed, sing him the song which he likes and he will have a good frame of mind. Every man has a favourite song. The religious people in the Orthodox Church and in the Evangelical Church also have a favourite song. Now first, the observation, which you have to make, is in controlling the scale. Do this exercise for two weeks one by one – every day, morning and the evening before you lie down. In the morning sing the scale three times – make observations, not just singing. You want to study occult sciences, have great ideas to grasp the powers of Nature but if you can’t grasp the difference, the soft vibrations between two music tones, how will you grasp those great powers with higher tones? And now I don’t want to encourage you but when you study the occult music and you start singing, all the grit will start to group in one place and create stones – there are occult songs with which only when you sing to a stone, for ten minutes from above it will start to split; there is an occult music which if you sing you can stop the stream of a river; there is occult music that if you sing near by some dried up spring, the water will flow. And if sometime you dry up and begin to look like dried up springs, it is because you don’t sing. You say, “God does not love me” – your spring dries up. Start to sing and your spring will start running immediately. You will say, “Now I am sad, when I get into a good frame of mind then I will sing.” There is no reason to sing then, you will sing now! Afterwards, if a boil breaks out in some of you, I shall give you one musical attempt to cure it: if somebody has a boil sing the scale three times in the morning, in the evening – again three times and if you sing correctly, this boil will pass. And why can't some illnesses be under treatment? You lose the music. A man who is afraid and who can’t sing dies. You have an inflammation, forty degrees temperature, sing some (some, any, 1) song and the temperature will fall immediately by (few, 3-4 degrees lower) several degrees. But the doctors will say, “He is ill, to keep silent, no singing, only to feel his breath.” You have a bad frame of mind, an unpleasant state – sing! Sing to this state one song, sing a second one, third, till you sing the proper song. The practical educational influence of music – it does interest us. We don’t have an interest in things that stand in our way, but what can produce the music in us, it interests us. Now, in connection with the music, I shall define two ways of Life. The ascending, the correct way of Life is a way that contains in itself all the ascending powers: there is form, content, and sense in it - it is called the correct way. The descending way is a way that contains all the descending forms, content, and sense of the descending life; it is called the Left way. So, with Way you will understand all the possibilities which Life demands in a given moment – it is called Way. Now, music is one of the resources of the Correct way, of the ascending way, one of the great resources of the ascending correct way in Life. Therefore, every single life has to start with music. Now when you sing you will not do it as pupils C, D, E, F, G…- it is not singing. You will stop yourself and when you say C, will forget that you are in the World – when you say C you will think that you start Life, and start to live. And when you say D you will think that this Life in which you live will start to form it, will start to collect materials for it. When you come to E you will understand that you distribute this material. F helps to understand for what the received inside combination could be used in Life. G, it is a construction – starting of the construction, A is plaster, and B is finishing of windows and doors. Then you will finish – you will do not only mechanical windows but will know that one window is one opening, a place that the Light may come from. The door is a place from which a man may come – a way for movement of the soul. When we talk about windows and doors we see that the window is a place where the Light may penetrate, and the door is a place through which the soul may come in. These are only a few occult signs in music; I shall speak about this another time. Now sing C. You take Ci-i, is there music in this Ci-i-i? The soul still doesn’t take part in this singing. In these vibrations, not only do you have to take part, but you also have to control your respiratory system, because here you have one more of the important centres – the larynx. Through the brain you will develop the larynx. The correct speech in the world depends on music – if music is correctly developed, then speech will develop correctly. Therefore, you will concentrate all your energy in the lungs – between the sympathetic nervous system and the larynx; between these two centres, the wheel of the brain begins to turn. Of course, there is that shame in you – if I invite somebody to get up and sing now, all of you will start to laugh. For example, you will not watch how he sings but will giggle, and laugh because he doesn’t sing the tones correctly. And with that you kill his desire to sing. Well, let’s all now take the first tone C. (Everybody sing: C, C, C). Let’s now come to D. C, D, D – louder! (Everybody sing). You don’t do it correctly, this D is not clear, something let you be far from perfect, this shows that the energies are not distributed correctly. But C is clear, it is good. (Everybody sang the whole scale.) Sometimes I shall occupy you – we will take some occult exercise on music. Then we will make one difference: we will sing one usual song normally, and afterwards we will sing the same song with the rules of the occult music to see what effect it can produce. Now the rest of the things you will read the next time. Do you have another theme? (- No) “The use of the mountain tops” – what use does climbing up bring? Afterwards what other use do they have? – They retain the snow attract the dampness and the wind. Now, you notice all these objects, do not think that they are given arbitrarily. All the themes you will write in one special notebook and will think them over. For the music in fact you will think from now further. As many themes as you have written, you will stop over them and will look at them again because in the future we will start to combine – for example, I shall want to combine the relations which exist between music and the mountain tops. Of course, these are complex exercises, we will pass onto them later. After one year, we will come to the complex exercises. You will be careful to put one strong base now, because if you don’t put this strong base you can’t build upon it. Because in the Occult school we have aimed first to develop the centres of Faith, Hope, Love, to develop the musical feelings, to develop the imagination, to develop the mathematical abilities, the judicious abilities, the creative mind, to develop amicability, to regulate human ambition, human pride, afterwards to put to work the executive possibilities of the man in work, to develop speech, to put it in a correct way, afterwards to create the correct forms for Life. These are tasks which have to be worked upon. And after these centres are developed, then we will connect them. Every single centre is connected with some trend and then it can manipulate. So it is imminent to do exercises, exercises. Let’s say that you have one hard task: you are a pupil or a student and you failed the exam, and you haven’t the resources to learn in the next year – your benefactor doesn’t support you any more. Three thoughts may pass through your mind: to kill yourself, to interrupt your life. What should this student do? – He will sing, he will start to sing the scale from below upward and from above downward, he will say, “Life is one ascending scale.” Start from lower C and go to the other, to upper C. – “They have failed me.” – you will go down in the scale, i.e. the failing will think as a coming back on the way back. When they fail somebody, they will say, “Sing the scale backward C, B, A...” Who doesn’t understand music will say, “I have failed.” But whoever understands the music will say, “I sing the scale on the way back.” – And then he will rise again to upper C. And when he acquires the tones, he safely passes the exam. But when they fail him too, he will sing the scale correctly backward – it is the same thing. For example, now you cannot convince yourself that if they fail you on the exam it is better than to pass. Many times miserable pupils don’t learn throughout the year, but it happens that he is examined on the easiest object, he has five and passes, but it is so much better to fail him, and let him repeat learning the material thoroughly – then for the next class he will be ready. Now in the Occult school you can’t pass just like that. The material is connected in a way that you can’t pass by skipping material. The disciple has to learn everything and to do it nicely. No matter what kind of tricks you will use, there is no way you can pass, it is one necessity. So, all the things you have to learn well. And the sufferings in life are nothing but failing - constantly failing us. Sometimes you think that you are virtuous but suffering fails you on the Virtue. You say, “I was good until yesterday.” But you still haven’t learn the art of being good – it is an art to know how to be good. In occultism, we understand “good man” as one who knows how to use some Divine powers correctly in the forms that are predetermined to them. This means a good man: to every Divine power to give the respective form, which is definite for it. Because if in different states, in different tempers, and in different ages, you know what the form is that corresponds to this power and you may give in to it with no mistake, then you will be a good man. It’s like that. Therefore, you will learn with which power, in which case which form corresponds. Because in the Occult meaning, only in this way will you obtain Light. Now you discourage yourselves, every day you become good and bad and hard work is imminent to you – mainly to those of you who want to learn. Afterwards, you will keep another rule: the great occult science always put itself in a way that a man has to start to work with the weaker powers in the world, they are the most productive. You will start with the most weak power that you have. And even in the practical relation you see the same: when a man starts with big steps immediately after he leaves his home, he can’t finish any kind of job – as he goes further he reduces, reduces, and in the middle of the way he tires and stops; but if some man goes out and if he suspects and if he starts very slowly, very slowly and gradually increases, this man will finish the work. And now in religious relation the science consists of the same: the one who goes out in the street and says, “I shall do this and that,” he will do nothing. No stop yourself and say, “This that the teacher gave me, I shall learn it; for the other way I don’t know, but today this little step, I’ll do it.” He doesn’t think about the future. Somebody, when he comes into the school, does think about how he will end the second, the third class etc., what diploma he will take, how they will meet him with flowers, adornments – all this fills his mind, but this pupil is going to do nothing. Now some of you, as occult disciples think in this way, “Now when we finish here, we will do this and we will do that.” No, whatever you are going to do, don’t think about it as only coming to an end, don’t waste your powers. When you have free time, you may dream on different objects but in the School – no other objects for sure. Out of the Schools there is dreaming. The Occult brothers, when they want to dream, from the Invisible world, they go down to hell to see all the dreams – because hell is full of great dreams. If somebody wants to see the greatest dreams, the greatest plans, he has to go down to hell – what dreams, plans, and projects there are there! The most learned philosophers write to the priests, to prophets, to teachers, to mothers, to fathers – all the plans are collected there. And when some man wants to become very great, God sends him down to see the great plans. And because of that in the Occult school firstly they learn the little works and after that step up to learn the great works. There you will start with the little powers that you have in you, with the smallest impulses – do not start with the strongest impulse of the soul. Some preach to begin with the strongest energy but in the occultism we start with the smallest, with the weakest inner convictions. If you can give life to the smallest inner conviction, you will have power to do great works. With money if you may do something, it’s good – but if your father leaves you a hundred thousand leva; but if your father leaves one penny and if with this penny you do something, you are a man, but if you do something with one stotinka… Mind is required, it’s required heart, and required will! Because of that with the weaker powers you have, you will start with them. And the world starts with the weaker things. A secret prayer Source

Precious Stones Year 1, Lecture 17 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 21, 1922, Wednesday Sofia The disciples' essays on the subject 'Precious Stones' were read. When writing on this subject, you have focused on the external characteristics of precious stones. Discussing only the external characteristics of a subject is equivalent to taking some food without feeling drawn to it or without feeling any hunger. Therefore the main impulse, the main stimulus connected to eating is the pleasant feeling one experiences while chewing and when the food is taken in by the stomach. If no pleasant feelings or attraction to certain food are evoked, one has no desire of eating it. If one eats without affinity to the food, there can be no positive results from eating. When we talk about precious stones we mean the human mind, because only an intelligent person can speak about them. Only highly intelligent, noble and virtuous people can speak about precious stones and distinguish one from the other. I would like you to focus on the 12 main precious stones and do a tiny experiment with them. The experiment is as follows. When you have an issue of physical, emotional or mental nature, start to imagine the 12 precious stones in your mind. Start with the most common one and gradually move to the best and most expensive one while at the same time observing which stone will make your unpleasant feeling disappear. As you move these stones through your mind, make a connection between the stone and the virtue that it is associated with. In this way every stone can exert a positive influence on humans and improve their mental state. Virtue is not expressed by a colour. If a maid is rosy and has red cheeks, it is not yet an indication that she feels love. If the maid puts lipstick on or a pink dress, this still doesn't indicate love. If someone likes blue, this doesn't mean that he or she bears the Truth. If you think that someone's fondness of a certain colour indicates that he or she bears the virtue associated with this colour, you will make a big mistake. A colour is only a passive expression of a virtue, but it must pass through the centres or focuses of the mind prior to becoming an active virtue. A transformation of the virtue is required. Each colour gains certain value and worth only after passing through the mind and being focused on a certain centre. In order to understand the content and meaning of precious stones, you must study them. Nothing is achieved easily. Work, effort, and serious labour are required of everyone. Imagine that some day you fall into apathy and laziness, that you don't want to study, that you are ready to give up your beliefs and decide to hit the road; or some other day, you ask yourself if you are on the right path or not; or another day, you experience a number of negative emotions such as envy, hatred, inner fear etc., and you start looking for the cause of this state but fail to find it. Instead of searching for the cause of these conditions, bring the precious stones to mind and then see the kind of result you will get. Sometimes your experiment will be successful, sometimes it will fail, but this shouldn't discourage you. Carry on with this experiment and eventually you will obtain results. Once you have obtained a result I can talk to you about the laws that act through the precious stones. In the past, precious stones were simple, ordinary stones. At some point they underwent a transformation and acquired their present state. For example, a diamond was once ordinary coal but by a series of processes across ages it got transformed into its higher state; it changed from a lower to a higher form. It was black when it was coal, and became colourless as a diamond with the ability to refract the sun beams. The occult science which you are studying now uses precious stones as a method of transforming the troubles you may get into. Precious stones can help you as a mainstay in the life you live in the material world. The experiments I described to you shouldn't take all of your time but only that part of it which you don't know how to use. A small experiment is like planting a small seed in the earth. My assignments are small but aim at investing your leisure time in a useful purpose. Being small, they will be fun and will incite a series of positive thoughts and feelings with regards to the material world which you live in and which you need to know well. Source

Thoughts and Deeds Sixteenth Talk of the Teacher given before the General occult class on 15th June 1922, Sofia Next time you’ll write about the influence of music in Life. Because the class is general you are not equally prepared to grasp the subject in the same manner, you have a different understanding. Those, who are not so familiar as the other students, consider themselves equal to that who know and thus is born a little disharmony. Those, who have not grown, have to learn. This is not the place for amusement, no, you will think. Here you have to devote yourself to learning, here a serious thought is required. When we say a serious thought, there should be no fear, do not fear. At least fifty minutes a day the student must stop for a while and think. You have to think about different matters: sometimes you are in pain – think about why you are suffering, you have a troubled life – think why you have encountered such trouble, which are the reasons and how can you objectively find a solution to them and not to say: “ I’m unhappy, such is the society. God has made me in such a way!” This is not a philosophy, this is a solution to the problem. This is a bird’s philosophy, they solve their matters in that way – when the bird is chased by a falcon, it stops by a tree and says: “Here is the salvation.” Or when a big mouse sees a man, hides itself in the hole. I’ll give you an example: in the working field of a Turkish man many mice bred and they said to him: “Hello, Hassan, your field is ravaged by rats!” – “Is that so?” – he went there, put cartridges in the gun, aimed at them as to settle the thing but the moment he raised his gun, all the mice rose at their back feet before him – some thousand rats. – “Well, this means you count me as your master.”- The Turkish man said. “I’ll spare you.” (The Turkish word “harizvam”- “to spare someone’s life”), he lowered his gun and they went backwards. Hassan knew the reason for this, that they consider him their master, however these mice want to know what the man’s intentions are. But Hassan thinks: “I admit my mistake so accept my apology.” Now, when you join the Occult school, you expect to act more humanely, to prepare yourself for an occult student. Yes, you do, but reasoning is needed, the occult students need quick wit. You don’t have to misinterpret some facts, each fact should have its own weight to our life, neither bigger nor smaller – Nature has given it its value. If you don’t learn to reason in that way, are you aware that sometimes you give yourself more weight than you deserve, and sometimes you give yourself less weight than you are worthy of – both are excesses. So my point is that a certain disharmony is bred, which harms the ears of wheat, hampers the thought of the Teacher. Because the students can also trip up their Teacher, at least they can turn him away from the mainstream. And when the stream is driven away, their gardens will be left unwatered, nothing more, nothing less. Now I want to introduce you the most basic things in Nature and show you their inner sense, the foundation. On this elementary basis the further knowledge you will receive will be laid. This is because there many occultists that have lifted themselves high up, there are adepts, who have climbed to the Third vaunt of heaven and they have fallen down head over heels. Those who have passed in the occult, they will be let in but they will be returned back from above, they will be given a good lesson – on the sacred road of Holy school one can not pass without knowledge. One should know- he needs knowledge so he can work. When I say should know, this means that you can always check your knowledge, to prove it, as one student understands his or her knowledge – they give him a task and he starts solving it, he knows the rules, he can work. Now, don’t mix the occult truths with religious. Religion is also one method for educating people but it is an inner method. Church is one seedbed, and the Occult school, this is a school for more developed souls. Some of them have elevated minds, their consciousness has woken so that they can understand the basic laws, which work in their organism, which operate in the society and manage the human evolution. Now, you have to bear something else in mind: you can’t set up yourself a home, to be happy unless you grasp the occult laws, you can’t love your friends until you have understood these laws. And that’s why people will marry and divorce, will become friends and stop being friends, will reconcile themselves and again quarrel, and nations will make wars until they understand those occult laws, which Nature has laid in the foundation of contemporary society. But people have to subject themselves to this society – if they don’t follow these laws, Nature allows all the extremes, which now exist: illnesses are born, which wash way health and knowledge, which people have. Often some small illnesses weaken memory, darken mind, sometimes earthquakes, a hurricane, storm. The reason for the earthquake is us, people – people’s thoughts can be the cause of an earthquakes. Yes, they can and Bulgarian people are not far from this conclusion: when in some Bulgarian village there are crimes committed draught and hail will destroy the crop. (The Bulgarian word for wasted crop is “gradobitina”, a word, received by blending of “grad”, which is the Bulgarian word for hail, and “bitina” a noun, which comes from the verb “biya”-, meaning “beat”, “heat”). Gradually, step by step, after these transgressions have stopped, rain comes again, and the “gradobitina” ceases. Now in Nature we are all connected and we are so sensitive to this connection that we can make a great good or a great evil. That’s why God has limited us, God has not given us great power. Sometimes you wish to have power – in the preset conditions, had god given you power, you would have hanged all human beings in the world and when enraged you would have chopped off the head of someone without really meaning it and then regret it. Now, occult science requires moral stability, not common morality. Absolute good will is required from the student: he or she should never misuse what he has been given. Because when you misuse it, those, who execute control, there are Beings that control, God will not hesitate to send them to execute their control and they will punish you – because there are laws in Cosmos, which are applied everywhere, everything is being monitored. They will punish you and then God will pardon you. Mistakes are forgiven but mistakes are not excused, mistakes in the class must be corrected. Now we won’t elaborate on what and why. Our wish is that the mistakes, which we witness in the class are to be corrected and the reasons why and what for, do not apply to us. We are interested that mistakes be corrected and if they are, then we can guess why. Some expect to obtain more knowledge. At the stage you are now, it is useless to give you lectures, had the best lectures been given to you, you can’t learn because here inner quickness of mind is sought of those subtle psychic forces that are at work. For instance, contemporary occults speak of will, that one should have will. A person can have will, for instance he and she can clench his or her fist, knit his or her brows – this is manifestation of one’s will too. However the one, whose will is strengthened, can seem quiet and calm but he can send a thought so powerful in its intensity and yet so quiet that it can produce a small illness but when this thought reaches its uttermost bounds, it will make such an upheaval, which the world has not yet seen. That now evil people sometimes send stronger and more powerful in their intensity thoughts and good people say: ”God will arrange all this.” We have to say: “The world goes according to God’s order and we should not disrupt it, my life has been arranged by God a long time ago and it will stay so lest I violate its order; God arranged my life long time ago.” Brain is subordinated to mind, stomach - to digestion, the lungs – exhaling system, heart is subordinated to circulation. It is well enough if I don't disturb my heart, brain, stomach, foot; all these little cells where Life functions. They know their work quite well. But one day, you drink too much, disturb your cells – and God gives you a lesson. -”Our life has been planned” - this thought must gradually be shaped in our mind. And first thing is: we don't have to misshape Life. When I say: ”World has been designed”, what is the meaning of all this? Let's imagine that you have a son, five years old, you have opened him an account of one hundred thousand leva, this child has been provided for, isn't that so? But this money is not at his or her disposal, his father has written that it has to be given to him or her when they come of age at 21 years, till then this child has to be taught how to manage this capital. When I say you are provided for, I don't mean that you have the right to do whatever you want, to have the capital at your disposal, no, the capital has been invested and you have to learn that when this capital comes in your possession to make results, you should know how much of it to invest, otherwise you will waste the money and you won't realise the meaning of Life and why you have come here. Now, for instance, did you know what was your program as students today? Today you had one important program. When you woke up today how many of you uttered a prayer to his Father to tell him: ”Father, I thank you for the conscience you gave me, I thank you for the opportunity you created for me to go to school, for the friends, for society and the social circle, for all these endeavours!” How many of you said this? Some of you first have washed yourselves, have said quickly the Lord's Prayer then had a bite, and went to work. But the work is profound – if I am a poet this is a profound work, if I am a philosopher, it is a profound work. They say: “ He is an excellent philosopher”, well when we philosophize, what are we to prove? - “I will give evidence for causes of the world's creation.” And do you know how we prove it to the scientists so often? By making ourselves a laughing stock. There is such an example that it is taken from Bulgarian life, I don't know how much of it is true but take it as an anecdote - the son of a family from a poor, desolate village where the houses are in fact huts without tiles and the holes are filled with faeces (Bulgarian word is “izverzhenie” - obscure form of the regularly used word “izptazhnenie”), by the will of circumstances goes to Europe and graduated in nature science. He then comes back to his village, sees a big “izverzhenie”, stuck on the wall and started proving his father by the work of what natural law the “izverzhenie” has gone up there, relates him philosophy. His father tells him: “Son, I've just seen your mother putting it there, for the forces I know nothing of.” So, my question is, if it wasn't for your mother, by the work of what force would the faeces go to the ceiling? Often we want to prove that the things in the world take place without any reasonable force, in some mechanical way. This is not the case. Now you are in the occult and say: “Why is there evil existing and why is there good?” I will put aside this question for further discussion. Why faeces are to be found? - “Izverzhenie”, this is one evil, all illnesses in the world are given birth in the faeces on the account of faeces being rotting substances. What is this “izverzhenie?” -”Izverzhenie” is one indication for existence of Life. Because some of these beings haven't studied the laws of nutrition, their faeces contain more poisonous substances. Take for instance these beings, fist the dog, which is canine and is therefore of the character to bite, take then the ox, compare their faces and by their content you will know the character of the animals. Bear by its faces shows that it is not that bad, take the goat, she is also not that bad, the sheep too. Then in the same way the sins of people are not the same – there are sins which are like the faces of the dog, sins as the faeces of the ox, as these of the sheep and so on but by a grade. And someone is asking why is there sin, how should we abolish sin? - Cease to eat and each sin will be abolished, all evil will disappear from the world. But then you say: “Can we live without eating?” - Then I will answer you – if it can't be without eating, it can either can't be without sin – this is philosophy. You, since you want to eat, will feed your hen, and eat it. This hen is a kind of brother – you will take her eggs and argue why. Because you want to live. Well then, do we, from the occult point of view, think that meat food is the only healthiest food? For science will find proof in the future but occultism has another statement on that matter. These substances which the meat of these breastfeeding contain, of hens and turkey, these essences can be found in Nature in ten or hundred times pure form. And if we were more reasonable creatures, we would have extracted these substances not from the meat of the animals but from its original source and would have been healthy but now we have need to send animals to gather this energy for us. And do you know how they gather it? It is restricted, because we are restricted too. I take this restriction not as one moment but restriction for one long-lasting culture which has began first too slowly (in the text is used the Russian word “medlenno”, familiar to Bulgarians) went unnoticed but gradually it has increased. And our mind our is so twisted that even the intelligent European citizens would find difficult to prove that this food is not healthy. He will prove you with regard to physics and chemistry that this is the right way to eat – he or she will prove you what are the results and what is the death rate according to statistics. What do many births and deaths show in the population? - These are two anomalies. When many people are born, this is an anomaly and when many people die this is an anomaly too. Some support this: “A family must have many children.” I am not against this but how many children must one family have i.e. how many Nature demands? How many does there have to be? - This is a disputable question. Taking into account the present conditions if we reason the question has to be asked in another way – What was in fact the preliminary plan when Nature created man? And another thing: how many boys and how many girls should be there? Now I see that in some families predominate boys only but with feminine character and in another family only girls but with masculine character. Do you consider this to be the natural state of things? When man dresses himself by a feminine model and the woman by a masculine, human 's life has turned upside down. Not only this situation we will find but also all men want to be teachers, masters. To be master means to be a man. And now consider this -all women want to be men. What is more - they say even this: that in each family one man is born blind. There is no man or a woman who wants to be blind, to be born blind. Then some say: “It isn't worth being a student, you should be a teacher.” I would discuss on this matter not factually, I want us to consider it as a thought -should we be manly or not? This is not important. Whenever you think righteously you are a man, when you live rightfully you are woman. When you think right, considering all laws of reasoning, from the occult point of view you are a man, a sensible man, I name you a sensible being. And when you live right, having in mind this thought, live up and sense the delight that you have refined yourself, you are woman – not woman but a virgin, you are a virgin. In the first case you are youth, not a man, in the second your are a virgin. When you become woman it depends on how you act, reasonably or not. There is some intertwining of things. Sometimes you notice that some clever people don’t lead a good life. Therefore I say: there is some discord, a disharmony between their mind and their life. And we say that these people are not clever. Don't say you think that clever is the man that can engross his people in war? - He or she is not clever. Does a writer who has written one book that has fascinated one generation and after hundred years people learn that they are on the wrong way? Do you consider an occultist clever if he or she for the sake of this science leads him or her in the wrong way? - No, one thought has to be in the soul of a student, he has to know the Truth. Now they ask, why do we need Light? I won't give you a definition but I say: Light is there to show us the way of Life, the road we have to follow. Sometimes you ask why you don't find compassion, to give you incentive to walk onward. Each wish, this is an incentive, therefore, make use it. This incentive can take many directions, you can take different detours. Light, it has its application but the aim of Life, the inward side of Light is to show us the Way. And do you know what the Way is? Nowadays, we, the contemporary people, under the term “way” understand only the distance which we can walk from one point to another: this is not way but one straight line. The Way, The Way of God, these are all possible methods and ways according to which a person can live sensibly in this world. This is the Way – all sensible methods and ways, included in the laws of God of Sensible life that we can apply to our life. And to you, the advanced students, I will present you the following: some of you have an undeveloped brain, you have to learn. We say this: a person should think and then act – this is one point of departure, don't you think in that way too? And there is something else: a person should first act and then think. To make out these two statements, to deduce them to their premises and to determine their proportions you must have a reasoning mind. How can you act before you think, how can you begin one task before thinking it over? You should say: “The rightful way is to think and then to act but to act and then to think, is stupid.” No, it is not so - if you do a job conscientiously first you have to think then to act, when you do a job by the rules of God, first you have to act, then to think. When you act, God will think for you – He thinks, you act – this is the way of God. He has given you his plan, you don't have to think that much – you will do the work that He has given to you, you want reason, He will determine. And when we want God to do instead of us, we have to have given thought about our life in advance and then God will do as we have anticipated and the way you think, so will God act. So you can try but God is very careful in this respect. If you are sincere, He will respond to you with the same. For instance you want to steal – He will create all the conditions for stealing and killing – He will give you all conditions to kill but then he will establish prisons, gallows, he will make all this. You want to help - He will create all the conditions because God will say so: “You conceived that thought, that's why I did it in such a way – you want it your way.” And when we act all comes good, God realizes. His thoughts are omniscient, His plans are clearly defined – there are no two plans in Him, there is only one plan and in this plan the only the Absolute Good in the world is inside. Now you can explain the norm one way or another but you will know that strictly defined: what you think that will be, what you do that will be. So if you do according to God that will be. But if you hold up to exact at one phenomenon of God your thought, you will experience the opposite result: Where God has determined you don't have to correct His plan. For instance He creates one form of a woman and you say: “Why should I be a woman?” When you say: “Why should I be a woman?” do you know what will become of you? - You will get the worst of man, the worst of children, you'll get the worst possible place for giving a birth and you will say “ I haven't enjoyed one sunny day in my life!” Why is that? Because you have said: “Why I have been born woman?” It doesn't depend on you whether you will be born man or a woman, this question is determined. It is not within your power to chose your parents, it is not, it is destined by the circumstances of your previous incarnations. You are not in state of chosing your father and mother but once you are born with a father and a mother, you are your own master, you can face your life alone. When you are released, when you become 21, when you become of age, you are in the state to change your life as you want. But will is needed, will to do it – it won't come to you without you giving a thought. Let's say that your father was a drunkard and you got disgusted by his drinking and you say at once without pondering: “I won't drink!” and that’s it! I met a Bulgarian young man fifteen years ago, at 21; his father was a drunkard and he since he had seen all the things his father had been doing at home, said:” I'll never take a sip of wine in my life!” He decides this and so he does not. He said: “ There is that much disgust in my soul - I hate wine that my father loves!” So this son avoids the vice of his father and after some time he will teach his father a good lesson. There is will in him. Now, you, the students from the occult school say: “God will fix the job, God is good.” We know that God is good, I am convinced one hundred and one percent that God is good, that God will set things in the right path and He has done that already but we have to learn, to learn. And in what is the foundation of this teaching? First, you can move your eyes at the normal level, right, can you move your nose in that way, do you know how to direct your chin, from an occult point of view, likewise? In occultism this is strictly defined, there is way how to hold your head, where to put your hands. Some speakers would put their hands first before them, then behind them, in their pockets, everywhere about. Where should we put our hands? You will say: ”This is irrelevant!” They are, my friends! Take electricity as an example – between these two poles, when electricity runs through them, there is contact and you will receive such a shock that you will shiver. But what if instead of poles, for some time you hold your hands together, what then? - It is not safe for you to hold your hands together always: there are times when you have to hold your hands free. And when you pray, you have to pray with hands folded, this is a not a good prayer, God will not accept this prayer. What the reason is for this, I will not elaborate on. People generally hold their hands turned upwards because in all other positions it will form a bad contact. And if you raise you hands up to the Invisible world, then you let some other contact in your left hand a reverse action will take place in the right hand: another contact should happen – two contradicting actions will occur in the Invisible world and you will experience a change. Now take for instance, when we love somebody and when we don't want to listen to somebody: when the father is angry with his son, he says to him: “Ivan!” and when he is pleased with him: ”Ivancho”; or the son says: “Father!”, not “Dad”; can a daughter or the son have another name: ”Petko” (Bulgarian for Peter), “Peter” and so on. Why does the child bow down? - This child bows down, blood flows to the rear part of his head, doubles the pressure in the brain and breeds negative energies - and because the noble energies come from the sympathetic nervous system, [sympathetic nervous system – sympathetic part of the vegetative (autonomous) nervous system in which the stomach (sun) string also called stomach brain is anatomically the biggest nervous string (editor's notes)] this person impedes these energies and says: “You are the father but I don't want to know about you.” And what will you do then? - You have to know the law. This water which flows has to be less, you have to put the flap so that lesser blood circulated in the brain of your boy Ivancho. Now, there are many called Ivancho among us, don't think I mean a concrete figure, no, I do not: Ivancho, Ivane, these I voice only to give you and explanation, don't think I have a real person in mind. Precisely this part of the blood has to be sent in another directions, to circulate it up and then down the forehead, in the upper part of the head, in different centres i.e. in places that are short of it. You have to know how to impose on ourselves. And in this relation you have to be prepared. We will come up to the science – to one science which we have to apply to its limits. So we will make small tests. In the present society, as it is here, in Bulgaria, a reaction originates: the newsreporters want to counteract, commence a reaction from one hand, the priesthood from the other hand makes hindrances with which they want to stop one movement and at least to discredit. We know all that is being done – I know why these people want this to happen- they want this because they want to deprive us of the energy won: they want this society to be devastated so that they can easily consume all and become heirs of this energy. But this will not take place: I have already said – not only will they rob us of five coins, but we will make them pay a huge fine, we will give them nothing. While I am in Bulgaria, there will be fertility, when I am gone, there will be desert here as in Palestine! And you, the students, when you leave so it will become. Such is in one law of God written: when a nation disregard all great laws of God which have been set for them, such a nation can not prosper. And you, as students from the Occult school will say: “ What should we do?” - You will be positive inside yourself. And we, when we come to stand for the God's Name, there is only one opinion for us – the Grand God's Law. And no nation will venture to transgress it. And there, when to the Slavs were sent those great ghosts, I don't speak of me (I don't include myself also), I have in mind this great law because God shows his will the Panslavism as to embody it in one work, in one mission for mankind) – this is a fact -those goods are given to him but there have to be reasonable people to make use of these conditions. They don't, Slavic peoples will be followed by others, third and fourth. Each nation as one individual does has to reasonably fulfil its mission. Now, they want to say in Bulgaria that this thing here is a sect, they want to convince you either. Why? You will become are apostates to the Bulgarian people. If you are not students in the School, you are apostates, not only to the Bulgarian people but apostates to mankind because you impede God's majestic energy which prepares the new way of the mankind. We do not speak in the dark, come and try, we say: ”Believe” but come and try, we don't want such misleadings. Well, you will be brave and resolute – we will spin the wheel and when we turn it round, all the newsreporters in Bulgaria will hit the ceiling and then we'll see what they will write in the future. I will make all these newsrepoters neurotic, sleepless, the worst illnesses will befall them, they could not eat sweets, do they know that one can not play tricks with God. They have to use their pen in favour of the Truth. I have nothing against a newspaper publishing the truth but when a news reporter writes lies, they will not be forgiven. A priest, a teacher, a mother or a father telling lies won't be forgiven. Now when you embark on, you don't have to build your life on the old foundations. We have to reform our lives. Now many people say: “What is our benefit for so many years?” Well, a person that has done work in the world, hasn't he won something? The one that has risen up each morning and worked on his field hasn't he won something? As for the one that has sent others to dig for him, it is not certain for him that he is going to win anything. Now, for so many years I have tried to give you a method to work as I do. I start from scratch too, I have also been present at excursions and other events. Though you are prone when you come to say: ”I can do without going there?” – You can't. “Can't we do it in another way?”- There is no other way. “Isn't there an easier way?”- This is the easier way: when you come out for a walk, this will do you good. Even when a person makes friends with the simplest people, this is one good – if you know how to act, you will learn many great things. Few days ago, at Vitosha came two oxen, they laid down and the one started to lick the other, to clean him, and the other exposed his flank to him so that the other can clean him well. I said to those that were there: “So excellent example is that!” One of oxen smoothed the skin of the other, the other moves afore so that he can be well cleaned. I say to those that were there: ”What an excellent example!” The ox cleaned him well, the front, the back, the sides, the other stands still, peacefully. What an excellent example is this, who from you is willing to clean his or her brother's face? You will say: “Go and wash yourself up there at the wash-basin” though it will not occur to any of you to say: “Let me give you a hand and pour the water for you.” You will say “Oh, come on, now!” This is a great moral. Think of it at one: ”Let me pour the water for you”- this is alertness, one good feature. Well, you will need experience, through these little deeds nobility is being cultivated as a feature in the human character. And sometimes I enjoy going for a walk with you. Why? - Because this walk teaches me, do you follow me, I make use of the small things, not the big, I gather material. Because there are things in Life which I will gather in a special way – as one bee must fly around thousand blossoms as to gather a little honey thus must a teacher and a student learn many things. Best things are won hard. Then I demand a little patience from you -and the result is: you are in a hurry. And then I recently made such a test that all became worried lest i go. No, I am testing your faith, God's can 't be torn apart, can you grasp this? That which comes from God can die but it will be resurrected ten times stronger than before. This is God - in Good. He can make you die but he can then resurrect you. When God comes to ruin a job of ours – he doesn't do that but He gives new energy to us to do this job. Therefore, whatever the conditions the student finds himself, he or she must know that in the God's plan there are exceptions. When Jesus was crucified, all students ran away. “It's over.” - all of them said, and all Peters, and all the rest ran away. For three days they all were in shivers and thought: “We thought that he would become a king and now He has been crucified and it is all over.” Do you know in what situation were his disciples until Jesus was resurrected – everyone thought: “What is going to happen now?” (This is not written in the history). But the Godlike are at work, inside in the soul, this man Jesus was resurrected not only in his tomb but in their hearts also and they saw Him and were filled with strength. In the occult science you will again see this new state in one living Truth which will bring this invisible Life into you. So now I' m telling you: don't fall in despair. Jesus has said to his disciples: “I must leave, it will be better for you that I go now”, then he says: ”Sadness filled your souls but I will see you again, you will rejoice in yourselves. I go only for a time but this means nothing in the course of fulfilling God's law.” When we come to fulfil the law of God, there is only one opinion in us and neither beforehand, nor late we'll do sufficient work but only on time. Now I want from you, as students of this school, not to fear. Now some of the students here are in deep thought: ”What will happen to us when our Teacher goes away?” What will happen? And I will tell you:” if you have given it a thought and acted afterwards, all this will be smashed to pieces and if you have acted and then thought all will paste together again. If you consider this to be my job, then you waste your energy uselessly but if you think this is God's deed, you will exalt yourself. But you have to determine yourself. This is the question: Godlike or not like God. If it is Godlike, go with it as I am with it. This is God's matter and I stand up for it because it is Godlike and not only I, but everyone would say: “This is God's matter and you will sacrifice your life for it – there your salvation is.” With this God's deed will make you famous and without it you will become infamous. You would say: ”But how should we know?” Come on, brother and I'll tell you, no need for big philosophy here: I have a loaf of bread: I'm asking you: what you think of this bread -is it nutritious or not nutritious? “Don't know.” “Here you are.”- I take a piece of the bread and hand it over to you, I give you a quarter of it to last you for four hours. First I ask you how you're feeling- “My feet're shaking, I don't feel well.” Then I give you another quarter from it and again four hours to go – if this bread can't restore your condition for four hours and more, it is not worth it: if it can – it is a bread indeed. Would you believe it is good? Well then, after four hours it will restore your strength. You can say: ”That I doubt”- it's alright, you'll give it a second try. Again you doubt – again well try. Ten attempts are enough, there is no need for more than ten attempts in occultism. Ninety nine attempts I have made -you doubt that, then I'll give you any bread, go: you're be the breadwinner from now on. Therefore the occult truths you will test for yourselves and when you 've tested an occult truth, it is a temple, don't doubt it – we don't prove ten times one and the same thing whether it is Godlike or not. God's things are true. Everything that starts with a deed and ends with a thought is Godlike and everything that starts with a thought and ends with an action, it is of a man. Right? - (It is right.) Well, why is it right? Because when we start with an action, God will think instead of us and when we think, God act for us. Therefore in either case our business will go well. I can see in your minds: you say to yourselves: ”We want more, we want something more.” Not that I can't give you more but to people that suffer consumption doctors give eggs and two or three kilos milk a day and what comes of that? They fatten and illness temporarily halts but their mind is only busy with the thought of staying alive- when they sat down and would say: ”I eat that much eggs and drink so and so quantity of milk per day.” And so they, day after day, speak of eggs and milk, so what is the meaning of their life then – one thought about eggs and milk. If you, as an occultist sit down and give it a thought: ”Let our strength be given as to fix the matters in Bulgaria”, nothing would become of it. If a nation is given the greatest fortune in the world, you will destine them the greatest misfortune, had you made them strong, you would have created another disaster for them.” Not that I say the nation shouldn't be strong but the powers should come from its inward capacities, fortune should come someway (eventually: same way). And this means that everyone should work hard for it, should make his living through hard work – now this is the law. Now the work is not divided and due to this we suffer. I leave this for now, this is not our fault but because we make the foundations for our new life, we won’t build in the old fashion. I have the greatest intention to give a new direction, a new way to things. With all that I'm saying I ignite in you a new energy, I wake something new, the Godlike. If you are listening to me, this energy will do you good and if you don't listen to me, this energy would produce a reverse effect. When I say if you listen let me put it straight: let me give you a rare seed of a famous breed and I tell you which month, which year, which day and the conditions when the Moon is in that phase and I will tell you the way according to which the seed should be planted. Why should you listen? -Because this seed could grow only at these special conditions. You can say: ”Is there no other way?” When I say: dig one hole, two inches deep, you say: “Can't it be an inch deep?” - I tell: that much dung, that much sand, then water. “Can't it be done in another way?”- It can but in the Godlike law for planting seeds all famous laws are laid and all the Virtues which we have to find soul in our mind grow at certain conditions. You can nurture a thought and a year later it would disappear: someone else have planted another seed and this thought live in you through all your life. This way we will come t these great laws we can understand. I want the occult capacities to be woken in you, without this one can not learn. At first your occult abilities should be awakened, the hidden qualities which have not been put into action which are still. We will wake them gradually for if we wake them suddenly, you will suffer too much. And other abilities are gradually built because if you start building another evil will be born in you and it is not occult. Because many occultists which have grown up in a night, have become proud. We want all this to follow its natural way so that you can make use of the good things God has invested in you. Now, don't mix your religious beliefs with the occult truths. You can use one occult truth in whatever form you like – it can't be restricted and the occult truth can't be binded. Occult truth may be applied only if we have Knowledge, if you don't have such, this truth will cause you the greatest suffering. I want you first, as students in the school to get to know each other. Let's say you are not affiliated with somebody: this is not evil but it shows that in both of you similar forces, similar aspirations. Find someone like yourself and you will find one third, resultant force to bring harmony in you. If the third can't make things out, look for a fourth, fifth, sixth...up to tenth but you can still find one who can bring balance among those who have lost it. Now many times the students say: “He is too nervous, impatient” but these words are empty. An impatient man, a nervous man, is only words. In fact there are no hot-tempered people, there are no impatient people i.e. in certain moments they are such – certain energy accumulates in the brain and this energy troubles us, this energy is a bomb. When it comes out, you are calm and in good disposition, you are a good man again. Each one of you when you are enraged, would do anything in their house, and when the energy is used up, are meek as lambs - where have all the bad things gone? We now say: “He is a bad man” but in this person there is sufficient energy in this person that must be reasonably used in its place. Now, let's return back to our subject. In this talk, (it may seem a little sporadic) all of you to rewrite it and after that all students should make summary of the main points and edit it for themselves. You should have your own notebook, I want you to do this and I'll see your notes then. You will write down the main points according to your own preferences: now we will see who are the most capable students. You'll have to do this during the summer, all the summer. I am not going to look at all this now but in the last days of spring and through all the summer – I give you enough time to write it well and then you'll take your extracts and put them in order according to your taste in another book. Buy two books -in the first you'll have the original and in the second – your translation. I want to see what kind of translation you will produce and what conclusions and applications of it you will make. Those of you who can – let them make it. Now you've understood -you will write in a notebook, neatly, it is not permitted in the classes that lectures should be written in handwrite, all must be in your own writing if you want to make a progress – if it is typed, there won't be any results – the important, the valuable, has to pass through your heart. And you will keep this book as sacred. And if you know expect someone else to rewrite it, to give it to you and make the extracts for you – what kind of students are you! Sit down and think every day for half an hour, for a whole hour. Now, did I give another exercise to you? (- No.) First two weeks you will use five minutes a day for improving your flaws – physical, spiritual, and intellectual. Five minutes a day for two weeks you will use for improving your weaknesses. You'll take this talk and the first talk about the married couples- these two talks you'll rewrite. Now I want to know how many of you can apply this to their lives. Start tomorrow: at midnight if you wake up from the first sleep, apply the law, the morning is the best time for applying it – the first time you can devote to it. Thus you will not take into consideration your own self, as a viewer you will let the God's goodness to pour on you, to give impulse to the Goodness ascribed to you. So that you can be as the newborn, without anything to worry about. You will leave yourself to God's goodness to pour out and after that you will come to your previous condition. At least you will win, your mind will broaden. At the least you will gain, will be a little greater self-confidence for your soul in these five minutes. At the present conditions it is necessary for the students to have this inner confidence because there is no thing more terrible than the lack of confidence. Can this be or can it be not? There is only one law in us: it can! And when Paul said: ”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, this is the same law. Paul has borrowed it form there: “If my words last in you and you last through Me, I and My Father will come to you and make a home in you” and he also says: ”Everything that you ask for in My name, it will be and I will make manifestation of myself.” First there must be the Word and this Word must have Truth for a heading so: these two principles must be at work in work. This is a little test – five minutes, it is not a big question – five minutes for one noble thinking. Then for these five minutes you will say one formula: “I want, God, the Virtues you have deposited in my soul from the beginning, to grow with the power of Your Love and Wisdom. And I will use all my strength at your vineyard for the manifestation of Your Will.” The class will continue throughout the summer. Those of you who stay (no matter whether I attend or not), will meet each Thursday. Themes will be given to you, about which you have to write and these works will be read. Remember this – we will overcome all difficulties. Sky and Earth will go by but not a scar from this will erase. Everything, that God said will be fulfilled without exception. There is no exception in the Great God's Law. Now, don't make illusions for yourselves, work and work, work because Life is in the future – this Life comes from now on. You will say: ”This is so natural, what would this Life be like? 'What is the analogy? When that caterpillar over there dies has come to its uttermost and says: ”It's over”, life can not cultivate in this form and start making its pupa, does it asks itself what would become of it? Something better would become – second life would be better than the first. Therefore our life has reached the utmost borders and now pupa would become a butterfly. This life would define the New life for itself and this New life would be ten times better than the present -at least ten times better. And it is worth to sacrifice everything for it – such conditions would be there that now couldn’t be spoken of. And now we say: ”We won't leave.” We can go to the woods but which is the Way? -The Way goes through all the troubles which we now have to overcome. I have seen when some Bulgarian blocks the way with his carts and oxen so that no on can pass, another comes then, puts his plough down – the same result: then third, forth, up to ten men and when we join all forces and the cart sets off. And we say: ”What one can't make by himself, ten, united by the same force over come.” And one car can go without oxen. So we have the need to believe absolutely in this occult law – there is no exception to it, it is a living law. All that have come before you, have been working and trying this. And you will try from this confidence, you'll see. So absolutely no discouraging thoughts will be there. There can be big trouble, to be short of many things, this and that – these things are of second importance, I count then as one profit though they are unpleasant in Life. They can give you some exams in occultism. If you are not prepared when they give you an exam, your brain can blow off your head. There are such exams there, they will try you out. I have told you that there are such mock exams there in occultism – they will try you to see who has convictions and who has not. In the old times in the occult brotherhoods there were often exams to see whether the student was brave: they give him a guide, folded up his eyes and left him somewhere alone, then they took off the fold and he saw people around him with masks on their faces and there was a mask, holding a lit knife in front of him. If he were scared, he would start running but if he stayed, this mask would come, would jab him, but the knife was made of paper. But what would you go through in this moment! “That's it, my life has gone”- you will say to yourself. And I often witness how you run from these false knives and say: “What a misfortune!” No, no you will stand up and wait for this paper knife to stick in you with all its strength. And that's why the Scriptures say: “Everything that befalls those who love God is for good.” Even in the occult school eccentric works come into being. Someone would say: “I came here to put my things into order and they are in a mess.” You don't know, if your works have messed up, how much would they have entangled otherwise. Yours philosophy is such: someone saves ten thousand leva, buys a good ox, this ox dies and he would say: “What a loss!” Well then, if you haven't saved that much money and the ox dies, what would have you done been? Thankful for having the opportunity for saving the money: this logic isn't good. Someone comes here and says:” The karma of my life is such”, you seek help, you enter here and your things go well. You have to thank for being in this place – if here is that way, imagine what is outside. You go into one house – no clothes, nothing - you shiver but if you come outside in the wind and rain, what would your situation be, here you are under a roof, high and dry. Don't suggest illusions for yourself that now you are in School, you know better, you don't. And besides don't overgeneralise the laws of the School, don't think that this School is made only for yourself - to sort your material things out. This School has a great purpose – by the way it purpose includes sorting your things out but this is a side thing, the aim of the School is quite different. And include this verse then: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Right and everything else would be added to you.” If you understand this from an occult point of view, the question is settled for you. So as students of the School you will be hardworking because Jesus loves hardworking students: ”Those who love me keep my commandments.” You will study, you will apply it and the world will know my teaching. When you apply it reasonably, from the results the world will know what my teaching is, that you are my students indeed and that the Teaching is a Teaching of God. Now you mix things up and bear no fruit: we talk of Love – there is no fruit, we talk of Wisdom - there is no fruit either, we talk of Truth – no fruit. No fruit -all those trees bear no fruit. This doesn't mean that you don't blossom, on the contrary, you blossom and smell good but there is no fruit. I don't say that there are no bees. When pear blossoms, bees gather honey but the important is the fruit. We come from the bees to pick up honey and many occultists have gathered honey from the blossoms of the trees. Now we have to bear fruit to these trees of God. Secret Prayer Source

