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THE TWO PATHS Lecture 1 of the Youth Occult Class Given by the Master Beinsa Douno February 24, 1922, Sofia Secret Prayer What is the main idea of students entering into school? – Students want to be educated, to acquire knowledge, to develop what is lodged into their souls, minds and hearts. And after they have acquired knowledge and have developed their talents and abilities, they are obliged to preserve them. Good soil is required for this, so that every thought falling into it, may bear fruit. You also want to study like students and to deal with science, but do you know the meaning of the word “science”? If we consider the letters of this word, written in Latin and in some of the Slavic languages, we see two different notions hidden in the spelling. The letter combination of the word written in the Slavic languages indicates that in science the Slavs seek a method of balancing contradictions in Life. The Anglo-Saxon society, however, uses the Latin word “scientia” to mark the notion of “knowledge”, ”science” and [A1] the letter configuration indicates that it is interested in studying the relations between the different forms and the continuous changes taking place in the Living Nature. The first letter “s” in the word “scientia” designates infinity. Consequently, from an esoteric point of view, you can study science with the purpose either to find a method, assisting you in reconciling contradictions in Life or to find a way of using the forces of Nature. Those who deal with science in order to make use of the natural forces are submitted to a big danger. The danger is hidden in the appearance of the sacred egoism in them. They may place themselves higher than others by obtaining authority in their own eyes, so they will say, ‘We dispose with powers, which we can use as we wish.’ There are two categories of people: people who have strong personal feelings and self-confidence: they think that they can do everything, that they know many things, etc. However, the other category of people like the Slavs for example, seek a method of balancing the contradictions in their lives and of healing the pains of their hearts at the same time. The Slavs are closer to the Truth in this aspect. If you want to deal with the spiritual science, you should study your inner self first. Socrates said: “Know yourself!” What does it mean? What should you know – the Higher or the lower self in you? To know yourself means to know the Higher Self or the Divine Source in you. In other words, to know God in you. Once you know God in you, you will be aware of the conditions, in which you can grow and develop properly; the conditions, which give direction to your growth and development and which also balance the forces operating in you. Take a person who is living well, whose mind and heart are developing properly, so everyone expects from him to become an important person. But all of a sudden an accident happens to him, completely destroying his form. What is the reason for this misfortune? The reason is in the artisan who made this form. Many will say that such was the fate of this person. If a potter has made a tilted, half-baked pot, who is to be blamed? – The potter alone. What could he do then? – He will break the pot into pieces, knead it in slurry and make a new pot, but this time the pot will be better, firmer and well-baked. Consequently, when the High Source smashes the low forms, remaking and remodeling them, it gets out of them more beautiful, more perfect forms. What else could be done with the pots, which are not well carved, except to destroy them, so that they could be remade and moulded into new, more resistant and perfect forms? Young people often think that they are wiser than old people, so they say about them, ‘Their time is over, we will show them how to live now.’ However, the present-day old people said exactly the same in the past. And young people at that time did not approve of their way of living thinking that they could improve it. But they also grew old without correcting their ways. Thus young generations go one after another, trying without any success to show old people how to live properly. Why do they fail? - Because they use the same old methods like the old people. I say, the fundamental tasks in Life cannot be solved by means of using old methods. Young people should try not to repeat the errors of old people. They are to learn from their experience and see their omissions that hamper them in Life. The reasons for their failures are numerous and profound. They present an entire history that should be studied and researched. I will give you a topic to think on. It is the following: "The Most Rational Method for Work" . Each one of you should reflect on the most rational method for oneself. The spiritual science is based on experience; knowledge is valuable only when it is applied in Life. It is the application that determines your position as disciples. When one wants to study violin at musical school, one is tested on violin playing and, depending on the results, one is put in a certain class. If that student turns out to be mediocre, the violin professor will advise him to enroll in another school, so that he may not waste his own time. In one of my next lectures I will speak about the intelligent relationship between humanity and Living Nature. But before that you are supposed to state openly your opinion on the topic: “The Best Method or the Most Rational Method for Work.” It is a privilege, an extraordinary occasion for you to speak openly on a given topic. From an esoteric point of view, the best method is the one that is applicable in real Life. If a given method cannot be applied, it leads you astray from your goal; it brings you somewhere far away from your aim without any real results for you. Since you are not at one and the same level of development, each one will present a specific method for work, which is applicable in one’s own life. Some of you are first materialists, then idealists: they give priority to the material in Life; others are first idealists, then materialists: they give priority to ideas. This is the main difference between people. Idealists say that ideas create everything. What ideas do they have in consideration? Certainly, they do not consider their own ideas. There are ideas of a higher order than the human ones. These ideas come from the Infinite Divine Source. So, you should learn in this School to apply the methods of Nature. You should use the forces of Living Nature in the same way as flowers use sunrays. Then you will be able to fulfil what you were born for. This law also has an application to the human body. Each organ of the human organism has a specific function. For example, legs walk and at the same time carry the total weight of the body; hands work catching, lifting and carrying different things; eyes see; ears hear, etc. Consequently, each organ executes a specific function in the human body. In this aspect, every human being presents a special organ in the common organism of Nature and has a specific function. Those who have found their place in Nature and have realized their destination can properly fulfil their function as organs of the great Divine organism. You are disciples in this School and may raise questions that you consider important. You may raise for example some questions concerning your needs. What is a hungry person interested in? - Bread. A hungry person wants to know everything about the bread he will eat: whether it is warm or cold, fresh or mouldy. If you want to create a solid foundation in you, you should apply the same law to knowledge. You, who are young, should not repeat the mistake of that Gypsy man, who ate first vine leaves to his fill and then some bread and cheese. He went to the vineyard to work there and took some bread and a piece of cheese in his bag for breakfast. After some work he got very hungry. He looked at the bread and the cheese and saw that it would hardly satisfy his hunger. So he picked some vine leaves and started eating them. After that he also ate the bread and the cheese and said, ‘Excellent lunch!’ No, I do not advise you first to swallow the vine leaves and then to have a bite of esoteric knowledge. Be cautious to avoid this mistake! No mistakes are allowed in your work. If you make a mistake, correct it! It is not a crime that you have admitted some mistakes, but that you leave them uncorrected. When you realize a mistake of yours, correct it. There is nothing criminal in some bad thoughts passing through your mind, but each distorted thought of yours should be rectified. The efforts of your minds, hearts and wills should be directed to the correction of your mistakes. Only in this way you will create reliable characters. You should also consider the following thing: when students enter the school, the teacher is kind and attentive to them in the beginning. The more they learn and the harder the material gets, the teacher’s requirements to them increases and especially to those ones who do not study enough. So, the teacher changes his attitude towards the students who do not make an effort. The first obligation of disciples is to study. So, you too must study and what is more, study seriously. Each science has its own rules that should be known and observed. Self-control is demanded from you as young people - not fictitious, external, but real self-control. There are two types of self-control: outside[A2] , fictitious self-control, when your inner balance is usually disturbed; and inner, profound self-control, when your balance has never been broken. I will give you an example for outside[A3] self-control. A young man got engaged to a beautiful, young woman who was noble and self-controlled. He often praised her to his friends. One day he invited a friend to her place to introduce her. They sat and talked for a while. Then the fiancée brought a tray with glasses of water and sweets to treat them. The young man tripped her on purpose in order to see her reaction. As she held the tray, everything fell on the ground, the sweets and the water scattered on the floor. The fiancée kept full self-control and said, ‘It is all right!’ She calmly bent down, gathered the glasses, wiped up the water and went into the other room. The young man turned to his friends and said, ‘This is self-control and nobleness of character! This is an ideal woman!’ However, when they got married, things did not go the way he thought. Once he asked her, ‘Where did your self-control go?’- ‘You had to enter the other room to see what happened there. Only the wood of the table could tell you how hard I had chewed it!’ I say, this is not real self-control. Someone wants to open the window: he pulls it, but it does not open; he pulls it a second, a third time - it does not open again. He gets nervous, angry and starts pulling it harder and harder, as if the window is guilty about something. First of all, the window is not conscious, it cannot understand if one is irritated. The same is true for the esoteric forces: some of them are conscious and intelligent, others are half-conscious and unreasonable. When I say that some forces are intelligent, it means that they have the same direction of movement as ours. The unconscious forces go in the opposite direction. Consequently, each one of you should know if a given force goes in compliance with one’s own development or in opposition. In the same way you should consider if your thoughts, feelings and actions go in line with your development or not. When you come across some thought or feeling, you should immediately look into it to decide where to put it - to the left or to the right. Disciples should know how to sort out and where to put each one of their thoughts, feelings and actions. Some disciples will succeed in this activity twenty-five percent, others - fifty percent, the third ones - seventy-five and the most capable – a hundred percent. Disciples should work to gradually increase this percentage, so that they can avoid mistakes and disappointments. So, we will make experiences[A4] after each lesson. This means that you will be put on an exam [A5] after each taught lesson: not only theoretical, but also practical exams. All theoretical knowledge is to be applied in Life, where it should be developed and tested. Whoever wants to deal with esotericism should know that he/she will be submitted to certain trials and tests, which should be solved successfully. You say, ‘We have difficulties anyway.’ Yes, but this time you will realize the meaning of these difficulties. And realizing it, you will be able to use them as healing methods. E.g., if you complain of pains all over your body: in your hands and legs, in your backbone, if you have a headache and your stomach is upset,. from all these pains the Invisible World will create just one pain, but a bigger one, so that you will direct your full attention to it. This big pain will make you heal yourself properly. You will forget about the small pains and will start working intensively in one direction. So, great difficulties unite the human forces into one focus. Otherwise, there is an energya dispersion of energy and the forces in man are scattered. Nature acts in the same way. She will create one big pain for you, and through it everything else will be healed. But you have not come to the big pains yet. After a reflection on the topic, which I gave you, you should write as concisely as possible: only on the core of the idea. Each one of you is to write about his personal method for work. What have written scientists have written on this theme is not so important for you; it could correspond to your understanding or not. What is important for you is to tune your work to the methods of the Intelligent Nature, not to the methods of ordinary scientists. Only in this way you will get the common principles of Life. So, each one of you will work and apply the method which is the best known and is the most specific for him. It depends on your awareness, your sincerity in work and your deep striving for a valuable achievement. Many of you will say that they do not have good conditions for work. The Americans are leading in this aspect. In America you will meet students who work in kitchens and offices to afford pay their school or university studies. It is good when favourable conditions are available in Life, but all conditions could be reasonably used. Even in the hardest conditions, you may find ten or fifteen minutes for reading and self-education. What hampers a housewife to read something, while she is cutting onion and cooking? Both good and bad conditions have the purpose to put a disciple into position to overcome difficulties. Only thus you can grow up and develop in the right way. [A1]This seems a bit confusing, consider – “knowledge” and “science”, and the… [A2]outer [A3]outer [A4]experiments [A5]have an examination

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE TWO PATHS Year 1, Lecture 1 of the Youth Occult Class (Special Clas) Given by the Master Beinsa Douno on February 24, 1922, Sofia What is the main intent of the students entering school? They want to become a learned scientist, to attain knowledge, cultivate what is invested in their souls, minds, and hearts. And after they attain knowledge and develop their talents and abilities, they should also preserve them. For this purpose, good soil is needed for every thought falling in it, so that it may bear fruit. Therefore, as disciples, you also want to study and engage with science. What is to be understood by the word “science”? If we consider the meaning of the letters used to write this word in Latin and some Slavic languages, we see two different concepts hidden behind it. From the combination of the Cyrillic letters in the word “science” it can be seen that the Slavic people search in science for some method of reconciliation of the contradictions in life. Yet, the spelling of the Latin word scientia used by the Anglo-Saxon nations for the notion of knowledge and science, shows that they focus on studying the relationships between the various material forms and the eternal changes occurring in Living Nature. The first letter “s” in the word scientia means “infinity.” Therefore, from an esoteric point of view, science can be studied either in order discover a method of reconciling the contradictions in life, or in order to find out a way of using the forces of Nature. However, someone who studies science only for the purpose of manipulating natural forces may encounter a big danger hidden in the possibility of a spiritual ego appearing in that person. If they begin to see themselves as superior to others and acquire an inflated image of themselves, they say, “I am in command of powers, which I can use at my will.” Therefore, there are two categories of people. In the first one, people have a sense of superiority and the belief that they can achieve anything, that they possess considerable knowledge, and so on. Others, like the Slavs for example, search methods for resolv- ing the conflicts in life, meanwhile healing the pain in their hearts. In this respect, the Slavs are closer to Truth. So, if you wish to study esoteric science, you should, first of all, come to know yourselves. Socrates said, “Know yourself!” What is the meaning of these words? What should you know about yourselves? Do you need to know the Sublime or the basic? “To know yourself” implies coming to know the Sublime or the Divine within you; in other words, coming to know God in your inner self. When you come to know God from within, you will be able to recognize the conditions which can contribute to your spiritual growth and development and you will make the right choices. These choices give direction to your growth and development on the one hand, and on the other hand bring balance to the forces acting and operating in you. Imagine an evolving person with a well-developed mind and heart - all expect him to realize his potential. But one day something unexpected happens to him and his physical form is destroyed; nothing remains of it. What is the cause of this misfortune? The cause is the Creator who has made this form. Many people would say it was his destiny. When a potter makes a warped or a poorly-fired pot, whose fault is it? The potter himself is at fault. What does he do with such a pot? He breaks it apart, mixes it into slurry and makes a new pot - better fired this time, more beautiful and solid. Therefore, the Sublime always shatters the form of what is lowly and remakes it, sculpting it so that a more beautiful and perfect form is made. What else could be done with the failure pots, but to shatter them in order to remake and transform them into new ones - more durable and perfected? Often the young think of themselves as being smarter than the old people and say, “The old folks have outlived their time. We will show them how they should live.” And yet, these old people said exactly the same at one time. After them, come the young who do not approve of their lifestyle and think that they can set it right. They, too, will grow old without having set their own lives right. And so, one after the other, the young generations who desire to show the old people how to live, take their turn but do not succeed. Why? It is because they too, like the old people, use the same old methods. I say: Old methods cannot resolve the fundamental issues of Life. The young need to guard themselves against repeating the weaknesses of the old. May they learn from their experience and see what they missed so that their life has become unsuccessful. There are many serious reasons for the failure of the older generation. They represent an entire history that needs to be studied. Now, I am going to give you a topic which all should think about. It is about the best method for work. I would like everyone to make a decision about what the most mindful method for work is. Esoteric science is based upon experience and for this reason, knowledge is valuable only when it can be applied in Life. It is exactly what determines your place as disciples. When a student wants to enter a school of music to study playing the violin, he is given an instrument to play and from the way he performs, it is determined which class to join. If the student proves to be mediocre, the professor advises him to apply to another school and not waste his time. In one of my next lectures, I am going to speak about the conscious relationships between human beings and Living Nature. But first, you should make a presentation on the following topic: “The most efficient and mindful method of spiritual work.” It is a privilege for people to express opinion on a given topic: it is an extraordinary occasion. From an esoteric point of view, the best method is the one which can be applied in real life. If a given method is not applicable, it leads astray and diverts from the purpose of one’s work, not bringing any effective results. You are not all at the same level of development, so every one of you will propose their individual specific methods for work which are applicable to their life. Some of you are materialistic idealists, giving preference to material achievements in life; while others are idealistic materialists, giving preference to ideas. This is the main difference between all people. Idealists state that ideas create everything. Which ideas do they mean? They are not speaking about their own ideas, of course. There are ideas higher than the human ones. These are the ideas coming from the Great Divine Source. And so, in this School, you will learn how to use the methods applied by Nature. As flowers utilize the rays of the Sun, you too need to utilize the forces of Living Nature. Then you will be able to fulfill whatever purpose you were born for. This Law has an application in the human body as well. Each organ of the human organism has a specific service. For example: legs walk and also carry the whole body weight; arms work: they grip, lift, and move various loads; eyes see, ears hear, and so on. Therefore, every organ in the human body has a specific function. In this respect, every human being represents a special part of Nature’s all-inclusive organism and, as such, it needs to fulfill its function. Those who find their proper place in Nature and understand their purpose in life, will be able to perform their mission as part of the Great Divine Organ. Now, as students in this School, you can raise some questions which are of interest for you. But you can also raise questions which are related to your needs. For example, what is the main concern of a hungry person? Bread! A hungry person wants to know what kind of bread will be given to him: warm or cold, fresh or moldy. If you are determined to create something of enduring value within yourselves, you must apply the same Law with respect to knowledge. As young people, you should not re-peat the mistakes of that gypsy who ate some grape leaves as a first meal followed by some bread and cheese. He went to the vineyard to work and took with him a bag with some bread and cheese for breakfast. After working for a while, he felt great hunger. He looked at the bread and cheese and concluded that it would not be sufficient to satisfy his hunger. So he picked some grape leaves and started eating them. Finally he ate the bread and cheese and told himself, “This was an excellent lunch.” No, I do not advise you to gulp first some grape leaves and then to nibble a little on esoteric knowledge. Beware of this mistake! No mistakes are permitted in spiritual work. If you make a mistake - correct it. The crime lies not in you making a mistake, but in leaving your mistake uncorrected. As soon as you become aware of it, correct it. If a negative thought comes to your mind, there is nothing bad about it. Yet, this negative thought needs to be transformed. The striving of your mind, heart, and will should be directed toward the correction of your mistakes. In this way only you will build up a character that you can always rely on. Now, you should keep in mind the following: when students enter school, the teacher is friendly and attentive to them at the beginning. The further they progress in their studies and the more difficult the material becomes, the more demanding the teacher becomes, especially toward those who do not study well. It means that the teacher changes his attitude toward the students who do not make efforts to study. The first thing that is required of a student is to be capable of studying. Therefore, you too need to learn and study very seriously indeed. Each science has its principles, which must be learnt and observed. Self-control is required of the young: not superficial, external, but real self-control. There are two kinds of self-control. The first one is external and superficial - whereby one’s inner balance is always disrupted. The other one is inner and deep - whereby one’s inner balance is always preserved. I will give you an example of external self-control. A young man became engaged to a beautiful young woman who seemed to have a good heart and a good deal of self-control in her actions. Often he boasted about his fiancée to friends. One day he brought a friend on a visit to his fiancée’s home and introduced her to him. They sat and conversed for a while. Then the fiancée brought a tray with glasses of water and jam as a treat. The young man purposely tripped his fiancée to see her reaction in this situation: she dropped the tray, everything fell down - the jam and the water spilled onto the floor. The fiancée kept total self-control and presence of mind saying, “It is okay.” Calmly, she bent down and collected the glasses, wiped up the water and went out of the room. The young man turned to his friend and said, “She is an example of self-control and a noble character. She is the ideal young woman.” Yet, after the marriage, things did not go as he had expected. Once he asked her, “Where has your self-control gone?” She replied, “You should have gone to the other room to see what was going on in there. Only the timber of the furniture could tell you how angry I was!” I say: This is not true self-control. Someone wants to open the window. He pushes it, but it does not budge. He pushes it for a second and third time, but it still does not open. He begins to get agitated and angry, so he pushes it even harder, as if it is the window’s fault. First of all, the window is not conscious and cannot understand that someone is irritated with it. You can say the same about esoteric forces. Some of them are forces of awareness, of reason, and others are only partly so. Saying that certain forces are forces of awareness means that they move in the same direction as us. By contrast, forces lacking awareness move in a direction opposite to ours. Therefore, everyone needs to know if a given force is in accordance with their individual development. In the same way, you should observe whether your thoughts, feelings, and actions keep in accordance with your development. Whenever you are aware of a certain thought or feeling, immediately check it and decide where to place it: left or right. Disciples need to learn how to sort things out by knowing the exact place of each of their thoughts, feelings, and actions. In this respect, some will succeed 25, 50, 75 percent of the time, but the most successful will do it all the time. The spiritual student should work to gradually increase this percentage and not to fall into error and delusion. And so, after each lesson, we will proceed with the experiments; that is to say, after each lesson you will be tested - not only theoretically but practically as well. All theoretical knowledge needs to be applied in life where it will be further developed and tested. Those who want to study esoteric sciences should know that they will be subjected to certain tests and trials, which they should pass well. You would say, “We have difficulties anyway.” Yes, but now you will understand their meaning and purpose. When you understand their meaning, you will be able to use them as methods of healing. For example, someone complains of pains in different parts of his body: his hands and feet hurt, his head and back hurt, his stomach is upset too. So, the Invisible World will create from all these smaller aches one bigger pain in order to direct his mind to it and make him start the healing process. Thus he will forget about the small pains and begin working intensely in one direction. This means that the greater hardship directs one’s energy toward one center. Otherwise, a dissipation or scattering of one’s energy and concentration occurs. Nature acts in the same way. She creates a great pain for someone, within which all is healed. But you have not yet come to the “great pains.” When you reflect upon the topic that I have assigned to you, write as little as possible, only about the essence of the idea. Each one of you will decide for himself what the best method for work is. It is of no importance for you what scientists have said on this subject. Sometimes it will correspond to your understanding, to your nature; but other times it won't. It is important to align your work not with the methods of ordinary scientists, but with the methods of Living Nature. Only in this manner will you work your way toward the essential principles of Life. Each one should apply these principles, each one should work with an individualized method. It depends on your conscientiousness, dedication to work, and your deep desire to achieve something valuable. Many will say that they lack the favorable conditions for work. In this respect, the Americans set an example. In America, there are college and university students, who engage to work in kitchens, in various offices as servants in order to finish their college or university studies. It is good to have favorable conditions in life, but any conditions should be utilized mindfully. Even in the most difficult conditions, one can spend at least 10–15 minutes reading and studying. What hinders a housewife from focusing her mind on the Divine while she is chopping onions or cooking a meal? Both bad and good situations are set up for the purpose of placing the spiritual students in the position to cope with various difficulties. Only in this way they can grow and develop rightly. Edited December 1, 2016 by Viktoriya students

The Three Lives First Lecture of the Master Beinsa Douno to the General Occult Course, given on February 24, 1922, Sofia Tonight there will be a Quaker meeting. Everyone will be silent until the spirit moves you. I have called you this evening to ask you how we should use our spare time; not the time which is already occupied with engagements, but the time which is free of them. Wasted time spoils life. A good cheese maker making cheese should see to it that there will be bubbles in it empty space in it in order to be considered a good master. One should consider one's method of work - how one should work. Which is the best method for old people? According to modern thinking, people would say that old people should take it easy. Therein lies the greatest evil. They say "He is young, let him play". And who is going to work? Old people should rest, young people should play, and those between thirty and thirty-three should do all the work. In this way the thirty-three year old will be working, the young ones dancing and the old ones resting. You must get together and work out a programme for meetings let us say every Sunday afternoon and vote on it in a democratic way. The first thing that I notice among you is a sore lack of harmony, which is due above all to your Sacred Egotism. As I see things, there are three ways of life. The first of them I call materialistic. Such people want to own sheep, cattle, poultry, houses, and fields, and when everything starts singing for them they would say: "Life is worth living". However, after caring for them all for twenty years they would say: "I have too much to worry about, I am tired, I should change my way of life." They would start gradually selling off their property, because they want to live a little for themselves. Thus comes the second phase of Sacred Egotism. Their wives and families, who are not aware of their motives, would worry and say, "What is our father up to? What will happen to us when he has sold it all?" Sacred Egotism also exists in religion and spiritual life. People say, "Let us think of ourselves first. With the money we have made we could have an easy life, the way we understand it." The third way of life, real life, is what I call Divine. It means shaking off Sacred Egotism and starting to live in perfect Love of God where the human heart and the human mind can develop in a perfect way. What happens when we meet each other is that our interests do not coincide-you would think one way, and I another way. Whoever lives according to the first way of life would think about who owns what, measuring himself against others. In the second case we measure up as well. However, when we start serving God, there is no measuring up. There is only one way to live. Now, according to this rule, some say, "Whenever God wills". You have noticed how in the morning, when the mother would come and tell her child, "Get up dear, the sun has risen", he would answer, "Let me sleep some more". And we consider this to be a philosophy. No. This is not a philosophy at all. Thence follows the question: Has God already told us, "Get up." He has. Some would say: When the spirit moves me. Can you say for sure that the spirit has not moved you yet? It has been coming and going. Coming and going many a time. It may come again, it may knock, and it may leave again. This is a question for the old, and not for the young. The young still have time at their disposal. In our epoch, we are seeking solutions to the difficulties and hardships of life. We must reconcile all contradictions. We must finish whatever we have not yet finished. There are two views on this matter. The animals come together to help each other. The wolves too gather in wintertime, but only in special cases, when they intend to attack cattle or sheep. The question now is: can we, whatever the conditions, whatever the difficulties, overcome and surmount them? From a purely Christian viewpoint, one may say, "It is possible". Theoretically, yes, but practically the matter stands differently. Now I will tell you what brought this to my mind: One of our most enthusiastic friends has a very high opinion of me, thinking I can do everything. This is not true. He was attacked by neurasthenia. He called doctors and they advised him to stay in bed for forty-five days. Nothing would come out of such beliefs. This is an illusion. If your faith in God cannot help you, if, in the final analysis, your knowledge can not help you, what use is it to you? Hence a desire to work should be born within us, and above all to work according to Natural Laws, to be in harmony with God. I have nothing against a doctor who works according to these Laws. He is welcome! If a vein bursts and a doctor comes and sews it together, this is all right. But if you have eaten radishes without chewing them well, and a doctor comes and gives you an injection, I ask you-had such a doctor recognized your ailment. I would say that you need a laxative and nothing else! The pieces of radishes must leave your body and stop bothering you any more. Many of you have swallowed such bites which have not been well chewed and believe this to be the new teaching. No, this is not the new teaching, neither is it the divine teaching. If you knew the divine teaching, you would be saints by now. The heart of a young man in love is generous, he is inspired. Both of them are inspired, they do not differ at all. They accept things in the same way because they are in harmony. The present teaching is a teaching of Sacred Egotism. I want you to be free of self-delusion. If you are to obtain results, you must know where the new teaching begins. It brings a certain broadening, a transformation of the way of thinking; a change sets in just as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The stagnation you feel is not simply your own fault; there are other reasons as well. There are backward souls throughout this world, millions of backward souls who have remained outside the evolution of humanity. They are unable to utilize the natural forces; they are beggars but very sly and cunning beggars, who take advantage of peoples' weakness. There are all kinds of them. When they come they exploit your weaknesses. For example, if you are vain and you want to become prominent, say prime minister of Bulgaria, they would start by suggesting that you are extremely capable, and that you could become one, and introduce strict legislation for the citizens. But once they push you down that path you would entangle yourself in endless trouble. Then they would tell you that you have had enough, that you are tired, and you should let others take over, while you would just stand back and contemplate the fruits of your labours. But when the others take over, they would pursue you and throw you in jail. What would be the use? What would you gain? - nothing. In religion too one can notice the same weaknesses. They will tell you: "In occult sciences there are such and such forces that will help you achieve whatever you say, and then you will be able to walk proudly. All this is nothing but an invention of these spirits. If you look deeper into it, you will find that this is an illusion and there is nothing divine in it. I want you to learn and distinguish. I will not speak like an oracle. Looking at the colour of your faces I see that you are under the influence of these spirits. Sometimes you come to a realization and you say, "I am confused", and you say, "God, don't you see". No, it is you who should see. Nowadays we live in a epoch when we should guard ourselves against foreign influences. And all misunderstanding that exists among you is due to them. I am not passing judgment on anyone. There has not been a single rational dispute among you so how could you consider things rationally. You should say: "Go and tell your brother he has taken the wrong path. And you should go and tell him: While these spirits advise differently. They say, "Look at him, he is a hypocrite". If he is indeed a hypocrite, his hypocrisy would manifest itself, but there must be some rule, there should be facts, there would be signs! If he is evil, then there would be additional signs. And I would like you to start sifting, sifting inside yourselves, according to this law of alchemy. When astronomers want to observe the sky they choose still nights when the air does not stir at all. It is then that they see best. When we want to observe the weather should be right for it. If such spirits disturb your thinking your observations will be wrong. We should put our minds at peace and being at peace put our minds in contact with the divine mind within which we exist. At present we do not live within the divine mind. There should be a proper method of work among us. You should get together - two, three, or four of you, get in harmony and be able to help each other. What is the use if we walk the divine path and do not help each other? Some of you should study the laws of attunement. The older people need to be attuned. You should all the time tune yourself up. I do not mean you are out of tune. Often, when I visit a family, the mother would say to her child, "Come on, play 'Little flower, pretty flower' for us". And I see that the "little flower" plays well. Then I go to another family and again, "Come dear, play 'Little flower, pretty flower for the gentleman'." Well, I say, enough of this. A constant repetition of one and the same thing is not knowledge but a waste of time. We say, "God is good". "God is good". Hut you must learn a new tune. After "Little flower, pretty flower" comes, "The wind blows, the mountain moans". So "Little flower..." is for the heart and "The wind blows..." for the mind. And now what is the third song children should play? I am making these remarks because I can see that some of you think this is not yet the right path. You do not yet know what true spiritual life is. Nor have you experienced what Divine life means. The third step we should take is to enter into the Divine Life. Forsake your Sacred Egotism, and then half of the work will be done. Reading the New Testament you will see that Christ began with small rules and came to perfection. As the Scriptures say, "Be you therefore perfect even as your Father who is in heaven". There are proselytes, believers, and disciples. proselytes are materialistically inclined and believe in great wealth; religious people are believers, they believe in Sacred Egotism, while the disciples are in the Divine Teaching. It was them that Christ meant when he said: "Go and give away all your property, leave your father and mother". Disciples should know the law of giving. St. Paul says, "Even if I give away all my property and have no love, I am nothing". In other words one may sacrifice oneself and it may still be Sacred Egotism. In the same way, it is Sacred Egotism when we consider ourselves to be the center of the Universe. You may never express this thought but it is there, hidden in you. He who has entered into the Divine life stands so high that no one can touch him. A writer has said, "A person who abuses God is like a mosquito spitting on Mont Blanc, what trace will there be of him?" When we enter the Divine world and someone speaks out against us, it will be like the spitting mosquito, one could well fail to notice it. Spit will not remain in the Divine World for there are heavy rains in it and they will wash it right away. At present, we have reached the point when, according to occult science, we can apply the divine rules in our real lives. Our future lives depend on this application. It is our present which will determine our future state. Whatever you do you do it for your own sake. And you should know how to do it. You should live within the Divine life, you should know what are the outstanding features of Divine Life are. This you need for your own sake. Whenever disharmony occurs within small communities, they can easily be settled. But they can be settled only according to the Divine Rules. In religious life, Sacred Egotism helps as much as it harms; in materialistic life it gives five and takes a hundred; in Divine Life everything works out for the best. And there is nothing better than to be in harmony with God, to feel God in yourselves, and to be in harmony with all supreme beings. When you meet a man, the divine in him responds to the divine in you and you can feel it. There is nothing better than that. Now, I want to make an analysis. I want to sift your thoughts well and leave only the essential in them. Only one thought may remain, hut you must be sure that this thought is divine and that you can always rely on it. This is possible for all of you. Everyone can try. You don't need to be a great philosopher. You don't even need to make a great effort, but you need to know how to do it. You need to know how to apply the Divine Rules, just as you need to know the rules in music and in art. There exist rules everywhere, and those who know and apply them invariably obtain good results - but not in materialistic terms. You should not start by trying to improve your material lives. You should start by improving the state of your minds; secondly, you should improve the state of your hearts, and finally you will be able to improve your material lives. Now you are doing the opposite and this is the reason why you get poor results. Some of you are working in this direction but are still in doubt. The balancing of your mind and faith which you attain become subjective. You should know that you have had a positive experience, that whatever you believe in has been substantiated. You should keep alive your experience. There exist two kinds of experience: the first is to be compared to the picking of a flower - later on you lose it, the second is like a flower that grows in your garden and remains living - this is what Hindus call lotus. When I speak about Divine experience, I mean the idea of a flower which is always there, growing in the Divine garden. Now those of you who have reached a certain height must proceed a step higher. You must rise above confusion altogether. We must approach God and not expect God to approach us. "Come closer to Me, He says, so that I may come closer". You think that if you make one step higher something like a cataclysm may occur. No, this state of mind is the most pleasant one can hope for. You will be like a woman in labour. She weeps and screams, but once she delivers her child, she forgets all the sufferings right away. You may have to weep, too, but once you have delivered you will reach a state so great you could have never imagined it. Such weeping will be unusual. Courage is needed for it. It is not an easy task and yet it is not difficult either. Only in this way we may become strong. Often enough they ask me: "Why is it that we work hard and get poor results?" It is because you have remained in the realm of Sacred Egotism. In this realm one hears questions like, "What is your faith?" In the Divine realm there is no such question. There is brotherhood, sisterhood - nothing else. If someone addresses the other with: "Sir", "Most Honoured", "Your Highness", "Your Divinity" etc., he is in the realm of sacred egotism. In the Divine realm there are only brothers and sisters. There you will feel that all people are close to your heart. In your present state you may not like some people, you may simply not be able to stand them. Well. Now I will ask you this: Those of you who are in the realm of Sacred Egotism, are you ready to put it aside? If I ask you how many of you are proselytes, how many are believers, and how many are disciples, what would the answer be? Very few of you are ready for the Divine Life. And do you think that this is something you can vote on by raising hands? This would not be achieved by raising your hands. It would be quite easy to raise hands. If I ask you to vote on this I shall lead you into great trouble, such as you have never seen before and it would be good for you if you manage to extricate yourself. I will give you an example I have given to young people. One of your fingers aches, the joints, too, and also the back, and you get nervous. Then a boil appears, and you say, "This is rather too much. If only the previous aches, it would have been all right!" I would say to you, "Prick the boil". We have reached the stage of sacred egotism, and God will make a big boil grow so that our Sacred Egotism can be expelled through it. We will step into the divine realm and will no longer he nervous. Now if you have to get sick, I would rather you had one real disease than many petty ones. Now I want you to organize, to start thinking of your method of work. At present some of you may think, "When the time comes; when God speaks; the conditions are not favourable at present; we have not enough knowledge; wait until I have studied the occult sciences..." You may have studied the occult sciences, you may know the Bible by heart and be able to quote every verse in it and still remain in the realm of Sacred Egotism. There exists at present a spirit of criticism among the Brotherhood, and you see the negative aspects rather than the positive ones. And often some of you complain to my that there used to he a time when we liked each other better, and now there is a certain coolness setting in among us. I will give you our brother Peter as an example. An old man once said, "What a husky fellow I am!" And in order to go over a ditch he ran up to it, jumped, and fell into it. Then he said, "Well, when I was young I was much stronger". However when he climbed out of it he acknowledged, "It was the same when I was young." Young or old, it is the same. Man does not change, he only grows. The impulses which he had in his youth remain. If he used to be noble of character, he will remain such. Can the wheat seed change? We are now trying to say that a religious young person has turned from wheat into barley, as he grew older. One of the brothers asked how does the spiritual birth occur. The boil should make you deliver. I will give you the following example: A maid goes to a stinking garbage heap and starts digging in it, because her mistress has lost a diamond. Here in this garbage there is something valuable. A precious stone will always be precious. Whoever knows that will find it, clean it up, but whoever does not know will not look for it. New birth is not a principle, it concerns only the external. The soul develops only what has been planted in it to begin with. Nothing new is added to it. Dynamite too needs a detonator to blow up. The spirit has emerged from God, what is new are the conditions providing the spirit with an opportunity to develop. The soul of the child is not part of' its mother ê soul; she would only supply the materials. We should come in contact with Divine Mind. There are many ways shown in the Scriptures and in occult sciences to restore this link, to bring about this awakening. Now we must all come together and serve God. Some people say; let us abandon our own work to go and serve God, but they must realize that everything in the world, including their own lives, is His. Everything we possess is His. We should know that what we have now is Divine and we will begin to make the best of it in accordance with Divine Law. This is the new way of thinking. They say, "This is my teaching". These ideas are Divine; they have existed in God and no matter who has expressed them we say: this is Divine and we apply it. It does not matter at all who expresses them. Those of you who are ready to leave your cocoons should come out and make room for others to come, because people will come and proceed in a sequence. If we are examined - to explain our teaching: What is your faith? What is your way of life? What teaching do you hold? You are to answer briefly and clearly. For one of our next meetings I would like you to consider the practical methods of work. And let's say there will be a meeting when we will forget ourselves and become one with the Divine Mind. All of us. Can you imagine what harmony will prevail! Now, we sit at a meeting, someone speaks and several times we look at our watches. Then, at prayer again, we look at our watches. Do you believe this to be the right prayer? The Quakers hold their meetings in complete silence. There are not too many of them, about twenty thousand. England owes its greatness to these twenty thousand Quakers. We too must work. Now the question is whether we can consciously enter the Divine. People who grieve for something, grieve for their lost lives. Many of them see that spiritual life has not given them what they expected. Their spirits are low because their sons did not become what they expected them to be. The Divine will bring meaning to our lives for we shall aspire to it. Many of you have already experienced it to some extent. You should not have the illusion that you may enter the new life as long as you have not taken leave of your karma, as long as you have not fulfilled Moses' law. Physical life is a great illusion. We do not settle anything with it. It will be wrong if we think that we are doing something - we are not doing anything at all. There will be people who will say then let's stop working. No, no, this is an illusion too. The essence of life is to love each other. One would like to live in a society where people are razumni*. Even going to heaven, we will look for the razumnost* there. When we speak of God we have in mind what is elevated, what is razumno* (razumni (a.), razumnost (n.), razumno (a.) From Bulgarian word RAZUM (n.) - intellect enlightened by Divine Wisdom). The meaning of life is not in all those external needs and aspirations. Life takes on a meaning when you love and are loved. This is the right and the permanent thing. All other things are only temporary illusions. This love will cross from this world into the other. You sense it whenever someone uses you. The ideal state on earth is to love each other selflessly. Without this love, physical life loses its meaning. Human love without divine love loses its meaning too. A thing will have value for us because of the friend who has given it to us. A ring from your friend is valuable to you because you love him. The day you stop loving your friend is the day when you will stop appreciating the ring which he has given to you. You love someone and for this reason you read the books he writes. What a transformation takes place! What I have in mind when I say illusions is that we should not make food the center of life. Of course you will have food, but food is only a means. Because there will be a time when we will be able to eat without having to work. No one will work, everyone will rest. We say that without work life on earth is impossible. But work will be pleasant then. At present the physical needs compel us to work. As long as people live to work and to eat they follow a false teaching. It is not really necessary to work. This is an illusion, like the drunkard saying that he must drink. Because of such illusions the earth is covered with graveyards and bones, with misery and weakness. We have created the sense of necessity, because we have disobeyed the law which God spoke to Adam: "Here is the garden, fully arranged, but do not touch that tree over there". Nonetheless, he ate of the fruit of this tree and was thrown out of the garden. Well then, what will happen if we begin again to obey law of God? We will live again in heaven. The human spirit will be able to go back to its primary state. It was outside the garden of Eden that men started fighting. If we did not worry about so many things, if we all accepted love and applied it in our lives, the world would become good. But not with gain in our minds. You do not believe that this will succeed. We shall work again, but there will be no blackmail. I will come and help you with the work on your field, but not for pay. As things are arranged at present one is paid to work. But we will be born again, we will leave our cocoons. You may see a contradiction here, and will say: "It is all right to believe, but nothing will be achieved by believing alone." Faith implies intelligence, one should be clever as well. A clever man will find the way, but those who have no faith have no intelligence either and will go on pushing the plough. The new culture needs many clever people. However, with the present beliefs and ideas which you have, this law cannot be applied. We follow this method which is the natural one. There is a link between you all. In the first place, we must accept the Divine and then we will be able to achieve everything. As long as we have not accepted the Divine, all problems will remain unsolved. I will call those of you who are ready (in a special way), and you will see how many will reply. Those who answer will be answered by God too. Only in this way can a new impulse be created. You have reached a dead end. I notice that you speak only of the past and not of the future. I call old people those who speak only about their past experiences. I don't like to hear: - "I was more religious once." I say: "You talk like an old man. Leave the past alone; work for the present and for the future". Our God will never grow old. God speaks now, and will also speak in the future. The past is only a memory. People would come and ask, "Is there any hope for me." If you believe, there is; if you don't, there is not. There is yet another illusion. You think that you know each other, but you don't. To know someone means to love him, but not in an ordinary way. You must be ready to sacrifice everything for him. Life continuously brings new knowledge. Each day brings new knowledge. Every day and every year reveal something new. In this way we come to know God. When I speak to you about Love, I have in mind this gradual ascending state. You will not come to know love at once. This is impossible. When we speak about accepting the Divine, we may think this means giving up life. That is a misunderstanding. We will go on living in the world and we will do the will of God. We will improve this world, not materialistically, but inwardly, by improving our minds. Once we do that the world will be changed as well. Try to improve your personal relationships by introducing law and order. When you have no love you live according to the law. People today have laws but live outside them, while we will have no law and will live according to the law. Now write down what obstacles there are to our work, so that we may overcome them reasonably. You may say that you will abide by these rules. Let two, or three, or twenty of you come together and discuss how to live according to these rules. You may say that you have been disciples for so many years already and you must have learned something? It is not enough to go out of Egypt, or to accept the laws of Sinai, for we must finally reach the land of Canaan - the Divine - and put law and order into our lives, living according to the will of God. I would like to see you give an example of a life lived according to the Divine teaching. Each of you can be an example but he must have an absolute desire to be so. I will give you such an example which will be like a tree with a ripe fruit of whom it may be said, "Here is one of the Divine teaching". Everyone can become such an example but he must have an absolute desire for it, a firm decision to fulfill the Divine. As long as you have not made this decision, everything will be against it, and when you decide you will say, "Now I forsake everything else. You may come with me if you want, if not - Good-bye!" Friends will say, "We will go with you. But there should be no doubt, no hesitation. Make your decision! Then we will begin, not with the great things, not with many things, but with a small experiment, with the smallest in the Divine world, by simply thinking. You must keep on thinking - this is the important idea I give you. Each day you must ask yourself: Can I serve God? On Friday, we might come together, we might keep silent, or we might discuss an important problem, because application is necessary. The good examples will come out on stage. We will have two meetings: young people will meet from 6 to 8, and adults from 8 to 9.30. Young people will meet first. The young are those who fight in battle and the old will take care of the rear. If the rearguard not well organized it is difficult for those in the front lines to withstand attack. Let the people of Sofia provide an example. You should work out a procedure. Before presenting their own theories, the philosophers argue against other philosophers. I use as examples the processes which occur in nature. First I sow. In the second year leaves appear. Five or six years go by, and there is still no bloom. Only after a few more years can one expect a tree to put out blossoms. It is the same with people. Some of you may even now have blossoms, not artificially, but naturally. If eight years have passed by already, you will bloom. This is possible because the conditions already exist. If, however, you are only starting to grow, you will have to wait at least two or three years. One day the blossoms will come. At present your development is not perfect, because all astral inhabitants destroy what you have built. If, at some time, your find yourself in a pleasant, state of mind, try to keep up this state of mind. Unfortunately, in only one or two hours you lose all you have gained and become poor again. It may take you a week to regain what you have lost. It would be advisable to write down your special experiences for these lectures. Someone may come and describe what he has experienced and we shall discuss it. If he has not lost his good state of mind, it will be still with him. The main thing is that it may help create a more loving atmosphere. Your love has become pretty shallow it must be collected and aquire an inclination. In one of my lectures I will speak about the methods of love; what love is, how love may be applied; what results love can give. The way love is now described, it is only a feeling related to life, a certain good disposition. When we come to true love, it is a great experience. If the right atmosphere prevails, I will be able to speak to you about the methods of love but at present there is disharmony, and under such conditions I will never permit myself to speak about love; because love is something sacred to me. I may speak about other things and when others come after me they may speak about love. When an atmosphere for this is created, then small methods of Divine Love may be given to you. When you speak to someone about an experience of yours which is very sacred to you and you feel that it has been wounded, you will not speak of it again. Christ said that sacred work should not be given. The present love I leave the way it is. I will speak about love from an absolutely different viewpoint. And this will be only by way of explanation. Apply this love, if you wish. This love is a Divine Mind which creates all the different moods. With our thoughts we hinder the Divine which is in us, we destroy it. We must stop destroying, and start building. If your friend tells you about an experience of his and it occurs to you to tell him that what he says amounts to nothing, be careful. This is the way to harm yourself and your friend. If you remain patient to the end, you may suffer a short while, but then the kernel of joy will come to your heart. You must have a particular aim. What for? You should have an object in life? Why do not you make God your object? If He does not exist in you as an object you can achieve nothing. If you have God as a conscious including everything, you can achieve everything. If not, you will always be a loser. Let us say you are being hanged. You can concentrate and direct your mind with great intensity towards God and, the rope will break a hundred times and they will be unable to hang you. You may intensify the vibrations of your cells in such a way that the strongest steel will turn into dust. You do not need to be a giant to be able to do it. We wait for God to speak his will so that it will happen. No, we are the ones to speak our will so that things will happen. God says: "You too may speak and cause things to happen the way you want". But for this, we must first know how to want. When a child asks for something with love, his father would be moved and would give everything, but when a child demands of his father, he begrudges anything he may give. If we go to God with love, everything will come to fulfillment Now young as well as old people must have hearts to learn what Divine love is. It is said: "For God so loved that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life". And you may learn to love God in a way which will prepare you to give everything to be able to come to know Him. When you do as this verse says then Divine power will come to you. It all depends on us. God has made and given the sacrifice; if we accept this sacrifice we will say this: I have also come to love God so much that I will sacrifice everything I have so that 1 may come to know God. This is a motto for you to contemplate. When I began to talk to you, I got a cold. I interpret this to myself in the following way: I want to speak to these people, but they have a cold. I know how to cure a cold. When a man sneezes, this means that your mind is sick and you must cure your mind. All the impurity must go out from you; there should be no place for germs. Now I have the cold and you are well. I am told that if I don't manage to teach you the right way, I will have to keep this cold. I have come in touch with your vibrations and, since they are lower, I became sick. If I discontinued my connection with you I would take care of my cold in five minutes. But it is on our side; we can already enter the eternal; we can come to know God. The following question may come up: "Don't we know God?" Christ prayed to God in Gethsemane to take from him his cup of suffering, but at the end He said; "Now I know that everything is given to me from You. This He said only towards the end. When we have experienced everything we will come to this, too. We must come to realize that everything comes from God. Do you agree now to meet on Friday? Or will we go on meeting on Thursday? I want to say to the young people not to repeat the mistakes of the old, to be different. If they make the same mistakes they will not be different from them, but they must be special. Because I still have my cold, I don't want to decide upon this question. In general, we should not speak that much. Large cannons are rarely used. Great deeds are rarely striking. At these meetings you must learn to attune yourselves, to be able to vibrate. This is the good side. Sometimes the external world exhausts you and you need several hours of rest.

From The Truth In Egypt "Now, they having departed, behold, an Angel of the Lord appears in a dream to Joseph, saying: Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I tell you: for Herod will seek the child to destroy him." (Matthew 2:13) There are two outlooks on life, i.e. two outlooks exist only among people, while among the animals - among the fish, among the birds, among the mammals - and among the plants, there is only one outlook. As soon as we come to man, we find two outlooks on life, and this is why man is called "chovek" [bulgarian for "man"]; while this word originally means: "a creature of contradictions". Because the whole philosophy of things is contained in this - in the contradictions [1]. In order for a creature to begin thinking, it has to come upon a contradiction. This is [really] a fact - it is psychologically true. Those children who do not come across contradictions are not able to think; also those adults for whom everything is in plenitude [they, too] are not able to think. Plenitude, in the full sense of the word, means that the heart has all the riches [possible], and [thus] such people are not able to think. They have a single outlook: it is the outlook of the fish, the birds and the animals. Only when we [come to] feel a certain contradiction within life, only then do we begin to think. Contemporary philosophers explain these contradictions in one way; religious people explain them in another way; the people of the practical life, they, too, have their own way, according to which they construct their explanations. Religious people ascribe all contradictions to sin. They say that some being fell somewhere - they do not know when, thousands of years ago - this being had envied man. And, therefore, this spirit - they call him a demon who tortures them - he is the one who has introduced all contradictions. And for whatever happens in religious life, who is to be blamed? - Always this old devil. A murder happens somewhere, treachery, money is stolen, women, an outbreak of war, they say: "Where did this devil come from? He is the cause"; i.e. we view life subjectively. With a single stroke - this is it, a philosophy, this devil is to be blamed for everything. The philosophers, however, find the contradictions in the very matter itself, in the forces, in this mechanical construction of the Universe; while the practical people say: this devil - these are the economic conditions - the "bite" [2]. This "bite", if it is not, then there is nothing, but if this "bite" is there, it creates all [possible] benefits. And according to them, this, the best thing - the "bite", it creates all the contradictions and - the worst evils. And I think that they are much closer to the truth that the religious people. Yes, the "bite" is, according to their philosophy, the cause of evil. They say thus: "for people to sin - this is implanted in man already with the first bite [3] which entered the mouth." And they are right, because Eve, who was chaste, pure, when she took the first bite of the "bite", she, as well as everyone, became corrupt. These are their arguments. I support neither of them, but I [simply] state things as they are. And, therefore, during our existence on the Earth, life is either rational or irrational; either everything is strictly mathematically defined, or all this is a coincidence, a possibility, a probability. These two outlooks exist now. Those who hold the latter outlook say: everything is by chance - people are born by chance, they eat by chance, get married by chance, fight by chance and die, also by chance; someone has lost money or gained it - still by chance. But the others say: everything is strictly determined, nothing is by chance. You have to eat, because there are causes for this. That the causes are rational, there is no doubt. You yourself create all the troubles upon your head: you want more money, yet, when you take them, someone else also wants to have more money, and [so] they beat you because of the money. Thus you cause all your troubles - to get beaten. While the contemporary technicians and engineers, or materialists, say: when a force meets a resistance on its way, friction is always created and a fire explodes. Therefore, in this case money, or all the benefits, are all counteractions, and, when the energies which function within us meet these counteractions, an explosion is immediately generated. Now, someone may ask if this is true. It is true. Let the wife [4] put her hand in her husband's [5] purse - he has 10 thousand levs and she takes them away from him - the husband will immediately shout: "Where is my money?" The balance is lost - [as it turns out] the money was at the bottom of the ship, they were the ballast of the vessel, and it was in equilibrium. But the wife - without understanding this law of the ballast - takes it away from the bottom of the ship and, [naturally], the husband stands up and says: "Where is the ballast?" - But I need it. - "But do you know that we may sink?" And so, arguments often happen in the world because of this ballast - sometimes they are pleasant, and sometimes unpleasant; sometimes they are settled in a friendly manner, and sometimes they are settled according to the method of Don Quixote or according to the method of Sancho Panza [6]. That is, do not think that Sancho Panza was much more clever than Don Quixote, but he was a practical man, he had an intimate knowledge of life, while Don Quixote was an idealist, he understood life ideally, but he did not understand it practically; and [so] we laugh when reading, but both Sancho Panza is right and Don Quixote is right. And the contemporary world is full of Don Quixotes and Sancho Panzas. This is not an insult, I am [simply] stating a fact. If you enter the schools, you will find many programs which are arranged according to the ideal of Don Quixote, there is nothing practical there; other schools have a practical orientation, but they lack the idealistic. And so they argue. When Don Quixote comes, he will apply his laws. First of all, he will start with God - he puts up a sign: religion must be taught first of all - the Law of God [7], and then all other things. Sancho Panza comes: "Down - he says - with this sign! This is not modern, what is needed is what is practical, people have to live - to eat, [some] "bite" is needed. Once we have eaten, then we will think of the Lord". And Sancho Panza reasons thus: first of all, for a man to think, he must have eaten. Is a hungry man able to think? And Sancho Panza says: "The hungry man will think of stealing, but the sated man will think of some philosophy". Now, contemporary people will say: "We are neither Don Quixotes, nor Sancho Panzas". I am glad that you are like this. But you should marry Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and a child should be born, it will be the 'third' one and it will have the outlooks of [both] Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. Out of these two unified outlooks you will have something new. And the world asks "how will Salvation be brought about?". - Through marrying Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. These are symbols: Sancho Panza may be a man, he may also be a woman. Everything may be a man or a woman, that is to say, with respect to form. But the one who wrote "Don Quixote" has made him male. Why? And Sancho Panza, he is male as well, with respect to form. But Don Quixote fights because of his beloved, for the sake of his Dulcinea. The woman [as such] is a cause for him to manifest his heroism. Whatever endeavors he undertakes - a [certain] beautiful woman is on his mind. For her sake he is ready to sacrifice his life. And Sancho Panza also believes in his master, but he has quite a different outlook. He tells Don Quixote: "When you conquer your kingdom, give me some land, so that I may cultivate it and sustain my children." This is why Don Quixote is lean, of tall stature, with long, lean hands, a long and slender nose, sharp eyes, and a straightened forehead; while Sancho Panza - he is a shortish man, around 145 cm, he is like a keg, has short hands, fingers - very thick at the base, thickish lips, thickish nose. When he sits at the table to have a bite, he smiles like a [bright] Moon and says: "This is the meaning of life!" Now, if contemporary people, who criticize, can see only this - the comical [element] - in a novel, in a play, then they have not understood the loftier meaning; contemporary people are not people of ideas, they are people of fanciful-experiences, but not learned people. Someone has read some book, he imagines himself as a duke or an earl, but this is not enough - you need to have the blood of this duke. Therefore, ideas are something which we have to acquire in the world. And these ideas are given only through the contradictions. The law of evolution requires contradictions as a necessity. This is a law [applicable] only for the human kingdom. In the other kingdoms there is no sin - sin only exists in the human kingdom; and all those beings which are directly or indirectly connected with the people, they are all contaminated by sin. The only sinful beings in the world are the people, there are no other sinful beings. All other beings live their lives in peace and love, and understand God - only people do not understand Him, and think that the whole world is upside down. Judges, philosophers and scientists wish to make out that sin penetrates the whole Universe and they call this "world gloom" [8], and they ask themselves: why does this sin exist? Here is what I liken these writers to: in South America there is certain desert, and when the travelers walk there they raise so much dust around themselves that they are not able to see anything and think that the whole world is [made up] only of haze, even though the dust extends only 200 metres around them. [similarly], this philosophy projects the sin onto the other worlds as well, but there they live very well, as I [myself] know. They will say: "Prove this with [scientific] data [9]". And I will say: you must also prove [your claims] with [scientific] data. I can [indeed] prove with [scientific] data, I am able to prove mathematically, to debate with mathematicians. In the human body, given a certain form, I can prove that sin is bounded within a certain space of the Universe. And they will see that this is so. But this is a detached mathematical question and if I were to decide to prove this, do you know how this matter would turn out? A famous violinist went to Paris, he gave several concerts there and succeeded in winning the sympathies of all. Before leaving, one evening, he wanted to give an outstanding concert so that they would remember him, so that the papers would write that he played something beautiful. Unfortunately, however, he started to play a very long aria, for several hours, so that when the listeners became tired they began to leave one by one and at last only the attendant was left with the key; the violinist, full of inspiration, continued to play. The attendant went to him and said: "Sir, please, I have to sleep, take this key and when you finish your piece, close the theater". And I find the contemporary philosophers to be like this violinist: some come out and speak so much that we tell them: "Now then, take this key, and when you finish your dissertation, close your theater, because we are going to sleep". And especially the Bulgarians, they do not like long dissertations very much. The Bulgarian is practical: "Tell me in a couple of words what you want to say. Is there a Lord or is there no Lord? Is there an "other world", or is there no "other world", and do not stretch things out. I do not have time, I have to attend to the field. Is there a Lord or not? If there is not, I am heading for the field to plough. If there is a Lord, I will go to serve Him; but if there is not, I will work for myself." This is how he resolves the issue. "Is there an "other world" or not? I am asking you to tell me". And after you tell him that there is an other world, the Bulgarian says: "Have you been there? Have you seen it? Have you experienced it?" And when you tell him that you have visited the other world, he will say: "Really, is it possible to visit the other world, amazing!, then I will go as well!" He is very practical, he wants to try, he is ready to do everything, but if he senses that you lied once, then the matter changes. There is a God, because in the world Love exists. And there is an other world, because there is this world. And the other world and this world, they are one and the same world. When you speak about "the other world", you speak about a world you do not understand, while when you speak about this world, you speak about a world you do understand. Therefore, the world I do not understand, I call - the other world; and the world I do understand, I call - this world. There is the other world, which we do not know, while this world is the world which we [do] know. Therefore, we call the known physical, whereas we call the unknown spiritual. But what is the physical and what is the spiritual? The physical world is the manifested world, while the spiritual world is the unmanifested world. When I say "unmanifested", it does not mean that it does not actually exist, but only that this world has not taken form for our feelings yet - it has taken form for our conception only; it is beyond our feelings and we call it - spiritual world. And this spiritual world is the cause of everything that happens on the Earth. And, if you wish, you may do any experiment you like. You say: "I believe [10] that I am a master of myself, I have will, I am able to do anything I like". But you are not able to do whatever you like, you can only do whatever you are ordered, like a soldier on the battlefield: you will shoot, because you are ordered to. You are a priest - you serve in the Church because you are paid; you will serve, the people want it. You say: "I am free to serve or not". No, you are not free: whoever has taken the vows is not free; whoever is a preacher is not free. And given this, we boast that we are able to think. Only free people are able to think, while people who are not free - they [merely] repeat things. And, therefore, contemporary people repeat time and again, they recite, in my opinion, excellent declamations: "Green you are, my forest, you savor of the air of youth, but in my heart you rouse only sorrow and regretful-truth" [11]. Ah, an excellent poet, he recites excellently. "I," someone says," believe in the triune God". It is a declamation. "The Lord exists" - you recite; "I am Bulgarian" - you recite. "But I am learned" - you recite, nothing more! You are Bulgarian, your father, your mother are Bulgarian, you were born among them - you recite. Will you tell me then, what is the Bulgarian blood? By what is this blood distinguished? Some say, that I cannot reason. Today I will reason philosophically and very objectively. Those learned chemists, naturalists, have they analyzed the Bulgarian blood, and by what it is different from the English blood etc.? Where are their tables and calculations? What is the Bulgarian blood like? I wish to see it, to see the results from it. What is its distinction? When some naturalist speaks of a certain seed, he has to describe not only the external form and signs, but also the internal ones, and even what results each single seed may produce. You have Bulgarian blood. What is your blood like? Not only have the Bulgarians not defined what its distinction is, but also the Englishmen, they also say: "I am English, English blood flows in my veins" But their chemists have also not defined what their blood is. What is its distinction? Bulgarians, English, French, Russians, Americans assemble and say: "Bulgarian blood flows here". The Englishman, he also says: "English blood flows". Always Bulgarian, Russian, American blood flows, but what is the blood [like] there? All people speak using unknown numbers, with suppositions. And therefore, I consider them, I say: those Bulgarians recite excellently, and the Germans, the English, the French and the Americans, all recite, but they do not yet think. The theosophists define that man is "manas" - a creature, which thinks. Yes, the first people, who came to the Earth, who created the Earth, thought; but those which stayed on to govern it, they ceased to think. Now, sometimes I see that when I am giving a lecture, some will take a passage out of it and will say: "He corrupts the Bulgarian people". Well then, tell me the elements of my corrupting speech, the element which changes life. Good. I have nothing against being criticized, but let those critics be rational critics. Let them prove what the elements of this corruption are. According to our understanding, corruption {razvrashtenie}, "to unbolt {razvartam}" [12], this means: if on a wheel where all bolts are tightened, you loosen {razvartash} them, you are causing corruption {razvrashtenie} and those people who are in the car may fall. I ask you, please tell me: on what car of yours, which bolt have I loosened? Who are the witnesses? I am prepared to listen. Say: - On the rear wheel, on such and such a place, you have loosened the so and so bolt, and I will admit that I have corrupted and that there was a danger for the people to fall. I use the word "loosen" in a very mild form. And everyone must think, and I would like all of you who listen to me [now], likewise, to think very soundly and not to recite. "I believe in God" - this is not belief, this is declamation. Are you prepared to die for this Lord, in whom you believe, to sacrifice yourself, to give away all your wealth? For your wife, for your children, can you die for them? This is conviction; although it is a delusion, it is still an ideal, people find meaning in it. That man [who does this] is a hero, he dies for an idea. But you, the zealous believer, who believes in the one triune God, but are not prepared to give a single hair of your beard, allow me to have doubt in your faithfulness. We must reason correctly: do we think or not? You should know, is Bulgarian blood flowing in your veins or is it not flowing, and from where does this Bulgarian blood take its beginning. Does not every river have its own source? From where does the Bulgarian blood take its beginning, and where does the English blood take its beginning from? I will be glad, let them tell me where from the source of [all these] things begins. And there is a significant difference in the blood of the [different] people. I will be sincere. What color does this Bulgarian blood give to the Bulgarian face? - Blackish, it means that in the Bulgarian blood carbon predominates primarily, or the carbon energy, which compels him to keep close to the Earth, that is why he is a ploughman, a gardener, a shepherd. While in the blood of the Englishman, hydrogen predominates, the hydrogen energy, that is why he is a merchant, he sails everywhere across the sea, his people are all over the world. Yes, I say, there is more water in the blood of the Englishman. And if you wish to befriend the Englishman, give him good water to drink. But if you wish to befriend the Bulgarian, give him a piece of land, he will remember you, he will say: "He gave me very good land". And so, the Bulgarians became Bulgarians when carbon prevailed in their blood; the English became English when hydrogen prevailed in their blood. These are energies within Nature. But one day these energies will change. And the Bulgarian of today will change, something new will come out of him and he will not be called Bulgarian anymore. And a time will come when the English will also change. They will not be called English. They will be called something new. And the Bulgarians and the English of our day will remain in the archive, to be studied like an ancient thing - how they manifested themselves in the past. And so, we all must turn back and start to think and to reason, at first about ourselves - and not to occupy ourselves with other philosophies. First of all we must occupy ourselves with the mighty philosophy of our body, with those great causes which have started to act from the beginning, with the causes which have created the hand. The hand is not complete yet. What had Nature thought when she created the eye, the ear, the human mouth, the tongue, the nose, what is the significance [13] of all these organs? What is their designation? Is the only purpose of the human tongue to simply roll the food? Of the tongue in the mammals, people think that it has a sole purpose - to roll the food. In reality, however, the tongue has three tasks: not only to pass the food to the throat, but also to taste, to distinguish between foods, and the third task is to speak and sing. These are all tasks of the tongue. I will ask now, if Nature has set these organs [in place], what did she initially think? You do not have any memories of this. You see that you have a tongue, that you have eyes; but [of] how these eyes have been created, how this tongue has been created, your ear, the brain, you have absolutely no conception at all. And if I were to ask some one of you: do you know how many nerves there are inside the human body? how many nerves through which the body functions? They are 700-800 million separate little nerves, with which this great kingdom exists. There are so many wires through which all the possible energies in Nature function and the perceptions occur. Do you know how many days you need to read them? Just you put some effort to read 1,000,000 and then calculate how many years it will take you to read 800 million. And do you know how long it took Nature, and how many millions of beings have worked for these wires? Do you know what these electricians of the invisible world, who put this installation inside your body, were like? And someone stands and says: "Splendidly and fearfully is Man created." But how was all this created? The prophet wrote: "splendidly and fearfully" he thinks, but with what does he think? Yes, fearfully, 800 million wires, there are little long ropes [...?], do you understand [14]? And do you know that if they were to put you in some factory to make these wires, and you were to pay [for this], even 10 billion would not be enough. Some of them are so thin, that the manufacturer will say: It is not possible to make such thin wires in our factory". But if you attend a special expedition to go to the Sun, Mars, Saturn or somewhere else, to make this installation and to return... have you thought about this excursion [15]? When an engineer from the invisible world comes to make an invention, he works, [he] returns to the Earth, you will wait for a long time and [then] you will [finally] hear: on such and such a place new wires have appeared. And when we examine the brain of the lower creatures, [we see that] in the front part of the brain there are white nerves [which are still] in an embryonic state, while in man they are long [and developed], and through them the human thought manifests and functions. Do you know from which factory they were made? Some want to convince us that they are made in the brain. Nature has prepared these particles from far-distant spaces, and then they are carried over to the Earth by means of four types of energies: I am now substituting the Hindu terms with ours - carbonic, hydrogenic, nitrogenic and oxygenic energies. I take the word hydrogen - it signifies those energies which are connected with the hydrogen atom. And there are much deeper causes {prichini} for a given atom to be a carbon atom or a hydrogen atom, than contemporary chemists think. There are completely different reasons {prichini}, upon which we are not going to dwell, these are fields which we will think about in the future. This is a grand, profound science. These energies were carried-through in parts, and then that Great Installer came and began to place this installation, and your brain began to work, and you - to think. So, in order for some of these wires to be manufactured in the Angelic factories, it costs 10 billion levs in gold; these wires are only 2-3 millimeters long and very thin. And when you sit back and say: "This head, why did the Lord give it to me, [it would have been] better if He had given me money!" - My friend, you have in your head a small wire, 10 billion are spent on it, not banknotes, but gold - effektiv [16], so that you would think. And you, who now recite, you say: "Why has the Lord given me these abilities, these talents, when I cannot show my worth [17]?" It is comical, for the son to accuse his father: "Why has my father bought me a violin and a bow, when I cannot play [a musical instrument]? I want to play [some game]". Your father has hired an excellent teacher, he has bought musical scores for you and everything [else besides], you only need to play [(on the musical instrument)]. And now the contemporary people who recite say: "These things are very deep. If we begin to think, our heads will fly off [18], and, therefore, because our heads will fly off, we must not think. And anyone who dares say anything, he is a heretic, he is a liar - he deceives the people". Oh well, tell me then, in what do your truths consist? I do not mind, but when we say "liar", this is a very strong word. What does "lie" {laja} or "lick" {lija} stem from in Bulgarian [19]? I would like some of you, if there are any philology students from University here, to be so kind as to ask your professors: the root of the word "lie", where did it stem from, and is that root purely Bulgarian, is it Slavic, or is it a word which originates from some older language; and what is its archetypal root - you will do me a great favor. You lie, this means, that you do not speak the truth. Good. But define for me then what kind of thing the truth is. If we speak of the truth and the lie we should define them as two values [20]. By what do they differ? Truth, when it enters man, introduces an element of courage. When one knows the truth about a given idea, he is ready to die for it. While the lie, when it enters man, makes him cowardly. Therefore, anything that makes people cowardly is a lie: this is so according to logic. Anything which makes man cowardly contains a lie within itself; but anything which makes man courageous and decisive, to think and reason, draws him closer to the truth. It is so in practice. Does that, which I speak to you, make you cowardly? If it makes you cowardly, then I am telling you a lie. But, if what I speak to you makes you courageous, decisive and happy in life, then I am speaking the truth to you. And then, who speaks the truth and who speaks the lie? And you should not only be encouraged for a single moment. No, no. I can give you a little wine, you become courageous and say: "Do you know who I am?" But then, when you become sober, you say: "I myself do not know who I am". In the truth such changes do not exist, there you will know yourself better, you will always be courageous. And therefore, the truth presupposes that it is without changes and brings light within itself. And for all those plants which are strong and healthy, this is how I can determine their strength - [i.e.] that they have been under the influence of the sunlight; but those flowers in the cellar are very fragile, because the sunlight was lacking for them. And so, truth makes things flexible and pliable, while the lie makes them fragile and unstable. Now, you will ask me a question: what happened there with your verse 13? But of course, this number 13 is fatal, I am speaking precisely about the number 13. It means - "does this man think now ?". Joseph is the man who thinks and reasons. "And take his mother" - mother, this is the contradiction which impels us to think. While in Hebrew, the letter M signifies death. So then, death is associated with two processes in Nature. One which destroys, and the other which builds-up. You cannot build-up if you have not destroyed something. These two processes work simultaneously in Nature, and through them thought occurs. And from all metamorphoses, life and death originate. Mary is the woman, who passes through, demolishes and purifies everything. She gave birth to a child and spoiled the affairs of people, and this child has created for them a whole misfortune. And do you know how many people died because of this child? The inquisition alone has scorched 50 million such people. And what about Nero, the Roman emperor, how many people did he kill? And now how many people have passed away at the battlefields [21]? So then, Mary, who gave birth to a child, brought great trouble upon men. Therefore, she wishes to cleanse, to uproot everything, and to plant something new; so when Christ came, the Angel told him: "Go to Egypt". Egypt is the physical world. This child, in order for it to understand the world, must go to Egypt to study [22]. What is the Earth for? The material world, the physical world, is a world [made] for science. And when you are being expelled from somewhere, the Lord tells you: "You have to go to Egypt, to learn", and when you return again, you will know how to reason about those things which Nature has created. And if you ask me: "Why are we on the Earth?", I will tell you - to study. In every learning there is suffering, but learning itself is not suffering, it produces suffering; whereas suffering is like a foundation for us to be able to learn certain things. Therefore, we are in the physical world to study. Very well! What should we study? They say: "I am Bulgarian", over there someone else will say: "I am Serbian". And then those philologists of the Serbians will say: "You should consider the Bulgarians enemies, because they hinder your nationality". And the Bulgarians will also say: "You should despise the Serbians, they hinder your Bulgarian culture". And [both] the ones and the others pray in the name of God, they appeal to this Lord, as though this Lord does not know His work and is in need of being taught by them. The Serbians, those faithful fathers of a nation, say: "You, Lord, do You not want to know what You are doing with us?" And the Lord, after casting a look from above says: "These very learned children of mine have become excellent philosophers, they have divided themselves into Bulgarians, Serbians and so on and think that their games are so serious that I, too, should come to play with them. But you may play thousands of years and one day, when you grow wiser and cease being Bulgarians and Serbians, I will come to set you in order." These words are not mine, Christ had taught the same teaching. And Apostle Paul says: "In Christ there are neither Judeans, nor Hellenes, nor Scythians, nor slaves". Therefore, all these contradictions have originated from reciting: we do not think, we repeat, we always declaim and declaim, until this declamation is lost. But the time has already come for thought as well - for serious thought. The declamation has worn out and become meaningless. An assessment commission is coming, they do not want declamations. They give you an exercise, solve it now, they throw away the sleeves [23] and there will not be any classmates which will give you a cue; I want you to reason seriously. Everyone knows this way, he looks up the sleeve and says "I know" - he speaks, he answers [24], ... but when they take him [the capable student] to the blackboard - only the capable students work on the board while the incapable ones gulp - he begins these formulae, develops them and reasons mathematically; while those who do not know, look at the teacher, and say: "Tell us something". But he is far away, because there is a commission; this commission has come into the world and will call each of you to the blackboard - there is no declamation now, you must solve the exercise. This is why when I say that the time of the declamations has run out, I would like this time to continue, but the Lord will call you to the black board, He will give you an envelope [25] and there will be no one around you. There, at the board, you will perspire a bit. And, when you leave this commission, it will tell you either that you know how to think, or that you only know how to declaim. It will report in the invisible world, it will say: "Reverend such-and-such, he is an excellent preacher, but does not know how to think." "Mr. so and so, Ivan Draganov, an excellent professor, with a degree in astronomy; another, Ivan Stoyanov teaches biology, but does not know how to think". "Dragan Stoyanov, teaches philosophy, but does not know how to think". All recite, but do not know how to think. Thus the commission decides from above: "They do not know how to think". What do they do? - [they] recite. They are excellent children of the declamation, who pass for professors. And so, the Angel says: "Take your son and his mother and go to Egypt to study [26]". And this Angel now comes and says to you: "Off you go to Egypt". And you will sigh about Jerusalem. But this Jerusalem is a place for sacrifices, while in Egypt there is wisdom, order and harmonious-construction [27]. And why did the Lord lay waste to Jerusalem? There the Jews began to make so many sacrifices, that the temple began to smell of blood. And the Lord said: "Tear down this temple, I do not want blood. I want people to think, to serve with their mind, with their heart, with their soul". And today this Lord is coming, and if contemporary people do not learn, He will say the same to them as well, and all the temples will be destroyed [just] as the temple of Jerusalem [was torn down], and He will send everyone to Egypt. It will happen thus all around the world, everything will be destroyed. "Eh" you will say now, "prove this!" I will send you, when the temples are ruined, I will send you to see them, and I will tell you: See them! Is it true? - "Why did this happen?" - Because you did not think, you did not fulfill the Will of God but followed your own will. You did not study, but you said : "You lie". When someone comes to speak the truth, you wish to get rid of him. The lie tears down, while the truth builds-up. But, if I were the first to speak the truth, I tell you: "You are fortunate people, I respect you". Well, let me see your culture, let me see your prisons, your churches, schools, your wives, your maidens and lads, how you live in your homes. I would like to draw a lesson from your lofty moral {moral}. I am ready to make the visit now. Do you have this morality {moral}? If you were so clever, where do these debts of yours come from? You have more than 20 billion to [re]pay. You have more than 10-15 ministers killed on the streets like dogs. Where is this from? And is this the only thing? I am valiant enough to tell you the truth, and I do not wish you evil, you must not be mistaken; but this is not Bulgarianism, this is barbarism. And when the Western nations wish to define the Bulgarians, they say: "You are barbarians", and to a certain extent they are right. The Bulgarians are barbarians, whereas the Western nations make their appearance after [their time of] barbarianism . Now, let us resolve the problem for ourselves. Can you solve the problem? Because the Bulgarians as individuals do not exist. This is a collective unit [constituted] from many [single] units. Now I will tell you: are you able to love? "Well", you will say, "now you have touched [upon] our heart, how warm it is!" I am glad, indeed I am glad, this is what I wish - love, but I say, on your love, on this fire, is it possible to forge something useful, is it possible to spin a thread? Or is it possible for fruits to ripen upon your love: apples, plums, pears? Now you will say: "Now we are in trouble". What [...]? Yes, when fruits begin to ripen from the rays of your heart, then the world will be set right. This is possible - upon the human heart the best apples can grow. Upon the love from above the best pears and cherries grow. And, when I speak in this way, some say: "This language is very enigmatic". It is not enigmatic, because if you begin to study the human body, you will see the whole of Nature - man is a microcosm; whatever occurs in the whole Universe, the same occurs in man. In man everything ripens: apples, pears, cherries, grapes! Therefore, these pears and apples of yours do not ripen from the sunlight, but from your love, so that whoever tastes may say: "This man has excellent grapes". "Arise!" says the Angel, "take the child and his mother and go to Egypt". Egypt, this is the body, here the worms will eat it. And the body of the one, who does not know how to reason, the worms will come to teach him how to reason [28] . If you have not studied your stomach, you say: the stomach is just a paunch which the Lord will destroy. The brain is useless, this is not needed, that is not needed. The religious people say that it is also possible [to live] without a body. The secular people, they also go to another extreme. The religious people are Don-Quixotes. I do not wish to offend you, you will excuse me. Such is the train of thought. We will live for God, we will not blemish ourselves like Don Quixote. Don Quixote lives in his mind for his Dulcinea alone. And Sancho Panza reasons that he needs to eat, trembles over his body when something pains him, and says: "Dear doctor", and there is lamb-kin, and turkey-poult: "Man can only live with this". He is a practical man: he thinks that his stomach is a mill, thus far he has come, that he has to mill. When you tell the unsober man to drink water, he says: "Wine is created by God for us, while water is for the frogs". Sancho Panza says thus. Can you prove to me that the Lord has created wine? I know that water is created by God, while wine is from men. The Lord has created the grapes, but the wine is yours. Therefore, you recite, you do not think. And then they will take this wine, they will make it to be "Christ's blood". But the wine which should pour [out] from our tongue, this is the rational word. Man must not lie. Do you understand? When I speak, my heart hurts for you, when I see that you create all your misfortunes yourselves. And when I speak, I have the whole desire that you do not suffer. Salvation is before you. You need only make a semicircle, and you will change your front. This always happens when man is weighed down. And when you say: "I am in great trouble", I say: make a semicircle and the good fortune [29] will come. You say: "How many circles we have done!" You will set out in such a direction, towards the North and towards the East, and then you will put everything in. But you will say: "To the North? Don't you know that it is cold there? And from the East the Sun rises, what will I seek there? I will go South and West". I say: until now all your misfortunes have been created in these two places, and, because warmth is produced in the South, while the West creates density, the matter has become so dense, and the fire which penetrates into this matter has become so strong, that you torment yourself. Go towards the Truth - go East and North, this fire will diminish and rarefy and warmth will form, in which your fruits may ripen. Now you will tell me: "Can you prove this?" Well then, you will come with me, we will hold each other hand-in-hand, you will think the way I think, [and] you will feel as I do, and if within a year you do not see the results of my science, then you may say something, but until a year has passed you will say nothing. Someone says: "I think" - My friend, until now you have not thought. Your wife has commanded you - if you are a man, of course. On the street, when you walk and go to the left side, the policeman tells you to move to the right: "Go back, it is not allowed here". But you say: "I reason, I have the will to go back [or not]" [Yet] you will go back, what else can you do? Now, because there are legitimations, you say: "I will not go out, I am not disposed". No, no, you are not free, [because] you have a certain fear, you think of what the policemen have issued, but you do not think about the Divine legitimation: it has not come to your mind to live according to God - a pure, moral and exalted life. You say: "Now we are young, let us live a little, so that when we grow old, then we will pray all day long". But show me a single old man who prays to God. Not a single one. No, no, the young generation must be spiritual, not only with placards. To these young people we have to clarify the profound laws, why one should live in a free and spiritual way and not otherwise. Let them make an experiment. This is not a reproach. Make the young generations think, give them freedom to think. But the old ones say: "Son, do not try to get to the root of things, become, rather, a [proper] man". How will you become a [proper] man? If you are a clerk, turn and put your hand in [the money-case] when the Lord is asleep, take the money and then you will do a small good [deed] - you will aid the orphans and the Lord will forgive you. And do you think, that the son will then say: "this is morality?" Is it with such a religion that you wish the young generation to enter the Church? No, the young generation needs another religion, a religion of truth, a religion which makes these young people courageous and decisive. But the modern-day maidens and lads, they commit suicides and say: "There is no meaning in life". Why? - Because the lie has crept into their blood, it has made them fragile, they do not find any meaning and say: "I do not want to live" And then in the Universities the students listen to lectures, in the high schools they study, but among these young people you will not find a single student who reasons soundly - the threads in their brains have been torn, their minds have been stupefied. The young generation needs fresh, crystalline thought, Divine thought, which will give expanse for their souls to fly off, to walk through space, to have energy, to think and to think seriously. Therefore, this is what is needed and what is given to you: instill the truth into your soul and when this truth is instilled in the social life, we will be able to fix it far sooner with knowledge, than without knowledge. When a car breaks, it is not philosophers that are required, but workers; when a building is erected, tradesmen are needed; when a man is killed, a mother is required to return him back to life. Do you know now what the [true nature of the] mother is? When you become a mother, you have to give birth, to nurture and bring up a child. But now the mothers misguide their daughters. They speak to them about fashions, about hats, about this, about that, but not a word about the essential things. Maidens and lads join in marriage, the maiden thinks and the lad thinks, but when it comes to the adversities of life, how will they learn? The mothers say: "You will also learn, as we learned by ourselves". It is not so. The modern-day maidens and lads should know the meaning of life, how the human body is created, what the obligations of the mother, of the father, of the teacher are. And not just according to form but also according to essence. Everyone must know their obligations and fulfill them most conscientiously for the good of the neighbor. And there is no need for us to judge ourselves. This Angel says to Joseph: "Arise! take the child and his mother and flee from Jerusalem". That is, flee from this modern civilization, which has perverted every thought, which is condemned: it has deprived people of individuality and has made them uniform. There is an occult story about someone who went to study the science of the East and, who knows how, he fell among some blind adepts: the eyes of all of them were sunken. They caught hold of him, examined him everywhere with their hands: "Everything is like it is in us, only his eyes are not like ours. We have to become equal". And they began to press his eyes, so that they may become like theirs. And in the very thing with which man can find the way, they have put their fingers: "To become alike". And they say: "We want to make these people equal - their eyes have to sink in". The Lord has made our eyes properly. When the Bulgarians say "sunken eyes", they understand what this means very well [30], while of the religious people, when their eyes sink in, they immediately say: "He has become righteous". When a man loses everything - wealth, wife, children - his eyes will sink in, whereas if everything follows its normal course, his eyes protrude. Our eyes must be such as the Lord has created them. They should not sink in. And I am also against sunken eyes. If your eyes begin to sink in, it means that you have not become saintly yet, but have an ailing state, and soon enough you will depart from this world, without having understood why you have come here. Now you should know a sublime law: [you should] have clear thoughts and [you should] understand why your bodies have been created. Have you ever stopped to say: "These hands, why are they sometimes dry?" You have pain in your abdomen, you will call a doctor and he will make a diagnosis. No one has understood the cause yet. The doctor cannot know the cause. And if your hand hurts, do you know what the hand is saying? "My lord, I am sorry that you have used me for many things, but for that which is essential, for which I am intended, you have not used me" And you will look like that boy, which, when his father bought him a violin and a bow, started beating his sister with the bow and broke the bow. He does not play [on a musical instrument], but beats. You also sometimes say: "Beat him up! The hand has been created to thrust". No, the hand has not been created [for you] to beat and thrust. This hand is created for you to play [a musical instrument]. This is its purpose. Have you played [a musical instrument] with it? - "No". You have not understood the meaning of life. Your hand is made to wipe the tears of one who is crying; it has been made to give food to one who is hungry; it has been made for that man who is perishing, so that you may save him with your hands. Did you understand me? Are you going to recite or to think? Tell me now: are you going to recite? If it is a matter of declamation, I also recited this morning. And the first thing I did was to recite: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem...." And sometimes I recite very accurately, sometimes I stop, and there is an exception, someone may say: "There the recitation is not so." There is an art in recitation also. But there is no thought there. Joseph must think. You will say: "Where did you find all this in verse 13? Is all this in verse 13?" I extract the [following] thought from there. You have a brain, this is the reality in life. And modern-day people are right when they say that we have to begin from the visible world in order to understand the true needs of our body. And after this we will come to study, first of all, the physical manifestations of human life. Now from times immemorial many cultures have emerged, but the world has not yet achieved that level, at which it should be. Why? Because people still do not think. But this commission, which now comes, will compel people to think. Now, a small diversion from these philosophical reflections of mine. They are a little hidden, because, simultaneously, I have to reason on one side, [and] to correct and to plant on the other. I will present to you what situation contemporary people find themselves in. It is a story that is passed down by tradition. To what extent it is true, I cannot say, but it is remembered. It dates from the time of Nero. The question is about a prominent Roman woman, daughter of a patrician - Veronius, and her name was Vincilla. She was one of the most beautiful virgins in Rome, so beautiful, so gracious, so noble and courageous of character, that truly everyone was astonished by her. One day, by [mere] coincidence, for better or worse, Nero - who had a habit of paying attention to everything, both as an actor and an artist, a pupil of Seneca, but who liked women in a peculiar way - passed close by her, and she attracted his attention. He sent for her in the evening and said to her father: "I want your daughter to come one evening for a conversation, to spend an evening in my palace". When her father announced this to her, she immediately said: "No! I prefer death to Nero's palace!" She sent back Nero's envoys. They informed him of this. Nero, who was very proud, said: "Very well". He sent several Praetorians: "Take her and you will lower the nose of this proud Roman-woman, you will kiss her several times". In Rome everyone without any exception had to pay regard to Nero's will. I say, this virgin, she had not understood life, do you understand? When she was entering the prison, they met her for the first time with a very crude act. Now you, the contemporary people, will say: "What is wrong with her visiting Nero's palace, after all?" [31] According to contemporary morality, a man may make a small deviation, but this maiden thought, do you understand? She had her own ideal. There is will-power in her: "I do not want to go! Not for anything would I wish to go to the palace!" The one who was appointed went to carry out Nero's will by force, and then, on Nero's order, they let her go. She went out, left Rome, distanced herself from there completely, [and] in her soul there arose an aversion towards the Roman civilization: "There is nothing noble in Rome, this is a dishonor for Rome, from now on I do not wish to be a Roman [any more]". And she went to the Southern country, passed into Africa, to a mountainous region. There dwelt, as a hermit, another Roman, who had become a Christian, by the name of Finicius, who understood life very deeply and was an excellent philosopher. A young man, about 35, he had persevered for 15 years. He had the desire that his beauty, which tempted women, would disappear. And, the more that time passed, the more handsome he became: he took a mirror and, every day, as he looked at himself, he became more and more handsome. He prayed to Christ saying: "Lord, this devil, this external temptation, may it be gone from me". And he wished this beauty of his to disappear, so as to be pleasing to God. "Lord, appear to me and show me the way, I wish to live a pure and holy, exalted, unblemished life". For 15 years this had constantly been his prayer. One day, close to noontime, he saw this Vincilla in the desert; she was walking, coming towards him, and he said to himself: "Ah, even here this devil has found me, gone is my soul!" He struggles, and she struggles. She is disgusted at the lewdness which is in Rome, in the court of Nero, at that lawlessness; while Finicius, he also perseveres and says: "A devil is coming now, I can see a devil in this beautiful woman, now I will have to fight. If I fail now, I will be ruined forever, I will be gone. Now or never!" And she approached and said to him: "Holy father [32], I beg you, be so kind ... " and began to cry. - "Ah, how cunning this devil is!" And he fell on his knees at her feet and said: "I beg you, sister, do not tempt me, I am full of sin, depart from me, you will ruin me". You, the contemporary people, are like this saint and this Roman woman. We do not understand each other. You are now this Roman woman who has come out of Rome, who was kissed in the prison forcibly, against her will. And the Orthodox, the Protestants, the Catholics, the Evangelists, Muslims, Buddhists are all Finicius. They constantly pray in their Churches and when we want to show them the path of Truth, they say: "Go away, you will ruin our Church!" I say of this Finicius, that there was not a more suitable occasion to help this maiden. Her soul was being torn up in the futility of life: she could not understand the essential problem - why should man live on Earth? And once her fate let her down, she stopped thinking; with this contradiction here he [Finicius] should have helped her. But he said to her: "Go away, I am a sinner". She could not understand him. "You will show me the way" she said to him, "I want to know the way , this true way". And now I ask, I ask this question to both the Roman woman and to Finicius. Neither of them have found the meaning of life yet. Christ has not come among them yet. They seek Him, she - in Rome, he - in the desert for 15 years, in the Name of Christ. They meet, [and] do not understand each other; he - as a Christian, she - as a pagan, in the name of that knowledge {pl.}, which she carried with herself. While the truth will be shown to them by that living Angel who will descend. I leave the story [as it is,] without making a conclusion. You should make a conclusion for yourselves. Now, many of you have been kissed inside the prison. "I!" you will say. You have been kissed: in Nero's prison, many of you were kissed there on Nero's order. Many of you are invited to Nero's palace. How have you solved the problem? I stop there, but I tell you: you are at a crossroad, of this young Roman woman and this young saint. You are at a crossroad, and how will you resolve this problem? I leave you, men and women, to solve the problem. The culture to come depends upon this resolution. "Take your son and his mother, go to Egypt, and wait there until I tell you to return". And now I listen to the voice of that Angel and I say: "Return!" May my Lord give you light, may He give you His wisdom, may He give you His knowledge so that you may [begin to] shine through. This Lord of Love whom I serve, this Lord of Wisdom, this Lord of Truth, may He give you all his blessing so that you may come to know Him, so that you may understand what the deep internal meaning of this life is, which you still do not know. And not Bulgarians, but I desire you to be daughters and sons of this Lord Who has created the whole Universe. May you have entrance to His Kingdom, may you freely walk. To be worthy of His Love and to thank Him and glorify Him. This I wish to all of you! May the Lord bless all of you with the most gracious blessing. May He grant strength and valor to you all! And I do believe, that you will be heroes of the future culture of Love, of the future new humanity which carries the sign: Love for everyone! 13 of November 1921 --==[][][]==-- ______________________________ Notes: [1] i.e. contradictions in general [2] Here the Master uses a colloquial word ("papo") which means food, and has a slightly ironic connotation; it can be translated approximately as eats, tuck, bites, goodies etc. [3] This is the normal English usage of the word here (cf. Note [2]) [6] The characters referred to here are from the (well-known) book "Don Quixote" by the 16th century Spanish author Cervantes [7] this is a literal translation of the subject "Bible classes" or "Religious Education" in the Bulgarian schools at the time when the lectures were given [8] In German "Weltschmerz" - sentimental pessimism [9] or evidence [10] literally: "I think..." [11] The Master quotes the beginning of a poem by Lyuben Karavelov (1834-79) which starts with "Beautiful you are" instead of "Green you are". The poem was published in 1875 and the song with this text has been so popular since, that sometimes it is (mistakenly) considered a Bulgarian folk song. A poetic translation in English follows: Beautiful you are, my forest, And an air of youth you breathe. But you are a source of sorrow, You incline our hearts to grieve. Translated by Peter Tempest [12] There is a play of words here - the Master correlates the Bulgarian word razvrashtavam (corrupt) with razvartam (unbolt, unscrew, loosen). This connection could be observed more easily by the contemporary person through the Russian word for corrupt razvrashta -> 'raz-vrashtat', i.e. 'un-revolve' (vrashtat means revolve) [13] or: meaning [14] perhaps some text is missing at this point [15] literally: walk, as in "going for a walk" [16] Literally, the word means the gold that backs up or stands as the real value behind banknotes; there seems to be no equivalent word in English that would convey the correct meaning. [17] literally: manifest or show myself, express myself etc. [18] This is a Bulgarian colloquialism; it means, literally: we will go crazy. [19] In Bulgarian these two words differ only in one vowel: laja {lie) and lija (lick) [20] i.e. value or quantity in the sense of mathematics [21] This could also be rendered as: "and now how many people went to the battlefields" [22] or: learn [23] i.e. not to cheat by looking up the sleeves for the correct answers prepared earlier on the cuffs or on cheat-sheets etc. [24] this sentence is fragmented (the ellipsis is also in the original), so another possible rendering for the rest of the sentence may be: speak up - he answers..., where the answer itself is missing [25] at this time examination questions were usually put inside of an envelope which the students received upon entrance. [26] third person plural - i.e. they (all should) study [27] literally: "order and orderliness" [28] this sentence is like it is in the original (though possibly it was not recorded in its entirety when the Master spoke) [29] literally: happiness, but can also be fortune (not as in wealth) [30] Usually the phrase "sunken eyes" is used in Bulgarian about someone who is not well - ill, hungry, or not having enough rest, under pressure etc. [31] The original has the quotation end after the words "after all", however, it most likely stops just before it - i.e. ''Now you, ..., will say: "What is wrong with her visiting Nero's palace?"'' - is that not so? [32] In order to avoid the differences in using the word "Reverend" across Christian denominations, the address is translated literally