REQUIREMENTS TO THE DISCIPLE Year 1, Lecture 16 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On June 14, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer Next time please write on the following topic: “Gemstones”. Now, I am taking the word “disciple” in its narrow meaning. One is a disciple as long as he studies, as long as he attends school. Discipleship is a specific state of mind. In the occult sense of the word, one can be a disciple as long as he keeps contact or connection with the Master. If one breaks or loses this connection, he or she is not a disciple any more. One needs obedience and attention in order to maintain constant contact. A human being can only be obedient towards the Higher Essence, towards the Divine. Absolute obedience is required here. Lower levels of consciousness need to be obedient and attentive towards higher levels of consciousness. Therefore, the disciple should have absolute obedience towards his Master. This obedience should come out of his or her consciousness. Before the disciple goes to the Master, he or she should know him and be obedient towards Him; if the disciple doesn't know the Master, he or she should make an effort to know Him. The disciple should have the necessary feelings and abilities that will make it possible for him to know his Master. The link between the Master and the disciple is not instantaneous – it did not take shape at a given moment nor is it temporary. It is eternal and has existed for thousands of years. The disciple should not become hesitant because of the failures he may experience at the very beginning of his discipleship. The world in which the Master lives and acts is absolute and does not accept any ignorance. The atmosphere in which the Master lives and acts is alive and whoever tries to enter it unprepared will subject himself to death. When I say that the disciple will be subjected to death, I have in mind the situation that a fish finds itself in when it is taken out of the water. When you take a fish out of the water and leave it on the ground, it will certainly die. The fish goes out of its natural environment and enters another one, which it cannot live in. Therefore, disciples should have obedience and attention towards their Master, so that they may gradually develop new feelings and abilities as a favourable foundation for the perception of the new ideas. So, if you go unprepared into the atmosphere of the Master, you will inevitably die. If you want to know why, look to the fish to see why it dies in the air. It has not adapted itself to the new conditions, as a result of which it suffocates. Observe how electricians work with electricity. They touch the wires very carefully to avoid an electric shock that may throw them on the ground in a second. Knowledge is required from those who work with electricity. Irrespective of who you are, if you don't understand the laws of electricity, it will throw you to the ground. And if you ask why, electricity will answer: “I like to have people around me who know more than me – I like learned people. I will kick out all those who know less than me, who are ignorant.” Furthermore, you should know that human bodies conduct either electricity or magnetism. At the same time human organisms can also conduct the so called black electricity or black magnetism. Black electricity and black magnetism come from darkness. This indicates that there is white electricity and white magnetism too, which come from the white light. Take a magnet and hold it towards a needle: the magnet attracts the needle. Is the magnet itself the reason for this attraction? No, a certain force, a certain current is hidden in the magnet, which attracts metals. If this current or force disappears, the iron itself is worth nothing. You should observe yourself too in order to see what currents flow and what forces act in your soul. If you play some instrument, if you play the piano, for example, you will be satisfied when all the keys give out precise and harmonious tones. But even if only a few keys do not generate the right tones, your playing will be disharmonious. Your first work will be to harmonize these keys in order to sound harmoniously. Therefore, if the slightest disharmony appears in your soul, you should harmonize the strings that sound incorrect. These tones, these strings have deviated from the common harmony, from the harmony of the whole. Your soul plays an instrument, consisting of three main octaves: the octave of the mind, the octave of the heart and the octave of the body. Each of these three octaves is also divided into three. So, your task is to see which of the octaves the deviation has occurred in. I will give you the following exercise for controlling the will: take a pin and pierce some thick part of your body up to a depth of two or three milimetres. Try to do it and see how you feel. Monitor your reactions to see the hesitations of your will. You will be brave in the first moment: you will take the pin, ready to stick it somewhere in your arm. But when the pin touches your skin, you will lift it at once – you have decided not to stick it in. You will try again and again you will take it away. It is interesting to count the number of hesitations you will have until you finally decide to stick it in. With this experiment you will test the strength of your will and your ability to concentrate. The number of your hesitations is a mathematical value which indicates your organism's condition and the time required for its tuning. Children do a similar experiment. When they see a river, they want to jump over it. They look at the river, it seems deep to them, so they make a few steps back. They dash towards the river, then go back, dash again and step back again. Finally they get new courage, dash once more and say to themselves: “I will try a jump, come what may – fall in the river or reach the other bank.” Once they make a dash, they overcome the obstacle. I am saying, there are many obstacles in your minds and in your hearts which you need to remove by all means. Thus you will tone the forces of your organism. This requires will, knowledge and strength. With the help of this new, positive knowledge you will transform and improve your character, so that you may easily overcome the difficulties that come your way. So if you use your knowledge in the right way, your character will improve; if you use it in the wrong way, your character will deteriorate. In that case you will say: “I used to be nobler and better earlier in life.” Nobility is always nobility, diamonds are always diamonds; gold is always gold. Why? Once you have succeeded in the transformation of a low element into a high one, according to the existing laws, there is no force in the world that can alter the results. Only the person who has transformed a low element into gold can reverse the process. Now that you know this, try to introduce into your bodies, brains and hearts those high and sustainable forces, which Nature uses for the development of humans. Only these forces are able to tune and regulate the energies of your solar plexus. Your sympathetic nervous system should be in perfect condition too. It there are unpleasant, bitter feelings in your heart, try to eliminate them. They will have a bad influence on your liver and cause a certain disorder in it. How many of you intend to complete the task that I gave you last time? I will also give you a formula to use while doing the task. The words you will pronounce will substitute the money that you used until now. You should say: “I am beginning to work with the Divine virtues that live inside me.” Use this formula every day, until you finish your task. It will act as a password for you. When you get up in the morning and undertake your task, pronounce this formula in your mind quietly, so that no one can hear you. When you refuse to use money for some time, you leave the weapon which you have used until today. Therefore you need to replace it with a new one. This formula will be your new weapon. Thus when you renounce money, you begin to work with the Divine virtues as keys for unlocking the human heart. You will gain your victories in this way. For the physical person money represents the same type of key: you will pay to this person or that person and you pave your way. You should be clever and witty like the worldly people, so that you may not miss any occasion for the application of the Divine virtues. I will give you an example with a worker, who was an occultist and was following God's orders in a certain way. He was looking for a job, so he knocked at a door, but got rejected; he knocked at a second door – again it was a rejection. The story repeated itself the next day. Two or three days, even a week passed by in the very same way and with the same result – no job for him. Finally this person fell into despair: his wife and children were waiting for him at home, but he had earned nothing for them. However, while he was walking in the streets, he saw a little girl who fell on the ground and broke her leg. He ran to her immediately, took her into his arms and carried her to her home. The child told him her address and the name of her father, who was a famous factory owner. When the child was brought home, her father thanked the poor worker and gave him a job in his factory as a sign of gratitude. What does this indicate? The child of the factory owner was the last lucky chance for the worker to find a job. If he hadn't been cautious, he would have missed this chance. A disciple should be awake, because if he is not careful enough and neglects a small task, the disciple may miss a favourable opportunity. This chance was the last one for the worker to find a job, but the first of the favourable occasions for him. It was only through this incident that he could find a job, i.e. that he could realize his idea. Many of you think that when they join the School, all paths for the implementation of their ideas will be open. They deceive themselves. Sometimes such great difficulties are created for the disciples that they get into a quandary, they don't know what to do. If they don't know the laws they will become discouraged and fall into despair over and over again. Their situation is similar to that of passengers traveling through seas and oceans; when they become sea-sick, they fall into despair and regret that they have taken the ship, but when they recover, their despair also disappears. I am saying to you too: do not regret that you have joined the School! Be brave and resolute, and go ahead! This is meant for those who are ready to follow the School. Those who are not ready may leave whenever they want to. As disciples of an occult school, you should comply with the processes of Nature and not limit them. You may come to the processes of cleansing, growing or awakening of consciousness. You should pay attention to these processes and see what they generate in you. You should be self-possessed to endure anything that Nature might bring to you. For example, when Nature subjects you to the process of cleansing, you have very unpleasant feelings and as a reaction you want to fight with Her. You should know one thing: Nature does not stand any impurity. So She submits everyone who comes into contact with her to a thorough cleansing. When you come to such a process, you start philosophizing: “What does Nature intend to do with this?” Nature intends one thing – to purify you. What does a hungry person intend to do? He intends to find food and help himself. The difference between hungry people consists only in the images they hold in their minds: one wants just bread, another one wants bread and meat, a third one wants fried chicken and so on. The hungry differ among themselves only in their thoughts and wishes. If you watch someone who likes meat, you will notice a peculiar colour on his face. A few years ago, I met a lady in the street who was from high society and exceptionally beautiful. Her face was veiled, but her appearance was very pleasant. As she was walking down the street, she stopped in front of a butcher’s shop. Right away her face took on a specific expression, something unpleasant and disgusting appeared on it as her animal nature was awakened. She went into the butcher’s, bought something, and as she was coming out I saw on her face the previous mask, which produced a good and pleasant impression. However at the sight of the meat she couldn't master her lower nature. Having bought some meat, she had satisfied it and then her face regained its initial beautiful and pleasant look. Therefore, the inner thoughts and feelings hidden in you can influence your image at any moment. And each thought, on its turn, is complex; it contains possibilities for compound processes that are also reflected on one’s face. For example, the thought of food causes a number of processes in the human organism. Especially if one is hungry, he may see different pictures in his mind. He imagines a nice soup made of turkey or chicken with rice, or with pasta. He may also imagine roasted pork, cooked with mustard or horse-radish, together with several glasses of six-year-old wine instead of water. All this exhilarates someone who is hungry. He walks, visualizing this and that and if he passes by an inn where his wishes could be fulfilled, he only sighs and continues his way as he has no money to pay. Some years ago in Varna I met a secondary school teacher who had been fired. He was walking with me and philosophizing on various issues. At some point we passed by a small inn where steaks, spits of meat and grilled rissoles were being prepared for lunch. When the unemployed teacher smelled this, he said: “This is what happiness in life is about – having money in your pocket and being able to enter the inn and taste these things whenever you wish to. Now I am passing by, but I can't enter and take a grilled rissole.” I am saying: the whole philosophy of this teacher came to nothing because of these grilled rissoles. All he had said broke to pieces at the smell of the grilled rissoles. After that I told him: “Your unhappiness now is a stroke of luck for me. If I find myself in this inn, I will feel unhappy.” Why did this teacher lose his philosophy at the sight of a grilled rissole? This indicates that the old habits of a person can emerge again; they are alive, not dead. You meet an occult disciple who is known to have reached a high level of personal development. He speaks about abstention and about achievements, but when he passes by an inn or a coffee-house, at once his wish to eat some meat or to drink a cup of coffee, to smoke a cigarette and to play cards, awakens in him. These are the old habits which re-emerge in one’s mind as a temptation. One should be cautious so that he may get over the old images of the past and clear them off. It is enough to put someone in certain conditions and the old images will reappear in his mind. How is it possible that an occult disciple could encounter such contradictions? I will answer this question with the following example: take a caterpillar that has just been transformed into a butterfly but has forgotten to throw away its old thinking of a caterpillar, so it lives simultaneously in both states. When it is in the state of a caterpillar, it looks for leaves and comes to a contradiction – it cannot eat leaves. Then it comes to its senses, returns to its second state of a butterfly and starts flying from flower to flower, sucking from their sweet nectar. It doesn't need leaves since it has a proboscis. Similarly, an occult disciple could be hampered by his old life. He could wish to return to the past and he may fall into temptation. The past means a return to the old forms. If you come to the past, say to yourself: “I don't need it. I have already passed through these states; now I am looking for the new conditions.” Imagine that being a disciple of the School, you are put through the test not to lie. You carry this weakness of lying from your past. First you used white lies, then black lies. In this way, gradually and imperceptibly to yourself, you got used to lying. You have a very strict master now. When you make a mistake, you hesitate: should you tell him the truth, or should you lie. After an inner struggle about what to do, you decide to lie, to hide your mistake, so that you may keep your job. In this respect you may find yourself in the position of a servant who once told his master the truth, but was punished. In certain circumstances he was forced to tell his master the truth, but the latter got cross and punished him without any understanding. Then the servant told him: “Master, you make me feel confused! I have lied to you several times, but you have never punished me. Today I told you the truth for the first time and you punished me. I am wondering why you punished me – for the truth I told you or for the fact that I had always lied to you previously.” I am saying, the same may happen to you too. If you tell the truth once, you will be punished. This punishment comes from the Invisible world. You don't get punished because you have told the truth, but because you haven't spoken the Truth previously. This doesn't mean that you should expect to be punished each time you tell the Truth. The opposite may also happen: if you have always told the Truth and you told a lie only once, you will be rewarded not for the lie, but for the Truth that you have served by that time. The punishments and the rewards which the Invisible world lays on humans are very specific. For example, material enrichment is a sort of punishment given by the Invisible world. Indeed, when someone becomes rich, he begins to gradually lose his inner peace and calmness. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be rich. One should be rich but at the same time possess a strong and resistant character. A disciple should have a broad outlook on life; he shouldn't think that all things in existence are meant just for him. For example, when you walk by a garden with fruit trees, irrespective of how much you want to take some fruit, you don't have the right to do it if the master is not there. However everything belongs to God, doesn't it? Everything belongs to God, not to us. If you were meant to taste from the fruit, the master would have been there and he himself would have offered you some fruit. Some years ago, we were traveling with a friend from Varna to Burgas. I was walking on foot and he was riding a bicycle slowly. At some point it started to pour down with rain. We reached the Kamchia River somehow, but it overflowed due to the rain over a distance of several kilometres. My friend started carrying the bicycle on his back. But how could we continue further? We had to take our shoes off and walked into the water up to our knees. At that time we saw an inn nearby and stopped there for a while. The inn-keeper told us: “See, a cart driver is coming from over there, his horse is very strong and his cart is solid, but he is a headstrong man, he has not done a favour to anyone up to now, he will not agree to carry you in his cart.” – “We’ll try.” I went to the cart driver and told him: “My friend, will you help us? As you can see, our journey needs to continue across the river, but the water has risen a lot; we can cross the river, but we cannot carry the bicycle. Would you please take the bicycle in your cart and we will walk on foot.” – “I will help you with pleasure. Put the bicycle into the cart. But you may also get in the cart, I will easily carry you across the river.” I am saying, whoever is ready to take the bicycle into his cart will also take people. Whoever is not ready to take the bicycle, will not want to take people either. You should take the following into consideration: when one works with the Divine laws, one will see that there are absolutely no exceptions from them. Act according to these laws and don't worry about anything. We had decided to cross the river at any cost, we couldn't go back. We didn't rely on external help either, we were ready to carry the bicycle by ourselves. The Invisible world saw our readiness to help ourselves and the cart came. Then even the bad man became good and helpful. You should rely on yourselves. If a cart comes, it will be a privilege for you. If a cart doesn't come, you should go ahead. You may walk into deep water, but there is no way back. As disciples of this Great School, you should do many experiments in order to temper your character. However no one should know about them; no one should even suspect what you intend to do. Your experiments and actions should be natural, without any eccentricity. In this respect, Englishmen are free: they walk barefoot in snow early in the morning or in May, and no one pays attention to this. If such things happened in Bulgaria, people would criticize them and label them as eccentric. Therefore, it is better to do each exercise without bothering other people. The important thing is that each exercise has the purpose to temper you, to bring you out of the trivial order of things. For this purpose, the occult school offers to the disciples completely new methods for work which are expressed in beautiful and pleasant forms. Great sincerity is required of the disciple in order for him to succeed in his work. One should be sincere to oneself – never hide one’s mistakes, never exaggerate or diminish them. If one has made a slip, he could forgive himself for it, but should not find an excuse. Self-forgiveness means a conscious attitude to the slip. One forgives oneself but with the awareness that he should not repeat the mistake. Finding excuses for yourself - that the conditions were bad, that your karma was such – is not allowed. An error is an error, it doesn't need any excuses. You should state it as a fact and look for a method for its rectification. In some time, when you grow up and your mind gets visited by brighter and higher thoughts, then you will consider the problems from another point of view. Next time please write on the following topic: “The most powerful virtue of the disciple”. Everyone should reflect on this topic and write about a disciple's virtue that he considers most powerful. Some people compare virtues to gemstones. So, in the same way that you describe the properties of gemstones, you should describe the distinctive characteristics of virtues. We describe the properties and characteristics of all simple and compound chemical substances in the same way. For example, a specific property of water is its mobility or instability. Water is unstable, so that we might be stable. When we say that water is unstable, this means that it adapts to all conditions, good or bad. Another property of water is its dissolving ability – it is a good solvent. It cleans and washes bodies, due to its dissolving ability. At the same time, water has a cooling property. Everyone has experienced its cooling action in warm and hot days. Even uneducated people know these several properties of water. Ask a shepherd what water is – he will tell you immediately. Then come the other characteristics of water, known by scientists only, i.e. water is a compound substance, consisting of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen. Water has other properties also, but understanding these properties requires more in-depth knowledge. In the same way we can describe the properties of light, for example. Light has the ability to illuminate adjacent objects. It lightens the Path of humans. Water makes life easier. There is no life without water. When people want to establish a settlement, they look for a place rich in water. Sometimes there are torrents that may carry off houses, animals and people, but nevertheless water is a valuable asset, a carrier of Life. As disciples you should think properly, so you can write good essays about gemstones. You should bring to mind several gemstones that you know better and describe their characteristics. Write in general terms, but underline the reason why they are called gemstones. Then write the reason why some precious stones have a higher price than others. Precious stones educate us, that is why everyone wants to have them. They contain fine energy in a condensed, i.e. compressed state. Sometimes they may lose their brightness and strength, but then they recover them again. People are often the cause for such a loss. Precious stones lose their brightness because of some people and get it back owing to others. Since you know some of the properties of gemstones, think if it is possible for a person to be a precious stone. What precious stone would you like to be? Someone wants to be a diamond, another one – a ruby, someone else – a sapphire and so on. Think well on the topic and write as briefly as possible. You would say: “What connection do precious stones have with us?” You should know one thing: each thought and each feeling – the object of your reflection - exercises a certain influence on you. Thus you connect with it. This is true from an occult point of view. Each topic or issue you reflect on exercises a certain influence on you and is useful to you to the extent that you have succeeded in making a connection with it. It exercises a certain influence on your development. For example, when you reflect on the most powerful virtue of the disciple, even if you could not attain it, you will benefit a lot. What will be the benefit? Making a connection with virtues. Someone will write that the strongest virtue of a disciple is Love, another one will mention Faith, a third one – Mercy, a fourth one – his learning ability and so on. When you think about a specific virtue, you connect with it, even without suspecting it. This is namely the benefit of doing these writing tasks which are given to you in class. All virtues are equally significant and powerful but for a given period of time a certain virtue exercises the greatest influence over the character of a particular disciple. The main virtue of a soldier going to the battlefield is courage; for those who look after patients it is mercy; for disciples it is obedience; for workers – diligence, for servants – wit and resourcefulness. This trait is especially necessary for a servant who has a bad master. He should be sufficiently witty and resourceful to be able to foresee the wishes of his master early enough. The servant should know his master in order to be able to behave in the most appropriate way. Some days ago I happened to observe the conduct of a little dog. It was very intelligent and witty. Its masters threw a bone for the dog to gnaw at. At that time a big dog came from the neighbouring yard and rushed to the bone. Right away the little dog abandoned the bone to the big dog, walking around quietly, satisfied that it had given up the bone. If the little dog had not reckoned that in this case it would be better to give up the bone, there would have been a great fight between the two dogs and the little one would have suffered. A bad man or a bad master is like the big dog. If you come into a relationship that leads to struggle, you’d better give up your bone, let him gnaw at it. This bone could be a job or an article – give it up, so that you may not suffer. A bad man disposes with physical power. Since he is strong physically, he is ready to do everything. In this case taking a step back is common sense. This is not fear, it’s a saving of time and energy. Those who want to be in class should maintain harmonious relationships with each other. Remember that everyone who disrupts the harmony harms himself and the others too. Whatever harm you cause to others, it will come back and will first be reflected in your consciousness. Each wrong thought, feeling or action represents a bad, ugly image which is imprinted first in the consciousness of the person who has sent it or created it. Therefore, evil is cast out in disharmonious and irregular forms or images. Good is expressed in harmonious and regular images. Humans create both kinds of images. You see two pear trees in a garden: you taste a pear from the first tree – it is sweet, and you taste a pear from the second tree – it is bitter. Why is it bitter? Bitterness shows its egoistic character. That tree gave bitter fruit, so that no one could use it. Thus the tree wants to show that it doesn't give its fruit to anyone. There are bitter cucumbers too. However clever people are able to use bitter fruit towards some purpose too. It is important for disciples to know the following: each of their actions gets chronicled. Each disciple is followed by detectives from the two lodges who note everything: the first chronicles the good thoughts, feelings and actions of the disciple, whereas the second one notes the bad ones. Both will use your deeds at the right time and place. While noting your bad deeds, the dark detectives study your character, in order to attract you to their side in the easiest way which is also most imperceptible to you. Both lodges want to attract you to their side, this is why they try to convince you that the path they offer to you is the right and proper one. The best path for the disciple is the path which releases his soul from those links that have hampered him from the past all the way to the present. In your free time I would like each of you to summarize the main ideas in this lecture and to draw out for yourself those important, basic conclusions, which you have best understood and which you will be able to use. When I say that obedience is required of the disciples, I mean obedience in the smallest extent. I want you to use only one hour out of the twenty four hours of the day for obedience – half an hour during the day, when you are awake, and half an hour at night, when you are in the Astral world during your sleep. However in these 30 minutes you should be absolutely obedient. This would be the basic measure for your obedience. So you will be obedient for half an hour or thirty minutes during the day, all the while reflecting on obedience. These thirty minutes could be divided into parts: ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes at lunch time and ten minutes in the evening. After that – ten minutes before you go to bed, ten minutes when you wake up during the night and ten minutes before getting up – one hour in total. If you wake up in a cheerful and happy mood, this shows that you were obedient. If you wake up tired and depressed, this shows that you were not obedient, you were not at school but somewhere outside. Such instants should not discourage you. One goes through all the phases of the flour until it becomes bread. Flour is light. If you leave it outside, even the slightest wind could blow it away. You take some warm water, put the flour in it and make a mess. You put more flour until the mess becomes denser and denser, ready for processing. You collect the flour from here and there and begin to knead this mess. It becomes elastic, easily worked up and you say that the dough is already well done. Then you shape it into bread and put it in the oven. Therefore, the human being is flour in the beginning, later it turns into mess, after that – into dough and finally it becomes bread. So you should know that if you are flour, you have just come from the mill; if you are mess, you are still in the kneading-troughs; if you are dough, you are still being worked up; once you become bread, you are taken to the oven and you are joyful that you can serve humanity. These are situations or states that a human goes through in his life. They will lead you to new images, new ideas and thoughts, which will bring you an impulse and an incentive for work. You will replace the old solutions, the old ideas with new ones which will make you young. It has been written in the Scriptures: “Those who wait for God will recover their strength. Those who seek the Path of Wisdom, will improve their way.” Bringing out something good out of good people doesn't require great skill, but bringing something good out of bad people is an art. Now that you know this, do not be discouraged, but work upon yourself bravely and resolutely. You should complete the tasks given to you without doubt or hesitation. Even the slightest doubt is an obstacle. It is enough to just think that you can do without this task and you will hamper yourselves. If you are given a task, it should be accomplished without any contemplation. When you fulfill the task and observe the result you get from it, then you can contemplate as much as you want. Whoever wants to be a disciple should first of all apply their mindful will. Why? Such is the law of the Divine world. In that world first you act, then you think. In the human world it is just the opposite – first you should think, then act. According to intuition, which is a law of the Divine world, when you feel, when you perceive something from the High world, you should act right away and then think of the consequences. Therefore, if you are in the Divine world, you will first act and then think; if you are in the human world, you will first think and then act. As you can see, these two methods are diametrically opposed to each other. This is why when I say that disciples should not think, I have the Divine world in mind. If you are in the Divine world, you will first act and then think; when you come down into the human world, you will first think and then act. Why? When we act, God thinks; when we think, God acts. What does an engineer do? First he thinks over the design of the house, taking a number of things into consideration – finances, materials, location – then he makes a plan and after that he will already apply it in practice and act in accordance with it. So if you say that you think first, you are in the human world. When you say that you act first, you are in the Divine world. You can guess which world you are in by the method you apply. If you interchange the methods, you will make a mistake. If you enter into the Divine world and think before acting, you will make a mistake. If you enter into the human world and act before thinking, you will make a mistake again. The methods of these two worlds are completely different. They are strictly determined, therefore interchanging them is impossible. So you should think and act, and you should act and think. Secret prayer

Occult Hygiene Lecture fifteen read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 8 of June, Thursday, Sofia Did you have an exercise to write? (- This time we had not.) All of you are generally acquainted with the word hygiene. It is a science that teaches about the human organisms' state of health. Now with the expression occult hygiene, we are extending the word hygiene; more meaning is applied than is usually perceived in its common meaning. When we talk about a common and an occult disciple you should note that the difference between them depends on the degree of their consciousness. For instance, you can study the influence of the common hygiene on the body’s state of health, but you will reach 120 years and you will finally lose the thread of your body and so you will have to give your body up. So the common hygiene can prolong your life up to 120 years, while the occult hygiene can prolong your life for a longer period. And not only this – the occult hygiene also gives instructions concerning the healthy state of the human mind and of the human feelings. Your mind can get ill as well as your body. The human mind can get ill, the human heart can get ill and the human will can also get ill; the only thing within the human being that cannot get ill is his Spirit. That is why when illnesses get into the Spirit, then special energies emerge to correct the damage caused. The soul suffers, the mind gets mad, the feelings get derailed, the will becomes paralysed, and as a result the person becomes disabled on Earth. Now in our class I perceive that you do not follow the correct way of understanding. Let’s assume that you are an aviator, you take off, but you must hold the control stick and it depends on your balance how you will fly this apparatus and in what way you will carry out your task. Imagine that while on Earth you start looking around and divert from your main task. How do you think you can settle your task if your mind is not functioning properly? Now you have come here to study the occultism but meanwhile you are attending to side issues, to issues that are without reference to anything at all. Sometimes I call your attention to some ideas and principles but you often ask why have I said something in this way instead of another way, and you are discussing minor issues. While you are up in the air, this is not the time to discuss why I said what I said. The main thing is that while you are up in the air you should keep the apparatus by which you are flying functioning. As soon as you land on the ground you can philosophize as much as you want to. And when I’m saying: “don’t philosophize” I mean the aim that you have – to graduate from the school and after that, when you land on the ground, then you will have nothing else to do, and you can philosophize as much as you like. The occultism never explains why and for what reason – even if you go to the greatest Masters they will not answer you. When you come to me you are talking to me as cherished children, but it is not obligatory for the Master to answer all your questions – not at all. You can go to the Master and ask him something, but in response he will look at you once and he won’t tell you anything. He does not care that you might get angry; that you might graduate from the school and not believe in God – believe in God or don’t believe in Him, it doesn’t matter to him. – “But I am not following this way.” – Follow it if you like; The Master says: “I followed this way, I studied the laws and you should study them also.” - These laws cannot be changed for your sake. Therefore I am drawing your attention to this: I perceive that your minds are rather twisted, your hearts are also twisted, really twisted. You will not frighten me with this – I am telling you these things not for my sake, but for yours – your twisted mind will not divert mine – not in the least. I will follow the way and I will be what I am because such is the will of God. Now you might tell me: “But what did we do?” – What did you do? Suppose now that two thousand years later the Invisible World sends a committee to check your work – can you tell me what they would find? If they entered through the door now, what would they find in your minds and in your hearts? This committee would check the situation impartially and what would it find? Now I am talking to you as a human being: I don’t mean to say that this committee will find a lot of nice things, neither do I mean to say that they will find a lot of bad things, but I do mean to say that here and there this committee would have found that you have neglected some of your tasks. These tasks that are assigned to you at present allow no delay and you should settle them. There are tasks, which are the order of the day – your attitude towards God is the order of the day. Do you love God, which you serve, do you serve God, do you serve Christ, do you have His Love and are you ready to sacrifice your life for Him. Then in addition, does each one of you help others with thoughts, with desires, with actions? I am warning you, many of you might act destructively, but I am telling you: you will meet me on your way and we will impose a punishment on you. Here in the School there are people who want to demolish – you might break your own head instead! - “I wonder if this thing is Divine?” Do you understand that this is a deed of your God, of that one who sent you here to Earth. Up until now we were patient and understood what you were doing, but you let yourself get out of hand that when someone looks at me he says: “Well, the Master knows a lot.” But yours is not an act of discipleship. All of you will be driven to that humbleness which God requires – He will put you in my state of humbleness. So far you are not as humble as I am. Someone might say: “Well, the Master is as plain as we are.” – Like you are! I am not like you at all because there are things in my consciousness for which you cannot even suspect – you don’t even suspect what is hidden in my consciousness. I am plain, my clothes are similar to yours, I eat and sleep like you, but if Life consisted of such things… Life does not consist of this. You can't imagine what I am – my horse might be similar to yours, but after I alight from it there is a great difference between you and me. I can make myself invisible – you might look for me in Heaven for thousands of years and not recognize me. How can you pick someone out? – You can know somebody through the Law of Love only. If you have Love you will recognize me; if you don’t have Love, then you might search the whole outer space and yet I will remain nobody to you. And all of you might know each other by the help of the Law of Love. If this applies to me then how much more does it apply to you? I regret that the occult disciples in Bulgaria are rather pedantic, that they have no respect and deference for each other, and that they have love only when they are in need. And also you commit such nuisances that the disciples from the ordinary schools in the world do not perform. Those disciples have the courage to commit them openly, while the occult disciples do them secretly. You are not obedient to me but you are under the vigilant eye of God who does not miss anything. You might say: “Tonight we will be reproached again.” This is not a reproach at all – I am just reminding you of a great Truth from which you have diverted and nevertheless you think that you are following the right course. For instance, when I am talking to someone I know whether he is listening to me or not – I have a rule and it never fails me. When God is talking to us He also has a rule and He also knows if we are listening to Him or not. Now the point is this great inner Truth – do you have such training or not? Instead of blaming yourself I recommend to you, to be fully prepared to adopt the Divine Truth and to get through the Divine thoughts. First of all your mind should become stronger as to be able to get through all the positive and all the negative thoughts. Very often your mind is not able to get through certain thoughts and as a result you suffer. There are many young men who suffer after they have read some negative book – it brings a change in their minds and they suffer for months and for years before they revert to their present state. First of all you should observe such harmony in your own self – you should be satisfied with your own conduct. I give a task and some of you put it into practice and then they say: “These tasks can be executed in this way, but they can be executed in another way as well.” And they go along the road but their tasks remain unexecuted. When a Divine task is being assigned to you, you should solve it fully in its completeness. You might say: “I cannot solve this task”, but since you have started you must solve it. You say: “We’ll postpone it for another time”; but if you yourself cannot solve it you’d better not tempt the others. If you yourself can’t keep the fast don’t say: “One can manage without fasting as well” – don’t impose on others what you yourself have not tried. I don’t want these instructions I give you now to remain a voice crying in the wilderness – I want them to have a result so that these instructions can prepare you for the mission for which you have come here. You have come here by the end of the century – you have a mission, a very important mission that you should fulfil. I am asking you now – do you know for sure what your mission is? – You must know it - no matter how small it might be; the disciple should know what he came here for even if he doesn’t know it in the smallest details – he should at least know the general outlines of his task here. In the course of his work he should keep in his mind his task and while doing this he will be linked to the Heavens. So his will, his mind, his heart will toughen and he will be linked with the Brotherhood. The White Brotherhood will give you instructions and an inner frame. They will give you this good inner frame in the evenings while you sleep – they can give it to you in your sleep. The Brotherhood can assign to you these tasks also through some suffering in your Life – let’s say they have assigned to you a task but you have diverted and have become a tradesman. Then your state will be similar to the state of that American who felt a strong impulse to become a preacher, but said: “I was not born to be a priest”; then he went to Australia and became a tradesman, but twenty years later a crisis happened and his entire wealth disappeared; then he went back to fulfil his vocation. When the Invisible world assigns a certain task, you can divert from it for ten, twenty, thirty years, but the Brotherhood will bring you back to finish your job. So in view of this you better make it your aim to graduate from the school and do not postpone your studies. You begin this job now as you have begun many times – you began but you have not finished. For instance we’ll join the occult school so that we can research the reasons for these social weaknesses. You might say: “Karma.” All right, let the reason be karma, but this statement is rather general while in fact the very reason itself must be known. If you know the basic weakness then you will know how to correct it – certain weaknesses should be corrected. For instance, some disciples have sharper and brighter minds; the minds of the others are not so bright because they are occupied – they are occupied by their feelings. A person comes here as an occult disciple but the next day he needs two or three thousand leva for bread, for his children’s shoes, for clothes; I may preach wonderful things to him, but his mind is constantly preoccupied with the thought for money – his children need clothes, so he cannot be free. Our task now is to first of all eliminate all this, but we must utilize, even the shortest time we have in our occult training, as a means to improve our condition. I watch closely now, I make an experiment and I perceive that recently a certain atmosphere is growing: all of you are becoming positive and consequently a release from struggle is beginning. All of you had accumulated a great reserve of electricity – we want to harness this electricity for lighting. Your mind had become more active in a negative sense. The main point now is in what way we can correct your weaknesses. Let’s say you have some doubt – a doubt in yourself. At a certain moment you doubt in yourself so when a task is being given to you, you say: “This task I cannot solve.” If you ignore the suspicion inwardly you might say: “I doubt myself but I do not doubt God.” But in fact you doubt God as well. I have heard an Orthodox priest who said: “Not only we are sinners, sometimes God sins as well; not only do we sin, but He sins as well.” This means that as a result of his mistakes this man says: “Since I sin then probably God also makes mistakes.” We most certainly should avoid mistakes, and if possible we should avoid them. So how can we manage to cope with this doubt? Let’s suppose that many disciples are preoccupied by the following thought: “Well, I shall graduate from the occult School, but what will happen after that? I shall have knowledge indeed, so what? – And they start philosophizing and finally work out that it makes no difference. But this is not a philosophy of Life. To that disciple who solves some simple task and then says: “What will happen after I solve this task”, I respond: you first solve the more complicated task and then wonder why. You’d better not reason but solve the first task, then solve the second task also and then ask why. And while solving these tasks you will find the reason why. This answer is - all deeds in our Life must be perfect. If someone asks me why we have to talk I would answer that we should talk until our language gets perfect, until we start to pronounce these words in the way they are being pronounced in Heaven, where once they pronounce the word it is so fine that it sounds nice for everyone’s ear. Imagine that all of you disciples who are listening to me tonight had such soft voices and that your speech was as melodious as theirs – can you imagine what kind of atmosphere there would have been tonight? If your thoughts were smooth and sharp it would have been good. At times they are so sharp because at times even the thoughts come out from the mouth as bombs. And the cadence of speech and of muscles corresponds to the cadence of thought. Now we will make use of our will. Suppose that you are in a period of suspense, you are angry because someone has offended you, and so you say: “I’ll teach him a thing or two!” Instead of teaching such person by a blow isn’t it better to teach him by words? Let’s say that you want to punish him; you can do this in two ways: you can give him such a knock on the head as to smash him as you would smash a snake’s head, or you can also take him by the leg and lift him upside-down and then leave him as he was and tell him: “My friend, do you still intend to bother me and to criticise God? I could smash your head but instead I want to tell you not to play games with me – the occult disciple.” Now you the disciples should know that there are other disciples also who one day might take you by the leg, but instead of smashing you they might lift you up and tell you: “Do you intend to study or you intend to play games instead?” That’s the way I myself would precede with you. But you might make some objection to this point: “Well, why should I be obliged at all?” You are obliged indeed, you have obligations that do not date from now – they date from your distant past and you have to pay them off. You have obligations indeed – obligations which you should fulfil. Many times you have begun and left this task; you can leave your task again now. You can solve your task easily within yourself – it might be solved by itself if you have the burning desire to solve it. In the Gospel it is said: “God is who gives.” You strive to do the Will of God, so God also has a desire to help you. Here are the vices: there exists envy, there are white lies and laziness among you as well. Then also you never look approvingly at others: when someone starts to work you crowd to hinder him and you say: “You can’t work without us.” All right then, if I go to the woods and find the birds which make nests and damage one, then two, then three of their nests and then say: “What will you do now, can you hatch now?” – I am asking you – what will be my profit if I damage the nests of these birds? If I do that the number of the caterpillars in my garden will increase and they will damage my garden – these birds will stop nesting in my garden and I will have to cope with the caterpillars by myself. It is not permitted to damage the birds’ nests. When some of you decide to work, all of you should give him countenance – cooperate with him, give him positive thought. For so many years the situation here in Sofia and in the country is identical. I think that the reason for this is a great deal of jealousy. In the other churches when the people want someone to talk to them they usually invite a preacher and he talks because he is paid for this, while in our country no one pays anything. In one town the people were not pleased with their leader so they asked me if it was possible to invite someone else to guide them. Instead of answering to them directly I said: “This is no concern of mine; if you are so stupid that you don’t know how to work with this leader then let ten of you gather and alternate with each other – you might talk one after another and so ten persons might take turns; they might be able to talk better than your present leader. If these ten persons can’t get along, then gather another ten persons; among these twenty persons there must be several persons who can talk.” But I would like the way that these people, who like to talk, to have some deep experience, to have a broad knowledge of Life. And instead of displaying themselves I would like them to manifest this experience very vividly. Apostle Paul says: “Many people do not preach Christ - they are displaying their own knowledge.” That we preach Christ implies that we are preaching the great law of Love that should put in order and regulate everything in the world. And this great law should change all the laws within us. Several hours ago I had a conversation with a gentleman who was saying: “The world cannot be put in order with Love – it can be regulated only by a whip, the whip is the only way to put the world in order!” But his brother said: “You are talking like our father talked long ago; do you have any idea how much he beat us with his stick but this stick did not put order in us at all.” If you don’t follow the New teaching you will return to your father – this is the law of Moses. Now it is good that we have begun with Christ, but our mistake is that we are constantly returning to the Moses law. We either have to start with Moses and end with Christ or vice versa. Instead we begin with Christ and end with Moses – i.e., we follow a return journey. I want you to choose several persons among all the disciples who are to serve as an example – several persons, one, two, three, up to ten persons – to take them as a model, so that they become a model for the whole class with their polite way of talking and not only with their way of talking, but also with their behaviour, with their thoughts, with their feelings, i.e. in order that they give a new impulse – an impulse should be given. Because this philosophy, the way I am talking to you, is still an introduction for the experiment that lies ahead of us. For instance I gave to the other class an experiment. To all of you I can also assign an experiment: to spend one week without any money, I mean that you should not rely on any money at all – you should pretend that you have nothing but yourself and God and your own hands to rely on, so that you can get used to this. During the whole week both the male and female disciples should earn their living during the day. The idea is not to fast but to earn the money for your lunch. The task is as follows: if for example you are an office worker, then you will give your weekly salary to the poor, so that you will be out of cash and when you reach in your pockets there shouldn’t be any money left in them. You must not rely on your friends, you should not say: “I’ll borrow some money” – no, you should pretend that you are left alone in the world. Imagine that you are in a populous town like New York or London and you are out and hungry; I am asking you how will you solve your task? You are bound to think of something. If you do so for a month, then when you get your salary you should give it away and say: “Now I’ll earn my money with my own hands” – but there might be objections that we should not tempt God. No, no, it is now that we are tempting Him because as long as we have money we do not rely on God. At present the office worker relies on his salary, the woman relies on her husband, the man relies on his customers, but no one relies on God. We often talk about faith but faith is still not a living experience. Now you should spend one week without money. For instance when you need money to buy something to eat, go to some friend of yours and ask him: “Is there some work for me here?” And when you find some work you should do it and be aware that what comes out of your hands is a result of your efforts. Now you might make the following objection: “But I write in my office is that not an effort?” No, it is not, because it is something settled – there the things are already settled. When I say labour I mean that you should work for two hours in some building. You should work for two hours and then take as much as you need for a lunch and leave without providing anything for the evening; on the following day you again should look for some job, then again you should work for three hours and leave. Some people might say: “This man goes to work and then goes off his work.” But in fact this man is strengthening his will, he is not a fatalist, he says: “Today I earned what I needed, let me see if I can earn it tomorrow as well.” He allows this self-assurance and after that he will start speculating as to what the inner conditions are in which he is advancing. In occult science, the following principle exists: if you meet someone while you are hungry and say a certain word and this word reaches his ear, he will tell you: “My brother, can you come to my place for lunch?” You will not talk about lunch; you should only know how to say this word. A hungry old woman went to a village and entered the house of a wealthy man who was one of the most cruel men who turned out each person from his house; the old woman did not say that she was hungry, but since the daughter of the wealthy man was ill, the old woman entered the house and massaged her, made this and that and thus it turned out that the old woman was a healer. Immediately this wealthy man became aware that the old woman was a healer and said: “Give her something to eat.” If she had required food in the first place he would have turned her away, but she started to work in the first place – to earn her meal with her own hands. Now all of you, the disciples, must have confidence – the occult disciple needs inner self-confidence that he can cope with all the difficulties that exist in his life. We have this motto: “No Love is like God’s Love.”, don’t we? And I perceive that this greeting has become almost meaningless when it is pronounced quickly: “No Love is like God’s Love, just God’s Love is Love.” Well, it already has gone beyond the frames of the occult science. You should stop inwardly and say: “Since no Love is like God’s Love, can I do everything for this Love? And I’ll do it.” And after you say: “Only God’s Love is Love”, say: “I can do everything and I’ll do it. There is one poor brother there, I’ll visit him and I’ll do everything for him.” – “But shouldn’t we invoke God?” – We are invoking Him. At times I say to myself: I made a serious mistake that I entrusted these people with a sacred rule that they vitiated; they also vitiated the name of God and as a result I incurred a heavy karma upon myself. So as a result of the venture I made, I said to myself that if I could have had this experience before, I would never have given you this rule; frankly speaking I would have never entrusted it to you. The disciples say to each other: “No Love is like God’s Love” but as you look at them they are at one another’s throats. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but neither of them can accept the facts. “Only God’s Love is Love”, but none of them gives up and each one of them holds his own. So, tell me please what kind of Love is this? But you might tell me: “I am a man, I have dignity, and I have personal feelings.” But is there dignity greater than Love? Let’s do the will of the Father! There isn’t greater dignity than this – to serve God driven by Love. This is the greatest dignity of man – to serve Love and Wisdom. Now I lay this accusation not against some persons outside, but against myself, for I entrusted you with one sacred rule. And then I lay against you the accusation that you haven’t used it – not because you did use it. And next time I’ll be very careful regarding the rules. And sometimes when I hear you pronouncing the word Love, I feel like someone is cutting me with a knife. You quarrel. I say: there is no such Love as the Love that stains, scratches, and cuts. But anyway I won – for I learned that there is no Love as God’s Love and that only God’s Love is Love – I made that experiment. If you didn’t learn the rule, at least I learned it. I learned it and I would not forget it neither on Earth nor in Heaven! And each one who vitiates the Love of God will by all means get his payment. And if he doesn’t understand this Love, then everything in his Life will be finished. I will call some of you so that I can personally talk with you in a friendly way about Love – I will call you so that we can chat about Love. We will talk now – don’t think that I am not able to talk, you haven’t yet seen how I can talk – I can talk far better. Now, when I talk to you about Love I shall use a special kind of language. I shall talk to you in very special way, so you might say: “I thought one thing and it proved to be another.” I hope that the consciousness of each one of you expands and I hope that you do not bother about trifles; I hope that this Love reigns and awakens your mind and sends an impulse to your heart, to heal all your weaknesses; I wish that you feel healthy, cheerful, fresh, so that you can apprehend Love and put it into practice, because you are in very difficult circumstances for the time being. It is expected that the occult disciples throughout Europe will have to pass a very difficult exam. These social struggles should be corrected by Force – Force must be applied. You might say: “God will settle everything.” God within us should be a volitional force, He should be Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice – not only He, but also the great potential psychic forces within us should awaken us, so that we can work. Now between you and me there are points of contact and they are as follows: there exists a deep well; I travel all over the desert (in order to clarify the existing relationships – they are real relationships here on Earth), I find the deep well; I know how to make the rope but I have no thread; you the disciples have this thread, but you don’t know how to make the rope. All right, I’ll say: “You stretch the threads and I’ll make the rope” – the rope is yours and the workmanship is mine. We will put the rope down, we will draw water from the well and all of us will drink; then you will take your rope with you, while I think that I have made it. Then we continue to walk and we see each other properly… These are the contacting points between the disciples and the Master. Now, this concerns only me – only your attitude towards me; this is the attitude towards Christ. He had disciples that He appointed to what He Himself could not do. Christ cannot come down now – He will send some of His disciples here to this village; Christ will not come to preach even in the town of Sofia, He will not preach even in London. In order for Christ to preach there, there would have to be some chosen souls present, who should be highly elevated, who should have such a consciousness, and who should posses such harmony, that as He descends they should be prepared to accept the words which He will use in order to let the Light in. And everybody should know Him; if He has to prove that He is from God and to heal the diseased persons, this would be a rather longwinded process and Christ will not attend to such longwinded processes. Christ is free now, so now you have to create within yourself certain conditions so that He can work within you. You might say: “We know Him, don’t we?” I don’t deny that you know Him but why don’t you make better conditions for Him? How? – Love your friend, he has a garden; plant throughout this garden – this is what Love is. Plant throughout every garden until you manage to plant this garden. We should plant throughout this Christ garden from beginning to end. Have faith in yourself – trust in one another – believe not only in yourself but believe in each other as well. The greatest trammel I come across within you is the impact of the scepticism – scepticism, scepticism. I don’t mean to say that this scepticism is imposed by the outside world, but you take it and since you are more sensitive souls, you attract the negative sides of the world – you are capable of receiving them and this is dangerous. A sensitive occult disciple is like a sponge and if he is not familiar with the laws he can sap from the outside. That is why he should be positive in Love – so that he can attract the positive qualities and throw out the evil – this is a mere science. Let’s say that now you study in the Occult School; one of the disciples in the School is talking with another one and says to a young lady: “We can go to a night-club – we are occult disciples so we will be able to learn a lesson from such a visit.” Well, fine, but if they go to the nightclub and this young lady adopts these images, these contortions that are being demonstrated there, these images can gradually obsess her mind. So I am asking where will the occultism go then? I am asking you: if these images obsess you for one, two, or three days, what will you profit from them? You don’t need nightclubs; there is such a nightclub up the Vitosha Mountain, there is another nightclub in the mountain resort Chamkorya1. Let the one who wants a nightclub, go to a hospital, to a church, to some temple. But the night-clubs where women with tambourines play Turkish dances… The nightclub is for those great spirits, who can withstand the temptations there, but you should not bring the weaker persons there, you better protect such persons. Sometimes, when a certain person is rather sensitive you should influence him gradually. Well, other arguments are being given to us – that, sometimes some drunkard might be a much better Christian than a righteous man can be. A strong will is necessary for a drunkard to become more righteous that a faithful person. There is a character in this man – he can fight with and he is stronger than a righteous man who does not have such an experience. When he sees them drink, the latter, not having such experience, might say: “I can solve the matter in another way as well.” While the other one – the drunkard - might say: “I tried and I overcame this vice so I can overcome another one also!” I don’t advise the young men to go to nightclubs and performances, because distorted and false things might obsess your minds. If I undertake to criticize all these dramas and tragedies from a psychological point of view how many of them might turn out to be true? Are they trustworthy? – No, they are not. There are things that seem true, but if I submit them to my criticism they will turn out to be untrue. Take for example the drama “Danton” and tell me if this is true? Its author has gathered these facts and has combined them in such a way that they give an impulse, but if they are to evolve in time they will not have any effect at all. When they see such dramas people often cry, while outside the theatre there are thousands of dramas: poor people are passing by, but no one is crying. I am asking you why inside the theatre they cry and outside the theatre no one cries? Because the actors are trained to present a lie, while in fact it is not real. But you might say that the drama was written like this – fine, but it depends on the actors – they are the persons who make others cry. So consequently from the occult point of view each drama should be true, i.e., we might have drama, but this drama should be composed in a specific way – it has to have some psychological aim and it has to produce a certain effect. So these authors did achieve something – I don’t mean to say that they don’t have some ambition, but the contemporary novels and dramas are not written by these occult rules. So when you go there to see these performances you should have an occult disposition of your mind and you should know what to accept and what to neglect. Even while you are listening to me you should be aware as to what to accept and what to neglect. Sometimes you are discussing some minor facts for a whole hour – I am talking to you about Love and you say: “We know what Love is.” I myself have been studying Love for so many years and yet I am still at the introduction of Love. I say for myself – I have barely got the introduction of this Love and you claim that you know it. In such case I would rather listen to you instead. Love is an alchemical law – when you feel Love you will know how to convert all the elements. And when you convert the elements containing your nectar there won’t remain any wall unbroken and there won’t remain any door unopened. For instance your friend might be in prison, but then there won’t be a prison that you can’t open, there won’t be any wrong which cannot be righted, and then facing Love any death will disappear. After you pass along the way with your magic wand you will do wonders – this is what Love is. And Christ carries this magic wand now; He says: “I was given the whole power in Heaven and Earth” and this power is the wand. And after He comes He will start waving with this wand and can you imagine what will happen? Whatever house he touches will be put to rights, whoever He touches – everywhere men will start to rise from the dead. Now you will take into consideration all this but you won’t become saints. I don’t want you to become saints just because of my words, I don’t want you to become perfect either, but I do want that seventy five percent of your gossip should stop right this evening and that only twenty five percent of them remain. Seventy five percent of gossip is unnecessary, so you should erase it completely; let only twenty five percent of the gossip remain. For if you don’t put into practice these two rules then how will you succeed? I intended to assign a task to you, but I cannot assign it to you as long as you have these weaknesses – the task might get vitiated, this is a small task. Up till next Thursday I will be constantly checking, to see if you have annulled the seventy five percent of the gossip and if I find out that you have annulled them, I’ll assign the task to you. But be careful – I don’t want any criticism in the Occult School. Let whosoever knows that much, come here, and I will put him here at the desk. Let whosoever that is so learned come here – I shall get down – we are ready to put him at my desk – let him come. If someone thinks that he knows so much; let him show his knowledge. There should not be anything in the secret room – you have Light, so turn to the Invisible world and the matter will be settled for you. And the relationships between you and me should be proper. The rule is: I must have one opinion only. I would say: “He is a good disciple, but he is careless, he doesn’t tell the Truth.” Why do you say that he is lazy? – Because no matter what task I assign him he doesn’t solve it; he is a good disciple but he is constantly dissatisfied – no matter what I do for him he is never satisfied. The surrounding people might encircle him and might do him all sorts of favours but he still goes on feeling dissatisfied. It can be like this –the same holds true for the disciple and for the Master. So now the general principle should be applied – you have to annul seventy five percent of your gossip. Now let me see if you have enough willpower to put it into practice. I mentioned the nightclubs and someone might say: “I know that someone has betrayed me.” There is no need to worry that someone has betrayed you because when you go to the nightclubs I can personally see you. And I can see what you are doing in these nightclubs – both men and women visit nightclubs. After that they say: “Our Master knows everything”, but then again they ask: “Who told you about the night-clubs? It means - you are not clairvoyant but someone has told you.” I see you, I see you in a very special way. The person, who has visited a nightclub, bears the stamp of the nightclub on his face, this is a truth. I do not enter in the Astral world, but I can tell such person why he has been at the night-club – there is a stamp on his face, the whole night-club is stamped on his face. And I can tell what nightclub he has been in and at what table he has sat and from what glass he has drunk and who else has sat at this table, I can tell him everything. His eyes are not soft but have a peculiar colour, his eyes are playful, and his eyes are roving as the eyes of a cat. And after he has been at a nightclub, his face acquires a different colour – each nightclub has a specific colour, each place of amusement has a colour. In each nightclub there live such evil spirits which exercise great influence upon your souls. Your souls and your hearts are not a toy, there exists a psychic force and it can carry you away as well. Now some of you might say: “Who might the person be who went to a night-club?” You don’t have to know who he is because one day you yourself might also go there. I have heard many persons say: “What nightclub might this be, let’s go and see what the matter is with it” – everyone likes to see what is happening there at the nightclub. In such a case it would be nice to send delegates there – three or four persons might go there and see what a night-club is and then read us a lecture entitled “What a night-club is like?”, so that the matter can be settled. Good, you are right, in the last resort it is preferable to send a commission composed of the strongest persons. So, we have a difficult task to solve, it is not easy for a man to cope with his own self, with his thoughts, with his feelings. We have a difficult task from the point of view of the law of heredity, from the point of view of the law of rebirth and of our pilgrimage in the world. It is a difficult task but it is a task that we can solve. And I believe that you are among the noble disciples that are unprejudiced, which have minds hungry for knowledge, which have noble hearts, which do noble deeds, which have an iron will, and who are ready to fight. And because of what I told you, you might draw your knifes out and make “So!” and the matter will be finished. You will not talk too much that this is the way we are thinking, instead you will all of a sudden make “So!” I want to clarify my relationships with all my disciples and friends – either your attitude will be an attitude of both disciples and friends, or we can’t have proper relationships. We must know each other – this is what the Brotherhood demands. An absolute purity, an absolute Light, an absolute Truth should reign among us! When I say Purity I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Light, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal; when I say Truth, I mean that this should be our ultimate goal – an ideal for which we should strive. Whether we will attain it is a different question, but it should be an ideal equal to all of us. Then we shall have an equal opinion upon this question and both you and I will think about this matter. And I believe that we will solve our task. A secret prayer I have never seen you so quiet as you are this evening – the silence is deathlike. This is a good sign. 1 Up till 1942 Chamkorya was the name of the mountain resort Borovets (ed.note). Source

Thought, Feeling And Action Year 1, Lecture 15 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno June 7, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret prayer Each right thought is an image of a Divine idea. Human life begins with thinking. When a person thinks, he realizes that he is alive. In order to be alive, a thought needs to be combined with a feeling - this means that the thought comes down to the real world, to the world of form. In order for the feeling to be positive, it needs to be combined with an act of will. And by the word “act” we understand the final limit that Spirit reaches in each manifestation. Therefore, thoughts, feelings and actions represent the stations or stops of the Spirit. Thoughts are the first station of the Spirit, feelings are the second, and actions are the third station. The Path of Spirit is harmonious but only under the condition that no external influences interfere either in the thoughts, or in the feelings or the actions. How does a clairvoyant see thoughts, feelings and actions? In certain forms and colours. Often people get sick, they lose consciousness, etc. This seems abnormal to you. Indeed, these things are abnormal, but they happen due to disharmonious thoughts, feelings and actions. The lives of contemporary people are full of such abnormalities. Someone is sitting in reflection. His thoughts are clear, his feelings are calm and peaceful, so he says to himself that he is in full harmony. All of a sudden he thinks or feels something that is not compatible with his first thought and feeling, and great disharmony is born inside him. He loses his previous balance and begins to suffer. When higher beings from the Invisible world see him, what will they say about him? Therefore, when two opposite ideas or principles enter someone’s mind, they cause discordance in his consciousness, and each state of discordance deprives a human being of his Freedom. Everyone should know this: a human being's mind should never be penetrated by two opposing thoughts. Do the following experiment in order to test the accuracy of what I am saying. Each morning over the course of a month, send a positive bright thought to the same person, and then observe the result of this experiment. At the same time give a one-lev coin to a poor man every morning, also over the course of a month. At the end of the month compare the results of the two experiments. You will have better results in the first experiment than in the second one. Why? Because in the first experiment you've directed your positive pure thoughts to someone; they've come directly from you. In the second case, however, the coin you gave to the poor man has passed through many people, many hands before reaching his hand, and everyone has left an imprint of his thoughts on it. These thoughts are not all harmonious, so they create contradiction and discord in the consciousness of the man. Many coins from past centuries bear traces of the thoughts and feelings of the people of those ages. So when I say that many old ideas and thoughts should be replaced by new ones, I have in mind the forms of those thoughts coming from the Astral and the Mental world which have been engraved on the coins, i.e. engraved into human consciousness, as if on stereotyped blocks. These forms are impure and distorted. Money itself is not impure, but carries upon it the engravings of the past. Otherwise, as a symbol money represents the life of the conscious human being who thinks. When we say that we can live without money, we mean that those thoughts from the past of humanity that have created money should nowadays be transformed. Money today is the result of the human thoughts that created it. Having passed down through the centuries, such thoughts are now so debased that they have a negative influence on human life. Nevertheless, money is on everyone’s mind today. I am asking, why can't you live without money? Disciples should get rid of the thought that living without money is impossible. Money plays an important role in human life today, people consider it almost a primary factor in their lives. But if someone wants to travel around the world, he should put every thought of money out of his mind. He can go around the world without a coin in his pocket, this is what I call a disciple of the occult. Your pockets can be full of gold, but your mind and your thoughts should be absolutely free of money. And the opposite is true: you may not have a penny in your pocket, but your mind may be preoccupied with the thought of money. This is the idea I have in mind when I say that it is possible to live without money. Occult disciples of various schools have made numerous attempts to live without money for a certain period of time. You are still candidates, you haven't become disciples yet. First you should become believers and then you will become disciples. In order to become believers, you should do an experiment to see how long you will endure. However, it is only for those of you who are ready to do it consciously. The experiment is the following: try to live without money for a month. Those who are employees and receive salaries, as well as those who have other incomes, should consciously renounce their incomes and give them to the poor or to whatever cause they find appropriate, so that they will remain without any means. During this time you will work without thinking of money. Your mind will be concentrated on the Divine world and you will allow no fear about how you will spend the day. With the help of this experiment you will be able to observe the way Spirit works. Those who are ready to undertake this experiment should know that the deadline is twelve months from now. You should complete the experiment within this deadline. Doing it in a year from now will be useless. During this experiment, imagine that you are the poorest person on earth, that you have absolutely nothing and that there is no one to help you. Those who undertake this experiment should not share it with anyone, but keep it a secret. They should tell no one until they achieve some result. Some think the experiment will be easy, because they will eat at home and won't need money for food. No, that is no solution to the problem. In order to find the right solution, you should place yourself in the position of a person without money in an unknown, foreign city, such as New York or London. This person doesn't know the language and doesn't know anyone there. What will he do in this situation? He has no other choice but to go to work at the port as a stevedore, or to find some other job to earn his living. If you are a student and you eat in an inn, you can do the experiment in the following way: give all your money to others. When it is time for lunch, you will go to the same inn or to another one and ask the innkeeper to allow you to serve the guests at the inn, and for this you will receive lunch only. After lunch, do not think of having supper. Lunch is enough for you. Do not think of tomorrow either. Every day will bring you income, but you should rely mainly on your hands. Your work will provide you with lunch. If you cannot be a servant at the inn, then go to an entrepreneur and ask him for some work on a construction site – you can carry bricks or mix water with lime, etc. It is enough for you to earn your daily food. This is the only way to test how Divine law works. At the same time you will realize that besides physical life there is another one, a higher one, where everything is foreseen and thoughtfully distributed. From the very moment of birth everyone receives a predetermined credit that he can rely on. Outside of the physical world there are other laws that regulate our lives. Humans do not know these laws, so they think that everything is arranged according to the laws of the physical world. Due to this misunderstanding of modern man, evil has emerged. Humans strive for insurance because they think that everyone should take care of themselves, that no one knows what will happen tomorrow. Everyone wants to be insured, and that is why they save money, buy and sell land, but as a result thousands of kilograms of food decay and spoil, while at the same time in the cities hundreds and thousands of people die of hunger. I will tell you something else about this experiment: for those who are afraid of going hungry, it's better not to undertake it. However, if they do start the experiment and then find themselves in a difficult situation, they should come to me and I will help them out in one way or another. I will not allow anyone to fail. And if you think that a month is too long a period, then do the experiment for a week only. Those who live with their parents can also undertake the experiment by earning their bread, mainly through physical labour. Everyone can help their parents at home in order to deserve their bread. This experiment aims to free you from your fear of tomorrow. You should rely on that Great Law in the Universe that regulates all things. When disciples are given such experiments to do, they should interpret them not just literally, but according to their meaning and purpose as well. Someone who starts the experiment but cannot earn his daily bread might say: “It is all right, I will fast today.” No, this experiment excludes fasting. You should work at least one or two hours daily, expending that portion of your energy that can later be recovered with your food. Only in this way will you learn to rely on the Great Law that drives Life. This experiment is not so difficult – you can apply it for a week. The further you go into the Teaching the harder the exams become. You will be given tasks that will make you sweat several times daily. This is the Path of the disciple. The privilege of the disciple is that he or she will go through all of the difficulties and all the suffering consciously, in full knowledge of the reasons for the hardships. If you are not in the School, you will go through the same trials and tribulations, but you will not know the reasons for them. The privilege of the disciple is in the Light which he or she has. Consciously or unconsciously, one must go through the trials and difficulties of Life – they cannot be avoided. If you go through them unconsciously, you will encounter a number of contradictions; if you go through them consciously, you will receive the Divine blessing and you will know their purpose. If you endure suffering in this way, afterwards you will attain Joy and Peace in your soul. Now, as disciples of the Great School you should have a conscious and positive attitude to Life. In addition, our purpose is not to deprive you of suffering, but to teach you how to utilize it. Suffering is the greatest good you can be given in Life at present. Each experience of suffering is in its proper place and has its deep meaning. Why do humans suffer? – This is one of the mysteries of existence. When trials come, everyone should endure them without asking why they have come. When they go away, then everyone will understand them. Christ, the Great Teacher of humanity, subjected Himself to the greatest suffering that has ever existed in the world, without receiving an answer as to why He was suffering. Instead of an answer, He was crucified, He was pierced through His chest, so that blood and liquid dropped from it, and He was left to ask about the reason for this suffering. As He did not receive an answer, He said: “Let it be Your will, Lord!” Therefore, Christ too had to go through suffering, without receiving any explanation for it. He had to pass this exam. Now, after having suffered, you want to receive an explanation immediately. No, the understanding of suffering comes after you have overcome it, after you have passed the exam. Until that time you will think about it. When you come to a certain experience of suffering, say deeply within yourself: “This is the thoughtful Will of God! This is the Great Will of God! This is the Will of the Infinite Cosmos!” Any other understanding will plunge you into sin and crime. If, during the moment of suffering, someone comes to you and explains the reasons for it, he will cause you the greatest evil. Therefore, do not regret the suffering you are given. If you regret suffering, you should also regret the Love you are given. It is a Law: Joy and Love will follow each suffering. This law can be experienced. The greater the suffering, the greater the Love; if suffering is reduced, Love is reduced as well. Therefore, suffering is a measure of Love. Love gets increased mindfully; it comes gradually. Thus, suffering and Love move parallel to each other and play an equal part in the building up of the human soul. Secret prayer Go forward in Boundless Love! Source

Sunrise and Sunset Fourteenth Lecture by the Master, delivered to the General Esoteric Class on Friday, June 2, 1922, 8-9:30 p.m., Sofia Keep in mind that tonight we have not gathered here to sit at a laden table; that is, I have not called you here for a feast. This is not the time for a feast, nor is it the time for me to give you advice or instructions, but rather, it is a time for learning. Therefore, I want you to listen to me with your minds, to feel with your hearts and to use your willpower to apply what you have learned. The methods of the Esoteric School are different from all those methods that present day schools use. The various views we hold of Life depend on our environment. Say you found yourself 10-15 meters below sea level and looked at the world from that viewpoint, what would your views be? And then, how would you perceive things if you were to descend another hundred meters or another two, three, four hundred meters, and then went further down to a thousand or two thousand meters? As a result, the refraction of light would be different. Now, let us imagine the reverse process: how would you view the world if you were to rise above sea level and ascended into the air to a hundred meters, then two, three, four, five hundred meters, then you went further up to a thousand or ten thousand meters? What if you were to go up not a thousand meters, but ten thousand kilometers into the air? On the other hand, if we were to stand on Earth, it would act as a balancing force. Therefore, your perception of the world from the bottom of the ocean and from the highest atmosphere would be from two opposite poles of understanding: those of sunrise and sunset. Sunrise, this is up in the air and sunset is down below, at the bottom of the ocean. However, the analogy that I’ve made is not correct in all of its points of view, because our sunset is sunrise for others, and vice-versa, our sunrise is sunset for others. Henceforth, when your Sun is rising, your sunrise is sunset for someone else; and when your Sun is setting, others have a sunrise. Therefore, sunrise and sunset are relative notions, not an Absolute reality. At the place where we are now, there is sunrise and sunset. However, if you were a clairvoyant, there would be neither sunrise, nor sunset for you, for you would be able to see the Sun on the opposite end of the Earth even in the middle of the night, and so there would be no sunrise for you. Even the Earth would not move for you if you were a clairvoyant because movement exists only for those who move, and as such cannot register this movement; but for those who are able to register it, there is no movement. Because, if I move faster than a train, will there be any movement? Take the following example as clarification: imagine a point in the Universe that moves so fast that it is in all places in the cosmos at the same time. Well, if it is at all places at the same time, is there any movement then? Yes, there is movement, but it cannot be registered. How can you register it when it takes place simultaneously at all places? We perceive movement only when there is a certain relation between speeds. But if you have an absolute speed we regard this point as a constant. Now, in this world, unstable people are those who move rather slowly. Snails, for example, are quite unstable. You cannot count on a person who moves like a snail because as soon as he touches a leaf, he, like the snail, retracts his antennas and says, “This is not my kind of thing.” You, then encourage him by saying, “Listen, there are such and such laws; there exists order in everything,” and he pulls out his antennas again. However, as soon as he encounters the next leaf, he hides inside the shell and says, “There is no law here.” And this is how it goes: in and out, in and out. Why does this snail move? From an esoteric point of view we explain it like this: this snail has encountered obstacles on its way. And when you throw this obstacle into the train engine, the wheels start turning. Therefore, when the engine driver comes to this obstacle, he uses it. If he stopped every time he came to a certain point, there would be a waste of energy. However, the engine driver collects this energy, gives it a slope and the wheel starts turning. The engine driver has learned from the snail’s obstacles and says, “If you want to use misfortune for your benefit you should put this misfortune in a curvy line.” Why does the train move? Because of the snail’s mistakes; our trains are the mistakes of the snail. Often, when people travel from one town to another, there are accidents on the way, i.e. in this case the snail did not retract his antennas on time. Thus, the engine driver miscalculated the time and so he could not hide away in time, and then when the accident happens, all travelers jump out of their shells. Now I’m speaking of your consciousness, for it can be that of a snail. Since my last lecture was philosophical and critical, you now ask, “If this is not Love and if that is not Love, what is Love, then?” When I discussed Love, I had in mind your love as you express it now. I say that what you consider love is worth nothing; this is not Love. You ask, “If this is not Love, then what is?” I will tell you what Love is. Here is an example: let’s say that you have a bottle full of water. This water has been sitting for ten days and has started to smell; there are a number of tiny microscopic bugs swimming in it. I try your water and I say, “This is not water.” “What do you mean, this is not water? We just filled it from the tap.” “It might have been great water but this water today is not healthy.” I, then, take your bottle, pour out the water and you complain, ”This is outrageous! He emptied out our bottle!” Then I say to you, “Wait, come to my water tap.” I take the bottle, wash it out a couple of times; then I boil some water and scrub it inside with sand. “You will break the bottle,” you protest, but I tell you, “Wait a bit longer.” I then rinse out the bottle, I draw from the premium water and I ask you, “Do you remember how your water tasted?” “Yes.” I pour you some water and I give it to you. “Now drink from this water,” I say. This is the only way you could understand the difference between the kind of Love I’m talking about and the other one. You need to keep these two moments in your mind simultaneously and you need to be able to tell the difference between the reality of consciousness and the other reality that can be manifested. Sunrise is a moment in consciousness and this moment is only the initial one when the Sun comes up from behind the horizon. After the Sun has emerged fully, then this is not sunrise any more. Likewise, sunset is that initial moment when the Sun touches the horizon and then sinks below it. Once again, sunrise is the other moment: the moment when the tip of the Sun first appears, and then it lasts until the sun has appeared fully. Everything in between these two moments is neither sunrise nor sunset. Therefore, in your whole life you will have two moments: every day and every minute you will have either sunrise or sunset and those will consist not of hours but only of a few moments. And if you are able to fully comprehend these moments of your consciousness you will be able to think correctly because your sunrises and sunsets are different every time. Notice that in Nature, sunrises are never the same. For example, sometimes the horizon is not so clear and at other times it is very clear; sometimes you cannot see the sunset and at other times you cannot see the sunrise - these are all mathematically related. These sunrises and sunsets show the relations that exist inside our consciousness, for sunrise and sunset exist as a reality only in our consciousness. If you are not aware of this reality - that the Sun rises and sets - it won’t do anything for you. If the Sun is rising and setting, it is only for your consciousness and once your consciousness is able to perceive the rising of the Sun, then your mind, your heart and your willpower will take part in your consciousness. Therefore, your mind will dwell on the forms and the vibrations of this light that expands; your heart will dwell on the content, and your willpower will focus on the results that may ensue from the combining of the forms with the content. This is all philosophically put. Now you cannot see the relation between these two ends. I am explaining the sunrise and the sunset in relation to consciousness. I am explaining the fact of the expansion, the content, and the effects of the Light that penetrates into our consciousness. We perceive the Light that is manifested into our consciousness in a specific way. Presently, the extent in which you can comprehend Love is determined by your inner consciousness. Now, you often speak of love the way you perceive it now: you have a pleasant feeling here, in the solar plexus, or you have a pleasant feeling in the hypothalamus on top of your head. I am speaking only of these two centers, but nevertheless, this pleasant feeling is not very real, because this condition can change in a short while. I am telling you a sweet, kind, and harmonious word but we do not seem to understand each other, for the fact is that you are hungry, right? Now I will speak your language. You have been hungry for three days and you expect something, so I will tell you this: “Now I am going to apply the notions of sunset and sunrise to eating, because in eating, too, there is sunrise and sunset.” Imagine that you are poor and you have been eating only beans all your life. You are so sick and tired of it that even at the very mention of beans, you object, “Did God create all those beans just for me alone? I am tired of beans!” If you have been hungry for three days and I tell you, “There is roasted turkey,” then the turkey will be like a sunrise for you. “What about beans,” you say. Here, beans are your sunset. “Your day came to an end very quickly,” I say. In this case, the beans, in your mind, represent the sunset. If I said to you, “There is bread and a chicken roasted with lard,” you would say, “Excellent sunrise.” Then your day would be on the rise, and you would be joyful, right? I’m asking you this, why do the chicken and the turkey produce this joyful feeling in your mind and the very thought of the poor beans makes you say, “I wish it was something else.” Why are you unhappy with the beans? So then I say the following to your mind, “If you are tired, there is a turkey for you,” but I don’t tell you that there are beans. All right then, I mash the beans with a little butter and I tell you this, “I have meatballs here that were made with good meat.” However, when you eat this meat, it gets all mushy in your mouth. You sit at the table, start eating the turkey and the meatballs and you say, “Excellent meal!” I ask you, what is real here? In the first case I tell you the truth and I say, “You will eat beans,” and the second time I name the beans differently, and I say, “These beans were cooked with meat and butter,” and then you ask, “Was the meat veal, lamb or chicken? It was excellent!” Likewise, sometimes you cook bean meatballs from your actions in life and you tell yourself, “Do you know what great meatballs we have made, with such great meat?” However, all you really have is beans. But if I told you the truth, that it was beans; then you would say, “I know what kind of beans these are.” Modern philosophical systems, too, are made only of beans; those are bean meatballs they feed you, but they were fried in butter and cooked so well that everyone who eats them says, “These are excellent meatballs, they are very good. This is a great culture, a great science!” But those who know the Truth, would smile and say, “Yes, they are such excellent meatballs…” Therefore, we must be able, in our consciousness, to distinguish between the true Reality in the world and the transient one. For example, transient reality is when someone says, “There is God, there is future life.” This statement is a transient reality, because the person who says that there is future life has a distorted consciousness; he does not know what future life is. An occultist will never say that there is future life; instead, he would say this, “There is no future life, because, from a purely esoteric standpoint, if there was future life, it would be exactly like the present one.” However, if we take the word sunrise to mean expansion of our consciousness, and division, and expansion of the Divine life in us, then we regard sunrise in a wider context: we view it as reality. Because Life is one and cannot be limited; it is we who limit Life by saying that there is future life. Life is neither past, nor present, but is Life in itself. In our consciousness Life has sunrise and sunset for three and a half minutes; it only takes three minutes for sunrise. Do you know how many minutes it takes for a person to die? It is almost as much time as it takes for a person to be born. It takes a person’s consciousness the same time to awake as it takes for the sun to rise: three and a half minutes. The child is born and forgets again. And because there is sunrise, you think that the sunrise is getting born and you are happy for as long as it lasts in your consciousness. When this child is about to die, you see how the Sun is going down. There are some people who can live until midnight even after the Sun has set. After the Sun has gone down, they say, “We are going to die.” It is a fact that the Sun of those people who say, “We are going to die,” has already gone down. Therefore, from a purely esoteric viewpoint, you can be born prematurely and you can die prematurely; you can become rich prematurely and you can become poor prematurely; you can become healthy prematurely and you can become sick prematurely. Remember this fact, for all of this will remain in your consciousness. And when I say that we can do anything, it is true; we can do anything but all we need to do is leave the conditions of the earthly life. The clairvoyant, who can see the Sun in its path, has nothing to fear. And this Sun is the manifestation of the Divine in the world and into our consciousness. We are always able to see God. One of our friends who is here - I won’t mention his name - told me about an experience he once had. He said to me, ”I used to feel a light like that at sunrise. This light used to move before me. But this light has disappeared lately, it is gone.” He felt sad. Before he felt like this light would rise all the time and every time he would leave to go somewhere, the light would stream inside him all the time. This is the beautiful in Life. From an esoteric point of view, every mistake you make will cause your sun to set prematurely, and this is a great evil for your life. Even the smallest mistake will spin the wheel of your Earth and it will start moving faster. The Sun will set prematurely and it is then that all kinds of misfortune will befall you. And when I say that you should not make mistakes, this from an esoteric point of view, means that you should not let your Sun set. Once the Sun has gone down, all work comes to an end. Therefore, your Love will come to an end, too. Now, you have experienced this, at least when you love someone and feel a certain vibration in your solar plexus, combined with this tiny warmth in your heart. However, when you lose this warmth, you start suffering. A knot starts forming in your solar plexus and you feel cold; you feel hatred starting to form and you feel that the person you love is gradually moving away from you, and that you are moving away from him, too. This is the law of sunset: your friendship has set and the two of you are in the night of Life. Then the power of your mind wanes, and no matter how you pray or what prayer you say, you feel as if there is an icy layer above you and your prayer goes up only two feet above your head and descends right back down. What should you do then? I will tell you the law for this and I won’t use the same example I have given other people before. I will take snow as an example. Snow has a white gown; it is clean. Imagine that a person is like snow, but is cold. If you take a snowball and look at it, it is beautiful and white. You hold it in your hand and look at it: it is perfect, white and clean, but it is cold. Someone says, “May I be clean like snow.” All of you want to be clean and you sing, “May we be clean like snow,” but how are you going to be in Heaven? So, the snow that the Psalmist sings about is not your snow, because when we conduct an experiment and melt the snow, it loses its whiteness. Imagine that snow has its own consciousness and says, “What did you do to me? You have depraved me, for I used to be white and now I have lost my whiteness. You have ruined me.” This is a kind of consciousness. Then someone else comes who is like water and says, ”I am fluid like water, I can adapt to all conditions.” Modern people like adaptation and water will reach a balance in whatever position you put it; it will be pals with ninety-nine kings. Take a bottle, turn it on one end or the other and you will see that whichever way you turn it, the water will reach a balance: it will maintain the same position. This is an excellent example. But if we are like water, what will our life be like? As soon as there is a crack in your bottle, the water starts dripping away and disappears. Then when you look at the bottle you will find out that it is empty. Imagine that water comes to me like a vessel, like a bottle and tells me, “Listen, I am a thinking being, easily adaptable to all conditions. I never oppose anything; I am a very good person who holds nothing against anybody.” However, I take this water, I put it in my oven and I start heating it up, saying, “Yes, you are truly very good.” I heat it up, but then I see some steam coming out; its shape is changing because of the heat. It expands, rises up and comes out as steam. Water will then say to me, “You have changed my form and now I have no stability at all.” Now it looks at its relation to air and says, “I will reach God,” but as it goes up five-six kilometers it comes across a cold current and is corrupted again: it turns into hail, becomes condensed and falls back down to Earth, muddy and corrupted. Then it sinks into Earth, and finally, through great toil and turmoil, it comes up as a cold spring. A thirsty, suffering soul finds the spring, drinks from it and says, “What a beautiful spring this is!” But once this spring was white like snow, then it was fluid, adaptable like water; then it turned into steam, rose up into the air, hardened, fell down as hail and now, after having passed through all this suffering, it carries something new in itself and it says, “Brother, do you know what oven I had to go through to reach this condition as a clean and cold spring? I lost my cleanliness, I lost my fluidity, I lost my expansion, and then I turned into droplets, fell down and became muddy.” And you reply, “Oh, brother, this is all very well, very well.” “Yes, very well it is, but have you been in my condition?” And when we speak of the Love of a being, we should keep in mind that in order for it to express what we consider Love, this being must pass through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms. Make a note of this: only after it has passed through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms can it express the smallest Love. And when you have this smallest experience of Love, it will be like a spring for you; it will be the most pleasant feeling you will ever feel. At first you will feel it only for two and a half or three minutes, and then it may disappear for the rest of your life. And then, like a novel written on a white piece of paper, you will reminisce and say, “There was so much joy, so much happiness, such bliss in those two and a half minutes!” Anything may happen after that: you may become a king, you may have feasts laid out before you, or people may give you money, but these two and a half or three minutes will be the crown of your whole being, and you will say, “I have never had anything like those two and a half or three minutes!” They will be the head and all your life will be included in these three minutes. And we go through all our life only so that we can have these three little minutes. Where are the three minutes? They contain a whole eternity. And do you know that it takes the effort of all infinite eternity in order for Love to be manifested in its smallest form. Love can be manifested only through the effort of all eternity, for it needs this impulse so that Reality can pass through all these forms. And do you know now if you are disciples or proselytes? This thought is so grand that you should keep thinking about it at all times. It is a grand thought, indeed, so grand that it takes a whole eternity to be able to comprehend this profound and meaningful concept. It takes a whole eternity to understand these three minutes and this eternity means that you need to have a sunrise and a sunset. If the sunrise is faultless, the sunset will be faultless, too. If the sunrise is faulty, the sunset will be faulty, too. Your understanding of things will depend on the basis on which you build when you enter the Esoteric School. For example, some come here to study, but what they really hope is to learn some secrets. No, they will not learn any secrets, for I tell no secrets. You will need a whole eternity to learn the secrets you want to learn. Therefore, no one can take away our secret in only one day or one hour. What do these people study, I ask? You will not learn anything this way. But he, who enters with a pure heart in search of God and Love, will be able to understand a lot. And so, it is my wish now for everybody to rise like the Sun. I am saying this to the young ones; I call young those who are rising and the old, ones who are setting. But now you, the young ones, may say, “You should know that we are the ones rising.” However, once the old ones were in your place and they, too, used to say, “We are the ones rising.” Some day other young ones will come in your place and will say, “We are rising.” I ask you this: if you think like this, what is your definition of Life? You will say, “We rise correctly,” and the old ones will say, “We set correctly.” You should shake hands now, as Life will not come to an end, because when the young ones come to your place, the wheel will turn and then your Sun will rise and their Sun will set. Then, if your sunset was faultless, your sunrise will be faultless and if their sunrise was faultless, their sunset will be faultless, too. These two sunrises have nothing to do with your present suffering, of course. You may say, “This is all good, but what can we do now; we are suffering?” Here, in the Esoteric School, there is no place for sick disciples. He who is sick cannot be a disciple, a believer, or a proselyte. I would like for you to give me a piece of paper so that we can make a list of all those who are sick in the School. Here we have hospitals and doctors, and we will send all of you who are sick for a course of treatment and then you can come back afterwards. We have special hospitals and special doctors for the esoteric disciples and when you go to our doctors they will prescribe for you their own system of treatment. And here, in the School, I can see your thoughts, “This teaching is good but we have difficulties in our life.” The difficulties in your life are a blessing for you. The greatest blessing for a disciple of the Esoteric School is to have difficulties and to have great difficulties, at that! Then he passes for a hero. If there are no difficulties, then he is neither a proselyte, nor a believer. The first thing is this: if you have difficulties, you are disciples; if you have no difficulties, then you are done. The math students in the university have such difficult problems and they go up to the blackboard so many times and try to solve the problems one way or another. If you look at an astronomer you will see that he watches out for the minute, for the second when the comet will pass; he observes so closely and has such difficulties, such worries. You sit here and say, “God is good; when the Spirit comes upon us, everything will happen the way God says.” This is a childish view; God has already done and made everything that he wanted to do or make: I can see this in everything that exists. The question is; do we learn everything that God has made and done? “God can do anything.” Now, as I live, I know that God has made the body that I have. You might say, “Do I understand what God has made, do I know the laws; am I open to the knowledge that He has instilled; does His Word enter my consciousness; do I rejoice in His deeds and in His thoughts that are sent down by His Spirit?” “God is great,” you say, “He has made the Sun!” Have you ever explored the Sun to find out about its Essence? Can you visit on the Sun? An esoteric disciple of a third degree - not of a first or a second, but of a third degree - can go to the Sun. You may say now, “I am the first candidate!” You are like that American who calculated that it is possible to throw a grenade on the Moon. He measured the length of the grenade, then the space and also the slope, as he wanted to find out how long it will take for the grenade to fall on the Moon. He made his exact calculations, collected some money, found two candidates and chose one of them to enter the machine and go to the Moon. Now, you, too, as soon as you hear me talk about the Sun - lo and behold! – you are candidates to go to the Sun. This is not the way to go to the Sun. If you can transform your consciousness and if you can acquire, after nine hundred and ninety-nine trials, the smallest form of Love, you will be visitors on the Sun right away. The residents of the Sun will welcome you and when you come back you will be happy and with a grin on your face and you will say, “The Sun is an excellent place!” And you will know the reason for how and why this Light streams incessantly and what this Light means; you will know the language of Light. But you should know that in order for all of this to happen, a transformation of consciousness is necessary. You need a transformation, a change inside your consciousness in order for your mind, your heart and your willpower to be a part of your soul. Therefore, the Esoteric School is not a School for consoling people, but is a School for studying the great unchangeable laws of Existence and of God’s manifestation. It is within those laws that our Life develops evenly and harmoniously. Therefore, only through the expression of such Love will we be able to be in conscious contact with that Being which permeates the cosmos, i.e. we will be able to be in conscious communion with God. And only after going through nine hundred and ninety-nine million forms, will we be able to hear the smallest voice talk to us. And, like in the book of Job that I quoted earlier, when we hear this smallest voice we will understand why we live on Earth. As soon as you understand why you live on Earth, this same Earth will stand before you right away like a living being and it will not be the old Earth, for the old Earth will have disappeared. And then, everywhere you go on Earth, you will bring a different moral: when you walk on this being, you will do so delicately and you will say, “This being is so mighty and gracious.” You will, then, make sure you do not cause this being any shock or pain and you will walk on it the same way you walk in a friend’s house. Of course, this Earth is related to our consciousness. Only when we start thinking this way, will the young and the old be able to live well. And now, because of our limited consciousness, everyone says, “I will live the way that suits me best.” I ask then, does this rule give you good results? Would Life have any meaning if all of us lived the way that suited us best? No, it would not. “So that I can live!” If you take the word “I” to mean the Divine inside you, then it is good to live according to the law of the Self, the law of consciousness. But if you take the word “I” to mean that you can use the temporary comforts of this limited life, then you have a wrong understanding of Life. Take, for example, a living example from your life: you have a son, you bring him up, educate him, send him to school and church, and this child grows up beautiful and obedient like his father and mother. The parents expect a lot from their son and they say, “Our little boy is very intelligent. He does great at school; he is diligent and earns excellent grades.” However, when he turns 17-18, he starts growing a little moustache and starts pushing his lips. Earlier, he would listen to his mother and ask her, “What can I do for you, Mother?” then he would take the water jug and go to the well for water. However, as time passes, he starts becoming absent-minded and his mother notes, “Our child has a new habit of pushing his lips every now and then.” Why does this boy touch his lips? I will not discuss the meaning of this gesture, for it is a secret that I am not allowed to divulge, but this little boy says, “I saw a young girl, I feel like wooing her.” How does he do that? By pulling one side of his moustache. Should it be the right side or the left side? He pulls it to one side, then he says, “I will pull both sides,” and then twists up his moustache. Then he thinks, “No, no, it’s better when it’s pointing down,” and then he looks at himself again. All of you here, young and old, have done this. There isn’t a single one of you who has not done this, be it consciously or unconsciously. The young ones are doing this right now. Someone wants to steal a certain young woman and he goes to her and says, “Listen, we will live together. I am very noble. Your old folks do not live well but when you live with me you will have all the comforts.” And he starts enumerating, “You will have a house, you will have this and that, we will live in the Kingdom of God like Angels.” “Really?” she asks. “Really, really,” he answers, “Don’t look at how your parents live for they are ignorant and they do not know, but see, I, on the other hand…” and he tugs on his moustache. All right then, they get married and what happens next? Nothing but the same old, fashionable lie, for they end up living just like her parents have lived. A man, who twists his moustache like that, cannot live well. Anybody who twists his moustache up cannot live well, no matter how hard he tries. I am not talking about your personal life but I am trying to explain a psychological point about consciousness. I do not know why and for what purpose, but this young man thinks about his moustache every day. Now, the young woman, too, starts raising her eyebrows and stroking them before the mirror. She tells him, “You should know, sweetheart, I am not like my mother. I am from a different culture. I will do this and that,” but she, too, does not speak the Truth. Those who stroke their eyebrows, too, cannot live well. The moustache and the eyebrows are two symbols, two metaphors. I will explain in some other way why he says, “Right or left?” This rule talks to itself like this, “I will speak the Truth to him if he touches his right eyebrow." Then, if he touches his left eyebrow, it says, “Why don’t I say a little lie to him? Some darkness won’t hurt; I can tell a little bit of Truth and a little bit of lie and that is how life goes.” For example, sometimes the young woman makes her eyebrows look thicker and sometimes she wants them thin; then she says, “Oh, this is no good and that is no good. Oh, oh!” This is no laughing matter; this is a psychological law. Sometimes you say these same things to yourself, but if you understand the law of your consciousness, you may be able to see and use things differently. In that case, a change of consciousness takes place, as well as a change in your heart, your mind, and your will, and if you have a correct grasp, you will be able to use the moment; if not, all these favourable conditions in Life will pass and you will say, “We were not successful in our work.” I am not saying that this is bad, but you should know that every tug leads to certain consequences. And the same law is at work when the young man puts it in his mind to stroke his moustache. Back in time, before the fall of man, when the original man stroked his moustache to the right or left, he also pronounced a certain formula, he pronounced certain words: particular words for when he stroked his moustache to the right and other words for the left. The young woman, too, has to pronounce certain words. And now, you do not pronounce any formulas. For example, if you are to pronounce the word Love, how are you going to pronounce it? The word Love has its key. First, you need to put in the key, then you need to prepare yourself, and only then will you pronounce the word Love; only then will it have a meaning. Another time, when you are to say the Truth, you will need to put in the key first: the key of Truth. All things have their own key and when you use it, these things will be understood in your mind. Now, I cannot cover everything because there are proselytes here. And who do we call proselytes? Once, in England, there used to live a very eloquent preacher. He was so eloquent that his entire audience, the rich and the poor, would be so captured that they would forget about everything. A thief, whose trade was not going very well, heard about this and thought to himself, “I will pretend to be a worshipper and then I will sit among these enraptured ones so I can fill up my pocket. I will have a great profit." So he goes there and sits with the rest. The preacher starts speaking, everybody is enraptured, and so is the thief. When the sermon was over, the thief thought to himself, “I missed the moment.” He left but vowed to himself, “Next time I will not become enraptured. I need to exert some willpower. I am a pickpocket and so I should not be enraptured but I should be feeling their purses, instead.” However, the second time, he became enraptured again, and so he did the third time, too, and so, finally he thought to himself, “I will not go to this devil any more, because I will lose my trade.” Likewise, when God’s Spirit starts talking eloquently like this inside you, you too, will become enraptured in the Divine Truth and so, if an evil spirit comes to you, he too will become enraptured and will say, “I should not go to his gathering because I will lose my trade.” And when he leaves, you will be free. The first thing an esoteric disciple needs is to have an eloquent preacher in himself, and when this preacher speaks, then the disciple’s mind, heart and willpower will lose themselves in this poetic expression, in this loving speech that comes out of the preacher’s mouth. And so I say to all who are in the Esoteric School: every one of you should express their nature freely, the way God has made you. And I do not want you to change; I want you to be the way you are but I want you to have an eloquent preacher in yourselves. And when your preacher speaks, you should be happy with him. I call this preacher the Spirit of great Life in all Existence. You can call him any way you like, but he is the Spirit of Life in all Existence. He can speak at any time, but in order for him to speak, a mind, a heart, and willpower are necessary. Not wilfulness, not a cruel heart, not a misunderstood mind, but a mind filled with Light is necessary, and a heart filled with Purity, and a will filled with power to put everything into practice. Now, you, the young ones, can test my words tonight by touching your moustache. Do not laugh. If you laugh that means that you have not understood this matter; you should be very serious. Think about why you want to stroke your moustache. The old ones, too, sometimes put their fingers on their moustache. Stop and think for a minute why you have grown a moustache, what was the original cause of this, why were you given a moustache. You can give yourself whatever answer you would like. And think also about why you were given eyebrows. You may not solve this problem, but some thought or some light is bound to come out of your thinking about it. Consequently, this eloquent preacher will give you a wise interpretation. Do not share it with anyone, but keep it for yourself. And so, I want all disciples who enter the Esoteric School to be rising like the Sun, because the School of Light is a sunrise for us. The Order of Light represents a sunrise, and the Order of Darkness represents a sunset. Now, I group you like this: if you are setting, you are with the Order of Darkness; if you are rising, you are with the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood of Light is always rising; the morning is their time. The Brotherhood of Darkness is always setting. Therefore, we need to have an understanding of these two moments of Life. If we say, “You have risen,” then you are of the Brotherhood of Light. If we say, “You have set,” then you are with the Brotherhood of Darkness. We know that there is no sunset in the Brotherhood of Light, and if someone says that his Sun has risen, then we know that he is from the Brotherhood of Light. Now you see what enormous difference there is in the esoteric view. The Sun’s setting shows that you are on the wrong path, and you should, therefore, turn your consciousness into the direction of the sunrise. Now, in saying that the old ones are setting, I made a differentiation. When I say young, I mean the Order of Light, and when I say old, I mean the Order of Darkness. This is a symbol: the old, in getting older, represent the Order of Darkness, but they represent it in form and not in content. They resemble the Order of Darkness in their life and so they must pray. When a man gets old, he becomes decrepit and is in a sour mood. When he sees a young one play, the old one wrinkles his brow and says, “What is this fool making all this racket for?” When the old one sees the young one push his way around, he says, “Keep your hand away from me, do not do this in front of me, for only I know this art; you should not learn it,” and in saying so, the old one is moralizing the young one. No, this is not right. Instead of acting this way, the old one should say to himself, “I used to be like him once,” and now he has moved to the left. The old one should not become angry. Therefore, we should always be young; we should never judge others. And when the Scriptures say, “Do not judge,” it means the following: everyone who judges becomes old and nothing more - this is the rule. Show me one person who judges and has not become old. He, who judges, becomes angry. This is not right; this is misunderstanding things. This is sliding down. Both the anvil and the hammer that beats incessantly on the anvil wear out in the process and no one gains anything. And the beautiful in Life is this: to think only about the great goods that God has created and to endeavor to be as wise and loving as God. And let us leave He who is all-wise to put Life in order. Because when we say that we live by God, we should do this not only passively, but we should rectify our life. A brother of yours may say, “I am rich; I have an income of ten thousand leva.” Some other brother somewhere else steals one or two thousand leva and people say, “One of the Brotherhood of Light did it.” Well, he is not a Brother of Light, but a Brother of Darkness if he stole ten or twenty thousand leva. Then I say, “Here, take this money, brother. I will even give you interest on it, how much do you want?” Then we will pay honestly, for there is no lie in us. Now, how many of you are ready to pay for someone else? I do not know. Those, who are outside, pay for their brothers who are in the School. And then, there are others, who, when they hear that someone else is paying, demand, “Let him pay for me, too.” No, no, I am pointing out an internal principle. This is a state of mind. Let us all be so loving in our souls, so as not to criticize anyone, because if we criticize, that means that the Spirit is not in us. All of you have experienced this: he, who has sinned and criticized, has lost their Spirit. When you make the smallest criticism in your soul, you will lose your Spirit; the Spirit will be extinguished by all means. And now, one of you who has experienced this, even in the smallest form, should say if this is true or not. Therefore, should the Spirit start speaking in you, you should pay attention. You should aspire for the higher, you should have a correct understanding of the Divine law and you should have no negative thoughts. Then the Spirit in you will explain everything to you and you will evolve with each day and will pass from one glory to another. I demand this of all who are young. I consider all of you young. Why? Because I count you towards the Order of Light; for all, whose consciousness has awoken, are from the Order of Light. Under the present conditions, all those whose consciousness is awake, should belong to the Order of Light. The old is an emblem of the Order of Darkness. The Order of Darkness is not bad in itself, but in Life these two orders do not follow one and the same principle; they do not follow the same laws. They have their own laws according to which they progress and acquire knowledge. Those in the Order of Light, who want to show the slightest levity, have lost the best conditions of Life for thousands and thousands of years and have no good conditions today. There was a time in the evolution of humankind when it was an honor to be in the Order of Darkness. Back then, the Light ones were setting and the Dark ones were rising. Now it’s the reverse process: now it is an honor to be in the Brotherhood of Light and it is a dishonor to be in the Brotherhood of Darkness. And now you, being disciples of the Esoteric School, should consider it a great privilege and an honor to be members - proselytes, believers or disciples - of the Great Universal Brotherhood of Light, which comes to introduce the New culture in Life. And, as such, you should prepare not in the future, but you should be preparing right now, already. You can start today, or tomorrow, or the day after, for you have the conditions to work; work quietly, silently, and wisely to put the Divine Laws into practice. You will work the way Light works. (The Master collects all the notes.) Now, I have paid you, therefore I can keep these notes for myself. Are you content? If someone isn’t, I can pay him some more, i.e. I will spend more time with him individually. Some of you have not signed your names on your papers. Those of you who have not signed, should do so, otherwise your wish will not come true conscientiously. See how you wanted to outsmart me, but I outsmarted you in the end. I caught all the trickery of the disciple, and in this case, I have backed you into a corner. So, you did not trust me completely and that is why you did not sign your name. Yes, this is not an accusation, but trickery. The facts say that there is no signature, right? Now, I will let you sign and correct your mistakes. I will not give you back your papers but I will make a deal with you: I will give you your old papers when you bring me the new ones, but I need them signed with your names. The intensity of thought everyone exerts in writing the papers will indicate for me if the work has been signed or not. (The Master picked out a paper and read.) He wants good for the entire humankind, and wants nothing for himself, and so we will fulfill his wish. It is all right, this is not a great mistake, but I need a signature of some kind. I do not mean a signature literally, but I mean it in essence. In other words, when one writes something and is afraid that others might know his thoughts, then this is the fear of the physical plane. However, when one writes something in order to express oneself, then those sentences are dedicated to the willpower, i.e. he has signed and these sentences will contribute a great deal; such sentences will live on. Now I will revise your work and I will give you explanations. I will read them over and I will see in what direction your thought was going. These psychological intentions will be interesting for me. I will take my time to turn over every leaf separately; I will read them over individually. It will take me at least three months to look over your papers but your wishes will come true in due time and space. Some wishes will come true in a year, others in two, and some in three years - it all depends. Generally speaking, everything comes true. When will they come true is a question, an esoteric problem to solve. Source