The Testimony of Spirit ‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me’ John: 15; 26. A Secret Prayer ‘Bless God, my soul’ I will read chapter fifteen of John. I will talk to you about the vine. This vine has three contents. There are vines that have not gone bad. Have you been to a vineyard, have you seen it with leafless vines? You have seen it coming into leaves at other times and finally you have seen it maturing and heavy with ripe fruit. Not all vines have grapes. I will read to you about the vine, which has grapes. Sing the first line from Love; sing it quietly. I shall talk to you on line twenty-six of the chapter we read, ‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.’ Spirit – this is the most elevated, the purest, the most sacred. And in this sanctity Spirit brings the conditions of the intelligent human Life. I use the word intelligent, but I could use another word too. In the widest sense, when a human being has the intelligent Life within oneself, such a human being lives as a musician and as a poet. Such a human being is always in high spirits, there is Peace in his or her soul, the world does not worry him or her; nothing disturbs such people. Such people are not petty, they do not dwell on the small things in life, but only on that Great one that God created. Now, let's assume that somebody brings a hedgehog into your garden; when you reach out to catch him, he will prick you. What do you think; did God create the spines of this hedgehog? No, this is the art of the hedgehock itself. You may enquire why God placed spines on this hedgehog. The hedgehog created them himself, such is its culture. He needs spines; such is his understanding of life. Subsequently you should not be asking yourselves about his spines, but if you want to study the hedgehog, you should dwell on his basic features: what hedgehogs feed on, how they make their dens, how they raise their young ones, what are his relations with the ones close to him etc. Hedgehogs make good teachers for snakes: when a hedgehog meets a snake, he grips the snake by the tail first, covers his head, the snake coils round him and he swallows the snake little by little until the head is left and finally he swallows the head as well. And when the snake asks him, ‘Why did you treat me in such an inhumane way?’ The hedgehog answers back, ‘Well, how do you catch frogs? Frogs keep crying out and you keep swallowing them. It is from you that I learnt this craft and now this is my first attempt as I want to see how things are.’ I am asking now, when the snake is swallowing the frog, do you think God taught the snake? This is again an art of snakes. When you come to Life, you will first separate all those visible features existing in human life – what was created by the people themselves, in order to arrive at the purely Divine substance. Now, the Divine substance is Spirit. And Christ says, ‘I will send this Spirit to you.’ Now people live without the Spirit. And you ask why people do not live in brotherly relations. How can they live in brotherly relations? Hedgehogs live the life of hedgehogs; snakes live the life of snakes and so on. And all animals live according to their understanding. There is no Spirit in them and each one has one’s own understanding. When it comes to people, we ask why somebody acted the way he or she did. A person lives according to one’s understanding. Why doesn't he or she live in any other way? The Spirit must come for a person to live in any other way. If the Spirit does not come, the person will live according to one’s own understanding. If you want to change on principle, to start living another Life, the Spirit must come to you. And when He comes, you won’t be asking yourselves whether this Spirit is within you and whether it is Divine. There is only One Spirit – the Great Spirit bringing Light, bringing Wisdom, Truth, bringing everything in himself. He has been delivering all the goods for ages, from times immemorial and there is no second to Him. This Spirit carries everything within himself and He is the discharger of all goods. And when He comes, people start becoming intelligent, geniuses and when somebody comes to visit, they receive this person gladly, treat this person lavishly, they do everything with Love. But when the Spirit departs, they say, ‘Today, I am not in high spirits; do not enter my home! Come some other day!’ Why? It is the Spirit that delivers all the riches, and He is not present now. Quite natural: when I am sick I will say that I am not receiving visitors on that day. Why? Because I am sick. Apart from not being able to receive visitors, I also need somebody who could do me a favour. Having spoken about the vine, Christ told his students, ‘You will take the Spirit in the first place!’ The Spirit comes only to those twigs that have grapes. Now I do not want you dwelling on the issue whether you have grapes or not. You may put this question to yourselves, but you cannot resolve it on your own. This question can be resolved only by the Spirit. And when talking, Christ, too, pays attention to the fruit. God prunes these vines because of the fruit that is inside the soul. It is our fruit that is important to God, not the external form; not the vine itself, but what comes out of it. Now, when a mother delivers a child, what does she expect from the child? She expects something intelligent, because it is from the mouth of the child that this fruit comes. If she gives birth to a deaf, dumb, and blind child who cannot speak and has the worst of habits, what does the mother tell herself then? She tells herself, ‘I wish you were not born, I did not need such a child! God gave this child to me to punish me! And she gives birth to a good child with grapes, she turns to Heavens and says, ‘How grateful I am to God for giving me such a good child!’ This is fruit! Now, you who have started, have to know that the fruit is inside. The fruit of your soul is inside. ‘And when Spirit comes’, says Christ, ‘He will teach you’. This is the first thing. Then He says, ‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me’. He shall testify whether you do or don’t have grapes, whether your vineyard is developing properly or not. So that all the effort in the Life of a soul, in the Life of a human being on the Earth, has to be directed to a certain fruit. Outside of this fruit one can never be glad. What is it that makes you feel glad? You yourselves are glad if you have a virtue. The virtue living within you was invested there by the Spirit, but it makes you feel glad. And Christ, representing God’s Love and Wisdom, says, ‘The Spirit that I will send to you, he shall testify for me’. But elsewhere he says, ‘He shall teach you, he shall remind you.’ What shall the Spirit remind you of? The Spirit shall remind you of all the fruit that you have to have in your soul? Because when the grapes-pickers come, what do they do? They stop at those vines, which have grapes, but they pass by the vines with no grapes. And when the Spirit comes he will inevitably stop at a soul that has the grapes. There are three types of vines: vines that have not yet developed, but have the promise, others that have developed and have a great deal of leaves – this is the second type; and the third one – vines that have set fruit that is ripening and everybody who takes a look says, ‘This vine is close to giving fruit.’ Everybody is expecting it to bear fruit, to try the grapes. And I can tell you the reasons which make you have friends – in order to try their delicious fruit. This is the reason. Why do you want to have a friend? The major reasons are that every human being wants to try the fruit of the Spirit. Now, so that these vines can develop properly, so that the Spirit can function properly within you, the vines need soil. In other words, three things are necessary in Life: first, soil; secondly, seeds, thirdly, the one who will sow the seeds. If we have the soil but do not have the seeds, nothing will come out; if we have the vine, but not soil, again nothing will come out; but if we have soil and seeds, but do not have a vine-grower who will cultivate the seeds, this is also impossible. So, these three elements: soil, seeds, and a vine-grower to cultivate it are required. Only then can a vine bear fruit. I shall now make a comparison: the soil – this is you, according to Christ’s words. The vine – this is the Word that is invested in you, while the vine-grower is the Spirit that cultivates, the Divine Spirit. Each elevated thought, each elevated desire which are developing within you, which blossom and give joy to your soul are supported by this Divine Spirit. Now in order for this Divine spirit to come and live in you particular conditions are needed. I shall make a comparison: if you make a house and expect a friend or a tenant to come and inhabit it, he will first examine your house, then he will choose only those rooms that are most hygienic, that have large and nice eastern or southern windows and only then will he say, ‘Your rooms are excellent, I will move in.’ Similarly the Divine Spirit too, when moving into human beings, the Divine Spirit examines whether you have real rooms. The law is the same too. In the whole of chapter fifteen, Christ determines the conditions needed for the Spirit to come. Love is one of the conditions. Now you will say, ‘This Love! He speaks only of Love!’ I now talk about Love in its third degree. I am not talking about Love as an underdeveloped vineyard, as a vineyard having leaves only, but I am talking solely about Love as a grape bearing vineyard. You can have the love of the undeveloped twigs, but the most important Love – the Love of the third degree – is the one with leaves that are fine and grapes that are ripe. This vine and its excellent fruit show its internal quality. Therefore, Christ says, ‘By their fruit you shall know them.’ So now God also wants to know you all, He wants to try your fruit. You are hiding but He works towards making you give something, making you manifest yourselves. You are not willing to manifest yourselves and you say, ‘The right time has not yet come!’ No, no, the time to show the nature of human beings has come. But you may tell yourselves, ‘What if I give the fruit and it is not as it has to be?’ Everything must come to the surface; the sooner the better, because you will know what you are like. While now you have an exaggerated or belittled idea of yourselves. Which is the best sort of grapes in Bulgaria? The Turks call it muscat, and there is also a sort of grapes in the colour of amber which they chaush. Now the Spirit needs to be received. Without this Divine Spirit, without these goods your Life will not manifest itself as it should. And when I talk about Love, that you have to free yourselves, I mean Love flowing from the Divine Spirit, but not the ordinary love flowing from people. There is Love flowing from people only, it is like scorched straw and lasts for a day and a half. It is so intensive that those having it say, ‘Without you I cannot live.’ But after a day and half they understand this love and say, ‘I do not want it; it’s not worth it.’ I see contemporary people weeping for their lost love. Christians also have this love; they flare up and say, ‘For God I am ready to do anything!’ But when it comes to sacrificing they say, ‘It’s nonsensical for one to be so idealistic and so ardent, one has to be a little cooler.’ The Scripture reads, ‘As you have lost your first Love.’ And this is the first Love that binds all beings. It warms them like a fire place that needs to be kept alive and never to run out of chopped wood. Do you know how it is kept alive? A friend comes who has lost a little bit behind of your confidence[M1] [1], but she tells you, ‘How beautiful you are, how much I love you, I want to embrace and kiss you!’ You get agitated and you relax. But when she leaves, some time afterwards you tell yourself, ‘I am fooling myself; does she love me or does she hate me?’ On the third day your friend comes again and says ‘my dear’, on the following day again ‘my dear’, until something disappears from your house and you close the door and say, ‘I do not want this dear any longer!’ While the Love I talk about, the Spirit that is coming, He always brings. He won’t tell you a sweet word, but he will bring you a nice book or he will bring you an apple or a pear and will tell you, ‘Eat a little bit to find out how kind the Lord is, so that you can try and see how kind I am!’ While now what is Love? The father comes and says, ‘Do you know what I am bringing to you? A nice doll.’ But dolls can neither be eaten, nor drunk, and after four or five days the daughter breaks the doll. We are being beguiled with such dolls: a story about this, a story about that, the Kingdom of God is promised to us, but you keep asking whether it is so. But when the Spirit comes you will have one live positive experience, you will experience and understand the meaning of Life everywhere and in everything. This is the Spirit. When he comes he will testify, and you will be brave, decisive, you will cope with all people. Because it won’t be you talking; it will be the spirit in you talking. How will he talk? Your soul will be permeated with this Divine Love and when these words come out of your mouth, they will open doors for you everywhere. Thus, those who want to beat you will beat you less. And afterwards they will also turn to the Lord and will start glorifying Him. So, dangerous people we are! Nobody will be left unpunished. They will also come to be servants of the Lord, just the way you are. You need to get started and prepare your hearts for the Spirit. And now only spirits you have, I can see them: you have many spirits, but I call these spirits ‘soullets’. They are soullets and spiritlets who circle around you. And when this Great Spirit comes all those soullets and spiritlets will serve only This One. While now you often listen to bad things, sometimes these little soullets tell you that you are stupid, that you have stepped aside; they tell you, ‘Mind your life, you have to live a nice life, you are young, you have ruined your life.’ But this ruining is not the teaching of the Spirit; the Divine spirit never ruins one’s life. Only these small spiritlets ruin one’s life. When the Divine spirit comes, He brings in Light, brings in Peace, plants knowledge, and brings health, happiness and bliss. This is what the Great Spirit brings when He comes! And Christ says, ‘I will send this Spirit to you.’ When? ‘If my words live in you and you live in Me, and if you have the Love of my Father, then I will send the Spirit. If you have my Love, the Love that I love you, when I show it to you, you too show it to the others.’ To whom? Christ does not say to love everybody gratuitously. Can you love a stone? Let’s define ourselves properly: you may love only one intelligent being – the one that has intelligence and brings conscious Life. This one you can love, but the other things you cannot love. Only two conscious souls can come to love each other. You cannot come to love a stone or a bear. I take these images in the first degree… Consequently it is in Love that I understand the intelligent. If it exists, Love also exists. Christ says, ‘You should love the way I came to love you!’[2] He has come to love the Intelligent. Now, you shall not ask whether this Spirit will come to you or not. If you believe in Christ, then He will come into you. And Christ says, ‘I will send the Spirit to you if you believe.’ In what faith? People have two ideas about Christ: some think that Christ has now come out of God, while others think that He has been before all the centuries of Light, and consequently everything in the world has happened through Him and all people have come out of Him. Hence, He is the most well known Path for people. The first, who you know in the world, after having come out, is Him. It is Him who has sent you to this world and it is Him who saves you. Subsequently, Christ is the First and therefore He says, ‘I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.’ You say, ‘How can we know Christ?’ You do know Him. Do not dwell on this question, you know Him! If you do not know Him, you have to give, but if you know Him, you have to take. You do not know the person, who has to take from you, do you? However you know well the person from whom you have to take. You know him because he has to give to you. Why do you know your husband? He has to give to you. Why does a husband know his wife? Because she has to give to him. Subsequently, it is in this sense that we have knowing and love. When I say ‘I came to love somebody’, I mean that I have to take from him. And if Christ has come to love you, He has to take from you. Therefore, He knows us. He, without denying this, says, ‘I invested capital, and I shall not allow you to eat it up; I know you and I hold you!’ You argue that you do not know Him, but He says, ‘You do not know me, but I know you.’ And as He knows you, He will send the Spirit to you. Since people have lost themselves along the Path, He will send the Spirit to testify for Him. You have to implement His law when you know Him. You have to get the meaning and resolve all issues which concern your minds as married women. You are above all interested in family issues. The top question for a married woman is the question about the family: what husband she will have, what children, and after them there come the other questions, the secondary understandings and opinions. A woman is a Queen; the man is the one from whom she has to take, while the children – are those that will be servants. Women have big pretensions, they love children, but they want their husband to be Prime Ministers and the children to be top ranking subjects. She says, ‘My Kingdom’. This is what I have found; this is the great truth. Men realise this and the last eight thousand years they have been fighting to overthrow the rule of women. A husband beats his wife, but she says, ‘Even if you beat me, I am a Queen!’ Although children do not know her, she says, ‘You have to know that you are my subjects, you will recognise this!’ But I am saying again, that these children are the striving of the human soul. A woman is right that she has to be a queen. I like the statement that she is a queen, but I do not like the fact that she does not recognise her husband for a king or the children as princes. If she recognises this, a row will spring from a political point of view. While the Scripture resolves this issue in the following way and reads, ‘You will be kings and daughters of the Living God.’ The Scripture does not recognise women, it does not read, ‘You will be Queens!’ Because the first woman became a queen, it is now the man who is being placed as King, because his authority was undermined. Not the authority of the contemporary men, but the one of the Divine man. I would ask contemporary women: have you met your husband somewhere, what his features are, what distinguishes him. You say that this is not the most important question. And this is why the world is asking how to resolve the major question. Women would rarely know because they consider men as something of secondary importance, they only recognise their children. Once they deliver children, they place their husbands at the end of the line and this shocks them most of all and they are beside themselves with anger. Now, do you know why I talk like this? You will think that I want to attack you. This is a contradiction within a woman resulting from another influence, because of which she is the most miserable being. Why? Because she argues that she is a Queen without anybody else recognising her as such. She admits it but the others deny it. A husband says, ‘You are a servant, nothing more, you will cook!’ A mother tells her children, ‘You are my subjects!’ But they object, ‘Subjects? You must be kidding! It’s not the way you see it!’ Hence there is an internal discord. Not only outside, but inside as well, in the very soul there is a discord. I go further and I say that you are split-minded internally, there is big fight going on inside you. Sometimes you are pleased with yourselves; sometimes you are not. Why are you pleased, what are the reasons? There is a big internal dissent and this is one of the reasons why a woman is the most miserable being on the Earth. This is why nine tenths of her life is tears only: she hides in her room, she cries, and cries, and cries, and then she will wipe her face and will get out; on the following day – the same, on the third day she cries again and says, ‘What was I hoping for, and what turned out!’ Why? The Spirit has not yet arrived, the Spirit has not arrived, it is the Spirit that has not arrived! But when this Spirit comes, He will recover everything. And Paul says, ‘I engaged you to a man’. To whom? To Christ. Hence until you recognise this Man, who is the head of humankind and whose head is God, you will have tears anyway. Only at such recognition shall Christ send the Spirit, and this Spirit shall testify for Him. This is the major issue: Christ must come among you; this Man must come inside you! But this fight, existing now too, must be liquidated once and for all when the Spirit comes and you know Him. Who is the head of your life? The Spirit is the head of Life. And when He comes you will break free from the present discords. Then the new knowledge will come, the new understanding of Nature; you will get in touch with the new laws, which are now being established. And Christ says in this chapter, ‘Everything you beg for in my name, will be given to you.’ You are restless at times. Why? As long as there is the signature of Christ, everything will happen; but nothing happens without His signature. So, the Spirit is the one who brings all these sufferings. Suffering shows that you are not reconciled completely. As long as you suffer, you have not known your Husband. Do not understand the knowing of a husband the way you know him. I use the word knowing in the following sense: when you go out in the forest on a pleasant May day, when the Sun shines on you when you hear the beautiful song the birds are singing, this is knowing. It causes a great Joy to you, you are exhilarated. Conversely there is also a restricting knowing: as soon as you know your debtor, you restrict him or her; as soon as you find your ox and know him, you harness him, you take the stick and start driving it. Now, why has Christ departed up there to Heaven? He knows that there is harness for him. In this sinful state that we are in we would crucify Him everyday. This is why He has risen so high and waits. He has sent His spirit until people come round. Your mind and heart must be prepared, to come round to the understanding to fulfil Christ’s Will. This is an internal, deep understanding. Therefore, you are all required above all to unite. When Christ comes all women must become One Woman. You shall not be many women, but One Woman. Now each one of you will say, ‘What will happen to us?’ Women do not know themselves yet. Therefore, the first rule is that women should know themselves. Tell me what makes one woman different from another. If I compare two women, they all have the same longing: the one wants to marry and the other one wants to marry too; the one wants the dishes to be cooked all right, to be dressed all right, the other one wants the same. All their strivings are the same, there is nothing different, nothing special; life is the same in all the houses. Now, why shouldn't women join hands! In this way they can elevate their spirit. All women, if they join together can elevate it much easier. But now each one of you says, ‘I shall be first!’ This weakness of yours resembles that story which I have referred to at other times as well: a German prince went to a visit to Denmark or the Netherlands. He was supposed to be greeted at a theatre and for this purpose they chose twelve out of the most beautiful women in town. And one had to be chosen out of these twelve women to give him a bouquet of flowers. They decided to put it to vote and twelve tickets with twelve different names were found in the box – each one voted for herself. And now each one of you votes for herself in Christ’s box and there is nobody to give the bouquet. When the box is open there are as many names in there as there are women. Every human being is first, but while performing God’s Will only the Lord is first. He is the beginning of things, and we cannot be first. The one who creates things, He is the First. When this Spirit comes, He will bring this deep understanding in your souls, what it takes is selflessness. You sometimes say, ‘I have served this husband so much!’ But you have not served the Husband [Man] yet. Paul says, ‘I engaged you to a man.’ I would be glad if you had served, because you would not get older then, your hair would not alter. When this Man [Husband] comes, you should not fly into a fury. Therefore, we allowed a man in today to listen, lest women make a plot of some sort. So, when the Spirit comes, if you admit this authority to Christ, all the other issues, insults, and doubts shall be cardinally resolved. This is the major issue, which will resolve the other issues. This must be a question of a love for nature, which must be resolved according to the strength of God’s Love and Wisdom. So, this Love has to be so strong within you, that it could sweep everything around like a strong current, not to leave a thing around that can counteract you. When your husband who is on the Earth scolds you, you will say, ‘We are waiting for Christ!’ This husband of yours prepares the path for the Other one. Then I tell you that there is only One Man, and I will tell men that there is only One Woman in the world. When I talk to the men, you will commission a delegate. Thus I elevate their authority, do you understand? And I will then tell them that there is only One Woman and all men should join together because there is only One Woman. And when this Spirit comes, He will bring what you need. I have spoken many times and I do not want my lecture to be left without any results. Have you asked yourselves what women you are now? Can you give me a description? I had assigned a topic to you ‘What women you are; what makes you different’, and how would you describe yourselves? Now, in the world, in order to describe somebody, you have to either love or hate this person very much and usually you show all of the negative features of this person. Now, you hate these men on the Earth, this I know. Subsequently, the wife says to her husband, ‘Do not believe him, whatever he tells you do not believe it!’ You are right, because how many women have men sold in the history of human culture; how many legs they have broken! Now, if I tell you ‘I engaged you to one man’, how would you describe Him? That you live with your present husbands is due to this Man, who is above. Everyday He sends them to you every day and tells them, ‘Although they are such people, give them [let them have]? translator’s notes [there is an implied meaning in the Bulg sentence – my guess is that God told the husbands that although the wives were such people, the husbands should give the wives love [M2] !’ He does not quite see your sins completely and He says, ‘Let them live well, let them be happy on the Earth!’ But are you happy? No, you are not. Not only are you not happy, but your husbands are unhappy and they constantly write books about it. Now what takes place outside in society, the same goes on inside the family, the same goes on in the soul too! In your soul you sometimes lose this hope, this authority, this consciousness, you lose every love and then you despair and say, ‘Let it go!’ You lose any idea of that elevated substance, granted to the soul, you give up God and you live in the world only to eat and drink. And now, if you, as women, still look for many men, there will be tears, tears, tears. But if you look for the One Man, when He comes to the world you will say to all the present men, ‘Off you go!’ When the woman fell down, the man remained up there in Heaven, and when the man fell down, the woman remained up there. So that, now the true men and the true women are up there, while those who left Heaven and came looking for their happiness here on the Earth are the heroes of the day. Now, the Spirit of Truth has to come, this salvation will happen through Him. I do not in the least want to make fly at your husbands when go back home. There is nothing to fly at him for. You will be looking to find the like of him; you will be looking for Him until you find Him. Have you read Song of the Songs? Many have read it and they say, ‘This is a wide life!’ You will understand the profound, internal meaning not in the human way, but in the Divine way. And why don’t I disclose secrets to you? Where is your husband? When you come to me I will tell you, ‘Let your husband come with you too!’ But you come only with women, without men? How can a woman be without a man? And the Scripture reads, ‘A woman cannot do [M3] without a man, and a man cannot do [M4] without a woman.’[3] Both are in Christ. A woman, when she comes, wants to have Love with her husband[4]. There must be you, your husband, and one more – a third one. Love can exist only among three persons. Do you know this? Your husband and you will come to me and then we can have love. This is how the Scripture sees the meaning of things. But we do know the love between two. So, do not beguile yourself looking for love between two, you should be looking for it between three. This is what Christ says, ‘When you are together with Me and the father comes, then I will manifest.’ When I talk to you about Love, it takes three persons to love each other. I have not seen two women loving each other. If you can find two women here in Bulgaria who love each other, I would like to see them and to have a picture of them. Not that this is impossible on the Earth, but a woman has to have her own husband and one other - a third one, who will come. Then God will manifest and what you are looking for will come. Only then will the Spirit and Christ come. It takes three persons for Christ to come. I want you to free yourselves from your illusions: you want to be students, but you are looking for happiness where it is not. If you are looking for happiness – I am telling you where it is – with your husband. But he will place a harness on your head, he will set you in the cart, he will drive you with the stick and he will tell you, ‘Go to the field to plough!’ Your husband is also harnessed. I mean the phoney man on the earth, and I do not want to mention the name of the other Man. These men on the Earth are merely his representatives, his servants. And they do as he orders them to do on the Earth. Now do you know who He is? You know Him now! A maid comes and says, ‘I found him!’ ‘Yes’, I say, ‘you haven’t found him yet. When you find the one about whom Paul says, “I engaged you to a man”, then that day will be the greatest in your life. This will be resurrection for women and therefore, Christ says, ‘Those who agree with this day, with this understanding, neither get married nor look for a man.’ When delivering a lecture before the men I will tell them that there is only One Woman. Do not beguile yourselves – there is One Man, you have to understand this! You will look for him! You will feel as one soul and thus you will be able to resolve the question of your suffering. The point is to find Christ. Not the historical Christ, not this Christ whom people believe in, but that Christ who says, ‘I am the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega’. The one who sent you here; who sent his blessing; who has supported you in all of your comings and wanderings in this world and has guided you along the path of Truth. He has always been good, has never frowned, is always delicate and He says, ‘There will come the time of this great outcome.’ Now, the Divine Spirit is coming for women, to wake them up, so that they start looking for this One Man. And now, since there are many men, there are scandals too: a woman says, ‘Why have you taken him?’, while another one objects, ‘What about you? What have you done to him?’ They argue about men all the time. I say, you do not have any men as of yet. Nobody can take away from you your Man, the true Man. He is up there in Heaven. He will be your beloved. He is not called a Man, but a ‘beloved to the soul’. And women are referred to not as the one who sinned, but as ‘my beloved’. So, you will be looking for the beloved to the soul! And when you find Him, your soul will be pleased, it will be happy. And the Scripture reads, ‘And in those days I will obliterate all of your sins.’[5] When you find your Man, all of your sins will be obliterated, not a single trace will be left of them. The most significant issue is to find the beloved of your soul, for whom your soul is longing. You shed so many tears for Him and you say, ‘What have we remained for? Isn’t there salvation?’ The Scripture says about the day when this beloved will come, ‘I will wipe your tears’, ‘I will remove your shackles’. There will be no tears then, there will be no shackles; your hearts will be healed and there will be no wounds; enlightenment will be there, there will be no darkness; your soul will be elevated and a woman will be a Queen then. So, you will plant this idea in yourselves and you will ardently pray to acquire the Spirit above all and this enlightenment. And you will tie the black man and you will tell him, ‘Concubines we cannot be any longer!’ Each and every woman has to say, ‘A concubine I cannot be any longer!’ Do you understand? If you say, deep down your heart, that you cannot be concubines any longer, you resolve the issue and then the Spirit will bring Love. The true Man will come and then you will start a new epoch. And then the New Woman will appear. And I would like you to form at least the finger of this New Woman. Your law is great. You have only to overcome the external oppression, this tribulation and to know what the meaning is. Consequently, if you do find your beloved, anything else ruining your life will disappear. Thus the issue is solved at its basis and we can then talk about education and about Love. If I talk to you about love, about kisses, my words will be understood in an absolutely distorted sense. So far such kisses you have not had. This Man has to kiss you, the one who is pure and in whom you have your beginning. And the point that your present husband has kissed you, this does not qualify for a kiss. We shall be waiting for it, there is still a long time until this kiss comes. And when one receives this kiss, such a person does not stay on the Earth, such a person leaves for one’s Fatherland and leaves this home. Such a person leaves these things that now hinder you and by form such a person is free. Consequently, the soul is something internal. One cannot corrupt oneself externally, because one’s essence is inside. [M5] Sin is not something external internal. Sin is something internal, inside the soul.[M6] So, when this Spirit of the Truth comes, He will testify for Me, and you will testify.’ And I would like all of you to testify. Can you testify? (A voice from the audience): We can. We can!… Do not confuse your soul with your body, because you now have one body, afterwards you will have another body, but there is something more substantial that distinguishes you. This is the soul, not the body. And when you meet, you have to first feel like souls. The power of Love does not lie in counteraction. If you can endure one counteraction, you have Love. This Love is of the Spirit, this is the Love of your soul. Between God and your soul – this is where Love should start, but not from outside. You mention Love so many times, you kiss, but you still talk about yourselves; you treat yourselves, but your affairs do not resolve. This Love has to start between God and your soul internally. And Paul says, ‘First, the visible’. This is the visible! Some may interpret this expression in the following way: first, this life. I say: the visible – this is God, while the invisible – these are the people. Visible is what God is to me. We shall start with this understanding. Life is within. During Paul’s day these words were right. When descending from above, the visible was down, but now we are staring on the road behind and we look upwards. First the Love for God should appear and then we shall manifest externally. If I have no Love for God, this Love cannot be manifested to you. God, my soul, and the one close to me [my neighbour] – these are three persons and there is Love only there! They constitute the Holy Trinity, God in three persons. They are the manifestation of the Divine Love. The Spirit is the first outflow of God. God, the Spirit, and Love constitute a trinity, and we together with them form a quaternion - the Virtue on the Earth. Now, the first rule is to start with Love. Women should look for their beloved! You will say, ‘What shall we do with our present husbands?’ The Scripture reads, ‘After you die, you are free of them.’ A woman is tied to a man while he is alive, as soon as he dies, she is free. So, if she returns into the world, he has no right to remarry her. This is not a teaching of mine, Paul says so. According to the moral law, if somebody owes money but dies and then returns again to the world, he has to pay. Such is the moral law! You will tell your present husbands, ‘We shall go to find our Husband, and you go find your Wife!’ You will also say, ‘We, the two of us, have not prospered, therefore, you go to your Wife, and I will go to my Husband!’ This resolves the issue in a cardinal way. What does a husband have to do? He must go to his Wife. Thus you will bring about the outcome and you will resolve this profound issue. When the Spirit comes we have to implement the will of this God who sent us to the earth because to Him we shall return. There is no other way! No matter how long we stay on the Earth, some day we shall have to return to the place where we came from. And Christ says, ‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me’. He will testify for this great Truth bringing Love which brings freedom to women. Women have to be freed first of all! You have to free yourselves and when you find Christ your issue is resolved and you are free. Now, some of you are already close. You aspire to this while you are bringing into effect this profound understanding. When you understand you will be saved forever. This is salvation; this is purification – to be content. To be like what the soul of a woman was originally – content and pure! And it will get purified! When the Spirit comes into her, she will start testifying for the one that is within and without Now, the Spirit that already works; let it enlighten you, let it urge your soul, your heart, your mind to the resolution of the most significant issue. The other issues you may resolve, but this issue is basic in the Supreme Divine Teaching, a cardinal issue it is. It is this issue that you have to resolve and then you will resolve all the issues one after another. Let’s have a secret prayer. We shall read ‘Our father’ in a low voice. We shall read the good prayer in a very low voice. Stick to the rule not to allow discouragement now. Now you are closer to the Kingdom of God than you were in the past. You will reflect on this issue. It does not have to be an obstacle to you, but an issue on which the resolution of all other issues depends. Every woman has to resolve this issue without any hesitation; she has to know this! Once you resolve this issue in your soul, when the Spirit comes, the issue is resolved on its own accord. You can work only in this way. You yourselves may resolve the issue, it is not one of the most difficult issues, but it is the easiest issue. But you constantly put it off for later, while it is this issue that you have to resolve first. ‘But this Spirit of Truth, He will testify for me’; and elsewhere it is said, ‘He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything what I have said.’ Next time I shall talk further on. Next time, after a month I will tell women what they have to do when they find this Man [Husband]. The Spirit that is coming will open your minds and will tell you what you have to do then. Women have to take part in all actions in the world. Women impede the world. The fate of the world and the keys to the total salvation depend on you! And now, since you have not resolved the most significant issue, you mislead your sons and daughters. You will call your daughter and you will speak to her about the great Truth inside Life. She has to know the Truth, why should you delude her? There is no happiness; you will be skinned like an ox. Say, ‘May the Will of God be performed!’ The Will of God is performed only according to the law of Love. Hence, you have to understand me in a very wide sense, not in a narrow sense. You will understand [gain understanding] about your elevation in a cardinal way, fundamentally! Not only you, but all the women in the whole world keep resolving this issue. Those who used to raise this issue would have resolved it, but the world war broke out and they discontinued for a while. They brought up the issue about women’s emancipation. It takes no emancipation, but a cardinal understanding of the issue. The war broke out, men and women intertwined, and now they cannot resolve the issue fundamentally. But the issue has to be resolved. You live in a very important epoch, or as secular people say ‘in an epoch of historical significance’. Now or never! This is the edge of the issue. If you do not resolve this issue now, you will never resolve it. You have to have an open heart, and not to say, ‘We are not good.’ The Lord will obliterate your sins; He will throw them behind His back and won’t look at them. But the way you are now, you cannot even pray. You now pray to perform God’s Will, but tomorrow you seek one of those, somebody else’s man and you say, ‘Who will feed me?’ Enough, eight thousand years of slavery should be enough! Since it is eight thousand years old, the strap is about to break. It is time for a human being to break once and for all with the strap of evil. It is a great evil from which a human being has to break free and from which one has to part. And then one will turn one’s mind to God and will understand that there is no change, no betrayal in him or her. It is the same human being. It is not a man. It is the Great Spirit and there is no change in Him. He is called the one coming from the benevolent womb, He is merciful, full of Love for those who repent, who perform His Will. This issue you will resolve now! You shall not entertain illusions and shall not say, ‘I am not like the other women.’ I have one request to you: do not entertain any illusions that you are not like the other women. Try to be like this Woman. I haven’t spoken about the One Woman yet, I haven’t told you what the One Woman is like. Come on, I congratulate you with the Spirit! You have to attack now and you have to charge and enter. Everybody with the Spirit, with the Word of God! You will resolve the important issue not with your needles pointed ahead, but with the Word of God. Master’s lecture Delivered on 10 November 1921 15:00h in Sofia [1] [whom you no longer trust so much] or [in whom your confidence is a little shaken] [2] To Editor: if this sentence in ‘’ is a quotation from the Bible, I will need the reference = chapter, line… [3] To Editor: this is most probably a quotation – unfortunately I see no reference as to book, chapter, line. [4] To Editor: in many instances the original text reads ‘woman’ or ‘man’ – but it is evident from the context that the 2 words refer to married people – I translated as ‘husband’ and rarely as ‘wife’ in places where I felt it inappropriate to refer to a woman as somebody’s woman. However, if the convention is ‘man’ and ‘woman’ even though referring to married people – please feel free to substitute at your discretion. In Bulgarian the colloquial style has ‘my man’=‘my husband’ & ‘my woman’=‘my wife’ which I am afraid is not exactly the case elsewhere. [5] To Editor: perhaps a quotation – no reference though [M1]Unclear. What is meant by behind your confidence? {who has lost her confidence} or {who you have lost confidence in} [M2]Give them what? [M3]{be} [M4]{be} [M5]Maybe this sentence should be checked again. Perhaps the word externally is meant to be internally. [M6]This sentence contradicts the previous one, in addition, sin cannot be internal and inside the soul. {Sin is not something internal, and it is not inside the soul.} or {Sin is external, not inside the soul.}

From The beauty of life Awakening Of The Collective Consciousness Lecture given by Beinsa Douno August 19, 1921, Veliko Tarnovo Please, be so kind to listen to me; I am not going to speak long. Wise persons do not need long speeches, what they need is a short, but sensible and comprehensible talk. With all my compliments and respect to you I would like to speak to you concisely and clearly, the way I would speak to intelligent people. Life on Earth is music. It flows in three directions. Let me express this in musical terms – sometimes life follows a major scale, as in the case when military men express themselves; at other times it follows a minor scale – the way sorrow is expressed; and finally it follows a chromatic scale, which includes the first two scales. These are three great methods, three great laws that regulate our lives. When we do not understand the deep inner meaning of Life, we focus on nonessential matters and we ask ourselves why Life is organized the way it is and not differently. Be aware that I maintain the positive view of experiential science in Life, which we have verified ninety nine times, and as a result we do not have even one hundred millionth of a doubt about what we say. Doubt is an indication of ignorance in the world. I do not imply that ignorance is bad; but it represents a process of development. For example, all infants are born ignorant and their consciousness should be gradually awakened and developed further on. Hence, human consciousness, if I am to express myself in strict scientific language, passes through three stages: essential, substantial and material stage. The essential stage includes the principles of Life; the substantial stage includes the laws of Life and the material stage – the facts of Life. Therefore, grouped facts in the world, i.e. aggregated personal little experiences, form a law and we say that this law is expressed one way or another. Currently, contemporary scientists refer to the law as something mechanical, but it is a living essence. A law can exist only in beings who are elevated, whose consciousness has passed through the material stage – from the facts to the laws, from the individual to the general and from the general to the whole. We ask ourselves about the most important thing for us once we are here on Earth. In the present circumstances people think that life on Earth is most important when they are well off materially; so all nations individually and collectively are striving for their material security and wellbeing. That is why today we have the so-called economic struggle. The current aspiration of nations towards the material is a trend. Hence, human consciousness advances from the material to the substantial stage or in other words the collective consciousness in man is in a process of awakening. Until now, similar to the animal world, humanity has been living in collective sub-consciousness and from now on entire humanity is advancing to collective consciousness, in other words people are beginning to realize that they need one another. Until now everyone has being living for himself alone, everyone has been seeking his personal salvation. But at present humanity as a whole is moved by an inner impulse towards the improvement of the common status, not only of one, but of all social classes and, moreover, it is happening wisely; not as we currently think that we will be able to improve our individual lives ourselves.Thousands and thousands of years ago humanity itself ruined its own wellbeing. There are reasons for that, but I am not going to elaborate on them. Once upon a time the Earth was like Paradise: the vegetation was so diverse that there were thousands and millions of fruits and as a result people lived only on fruits. However, due to certain physical reasons, the ice age befell the Earth. Consequently, its fertility decreased and people began to use meat, to kill and eat not only animals but also one another. That is why the following saying still exists among people, "I will suck out your blood". Well, I ask you: if one sucks out someone else's blood, what will they gain? If one kills someone else, what will he gain? This is a misconception of Life. Not only people as a whole do not get along, but religious and spiritual people have also lost the correct understanding of Life, though they are in the forefront, considering that they have a connection and communion with God and considering that they have the right to lead. I am telling you the Truth. It is not that others do not want to tell you the Truth or that they hide it intentionally, but it is just natural for them. If a thorn gets stuck in someone's foot, this person becomes nervous. Take the thorn out and he will calm down. Therefore, if people of today are bad, it is because each one has a thorn in their flesh bothering them all the time. Apostle Paul said that he had a thorn that constantly bothered him. I have never met a person without a thorn. While the thorn is lodged in us, we cannot be clear-sighted and think properly. Our philosophy is distorted because of the thorn. Take the thorn out and you will have a sound philosophy of Life. An English merchant asked a preacher to explain to him what was taught in the Bible. The preacher spoke of this and that. The merchant then said, "No, no, tell me concretely and in a few words what this teaching is about." He wanted to grasp the essence, to see the kernel outside its shell. Finally the preacher advised him, "Buy yourself the Bible: you can learn lots of things from it." The merchant bought the Bible and read a lot from it, but since then his business began to deteriorate and he suffered big losses. "Ever since I bought this book only misfortunes have come upon me", he said to himself angrily. Eventually he threw the book in the fire. While the Bible was burning, a small shred of a page fell to the side. He took it and read: "God is Love." At present contemporary Christians keep asking, what is Christianity, what type of religion is it? They go around saying, that Christianity is this and that. No, no, God is Love which has to unite all people in order for them to live in Love, Peace and Brotherhood[1], regardless whether they are kings, rulers or of any other social position; these are secondary matters. All people should live according to Love as brothers and sisters, respecting one another. They have to share everything willingly: not by force, but voluntarily and consciously. Once we touch upon this subject, other questions arise: is there an afterlife or not, which religion is the most truthful and so on. I say, there is only one Teaching in the world that can improve our homes and this is the Teaching of wise Love, not contemporary class love. Principal Love – this is Love containing self-sacrifice, love of the mothers, brothers, friends, saints, love of the most enlightened persons in the world. Once this Love comes to dwell in us, our eyes will be opened. At present there are many people in the world, who doubt whether or not humans possess a sixth sense and whether they can see with it. Everyone can see with it. When a young lad falls in love with an unattractive girl, he sees in her what the rest cannot see. He says, "She is a jewel." When we love someone, we see their abilities and talents. Where are they? There is a place, where we see these talents. However, when we do not love someone, we assign the worst qualities to them, saying that they are like this or that. Now a great law is becoming effective in the world. Be aware that the world has entered a new stage and even ten years will not pass before this trend will be intensified. This great law is currently at work in all human beings; it is acting in human minds and hearts. One can see the activation of this law in the fact that all people of today are restless. Why are they feeling restless? If they were poor, we could say that they had to work a lot and as a result they became restless. This is understandable. But why are scientists and rich people restless? In addition, religious people are also restless and all people are restless. Why? – Because they have only beliefs, but not faith. If today there were persecutions of one's faith, I do not know how many would withstand. All people are Christians today, because no one persecutes them, but one's faith is tested and proven in difficulties. Self-sacrifice is tested in poverty, deprivation and hard moments. When one sacrifices one's life, it is also a test for their character. Therefore, which is the ultimate wellbeing in the world? – The wellbeing of an individual, nation, society as a whole or entire humanity? These are all the same. An individual represents a miniature of entire humanity. Therefore, a nation in the process of its development reflects humanity in a miniature form. For this reason when we talk about an individual, we think of them as a seed. When we talk about a society, I deduce that the seed has started to grow. When we talk about a nation, I deduce that the seed has started to grow more and more and when we talk about humanity in its wholeness, I deduce that the seed is branching out, blooming and bearing fruit. If we understand Life in this way, we will know that everyone of us is a necessary part of humanity. We do not understand humanity in the way that half of it is created to live in Paradise and the other half – in hell. I know that when we perceive God as Love, we all live in Paradise and everything outside God is emptiness. But to know God, we must have Love. Every person, every form is a factor in this Love. The forms, in which we are living now, are not completed. Do you think that you have come to the Earth for the first time; that you were born for the first time? No, each of you has a long history and if someone describes your history, you will be very interested to see who you were in the past and who you will be in the future. This is a great process, through which we are passing. For example, when someone is elevated and noble, they are aware that all people should live in Love. Whoever they are, they will use all conditions in life to contribute to the common wellbeing. Only Love provides all these conditions. I am not going to elaborate on and explain the reasons for the struggles in the world. In my view, they appear naturally. I will illustrate them with the following example: take two trees, planted next to one another. These two trees with their multitudes of leaves, blooms and branches live well together just like brothers, and they bill and coo; but all of a sudden a wind comes out and their leaves and branches intertwine and twist together. The wind grows stronger, a storm rises up and the branches collide. They ask one another, "What are you doing!? Why are you twisting like that?" I ask, is the reason for this external or internal? – The reason is external. At present, the reasons for misunderstandings among people are external – these are the economic conditions. This is the wind that makes people quarrel and struggle among themselves. Some ask how long this storm will last. A storm can last twenty-four or forty-eight hours, but no longer than three days and then all the leaves will rest still. Currently, there is a storm in the world that is pushing and sifting us; there will be broken legs and arms. But do not grow angry, this storm will soon subside. This social storm will end in forty-five years, but only if people grow wiser. However, if they do not learn from their experiences how to improve their lives, the storm will continue even longer. And if they learn from their experiences, the storm will subside sooner, because the great law governing the world is intelligent – regardless if one is a believer or not. There is a rational force, a great law in the world that compels people – both believers and atheists – to think and to act identically. Many times I see people who do not believe in God, do not go to church, but jump in the water and risk their lives to rescue someone. The law in such a person is not mechanical; they were born with a different law – the law of self-sacrifice. Therefore, they have within themselves something greater than the formal religion. Religion came into the world later. Some people ask, "Are you religious?" One can be religious and yet – dishonest. Religion is not a label, indicating one's honesty. To test this assertion you should visit, for example, the merchants, who go to church and believe in God; then review their accounts and note how they sell. The law ruling the world is different. Love should live in their hearts; they have to be awakened and not to cheat their brothers and sisters. Thus, they will view the interests of others as their own interests and consequently they will not sell bad merchandise. We will have mutual understanding, only if we view our work in this way. If we view one another according to our nationality – asking one another "Are you Bulgarian, English, French or German?" – we will not have mutual understanding. We say, "The Bulgarians are bad." These are individual ideas and not collective consciousness; this has not yet been a Divine law. The Divine principle has not yet been manifested in nations. All nations care only about their own economy. No nation is more privileged than another one, because each nation has its own place. For example, if I raise my hand and stretch one of my fingers upward, and this same finger has decided that it is the most privileged of all, what will happen? This one finger shows only the direction, but it cannot function alone; work is accomplished by all fingers used together as each one has its own place on the hand. Only when all fingers act together our hand as a whole will fulfill its obligations and will present a symbol of will. Hence, when a nation realizes its position as a part, as an organ in the entire organism of humanity, which is obliged to accomplish its work on time, then it will be at its right place. Contemporary people want to support the old god. We know who the old god is. Do not feel offended. This old god has brought all the wars, violence and misery. In the God of Love however, there is not a single lie. This God of Love watches all human beings and even the smallest creatures with equal love and compassion, being ready to help everyone. And when a little being, whose form is destroyed, comes to Him, it is given another form with the words, "Continue your work, do not be afraid and go forward!" I am asking now, what have we gained after being alive here on Earth for fifty-sixty years? Let us suppose that a mother has a beautiful daughter, an excellent lass, who is well dressed and happy to be surrounded by many young men. I ask how long her happiness will last: five, ten or fifteen years. Gradually her face will wrinkle, losing its beauty and freshness, and it will become ugly, so finally the young men will abandon her. Other beauties will appear to replace her and eventually she will become discontent, feeling that her life has no meaning and she is not happy. At the beginning she was content with life, but later on it became meaningless for her. She was in the position of that European writer who wrote a book pointing that there was not a nobler being on Earth than man and that life was good; but after the author went through a crisis and was disappointed by people, he wrote another book stating that there was not a worse being on Earth than man and that the world was bad. Therefore, when we are doing really well, we say, "Everything is great, God is very good." But if we encounter a disaster, a misfortune or an action, which we did not anticipate, we say, "There is not a more unjust God in the world than this One." The world follows its defined path. Some time ago a highly intelligent and well-educated woman came to me asking to help her resolve the following puzzle or problem: her husband, when he was still a young man visited Antwerp during an exhibition. He had heard of a man in that town, who could tell people their future while he was asleep. Her husband became interested to hear what this man would tell him and he decided to pay him a visit. The sleeping man told him, "You are going to marry at a very young age, you will have four children, but one of them will die. You will marry your wife for love and will enjoy a happy family life for ten years. After that a blond woman will enter your home, she will destroy your life and you will go to live with her. If you pass this test, in ten or fifteen years you will go back to your first wife and you will live very well together." "In fact", said the woman, "one of our children died. When this happened I found among my husband's papers this note telling his future. The blond woman came into our home and destroyed our life." Then she asked me what to do, whether she should leave her husband. I told her to follow closely what would happen and to see if the rest of the prediction would come true. She asked me how such things were possible. I told her, "Life is predetermined, not in a fatal way, but there are certain reasons predetermining human destinies." Our life, such as it is developing now, is also predetermined by many preceding causes. If we take advantage of these causes, we can improve our lives, we can fight evil in the world and overcome it. The Hindus call this karma or the fall of man. We are able to fight the fall of man. A man who can fall down and sin can also stand up and win. However, contemporary religious people go into another extreme in their beliefs: they claim that religion by itself will improve our life completely. This statement is half-true. Religion cannot improve our lives completely. As just mentioned this statement is 50% true, because we can control over 50% of our destiny, but there are also other factors regulating our lives and constituting the remaining 50%. I say, 50% of our lives depend on destiny and Nature, 25% – on our own selves and 25% – on the society. Therefore, when these three factors begin to work together, there will be spiritual and moral uplift and improvement. For this to happen, many souls should obligatorily come down to work in one direction. When the spring comes, does it come with only one flower? – No, it comes with millions and millions of flowers. Later on the bees come; and the bustle commences in Nature. That is how unity is created. Consequently, from an esoteric point of view, we resemble little flowers that have just blossomed, i.e. our consciousness is at such a level of development that we have just begun to discern good and evil. You may say, "Well, one has to lie a little." No, in the conscious life lie is absolutely not permitted, just as in mathematics mistakes whatsoever are not permitted, because any mistake that slips into architecture or technology will result in undesirable consequences. Similarly, the lies we admit in our lives will affect our structure in the same way as the wrong calculations made by an architect will affect a building. Contemporary spiritual people should at least have rules, the way the musicians do. Assign a musical piece to the latter and all of them will keep time during its performance. Commission a painting to a couple of notable painters and all of them will paint it according to the same law. Give a problem to a couple of mathematicians and they will solve it according to the same law. When we consider the spiritual life, we say, "We do not need music, we do not need calculations. God will take care of everything." No, friends, the spiritual life requires strict mathematics, everything is precisely determined there. Whether a person or a nation is happy or not will depend on certain facts that are permitted. Hence, this great law that regulates the life of the present-day European nations has placed them in their current position. The present civilization that has almost reached its end, began in Egypt, went through Syria, Persia, Rome, England, Germany, America and it is now passing into Russia again, then it is returning to the Eastern continent. From there it will go into a different direction. The wave that is currently coming into the world, stirring humanity, is not mechanical. All of you are destined to take part in it, never mind if you want it or not. And we have to participate in it consciously. What constitutes the nobility of a nation? Why are the English people noble? – Because collective consciousness has been awakened in them. Though they make mistakes, they correct them with ease. The highest concentration of occultists is among them. Each nation, in which collective consciousness is being awakened, realizes to a certain degree that everything should be in accordance with and in subordination to the common goal. The English people have understood this idea to a certain degree. This consciousness is awakening not only among the English people, but all over the world. It has penetrated all poor people, poor widows and orphans. Do you know your situation today? It is similar to the story of an American preacher, who had the custom to invite poor children to his home and to feast them every day. Ahead of each meal they said Grace together. One day he saw an orphan, a little child. He took him to his home to give him food, but he told him in advance, "Let us say Grace together." They began, Our Father, Who are in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. The child paused in silence. "Why are you silent?" The child asked, "So, the Lord is our Father?" – "Yes, He is." "So you are my brother?" What the child meant by these words was, "You are a preacher, you sleep in a soft bed, you eat well and what about me, brother – I shiver in the cold, I go to bed hungry." The preacher understood his own situation. This is our situation today as well. Christ has come to save the world. We recite, Our Father Who are in Heaven. There should not be poor people in any nation; it is a shame to have poor people today! There should not be poor widows in any nation! It is a shame that today our brothers and sisters have to sell their honor for bread! Thousands of our sisters and brothers are in brothels at present, selling their honor. We say, "There is God, there is Christ in church, in Heaven." Yes, this Christ came for the dissolute – to save them; He did not come for the righteous ones. Hence, today we should have the fortitude to rectify our past mistakes. We should rectify them by all means. We should hold out our hand to our brothers and sisters, who have fallen. Currently, all suffer from misconceived Love. Deprive any flower, any plant of sunlight and you will witness the abrupt change that will occur. Deprive any being of Love and you will witness the same law in action. Therefore, we should talk about the God of the future not as some distant being, but as a Being working in our hearts, so that we can do His Will and abide by His law voluntarily, without pressure. Now all of you are summoned to this great feast in the world. The God of Love has called upon you regardless of your position and your creed. Today He is calling upon you to rise and to take an upward step: not as Bulgarians, Evangelists, Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims, but as intelligent beings, as brothers coming from one Father, with the same blood in their veins. The same blood flows in the veins of all people. If we grasp this fact, we will grasp the New teaching, and thus religion will be reformed. If the future religion does not comprehend this great law, it is condemned to be titled "May it rest in peace" for a hundred years. I am saying a great truth. The clergy should know it and inscribe the following sign on the church: God is Love and we will all sacrifice ourselves for Love. All bishops, priests, mothers, teachers, judges should write down this law. The common principle must be Love. And when we meet one another, we should know that we are brothers and sisters. Then we will have different knowledge and different science; the current barriers among us will disappear. And a new life will commence, bringing peace and joy: peace to our minds, joy to our hearts and power to our human will. Now it is time for all of us to live in this collective consciousness, to realize that there is no death. The human soul and consciousness do not die. The human body is modified, the form is altered, but that is not essential. One changes many bodies, many organs, but as a developing soul, as consciousness in Nature, one does not cease to exist. This is a fact without any exceptions. Examine the Truth and you will see. Therefore, I tell you: examine the Truth that is implanted in you, look for your ideal within yourselves, in your souls. You will not find this ideal outside. It is implanted in your souls, minds and bodies, the same way as energy is implanted in the seed and the seed is implanted in the ground. It draws the juices from the soil and thus creates all of its organs. Thus the human spirit uses all the energies implanted in our bodies to create the organs of the human body according to the same law. I will mention the following fact: how many years were necessary for the creation of your hand? The finger joints reveal for how many millions of years man has existed; they reveal the history of humanity, the history of the human development, the state through which the whole of humanity has passed. If I told you that the human finger recounts the whole history of man, you would say that this was impossible. Well, for those who do not understand the laws of Nature, it is a fantasy. Once I was walking with some friends in a pine tree forest. We stopped in front of a pine tree and I said, "The branch rings of this pine tree show the years when there was excess moisture and those when there was less moisture. This can be inferred from these branch rings". You can verify this fact. Therefore, when there was plenty of rain during the year, the distance between the branch rings grew longer and vice versa – if the rainfall during the year was scant, the distance grew shorter. So, it is possible to quantify mathematically and to determine approximately the dampness through time. This is how dampness affects trees. Our bodies are also affected by certain events – individual, social and national. Are you aware of this? We carry the sins of entire humanity. Do not think that we who are far away from Africa do not carry the sins of the Africans. Yes, we do. There is an inner force connecting people together and interweaving their lives. Hence, in the future when we grasp this great law, we will realize that all people should create a good environment for all contemporary miseries to be avoided. Many times I repeated that only mothers could create it. Every mother after conceiving a child regardless of its gender, must say, "Daughter, son, in the future I want you to live according to the law of Love and to represent its fullness." If she says this, she will have a daughter or a son hero, who will live according to the law of Love. Each mother is to instill this idea in her children. The young people who are getting married must say, "Our sons and daughters should live for Love, for the God of Love Who unites people." The new generation will be bearers of new ideas, of Divine Love. However, if we continue the way we are currently living, if we were born in this miserly way and still want to reform people who have been working for thousands of years, we will achieve nothing. One can be reformed only in the womb of the mother, so that one would live in Love of God; people cannot reform themselves. Only mothers can recreate their children, reforming them. A person can influence only 50% of their reformation on their own. They are like a ship without a rudder that can be tossed by the waves in any direction. Therefore, the environment for women should be improved in the future. Women who conceive must have the best environment, but also the surroundings of children should be improved. In addition, we should not go about it mechanically, but according to the law acting in Living Nature. Nature is alive and perfect; I read in Her what beautiful methods She has! If the Bulgarians apply the methods of Nature, they will improve their wellbeing! What immense riches are hidden in Nature! They could repay all of their debts in ten years. However, they should undertake the study of Living Nature. Yet, what do the Bulgarians currently do? – They await their salvation from somewhere; they expect it from where it will not come. And this salvation is hidden in Living Nature that has implanted its forces. People must put these forces in action; they should begin working according to the law of Love and for the good of others. In this way their blessing will descend upon them as well. Now, this Great law is calling people to brotherhood and sisterhood. Only then we can establish a new science of brotherhood and sisterhood. And what is our present science? It is like a little lamb that a child looks after, kisses it and makes wreaths for it. One day the mother says to her child, "For my little baby to live, we have to slaughter this lamb". The little child cries. You will say, "Well, this is the way we should live." Do you think that this child will be well brought up? The child will ask, "How is it possible for God Who is so good to allow the slaughter of this lamb?" – "Well, my dear, God ordered it that way." No, it is not God Who ordered Life this way; it is us who did it. Let us now free ourselves from these delusions! Let us not think that God organized the world in this way. No, lambs should not be slaughtered. Currently, we have a culture for killing, for crippling the legs of this or that person. Only gun-shots are heard. All say, "This is for the sake of our homeland." However, what benefit did wars confer to humanity? – Absolutely no benefit. People grew ferocious and their wars brought about today's depravity. And future wars will not bring anything good either. We are supposed to fight, but in what way? – To fight, but not to kill. The law of Love is calling people now. The most capable, the greatest, the best persons – mothers, fathers, teachers, priests, selfless people should come to undertake this great work. If they do not arrive on time, others will. Now I will summarize my conclusions as follows: I do not intend in the least to pressure you to believe, but I want you to test them. Experiences, experiences are needed and nothing more! There exists an inner experience. As each plant should find its soil and the conditions suitable for its growth, so every person in the world should find favorable conditions for their growth and development. Never think that your living conditions are unfavorable. These are only subjective conceptions. In the development of collective consciousness every person occupies a precise position. However, we delude ourselves and we say, "Why am I not like this gentleman?" Do not look at this gentleman from outside; he may be rich, he may eat plenty of gourmet meals, but he is unhappy, his inner life is rotten, he has a heart defect, his stomach is malfunctioning. While the other one, the poor, does not have similar riches, but he is healthy and can enjoy his meals. One's happiness is determined by the disposition of the spirit – when one is content with what he receives in a particular moment. When people unite, they must have the same ideas. The ideas of all of us should be right[2]. I do not say that they are always right, but they should be individually right. Hence, from an individual, social and national point of view we should amend our ideas and introduce new ones that are coming to the world from above. We should devise our thoughts and feelings properly, the way plants craft their forms. Some people say, "Nowadays life is very hard." No, as I mentioned before, nowadays you have the most favorable conditions of life. You are in the position of the Jewish people who left Egypt. In the desert you may not have meat and some other things, but you will have water and clean air and a Pharaoh will not command you. It is better for you to be free in the desert than to be slaves who eat meet and indulge in all pleasures, while the Pharaoh urges you on with his whip and orders you, "You will make tiles and bricks!" And we answer: "What can we do, we will make them." No, we are not going to make bricks and tiles any more. There is a long road before us in the desert of the Divine life. All young people who are able to walk should take a backpack and go forward. Do you know what you will be then? – When you meet someone, you will freely continue along your way. At present, when you meet someone, you shrink and hide in case he may rob you or stick his hand in your pocket. You say, "He is a thief." I say, today the world is full of thieves. Can you tell me who is not a thief, who has not inserted a hand in the father's pocket? Who has not taken from the forbidden fruit? In the future, when we enter a fruit garden, we will say according to the law of Love, "Brother, may I pick fruits from your garden or will you pick them for me?" And he will say, "Yes, you may, brother, help yourself!" When I go to a friend, I will say, "Brother, may I spend the night in your house?" – "You may." This should be the New teaching. What will you say now? "Sir, there is a hotel; go there as we do not have spare rooms, there is a housing shortage, etc." And thus the matter will be closed. Now, when you meet someone, you begin to question him, "Are you Bulgarian, do you believe in God, to which party do you belong, etc." I am not saying that these things are bad, but they are not essential. The noble feeling of brotherhood has to permeate us, so when we meet someone – a woman or a man, we would recognize this one as our brother or sister. If you are able to cultivate this feeling of brotherhood, you will set humanity on a new foundation. Then the current misunderstanding among us will not persist, but there will be a just aspiration instead. This is the Divine teaching that is currently coming into the world. The little children have undertaken it and in ten years they will proclaim it. In ten years the caterpillars will leave their pupae to fly on their wings. They will say, "No, there is no need for pupae." This law is coming to the world. Now the facts are grouped and the laws established. We are passing from the material to the spiritual world; everything is transferred from the individual to the social level. In other words, let us not think only about the law of insurance – whereby everyone cares about leaving an inheritance of a couple of million to be distributed upon their death here and there. They make "benefactions" for the rest to say, that so and so died and left that much money, therefore he or she was a magnanimous person. No, in the future people will not die and will not need monuments. Consequently, instill Love as an aspiration in your heart, as a feeling in your soul, as a force in your mind and as a principle in your spirit. In this lies the salvation of the human spirit. Thereby, we should understand Love in these three aspects: as an irresistible downward aspiration in the heart; as an upward feeling in the soul; as a force expanding the human mind and containing the conscious principle, through which we realize why we live, why we have come, where we have come from and what is our purpose on Earth. [1]Brotherhood – all words referring to brotherhood throughout the lectures are used to denote both brotherhood and sisterhood. [2]Right – the original text uses the Bulgarian word "prav", which can be translated as all of the following: correct, right and straight. Translated by Maia Atanasova, Maria Braikova, Jana Rupchina and Oleg Rupchin Source

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE AWAKENING OF THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Please, be so kind as to listen to me. I am not going to speak long. It is not necessary to speak at length to a wise person. In such a case, it is enough to speak a little but understandably and sensibly. Since I have great respect and deference for you, I would like to speak to you briefly and understandably as to people of awareness. Life on Earth is like music going in three directions. Expressed in musical terms: sometimes it goes along a major course, as the military would express it; sometimes it follows a minor direction and that is the way, in which sorrow manifests itself and sometimes it moves along a chromatic scale, in which the two previous scales are included. These are three great methods or three Great Laws that regulate our life. When we do not understand the deep intrinsic meaning of Life, we tend to emphasize nonessential things and then we ask ourselves why Life is arranged this and not another way. Keep in mind that I share the positive outlook of a science, which has been applied and ninety-nine times verified in life so there is no doubt in even one hundred millionth part of what we say. Doubt is a sign of ignorance in this world. I do not say that ignorance is something bad; it signifies a process of development. All little children are ignorant at birth so their consciousness needs to be gradually awakened and developed. So, the human consciousness (to express myself in a strictly scientific language) passes through three stages: essential, substantial, and material. The essential part includes the Principles of Life; the substantial one contains the Laws of Life; and the material side consists of the facts of Life. Therefore, a Law is formed by the classification of facts in the world, in other words, when we model the particular small experiences which we attain, we say that the Law is expressed in one or another way. Currently, modern people of science claim that the Law is something mechanical, but actually the Law represents a living essence. The Law can only exist through those beings who have awareness, whose consciousness has passed over the material stage and has gone from the facts to the Laws, from the individual to the collective consciousness, and from the collective to the universal whole. We ask ourselves: what is most important for us after we have manifested ourselves on Earth. In the present conditions, people believe that the most important in the earthly life is material security. Therefore, all nations - both separately and collectively, are striving for their material betterment and security. And so, we have today the so-called economic struggle. The nations’ aspiration for material wealth is an evident trend. It is a sign that the human consciousness passes from the material to the substantial stage, that awakening of the collective consciousness of humankind is taking place now. So far, the humankind has been living in the collective subconsciousness, which is like that in animals. But from now on, the entire humankind is passing from individual to collective consciousness; that is to say, people begin to realize that they need one another. Until now, everyone has been living only for themselves; everyone has been seeking for their own salvation. And yet, now, an inner impulse toward the betterment of the collective conditions appears throughout the entire humankind so that the conditions might be improved not only for one social class but for all. Moreover, it happens in a conscious way and we need to let go of thinking that we can improve our life individually. No, humankind itself ruined its conditions thousands and thousands of years ago. There are reasons for this, but I am not going to explain them now. There was a time when the Earth resembled a paradise. The vegetation was abundant, there were thousands and millions of fruits and people ate only fruits. But then the ice age came on Earth, due to certain physical reasons. The fruit-growing was reduced and as a consequence, people began to eat meat, exterminating not only animals but each other as well, becoming even cannibals. For this reason, the expression, “I will suck your blood out,” exists even to this day among people. Well, I ask: What is the gain of the bloodsucker? What is the gain of someone who destroys the other person? This is a wrong understanding of Life. Not only that people, in general, do not get along with each other, but also the forefront religious and spiritual leaders who believe to have a connection and communion with God and the right to lead, they too, have lost the right understanding of Life. I am telling you the Truth. It is not that others do not want to tell you the truth or intentionally hide it from you, but that is what is natural for them. If someone has a thorn in his foot, he will get agitated. He could calm down only when the thorn is removed. Therefore, if people of today are bad, it is because they all have thorns in their flesh that disturb their peace. Apostle Paul said that he had a thorn making him restless. I have not met at least one person without a thorn pricked here or there. As long as this thorn is with us, we cannot think clearly, nor deliberate properly. Our philosophy is distorted due to this thorn. Remove this thorn and you will have the correct philosophy of Life. An Englishman, who was a merchant, asked an English preacher to tell him the basics of the Bible. The preacher told him this and that. The merchant objected, “No, no. Tell me specifically and in a few words, what this teaching is all about.” He wanted to see the kernel, like that of a nut, and in this way to grasp the teaching. Finally, the preacher told him, “Get yourself a Bible and you will learn many things from it.” The merchant purchased a Bible and read many things in it, but since the time when he acquired it, his affairs had begun to deteriorate and he suffered many losses. “Ever since I purchased this Book, many misfortunes have befallen me,” said the angry merchant to himself. One day, he threw the Bible into the fire. As the Bible was burning, a small shred from one page fell to the side and was salvaged. The merchant took this shred from the page and read it, “God is Love.” Contemporary Christians are asking now: What is Christianity, what kind of religion is it? And they go around saying that Christianity is this and that. No, no. God is Love that will unite all people to live in Love, Peace, and Brotherhood. Their job and social status are of secondary importance, never mind if they are kings, rulers, or in any other high position. All people should live in Love and mutual respect. Everything needs to be distributed in a brotherly way: not in a violent but in a voluntary and conscientious way. As soon as we consider this, other issues will also arise: Is there life after death, which religion is the most appropriate, and so on. I say: Only One Teaching exists in the world that can improve life and this is the Teaching of all-embracing Love. It is not the today’s love of different classes, but the principal Love, including self-sacrifice and comprising the love of mothers, brothers, friends, saints, and the most enlightened people in the world. After this Love comes to live in us, our eyes will open. Many in the world of today do not believe in the sixth sense and clairvoyance. In fact, everyone can have a spiritual sight. When a young man falls in love with an unattractive girl, obviously he sees in her certain things, which no one else can see. He compares her to a precious gem. It is because we see the endowments and gifts of the people we love. Where are they? There is a place where we see these hidden gifts. But when we do not love some people, we impute the worst qualities to them, saying that they are such and such. One Great Law is beginning to act in the world today. Keep in mind that the world is going into a new phase and in no more than ten years this process will be amplified. This Great Law gets to be applied in all humans, acting both in human minds and hearts. One can see that this Law is in action by the fact that all people of today are restless. Why are they restless? If they were poor, you would say they had become restless because of their hard work. I can understand this. But why are the scientists and rich people restless too? They have their worries, religious people have worries too - all are troubled. Why? It is because they have only beliefs but not faith. If a persecution for faith existed today, I am not sure how many would endure. Many people are Christians today because there is no one to persecute them. And yet, it is in times of troubles when a person’s faith is tested and becomes evident. Self-sacrifice is tested in poverty and deprivation, when hard times come. If people sacrifice their life, that is a test to their character. Now, what is the greatest good in the world? Is it the well being of the individual, nation, society, and the entire humankind? It is the same: the individual is a microcosm of the entire humankind. Therefore, a nation in its development represents the humankind but in a smaller form. Consequently, when we speak of an individual, we imply that a person represents a seed. When we speak of a society, we assume that this seed has sprouted. When we speak of a nation, we mean that the seed has begun to develop. And when we speak of the humankind in its integrity, we understand that the seed is branching out, blooming, and bearing fruit. If we understand Life in this way, we become aware that every one of us is an essential member of the humankind. We do not consider the humankind to be divided into halves: as if one half is created to live in paradise and the other half - in hell. I know this: As far as we are aware that God is Love, we all live in paradise, but without such awareness, everything is meaningless. We shall have Love so that we might come to know God. Within Love, every human being and every form is a factor. These forms in which we exist today are not finished. Do you think that you come to Earth for the first time, that you are born for the first time now? No, all of you have a long history of incarnations and if someone can tell you this history, it will be interesting for you to learn who you were in the past and who you will be in the future. This is an important process through which you are passing. For example, an elevated person of noble character will be aware that all should live in Love. No matter what one’s position is - one should use all living conditions so that to contribute to the common good. Only Love gives these beneficial conditions. I am not going to explain to you the causes for strife in the world. In my view, these causes arise naturally. I will illustrate them with the following example. Take two trees planted close to one another. Notwithstanding the multitude of leaves, flowers, and branches they have, they live comfortably, brotherly and speak to each other. But suddenly, when the wind comes up, their branches and leaves intertwine and get entangled in each other. Then the wind grows stronger, a storm erupts and the branches batter one another violently. They begin asking one another, “What are you doing?” My question is: What is the cause for this, is it internal or external? The cause is external. The cause for people’s misunderstandings today is also external; this is the economic situation. This is the “wind,” causing misunderstandings and fights among people. Some people may ask: How long will the storm last? A storm can last 24 or 48 hours, 3 days at most; and after that, all leaves will come to rest. The storm brewing in the world is pushing and sifting us at present. There will be many fractured legs and heads. For this reason, do not be angry; this storm will soon subside. In 45 years, this social storm will pass over, but only if people become wiser. However, if they do not learn a lesson from their experience and improve their living, this storm will last even longer. Should they learn from their experience, the duration of the storm will be less because the Great Law, which governs the world, is wise regardless if one is a believer or not. There is a Great Intelligent Power, a Great Law in the world that compels both believers and non believers to think and act in the same way. I often see people who do not believe in God and do not go to church, but yet, they are going to jump in the water and risk their own life in order to save someone. It is not the existing mechanical law that acts in such individuals, but another one - the Law of Self-sacrifice, which is innate to their nature. Therefore, they bear within themselves something greater than the conventions of religion. Religion appeared in the world at a later time. Some people ask, “Are you religious?” A person can be religious and still be dishonest. Religion is not a label that indicates whether a person is honest or not. To verify this, visit, for example, all merchants who go to church and say they believe in God, then check the status of their accounts and the principles of doing their business. It is a different Law that is governing their world. Love should come to live in their hearts and they need to awake, as to stop cheating their brethren. It will make them regard the interests of other people as their own interests and consequently, they will no longer sell inferior merchandise to their fellowmen. It is only when we regard our affairs this way that we would attain mutual understanding. If we want to take position on the grounds of nationality and begin asking: Are you Bulgarian, are you English, French, German - we would never come to a mutual understanding. We say, “It is not good to be a Bulgarian.” This opinion would represent some individual ideas but not the collective consciousness, so it would not be a manifestation of the Divine Law yet. The Divine Principle has not yet been revealed in nations. In these nations of today, each one is looking out for its own affairs. There is not a chosen nation, which to be preferred over the others; each nation has its own place and role. For example, if I raise my hand and extend one of my fingers and if this finger believes to have supremacy over the others, what will happen? This finger is showing only the direction of things, but one cannot work with it only; work is accomplished by using all fingers, each finger in its own place on the hand. Only when all fingers act together, we can rely on our hand as an emblem of the willpower: then we can fulfill our obligations as the hand is doing its duties. Therefore, a nation can find its place, when it realizes its position as a part of the humankind, as an organ of the whole body, as to fulfill its obligations at the right time. People of today are still supporting the old god. We know who he is. Do not be offended. This old god has brought all wars, violence, and misfortune. On the other hand, there is absolutely no lie in the God of Love. He regards all people, including even the smallest living beings, with the same Love and compassion, always ready to help them all. Whenever a small being whose form has been destroyed comes to Him, God gives it a new form and says, “Do not be afraid. Go forward and continue your work.” Now I am asking: what have we gained by the end of our life after living on Earth for about 50–60 years? Let us assume that mother has given birth to a beautiful daughter, who has become an excellent young woman, she dresses well and many young men are surrounding her, so she is happy. I ask: How long will this last, 5–10–15 years? Gradually, her face will get wrinkled; she will lose her beauty and freshness; she will not be as pretty as before, and the young men will abandon her. Another beauty will appear to replace her and finally, she will be discontented that her life has become meaningless and she is no longer happy. She was contented at first, but afterward her life became meaningless. She is like that European writer who first wrote a book affirming that life is wonderful and humans are most elevated among the living beings on Earth. But after passing through a crisis and reflecting people’s disappointment, the same author wrote another book stating that the world is bad and there is no being on Earth worse than the human being. Therefore, when everything goes well in our lives, we say, “Everything is beautiful. God is very good.” Should a tragedy, some misfortune, or unexpected event befall us, right then we say, “There is no God in the world more unjust than the present One.” The world follows its predetermined course. Some time ago, a well-educated and intelligent woman came to see me. She wanted me to answer her question, to resolve a predicament, namely the following: When the exhibition in Anvers took place, her husband was still a young man and was in Anvers at that time. He heard about a man who lived in the town and who was a sleeping prophet and fortune-teller. Her husband got interested to learn his fortune from him. He went to his home and the sleeping man told him the following, “You will marry very young. You will have four children. One of them will die. Your marriage will be of love and you will have a happy family life for 10 years. After that, a blond woman will visit your home. She will ruin your marriage and you will get to live with her. If you pass this trial, after 10–15 years you will return to your first wife and you will live very well.” “Truly,” said the woman, “one of our children passed away. When the child died, I found among my husband’s papers this slip of paper on which his future was described. This blond woman came into our home and ruined our life.” She asked me what she should do after that. Should she leave her husband? I told her to observe whether the remaining part of the prophecy will come true. She asked me to what extent such things are possible. I answered her: Life is not predetermined fatally, but still there are a number of reasons that predetermine people’s destiny. Our life, the way it is unfolding now, is also predetermined by a number of preceding causes. If we make use of them, we can improve this life; we can stand against the evil in the world and conquer it. The Hindu people call this karma or the Fall of man. We can struggle with this original sin. Those who can fall and sin - they can also rise up and be victorious. However, contemporary religious people go to extremes in their beliefs saying that religion will completely improve our lives. This is half true. Religion cannot improve life completely. Their assertion is only half true because we, ourselves, are also factors for our own destiny up to 50 percent. However, the other 50 percent of factors, which regulate our life, exist as well. I say: Destiny and Nature exert 50 percent influence in our life; we, ourselves - 25 percent; and the society - 25 percent. Therefore, when these three factors begin to work together, in esoteric and moral sense, an upliftment and improvement will come to life. For this to occur, many people should come to work in one direction without fail. When the spring is in, has it come with only one flower? No, it has come with millions of flowers and abundance of blossoms. After that the bees will come and unrest is stirring up everywhere in Nature. Thus the unity has been created. Therefore, from an esoteric point of view we are like little flowers that have just come out; that is to say, our consciousness is at such a stage of development, that we have only now begun to discern good from bad. You say at times, “One is always compelled to tell little lies.” No. Absolutely no lie is permitted in the conscious way of living. As in mathematics, no mistake can be admitted because any error in architecture or mechanics will bring undesirable consequences. When we allow a lie in our life, it will bring the same results to our being as incorrect calculations of an architect would show in a structure. Spiritual people of today observe some rules as musicians do. Give a musical composition to an orchestra and all will keep timing in the performance. Give an image to a few great artists and they all will paint it according to the same standard. Give a problem to several mathematicians and they will solve it complying with the same law. When we come to the spiritual life, however, we say, “We do not need music. We do not need calculations. God will solve everything.” No, friends, strict mathematics is required in the spiritual life; all things are strictly determined there. Whether one person or a whole nation is well or unhappy - it depends upon certain things, which have already happened. And so, this Great Law regulating the life of the contemporary European nations has put them in their deserved places. The present civilization, which is almost at its end, began in Egypt, went through Syria, Persia, Rome, England, Germany, and America - now it is returning again to Russia and the Eastern continent. From there, it will move in a different direction. This Wave coming into the world at this age and motivating the humankind is not mechanical. All of you are destined to participate in it, whether you want it or not. And we should better participate consciously. How is a nation’s dignity defined? Why are the English of noble characters? It is because their collective consciousness has been awakened. They make some mistakes, but then they correct them easily. One can find the greatest number of spiritual practitioners among them. Each nation which collective consciousness has awakened, realizes to a certain degree that it should comply with the common cause. The English have understood this to a certain degree. The collective consciousness is awakening not only in the English but throughout the planet. It makes its way among all poor people, among poor widows and orphans. Do you know the situation, in which you find yourselves today? You are in the position of that American preacher who had the custom of gathering poor children every day at his home to give them a meal. They usually said the prayer “Our Father” before eating. One day he found an orphan child, brought him to his home for a meal, and before they ate, he told him, “Let’s say the Lord’s prayer.’’ They began, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name.”[1] But the child stopped and stayed silent. “Why are you silent?” The child replied, “So it says that God is our Father?” “Yes.” “Then, it means that you are my brother!” With these words, the child wanted to say, “You are a preacher; you sleep in a warm bed and have good food. Yet, look at me brother! I shiver from the cold and go to bed hungry.” Thus the preacher got aware of his own situation. Well, now we should do the same. Christ came to save the world. We pray, “Our Father in Heaven...” There should not be poor people in any nation. It is shameful to have poor people today! There should not be poor widows in any nation. It is shameful that today our sisters and brothers must sell their honor for their daily bread! Thousands of our brothers and sisters are selling their honor in the brothels right now. And we preach in the church that there is God, there is Christ in Heaven. It is true. Christ came to Earth for these destitute women and men in order to save them; He did not come for the righteous ones. Therefore, today we must have the courage to correct our past errors. We are to correct them no matter how. We need to embrace our brothers and sisters who have fallen. All people are suffering today because of their misunderstanding of Love. Deprive any flower or plant of sunlight and you will witness the abrupt change that will take place with it. Deprive any person or being of Love and the same Law will apply. So, we should speak of God not as of some distant being of the future, but as a Being, Who is working in our hearts so that we might fulfill His Will and abide by His Law willingly. All of you are invited now to this Great feast of the world. God of Love is calling you to come regardless of your position or creed. He is calling you to advance a step not as Bulgarians, neither as Evangelist, Orthodox, Catholic, or Muslim but as intelligent beings and brothers who have one and the same Father with the same blood flowing in your veins. It is the same blood flowing in the veins of all people. If we can grasp this fact, it is the basis of the New Teaching, it is the way how religion could be reformed. If religion does not comprehend this Great Law, it will pass away within one hundred years in the future. I am telling a Great Truth. The clergy needs to understand this and put a sign on their churches, saying, “God is Love and we will all sacrifice ourselves for this Love.” All bishops, priests, mothers, fathers, teachers, judges should write down this Law. The common principle is Love. And when we all meet, we are going to recognize one another as brothers and sisters. We will have a different kind of knowledge then and a different science; then the barriers existing today between us will disappear. A New Life will begin bringing Peace and Joy: Peace to the mind, Joy to the heart, and Power to the human will. It is the time now when we need to live in this collective consciousness of the humankind, knowing that death does not exist. The human soul and consciousness do not pass away. The human body is transformed; its form is changed, but this is not essential. The human being changes many bodies and many organs, but it is not lost as a developing soul and consciousness in Nature. This is a fact without any exceptions. Verify the Truth and you will see. Verify the Truth invested inside yourself, seek your ideal in you, in your souls. You cannot find these ideals outside yourselves. Truth is in your souls, minds, bodies, just as the life-force is in the seed: the seed is planted in the soil, from which it draws essential substances to create all its organs and grow up. In the same way, all forces, which our bodies have inside, are used by the human spirit to create all organs of the human body in accordance with the same Law. I would dwell on the following question: How many years were needed for the creation of your hands? The joints of your fingers reveal the number of the millions of years of existence of the human being; they speak of the history of humankind, its development and the conditions through which it has passed. If I tell you that the human finger recounts the entire human history, you will say that this is impossible and it is nonsense. True, it is so for those who do not know the Laws of Nature. One day I went for a stroll with some friends in a pine forest. We stopped at one pine tree and I said: The rings of this tree indicate which years were damper and which were drier. This can be observed from the rings and you can verify this fact. Therefore, when a year was very rainy, the distance between the rings is greater and vice versa, when the year was drier, the distance is smaller. So, it is possible to calculate mathematically the humidity in a given year. This is how the moisture is reflected on the trees. In the same way, certain events: individual, social, and national are reflected in our bodies. Are you aware of this? We are bearing the sins of the entire humankind. Do not think that because we live far away from Africa that we do not carry the sins of the African people. Yes, we do. Inner forces connecting people exist and they are interweaving their lives. Therefore, when we become aware of this Great Law, we are going to understand that people need to create good living conditions for all so that today’s misfortunes might be avoided in the future. I said many times: Only mothers are in the position to create. Every mother, who conceives a child should say, “Daughter, son, it is my wish that you would live in the future according to the Law of Love and represent it fully.” If she says this, she will have daughters and sons who are heroes, who will live according to the Law of Love. Every mother should instill this within her children. When young people marry, they should say, “Our sons and daughters will live for Love, for the God of Love Who unites all people.” The new generation will be a bearer of the new ideas of Divine Love. The way it is now, we cannot do anything to re-educate people, if they were born in an unhealthy way. People can be re-educated only in their mother ’s womb, in God’s Love. They cannot do this by themselves. It is only mothers who can recreate and re-educate them. People themselves represent a factor of 50 percent only for their re-education; otherwise they are like a ship without a rudder, which is tossed by the waves. Therefore, conditions for women need to be improved in the future. Women after conceiving should be placed under the best conditions. The conditions for children must be changed as well - not mechanically but according to the Law of Living Nature. And Nature is alive; she is excellent. I read in her book what beautiful methods she has! If the Bulgarians apply the methods of Nature, they would improve their situation. Great wealth is hidden in Nature. The Bulgarians can pay all their debts within ten years, but they shall begin by studying the Living Nature. But what are the Bulgarians currently doing? They are awaiting their salvation to come from somewhere, from a place from which it will never come. Salvation will come from the Living Nature that has invested her forces here. Humans need to put these forces to work; they need to begin working according to the Law of Love, for the good of others. In this way, their blessings will come. And so, this Great Law is calling people of today to brotherhood. Only then, will we have a New Science of brotherhood. But what is our science at present? It is like the story of a little lamb that a child looks after, kissing it, and adorning it with garlands. One day, the mother comes and says, “For my little darling to live, we must slaughter the little lamb.” The child will cry. You say, “This is the way one should live.” How do you think your offspring will be educated? He will ask himself, “How can God Who is so kind allow the lamb to be slaughtered?” You say, “Well, my dear, God has arranged it in this way.” No, it is not God Who has arranged it in this way; we have arranged life in this way. We must free ourselves of this delusion today! May we not believe that God has arranged the world in this way. No, these lambs should not be slaughtered. We now have a culture of killing and maiming the legs of this or that person. Only gunshots can be heard. They say it is for our country. What benefit have wars brought to humanity? Absolutely none. People have become embittered and wars have brought the depravity of today. The future wars will bring nothing better. We can fight, but in what way? We can fight but not kill. The Law of Love is now appealing to people. To undertake this Great Work the most gifted people, the best and greatest persons must come: mothers, fathers, teachers, priests, and free-thinkers. If they do not come on time, others will come in turn. Now I am going to summarize my conclusions as follows: I had not the least intention of compelling you to believe, rather I want you to try. Practice and more practice is needed, nothing else. The inner experience does exist. Every plant needs to find the right soil and the appropriate conditions for its growth; in the same way every person in the world needs to find the favorable conditions to grow and develop. Never think that the conditions of your life are unfavorable. These are merely inner, subjective opinions. In the present stage of development of the collective consciousness, every person is in his exact place. But we delude ourselves when we think, “Why am I not like that person?” Do not look at someone only superficially. Perhaps he is wealthy and able to eat a great variety of food. However, he is not happy: his inner life is in disarray, his heart is ailing and his stomach does not digest well. Although the poor man lacks abundance, he is healthy and enjoys his food. Happiness is determined by one’s state of being - to be contented with the received at a given moment. And when people unite, they need to share the same ideas. All your ideas need to be right. I do not say that they are always right, yet individually, they might appear to be right. Therefore, with respect to the individual, social, and national good we need to correct our beliefs and bring in the new ideas that are coming into the world from Above. In the same way as plants grow and create their form, we shall create the right foundation for our thoughts and feelings. Someone may complain that life is very difficult at present. No, as I said before, we are currently having the most favorable conditions of Life. You are in the position of the Hebrews on their exile from Egypt. You will lack meat and other things in the desert, but you will have water, clean air, and no Pharaoh to give you orders. It is better for you to be free in the “desert,” than to be slaves who eat meat and indulge in all pleasures, while the Pharaoh with his whip beats you, demanding from you to make bricks and adobe. Sometimes we also say, “There is no way out. We must make them.” No, we will no longer make bricks and adobe. The long path through the Desert to the Divine Life is waiting for us ahead. May all young people who can walk take backpacks and set off ahead of the rest. Do you know what you will be like? When you meet someone, you will continue freely on your way. At present, when you see someone, you withdraw out of fear that he might rob you and you hide. You say to yourself, “He might be a thief.” I say: The world of today is full of thieves. Show me at least one person who is not a thief. Who of you have not thrust hands in your father ’s pocket? Who of you have never partaken of a forbidden fruit? Yet in the future, when we enter a garden with ripe fruits, we will ask for permission as per the Law of Love, “Brother, can I pick some fruits from your garden?” or “Will you give me some fruits?” And he will answer, “Of course, brother, come and help yourself.” When I go to visit a friend, I will ask him: Brother, may I stay overnight in your house?” “Yes, you may.” This is how it should be according to the New Teaching. But what would the answer be today? “Sir, there are hotels; go there. We do not have extra rooms; there is a housing shortage; and so on.” And the matter would be closed. When you meet someone now, you begin questioning him, “Are you a Bulgarian? Do you believe in God? Which party do you belong to?” and so on. I do not want to say that these things are bad, but they are not essential. We need to be imbued with that noble feeling of brotherhood so that when we meet a man or a woman we see in their face a brother or a sister. If you can learn this feeling of brotherhood, you will place humankind on a new higher level. Misconceptions will then disappear and the right aspiration will come. This is the Divine Teaching, which is now coming into the world. Share it with the little children and they will manifest it in ten years. In ten years, the “caterpillars” will emerge from their cocoons and will fly away with their wings. The caterpillars will say, “There is no need for cocoons!” This Law is coming into the world now. The facts are being summarized now and New Laws are being established. We are going from the material to the spiritual world and all things are passing from the individual to the collective. In other words, we should not only think of the insurance law, where one is concerned to leave an inheritance of several millions after death - with shares for this or that cause. And all this for the sole reason that people say about the departed one to be a person of noble character. No, in the future people are not going to die and there will be no need for gravestones. And so, experience Love as a striving in your heart, as a feeling in your soul, as a force in your mind and as a principle in your spirit: this will bring salvation to the humankind. Therefore, we shall come to know Love in these three aspects: as a striving in the heart - an irresistible striving to descend [and serve those in need]; as an uplifting feeling in the soul; and as a force that brings expansion to the mind. Thus we become aware of the Intelligent Principle within ourselves allowing us to know why we live, why we have come here and from where, and what our purpose on Earth is. Lecture held by the Master Beinsa Douno at the gathering on August 19, 1921 in Veliko Tarnovo. ----------------------------------- 1. See also Matthew 6:9–13.