May Christ Descend to Explain to You Life has two sides: one side is the actor’s life and the other side is the worker’s life. The actor works at night while the worker works during the day. The first one uses the night and the second one, the day. Therefore, the result will not be the same because life develops under different conditions. At night, the actor doesn’t have the light, and the worker, who works during the day, has conditions for a righteous life. And so, I divide you into two kinds: actors and workers. Here, in the Esoteric School of the Brotherhood of Light, we need no actors. The Brotherhood of Light excludes the life of the actor but accepts workers. I regard those of you who are married as workers on God’s field, but some of you want to play the part of the actor. You do not yet know what Divine Righteousness means. In this Esoteric School the laws for the workers are just as strict as the laws for the actors. Now, I ask you, have you fulfilled your duties as workers? I want of you, the married ones, to take a look at your work, your fields, your gardens, your springs, your cattle, your sheep; to take a look at your houses to see if they are painted, to check your homes and see if they are cleaned out. What is the condition of these co-workers of yours? You need to know this because you are workers. Many of you, the married ones, want to have more privileges but fewer duties. You want to postpone the payment of your debts but in the Divine book there are no postponements of debt payments. This can only happen by Grace. One needs to be patient and wait for some greater Being to help, but don’t think that you will be granted help just like that. You pass as married and, consequently, you want to preach to the young ones. You think that when you leave these fields, the young ones will come onto them after you. What will they find? I speak both in literal and figurative terms. These are some reflections that you need to think over. The Brotherhood of Light suggested that it is my duty to tell you these things tonight. And they, the Brothers of Light, will hold you liable for your fields, for your sheep, for your houses and so on, and so forth. You, who are doubtful (and there are such among you), will know for sure within a year if we are from the Brotherhood of Light or not. Christ is at the head of the Brotherhood of Light. And when he decided upon this injunction, he asked the head and the head gave its consent. God is this head. Thus, all aspects of this matter have been covered. Therefore, you, the married ones, are required to willingly fulfil God’s Law. I do not need to tell you what to do; you will do your work according to your own understanding and as you wish, as your souls wish. When someone’s soul makes a wish, it creates an imprint in this person’s consciousness for the future fulfilment of this wish. This consciousness comprises three great forces: the mind, the heart and the will. Our going into the other world always means a transformation in our consciousness from one form into another. This is the expanding of one’s consciousness. You will understand things differently on different levels. Therefore, Christ descends into the souls only when the consciousness of people expands. For example, when I speak to the married ones, you say, “When the Master said such and such words; he must have had me in mind.” If you say that, it means that you have not understood my words. I am trying to explain the external side of things; I, being a worker, am trying to clean up as a worker because only then will Christ descend. I want your consciousness to expand so that Christ can descend upon you and clarify the things that no human mind or thought can explain. I ask you, married ones, when it comes to your consciousness, what role models are you for the young ones, for your children? Are you doing your part in expanding the young ones’ consciousness so that Christ can come to live in them and to explain to them what Life is and how they should live? You say, “God can do anything.” This is not a philosophy; this means nothing. A father’s blood only runs strong when it enters the veins of the son and flows according the same laws. If it does not flow, the results will be different. Now, many of you are a part of the Brotherhood and come to these lectures only so that your problems can be fixed. You come here as if you were coming to a theatre; you come here expecting a treat after which you leave and say, ”You are not what you are.” You have not understood yet what we are. Thousands of years shall pass before you understand what we are. We are those who expand every man’s consciousness so that Christ can descend and explain the Truth of Life. And this Truth has to be such as to allow for the coming of the Divine Consciousness so that the Law of God’s Love can be manifested throughout the Universe. What could be better than this! With this Truth we can do our work. However, you say, “Lord, have mercy!” How can God have mercy on you if you have not expanded and elevated your consciousness so that Christ can come down and explain to you what you are doing wrong? The mistakes and the temptations are inevitable and if Christ does not come down into your consciousness, these mistakes will create a life of disharmony and all of you suffer from this disharmony. Is there anyone who is not suffering? I always use the following example to explain the methods of the Brotherhood of Darkness and the methods of the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood of Darkness has dark adepts who come down to earth and say, “I’m a shoemaker. I have a special mould for shoes. If you buy my shoes you will remember me forever.” This reminds me of something that happened to me once when I was in Yambol. I was visiting a shoemaker who told me that he loved listening to my lectures. He wanted to make me a pair of shoes so that I would remember him. Indeed, I remember him to this day. If you put your feet in the shoe moulds of the Brotherhood of Darkness, they will make you special shoes that you will never forget. First, they will maim all of your virtues. If you put your foot in that mould, your virtues will inevitably get crippled and you will suffer a lot unless the Brotherhood of Light comes to help you pull your foot out of the mould. Do not offer your feet to the dark brothers to put them in their shoe mould. I am not explaining everything to you now but I will dedicate a special lecture to explain to you everything about this mould. Furthermore, you, the married men and women, do not live the way you should. This is not acceptable to the Brotherhood of Light. Now, if the married ones want to live the way the world lives they can do this out there, in the world, but once they have committed to the Brotherhood of Light, then they will see that there are excellent rules here. You do not yet know how to live. But you can learn these rules. Men and women, all should live according to the Law of Love! Every work done according to the Law of Love is sacred, and without Love it is a crime. If you ask me what is right, I will tell you, right is what is done by Love. I call Love that feeling, which is above all other feelings. When this feeling enters you, you will never frown. Love should be perceived as Man, but not one that is vested in flesh. This is how Love should be perceived. Men should perceive it that way too. I say this to you, the women whom Christ has wed; and to those who Christ has not wed, I have nothing to say. What I mean when I say, married by Christ, is that your consciousness should expand so that Christ can come in and explain everything to you. If this doesn’t happen, you will have such a rigid understanding of things that you will make me wonder from where you get your ideas. Paul once said, “Compete in paying respect to each other!” How? In order to compete in this, you will need to experience a change in your consciousness. You will need someone to learn from. If our mother doesn’t teach us, then how are we going to know? This law is true: one consciousness gets expanded by another consciousness. If your consciousness does not get in contact with another consciousness, it cannot expand; if a mind does not commune with the Divine Mind, it cannot expand. I have noticed a great disharmony in our Brotherhood. I can put up with these things, but you can be sure that this disharmony is not pleasant to me. Now, you may cry, but I don’t want your tears. What I want is for Christ to come into your consciousness and expand it. What I want is for Christ to manifest himself through you. My wish is for Christ to live in you. The happiest day for me will be the day when I see that Christ lives in your consciousness. You can be certain that this will be the happiest day of my life! You might ask, “How will this happen?” There are two ways: some fish are caught during the day, and other fish, at night. Is there any difference? Christ has defined this law: you shall love while it is day! A night is coming when no one will be able to work. Therefore, in order to expand your consciousness, you will need to work, not act but work, during the day. I have decided that in our Esoteric School you should work through experiments. We will begin with the smallest ones and they will gradually follow one after another. But in order for you to progress through the experiments, you need an expansion of your consciousness; you need to experience a change from within. Only then will these rays of spiritual consciousness come to you and create favourable conditions for the seeds that have been planted in you for thousands of years so that you can achieve good results. Have you achieved good results with your present thoughts? You are unhappy because you are missing the most essential thing: your consciousness has not yet expanded and Christ has not yet entered your mind to explain everything to you. He is making efforts to get to you but because you are not ready, all you can get out of his efforts is temporary moods where you feel elevated but then you are down. When you, in turn, make efforts, they will be futile unless you let Christ into your consciousness and unless you let the Divine Love into your consciousness. It will not be easy to achieve the expected results. Don’t think that the transformation of one life into another is easy. So much artistry and knowledge is needed in order to transform a plant into the form of an animal! If you only knew that, you would have pondered upon it seriously, but right now, you reckon that this transformation happens easily. No, it does not happen easily. The Spirit of God that is working within you will accomplish everything; my talking to you alone won’t do it. Christ needs to come in and then the Resurrection will come - the Resurrection that implies a New Life in new forms. “You will rise from the graves.” But not if you are the same way as you are now; if you eat and drink the way you do now. Don’t think that these things will continue the same way as they are now. No, there won’t be even a trace left of what is now, of this present form! Certain principles may remain, reminding one of, reminiscent of the old, but we will be completely transformed. Someone may say, “The present conditions of life are in my way.” No, they cannot be in your way! I talk about those disciples who are dedicated. But you are not yet completely dedicated disciples. There are several categories of disciples: listenerproselyte-disciples, believer-disciples and disciple-disciples. The first kind of disciple has certain duties and rights; the second one, too, has certain duties and rights, but the third one is above all the rest. What the disciple does, the listener proselyte doesn’t have to do and vice versa. And everyone should look at Life according to his level. If he is a listenerproselyte, he has certain duties and certain rights and you cannot ask him why he does what he does. And if the listener proselyte asks the believer, “Why are you doing this?” the latter will respond, “When you get to where I’m at, you will know why I live and work this way.” God does not have to inform us why He does this or that. He will say, “When you pass through these seven fires, so that I can purify you, you will know.” He will give you absolutely no other explanation. Job, too, asked the Lord but He said nothing. But after Job passed through the fire seven times, then God called and said, “Come, talk to me now.” And Job said, “I have heard of You from others and I have committed many sins, but because I saw You now, I will not speak nonsense.” One of you may be in Job’s situation to ask, “Lord, how much longer will I have to suffer and for how much longer will I be in debt?” God says nothing. Do not think that your deliverance will come from your friends, nor from your enemies. If you think that, you are wrong. Your deliverance is in the following: you need to expand your consciousness and let Christ in so that he can explain to you the fact. If this happens, you will be delivered; if this does not happen, this fact will haunt you all the time, like some demon causing you mischief. Now, some people come to me and ask me why this and that happens. Today someone came to me and asked me, “Do you know what these disciples of yours are doing? Why don’t you correct them?” I told him, “I cannot tell them anything because we all live according to the Law of Freedom.” “Well”, he said, “How about discipline? Is there no such thing?” “No, there isn’t.” “But you can enforce some discipline”, he said. Afterwards, he invited me to visit him at home. Then I told him, “I will not come to your home.” “Why?” he asked. “If you want me to come to your home”, I told him, ”You need to expand your consciousness and let Christ in, i.e. let the Love in. You are just like my disciples; you, people, are the same: you want to lure me into your trap. Neither you nor they are disciples of Christ. Here is what I say, we have one great law - we want to live and understand Life in a different way and we want to make it right. You may say, “Do you know what our Master is doing?” But you are not responsible for me. Other times you say, “Is it fitting for him to wear yellow shoes and a white hat? And then, white coats are for children, he needs a black one.” But what is it all to you? You care about insignificant things when what should really matter to you is what is in my mind, my heart and my will. You can wear whatever clothes and shoes you want to but what matters to me is your mind, your heart, your will and, most of all, your soul and the presence of Christ in your soul. I know that you need to work on these things until your life acquires a true meaning. Only then will we understand each other properly! Sometimes it is a blessing to be a teacher, and other times, it is a blessing to be a student. A day will come when you will understand the relationship between the Master and the disciple. God will explain this relationship to you. And my wish is for you to be one of those blessed disciples. Some of you are seeking deliverance, you want for the Divine Sun to open up so that you can enter. The deliverance will not happen that way. Your deliverance will come when you open your consciousness to let Christ in. Then you will be truly delivered. Then all external circumstances, which are binding you now - poverty and everything else - all of this will become harmonized and you will see Life in a new light. Now, there is another thought in your mind; you think, “If we don’t finish this work today, we can do it some other day.” No, you must work now! Let’s say, for example, that you are an owner and I am a worker. You hire me to cultivate hoe your vineyard but, instead, I spend the day counting the posts dead vines and in the evening I tell you how many of them there are in the vineyard. On the second day, I go out in the vineyard again, but, instead of cultivatinghoeing, I count how many canes there are and I calculate how much fruit they will yield. On the third day I count how many leaves of grass there are and so on. In the end, I tell you, the owner, that I have finished the job. You think that the vineyard has been cultivated hoed and you pay me, but when you go out to the vineyard and take a look at it, what will you think? I’m sorry to tell you this, but this is how you are working on God’s field right now: instead of cultivating hoeing the vineyard, you are counting the posts dead vines and the vine stickscanes. I do not mind your counting the posts dead vines and the sticks canes and the leaves of grass, as long as you cultivate hoe around the vines, as well. Acting is one way to work, the second way requires that you cultivate hoe the vineyard first and, once that is done, you can count the postsdead vines, the sticks canes and the leaves of grass. What you do now is you come to me and say, “Our vines won’t grow.” Yes, they won’t grow because you, my disciples, won’t dighoe. So, here is my solution to the problem, you have the statistics, you have counted the postsdead vines, the sticks canes and the leaves of grass. Then I will get the hoe, and will cultivate hoe the vineyard. If you have cultivatedhoed, then I will do the counting. There are Masters out there who only count the posts dead vines and the vine stickscanes. If you cultivate hoe the vineyard, things will even themselves out. This is a method, an allegory you can use for future work. (Note to the editors, explaining all the corrections I did on this paragraph: I have thought about this paragraph a lot, because I felt like I did not have the exact English words to correctly convey the meaning. Recently I worked in a neighbour’s vineyard and that helped me find a better English rendition of the Bulgarian text.) I tell you this so that you will know how to expand your consciousness into which Christ has not yet come. Christ is working and making all the effort. You have the desire but you need patience. You will be put to the test on the operating table. When they operate on you in the White Brotherhood, they will not anaesthetize you and that is why you need to stay completely still because if you move, the knife will go in deeper. Now all of you are undergoing such operations. Those operations where you are awake are the best and the ones where you are anaesthetized are the worst. I have reverted to the former ones only rarely and only a disciple who is a true believer can go through those. If you realize that this is performed according to the Law of Love, you would be ready to go through it, otherwise you would be kicking and fighting and the knife would only go deeper, the operation would fail and such people would remain sickly in a spiritual sense. I will go no further, because I do not want to disturb your mind and make you think that you have nothing in you. What is truly essential has not arrived yet. This field is not ripe, yet you still have not filled the barn with wheat. When the barn starts to overflow, then the new direction of Life will manifest itself. With this lecture I want to assign work to all of you. And, just like with real workers, I want to create work for all married ones. I will start with the smallest experiment again. The task I will give you will be to work for me, for Christ, for Love for only five minutes. You could work miracles in only five minutes. I don’t want one hour, but only five minutes. Does anyone mind? If someone misuses these five minutes, he is not a disciple. If he cannot work for Christ for only five minutes, he is done with. No discussions and no philosophizing are needed; just get to it right away! You will forget your wife and your children and everything else in these five minutes! You will work for Christ mindfully and only after that can you philosophize and discuss and ask if this matter is done and over with. Note this: it’s only five minutes! How much is a hundred days by five minutes? You will continue this exercise for ten years. It is a microscopic exercise but in one year, this makes thirty hours and twenty-five minutes; in ten years, it is three hundred and four hours or twenty-five days and four hours. In these ten years, you, as workers, will dedicate twenty-five days to Christ according to the Law of Love. Five minutes every day! There is no other philosophy for the way this can be done. I will not explain it to anyone. I will give you two weeks from now to think about the five minutes or about the twenty-five days for Christ for these ten years. Those of you who are ready to work will come in to work. When your five minutes begin, you will forget that you are married, that you are a clerk or something else, and you will feel like a newborn in the Kingdom of God, who will do the Will of God. And then you will understand the meaning of my words from the very first day of your working for Christ. The second experiment is the following: I will appoint a day when, at a specific hour, you will work for Christ for five minutes. I will appoint it specifically and then I will send all the bears your way. You should know this. Then, if you keep walking bravely, they will make way for you and will say, “It is possible to work for Christ for five minutes.” The bears, too, understand this law. I will keep going, as well. You will wait for the most important exercise to come along: five minutes for Christ! And make sure you clean your home well! He who does not clean well… This is what I was told to say to you, do you understand that? And if you are faithful, then you will know the Truth and the Truth will know you. I will leave this question unanswered, because others are waiting outside. You, married ones, now is the time when we want to wed you! And so… If it is unfinished, you will mark it with three dots. You have two weeks to think about the five minutes. You will free your mind, your heart and your will. I want you to think freely at last! The experiment will begin soon. These experiments are minute, but when you start doing them, they will lead to bigger things. We will start off with the little things, which are for the children. And when the children are busy, God is happy. Therefore, we will create happiness for God when He sees that we work for Him mindfully and without being forced to do so. If the young ones ask you about the things that I told you today, you can tell them in two weeks. After two weeks you will tell my words to the young ones. June 2, 1922, Veliko Turnovo27 May Christ Descend to Explain to You Life has two sides: one side is the actor’s life and the other side is the worker’s life. The actor works at night while the worker works during the day. The first one uses the night and the second one, the day. Therefore, the result will not be the same because life develops under different conditions. At night, the actor doesn’t have the light, and the worker, who works during the day, has conditions for a righteous life. And so, I divide you into two kinds: actors and workers. Here, in the Esoteric School of the Brotherhood of Light, we need no actors. The Brotherhood of Light excludes the life of the actor but accepts workers. I regard those of you who are married as workers on God’s field, but some of you want to play the part of the actor. You do not yet know what Divine Righteousness means. In this Esoteric School the laws for the workers are just as strict as the laws for the actors. Now, I ask you, have you fulfilled your duties as workers? I want of you, the married ones, to take a look at your work, your fields, your gardens, your springs, your cattle, your sheep; to take a look at your houses to see if they are painted, to check your homes and see if they are cleaned out. What is the condition of these co-workers of yours? You need to know this because you are workers. Many of you, the married ones, want to have more privileges but fewer duties. You want to postpone the payment of your debts but in the Divine book there are no postponements of debt payments. This can only happen by Grace. One needs to be patient and wait for some greater Being to help, but don’t think that you will be granted help just like that. You pass as married and, consequently, you want to preach to the young ones. You think that when you leave these fields, the young ones will come onto them after you. What will they find? I speak both in literal and figurative terms. These are some reflections that you need to think over. The Brotherhood of Light suggested that it is my duty to tell you these things tonight. And they, the Brothers of Light, will hold you liable for your fields, for your sheep, for your houses and so on, and so forth. You, who are doubtful (and there are such among you), will know for sure within a year if we are from the Brotherhood of Light or not. Christ is at the head of the Brotherhood of Light. And when he decided upon this injunction, he asked the head and the head gave its consent. God is this head. Thus, all aspects of this matter have been covered. Therefore, you, the married ones, are required to willingly fulfil God’s Law. I do not need to tell you what to do; you will do your work according to your own understanding and as you wish, as your souls wish. When someone’s soul makes a wish, it creates an imprint in this person’s consciousness for the future fulfilment of this wish. This consciousness comprises three great forces: the mind, the heart and the will. Our going into the other world always means a transformation in our consciousness from one form into another. This is the expanding of one’s consciousness. You will understand things differently on different levels. Therefore, Christ descends into the souls only when the consciousness of people expands. For example, when I speak to the married ones, you say, “When the Master said such and such words; he must have had me in mind.” If you say that, it means that you have not understood my words. I am trying to explain the external side of things; I, being a worker, am trying to clean up as a worker because only then will Christ descend. I want your consciousness to expand so that Christ can descend upon you and clarify the things that no human mind or thought can explain. I ask you, married ones, when it comes to your consciousness, what role models are you for the young ones, for your children? Are you doing your part in expanding the young ones’ consciousness so that Christ can come to live in them and to explain to them what Life is and how they should live? You say, “God can do anything.” This is not a philosophy; this means nothing. A father’s blood only runs strong when it enters the veins of the son and flows according the same laws. If it does not flow, the results will be different. Now, many of you are a part of the Brotherhood and come to these lectures only so that your problems can be fixed. You come here as if you were coming to a theatre; you come here expecting a treat after which you leave and say, ”You are not what you are.” You have not understood yet what we are. Thousands of years shall pass before you understand what we are. We are those who expand every man’s consciousness so that Christ can descend and explain the Truth of Life. And this Truth has to be such as to allow for the coming of the Divine Consciousness so that the Law of God’s Love can be manifested throughout the Universe. What could be better than this! With this Truth we can do our work. However, you say, “Lord, have mercy!” How can God have mercy on you if you have not expanded and elevated your consciousness so that Christ can come down and explain to you what you are doing wrong? The mistakes and the temptations are inevitable and if Christ does not come down into your consciousness, these mistakes will create a life of disharmony and all of you suffer from this disharmony. Is there anyone who is not suffering? I always use the following example to explain the methods of the Brotherhood of Darkness and the methods of the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood of Darkness has dark adepts who come down to earth and say, “I’m a shoemaker. I have a special mould for shoes. If you buy my shoes you will remember me forever.” This reminds me of something that happened to me once when I was in Yambol. I was visiting a shoemaker who told me that he loved listening to my lectures. He wanted to make me a pair of shoes so that I would remember him. Indeed, I remember him to this day. If you put your feet in the shoe moulds of the Brotherhood of Darkness, they will make you special shoes that you will never forget. First, they will maim all of your virtues. If you put your foot in that mould, your virtues will inevitably get crippled and you will suffer a lot unless the Brotherhood of Light comes to help you pull your foot out of the mould. Do not offer your feet to the dark brothers to put them in their shoe mould. I am not explaining everything to you now but I will dedicate a special lecture to explain to you everything about this mould. Furthermore, you, the married men and women, do not live the way you should. This is not acceptable to the Brotherhood of Light. Now, if the married ones want to live the way the world lives they can do this out there, in the world, but once they have committed to the Brotherhood of Light, then they will see that there are excellent rules here. You do not yet know how to live. But you can learn these rules. Men and women, all should live according to the Law of Love! Every work done according to the Law of Love is sacred, and without Love it is a crime. If you ask me what is right, I will tell you, right is what is done by Love. I call Love that feeling, which is above all other feelings. When this feeling enters you, you will never frown. Love should be perceived as Man, but not one that is vested in flesh. This is how Love should be perceived. Men should perceive it that way too. I say this to you, the women whom Christ has wed; and to those who Christ has not wed, I have nothing to say. What I mean when I say, married by Christ, is that your consciousness should expand so that Christ can come in and explain everything to you. If this doesn’t happen, you will have such a rigid understanding of things that you will make me wonder from where you get your ideas. Paul once said, “Compete in paying respect to each other!” How? In order to compete in this, you will need to experience a change in your consciousness. You will need someone to learn from. If our mother doesn’t teach us, then how are we going to know? This law is true: one consciousness gets expanded by another consciousness. If your consciousness does not get in contact with another consciousness, it cannot expand; if a mind does not commune with the Divine Mind, it cannot expand. I have noticed a great disharmony in our Brotherhood. I can put up with these things, but you can be sure that this disharmony is not pleasant to me. Now, you may cry, but I don’t want your tears. What I want is for Christ to come into your consciousness and expand it. What I want is for Christ to manifest himself through you. My wish is for Christ to live in you. The happiest day for me will be the day when I see that Christ lives in your consciousness. You can be certain that this will be the happiest day of my life! You might ask, “How will this happen?” There are two ways: some fish are caught during the day, and other fish, at night. Is there any difference? Christ has defined this law: you shall love while it is day! A night is coming when no one will be able to work. Therefore, in order to expand your consciousness, you will need to work, not act but work, during the day. I have decided that in our Esoteric School you should work through experiments. We will begin with the smallest ones and they will gradually follow one after another. But in order for you to progress through the experiments, you need an expansion of your consciousness; you need to experience a change from within. Only then will these rays of spiritual consciousness come to you and create favourable conditions for the seeds that have been planted in you for thousands of years so that you can achieve good results. Have you achieved good results with your present thoughts? You are unhappy because you are missing the most essential thing: your consciousness has not yet expanded and Christ has not yet entered your mind to explain everything to you. He is making efforts to get to you but because you are not ready, all you can get out of his efforts is temporary moods where you feel elevated but then you are down. When you, in turn, make efforts, they will be futile unless you let Christ into your consciousness and unless you let the Divine Love into your consciousness. It will not be easy to achieve the expected results. Don’t think that the transformation of one life into another is easy. So much artistry and knowledge is needed in order to transform a plant into the form of an animal! If you only knew that, you would have pondered upon it seriously, but right now, you reckon that this transformation happens easily. No, it does not happen easily. The Spirit of God that is working within you will accomplish everything; my talking to you alone won’t do it. Christ needs to come in and then the Resurrection will come - the Resurrection that implies a New Life in new forms. “You will rise from the graves.” But not if you are the same way as you are now; if you eat and drink the way you do now. Don’t think that these things will continue the same way as they are now. No, there won’t be even a trace left of what is now, of this present form! Certain principles may remain, reminding one of, reminiscent of the old, but we will be completely transformed. Someone may say, “The present conditions of life are in my way.” No, they cannot be in your way! I talk about those disciples who are dedicated. But you are not yet completely dedicated disciples. There are several categories of disciples: listenerproselyte-disciples, believer-disciples and disciple-disciples. The first kind of disciple has certain duties and rights; the second one, too, has certain duties and rights, but the third one is above all the rest. What the disciple does, the listener proselyte doesn’t have to do and vice versa. And everyone should look at Life according to his level. If he is a listenerproselyte, he has certain duties and certain rights and you cannot ask him why he does what he does. And if the listener proselyte asks the believer, “Why are you doing this?” the latter will respond, “When you get to where I’m at, you will know why I live and work this way.” God does not have to inform us why He does this or that. He will say, “When you pass through these seven fires, so that I can purify you, you will know.” He will give you absolutely no other explanation. Job, too, asked the Lord but He said nothing. But after Job passed through the fire seven times, then God called and said, “Come, talk to me now.” And Job said, “I have heard of You from others and I have committed many sins, but because I saw You now, I will not speak nonsense.” One of you may be in Job’s situation to ask, “Lord, how much longer will I have to suffer and for how much longer will I be in debt?” God says nothing. Do not think that your deliverance will come from your friends, nor from your enemies. If you think that, you are wrong. Your deliverance is in the following: you need to expand your consciousness and let Christ in so that he can explain to you the fact. If this happens, you will be delivered; if this does not happen, this fact will haunt you all the time, like some demon causing you mischief. Now, some people come to me and ask me why this and that happens. Today someone came to me and asked me, “Do you know what these disciples of yours are doing? Why don’t you correct them?” I told him, “I cannot tell them anything because we all live according to the Law of Freedom.” “Well”, he said, “How about discipline? Is there no such thing?” “No, there isn’t.” “But you can enforce some discipline”, he said. Afterwards, he invited me to visit him at home. Then I told him, “I will not come to your home.” “Why?” he asked. “If you want me to come to your home”, I told him, ”You need to expand your consciousness and let Christ in, i.e. let the Love in. You are just like my disciples; you, people, are the same: you want to lure me into your trap. Neither you nor they are disciples of Christ. Here is what I say, we have one great law - we want to live and understand Life in a different way and we want to make it right. You may say, “Do you know what our Master is doing?” But you are not responsible for me. Other times you say, “Is it fitting for him to wear yellow shoes and a white hat? And then, white coats are for children, he needs a black one.” But what is it all to you? You care about insignificant things when what should really matter to you is what is in my mind, my heart and my will. You can wear whatever clothes and shoes you want to but what matters to me is your mind, your heart, your will and, most of all, your soul and the presence of Christ in your soul. I know that you need to work on these things until your life acquires a true meaning. Only then will we understand each other properly! Sometimes it is a blessing to be a teacher, and other times, it is a blessing to be a student. A day will come when you will understand the relationship between the Master and the disciple. God will explain this relationship to you. And my wish is for you to be one of those blessed disciples. Some of you are seeking deliverance, you want for the Divine Sun to open up so that you can enter. The deliverance will not happen that way. Your deliverance will come when you open your consciousness to let Christ in. Then you will be truly delivered. Then all external circumstances, which are binding you now - poverty and everything else - all of this will become harmonized and you will see Life in a new light. Now, there is another thought in your mind; you think, “If we don’t finish this work today, we can do it some other day.” No, you must work now! Let’s say, for example, that you are an owner and I am a worker. You hire me to cultivate hoe your vineyard but, instead, I spend the day counting the posts dead vines and in the evening I tell you how many of them there are in the vineyard. On the second day, I go out in the vineyard again, but, instead of cultivatinghoeing, I count how many canes there are and I calculate how much fruit they will yield. On the third day I count how many leaves of grass there are and so on. In the end, I tell you, the owner, that I have finished the job. You think that the vineyard has been cultivated hoed and you pay me, but when you go out to the vineyard and take a look at it, what will you think? I’m sorry to tell you this, but this is how you are working on God’s field right now: instead of cultivating hoeing the vineyard, you are counting the posts dead vines and the vine stickscanes. I do not mind your counting the posts dead vines and the sticks canes and the leaves of grass, as long as you cultivate hoe around the vines, as well. Acting is one way to work, the second way requires that you cultivate hoe the vineyard first and, once that is done, you can count the postsdead vines, the sticks canes and the leaves of grass. What you do now is you come to me and say, “Our vines won’t grow.” Yes, they won’t grow because you, my disciples, won’t dighoe. So, here is my solution to the problem, you have the statistics, you have counted the postsdead vines, the sticks canes and the leaves of grass. Then I will get the hoe, and will cultivate hoe the vineyard. If you have cultivatedhoed, then I will do the counting. There are Masters out there who only count the posts dead vines and the vine stickscanes. If you cultivate hoe the vineyard, things will even themselves out. This is a method, an allegory you can use for future work. (Note to the editors, explaining all the corrections I did on this paragraph: I have thought about this paragraph a lot, because I felt like I did not have the exact English words to correctly convey the meaning. Recently I worked in a neighbour’s vineyard and that helped me find a better English rendition of the Bulgarian text.) I tell you this so that you will know how to expand your consciousness into which Christ has not yet come. Christ is working and making all the effort. You have the desire but you need patience. You will be put to the test on the operating table. When they operate on you in the White Brotherhood, they will not anaesthetize you and that is why you need to stay completely still because if you move, the knife will go in deeper. Now all of you are undergoing such operations. Those operations where you are awake are the best and the ones where you are anaesthetized are the worst. I have reverted to the former ones only rarely and only a disciple who is a true believer can go through those. If you realize that this is performed according to the Law of Love, you would be ready to go through it, otherwise you would be kicking and fighting and the knife would only go deeper, the operation would fail and such people would remain sickly in a spiritual sense. I will go no further, because I do not want to disturb your mind and make you think that you have nothing in you. What is truly essential has not arrived yet. This field is not ripe, yet you still have not filled the barn with wheat. When the barn starts to overflow, then the new direction of Life will manifest itself. With this lecture I want to assign work to all of you. And, just like with real workers, I want to create work for all married ones. I will start with the smallest experiment again. The task I will give you will be to work for me, for Christ, for Love for only five minutes. You could work miracles in only five minutes. I don’t want one hour, but only five minutes. Does anyone mind? If someone misuses these five minutes, he is not a disciple. If he cannot work for Christ for only five minutes, he is done with. No discussions and no philosophizing are needed; just get to it right away! You will forget your wife and your children and everything else in these five minutes! You will work for Christ mindfully and only after that can you philosophize and discuss and ask if this matter is done and over with. Note this: it’s only five minutes! How much is a hundred days by five minutes? You will continue this exercise for ten years. It is a microscopic exercise but in one year, this makes thirty hours and twenty-five minutes; in ten years, it is three hundred and four hours or twenty-five days and four hours. In these ten years, you, as workers, will dedicate twenty-five days to Christ according to the Law of Love. Five minutes every day! There is no other philosophy for the way this can be done. I will not explain it to anyone. I will give you two weeks from now to think about the five minutes or about the twenty-five days for Christ for these ten years. Those of you who are ready to work will come in to work. When your five minutes begin, you will forget that you are married, that you are a clerk or something else, and you will feel like a newborn in the Kingdom of God, who will do the Will of God. And then you will understand the meaning of my words from the very first day of your working for Christ. The second experiment is the following: I will appoint a day when, at a specific hour, you will work for Christ for five minutes. I will appoint it specifically and then I will send all the bears your way. You should know this. Then, if you keep walking bravely, they will make way for you and will say, “It is possible to work for Christ for five minutes.” The bears, too, understand this law. I will keep going, as well. You will wait for the most important exercise to come along: five minutes for Christ! And make sure you clean your home well! He who does not clean well… This is what I was told to say to you, do you understand that? And if you are faithful, then you will know the Truth and the Truth will know you. I will leave this question unanswered, because others are waiting outside. You, married ones, now is the time when we want to wed you! And so… If it is unfinished, you will mark it with three dots. You have two weeks to think about the five minutes. You will free your mind, your heart and your will. I want you to think freely at last! The experiment will begin soon. These experiments are minute, but when you start doing them, they will lead to bigger things. We will start off with the little things, which are for the children. And when the children are busy, God is happy. Therefore, we will create happiness for God when He sees that we work for Him mindfully and without being forced to do so. If the young ones ask you about the things that I told you today, you can tell them in two weeks. After two weeks you will tell my words to the young ones. June 2, 1922, Veliko Turnovo27

LINKS OF KNOWLEDGE Year 1, Lecture 14 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno May 31, 1922, Wednesday 19.30h, Sofia Reflection The disciple's essays were read on the topic: “Why Should We Love and Why Should We Be Loved?” Your essays are well written, but only in form, not in content and meaning. Have you experienced what you have written? The way of thinking you exhibit in your essays is involutionary. In order to free yourselves from such thinking, you need to turn your attention to Nature and find the proper answers to the questions there. In your understanding those who love always give. I am asking, does one give anything while eating? Not only does he not give anything, but he takes also. Now you need to answer the following question: “Why should humans eat?” The one who loves gives everything, and the one who is loved receives everything. In addition, when someone loves somebody else, he tries to appropriate them. If a master loves his servant, he doesn't allow him to express himself, which is a kind of appropriation. When you love your horse, you don't give it freedom. What does Love give then? Love gives nothing. As you can see, the conceptual basis of your thinking is wrong. You can apply these concepts in real Life and observe the results. If you decide to do this, you will arrive at a number of contradictions. In your view, the one who is loved receives and the one who loves gives only. I will give you an example to clarify to you the questions of giving and receiving love. When a young man goes into an inn, the inn-keeper likes him from the very first instant. He expresses his love by offering him wine. He fills glass after glass with wine and the young man accepts them all, thus receiving his love all the time.The young man gets filled up and so does inn-keeper. However there is a difference: nothing will remain for the drunkard of what he receives from the inn-keeper, but what the inn-keeper receives from the drunkard - all will be his. He will take the drunkard’s money, houses and lands – depriving him of all his material possessions and of his health too. Therefore, the love that people speak of is like the love that occurs between the inn-keeper and the drunkard. Is such love ideal? No, it isn't, yet people say that there is something Divine in Love. What kind of love has Divine manifestations? If you were put to the test now, none of you would be able to prove your love. This means that you say one thing, but do quite another. Is what you have written true? Someone has written that Love requires sacrifices. Do you know what sacrifice means? Above all, sacrifices should be voluntary, not forced. Have you sacrificed yourself voluntarily? As you can see, we have made a short analysis of the topic you wrote about for today. I am asking, why should you love and be loved? Do you need it? You need none of it. Love is beyond any law. Therefore, if you need to love, this indicates that some law forces you to do it. If there is a law, there is limitation too. How will you explain this contradiction? If an external necessity or a law makes you love, it is not Love anymore. Then, after having loved, what have you attained or lost? What kind of experience have you gained? When I am asking these questions I want you to think soundly and correctly, so that you can come to Reality. I am not denying things in any way, but I am saying that you have old ideas. For example, to be in love or to be loved – these are old ideas, ideas of males and females. Males want to love, females – to be loved. These ideas have existed since time immemorial and contemporary people take them and paint them on the outside in different colours, decorate them with coloured beads and bright shining gems until they become like a village beauty. Thus they present them as something new. If you don't agree with this, show me a couple who, having lived in compliance with this kind of love, have completed their life in an ideal way. How has the relationship between two friends ended who have harboured the same kind of love towards each other? If you trace the whole history of human development, you will not find any two people who, having lived in accordance with this kind of love, have completed their lives well. When I am talking in this way, I have no intention of saying that your reasoning is wrong. Your reasoning is right from your point of view and wrong from an occult point of view. When you come to Love, there is no place for discussion. Love excludes all questions. Love excludes all contradictions. Love excludes all violence. Love excludes all limitations. Now that you know all this, how will you define Love? Your love lacks an element that you should find out for yourself. Can you find out which element is missing in your love? Now I am going to ask you a question: “Why do you look at people and why do people look at you?” Both sides – those who look and those who are an object of observation – perform the same process. A person asks: “Why are you looking at me?” The other person answers: “Aren't you looking at me too?” So, both of them look at each other at the same time. Is there any difference between these two processes? The difference is slight and hardly perceptible. I will give you the following example in order to clarify the difference: two camps of hostile troops are at war. One of them is attacking – it is active, the other one is in defense – it is passive. Both troops – the attacking and the defending one – act in the same way. Both of them use gunfire. The only difference is that the attackers move, while the others stay in one place. The first group changes its position, while the second one keeps it. Otherwise, they don'tt differ significantly from each other. The difference between the two situations which we examined before – to love and to be beloved, is the same. When you examine Love from a conceptual point of view, you have to consider the smallest expression of love. The smallest expression of love is finite. If the question is raised why we should receive love and why we should love, this is finite love, i.e. love with limits. You confuse finite love with Infinite Love, but they are completely different. When you need money, you go to the bank to take out a loan. In this case the banker is giving and you are receiving. The banker is the passive side and you, coming from outside, are the active side. You attack your enemy and he either gives something or pushes back. This example illustrates the extent and the nature of your feelings. As disciples of an occult school, you should analyze your feelings in order to know the material you have at your disposal, and hence to foresee the results you will achieve. One may find himself in funny situations until one understands these things. Someone will meet him and ask: “Why do you not look at me?” How can this person look at you if he is blind? And if you are also blind, how will you look at each other? First of all, you should ask yourself if you have Love in you and if your love is unfailing. It is not enough to speak about Love only, but you have to apply it in Life also. If it is just a matter of speaking, the blind can also speak about Light without having any idea of it. They have their own understanding of Light, but it is not absolute. In the same way, you also have something similar to Love, but that is not real Love. This is why people often ask themselves the question why they should love. Someone says that it is better to receive love than to love, but have you met anyone who loves you in the full sense of word? You say that your soul grows and develops when you are loved. Have you tested this? Some famous writers support this idea, but have they tested this truth? I don't deny this fact but I want to draw your attention to The One who really loves you. Do you feel in a definite and concrete way that Someone loves you? You will answer that a boyfriend or a girlfriend is in love with you. How long will this love last? It only lasts an instant. It is not Love yet, only a fleeting manifestation of Love. Even if someone has given you a present or has invited you for lunch – it is a temporary manifestation of Love. Therefore, when you say that your soul will grow in someone’s love, you deceive yourself. This growth is an outer polishing, a temporary taming in my view. If you are put through a test, this polishing will vanish. When Love enters you, it creates a number of alchemic processes, under the influence of which your whole being and your entire existence change. It could happen instantly or gradually – this depends on the person. Under the influence of Love your views are changed and reshaped in the same way that carbon is changed and transformed into a diamond. Think of Love as a Power and as a principle, so that you can arrive at positive knowledge. You are moving now in the right direction, but you are using old methods that cannot help you. For example, a husband and a wife love each other, converse, read the Gospel together and everything goes well. However the man says: “My dear, I want you to cook something good for me!” – “All right, but what will you buy for me?” They speak about Love but do things the old way. Then they will say that God has determined it to be this way. They themselves spoil things and put the blame on God. This is not love but looking in a mirror. One loves another person for being able to look at this person as if they were a mirror. In reality what they love is their own image in the mirror. Thus they harm themselves too, because they deceive themselves. Someone who loves himself loves others too. The Lodge of darkness has created a lot of theories and concepts about Love which confuse everybody - scientists, philosophers, writers – and everyone sinks deeper and deeper into this confusing mess. It has been written in the Scriptures too: “The whole world lies in the sly one.” When writing on a topic, the disciple needs to concentrate deeply, to see what has been written inside by his own experiences and to bring that knowledge to the surface. If he decides to describe what other people have said on this issue, he will drift away from the Truth. I am going to speak about the manifestation of Love in form, not in principle, in another lecture. For the time being what you need is the form of things, they are what you should understand. Love can be manifested in a form that is appropriate for its nature. So we need to find the right forms and this involves the greatest difficulties. Love has visited everybody but for a brief time only. E.g., someone gets inspired, finds himself in a good mood and says: “I will give away all my possessions, I want to serve God.” Two or three hours later this positive mood goes away, the person calms down and says: “It is not the right time for this, I shall not hurry.” In five or six months he will get inspired again and will be ready to give everything. All of a sudden he will get startled again and postpone it. And if you open the book of his life, you will see that it is full of decisions that were taken but not acted upon. This is the kind of love that most people exhibit. It doesn't mean that they have no Love. All people have Love in them, but their Love has not been applied in practice yet. What I am saying now concerns you as disciples. You should not say anything to others until you create new forms for the manifestation of Love. If you talk without having acquired these new forms, you will encounter greater difficulties and contradictions. Everything I said about why you should love and why you should receive love does not exhaust the topic of Love. These are just ideas to awaken your thought, however everyone needs to find an answer to the question about Love on their own. I will now give you an image for reflection. You have a pot with a cover that fits well. At some point you leave the pot somewhere and everyone who passes by stumbles on it and kicks it. You throw the cover of the pot as well and so the pot remains open. Suppose that the pot represents a woman, the cover – a man. What should they do? The pot should find its cover. Who should love whom – should the pot love its cover or the cover - its pot? I am giving you these examples for reflection in class only; I do not want to affect your feelings. These are theoretical questions; I am leaving your feelings aside. If your pot is open, if it is without a cover, you should find its cover and put it in its place. This means: if your feelings are in the open, they could become dusty and injured by someone. In order to avoid this, find the cover of your feelings, i.e. find those thoughts that can fit them well. Then the cover will be solid and the pot will be whole and undamaged. This is a method by which you can regulate your feelings in the right way. Did you understand this idea? It is even better if you didn't. Why is that? Because things which have been understood often get distorted. According to occult science, what has been understood actually hasn't, and the other way round. When you think that you have understood something, in reality you haven't; when you think that you have not grasped it, then you have. Love is metaphysical so it cannot be comprehended easily. You would ask: “Why are you talking about Love, if we cannot comprehend it?” I will give you an example in order to explain to you my purpose in speaking about Love. Each one of you represents a small plant that has just started to grow. Its stem and branches are very tender and cannot endure big trials. When it starts snowing, the snow covers the young branches and leaves and without external help they will brake. The Word that I deliver to you represents a soft wind which comes to help your branches. It blows the snow away and frees your branches. This wind is necessary so that the wind can fall down to the ground. The snow represents your old ideas which are not in your roots, but on your branches. If the snow doesn't fall down, your branches will be broken. Many of your branches get broken under the weight of your old ideas. The old ideas should be in the roots, not on the branches. I have nothing against your ideas, but they represent a danger for the branches of your life that could be broken under their weight. This is why at least some soft wind is necessary for you. Some of you are afraid that the snow, i.e. their ideas will fall. This is not dangerous at all – the snow should anyway fall down towards the roots of the plants. When Love is awakened in a person, this person wishes that no one would notice and know about it. This is an aspiration of the person’s soul. For as long as no one has noticed his/her Love, this person is joyful and content. If his/her Love gets noticed, then the joy disappears. Do the following experiment to put my words to the test. When passing by a poor man, put twenty or thirty leva in front of him without anyone noticing. As you go away, you will feel great joy. The next day, when you go by the same place, give this man twenty or thirty leva personally. He will thank you, but after knowing you he will expect you to give him money every time you pass by him. In this case, you will not be joyful. Why? Something has spoiled Love. Therefore, Love is a tender flower that grows and develops far from human eyes. No one should know about it. In the first instant, you manifested your love for the poor man in secret, no one saw it and knew about it, that is why you were joyful, and the poor man was joyful too. In the second instant, you manifested your Love openly in daytime and the poor man saw you – this time you lost and he won. With this example I introduced you to a new measure for Love. When compared to this measure, your current understanding of Love appears really antique, archaic. However this new formula of Love cannot be applied in practice, because there are no proper conditions for it in your present life – there is form, but no content yet. The content needs to come from you. In the future, when the conditions are more favourable, I will give you a task on Love that you should accomplish without pen and paper, directly. Until then it will be a secret, no one will know about it. Then you will test your own theory about why we should love and receive love. These are important ideas and they should remain for the class. Even if you think about these issues at home, you will imagine that you are in class. Try not to mix these ideas with the ideas of the world. If you mix them, you will make a mistake. Imagine that you put half a litre of water in a one-litre bottle. If this water stays in the bottle for four days, it will lose its freshness. Later I will give you a small bottle full of clean mountain water, just filled from the spring. You will take this bottle and pour its content into the big bottle. Will you do the right thing? No, you will make a big mistake. You should keep the bottle I gave you separately. Next time please write on the topic: “Designation of the Hands”.

On The Path Thirteenth lecture by Master Beinsa Douno held before the Universal esoteric class on May 26th 1922, Thursday, 11-12:00 Vitosha Mountain. Now, bear in mind that I do not wish to judge you; this is about the application of the principle of Love. If you can apply it, this is all right, but if you judge one another, you cannot have love. In an assembly just one cannot be blamed, rather it will be the case that either all are righteous, or all are wrong. If a penalty is given, all of you will bear it and if a blessing is given, again it will be intended for all of you. So, I ask of you to apply the Divine principle of Love - you should apply it, I should not impose it upon you as if I do so, then this will not be Love but coercion. I told you that if after the end of my talk you start looking for the one who is to blame, I shall not speak at all. Arrange these matters among yourselves in the spirit of brotherhood; apply the great principle of Love. Only because an organization is created, this principle will not be perfect. For you still cannot grasp how the principle may be applied. Do not grieve the Divine Spirit. What is being done is not against me but against God. Who will speak to you then? Can a commission be selected which will ascertain that the rules of order are adhered to? You can choose seven people; you are able to do this. You will obey, everything you do will be based on the principle of Love, do you understand? You should set this rule; if you do not, the principle cannot work and you will be subordinated to the same principles that the world, the state, and the church were founded upon, and then nothing will be successful. I will touch on a number of elements of Love in its new manifestation. It is one thing to speak of Love and quite another to experience it - this is what we are concerned with now. When a student or a musician makes a mistake, if he plays falsely, the teacher cannot forgive him. There are things in the world, which can be forgiven, but there are things that cannot. When someone takes money from you, you can forgive him, but when a great musician plays, he is not allowed to strike a false note; he will have to do no more than is necessary to correct the note. It is a necessary principle and Life does not forgive - we have to correct the note. Life is music and everyone wants to play it as they know. Take for instance a bandmaster; I say, according to the principle his life has to be reformed, as one can only be a musician if one has Love. Everyone has to live in compliance with the principle of Love. And if you do not wish to live like this, no one can impose it on you forcibly. Only with your good will can you live this way. And I know that you all want to live, you wish for your lives to be harmonious and for yourselves to be happy. You, the disciples have tested me do you understand? You acted as a teacher, and as you become teachers, I am prepared to leave the school. I am ready to accept from you each thought, your every feeling, all of this and no more. If the Divine Spirit speaks through you, and expresses certain Divine thoughts, then I will accept them, the source is still the same. Our desire is for the Love of God to be manifested among us in all its completeness - this is the only way to succeed. If we do not apply this principle, there will be no success but only constant misunderstandings. Sometimes when I join you I feel a heavy and disharmonious atmosphere, do you understand? Just as smoke renders breathing hard in a café, it feels the same when I am among you. You do not want this either; you suffer from it but do not know how to liberate yourselves. And I want to show you a method you can use to release this weight. This will not happen at once but I will show you a principle and you will work on it. Now I do not judge you; such was the old teaching. I want you to apply to yourselves the principle of the great Divine Love; thus, young and old have to respect each other, to honour and forgive each other. Now, for instance, when I leave you will start looking for the one to blame. If someone always has to be pointed at as guilty, the world will never change for the better. For finding somebody to blame shall not set things right - even if we hang or imprison him, someone else will take his place and there will always be someone guilty. All right then, are you ready to accept what I am going to tell you now? (Everyone replies: Yes, we are.) Now ask your inner selves this question - if you accept it and apply it in accordance with the principle of Love, this shall be a blessing for you. Sing the song “Bless my soul, dear God”. Look at living Nature around us - it is a Divine abode, a Divine home. And all the energies that are stored in it have different directions; each energy has its own channel through which to flow. When we need energy for our stomach, it comes through food, when we need energy for our lungs, it comes through the air we breathe, when we need energy for our eyes, it comes through light; when we need energy from the spoken word, it comes through our sense of hearing, when we need the energy of the aroma of flowers, we can receive it through our sense of smell. Now you have accepted a philosophy; you want to receive all of these various energies through your mouth. We are talking about Love but Love can be accepted through your mouth, your eyes, ears, nose – anywhere. When Love is accepted through the mouth, it will have one effect if it is accepted through the nose - another and so on. It depends on how we accept Divine Love. Now, you speak of Love; you still have not loved. I will conduct a microscopic experiment, I want to ask you what Love is, how you have felt it, if you have had one vivid experience of Divine Love. You have small experiences of Love, but how long did this Love last for? Tell me now, was there such an experience in your lives when Love took over your soul, your mind, your heart for a whole year, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a whole month, do you have the experience when Love overwhelmed your soul for a month, do you have the experience where Love overcame you for a day? If Love swept over you at once, you would not reason at all, you would decide on the spot and your decision would not be the silliest, but the wisest one. When Divine Love operates in the world, it operates through the best methods. And you should all keep in mind that in order for Divine Love to inhabit us, the Spirit has to work on our physical and Spiritual bodies for a very long time to prepare them to accept the energy. If the intensive energy of Love were to pass through our bodies now, then it would have the effect of melting us. Therefore, Divine Love constantly adapts in accordance with the condition of our spiritual bodies and the level of development we have achieved; our Spirit works incessantly. If you hinder the Spirit, who works inside you whom will you harm? And it keeps working, conducting a sort of installation. If progress is made but you unscrew the whole installation, whom do you harm? – No one but yourselves. Say, for instance, you have a bad thought, whom do you harm? -Yourselves. You have doubts; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. You fear; whom do you harm? - Yourselves. Now fear has taken its place in the modern world. Why does doubt appear? For we know both fear and doubt. Fear is only a trait, a feature of our hearts. If you could only know how negative fear is! For instance, you fear losing your life. Someone promised to give you money, you doubt it; doubt, on the other hand, is a negative feature of the mind. So, if you can doubt that someone will pay you back, then you doubt the possibility of this happening. Thus, you transfer your doubt from men onto God. Sometimes you doubt me, I can read your thoughts: “Maybe you do not speak on behalf of God but on your own behalf”. But I always distinguish between my own thoughts and Divine thoughts. Inside me, my thoughts and God’s thoughts are strictly determined; I can then direct each of my own thoughts to the left and every Divine thought to the right, i. e. I say, ”This is Divine, and this is human”. And now were my actions inspired by Divinity or by my purely human side? They caused you to fear that you would lose something. Now, fear implies that your Love is on the outside and fear has taken Love’s place - on the inside, do you understand? And the reason why you cannot live in harmony with yourselves is because fear lives within you. If I came to your house and said, “Lend me two thousand leva,” and you have three thousand, you would say you needed it while in fact you did not. And yet you claim to be a man who believes in God and has Love. You have no Love but merely fear. If I came and asked you a favour – you would state clearly, “I am not inclined to give you anything even though I have money in my safe.” This is what an evangelist said in Varna when someone asked to borrow some money, “I have money in my safe, but I cannot lend any to you, for I do not trust you”. Why should I lend you money and then only fight over it; if you want me to give you money, as I would to a brother, then I will. Fear - this state shows that Divine Love is not working. It begins to work and then you hinder it. For example, if a sister of yours erred in some way, how many of you would gather in the evening and pray for her, saying: “God, fill the heart of our sister, let her know”? Instead of this when you see her, when you go out you would only criticize her. When you go out, do not talk about her. You do not have the courage to speak up and tell the Truth – you are not brave, you are faint-hearted, and yet you claim to be righteous. When I say brave, I do not mean you should be rude. Brave is the one who can speak the Truth – no more, no less. So, Truth in Love itself would say, “Brother, you are going one way but this method is not the right one”. (A dog barks at a cow) Now, take this Cow. The cow represents the Good inside you, and the dogs represent the lower passions – the inferior intellect, which is chasing away the cow. It is not her fault that she is here and the dogs interfere with a type of work, which is beyond them - for no one has appointed them to guard; nevertheless, to show that they are righteous, they will chase the cow away. I will tell you a truth: Life through exposing others’ mistakes will never be reformed. If we expose each other, we will never improve. Now you shall have patience. I had given you an assignment for today - to write about your biggest shortcoming, did you write? (-Yes.) Collect the papers and read them. Well, will you sell your deficiencies to me? I want to buy them, how much money do you want? No, no, I will pay (Brother Stoychev: So that you can take us for an outing for one month a year, to teach us; one month in Turnovo - for everyone, and then one month - only for those of us who are here.) It shall be done when you apply the principle of Love, it shall be done. You will experience God; we will apply the principle of Love. God’s word is law; if we abide by it, we shall see what we are capable of doing. Now, I will take these shortcomings of yours and when we enter the Spiritual School we will work without them. I will only grant you half a credit now, as I do not have much money. I have half of the sum at my disposal, I can pay it over a month and a half, but I do not have enough for three months - to be honest, I can only pay half. How do you want it - in cash or another form? I can pay one thousand leva, ten thousand leva, or thirty thousand leva. (-We do not want money.) This is what can be done. Once you fall in love with your shortcomings, you will improve. This is a separate topic and we will reach it in due course, there are methods you will use. These defects are at the same time virtues: to be selfish is not bad in itself, but to be as selfish as to harm yourself - this is bad; to have the kind of impatience that makes you run for your life when in danger is correct. But when you have taken on important work, then impatience is misplaced. When someone or something threatens you, you have to be impatient. You should be aware already how to employ some of these qualities. Now, what you wish for shall be done. What we have set out to do we can do in two days or in a month, in two months or three months - the principle remains the same, we can do it, the Scripture says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible”. And you have very rightly raised the issue of the need for you to spend one month close to Nature - you shall be patient. (Brother Stoychev: We will be here, in the woods, if the Master decides to escape we will outstrip him, otherwise if he were in the city, how would we find him? Everyone laughs and so does the Master.) Now use your intuition to choose a commission of seven people from the Brotherhood that will see to the observance of order. They shall be selected for the duration of one year, when this year ends, others shall be chosen. (-May the first be chosen by the Master, the second one - by the first, the third – by the second and so forth.) All right, I select Nacho Petrov. (The latter chooses Stoyan Rousev, he chooses Elena Ivanova, she- Cohen, he- Iliya Stoychev, Zdravka Popova and Theresa Keremidchieva.) Do they agree? (-Yes.) (Brother Tolev: Let us never again speak of the aforementioned accident, as if nothing happened at all. Brother Grablashev: If it is useful, let us speak of it.) Listen to me now, I will decide the matter: you have the right to talk about my mistakes but if you decide to speak about your own mistakes, I shall punish you. You may speak about my mistake, you may say, “Our Master made a mistake!” You may speak but say nothing but the Truth, make no exaggerations. When you speak, do so quietly and calmly, first of all address your minds to God, ask him: “God I wish to tell about this incident, may I do so?” If God allows you to speak about it, do so but if he does not - remain silent. And if something is gnawing at your mind that may be merely a worm and a worm can be of no use to you whatsoever. Now I will explain why you cannot talk about certain things when you are located at six hundred metres altitude. Imagine you are a hundred meters deep in water; will you be able to speak? - No, you will not. When you emerge a hundred metres above the water, the conditions enable you to speak - there is air. Consequently, at six hundred metres in depth, the conditions are not favourable - you will swallow water, at two thousand meters you can speak, as there is enough air. In our Spiritual School, when I inform you of an outing, it is as if we use our keys to unlock a door – you then become connected to the Invisible world. For instance, I assigned the sisters a task but you never completed correctly even one of my orders. This is exactly what happened earlier, I told you: over the period of one year, you shall all go to Vitosha but absolutely no one has to know, you can only tell me. I did not instruct you to retail it to the whole city. Consequently, you should have waited and told others about it only once the test was finished; while it was in progress, you should have remained silent. As a result, some undesired accidents occurred. So, when you are given a task, I want you to follow my instructions strictly. If we have decided on twelve o’clock - twelve is definitive! You, as you come, will judge by the results. Before you have done something you shall not draw any conclusions, the test has to be entirely carried out. Moreover, when you are being tested, you should not insist on the smallest details. One says, “We shall choose Full Moon”; no, you will choose a dark night, as only then will you see God. You should trust in God; when you look for Full Moon, this means you do not confide in him, the task is only carried out half way through. The task is that this must be done on a dark night - when it is stormy and rainy and there is thunder, then you shall go out, you shall pray and God will speak to you. Then again, you will think, “I may catch a cold.” when Divine matters are concerned, you will not catch a cold. I serve as example: I have sat by my room’s window in wintertime so many years to give talks. Had it been someone else - a professor - he would have come down with pneumonia in no more than a month. Then, how many of those who stayed outside got a cold? These are minute experiments but they are true experiments. Let someone else come and speak for an hour and a half in the cold, we will see what will become of him. You need to strengthen your faith for this principle to work. I told you: do not expect much, the results will be small, microscopic, as the present conditions do not favour big achievements. But from these small experiences we will achieve very good results in our own time. I congratulate you; you carried out this experiment with great zeal. I told you to think it over for a whole year and instead you finished it in two weeks. It can be repeated but in a new variation. Now, this test will be slightly harder but it will bring better results. The trials I give you will chase the fear away from your hearts; you will learn to trust in God. And then when you go out in a dark night, the eyes, the sight will be toned, your every nerve will be strained, your mind is present in every part of your body - this is good. When you go out in Vitosha, it will seem that many dangers await you; you might think you see a bear or a wolf, your hearts will leap. I know, for some of you, your hearts leaped twenty times. And anyone in the city, who hears that you went out to Vitosha on a dark night, will say: “He is out of his mind - to discredit a man or a woman like this.” This is why I am telling you, no one should know. If a man or woman goes, this is something you should remain silent about; once you have tried it yourselves you can speak from your own experience. We will experience more. We will create the necessary conditions for those brothers who do not have the possibility of completing the task, so long as they have Love in their hearts. I will find favourable conditions for them but they need to get in touch with Nature within themselves - according to the principle of Love. Then I may work together with them as a teacher can only work with able students. When you are alone we cannot do all the work. You need to do the work and so do I. For there will be outings, tests, which I will be the first to carry out and then I will say, “You may start now, the way is clear.” For instance, you have caused me great apprehension: during these two weeks, I could not sleep as there was such disharmony and anything could have happened. There were villains in town that had made up their minds to follow you and I had to apply/focus/ my mind to dissuade them. You think God will guard you; we have to be clever, only then will God guard us. You shall not pass a second time through Dragalevtsi, you will not take the road but shall walk out of the village; and you will enter the darkest woods - they will be the safest. So, you will achieve excellent results, these tests will give you greater decisiveness, you will become healthier, your minds will be sharper and your thoughts - more vivid. And when you come back from such a test you will think clearer. I have noticed that those who have completed the task after they return reason very well a person, who is brave, can reason very well. But now we will all decide. One thing that the Universal Brotherhood requires is for us to be completely faithful to the principles it teaches us. Faithful, faithful! These principles are absolute and cannot change. And once they set a task we have to complete it with no mistakes - once, twice, until they are satisfied; then you will see. You want tests, trials, then let us carry out this experiment: the sky is cloudy, we shall say: “May these clouds disappear at once!” the second day the skies are clear, we then say “May there be clouds!” on the third day the barometer points it will be dry, we say “Let it rain!” and it will rain. I call all these experiments microscopic and they can be completed for you to see that there are principles in the world, which we can use. In Nature, there are friends who can help us. However, this is not a matter of curiosity but a way to reinforce your faith, to demonstrate that when one loves God, one is capable of anything. Then I will not choose just any day, I will choose a day when there is great drought, when people need rain - this is when we will carry out the experiment. So, it will rain not to satisfy your curiosity but to use this Divine energy. Let us say there is drought, it is clear; we will carry out the experiment to bring about clouds, to prove to these people that we will use everything in the name of Good. A Teacher is never allowed to waste the Divine energy and neither is a disciple. This is why we will start researching all forms of Life in Nature – we will study the plant kingdom. These are features that Nature has given us. All forms save their energy. From plants, we learn how to use energy - to do a lot of work quickly. Now I will say one thing: I am truly satisfied with you. You see I am satisfied with you because you do all you can. I cannot ask for more. Sometimes you even do more than is required and this is where your mistakes come from - from excessive zeal. For instance, I instructed someone to go to the plateau; instead, he went to Black peak. This is good as well, the task is to the plateau but you insist on more. I tell you to go out of town to arrive to the destination in four hours; he did this over two and a half-hours. But you will only hurt yourself like this, take your time, do not hurry! But you are very expeditious, wishing to do it quicker. No, you will take your time. For each task you are given, you will take the necessary time – you will not shorten the time you need, you will use it to carry out your tasks successfully. You need to take account of these remarks. If you get there, in two hours and a half, this is not bad but it will result in a misfortune, you will lose more energy than you need. You may fall ill in two weeks and then you will say, “I went and so now I am unwell.” Then, when we speak of brotherhood and equality, this does not infer a depreciation of the human soul. No, we understand them as a manifestation of human individuality - if possible, the manifestation of the spiritual conscience in a superior form. Initially, you have the conscience of a child, you expect to be helped and you cry. So, the mother and the father of this child take care of it and provide it with milk. But the child then grows up, its conscience broadens and it is fully emancipated, and has become free and independent. This is why I say that our conscience has to broaden. We can achieve this and this is God’s will. When a sister has a good wish, do not obstruct her but wish her good even if she does not do well - she will do better the second time. We are faced with a big dilemma: you have one great task, but you have a past that is so interwoven that as you are gathered most of you are positively charged elements. This is why it is hard; you do not attract but repel one another. You have some energies inside you but do you know how much harm these energies have caused the world? Now we say: watermills help the world but when we eat the ground product we take in the idea of the stone’s role and we want to crush, to bring people down as the energy of this stone has been transmitted to the bread and the bread in turn has instilled it in us. This is the esoteric knowledge on the matter. Most of you are positive, so now we need to make you half positive, half negative and then our work will be successful. We will show you the principle of how to become positive or negative - we will give you the rules. Here, in the midst of Nature is where you will study this; you cannot do this in the city - only in the midst of Nature. Let us say you are feeling unwell one day; we will tell you a rule, after you work on it for four hours you will feel an expansion, a change within yourself and will be ready to make concessions. You will see the results for yourself. But this will not take place now - before we come to these trials we have to practice minor ones. As I said: you will save your time, I do not want the time you need to put into your other affairs - I only want you to dedicate your spare time, when you have nothing to do. I do not want you to say I take up much of your time - I only want your free time, one hour a day to devote to the school. This is one of the best rules. If I required ten hours of each of you, that would be something else. No, one hour. This is something any of you can do. Now let each disciple note what she wants from me - the most important things that you need, whatever each of you wants. Express it as a short suggestion. You need a Bible or a Gospel, a pen, an inkpot, or a room. You should ask for significant things, those you need - the most significant things you need. (A question is posed, “Should we remain anonymous or should we sign?”) Let them know who you are at the top but not at the bottom. Downstairs you remain anonymous, with pseudonyms. May your requests be of materialistic, spiritual or mental nature. Now, the test to Vitosha will be repeated in a different form. Those of you, who have not gone, carry out your task as a group because next week I will give a second task and we will complete this task in a week, we will carry it out in a night. I will be with you and will tell you what the task will consist of; it will not be difficult. We shall use the present weather, as it is the most favourable. Two or three weeks from now, we will still have the necessary conditions. But in a month or two there will not be favourable conditions. But now it is favourable to complete the task I will give you. Thank you for giving me a free hand so that I could speak to you. As if the disciples bind the Master and say: “Speak, Master!” how could I speak? The Good prayer Source

CONTRADICTIONS IN LIFE Year 1, Lecture 13 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On May 24, 1922, Wednesday 17.00h, Vitosha Mountain Secret Prayer I am going to speak now about the contradictions in Life or the contradictions in the life of a disciple. The sign “V” is considered a symbol of contradiction. Generally speaking all disciples often succumb to fear and doubt which usually go together. Have you asked yourself why you feel fear? What is the origin of fear? For example, when I give you the task to write an essay or a lesson, you feel some fear that you could not accomplish this work. Where has this fear come from? Fear is a negative feature of the low human mind, of the low manas. If one has no possessions, will one ever be scared? Suppose that you have only a consciousness, but not a physical form at your disposal. This means that you are aware of yourself as a human being – you think, you contemplate, but you have absolutely no form. In this case would you feel fear? Therefore, fear is a consequence of the awareness that you could lose what you have or that you could not attain what you want. Fear will appear when one’s conscience is occupied with the thought that one may lose what they want - for example, one is afraid not to lose one’s life. And when someone thinks that they will not achieve what they want, then doubt comes. Now I would like to explain the psychological reason why doubt finds a reason to emerge in the human soul. When fear appears in you, your will is weak; fear is always a sign of a weak will. This is encoded in human nature. Doubt shows that your intellect is not strong enough. For example, some work is assigned to you and you start doubting if you could do it or not. Why is that? You feel that your intellect is not able to fulfill the assigned task, but if your mind is bright and capable, you will not feel any doubt. Doubt should give you an impulse, it should not be protected as a precious object, but should stimulate and increase your mental activity. How could your mind become stronger? If your mind is weak, you should absorb the blue[1] vibrations of Light. The colour green in Nature is materialistic. When someone deals mostly with the colour green, he becomes materialistic - he starts thinking about houses, fields, money and riches. That is why materialists are fond of the green colour – it is their favourite colour. Contemporary evolution is immersed in this colour; green is the prevailing colour in it. Fear comes as a result of the absence of strength. When fear is strongly manifest in someone, it is good for this person to receive the vibrations of the colour orange as a means of balancing the energies; orange is the colour of healing. If you are afraid of darkness, try to assimilate the orange rays of the Sun during the day and your fear will be balanced out, it will be transformed into prudence. For example, you think that you are not fearful, that you have faith, and you can think and philosophize, but if there is an earthquake, you stop thinking and you suddenly find yourself in the street. When you realize you are in the street, you start thinking about how this could have happened. This means that you possess no self-control, and your will does not control your mind. For example when you get burnt, you do not think. There was a time when fear, a sense of caution, was appropriate, but today fear is abnormal and has become a painful feeling. Attention, caution and prudence come in contrast to fear. You should know that you live in a world where certain forces are opposed to evolution and the path that you are following. When fear predominates in someone, this person has convulsions and irregular movements of the arms and legs. In such cases you can regulate fear with the orange rays. Fear enhances people's negative traits. For example, if some unpleasant event has happened to someone, he will magnify it at least tenfold. If someone has suffered, he will not describe the suffering naturally, but in a rather exaggerated manner. There is a certain analogy between fear and doubt. For example, doubt leads to exaggeration of people's errors. You can draw big conclusions from a small occasion. Let’s assume that you have read an author who doubts the existence of life after death and God - this shows that this author's mind hasn't developed yet. He may be a scientist and have a sharp intellect, but his mind is weak. Under “mind” we mean all its constituting abilities, feelings, intellect and powers. Intellect represents the low human mind or the low manas, whereas reason represents the high human mind or the high manas. Therefore, there are people with highly developed reasoning, but a weak intellect, as well as people of strong intellect, who are weak in reasoning. Both of them make mistakes. Some philosophers have excellent systems of thinking, but they are so ignorant about Nature that even little children possess more knowledge than them. For example, an Englishman who was a famous preacher and a great philosopher said in one of his speeches that sheep drank water only when they were ill. What does this show? This preacher's philosophy was far removed from the reality which surrounded him. He had a well-developed mind, but a weak intellect. In fact, sheep do not drink water when they are ill, but when they are healthy only. Similarly to this preacher, many contemporary people now say that God does not exist, i.e. that sheep drink water when they are ill. The preacher is weak in his proof, because he wants to give evidence of the existence of God while providing wrong information, such as the fact that sheep drink water only when they are ill. God is an essence that cannot be proved. He exceeds any proof. God is a Being beyond time and space, beyond consciousness, beyond Life, beyond any human intelligence, etc. God is beyond time and space, but simultaneously God contains time and space in Himself. He is beyond Life, but He contains Life in Himself. He is beyond consciousness, but He contains consciousness in Himself. He is beyond intelligence, but He contains intelligence in Himself. How do you understand this? It means that God, the Infinite One, cannot be proved. This is why everything that cannot be proved in the physical world provokes doubt in the human mind. Actually only what cannot be proved is real, whereas anything that can be proved is just a shadow of Reality. When I say that certain things cannot be proved, I do not mean that you cannot think and contemplate about them. You can think about them for as long as you like, but you cannot prove them in time and space. Therefore, when doubt penetrates your mind, you should know that you are close to Reality. I will give you an example in order to explain this idea to you. Suppose that you don’t have a friend in Life. In this case, can you doubt him? Of course you can'tt, but when you do have a friend, you already have the opportunity to doubt - you could doubt, for example, whether your friend loves you, whether he thinks of you etc. Therefore doubt is an expression of the negative side of Reality. The same can be said about fear. Can one be afraid, if one does not see anything? Therefore one can only be afraid of the things one can see. He can be afraid of what he doesn't understand and cannot explain to himself - only what has remained unexplained and secret creates fear in human beings. If someone takes you out of your room at night while you are asleep and leaves you somewhere in Nature in an unknown place where you cannot define even where East and West are, will you not get scared? You will certainly be scared and in panic. You cannot explain what has happened and how it has turned out that you are outside. You remember that you were in your room and in your bed, but you do not know who took you out and why. The reality you are in now awakes fear in you and in order to release it you need to start thinking about how your removal took place. Once you find out the reason and explain this phenomenon to yourself, your fear will disappear. Imagine now another situation that can awaken fear in you. You are in your room, sitting in contemplation. All of a sudden a bear comes in through the open door and appears in front of you. You get scared and start running away. It is good that in this case you have a second door through which you go out immediately. You tell everyone you meet in the street that a bear entered your room and nearly attacked you. If you didn't have a second door in your room, you would have had to defend yourself, i.e. fight with the bear. However if you had self-control, you would have started thinking. First you would have asked yourself: “How is it possible for a bear to enter my room?” Then you would have looked at it closely and seen that it was not a real bear, but a person dressed in a bear skin. You would have find out that it was your friend who pulled a joke on you. Therefore, when fear enters your mind, you can escape through the door of the heart. This means that no matter what danger may threaten you, you always have an exit to go through and save yourself. When fear enters your heart, ask yourself if all that you see, feel and experience is real. Someone with self-control can sit calmly on a stone in the forest in the presence of the wildest of beasts – tigers and lions - and they won't cause him any harm at all. They will pass him by without even touching him. If he is afraid, however, they will inevitably attack him. Even the most ferocious of animals step back before a brave and fearless person. They feel this person’s strength and are afraid of it. Indeed a brave person has a strong will and a strong thought; he is able to concentrate. Can you tell me now what the dog which just passed by was thinking about? As you could see, it stopped, looked at you for a while and moved on. Did it realize that you are disciples in a spiritual school? It understood that you had gathered here for some important work, but it did not grasp the nature of this work. If you had frightened the dog, it would have barked, but your thoughts gave it an impulse to continue on its way instead. It understood that its place was not with us. It had good observational skills and a well developed lower mind, that is why it didn't stop with us, but continued on its way. It had observed its master and concluded that just as its master is often occupied with his own work, we also have some work to do here. Fear and doubt come naturally in the physical world but in occult schools they get created artificially. This was the case in occult schools in India, Egypt etc. For example, a disciple went to one of the masters in an occult school, but the Master didn't speak to him. The disciple said something, but the Master stayed silent; the disciple was shocked and didn't know what to do. Two or three days passed, but the Master remained silent. The disciple began to think that he may have joined the school too early. After that the Master put the disciple through a test, causing him great fear. Thus the Master could observe whether the disciple’s mind and will were well developed. He watched the reactions of the disciple in order to find out his positive and negative traits. Spiritual disciples need to possess positive traits. If they have any negative traits, they cannot be real disciples. Someone who has weaknesses cannot be a disciple. Therefore, you should know that the difficulties you face in Life are strictly and mathematically defined as they are necessary for your development. You cannot avoid them whatever you do. If you avoid them in one form, they will come to you in a second form, in a third one and so on. If you avoid them in a form which is easy to manage, they will come back to you in a form which is more difficult to handle. It has been noticed that one encounters exactly what one is most afraid of and the other way round - one achieves what one wishes for the most. From the viewpoint of the School of the Brotherhood of Light, fear and doubt in human beings are negative traits which show that higher Love has not yet entered the human heart. Fear and doubt show also that higher Wisdom has not yet entered the human mind. In order to overcome fear you should work on doubt and other negative traits of your character. In this respect, the occult school offers a number of methods to its disciples, so that they can work on themselves. The first characteristic of a disciple is the ability to work. One should like one’s work and should always be ready to work. Once a young person who had graduated from university went to a master of an occult school and asked him to become his disciple. At that time the master was digging in the vineyard and didn't give him an answer. The young person asked questions on several issues, but didn't take a hoe to dig with the master. Was he ready to be a disciple in this situation? No, a disciple should be diligent and quick-minded. He should work jointly with his master. He will ask questions and his master will answer to him while they are working. Their conversation will start in a natural way. They will work and talk at the same time. That young person, however, expected that the master would leave his work to converse with him. The master will not interrupt his work. In such a situation it is the disciple that needs to adapt to the master. Contemporary people doubt the existence God because they want Him to interrupt His work and ask them about their problems and material circumstances. In other words, they expect Him to give them the kind of attention that little children need. This is where their mistake lies. They should know that God will never discontinue His work. He is able to extend or reduce time and space, in order to give humans the possibility to study, work and develop, but He will never stop working. When someone is about to get hanged, time contracts and the days pass quickly. When someone owes something to somebody, time also goes fast. In both cases people wish for time to be prolonged. In this respect contemporary people have no precise criterion or measure which they can apply to determine what the real time is, i.e. to define the length of a given time. When I speak to you about the duration of time, it is an issue that relates to consciousness. If you move with the speed of a normal train, you will reach the Sun in two hundred and fifty years, but if you move with the speed of Light, you will be there in eight minutes. Therefore, your consciousness could move with the speed of a normal train or with the speed of Light, or even faster. This means that time and space depend on consciousness. Consciousness is outside of time and space, outside of any contradictions, outside of fear and doubt. Space produces fear, time produces doubt. If you fall into a well, you will feel fear. When the time approaches for you to pay a bill, you will feel doubt. When you see that your creditor is coming, you will ask yourself: “Has he not made a mistake, has he not come earlier for the payment?” When two disharmonious objects are placed together in time, they will produce doubt in the human mind. When these two objects are separated in space, they will produce fear. For example, if you say a bad word to your friend, you will feel fear in this very moment that you could lose him. Fear indicates that you are in space and you worry that your friendship can be broken. I will ask you some questions now. Is it better to love or to be loved? – To love. Is it better to give or to receive? – To give. What will happen then if all of you love and give? You will repel each other. Loving is one thing, being loved is another; these are completely different states of the soul, originating from two different processes in Existence. Loving is a process of Love whereby you develop your strength; being loved is a process of Wisdom whereby you gain knowledge. Is there any contradiction here? So when God works on your soul with His Love, you want to love; and when God works on your soul with His Wisdom, you want to be loved. However you need to create the necessary conditions in order to be loved. No one can love you if these conditions haven't been created. For example, in a dark room with closed shutters you want to see Light and to be joyful. Is it possible in this situation for Light to reach your eyes? You should open the shutters of the windows, so that Light may come into the room, touch your eyes and love you. Under these circumstances you will enjoy the Light too. Therefore, to love means to connect with the First Principle – Divine Love. To be loved means to connect with the Second Principle – Divine Wisdom. And it is true that after someone has loved for two or three days, for months, for a year or two, or more, this person comes finally to a passive state, wishing to be loved. In this way an alternation of processes occurs and the wheel of life starts turning in the opposite direction. During this alternation a change takes place in the role of human bodies as well: at first human activity was concentrated in the Astral body or in the World of the human heart; later with the change of processes it moved into the Mental body or the World of the human mind. If the activity in that world ceases as well, the human being comes down to work in the physical world. Consequently, when human activity in the physical world stops, it goes to the Mental world; when it stops in the Mental world, then it passes to the Astral world and everything starts from the beginning. This means that in human Life in its entirety a continuous circular movement takes place. This shows that one cannot remain at the same point in life forever - this would mean remaining in eternal stagnation which is impossible. You cannot love and be loved all the time. If these processes continue for too long, you will become indifferent. You cannot think and feel all the time either. If you find yourself in one of these situations, you should consciously look for some work to do, so that you can change your mental state. For example, if you have loved until now, find some books to read. While reading them, you will feel the author’s love, and if you read your works to someone else, you will give them your love as well. Loving and being loved are equally powerful processes. Why? The soul that expects to be loved creates an impulse for the other soul which is giving its love at that time. Loving and being loved present two poles of Life. Those who give love create the subjective side of Life; those who receive love create the objective side of Life. Because of that the person who loves wants to see their image in their beloved. You like mirrors, because your image is reflected there. If you have a mirror in your pocket and somehow you break it or lose it, you are very regretful, because you cannot maintain a clear vision of your image anymore. You see your image in the mirror much better than you can imagine it. Therefore, the person you love is always an expression of your love. This is the reason why you love him. If your mirror is a bit smudged you don't like it, because it doesn't give a clear reflection of your image. You love only the one who is able to inspire you, to give you an impulse and an incentive for something. It has been written in the Scriptures: “Love God the Lord with all your heart.” This means that the Divine should be reflected in you. And when the Divine sees Itself reflected in the human soul, God rejoices, as He knows that this person has worked on himself. When God rejoices, the person is also joyful. When one loses joy, this indicates that God is not satisfied with this person. This is why you shouldn't think that the Love you manifest is yours. Humans are only instruments for the manifestation of Divine Love and Intelligence. Writers, poets and scientists know this. Sometimes they have great ideas and write with inspiration, beautifully; at other times they cannot write anything and feel poor, as if they don't know or comprehend anything. If Intelligence and high reasoning were their innate nature, they would always have it at their disposal, but that isn't the case - they are creative only when someone brings something to them. So if someone fills their basket with cherries, they go around, share it with others and write. In the present conditions of life, the Invisible world expresses Its Love in the form of Intelligence. Humans are interpreters of this Intelligence. This doesn't in the least mean that humans are automatons - they just need to be aware that they are interpreters of this Intelligence. Having realized this, humans should be happy that they have received something from the Divine world which they should use mindfully. For next Wednesday please prepare an answer to the following questions: “Why should I love?" and "Why should I be beloved?” It is not so important for me if you answer these questions correctly, but that you think about them. What is important is what you will gain after contemplating this topic for some time. This topic is a very important one and you need to think about it. The power of a human being lies in its thought. If you think, you will always acquire something which may not find an external expression today, but in a year or two or maybe more, it definitely will. Irrespective of how correct your answer to these questions will be, you cannot be on the right path yet. It is not enough to only write about Love, one needs to experience it. Therefore, whoever writes about Love definitely needs to love and feel loved as well. This shows how difficult it is to write about the essence of things. As I am giving you this topic, I would like to point out to you the fact that you will be writing about things which you don't know much about. Why is that? You have not loved nor have you been loved until now. What you call love is a shadow of Love. Therefore, neither your love nor the love of your kin can be called reality. You would ask: “Is it possible for our love to be a shadow of Love?” This could be tested. If your love were to be tried, you would fail right away. You have love, but not the one I am talking about. I have Divine Love in mind in which no polarization exists. If it penetrates the human soul only for an instant, it will be enough to bring enlightenment to your mind and make you feel one with all creatures all over planet Earth and the entire Cosmos. It can be experienced by anyone who loves and who is loved. This is what understanding the inner meaning of Love means. You will study Love for thousands of years until you understand what it actually is. You need to pass through many levels of existence in order to perceive the Reality of things at least partially. If Love would visit someone right now, this person wouldn't stand its vibrations – he would lose consciousness and fall to the ground, his breathing and pulse would cease. He would have no alternative but to ask to be returned to his initial state. Contemporary people's nervous systems and their whole organisms are not ready to endure the strong vibrations and the currents of Love. That is why spiritual science recommends to its disciples a number of methods and exercises for strengthening of the mind, the heart and the will, so that the forces of their organism can get in tune with the natural forces and currents. When I say that your love is a shadow of Real Love, I mean that you have not yet experienced such Love, you have not had such an opportunity, so it is unknown to you. If you ask a young man to describe his love, he will say: “I told her about my love, but she didn't understand me.” And the young woman will say: “I loved him, but he was unfaithful.” One could be unfaithful even without being beloved. Precisely in a situation in which you love someone the possibility for infidelity is minimal. It is impossible for the one you love to be unfaithful to you. This does not happen anywhere in Life. If there are exceptions they are outside of Divine Love, outside of Divine Wisdom. There are absolutely no conditions for infidelity in Divine Love and Wisdom. When we talk about infidelity, we should understand human love, i.e. love between human beings on Earth. If there is infidelity, we cannot speak of Love. Therefore, you should know the following: if you have doubts, Intelligence is absent from your mind; if you have fears, Love is absent from your heart. This says it all. You all need to know this as disciples of an occult school. If you are not guided by these precepts in Life, you will only study the shadows of Reality and in the end you will fall into despair and discourage and say to yourself: “It was all for nothing!” In order to avoid reaching such a state, put your love to the test and see how much you can stand. I will now give you two rules to always have in mind: you should not be afraid when you want to love; you should not doubt when you want to be loved. Apply these rules in your life to see if and to what extent they are true. When you have free time, think about them. When you watch the reactions of people or read philosophical books, or study the works of some writers and poets, put their thoughts through your sieves and keep only what remains on the surface. That is what is most valuable and useful to you; whatever falls down is not meant for you. Rely on the sieve of your heart and of your mind and do not be discouraged! Do you know how to sift? All of you have sifted flour so you are familiar with this art, but there are things which do not pass through your sieve and which are still not useful to you. What will you do with them? You will bend down, take them with the pincers of your will and put them aside. Therefore, you can separate the usable from the unusable in your life with the help of your thought, your feelings and your will. Did you understand everything I told you this evening? – We understood a tenth of everything you said. Keep this tenth then! It will be the unit of measurement which you should use. Indeed, the human being represents a tenth of the Divine Truth. By “one tenth” I mean the unit which is used by every human being to measure things according to the level of his or her intellectual development. Currently the task of all humans, of all humanity, is to prove that human beings represent one tenth of the whole. Secret prayer [1] The colours mentioned in this lecture carry symbolic significance as the Master Beinsa Douno had previously written a book in which he grouped quotations from the Bible and designated a colour to each of these groups. The book s is called “The Legacy of the Coloured Rays of Light” and all participants in the Youth Occult Class were quite familiar with it.

Infinite Love The Twelfth Lecture of The Master before the General Spiritual Class held on 18 May 1922, Thursday, 8.30-9.30 in Sofia Secret Prayer The homework on a much-loved word or a much-loved sentence has been read. Next time you will write down the greatest imperfection that you have. Just one, yet the greatest one. You can write it anyway you like. Now, I say, he who has no courage to admit his imperfection can never know Love. Love is not for the righteous, neither is it for the loving, Love on its own cannot love. If it could love, then who would be able to love? It is marvellous to love because you are loved. Love is Love by itself. If we think in spiritual terms, when you want to love then there is something that you miss, and if you want to be loved then again there is something that you miss. Therefore, whether you love or you are loved, indicates an imperfection. You love because you are not perfect and you say that The Lord also loves. But The Lord has never said He loves anyone. Can you tell me where he said that, where is it written, have you ever seen it said anywhere that God loves? People say – some prophet came and said that God is Love. Have you ever met The Lord in person? You are funny – the prophet said so; yes, but that is on his account. One should not conclude from that that The Lord loves. Now, you have a critical mind, haven’t you? Loving means having an imperfection. Now I am talking about Love in the way it manifests on the physical field. What way does it manifest itself on Earth? How can you talk to me about that great Love – have you seen that Love? Can you tell me how Love appeared? You can philosophically say, "What is the Master talking about, this is not right.” Show me two people on Earth who love each other to the extent that they have always lived in peace in their lifetime; let’s not just talk. There are saints who loved once yet they happened to act rude just as well, only the books do not say anything about that. Many saints thrashed around the same way anyone else did. At that time people did not say they were saints; that came later. Yes, they were saints but only after they died. Of course, what I say is concrete – it is not about what is up, it is rather about what is down, amongst you as that is the way Love manifests. And we should start learning this Love the way it manifests amongst us rather than the love we know. Now, you say that you love someone, don’t you? But if the one you love ignores your love, what will be brought forth inside you? – First, embitterment will be brought forth, is that right? Then animosity will be brought forth after the embitterment, and after that animosity, you will turn your back and say, "Come what may,” and that will be it. Paul says that Love does not fall away, is that right? So I am asking if your Love falls away, then was it really Love? It is Love only if it can endure all sins in the world, all the endless sins of people – then it is the Love of Angels and God; that is Love. While love that cannot endure people’s sins is slops. This is my definition of Love, do you understand? Because a righteous man needs no Love. I am righteous, what need of Love have I? What need of Love can God have? He does not need Love but it is because of those weak beings, which wanted God to give them Life and are begging Him, forcing Him to love them. He has many important things to deal with but since they keep knocking and knocking at the door, He will finally get up; He will disturb his peace to see what they want. They say, “You have given us Life, now you will guide us.” – “I will guide you.” So, if you want to cope with your mistakes in the spiritual aspect you will have to bear yourselves sometimes. Sometimes, as you cannot stand yourselves, find someone guiltier than you are so that you can bear yourselves. No, no, when you bring out all your sins you should love yourself anyway. When things are nice it is normal to love yourself, when you are sinning, it requires substantial courage. Now, many are talking about Love. If I criticise your love, that is not Love. Someone is talking about Love, he expects me to praise him, and he says he loves me. I know why he loves me. He says, “I love The Master.”- I am a pear tree full of pears, what will he feel but love me. If I were an idiot, or a sweeper in the street you would not love me then. So I do not believe in your love, there is nothing more to it. I do not believe in your love; I believe in your love as much as this; while I have this wealth, you will love me, and tomorrow when I lose it, you will discard me. And whoever replaces me that Love will go to him. This is for religious people who only talk about Love, about God they talk; they have seen Heaven and say: “What will we be there?” That is just entertainment. I have noticed that sometimes some people analyse the way I am watching, thinking how I might see them in the same way as a clairvoyant. While what I see is them building their long-term plans and wanting to be traitors in the future. It makes no difference for a man – be he a traitor, that is also courage, he does that out of love too. I am asking you, students of the spiritual, how was evil born in the world? – When Love came down, evil was born alongside it. But is God not perfect; has man not come out of God? Now you will say, “Don’t we have Love?” I refer to Love from a different viewpoint. That root, the bitter one that is emerging inside your soul, where does it come from? I will explain Love in the first degree to you: Love that cannot be understood is hatred. And when does great Love turn into hatred? A mother has half a dozen children but she loves one of them more, hence, this beloved child becomes the reason for hatred to appear at home. The love of one of them will generate the hatred of the others – isn’t that the actual situation in that home? That is fine, but how can we reconcile those energies? I speak of Love as of energy. Now, we are in the world of contrasts – where there is hatred, likewise there is Love. Love with shadows within it is imperfect, while perfect Love has no shadows. And when you come into perfect Love you will find you are in the boundless Light – you will be all alone there, without any images around nor any Angels whatsoever, you will live in infinite Light and you will have no image of your own, either. I am asking will any hatred then appear in your soul? – No. You will be serene and peaceful, there you will feel the presence of that eternal Freedom, there you will feel Love, and bygone cosmoses will not appear. And if you want to create a cosmos, you will call hatred and Love. Consequently, when a man wants to create an image, evil is born in the world at that very moment – it is a visible image. The root of evil is the aspirations to have images. While an image is a trap – to catch a Divine soul, to limit it, to put a halter on it, to put a goad to that and to torture it as much as we like. So, love on Earth is nothing but a limitation. That is what people are doing now; they do not love each other, they just torture each other – this is what I know of them. And some people will say that they love each other. You should treat those you love with the utmost care, as your smallest mistake will bring in the greatest misfortune – that is gunpowder, it will have bad consequences. You will love, but you will be extremely careful, while should you want to be loved, you should again be extremely careful about your words and about anything in any aspect. Because forms have evil inherent in them. Therefore, some people speak about others, they comment that someone said something, but you should know when you create such forms they will come to a collision, there will be an explosion and you, who are on the Earth, will be walking in the air. So, when you come to dealing with the images of Love, you should be careful. You should be extremely delicate with Love that has images. You have, for example, someone whom you love; for you that person is attractive, is that right; while for others your attractive person is ugly. Therefore, the things that we find ugly or disgusting and bad are not an absolute rule. In spiritual terms, we do not know the measure of absolute evil in the world. There is absolute evil in the world, there is also relative evil in the world, but we do not know what measure we use. Let us take, for example, animals: a wolf’s teeth are made to protect it - if you tease it, it will protect itself, so it will bite you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have teeth”; an ox, when you touch it, it will butt you, thus saying: “Do not touch me, I have horns”; a horse, if you touch it, will kick you with its hoof, thus saying: “I have legs.” So all creatures have a way to protect themselves – with arms, with legs, with mouth, and not only with teeth, but also with the tongue, with anything. They have learned all the methods of protection. Now, to be able to understand the depths of this spiritual doctrine you should be able to cope with all contradictions. You should first of all conceive Love as a boundless principle that contains no evil at all – you should conceive it free of any contents and free of any meaning. Because if you recognize that there is any meaning in Love then there is content; if there is any content, there is a form; if there is a form, there is evil. Or, as we say, when the eternal gets limited, evil gets born. Now, if I leave you with this situation, I will create some evil for you, i.e. the way I am speaking to you now I will create some evil for you and many of you will suffer. Now you are saying, “Let us love each other, let us love God.” For thousands of years, we have been saying that we should love each other and we keep failing to love each other, that we should have mercy and we still don't have it, that we should be careful and we keep being careless. We keep promising and promising and promising every day and there is always something in our way. What is it that is in our way? – It is because we do not want to admit our imperfections. While our imperfection is the following: any time man finds himself limited in a certain form that is an imperfection. For example, you are limited in a body like what we are. We say that we have been created in the image and likeness of God, but if we would look at that human body as it is, we would run three hundred kilometres away from it. It is perfect to say about man that he has been created in the image and likeness of God but that by no means implies the body that you have now; when I speak of that mind, that by no means implies the mind that you have now; when I speak of that heart, I by no means imply the heart that you have now. Sometimes you have an experience like this: you feel Love as something abstract, but it only lasts five to ten seconds. It is a Divine condition – you feel as if the whole world has become reconciled, but then this condition vanishes and the old, common, gloomy condition replaces it. Then, your mind is somehow enlightened – as if everything is Divine, you can understand everything, and then that common mind comes back. We have to distinguish those conditions. That is precisely the question now: the spiritual science provides methods on the basis of which we have to transform our consciousness; our existing consciousness has to undergo certain changes. The way you are now, with your present consciousness, even if you go to Heaven you will sink anyway, no one can understand what the law is. If you place a stone on the sea surface, it will sink; the moment they place you in the Garden of Eden, you will sink through the floor – you are so heavy that the floors of Heaven will not bear your weight. Well, I am asking you, how are you going to stay in Heaven then? Now in the Spiritual School, what are you thinking about? One of you feels miserable and is trying to find a way to get healed, another one wants to become a scholar, the third one wants to become rich – everybody is thinking of material things. And you spiritualise those material things and claim that you are thinking about the Lord. But people think very little about God, very little. Do not think now that I want to smear you with my brush. No, I have not yet revealed all your imperfections, I am not smearing you but this Light shall be cast so that things can be perceived the way they are in their own reality in order that we can see what we are. Do you know how many evolutions the matter which our brains are made of, which we use now, has served, do you know how many evolutions our existing body has served and do you know that namely in this matter all the infirmities and imperfections of those who have departed have been incorporated? It is manure and we have to process this manure the way plants process all impurities. Consequently, we feel some depression within us all the time. Were that matter virgin and pure we would not feel such conditions. Even present doctors say that whenever there are such dregs in your blood they make you feel some malaise within and they have to be purged away. This means that the matter is impure. Now, I don't want you to have a weak Angel – your Angel shall not be weak. You should, like a merchant, know precisely, mathematically how much money you have; how many golden coins you have in your safe, nothing more, nothing less. You should just as well know how much debt corresponds to that money. You have gold but you also have something that is not pure. You can have one hundred thousand levs1 and make a turnover of five-six million, and then people will say about you: “He is a merchant with millions”; others may think that all you have is capital. And all virtuous people of today figure with little effective money while at the same time everyone is seen as a man of a capital of ten million. Someone is seen as a saint, another one is seen as prominent while some are seen as big fools. The latter are better, since they have courage, they speak the whole Truth the way it is: “I have that much in my safe.” Therefore, if you want to make progress in spiritual knowledge, to pass this cycle and get into the next one, you should leave your present mind, and if you do not, if you do not leave your present concepts, if you want to be delighted, you will all stay like the frogs inside this slough and will be croaking for at least another ten thousand years. You will say, “Oh, gracious Christ,” but do you know what grace is? No man who tried to force Love, to force God, has prospered2. There is nothing more disgusting in the world than a man forcing God. Can you understand this? If we say that we are an actual image and likeness of God, if we force ourselves then we can always force our neighbour or God. We force God, even when we force ourselves; it is God that we are forcing. I am asking, what objections will The Lord make to you? And you know, sometimes you keep bending the bowstring, keep bending it, keep bending it and you come to a certain point but you cannot bend it any further as it will not resist and you break it, do you know what that will cause? Now, some of you do not realise how misfortunes come. Imagine you live on the second floor and assume you are moving a treasure to the first floor. You carry ten kilograms of gold every night. What will happen to that floor in a year or two? Do you think it will resist? – It will not resist, those timbers will get cracked, the floor will collapse soon and you and the gold will fall through it. You, modern people, modern disciples have so much gold placed in your minds that the timbers are cracking and the building will soon collapse. And where will you go – to the bottom of the sea. In the same way, the world, before long, will collapse. That is why the Brotherhood of Light prepares the members of the New Culture to leave that floor. You can take it all very literally. I will give you an example. You say, “We are faithful”; enemies attack a city, you take in the facts, leave your wealth and your records and say, “Hey, brother, let us take in the facts,” and the poor man thinks that you have forgiven him. However, when the enemy withdraws, you bring your records back and say, “You still owe me.” Now you similarly turn to God, you pray, you repent, but when you find your old records …I am asking what is that love, is it perfect? Love that has no power to smooth out sins is not Love. That is the first thing, the first quality of Love. And God says: “I will erase all their sins and will dry their tears, I will wipe them.” – Therefore, that is the primary quality of Love. Where does Strength stay? If your Love is capable of erasing within you our mistakes and the mistakes of your neighbours, that is Love – that is the way I define Love. Peace will only come if Love can erase mistakes; if it cannot erase them, you should know that it is not Love. And when Christ pronounced the great rule - when your brother turns to you, you should forgive him, He must have meant something in that sense. And that is the hardest thing – it is so hard to forgive, and not only to forgive, but to forget; and not only to forget, but not have a trace left on that spot and to replace the most bitter words with the most beautiful words about the one you hated. Now, I am speaking to you as students of the Spiritual School, I am not talking to strangers. To strangers I will speak about grace, about mercy, about Love, and about why they should love each other. What I am saying to you is: if your Love is incapable of erasing your transgressions within you, do you know how disgusting it is to have a transgression from the past or from the present pestering you? You keep praying, and the Lord does not hear you. Why can’t He hear you? – Because you want to lie to Him: “Cluck-cluck, cluck-cluck.” Like that village woman throwing grains to her hens: “Cluck-cluck.” She gets one: “Oh, my chick, cluck-cluck” – she puts it in the stew pan. “Cluck-cluck”, until she eats it up. Well, what do you think, do you think that I can fit into your stew pan? Never – neither you nor I can. Cluck-cluck does not work. And then an occultist will come, some cluck-cluck occultist. We are all surrounded by cluck-cluck. And I will ask you now – to which kind do you belong, to the cluck-cluck one? I call all old occultists cluck-cluck. While for the new ones I will give you another formula – when I speak to you next time, I will tell you what that rule is. We should be openhearted, sincere to ourselves. It is time that we said: “My Love can erase my transgressions.” The question is not whether it is capable of doing that or not, no doubts whatsoever! I erase any other rules given by occultism; Love does not work according to rules. When it comes, it erases everything – it is all done. When that Love comes, you are immortal, you are infinite – that is the first thing. And there will no longer be any foes in your home, there will only be friends. Now, I want you to let this idea remain within you, do not take it out. The idea, which I told you this evening, shall not be taken out of this room and if anyone dares to disclose it outside I will inflict on him one of the greatest punishments anyone has ever seen – yes, one of the greatest punishments, one of the greatest troubles, one of the greatest sufferings. And then I will ask him if he wants to disclose this Truth again. Do not speak of Love before it is inside you, it is a shame. That is the most sacred name! Remember where it says: “We shall not utter the name of God in vain”. The name of Love shall not be uttered in vain – that is what I know. Love is one of the most sacred names with which the world was created. Because if you utter this name and you are not ready, you will create much wretchedness in your karma, many generations will be wretched. It is said: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” In vain for what? – Only when you are ready for Love, you will call it. And then you will create a world of Beauty around you, a world solely of Love, a world solely of Peace, a world solely of Joy, of Rejoicing, of Harmony, a world of Bliss. That is what you will create when you utter its name. Some of you will say now: “Do you know what our Master said?” You do not know your Master – where is your Master, have you seen him? You will say, “Yes, he is by the table”. At what table, he is not there. You think that there is a Master by the table, by you – you are so wrong. You will say: “But don’t we see you?” – No, you do not. “Aren’t you talking to us, aren’t we talking.” – We are not talking. We are talking in some non-understandable language: you do not understand even a millesimal of what we are talking about neither do I understand a millesimal of what you are prattling. You can understand your Master only when you are related to that great Love and only then does your soul communicate with him. When you find your Master and when He finds you, your Master will be blind to all your mistakes, and you will be blind to all the mistakes of your Master. The Master gets as smeared on the Earth as his disciple. The Masters also get smeared – here, on the Earth, everybody gets smeared. And do you think that those with the softest hands are the most righteous ones? Do you think that the maidens clad with the best clothes are the most pure while those in the kitchen, the poorly dressed ones, are the most sinful? Or that those working in the field are sinful? I think the opposite – the ones who are busy with dancing are the biggest sinners; the ones who are busy with praying in the church are the biggest sinners. The one working in his vineyard or working in the field, what can his sin be – he is more righteous. For example, a man will go to church and will say, “My Lord, my Lord,” his hands pressed one against the other. Who has taught you to pray this way? – “Well, my mother taught me this way, The Lord said it should be this way.” Who has taught your mother, then? The power of your Wisdom and your Love should come into your soul and erase your sins. Instead of clasping your hands, you should take your records into account in order to erase your sins. When a man wants to conceal something, he brings his hands together and raises them for a prayer, but there is something concealed between them. Then, he opens them and says, “Lord, everything is open to You, as You can see,” and then he brings them together again and says, “One day I can put something between my hands again.” A spiritual disciple using such manoeuvres can make no progress because any thought he has will produce such vibrations in the other world that will make anybody keep him thousands of kilometres away. And when the Angel approaches such a man he will take all precautions for that bomb not to explode because if it does, it can cause harm. This applies to the physical life. We have been following this life for twenty years but with the forms it has, the world cannot be corrected, no religious forms are capable of modifying human nature. And then it is said that there is a thought that is right: “When the Spirit comes.” What Spirit? – The Spirit of that great Love that will erase everything. And we will believe in God, that He has erased our sins, He has forgotten them. Someone will say, “But our sins are so many that God cannot erase them.” Then, if God cannot erase them, His Love is too weak. But if God has erased your sins and you go and commit new sins, then your karma will be multiplied ten times. So, I am leaving you in the first situation. Do not think that I want to influence you, no. I say, if you want to be followers of this Great Universal Brotherhood, your Love in the future shall be like that. I am telling thou3 all; for us to be able to make progress, by all means the Love not only of one of you, but of all of you shall be like this – the Love of each of you shall erase the mistakes. Each of you shall do that within himself rather than having others do it for him – each of you shall erase them in your mind, in your heart. And when you erase them, then the Lord will come to write. The Lord needs a clean book in which He will write his Word. And the prophet says, "I will take away their hearts of stone and will write my law.” Some people interpret that the Lord will do that – yes, the Lord will do that. Do not say now that you will do this tomorrow, or say you will do it in one year, or now, but say within yourselves, “It will be this way!” If you say, “I will do it now,” you will not do it – that is the way it has been and the way it will be. Therefore, that is Maya. And this present delusion is a delusion of the Black Lodge – a delusion of the devil, in the religious sense. He is the greatest hypnotiser – he will put you into a hypnotic sleep, then he will hypnotise you and after he commits thousands of crimes, he will say, “These are the crimes that you have committed.” And all those advertisements are devil’s advertisements. No, no, we do not carry anyone else’s advertisements. So, first of all, Love should erase all your mistakes so that you can start. For example, some of you should get harmonised so that we can apply another test. I will give you a test, a bit bigger than this one yet it will be microscopic again. And do you know what will follow next? I will give you a third test. Because if I give you the hardest test now, there will hardly remain ten of you. I will tell you, I will be open with you; if I tell you, the disciples who are here, “You will give three quarters of your wealth to the Brotherhood tonight, you will give it right now,” you will say, “We will think a little.” And at that instant you will think whether the Lord said so or there is something else concealed here. No, no, are you going to give three quarters of your wealth, or not? Now you will say, “It is easy to go to Vitosha4, but this!” You should know that this will come, too. Now, this test is nothing, it is like a song, there is a harder one, I will not tell you what it is. You should know that you will be tested – you will be sifted. Tests will come – we will see now who will stand to the end, who will feel no doubt. You are saying that you have Love, and I will try your Love. You say, “The Master says that we have no Love,” how come you have no Love, I have come to test your Love and as soon as I find that you have Love, I will swallow my words. And if you fail, you will swallow your words. We will be sincere in the test, won’t we? So, I will put you to a test and eventually, after I take you through all tests and you pass them, I will say, “Put me as well now to any test that you like.” I will allow you to put me to any test you like in turn, but it will be you first and me afterwards. Then we will finish the Spiritual School and we will enter the New Era, where, the way it is said there, “They neither get married nor will they go for a man but they are like Angels.” And this era will be. This can happen; it is in the transformation of consciousness. I do not mean human flesh; it is in the transformation of man’s consciousness. Secret prayer 1 Lev is the currency of the Republic of Bulgaria – translator’s note 2 The Master has used a verb of Greek origin that means prosper, succeed, flourish /“харосвам“/ – note of the Bulgarian editor 3 The pronoun in the Bulgarian text is obsolete - translator’s note 4 Vitosha is a mountain in Bulgaria – translator’s note Source

Methods Of Purification Year 1, Lecture 12 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno May 17, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret Prayer There was a presentation of the remainder of the essays on the topic "Applications of Karma in Life” Now I will use another example to explain to you what karma is. A young person went out with his friends. They stopped at an inn and went in to have a drink. This young man drank for the first time in his life and very soon got so drunk that he could hardly control his body or stand on his legs. After his friends also got drunk, they all left the inn together. The streets were muddy because it was rainy. The young man began to stagger in the streets, falling here and there and getting all covered in mud. By the time he got home he sobered up but the mud remained - the mud is his life's karma which he will have to clean up. I will not discuss the reasons for this situation, why the young man got drunk and how he became covered in mud. You mаy say that he did not want to drink, that his friends led him astray and so on but what really matters is how this young person can cleanse himself of the mud; how he can purify his heart from the wish to drink to the extent that he loses his senses. I will now give you three methods for purification: precipitation, filtration/percolation and distillation/evaporation. How will you know when to use the first, the second or the third method of purification? If water is turbid, i.e. mixed with solid insoluble substances, it could be purified by one of the first two methods – by precipitation or by filtration/percolation. When Nature wants to clean some water, She takes it to be filtered through the geological layers. In this case the geological layers play the role of filters that clean the water. If water was conscious it would feel grief and suffering during its sinking through the layers, losing its light and falling into darkness. When it sinks down, it goes deeply into the ground, passing through several layers until it meets a layer of stone or clay that will stop it, not allowing it to go further. Thus, unable to sink further, it will find an exit and resurface on the ground. When it comes out onto the surface, it will be glad to see the Light again. Therefore, grief appears at the beginning of the filtration process, while joy comes at its end. Liquidation of one’s karma represents a similar filtration process, consisting of a descent into matter, a process of cleansing and an exit to the Light again. Precipitation is a similar process, but one accomplishes it with less suffering and grief. The greater the suffering and grief, the greater the result of purification. Evaporation or distillation is another important method of purification. Joy emerges at the beginning of evaporation, while grief comes at the end. Why is this process the reverse of filtration? When water is heated, evaporation takes place; the water vaporizes and goes up into the air, i.e. it goes up to God. Water drops are joyful, because they are freed from their sins and suffering. So they spread wings and fly upwards but when they encounter a cold front, they immediately cool down and become dense, and eventually fall down again. As they fall down to the ground as rain, they become muddy and suffer greatly but they are unaware of the benefit they have brought with their fall. Just like water, you are also subjected to a purification process which is carried out in two ways. When you are under filtration, first you are sad and later you are joyful. When you are under evaporation, first you are happy and later you fall into grief. Therefore, if you are sad due to filtration, do not oppose your fate, but go further so as to reach the deepest layers within yourself, in order to be purified more thoroughly. And then you will emerge into the Light again; you will emerge on the surface of the ground and experience the joy and happiness you deserve. As a result of connecting the two ends of suffering and joy, you form a circle through which Life can run smoothly. Those who do not understand this law will notice the constant alternation between grief and joy in their lives, but will not know what its reason is. I am asking you, which of the two methods will you personally choose? Filtration is a method applicable to the human heart, while evaporation is a method for the mind. From time to time, however, these two methods will swap places - filtration will be used for the purification of the mind, and evaporation for the purification of the heart. Generally speaking, however, the mind is purified through evaporation, which is why people say that certain thoughts should evaporate and get out of their heads so that a continuous circle of motion between feelings and thoughts can be formed. When someone starts applying one of those methods, he begins to be able to see. However, it is dangerous if you come to a deadlock, if no filtration or evaporation occurs within you. Society calls this state indifference or alienation. When someone says that he is indifferent, he doesn't want to know what will happen to him. No, one should be interested in everything that is happening within and around him; one should even foresee or know what may happen to him in the future. When I speak of karma, there are several things that you should know. For example, there is karmic suffering which comes as a consequence of the past, but there is also suffering which is due to lack of foresight in some situations in the present. Imagine that you put an empty bottle of water into your pocket and go for a walk. You go to the outskirts of town, stop near a fountain and sit down to rest in the shade. You rest and ponder on different philosophic questions – about the origin of the world, the age of the stars and the Sun, the solution to some social problems and so on. Thus, engulfed in your thoughts, you forget to fill the bottle with water from the fountain and go back home with an empty bottle. The summer day is very hot and you get thirsty. You take out the bottle and see that you haven't filled it. So, in this case your suffering is due to the fact that you were absent-minded because you were carried away by your thoughts and forgot to fill your bottle. Another example concerning karma: you take a big basket and put seventy or eighty kilograms of bread in it. But you have to carry it on your back for forty or fifty kilometres. You have decided to carry this load alone in order to make more money and not have to pay anyone to help you. You meet some children on the road. If you want to make your load lighter, by all means you will need to give them some bread. Otherwise you will injure your back. So in this case you will empty your basket in order to avoid suffering. And when you reach the fountain, you should fill your bottles with water in order to avoid getting thirsty. For as long as you are rich and carry a full basket of bread on your back, you should share it freely with everyone and keep only one loaf for yourself. That is the only way to stay happy and satisfied. Consequently there are two causes of human suffering and misfortune: the first one is that when they get to the fountain they forget to fill their bottles with water. The second one is that when they were carrying a full basket of bread on their backs, they didn't share it with anyone. So when you suffer, it is not enough to argue and philosophize about the possible causes of your suffering. As disciples, question yourselves directly whether you didn't fill your bottles or didn't share some of your bread with the poor. One’s karma would not surface if there were no current reasons for its activation. You would ask: “What is the reason for the activation of karma in one’s life?” When one loses Love, karma comes to replace it. When one loses joy, grief comes to replace it. When one loses justice, lawlessness comes to replace it. When one loses mercy, fear and violence come to replace it. Therefore, your shortcomings show what you are lacking, i.e., what you have lost in Life. If an individual then resorts to injustice, violence or brutality, his karma appears immediately. It has been observed that some individuals who lose love try to seize it back violently. However a law exists to the effect that if they attempt to seize Love back or violate another person's soul, the same violence will be inflicted upon them. Why? Because violence and limitations imposed upon others are like prisons where those who have inflicted this violence will also go some day. I will tell you an occult story to clarify this idea to you. In ancient times there was an adept who hated mice. One day, he set up a trap in front of their hole to get rid of them. In accordance with karmic law, this adept, in one of his next incarnations, returned to Earth in the form of a mouse so that he could experience the consequences of his invention. He lived in the same hole at whose entrance he had placed the mousetrap. Once as he was coming out of the hole, he encountered the trap and there was a piece of salami in it. He stopped and began to investigate. He decided to go into the trap so that he can taste the salami, but what a surprise: the door of the trap banged shut and he was imprisoned there. What is the conclusion? The same person who had invented the trap in the past was put into the same jail in order to experience in his turn the loss of freedom and the limitations resulting from his invention. I am saying, do not lay any traps for the minds and hearts of others, because you will go into them yourself. You will not escape any trap you have set up in the past, not even over the course of thousands of years. It may wait for you for centuries and millennia, but it will find you somewhere in time. Irrespective of how high you may have reached, the moment will come for you to return in the form of a fly, a mouse, even a microbe in order to experience your own trap. You will be imprisoned there until you learn your lesson. You think that there is no going back in evolution. Do not harbour illusions, do not deceive yourself into thinking you will escape from the karmic law. Whatever position you may have reached, whatever height you may have attained, you will be brought back to pay your debts; then you may go further. Whatever thoughts and feelings you have created and emitted in space you will experience someday for yourself. They will come back to you and you will experience their positive or negative consequences. This is the meaning of the Bulgarian proverb: “You reap what you sow.” Everyone will reap what they have once sown. Therefore, do not think that there is no going back in evolution, no degradation. If Angels, who are much more elevated than humans, fell and lost their light when they made a mistake in the past, what to say about humans? The law of karma encompasses all living beings – from the smallest to the largest. There are no exceptions to it. Therefore if you want to eliminate your karmic debts, observe the Divine law, the law of Divine Love. Don't fight your karma, nor think about it so as not to challenge it. Think about Love and apply it as a sole device, a sole possibility for eliminating your negative karma. Someone may say that he alone is able to eliminate his karmic burden. Everyone can do this by applying Love in his life. For this reason you should ask yourself if you love all creatures in the same way. This can be achieved only if you view people as beings who can manifest the Divine. For example, let’s say that you meet a criminal who has committed many crimes and society is entirely against him. At this moment a woman appears who believes that he is a good person and speaks well of him. Why does the woman have a good opinion of the criminal? Because once he saved her from certain death. One day when she was passing through a forest she encountered a bear that was about to attack her and tear her to pieces. At that moment the robber rushed to the woman and saved her. So, at that very moment the Divine was activated in the robber. This is why the woman believes that he is a good person. Therefore, love all human beings for the Divine in them. When the Divine is present, even the worst person, even the criminal is able do some good, some great deed. When the Divine is absent, even the best person can commit a crime. Should this person be considered bad in this case? A single action which a person did at a given moment does not make him good or bad. I am asking you, what have you understood from these two examples – the empty bottle of water and the full basket of bread? What is better: to give or to take, to teach others or to be taught, to love or to be loved? Someone who loves experiences a pleasant feeling, but is the beloved one pleased? What will happen if the beloved one also wants to love? Both of them will give love but in the end they will come to an argument. If both people want to be loved, this means that both want to receive. What will happen then? Once again they will become cross with each other. Think of the question: what does it mean to love and to be loved? Or what does it mean to give and to receive? Next time you will answer this question in class orally, but do not write the answer down. Thus you should clarify to yourselves what giving and receiving mean from an occult point of view. Each thought and feeling that you have should be strictly defined. When you love, you should do so without any compulsion. The one who is loved does a favour to the person who loves him. The one who loves needs to release his burden in order to feel better. In other words, whoever loves wants to give part of his burden to the beloved. He says: “I see that you are strong, so I want to put part of my burden on your back.” To love and to be loved – in occult terms this means the right distribution of the burden between two people. Their mutual interaction is like the examples of the empty bottle and the full basket. If your bottle is empty, let another one fill it with water; if your basket is full of bread, give to others who have nothing. You should observe these two principles in order to create relationships among you based upon mutual respect and esteem. Many people have no respect or esteem, either for themselves or for others. First, one should maintain self-respect, respect for one’s higher consciousness, for the soul, and then – for others, for those around us. If you have a cat at home, how do you treat it? You touch its ears and tail, you caress its hair, so that at times the cat is angry with you and ready to scratch you but generally it endures everything. However, if you treat a person like a cat you'll insult them. That is why when you visit someone you should not express your love for that person as you would for a cat. One's love for a cat differs from one's love for a human being. Love for a human being is based on strictly defined mathematical ratios. If two individuals who are in love observe these ratios, there will be harmony between them. Nowadays when two people meet, one of them will think to himself: “I am more educated," “I am taller," “I am richer” and so on. In response the other will think to herself: “However I am cleverer," “I am better," “I am heavier," etc. As a result of these comparisons an inner fight, an internal competition between them will commence and it will spoil their relationship. I am asking, what is the reason for disharmony in the relationships between contemporary people? Such disharmony is due to the fact that human beings base their love upon knowledge, upon wealth, etc. You should consider one thing: Love is a strictly determined law that does not depend on any social situation or relationship. This law can be tested and tried. Neither knowledge nor power nor wealth can keep Love. You see this all the time in Life. Show me someone who is happy because he is powerful, learned or rich. When they enter life, many people think that love will make an exception for them. No, Love doesn't make exceptions for anyone. Every human being in life is an ordinary comma which has been put in its proper place. The comma signifies a short rest, but a comma can often be placed where there is no need for a rest. The smallest Love in the physical world represents the smallest rest, so that one can catch his breath after he has become tired. To put it differently, the smallest impression that one can receive in the physical world represents the smallest Love. When I speak to you of these new ways of looking at Life, I do not intend in the least to do away with or destroy what is old immediately. The old remains as compost in which you can plant the new. You will graft new branches onto the old tree because you need to learn how to plant the new seeds and how to grow seedlings. If you decide to destroy what is old in one go, you will hinder your evolution. How could you act so negligently towards the old, which is the result of the activities of so many great people, even geniuses? Great people are a manifestation of the activity of humankind in its entirety. In order for one great person to be born on Earth, a multitude of entities from the Spiritual World need to gather in one place and direct their whole activity and power towards him. Just like a tree sends an ambassador to another tree through its fruit, in the same way a countless number of higher entities or souls acting collectively send, i.e. concentrate their intelligence in one person or one Master on Earth and he becomes great. In that sense each person - irrespective of how ordinary he or she may be - represents a collective body of souls. Now that you know this, you should work consciously on yourselves, because everyone’s turn will come to enter into this wheel. Everyone's time will come to be set alight and for that purpose everyone needs to prepare the necessary quantity of fire within himself. The fuel for this fire are the experiences that one gathers throughout his lifetime and nothing can be achieved without them. What do you do when you see a lit candle? You want to be set alight too. Do not be in a hurry. The wheel keeps turning and one day your turn will come too, but until then one must undergo great trials and tribulations. Has there ever been a minister in Bulgaria or any other country who has not received a cross instead of a garland? In that sense everyone is heading towards a prison, either within or outside of himself. Didn't the Romans and the Jews erect a cross for Christ? Contemporary Christian nations have erected many churches in the name of Christ, but He is not inside them. A long time needs to pass before humans give place to the Divine, to the Great within themselves. During this time humans should work upon themselves, in order to create proper and pure relationships with each other, based not on violence but on the Law of Freedom. Tie yourself without getting tied; place limitations on yourself without becoming limited. In other words, when you build a trap for others or for yourselves, leave two doors open in it, so that when you enter through the first door, you can go out through the second one. In this case, a mouse, after it has come into the trap from the first door to eat the meat, can also find the second door open and go out. And when you see that the meat has been eaten, be content that the mouse has acted reasonably. Now, as I am speaking about Love, I need to tell you that Love brings limitations. Both the one who loves and the beloved impose limitations upon each other. For example, a merchant loves money and so he keeps going around in search of better and cheaper goods thus wasting a great deal of his time. The beloved also expects to receive something and thus wastes his time. So both of them incur a loss and if they don't find a way to compensate for it, karma will take its place. Therefore, karma comes as a result of a disharmonious manifestation of Love between human beings. For as long as the love between people lacks harmony, their mutual karma will keep growing and getting heavier. If the beloved does not arrive on time, he gets asked immediately: “Why weren't you punctual?” Therefore, given the current level of development of human beings and their understanding of love, both those who love and the ones who are loved limit each other. Contemporary people want to be free of these limitations, but this requires a new philosophy of Life, new solutions to the existing social problems. If you do not acquire this new philosophy, many more halters and goads will appear. What new ideas can you acquire, if your master puts a hundred halters and goads on you daily? You will certainly learn something. Halters and goads represent the trials and tribulations one must pass through in order to reach a higher level of consciousness. The present situation of humanity is temporary, transitory, but in order to go through this period successfully, one needs to make efforts to transform the forces of his consciousness and overcome the present boundaries and limitations. If you think you can solve your problems without such effort you deceive yourself. You can solve them temporarily, but later you will make double the amount of mistakes you did before. If you work consciously on yourself, you will solve Life's issues directly, without any detours and thus gain Light and a new understanding of Life. If I shared with you some occult laws and rules, given your current level of awareness you wouldn't be able to cope with them. You would say that you promise to apply them and will be very precise in doing so. No, new knowledge requires new containers, otherwise many of your containers will start cracking here and there and you will start complaining of headaches or stomachaches and so on. When the higher energy of these spiritual truths penetrates your nervous systems, it will cause total perturbation and if you have no connection to the great Divine law so that it can help you, you could simply melt. That is why disciples of the occult need a long period of preparation before they can become independent. This preparatory period has the aim of increasing their vibrations so that they can become stronger. That is the reason why occult knowledge, occult Light are not given to disciples before they have been well-tempered - this knowledge is power capable of destroying the organism of someone who is not prepared for it. The disciple needs to start with minor experiences in order to temper his nervous system. For this purpose he is first placed on a grate at an average temperature of about three hundred degrees which is gradually increased until it reaches four or five thousand degrees. Each disciple will test the level of his tenacity. Someone who can endure up to four hundred degrees can be compared to lead, because lead melts at approximately that temperature. Someone who melts at about a thousand degrees is like iron and if someone melts at one thousand seven hundred and fifty or one thousand eight hundred degrees, he is like platinum. The more you can endure the more you will learn. Do you know how many degrees you can personally endure? Have you tested at which temperature you would melt without burning? In this case alchemy aims to melt what is hard and stubborn in the human being, without burning it. If we could melt carbon in some way, we would change its state and transform it into something new, but if we burnt it, we would have an entirely different process. When I speak about the power of Occult Science, I do not want to frighten you, I want you to be brave. All higher beings have trod this path and you have to do it too. It is the easiest path. Its methods are complicated, but the path itself is straight and easy, therefore, you need to work and you need to think. Think mainly about the two sides of Love – to love and to be loved. Ask yourself the question: when and how has the wish to love and be loved emerged in human beings? What do you think: when have these two states appeared in human consciousness, in your understanding? Do the following experiment to answer this question: when after a good meal you are satisfied, take a beautiful cherry and look at it for a while. You will admire the beautiful cherry for as long as you do not feel any hunger, but when you become hungry, the wish to eat your favourite cherry will enter your mind. While you do this experiment, observe the changes which will occur in your consciousness. There are a lot of cherries this season, so all of you can do this experiment. When you are full, take four or five cherries and put them in front of you. At this time you'll love them. But when you get hungry, you look at the cherries in a different way, you want to eat them. At this moment, the wish enters your consciousness for the cherries to love you. It is interesting to observe these fine changes occurring in your consciousness. This means that the one who loves will become engulfed. In this example, the cherry loves the person, and that is why the latter swallows it up. That is the law. It shows that the power lies in small things, not in big things. When you do this experiment, you will come to interesting conclusions, you will observe how different processes in your mind develop. However in order to reach the right conclusions, you need to be completely calm. Therefore, work in a state of calmness and do not be disturbed if some issues inside you or in your interaction with others have not been solved yet. A number of methods for solving issues exist. When an artist makes a mistake he takes the brush and covers it up. When a clerk makes a mistake he takes the rubber and erases it. Covering up and erasing mistakes are external methods, but when we come to the correction of errors in human consciousness, then we have to use very different methods. Each external error is first of all an error of someone’s consciousness. Those who understand the laws will correct their mistakes through transformation of their consciousness. It is one of the most difficult methods to apply. Everything is hidden in one’s consciousness; that is why your work on yourself should definitely start from there. Purification of consciousness – that is the disciples' task. Two main methods can be applied towards this aim: filtration and distillation. Purification of consciousness means transforming your consciousness so that it can make a transition from a lower to a higher level. Secret Prayer Source