Influence of Harmony in Life Guidance is needed for all that I have told you. You have to realise that the laws in Nature shall not alter to suit your understanding. All of you have to keep in mind that Nature shall not introduce special laws for you in order to provide for you. Speaking about harmony we understand the presence of consciousness in the life of human beings, we understand life where the soul has developed the human ‘I’, has developed the human consciousness, that a human being is a separate entity in the world, that a human being is manifested. People should realise that man is a separate being. Now, imagine a musical note: it may be half a tone, a quarter of a tone or an eighth of a tone or a sixteenth of a tone. This note is just one symbol, one character and it has no meaning by itself. However, if this note is placed onto the staff, and if you place the clef, determining its scope, at the beginning, it already gains meaning. Likewise no other note, placed in the staff can have any individual opinion, neither can it say, ‘This is what I think.’ The note is bound to think the way the clef dictates and the tone of the note under this clef cannot be altered. When you enter the Divine Life, you will see that there is a Divine clef and that you are placed into this staff in line with this Divine Harmony clef. You climb upon it and you say, ‘Do you know that I have a particular opinion?’ The ‘I’ means to produce the vibrations corresponding to this law. If you are not willing to comply with the law of harmony, of the Divine, you should climb down the staff, i.e. out of the clef. Once out of it, you may create whatever confusion you feel like, but while within the staff you will do as the Spirit tells you to, i.e. the bandmaster. He will move you, he will place you higher or lower and if you listen to him, you will pass through all the situations in this law of harmony. This is what I call conscious life in musical terms, which means that we are guided in our walk along this curve, we climb up and down, but the movement is harmonic. This is how you should look upon the issue. This is philosophy and if anybody does not understand this philosophy, they get pulled by the ear. If for instance, a note is placed on the staff in the form of a fourth of a note, but it is willing to be half a note, the bandmaster will take it to task and will tell the note, ‘No, not half a note, but a fourth of a note you have to be!’ – ‘See, I want to be bigger, I want to last longer!’ No, you will be as big as you are supposed to be, neither bigger, nor smaller than what you are supposed to be! Well now some of you want to be bigger. These are wrong religious views. Life comes down to accomplishing what God created according to law and order. This harmony is equally required for your individual life and for your family and public life. It is required for your mind and heart too. Your mind and heart cannot develop outside harmony. Now, it goes without saying, you have experienced the crash taking place in your heart when you fail to observe the law of harmony. Any disharmony is expressed in tears. As long as there is harmony, the heart is full of Joy; as long as there is harmony, the mind is full of Joy. The first clef to the internal harmony of Life is Love above all. What do you call the first clef in music? This is the G/sol clef1. Indeed, people need salt. This is just a coincidence: the G clef and the table salt. Note that when people sing the tones – C, E, G, B – the G sol comes third out of these four main tones. For the time being we are placed on this clef. We all want to tune according to this G clef, and the meter will be ¾. In music not only those who understand the characters and know for instance, the meaning of the G clef, are called musicians. Musicians are those who know the notes, who can sing any of them and who can understand the relations among the notes from G to G. This is what I would like you to understand about the G clef, to sing the tones correctly, very harmonically. You have to plant this idea into your heads – that when it comes to the G clef, there is only one opinion and there is no way for you to have any reservations about it. There is no reserved opinion in Love, no special opinion in Love, because otherwise it means that you fail to understand the great law. All the great masters who understand music correctly, when they come to the clef, all of them work very well, they know what they are doing and only sometimes they have to correct a note or two to place them where they belong, according to the requirements of the law of music. This is what I call a teaching; this is what I call progress, development of the consciousness etc. So now, you will look for the mistakes behind each indisposition, every instance of disharmony that occurs among you. You will start with the G clef. I would like to see whether you women would be able to rectify your lives in consistence with the G clef. Now, I do not mean rectifying your life, but your thoughts, your feelings and wilful acts are not ordered in accordance with this clef. A transformation of the thought is needed; everything should be arranged according to this clef of Love. Or you will say, ‘How well we know this Love!’ You have not been arranged as yet according to the G clef. Do you know what wonderful harmony exists once you are lined next to the G clef! This is the most inspiring state, the noblest state of man! When one is lined next to this clef, one experiences an upsurge of thoughts, of feelings, of one’s consciousness. Such a person no longer suffers neurasthenics, or any other diseases. This is the G clef! If some of you have these qualities in themselves I can tell you that you are tuned to the G clef. If you are not, do not beguile yourselves about any other clef. Well, harmony is needed for women in general: harmonic thoughts, feelings and actions. This is the greatest stuff that one can study in Life. The only thing that shapes man is harmony. You may try out this law. When there is harmony in your mind, in your heart, in your will, everything is within reach for you, you can do the cooking for half an hour and you say, ‘Today is my lucky day!’ This is just a small harmony but see what effect it can have! It speeds up all the work. Sometimes it is the workload that can be reduced; sometimes it is the time that can be reduced. If we, using our objective mind, lose track of a certain phenomenon, it takes years until we get to know it completely again, while by using human intuition, what has to be studied for two entire years can be studied within a minute. Well, this great law of Love smoothes everything. If some time is required to rectify any of your mistakes, when Love comes with its brush, it can be rectified immediately – just for five minutes. And now start singing! This is the instantaneous healing method. Introducing harmony in Life is what I consider an instantaneous healing method. Since the language of the Scripture is very allegorical, a prophet said there, ‘I attracted you by the law of Love’, i.e. by the G clef he attracted them. As soon as people start understanding one another, harmony can perform miracles. For instance you now say that the Orthodox, the Evangelists do not have the knowledge you have. But the issue is not that you differ only in this - you have to be able to sing according to the G clef; to have a substantial feature distinguishing you – harmony among you. If harmony prevails, if you can operate with the G clef, then you will have one substantial feature, then you will be able to say that you understand Life and that you are different from the others. Well, some of you resemble those singers who are asked to attend a music school or to join a choir, they sing for a day or two, and then they leave the choir and say, ‘Our voice is not good enough’. Why is your voice not good enough? Because you are not in harmony. Harmony should be introduced first and then your voice will become good enough. When harmony is introduced, then feelings will come; having achieved harmony, righteous deeds will follow. All of it depends on this Divine harmony. As soon as you are tuned to it, as if by waving a magic wand, everything will come out right. If there is no harmony, you may toil for years, but you will accomplish nothing. Now, all of you think about yourselves during your lifetime, i.e. you keep saying, ‘I am thinking about this, I am thinking about that.’ But as far as I can understand people who consider themselves very spiritual, keep thinking of themselves only. Contemporary people think about others only when they have too much to carry upon their backs. They say, ‘Shall we do you a favour – shall we give you some of our luggage?’ People who say that they are ready to sacrifice themselves, only think so, but show me people who are actually ready to sacrifice themselves. These are very rare to come across. On one’s own free will, this is the Divine way in which one has to think about God. Sometimes, when a person insults us, we fly at that person - even the most advanced ones among us do it - later on when we come to realise what we have done we say, ‘What I did was not right!’ And this we do not only once, twice or thrice a day; and in the end you keep asking why God does not come. Well, how can He come?! Love is the law of harmony; get into harmony and He will come; as long as you are not in harmony, He won’t come. I now want you to master a power in your consciousness that is able to keep hold of the harmony without you considering what the world is like. I want you to do something by virtue of which you can convince your God, because if you insult Him, you thwart all of your work. Keep telling yourself, ‘I am waiting to turn the wheel!’ It can only be turned when you are lined according to the G clef. Young people now make excuses that they are inexperienced, while old people – that they are nervous. God excuses neither the young nor the old. Whoever comes to school must study. If you are old and you consider yourself old – this is a disharmony. If you think you are young, this is also a disharmony. As soon as you think that you are old, this means that one day you will rejuvenate; if you think that you are young, this means that you will grow old some day. And this comes down to playing with a ball: youth – old age; young – old… What does young and old mean in music? Youth is the beginning of music, and the old age – is the end. The young are in the beginning. What is your understanding of music? When the musician gets old, there is no longer applause, but as soon as music is played, the audience applauds in admiration, ‘Encore! Encore! Play again!’ and then the musician starts playing again. Hence one can grow older and get younger several times in a row. This is the musical approach to it: there is no old age the way you imagine. So along these lines young is understood to mean a person having reached the prime of one’s age in music, and when a person develops one’s feelings and abilities to their best – this is called old age. A person is then at the peak of one’s power and might. Outside music, the most powerful, the mightiest is understood to be the oldest, most incapable and it is labelled ‘an old person’. Hence, as soon as you tune yourself to harmony, you will alter your views. When I say young I imply that you are in the beginning. While the old ones you will place in the highest degree of harmony where your soul can reach. It is not that now you do not invest effort, you do invest a lot of effort, aspirations and all this is good, but your aspirations, your desires should be directed intelligently into the great striving of Love. You may have your aspirations, but if you do not choose the timing required by harmony, if you do not comply with the operating laws, all your labour will be lost. You may now ask, ‘Why do I not grow today, why do I not have such a view, why are my thoughts a little bit disorganised?’ Harmony and harmony again is what you need! You have to recover harmony by all means, whatever sacrifices it may take! Once you recover harmony, whatever sacrifices you may make, nothing is wasted. Harmony should be restored in your souls. There is also the point that because you do not understand Life, you believe that society will deliver the rewards to you. Society can only spoil you. You make friends in groups and if you fail to understand the law and society, Life will place you out of tune. You tune somebody in, while they tune you out. You say, ‘Let’s tune ourselves!’ You tune that person, he takes you out of tune and you spend the whole day tuning: tuning in and tuning out. You start anew on the following day, you pull the string, and sometimes when you make it too taut it breaks. However, these four strings that you have to play on are the four temperaments, which need tuning. The first one is the sanguine temperament, i.e. lively, airy. People of such temperament have rounded faces, fair hair, blue eyes, they are like butterflies – bounce from one flower to another, they make promises to everybody, while they can hardly do one hundredth of what they have promised, they are very generous, they give everything. The other string is the so-called choleric temperament. Such people will be better off if they develop their liver, muscles, and nervous system. They are energetic – wherever they pass they set everything on fire. These are dark-haired people having oval faces, thick furry eyebrows, wide noses, well developed muscles on their arms and when others do not obey them, they bang fists on the table. The third string is the phlegmatic temperament. These are people of the benign womb, having round faces resembling the Moon, only the eyes can be seen. Their arms are short. They walk slowly. These are people of English2 temperament: they find it difficult to sit down, but having sat, they find it difficult to get going. They never worry. The fourth temperament is the melancholic or the nervous temperament. The brain-nervous system prevails in it. People of such temperament are of delicate built, with rather thin eyebrows, most often having hazel eyes; they are people of the thought, they are quick of apprehension, impressionable, agile, nervous, they have a fluent thought; these are the bearers of thought and philosophy. These are the four temperaments, which have to be tuned so that there can be harmony among them. When these temperaments, these strings, are fine-tuned, then notes start perching upon them, but as soon as the violinist takes the bow, they all start bouncing and if some of them are not tuned properly, then there is a certain disharmony. The cases when you are not tuned indicate that two of you of equal faults are brought together, two persons of sanguine or of phlegmatic temperament. Crossing of breeds is the key, so that there is peace. For instance, if I place all of you lean people together you will be jostling around. You will not be able to stand one another. For example you sometimes say, ‘I was somewhere, but I felt as if I was set on fire.’ But of course, as long as three people of the same temperament are together, it’s only natural that they should feel as if they were set on fire. Temperaments should be crossed so that these can develop harmonically. For instance, the sanguine temperament enhances the development of the respiratory system: breasts are enlarged, blood-circulation is improved, breathing is good and such people never suffer from anaemia. When you want to improve your muscles and ligaments, you will call the choleric temperament. When you want to develop your digestive system, you will call the phlegmatic temperament, and when you want to develop your brain – the nervous temperament. Your feelings, thoughts, and actions should be located on these four strings in order to start playing the music of Life. So, from the point of view of harmony, if you are too active, you will call the phlegmatic temperament to contribute some strength to the stomach, to achieve balance. If you have too much fire, you will call the sanguine temperament to blow some of it away, to scatter it around. You know what the law is, don’t you? When it is too hot in the room, you should immediately open the windows; air comes in and brings in refreshment. Well, the sanguine temperament is air, which refreshes everything. When it gets cold, you should ask the choleric temperament: it will in turn, make the room warmer. Well, it takes a long time to study this law of harmony. Easier said than done! Above all you will take it into your head that harmony is necessary for your development. All obstacles in your life come from the lack of this Divine harmony. And you should remember that harmony is always the result of the intelligent beginning in man, of the Divine Spirit that works in your Spirit that guides you in all of your endeavours. There is a creature within yourselves, which keeps telling you, ‘Hang on! Think a little before you start doing the work!’ You struggle, and when you have tuned yourself into it, it says, ‘You may go ahead!’ Sometimes you resemble recalcitrant children: although your mother tells you not to go out, you still open the door and there you are in the open. You come back in the evening all in mud, your clothes tattered, your mothers give you a good thrashing and then you say, ‘When I wake up tomorrow, things will be all right.’ Such has been your life so far. There is nobody among you who has escaped the thrashing. You have all been thrashed. Now, the law of harmony demands that you pay attention not to the people singing out of tune, who cannot sing the tones properly, but to be attentive to the singing of the best singers; they will teach you how to sing the proper tones. Hence, from an esoteric point of view, when we say that we should not be dealing in other people’s mistakes, this means that we should not be concerned with people singing out of tune. There is nothing to listen to in relation to them; we should be listening to people singing properly as it is them from whom you can learn harmony. Well, all of you can be musicians, and nobody has the right the say that they are no good for this purpose. You are required to do it! Harmony rules out the words I can’t. Those of you who want to live and to develop, they have to say, ‘I can!’ While those of you who do not want to, they have to head for the cemetery. Those who cannot are expelled from school and there starts the reverse life. Harmony exists only when you say, ‘I can’. Now, it does not come to hurrying, there is no hurrying about it, but you will do it from the beginning to the end. Some people say, ‘I want to get to that end to see what is there!’ I say, ‘Like the beginning, like the end’. What is in the beginning, the same will be at the other end. You beguile yourselves by saying, ‘Let me go to Heaven to find out what is there.’ Well Heaven – it is the end of this music. If you are virtuoso performers, you will come to Heaven till the end of the music and there will be applause for you. If you are not virtuoso performers, you go to Heaven and say, ‘Down, down to the Earth!’ This is what heavenly Life means: this music is the same from the earth to Heaven and when you turn around, there will be applause up there, and you will then be asked to go down to earth. The beginning is like the end. Some say, ‘Let me have a poor start so that I can have a good finish.’ If you start all right, you will end all right; if you start poorly, you will end poorly. This is according to the law of powers. So, music is the only circumstance that pre-conditions one’s development on earth. Therefore, apply music! You are indisposed – start singing! Sing and fear not! Sing any song to introduce harmony into you. This will be of help to your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions as well. If you cannot sing alone, go to the garden, sit under a tree and if there is a wind, you will discover such music listening to the crackling leaves that you will gradually subside and will be carried away by this rustling, which I call music. The vibrations coming from the rustling leaves influence your mind. You will regard music as an important factor in your life, in order to get rid of these misunderstandings, which currently exist among you. You often stop and say, ‘What’s-his-name does not sing well, he sings out of tune.’ Yes, he does, but you do not sing well either. There must be someone else, who will say, ‘Let me make the tones properly and we shall tune ourselves all at one go!’ It’s not the point that whoever sings out of tune. The point is for all of us to be tuned properly. When there is a tuning fork, we shall all start singing properly. I certainly do not intend now to correct the clefs of all of you, but I talk in general about your mistakes. When you go back to your homes you will see where the G clef is and you will correct your mistakes. Sometimes teachers correct the mistakes on the blackboard and students correct theirs according to the blackboard. This is the better way for you to correct yourselves. You often say, ‘I’m in low spirits, I’m not in the right mood.’ But you have to know that Divine Love is harmony, it cannot tolerate disharmony. I now talk about harmony in terms of relation, because it will be your solid foundation when you start organizing yourselves consciously. Do you know what organizing means? All the cells are consciously organized in this Divine organism and all work properly. We are Divine cells in this Life and each one of us has to understand and perform one’s mission properly, one’s present application and to want neither more nor less than the work assigned to one. No one should distance oneself from the Divine Plan. Other people may comment about you, but try to accomplish what you are aware of deep down in your soul and you won’t be far away from the Truth. Follow your plan and nothing will impede you! You have seen soldiers marching – all in the same beat. Similarly when you are alone, you may walk the way you feel like – you can walk more slowly or you walk faster, but when you join a company that has a pace of its own, you will keep pace with the others. If you do not keep pace, you will fall behind. So, when you tune yourself to the Divine harmony, you have to change your pace: you have to start walking in harmony, properly. Well, do you realize what it means to adapt your feet, to start walking properly? This means that your virtues should start walking properly. The legs of the human soul – this is Virtue; the arms of the human soul – this is your Justice; the ears of the human soul – these are Wisdom’s wise thoughts, and the mouth of the human soul – this is Love through which it speaks! This mouth is the external aspect of Love, through which the Divine Love will flow out. The one Love will come in service to the other Love, which will come through it from the outside. Therefore, you should now form the ears of your soul, so that you can be wise; you have to form the mouth of your soul, so that you can be in Love; so that you can be good, virtuous; you have to form the legs of your soul, so that you can be just; you have to form the arms of your soul. When you go to the other world, you will see for example that some have no ears. All the virtues that we practice in this world are meant to facilitate us in the making of certain organs. Why should one be virtuous? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have legs. Why should one be just? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have arms. Why should one be wise? Because this is the way for one’s soul to have ears. This is to say that everything in the world, being done by Divine Harmony, is directly related to one’s soul. So, all the effort we make has a good impact upon us, on the people close to us, and on the Divine principles. This is what is meant by God’s manifestation in your deeds. For instance, let’s say that all of you, who are here, are given work to do. How would you start doing this work? Let’s say, for example, that you are entrusted with about a hundred orphans and you are asked to help them. What will you do? How will you organize your work? You will start electing committees of five to six or seven women each and you will delegate everything to them. They will start quarrelling whom to appoint chairperson, whom to appoint secretary and they will waste the day in such arguments. Afterwards money will have to be raised and meanwhile you will be waiting for things to happen. Then they will quarrel again who should deliver this money. Well, again the seven people elected in the committee! Well, what about the rest of you? What will you do? How can you deal with this business in the most practical way? You will distribute the children among you. You will again be quarrelling who should take which child, where should the most intelligent children be sent. Potluck – whichever child falls to you! When one has learnt one’s lesson, one is always lucky. When one has missed the opportunity to learn a lesson, then one is confronted with something that is not called luck. You will have to resolve the issue according to the law of harmony. Let’s assume that you are all married and have children. Each mother solves this problem. Imagine that each one is entrusted to rear several orphans. There is a committee appointed at home for this purpose: there is a chairman a chairwoman and the children are taken care of. This is the situation in the Invisible world. Then the others, who are not married, say, ‘We will be given children in the future.’ The single ones can find other work for themselves. Nobody should be idle in this world! We have to benefit from this conscious Life, from the Law of harmony right now under the present circumstances, not under any future circumstances. Intelligent people use the current circumstances, while naïve people – the future circumstances. Intelligent people learn from their past, while the stupid ones – from their future. Now, I would like you to smooth any possible disharmony existing among you. Any disharmony that you have created should be smoothed overnight. I allow you only one day, not longer! Only one day I allow to women to smooth all and every misunderstanding or disharmony. So, within one day you should tune yourself to the G clef and should smooth out any single disharmony! Every one of you should smooth things over – agreed! Try to imagine the following case: let’s assume that you lived in disharmony with four sisters of yours and three brothers at a certain place. They beat you - you beat them. One day you decide to go to another house. Well, if you haven’t tuned yourself to the G clef and move to another house, are you sure that you won’t feel worse there? You know that singers, who do not sing well on the stage, are asked to step down, while good singers are much in demand and they are asked to sing again and again. The good life – this is the Divine harmony, which means that we should accomplish harmony in real Life. This is why this harmony is needed and it is only through harmony that you can make up for the lost harmony. But it is harmony that brings in the New Life. You are now thinking how you can smooth the disharmony. It can be done. You will direct your mind to God! You should remember that He is the Great harmony and you will be thinking of Him only! You should not imagine God as a white-haired old man; you should think of God in terms of Great Harmony, where every living creature pays attention to Him. Therefore, we all aspire to Him and everybody wants to understand Him. Think about the Great harmony and you will immediately feel light as a feather! Do not try to understand what God is, what His form is, but think of Him as Great harmony and you will immediately feel as light as a feather. Because if you keep looking at the face, hair or beard of the singer, you will immediately distance yourself from the harmony, but if your ears are strained you will understand what it is. When we come to the face, it represents a special harmony for the eyes. If you are clairvoyants, you will see that the face is not still at a single place, but it is moving, many fast motions take place within it. But since these movements are so far from us, it seems to us that it is still. Everything is in motion in the Invisible world. You will first turn your heart, your mind, and your soul to the God of harmony, i.e. to the god of the G clef, to whom every living creature is tuned. You will turn to the laws of harmony. You will listen to one of them and when you receive it, you will start singing together with this great choir. I give you one day to do this! There is only one day for you to tune to the G clef! I show you one shortcoming: without trying what I have told you, on leaving this room, you say, ‘This is what the Master says’. Do not say anything to anybody until you try it for yourselves. Do not go spreading around what I have told you before you try it. As soon as you have attested it, you may spread it around; it will then have a double force. You may spread around what I have said and what you have said and attested. Do an experiment and when it proves right, tell other people about it so that they can also test it. When other people also do the experiment and find it successful, the result will be three times stronger. When this third person tells a friend of his and when the latter completes a successful experiment, the effect will be four times stronger. The fourth person will tell a fifth person, the latter will tell somebody else etc. By doing so you will achieve a gradually intensifying effect – it is similar to a big wave. While how do you act now? One of you has heard something from another one, but neither the one nor the other has tested it and they keep asking themselves, ‘What was it? Let’s go back!’ Both of them have forgotten about it. And they start shuttling again. You have no time to spend on shuttling. Your cloth is fully warped, the staff is set, and you need only to weave. Weaving means harmony – to weave some cloth from one point to another. To sing, to weave, to live – these are all synonymous. You say, ‘What shall I do?’ Sing! ‘Is life a song?’ Well, if you can’t do this, then start weaving. If you can’t weave, then start eating! This is what weaving in the staff means; the staff is the warp, while the yarn-beam is the clef, placed in the beginning of the staff. When the cloth is woven, it is taken off the yarn beam and it is sold. Then you hear other music. Music changes under various clefs. The first rule, in order to tune yourself to this clef, is as follows: all of your misunderstandings and all of your disagreements should be smoothed and should tune into harmony. Or put in musical terms, you should all tune to the same clef where you do not sing the individual tones correctly or where you do not respect the time, where somebody sings faster, while somebody else sings behind time, where you do not meet each other. As long as you tune into the same clef, you will understand that God is Great harmony. We shall tune according to Him, we shall sing and dance together with God! Yesterday I told the men that I leave it to the women to tune them. I told them nothing else. Now we shall see whether you can tune them! Mind you do not do as that servant by the name of Stoyan, who the priest sent to the vineyard to dig and cut off the twigs. So Stoyan, scissors in hand, went to the vineyard and cut the twigs off; he cut almost all the twigs off as he did not quite know which twigs should be cut off and which should be spared. He came back home and the priest asked him, ‘Stoyan, is the vineyard weeping?’ ‘You should go and see it and then you will be weeping!’ was the reply. You may ask Mrs. Doinova when she cuts the twigs off her vineyard, how deep she cuts the twigs; she is an expert. Likewise, you should also know on what place on the staff exactly you should stay. So far you have cut the twigs right to the branching, but you should no longer do so. You should cut only those twigs that are not to bear fruit. You all need harmony; we can understand each other only in harmony. When we all are in harmony with God, we shall understand Him, you will understand me and I will understand you. Without harmony, Life is incongruous – the same is true about society too, and about science, and in trade and everywhere. Harmony is needed everywhere if one wants to succeed. Regardless whether you are getting dressed or whether you are cooking or sleeping – harmony should be everywhere and in everything. If you do not sleep in harmony, you will have a hangover in the morning. If your Life is harmonious it will be glorious even in its smallest manifestations; if there is no harmony – it is pointless. Now, all of you will apply harmony – both young and old; the young from the beginning while the old – from the end. The young will be the first notes in a musical piece, the middle-aged – the notes in the middle, and the old ones – the last notes. When the entire piece is completed, then there is a lot of noise, tumult, and applause. The piece ends with the oldest. It’s no good if actors are hissed off the stage. Sometimes you will hear applause; sometimes you will hear hissing. I wish there will be applause for you, not hissing, because if there is hissing, you will get off the stage and will have to be reincarnated once again. Now, you will get together and shall think over what you have to do to get organized in order to understand what women can do. We have to work in the external world, don’t we! Say for instance you have a field to dig, or a vineyard to cut, or a garden to till, fruit trees to grow – how will you distribute this work? The stronger ones will dig the vineyard, the weaker ones will reap the field, the weakest will clear away caterpillars, and the tired ones will be sent to taste the fruit, to pick some and to fetch some for you and you will then enjoy the abundance at the table. This is the way to divide the work among you. It will take an intelligent approach to the work, if you want to be in harmony. If you are not in harmony, your work will fall to pieces, you will be in doubts, you will be disappointed, you will be roaming from one place to another and your life will become pointless. You women, who study harmony, are required to work. Let’s assume now that there is a women’s meeting; how will you have it organized? If you think in terms of who will come first, the young will have to be your priority. The young are in the lead in music. Well, you organise a meeting; you place the young in the front and they come in the beginning. Let’s assume that you have to carry five hundred sacks; then the old ones will come to the front, while the young will be left behind. If it is an issue who comes first, it is easy to verify who comes first. First is a person who comes first under any circumstances in Life, while the one, who cannot work, will be left behind. If somebody is the first to sit at the table, but the last to go to work, then this person is not in the first place. Some say, ‘I’m in the first place.’ I’m glad that there is one who is in the first place. Come on, let him place the sack upon his back and sing a particular tone from the G clef. If he sings all the tones from the beginning to the end accurately, this means that he is in the first place. If he sings half of the tones accurately, while the other half – out of tune, this means that he is only halfway in the first place. If he makes only the quarter of the tones accurately, he will have a poor mark of two, if he makes only one tone accurately, he will have a mark below poor – one. If he does not make any tone accurately – his score will be zero. This is what Christ’s words, ‘So the last shall be first, and the first last’ mean. What does Christ want to tell us? Those who were first when they came to the sacks, became last. Afterwards when it came to eating, the last became the first. Last with the sacks and first at the table. So, Christ’s words ‘The last will become first and the first will become last’ are merely principles that are articulated. This is not funny; this shows our weakness. Sometimes we do not estimate our strength, but when placed to work, we say, ‘I thought I was right, but I will be left a little bit behind now’. When it comes to eating you say, ‘I am in the first place, remember this and do not forget me!’ When it comes to the sacks, you say, ‘I’m very weak, I admit my weakness.’ Well, it is also good that you admit your weaknesses! You say, ‘My back is rather frail.’ Well then you cannot be in the first place. Now, you will work according to the law of harmony. As soon as you step on the Path, you will see that there are no privileges or demands. Privileges are bestowed only to the people who study, who are able; for people who do not study, who are not able there are no privileges. Those of you who sing well, study, and are worthy get privileges; those who do not study, who are not worthy get no privileges. When you enter this school you will do your best to learn; others can give you nothing if you do not learn. We do not benefit when other people eat. We benefit from what we eat. Other people cannot learn instead of us, you have to learn for yourself. This is a necessity. You have to remember that knowledge does not come the easy way. You will study, and you will study hard, according to the law of harmony. You will learn according to the law of harmony and your progress depends on you, nobody else can tune you into harmony. Some say, ‘Let’s get harmonized!’ Each one of you will harmonise yourself. If you harmonise yourselves there will be harmony; if you do not harmonise yourselves, there will be no harmony. All the people in the world have their own worries. All of us have a retired devil within; and all of us feed the devil in our houses. The retired devil is a resident of yours and whenever he visits you, you treat him at the table. When you are in a difficult situation, you tell the devil, ‘Come out to get my things straight!’ The devil comes out and says, ‘What are you, rascal, looking for?’ The devil gets your work done. While at times, when you have made a mess of things, you tell your good spirit, ‘Listen, can’t you come out for me? I made a mess of this job, there is nothing else I can do, come and help me!’ When the good spirit starts talking to you, the good spirit tells you, ‘OK, I will postpone your policy.’ So, much depends on which resident you will call to help you. Now, you will call the good resident according to the law of harmony, and the good resident will tune you to the right tone and will show you how to go about your work. This is what you need. People who are not in harmony are not accepted in Heaven. This is the law and there are no exceptions to it. If you do not get in harmony now, while you are on the earth, you won’t be admitted when you go up there. If you are in harmony you will leave your house singing, you won’t cry and you will be greeted by songs up there. If you leave the earth with no song, when you get to Paradise you will hear, ‘We do not admit people who cannot sing.’ Heaven is a place for songs and harmony; there is no crying there, no grief or sorrow. Everywhere one can hear songs of all types – from the gentlest ones to the wildest ones – everyone can choose and listen to their taste in music. Now, we on the earth will also start doing all our work singing, but you will apply harmony. I shall not preach to those who do not apply harmony. This has nothing to do with my School. If I catch some of you opposing this, I will expel them according to all the rules of the Divine Science. When they learn harmony I will admit them again, but until they learn harmony they will be outside the School. You have to remember this and there will be no exceptions to it. This is written by God in His School. His laws do not change for anybody and nobody can violate them. All schools have to obey the law of harmony by all means, this is a must. As soon as one makes a mistake, one is immediately expelled. And you know only too well how often this happens. You then start singing and rejoin the school. The moment you make a mistake – you are out again! And when you get out, you can tell the difference. Therefore the law should be applied internally. Your Spirit, which guides you, will get you out of this. When I say that I will expel you, I mean the law that operates in the Spiritual World. It is the same law for everybody. Teachers do the same: they make no allowances for students making mistakes. Neither teachers, nor students are given allowances. If a mistake is made – the person is out, if the person corrects the mistake, the person is admitted back in again. Because the entire Heaven shakes when in disharmony. This is why people who are not pure are not admitted. You will keep this as a rule; this is a conscious law. It is up to you whether you will be in harmony or not; you are the person deciding whether you will be in or out of harmony. So I am telling you to apply this great law of Life. It is needed on the earth; this is a practical law. Do not think that it is strict; it is a great law that teaches us order and discipline. Adam was happy in Paradise, but the moment he tasted the fruit of disharmony, he was immediately taken by the ear and thrown out. This is certainly a very severe punishment, because he infringed upon harmony many a times. If you sing one note incorrectly you will stay one day out of school, if you sing two notes incorrectly, you will stay two days out of school, if you sing three notes incorrectly – three days out of school and so on. You will stay out of School as many days and as many notes as you have sung incorrectly. When you correct yourself you will feel blessed. The law is absolute – no disharmony is tolerated. If you do not love me, you will tell me, ‘Be patient for a while!’ If you love me, you won’t tell me to be patient and if you love people do not make them suffer your foolishness. In this respect you will do your best to introduce harmony among you. You need harmony. If you fail to introduce harmony, there is no other way that you can help yourselves. You may pray here, but the moment you leave the meeting, harmony is unbalanced. You have to keep it in your mind that God is an eternal harmony. This thought should become part of your flesh and blood; you should be able to hear it everywhere! Then you will be strong enough to fight down the temptations in the outside world. I now interpret Love for you in the G clef in the first degree. You say, ‘Let’s love one another!’ But to be able to love, you have to know where the G clef is and to tune yourselves to it. You will then be in harmony and will start with Love. When I talk about Love, I mean that it precedes harmony, while harmony creates the conditions for the manifestation of this great Divine Power, which brings in health, and health in its turn brings in harmony. The external harmony prepares the conditions for Love, Love brings in Life, Life – health, while health brings in the internal harmony within us. So, the external harmony is formed internally. I want you to apply the Teaching I am talking about today. I will test you and I will appoint a committee to test you on all the notes, and there will be tests for everything from the beginning to the end. A committee from Heaven will come here to test you. It will visit your homes and you will sit for your exams in harmony, you will have to sing. Make sure there is harmony at your homes when the committee comes to visit you, so that your homes can be blessed. If the committee on coming does not find you well prepared, there will be no blessing. Make sure you do not regret it later on. One committee will be sent from Heaven. How would you verify this thought? This committee is a little bit difficult to understand: this means officials from the local authorities and it can have three, four, five or ten persons on its panel in harmony. They will test you on harmony – how you sing, how you live, how you feel, how you think and how you act. This is the thirteenth year. If you do not achieve any results, you won’t go any further. If you get from the beginning to the end of singing, what do you think will come out? Applause or hissing? A new course, a new clef starts next year. If you do not adjust to this clef properly, you won’t pass to a new clef, you will have to redo the same clef. If you pass the exam, you will start learning the new clef. This is what I want to tell you; what I am talking to you makes sense, you have experiences, you have lived, you know these things and you now recall them to mind. You will remember certain things, which you have forgotten, when you find yourself driven to the wall. That wolf that is used to eating sheep says that roots are not food, but when he goes hungry for five or six days, he calls to mind the delicious roots and finds them. Likewise, when you feel cornered, you call to mind what you used to know. You know these things but I will remind you of an old Truth which you have forgotten. Christ says, ‘When this Spirit of Truth comes, it will make you remember what I have said in the beginning’. This is written in the soul, in the mind and you know it. Do not be disconcerted and do not say, ‘I can’t sing properly this tone, this I do not know.’ You know it; you will remember it! You will open the book to the right page and when you review the year, the month, the day, the time, and everything event by event as it was, you will say, ‘Aha, I can remember, I can see clearly now’. This is a small reference for you. It is good if everybody goes into the reference chamber and works a little bit upon oneself. Do not think that you lack abilities. You all have abilities and feelings, but you have to do some work according to the law of harmony. When you work in agreement with the law on harmony, everything comes out ten-fold, while when you work outside the law of harmony, life is difficult, unbearable. You eat without harmony, you sleep without harmony, you live with people in disharmony, then life is difficult, grievous and you start singing the songs ‘Doichin has been ill for ten years’ or ‘Hard times, indeed’. This is what life without harmony is. So, I gave you one clef now, a very simple method and easy to do and you will apply it. Outside this thought of harmony you shall not reflect on what God is. You will understand God to be one Great intelligent harmony, which is spread everywhere in the Universe, all over Nature and among all things alive. Every evening you will concentrate your mind and your thoughts on one tone of this harmony. As soon as you have grasped one tone, you have achieved a lot. A tone per day! You quarrel with your husband, with your daughter and you say, ‘My husband does not get the tone right’. No, you have to say, ‘I will sing an accurate tone of the G clef and I will show him how to sing!’ But you start, ‘What are you rattling on?’ He rattles on, she rattles on and what comes out of two people rattling on? Two chatter boxes. You will calm down and you will tell yourself, ‘Love – this is the G clef! You have to take the tuning fork!’ You take the tuning fork, you tune yourself and you tell your husband, ‘Love and agreement, Love and agreement!’ You will sing and you will sing, you will increase your tone and before you look at him he will be smiling and singing ‘Love and agreement, let’s make it up!’ This is Divine – to listen to what God says from above. When one lives in this way, life becomes intelligent and easy. While now you go from one house to another and keep telling each other what you experienced. You keep walking all day long, you tell ten people what you have experienced and still you find life difficult. If you live in harmony you won’t be telling anything to anybody and your soul will feel light as a feather. I will now give you an exercise. We shall see whether you can apply it. Can you do the first exercise? You will think about the words Love and agreement for two minutes. (For two minutes everybody is silent and does the exercise.) You will do this exercise ten times everyday for two minutes and you will see the results. You will do your best to have harmony in your mind all the time. Your mind has to get accustomed to this. It deviates a lot, but when you concentrate for a minute or two on harmony, your mind will get accustomed to concentrating; it will start adapting. When you do these exercises, your cells, your nerves will start toning up and if you have a headache or any other indisposition, it will pass away and you will feel healthier. If you do these exercises more often, you will start healing yourselves. This is a good healing method. Every healing is cleaning; and cleaning means health. When you spend all your life in this way doing the harmony exercises, everything within you will be cleaned and your soul will be as white as snow. When you do several such experiments and when you see the results, you will let me know. And when you are convinced of the good results, you can then help the people close to you. Lecture delivered by the Master, on 20 June 1921, Whit Monday _________________________________________ 1 The G clef in Bulgarian is called the Sol clef – after the 5th tone of the diatonic scale in solmization. Throughout the text I will use the G clef – but right here I have also used its other name the Sol clef Because the pronunciation [so:l] stands for the 5th tone and for the Bulgarian word for salt - sort of close to the pronunciation of the English word salt. 2 or Anglo-Saxon Source

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE NEW HUMANKIND Today I am going to speak about the New Humankind. I will present this subject to you in a new perspective. The New in the world is symbolized by the rising Sun and the old - by the setting Sun. That is a Law in Nature. It is not only me to assert this Law, but every mother and father does. When a young woman and man marry, the first child they will have is the rising Sun, the hope for their future. If we think that the new brings some mischief, disorganizes the society and entire humankind, it is a wrong understanding of those Great Principles that govern the Living Nature. But if we have such concepts, why then do we want those children who bring trouble to their parents? How many days and nights has the mother spent without any rest and sleep for this newly born that does not know yet to speak, for this new concept to be raised! This new concept is at first undetermined, but the mother has the ability to comprehend, listen, and understand the messages of this new being, of this little baby. Similarly, there are individuals in any community and nation with receptive souls, whose consciousness is developed and whose hearts are elevated to a higher level. They are able to grasp this new concept and to become its “children” and bearers. Contemporaries usually do not accept the bearers of the new ideas, so they say, “These people are anarchists, communists, heretics, sectarians!” But all these labels are only words without any meaning. If we reason in this way, I ask then: What is the difference between these three persons: a communist following his views in life, someone who is living according to his old views, and a third one who is applying the new views? The difference is that the bearer of the new ideas feels uplifted and vigorous in life thanks to the vitality of growth. The other one, who lives with the old ideas, feels worn, exhausted, his strength is failing, he is afraid of the future and he is concerned with the old age. Therefore, he is striving to become rich and begins insuring himself through banks and insurance policies. I say: These are the old people, this is what brings death and this is the graveyard of humankind. But graveyards do not bear new ideas to humankind; they create only suffering and misfortune in the world! Kings and priests, musicians and poets - all lay buried in the graveyards for their wrongdoings. If you ask me why people die, I will reply: It is because of their old ideas. How then can all humanity resurrect? I say: Rejuvenate, become bearers of the new Divine Teaching, which symbol is brotherhood. What does brotherhood imply? Those who call themselves your brothers and sisters must be ready to sacrifice everything for you - their life, wealth, and honor. When a great nation comprehends this concept of true brotherhood, it must be ready to sacrifice everything for these new ideas. If there is no sacrifice, there is no brotherhood, no equality. Those who preach about God and spread the great idea of His Being without sacrificing their wealth, honor, and life for Him, have not grasped the Great Teaching of Life. This is brotherhood and equality; and this is what Christ has preached. Let us go back and apply Christ’s Teaching because it will bring salvation of the world. What did Christ teach, what did He preach? He taught the great idea of the New Humankind! What will be the distinguishing features of the representatives of the New Humankind? The Jewish prophets, being farsighted, stated two thousand years ago, that God would create new hearts of flesh, but the Divine Spirit would dwell in them and all would come to know God. Therefore, nobody will doubt the existence of God. Everyone will be under their own fig tree without any fear. Peace and love will reign among all; the weapons of war will be turned into tools and ploughs and people will no longer make war. Christ has established two principles related to the New and the old humankind in the following correlation: the person of knowledge who understands the meaning of Life built his house on a rock, in other words, on the firm principles of Living Nature. And the person of ignorance, who does not understand the meaning of Life, built his house on sand, so the winds and floods carried it away. Storms and floods affect those people who live without any principles. They usually provoke all the unrest in society. They bring down the house built on a sandy foundation. Therefore, these two cultures, the old and the new one, are founded on two main principles. The contemporary old humankind is still serving its egoism and that is why brotherhood cannot exist. The New Humankind will serve selflessly. Egoism is predestined to become the servant of humankind. The new ideas do not cover only the personal and social good of humankind, but of all sentient beings. By “sentient” I mean the living beings altogether, as no being exists without any sentience. If someone talks to you, but you are deaf, you cannot hear the spoken and wonder why you do not understand this person. The problem is not with the speaker, but with the listener whose ear cannot receive and comprehend what is said. The blind cannot perceive the world in full either. It is not that the world is dark, but the visual senses of this person are underdeveloped. Therefore, the present society needs to develop these feelings following the Great Law of Evolution. Nature of today is not what it was a million years ago. There are great turns occurring every one hundred million years in Nature. If I ask you about the age of our Solar system, you will tell me, one hundred million years according to some contemporary scientists; two hundred million - according to others; five hundred million - according to third, and so on. The esoteric science states that ever since the creation of our Solar system, two hundred and fifty billion years have already passed. These statements can neither be proved nor disproved. They are only assertions that can be proved only in certain conditions, if we accept the explicit axioms and fundamental principles. But in general, in order for a truth to be understood, some information is needed. There are only a few proven truths in the world. Try, for instance, to prove an idea, which is dear to you: does the human being have a soul or not? I can tell you that half of the contemporary intellectuals deny this idea; the other half support it, but cannot prove or disprove it. If we ask someone about the soul and how it looks like, the answer usually is, “There is a soul, but I do not know how it looks like.” We can prove the existence only of those things that have form, content, and meaning; as to the things that have no such parameters, we can neither prove nor disprove them. I am presenting an idea, which is familiar to your souls because what I speak about is inherited in you. You have certain ideals, aspirations, yearnings, but they are being expressed in various ways. And every one of you has an aspiration that is unique. The young man, for instance, is looking out for his beloved. The old man will say, “This is nonsense. Once upon a time I also busied myself with such things, but now I do not need any beloved.” But it is not so for the young man. Night after night he does not sleep, gets up early, walks here and there, looking out for his girl with the dark eyes. His mother and father wonder what is happening to their son. The son says, “The new idea will bring new life to me - that is what I am looking for.” Who is right, the young or the old? I say: the young. Once upon a time a fox passed by an apple tree and saw high on one of its branches a piece of good cheese hanging. The fox looked at the cheese, but continued on its way saying, “That is worth nothing.” Why? It is because the cheese was high up in the tree and the fox could not reach it. But if it had been down, within reach, the fox would have said that there was no better cheese than this. New Humankind is mentioned several times in the New Testament, in the Revelation. The Evangelist John, two thousand years ago, saw the pregnant woman as a bearer of the great idea about the New Humankind and he also fixed the number of the chosen ones, who will be bearers of this idea, at 144 thousand. If you add these numbers one to another, the total is 9: 1+4+4=9. The number 9 signifies results from the evolution of those who have all positive and noble qualities attained. Some would say that these 144 thousand individuals are in Heaven. No, they are living now here, on Earth; they have come back to Earth and incarnated among the learned people. Some of them are writers; others - poets and scientists, but they all are guiding the humankind on the path to the new ideal, on the path to the Divine. They stand against the darkness and fetters, which impede humankind. And this unrest, this great change that is coming, is due to them. They will turn this world upside down. Do not take this for a bad omen. In Bulgaria, when a person drinks a lot of water and chokes, he is turned with the head upside down so that he could vomit the swallowed water. The contemporary knowledgeable people, too, have swallowed a lot of unclean water and they need to be turned upside down so that this water might flow out. When everything unclean has flown out, they will be turned once more, this time with their heads upward and only then the New Life will begin. Some of you may say, “We do not care for this New Humankind, when we witness the present suffering.” We need to understand, however, that suffering is necessary for the development of character. We have only now, in this age, begun to suffer and we have become more sensitive. It is true that modern people suffer more, but this is a noble suffering, which will put the society in order. Does every pregnant woman not pass through some suffering and some painful experience? She suffers until the baby in her womb is formed, but when the child is born, she is released from suffering. Therefore, the suffering shows that we are pregnant with a Great Divine Idea and like that mother we are ready to endure all suffering. But when the child is born, the sorrow will disappear and will be replaced by joy. Often we ourselves cause our suffering. I will illustrate this with an anecdote from the Bulgarian life. A villager liked eggs very much and looked for every occasion to get some as a meal. However, he did not succeed every time because his wife was very stingy. She was big, well built and when her husband dared without her knowledge to enjoy one or two eggs, she gave him a thrashing. One day she fell unconscious and died. The man told himself, “Thanks God, finally I can eat eggs and there is no one to stop me anymore.” He took seven eggs and buried them in the hot ash under the fire. At that moment several women, his neighbors, came to share his sorrow for the loss. When all of a sudden he heard steps, he got startled. Forgetting that his wife was dead and fearing not to be beaten, he slipped the eggs quickly into his bosom. The women told him, “Your home is under such a plight, like under fire [colloquial expression in Bulgaria].” He replied, “Yes, there is a big fire in my home, but the one that burns in my chest, in my bosom is even bigger.” People nowadays say, “We go through so much suffering.” I say again: The baked hot eggs in your bosom are the cause for this suffering. Remove the eggs from your bosom and your suffering will stop. The term for this in modern science is obsession. Do you know what a fixed idea is? I will give you an example of someone who suffered from an obsession. A gentleman made a circle by touching his thumb and index finger of his left hand and then moved the index finger of his right hand into it, trying to catch it. So, he tried unsuccessfully for two-three years. Finally, he went to a doctor who immediately figured out how to help him. The doctor stuck his own index finger into the left hand of the patient; the later grabbed it immediately rejoicing that he finally succeeded in his attempts. By this, the man was healed and free from the fixed idea that had been bothering him for so long. Similarly, people of today who have some fixed idea want to catch their finger, but cannot succeed. However, this finger is created for another kind of work and not to try to catch it. If you want, you can catch hold of it in another way and not as this man. New Epoch is beginning on Earth at present and today’s esoteric science says that a New Wave is coming from the Sun. If I use new words, you may not understand them and my lecture will become obscure. This advancing Wave that is coming now affects the human brain - that is why some people become eccentric under this influence. Eccentric are those people who are either too silent, or very talkative, but their speech is incoherent. These are extremes that exist among people, but there are also norms of the proper development. Some say that speech should always be logical. In my opinion, there are three types of logic in the world. The first I name purely materialistic logic; the second - logic of the conscious life; and the third - Divine Logic. The Divine Logic does not allow any lie at all. Therefore, to operate within the last two kinds of logic, you should have a noble and sublime soul - in other words, you should be ready to sacrifice yourself for your fellowmen and live not only for yourself. Another thing that should be done is to prove where the Truth is. The verification of Truth requires time and practice. All modern scientists who propose various theories and investigations in medicine, industry, physics, chemistry, or in any other field of life need time in order to apply their theories. A theory could be very correct in its mathematical calculations, but if it does not give results when it is applied, it is not acceptable. For instance, an Englishman has studied one subject for 25 years and he was working on the make-up of a flying machine. For this purpose, he had made a profound study and when he was sure of his calculations, he gave an announcement in the newspapers. However, he missed something: he did not put all this in practice. When the experiments with the flying machine began, it did not work, though the data and calculations presented by him, were observed: the wheels were moving, but the machine could not fly up. The inventor was booed and this ended his work. But new investigators after him began to study Live Nature and bird’s anatomy: bird’s wings and tails. People mastered the ways of flying and based on that practice, they were able to build the working flying machine. How great was the joy of humankind when the mechanism of flying was discovered! But all these flying machines: balloons, airplanes, and zeppelins were not used for the benefit of humankind. You saw how they had been used in the last wars and how dangerous these machines could be. People ask me to reveal a big secret to them. I say: One of the greatest secrets is to learn how to heal oneself by flying up. This is how, if you are neurotic, you can heal yourself. If a wife is not well, let her try to fly for half an hour and she will come back healthy. If later on, her husband falls ill, she would also place him in a balloon to fly for a while so that he might return healthy. Such healing is easy because in the higher strata the air is much more pure than below. Here, where we live, the air is full of carbon dioxide. And if we are neurotic nowadays, this is due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, which we breathe and which acts as a poison in our body. Do you know what you will feel when you enter a big modern city? If you had a developed sixth sense or psychic sense like some people, when you look at a city, you will be nauseated by the air pollution and stench and will not want to live there anymore. Our modern settlements and houses are a reflection of the contemporary humankind with its unrefined sense of smell. And as a result, life there becomes more and more unbearable. But the New Divine Ideas that are coming will bring the New Life into the world. The existing death, misfortune, suffering, insanity are the result of completely other mental causes and not of those they are usually ascribed to. The present day life in its forms as well as the contemporary social system should change. And the people bearing the new ideas are right to insist on this change. This change occurs gradually in Nature, but it will happen in your life as well, either gradually or instantaneously. On this occasion Turks say, “Allahan zoru da var.” This is translated that if someone’s head is thick and does not take any advice, when God tells him what to do one or two times, then the Law of Karma is applied. Therefore, brotherhood is the fundamental idea of the New Teaching. Brotherhood needs to be applied in households. Mothers and fathers should understand this fundamental Law of Brotherhood in order to create new conditions for upbringing and educating their children. For instance, if a young man is unruly, doing mischief, how is he treated according to the old ways? He is punished and imprisoned. In prison, he loses his health and after that the state must take care of him. This youth could have become an excellent citizen. He had an outburst of energy, which must be cleverly put into action. You say about him, “Yes, but he is a sinner, a criminal.” The society had created such conditions, which he could not handle. And so, instead of studying the Living God and Nature as to act accordingly, we are opposing one another, thinking that there are many laws in the world. Living Nature has only one Law applied to all - both rich and poor. The poor person says, “This wealthy person has everything he desires to eat and to drink, lives in the lap of luxury and I have nothing.” But you do not know that the suffering for this wealthy person is only on hold for 45 years. Does Nature not take equally the fat of the poor and rich? What does Nature want to say by this? She tells people, “You have not yet learned the Law of Brotherhood.” If you read the first chapters of the Genesis, you will see that God says to Adam and Eve, “You will eat of all fruits but one. The day you eat of this forbidden fruit, you will die.”[1] The forbidden fruit is a symbol of today’s egotism. For example, someone who wants to exploit others and live on their toil; someone who takes the bread of the poor widows and orphans to satisfy one’s own needs; someone who wants to be at war with so many nations - such person is eating from the forbidden fruit. Therefore, you should all be persistent in that Great Teaching. Has Christ ever taught people to wage war, fight each other, or pray God to help one of the fighting sides? A thousand, two thousand years ago, this had some meaning, but now it has outlived its time. Where is the true faith, which is being paraded; where is the genuine Christianity? I speak to those who name themselves true Christians; they should act according to the Christ’s Law. And those who are not Christians should act according to their beliefs and laws. Someone says, “I am not a Christian.” What then are the laws and beliefs according to which you live? “I am a free thinker.” Then act according to your free thought. We should give the right of freedom to every person because there is something good, something noble within each human soul. Give everyone an opportunity and they will be able to advance; yet, under unfavorable conditions, people often fall down. I have used this example before and I will give it again. A famous Italian painter wanted to paint the image of Christ and so he walked around the town looking attentively at all faces, hoping to find the suitable one. And he found a youth of about 20 and painted Christ after his image. The work was a success. After some time the same painter decided to paint Judas and began looking for a suitable model. He found a young man and asked him to pose for the picture. The young man said, “Sir, that is strange, some years ago I posed for you for the image of Christ and now you want me to pose for Judas!” In just few years, the sinful life he had lead changed his face so much that he looked like Judas. If a young woman follows the wrong path in life and ends in a brothel, do you think that her face will not have an imprint from this life? Such a destitute woman told me one day that while she had money her husband lived with her, but after he drank up all her money, he left her to her fate and she turned to a wrong path. She said, “I want to join the church, but they do not accept me there.” This woman has the longing for a pure life, so when her conditions change, she will raise herself up. And of those “free” women who wish to serve their sensuality, people say, “Such women are needed in the world.” I say: No, we should take our sisters out of the brothels, not rape them, but guide them on the right path and show them how to live. The bearers of the new idea, the altruistic feeling, and the Divine Teaching are coming now and they are the ones who will defend all fallen and unjustly treated people. These people are not like anybody; they have signs on their faces, in their eyes, on their hands. You will recognize them. Here are their signs: if a doctor is the bearer of the New Teaching, when he comes to your home, he will bring all the medicine you need and will take no money from you, but will say, “I serve for free.” If he is a priest, when you ask him to baptize your child or perform a burial service, he will not accept any money, but will only say, “I serve the New Teaching.” If he is a trader, as a representative of the New Teaching, he will trade honestly; if he is a teacher, he will teach for free. You will object, “If we all work without payment, the world will fall apart.” Yes, the present world will be transformed and new beliefs will spring forth. Some will ask, “How is it possible to work for nothing, how shall we live without money?” I ask how many thousands are being paid to parents to rear and educate their four or five children? Is there a law by which mothers and fathers are obliged to get up five-six times at night to watch over their little children? There is no such law and constitution, yet in spite of this, the work of parenting goes on more smoothly and naturally than any other work subjected to the state law. Therefore, mothers and fathers represent the first Law we must observe. I say: You are on the right path, if you live in the same way as parents and children live in a household; as brothers and sisters live together. With respect to the New Humankind, no great disaster is to be expected. It is true, there will be a great collision in the world, but it will affect those buildings that have no solid foundations and those rotten trees that have no healthy roots. A great paradigm is coming, which will overthrow them all; it is a Law or a ventilation that is going to clean up everything rotten - only the healthy ones will remain in the world. When suffering is coming your way, do not ask about the reason. I say: The Sun causes all misfortunes on Earth; it is the reason for our suffering, but also for our happiness. It creates the floods, epidemics, and all diseases in the world; it causes the earthquakes too; in other words, it is the reason for everything that happens in all of Nature. The Sun says, “If you are wise, you are going to use my energy properly and I will shower you with all blessings; if you are not wise, I will inflict the greatest suffering on you.” The Sun can change its energy, but it will still shine and the Earth will still rotate. I am telling you this: There is a statement in the advanced esoteric science about the exception; or the irregularity that appears for example, in the movement of a wheel, once in every one hundred million revolutions. Our planet Earth is also such a wheel and after going one hundred million times around the Sun, its rotation will change - this will manifest either disastrously, in a descending line, or beneficially, in an ascending line. Such exceptions or reversals have already happened to the Earth and a new one is forthcoming. Our Earth has almost reached this number of rotations and is approaching the exception. I am not going to fix the date when this cosmic event will take place. You may not believe me now, but when this day comes, you will have the proof then. We can apply this Cosmic Law also to the Sun. After it makes one hundred million revolutions, an exception will occur to it. Modern scientists say that our Sun makes one revolution in twenty million years. Can you suppose what will happen to the world when the Sun comes to make an exception? If this exception falls into the descending line, the entire Solar system will be extinguished, the Sun will darken and all life will cease. But if the exception falls into an ascending line, the solar energy will be increased tenfold and then people on Earth must watch out! So, at present there is an approximate coincidence: both the Sun and the planet Earth have almost made their one hundred million revolutions and the exceptions are impending for them. I can prove scientifically this statement with facts and data but not to this society. The formulae and facts used by the esoteric science can be proved to you, but it will take time. I do not intend to instill fear, but I say that exceptions exist and all should be prepared to meet them at their assigned places. Christ says, “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.”[2] If you think that life will flow on peacefully and quietly in eating and drinking, you are wrong. Modern scientists state that the humankind has not lived on Earth for more than eight thousand years, but the esoteric science has a different view about it. It claims that the humankind has lived much longer than this. The skulls left over from old times prove than man lived even earlier than eight thousand years ago. But the facts that he has really lived much longer than that cannot be revealed to the public. Even if such facts are made public, the connection between them is so subtle that it seems that there is almost no connection. When in one of my lectures I said that the development of the human will could be defined by the thumb, some said it was illogical. But truly, the thumb is the result of the action of the human will. In the olden times as punishment of the thickheaded and prevention of their crimes, they cut off their two thumbs. Then I ask why some people have longer thumbs than others; and why some people have better formed thumbs than others. All this has some meaning, it points to the development of the will and reason in the human being. If you look at a person’s thumb, you will see how the development of this soul goes. If it is good, the thumb is well shaped and there is no crookedness. If there is crookedness, it shows some deformation in the character. If your nose, eyes, or lips are crooked, it means something too. The doctor says, “This is not normal, you got a stroke.” But I say: There is a discord in the connection between the parts of body and energetic centers, between the thoughts and feelings acting in the human organism. It makes no sense, if I develop this New Science only in theory without any practical application. I speak about realities, which are fixed quantities, as something defined and not abstract, in the same way as mathematicians deal with formulae, chemists - with molecules and atoms, physicists - with forces. We say nowadays that the human being has a soul. Is the soul a fixed unit; where does it dwell: in the brain, in the heart, in the lungs, or in the stomach, where can it be found at all? Modern science can say nothing about the soul. Now let me go back to my train of thought. The New Humankind needs to begin first with the human anatomy. Therefore, I would like that you all become interested in anatomy. When you begin to build a house, first of all you set up the woodwork of the building, then you prepare the scaffolding of the house, and after that you build up. Anatomy represents the scaffolding. Some say, “We need no anatomy!” No, you cannot go without it. Children, mothers, and fathers need to study anatomy. When you sew a garment, you also begin with anatomy. The patterns are anatomical signs and according to these you cut the garment. Therefore, people of today really study life anatomically: because they always cut. What is cutting? In the life of the New Humankind you will study not only anatomy, but physiology as well. How do you study physiology when you are building your house? You place windows and chimneys so that more air flows through. What is the subject of physiology? The study of the functions of the various organs, the heart and blood circulation. Physiology is needed in every home in order to obtain more favorable conditions in life. You, who are now building your houses, do you have big windows? I recommend to you: make bigger doors on your houses and open larger chimneys. I like big chimneys and do not approve the stoves that are in use now. You say, “My grandfather and grandmother were very healthy in the past.” Yes, but your grandfather had big chimneys in his house, so the ventilation was good; whereas you have moved backward, you live with much carbon dioxide in the air and of course, you cannot be healthy. Good ventilation is necessary. And what do the Bulgarians do? Because they are afraid of catching cold, they clog up their windows with paper to avoid air drafting. It is better to catch a cold than to breathe air full of carbon dioxide. The representatives of the New Humankind are already here; they will increase in number so that to spread the new ideas all over the world. You, all of you, may become members of this New Humankind. Who does not like fraternity and equality? Is there a father who does not wish his son to become educated, not remaining ignorant? The New Humankind requires of every person to be honest, in other words, to subdue egoism; to be just, wise, and good. And to show these four qualities not only superficially, but to be so honest, in the absolute sense, that never to sacrifice someone else’s interests for his own, and always to direct his own interests to the good of his fellowmen. You might say, “If we apply this, we will be overtaken by suffering and misfortune.” I ask: Is there happiness coming from the application of the present-day ideas? Were thirty million people not killed in the war, are the prisons not full? And on this very day people die because they serve the old culture, which teaches that one must be a wolf to others. But Christ says, “All you are brethren.”[3] Did I create this Teaching? I say: If you are not willing to observe Christ’s Teaching, observe that of Moses’; if you are not willing to obey him, then respect the laws of your country. Anyway, act as an honest and just person, do not break your word. But if you act once according to Moses and the next time according to Christ - you will mix up the laws. Some ask me, “Do you always speak the Truth?” Yes, I think over every word I say. If I speak honestly, justly, I speak for my own good; I do not wish to disgrace my honor; I wish neither to disgrace my brothers, nor the name of God. But I hope when I meet you some day to be sure that I have always been honest and just in my soul and mind so that you would follow this Path too. Only in this way, through this Teaching, can mothers and fathers become better; any other teaching brings suffering, suffering, suffering. Brotherhood is practiced over and over. There are certain forms and Laws in the esoteric science. The Laws of the Brotherhood of Light, of those one hundred and forty-four thousand luminous souls, have not changed with even one millionth part for these one hundred million of years. That is why I say that the Laws of Nature are wise and unchanging. Every thought can give a result even thousands of years later. If you plant a bad thought, it could cause your death. If I look at your life with its everyday incidents, I can consider it from the standpoint of the Hindus, of the esoteric science, and from the Christian point of view too. And in all these points of view, the Truth will remain the same. For instance, you meet someone and this person kills you. In this case, we, the modern Christians, say, “It was God’s Will.” I say: God has never said, neither written for anyone to be killed. It is always done by a person and God has only allowed it. The Hindu Law of Karma explains it in this way: You killed someone in a former life and therefore, in this life that same person kills you. You can accept either one or another explanation. You may comment, “This is a heretical teaching, is rebirth possible?” It can be either possible or impossible. Both concepts are equally true. The belief in this is not so important. The soul has the power to create all its forms. It is up to the soul to come and live on Earth as many times as it desires. If the soul desires to incarnate on the Earth, God will sanctify its wish. The soul wishing to be reborn is reborn. Therefore, in this respect, both Hindu and Christians are right. By “soul” I mean that Conscious Divine Entity that can come here as many times as it wishes. There is also another Law in the world explaining the things in a different way so that they would become clear and a common moral could be established. For instance, someone commits a crime robbing someone else and says, “In the darkness nobody saw that I had stolen something.” Yes, but after the theft he was looking around in fear. Why? His conscience bothered and tormented him. What is conscience? These one hundred and forty-four thousand people, members of the Brotherhood of Light, say, “Sir, we saw the crime you committed and according to our Law, which never changes, we sentence you and you will suffer the consequences of your deeds.” Then, this gentleman in order to relieve his conscience goes into seclusion, fasts 10 or 15 days and after that, he goes to a priest to have something read from the Scriptures in order to calm down. The priest needs to act according to the New Teaching and to say, “Brother, you must confess before God.” Therefore, wanting to redeem your crime by a 10–15 day fast is not sufficient before God.” I will tell you how to confess before God. For instance, you have put your neighbor’s house on fire. You can correct your wrongdoing by going to the victim: to apologize, buy him a new house and furniture, and pay his debts. If you do not behave in this way, there is no forgiveness. God says, “If you have dishonored a girl, then in your next incarnation you will marry her or she will be reborn as your child so that you will be obliged to bring her up and to pay for your wrongdoings.” Yet, the young men of today tell themselves, “What will happen, if I have dishonored a girl?” In America a young man, the son of a rich merchant, dishonored a girl and abandoned her; then she became a prostitute and died afterward. The man finished theology and became a famous preacher. He was thought to be a good righteous man. He married and had a son who at the age of 16 became a great scoundrel. People were surprised that such an immoral son came from such a righteous father. I say: This son is the result of his dishonorable act. The father went out in the evenings looking for his son in order to bring him home; but only after 10 years he succeeded to set him right. In this way the preacher paid his debt. This son was in fact his beloved whom he dishonored in the past. God told the father, “Here is your beloved, pay your dept toward her.” The son would say, “Now I acknowledge that you have noble character and you know how to love because your previous love was not as it was supposed to be.” Therefore, we need to appreciate motherly love as it gives everything. I recommend young women and men to keep the promise they give to each other, being ready to die for this promise and say, “I love you, I am ready to sacrifice my honor, my life, and all my wealth for you, but I will never renounce you.” This is what I call a person with noble character! And what is happening nowadays? They get married today, their love is gone tomorrow, so they want a divorce and come to the church officials for a solution.4 I say: Priests do not have the right to do either divorce or marriage ceremonies. If a young man comes to me for marriage, I do not have the right to do the ceremony without asking him whether he is ready to sacrifice his possessions, honor, and life for his beloved. I will ask the young woman as well, if she is ready to give up her possessions and her life for this young man. If both of them say that they are ready, only then I can perform the marriage ceremony. Otherwise, I am not going to marry them and have no right to do so. This is how it is supposed to be in order for this society and nation to be set in order. And so, Christ’s Consciousness should permeate the world. This is what the Brotherhood of Light brings and what Christ preaches. And those Luminous Brothers are coming down now. They are going to use these two exceptions in the rotation of the Sun and of the Earth. And a new miracle will happen as it is written in the Scripture: There will be a New Heaven and Earth, and a New Humankind. I say: We should put an end to the old humankind and in the future we must live according to the Laws of the New Humankind. This is what the brotherhood requires. I do not preach of some dead god, but of the Living God. If you ask me, “Where is God?” I am going to answer: He is not in the sky that you see. Some say, “Prove to us where God is.” God needs no proof. The ant with its lower consciousness has no organs of sense with which to find out that people exist. When you take up an ant between your two fingers or when it climbs on your head, it says to itself, “I am climbing such a high mountain.” It looks at life from this height and going back to its fellow ants it says to them, “Today I climbed a very high mountain.” Thus God takes us between His two fingers, but we ask, “Is there God?” Yes, these two fingers are God’s and He tells us, “You cannot climb on My head.” If you do not see the Living God in your brothers, you cannot understand this Teaching. If I do not see God in you, my teaching is a lie. If I do not love you and I am not ready to sacrifice myself for you, I am preaching a false teaching. And you should sacrifice yourselves too. Brotherhood is required in this world. You need to accept this Teaching. It is being preached by all good people, by all mothers and fathers, by all brothers and sisters. This world needs self-sacrifice. Enough of lies! Someone asks, “How much will I get if I serve?” No payment should be expected anymore. Worldly people say about some individuals, “These are the devout Christians.” How do you recognize their devotion? “They attend church regularly.” No, no, we are the church - those living bodies are temples. If we cannot live a pure, honest life, what will happen to our temples? See what happened to Russia? Russia did not listen to the voice of Tolstoy that was the Voice coming from the Living God. And as a result, the formal religion brought the appearance of Bolshevism. The Bolshevism is God’s Whip in the Hand of Christ. Today He is asking us, “Is this all you have created in so many years?” It is Christ who is at work in Russia and not an evil force. When a surgeon takes his scalpel to do an operation he knows how to remove only the diseased flesh and strengthen the healthy part. If the surgeon has no practice, he will not know how to perform the surgery, even when he is considered to be the best expert in this field. The Bulgarians, too, should be thankful to the Bolsheviks, but this is not a point of my lecture. What have the Americans done? They have been sending missionaries here for many years to preach the Christ’s Teaching; and at the same time during the war they sold to the Bulgarians ten million kilograms of flour for two gold coins per kilogram? Do you know how much is one gold coin? Ten leva. It means that the cost of one kilogram of flour was twenty leva. Do you think that the American merchants acted according to Christ’s Teaching? They missed the opportunity to give a good example. According to Christ and the Luminous Brothers this is not a true Christianity. If the Bulgarians continue on the path they follow, it is not good for them. The contemporary culture cannot help them either. Everything should change in the world. No nation should harm another nation, no society should harm another society and no person should harm another person. All should live according to the Great Law of Love. If you accept this Teaching, everything will change and you will be blessed as a nation. And this Great Law will be applied in the world. If you do not accept it, others will. I will give you an example. In old times, in the so-called Golden Age, there were two kingdoms: of the Espertites and of the Menezites. The king of the Espertites had a son and according to the customs of that time he called the sages to predict his son’s future. One of those great sages made his calculations and said to the king, “At about the age of 20 your son will pass through a big crisis. For this reason you must send him to be a shepherd in another kingdom - there he will learn the Great Laws of Living Nature.” The father followed the instructions of the sage and said to his son, “My son, henceforth you must earn your living with your own hands,” and sent him off to be a shepherd in the kingdom of the Menezites. There the youth lived for 10 years and studied the Laws of Nature. In the 11th year of his sojourn in this kingdom, the daughter of the king of the Menezites came to this place riding a white horse. She was accompanied by her servants, but tempted by the beauty of nature and the pretty wild flowers, she dismounted the horse and strode away alone. A cobra came out from among the stones and bit her right hand. Seeing this and knowing the Laws of Nature, the shepherd - the prince, ranto her, put his mouth to her hand and sucked out the poison. Meanwhile her servants, watching from afar thought that this shepherd was offending the king’s daughter, so they bent their bows, one of them shot a poisonous arrow and injured his left hand. When the king’s daughter saw this, she came quickly to him, tore the sleeve of his shirt, put her mouth to the wound and sucked out the poison. I ask who was saved by whom? The young man saved her from the snake’s poison, but in turn, she saved him from the poison of the arrow. He said to her, “You suffered from the snake’s poison; I suffered from the human poison.” Now, people suffer from the poison of the snake. Do you know what the snake represents? It is their extreme egoism. Women and men need to save each other from this poison. Woman should suck out the poison of man’s egoism, while man should suck out the poison of the woman’s distorted heart. Only in this way, women and men can join hands, coming to know that they can live together and understand each other. And all contemporary Christian believers should reach toward each other. When I came to the town of Tarnovo, how did you receive me? My friends, I came to suck out your poison. If you are going to suck out mine, that is another issue and will be revealed in time. If you do it, I will tell you, “You are my brothers.” It is a manifestation of the Law of Love that is acting in the world. Everyone who sucks out the poison of his brother will receive a loving embrace and that one who does not, will be sent away. Young people, the future is yours! Men and women, live according to the Law of Love! Do not follow the path of those who have become old by wrongdoings. Renounce the many sweethearts you have. One sweetheart is enough: one girl but wonderful and one young man but excellent. These are enough; you do not need two men or two women. Then, may you have inner freedom; do not bind yourselves into slavery. Think in this way and apply this Law everywhere: in the social, political, and religious life - to follow Christ’s Teaching. Only in this way the Bulgarian nation can advance - by observing this moral Law. When I visit Tarnovo, I am observing the people. I meet priests, judges, teachers, policemen, servants and tell myself: Brothers and sisters, you do not follow the right path in the way you are living now - this is not the Teaching of Christ, this is not brotherhood. I meet many priests, preachers, teachers, policemen, and other people of noble character, but I also meet among them some who are not so decent. This is not a reproach; I am just stating a fact. And I say that we need to uplift ourselves to this level, to this pure morale, which is shown to us by the Brotherhood of Light. Do not tell lies! Mothers and fathers should not lie. Whatever the mother, father, priest, judge say, they should fulfill it, standing by their word. If I fulfill my promises, I could be called a true human being, but if I do not, then I do not have any compassion, any brotherly feelings toward others. The future science will side with those people who fulfill their promises. I see in the young generation a striving toward new ideas. I am watching the communists closely; I do not judge them, as I see that they perform good deeds without advertising themselves as Christians. And there are Christians who speak about Christ, but at the same time think only of making provisions for themselves. And so, the communists are unbelievers without money and the Christians are believers with money. I desire to meet a person who knows that there is God in the world, who is ashamed to lie to anyone, who knows that he will be judged if he insults others and will be truthful if asking for forgiveness. But now, when we commit a crime, we say, “I have a right to do this or that.” Yes, we all have the right to commit crimes and to lie, we all have also the right to do good and speak the truth. We all have freedom, yet we should know that everyone is going to suffer the consequences of their choices and actions. If you steal, you will be robbed; if you ruin someone, you will be ruined; if you dishonor, you will be dishonored. Whatever you do, the same will come back to you. “We reap as we sow,” says Christ. The Law is true and valid. Now, I am going to make a prediction, it is not a guess. What is the weather today? It is nice, clear and warm, the sun shining. The clear weather shows that all will progress well in the future; there will be great Warmth and soon an impulse toward Good will appear among the Bulgarians. The human mind will be transformed; people will become more compassionate and will begin to think right. The calm weather shows that the Bulgarians will awaken in their consciousness; they will not make attempts for new wars and will not repeat the mistakes from 1912 and 1915.[5] This time the Bulgarians will not use weapons, but will remain neutral saying, “By now we have served the Central Forces and the Alliance[6], but from now on we want to experience the New Life in God and to arrange our ways according to God’s Will.” Only in this way the consciousness will awake in the Bulgarians and they will advance as a nation. Then, they will address the communists and the socialists and will say, “Brothers, we love you, in your aspirations we see good ideas that we need; there is nothing to divide, everything on Earth belongs to us, let’s work together.” Some people might object, “Well, but they do not believe in God, they do not love people.” How come? They have God too - as long as they love, they have God. If someone who believes in God meets me, robs me and maims my leg, what is the worth of his faith to me and others? If someone who does not believe in God meets me and does something good for me, he will be more useful than the first person who remains only with his theory. I will turn my back to the one who believes in God, but robs me; and I will kiss on both cheeks the one who does not believe, but does not rob me because he is not disgracing God’s name, but fulfills His Will. This is the New Teaching that the new generation needs to apply. The unhealthy conditions in society should be removed. This is how all priests need to preach; this is how all Bulgarians need to preach. My blessing will be upon them, if they preach this way. But if they do not believe and do not preach the New Teaching, they will put a blemish on themselves. May priests say, “In the name of Christ we are going to serve God and we will serve without payment.” Some will object that they have wives, children. Are your wives not able to live like you, without expectations? Is the priest’s wife not able to live like you? Yes, she can. She should be the first to give an example of selflessness, but in fact she is the first looking how to insure herself. What need has a bishop and a priest of money, why do they need to insure themselves? Christ was not insured. How much was Christ paid for His talks? I speak to you in the name of Christ. You serve in the name of Christ, do you not? You should consider this as a serious matter. The two exceptions are coming. I want you to understand me correctly. I do not have the smallest intent to offend anyone of you. Your desires, your profound convictions, whatever they may be, are sacred to me. But your negative actions, they are something else; I cannot accept them. I cannot tolerate the negative manifestations in the world; I cannot watch calmly when someone is insulting another person. I can remain silent, but a great sorrow rises within my soul and I tell myself, “Those people are Christians; what is this delusion that is paralyzing them, so that they burst into rage?” But I believe a great Warmth is coming that will melt away the ice. Vapors will rise from the mountains and clear, pure streams will flow down. Then luxuriant vegetation will grow, the seeds planted thousands of years ago will sprout, bloom, and give fruit; all nations will join hands with each other. This New Culture that no one has expected or seen will come into the world and all will become citizens of it and representatives of the New Humankind. I would like all of you to be guests at the dinner table of this New Humankind. You are all invited, but please, do not decline the invitation because the same happened two thousand years ago when Christ invited many people to a feast, but most of them refused to come. They refused under various pretexts: some had to plough their fields, others had just bought five pairs of oxen and had to try them, still others were going to be married. What they were all really saying was, “We denounce your New Culture!” Christ is coming again and asks people once more to embrace this New Teaching. Now we can consider all those good people who have pastured herds for five centuries as Divine and use them to construct this Great Divine Building: the Temple of the New Humankind. Life is not built of one stone only and when we have already built it, then Wisdom and Love will come to Earth. Only then will there be music, poetry, art; only then will there be order and well-being. Only then will there be understanding among all human beings. Only then we can give a sacred kiss to one another and feel the joy that Angels feel. Lecture by the Master Beinsa Douno, given on August 19, 1920, in Tarnovo. ------------------------------------------------------ 1. See also Genesis 3:2–3. 2. See Luke 12:37. 3. See also Matthew 23:8, “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi;’ for one is your Master and all you are brethren.” 4. At that time church priests performed both marriages and divorces. 5. The Balkan Wars (1912–1913). 6. The Central Forces and the Alliance: coalitions among nations participating in the First World War (1914–1918).

Combination of Relations1 There are two principles in the supreme esoteric mathematics, which read as follows: the attitude of the Earth to the Sun determines the attitude of the Sun to the Earth. I shall substitute the Earth for Man, and the Sun for God and then we shall arrive at a translated version: the attitude of Man to God determines the attitude of God to Man. This is a principle that is beyond dispute. Hence all contradictions in our private or public life stem from this law. I will now do another translation of this combination of attitudes: the attitude of the soul to the Spirit determines the attitude of the Spirit to the soul. I will make yet another translation substituting the soul for the child and the Spirit for the mother, and then again it is the same law: the attitude of the child to the mother determines the attitude of the mother to the child. You will find the line in the Scripture where Christ speaks about the man making his house on sand and on rocks. Bear in mind that by the rules of this esoteric law you are not free to think, feel, or act the way you want to in your relations with others. Somebody says, “I am free and I do what I want!” This is all wrong. In order for this to happen, you have to be free of all the thoughts that are not yours. If you think what people expect you to think, then something is not in order. This calls to mind a situation when somebody is being escorted by policemen – the man goes where ten policemen force him to. Keep in mind the following: I do not want to talk you into anything, I do not want to impose anything upon you; I want to let you free from the slavery situation you are in. You may get me wrong, because want is a human expression. This is the desire of the Invisible world or the desire of God – that all His children should be free. I shall not concern myself with your past, this is a matter for you to deal with; I am concerned only with your present and your future. And the only person who can now come to your aid along the Path you are walking is me. If I abandon you, you will be lost this very moment. If I let go of the stick you clutch to, you may come back to be saved only in a thousand years. There is no philosophy here: the life of the child in the mother’s womb depends on the mother carrying the child. If she decides to carry it to the end, she will give birth to the child, but if she decides to miscarry it, it won’t be born alive. It is ridiculous to imagine another woman telling a baby in its mother’s womb, “Get out of this womb and come into mine!” The child must be carried for a certain period. Any smart aleck arguing to the contrary is an absolute ignorant who does not understand this great law. Secondly, I do not want to alter the Divine order of things not even to one hundred-millionth part, neither do I wish that you try to change me; this is sacrilege! Another aspect to it: for the last seven million years the principles of the White Brotherhood haven’t changed even to one hundred-millionth part. I take this number – it is a variable belonging to the supreme Divine Mathematics, to the Divine World. These laws are strictly determined. There is a particular form for each thought, feeling, or action, through which they can be manifested and the law states that when they are expressed in this form, we feel a sort of satisfaction and kindness. This signifies that the form was expressed properly. Otherwise we feel certain discontent. It is not a bad feature, but an urge for us to aim at acquiring this supreme form. In the time of the Apostles the Christians divided into followers of Peter, followers of the Apostles, followers of Paul, followers of Christ. Paul says, “I sowed, others watered, while God grew it.” What does it matter that you have sown or watered; the important thing is that God made it grow. Moreover all principles boil down to growing, not to who sowed or who watered. I am telling you too, you should stay where God placed you, where the farmer planted you, where your mother sent you to school. Do not go out of the relations already established. The farmer and the mother are wiser than you who have it on your mind to leave school. I shall now stop here… This year the White Brotherhood will have its meeting on 19th August. Do not entertain the idea that you belong to the White Brotherhood. There are meetings every year. I do not want you to be ignorant: It consists of human souls having completed their evolution thousand of years ago. They get together every year to determine the fate of all people. Now, we have our meeting on earth simultaneously with their meeting. They are also on the earth. If you walk properly along this Path, you will join the Brotherhood in time, while for the time being you are only servants. There is something hinted to this effect in the Epistles to the Jews. This year, all of you from Sofia who attended the School up to 1914 inclusive, are invited; they will come on the morning of 17th in Tarnovo2, while those attending from 1916 to 1919 inclusive, will come on the morning of 18th, and the new comers – in the evening of 18th. I would like to see harmony reigning among all of you, so that we can benefit from the time spent together. There is work to be done. To tell you the truth the White Brotherhood does not look approvingly to Sofians. It’s not that it does not love you, but it disapproves of the rights you have granted to yourselves. Freedom goes with rights, but you should know that there are rights and obligations. This is the point of departure for you to learn the methods of governing countries and people. Not a single one of the existing methods on earth can be applied and you are aware of the results. You will learn, because you will return to the Earth, until you complete your development. You have to go to school and you will come back to school as students, until you graduate. Do not think you will convince me to side with you. There is only one way this can be done: if you live in Virtue, in Love, Justice, and Truth. I can’t be where God is not. God is not in the evil. I told a friend of mine that I would not allow anybody to commit a crime. And when I leave, you may do whatever takes your fancy. I will catch those who try to deviate and I will cause them suffering. I won’t allow anybody to commit suicide. You will come to understand this law some day. Some say, “I am not afraid!” I would like you to show me your Love; otherwise, you are cowards par excellence. Now, you have obligations to the White Brotherhood, to the School where you belong. There can be no excuse for you; you can’t discard your obligations to them. You can’t hide anywhere, not even at the bottom of hell. This you should understand very well. There is no hiding from the White Brothers. They are the bearers of Light, of each New Culture, of each good. Well, with their assistance, one always succeeds, but when one is deprived of their assistance, everything is over. Your attitude to me is your attitude to the White Brotherhood, and your attitude to the White Brotherhood is your attitude to God. You will say that you know only one God. You are mistaken: The Sun is known by the light, but it also has one mediator. This is ether, otherwise it will be invisible. Likewise the White Brotherhood is the mediator between you and God. You have to get your act together this year. There shall be no loose parties around. I am ready to listen to everybody and I would like you to be at least halfway like me. Christ has also said, “Students have to be like the Teacher.” How have I lived among you? Have you seen anything of me? You want to do something and I say, “Go ahead! Give it a try!” But I know that this is the law: one will be measured by the measure one applies. You have to be free! I know your previous life, I know everything, and I do not go poking around unearthing things, but I bury things. Knowledge is not always beneficial, but I benefit from what you do. If you want to have the benevolence of God, you have to listen to God. This was told to me and I came here on purpose. Therefore, I say that there are three scenarios: firstly, if you do not want to follow the Teaching that I preach, I will tell you firmly, “OK, you are free to go!” Secondly – are you ready to apply Christ’s Teaching as it is in the Gospel? I mean to have it performed in its absolute completeness! Thirdly – are you ready to apply Moses’ Teaching in its absolute completeness? Either Moses, or Christ, or me – we are one! This is the manifestation of God, this Teaching is Divine. Moses’ Teaching is Divine, Christ’s Teaching is Divine, and the present Teaching is Divine. The source is the same, only the forms differ. It is the same Spirit in the three teachings. Let’s assume that I tell you a dictum, a principle, but I do not sign under it. Try to accomplish it! You won’t lose much if my name is not present. But Christ says, “His Teaching must be accomplished!” You should accomplish either what the White Brotherhood discloses, or Christ’s Teaching, or Moses’ Teaching, one of these Teachings, however, has to be accomplished. I place these three Teachings before you, because you bring up certain doubts. I would not like to remove anybody and I would like you to accomplish the three Teachings simultaneously. In their complete scope they are indeed the same Teaching. Christ in Moses is the same as Christ in Jesus ands the same Christ is in me. I want you to have the insider’s understanding. The significance of the Sun is in the light it sends to us. As early as this year you should identify yourselves, in your mind, you should be sincere, because the benevolence you strive at depends on you being sincere. I can see you thinking, “Are we so well prepared that we can be called?” Remember that king who invited guests to his table. “Since those who were called did not make it, I am calling you, the cripples! Be grateful that the ones whom I called haven’t come!” It’s not a matter of dignity, the point is that you have come to learn. I will indeed produce a report on you that no one has so far produced. I shall describe your progress in the smallest details. If it comes to the stick later on, it won’t be my fault. If your father applies the stick, in awe shall I watch and count the beats. Do not fool yourselves in thinking that one is more worthy than the other. Everything in the White Brotherhood is like music. We do not drive anybody away, neither do we invite anybody; God invites people, while invited people drive themselves away on their own accord. You are free in this respect – nobody can aggrieve you, but nobody can equally spare you the consequences. I would like to see harmony, Life, reigning among all of you, but not brought into effect by the letter of the law. I do not want to probe deep in your lives, I do not want to judge you, but I am telling you the consequences and I treat you like sick people. Can the healer do the healing without causing the slightest pain? The Black Brotherhood has got you entangled, it generated a storm. Sin counts as sin before God. Such a crime can be forgiven, but there is no excuse for it. A brother will come to spend a whole life to have one sin redeemed. This is righteous – for young and old alike. I do not want you to waste your strength. You comment that I have said one thing or another – do not go checking with secondary sources, come straight to me. Nevertheless you elaborate it as much as you can and then you draw conclusions. Some say, “Mister Deunov has provided for himself.” Manu Rainov came to see me years ago and he offered thirty thousand leva to spend on whatever I think right; and I told him, “Let the money be with you.” After his death his wife again offered the money to me and left it with me. The utilisation of the money that comes to the Brotherhood is strictly determined. If there is any embezzlement, the abuser shall bear the consequences. Dr. Mirkovich wanted to leave his fortune to me, but I told him, “Sell it and give the money away to the poor or to your relatives!” This brother also (the Master pointing at L. Kotev) was asking me about the house and told him, “It should go to one person.” If one lies to me, the others will lie to me as well. There is one law in the White Brotherhood: we cannot judge any brother until the brother commits a crime. You have to think, to desire and only after you act – only then will you be judged. You will be judged first on the earth, then you will be judged for your desires in the Astral world, then – on the mental level, and finally everything will be liquidated in the causal world. Destiny is not for us. Christ said, “I did not come to judge, but to save.” The Father has granted destiny to the Son of Man, and the Son of Man represents exactly this White Brotherhood that is granted the right to judge the world. When you study the esoteric science you will learn about this Great Hierarchy that has the power to judge the younger brothers. Your attitude to me is of a temporary nature. Do not disturb the cart-driver while on the Path. If the cart-driver is a master, he will definitely get you there, if you do not have the faith, do not get onto his cart. Well, we do not ask anybody to leave. There are three types of laws: on brotherhood, on friendship, and on acquaintance. You are not brothers of mine as yet. In order for one to join the White Brotherhood, one has to sacrifice one’s life for somebody else. This is the law on brotherhood. You are in debt to the Whole. If you fail to accomplish it, you will be held accountable. I now follow the law of friendship, not the law of brotherhood with you. The Teaching I preach to you basically comes down to the following: I want to introduce you to the laws of Living Nature – something that nobody has studied so far. Moreover this is a particularly slow process. It is easy to read books, but if you want to study the laws of Living Nature, the School of Living Nature is a difficult school to attend. I want you to be free in your thoughts and feelings. I have never imposed any restrictions upon you, but there are others who will. Prepare yourselves for the annual meeting so that we do not have to go back to elementary matters, i.e. to baptism and salvation. Let’s move to a new formula expressing the New Life. I want not one of you to stumble over anything. You will study the law of humility and meekness – this is the first task facing you, the second one is electricity and magnetism, and the third one is suffering. However, you, people from Sofia, started with suffering. You have to have a reserve of energy, in order to undergo this fire. I only give you the method how to prepare yourselves for humility and meekness, for electricity and magnetism. It is not me who has created these things, they do exist. You, people from Sofia, have to patch things up. You may ask how this can be done. For instance a hundred people were sentenced to prison for their debts, while I am rich; I repay their debts and say, “Let them free!” Be self-sufficient. Each one of you should have one’s own thoughts, you should not be influenced by one another - you should help one another. If you can be influenced, people can tell you, “Mr Deunov is such a person.” But if you yourselves can get to know the truth, it cannot be imposed from the outside. I wish all of you to have mutual respect, esteem, and love for each other. This is the first law of the White Brotherhood. You cannot alter this law. There, on the Blue Rocks3 where I spent twenty-five days, I kept receiving all of your thoughts and I can produce a picture of your thoughts. If you want to shoot, use real bullets, not the dum-dum variance. This is just much ado about nothing. You have no time. You are in the twentieth year of the twentieth century. Your karma has already matured and if you fail to properly liquidate it now, you will remain lagging behind for another two thousand years. When you move ahead others will come to take your place. Do not stop, have faith in the great Divine Law! You have the experience from the past, you have a good understanding of things and you are not blind. Make sure you come to Tarnovo on 17th and 18th. Have faith in the Living God and He will manifest Himself to you. Because He says, “If you believe in My words, the Truth will be manifested to you.” You have to believe in somebody. You have to be born by a mother. This is the law. We do not deal in personalities. Some day, when we meet again, we shall talk it over once more. Because things will change. Resistance should be put against the Black Lodge! The interests of the Black Lodge and of the White Lodge clash and you should take part in the conflict. If you take part siding with the Black Brotherhood, your flesh would be made into salami, your skin – into straps, while if you side with the White Brotherhood, you will be walking straight on your two legs, your skin will be intact and you will have all the Divine benevolence. (Brother L. Kotev from the audience): Is neutrality not a valid option? No way! You are either with God or against God. What happened among you has not changed my relations with you. I am sorry that people cannot grasp this law. I want the person to whom I did good not to know me, but to say, “God bless the one who did this good to me!” Do your utmost to bring in harmony. You have been through certain experience, suffering, and striving. Let bygones be bygones; this is not for the first time, but all misunderstandings have to vanish into thin air voluntarily, they should not be forced away. This year, you people from Sofia, are the ones slowing down progress a little, this is why I came to warn you. Let’s get down to good work, because human thought, desire, and action, united in God, constitute a tremendous Power. Master’s lecture, delivered only before brothers on 8 August 1920, Sunday. _______________________________________________ 1 In the short-hand notes this lectures was titled Lecture delivered to brothers 2 Translator’s notes - The town of Velico Tarnovo is situated in the middle of Bulgaria, capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom – 12-14 century. The Master wrote The Testament of the Colour Rays some 6 km away from this town, in the village of Arbanassi. 3 Rocky Heights, famous for their colours, are in the Eastern part of the Balkan Range close to the town of Sliven. Source

Right and Left Path Right and Left Path The Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven sang Pesen na zorata (Song of the Dawn). The theme I am going to address now is of great importance. I use the terms “left path” and “right path” as principles, because there are no other ways of development but these two. Descent is on the left path and ascent is on the right path. The right path is the way, the direction of moving up. Everything in the world is created by the human spirit. However, humankind is at the beginning of its development. To be able to perceive the ideas flowing into the world [from the higher realms][1], we need to get rid of all idle-thoughts [and trifles]. Creating the world; God put Power, Wisdom, Glory and Repose in one cauldron. In this way, violence derived from Power and knowledge from Wisdom. All that sprung from Glory began to strive in different directions. Repose remained at the bottom of the cauldron and God kept it for Himself. Therefore, no rest exists in the world. To take a rest, one should return to God. The Master gave an example with two Russian bankers who had a bet of three million rubles that one of them will spend fourteen years in solitary confinement. The banker who stayed isolated in a room read many books and finally began reading the Bible. After finishing it, he said to himself, "I have found the meaning of life. It is in freedom and free development.” There was only one day remaining to conclude the fourteen year period, but he ran out of the window. He had left a written note about leaving the room twenty four hours early and renouncing to receive the reward of three million rubles, because he became aware that happiness was not in [the mere possession of] money. Meanwhile, the other banker who did not want to lose three million rubles decided to kill the confined one, so as to save his millions. He entered the room at night, but found only the note. For 8,000 years, there have been continuous struggles in the world even among the smallest beings [of creation]. Modern people say that life is a struggle. Life manifests through struggles as they are necessary driving forces. Descent into the heart was conducted by the left path. But it was possessed by some negative forces that did not observe an awakened mind. Great Teachers came to Earth to set the right course of life. Jesus Christ was one of them. Modern Christians have not ceased to follow the Teaching of Christ. People believe in coming from God and returning to God. Where do we come from, why do we come [to Earth] and where do we go—that is an important quest for everyone. The Earth is a school where we study the existing Laws [of Nature]. There are four states of consciousness in the world: sub-consciousness, consciousness, self-consciousness and higher-consciousness. There are certain Laws of Nature that can remove any obstacles from our lives. Even one magical word can release the suffering of an entire nation. Nature in its wholeness is a living entity. The spiritual world is a world where Intelligent Beings rule over all Laws of Creation and they are masters of death. Death is just a transition from one stage of being into another; from one simpler form of existence into another more complex and elevated one. There is nothing as perfect as the human brain. It is where all thoughts, feelings, and desires develop. Those who do not progress on the left and right paths of life are condemned to suffer. Heroes are born on the right path. To become a hero, one should first descend on the left path and then ascend on the right path. The more heroes who are ready to sacrifice themselves and serve their nation, the greater bounties that nation may enjoy. No one can restrict our thoughts, but we cannot avoid the effects of them, either. The Master gave an example with the destiny of Titanic steamer, which had sunk due to the improvidence of the constructing engineers on the power needed for combating the sea obstacles. Even little children can give ideas. The left path is related to the development of our heart - all noble feelings originate from the heart. Moses told the Jews when going to the Promised Land, not to bother the people living there. But the Jews did not obey God’s command delivered to them through Moses, so they came to grief. Women present the left path; men the right path. Women are the bearers of potential energy; men—of kinetic energy. Women should study the Law of the left path; men—that of the right path. The two paths, by crossing themselves, result in the willpower - the children. They are an impetus for all exalted motives in life. Fathers and mothers have hope for their children. That is why Christ said: “Let the little children come to me”.[2] By "little children" Christ meant the Divine Way requiring some special qualities: The first of them is discernment: to recognize good from evil, to tell which motives [of action] are right and which are wrong. Self-control and positive thinking are needed for attaining that measure of discernment. We should always think in a positive way and keep positive thoughts. Another necessary quality is endurance: to be strong and unchanging. Those who are not strong enough will become losers. On the other side, resilient people are victorious in life. Such nation is England. Faith: is another needed quality related to human mind. In this respect, doubt is like a worm for the human mind. Faith also implies the experience from testing whether someone is ready to sacrifice themselves for us. The Master told as an example the story of two friends who met a bear in the forest. They went for a walk in the woods. One of them boasted to the other that he was ready to do anything in the name of their friendship, even to give his life. At that moment a bear appeared before them. The braggart who had just praised about his readiness for self-sacrifice quickly ran and climbed a tree. The second one laid on the ground. The bear came to him, moved around, smelled him, bowed to his ear and went away. His friend came down from the tree and asked him what the bear had told him. He answered, "Next time, do not go on a journey with a friend like that". The right and left paths present the two necessary principles, the two conditions of life. Nowadays, the Bulgarians are on a crossroad, thus what they need is endurance and faith. Natural Laws are relentless. The sufferings of the Bulgarian people have not been completed yet, but that should not disturb you. A mother, for example, carries the baby in her womb for nine months, making any sacrifices for her infant, because she believes the child to be a bearer of Love, that is followed by Wisdom. Love cannot go without Wisdom and Wisdom without Love. Children in fact, are the bearers of Truth. The same Laws that govern Nature and all living beings are also related to people. From now on people are expected to join the blossoming of Nature. There is a new element in our Solar system now—that is Exaltation. All inner life is depicted in one’s features. For example, the nose is a symbol of willpower, intelligence, and wisdom. That is evidenced by its shape, lines, and size. People need to work with Love on the left path, with Wisdom—on the right path, and with Truth or willpower—on the straight path. Considering the conditions of life, every individual is a condition for the development of their nation, and in turn, the nation is a condition for the individuals; its people. Thought itself comes as a reflection of the Great principles of life. Everyone should comprehend the Laws of Creation and only then can we together create a life of prosperity and abundance. We are just servants of Living Nature. She is generously rewarding, but also relentlessly demanding of us. Love is a Great power that cannot be resisted. Everything is subject to its power. Evil cannot enter where Love is present, and where there is no Love, evil stays. In the same way, a doctor does not go where Light is present but where Light is absent. Eating a lot, we think that we will be fine, but what if there is poison in the food? The Master told a story of an eagle in the region of Deliorman[3] who ate from a poisoned sheep placed on purpose there to kill the wolves. As soon as the eagle had felt the poison, he rolled over on the ground, regurgitated the poisonous meat and flew away to his nest. There are thoughts, feelings, and actions that can poison us. The toxic food [we have taken] should be vomited in the same way as the food, eaten by the eagle. We cannot encourage ourselves with cowardice, but only with heroism. Diseases are from the food we take. We do not understand the conditions of life that Nature has defined for us. The same Law is applicable to the mind, heart, and soul. Yogis have rules for life. For example, they drink water slowly, in small sips, to strengthen the cardiovascular system and expose themselves to the sunshine to strengthen the nervous system. For our development, faith is a requisite. Faith is helpful for every person and for all professions. Everyone should have inner confidence that what they say is true. Do not keep in your mind a thought that is not verified; do not receive in your soul anything that is not tested. It is easy to mess, but hard to be cleansed. The Master gave an example with an old story. Once upon a time there were two neighboring kingdoms of the Esperzits and of the Menzitis. They were in constant animosity because of the poor relationships between their kings. The king of Menzitis was warned by wise men that his son’s life would be endangered at the age of 21. As a precaution the king sent him away from the palace to live with a shepherd in the kingdom of the Esperzits. The prince, in his 21st year, was once grazing the sheep at a mountainous place, when he saw a young lady riding a horse in the distance accompanied by two guards. She stopped to pick some flowers enjoying the beauty around. Obviously, she was a nature lover. At that moment, he noticed that she was bitten by a snake on her left side. He immediately resolved to help her. When he came closer to her he threw himself over her and began sucking out the venom from the snakebite. The guards thinking that he had attacked the princess shot a bow with a poisonous arrow at him hitting his right shoulder. Seeing that, the princess in turn, began sucking out the venom from his wound. In this way, they saved each other and became aware that they could not live without each other. So, they married and lived happily ever after. Those are the two ways: Love and Wisdom, the left and right side, the left and right path. Women need to treat and heal the infection that has corroded everything in the society. Some do fight. Be heroes because the Kingdom of Heaven is not given to cowards. Heroes are honored by monuments for their good thoughts, feelings, and deeds. What about the situation in the past and that in the future? Where have we been before and where are we going to be? That can be determined. All great men have defined the situation of their nations foreseeing everything [in the future] like clairvoyants. One nation needs preachers, priests, teachers, politicians, etc., but they all must be pure in deeds, thoughts, and desires. What is the application of the Pythagorean Theorem in life? The sum of the squares of mind and heart gives the square of human willpower—a2 + b2 = c2—the sum of the squares of the two catheters gives the square of the hypotenuse. Therefore, mind and heart should go together. Willpower can do and achieve anything. Its function can be defined briefly as follows: willpower can control mind and heart. Everything in nature is closely interrelated. It is possible to say about animals as well as about people what they are worth. For example, cattle and horse dealers can define very precisely an animal’s price by viewing, touching, feeling, and inspecting their teeth and other outer features. The left path is the path of Love; the right path is the path of Wisdom. Uniting them, we will receive the third path—the path of willpower. The left path is designated by the line at the back of human head; the right path—by the line in front of the forehead. To conclude my talk, I will give you an example that I have already used before. A young Bulgarian agreed to work as an apprentice for an old potter to learn the pottery craft. He has been serving his apprenticeship for three years. Then he left his master to work on his own and become independent. However, when he began his own business all his pots cracked. He returned to his master and asked him for the reason of his failure. He began to work again with him, and then he noticed that the master, when taking the pots out of the furnace, blew into them saying “Hu”, and thus they did not crack. All mastery and power for non-cracked pots came from that “Hu”. The pots symbolize our body. The troubles and sufferings that everyone encounters to be tempered and get stronger are symbolized by the furnace. Because without difficulties and pain, there is no ascension, there is no gain. The pots get cracked because we do not blow into them, in other words, we are not in harmony with the Divine Spirit. Mother blows into her hand or the hand of her child and that blow gives strength. If a pregnant woman says confidently to the baby in her womb, "You, daughter, will become a mother who is smart, diligent, and modest" or "You, son, will become a father who is smart, good-hearted, honest, and just", it will be fulfilled. And now I can tell you that my lecture will receive recognition in five years. Do not despair. Be brave. The student should not get discouraged by the teacher's corrections on the weak calculation. Saying “I can correct myself” the student will do it. The Master gave an example with the American preacher Moody. He was a shoemaker and said to himself, "I will become a good preacher." He had been working on himself, gradually succeeding in achieving his goal, despite the mockery of his employees. Finally, he managed to become a very good preacher. Now, if [at least] 14 of you have received my thought, I think it is worth it. Songs that were performed by the Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven: Bratstvo, edinstvo (Brotherhood, Unity)—the anthem of the Brotherhood, and Napred da hodim smelo (Let’s Go Forward). Public lecture[4] by Beinsa Duno—Petar Danov held on June 13 (May 31 O.S.), 1920[5], 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Sunday, “Zora” Community Center Hall, Sliven Translated by Evgeni Vasilev Edited by Maria Braikova, Antoaneta Krushevska, Beverly Cotton, and G.V. Eyssen [1][…] Editor’s addition for clarity and preciseness of the text [2]But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”, Matthew 19:14, NKJV [3]Deliorman (Turkish) or Ludogorie (Bulgarian) is a region in northeastern Bulgaria stretching over the plateau of the same name. Part of the Danubian Plain, the region is hilly in the east, but merges with the plains of Dobruja and the Danube to the north. [4] The lecture is taken from stenographic notes, which are probably not full and the examples are retold. [5]O.S. and N.S. dates – Old Style according to the Julian Calendar and New Style uses the Gregorian Calendar, which was introduced officially at different dates in the different countries. In Bulgaria it was introduced on March 31, 1916 and April 1 (O.S.) became April 14, 1916 (N.S.). Right and Left Path Right and Left Path The Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven sang Pesen na zorata (Song of the Dawn). The theme I am going to address now is of great importance. I use the terms “left path” and “right path” as principles, because there are no other ways of development but these two. Descent is on the left path and ascent is on the right path. The right path is the way, the direction of moving up. Everything in the world is created by the human spirit. However, humankind is at the beginning of its development. To be able to perceive the ideas flowing into the world [from the higher realms][1], we need to get rid of all idle-thoughts [and trifles]. Creating the world; God put Power, Wisdom, Glory and Repose in one cauldron. In this way, violence derived from Power and knowledge from Wisdom. All that sprung from Glory began to strive in different directions. Repose remained at the bottom of the cauldron and God kept it for Himself. Therefore, no rest exists in the world. To take a rest, one should return to God. The Master gave an example with two Russian bankers who had a bet of three million rubles that one of them will spend fourteen years in solitary confinement. The banker who stayed isolated in a room read many books and finally began reading the Bible. After finishing it, he said to himself, "I have found the meaning of life. It is in freedom and free development.” There was only one day remaining to conclude the fourteen year period, but he ran out of the window. He had left a written note about leaving the room twenty four hours early and renouncing to receive the reward of three million rubles, because he became aware that happiness was not in [the mere possession of] money. Meanwhile, the other banker who did not want to lose three million rubles decided to kill the confined one, so as to save his millions. He entered the room at night, but found only the note. For 8,000 years, there have been continuous struggles in the world even among the smallest beings [of creation]. Modern people say that life is a struggle. Life manifests through struggles as they are necessary driving forces. Descent into the heart was conducted by the left path. But it was possessed by some negative forces that did not observe an awakened mind. Great Teachers came to Earth to set the right course of life. Jesus Christ was one of them. Modern Christians have not ceased to follow the Teaching of Christ. People believe in coming from God and returning to God. Where do we come from, why do we come [to Earth] and where do we go—that is an important quest for everyone. The Earth is a school where we study the existing Laws [of Nature]. There are four states of consciousness in the world: sub-consciousness, consciousness, self-consciousness and higher-consciousness. There are certain Laws of Nature that can remove any obstacles from our lives. Even one magical word can release the suffering of an entire nation. Nature in its wholeness is a living entity. The spiritual world is a world where Intelligent Beings rule over all Laws of Creation and they are masters of death. Death is just a transition from one stage of being into another; from one simpler form of existence into another more complex and elevated one. There is nothing as perfect as the human brain. It is where all thoughts, feelings, and desires develop. Those who do not progress on the left and right paths of life are condemned to suffer. Heroes are born on the right path. To become a hero, one should first descend on the left path and then ascend on the right path. The more heroes who are ready to sacrifice themselves and serve their nation, the greater bounties that nation may enjoy. No one can restrict our thoughts, but we cannot avoid the effects of them, either. The Master gave an example with the destiny of Titanic steamer, which had sunk due to the improvidence of the constructing engineers on the power needed for combating the sea obstacles. Even little children can give ideas. The left path is related to the development of our heart - all noble feelings originate from the heart. Moses told the Jews when going to the Promised Land, not to bother the people living there. But the Jews did not obey God’s command delivered to them through Moses, so they came to grief. Women present the left path; men the right path. Women are the bearers of potential energy; men—of kinetic energy. Women should study the Law of the left path; men—that of the right path. The two paths, by crossing themselves, result in the willpower - the children. They are an impetus for all exalted motives in life. Fathers and mothers have hope for their children. That is why Christ said: “Let the little children come to me”.[2] By "little children" Christ meant the Divine Way requiring some special qualities: The first of them is discernment: to recognize good from evil, to tell which motives [of action] are right and which are wrong. Self-control and positive thinking are needed for attaining that measure of discernment. We should always think in a positive way and keep positive thoughts. Another necessary quality is endurance: to be strong and unchanging. Those who are not strong enough will become losers. On the other side, resilient people are victorious in life. Such nation is England. Faith: is another needed quality related to human mind. In this respect, doubt is like a worm for the human mind. Faith also implies the experience from testing whether someone is ready to sacrifice themselves for us. The Master told as an example the story of two friends who met a bear in the forest. They went for a walk in the woods. One of them boasted to the other that he was ready to do anything in the name of their friendship, even to give his life. At that moment a bear appeared before them. The braggart who had just praised about his readiness for self-sacrifice quickly ran and climbed a tree. The second one laid on the ground. The bear came to him, moved around, smelled him, bowed to his ear and went away. His friend came down from the tree and asked him what the bear had told him. He answered, "Next time, do not go on a journey with a friend like that". The right and left paths present the two necessary principles, the two conditions of life. Nowadays, the Bulgarians are on a crossroad, thus what they need is endurance and faith. Natural Laws are relentless. The sufferings of the Bulgarian people have not been completed yet, but that should not disturb you. A mother, for example, carries the baby in her womb for nine months, making any sacrifices for her infant, because she believes the child to be a bearer of Love, that is followed by Wisdom. Love cannot go without Wisdom and Wisdom without Love. Children in fact, are the bearers of Truth. The same Laws that govern Nature and all living beings are also related to people. From now on people are expected to join the blossoming of Nature. There is a new element in our Solar system now—that is Exaltation. All inner life is depicted in one’s features. For example, the nose is a symbol of willpower, intelligence, and wisdom. That is evidenced by its shape, lines, and size. People need to work with Love on the left path, with Wisdom—on the right path, and with Truth or willpower—on the straight path. Considering the conditions of life, every individual is a condition for the development of their nation, and in turn, the nation is a condition for the individuals; its people. Thought itself comes as a reflection of the Great principles of life. Everyone should comprehend the Laws of Creation and only then can we together create a life of prosperity and abundance. We are just servants of Living Nature. She is generously rewarding, but also relentlessly demanding of us. Love is a Great power that cannot be resisted. Everything is subject to its power. Evil cannot enter where Love is present, and where there is no Love, evil stays. In the same way, a doctor does not go where Light is present but where Light is absent. Eating a lot, we think that we will be fine, but what if there is poison in the food? The Master told a story of an eagle in the region of Deliorman[3] who ate from a poisoned sheep placed on purpose there to kill the wolves. As soon as the eagle had felt the poison, he rolled over on the ground, regurgitated the poisonous meat and flew away to his nest. There are thoughts, feelings, and actions that can poison us. The toxic food [we have taken] should be vomited in the same way as the food, eaten by the eagle. We cannot encourage ourselves with cowardice, but only with heroism. Diseases are from the food we take. We do not understand the conditions of life that Nature has defined for us. The same Law is applicable to the mind, heart, and soul. Yogis have rules for life. For example, they drink water slowly, in small sips, to strengthen the cardiovascular system and expose themselves to the sunshine to strengthen the nervous system. For our development, faith is a requisite. Faith is helpful for every person and for all professions. Everyone should have inner confidence that what they say is true. Do not keep in your mind a thought that is not verified; do not receive in your soul anything that is not tested. It is easy to mess, but hard to be cleansed. The Master gave an example with an old story. Once upon a time there were two neighboring kingdoms of the Esperzits and of the Menzitis. They were in constant animosity because of the poor relationships between their kings. The king of Menzitis was warned by wise men that his son’s life would be endangered at the age of 21. As a precaution the king sent him away from the palace to live with a shepherd in the kingdom of the Esperzits. The prince, in his 21st year, was once grazing the sheep at a mountainous place, when he saw a young lady riding a horse in the distance accompanied by two guards. She stopped to pick some flowers enjoying the beauty around. Obviously, she was a nature lover. At that moment, he noticed that she was bitten by a snake on her left side. He immediately resolved to help her. When he came closer to her he threw himself over her and began sucking out the venom from the snakebite. The guards thinking that he had attacked the princess shot a bow with a poisonous arrow at him hitting his right shoulder. Seeing that, the princess in turn, began sucking out the venom from his wound. In this way, they saved each other and became aware that they could not live without each other. So, they married and lived happily ever after. Those are the two ways: Love and Wisdom, the left and right side, the left and right path. Women need to treat and heal the infection that has corroded everything in the society. Some do fight. Be heroes because the Kingdom of Heaven is not given to cowards. Heroes are honored by monuments for their good thoughts, feelings, and deeds. What about the situation in the past and that in the future? Where have we been before and where are we going to be? That can be determined. All great men have defined the situation of their nations foreseeing everything [in the future] like clairvoyants. One nation needs preachers, priests, teachers, politicians, etc., but they all must be pure in deeds, thoughts, and desires. What is the application of the Pythagorean Theorem in life? The sum of the squares of mind and heart gives the square of human willpower—a2 + b2 = c2—the sum of the squares of the two catheters gives the square of the hypotenuse. Therefore, mind and heart should go together. Willpower can do and achieve anything. Its function can be defined briefly as follows: willpower can control mind and heart. Everything in nature is closely interrelated. It is possible to say about animals as well as about people what they are worth. For example, cattle and horse dealers can define very precisely an animal’s price by viewing, touching, feeling, and inspecting their teeth and other outer features. The left path is the path of Love; the right path is the path of Wisdom. Uniting them, we will receive the third path—the path of willpower. The left path is designated by the line at the back of human head; the right path—by the line in front of the forehead. To conclude my talk, I will give you an example that I have already used before. A young Bulgarian agreed to work as an apprentice for an old potter to learn the pottery craft. He has been serving his apprenticeship for three years. Then he left his master to work on his own and become independent. However, when he began his own business all his pots cracked. He returned to his master and asked him for the reason of his failure. He began to work again with him, and then he noticed that the master, when taking the pots out of the furnace, blew into them saying “Hu”, and thus they did not crack. All mastery and power for non-cracked pots came from that “Hu”. The pots symbolize our body. The troubles and sufferings that everyone encounters to be tempered and get stronger are symbolized by the furnace. Because without difficulties and pain, there is no ascension, there is no gain. The pots get cracked because we do not blow into them, in other words, we are not in harmony with the Divine Spirit. Mother blows into her hand or the hand of her child and that blow gives strength. If a pregnant woman says confidently to the baby in her womb, "You, daughter, will become a mother who is smart, diligent, and modest" or "You, son, will become a father who is smart, good-hearted, honest, and just", it will be fulfilled. And now I can tell you that my lecture will receive recognition in five years. Do not despair. Be brave. The student should not get discouraged by the teacher's corrections on the weak calculation. Saying “I can correct myself” the student will do it. The Master gave an example with the American preacher Moody. He was a shoemaker and said to himself, "I will become a good preacher." He had been working on himself, gradually succeeding in achieving his goal, despite the mockery of his employees. Finally, he managed to become a very good preacher. Now, if [at least] 14 of you have received my thought, I think it is worth it. Songs that were performed by the Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven: Bratstvo, edinstvo (Brotherhood, Unity)—the anthem of the Brotherhood, and Napred da hodim smelo (Let’s Go Forward). Public lecture[4] by Beinsa Duno—Petar Danov held on June 13 (May 31 O.S.), 1920[5], 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Sunday, “Zora” Community Center Hall, Sliven Translated by Evgeni Vasilev Edited by Maria Braikova, Antoaneta Krushevska, Beverly Cotton, and G.V. Eyssen [1][…] Editor’s addition for clarity and preciseness of the text [2]But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”, Matthew 19:14, NKJV [3]Deliorman (Turkish) or Ludogorie (Bulgarian) is a region in northeastern Bulgaria stretching over the plateau of the same name. Part of the Danubian Plain, the region is hilly in the east, but merges with the plains of Dobruja and the Danube to the north. [4] The lecture is taken from stenographic notes, which are probably not full and the examples are retold. [5]O.S. and N.S. dates – Old Style according to the Julian Calendar and New Style uses the Gregorian Calendar, which was introduced officially at different dates in the different countries. In Bulgaria it was introduced on March 31, 1916 and April 1 (O.S.) became April 14, 1916 (N.S.). Right and Left Path Right and Left Path The Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven sang Pesen na zorata (Song of the Dawn). The theme I am going to address now is of great importance. I use the terms “left path” and “right path” as principles, because there are no other ways of development but these two. Descent is on the left path and ascent is on the right path. The right path is the way, the direction of moving up. Everything in the world is created by the human spirit. However, humankind is at the beginning of its development. To be able to perceive the ideas flowing into the world [from the higher realms][1], we need to get rid of all idle-thoughts [and trifles]. Creating the world; God put Power, Wisdom, Glory and Repose in one cauldron. In this way, violence derived from Power and knowledge from Wisdom. All that sprung from Glory began to strive in different directions. Repose remained at the bottom of the cauldron and God kept it for Himself. Therefore, no rest exists in the world. To take a rest, one should return to God. The Master gave an example with two Russian bankers who had a bet of three million rubles that one of them will spend fourteen years in solitary confinement. The banker who stayed isolated in a room read many books and finally began reading the Bible. After finishing it, he said to himself, "I have found the meaning of life. It is in freedom and free development.” There was only one day remaining to conclude the fourteen year period, but he ran out of the window. He had left a written note about leaving the room twenty four hours early and renouncing to receive the reward of three million rubles, because he became aware that happiness was not in [the mere possession of] money. Meanwhile, the other banker who did not want to lose three million rubles decided to kill the confined one, so as to save his millions. He entered the room at night, but found only the note. For 8,000 years, there have been continuous struggles in the world even among the smallest beings [of creation]. Modern people say that life is a struggle. Life manifests through struggles as they are necessary driving forces. Descent into the heart was conducted by the left path. But it was possessed by some negative forces that did not observe an awakened mind. Great Teachers came to Earth to set the right course of life. Jesus Christ was one of them. Modern Christians have not ceased to follow the Teaching of Christ. People believe in coming from God and returning to God. Where do we come from, why do we come [to Earth] and where do we go—that is an important quest for everyone. The Earth is a school where we study the existing Laws [of Nature]. There are four states of consciousness in the world: sub-consciousness, consciousness, self-consciousness and higher-consciousness. There are certain Laws of Nature that can remove any obstacles from our lives. Even one magical word can release the suffering of an entire nation. Nature in its wholeness is a living entity. The spiritual world is a world where Intelligent Beings rule over all Laws of Creation and they are masters of death. Death is just a transition from one stage of being into another; from one simpler form of existence into another more complex and elevated one. There is nothing as perfect as the human brain. It is where all thoughts, feelings, and desires develop. Those who do not progress on the left and right paths of life are condemned to suffer. Heroes are born on the right path. To become a hero, one should first descend on the left path and then ascend on the right path. The more heroes who are ready to sacrifice themselves and serve their nation, the greater bounties that nation may enjoy. No one can restrict our thoughts, but we cannot avoid the effects of them, either. The Master gave an example with the destiny of Titanic steamer, which had sunk due to the improvidence of the constructing engineers on the power needed for combating the sea obstacles. Even little children can give ideas. The left path is related to the development of our heart - all noble feelings originate from the heart. Moses told the Jews when going to the Promised Land, not to bother the people living there. But the Jews did not obey God’s command delivered to them through Moses, so they came to grief. Women present the left path; men the right path. Women are the bearers of potential energy; men—of kinetic energy. Women should study the Law of the left path; men—that of the right path. The two paths, by crossing themselves, result in the willpower - the children. They are an impetus for all exalted motives in life. Fathers and mothers have hope for their children. That is why Christ said: “Let the little children come to me”.[2] By "little children" Christ meant the Divine Way requiring some special qualities: The first of them is discernment: to recognize good from evil, to tell which motives [of action] are right and which are wrong. Self-control and positive thinking are needed for attaining that measure of discernment. We should always think in a positive way and keep positive thoughts. Another necessary quality is endurance: to be strong and unchanging. Those who are not strong enough will become losers. On the other side, resilient people are victorious in life. Such nation is England. Faith: is another needed quality related to human mind. In this respect, doubt is like a worm for the human mind. Faith also implies the experience from testing whether someone is ready to sacrifice themselves for us. The Master told as an example the story of two friends who met a bear in the forest. They went for a walk in the woods. One of them boasted to the other that he was ready to do anything in the name of their friendship, even to give his life. At that moment a bear appeared before them. The braggart who had just praised about his readiness for self-sacrifice quickly ran and climbed a tree. The second one laid on the ground. The bear came to him, moved around, smelled him, bowed to his ear and went away. His friend came down from the tree and asked him what the bear had told him. He answered, "Next time, do not go on a journey with a friend like that". The right and left paths present the two necessary principles, the two conditions of life. Nowadays, the Bulgarians are on a crossroad, thus what they need is endurance and faith. Natural Laws are relentless. The sufferings of the Bulgarian people have not been completed yet, but that should not disturb you. A mother, for example, carries the baby in her womb for nine months, making any sacrifices for her infant, because she believes the child to be a bearer of Love, that is followed by Wisdom. Love cannot go without Wisdom and Wisdom without Love. Children in fact, are the bearers of Truth. The same Laws that govern Nature and all living beings are also related to people. From now on people are expected to join the blossoming of Nature. There is a new element in our Solar system now—that is Exaltation. All inner life is depicted in one’s features. For example, the nose is a symbol of willpower, intelligence, and wisdom. That is evidenced by its shape, lines, and size. People need to work with Love on the left path, with Wisdom—on the right path, and with Truth or willpower—on the straight path. Considering the conditions of life, every individual is a condition for the development of their nation, and in turn, the nation is a condition for the individuals; its people. Thought itself comes as a reflection of the Great principles of life. Everyone should comprehend the Laws of Creation and only then can we together create a life of prosperity and abundance. We are just servants of Living Nature. She is generously rewarding, but also relentlessly demanding of us. Love is a Great power that cannot be resisted. Everything is subject to its power. Evil cannot enter where Love is present, and where there is no Love, evil stays. In the same way, a doctor does not go where Light is present but where Light is absent. Eating a lot, we think that we will be fine, but what if there is poison in the food? The Master told a story of an eagle in the region of Deliorman[3] who ate from a poisoned sheep placed on purpose there to kill the wolves. As soon as the eagle had felt the poison, he rolled over on the ground, regurgitated the poisonous meat and flew away to his nest. There are thoughts, feelings, and actions that can poison us. The toxic food [we have taken] should be vomited in the same way as the food, eaten by the eagle. We cannot encourage ourselves with cowardice, but only with heroism. Diseases are from the food we take. We do not understand the conditions of life that Nature has defined for us. The same Law is applicable to the mind, heart, and soul. Yogis have rules for life. For example, they drink water slowly, in small sips, to strengthen the cardiovascular system and expose themselves to the sunshine to strengthen the nervous system. For our development, faith is a requisite. Faith is helpful for every person and for all professions. Everyone should have inner confidence that what they say is true. Do not keep in your mind a thought that is not verified; do not receive in your soul anything that is not tested. It is easy to mess, but hard to be cleansed. The Master gave an example with an old story. Once upon a time there were two neighboring kingdoms of the Esperzits and of the Menzitis. They were in constant animosity because of the poor relationships between their kings. The king of Menzitis was warned by wise men that his son’s life would be endangered at the age of 21. As a precaution the king sent him away from the palace to live with a shepherd in the kingdom of the Esperzits. The prince, in his 21st year, was once grazing the sheep at a mountainous place, when he saw a young lady riding a horse in the distance accompanied by two guards. She stopped to pick some flowers enjoying the beauty around. Obviously, she was a nature lover. At that moment, he noticed that she was bitten by a snake on her left side. He immediately resolved to help her. When he came closer to her he threw himself over her and began sucking out the venom from the snakebite. The guards thinking that he had attacked the princess shot a bow with a poisonous arrow at him hitting his right shoulder. Seeing that, the princess in turn, began sucking out the venom from his wound. In this way, they saved each other and became aware that they could not live without each other. So, they married and lived happily ever after. Those are the two ways: Love and Wisdom, the left and right side, the left and right path. Women need to treat and heal the infection that has corroded everything in the society. Some do fight. Be heroes because the Kingdom of Heaven is not given to cowards. Heroes are honored by monuments for their good thoughts, feelings, and deeds. What about the situation in the past and that in the future? Where have we been before and where are we going to be? That can be determined. All great men have defined the situation of their nations foreseeing everything [in the future] like clairvoyants. One nation needs preachers, priests, teachers, politicians, etc., but they all must be pure in deeds, thoughts, and desires. What is the application of the Pythagorean Theorem in life? The sum of the squares of mind and heart gives the square of human willpower—a2 + b2 = c2—the sum of the squares of the two catheters gives the square of the hypotenuse. Therefore, mind and heart should go together. Willpower can do and achieve anything. Its function can be defined briefly as follows: willpower can control mind and heart. Everything in nature is closely interrelated. It is possible to say about animals as well as about people what they are worth. For example, cattle and horse dealers can define very precisely an animal’s price by viewing, touching, feeling, and inspecting their teeth and other outer features. The left path is the path of Love; the right path is the path of Wisdom. Uniting them, we will receive the third path—the path of willpower. The left path is designated by the line at the back of human head; the right path—by the line in front of the forehead. To conclude my talk, I will give you an example that I have already used before. A young Bulgarian agreed to work as an apprentice for an old potter to learn the pottery craft. He has been serving his apprenticeship for three years. Then he left his master to work on his own and become independent. However, when he began his own business all his pots cracked. He returned to his master and asked him for the reason of his failure. He began to work again with him, and then he noticed that the master, when taking the pots out of the furnace, blew into them saying “Hu”, and thus they did not crack. All mastery and power for non-cracked pots came from that “Hu”. The pots symbolize our body. The troubles and sufferings that everyone encounters to be tempered and get stronger are symbolized by the furnace. Because without difficulties and pain, there is no ascension, there is no gain. The pots get cracked because we do not blow into them, in other words, we are not in harmony with the Divine Spirit. Mother blows into her hand or the hand of her child and that blow gives strength. If a pregnant woman says confidently to the baby in her womb, "You, daughter, will become a mother who is smart, diligent, and modest" or "You, son, will become a father who is smart, good-hearted, honest, and just", it will be fulfilled. And now I can tell you that my lecture will receive recognition in five years. Do not despair. Be brave. The student should not get discouraged by the teacher's corrections on the weak calculation. Saying “I can correct myself” the student will do it. The Master gave an example with the American preacher Moody. He was a shoemaker and said to himself, "I will become a good preacher." He had been working on himself, gradually succeeding in achieving his goal, despite the mockery of his employees. Finally, he managed to become a very good preacher. Now, if [at least] 14 of you have received my thought, I think it is worth it. Songs that were performed by the Choir of the Brotherhood in Sliven: Bratstvo, edinstvo (Brotherhood, Unity)—the anthem of the Brotherhood, and Napred da hodim smelo (Let’s Go Forward). Public lecture[4] by Beinsa Duno—Petar Danov held on June 13 (May 31 O.S.), 1920[5], 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Sunday, “Zora” Community Center Hall, Sliven Translated by Evgeni Vasilev Edited by Maria Braikova, Antoaneta Krushevska, Beverly Cotton, and G.V. Eyssen [1][…] Editor’s addition for clarity and preciseness of the text [2]But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”, Matthew 19:14, NKJV [3]Deliorman (Turkish) or Ludogorie (Bulgarian) is a region in northeastern Bulgaria stretching over the plateau of the same name. Part of the Danubian Plain, the region is hilly in the east, but merges with the plains of Dobruja and the Danube to the north. [4] The lecture is taken from stenographic notes, which are probably not full and the examples are retold. [5]O.S. and N.S. dates – Old Style according to the Julian Calendar and New Style uses the Gregorian Calendar, which was introduced officially at different dates in the different countries. In Bulgaria it was introduced on March 31, 1916 and April 1 (O.S.) became April 14, 1916 (N.S.).

Work With Love1 I want to know why you insist on this meeting. (Somebody from the audience): We would like to be once again with you, Master! Do you have any questions to put?... Do you know the origin of the Bulgarian word for guess? It is derived from an old root meaning to live a conscientious life. This is the only way that knowledge can be meaningful. Living a conscientious life is living Life Eternal. So, these two - Life and Conscientious Life – are synonymous. Hence not only that one has to live, but one has to live a Conscientious Life. Knowing presupposes living in the absolute sense of the word. People live nowadays too; they get wealthier, but live in uncertainty. You have watched certain students who start taking lessons in music, but can’t understand anything, i.e. they can’t play. I ask you: does the teacher invest anything in them? If such students do not possess that great urge and love for music, would the teacher be in a position to develop anything in them? No. Likewise, if you do not have that great, intensive desire for Life, what can God do for you? So, what you are looking for is deep within you. However, there are things that are not within you. Music teachers always make their students practice exercises and etudes, rather than having the students distracting their attention with various musical pieces or giving concerts, because this will corrupt them. Students should first learn the art of playing. Life here goes on in a proper manner. Students achieve their goal within the time they study. Similarly, a person who wants to acquire the Divine Life has to have the methods for the achievement of this Life. Every student has to have specific methods. Now I notice that those of you, in whom the Spirit starts talking, say, “The Spirit already talks to me”. However, do you know what great differences there are when the Spirit talks? To Elijah and to Jesse did the Spirit talk, but the point is how the Spirit talked. This is to say that the Spirit does not talk in the same way to all people. Some music teachers can teach fifty to a hundred students, but one of them has hardly learnt the notes, the second one has barely taken two or three lessons, while a third one has covered fifty lessons etc. You cannot understand that there is a gradation among you in the manifestation of the Divine Spirit. The point is not that the Spirit talks to us, but that we have to understand the living laws of God. Contemporary inventors provide the best examples: they experiment once, twice, three times unsuccessfully; they keep experimenting for fifteen-twenty years still unsuccessful, until finally some of them achieve the goal, while others do not. It takes perseverance. Those who walk along the Divine Path should also have perseverance. It’s not a teaching if it can be achieved overnight. Not that it is difficult, but it takes time. When you start studying this Teaching, you will encounter many impediments. Imagine that a teacher had twenty to thirty students in music, but imagine them under different conditions: one has a rich father, who has bought a good instrument. The other one has a poor father; this student has no shoes, and has to make up for the external conditions where he lags behind, and at that he has to keep up with learning his lessons. However, it is often the case that poor people develop better characters than rich people. Poor people have stronger wills. Many of you resemble these rich students and you want to acquire the skills without encountering many obstacles. This is what you want. There are two categories in contemporary Christianity. In one of the categories there are certain layers, similar to well-fed pigs, with lard that is getting thicker and thicker, fat is gathering, however, there is no muscle strength. Likewise various layers settle upon the earth or similarly layers of dust settle in a house that has not been cleaned recently. This is external acquisition and wealth. In the other category of Christianity the acquisition is an external growth, each particle is linked to the others and Life participates in this particle. Sometimes these particles are not linked, each one having a life of its own and saying, “Nobody should interfere with my job!” While in other cases each particle is linked to another and all of them are living particles. Hence your experience should be in the second category. For instance – you finish reading a book – this represents another layer. An author wrote something, which might as well be true, but having read it you think that you understand it. You cannot understand due to the simple reason that you are not in the same conditions, you do not understand the author’s conditions, and you do not know what made the author write. Read the Gospel, read what Christ said, what Isaiah said, but you do not know what made Christ say so. Until you reach the same conditions in Life you cannot understand this Teaching. When the Spirit comes, it will create this understanding in you. Therefore, sometimes when your life settles and when you start trying it, only dust comes out of you, and you believe you know life. All those particles fly away but this is not something organic. It exists in you and you say, “This is not so, we must have beguiled ourselves.” Yes, as long as you have settled, I am telling you, you must have beguiled yourselves. This is not a living thing. If water runs through your dust for some time and if the dust still stays, without flying away, then this is something organic, but if it flies away from you, this is insignificant. Now, I reveal to you the law that governs Life. You cannot escape doubts. These are natural, inevitable. I am not saying that these are laws of some kind, but under the present circumstances these are unavoidable. With all people of poor faith, anger, hatred, envy, lies, and many others are unavoidable. (Somebody from the audience): If this candle is lit in our mind, as you say, are these also inevitable? No, when this little candle is lit in the Divine mind, i.e. when God lights this little candle of yours, He will place it in the candlestick and will say, “Let this Light shed light upon the Path of people”. This is its significance. Thus people will glorify God. (Somebody from the audience): Does the lighting of the candle depend on us or on God? The lighting is a result of a contact with God. These fiery flames that appeared to the Apostles, were they not such candles? Everything depends on the Holy Spirit. It is different from all other spirits. There are many spirits. Things are said and sown, but each one in its own specific time. I am telling you not to fool yourselves that the time has not come yet. These things do not get done by worrying. Do not think that if you start weeping and pitying yourselves, this would be of any help to you. This will be of no use to you. Weeping has a completely different meaning: when you go to a cruel person, you cry to soften his heart; dry soil needs watering, doesn’t it? Do you need to cry when you go to a good person? When he sees that you are naked and barefoot, won’t he dress you? Do you think that after telling him that you will commit suicide he won’t defend you? God is an intelligent Being and when you go to God with positive faith, you won’t find Him in two minds. Now we go to God with our human understanding. Sometimes we are very anxious and impede the Divine Spirit within us. Imagine that a mother is making a cake while the child is walking after her and making hassle. Imagine her spreading the dough while the child is asking, “Is the cake ready yet?” Let the child wait for a while, until the mother kneads and bakes the cake. Will the cake be ready sooner if the child keeps breathing down her neck, fretting and asking time and time again when it will be ready? No, let the child fetch some water, some chopped wood, let the child turn on the oven, let the child participate enthusiastically and assist the mother and the cake will be ready sooner. It is easy to live a Christian life, but there are certain distorted understandings. You may say, “Haven’t we been Christians for so many years?” You are Christians but there are differences among various understandings. You may have two or three sons, three or four daughters, but only one of the children understands you. I am now asking you how you get along with your other sons and daughters. You get along with them too. They are like guests coming to visit you and saying, “I want this, mummy, I want that one too, mummy” and they go out, while the other child stays home to help you. Similarly you say, “God, grant me this, God, grant me that one as well!” or you declare, “I have told my father to get me this thing and that thing also, and he will do this for me”. This is one of the obstacles that prevent many from making progress. Now, in this true Life, there is one other internal understanding that cannot be understood verbally. You will get to that depth, to that internal equilibrium, to that Peace and understanding of Divine Life. These are abstract matters, but you will get to the practical aspect of the Teaching, in order for you to make your homes like oases in the desert, with fruit-trees, so that any traveller with loaded camels can pull over to have a rest at the oasis. (Somebody from the audience): You said in one of your previous lectures that when we want to change our attitude to the people close to us we need to change our attitude to God. (Somebody else from the audience): How can we apply this Teaching in practical life? There are three aspects to this: the first one is when we serve people; we are in the situation of servants then; the second one is when we serve ourselves; it then strengthens our individual life; the third one is when we serve God. You should distribute your service proportionally every day and find out where each of the things you do belongs. One serving God can serve people as well, but the situation of such a person will be different. This is exactly how you can alter your original situation – you will serve God. You will find this desire deep down your soul; it is an inclination of the soul. This is a situation, which you are familiar with in the first place; it is not a situation that you will have to get to know from now on. You are all aware of this, you know it, but you say that now it’s not the right time. This is a difficult service; it takes going to School. You stumble down when you want to serve God. You have to liberate yourselves from your situation and stop saying, “We are women”. Men want to serve God, but say, “We are men”. Children want to serve God, but say, “We are children”. Teachers want to serve God, but say, “We are teachers”. This is a temporary situation where you are supposed to stay to learn certain lessons. For example you play the part of a servant in a theatre. This role is granted to you to learn, since in every part there are particular features and characteristics that you have to learn. But you are neither the one nor the other part that you perform on stage. Being women you have come here only to learn this part. You haven’t mastered as yet the essence of the art of being a woman, i.e. not that you do not know it, but that you are learning it right now. Somebody looking at you from an external point of view may say, “Is this a woman?” and shortly afterwards such people will offer their opinion. Now, when I talk to you like this, I do not mean that you have to release yourselves from this situation, because life goes on, and the part assigned to you is just a role to play. Apart from this you will have to study the things that belong to the essence of your soul. Imagine that there are four of you sisters at home; that your father is sort of more predisposed to one of his daughters; your mother – to the other; your brother – to your third sister, while nobody fancies the fourth sister; everybody jostles her and whatever she does is wrong. It is only natural that she would feel despondent, aggrieved, and sad until she grasps the meaning of Life. Let’s assume that everybody around you tortures you, calls you ignorant and stupid, clumsy and when guests come to pay a visit you are constantly being talked about. You will be at your wits end and wouldn’t know which way to turn. Let’s assume that you feel a desire to pray to God to let you free and let’s assume that God does not touch the heart of any of you. At last you find a friend from outside the family ready to sympathise with you; you immediately feel refreshed, you are prepared to gladly endure everything. A change is in progress within you: you still carry your burden but you feel light as a feather. So, your situation in the world won’t change but you will find a friend and it will be pleasant for you to bear your burden. The world will wonder at you and everybody will be saying, “This woman has some extra qualities!” Afterwards a doubt will start gnawing at you whether this friend is not just for the time being; you will then be in a negative phase. Thus the world won’t change, your father, mother, and sisters will be still the same, they will carry on with their plans and ideals, but a new element is bound to come to them. I shall explain to you how things are arranged in Nature: you water those flowers that are closer to the window the way you water the rest of the flowers, but they look fresher, because they get more light. While those that are placed in isolated places, more to the north, they will be frowning all the time. They are the fourth daughter – nobody takes care of her, she is always wrong and everybody says, “What shall we do with her?” I find a small window, place her there and she starts growing. Light is what she needs. Hence you should first make sure that Divine Light flows constantly into your souls, because the world may go down the drain, but the Divine Light will be there forever. God is Light! The second situation in the world is that everybody expects from the others more than they can offer. Please note that there is one other law that says that souls do not vibrate at the same frequency. There are certain believers the contact with whom not only does not elevate you, but it drags you lower to their level. Just like in physics the temperature of the mixture of two liquids of different temperatures is the mean temperature of the two components. This is why, according to this law, you have to progress in consistence with your soul vibrations. Souls that have equal vibrations can assist one another, but if the souls do not vibrate at equal frequency, they lag behind. Ducks flying in the same way fly ahead, while those not flying identically lag behind. Can you have an ox and a horse harnessed to the same cart? This will be a combination not making any sense. Now, try to find out what bothers you, try to get free from the dregs you have inside you. Freeing from dregs supposes that there should always be an influx of New Life, since old water, no matter how much you try to cover it, is old water all the same; old clothes, no matter how often you may wash or sow them, are old clothes all the same. You need a new garment. Now, you may say sometimes, “A long time ago, when I was a child, I believed that!” The faith of children and the faith of adults are two different things. Faith also discloses itself. Apostle Paul says, “When I was a child, I was as wise as a child, but when grew up, I gave up all these childish stuff.” Those of you, who can’t understand, will get interested and they will continue from the point they had previously reached. Everybody will continue from the point they have reached! Just like plants shoot off springs, you should similarly shoot one everyday. If you do not shoot one a day, there will be no growth, there will be no understanding. You have to reach that state when the moment you feel a desire to do something, you feel the presence of God so vividly, that you can stop before you have done it. While now you argue that you feel God’s presence, but when you are put to a test you fail and then you repent. You can find your way when the cart is upset, but it is important to find it before it gets upset. The Power of Life lies in it. At the present course of development of Life you will encounter difficulties and you will be told, “You are not on the Right side of Life, this is what the Scripture says!” I say that a lot has been written there but you do not understand. Sometimes people, who say that the Scripture reads whatever, act like those who write instructions on the Easter egg paints packs. They contain information on what paints there are inside, what eggs can be painted, how to dissolve the paint, how much water one needs etc. They read, “This paint should be dissolved in that much water, then you put the eggs like this and then the colours will be all right.” Everything will be done according to the instructions in this pack, but you have to follow the entire process. There is other knowledge, much deeper than the one about paints. Under the present circumstances people keep stumbling. The atmosphere is thick with non-advanced souls, who drag themselves up to you and you often feel a sort of unpleasantness, a sort of a discontent. They are the reason for you feeling like this. Theosophy calls such souls elementary souls. You all have to shake them off; you need a rake to do it. These souls should be educated, should learn to respect the Divine Law, to work. (Somebody from the audience): Do such souls represent obstacles for us? Yes, they do. (Somebody from the audience): They are probably benefiting from this? Yes, they come to rob you. (Somebody from the audience): Don’t we need a method on how to protect ourselves from them? When they come, make them work, teach them to weave, to spin, give them kitchen work. They affect only the mind and you will say, “This thought is not mine, this desire is not mine!” You will repel them in this way. If one is to succumb to all of one’s desires and thoughts that cross one’s mind and one’s heart, what would happen? These thoughts and desires should go away like the water and wind, while we shall take only what we need from them. Not everything is meant for us. I leave you free and I want you to study on your own accord all the rules that I have given you and to apply them in such a way that you can control yourselves on your free will whenever you feel like doing it. I do not impose any discipline upon you; I leave you to do whatever you decide on your free will. You sometimes want to cheat on me, but I benefit from this while you lose. You undermine each other in this way. I see that you often spoil things that I have mended. It is often the case that you, led by your good desire to do a thing or two, you exhibit the ardour of Apostle Paul and you say, “I had the ardour, but not the right understanding.” Where will you go if you enter a garden? You will go to the pear-tree or the apple-tree with the best, the juiciest of fruit, won’t you? You are in the habit of doing so, aren’t you? There is no stupid person in the world that will go to the sour fruit tree. Anybody will go for the best of fruit. If there are no apples at all, only then will you go to the sour fruit tree, but if there are good apples you will find your way to the good apples, won’t you? The same law governs the world too. This is the practical aspect of things. If you have good fruit in you, people will visit you without needing any invitation. This is the practical aspect of things and it is very true: your relations with the people around you will be determined according to the wealth of your mind and the richness of your heart. I do not call what changes Love. This is a funny thing. One loved somebody but in ten years time one turned one’s back to the person one loved. Paul says, “Love never ends”. (Somebody from the audience): I have often thought that whoever makes the effort will enter Heaven! (Somebody else from the audience): Which is the most powerful virtue with regard to achievement of results? The words getting into God’s Kingdom takes effort mean that only those who keep moving will enter God’s Kingdom. Imagine that you are climbing a mountain peak in the morning to see the sunrise; if all of you scatter in different places, rather than staying at the same spot, the Sun will give each of you its strength. If all of you line one behind another and wait in a queue to receive its benevolence, a certain disharmony will inevitably occur. All of you should bask simultaneously in it and wait for its benevolence. This is the Divine Teaching: there is time or order in it; you will all present yourselves at the same time. (Somebody from the audience): We all know our shells; can’t we get to know and love each other so that we become a huge power in Sofia? What prevents you from doing so? The obstacle resides in your minds. (Somebody from the audience): Will you take us a little bit higher up in the mountains? Nowadays even little children climb the mountains. It is not difficult for a person to climb the mountains. You asking questions remind me of being closed in a room with a large window and a mirror opposite the window, where the Sun is reflected in the morning. You are all now standing in expectation to see the Sun in the mirror – this is the situation you are in. I want you to go out of the room and not to look at the Sun in the mirror. You will never find the Truth in this way. The mirror will show you that the Sun rises from somewhere deep, i.e. it will show that the Truth is behind your back. Each one of you should take a deeper look into your soul. You do not know your soul yet. You need experience, which should be gained individually by each one of you. So, you have to turn to God and say, “God, pray Thee, light my candle in whatever manner you like, I want my candle lit!” You will leave everything to the discretion of the Divine Spirit and it will light the candle. This candle will be lit in the manner God chooses. The Spirit that distributes all gifts to people is not what you understand it to be. We have a special understanding for the word Spirit. Isn’t this candle lit within you yet? The candle has to be lit, to be placed in the candlestick; you have to take [quarter of a] bushel2 and say, “Let it be Light!” (The Master takes a look through the window: it is drizzling outside) The drizzle outside shows that you need more Life. The weather tells me that the upper fog hampers you, and this is an emblem for Life. The obstacles you have are not as big by themselves as you imagine them to be. You place a small obstacle under a microscope, you observe it and you say, “There is no bigger obstacle than mine!” This is true – your obstacles are meant for you to tackle. You will get closer, will walk along the Path of Love and you will see what God can do for you. Get up quietly in the morning; try to concentrate your thoughts, to hush yourself down, to penetrate into the Divine thought, because certain experiences you have are karmic and inevitable. (Somebody from the audience): You said yesterday that when the candle is lit, things disappear karmically. Yes. You can decide and do away with them. Do you, for example, have this positive faith? I look upon the positive faith as an expansion of consciousness. Whatever, I will help you the way the wind does: I shall remove the dust so it won't disturb you. Things in the Divine World resemble getting into a train. You will have to observe the rules of the train; if you are late the train will not wait for you. You will get on the train, you will travel in the train for some time and you will get off at a certain place. You won’t have to bother what the engine driver is like or to be scared that any of the wagons can break loose from the locomotive along the way. These are all speculations. You may say, “Let’s pray to God to watch for us along the way!” You will go to God, but it is your soul, not your body that will do it. You will invest all of your faith in God. Make sure you do not disturb Him - a live faith is needed! Let’s say that you are in bad circumstances, you are in distress. This situation is sometimes the result of some poorly digestible food that you have eaten that leaves certain residues behind. At times it is your contradictory feelings that give rise to pains: for example, you love and hate at the same time and then you will feel stabs in the region of the heart. You say, “It hurts!” No wonder it hurts! Abolish the contradicting feelings and the pains will disappear! At other times somebody may attack you with their thoughts, which will produce certain pains. Therefore, you have to learn to fence yourselves, to lead such a life that all life arrows bounce back from your body. You have to free yourselves at times from the devil. Do you know what it does? It is especially clever: you owe money to the devil, the devil comes over, you repay the policy, but you forget to take it back. On the following year it will again visit you and say, “You think you repaid? Oh, no! Pay now!” Hence you have to take your policy back from the devil. Twenty years ago you forgot about some sins, you prayed to God to redeem you, but after twenty years the devil will come again and will say, “Pay!” You will tell the devil, “I paid; there is nothing more to pay for! Take me to court!” This fills you with remorse. One should know what is right and what is wrong. There are things moral and things immoral, there are deeds righteous and deeds sinful, and there are actions right and actions wrong. Your soul should throw away all wrong and sinful actions, it should free itself from the old remorse, and you should only keep the experience. (Somebody from the audience): We shall break free, but if they do not let go of us? They will leave you. One has to work a lot in this school, and sometimes people get in trouble because of lack of knowledge, therefore, everybody suffers. Make sure you are rich in faith, in knowledge. One should be getting richer! In old times people went to monasteries and spent in solitude ten, fifteen, twenty years, in order to become stronger. This is one task that you can accomplish: every school has its difficulties, therefore, try to liquidate your old karma now, do not postpone. Try to sow new thoughts, new ways of understanding, which can grow and expand your soul, so that you can become stronger. Now all of you have a certain debt, a certain policy that is already mature. The maturity day will come and you will all start looking for money to repay your debts. These are all new debts. Do your best to perform what you can, to have one job accomplished, to study one exercise. Some of you are more experienced, while others – are less experienced, some of you have experience in some aspects; others – in other aspects. The Spirit talks to everyone of you in a different way. All of you need to pray passionately. When we talk about a lit candle, we imply another meaning. A candle is lit in a person but no two candles are lit in the same way. For instance, there are ordinary lamps that burn gas and produce an odour; then there are other lamps where gas is transformed into a gas state and is thus lit; burning in such lamps is stronger; and finally there are gases where air is injected additionally; they burn even stronger and produce a more powerful light. This is to say that the mind should be transformed into this Divine status without leaving any waste; it has to contain pure Light, it has to be a pure burning. Try to find your soul and turn your eyes inward. When you find your soul you will feel an internal completeness, while now you feel emptiness and are falling behind by the day. Both when you take something and when you do not take anything, you should feel full! Christ says that you are not that live spring that takes water from within, but a spring, which takes water from outside and it runs a little drier by the day. The Scripture also says, “Pray for one another so that you can be healed.” So, what has the Spirit told you so far, what is the most elevated thing it told you? Sometimes people talk to themselves, sometimes somebody else talks to them. There are new elements in the word of God; there is something special. When God starts talking to people, the latter feel this talk in their mind, heart, and will. It penetrates everywhere; it is a living Word. Those who hear the voice of God - they are alive; they are not dead. Deep down in your soul you will feel a special Joy, and only people who have experienced it know what it feels like. It is like those quiet waters that never run dry, but can be lost. The moment you make one mistake – it is gone and you are back to your usual state. And later on you hear again this quiet voice and again you feel elevated. Most difficult of all it is to keep hold of this state of affairs. It is experienced everyday, but you can’t keep it going. You will have to learn to sustain it. (Somebody from the audience): How can we make it sustainable? To do this you need willpower. You have to be ready to work in the name of Divine Love, in the name of the living God. When we work in the name of Love, we do not mention its name. When I save a person and cure this person, do I have to tell this person that I do this in the name of Love? I do this for myself – whether the person will understand it or not, is all the same to me. I am not going to read prayers or to talk about Love, instead I will do all the favours and I will leave! When the Sun gives you its light, does it say to you, “I am Light”? Does Love tell you, “I am Love”? If it says so, it limits itself. Love will not tell you that it is Love. You will be very surprised if I asked any of you, “Do you live?” Those who live feel they perform good deeds; they, certainly, live. There are many things that hinder people. These hindrances are something very bad. Get together according to the law of freedom, share thoughts and do not interrupt one another. You still haven’t mastered the art of giving way to others to talk. People who have not mastered the skill of listening should do their best and try to listen! Some say, “Why should I be listening to nonsense?” Well, does the blowing wind say only wise things? When you join a society, do you think you are going to say only wise things? Well, how about you, who have listened to somebody and have condemned this person, do you always say the right things? Learn to turn a deaf ear! When it comes to understanding, discard the thought that some are more intelligent than others. You fool yourselves that there are intelligent people and silly people in the world. You are intelligent at a point in time, while in another moment – you are silly. You shall have to make an effort within the Spiritual world, before God, not to consider things silly. If you find something silly, just leave it. People who do silly things have to learn something; they have to gain experience. This is what is silly: let’s assume that you are dressed in a nice white silk dress; somebody with hands covered in grime comes over and tries the dress, somebody else comes and does the same. You may say, “Oh, how silly this is!” I now ask you, “Why did you stain yourself?” – “Well, somebody came, after that somebody else came and they stained me.” Yes, but each one of you has a desire to try while your fingers are not clean. In this particular case, your dress should be kept clean. The danger when you enter Christianity is in the point that you get into the situation of these traders who offer their goods for sale; they start competing and cannot stand one another. Likewise you offer your experience. Give it up, make room for others to sell their goods, and when your turn comes you will sell as much as you can. If nothing is sold you will have to take it back. But you say, “But I paid so much money for it!” and thereby starts the competition. (Somebody from the audience): It’s all down to the fact that we have no patience for one another. Patience is generated by Love. Once you get to love somebody, you will be able to be patient with this person. However, there is another law and you also have to take into consideration the following: let’s assume that you have gone hungry for three days and I tell you, “Let me tell you one of my experiences.” You are irritated. Then I tell you, “Come on go home!” and afterwards I complain that you do not want to listen to me. I do not put myself in your situation that you are hungry that you haven’t eaten for three days. One should first say that one is hungry, and only after this one can listen to what is being said. This requires ingenuity. You can work outside. You are full of knowledge; you have to give [share] some of your knowledge externally. You suffer from having too much, not of having too little. You may ask, “Shall I say this?” There are many workers in the world too. Believe that everything in the world develops along a specific way. There is no way that the Divine Plan can be distorted; it follows its own accurate mathematical calculations. If you stray aside, you will suffer, while what God has determined for you will happen. For example, somebody wants to take you for a walk, but you do not feel like having a walk; they tie your hands, you put out a fierce fight, but anyway you get to the place, however, this time you feel very tired. Therefore, you can go there without putting up any opposition. So, you will do your job regardless whether you offer resistance or not. You have to pray for one another. The good thoughts you will send have a good effect, while the bad thoughts have a bad effect. If you play music I want to come too and dash a little bit of hot pepper into your noses, and I would like to see how you could play. There will be a lot of sneezing. These rules are true, the Scripture reads, “Pray for one another so that you can be healed.” The whole world lies in the hands of the Sly one [the devil]. What do you expect from a world, which has come out of the devil? And since it rules today, nothing can happen. Everything is debris, everything falls to the bottom and one day when lots of residue gathers there, God will lift it, will remove the water and will make gardens, fields, and mountains out of it. This is what will happen to the sea bottom. Believe that you are all good at soul. There is no reason to say that you are bad. Yes, when you act, according your will, you are bad. (Somebody from the audience): Do we need evolution if we want to find our soul or it all depends on the individual willpower of the person? The obstacles should be removed. Imagine that you place a thorn upon a flower; do you think it will be able to grow? No, it won’t. The same happens with you: if you can’t grow there must be a reason for this - that somebody else must have stuck a thorn into you. You should watch out for thorns stuck onto you. If you are given scales to measure solid and liquid matter, and if you observe the rules while measuring, everything will be making progress. But imagine that somebody comes and tells you, “These scales are not sensitive enough! We shall give you other scales”; then the ratios will change. You should place everything on the Divine scales and should take your measurements according to them. There can be no disharmony then. If you experience disharmony, it will bring about trouble. When God wants to make somebody listen to Him, he gives them problems, diseases, famine. And when they understand Him, He talks to them intelligently. There are two ways in which God speaks: the one is by the physical mind, the other one – by the intelligent Word. If you achieve agreement and harmony among yourselves, we are ready to help you. Even if somebody is not present here, if a person is ready, I do help this person. I help everybody who has reached the conditions. Some have a desire to study; I stop by them and help them. Some have filled their heads with rules, knowledge, and experiences, while they do not live within them. Such people say, “Let’s love each other, let’s be kind to each other, let’s be compassionate!” Well, all right, but all of these are qualities not rules. How can we love each other? You come to me, you request twenty leva, I do not have the money, I do not do you a favour. I walk along the path, somebody passes by me, wants me to pick up his/her bag; I say, “I can’t, I’m in a hurry!” Somebody has fallen on the road; you will stop to help him! In every single moment you will stop and apply the law of Love. Say you go to a house, your sister is aggrieved; she asks you, “Can’t you help me a little?” – “Well, may God help you!” No, you should stop, you should help your sister, you should tell her, “God will help you and He will help me as well!” You tell her, “Let it be!” I can do favours [good] to you but I often refrain from doing so because of the following considerations: is it wise to pray to God to send you rain when your fields are neither ploughed nor sown? Ask if your fields are sown; I am ready to send everything to you. I will send as much rain as you want. Knowledge, knowledge, and a lot of knowledge you have [at your disposal] today! You haven’t spared the time to stop for a while and think over what I told you, to understand at least one hundredth of all the formulae provided. You say, “We understand this.” Well, but you do not apply it. Remember that there are more living beings in the world than you suspect. You are not alone. Do not think that when you are alone in the room, nobody watches you or monitors your actions. Start working on something for this Christ, for this God, whom you love! Do something for Him! When I say “do”, I mean doing something conscientiously, so that you can feel satisfaction when you have done something good for God. Christians have power. If four-five or ten thousand people gather together and concentrate upon one thought, they can help anybody but it has to be reciprocated. They can help you today, tomorrow they can help somebody else, after tomorrow – they can help a third person and gradually all fields will be ploughed, sown, and reaped. While at present you will have individual internal troubles in your homes, obstacles in your minds and hearts. You will have hindrances of public nature and difficulties in earning your living. These difficulties are real and you have to remove them. Your husband is discontented, he prays and you cannot help him. You anoint him with ointments, but there is a thorn. You say, “I anointed it, but nothing can relieve him.” Yes, ointment alleviates places where there are no thorns, but in places where there are thorns ointments are no relief. You will take out the thorn! People, whose thorns cannot be taken out, experience difficulties that cannot be eliminated. You, for example, have such difficulties and you say, “I am not loved.” This is one of the greatest problems. You can’t force people to love you. Why are you not loved? Any esoteric person says about somebody who is not loved that this person has become demagnetised. Such a person starts looking at the bad side of other people, everybody avoids such a person because he has become demagnetised. Therefore watch out! When you stop seeing the good aspects in people you have demagnetised and few people will love you. At present God has given you entertainment. Looking at you in your troubles [plight] He says, “These people do their job very well.” Sometimes I find mistakes in the very teachers. If you sit at my table and if I give you to eat according to the rule, you will remain hungry; if I give you more, some will eat more, others will eat less and I will scold you in the end. It is not right to treat everybody to three nuts and a slice of bread when you come to visit me. This is what you should try to learn! (Somebody from the audience): What does great Joy stem from? From a profusion of energy. Sometimes when there has been refraining and abstaining, great Joy follows. This state is to be observed in all people. Joy often comes down to the physical life. Joy, expressed on the physical level, is the Joy of soul. I shall give you an example, to see where evil is to be found: let’s say that your spring is clean, but the glass you hand water in, is not clean and the person is displeased. The evil rests not in the water, nor in the desire, but in the glass. The glass has to be clean. The bread you give to people is not bad, but your hands have to be so very clean that this person can be grateful to you. These rules have been preached for the last eight thousand years. You will now move a stage further up. If you want to kiss somebody, you have to be aware of what you will express by the kiss. Or similarly what does contemporary hand-shaking mean? Do not think that kissing is a human invention; it is a sort of a energy-saving mechanism in Nature. These are two currents: the upper lip is the positive pole, and the lower lip is the negative pole; when a person gets his lips closer together, the current from one of the lips flows into the other one. When the mother kisses her child, both of them, the mother and the child, are renovated. Have you noticed that she does not kiss the child on the same place? However, how many times has this law been applied properly? Hand shaking follows the same law: it also facilitates the internal exchange of energies. Hand shaking stands for familiarizing, congratulating. Expand your heart, look the world in the eye, be grateful for everything, aim for Purity! The first thing that you need is internal Purity – Purity of the soul! To sustain Purity is most difficult of all. This is why in order for a person to become pure, one must befriend God and good people. You need new experiences to change your mood. When you graduate this School there will be a lot to learn ahead of you. If you become very sensitive you will notice what a grave aura people have. You will feel the vibrations of their thoughts and desires; you will detect discontent and ingratitude in them. Meanwhile you have to allow all this to settle down and you have to say, “For God’s sake I have to allow everything to settle down!” Make sure you develop yourselves. Spend ten to fifteen minutes in silence everyday, in order to learn the art of being silent. Each of you should be deeply absorbed in themselves and should be thinking in simple terms, without expecting to be told something. Just like in Nature everybody looks in various directions or just like everybody chooses what to have at a table, just in the same way you should be engrossed in your thoughts and you should try to acquire this energy. If you watch others – the way people sit, the way people pray, this is nothing close to meditation. A large room is required for meditation, where nobody can disturb you, and you should be at half a meter distance from one another. It is good to examine the features of a flower, of a carnation, for instance, of strawberries etc., during your meetings, to examine the psychological performance. All flowers should be studied on the spot; they should be examined under a microscope. You are bound to notice how sensitive flowers are to love, but for this purpose you need to take more excursions. Aspire to more freedom - aspire to no restrictions! Many rules lead to the other extreme, but make an effort to give up self-condemnation, to avoid blaming yourself. We shall start discussing more abstract topics. You have to be impartial in the discussions; you should not be personal when you speak on some issue. You may at times imagine somebody as a model figure and depict this person, but this person should not be your target. This model will be in front of you as long as the model likes. When you sit for your portrait to be drawn, you stay as long as you like, don’t you? This is how you should behave in life too. Because you have not learnt the law of concentrating yet, the Invisible world uses negative methods to develop your concentration: when you start hating somebody you carry this person in you and thus you concentrate. At other times you experience a pain, a blister comes up and you concentrate. You have a stomach-ache or you have a headache – these are natural methods to concentrate your thought. When it comes to loving somebody, you lose your concentration - you are distracted. In concentration the mind should be in its place and all the good desires should be separated from the bad ones. When you train yourself, you should keep developing something in your soul every day. Do not fear whatever you do! Do not think that it is a deficiency; it may only appear to be a deficiency. Religious forms, judgement, moralizing – these are great obstacles. This is how I understand the issue: I do not have to preach sermons to you; you are flowers that have to water and tend themselves on their own. They will grow on their own accord. Some say, “I want to become better.” If you walk along the path you will develop properly. Since you are at different stages some of you say, “I am in low spirits.” We do not understand this philosophy and we befriend each other, we do not get on well, we stumble. People cannot be equally situated in the physical field. Sometimes a person is in the situation of a tree having all its leaves and blossoms fallen, and you say, “We changed our opinion about this person.” No, this person has only shed the clothes; the flesh will put on clothes again. Work with Love! Work with the Love Tolstoy speaks about: to be prepared to leave everything, to be prepared to serve everybody without expecting to be paid for this. This is Love – to put on everything and to be a servant everywhere. If you can do this, you have Love; if you can’t do this, you still have love, but your love cannot elevate people. If you can do this, the problem is immediately solved in an intelligent way. When you are a servant in Love, you won’t bargain, you will be free, you will work for free, you should not feel obliged, and you should not be accountable. You will do what Love demands voluntarily. This Love demands both the king and the servant to give up what is theirs, to become servants. This Love says, “I recognize no masters!” And having worked for a long time for Love’s sake, it says, “You deserve to be a master of your rest, but the moment you have had enough rest, you should immediately get to work!” So, while you are having a rest, you are a big shot, while you are working, you are a small man. Do you know how difficult it is to work like this? People are so selfish and they think that you are made of steel. They won’t ask you to stop for a while even if you work for twenty-five hours. Nobody should be influencing others. You will leave each other to behave and to work the way they feel like, because they will develop in this Love. Somebody comes to you and tells you, “This is what should be done!” Well does this person know what should be done? Contemporary society [is said to have] recommended so! Well, is contemporary society ideal – it also has its deficiencies! Most important it is to start with Love, to become heroes, so that you find it a pleasure to work for it! Maiden’s tears show that one has to clean oneself. Crying is always a method of cleaning oneself. When one has sinned, one has to cry to clean oneself. When you come to the earth you cry – because you are sorry for your sins in the Invisible world. Do not think in any other way – all souls have come here to the earth to have their sins redeemed. When a soul recalls a mistake, the soul has to cry a little bit, to free itself from the mistake. These sins can be yours or somebody else’s, but this is a general principle. Tears show a softened heart and an elevated consciousness; this is what happens to people along the path of renovation. You are abandoned in order to develop yourself. You sometimes feel that your mind is getting feeble, which at times can last for a short while, and at other times it can take days and afterwards you feel refreshed. These are illusions; these are not real things, these are temporary states, which you have to undergo. When somebody feels forsaken, in some cases, they can become bitter, full of venom, they become worse, while in other cases they go to God. The latter is good; therefore, we should remain on our own more often. When one is full of Life within, it is easy to clean these states and even if one’s hand gets dirty, it is also easy to wash. But when there is no water, impurities stay with people for a long time. The moment Divine Life comes, it is easy for people to wash, but if this water is not available, people carry on the impurities on their three fingers. Learn the law of satisfaction; not the external, but the internal satisfaction, to feel satisfied deep in your heart! Whatever happens to you, when you are satisfied, you will forebear it in full awareness. You may be groaning, suffering, but you will endure everything voluntarily, gladly. One has to forebear one’s sufferings in dignity. Show your Love to everybody – to the weak, to the feeble, to children! As soon as you feel aggrieved, go among people who are more aggrieved than you, do some good for them and you will feel better; or get down to reading the biography of a great person who suffered a lot. There are many methods to heal a person. I call this world – from the beginning to the end – “a world of disenchantment”. Some call it “a world of enchantment”, but I call it “a world of disenchantment”. When a baby is born everybody rejoices. During the first year everybody tries to please the baby as if the baby is a king, everybody listens to whatever the baby commands, everything is given to the baby. But afterwards, little by little the baby is being taken down from the throne: in the third year the baby is already a prince, in the fifth – a minister, then a manager; until in the end, the grown up person becomes a servant, the servant is sent downstairs and is told, “It’s not like the old times when you were a baby!” The grown up person is given a hoe and off he goes to the vineyard. In the Spiritual world God starts in the opposite way: you are first placed as a servant and in end you are made king. This is why you are beaten here on the earth. You marry a man; he is your teacher and he tells you, “This is not your father’s house, do you know who I am?” and in several years he will have bent your neck. You say you do not love your husband – there must be reasons for this. Some other time you love someone, because he did you good; in a couple of days your state changes and you love that person no more. Why so? Because he had wronged you. Then you say, “I’m fed up with this man!” The husband, in his turn, says, “I’m fed up with this karma! I hate you, I feel like in prison for twenty years with you, I have wasted twenty of my years!” Then things change: you come into another life, mistakes are corrected and you say, “I will rectify my mistake, I shall not place you in prison!” This is a law, which turns like a wheel. When you become clairvoyants, you will transport yourself into the epoch of your previous life in Egypt or elsewhere, you will see scenes from that time, you will get to know what role you had and you will say, “Thank God, I finally understood what I used to be!” Therefore, when you become clairvoyants, when you are elevated, this situation of yours will become clear and pleasant to you. This is how everybody can find that life is pleasant. We shall try to rectify our life according to God’s orders, and to understand it the way it was made. If you are clairvoyants you will see magnificent pictures. Master’s Lecture, delivered on 10 May 1920 (Monday). 1 The lecture was delivered at the request of the sisters before the Master left for the country (notes of the original editor) 2 The word is used figuratively, as antithesis of the Gospel image of the candlestick under the bushel. Source