One’s Place in Nature The eleventh lecture of the Master Petar Deunov, delivered at the General Esoteric Class on 11 May 1922, Thursday, 7:30-9:00h, Sofia Secret Prayer Silence For next time write down your favourite word or favourite sentence. So, you will write down either one word, or one sentence, which impressed you most. When the Infinite World or The Infinite confined itself, the Objective Divine World was formed. So it is from the Infinite, from the Objective Divine World, that one’s subjective, internal world was formed. It is from one’s subjective internal world that the present objective external world was created. Or put in other words, what is visible to God, is invisible to us; what is known to God, is unknown to us. So now, when someone, in an esoteric school, says “I don’t know”, this means that one is aware that one does not know. The implication, however, is that what one does not know, is known to elevated Creatures who know it. Therefore you could appeal to these Creatures who are aware of the knowledge to teach you what you don’t know at any specific moment. The same law operates when one says one has a bad, uncultivated character. So if it is bad, there are Creatures who are good, and they are in a position to rectify one’s bad character. One’s badness can be explained in two ways. If a master has made the parts of a violin and leaves his apprentice to assemble it, and if the apprentice did not assemble the parts properly, then this is a bad violin. Therefore it cannot produce the sound that is required. What can be done? This violin should be examined by the master and its parts should be re-assembled, as it is meant to be. And in the present life of the contemporary intelligent beings, who passed before us and who will come after us, there are many parts in their organisms that are not placed properly. It’s not that any of you are deficient, but there is something out of place. As long as something is not in its proper place, the qualities, the forces needed in any given case to create a character, cannot be acquired. Then such a violin should be disassembled in parts and should be re-assembled again by the master – thus it becomes a proper violin. The esoteric school should re-assemble you; this is the objective of the Esoteric School. You will be taken apart in this School – not everything, but there will be certain things, which have to be taken apart and re-assembled again. This is what is called internal harmonization. This cannot be done against your will; no esoteric school does anything against one’s will. You will knock ten times on the door of the master who has to re-assemble the parts, and you will be waiting outside at the doorstep, until the master comes and you are admitted in. In Christianity this master is called the Holy Spirit. And then when He enters in, He won’t transform the human being overnight, He shall first start with disassembling the parts. And while parts are being taken apart you will feel an internal pain, this knife of his shall start working there. There is a story about a distinguished violinist who had an excellent Stradivarius violin. It had a small defect, so he took it to a well-known famous master in Italy to have it repaired. He invited him to take a seat and he himself started disassembling the parts with a knife, but every time when he stabbed the knife into the violin, the violinist gave a moan and when the violin was re-assembled the master noticed that the violinist had fainted. At present, the human soul is similarly intertwined with the body – within this instrument, that when the Great Spirit comes to work and drives the knife through it, you would inevitably feel internal pains. If you are sick and if there is a master, then this knife by all means would be exactly what you need, so that the various misplaced parts are properly re-assembled. After repairing this part, one will feel an internal lightness, one will experience an internal enlightenment. Many times certain issues have been discussed, many speak about the Spirit, but this is an obscure concept. How many of you have a clear understanding of what the Spirit is like? Moreover, how many of you know the situation a Master is in – not by the form in which He appears, but the internal aspect of the Spiritual Teacher? How many of you have such a clear understanding of Love? All of you have had your small experiences of it, but the clear concept that generates great experiences, that engenders an entire revolution within the soul and transforms all bodily particles, so that one, after coming out of this Divine fire, feels like a newly born baby, because one steps into a new world, a world of different understanding – such an experience you haven’t had. Many times we have spoken about Love, about God, and nonetheless when it comes to taking an exam, we always manifest our old habits. We should not fool ourselves about the training we have passed, because many people are trained, but are not raised well. Many people are still in the process of transformation, but are not transformed. If you reach your hand to a tamed tiger, it can keep licking it for a long time, but just one drop of blood would immediately arouse his old instincts. You can make that old wolf behave like a dog, but it’s out of the question that wolves will grow out of their old habits. Then, if we want to get closer to God, to acquire this knowledge, which brings future happiness, i.e. this Prudent life, we shall inevitably have to observe the great laws upon which the proper structure of our present development rests. So none of you should give in to self-blaming, but should instead monitor oneself and should one notice any internal shortcoming, any part which is not in its proper place, then one should call this great master – the Spirit, to help one rise to one’s feet and to rectify it. Now, such rectification can be done either here or in the other world. This is inevitable; postponing things is not a way out. You might say “This may happen under more favourable conditions, when the circumstances are most favourable.” If a thought has crossed your mind just now, is this moment not the most favourable moment? If it is the Spirit speaking within you right now, is this not the most favourable moment? Every thought is important at a certain moment; such a thought may come and go. So, those of you who walk along this path, should develop such senses, should be so sensitive, so quick of apprehension and so delicate, because being sensitive and delicate is for your own sake. If you are delicate, if you are sensitive, if you are quick to apprehend, the nobleness of your heart, the strengths of your mind shall be useful to you and shall in turn be useful to the people close to you. Then you will have the right relationship. Two able spiritual students can easily understand each other, two noble persons can easily settle their accounts, can easily correct their mistakes, but two stupid persons cannot – one would insist on having it one’s own way and the other would insist on having it their way. So, where is one’s place in Nature? Nature under the present conditions is just one opportunity. Nature – this is the objective Divine world, it is the primary world. From this world we should create our internal subjective world. This entire Divine world that we can see externally and that is real, we shall perceive it and shall then project it externally and shall thus create our objective world. And only having created it, can we shape the character within us. God manifests Himself within all of us; we are objects to God. He works within all of us and there is no way we can escape His influence. He has commissioned you to work and you will accomplish His Will – voluntarily or through coercion, either way you shall accomplish His Will, there is no other way out. A person who believes that one can oppose God, such a person is fooling oneself – all the same such a person shall accomplish the objective Divine will. You may keep opposing and at the same time God will see to it that His work is being done. Your refusal to go along with Him shall not produce disharmony in His path. And now that we have such an understanding of the laws that form your subjective world, we realize that the objective Divine world, which descended from God, is ideal and we should not think that there are defects in it. Nature cannot have defects; there are no defects in nature. The defects, which seem to manifest themselves in Nature, are only results from these beings that manifest themselves individually. Take for example a lioness, which is so cruel to others, and then consider how loving she is to her children – this is Divine substance. She can strangle the lamb, can eat it, can be very cruel to it, but her child she would lick, she would fondle – this is the Divine manifesting itself within her. If this lamb comes to be delivered through her, she would be equally good to the lamb. Why? – Because this lamb would have come along the Divine path – and the lioness would know this by the lion’s form, which she recognizes as Divine. She has got that far to believe that only what has come out of her is Divine, while everything else which is different from her, she would consider not to be Divine. This law operates in all human beings. Now, when you enter the Spiritual School, you believe that only what your mind generates is good – again the same law. When someone writes a certain good sentence, that person likes it. Why so? – Because it came out of him or her. Had, however, this sentence come out of someone else, then the first person is bound to find fault with it. But if the writer of the sentence is in harmony with the first person or it comes from within one’s relatives, the first person would again like it. Therefore, in order to be able to understand each other your thoughts should, without doubt, flow in the same direction. You should be convinced that the Divine Spirit in any certain case acts in a particular special way in all of you. This is true – there is diversity in Spirit – each single person, or each single spiritual student has unique vocation. I am now saying that the vocation of the human being in Nature is to learn from this objective Divine world, so that one can create one’s own subjective world. Thus one can draw on these materials. Say for example you want to be good; where can you obtain materials for the Good? You have a friend of yours, who is hungry; you want to prove your noble heart, to help him – you cannot cut off your flesh to feed him; it will not be wise to take your clothes off, as you will have nothing on, while he will be clad. If two persons have only one suit, this is good, if you are naked. Because if you take it off and put it on your friend, then this is good and bad at the same time – these counter-balance themselves, so you would have achieved nothing. Therefore we shall have to obtain such materials from nature, from the Divine world, which are needed, and shall have to put them to use for the sake of the people close to us. This is to say that in certain instances God uses us as a means, in order to show our internal desires. Someone could have been asking for knowledge for a long time; and finally He would send a Spiritual Teacher to that person, and He would implant the Spirit in this Teacher, so that He could manifest Himself, to deliver what is needed. This is to say; everything given to you in a particular instance requires you to be so prudent – to discern whether it comes from God and, without opposing or contradicting it, to immediately receive it. If it does not come from God, i.e. from this real, objective, Divine world, do not receive it. Let’s assume that I bring a live pot plant to you and also an artificial false plant, I am asking you, if you cannot tell the difference, if you do not know the different features of these plants, will you not be deceiving yourselves? I give you the two pots, but keep in mind these are so skilfully made that you could go for the false one; my question is, what will you gain? No changes can take place in this artificial plant. If an idea does not develop and cannot grow, it is a false idea. The same with you: when you become so good that no change can take place within you, you are on the wrong path, you are an artificial plant. And currently the danger in the present day world is that it has become a false substitute world. Falsehood is rooted in the fact that we do not want to experience any suffering; we want to be facilitated in everything - anyone else can suffer, to us, however, life should be a bed of roses. The student of the Esoteric School should know that suffering is what results from the transformation process of any energy. It is always the case when a human being moves from one state into another, that one experiences particular internal suffering. If there is suffering there is progress, if there is no suffering, one remains in the same place. Therefore you should remember that the changes taking place within you reveal that you are walking along the path. Now, in this Esoteric School where you are, you should analyze your thoughts. This analysis consists of the following: there are a lot of lurking thoughts from the past lying low in your consciousness or sub-consciousness. In a certain situation these thoughts will come to the surface and start talking to you like a record-player and you will say, “Some spirit is telling me something.” you will know, by everything you have been told, that this spirit has been saying the same thing for years. The spirit will tell you to be good, to be chaste, and to be honest. What is exactly new about it? – “You have to improve your life, so that the Lord could love you.” What is new about it, is this something new? This is just a reflection of your thoughts. Well, how can you recognize them? – If there is an external reality, i.e. one always knows when God speaks in the objective world. It is easy to distinguish when we speak and when He does. If an internal voice tells me that within ten days I will have ten thousand leva – and there I keep waiting and waiting, and no money comes; and then another voice suggesting, “You will get married in two years, you will marry an excellent maiden” – and in two years there is no maiden; “In four years you will be admitted to a University and you will have the best of professors” – time passes, no professors whatsoever; “In six or seven years you will be Prime Minister of Bulgaria” – time passes, I do not become the Minister. Someone might say, “The spirit said this, said that, this was what came to my mind” – these are purely subjective, distorted misinterpretations of the very person. Sometimes there can be such misrepresentations that you can believe you are gifted, “I have brains, no one else has brains like mine.” But before two or three months elapse, you are given a task – you cannot solve it. You think that you are very talented, while you cannot resolve a simple difficulty; what is so unusual about you? Sometimes you think that you are a mighty hero and that you can fight the whole world, but in the evenings a lad walks a girl home, and no sooner had two other lads made advances at him, than he leaves the girl and runs away. He is strong to fight the whole world but two persons can scare the wits out of him. The student of an Esoteric School should not entertain any illusions; one should know how many people one can fight, let’s say one, two, one should also know whether one can run well – one should be aware of everything, and not be a coward. Only if one is capable of understanding, only then can one investigate the objective Divine world. Subsequently, due to these shortcomings in us, we cannot understand and cannot apply the good we have within. Why? These old thoughts, old feelings are constantly undermining the good within us. These are like a sea wave – we scribble the Good on the shore, a wave comes over and washes it away. Then we say again, “God is Love, God is Truth” – then comes a wave and washes it away. We keep writing – it keeps washing it away; we fight against the sea. And then I shall ask you who is going to win. The sea, in the end it is going to be the sea. You should not be fighting the sea. And I would now let you know a rule: a gourd entering the sea should be empty and well sealed at that; if it is full it will sink to the bottom. Empty it should be, so that it could float on the waters; this gourd, when inland, has to be full. So when you go to God, your gourd has to be empty so that you can cross this immense sea – the astral sea. If you are full of your ideas, you will sink, you will never reach God. When you reach firm ground, you are bound, by all means, to be full – this is again a symbol, this symbol you are to keep in mind. When you get to God, you shall be empty, when you leave God, you shall have to be full. If you go to God full, you shall come back empty, and having come back empty what is going to happen to you? – You are bound to experience suffering. You will start reasoning now: these are principles; you will start building upon them. Because in an Esoteric School you will investigate Life, learn about ways and methods to transform the energies circulating within your physical bodies. Do you have any idea how much energy has accumulated in you? This energy should be put to use on time. And provided you do not put to use every single energy, implanted in your bodies, others will. So, when you look upon external Nature in the capacity of an Esoteric student, you will realize that Nature was meant to create your subjective world, i.e. all these principles which underpin it, so that you could grasp it on principle. You should have very good understanding about everything. Your measure of Truth, your attitude to people, and how to judge – you should have all of these correct. Someone wants to show me that I have made a mistake. I can unmask a person in several ways. I can unmask that person so powerfully, that it would be an operation. If the bad doctor, who cuts off the furuncle, cuts twice as much healthy flesh as sick flesh, this operation is no good. One has to be a master – to tell the Truth in such a way that no single cell of healthy flesh would be cut off; no single cell of the Divine organism should be wasted, i.e. by telling the Truth one should not damage any Divine flower. And finally, no unmasking is allowed in the Esoteric School; the Truth you may say, but to unmask someone - you may not. If one unmasks someone else, one is to be expelled; anyone who dares unmask someone else will be expelled and it may take thousands of years staying outside – a severe punishment this is. And whenever you want to unmask someone, you should stop and tell yourself, “If it is to tell the Truth, the Truth I shall tell” – neither more nor less. This is a great Divine law and I am warning you about it, not to put yourselves through needless suffering. So far, you have been walking along the road of unmasking. If unmasking could remedy the world, the world would have been rectified already. One should only be told the Truth, and shown the ways, methods and paths, as to how one can rectify one’s mistakes. Well, I shall explain the principle: I go to a brother, let’s say he is a trader, has a certain business, has borrowed money from other brothers, has accumulated a debt of twenty thousand leva, then he does not return the loan, he has no money to return, and he occasionally lies to avoid paying. But no, why should he be lying, why shouldn't he tell the Truth? You will suggest that we call him to unmask him – this is the wrong path. We shall ask him to come and we shall tell him, “Brother, is it not better for you to pay these debts, can't you repay? We shall help you, and you keep working and little by little you will repay the debts.” But we say, “You must get the money whatever it takes, but repay your debt!” – This is unmasking. We shall help him. And when the Lord wanted to rectify the world, He sent Christ, He placed a lot of credit in Christ and Christ said, “I came to give you new life and with this capital you will repay your old debts.” I want absolutely no unmasking among the students of the Esoteric School. The Truth you will speak – you will call each other and you will speak the Truth in a gentle way. You will keep improving, helping each other, creating your internal world, and to gradually elevate yourselves. You know how gradually a student in music trains one’s hand. What difficulties the student encounters in the beginning, until one’s hand becomes flexible enough to play the music, until one’s fingers finally seem to become conscious of the music and only then can the musician play without any effort. Why? One’s fingers have learnt how to play, these fingers understand how playing takes place. We also should nourish such habits and should be aware of how to comply with certain virtues. One has to necessarily develop a habit, a right thought. Now, where does one belong in Nature? In order to appear, one human being has to necessarily have a will. And in order to show your will, you will start with the smallest attempt, with the smallest things, do not make great efforts. In order to get to know whether your will is strong, you will experiment with small things. Set yourself a task in your mind; let’s say to get up at 12 o’clock sharp at midnight and starting from here, from Sofia, go to the Vitosha Mountain. So, what does it take to go to the Vitosha Mountain; what difficulties might you encounter? There are no difficulties facing you on your way to Vitosha. First, you will think that it is dark, that you may lose your way; secondly, that you may come across villains, there might be bears or wolves – these are the pictures flooding your imagination. You, after making the decision to go to the mountain, will go out, but then you will come back and say. “I will go to the mountain in more favourable conditions, when the Moon is shining.” If you leave it for later, your will is weak. The Moon shining or not, you have to go. If you say you are going to do something and if you postpone it, your will is weak. If someone has insulted you, you experience a desire and you say, “I will put up with this person” – do it. You have decided on going to Vitosha and at this moment someone comes along and tells you what the weather is like and you say, “Come on, I will do it in a month’s time.” A month is gone, two, three, four are gone – you do not go. If you do not have sufficient will to acquiesce, how can you then accomplish God’s Will and what kind of disciple will you be? At first, when you enter any Esoteric School you will be put to great tests – some will be told “Your father and your mother you will leave!” Someone will say, “This is not for now.” Don’t you take my words wrongly? There will come a time when you will leave your father and mother, you will renounce your brothers and sisters – you will go. You will then think – either of the two: if you do not renounce them, you will stay at home, while if you renounce them, you will enter the Esoteric School. You now want to be entrusted with things from the Divine world. How can such things be entrusted to you – to use them for your own sake, to keep them at home? And the Lord knows that if He gives these to you under the present conditions, when your subjective world is not formed, you cannot form your objective world and all of these Divine Goods will be wasted – you will fall into your old habits. And if the Lord grants to you a small gift, all your life you will write stupid poems, dramas, novels; you may write dozens of volumes, but in ten years time these volumes will be forgotten and no one will remember of them. Yet this Divine energy has to be applied properly, it ought to generate specific results. And now you all want to be good, to be welcomed by the Lord, to see Angels etc. But in order to see Angels, you must have the predisposition of one Angel – when you love someone, that someone is ready to meet you. Angels like to make new acquaintances very much, but when they see the disciples in the present situation, they do not like to talk a lot. What can an Angel tell you when the Angel comes down from Heavens? An Angel steps in your house and there you go telling him about your misfortunes. To the Angel these misfortunes mean nothing; he will stay, will look at you, will listen to you and will leave. And you know what happens sometimes? – Just like that, the Angel will disappear before your eyes; and these Angels of yours often disappear like this. You will ask, “How do they disappear?” I can tell you how they disappear: Let’s say you are in such a frame of mind that you feel like a master of the world, you have a feeling so delightful, so noble, you have an impulse to accomplish God’s Will – the Angel has come. But that day a small reason will get you out of this frame of mind and your Angel will melt, will disappear and you will say, “Gone is this delightful state of mind.” Why? – Perhaps because someone did not pay you, someone who had to give you back a hundred leva – because of these hundred leva you spoil all your happiness. And then you will say, “I understand what Esotericism is, I have a grasp of esoteric science, I have read about it, I have done certain things.” You have read nothing, you have done nothing. If a hundred leva can knock you out, if an ordinary dish of food can knock you out, if the bad attitudes of people can knock you out, then you will be a loser, then your will is weak. The disciple after entering the Spiritual School has to be prepared to be spat upon – the disciple may be told, “You are ignorant, you are stupid.” Well, if I go to the blackboard and solve the problem well, shall I trust myself or shall I trust them? If I, after taking back my seat start playing the violin, and I enjoy myself, while someone else can say, “Your playing is no good”, shall I trust their ear or shall I trust my ear? Similarly we can experiment: I shall not invite, in this particular case, expert violinists, I shall invite simple violinists, shall take them to a menagerie or to the woods, where there are tigers, and I shall tell them, “My music is so enchanting, that it could tame animals.” If all of them listen to me and if I tame them, then I am asking you whether or not I am a violinist? – I am a violinist. My playing is worth it, because when I play, all people may walk their way at ease. This is the way – if we, in Life, can tame all those tigers, bears, wolves with our playing, there is an internal art within us. This is to say that we have an understanding for the objective Divine world, we have applied it to our internal subjective world and we can now project the external objective one. So, I want you to have a proper grasp. Goods shall not come on their own accord, shall not drop into you laps like ripe pears; these may come and go. If you want one Divine good to remain with you not only for one, five or ten years, but forever, as a companion of yours, you shall have to receive it only under the rules of Truth. Now that I am talking to you, I do not want my disciples to think that I have someone particular in mind. No, I am speaking on principle. When we talk and mean someone particularly, we mean what the Divine world is like. I believe that all of you are willing to make progress. None of you is willing to be bad or stupid – you all want to be good and smart. It is not that you are not smart, smart you are, but if you implant the brain of the smartest monkey in a child, not even once will the child be able to turn the wheel. Therefore with your present intelligence, your strength; if placed in the intelligence of an esoteric student, not once will the esoteric student be able to turn the wheel. Moreover, do you think that such intelligence is enough? No, this intelligence has to be increased thousands of times, because it has to turn a big Divine wheel. And so Paul says that natural persons have to be transformed into spiritual persons, because natural persons cannot understand spiritual stuff. And you, being disciples, have to transform your present state. You will agree that certain things, which you find delightful, you are prepared to listen to, while about things you do not find agreeable you will say, “These are out of place.” For example if a creditor of yours wants his or her money back, you say, “Now is not the right time.” Why? – You have no cash. No, no, this is the right time. You may say that a certain action of someone is not timely, but that person may also say that your action is not timely, but whether any action is timely or not, can be decided only from the Divine world’s point of view. So, now the first thing for you to do is to put your will to a small trial. Let’s see how many of you would do this. I would put to you the following task. What do you say? Shall I go ahead with the task? I am not imposing the task on you, you may do it only if your feel absolutely free and if you have a strong desire and Love within. You will think it over carefully within one year, and this is only externally, but this is a task for you to accomplish within one year. The task consists of the following: When you get up at 12 o’clock at night, climb to the Vitosha Mountain and come back. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like – it could be in winter, or in May, but you have to comprehend the task at complete consciousness, you have to be thoroughly convinced. This is the only way for you to do it; you should not be making silly attempts. This should be a conscious effort in order for you to benefit from it. If you do it unaware, don’t go at all, but if you have awareness within, you will learn something, I shall not tell you what. You will leave Sofia at 12 o’clock and will go to Vitosha, up there on the flat ground, each one individually. I am telling you, you should be absolutely free – this is absolutely up to your free will and according to the law of Love, from that it takes a deep conviction; otherwise you will not benefit. Let’s see how many of you will do it, this is a trial test – at 12 o’clock sharp you will start, whatever it may cost you. I do not know what the difficulties are for you along the road – whoever starts the journey, will get to know. You are not obliged to do it, let’s state this clearly, only these of you who are willing. No one will contact anyone on leaving and no one would know this – each one will start on one’s own, because you may not do it. Only I shall have to know who is going to start. If two of you meet along the way – this is good, this is excellent. You will choose the time, whenever you feel like. You will leave at night and come back in daytime, i.e. you will go in the evening, and you will return in daytime. You will need a good stick. You will reach above the meadow up there near the stone, above the snowline. This experiment will be done by the bravest of you, not by the cowards. Cowards should not try this experience. It is up to you personally to decide whether to do it or not. This is only a task, one of the minute tasks. It looks like I am giving you a task which scares you, doesn’t it? What if a Spiritual Teacher comes to you and takes you to the centre of the Earth? A disciple, who cannot make it on one’s own to Vitosha, will not be able to reach the centre of the Earth even if led by a Master. Those who go to Vitosha alone, if they understand, they may be with a Master. But if they keep asking themselves “Why should I go?” such questions are not answered – when you go, you will get to know. Things are never told in advance; why so? – You may or may not get to know. Chances are you may or may not get to know, but you will still learn something. One thing is for sure, you will learn how strong your will is. If your heart sinks at every step, when you return, you will have had a real experience of how far you can go. There will be another task, a more difficult one. Now you will choose the time, while I am giving you absolute freedom. The Moon shining or not – complete freedom; whatever time you choose – it is up to you to make up your mind. If I have to resolve this problem – I shall choose the worst of weather, the biggest obstacles, the most difficult methods. I shall choose the best road, but the most difficult methods. For you the road now is difficult, and I shall leave you to choose the easiest methods. I can also make it easier for you by giving you an option – you may go and you may not go, you will be free to decide, no one will know who has started, absolutely no one will know. You may say, “How can we go after 12 o’clock, we may be stopped.” At 12 o’clock sharp you will start, no one will know about it – you will leave, absolutely no one will know about this and when you return, again no one will know of this. Only your family will know, but they have to keep it an absolute secret. If two or three of you meet, this is good, but they have to keep it an absolute secret as well. (At this point a student asks: “Is it not dangerous for women?”) – There are no men or women in these deeds, there are disciples only, this is a task only for disciples. If you, after getting up, look upon yourself as a woman or a man, do not start on the road at all. After you start, if you look upon yourself as a disciple, then this is good. But if it crosses your mind that you are a woman or a man, it’s not worth going. I know that there are certain men among you, who will manage perfectly well. There are some among the men, there are some among the women as well – not all, but some. Some of the women may if they so wish, dress as men. Please note what interest this task has stirred in you, how it transformed you, what excitement it provoked. Secret prayer Source

The Law Of Energies Year 1, Lecture 11 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno May 10, 1922, Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret Prayer The disciple's essays were read on the topic: “Applications of karma in Life” Your essays deal with the theoretical side of the question of karma. Physical life and the physical body of the human being are often talked about. What does the physical body represent? It represents a conductor, a great installation for the forces of Nature. Two types of natural forces pass through this installation: positive and negative electricity as well as positive and negative magnetism. At present, your bodies are not physically tuned. Some are positive, others are negative; some have more positive electricity in them, others have more negative electricity. If two individuals with a positive electric charge come together, they will surely repel one another. If they begin a conversation, directly after their parting they will feel aversion and dissatisfaction. If neither can transform the other's positive electricity into negative one, it is better for them to part consciously, at least for a while, and look for a friend with the opposite electric charge. Otherwise, they will develop a hostile attitude towards each other and will act out of their hostility. Rude behavior will result as a consequence. Irrespective of whether the person is male or female, they will display rudeness because electricity moves in short waves and so does rudeness. If two negatively charged individuals come together, they will also repel one another. A certain discontent, doubt or fear will become apparent; they will be afraid of each other. Therefore, when two positively charged people meet, they will become active and will fight or duel one another, and when two people of negative electric charge meet, they will not fight for reasons of safety, but hypocrisy and deceit will enter into their relationship. One of them will find an indirect way to deceive the other one and tie him up so as to get a revenge. So if you want to duel with someone, you should know that both of you have a positive electric charge. If you feel fear, doubt or hypocrisy when you meet someone, you should know that both of you have a negative electric charge. If you meet someone whose electricity is the opposite of yours, you will love one another. The relationship of two people with the same electric charge in their organisms is the same as the relationship one has to one's own self, when both hemispheres of the brain are charged with the same or the opposite type of electricity. In order for a person to have a harmonious state of mind, each hemisphere of his brain needs to be charged with the opposite type of electricity. In the same way when two people meet who have heterogeneous or homogeneous electric charges, harmonic or disharmonic relationships emerge. For example, if the electricity in the right hemisphere is positive in both individuals, they will be rude to each other; if they both have an accumulation of negative electricity in the left hemisphere, they will be suspicious of one another. Many are worried about what to do with their negative electricity if they cannot put it to work. I will give an example from real life, so that you can see how to apply the law of assimilation to your excess energy. Suppose that one of the women in class, who is stronger in character, attracts two other women. However she likes one of them more than the other, and has a close friendship with her. She often talks to her, while the third woman remains to the side. These two friends who love one another assimilate each other's electric charges but the third woman, who is not loved as much, has surplus energy which has accumulated either in the right or the left side of her body. If the energy remains in the right side of her body, the woman will become rude; if it remains in the left side, she will be dissatisfied and suspicious, both towards herself and towards her kin. What should she do to come out of this situation? She should find another friend who will love her. That is the only way for her surplus energy to be assimilated. Now that you are aware of this law, you should be very careful not to misuse it. Whoever misuses this law will be strictly punished, as he has never been punished before in his life. Once you know this law, you are expected to use it only for good. Everyone should remind themselves not to misuse this law under any circumstances. What does it mean to misuse this law? One misuses this law if he consciously directs his positive electricity towards another person. Thus he will increase the amount of positive electricity in the other person, he will increase his rudeness and lead him to aggression and rancour. When an individual's right side is positively charged he should find a friend whose right side has the opposite electricity, so that the two opposite types of electricity can be neutralized. How can this neutralization occur? One of them can put his left hand on the right side of his friend’s head, and the friend can put his right hand on the left side of the other person's head. Thus, little by little, they will begin to feel better. Neutralization can also be achieved by simply holding hands. The aim is to transform the energies in both individuals. You can do this experiment in order to see the above law in action. It is best to do it when you are not feeling well. You should also do the experiment always in pairs – two female friends or sisters and two male friends or two brothers together. When I say that you should hold hands, sisters with sisters and brothers with brothers, I have in mind the different principles operating in Nature: Love with Love and Wisdom with Wisdom. Looking at the way you are sitting next to each other in class, I find that you have not taken this law into consideration. Students at school should take seats in an order that will promote perfect harmony between them. Because you are disciples of a spiritual school, you need to know the law of energy transformation and apply it properly. If you meet someone who violates your inner peace with his opposing energies, stay away from him. If you cannot distance yourself from him physically, do it mentally. How can this be done? Imagine that a certain distance exists between you. Therefore, when you take a seat or when you meet others to talk and communicate, always observe the law of liking. If two people like each other, there will be full harmony between them; whenever one of them thinks, the other one will think as well. However if they are not fond of each other, whenever one of them thinks, the other one will feel. Such disagreement of forces will create a number of disharmonious situations between them. Two people should think, feel and act simultaneously in order to maintain harmony with each other. Moreover, if one of them thinks, feels or acts positively, the energies of the other one should be negative. So do this experiment for the purpose of regulating the forces in your body. If you achieve positive results, I will give you other experiments to do. What indicates the presence of surplus electricity in the left side or in the right side of the brain? – When a person has a tendency to quarrel with everyone he meets on his path, it shows a surplus of electricity in the right side of his brain. When a person is in bad spirits, when he is pessimistic or unhappy, it shows a surplus of electricity in the left side of his brain. This refers to the energies of the physical body. The same can also be said about the energies existing in the Astral and the Spiritual worlds. You should make efforts to control these energies, and then monitor the results. However, you should not expect success with the first attempt. You may undergo a hundred trials, yet barely achieve one microscopic result. These experiments aim at the development of your awareness and of your will. When I say that electricity has accumulated in the right or in the left hemisphere of the brain, I mean the brain's general state. Otherwise electricity could accumulate in specific centres of the brain, but again either in the left or in the right hemisphere.When you are not feeling well, you should realize that you have surplus electricity and you need to put it to work. How are you going to do this? You will find a friend from the class or from anywhere else who is of about the same level of personal development and do the experiment with her. When you do the experiment together you will gain double. On the one hand you will get rid of your excess electricity, and on the other hand you will help your friend move onto the right path, the path that you are following. However, if you conduct this experiment with a person who is moving in a direction opposite to yours, you will link yourself with this person and will experience a contradiction. Now, as disciples you will need to do this experiment frequently. Since you do not yet abide by the laws properly, you will accumulate surplus electricity in your brains which you must manage in a reasonable way. This excess of energy is a form of surplus baggage from the past. Similarly, rich people leave a surplus when they cook a lot of food but eat only part of it. If a meal remains uneaten, after some time it begins to spoil and the servants are forced to throw it away. The same process takes place in the entire human organism because of surplus electricity accumulating in the brain. Here and there in the organism processes of souring and decay develop, leading always to destruction. However, whenever you feel an accumulation of electricity in one hemisphere of your brain or the other, you can help yourself. For example, if the accumulation of electricity is in the right hemisphere, you can stroke the right part of your head with your left hand - not with your right hand, because then you will increase the accumulated electricity. And the other way round, if the surplus energy is in the left side of your head, you can stroke it with your right hand. After you do this you will become calm and your mood will improve. In the summertime, when the Sun shines strongly over your head, you can stroke your hair with both hands. With the help of your hands you will remove excess electricity from your brain and thereby avoid a sun stroke. Apply this procedure even when the slightest agitation occurs and you will be able to observe positive results. There are many schools in the world that use these rules and methods for magnetizing and tuning, but due to improper application of the laws of Intelligent Nature, they cause great harm to their disciples. Disciples should not allow themselves to be hypnotized. Those who want to give you money should not demand a promissory note from you. If they want to do you a favour they should give you the money on trust. If they want a promissory note, accept no money from them. It is better to stay hungry than to sign anything like that. The Spiritual school recommends the following to its disciples: if someone gives you a loan without a draft or a bill, then accept this money, use it and pay it off on time. Now, I would like you to be sincere to yourself, be honest to your soul. For a period of two weeks, right after you get up each morning, ask yourself: “Am I sincere to my soul? Am I ready to do what my soul whispers to me, what my soul prompts me to do all day long? And if I fail in something, am I ready - without justifying myself, without asking my soul for an excuse - to tell the Truth as it is in reality?” Therefore, when you make a mistake, do not diminish or exaggerate it, but state it before your soul as it is, as Nature has also stated it. Honesty to the soul is a prerequisite for the development and awakening of your awareness, so that you can perceive things correctly, without things getting exaggerated or diminished. What I understand by the word “soul” is the Divine source in the human being, its highest manifestation in the physical world. As I am giving you a number of experiments, I am bringing your attention to honesty so that there will be no misuse. Why should you not misuse the experiments? Because all experiments in the School should be done consciously and free willingly. For example, when you put your hand on someone’s head, you should be aware whether you are giving or receiving something from him. If you receive, you should know if you can use what you receive. If you give, you should know whether the receiver has benefited from it. If what you give does not benefit the other and what you receive does not benefit yourself, both processes of taking and receiving are useless. In order for giving and receiving to be made conscious and to be used well, one needs to be thankful. The energy that flows through the person who gives and the person who receives is Divine. Full accounts of it is kept, it cannot and should not be spent in vain. Nature has at Her disposal precise instruments for measuring and reading how much energy is used and who it is used for. Moreover, Nature monitors the amount of energy going out of one’s brain, out of one’s hands, etc. Nature represents a great installation of energies and She renders a precise account of all that is spent. She monitors the results also which are obtained after the expenditure of this energy. This is of special importance because these results give this energy the opportunity to echo in universal existence. Therefore, it is enough for you to put your hand on somebody's head and they will already know the exact result of your activity and will hold you responsible for it. I am not saying this to frighten you, but to warn you that an account is kept of any work that you do, so you should be careful. You should work consciously, оn principal and not out of fear. The impulse of your soul should be in tune and harmony with God, with the Great in the world. This is what conscious work means. Some issues may be have remained unclear to you now, but you should know that through the experiments you will achieve clarity. If the explanations of the experiments are too long, this can also be a burden for you. What is obscure for you today will become bright and clear tomorrow, when the Sun rises. Without fear in the Boundless Love! So, when an issue is unclear to you, ask for an explanation. If you do not ask, you may delude yourself, because you will be visited simultaneously by the disciples of both Brotherhoods: of Light and of darkness. Whatever may happen to you, whoever may visit you, do not be afraid, do not be afraid of the darkness. It has its own laws and you will study them in a reverse way, by going from Light to darkness and from darkness to Light. Secret Prayer Source

BEAUTY IN NATURE Year 1, Lecture 10 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno On 3 May, 1992 Wednesday, Sofia Secret Prayer There was a presentation of the disciple's essays on Beauty. I am asking you, what is Beauty? Can Beauty be seen or felt? How will you draw a beautiful face? When you look at some people, you like them when they strike a certain pose. For example, they are beautiful when they stand still in silence, but when they laugh, they become ugly. For others, it is just the opposite – they are beautiful when they laugh, and ugly when they are silent. How will you explain this: imagine a round, ball-shaped face with small eyes situated close to the nose. Is this face beautiful? It is not. Is a face beautiful, if the eyes are placed at a big distance from the nose? It is not beautiful either. What will you say then about a big, round face with big or small ears? Again, you will say that it is not beautiful. What should the size of the ears be? Your likes and dislikes show that you have a certain inner measure or a scale for estimating things. Therefore, what is important in each case is not what different authors have said about Beauty, but what your inner understanding is. Different authors' views will only serve as an explanation and a supplementation to your view. People long for Beauty, they perceive Beauty, but if you ask them what Beauty is, what its outer features are, they will not tell you anything in particular. A beautiful face is one that will maintain its basic features in all conditions of Life. Whether sad or unhappy, serious or joyful, the basic features will always remain the same. If one’s eyes are small and close to the nose, this is an indication of low impressionability. Small eyes are a sign of parsimony. Large eyes are a sign of wastefulness. In other words, people with small eyes are poor and people with large eyes are rich and capable of squandering their wealth. As a general rule, a beautiful face is a face in which all parts are placed proportionally to each other. For example, the forehead, the nose and the chin should each take up a third of the whole face. In addition, the facial form should not be completely round but somewhat pear-shaped and pointed. When you see a very round face, it is due to a certain quantity of fat accumulated around the chin. A face loses its beauty as a result of this excess fat. Everyone today longs for Beauty, but outer beauty has caused great evil in the world. Beauty should exist on the inside, not on the outside. Inner beauty expresses itself in a flexible lively face. A beautiful face also indicates inner depth, great sensitivity and a nobleness of the soul. In a beautiful face curved lines should prevail over straight ones. Straight lines show that electricity prevails in a certain person; curved lines are an indication of magnetism. Some people have beautiful foreheads, but their ears and chins are not beautiful. In order to determine which forehead, nose, mouth, chin, beard and ears are correct in size and beautiful in form, one needs to apply Nature' measure which uses strict mathematical and geometric rules. Those who try to lead beautiful inner lives will also acquire Beauty on their faces. For example nobleness, purity and tenderness give softness and clearness to one’s eyes. If personal feelings are predominant in someone, it will give serenity to his eyes, but this serenity will lack softness. The look in their eyes will be coarse and rigid. In general, the eyes play an important role in one’s life. That is why if a negative thought enters your mind, if a bitter or rough feeling enters your heart, do your best as disciples to get rid of it. Take the hammer in your hand, cut and chisel them like a mastered sculptor, process them until they are fully softened. You need great self-control for this. Not only students, but teachers too need self-control. Contemporary teachers in music are cross when their students sing out of tune. If teachers could keep their self-control and presence of spirit, they would easily correct their students. Under the influence of such serenity, even the worst student would be able to improve their voice and start singing beautifully. If a teacher gets angry, the tones that the students produce get shortened and they start singing out of tune. When I am speaking about Beauty now, I have in mind the human soul which is beautiful by itself. The beauty of the soul always needs to take some form or another and the more beautiful a certain form is, the closer it is to Truth. For example, your essays on Beauty were beautiful but only when it comes to external expression. However they weren't as good internally, i.e. in content and meaning because they didn't contain Truth in them. The first thing which is required of disciples is to make place for Truth in their lives. Every single thing which contains the Truth as it is, without any additions, exaggerations or understatements, is beautiful. I will give you a few rules for writing your essays. Calm down completely before you start writing. When your work is ready, read it out loud to see how it sounds to you. In addition, observe the effect it has on your mind and your sympathetic nervous system. It is well done if it affects both of these systems in a harmonious way. Read your essay two or three times to make sure that it sounds good. If it sounds good to you, it will sound good to others too. And the other way round – if it does not sound good to you, it will not satisfy others either. Disciples need to present works which sound good and which are pleasant to listen to. Each text that is pleasant and sounds good to you will be good for us to listen to as well. You should also learn to write concisely, but clearly and conceptually. When we have time, I will give you an example with an idea which has been expressed in three different ways, so that you may see which form is the best one. It will also be the most beautiful one. Therefore, each idea could be expressed in three different ways. It is good for you to read beautiful descriptions, so that your sense of the beautiful and the delicate can develop. The Bible story of Joseph is beautiful and it would be good for everyone to read it. Now, I will give you an example with an idea which has been expressed in three different ways. This is the idea of Life. I say, Light brings Life, Love brings Life, Truth brings Life. In this case, what kind of Life does Light bring? What kind of Life does Love bring? What kind of Life does Truth bring? Can Truth bring Life directly? Certainly, there is some difference between Life which has been brought by Light, Love and Truth respectively. Therefore the object of Truth is Freedom, the object of Light is Knowledge and the object of Love is Life. When we say that Light brings Life, we consider Light to be a prerequisite for humans to be able study. They need to have Love as well in order to be able to study. Therefore Light brings Life to Knowledge, in order to give Freedom to humans. Truth brings Life in the same way. So when you write your essays in the future, you should read them out loud several times and correct them if there is something you dislike. When you read your work out loud and it sounds good to you, you will see that it will be appreciated in class too. Write slowly, patiently, without haste. Spiritual science demands geometrical accuracy from disciples. The sheets of paper you will use can be small or big according to your preference, but regular in form. They can be triangular, rectangular or anything else, but by all means regular in form. Your handwriting should be neat and beautiful. It is not enough to speak about Beauty only, but to act in beautiful ways as well. Many of you will start writing beautifully and legibly, but at the end their handwriting will become nervous and unreadable. This shows that they are not in agreement with themselves and that they have some weaknesses. Fight against your shortcomings until you overcome. I am saying, remember all the writing rules I gave you and apply them. You should know that each thought, feeling and action of yours, good or bad, are imprinted in your consciousness and have their influence on it. Thus what is ugly and negative will help you realize what is beautiful, noble and positive in Life. Secret Prayer

Symbolic Occult Rules and Measures Tenth lection of the Teacher delivered at the Common occult class on the 2nd of May, Tuesday, 7.30-9.00 a.m., Sofia Secret prayer This, what I shall say, is just one definition, do not write. I shall go straight to the object, this is only one notice. We leave the ordinary understanding of Life, do you understand? When you enter into one boat you will not walk around inside but will sit and when you go out, then there is the other way. When you enter into the Divine World, you will leave your ways of walking on the Earth – the earth moral is amorality in Heaven, and the earthly right is the absence of rights in Heaven. And when all of our Justice on the Earth collects, it can not make even one virtue of one Angel. We have to be humbled people, to know that we are not virtuous. From now on, this is way we will be virtuous – Virtue is something that will be created by the law of Love; on this law we still haven’t lived sensibly. Some will retort, “We live and move in God.” The occult science doesn’t deny it but you have to know that you are at one with God and to reply as He would and to think in the way He thinks. As far as the Heaven is from the Earth, so is God far from us. But how far is Heaven from the Earth? And so the title was “Symbolic occult rules and measures. Dissonances and consonance.” We will use one foreign word: so one consonance we may transform to one dissonance. This is how: you are an intelligent man with mind, heart, and will; one violinist appears before you and starts to play. It is pleasant for you to listen to his music, you say, “You played excellently.” and then this violinist has faith in you. You are the public and he already counts on your word, he says, “When I play he understands my music, my music is something!” Then, before even half an hour has passed a violinist who plays better than the first, starts to play too; you start to praise the second and then in the first violinist dissonance appears. Why? – You will look to him with mistrust. But the unhappiness doesn’t stop there – a third violinist who plays better than the first and the second comes along, you praise the third one and then they both become dissonant; but the evil doesn’t stop there – then along comes the fourth, he plays better; the three become dissonant – people don’t evaluate them. Then the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth come along; I’ll stop myself at the tenth. All nine sit as downcast hens, and one of them, says, “You have to know, I am the one who plays.” Good, the opposite process – the tenth leaves, the ninth takes his place; he says, “You, the eighth, have to know that I exceed you.” The ninth leaves, the eighth stays; the eighth leaves, the seventh stays; the seventh leaves, the sixth stays etc.; the second leaves, the first stays. When he remains, he tells you, “We understand each other now.” This law acts constantly and in you, here in the meeting, we may verify it. Therefore, what does the first one have to do? – When the second violinist, who plays better, comes along, he has to study his methods – that way he will not lose but will have one plus; when the third comes along, the first and the second will learn from him – they will not lose anything, i.e. till the tenth comes they have to master their methods. There is no reason to get angry. Now, these rules, this law, you may acquire in all religious communities, the law works everywhere. Some people say, “Don’t they preach in our church?” it is the same law – it means: “Don’t we play like the first?” – You play like the first but like the second – no; you play like the second but like the third – no. – “But like the fourth, the fifth?” You play like the fifth but like the sixth – no and etc., till we come to this which is perfect – to the tenth. We stopped there, this number we take as a law of perfection. Upon this law you will work, I shall not explain more. The second symbol: you are a young man of twenty-one years, well built, muscular; the first master appears, he is stronger than you, and says, “You will serve me, you will plough in the field.” But you say, “There is no way, I shall serve this master.” But the second master comes along, stronger than the first, and says, “You will leave this field, you will come to my field.” – There is no way you will go to the second. But it doesn’t stop there – the third master comes along and these masters start to string to ten and you say: “There is no way I shall serve.” After that the opposite process comes. The last example is clearly connected to the physical world, and the first example – to the Astral world because it touches our feelings; the first example touches also the Mental world but we will leave it for now. The third symbol touches the Angel’s world: one eloquent man appears who speaks only one word, but his word is so strong that it may resurrect one dead man. But he may say just one word, but there are ten dead men. The first comes, says the word and the first is resurrected but the others don’t move; the second comes and he says the word – the second dead man is resurrected; the third comes, he says his word – the third is resurrected; and all the ten men, when they each say a word they resurrect ten dead men. I ask who exceeds the other. Here you have only a law of harmony and agreement. The spoken word is good only when it can resurrect one dead man. Now, where this law is applied: we take the expression dead man in spiritual relation. Some man is so sad, so sorrowful, he doesn’t want to live, he has thought to step over the Divine law and to take the wrong way; you come along and tell him just one word and he will survive – you did your duties. As many dead men as there are do not strive to resurrect them, it is already vanity; the other nine men leave. Because you will learn, in every occult school the work for every one is exactly defined, there is no reason to intervene in somebody else’s work, we will do our work. If you are first, you will resurrect the first; if you are second, you will resurrect the second; if you are third – the third; if you are fourth – the fourth, etc. And when you finish your work in this way you will turn your heart to God and with Love you will express your gratitude to Him that you succeeded to say one word in place. When you resurrect this brother you don’t need a better advertisement from him; it is enough for you. If he lives forty years, when he goes around the whole world, he will be one advertisement for you and will say, “Once I was dead but one man came, he said one word to me and I revived.” The others, when they come, will ask you how it happened. – “One word he said to me, only one, he is a special man.” And people will start to think that he could resurrect others. He will go around the whole world and will talk for you and the world will think that you are a great man. Yes, a great man! The psalm singer says, “The speech of God will not go back to God without bringing its fruit.” Every speech has to bring its fruit: one seed – one fruit. Therefore, you have three symbolic examples now: the first is the young man who serves the masters, the second one is the violinist, and the third is the tenth man who says only one word. And I desire for you, as disciples of this School, to say only one word. And I meet you and you tell me: “I was dead, do you know, and so and so said one word to me and I was resurrected.” But now the desire of all disciples in the Occult school is to eat all the cream and for the others, only buttermilk remains. When you go, you will take only one spoon of cream, so when the others come to take one too – everyone has the right to take a bit of this cream. Every man who eats the cream of this Divine drink, his word is not powerful. Therefore, one act is done well only when it may enter Life. These three rules you may use. With the third example, you will harmonize the first two; the second generates all the emulations. I shall give you one theme to develop them. And so, the three themes: for the young man, for the violinist, and for the man who speaks only one word – three themes for three weeks. From them you will develop in the School one short theme for the three of them – to compare them to something, to see what resemblance it will give. Now, you may not write anything but when thinking upon these three objects, they always will remain in your mind at least one light. And my aim is not so much to write something in the book but for something to remain in the heart, in the mind, and in your will, this is. And when it remains there, it always can be understood and noted in a book, – you will say it once, will say it twice and at the end you will write something. (Some of the tasks were read – one personal sentence.) If you could apply some of these rules, you could have excellent results. Now I shall give you one exercise, it will be the following: all these one hundred and sixty rules from your works, which we read this evening, you will rewrite and in the morning, you will draw one rule, at lunch – a second and in the evening, before you lay down – a third. You will come here one day, will sit, one will dictate, the others will write. And do you know when – on Sunday you will come, you will not put it off. You will start at 3 p.m. and will write to 4, 5, 6, 7, it may be up until 8 p.m. If you tire, we may make one exception – to come on the next Sunday. But all this will happened with Love – one little wrinkling of the eyebrows will spoil the whole effect. Everyone will write absolutely alone – what you apply alone, it will be used from you, you will see how the Spirit works. Now, we will give you one more similar exercise in which the sentences will be from just one sentence1. It is one attempt. When you drive the works through your mind, everyone will correct and keep only the essence. In this School you will learn that sentence of Solomon: “There is time for every thing.” In the Divine school it is showing the time for all the things which you have to do. We have to know when to do them, every thing has its time. You will keep yourself in the School not to break the harmony. You will keep yourself because everyone may exit from the trend temporarily. Every single thought, every single desire in one given case might move you from the rails. And when you are in front of the face of God (we are not always in front of his face), you have to be careful to ensure your mind is concentrated, your heart and will too, you don’t have to see anything else. These things are important for you; in this way, you will acquire one inner experience that could be the strongest evidence for you. I want, when the Divine Spirit comes, to produce those results which are necessary for you. He knows what is necessary for you in the present conditions; what you need. Everyone needs only from one thing, from one, these things are not many. And when the Spirit comes he will bring this, the one, in you and you will revive. Now let’s get this straight – on Sunday, at 3 p.m. Can you do this work with Love? Do not think that this is an order; if you think that this is an order then don’t come. Because, if you can’t work by the law of Love then we will enter in the old law. Secret prayer 1 In original the Russian word was used (ed. note) Source