Faith What was the main point of our last meeting? (Somebody from the audience): The point last Friday was to learn to be silent, to become like children, to develop compassion, to do exercises about the Spirit, about virtues, about developing our senses, and about our preparation for the forthcoming Pentecost1. On Whitsunday one has to get into the law of self-sacrifice. Those who receive the Divine Spirit have to obey the will of God, and not to do as they please. However, even now you do not do as you please, but somebody else’s will interferes with you. You will try to strengthen the faith in yourselves. There is one line, which reads that without faith one cannot please God, but it takes faith to perform miracles. Have you practiced your faith and what exercises have you done? In order to develop your faith, each one of you must build an internal Peace. One has to adapt to the contemporary lifestyle, to the circumstances in one’s life, so that one can start developing from the point where one is right now. For instance, how many of you would be brave enough to board an airplane? A few would do this because it takes courage. And how many similar experiences can there be in life. If one can board an airplane, one will strengthen one’s faith. You should understand Faith to mean the roots of a plant that you sow in the ground and through these roots this plant can actually, find support and stand firm. According to the same law, thanks to faith, human beings find support in God to stand firm. When you stand firm, God will support you. In all times and in all suffering, people, who had faith in God, have never been deluded. Certainly there is faith that can be realized, but many, though they had a strong faith, have also been exposed to great suffering because their development needed suffering. By having faith their suffering starts making sense. All of you have experience in faith; therefore, you will not have to build new faith, but will develop the faith you have, so that it can reach a new phase. Let’s assume that you have a boat that you want to pull ashore. Somebody keeps pulling it, but cannot pull it ashore alone and loses faith. There comes one more person, the two of them keep pulling, but cannot manage; there comes a third one, a fourth one – but again they cannot get the boat ashore. In the end about ten people gather and get the boat ashore. They believe [have faith] that only ten people will be able to pull the boat ashore. Similarly you will apply this law in practice: if one cannot do whatever job, two or three or up to ten people will get together until finally you manage to get the job done. This is the law of faith. When all are united, the Divine law starts having effect. The weakness of Christians is that they are not united and when one of them cannot do the job, they lose heart and think that more people won’t be able to do the job either. No, ten, twenty, thirty people should get together and do the job with this common power! You can achieve results only if you act in this way. It takes will, willpower it takes! In order to be successful in keeping silence, you will have to develop your good will. The good that lurks within you must grow one way or another. Each person has one’s own method, which allows one to work. Currently people are in the situation of clerks, expecting their salary each month. Well, if these clerks are made redundant, what will they do? So, faith is such a state, such a Power within the soul that allows one to adapt, i.e. not to be surprised by the circumstances at any given moment. But you have to think, to remove this thick atmosphere that exists among you. Keep reflecting, until you get a feeling that you start acquiring one small Power. The muscles of those of you who practice gymnastics start getting stronger, and they lift much heavier parcels afterwards. This is a process that will develop gradually. The faith of a child and the faith of a saint differ: the faith of a child is in one direction, while the faith of a saint is in another. Angels also have faith, but their faith is completely different. Faith implies a great law, in which there are no exceptions. If at times we get no results, the reason is that we have disregarded this law. If some of you beg and do not get results, this is so because you beg poorly. People who are in two minds, shall not get want what they want. The first rule in faith is not to be split-minded, not to be in two minds. Since so far you have been talking and talking, the best you can do when you get together on Friday is to spend an hour or so in silence. Try to apply what we talked about on Sunday and what we talked about on Thursday. If you do not apply some of these rules, you will accumulate lots of material without any application. The same happens at school, when the teachers teach many lessons: students cannot learn the lessons, their memory is overburdened and this is why they become more stupid. Will, intuition, faith, and many other things have been talked about and one does not know what to choose. Start your contemplations on faith. So, when you get together, start keeping silence in the beginning, start contemplating, until you feel that there is harmony within you and that all of you experience an elevation. This indicates that your minds are achieving harmony. However, it takes work to achieve this. Keep practicing like this for a week, for two weeks, for three weeks, keep doing such exercises here all the time, and then start doing them outside. Are there any particular issues, any particular objective, which you would like to discuss this Friday? (Somebody from the audience): We shall split in groups in order to achieve unity, harmony among us, in order to be able to work, Have these groups started functioning? (Somebody from the audience): Some groups have started. Two-three sisters can make a group and they will be able to do what a group of ten people can do. Sometimes two people will be able to do the work for thirty people – altogether it does not depend on the number of people. What it takes is faith, and faith again, so that you can achieve a quiet disposition in the Spirit; it takes immense confidence, so that you are not split internally, so that you can rule your nature, in order to be able to endure everything during the silence. There are methods about these things, but there are also so many distractions, which capture your attention, and you are left with no free time. However, on the other side, this is much better for you, because otherwise you would not know how to utilize your time. This place where God positioned you is the best place for you. He has allocated the work very well, but you have to know how to go about it. For instance, can you imagine how much you can achieve if each one of you sets a goal to herself to introduce harmony among all the people she knows who do not get along, to speak to them about noble elevated issues, about God, leaving her personal problems aside! If you keep waiting for the world to become a better place, even in ten thousand years this won’t happen. If you do not work, you can’t become better than what you are now. The progress you will make depends on your will to. The wealth that you will get also depends on the strength of your will. You can get to know a person by giving this person a hundred leva and watching what this person will spend the money on: if he goes to the pub and spends the money, tomorrow when you give him a thousand leva, he will do the same again. Do you think that if a bee has no opportunity to sting you with its behind, it would not do anything else to you? The point is not what you have, but how you utilize it. If God has given you a talent and if you disappoint thousands of people and push them over the edge, I would like to ask you what do you need this talent for? Similarly contemporary scientists invent various means, which kill people. What do they need science for? Your knowledge should be applied only for the sake of the good of humanity. This is what you can do: let’s assume that you are a key to an installation – this is the job God assigned to you. You may say, “Does anything depend on me?” A lot depends on you! When you turn around, there will be light everywhere. If you are a key, it depends on you whether somebody commits a crime or not. If you turn around and bring light to him, he will have the opportunity to see clearly and he will commit the crime; if you do not turn around, he won’t be able to see anything in the darkness and the crime will be avoided. Good people are keys. Some say, “Let’s pray for the evil people!” There is no point. You will hold the key and you will open or close it, as the case may be. Once upon a time Elijah prayed to God for rain, because God had closed the sky for three entire years and did not let it rain. This is how we should look upon the issue: each one should remember that we are keys and that we can accomplish a lot. If one is true to one’s duty, one will be very useful. But if one leaves the key at the mercy of fate and says, “Turn this key the way you like”, children will be the first to come and play with it turning it to one side and to the other, until they break it. When people leave children to lead the way, they lose all their strength. Some old people, looking at what is going on now, say, “Contemporary people are ruled by children!” Similarly many mothers let their children do whatever they want; mothers do not contradict their children, until the children take control of the keys. No, it is the mother who should turn the key and tell her child, “When you are hungry I will feed you, when you are thirsty I will give you a drink, when you are naked I will dress you, when you are ignorant I will send you to study, but if you do not want to study, or to write or to eat, I will spank you!” And indeed, this happens to everybody in the world: a person is unhappy about this or that, protests against it, grumbles about it, and this is why God sends suffering to such people, subjects them to Divine education, and gives them a sound spanking. So, when God feeds us, we shall eat, when He gives us a drink, we shall drink, when He teaches us, we shall study and thus we shall avoid misfortunes in life. What is it that we have and is actually the key, where is this key hidden? Knowledge is the key. How did Elijah lock the skies? What did Elijah do for the sky to open? He prayed and said that it should open. You should have faith and knowledge. If one does not know, how can one pray? Praying implies knowledge. And there is a lot for you to pray for: you have to pray to be intelligent, good, honest, and fair. One is required to do a lot of work, to cultivate one’s soul. What one can do for oneself, nobody else can do it for them. Therefore, one should withdraw in oneself and should spend a long time thinking, removing gradually all those feelings that are an obstacle, and should bring in positive feelings. Not to allow fear in, in order not to make mistakes, but to bring in intrepidity. Not to ask oneself what one should not do, but what one should do. Not to think of what one should not believe in, but to think of what one should believe in. Get together and spend some time thinking and each one of you should find her greatest weakness in herself. Each one of us has at least one weakness. Have you noticed how pigs, when trying to find a way out, go around to and fro and they get out at the place where they find a weakness in the fence. Everyone has a weak, poorly fortified spot, and this is why you should try to fence it properly. The pig that finds it will pass through it; this hole is easy to find. Everybody has such a weakness – various people in various aspects. It is often the case that one weakness spoils the good features of people, i.e. makes people useless. (Somebody from the audience): How can impatient people become more patient? Stick a pin somewhere in your arm and see how long you can endure. You do not have to this to yourselves; there are people to stick needles in you. You are good at this at least! The one who wants to learn patience should ask another one to stick needles into her. Bear in mind that all the desires that you feel within are not yours. Experiment along these lines and see for yourselves. You decide for once to do something for God, but at the same time you experience a desire to get a dress or shoes made for you. Thus the first desire gives way to the second and the most important thing is postponed. It is always the case that the most significant thoughts visit us hand in hand with the least significant thoughts. You will do your best to eliminate the insignificant thought, because, through suggestion, it has come from the Black Lodge. As soon as one decides to do something good, one is told by the Black Lodge, “This is not for you!” Many times you have told yourself, “I’ll be patient!” The Black Lodge would tell you, “You are not mature enough; therefore, you cannot be patient.” So, you postpone this for a more favourable time. But well, it is exactly before becoming mature when you need patience. When you become mature, patience comes on its own accord. You will now have to learn the art of keeping silence. The best blessing for one is to learn to be silent. (Somebody from the audience): There are people who appear to be silent only externally, but they are boiling with rage internally. You should understand the Divine silence – to keep silence before God. When you get together, try to be in isolation from one another: make it a habit of yours when you think of something, believe you are alone; when talking about something, believe that you talk about yourself; when you think about silence, believe that you keep silence for your own sake. This is the only way students can learn to be silent. If I give you a rule, keeping in mind that you have children, husbands, social work, and if you cannot apply it, this won’t be very wise on my part. In this situation that you are in, you want to be strong, but the first thing you have to do is to win a victory over the little difficulties you are having at home. Your problems at home are a very serious issue. For instance, somebody may say, “I can’t stand what’s-his-name!” This is your weakness. How do you imagine you are going to enter Heaven? The first condition, in order for you to enter Heaven, is to put up with everybody. It is said that all of us would change. If you do not change, if you come again even in ten thousand years, or in a longer time, you will be in the same situation. Similarly, an American professor said that there were certain people he would not like to see in ten thousand years. But even if he sees them then, if he does not change, he will have to fight the same feeling. Time in itself is no cure for any problems; time cures inasmuch as we make efforts to change ourselves in the present. I would like you to start with yourselves, with a self-confession; this is the most challenging of tasks. You will develop your faith, compassion, your heart, your prudence, imagination, and music too. All of this lies ahead of you to develop it, besides the progress you will make shall depend on the time you have to spare. For the time being, God asks you to work for two hours. What do you do during this time? I have seen how some donkeys that have been kept closed and are let free afterwards, go rolling around not in grass but in dust. I do not laugh at such donkeys, they act very wisely – they have fleas troubling them; therefore, they say, “I’ll teach you a lesson!” and they cover the fleas in dust. Donkeys symbolise human stubbornness. Stubborn people wallow in dusty places and say, “I’ll teach you a lesson, make sure you do not lock me again!” These are simple comparisons. Animals that wallow in the dust have a completely different attitude. We look upon donkeys from a human point of view and we see that donkeys do not act wisely. If it is summer time, donkeys are supposed to go to a green meadow or to clear water and wallow [roll over] there. Some of you have made a better progress, but all of you have to work. Everybody has certain weaknesses that are not the result of one’s ill will, but are of a karmic origin. (Somebody from the audience): Can one alter [the position of] one’s soul through persistent work upon oneself? If we are in the situation of caterpillars, notwithstanding how many leaves we can eat, we shall not be able to transform ourselves into butterflies, for a shorter time than it takes. During this period, strength needed for the transformation into butterflies have to be gathered. You may get polarized. One may make obstacles that can delay one for a hundred years, and similarly one may make an instant progress that can take one a hundred years ahead. One has to clean oneself before God every evening, which does not mean to become soft. Good people should also be strong. It is often said that one has to win a victory over oneself. The point is not to win a victory over yourself, this is bad, but you have to [get to] know yourself. So, winning a victory over oneself would not take us very far. Let’s assume that you are in the habit of fighting off and on, and now you break your arm in order not to fight. Did you gain anything out of this? Why did you have to break your arm? On the contrary, you should have said, “This arm should listen to my will, and I have to be in control!” I do not want you to win a victory over yourselves, but to be in control of yourselves. When you are angry [furious], when you have a bad thought in your mind, try to get control over these thoughts and tell them, “You do not belong to this place, inside me, this is a canal and you may only pass through, but you may not stay!” You should be like that railways officer, who opens the rails with a special key so that various trains can pass, who clears the way for the trains. Similarly you, with the key you have, will be able to send your thoughts and desires in the right direction. (Somebody from the audience): Sometimes people look composed, but they are trembling internally; how can this trembling be mastered? Let them tremble! I could cure all of you within a year, if we could have a beautiful flower garden at our disposal with various flowers and beehives, an orchard with various fruit trees, and a vegetable garden, and shall send you there to cultivate them, so that you can draw energy and peace out of the gardens. If you are anaemic and in low spirits, I will send you to cultivate the cherry tree and you will see that your spirits will change. If your faith is weak – I will send you to cultivate cabbage, to water it and keep an eye on it. These are formulae, albeit from an external influence. If you are in low spirits – place your hand upon your forehead and everything will change within five to ten minutes. If you do not apply this means, let those of you who enjoy maths, writing, or drawing, apply one of their favourite past-times. Draw a triangle, paint it black, blue, or green, and before three or four minutes are out, your spirits will change. (Somebody from the audience): In order to have one’s attention distracted, isn’t this the point? No, this gives you certain strength to make the devil work and you tell the devil, “Do you make anything out of these triangles?” And the devil replies to you, “I do.” While now you stay at home, this one annoys you, that one annoys you; even if you are the most patient person you will lose your temper. The most difficult thing for one is to be always patient, to be polite. Sometimes I watch other people: some of them are rather tense, they can hardly wait for somebody to pass by and regardless whether one is guilty or not, they slander him, they fly against such a person with all their might and they say, “Don’t you dare pass by this place!” Then they feel relieved, but after a while, giving it deeper thought, they realize that that person was not guilty at all, that the person was merely a passer-by. These are purely psychological states. The atmosphere can also be in a tense state: say for instance two dark clouds meet, their electricity attracts them, the air becomes thick with ozone and you start attracting this electricity upwards2. If you are angry, go into the forest, start yelling, shouting at the trees and stones, they will become thick with ozone and you will feel better. You will see how funny it will look to you afterwards, when you notice that you are in such a state. An American professor was telling me a similar story: he was not in the habit of going to balls, but he enjoyed dancing, therefore, whenever he felt a strong desire to dance, he grabbed a chair and danced with it at home. He himself found the situation funny, but he felt relieved afterwards. You can apply the methods that I granted to you, and some will make use of some of them, while others will make use of other methods, as the situation may require. We have to make good use of Nature, it has the true method of healing. The present urban lifestyle is not quite natural, leading to unnatural states in people, lack of energy, because there is nowhere to draw energy from. Everybody needs energy - there is no energy to hand. You have another method of work at your disposal: for instance one of you has great misfortunes, therefore, some of you try to direct their good thoughts to her and try to help her. When someone is sick and cannot plough one’s field, let twenty people close to that person, go and put in twenty hours of work for him and the field will be ploughed. It is said that we have to help one another, don’t we! Most difficult of all, is when one lives alone. Nobody lives for oneself; nobody dies for oneself! Why is it that in Nature many grass blades shoot up in the same place? To retain the moisture! Wherever there is only one flower growing, it withers very soon. Similarly, when there are more people in a certain society, they retain moisture for a longer time. But when one is alone, that person has to be under very favourable conditions, to be very knowledgeable, so that one can survive in the world. You have these conditions now too; you have everything. I often notice that when I use certain symbols, you interpret them in the wrong way. For instance, I quote a law, I say that there are no exceptions to God’s law, but that there are rules in God’s Mercy, and these rules may tone down the law. I also say that nothing is given for free, and this is also true, but God’s Mercy is another law. According to it, if one is ready to receive things, things are given to that person for free. Both are true. Outside from God nothing is given for free, while inside God everything is given for free. If a general wants to climb up in society, this is dignity, but he would have to do it by virtue of the knowledge he has, by virtue of his valour. Professors can climb up in society only by virtue of their knowledge, not by virtue of benevolence. When you are invited to a table, you may be placed at the head of the table, but in society you cannot be placed at the top if this is not well deserved. So, being at the top presupposes work. Some may say, “I want to be talented!” You know the story about the donkey’s discontent: when God created it, it was looking around among the many animals and it noticed that all of them were very big, while it was smaller even than rabbits and was exposed to a lot of suffering. It prayed for a long time for God to make it bigger, with a high-pitched and strong voice, so that everybody can hear the donkey. God finally listened to the donkey’s prayer and granted the donkey height and a strong voice, but people started making donkeys work and this made donkeys even unhappier. So, the meaning of life is not in the abundance, but in the scanty that God has given us and in the place that Providence has destined for us. Now you do not know where God has placed you and what will come out of you. If you are a small seed and if you are sown in a sandy soil, nothing will come out of you, but if you are sown in a rich soil and if you are taken good care of, good apples can come out of you. You will now spare a thought on your self-development. Do not think that there will be no temptations or irks for you. Christ was also bored. There will come a moment when one will say, “How long shall I bear this burden?” Let’s set a premium for those of you who can develop one virtue. What premium shall we agree on? (Somebody from the audience): We can’t set it ourselves. Oh, how clever you are, you can sell me out ten times at the market place! Some people say, “We know nothing about this issue, you tell us!” But when it comes down to their interest, they argue, “This is not the case, do not believe it!” So they also have an opinion, do they? Others say, “We are prepared to face everything, we are prepared to listen to you!” Easy to say, but the truth is that you are not prepared to listen to everything. If I prescribe to all of you to get up at midnight and to go out to the centre of the town, how many of you would do this? (Somebody from the audience): We will, as long as it is for the better. This is not important; some will do it, some won’t. If I tell you that you, your children, and your husband will die, if you do not go out, then you will go. You will do it out of fear. In such a situation even with a gun at your back, you will go out even to a war. You should do what your Spirit at a certain moment and in a particular case can agree to [allow]. Now, the good will of none of you is strong. Ill will is well developed. This is not to say that you are not good, but this is to say that ill will prevails over good will. These two powers – the good will and the ill will – take one direction or another and since part of the matter of our body is not pure, we experience perturbations. We have to purify ourselves from sins, because there is something impure within us, which holds back our good will and we have to make great efforts to get rid of these impurities, to call [invite] the Divine matter, i.e. to create the New Man. You say that somebody is weak. Certainly, one cannot be strong until one gets rid of the matter that holds one back. So, now you will work to develop your faith and will. In order to develop your will, you must place an ideal in your mind. Take Christ as an ideal, i.e. the Living God, Who is manifested in the world. Take notice of the most supreme, most intelligent moments you experience in your life – these are manifestations of the Divine. Rare indeed are such moments, but you will have to try to keep the image manifested within you. During such rare moments, God has spoken to you. He speaks at the most once, twice, or three times in a year, and this is why you have to try to keep this speech. The more God speaks to you, the more He distances from you, the more suffering you experience. This is quite natural: you have one child, whom you love dearly, but once it distances from you, you start worrying about the child and you suffer. God acts similarly. By coming closer and going farther away God cleans your temple. God will come only when your temple is cleaned. This is why the Old Testament reads, “The Glory of God filled the temple.” So, good will you all may have. I talk now about experiences that you all may also have. What you need is will, will is what you need! You are all good! You laugh when I say that you are good. Do you know what I mean by telling you that you are good? I mean that nobody who lives with God can be bad; as you all aspire to God, you must all be good. This is what I mean. I will show to you the categories into which certain of your experiences fall. For instance, you feel hungry; what kind of feeling is hunger? Physical. You have your meal – and you feel a certain pleasantness spreading in you. What kind of feeling is the pleasantness in this particular case? Again physical. You cannot rely on this pleasantness, since it is in the physical field. You have a friend, whom you love, and who is with you, and this is pleasant for you, you feel strong, powerful, but the moment this friend is gone, you feel a certain unpleasantness. This is a spiritual state. This feeling is also fleeting; one cannot build a house upon it. We shall now come to these feelings that express the most supreme manifestation of Cosmic love3: when you love someone and feel no change, regardless whether he is with you or not, this is a Divine feeling. All forms that change in you are insignificant. You imagine Christ the way you used to know him previously. Certain intelligent powers flow out of this plastic form that stays in your mind unchanged. (Somebody from the audience): Is this form the same for everybody? It is different for different people. When you are in the situation of a hungry person, you will imagine Christ walking bare-foot in Palestine. Some have seen Christ in Light, having an aura around his head etc. There are forms through which Christ sometimes manifests himself in the physical world, sometimes in the astral world, and sometimes in the Divine world. You think that by experimenting and observing your thoughts you will come to a point when you will receive them in way that they generate no split-mindedness within you. When thoughts come from the astral world, they contain some small doubts. (Somebody from the audience): When Christ appears to a soul, won’t it understand that He is its ideal? Christ will tell everybody, “If you do not renounce your father, your mother and yourself, you cannot be a student of mine! If you do not lift the cross and if you do not come after Me, you cannot be a student of mine!” This is the first form through which Christ will be manifested. As soon as you receive Christ in this form, all suffering will disappear. This will bring about self-development of your consciousness... This is abstract matter. Some of you have religious experiences, while for others it is a complete darkness. Something else that you have to master is to learn to keep silent. The one who has seen Christ should be silent. Christ will then be a power within you. If I were a burning candle, would I need to prove that I am a burning candle? Does the rose need to prove that it is a rose? No, it doesn’t, the scent will prove it. If you do not believe in its scent, is it the form that will make you believe it is a rose? I relate this thought to another lurking thought of yours: you want to break free from a lot of suffering and hesitation; you want to become strong. Do the following small experiment then: take a poor sister of yours and start working upon her, see what you can do. What do you think you will have to do with her? I shall give a figure as an example: let’s assume that a sister of yours has lost her fortune, she has no money, no house, no property, and she is at her wits’ end. How can you help her? Let each one of you, who has more than they need, give her something – one will give her soap, another one will give her a pan, a third one – a pillow or bedclothes etc. You will see that shortly she will be back to normal. These are forms by which I would like you to grasp what I am telling you. Help everybody with what they need. Someone may have no patience – let this person have your bowl of patience. Someone else may have no faith - let this person have your pan of faith. A third one may have no pillow - let this person have your pillows. It won’t be long before you see that your brother or sister have improved and they say, “How good these brothers and sisters are!” If you do not take anything to them you will suffer. One cannot do this, but many can. However, you all need a bowl each. Do one experiment in this respect. Collective prayers are powerful as well, because when everybody prays at the same time, in the same direction, and is sincere and hearty, prayers have effect. Prayers have effect when there is harmony among you. Disharmony is what happens when a person who knows nothing about this art has tried to tune you. Therefore, disharmony can be called poor harmony or tuning. Indeed, the best part of a concert is the tuning of the violin and the other instruments. The first thing I want from you is to compete in paying mutual respect and reverence. What we perform externally should correspond to our internal predisposition, which is in the name of God. Let’s assume that you find one among you unpleasant; do the following manoeuvring: imagine you are in the greatest of hardships or that you are drowning in a river and it is exactly this sister of yours who saves your life. Take your time for a while and see what feeling you will experience. You will immediately start softening and you will say, “If my sister can do this, I will change my opinion of her and I will start loving her!” Or conversely: let’s assume that this sister of yours, whom you do not like, is drowning in the sea. Go to her immediately and tell yourself, “Come on, I will save her, because I am stronger than her, and the strong one should always save the weak one!” These are cases given to work upon your self-development. You will now do experiments. You may ask how? If you feel a desire to do such an experiment, you will pray for a day, two days, three days, four days, up to fourteen days in a row to achieve it and you will then feel an internal predisposition, that you are ready to do it and only then will you proceed to this good enterprise. And now you wait for things to settle on their own accord. Indeed they settle in this way too, but the results are completely different. You should all try to do these experiments. This is the only way to make the following line meaningful, “Pray for each other, to be healed.” Keep praying for up to fourteen days and the Spirit will say, “You may now do the experiment!” The Spirit says, “When one’s Path is worthy for God, God will reconcile that person.” Well now, you all have to start praying for your Paths to become worthy for God, in order that God reconciles you with the others and brings harmony and the Divine into you, so that you can understand and love one another. This is the Path; these are the experiments that you have to do to prepare for Whitsunday. Master’s lecture, delivered on 5 March 1920 (Friday), 16:00h. 1 [or Whitsunday] A Jewish holiday of gratitude for the Divine Laws, given in the Sinai Mountains, celebrated eight weeks after Passover [Easter]. On this day the Holy Spirit flows onto the Apostles for the first time (Acts 2,1 – 4) and the law gives way [precedence] to His gifts (editor’s note). 2 To editor: the Bulgarian text reads ‘upwards’ – but somehow I’d rather translate the word as ‘downwards’. 3 There are two words in Bulgarian for Love: “любов [lyubov]” and “обич [obich]”, translated in English as just “Love” [Lyubov] and “Cosmic Love” [Obich], the latter designating the human manifestation of Love as universal energy. Source

[translator’s notes are placed in square brackets] The Great Mother The written assignments on the bone system, on the heart and its function, and on the digestive system were read. We were sent to the Earth not for leisure, but for work. However, even the Earth can put up with its guests for no longer than three days. All contemporary misfortunes result from the fact that we want to be guests to the Earth. And since I talk to you from a purely esoteric point of view, if you ask me what the misfortunes in the world are due to, I shall tell you that they stem from your desire to be just visiting guests here on Earth. The Earth is a place for more [most] [M1] serious work to be done. Each creature, regardless of how small it may be, has its mathematically strictly determined place and work that it has to do. Even today, more superior creatures live on the toil of the more inferior ones. I intentionally asked you to describe the digestive system, as way of explanation, because you, esoteric students, do not even suspect what is going on within you at any single moment. Every one of you should investigate one’s organism thoroughly. The only real thing that you have in this world is your organism. Until you investigate your organism, you will be ignorant and won’t be able to understand Nature. Our Great Mother – Nature, restricts her children under all the rules she has. Bear in mind that she is ruthlessly blunt. No esoteric students should beguile themselves that this would pass them by unnoticed. When this Divine Mother gets hold of you, she will take you through all the rules of education without blinking an eye. I talk to you about education, because this is where you should start from: Nature has the correct way to educate. What seems to people callous in the world, what we, contemporary people, notice as certain disharmony in the world, is in fact a most harmonious action. I still do not dare tell you that Nature should be studied from its rear side. You should start studying your life from its rear side too. For example, the goodness of someone depends on the badness contained in the roots of one’s life. Hence, we can mathematically determine that one’s goodness would be as big as is the badness in the roots of one’s life. I exclude your moral concepts and here I do not mean bad actions. The word badness stands for that matter in your life that acts against your life. I told you that you have to investigate Life from its rear side. Now many of you feel a desire to show themselves better than they actually are, or worse than they actually are. This is a misleading situation and Nature does not tolerate such falsities. Nature has two methods that it applies: you should strictly determine things from a mathematical point of view, absolutely accurately, or otherwise you should not measure things at all. In order to measure precisely the powers active in us, we have to develop the senses we have in our organism, so that they can start working, i.e. to develop the sensitivity of our soul. Let’s take for example the concept of coldness; it denotes a physiological process, the physiological reasons for being cold. How can you translate coldness; what does it stand for? It stands for hatred. So, hatred is similar to coldness. Can you make an analogy between coldness and hatred: what is the effect of coldness upon the organism? Shrinking. Indeed, all bodies shrink to a certain extent in the cold. Hatred gives rise to the same action – it also makes one shrink. Warmth is the opposite of coldness. Warmth translates as love. What does warmth give rise to? Expansion. What does love give rise to? Also expansion. Hence, esoteric people, who understand the laws, can influence hatred through warmth, and love – through coldness. The white magi in the White Esoteric School use warmth against hatred, while the black magi use the cold to counteract love. The White magi use warmth to strengthen love, while the black magi use the cold to strengthen hatred. If you ask me why the winter is cold, I will answer that these two lodges – the Black and the White - act in Nature. And according to this law, those of you who observed what the weather was like when the Central Powers and the Allies were at war[1] might have noticed the following: when the Central Powers were winning the weather was always cold, and when the Allies was winning, the weather was warm. And then, from a purely esoteric point of view, we made the conclusion that the White Esoteric School sided with the Allies, and the Black one sided with the Central Powers. Whether they were aware of this or not is another issue. When peace was to be signed the Black Lodge changed its tactics and started influencing the Allies, while the White Lodge started influencing the Central Powers, i.e. they swapped roles. I shall not dwell upon this; I wanted just to note this fact in progress. The situation you - supporting an idea - are in any given moment, might be sustained either by the White Lodge or by the Black Lodge. So, if you want to train yourselves, you should first determine where the ideas that preoccupy you are being commanded from. Someone may say, “I believe in this and in this.” This, however, does not solve the issue though. Stupid people also believe. But when a stupid person is given something, say one hundred leva, the stupid person is ready to immediately take it and says, "I will give you back one hundred and fifty”, although the stupid person may as well lose everything shortly afterwards. It is not profit that is at stake. Mind you that all of our acts and ideas on earth bear an impact on our future. Perhaps a thought at present may influence your future life in a thousand of years. Therefore, bear in mind that what you do now, you do it for your own sake. A thousand years may pass, but you cannot evade taking the right direction. Now, these false teachings of the Black brotherhood come to distort the lines of the Holy Scripture. And when they want to entrap you in a certain sin, or to distort something, they immediately quote a line that suits their purpose. The Black brothers, when willing to make somebody sin, can be very polite and kind, they will offer chickens, apple pies, until they manage to harness the person. But as soon as they harness a person, they start goading this person, start making him/her work for them and neither apple pies, nor chickens do they offer any longer. This is the beginning of the so-called black doom. The Bulgarians say, “I ended up with what I was given in the beginning.” However, esoteric students cannot and should not be thinking like this. Opinions on life have to be strictly determined; they should not rest on those silly interpretations and beliefs, inherited from the past. Esoteric students should verify things fundamentally for themselves, and the shadows of things, the secondary and tertiary things will come on their own accord. Everyone should understand the law properly, to be sure whether one observes the law or not, whether one believes in God or not. I do not understand the word God in the sense you understand it. I see the esoteric law in the sense of faith in the living law of Nature. However, [i mean] not [M2] the law as effect[M3] , because you are familiar with any effect, since impact is the result of and is generated by a living and intelligent centre. Consequently, when we say that something affects us, this is due to the thought vested in this influence. When I take somebody by the hand and influence this person to start walking, this is the result of the thought vested in me. Hence, you have to be absolutely determined in your thoughts whether you have faith or not. What is your definition of faith? As soon as true faith comes, doubts will also come, and alongside this contradictions in life will appear. Where there are contradictions, Life must have begun. This feature indicates that the true life of esoteric students has begun. If there are no contradictions, you are very far from the Truth. This is a law on the Earth. Such contradictions should not grow into obstacles before those who want to learn. When I said in my previous lecture that those of you who are not ready to follow the Teaching should not set foot in the Esoteric School, I meant not to set foot in the School of this Mother of yours, because it will throw you out according to all the rules of art. You may enter it, but you will need all the humility of your soul and you will need to speak tenderly and kindly. Any rude intonation of your mind or soul will attract all the counteracting forces and you will stumble along your Path. The Old Testament reads, “The Lord scorns the scorners: but He gives grace unto the lowly.” The Lord is understood to mean the Mother, the Living Nature. How can the Mother express her opposition? Living Nature opposes its disrespectful children by taking them by her three fingers, then Nature lifts them up, then she throws them away and says, “Do you know me, do you know what I can do to you, are you going to lose your temper again? I can turn a human being into the smallest infinitesimal animal!” You may say, “No, it is not possible for a man to go back in the evolutionary development and to become an animal.” It’s not true; one may regress in one’s development and at that according to all the rules of this great law of the Mother. Christians say, “A man born once is a man forever.” Yes, correct, but if one trespasses upon the rules of the Mother, she will send him back and then he will start on a long journey changing forms and millions of years will have to pass, until he is purified. Before he comes out at the end of this Path he will have filled ten tubs of tears, he will keep his memories of them, so that when a passer by incidentally asks him, “You are not going to sin any longer, are you?” he could answer, “Have you filled ten tubs of tears?” When Christ says that He will send somebody to eternal suffering, I clarify that He will send all the clergy, scientists, philosophers, as well as their servants to suffer, to fill tubs of tears. They will pass through a great fire. This fire is not what it is described to be; it is a quiet fire, it has its pleasures, it is a fire that purifies and makes people humble. I warn you to watch out for the three fingers of your Mother – Nature, she is dangerous! When people cross with three fingers in the Orthodox Church, this is also a warning to be aware of the three fingers of the Mother, not to be grabbed by her three fingers. Crossing has a particular meaning in esoteric sense: remember the three fingers of your Mother in your mind, in your heart and in your will! But religious people say that in crossing, one of the fingers stood for the Father, the other one – for the Son, and the third one – for the Holy Spirit. It could as well be so, but you have to know that these are the three fingers of your Mother, the three intelligent Powers working within her. And she is remarkable, remarkable indeed your Mother Nature is. Those of you, who tend to cause a stir, should keep it in their mind that I can complain to your Mother, without having to unmask you, and I can tell her to grab you by her three fingers. And then regardless whether it happens to be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl – they will get it. She will feel you and will say, “Did I send you there to study or to philosophise, to serve or to give orders?” Christ, as a disciple of the Great Esoteric School, also understood this law. The Scripture has it that when he found himself in a human body, he became humble. For the grace of this Divine Mother, Christ was ready to endure any suffering. The Father is known as Mother in Esotericism. He is the Love, but not the way you understand this Mother – Love. Don’t even think of comparing this Divine Mother with the love you know! There is no image comparable to this concept. I call her Divine Mother, not in the sense that she delivered God. The Esoteric School perceives the Divine Mother as the essence in everything living in the world. Let’s go back, because these are abstract things that may stir fear and anxiety in your minds. My point is not to make you fear, because fear is just one feeling, while so far human beings have been found to have forty abilities. Fear is only one fortieth of the present life, so that your attention to fear should be one to forty. If all your life turns into fear only, you do not understand Life. Fear is supposed to be only a warning to human beings, reminding them whether they have properly understood what they studied and whether they acted accordingly. Thus, fear is necessary to show you that you have your responsibilities. After fear, conscience comes and tells you, “You did it according to all the rules of the Divine Law.” The first thing that all of you are required to do is to accept the following motto as a rule “If you do not become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” I shall translate this for you: if you do not place yourselves in the shoes of little children, you cannot enter any Esoteric School, any branch of this Great, Intelligent Esoteric School. The second rule is that students of the Esoteric School should learn to keep silent – to keep silent in order to be able to think. Their thoughts should be strictly determined, their thoughts should not be roaming, they should not contain similar opposite thoughts or doubts. Some say, “I think”, but what is it that you think about? If you look at the faces of the people around you, you will see that these people are not thinking, but wasting their time. The present philosophising and thinking is just a waste of time, but the skulls and bones of people reveal how righteous their thought is. The first thing that you are facing is to restore your righteous thoughts. You may ask, “How can we know which thought is righteous?” This cannot be proven. This is a law, implanted in human beings from the very beginning – their ability to think righteously. So, since the soul always thinks righteously, I am not going to prove this, anybody can try it. It will be sufficient if one goes back to that point where one deviated from the right path. What will be the first result that you will notice from this righteous thought of yours? As soon as you manage to experience righteous thoughts, any gloomy thoughts will leave you, a Light will appear in your mind and you will start feeling reconciled with everybody. The curtain will begin, little by little, to open, you will start understanding the correlation existing between causes and consequences, and you will understand why things keep happening in this way and not in that way. The Scripture reads, “The Earth should be silent, for the Lord to speak.” Silence is the first rule in every school: when pupils come to school and when the teacher comes in after them, all pupils are silent so that the teacher can speak. This is why, when this Divine Mother starts speaking, everybody should fall silent. Sometimes she makes us to be silent against our wishes. She sends a big misfortune to us, thus telling us, “Keep silent!” Then you say, “I do not feel like talking,” and you become immersed in thought. You keep thinking and thinking and in the end you say, “Life is meaningless.” In this silence you must have heard the voice of your Mother, coming from the depth of your soul. This voice is calm and it will speak to you in such quiet and tender tones, as no other voice has spoken to you. But when will this voice start talking to you? When one has been through the worst pains and miseries and after having filled ten tubs of tears. Here on earth the contact of this voice is called love, kindness etc. This voice provokes instant magical changes in human beings. You might have been the person most slighted and hurt on earth, you might have been close to your death-bed, but as soon as this voice starts talking to you, you immediately feel safe. You are looking for the secret, for the Truth of Life somewhere outside you and you tell me, “Teach us how to find it!” Learn to understand yourselves and to find this secret within you. Sometimes unwittingly you place your hand on the forehead of a weeping child. I now ask you why you place your hand there. How many philosophers and scientists in Bulgaria know the reason for this? I will tell you, “When you place your right hand upon the upper part of the forehead, you arouse one of the noblest feelings." Many centres are located in this part of the head, but you influence compassion above all – the Divine Love. And if the person placing his/her palm on your forehead is compassionate, you will immediately feel a certain pleasantness spreading all over you. The mother, by placing her palm upon her child’s forehead, tells the child’s spirit, “Mother Nature that entrusted you to me, loves you and her Love never changes.” And the mother, who places her palm upon the child’s forehead, is a step-mother to the child, entrusted to raise the child. So, when you are upset, place your palm or let somebody else place their palm upon your forehead, concentrate your thoughts in this place, call your Great Mother, and everything will pass on its own accord. This is a beautiful gesture. You should know the meaning of each and every gesture – these are the new education methods. Each movement in Nature is strictly determined and from this point of view, all people can be either good or bad. If your child is crying and if you take the upper side of the child’s hand, if you bring it close to your mouth and blow against it, the pain will pass away. But if in similar cases you curl your lower lip and thrust it forward, you have already tarnished your mind. Any gesture of your hand or mouth that is incorrect brings dishonour to your mind. And these gestures have their impact. Therefore, any movement of the hand, of the eyes has to be strictly determined, has to follow all the Divine rules. Contemporary highly educated people are like children who start writing for the first time and this explains why, when they take the writing pen, they start scribbling on the paper. Children scribble and scribble on the paper and tell their mother, “Mother, look what I have written!” This scribbling, however, contains no Divine thought; it has no content at all. This scribbling refers also to the present newspapers. Similarly, at spiritual séances, a medium starts scribbling first upon paper, and afterwards some letters come out. The minds and hearts of many contemporary Christians resemble this childish scribbling – they scribble, but nothing comes out. So, you should first start scribbling, then you will start drawing circles and finally you will start writing letters. Learn to stop and take a look at your actions, so that you yourselves can be pleased with whatever movement you do with your hands, head, eyes or mouth. Watch your movements, but do not be afraid! Often some poets shake their heads while talking. I interpret this movement in the following way: “Oh, I hope these rotten pears would fall!” You think about them, “There is something substantial in these ideas of theirs; they are poets, they will surely write something.” They will write nothing. So, be careful to ensure that your movements are harmonic. You may in time feel a desire to correct somebody. Nobody is allowed to correct anybody in the Esoteric School. This is an insult. Both the one correcting, and the one being corrected, both of them commit a crime. Do you believe that the movement of the wheel in the factory, which has once started rolling and keeps rolling, is not strictly determined? Do you think that the master of that gentleman, who has lost his temper, has not predetermined this reaction? Do you think that you have to block the drainpipe through which all waste goes out? No, you should not, because by doing so you will bring about the greatest misfortune to people. The person who flares up, is just a channel, so, let all impurities flow out of him, do not interrupt him. This flaring brother of yours is on duty today, he is throwing up so many things, so you should rather tell him, “Brother, you did a wonderful job today, you are throwing up impurities and thus you are helping so many people.” If you do not have such understanding for things around, you will be on duty tomorrow. So, intelligent students should understand properly the causes and the consequences of each action and should remember the following: Life is determined very intelligently, there are no exceptions to it, no accidents, and everything, even the smallest details, have been provided for. This is not a restriction of the human will, because at your stage of development, you have no will whatsoever yet. I am telling you the truth. I believe that only a person, who can forgive after being insulted, has Will. People, who can forget that they were deprived of all of their wealth, have Will. People, who in spite of having a lot of work to do, help fallen people, have Will. While ordering one person or another around, does not count as will. Will starts in sin. If you look upon this issue in this way, you will immediately feel enlightenment. Do an experiment, so that Mother Nature can start talking to you. If you stick to your conceptions, the conceptions you have today, your Mother shall not start talking to you in a thousand of years, but will only grab you by her three fingers. When I say that your Mother will grab you by her three fingers, I do not mean your individual life; I mean it on principle, as per the laws. There are exceptions to these laws, they are not absolutely mechanical. So, when I say that your Mother will hold you by her three fingers, this will be so as long as you oppose her. The moment you change, she will also change her attitude to you. No philosophy, no logic is not in a position to alter Nature. However, the moment you feel repentance within, that the path you follow is not the right path, your Mother will change her pre-disposition to you. No sooner has she become pre-disposed to you, and you will experience certain pleasantness, a certain relief. You will struggle until the moment you feel this pre-disposition, and everybody coming your way will be [considered] bad[2].[M4] Now, Nature does not regret having such obstinate children, on the contrary, she rejoices for them, because they do such a wonderful job. She places these children in their proper place. When they get tired, they say, “Mother, we learnt this art.” The Mother replies, “All right then I will take you to another area.” As I see you are tired of life and you say that life is meaningless. What have you learnt so far, does not satisfy you any longer, and the beliefs you have are not positive either. How many of you, if tortured for their beliefs, are ready to make a self-sacrifice, to die for them? You may say, “We have to think a little, and then we can answer whether we are ready to sacrifice.” Now, let me go back to the talk about the beautiful movements. I will give you two examples: the day is clear, the sun is shining, you can see a high rock facing south, and there is a crystal clear spring under its eastern side, which gives rise to a small river flowing eastwards also. I will now draw the same picture, but situated oppositely: a high rock facing north, a crystal clear spring to the west of it. If you visit two locations similar to the ones described, two different ideas will rise in your mind. Watch the people living on such northern slopes where rivers flow westwards, and the people living on southern slopes where rivers flow eastwards. Compare the people in these two areas, take it as an assignment. Some of you may solve this task in a week; others may need a month, still others – a year. Therefore, in education, we have to make the best of Nature, because there is a fundamental, great idea underpinning the various forms it has created – to alter the mood of our mind, heart, and will. I shall elaborate a little bit on this, so that you can start paying attention to the clouds, you can start relating with them. Do not think that clouds are dead, you should always consider them living: sometimes there are whole mountains of clouds in the sky facing north or south; watch these living clouds in space, reflect why some of them face north, while other face south. Contemporary people today are exhausted, small-minded, because they do not go out to watch the sky. They turn their faces only to the ground, to what they themselves have created, and this is petty. If people went out to watch the sky, the clouds, and the stars, their mood would change, and we, contemporary white people, would be nobler than we are now. Since we do not want to voluntarily give up the old habits, the White Lodge has decided to make real people of us, to free us from these buildings, so that we can watch Nature. In previous times people made idols, bowed to idols, but today we ridicule them. However, contemporary people make houses, have property, and take their joy out of it, because this is how they earn their living. Is it not idol-worshipping as well? Don’t you ever rely on the thought that your house, field or vineyard will earn your living! Do not vest your hopes in them. If you think along these lines, you can be sure that you have taken the wrong direction. I talk to you as students of the Esoteric School. Throw out of your mind these houses of yours; you will have to look upon them as a simple exercise for you. In America there are houses of twenty-thirty floors. I say what we have now is not houses, these are the most dreadful prisons ever seen in the world; these are cemeteries. There are dwellings where the sun has not set a single ray for years. This is no culture; don’t you admire these big buildings. I’d rather live in the simplest Bulgarian hut out of town, than in a twenty-storey building, costing a couple of millions, albeit having the latest amenities. There is an analogy for you: a writer describes the houses of a town, the streets, the layout of the town, and when you read this you think, “Why I am not moved by all of this?” Because there is nothing new. Let this writer set the plot in the open, in Nature, let the author describe the movements in Nature, and then you will find out whether it moves you. This author describes how two people fell in love – the one was on the stage and the other one – in one of the theatre boxes. Is there anything more misrepresented than this? Being esoteric students you should not waste your time on similar novels, you should be selective in your reading. If some of you start writing, mind you do not imitate these authors. See what the psalm writer writes in the songs! A song reads, “Let the rivers murmur, let forests and tall cedars bend low.” In psalms all people are compared to trees, to mountain peaks, to rivers, to springs, while the world is compared to the sea etc. All this makes sense. The psalm writer, from an esoteric point view, implanted these true Divine ideas that govern the world. The interpreters, when analysing these forms, misrepresented them and now contemporary people cannot think properly. There is one task ahead of you – to go back at least eight thousand years, to come to the Gates of Paradise, so that I can show you that you have taken the wrong direction. There were two paths opening before people on coming out of Paradise, and they had to choose one of them. The entire humanity took the wrong one and said, “This is what is destined for us!” No, there was another Path destined, and it was the so-called straight, narrow Path. Narrow Path should be understood to mean that Great Path of the Living Nature and this is the Path you have to take. You cannot return along the path you took on coming out, but I will take you back along the other path, along the narrow Path. When you reach this initial point, I shall show you the Path which you have to take in the new course of development in your evolution. Do a short mental exercise; this is what you should ask, “Where was I a hundred years ago?” Take a break, then try to figure out where you were a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, three thousand years ago, four thousand, five thousand, six thousand, seven thousand years ago, and where you were eight thousand years ago. Take such a small notional transition and allow yourselves a break at each point. You will not resolve anything of particular notice, but by returning in your mind along the path that you have travelled so far, you will follow this law and when you come to the point where you were eight thousand years ago, please take notes of your condition, of what you experience, and also put down the thought that comes to mind, and afterwards come back to your present condition. If no thought comes to your mind or if you do not experience any condition, you should not worry, try to return once again. I shall gradually show to you the mathematical correlations that will be of help in your work. These are the smallest exercises that I assign to you. You are wondering how you can go back eight thousand years, how you can do this. Take little children as an example: when they stand up for the first time on their feet, do they have any idea how to take steps? No, children follow their instinct: they stand up, fall down, they stand up again and fall down again and so on. Similarly your mind is a four-legged animal too. Mental people are four-legged, they try to stand up, they fall down, and again they try to stand up and in the end they say, “We cannot think.” No, we shall fall down, shall stand up, shall bow, until finally we shall stand firmly on our two feet and shall start thinking. So, remember, that your mind is not human, it is four-legged, and this is not an insult. If our mind was human, our Life would have been organised differently and we would not have been in the situation we are now. Anybody can check [and verify] [M5] that our mind is not enlightened. Can you find two people at home who are in the same mind, who live in Love? Very rarely is it so, and only when they are in the mood for this. This is not due to a lack of desire to live, but it is due to something distorted in us. As soon as we reach our original situation, we shall immediately be set free. Then we shall find ourselves in the situation of a person who is being healed with water or sun rays – such a person keeps sweating until all impurities are thrown out, and afterwards such a person feels like a new born baby. Therefore, first we have to get rid of the impurities that have accumulated within us for thousands of years, so that only pure blood remains, i.e. the pure Divine thought and the pure Divine heart. Then we shall experience the same as a person, who before falling ill with typhus used to weigh a hundred and twenty kilogrammes and then he lost weight and became like a dried mackerel. The same will happen to you. You will throw out everything that is useless and you will feel stupid. Until you yourselves feel stupid, nothing will come out. After having thoroughly emptied yourselves, New Divine Life will come from elsewhere and it will fill up your bottle. To succeed in this small experiment does not take much courage, but only faith and diligence. You may recite to me that line, about whether this is in agreement with God’s Will. Any good action is in agreement with God’s Will. Any good thought, any good deed, regardless how small it may be, is in agreement with God’s Will. Keep in mind that every good deed yields results and can be accomplished, but it takes a long time to do it. Therefore, the smallest desire, the smallest urge will in time produce good results. Every good thought and desire is a result of the urge of your Divine Mother, who wants to advance your present level. There is a small disharmony between us now. I will check whether it is me or you who are the cause of this disharmony. You will do your homework, and I will do mine, and having solved the problems we shall meet at certain points of contact. Have faith and do not hesitate! You will make this a rule of yours: you are demanded to have faith in yourselves, in your intelligent souls, just as much as it can be free to think and understand everything that God did. Inasmuch as your soul is awakened inasmuch you will benefit from the Divine goods in the world. So, faith should be the first among all rules! Master’s lecture, Delivered on 26 February 1920 [1] Coalitions among different countries, that were at war during the time of the World War 1 (1914-1918); The Central Powers (The Triple Axis) included Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy, while the Antante included Great Britain, France and Rusia (notes of the editor) [2] To Michaeli – the original text translates ‘will be bad’ – of course, there is a great difference between ‘be bad’ and ‘be considered bad’. However, reading the text I somehow got the feeling that [considered] is implied – since in speech as different from writing many words may be omitted as meaning is through non-verbal means. I placed [considered] for you to see and comment upon – I understand that it is next to impossible to recover the non-verbally conveyed meaning – as none of the non-verbal means were taken down in short hand. It makes a worse sense without [considered]. I do realise it’s a personal judgement which is not allowed, but two minds make a better product. [M1]{The Earth is a place for the most serious work to be done.} or {The Earth is a place for more serious work to be done.} [M2]{I do not mean…} [M3]Unclear. This word needs more definition in order for this sentence to be understood. [M4]There is a big difference between {will be bad} and {considered bad}. The first one is a statement saying that everybody coming your way is bad. And the second implies that you will think that everyone coming your way is bad. [M5]delete

Powers in Nature I shall make a summary of meekness, humility, electricity, magnetism, and torment. Meekness and humility show the path of the Spirit; electricity and magnetism – the path of the Soul; while torment – the path of the body or the physical world, i.e. life on the Earth. You should always relate meekness with the Spirit, humility with the soul, electricity – with the brain, magnetism – with the sympathetic nervous system, and torment – with all misfortunes in life. This is the right correlation. Esoteric disciples should speak a comprehensible language; they should speak to themselves in a comprehensible way. There is a legend with the Bulgarians that on Epiphany the Heavens open and the wishes of people at the moment they see the opening of Heavens, are granted. A Bulgarian watched the sky on Epiphany night for a number of years, hoping that he would at least once see the skies opening. One year on that very night, while watching from his window, he saw the skies open and he wanted to tell the Lord “Give me half a bushel of gold!” But being in a hurry, he actually said "Give me half a bushel of head!" and his head became as large as half a bushel and he could not get it back through the window. This law is effective in Esotericism too, i.e. what one wishes for or thinks of, happens. So, one esoteric law postulates: all the goods in the world are humility and meekness related; all the Powers are related with electricity and magnetism, i.e. with the brain and the sympathetic nervous system; all misfortunes – with torment. To be clear I will explain what generates torment: every disciple, who does not observe any of the eternal laws that exist, generates torment. However, such disciples consciously or unconsciously repudiate the fact that they have made a mistake, and walk in life from one reincarnation to a second and third reincarnation, while the law of torment is in effect continually. This law acts like a river making its way and taking a new direction, different from its previous bed. Hence, I call torment a method or way of rectifying human life. You, who have come here to listen to the Esoteric Teaching, are at different ages, are you not? I want all of you to discard the thought that you know certain things. I do not deny your knowledge, but esoteric knowledge is only valid when it has passed through the Divine Fire seven times and has been purified. Only such knowledge can be applied for the reorganisation of our life. We have Science at our disposal to re-create our existing life. In order to learn this great Divine Science, one should understand its forms and rules. I shall take recourse to a small explanation: if you plant a small wheat grain, an acorn or an apple seed, the splitting or polarising powers within them will first activate all the magnetic Powers working inside the earth, they will attract the plant to grow downwards. This means that each root seeks the magnetic currents that it feeds upon. These roots try to obtain not only stability, but seek such currents in the ground, which intersect like rivulets. Therefore, all roots branch in various directions and when they find the current they need, they complete their service. This is why certain roots sink deep into the ground, others – at a more shallow level, still others come out to the surface; therefore, different roots vary in length. If the soil is humus or alluvium, the roots always seek the currents, which run in the ground. In accordance with these currents the roots project themselves downwards, while the branches of the stem project themselves upwards in various directions. To each current down in the ground there is a corresponding current up in the air. You cannot comprehend these currents because you are not sensitive enough. If you have the time, we can make a short trip to Vitosha one evening and I will show you these magnetic currents that run in various directions. Each good thought coming out of your brain and projecting itself in space, moves upwards and downwards like these currents in the plants and seeks a corresponding living magnetism or electricity, which will serve for its shaping and development. Subsequently, the good thoughts of a person, who sends such thoughts more often, do not move away, but remain closely connected with that person. Contemporary scientists, who are partly familiar with Esotericism, believe that our thoughts are far away from us. No, each good or bad thought, sent by you, remains yours forever; nobody can take it away from you, it is your property, because you created it. You will have to keep this thought forever in your mind. Every plant, after taking roots in all directions, starts developing little by little: branches, leaves, blossoms, and fruit, which finally become ripe. This is also the way thoughts develop. No gossiping, no finding faults with other people – bad thoughts in general are not allowed in the Esoteric School. Do you know why? When you have bad thoughts about somebody, you direct your roots to this person, but there is no food for you there. These roots of yours start sucking in juices from this person, but these juices are a poison that poisons and spoils your life gradually. Many women are ruined not only because they have bad husbands, but also because of the thought that their husbands are bad and they start pining and withering by the day, until one day they say "Good-bye to this world" while their husbands watch and say to themselves "I do not know why my wife passed away." The same happens with the disciples of the Esoteric School. Therefore, disciples are told "Do not have evil thoughts" i.e. do not let the roots of your soul into a bad person, and keep away from bad people! This is the scientific approach to the issue. Please understand the following fact: torment shows the true path of deviation. When I say that we have to go down to the bottom of torment, I compare this going down to the following simple fact of our everyday life: someone is travelling across a mountain, but loses one’s way; in order for one to take another direction, the proper direction, one has to go back exactly to the place where he or she went astray and lost one’s way. When you are in torment and when you see that you are on the wrong path, having travelled for a long time, you will go back to the place where you have gone astray. This is what I mean by going down and returning to rectify your mistakes. In order to understand the Powers of Nature and to put them to use for the sake of good, you have to invariably develop corresponding senses or organs in your soul. Many of these organs are mutilated at the present stage of development of the contemporary civilisation. Many Christians who have taken this Path, have become more sensitive and they say, "It’s not worth being a very good person, i.e. it’s not worth being very sensitive, it’s not worth suffering." Human nobleness is exactly about being sensitive, receptive to other people’s grievances and joys. The brain is an organ of electricity. The back of the brain contains negative electricity, and the front side – positive; this is to say that there is a split. So, if the electricity from the front part of the brain dominates the electricity from the back part, one becomes exceptionally active in terms of thoughts, but one also becomes rough. If the negative electricity in the brain takes the upper hand, one becomes passive, but at the same time full of and eager for undoable secret desires, and as a result hatred, envy, and similar feelings are generated. When I talk about positive and negative electricity I mean the law of tides that take place in the brain. The high tide – this is the positive side of the brain and high tides occur in its front part, in the area of the forehead, while the low tides – in the back part of the brain. These tidal movements are even and well planned in Nature, because God acts there. In Nature, there are no mistakes, but on our earth and in our brains there are mistakes, because we do not know how to manage these high and low tidal movements, hence delays happen. When a misfortune befalls you – for example when your house burns down, when you lose your money, when you break your leg, when you have to go hungry for several days or whatever else happens to you, the equilibrium between the high and low tides in your brain is immediately upset. Keep in mind that the growth and the success of your life in the world depend on these planned tidal movements in your brain. Certain Schools see this regular change of high and low tides as a pre-condition for making human beings magnetic. But I also tell you that in order for human beings to be magnetic, the high and low tides in a person have to take place properly. Thus, the first thing that you are required to do is not to obstruct your high and low tides. The disturbance of the equilibrium between these high and low tides has brought about many upset minds and numerous abnormal situations. Remember this explanation, because it applies to your lives. You have to be aware of what actions take place in your soul during high tides and during low tides. Apply this method and you will see that it is absolutely natural in all of its particular aspects. When observing Nature you will notice that each thing has its timing. Birth, death, and every other thing are mentioned in parables as having its specific time of occurrence. Esotericism does not allow esoteric disciples to have preferences to the good or the evil. This thought seems sort of vague to you, does it not? I shall elaborate on it: if I have to perform an operation, I shall use a sharp knife, not a blunt one. The sharp knife stands for evil people, while the blunt knife stands for good people. Hence, I shall use an evil person in an operation; I will prefer the evil person to the good one. When the Lord wants to punish the world, the Lord prefers to use evil people, and when He wants to build something, He prefers to use good people. When He wants to eradicate something, He prefers evil people, and when he wants to plant – the good ones; when He wants to dig holes, He will go for evil people, and when he wants to plant something in them – good people. In Esotericism, we do not frown at people when they commit evil, but each action has to be done at a strictly determined time. I do not talk about the public moral here on the Earth, because it does not stand any criticism from an esoteric point of view. If I give away my wealth to the poor, this is bad for me and good for the people close to me. If I rob the people close to me, this is good for me and bad for the others. So, there are two measures for everything in the world: good for oneself and good for the others. So, there are two options before me: either to give away my money to other people or to take the money of other people. Thus, there are two methods according to which one can act, both are right. If ten people, carrying twenty kilogrammes of gold each, are drowning in the sea, and if I take the gold off their backs, is this bad for them? No, it isn’t, I am saving their lives. As long as I have saved them, I have a right to their gold. If I am loaded with twenty kilogrammes of gold and if I am drowning in the sea and other people come to help me and take the load off my back, they have the right to my gold. This is how I reconcile this moral. This is how esotericism looks upon good and evil. However, if you meet a person loaded with gold, if you stop this person, take the gold off his or her back and take it away with you, then I say that is an act not performed at its proper time, in other words the fruit was picked prematurely. Well, get your act together to apply this law, according to which you will rob and I will rob you, but at the right time. I use the word rob in a very good, in a very broad sense, similarly to picking fruit in an orchard1. Not the way thieves do: the masters of the orchard have hardly seen the fruit of their labour, and they hurry up to pick the pears and apples from their trees. In my first lecture I spoke about humility and meekness. These are inter-related; these are related to pure human thought. This means that a person, who is not humble and meek, cannot have a pure thought. Each human thought is cherished only on humility and meekness, while beyond these qualities your thought will be like the thought of animals. This is a strictly determined law. The same is true for every desire. Any desire that was nurtured on live electricity and live magnetism is a desire of the soul, while any desire that is not permeated with this live electricity and magnetism, is not a desire of the human soul. Therefore, all evil thoughts take their roots outside humility and meekness; all evil desires are nurtured beyond the scope of live electricity and live magnetism. And torment is nurtured by the unwise lifestyle of stupid people. Look upon the live electricity and magnetism as two great intelligent Powers in the world. Torment is the illegitimate physical child of Man, whom the father and mother should acknowledge as theirs. No miscarriage or killing of children is allowed in Esotericism, i.e. we are not allowed to kill any thoughts or desires, either ours or anybody else’s. You may or may not accept a thought or a desire, but you have no right to destroy them. Therefore, everyone should be left to do what he or she wants to. Nobody has the right to counteract or influence either good or evil people. I warn my disciples not to try to either counteract or influence me, because this is the way I behave and shall continue to behave in the future too – I shall neither counteract you nor shall I influence you. I lay before you great Divine laws, which you, if you wish, will implement, if you do not – you will bear the consequences. Keep in mind that these laws, these Powers that you get into contact with, will start affecting you as soon as your consciousness opens. You cannot evade this law. You are not allowed to wear any umbrellas or broad-brimmed hats to protect your heads from the Sun, from this living Light. Let your heads become accustomed to this living Light, go bear-headed! Mind you, there is serious work in front of you. By serious work I mean movement, I mean that one has to make progress, not to stay in the same place. You should not think that you are old or young, but you will think that you are disciples who have to learn. You should look upon Life the way any student looks upon a problem that he or she has to solve: one goes to bed in the evening with the thought that one will have to get up early in the morning to solve the problem; and one does so. Some of you have some more hours – say two or three hours to study and they will fall asleep afterwards. It’s all right. They will continue on the following day. If not in this life, they will continue in the following life, besides they will continue from the point where they have got to in this life. Students whose thought is not concentrated, will spend a whole day trying to recall what issue preoccupied them the previous day and will not be able to remember. One more point: you will investigate the moments of the day corresponding to humility, other corresponding to meekness, still others – to electricity, to magnetism, to grief, and to torment. These are all polarised. Torment is the strongest, while grief is the opposite of torment. Nowadays, contemporary teachers often note a contradiction at school: a Maths teacher enters the classroom and all the pupils are in good humour because this subject arouses electricity within them. After the Maths teacher, the Chemistry teacher comes in whose subject also arouses electricity in the pupils. Pupils already feel a little nervous as a result of the large amount of electricity gathered. If a third teacher, whose subject arouses electricity too, comes in, pupils become even more nervous and they will make a scene. No, subjects in the school timetable should be so arranged that one of the subjects should arouse electricity, and the following subject should arouse magnetism within the pupils; i.e. subjects should alternate. This can be noticed in Nature as well; the same law is at work. For example, a son was born – as a result of the electrical powers; this indicates that meekness, electricity, and torment have been implanted in him. A daughter was born – created by humility, magnetism, and grief. If somebody asks me, “What elements was my son created from?” I will answer: from meekness, electricity, and torment; “And my daughter?” – from humility, magnetism, and grief. This is why boys experience torment and girls grieve. We have to try and avoid monotony in our work. I do not want to make you pious, because this is a monotonous teaching. Today pious people are seen as harnessed horses having blinds over the eyes and looking only straightforward. Pious people, hardly out of bed, make their way straight to church, and in the evenings – they go again to church. Going to church in the morning, going to church in the evening – and everybody says, “These must be pious people.” The work facing you requires that you start developing gradually in various areas. You will first arouse the lower part of the brain – the low mind of human beings, the concepts of Nature, of all the forms, images, colours, numbers. You will then arouse the more superior forms of the mind – imagination, listening, reflection, music, and creative intelligence. And finally you will arouse Love to God, to people, and to animals. We shall also arouse the feeling of faith and hope, the feeling of amicability, sociability and friendliness, but not in the sense these are now understood. We shall also arouse the law of justice, the executive powers, which generate destruction, i.e. the executive side of Life. Of course, this is difficult, because if we now decide to arouse music, not all of you will be able to perceive it. Some of you have a well-developed musical ear, but poorly developed comprehension of humility and meekness. Why did Christ say, “I am humble and meek at heart”? Humble and meek people can easily cope with any difficulty in the world. There is a simple self-training method, namely to place yourself in the shoes of a hungry person. If this is the situation, you should no longer think about what you ate in the past. It is not important what meals you had over the years. You might have had the best of meals in the past, but what counts is how you will feed yourself today. If you do not eat well you will lose your life. The present moment is important in Esotericism. Now I will put you in contact with the Living Nature and do you know what will happen to you afterwards? I shall draw a picture for you: in Europe, a scoundrel went into the house of a very rich and highly educated physicist intending to rob him. The physicist had two balls in his laboratory for his experiments with electricity. Realising what the intention of the scoundrel was, the physicist put the two balls in the hands of the scoundrel and told him, “Keep these for a while until I finish my experiments, and then you may do what you wish!” The scoundrel took the balls, the physicist switched on the power and the scoundrel started bouncing. “Let them go,” said the physicist. “No, I can’t!” The physicist asked him, “Are you going to put educated people to the test again?” Now, if you come to rob me, you will be jumping up and down with these balls. Living Nature is so intelligent that no man so far has succeeded in cheating it in its methods. There will be no man in the future either who will be able to cheat it. This is why I call Living Nature the best of mothers. If you listen to it, it will provide you with a Teaching that you never had before. If, however, you violate its rule, you will find out how it raises its children. I shall give you one more formula: you will consider everything in the world as living. I shall elaborate on the word live. Tell me, when you look at a picture of a great artist, do you perceive it as a living picture. Yes, it is a living picture; this is what I am telling you. But you may object by saying that there is no movement in it. Let’s assume that there is one tree planted in the ground and the air around it is very still, not even the slightest puff of wind and this is why no movement can be noticed among its leaves. Now looking at this tree, seeing that there is no movement at all, what would you say about it? That it is not a living tree, is it? Precisely because of this, the picture is as live as the tree in this situation. Artists shall need no canvass in the future. I can project before you a living picture and I can keep it for an hour or two, or ten hours or for two days and then I can make it disappear. Is there any contradiction, any doubt that it existed? It does exist, but after some time I transfer it elsewhere. Therefore, an artist, who is going to paint a picture, can project it wherever he or she feels like. Have you observed how flowers acquire colour, how their colours develop gradually during their growth? It is worth noting that artificial paints made by people, fade and disintegrate in the Sun, while paints created by Nature – the longer they are exposed to the Sun, the more impressive they become, because they are living paints. The longer an artist reflects on the flower, he or she is creating, the livelier it is, but the moment the artist stops thinking about it, it disappears. The first requirement to any esoteric disciple is to possess a powerful imagination. No disciple can achieve anything without imagination; therefore, one has to develop it. I shall give you a method for you to practice, to learn to concentrate: if some of you are absent-minded and want to concentrate, let them take a needle and stick it half a centimetre into their hand. When they experience a strong pain, they will start thinking about their hand and their absent-mindedness will be gone. When you stick the needle in a dozen times, until blood gushes out, the subconscious person in you will say, “It’s not worth being absent-minded!” Misfortunes in contemporary society are just like needles, which Nature sticks into your minds, so that they think properly, and into your hearts so that they come into their proper places. When such a needle is piercing you, it makes you think about the essential things. Thus, many who went to the battlefield came back with minds and hearts properly adjusted. Your guest visit is already over, and I am now asking you whether you will take your leave or you will stay? To those who decide to leave I will recommend other places that they can visit, and those who decide to stay will be given work. You will now ask what serious stuff you will be asked to do. You will be asked to do a lot of pleasant work, however, two pieces will be pleasant and one piece will be unpleasant. Now I want all of you to be humble and meek. Humility and meekness, as well as aspiration to absolute Purity – this is the meaning of Life. You can make no step ahead without this purity. You will first have to take your deficiencies out in public and to take care to rectify them. Do not hide your deficiencies; do not make us look for them. So, if you want to benefit, you will have to be brave and decisive within, so that you can take your deficiencies out, without thinking so highly of yourselves, as you do now. You will go down by ten degrees! All of you disciples, who have deficiencies in your minds, hearts or bodies, should picture these clearly! And most difficult of all is to take your own deficiencies out in public. There was a famous professor in eloquence in America – Silva Neah2, who was contacted by people with university degrees in rhetoric and eloquence, confident that they could speak. On leaving the professor’s office, all of them had experienced a shock, because the professor spoke to them in an off-hand manner and his language cut them to the quick. The art of this person was actually in telling the truth straight to their face. Somebody comes in front of him, starts reciting, but the professor tells this person: Oh, come down, come down to me! - and they start explaining things to each other. Oh, I can now understand you, you may climb up again! And there the speaker starts anew. - Hang on, wait a little, I do not understand, climb down, climb down!... You should not recite either, tell me a simple truth without any embellishments. Set it in simple terms, so that it can stand out. I want all of you to be genuine and therefore, I say that Esotericism is such a School that people, who have entered it, leave the School very simple people. Those who come here say at first, “I have my considerations about this, this is how I see things, that is how I see things, this is my understanding of God etc.” Well, my friend, you may think this way or that way, but your affairs are not settled, you are not a healthy person, and you have deficiencies. This is a false teaching. The Lord does not want us to think and feel inadequately. This is our business, not God’s. Some say, “The Lord created me like this.” Not the Lord, but you created yourself like this. We have stuck so many layers of plaster upon what God has created, that it takes a long time to undo these until we find the Divine core. Many virtues cannot be noticed immediately in contemporary people, but there are external features, which give them away. For example, honesty is expressed, in some people, by two lines across the forehead, while justice is expressed by one line in the middle of the forehead. These features, as well as the features of Love are so smoothed in certain people, that such people are said to resemble the Moon. This is what I call “clattering”, i.e. rounded people and there is nothing more to it. So, we shall do our best to introduce simplicity and harmony in our behaviour. There should be the simplest, most natural behaviour between you and me. Each gesture of the hand and of the head should be aimed at the right forms. For example, a hand stretched forward, clenched in a fist, as if stabbing somebody, expresses an evil movement. It is a correct movement when the three fingers of the hand are bent and the thumb touches the forefinger forming a circle. Why should this movement be right? It stands for a snake holding its victim; this is a circle, a movement, which hides no danger. As soon as the circle opens, one can hear hissing and snakes warn others “Keep away, as I may bite you!” Therefore, when a student gets angry, you should show your hand in this position to the student. But what is it that you do? You show a slap at such a student. This is not an esoteric movement; this is a movement of the magi of Darkness. When a young man and a young woman walk arm in arm, this is a movement of the magi of Darkness. Someone gives money to a poor man and while passing by him, he shoves the money in a rather rough manner. No, give money to beggars but give it with respect. All these bad images and movements, gathered in our mind, provoke the respective powers too, which spoil the harmony of the respective centres, hence certain disharmony is generated. Our movements have to be plastic, this we can achieve by watching our movements in the mirror. We can restore the lost harmony with these plastic movements. You cannot raise your children if you do not act in harmony. You are very silly, aren’t you? Do not take offence when I tell you that you are silly. Today I showed you an appropriate movement, some other time you will make such a movement and you will give it a thought. Watch out not to imitate bad examples in your life. There was an evangelical bishop in a certain region in America, who was in the habit of wearing his head a little tilted, and one shoulder higher than the other. All the preachers in that region imitated him, wearing their heads tilted. So all of our bad habits today are the result of imitating the bad habits of a certain bishop. I use the word bishop, not in its direct sense, but figuratively, because the father is a bishop at home, and the mother - a female bishop. The first thing you need is to develop your imagination consistently, so that all objects can vividly stand out within you. As soon as you are told something, you should be able to immediately project it in your mind. Without imagination you can achieve nothing in esoteric Science. Consider that you live in a wide world and you are alone. If you start feeling sad, imagine that you are among people. When you are fed up with people, start thinking that you are alone. I do not want you to rely on me for everything, be aware of this illusion. I shall explain this Divine law to you in the following formula: when the wheat grain is placed in the ground, it has to manifest the energy, which is hidden in its soul. What are the conditions for a similar manifestation? These are light and warmth, coming from above; and also moisture and rain. As long as these conditions are available, it starts growing. I apply the laws of the esoteric Science to you too, because all the conditions required for your development are available in you. Light and warmth come from God, and moisture is Life, and we have to use these external conditions. Soil is our body where the wheat grain, i.e. our soul, is planted. Warmth is Love, Light is the Divine Truth, and Wisdom is seen in the growth process. This is the Path of the right movements in the body. You should not compare this Teaching that I dwell upon, to other teachings and you should not speak absolutely anything about it elsewhere. Why shouldn’t you speak about it? What is there for you to tell other people before you have tried what you study! Gather experience and see the results and then you will have the power to speak about it to other people. I will catch, according to all the esoteric rules, anyone of you, who are inclined to speak here and there and who cannot keep a secret. The Bulgarians say, “Those who talk a lot, accomplish little.” You also belong to this kind. In ancient times a king had bear’s ears. When a barber was asked to shave the king, his head was taken on leaving the palace, so that he would not tell anyone else that the king had bear’s ears. One day a barber was called to shave the king, but the barber having done his job and seeing what was going to happen to him, started begging them to spare his life, promising that he would tell nobody what he had seen in the palace. The king felt sorry for the barber and let him go. The barber, trying to make sure that he would not tell anyone, fled to a very distant part of the kingdom. He kept the secret for a long time, but it was such a burden to him that one day he went into the forest, dug out a hole and yelled loudly into the hole “The king has bear’s ears!” In time a tree grew on this very spot, and a shepherd made a wooden flute from this tree. When he started playing the flute he heard a voice, “The king has bear’s ears!” Similarly you will make a hole and you will shout into it, “The king has bear’s ears!” It’s all the same to me where and what you will say, but this is useless for you. What you need is to experiment! This Teaching has internal real experiences, which you have to verify for yourselves in practice. So, I do not want you saying that this is a delusion or that is a delusion. Those of you who do not want to be deluded let them enter the world; there are no delusions there. This is a warning, because you are now my guests, and the code of politeness does not allow people to beat their guests. When disciples of the Esoteric School make a mistake of any kind, the greatest punishment for them is that everybody around falls in silence and this is their unmasking. Another rule for disciples: to be sincere to one’s Spirit, sincere to one’s soul and sincere to oneself or put in your language, sincere to one’s father, sincere to one’s mother, sincere to one’s brothers and sisters. The two elements – the father and mother – you cannot see now, they are above, so it is only your brothers and sisters you can see here on the Earth. For the next time, I would like one of you to write something on the bone system, the skeleton; another – on the functions of the heart and blood circulation, while a third one – on the digestive system. Master’s lecture, delivered on 19 February 1920, at 19:00h ________________________________________ 1 The Bulgarian words for rob and pick (fruit) are homophones, i.e. the two words are spelt and pronounced in the same way, hence in the Bulgarian sentence there is a pun of words, which is lost in the English translation 2 The spelling of the name of the professor is a blind guess Source

Explanatory Notes on Esotericism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Mysticism and Christianity If a certain Force, existing in Nature, does not correlate to our senses, it cannot interact with them. Let’s assume that you are with blind people and you light a match from a box of matches. Does the light of the match exist for them? No, it does not. Consequently, if we cannot perceive a Force active in our life, i.e. if we cannot perceive the Light of the Force, we cannot understand that Force. Blind people can touch the match and can assert that it is a match. Blind people may think they understand what a match means, but in fact, they have understood nothing. It is, indeed, a match; but there is something more substantial within it – Light. If your eyes can perceive Light, you open a book, read and understand what is written in the book. So now, when we come to esoteric Forces, each Force has to be utilised and made to work. Any disciple, who doubts and says, "Prove to me that this esoteric Force really exists," is not a proper disciple. There are no debates or disputes in the esoteric School. It is not a School to verify facts and truths. We do not deal with the dead truth, but with the living Truth in the world. Spiritualism shows the movements of the Spirit. This is the embryo of things, something not yet shaped. In order for you to understand Spiritualism, you have to create certain conditions for this embryo so that it can go through all the development and formative phases. Therefore, Spiritualism is not a well-developed form of teaching. Theosophy is a form of teaching about reconciling the contradictions in the world. It is a science about reconciling men and women, nothing more than this. By saying reconciling men and women, I mean reconciling human beings and God. Those who believe that they are theosophists should be aware of this law – how to reconcile themselves with the ones they hate. There is a contradiction between you and God – you have to reconcile it! If you fail to do it – you are no theosophist. We, contemporary people, with our critical minds, resemble a Bulgarian well-to-do merchant, who was very stingy. He asked a tailor to cut new clothes for him, but as he knew that tailors are in the habit of stealing a little from the cloth, he stayed all the time with the tailor and watched the tailor cutting the cloth, lest the tailor steals some material. The tailor, however, seeing such nice material, cut a large piece and said, "This is for St. Nicholas," and threw it outside. The merchant yelled at him, "What are you doing?" Then he ran outside to get the piece of material and during this time, the tailor cut another even larger piece of cloth and sat on it. So I was saying that we, who criticise and are always on guard not to be deceived, are always deceived. Somebody will throw away a piece of cloth for St. Nicholas and while we are going to fetch it, this very person will hide a bigger piece for himself or herself; and we believe that nobody deceived us! Mysticism is not a law on ascent, but a law on descent. Mystics do not ascend, but descend to God within them. The danger is that mystics do not know how to descend and while descending they may fall down and cripple themselves. Now on esotericism: I can compare it to contemporary natural sciences. Esotericism is a science studying the phenomena on Earth, studying the invisible, not the visible. It does not deal with the shapeless worlds. What has shaped itself within itself, what has a form, content, and meaning – this is the area of esotericism. Where then shall we place Christianity? Do you think it is a science? (A question from a Sister) I would like to ask whether you make any differentiation between Christianity and esotericism. Are the Gospel and esotericism the same teaching? Examine Nature as it is. There are no moral judgements in esotericism. It studies things the way they are, as pure facts. (Question): So, Christianity is something different? Esotericism is a science about knowing the natural Forces, the areas, ways of influence and application. Esoteric people are realists, they do not believe, they deal only with Nature, with material things. Mystics live constantly with their hearts; they experience the heart’s vibrations and all states through which it passes. In the Christian sense of understanding, mystics, theosophists, and spiritualists can be Christians. If we take, however, the area of the Spirit in its broad sense, with its deviations, this is already spiritualism. The danger with spiritualism lies in the fact that people have other embryos within themselves, which actually cause them trouble also. But for the time being we shall leave aside what critics say about it. Spiritualism is a movement; theosophy – reconciliation of contradictions; mysticism – descent, it may also be said to be the law of labour, of work; esotericism gives us all the forms in which we can live on the earth, it is the only science that teaches us how to live and that can save us from all misfortunes; Christianity is a science about liquidating karma, about payment of old debts. If we take the line from the Gospel reading that Christ bore the sins of the world, this means that He had paid its debts. What is Christianity? This is about knowing how to pay people’s debts. Well, who can pay debts? Only the rich. Consequently, rich people can be Christians, while poor people cannot. (Question): What about the promise that Christ will make us rich? It is a credit to Christians, to those whom Christ credits. These are traders on somebody else’s credit. Contemporary people are Christians, because Christ is a Christian. Theosophy is a science about reconciliation of the sexes, while Christianity is about bringing sexes together and uniting them. Christianity, by its intrinsic meaning, is a science about the unity of the Spirit with the soul. What is now being preached is not Christianity; it has to undergo certain transformation. If Christianity had been as we now perceive it the world would have been different. We shall leave this issue aside, as it does not fall within our scope. Now, I want to ask you if you have learnt what torment is. We shall start with it! We shall examine all the other sciences – theosophy, mysticism etc. - from the point of view and in the spirit of torment. I shall also provide you with another explanation of these sciences. Theosophy can be examined in seven different ways. Similarly, esotericism and mysticism have external and internal aspects. The theosophical society nowadays understands only the external aspects – the organisation. Theosophy prepares these forms, which can be called anatomy of theosophy. Christianity has passed through the first stage of development and after the two thousand years behind us, the anatomy of Christianity started developing. Whether the Son flows out of the Father or not, and many other disputes have been tackled at the Ecumenical Councils. Even today Christianity boils down to the question a Christian may put to you on meeting you, "Do you believe in the three faces of God?"’– I do. – Then you are a Christian! However, I would like to ask you, now that you believe in the three faces of God, what do you understand the three faces to mean? I shall explain this to you: the second face of God is the face of Love. Man and woman, all people have to seek this second face – Love. And when it is said that God is Trinity, people also say words they do not understand. The Great Masters, who wrote on this, had a very clear understanding of the issue, but their disciples have distorted the Teaching. Spiritualism is also a Teaching, which stemmed from the Brotherhood of Light, but it was also blemished by the disciples. Theosophy is another Teaching, again sent from above, which was also stained by the disciples. Esotericism is also a Teaching given by the Brotherhood of Light, but there are esoteric people of Light and others of Darkness in it, too. Mysticism – is also corrupted. Christianity is also corrupted. Let me express myself clearly: when a priest or a bishop puts on clothes, a stole and a tiara, marries a couple and says "You have to pay that much" I call this a magician of Darkness. Magicians of Light work for free. If a young woman puts on nice clothes intending to charm a certain young man, she is also a magician of Darkness. If a young man takes special care with his outer appearance in order to charm any young woman, he is also a magician of Darkness. If a lawyer or a judge uses the law to charge somebody, such a person is also a magician of Darkness. Anyway, esoteric people, theosophists, mystics, and Christians – all of them are divided into Light and Dark ones. Someone may say, "I’m theosophist." - "A Light or Dark theosophist?" – "A Light theosophist." – "OK, then we can understand each other." "A Dark theosophist." Well, I will retain my reservations. What does it matter if you are spiritualists, theosophists, mystics, or Christians if you belong to the Dark group, the world is full of such people! The twenty million people perishing in the present war show what has become of Christianity today. I do not say that Christianity is to blame; the Dark Christians are to blame. We need a correct understanding of esotericism: to get down to the bottom of torment, because in there, there is no disunity, there is unity. Sinful people are sinful because they have not experienced torment, while righteous people are righteous, because they have experienced torment. If you tell me that there is a contradiction in what I say to you, I will tell you that Christ says, at a certain place, that towards the end of the century He will send bad spirits and their sons to eternal torment, He will send them to the bottom of hell to experience torment. Why? Precisely because they have not undergone torment. Bad people do not experience torment; good people do so. You have worked and you have earned money, a bad person comes and robs you; the bad person does feel tormented. If you are not brave enough to undergo torment do you know to whom I shall consider you belong? To the Dark ones. It is written that those who do not experience torment will in the future go to the place of torment. You may ponder as much as you like, but you will be there in the future. The first rule, for a disciple willing to become an esoteric disciple, is not to think that others present an obstacle to her or his mind, but that the disciple himself or herself is the obstacle. Because the world is so large, there is a place for everybody. Then, such a disciple should not think that somebody might present an obstacle to his or her heart, because the world of feelings is so large, that there is a place for everybody. In other words, the first rule for the disciple in this situation is torment. The disciple has to accept that nobody can influence the disciple’s mind and distort it; that nobody can influence the disciple’s heart in one way or another, because the world is large. This thought is not very clear to you, is it? A thought can be clear and can have an influence on us only when we come to be at the same level with the one who expresses it. How does the law of expression act? In order for somebody, be it a good or bad person, to influence you, that person has to lower you to his or her level; only then can such a person influence you. This is to say, as long as you keep your mind in the Infinite world, where the Divine law acts, you are free and safe. As soon as it enters your mind that somebody might influence you, this means that you have descended lower than this world. When the servant thinks that the master restricts the servant, the servant has already restricted himself or herself with this very thought. Let’s say that you walk in the streets in tattered clothes, you meet a nobleman or a well-to-do person, whom you know, but he passes by without greeting you and you think that because you are poor nobody greets you. I would like to ask you if he greets you, would this give you anything? Nothing. It will only tickle you a little. If somebody looks at you and smiles at you, what do you gain from this smile? Nothing. These are the illusions of the magicians of Darkness. When one smiles, one should feel at the bottom of one’s soul that God is present at this moment! How should we understand the smile? When we smile, we should be pleased with our smile. Whether people will be glad at our smile is not of importance; we should personally be pleased with it. And when we frown the same law should be at work. Frowning, at esoteric schools, should also be done according to all the rules; you should also feel the presence of God in frowning. Do you think that I will smile when I see somebody being hanged? No, I won’t. I will frown, I will call God and the angels and I will say that what is going on is not right. Not that the fact is not true, but that these people have misunderstood God’s law. They sentenced a human being in compliance with whichever clause of whichever law; come on, where is the authority of this law and of all the other laws?! These have to be eternal, unchangeable. A person may be punished in esotericism, but only when one wants to be punished. The person should submit a petition, on one’s own free will, to be punished. This is what goes in esotericism. I will add a thought: some say that we should not torture animals, but do you know that many animals want to be tortured, so that they can be elevated? So, what is meant, when it is said not to torture animals, is not to torture these animals, which do not want to be tortured. But, if we do not torture those animals, which want to be tortured, we will slow down their evolution. Many hens, eaten by you, have progressed. But you do not make any progress. Consequently, we shall have to say to the hen, which wants to be tortured, in order to progress, "I’m sorry, I cannot slay you, because I don’t want to stay the progress of my evolution; but as you have set your mind on making progress, please, find somebody else to slay and eat you." No disciple, entering any Esoteric School has the right to cause torment to anybody. Disciples have the right to cause torment only to themselves. To go down to the bottom of torment, to experience it, and to come back to earth, to work in line with the law that disciples have learnt. Therefore, I say that you should not torture each other either. A friend was telling me an anecdote about himself: he was very sensitive and had nice aspirations in his soul, he wanted to live peacefully with the people around, but when he returned from a trip abroad and when he met some Bulgarians, they started ridiculing him. At one point, he started thinking of a means to help him retain his composure. For this purpose, he hired two porters to swear at him. He sat with them and succeeded in enduring all their curses in the hope that he would be able to tolerate the curses of the others as well. But after having done this for several days, he asked himself, "Why should I hire porters to curse me, when there are so many porters in society! I keep these on the pay-roll, while I won’t have to pay anything to the others." Any problems occurring among you, according to the Esoteric School, are blessings. When you have disagreements, try to smooth them over, but not artificially. I know about cases when two people get together, they kiss each other and they say, "Let’s reconcile!" But when they go out, they start slandering each other again. This is not a way to reconciliation. Reconciliation should take place within you. When you get down to the bottom of torment, are you ready to say, "The world is large for my mind and for my heart, I will accept torment in all its forms!" This is the most important psychological moment! I want all disciples, when they go back home, to create a favourable atmosphere. This is the last Thursday evening. (Comment): There is one more Thursday. Then next Thursday is the last Thursday. I do not receive guests any more. This is what Bedouins do: you may be their guest for three days, but on the fourth day they will give you work – they will either send you to the field, or will ask you to tend the cows. I find this an excellent rule. Those who stay at our School, will be given work to do – we shall either send such disciples to the vineyard, or shall give them the cows to tend, or shall ask them to do the clerk’s work, or shall ask them to be messengers; there will be such disciples. Then, another rule: I do not want you to spread around what we have been talking about here in the School! You may spread it, but I take no responsibility for the consequences. Do not spread a Teaching before you have tested it! Otherwise, it will be the silliest thing you can do. Test it, because as of yet you do not know whether it is true. There is an expert committee in England, which inspects goods produced at factories and sold by traders. Only after the experts have endorsed the goods with a stamp as being inspected, only then have factory people and traders the right to export or sell their goods in England or abroad. You are retailers of un-inspected goods, but I do not like such traders. Each item has to be inspected. The first task that I will assign to women along these lines shall be, for example, the following: let’s say that one of you has a daughter, whom she does not love; let her do something that she will start loving her! Or let’s say that the husband of one of you is not a believer. This is a task, which she has to resolve! Some of you are poor, others are sick; you will have to do what must be done! Someone has tumours in the stomach; if this person does not get rid of them, the tumour will destroy this person. Every disease is generated by creatures existing in us. Each disease is generated psychologically and organically by the excrement of these creatures. When such a creature comes into our organism, you have to apply the same law: it should be allowed to stay, visiting you for three days only, because if you leave the creature for longer, it will take roots, it will form tumours, it will gather blood and you will die, while the others will say, "May God rest his or her soul!" The Lord does not forgive such people. He forgives only when people do not steal and do not lie. Someone may come here to take something and use it against me. God take pity on such a poor person who will do this! Damned will be such a person and not to the fourth degree but to the thousandth degree! Such is the great law of God, the Divine Truth, "He, who sins against the Spirit," says Christ, "neither this century, nor in the future will his sins be forgiven." Everything that you will learn here is a Great truth, which you should apply in your life and you have to be sincere with yourselves when applying it. You have to be sincere not to me, but to your Lord, to your mind, and heart, to your Spirit and your soul in all of their aspirations. You have to stand on your feet! Not to say tomorrow that Deunov wants to hypnotise us and to influence us. I have no intention to influence you because the moment when I will want to do this, I will be a demon, with my head downwards. And you too, if you want to influence me, will be with your heads downwards. This is how the Divine Teaching reads. To make it clear: from now on you will live for thousands of years on the earth and whichever Esoteric School you may enter to study the Path of your development, you will always be given rules to apply. If you do not accept torment as a factor for your future existence, you will be wandering in the world without understanding the internal meaning of Life. Torment will make all of you heroes. I want you to be heroes; I do not want you to be scared! However, if you do not undergo torment, you will be afraid, you won’t be heroes. I do not want to use the expression "Do not fear!" I will rather use another one – "Be in torment!" Accept torment, because it is given to you by the Invisible world. Do not force yourselves ever! There are people among you, who even if they want to, are not meant to experience torment, not all of you who listen to me will be tormented; not all of you are heroes, torment will be given to the heroes only. It will bypass some of you and will say, "Let’s leave it for some other time." He who is tormented should consider his torment a privilege. And the first thing you will experience when you start descending to the bottom of torment, is silence. You will penetrate into the soul of every suffering creature, you will get to understand how much it suffers and you will tell yourself, "How wrong I have been so far!" A sort of pity for all creatures who are in torment will awaken in you, and you will wish to begin to elevate the other creatures, from the place you have fallen to and where you stand, to raise them above or at least to relieve their torment. He, who has not understood torment, places other people under his feet, steps over them and says, "Come down, I will go up!" The Teaching of Christ makes people aware that all creatures experience torment. This is what Great Christianity implies. When we get out of torment, we shall arrive at other methods, through which we shall learn how to cultivate and utilise the esoteric Forces. If you accept torment, Light will come to you from within, i.e. the Divine Spirit, which is in you, will awaken and will elevate the vibrations of your mind and of your heart. The cells of your mind and heart will transform organically, which will, in turn, transform the status of your mind and heart. The word cell has a double meaning. To be in a cell means to be unhappy, but it also means to be confined. However, the consciousness of a cell is also confined. There are many cells in our mind, which are dissatisfied with their situation. And when millions of such dissatisfied cells get together, we feel in low spirits. The first thing we have to do is to re-educate the cells of our brain, of our heart, and of our stomach. We can very easily re-educate these cells, but such a re-education takes place when we descend to the bottom of torment, which is the basis of Life. The Divine Spirit, starting from this point, will begin elevating us upwards, we shall climb on the wings of God’s Wisdom, and Divine Love, on entering our soul, will transfuse inspiration into it. Then the angels of Life will start elevating us in our evolution and we shall get out from the bottom of torment. Why was Christ resurrected? Because the One who was above, descended down and resurrected Him. God is simultaneously in Heaven and in hell. He, who goes above to God, is sent down by God, and he, who goes down, is sent above by God. All Christian preachers of the present day teach us that we have to go up in Heaven to God, while I say that you will go up to God, for God to send you down. All of you who are listening to me now, are of the kind that will prefer to take the easy path. There is no easy path in the world; there is a narrow Path. Another thing that disciples have to master is humility; which is not to be indifferent, but to go down to the bottom, to forget what other people think about them, and to feel only their own torment! These are a few practical rules, which you have to think over and which you will have to try to apply, without making any forced efforts. Sometimes, when I have the chance I will speak to you about the origin of sin – how evil entered the world. There was a time when we were not like what we are today. What are the reasons for our fall? Nowadays there are no good people in the world – those who cry, and those who laugh, and those who speak good words, and those who speak bad words – all of them are under the same denominator. When people see a wealthy merchant of sheep hides, they all envy him, without realising that his position rests upon the hides of the thousands of sheep, which he had skinned. The merchant says, "This is my stock, I gained it!" I object, I say that the merchant is a thief in the second degree and a liar, because he acquired his wealth at the expense of the animals, when he skinned them. Some may say, "This is my house, I made it with my own labour, and sweat on my forehead!" My response is that you made it at the expense of the people you have skinned. Someone may say, "This is my body." Excuse me - it is not yours. Because, do you know how many creatures suffer in order to maintain the human body, how many mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters have given their lives for it! This is why you have no right to think that what you have is yours. According to Christianity, the first thing that you have to keep in mind is to admit that whatever you have is not yours, but God’s. To those who slander me I say, "Listen, what I say is not mine, I am not defending my property! This God, whom I know, is very kind, but He is at the same time very bad. He is so kind that there is nobody kinder than Him, but only when we follow His Will, however, there is nobody worse than Him when we do not follow His Will and we commit evil." At the moment when we say that this body is ours, a curse will fall upon us, upon our children, upon everybody. You have to say, "Lord, thank You for placing me in this body of Yours!" This is how everybody should be looking upon things. On the other hand, we shout at each other like troopers and we say, "Get lost, get out of here!" There is no reason to get out of here. I often say that I am ready to step back if I am the cause of your sufferings. But to give you my body – no, I shall not do this! It is neither mine, nor yours; I shall give it to its Master. To Him I shall surrender my mind and my heart. You cannot be masters of them. Every disciple in esotericism, in theosophy, in spiritualism, in mysticism, and in Christianity should know this, because these denominations express one objective and present that Divine Life, which is manifested. The state of the Spirit is one thing, while the state of the soul is another. These are five states, which differ from one another. Will, heart, mind, soul, spirit are things known to us. What we know is that we suffer. We can feel only certain changes: sometimes our thoughts are clear, sometimes – dark; sometimes our mind is bright, sometimes – dark; sometimes our feelings are crystal clear, sometimes – dark; sometimes we are strong, sometimes – we are not. It is said that we have a soul. But what is the soul? What we can now feel is only a manifestation of the soul. The first thing I want is to make this rough sea, storming in you, to subside – quiet and peaceful I want you to be. In the present society and social order, we need workers who can rescue the ones pressed at the bottom. Because many buildings will collapse and many people, caught below in the stones in the ruins, shall have to be dug out. My desire is to rescue you from your ruined houses. Any of your psychological indispositions tells me that a girder of yours is rotten and has collapsed. Envy, hatred, and any other similar negative features – these are collapsing girders within your building – your body. Now that I am looking at you – do you know what you remind me of? Of children who are already hungry and can smell the food, but as the teacher goes on with the lesson, they tell themselves, "Hopefully he will soon finish, and we can go eat!" Or "Do not talk to us, teacher, but lay the table for us to eat!" You have a correct understanding – you have to eat. But if you listen to me, there will be a table for you, I will give you some food to eat, if you do not listen to me – there will be no table. When a guest comes to your house, you treat the guest only with some jam and water – don’t you, and afterwards – God be with you, see you soon! You lay the table and give food only for those who have worked in your field. When the beloved one or a trusted friend comes to visit you, you lay a rich table for the guest. Now what does this indicate? That he or she has been working for a long time in your field. I shall now have to think for how many of you I should lay a table. To those who have not worked for me I shall give only some jam and water, while to those who have worked – I will lay a table fit for a King and I shall do the serving myself. This evening also, there is one of you, who I know has understood the law of torment. Two people - for two Thursdays. I would like you to count how many of you there are in here, so that we can see how this law acts. Master’s lecture, delivered on the February 12, 1920 at 7 o’clock. Source