Occult Principles Lecture nine read by the Master to the General Occult Class on the 27 of April, Thursday, 7.30-9.00 p.m., Sofia Secret Prayer Some writings on the purpose of water were read. For the next time all the disciples should write a single sentence of their own. You should not write someone else's thought – each of you should compose one sentence only. You should not rewrite what Tolstoy or some of the Evangelists said, but compose a single sentence. If you cannot compose at least one sentence then you do not belong in this class. Here we don’t need persons who use somebody else’s capital. You should set your mind to work, because such things as this one said this, that one said that, or this, or that – we don’t need them. In this school there is a requirement to think. You should note two things: two opposite poles are needed for a man to think, but if you burden these poles with negative energy this will produce within you the process of stupidity or the process of forgetfulness. Let’s assume that you hate somebody. What is the object of your hatred? The hatred has to have an object, that is, within the realms of Nature’s economy this object has to fulfil some purpose – there should be a reason for your hatred. If you hate this man without reason, then you yourself are the reason of this hatred and in such case you harm yourself because all the energy returns to its sender. So these two poles should be there in your mind. You should be free of all the thoughts that are not in harmony with your striving. Suppose this: a tradesman wants to get rich and he buys one hundred pigs when their meat is expensive; like it is at present, and after he feeds them for a while the pigs get ill and all of them die, I am asking you now what would the profit be for such a tradesman. Within the realms of the spiritual world you are not allowed to keep pigs, i.e. thoughts, which get infected and die – in no pigsty can you sustain such thoughts. If you do sustain them, you are wasting your time, you will waste your capital and you will lose your mood. Well, let’s take as an example the following comparison: let’s say that tonight in our class I am telling you some philosophic or scientific study; let’s suppose that some of the disciples are hungry, that they haven’t eaten for two days, that other disciples are thirsty, and that still other disciples have rheumatism in their legs and in the meantime I begin to speak about this scientific study. I might talk in a very scientific way, but the one who is starving will constantly think about bread and will say: “All this is not important now – the bread is the most important thing for me. No matter what scientific study I am telling him – for the starving man the bread will be the most important thing. The thirsty man would say: “The most important thing now is the water, the water only”; another man will say: “I need sleep – then only can a man think”, while still another man would think about his illnesses and consider the way it should be treated. I am asking you – what can you attain in such a class? And if you ask the disciples: “What did your Master say?”, they will tell you: “I was a bit hungry, my mind was preoccupied with a very important question within me – the question for the economic improvement of the people”. Another will tell you that his mind has been preoccupied with the thought of water, the third will tell you that he has been speculating on the role of sleep, while the fourth will tell you that he has been speculating upon illnesses. And if you ask me why the various schools so often fail and contemporary society does not improve, I will tell you that this is due to the simple reason that within them there are a lot of weaknesses with which their minds are preoccupied. An Evangelistic preacher is preaching in a church; a beautiful young lady sits there, a young man comes and also sits at the desk, then she gives him a Gospel and shows him where to read from: “God is Love”. He answers her: “Let us love each other”, “Love each other” – and they start to turn over the pages of the Bible – she shows him a certain line, he shows her another line and thus they start a conversation. After both of them return, the others ask them: “What was the sermon of the preacher about?” – “We don’t know” we know what we were talking about, but we don’t know what the preacher was talking about. While the Divine is speaking within us, our minds (and likewise the minds of these disciples) are often preoccupied by something else – food, water, sleep, illnesses, verses, sentences. For all of you these things are necessary, because a man should first of all be fed, have enough water, rested and be in good health, i.e. a disciple who is hungry should not come to our class; a disciple who is thirsty should not come; a disciple who has not had enough sleep should not come; a disciple who is ill should not come. And when two persons discuss the Bible they should do this at their home. Now, this talk is held within each soul and I want you to think while I am talking. You should act properly because the laws according to which we are living are not personal but impersonal. And what you know before God – it is for you only – whatever knowledge you have, whatever social position you have, no matter if you are a minister in Bulgaria or the king of Bulgaria, it is of no importance to Him. Have in mind that the Invisible world does not care what you are – the only thing which concerns the Invisible world is what you are as a soul, that is, what your character is like. When a member of the Invisible world descends he is just looking for a soul and is interested if this soul is inhabited by the Truth; when he comes here he wants to know if your mind is filled by the Light; when he descends in your heart he wants to know what feelings preoccupy your heart. If these three elements – Light, Truth and Purity - are present, he might stop and have a talk with you. For the Invisible world all these situations are funny. When you occupy a higher position or you are some learned professor and you solve some mathematical problem, these scientists of the other worlds consider all this a theatrical amusement. Our science here is a child’s play to them – in your terms it is such a child’s play to them that they would burst out laughing while they are watching how easily we are solving the questions of what immortality is, what God is, what the Angels are. These moments are so funny like for instance it was yesterday when I was watching with the help of a small magnifier a bunch of ants in the garden of Tsar Boris. They thought that there was a fire and they were trying to put it out. I focused the magnifier on the straw and it started to smoke, they started to secrete; to spit out their essence in order to put out the fire. I took away the magnifier and they were delighted, they said to themselves: “We managed to put the fire out.” I focused it at another spot and again they started to secrete and they finally said: “We put out this fire also.” But any form of acid cannot extinguish this fire. The essential, the Divine in man cannot be put out by anyone. But this essential, this Divine thing has its own time and we should use this time to evolve it. You cannot always think, you cannot always feel, you cannot always act – you can do such things periodically in the course of the year. The time for the thought is fixed – sometimes you can think, but sometimes you cannot think – the thoughts come to you periodically. The same is with the feelings, for instance you say: “It definitely is Love – he is so emotional.” The feelings also come at intervals. The awakening of the human will comes at intervals too. The disciples of the Occult school should study the law of this periodic influx from the Mental, i.e. Intellectual world, the world of the ideas; then there comes the influx from the emotional world or from the Astral world and also the influx from the Causal world – the world of will. And the person who understands the law makes use of it. Now, the influx of this energy, the influx of the mental energy, for instance, causes some damage likewise water can cause damages. But when does water cause damage? If people who live near by forests want to have rivers and they clear the forests in this region and meanwhile the year happens to be snowy, with heavier rainfalls and as a result there will be heavy floods. But if all the region is afforested these floods will not happen. Well, you must know that there are such forests around your mental rivers too and sometimes you can eradicate all these harmonious thoughts - the forests. And then within you arises something about which you say: “I can’t refrain myself.” What do you mean with the phrase to refrain yourself – if you were a wise man you would have preserved your forests, because if you leave the stony ground only, you will need at least thirty years until these forests grow again. In order to abstain, certain conditions should be met. But this abstention is not like the abstention in the materialistic teachings. You should dwell especially upon this great law of the human thought which comes. There is a stream of feelings and this stream floods periodically. Sometimes these two streams – the mental and the emotional – coincide and this is a happy occasion, while sometimes they do not coincide. I want you to make use of all this. I perceive that all of you have habits from your past – restrain them. You should say: “There is still another way to do that.” There are things that can only take place in certain conditions. I have often been asked: “Why don’t you read us such a lecture at such and such a time?” I tell them: this lecture cannot be read then – each lecture can only be read upon a certain opportunity. And each truth in this world can be told only at certain conditions. If within a certain society a desire arises to like music, this society will create musicians but if the music in this society has been neglected, then all the musicians will perish. First of all certain conditions must exist so that a special talent can appear in someone. Well, you want to be talented, don’t you? The talents are not being created at once – the talent is an accumulation of the energy within the human soul for thousands of years. And it might happen so that not a single gram from this energy has come to your present life. So if you don’t add this very gram in order to attain this active ability and if you don’t apply in practice the energy that amounts to one gram, your whole life will be lived in vain. Then you might think: “Mister so and so is talented, disciple so and so is talented.” He is talented because he has worked in the past – nothing in this world is without a cause. The talented people in whatever field they are talented, have worked in the past and what they have now is what they deserve. So you should evolve what had been stored within you. You discuss this problem and you say: “Can’t this period be reduced? – Yes, it can be reduced. One of the rules for action that you should have in mind is: if you lead, walk fast and if you follow behind, i.e. if you are last – walk slowly! If you invert this law – if you are in front but you walk slowly and if you follow behind but you walk fast, then you might cause an accident. And nowadays the world is suffering from the fact that the father and the mother who are the heads of the family walk slowly while the son and the daughter who are from the rear walk fast. And that is why a crash occurs. The masters walk slowly while the disciples walk fast – again a crash occurs; the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast – also a crash occurs; and all the people are asking themselves what the reason is. I say: the reason is that the priests walk slowly while the congregation walks fast. An American cowboy (the American cowboys differ from the Bulgarian herdsman in this that they pasture their herds on horses) rode through the steppes of West America and he saw a large buffalo herd approaching. They ran and he galloped also. As the Turks say: “Run without stopping.” And he ran ahead of the buffalo herd. If you ask him why he ran he will tell you: “Because the buffalo herd was also running.” If he stopped running the herd will not stop – it will drag away the cowboy with all his cattle. The forces in Nature resemble this buffalo herd. When you come across a Natural force you should gallop on your horse. What is this horse – it is your mind. If you can gallop you will be saved; if you lag behind you will be dragged away. This is the first rule. Well, Christ tells this in his proverb in a slightly different way: when you are invited somewhere – take the last place. Why? If you don’t trust in yourself to move quickly, then stay last in line. Let me interpret these words that are symbols or quantities: what does the movement mean? – If you are at the head, if you are in front, then move quickly; if you are at the back – then move slowly. This is a symbol; this is a conversion of these quantities. If you are in the lead, you should be good, you should work with the Virtue and as for everything you have taken into your head, don’t postpone but do it; if you are at the end of the line and you get angry, and you want to do something bad, then stop yourself, be in no hurry – that’s what this means – nothing more. Only the man, who is good and wise, moves with a great speed. Only Love, Truth, Wisdom, Virtue, Justice – all the virtues are moving with a great speed while all the wickedness, all the weaknesses are moving at the lowest speed. So if you have these weaknesses you better not come forward because you will be dragged away by the buffalo herd. Well, in this respect you have to overcome great difficulties. Because when the human mind and the human heart begin to work properly, great obstacles will emerge. And the more difficulties emerge the more you should know that you are on the Way and so you should not stop. If you are in a hurry and you stop to sit as the tired traveller would stop to take a rest, you will by all means catch cold and you will lag in your way. The traveller should never stop under any tree. No occult disciple is allowed to sit in the shadows – we do not recommend the shadows. You should always be in the Sun, i.e. your thoughts should be bright and sharp. You should know that having come to live in Nature you should first of all repay your coming here. How can you pay Nature? – You should by all means pay a small tax – don’t think that everything is free of charge. At least Nature will make you pay rent for the house you lived in. If you have incarnated several times and if you have lived about one hundred years without paying this rent you will have to pay a pretty large sum. And this rent means that every day we should do something for Nature. For instance, if while you are a disciple you get up in the morning and say to yourself: “At least today I shall invest within myself a positive thought.” and if for a period of ten years each day you invest a good, an essential thought, all these thoughts could become a whole garden in which a lot of fruitful plants grow. Take for example the noblest feeling that we have – Love – the noblest feeling that exists in the Bulgarian schools nowadays – if the most talented disciple somehow insults his master, this disciple will get it – he will become good-for-nothing; and if the master insults the disciple, he will become good-for-nothing also. If you convey this law all over your life you will see that it is the same everywhere – the Love of today cannot pass her exam. For example let’s say you are listening to a talk, a lecture: the master, let’s say, is telling you about the creation of the world or about the origin of the sexes, or he is telling you about the origin of karma. Each person can consider these questions from a different point of view – each person can examine them in three different ways. If the professor is explaining about the creation of the world, we must have in mind that this professor has not been there with God while the world has been created, so he is only speculating; if he explains the karma and its origin – he has not been present from the very beginning when karma evolved; when he is explaining about the origin of sexes he also has not been there. There are things in the world that have been born but we have not been present at that specific place. Someone might say: “I have existed.” You might have existed, but you have slept in your room. We may exist but at a certain moment, when some manifestations in Nature take place, we most probably have been in a sleep state. And all the people have such a sleep state. You might be a disciple in some occult school and when you are being told these things there, you might start thinking in what way can these forces be evolved so that you can make use of them and improve your condition – if you do this it is good. Otherwise you should have the knowledge to elevate your mind or your heart in order to refine yourself. But the meaning of life is still not in this. You might have a brilliant mind and nevertheless die as a wreck, you might have a noble heart and nevertheless die; you might have a strong will and nevertheless die. Now the contemporary occultists say that one can achieve anything by his will. Just twenty five percent of this is true, but you are not the only one who believes this. Let’s say that there are about five hundred million Christians in Europe and that each of them has a will; all their wills, however, do not function in one and the same direction. Suppose that one hundred of you are applicants for some professor’s department and that all of you have an iron will; how many people with an iron will might sit in this chair? Each one might say: “I can do anything by my will.” Okay, then, what will you do? Well, let’s say that you have a strong will and you strain your will while someone else has a weaker will, but he has gold instead and he loads the will of the minister with money and thus wins the right to sit in this chair. It is very easy – you will gild the minister’s will and he will seat you in this chair. All contemporary societies have observed this law – they nail their will now with iron, now with gold, but people have not yet nailed their will with Love. You still don’t have a will of Love. For twenty years I have been testing the disciples here in Bulgaria but I have not found a single disciple with a will nailed with Love. I have found many Bulgarians but in this respect not one of them have proved reliable and they had not withstood. That is why I say that as disciples in the Occult school the Bulgarians are very unreliable and that they do not endure. And for this reason alone in the past not a single school has remained here in the Balkans - all of them moved to the West. You can repeat this mistake even now, but then this teaching will go to the West or to the North and if it leaves, then this place here will be devoid of occult meaning. And if you do not make your aim to strengthen your will now, then the Balkan Peninsula will have the same fate that Palestine had. But let’s leave that aside. You only think of yourself, but if you would like to be disciples of this School you should think about what the Divine Will is and about what the will of the Great Nature is that let you in its home. What is the very first thing? – It is as follows: what is the Divine Will or what is the will of Love, because there is one Love will in Nature and there is one Love will in God. And when this one will come you should forget everything – you should leave all the negative thoughts last in line while you in front should move with greatest speed. Now when I say such things you might understand the question quite individually. Because you are patriots you might say: “What will happen to Bulgaria?” – In the Invisible world they are not interested in nations – such is the law. You should always know that an occult stream, which comes from space, is a prerequisite for this nation to evolve properly. Due to the great struggle in the Astral world if you do not amalgamate your will with this stream you might divert it. Consequently it will be used by those towards whom you divert it while those from whom the stream was diverted – will suffer. Then I contend that the river Nile is diverted from the central part of Africa – it is diverted from the present culture and in future if people from the central part of Africa come and divert it again it will start to flow in its original bed. Consequently you as disciples should take care not to divert the stream in which you live. Sometimes you say: “I don’t want to study; I can manage without any School.” Without any School the man is fit for nothing, i.e. you should have in mind that in case some of you think they can enter the Heavens without a School – this could never happen! The Earth is a school and those who do not study and think that they can enter the Heavens without studies are deceiving themselves. So, no matter how we look at it, you are required to learn. The law in the Invisible world is so strict that you will not be allowed to enter there as fools, no way. For millions, for billions of years they will keep you on Earth but certainly they will make you learn. And after millions of years, with maximum persistence, they will make you learn, they will make you! If you learn earlier - it will be good. Someone might say: “I will not learn.” – You will. – “I can’t transform my heart.” If you do not transform your heart, then they will transform it. If you don’t transform your heart yourself then this transformation will come from somewhere else. There are two ways to set things right: either you set yourself right or they will set you right. For I perceive that some of you are slacking off. Now we shall put into practice one law – I am beginning with the practical trials. We shall start with minor trials, don’t be angry later on – we shall put these trials into practice. Then we shall say to the one who is weak: “Queue up last”, while those who are strong – they will queue up in front so that a crash does not occur. I am warning you: all of you should move slowly – some of you will walk behind while others will lead the way – you should go rightly. Now, if you want to progress, if you want to learn something, you should by all means be true to yourself. Thus you will free yourself from your outside thoughts. I want at first to awaken you, because most of you here are hypnotized. You are hypnotized, do you see what I mean – you are hypnotized! Some of you do not realize that you are hypnotized. There exists such a kind of hypnosis – I can hypnotize a person and tell him: “You will fall asleep after ten hours.” For the next ten hours he is awake, he walks, he talks, but when the tenth hour strikes, he falls asleep. Some of you are hypnotized to fall asleep after ten days, others – after ten years, while still others – to fall asleep after one hour. Now you think that you are masters but in fact those from the Black lodge who understand the laws hypnotize you. They have hypnotized you, they know that when your opportunity to get something new comes they will hypnotize you at that very moment. During the moment of your greatest opportunity they will perturb your consciousness. And very often you say: “When such hour comes I’ll pray”, but as soon as you are about to pray you fall asleep or quarrel and everything fails. The disciple should have in mind that he himself will also start along this way. I lengthened the lecture by one hour… You should keep these laws and you should know that a still more strenuous struggle is in store. Now an awakening should come into effect – an awakening, and each one of you should pray in his heart that God awakens him right on time, so that he doesn’t miss the opportunity. The psalm singer says: “God, put a guardian from behind and in front, put a guardian to my mouth.” Let us explain the phrase “put a guardian to my mouth”: the mouth is a symbol of Love so that we, upon a suitable opportunity, can make use of this Love that comes out of our soul. The Word is a herald of the Divine Love. Why is the Word necessary? The Word is necessary in order to enable us to herald this Love, so that the Divine Name should be glorified in the name of Love. As soon as the Divine Name is glorified – the culture will come, for only with the Divine Word will a culture come in the world. And when we acquire knowledge about these laws then we will start to work wisely. We will work wisely indeed! Now, one of the two weeks passed and only one week remains. The exercise does not pass very successfully, to tell you the truth, you do not execute it very successfully. Some of you are skipping, especially the lunch – many of you have skipped this lunch, you do not observe the twelfth hour, but the twelfth hour is a very important thing. Take care not to skip the twelfth hour during the second week. Well, someone might say: “I didn’t skip it.” – I am glad that you didn’t skip it but I insist that no one skips it because we don’t like people who skip – no skipping of any kind is allowed. Some of you do not take these things seriously and you say: “It’s all right; everything is fine without it as well.” In this respect those disciples who are Bulgarians need a lot of punctuality and accuracy – a presence of will is required. If there is some weak point in the Bulgarians it is their will. I would like that you become as punctual as the Germans and Englishmen are – to be punctual on the dot, not to be a single minute late, to attain this character of punctuality. So the least possible thing now, the most important thing: I want that all of you will be punctual. I also notice that when you come here to the classes you also come a bit later and those of you who are late usually knock at the door. Then some of you enter through the window. I praise those of you who enter through the window – it is a form of bravery and I praise them – this thing is good, this thing is not bad at all, but you will not be able to enter through the window every time. When the window is opened the disciple will manage to jump over – he wants to get educated, but sometimes the window is closed and then he will fail. As a last resort I permit you to enter even through the window, but I prefer that you enter through the door. Each disciple should be at his place five minutes before the Master enters. So for the next time you should occupy the places according to the following plan: the first row of chairs should be occupied by women, the next row – by men, one row of women then one row of men. Did you understand me – you shall sit in this order. And if I come and find you disorganized we will keep silence for three hours. I’ll keep silent and you will keep silent also – you will speculate deeply, do you understand me - we won’t talk at all. The only punishment which I’ll impose on you when you make some mistake will be that you will get a gathering of silence, of contemplation for a whole hour – this is good. And I wish you’d make some mistake – then we shall contemplate for one hour, we shall convey in spirit to the Invisible world, we will contemplate; how pleasant it will be. So, one row of sisters, one row of brothers, disciples-brothers, disciples-sisters – up till the end; and those sidelong will sit in such order. This will be valid for the next Thursday only – we will make a change in the regular course of the things. A secret prayer.

THE LAW OF KARMA Year 1, Lecture 9 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno April 26, 1922 – Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret Prayer Next time please write on the following topic: “The Place of Beauty in Nature”. I am going to speak now about the law of karma. If you want to learn more, you can read about it in all the books written in foreign languages – German, French, English, Italian. I will treat this topic from the viewpoint of Divine science. Karmic law originates from the very moment a human being starts its journey away from God. The action or manifestation of this law begins with the polarization of the human being, i.e. with the emergence of two poles in the world. Polarization means a division of human consciousness into positive and negative, ascending and descending, or at the highest level: awareness of Love and awareness of Wisdom. These are the two poles in a human being. You would ask, “What is the reason for the division of human consciousness?” It happened because the wish to appropriate and master things was introduced into each individual, into each human self. These two poles, which developed separately from one another, went in two different directions and forgot that they were sides of one whole. Therefore, once they were divided, they felt the inner impulse to possess one another in a mechanical way. And wherever mechanical possession of things exists, violence is born. In contrast, Nature only requires voluntary sacrifice from human beings. Nature says, “Humans are brothers and they should sacrifice themselves for one another voluntarily, out of Love.” I will give you now a definition of the word “sacrifice” from a spiritual point of view. Sacrifice means a “law of proper growth and development”. Why? Because only entities that grow, blossom and give fruit are able to make sacrifices. Let us return to the question of karma. How did this law appear? When the first consciousness in the world limited the second one, conditions for karma were created. I will clarify this idea with the following example: suppose that Nature has placed two people, equally rich and intelligent, in a position to trade with each other. They need one another, yet each of them wants to take possession of the wealth of the other one. At last one of them succeeds and the other one is left without means. What should he do? He should become a servant to the person who managed to take everything. So one of them will be a master and the other one – a servant. In that sense, the masters in the world represent the first consciousness that gained supremacy over the second consciousness. Servants represent the category of those people, whose consciousness was subdued by the first consciousness. However servants have still preserved their wish to become masters and to rule over others. So when a master has many servants, soon they begin to unite and organize themselves in an attempt to overthrow him. One day they will catch him and beat him up really well. After that they will become masters and he will become a servant. Thus the two sides of human consciousness exchange their places and their roles. When I am speaking about the karmic law now, do not think that you will comprehend it at once in its fullness. I am asking you, how can evil appear among the disciples of a spiritual school? It will emerge if one of them decides that he wants to become a master, to dispose оf everyone else's knowledge. Evil will also emerge if one of them decides to impose one’s own will on others: i.e. if he has an idea which he insists that everyone should accept. Or someone may have a certain habitual behaviour or certain powers, which he may want to impose on others at any cost. However disciples should be aware of the existence of a law which regulates the actions and manifestatoions of all living creatures. Nature has placed each force within certain limits or frames of development. Once a certain force reaches its possible level of expansion, it will start working in the opposite direction. As long as people don't know your inner private intentions, they are inclined to listen to you and obey you. Once they understand what your hidden intentions are, they start opposing you. This counteraction is a result of the law of self-preservation, of maintaining one’s freedom. Therefore, the law of karma can be balanced out only when humans are ready to make sacrifices for others, to become their servants and to acknowledge the rights of every living creature. You should give others the rights you want for yourselves; you should send others the blessings you wish for yourselves. Everyone has the right to develop one’s mind and heart, to work towards the strengthening of their will, irrespective of whether they are educated or not, rich or poor, servants or masters. One person's riches are everyone's riches; one person's rights are everyone's rights. The difference is only in the way of using and applying these riches and rights in everyone’s Life. Disciples may be subject to a certain danger, a so-called vampirism, i.e. ability to suck one’s vital energies out. Only those who understand the laws of the occult are able to do it, but it is absolutely forbidden. In the School you have joined, parasitism is absolutely prohibited. Sponging one’s vital energies is nothing other than parasitism. Those who dare to do it will bear the consequences of their disobedience. Disciples should be highly conscious in order not to misuse the inner powers they have acquired. Many spiritual schools maintain the belief in their disciples that the power of human beings is hidden in their thought. It is temporarily true, but in reality the power of a human being is neither in its thought nor in its feelings, nor in its will. These are just human expressions but they are not yet the source that brings power. It is the same as to think that each expression of love is real love, manifest in its completeness. Sometimes Love is expressed in form, at other times – in content or in meaning, but these separate expressions of love do not yet represent Love in its fullness. I will give you some examples so you can get a clear idea of Love which has been manifest in form, content and meaning. For example, when a worker who is passing by a river sees a drowning person, he goes into the water, grabs this person by the hand and pulls him out of the water onto the bank. Then he says to him: “Come, go home now!” This is an example of a physical manifestation of love – love which has been manifested in form. A second example: a person who has not touched food for several days is walking down the street. A stranger meets this person and reads on his face that he is very hungry. The stranger stops and invites the hungry person to his home for a refreshment. He gives him enough food and after satisfying his hunger, says: “Now you may go home.” It is a manifestation of the content of Love. A third example: you meet a young and studious person who wants to study and acquire knowledge. You are a teacher of several subjects, so you offer him lessons. You teach him for one or two years and when you see that he has acquired some knowledge, you say to him: “Now you are able to continue your studies alone. Keep making efforts and you will succeed.” It is a manifestation of the meaning of Love. I am asking you, do you think that if you help a drowning person or feed a hungry one or give knowledge to an uneducated one, you will manifest Life completely? No, Life and Love can be expressed in its entirety only if you live in the Causal world, where all live for one and one lives for all. In that world the well being of each person is common well being, and common well being is the well being of each and everyone. Based on this law, the joys and the grief of every creature, irrespective of how small it may be, should be sacred to you. It could be a fly, for example, but you should treat it in the way you treat a human being. That is the only way to bring joy to God. But only God is capable of directing His attention to small things. Humans pay much more attention to things of greater scale. Now since you have come to this School to study, you need to exclude lying from your life completely – not the slightest trace shall remain of it. It is the only thing that is not forgiven to the disciples of this School. All other mistakes may be excused, but lying – never! If a lie enters your mind, protect yourself from it as if it was fire! Falsehood is a principle that will lead you to the contradictions of Life, which you can hardly free yourselves from. When someone falls into a difficult or helpless situation, he immediately resorts to lying and says: “It is impossible to live without lying!” No, it is impossible to live without Truth, but you can certainly live without lies. Therefore, write the following sentences, which are valuable rules in life: It is impossible to live without Love, but one can live without hatred. It is impossible to live without Wisdom, but one can live without foolishness. It is impossible to live without Truth, but one can live without lies. If you say the opposite – that it is impossible not to tell lies, it turns out that falsehood generates Truth, which it is not true. If you say that it is impossible to live without foolishness, it appears as if foolishness generates Wisdom, which is not true either. When we speak about the law of karma, we have different types of relationships in mind. For example, relationships between servants and masters, students and teachers, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers - all these are karmic relationships. Mothers and fathers represent one of the moderating circumstances of the karmic law. According to this law, all beings are placed in close or distant relationships to one another so that they can pay their debts. Contemporary people should understand this law, so that they are able do away with their karmic debts properly. Otherwise, if they do not understand this law and its requirements, they will create new karmic relationships between themselves that will need to be settled in the future. For example, if a master treats his servants badly, he will become a servant in some future life and his present servants will be his masters. He will have to serve them for a long time until he pays his debt off. So if you ask yourself why you should serve someone, the reason is hidden in your past when you tried to subdue someone's will and make him your servant. This, however, is absolutely forbidden! To subdue someone’s consciousness means to subdue the Divine element in someone to yourself, thus trying to make it your servant. However this is the single impossible thing in the world - subjugation of the Divine to human will. The liquidation of karmic debts needs inner work towards the transformation of one’s thoughts and feelings. Theosophists speak about high and low manas, high and low mind, spiritual and material nature, or the two poles in each human being. Your work on yourself expresses itself mainly in the following: moving from one pole to the other, mostly from the lower pole to the ascending one. And it is true that if you want to appropriate something in an emotional way, by way of your feelings, you will create negative karma for yourself, and you will clear this negative karma when you set people free. If you demand from a friend of yours to love you and to show you his love, he will put a halter on your head, goad you from behind and ask you if you agree to be loved in this way. This is the way karma between two people is created. The law of karma is an awful thing! A karmic relationship may start with a single bitter word which was said to someone in some unfavourable circumstances. This word could be pronounced in a fictitious way, kindly, with a smile, but if it is bitter it will produce its negative effect. Irrespective of how a word is said, if it is bitter, it will bring thousands of negative consequences. Therefore, be cautious about each feeling and thought of yours. Before you let them out, filter them carefully to avoid impurities coming out at the same time. How will you do it? By using suitable filters. From a spiritual point of view, the human heart, mind and will are like filters which purify human feelings, thoughts and actions. Each thought, feeling and action should pass through the human mind, heart and will, in order to be filtered. Only after this filtration has occurred should they be planted in the garden of the soul. One doesn't need to be clairvoyant at all in order to see how karma between two people has been created. Without any use of clairvoyance you can understand how and when a karmic relationship has emerged. Even the slightest violations of the law of Love lead to the polarization of the human brain: it happens when more energy is gathered in one of the hemispheres of the brain compared to the other, as a result of which a person gets angry and starts offending his friends. If more energy is gathered in the left hemisphere of the brain, a person becomes very kind and polite, but not as a natural expression of kindness. It can be noticed in such cases that the muscles on the right side of one’s face begin to contract and shrink, and then you see certain disharmonious tics on the face of that person, caused by his disharmonious thoughts, feelings and actions. If these unconscious facial motions continue for a longer time, it may happen that the mouth becomes warped, because the muscles on one side of the face shrink, while on the other side they expand. The law of karma will leave its mark on one’s face, eyes or some other part of the body within a short period of time. For example, if a person often tells lies, some of his muscles shrink and the ray coming from his eyes starts pointing down towards the centre of the Earth. If such person looked himself in a mirror and saw this ray pointing towards the Earth, he wouldn't like his own appearance. Now, when you write about Beauty, you should know that Beauty originates from the inner harmony inside a human being. One needs to be absolutely pure in order to attain and maintain this beauty within oneself! Now, write down one more of the rules of life which is the following: Introduce Truth into your souls, Light into your minds, Purity into your hearts. So, write this rule down and every time you go to bed ask yourself whether Truth is in your soul, Light – in your mind and Purity – in your heart. How will you know this? If Truth is in your soul, it will set you free. If Truth is in your soul, you will do things with vigour, thus giving freedom to yourself and those around you. If Light is in your mind, it will bring you knowledge. Light is the conductor of knowledge. If Purity is in your heart, you will be strong in every way. Sometimes when you notice mistakes and negative feelings in your fellow men, you are ready to judge them. No, according to the law of karma you should correct whatever mistake you have found in your fellow man yourself. Try to correct even the smallest mistake that you observe in your friend. You would ask, “How can we correct the mistakes of others?” I will give you an example that will show you how. A young person from the town of Varna went to an Evangelical bookstore owner to buy some books. When the bookstore owner saw him, he said, “A few weeks ago a friend of yours borrowed some money from me. I did him a favour, but he has not come to return his loan yet. This is what your friends are like!” – “How much is his loan?” – “Such and such an amount.” – “Here you are, take this money and consider the account settled. I am one with my friend.” With this act the young person proved that he and his friend were honest people. This is what I call noble character. Therefore, if you hear negative talk about your friends, pay for them and say: “I am one with my friends!” How would someone behave who doesn't have such morals? Upon hearing bad words about his friend, he would say: “Yes, it is true that my friend has this weakness, he is somehow neglectful, but I will talk to him and tell him to pay.” There is no need to talk. The School you have joined does not allow talking in such cases. Disciples are required to pay for their friends and to settle their debts. And when you meet your friends later on, do not mention anything to them. If you apply this method, you will come to experience its positive effect. The above mentioned method is for those who are ready to pay for their good friends, but not for those who have the possibility to pay, yet they leave their friends to settle their debts on their own. This is violence and misuse of people’s conscience and it will result in negative karma. One day such people will lose their good friends and will have to pay for themselves. If you have good friends and you rely on them to settle your debts, you are on the wrong path. One day Providence will place you in the same position – you will need to pay double with the interest. Those who think that they can outwit the law of karma are mistaken. The Bulgarian proverb, “The old fox walks straight into the trap”, fits such people perfectly. You should not play with your karma. It is the creditor. It does not allow any delay, even for half a day. It does not accept any excuses – you will pay the precise amount of your debt, together with the interest. It does not remit even the interest. The law of karma is strict. It will grant you your freedom only after you have settled everything. You should know that all good thoughts and wishes that humans generate get polarized in one direction or another. When you understand the law of polarization you will be able to see that everything in Life is polarized. You say, for example, that there are new teachings and old ones. Let the old teachings function in the roots of the tree and the new teachings - in the branches. The old teachings will serve to fertilize the tree which will grow and bear fruit, and the new tree – the New teachings - will develop from there. According to the New teachings, the law of karma will not be a cause for fear in humans. Why? Because you will know that karma likes brave people. Be brave enough to receive your karma well – as a dear guest who is paying a visit to you. If you try to escape from it, it will reach you with the stick and beat you up. Karma possesses some nobleness of character - it will beat you up, spit on you, but in the end will pass you by without doing you any harm. Karma possesses the character of a bear. When it wants to attack someone, it goes around him, strokes its hair, pretending that it does not see him. Its hair becomes soft while this person’s hair stands on end. If karma does not want to attack someone, it walks around him, bristles, stands up on its back legs, spits on him and goes away. In this case the person gets away with his skin intact, but he has experienced a real fright. Karma is like a bristled bear for brave people: it will walk to them, stand up on its back legs and spit on them, but then it will go away with the words: “All right, I will let this one pass.” You should thank karma that it has not touched your skin. The fact that it has spat on you and given you a fright is nothing, the main thing is that you you were left to live. When you know this, you will solve the problems of your life accordingly. If you come to a big disaster, say to yourself, “My beloved karma has bristled up, it is spitting on me, but it can't do more than that.” You would ask, “What shall we do and how shall we live so as to avoid the creation of karmic relationships between people?” I will give you an example and you will draw your own conclusions. Visualize two parallel railways with trains going in two opposite directions – East and West. Suppose that a hundred trains go East and they are located along one of the rail tracks at an equal distance from each other. If the trains maintain the same speed, there is no danger of clashing. If their speed differs, however, clashes will be inevitable. Therefore, according to the law of karma, it is not important if trains go East or West, but their speed is of vital importance. Trains need to move with the same speed. Consequently, when two people move in the same direction with a different speed, they will surely face a collision. If the speed of a train is a hundred kilometres per hour and the speed of another train is eighty kilometres per hour, no danger of collision exists, but if the speed of the first train is eighty kilometres per hour and that of the second train is a hundred kilometres per hour, there is a probability of collision, especially at night. In order to avoid the collision, the second train should reduce its speed to become at least equal to the speed of the first train and by all means it should keep some distance from the first train. Now, for as long as you live among people, you should be neither too smart nor too foolish. Why? Both foolishness and smartness are karmic laws. If you are too smart, you will go very fast and you will collide whit those who are slow. If you are too foolish, you will go very slowly and clash with those who are fast. You will have the same results in both cases. How should you behave then? You should be as intelligent or foolish as those around you. You would ask, “When and how should we manifest our intelligence?” You should save your power to be used in better times. For example, if a slow train goes before you, you should reduce your speed. If your way is clear, i.e. if there is no other train before you, you can release your full speed. In two weeks from now, make a summary of everything that was said until now. Next time write on the topic: “Application of Karma in Life”. Today I outlined some ideas about karma which can help you prepare your essays and I am going to talk about this later on again. When your essays are ready, everyone can read his essay out to the class and the rest of you will discuss it. Any critical remarks should comply with the rules of the New teachings. Criticizing means saying only things which are true and which you are absolutely sure about. Criticizing implies presenting things as they are in Nature. You should spend no more than an hour daily for your work on the lectures and for writing your essays. As far as the essays are concerned, ten minutes are sufficient. When you write your essays on karma, consider the following thoughts: 'If you are in front, move faster! If you are at the back, move slower!' This topic comes as a response to some ideas from the new philosophy. However these ideas solve the problems only partially. Why? The situation will be different if there is a second train behind you as well as a third one. In this case you will take into consideration the following rules: if someone moves in front of you, give way and let him go as fast as he wants! If you are behind, go slower! These are four significant positions in Life that should always be observed. Therefore, I am saying that when disciples want to go faster, the Master cannot give them the right to go with a higher speed. While you are disciples in this School, go slowly! After you have finished this School, activate all your powers and go as fast as you can. If there is someone ahead of you, do not hurry but reduce your speed. Whoever is at the back should go slower. These are symbols which you need to turn into actual deeds. What does fast speed correspond to? It corresponds to Virtue. Therefore be fast, stay in front when you do Good, and keep it slow, i.e. stay at the back when you do evil. This is a translation of phenomena that can be observed in Life and in Nature. In other words, the phenomena of the physical world should be translated into the language of the Spiritual world and the other way round – the phenomena of the Spiritual world should be translated into the language of the physical world. Only then will things become clear. Therefore high speed represents Good and low speed – evil. If you get angry often, you should know that you will move to the rear and will advance slowly. In the future, if any issues of importance arise between you, you can write them down and we can spend some of our time discussing them. Secret Prayer

The purpose of music Eighth lecture by the Master, given to the disciples from general occult class on 20.04.1922, Sofia A secret prayer Tonight I am going to speak about the purpose of music. Entering into an occult school will completely change your inner world. After attending an occult school you will not be able to recognize yourself. You will not be the same personality. You will not be the same man, who entered it. You will go into it as a worm, with many legs and you will go out as a butterfly. That is the reason why cowards were never allowed to attend this kind of school in ancient times. As this transformation would scare anybody and a person would lose his previous personality. It is the biggest mistake to teach a man to sacrifice himself, if one thinks only of how to keep his wealth. If he does not love knowledge, to teach him how to sacrifice himself, is a big absurdity. He says, “Money is signification of my life. If a man has money one’s life is full. If a man has no money there is no sense in one’s life.” Contemporary men say, "For us life is in our present shape, when we lose it everything will finish.” This is just an introduction, a preparation for the next step, because in every disciple a desire to go faster exists. After becoming a member of an occult class, he starts asking, “Isn’t it possible to take two classes in one year?” They want to leave secondary school for 3-4 years, to become clerks as soon as possible, once they have their wages to proceed faster in their careers and to receive their pensions till the end of their life. In doing this, they think that they have done everything. Religious people do the same. They want to become moral as soon as possible, to be rich in ethics and when they go to the invisible world to say, “We differ from other people.” But in this school you do not have to go so fast. One can attend it for 100, 200, 300, 500, 1000 years - it is nothing, these years are like one day. One, who enters the school and cannot stay in it for 1000 years, then he is not a disciple, and he can do nothing. 1000 years – this is for the disciples, I do not say anything about you, because you are not yet disciples, you are just listeners. For you, the law is changing. But one day, when you become disciples, you will need these rules. First of all, you must learn how to control your mind. To conduct your mind, to conduct all your feelings, power, and skills - you must conduct all of them. If you cannot do that, you cannot be a disciple. You will attend the school, but you will learn nothing. This evening I am not going to explain why it should be this way, just it is necessary for it to be this way. All the rules and methods of conducting the mind start from here. Indians have their own methods, Egyptians had theirs, people from Babylon - theirs, Asian and Jewish – theirs, but all those methods were different. Western occultists had a variety of diverse methods, too. If you want to do research on all these methods, it will take you a hundred years to make a decision - which one to choose. Because the brain itself is an organ of the mind, you must learn how to conduct single organs, organs of particular skills. Those, who are not familiar with this fact, can consider the brain just as grey matter. Just from the physiological point of view blood is the main part of cerebral vessel, there is a flow and ebb that create thoughts. But it is not just the flow and ebb of blood. If you stare at the human brain you will notice thousands of fibres that come from it and flow in all directions of the body and there are certain circuits of current in them. Some people can observe this using a microscope thin skin of a frog’s leg and see a lot of streams, up and down. Others, who observe the brain, can notice similar streams, providing thoughts. For example, if you have a religious thought or feeling, these streams are different from the ones, connected with scientific thought. And all these streams are connected with the blood. When a stream enters into the particular centre it awakens and blood flows into it. And now where is the problem that can appear when we study the occultism. Because, the back part of the brain conducts a purely physical reaction in a human body, this way the blood, flowing into it, first of all wakes up primary feelings. And the streams from the spinal cord wake these primary feelings. It can be a problem for all occult disciples, if these hostile feelings and thoughts attack them – because some have never been thought of before - but they exist in them. Some will say: “I do not need this - all the devils attacked me since I have entered this school.” This is the place where the devils are settled - these devils are residents of the back part of human brain, whole tribes live there and when human thought passes through, they influence it. There are various methods of conducting the human’s brain and those, who want to do this, should study them. Now, you think that it can be achieved in one, two, three days, in a week or in a year. No. If you, after practicing it for three or four years, can conduct you mind, it will be a huge achievement. If you have this power, you will control your temperament - you will be able to polarize and to transform the energy of the brain from one place to another. It is said, that these people have huge self-control. And an occult disciple does not need just huge self-control. He has to understand some laws, to find out which buttons to operate and how to do this. Now, first of all: do not be choosy. You know what does it mean to be choosy - for example, when you do a very small job, but you think that it is very important and that a great idea will come from it. Thinking this way you provoke your brain. For this small job you do not have to stimulate your brain too much. For the small job you need small efforts. If you have acquired something, do not exaggerate it. Do not think that you are a big talent or vice versa - that you do not have any capability. If you think that you are a big talent, at the end of your life you will become very disappointed - you will find that you have been wrong. There are people who do not think that they have some talents, but at the end of their life they realize that they had a great talent that was not developed. So, first thing that is required from you is to realize for yourself what your obligation is, and what you have to do. In an occult school it is made very clear to everybody what to do. The disciple there does not attend the class using their feelings, he has to understand the purpose, like a student at secondary school or university has a schedule for each day on what to do. And everything must be defined. He can not say: “Whatever God has given to me”. Not what God has given us, but What God required from us when He created the world, we must do that. He established everything. To conduct your brain you do not need to be choosy, vain, proud, coward, and angry - these are worms, destroying your ability to think correctly. Vanity is a perverted form of a previous idea. Initially, it was the following idea: to have your friends’ good opinion, to have your relatives’ good opinion, to have good people’s opinion, to have God’s good opinion - this was the initial thought. Later on, man, losing his primary state, turned this good idea into vanity - he did not want to have this good opinion, but to show it off. For example, if somebody visits that kind of person, and if the visitor is a king and the man is a teacher, the vain man will show him his office and will say, “This office is very special, there is no other like it, and these bottles are unique, and you cannot find this stuff anywhere else". If the vain man is a farmer, he will show his fields and will say, “Look at them, how well they are ploughed," and so on, if this is a vain woman, she will say, "You can not find a dress like mine anywhere, and my tailor is the best." This is vanity. We must say “This is a simple dress and it was made by a good tailor, it suits me well, but to say that it is something very special, no, it is not.” And if somebody is a priest how will this vanity be shown? He will say, "I read the Bible on Sunday, but nobody else can read this holy book the way I read it – I gave such a unique sermon that the audience was so charmed, and will remember it forever." This is the way I describe vanity. Now, pride presents itself in a different way. The haughty man will present himself like a modest one, but his real thought is that there is nobody like him. And he wants other people to admire him. He will get dressed very simple, not in rags, but anyway to attract people’s attention. The haughty one behaves as a modest person, but you will recognize him when you put somebody else on his place - then he will show his pride. The haughty man is the most jealous man in the world. He can not stand it when people admire somebody else. If somebody says, "That is a very clever man." Somewhere in the world, the haughty one will reply, “Is he so clever, maybe he is not, do not tell me, please, that he is.” If people say that somebody is a very virtuous person, he will say, "Well, is he? Do not say that, nobody on the Earth can be so virtuous.” Even if you speak about God, he will say, “Even God makes mistakes.” The pride in him speaks in all similar situations. Most of all, this feeling exist in religious people. There are not haughtier people than the religious ones, in this matter they are followed by scholars. The most dangerous pride that exists is among the religious and scholars, and the biggest danger in an occult school is from pride. And for that devil we have put a special sieve at the door and it will be impossible for him and a proud disciple to come in. And in this way pride is one of the dangerous qualities in men. As a result of this a man, who develops this quality, like it is said in mythology, he will start eating his own offspring. When someone is overconfident, he himself eats his children: when he sees that somebody is a scholar – he goes back home and eats his children; if he sees, that somebody is religious - he goes back home and eats his children. He wishes he had the opportunity to cut off all people’s heads. And he wants just his head to stay on its place. Now you will analyze yourself. I want each of you to know your dealings - you must not just be strict, but be fair to yourself. An advantage for each disciple consists in this fact. To set up harmony among us we need a key word. And I will tell you what this word is - this word is Love. There are two keys in music - violin key sol and bas key - fa, just using this key you can read the piece of music. And so, the disciples must have this key and the teacher must have it. Sometimes a disciple comes to me and asks me, "What to do?” I reply. “You can do nothing.” - “Why?”- “You do not have a key.” All your thoughts, desires, and actions must obey the Law that God established, it cannot be changed. Now, pay attention to this - there are two influences in the world. If you do not obey the Sacred Influence, if do not obey the sensible life then there will come from the centre of the earth influences such as magnetism, and electricity, the lowest influences from animals. The lowest creatures will influence you, and because, when somebody enters an occult school, sensitivity develops and you will be in condition to accept thoughts from the lowest creatures, from the animal kingdom. There is the possibility that each disciple can be affected from his past low state. When all instructors warn their disciples, they warn them about these states until the disciples start to understand their own mentality, to have power over these streams from the Sun and from the centre of the Earth, and after that to recognize those keys and streams from the animal kingdom. For example, you are angry with somebody and you think, ”I wish I had a rope to hang him, to strangle him.” Where did this thought come from? This thought comes from a spider - when it finds a butterfly, it enlaces this butterfly. Therefore, you have entered the kingdom of spiders. Sometimes, another thought appears in your mind. “I want to stab him, to give him a poison, to poison him.” Where did this thought come from? It is from the snake, from the scorpion - all these creatures want to poison their prey. You will accept these thoughts and after that your mind will go into this stream, and eventually, you will commit a crime. Now I can analyze all your thoughts, all the lower and higher thoughts that you have and I can tell you where they come from. You can say: “God rules this way”. No, God has ruled everything very well in the life, the Great instructors or the Great Master of Life have put everything in order very well. When you enter this system the Great instructors will show you exactly the right direction to go. Now religious people say, “We do not need the Truth.” Why do we have to know it? From an occult point of view there is another explanation. The Sensible world needs Truth the same way as the Physical world needs Light. Truth has two kinds of beams - the white and the black, and if you are not prepared for them, you can easily be affected from the negative side of Truth. Now, this fact is a bit low-key to your mind. Why? What are the reasons? An occult science answers this question. What are reasons for separation of both brotherhoods - The White and The Black? Initially, they were one brotherhood; they went together in one direction. But when they came to a certain point, they differed from each other - one turned left, at the same time the other went to the right. Why? – Some accepted the black beams of Truth, whilst the others - the white ones. These beams exist in the Sun - even in sun light there are white and black beams. There is a so called white and black Sun - from the white and from the black sun simultaneous come two streams that join together. When I say black streams, I mean that the vibrations of these black streams are not so smooth. All evils and all wicked actions and negative qualities are the result of these vibrations that come from the black beams. What actions do these beams have? - If you cannot control your mind, in each moment of irritation, hopelessness or whatever quality that irritates and distracts your mind, you are a conductor of the black beams. This is why it is recommended to be positive when we are studying the Bible. In occultism you cannot say, “If God says, I will believe in it.” If you believe, you are on the right; if you do not believe, you are on the left, because unfaithfulness in one thing is at the same time a belief in another. Now all these energies that are coming, these two streams, go through the human brain. Therefore, you will constantly research the methods that you are passing through. For example, when a religious thought comes to you, it will not appear in the front part of your head, but in its upper part, perpendicularly. When a scientific thought comes it will stand not horizontally in your head, but it will moves in a circle. If you take the rays, coming from your eyes, and place them on one surface, all these energies that come from one angle, from above, act in a straight way, and all those, coming from other angles influence negatively, they are the energies from the black rays. If anger comes, it will appear in the area around the ears. If you get angry very often, you will have a pressing feeling in your ears or you will have earache. If your pride increases too much, you will feel a painful stagnation in the back part of your head, in your brain - this is an overload. Now what I am saying is that Nature does not like disharmony. All these energies, going into the brain, have a purpose. But we can transform these centres in our brain; they can be positive or negative. When a centre in our brain becomes positive, it accepts the white beams of Light the positive side of Truth - and then you have an advanced state, a positive mood to God and your brain wakes up. When the religious feeling is negative, you will have an inner ambition to serve God, without realizing why it is necessary. You say: “Man must serve God.” Why, how - you do not know. In this case religious extremism appears and you will stick to form and rituals: you will go to church, will light a candle, and consider it a big offence for that man, who does not light a candle. You can steal a sheep tomorrow, but it is not considered as a crime, because you can light candles; if you think that lighting a candle is the right way to serve God then it does not bother you when you do other offences. Occult science does not accept this moral. Now, these energies, which accumulate in your brain, can be a set back for your development, because, do not think that you can feel free from them. This brain, that acts here, on the Earth, on a physical level, has its mirror image in an Astral level and when you go there, these energies that are stored in this world, will be experienced again in backward way - all the things that are happening to you here you will experience again there. Now, the first thing you must do is to conduct your brain. What does it mean? It is not easy, because we have a lot of habits. The disciple, who wants to attend the school, must manage these habits. You say: “One has to be patient.” Sometimes, a man can be patient and he can have negative results. In the occult school we want positive results for those who are patient. On the other hand, when he keeps giving in he will become a weak person and will not develop his mind; patience cannot be the basis for weakening the mind, but for strengthening it, for developing it. Even I sometimes get worried about it, because there is a danger in an occult school for reducing one’s mind, because that way other negative streams are stimulated. For example, somebody read a book somewhere, but he did not check the results of this method, which were described there. And vice versa, a lot of eastern methods have been used in England and America, but the results have been negative. Now western occultists want to discover a native method. We will follow this natural, innate method - the best and safest. It means the following: please, pay attention to the following matter; you are not going to imagine where God is sitting and what His personality is, but you will always think that God is a sensible being that organizes everything without any mistake. And having this thought in your mind it will develop and it will balance it. For example, you can do an exercise: get up in the morning, read a prayer and think that God is Love and that no anger, no revenge, nor unhappiness exists in God. Then you will place in your mind positive qualities about God, Who is Wisdom, and all the mistakes existing in our world are men’s mistakes, and that everything God created is good. You can say: “But we know that”. No, even though you know it, you must do it for practicing to control your mind - this is the simplest, the most expedient, one of the best methods. And the scripture says: “You will become the same person, like your friends”. Notice, that God has this kind of mates. When you think this way you will challenge all streams, coming from God and passing through many areas - they will break into your mind and will create your thoughts. This stream from God will not come straight to you, it will first pass other people’s minds and after that it will come to you. This thought will pass all the minds - from noble people to primitive - and after that it will come to you. Then your Spirit will start working on following the laws, it will start finding streams of these minds and will practice. It is like a gardener, who has dug a lot of small ditches to water his plants. This way your mind will practice. Well, Indians have their own method, but I am not going to speak about it now. I am speaking about one of the simplest, but the most effective method. Everybody can use it, without any danger, and the result will be at least 75%. I will repeat: you need this harmony between each other. It does not exist now. And I want this harmony in this School. Harmony exists in the following: to respect each other, to know that you are sensible spirits, who God provided with an intellect and you can operate it. Some soul can be dirty, but the one who understands the laws will not see the soil. Consequently, an occult disciple does not have the right to judge others. He will say: “My brother, you have become a bit dirty, let me clean you up.” And he will not say: “You are this and that”, he must not say that. I do not have the right to judge you. The Great Master, always keep silent, he does not say anything, he does not speak about the faults of others - he sees all of them, but he does not speak about them, and does not judge them. When people see the results of their faults, he says: “This is not the way.” And you, Bulgarian, can be sent to become critics in the other world. Bulgarian people are the biggest critics. I have never met others like you - you criticize everywhere. It is an outstanding feature of all Bulgarian people. And it is because Bulgarians have a very weak religious belief, since the time of the first sin. Bulgarians suffer, because this belief is very weak. Among all the cultures in the world, the weakest religious feeling exists in Bulgarian people. This is a fact, that I estimated measuring with the centimetre. When it comes to determination and firmness, everywhere I put 7 cm; when it comes to religion, it goes down with 2.3 cm, and when it comes to mercifulness, it goes up a little. I say, here it is a sin - because one does not have gratitude, he becomes a critic. Bulgarian people get disappointed very quickly; there is not any holy thing for him. Go to any café in Bulgaria and you will see – the Bulgarian man will never speak about his wife with respect, not one woman will speak with respect about her husband. When a woman comes, she will talk about all the negative features of her husband; when a man comes he will do the same. Not only they do that, it is the same among you. This way you cannot be occult disciples, I am telling you that. If you enter here like men and women, I will tell you the truth, you cannot be occult disciples. If in the future you feel like men and women, you can stay outside, but not inside the School. A disciple man and a disciple woman, when they enter the School and are wife and husband, they have to respect each other. If they start saying: “My husband, my wife is this and that,” they are not disciples. If you are brother and sister and you start talking about each other: “My brother or my sister is this and that,” you will be sent out of the School. I am saying: the person who attends the School must be a model for others. At School I will say nothing about your faults. I will put on other glasses - there are different glasses at an occult School, they are called love glasses. They are invented this way: we see the good side of your faults. And we judge the results this way: if for example I take an adze in my hand and cut wood in two, three, four, five, six or more pieces and if from these pieces we make a cart that people will use this adze has done its job - we judge from the results. But when I have cut the wood and nothing good comes out of it, I say the purpose has not been fulfilled. We can say at the end what the consequences will be. I want everybody to be very attentive. We will start from cutting wood, to see what will happen. Now I see in your minds a question:” Is it not possible that it can be easier, can somebody influence us by hypnotherapy?” No, the safest method is when you think in the morning, that God is Love, Wise, and Kind - this is the first prayer. Every morning, when you get up think about God, that He is Love, He is Wise, and Kind, and you will immediately feel better, you will activate your mind. After doing this, there are other methods. We will start other special methods, we will start like the Angel, who went to Kornelij, and brought him the essential thing - it brought that Light in his mind and said to him: “Call Peter, he will teach you the essential thing”. When a man learns the essential thing, there will come an occult Master, whoever he is, it does not matter, to teach him basic rules, which he has to follow. Now, I want this first rule to be done by all of you in the duration of two weeks. You will take a notebook and in the morning, after getting up, think about this Sensible Being. Write in your notebook the date you started and after doing the exercise whether there is any difference or not, and what you felt. Do it three times per day, in the morning, in the evening, and in the afternoon. In two weeks time we will see the result of it. And, you have to take a notebook. Somebody can say: “Is not is possible without a notebook?” - No, it is not. Take a small notebook, put it in your pocket and you will make notes in it. If you miss an exercise, be honest and write in your notebook that you have missed it - do not avoid this. If somebody misses it and after that does not make a note, if he forgets to make a note, it is dangerous. If you miss an exercise, make a note about your fault, this means nothing. Be honest in all your exercises, if you want to have results. Do these exercises for two weeks. You have some old beliefs that are hard to change. Somebody can say: “Is not it better when I get up in the morning to say a good prayer?” There is no better prayer in the world than this, to say that God is Love, God is Wise, God is Kind; a better prayer than this I do not know. When you have thought about God, that He is Love, your heart will have warmth; when you think that God is Wise, Light will come to your mind, there is no better thing. And I have said, Light in your minds, cleanness in your hearts, Truth in your souls. Light will give you Knowledge; Cleanness will give you Strength and striving, whilst Truth in your souls will give you Freedom. This is my rule, which I have already given to you. And so, whoever wants to have Light in one’s mind, when he is thinking about God Who is Wise, immediately Light will come into his mind; when one thinks that God is Love, warmth will come in one’s heart, and when warmth comes, immediately Cleanness will come. You wash your clothes using hot water, don't you? Without warmness, it is not possible to receive Cleanness, do not forget that. When you get up in the morning your old teachers will come and say to you: “It is not the time, you can sleep a bit more”. No, when you wake up in the morning first say this pray. But when? – When you have gone to bed on time and when you have slept very well. When you first wake up do this exercise. If you have woken up and then gone to sleep again, the law is different: after you first wake up do not go to sleep again, get up and do this exercise; after doing it do not go to bed. You will say: “But if it is 1 o’clock?”- At 1 o’clock you will not wake up, you will wake up at 3, 3.30 or at 4 o’clock. When you do not sleep well you will wake up at 1 o’clock, or 2 o’clock. Whoever sleeps well will wake at 3, or 3.30 o’clock, and aristocrats will wake up at 6, 7, 8 or 9 o’clock and will say, ”We have overslept.” And so you will do this exercise early in the morning, at noon before 12 o’clock a.m., do not do it after 12 a. m. This exercise can be done everywhere; you can stop whatever you are doing for one, two, five minutes. It does not matter how strict your boss is, you can get your pen to work and you can concentrate your mind on the upper world that God is Love. Nobody will notice that you are doing this; there are no circumstances that can obstruct you. Even a woman, while cooking can do it, she can stop stirring in the pan, the meal will not overcook in this time. If it burns I will pay for it - but it will not. And so, I want your help for restoring the harmony. If you do not restore this harmony, it still will be restored, because it is coming. It is the same with violinists, those, who are good musicians know how to tune their violin. And for the others, who are not good, somebody else tunes their violin. And if you leave this, somebody else will do it. We, at least, must find out how to tune our violins. Now, have you understood the first rule? In the evening, 5 minutes before going to bed, do this exercise. Now, let no one at this School say that he has a special opinion about it. Here everybody has a special opinion about this. Whoever wants a special opinion, it means the following: "I will get what I need from this School, and I will have a special opinion of the things that I do not need.” Whoever wants to have a special opinion about this exercise - he is out. Any disciple, who is not ready for this exercise, is not ready to become a disciple. Now, I want to help you do this exercise, and it does not matter that I have done it so many times. I will do it with you for two weeks. Some of you might hesitate that a disciple must do it, but the Master does not. I will do it with you. (Some disciples asked: “When shall we start?”) - From tonight. In your notebook you will write what time you have done it during the day, you will write three times during the day. If you do not have a watch, you will write that you have started it. Write in your notebook just one letter to describe the feeling after doing it. If you feel Love, put the letter L; if you feel Strength, put just the letter S. Write just your experience, and just with letters, if you do it in another way you will deviate. Doing this exercise you will have new thoughts that you have forgotten, new feelings, something noble and gentle will appear and you will go into these streams. I am giving you this exercise, because you are entering the School now. You cannot have this exercise every time you want, you must know that. The next time, even you are ready to pay 1000 leva, you will not have it, do not think that you always can have it. This is a very special exercise and if you do it properly… Well, you can say: "Next time!” No, everything in Nature has its own time, if you do not do them on time - the door is closed for you. If you do not do it on time, the door is closed, you have to wait; if you start knocking, they will reply, ”We do not know you,” you are too late for this knowledge. You have to be grateful that you have this exercise for two weeks, for two weeks only. In two weeks you will stop, do not use it any more. If you want it after two weeks, it will not be available to you any more. You can say: “But we know all this”. You do not know it. - “We have thought about it.”-You have not thought about it yet. There is a big difference in accepting the Light, coming directly from the Sun, or if it comes through ten mirrors and you accept just its reflection. If you accept it directly or through first reflection(Unclear. This part of the sentence seems to be in contradiction to the previous sentence), this Light will come from the heaven to you. Well, do not simulate, that you will stay in special opinion. (UNCLEAR) Do not exaggerate! This is going to be an introduction to the exercises that we are going to do regularly. We will have a lot of exercises. Well, for this idea to grow up we need water, don't we? Let's read about water then. There were twenty lectures given about the topic of “Purpose of Water”. Secret Prayer Translator Maria Ivanova