It is taken with Love 
 

(Sunday Lectures, March 22, 1919 Saturday, Sofia) 
The Kingdom of God should be taken with love, maintained with endearment and upheld with Spirit. This is the motto written on the door of the Divine Kingdom. Until now everyone wanted to take the Divine Kingdom with force but failed. From now on, everyone must get rid of this view, that is, free himself from the old shell of the law, from its bonds, and perspectives. The Kingdom of God is taken not with force but with Love. God loved the world, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. When it is accepted that God loved the world then the read verse becomes clear. And so the first tone in Life is Love – Life begins with it. If you have this tone in yourselves you will have joy too. If you loose it, there is grief, which is a sign of this loss, as is with the singers who have lost the tone of their song - the harmony of their voices disappears and the song is not flowing. Love is a main tone and Force. A man who loves is omnipotent, he doesn’t know fear. The Love I am talking to you about is the same love that is acting in you but you often change its tone. Under the word ‚kingdom’ it is understood space, incarnation, manifestation of the human soul. In this Kingdom, all members ,i.e. the stones that it is built of are alive. God’s Kingdom is not something dead, it does not consist of rules and laws but of living beings who live in one continual relationship. Every home is one kingdom in a miniature - the father, mother and children form a small kingdom. When there is harmony and Love between all members of the family, this kingdom is manifested and its members taste its fruits. Now, God’s Kingdom should not only be taken with Love but should also be kept with endearment. Under the word ‚holding’ it is understood the internal holding, which is done by the Spirit. This is why, the Divine Kingdom is held with Spirit. Do not think that the words ‚Love’, ,Endearment’ and ‚Spirit’ are related to the Divine Kingdom only. They refer to our ordinary life too as no young girl and man can take their companion without Love. Besides, you cannot buy any object without Love while, beforehand, you need to desire it, to fall in love with it. If you go to a pub to eat or in a butcher’s shop to buy something you will still get this, which you love. Endearment is an inner force that holds everything in order, and the Spirit surrounds that, which we have. When we place Love in a relation towards our Spirit, Endearment to our soul and the Spirit to our body, we will uncover the mystery of the great Life that rules the Earth. The Spirit is the unity that manifests in all people. He is one whole indivisible in itself and all beings, and therefore we need to love it with the same Love. The Spirit cannot be divided, He is holding the whole Kingdom. You can cry, you can pour many tears but if you do not have Love, God’s Kingdom is far from you. You can fast the whole life and constantly repent but if you do not have Love, God’s Kingdom is far from you. By repenting , I understand to open your heart and accept Love inside it, I don’t understand another repenting. According to this great law, you have to equally love both the Good and Evil – there is the power of man. Love does not know evil. You may say this is hard work. Others will say that the children enter the Divine Kingdom. They enter but they cannot take it. These old perceptions about ‚it can’ or ‚it cannot’ are one misconception. If you wrap a rope round your legs, you will not be able to walk, but that does not indicate that you can not really do so - there is only one external obstacle that prevents you but which you can remove. Every person whom you call with Love to help you will come, because whenever you invoke the Spirit, he answers. Evil in the world occurs when we cease to love the Spirit, that is, evil is the absence of Love to the Spirit. Someone says he hates this person; it means that he hates himself and that is why he will always be unhappy. Now, in today's order of life, you can imagine a lot of hardships: today's culture is a rope wrapped around your feet; today's political science is the second rope wrapped around your house; today's religion is another rope wrapped around your children. The new religion that comes will be a religion without ropes, without symbols, without priests and preachers, without judges and teachers, without merchants and farmers, without men and women. The future culture will be the kingdom of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Probably you wonder how it will be possible without teachers. Then there will be one teacher, one judge, one man and one woman and not as many as there are now for the world is suffering from the many ones. If you ask me how to understand this, I will tell you to understand it as you please, I will not explain it to you. The Spirit that is descending to the Earth comes to elevate the human soul, which is alive and as I said is the most important and precious. The Spirit flows into the soul and brings Love. When the latter flows into the soul, she loves the Spirit. Then the spirit and the soul flow into the body, which is their child. Then the Spirit will support the Kingdom of God, which is the whole body. You are all the Kingdom of God on Earth and that’s why Christ Himself specifically says, " the Kingdom of God is in your midst." This is a fact that can be verified by everyone. Let any of you go into a desert, let him be isolated from all beings, stay alone and let him tell how happy he is. All living beings - from the greatest to the smallest - feel the need for communion. Everyone lives, sighs and says: "Conquer us by Love, keep us through Endearment, hold us with the Spirit." Everyone - whether children or adults - are looking for this. At a time when God created the world the sun rays decided to come dow to the Earth, they dressed in their most beautiful light clothes and descended to visit it. These beams were seven sisters. When they came down to the Earth what their astonishment was when they saw that their garments from light have turned into seven other colours - red, orange, green, yellow, light-blue dark-blue, and purple. Every sister could see the change that has happened to her and asked between themselves: What happened with us that our clothes got so dark? The difference between you is also due to these seven sisters who have come down to the Earth: one of you is red, other- orange, a third one- yellow, fourth one- green, etc. As soon as they found themselves in this miracle, the sisters wrote to their father: “ Dad, when we came down to the Earth, the clothes which you gave us changed so much that we hardly recognised ourselves, this initial light does not exist between us anymore’. The father then responded to his first daughter “My daughter, your red colour indicates that you bring Life on the Earth and to the people who tied themselves so much to these laws that they are dead today. Tell them that your light turned into Life and therefore you are red”. In this way, this first sun daughter gave Life to the children and this is why all went to plunge, began to fight and pluck their hair out about who should take more. The father wrote to his second daughter “My daughter, tell the people that you bring them breath ,Divine Life, tell them that they have to work and therefore your colour is orange”. People, however , did not understand what work was and started to work and struggle ...Today many of us are in this situation. If someone gets ill we quickly call for doctors or we start stuffing him with food as though the doctors and the lots of food will keep his life. This is a misconception. Do you know how the Angels eat? Do you know how the child feeds in her mum’s womb – does she eat on her own or is she fed by her mother?... The father wrote to his third daughter: “My daughter tell the people not to keep their eyes directed downwards, not to search for wealth but to look upwards and their souls to grow with the centuries, to be ever green like your colour ”. He wrote to his fourth daughter: “Tell the people that after each growth there is ripening, there is a harvest, and that the harvested fruit must be common to all. What grows, I give it to all in common and equally, and it must be divided into fraternal, that is, everyone should take only as much as he needs”. The father wrote to his fifth daughter: “Daughter your clothes are blue because your carry the Truth, you carry the way in which people will not catch colds , i.e. the way how to keep the Divine warmth in the soul of people”. Therefore, Truth means to have this inner method by which you can never catch a cold. Check in practice and you will see that the hatred is always a cold, the dissatisfaction is also a cold and all contradictions in the world are all colds. Conversely – every harmony is a Divine warmth and is one Truth. The Truth is a method, force for maintaining the Divine warmth in the human soul. I will skip over the sixth letter addressed to the sixth daughter, i will not unseal it and will leave it to you to puzzle it out. Because the fellow of the sixth daughter is not here, while I am not talking to one person but to two. I will turn to the amethyst colour. The father wrote to his seventh last daughter: “Daughter, tell the people that the Divine Kingdom is taken with Love, maintained with endearment and held with Spirit, hence your clothes are amethyst”... Today’s day is symbolically related to the future: the future culture will be a culture of love, culture of the Endearment and culture of the Spirit. Love is a force that heals all illnesses and defects, there is no better doctor than it in the world. Everyone who wishes to cure or acquire something has to have Love in herself. Do not aim to uncover what Love is, do not peck it, just try it. The unraveling is a mechanical act. Often do you ask the children how much they love you and they show with hands by opening them more or less widely according to the degree of love – they show half a finger for their brother, they indicate more for their bigger sister , they show even more for their mother – while when they show how much they love their father, they completely open their hands , i.e. they show they love him lots - as much as the whole world. The widely spread hands of the child show that their love is like the whole universe. Children love their father most for the father means God, i.e. ‚father’ and ‚God’ are synonymous words. If you see God and not the human in your fathers and mothers this law will immediately become clear to you. While now you say: “ This one to hang – that one to hang-this one is a thief - that one is a lier” and etc. The question is not solved with this. These seven sisters have initially come down to the Earth, afterwards have gone back to the Heavens but now they are coming to the world again but in a different form. “Wonderful Dawn is dawning”.The Dawn of what? “The Dawn of a new, light life”. If there is a dawn, there will be rays, which are already coming. They too should find you in the position of that young and beautiful ancient king who went hunting in a forest and somewhere after the tenth day a very beautiful bear-feet virgin, chased by villains stood in his way. When she saw the young man she asked him to save her without realising that he was a king. The king took her to his tent, he made a bed for her, set her to bed, then she turned to him and asked him: “Will you not do any harm to me , would you not misuse my trust, which i have for you?” He responded: “ Be calm, you are completely safe in my tent”. In this way, this girl didn’t wish to marry the king’s son and on the next day, he sent her with all honours. This is a mystery in the world. How many would have treated this young girl so nobly if she came in their tent? How many would have had the valour of not touching her? This is the question you need to resolve. The virgin is your soul, which you need to keep pure in yourselves. You who are studying the Christ’s Teaching and are listening to me, hear one thing but understand another. As soon as you see the virgin, you say: “"Can she not become a concubine, can she bring money from her father, does she have means?" No, this virgin only tested the king's son, but they both passed the exam. Therefore, Christ says, "The sons of the resurrection neither marry nor do they think of marriage." That means not raping the girl when she enters the tent. And if you ask me why you can not comprehend this teaching, I am answering you: because you have raped this virgin.Without blaming you, I am saying that there is no man who has not raped his soul. A porter in Varna was saying to his soul : ‚ you will either work or I will make you a shepherd and if you don’t want to do this too, i will put you to clean rubbish”. There are thousands and thousands of people who have sent their souls to do such dirty work. The soul is neither a porter nor a shepherd nor a servant who cleans rubbish. It is a soul that upholds the Divine Kingdom with Endearment. While the Kingdom of God are your sons who will come in the future, i.e. the Sons of immortality. Do not think that I wish to blame you. Today, I love evil as much as the Love; I love the thief as much as that one who doesn’t steal. For me, both are good- this one who lies and who doesn’t lie. What is a lie? It has its reasons and is a lie only under certain conditions. For example, if there is nothing a man can take from you would he lie or steal from you? However, if you have money, precious stones or something else, he will lie to you. Or if he was born in your home and you give him everything and if he has at his disposal all your fortune and you say to him: “My friend, all this is yours”, what necessity would he have to lie to you? Therefore, the lie stems from the inner restriction of the human soul,i.e. restrict the man and you will create the lie. For example, a mother says to her child not to touch somewhere, but he touches and in order to cover his deed, he lies. Do not restrict your child but tell him: “You have everything at your disposal”. I do not talk about your current children but about you ,i.e. about how you have to think today. You say you have to fix the world. There is nothing to fix, the world is you. “The Kingdom of God is taken with Love, kept with Endearment and held with Spirit. While the old translation said: “The Kingdom of God is taken with force”. And indeed, today, Bulgarians, and the English and Germans and the French- all want to take the Divine Kingdom with force. And the Bolsheviks likewise want to take it and say, "We have to hang and kill all the criminals to make the world right." Okay, but who will remain then? The world is full of thefts, of all kinds of sins, and full of gibbets. And the Bolsheviks will not put to right anything, they will only break down even more and destroy. I have nothing against them, but it must be understood that the future culture is only in the people who take the Kingdom of God with Love, who keep it with Endearment and hold it with Spirit. Here is the panacea of all your misfortunes. Under these conditions you will be able to recover your homes for one day and be able to resurrect every day. Today is the day of Resurrection. You will ask me whether you could resurrect. The sun says: “ You can”. There should be no cry, no grief! Crying is a remnant of the old culture – the old people cry, while in the New culture there should be no trace of crying. Do not allow any sorrow within yourself , feel it as the steamer feels the waves that hit its boards only externally, while be quiet and calm internally. Manage your ships with Love. Now, the women will ask what should they do with their men when they don’t leave them on peace. Who is your man and where is he? Your husband is in another ship, leave him to look after himself. While you are in a completely different ship. You ask yourselves what will happen to the ship of the other one, you are afraid it doesn’t sink. Some say: “ I will fix the other ship from my one”. And they start to fix each-other In what way? They fix each-other with grenades– they throw one, two, three and more grenades at the ship, until it turns down, until the Love and Fondness pour out of it and after that they say “is this why we got married?” This is the old culture of the marriage. God has nowhere written people should get married. The words‚ jena (woman)’ and ‚Jig’[1] stem from one and the same verb - ‚jigosvam’ (gibbering)’. People gibber at each-other but this is not a marriage. The Scripture says “This which God has united/married should not be spoiled for it is an inner marriage/unification. Often do you say about the young ones “To get them married”. You can get them married , there are various marriages – christian, muslim buddhist , i.e but in all of them people gibber. Then they start to search for the truth as to which peoples is the most noble. There is only one noble peoples in the world – the peoples of the Divine Love, Divine Endearment and Divine Spirit. You will probably ask me which people do the Bulgarians belong to. When you study the occultism trace back and see how the first races have formed and after that how the Bulgarian people have appeared. All races represent one humankind. One race is not the whole humankind but is a transitional stage like a ray of light. And every race, every ray carries within itself some germs, which it can develop. Therefore, every soul passes through seven stages and this which is contained in it is in the whole humankind and vice versa. In other words, when you study your life, you will also study the life of the whole humankind. You will say that this is a very easy job. It is not very easy but it is not a very difficult job either. You can and I trust you have understood it. And so, if you have understood all this, invest this Love in you. However, not the ordinary love but that one which under these big misfortunes in the world will bring new Joy to yourselves. As soon as this Divine Love arrives, it will cleanse everything. Now , you are asking what would they decide at the conference[2]. Don’t worry about that, I will tell you what: This, which they will decide there will be an old culture. However, today God makes a decision too and says: “The Kingdom of God can be taken with Love, kept with Endearment and held with Spirit on the Earth. And that people who have My Love, My Endearment and My Spirit will be the great people in the world. That person who has My Love, My Fondness and My Spirit will be the greatest person in the world. Thus saith the Lord, with all the angels, saints and great spirits. Therefore, if we become fond of God, we will be the greatest and most noble people in the world. Great in Love, Endearment, strength and power. The Kingdom of God comes for you. Today, I would like to break all chains, which you are enchained in and throw them away. I would like to turn all prisons in temples, into which the Divine Spirit – God of all completeness descends. All the Power comes from Him, the Word manifested in the world through Him and the world became a man. You will say, ‚here is one anarchist’. Yes, anarchist who wants through the Divine Love, Endearment and Spirit to destroy the old world and build a new one. What exactly? I will destroy every hatred and lie in all of you. When I meet someone who knows to lie, I say: “My friend, I love you because you are capable of lying”. If a person doesn’t tell me the Truth , this shows that I do not love the Truth so much. Every messenger should speak the Truth for God does not tolerate lies and will free the people from them. The Lord has written on his banner "Freedom, equality and fraternity for all - from the smallest to the greatest beings." Today, all the barns will be dissolved, everything will be distributed equally and everyone will be able to develop. And he who does not obey the Divine law will be cast out of the boundaries of the Earth. Remember this and tell it to everyone - all this will come true. All of you who are listening to me today will witness this great Divine work.The Lord has said this and His words are unchangeable. The Lord, who created the world, who spoke through Christ and all the prophets, will bring down falsehood and deception. (They say: Amen!) "Amen" is for the one who has Love, Endearment and Spirit. This, interpreted in your language, means a person who has a man, a woman and a child. In your language, women and men have become laughable: The man complains from his wife, the woman- from her husband, the children - from their parents, etc. Then I ask what is this love, endearment and spirit? In order to resurrect, put/invest the Divine Spirit in yourselves. Now, I require at least three things from you: Some to stand up, others to become alive, while third ones to resurrect. Only in this way, will you forget your old culture according to which you start well and finish badly or start badly and finish badly. Now you need to comprehend the following to start bad and finish well or to start well and finish well. In contemporary Christian language, this means that there are four categories of people: first, that believe in God, but do not live by God; second category that do not believe in God and do not live by God , third ones who do not believe in God but live in God and fourth, ones who believe and live by God. I am leaving aside the first two categories which are the people of the old culture for in the future I need the last two categories ,i.e. these ones that believe in and live by God and these ones that do not believe in God but live by Him. We need proselytes who do not believe, start bad but finish well and people who start and finish well. I would like that you are in one of the last two categories. I would like you to cast out from your souls, hearts, minds and heads all old beliefs that have been making you distant away from the God of Love until now. And then my words will become clear to you. And then you will experience a moment of Divine Love, which costs much more than all the knowledge you have, though having been acquired for thousands of years. This experienced moment contains the wholeheartedness of the universe, while the knowledge you have is nothing but little benefits. From now on, i don’t want you to disturb me with your sorrows, tell me about what has happened with you, what quarrels you have had and what misfortunes have come to you. If someone is thirsty, hungry or sorrowful, I will give him water, feed and comfort him but to listen to what receivables-donations he has had is not my job; leave this for the servants of the old culture. Money, shirts, socks and shoes, please do not bring me anything and get rid of the thought of bribing me with these things of yours. I can work like each of you, do you see these hands – I can acquire my bread with labour. If you can do this with Love, I don’t mind at all – I will accept with all my heart, I will meet you, I will kiss you and will say to you: “Welcome to God’s Kingdom”. Otherwise, I will tell you: “ My Friend , you haven’t entered through the door of Love”. If you can fulfil everything in the name of the Divine Love and Fondness ok but I do not exist out of them. This is the Divine Teaching in an allegorical meaning. I would like to present you this, which once upon a time, the Great God has said to the first man in the Paradise and then has spoken through all prophets and Christ. Some of the prophets have understood God but others have not understood Him and have distorted His words and today, they are not transmitted in the way they have been given the first time. For many prophets have lied but we thank them for their lies. They have had reasons to lie. For example, the prophet is afraid that he will be imprisoned or hanged and hence he exaggerates things in order to be followed: “God says that Bulgaria will become great and will conquer the whole world”. No, my friend, this prophet is lying. I will prophesy to you like that: If the Bulgarian people can take the Kingdom of God through Love, if they can keep It with Endearment and hold It with Spirit, then they will be the greatest people and their king, regardless of who he is will also be the greatest. The last Bulgarian, a shepherd or a cattleman may be positioned as a King but I will have the greatest respect for him if he can apply this. This is how the following question should be looked into: everyone who was born and inspired by Love, Endearment and Spirit, royal blood flows in his veins. I would like that such blood flows in all of you. I would like you to forget yesterday, I am not there anymore. It is 9th March today, I am out of the grave, the shroud is not on my head anymore and I am ready for everything. Do you understand well? When the Bulgarian wants to say that he is ready for everything he says that he has already loosened his belt. While this in Divine language means that instead of people lying to me, I am starting to work. If there is still evil in the world, this means that I have not yet done my job, i.e. I have not given as much as is needed from my Love and Spirit. The world would not have fallen had I given these to it. Someone is complaining from a misfortune while I am telling to myself: “Dunov, did you understand what you have done? This man needed to be given more”. And therefore, from today, I start rectifying all my mistakes of thousands of years. You will say: “How good Mr Dunov is!” Do not talk about goodness but only about Love, Endearment and keeping of the Spirit. Do not think that I am different from you – no, there is no difference between you and me. If there is such, it is only external, while in essence, by inner contents and origin of the Divine Spirit, we are all the same. Your sorrows are mine too but because I do not anymore recognise sorrows and hatred in the world (apart from that they exist as shadows), then you too have to give up on them. What is a sorrow and hatred , i don’t know, I only have a feel for them. For example: Someone suffers from a toothache and says he will never forget this pain but his tooth heals, he forgets everything, only a memory of the pain that is an illusion of our mind remains. Today, God is talking to you in simple language, it is only necessary for you to wish to understand and listen to Him. It is possible that when you go home you ask yourselves: “What can I do?” Do not think what you can do. When you go to the railway station, do you ask what you need to do about the locomotive, whether it needs water, coal or oil? No, you are only asked whether you will travel. Enter the wagon and do not think either about coal or water or the oil of the wheels. When the train stops at the next station, come down and then think what you need to do next for the Kingdom of God. I say this in your language. Open your souls. Instead of opening them you break them like someone who cannot open a bottle and breaks it down. Everything has a special way for opening. Open your mind and heart and this which you have not understood for thousands of years, you will understand now. You are all very rich, you don’t see how much you have in your safes - you are covered in wealth but are watching how rich the others are. I will send a commission, which will inspect the condition of your safes and see what flour, oil, olives, sugar and other things you have in your stores! Therefore, I say: make friends from the wealth of injustice. Translated in your language this means to wash the clothing you are wearing and is already unpleasant to you in order to become pleasant for you. In today’s hard times, people took out their thrown clothes from their storerooms and renewed them. This is what to make friends from the wealth of the injustice means. And so, the Kingdom of God is taken with Love, kept with Endearment and held with Spirit. Now, calm down for I notice a hypnotic state in you. I, however, do not want to hypnotise you. Calm down and do not hurry, I would like you to think seriously. The Kingdom of God, Love, Endearment, the Spirit never hurry. We anyway have to manifest this which God wants. We are even late with its manifestation – we have used a big part of our life for unimportant things, which God doesn’t want, therefore, the suffering and misfortunes have come. However, today, I am turning a new page and I will write on it about the woman in the following way: if you find your husband under the weather, tell him that you will become fond of him for you haven’t been fond of him until now. Your God is in your husband: love Him and then tell Him : “God, I will love your Spirit, I will become fond of Your soul and body”. If your daughter is under the weather, tell her the same. Turn to God and say: “ God , I would like you to help me break all old chains”. I would like from all of you to give a hand to each-other and to start working everyone as they know. Create as many societies as you wish, preach where you wish- in churches, Stugdi[3] (squares), schools and other places, work in whatever way you wish, i do not impose on you any restrictions, discipline or law. If you do not have the three things , which I spoke to you about – Love, Endearment and Spirit, the old law is in you, but if you have them, you will do miracles. Today, the whole Bulgarian nation can say to Europe: “This slavery is enough!” The Lord who we worship says that the Kingdom of God can be taken with Love, kept with Fondness and held with Spirit, and we have decided from now on to take It with Love. Until now, you have wanted to be only spiritual people. No, be public, political, cultural and spiritual people. I recommend this rule equally to men, women and children. This is the great law of the Freedom. Do not ask whether time has already come. You have slept a lot - pull the curtains, open the windows and you will see that the Sun has risen long ago. The shutters are closed in some of you and you say: “it is not dawn yet”. Until you wake up, the Sun will set while you will continue thinking that it hasn’t risen yet, you will lie down and will miss the new sunrise too. The Divine Sun has already risen. Hold on to the Divine rules, work reasonably and you will never fall down. Tell your brother: “I love you my brother, I will hold you with my spirit and you will be safe on my bed- no hair will fall from your head”. And so, yesterday’s bills do not count anymore, the Divine law does not recognise any bills or charges. You often ask whether the Covenant will impose a contribution on Bulgaria. If you follow the old law, you will be imposed big contributions, which you will not be able to pay back for tens and hundreds of years. If you follow the new law, if you apply the impulse of taking the Kingdom of God with Love, keeping it with Endearment and holding it with Spirit, there will be no contribution. They can tell you : “Despite everything, we will impose a contribution on you”. It doesn’t matter, we love you. Always keep this verse in your mind and the future will be good for both you and the whole Bulgarian nation. If the Bulgarians accept this verse if they follow and believe in it, this is good but if they do not accept it , it is still good because one or two nations will always accept it. This is the motto of the doors of the Kingdom of God. This is what Christ has taught and all His followers have studied once upon a time. This is why they were took for anarchists and suffered. Today, everyone is saying that the Earth is a rueful Ydol[4]. No, a rueful ydol is the human life. The Earth is our blessed mother that gives us all goods. Why do we cry against it? The Earth gives us colours, fruits, all sorts of foods, it cuddles and comforts us. It is not the Earth that is sinful but us who do not understand this great law, we have tarnished it and have tarnished our mother. If you ask me what your future will be, I will predict that if each of you accepts the Divine Love, Endearment and Spirit, s/he will become a king or a queen in the future. So, if you are all listening to me , I will make you kings, queens or princes. If you comprehend what i recommend to you, you will not be stupid people. Do not say as David : “My mother conceived me in sin”. Today, you will be conceived by the Divine Love, you will be elevated by the Divine Endearment and will be resurrected through the Divine Spirit. I would like that each of you calls God. It is said in the Scripture: “Call upon me in the day of trouble”. I say: Call upon God in the day of His Love, Endearment and Spirit and He will give you everything you want. Then, there will be no more sorrow and every tear will be wiped from your eyes. Now, you will ask me why you are sorrowful. Because you live in the Old Testament. Everyone who has grief in himself, he is in the past and not the present day. In the present day, there is no sorrow because God reigns in it. And so, today, some of you will be conceived in order to wake up, others will be conceived in order to live and third ones will be conceived to be resurrected. Each of you will fall in one of these categories. Open your mind for the development of your soul and you will understand the greatest secrets; you will have a communion with the Angels and saints, you will understand what is above, you will pass from glory to glory, from one sun to another from one planetary system to another. I do not allow any doubt! When you go back home, don’t ask yourselves whether all this is true. Doubt is yesterday’s old man - do not believe him. There are two types of faith: to believe in the lie or in the Truth. The worst birds that have made the nest on the tree dirty have been gathered in the contemporary faith. If you believe that there is death, illnesses, that there is nothing good in the world, this is Lucifer’s faith. Believe in the Love, Fondness, and Spirit, in everything good, which God has created. I don’t want the old to be young and the young- old, but would like all of you to be clever and wise. The young man presupposes a strong man while the old one - a wise man. That is why, the old will tell the young one: “I have knowledge while you-strength: come brother to work”. And now the young people say: “When I become older, i will work then”. You don’t have to become old, you are anyway such. The mother on the other hand says to her child :“If you become better, I will love you”. Do not lie to your children – love them even if they are bad. If they are good, they will not need your Love. It will be funny for a doctor to arrive in order to heal me when I am healthy but when I am ill ,I will accept him. You say: “In order to love someone, he needs to be pure”. No, now you love him in this state because he needs you today. As I see, today you need massages and I make them – I rub off hands and legs. You will say: “How you rub off with a masterhood!” You will excuse me but today, I am a doctor in a hospital and am making surgeries. Some say that Dunov is against the surgeries. The Purulence must be cut and the health needs to remain. As soon as you come out of the hospital, I will come to your home but will not bring my cures or measure your pulse, I will not look into your eyes, but will kiss you in a Divine way. There should be Divine kisses on the Heavens only but not on the Earth because there are viruses here. Here men and women start in a divine way but finish in an earthy way. While they are young, they give each-other many kisses but when they get old there are no kisses. It should be acted in the opposite: to first start with one kiss per year, then one kiss per month, a kiss per week, a kiss per day, a kiss per hour and to increase it gradually like this. This is how the law of Love should be followed. It is said in the Scripture: “Kiss each-other with a holly kissing”. When the women listen to me, they will ask themselves whether a stranger man can kiss them. Pay attention that I do not recognise men and women, virgins and boys but recognise only humans. And every person is your brother, sister and friend and etc. And if your brother meets you in the Kingdom of God and does not kiss you, he commits a crime as it is a crime today if a stranger man kisses someone’s wife. Today, such men are cast out while in the Kingdom of God is the opposite – when you enter without a kiss, you are cast out and ask you to go down to the Earth. You say it is nice to be on the Earth. It is nice but only when the mortal is dressed in the immortal, while the impure - in purity. Therefore, I tell you to undress the old garments, beliefs and habits. And do not think what Dunov has said, what someone or another have written. Look at whether this which someone says is true or not. And if it is true, accept this person and kiss him. If it is not true, tell him that he is trying to kiss you in a bad way and show him the way. When you read a novel and a bad thought comes to you, the author has kissed you in a false way. Then tell him :“Out!” If you can resurrect someone, if you can feed a hungry one or give water to a thirsty one , kiss him, give an excellent kiss to his soul and spirit. Do not diminish the meaning, I do not talk about chastity and I do not want a false chastity from you. Today’s chastity of mine is false but so is your one because we are not yet pure, we are not in the Kingdom of God. However, we can become pure in a moment. According to the law of reincarnation, the purification can take place for a thousand of years but can also happen for a moment. There are cases when a man falls immediately but there are also cases when a man immediately elevates himself - both are true. Now, I would not wish any blessing to you because a blessing without Love is a lie. Go back to your sorrowful brothers, sisters, friends, servants and tell them: “ The Kingdom of God is taken with Love , kept with Endearment and held with Spirit ”. I would like you all to scatter around Sofia and give talks – this way you will put the whole city in an alarm. As I didn’t call you at this assembly by force or with special invitations, so do you meet someone and lecture him. In this way, you will create a great Assembly. Love him and find out what a great thing the human soul is. I say to the women: “Become fond of each-other!”, I say to the men: “Love each-other!”, I say to your children: Hold each-other with Spirit!” I say to the grannies: “Become fond of each-other!”, I say to the grandfathers: “Love each-other!”, I say to their great-grandchildren: “Hold each-other with Spirit!” Every young woman to take an old grandfather, every young man to take an old grandma because the king’s daughter is hidden in these old grandfather and grandmother. When the old grandmother undresses from her old rags, she will come out like a beautiful butterfly and will say: “I am not a grandma but I am the royal daughter you are searching for”. When the grandfather takes off his old garments, he will say: “I am not an old grandfather, I am a levent boy, I am the royal son who was only hidden in this shell”. Search for and you will find your Love, your Endearment and your Spirit. The Love you will find in the grandfather, the Endearment in the grandmother, while the Spirit in the grandchildren. Or you will find Love in the men, Endearment in the women and the Spirit - in the children. In every virgin and young man, you will find the Love, Endearment and Spirit. And now I set the motto of your future life on the Earth to be virgin, i.e. to have Love, Endearment and Spirit, to stay above every faith, religious societies and perceptions, to unite with God and say: “God, we will serve you with Love, we will keep your Kingdom with Endearment and will hold it with the Spirit.”. Sunday Lectures 22.03.1919 Saturday, Sofia [1] Jig (arch.)- scar made with hot iron on the skin of the cattle (red line) [2] This word is used for the peace conference, convened in January 1919 and culminating the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty between Germany and the Covenant on 28 June 1919 [3] Stugdi, (arch.)- Square [4] Yudol (arch.)- the valley of suffering

My Yoke „Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.“ (Matthew 11:29, 30) „Take My Yoke." This is a positive command. "Why should we take Christ's yoke?" - Because it's good and light. What will be gained from this? - We will learn to be meek and humble. You will say that these are prosaic words. The yoke is a symbol of slavery - a negative side of life. All living creatures, from the smallest to the biggest, carry one yoke. There is no being in the world, which is absolutely free from yoke. Therefore, when Christ offers people His yoke, He compares it to the yoke they alone impose on themselves. He says: „Take my yoke because it is good and light’. Indeed, every human yoke is heavy and bitter. What does the word ‚yoke’ mean? In Turkish, ‚Yok’ means ‚there is none’, in English ‚yok’ means yoke; in Hindu, ‚Yog’ means a Teacher. Therefore, Christ speaks about His Yoke in the sense of a teacher. He says: ‚Take my yoke’, i.e. accept Him as a teacher in yourselves and learn from Him. In the broad sense of the word, ‚under Yoke’ the Turk understands absence of freedom; the Englishman advises the man to put a yoke and go forward; the Hindu sees in the yoke a teacher that teaches a man to good; The Bulgarian considers the yoke as slavery. He knows this by himself. When he gets up in the morning, he puts his oxbow on his buffalo, goes after them with his groin and says, Dee! The buffalo turns back and asks their master: Why are they beating us? "Because there is no freedom in this world. Is the yoke necessary in life? In the nowadays circumstances of life, the yoke is necessary. It leads the man to suffering, labour and work. As the contemporary man has sunk deep into the matter and has connected with it, he suffers until he breaks these bonds. After that he starts to work, and his life becomes meaningful. If he realises his life, a man works. So does the chicken struggle while in the eggshell. As soon as the time for hatching approaches, it starts knocking on the shell until it breaks through and goes out into freedom. There is yoke in the free life too, however the chicken is already working to secure its livelihood. All people are enclosed in a shell, which they need to come out from. While he doesn’t feel it, a man stays in his shell quietly and calmly. As soon as he gets fed up, he suffers, makes attempts to break through and come out of it. It is important he acts in accordance with the moment of its (the shell) being broken through. If he breaks it through prematurely he will either die or he will come out but weakly and incapable of living independently. Be careful to break your shell in time. This moment in life we call the acquisition of freedom, entering into the new life. The alchemists call it the acquisition of the philosophical stone, and the Gospel speaks of it as the entry of man into the Kingdom of God. Whoever has acquired the Kingdom of God, he does not speak of it. If you hear someone constantly speaking of the Kingdom of God, you will know that he is far from it. The more a man speaks of righteousness, truth, love, morality, and wealth, the further he stands from them. As a whole, people talk about things they don’t have. The hungry man talks about the bread until he has eaten. As soon as he has eaten, he doesn’t think about the bread anymore. When he gets hungry, he starts again thinking about the bread, his imagination is working, he imagines an oven full of warm and redden breads. „For I am meek and humble of heart “. With this verse, Christ opens a new epoch for the humankind. What is the impressive in this epoch? — "The axe disappears, the servants become one with the masters, the woman and the man go together in life. Whoever has entered this age, says: I am now throwing the axe away, I release my oxen into freedom, I associate my servant with friendship, and finally I go into the kitchen and start cooking together with my wife, I go shoulder to shoulder with her in my life. Christ says: „Take my yoke upon you. “You will immediately ask yourselves: Can this yoke be taken? Is it already time? What will the results be? For two thousand years, people have been asking each other the same questions but no one asks them anymore whether they are ready or not. When they meet a man with a heavy bag, they do not ask him whether he is ready to be relieved but they take his bag and say: We have the right to take your bag. Another is the question if you can carry it; If you cannot, we come to help. If they meet a man who has harnessed oxen in his car and walks after them with a goad, they will stop the car and will tell him: My friend, unload your car and release your oxen. I will harness myself and will work instead of them. It is time that the strong, big ones start to work and replace the small and weak ones. Modern people need to get free of the double yoke - physical and spiritual, which they have encountered. In the early days of Christianity, one holly man met a big rich man, who searched for a slave to serve him. The holly man offered to the rich one to become his slave. The rich man agreed but first asked him: How much do you want me to pay you? — I am selling myself for 1000 ducats. — I agree, from today, you will be my slave and servant. The holly man performed well his work and remained two years in the rich man’s home. During this time, he managed to turn his master’s two daughters to God. In this way, he freed them from the chains of the human misconceptions. When he finished his work he told his master that he needed to leave his home. The master agreed and offered him 1000 ducats, which he owed him. However, the saint, refused to take any sum and added: Master, everything has been paid to me. I have been paid 500 ducats for each of your daughters who I turned to God. This is an allegory, which people need to learn from. The saint has not received any sum for the daughters of the rich man, but he knows that the happiness in the Heavens is great when one soul turns to God. Many talk about the Christ’s blood, the sacrifice Christ made for the humankind, about the love, the justice but when they enter their homes, their relationships with their close ones are different. The wife of one such a Christian has said: I don’t want to enter this paradise you are talking to me about. So have been saying the Chinese about the Catholics whom they have been listening talking in one way but acting in another. They often asked: Are there Catholics in the other world? — There are. — Then we don’t want to enter this paradise, which they are talking about. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a contradiction between the deeds and words of a man. Besides, when we promise something, we need to use the present tense of the verbs and not the future one. God talks always in present tense and not in future. The present belongs to God, while the future to the man. Say: I am taking the Christ’s yoke upon myself. If you say: ‚I will take the Christ’s yoke’, you lie at yourself and your neighbour. Whoever takes the Christ’s yoke, he acquires the requisite freedom. Free is this one who has learnt the laws of the meekness and humility. The salt is meek and humble. If you put it in water, it dissolves without making a noise, murmur or protest. Therefore, if you get angry with your wife that she hasn’t cooked well you are not meek and humble. — I am a good man but I am a little bit nervous.- Which man is not nervous? Whose nerves are not active? — I am neurasthenic.— There is nothing bad in the neurasthenia. The neurasthenic is this one who has winded round in the labyrinth of his thoughts and feelings, has lost his Path and cannot go out in freedom. This is the situation of a man who has to pay two - three bills in one day but doesn’t have enough money and wonders how to come out of this situation.— What is the cure of this neurasthenia? — To go to your creditor and ask him to continue the term of your bill. — My ambitiousness does not allow me to ask this and that one.— How does your ambitiousness allow you to sign so many bills? If you have signed a few bills without being in a position to pay them you have already violated your ambitiousness. Now you have nothing left apart from praying for and recovering your ambition and dignity. One Turkish cadia considered the case of a rich Turk. Before he pronounced and issued the sentence, the Turk visited the cadia and made the following request: Mr. Cadia, I will give you a hundred pounds and a pot of pure, good oil if you judge the case properly. The cadia issued the verdict in favour of the Turk. To express his gratitude, the Turk brought him the promised hundred pounds and a pot of oil. The cadia thanked, and after his farewell to the Turk, he decided to try the oil, whether it was good. As he reached forward with his hand in the pot, he was utterly surprised. Only the upper layer was butter, and in the middle of the pot there were bovine impurities. Being very angry, he sent the servant to call the Turk. The latter stood calmly before the cadia and asked him: What do you want from me? — How didn’t you have any shame to fill the pot with impurities? When I put my hands inside, I made them dirty. You made them dirty long time ago. While you were announcing your judgment, you put your hands in the pot and made your fingers dirty. So, remember that the devil's pot, which you often reach forward to is full of impurities. "Are there devils among people?" -"There are, they are spirits embodied in a human form. They are well dressed, they occupy different services in society. " — How can you recognise the devil? — Very easy. It's enough to get into his pot to find out who you're dealing with. On top, there's something sweet in the pot, but it's full of dirt. This is the diagnosis, by which you recognise the presence of the devil. One of the greatest sciences in life is about the proper nutrition. Both in the past and today, the man has eaten and eats impure food. — Is this possible? — It is possible. Every cell has a stomach and intestines like the whole animal. If so, it emits impurities. As the man eats plants and animals, therefore he receives the impurities of the very cells too. The thoughts, feelings and deeds of people are also pure and impure. In order to get convinced in that it is enough to reach forward with only two fingers in their pots. As soon as we take our fingers outside, we will find out what they bring for the whole humankind.— Can a man get rid of the impurities of the physical and spiritual world? — He can but he needs to transform himself, to become meek and humble. Christ says: „Take my yoke upon you to learn how to become meek and humble“. Christ is meek and humble; he does not ferment, complain or get angry. The meekness is a necessary condition for the life of the great man. Noone can force the meek neither can they do any wrong to him. According to some the meek is recognised by that he is peaceful, stays still and does not move much. This is not meekness. Meekness is the inner state of the soul whereby the thoughts and feelings of a man are directed to one centre with the sole purpose of building. And the water is meek. It penetrates everywhere, waters the plants and animals, it satisfies the thirst of the passengers, it does useful job. Sometimes, it becomes turbulent, causes lots of damages but this is because of the people who change its nature. They want to harness its meekness, to use it for their personal benefits. The water has the characteristic of purifying various substances. If unclean salt dissolves in it, sludge falls to the bottom. After evaporation of the water, the salt is again separated, but already clean and in the form of crystals. So, for the purification of the salt, the sludge remains, i. e. the meekness separates from its sludge. He who presents himself as meek without being such carries only the sludge of meekness. — Which person is meek? — He who carries the Christ’s yoke upon himself. — Who is not meek? — Whoever does not carry Christ’s yoke. The Christ’s yoke is related to the law of meekness. Whoever carries this yoke, he studies this law. Now, when it is talked about meekness, people will be separated into categories: The first category will accept the idea of meekness from fear; the second category will accept it from a material interest in order to gain something; the third one — from love towards the science to learn something, to try the power of meekness; The forth one – from love towards God, to apply His Word and be useful to their neighbour. It is not bad that so many categories of people exist; It is important at the end all to accept the yoke of Christ, to become meek and humble. This is not achieved all of a sudden but gradually. We cannot teach the caterpillars to fly neither the butterflies to crawl. What do some people do? They meet caterpillars and start preaching them how to fly. It is dangerous for the caterpillar to fly. It has to creep and feed with leaves. Its time to fly and feed with the sweet nectar of the flowers has not come yet. The only thing that can be done for the caterpillar is when you see it on the ground, to place it on a leaf to gnaw calmly, undisturbed by anyone. It is dangerous to teach the butterfly to crawl. It has to move in a garden with lots of flowers, to suck their sweet nectar and rejoice in the Divine world. Everyone talks about the self-knowledge but when he comes across a certain test, he sees that he doesn’t know himself. Therefore, often does the man ask himself whether he is a butterfly or a caterpillar. In order to know yourself observe yourself to see whether you fly or crawl; whether your pot is full with pure oil or there are impurities in it. If you are angry, reach forward with your hand in the pot and see whether your finger is clean or not. If it is clean, continue your work; if it is unclean get rid of the poison of anger and then work. If an idea comes to your mind before you realise it, check whether you are flying or crawling. When flying, you will realise it in one way; when crawling you will realise it in another way. Someone deals with a lot of things but when he cannot do them by himself he reaches out to outsider’s help. This person is crawling. Whoever does not search for others’ help, he is flying.— Why? — Because he trusts in God and when he flies, he finds the requisite nectars everywhere. Whoever does not trust in God and is not connected with Him and suffers regardless of whether he is a butterfly or a caterpillar, whether he is flying or crawling. Some people are in a caterpillar state, while others - in a butterfly one, despite that both types suffer.— Why? — Because often does the caterpillar fall between flowers without leaves. From here and there it goes around, there are no food and conditions for its development. While the butterfly falls between the leaves of trees and plants without flowers. It also deprives itself of food and conditions for development. Therefore, if the caterpillar is complaining that it suffers, I say it is placed between flowers without leaves. If the butterfly also complains that it is suffering it is located between leaves. „Take my yoke upon you for I am meek and humble.“ To be meek and humble means entering into good conditions for your development, not fermenting and being quiet and calm and waiting for the time for studying the secrets of life. Someone wants to know what does the other world present, what the astral and mental worlds are. These are worlds, which can be defined with one word. For example, the astral world is the world of the desires, the mental one – of the thought while the causal one - of the causes and consequences of things. What knowledge is this one that can be defined with only one word? If you compare the matter of the three worlds – physical, astral and mental you will see that the matter of the physical world is the densest, while that of the astral world is thinner and the one of the mental world - the thinnest. It is up to a man to change the properties of the physical matter, i.e. to make it more versatile, more elastic and finer. Do you have to allow negative thoughts in your mind, which thicken the atmosphere around it? You have heard how someone is blatant to an acquaintance of theirs because the latter one has told them an offensive word. He will answer with ten offensive words and does not think that with that he has already reached into the unclean pot and has made himself dirty. In this way, he exposes himself much more than the insulting word is exposing him. Keep in your mind high and pure thoughts, which connect you with the mental world where saints and reasonable beings have lived in. If an impure thought comes to your mind, immediately put it in the fire of the Divine love to burn and turn into an ash. Now, I don’t talk to you but to the cadia and his accused - the Turk. Should the cadia be crossed with the Turk, that he has told him the truth? Be grateful to everyone who tells you the truth; Who from you all has fulfilled the Divine will as they should? Let everyone answer themselves what they have done for God.— Am I the biggest sinner? – it is not a question whether you are a sinner or not; It is important everyone to fulfil the will of That One who has sent him here on the Earth. The good of the human soul as well as the good of the whole humankind is hidden in the fulfilment of this great will. You will say that it is easy to talk but the world is not corrected with words only. I do not think that I can rectify the world but re - do my affairs. This is how every artist does. When he draws a painting he leaves it aside for some time, he doesn’t deal with it. After a while, he looks at it again to find a shortcoming. As soon as he sees such one he immediately rectifies it. When he watches it for a long time he doesn’t see anything bad – he puts it aside again. This is how he rectifies his mistakes until one day he doesn’t see anything bad in it and considers the painting as finished. When I meet one person I consider him as one of my unfinished paintings and immediately take my brush to rectify one of his imperfections. Do you know what paints I use? Usually, I use all colours of the spectrum. However, I never use a black paint. The black colour means a rest, absence of life. It is a negative colour. „Because I am meek and humble of heart.“ The meekness and humility are as necessary in life as the salt. These are internal qualities that give an opportunity to a man to develop correctly. In this way, he comes not only to the external but also to the inner knowledge. The meek one manifests himself only then when he enters into communication with people. He brings peace among the people with his presence. The meekness harmonises people because of which they unite and form big societies. This is how God acts too with His presence. — Is it possible different people with different characters to unite in one whole? Look what the musicians do in one orchestra. Every musician plays their part and at the end the tones of the different instruments merge in chords and form something harmonious and pleasant for listening. Here acts the law of merging. Therefore, every musical piece, which is founded on this law is meek and harmonious. If you want to create beautiful and supernal music put the meekness into an action; if you want to create a new religion, which rests upon love, lay meekness as a foundation; if you want to transform your life on Earth, to clean your relationships, put meekness as a foundation of your actions. Meekness increases the vibrations of a man and leads him to pure and Divine life. Every thought, feeling and action that are deprived of the meekness are a manifestation of lack of love. Purity and Genuineness are required from a man. How the pure man is recognised? — When you reach out with your two fingers in his pot and your fingers remain clean, he is pure. In this way, your purity will be recognised. A woman, digs into the ground with her two fingers in order to plant something. The human religion, consciousness, will and righteousness are hidden in these fingers. This is why when you say that a man needs to know himself this means he needs to reach out with his two fingers in his pot and see whether his fingers are clean or dirty. Meekness and humility are qualities, which go together. The humble one never talks about himself. He performs his obligations quietly and in good faith and thus he manifests himself. Christ came on the Earth exactly because of this to show people how to live. There is no peace without meekness and humility. The sea is turbulent , i.e. the human heart but one is the way for its quietening — the path to the meekness and humility. Why should your heart be worried? The writer is worried about his work, whether the critics will pronounce very harshly about it. The scientist is worried about his invention. If your composition rests upon the truth there is no reason to be worried. There are strict critics but if they are genuine they are not dangerous. It is important for a man to be genuine towards himself and his neighbours and not to fall into hypocrisy. Someone’s face has been distorted from suffering while he represents himself for being calm. The face of the calm one is a reflection of his soul. Even if he suffers he endures everything with consciousness and love, he knows that he is himself guilty of his suffering and does not cast his responsibility on other people.— The burden is not easy to carry. — It depends on the man. And the pregnant woman carries a yoke but she is happy that a man would be born to the world. The pregnant woman should carry her child with meekness and humility in order to pass these qualities to it too. Only in this way can the future generation improve. Therefore, no matter where you carry your yoke – on your neck, back, in your womb, mind, heart – carry it with joy, meekness and humility. „Take my yoke upon you, for I am meek and humble of heart.“ Here is a verse that deserves to be applied in life; everyone has to write it in his mind and heart. The pregnant woman should repeat this verse throughout her whole pregnancy. Does she do so? Sometimes she remembers this verse but after she births the child and then it is already late. Christ’s yoke is necessary for the mental and spiritual life of a man. Without it, he exaggerates his thoughts, desires and deeds. What does a man to live with exaggerated thoughts and desires mean? — This presupposes a tree with bad, rotten fruits. The thoughts are the fruits of the mind, while the feelings- of the heart. Two elements are needed in order to create one thought: а) — the higher manas and в) — the lower manas. Both elements form c) together the very thought. And in the spiritual world, the feelings are formed from two elements: a request and desire. And so the letter a) is the mind, b) - the heart, c)- the will. Therefore, а+в=с. The will is a child of the mind and heart. Therefore, when you say about someone that his will is not being disciplined, this means that his mind and heart are not disciplined. If they are uneducated, so will the child born from them be. Someone wants to educate their mind and heart with the will. This is also possible but your son will play the role of your will. He will get married and together with his wife will educate you. The son will be a), while his wife - b), and you - c), i. e. his children. What will a-b be equal to? I leave this question open for you to resolve it. Meekness and humility — two great qualities of the astral world, which create the true desires and aims of the heart. Whoever wants to come into a communication with the higher inhabitants of the astral world has to be meek and humble. Without these qualities you will again go to the astral world and will come back without having acquired anything. The meekness and humility prepare the man for his conscious entering into the astral world. They soothe the soul, which strengthens the body and makes it healthy and cheerful. The healing of a man is impossible without meekness and humility. No idea can be applied without meekness and humility. The meek one behaves well with both the people and animals. He knows the strength of the rough relationships, bad words and associates them with poisonous and bad drinks. Therefore, I say: Do not give each other bad words and rough relationships. Every word is precious when it is used in its place. Today, all people are given conditions to be meek and humble of heart. „Take my yoke.“ The yoke, these are the man’s both eyes. Whoever does not apply the law of meekness and humility carries yoke on their back. The human spirit is harnessed to work. Its seat is the eyes, which it sees everything through and goes forward. Simultaneously, the eyes are also the yoke of a man. Whatever he sees through them he wishes it for. If he cannot achieve it, he comes back home unhappy and disappointed. He sees fields, houses, cattle - he wants everything. You hear him say at last: I want wine, a pig, to drink and eat and to understand the meaning of life. And if he cannot satisfy his wishes, he says he is carrying a yoke. The yoke is not in this that he hasn’t achieved his temporary desires but in that he hasn’t used his eyes in place - he has wished for things, which are unnecessary. Whoever is not happy with his life, will carry the yoke on his neck; if he is still unhappy, the yoke will move onto his back. And at last, the yoke will enter his womb and will give birth to a child. In this way, the yoke will shift until the man realises the meaning of life and becomes perfect, i. e. meek and humble. Therefore, the yoke is first on the eyes, then on the neck, back and at the end on the abdomen. To deal with this yoke presupposes studying alchemy. Therefore, do not talk about your desires and do not suffer for this which you have not achieved; use the knowledge that comes through your eyes and think what you need to do every day. Say to yourselves: Today, I need to be meek and humble because of That One Who has given me life. If you are not ready to be meek and humble because of God and you disturb Him, your angel will abandon you. If the mother and father worry about anything and nothing, their close ones will leave the Earth one after another. It is frightening for a man to remain on his own on the Earth, without relatives and friends like a dry tree without leaves, branches and blossoms. The more he worries, the lower he descends and loses everything, which has been given to him. In order for this not happen, accept Christ’s yoke, which leads to meekness and humility. Only in this way, will you raise and enrich yourselves. To take Christ’s yoke, means to accept the knowledge of your Teacher in yourselves. Whoever is not meek and humble cannot acquire love. The most difficult art is to love. Where love is, there is the Spirit. Learn to love not only the people but the small flies and bugs too. Conditions for their future development are also hidden in them. When they become meek and humble, people will deal well with the animals and plants and will not cut the forests chaotically. I see a wonderful palace on the tree for the creatures that live in it. In the crystal, I also see a palace for the creature that lives in it. Therefore, you have no right to take the life of a tree without a permission. For everything we need to ask the master of the house. What do the modern people do? They have the life of the lower creatures as their property but at the end of the day they also pay. Whether they confess this is not important. You will oppose by saying that God has created everything for the man. What does the man represent? Part of the whole humankind. Therefore, as a part, he is obliged to ask for a permission for everything he needs from That One Who is a Master of the whole. The Christ Teaching requires this. This is required by the new religion— the religion of the work, life and love. Today, I meet young girls, boys, children and adults who pick the flowers relentlessly and then throw them as useless. This is not allowed. We have a bad opinion for a man who picks flowers and throws them. The way he picks up the heads of the flowers so he could do with the head of a man. Someone picks the flowers and gives them to his close ones. This is not allowed too. For such cases the Bulgarians say: „With a stranger’s bread, a memorial cannot be made“. How many flowers I have been given but I have paid for all of them. As soon as I receive a flower I turn to its Master and say: Please forgive this child. It does not understand the law. When it grows up, it will understand its mistake and will rectify it. The new education requires respect for the flowers and trees as well as for the people. I am laying a new law: „Love every tree, flower, animal as you love yourself“. You will say: Who are you, what right do you have to lay a new law? — I translate the old laws into a new language in order to be understood and realised by all. Every life being – a grass, a tree, an animal is an expression of an idea that is hidden in it. And the man is an expression of a Divine idea. When he comes to the Earth, God will first search for the man to see to what extent he has realised the idea, which has been invested in him. He will be surprised when He sees how much the man has distorted himself, how much he has distorted the Divine idea, placed in his soul. God will tell the man: You don’t have the right to bet your body and soul. They are not your ownership. Your body is a Divine temple and you don’t have the right to stain it. How many men and women are thrown out today to the garbage, like the remains of lambs and piglets, and on top of them they put a cross and write: God forgive them! To repent them in His Kingdom! God will pardon the deceased, but he will also pardon the one who has caused the destruction of his house, his body. I will say, Lord, repent in your Kingdom all men and women, elders and children, preachers, teachers and disciples, merchants and craftsmen, and teach them to live properly, not to destroy the houses of their neighbours, not to take away the life of all living things on the face of the Earth. That is to take the Christ’s yoke upon you and become meek and humble. * 7. Lecture from the Master, held on 9 Mach, 1919 Sofia.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Day of Good "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days."1 The Sabbath is a disputable or a Sacred Day. The disputable things are the precious things in life. All disputes in the world are due to the valuable, beautiful things. There will be many disputes about beautiful young women; many hearts will be broken because of them. Why? Because they are beautiful, slender and well-built; however, no question is even raised about the ugly young women. The Sabbath is a beautiful maiden, I call it a day of Love. And actually this day, which should have been a blessing to humanity, has now become a hindrance to us. Those who do not recognize the Sabbath as a holiday, have their own Sabbath. Every person has a Sabbath in their life: it is a day of rest, of eating and drinking, a day when one puts on one’s best clothes. What did Christ mean by the words, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days?" For whom is it lawful? For the person who is better than a sheep, for the prudent person. People cannot understand the sense of the Sabbath. This is the day when you should know how to change the disposition of your mind and heart, the disposition of your soul and spirit. Present-day Eastern Orthodox believers, Catholics and Protestants have Sunday as a day of rest, but the Shabbetaians and Jews observe strictly the Sabbath. The Evangelists do not work on Sunday; for the Shabbetaians and Jews, it is Saturday. A Jew considers it a sin even to polish his shoes, light the fire, or do any kind of work; but when it comes to take interest of 10, 15, or 20% from someone, he does not consider it a crime. This is an understanding of the letter of the Sabbath, i.e. there is a Sabbath of the letter. It says in the Scriptures, "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." By the word letter we always understand limitation. For instance, when a man marries, he says to his fiancee, "I shall allow you to celebrate the Sabbath, i.e. you will be free in my home. I shall love you and be fond of you." But as soon as he marries, he turns to the other Sabbath and says, "Here it is not as at your place." The woman starts working in the kitchen and cannot go anywhere, no Sabbath is allowed to her. The present religious concepts affect the human minds with the same ideas. These limit them, so the people are arguing today which day to observe - Saturday or Sunday. They do not argue if they should love one another, but which day to observe. The Turks celebrate Friday, but the Bulgarian have three days: Tuesday, Friday and Sunday and sometimes observe half of Saturday. Why do the Bulgarians observe Tuesday and Friday as days in which one should not work and then Sunday as well? Because, this is in their traditional law. Christ speaks of the Sabbath as a day in which one is allowed to do good. How is it possible for a person to do good on the other weekdays when they are engaged with other affairs? Since the seventh day belongs to God, it is said that one is allowed to do good on that day. Do not think that the observation of the Sabbath is done in a mechanical way by which you will become better. I call the Sabbath a day for knowledge in which one should work and build. During the six days a person should toil and labor, but on the seventh day they should work. The first day we toil, the second we should labor, but on the seventh we should work. It is the greatest science of the future. That is why it is allowed to do good on the Sabbath. "It is not only allowed, but is it lawful," says Christ. But in the original it means that a person should spend the Sabbath only in good. Now let me explain what good means. The word good determines the qualities of all our actions. It is the fruit and Christ says, "By their fruit you will know them. There can be no good in human life if there is no fruit." Therefore, virtue is not something abstract but it is real, it is the essence of human life. The meaning of human life is Goodness. Righteousness, Truth, Wisdom and Love are forces which work for the realization of good in human life. The fruit determines the qualities of the tree, the same way the good determines the quality of a person. In order to love the fruit trees, we are directed by the quality of their fruit. An apple tree giving the best quality of apples is most carefully tended and liked by people. Why? Because its fruit are fine and delicious. If that apple stops bearing fruit, there is no sense in its cultivation. In the spiritual world a person is a tree. Fruit trees are useful to us, the same way the human virtues are necessary to the Angels for they are nourished by them. If I am asked, "Why are the Angels interested in us?" I will answer, because they need the fruit of our virtues. To understand the deeper meaning of this Good, your mind, soul and heart must be in full accord. If you waver about doing good, you are of a low culture. There is no wavering about the good in Heaven. There is no question in the spiritual world as to whether one should do good or not. Good is the meaning of life. When you stop doing good, you are a dead person. Every thought and every noble feeling proceeds from the good we do. The good desires and the good thoughts proceed from the Good; they are a process of growth in us. When we sow a seed we have the first process: the sprouting of the plant; the second is the growth of the plant; the third: its blossoming and the fourth process is its bearing of fruit. Therefore, Good - the fruit in a person - can appear only in their Soul. In the occult science it is called the causal body of a person. Every seed is a cause. Contemporary culture - the development of person - is due to those seeds of the good from the past; but in the future these seeds will bring about the new culture. I call all other pedagogical views on upbringing and education nothing other than taming, i.e. fruitless trees - for instance the cultivated indoor India rubber plant (Ficus elastica). Does it have any fruit? No, it does not. Many people today are like this plant. Such plants can grow on the earth, but not in Heaven. If you want to be a heavenly Indian rubber plant, you must bear fruit. What paralyzes the human virtues? They are paralyzed by the inferior human mind and passions because people today are slaves of their passions which destroy, but do not construct anything. A person spends thousands for a single pleasure which sacrifices their life and that of others. But there is no fruit in this pleasure. We are like that American woman tourist who in order to test the love of her beloved made him climb the face of a precipitous rock in the Alps to pick one of the rare alpine roses for her from that height. He climbed the rock, picked and gave her the rose which she stuck on her bosom smiling; but after that he said to her, "Good-bye." She made him risk his life for a single pleasure. The same way we tempt God. We say, "God, give us money, pleasure, houses, etc," but after He has given us all this, He says, "Good-bye!" Then we are rich people and have everything, but God is not with us. I am amazed at the state of contemporary religious people, for I have never seen more hard-headed, tenacious and self-willed people than the religious ones. I use the word "religious people" in its broad sense. I consider religion today as a suit or a perfume by which we cover up all our bad actions and mistakes. Religion is a modern contrivance. Nowhere in the New Testament is the word religious used. When people lost the sense of the Sabbath and the doing of good, they put in its place the word religion. And now they are constantly arguing if one is religious or not. There was not a more religious century than the present one. Take for example a person who belongs to some party and believes in it. They are ready to sacrifice their life for it. How many times they have exposed their own life and the life of their family to danger for this party! Such people say, "Our party, too, will come to power some day." They await the time of their party’s turn, but until that time comes how many times will they be whipped and how many times will they return home with a broken head! All people live with this religion, they rise and fall, expecting some change by it. No party will bring any change or benefit to life, because it only takes and does not give. It may cut the rate of taxation by 5 or 10%, but it will make this up with even more money from another item. Then you will ask, "But what shall we do?" You should plow the earth and pray to God to give you more wheat than you have had before so that you may give to others. Salvation lies in this abundance. When people say they want to be cultured, I say that all must turn to the earth to plough and sow. Now we have all crowded the cities where different branches of production and crafts exist; but some people work, while others rely on them, doing nothing themselves. That is why there are so many evils. I have nothing against such an order of things, it is so natural; but the way we make use of it causes poverty and suffocates us. If you visit London, you will see how dug-up and smoky it is, unlike other cities. Seven million people live there expecting some future. Those people have got together there waiting for a chance to deceive and exploit each other. This is a culture of deceit! London has such a dark side as no other city in the world. All cultures from all distant times and epochs have been transferred there. Christ has in mind the New Culture when He says, "It is lawful for those people who will come in the future to do Good on the Sabbath." In what sense is it lawful? It is lawful for an experienced surgeon to make operations; but it is not lawful for an ignorant and inexperienced one to do that. For instance, you are a religious person and go to comfort someone. It is lawful for you to do that if you know how; but if you disturb their peace of mind, your foot should not cross their threshold. Do not think it is an easy thing to do Good - this is a Great Art! If I come to your home to teach you a new teaching with the purpose of making you my followers and then I rob you, I am impelled by material benefits and this would not be a good deed, but a commercial transaction. The same way a travelling commercial agent will visit you and display most politely his samples, talk pleasantly with you or give you a treat until your head is dazed and he makes his transaction. And that person is a religious person! I do not understand such a religion. The invisible world says, "The dispute of all religious sects is a religious dispute." These are the people of the past culture. The people of the future culture, whose slogan will be to do Good out of Love on the Sabbath Day, are the new people. They have a special mark on their forehead and a peculiar little stone under their tongue. The tongue and the eyes of these people are different. Their look is deep and there is no distraction in it. There is only one thought in their eyes and it is Love and Selflessness. Empty words are love and selflessness, aren’t they? Do you understand what Selflessness really is? Have you experienced it at least once in your life? Have you experienced at least once in your life what Love is? An Evangelical minister once told me an experience he had. For a long time he had prayed to God to give him a chance to taste Divine Love. One day the Spirit visited him and he felt his whole body bulging; so he lay flat on his stomach afraid he would burst, such a big and voluminous thing had taken possession of him. He started praying to God to free him from this broad Love for which he was not ready. He lay flat on his stomach and started to kick. Why did he kick? Because, he did not want to give it up. When a child takes an apple and their mother wants to take it away they kick. Why? Because they do not want to give it up. The horse kicks, too. Why? Because, it does not want to share. People speak badly with their tongues. Why? Because, they do not want to give. That is why it is lawful for the new people to do Good on the Sabbath that they may uplift humanity. The Sabbath is a Divine Day which will raise and thoroughly transform us; and by this we shall transform the world. I do not say that when the Sabbath comes, we should all leave our crafts - no, not at all. The crafts will be sanctified and will be good for us, for they will be based on the doing of good on the Sabbath day. Do not think I want to destroy your views. Not at all, I only want to clean the dust off your eyes. When I come to you, first of all I shall teach you how to wash your eyes. I shall give you water first and we shall speak after that. Have you studied the art of washing your eyes? I would recommend you the following experiment. If you are indisposed, or cannot understand some subject, or some person is unpleasant to you, take a pan full of pure spring water, raise your eyes to God, put your face in the water, open your eyes and blink several times in the water. Then say, "I want my mind to be pure like this water," and see if your indisposition has not changed. If it has not changed, dip your face a second time in the water. Do this several times and see what the result will be. Water is the Emblem of Life. We must put in our mind the thought of doing Good. Each one of you must say to yourself, "I will do Good." But his should not be done mechanically. This shows that we should plant in us all the fruit trees of the Garden of Paradise. When the new people come, all these sublime thoughts and feelings should be able to thrive in their hearts, souls and minds. We cannot come to terms with each other with our present conceptions. When you listen to me, you will say, "Is this an Eastern Orthodox believer? If he is not, do not listen to him as he cannot speak the Truth." A patriot will say, "If he is a patriot, he is speaking the truth, otherwise what he says is not true." Some people ask, "Has he got higher education? If he is a learned man, we believe in him." If a teacher is listening to me, he will say, "If he is a teacher, we believe in him." All begin to speak, but this is not the Divine Standard by which we can measure our acts. I may be an Eastern Orthodox, a Protestant, a patriot, a learned man or anything else, but that does not prove that I am telling the Truth. I may be studying the Bible only out of self-interest to see if I may support myself by it and so on. The Protestants will say, "The Eastern Orthodox priests extort the people." But do not others do the same? Yes, the Eastern Orthodox extort people with the act of sprinkling holy water on them for pay. They do this openly, but the Protestants extort people in a different way. Is this the way to act? A Turk bought a he-goat for the Ramadan bayram2 and put it on his back to take it to his Hodja3 to read to it. On the way the he-goat kicked him on the back and the Turk angrily called it different names: swine, giaour, etc. When he reached the Hodja, he said to him, "I am bringing you a he-goat to bless which I shall kill for the sacred feast; but I used profane language on the way because it kicked me on the back. Is he fit for the kurban4?" The Hodja replied that the he-goat was not fit and he had to buy another. The Turk bought a second he-goat to take it to the Hodja. On the way the goat again kicked him, but the Turk kept silent, thinking, "You are just like the first one, you are kicking me the same way, but I shall not say anything, because I shall have to buy a third goat." I say, if you kick, you are one of them. "Therefore, it is lawful for a man to do Good on the Sabbath Day." People must leave their egotism, open their Soul to the Divine Sun and come out of the framework of their present views. Humanity today abounds in hypocrites. I see a husband and wife walking quietly in the street like two virtuous people; but at the same time they monitor each other, watching one another that neither should cast glances at this or that person. "Religion!" When the husband is away, the wife can look anywhere she wants to; but when he comes home, the wife becomes "virtuous." The same applies to the husband. And this is called religion! Why should the husband and wife not be free to look at anything or anybody they want to when they are together? What evil is there in that? This limitation comes from the fact that in our Soul there is no Sabbath. Some ask me, "When will humanity become noble. When shall we come to know the new ideas?" I say, the new ideas cannot come until the Sabbath Day comes; until we learn to do Good on the Sabbath. For instance, take the present writers of any calibre and show me one of them, no matter how famous, who can point out a right way to live. They all have the same tactics: you read the introduction and then the whole book, but the essential remains without any solution. This author writes that you can find the solution to this problem in the book of such and such an author. You read that author who does not solve the main problem, but refers you to a third one. You read the book of this third one too, but it does not satisfy you either. You go from one author to another and find that all are merchants. One says, "I do not have such goods as you want, go to another." "The second explains, "I have run out of the stock you want: go to the other one!" You go to a third one who says the same thing. At last they tell you, "We’ll include you in the order list so when our goods come and we can conclude our deals, we will do this for you." This is how things stand so you go from shop to shop. But in the future culture we must have at least two or three guiding principles to apply in our life: First: Can I do this for the sake of God’s Love? Second: Can I do this for the sake of my Soul? Third: Can I do this for the sake of my neighbor? I have come to tell you the great Truth that God, Whom I know very well, is speaking. Anyone to whom I have told this Truth and who has tested it, has always had good results. Everything I say I put to a strict scientific experiment. Anyone who wants to make an experiment together with me cannot easily get away. Many have come to me to be cured. I ask them, "You have visited all the doctors in the vicinity, are you ready to serve God and devote your life to Him? If you are ready, I shall help you." Someone wants knowledge. "Are you ready to devote your life to God? If you are ready I shall reveal to you some great Mystery, but if you are not I shall speak to you about apples, pears, leaves, branches and the like; but I shall not reveal any Mystery to you." I, too, have certain guiding rules which I never violate. You will ask me why I act this way. I answer – “Are you ready to do good on the Sabbath? Are you ready to serve God Whom I know, and from Whom all the good and blessings proceed; Who has created everything in the world and given life to people? Are you ready to serve Him?” Then I am ready to serve you. But if you are not ready, I shall speak to you only about onions. This is a strict Teaching and all great Masters have acted this way. Now the new culture requires that Good should be done on the Sabbath. If you apply the new rules, you will have impressive results. For so many years I have been wasting my breath in Sofia; but the result is rather small, because the Sabbath is lacking. I notice this even among my closest people. As soon as they get together, a heavy atmosphere is felt for they are not in accord. I say: “You are celebrating the Sabbath in yourselves, but I shall talk to you about the onions.” Do you know that if you would go to Heaven, you would be expelled from it for 10,000 years for a single bad glance like the ones you are casting at each other here on earth? If an Angel should cast a bad glance, He would be expelled from Heaven for 10,000 years. The rule is that strict! Some of you want to go to Heaven. Be thankful you are not there in your present state. Now they may forgive you because you are on the earth in an experimental school. Everything is permitted on earth, but that Pure Place you are preparing yourselves for requires a perfect person. There are no experiments there. There is no grief and weeping in that world. The Scriptures say, "I shall wipe all tears from their eyes and there will be no sorrow there, but all shall be glad and joyful." Do you know what joy and gladness is? What great self-sacrifice an Angel makes who is engaged in the solving of great questions. When He sees a suffering soul and leaves his work to go and help them by comforting them. Who of you would do this? Of course, we would do many things for people who stir sympathy. One would help a sympathetic person. A gentleman is ready to do any service to a beautiful young woman; but no one pays attention to an ugly, awkward and cross-eyed one. I ask you what your convictions are since you act in this way? If Christ should come in, Whom you expect to set the world right, do you think He would speak everywhere? It is high time you cast out of yourselves this devil who has obsessed all of you and whom you have served for 8,000 years! Enough slavery to him! Say this to this devil, "Out with you!" He should go out in the yard; but in your soul there should not remain even a trace of him. Say to him, "If you do not go out, we shall leave!" When after many times the devil does not agree to go out; you start making a contract with him, reconciling yourself with him. Do not do that! Finish with him once and for all! Do you think the verse in the chapter I read is divided by coincidence? "How much better is a man than a sheep." It means: how much better is the good than the sabbath! I take the Sabbath as an Emblem of Love. If you do good on the Sabbath, all misfortunes and illness will leave you. You should know this as something positive. If your child falls ill, see on which Sabbath you have not done good. Correct your mistake and your business will succeed. You have written a book, but it does not sell well; correct your mistake and things will go well. The Sabbath interferes in all your affairs. Get right with it and all will be well. This question is very clear to me. Someone asks me, "Why should we do good?" We cannot take a step forward if we do not do good: this is a mathematical axiom. If you start on a journey without bread how far can you go? Make an experiment how many kilometers you can walk without bread. You may walk 50-60, 100 kilometers at the most and then you will stop. Therefore, the good is the force, the food, by which the human soul can move and evolve in this world. Every knowledge, every wisdom will be based on the fruits of this virtue. That is why you should do good if you want to become rich and develop in the broadest sense of the word. Every day is destined for specific purposes. But, unaware of this fact, people do not consider the real meaning of the days in human life. For instance, on the first day God said, "Let there be Light;" and there was Light. And God saw that the Light was good. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. This day is Sunday - the day of Light On the second day God divided the waters from the waters, i.e. He separated the higher life from the lower life, since water as I said, is an Emblem of Life. He created the firmament as a boundary between these two kinds of life and since the evolution of this day is not completed, God did not pronounce His opinion about it. There was evening and there was morning, a second day. On the third day God said, "Let the waters under the heaven (i.e. the lower life) be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land (an emblem of the human brain and human mind) appear." And God called the dry land earth and the gathering of waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. That is why He said that the earth should put forth all kinds of plants, by which He meant that all good thoughts should appear in the world. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. On the fourth day God made the two great lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night. By the first, the big light He meant the mind and by the second, the small one, the heart by which a person should distinguish good from evil, i.e. should distinguish one state from another. Therefore, the fourth day is the day in which the conditions for the development of the human mind and human heart must be created. God created all the stars - which mean all the forces in human life - and set them in the firmament of heaven - which means the human soul - to give light upon the earth and together with the greater light (the mind) and the lesser light (the heart) to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And on the fifth day God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven," which signify all the human aspirations and cravings. And since all these gave a direction and meaning to human development on earth, God saw that it was good and blessed them to be fruitful and to multiply. That is why our desires are constantly and daily multiplying and fruitful. There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And on the sixth day God said, "Let Us make man (the rational) after Our own image, after Our likeness; and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea (over his earthly desires) and over the birds of the heavens (over his thoughts) and over the cattle and over all the earth (i.e. over his passions which creep in his brain)." Finally God breathed into man His own breath. He gave man a rational soul to know Him in all his ways and to work and act as God has worked. Therefore, when you want to visit someone, to lighten their life, go to them only on Sunday because it is the day of Light. You will take Light to them.. When you want to visit a sick person, do it on Monday, because this day bearsLlife, and so on. On the seventh day God rested, which means that the seventh day is the day of the Good in which God began to manifest His love to man. That is why He has invited him to participate in this great Divine Cause of the Divine Life. Therefore, apply the Sabbath in your life the new way. Test what I am telling you. The Days of Good and Love must be festive days for a person. This we must do for the rest of our lives.. Sermon of the Master held on Decemer 21, 1919. ________________________________ 1 Matthew 12:12 2 Ramadan is the holy month of fasting, the ninth month of the Muslim year ending with the feast bayram. (ed. note) 3 Hoca/hodja - Mohammedan priest. (ed. note) 4 kurban - Turkish, ritual feast with a butchered animal. (ed. note)