Analysis Of Words Year 1, Lecture 8 to the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) given by the Master Beinsa Douno April 19, 1922 – Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Now I would like each of you to write one sentence in your notebooks which includes the first of the proposed words from last Wednesday - that is the verb “Come!” Your sentence structure should be simple, with one conjunction only, without attributes or direct/indirect objects. Now let's read the sentences you have written. Here are some of them: “Come to God!” “Come to Truth!” “Come onto the Path!” “Come into the steps of your Master!” I am asking you, can one really come to God or to Truth? Motion is a spatial process, while Truth is not spatial. In this case, can one really come to God or to Truth in time and space? Being disciples of the Spiritual school, you should learn to think and speak precisely, using strictly defined words in the same way that mathematicians are strict and precise in their work with numbers and formulas. Each word that is used should express its exact meaning. Now write some new sentences using the verb “Come!" The motion expressed in them should refer to strictly defined time and space. What is the definition of verbs? Verbs express actions and states and all actions are related to time and space. Which world includes time and space? Time and space are related to the material world. As a matter of fact, only physical bodies require space and a certain place. Therefore, volume and space are characteristics of the physical or the spatial world, for example, the world of forms. I am asking you now about the meaning of the word "Love." Is Love spatial? Love is not spatial. Love knows neither time nor space. Love has neither beginning nor end. In that case how can you know something that is without beginning or end? How can you know something that does not require time and space? It remains unknown. But if you begin to feel Love, this is the first moment that defines a state of Love. Is there a relation between states and space? When you say about someone that he is a person of substance, it means that inwardly he has much at his disposal. What was the second word that was written? It was “harmony" followed by “symphony”. What is the difference between “harmony” and “symphony?” A symphony comes as a result of harmony. These words are outside of spiritual science because they have meanings which are different from their literal meanings. When you examine a certain word, you have to pay attention to its root and origin. You must also consider its conceptual meaning, in other words, you should know the idea that is expressed by the word. In this sense, "symphony” is not a precise word. We say “symphony” and “symphonic orchestra." Which of the two words is more precise, "symphony” or “harmony” ? Harmony can exist between two tones, whereas symphony cannot. Which are the most important words out of those you have read? The words “persistence” and “perfection" express the result of something. “God” is a very indeterminate word. “Love” is a good word. Humans are able to love, but whom? Are they able to love one another? First they should love God. Before you utter the word “God,” you must say the word “Love.” To say the word “God” without love is like reading a book without light. To pronounce a name, or to go somewhere, you should first have the impulse in your consciousness. You cannot enter onto the spiritual path if you do not have the impulse to do so. This motivating force can be conscious as it is in animals, self-conscious as it is in humans, and subconscious or superconscious as it is in Higher Beings. Any movement in a certain direction is caused by an inner impulse that aims at some fulfillment. If the word “mother” is pronounced without love, it loses its meaning and content, as a result of which it will produce a certain disharmony in human thoughts and feelings. In that sense Love is a key to Life, like a musical key for the tuning of instruments. Therefore, the word “God” becomes meaningful only when it is pronounced with love and tenderness. Love is the key for the notes of Life. First you should use the key of Love and only then you can pronounce the word “God,” for only in this way will this word be filled with meaning and content. And when the word “God” is full of meaning, it will also give meaning to the other words: “come,” “harmony,” “symphony,” etc. So, you know now that in the flow of speech words are ordered in the same way that tones are ordered in musical works. The poets among you who have not realized that words play the roles of keys in human speech should learn to regard them in this way, in order to know how to use them and where to place them. What inspires poets to write poems? Love for their native land, for their mothers and friends. Therefore love and affection represent a path leading to a particular destination. You cannot begin a journey every time, but when you do begin it, you should have a defined direction and destination. What is the destination of an apple seed when it is placed into the soil? It moves in two directions – upwards, to the centre of the Sun, and downwards, to the centre of the Earth. In your opinion, what is the destination of human beings? – The Sun. No, a human being first strikes roots inside itself and then thinks about how to come to others. To come to yourself in your language means to come into yourself. Two other verbs originate from the verb “to come”: “come in” and “come out.” First you have to begin, so as to come in and then come out of a particular place. Once you have decided to come into a place, this means that you have already started on your way. If at any moment you want to come out, it means the same. Therefore, whatever you do, thinking or feeling, it has a starting point. So the word “to come” is like the placing of a key. Keys are needed everywhere and in everything. When you say that we should come to God, you are not precise in one aspect, namely that we should know the direction and the destination of our movement. If someone wants to go to the town of Russe, Varna, etc., the name of this town determines the destination of one’s journey. Therefore, when you say that you should come to God, you must know the direction and the destination of your path. Which path leads to God? – The inner path, the path that is lodged within ourselves. Do you have any experience in this matter? – We have not experienced such things yet. How can you then talk about the experience, when you have not yet gone through it? You should learn to think correctly. Everything you speak about should be experienced and tested by yourself personally. It is not good to think without having a thought. What does it mean “to think without a thought?" Thoughts consist of two components simultaneously: feelings and actions. Without these two components thoughts are not proper. It is akin to saying that you love without Love. If it lacks an impulse and a method, it's not love. Love says to you in a symbolic language: “Come!” In other words: “Put the seed in the soil! Sow a feeling in your heart! Sow a thought in your mind!” Therefore, we treat each feeling as a separate seed to be placed in the heart, so as to bear fruit in the future. We will judge the quality of each seed by its fruit. The words “Love,” “to love,” and “I love” have two significant elements: the first element is growth, and the second one is the “ripening” or the result. The letter “ч” ("ch") in the Bulgarian word "обич" (“obich”, Bulgarian for "love") shows that the seed should be put into the soil, so that it may grow and develop. But that's not enough, for the seed should also blossom, set and bear fruit, and its fruit should ripen. This means that the seed has to overcome all difficulties: winds, storms, snows, frosts, droughts, etc. The letter “a” in the Bulgarian word “obicham” (I love) shows that the seed will produce good results. Once we have the results, we can test what Love really is. Any results by which we can judge the reality of things, without falling into contradictions, indicate that we are on the Path of Love. Thus, the first word “come” means that you will begin to seek Truth. When you find Truth, you will begin to love it. When you love Truth, it will free you from fear and falsehood. At present you are not able to tell the Truth. Suppose that a teacher gives an easy problem to a student to solve, but the latter cannot do it. The teacher asks him: “Why did you not solve the problem?” Since the student does not have the courage to reveal the real reason, he finds a number of other excuses to present to the teacher. Thus he resorts to falsehood. This student's self-conceit does not allow him to tell the Truth, because it will discredit him before his classmates and he'll lose their esteem. He will lose nothing in respect to his classmates, but he will lose in respect to the Truth. As I am giving you these exercises, I can read your thoughts and see your ambitions to display your knowledge. But this is already a lie. When you write on a topic, you think you have said a lot. One can say a lot in theory, but the theory will fail in the first clash with Life. This indicates the existence of a great difference between theory and practice. Someone says that evil does not exist in the world, but when he is robbed he changes his stance at once. After that he becomes firmly of the opinion that evil exists in Life. If theory and practice were in unison in this person, then even after he had been robbed, he would not have thought of evil, or admitted to it. He would not have cared whether his money had been in his or in someone else’s pocket. This indicates that people say one thing in theory and achieve something different in practice – there is a dissonance. You would say: “How dare they take my money! Didn't they know that I needed it?” So what? They took your money because they needed it as well. “But this is not right!” What is right is one and the same for you and for them. Whether you get the money or they do, it's the same thing. That is just how it is - if you think as philosophers. However, in practice it is different. This is where evil is hidden. If a hungry person sees that someone has more than he can eat, he has the right to take the surplus food and satisfy his hunger, but if someone who is not hungry takes the food, he will commit a crime because he does not need it. Therefore, only those who are hungry have the right to take bread from someone else’s bag in order to satisfy their needs. Those who do not have such needs do not have the right to steal. Please observe the rules that I am giving you. They are maxims that should be used in Life. You would ask: “Who has the right to eat?” Those who have starved for three days and have prayed to God for bread have the right to sit at the table first. Those who have starved for two days have the right to take the second seat. Those who have starved for one day may take the third seat, etc. Therefore, an individual's right to take this or that place is determined by the extent of his need. In that sense we consider hunger to be a deep inner experience. Only those who are hungry deserve this experience. I am asking, why do people not tell the Truth? Someone goes to buy a cloth. He trusts the merchant and buys a pure woolen cloth on trust. Once he is home, however, he realizes that the cloth is not made out of wool but out of cotton instead. This individual then meets a friend of his and shows him the cloth, telling him that it's wool. His friend likes it and buys it, but later on he also realizes that he has been cheated. He resells the cloth to another friend and so on. In this way everyone gets cheated. I say, check the quality of things before you buy them! Those who are not experts in certain fields should not go shopping alone. Thus people will learn to tell the Truth. Only those who know and understand the quality of certain goods should become traders. Otherwise, they will forever justify themselves, they will cheat others in the same way that they've been cheated. Only those who know and understand the subject of farming should become farmers. The ignorant should stay away. Only good disciples should attend school in order to study. School is a place for talented and gifted students. It has been written in the Scriptures: “Freely you have received; freely give.”1 Only talented disciples receive free schooling. A teacher in music will take up a student and teach him for free, but only if the student is gifted. Why? Because the student’s heart will be burning with love for music. Mediocre students usually wait impatiently for the end of the lessons so they can get away, while talented students are very single-minded. They think mainly of one thing: their work. Mediocre students are double-minded, thinking of at least two things simultaneously. Therefore, talented individuals and those of genius are distinguished mainly by their thinking – at a certain moment they have only one thing on their minds, the one thing that is most important. If you go to God with your gifts, burning with an aspiration to study and grow, He will take you as His disciple and teach you for free. Now, since we are speaking of Truth, the Invisible world will put you unexpectedly to a test so that you can see for yourselves the extent to which you can tell the Truth. It will be a great surprise for you, but you want to know Truth, don’t you? It is not easy to know Truth. It is even more difficult to realize when and how to reveal Truth. I will give you an example of this. A young person had three good and faithful friends who had sworn their friendship and loyalty to him. One day he decided to put their friendship to a test. So he killed a calf and put it in a sack, then went to the first friend and told him: “A creditor of mine came yesterday to get his money back. As I did not have the money, I killed him and I have hidden his corpse in this sack. What will you advise me to do now? Give me a piece of advice, please!" – "Get this sack out of my house right now! Hurry up, because we will both be blamed if someone finds it here!” Then the young man went to the second friend, told him the same story and asked: “What is your opinion?” – “I do not want to interfere in this. Treat the dead body as you wish.” Finally he went to the third friend with the same story. “What shall I do now?” – “Listen, my friend, I am going to help you. I have a secret place in my garden that no one knows about. We will bury the corpse there, and no one will know what you have done; your crime will not be discovered.” I am asking you, whose love was the greatest? The third friend demonstrated his readiness to sacrifice himself for his friend, which means that his love was real. He took part in concealing the crime and was prepared to share the penalty. The first one will be the main criminal, the killer, and the other one will be the concealer and accessory after the fact. In such case, he will share the penalty with his friend. Through this example I wanted to draw direct attention towards extraordinary Truth, not to ordinary Truth. Real Truth will free you; ordinary Truth will limit you. The Master may also come to class with a dead calf in a sack in order to test his disciples whether they would reveal the Truth or not. He may say to one of them: “Listen, I killed a person and put his body in this sack. Tell me where to hide it and keep it a secret.” He may tell the same story to another disciple, yet ask him to share the information with everyone in the street. When both disciples are called into court to reveal what they know, the first one will say that he knows nothing. The second one will say that he knows about the crime of his Master. Finally the two disciples will fall into contradiction. I regard the next two cases as symbolic in Life. The Master gives a full bottle of water to one of his disciples with the assignment: “Do not tell anyone about the contents of this bottle, keep it a secret.” Then he gives a full bottle of water to another disciple with the assignment: “Tell everyone that the contents of this bottle is water.” Therefore, when someone keeps silence, he will receive the maximum amount; when someone speaks, he will become empty. When people do not reveal the Truth, they fill themselves; when they do reveal the Truth, they become empty. It is a Law. This is the deep meaning of the words: “Tell the Truth!” or “Do not tell the Truth!” Keep quiet and do not utter a word when you are empty, and when the Truth is not in you – then your bottle will be filled. When the Truth comes to fill you, then speak, tell the truth to everyone; thus you will empty your bottle and it will begin to refill. We will stop here. I spoke to you mostly about the first word, “come.” I also spoke of some other words. Today we spoke of seven words altogether. We will discuss the remaining words throughout the year. They will provide us with material for many lectures. Be ready, for the Master may come to you with a sack and order you to hide a dead person. Consider well what you should do, because you could go to prison for more than ten years. It is not easy to tell the Truth! You may see all of this in a dream, realize you've concealed a crime, and go to prison. When you wake up, you will say: “Thank God, it was just a dream, not reality.” Many events and situations in Life are like this, as though happening in a dream. Those who awake from the dream and are aware of reality are on the right path; those who are not awake live unconsciously and feel fear and horror. They ask themselves: “What will happen to us?” I wish you to awaken from the deep sleep into which you have fallen, and to realize that much of your experience is not real, but fictitious. Secret Prayer ____________________________ 1 Matthew 10:8 Source

Methods Through Nature Seventh lecture given by the Teacher before General Esoteric class on the 13th April 1922, Thursday, Sofia Secret Prayer First I’ll start with a few notes. When a young shoot grows out of the ground, it is vulnerable but Nature sends him subtle swaying and motions on the air. The work of air currents make plants strong, the human mind does the same thing for the Spiritual body of the human being. And when you enter the Esoteric School, you will be exposed to different winds from different directions. Bear that in mind, this is the law but do not fear it. Anyone who enters this School and fears some cracks not wanting to feel the draught does not understand the law. To winds you will be aware of from all directions, from east, from west, from north, from south, from everywhere. And to other winds we will be exposed and sometimes these winds we’ll be warm, sometimes cold, sometimes they will be accompanied by mild rains, sometimes with sleet, sometimes with hail. In all these situations you will find yourself; that we have to bear in mind. What happens in Nature, will happen in your soul also. If does not happen, you are not on the right path. If someone preaches you a teaching without hardships, without winds, without sleet, without hail and rain, this is not the Teaching of God; this is not the Teaching of Universal White Brotherhood. These are principles; these are states, which you have to keep in mind and to try. If one of you doubts this, you have the time to try them but you will note this fact, because we are coming closer to carrying out research in one positive science; laws don’t resemble the laws in modern science. This science, to which we introduce you, there are no exceptions to the rule, everything is defined there. When I say precisely defined, I mean, that it is limited. No, there are two contradicting opinions in the occult science, in the Occult School: the Infinite includes the finite in itself and the finite includes the Infinite in itself. And then I say that the situation is such: only the Infinite can appear and this, which is finite can not appear: only the strong person can make themselves known, the weak can not; only the strong light can show itself, but light whose vibrations are weak, can’t show itself. Therefore I want you to be strong people, not hesitating, do you realize this? It is expected of us to be the strongest, the brightest, the most gifted, the most talented. The one, who is not capable of working on purpose as to acquire abilities, as to show his or her talent and the incapable to waken his or her ability. You don’t have to discourage yourself because of this, it is only one situation. So each one of you will bear in mind the thought that you have to be strong but not to force yourself, to uplift yourself. Therefore each person, who has the force to uplift himself or herself, will have force to lift his peer but everyone who forces himself or herself, forces his peer also. This the laws of the White Brotherhood say. They watch how what we do towards ourselves and thus they are aware what our situation towards others will be. If I force myself I can talk in a very pleasant, very sweet way but it will be of no use – the law is true. Therefore you will have strength not to force yourself but to uplift yourself. This means moral – to uplift the contemporary moral in the world, to uplift ourselves. That something was said by this scientist, that prophet or saint that the world was made in such and such way, you have to rise up the general status, upon the common view. Let us not misrepresent Christ's true words! I ask all those contemporary people, did they live in Christ's time, did they hear what did He spoke, what did He say? They say: “We didn't hear but it was delivered to us.” This thing, which was written by this apostle, does it seem likely to be true to you?” - “This man there said that.” No, this is not the case, we have other proof for what was said by Jesus, we have an archive, where all words of the Christ are written in golden letters. Do you know in what grand book on what sheets are written Jesus words? There all words are written, all followers, initiated into the Occult school read from this great Gospel – this is a Gospel. And now they want to convince us that the Gospel is sacred, given to us by the Holy Ghost. No, it is not, the Gospel, which Jesus preached is from the Holy Ghost. The Gospel, which Jesus preached printed itself on the sheets of this great book. What Jesus spoke, all his great teachings are printed on this book, word by word, as each word spoken before a phonograph* is rendered. [* Phonograph – the original term for the gramophone, discovered by Thomas Edison in 1878 (editor's note)]. This Gospel I can understand! And how many words, how many parables, how many things are recorded on the sheets of this book for which the world is thoroughly unaware of. So, firstly in the Gospel it is said: “Be strong because God lives in you!” But why is that? Such is the law. People are so weird. - “But – someone would say – apostle Paul said that when we are weak, then we are strong.” Yes, naturally, apostle Paul was an occultist and do you know what he did want to tell you with this? It means: When I think as a human, I am weak, but God, who lives in me, makes me strong. When someone is strong, he is conscious that God lives in him. I am Weak as a human but because of God, who lives in me, I am strong. When I say that God lives in me, this word is again not understood. God can not live in me or inside you. You have not yet revealed yourself, how will God live in you? In the Scriptures somewhere apostle Paul says: ”You are a Temple of God.” What is God's temple? - Your soul. Your soul is something great and therefore we are now building these little temples in which the soul will lesen itself. This, which is eternal, the boundless will smaller so that it will enter in this small temple of Love. The soul knows the laws of growing smaller, this little soul can become finite and infinite at the same time. For God it is easy to be boundless and infinite, so it is easy for him to become boundary and finite, for us. When they tell me that one being is finite, I understand much – I understand that the greatness, the Intelligence and the God's Love are that large that He reduces himself in that small being as to try from all his or her joys and sorrows to uplift him or her as they can understand His greatness. This is the greatest, the most wonderful miracle of God. Thus I understand God, this God I recommend you -God, who can descend to your plane, from there He would lift you up and could make you like Himself. In what sense will you be like Him? - You would be like Him powerful, you could understand life and the other beings and you could uplift them also. This is what Jesus has taught. Now, what we have is not morality. We leave aside the current morality and give you new principles, which you ought to have so that you can develop. When you work on the principles inside your soul, we will become strong and powerful – strong and powerful as to overcome anything. Now, I am going to explain the word patience from the esoteric point of view. Each follower of the School of Universal White Brotherhood has to be patient. But how? Some, for instance, restrain themselves and say:” I was patient enough, I restrained my rage.” Restraining your rage is not being patient. Patient person is the one that constantly pays his or her debt to those who came to him or her – he has strength in himself. To restrain your rage is not patience but torture. Now the preachers want to convince us that the silent are patient. Such person is not patient. When someone else is glad and joyful, he thinks of something totally different. When someone comes to a patient person, this person asks him or her: “What do you want from me?” “You owe me.” “How much?”- And they pay. They constantly sing their songs. And now, when someone comes to him or her, they say: “You are dishonest.” They keep silent, pay nothing, restrain themselves and say: “They called me names, so what? I am a very patient person.” This is not patience at all, you are a person of torment. But here, in this School, there is no torture. Before you enter this School, before we are initiated, there will be torture but when you are in, you have to be patient, glad, to master all the world. Thus you will understand patience as followers. When someone comes to me, I ask him: “Are you patient?” This means that he or she has to give me. Someone says:” You have insulted me.” “What does insult means?” You have debt, you owe me, ask how much. - “That much.” Immediately you ask how much is the interest. “Ten or twenty percent.” I won’t utter a word, right away I will open my purse and say: ”Here you are. Are you content?” “I am content.” I will shake hands with him. Someone else will come by you; you will open your purse, you will pay and the matter will be settled. All followers will settle in such way the matter between yourselves – you will open the purse and you will pay. When the time comes, you will pay – this is the teaching, which Jesus has taught. And if this teaching has been applied, the Christian world would have risen, would have been righteous. And what are you doing now? You are still dealing with the question whether God saved us or not. Since he has sent us Saviour to the Earth, we are saved, we are saved since we have been created by God. Therefore Jesus has foreseen everything. Jesus is manifestation of this Love, He sends Love to those He has initially saved. But because they are not yet ready to comprehend this Love, they are in conception(???). These people don't reason over this philosophy. When the mother breastfeeds her child, and what when this child is in her womb, does he or her suck from her breasts? No, the milk will stay for the mother, she keeps it for the time when her child will come. Therefore during the time of our embryo condition, until we were born, God has waited upon us to show his Love towards us. For those of us, that are born there is milk, for others – there is stale food. The more you go further, more goods you will try. Therefore we are in this period when God's love has been shown to the followers; this means we are in the most wonderful state, when God show his will to be perceived by the followers. What is better than that when the father says to his son: “Son, take your pouch and go to school.” And Cosmos with all its suns and planets is create as one initial school. And all of you will ride to all planets, suns and the Moon: everywhere you will go to study, different directions you will take during these excursions and then you'll meet again. But you will ask: “How many years are we going to meet after? ”No, it may not take years: one journey that amounts to ten million years we can shorten to one or half hour, another journey that amounts to half an hour can be prolonged up to hundred million years. It is a matter of motion, of quickness -it depends on what train we'll take with what speed, with what quickness. That is the question: what train will you choose- if you take a train with a great speed, the suns will pass by you too quickly, we won't be able to look at all the beauties and you'll tell yourself: ”We have passed around the Universe and we have seen nothing”; but if we take a train, which travels at a low speed, you will stop at one place, at other you will stop, each planet you will see. Among the spaces between these planets there are such worlds which the contemporary people don't even suspect - they think that all is what they see and that's it. No, there are other worlds that can' t be seen with contemporary telescopes. Einstein says that there is no time and space; I understand his language: there is no time and space but there are states. So, the first stage for the follower is to be strong. You will have in your mind the thought to be possess Strength. Then for acquiring this Strength we already have methods, there are laws how to acquire such Strength. We will put you through a test and we will see whether this Strength, which you will acquire, is for your uplifting or for your constraint. If you use it for your constraint, then an usual force will be given to you, however if you use it for your uplifting, Godlike force will be given to you. When I speak of love, I mean that only the Godlike Love is the one and only, the greatest law in the world, which can guarantee this Force. If you have such Love, this Force will be guaranteed to you, if we have an ordinary love, an ordinary force will be given to you, and such force all of you have. Now these are the items you have to include in your mind. This is the teaching that Jesus has taught. It is the simplest teaching, which Jesus has taught to the people then. Now have you understood which person is strong and who is weak? Strong and weak. Everyone, who doesn't use his or her force, which they possess, becomes weak. Since you don't use your Godlike force for your uplifting, you are weak and the weak, when he or she uses a little Force, which they have, becomes strong. This is the same law, which you require when you give conditions for the development of a grain of wheat and then his force enhances and increases. According to the laws of mathematics, on Earth, the part can not be equal to the whole. In the occult science, in the occult mathematics, however, there is another statement: each part is equal to its own whole and the whole is equal to its own part. Then, how are you going to equalize these contradictions? Therefore the relations of this kind of mathematics are not mechanical but are organic and psychological – then the process is therefore inward. Now, how can this be mathematically expressed? If we decide to prove this, we need a number of lectures, a number of formulas of this complex mathematics and after all processes have occurred, the question is again unresolved. This is only a statement, which in present conditions of Life can not be explained. And the truth is as follows: the weak, the microscopic person in the world, if he or she follows the great Godlike laws, one day can be strong. This is necessary for us – to be strong. And so Strength is one of the qualities of the God 's Mind, therefore the Force is motion. All these motions have to be mastered by humans. (The works on the theme “The purpose of the Five Senses” were read. A commission by three persons was selected, men, who will extract the most important from the works read). By men I mean intelligence at work, Wisdom at work because for Love there is not yet place. Now, when Love comes in the world, we cry when we have to think. You will make a good conclusion because when students do their best, can say some good things, can't they? I will give you another theme and this is: The use of water. Write down the themes, even those of you, who don't write because they are in connection to each other. Secret Prayer

THE LAW OF MOTION Year 1, Lecture 7 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno April 12, 1922, Wednesday Sofia Secret Prayer The disciples read the words they had to write in the following order: “come”, “harmony”, “absolute”, ‘nature”, “to hope”, “symphony”, “persistence”, “beginning”, “disciple”, “peace”, “height”, “crystal”, ‘to build up”, “the hero”, “diligence”, “can”, “nice”, “star”, “light”, “child”, “silence”, “to sacrifice oneself”, “aspiration”, “magnificent”, “God”, “comes”, “mutual aid”, “lotus”, “affection”, “wisdom of humbleness”, “warmth”, “perfection”, “wellspring”, “purity”, “bread”, “serenity”, “daylight”, “to love” and “enlightenment”. The first word which we read was “Come!” - the imperative form of the verb “to come”. This verb is related to motion. Therefore, you should study the law of motion. Motion refers to the first wish which puts all other wishes and aspirations in action. Can you remember your first idea or wish, when you were a child? The first impulse in the newly born is to breathe. Humans start breathing from the moment of their birth, because the law of motion originates from the Astral world. Babies start crying with their first in breath of air. It is an indication that the physical world they are entering is not very harmonious. Both children and adults cry, because the environment they live in is not very harmonious. This time however we will direct our attention to conscious Life which is manifest today. Human beings come down to Earth to understand Life. Consequently, the souls leave God in order to study Life and each soul wants to know itself. This is the first impulse or the first motion in consciousness. Knowing oneself means knowing God. Knowing God means entering Infinity in the frames or boundaries of the Finite. It is nothing other than self-determination. Each limitation creates forms and each form contains a direction of development or a path of evolution that should be taken by the Self, the personality or the human soul for the purpose of reaching perfection. Therefore, human souls come down to Earth to become strong. The words “strong” (“силен”{silen} in Bulgarian) and “weak” (“слаб” {slab} in Bulgarian) begin with the same letter (“s”) in all Slavic languages. The word “weak” relates to the law of changes; the word “strong” – to the law of constant values, i.e. values, which do not change. In other words, strength means expansion while weakness means contraction. I am asking you, what do you think about your coming to Earth? From your individual point of view, why have you come to Earth? You will give different answers. You may say that you have come to Earth to become strong, to be saved, to get to know God, etc. You will know God when you become strong not only physically but spiritually as well. If a child has no power to hug its mother and to suck milk from her, will it get to know her? - It will not. Human thoughts, feelings and motions, no matter how small they are, hide inexhaustible powers in them. According to the law of contrasts, weakness means strength. “A weak person” in our understanding is someone who has gotten to know the smallest values, the smallest manifestations of Life. For example, babies are aware of their helplessness from the moment of their birth, but their power lies precisely in their helplessness. I am pointing this law out to you because many people feel morally weak and so they say: “We are weak, we have many vices, that is the reason why we cannot follow the spiritual path.” This shows that from a spiritual point of view you are like little children and your mothers have to bathe you in bath tubs, while you often do immoral deeds. Your mothers need to take care of you for years on end by bathing you, feeding you, dressing you and educating you until you grow up and become mature enough to make your own living. Little chickens, for example, are able to make their own living two or three days after they hatch. It doesn't mean that humans are weaker than birds, but that the matter which they find themselves enveloped in is denser than that of chickens, and they cannot overcome the limitations that this matter has imposed on them. Keep the idea in your mind that you can overcome any difficulty you encounter. The science of the spiritual gives two explanations why humans cannot cope with their problems and consider themselves weak. After they come down into dense matter some people forget that they have come from Infinity; thus they do not know that they possess hidden inner powers which they should develop. Others who have come from the Finite have deluded themselves that they can do anything as if they were all powerful, and as a result they have fallen and have lost what they possess. Today both types of people think that they are weak, feeble and unable to deal with the present conditions of Life, and consequently they are in low spirits. If you want to get rid of your mental delusions, of the idea that you know everything, ask yourself: “What is happening on the Sun today?”, and try to give an answer. Then ask yourself some more questions: “What is happening on the Moon? What is going on in the entire Universe? What is a human being?” If someone considers oneself to be a deity, he or she should be able to answer such questions. A deity knows everything. If you are not able to answer these and many other questions, you should know that as a human being you represent just a small part of universal consciousness, of the consciousness of Being. I am saying, as you follow this train of thought you will come to the question about the moral development of people. From a spiritual point of view, the moral powers of human beings depend on the primal energy of the human organism. The Hindus called this energy “prana”. That is why it is good for you to study the pranic laws. A good disciple always makes more errors than a poor and unlearned one. The form that contemporary people have is nothing other than prana in action. When the amount of prana is not equally distributed in the human organism, this leads to disease. When it is not equally distributed in the human feelings, it leads to discontent. When it is not equally distributed in the human thoughts, it leads to senselessness. I will give you an exercise now which you should do three times a day – in the morning, at noon and at night, before you go to bed: bring your arms forward in a horizontal position with your palms facing down. Form a beautiful triangle by bringing the thumbs and the forefingers of your hands together. Then slowly open your arms to the side, forming a semi-circle. Turn your palms upwards. Bend your arms slowly at the elbows and catch the top of your ears with the first three fingers of your hands (thumbs touch the front side, the other fingers – the back side of the ears). Move these three fingers of each hand along the edges of the ears, the thumb in the middle, the forefinger – along the back part and the third finger – along the front part of the ears. After that, raise your arms and bring them forward to a horizontal position. Do this exercise ten times in a row and finally put your arms down in the following position: the top of the thumb of each hand should touch the top of the forefinger. When you catch the top of your ears, it will invoke a small moral impulse inside you. The lower part of the ears is related to the human stomach. After you perform the exercise, you will observe the results. You should perform it without philosophizing and nit-picking, but while observing yourself and the effects it will produce in your thoughts, feelings and actions. Unless something is applied in practice, it can be of no use for you. You should perform the exercises I am giving to you until you feel a positive effect. Consider these exercises sacred and do not talk about them until you have experienced them and achieved some results. When I ask you to keep these exercises secret, I warn you not to fall into the position of Adam and Eve who ate from the forbidden fruit just because it was forbidden. You should observe the following rules when performing the exercise: you should sit down, keep calm and expand your chest. You should stay concentrated the whole time and follow the movement of your arms. The main aim of the exercise is namely to keep your mind concentrated on the movement of your arms. This concentration is easy, because the mind only goes from the physical to the Astral world and no further. If it reaches a more abstract world than the Astral one, it will not be able to cope with it. It will be good for you to note the states that you will pass through during this exercise and during all other exercises. So, you will do this exercise three times a day: before or after praying in the morning, when you are well disposed; at noon; and finally at night, before you go to bed. No one is supposed to see you doing this exercise. If some of your neighbours ask you what you are doing, tell them that you have an exercise to do. If they insist on knowing details, keep silent. If they continue asking still, tell them the the following: “I have read in some book that the best thing for humans is silence. So, I want to do my best – to keep silent.” The exercises you are given in class are microscopic. In order not to become disappointed afterwards, you should not expect great results. These exercises are as insignificant as the first lines in an artist’s sketches. If an artist wants to draw a nose, he will first put a vertical line, thus creating an illusion of a nose. Then he will put some curved lines and after that he will draw the shadows of the nose. In this respect, the exercise I gave you is like the straight line that will later need some curving, some shading and so on. This exercise will teach you to concentrate your mind and to be obedient. In order to achieve this you need to be on the one hand lively and joyful, and on the other hand - honest, sincere enough to yourself. These are specific states of prana. The first state concerns the Mental world, the second one – the physical world, and the motion that runs through the middle, between the first two, is related to the Astral world or the World of emotions. Do this exercise as soon as tonight, before you go to bed. Breathe deeply while you are doing it in order to receive more vital prana. Prana has various states: physical, emotional and intellectual or mental. Without prana thoughts cannot be formed, feelings cannot be expressed and actions cannot be manifested. So, when I say that prana causes the creation and manifestation of thoughts, feelings and actions of human beings, this does not mean that all humans should have uniform thoughts and feelings. Each one will receive what he needs and will manifest what he is able to, according to the level of one’s development. For example, if you put your fingers on the lower part of your earlobe, some of you will wish to drink milk, others – to eat boiled wheat or nuts, or something else. Different foods will pass through your mind. You would say: these are foolish things. In our opinion, only the unattainable is foolish. For example, we consider that the wish of a poor simple person to become a king is foolish. In the remote future, after a long process of growth, this person could really become a king, which is impossible today. Therefore, when you say that something is foolish we think it is something impossible to achieve today, but some day in the infinite future this foolish thing could become reality. The first letter of the word “foolish” in Bulgarian (“глупав” {glupav}) has a line above it, which signifies infinity “-”. Contemporary people have lost a great part of the primal vital energy of their organisms; as a result their internal movement is weak. In order for people to understand each other, to love each other and to be able to learn, the vibrations of their internal movement need to be uniform, i.e. homogeneous. Heterogeneous vibrations result in mutual misunderstanding and alienation between people. The exercises you are given create uniformity in you. Therefore nowadays you need to busy yourselves less with philosophy and more with exercises. Later on you will reach a state in which more philosophy and less exercises will be appropriate. When we were reading the words you had to write for homework, you noticed that the first half of the words was more harmonious than the second half. This is due to a feature typical of Bulgarians – they start things well until they reach a certain point of difficulty, and then they end up badly. The disharmony in the second part of your words is an indication that knowledge has not yet become the object of your mind's interest. You study for the sole purpose of being able to say that you know something. Therefore, there is a part of your mind that has not been awakened yet. What hasn't been awakened yet is in your consciousness, i.e. you are not aware yet that you have the possibility to know and to be strong. Being strong does not yet mean that you are allowed to be violent towards each other. A strong person, in the full sense of the word, is someone who can elevate himelf without being violent to others. It is a rule: if you are violent towards yourself, you will also be violent towards others; if you elevate yourself, you will also elevate others. Secret Prayer

THE TWO DIRECTIONS Year 1, Lecture 6 of the Youth Occult Class (Special class) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno April 5, 1922 – Wednesday 19.00h, Sofia Secret Prayer If you go to Nature and watch the trees, you will notice that the sprouts grow perpendicular to the Earth and the branches stand upright. How long will this state last? - While the trees are young. When they get old, the branches will bend down. What is the reason for this? The reason is that they strive for the centre of the Sun in their youth and it makes the branches go upward and stand upright. As they get old, the trees turn their eyes downward, to the centre of the Earth, and as a result the branches droop and stoop. In the process of ageing the trees also become heavier. This law can be observed in human life as well. Young people are always upright. But after a certain age they become materialists like the old trees and start stooping. Then they begin to think about the centre of the Earth, i.e. now they expect their death. Death is but the directing of one’s mind to the centre of the Earth. Therefore, there are two directions or currents that human beings can follow: upwards – towards the centre of the Sun, and downwards – towards the centre of the Earth. The School you attend has methods by which you can convert these currents into one another. You cannot be disciples if you do not learn how to transform these currents. For example, discontent and low spirits are characteristic of old people, while a good temper is characteristic of young people. When we talk about old and young people, take the word “old” in its symbolic meaning which is “habit”. Old people are those who continue exhibiting habits which are directed towards the centre of the Earth. Evil does not lie in this, but in the fact that the aspiration of humans towards the centre of the Earth is unconscious. Miners go into their mines with a definite purpose: to take out gold and precious stones and bring them to the surface of the Earth. The position of those who slip and fall into a hole due to carelessness is not the same. They do it unwillingly and suffer because they have hurt themselves badly, while miners go down under the ground consciously. Now, after you have joined this School, give a thought to every event in your daily life and learn from it. For example, ask yourself why your mood changes so quickly. Make a weekly account of the number of daily changes in your mood, in order to get a true picture of yourself and write it down in your notebook. During the first week note down only the abrupt changes of your mood. In the next week note down what your mood is in the morning when you get up, at noon and in the evening, before you go to bed. Write down the hour, the minute and the weather (if it is good or bad, sunny or foggy) during your morning mood and the same again if a change in your mood has occurred. Begin your first observation on Sunday, noting down only the changes of your mood without looking for the reasons for them. The reasons are usually far away from you. You are aware only of the changes happening to you, but you do not know their reasons and purpose. Therefore, there is something deeper than what is changeable in you. You will study the changeable, not the unchangeable in you. Why? - Because the observations will be made by the unchangeable in you. Through these observations you will come to your inner state, which is unchangeable. It observes the other conditions but itself remains unchanged. In this way – through a series of observations – you will get a lot of experience. So, you should make your observations in a calm manner, not allowing any disturbances. If you are in low spirits, you will note that your state is “left, below zero”; if you are well-disposed, then you are “right, above zero.” All unpleasant moods are on the left – they represent a movement towards the roots or downwards, to the centre of the Earth. All pleasant moods are on the right – they represent a movement towards the branches or upwards, to the centre of the Sun. It is good to note also the weather in order to see its influence on the human moods. You are to make observations on yourself without criticism. Criticism is nothing but gnawing, and gnawing is characteristic of caterpillars. In this sense, critics may be called “psychological caterpillars.” You will explore yourself, stating the changes of your mood and exposing them without criticism. If you see a mistake of yours and say that you are a bad person, you will make another mistake. The first mistake is in your wrong doing, which you have not corrected; the second mistake is in your criticism. Therefore, if you have made a mistake, take it upon yourself to correct it. You can do it without the comment that you are a bad person, which is like a hood. If you say that you are a good person, that is another hood. A disciple of the Spiritual school should work without expecting any praise. It is not helpful for anyone to be praised by some and reprimanded by others. Praises and reprimands are for children. They are suitable for them. When are disciples praised and reprimanded? Regarding praises and reprimands, I have a firm opinion: you are not supposed to give your opinion about a picture that is not finished. When you look at a canvas with only few lines on it drawn by the artist, you may laugh and say: “It is a childish piece of work.” But if you see the same picture already completed, you will say: “An excellent work of art!” In these two cases you will have two different views on this same picture. That is why you should be patient and wait for the time when the picture will be finished, and then you may give your opinion. Do not give your opinion about anyone before this person has completed their work! Do not criticize anyone. Criticism is to be excluded from impartial human thinking and speaking. I am asking you, which words did human speech begin with? Conjunctions came first, then verbs, pronouns, and finally – nouns. This truth is confirmed by some medical cases of lost speech after a strong hit. These patients first lost their ability to pronounce nouns, then – pronouns, verbs and in the end – conjunctions. The pronunciation of conjunctions is usually not lost – even in the worst cases. Conjunctions are available also in the world of speechless animals. For example, we say that snakes hiss. They produce the sound “sss…” [M1] Thus they give a hint to people that speech began with conjunctions. Next time, each one of you should write a word; not any word, but a harmonious one which you love and which will leave a pleasant feeling in you as you pronounce it. It is desirable not to repeat the same words. Do not write overused words like “love”, “good”, “evil”, “right”, “beauty”, which have become trivial in your language. You can choose whatever parts of speech you like – verbs, nouns, adjectives or pronouns. The aim is to find words which are carriers of ideas. Then we are going to compose a sentence with the words written by you. In this way, we can see the extent of your harmonization as a class and also your position – left or right. It will be the first test to determine the direction of your development. The direction of your thought can be defined by any pronounced or written word. Everything left by humans may vanish, but what is written will remain as a symbol of one’s life. Words are signs similar to all existing forms in Nature. Any curve of a tree branch, for example, reveals a certain idea. The human eyebrows also express a certain idea. The eyebrows of many people are like the branches of a young tree; but the eyebrows of some others are drooped like the branches of an old tree. We can judge the forces acting in someone by the form and direction of his eyebrows. Consequently, when you read something written by a person, you can say right away not only what he has said, but also what was the original that he has used. You can also understand the way in which he has come to a definite idea. Ideas pass through many human brains; as a result they take different forms. So, if you study well, you will get familiar with the language of Nature, and start paying attention to its elements: rivers, valleys, rocks and mountains. It is a difficult task but if you proceed step by step with the symbols of Nature, you will enrich your mind with a number of new higher ideas. And when you start understanding the symbols of Nature, you will read them and enrich yourselves with knowledge. When you go to the mountain without bringing a book with you, if you do not know how to read from the book of Nature, you will be bored. If you know how to read it, however, you will have something to do – you will take a look at a cliff, then at a spring and you will learn from them. Those who do not comprehend Life and Nature will be bored by anything, any place they go. Therefore, it is better for them to study the works of the great poets, musicians and artists. Secret Prayer The Master greeted the disciples with the words: “Without fear!” They answered: “Without darkness!” --------------------------------------- [M1] The Bulgarian word for the conjunction ‘with’ is ‘s’ Edited December 1, 2016 by Viktoriya