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Two Witnesses "It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true."[1] Every external testimony is an expression of an inner intelligent impulse in the soul. Why is it that the testimony of two persons is true, but not of a single person; and who are these two? If two people suing each other in a court today call two, three or ten witnesses who do not speak the truth, the jury will not take their testimony into consideration. I think the jury would agree with this statement. Keep in mind that I am speaking in principle and have no person in view, since the human personality is something relative in its manifestation. Some may think I speak about them in my sermons, but that is not the case - not in the least. I am asking you, which is the real thing in the world: the blossom or the fruit, the leaf or the branch, the fruit or the seed? They are all relative realities. If you play the role of a leaf, if you play the role of a blossom, of a branch, fruit or seed in the world: these are all different states which in mathematics are called variations, permutations and combinations. I understand what variations mean in mathematics. You may engage yourself with them some day. Variations mean ordering, permutations - rearrangement and combinations - fitting together. But if you are a variation or ordering in life, by what will you be distinguished? Certain quantities enter your life forming certain compounds and you are a group, or a compound of these qualities. The qualities are the elements of your manifested life. The mathematicians say that the variations are compounds in which not all elements enter and which have classes. Then they say that the permutations are transpositions in which all elements enter, therefore, they have no classes. The combinations, however, are compounds in which all the elements do not enter, they have classes but each class is distinguished from another by at least one new element. In which category can I classify you? Your life may move only by ordering, it may move only by transpositions, but it may move by a combination of things and quantities. These mathematical formulas contain deep truths which I cannot stop to explain now for they are dry bones and I must work many years on them to give them life. Such is the Law of Nature. There are seeds which grow in six months, like the squash, and give fruit; while there are other seeds - the trees - which blossom once in a century. We cannot change the order of things God has put in nature, for if we change it our destiny changes and the karma is born. Karma is nothing other than a deviation from the right path of human development, while the expiation of karma is the re-entering of the right path of human evolution. Therefore, it would be of use to those who like mathematics to spare some time for the study of these variations, permutations and combinations. You should not only think you know much, but test your knowledge; not only to formulate, but to handle and deal with these quantities and elements. Let us suppose a committee orders that each person be given a kilogram of sugar - that is a variation. You may have to wait a long time, but you may come back home with a broken rib so that you will say the variation turned out unsuccessful. The sooner you get the sugar without loosing time, the more successful the variation will prove. Of course, this variation has nothing in common with the mathematical one, it is only a reflection of the great spiritual law which is functioning in our soul. Let me return to my subject. Who are those two who are witnessing? When a Bulgarian wants to build a hut, he first drives two stakes into the ground - they are the two witnesses - and the Lord says to him, "Now you can build the hut." He places a triangle on top the two stakes and starts building. When you want to prepare the warp you also need two women to roll the yarn: one at one end, the other at the opposite. One will wind what is warped around her waist, while the other will start winding it on the yarn-beam and this will last 2 or 3 hours, until this permutation, this transposition of things takes place. It may seem funny to you that the two women are not in accord: one pulling backwards, while the other pulling forwards - like the crab and the pike - but this is the only way to make things work. At times, let us say, the husband is pulling the cloth, while the wife is winding it and people say, "Why is that man pulling the cloth and not obeying his wife?" He is pulling it because the cloth must be woven. He should not listen to his wife at that moment, until all is done. At times it is the other way around - the wife is pulling and the husband is winding. I just gave you a thought, simple in form, but deep in sense. The two witnesses in nature are light and warmth. Their testimony is always true for wherever they penetrate, life and growth take place; but where they are absent there is no motion, no spring, no plants, no life whatsoever. That is in nature. But in a person, these two witnesses are our mind and our heart. Where our mind and heart speak together, their testimony is true, as it says in your law that the testimony of two men is true. Christ gives this idea and says, "I bear witness of myself and the Father is Who bears testimony of me." In the spiritual world the two who bear testimony are the Father and the Son and their testimony is true. In the angelic world the two who bear testimony are the spirit and the soul. In the human world they are the mind and the heart. In nature they are the light and the warmth. We have an ascending ladder; therefore, when we want to change our life, we must have a deeper and more detailed understanding of things. If we have a downward movement, we should keep in mind the light and warmth - since they are a reflection of the divine world - so that our mind should always be in accord with light and our heart - with warmth. Where the light is absent, the mind does not think and where warmth is absent, the heart does not beat. These are not mere statements and suppositions, but a Great Law. When we are asked by what standard, or by which proof we can prove certain truths in human life, we shall refer to the mind and heart. If we prove truths in the spiritual world we shall refer to the spirit and soul. And finally, if we prove truths in the divine world, we shall refer to the Father and the Son. Do not disturb your minds with those philosophical theological conclusions which state that the Son in a manifestation of the Father, i.e. that He is a shadow. A manifestation is the external side of things, while the Son is much more than that. The heart cannot be a manifestation of the mind, neither can the mind be a manifestation of the heart. They can corroborate in their manifestations, but these are variations, permutations and combinations. This thought is not clear to you yet, for the cloth is just now being woven and you do not see anything yet. Christ says that your law also states that the testimony of two men is true. We must first of all cast every doubt out of our mind. Doubt in the real life does not bring any good. In life today, there are thousands of causes to make us doubt. How can we expect of other people what they cannot manifest at a given moment? Can you expect fruit from an apple-tree in winter? Would you get angry with it for not being sufficiently compassionate and regardful of you? You need not be angry for it will say, "You are not paying me a visit at the appropriate time." Some people live in spring, others are in their summer, still others are passing through their autumn and a fourth kind are in their winter. Some say that all people are alike. No, all people are not alike. Some form groups of variations, others of permutations and a third group of combinations. The same thing is stated in your external law which is similar to the inner law since the lower - the earthly - is similar to the heavenly. If your mind and your heart speak the same thing about an object, accept this truth without any reserve or wavering for every wavering will hinder your progress. Contemporary society is lacking in this - it has not enough faith in itself, a positive faith without wavering or doubt. In the past when the Lord created the world, Faith and Knowledge, which were two sister-goddesses up in the Divine World, decided to come down and help people. In heaven they knew and loved each other, but after coming down to earth one of the sisters entered the mind and was clad according to the law of the mind; but the other entered the heart and was clad according to the law of the heart. When people harnessed them to work, they washed dishes, chopped onions, cooked meat and their faces became so ugly that the sisters could not recognize one another. Someone says, "I have faith." Yes, faith which cooks onions, fries meat, washes dishes and fights with doubt. Thus, these two sisters, Faith and Knowledge, not recognizing one another, started to quarrel and to argue which one was first - Faith or Knowledge. Then the whole world was divided: one part of the people took the side of Faith and became religious, while the other took the side of Knowledge and became materialists. Then the bombardment started, "I am a learned person, but you are ignorant," "You have faith, but you are first-class ignoramus." Now we have thousands of volumes written on materialistic philosophy and faith, but these two sisters have not been reconciled yet. When the Lord saw them quarrelling, He sent His Son to reconcile them. Some ask, "How can they be reconciled?" By self-sacrifice. Some ask, "Who is the man and who is the woman?" Woman is Faith, while man is Knowledge. When a man and a woman quarrel, they do not know each other. The woman says, "I want to be a man." In heaven you were two sister-goddesses who came down from heaven to rectify the world. One of you became a woman cutting onions and the other became a man who opened a shop selling water-melons, pumpkins, onions and so on. Instead of rectifying the world, they spoiled it to such an extent that even the Lord Himself cannot recognize it. What is needed is deep, right and sincere thinking. When a man and a woman unite, their testimony will be true only if it is done with Wisdom and Love. Love is that great power which can bear the greatest sufferings without fainting in spirit. That is Faith. But Wisdom is that power with which the most difficult problems in life can be solved. All hardships today are problems which we must solve and not say, "Lord, do away with them, we don’t need them." The mother says, "My poor child is suffering so with the hard problems their teacher gave them, they have grown weak and do not get enough sleep." The Lord has not sent your child to earth to sleep. He has sent them to study. Sleep is naturally necessary as a rest, but one may rest for five or ten minutes, or for two hours, but for no more than seven hours - that is not permitted. Your law also states that the testimony of two persons is true. Often these two persons appear in court and start blaming one another. The man says, "I protest, Your Highness, these witnesses are biased. Order them away, I will summon others," and brings two new witnesses. Then the woman remonstrates, "Your Highness, these witnesses are far from disinterested." Finally the judge is at his wits’ end and puts off the case. That is why the highest art in law is to be able to postpone a case which you cannot win. You are lawyers, too, who put off the case which means that you leave your problems in life unsolved expecting more favorable times to come, saying like the judge, "Now, I am somewhat indisposed." Do not put the blame on your mind calling it weak. Never say that your heart is perverted. You may quote the Scriptures that the mind is perverted; these are only philosophical statements of the prophets, but you must understand the deep meaning of these words. If the heart was perverted and had no value, God would never have said, "My son, give me your heart." He does not say, "Give Me your life." You must give your heart to God so that He may teach you how sublime and noble your heart is and how the sources of your present and future life are hidden in it. No one can live if their heart is disturbed. The doctors today recommend calmness of the heart too. There might be slight disturbances on its surface, but it must be calm and quiet in its foundation. There may be drafts, but they should never disturb the heart. When your mind and heart turn to God, He hears your prayer and directs your destiny rightly. The heart and the mind are two quantities, two elements of the group which the occultists call astral-mental world, but I call it credo-philosophical - to coin a new word - a credo-philosophical world. Therefore, the testimony of these two, this credo-philosophical law is considered true in the divine world as the testimony of light and warmth in the physical world. Light is the quality of Wisdom while warmth is the quality of Love inherent in it. But it is not the warmth you feel. You often feel the unpleasant vibrations of heat. When you have the experience of a mystic to fall into an ecstatic state, only then can you feel this Inner Divine Warmth - the quality of Love. Such warmth can melt and purify everything. You must increase your warmth; however, not according to the Celsius thermometer, but by studying alchemy and the vibrations of this warmth. It is so intensive that all impurities disturbing your life will be immediately cleansed. You can attain this by casting out all doubt from your heart and mind. Or let me express this idea differently: put doubt outside, rent a room for it, pay the rent, but do not keep it in your home. Applying this Great Law, Christ says, "I bear witness of Myself and the Father bears witness of Me." Which is the important question for which we have gathered today? I am not treating the question whether you will be given a kilogram of sugar next week; I am not treating the question which committee may permit this; I am not treating the question what peace treaty can be concluded. Many similar questions may be raised which have no importance for us. The important ones are: Why has a person come to the earth? Do you have a soul or not? Do you have a heart and is your heart in concord with your mind? Often your heart is troubled and you start looking for a friend to rid you of your trouble, but suppose they are in the same state? A group of people get together and say, "We are pessimists" and start proving their cause by philosophical discussion. They have a peculiar view of the world, finding it a bad world, and start to prove scientifically their thesis that this is the worst of worlds. Here are their arguments: it is bad because hens and sows are slaughtered; because there are earthquakes, wars and the like. If it were a good world, things would be different," they say. But I say, "You pessimists are those men and women winding the warp-beam and both are pulling it backward; but as soon as the cloth is warped, the woman takes the cloth and the man takes the shuttle and they say, "We have finished the work" and there are no more contradictions in life. Their work is the testimony that they have worked together in accord. We often say that the man and woman have pulled like the crab and the pike, but those are people who face two directions: from the center to the periphery and vice versa. If the man goes one direction, the woman goes another. Who is right? Both are right for they are moving from the center to the periphery. When both come to the periphery and start moving, then they are on the Way. If you study astronomy, you will notice that the earth and the sun have two opposite directions: the sun moves in one direction and the earth in another. And the earth always crosses the path of the sun. But the path of the earth is longer than that of the sun. If 52 million years are necessary for our sun to make one revolution around the centre of its circle; the earth should revolve 25 million times around the sun, the two making a large circle. Who is doing the bigger work? Both are doing their work well. The sun spends more energy, but the earth - more time. There is a law in physics that to save energy one must spend more time. Therefore, if in one respect you want to save the energy of your mind, you should spend the energy of your heart - and conversely. If you want to save the energy of your heart, you should spend the energy of your mind. For time becomes evident by the direction of motion. I am not philosophizing about time in its essence, but I say time is a factor determining the motion, the direction of your life. Energy, on the other hand, is the impulse of this motion from within. If we spend the energy of the mind, we save the energy of the heart and vice versa, if we spend the energy of the heart we spend the energy of the mind. Every given moment you will refer to the two witnesses. In the court it is the same - two witnesses cannot speak at the same time. When one is speaking, the other one must keep quiet; when one is expending energy, the other one must sit quiet and calm. If both start talking at the same time, the judge will say: "Wait!" Therefore, one determines the time, while the other the energy. Consequently, when one witness in you starts speaking, if you are a judge, you will tell the other one to keep quiet so that you can give time to your mind to make its statements. Do not disturb them. Let them speak to the end; then your heart will take its turn to testify. Also, in the process of education we must put the mind and the heart in most normal relations and leave them alone not hindering them with things which are not real. I am speaking to you first; but by the word "you" I mean this great mass of people, for every person is a collective being made up of millions and millions of beings together. All these souls are rational and listen to this talk. Do you understand me? I even notice at times that your eyes understand me better than your brains. The eyes have the sharpest perceptivity in the world. When you look a person in the eyes, you will notice if s/he understands you or not. When people do not understand you, their eyes are blurred. "Ahmed buorada, akil disharda," as the Turks say, meaning "Ahmed is here, but his mind is outside." When a person understands you, their penetrating look is fixed and you are aware that they comprehend everything and have contact with the relation of things. Everyone of you knows this. Many say, "I feel it." That is good, but you must also grasp it with you mind. If you have heeded only the testimony of your heart and not of the mind, you are on the wrong path of development. If the light within you works more than the warmth, you are again on the wrong way. Sometimes your feelings are intensive. When children fall into a state of extreme joy, they start jumping; but after that they are overtaken by a transitory state and they start crying as this joy is not natural In the bringing up of children, we must create both work for the heart and for the mind. And I beg you, when a person is speaking never stop them with your thoughts. If you do not want to listen to them, move away. A daughter says to her mother, "I do not want to listen to you," or a mother says to her daughter, "I do not want to listen to you." I repeat: let those who do not want to listen to people move away from them. It often happens that a child, inspired by what the teacher has said, comes home and starts telling it to their mother. However, she suddenly shouts out at them, "Get away, I won’t listen to your nonsense." In this case the mother is committing a grave crime. She must listen to her child and hear until the end what the teacher had told them as the child is giving their testimony. After interrupting the child in such a rude way for ten or twenty times, the child will surely take the wrong path in life - that is in relation to the mind. Sometimes the heart of the daughter is inspired; but the mother, having become a philosopher after her marriage, will stop her by saying, "Do not follow the foolishness of your heart, do not listen to it! The desires of the heart are the illusions of youth while meat is necessary for your meals!" Today, the tender soul of the daughter is disturbed by advice like this which is of no use. And when she becomes a mother she starts saying, "This is nonsense, the real thing is this or that." However, what the young girl, the daughter, felt in her heart was real. There is nothing more real than that. How do you want to taste a thing: with your tongue or with your heart? I shall cite again an example I have given you at other times. A Turk was pounding coffee in a big stone mortar with a wooden mallet and every time he struck with the mallet, he cried out, "Ha!" A man passing by his shop said to him, "I am jobless and offer you my services wishing to help you with your work. You will pound with the mallet and I shall say, "Ha!" They started working together. The Turk raised and dropped the mallet and the helper cried, "Ha!" They pounded up the coffee and the Turk started making coffee for his clients and when he took the money, he dropped it in the safe, not giving anything to his helper. The latter felt robbed and sued the Turk for not fulfilling the clauses of their agreement. When the judge was informed of how things stood, he ordered that a tin-can be brought to the court and said to the coffee-maker, "When you take money, drop it in the tin-can: you will hear the sound "Tin!" That will be the salary of your collaborator for saying "Ha!" You, who are obeying the taste of the tongue are like the Turks say, "Nefes orta." So be sure that your law also says that the testimony of two persons is true. In order to be able to understand the philosophy of life, you must have a pure heart and a pure mind. Your mind and heart must be in such a state that the mind should perceive things at the right time and the heart should feel them at the right time. But a philosopher might say, "You cannot feel and think like the angels!" When you come to their state, you will feel like them. There are different stages of development in life; every minute, every second bears their qualities and powers. Do not try to be alike or uniform. When God created the world, all the souls springing from the center of creation took different directions, like the sunbeams, each one bearing something from the divine center: different talents, different feelings and so on. There are no two souls alike in the world and they cannot be alike, although the difference between them may be small. In studying astrology, you will see that you are at a certain degree in one of the four sectors of the circle and this arc of 90° is equal to a quarter of the so called Platonic or Polar year, i.e. it is a period of 6,300 years. Two persons may be separated by an arc of 90°, or a period of 6,300 years. Suppose the first person A is in the beginning of the circle while the other one B is 90° away from them, which is a period of 6,300 years. The soul B is 6,300 years older than the soul A; hence it has more knowledge and experience. The soul C, which is on the same diameter with A, but on the opposite pole is still older and more advanced. While A has to pass the lower sectors of the circle, C moves along its ascending half. They will pass equal distances, but the knowledge they will acquire will not be the same. One half of the circle implies a downward movement, while the other and upward one. On the upward way, one acquires one kind of knowledge; but on the downward, another. Therefore, when we descend to the heart from the height of the mind, the latter acquires one kind of knowledge; while the heart moving upward to the mind acquires different kinds of knowledge and feelings. Thus, the formula is the following: the mind descending acquires mind-feelings, while the heart ascending acquires heart-thinking. You may ask, "What difference does it make?" The difference lies in the fact that when the heart prevails there is greater warmth; but when the mind has prevalence, there is greater light. When fruit and wheat are ripening, there must be warmth by all means to help the ripening process. When growth must take place in us, by all means, the mind must have prevalence. The one who wants to grow rightly should give priority to the mind. Growth and knowledge are of the mind; but development and expansion are of the heart. These are two great processes in our development; therefore, their testimony is necessary and true. The Lord says, "You should work in accord with your heart and mind - then you will develop greatly in life." Now you are reading philosophical books as to what Kant or others have to say. What does this pear tree mean? It had blossomed and now bears fruit. What does a cat do? It mews. By mewing it may want to say that it wants meat, or that it is looking for its children. There are different kinds of mewing. Some people speak, but what do they say? Nonsense. What is nonsense? If I visit mentally deranged people, I shall be a fool in their point of view, although I am a philosopher. A religious person will be considered foolish by a society of materialists and a materialist will be considered stupid in a religious society. But I say that both are intelligent - the one who serves Faith and the other who serves Knowledge. Yet, we promptly label them, "This person is stupid; that one is infidel so do not listen to them." But neither one has a right idea about God. Please excuse me, but in my viewpoint, God is neither a concept, nor an idea. We have an idea of the things God has created, of His manifestations, but have no idea of Him whatsoever. We have an idea of God’s Love and His Wisdom, but He is more than the manifested love and wisdom. You may have an idea of them, but if you say you have acquired a deep knowledge of God, you are only deluding yourself and your ideas will be refuted. For thousands of years the river Iskar did damage to the nearby villages. How many houses and land it has inundated and destroyed! When the peasants were drowning, they would say, "This is our destiny." From time to time they would harness the river water to run a mill, but when a flood came, it carried the mill away. But people today are wiser. They harnessed the Iskar to produce electric power to light their homes and to run trams. You can see what great energy this dangerous Iskar possessed. It has always said to people: "Put me to work. I bring you much good; but if you do not, I shall cause you much damage." Your child is like the Iskar. You say, "I am tired of this child. Why did God give them to me? It causes so much mischief." Do as you did to the Iskar: drive a tunnel, place turbines and the water will produce electricity which will move cars and light houses. The learned pedagogues say, "We must educate our children in religion and in knowledge and respect of their parents." Do you understand this? Neither you, nor those pedagogues have understood this. For 8,000 years it has been repeated over and over again that people should be educated and believe in God. And those who do not believe should be considered infidels. But Christ says, "The testimony of these two is true." Only the testimony which our heart and mind give us simultaneously is true. Only those things in nature, which are unchangeable, speak the Truth. Whenever someone tells of their experience, or cites this or that philosopher or mathematician; according to my mathematics, I exclude 50% of what was said first; then 25% more; then I start thinking about the remaining 25% and the group it belongs to - variations, permutations or combinations, e.g. orderings, transpositions or combinations. What are our relations to God? Some say, "May God help us fix ourselves up nicely; marry our daughter well; then have nice children, full barns, oxen, good food and drink and so on." We daily fix ourselves up and finally we die. The priest comes and starts chanting, "Blessed be our God," ending with, "May their soul rest in peace." Whoever wants the Lord to fix them up must pass through all these variations, permutations and combinations and not remain only in the orderings. Bulgaria is issuing only orders and instructions at present; but this is only an overloading of the camel: placing goods and loads on its back until its back breaks. What God is testifying within us is the spirit speaking in us; and we, as children of God, should be able to give ear to His voice. Some days ago a young officer of the reserve visited me and told me he fell ill of an incurable disease. He was on his death bed when he chanced on a booklet about healing by hunger by a doctor Muller. He decided to fast for 22 days. He described his experience during the first, the second and third day and the result was that his illness disappeared. Then he went to Plovdiv to the doctor who had told him his illness was incurable and said to him, "Examine me." The doctor examined him and said, "You are in good health." That man applied fasting with his whole mind and heart whereby his mind was clarified and he turned from a materialistic man into a spiritual man. He understood that there is something else in the world besides what people know. He became a sort of clairvoyant and going to a believer, he confessed that the Spirit led him to that idea; however, the believer said to him that his mind was somewhat weak. For ordinary people, a believer is only a person who believes in chopped meat, drinking, money - their mind is sound, but for them the belief in spirits is a mental derangement. From their point of view some are wise, others are foolish, but from my point of view all are good. The newspapers write about different criminals and want punishment for them. They look one-sidedly at things, but they should have faith only in the positive things. All visible things must be cast out for they are not in the Divine World. We must penetrate deeply in our souls and hearts and avow to ourselves that we are S and ons of God who have come out of the Divine Center that is why we shall do the Will of God. Some say, "I want to be good." This is the wrong way to take for you can never be good; you must do the Will of God. You may be good; but if you do not do the Will of God, you are bad. Present-day people must decide to do the Will of God in the full sense of the word and not in the way they understand it, for what they are doing is not the Will of God, but rather a service to themselves. To do the Will of God is to feel Oneness with God, then we are filled with joy and we regard all people calmly for we know the causes and effects of their faults. But when each person serves only their self, there is no mutual understanding and this is the source of all evil in the world. If your heart should stop beating for half an hour, it will begin to stink. The same thing would happen to the mind, if it should stop working. People say that someone’s breathing has stopped; but that is not tru,e for when breathing and the beating of the heart stop on the physical plane, the soul begins to work. This is an experience of all who have been engaged in the spiritual sciences. You ask, "What will become of me when my heart stops beating?" Your soul will wake up. "What will become of me when my mind stops working?" The Divine Spirit will wake up. I have no intention of making you fast for 22 days like that young man I told you about. I do not recommend such a fast to you, either. You will not attain anything if you have no faith. I should say that young man got rid of doubt and awakened the Divine in himself. If you want to fulfill all your obligations and do away with all your misfortunes, fast for 5-10-15-20 days and then you will learn the causes of all things. But your heart and your mind together should prompt you to this act. Only then can you fast and have an excellent result. But if your heart says, "Fast," and your mind says, "Don’t!", then do not begin fasting. Some may say, "We can do without fasting." That cannot be. At a certain moment in your life when we must strengthen our will and unite it with the Will of God and see the testimony of these two witnesses, we must fast. Now, I will speak about the influence of the planets on people. Those who are under the influence of the earth will be avaricious of material gain. When you notice this quality of avarice in a person, know that they are under the influence of the earth. When you have a desire to act and complete or create something, Mercury has influence over you. When your heart begins to love, the planet Venus is influencing you. When Mars is influencing you, a desire to fight and show that you are strong and powerful takes possession of you. When the planet Jupiter influences you, you will become more temperate and self-controlled, rather quiet; but aspiring for freedom and brotherhood. Under the influence of Saturn, your sensitiveness will increase, as well as your sense of smell. Uranus will make your heart stronger; while Neptune will increase your sense of sight and make you a clairvoyant. All these planets of the solar system cause different manifestations in people. When all the planets (which are living and rational) act at the same time, then we are in harmony. When you say you do not like the world, then understand that you are under the influence of the Earth. If you want to have all the riches of this world, that would draw you away from God. You have not come to the earth to become rich, but to gain knowledge and understand these two witnesses I am speaking to you about. You must study your heart and mind for they are the two professors who are teaching you. The heart is an excellent professor. It is that Goddess I spoke to you about - it is Faith, it is Love, and linked with Knowledge it creates the religion on earth. Do you understand this professor who is within you? You say, "My mind is foolish." It means that your professor, who has taught you, is a foolish person who did not know his job. But I say to you that you do not understand or listen to your mind and heart. Someone may say of a person that the latter does not believe in God. But I shall say that they do not believe in their heart. "But s/he is not a wise person." I say, they not believe in their mind. Those who despair of this world and want to commit suicide do not love the Light. No one wants to commit suicide on a high place, on a mountain, but rather in some dark place or cellar. Those egotistic forces which want to hinder your development, cause a darkening of your mind so that a crime may be committed, and then throw the blame for this crime on the mind. The Goddess who has come down from heaven does not commit crimes. In the same way, your heart, your faith, (this Goddess who has come from above) does not commit crimes. Therefore, I say to all of you, "Believe in your heart, believe in your mind; then the second stage will come - you will believe in your soul and spirit; and after that - in God and in His Son. Only in this way will you acquire a true philosophy for understanding the Great Law of Nature." You ask what is your predestination. You, the citizens of Sofia, should go up the Vitosha mountain four or five times in the summer. Visit all the waterfalls; climb the highest peak in Bulgaria, Moussallah, and go up Belmeken. You will say, "We need boots, which are expensive now." You need excursions - excursions up the mountain. These excursions are a stimulus which will develop the mind and the heart of a person. By all means, you should climb to high places. By saying "climb high mountains", I am using a symbol. A person who wants to develop their mind must, by all means, climb high places. A person who wants to develop their heart, should go down low places. Climbing up and down require heroism. How many mountaineers have wanted to climb the Himalayas, but have not succeeded because the high peaks are inaccessible. Also in human development there are places that the human mind has not been able to climb. In Bulgaria some people do not even know Moussallah, and who knows how few people have climbed this peak. I think that one in ten thousand has gone up. And since Mont Blanc is the measure for gauging the European mind, I shall say that few people have climbed the peak of that mountain either. You will say, "These are abstract things which have no relation to our ‘food-providing committee’. Do you know our difficult condition today? There is no butter and cheese, no produce." Whoever needs butter, let them come to me and I shall give them a method of extracting butter from nature. You can have as much butter as you want, if these two witnesses within you are speaking the truth. Come, let us make an experiment. I put this Divine Science under a live experiment: we shall make the experiment with those of you in whom these two witnesses are speaking and do you know what your state will be then? In India a great Brahmin master had a cow which was so beautiful that the local prince wanted to take it. First he tried to buy it for money. "I do not want any money," answered the Brahmin. "But I shall give you as much money as the cow weighs." "Even if you gave me the whole world, I would not give you my cow." "Then I shall take it by force!" "Just try!" The prince sent ten policemen to take the cow by force, but the Brahmin waved his hand and they fell flat on the ground. The prince sent one thousand policemen; but the Brahmin waved his hand and they also fell flat on the ground. The prince finally sent 20,000 policemen - they all fell just like the others. The man would not give up his cow! The prince was convinced that the Brahmin was a strong person, so he went to him and became his disciple. He wanted to find out how the Brahmin had acquired this secret force. He started living like him. After a life of one thousand years he tried to take his cow with no success. After a life of two thousand years and one more unsuccessful attempt to take the cow, he found out that he had become stronger than the Brahmin; but now he thought, "Why should I need his cow? I have no need of it." Now I say, find this cow; it is within you and when you find it, you will have milk, butter and everything you need. In a word, as people say - honey and milk will start flowing. It said that in the distant past milk and honey were flowing in Palestine and it took two men two carry a bunch of grapes, but now, neither milk, not honey flow there. There are reasons for this. Make room in your heart and mind for everything you consider good in the world - this is the first rule. Say, "Everything is good." Even if it is not so, say it is and it will become so. Saying it is good, you will take another direction. Say, "I do not want his money. I have no need of this burden." It is a bad thing to desire something you cannot have or bear. At this moment, for instance, of what use will riches be to you when tomorrow a catastrophe may take place? We are, so to speak, preparing ourselves for the other world; but we do not believe in it. If anyone should start speaking about spirits now, the others will say they are out of their mind. There was a preacher in America who liked to exaggerate when speaking. He had a friend by the name of John whom he called and said to him, "Do me a favor, John, when you hear me exaggerate, turn your forefinger this way." One day the preacher talked about Samson who caught three hundred foxes and started explaining that the tails of the foxes were three meters long. "And this is a fact, because such and such an author says so," and he started quoting, but his friend turned his forefinger. "But, he continued, this looks to me improbable and I suppose the tails were two meters long," and he started quoting another author, but his friend turned his forefinger again. "However, this also seems to me improbable, but they must have been one meter long," and he started proving this by quoting, but his friend made again a sign with his forefinger. "Now, this looks to me unnatural, certainly the tails have been as long as those of our foxes - about 50 or 60 centimeters." John turned his finger again, but this time the preacher jumped and cried out, "John, I cannot shorten them anymore." The tails in Samson’s times were as long as in our times. What cause is there for argumentation that such and such an author said this or that? People read different philosophers until finally they are forced to see the truth in nature - how things really are in life; what the heart and the mind are saying. Be loyal to these two principles and you will have the support of the Invisible World which is around you and helps everyone who seeks the Truth. We are not alone on this earth so there is no need of our worry about sustenance, for everything is prepared for us. In the past when the Lord led the Hebrews out of Egypt across the desert, He gave them manna for food and ordered them to gather it only for the day it was given and not to store it up, except for the Sabbath. However, the Hebrews did not obey Him, and as they had practiced in Egypt (which represents the present-day culture, they) gathered manna for two days and it spoiled. We people today, in our effort to store up for the future, do not give our minds and hearts even some rest. That is why everything in our life is spoiled. Do you know what this means? It is just like a child who wants to take his mother’s time the whole day. We call such a child disobedient. There is time for the child, but there is time for the mother as well. Do not think that your time is exclusively for your children; neither theirs for you. Part of your time must be devoted to God and to your neighbors as well. All people must devote some time in order to know what is the Great Law. Some time should be consecrated to God. But what do you do? You look after your business or work. And what happens? You lose ten times more time. Someone may say, "Are there any statistics you can show us by which to determine what has happened to those merchants who have not fulfilled the Law, and to those farmers who have not acted according to this Law?" A poor person sometimes asks you for alms which means that the Lord sometimes wants you to consecrate a little time to Him. Let the merchant give the beggar something; let him tell them a kind word. He says instead, "Get out of here for I have work to do." Then the Lord notes down in His book that such and such a person has not consecrated the given time to Him. A merchant acts this way three or four times and then a crisis comes to him and he loses 100 or 200,000 leva. The Lord takes it because he has not fulfilled the Law. But what happens to a farmer who does not fulfill the Law? He sows his field two or three years, but the field gives no crop because he has refused to devote a short moment to God. The priests, on the other hand, will say that one must consecrate all their time to God. That is well said, but they do not do it themselves. Moses, who gave the Law of Rest, was much wiser, for he said: "Work for yourself, for your wife and children, for your friends, six days a week and consecrate the seventh to the Lord your God." This rest is necessary to you so that you may enter your Inner World and evaluate the experiences of the other days of the week. You should say to your wife and children, "Leave me alone today that I may serve the Lord.” But then, do not worry that the children will fight, that your wife may not be well-disposed. Leave them alone; do not pity them too much. If you pity your family and friends on that day, you will lose the Divine Harmony which is a great moment in your life. Some people come to me and complain that they have nothing to eat. I have tried all kinds of ways in which people can nourish themselves. I have eaten only an apple a day, or only beans and I have survived. In my opinion only bread is the best food. But you object to this and say it is not sufficiently nourishing; however, I say that meat, butter, olives, sausages, soup cooked with lamb’s liver are less nourishing. You call my way of nourishment a "monk’s way of eating." Our animal mind has deluded us and made us carnivorous; the instinct of the swine has deluded us and made us omnivorous for the swine eats everything. Once a priest visited me and as I was saying these things to him, he said, "But I have healthy stomach and can eat everything." "Let him eat everything he wants," I said. But after eating he was ill for two days. Of what? "Indisposed." My friends, your stomach tells you, you are not a sensible person. When we eat we should thank our soul for giving us everything that is necessary. We do not need any superfluities. What is necessary for us is to come to know our mind and our heart for they are Divine. Seek only what is necessary in life: seek it in your mind, in your heart, in your life. It will not leave any remnants in you out of which impurities may remain in the person. Only if you turn to your mind and heart, will you then be able to reform your life and society - you will solve both problems at the same time. Everyone will work with what is given them. You will not all do the same thing since there is a variety of things to be done. Everyone will work according to their own understanding. By entering this Great Divine Plan I talked to you about, the Bulgarians and Bulgaria will put their life in order. I recommend to Bulgaria to make an experiment - to give heed to her mind and heart and in ten years’ time, her life will be put in order. Let every Bulgarian make an experiment of obeying their mind and heart. Let no one compel another. If your friend is not walking in the right way, direct your thoughts to them and in this Divine Way send them your help; then see how thier life will change. When a flower is not watered a long time, it is crying "Water! Water!" When there is humidity we say it needs warmth and light. We need this humidity, this Inner Light and heat. Some may say, "This is hard to apply." Heroes are needed for this teaching, not cowards. What is important for us is what nature is teaching us, what we were created for – and not what philosophers have written in the past, nor what the people of learning are writing now. Have we been created to become victims of the battlefields, to torture and hang people? Not in the least. God has created us for great purposes. We call ourselves cultured people, feigning we serve God as Eastern Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants; but we all kill hens and lambs the same way. We are not cultured people yet. From now on, the future belongs to a real culture - the culture of our heart and of our mind. Let there be no two thoughts and two feelings in people about things. Let us always speak the Truth, always cherish the Good in our heart, and be ready to sacrifice ourselves for it. I am ready to sacrifice myself for what I believe, I have experienced this. I see what others do not see. It is preferable for a person to wear a dressing-gown but have a fresh mind and speak the truth than to wear a crown and have a high post in the world, but be the worst of liars. Brothers and sisters, do you know how deluded you are! Do you know what you told me one time when you were leaving heaven? What fine ideas, what wonderful programs, what high purposes you had at that time? You were beautiful and powerful as I know you, but as I am looking at you now, I pity you. If I could weep, I would. I would not weep for your sufferings, however, but for your delusions; for not knowing how to be happy on earth and where your happiness is. Life in its present condition is slavery - a big prison. Have no illusions, realize your condition and come out of it. You, being in this prison are thinking how to reform it so that the prisoners may live well. But I say unto you, "Come out of this prison!" Some will say: "The time has not come yet," and prefer to live thousands of years in the prison. No, five years have passed, the term is over. Has not the time come for you to leave the prison? Thousands of years have passed and you are still in it. Come out of it! You will call the policeman and say to him, "We were sentenced on the basis of such and such law to stay in prison for so many years. The term is over and we want you to set us free!" Raise your mind and your heart and appeal to God, call Him to set you free from this prison. All that you see now will be leveled with the ground in ten years; nothing will remain of these laws. Such will be the end of this world with its present perversion. A New Culture will come when people will listen to their hearts and minds and live like brothers according to a deep comprehension of that Law which says, as it is also written in our law, that the testimony of the two is true. I am not telling you to become pessimists, but to be heroes. Work among all people and tell everybody that the time has come for us to live a human life on earth. But you will say that people do not wish this. You will convince them, because the right is on our side. A common brotherhood will be created in the whole world. This slavery will be abolished; the rich and the poor will become equal; the learned and the ignorant will be put on the same footing; all people will become equal according to the Law of Wisdom and Love. This will be the New Culture. Arm yourselves with this idea. Be heroes and fear nothing. You have served the devil long enough. People believe in him more than in God. Say, "From now on we shall believe in the Living God Who moves the world and Who has decided to reform it." For that reason He has sent His servants. If you do not do this, the stones will come to life and reform the world. It is written that the trees and the animals will rise, but if you do not rise, you will be the last in the Kingdom of God. You will say that I am strict. Please excuse me, but this is not strictness. I am only saying that your relationship as brothers and sisters are not what God requires. I am telling you the very truth. Give up all squabbles among you for there is no reason for them. But you say, "I am an Eastern Orthodox," "I am a Catholic," "I am an Evangelist," "I am a Communist," "I am a Theosophist," "I am a Spiritualist," "a Frenchman," "a Bulgarian" and so on. When God created the world, we were not separated into different creeds and nationalities. Now we have become French, English, Italians and tutti quanti. Let us turn to the Great Truth which God is pointing out to us and which calls us to a great task. Put your minds and hearts to work so that we may create a great wave in the world which will lead us in the way of mutual accord and the Great Laws of Nature. Then you may be sure that the future will be yours. Sermon by the Master November 16, 1919. -------------------------------- [1] John 8:17

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul COSMIC LOVE When you hear the words “Cosmic Love,”1 they may sound strange to you at first and you may ask yourselves how it is possible for Love to be cosmic. And yet, it is possible. I am using the word “Love” in a very broad sense. I use the word “Love” for the energy coming from the Center of the Universe and flowing toward its periphery. And I say “Cosmic Love” for the energy moving in the opposite direction: from the periphery of the Universe to the Center of Origin. So I call the process of creation and generation - “Love”, while the constructive process going from the bottom upward I designate as “Cosmic Love.” Whenever we speak of the cultural, social, political, and spiritual life - the reference is to Cosmic Love revealed in its great work; in other words, Cosmic Love represents a conscious process carried out individually in the Universe. I will ask you to set your views aside for a moment, whatever they might be, and reason with me without criticizing. If you desire to benefit from this, you need to perceive things precisely as the camera photographs the landscape exactly as it appears and then you may criticize. If you place yourselves beforehand on a critical ground, you will perceive things incorrectly and as a result your critique will be unreasonable. I speak about Cosmic Love because it is an essential element for each one of you. Whoever desires to be healthy and fortunate needs to understand the intrinsic power of Cosmic Love. Many speak of Love and Cosmic Love, but they confuse them. Love is creating, while the Cosmic Love is manifesting. In some cases, however, Love can destroy as well. The cat eats the mouse out of love because this is how it understands and demonstrates the process of love. Moreover, you know that the cat eats the mouse without removing its fur and skin; it does not discard the impurities, but swallows it whole. It seems strange that cats though being a model of excellent neatness do not know how to eat. Many people have the same habits as cats: for example, they do not know how to eat. When people accept thoughts in their mind swallowing them with all their impurities like fur, skin, intestines, stomach, and so on - this shows a lack of culture in nourishment. Such people have the cat’s voracity and love. When we slaughter and eat animals, with this we also express our love for them. If animals ask us why we kill and eat them, we would need to answer that we are doing it out of our great love toward them and because we wish to have them inside us rather than look at them only from the outside. Love says, “I acknowledge no other existence than mine own and any being that is outside me needs to enter into me.” This is how Love has been understood by our elders; and this is how the new generation understands it as well. We believe that we will encounter a contradiction, if we understand it differently. In the social, political, and spiritual life of today, all people suffer from overabundance of love - every person has had more love than their fill is. Simply said, this is how things stand: if a woman has a lot of wool and leaves it unwoven, the wool will begin to smell. Yet in my opinion it is her love that has begun to smell. She needs to discover the process of Cosmic Love and begin to wash, comb, spin, and weave the wool. Like this woman, you might have a lot of wool; individually, you might be wealthy merchants, philosophers, scholars, ministers. All this is good. However, if you do not spin and weave with your knowledge, I tell you that you are ministers of wool, merchants, philosophers, scholars of wool. You have only wool that is not spun. The wool needs to be spun. It will be spun when that great process of Cosmic Love begins and the Cosmic Power is being awakened in us. According to the modern philosophers this will happen when the Higher Consciousness is awakened within us; when we understand that we need to work for the common good of the entire humankind and all living beings, visible and invisible. You might say that my idea is somewhat unusual. Indeed, it is unusual, but not all unusual things are untrue, just as not all things that are common and familiar to us are always true. To clarify my idea, I will make use of an image. In the past, in the Golden age of the human culture, in the so-called “First Race of gods” - there lived a great sage. One of his disciples came to him and said, “It is my desire to learn from you one of the greatest secrets of Life: how to take whatever form I wish so that to become enormous. I want to be as big as the Sun, filling all space around and thus to become visible to all.” The sage told the disciple, “Let it be according to your wish.” The disciple was very pleased and told himself, “Finally, I learned the great secret of being visible to all and now I will be the happiest of beings.” However, he forgot to ask his teacher how to diminish when he would like to become small again. Indeed, he became very large and all could see him, but he was incapable of communication. He was standing so high that he could not see the people neither could speak to them. For this reason, he went everywhere by himself and felt very lonely. All could see that he was unusually large and so, many scientists, philosophers, physicists, and astronomers began to study him, searching for the reason that Nature had made him like this. Thousands of theories and legends were created regarding his origin. The great sage, his Teacher, merely said, “The reason for his size is nothing else, but his wish to become large so as to be noticed by everyone; and I fulfilled his desire.” Another disciple came to this sage and said, “Master, I ask you to teach me the secret of diminishing myself to such an extent that no one in the world will be able to see me.” The sage fulfilled his desire as well and the disciple became first very small and then invisible. And yet, he, like the first disciple, forgot to ask how to return to his original form, so after he became invisible and descended to the greatest depths of creation, as he had desired, he was not able to return any more, when he wanted to. These two disciples represent the two polarities in creation: the great worlds and the small worlds. The microbes which afflict people, for example, conceal themselves everywhere, becoming invisible to all. After a while, a third disciple came to the sage and said, “Master, it is my wish to learn from you the properties of light and heat so that I might simultaneously be visible like light and invisible like heat: visible like light to be able to illuminate the great worlds and invisible like heat to be able to warm up even the smallest of the beings on Earth.” The Teacher answered him, “Let it be according to your wish.” Therefore, there are three processes in the world today running simultaneously. According to the first process, some people want to become wealthy, to be scholars, philosophers, statesmen, generals, nation builders. We call such people “great” because they have learned the art of expansion. They know the secret of expanding themselves so that to attract all people and societies to themselves, but have not learned the greatest secret - the art of organizing people and societies into conscious units. The magnet attracts iron filings, but it does not know how to organize them. To organize does not yet mean to educate: to educate does not yet mean to teach the Law of Cosmic Love. Therefore, when we speak of the Light, we imply that process in which the human mind expands and attains inner selfawareness. When we speak of heat or warmth, we consider the process of concentration through evaporation or the process of inner transformation. Light is a process that comes from the center and goes to the periphery; while Heat is a process that comes from the periphery and goes to the center. I call the “arterial blood” - Light and the “venous blood” - Heat. Therefore, when Cosmic Love passes through the human heart, it acts like the venous blood, absorbing and casting off all impurities. For this reason, we say that Cosmic Love heals. Light and Warmth - or in other terms, the arterial and venous blood - are constantly being exchanged within the human body; and the human body was created through these two processes. These two flows, these two processes can be found everywhere, including the mind, heart, and soul of every human being. Therefore, in order to research Life, we need to study it not as we see it today, but as Nature have initially created it. People of today may argue whether the soul exists or not; that is a matter of understanding. A person has consciousness and soul, thoughts and mind, feelings and heart as well. Can you see a melting object without associating it with heat? Can you see an illuminated object without associating it with light? Our delusions come as a result of the shadows cast upon us and that is why, we need to shed more light and warmth upon ourselves so that we can make our progress visible. To clarify this great idea, I will tell you an esoteric story. If I were to speak to you philosophically, the subject would not be interesting to you. I want to make the Truth accessible to your minds and for this reason, I am going to use the language available to us. In that kingdom, I have mentioned before, there was a king who had two daughters and one of them was very beautiful. One day, she went to a great Teacher of Wisdom and said, “Master, may I ask you to make me so beautiful as to enchant everyone passing by and so tender-hearted that whoever sees me not to want to part from me. Also, I wish for my sister to be deprived of these qualities and nobody to love her so that she would stay at home all the time not to hinder with me.” The sage answered her, “Let it be.” The princess mounted a horse, looked proudly around and said, “I am the king’s daughter!” People, horses, oxen, flies - all that she encountered in her way - was gathering around her. The many horses surrounding her started to kick each other striving to be closer to her and raising much dust in the air. The oxen were butting horns and also fighting to be closer to her. The bees started to sting each other, as did the wasps for the same reason. A terrible fight and noise arose and the animals, one after the other, started to fall dead on the ground. Observing all this, the king’s daughter realized how wrongly she had perceived Life in the Universe. Clutching her head, she went to her sister and said, “Help me, sister because I have committed a great offence!” I ask you: If a king’s daughter like the one above appears inciting much kicking and fighting among you, if all people begin to pull each other’s hair and fight because of her - has the king’s daughter brought the meaning of life to you? No. If you are of two minds and cannot find any meaning in life, you need to discover what caused you to be unjust to your soul. The king’s beautiful daughter is our body, for which we are ready to sacrifice everything in life. Philosophers, writers, politicians, clergymen, they all live only for their bodies. Often the most important thing for us in life is to indulge the body focusing mainly on what we eat and drink, how we prepare the meal and from what - meat or vegetables; whether to bake our food or boil it, and so on. We gather for banquets and say, “That is what life is about!” I say: That is what the stomach is about! You say, “Let’s put the social life in order.” Yes, but let’s put the social stomach in order: in fact that is what you imply. When your stomach is upset, the whole social and political life is upset as well. Ask any doctor if a person whose stomach is upset could philosophize and dabble in politics. Years ago, when I was returning from the village of Knyazhevo[2], I saw a banker on the streetcar and heard him complain to his friend that he had not been permitted to eat anything, only to drink milk for some time. His friend asked him, “Why so? Are you not your own master?” “Yes, but my stomach is upset.” “Well, if so, you need to bear the consequences.” Hearing of the banker’s stomach distress, his friend was ready to acquiesce to any other philosophy of life. It is the stomach that gives direction to the feelings and actions of many people. Cosmic Love represents a Great Law that allocates the actions of all forces in our consciousness so harmoniously as to supply everything created with the appropriate food it requires. Love provides appropriate thoughts for the mind; appropriate aspirations for the heart; and appropriate actions for the will. Yet, only mothers can teach Cosmic Love. When a mother forms her infant’s body, she supplies the child with Cosmic Love through her self-sacrifice. Only the one who sacrifices oneself will live because this person experiences the rejuvenating joy. Many wealthy Bulgarians of the past are no longer remembered, but Botev[3], Rakovski[4], and others who have sacrificed their lives continue to live in the national memory because they have learned the Law of Cosmic Love. Someone may object, “Yes, but Botev was not a believer.” It is not so important if someone is a believer like us. What really matters is whether that one has realized and applied the Law of Sacrifice for the others. That is what is really essential and enhancing for our further development. When I am told that some people are not believers and have eccentric views, I ask whether their views are uplifting for them and the society or not. If the answer is positive, it does not matter that they appear to be nonbelievers in the eyes of the public. I ask: If the candle I carry is lit, while the other person’s candle is not lit, then who is the true believer? True believers are those who carry lit candles. When you see someone carrying an unlit candle, tell him to light the candle; then he will become a true believer. I tell all priests, ministers, citizens, socialists, communists: Light your candles so that you may become true believers. Light your candle, every one of you, from the biggest to the smallest one, until there will be no unlit candles because the Light is needed in the world. When the Light begins to shine, Warmth will also pervade the human heart; and with this, all hatred, along with our desire to become great or small, will disappear. In respect with the cosmic consciousness we settle issues not from the perspective of one single nation, but as per the Great Law, which gives us striving and makes our life meaningful. All those who take care of children, both parents and teachers, need to apply the new methods for children’s upbringing and education so as to be of assistance to their charges. Mothers and fathers send their children to school not only to acquire knowledge, but also to learn how to put this knowledge into practice. To begin with, teachers should teach children: how to eat and what foods, presenting their properties and qualities, pointing out the healthy ones, and so on. After that, they should teach them how to breathe - to take in the pure air. By “air,” I mean all thoughts, whatever they might be, as long as they provide inspiration and give a noble impulse for the human soul. It does not mean that I want to make you true believers. You are free to think and act as you wish. I only want to give you new methods in Life so that you can avoid contradictions at certain times. I compare the situation in which the society finds itself today to that of a caterpillar feeding on leaves. Yet, the time has come for the transformation of this caterpillar into a butterfly. How will it feed then? It will no longer feed on leaves; instead, it will learn the craft of wing making, so it will create wings for itself, will begin to fly and extract nectar from the flowers. According to the Law of Evolution, the society of today is passing from one state into another. Do not think that you will be able to live in the old ways. No, God has already deprived you of leaves - as it is written in the Divine Law! God will no longer permit you to feed on leaves, when “the time of butterflies” has come. Now is the time for you to fly and gather nectar. And you should already use your proboscis! In other words, people need to learn to manifest Love. This Teaching is bringing the New Culture that will create the New Human Being. The people of today have not even a notion about it. The people who will come will be great in every aspect: Virtue, Justice, Love, Wisdom, and Truth. You are going to open your homes to them and will become fearless in their presence; there will be no need for police or army to protect you. They will not impose their views upon you because the present contradictions will no longer exist. It will be a New Culture then. Some of you will be honored to take up this Elevated Culture; while others, if they continue to maintain their old mindset, will remain in the state of caterpillars. I do not want to reproach you with this; but I am introducing this Great Law, which Nature applies mercilessly and she is being absolutely just in her actions. Placing a person in a certain phase of development, she wants to see some results. She will not wait for him; rather, he is going to wait for her. When I speak to you in this way, do not think that I do not want to make you adepts of this Teaching. Believe, rather, that I want to warn you of a big catastrophe that is coming to you: if you delude yourselves and remain in the state of caterpillars for another ten years, there will be no more leaves left for you to eat. So I advise you to transform yourselves into butterflies ten days earlier than usual and to begin a new way of eating. If you allow disease to advance too far and the blood in your body to become poisoned, what will the doctor tell you? “It is too late; you should have called me sooner.” Many politicians divert the Bulgarian nation engaging it with things that are not imperious today. You need to understand that every nation has a predetermined mission and if it is not accomplished properly, the nation will be lost; nothing could save it. Each individual has a predetermined mission as well. You may object, “Let us take back Macedonia, Thrace, Dobrudzha![5] We do not need anything else.” It is not so. We need people who will govern this nation as it should be governed! When I speak to you in this way, I do not mean that all of you should rush to join some political party. I view Life from a broader perspective. To me, the human social life represents one big tree. Does the tree have only one leaf or one blossom? No, it has thousands of branches, leaves, and blossoms, big and small ones; as well as thousands of fruits. If I had the time, I would speak to you in detail as to what each political party represents. Each party with its views and platform corresponds to a branch, leaf, and fruit of a big tree. How long can a leaf of this tree live without a branch? Fall comes and it withers; or the wind comes and it is blown away. Indeed, the fallen leaves are still living, but now they live under the power of the wind: when it blows upon them, they move. I ask you now how you want to live: high in the tree or down on the ground? It has been said about someone: that person truly lives. He lives, but down on the ground and subjected to the power of the wind. When people say that they are ill-disposed, this indicates that they have fallen down from the Tree of Life. Man has fallen to be renewed so that his essence would be drawn off by the roots of the tree and he would reincarnate once again as a new, young leaf. This is the meaning of reincarnation, but it is embarrassing and disputable for many people. Christ said, “If you are not born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.” It means: If you are not re-born, you will not integrate into the New Culture neither will you become members of the Great New Humankind, which will bring all conditions for growth in life. The Kingdom of God abides in this New Culture. There will be no dead people - no funerals, graves, or monuments in this Kingdom - everyone without exception will be joyful there. The great persons like Paisiy[6], Botev, and others will be representatives of this New Culture. They will bring the new ideas and will be bearers of the New Teaching. People say, “Botev is not here, yet his spirit is.” Where is his spirit? How should one understand the meaning of “spirit”? The fundamental law of Lavoisier[7] is well known: Nothing in Nature is lost; therefore, everything that has ever been manifested continues to be. Some people are aware of such transformations while others are not. Yet, is it indicative that if I cannot see a thing, it does not exist? Many theologians and philosophers have contemplated on this one issue: the existence of God. For me, God exists as the Cosmic Love that I see everywhere and understand very well. It applies not only to me; every person who serves God sees Him and converses with Him every day. God lives in you. Not a single person can exist without God living in him. You should not speak ill of me, nor should I speak ill of you because God - against Whom not a bad word can be uttered - dwells both in me and you, in all of us. The fact that you have come to listen to me indicates that God has come with you too. What I speak to you is not new; you have had this knowledge stored in you for centuries. Someone may say, “Mr. Deunov preaches a new teaching.” It is only new for the time in which it is revealed. For instance, when I travel by train from Sofia to Tarnovo, things quickly fly by in front of my eyes. Some of them become past; others are present; and others are yet in the future. Do these things not exist simultaneously? Therefore, the past, present, and future exist simultaneously and represent one reality in the world. Those who have passed away, those who are living now, and those who will come in the future represent one reality too. I will leave this issue to you; you will have 350 thousand years to resolve it and I believe that you will succeed. After such a long period, I will come again to see how you have resolved it. We are not going to treat this issue today because it appears that it is not for now, but many thousands of years are required for its settling. The fact that people are currently deprived of bread, wood, salt, sugar, hygienic homes, and so on - these are the issues of today. Some speculate: those who are guilty should be hanged; women who create discord and other problems should be punished; we should declare war on our enemies in order to avenge ourselves. The purpose of all this is to satisfy the society and bring some people to their senses. Indeed, have women not been punished yet? Have the massacres, gallows, and wars not already existed? “Let us change the judges.” Will the new judges be any better? There is something wrong here. If I were to become drunk and as a result perceive the things around as being strange, this is because of my own world of a drunkard and not because everything in the world follows my lead. We resemble a Bulgarian named Ivan who went to pay a visit and was offered a drink. He drank as much as he could, but at a certain point, they began to push him to drink to the health of the mother, then to the health of the eldest son and of the eldest daughter. Thus, Ivan drank to the health of everyone in the household and became so drunk that he barely made it to the village fountain to water his horse. After the horse stopped drinking the water, Ivan insisted, “Drink to my health!” But the horse drew back and stepped aside. Ivan then said to the horse, “You have a better understanding of life than I. You were not compelled to drink more and more to the health of anyone.” We behave like Ivan as well: we gather somewhere and drink to the health of a certain party, to the health of some feminine organization, to the health of women, and so on. We make one concession after another, until we resemble the drunken Ivan, after which we say that we did not understand anything. People of today need to understand their duties toward the society, so that they might serve it as they should. When someone is asked, “Are you a Bulgarian?” he will answer, “Yes, because I speak the same language as all Bulgarians and profess one and the same faith as them.” This is not what distinguishes the Bulgarian as such. In my opinion, he should be honest and just, intelligent and good. If he possesses these four qualities, he is a Bulgarian. If he does not possess them, he is not a Bulgarian. Someone may say, “He is a priest.” I ask: Is he honest? Is he just? Is he intelligent? Is he good? If he possesses these qualities, he is a priest. Someone might be a lawyer, mother, father, teacher, or anything else; regardless, he needs to satisfy these four attributes, which are absolute essentials in social life. I would like that all Bulgarians possess these attributes and if they do, I will congratulate them. All should be dressed in Light, both inside and outside, and should be pure in flesh and spirit - just as Nature adorns the flowers with a wealth of colors and purity. As I said before: We need to be honest and just, intelligent and good in the full sense of these words - namely, in soul, mind, spirit, and willpower. We should possess a strong impulse to help one another as well. You can always have the Cosmic Love within yourselves. You are unhappy; your child has died, or you have lost your wealth. Why are you unhappy? It is because the Cosmic Love is not at work within you. One has lost some of one's senses; another has become discouraged. Why? It is because they have lost the Cosmic Love. When this Cosmic Love comes into us, we become powerful enough to accomplish everything. Those, whose Love is active, get never discouraged - they say that all failures and misfortunes are merely shadows of Life. Do not be afraid of these shadows! I compare misfortunes to the following: imagine a big tree with thousands of leaves that live together peacefully and quietly. A storm comes up and they begin to push one another and quarrel among themselves, asking, “Why are you so rough and pushy?” Then the storm passes and again they live together, quietly and peacefully. In this case, the cause for their argument is external. If this tree has understood the Great Law of Cosmic Love and in doing so, has avoided this quarreling, it would gradually be transformed into animal; the animal, if it would have understood Cosmic Love, will be transformed into human being; and the human being - into Angel. And when the human being attains this more sublime form, this person will be able to master the forces of Nature and overcome all trials and misfortunes. You may learn this Law from your little children. What do they do when they want something from their mother? They hug and kiss her tenderly, calling her, “Mom.” What is the meaning of this? Embracing their mother, children impart to her Cosmic Love with their left hand and Cosmic Wisdom-with their right hand. In this way, they impart their power to her so that she is really ready to do everything for them. That is why children are so lovable. The adults say, “If I kiss you, will I not catch some disease?” Children do not philosophize: If they need to kiss someone, they just do it and that is that. If my kiss can heal a person, I will readily kiss that person. If not, I will not do it. Every kiss should bear a blessing within itself. Visiting someone, you should not go with empty hands, but bring a present. When you go to visit a poor woman, for example, do not fill your wallet with money; but fill a bag with bread and fruits. The charitable organizations should do the same. At present, they collect money from here and there and use it to do good works. No, my friends, it is not good to give someone bread that is not baked by you. In the New Culture one cannot live by another one’s baking. The charitable organizations bring money around to the poor and after that, want to be paid for their labor. No, nothing should be paid them. When I serve, I should serve in Cosmic Love. When you come to my home, I shall receive you well: I shall feast you; I shall wash your hands and feet; I shall provide you with all resources needed for living; and I shall do any favor for you as I would for a friend. This is what is required by the New Culture. But today, when someone goes on a journey, he could stay somewhere as a guest for one day, but afterward, he should take a room in a hotel. Khan eri, baba eri,[8] say the Turks. The innkeepers are good people; they hold a higher position than common people. At first they are polite. However, when you leave, they immediately grab hold of you and say, “You must pay.” Are you aware of the situation in which we, the people of today, find ourselves? I will illustrate this for you with another example. A dervish went to a public bath, washed himself well, but upon leaving the bath, he discovered that he had not even a coin or two in his pocket to pay with. He then addressed the bath owner and told him, “Thank you,” on the way out. “Wait! What about paying?” asked the bath owner. “I have no money.” “Why did you come then?” The dervish was in a quandary what to do, so he directed his thoughts to God and said, “Lord, either give me money or bring this bath down.” In this moment, a great noise was heard. The bath came down and the bath owner came running to see what was happening. The dervish left unperturbed. Walking along, he saw an imam praying and said to him, “I know what you are praying for - money.” Modern society has always suffered from its too high want of money. In Bulgaria today, many treasury notes are issued, but where is the value? Value is what is needed. In contrast, what Nature provides does have value. If wheat, fruit, and potatoes exist, culture will exist; without them, there is no culture. Culture is determined by the Cosmic Love that is transmitted to us from Above. Do not think that the other planets and the Sun do not participate in our life. It is the Sun that is most interested in us and every year it sends a credit to Bulgaria worth of billions. If you go to the Sun, you will see that the solar citizens have many billions worth of energy for the sake of the Bulgarian culture, Cosmic Love, religious convictions, and spiritual advancement on the path of Truth. We focus our telescopes on the Sun and say, “The Sun is fire.” I contest this because fire is a weak force. A force does exist on the Sun, but it is not fire. It is something more powerful and it is beyond words to explain it. The Sun is not a body of fire, but a body of immense energy. I will not discuss the intrinsic aspect of this energy or explain how it has been developed, and so on. I wonder if you would believe me, if I were to tell you anything about the Sun as it is so far away from us. You do not believe in me or in my candor; you, yourselves, question if I have any hidden objectives or not - so how will you believe me when I am speaking about the Sun? The Sun is well-disposed to us - and this can be seen from its energies sent to the Earth and its bounties prepared for us daily - because without these forces coming from the Sun, life would be impossible. The solar forces are living and conscious. If we begin to think about the Sun in this way, we will be able to draw these forces into ourselves and they will generate a conscious regular process of growth within us. And so, Cosmic Love says, “Work with your heart and plant good wishes in it because each good wish will bear good fruit.” Plant good thoughts in your mind because each good thought will grow into a fruit tree. Do good actions using your willpower because each good action is a future fruit tree as well. Cosmic Love also says, “Never have doubts of yourself because every doubt is like leprosy.” Cosmic Love concludes, “Be courageous and decisive in life and in the struggles that befall you. Do not consider struggle to be a misfortune. Instead, consider it to be a process of work, which enables you to understand the inner meaning of Life. Discover the Laws that build the body as well as the stomach, lungs, and brain - so that you might be able to organize them properly.” We need to have the appropriate conditions for the manifestation of Cosmic Love within us. We do have these conditions in Life; they have been given to us. But if we do not make use of them, we cannot avoid the bad consequences. Suffering indicates that we are losing our life-force. We will continue to suffer until the lost balance has been restored. I will give you an example, which demonstrates that our beliefs and disbeliefs produce the opposite results. Once upon a time, there lived a great painter in Rome. He had the idea to paint the ideal image of Christ. He went through the town so as to find someone who would give an expression of his idea. He found a young man - 22–23 years old, and began to paint him. The work turned out to be quite successful. After some time the painter decided to paint Judas Iscariot as well. Again, he walked through the town in search of a suitable model. Finally, he found one and offered to paint him as Judas. The young man was astonished and turning to the painter, he said, “Sir, there is something very strange in your undertaking. Some years ago, you asked me to pose as a model of Christ and now you want me to serve as a model of Judas.” In the several past years, the young man had lived such a sinful life and his appearance distorted to such an extent that the painter was unable to recognize him. Yes, one can simultaneously be a Christ and a Judas, both in relation to himself and in relation to his fellowmen. We are creating our own character, so we need to be masters of our life, not expecting salvation from outside. Salvation is in us; it is nothing else but overcoming all the difficulties, which discourage us and hinder our progress. Mothers are those who recruit members for the different social strata and circles. As I have already said: While a mother is pregnant and the child is still in her womb, she can shape the kind of person she would like. Society depends on her for creating both its good and bad members. If a mother has conceived, but does not infuse her baby with Cosmic Love, she will not be able to form her child as she desires. If during her pregnancy, she attends frivolous balls and mindless concerts, spending her time seeking mainly entertainment, she will cause the creation of other individuals like Judas; and then she, herself, will wonder why her child did not turn out well. The mother is the cause. She has not created conditions for the building of something good. If children are gifted and with noble character, it is because their mothers have understood the Cosmic Law and at the appropriate time have given their children the possibility of using it. Character and strength are passed down to the child by the father; while the intellect is inherited from the mother. Honesty is passed down by the father; righteousness, by the mother. Only the father can make his son or daughter honest. Only the mother can make her son or daughter righteous. Sometimes, one will find children who are honest and intelligent, but they are not righteous and good. In such cases, I say that one of the parents has erred. If a child has all these four qualities, it indicates that both parents have worked in accordance with Cosmic Love and have imparted these qualities to their offspring. Cosmic Love is an excellent worker; whatever kind of wool you give it, Love will spin it. Showing us the spun wool, Love says, “This is what you gave me and this is what I created.” To clarify this concept, I will make a comparison with the following story. A young man by the name of Stoyan was a servant of a rich merchant. He worked honestly and gave all his earnings to the poor. Seeing this, his master constantly reminded him to make some savings for himself too because the old age is coming and he has no one to take care of him. Stoyan kept silent at these remarks or just said, “The Lord is good.” One day, his master fell into a deep sleep and had a very vivid dream. He was strolling through a beautiful countryside and there, amid the luxuriant landscape, he noticed a wonderful villa. He asked those present whose that villa was. “It belongs to your servant,” was the answer. “But he is only a poor man, where did he earn enough money to buy such a beautiful villa?” “He is poor indeed, but everything he earns on Earth, he is sending here; and with it, he has built this beautiful villa.” Walking further along, the master came to a more arid, desert-like place and noticed a small, meager cabin. He asked again, “Whose cabin is this?” “This is yours because you have never done anything for those in need,” was the answer. This story is true also in the sense that whatever a mother gives to her children in this world - and to the extent she gives it - that much she will receive back; and with it, she will build for herself either a beautiful villa or a small cabin in the World beyond. If she is generous in her Cosmic Love for her children, she will have a palace. By “palace,” I am implying the human character. If we introduce this New Law into the contemporary life, many of the big problems will disappear. I will conclude this lecture with one more example in order to emphasize what we truly need. In the time of the Ottoman rule, there lived a young Bulgarian who was an apprentice to a master potter. He studied pottery for many years and when he thought that he could work on his own, he told the master that he wanted to leave him. The master agreed and so he left. The young Bulgarian set to work. He formed pots, dried them in the Sun and set them finally in the kiln. But when removed from the kiln, the pots always cracked. He continued to work in this way for a while, but soon became discouraged as all his pots cracked. So he returned to the master and complained, “I do not know what is wrong with my work; my pots crack whenever I take them out of the kiln.” The master told him, “I am going to tell you the secret, if you work for me for three more years.” The young man agreed. He observed closely what the master was doing and noticed that whenever he removed a pot from the kiln, he would blow Hu! into each one of them. The apprentice then said to himself, “So, I needed to work an extra three whole years for this Hu!” You are all placed in the fire and if a master removes you from there, you will not be harmed; but if a novice does it, your pot will crack. The pot - this is you. The fire represents the difficulties in the world. The Master - this is your spirit. Stoyan in this case represents your soul that is learning how to create. Therefore, if you do not teach your soul how “to blow” and clench its fist, nothing will become of you. “To clench your fist” means to give your willpower the opportunity of acting in accordance with all precepts of the Law. Let each one of you stand in front of the kiln and say to the master, “Please, blow!” The blowing represents Cosmic Love. If Cosmic Love is implanted within you, your spirit will transform your body. You will become then worthy members of the New Culture and Humankind. I would like to greet all of you as members of this New Culture. I wish you to serve it with joy, to be bearers and workers of Cosmic Love. Only in this way will a nation be able to fulfill its mission well. Only in this way can Bulgaria raise as a nation and state. Be sure that if you receive Cosmic Love, everything will be resolved to your benefit. Nothing bad will happen to Bulgaria: the changes will come to pass without catastrophes or cataclysms. The New is coming, so there will be energy effusion from the unclean vessel into a clean one. As representatives of the New Culture, we are going to live without hatred, without malice. May Love and Cosmic Love be the two lodestars guiding our life on Earth. Lecture given by the Master at the gathering in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria on August 24, 1919. --------------------------------------- 1. There are two words in Bulgarian for love: lyubov and obich. Lyubov is translated into English as “Universal Love” or “Love” and obich is translated as “Cosmic Love” designating the human manifestation of Love as universal energy. 2. Knyazhevo: A former village in the outskirts of the Mount Vitosha, now a district of Sofia. 3. Hristo Botev (1847–1876): Bulgarian poet and revolutionary. 4. Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821–1867): Bulgarian publicist and a leader of the National Liberation Movement in opposition to the Ottoman rule. 5. Thrace and Dobrudzha are geographic districts on the Balkan Peninsula. 6. Paisiy Hilendarski (1772–1773): A monk who wrote the first history of the Bulgarian nation and became a leader of the Bulgarian National Revival. 7. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1773–1794) is a French chemist. 8. Khan eri, baba eri - this is a Turkish proverb meaning: The innkeeper ’s land is like a native land.

from The Blossoming of the Human Soul THE UNIVERSAL LOVE The subject of my lecture is the Universal Love. I use this notion in a slightly broader meaning than it is usually understood. You may ask what we have in common with the Universal Love. My answer is that the Universal Love is the essence of Life. Love is what creates the conditions for Life to manifest. It is the primary incentive on Earth, that is to say, the ideal toward which we all strive. Yet Life, to be able to express itself fully, implies freedom of action. It evolves in four directions: social, political, cultural, and spiritual. These are different areas of the same reality. By “Love” I do not mean the common one that is extinguishable as a piece of charcoal thrown into the water. This is not the genuine Love. The genuine Love is a live coal that is aware of the meaning of the earthly existence. That is why the old sages and alchemists strived to study the properties of this living charcoal in fullness and came to comprehend its essence. Those who are not familiar with its properties say that Love burns people. True, there are things that can burn. There are also others that do not burn, in the same way as metals can be oxidized or not; in other words, when the later burn they are not consumed, that is why they are called “noble metals.” You may ask another question, “Why should we care about some high ideal when our living conditions are so bad?” But I will also ask you: Can you really prove you live in bad conditions? It is only a presumption. There are equally bad and good things in life, falls and risings, losses and gains, but they are finally balanced. What we call adverse living conditions is but our subjective attitude, human speculation, or theorizing. It is said that the humankind of today is seriously unhealthy. What I say is that illness is an anachronism. It is something temporary which depends on the person itself because one has the equal chance to be healthy or ill. Diseases are nothing else but direction signs as development begins only when there is a counter-action to one’s will. This can always be verified in life. All great people have suffered and suffering has been a stimulus for their spiritual growth. On the other hand, those who have had no hindrances and have lived comfortably have not marked any growth either. Today people want to be rich; but they should make a choice because there are two kinds of wealth: one that can make them sink to the bottom of the ocean and another one that can uplift them. If you travel on a transatlantic liner like the Titanic for example, with a backpack with forty kilograms of gold in it and if next to you is someone with no weight on his back, who has the chance to be saved in case of a shipwreck: you with the gold or the person who has no baggage? The answer is explicit itself. I take the word “gold” in a broader sense than it is normally understood. To me gold is an emblem of Knowledge or understanding of the Laws by which you can work in the world, mastering the natural forces and directing them to be useful both for you and others. This Knowledge does not oxidize and burn, so it is preserved and can be used for good. I am going to tell you an esoteric story. In a kingdom long ago, all citizens lived happily in fraternal love and their happiness was due to the fact that their king was not married yet. But at some time they started to wonder, “Why does our king stay single? Let’s find him a beautiful bride and have a wedding so in the future our kingdom will have an heir; otherwise it would be doomed.” So they chose the most beautiful maiden and the young king married her. She gave birth to two daughters: one, so beautiful that she attracted everyone with her beauty and the other, so ugly that everyone avoided her. Yet, the beautiful daughter brought a great misfortune to the kingdom because whomever she looks at would have problems with the eyes, whomever she touches would become lame, whomever she meets on her strolls would never reach home healthy as before. All citizens were affected by her negative energy. On the other hand, when the ugly daughter was on her stroll, she healed whoever she looked at and expelled the diseases from whomever she touched with her hand. You may say it is only a story, but you are not right. That is not just a story, but the reality itself or life as it is. For example, you have a son who is virtuous and honest. But in the presence of a beautiful girl, he changes: his mind darkens and his heart defiles, as beauty in its purely physical aspect stimulates only the external manifestation of human life. You have the desire to be beautiful, wealthy, strong, and so on. But I ask: Is there anyone who in spite of being beautiful, rich, and powerful has not experienced death? Someone may object, “But with your ideas people will die of hunger.” Are you not going to die because of your ideas too? I would be happy to see someone who is not dying in one way or another. Unfortunately people not only die, but they also perish. Someone else wishes to become good as to avoid suffering. No. The better you become, the more you are going to suffer. “What is then the solution to the problem?” It is only in the fact that the good person knows why to live, suffer, and die; while the bad one does not know. Here is the difference Do not think that death is natural and in the order of Nature itself. There was a time when the human being was immortal. We, too, could not die. But do you know in what sense I say this? In the sense that we could not do wrong, unhealthy things. A person who errs always dies. We die because our ancestors have erred. And we constantly err too because we suffer the effects of our past transgressions, which is called karma in the East or that is the Law of Cause and Effect. This Law refers not only to the individual, but also to the society and the humankind as a whole. I am telling you a Great Truth, which you can verify by yourselves. I do not have in mind theory but experience. The Teaching, which I preach, is based upon the living practice. People of today ask each other, “Are you a believer or not?” All people believe in whatsoever, I have not seen a single person who does not believe at all, but their faith is different. In that kingdom where people suffered from the beautiful princess, a great sage came and said to them, “I am bringing you a cure for all your ailments. It is an apple seed which will grow into a ten meter tree and will bear big fruits, half a kilogram each. Those who eat from these fruits will not be affected by the princess’s glance because this is the Tree of Life.” The people did not plant the seed and did not wait for the fruit. Instead they passed the seed from one to the other saying, “Did you hear that if you plant this seed, a big tree would grow with sweet fruits half a kilogram each having healing properties?” Everyone spoke about the seed and did believe in the curative powers of its fruits. But not being planted, finally the seed got lost; then the people began to speak that what was said about it was untrue and stupid. “Is it possible that such a big tree could exist and bear such fruit? It was a lie.” And so, they stopped believing. When someone is telling me today he does not believe, I say: Friend, you have lost the Seed. You can be a scientist, a very serious person, but if you do not have the Seed of Love within yourself, you are going to pass through thousands of tribulations. I will not stop right now to explain religion to you. You will resolve this for yourselves because now I am speaking about Love. I ask: Do we have this Seed? Who of the great scientists from the past or from this century has brought the Seed? Someone will answer that Christ has brought it. Where is it then? Let us see it. Jesus Christ suffered and was resurrected. But let us see the fruit of this suffering and resurrection. The Seed has been lost. I will continue with the story. This same sage came for the second time to that kingdom and said, “Because you lost the seed the first time I came, now I will not give it to you to pass it from hand to hand. But when I find the most honored citizen, I will tell him: Friend, you have a beautiful garden. I will plant the seed there, but you need to water it and watch over it; after five or ten years you will have fruits curative for everybody.” You all need to plant this Seed and benefit from its fruiting. The first fruit of this Seed is Love, which shall reign among all people, regardless of their creed or nationality. They shall then rise above any attachment as home, society, or nation. Love shall embrace the entire humankind as we are all members of it. It represents a common body and when the body is well, it benefits the nation, society and home of each individual, and vice versa. I do not mean to criticize your views. This is not my intention. I am speaking in principle. Therefore, I do not want to interfere with shortcomings, whether social, political, cultural, or spiritual. This is not my assignment and it will not solve the problem either. When I enter the home of hungry people, I will not preach about God to them, saying that if they have faith and trust Him, He will provide food for them, and then leave them with that thought but hungry. No, I adhere to this principle: I always carry on my back a bag full of bread for those who are hungry and arguing so that I can tell them: Set the table, let’s sit down and eat. Then peace and tranquility will return to such homes. Today people have a wrong understanding of life. They say, “Let’s improve the society, the world.” All this is great, but how will you educate the society, your sons and daughters, the politicians, teachers, priests, and preachers? I would suggest you all to go and study the life of bees - they will teach you how you should educate others. When they want to have a queen, they prepare some special food for her; the food for the workers and drones is different. The bees have managed to organize their life much better than do people, who only philosophize. This is not a reproach, but an indication that we should study the surrounding Nature much more thoroughly. All Laws and models for prosperity can be found in Nature. With the Universal Love, we will attain an uplift of our consciousness. Feeling the vibrations and being able to hear the voices of all suffering people and to help them - it is both self-help and support for our nation and for the entire humankind simultaneously. Whoever has this feeling awakened and activated, being free of all material attachments, that one is able to project oneself everywhere in space and help everyone. You may ask, “How is it possible to help someone without touching that person?” I will answer this question with another one: Does the Sun, which is 93 million miles away from us, touch us with its fingers? No. Even from such a great distance, when it looks down, everything in nature begins to vibrate, grow, and bear fruit. Some may say, “Let’s raise our hand for a blessing.” Alright. But by raising your hand, you should also give what the Sun gives us every day. The Sun sends forth energy and strength to both the healthy and the ill. Some may wonder why we should concern ourselves with the Sun. I do not say to be concerned, but to make use of it. If someone does not feel well, he may take a sunbath; if he has lost his energy, he may bask in the sun’s rays; if he is disappointed in his ideal, if he has no idea how to work, he may stand in the sunshine to get warmed. Someone may object, “God will help us.” When you mention God, I want to ask you: What is God for you? God acts from within. When we experience God and He speaks to us, we come to love all human beings equally and we are ready to sacrifice for them. Christ said, “There is no greater love than this that man lay down his life for the sake of his friends.”[1] He was implying that when we love our neighbor, we should not consider him to be a sinner and try to save him, but rather treat him as a brother, a friend, creating for him the conditions necessary for living and growing. Do not think that you are going to delineate a new path of life. No. The path of life is already drawn for everyone and it has been strictly mathematically determined. It is determined for everyone what they will become, how they will live, and how their life will unfold. This is according to the Law of the continuous Causes and Effects. In the Divine Law of Love disharmony cannot exist. When we begin to understand Love as such a power, it will come to abide in us. Then we will become strong enough to correct all social shortcomings - not mechanically but through Love. The love of society directed to some person will transform the mind and give a new course to this person’s life. Therefore, when we say that God is Almighty, we mean the totality of the whole creation - all beings whose thoughts are affecting us as a creative power. What bad we have is not Divine: it is human. We have ourselves created the present unfavorable existence and its structure. If you ask me why God has created the world in this way, my answer is: I know that the world was created in a different way, but from what I see now, I can conclude that it has been ruined by people. All of you here who are listening to me have different beliefs of life. Not only you have your own concepts, but also mammals, birds, ants, plants - they all live according to their understanding. However, this is not the meaning of life yet; life is much richer and broader. The abilities and powers, which are hidden in the human soul, can be awakened under special conditions. Each of you can make a small experiment. What kind of an experiment? First, affirm that all conditions to become true humans are given to you. If you cannot use these conditions, it does not mean that these possibilities are not available; it means only that you have not found and applied the appropriate methods. Modern scientists and philosophers have tried for thousands of years to find the methods for the revival of the humankind. We have never had a religion providing immortality for the humankind. I say that the true Orthodox religion has not been presented yet in the world. When I say that, someone may ask me to which religion I belong. I answer: I do not confess any of the today’s religions, which are as a whole void of content and hollow. I will tell you which one I belong to defining it in a very short way: religion is the connection between Wisdom and Love. There is no better definition of religion than this. Those who have found the connection between Love, acting in their souls and Wisdom, acting in their minds are believers indeed being aware of the Divine Law and immortality itself. This faith makes us be God-like. How can a human being be like God? Overcoming death because God is immortal. Christ said, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”[2] The human being cannot become immortal if not perfect. Someone will ask, “Why did the saints die?” It is because they burdened themselves with the others’ wrongdoings. When we free ourselves of our wrongdoings, we are not going to die, but will attain the state of living in Love and Wisdom, which is the essence of this Teaching. A person who does not have Love and Wisdom cannot be truly religious and immortal. Understand me correctly: according to this definition, “overcoming death” means to be master of all conditions in life: to be equally joyful whenever you suffer or rejoice; to be impassive whenever you lose or gain. Whom do we venerate these days? Is it not the heroes who have suffered and died? Whom do we build monuments and lay wreaths to? Do we do this for the thieves and robbers, the wealthy millionaires, or the philosophers who possessed much knowledge? No. We pay honor and tribute to those who have suffered and sacrificed themselves for humankind. People of today often like to outsmart one another with sophisms about the existence of God and to ask, “Is there a God?” I do not resolve this question philosophically, but simply say that God exists in the same way as the Sun shines. Imagine that you stay awake at night and sleep in daytime when the Sun shines, waking up always at sunset, so if you study the world at night, after twenty years, you will say that there is no Sun. I tell you: Change your way of living. Go to sleep at night and stay awake in daytime when the Sun is shining - then you will see the Sun. The same happens to the wealthy people who have sunk under the weight of their riches. I do not judge them, but point to the reason of their misfortune. They are at the very bottom of the ocean so the sunrays cannot reach them. When can they be saved? By leaving their gold at the bottom of the ocean and going up. Is there any life on the surface? Yes, and much more beautiful life. These setbacks could be your wishes to acquire wealth, to take a high position, or to conquer the world. Free yourselves of such thoughts. Tell me who of the political leaders has improved life in Bulgaria? Who has improved England? Where is Ancient Greece or Rome in their glory? I do not argue that one should not have goals in life, but I say that we move in the wrong direction. We have a distorted understanding of life and it is time to put an end to all these false beliefs. Two Greek sculptors wanted to show their mastery. The first one sculpted a bunch of grapes so real that even the birds were tricked. The other sculpted a beautiful goddess, tucking such a delicate veil around her that the first sculptor asked him, “Take off the veil so that I can see her better.” This story shows that the one who sculpted the goddess was more skillful. But I ask: Did these artists not die as well? They did. You may understand each law very well; you may be a philosopher, a statesman, and so on. The art of these two sculptors is only the shadow of things. It is not the essence of Life. The essence of Life lies in our attaining harmony with it. We have not yet attained this harmony. I do not agree with the people of today saying that they have a true life. In fact, they do not really live, but mainly suffer and torment themselves. In my opinion, there are three ways of manifestations: toil, labor, and work. Our existence so far is one of toil, yet true Life begins with work. Work is related to the state of conscious living and understanding how to become master of yourself - of your mind and heart so that no one could affect you. It means that you have the Great Love, which is not only inspiring, but also acting as a constant stimulus for you in the same way as heat and light act upon the plant kingdom. I compare modern people (if you will excuse me for this comparison) to a mentally deranged scientist. He was placed in the big hall of a mental institution with fifty other patients. He engaged himself to bring straws, of which he made small piles that he moved all day long from one side of the hall to the other. Next day, he did the same again. People resemble this man and ask themselves why they are unhappy. It is because they are gathering straws. What is needed is the benevolent wind that will blow away all these straws and together with them, all misfortunes. We should treat our neighbors like the saint who was on his way to talk with God. When he passed by a rich man, the latter said to him, “Tell God that I have had enough of this wealth. May He take it away, so that I might be living like all other people.” “Very well,” replied the saint, “I will tell God.” He continued on his way and there he met a poor man who said to him, “Please tell God that I am tired of this life. I have had enough of walking around naked and barefoot. May He give me some clothing and change my living conditions.” “I will advise God about your plea,” said the saint. Arriving to God, the saint told Him about these two men. God said, “Tell the rich man to express his discontent complaining against Me and I will take all his wealth away. As to the poor man, tell him to express satisfaction with his life and then I will give him everything he wishes.” On his return, the saint told the rich man what God had ordered for him. But he replied, “How can I do that?” “In this case, your wealth will remain with you.” He passed by the poor man and told him what God had ordered for him. But he answered, “How can I be content with these bad conditions?” The wise man told him, “You will continue then to go naked and naked will you be buried.” You say that those who have passed away are already with God, but you still go to the cemeteries to offer prayers and pour wine for their souls. Can they be with God and in the cemetery at the same time? That one who is above should tell those who are below, “You only think that you will be dead. If you become thankful, you will resurrect.” Do not take what I am saying as a reproach or intent to rebuke anyone for their beliefs. I only point out those false attitudes toward Life, which have been introduced to us pushing us in the wrong direction and causing us to be in disharmony with Life itself. We want to live, but at the same time we prepare ourselves for death. The one who is observing the Law of Universal Love and Cosmic Consciousness will no longer pass through death. That one will be able to survive even if you pound nails into his hands and feet; put him on the cross or in the grave - yet, he will be able to stay alive. Those who have not learned the Great Law of Love - never will their stones be rolled off their graves. People of today constantly say, “We are sinners.” I do not wish to hear this anymore! What I know is that people are good by nature, deep in their core, but they become bad because of misconceptions and misused willpower. They seek happiness and think they will find it on the path they follow. But they will not find it there, the same way as their fathers and forefathers who have searched happiness on the same path have not found it either. Christ said, “He who hears the Voice of the Son of Man will live.”[3] What does it imply “the Son of Man”? It implies the Son of Wisdom and Love. He who has connected Wisdom with Love will resurrect. You, too, when you hear this Voice, will resurrect. This is what Christ was teaching. If you plant the Seed, which I have mentioned to you, not just passing it from hand to hand, but planting it in your hearts, the resurrection and the desired Life will come. Life will then enter in its natural Divine Course. I can advise all mothers who are listening to me how to have the sons and daughters they wish. To those young women and men who are listening to me, I can tell you more about the meaning of life. You will marry - marriage is a sacred institution. However, there are three kinds of marriage. The first is called a contracted union. The second is a master-servant type of relationship; this is to say, man is a master and woman is a servant, or vice versa. The third is a union in which man and woman live in love and wisdom; or, in other words, they live for each other. The wife will never say a bitter word to her husband; moreover, she will never look at him with anger even in situations when he makes the biggest mistakes. This wife will always be loving to her spouse. Only such a marriage will produce good children, sages, and saints who will serve the whole of humankind. If a woman who has conceived is inspired by some great ideas about humankind, she will pass good qualities on to her child. She is like God to her child, so she is capable of creating out of this dust whatever she desires. Yet, as soon as the baby emerges from her womb, this begins the child’s independence in thoughts and feelings. If, during the nine-month period of pregnancy, she has instilled the qualities of Love and Wisdom into the child, he will have a good attitude toward her for the rest of his life and will be ready to sacrifice himself for her. When a son asks his mother why he was born, I naturally conclude that during the pregnancy she or the father had prevailing negative thinking. Sons and daughters usually bear the thoughts of their parents. Modern science has also come to this conclusion. Certainly, in such general talk, I cannot go into depth or into more detail concerning that issue so as to explain the principle of it. We need schools to educate young people in these Great Laws in order to become good mothers and fathers and, at the same time, builders of the future society. There is a book written by a Bulgarian author: “Builders of Contemporary Bulgaria.” I think, this title is very good. Moreover, to know how to build represents a great and sacred deed. You probably doubt what I am saying. If you do, you make a mistake. Cast any doubts aside of your souls - because my doubts in you are also doubts in myself and your doubts in me are in fact doubts in yourselves. I have no doubt in you; I have all faith that, in the future, you will become very good people. Now some of you are still in the early stage and some others are not yet in the fields. But after thousands of years when I meet you again, you will be very different from your present state. You may say, “Are you sure we can meet again after so many years?” Of course, we are going to meet again and we will have a much better understanding than at present. Now you look at these things critically and tell yourselves, “This man who has come here to speak to us is hiding something. He may want to cheat us. This is a dangerous matter. We must be watchful.” You are right. If I were in your place, I would think the same. While traveling from Sofia to Tarnovo,[4] I sat next to a man on the train. I saw that he was touching his valet from time to time looking suspiciously at me and the other passengers around. He probably asked himself if we were perhaps the kind of people who liked to take and not to give; if he would reach into our pockets, or we - into his. I am not one of those who reach into people’s pockets. I can let you put your hands into my pocket and take whatever you can. Only when we begin to think like this, will the world improve. Abundance should exist in the world: abundance in minds, abundance in hearts. And we need to open our hearts widely for one another. I do not regard modern society as you do. Anyhow, it is going to die - no one can prevent this with the present way of thinking. In fact, it could be done, but how? By changing the conditions. I will give you an example. The Spanish influenza rage killed six million people worldwide and I was asked how people could heal themselves. I told them that I am not a medical doctor, but according to the Laws with which I am familiar, people should drink boiled hot water and eat warm potatoes; and after about seven or ten days, the crisis will pass. Now some people may ask, “Do you think that we are so naive as to eat hot potatoes and drink boiled water?” It is not that you are naive, but I am telling you a method of healing. Make an experiment. May all those who have tried this cure share the results. As to doctors, what did they do? They gave shots, but most of the ill departed for the World beyond. Within only seventeen days, seventeen hundred people died in Sofia. The people’s explanation was, “Oh, there has been a crisis, a complication, and so on.” I say: Those people should have drunk hot water and should have eaten boiled potatoes. Drinking hot boiled water is also a kind of a shot, but from within, not external. The thing is to know where the shot should be given. Now, if you ask how Bulgaria could be healed, I say to you: Drink hot water and eat warm potatoes. When I say “boiled water,” you should know where to take the water from. Take water from where the donkey would drink because it knows how to choose good water. If you use hot water, it will bring you all necessary elements and in this way, ninety percent of the contemporary issues that make people sick will disappear. So, boiled hot water and warm potatoes - this is a sign of Life in Love and Wisdom. And so, Universal Love will put us in touch with Life itself so that we can understand the meaning of every single thing: every flower, every tree, wellspring, mountain, home, and human being. It will reveal to us the great secret of Life so that we might understand our relationships with one another. When Universal Love comes into us, it will empower us: vanquishing heroes. You will make not only one experiment, but ninety-nine at least. And at the 100th time, you will succeed; there is no exception of it. Therefore, you need to be persistent. All this is true with life as well. If someone is ill or goes through some misfortune, it is mathematically determined how long it will continue. This is due to the fact that all diseases are caused by well known living organisms or microbes which existence does not comply with the living functions of the ill person. Disease will exist as long as we allow these microbes to live and deposit their byproducts in us. If someone asks me about murder in the world, I will say: Murder will exist as long as murderers exist. What about theft? Theft will exist as long as thieves exist. People are not born as thieves, but they become such because of their distorted attitude to Life. Murderers are children of the old culture. The harmful ideas, when instilled in someone, could devastate this person. Modern science proves that hypnosis exists and can cause someone to commit a crime. You know that many experiments are made with young people and it was found out that when they are placed in unfavorable conditions, their moral values cannot pass the “test.” However, Universal Love creates those favorable conditions in which all toxins in the society are being eliminated. Every discomfort, every bad thought, feeling and action are due to the vibrations of certain kinds of matter existing in us and being manifested in our life. Therefore, one should accumulate pure ethereal matter and organize one’s forces in order to manifest good desires and thoughts, and be good. Matter that is not organized is like soil for the germination of malefactors. The words “Those who listen to the Voice of the Son of Man will resurrect,” imply that those who understand the Law of Wisdom and Love will not be subjected to unfavorable conditions. If you live in a dark basement without sunshine, the conditions in this environment will naturally expose you to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, depression, and so on. Go out into the Sun because the favorable conditions are above the ground level. Free yourselves of excess dampness and you will create new conditions in your life. What is “dampness” in the human being? The excess of desires creates dampness. On the other hand, the excess of extreme thoughts creates dryness. It means that both dampness and dryness in their extremes give bad results in life. Now, supporting points for the human development can be found in the Universal Love that elevates the human consciousness. I will give you an example. You have hands, which you raise quite often and you also bend your fingers. Why are some fingers bigger, others - smaller? And why is the thumb standing apart? When the hand is to act, all fingers come together and the thumb comes on top to help them. A person can then grab a plow or any other farming tool and work. In a society created in the same way as the hand is, some people are merchants. The little fingers represent merchants or the practical people. The well-shaped ring fingers represent people of culture and science; the middle fingers - people of justice and politics; the index fingers - people of religion and personal life. The thumb represents the Divine World or what is the consciousness in the human being. All these fingers need to unite and act together. As far as the society and its political, cultural, and spiritual representatives have been divided, they cannot produce the same effect of working together as the human hands putting all fingers in action. To bring the fingers together, one must activate one’s willpower. When you apply your willpower to realize your ideas into the areas, which I have just mentioned, saying, “Come and help me” - all will come and will do miracles together like the fingers of the human hand. Therefore, a great philosophy is imparted to the human hand. Each time you look at your fingers, think about your relationships and the connection between Love and Wisdom. The thumb represents the Divine Principle that should be applied for the benefit of all individuals and the entire humankind; the index finger corresponds to the religious and personal life; the middle finger imparts the law and politics used for the good of humankind, it understands the miseries of life and creates the laws; the ring finger imparts culture; the little finger - material goods. The thumb is always ready for self-sacrifice and says to the other fingers, “If all four of you unite, I will support you; and we can do good.” Some speakers raise and wave hands while speaking, including myself. I also raise and wave my hand toward you. Why? By doing this, I am telling all of you to find out the connection between Love and Wisdom, recognize your rights and duties toward those close to you, find and apply the Great Principles of this Divine Science for the benefit of the society and elevation of the young people. In this way, you are going to improve your economic conditions so that there will be enough butter, vegetables, wheat, fruit - everything in abundance. This is what fingers of the hand indicate. If all people knew how to bend their fingers, they would be in quite a different situation. However, the Bulgarians know how to raise a fist menacing, “I can break your head,” and like the English and American boxers, they hit each other in the face. I will tell that one who raises his fist against me. “Behold, we could accomplish something good with you because we will come to an agreement. Come to me.” I would like to work with that one whose hand is in a fist. A baby will clench fists when it comes into the world so that to indicate, “I will grow up and conquer this world.” But when passing away, a person will open hands, as if to say, “I am dying, but I have accomplished nothing. God, forgive me!” Do you know what God’s answer is? “You did not know how to bend your fingers.” Why do you suffer? It is because you do not know how to bend your fingers. You ask, “Why is this misfortune in our home? Why does Bulgaria suffer? Should reparation be paid?” If you hold your hand open, reparation should be paid. But if you fist it, there will not be need to pay any reparation. “But what will our situation be in the future?” If you know how to hold your hands in fists, you will be a free, great nation; but if you do not know, you will be slaves as you have been until now. You may say that you are free, but you are not. You cannot be free neither as individuals nor as a society, nation, and humankind while you do not agree among yourselves and continue to pay others back, while you do not have loving relationships being ready to make some allowances and sacrifices for one another. Today, I ask you to remember and apply this: All Bulgarians should begin to exercise and bend properly the fingers of their right hand first. When they bend their fingers, they should know the meaning of this and say concentrated on the hand, “I can do everything that is related to the fingers and I will do it.” I would like to give you this idea: All Bulgarians should begin to bend their fingers: first the fingers of the right hand - the hand of Wisdom, and then the fingers of the left hand - the hand of Love. Try this for one year. Project your thoughts and your willpower into the actions of your hands and you will see the results. You may say, “We are not so naive.” You have done many stupid things so far. Is the person who is sitting in the pub with a glass of beer in front of him or who is smoking a cigarette doing a smart thing? Is the person who is reading newspapers containing barely one percent true information doing a smart thing? Yet what I said about the hands is ninety-nine percent true. Even when you read the newspapers and drink beer, you can still bend your fingers. But doing this, say, “I will not drink. I will not smoke. I will not be angry. I will not take revenge upon my friend.” Make a fist and say to your friend, “I will speak to you kindly.” Is this not a great philosophy? I teach you a Great Law in Life: How to bend your fingers, so that everything will work out for good. Keep this great idea within. At least try it out. Do not think it is my intent to lie to you. Make one small experiment and after one year when we meet again, you will tell me what happened. It is the easiest practice. I can give you other experiments as well, but they will cost you a lot. I do not want you only to bend your fingers, but also to think while doing so. You are desperate. You want to commit a suicide or to kill somebody. Bend your fingers and say, “No!” You are faint-hearted. Do the same. The whole secret is in your hands. To have hands is to be in a possession of the greatest blessing in the physical world. What does not come forth from the human hand! What beautiful sounds come from the violinist’s hand taking up the bow and from the virtuoso pianist playing the piano! If you know this Law, you will bend your fingers correctly and through every finger, you will send forth the respective flow of thoughts. If you impart all your power into them, it will have such an effect that you cannot imagine. We write with three fingers, but if we impart to them all of the power of our thought, then something completely different will come out of our pens. These are great secrets people knew before the Fall, which are now forgotten. You need to bend your fingers, but also to open your hands. What does opening of the hand upward toward space indicate? It indicates receiving of energy. When you take this power, immediately close your fingers and project it to your thoughts and desires - thus you will give a powerful impulse to your life. Say, “I want to polarize my hands from the Great reservoir of Nature where Wisdom and Love are hidden; I want to receive Love and Wisdom, and also to receive Good - the connection of unity, which operates among all people on Earth.” The meaning of the hug is the same: to give something from yourself, from your love and wisdom. When you give fraternal hugs to someone projecting your love and good thoughts, you will impart life force to that person. When a young man embraces his beloved in this way, he will give her living inspiration. Yet, those whose embrace is like an octopus and who are spiritually dead, cannot give anything, as nothing is left in them. Our hugs, how we open and close our hands has its specific meaning. They have the meaning which God has given them from the very Beginning and this meaning exists in Nature too. Whenever I have the chance to speak on this subject again, I will continue my lecture. Now I am leaving you with this thought: You who listen to me should learn and also teach those close to you how to bend your fingers and how to embrace in Love and Wisdom. This is the only way in which people’s lives, homes, and societies can improve politically, culturally, and spiritually. You should release the past and begin that Great Life, which I mentioned and which is heralded now to come into the world. From now on those who do not live by this Great Law, will have no more conditions to stay on Earth. Nature shows to those who do not want to take this Law into consideration that they need to depart from this planet. If you do not believe now in my words, you can check it and tell me after ten years whether it was true or not. A Great Law is now imposed on humankind as a whole, a Great consciousness is now awakening in the world: and that has never happened before. It is the striving of all human souls longing for freedom. Not only few individuals, but humankind as a whole is searching for freedom: every home, every individual, every culture, and every religion. This is the Divine Impulse moving forward the entire humankind. Religious communities should not just try not to stand in the way of this movement; they should also give it the right of way or they will risk being run over. This movement will bring such blessings, which the world has not seen yet; but for those who try to stand in its way, it will bring such tribulations, which they have never seen before. The Earth will shake so much that people will come to realize something different is coming into the world, which they have not experienced so far. The Intelligent Nature, too, might come to the end of her patience. Do not think that the world will continue in the same way it has followed so far. Say goodbye to your past. Someone says, “I earned much money and will set aside two thousand leva[5] for my funeral.” I am sorry that you are setting aside money for your burial. Someone else is saying, “I am leaving money in my will to the society for charitable purposes.” I am sorry that you are leaving money in a testament without having done something good while still alive. Whatever you intend to do, do it while you are still alive. After your death, what you leave behind is no longer yours and you have no rights to it. When you pass away, those who remain after you will use your money and property as they wish. This is the kind of nonsensical thinking with which you live and die and furthermore, you ask yourselves: why are all these misfortunes? Leave a trace of Love and Wisdom in the minds and hearts of your beloved ones because only Love and Wisdom have a genuine value. Things of great value are hidden in your minds and hearts. Do you know how much they are worth? Billions. Do you know how many millions of years it took for their development? Do you know how many millions of Sublime Intelligent Beings worked on the development of the human mind? You do not understand the wealth hidden in the brain that continues to live even after death, when the body starts decomposing. This is my point of view. I see people who live in a different way. You may ask, “How is it possible for someone to live after death?” Let’s say, for example, that you live like divers and you ask yourselves: Is it possible to live in different conditions? However, when you emerge on the water’s surface and take your diving suits off, you get to live like other people. At present we live like divers, but when we emerge on the surface we will begin to live in a different way. There exist thousands of ways in which to live. The one who puts up barriers to Life has not understood the basic Laws of the human soul and spirit. If the human being is born and dies only once, if it has come for the first time now, it would have been pitiful being. The human being who you see in front of you has existed for millions of years. For millions of years God has worked upon his soul and spirit. The soul is God’s daughter; the spirit is God’s son. Therefore, we shall deeply honor and venerate them. This is the new Divine Teaching proclaimed to the world, which will bring new life to the modern society. Lecture given by the Master Beinsa Douno on August 19, 1919 in the town of Veliko Tarnovo at the gathering of the disciples of the Brotherhood of Light. -------------------------------------- 1. See John 15:13. 2. See Matthew 5:48. 3. See also John 5:25, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” 4. Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of Bulgaria before Sofia 5. Lev, leva, BGN: Bulgarian currency.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Old Scribe "Then he said unto them, therefore every scribe, which is instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven, is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."[1] Christ defines the learned scribe by two of his qualities: he brings forth out of his treasure things new and old. In the same verse Christ adds the words, "which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven." By the "Kingdom of Heaven" in a broad sense, Christ means all the great laws which direct human life, for everything in nature is closely bound to the person and the person is closely bound to nature. All phenomena or forces in the world which apparently have nothing in common with our life, we call physical or inorganic. However, all these forces have a relation, not to the individual, but to the collective person. In this sense the bringing out of the old and the new out of the treasure has certain significance. The old means the past and the new the future. The old implies the mistakes of a person, while the new implies the benefits given to them. The learned scribe who studies nature and the life of people finds old things, the mistakes of people, and brings something new into the world. Therefore, in this sense, we can determine positively both the good and evil that come as a consequence of the past. Thus everything which is in disharmony, i.e. worn out, useless for work, is old. Matter which has lost its strength is considered negative, in other words no force can be manifested in it. Everyone has experienced these two states in themselves, namely bringing out old and new things out of their treasure. When a person loses the inner balance between their heart and mind, they begin to take out the old things which causes discontentment in them. Such is the state of the sick people who are always discontented with those who serve them. The healthy person, who has strength, is contented with everything. The laws which regulate both states - contentment and discontentment - are in harmony, for at a given moment your negative state corresponds to the positive state of some healthy person. At a moment when you suffer most, a being having some connection with you, is in the highest of spirits. This is a law existing in nature. Heaven and hell exist as two poles. Heaven is the new thing, while hell is the old. So that each one of you will experience both states in your life; I am not speaking of heaven and hell as you know them, but I am revealing to you a positive truth which seems abstract to you. These two states are necessary to the human spirit. You ask, "Why is it necessary for person to grow old and to be rejuvenated?" This is a process taking place in nature itself as well. Do not ask why this process exists, but rather consider what benefit you can draw from it. How would you define youth and age? An ancient sage said once, "If you are looking for strength you will find it in the young, the new people, but you will find wisdom in the old." Wisdom and strength are not one and the same thing. Strength implies the human will, while wisdom, the human mind. Therefore, you have two opposite poles: the mind is up in heaven, while the will is down on earth. If you want to be old and wise, you must be up in heaven, but if you want to be young, you must be down on earth. That is why if we change the relation of things and place the old person on the physical plane, but the young up in heaven, we produce disharmony. In such a case you will draw a wrong conclusion and think that all people in heaven are old, while all people on earth are young. But such is not the case. By "youth" I do no have in mind only the external relations, but the inner growth of person. The same thing can be observed in nature. On March 9th, a growth begins which lessens toward June 20th or the beginning of July when the condition of rest in nature sets in. Whatever changes take place in nature, can be observed in our life as well. If we do not understand what takes place within us, as individuals, i.e. if we do not understand our mind and will; we often get stuck in contradictions in life which we call "fate", in which some people would be fortunate and others unfortunate. Some think that certain forces help them, while others think that the same forces work against them. Of course, if you go along the tide, it will aid you; but if you go against a current, it will oppose you since you are at odds with it. This current has nothing against you, but wants to say that if you go contrary to it, you will suffer, because the forces directing your life are in contradiction with your own self. When someone has no success in life, it shows that their thought is contrary to their will. This applies to both the individual and the social life of the person. I am speaking of the events taking place in Europe today which have been determined thousands of years ago. Contemporary humanity has been in contradiction with the current for millions of years and since contemporary European culture has come into contradiction with this natural trend, it is struggling today to find its way. As a consequence of this, a fierce struggle is taking place in which many victims will fall. Nature is indifferent to the number of victims - whether they be one, two or millions. I say it makes no difference to nature for it is not interested in our toys. When we build cities full of houses and temples, thinking this is culture, nature does not care about it and can destroy it in a moment. Nature has created moths and dust which destroy even our finest textures. Besides it has created various harmful elements which constantly destroy our organism. In the distant past before humanity deviated from the right direction of its culture, people had right ideas of the laws regulating the development of our life. This growth can be determined mathematically by the use of compasses. For instance, I measure the length of a person’s nose and see that it is 4 centimeters long; another person’s nose is 5 centimeters and so on. Then by the same compasses I measure the chin of several persons and the length is different in them. The same way I measure the forehead and find that someone’s forehead is 3 centimeters, another one’s is 4 or 5 centimeters and so on. You may ask, "What is the relation of all this?" The relation is important for if someone’s nose is short and wide, it shows that the energies in their organism are in a state of tension and the slightest touch may cause an explosion in them. If a person’s chin is very broad and long, it shows that the energy of this person is not only very tense, but also very active and wherever this person passes, they will cause destruction. The lower part of the chin - the one below the nose - characterizes the human will and the way it would be manifested in the physical world. Observe the chin of some great military commanders and generals. You can determine if a person is young or old by their chin. Only the young people fight and not the old. The ratio of an old person to a young one is 1:100. An army of young men can conquer an army of 100,000 old men. When I say that the future of the earth is in the hands on the young, I am right, for this world was created for people who like to fight. Heaven was created for old and wise people. In the higher world 1,000 old men are equal to 100,000 young men which shows that the relation there is reverse of that on earth. You may ask me, "What is the relation between the young and the old people?" In the spiritual world the old people are only the point of support around which, similar to the hand of a clock, the pendulum of the young person revolves. By the time a young person has walked a hundred miles, an old one has not passed even a kilometer. Therefore, the young people are the hands of the clock. In this world the old people do not move, therefore, do not expect any culture of them on earth. Mental and spiritual culture about which we speak, cannot exist here on earth. The greatest upsurge in culture can be effected only when people are caused to bleed. The more bleeding, the greater the culture attained. People of the twentieth century began to consider themselves very cultured and say, "We people of this age do not shed our blood, only the people of the past did this." However, the present war disproved this theory and showed that young people always shed their blood, and the younger they are, the more blood they shed. Since people today are very young, they cause the greatest destruction. People today can be likened to caterpillars that devour everything. And this scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven brings out of his treasure, things new and old and says, "Thus says Christ." Of what use are these new and old things to him? When you take your old clothes out of a wardrobe, you have something in mind, you want to see if they are still fit to wear. When you take out the new clothes, you intend to find out if moths have not eaten them, don’t you? When the scribe brings out the new and old things, he has some reasonable idea. He does not solve a silly problem as the story goes about a king of old. This king wanted to find a person who would tell him a story without an end. He started looking for some philosophers who might satisfy his wish. He promised a great prize for that purpose, but could not find such a person. Finally a wise man came to the king and said to him, "I shall tell you a story without end." "All right, here is the man I have been looking for," said the king. And the wise man began his tale. "There was a king in old times who disposed of thousands of acres of land. It was all sown with wheat and since the year was very fertile, his fields yielded a great amount of grain. The king gave orders that a great stone barn be constructed to store up the wheat. However, the builders left a small hole in this barn and a cricket managed to enter through that hole and carry out the wheat grain by grain. The cricket took a grain and carried it to his hole and returned for a second one. He took a second grain, carried it to his hole and returned for the fourth grain..." "Enough of that!" cried out the bored king, "Go on, is there no end to this carrying out of the grains and to the whole story?" "Wait until all the wheat is taken out of the barn, then the story will end too." People today want to know the end of things but I say, "Wait until all the wheat is carried away and then will come the end." The scribe engaged in the study of the Kingdom of Heaven does not spare time for such silly theories. The repetition of one and the same thing is not knowledge. We say that we must test things and learn from experience, but we have a sufficient amount of experience so that if we should take millions of grains out of the barn, we shall not learn anything new. You say to yourselves, "Let us see what new things the Master will tell us today" and you are right. The size of your nose will determine the volume of your feelings, the length of your chin will determine the strength of your will and the height of your forehead - the quality of your mind. Some say that a person with a small forehead can be intelligent just as well, but this is not true. In geometry what is the relation between the straight lines, the sharp angles and so on? If the sharp end of an angle is placed in your mouth, it will open, won’t it? Therefore, the opening of your mouth will determine the degree of your appetite. The wider you open your mouth, the hungrier you are. However, if the angle is turned outwards, it shows you are at rest. As we judge by the nose whether it is straight or curved upward or downward, by the same law we determine our feelings. If the nose is broad, the heart will have a certain disposition, but if it is flat, the state of the heart will be quite different. If your lips are thin or thick, your stomach will be in two different states. The condition of your stomach can also be determined by your cheeks - if they are hollow or bulging. Thus, the outer person is an expression of the inner one. Every one of your thoughts is stamped on your face. Your virtue can also be determined by your face - its place is above your upper lip. If you are cross-eyed it shows that you are of a double nature. If the angle of your sight points upward or downward, these are two different states. If your eyes are wide open, you are easily impressed, but if they are slightly open, you are less impressionable. Whether your eyes are closer or farther from your nose is of importance too. Every person’s eyes have been placed by God with geometrical accuracy. Every person is created after a model determined by the Higher Forces. Every person’s face bears in minutest details the marks which determine not only their present life, but their past and future lives as well. If people today could read the Divine Book on the human face, which every person possesses, thousands of misfortunes could be avoided. Christ warned all His followers to avoid the mistakes of their past. Someone says, "Let us test our life." You would better have your picture taken to see if you will like yourself. Present-day photographers try to represent people more handsome than they are by correcting their picture. Do not erase the Divine Script! You should not smooth out a person’s features for an old person cannot become young and vice versa. Christ says, "There are incompatible things." Only a learned person who observes things as they really are can understand the relations among different parts. In mathematics there are certain formulae by which certain quantities can be transformed into others. For instance, the heat which 100 tons of coal can produce can be turned into a dynamic force, but one should know the methods of doing this. This knowledge is concealed from people today for if they knew it, they would use it improperly and cause thousands of misfortunes to humanity. What do we need this knowledge for? If we understand people by their external appearance, we would know at once that a person is in a state of tension. Then we would avoid them without adding more coals to their fire, or let some of their steam off and lessen their energy. We should add fuel to people whose energy has decreased and give them an incentive. We know how to supply fuel on the physical plane, but how fuel should be supplied in the mental and spiritual worlds, is something we do not know, yet we can learn. There are people who have lost the meaning of life and wish to remain always young, since they find meaning in life only in being young. When you make a deep study of the occult sciences, you will find out that a person is not composed only of one kind of matter, but of different kinds of substances and states. Thus, in all atoms and ions in their composition, there is gradation. At present there are 49 states of the atoms on the physical plane. Every state can produce a certain result in the feelings and thoughts. And the more the coefficient of your state changes, the more active your feelings and thoughts become. People are very nervous today, but this is due to the increase in their energy. That is why this energy must be transformed and transmitted to a higher state of matter. You often speak of raising your children. In Bulgarian the word "breed, raise" means to "nourish." The same way bees take care of nourishing their queens. When they want to nourish a queen they choose special food for it; but when they want to nourish workers, they give them a different kind of food. They do the same for the drones. The drones are the players in a hive. A hive cannot go without drones, just as a society cannot exist without musicians. You say drones are not necessary. No, a hive cannot do without players. You say there are many drones in your life, but I call them players. Every hostile thought is a player, an unpleasant tune. You ask, "Why are these thoughts and sufferings which they bring us so unpleasant?" Because you are ill, but when you get well, you will come to like these players as these sufferings renew a person. I now shall revert to Christ’s thought. The scribe is that teacher who knows the laws. What do present-day teachers and clergy know about people? The teachers must make use of mathematics in order to come to know people by their foreheads, noses and so on. Those engaged in mathematics should study these formulae and use geometry to determine the meaning of the curved line and so on by studying the smallest angles as well as the biggest ones;. It is assumed that the curved line is formed by turning a line around its axis and when a curved line is turned, a sphere is formed. What does this sphere mean? The sphere is an expansion, a broadening of your thoughts and feelings. If you lived in a world moving in a single direction, you would not have any development. This is a world only of a single one-dimensional circle. If two beings meet, they cannot pass each other. This is so because even-diversion implies expansion. How would these two beings pass in such a case? One must pass over the back of the other. That is why the Bulgarians say of someone dragging along that they must be patient when others pass on their back. These are people who move in a single dimension. This, however, cannot show us the true way of life. Christ concealed something in every thought He spoke. He said, "I can tell you many things, but you cannot bear them now." These things will be revealed to people when they become cultured so that they can understand them. The Americans have progressed in their understanding of these laws. For instance, when a couple wants to marry they do not send matchmakers, but go to a phrenologist to study their heads to see if they are in harmony to live together. Then they visit a physiognomist and an astrologer and if all the data is favorable, they marry and lead a happy life. Therefore, when people marry there must be positive relations among their brain centers. If there is a wrong interchange of energies between the female and the male brains, a nervous state will ensue. The reason for that is the fact that in one or the other a quantity of energy remains as a surplus and causes evil. That is why a woman dissatisfied with her husband should try to find a man in whom she would deposit her surplus energy and an exchange of energies would take place, so that there should be no loss. But this should be done is a spiritual way between these two persons so that by finding an outlet for this surplus energy, harmony should be restored between the spouses. A husband who does not understand the state of his wife says, "You cannot have friendly relations with another man," and disputes and quarrels begin. The wife acts the same way with her husband who looks for a more elevated woman outside his family with whom he could form spiritual relations and thus have an outlet for his surplus energy. But the old disputes and quarrels begin. I say to such people, "You have started badly and will end badly, because like the scribe you did not see what you had in your bag." The man and the woman are two scribes who do not understand the laws, yet must act like the scribe. That is why when you are marrying, take out the old and the new that you have at your disposal. Before a young couple gets married, both of them say that everything in their bags is in order; but after marrying they open their bags and find out differently. All this concerns present-day life and if the Bulgarians want to correct their lives, they must consider these laws. Sometimes I ask myself, why do I open the sore spots of people and thus make enemies? But if your leg is sprained and you call an experienced person to massage it, no matter how carefully they may do this, they will cause you some pain. Is that person who is wishing to heal you to blame for causing you pain? When you are healed, you will thank the person who massaged your leg. When you are well, you send for the doctor who examines you and prescribes some bitter medicine that you dislike; but this makes you start considering the doctor as your enemy. That is why children who have taken bitter medicine do not wish ever to hear of a doctor. If a boil gathers, you go to a surgeon and he makes a section with his instruments and presses out the puss. By doing that he causes you pain, but he is not to blame. I wish you all were good massagers and surgeons who could do your work the best way you can by all the rules of this art. If a man has surplus energy, let him place it in another woman reasonably; the woman should do the same in such a case, but do it nobly and sensibly. It is necessary that there should always be a spiritual exchange of energies in order that there may be growth, peace and harmony. The Bulgarians know this way of exchanging energies that is why, at times, they have fairs. People from ten or twenty villages get together, thus exchanging their surplus energy and getting healed. Everyone goes home satisfied. Some say, "We do not want old things, we want new things." But in the new there will not be such a result. I have watched how the Bulgarians of old cook beans. They throw away the first water after boiling the beans for some time and finish boiling them in the second water. The first water is not good, but people today say that there is no sense in doing this - only a waste of fuel. A German or an English doctor would give the same advice - the first water is not good and should be thrown away. I wish Bulgarians would turn to the old folk traditions, which rest on very important psychological laws and give good results. Christ says that the learned scribe is like a housekeeper who takes out of his treasure the new and the old. Science today follows the same path. All new scientific discoveries are not well investigated yet to find in them those truths that were known to peoples of old. For instance, radium is a recent discovery, but the causes of its peculiarities are not known yet. The vital energy in nature and in all elements, called "prana" or vital "airs" by the Hindu, has not yet been discovered. Such energies are part of our body, of the elements of oxygen and hydrogen, yet they are not these elements. The oxygen and hydrogen are mere bearers of these energies. Not having proper notions of all phenomena and transformations happening in nature, we create a warped culture. We criticize incessantly this person or that for not living a right or proper life or for lacking good breeding. I ask, "Which are the rules of good life so that we can apply them?" There should be no criticism in Christianity, only knowledge and virtues. Criticism should rest upon such an inner understanding that it would be able to transform and rectify our life. Until then, the Europeans should make at least a hundred trial runs in implementing the new culture and the new forms of government. The relationship of servants and masters has derived from that of children to their parents. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters give rise to all disharmony in the world. If the mother forces her daughter, the daughter will then treat the mother the same way. Later in life, the daughter will have the same attitude toward her servants as her mother had toward her. The servants and masters came into existence after this same hierarchy for they did not understand this great law. The father takes the place of that old man-sage, while the son takes the place of the strong man. The father says, "I shall take the place of that point of balance around which you will turn and move in thousands and millions of directions. You can do anything you want to, but do not separate yourself from this point of balance." If the son considers his father foolish and separates himself from him, everything is spoiled. In such a case the father is not strong and by that the son looses. However, the son is strong, yet he is not wise. Children are attracted to their parents because they have need of their wisdom and experience. That is why parents should begin to draw out the old and the new from their bags in order to see what they can give to their children. The parents must know what food to give their children on Monday, Tuesday and so on, for food helps the formation of people. Take a person of the highest culture and start feeding them the coarsest food and you will change their life. Feed a rude person on the finest food and in ten years they will change their way of life. I am glad that lately different new trends closer to nature have come into existence, such as vegetarianism. However, this is still not a correct idea of a diet, for nature has created all kinds of food and each person should eat the foods specially suited to their organism. Every person, every society and every nation should choose the most appropriate food that gives the best results. The inordinate extermination of mammals creates an anomaly in nature. Most illnesses are due to this extermination of animals and birds. Since this extermination bars their evolutions, all forces assigned to their benefit remain unused and this creates chaos that in its turn causes different illnesses. Do you know what takes place after the arbitrary flow of the animal blood? Its vapors form different serums and cultures harboring harmful viruses that cause all the evils in the organic world. For the balance in nature to be restored, 100,000,000 kilograms of human blood had to be spilled in order to compensate for the blood the animals have shed. But in the present war about 200,000,000 kilograms of human blood was shed. Some may ask me to prove this fact. I have a number of arguments about this and can see that the laws in nature are right concerning your life as well. If you beat and offend your father, see if after that you will have the same good disposition as before. Especially if you are a poet, try to write something worthy after that. Also if a playwright or a novelist who beats his wife should try to write something fine, let them see what will come out of it. A woman who has tried to poison her husband loses her beauty. If two young people should promise each other marriage but their promise proves foolish, they should not fulfil their vow. If I should promise to meet 100 people today and have an intelligent conversation with all of them, it would be impossible for me to fulfill my promise. The desire to fulfill one’s promise that cannot be fulfilled is dictated by the ambition of an honest person, but on the other hand, an honest person is one who thinks and acts right. Now you men and women are this learned scribe and the old and the new you take out of your bags are your sons and daughters. If a mother gives birth to an incapable, quick-tempered child - that is the old garment. If she understood the law, she would have born an intelligent child which is the new garment. But on the physical plane this intelligent child finds they are in an inappropriate environment. They want to work and have self-expression, but their mother does not permit the child to work, to meet other children and so on. Can you not give work to your small boy or girl? Give your little girl dolls to play with and learn something by that. Often the father says, "I have no time to bother with children, I must get my sermons ready and fulfil my duties." You may preach much, but you should learn a lesson from each sermon. When you feel a certain indisposition in your stomach, it shows there is disharmony among the people around you. When you feel your chest heavy, it shows you are in disharmony with the hearts of those around you. When there is pressure in your head, it shows you are not in harmony with the thoughts of others. When you feel indisposed in your room, go out and change your place and your condition will alter too. If you are in a society where you feel bored, leave it and visit a meeting or join a horo[2] and do not think people are bad. You say, "We are religious people and it is not proper for us to join a horo." But is it proper and right in the face of God to chop meat for meatballs, to have an injection or take quinine, or for a man and woman to quarrel? Which of our actions is right, in harmony with God? Are not all our actions ungodly, i.e. imprudent? And we consider ourselves idealists. You say, "Down with the materialists!" We speak about God and fill our purses; we read to the sick and insure ourselves. Priests, teachers, judges - all consider themselves in the right place, but like the scribe they have lost knowledge of the great law to recognize things. I call a good person the one who would be able when meeting me to change my bad disposition. For instance, I meet a woman and start talking with her; if she has surplus energy and this conversation transforms my bad disposition, she is a good woman. And if that woman has produced a good disposition in you, it means there has been a right interchange of your energies. If two negative persons meet, nothing will come out of that; they are not for each other. Make your observations and conclusions among religious people. I am testing this law now with mathematical precision. That is why Christ says, "This learned scribe - you must know what your mind, heart and stomach give birth to." Some religious people say that "the Lord must destroy the belly." Yes, the belly is something uncontrollable, but the stomach is a fine pony, which must be fed with very good food. But our stomach today is very unfortunate for we mistreat it. A Bulgarian man, John, visited a friend’s house. The peasant welcomed him and gave him some brandy to drink, but the guest refused to drink. The peasant insisted telling him to drink for his wife’s sake. John drank for the wife’s sake; then he was forced to drink for the children’s sake and so on, until he got so drunk that he could hardly stand on his feet. Then he went to a fountain to water his horse. The horse drank as much as he could and then stopped. His master insisted on his drinking more, but the horse would not. Then the man said to himself, "Dear me! The horse is wiser than me! It wouldn’t drink for anybody’s sake even a drop more - unlike me who drank so much!" We must eat, drink, think, feel and act as much as is necessary - this is the future science - to give freedom to the human mind, thought, feelings and will. You mothers, who have washed the ears of your children so many times, can you tell by them how long your children will live? When I look at your ear, I know by it how long you will live, what illnesses you will come down with and what you will die of. I can know the same things by your nails - all illnesses are shown on them. It is a written book. Sometimes when you see yourself in the mirror, you do not like your lips for they are pale - it shows you are anemic. Some have red lips and the doctors say they have an abundance of red corpuscles. The thin lips show you are bankrupt in feelings or you are a miser. Sometimes a young girl makes her lips thin intentionally by pressing them. The young man considers that a good sign as she would not lend her feelings to other men. Thin lips are an evil, but thick lips are another kind of evil. According to a person’s height there should be a correspondence between the breadth of the chest, of the lips and of the forehead. If we are bearers of divine ideas, our progeny will be created after all the rules of science and they will love us. That is why Christ says, "This scribe started taking the things out of the bag now." What does a thick neck signify? If a person is short and has a short, thick neck, it means that they will not live long. If they overeat some night, the next day the news of their sudden death will spread. If a person is 175 centimeters tall, but their neck is 34 centimeters they suffer from weak chest. Someone says, "My fiancee has a thin neck." It would be better if her neck was thicker. She should not marry, not being able to become a mother. You will ask me, "What do these things have to do with Christianity?" They are of great importance for the essence of Christianity is to know how to read in ourselves the good and the evil. "Old" implies all the mistakes deposited in us; but "new" implies all the good that is in us. When we know all these things, we shall be able to combine them in order to create a good life according to this knowledge. In the future, schools must be open to the study of the eyes, the ears, the upper and lower parts of the head, the foreheads, the noses, the chins, then the stomach, the tissues, the nervous system - whether it is responsive or not - and so on. When we have all this data, we shall be able to create good people. When we know all this, we shall be able to choose the right people to make our clothes, our shoes and so on. There are people whose energy is very oppressive and I would not have my clothes made by them. Such clothes will create bad disposition in the person wearing them. There are people who, building a house, leave the worst thoughts and feelings in it. That is why all who live in it die. I would not allow a teacher or a priest who has such evil thoughts to enter my house. I would not allow such a priest to say prayers either. These are not only statements but results of observations. Have your clothes made only by a person you like. When you enter a shop buy something only from the person you like. An old Bulgarian who has several daughters-in-law says, "I want my bread made by the youngest daughter-in-law." Why? He knows why he wants bread from the youngest woman. When she kneads the dough, she will impart her living energy to it and fill it with good thoughts. If the oldest daughter-in-law makes the bread, the stomach of the old man will suffer disorder. If the housewife is demagnetized, she will cause only disorder in the house, so her husband should hire a healthy woman to do all the housework and send his wife to some resort to restore her health. Never allow a nervous, dry person to cook for you; but rather find a plump, healthy, happy person for that work. This is the meaning of the scribe taking out the old and the new things from his bag, showing the causes of the sufferings in our life. When a young man marries a dry young girl, he should know that nothing will come out of it. The analogy is the same for the spiritual world. People who are very dry have no sublime spiritual understanding. They are not from the Divine World for the simple reason that they contain many acids which cause extreme activity. The plump people, however, are like alkali. The dry are active, the plump are passive. The world, however, is not created only by alkali and acid - there is something intermediate: the children. Begin to take out the new from the old, but before that measure your nose, your chin, the upper and lower lip. Examine your eyes and see why sometimes they are more widely open than at other times, or why at times they are clearer and at times darker and so on. There is an interrelation among these things. If you study things this way, you will come to a state to understand the inner meaning of life. The occultists say about someone’s feelings that their astral body is not in right relation to their physical body; or, that the mental body is not in right relation with the physical brain. I substitute the mental body by the brain, the astral by the lungs, the physical by the stomach, and say that the relation among the stomach, the lungs and the brain is not proper. Therefore, observe people’s ears and see if they have many folds and whether they are broad or narrow. Watch the eyes as well of those who are quite old and of those who are young. Now if these educative methods are applied correctly in the family life as well, husbands and wives will immediately attain mutual understanding. This is the teaching Christ has bestowed on present-day humanity. Men and women who want to marry should not have the same temperament or the same brain; their fingers and noses must not be alike. This is the new and old in the world. If a man has long fingers, his wife’s fingers should be shorter. When you chose a house-maid, see to it that the same applies to her and her mistress. Every person is born for a certain activity which corresponds to their preferences for a job. Some Americans are well aware of this and when they select a house-maid, they take her for an examination at a phrenologist and he tells them if she is suitable for the job or not. The same way all insects and animals have been created by God for some certain special work. When a person finds the place they have been assigned, they are happy; otherwise they feel unhappy. That is why in the future there should be schools for examining people with whom we wish to work, avoiding thus a great number of misfortunes. People who live according to these laws of nature suffer less. But those who do not live so are persecuted by fate. Think about this scribe and meditate on the old and new things. You cannot raise the whole world, but you can help yourself and your dear ones. If your lips are pale, pray that they may become red; if your nose is flat, start breathing deeply that it may be broadened; if your eyes are dim; pray that they may become clear. The negative side must become positive. If you have palpitation of the heart, it shows that there is a split in your feelings. Put more love in your heart, give free vent to your feelings and the palpitations will stop. The suppression of feelings causes changes in the brain; the brain causes changes in the blood circulation which in turn affects the stomach and so on. Palpitation is the result of the struggle between two feelings. Do away with the struggle and the palpitation will disappear. If you have a headache, chase away the thought that is ailing you, reconcile the contradictory ideas and it will vanish. A bankrupt merchant starts worrying and gets headache. Avoid the counteraction of thoughts and feelings and you will be healthy. To control ourselves and help others - this is science, will power, Christianity, culture, religion. When we meet nervous people, we try to avoid them but instead we should try to influence them in a certain way. When someone commits a crime, they are treated similarl, being immediately sent to prison. However, judgement should be passed according to the rules of this scribe who takes out the old and the new things. We should reform in this spirit the schools, courts and the present order that we may rejuvenate everything - including family life - and be all happy. This is what the Lord wants. In the past people thought that religious people should walk with heads bowed. Anyone who walks with a bent head looks like a question mark or comma because their head is very full and they ought to pay, ought to give, much. Those who raise their heads up have them empty, and nothing can be taken from such people. Scolding is a sign of old age. Today people are scolding and quarreling all the time. People quarrel daily in the tram about who should sit, where should they sit, and then they capture positions only to abandon them shortly afterwards. The new teaching states that we should not waste our energy arbitrarily but use it exactly in its place. Otherwise the doctor will visit such a house and call its people neurasthenics, hypertonics, maniacs, etc. Such people, in my opinion, suffer from lack of energy which has been wasted. This is anemia. Put your thoughts, your feelings and your will in concord and try to create your future life from the old and the new. Sermon delivered on June 29, 1919 in Sofia. -------------------------- [1] Matthew 13:52 [2] a Bulgarian country dance in a circle (transl. note) This is confusing: Page 7 middle of page: If two beings meet, they cannot pass each other. This is so because even-diversion implies expansion. Page 9 2nd paragraph: All new scientific discoveries are not well investigated yet to find in them those truths that were known to peoples of old. Near bottom of Page 15: To control ourselves and help others - this is science, will power, Christianity, culture, religion.

The Book - The Salt. Beinsa Douno The Least Commandment "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."[1] There are great and small Commandments, great and small Laws. Christ says, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments or laws, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that shall fulfill the Law, shall be called the greatest." Take into consideration the fact that the Laws Christ speaks about are not created, but exist eternally and every culture and cosmic manifestation is due to them. Our morals also depend on the way we comprehend these Laws. Philosophers of today say that people’s conceptions are relative, in accord with their outlook. This is partially true, but if our conceptions are vague that does not prove that there are no Absolute Laws in the world which regulate human relations. What is Right is right for all ages; the Good is good for all ages; Love is love for all ages and so on. We may have different concepts of good, right, love, etc. but this is so far as we are concerned and not in relation to the Great Universe which contains everything within Itself. Evil starts from the point where the small laws begin. We may think that all sufferings come as a result of the breaking of the small and great laws, however, I am not going to explain in detail the causes and effects of breaking a single law. This is a complex question about which many dissertations have been written. I shall talk only about two conditions of the great and the small requirements of the Great Law. In one of His talks Christ says that those who are not faithful in the least are not faithful in the great, while they that are faithful in the least, are faithful also in much. Someone says, "This is a small law, why should I fulfill it? I shall fulfill the great Laws." But a person who is not ready to fulfill the small laws, will not be in a state to fulfill the great Laws as well. The fulfillment of a law may often be effected in a purely material, physical way. The state has its laws by which all citizens are obliged to fulfill their duties. The Bulgarians are characterized by great bravery and often oppose the fulfillment of the laws, but when they see the rod, they give in at once. There is an anecdote about the Bulgarians during the Turkish yoke. They used to get together in the village around a dunghill and talk quietly in a friendly way. While talking some would whittle at a stick in large cuttings since they are brave and heroic. Someone would say, "Do you know, brothers, that the tax-gatherer has arrived in our village to collect the taxes?" "So what!" another one puts in still whittling at the stick in large cuttings, "We shall not pay him." "Yes, but those who opposed him were beaten and tortured by him." "Then we shall take care to collect the money some way or another and pay our tax," and they start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is how we act also, while we are strong and healthy, we speak and whittle at the stick in large cuts; but as soon as we fall ill, we start whittling at the stick in small cuts. This is the mechanical fulfillment of this law: we must fear the rod in order to fulfill it. Such is the fulfillment of laws today everywhere: in our private, social, political or spiritual life. Thus the laws are fulfilled today not by our wish, not out of consciousness of our duty, but by force. That is why anyone who breaks the laws is punished by being deprived of their inheritance, or by being ostracized from society or some kind of association. Everywhere, compulsory measures are applied for the fulfillment of this law. You will say, "Doesn’t every nation have its own ideas and conceptions?" Yes, every individual, every family or society may have its own conceptions, but they do not change that Divine Law on which our growth depends. As long as we are in accord with this Law of which Christ speaks, there will be an upsurge in our thoughts and feelings and an expansion in our will; then we shall easily come to a mutual understanding. And this state will last as long as we are in accord with the small and great laws. However, the moment we violate consciously or unconsciously one of these laws, small or great, our balance will be shaken. We cannot understand the cause of our disturbance - things seem to go wrong and we are discontented so we seek the cause of all this in other people. Material things may also be a cause of our unbalanced state. For instance, you are a spiritual or a cultured person but while passing by a shepherd tending to his grazing sheep, you think, "What a nice meal one can make of these lambs!" You take a lamb and kill it. After a short while an unexplainable sadness comes upon you. Or a rich person notices a child and thinks, "Something may come out of this poor child," and sees the child through school. I take the lamb as a symbol of all our wrong actions, so I am not speaking of meat eating. We consider ourselves very cultured people, but in spite of that the whole world is suffering and the Jews have no end of suffering. Today all are asking what the causes of suffering are. Some think the rich people are to blame, others think the rulers are to blame and so on; but in reality the cause of our sufferings are the small lambs we have eaten. If you eat one of these lambs, all in your family will have troubles all your life. You have violated one of the least commandments and you will be the least in the Kingdom of God. You will ask me, "What are we to do having eaten so many lambs?" "You will be the least in the Kingdom of God." "Isn’t there one exception at least?" There is not. But those who have fulfilled the least commandments, who have not coveted one lamb, will be greatest in the Kingdom of God. I take the word covet in a bad sense. All sufferings in the world are the results of bad desires, because they evoke bad thoughts which have an ill effect on our brain and heart and are harmful to our organism in general. In such cases the doctors say that our blood is poisoned and so on. This is right, but it is the food we absorb that determines the quality of all our actions. Someone may object "Could a person live without desires?" I am not saying that one should not have any desires, but in their desires they must learn the Great Law by which they should act. They should know if what they desire is good for them, for their close ones, for their nation, for the whole humanity and then give vent to their desire. The living organism should not be created for a short term, which is of no importance. You give life to a child, but hardly a year or two have passed, and the Lord takes this child from you. You weep and wonder why your child died. The cause of this is your desires; the violation of the least laws which has made you the least in the Kingdom of God. By the word "least" is meant a weak person who yields to all kinds of temptations and influences. A weak person has no definite or stable morals and that is why they say: "We shall pass this life one way or another." Can the existence of a swine be called life - a swine in a pigsty fed by her master three or four times a day. The swine thinks there is no better life than hers and no better master than hers. I am asking you, "What is our present life in relation to our future one?" In order to become great in the Kingdom of God, a great desire must be born in us to raise ourselves as thinking beings and to fulfill the great Divine Law in all its fullness. All writers today state that in order to become great, one must have a strong will and fulfill the least law completely without violating it. We often assume the stance of that American whose duty was to open and close a draw-bridge when trains would cross it. He lived in a tower on the bridge, but once he did not close it so many trains were amassed waiting for a free passage. He said, "Today I am the master in complete control here and when I say that the trains should pass, that is the time for them to start." How was that man treated? They sent people to dismiss him and placed another one there who would close the bridge. This is how you act - you open the bridge and do not close it saying that you are in complete control and all depends on you. After some time, however, the Lord will send His delegation who will remove you from your place. Then you are the least in the Kingdom of God. Who is the least? Who does not fulfill the Will of God in their heart, in their mind, in their soul or in their spirit. Have you ever heard how a young couple in love converse when they are out in nature before marrying? They promise each other very fine things and say sweet words. I have a well developed sense of hearing and have often heard their whole conversation. If these young people fulfill everything they promise one another, the Kingdom of God will be restored in their life in all its fullness. But what happens as soon as they marry? They start with a new slate, forget all the promises given, begin to violate the least commandments and misfortunes follow them and their life is spoiled. Which is the cause of these misfortunes? You have not fulfilled what you promised in the garden. You better find the notebook where you have written your promises. The woman who has married says, "I was duped, I never thought he would turn out such a devil!" The man on his part says, "Oh, how good she was once - a real seraphim, but today she looks worse than the most evil spirit in hell. How am I to fulfill my promises?" I ask you how it is possible for marriage to turn people from angels into devils? If this is so, better that no one marries. Such a marriage was not contracted out of love such as God wants of us. I am speaking on principle and am not concerned with your personal life. This law concerns to the same degree for me, you and all the angels - it is the same for everybody. I uphold the idea that people are good only at the moment they act well; they are right at the moment they act rightly; loving only at the moment they manifest love and so on. If they stop doing this, they are neither good, nor righteous, not truth-loving. So long as you are considerate of these Laws, your thoughts will flow smoothly with exquisite plasticity. In such a case if you are an artist, a writer, or a housekeeper, all your affairs will take a right course and you will carry things off with vigor. But the moment you betray your thoughts, you will descend from a Higher to a lower plane. I envisage these planes in a limitless circle where the lower we descend, the narrower grows the circle, assuming the form of a cone. Some say these planes are seven, but I find they are seven million by seven million. You go lower and lower in this cone, saying, "Let us go down and see what is sown there." You will come to the lowest plane of this cone, to its center; there you will stop and turning into a microscopic being, you will say, "Lord, why did I become so small?" Because you are one of the great philosophers and have come here to learn how to fulfill the least law of life. The process of development is the reverse, i.e. in order to rise from the plane into which you have fallen, you will not pass any more along the same path. You will start now by passing through the narrow door of the cone into another one touching with its point the point of the former one and you will begin your evolution. This way you will pass from one plane to another until you come to the new world. When you have hardly entered this new world, a philosopher will meet you and say, "Why don’t we people live as we wish to? Why don’t we act by our will independent of all laws?" You will ask him, "Have you ever gone down the cone of life?" "No, I have not." "Go down and see how one lives there. I went down once, but I would not go down a second time for the world!" Many of you will go down this cone and when you are passing through the narrow door, you will remember my words. Everyone who has passed once through the narrow door of the cone, becomes great in the Kingdom of God; but they who have stopped in the first cone will be called least in the Kingdom of God. Those who have stopped in the first cone are in the state of an ant who has fallen into the cone on an ant-eater. The ant-eater gradually gets hold of one of its legs, then of another until all is finished with the ant. Therefore, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same, shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." I am speaking to you on this verse because every soul has its own aspirations. I call you neither good nor bad because thousands of times a day you act both well and badly; thousands of times a day your wishes change. When you get up in the morning, you say, "Today I shall live well.’ But when you return home in the evening and give yourself an account of everything, you say, "Things did not turn out as I thought, because today life and the people around me are such that one cannot live honestly." The merchant says that today one cannot live without lying. The farmer says that cultivating the land it is impossible not to destroy the life of many worms. The politician says that under such conditions of life one cannot deal honestly in politics. The clergy say the same thing. Everybody says it is not a time to lead a good and pure life. But when will this time come? When the new culture comes, then life might be better. If you live in your thoughts, you are in your past. Therefore, if we live with our past life and want this or that to happen, we live in the first cone where the bad life is. The good life is in the second cone. I shall compare the first cone to a small child who has been an old man before, but now has become small. In the past this child has been a philosopher, some Brahman, priest, patriarch, or scientist, but today he needs your help. Now he is screaming, he wants you to pass him through the narrow point of the cone. You ask: “Why has this child come to this home?" The Lord has sent him that you may show him the door. The mother is the door. She holds him and says, "My child is very intelligent." Do you know the state of mothers today? It is only when their children become grown-ups that they understand what kind of people they are, for then they manifest themselves. To explain my thought, I shall tell you the following example. A hermit once lived a pure and pious life for 20 years in a forest. The devil thought out different ways of tempting him, but did not succeed. Finally, he decided to enter his water jar and stay there until the hermit drank him. However, the hermit shut him there, sealed the jar and left him in it. After ten years he said, "Let me wash the jar and use it." He went to the spring, poured out the old water and filled his jar with fresh water. After pouring out the water, the hermit noticed in the spring a beautiful small child. He took it and lovingly brought it up. The child grew up, amazing people with its bright mind and knowledge. One day the child said to its guardian, "I shall give you a large kingdom to rule and stop living in the forest. The world needs you, I shall teach you how to live and make you a king’s son-in-law." The father agreed and his son took him to another kingdom. The hermit got engaged to the king’s daughter and within a short time the son stole all the precious jewels of the king and told the king his son-in-law did it. The king issued an order for his son-in-law to be arrested as a thief and punished by hanging. The son went to the hermit and warned him to protect himself as there were grave personal charges against him. The hermit did not manage to escape and had to be hanged. When the rope was around his neck, his son approached him and said quietly to him, "Look away in the distance and see what will appear there. Do you see anything?" "Yes, I see three donkeys." "Don’t you see anything else?" "I see they are loaded." Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold." This is also true of you - a thought which seems perfect comes to you and you start working for its realization. But the moment you realize it, you go to the scaffold. That is why we must fulfil the Divine Laws which build our welfare as well as the welfare of those around us. Life is created so that every good deed, every thought or action on our part is concretely tied with all people, plants, with the whole organic world, the invisible world with its hierarchies and with God. Every thought and desire on our part is sometimes bound with the branches of this great tree of life and sometimes with its roots. I shall not explain the meaning of the roots, branches and blossoms of the tree. A Bulgarian proverb says, "The roots of knowledge are bitter, but its fruit are sweet." If you do a good deed, you will receive God’s blessing. Moses says, "The Lord revenges the crimes of the fathers upon their children to the fourth generation, but His blessing goes to thousands of generations." Therefore, a long period of years is required for the good things to be realized. The same applies to the realization of a bad thought. However, when the bad thoughts are stimulated the evil comes very quickly. This shows how strong we are in evil. Many saints and idealists, knowing that their good thoughts and wishes will be realized some day in the distant future, say "We are ready to die and sacrifice our lives for our country although it may take thousands of years for our ideals to be realized." If an atheist, an unbeliever, is sacrificed for the good of humanity, they stand very high in the sight of God, because they have done good without any knowledge of Him. There are many people who believe in God, read the creed of faith and understand the truths of Christ; but when a good thought comes to them, they are not in a state to fulfill it. That is why I shall reverse Christ’s teaching this way, "In the future the atheists and the unbelievers will inherit the Kingdom of God, but present-day believers will be cast out of the Kingdom of God." Christians of today may be likened to that servant whom the master ordered to go and plough the field. The servant said, "Master, wait a while for I will show you an easier way of ploughing." A week passed, a second week elapsed, but the field was still unploughed. The Christians think that by their prayers and faith in God they will pass life more easily, despite their meager diligence in work. People today are comical in their requirements of life. They loiter around the coffeehouses, buy lottery tickets and wait for the results to see it they have gained something. They read the papers to see if their number is full, but when it is not, they do not despair and try the next time hoping to gain. That is not right. The Lord has sent those servants to earth to earn their living by work, but they want to earn in another way, without labor. They try to give advice to God. Such servants say, "I shall multiply the talent God has given me by depositing it in the lottery." You will multiply it, but one day you will receive a red list for bankruptcy. You will say, "Such is the situation that is why they lost." This happened because in their past and present life they have not entertained good thoughts and wishes. There is a special committee in Heaven who inspect the accounts and the deeds of people. Those who wish to be instructed better may occupy themselves with the occult sciences. You may pray four or five times a day, but if you have not thought good thoughts and done good acts in your past life and if you do not work now and water your garden, help people and animals, when you go to the other world nobody will pay any attention to you. Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have deposited something in me so that I can help you." "I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus." Yes, but there is no surplus in nature. Such a person will find themselves in the state of the king’s son engaged to a very beautiful maiden. He got a disease and was going to die of it, so in his despair he prayed to God to lengthen his life by at least one hour so that he could see his beloved for the last time. Then the Lord sent an angel to other despaired people who had wanted to commit suicide to ask them if they would sacrifice one hour of their life so that the king’s son’s life might be lengthened by that hour. The angel remembered an old woman who used to pray to God to take her soul as soon as possible because she was tired of life’s misfortunes. The angel went to her and asked if she would give an hour of her life to the young man. She answered him, "Yes, in the past I wanted to die, but now have changed my mind." The angel then remembered another case. A rich man after having tasted everything in life had found no sense in living any longer and had prayed to God to take him up. The angel went to him and told him what he had said to the old woman. The rich man also refused to give an hour of his life. After his failure to obtain an hour’s life, the angel went to the young man and said to him, "Of all the thousands of people on earth, I could not find a single one who would give an hour of their life for you to see your beloved." Today people often talk about hell and heaven. The evil lies in the fact that we have brought both hell and heaven here on earth and taste them as we please. The verse I read to you are words which Christ addressed to those listeners who had a developed consciousness. He did not speak to those who could not understand. Christ said to them, "You, who have suffered for thousands of years, must know that your sufferings are due to the breaking of one of the least commandments." Some ask, "Why is the Lord so generous and lenient to me?" Because you have fulfilled the least law. Some say that I speak nice things: it is of no importance what I say, but of the utmost significance for you to apply this law, because your joy is in the application of this teaching, and your meaning in life - in your uplifting. When you are happy or sad, those around you have the same disposition. When you have a wound, the cells nearest it suffer most, while those farther away participate only by reflex action. When you suffer on earth, those organically bound to you will suffer also. Therefore, those beings who are beyond our spheres, being farther away, will just be sorry that we have violated a law and are suffering. Yet, they will show us ways by which we can avoid these sufferings in the future. Society should apply these two great laws in politics as well as in life. All believers should apply them because these small laws are common to all and the salvation of the whole of humanity depends on their application. They who can fulfill the small law can fulfill the great law as well. This is a rule. If you cannot express love to a small insect or a small fly, you cannot manifest your love to person either. If someone tells you they loves you, but a minute before they have plucked out the head of a small fly or cut the head of a lamb, they are not speaking rightly. The little fly which has been injured by you, or by anyone else, knows how much you can love. A woman or a man who tear off the heads of flies or cut off the heads of lambs cannot love or do not have good will. I do not believe in the unbelief of people or in their foolishness or lawlessness. To believe in the unbelief of people is to believe in a law which does not exist. Human unbelief is a contrivance of ours created by our own mind. Everybody is seeking the Kingdom of God, everybody wants to restore It and that is why anyone who wants to become a member of this Kingdom must serve it. A young man and a young woman want to restore the Kingdom of God and coo to each other like turtle-doves but only until they marry. After that their life takes the old course and they are not happy. With the pigeons it is different: I have observed them how well they begin and end. The female pigeon lays her eggs, then hatches them and there are not any disputes among the two mates. With people things start well and end badly. They have children and enjoy them, but when these grow up, the parents weep. The old human pigeons weep and say, "The young pigeons made us weep. Look what has come out of our children of whom we expected so much and whom we enjoyed!" The young birds never make their parents cry as the children do to people. The same thing happens in the schools. I have seen how well the relations between teachers and students begin. At first they chat sweetly, but after a short time they begin to complain of each other. The students say, "Our teachers are unjust." The teachers say, "Students have no respect today for their teachers and parents." Thus all people complain and say God does not exist and Truth, Goodness and Love are relative, as all things in life are relative. Children say that everything in school is relative and the teacher is something relative. The teachers weep, protest and despair, but I say that their tears are also something relative, because we think that the small and the Great Law amount to nothing. Yet, they are Great Truths. They are Absolute and always, at all times, they will produce one and the same result. I have often listened for hours how the nightingales and the turtle-doves sing. I have enjoyed their singing, thinking at the same time, "You sing very well and if people could understand your language and would be able to adopt your culture, there would not be so much suffering today." The nightingales and the turtle-doves answer me, "Yes, we were people, too, at a time in the past; but when human culture did not satisfy us, we left it and today we prefer the culture of the birds." If I were a preacher, I would beat about the bush and avoid telling you the truth to your face so as not to offend you. Well, the sun shines, but people have sick eyes so they get a smarting effect from it. Is the sun to blame for that? Is the sun to blame for illuminating the earth, the axis of which had turned prematurely? Then why am I to blame that this Light I am giving you is so strong that you cannot bear it? Tell the earth to stop turning, then the Light will be fainter; but since the wheel is turning, you will see by all means all the phases of good and evil. I shall not stop to explain now why in this turning there is a constant struggle between Light and darkness, between Good and evil, between the Reality and shadows of life. Many of you will ask me, "Can we fulfill the law of Christ?" Yes, you can fulfill it. If someone should burn up or sell my house which costs 200,000 leva, this evil will evoke a great struggle in me; but if I conquer myself and do not revenge that person, I shall be called great in the Kingdom of God. If I am a renowned statesman and they deprive me of my high position, although unjustly, and I do not take revenge on anyone for that; I shall be a good person in the future. In general anyone who does not take revenge even for the greatest evil done to them is a good person. On the earth we can make a person anything we want. For instance, we can make a person a minister, another a statesman, a third one a preacher and so on. In this respect we are like a Bulgarian woman who gave her husband a small metal pot and a bunch of sweet basil - ordaining him a priest of her own wish - to go around and sprinkle people with holy water. The posts we have here on earth are nothing but promotions of a similar kind by a higher world above us. All who have fulfilled the small law have become great in the world. If an artist fulfils the small law, they will begin to paint great pictures. We all can become great artists. You will ask me, "But how is this possible?" If some day we show the world our face perfected as a result of our achievements, would not that be the greatest picture of an artist? Do not forget that you have worked on your face for ages. Today in the world there are exhibits of the pictures of our faces, but not a single one has yet been accepted by God. Since the world began, only two pictures in the Old Testament have been accepted: that of Enoch and of Elijah; that is why they were taken up to heaven alive. Up till now how many people’s pictures have been accepted above? We paint and paint a whole life to hear finally once again that this picture cannot be accepted now. The priest comes to perform the burial service and the picture is buried. The funeral service means that the picture has not been made according to all the rules of art. The committee which examines the pictures sees that this picture is not made according to the Divine Law: the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the nose, the teeth are not in their proper place; the mind, the heart, the thoughts and feelings are not in the proper place either. You who are listening to me, do you think your thoughts and feelings are in their place? I see thousands of people whose thoughts and feelings are out of position. I do not blame you for that since you are not to blame, but I want to draw your attention to this so that you may start working with this Great Law. You must make a point to fulfil daily even the least good deed that comes to you as a wish, with no mistake or yielding to temptation. If I were offered the post of a minister in Bulgaria, I would rather give up the position and go to lend a hand to a poor widow who needs my help. You may be dressing up for a ball, a concert or a jourfixe, but at that time a poor person comes to you and you send them away saying you have no time for them. On the contrary, you must give up the ball and observe this Great Law created by God. If we would learn how to be loving and at peace with ourselves and to understand that we can live alone with ourselves, the world would be set right. Even if people do not love us, we can live without them. Now we are in the state of those harmful microbes which, on entering our organism, find material to live on and so they settle there. As soon as the material is exhausted, their life ends as well. That is why Christ says, "Whosoever shall do the least commandment shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." What does this least commandment consist of? The work Providence has allotted to you should not be put off. There is a definite time for every thought and desire and once you miss it, there is no returning for it. Your youth cannot come back. The life you live now will never be repeated. Both the evil and the good you have experienced have left their mark on your life. A second time you will pass through an entirely different place, an entirely different life in which there will be only a reflection of the previous one. Some say, "But the earth follows the same path, revolving around the sun, therefore there is repetition in life." Yes, but the earth never passes through one and the same space; the path it followed the year before was different. The place the earth has passed through once is irrevocably lost. The life you have lived once is irrevocably lost. You will ask, "Can we not correct our mistakes?" Nobody can correct what is lost. The psalmist says, "Only One is able to erase our sins and lawless acts." Only the Lord has the prerogative to descend those depths where you have committed your crimes and to erase them with His brush. Until the Lord descends to these places to erase your sins, you will have to weep and shed tears long. The Lord needs your tears to fill a little bottle He keeps. When this bottle is full, the Lord will take it and come down to the place of sins and crimes to correct your life and water His mouth from time to time with your tears. Only this way can your life change. This is an allegory, but if you comprehend it deeply, you will see that it conveys a Great Truth about the character of God. You say, "Why does the Lord keep silent and does not answer our sufferings?" The Lord keeps silent because your bottle is not full yet; when it is filled to the top, He will come and set your life right, He will ask which year the crime was committed, what time and so on. After He has washed your sins away, He will say, "Now you are free, but do not sin a second time." Christ also wept until a bottle was full. He took it upon Himself to rectify the world by bearing people’s sins; but when He saw that His task was very heavy, He wept that God might come and help Him and that is why He succeeded. When His bottle was filled up, He said, "It is done, the bottle is full, the salvation of the world is at hand." Irrespective of your low or high position in the world, you will all have to pass through the tears to wash away your sins and those of your neighbor. You will say, "Why do you trouble us with these thoughts of yours; why don’t you tell us some words of comfort?" I am doing exactly this. If people have pains in their legs, should they not have a massage in spite of their pains? In certain cases they may not feel any pains; but if they should be attacked and chased by an enemy what would their state be? They would not be able to save themselves as they would not run because their pains would be more acute than ever. If I should be concerned about such people and begin to rub their legs so that they should get well, would they regret the pain I cause them by the rubbing? On the contrary, they will say, "Thank you God. I got well so that I can run with all the others in case of danger." This is a true philosophy. The life of society is like the life of its individuals. There is a certain correlation between a nation and its members; however, each being has their own individual feelings, thoughts and desires. The nation does not live as an individual. By saying "the Bulgarian nation" I mean the Bulgarians. Their future life - their political, spiritual, cultural and mental relation will be determined by their collective thoughts and feelings. Their present is determined by their past thoughts, but their present thoughts and desires will determine their future. These two Divine Laws in people are placed as follows: the first, the Great Law is situated in the mind, but the small is in the heart. Therefore, when you want to do the small things in the world, you must fulfill them with your heart. In other words, you cannot fulfill the small things without love for this Law. I pass by a pond and see an ant drowning there, but since I am engaged in some philosophical thought, I pass by it and pay no attention to it. But I should stop and help it. We should stop before the smallest creatures and help them. After helping them we should not require them to recompense us all their life because in that case we had only served them as Providence. If we wish to help the small, it will create conditions for us to help the greater ones also. If we do not help that small ant in the future that will be a condition for a bad life. You will say, "But how many ants drown!" It is true that many ants drown, but the one I saw and had the desire to help, I must save. It is a special ant. If I do not help it in a hundred years it can cause me the greatest misfortune. God will determine my future life according to my act at this moment when my consciousness germinated in me. This ant implies the idea of a lamb, a pigeon, a child, a girl, a boy, some poor widow, a sick person or any other type of person. The ant is a mathematical formula. If such a formula is ever presented to you, stop and think how to solve it. Someone who wants to commit suicide comes to you in despair. You must try to think how you can help them. If you say you cannot help them, in your future life this act of yours will bring you bad karmic consequences. The law is one and the same: you should stop in this small law and help. If you do not help one at such a moment, you will determine your bad fate. When you make a mistake of this kind try to find another better way of correcting your mistake. If all Bulgarians considered well their actions, would they be eating rationed bread today, sugar on coupons, would they fight? The Bulgarian statesmen do not care about the drowning ant, but about the large boundaries of Bulgaria; yet they do not know that the destiny of Bulgaria is determined by the fate of this ant. The Bulgarian statesmen are interested in Bulgaria in so far as their pockets are concerned. They are not patriots but rather traitors who play the role of Judas consciously or unconsciously, for or for no money. I am speaking to you about these two great laws, because if they are applied and fulfilled exactly, they will save and rectify humanity. Now the Bulgarians open different schools, but they do not think of bettering the ants’ life. They think of gain and say, "If we had money now, we would find good teachers and good workers. Show me a society which has worked for money and has made much progress. I do not want to say that all associations must stop their activity, but they should rather change their ways. I prefer to work a whole lifetime for a person who grasps what I say than to work for thousands who do not perceive and accept anything. When a person starts doing something, they must put their heart into it and not make people call ten times at their home to ask them to do one thing or another. A person who preaches a teaching must understand its laws and apply them. You say, "We must educate our young people." But how will you educate them? How will you control their actions? I do not believe in any training or taming but I believe that all people have within them the conditions to become good if they want to. I believe that all people determine their life in each moment; and after that moment, other conditions come. This is education. After that moment you will receive food - knowledge - which will be in accord with the plane on which you move. The farmer studies the conditions for his sowing and harvesting; everyone studies the conditions for their work. When I say I do not believe in any training, do not take it in the wrong sense. I do not believe in that wrong superficial education parents give their children; but I believe in the genuine education that the Great Laws in the world give. I do not believe in contemporary science either, but I believe in the Great Divine Science. I do not believe in the foolish love of today or the foolish wisdom and seeming truth here on earth, i.e. in deceit which people have clad in the form of truth. I say that all this is a lie, the Truth is within you. The Great Law is in your mind but the small law is in your heart. Every noble desire born in you, no matter how microscopic it may be will determine your happiness in the future. This desire will turn on the tap of your life, and from that day on, both earth and heaven will work for you. When the Wheel of Life turns one or another direction, it produces a corresponding effect. If you are ready to be true to those small desires deposited within you for thousands of years; if you are ready to hold out a straw to a drowning ant; you will start a motion from left to right, otherwise it will be from right to left, i.e. downward in the cone. Then if you are a Christian and descend these 7 by 7 million planes, and I should ask you where you are at present; you will answer that you are in the lower planes of the astral world. If you are an occultist, you will say, "I reached the bottom of this cone at last!" But what do you intend to do now? "My philosophy states that when I reach the bottom, I shall begin to advance upward." You have a wrong conception of this philosophy. "What shall I do then?" You will pass through the narrow opening of the other cone and from there you will begin an upward advance, since the energies in that cone have a contrary direction of the previous one. Now you will move along the energies of the second cone. After passing through the second cone, through all the seven million by seven million planes, you will study them and say, "I have a philosophy now and understand things deeply, seeing that these are not only seven planes". You will say great things about the spiritual world: worlds upon worlds, beings with no limit or number. The whole space in which we live and move is full of beings of different categories and cultures. The solar light moves 180,000 miles a second and to cross only the diameter of our universe 31,000 years are necessary. The whole space is full of worlds. When our earth moves in the space of this universe, we fall under the influence of those beings with whom we come in contact; and all this enormous space with all the beings in it find response in our hearts, minds and souls. Sometimes a thought comes to you and burdens you, but that thought is not yours. Since you are sensitive, you feel the sorrow of some small being somewhere in New York, which at a certain moment has not fulfilled its duty, has not done the will of God - this Great Divine Law. At another time you feel joy. Why? Because at another place in the world, in some Buddhist temple in China a small being has fulfilled its duty as it should. So I rejoice when I see how your thoughts change every day for I observe what is going on in the world and from all I observe, I conclude two things: some people fulfil the Law of God and some do not. Then I return to life seeing what takes place there and turning to the past, I see when these things which are realized today had their origin. Thousands of years pass in a minute and I see when these events were thought out and when they have taken this bad direction. I see that 2,000 years ago a Bulgarian high priest turned the tap of life in a wrong direction and these consequences today are due to him. That is why all preachers, priests and rulers in Bulgaria think like that priest and act like him. You will ask, "Who is that priest that we might hang him?" Do not look for him to hang him, but rather turn the tap the direction opposite to the one acting today. If you do not do it, you will not only miss becoming great, but will also lose much. This is why I am in Bulgaria - to turn the Wheel of Life in the opposite direction and I shall turn it according to all the rules of the Divine Law so that you may taste all the benefits of life. When I turn the wheel in the opposite direction, the Bulgarians will understand that they can fulfill this small law; and an excellent superior culture will be restored among them and they will become a great nation which will make its contribution in the world. Do not be proud, however, as the wheel has not yet been turned. Great efforts are required that it may be turned. All of you will take part in the turning of the great wheel, you will take hold of the small wheels and start turning; but not as you are doing now - from right to left - but you must turn it from left to right. This is the Teaching of Christ: to turn the wheel of the small law. You will ask me, "What will you leave us for keepsake?" I shall turn your wheel from left to right; then all angels, all good people will start working and you will be uplifted. Now put in your mind the thought, "We can fulfill the least Divine Law." And after 2,000 years you will test if what I tell you is true or not - you will test the results. After 2,000 years the inner conditions of life will be ten times better than the present ones. It is descending and ascending in life. Blessed are those of you who will wait till that time with faith. These 2,000 years are two Divine Days - days of a great blessing. The more advanced of you may test this in two years, but some will take ten years to do that. However, this requires a pure and sublime and noble life, which is the only heritage of people on earth. Sermon held on June 22, 1919. --------------------------------- [1] Matthew 5:19 ------------------------------------- Confusing parts: (This may make sense to you as it may be a Bulgarian story!): Page 7 Then the son answered him, "Those are the sandals I wore out until I brought you to the scaffold" Page 8: Whoever sees you will say, "Let me see if you have deposited something in me so that I can help you." "I have given you nothing. Give me of your surplus."

Jesus Was Called “And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage.” John 2: 2 There is no doubt that the most pleasant, most solemn occasions on this earth are the wedding rituals as well as the wedding itself. I would like to dwell a little bit on the internal principle, the internal significance of weddings, because you have absolutely different associations with it in your mind. According to you, weddings signify a union, they stand for the marriage of two people – a man and a woman, whereas they are engaged in advance with the participation of a priest, who delivers some prayers, and afterwards the arrived guests sit at the table to eat and drink. This celebration goes on for a day or two, and then the guests go home, and the newly weds are left alone. This is the external side of the wedding, which you also understand best. However, the word wedding has a deeper meaning, which stands for the beginning of a new Life. This word is derived from an Old Sanskrit root signifying what takes place and manifests itself as conscious life. The wedding is a process, which takes human beings from one state to another, i.e. getting out of one life and entering another one, whereby old ideas are given up and new life begins with new ideas. Please note that Jesus and His disciples are invited to the wedding, so the wedding is attended by one of the Greatest Masters. This wedding has become a principle, which determines what weddings should be like in the future and how weddings should be conducted. Each wedding must be attended by Jesus and His disciples in the future; but not by Jesus as a human being, but by His Teaching. I shall not dwell here on what Christ’s Teaching consists in, because it can be summarised in brief in the two great principles: love the Lord, your God with all your soul, heart, mind, and will; love your neighbour the way you love yourself. I shall not explain what Love is. I shall summarise in brief what I have told you in the Thursday lectures. Bear in mind two things: when you listen to somebody talking to you, you have to turn your ear in such a direction, so that you can hear the words, not only listen to them. Secondly, you should tune your mind in such a way that not only can you understand the words, but be also able to grasp their meaning, because each word contains in itself a certain Force. This is why Christ also says that each Divine Force is the beginning of a new Life, i.e. the new Life begins with the Divine words, not with words only. Before I move on, I will explain to you how many methods contemporary medicine applies. It uses predominantly two methods: allopathic and homeopathic. The former method recommends strong doses of medicines, which should be bitter, if possible; while the second method recommends sweet medicines, if possible, and if in a particular case this is not possible, it is recommended that the pill should be at least coated in a thin cover of something sweet. The contemporary world is allopathic, but people nowadays are so clever, that they cover everything in life in a sweet coat. The Divine method for curing is the opposite: the pills are bitter externally and sweet inside. Thus, curing in Life is effected under two methods: sometimes a person is cured by bitter words, other times – by sweet. I mean things in social life and in Nature. However, to some people neither the sweet, nor the bitter pills are of any help, and this is because they have not understood the conditions under which the pills can have effect on them. Do not forget that things in the world are strictly mathematically determined. There is time for sowing; similarly, there is time fit for curing. This is a Divine principle, a Divine law, which is also true in respect of those who want to study Christ’s Teaching in order to improve their lives, because it is a Teaching of Life. Students go to school to acquire knowledge, which has to be applied after they leave school. On the same grounds, I would like you to apply Christ’s Teaching in your life. You may have many desires, either to acquire knowledge or wealth. This is for the future; right now, it is important how wisely you can use Christ’s Teaching. The line we read in the beginning reads that Jesus and His disciples were called to the wedding. This indicates that the newly wed couple realise that something important will be missing if they do not invite Jesus to their wedding. You should do the same as well: call Christ at the beginning of each job. You may say, "Can’t I call someone else?" Yes, you may, but this person has to contain in him or her the two principles: love to God and to one’s neighbour. The Love to God and to one’s neighbour is an extension rather than an ordinary feeling. To love God and your neighbour means to let them in one of your rooms. You will say, "Where shall I live then?" You will live in your will, God – in your heart, and your neighbour – in your mind. You cannot start loving your neighbour unless you start thinking of him or her, therefore you should keep your neighbour in your mind, while God you should keep in your heart. These two will be your guests and you will work for them, i.e. they will teach you; you will be their student. God, who is in your heart, is Jesus, your neighbours are His disciples, and you will be one of the wedding guests. Knowing this, you will be able to think properly with your mind. When studying the works of a great poet or writer, when listening to a musical piece, when looking at a picture of a prominent artist, your mind should grasp these things, because they are your teachers, your neighbours, and you will learn from them, and the Divine principle should be in your heart. The wedding is a beginning of a new Life. The bride and the bridegroom leave their fathers’ houses and start living a new life on their own. This analogy you can apply to everything in life. Teachers and students come to school and start a new life. This refers to the good teachers. Usually at weddings, there are three types of guests: some of them are simple onlookers, the others are invited guests, and the third - relatives of the bride and bridegroom. The simple onlookers in church are called observers, the invited guests – believers, and the relatives – disciples. You should similarly arrange your thoughts in several groups. You have to determine the place of each of your thoughts. There are three types of thoughts in the world: some stem from God – the Divine thoughts, others stem from our relatives and still others stem from within us. Some thoughts come from the world, others – from the angels, and the third ones – from the Divine world. Therefore, you should learn how to recognise where various thoughts stem from, not to go wrong in your actions. None of you is free from the environment and this is why you will receive thoughts from it. When you compare the three types of thoughts, you will see where each thought stems from, you will be able to fight them, and thus you will develop along the right path. Another important thing is that the wedding is a place for work. When you start some work, you have to be at a wedding. Outside of the wedding any commenced deed is labour or torture. Everyone at the wedding is cheerful. When you want to work in this world you have to imagine that you are at a Divine wedding or in the epoch of a new Life. This is the only salvation of any soul. Any culture, religion or anything else, is created according to the same law. But the most important thing, which you should be aware of when you are at a wedding, is not to give vent to your greediness. An angel was sent by God to a wedding as a representative, but the angel liked the princess very much, who was the bride of the wedding, and wanted to take her with him. When you attend a wedding do not ever covet the place of the bride, neither the bride herself, because this is the beginning of all discord and disgrace. I can see failures, discords, and disagreements among you, because you want to be in the place of the princess, in the place of the bride. You say, "We want to be in her shoes!" You may, but in a long time to come, for the time being you are wedding guests. Being wedding guests, means that you have to work. Christ attended this wedding in order to bless the bride and the bridegroom. When you pluck up the courage to enter a new Life, i.e. to get married, you have to join your mind, your mind being the bridegroom, with the heart, the heart being the bride. If you want your wedding to take place in line with all the Divine rules, with all the Divine matches, the Divine principle must be within you. What do you think - can you call it a wedding if the bride, on entering her new house, drives away her mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-laws, and the other in-laws? If you implement God’s Will, you will be elevated and you will give scope to your soul. Whether you go the wrong or the right way – this is all on your account. Everyone gets elevated through one’s deeds. If you observe the Divine principle – that your mind and heart be joined, you will have Christ and His disciples in yourselves. Then, applying Christ’s Teaching, you will understand the Divine Life, which is manifested in Nature and you will know how to bring up your folks at home. Remember that your sons and daughters, to be born, will pass through this wedding. This is how I explain why good sons and daughters are born. If the wedding is not a wedding, but a discord, bad sons and daughters will be born. When a certain thought or desire comes to your mind, these will be completely dependent upon your mind and heart. The correlation between them will determine your thought. If your mind is corrupted, so will be your thought. If your heart is corrupted, so will be your desire. Do not believe that thoughts and desires are items from fantasy-land. They have their own images and bodies and have independent lives of their own. Out of these particular thoughts and desires your future brain, lungs, stomach and so on will be created. Some ask, "Why should we think good?" To be able to weave a new garment for yourselves in the future. This is to say that we prepare a new garment that will be put on our spiritual body in the future. So, Christ’s Teaching is not a teaching of forms, through which to stick to a particular church or through which to invest our money in a bank, it is actually a Teaching about being pro-active. Nobody can think, feel, or act instead of you. You will do the thinking, the acting, and the feeling for your sake. If you think, act, and feel good, you will have God’s blessing. When you match your life to this Divine principle, you will be able to remedy many hardships, which you come across. We have to find a way through which to elevate our life and everybody is looking for such a way. If you are an apple seed, you will pray to God to provide you with all the conditions so that you can first grow and then you can develop. If you are in the situation of a human soul, you will require favourable conditions for your development. What suffers and sighs within us is the soul that is closed. We often want to abolish suffering. Suffering should not be abolished but converted into Joy. Conversions can take place everywhere in Nature. For example, charcoal, under special conditions, can be converted into diamonds, diamonds can then be converted into seeds, then into trees and then again into charcoal. Jesus came to the wedding to show the young people how they should live. All of you have had your weddings; you know how nice the time preceding the wedding is, what dreams, what fantasies of the mind and thought there are! Everybody, after getting married, says, "All the charming things were up to the engagement." The young man and the young woman are ideal, but as soon as they get married, everything fades away and this is why people say, "It’s not worth getting married." Indeed, it is not worth getting married, because this is not a wedding, but a discord. In my opinion the mind, which marries the heart, should be healthy and should not be infected by any disease. The heart, which marries the mind, should be healthy and pure. If this is so, then our thoughts and desires, according to the same law, should also be healthy and pure. I know that you, who are listening to me now, have disturbed hearts and minds. Why? Because this primary law has been violated. When Christianity preaches that we have to return to God, this means to return to Heaven, to return to this primary environment, which creates conditions for a peaceful and wise Life. These conditions do not take centuries – you can become good at a certain moment, and you can become bad at the next moment. People say that somebody was born good or bad, but it is not true. We might be born in the good or in the bad, but we are good or bad only at the moment when we act. You may be very bad, but once you give up doing bad things, you become good and vice versa. Consequently, God determines what we are by the moment when we act. The particular moment determines what we were in the past and what we will be in the future. This moment, when you do something evil, shows that you were evil in the past too, but it is a reflection of the past. Some may say, "I am bad now, but I will become good in the future." No, you have to change your behaviour right now! You have to stop being bad, and this means that you have to induce the good from your past. This is the first principle, which Christ instructed the young couple into. He told them to love each other. Love is nothing else but acceptance of the good, planting and enlivening of the good in our life. I speak about weddings, because many are those who promise what cannot be. Promises for the future – this is lip service. There is nothing to foresee in the Divine economy. God has foreseen everything good for those who act well. For those who do not act well, there are misfortunes. However, both shall bear the consequences of this great law. Not because God wants to punish them, but the implications result from our deeds themselves, and therefore we cannot evade them. We must first create a moral life in culture and science, i.e. the heart must be prepared, so that the mind can receive its desires and can process them into thoughts. This is a fact. For example, it was found in America that if the wives of certain men are good, they were promoted to the rank of preachers; men, whose wives were bad, had fallen to a very low position. If you have a gifted mind, but the heart is no match of it, it will degrade the mind to a low level. This is why God should live in your heart, to change and prepare it. Do not allow anybody else to convert your heart. We often say that somebody converted his wife’s heart. There are only conversions in the world and this is what the sufferings of all people today are due to. Conversions are wheel motions. General principles were given at this wedding, according to which one may elevate and ennoble oneself. Often people cry over their previous mistakes, because they were very sinful, because they treated their mothers badly. Today they are already given good conditions for life, for work, but they give these up and say, "We are sinful and we will commit sins again." You are human beings and you can change the effect of the law, because these effects are similar to the movements of the wheel, the movement is mechanical and at that only in two directions – from right to left and from left to right. Similarly our life, the way it is arranged, can move in the same two directions. So, if you are not moving in one of the directions you will be moving in the other one. The same is true for water-mills: there are two wheels there, one moving in one direction, while the other one – in the opposite, but the result nonetheless is the same. Your wheel now is moving from right to left, or in the opposite direction, and you ask, "Can I be good?" Ask the miller; he will tell you. These wheels can be set to move in both ways and they can trample people. When you go to a wedding, you have to mind your language. It is a profound science to understand the character, the habits and customs of the language and its effect. No person has a stronger will than the one who can curb one’s language. Sometimes, you want to tell somebody something, in order to show that you understand certain things. But what comes out of it? Not only do you not fix the problem, you actually make it even worse. Remember that all bad words are spoken outside weddings, because at a place where there is no wedding, there is discord. As soon as you find yourself thinking of something bad, you must be sure that you are not at a wedding, and that Christ is not with you. If you are thinking of something good, then you are at the wedding together with Christ and His disciples. You can attend a wedding together with Christ and His disciples, everyday. I take this as a general principle. I do not apply these dogmatic concepts that the church has. I mean the energy, which runs through Life. The Earth is constantly approaching the Sun, but so slowly, that only in millions of years will it reach it and then it will see what the Sun is like. However, nowadays everybody can have the elements of the Sun in oneself – light and warmth. Someone may ask you, "Have you seen the Sun? Do you know what it is?" No, I haven’t; but I know its elements. Someone asks you: “Have you seen Christ and His disciples?” No, I haven’t, but two things I do know, two Divine principles, namely – Divine Love and Wisdom, which penetrate both my mind and everybody’s mind in the same way, in this way we all receive the Sun’s light and warmth. Any good desire and any good thought are Christ and His disciples. If you do not have good thoughts and desires, Christ is not with you. If you understand the issue on principle, God will be a wise Force for you. You may experiment in this regard. There will come a day when you will achieve the ability not only to receive Light, but to hear a certain song coming from it and later on you will be able to distinguish individual words. You may think this is an illusion. No, it isn’t, this is a fact, because there are people who receive the warmth and Light not only externally, but they can also hear their songs and understand their words. To have your minds and hearts pure means to be clairvoyants. Being thus purified, you will be able to understand who sent you a particular thought, and who sent a particular wish to you. But today we sense a certain thought without understanding its internal meaning. When I tell you, for example, that you have to love each other, you already understand Love in a special way. You understand that to love means to have a friend, who should belong to you only and the day when she becomes close with somebody else, you break your friendship. Imagine that you are familiar with my finger and you talk to my finger, you tell it that you love it. Later on there comes my other finger, but you start frowning and you say, "What right do you have to talk with my first finger, whom I love?" Well, this depends on me, not on the finger. A lady visited me recently, who provoked a good thought in me and showed me how correctly she understood Christ’s Teaching. She told me that her husband no longer loved her and had left her. She suffered a lot, kept crying all the time, but one night she had a very vivid dream. In her dream, she saw certain people coming to visit her who told her, "There is nothing to cry for, woman; you have to know that your husband’s heart does not belong to you, and therefore you have no right to want to convert his heart. Imagine the situation of your husband if a woman comes tomorrow and wants to convert his heart to her. What will come out of this heart?" Similarly, we want everyone to have hearts like ours and we do our best to convert them. This is the worst evil. Let each heart be the way the Lord created it. Each heart is good by essence, but it takes its guiding lines from the mind. When I smile at somebody and say some kind words, you are also immediately pleased with me, you find me a good person. But the moment I frown, you say that I have changed my character. These things in the world are sham; these are mere jugglery. Sometimes the father appears to be more serious than he is in fact. He does not have to become more serious, but he has to say, "My son, what you are doing, is not good for you, it is taking you down the road to death, because you do not do God’s Will!" Do not say that somebody is bad, because his or her parents were bad, his or her ancestors etc. Teachers may love you, but when you make mistakes, they will reprimand you. In such cases, students appeal to love, "Dear Master, we love each other, don’t we?" Yes, we do, but you made mistakes on several occasions and you have to correct these. The correct solution of this task is the key to the lives of many, while the wrong solution compromises me as well. Two days ago, I spoke about picking flowers and I said that every ten flowers picked brought about somebody’s death. If you say ten bad words to somebody, someone’s house will burn down. If you plant ten flowers somewhere, this will bring a good person to earth. Keep observing things of this nature to see that these are not merely words. Observe fruit trees in the garden: as long as their branches are green, the people in this house have a good life, but when the branches start withering, life in this house goes wrong due to the bad thoughts, which take the upper hand. After this, someone from this house will die. A gentleman was telling me the following story: he had a large garden in Sofia and a gardener took care of it. One day, the trees had to be pruned and one of them had to be cut down. However, the gardener loved this tree very much and insisted on not cutting it down, however, at the will of the master it was cut down. Before three months were up the gardener died. As soon as the tree you love is cut down, you will also follow suit. You, who are listening to me now, have taken out knives and go fencing up and down with them. You are very educated, you know a lot. However, I would want people like you not only to tell me how to spin wool, how to weave and warp, but they themselves to sit at the loom and to practically demonstrate how things are done. I have seen what such educated people do when they sit at the loom: they start warping, spinning, but they see that it does not come out right, and then they take the scissors and start cutting. They start weaving again and again it does not come out right. A second one comes, a third one – they keep cutting, but it does not come out right. When the master comes – things take the right course. Christ came to the wedding to teach the young couple to weave, because the wedding provides new conditions of life. When you want to elevate your spirits, imagine that you are at a wedding, because there is always eating and drinking, and also music at a wedding. Your teeth are your instruments, and your tongue is the baton striking the harp and producing music, which has a favourable impact upon you. I would like it if everybody could play an instrument and sing. Eating refers also to the spiritual life, because as soon as you accept a certain thought or a desire, it turns into food, which then enters your blood – your life and you manifest yourself. This shows that we have understood the Divine Life. So, in view of this, please make sure that your mind is always in a normal state. You will ask me, which is the normal state. The normal state can always be found between two extremes, i.e. it is in the middle. How can you find the middle? Imagine that you are given a segment and you have to find the middle of the segment. You can find the middle by drawing catenaries with the compasses from the two ends of the segment. You draw a perpendicular line from the crossing points of the catenaries to the segment and it is exactly this end of the perpendicular, which represents the middle. You can have a similar approach to your thoughts too. Bad thoughts exist in the world with the purpose to strengthen your will, so that we can neutralise such a thought right on the spot. After each delight, after each pleasant thought, comes an unpleasant one. Keep track how long each good or bad thought stays with you. This is a new psychology. You have to examine yourself, because if you do not know how you manifest yourself, how can you get to know about the external things? All things in Nature are a reflection of the Divine Life, which is inside us. The reflection shows an image, which comes from outside. This image was not created by you, it is an external image. If you experience a certain joy, it is not yours - you have not created it. It, as a thought, travels, and stops for a while upon you. Good thoughts travel and stop at various stations, where they are assigned to. Each station has a name of its own. You are the stations. Thoughts dwell for as long as they are assigned to, for as long as the train stays. Sometimes they dwell for a minute or two or for longer – according to the significance of the station. There are travellers who want to take longer breaks at times and therefore they spend a month, two months or a longer period of time there. On the way, there are good thoughts-travellers, there are also bad thoughts-travellers, which come out of certain naughty children and in the same way they stop for some time at some stations. So, neither the good nor the bad thoughts belong to us. If you want a certain good thought to stay longer with you, you have to create the conditions for this. This is what Christ taught the newly wed couple: He was telling them that they were going to have many pleasant and unpleasant situations in life, many good and bad thoughts, but they should know that these do not belong to them, they merely visit them. You should know that neither the good is very good, nor the evil is very bad. The good and evil are such only for the moment they are being done. When the moment is over, they are no longer such. To make my point more clearly, I will give you the following example: you are at a ten-metre distance from a hot furnace. What do you feel? You find it very pleasant. What will you feel if you sit at a five-centimetre distance from this hot furnace? Your hands will burn and you will run away from the furnace. This is the aspect between things, which makes them good or evil. This is the aspect of a Divine thought that comes from various directions. Whether the thought will be good or evil depends on the state you are in. Therefore we need knowledge, not to be in the way along which the train will pass. The Royal train passes and because of this we shall not stand in its way. This is what Christ taught us: you shall not stay on the railroad; you shall not climb onto the roof. One who climbs onto the roof intends to escape. This is what thieves do, when they are being chased. The railroad is actually the old age. If you spread gossip about someone, if you are in low spirits, if you do not have faith – it is all the same - you are on the railroad. Coming to and going out of the world has a completely different meaning from what you understand. For example, we are making a house for us to live in. Why should we be making a house? Because the conditions of life are such that if we do not have a shelter, we will be damaged; this is why we are building a house. Similarly, we have to have a sheath, which is supposed to protect us from the various thoughts that attack us from the outside. This is why we have to live a pure and holy life, so that we can generate an aura around us, which can protect us from any bane and evil. This is why Christ and His disciples attended the wedding. I would like all of you to have a good start, and those of you, who do not work, will fall behind. Take out the general principle from all the lectures so far, contained in each one, and start examining it. I shall give you the following work and experiments for two or three months: Firstly, you will keep track in a notebook of each one of your good or evil thoughts that come to mind. You will keep track of the time, by the clock, when the good or evil thought or desire visited you and you will also note down the time when it disappeared. Secondly, when you are visited by evil thoughts or desires, you will try to convert them into good thoughts or desires. For this purpose, you will have to go back two thousand years, so that you can visualise the wedding attended by Christ and His disciples. You will try to imagine the house where the wedding took place, to imagine the wedding guests and the newly wed couple. Try to determine where Christ stood, where His disciples stood, but make sure you do not create illusions, try to be at least approximately accurate in your imagination. So, in your mind you can photograph the whole wedding by visualising the place of the bridegroom, your place etc. Christ you should place in your heart, His disciples – in your mind, the bridegroom - in your mind, the bride – in your heart. The bride and bridegroom will be separated, because no two people live in the same room in the Spiritual world. And here there are several people to a room and this is why they quarrel. The inhabitants of that world read each other’s minds freely. Therefore, when one of them is in low spirits, the others, as soon as they read the mind of the low-spirited person, pass him or her by, without any need for him or her to drive them away. This is why there are no circumstances pre-conditioning sin in the other world. While in this world somebody comes to visit you and keeps staying without realising that he or she had already annoyed you, and hence you have to lie to this person. Leave these old methods, because if you stick to them, you cannot be disciples. You will imagine that you have put on wedding clothes that you are cheerful and merry, and you will listen to what Christ was telling the wedding guests. If you can visualise such a picture, you will be immediately refreshed, you will be ready to fight your hardships in this world, you will understand many of the philosophies in this world and the vibrations of your mind will be higher. This visualisation of the picture has also a healthy impact. You must know that good can be learnt only at a wedding, while evil can be learnt at quarrels. Thirdly, ask yourselves why is it that good and evil thoughts and desires are generated within you; why are you predisposed better to some people, and less to others, why you love some, but others you do not love, why you find some people pleasant and others - unpleasant. You will say that this is karmic. Yes, it is, but karma does not explain anything, because there are quite a few reasons here. When you are in low spirits, think about the reason for this. Recall where you have been, in which house, how long you stayed there and after leaving which house you felt in low spirits. Find an explanation why you leave a certain house in low spirits. Explain to yourselves why at times when you come back home you feel in low spirits and whether it comes from the north, south, east or west. When you find the reason for your low spirits, do not fly at the person who created it, but change the direction of the low spirits. A friend of yours is asking you for a loan under the condition that he or she will return it in ten days, but nothing of the kind happens. Do not be angry about this. If someone is not predisposed towards you, this is because such a person has to take something from you. If this someone has nothing to take from you, then such a person has made a mistake and therefore he or she says, "Your father owes something to me, and please, now that you are able to pay, pay for him!" When you are in a good mood, you have to save the energy of this mood within you. It is a serious science to be able to save the energy of good thoughts and desires. Fourthly, every evening when you go to bed, you will spare ten to fifteen minutes to make a report before yourselves of your behaviour during the whole day. This you will do impartially. You will see what is evil so that you can avoid it on the following day. On the following day, you will pray, "Help me, God, to avoid evil deeds and to succeed in doing the good ones that I failed to do yesterday!" You will examine your life the way artists examine their paintings, without any self-judgements. If we are not a success in life this is due to the fact that we believe that we are stupid, sinful people etc. You are neither good nor evil, but you have to attend the wedding and you have to work. If your children make a noise at home, please imagine that they had also attended a wedding. Thus, to a certain extent – about fifty to seventy-five percent – you will be able to change the low spirits of your husband or of your children. These exercises will strengthen your good will. You will place the bridegroom in your mind and the bride – in your heart. Usually the guests of honour sit at the top places at a wedding. Christ is a guest at the wedding. The bride meets the guests and is the first to kiss hands, and then the bridegroom kisses hands. What does the kissing of hands stand for? When we kiss somebody’s hand, we promise that we shall implement God’s Will and law. Disciples who want to learn must have an iron will, nothing should despair disciples. I shall gradually explain to you all the forms according to which thoughts and desires act, according to which societies, homes, cultures are built up, and the reasons for which good and evil children are born. When you get old, your children will do this. The word youth is derived from the stem of mahatadi1, which means transformation of the Divine principle into a human form, i.e. renewal of aged life. When we get old, we do not listen to God, we become discontented, we frown and say that there is nothing in the world. I know that one has to act in the moment the Lord acts, to think in the moment when the Lord thinks and to feel in the moment the Lord feels. Some of the exercises you will do in the morning, and the others in the evening, because in the morning you are positive, and in the evening you are negative. This is why people are sad when the Sun goes down. So, when one wants to become humble, one has to pray in the evening. When one wants to pray for being merciful, one has to pray in the morning. The energy of the Earth is positive in the morning, and it is negative in the afternoon. The same is true of human beings. This explains why the psalm-singer says that Joy comes in the morning. Joy is positive energy, grief – negative. The good is positive energy, the evil – negative. If a certain disciple is weak, she will ask her friends to help her. When you say that the conditions are bad, I understand that you have no book. The one who wants to learn cannot say that there are no favourable conditions, that there is no time. You have at least five minutes at your disposal. When you do the experiments do not even think that you cannot do them. I do not want you to make a beautiful picture from the first attempt. You may make smudges around, but keep working. If you do not work, you will pay for the building you have hired. So, working or not working, we shall have to pay. I shall calculate one day how much your stay on the earth costs. It’s a shame, taking into account how much is spent on us, not to do any work. The exercises with the wedding you will do three times a week, in the morning - on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. The exercise with the report of your behaviour during the day you will do every evening before going to bed. In us, the mind precedes the heart, then in the third place comes the will, but initially it was the will acting, then the desire and finally the mind. God, through His Will urges us and at this point our thought is put in action, then our heart starts acting and finally comes the will. Master’s lecture, delivered on 19 June 1919 _________________________ 1 The Master here comments on the Bulgarian word for youth, which is “mladost” [‘mladost] Source